South Africa: Mkhize hailed as a true heroine of the struggle Chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE), Tamara Mathebula, has described the late Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize, as a true heroine of our struggle, who despite trials and tribulations, continued to fight for freedom. It is through heroines like her that today we have entities such as the CGE. As the Commission, we mourn her passing and equally celebrate her life. She will be sorely missed. May her soul rest in peace, Mathebula said. Mathebula has sent condolences on behalf of the Commission for Gender Equality, to the Department of Women, Youth, Persons with Disabilities, comrades, family and friends of the late Deputy Minister. The news of the passing of Prof. Mkhize have been met with sadness by all of us at the Commission. She will be sorely missed by those who had embraced her as a human rights and gender activist. As a Commission for Gender Equality, we have worked closely with her in advancing gender equality and women empowerment in South Africa, Mathebula said. Mkhize passed away on Thursday at the age of 69. She served as a Member of Parliament since 2009, representing the African National Congress. She previously served in various positions, including as the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Minister of Home Affairs, Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services and Deputy Minister of Correctional Services. In October 2018, she served as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Addressing global environmental challenges vital for rebuilding economies Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy says addressing increasing global environmental challenges such as climate change, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, ocean degradation, and inefficient resource use has become even more important as countries seek to rebuild their economies and enhance resilience against future shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased public consciousness of the fragility of natural systems and their importance for human well-being, Minister Creecy said. Speaking at the launch of African Green Stimulus Online Programme, Minister Creecy said the Green Stimulus programme has the potential to support a recovery that is green, sustainable and inclusive. Such a recovery has the potential to create opportunities for entrepreneurship, income generation, jobs and growth, particularly for women and the youth, and at the same time, to accelerate action on attaining short, medium and long-term environmental goals, both nationally, regionally and globally, Creecy said. Creecy explained that this African-led programme aims to contribute to the goal of enhancing action for environmental sustainability and prosperity in Africa as called for in the Durban Declaration of the 17th Ordinary Session of AMCEN and to support the attainment of Africas Agenda 2063 aspirations, Paris Agreement imperatives, and relevant Sustainable Development Goals. Whilst COVID-19 has exacerbated the economic stress for the African continent, it is realised that the means of implementation, including capacity development, technology transfer and financial resources remain critical for the realisation of green recovery. Forging partnerships, promoting synergies and the scaling up of the mobilisation of resources are vital in realising green recovery for Africa, which is one of the main objectives of the African Green Stimulus Programme and its On-line Platform. We therefore call upon Member States, African institutions and development partners and all other stakeholders to be part of this journey to green recovery of Africa, and to support the African Green Stimulus Programme, Creecy said. The African Green Stimulus Programme is an innovative African-led initiative developed to support the continents recovery response to the devastating socio-economic and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in a more green and sustainable manner. The programme intends to provide an overarching framework that will support the recovery of environment and sustainable development initiatives in Africa, whilst identifying new areas requiring strategic interventions. The programme is also intended to bring about a common and unifying continental response by enhancing and forging cooperation and partnerships between and among African governments, non-state actors, intergovernmental organisations, the private sector in support of a comprehensive green recovery for Africa. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: SASSA investigating 177 000 public servants receiving social grants The South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) has initiated the process to suspend social grants with the exception of foster care payments - paid to 177 108 public servants, Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu, says. The public servants, she said, would soon have to prove they were eligible for the grants. Zulu made the revelation in a Parliamentary response to a question from DA MP, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, who had asked for the total number of public service employees who had applied for and received other SASSA administered grants, other than the Social Relief of Distress (SRD). The grants included the child support grant, disability grant, and grant for older persons. Gondwe also asked for a breakdown of the specified number, according to each grant administered by SASSA. The total amount that SASSA has spent in paying public service employees who applied for and received SASSA administered grants is approximately R200.7 million (paid during July 2021), said Zulu. The Minister, however, said it should be noted that all social grants are means tested, apart from the foster child grant. Public servants are entitled to receive the foster child grant. Where the foster child grant is paid in conjunction with a care dependency grant for the same child, neither are means tested, and public servants would not be contravening any laws by receiving these grants, she said. For the remainder of the grant types, the means test would need to be applied. Zulu said since the information had been extracted, arrangements had been made to suspend the grants, apart from the foster child grants, for all public servants. Those who still qualify, she said, would have to come in and review the grant, and provide current information on their income to determine whether they still qualify to receive these grants. Measures will also be taken to recover any funds overpaid. Where it is found that the public servants were receiving a grant to which they were not entitled, the matter will be reported to their employing department for disciplinary action to be taken, she said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: All systems go for registration weekend The Electoral Commissions Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo says the Commission is ready to receive potential voters at registration stations across the country this weekend. According to Mamabolo, a total of 23 151 voter registration stations will be in operation from 08h00 until 17h00 on both Saturday and Sunday. Addressing the media in Pretoria on Thursday, Mamabolo said the registration weekend takes the voter registration service to communities where eligible citizens reside. Therefore, the essence of the exercise is to create a platform for citizens to exercise their right to vote. Without enlisting on the voters roll, taking part in the forthcoming elections is impossible, Mamabolo said. Mamabolo said a total of 48 899 registration officials have been trained to undertake the registration procedures at the voting stations. For the first time, registration staff had to complete online training modules as well as a module on the practicalities of the registration process. The online modules related to theoretical concepts associated with the constitutional role of the Electoral Commission as well as the voter registration processes. Staff had to attain 80% competency level in order to proceed to the practical module, Mamabolo said. Mamabolo said the Commission had acquired 40 000 new Voter Management Devices (VMDs) to be used at voter registration stations and that they will be used for the first time on a mass scale during this registration weekend. The VMDs represent a departure from the erstwhile Zip-Zip machines which have been in use in the registration process since 1998. The VMDs will essentially operate in online mode in most parts of the country. In parts of the country where internet connection is not strong or reliable, the VMDs have been provisioned to operate in offline mode, Mamabolo said. Mamabolo explained that in offline mode, the devices will be able to record transactions and perform verification based on data stored locally on each device. The VMDs will enable an almost instantaneous citizenship verification as well as the correct capturing of a residential address assisted by a mapping functionality. Registration applications have been loaded and at least one VMD has been allocated to each voting station on the Logistics Information System. The VMDs will consolidate and integrate business processes which were hitherto separated and thus inefficient, Mamabolo said. Mamabolo said the Electoral Commission has noted with gratitude, the decision of the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, to adjust the National Senior Certificate examination timetable in order to accommodate the elections on 1 November 2021. This gesture from the Minister will enable young voters who are writing these examinations to participate in the elections, Mamabolo said. Mamabolo said the Commission has also written to the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, requesting that he facilitates a request to the President asking for election day to be declared a public holiday. This intervention is aimed at affording all voters an equal footing to participate in the elections without being encumbered by business and employment considerations on the day of voting. Participation in the local government elections is important as municipal councils play a crucial role in providing services that directly affect people on a daily basis. We therefore call on every eligible voter to register over the weekend and for those who have moved or changed address to use this unique opportunity to amend their registration details, Mamabolo said. In order to register, voters need to bring an Identity Document which may be a Smart Card, green barcoded ID book or a Temporary Identification Certificate. Voters who are registered can confirm their registration online on the website, on the IEC APP and by calling the contact centre at 0800 11 8000 (calls are free of charge from a landline and standard mobile network rates apply). Furthermore, an identity number can be sent to 32810 via the Short Message System (SMS). The following registration protocols will apply at all registration stations during the voter registration weekend: Face mask or cloth covering of the nose and mouth; Social distance with a minimum of 1.5 meters; and Sanitizing upon entry into the registration station. All registration staff and stations have been provided the following items for use as precautionary measures to obviate possible COVD-19 transmissions: Disposable Face Mask; Disposable Cardboard Bins; Sanitizer Wipes; Hand Sanitizer; Disinfectant Fogger sprays; and Social Distance markers. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Senior citizens relocate as killings rise in Cacadu, EC Senior citizens are relocating to other areas in the Eastern Cape out of fear of being accused of witchcraft and being killed, the Department of Social Development heard during dialogues with the community of Cacadu. The department is in the areas of Cacadu, Engcobo and Cofivamba to educate these communities about Alzheimers and dementia as part of the build-up to World Alzheimers Day, which is commemorated annually on 21 September. A community member, who asked not to be named, revealed during the dialogue that about 45 older persons in the area decided to relocate from the village of Ezingqolweni, as they are living in fear of being killed by community members. Some older persons are living in fear and others are no longer sleeping in their houses. They sleep in groups under one roof so they may protect one another. But I think some of these killings are linked to criminal acts and we need the South African Police Service to also play their part by of protecting our community, the community member said. The residents of Ezingqolweni said they are extremely concerned about the killings of older persons in the area due to a lack of understanding of Alzheimers disease. Sharing his story at the dialogues, Mr Baleni Lwandle, a senior citizen from Ezingqolweni, said it was difficult to be old and a resident of Ezingqolweni. I am not happy about the manner in which we are being treated by some community members. I have been living here for many years and some fellow older persons were murdered in their homes after being accused of witchcraft. If there are differences and concerns, they must be resolved without people losing their lives, Lwandle said. The department said it chose the area in the Eastern Cape to embark on this education and awareness programme, as it is leading in the reported cases of brutal killings of older persons. Alzheimers is a chronic neurodegenerative disease, which worsens gradually as senior citizens advance in years. It is the most common cause of dementia. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning, thinking, remembering, reasoning and behavioural abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a persons normal daily life and activities. Although there is currently no treatment available to cure Alzheimer, the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that in terms of treatment and care, much can be offered to support and improve the lives of people with the disease, their caregivers and families. WHO further advises on the importance of paying attention to the following in persons with Alzheimers: Early diagnosis in order to promote early and optimal management; Optimising physical health, cognition, activity and well-being; Identifying and treating accompanying physical illness; Understanding and managing behaviour changes; and Providing information and long-term support to caregivers of persons with dementia. To prevent these old age-related illnesses, the department has called upon all South Africans to protect, care for and support persons with Alzheimers and dementia. Raising awareness is a fundamental prevention strategy that involves not only sharing of information but helping to change attitudes, perceptions and behaviour, the department said. The dialogues continue today in the areas of Mgcawezulu JSS, Chamana Village and Cofimvaba. The Deputy Minister of Social Development, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, will conclude the campaign on 21 September. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Vaccinations ramp up in Africa African countries have in the past week administered four times as many COVID-19 vaccines as they have in the past three to four weeks. This is according to World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti. She said the increase in vaccinations is due to fast tracked delivery of those doses. I am encouraged that when deliveries pick up as they have after a new standstill for months African countries show the resolve to keep the vaccine roll outs moving. Last week, 13 million doses were administered in Africa up from a weekly average of three to four million in the previous weeks, she said. Dr Moeti added that she expects at least 470 million doses to be delivered to African countries via the COVAX facility by December this year. She said although this remains encouraging, the doses would only be enough to vaccinate 17% of Africans with at least double that amount needed to reach 40% of the population. Africa still remains behind the rest of the world in vaccinations administered with only 3.6% of the continents population fully vaccinated. Export bans and vaccine hoarding still have a chokehold on the lifeline of vaccine supplies to Africa. As long as wealthy countries lock COVAX and the African Union out of the market, Africa will miss its vaccination goals. The huge gap in vaccine equity is not closing anywhere near fast enough. It is time for vaccine manufacturing countries to open the gates and help protect those facing the greatest risk, she said. Speaking on the issue of the administration of booster doses of the vaccines, Dr Moeti said that scientists had not yet reached a full conclusion on the issue. Current evidence suggests that third doses should be given only to people facing a high risk of severe illness and dying despite being fully vaccinated particularly those with compromised immune systems. For now, with so many people around the world yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, fully vaccinated and healthy people should not be given a booster dose, she said. The regional director once again called on countries with doses exceeding their needs to share with countries in need. The huge gap in vaccine equity is not closing anywhere near fast enough. The quickest way to end this pandemic is for countries with reserves to release their doses so that other countries can buy them. Countries with enough doses should give up their places in the manufacturing queue for COVAX, she said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hong Kong: CE congratulates national astronauts Chief Executive Carrie Lam today extended wholehearted congratulations to the three astronauts of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft for the successful completion of their spaceflight mission. Mrs Lam offered the congratulations on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo who returned to Earth after the mission. "The three astronauts returned to Earth safely after a three-month-long stay in space, successfully completing the first crewed mission for space station construction of the country's manned space programme. The success of this historic mission demonstrates the continuous efforts of the country in breaking new ground in aerospace technology, consolidating its leading position in the global aerospace arena and making Chinese people all over the world proud. Mrs Lam said the people of Hong were privileged to have taken part in the The Spirit of the Times Shines upon Hong Kong activity series to deepen their understanding of the space mission. Early this month, several scientific researchers and students had a real-time online chat with the three astronauts while they were in space. The astronauts cordially answered the questions raised by the students at the activity venue. The event received an overwhelming response from the community. The Chief Executive expressed gratitude to the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR and the China Manned Space Agency as well as various organisations and relevant units for their efforts in organising the activity. I also express admiration for the three astronauts, who introduced difficult content in a simple and interesting way. Additionally, the country arranged an aerospace technology delegation comprising a number of eminent scientists to visit Hong Kong in June during which they spoke with students on the latest development of the nation's astronautical endeavours. They also brought with them lunar soil samples collected from the moon last year for public display in Hong Kong for the first time, allowing Hong Kong people to share the country's distinguished aerospace achievements. Mrs Lam said: "These invaluable activities are testimony to the care and support of the country for Hong Kong, and they have inspired many Hong Kong students in aerospace and other scientific fields. She said she hopes the central authorities will continue to arrange activities in Hong Kong to showcase the latest developments of the country, noting such activities would strengthen the sense of belonging of Hong Kong compatriots to the motherland and nurture talents who are passionate about science, persevering and innovative. In fact, Hong Kong's scientific research capability is outstanding and university research teams have been participating in the nation's space exploration programme. The Hong Kong SAR Government will press ahead with the city's innovation and technology development and support the participation of various institutions in the national projects on aerospace and other technology, making contributions to the development of our country as a science and technology power. This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. South Africa: Home Affairs offices open during voter registration weekend Home Affairs Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says Home Affairs offices throughout the country will be opened this weekend to assist those who will be applying for IDs and temporary IDs to enable them to register to vote. Motsoaledi said during the voter registration weekend, assistance will also be given to those who want to collect their IDs. Addressing the media earlier today, Motsoaledi expressed concern on the large number of uncollected IDs at Home Affairs offices throughout the country. Without an ID, one cannot register to vote, Motsoaledi said. According to Motsoaledi, Gauteng has the largest number of uncollected IDs. Motsoaledi said during the voter registration weekend, Home Affairs is deploying 3039 officials to assist those who will be applying for IDs, temporary IDs and assisting those who will be coming to collect their IDs. Services that will be rendered during the registration weekend includes: Issuance of Temporary Identity Certificates (TICs). Collection of Green Barcoded Identity Books and Smart Identity Cards to applicants. Manual Verification of Temporary Identity Certificates (TIC). Resolving challenges pertaining to duplicates, amendments, rectifications and dead alive cases with required supporting documents. Motsoaledi said they have deployed 200 people in head office to assist with drawing records to resolve cases that might arise. He said people can also visit selected banks to go and apply for their IDs or temporary IDs. The Minister said his department has deployed 49 technicians to Home Affairs offices and in mobile offices throughout the country to assist during the voter registration weekend. According to Motsoaledi, the mobile offices with generators will be deployed mostly in the rural areas and that people can go and collect their IDs from the mobile offices. Home Affairs Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza, who is currently visiting the departments offices, which were vandalised in July in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, confirmed that the department is ready to assist those people who will be applying for IDs and temporary IDs. As a result of the acts of vandalism, the Eshowe office had to close down. In this regard, Minister Motsoaledi has instructed the department to use alternative sites to register deaths to assist grieving families and funeral undertakers as some offices are inaccessible. Deputy Minister Nzuza visited the Eshowe Hospital where deaths will be registered as an interim measure. For the voter registration weekend, a total of 23 151 registration stations throughout the country will be in operation from 08h00 until 17h00 on both Saturday and Sunday. On Thursday, the Electoral Commissions Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said in order to register to vote, voters need to bring an identity document which may be a Smart Card, green barcoded book or a Temporary Identification Certificate. It is essential that a voter indicates an address or a description of a place where they live. Proof of address is not a requirement for purposes of registration, he said. The Commission has written to the Minister of Home Affairs, requesting that he facilitates a request to the President asking for the election day to be declared a public holiday. According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) voters who are registered can confirm their registration online on the website, on the IEC APP and by calling the contact centre at 0800 11 8000 (calls are free of charge from a landline and standard mobile network rates apply). Alternatively, an identity number can be sent to 32810 via the Short Message System (SMS). SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: Beijing, Moscow encourage Kabul to fight terrorism Russia and China's leaders on Friday urged the new Taliban government in Afghanistan to remain at peace with its neighbours and combat terrorism and drug-trafficking. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping spoke via video link at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an eight-member group. Putin said the organisation, holding its meeting in Tajikistan, should "use its potential" to "stimulate the new Afghan authorities" in fulfilling their promises on normalising life and bringing security in Afghanistan. The hasty withdrawal of US-led forces had left behind "an open Pandora's box full of problems related to terrorism, drug trafficking, organised crime and, unfortunately, religious extremism," Putin said. Partners should work with the new Afghan government, even if it was not representative, the Russian leader added. Xi said it was necessary to "encourage Afghanistan to put in place a broad-based and inclusive political framework" and to "resolutely fight all forms of terrorism" and live in peace with its neighbours. Like Putin, Xi did not attend the summit held in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in person, addressing the meeting by video link instead. Moscow and Beijing have moved to assert themselves as key players in Central Asia, after the United States' hasty retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country. China shares a 76-kilometre-long (47 mile) border with Afghanistan. Countries allied with Russia and China were holding a series of meetings in Dushanbe this week. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Dark Web Child Pornography Facilitator Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Advertise Child Pornography A dual national of the United States and Ireland was sentenced yesterday to 324 months, or 27 years, in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for conspiracy to advertise child pornography. Eric Eoin Marques, 36, of Dublin, Ireland, pleaded guilty on Feb. 6, 2020 to conspiracy to advertise child pornography. According to court documents, between July 24, 2008 and July 29, 2013, Marques operated a free anonymous hosting service located on the dark web, an area of the internet that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable. The hosting service hosted websites that allowed users to view and share images documenting the sexual abuse of children, including the abuse of prepubescent minors and violent sexual abuse. The investigation revealed that the hosting service contained over 200 child exploitation websites that housed millions of images of child exploitation material. Over 1.97 million of these images and/or videos were not previously known by law enforcement. Many of these images involved sadistic abuse of infants and toddlers. The defendants web service anonymously hosted hundreds of insidious criminal communities dedicated to the sexual exploitation of children, which openly and notoriously spread millions of images of child sexual abuse across the globe, said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Departments Criminal Division. This complex, global investigation, lengthy and successful extradition, and substantial jail sentence are proof of the Departments steadfast and unwavering commitment to identifying and bringing to justice criminals who hide behind anonymous networks to abuse and exploit the worlds children. Eric Marques was one of the largest facilitators of child pornography in the world, said Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner for the District of Maryland. This is an egregious case where one individual hosted and helped others to share millions of horrific images and videos of the abuse of children, including more than a million not previously known to law enforcement, and attempted to keep the abuse hidden on the dark web. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners here and abroad for helping us to bring Eric Marques to justice. We will continue to do everything we can to find and prosecute those who use the anonymity of the internet to perpetuate the cruel and heartless business of the sexual abuse of children. Todays sentencing of Eric Marques sends a clear message to perpetrators of this egregious crime that no matter where you are in the world, law enforcement will hold you accountable and bring you to justice, said Assistant Director Calvin Shivers of the FBIs Criminal Investigative Division. The FBI combats crimes against children and stands up for vulnerable children across the globe. Europol is pleased to have played its part in what ranks as one of the most important investigations ever conducted into child sexual abuse, said Head of the European Cybercrime Centre Edvardas Sileris of Europol. I applaud the great work of the FBI and our many other law enforcement partners in Europe and beyond for their cooperation on a global scale to tackle this most heinous crime and bring this dangerous individual before court. Ensuring the safety of children by identifying those who have been victimized and educating children to avoid these harms remains a top priority for Europol. As described in public documents, this case was a part of a path-marking global investigation that targeted thousands of users of more than 200 websites operating on the Tor network and dedicated to the trade of child pornography. The Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), the FBI and Europol conceived of and executed a globally coordinated criminal investigation of then-unparalleled scope, which pooled resources of over a dozen countries that deployed over 70 law enforcement agents to Europol, which served as the hub for operational support, facilities, and information sharing. Through this investigation, more than 200 child sexual exploitation websites were taken offline (along with hundreds of other sites sponsoring or facilitating criminal activity); the activities of tens of thousands of online child pornographers were disrupted; over four million images and videos of child sexual abuse were seized (including more than 100 previously unknown series of child abuse images and new images from more than 50 existing series); and dozens of offenders were identified and prosecuted throughout the world. The FBIs Violent Crime Section, Child Exploitation Operational Unit and the Violent Crimes Against Children International Task Force conducted the investigation with significant assistance from the Legal Attache London Office, An Garda Siochana, and Europol. The Department of Justices Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in bringing Marques to the United States and procuring foreign evidence during the investigation. Deputy Chief Keith A. Becker and Trial Attorney Ralph Paradiso of CEOS and Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas M. Sullivan of the District of Maryland prosecuted the case. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. J. William Rivers Named as Special Agent in Charge of the Cincinnati Field Office Director Christopher Wray has named J. William Rivers as the special agent in charge of the Cincinnati Field Office. Mr. Rivers most recently served as a section chief and the director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Mr. Rivers joined the FBI as a special agent in 2002 and was assigned to the Washington Field Office to investigate counterintelligence matters. In 2006, he was certified as a technically trained agent and worked on WFOs Technical Operations Squad to support investigative programs. He also served on the SWAT team as the technical coordinator and as a certified sniper. In 2013, Mr. Rivers was promoted to supervisory special agent. He remained on WFOs Technical Operations Squad and provided technical investigative support to criminal, intelligence, and national security squads. He supervised 20 other technically trained agents and served as a liaison to the Operational Technology Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington and to outside partners. Mr. Rivers was promoted in 2015 to unit chief of the TTA Operations and Development Unit in the Operational Technology Division at Headquarters and was responsible for the success of the FBIs technical investigative personnel. In 2018, Mr. Rivers was appointed assistant special agent in charge of the Norfolk Field Office in Virginia. He was responsible for all criminal, cyber, and administrative programs. He was promoted in 2020 to section chief and director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center. TEDAC is a multi-agency center that coordinates bomb-related evidence and intelligence collection for the U.S. government. Mr. Rivers earned a bachelors in civil engineering from the University of Kentucky. Prior to joining the FBI, he was a project manager and engineer for a private general construction company in Kentucky. This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Hard-Earned Lessons from 9/11 Offer a Playbook for Combating Todays Threats Those of us who lived through 9/11 will always remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when the United States was attacked. As a new Justice Department official, I spent much of the day in a jam-packed command center at FBI Headquarters. There was a swirl of activity and emotionconcern for loved ones, anger toward those who attacked us, uncertainty about what might be next. But I will never forget the incredible sense of solidarity in that room. We were united in our resolve to find those responsible and determined to prevent another attack. Now, two decades later, the threats have evolved, but the hard-earned lessons of September 11, 2001, still provide the playbook for confronting todays challenges. After 9/11, the country united behind a common purpose. We focused on disruptiongathering intelligence to stop bad actors before they could attack. All levels of government removed barriers that had stifled collaboration and prevented information-sharing. Federal agencies strengthened relationships with state and local partners, whose front-line observations proved essential. And with the backing of the American people, a generation of public servants answered the call to tackle the new terrorism threat. As a result of changes made in response to 9/11and thanks to a lot of hard work by the FBI and our partners and some good fortunewe have not experienced another large-scale attack from a foreign terrorist organization on American soil. But make no mistake: As the Islamic State attack and tragic loss of 13 brave American service members and nearly 200 Afghans in Kabul last month painfully reminded us, the threat has not disappeared. To the contrary, over the past 20 years, as technology advanced and the world became more interconnected, familiar threats transformed and new ones emerged. Terrorist attacks once required extensive communications and planningwhich took time and created leads for investigators to pursue. Now terrorism moves at the speed of social media. Foreign groups spread propaganda online to inspire lone actors to attack using easily accessible toolsas in October 2017, when Sayfullo Saipov, an alleged Islamic State supporter radicalized online, plowed a rented truck through a crowd on a Manhattan bike path, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen others. But the risk of online radicalization is not limited to foreign terrorist ideologies. An expanding array of radical beliefs is increasingly inspiring domestic terrorists. Racial and ethnic ideologies, anti-government and anti-authority sentiments, conspiracy theories and personal grievancesthe extraordinary range of dangerous narratives circulated online compounds the challenge of identifying and stopping violent extremists. In addition to making attacks harder to detect, technology has enabled new threats. Twenty years ago, a team of terrorists would have had to successfully execute a complicated plan with a bomb or other conventional weapon to try to cripple the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York, or shut down operations at Colonial Pipeline. But today, we have witnessed Iranian government hackers and ransomware criminals, respectively, do just those things from behind computers in safe havens abroad. There is no question the threats have become more complex. Thanks to the dedication and sacrifice of the thousands of men and women who stepped up after 9/11, we know how to respondby focusing on disruption, strengthening partnerships, and renewing a sense of shared responsibility. Stopping the next attack remains the priority. But those who wish us harm continue to think of new ways to use technology against us. To guard against these ever-changing challenges, the intelligence and law enforcement communities have to innovate and think creatively. As we learned after 9/11, collaboration is essential. Increasingly, that means law enforcement partnering with private citizens and companies. Interrupting fast-moving threats such as lone actors requires individuals to share information with the authorities when something seems amiss. Countering sophisticated cyberattacks requires companies to work with the FBI and not go it alone. Developing such relationships necessitates a joint commitment to building trust and improving communication. Todays realities demand recognition that were all in this together. The men and women of law enforcement are being asked to do more now than everat a time when their jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous. They need our support. To develop the next generation of those willing to run toward danger to protect others, we must rekindle the spirit of unity on display after 9/11. As we mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, we mourn the people we have lost, extend our sympathy to their families and loved ones, and express gratitude for those who sacrificedboth at home and abroadto keep us safe. We owe it to them to recommit to the lessons learned through blood, sweat, and tears in the aftermath of 9/11. This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. RTHK: France recalls US ambassador over 'stab in the back' France has recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultation, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced on Friday, after Canberra ditched a deal to buy French submarines in favour of US vessels. Le Drian said in a statement that the decision was made to immediately recall the two French ambassadors due to "the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States". US President Joe Biden announced the new Australia-US-Britain defence alliance on Wednesday, extending US nuclear submarine technology to Australia as well as cyber defence, applied artificial intelligence and undersea capabilities. The move infuriated France, which lost a contract to supply conventional submarines to Australia that was worth A$50 billion (HK$283 billion) when signed in 2016. The French ambassador recalls from the United States and Australia, key allies of France, are unprecedented. France on Thursday accused Australia of back-stabbing and Washington of Donald Trump-era behaviour over the submarines deal. "It's really a stab in the back," Le Drian said Thursday. "We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed". France has also called off a gala at its ambassador's house in Washington scheduled for Friday. The event was supposed to celebrate the anniversary of a decisive naval battle in the American Revolution, in which France played a key role. The White House on Friday expressed "regret" over the recall of France's ambassador, but said that the United States would work to resolve the diplomatic row. "We regret that they have taken this step, we will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points over the course of our long alliance," a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2021-09-17. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman An exciting weekend of racing awaits! High-class action is slated to take place across North America, with major stakes scheduled at Belmont Park, Churchill Downs, and Woodbine. I don't think there's any trainer poised to enjoy more success in North America this week than Charlie Appleby, which is impressive when you consider Appleby isn't even based on this continent. Conditioning horses on behalf of international powerhouse Godolphin, Appleby only saddles a handful of horses in North America each year, yet his resume on this side of the pond is nothing short of stellar. Let's crunch some numbers. Since 2013, Appleby has compiled a 30-7-6-1 record in North America, good for a 30% win rate and a 61% in-the-money rate. All seven of Appleby's wins have come in Grade 1 stakes, including three Breeders' Cup events. In 2021, Appleby has saddled the top two finishers in both the Just a Game S. (G1) and the Diana S. (G1). Appleby has five horses entered to race in North American this weekend, and I won't be surprised if three, four, or maybe all five visit the winner's circle. Let's take a quick look at the Appleby entries: Jockey Club Oaks at Belmont Park: #1 Creative Flair Placed against Group 3 company in France, Creative Flair hasn't missed the trifecta in her last six starts, including a foray to North America for the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Oaks (G3) last month. On that occasion, Creative Flair closed gamely into a decidedly slow early/fast late race shape to finish third, beaten only two lengths by a gate-to-wire winner. Considering the final three-sixteenths of a mile elapsed in the blazing time of :16.67 seconds, Creative Flair never had a realistic chance to catch up. If she gets a fairer pace to work with while stretching out over 1 3/8 miles in the Jockey Club Oaks, she can vie for victory at a fair price. Jockey Club Derby at Belmont Park: #2 Yibir The improving Yibir has already won multiple times against group stakes company in England, cruising by 2 1/2 lengths in the 1 5/8-mile Bahrain Trophy (G3) before battling home by 1 1/4 lengths in the 1 1/2-mile Great Voltigeur S. (G2). It's clear racing long distances on turf is a strong suit for the gelded son of Dubawi. Yibir will have to reckon with some accomplished rivals while racing 1 1/2 miles again in the Jockey Club Derby. Belmont Derby (G1) winner Bolshoi Ballet, for example, is another talented contender who figures to enjoy the extended journey. But Yibir is favored on the morning line and figures to save ground from post two, so big things will be expected from this chestnut sophomore. Canadian International (G1) at Woodbine: #2 Walton Street The most likely Appleby trainee to visit the winner's circle this week might be Walton Street, the favorite to win the 1 1/2-mile Canadian International. The seven-year-old gelding displayed sharp form in Dubai during the winter, winning the Dubai City of Gold (G2) before running fourth in a strong renewal of the Dubai Sheema Classic (G1). In the latter race, Walton Street was only beaten 3 1/2 lengths by Mishriff, Chrono Genesis, and Loves Only Youall victorious multiple times at the Group 1 level. Walton Street recently returned to action with a third-place effort in the Grosser Preis von Berlin (G1), a perfect prep run for the Canadian International. With internationally acclaimed jockey Frankie Dettori aboard, Walton Street looks very tough to beat. Natalma S. (G1) at Woodbine: #4 Wild Beauty In 2018, Appleby won the Natalma with La Pelosa, who entered off a runner-up effort in England's Sweet Solera S. (G3) at Newmarket. The same strategy may work again with Wild Beauty, who was beaten only a length when second in the 2021 Sweet Solera last month. Wild Beauty previously ran second in the Star S. at Sandown, beaten only by the undefeated next-out Group 2 winner Inspiral. With these form lines (and jockey Frankie Dettori) in her corner, Wild Beauty looms as a formidable threat to secure a stakes win of her own in the Natalma. Summer S. (G1) at Woodbine: #4 Albahr Four starts, three victories. Since finishing third in his debut at York, Albahr has been unstoppable, rattling off a trio of wins. Stepping up in class for the one-mile Stonehenge S. at Salisbury last month proved to be no obstacle, as Albahr employed pace-tracking tactics to prevail by three-quarters of a length. A son of Dubawi out of a Group 3-winning Street Cry mare, Albahr has the pedigree to be something special and is regaining the services of Frankie Dettori, who guided the chestnut gelding to a 4 3/4-length romp in a Haydock Park novice stakes two starts back. There are some promising horses entered in the Summer, but Albahr's stakes-winning form and proven ability to handle one mile may win the day. Now it's your turn! Who do you like this week? ***** Want to test your handicapping skills against fellow Unlocking Winners readers? Check out the Unlocking Winners contests pagethere's a new challenge every week! (Please note: older contest entries can be found here.) J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, videographer, voice actor, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. News Foreign investment into Vietnamese start-ups expected to rise despite COVID-19 Deputy PM requests completion of dossier for licensing home grown COVID-19 vaccine Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has asked for completion of the dossier of the homegrown Nano Covax vaccine to submit for urgent licencing, and assistance for relevant firms in testing the anti-virus drug Molnupiravir in a notice released by the Government Office. Nano Covax vaccine In Notice No. 248/TB-VPCP, which sums up the conclusion of the Deputy PM at a meeting on research, technology transfer, clinical trial and production of drugs, vaccines, and biological products, the Ministry of Health is required to give more support to COVID-19 vaccine research units in completing and supplementing dossiers of vaccines, first of all the Nano Covax, to submit to the National Committee for Ethics in Biomedical Research, and the Advisory Council for the Registration of Circulation of Drugs and Medicinal Ingredients for consideration and emergency approval . Deputy PM Dam also asks the MOH to collect recommendations of the two councils members on the use of COVID-19 vaccines for children, the combination of vaccines, and plans for vaccine use in 2020. The MoH is also asked to guide and help related firms in the trial of the anti-viral drug Molnupiravir, and design plans to ensure the availability of treatment drugs to meet the demand in the situation of rapid increases in COVID-19 patients, while speeding up the clinical trial and evaluation of the efficacy of the Vipdevir drug for COVID-19 treatment researched and produced by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. The ministry will also direct domestic units to continue researching medicine for COVID-19 treatment, coordinate will the Ministry of Science and Technology and relevant agencies in helping enterprises to soon produce rapid antigen testing kits which can be effective on many strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on September 17, 2021 2021/09/17 CCTV: President Xi Jinping will attend the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the meeting on Afghanistan of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) via video conference. I wonder if any Chinese representative will attend the meeting offline? Zhao Lijian: In coordination with the virtual attendance of President Xi Jinping at the SCO summit, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as the special representative of President Xi Jinping, will attend the meeting offline in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. AFP: Firstly an investigation found that the head of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva, during her tenure as Chief Executive of the World Bank, asked staff to alter a World Bank report to avoid angering China. What's your response? Secondly, who'll represent China at the upcoming UN General Assembly? Zhao Lijian: On your first question, Ms. Kristalina Georgieva already issued a statement on the IMF website, and I'd like to refer you to the relevant party for more details. We also noticed that the World Bank has issued a statement on suspending publication of its Doing Business report. The Chinese government attaches great importance to improving the business environment, and its achievements are there for all to see. We hope that the World Bank will conduct a comprehensive investigation of relevant issues in strict accordance with the principles of professional, objective, fair and transparent internal review, based on facts and rules, so as to better safeguard the professionalism and credibility of the Doing Business Report and the reputation of the World Bank and its member countries. On your second question, I have nothing to release at present. PTI: Today on the sidelines of the SCO meeting, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met. Do you have a readout on that? Can you provide us some details? Zhao Lijian: On September 16, local time, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Dushanbe at request. State Councilor Wang said that China has always properly handled the China-India border issue with a positive attitude. The communication between the diplomatic and military departments of the two countries in the previous stage has been serious and effective. The China-India border situation is generally moving in the direction of amelioration. We hope that the Indian side will work with China to continuously stabilize the situation and gradually shift from emergency response to regular management. The two sides should consolidate the achievements of disengagement of front-line troops, strictly abide by agreements and consensus reached between the two countries, jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border areas and prevent the recurrence of border-related incidents. State Councilor Wang pointed out that China and India, as two major emerging economies, should continue to adhere to the strategic consensus that the two countries pose no threat but offer development opportunities to each other, and bring bilateral relations and practical cooperation onto the track of sound and steady development. This is not only in the common interests of the two countries, but also conducive to regional and world peace and development. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said India and China have made progress in dealing with the border situation, while there are still some outstanding issues to be resolved. India is ready to work with China to abide by the agreements reached between the two sides, push for positive outcomes of the next round of commander-level meeting and earnestly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border regions. The Indian side hopes that both sides will work together to bring India-China relations back on track, and guide all parties to establish a perception of India-China relations that is more positive and mutually beneficial. India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory, and believes that solidarity among Asian countries is very important. Asian solidarity would be impossible without India-China cooperation. India is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China within the frameworks of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to jointly tackle terrorism and other global challenges. Bloomberg: China has applied to join the CPTPP. Is China willing to talk to Australian ministers about their bid to join the pact? And if so, when would that take place? Zhao Lijian: Almost a year ago, China expressed its readiness to actively consider joining the CPTPP. Over the past year, China had informal contacts with the pact members in accordance with CPTPP regulations. On the basis of comprehensive study and assessment of the terms of the agreement and following relevant procedures and steps, Minister of Commerce of China Wang Wentao submitted China's official application to join the CPTPP in a letter to Trade Minister Damien O'Connor of New Zealand, the depositary of the agreement. We believe that, built on RCEP's conclusion, China joining the CPTPP would help promote economic integration in the Asia-Pacific, and facilitate post-COVID economic recovery, trade development and investment growth in the world. As for you specific question, China will follow relevant procedures of the CPTPP to have necessary consultations with the members. Yonhap News Agency: I have two questions. Firstly, what is China's position on the Security Council meeting on the DPRK's ballistic missile launches? Secondly, the Six-Party Talks on the Korean nuclear issue have been halted for more than 10 years. How does China view the prospect of the resumption of the talks? Zhao Lijian: On your first question, the UN Security Council discussed relevant issue in its internal consultations, during which China reiterated its principled position. We believe that the overall stability on the Peninsula has not come easily and all parties should bear in mind the bigger picture, be cool-headed, exercise restraint, be prudent in words and actions, avoid escalation of the situation and ensure that the Korean Peninsula issue stay on the track of political settlement. We hope relevant parties will stick to the right path of dialogue and engagement, abandon the old path of hostility and confrontation, and earnestly seek an effective political solution to the Korean Peninsula issue in accordance with the dual-track approach and the principle of phased and synchronized actions. China always believes that the Security Council should play a positive and constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue. China and Russia have repeatedly called on the UN Security Council to invoke the rollback terms of the DPRK-related resolutions as soon as possible and make necessary adjustments to relevant sanctions, especially relating to provisions on the humanitarian and livelihood aspects, so as to create conditions and atmosphere for breaking the current impasse and resuming dialogue. China will continue to make positive efforts to this end. On your second question, the Six-Party Talks is an effective mechanism for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and peace and stability of the Peninsula and Northeast Asia as well as an important platform for improving relations among parties. The goals set in the talks and the principles of addressing the concerns of all parties in a synchronized, reciprocal and balanced manner are still of guiding significance. Of course, the resumption of the talks also faces many difficulties, which requires all parties to meet each other halfway. At present, the situation on the Peninsula is at an important and delicate juncture. All parties concerned should be prudent in words and actions and continue to resolutely advance the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue. Beijing Youth Daily: On September 16, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran held an informal meeting on the Afghan issue. Could you tell us more about the meeting? Zhao Lijian: On September 16, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Dushanbe with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Senior Representative of Iranian Foreign Minister Rasoul Mousavi on the sidelines of the SCO and CSTO summits to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov chaired the meeting. The parties reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace, security and stability in Afghanistan and the region at large. They stressed that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan should be respected, the basic principle of "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned" should be implemented, and the right of the Afghan people to pursue peace, tranquility, development and prosperity should be upheld. The parties stressed that the US and its allies bear the primary responsibility for Afghanistan's social and economic reconstruction and should provide much-needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The parties believe that Afghanistan needs to realize national reconciliation and establish an inclusive government that takes into account the interests of all ethnic groups. Noting the security challenges facing Afghanistan, they stressed the need to coordinate efforts to address such threats as terrorism and drug trafficking, and to safeguard regional stability and the legitimate concerns and interests of neighboring countries. The parties expressed concern over the uncertain humanitarian and socio-economic situation in Afghanistan and the possible risk of refugee flows, pointed out the necessity of Afghanistan's return to peace and economic recovery, and called on the international community to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The parties agreed to continue coordination and convene meetings at various levels at appropriate times. NHK: I have two questions. The LDP presidential election in Japan kicked off today. The result would have a major impact on the candidate for the new Prime Minister of Japan. What is China's comment on this? The EU released the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, which said it would strengthen economic relations with Taiwan, and enhance naval presence by EU Member States in the Indo-Pacific. What is China's comment on this? Zhao Lijian: Your first question is about Japan's internal affairs which China would not comment on. On your second question. The Taiwan region's participation in regional economic cooperation must be handled in accordance with the one-China principle. We firmly oppose the discussion and signing of agreements with implications of sovereignty and of official nature between any country and the Taiwan region. China's position on this issue is clear and resolute. As to the issue of non-regional countries sending vessels to the Asia-Pacific, China hopes that countries outside the region will respect the aspiration of countries in the region to maintain peace and stability and promote cooperation for development, and refrain from taking actions that could complicate the situation. Reuters: As you already mentioned, China filed an application to join the CPTPP. Is there any significance to the timing of this application, which was shortly after the new alliance announced by Australia, the UK and the US this week? Zhao Lijian: I have just elaborated on the background of China's official application to join the CPTPP, which has no connection with the agreement among the US, the UK and Australia. I want to emphasize that China is a staunch advocate for trade liberalization and facilitation, and an important participant in cooperation and economic integration in the Asia-Pacific. China's official application to join the CPTPP again demonstrates China's firm resolve in opening up and promoting regional economic cooperation. You just tried to build a connection between the two issues. People can tell that what China works for is economic cooperation and regional integration. What the US and Australia push for is wars and destruction. Prasar Bharati: Just now you mentioned certain points from Indian External Affairs Minister's statement during the meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Dushanbe. Dr. Jaishankar also said that India and China have to establish a relationship based on mutual respect. And for this, it was necessary to avoid viewing our bilateral relations from the perspective of its relations with third countries. Do you have any comments or response to this particular part? Zhao Lijian: China agrees with what the Indian side said about "it is essential to avoid viewing bilateral relations through the lens of a third country". Both China and India are important countries in Asia. The development of China-India relations has its own logic. China-India relations have never targeted any third party. HRTN: The Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft returned to Earth around an hour ago. As we understand, the preparations for the Shenzhou-13 mission are already in place and it is set to be launched in October this year. The rapid development of China's aerospace industry has drawn extensive attention from inside and outside of China. Do you have any response to that? Zhao Lijian: Shortly before today's press conference started, I witnessed with full excitement the historic moment of the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft's return to Earth, just as many of you did. At this moment, I'd like to say welcome home to Shenzhou-12, and to our three hero astronauts! Since its launch on June 17, the crew of Shenzhou-12 had worked and lived in the space station for 90 days, during which they conducted multiple tasks including extravehicular repair and maintenance, appliance switch and scientific operation of payloads, and set a new record of the longest space stay in a single flight for Chinese astronauts. Yesterday, the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft successfully separated with the Tianhe core module, and performed circumnavigation and radial rendezvous tests, which completed the verification of vertical rendezvous technology, laying important technological foundation for the future manned missions. As we welcome and celebrate the return of Shenzhou-12, we can't help recall the successful launch of the Shenzhou-5 manned spacecraft back in 2003. Eighteen years has passed since China became one of the few countries that are able to launch manned mission independently. Over the past 18 years, China's manned mission has continued to make strides, from one-man to three-man crew, from inside-capsule work to spacewalk, and from short to medium-term stay. Each stride forward embodies the courage and perseverance of the astronauts in pursuing the space dream, which contributes China's wisdom and strength to the peaceful use of space by mankind. Space exploration is a common cause for mankind. The Chinese government is committed to peaceful use of outer space and has conducted extensive cooperation and communication with relevant countries in the manned space sector in line with the principles of "peaceful use, equality, mutual benefit and common development". China's space station has entered the phase of comprehensive construction. China will continue to engage in international cooperation and exchanges at wider scope and deeper level, and make Chinese space station a space lab that can deliver benefits to mankind, and make positive contributions to the exploration of the mysteries of the universe, the peaceful use of outer space and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. TASS: I have a question about the joint statement of Australia-US ministerial consultations. It contains some remarks against China on issues related to the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other China-related issues. Does China have any comment on that? Zhao Lijian: China's position on the issues including the South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang is consistent and clear. The United States and Australia are complicit in deliberately smearing China, interfering in China's internal affairs and driving a wedge between regional countries for their own geopolitical gains. China deplores and firmly opposes this. Facts have proved that China is not only the main engine driving economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, but also a staunch supporter of regional peace and stability. China's development is a growing force for world peace and good news for regional prosperity and development. China always believes that cooperation between countries should conform to the trend of peace and development of the times and help enhance mutual trust and cooperation among countries. It should not target any third party or harm its interests. The US and Australia should follow the trend of the times, respect the common aspirations of countries in the region, discard the outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical perception, view China's development in a correct way, and stop interfering in China's internal affairs and making waves in the Asia-Pacific region. Prasar Bharati: A follow-up on the meeting in Dushanbe between both foreign ministers. In this regard, my question is, does China see its relations with India based on India's relations with any third country? Zhao Lijian: I believe I've made it very clear. The development of China-India relations has its own logic. China-India relations have never targeted any third party and are not based on any third party. Prasar Bharati: Earlier this week you said that if India has a need to discuss the issue of return of Indians to China, they may raise this with the Chinese side. I have learned and I understand that Indian embassy and consulates have repeatedly taken up this matter of return of Indians with Chinese authorities. But China has not entertained this request giving COVID-19 as a reason. So can you confirm that the Indian side is in touch with the Chinese side regarding this issue? Zhao Lijian: Given the ongoing complex and grave situation of the pandemic, China applies quarantine measures equally to all inbound travelers, including its own citizens, based on the evolving situation, realities on the ground and science-based assessment. The travel of India's necessary personnel to China has always been guaranteed. We hope that the Indian side will also treat Chinese nationals going to India in an indiscriminate manner, create a necessary and healthy environment for them to work and live in India, and jointly do a good job in personnel exchanges between the two sides. Follow-up: So you confirm that the Indian side is in touch with the Chinese side regarding this issue? Zhao Lijian: We are maintaining communication through unimpeded diplomatic channels in both Beijing and New Delhi. **************** As per the public holiday schedule of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, our regular press conference will be adjourned from September 20 to 21 and resumed on September 22. During the adjournment, you may still reach the MFA Spokesperson's Office via fax, e-mail and WeChat. As the Mid-Autumn Festival is drawing near, I have a few more words to say: We see Shenzhou soaring into vast cosmos and Jiaolong diving into the deep ocean. Why not join us in appreciating the beauty of the moon on the Mid-Autumn Festival? Once again, we welcome the Shenzhou-12 heroes home for the Mid-Autumn Festival and wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival! **************** The following question was raised after the press conference: Venezuela's special envoy Alex Saab was accused of money laundering by the US Department of Justice in July 2019, and he was detained in Cape Verde in June 2020 when his plane stopped there to refuel. It is reported that a Cape Verde court has recently approved Alex Saab's extradition to the US. Do you have any comment? Zhao Lijian: The US has been playing a disgraceful role on the Venezuelan issue. It has constantly abused political and judicial maneuvers, including sanctions and extraditions for the purpose of meddling with Venezuela's internal affairs. Such US practice of political bullying impacts regular international personnel exchanges and endangers mutual trust and cooperation between countries. China firmly rejects this. China urges the US to change its old habit, heed the call for justice from the international community, and abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations. Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov Meets with Wang Yi 2021/09/16 On September 16, 2021 local time, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov met with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Dushanbe. Zhaparov asked Wang Yi to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping. He said that Kyrgyzstan regards China as a good neighbor, good friend and trustworthy good partner, and appreciates China's assistance in providing vaccines and food. Kyrgyzstan highly appreciates China's efforts in the international cooperation in vaccine and fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and China plays a leading role in the building of a global community of health for all. Kyrgyzstan is firmly committed to the comprehensive development of bilateral relations, firmly supports China on issues concerning Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, and resolutely opposes interference by external forces in China's internal affairs. Kyrgyzstan is willing to work with China to strengthen cooperation in building the Belt and Road, and deepen bilateral economic, trade, and investment cooperation. Kyrgyzstan will create a good business environment for foreign investors, including those from China. The two sides should work together to combat the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, tackle global challenges such as cybercrime, transnational crime and drug-related crime, and work together to maintain regional security and stability. Wang Yi conveyed the sincere greetings of President Xi to President Zhaparov and congratulated Kyrgyzstan on the 30th anniversary of its independence. He said, China has always been and will always be a good neighbor and partner of Kyrgyzstan. China sincerely hopes that Kyrgyzstan will achieve long-term stable development and continuously promote the process of national rejuvenation. China will continue to support Kyrgyzstan in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions and support Kyrgyzstan in safeguarding its national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity while opposing external forces to interfere in its internal affairs under any pretext. China is willing to continue to provide active support for Kyrgyzstan's fight against the pandemic, and will encourage capable and reputable enterprises to invest and start businesses in Kyrgyzstan to help the country recover its economy and improve people's livelihood. China and Kyrgyzstan, as close neighbors of Afghanistan, should further enhance the level of law enforcement cooperation to prevent the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement and other violent and terrorist forces from returning, and to prevent external forces from replicating the chaos in Afghanistan in Central Asia. China appreciates Kyrgyzstan's support for China's legitimate position on human rights issues, and is willing to work with Kyrgyzstan to uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and oppose the politicization of human rights issues. Xi inspects military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province Xinhua) 07:52, September 17, 2021 Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech to soldiers and officers at a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 15, 2021. Xi inspected the military base in Shaanxi on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Li Gang) XI'AN, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a speech to soldiers and officers at the base. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, Xi extended sincere greetings to officers and soldiers and encouraged them to make more contributions to building world-class military forces and China's strength in aerospace. Xi had a group photo with the officers and soldiers and heard a work report of the base. Xi affirmed the base's important role in China's space industry and called for innovations in technology and means to ensure accurate, reliable and successful measurement and control work to serve more frequent space launches of higher demands. Noting that space assets are important strategic assets of the country, Xi urged efforts to comprehensively strengthen the protection of these assets. Xi also called for strengthening space traffic management and carrying out international cooperation on space security to improve effectiveness in managing space crises. Reinforcing the Party's political foundations should play a leading role in accomplishing missions of the base, Xi said. He also urged efforts to solve the difficulties of the officers and soldiers and break new ground in the development of the base. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) U.S., UK aid to Australia's acquisition of nuclear submarines "sheer act of nuclear proliferation": Chinese envoy Xinhua) 07:57, September 17, 2021 Wang Qun (R, Front), Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, is interviewed after a meeting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria, on June 12, 2021. (Xinhua/Guo Chen) "This contradicts the purpose, objective and core obligation of the NPT to the detriment of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime with the NPT at its core and on-going international efforts on this front," Wang stated. VIENNA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese diplomat on Thursday expressed China's "grave concern" at the pronounced assistance by the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia's acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. Addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting here, Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, described the trilateral move as "sheer act of nuclear proliferation". The U.S. and the UK, both nuclear weapon states, and are state parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which prevents proliferation of nuclear weapons and technologies, the core obligation for its state parties, Wang stated. He stressed that such assistance "will apparently give rise to proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies by openly providing assistance to Australia", a non-nuclear weapon state, in its acquisition and building of the nuclear-powered submarine. Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2021 shows the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) "This contradicts the purpose, objective and core obligation of the NPT to the detriment of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime with the NPT at its core and on-going international efforts on this front," Wang stated. "While firmly safeguarding the validity of the international non-proliferation regime, China wishes to register its grave concern at the development," Wang said. "In the meantime, we believe that, it is the responsibility of IAEA, as an international organization mandated to implement NPT non-proliferation regime, to openly express its solemn position at the trilateral act by the U.S., the UK and Australia, which contradict their obligations under the NPT," Wang stated. Wang also stressed that, such an act of nuclear proliferation "will give rise to serious negative implications on the on-going international efforts to address the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula as well as the Iranian nuclear issue". A lantern is seen on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, on March 23, 2021. (Xinhua/Ray Tang) "Given the ongoing review and discussions of the Korean Peninsula and Iranian nuclear issues at the IAEA Board of Governors and the General Conference, it is essential that all members of the Board and international organizations including IAEA, make solemn position on the trilateral collaboration among the U.S., UK and Australia in helping Australia develop nuclear-powered submarine, in promotion of the full and effective implementation of international non-proliferation obligations under the NPT by all countries," he stated. Exporting highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology to Australia has shown that the U.S. and the UK have "once again adopted a double standard on nuclear export", and "have taken nuclear export as a means of their geo-political game", Wang pointed out. Wang said that, in the meantime, it is "utterly irresponsible" for Australia, as a non-nuclear state and state party to the NPT and South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, to import nuclear submarine technology with strategic militarily value. "The international community, including neighboring countries, has every reason to question Australia's sincerity in implementation of nuclear non-proliferation commitment under the relevant treaties," he said. The trilateral collaboration by the U.S., the UK and Australia "will seriously impair the regional peace and stability, escalate arms race, to the detriment of international peace and security," Wang added. Wang said that China will closely follow its development and reserve the right to make further responses. In the meantime, China will call on the international community to "work together to check such a dangerous act". In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, governments of the U.S., the UK and Australia announced the creation of a new trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS," which will help "significantly deepen cooperation on a range of security and defense capabilities". The first initiative under AUKUS will be the delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia, and the three countries will spend as many as 18 months discussing how this capability will be delivered, according to the statement. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China's ecological red lines provide wisdom for global environmental conservation Xinhua) 08:01, September 17, 2021 -- China has basically completed drawing up ecological conservation red lines nationwide to identify the country's crucial ecological zones and enforce strict protection in those areas. -- No less than 25 percent of the country's land area has been demarcated within the red lines, covering zones that are critical in environmental function, ecologically sensitive and vulnerable, and vital for biodiversity. -- Environmental experts and officials have commended the red-line system as a creative and scientific model for maintaining biodiversity. CHANGSHA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Staff members of the mountainous Gaowangjie National Nature Reserve in central China's Hunan Province were surprised to find that wildlife that disappeared long ago, such as the Elliot's pheasants, had recently returned. Zhang Zhilin, deputy head of the reserve administration, said that living conditions of rare and endangered species have seen notable improvements since the reserve was made part of an ecological protection red-line zone in 2018, resulting in a more harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. In July, China announced that it had basically completed drawing up ecological conservation red lines nationwide to identify the country's crucial ecological zones and enforce strict protection in those areas. No less than 25 percent of the country's land area has been demarcated within the red lines, covering zones that are critical in environmental function, ecologically sensitive and vulnerable, and vital for biodiversity, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Photo taken on April 20, 2021 shows Tibetan antelopes in the Sanjiangyuan (Three-River-Source) area, home to the headwaters of three major rivers -- the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Lancang River (known as the Mekong River after it flows out of China), in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Wu Gang) The red lines are now identified as lifelines for ensuring China's ecological security, according to a national guideline in 2017. In the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, more than half of the region's total area has been demarcated within the red lines, including grasslands, forests, and wetlands. Projects that break the ecological balance or exceed the capacities of the environment and resources will be banned, according to the regional natural resources authorities. While in the southwestern Yunnan Province, which will host the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in October, almost one third of its land area has been put under the protection of the red lines. TRAIL-BLAZING SOLUTION TO BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION Environmental experts and officials have commended the red-line system as a creative and scientific model for maintaining biodiversity. "There are not many other places I can think of that have a similarly sophisticated science-based approach to identifying and implementing what's called the red-lining policy here," said Guido Schmidt-Traub, former executive director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network in an interview in late 2019. Aerial photo taken on Jan. 10, 2021 shows the scenery of Yamzbog Yumco Lake in Shannan, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Sun Fei) Zhou Jinfeng, vice chairman and secretary-general of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, said the system is a great innovation compared with the "protected area" system established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and widely used around the world, as those areas are often not large enough and costly to manage. "After the ecological red-line zones are designated, any urban planning and rural development in the zones should give way to the ecological preservation," said Zhou. "The system will play a vital role in advancing biodiversity conservation." Gao Jixi, director of Center for Satellite Application on Ecology and Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that most countries designate 10 percent to 20 percent of their land as "protected areas," which is insufficient to stop the continuing nature loss globally or meet the biodiversity conservation objectives proposed by the Convention on Biological Diversity. China's red-line approach, however, is based on a technical assessment of the benefits to both nature and people and aims to include areas both sparsely and heavily populated, thus creating the ability to achieve large-scale and holistic protection of species and habitats, noted Gao. For example, around the Yangtze River Delta, a booming city cluster, nearly 29,000 square km of land, or around 12 percent of the region, falls in the red-line zones, including important wetland forests and grassland, according to Gao. Gao said it is important to balance ecological preservation and economic development in conjunction with designating red-line zones, and while development is currently crucial, preservation must be prioritized to sustain growth. He noted that the delineation of the red lines is a dynamic process. In the future when economic efficiency improves and less natural space is needed, the area of red-line zones will continue to expand. Aerial photo taken on July 26, 2021 shows a herd of cattle on the Wulanmaodu pasture in Horqin Right Wing Front Banner, Hinggan League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Bei He) Erik Solheim, former executive director of UN Environment Programme, said the red-line strategy is "enormous, significant and has a huge potential to help the world solve the problem that we need to live in harmony with nature." Schmidt-Traub shared a similar view, saying that global scientists should "investigate this study and its implementation" and then "really consider how this could be applied in other countries." Besides the red-line strategy, China has also adopted a raft of protection rules and mechanisms, such as the eco-compensation mechanism, chiefs of rivers, lakes and forests, and national parks, which jointly serve environmental protection drive while guaranteeing the dividends to locals. According to Zhou, many foreign experts and governments showed interest in the red-line strategy at international conferences. "The Chinese approach provides inspirations for other countries, especially for those actively exploring new and more effective conservation models," he said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Chinese, Russian FMs pledge to step up bilateral cooperation Xinhua) 08:31, September 17, 2021 Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Sept. 16, 2021. (Xinhua) Lavrov said that the two sides should continue to boost anti-epidemic cooperation, push forward pragmatic exchanges, and expand trade volumes. DUSHANBE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a common commitment on Thursday to strengthen cooperation in various fields between the two countries. Not long ago, the two ministers attended the commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the victory of World War II, voicing loud and clear their position that history should not be tampered with and truth should not be erased, Wang said during a meeting with Lavrov. He said that China firmly backs Russia in pursuing a development path that is suited to its national conditions and taking measures to protect its state power, sovereignty and security. China is ready to work with Russia to safeguard the outcome of the victory of World War II and uphold international fairness and justice, Wang said. He suggested that the two countries continue to advance anti-epidemic cooperation, achieve the bilateral trade target of 200 billion U.S. dollars annually at an early date, and open up a new chapter of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. Wang said that China is ready to step up coordination with Russia on the Afghan issue and respond together, urging the United States and the West to shoulder their due responsibilities and jointly maintain regional peace and stability. The senior official said China appreciates Russia's opposition to politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing and human rights issues, and stands ready to deepen back-to-back strategic coordination with Russia, and promote international cooperation against the pandemic. He added that China and Russia should communicate and coordinate within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), jointly safeguard peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, and tackle various global challenges. Lavrov said Russia and China held events commemorating the victory of World War II, which once again proved the unbreakable friendship forged on the battlefield and indestructible partnership between the two countries. He said that the two sides should continue to boost anti-epidemic cooperation, push forward pragmatic exchanges, and expand trade volumes. Russia unwaveringly supports China's positions on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet and human rights, Lavrov said, adding that tracing COVID-19 origins is a scientific issue and should not be used as an instrument for political pressure. Russia supports China in hosting the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and wishes Chinese athletes more achievements in the event, he noted. He said Russia is willing to work with China to push for greater influence of the SCO, strengthen coordination on the Afghan issue, jointly safeguard peace and stability in Central Asia, address global issues such as information security, biosecurity and cyber crimes in the United Nations and other multilateral arenas, and increase coordination and cooperation in Asia-Pacific affairs. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China, Kyrgyzstan agree to enhance bilateral cooperation Xinhua) 08:32, September 17, 2021 DUSHANBE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday met in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, agreeing to promote bilateral ties and strengthen cooperation. Zhaparov asked Wang to convey his sincere greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said that Kyrgyzstan regards China as a good neighbor, good friend and trustworthy good partner, and appreciates China's assistance in providing vaccines and food. Zhaparov said that Kyrgyzstan highly appreciates China's efforts in the international cooperation in vaccination and fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, and China plays a leading role in the building of a community of common health. Kyrgyzstan is committed to the comprehensive development of bilateral relations, firmly supports China on issues concerning Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, and resolutely opposes interference by external forces in China's internal affairs, he said. He added that Kyrgyzstan is willing to work with China to strengthen cooperation in building the Belt and Road and deepen bilateral economic, trade, and investment cooperation. The country will create a good business environment for foreign investors, including those from China. The two sides should work together to combat the "three evil forces" of terrorism, extremism and separatism, tackle global challenges such as cybercrime, transnational crime, and drug crime, and work together to maintain regional security and stability, Zhaparov said. Wang conveyed the sincere greetings of President Xi to President Zhaparov and congratulated Kyrgyzstan on the 30th anniversary of its independence. China has always been and will always be a good neighbor and partner of Kyrgyzstan, Wang said, adding that China sincerely hopes that Kyrgyzstan will achieve long-term stable development and promote the process of national rejuvenation. China will continue to support Kyrgyzstan in taking a development path that suits its own national conditions and support the country in safeguarding its national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity while opposing external forces to interfere in its internal affairs under any pretext, he said. China is willing to continue to provide active support for Kyrgyzstan's fight against the pandemic, and will encourage capable and reputable enterprises to invest and start businesses in Kyrgyzstan to help the country recover its economy and improve people's livelihood, according to Wang. The two countries, as close neighbors of Afghanistan, should further enhance the level of law enforcement cooperation to prevent the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement and other violent and terrorist forces from returning, and to prevent external forces from replicating the chaos in Afghanistan in Central Asia, Wang said. He added that China appreciates Kyrgyzstan's support for China's legitimate position on human rights issues, and is willing to work with Kyrgyzstan to uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and oppose the politicization of human rights issues. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Commentary: China's efforts to shed burdens for young students misread by Western media Xinhua) 08:53, September 17, 2021 BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- As China strives to ease the workload of the country's young students by reducing their excessive homework and off-campus tutoring, misinterpretation of some Western media, deeply-rooted in their bigotry, has arisen. Some journalists, when covering China's recently launched "double reduction" national campaign on basic education, accused Beijing of "increasingly rejecting English." These groundless allegations turned a blind eye to the simple fact that the reason why China regulated the after-class training is not to "close off a nation" to push back "against the language and against Western influence in general," but to reduce students' learning burdens at home. The campaign also aims to promote equality in the education sector by extending on-campus classes for every student. It is fair to say that "double reduction" encourages Chinese students to improve the on-campus efficiency of learning both curriculum and extra-curriculum subjects, including foreign languages. China has all along called for pursuing a high-quality basic education and alleviating burdens on students. As early as in 2007, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission issued a notice that prohibited schools from conducting district-wide unified examinations for elementary students. The final examination of pupils in grades 3, 4 and 5 is limited to Chinese and mathematics, while other subjects including English are examined in flexible and diverse ways. The notice has since continued to take effect in Shanghai's annual curriculum planning and was listed in this year's routine announcement before the new semester. Language education is an important and indispensable part of China's compulsory education. For Chinese students, learning their mother tongue is a must, and learning a foreign language will enable them to better understand and communicate with the outside world. Since China started reform and opening-up in 1978, it has made foreign language one of the test subjects in its national college entrance exam. As this basic national policy continues to implement deeply, China's teaching and learning system has been continuously updated and optimized. The "double reduction" campaign is just the latest of them. Different from 40 years ago, now the Chinese can acquire English not only from the classrooms but also from their family members, as well as online TV dramas, community activities and international programs. As a result, foreign language proficiency of Chinese has improved greatly over the past decades. More Chinese people display their linguistic talents in international affairs and trade cooperation. For instance, nearly 200 college students from Shanghai International Studies University provided 19 foreign languages services during the third China International Import Expo last year. It is worth noting that more and more foreigners are learning Chinese, too. The Chinese language has been incorporated into the national education systems of more than 70 countries. The linguistic and cultural exchanges have become the "new normal" in the current phase of globalization, which will help boost the mutual understandings between China and the world. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) U.S., biggest saboteur of post-WWII global peace (Part 3) Xinhua) 09:01, September 17, 2021 DISRUPTION TO INTERNATIONAL ORDER With its great power, the United States has been using "American exceptionalism" as the theoretical basis to wantonly trample on international relations. While requiring other countries to abide by the rules-based international order, it has long put its own interests above the international system with the UN at its core and above the international order underpinned by international law. Although the United States led the establishment of international systems and rules for global political and economic governance after World War II, the country has habitually broken rules and withdrawn from international organizations as long as they do not satisfy U.S. requirements. Since the 1980s, the United States has refused to ratify or unilaterally withdrawn from many international treaties and organizations, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the World Conference against Racism, and the Kyoto Protocol. The Trump administration was particularly willful, under which the United States withdrew from more than 10 international organizations and agreements in four years, such as the UN Human Rights Council, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The United States has been the only country to oppose the negotiation on a verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, hindering the efforts of the international community to verify biological activities in various countries, and becoming a stumbling block to biological arms control. The United States has not only frequently withdrawn from international groups, but also punished any group that dared to challenge it. In 2020, the Trump administration announced that it would impose economic sanctions and travel restrictions on the officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) involved in the investigation into U.S. actions in the Afghan war -- a move even worse than its earlier refusal to recognize and enforce the ICC's rulings, or to cooperate with the ICC's investigation. This once again showed that the United States would rather destroy "public weapons" if they cannot be used for its private purposes. The Biden administration has rejoined some international organizations and agreements only to serve its national strategies, and has stayed out of the agreements that it believes would hurt its interests, such as the Open Skies Treaty. As the Biden administration promoted the "selective multilateralism," it has been commented by some European media as "America First 2.0." In fact, the United States has never shown kindness to other countries, opponents or allies, if they do not serve the U.S. interests. In recent years, the United States has been asking NATO as well as its Asian allies to increase their military spending and pay the United States more "protection fees" for dispatching troops. Just before Biden's Europe trip in June, it was revealed that the United States had spied on politicians of its European allies, which came as yet another U.S. surveillance scandal after the PRISM Project in 2013. It once again showed the United States has been conducting large-scale cyber surveillance and attacks globally for a long time, and that it, a real empire of hackers, has become the biggest threat to global cybersecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic is like a magical mirror that has exposed the ugliness of the "America First" policy. The United States has been engaged in unilateralism since the onset of the pandemic: It seized anti-pandemic supplies destined for other countries, issued embargoes on its medical supplies, and bought up production capacity of the drugs that may be used to treat the disease. Its selfish acts shocked the world and severely damaged global anti-pandemic cooperation. While vaccines have offered hope for the global fight against COVID-19, the United States has upheld "vaccine nationalism," rushing to order and procure vaccines, even those still undergoing clinical trials, and putting some underdeveloped countries and regions in a desperate situation with no access to vaccines. In the meantime, the United States has been attaching political strings to its vaccine assistance. The Spanish El Mundo website said in an editorial that Washington lent vaccines to Mexico in exchange for a heightened control of the illegal immigrants on the border of Guatemala. U.S. bimonthly magazine Foreign Policy commented on its website that the Biden administration is still pursuing American interests at the expense of the interests of other countries in the world. The United States has secretly established biological laboratories in many places around the world to carry out biological militarization activities. The mystery of the link between Fort Detrick and the spread of COVID-19 has not yet been cleared up. Hume Field, a science and policy advisor for China and Southeast Asia of EcoHealth Alliance in New York, said politicizing origins tracing just generates "doubt" and "mistrust," and fundamentally undermines the united global efforts needed to prevail against this virus and this pandemic. IDEOLOGICAL MANIPULATION In August, the White House announced that in December Biden will convene leaders from "the world's democracies" at a virtual Summit for Democracy, to be followed "in roughly a year's time by a second, in-person summit." Ironically, a recent poll commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation among 50,000 respondents in more than 50 countries has found that nearly half of the respondents see the United States as a threat to democracy. For a long time, the United States has been identifying itself as a "city upon a hill" and advocating American values such as "democracy, freedom and human rights" as so-called "universal values," and it believes that the United States has the responsibility to promote its values across the globe. However, such "universal values" in essence are an ideological tool for the United States to maintain global hegemony. On the one hand, the United States takes advantage of its strong position in the fields of culture and media to forcibly promote American democracy and values in the world, particularly in developing countries. On the other hand, under the guise of the so-called "universal values," the United States attempts to take the moral high ground to manipulate international public opinion, wantonly attack countries and entities that it regards as threats and rivals, and deliberately create divisions and confrontations. In 2010, marked by the submission of the "National Framework for Strategic Communication" by then U.S. President Barack Obama to U.S. Congress, the national propaganda system led by the U.S. government entered a stage where it became more capable of conducting interagency operations. In 2014, a report by the Guardian revealed a secret program run by the U.S. Agency for International Development to infiltrate Cuba's hip-hop scene and launch a movement against the Cuban government. According to the British media outlet, the agency recruited scores of Cuban musicians for projects disguised as cultural initiatives but in actual fact aimed at boosting their visibility and stoking a movement of fans to challenge the government. The United States has also linked its economic aid to the political system, pressuring African countries into following Western political models through U.S.-led international financial institutions. Since the 1980s, U.S. presidents have made the promotion of "democratization" in recipient countries a top goal of U.S. foreign aid. But such moves often brought disasters to the recipient countries. Rapid political "democratization" and economic privatization in many African countries led to large-scale political crises and even bloody conflicts, with some countries still in political turmoil today. The Biden administration has been promoting its idea of "embracing multilateralism again" ever since assuming office, but in practice, it still lingers on the small clique politics, obsessed with ideological differences and wantonly suppressing other countries to serve its own interests in the name of safeguarding "the rules-based international order." U.S. hegemonic control lies behind the Quad, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, the Group of Seven, and all other similar cliques, which could in no way represent the international community. For example, the Biden administration has pulled together Britain, Canada and other allies to repeatedly hype up at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) their false accusations against China's human rights progress, including the allegation of the so-called "forced labor" in Xinjiang. Meanwhile, those countries' deplorable history of genocide and cultural extinction, as well as the tragedies of racial discrimination happening nowadays in their own backyards, have been continuously exposed to the general public. At the 47th session of the UNHRC, more than 90 countries made the appeal for justice, voicing their support for China and saying "no" to anti-China cliques. U.S. magazine Foreign Affairs said in an article published on July 9 that "From the COVID-19 pandemic to global trade rules, from climate change to economic development, the United States is actively frustrating the priorities of most of the world's democracies. In the process, U.S. foreign policy is -- in the name of democracy -- compounding the global crisis of democracy and delegitimizing U.S. power." "The world's liberal democracies have lost their monopoly to define what democracy is," Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev said in an opinion piece published on The New York Times in May. Citing a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center a few months earlier, Krastev said a vast majority of Americans "are deeply disappointed with their own political system," and that "some are unconvinced they even still live in a democracy." This is also true for many European countries, the study showed. Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard University and American political scientist who popularized the term "Thucydides trap," has previously said in an article on Foreign Policy that "Unipolarity is over, and with it the illusion that other nations would simply take their assigned place in a U.S.-led international order." (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) U.S., disruptor of global peace in every sense Xinhua) 09:13, September 17, 2021 "War is the American way of life," says U.S. historian Paul Atwood. (Source: Xinhua) BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- In the bloody drone strike on what the U.S. military claimed "suspected suicide bombers" in Afghanistan late August, 10 members of one family, including a two-year-old girl, were killed. All of them were innocent civilians. However, when U.S. media raised doubts with evidences suggesting the targeted vehicle contained no explosives and the family had no connection to terrorist groups, a spokesperson for the U.S. Ministry of Defense understated the attack, saying "not aware of any plans to put investigators on the ground." The remarks are a typical reflection of Washington's disregard for life. For centuries, the United States has been obsessed with aggressive wars. Its endless military actions have seriously violated human rights and caused tremendous humanitarian disasters across the world, and made the country the biggest saboteur of global peace and stability. File photo shows American soldiers patrolling at attack scene in Maidan Shahr, capital city of Wardak province, Afghanistan on Sept 8, 2013. (Xinhua) As U.S. historian Paul Atwood put it, "War is the American way of life." Since its independence on July 4, 1776, in more than 240 years, the United States was not at war for merely 16 years. Its path towards global dominance was built on wars, slavery and slaughters. After the end of World War II, the United States has launched a series of wars in foreign lands and brought about conflicts and chaos in many places of the world, leaving horrific civilian casualties and property damage. Take the Iraq War as an example. Amid global oppositions, Washington invaded the oil-rich country in 2003 with allegations that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction, although there was no concrete evidence. According to Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, between 184,382 and 207,156 Iraqi civilians were directly killed in war-related violence in the country. The invaders also deployed such weapons as depleted uranium bombs and white-phosphorus bombs during the war, which has posed a grave threat to local environment and the public health. According to the Iraqi authorities, prior to the First Gulf War in 1991, the rate of cancer cases in Iraq was 40 out of 100,000 people, while by 2005, the figure had soared to at least 1,600 out of 100,000. A study by the Smithsonian Magazine in 2019 showed that the U.S.-launched wars and military operations under the pretext of "anti-terrorism" after the 9/11 attacks have "spread to more than 40 percent of the world's countries." A woman commemorates victims in the 9/11 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York, the United States, Sept. 10, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) Over 929,000 people were killed in the violence of the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, with 38 million people displaced in the past two decades, showed September data by the Costs of War project of Brown University. "Endless campaigns abroad unleash a host of political forces -- militarism, secrecy, enhanced executive authority, xenophobia, faux patriotism, demagoguery, etc," wrote Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, in an earlier piece on Foreign Policy magazine. The United States is not only a notorious war criminal, but also the "dirty hands" that messed other countries up. In his book "America's Deadliest Export: Democracy," U.S. writer William Blum pointed out that the United States has tried to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments since the end of World War II, interfered in elections in at least 30 nations, and attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders. Cuba's Granma daily has reported that in the last 20 years, U.S. institutions including the Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy have allocated about 250 million U.S. dollars to finance destabilizing and subversive activities in the island country. A countless number of facts have proved that the United States is the real disruptor of international rules and the world order, the source of growing uncertainties across the world, as well as the major stumbling block in the pursuit of peace and development. If the United States continues to be addicted to hegemony and the law of the jungle, it will be drifting toward antithesis of peace-loving people and countries, and be left behind by the times. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China goes full steam ahead to push international anti-pandemic cooperation 09:14, September 17, 2021 By Wang Xiaobo ( People's Daily COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government to the Republic of the Congo arrive in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of the Congo, March 10, 2021. (Photo/Courtesy of Chinese Embassy in the Republic of the Congo) As the COVID-19 pandemic is still wreaking havoc in the world, China, upholding the idea of building a community of common health for mankind, has gone all out to help other developing countries to combat the virus. It has vigorously pushed ahead with international cooperation on COVID-19 vaccines and made contributions to winning a victory over the disease by promoting the equitable distribution of vaccines around the world, providing other developing countries with vaccines and other urgently needed medical supplies, and encouraging Chinese vaccine developers to build overseas factories for production. To date, China has provided more than one billion doses of finished and bulk COVID-19 vaccines for over 100 countries and international organizations, and will strive to provide a total of two billion doses throughout this year. I would like to take this opportunity to announce that on top of the US$100 million donation to COVAX, China will donate an additional 100 million doses of vaccines to fellow developing countries within this year, said Chinese President Xi Jinping while addressing the 13th BRICS Summit via video link on Sept. 9. China has actively supported and participated in COVAX in a bid to make COVID-19 vaccines more accessible and affordable in developing countries. During the first half of the year, vaccines developed by Chinese companies Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech were validated by the WHO for emergency use. Soon, the two companies took action to safeguard production and had consultations with the Gavi on vaccine supply. In July, their products were included in the COVAX Facility portfolio. According to relevant purchase agreements, the two Chinese companies will provide 110 million doses for COVAX by the end of October, and the latter will determine the specific distribution plan after taking into full consideration the purchase intentions of countries. In the meantime, they have agreed to supply vaccines to COVAX in the years to come and are in discussions with the latter for the specific time and plan of future supply. The first batch of around nine million doses provided by Sinopharm were delivered to Pakistan and Bangladesh in early August. At the end of last month, the first batch of nearly 570,000 doses of inactivated vaccines provided by Sinovac Biotech for COVAX arrived in Algiers, capital of Algeria. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has provided member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with more than 190 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, along with other anti-epidemic supplies. The two sides have launched the China-ASEAN Public Health Cooperation Initiative and continued to improve the China-ASEAN vaccine friends platform to promote policy communication and information sharing on vaccines. In the face of the COVID-19 outbreaks, China has been an important comrade-in-arms of ASEAN in establishing an immunity defense line, according to Chea Munyrith, president of the Cambodian Chinese Evolution Researcher Association. Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso recently thanked the international community, especially China, for helping the country achieve its first-stage vaccination plan. We must especially thank China, its president, the government and the Chinese people, who understood our urgency and provided us with over 65 percent of the vaccines that we applied in the first phase of our vaccination plan, he said during a celebration marking the milestone on Sept. 9. Chinas COVID-19 vaccines, whose safety is guaranteed, are the most accessible ones among all vaccines to developing countries, noted Esteban Ortiz, a public health expert at the University of the Americas of Ecuador. On Sept. 2, another batch of anti-epidemic supplies donated by China to Iraq arrived in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad, before which the country had received three batches of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government. From helping Iraq build laboratories for testing COVID-19 to donating vaccines, Chinas assistance has played an important role in the efforts of Iraq to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and the newly arrived anti-epidemic supplies from China will help, support and enhance measures taken to confront the pandemic in Iraq, said Ali al-Baldawi, director-general of the Iraqi State Company for Marketing Drugs and Medical Appliances. Besides providing finished vaccines for foreign countries, China has also promoted localized production of COVID-19 vaccines overseas, trying to ensure the accessibility and affordability of COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries. So far, Chinese vaccine enterprises have carried out cooperation with foreign partners in producing vaccines in many countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Indonesia. On Sept.9, the first factory producing vaccines developed by China in Europe was inaugurated in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. The factory will start producing COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinopharm next April, according to a statement published by the office of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Besides satisfying the needs of Serbia, the factory will also supply vaccines to other countries in the Balkan Peninsula and other regions in Europe, said the statement. Chinese COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and play an important role in Uzbekistans fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, said Behzod Musaev, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Development of Uzbekistan, at a seminar on COVID-19 vaccination on Sept. 7. Statistics from the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan show that most of the COVID-19 vaccines administered in the country at present are recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine developed by China. During a recent inspection tour of a local factory producing COVID-19 vaccines developed by China, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed told reporters that the annual production capacity of the production lines was 200 million doses and could already meet Egypts demand for vaccines. The WHO welcomes the cooperation between China and Egypt in producing COVID-19 vaccines in Egypt, according to Dr. Naeema Al Gasseer, WHO Representative in Egypt. The cooperation between Egypt and China is a successful model for international cooperation and transfer of global expertise, said the WHO representative in a statement. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) China, Bahrain to strengthen parliamentary exchanges Xinhua) 09:33, September 17, 2021 Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, holds talks with Bahrain's parliament speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 15, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ye) BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Wednesday held talks with Bahrain's parliament speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal via video link, and the two sides vowed to strengthen parliamentary exchanges and cooperation. Li, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said that China has always regarded Bahrain as a good friend and partner and is willing to work jointly to further strengthen bilateral ties so as to benefit the two countries and peoples. The two sides should continue to strengthen political support for each other, deepen anti-pandemic cooperation, advance high-quality pragmatic cooperation across the fields, and strengthen people-to-people exchanges, he said. He called for enhancing the synergy between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030, expanding cooperation in such fields as economy, trade, energy, infrastructure, 5G, and e-commerce. China's NPC is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Bahraini parliament through maintaining high-level exchanges, timely approving, revising and introducing relevant legal documents that are beneficial to bilateral ties, and exchanging experience in state governance, Li said. He also called on the two sides to enhance dialogue on regional and global issues, cooperate closely on multilateral occasions and jointly safeguard the interests of developing countries. Zainal, also speaker of Bahrain's Council of Representatives, pledged to further strengthen parliamentary exchanges with China's NPC and promote legislative cooperation and friendship between the two peoples. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) China Pavilion at Dubai World Expo to open in October Xinhua) 09:34, September 17, 2021 BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The China Pavilion, one of the largest pavilions at the Expo 2020 Dubai, will open on Oct. 1, an official said Thursday. Twenty-six provincial-level regions and more than 40 leading Chinese enterprises will hold exhibitions, forums and other activities at the expo through online and offline channels, said Zhang Shenfeng, deputy head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, at a press conference. The number of Chinese enterprises participating in the Expo 2020 is more than that of any other previous World Expos held outside China, Zhang said. Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Expo 2020 is slated to be held from Oct. 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, in the United Arab Emirates, featuring Connecting Minds, Creating the Future as its theme. To date, a total of 192 countries have confirmed their participation in the Expo 2020, and the event is expected to attract 25 million visitors. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Enhanced BeiDou short message service displayed at int'l summit Xinhua) 09:36, September 17, 2021 Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2021 shows the first International Summit on BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Applications, in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province. (Xinhua/Chen Sihan) CHANGSHA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- An enhanced version of BeiDou short message service was showcased at the First International Summit on BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Applications held in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, Thursday. The new technology enables two-way communication on mobile phones in areas not covered by ordinary mobile communication signals or when base stations are damaged, which proves useful during earthquake relief, offshore fishing and emergency communication. "Short message service needed a larger satellite terminal such as maritime satellite phone. But the enhanced version's 'low power consumption' feature enables mobile phones to send emergency messages through BeiDou satellites even without ground mobile communication signals," said Li Jingyuan, director of the BeiDou short message team at National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). "The information transmission rate of the enhanced version has increased 10 times, which means pictures and voice messages can be sent out quickly," Li added. At the summit, NUDT, the people's government of Hunan and China Electronics Corporation signed an industrial cooperation agreement to further expand short message service to low orbit satellite users, and make the service play a role in global satellite Internet of Things, international life rescue, global emergency communication and other industrial applications. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Turkey, China create win-win partnership within BRI framework, experts say Xinhua) 09:46, September 17, 2021 ISTANBUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- China and Turkey have been creating win-win cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), experts said recently. The two nations have seen their cooperation flourishing since 2013, when China first proposed the BRI, aiming to mobilize more resources, strengthen connectivity between countries, regions and markets, as well as leverage potential growth drivers. As a strong supporter of the BRI, Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding with China in 2015 to align its Middle Corridor (MC) plan linking Turkey and Europe with China via a Trans-Caspian transport route. "Since this agreement, we have seen important infrastructure investment from China in Turkey, which has led to better understanding between the two states," Selcuk Colakoglu, a Turkish academic and expert on China, told Xinhua. Colakoglu said Ankara would benefit from increasing national infrastructure investment within the BRI. "In this initiative, China and Turkey are good partners who are working hand in hand for a common target, which is to boost trade and economic relations between partner nations," said Colakoglu, head of the Asia-Pacific Studies. Beijing has invested in some of the MC's key projects to boost the transportation between China and European countries through this route, the expert said. The most notable was the 840-km-long Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad (BTK) linking Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, completed in 2017. The BTK shortened the Asia-Europe transportation route between Beijing and London by some 7,000 km. "The number of journeys between Europe and China shows the huge potential between Turkey and China in the BRI and the Middle Corridor," a Turkish government source told Xinhua. "In the following years, we may be able to see more dynamic railway-based exports and imports between Asia and Europe," the source said. Several other infrastructure projects financed by Ankara within the MC, such as the Canakkale Strait Bridge and the Edirne-Kars high-speed rail, are underway. Ankara is seeking more Chinese investments in Turkish transportation, energy and mining infrastructure, said Colakoglu. "The BRI will become a game-changer for the future in terms of the large picture of the economy," Colakoglu said. "China is bringing investments, while Turkey is set to gain from it because of its geographical position," he added. While the BRI has created an "important momentum" in China-Turkish ties, Ankara's financial woes since a currency meltdown in 2018 pose a challenge to the Turkish portion of the enormous initiative, scholars noted. "Ankara's financial resources are limited ... and it would be advantageous for Turkey if it calibrates its visions on the BRI with those of China's," Emre Demir, a scholar of international relations at TED University in Ankara, told Xinhua, calling on Turkey to make long-term commitments. Demir stressed that the BRI is "without doubt an endeavor" to forge closer relations between China and Turkey. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Pledged Chinese investment in Nepal surges in 2 months of new fiscal year Xinhua) 09:47, September 17, 2021 KATHMANDU, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese investors had pledged direct investment worth 11.15 billion Nepali rupees (94.65 million U.S. dollars) in Nepal during the first two months of the 2021-22 fiscal year starting in mid-July, about half of the total committed during the whole 2020-21 fiscal year, the latest figures from the Department of Industry showed. According to the department, Chinese investors registered a total of 62 enterprises from mid-July to mid-September, and the amount of investment pledged is about half of the 22.5 billion rupees (190.87 million dollars) committed by the Chinese investors during the entire 2020-21 fiscal year. During the first two months of last fiscal year, Chinese investors committed 7.4 billion rupees (62.77 million dollars) in foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nepal. Jiblal Bhusal, director general at the department, told Xinhua that the agency had approved many pending investment proposals from the Chinese side in the last two months as the restrictive measures imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic were eased gradually, and the lockdown was lifted in the Kathmandu Valley early this month. "China has emerged as the largest FDI contributor to Nepal in recent years, which has also been reflected in the approved FDI amount in the last two months," said Bhusal. The amount pledged by Chinese investors during the first two months of the current fiscal year accounted for 95 percent of the total commitments made to Nepal by foreign investors, according to the department. China had been topping the chart in terms of FDI pledges to Nepal for six years in a row till last fiscal year, the department noted. Among the 62 enterprises registered by the Chinese investors, 26 are related to hotels and restaurants, while the others cover cargo handling, electronic equipment maintenance, mask manufacturing, construction, slaughter house, software development, packaged drinking water production, ready-made garment and assembly of electric vehicles, among others. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Chinese, Iranian FMs vow to strengthen cooperation Xinhua) 10:33, September 17, 2021 DUSHANBE, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian vowed to promote bilateral cooperation when they met here on Thursday. Wang said that since the establishment of the new Iranian government, the bilateral relations have maintained a positive momentum of development with intensive communication at all levels, which shows that the two countries enjoy a high-level comprehensive strategic partnership. China firmly supports Iran in opposing hegemony, and safeguarding its sovereignty, dignity, legitimate rights and interests, Wang said, adding that China is willing to work with Iran to implement the bilateral comprehensive cooperation plan, and promote cooperation in jointly building the Belt and Road and in such fields as energy and resources. China will continue to provide assistance to Iran in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and supports Iran to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), he said. China is willing to work with Iran to strengthen coordination and cooperation on regional and international affairs, keep negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in the right direction and reach consensus on it at an early date, jointly promote the establishment of an inclusive political structure in Afghanistan, and take concrete actions to combat all forms of terrorism, he added. Amir Abdollahian said that Iran-China relations have strategic significance and a solid foundation. The new Iranian government is willing to work with China to thoroughly implement the comprehensive cooperation plan between the two countries and accelerate cooperation in such areas as transportation, energy, culture, technology, and tourism. Iran appreciates China's great help with its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and hopes to strengthen vaccine cooperation with China, he said. The new Iranian government attaches importance to neighboring countries and Asia, appreciates China's support for Iran to become a full member of the SCO, and is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China on the Iranian nuclear issue, the Afghanistan issue and others, he added. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Commissioner's office of Chinese foreign ministry in Macao SAR firmly opposes European Parliament's interference in Macao affairs Xinhua) 10:41, September 17, 2021 MACAO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has voiced firm opposition to a so-called bill adopted by the European Parliament which interfered with Macao affairs and China's internal affairs in general. The bill, based on bias and lies, made irresponsible comments on the practice of "one country, two systems" in the Macao SAR. It is a violation of international laws and basic norms governing international relations, a spokesperson of the office said in a statement on Thursday night. Since Macao's return to the motherland over two decades ago, the SAR government, under the correct leadership of the central government and with the strong support from the mainland, has united and led various circles of the society to handle affairs in strict accordance with the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law of the Macao SAR, said the spokesperson. The practice of "one country, two systems" in Macao has achieved success widely recognized around the world, the spokesperson said, adding that Macao has ushered in the best development situation in history. Residents in the Macao SAR enjoy unprecedented rights and freedom on a wide range in accordance with the law, a fact that anyone without bias would acknowledge, said the spokesperson. The election of the seventh Legislative Assembly of the Macao SAR has been held smoothly, fully demonstrating the spirit of administering Macao in accordance with the law, and embodying democracy and the wide participation of various circles of the society, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson stressed that the European Parliament deliberately ignored the successful practice of "one country, two systems" in Macao and made indiscreet comments on Macao affairs and China's internal affairs in general under the pretext of so-called democracy and human rights. The Chinese people, including Macao compatriots, will never accept this, said the spokesperson. "We urge the European Parliament to comprehensively and accurately understand 'one country, two systems,' abide by international laws and basic norms governing international relations, and act in a way that benefits the development of relations between China and Europe as well as the exchange and cooperation between the Macao SAR and Europe," the spokesperson said. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) 'Belt and Road' Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival kicks off in Chinas Hebei People's Daily Online) 11:01, September 17, 2021 The 2021 Belt and Road Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival kicked off on Sept. 15 in Langfang and Qinhuangdao cities in north Chinas Hebei province to promote international cultural exchanges and cooperation. (Photo/Peoples Daily Online) The event was co-hosted by the Hebei Provincial Peoples Government and Chinas Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In Langfang, the festival was held at the Silk Road International Cultural Exchange Center, a comprehensive space for arts consisting of four theatres, one concert hall and 14 exhibition halls. The festivals opening ceremony, as well as a series of other activities, including cultural performances and exhibitions, were held at the center, the festivals main venue. Dancers perform at the 2021 Belt and Road Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival in north Chinas Hebei province. (Photo/Peoples Daily Online) At the opening ceremony, artists from the China Oriental Performing Arts Group gave splendid performances related to the Belt and Road Initiative and the Great Wall to the audience, displaying a rich and colorful rendition of Chinese culture and that of other civilizations. Over 20 online exhibitions, which can be accessed via the festivals website and through Peoples Daily Online, and a carnival for international folk arts, were also held during the event. Photo shows performers staging Peking Opera at the 2021 Belt and Road Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival in north Chinas Hebei province. (Photo/Peoples Daily Online) In Qinhuangdao, the parallel venue for the festival, four activities were held, including an opening ceremony, a meeting on intangible cultural heritage, a concert, and a photography exhibition. During the opening ceremony, folk songs and performances about national representative intangible cultural heritage items were staged to promote the culture of the Great Wall. Moreover, a photography exhibition was held both online and offline to present the stunning scenery and cultural background of the Great Wall. Dancers perform at the 2021 Belt and Road Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival in north Chinas Hebei province. (Photo/Peoples Daily Online) The festival presented a grand cultural feast to audiences both at home and abroad, making contributions to promoting Chinese culture, advancing the progress of world civilizations, and building a community with a shared future for mankind. Dancers perform at the 2021 Belt and Road Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival in north Chinas Hebei province. (Photo/Peoples Daily Online) (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) "Together For A Shared Future" unveiled as official motto for 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Xinhua) 15:22, September 17, 2021 (Source: Official Weibo account of Xinhua News Agency) BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Beijing 2022 on Friday sent out warm invitations worldwide with the unveiling of "Together for a Shared Future" as its official motto. An expert panel selected the motto from 79 proposals submitted since May 2020 and finalized after repeated discussions. As the Beijing 2022 organizers explained, "Together" depicts how mankind stays strong when facing adversities and points out the solution to overcome those difficulties and create a better future; "For a shared future" embodies a vision for a better life and conveys hope and confidence. "The motto advocates a universal goal of unity, peace, progress and inclusiveness. It's the Chinese interpretation of the newly revised Olympic motto of 'Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together,'" Beijing 2022 said in a press release. Chen Jining, Beijing Mayor and the Executive President of the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee (BOCOG), expressed his belief that the release of the motto will attract more people to pay attention to Beijing 2022 and join in efforts to deliver a successful Games under the COVID-19 pandemic. "It embeds our aspiration that people around the world could strengthen solidarity, support each other and join hands for a better future," he noted. Chen Ning, director of the BOCOG's culture and ceremonies department, underlined that the motto is in line with China's initiative of building a community with a shared future for humanity, reflects the common aspiration worldwide of joining hands for a better future, especially facing the COVID-19 challenges, and the core value and vision of the Olympic Movement. "Beijing will become the first city to host both summer and winter Olympics. This motto carries on the legacy from 'One World One Dream' of Beijing 2008, and reveals the characteristics of this era," he said. He was echoed by Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Olympic City Development Association, who believes the motto is a call from China. "The motto of the 2008 games conveys China's view of the world. This time it takes a step further, not only shares our view but voices our attitude. It is more appealing and more passionate," he commented. The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will run between February 4 and February 20, with the Winter Paralympics following between March 4 and March 13. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) East China's Yantai to host world industrial design conference Xinhua) 15:28, September 17, 2021 JINAN, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The World Industrial Design Conference will be held from Oct. 22 to 24 in Yantai, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province, the organizers announced Friday. The conference will mainly focus on intelligent products, designs and manufacturing this year. A series of activities including forums and exhibitions will take place online and offline. Nearly 1,000 new designs and products of innovative enterprises from home and abroad are expected to be displayed, covering sectors such as high-end equipment, aerospace, intelligent robots and smart cars. The conference has been successfully held four times since 2016, attracting design organizations, companies and colleges from 46 countries and regions, said Wang Peng, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at a press briefing in Shandong. Wang added that the conference has served as a platform for entrepreneurs and top design talent to enhance cooperation and exchanges. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Cultural relics in Inner Mongolia Museum reveal exchange and coexistence of cultures in the ancient past People's Daily Online) 15:33, September 17, 2021 Photo shows a bronze kettle with exquisite patterns featuring dancing human figures and animal designs that dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) (Peoples Daily Online/Zhao Mengyue) The Inner Mongolia Museum, located in Hohhot, capital city of north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is a place where visitors can catch a glimpse of a rich collection of cultural relics that were a part of the frequent cultural exchanges and waves of integration between border areas and Central China throughout Chinese history. A large number of precious cultural relics from ancient times show that people worshiped and admired the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival and looked forward to the opportunity for a reunion of family and friends. The concepts of stability, unity, and prosperity were also integrated into the cultural connotation of tuanyuan or reunion. With the Mid-Autumn Festival around the corner, reporters from People's Daily Online made a visit to the Inner Mongolia Museum to look for exhibits that embodied this historical and culturally significant notion of reunion. A bronze kettle with exquisite patterns featuring dancing human figures and animal designs is a vivid display of the cultural integration between different civilizations in ancient China. Dating back to the Spring and Autumn Periods (770-476 BC), it is the only bronze kettle of its kind that was carved with animal designs and figures of ancient nomadic peoples. It has been classified as a first-class cultural relic in China. An eaves tile symbolizes the marriage between Wang Zhaojun, a palace lady-in-waiting living over 2,000 years ago in the Han Dynasty, and the leader of the Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic tribe. The marriage ensured peace on Han Dynastys northern frontier. It was unearthed in a Han tomb 5.5 kilometers away from an ancient urban site in the city of Baotou, which is about 150 km west of Hohhot. A silver plate featuring Capricorn and golden flower patterns was a part of the cultural exchanges between China and the wider world during the Liao Dynasty (916-1125). The silver ware is in the shape of a six-petal flower and is 7.4 centimeters at its widest point. The middle of the plate was carved based on fire-shaped jewelry and two Capricorn patterns. The patterns and the craftsmanship of the plate are an indication of the close cultural exchanges between the East and the West in ancient times. A brass plaque worn by soldiers when they patrolled the capital of Shangdu of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), is the only one of 17 plaques belonging to the Yuan Dynasty that was inscribed with five languages. It is a first-class cultural relic in China. Besides words indicating the job title of the soldier that can be seen on the plaque, the plaque was also written with characters in five languages, which reflects the coexistence between different ethnic groups in the Yuan Dynasty. A staff member with the Inner Mongolia Museum introduced that during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, the museum will host a series of activities for visitors to experience traditional culture and take part in a happy and informative festival. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Washington's clinging to misguided trade war hurting US businesses Chinadaily.com.cn) 15:45, September 17, 2021 Photo taken on Jan. 25, 2021 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) Americans for Free Trade, a coalition of over 150 industry associations, has again urged the Joe Biden administration to put an end to the "misguided trade war" initiated by the previous US administration. "It's time for a new approach to working with our trading partners that relieves the weight of the current tariffs and finally brings an end to this misguided trade war," AFT spokesperson Jonathan Gold said in a statement on Tuesday. This is the second time over the past two months that major trade groups have made such a call, on the basis that it is the US businesses and consumers that have been footing the bill for the punitive tariffs imposed on the goods worth $350 billion imported from China each year. However, the Biden administration has been turning a deaf ear to the cries of suffering, and there have been recent US media reports that the administration is considering launching a so-called Section 301 investigation into Chinese subsidies, which could lead to new tariffs on imports from China. The previous administration initiated the tariff hikes, raising them bit by bit, as a tactic to press China to swallow an unfair trade deal. The Biden administration, however, is intent on normalizing the weaponization of the tariffs as an intrinsic part of his administration's strategy to contain China. Over the past four years, the bipartisan foundation for the containment of China has become more fortified, as it is one of the few issues on which the two political parties in the US can find any meeting points and it has become a theatrical touchstone of patriotism for politicians in the US, which has prompted the anti-China policy portfolio to be transformed from a trade war into an all-society campaign. That being said, as both countries have been able to live with the tariffs, which are painful but not fatal, and the tensions between them are continuing to build up, it is unrealistic to expect the Biden administration to take the initiative to end the tariffs. That's why Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang pointed out on Monday during a virtual meeting with board members of the US-China Business Council that the difficulties and uncertainties in the Sino-US economic and trade cooperation originate from the US side. But as Qin said, economic and trade cooperation have been the ballast and propeller for Sino-US relations. As such, having agreed in his recent telephone conversation with President Xi Jinping that the two countries' competition should not veer into conflict, Biden should ensure they can still play those roles. In so doing, his administration can help create the right conditions for the two sides to come back to the negotiation table for phase two of their trade deal. Given the broad implications of their trade concerns, the negotiations, if carried out with mutual respect and on an equal footing, have the potential to build guardrails for their interactions in the form of rules of behavior that would allow their relation to develop in a more predictable manner. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Xi stresses building closer SCO community with shared future Xinhua) 16:12, September 17, 2021 Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2021 shows Nauruz Palace, the venue of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Dushanbe, capital of the Republic of Tajikistan. (Xinhua/Ma Dewu) BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday stressed building a closer community with a shared future for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and making greater contributions to the lasting peace and common prosperity of the world. Xi made the remarks in Beijing while addressing the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO via video link. Noting that the SCO has reached a new historical starting point, Xi said member countries should stay true to the Shanghai Spirit, keep to the right direction, follow the historical trends of promoting democracy in international relations, and pursue their own development as they pursue common development for humanity. He called on SCO countries to follow the journey of enhancing solidarity and cooperation, upholding their common security, promoting openness and integration, boosting interactions and mutual learning, and upholding equity and justice. (Web editor: Xia Peiyao, Liang Jun) Vietnam exported 15,870 tonnes of tuna worth 73.33 million USD to the European Union in the first half of 2021, up 39.3 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively, against the same period last year, according to a journal published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). The tuna shipments accounted for about 15.1 percent of Vietnams total seafood export value to the EU. In the second quarter of 2021, the country shipped 9,360 tonnes of tuna to this market, raking in 45.05 million USD, up 43.9 percent in volume and 59.3 percent in value from the previous quarter. The surges were attributed to tariff reductions granted to Vietnams tuna products under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which took effect on August 1, 2020. According to the MoIT, Vietnamese tuna was sold at 4.62 USD per kg on average to the EU in the first six months of the year, down 0.27 percent year on year. The global tuna prices have been declining on the back of weakening demand of canned tuna during the period. Significant growth was seen in a number of EU markets, including Poland which recorded imports of Vietnamese tuna rocketing 989 percent in volume and 608.6 percent in value, and Bulgaria, 289 percent and 229 percent, respectively. Data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) showed that Vietnam was the EUs eighth largest provider of tuna outside the union in the first four months of 2021, making up a 4.9 percent share of the EUs total tuna imports, compared to 4 percent in the same period last year. The MoITs Agency of Foreign Trade warned that Vietnams tuna shipments are likely to continue facing difficulties from the EU as a result of the COVID-19 resurgence and the yellow card warning on the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing imposed by the EC on Vietnam./. VNA One of the best ways to learn more about Zenith and its incredible history is to come to Switzerland and experience it for yourself with a tour of the companys manufacture that dates back to 1865. The Tours Every Friday morning, Zenith opens its doors to the general public for a three-hour tour of its manufacture in French (with audio guides in German, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish). There is also the possibility to book an exclusive private tour from Monday to Thursday for groups of up to eight people (in French, German, or English). The tour takes visitors on a journey via the different buildings that make up this 156-year-old manufacture, passing by a design display, the companys museum, and the famous attic where Charles Vermot hid all the tooling machines and plans for the El Primero movement. When the company halted production in favor of quartz, Vermot moved all the equipment up into the attic, even walling up the door, to keep it safe. The move paid off when, a decade later, he was asked if it would be possible to remake the famous movement! The Opening of Zeniths First Swiss Boutique To enhance the manufacture experience, Zenith has built a boutique inside the manufacture so that visitors can also discover the whole range of Zenith timepieces. A Story Bar allows them to delve deeper into the Zenith universe with a unique interactive feature that plays a specific video when they touch one of the objects on display. It is also possible to book an appointment to see specific models before their arrival, and/or place orders remotely. Zenith boutique Zenith A Watch Clinic Another new feature available for visitors is the brands Watch Clinic with three different modules adapted to each visitors level of knowledge and interest. The first is a basic course on how mechanical movements function, the second is a chronograph course that explains the specifics of the El Primero 3600 1/10th of a second chronograph, and finally, for those with a passion for vintage watches, a course on restoration. All of the modules allow visitors to enter the world of the watchmaker and get hands-on with movements and watchmaking components. Watch Clinic Zenith Zenith Chronomaster Original Boutique Edition In celebration of the opening of Zeniths first Swiss boutique, the brand is also unveiling a new Chronomaster Original Boutique Edition. This special edition comes with a unique dial that was inspired by dials found in the famous attic (you will also see them on the visit). The striking blue dial features silver chronograph counters for a historically inspired, yet totally original, look. The movement powering the timepiece is the latest iteration of the El Primero automatic high-frequency chronograph that measures and displays the 1/10th of a fraction of a second. The timepiece is available in the manufacture boutique, and also in Zenith boutiques around the world. Chronomaster Original Boutique Edition Zenith Zenith is providing the ultimate watch aficionado experience that will seduce both local watch lovers as well as those traveling to Switzerland for vacation. For more details: www.explorewatch.swiss President Xi Jinping called for improving management and protection of space-based assets as he inspected a military base in northwestern China's Shaanxi province on Wednesday. After listening to the base's work report, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said space assets are of national strategic importance so they must be well managed, utilized and protected. He said the base should comprehensively boost its capabilities in terms of safeguarding the overall security and reliability of spacecraft under its administration. The facility should strengthen its space traffic management to ensure that the space systems of the People's Liberation Army operate in a stable and smooth manner. It should also engage in more international cooperation in space security to improve effectiveness in managing space crises and the overall governance of space, according to the president. Xi said that given the increase in the number of space missions, the base should optimize its structure, innovate tracking and control technologies, and improve its management and operational efficiency. He called on the base to uphold the Party's thought about military modernization and its military strategies in the new era, be focused on combat preparedness, speed up development, and strengthen its overall capability so it can better serve the goals of making the PLA a world-class force and China a space power. US President Joe Biden speaks during an event in the East Room of the White House on September 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. Biden announced a new national security initiative in partnership with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (L) and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R). Photo: AFP US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison almost announced simultaneously on Wednesday that the three countries will form an enhanced trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS." This has been regarded as an effort of the US to build a new alliance against China. The pact will support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines and enabling patrol of nuclear-powered submarines in the Indo-Pacific region. The White House implied that the partnership is the first step that the US' European allies are turning to focus on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. The US is hysterically polarizing its alliance system. Using an external force to push "middle powers" like Australia to the defense level of owning nuclear-powered submarines is a strong showcase to middle powers around the world. Although Washington claims that Australia's nuclear-powered submarines will not carry nuclear weapons, such restrictions are not reliable. From the very beginning, nuclear-powered submarines are designed to be strategic striking tools. If the US and the UK help Australia acquire the cruising capability of nuclear-powered submarines, this will effectively legalize the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines by all countries. This also means the legalization of international export of related technology. As Washington stirs up great power competition, more regions will be involved in rising tensions. Possessing nuclear-powered submarines will become a universal temptation. The world needs to prepare for the arrival of a "nuclear-powered submarine fever." Washington is losing its mind by trying to rally its allies against China, creating antagonism and destruction beyond its control. It has been immersed in attacking China without seriously assessing the possibility of backfiring. The war in Afghanistan, which traverses one of the most stable periods in the world as a whole, has embarrassed the US. If the world really becomes chaotic, there will be many more setbacks ahead for the US to fall down further. There used to be no grudges between China and Australia. Due to the geographical distance, there are no geopolitical conflicts between the two countries as well. However, by pursuing a one-sided policy tilting toward the US in the China-US strategic game, Australia has turned itself into an adversary of China. It is now escalating its confrontation with China by conducting nuclear-powered submarine patrols that are clearly targeted at China. However, no matter how Australia arms itself, it is still a running dog of the US. We advise Canberra not to think that it has the capability to intimidate China if it acquires nuclear-powered submarines and offensive missiles. If Australia dares to provoke China more blatantly because of that, or even find fault militarily, China will certainly punish it with no mercy. As Australia participates in the US-led strategic siege of China, it should remain self-aware and take a position that matches its strength. If it acts with bravado to show its allegiance to the US and takes the most prominent position in the US' anti-China strategy, especially by being militarily assertive, then Canberra will most likely become a target of Beijing's countermeasures so as to send a warning to others. Thus, Australian troops are also most likely to be the first batch of Western soldiers to waste their lives in the South China Sea. Recently, some in Canberra proposed an Australian missile defense system. We believe this is necessary. Because Canberra is intended to send troops to the Taiwan Straits if a war breaks out there. Australian Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs Mike Pezzullo in April warned that "drums of war" were beating in a message to his staff. He said that Australia must be prepared "to send off, yet again, our warriors to fight," according to ABC News. Once the Australian army fights the People's Liberation Army in the Taiwan Straits or the South China Sea, military targets in Australia will inevitably become targets of Chinese missiles. Since Australia has become an anti-China spearhead, the country should prepare for the worst. The US and its allies are messing up the world. They are even touching the bottom line of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Here comes an interesting question: Who is more capable of withstanding the global chaos? China or them? By Long Xingchun India-US relations Illustration: Chen Xia/GT According to Indian media reports, the US is in touch with India about using it as a staging post for aerial strikes in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations during a hearing on Monday. Washington's intent to use India as a staging post is not directed at counter-terrorism in Afghanistan. The US war on terror in Afghanistan has ended, making future military operations there less likely. Afghanistan under the Taliban governance is a sovereign country, and its domestic counter-terrorism activities will be mainly carried out by the new government. If the US attacks Afghanistan with air strikes, it will violate the national sovereignty of the country. If Washington really hopes to engage in counter-terrorism activities, Pakistan is the best candidate to serve as a staging post. After the 9/11 attacks, former US president George W. Bush urged Pakistan to stand with it to counter terrorists. Since Central Asian countries are in Russia's sphere of influence, it is not convenient for the US to travel through Central Asia to reach Afghanistan. On the southwest, Teheran has been hostile toward Washington. Most of the US warfare materials, equipment and personnel had to arrive in Afghanistan via Pakistan. In this context, Pakistan has been the most vital country for the US to strike terrorists in Afghanistan over the past two decades. Pakistan will keep its importance when Washington needs to continue its anti-terrorism attempts in the future. Even if Washington uses India as a staging base, it will continue contacts and strive for cooperation with Pakistan. Without Islamabad's permission, no aircraft from India or the US can reach Afghanistan. Actually, the US courtship of India to increase its presence in Afghanistan will jeopardize its operations there. If the US offends Pakistan, the latter will no longer fully coordinate with US' actions in Afghanistan. India's purpose of keeping solid relations with the US-backed Afghan government was to rope in Afghanistan to stand with it in countering Pakistan. As the Taliban has seized power, it will be very difficult for India to improve its relations with the Taliban. This is because India is moving close to the US, and it is hard to make such a unilateral decision. This has put New Delhi into a passive position. Therefore, using India as a staging post for aerial strikes in Afghanistan is only an excuse. The US wants to attach India closely to it to enhance its presence in South Asia and prepare for any military actions in the Indo-Pacific region, especially the Indian Ocean. The ultimate goal of the US is not Afghanistan; its aim is to target China and divide Asia. Many US strategists, as well as US President Joe Biden, have admitted that the withdrawal from Afghanistan will help the US focus its defenses on other security problems. This includes China and Russia. India is the most important country in the Indian Ocean region to coordinate with US strategies. India and the US signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement in 2016, which has enhanced military coordination between the two nations as it allows the use of each other's land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply. US' request to use India as a staging post is within the logistics exchange agreement. India is likely to give a green light. If so, there is more political significance than military substance. It shows that India has decided to align with the US. On the surface, India sticks to its non-alignment principle. But in real practice, New Delhi has formed a quasi-alliance with Washington. India has its own agendas to pursue. Its attempts to form this quasi-alliance relationship with the US are mainly aimed at dealing with China. The strategic confrontations between China and India will hardly change. With a lack of confidence, India has to rest on the US to contest China. Furthermore, New Delhi hopes Washington will alienate Pakistan. India will continue to pursue its major power status. Its rhetoric on adhering to non-alignment will not be discarded. New Delhi will not recognize the quasi-alliance relations with the US in diplomacy. It will not sign a treaty of alliance like what Japan, Australia and the UK have done. Because once such a treaty is signed, the losses will outweigh the gains for India. Given the gap in national strength, under the framework of a US-India alliance, India will merely play the role as a follower. As a result, India's international status and image will be undermined, so will be its diplomatic autonomy and national interests. The author is a senior research fellow with the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and president of the Chengdu Institute of World Affairs. VIENNA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese diplomat on Thursday expressed China's "grave concern" at the pronounced assistance by the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia's acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. Addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting here, Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, described the trilateral move as "sheer act of nuclear proliferation". The U.S. and the UK, both nuclear weapon states, and are state parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which prevents proliferation of nuclear weapons and technologies, the core obligation for its state parties, Wang stated. He stressed that such assistance "will apparently give rise to proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies by openly providing assistance to Australia", a non-nuclear weapon state, in its acquisition and building of the nuclear-powered submarine. "This contradicts the purpose, objective and core obligation of the NPT to the detriment of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime with the NPT at its core and on-going international efforts on this front," Wang stated. "While firmly safeguarding the validity of the international non-proliferation regime, China wishes to register its grave concern at the development," Wang said. "In the meantime, we believe that, it is the responsibility of IAEA, as an international organization mandated to implement NPT non-proliferation regime, to openly express its solemn position at the trilateral act by the U.S., the UK and Australia, which contradict their obligations under the NPT," Wang stated. Wang also stressed that, such an act of nuclear proliferation "will give rise to serious negative implications on the on-going international efforts to address the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula as well as the Iranian nuclear issue". "Given the ongoing review and discussions of the Korean Peninsula and Iranian nuclear issues at the IAEA Board of Governors and the General Conference, it is essential that all members of the Board and international organizations including IAEA, make solemn position on the trilateral collaboration among the U.S., UK and Australia in helping Australia develop nuclear-powered submarine, in promotion of the full and effective implementation of international non-proliferation obligations under the NPT by all countries," he stated. Exporting highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology to Australia has shown that the U.S. and the UK have "once again adopted a double standard on nuclear export", and "have taken nuclear export as a means of their geo-political game", Wang pointed out. Wang said that, in the meantime, it is "utterly irresponsible" for Australia, as a non-nuclear state and state party to the NPT and South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, to import nuclear submarine technology with strategic militarily value. "The international community, including neighboring countries, has every reason to question Australia's sincerity in implementation of nuclear non-proliferation commitment under the relevant treaties," he said. The trilateral collaboration by the U.S., the UK and Australia "will seriously impair the regional peace and stability, escalate arms race, to the detriment of international peace and security," Wang added. Wang said that China will closely follow its development and reserve the right to make further responses. In the meantime, China will call on the international community to "work together to check such a dangerous act". In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, governments of the U.S., the UK and Australia announced the creation of a new trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS," which will help "significantly deepen cooperation on a range of security and defense capabilities". The first initiative under AUKUS will be the delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia, and the three countries will spend as many as 18 months discussing how this capability will be delivered, according to the statement. A memorial ceremony is held in Fushun, China's Liaoning Province on September 16, 2021. /CGTN A memorial ceremony was held in northeastern China's Liaoning Province on Thursday to commemorate the victims of the massacre carried out by Japanese invaders in 1932. Representatives from different walks of life participated in the ceremony, observing a moment of silence and laying flowers before a monument specially built in the memory of those killed in the massacre. "We want to express our deep condolences to the innocent compatriots through the event, which is expected to remind people of the grave sufferings brought by the Japanese invaders and extend Chinese people's determination and willingness to maintain peace," said Gai Lanlan, deputy curator of the Pingdingshan Massacre Memorial Hall in the city of Fushun that hosted the event. Local residents from Fushun, China's Liaoning Province participate in the memorial ceremony on September 16, 2021. /CGTN On September 15, 1932, more than 1,000 guerrillas from Liaoning attacked some of the Japanese invaders' warehouses and factories in Pingdingshan Village while killing several Japanese soldiers. The next day, in the act of revenge, the Japanese troops rounded up some 3,000 civilians from the village, including many elderly people, women and children. They slaughtered them using cruel ways on the pretext that the villagers had conspired with the guerrillas. The murderers buried the victims on the spot by blowing up a hill in the village. The massacre was the first one during the 14-year Japanese invasion of China, started with an attack on September 18, 1931, in Shenyang, the capital city of Liaoning. Remains of some of the victims are displayed in the Pingdingshan Massacre Memorial Hall, which is at the spot where the tragedy happened. /CGTN The Pingdingshan Massacre Memorial Hall was first built in 1972 after the remains of some 800 victims were unearthed. Over the past decades, memorial activities have been held annually. Representatives from Japanese civil society have also attended some of the events. "I've visited the memorial hall for several times. I feel so sorry for the victims every time I see the remains. I think every one of us should work hard to make our country stronger to win respect from other countries," said Cui Lina, a resident of Fushun. "We commemorate the victims today doesn't mean we are trying to bear hatred. We just want to remind the peace lovers from all over the world that some invaders are still reluctant to admit the wrongdoings they have committed," Wang Pinglu, Vice President of the Fushun Academy of Social Sciences, told CGTN. Names of all the victims are shown in one of the exhibition rooms of the memorial venue. /CGTN The historical event has long been a key obstacle for improving the bilateral relations between China and Japan. According to the Kyodo News report, some Japanese publishers will remove or change using the term "military comfort women" from their textbooks. Chinese Foreign Ministry has urged Japan to honestly face up to and reflect on its history of aggression. Japan should "make a clean break with militarism, properly handle the 'comfort women' issue honestly and responsibly and take concrete actions to win the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on September 13. "The historic truth should never be obscured or even forgotten at any time in any way as some people are expecting, especially those that have deeply scarred we Chinese people," said the scholar Wang Pinglu. By Chen Shiliang Ever since the US began to pull its troops out of Afghanistan, the narrative todays Afghanistan, tomorrows Taiwan has been spreading on the island, which seems to show that people on the Taiwan island have not only been terribly disappointed at the US but also confused about Taiwans fate. In response, Taiwan leaderTsai Ing-wensaid at a video conference of the Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) that Taiwans only option is to make itself stronger, more united, and more determined to protect itself. Is that all she has learned from Americas disgraced pullout from Afghanistan? Americas national interests are the main source of world turmoil. The two world wars made America extremely rich and sent it to take Britains place as the world hegemon with superior economic and military strengths. Since then, to cement itself in that position, the US, in disregard of the UN-centered international system and the basic norms governing international relations with the UN Charter as the cornerstone, has taken it upon itself to play the world cop and crazily plundered resources worldwide and interfered in other countries internal affairs by hook and crook. Incomplete statistics show that the US has built 374 military bases of various sizes in over 140 countries and regions across the globe, with about 300,000 troops consistently stationed there, which gives it the perfect reason to charge the host countries and regions protection fees. Since the 1950s, the US has successively launched the Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraqi War, Libyan War, Kosovo War, and Afghan War, leaving tens of millions of refugees homeless and some countries still devastated with their people living in dire misery and poverty. Take US invasion of Afghanistan. The US has spent 20 years and threw more than USD 2 trillion intothe war in Afghanistan, but what has this most protracted war in US history left? Its the prolonged and tremendous financial burden on the US, enduring unrest and aggravating terrorism in Afghanistan, and an abyss of disasters and tribulations for the Afghan people. The scrambled withdrawal from Afghanistan signified Americas total failure in the country, and it also threw the country into a severe humanitarian crisis. The ongoing turbulence in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan today is totally and entirely the making of the US and the wars it has waged. Taiwan is just a card played by the US against China, which can be abandoned based on the situation. There is the voice that the US ended its Afghan War to concentrate on containing China. With Chinas growing economic and national strengths in recent years, it has acquired more and broader influence globally, which Washington sees as a serious challenge to its dominant position. Therefore, it will take China as another main rival after the Soviet Union, Japan, and the EU and leave no stone unturned to suppress it. With such a mindset, Washington naturally takes Taiwan as an important card against China. It has sent senior officials to visit the island, sold it more weapons and equipment, and dispatched numerous military vessels and aircraft to flex muscles across the Taiwan Strait in the name of the so-called freedom of navigation,operations, or FONOPs, with the sole purpose of countering China with the Taiwan card. At the end of the day, Taiwan, Afghanistan, and those allies that were once used but later easily betrayed or abandoned by the US for the sake of its national interests are no more than a chess piece on Americas board. Once they conflict with its national interests, who can say that Washington wont discard Taiwan the same way it had discarded Afghanistan? (The author is President of the Shanghai Institute for Public Relations.) Editor's note: This article is originally published on taiwan.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. By Huang Panyue Pakistan's Defense and Army Attache to China Brigadier Shahid Amir Afsar receives interview during the Shared Destiny-2021 UN peacekeeping field training exercise held in Queshan, China's Henan Province on Sept. 15, 2021. (Screenshot) ZHENGZHOU, Sept. 17 -- "This is a perfect joint exercise," said Brigadier Shahid Amir Afsar, Pakistan's Defense and Army Attache to China, on September 15, after observing the UN peacekeeping field training exercise, Shared Destiny-2021. The exercise, held in Queshan County of central China's Henan Province from Sept. 6 to 15, marked the first multinational peacekeeping exercise hosted by the Chinese military. In Brigadier Afsar's eyes, this exercise was an important milestone for the Chinese military and also an excellent opportunity for various participating militaries to promote exchanges and cooperation. As he stated, the Shared Destiny-2021 exercise has demonstrated Chinas concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and won the support of all participating countries. Every country involved has a common goal of safeguarding peace and stability. Especially when some regions across the world are still in wars or conflicts, the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind is of great significance to the UN peacekeeping operations. I have been observing about the contributions made by the Chinese military to the UN peacekeeping operations. The Chinese peacekeepers in various UN peacekeeping mission areas have played a major role in mitigating local conflicts and stabilizing the situation, said Brigadier Afsar. The Chinese military has always been a just force in defending world peace and development, and has made unremitting efforts and outstanding achievements in building a community with a shared future for mankind. Brigadier Afsar added that the year 2021 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. China and Pakistan have shared weal and woe, and helped each other sincerely in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic since last year, with the ironclad friendship being further upgraded. Despite the ongoing epidemic, the Pakistani side insisted on sending military personnel to participate in the exercise in China, which fully demonstrates the profound friendship and will further strengthen the relationship between the Chinese and Pakistani armed forces. Long live Pak-China friendship! said BG. Afsar in fluent Chinese during the exclusive interview. As for the Shared Destiny-2021, BG. Afsar said that the lifelike scenario made people feel like they were in a real peacekeeping mission area. All the participating troops performed very well, fully demonstrating the results of the joint training some time ago. He also pointed out that during this exercise, China shared actual combat experience in mission areas including Mali, which was much valuable to the Pakistani military members. It is hoped that the two sides could carry out exchanges and cooperation in more fields and at deeper levels. I hope that the Shared Destiny exercises can be held in succession to get more militaries from other countries involved, where they can share peacekeeping experience and improve the ability to perform peacekeeping missions, said BG. Afsar. By Liu Min and Mei Shixiong ORENBURG, Russia, Sept. 17 -- The Peace Mission-2021 exercise has been held under clear legal norms featuring legitimacy and operability, said Wang Jianfei, head of the foreign affairs working group of the Chinese side participating in the Peace Mission-2021 SCO joint counter-terrorism military exercise, in an interview on September 16. It marks a successful implementation of the Agreement between Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on Holding Joint Military Exercises, which has provided institutional, standardized, and practical guarantees for holding joint military exercises by the armed forces of all the SCO members. Joint military exercises held by multinational armed forces commonly involve complex legal issues, such as the relationship of rights and obligations of the participating countries, the legal status of participating troops and personnel, and the transit of troops and personnel jurisdiction. According to international practice, bilateral or multilateral legal documents should be signed to clarify the above-mentioned issues. In peacetime, the entry of the armed forces of one country into the territory of another country must be based on clear-cut legal norms and under legal protection, said Wang. In June 2007, defense ministries of the SCO member states signed the Agreement between Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on Holding Joint Military Exercises. The document makes legal restraints to the incoming troops, stipulating that all troops involved in exercises must respect the sovereignty, laws and customs of the host nation, not interfering in its internal affairs, nor engaging in the political activities on its territory. The Agreement has been reviewed and approved by the highest organ of state power of the member states, ensuring the troops'exit and entry in accordance with laws and regulations. According to Wang, it stipulates what the armed forces of participating countries can do and cannot do in the host nation, helping dispel a host nation's all possible misgivings. Before departure to Russia, the Chinese participating troops have formulated a code of conduct, including norms and customs that should be observed during the Peace Mission-2021 on the territory of Russia, and made sure it reached every participant. Even on the train to Russia, which had ran for 9 days and nights, the Chinese troops studied related laws, culture and social customs and habits of Russia in the fixed time every day, Wang said. According to Wang, since arriving in the exercise venue and engaging in preparations in the past several days, the Chinese participating troops have behaved themselves in strict accordance with the Agreement, demonstrating that they have had a good command of the essential spirit of the Agreement and specific contents concerning the exercise. BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday addressed the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing via video link. Please see the attachment for the translation of the full text of the speech. BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority's attempt to rely on external forces to seek "Taiwan independence" is doomed to fail, a Chinese mainland spokesperson said Friday. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in response to Slovenian Prime Minister's negative comments on Taiwan. Zhu urged Slovenia to fulfill its commitment on the Taiwan question it made when it established diplomatic relations with China, abide by the one-China principle and prudently handle Taiwan-related issues. Zhu reiterated that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. "The one-China principle is a widely recognized norm of international relations and a common consensus of the international community," Zhu said. North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UN report. The isolated Asian nation imposed a strict lockdown last year amid the coronavirus pandemic that has slashed its trade and aid access, hurting an economy already burdened by international sanctions. "Despite the country's focus on its worsening economic travails, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea continued to maintain and develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs," the sanctions monitors concluded. The report by a panel of independent sanctions monitors to the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee said Pyongyang "continued to seek material and technology for these programs overseas." North Korea continued developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs during the first half of 2021 in violation of international sanctions and despite the country's worsening economic situation, according to an excerpt of a confidential UN report seen Friday by Reuters. 'Tense' Food Situation In June, leader Kim Jong-un said the country faced a "tense" food situation and much would depend on this year's harvests. "Statements made by DPRK suggested a deepening humanitarian crisis in the country, although the COVID-19 blockade means that the relative impact of sanctions on the humanitarian situation has probably decreased," the UN monitors wrote. "With trade all but stopped by the blockade, and last year's harvest badly affected by floods, the current prospects of the wider DPRK population are poor," they said. North Korea has been subjected to UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The Security Council has steadily strengthened sanctions in a bid to cut off funding for the programs. Among the sanctions imposed are a ban on the export of coal and other commodities and the import of oil. "Maritime exports from DPRK of coal and other sanctioned commodities continued, but at a much-reduced level. The import of oil products reported to the panel fell substantially in the first half of the year," according to the UN report. Overseas Earnings Pyongyang also continued to access international financial institutions, and North Korean workers continued to earn money overseas for use in state programs, said the UN sanctions monitors, adding: "Officials overseas continued to feel pressure to develop revenue streams." The monitors said they were continuing to investigate North Korea's involvement in global cyber activity and collaboration by North Korean academics and universities with scientific institutes abroad, "focusing on studies with potential applications in WMD [weapons of mass destruction] programs." The UN sanctions monitors have previously reported that North Korea has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars using cyberattacks. Australia has signed a new security partnership with the United States and Britain to share defense technologies in what analyst say is an effort to counter the potential threat from China. British officials have stressed that the pact was not a response to one country, but analysts believe it is an unmistakable sign of concern about China's military ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. They have said it has highlighted the strategic importance of the region to both the United States and Britain. The new pact was announced Wednesday during a virtual joint statement President Joe Biden made along with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. President Biden praised the partnership. "We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve. Because the future of each of our nations, and indeed the world, depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead." In the joint statement, the leaders said there were several potential issues of concern, including territorial disputes, terrorism and organized crime. Analysts said the deal was significant because it allows Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time. The government in Canberra has insisted the submarines would not carry nuclear weapons. The electric car company can sell and service its vehicles freely only in about a dozen states, while it faces restrictions in others. Some, such as New Mexico, ban Tesla from offering sales or repairs without going through a dealership. In January, the company struck a deal with Michigan to resolve a 2016 lawsuit, a symbolic victory that allowed it to sell in the backyard of the nation's largest carmakers. The white-walled, silver-lettered Tesla store, which opened last week, sits in Nambe Pueblo, north of Santa Fe, on tribal land that's not subject to state laws. Carmaker Tesla has opened a store and repair shop on Native American land for the first time, marking a new approach to its yearslong fight to sell cars directly to consumers and cut car dealerships out of the process. Partnership with Tribe Tesla supporters say the shop in New Mexico marks the first time the company has partnered with a tribe to get around state laws, though the idea has been in the works for years. From Oklahoma to Connecticut and other states, consumers can't buy Teslas because the company won't partner with dealerships and hasn't been successful in winning over the courts or lawmakers to allow its direct sales model. "These states have lots of sovereign Native American nations in them that could be interested in Tesla," said Brian Dear, president of the Tesla Owners Club of New Mexico. "I don't believe at all that this will be the last." New Mexico, Alabama and Louisiana have the strictest bans, barring Tesla from operating both dealerships and repair shops. That makes repairing a Tesla more expensive and more of a hassle. Owners have to get their cars serviced in neighboring states or by traveling Tesla technicians who fix problems with what they have in a van. The New Mexico Tesla shop, built on the site of a former casino, is nestled between two gas stations along a highway about an hour and a half north of Albuquerque, where most of the state's Tesla owners live, Dear said. While sales are prohibited in neighboring Texas, where the company plans to make its pickup trucks next year, repair shops are allowed. New Mexico Tesla owners have been traveling to El Paso, Texas, or other out-of-state cities to get repairs. To buy a Tesla, they have to drive hours to pick them up or pay thousands of dollars to have them shipped. "We drove a gas car -- Volvo station wagon -- to Denver, and then I was the 'lucky one' who got to drive the gas-powered car back," said Howard Coe, a filmmaker who works for a laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, about 30 minutes from Nambe and about five hours from the nearest Colorado Tesla store. Coe drove his wife's Tesla sedan to the new store in Nambe on Tuesday to ask if an SUV he ordered can be delivered there. The store told him it's not accepting deliveries for the foreseeable future and won't do repairs until later this month. Tribal officials who brokered the deal over a two-year period say it lines up with business interests and cultural values such as caring for the environment. 'A Renewable Business' The tribe "has the responsibility to the land where we have resided for over 1,000 years," said Carlos Vigil, president of the Nambe Pueblo Development Corporation, calling Tesla's service center "a renewable business that lines up with our belief system." Car dealership advocates say they respect the tribe's decision but that they hope customers will buy electric cars from companies that follow state rules, arguing that dealerships compete to lower prices and can service vehicles in more parts of the state. "We have competition, we have the expertise, we're in your local communities," said Ken Ortiz, president of the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association. "We contribute to the taxes." New Mexico has treaties with the tribe for sales, gambling and gasoline taxes. But tribal and state officials say it's unclear if Tesla will have to pay vehicle sales taxes or how the revenue would be split between them. Tesla, which dissolved its public relations department and generally doesn't answer media inquiries, did not respond to a request for comment. In response to a Tweet complaining of wait times in the Northeast last month, CEO Elon Musk wrote, "Tesla will expedite service center openings." Actor Song Joong-ki and actress Park So-dam will host the opening ceremony of this year's Busan International Film Festival, which kicks off early next month. The festival's organizers said Song has demonstrated great versatility as an actor through his portrayal of many characters in various genres. Park gained global recognition for her appearance in director Bong Joon-ho's multi-Oscar-winning film "Parasite." The leading international human rights watchdog has urged President Moon Jae-in and the National Assembly to scrap a planned media reform bill that critics say is a gag on media freedom. Human Rights Watch said in a letter Thursday that the bill could seriously undermine the freedom of expression and suppress critical reporting. The ruling Minjoo Party had intended to railroad the bill through last month but put it on hold amid mounting international criticism. The letter points out that the bill leaves room for abuse as it defines "false or manipulated news" in broad and vague terms that are "incompatible with international standards for restrictions on freedom of expression." The essential flow of information could be restricted if media organizations censor themselves to avoid writing reports that could result in a spate of lawsuits under the bill, it added. "Disproportionate sanctions such as heavy fines can have a significant chilling effect on freedom of expression. Punitive damages are only appropriate to compensate for harm to reputation in certain exceptional circumstances," the letter warned. But "the broad language of the amendment does not implicate any concerns that would merit such exceptional treatment." The letter was sent jointly with Article 19, the Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet, and the Open Net. Online music exchange meeting in Shanghai builds bridge between Chinese and South Korean culture By:Zhao Chunyuan | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-09-16 19:13 On September 15, an online music exchange meeting was held in Shanghai to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of friendly exchanges between Shanghai and Jeollanam-do. It was co-hosted by the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and Jeollanam-do International Cooperation Bureau, with media support from Eastday.com. Musicians from the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra and Jeollanam-do National Orchestra shared their understandings and perceptions of Chinese folk music and South Korean national music. Ma Yinghui, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, Kim Young-shim, chief representative of the China Representative Office of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Government of South Korea, Luo Xiaoci, director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, and other leaders and guests attended this online exchange meeting. Ma Yinghui, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Ma Yinghui, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, said in her speech that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of friendly exchanges between Shanghai and Jeollanam-do, and is also the year of cultural exchange between China and South Korea. This time, we are honored to invite performing artists of traditional music from both places to carry out an exchange of Chinese folk music and South Korean national music. We can feel the common pursuit of a better life from the passionate resonance of culture and art, as well as a deepened mutual understanding and traditional friendship between the two places, which is the original purpose of organizing this event, said Ma Yinghui. Sun Yang-kyu, director general of Jeollanam-do International Cooperation Bureau, said that companies in Jeollanam-do are currently preparing for their participation in the 4th China International Import Expo. Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China, and it is expected that exchanges between the two places will be further enriched with the efforts of all parties. In the traditional music appreciation session, there were five performances; two were performed by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, two by the Jeollanam-do National Orchestra and one presented by the two orchestras together. For an hour and a half, performers from the two places demonstrated programs of different styles with the same excitement. The musical exchange meeting came to a close with a program called "Silk Road", which was produced by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra and choreographed by the Jeollanam-do National Orchestra. Luo Xiaoci, director of the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, said in her review that the two orchestras share the same original intention of "adhering to tradition and innovating bravely", and hoped that both sides can work together for the better development of Asian art. Online music exchange between players from both places via video link Representatives of the two orchestras' performers also shared their understandings and perceptions of the orchestra, Chinese folk music and South Korean national music respectively. They launched a sincere invitation to each other, hoping to have more opportunities for cooperation and communication after the epidemic so as to learn from each other and make progress together. Ma Yinghui (R), deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, and Kim Young-shim (L), chief representative of the China Representative Office of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Government of South Korea, exchange gifts Group photo of the guests Since the establishment of friendship and exchange between Shanghai and Jeollanam-do in April 1996, governmental and non-governmental exchanges have been deepening. In June, 2021, the Jeollanam-do Provincial Government sent 14 artworks to the 11th International Invitational Exhibition of Traditional Art held by the Shanghai Art Collection Museum. (Photos: the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government) Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Reversing Sinclair's amazing 1974 calculator hack - half the ROM of the HP-35 In a hotel room in Texas, Clive Sinclair had a big problem. He wanted to sell a cheap scientific calculator that would grab the market from expensive calculators such as the popular HP-35. Hewlett-Packard had taken two years, 20 engineers, and a million dollars to design the HP-35 , which used 5 complex chips and sold for $395. Sinclair's partnership with calculator manufacturer Bowmar had gone nowhere. Now Texas Instruments offered him an inexpensive calculator chip that could barely do four-function math. Could he use this chip to build a $100 scientific calculator? Texas Instruments' engineers said this was impossible - their chip only had 3 storage registers, no subroutine calls, and no storage for constants such as . The ROM storage in the calculator held only 320 instructions, just enough for basic arithmetic. How could they possibly squeeze any scientific functions into this chip? Fortunately Clive Sinclair, head of Sinclair Radionics, had a secret weapon - programming whiz and math PhD Nigel Searle. In a few days in Texas, they came up with new algorithms and wrote the code for the world's first single-chip scientific calculator, somehow programming sine, cosine, tangent, arcsine, arccos, arctan, log, and exponentiation into the chip. The engineers at Texas Instruments were amazed. How did they do it? Up until now it's been a mystery. But through reverse engineering, I've determined the exact algorithms and implemented a simulator that runs the calculator's actual code. The reverse-engineered code along with my detailed comments is in the window below. Slow Autospeed Fast A register B register C register A flags B flags Mask / constant Instr Cond How to use this unusual calculator The Sinclair Scientific calculator uses E to set the exponent. Operations are entered after the number and there is no equals key. Use the up and down arrows to select scientific functions. A display such as 1.2300 01 indicates 1.23*10^1, i.e. 12.3. A few examples: The Sinclair Scientific calculator uses reverse Polish notation (RPN) and scientific notation, so the key sequences are totally different from regular calculators. Numbers automatically have a decimal point inserted; useto set the exponent. Operations are entered after the number and there is no equals key. Use the up and down arrows to select scientific functions. A display such asindicates 1.23*10^1, i.e. 12.3. A few examples: To divide 17 by 3, enter 1 7 E 1 + 3 To take the sin of 0.01 radians, enter 0 0 1 + To take antilog of .5 (to compute 10^.5), enter 5 E - 1 For more usage, see the original manual here. Representing numbers 1.2345 03 Numbers are represented as a 6-digit mantissa and a two-digit exponent. For example, 1234.5 has a mantissa of 1.2345 and an exponent of 3, so it is displayed as. Interestingly, only 5 digits are displayed, although 6 digits are stored internally. The mantissa and exponent each have a sign; positive is represented internally by the digit 0 and negative by the digit 5. This may seem random, but it actually makes sign arithmetic easy. For instance, when multiplying numbers the signs are added: positive times positive has 0+0=0 which indicates positive. Negative times negative has 5+5=0 indicating positive (the carry is dropped). Negative times positive has 5+0=5 indicating negative. This is one of the tricks that helps the Sinclair code fit into the small ROM. It's slightly confusing that numbers are stored internally different from how they are displayed. The first digit in the A register is the mantissa sign, followed by the exponent sign. (The signs have to be stored in these locations since the hardware provides special display decoding for these digits which is how a 5 is displayed as a - .) The next two digits of the A register are the exponent, which is followed by the mantissa. This order is opposite from the display but makes some calculations simpler. Limited performance and accuracy The conceptual leap that made the Sinclair Scientific possible was realizing that many people didn't need the accuracy and performance of HP and TI calculators. (This can be considered an application of the Worse is Better design principle.) HP put a lot of work into the accuracy of the HP-35 calculator , using advanced transcendental pseudo-multiplication and pseudo-division algorithms (basically decimal CORDIC ). The HP-35's scientific operations have from 7 to 11 digits of accuracy. In comparison, scientific operations on the Sinclair Scientific only have three decimal places of accuracy at best. Due to the simple loop-based algorithms, the speed of the Sinclair Scientific calculator varies from good to horribly slow depending on the values. For instance, sin .1 takes under a second, but sin 1 takes about 7.5 seconds. Arccos .2 takes about 15 seconds. Log and antilog have the overhead of recomputing the constant 229.15, and take about 1 to 2 seconds. In comparison, the HP-35 was designed with a one second deadline for computations. Using such slow, inaccurate algorithms would be unthinkable for HP or TI, but in the Sinclair Scientific they got the job done at a good price. How the code fits into 320 words The following chart shows how many instructions were used for different operations. Blue is the 4-function code that Texas Instruments originally wrote for the chip, and red is the Sinclair Scientific calculator code. The category Function is code to read the keyboard input and keep track of what function is being performed. RPN greatly simplifies this, since functions are performed immediately. With algebraic notation, the calculator must store the function when it is entered, and then perform it later. Using scientific notation shrunk the Sinclair Scientific's code in the next two categories: Digit is code to handle entering digits into a number and Display is code to format a number for display. As can be seen from the Texas Instrument code, a calculator with regular floating point numbers needs a lot of code to shift numbers back and forth and adjust the decimal point. In fact, since the Texas Instruments code ends up keeping an exponent internally, the floating point display is strictly overhead. Moving the minus sign to the correct display position is also overhead that the Sinclair Scientific avoids. Normalize is the code to normalize the result of an operation and is fairly close on both calculators. The add/subtract/multiply/divide code is also similar length on both calculators. The scientific functions in the Sinclair Scientific fit into the remaining space. Trig functions were implemented in about 40 instructions. Arc-trig operations are almost 30 more instructions. Logarithms are about 40 instructions, with anti-log about 20 on top of that. How much code is used for each function in the TI calculator vs the Sinclair Scientific. How addition and subtraction work Addition and subtraction in the Sinclair Scientific are not too complicated. Since the two values may have different exponents, one of the values is shifted until the values line up. Then the mantissas are added or subtracted as appropriate. The code has some special cases to handle the different combinations of signs in the arguments. After the operation (as with all operations) the result is normalized. That is, a result such as 0.0023 is shifted to 2.3000 and the exponent is correspondingly decreased by 3. Finally, registers are cleaned up and the result is displayed. How multiplication works You might be surprised to learn that the calculator chip cannot perform multiplication natively. There's no floating point unit to multiply two numbers. Instead, multiplication is performed through repeated addition, digit by digit. That is, the multiplicand is added the number of times in the low order digit of the multiplier. Then the multiplicand is multiplied by 10 and the multiplier is divided by 10 and the process repeats. The key trick is that multiplying and dividing by 10 are easy for the chip to do; the chip simply shifts the digits left or right. For example, 23 * 34 is computed as 34 + 34 + 34 + 340 + 340 (i.e. 3 * 34 + 2 * 340). Before multiplying the mantissas, the exponents are simply added. At the end, the result is normalized. How division works How trig operations work C = C - S / 1000 S = S + C / 1000 S / 1000 Division is done by repeated subtraction, somewhat like grade-school long division. First the divisor is normalized, since dividing by 0.0001 would be a lot of subtractions. Next, the exponents are subtracted. Finally, the divisor is subtracted as many times as possible, counting the number of subtractions into the result. The remainder is shifted and the process repeats through all the digits. For example, 7 3 is computed as 7 - 3 - 3 counts 2 subtractions with remainder of 1, Shift the remainder to 10 and compute 10 - 3 - 3 - 3 counts 3 subtractions with a remainder of 1. This repeats a few more digits to generate the result 2.3333.How can sine and cosine be computed efficiently in a calculator that has a hard time even doing multiplication? The trick is to do repeated rotations by 0.001 radians until the desired angle is reached. If you have the cosine (C) and sine (S) for a particular angle, to rotate by .001 radians simply do:These operations are quick and are done without division:is simply S shifted right three digits. (If you've studied graphics, this is basically a rotation matrix. This algorithm was discovered by Marvin Minsky and published in HAKMEM in 1972. I wonder if Sinclair read HAKMEM or rediscovered the algorithm.) The calculator multiplies the input argument by 1000 (i.e. shifts it left three digits) and performs the rotation that many times; TRIGLOOP is the code that does this. At the end of the rotations, the sine and cosine are available. To compute the tangent, the sine and cosine are simply divided. The following diagram illustrates. The starting unit vector (1, 0) is rotated in steps of .001 radian until angle is reached. At that point, the coordinates give cos and sin . (To be precise, the starting vector is (1, 0.0005) to provide rounding.) Vector rotation is used to compute sine and cosine in the Sinclair Scientific calculator. While this algorithm requres very little code, it has the drawback of being very slow for large angles. Other calculators use algorithms such as decimal CORDIC that are much faster and more accurate, taking time proportional to the number of digits. But those algorithms are more complex and requires multiple constants during the computation. Arcsine and arccosine use the same loop, but instead of iterating a fixed number of times, the rotation is performed until the sine or cosine of the vector matches the desired value, and the loop counter gives (after dividing by 1000) the angle , which is the desired arcsine or arccosine. Arctan uses a slight modification. To compute arctan(z) , the starting vector is (z, 1). The vector is rotated until vertical (the first coordinate is 0). The angle of rotation gives the arctan. The following diagram shows how this works for arctan(.7) . Rotating the red vector by will make the x coordinate 0. tan() is .7 (opposite adjacent in the red triangle). Thus, rotating the vector until it is vertical and counting to measure will generate the arctan. Arctan in the Sinclair Scientific works by measuring the rotation angle required to make the vector vertical. How log works Log and antilog are a bit more complicated than trig operations. The core of the calculation is computing powers of .99. This can be done efficiently in a loop, since X*.99 is X - X / 100, which is computed by just shifting the digits and subtracting. The main log loop takes an input X and iterates through X*.99^N until the result is less than 1. The resulting loop counter N is approximately -log(X)/log(.99). By adding the remainder, a couple additional digits of accuracy are obtained - see the code comments for details. One complication of using .99 as the base is the calculations require the constant 229.15 (which approximates -1/log(.99)) in several places. Unfortunately, the calculator can't store multi-digit constants. The solution is the calculator actually recomputes this constant every time it performs a log or antilog. Putting this all together, the log is computed by using the loop to compute -log(10)/log(.99), which is the magic constant 229.15. The same loop is used on the mantissa of the input to compute -log(input)/log(.99). Dividing the two values yields the log of the input. Finally, the exponent of the input is simply added to the result, since log(10^N) is just N. Thus, log is computed with a single slow division along with quick shifts, adds, and subtracts. How antilog works Antilog (i.e. 10^x) reuses much of the same code as log. The key observation for antilog is that 10^x = 10*.99^(229.15*(1-x)). To compute the antilog, first the magic constant 229.15 is computed as before. Next 1-x is multiplied by the constant. Then the powers of .99 loop is done that many times. Since the loop can only be done an integer number of times, a remainder is left over. To get more accuracy, a division is performed using the remainder - see the code for details. Thus, antilog is computed with one multiplication, one division, and a lot of quick shifts, adds, and subtracts. You might wonder how this algorithm can fit into three registers since there's the constant 229.15, the loop counter, the power of .99, and the power divided by 100, all in use at the same time. The trick is the registers are split in two. The chip's instructions support masks, so part of the register can be a counter and part can hold a computation value, for instance. Sharing code and control flow The diagram below shows the high-level control flow for the different operations the calculator performs. Note that multiple operations reuse the same code blocks. This is one way the code is squeezed into 320 words. Since the chip doesn't support subroutine calls, it's not as simple as just calling a multiply subroutine. Instead, the flag register is used to keep track of what's going on. For instance, at the end of multiplication, the control flow branches either to normalize or antilog based on one of the flags. Thus, flags and gotos are used as a replacement for subroutine calls. A high-level flowchart of the code in the Sinclair Scientific calculator. Reverse engineering The Visual 6502 group enjoys dissolving old chips in acid, photographing the die, and reverse-engineering them. I used their photo of the Sinclair Scientific chip to find out how the calculator works. It helped that I knew a lot about the Texas Instruments 080x chip architecture in advance since I'd written a TI calculator simulator . The image below shows a highly magnified image of the calculator chip with the main sections labeled. (The original image is here .) The chip is customizable, not just the instruction ROM, but also the operation masks, single-digit constants, display decoding, and even the instruction set! This allows the same basic chip to be easily modified for use in different calculators. For details on the operation of the chip, see my TI calculator simulator page with schematics and detailed explanation. The TMS0805 chip that powers the Sinclair Scientific calculator. The image below zooms in on part of the ROM, showing individual transistors. The chip uses simple metal-gate PMOS technology. The vertical metal wires are clearly visible in the image. Underneath the metal is the silicon. Regions of the silicon have been modified to become conductive. In the ROM, these regions form horizontal conductors; the borders of the conductors are visible below. Finally, the rectangles in the image are the metal gates of transistors between two of the silicon lines. The larger rectangles are multiple transistors. A small portion of the ROM in the Sinclair Scientific processor, showing how transistors are arranged to store bits. This chip uses simpler technology than chips such as the 6502. In particular, it doesn't have a layer of polysilicon interconnects like the 6502 processor. The ROM is programmed by putting a transistor for a zero bit and omitting a transistor for a one bit. Once the layout of the ROM is known, reading the ROM is a simple matter of looking for transistors in the image. Likewise, the operation masks and single-digit constants can be figured out from the photograph. I converted the ROM contents into source code and wrote extensive comments explaining how the code works; the commented source code is displayed in the simulator window. The Sinclair Scientific chip adds a couple instructions to the instruction set that weren't in the original chip. By looking at the instruction decoding circuit, it wasn't too hard to figure them out. The instructions were nothing special (for example, add A to B and store the result in C), but they probably made the code a few critical instructions shorter. The image below shows the ALU instruction decode ROM. Each opcode from 31 to 0 has an input line on the top and is connected via transistors (the squares) to control lines that exit on the left. The ALU takes two arguments and by default performs addition. For instance opcode 0 is connected to "Arg1 is A", "Arg2 is B", and "Destination is A". Thus it adds A and B, putting the result in A. Opcode 13 selects C as argument 1, constant as argument 2, performs a subtract, and has no destination. Thus, it compares register C to a constant. Likewise, the other opcodes can easily be figured out from the image. The instruction decode ROM in the TMS0805 processor that powers the Sinclair Scientific calculator. Bugs and limitations The Sinclair Scientific cut a lot of corners to fit into 320 words of ROM, so it's not surprising there are problems. By looking at the code, we can see exactly what goes wrong. The calculator manual specifies fairly restrictive limits on the allowable values for scientific operations, but the calculator doesn't enforce these limits. If you're outside the limits, there's no telling what the calculator might do. For instance, logarithm is only supported for arguments 1. The calculator almost works for arguments such as 5E-3, except it adds the exponent 3 instead of subtracting it, so the result is totally wrong. If they had room for just a few more instructions they could have made this work. EdS found that 1.99996 antilog yields the wildly wrong answer of 0, even though it is in the supported antilog range. The problem is in the computation of 229.15*(1-.99996), the second factor is so small the multiplication yields 0 causing antilog to bail out. The antilog code assumes that if the exponent is greater than 0, it is 1. Thus antilog of 0.01E2 yields 1.2589 instead of 10. Calling NORMALIZE would have fixed this, but there wasn't space for the call. Arccos of a very small value (e.g. 0.0005) goes into an almost-infinite loop and takes 1 minute, 48 seconds to complete (as measured on a real calculator), before returning the wrong value 0. The root cause is since the angle is increased in steps of .001, it never exactly reaches the desired cosine value. When the rotation vector crosses vertical, the angle goes from 1.570 radians to 1.571 radians. cos 1.570 is bigger than .0005 so the loop doesn't exit. But at 1.571, everything falls apart: the loop uses unsigned arithmetic, so the sine value wraps to 999.99955 and the sine and cos become meaningless. The only reason the loop ever terminates is the loop counter eventually overflows after 9999 iterations, which inadvertently causes the code to fall into the arctan path and exit with 0. Scientific calculators usually provide constants such as e and but there was no space in the ROM for these constants. The Sinclair Scientific used the brilliant solution of printing the constants on the calculator's case - the user could enter the constant manually if needed. Conclusions The Sinclair Scientific came out in 1974 and was the first single-chip scientific calculator (if you ignore the display driver chips). It was stylishly compact, just 3/4 inch thick. It originally sold for the price of $119.95 or 49.95 and by the end of the year was available as a kit for the amazingly low price of 9.95 Unfortunately, as calculator prices collapsed, so did Sinclair Radionics' profits, and the company was broken up in 1979 after heavy losses. Clive Sinclair's new company Sinclair Research went on to sell the highly-popular ZX 80 and ZX Spectrum home computers. Clive Sinclair was knighted for his accomplishments in 1983, becoming Sir Clive Sinclair. Credits This work was done in cooperation with the Visual 6502 team. Special thanks to John McMaster for chip processing and photography; Ed Spittles for timings and experiments on a real calculator, detailed feedback, and HAKMEM info; Phil Mainwaring for documentation, feedback and analysis; and James Abbatiello for code improvements. The Sinclair history is based on multiple sources including Electronics Weekly The Sinclair Story , andby Nigel Searle in Wireless World June 1974. The simulator is available on GitHub as TICalculatorJSSimulator If you want a short link to this page, use http://righto.com/sinclair. This article has a bunch of interesting comments at Hackaday and Hacker News so take a look. Thanks for visiting! New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 64F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 64F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. On 16 September Mexicos Presidentheaped praise on Cuba for its endurance and urged the US government led by Presidentto lift the blockade on the country. End of preview - This article contains approximately 350 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options On 16 September Perus unicameral national congress approved a bill to limit the presidents power to declare a vote of no confidence and dissolve the legislature. End of preview - This article contains approximately 387 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options Press Release September 17, 2021 Dela Rosa supports bill on mandatory SIM card registration to deter online crime SENATOR Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa has given his support and called for the passage of Senate Bill No. 2395, or the SIM Card Registration Act, which mandates the registration of SIM, or subscriber identity or identification module, cards as a prerequisite for their sale. In his co-sponsorship speech, Dela Rosa said the mandatory registration of SIM cards would deter the commission of online frauds or crimes. "With the proposed measure...SIM card registration shall now be mandatory as a prerequisite for the sale thereof, including all existing SIM card subscribers with active services who shall likewise be required to register with their respective Public Telecommunications Entity," Dela Rosa said. The former Chief of the Philippine National Police noted that cellphones are now being used by scammers and terrorist elements in their illegal activities. SIM cards are installed in cellphones to electronically transmit and receive communications through various forms, styles, and settings. He recalled that last year, at least 10 riders delivered P20,000 worth of food items to a subdivision resident in Las Pinas City who claimed to have not placed any order through a food delivery App. "Sadly, when these instances happen, there is no way we could identify the perpetrator and, thus, our delivery riders are left with no choice but to bear the burden of losing their hard-earned money," Dela Rosa said. The Mindanaoan Senator said that cellphones are also being used in bombing activities of suspected terrorists, like the incident on January 27, 2019 where security footage showed one of the bombers was holding the mobile phone believed to have been used to trigger the blast that targeted 2 churches in MIndanao. He also recalled that on September 4, 2016, a mobile phone was used to detonate an improvised bomb in Davao City, and on January 26, 2011, 5 people were killed in a bus in Manila when a mortar was exploded through the use of a cellphone. Dela Rosa, chairman of the Upper Chamber's Public Order and Dangerous Drugs committee, lamented that by using unregistered SIM cards, criminal elements can conveniently hide their identities because "once the prepaid SIM card is disposed, there is no way for us to identify the perpetrator." "It (SBN 2395) is a huge step to deter the commission of crimes in the country, As the famous saying goes, 'Prevention is better than cure'," Dela Rosa said. Press Release September 17, 2021 De Lima scores Duterte for continued neglect of healthcare workers Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima scored Mr. Duterte for his continued neglect of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the country as he prioritizes the government's anti-insurgency campaign over addressing the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, said Duterte is to be blamed for the manpower problems currently being faced by the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). On top of the thousands of HCWs opting to work overseas, it was recently reported that 20 of the 25 volunteer doctors in the PGH have decided not to renew their contracts. "This is truly a frustrating development as our country continues to struggle to fight off COVID-19 and jumpstart our economy," she said in her Dispatch from Crame No. 1149. "The only reasonable explanation here is neglect. While Duterte is out there approving bonuses and salary increases for soldiers and policemen, he has glaringly failed to do the same for our HCWs." "Bilyon ang budget na inilaan sa NTF-ELCAC samantalang sapilitan pa ang pagbabayad ng pinakasimpleng benepisyo ng ating mga HCW," she added. In an interview last Sept. 13, PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario reportedly said that PGH is facing manpower problems as its volunteer doctors decided not to renew their contracts, adding that it was worsened by health workers getting sick and doing mandatory quarantine due to virus exposure. Last Sept. 1, underpaid and overworked HCWs held protest actions to demand the release of their promised benefits and the resignation of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. "Dapat tayong mga health workers, sa panahon ng pandemya ay patuloy na inaalagaan ng ating gobyerno. Pero ang dami nang namatay, ang daming nagkasakit, ang dami nang nag-resign," Alliance of Health Workers President Robert Mendoza said. If more Filipinos die of the pandemic, the lady Senator from Bicol said none other than Duterte should be held responsible. "Simula pa lang, paulit-ulit na nating pinaalalahanan si Duterte na solusyong medikal ang kailangan natin, hindi solusyong militar. Subalit sa halip na tulungan at palakasin ang loob ng ating mga HCW, pagpapabaya pa ang sinukli ni Duterte sa kanilang kabayanihan," she said. "While our hospitals are being overrun with COVID-19 patients, he spends his time prancing around, hurling cheap insults against officials investigating his government for incompetence and corruption," she added. De Lima further said that Duterte's continued ineptitude in handling the COVID-19 response and failure to provide the proper support to the country's healthcare system not only endangers the country but also holds back the nation's recovery. "Aanhin nila ang monumento na pinapagawa ni Duterte para sa kanilang kabayanihan kung nagugutom naman ang kanilang mga pamilya at kulang-kulang ang kanilang mga kagamitan, kasama na ang mga PPE?", she said. "2022 couldn't come soon enough for our countrymen who continue to suffer Duterte's reign of incompetence and corruption," she added. Press Release September 17, 2021 De Lima welcomes with 'very glad heart' ICC probe on drug war Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima welcomes the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision ordering the start of the probe on the crimes against humanity cases filed against Duterte in connection with his murderous War on Drugs. De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, made the statement after the ICC approved last Sept. 15 a formal probe into Duterte's signature anti-narcotics campaign, including the extrajudicial killings in Davao linked to the Davao Death Squad (DDS). "I welcome with a very glad heart the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court ordering the start of the preliminary investigation on Rodrigo Duterte (aka 'Digong' and 'Meyor') and Ronaldo Dela Rosa (aka 'Bato'), and other security law enforcement officials of the Philippine government, particularly those also involved with the Davao Death Squad from November 2011 to July 2016, for the killings committed in Duterte's drug war," she said in her Dispatch from Crame No. 1150. "I intentionally mention the aliases of Duterte and now Senator Dela Rosa to emphasize the point that soon, like any ordinary criminal or fugitive from justice, they will also be known by their aliases, apart from their given names, like in any 'Wanted' poster proclaiming that they are being hunted by the ICC in The Hague to answer for mass murder as a crime against humanity," she added. In a statement, the Hague-based tribunal said there was "reasonable basis" to proceed with the probe noting that "specific legal element of the crime against humanity of murder" has been met in the crackdown that left thousands dead. The decision was signed by Presiding Judge Peter Kovacs, Judge Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou, and Judge Maria del Socorro Flores Liera. Duterte may have pulled Manila out of the Hague-based court in 2019 after it launched a preliminary probe, but the ICC said it has jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member. De Lima said she believes that it is only a matter of time before international arrest warrants are issued against Duterte and Dela Rosa by the ICC in light of the refusal of the present administration to cooperate and participate in the investigation. "Duterte reminds me of the dictator who refuses to acknowledge the existence of an international community of nations that chose to live within contemporary standards of human rights and civilized polity," she said. "He denies the existence of this community outside of his own canine notion of territoriality that where he is dictator, no law can apply to him and no harm can fall upon him. He actually believes that he is above the law, even international law, hence, his denial of any form of accountability for his criminal actions," she added. De Lima further said that the ICC decision to specifically investigate him for crimes against humanity is "the proverbial hangman's noose closing around the neck of the sociopathic serial killer," adding that "Duterte is now alone." Former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda filed the request to investigate just before her retirement in June, purporting that "state actors, primarily members of the Philippine security forces, killed thousands of suspected drug users and other civilians during official law enforcement operations." De Lima was the very first to sound the alarm on EJKs being committed in the guise of Duterte's drug war, via her privilege speeches and Proposed Senate Resolution (PSR) No. 9, directing the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights to investigate the rampant extrajudicial killings and summary executions of suspected criminals, which she filed last July 2016. It may be recalled that De Lima also submitted a communication to the Office of the Special Prosecutor of ICC last October 2017. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Welcome Guest! You Are Here: Home Regional News East Dawn, September 16, 2021 by Syed Irfan Ashraf With the coming to power of the Afghan Taliban, their militant cousins across the border have started identifying their targets in Pakistan. Journalists have been the first to feel the heat. A statement issued to the media has gone viral on social media: the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have warned journalists to avoid using the term terrorist for the group, or else they would be treated like enemies. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has also expressed concern which underscores not only the seriousness of the threat but also the need to analyse what future lies in store for press freedom in the context of the regions recent re-Talibanisation. The timing of the warning is significant. In a previous statement, the banned outfit said it carried out 32 attacks in August alone, killing 52 people and injuring 38. While it was claimed that these attacks targeted security forces, state authorities have previously blamed hostile agencies using Afghan soil for sponsoring terrorism inside Pakistan. The TTP seem desperate to prove the state is wrong and want to establish that attacks inside Pakistan would continue irrespective of Afghan Taliban rule next door. Journalists are caught between the TTP and the state. With rising censorship inside the country, its difficult to discuss security unless they first establish that they are loyal Pakistanis. Many TV talk show hosts, therefore, project Afghanistan as Pakistans colony, a narrative that is reinforced by comments of some of those Pakistani journalists who went to Kabul soon after its fall to report on the Talibans conquest of their own country. There are others who, despite a liberal demeanour and awkward efforts to stay objective, seem to share an ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban. In this one-sided coverage, we are made to believe that the re-Talibanisation of Afghanistan will help neutralise threats from the western border. The national medias cheerleader role reduces the TTP to an appendage status, giving the impression that this hostile outfit has no capacity to damage Pakistan. The TTP warning is meant to burst this bubble. Is the TTP really a threat to Pakistani journalists? The answer lies in the states own approach towards regional militancy. Two days before Kabul fell, a top official in an informal chat indicated that if the Taliban took control of Kabul, everything else would fall into place. In other words, power elites in Pakistan do not seem really worried about the TTP. After the Doha accord, which ensured the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Afghanistans neighbours cracked down on militant groups using Afghan soil to threaten their sovereignty. Only Pakistan kept its cool at the risk of exposing its soft underbelly to militancy. Journalists are caught between the TTP and the state. The day Kabul fell, thousands of inmates escaped from the Pul-i-Charkhi jail Afghanistans largest detention centre. A couple of days before, Kandahar jail had experienced a similar situation. A Kabul-based local journalist, Anis-ur-Rehman, claimed in a tweet that around 2,300 TTP fighters had been released from these jails, including top commanders belonging mostly to North Waziristan. The reported killing of two top IS inmates, Sheikh Mutawaqal and Abu Omar Khurasani followed by reports of the arrest of over 25 IS sympathisers and the closure of mosques preaching IS-friendly Salafi ideology in Afghanistan indicate the Talibans priorities to clamp down on militancy. While the Taliban regime seems serious in eliminating the IS the main condition of their Doha deal the TTP enjoys their hospitality. Pakistan did seek Taliban action, but it was too little, too late. There have been reports that a three-member Taliban commission has been formed to assure Pakistan that the TTP leaders will be asked to settle problems with Pakistan so that they and their families can return to their own country. Asking for possible amnesty for the TTP, it is ironic that the re-Talibanised Afghanistan seeks strategic depth in Pakistan. The TTP, therefore, is a ticking bomb. Around nine splinter groups have reportedly joined the outfit since the Doha accord. After his release from Pul-i-Charkhi, Maulvi Faqir, the TTP former deputy chief and a close ally of the current Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri, pledged allegiance to the Afghan Taliban. On the way from Kabul to Kunar province abutting Pakistans Bajaur district, his hometown, Faqir addressed his followers in a viral video, asserting that the TTP would continue to work for Sharia in Pakistan. The interior ministry will be relieved because Faqir did not call for an independent state comprising Pakistans tribal areas, a resolve that the TTP chief Mufti Noor Wali made in his latest interview with the foreign media. This TTP commitment is enough to haunt the already deprived people of former Fata who see the outfit through the lens of the states regional foreign policy interests. So, the threat to the media does not actually emanate from the TTP, but from the method behind the ebb and flow of militancy promoting militarism at the cost of freedom of expression. The best that PFUJ can do is to sensitise media professionals about their own role in connection with the regional economy of the imperialist war embedded in a post-9/11 world. So far this has been missing and the damage is obvious. In a digital media show titled TTP to be mainstreamed? ex-ISI chief Lt-Gen Asad Durrani was awestruck by the Talibans success against the US in Afghanistan. They have done a great job, said the confident analyst to his polite host, our military and civil administration should learn from their experience. About the TTP, the general took a common establishment approach: after all they are our people, so he recommended amnesty for those militants ready to live in peace with Pakistan. Come here at will; it is your country, he said. When it comes to Afghanistan, a duplicitous security approach and its influence on a large segment of the national media defies logic; it was in fact unquestioned confusion that birthed the TTP responsible for killing over 70,000 people, a fact that power elites often cite to make the world believe in the seriousness of their efforts to eliminate regional terrorism. (The writer teaches journalism at Peshawar University. His book The Dark Side of News Fixing: The Culture and Political Economy of News will be launched next month) A variety of robotics work took place today aboard the International Space Station to teach students programming skills and ready a science module for a new robotic arm. The Expedition 65 crew also conducted vein scans, performed rodent research, and continued cleaning up after Sunday's spacewalk. Commander Akihiko Hoshide began Wednesday in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Kibo laboratory module supporting a robotics challenge for Japanese and American students on Earth. The three-time station resident configured the toaster-sized Astrobee robotic free-flyers to perform maneuvers using programs written by the ground-based students. The event is designed to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers to improve space-based and Earth-bound technologies. Hoshide also had his veins scanned during the afternoon with NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei taking charge as crew medical officer. Vande Hei used an ultrasound device with real-time assistance from flight surgeons on the ground and examined the JAXA astronaut's neck, clavicle, shoulder, and leg veins. Russia's Nauka multipurpose laboratory module continues to be integrated with the orbiting lab. Two spacewalks on Sept. 3 and Sept. 9 began the cable connection work to power and communicate with the new science module. Now, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov is configuring Nauka for operations with a new robotic arm from ESA (European Space Agency). The first-time space flyer from Roscosmos is setting up laptop computers and hardware inside Nauka that will soon control the European Robotic Arm attached to Nauka. Rodent research is underway aboard the orbiting lab this week as mice are being observed in JAXA's Life Science Glovebox to learn how microgravity affects normal skin and healing functions. NASA Flight Engineers Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough collaborated for the space biology study today monitoring the rodents then transferring and feeding them back in their habitats. McArthur joined ESA (European Space Agency) Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet earlier in the day stowing tools used during Sunday's spacewalk to prepare the station for a new Roll-Out Solar Array. Pesquet also spent a portion of his day stowing an ESA incubator and deploying a microbiology experiment. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads Eklosion: The crew participated in an Eklosion experiment session by observing the flower, taking photos, and reading some of the messages included with the experiment. They also gently shook the capsule to determine the quantity of water remaining. The Eklosion investigation utilizes a vase, inspired by the VEGGIE plant growth facility, specially designed for use in the microgravity environment aboard the ISS. Eklosion also contains within its hull small messages and smells from Earth for the psychological benefit of the crew member who conducts the investigation. In the experiment, the crew grows a Marigold flower (Tagetes patula). European Space Agency (ESA) EPO Touching Surfaces: The crew set up touch arrays in 5 different locations in the USOS segment. These arrays will be deployed for at least 15 weeks. Previous space research conducted during short-term flight experiments and long-term environmental monitoring on board orbiting space stations (such as MIR or the ISS) suggests that the relationship between humans and microbes is altered in the crewed habitat in space. This interdisciplinary project Touching Surfaces aims to investigate novel, laser-structured antimicrobial surfaces onboard the ISS. The realistic testing of the tailor-made nanostructured antimicrobial surface in space allows for the determination of the most suitable design for antimicrobial surfaces for terrestrial applications such as public transportation and clinical settings, as well as future human space mission and habitation design. JEM Water Recovery System (JWRS): The crew continued work on the JWRS by installing the Gas Trap module. JWRS generates potable water from urine. In the past on manned spacecraft, urine and wastewater were collected and stored, or vented overboard. For long-term space missions, however, water supply could become a limiting factor. Demonstrating the function of this water recovery system on orbit contributes to updating the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) to support astronauts on the space station and future exploration missions. Kibo Robot Programming Challenge-2 final round: This event had to be deferred to a later date due to ISS network issues which prevented the uplink of the necessary files. The Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Robo-Pro Challenge), also known as Kibo-RPC, allows students to create programs to control Astrobee, a free-flying robot aboard ISS. This opportunity provides hands-on experience with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in space and inspires the next generation of explorers. This activity is based on Japan-U.S. cooperation through the Japan-US Open platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3). Rodent Research Demo-1: The crew performed experiment 1A, and then restocked the rodent habitat. RR-D1 validates equipment and procedures related to the wound healing process investigation. Normal skin function and wound healing are important for maintaining good health, but spaceflight may impair healing of wounds in astronauts. Results from this investigation are intended to support design of a subsequent study on the effects of spaceflight on wound healing. Turbine Ceramic Manufacturing Module (T-CMM): The crew removed the processed calibration module and installed a ceramic module into the facility. Unfortunately, when the module was subsequently processed, a leak inside the module occurred and the print was not completed successfully. T-CMM demonstrates manufacture of single-piece turbine blade/disk combinations (blisks) in microgravity for commercial use. Manufacturing blisks in space could produce parts with lower mass and residual stress and higher strength than those made on Earth due to greatly reduced sedimentation of the solution in microgravity. Systems Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Early this morning, robotics ground controllers (ROBO) powered up the MSS and translated it from Worksite 5 to Worksite 7. Once there, ROBO maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) to the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock and installed the ISS Experience Z-CAM to the JEM A/L slide table. Once installed, ROBO maneuvered SSRMS and SPDM clear of the JEM A/L, and the MSS was powered down. Ultrasound Exam: Today, the crew used the ultrasound device to perform a Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) scan. This is a routine medical requirement that utilizes existing on-orbit eye exam ultrasound hardware for bilateral imaging of the internal jugular, entire subclavian-axillary axis, and lower extremity deep veins. VTE scans utilize a different frequency than the eye exams. Post Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Activities: Today, the crew completed several activities following the successful completion of the USOS 4A IROSA Prep EVA on Sunday September 12th. The crew completed the first regeneration cycle of the EMU Metal Oxide (METOX) canisters by baking out CO2in the METOX Regenerator Oven as well as spent several hours stowing EVA tools that were used during EVA 77. Completed Task List Activities: None Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Atmosphere Revitalization System (ARS) Thermal Amine Scrubber (TAS) Deactivation Payload Rack Officer (PRO) LSG Facility Activation Commanding Node 3 ACS Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Activation Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Powerup [ACTIVE] Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) stow [PLANNED] Look Ahead Plan Thursday, September 16 (GMT 259) Payloads: CBEF-L LTL Box setup and VRU2 cable reconnect Food Acceptability Four Bed CO2 install ISS Experience EVA Z-Cam removal LIDAL Relocate 3 MERLIN3 icebrick insert NanoRacks Module 9 Ops 3 PLT5 and ELT2 reconnect config POLAR desiccant swap Rodent Access unit clean SAIBO CO2 QD Demate Standard Measures Saliva, body, fecal collect Turbine CMM Module removal and Ice berg-2 Insert Systems: Regenerative ECLSS Oxygen Generation System (OGS) H2 Sensor replacement Inflight Maintenance (IFM) Crew Quarters (CQ) Battery Remove and Replace (R&R) EVA Airlock Deconfiguration Health Maintenance System (HMS) OCT2 Exam Friday, September 17 (GMT 260) Payloads: Astrobee perching arm remove BCM Robot Test ESA EPO BLOB Deinstall FSL VMU2 Board Exchange ISS Experience EVA Z-Cam relocate and data transfer JEM Microbe Sample Collect Lumina Deinstall and reinstall SOUNDSEE T/S ops and stow Standard Measures Saliva Collect and stow Systems: Dragon Cargo Ops EVA Loop Scrub BEAM cargo ops IFM Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) Urine Receptacle (UR) and Insert Filter (IF) R&R Saturday, September 18 (GMT 261) Payloads: Rodent Research Experiment 1B Veggie Monitoring Systems: Crew off-duty Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval and Insertion Operations Turbine Ceramic Module Installation Eklosion Troubleshooting Activity BioMole MinION Stow Turbine Ceramic Iceberg Sample Insert Robot Programming Challenge 2 Final Round [Deferred] Kubik deinstallation Kubik 6 deinstallation FRIDGE 2 Label Four Bed CO2 Scrubber (4BCO2) Adlink Mini PC Troubleshooting Touching Surfaces - Unstow, Setup, Touching and taking pictures JEM Water Recovery System (JWRS) Gas Trap Installation. In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Thermal Amine Scrubber (TAS) Preparation for Removal Light Ions Detector Hardware Gather Cryo Glove Locate EPO BLOB FILE TRANSFER Rodent Research Experiment 1 Health Maintenance System (HMS) Ultrasound 2 Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) in Columbus US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tools Stow Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) Oxygen Generation System (OGS) Hardware Gather Station Support Computer (SSC) 6 Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Swap Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Test Cargo Transfer to Dragon Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Questionnaire Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Termination Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Initiation Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. On Wednesday, Inspiration4 became the first all-civilian space flight to orbit Earth. During their three days in space, crew members Jared Issacman, Sian Procter, Hayley Arceneaux, and Chris Sembroski will see some incredible views from the Dragon capsule's cupola. Also filling their schedule: health research on behalf of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. TRISH is sponsoring a handful of carefully selected projects that the crew will perform before, during and after the flight. The data collected by I4 crew has potential to increase the understanding of how space impacts the human body- especially the bodies of not in the peak condition typical of NASA's astronauts. TRISH is the innovation partner to the NASA Human Research Program. The Institute looks for ways to augment the work that NASA is doing to not only mitigate risks to health and performance of astronauts but make an impact in science, medicine, and technology advances for Earth. NASA gave its endorsement to private astronaut missions back in 2019. TRISH is the first group to leverage commercial flights for human health research on behalf of NASA. Working with TRISH could help commercial crews meet the FAA's criteria for earning official astronaut wings if they are considered as crew by the launch provider. "Space is hostile to both physical and mental health of explorers," said Dorit Donoviel, Ph.D., Executive Director of TRISH. "Yet as commercial spaceflight makes space travel is more accessible, and even routine, we have to prepare for more diverse space travelers that will be making the journey. Research carried out by the Inspiration4 crew gives us the opportunity to increase the space health knowledgebase to develop the health protections needed." The Inspiration4 crew will conduct the following TRISH-sponsored research, most of which is very similar to NASA's standard measures for astronauts. Using an Apple Watch, the crew will collect research-grade ECG activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation, and ambient light intensity which affects circadian rhythms. The I4 crew will perform a series of tests in the Cognition app designed to assess changes in behavioral and cognitive performance. This is the same app that is currently used by astronauts in NASA-funded research studies. Hayley, Sian, Jared, and Chris will scan their own bodies via a Butterfly IQ+ Ultrasound device, which is designed with artificial intelligence guidance for non-medical experts. Data collected will determine if non-medical experts can self-acquire clinical grade images without guidance from ground support and will provide a timeline of biological changes before and during spaceflight. This device is also currently being tested by astronauts on the International Space Station. Most important is the scan of the blood flow through the veins in the neck because NASA recently reported a thrombotic event in an astronaut. The crew will collect and test during flight drops of blood during spaceflight for markers of immune function and inflammation using a state-of-the-art miniaturized device called the Vertical Flow Immunoassay (VFI). Most blood analyses currently performed on astronauts is performed on blood sent back to Earth. Use balance and perception tests pre-flight and immediately post-flight to measure sensorimotor adaptation during the changes of gravity. These tests are currently performed by astronauts upon return from spaceflight. The research team is hoping to be able to identify those people who will need special interventions in order to quickly adapt to spaceflight. Samples are being collected investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, and when these arrive at Baylor College of Medicine, the biological fluids will be fully analyzed using state of the art "omics" analyses and matched to the physiological data collected from the studies mentioned above. All this data will be made available to the research community to study. Using data and samples from Inspiration4 and future commercial flights, TRISH is creating a state-of-the-art integrated medical and environmental research knowledge bank and repository for biological samples. A centralized and standardized research database will be available to NASA and the global research community. The effort is part of TRISH's EXPAND (Enhancing eXploration and ANalog Definition) program, which promises to study human health and performance in civilian passengers traveling to space. The institute is currently building research partnerships with other commercial space missions and flight providers. Future research endeavors will including early detection and treatment of medical conditions, protection from radiation effects, mental health, team dynamics and more. "TRISH exists to find and deliver breakthrough research and technologies back to NASA, and this is exactly what we are doing through the EXPAND program by collaborating with commercial spaceflight providers," Urquieta said. "We are bringing together the public sector, private industry, and academia in a way that advances learning opportunities for all. Working with the SpaceX and the crew of Insipiration4 opens up new horizons for health research." Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. For the fourth consecutive year, the Central Ontario Standardbred Association (COSA) will support National Caretaker Appreciation Day (NCAD) at racetracks across Ontario the week of September 20 26. Initiated by Standardbred Canada in 2018, NCADs objective is to recognize and reward the hardworking caretakers in the harness racing industry. COSA is supporting the event again this year by sponsoring $100 HPI cards one for a caretaker in each race at each Ontario racetrack hosting a NCAD event. Winning caretakers at all tracks except for Woodbine Mohawk Park will receive the HPI cards. At Mohawk there will be random draws for the HPI cards. The HPI cards can be used at any wagering terminals at HPI partner tracks across the country. The cards can also be used at Woodbine Mohawk Park and Woodbine Racetrack for food and beverages. Ontario Racetracks participating in NCAD: Flamboro Downs September 26 Grand River Raceway September 22 Kawartha Downs September 25 Leamington Raceway September 26 Woodbine Mohawk Park September 23 COSA represents the interests of horsepeople racing at Ontario racetracks and provides a Benefit program to its members. Groom/caretaker benefits are provided at no cost to eligible members provided the member is employed full-time by a trainer who has a minimum of one start per year at any Standardbred racetrack in Ontario. Caretakers working at breeding farms are also eligible for benefits. To be eligible to enroll in the COSA Benefits Program, you must have the following: OHIP card Valid Standardbred Canada license Valid AGCO license In addition to the above requirements, grooms/caretakers must provide one of the following when enrolling in the plan: T-4 from the previous year Three cancelled payroll cheques or three proof of e-transfer deposits to their bank account Grooms/caretakers who are paid cash by their employers are not eligible for COSA paid benefits. The Bird Dance N has acclimated well since landing in North America earlier this year and he added another win to his already impressive stats after a strong performance in the top $25,000 Open pace at Plainridge Park on Thursday afternoon. Ron Cushing pushed The Bird Dance N off the gate and to the quarter in a swift :26.2. With Moonshadow N (Bruce Ranger) and Extradite N (Brett Beckwith) following on the pegs, the group of six then motored to the half where Artful Way (Jay Randall) moved from fourth and joined the fray on the rim. The Bird Dance N continued to call the shots and didn't let Artful Way get past his wheels and when they rolled into the last turn, this bird had flown. The Bird Dance N swelled up and opened a two length gap at the head of the stretch and paced home of his own accord to win by 1- lengths in 1:51.2. It was the fourth win in only six North American starts for The Bird Dance N ($3.40) - three of which were at Plainridge - and earned $45,500 in those outings for his owner Philip Scott McKenzie. Heidi Gibbs trains the six-year-old gelding. There was also a second undercard Open that went for $22,500 where Lachie Maguire N came from last at the top of the stretch to score an impressive sweeping victory. Quick Shot (Jay Randall) took the lead by the quarter and slowed the pace down to :56.3 at the half. It was there that Wyatt J (Drew Campbell) was first up in the breeze with Thinkbig Dreambig (Bruce Ranger) on his back. At this point Lachie Maguire N (Brett Beckwith) had been shuffled to last and was covered. Around the last turn, Wyatt J overtook Quick Shot and Thinkbig Dreambig was then quickly breathing down his neck. But Beckwith found room at the head of the lane, swung Lachie Maguire N five wide and he swooped the group to the wire and won in 1:52. The fifth win of the year by Lachie Maguire N ($19.40) pushed his seasonal earnings to $76,015 for owner J M F Racing. Melissa Beckwith trains the winner. Drivers Nick Graffam and Bruce Ranger both had hat tricks on Thursday while trainer Elisha Lafreniere doubled up. Racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Friday (Sept. 17) with post time at 2 p.m. (Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts) Continuing its mission to encourage the greatest use of, and adherence to the guidance generated by the IMO, the ILO and the UNECE and published in the Code of Practice for the Packing of Cargo Transport Units (CTU Code), the Cargo Integrity Group (CIG), a Group of five international freight transport orgainastions, has now added Italian to six other languages in which its Quick Guide is available. The five organisations co-operating in the CIG are: Container Owners Association (COA); Global Shippers Forum, International Cargo Handling Co-ordination Association (ICHCA International), TT Club and World Shipping Council. According to statement By ICHCA International, CIG has received the support of Bureau International Containers (BIC) and Centro Internazionale Studi Containers (C.I.S.Co) in publishing its Quick Guide to the CTU Code, and the accompanying Container Packing Check List, in Italian. The official launch of the documents will occur during Genoa Shipping Week, (October 4 to 10). In underlining the cooperation CIG has received in translating and providing peer review of the text, Peregrine Storrs-Fox, Risk Management Director at freight transport insurer TT Club commented: It is vital to the cause of disseminating CIGs Quick Guide to the CTU Code as widely as possible that those who are involved first-hand in packing containers, securing cargo and declaring content accurately can access in their own language this introduction to the Codes definition of good industry practice. We are indebted to BIC and C.I.S.Co for their help with this Italian version. Their industry knowledge and expertise has been key in producing an accurate translation. The Italian Quick Guide and Container Packing Checklist is available in addition to versions in all six official IMO languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The Group is delighted to have been able to translate its publications into all these languages, encouraging wider easy access to the materials, the statement added. To promote the Quick Guide and, in particular the Italian edition, partners in CIG will be contribute to conference sessions during Genoa Shipping Week (https://www.gsweek.it). In addition to Peregrine Storrs-Fox, Lars Kjaer, Senior Vice President World Shipping Council will participate via video link. The presentations will profile the content and methods of utilization of the publications, and how they both distill and give access to the lengthy and comprehensive CTU Code itself. Giordano Bruno Guerrini Secretary General of Genoa based C.I.S.Co, the specialist consultancy group dedicated to container operations commented: We are delighted to have contributed to the publication of these significant documents in Italian. The pursuit of safety within global supply chains is an aim of much of the work we carry out within the industry, and we remain dedicated to communicating all relevant information on this critical issue.--TradeArabia News Service Ebrahim K Kanoo, the diversified business conglomerate, has welcomed the winners of the 2020 Ebrahim K Kanoo Award for Engineering Excellence at its corporate office in Manama. The students met with Ebrahim K Kanoo Managing Director, Talal Kanoo, who commended them for their innovative project which will contribute greatly to Bahrains future. Kanoo stated: The Ebrahim K Kanoo Award for Engineering Excellence was created to highlight the important role young Bahrainis play in the field of mechanical engineering. We take pride in the efforts and commitment shown by the students and the college to foster this talent. I look forward to seeing great things from the winners and wish them continued success. Instituted in partnership with the University of Bahrains College of Engineering, the annual award is part of the companys commitment to bettering the lives of the youth of the country and helping them realise their full potential through academic and internship opportunities. The 2020 winning team, comprising Mohammed Salah, Sayed Hashem Abdulla, Bassam Sadeq Yaqoob and Ali Hasan Ali, was chosen for their outstanding graduation project which is an eco-friendly alternative for cooling. As opposed to the conventional vapour compression cycles the teams system is based on the principle of evaporative cooling that uses chilled water to cool the air, integrated with a liquid desiccant-based dehumidification stage to be suitable for Bahrain's humid weather. As a result, the alternative cycle showed an enhanced cooling load and lower electrical consumption with zero toxic emissions to the environment. Dr Abdulrahman Alsayad, Assistant Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department, praised Ebrahim K Kanoos role in nurturing local talent and their commitment to the university. The private sector plays a vital role in supporting education through financial schemes and employment opportunities. Ebrahim K Kanoo addressed both of these, and we are proud to partner with such a well-established Bahraini company and are thankful for their support and their investment in the future of our students, he added.-- TradeArabia News Service Etihad Airways is hosting a pop-up stand at Dubais Mall of the Emirates, showcasing the Etihad experience, and offering flight discounts until September 23. Located on the ground floor of the Mall, the stand is open daily from 10am to 10pm on weekdays and until midnight on weekends offering activities to entertain children. Those looking to travel can get a 50 per cent discount on their next flight by booking at the stand. Vice President Brand, Marketing and Sponsorship, Amina Taher said: Etihad introduced this initiative to give customers of all ages the opportunity to learn more about Etihads inflight experience. "Following the governments announcement to remove the quarantine requirement for all vaccinated travellers arriving in Abu Dhabi from abroad, we are taking the opportunity to inspire guests to travel again. Visitors to the stand can also receive discount codes of up to 25% for future bookings. Discounts are available for bookings in Economy, Business and First class for travel until December 8, 2021. Until September 30, all members of the Share prorgamme can transfer Share points to Etihad Guest Miles and earn 50% bonus miles. Customers who are not members of the airlines loyalty programme can scan the QR code to become an Etihad Guest Member and earn 1,000 welcome bonus miles. New members also stand a chance of winning five pairs of Business Class return tickets.-TradeArabia News Service by Fady Noun A convoy of dozens of tanker trucks crossed the Syrian border at Hermel yesterday morning. The pro-Iranian Shiite movement celebrated the entry as a victory. The crude oil will be distributed to hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, water plants and the Red Cross. Experts speak of "state conquest" by Hezbollah. Beirut (AsiaNews) - A convoy of dozens of tanker trucks loaded with Iranian fuel crossed the Syrian border yesterday morning and entered Lebanon, in an attempt to alleviate - albeit partially - the serious energy crisis that has long affected the country. The Shiite Hezbollah movement (and ally of the Islamic Republic) organized the shipment, amidst controversy and threats from some governments of the Western bloc, because it would constitute a violation of international sanctions against Tehran. The trucks entered from Syria using an illegal border crossing in the eastern region of Hermel. The leadership of the extremist group celebrated the arrival of the supplies as a victory, claiming the success of the operation capable of bypassing the punitive measures on the diplomatic and commercial level introduced three years ago by the Trump administration towards Tehran and its allies. The first Iranian tanker arrived on September 12 in the Syrian port of Baniyas and the fuel was unloaded in special tanks, then transferred by land to Lebanon. In a televised intervention, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah clarified that the crude oil did not arrive directly in the country in order not to embarrass the authorities and risk sanctions. So far, there have been no official reactions or comments from Lebanese or U.S. officials, while Lebanese economic affairs expert Laury Haytayan calls for "not forgetting this day" because it marks Hezbollah's conquest of the state. The Shiite movement's television channel al-Manar spoke of a convoy of at least "20 tanker trucks of 50 thousand liters each" with the aim of "breaking the American siege." The tankers crossed the central province of Homs and then headed to the Bekaa Valley, in Lebanon, where they were greeted by residents gathered on the sides of the main road, decorated with yellow Hezbollah flags and images of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "This is a humanitarian aid that will meet the needs of the population," said Jawad, a 50-year-old resident of Hermel among the crowd rushed to welcome the convoy. Hezbollah, he adds, "does not replace the State, it is a temporary measure until it can carry out its tasks". Earlier this week, Nasrallah had explained that the diesel will be donated for a period of one month to public institutions including hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, water plants and the Red Cross. He then added that others will be able to obtain low-cost fuel including private hospitals, medicine factories, bakeries and cooperatives that sell food products. Finally, a second ship with Iranian oil will arrive in the Syrian port of Baniyas in a few days, then two more loaded with gasoline and fuel oil within the next few weeks. by Nirmala Carvalho Schools are still closed in many states and access to remote learning is still difficult. In rural areas, only 8 per cent of rural students are attending e-classes. The average level of education is getting worse while the gender gap is getting wider. For experts, schools must be reopened now to avoid a disaster. New Delhi (AsiaNews) The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and the Indian school system have been catastrophic, this according to a study reported by The Indian Express newspaper. Only 8 per cent of children and young people living in rural areas have access to online classes, and across the country only 37 per cent are pursuing their education through remote learning. The main cause of the collapse of the school system is the severe blow inflicted by the coronavirus on the Indian economy. Many families do not have the means to buy computers that would allow their children to learn from home or guarantee them a good Internet connection. As learning gets more disrupted, the negative effects on education can be seen. Only half of Class (Grade) 5 students can read and understand texts normally intended for Class (Grade) 2. The report notes that most parents feel that their childs reading and writing abilities have gone down during the lockdown. This, according to experts, will be followed by a long transition period in which students will have to play catch up to close the gap caused by the pandemic. Although the biggest limitation is the lack of computers and Internet connection, things are made worse by a series of other negative factors such as the lack of contacts with teachers, inadequate school material available to children, and parents low educational level. The report warns that as schools are an essential service, the authorities ought to rapidly reopen them or there will be an inevitable disaster. Since the pandemic broke out, private schools have suffered the most from the crisis. About a quarter of those enrolled have moved to the public system because families are in financial dire straits. What is more, some families are choosing to educate only their sons rather than their daughters, aggravating an already wide gender gap in Indias school system. Last but not least, social distancing and isolation have taken their toll on the mental health of young people. According to Prajapatra, a Marathi-language daily published in Beed (Maharashtra), 25 people under 18 have taken their own life in the first seven months of 2021 as a result of loneliness, depression and other psychological issues. Meanwhile, around 30,000 daily cases have been reported in the South Asian nation, but with a mortality rate that is lower than in May and June. Only 14.1 per cent of Indias population has been fully vaccinated, while 42.9 per cent have had their first dose. Cambodia extends vaccination campaign to children under six. The aim is to immunize 91 per cent of the population and reopen the tourism sector. China and the UAE plan to vaccinate three-year-old. Hong Kong lawmakers turn to Pfizer for a third jab after no antibodies detected from Chinese vaccine. Phnom Penh (AsiaNews) The Cambodian government plans to extend its vaccination campaign to children aged six to 11 in order to stop the coronavirus from spreading. The Southeast Asian country reported 698 new coronavirus cases today for a total of 102,834 since the pandemic started. By the end of the month, another nine million doses of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine are expected to arrive in the country, despite the fact that it has not been very effective in containing the virus, as Chinese scientists have admitted. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that three million doses would be delivered on 24 September, while another three million would arrive between 26 and 27 September. The rest are expected at a later date. According to government estimates, at least four million doses are currently in store, 773,437 meant for 386,719 children in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kandal, Preah Sihanouk and Koh Kong where the rate of infection is higher. The rest will be used to vaccinate children in other parts of the country, according to the order of priority. As of yesterday, Cambodia has vaccinated 98 per cent of its adult population of 10 million people and 87.54 per cent or two million of young people aged 12 to 17. Overall, 72 per cent of the countrys population of 16 million has been vaccinated, one of the highest percentages in the world. However, the almost exclusive use of Chinese vaccines has limited the actual protection against the virus compared to mRNA vaccines like AstraZeneca or Russia's Sputnik. For Cambodian authorities, as the prime minister himself has indicated, the goal is to vaccinate 91 per cent of the population in order to avoid another round of closures and lockdowns that risk further harming the economy. Ministry of Tourism spokesperson Top Sopheak told the Khmer Times that thousands of tourism-based businesses are shuttered and in need of immediate help until they can get back to some form of normalcy. Cambodia is among the leading nations in the world for the vaccination of children. So far only Cuba has decided to vaccinate two-year-old children, while China and the United Arab Emirates have started with those aged three and up. Chile plan to follow Cambodia and vaccinate primary school children The goal is to immunise the greatest number of students to ensure in-person schooling, especially in countries and regions where remote learning is not possible or to hard to implement. At present, some of the world's leading health agencies, including the World Health Organisation and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommend the use of the Pfizer vaccine (the most effective along with Moderna) for children over 12. In schools, the rules remain the same: social distancing, wearing masks and personal hygiene. In addition to vaccines for children, the other big question concerns the need (still not confirmed by major institutions) for a third jab for all age groups, regardless of health status, six months after the second. Israel, a vaccination trailblazer thanks to an agreement with the manufacturer during the first phase of the pandemic back in December-January, has started to inform its population about it. Regina Ip, a pro-Beijing member of Hong Kongs Legislative Council, today received a dose of the BioNTech vaccine, her third jab, after no antibodies were detected from the first two doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine. In Hong Kong, six other lawmakers in the former British colony are expected to follow her example amid growing mistrust about the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine. by Dario Salvi Fr Palinuros ordination is scheduled for 7 December in a ceremony led by Card Sandri with his entrance in the Cathedral of Holy Spirit 11 days later. Fr Andrea Santoros legacy means remembering that evangelization is "a risk" to be taken "without fear" while keeping "doors open". He can start with an established relationship with the ecumenical patriarch while the dialogue with Islam will be a great challenge. Rome (AsiaNews) The vocation of the Catholic Church in Turkey is "to keep Christ alive and present" in the Eucharist, in a land where "one can bear witness to the Gospel" with deeds but where it is more difficult "to proclaim it with the word, except perhaps if one whisper it, said Fr Massimiliano Palinuro, until recently a fidei donum priest in Trabzon. Recently appointed by Pope Francis as the new apostolic vicar of Istanbul, he is currently in Italy, preparing for his episcopal ordination scheduled in Ariano Irpino (Italy), his home town, on 7 December. Card Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, will lead the ceremony, concelebrated with the local bishop, Sergio Melillo, and the current Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, Bishop Paolo Bizzeti. His entrance in Istanbuls Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is set for 18 December, and will be a festive occasion for the entire community. Ordained priest on 24 April 1999, the future bishop has an experience as a teacher and nine years in fidei dunum mission in Turkey. Despite this, the appointment came unexpected and unwanted. In Turkey, he started at the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Izmir, followed by the Vicariate of Anatolia as parish priest in Trabzon, where Father Andrea Santoro was shot dead in 2006. Father Andrea is important spiritually. For this reason, I asked to be sent to Trabzon after Izmir, Fr Palinuro explained. His testimony and spirituality are a point of reference to integrate into Turkish life and an inspiration for my mission, which began with a pilgrimage to Tarsus, Saint Pauls birthplace. A nun told me that her presence in Turkey was to keep a lamp lit in front of the tabernacle. A few months ago, the local community marked the 15th anniversary of his death, he noted. At present, the local Church is experiencing hard times; many have left, some have stayed while others remember his teachings after meeting him. Father Andrea taught the so-called "liturgy of the door: welcoming, greeting, smiling, simple gestures of daily life" to keep open a channel of dialogue and exchange. While the Pope urges us to do this, to have an open Church, in Turkey doors are often closed and guarded". Through Father Andreas death we learnt that evangelisation is "a risk" that we must take "without fear because it is the only way to break down walls and prejudices. Father Palinuro will replace Bishop Ruben Tierrablanca Gonzalez, who died last December from COVID-19. I dont know much about Istanbul because I didnt think my presence was needed; thus, I will have to learn more about a complex reality that includes the Catholic community and other Christians. This will require an approach based on ecumenism. As for Islam, it will be a great challenge along the path of interfaith dialogue. However, he has an advantage, i.e., the solid ties established with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew", with whom a solid "work path" is already in place. For Catholics, "the challenge is to continue serving refugees, some 4.5 million, both official and undocumented, so as to guarantee continuity "to the existing projects and works like schools, hospitals and welfare centres. With respect to Muslims, there are differences between the various regions, Istanbul vs the rest of Turkey. In general though, a climate of "cordial relations" prevails which some peculiarities, such as the interaction with Sufism Lastly, Fr Paliduro hopes to Turkify more the local Church, which has been hitherto largely foreign, especially staffed by missionaries, so that the local language is little used. "This year, a young Turk will start his first year of seminary; we hope he will be the first seed that will lead to the growth of the local Church. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Pakistan Foreign Office on Thursday expressed "surprise" over US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's remarks on reassessing bilateral ties with Islamabad, saying it was "not in line with the close cooperation" between the two nations. This comes after State Secretary told Congress that the US will be looking at ties with Pakistan in the coming weeks to formulate the role America wants Islamabad to play in the future of Afghanistan. During a weekly presser, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad on Thursday termed Blinken's statement a "surprise", Dawn newspaper reported. The spokesperson also highlighted that Pakistan's role in the Afghan peace process, facilitation of the multinational evacuation effort from Afghanistan. Pakistan has had deep ties with the Taliban and other outfits in the region. Moreover, the country has been accused of supporting the group during the US's war on terror. During his first testimony in US Congress after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, Blinken on Monday noted that Pakistan has "harboured" members of the Taliban including the terrorists from the proscribed Haqqani network. Asked by lawmakers if it is time for Washington to reassess its relationship with Pakistan, Blinken said: "We are going to be looking at in the days and weeks ahead, the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years, but also the role that we would want to see it playing in the coming years." Blinken made the remarks during his first testimony before Congress since the Taliban took control of Kabul. The top US diplomat laid out the Biden administration's posture toward the Taliban in remarks to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. (ANI) Also Read: US approves USD 500mn military sale to Saudi Arabia: Pentagon While the other stakeholders are restraining themselves to recognise the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Pakistan is in a hurry to somehow recognize and boost the caretaker "Islamic Emirate". Paul Antonopoulos, writing in Greek City Times said that the Pakistani minister openly promoted the Taliban regime, while the official line is that recognizing the new regime should come only after the conditions that the Taliban themselves have assured, are actually met. The Taliban had promised an inclusive government that would have representatives from non-Taliban, especially ethnic minorities and women. An informal agreement had been reached for not resuming international flights to Kabul until these conditions were met. But Pakistan is seen as having breached it by sending the first PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) flight on September 13, and publicising it, reported Greek City Times. While Pakistan officially insists on preconditions, the unofficial argument is made through the media. Dawn newspaper, for example, has argued in its editorial that a world that has "no qualms" in dealing with Saudi Arabia, should not be insisting upon the nascent Kabul regime. The unstated part of the argument is that Saudi Arabia is a monarchy that has all types of restrictions on its people in terms of religion and democratic norms. This reference to Saudi Arabia, a leading Islamic nation, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member and the highest seat of Islam is significant, says Antonopoulos. While the OIC has not taken a stand, so far, Riyadh has issued a statement that does not seek the Taliban to be inclusive or includes women in their government. This is also a possible effort to go past Qatar, a rival of Riyadh, which has become the most important hub of all diplomatic and political activity on the Afghanistan front for several months now, says Antonopoulos. The Turkish ambassador's remarks about the Taliban government also need to be seen in that light - that the provisional government is "not inclusive", that it does not have non-Taliban individuals and that other ethnic groups are not included. A relatively liberal Turkey, when compared to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Islamic world, also talks of including women and of "human rights", reported Greek City Times. Every country is acting as per its own perceptions and interests, but an 'inclusive' government is the common point of all. The unstated part here is the fear of inciting anger and disapproval of the US, the European Union and influential countries like Australia, Canada, Japan and others, besides the United Nations. The Kabul government includes several persons who are proscribed by the UN, the US, the EU, and the Taliban as a group itself stands labelled as a 'terrorist' body through formal resolutions. Removing the label and the restrictions and sanctions that it carries would take much conferring, consensus-building and hence, time, says Antonopoulos. (ANI) Also Read: UN official meets Afghan interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, discusses humanitarian aid Know that rising up is uncomfortable, Abrams told us. "That it is awkward. That it is off-putting. That it makes some people mad and it makes other people joyous. Because when you see someone who looks like you rise up, when you hear your story told by someone you didnt think could see you, when you hear the disruption of a system that says youre not enough, then you start to believe in this tiny corner of your heart that you are worthy of action. That you are worthy of attention. And that you too are capable of rising up and righting the world." Facets survival and sustainability goals are shared by other Chicago film organizations the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre and others, some nonprofit, some educational institution-affiliated, some for-profit. Facets headwinds may be stronger than most. The place built its name, in the previous century, on a stunningly successful mail-order business, pre-Netflix. Another crucial component: co-founder Stehliks international reputation, for discernment as well as for financial scrambles to pay distributors whose films he wanted to introduce to Chicago. (Ah, the good old days.) Three men who were in the black sedan were taken to Stroger Hospital in serious to critical condition, Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said. In a letter to the parish back then, Cupich wrote that he asked Ryan to step away from ministry after the archdiocese was first notified of the allegations, which were reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the Cook County states attorney office. Police said they identified Bodony and later made the arrest. He posted a bail bond of $1,000 one day after his arrest and is due in DuPage County court for arraignment Oct. 19. As a condition of his release, Bodony is barred from being on the grounds of the Glen Ellyn high school, at 670 Crescent Blvd. Rittenhouse shot the men after coming to Kenosha from his home about 20 miles away in Antioch, Illinois, on Aug. 25, 2020, having seen a post on social media asking people to help protect businesses from protesters. The city was in the throes of several days of chaotic demonstrations sparked by a white police officer shooting Jacob Blake, a Black man, after the officer responded to a domestic disturbance. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down. About a block away in the 1400 block of Canal and 45 minutes earlier, a 19-year-old man was shot in the leg. That man told police he was visiting Chicago to celebrate Mexican Independence Day downtown and was in a big crowd when he saw a black SUV heading toward the crowd. He heard several gunshots and realized he was shot, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in good condition. Fewer than half of the wetlands that once existed in the Great Lakes remain, leaving some of the 350 species of birds that rely on the region in search of a home. Along with habitat loss, birds, like other wildlife, must also contend with the fallout from human-caused climate change, lingering pollution and harmful invasive species. In North America alone, there are 29% fewer birds than there were 50 years ago, a 2019 study found. The strategy would have worked, too, if not for the pandemic. Too many have watched loved ones suffer and die. There is too much pain and sorrow. We should be working together and pulling in the same direction to defeat the pandemic, not rooting for failure in order to blame the party in power in the next election. You are here: Arts The mausoleum of Qinshihuang, known for the famous army of Terracotta Warriors in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, reopened Friday after the COVID-19 resurgence in China suspended operations at the museum for over a month. To visit Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, tourists need to make a reservation online as the museum is operating at 30 percent capacity at this time, according to the museum. The museum will not accept tour groups, and tourists from medium- and high-risk areas are also not permitted. Museum operation was suspended in late July after sporadic locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported in several provinces of China. Discovered in 1974, the army of Terracotta Warriors was built by Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-207 B.C.), who unified China for the first time. Other museums of the province, including the Shaanxi History Museum, have also reopened to the public recently. An enhanced version of BeiDou short message service was showcased at the First International Summit on BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Applications held in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, Thursday. The new technology enables two-way communication on mobile phones in areas not covered by ordinary mobile communication signals or when base stations are damaged, which proves useful during earthquake relief, offshore fishing and emergency communication. "Short message service needed a larger satellite terminal such as maritime satellite phone. But the enhanced version's 'low power consumption' feature enables mobile phones to send emergency messages through BeiDou satellites even without ground mobile communication signals," said Li Jingyuan, director of the BeiDou short message team at National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). "The information transmission rate of the enhanced version has increased 10 times, which means pictures and voice messages can be sent out quickly," Li added. At the summit, NUDT, the people's government of Hunan and China Electronics Corporation signed an industrial cooperation agreement to further expand short message service to low orbit satellite users, and make the service play a role in global satellite Internet of Things, international life rescue, global emergency communication and other industrial applications. The China Pavilion, one of the largest pavilions at the Expo 2020 Dubai, will open on Oct. 1, an official said Thursday. Twenty-six provincial-level regions and more than 40 leading Chinese enterprises will hold exhibitions, forums and other activities at the expo through online and offline channels, said Zhang Shenfeng, deputy head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, at a press conference. The number of Chinese enterprises participating in the Expo 2020 is more than that of any other previous World Expos held outside China, Zhang said. Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Expo 2020 is slated to be held from Oct. 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, in the United Arab Emirates, featuring Connecting Minds, Creating the Future as its theme. To date, a total of 192 countries have confirmed their participation in the Expo 2020, and the event is expected to attract 25 million visitors. An aerial photo taken on Sept. 16, 2021 shows a temporary shelter in Fuji Township of Luxian County, southwest China's Sichuan Province. [Photo/Xinhua] Three people were confirmed dead and 88 others were sent to hospital after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Luxian County in the city of Luzhou, in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Among those hospitalized, three were seriously injured, according to the city's emergency management bureau. China Earthquake Administration has dispatched a work team to guide on-site disaster-relief work. A total of 890 commanders and fighters from nearby fire-fighting and rescue brigades have been mobilized, while another 4,600 rescue workers are on standby. As of 8:30 a.m., the loss figures came in as follows: 737 collapsed houses; 72 houses with serious damage; and 7,290 damaged to some extent. Collapsed walls and houses were seen on the way to rain-battered Jiaming Township in the epicenter area. Electricity in most of the houses in the town has been suspended. Shelves from shops that fell off during the tremors, lay scattered along the street. Residents were seen cleaning up the cluttered scene. The provincial department of finance has allocated 50 million yuan (about 7.8 million U.S. dollars) to support disaster-relief efforts, including the settlement of affected residents. Amid heavy rain in Fuji Township, rescue workers were going door to door searching for people in the damaged houses and moving them to temporary shelters. At the shelter, workers were distributing mooncakes and other food items to the affected people. Lai Jianrong, a Fuji local, told Xinhua reporters that she experienced a mild tremor around 4 a.m., and ran out barefoot in her nightgown when the tremors became intense. "Some bricks fell off the wall and I didn't dare to go in again," she said. She was moved to the temporary shelter in the morning. More than 6,900 affected residents have been relocated, and over 10,000 people have been shifted to temporary shelters as of early Thursday morning, according to the local government. China's Ministry of Emergency Management has allocated 2,000 tents, 10,000 quilts, and 10,000 folding beds to the residents. Sufficient supplies of petrol have also been guaranteed, with over 60 vehicles mobilized to transport petroleum products to the quake-hit areas, according to the Luzhou branch with the China National Petroleum Corporation. According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the earthquake occurred at 4:33 a.m. The epicenter was monitored at 29.2 degrees north latitude and 105.34 degrees east longitude. The quake struck at a depth of 10 km. Approved by the provincial government, the earthquake relief headquarters of Sichuan has activated a level-II response, the second-highest in China's four-tier earthquake emergency response system. Some telecommunication base stations and cables were damaged. The Luzhou high-speed railway station has been closed, according to railway authorities. All coal mines have been ordered to halt underground operations and evacuate miners in shafts. Zhang Zhiwei, deputy head of the Sichuan earthquake administration, said the quake, unlike the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake in the province, happened in the fracture zone of Huaying Mountain. An expert analysis concluded that a more serious earthquake is unlikely in the area, but aftershocks may occur. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech to soldiers and officers at a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 15, 2021. Xi inspected the military base in Shaanxi on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua] Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a speech to soldiers and officers at the base. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, Xi extended sincere greetings to officers and soldiers and encouraged them to make more contributions to building world-class military forces and China's strength in aerospace. Xi had a group photo with the officers and soldiers and heard a work report of the base. Xi affirmed the base's important role in China's space industry and called for innovations in technology and means to ensure accurate, reliable and successful measurement and control work to serve more frequent space launches of higher demands. Noting that space assets are important strategic assets of the country, Xi urged efforts to comprehensively strengthen the protection of these assets. Xi also called for strengthening space traffic management and carrying out international cooperation on space security to improve effectiveness in managing space crises. Reinforcing the Party's political foundations should play a leading role in accomplishing missions of the base, Xi said. He also urged efforts to solve the difficulties of the officers and soldiers and break new ground in the development of the base. You are here: China The area of China's high-standard farmland will total 1.2 billion mu (about 80 million hectares) by 2030, an official said Thursday. Farmland is a cornerstone of food security, and plays a crucial role in the ecosystem and green agricultural development, said Zhang Taolin, vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, at a press briefing for a recently released guideline on farmland cultivation. According to the guideline, 280 million mu of high-standard farmland will also be upgraded by 2030. By the end of 2020, the country had developed 800 million mu of high-standard farmland, which helped increase grain production capacity by 10 percent to 20 percent per mu and save costs by 500 yuan (about 77.7 U.S. dollars) per mu, Zhang said. To achieve the targets, the ministry will help local authorities improve agriculture infrastructure and ramp up disaster prevention and reduction on farmland, Zhang added. China's latest plan for further development of a cooperation zone for Shenzhen and Hong Kong reflects the long-term strategic vision of making Qianhai's business environment world-class by 2035. The reform and opening up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone will be comprehensively and thoroughly deepened. In particular, one of the most promising pieces of news is that the size of the zone's area is to be increased from 14.9 to 120.6 square kilometers. The new blueprint was formulated to help Qianhai better play an exemplary and leading role in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is also hoped that the development model will become far more innovative and sustainable, especially with Qianhai acting as an engine for high-quality development with its strong capacity and capabilities in allocating global resources, fostering scientific innovation, and leading coordinated development. As for the commercial and financial sides, there is a strong call for more qualified financial institutions to conduct cross-border securities investments and other business in the zone. Additional pilot programs will also be launched which utilize combined domestic and foreign currency bank accounts. These moves reflect China's determination in opening up its financial markets and stimulating the long-term economic development of the area. At the same time, in order to enhance trust and confidence among businesspeople investing in the area, the Chinese government has pledged to accelerate the introduction of a new law to offer more protection for investments. Meanwhile, China will devote more resources into making the zone a hub for international legal expertise and arbitration. Offering more comprehensive infrastructure to accelerate the overall development of the project will be imperative to the outcome of the initiative for the Chinese government. In fact, the zone is not an entirely new idea, as it was initially set up in 2009 to foster cooperation between the service industries of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It is estimated that there are currently more than 11,500 Hong Kong-invested companies in the zone, making up over 10% of registered tax-paying companies in the area. Apparently, the aim of the current plan is to further consolidate and expand on this successful experience, allowing all parties and stakeholders to better enjoy the economic benefits and potentials. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has publicly announced that the Hong Kong government is highly supportive of the Qianhai plan, as it will facilitate Hong Kong-Shenzhen cooperation at a higher level. Hong Kong can utilize its unique strengths in serving and complementing the country's needs, while also enjoying the opportunities and benefits associated with the mainland. As a result, both cities can better serve as "dual engines" driving overall development in the Greater Bay Area, which is an important step in maintaining and sharpening competitiveness in a win-win manner. In terms of the actual implementation in realizing synergy, Hong Kong can function as an "offshore" center for international investors to invest in Qianhai. Meanwhile, Hong Kong can also make use of its professional legal expertise and experience to further enhance the incentives for investors to participate in the project. The newly emerging local financial enterprises can set up branches in Qianhai, which is often associated with low land and rental costs as well as wide networks and reach. The deeper connection and integration of both places can help boost the economy, especially in exploiting new opportunities and utilizing their own distinctive advantages. While businesspeople and professionals may seem to be the direct beneficiaries, the news is in fact also promising to many young people and fresh graduates in Hong Kong, as they can have more abundant and diverse opportunities to enhance their social mobility. Given the saturated local labor market and limited development opportunities, many often cannot find a decent job with stable salary and promising future. Nonetheless, the rapid development can now offer these energetic young people with strong language skills and an international vision the chance to unleash their potential and widen their networks. Nonetheless, there is still an urgent need for the Hong Kong government to map out relevant new policies and initiatives, and connect with all the relevant stakeholders, so as to make the most out of the new plans. Meanwhile, there should also be careful planning and coordination of manpower and resources, so that they do not overlap, but rather are maximized in attaining the required outcomes. Furthermore, more concrete measures need to be initiated to narrow the differences in terms of currencies, tax regimes, as well as salary levels between the areas. After all, it is hoped that such vigorous and widespread development can help maintain Hong Kong's prosperity and stability in the long run. At the same time, the plan also reflects the very fact that the global economic system has always been interconnected and interdependent, meaning it requires more extensive and frequent collaboration. It would be exciting to see an even greater flow of people, capital and commodities under the extensive promotion of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone. Mathew Wong is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Education University of Hong Kong. Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn. Flash A Chinese diplomat on Thursday expressed China's "grave concern" at the pronounced assistance by the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia's acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. Addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors meeting, Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, described the trilateral move as "sheer act of nuclear proliferation". The U.S. and the UK, both nuclear weapon states, and are state parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which prevents proliferation of nuclear weapons and technologies, the core obligation for its state parties, Wang stated. He stressed that such assistance "will apparently give rise to proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies by openly providing assistance to Australia", a non-nuclear weapon state, in its acquisition and building of the nuclear-powered submarine. "This contradicts the purpose, objective and core obligation of the NPT to the detriment of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime with the NPT at its core and on-going international efforts on this front," Wang stated. "While firmly safeguarding the validity of the international non-proliferation regime, China wishes to register its grave concern at the development," Wang said. "In the meantime, we believe that, it is the responsibility of IAEA, as an international organization mandated to implement NPT non-proliferation regime, to openly express its solemn position at the trilateral act by the U.S., the UK and Australia, which contradict their obligations under the NPT," Wang stated. Wang also stressed that, such an act of nuclear proliferation "will give rise to serious negative implications on the on-going international efforts to address the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula as well as the Iranian nuclear issue". "Given the ongoing review and discussions of the Korean Peninsula and Iranian nuclear issues at the IAEA Board of Governors and the General Conference, it is essential that all members of the Board and international organizations including IAEA, make solemn position on the trilateral collaboration among the U.S., UK and Australia in helping Australia develop nuclear-powered submarine, in promotion of the full and effective implementation of international non-proliferation obligations under the NPT by all countries," he stated. Exporting highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology to Australia has shown that the U.S. and the UK have "once again adopted a double standard on nuclear export", and "have taken nuclear export as a means of their geo-political game", Wang pointed out. Wang said that, in the meantime, it is "utterly irresponsible" for Australia, as a non-nuclear state and state party to the NPT and South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, to import nuclear submarine technology with strategic militarily value. "The international community, including neighboring countries, has every reason to question Australia's sincerity in implementation of nuclear non-proliferation commitment under the relevant treaties," he said. The trilateral collaboration by the U.S., the UK and Australia "will seriously impair the regional peace and stability, escalate arms race, to the detriment of international peace and security," Wang added. Wang said that China will closely follow its development and reserve the right to make further responses. In the meantime, China will call on the international community to "work together to check such a dangerous act". In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, governments of the U.S., the UK and Australia announced the creation of a new trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS," which will help "significantly deepen cooperation on a range of security and defense capabilities". The first initiative under AUKUS will be the delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia, and the three countries will spend as many as 18 months discussing how this capability will be delivered, according to the statement. Flash President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday met in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, agreeing to promote bilateral ties and strengthen cooperation. Zhaparov asked Wang to convey his sincere greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said that Kyrgyzstan regards China as a good neighbor, good friend and trustworthy good partner, and appreciates China's assistance in providing vaccines and food. Zhaparov said that Kyrgyzstan highly appreciates China's efforts in the international cooperation in vaccination and fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, and China plays a leading role in the building of a community of common health. Kyrgyzstan is committed to the comprehensive development of bilateral relations, firmly supports China on issues concerning Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang, and resolutely opposes interference by external forces in China's internal affairs, he said. He added that Kyrgyzstan is willing to work with China to strengthen cooperation in building the Belt and Road and deepen bilateral economic, trade, and investment cooperation. The country will create a good business environment for foreign investors, including those from China. The two sides should work together to combat the "three evil forces" of terrorism, extremism and separatism, tackle global challenges such as cybercrime, transnational crime, and drug crime, and work together to maintain regional security and stability, Zhaparov said. Wang conveyed the sincere greetings of President Xi to President Zhaparov and congratulated Kyrgyzstan on the 30th anniversary of its independence. China has always been and will always be a good neighbor and partner of Kyrgyzstan, Wang said, adding that China sincerely hopes that Kyrgyzstan will achieve long-term stable development and promote the process of national rejuvenation. China will continue to support Kyrgyzstan in taking a development path that suits its own national conditions and support the country in safeguarding its national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity while opposing external forces to interfere in its internal affairs under any pretext, he said. China is willing to continue to provide active support for Kyrgyzstan's fight against the pandemic, and will encourage capable and reputable enterprises to invest and start businesses in Kyrgyzstan to help the country recover its economy and improve people's livelihood, according to Wang. The two countries, as close neighbors of Afghanistan, should further enhance the level of law enforcement cooperation to prevent the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement and other violent and terrorist forces from returning, and to prevent external forces from replicating the chaos in Afghanistan in Central Asia, Wang said. He added that China appreciates Kyrgyzstan's support for China's legitimate position on human rights issues, and is willing to work with Kyrgyzstan to uphold the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and oppose the politicization of human rights issues. Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a common commitment on Thursday to strengthen cooperation in various fields between the two countries. Not long ago, the two ministers attended the commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the victory of World War II, voicing loud and clear their position that history should not be tampered with and truth should not be erased, Wang said during a meeting with Lavrov. He said that China firmly backs Russia in pursuing a development path that is suited to its national conditions and taking measures to protect its state power, sovereignty and security. China is ready to work with Russia to safeguard the outcome of the victory of World War II and uphold international fairness and justice, Wang said. He suggested that the two countries continue to advance anti-epidemic cooperation, achieve the bilateral trade target of 200 billion U.S. dollars annually at an early date, and open up a new chapter of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. Wang said that China is ready to step up coordination with Russia on the Afghan issue and respond together, urging the United States and the West to shoulder their due responsibilities and jointly maintain regional peace and stability. The senior official said China appreciates Russia's opposition to politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing and human rights issues, and stands ready to deepen back-to-back strategic coordination with Russia, and promote international cooperation against the pandemic. He added that China and Russia should communicate and coordinate within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), jointly safeguard peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, and tackle various global challenges. Lavrov said Russia and China held events commemorating the victory of World War II, which once again proved the unbreakable friendship forged on the battlefield and indestructible partnership between the two countries. He said that the two sides should continue to boost anti-epidemic cooperation, push forward pragmatic exchanges, and expand trade volumes. Russia unwaveringly supports China's positions on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet and human rights, Lavrov said, adding that tracing COVID-19 origins is a scientific issue and should not be used as an instrument for political pressure. Russia supports China in hosting the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and wishes Chinese athletes more achievements in the event, he noted. He said Russia is willing to work with China to push for greater influence of the SCO, strengthen coordination on the Afghan issue, jointly safeguard peace and stability in Central Asia, address global issues such as information security, biosecurity and cyber crimes in the United Nations and other multilateral arenas, and increase coordination and cooperation in Asia-Pacific affairs. PJI Sues to halt City of Los Angeles from Cheating Employees out of Religious Accommodations NEWS PROVIDED BY Pacific Justice Institute Sept. 16, 2021 LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) and affiliate attorney Daniel Watkins filed a federal lawsuit last week on behalf of Los Angeles Police Department employees to bar the City from depriving employees of their rights to seek religious accommodations to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The City announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on August 20, 2021, for not only full-time and part-time City employees, but also individuals such as volunteers, interns, 120-day retired employees, and elected officials. The City set a deadline of September 7 for employees to submit religious accommodation requests and comply with mask requirements, physical distancing, weekly COVID-19 testing, and vaccine training. However, neither the City nor the LAPD implemented a procedure to submit or review religious accommodation requests before the deadline, leaving hundreds of LAPD employees with no choice but to submit religious accommodation requests without direction. The LAPD obstructed the processing of nearly half of those religious accommodation requests and has not yet processed the rest. Unvaccinated LAPD employees who sought accommodations have since endured an onslaught of hostile demands, threats of being terminated, and accusations from commanding officers, such as statements that they lack "sympathy and caring" for COVID-19 issues and that they are "unfit to wear the uniform." On Friday, September 10, the City at last provided an online portal for employees to submit their accommodation requests. But the City announced that the portal would close on Monday, September 13, and would not accept requests submitted outside the short 72-hour window. "PJI stands with these LAPD employees who, instead of being provided an avenue to exercise their constitutional and statutory rights to request accommodations, were shamed and cheated out of those rights by their own Department," stated Brad Dacus, President of PJI. "We have asked the court to require the City to respect and immediately accommodate employees who have sincerely held religious beliefs." PJI and Daniel Watkins of Watkins & Letofsky, LLP initiated this case, Burcham, et al. v. City of Los Angeles, et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-07296, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. To see the Complaint filed in this case, click here. SOURCE Pacific Justice Institute CONTACT: Brad Dacus, 916-616-4126 Related Links pacificjustice.org America Celebrates 234th Constitution Day NEWS PROVIDED BY Liberty Counsel Sept. 17, 2021 WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today Americans celebrate the day the Founding Fathers signed the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. Constitution Day, once known as Citizenship Day, commemorates the U.S. Constitution. On this day in 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. The original states, except Rhode Island, collectively appointed 70 individuals to the Constitutional Convention. In all, 55 delegates attended the Constitutional Convention sessions, but only 39 actually signed or were able to sign the Constitution. The delegates ranged in age from Jonathan Dayton, 26, to Benjamin Franklin, 81, who had to be carried to sessions in a sedan chair. Many of the delegates involved in writing the Constitution credit God for that document. For example: Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father who began work with Rev. James Bayard to form the Christian Constitutional Society to help promote the two things which Hamilton said made America great: (1) Christianity and (2) a Constitution formed under Christianity "For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God could never have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests." James Wilson, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and a Supreme Court Justice appointed by George Washington - "Christianity is part of the common law." George Washington, first president of the United States "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." John Adams, second president and first vice president "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father and author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman and diplomat - "God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel." Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "We must continue to fight to defend the U.S. Constitution. Some want to re-write this priceless document and change America into a socialist government in which an elite ruling class holds power rather than the people. The Constitution established a limited government that requires the people to be self-governed for the system to work. It is essential to study the Constitution so we never forget the foundation of godly and enduring principles that gave birth to America." Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost. SOURCE Liberty Counsel CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org Related Links lc.org/ September 15, 2021 As the second stage engine of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket cut off, Hayley Arceneaux reached into a pouch strapped to her leg and pulled out a plush doll. She then let it go. The toy, attached to a tether, began to float above Arceneaux's head and in doing so, fulfilled its purpose as the Inspiration4 mission's "zero-g indicator." Hanging in the air, it provided a visual signal to Arceneaux and her three crewmates that they were now in the microgravity environment of outer space. "We can see the zero-g indicator floating around," Andy Tran, a SpaceX quality engineer, said on the live webcast of the launch on Wednesday (Sept. 15). "And it looks like it is a little golden retriever," senior certification engineer Kate Tice said. "Like the golden retriever assistance dogs at St. Jude's Children's [Research] Hospital. That is apropos," Jessie Anderson, a SpaceX production and engineer manager, chimed in. Almost simultaneously back down on Earth, St. Jude's launched the plush puppy's secondary mission to inspire people to give. "Inspiration4 has reached zero gravity and unleashed their zero gravity indicator!" the hospital announced on Twitter. "Check out our gift shop to get your own space buddy dog plush." Underwritten by billionaire and mission commander Jared Isaacman, Inspiration4 aims to be St. Jude's largest fundraiser, bringing in $200 million to advance pediatric cancer research. Isaacman donated the first $100 million and has used the spaceflight with its "all-civilian" crew, including medical officer Arceneaux, a cancer survivor and physician's assistant at St. Jude's to encourage the public to donate, too. The tradition of flying zero-g indicators began in Russia, inspired by the world's first person to fly into space. Yuri Gagarin carried a small doll with him on his Vostok 1 mission in 1961. Later cosmonauts launched with stuffed toys, often at the choice of their children, and hung them from their spacecraft control panels. SpaceX adopted the custom with its first flight of a Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. Past SpaceX zero-g indicators have included a Celestial Buddies' plush Earth, a Ty sequined dinosaur named "Tremor," a Star Wars Grogu (or "baby Yoda") and a Jellycat "My First Penguin" named by its crew "GuinGuin." The Inspiration4 zero-g indicator may be the first in history, though, to be used to raise funds for a cause. "Celebrate the first all-civilian mission to space with this adorable replica," St. Jude's wrote on its gift shop's listing for the Inspiration4 zero gravity indicator replica. "Lovingly named Jude, this plush is wearing its St. Jude space suit and is ready to take your imagination to the stars." The "extra-soft plush" was modeled after the hospital's facility dogs, Puggle and Huckleberry. Since September 2019, the two specially-trained golden retrievers have worked with St. Jude patients to "help them meet clinical goals, easing fears and calming patients during challenging situations." Sales of the 15-inch (38-cm) Gund doll support St. Jude's life-saving research and care. The replica space puppies cost $24 each. Within three hours of the Inspiration4 launch, the first batch of dolls were sold out. "Due to an amazing response to the Inspiration4 launch, we are currently sold out of the Inspiration4 Zero Gravity Indicator Replica Space Puppy. More are on the way Sept. 27th!" St. Jude's gift shop posted to its website. The Inspiration4 crew, including Isaacman, Arceneaux, pilot Sian Proctor and mission specialist Chris Sembroski, packed their SpaceX Dragon with memorabilia to auction for St. Jude's. The mission will orbit Earth for the next three days and then return to a splashdown off the coast of Florida. Space News space history and artifacts articles Messages space history discussion forums Sightings worldwide astronaut appearances Resources selected space history documents advertisements Shenzhou 12 crew lands after record stay on Chinese space station September 17, 2021 China's first space station crew has returned to Earth with the record for the longest time in space by Chinese astronauts. Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo landed on Friday (Sept. 17) aboard their Shenzhou 12 spacecraft after spending 92 days in orbit. Descending under a parachute, the capsule touched down at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT or 1:34 p.m. Beijing Time) near Dongfeng in the Gobi Desert, northeast of the Jiuquan Satellite Center from where they launched three months ago. It was the first Shenzhou to land in Dongfeng. Previous Chinese crewed missions returned to China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Haisheng, Boming and Hongbo began their trip home by departing the Tianhe core module of China's new Tiangong space station on Wednesday (Sept. 15). The Shenzhou 12 spacecraft separated from the orbital outpost at 8:56 p.m. EDT (0058 GMT or 8:56 a.m. Beijing Time Sept. 16). After undocking, the crew performed circumnavigation and radial rendezvous tests, collecting data about the how the Shenzhou performed in close proximity to the Tianhe module in preparation for future missions to the space station. The crew's landing capped a successful mission, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). Launched on June 16, Haisheng, Boming and Hongbo reached the station within 6.5 hours and became the first to enter the 54-foot-long (16.6-m) Tianhe, or "Harmony of the Heavens." Outfitted similarly to the International Space Station but on a smaller scale, the core module includes individual crew quarters, a galley and modular science racks lining the interior walls. The three astronauts spent their 90 days on Tianhe outfitting the interior of the core module, performing science experiments, taking part in outreach activities and maintaining the systems aboard the station. The Shenzhou 12 crewmates partook in more than 120 different kinds of food and used a treadmill and stationary bicycle to exercise. The crew was able to stay in touch with the ground using two-way video calls and email. The astronauts also performed two spacewalks. On July 3, Liu and Tang conducted a six-hour, 46-minute extravehicular activity (EVA) to test their newly-redesigned Chinese Feitian and configure tools on the station's exterior to facilitate future spacewalks. Liu also demonstrated the capability of a 33-foot-long (10-meter) robotic arm to maneuver an astronaut to different workstations, with Boming controlling the arm from inside the module. Nie and Liu performed the Shenzhou 12 mission's second EVA on Aug. 19, installing and extending pumps and deploying a panoramic camera. The five-hour, 55-minute spacewalk also prepared Tianhe for the addition of future modules. China launched the Tianhe core module in April, beginning a series of 11 planned missions to establish and utilize its first multi-module space station by the end of 2022. When complete, the T-shaped Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") complex will also have two science modules, Wentian ("Quest for the Heavens") and Mengtian ("Dreaming of the Heavens"), extending from the sides of Tianhe. The Shenzhou 12 mission was China's seventh human spaceflight since 2003. It was Nie's third mission, Liu's second and Tang's first. As Shenzhou 12 prepared to return to Earth, China rolled out a Long March 7 rocket with Tianzhou 3, the country's second resupply ship bound for its space station. Expected to launch on Sept. 20, the cargo craft will deliver supplies needed for Shenzhou 13, China's next crewed mission planned for October. China's Shenzhou 12 capsule with Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming descends approaches a landing in the Gobi Desert after returning from China's space station, Sept. 17, 2021. (Xinhua) Shenzhou 12 crew members Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming in the core module of China's space station. (CMSA) Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming during the second spacewalk of two conducted during the Shenzhou 12 mission. (CMSA) Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming on China's Shenzhou 12 spacecraft during their return to Earth on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (CMSA/CGTN) Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming wave after landing in the Gobi Desert on board China's Shenzhou 12 after 92 days in space. (Xinhua) 2021 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved. date syrup market generated $361.3 million in 2020, and is projected to reach $514.3 million by 2028, witnessing a CAGR of 4.2% from 2021 to 2028. The report provides a detailed analysis of changing market dynamics, top segments, value chain, key investment pockets, regional scenario, and competitive landscape. Rise in consumption of date syrup in the commercial sector and preference for date syrup among diabetes patients drive the growth of the global date syrup market. However, multiple substitute availability and low product knowledge among the customers restrain the market to some extent. On the other hand, production of organic date syrup and modernized packaging & processing present new opportunities in the upcoming years. Download Sample PDF (229 Pages PDF with Insights): https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/13320 COVID-19 scenario: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to temporary closure of production facilities of date syrup across the globe. The pandemic has further disrupted the supply chain due to which the manufacturers faced a lot of challenges to deliver finished goods to supermarkets or hypermarkets. The report offers detailed segmentation of the global date syrup market based on nature, end user, distribution channel, and region. Based on nature, the commercial segment held the highest market share in 2020, holding more than four-fifths of the total market share, and is expected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. However, the organic segment is estimated to register the highest CAGR of 6.2% from 2021 to 2028. Request the Covid19 Impact Analysis @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/13320?reqfor=covid Based on end user, the commercial segment held the largest market share in 2020, holding nearly three-fifths of the total market share, and is expected to continue its leadership status during the forecast period. However, the residential segment is projected to register the highest CAGR of 4.8% from 2021 to 2028. Based on region, the global date syrup market across Europe contributed to the highest share in terms of revenue in 2020, holding two-fifths of the total market share, and is estimated to continue its dominant share by 2028. However, Asia-Pacific is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period. Interested in Procuring this Report? Visit Here: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/date-syrup-market/purchase-options Leading players of the global date syrup market analyzed in the research include Lion Dates Impex Pvt Ltd., Al Foah, Galil Foods, Hain Celestial Group(Clarks UK Ltd), Belazu Ingredient Company., Just Date Syrup, Arat Company PJS., Ratinkhosh Co., Ario Co, and Sahara Dates. According to the latest market report published by Trends market research (TMR) titled Tissue Paper Converting Machines Market by 2027, Toilet rolls tissue paper converting machines segmentis expected to be the largest contributor to the global tissue paper converting machines market over the forecast period, 2018-2025.Globally, the revenue generated from sales of tissue paper converting machines has been estimated to be around US$ XXXX Mnin 2018, and is projected to increase at a CAGR of XX% during forecast period 2018-2025. The globally rising urban population and increasing concern among the consumers regarding proper hygiene has propelled the market for tissue paper products. This inclination in the demand of tissue paper products has been recognised by the tissue paper converting firms across the globe. This has led to the expansion in the production capacity of multinational tissue paper products manufacturers by either adding machinery to the manufacturing facility or by acquiring the emerging small and regional tissue converting companies. The trend among tissue paper converting firms to expand the production capacity to meet the increasing demand of tissue paper products has fuelled the tissue paper converting machines market. Request for Report Sample: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/3665 Due to rapid expansion of global tissue paper products production capacity, the required production capacity to meet the global demand of tissue paper products has reached to around 80% of the present production capacity. Thus, the global overcapacity of tissue paper products production has restrained the growth of tissue paper converting machines market. Moreover, the slower acceptance of proper hygiene in developing countries of Asia Pacific is the reason for low per capita consumption of tissue paper, while the demand for the same is expected to rise at a considerable pace. China and India are the producers of low production capacity tissue paper converting machines at very low prices as compared to the machines manufactured by European and North American manufacturers. Thus, a large portion of tissue paper converting machines demand in the region is served by low cost machines produced by regional players. This fact has restrained the global revenue generated by the tissue paper converting machines market. Industry 4.0, which is the wireless connectivity among various machinery in the production line with the help of technology such as internet of things (IOT), cognitive computing, cyber-physical systems and others, is the trend impacting the tissue paper converting machines market players across the globe. Other than this, the tissue paper converting firms keep on innovating to improve the brand position in the global market. This leads to the demand of highly customized machines over the standard tissue paper converting solutions. To enhance the pace of production of tissue paper products, the key market players are focusing on developing the rewinding machine, which is highly responsible for the productivity of the complete converting line. Forte rewinder launched by PCMC, and Constellation technology based rewinder launched by Fabio Perini are trend setter for the tissue paper converting machines market. Place a Direct Purchase Order @ http://trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/3665/Single Although, the key global players of tissue paper converting market has made the market highly competitive for the small and emerging players to sustain in the market, the private label brands of tissue paper products are experiencing considerable growth. Thus, the increasing market for nationwide retail chains and their attraction towards the tissue paper market has created ample opportunities for the tissue paper converting machines market players. In terms of opportunity created by the geographical regions, North Africa is expected to create very high opportunity for the market. This is due to more than twice the demand of tissue paper than the tissue paper converting capacity of the region. Thus, North Africa creates a lucrative market for the global tissue paper converting firms to export to the region, and also for regional players to emerge in the region. Some of the players operating in the global tissue paper converting machines market include Fabio Perini S.p.A, Paper Converting Machine Company Italia S.p.A., Omet S.R.L., KawanoeZoki Co., Ltd., MtorresDisenosIndustriales Sau, BaoSuo Paper Machinery Manufacture Co., Ltd., A.Celli Group, United Converting S.R.L., Futura S.p.A., Dechangyu Paper Machinery Manufacture Co., Ltd., Gambini S.p.A, C.G. Bretting Manufacturing Co. Inc., Wangda Industrial Co., Limited, ZambakKagitSan.VeTic.Ltd.Sti., Unimax Group Engineering & Development Corporation, Tissuewell S.R.L., 9. Septembar- Tissue Converting D.O.O., Maflex S.R.L., Hinnli Co., Ltd., and Chan Li Machinery Co., Ltd. Get Request for Table of Contents: https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/requesttoc/3665 The global cocoa processing market size reached a volume of 4.86 Million Tons in 2020. Looking forward, the market expects to exhibit moderate growth during the next five years, according to the latest report by IMARC Group. Report Metric Historical: 2015-2020 Base Year: 2020 Forecast Year: 2021-2026 Download free sample of the report: https://www.imarcgroup.com/cocoa-processing-plant/requestsample Industry Definition and Application: A cocoa bean is obtained from the cocoa tree, also known as Theobroma cacao. Cocoa processing refers to the method of obtaining cocoa powder, butter, and liquor from cocoa beans. As they are rich in magnesium, cocoa-based products aid in catalyzing protein synthesis and energy production. Moreover, cocoa also contains copper, which aids in brain development, iron transport, and glucose metabolism. Due to these factors, these products are also considered as superfoods with the ability to uplift mood and boost mental performance. Global Cocoa Processing Market Trends: Cocoa remains an indispensable raw material in the chocolate, food, and beverage industries. Cocoa beans are rich in flavonoids, such as theobromine and proanthocyanidins, which are well-known for their anti-aging, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. They also help in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart failure, arrhythmia, and cardiomyopathy. Due to these factors, there has been a rise in the demand for cocoa-based products, like energy bars, among health-conscious consumers. Apart from this, cocoa also finds applications in non-food industries like the personal care industry. Cocoa butter is one of the preferred ingredients in over-the-counter skin products like soap bars, lotions, creams, and lip balms, as it helps in moisturizing the skin. Moreover, cocoa products are used as flavoring agents and coatings on medicines and supplements in the pharmaceutical industry. As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis takes over the world, we are continuously tracking the changes in the markets, as well as the industry behaviours of the consumers globally and our estimates about the latest market trends and forecasts are being done after considering the impact of this pandemic. Competitive Landscape The competitive landscape of the market has been analyzed in the report, with some of the key players being Guan Chong Bhd., Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. Limited, Cocoa Touton Processing Company Limited, T ransmar Group, Nestle SA, Barry Callebaut Group, Cargill Incorporated, Olam International, Blommer Chocolate Company, Mondelez International, Inc. For more information about this report visit: http://bit.ly/2WebepP Market Summary: On the basis of the bean type, forastero accounts for the majority of the market share. Other bean types are trinitario and criollo. Based on the product type, the market has been categorized into cocoa liquor, cocoa powder, and cocoa butter. Currently, cocoa liquor represents the most popular product type. On the basis of the application, confectionary represents the biggest application segment in the market. Other segments include pharmaceuticals, beverages, bakery, and others. Region-wise, the market has been classified into Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, and Europe. At present, Europe exhibits a clear dominance in the market. If you want latest primary and secondary data (2021-2026) with Cost Module, Business Strategy, Distribution Channel, etc. Click request free sample report, published report will be delivered to you in PDF format via email within 24 to 48 hours of receiving full payment. About Us IMARC Group is a leading market research company that offers management strategy and market research worldwide. We partner with clients in all sectors and regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their businesses. IMARCs information products include major market, scientific, economic and technological developments for business leaders in pharmaceutical, industrial, and high technology organizations. Market forecasts and industry analysis for biotechnology, advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, travel and tourism, nanotechnology and novel processing methods are at the top of the companys expertise. Contact US IMARC Group 30 N Gould St Ste R Sheridan, WY 82801 USA Wyoming Email: Sales@imarcgroup.com Tel No:(D) +91 120 433 0800 Americas:- +1 631 791 1145 | Africa and Europe :- +44-702-409-7331 | Asia: +91-120-433-0800, +91-120-433-0800 San Francisco, 17 Sep 2021: The Report Dental Bone Void Filler Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Material Type (Calcium Phosphate Cements, Calcium Sulfates, DBM), By Region (APAC, North America), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028 The global dental bone void filler market size is expected to reach USD 127.0 million by 2028, registering a CAGR of 5.6%, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The growth is attributable to the biological performance of materials, such as calcium phosphate-based bone substitutes that are biocompatible, have good volume maintenance over time, and are bioabsorbable. Dental professionals are at risk of contracting COVID-19 infection due to proximity with patients during the dental procedures. This factor has created fear among the dental professionals leading to reduced patient intake, which can, in turn, hamper the market growth. Bone grafting is being widely practiced in dentistry as poor fixation and loosening of dental implants are common complications. Thus, void fillers are used to minimize these complications and facilitate cellular growth & targeted high-quality bone formation, as well as increase the contact interface with the graft. This results in stabilization and better fixation of dental implants. Such benefits are expected to boost market growth. The global market is also driven by the availability of advanced materials, such as hydroxyapatite. For instance, Osbone, hydroxyapatite, is a graft material indicated for augmentation of the atrophied alveolar ridge and filling bone defects. The benefit of Osbone includes a minimal residual risk of allergic and infections reactions., which, in turn, ensures long-term and fast stability of the scaffolding for bone generation. Such advantages increase the demand for the product thus boosting the market. Access Research Report of Dental Bone Void Filler Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dental-bone-void-filler-market-report Dental Bone Void Filler Market Report Highlights Technological advancements are expected to propel market growth. For instance, a three-dimensional scaffold supports new tissue growth of a Demineralized Bone Matrix (DBM) that has osteoinductive qualities DBM provides a framework for matrix and cell protein adhesion and contains osteogenic substances that help induce new bone growth. Thus, 3D technology increases the demand for DBM, thus propelling the market growth. The DBM segment accounted for the largest revenue share of nearly 25% in 2020 owing to growing technological advancements in the medical-dental field North America contributed for the second-largest share of around 38.0% owing to the high healthcare expenditure In addition, the presence of key companies and well-established reimbursement policies will boost the regional market growth List of Key Players of Dental Bone Void Filler Market Curasan, Inc. Olympus Terumo Biomaterials Corp. Medtronic GRAFTYS DePuy Synthes Companies Stryker Access Press Release of Dental Bone Void Filler Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-dental-bone-void-filler-market Population Health Management is the managing of data or information of patients across multiple health information technology resources, then analysis the existing data for a single actionable patient record. Through these actionable records health care providers can improve both financial and clinical outcomes. The main objective of population health management is to improve the health outcomes of a group of population by examining individual patients within the group. Click Here to Get Sample Premium Report @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/9937 Support from government for the prevention of diseases such as in US, implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is driving the market of population health management. Adoption of HCIT, increasing number of geriatric population which leads in increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing need for affordable treatment options, and advancing IT and big data capabilities are contributing in the growth of the population health management market. On the basis of component, mode of delivery and end users the global population health management market is segmented into various segments and sub segments. On the basis of software and services are the two segments of the market. On the basis of deployment mode the market is categorised into web-based, cloud-based and on-premise. The web-based segment is projected as has the largest share of the global population health management market. The main reason for the same may be fewer requirements of software and hardware for using web-based PHM solutions which results in low installation cost. Factor such as increasing adoption of web-based services by healthcare providers has also driven the market. In addition, a cloud based solution is flexible, managed by the service providers works on real time and can be operate from any location which adds advantages. On the basis of end users the market is fragmented into segments such as healthcare providers, healthcare payers, employer groups and government bodies. Healthcare providers are projected to lead the market share during the forecast period. The main drivers for the same are less number of cost care management gaps and reduction of per capita cost. North America is anticipated for the largest share of the global population health management market. Key driver of the region is in the U.S., rising healthcare costs, growth in number of geriatric population, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), rising prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing funding for population health management, and increasing number of awareness campaigns. Countries of North America such as in Canada, the growth of the market is contributed by the rising healthcare spending, support from the government on healthcare sector , and rising prevalence of chronic diseases in the country. You can Buy This Report from Here @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/checkout/9937/Single The prominent players of the global population health management market Cerner Corporation, Mckesson Corporation, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. , Healthagen, LLC (A Division of Aetna, Inc.), Optumhealth (Unitedhealth Group, Inc.), IBM Corporation, Epic Corporation, Inc., Conifer Health Solutions, LLC, Health Catalyst, LLC, WeLLCentive, Inc. (A Subsidiary of Royal Philips) and many more. The global population health management market has been segmented as follows: Global Population Health Management Market, by Component Software Services Global Population Health Management Market, by Mode of Delivery Web-based Cloud-based On-premise Request For Report Discounts @ https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/discount/9937 Global Population Health Management Market, by End Ussers Healthcare Providers Healthcare Payers Employer Groups Government Bodies Global Population Health Management Market, by Geography San Francisco, 17 Sep 2021: The Report Medical Device Packaging Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Material (Plastic, Metal), By Product (Pouches & Bags, Boxes), By Application (Equipment & Tools, IVD), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2028 The global medical device packaging market size is expected to reach USD 48.97 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2020 to 2028. The market growth is attributed to the growing demand for medical devices, such as surgical implants and instruments, medical supplies, electro-medical equipment, and in-vitro diagnostic equipment. The increasing aging population that requires advanced medical treatments, coupled with the unhealthy lifestyles of people, has been resulting in the high prevalence of chronic diseases. These medical device packaging products are manufactured through various technologies, such as heat seal and sterilization, in order to ensure product safety and convenience in use. Furthermore, several other technologies such as seal peal and counterfeit have been utilized by the manufacturers in order to hinder counterfeit and duplicate products in the market. These counterfeit technologies are also used to track the products and offer complete protection against counterfeiting through unique numbering/ serialization. The medical device packaging industry is concentrated in the developed countries, including the U.S., Germany, the U.K., and China. due to the large production volumes of medical devices in the aforementioned countries. However, the investments in the medical device industry in developing countries, such as India and Brazil, have been growing in recent years, which is expected to benefit the market growth in the coming years. In vitro diagnostic (IVD) devices witnessed a massives pike in demand in 2020 amid the COVID-19 outbreak. This was due to the amplified demand for infectious disease tests undertaken by countries, such as the U.S., India, China, and the U.K. The countries significantly invested in COVID-19 testing to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The key companies operating in the market are involved in the acquisition of medium and small size companies aiming to expand their product portfolio and increase manufacturing capacity. For instance, in October 2020, CCL Industries signed an agreement to acquire Denmark-based Graphic West International ApS. The acquisition was aimed to expand the capability to serve healthcare customers in Europe and North America. Access Research Report of Medical Device Packaging Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-devices-packaging-market Medical Device Packaging Market Report Highlights In terms of material, metal is expected to register the highest growth rate of 7.2% over the forecast period. The aluminum-based boxes, trays, and flexible pouches are prominently used products in the industry and offer an effective barrier against moisture, oxygen, and light By product, pouches and bags dominated the market with a share of over 35.0% in 2020. This is attributed due to the flexible feature that can accommodate medical devices of various shapes and sizes. Their small size and high product-to-package ratio enable easy storage and handling of medical devices In terms of application, IVDs are expected to expand at the fastest CAGR from 2020 to 2028 due to the increasing demand for infectious disease diagnostic instruments and reagents. This is due to the high demand for the aforementioned medical devices during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic Europe emerged as the dominant regional market in 2020. This is due to the presence of several medical device producers that manufacture IVD test kits, ventilators, and other diagnostic devices in the countries, such as the U.K. and Germany Key players in the market are involved in mergers and acquisitions and geographical expansions List of Key Players of Medical Device Packaging Market Amcor plc Sonoco Products Company Mondi CCL Industries Constantia Flexibles WestRock Company Berry Global Inc. Glenroy Inc. SteriPack Group Riverside Medical Packaging Company Ltd. Access Press Release of Medical Device Packaging Market @ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-medical-devices-packaging-market AI Training Dataset Market Growth & Trends The global AI training dataset market size is expected to reach USD 4.90 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 19.5% from 2021 to 2028. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is proliferating. As organizations are transitioning toward automation, the demand for technology is rising. The technology has provided unprecedented advances across various industry verticals, including marketing, healthcare, logistics, transportation, and many others. The benefits of integrating the technology across various operations of the organizations have outweighed its costs, thereby driving adoption. Due to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence technology, the need for training datasets is rising exponentially. To make the technology more versatile and accurate with its predictions, a wide number of companies are entering the market space by release various datasets operating across various use cases to train the Machine Learning (ML) algorithm. Such factors are substantially contributing to market growth. Factors such as the cultivation of new high-quality datasets to speed up the development of AI technology and deliver accurate results are driving the market growth. For instance, in January 2019, IBM Corporation, a technology company, announced the release of a new dataset that comprises 1 million images of faces. This dataset was released to help developers to train their face recognition systems supported by artificial intelligence technology with diverse datasets. This dataset will help them to increase the accuracy of face identification. Request a free sample copy or view report summary: AI Training Dataset Market Report AI Training Dataset Market Report Highlights The increasing creation of synthetic training data for unsupervised and supervised training of machine learning algorithms is driving the adoption of datasets by organizations thereby catalyzing the market growth The image/video segment is expected to portray a high CAGR of approximately 22% over the projected period The Asia Pacific regional market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period, owing to the substantial adoption of AI technology The key players in the market are Google, LLC (Kaggle); Appen Limited; Cogito Tech LLC; Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.; Amazon Web Services, Inc.; Microsoft Corporation; Scale AI; Inc.; Samasource Inc.; Alegion; and Deep Vision Data Access Press Release@ https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-ai-training-dataset-market AI Training Dataset Market Segmentation Grand View Research has segmented the global AI training dataset market based on type, vertical, and region: AI Training Dataset Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2028) Text Image/Video Audio AI Training Dataset Vertical Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2028) IT Automotive Government Healthcare BFSI Retail & E-commerce Others AI Training Dataset Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2018 - 2028) North America US. Canada Mexico Europe Germany UK. France Asia Pacific China Japan India South America Brazil Middle East and Africa List of Key Players in the AI Training Dataset Market Google, LLC (Kaggle) Appen Limited Cogito Tech LLC Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. Amazon Web Services, Inc. Microsoft Corporation Scale AI Inc. Samasource Inc. Alegion Deep Vision Data About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. New York-style pizzeria and Italian restaurant concept offers franchise opportunities;A looking to continue growth in Middle East, Europe and Asia DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Russo's New York Pizzeria, the only authentic New York-style, Italian restaurant and pizzeria franchise concept, is set to open its sixth location in Dubai in October. The restaurant located in Uptown Mirdiff at Corner 47 Algeria St - Mirdiff, Dubai a UAE will feature the restaurant's updated casual dining layout that includes an open-kitchen concept and pizza chef station for guests to watch Russo's chefs prepare their hand-tossed pizzas and homemade meals fresh from scratch. The new design also allows the convenience for guests to choose take-out or delivery. The restaurant in Nakheel Mall at Center of Palm - Al Hilali - The Palm Jumeirah - Dubai a UAE was also opened during a time when the world was seeing a struggling restaurant i! ndustry d ue to covid, showcasing how Russo New York Pizzeria performs with capturing additional sales with promotions for delivery.A "We are excited to offer Dubai families, friends and business associates a seventh location for authentic New York-style pizzeria and Italian," said Anthony Russo, Founder and CEO, Russo's New York Pizzeria. "Blending the simplicity of a pizzeria with the freshness of an upscale Italian restaurant, we deliver a chef-driven dining experience in a fast-casual setting that is unlike any other restaurant in the UAE." Following the family mantra "If it isn't fresh, don't serve it!" Russo's delivers an expansive menu that blends generations of family recipes with fresh, seasonal ingredients and authentic Italian imports like Pecorino Romano cheese from Emilia Romagna, Italy; aged-balsamic vinegar from a centuries-old vineyard in Italy; and extra virgin olive oil from Partanna, Italy. Russo's is passionate about menu innovation. The restaurant is proud to introduce new menu items that are perfectly crafted to showcase fresh, high-quality ingredients, highlighting Chef Russo's commitment to imaginative new tastes. New gourmet pizza and pasta menu items include the Truffle Mushroom pizza, Spicy Chicken Alfredo, Homemade Lasagna, and a great selection of gluten free and vegan menu items. Chef Anthony has perfected the Dubai menu to adapt to Middle East favorites and will feature fresh, local seafood, Halal meats, risotto and saffron, truffle mushroom soup, eggplant dishes, gnocchi pasta and Mediterranean-influenced dips and spreads. Russo's New York Pizzeria is looking to increase growth internationally, specifically in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. "There is a huge appetite for our brand and together with our talented franchise partners we are accelerating our global growth," said Russo. "The franchise opportunity is proving to be lucrative for our current international franchisees and we are excited for their continued success." Russo's Restaurants offers a rare franchise opportunity for entrepreneurs interested in proven brands that are entirely chef created, chef inspired, and chef driven. Russo's New York Pizzeria is the only authentic New York-style, Italian restaurant and pizzeria franchise concept. Beyond consumer convenience, Russo's is leading the fast-casual Italian dining category by creating a business model that offers: A smaller footprint (1,200-4,000 sq. ft.) for less overhead A low-cost entry into the restaurant business with an initial investment starting around $395,000 in select markets in select markets Average food costs and labor costs are 21.8% and 25.4% respectively* Average sales volume per unit is $1,020,383 million * About Russo's Restaurants Russo's Restaurants is a national and international franchisor of the casual dining brand Russo's New York Pizzeria. Based in Houston, Russo's Restaurants is composed of a mix of corporate and franchised locations across Texas, Oklahoma, California, and Florida. Russo's has entered international markets as well, with locations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Chef Anthony Russo created Russo's Restaurants by applying his unique, family recipes featuring New York-style pizza, handcrafted pasta dishes, calzones, salads, sandwiches, soups and desserts. At its heart, Russo's Restaurants reflects Chef Anthony's commitment to his New York roots where food and family come first. To learn more about Russo's franchise development opportunities, visit www.russosfranchise.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1312068/Russo_Logo.jpg A Patient Needs and Insights Drive New Era of Global Kidney Research, Discovery, and Personalized Treatments WASHINGTON, Sept. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TheA American Association ofA KidneyA PatientsA (AAKP),A theA largest independent kidneyA patient organization inA theA USA,A andA its strategic partners atA theA George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) continue to make a unique impact in the international battle against kidney diseases.A Their 2021 annualA Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations focused on expanding patient consumer choices and improved health outcomes,A engaged a combined audience of over 20,000 viewers across 80 countries, exceeded their 2020 virtual attendance record established at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to draw viewers worldwide to their online content.A TheA Global SummitA isA aA key component ofA AAKP'sA TheA Decade ofA theA Kidneya , anA AAKPA global initiative ( read article ) launched in 2019 forA theA 2020-2030 decade to help U.S.A and international policymakers better addressA theA devastatingA humanA andA societal costs ofA kidneyA diseases based onA patient-defined priorities. TheA Global SummitA has accelerated engagement in an expanding international consortium of influencers, led by patientA consumers and advocates,A committed to a new era in kidney medicine marked by more inclusive clinical trials, greater use of patient insight data, personalized medicine, and disruptive technologies including artificial implantable and wearable kidneys. The patient-led consortium includesA academicA andA medical researchers, clinical trial designers, innovators, capital market investors, companies, non-governmentalA andA faith-based organizations, as well as elected and appointedA government leaders across the globe.A Kidney patients worldwide are demanding an end to outdated dialysis care, characterized b! y stagger ingly high mortality rates,A and greater access to new products and solutions aimed at detecting, preventing, and treating kidney diseases earlierA andA in waysA thatA improve quality of life and decrease dependency and disease-relatedA unemployment. They are also organizing and coordinating their policy and grassroots efforts in a sophisticated effort to advanceA more common sense regulatoryA andA payment reforms that prioritize patient needs and fully support the timely entry of new, safe products into globalA consumer markets.A Based on the ongoing success and rapidly expanding interest inA TheA Global Summit,A AAKP and GWU have already opened pre-registration for the May 2022A Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations .A All 2021 Global Summit virtual presentations are available OnDemand through theA AAKP website A andA AAKPA YouTube channel .A Dr. Dominic Raj,A Co-Chair ofA TheA Global Summit, a Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Genetics and Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Director of theA Division ofA KidneyA Diseases and Hypertension at theA George Washington University School of MedicineA andA Health Sciences,A stated, "AsA aA researcher in molecular biologyA andA genetics, I seek to personalize medicine by genesA andA molecular pathways, but I think itA isA more important to personalize by patient needs. This, I believe, isA theA key take home message fromA TheA Global SummitA andA I am very proud of my colleagues acrossA theA globe who are actively incorporatingA theA unique insights ofA kidneyA patientsA in their researchA andA discovery of new therapies to preventA andA treatA theA growing spread ofA kidneyA diseases." Hilde Vautmans, Member ofA theA European Parliament (MEP), Chair of MEPA KidneyA Health, and Deputy Coordinator for the Committee on Foreign Affairs forA aA Renew Europe (EU)A provided aA virtual presentation A in which she praised kidney patients worldwide for their efforts to work alongside government leaders in the fight against kidney diseases. Further, Vautmans invited greater cooperation among elected leaders in the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress, especially among like-minded members of the U.S. Congressional Kidney Caucus, stating,A "This battle is difficult. And I can speak from experience here, but [a] change is possible [a] but we can and have to act more. In Europe but also in the United States. I always say we needA more awareness, more funding and more innovation. Today I want to add a fourth element and that is collaboration, because as we all are aware and all are witnessing, diseases know no borders. So, let's work together [a]We share a common goal, on both sides of the Atlantic: We must further improve the lives of people with Kidney Disease!" The 2021A Global SummitA included over 15 panels featuring over 40 patientA andA medical experts along with aA menu 29 expert videos covering COVID-19 kidney-related issues, diversity in clinical trials, APOL-1 genetic research, diabetic kidney disease (DKD), nutrition,A andA telemedicine. ExecutivesA from top companies inA theA kidneyA space underscoredA theA importanceA andA value of patient insights in science, discovery,A andA theA development of new drugs, devices,A andA diagnostics. Emphasizing the key role patients play in the new era of kidney medicine were leaders fromA Bayer Pharmaceuticals,A Baxter International Inc.,A bioMArieux,A CareDx, Inc.,A CSL Behringer, Novartis,A andA Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. They were joined by key policy and innovation leaders includingA Barbara L. Bass, MD, ViceA PresidentA for Health Affairs, Dean ofA theA GW School ofA MedicineA andA Health Sciences,A andA CEO ofA theA GW Medical Faculty Associates (USA< /span>);A Vivekanand Jha, MBBS, MD, DM, PHD, FRCP, FAMS; Executive Director, The George Institute for Global Health (AU) and President, International Society of Nephrology (IND);A Fokko Wieringa, PhD, Principal Scientist, IMEC of TheA Netherlands and the DutchA KidneyA Foundation (EU) and a member of The Kidney Health Initiative (USA);A Murray Sheldon, MD, Associate Director for TechnologyA andA Innovations, Center for DevicesA andA Radiological Health, U.S. FoodA andA Drug Administration (USA);A Jack Kalavritinos, FounderA andA Principal, JK Consulting and member of the APCO Worldwide International AdvisoryA CouncilA andA Health Advisory Board (USA).A Richard Knight, President of the American Association of Kidney Patients, a former hemodialysis patient and 14-year kidney transplant recipient, stated, "Kidney disease is a devastating disease that is rapidly expanding and negatively impacting patients, families, and economies throughout the world. Future innovations in kidney medicine depend upon greater patient engagement through fully inclusive clinical trials and research, and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences is an established global leader in this field. I thank Dean Dr. Barbara Bass, Dr. Dominic Raj, and our new European Union ally Hilde Vautmans for their deep respect for patients and their concerted efforts to unite patients, clinicians, and policy-makers in the fight against all kidney diseases." Knight (read CJASN article) is a former U.S. Congressional staff member and business consultant who serves on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Advisory Council, and as the Co-Chair of the Community Engagement Committee for the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP). Paul T. Conway, Co-Chair ofA TheA Global SummitA andA AAKPA Chair of PolicyA andA Global Affairs,A a former peritoneal dialysis patient and 24-year kidney transplant recipient, stated, "AAKP and our friend and ally Dr. Dominic Raj envisioned The Global Summit on Kidney Innovations as a unique international event aimed at accelerating cooperation among patients, researchers, clinicians, and policy professionals. Kidney patient consumers worldwide demand and deserve far greater care choice and are well aware of the value they bring as partners to pioneers developing the next generation of diagnostics, devices, and biologics. AAKP has expanded our collaborations with patient groups worldwide to advance innovation and to support all who share our sense of urgency and intent to transcend legislative, regulatory, and payment barriers that limit care choice and delay entry of new, safe treatments ! into the global consumer markets." Conway (read CJASN article) is a former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor and serves on the External Expert Panel of National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP), the American Board of Internal Medicine's Nephrology Specialty Board, and is a Patient Voice Editor for The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. AAKP has formal partnerships withA the multiple international kidney patient organizations including in support of The Global Summit,A The Decade of the Kidneya,A and the growing international kidney innovation consortium,A including:A Argentina-based Asociacion Solidaria de Insuficientes Renales (ASIR) ;A European Kidney Patients' Federation (EKPF) and the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) ; andA United Kingdom-based Renal Patient Support Group . AAKP will be announcing multiple additional global partnerships throughout the remainder of 2021 and 2022.A AAKP leaders and their global allies have carried the key messages ofA The Global SummitA into other globalA forums, including the University of Washington's Center for Dialysis Innovation's recent IDEAS Summit, where Dr. Murray Sheldon of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted a presentation o! n the expanding international kidney innovation consortium . Future presentations on the key learnings and messages ofA The Global SummitA and the international kidneyA innovation consortium will be conducted at the AAKP Annual National Patient Meeting A September 24-25, 2021, and at theA American Society of Nephrology's, 2021A Kidney Week , November 4-7, the largest kidney professional conference in the world.A Voices in support of AAKP's expanding global partnerships and international collaborations include: Mr. Colm Clifford, kidney patient and AAKP Global Ambassador in the Republic of Ireland:A "Change happens when a collective voice sends a strong message that change is required. This begins from the grassroots. While it may eventually be signed off with the stroke of a pen, it's the strong collective voice that can't be ignored that drives that to happen. In kidney disease, after TheA GlobalA Summit, I'm confident we really are moving forward and it's an exciting time to be involved." Daniel Gallego, President of the European Kidney Patients' Federation (EKPF):A "We are more than happy that the AAKP reached out to us to enforce the collaboration of kidney patients worldwide to really give a push for innovation and new therapies that will enhance quality of life of kidney patients, contributing to expand our daily life activities. EKPF strongly believes that in creating these therapies, patients should be included and in the driver's seat to reach next level therapies. Together we can create and extend a platform that is responsible for the long-overdue innovation that kidney patients are waiting for." Raymond Vanholder, President of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA):A "Collaboration for improvement of kidney therapies can really benefit by moving boundaries. We are delighted with the expansion of our international collaboration by teaming up with AAKP. At EKHA we strongly believe in the empowerment of patients to enhance quality of life where possible. We therefore adopted their 'Decade of the Kidney' program to create awareness for the unmet needs of kidney patients. An important part of this collaboration will exist in setting the political agenda at the level of the EU and USA to push for real innovative therapies and corresponding funding to realize them." Dr. Maria Eugenia Vivado Duran,A PresidentA ofA theA Argentina-basedA AsociaciAn Solidaria de Insuficientes Renales of Buenos Aires; AAKP Global Ambassador:A "ASIR joins together with AAKP in support of the rights of the kidney patients and to share in efforts to further medical innovations that will better prevent and treat kidney diseases and improve the quality of life for kidney patients." Dr. Vivado Duran, a pediatrician and AAKP Global Ambassador, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1979 during her second pregnancy. She was on hemodialysis for many years and in 2001, received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor, allowing her to continue working for patients, educating the community, and enjoying her family. She has been president of ASIR for four consecutive terms and does everything in gratitude to her anonymous kidney donor. Dr. Shahid Nazir Muhammad, Specialist Biomedical Scientist,A TheA University ofA theA West of England (UWE) andA Academic Lead, on behalf ofA TheA Renal Patient Support Group (RPSG), United Kingdom:A "Future research integrating perceptions to acknowledge CKD as a condition with diverse morbidities and investigations to explore educational needs is mission critical. The Renal Patient Support Group (RPSG) is a place where awareness and research meet and encourages healthcare service and support in comprehensible proportions. Innovation is good to an extent. However, timely and targeted education relating CKD and recommendations with a solid focus is where best practice between pediatric and adult nephrology, tackling health inequalities is pinnacle to ensure that CKD patients are not forgotten and become unpeople (disenfranchised), and there is kidney disease awarenes! s on an i nternational level." Ms. Vasundhara Raghavan, caregiver to a son with kidneyA disease and the AAKP Global Ambassador in the United Arab Emirates:A "AnA international consortium ofA kidneyA patient organizations will beA aA catalyst toA drive manyA innovationsA andA bring in much-needed changes in theA kidneyA patientA ecosystem.A TheA consortium can help executeA cross border treatments for paired kidneyA transplants possible through an internationalA donor bank. Sharing of best practices, knowledge, andA resources will aidA theA kidneyA patient community immensely.A AA collaborative platform such as this will help us gather momentum inA kidneyA research, patient advocacy,A and provide financial aid to needy patients.A TheA needs ofA kidneyA patientsA are best expressed by them. They are going through the arduous journeyA andA having firsthand knowledge of what works best for them.A PatientsA driving these discussions w! ill help bring conclusive decisionsA on policyA matters directlyA impactingA them. Through this platform they will haveA aA channel to voiceA their opinionsA and get to share their experiences toA aA wider community. GettingA patientsA involved early on in these discussionsA is extremely critical and the valueA additionA thatA they will provide toA theA conversation will be vastly practical." AAKPA andA GW SMHS thank their 2021 Global Summit sponsors. Gold Level: Horizon TherapeuticsA andA Travere Therapeutics; Silver Level: CareDx, Inc.; Patron Level: Hansa BiopharmaA andA Sanofi Genzyme;A andA Supporting Level: AstraZeneca and Eurofins Transplant Genomics.A Information onA theA 2022 Global Summit is available atA https://aakp.org/programs-and-events/global-summit/ . AboutA theA AmericanA Association ofA KidneyA PatientsA (AAKP):A Since 1969, AAKP has been a patient-led organization driving policy discussions on kidney patient consumer care choice and treatment innovation. By 1973, AAKP patients had collaborated with the U.S. Congress and White House to establish dialysis coverage for any person suffering kidney failure, a U.S. taxpayer supported effort that has saved over one million lives. In 2018, AAKP established the largest U.S. kidney voter registration program, KidneyVotersa.A Over the past decade, AAKP patients have helped gain lifetime transplant drug coverage for kidney transplant recipients (2020); new patient-centered policies via the! White Ho use Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (2019); new job protections for living organ donors from the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and Congressional legislation allowing HIV positive organ transplants for HIV positive patients (2013). Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on Twitter, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and visit www.aakp.org. The Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations is produced by AAKP's national strategic media partner, Briar Patch Media, which provides creative consulting and full-service media video production and post-production for corporations, non-profit organizations, individuals throughout the U.S., and several international locations. AboutA theA George Washington University School of MedicineA andA Health Sciences:A Founded in 1824,A theA George Washington University School of MedicineA andA Health Sciences (SMHS) wasA theA first medical school inA the nation's capitalA andA isA theA 11th oldest inA theA country. Working together in our nation's capital, with integrityA andA resolve,A theA GW SMHSA isA committed to improvingA theA healthA andA well-being of our local, national,A andA global communities. Visit their website atA smhs.gwu.edu . MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer RateA MarketingA &A CommunicationsA Manager jrate@aakp.org (813)A 400-2394 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/596158/AAKP_Logo.jpg Last month, Ujjivan SFB had appointed Carol Furtado to take charge as officer on special duty (OSD) till Sept. 30, following the resignation of Nitin Chugh as MD and CEO. (Twitter) New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given Ujjivan Small Finance Bank the go-ahead to form a special committee of directors to oversee the banks operations in the absence of an MD and CEO. In a regulatory filing, the Bengaluru based lender said the RBI in a Sept. 15 letter has approved the constitution of 'Special Committee of Directors' with three independent directors as its members Last month, Ujjivan SFB had appointed Carol Furtado to take charge as officer on special duty (OSD) till Sept. 30, following the resignation of Nitin Chugh as MD and CEO. Furtado will take charge as the interim CEO from October. Ujjivan SFB its board, in parallel, will evaluate suitable candidates for the MD & CEO position, and submit two names to the RBI. As the election date for the Movie Artistes Association (October 10) nears, the rivalry among actors is taking unusual turns. Actor Naresh, while wishing Sai Dharam Tej a speedy recovery after his recent bike accident, also said that he had cautioned Sai about speeding on his bike earlier. Going further, he noted that the sons of actors Kota Srinivas Rao and Babu Mohan had passed away in bike accidents due to speeding. However, this did not go down well with actor Srikanth. He felt Nareshs mention of those who had lost their lives in biking accidents was uncalled for, and appealed to people not to make such comments. Srikanth Naresh retorted that he was referring to incidents that had happened in the industry in general. I am surprised at the way Srikanth responded to my video bytes, he said, adding that parents always caution their kids as a safety measure. Naresh in his turn asked Srikanth to be careful in his comments, and also recalled that the latter had unsuccessfully contested against him in the MAA elections. Even actor-producer Bandla Ganesh expressed his disappointment over Nareshs comments. Well, things are certainly hotting up! New Delhi: The government on Thursday approved a proposal to provide Rs 30,600-crore government guarantee for security receipts issued by National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL), widely known as the bad bank, which will buy stressed loans of lenders. A bad bank is a bank that buys the bad loans of other lenders and financial institutions to help them to clear their balance sheets. Announcing big reform measures for the banking sector, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, The Union Cabinet had yesterday (Wednesday) approved a proposal of government guaranteeing security receipts issued by NARCL which will aggregate NPAs or non-performing assets. The minister said the proposed bad bank or NARCL will pay up to 15 per cent of the agreed value for the loans in cash and the remaining 85 per cent would be government-guaranteed security receipts. The government guarantee for security receipts issued by NARCL will be for five years. However, all bad loans brought to NARCL will have to be resolved within five years, she added. The banks can invoke a government guarantee if there is a loss against the threshold value realised from the bad loan. The minister said public sector banks will own a 51 per cent stake in NARCL. Though experts were discussing the need for a bad bank for several years, Sitharaman had for the first time announced in her Budget 2021-22 speech that the government intends to set up a bad bank as part of the resolution of bad loans worth about Rs 2 lakh crore in the Indian banking system. ysuru district administration had recently cleared a few religious places. This had attracted the anger of saffron outfits. Representational image/DC Udupi: Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje has suggested clearing illegal religious structures after consultation with the local residents. "Temples, Mosques, and Churches are places of worship. Protecting them is our responsibility. However, if there are religious places that were not built legally then they should be intimated. The local residents should be consulted and then an alternate arrangement should be made before clearing the structures," Shobha told reporters at Udupi. Mysuru district administration had recently cleared a few religious places. This had attracted the anger of saffron outfits. "People have great love and affection towards places of worship. When their sentiments are hit they protest. It is not good to hurt any community or religion," she added. On the occasion of the Prime Minister's birthday, Shobha Karandlaje distributed the food kit to the Koraga Community at Udupi on Friday. Meanwhile, when reporters asked about saffron outfits alleging religious conversion in the coastal belt, Shobha demanded strict action to stop such conversions. "The government should take all necessary steps to stop such conversion," she said. Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti was thankful to the Supreme Court and to the state government for approaching the apex court, its general secretary Dr Bhagavanth Rao said. (DC) Hyderabad: Ganesha devotees heaved a sigh of relief after the Supreme Court allowed the immersion of their plaster of Paris idols at Hussainsagar. The High Court had on September 9 banned the practice. Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti was thankful to the Supreme Court and to the state government for approaching the apex court, its general secretary Dr Bhagavanth Rao said. Moosapeta Rama Raju, VHP, TS president, said, This is an ancient tradition that we are following, and this has been accepted by society. Politicians and courts should not interfere in such Hindu religious matters. The onus should be on the peetadhipathi. Shiva Kumar, chairman of Yuga Thulasi Foundation, who has crusaded for declaring the cow as the national animal, said From ancient times, environment-friendly mud idols have been installed and immersed in water bodies. It was later day governments that encouraged PoP multi-coloured idols. This is the cause for today's disturbances. HYDERABAD: The state unit of BJP has made grand arrangements for a public meeting at Nirmal on Friday, which will have the presence of union home minister Amit Shah. The public meeting of the saffron party, which has been demanding that Telangana State liberation day be celebrated as an official programme, is being conducted at the historic Veyi Urula Marri. Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modis birthday and Vishwakarma Day also fall on the same day. Party leaders and activists from undivided Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak and Hyderabad districts will attend the meeting, party sources said. They expect a turnout of at least three lakh people at the public meeting. The partys state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar will give a break to his 20-day-old Praja Sangrama Yatra, in order to be present at Amit Shahs meeting. BJP leaders will reinforce their demand for celebrating September 17 as an official programme, during the Nirmal public meeting. It is believed that Amit Shah, who will come from Nanded in a chopper, will expose the lapses of TRS government and explain the need for a Telangana liberation day celebration. Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao, party leaders N.V.S.S.Prabhakar, Gudur Narayana Reddy and others supervised arrangements for the meeting. Justice Cheema had challenged his premature retirement and matter was taken up on Wednesday with direction to government to come back with its response on Thursday. PTI New Delhi: Swallowing its decision, the Modi government on Thursday back tracked and restored Justice Ashok Iqbal Singh Cheema as acting chairman of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) a position from which he was removed a few days back and replaced by Justice M. Venugopal as acting chairman. Yielding to the pressure from a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana also comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli, the Centre while rolling back its decision to appoint Justice Venugopal as acting chairman of NCLAT removing Justice Cheema just 10 days before his retirement, initially offered to restore Justice Cheema as head of NCLAT on paper only but he will not be allowed to go to office. However, the Centre backed off and agreed with the suggestion from the bench that Justice Cheema will continue as acting chairperson of the NCLAT to allow him to pronounce the judgments he has already reserved and in the meanwhile Justice Venugopal will proceed on leave till Justice Cheemas retirement on September 20. Justice Cheema will receive the retiral benefit until September 20, the day he is slated to retire. Justice Ashok Iqbal Singh Cheema is former Bombay High Court judge and Justice Venugopal is a former judge of Madras High Court. Justice Cheema had challenged his premature retirement and matter was taken up on Wednesday with direction to government to come back with its response on Thursday. In the course of the hearing finding the Centre represented by Attorney General K. K. Venugopasl unrelenting, the court said that it will put on hold the law that empowers the government to appoint heads of the tribunals including NCLAT. Attorney General said that the he is ready to argue the position taken by the government. At this juncture, the hearing was adjourned for about half an hour as A-G sought time to take instructions from the government. Senior lawyer Arvind Datar, appearing for Justice Cheema, insisted that Justice Cheema should be allowed to go to office to deliver the pending judgments. Ramana agreed, telling Venugopal, He (Justice Cheema) has judgments which need to be pronounced. You are a senior counsel and you know this. When the Attorney General told the court that this will become awkward for the current chairman, the CJI flared up, Your order is also awkward. We have to say you are responsible for this situation. The Attorney General then sought time to take instructions from the government and later told the Court that the Centre has agreed to Justice Cheemas plea to allow him to go to office to deliver judgments. The top court accepted his of submission and passed the order to let Justice Venugopal go on leave till September 20. The A-G told the court, It was said he (Justice Cheema) took leave to write judgments. So, we have decided that he will be allowed to go to office and pronounce judgments, the current chairperson Justice Venugopal will be sent on leave. Hyderabad: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday asked his ministers to undertake extensive field visits and retaliate to the allegations from the opposition parties against the YSR Congress government. The call was made at the AP cabinet meeting at Velagapudi. The CM pointed out that there was a lag in relation to ministers and legislators countering the false propaganda of the opposition parties against the government. The CM informed the ministers that the team of Prashant Kishor will start strategizing about the 2024 polls in AP from next year, to help the YSRC acquire a new energy for the general elections. According to the sources, Jagan suggested that plans should be readied for MLAs and MLCs to conduct field visits wherein they can mingle with the masses and get to know the difficulties of the people at the ground level. The Opposition's misinformation campaign on the issue of cuts in social security pensions must be countered with facts, he told the ministers. He said the ministers should explain to the people about the fair process of selection of beneficiaries, inclusion of the rich in the list of pension beneficiaries by the last Telugu Desam government and the need to weed out such beneficiaries from the scheme. Several ministers stated that the previous TD government had done injustice to the deserving individuals vis-a-vis this scheme. They said the power burden of the true-up charges also was what the previous government left behind. The CM asked the ministers to provide social security pensions to all eligible beneficiaries without any bias. Jagan made several suggestions to the ministers about party, government administration and on election strategies. He asked the minister to go into the election mood from now on. He suggested that the party and the government should move forward hand-in-hand with a clear strategy. The strategies should be drawn up for the coming elections right now and all must work dedicatedly to strengthen the party. The decision was approved at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan here on Thursday. (Photo:Twitter) Hyderabad: The state government will extend reservations for Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities for setting up liquor shops in the state from the new excise year beginning November 1. The decision was approved at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao at Pragathi Bhavan here on Thursday. Fifteen per cent reservation will be extended to the BCs (Gowda community), 10 per cent reservation to SCs and 5 per cent reservation to STs. The government currently gives licences for 2,216 liquor shops. The quotas approved by the Cabinet will help these sections get 554 shops. The licences have a validity of two years. There are indications that the government may increase liquor shops by 200 in new excise policy from November. If that happens, applicants from reserved categories can bag 50 more liquor shops. The Cabinet has approved the allocation of an additional Rs 100 crore to the already sanctioned amount of Rs 300 crore to repair roads damaged in the recent heavy rains. The Cabinet directed the medical and health department to speed up works on four new government medical colleges so as to begin classes from the upcoming academic year, 2022-23. The Cabinet also instructed officials to speed up measures for construction of four new government super-specialty hospitals in Hyderabad. The Cabinet asked officials to take steps to increase oxygen production to 550 metric tonnes from the present 280 metric tonnes. Health officials informed the Cabinet that the Covid situation was under control and there was no spike after the reopening of educational institutions from September 1. Officials said the department is geared to face the situation in the event of Covid striking children, and 5,200 beds and medical equipment had been kept ready. The Cabinet asked elected to take part in the special vaccination drive that started on September 16 and make it a big success. It said Telangana already reached a major milestone by administering over 2.56 crore vaccine doses so far. The other decisions of the Cabinet included constituting sub-committees to resolve the Podu land issues, the Dharani portal issues, allotment of 1,261 sq. yards plot in Narayanaguda to the Raja Bahadur Venkatarama Reddy Educational Society for a nominal price for construction of a girls hostel, and approval to Sangameshwara and Basaveshwara lift irrigation schemes in Undivided Medak district at a cost of Rs 2,653 crore. The two Telugu states on Friday opposed the Centres plan to include the tax on petrol and diesel in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) list. (PTI Photo) Hyderabad: The two Telugu states on Friday opposed the Centres plan to include the tax on petrol and diesel in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) list. Participating in the 45th GST council meeting held in Lucknow, TS finance minister T. Harish Rao and his AP counterpart B. Rajendranath Reddy pointed out that tax on petroleum products and liquor was the major revenue source for the states. It was agreed upon by the Centre, time and again, that it would not bring these into the purview of GST, the two states said. The BJP-ruled states too opposed the move even as the council chairman informed the meeting that the issue, though not on the agenda, was brought up for discussion in view of a Kerala High Court order. I brought to the notice of the council that Telangana increased VAT on petrol and diesel only once in the last seven years. This is in sharp contrast to the Centre effecting tax hike on the two products 20 times during this period, Harish Rao told this newspaper. We also appealed to the Centre to remove the burden of tax on raw cotton from the farmer by passing it on to the industry at a subsequent level, he said. The TS finance minister expressed happiness over Telanganas revenue gap being the lowest compared to all other states. The joint secretary to finance made a presentation on the states performance. Harish met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and urged her to immediately release the Rs 450 crore due in the Backward Region Development Fund and the Rs 210 crore that was diverted to the Consolidated Fund of India by the Centre. The TS finance minister reminded the Centre that the Comptroller and Auditor General too had recommended the release of funds to the states. The AP finance minister sought extension of GST compensation to the states beyond 2022. The revenues of the state, under GST, do not match with the revenues under the earlier VAT regime, he said. While the state recorded an average annual growth of 14 to 15 per cent for three years prior to introduction of GST in 2017, the average growth of GST in the last four years after introduction of GST was around 10 per cent only, necessitating a provision for compensation every year, he said. Rajendranath Reddy also urged the Centre to reduce the current tax of 18 per cent on polished napa slabs, treating them on par with other types of stones like the Kota stone of Rajasthan. He also pleaded for a tax cut on solar power plants and job work in liquor manufacturing activity and for bringing them under the five per cent category. The HMS Prince of Wales is moving to include two game-changing systems in its carrier operation, changing naval combat. The lack of a catapult power is covered up by F-35 adapted for maritime use, knowing that drones as partners or singular units become reliant on changing tides. Both the HMS Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales are one of the most powerful ships in NATO, added the F-35s on board with stealth capability that only a few countries have. For the drones, not much except they are target drones that are getting repurposed for other use, like loyal wingmen, but it's not verified yet. For now, the Banshee is not as sophisticated as the fighter drone of the US. F-35s and drones on deck of HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier Recently the British were in the midst of operations with its stealth fighters on the flight deck, and with the Banshee target drones, reported 19FortyFive. A Twitter post by the @HMSPWLS says that having crewed aircraft and drones is an example of a joint carrier strike on the Royal Navy. The tweet posted photos on their account. The Banshee Jet-80 drone is designed and built by the UK British multinational defense technology firm Qinetiq, derived from the thriving commercial target aircraft it made first. Its first generation was first put into use in 2010 and underwent upgrades until 2021. Significant changes were from a single jet engine as the first iteration to today's dual-engine unmanned vehicle. Following modifications are yet to come if they are to be part of the HMS Prince of Wales. Read Also: HMS Queen Elizabeth Battle Group Detects Noisy Chinese Submarines Trying to Stalk the Battlegroup on Orders of Beijing The drone has two gas turbines with about 80kg of thrust in the current model. It can remain airborne for 45 minutes maximum. The firm says the Banshee is used for training, testing for flying targets over the sea. HMS Prince of Wales to join Exercise Joint Warrior The sister ship of the HMS Queen Elizabeth left Portsmouth a week ago. It's going to the Scottish Coast, where the drills are called Exercise Joint Warrior. The exercises are done every two years with the Royal Navy, including the NATO allies and units. Participating will be the F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters and its Merlin helos, which marks the first time a 5th gen fighter will join up with rotorcraft that contrasts with its US counterpart. This summer would be the 3.1 billion aircraft carrier first sea trials, which will test the capability of the supercarrier to operate aircraft and conduct operations with its aircraft. Banshee trials are underway with the UK military. One question is whether the drone has any connection to the Project Vixen, similar to other similar developments of robot wingmen in other countries. One report by the Aviationist is that the program has comparisons to the Royal Air Force Project Mosquito, which is the bigger Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) concept to protect crewed planes from surviving in life and death conditions. Fighters like the F-35 are not cheap and too valuable to be sacrificed needlessly, so the Vixen or Banshee will be a wingman for a manned plane on the HMS Prince of Wales. Related Article: HMS Queen Elizabeth Supercarrier's Visit to Japan Considered Timely as Beijing Wants To Impose New Maritime Laws @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. When questioned by a reporter on Thursday if President Joe Biden was being "honest" earlier this year when he claimed in an interview that none of his experts supported leaving 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to explicitly respond. The reporter questioned Psaki on allegations that Gen. Scott Miller, who led US and NATO forces in Afghanistan until July, told Congress he rejected Biden's entire pullout plan. Psaki stated that she will not "get into detail" about who offered what advice and in which forum. She then transferred the burden to outgoing President Donald Trump, citing his previously agreed-upon May 1 withdrawal deadline, Fox News reported. Biden denies claims that advisers warned him against Afghanistan withdrawal Biden denied military officers cautioned him against his pullout timetable and sought to maintain 2,500 soldiers in the region in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos earlier this year. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump slammed Milley and Biden on Wednesday night after the commander-in-chief protected the embattled general from charges that his calls to Chinese officials violated the chain of command. Per Daily Mail, the former president accused Biden of hiding for Milley because the general may know "dirty secrets" regarding Biden's tumultuous Afghanistan pullout. Milley acknowledged making two conversations with his Chinese counterpart, one before the election and the other in January, amid accusations that he did so behind Trump's back to avoid rogue action by the then-president. Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been dubbed a threat to the country who "secretly worked with our greatest military foe" by Tucker Carlson, who also slammed Biden for endorsing the disgraced general. Meanwhile, Psaki reiterated the administration's support for Milley, hailing him as a "patriot" and urging people to remember Trump's last two months in office. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo chimed in, stating that if the conversation took to occur, China might use it to their advantage, and calling Milley's choice to make unauthorized contact with Chinese generals treasonous. After the beleaguered military official acknowledged making the unauthorized call without the knowledge of the Pentagon chief or President Trump, President Joe Biden expressed his "high confidence" in Milley. Read Also: Joe Biden Reveals New Alliance With UK, Australia; US Plans To Share Nuclear Submarine Technology Psaki dismisses concerns about Biden's frequent coughing President Biden's constant coughing and clearing his throat while speaking to the public raised worries about his health during a White House briefing on Thursday after he halted numerous times during his statement on tax rises minutes earlier. Psaki answered, ignoring the fact that Biden's public remarks are frequently interrupted by his sluggish delivery. The White Press Secretary was asked later in the briefing when Biden would receive a medical test, as per the NY Post. "I realize this is a reasonable question. I don't have anything new to report. He'll be getting one shortly. And when he does, we'll make sure you're all aware of it and have access to the information," she explained. During speeches or public statements, Biden, 78, frequently takes a break to clear his throat. The hashtag "Bidencough" has grown so popular that it has its own hashtag on social media. Aids stated he had a minor cold after coughing and being hoarse while speaking in December after the Electoral College confirmed his victory in the 2020 election. More recently, at a speech in favor of California Governor Gavin Newsom in the recall election on Monday, the president hacked at numerous times, prompting him to apologize and even take a glass of water. His doctor, Kevin O'Connor, informed the Wall Street Journal during the presidential campaign that Biden is fit to serve as president, but that he is being treated for high cholesterol, acid reflux illness, and seasonal allergies. Acid reflux causes him to clean his throat frequently, according to O'Connor. Related Article: Jen Psaki Scolds at Male Reporter as a Response to Question Why President Joe Biden Supports Abortion @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The former Australian prime minister mocked Biden's nuclear submarine deal, including the US, Australia, and the UK. It comes after the spectacular loss in Afghanistan of the Biden administration on all fronts, even ignoring British PM Boris Johnson's requests. Former PM Paul Keating expressed doubts over the deal entered by Canberra with the US and Britain. This comes after the unfortunate fall of Kabul, which left the US reputation in tatters, adding the fact that the US president had not included NATO allies in the loop that left to fend for themselves. Former PM concerned about the trilateral nation deal Former PM Keating said the trilateral nation deal between the US, UK, and Australia is unreliable. He cited how the US military just crumpled due to the missteps of US President Joe Biden, reported Daily Mail UK. Former PM Keating added that an advanced US force fell like a deck of cards against barely armed Jihads, which should indicate incapability. This is the not so confident assessment of the deal offered by the US president to Australian PM Scott Morrison and UK PM Boris Johnson. He added Canberra gave a chunk of national determination to a tentative agreement, noted News Nation. In his state, the Ex-Australian PM who served the Labor Party from 1991-1996 says it is a mistake to tie the nation's defense and strategy with US forces. He remarks there are other options besides Biden's nuclear submarine deal that will benefit the Australian Defense Forces in dealing with China. Read Also: PLA Navy Confronts Australian Navy But Kept Quiet During Trilateral Exercises With US Navy It astounded that why should the PM Morrison trust the US military under the current White House to deliver on its promises. He added that the US could not handle total war with China, a dominant force in Asia, cited Sky News. Australia would stand in alliance with US says current PM Former PM Keating then added that Australia had not operated its conventional submarine fleet, compared to nuclear subs, which are very complex, with maintenance and other not simple aspects. The former PM was concerned that Canberra would be dependent on the US to maintain its underwater nuclear fleet. He scorned the White House's alleged attempt to consolidate the Indo-Pacific's defense in the deal. But PM Morrison said his predecessor might be mistaken, in response last Thursday afternoon, adding that the former PM has his views, but it is not what the present government thinks. He reiterated that Australia would stand with an alliance with the US. He has been voicing criticism over why the country is tying its fate to a US alliance and should look to southeastern Asia in the direction of China, saying that Australia's foreign policy should be independent of the US and stop tagging along. Former PM Keating stated that it was the case for so many years, and its time to be more independent. As part of the Hawke government in the treasury, he was the eventual prime minister when he said the 1990 recession was needed. He came to blow with Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad in 1993. In 2021, Former Australian PM Keating says that Biden's nuclear submarine deal is a mistake, and the Afghan debacle is proof of that which the current PM should consider. Related Article: Australia Expects Military Crisis if China Ever Invades Taiwan @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The administration of United States President Joe Biden was blocked from expelling migrant families with children who have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border following a ruling by a judge related to a public health order, which marks a major loss for the Democratic party. In a long-awaited ruling, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia District Court on Thursday acknowledged that his decision would force the federal government to make harsh resolutions. However, he noted that there were enough measures in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Ruling To Protect Migrant Families "But in view of the wide availability of testing, vaccines, and other minimization measures, the Court is not convinced that the transmission of COVID-19 during border processing cannot be significantly mitigated. Indeed, the government has successfully implemented mitigation measures with regard to processing unaccompanied minors in order to minimize risk of COVID-19 transmission," Sullivan's 58-page ruling detailed. Sullivan's ruling will take effect after 14 days from his announcement and prevents the Biden administration from relying on the public health order to turn migrants away. The decisions were made to curb the spread of the health crisis, CNN reported. More than 70,000 migrant families were allowed to enter the United States in August, while 16,000 others were turned away, based on US Customs and Border Protection data. Many immigrant advocates have criticized the Biden administration by arguing with the policy, which has been in place since the time of former President Donald Trump. They said that it went against the country's openness in welcoming migrants. Read Also: Joe Biden Reveals New Alliance With UK, Australia; US Plans To Share Nuclear Submarine Technology In March 2020, the Trump administration enacted Title 42, which allowed authorities to rapidly expel migrants at the southern border, often within minutes and without detention. While Biden has continued to enforce the policy, he has since exempted unaccompanied children and most families. Only 19% of migrants expelled in August were under Title 42, mainly due to the Mexican government refusing to accept back families with small children, Fox News reported. Border Crossings in the United States Sullivan's ruling argued that the policy did not give Biden's administration the power or authority to expel migrants. However, the ruling does not apply to single adults, who account for most migrants expelled under the order. The number of migrants that attempted to enter the United States in August was still fewer than the two-decade high recorded earlier this July. However, the number of migrants seen last month was still far higher than in past years. Many Republicans are criticizing Biden over what they consider is a continuing crisis. In July and August, 212,672 and 208,887 migrants were apprehended, respectively, when they tried to cross the border. The numbers have surpassed every recorded number since 2000, such as last year where the CBP only made 50,014 apprehensions. On Wednesday, the CBP released data showing that 25% of the border crossings involved individuals who had previously been encountered, leaving 156,641 unique encounters last month. Since July, the number of unaccompanied children trying to cross the border was at an average of nearly 19,000 every month, ABC News reported. Related Article: House Ways and Means Committee Approves a Major Portion of the $3.5 Trillion Social Spending Package @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh turned himself in on Thursday to face charges related to insurance fraud and other crimes after state police claim he tried to get himself killed so that his son would be able to claim $10 million in life insurance bonuses, but the gunman only grazed him. In a statement, Murdaugh's defense attorney argued that his client was deeply depressed with worsening drug addiction when he discovered the bodies of his wife and son. The two victims were shot multiple times inside their home on June 7, which have remained unsolved. Botched Suicide Attempt Murdaugh, 53 years old, faces three felony charges, including insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. He was transported to the Hampton County jail roughly five hours before his bond hearing. The suspect could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted of all charges, but there is no set minimum sentence for his crimes. The lawyer's former client was arrested late Tuesday, facing an assisted suicide charge and police announced a sixth investigation into him and his family. The most recent analysis includes a housekeeper and nanny who died inside his home in 2018, NPR reported. The suspect's bail was set at $20,000, and he told his lawyers on Monday about the details of his attempted suicide. "He didn't want law enforcement spending more time on this fake crime instead of focusing on solving the murders of Maggie and Paul," attorney Dick Harpootlian said on Wednesday. Read Also: Jen Psaki Dodges on Questions About Joe Biden's Honesty in Afghan Pullout; Claims President Has No Medical Issue Over Persistent Cough Murdaugh agreed to surrender his passport and waive any extradition as he is expected to undergo addiction treatment out of state. Prosecutor Creighton Waters considered the suspect a danger to the community, asking Hampton County Judge Tonja Alexander to raise the bail to $100,000. Waters argued that while the charges under the law were not considered violent, he believed the case's underlying facts to be damaging. Harpootlian agreed to nearly all allegations made against Murdaugh, who cited opioid addiction for his actions, Yahoo News reported. Insurance Fraud The man that Murdaugh hired to shoot him dead in the head was found to be 61-year-old Curtis Edward Smith, who had his bond hearing on Thursday. The judge at the hearing set the man's bail at $55,000. The suspect faces several charges, including assisted suicide and insurance fraud. Murdaugh, the former legal expert who bought drugs, allegedly gave Smith a firearm and asked the man to shoot him in the head. On Sept. 4, the botched suicide attempt was conducted but only resulted in a grazed shot that injured Murdaugh instead of killing him. The suspect's lawyers said he was in drug rehab for about ten days after his law firm fired him over missing money that totaled millions of dollars. SLED Chief Mark Keel said that the company was committed to working with authorities to bring justice to anyone involved in any criminal activity associated with the ongoing investigations, Fox News reported. Related Article: More than 13% North Carolina Gov't Employees Subject to Suspension Without Pay After Failing To Provide Proof of Vaccination @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Two dozen Republican attorneys general warned in a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday that if the White House's plan to mandate vaccinations for 100 million Americans is implemented, they would pursue legal action. Republican Attorneys General Opposed Biden's Vaccine Mandate In a recently published article in Newsweek, Republican prosecutors criticized Biden for his proposed legislation, which would impose a government vaccination mandate on private-sector employees, health-care workers, and federal contractors. The vaccine mandate, announced earlier this month, is being implemented via an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation as part of an attempt to protect Americans against the more lethal delta variant that accumulates the biggest percentage of the latest COVID-19 cases in the country. Attorneys General in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming all signed the letter, according to a report published in MSN News. Letter of the Attorneys General The prosecutors, led by Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina, wrote in a letter sent to Biden, "Your plan is disastrous and counterproductive. If your Administration does not alter its course, the undersigned state Attorneys General will seek every available legal option to hold you accountable and uphold the rule of law," according to a report published in the Daily Advent. The OSHA regulation, which covers almost two-thirds of the private sector workers, would be in effect for six months before being replaced with a permanent measure. Employers that fail to comply may face fines of up to $13,600 per infraction. Meanwhile, according to a primer by the law firm Fisher Phillips, the rule will go into effect in the 29 states where OSHA has jurisdiction once it is published. Other states with federally approved workplace safety agencies, such as California and North Carolina, would have up to 30 days to implement equivalent measures. Read Also: Police Union Opposes Lightfoot's Vaccine Mandate for City Workers Other Republicans and Union Chiefs Criticized Biden's Vaccine Mandate Republican leaders, as well as some labor groups, have warned that Biden was going too far in his efforts to wrest control of private businesses and employees. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster was among the first to voice out, saying on Twitter that his state will battle to the gates of hell to defend the rights and livelihood of every South Carolinian. In a recently published article in Houston Chronicle, Wilson cautioned Biden in a letter that the vaccine "edict is likewise unlawful," noting that courts have sustained just one of ten emergency temporary OSHA regulations in recent decades. The prosecutors also warned that the "edict is unlikely to win hearts and minds-it would only increase cynicism" about vaccinations. They also wrote in their letter that the vaccination requirement is not just a danger to individual liberty but also a public health catastrophe, displacing vulnerable employees and exacerbating a national hospital staffing shortage, with serious implications for all Americans. Instead of requiring vaccines or weekly testing, the prosecutors suggested that certain businesses allow workers to work remotely rather than reporting in person. Related Article: More than 13% North Carolina Gov't Employees Subject to Suspension Without Pay After Failing To Provide Proof of Vaccination @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. While the United Nations recently released a report showing that the world is at growing risk of hitting 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming in the 2030s, no major country has submitted plans to mitigate the rising temperatures. The temperature threshold would ignite what experts consider "extreme events unprecedented in the observational record." The Paris Climate Agreement aimed to maintain the 1.5-degree threshold. But the report released last month said it would be impossible without severe reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Based on data, experts believe the world will surpass the threshold within 80 years. Worsening Effects of Climate Change Scientists believe that if countries around the globe made dramatic reductions in their emissions, the goal would be achieved much sooner. However, experts said that such a scenario was highly unlikely based on an analysis of 37 countries by Climate Action Tracker (CAT), a watchdog organization, on Wednesday. The report noted that amid people worldwide suffering from worsening effects of global warming, and the IPCC's presentation of the feasibility and urgency of climate change mitigation, efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions lag behind what is needed. In nearly all countries and sectors, the goals are not being met for the 2030 targets, with the gap barely changing, CBS News reported. Many G20 countries, including 19 countries and the European Union, account for more than 80% of the world's GDP and 60% of the global population. These nations have reportedly failed to meet their obligations based on the analysis. Read Also: Jen Psaki Dodges on Questions About Joe Biden's Honesty in Afghan Pullout; Claims President Has No Medical Issue Over Persistent Cough CAT said that only Gambia, a small West African country, has a plan under the Paris agreement, while the United Kingdom is the only one of the G20 countries with "almost sufficient" plans. The agency based its rankings on each country's mitigation targets, policies and action, and climate action. This has forced the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, to call on other nations on Thursday for "immediate, rapid, and large-scale" reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. He warned international governments that climate change is worsening faster than experts have previously predicted, with fossil fuel bouncing back since dipping in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Plans to Mitigate Rising Temperatures The report also showed that two G20 countries had "critically insufficient" plans, nine nations had "highly insufficient" plans, and four, including the United States, had "insufficient" plans. The CAT said that they did not include France, Italy, and Turkey in the report because they did not submit new documents for their plans. But in a recent report, the United States and the European Union have agreed to try and reduce emissions of gas methane by about a third by 2030. Federal governments of both nations have urged other chief economies to join them in their plans. The agreement between the two major countries came as Washington and Brussels urged other economies to address climate change ahead of a world summit that would address the issue. The event is scheduled to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, later in November, Aljazeera reported. Related Article: Wife of Fallen Soldier in Kabul Blast Gives Birth, Names Newborn Daughter After Courageous Dad @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. China was incensed by America's new security cooperation with Australia and the United Kingdom, which was an undeclared target of Washington's latest attempt to enhance its influence in the region. The agreement also enraged France, a long-time ally who thought the submarine-focused deal threatened its Indo-Pacific interests. Forget about "freedom fries," the bitter diplomatic spat between the US and France over the latter's unwillingness to support the US invasion of Iraq. The submarine snub is part of a widening disagreement between Washington and Paris over the Biden administration's plan to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, among other defense technologies, as part of a deal announced by the White House on Wednesday. France denounces US nuclear submarine deal with the UK, Australia In an interview with Franceinfo on Thursday, France's foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, referred to Australia's move to cut a deal with the US as "a knife in the back." The defense pact, which includes the United Kingdom, is meant to counter growing Chinese military aggression in the Indo-Pacific. And China is furious, too. But they're not accusing the US and Australia of an epic betrayal. Australia has terminated its submarine contract with the French, which was expected to be worth between $50 billion and $90 billion, according to various media sources. Per USA Today, it was termed the "contract of the century" by one Australian publication. Meanwhile, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, claimed the deal seriously damaged regional peace and stability, intensified the arms race, and weakened international nuclear nonproliferation efforts during a press conference on Thursday. Any regional coalition, Zhao stressed, "shall not target or hurt the interests of third parties." A Biden administration official underlined at a briefing before the announcement on Wednesday evening that the deal is not directed at any one country, NBC News reported. However, the AUKUS agreement comes as the US intensifies its attempts to challenge China. For the first time, Australia will be able to build nuclear-powered submarines utilizing technology that the United States had previously been shared with the United Kingdom. The agreement also lets the three countries work together more closely on cyber capabilities and artificial intelligence, among other things. Read Also: Russia Invades NATO Countries With Massive Missile Blitz as Vladimir Putin Steps Up Missile Defense Capabilities The US defends new alliance After the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, and Russia, Australia will be the seventh country in the world to have nuclear-powered submarines. Australia, unlike the other countries, does not possess nuclear weapons. Beijing-Canberra relations have weakened, with the US ally emerging as a crucial bulwark in the West's efforts to counter China's rising influence. In response, China, Australia's largest trading partner, has launched a trade war. Australia will abandon its 2016 agreement with the French shipbuilder Naval Group to build a new fleet to replace its old Collins submarines as part of the AUKUS deal. Nuclear submarines are better than diesel submarines because they can operate more silently and stay below for extended periods. It is yet unknown how the partnership will operate, how much it will cost, how many boats will be produced, and whose firms will participate. However, the Australian defense and foreign ministries only announced the arrangement to their French colleagues two weeks ago. However, due to Canberra's insistence that the majority of manufacturing and components be found locally, the deal has been plagued by problems and delays. "France is a key friend and partner to Australia and the Indo-Pacific," Biden added, while Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his nation looked forward to continuing to work "closely and positively" with France. Despite the absence of the name "China," the region's most pressing security and defense concern is the development of a more aggressive and authoritarian Beijing, as per Sky News. Related Article: Joe Biden Reveals New Alliance With UK, Australia; US Plans To Share Nuclear Submarine Technology @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Japan and Vietnam have linked up on a deal to a technology transfer agreement that will provide vessels and weaponry to assist the Vietnamese in Chinese encounters that leaves them outgunned. The PLA has practically run ram shod in areas controlled by Vietnam due to the difference in the quality of equipment used. Both countries have decided to collaborate in a military collaboration to bolster mutual defenses against the CCP threat in the South and East China Seas. Vietnamese and Chinese encounters are always David and Goliath situations, allowing the PLA to do anything they wanted without fear of reprisal. Japan to arm Hanoi with vessels and weaponry The deal with the Hanoi government is to supply both up-to-date hardware and tech that will include ships to bolster Vietnam's outclassed navy, reported the Express UK. Representatives discussed and agreed on several points crucial to the partnership. They are keeping stability and security in the region, freedom of navigation, with overflights in the SCS, last is an amicable settlement of disputes. According to Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, there will be talks to sell vessels of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Forces. Last Sunday, the Japanese defense ministry said a sub of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) lurked close to its southern islands. China has been testing the limits of Tokyo's resolve in stopping incursions. Japan's defense ministry said that a submarine from China was spotted in waters near its southern islands, as maritime tensions persist in the Pacific, noted Reuters. The pivot of Japan and Vietnam in the technology transfer is not favorable to the PLA. Read Also: Japan Defense Chief Told Chinese Military to Back Off From Senkakus The exact location of the submarine was seen on a northwest course just in the boundaries of Amami Oshima island, of the Kagoshima prefecture, said the ministry. Additionally, a Chinese destroyer was close by the territorial waters. Beijing warns Tokyo, Hanoi not to act against Chinese interest in the South China Sea Notorious and flagrant violation of the Japan territorial waters by the PLAN, PLAAF, gets too close to disputed islands like the Senkaku isles, lately. China is always bellicose when the US Navy prickles it with FONOPS that is as close to 12 nautical miles as provided by UNCLOS, which is disregarded by Beijing which includes international law, cited by Hindustan Times. Wang Yi, a Senior Chinese Diplomat, went to Vietnam on one trip made clear the sentiments of the CCP and Beijing. He warned both nations not to act against Chinese interest in the SCS and warned of repercussions like heightening disputes. The Vietnam visit is one of his stops in a seven-day southeast Asian tour, right after a US VP Kamala Harris trip to Asia. According to the Vietnamese prime minister, when he met with Wang before the US VP came, Hanoi will not side with any country. Beijing always cites historical sovereignty as its claim the majority of the SCS. This has been contested. One argument based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which China agreed to, contradicts its claims. It is the basis for FONOPS done by navies near reefs built on by the PLAN. Like other countries, Japan and Vietnam does not agree on which encroaching Beijing violates. The technology transfer will be vital to keeping the CCP in check in the SCS. Related Article: Japan to Install Anti-Aircraft Missile Units in Ishigaki to Deter Chinese Incursions @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. China and Russia have enlisted Iran and Pakistan to help them deal with the Afghan issue during their quadrilateral summit. China and Russia are Enlarging Their Alliance In a recently published article in Newsweek, China and Russia are expanding their alliance with Iran and Pakistan to establish a regional strategy for addressing the still-simmering situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban seeks international recognition for its authority. China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan officials gathered Thursday for their first quadrilateral meeting on the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization heads of state conference, which will be held Friday in the Tajik city of Dushanbe. The meeting is the most recent forum for regional nations to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, where the international community is worried about the Taliban's capacity to pacify the war-torn country and control the expansion of terrorist organizations operating there, according to a report in Washington Newsday. Read Also: Taliban, Chinese Officials Meet Ahead of US Withdrawal From Afghanistan Remarks from Russian Foreign Minister Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked in his opening comments that the nations directly bordering Afghanistan are the ones that can make a difference in the area by assisting the Afghan people in overcoming the catastrophe caused by the United States and NATO's 20-year-long conflict. He also added, "Acting in good faith. We can make a difference in creating necessary external conditions for Afghans to take control of their own destiny, without any threats emanating from Afghan territory in terms of terrorism, drug trafficking, or any risks and challenges created from Afghan territory to its neighbors," according to a published report in Digi Chat. In a statement released following their meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that perspectives on problems of supporting the development of peace, stability, and security in Afghanistan were discussed, and the necessity of creating national reconciliation in the country was emphasized. Iranian Foreign Minister Reported Positive Findings According to the Iranian side's account of the four-way talks, senior diplomats pushed for establishing an inclusive government in Afghanistan with participation from all ethnic groups. It was also discussed if Afghanistan could be rid of terrorism, drugs, and threats to its neighbors. A meeting of members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet, Russia-led alliance that includes Armenia and Belarus as well as Central Asian nations, began on Thursday focused on the security situation in Afghanistan and its border. The following is a compressed version of the data. Russian President Vladimir Putin Released a Statement Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the situation in the CSTO's zone of responsibility and its member states' external borders continues insecure, posing new and serious challenges and threats to the nation's security. Furthermore, on Friday, Putin was set to make another appearance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) leaders' meeting in Dushanbe. China, India, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan are all members of the SCO, as are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The SCO, founded two decades ago, just months before the US-led war in Afghanistan, has a history of internal strife. Tensions between strategic allies China and Pakistan and India and political divisions that have long prevented Iran's entrance were among the issues that surfaced. Related Article: Taliban, China to Work Closely in Reconstructing Afghanistan @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. North Korea launched new cruise missiles with a range of up to 932 miles over the weekend, placing several US military facilities in the crosshairs. North Korea's Cruise Missiles Can Reach US Military Bases In a recently published article in Newsweek, except for those at the country's northernmost point, the missile may strike around 80 U.S. military facilities in Japan. The rocket could hit all 73 U.S. military sites in South Korea. Experts believed that North Korea is in the progress of improving its military system. Additionally, experts think North Korea is launching missiles to put pressure on the United States to lift economic restrictions. Negotiations between the two nations over North Korea's nuclear weapons development have been deadlocked for two years; and the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, has shown no signs of resuming discussions with President Joe Biden. In order for negotiations to restart, Kim's regime has informed the Biden administration that the U.S. "hostile" policies toward North Korea must be removed. As a result, the U.S. has urged North Korea to resume negotiations, claiming that the nation has no hostile intentions, according to a published report in Airforce Magazine. Read Also: North Korea Missile Tests, Conventional Forces Could Resume To Force US Roll Back Sanctions, Top General Warns North Korea Successfully Launches Long-Ranged Cruise Missiles After the two Koreas test-fired missiles hours apart in a show of military strength, North Korea claimed Thursday it had successfully launched ballistic missiles from a train for the first time and was continuing to reinforce its defenses. Meanwhile, it said on Monday that it had successfully launched newly built long-range cruise missiles, its first missile test in six months and a fresh sign that the Korean Peninsula's weapons race was heating up. The North Korean missiles struck targets 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) distant after flying for more than two hours during Saturday and Sunday's tests, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. Before reaching their objectives, the missiles altered their courses and formed circles, as per The New York Times. North Korea's attempts to diversify its launch choices, which currently include different vehicles and land launch sites and may ultimately include submarines, are reflected in a rail-based ballistic system. Although firing a missile from a train may increase mobility, some analysts believe that adversaries would swiftly destroy North Korea's basic rail networks that travel across its relatively limited area during a crisis. Joint Military Exercises of South Korea, the US Provoke North Korea In August, South Korea and the United States held a nine-day joint military drill. North Korea has frequently been pushed into conducting its own military exercises or nuclear testing as a result of joint training between the two countries. The North's launches occurred as South Korea seemed to be quickly ratcheting up its own military buildup. Per ABC News, this month, South Korea conducted a successful test of its first submarine-launched ballistic missile. Local news media claimed that the S.L.B.M. was launched from the country's recently constructed Dosan Ahn Changho-class assault submarine, despite authorities' refusal to disclose specifics. In 2015, North Korea started testing submarine-launched ballistic missiles, with the "greatest success" reported the following year. Related Article: North Korea Successfully Tests Long Range Missiles; UN Security Council Expresses Concern of the Country's Latest Ballistic Program @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Karl Bohnak, who worked as a weatherman on television in northern Michigan for more than 30 years, has lost his job after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccination. Company Fires Karl Bohnak For Refusing Not To Get Vaccinated In a recently published article in Newsweek, Karl Bohnak, who worked for WLUC-TV6 for more than 30 years as a weather reporter, claims he was dismissed because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. His resignation is similar to that of other professionals who have resigned or been dismissed as a result of their refusal to take the vaccination. Bohnak said in the Facebook post that he was dismissed because he refused to take one of the shots. Many people, according to Bohnak, have had one of these injections, and they have every right to do so. He also emphasized that it is his right to select the medical choices that he believes are best for him. Furthermore, Gray Television, which owns WLUC-TV6, requires anybody including employees visiting a facility controlled by the business to provide evidence of vaccination, according to Bohnak in a recently published news article in The Detriot News. Since then, the post has received over 2,600 comments and 3,000 shares. While many of the comments backed Bohnak, many others slammed the post and his reluctance to vaccinate his children. Read Also: Hospital in New York Cancels All Baby Deliveries; Maternity Workers Quit Their Job Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Karl Bohnak Highly Vulnerable to the Virus According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bohnak, 68, is at high risk for COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality at his age. The coronavirus is five times more likely to hospitalize people and 90 times more likely to kill those aged 65 to 74. However, Bohnak spread misinformation about the pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccine, claiming that "the chance of surviving COVID is well over 99 percent" for a normally healthy adult not housed in a nursing home or not suffering from serious comorbidities, and implying that there is a risk of "serious" vaccine side effects, according to a report published in Washington News Day. The longtime weatherman report even said that despite the country's history of requiring vaccinations that successfully eliminated illnesses like smallpox and polio, he claims that "liberty" and "freedom" are at risk as a result of the requirements. Vaccination in the Country As of Thursday, only about half of the United States had received all of their vaccinations, as public health officials struggle to be heard, much alone trusted, in the face of internet disinformation. Vaccine requirements are being enforced by employers such as the nation's main healthcare institutions, as well as municipal and state governments, to combat this. In places like New York, vaccinations are required for residents to eat indoor, go to the gym, and participate in other activities. President Joe Biden is now issuing executive orders requiring government workers to get immunized. Meanwhile, vaccine apprehension has been a problem that public health authorities have been attempting to address all year. According to ourworldindata.org, just 54.6 percent of the US population, or 179 million individuals, are completely vaccinated. In Michigan, 5.12 million individuals, or 51.3 percent of the population, are vaccinated. Related Article: More than 13% North Carolina Gov't Employees Subject to Suspension Without Pay After Failing To Provide Proof of Vaccination @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Creativity is timeless, and the find of handprints left by Denisovan children is one of the oldest graffiti art in prehistory found by scientists. Its age is more significant than any known cave painting that gives a window into the earliest periods of humankind. The date of the artwork is known to be one of the oldest art examples, which is a significant entry to the history of civilization. Even if it is just five hands and footprints of young Denisovan, 226,000 years is ancient. Ancient graffiti made by young Denisovans Researchers from Guangzhou University have estimated the sample to be about three or four times older than earlier finds seen in France, Indonesia, and Spain, which adds a layer to studies reported in the Daily Mail. In 2018, it was discovered in rocky outcropping in Quesang, Tibetan Plateau. Based on the examination of ancient graffiti, it was made by young Denisovan, said the study authors. The team consulted the archaeologist Thomas Urban from Cornell University in New York to determine whether it could be considered an art. Urban's work of the New Mexico footprints in the White Sands National Park would help scientists know it was art, noted Science Daily. One of the clues is how handprints left by Denisovan children were made the oldest graffiti art-pressed into the travertine, a terrestrial limestone laid down near hot springs, that solidified over the millennia, one of the main signs Urban looked for. When the limestone formation was exposed, it would have a sloped surface on it. Read Also: Fossilized Remains of 9 Neanderthals Killed by Hyenas Found in Italian Cave Urban added that no one would run over it and fall into it like that. Furthermore, the way the prints were arranged had no logic and was not significant too. One conclusion is the hominids' innate creativity, called being 'human'-signs of an early creative streak that is remarkable early. The young Denisovan saw the material and manipulated it intuitively. It was intentional art-making that needs to be studied more. When the young ones saw what they did, calling attention to it, displaying their handprints and footprints, cited CTV News. How the design of the handprints was the place is very intentional compared to the footprints, the rock which has it is seldom examples of our earlier ancestors. These are valuable records that show early humanity and everything about it. Or what made them human, despite their era. Art and innate creativity made the Denisovans 'human' Scientists call the handprints corresponding to the Tibetan art style, which involves stenciling hands on cave walls. The estimated age of the Quesang art panel has beaten similar examples by thousands of years, at 169,000-226,000 years ago, which is very old. This art on the Sulawesi Island in Indonesia and the El Castillo cave in Spain will be as old as 40-45,000 years back, with the France cave painting in Chauvet at 30,000 years old. Should the archaic Quesang prints will be considered art depending on criteria. Still, the definition of what is creative behavior is open to discussion. These handprints were left by Denisovan children a long time ago, and if it is the oldest graffiti art, it would be what made them human. Related Article: Siberian Cave Yields DNA Showing that Denisovans and Neanderthals Were Cohabiting About 44,000 Years Ago @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Four friends were discovered shot to death in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield, leaving law police puzzled and grieving families bewildered. Authorities believe they have few leads and no suspects after a farmer discovered the gruesome find on Sunday afternoon. Investigators were looking via bridge and highway cameras to see who killed four Minnesota citizens whose bodies were discovered in an SUV abandoned in a Wisconsin cornfield. According to family relatives, the two males and two women were seen together at a bar in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday night. The remains were discovered in a cornfield in Dunn County, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the east, by a farmer on Sunday. According to officials, all four had been shot. Investigators puzzled with the killings of four people in Wisconsin Investigators think the victims were "randomly driven to" the area, and that someone purposely drove the SUV off the road and into the tall corn in the Town of Sheridan, according to Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd. The victims had no known ties to Dunn County, ABC News reported. Bygd added that detectives are still attempting to figure out a motive, but there are no preliminary indications that the killings were linked to drugs or organized crime. Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, of St. Paul; Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater; Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, of St. Paul; Sturm's brother, and Sturm's boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul were among the victims. Dunn County sheriff's officials said one suspect has been detained and another is being sought in connection with the deadly shootings of four individuals discovered in an abandoned SUV in western Wisconsin. Per Daily Mail, the men are possibly involved in the quadruple killing. Because the mother of a four-year-old and an 11-year-old doesn't know anybody in Wisconsin, let alone to be in Wisconsin, Presley's father claimed that the perpetrators must be someone his daughter and her friends knew. There has been no link established between the victims and McWright and Shuggs, and no reason for the heinous killings has been revealed. Investigators think the victims were "randomly transported to" the region and that the SUV was deliberately driven off the road and into the tall corn in the Town of Sheridan, according to Bygd. Pettus had been employed at Shamrocks bar and restaurant in St. Paul, where his sister had also worked for many years, according to his brother, Zake Pettus. Read Also: Boy in Medically Induced Coma After Lawnmower Projectile Fractured His Skull While Playing in Wisconsin Playground Authorities believe victims were transported to the crime scene According to an FBI spokesperson, the FBI Minneapolis field office is supporting the sheriff's office in the investigation. Investigators suspect the victims were randomly transported to Sheridan and that someone purposefully drove the SUV with the bodies into the cornfield. He stated that the case's motivation is unknown and that all possibilities are being investigated, including personal acquaintances, organized crime, or a drug link. While there was no preliminary proof of narcotics being used as a motivation, "it very well may be, and that will be revealed during our inquiry," the FBI spokesperson added. The killer or killers brought a second car to the disposal site and drove it to flee, according to investigators. A second dark-colored SUV may have been involved, and police are looking for information about it. Investigators have been tight-lipped about many elements of the case, and Bygd has refused to address several important questions, including who owned the SUV in which the victims were discovered and where the bodies were located. However, according to audio acquired by KSTP from a police scanner, none of the victims were in the driver's seat. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office conducted autopsies on Monday and found that all four victims died of gunshot wounds. The four victims were in a St. Paul bar on Saturday night, according to Flug-father, Presley's Damone Presley Sr., who told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that they got into someone's vehicle after they left. Related Article: Missing New York Woman Gabby Petito's Boyfriend Refuses To Help Search, Ignores Text Messages Despite Family's Plea To Talk To Police @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. French President Emmanuel Macron considered the killing of an Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) by members of the French service a major success in the country's continuing fight against international terrorism. An operation conducted by the French military in the Greater Sahara allegedly resulted in the death of a man known by the country's officials as "enemy No. 1." The terrorist was identified as Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi and is believed to have been the one that ordered the attacks which killed four United States service members in 2017. He is also believed to be responsible for the deaths of French nationals and several thousand African civilians. Death of Terrorist Group Leader In an address, Macron announced the death of al-Sahrawi and praised the efforts of French service members for their accomplished mission. He noted that the terrorist leader's death will have a great impact on future terrorist and extremist activity in the region. On Twitter, Macron uploaded a post that read, "Adnan Abou Walid al Sahraoui, leader of the terrorist group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was neutralized by French forces. This is another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel," Fox News reported. The French president's statement continued to note that the entire nation is thanking all of the heroic members that gave their lives in service to the country. Macron said that none of the troops' sacrifices was in vain while committing to continuing the fight against terrorism. Read Also: France, China Furious Over US-Australia Nuclear-Powered Submarines Deal; French Foreign Minister Calls Move a "Stab in The Back" Many experts considered the death of the ISGS leader as major news and a welcome achievement for governments struggling to fight against international terrorism. However, they warned that the militant groups could easily find a new leader to mitigate the damage to the group. Al-Sahrawi's death would most likely only affect the terrorist group in the short term while a new leader is chosen. The incident is unlikely to severely cripple the insurrection group for a long period of time, senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, Alexandre Raymakers, said, Yahoo News reported. Major Success Against Terrorism Raymakers called the death of the terrorist leader a "tactical success" for Operation Barkhane because the removal of al-Sahrawi has long been a top priority for France. But despite a large number of French military operations over the years, the terrorist group has successfully continued to expand its reach in the Sahel. The 2017 incident that al-Sahrawi led that resulted in the death of four U.S. soldiers involved an ambush of the American troop members who were returning to their base. During the encounter, the victims waited for nearly an hour before requesting help because they assumed there were only a few militants that attacked them. Al-Sahrawi was responsible for forming the ISGS in 2015 and is responsible for the majority of the deadly attacks in the West African region. Some of the group's attacks include violence against six French aid workers who had Nigerian guides and drivers in 2020. But the killing of four U.S. troopers and five Nigerian fights was the deadliest attack on American troops in Africa since 1993, Business Insider reported. Related Article: Wife of Fallen Soldier in Kabul Blast Gives Birth, Names Newborn Daughter After Courageous Dad @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Taliban are tracking down a female Afghan prosecutor who has been investigating child abuse cases involving the terrorist organization for years, forcing her to flee for her life. Female Afghan Prosecutor Receives an Ultimatum from the Taliban In a recently published article in Newsweek, to protect her identity, the prosecutor, known only as Mina (not her actual name), shared with a news outlet a frightening ultimatum letter she got from the Taliban's military council before fleeing her house in central Wardak province. The letter read, "You have been accused by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of aiding and abetting infidels. We order you to leave your job and help and cooperate with the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate. You will not be harmed by the Mujahideen if you please Allah." Meanwhile, the female Afghan prosecutor said that she is sure that she will be killed if the Taliban finds her. She also shared that, on Monday, Taliban militants in Panjshir killed a former comrade. That story could not be independently verified by the news outlet, according to a published article in MSN News. Read Also: Cruel Taliban Burns a Woman Alive Due to Bad Cooking as Extreme Violence Spreads in Afghanistan The Taliban Offers $3,000 Bounty for Any Information About the Whereabouts of the Female Afghan Prosecutor According to Mina, Taliban authorities have offered a reward of 500,000 Pakistani rupees ($3,000) for any information on her location. The amount is slightly over $4,000 less than the national median income. Her investigations are humiliating for the Taliban, which is trying to transition from a stoic guerilla group to a functional administration in order to exert authority over all areas of Afghan life. Mina is in a particularly dangerous situation since she is a Hazara, a minority community that makes up 10 to 20 percent of the population and was brutally persecuted by the Taliban when it came to power in the 1990s, including killings. It's worth noting that the Taliban's offer of amnesty for former government employees excludes legal experts and certain specialized police personnel. Afghan Women Stage Protests In Taliban-controlled Kabul, a handful of Afghan women activists held a modest demonstration asking for equal rights and full participation in political life. Despite the danger, a group dubbed the Women's Political Participation Network marched along the street in front of Afghanistan's Finance Ministry, shouting slogans and carrying banners demanding participation in the Afghan government and constitutional legislation. In a published article in CNN News, before the chanting began, footage showed a short altercation between a Taliban guard and several of the ladies, during which a man's voice could be heard screaming, "Go away!" The crowd was modest - footage from the event live-streamed by the organization showed just a few dozen protesters - but it was a rare public challenge to Taliban authority. The militant organization is in the midst of internal talks about establishing a government, but they have already indicated that working women should remain at home, and militants have ordered women to quit their jobs in certain cases. Furthermore, Taliban officials have said openly that women would have a major role in society and will be able to get an education. However, the group's public comments about sticking to its version of Islamic principles have fanned concerns of a return to the Taliban's harsh rules, which saw women virtually vanish from public life two decades ago. Related Article: Afghan Woman Mutilated by Evil Taliban, Had Her Nose, Ears Chopped Off After Trying to Escape @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Rikers Island, which is home to New York City's main jail complex, is allegedly too dangerous to implement prison reforms as the area has fallen into chaos amid the coronavirus pandemic, with inmates becoming extremely violent and the growing lack of space. Last week, United States Department of Correction (DOC) Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi wrote five "variance request" letters. In the documents, the official requested the New York City Board of Correction for a temporary reprieve from reforms that aimed to make the facility better for prisoners. Rikers Island Jail Complex Schiraldi argued in one of the letters that unshackled inmates were unable to watch television together in the same cell due to the "serious risk of violence." The situation was brought about by "infrastructure limitations in the current punitive segregation housing areas." Last year, the DOC shut down the dormitory-style Eric M. Taylor Center as part of its plans to close down Rikers Island by 2027. In a separate letter, Schiraldi said that the units, which replaced the recently banned solitary confinement, were necessary to discourage inmates from hiding contraband from guards, the New York Post reported. Schiraldi argued that despite being used very rarely, separation status among inmates was vital to the department's efforts of preventing contraband from being circulated inside their facilities. If prisoners were not threatened with isolation, correction officers would most likely not have been able to recover all of the 496 banned items this year alone, 230 of which were weapons such as metal shanks, and 200 drug stashes. Read Also: France, China Furious Over US-Australia Nuclear-Powered Submarines Deal; French Foreign Minister Calls Move a "Stab in The Back" Rikers Island has recently spiraled into chaos, recording a surge in inmate deaths, unguarded cell blocks, staggering staff shortages due to AWOL guards, and lack of food and medical care for detainees. The jail complex has suffered years of neglect, causing it to quickly spiral into turmoil during the coronavirus pandemic. One jail watchdog called the situation in Rikers Island a "complete breakdown in the operation of the jails." Lawyer Mary Lynne Werlwas, who is the director of the Prisoners' Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society, the situation is one of the most dangerous that her office has seen in the last 50 years of monitoring city jails, FOX5 New York reported. Shortage of Guards Due to AWOL Workers On Wednesday, city officials moved to urge Rikers Island correction officers to go back to work amid the jail complex's staffing shortage due to AWOL workers. Investigators from the Department of Correction distributed suspension notices to about 20 AWOL officers' homes. The documents argued that if the staff members were working at other establishments, such as Starbucks, they would not be able to keep their jobs if they didn't show up for work. The letters were sent the day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said officers would be subject to 30-day suspensions without pay for violation of sick leave rules. The official's announcement was part of an emergency plan to address the staffing and conditions crisis in the jail complex. "Folks, not showing up for work is unacceptable," de Blasio said on Tuesday. The mayor's administration has worked with the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association for months to address the staffing problems at Rikers Island, the New York Daily News reported. Related Article: South Carolina Lawyer Alex Murdaugh Tried to Get Himself Killed for $10 Million Insurance Fraud, Surrenders To Face Charges @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In the Zapad-2021 Wargames, Putin touts a new robotic vehicle and more advanced weaponry to lessen the gap in the west in advanced combat weaponry. The Russian war machine is revving with a new weapon to show the US and NATO that Russia can rumble at any time. The Russian leader made it a point for the west to watch and shudder at their arsenal to make NATO or the US think twice before doing anything. The encounter with NATO in Crimean waters and the Black Sea reminded us that the Kremlin is playing it cool, but it can change anytime. New generation weapons and robotic tanks used in drills One of the Russian leader's revelations was the Terminator tank and superfast missiles that travel at Mach 5+, as the participating units in the Russian-Belarus drills, reported the Sun UK. Included in Zapad 2021 is a new generation of combat machines by the arm forces on this occasion. For the NATO and EU observers, this is an ominous display of strength. These exercises began on September 10, meant by the Kremlin as a heads up to inform the west, the Russian Federation is not to be trifled with, cited the DW. To date, the war games with Russia and Belarus are one of the most massive organized drills embarked on by the two countries. The massive land exercise involves 200,000 troops, 80 warplanes, and helicopters, using 760 military hardware, including 290 tanks, 240 field artillery, rockets launcher platforms, and mortars for the army. Putin touts a new robotic tank and more weapons that are a new generation. Read Also: Russian 'Top Secret Army' Found in a Tablet With Information About Putin's Alleged Shadow Group Many of the drills were conducted on the ground by Russia and Belarus, which caused close neighbors to sweat buckets and fear the worst. Seen in the drills were the first glimpses of the Uran-9, which is a deployable combat vehicle, which can engage in combat or scouting ahead in enemy territory. Uran-9 is a heavy remote drone at 12-tons, equipped with Ataka guided missiles and anti-armor rockets as its missile payload. But, it has anti-personnel weapons like a flamethrower and a 7.62 caliber machine gun installed. No crews will attack it without fearing their lives against the remotely operated vehicle as its range extends to 16,404 feet away. An undisclosed drone unit was deployed to the field during the Syrian Civil War in 2018. Still, it is unclear how well it performed in use as nobody knows if it participated in combat, noted the Business Insider. Zapad 2021 featutes varied weaponry Shown in the exercises is the S-500 Prometheus ground-to-air missile launcher. The system is used to shoot down planes and missiles high up at 125 miles. Capable of shooting down hypersonic missiles and close to space. Tests have been completed, and the system is being delivered to buyers of the S-500 after military drills, with India being one of the first in a few years. There is a video that showcases the S-400 and Pantsir-S air defenses in action. The drill was done in the Astrakhan region, including Russia's Triumph air defense system, as part of the Zapad wargames in 2021. All the activities in this year's war games show how Russia is modernizing at breakneck speed. Putin touts a new robotic tank and more weapons that the EU and NATO are getting uneasy from. Related Article: Putin Reveals Platform-M Robotic Combat Tanks Used in Belarus War Games for the First Time; Will This Replace Armed Troops? @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. There will be no criminal investigation into BBC journalist Martin Bashir's interview with Princess Diana on Panorama. The decision came after the Metropolitan Police investigated the Lord Dyson report on the 1995 program in which the journalist sat down with the royal. Scotland Yard has announced that it will not launch an investigation into his world-famous exclusive interview. After reviewing Lord Dyson's assessment into the 1995 BBC Panorama documentary, the force came to the conclusion that the broadcaster covered up the "deceptive behavior" that obtained the scoop. After reviewing the investigation concerning Bashir's historic sit-down with the royal, the Metropolitan Police made the statement, MIRROR reported. Scotland Yard had previously stated in March that it would not pursue a criminal inquiry into the interview but that it had reviewed the contents of the Dyson report two months later. Martyn Bashir's "deceitful" interview with Princess Diana Bashir's previous employment with the BBC had been called into question as claims surfaced regarding how he obtained the now-famous Princess Diana interview. The late princess revealed her troubled marriage to Prince Charles during a shocking interview two years before her death. Per NY Post, Bashir obtained the 1995 interview by falsifying financial papers and lying about Lady Di being tapped by security agencies. More than 23 million people viewed the interview. Princess Diana talked of how "there were three of us in this marriage," referring to her husband, Prince Charles, and his now-wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles. It was the greatest blow to the monarchy in years. Princess Diana's sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as her brother, Charles Spencer, have all claimed that the interview's aftermath contributed to her death in a Paris car accident in August 1997. Bashir resigned as BBC religion editor hours before the Dyson report was released, citing health concerns. The BBC has made a "full and unequivocal apologies" for the manner in which the interview was acquired. Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, wrote to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, requesting that the force investigate the Corporation in an attempt to compel the Met into conducting a comprehensive investigation into how Martyn Bashir persuaded the princess to consent to the broadcast. Read Also: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Accused of "Breathtaking Entitlement" Amid Request to Baptize Daughter, Lilibet in the UK Officials argue criminal investigation is inappropriate The investigation threw the BBC into one of the most serious crises in its history, with Princess Diana's two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, accusing the broadcaster of destroying their mother's life with its "deceitful" exclusive and contributing to the sad chain of events that led to her death in 1997. However, Scotland Yard said today that it was "not appropriate to commence a criminal investigation into claims of unlawful behavior in connection with a documentary broadcast in 1995" in a statement on the independent report. Earl Spencer is said to have written to Dame Cressida in January and has maintained contact with Commander Alex Murray, the leader of the specialized crime unit. Earl Spencer claimed to have committed many felonies, according to an acquaintance. Princess Diana's brother felt Bashir had built a web of falsehoods around his vulnerable sister and had created "coercive control over her." He says the rogue BBC reporter and his bosses committed coercion, fraud, and acquiring property by deceit by instilling fear in her mind and misleading her into the interview. Spencer believes the company profited when rights to the spectacular interview were sold across the world, as per Daily Mail. Related Article: What Is Prince William's Heartbreaking Promise to Princess Diana That Left Her in Tears? @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. After being identified as a person of interest by police, the fiance of the missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito is expected to be detained shortly in connection with her disappearance, according to a criminal defense lawyer. After returning home to North Port, Florida, earlier this month without Petito and refusing to speak to authorities, Lara Yeretsian, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney, told Fox News that she believes it is just a matter of time until police question Brian Laundrie. Lawyer believes Brian Laundrie will soon be detained Petito and Laundrie had taken a cross-country vacation in their van in June, visiting numerous states. Police in Moab, Utah, revealed bodycam footage of the couple from August 12 while responding to an argument between them earlier this week. Petito's family reported her missing on September 11, ten days after Laundrie returned to the couple's house in North Port. The missing New York woman's family has already voiced their displeasure with Laundrie's refusal to cooperate with authorities to investigate her disappearance. Per Newsweek via MSN, protesters have also gathered outside Laundrie's parents' home, demanding answers to the 22-year-old's disappearance. Sister of Gabby Petito's boyfriend speaks out Cassie Laundrie, sister of Brian Laundrie, has come out regarding Petito's disappearance. Brian's sister claimed in a recent interview that the missing woman is "like a sister" to her and that she believes the situation is just "a big misunderstanding." Gabby Petito, a New Yorker, has been missing since August 24, when she left a hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie. Before her disappearance, she created a social media blog while traveling throughout the United States with her fiance. On Thursday, his sister Cassie appeared on ABC's Good Morning America for an interview. "Obviously, I and my family want Gabby to be found safe," she stated in a short clip that aired before the full Friday episode. It comes after the missing woman's family pleaded with her partner's parents for assistance, saying their "lives are falling apart." The family claimed they have been unable to sleep or eat as they continue to seek their "beautiful" daughter in a heartfelt message shared on social media, MIRROR reported. The missing woman's family asked Brian Laundrie to provide additional information about her disappearance in a letter sent to his parents and shared on social media. Authorities have sought to contact him and his parents, but they have so far refused. On Tuesday, Laundrie sent a statement through his legal team, breaking his silence for the first time. Read Also: Pregnant Woman Shot Dead in New York While Trying To Halt Dispute Between Ex and Boyfriend at Her Baby Shower Utah police look into the link between Petito's disappearance and a double-murder case Meanwhile, authorities in Utah are looking into a possible link between the disappearance of "van-life" lady Gabby Petito and the death of a woman who worked at the Moab co-op where Petito and her fiance Brian Laundrie had a heated argument. Kylen Schulte, 24, and her wife, Crystal Turner, 38, were discovered dead and half-naked where they had been camped six days after Petito and Laundrie had a violent confrontation at Moonflower Community Cooperative. Schulte and Turner informed acquaintances about a "scary man" who had been following them and that they would be murdered if something happened to them. Their corpses were discovered on August 18 at a campground in the La Sal Mountains, about an hour from Moab, as per Daily Mail. Around the same time that Schulte and Turner were slain in Utah, authorities in San Miguel County, Colorado, issued a warning to campers after discovering more than 30 firearms at a man's campground in Telluride, a little over two hours from Moab. His movements were unknown to authorities, and it is uncertain if he was finally apprehended. Police in Moab and North Port, Florida, where Petito and Laundrie lived, are now investigating possible connections between the double homicide and Petito's disappearance. Knives, hatchets, a crossbow, and numerous swords were among the weapons discovered in Telluride. Police withheld the man's identity due to pre-trial publicity, and his whereabouts remained unknown as of August 23. On August 12, Petito and Laundrie got into a violent altercation inside the Moonflower co-op, a day before Schulte and Turner were last seen leaving a Moab pub. Petito is shown on police bodycam film explaining why she smacked her boyfriend Brian Laundrie in a violent incident 13 days before she was last seen in Wyoming's Gran Teton National Park. She was on a cross-country vacation with Laundrie that was supposed to finish around Halloween, but her mother reported her missing two weeks after they last spoke on the phone. Petito, 22, is seen on camera crying and telling authorities that she "was trying to get him to stop asking me to calm down" and that the pair had been arguing all morning. Petito claims she has OCD and anxiety in the video, which was taken in Moab, Utah, and both she and Laundrie said she was anxious because of the YouTube blog they were working on to capture the doomed cross-country trip. Laundrie has scratches on his face and arm, which he claims were caused when Petito was attempting to steal the keys from him and struck him with her phone, according to an officer. Related Article: Missing Woman Gabby Petito's Boyfriend Addresses Why He Won't Speak To Authorities; Police Name Him as "Person of Interest" @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Eduardo Sonoda believes that team-building is a vital component of marketing and that being an effective team leader is the most important trait an effective marketing manager can possess. Since 2020, he notes, with closures, postponements and social distancing requirements the norm, marketers and event planners have been required to rethink how events would happen. Live versions of events were almost unheard of for a span of nearly two years. The pandemic made it necessary to cancel such marketing staples as concerts, conferences, grand openings and product launches, and its disruptive effects on consumer behaviour affected the marketer's ability to tell a proper story. As the founder and CEO of a marketing firm that now has 700 employees, Sonoda boasts some serious expertise. Recognized for his successful marketing efforts on behalf of companies of all sizes, from startups through Inc. 5000 firms, he now believes that major marketing shirts are on the horizon for 2022. He also believes that the future will usher in new opportunities for creativity, diversity and effectiveness. The new paradigm of marketing success will centre around accountability and revenue ownership, adaptability, customer centricity and team building. "When building a marketing team, it is important to make sure that you assemble a team that you are compatible with. Everyone needs to know their roles, and you need to make sure that everyone is bringing something to the table." More specifically, just what does this leader of Eduardo Sonoda Advisory envision, and what are the leading trends he sees impacting marketing for the coming year? Primary Directions in the Near Future Three trends that Sonoda believes will dominate marketing efforts in early 2022 include: Hybrid Events: In some important ways, COVID has become a catalyst for innovation in marketing techniques. When continued outbreaks of infection became the norm, even after the introduction of vaccines, marketing efforts also took an unexpected turn. The public has demonstrated an acceptance of the creative approaches employed during the height of the pandemic shutdown. Zoom events, online streaming and other digital options are now familiar and welcome. The challenge for the future, Sonoda believes, will lie in integrating newer techniques with reenvisioned marketing goals in order to achieve a seamless strategy that creates memorable experiences for the consumer and effectively meets customer goals. Content Alignment: A strong focus on content is needed, whether it's based on a website with blogs and infographics, white papers, videos and other valuable information, or knowledge shared on other social media. Content is a powerful driver for thought leadership and SEO, as well as for public relations. Content that answers consumer questions and supplies information in a variety of ways is vital. It is this no-nonsense approach to marketing that sets Sonoda's work apart. In addition, he is a writer, contributing thought pieces to major business publications. He serves as a valuable resource for entrepreneurs and business leaders because he has a proven ability to align ideas with action. Non-Profit Partnerships: Finally, for businesses that want to establish a firm and lasting connection with their communities, he insists that the philanthropic aspect must not be ignored. According to Sonoda, it is destined to become even more critical in coming years, because investors and customers will demand it. For business, he insists, supporting like-minded non-profits is a win-win, and it should be considered a priority of the first order. But it requires genuine commitment on the part of the business, including corporate sponsorships, percentage-of-sales campaigns, employee volunteer programs and affiliate marketing, in addition to product placement. Additional marketing influencers, according to Sonoda, will include a new trend toward sales ownership. Having an ownership stake in the products and services that marketers deal with, in his view, represents a lucrative option and can be incentivizing. He believes that artificial intelligence and influencer marketing will also grow in importance in the coming year. Influencers already play an outsized role in marketing, and Sonoda views AI as a major tool for marketers in the future, predicting that it will be used in performance evaluation and in the identification of influencers. A third concern, he believes, is grounded in the realm of growing privacy concerns. As Google phases out third-party cookies, he expects that marketers will have to look to other tools as that former tracking technology becomes less available. Some alternatives that he mentions are first-party cookies, customization of content, surveys and other services, and better CRM tools. Philanthropy -- A Natural Extension Sonoda, for whom philanthropic pursuits are a natural extension of marketing philosophy, predicts that new creative approaches in marketing will continue to spawn new enthusiasm and will aid marketers in their quest to reimagine traditional concepts and rethink their goals. He believes there will be a stronger emphasis on content, or storytelling, and on partnerships, particularly with non-profit organizations. He believes that marketers must become more adept at interweaving such community-minded support into their efforts. He stresses that corporate goals and objectives must become more aligned with public ideology and with non-profit causes. Finally, he notes, authenticity is key. Giving lip-service to philanthropic partnerships is not likely to resonate with consumers, he insists, adding that brands will need to demonstrate a "more hands-on approach" that goes beyond "a press release and a few donations." Sonoda explains that "philanthropy is very near and dear to me, and I see so many well-intentioned but careless mistakes with these partnerships." He notes that, in his own business, he prefers to "remain in startup mode," explaining that it's the state of "constant innovation" that keeps things fresh and allows new ideas to flow, whether he is focusing on his own company's growth or planning a marketing campaign for a client. In essence, he says, "Make a plan, keep it quick, simple, and very no-nonsense. It should be easy for management and employees to understand, and be able to get off the ground quickly." In addition, he personally values spontaneity, and the willingness to try new approaches and embrace fresh ideas. @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A free REvil ransomware decryptor has been made available online. It would unlock all files corrupted and encrypted by the hacker group before July 13. Bitdefender. however, warned that new REvil ransomware attacks are imminent. With that, yhey hope the Bitdefender decryptor would help as many victims as possible. REvil is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation, where cybercriminals hack into a system and encrypt its stored data. The data is held for ransom, with REvil affiliates demanding millions for ransom. The money is taken in exchange for a decryption key and the assurance that data hacked will not go into public. Note, however, that transactions with cybercriminals are never secure. Hackers rarely keep their promises, even if the money gets paid. So victims are recommended to cut their losses and disconnect immediately when they get attacked. After the Kaseya Ransomware attack 2021, ransomware strategies exploded with popularity among cybercriminals. How to Download Bitdefender Decryptor: Full Guide The cybersecurity company Bitdefender worked together with a confidential but trusted law enforcement partner to investigate REvil attacks. With their initial findings, Bitdefender developed a universal decryptor tool to help restore or recover files attacked before July 13. The universal decryptor is free and open for download to any interested users. Here are the steps you should follow: Click on this link to "Download the REvil decryptor." Save it on your computer When a User Account Control asks for permission, click "Yes" Check the "I agree with the terms of use" for its License Agreement and "Continue" When the Bitdefender app opens, users are recommended to check "Scan entire system" and "Backup files" Press "Scan" Users are recommended to "Overwrite existing clean files" under "Advanced options" to overwrite existing files with their decrypted equivalent Complete this process to clean your device and documents from ransomware codes. Read Also: NASA Reveals Plan to Crash Spaceship to Deflect Massive Asteroid: Full Simulation, Mission Launch Date and MORE REvil Ransomware Attack 2021: More Attacks Coming Techspot warned some more threates that could come in the future. Another REvil ransomware attack might happen at any time. REvil is one of the most prolific and active ransomware group in the dark web. Their affiliates targeted thousands of technology companies and attacked services providers around the world. However, after its Kaseya attack, the group suddenly went dark. REvil's payment site and other accounts went offline on the dark web. This worried many cybersecurity organizations. However, on September 8, Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow spotted REvil's website back online. The group advertised stealing sensitive information such as client's SSN, date of birth, financial information, and personal data. Unfortunately, the Happy Blog is back online #REvil pic.twitter.com/vMr9qTOht2 Brett Callow (@BrettCallow) September 7, 2021 By Wednesday, the REvil added a new victim to their list. The victim's name was kept confidential for privacy. On the same day that a decryptor is released, REvil lists a new victim. pic.twitter.com/ESWcNvHj9G Brett Callow (@BrettCallow) September 16, 2021 Analysts speculate that attacks might grow worse in these next few months. Users are recommended to be very careful on the internet. To further boost device security, users are recommended four helpful tips in avoiding ransomware attacks. Related Article: New Hacking Strategy Injects GPU Malware, Escapes Anti-Virus: 3 Ways to Protect Yourself Kim Young-woon, newly-appointed director general of the National Gugak Center, speaks during a press conference held at the center in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of National Gugak Center By Park Ji-won People's attention to traditional music is likely higher than ever thanks to the popularity of the so-called fusion gugak (Korean traditional music) genre. A video of Leenalchi, an alternative pop band, has already exceeded 15.3 million views on YouTube, and one of a series of promotional videos from the Korea Tourism Organization featuring the band and its music exceeded 47.6 million views on the streaming platform. The sampling of "Daechwita," a traditional military band piece, by BTS's Suga (August D) for his single of the same name also promoted the genre among global listeners But not many Koreans are familiar with traditional gugak, including court and folk music, despite enjoying the rising attention to the "new" music genre. Kim Young-woon, newly-appointed director general of the National Gugak Center, a state-run traditional music institute consisting of art troupes in traditional court and folk music, and dance, as well as a museum, said the center aims to raise awareness of "real gugak" by focusing on research of the music genre. "The rhythms of fusion gugak, which is popular these days, are de-facto Western pop. Technically, it is not gugak. But ordinary people consider the genre as part of gugak. Still, fusion gugak is very important in getting people familiar with the traditional genre," Kim said during his first press conference following his appointment three months ago. "We have good artistic materials which can show the value of our traditional culture and its people. But this has been neglected over the years. For example, the center may be able to launch research on the orchestration of traditional instruments in the new era, and seek to improve instruments with middle- and low-toned music by joining hands with gugak community members." "I will make efforts to expand our education programs so that school teachers, most of whom learned Western music, can become familiar with traditional music and use gugak material in schools." He is also planning to come up with more original pieces by using traditional melodies and rhythms, and orchestrate existing music scores to spread the traditional music genre. A journalist looks at documents displayed in the exhibition "Opening the Storerooms: Initial Showing of Donations from 21 Collectors" at the National Gugak Center in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of National Gugak Center A poster for the first overseas performance by the private traditional music art troupe "Sam Chul Li" / Courtesy of National Gugak Center A poster for the exhibition "Opening the Storerooms: Initial Showing of Donations from 21 Collectors" / Courtesy of National Gugak Center Meanwhile, the center's exhibition "Opening the Storerooms: Initial Showing of Donations from 21 Collectors" is running from Sept. 11 to Feb. 27, 2022. In the exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the institution, up to 113 pieces on gugak from 21 collectors, which have been stored at the center, show its history. The pieces include documents related to the center's first overseas tour of Japan in 1964, and the first overseas performance by a private traditional music art troupe, "Sam Chul Li," led by Alan C. Heyman, a naturalized Korean and Korean traditional music scholar, in Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York in 1964. Hyundai Heavy Industries' promotional image from its website / Courtesy of Hyundai Heavy Industries Unification Minister Lee In-young said Friday his office will continue to cooperate with the United States to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea despite tensions over Pyongyang's recent missile launch. Lee made the remark at an event to mark the 2018 Pyongyang Declaration on Sept. 19, in which President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shared the view that the peninsula must be turned into a region free from nuclear weapons. "Although many have once again raised concerns over North Korea's recent missiles launch, I believe our determination towards bringing peace has become stronger amid a robust readiness posture," he said. Lee said his ministry will continue to seek ways to cooperate with the United States to provide humanitarian aid to the North, stressing that such assistance must be "carried out regardless of the political, military and security situation." "We hope that the two Koreas and the United States will restart dialogue and cooperation based on mutual respect at an early date and to resume practical discussion on denuclearization and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula," he added. On Wednesday, Pyongyang held a firing drill of two short-range ballistic missiles in the East Sea apparently from a train just hours before Seoul conducted a submarine-launched ballistic missile test amid concerns the latest launch could ratchet up tensions on the peninsula. (Yonhap) People are observed for possible side effects after receiving a coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Seodaemun District of Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap 1st shot vaccination rate to reach 70% by Friday By Lee Hyo-jin The government has decided to allow the use of leftover COVID-19 vaccines for second shots, in a bid to speed up its vaccination drive amid the unrelenting increases in coronavirus infections nationwide. Leftover vaccines refer to spare doses that have become available after someone canceled or did not show up for their appointment. Eligible recipients can book the slot for a "no show" vaccine through a real-time search system on Kakao and Naver. Starting Friday, second doses can be booked through the leftover vaccine reservation system, according to the COVID-19 Vaccination Taskforce. Previously, the leftover doses had not been available for second shots. In addition, the government has decided to shorten the dosing interval for people booking the leftover vaccines. While the gap between two shots of the mRNA vaccines Pfizer and Moderna is set at six weeks, people can reserve leftover doses three weeks after receiving a first shot of the Pfizer vaccine or four weeks after the Moderna vaccine. But the health authorities noted that recipients who are not booking their second shots through the leftover booking system will still get their second dose six weeks later. Such changes to the policy are expected to enable more people to get their second shots ahead of schedule. As of Thursday, a total of 35.41 million people, or 69 percent of the population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while around 42 percent have been fully vaccinated, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). A smartphone user touches a device screen showing maps of available leftover vaccine slots in areas of Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap A statue symbolizing victims of the Japanese imperial military's sexual slavery before and during World War II, is seen during the 1,509th weekly rally to call for an official apology from the government in Tokyo, in front of former site of the Japan's embassy in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap Japan to pick new premier later this month; expectations linger over new leader's role in ties with Korea By Jung Da-min Korea and Japan have once again found that they remain "parallel" over historical issues during senior-level talks held Thursday. With Japan scheduled to pick a new prime minister on Sept. 29, questions are rampant over whether the new leader can resolve the diplomatic disputes between Seoul and Tokyo. During a meeting between Lee Sang-ryol, the foreign ministry's director general for Asian and Pacific affairs, and his Japanese counterpart Takehiro Funakoshi, the two discussed thorny historical issues including wartime forced labor and sexual slavery under Japanese colonial rule on the peninsula, along with other items related to security and economic cooperation. The talks were the first in three months. However, Lee and Funakoshi reaffirmed the stance of each government on the historical issues. Seoul is demanding Tokyo's apology and compensation for surviving victims of forced labor and sexual slavery, while the latter is claiming that the issues were settled through the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between the two countries. Many Korean victims of forced labor and sexual slavery have claimed that their voices were not reflected in previous agreements between the governments and thus they lack legitimacy. Diplomatic experts said the conflicts between the neighboring countries will not be resolved in the near future, especially under the current governments of President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, but the two might be able to find a breakthrough after both Korea and Japan select their new leaders. In Korea, the next presidential election is slated for March next year; while in Japan, following Suga's announcement earlier this month that he would not run for re-election as party leader this month, the next leader of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who will be the next prime minister, will be selected on Sept. 29, about a month before Suga's tenure ends, Oct. 24. Among strong candidates for the presidency of Korea are Gyeonggi Provincial Governor Lee Jae-myung and former leader of ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Lee Nak-yon, both members of the party, and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, who belong to the main opposition People Power Party (PPP). In Japan, Regulatory Reform and Vaccine Minister Taro Kono has been topping recent polls for the next LDP leader, among other candidates including former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida. Taro Kono, Japan's regulatory reform and vaccine minister and a prime minister candidate of the country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, delivers a campaign speech during online election campaigning in Tokyo, Friday. AP-Yonhap Former National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon / Korea Times file An appeals court on Friday sentenced Won Sei-hoon, South Korea's former intelligence chief, to nine years in prison in a retrial of a political meddling case. The Seoul High Court sentenced Won, who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from 2009-13 under former President Lee Myung-bak, to nine years in prison for causing losses to the state coffers, violating the law on governing the status of the NIS and abuse of power. The court also suspended his civil and political rights for seven years. The sentence was increased from a seven-year prison term and a five-year qualification suspension delivered by the same court last year, as the acquittal of part of his power abuse charges was reversed. The appellate court previously convicted him of inflicting losses on state coffers by siphoning off about 11 billion won (US$9.3 million) of NIS funds to hire civilians to distort cyberspace opinions and frame liberal groups as pro-North Korean activists in a bid to help previous conservative governments. He was also found guilty of having given a bribe of about 200 million won to Lee and his brother from the agency's secret fund. He was indicted on 13 different power abuse charges as well, including ordering NIS agents to shadow the wife of former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun and late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, but the court had cleared him of all of them. In March, the Supreme Court remanded the case, saying Won's power abuse charges should be dealt with more sternly, considering the spy agency's special legal status and influence. On Friday, the high court found him guilty of power abuse charges he had been acquitted of on top of other previous convictions. "Won's actions are irrelevant to national security, the reason of NIS' existence, and constitute an interference in politics in violation of political neutrality required for the agency under the Constitution," the court said. Separately, the former NIS director had his four-year prison sentence finalized by the top court in April 2018 for ordering NIS agents to post online comments to influence public opinion in favor of the Lee administration and then conservative candidate Park Geun-hye during the 2012 presidential election. Park narrowly beat her rival Moon Jae-in to succeed Lee. After Moon was elected president in 2017 following Park's impeachment over corruption and abuse of power, the prosecution reinvestigated the NIS' past wrongdoings, and Won was indicted on nine occasions between December 2017 and December 2018. (Yonhap) The southbound lanes on the Gyeongbu Expressway, which links Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan, are packed with vehicles, near Jamwon IC in southern Seoul, Sept. 17. Yonhap The annual exodus for Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, began Friday as South Koreans head to their hometowns for family reunions and take trips during the extended holiday. This year's three-day Chuseok holiday runs from Monday to Wednesday and it is extended by an extra two days due to the preceding weekend. Traditionally, Koreans head back to their hometowns to be with their family members and visit their ancestors' graves to commemorate them. The nationwide exodus is expected to create severe traffic jams on major roads, expressways, railroad stations and airports throughout the extended holiday period. The state-run Korea Transport Institute estimates that about 32.26 million people are expected to hit the road to visit their hometowns during Chuseok. The average daily traffic is estimated at 5.38 million, 16.4 percent smaller than in 2019, a pre-COVID-19 year. Compared with last year's Chuseok, however, it marks an increase of 3.5 percent. Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl talks with the students at Andong National University, North Gyeongsang Province, Sept. 13. / Screenshot from Andong National University Broadcasting Station (AUBS) By Lee Hae-rin Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, a leading presidential contender of the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP), is being criticized for his comments belittling Africa as well as manual labor. "Companies depend on internationally competitive technology. There is no such thing as hands and feet labor like people used to do anymore. India doesn't even do that anymore. It's something only a place like Africa still does," said Yoon during a meeting with students at Andong University in North Gyeongsang Province, Monday, in response to a question about youth unemployment. Yoon's comments belatedly spread over social media platforms, raising controversy in political circles over their racist implications and assumptions of privilege. Several parties, including the PPP, condemned his discriminatory remarks and some demanded that he step down from running for president. "Yoon's remarks show his narrow viewpoint on workers and on other nations," said a representative of the Yoo Seong-min campaign, demanding Yoon's apology to workers and other groups mentioned in the statement. Yoo, a four-term lawmaker, is also a presidential hopeful of the PPP. The liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also denounced Yoon, saying that over 4 million Koreans are engaged in what Yoon called "hands and feet labor." "It is questionable whether someone with such an outdated way of thinking qualifies to run for president of this country," a DPK representative said. In response to the criticism, Yoon explained at a meeting with the press, Wednesday, that he intended to convey the importance of high levels of technical skills in economic growth. "Good quality jobs inevitably have to come through technical skills, and simple labor is left for underdeveloped countries, as they lack such assets. I was just suggesting that the young generation sharpen their skills in high technology, in that regard," Yoon said. The offices of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea / Korea Times file By Lee Hyo-jin Human rights watchdogs in Korea and abroad have expressed concerns over the controversial "fake news" bill, saying that it could limit the voice of the media and freedom of expression. The proposed revision to the Act on Press Arbitration intends to increase punitive damages on media outlets that have intentionally produced false information, including punitive compensation of up to five times the present levels for stories that are deemed to be deliberately false or "grossly negligent" in their reporting. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) said Friday that the media law revision includes several clauses that could undermine the media's freedom protected by the Constitution, and asked the chairman of the National Assembly to conduct a "prudent review" of the bill. "Although the revision bill aims to strengthen the responsibility of media outlets, we cannot rule out the possibility that critical media reports or investigative reports on crimes and acts of corruption would also be subject to the punitive damage compensation, which could bring a chilling effect on media activities," it said through a statement. Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international non-governmental organization, said Thursday that "the amendment bill of the Press Arbitration Law's vague language and disproportionate damages against media outlets could limit a wide range of expression, including critical news reporting and coverage of unpopular or minority opinions." "Unless the consultative committee significantly revises the bill before it reaches the National Assembly, the legislators should reject it outright," Lina Yoon, a senior researcher at HRW was quoted as saying through the statement. The HRW, along with three other civil society organizations have sent letters to President Moon Jae-in and National Assembly members, calling for a revision of the bill. In response, an official at Cheong Wa Dae said Friday, "As freedom of speech and protection of victims (of fake news) are both equally important values, we hope to establish a public consensus." Steps needed to secure food sovereignty in climate change era The government announced a plan Thursday to ensure a stable food supply for the people by expanding storage facilities and the basis for the procurement of staple grains. According to the 2021-2025 National Food Program, public rice reserves, currently standing at 350,000 tons per year, will be increased to 450,000 tons from next year. It is also seeking to increase self-sufficiency in wheat and beans, which the country is currently highly dependent for on imports. The administration said it will also step up its campaign to provide agricultural and food vouchers to assist underprivileged people. The plan will set up centers in provincial areas to boost the production and sale of processed foods, while helping enterprises secure channels for the procurement of food grains from overseas. The plan is meaningful as it is the first time that the government has come up with such comprehensive measures to cope with a possible shortage of food. It is belated, however, given that the nation has been suffering from lower than 50 percent food self-reliance for more than a decade. So the administration should map out more specific steps and implement them properly. The concern over a possible food crisis has been growing amid the ever more serious climate change. For instance, Chatham House, a leading think tank in the United Kingdom, in a danger assessment report on climate change, foresaw that the global output of food grains will likely decrease by 30 percent in 2050. This figure is estimated on the presumption that the people of the world fail to reduce carbon emissions, accelerating global warming. The production of corn and beans declined 5.6 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, over the last four decades; and will likely decrease further in the coming years due to more frequent droughts and sizzling weather because of climate change. More worrisome is that climate change will lead to a decline in production and a rise in the prices of food crops. This will also result in the spread of starvation, a rise in the fatality rate and global conflict. Korea needs to take proper measures to brace for a possible food crisis. In 2019, its overall food self-sufficiency stood at only 45.8 percent, compared with 70 percent registered in the mid-1980s, buffeted by the opening of the farm market coupled with a steady decline in the area of agricultural land. Self-sufficiency in grains including livestock feed reaches only 21 percent. As the nation imports most of its grain, excluding rice, it will face serious setbacks should global prices go up suddenly and exports are suspended. The Moon Jae-in administration should put more effort into boosting competiveness in the area of agriculture, which is closely related to the crucial food security issue especially amid the climate crisis. The government is set to unveil its plan toward 2050 carbon neutrality next month. It needs to take appropriate steps to secure the nation's food sovereignty while effectively coping with climate change. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, left, is seen with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong at a training center for young people at Samsung's headquarters in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap PM set to meet chaebol chiefs in October By Kim Bo-eun Major conglomerates are being implicitly urged by the government to retain their former scale of recruiting new employees, at a time when landing a job has become increasingly tough for college students. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum is seeking a meeting with the chiefs of LG, Hyundai and SK Groups next month, to request that they continue to ensure mass recruitment drives. Kim met with Samsung Electronics head Lee Jae-yong earlier this week to ask him to hire more people in addition to a recently unveiled group plan. Samsung announced it would hire 40,000 workers over the next three years, via Korea's conventional recruitment system. But following the meeting, the tech giant stated it would be recruiting 30,000 more workers within this timeframe, bringing the total number to 70,000. The company said it would double the number of trainees in its software training program to 2,000. The program facilitates recruitment at Samsung's affiliates. The prime minister began the initiative with telecom company KT, Sept. 7. KT stated it would hire 12,000 individuals over the next three years, and would provide training in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector to 3,600 young people in cities nationwide during that time. Kim is seeking to next meet with LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. The prime minister will likely ask LG to also engage in substantial-scale recruitments in the coming years, and set up more programs in AI and robotics, sectors which the conglomerate is focusing on as future growth engines. In recent years, a number of Korea's largest business groups have switched their hiring planning to year-round recruitment to fill specific needs, instead of a twice yearly mass employment system. They traditionally conducted mass recruitments in the first and second halves of the year; but Hyundai Motor and LG groups changed their systems to recruitment as per demand. "Under Korea's traditional system, it took time to train a new recruit to perform work at a certain division, which made the process inefficient," an official from a conglomerate said. "Now each division or even a team is able to hire individuals customized to positions when they need to. Also, the total number of new recruits has not fallen." This is however, a concern of the government. Under the traditional system, companies disclosed the number of people they were hiring, but under the on-demand system it is difficult to keep track of how many are newly employed. Firms also tend to prefer experienced workers, which decreases the slots available for young people fresh out of college. By Kim Bo-eun Attention is growing on a third meeting on measures to deal with the global shortage of semiconductors to be held at the White House, Sept. 23. Samsung Electronics, along with other businesses, took part in the first and second meetings hosted at the U.S. presidential office in April and May, and is expected to participate in the third Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese will host the meeting, according to the Department of Commerce. However, a Samsung official said, Friday: "We do not know of the company having received any notifications." Disruptions in chip supply have been extended, due to the continued spread of COVID-19 variants. This, in turn, has affected the global production of automobiles and smartphones. U.S. President Jo Biden presided over the meeting in April, where he called on chipmakers and auto manufacturers and other businesses to help resolve supply chain issues. Executives of 19 companies were present, including GM, Ford, Stellantis, Samsung, TSMC, Globalfoundries, AT&T and Google-parent Alphabet. The third meeting is set to invite major firms representing the same sectors. Samsung is in the final stages of deciding on the location for its second foundry plant in the U.S. The chipmaker is expected to choose Taylor City in Texas, after local authorities there offered a substantial incentive package. The company will invest $17 billion into the new fabrication plant, and attention is mounting on whether the meeting will accelerate Samsung's announcement of its investment choice. The Biden administration is seeking to attract production facilities for key items such as semiconductors and EV batteries to the U.S. as a means to secure a stable supply. Eastar Jet, a debt-ridden Korean budget carrier, said Friday it has submitted restructuring plans to a bankruptcy court to finalize an acquisition deal with a local property developer, aiming to resume flights next year. Eastar Jet submitted its debt repayment and other rehabilitation plans to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court, three months after Sung Jung Co. signed a deal to buy an 80 percent stake in the low-cost carrier for 108.7 billion won ($97 million). Eastar is required to first pay about 70 billion won in unpaid wages and retirement allowances to current and former employees. With the rest of the deposit, the company has to negotiate with its creditors to settle the debt repayment rate for more than 200 billion won tied to its aircraft leasing, airport usage and other operation costs. If Eastar's debt settlement proposal is accepted by two-thirds of the creditors, the bankruptcy court will close the deal. As part of efforts to resume commercial flights early next year, Easter said it will prepare steps to receive an air operator certificate (AOC) from the transport ministry within this year. "Once the company receives the government approval for flights, it will focus on putting business back on track as soon as possible," Eastar Chief Executive Kim You-sang said over the phone. Eastar has suspended most of its flights on domestic and international routes since March last year due to the coronavirus' impact on the airline industry, and its AOC became ineffective in May 2020. It has had difficulties in finding a strategic investor since July last year, when Jeju Air scrapped its plan to acquire the carrier amid the prolonged pandemic. In January, Eastar Jet applied for court receivership to find a way to continue its air transport business through MA procedures. The court approved the corporate rehabilitation process for the carrier in the following month. The court later ordered preservation measures and comprehensive prohibition to prevent creditors from seizing or selling company assets and to freeze all bonds before the carrier's rehabilitation proceedings. (Yonhap) A combo of pictures shows the candidates for the presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, from left, Japan's Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, COVID-19 vaccination minister Taro Kono, former communications ministers Sanae Takaich and Seiko Noda in Tokyo, Japan. EPA-Yonhap The campaign to become Japan's next prime minister kicks off on Friday, with four candidates vying for leadership of the ruling party in an unusually close race. The candidates include two women hoping to lead a country that has never had a female prime minister, though both are considered long shots. The race follows Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's shock announcement last month that he would not run for head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Whoever the party picks in a September 29 vote will become prime minister and contest a general election that has to be held by late November. As the LDP is expected to retain power, its leader is likely to be the person leading the world's third largest economy in coming years, and will face challenges from dealing with China to tackling climate change. While outspoken vaccine chief Taro Kono leads public opinion polls on who should be Japan's next leader, the result is far from clear-cut because most of the party's major factions are not backing a candidate. "In this race, given that the factions aren't endorsing anyone officially, it's kind of a free-for-all," Tobias Harris, senior fellow for Asia at the Center for American Progress, told AFP. "It's hard to say that there's really a true front-runner." Japan's Vaccine Minister Taro Kono, who is running to replace Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, attends a group interview in Tokyo, Japan, Sept. 16. Reuters-Yonhap This aerial photo taken on Sept. 17 shows a housing complex by Chinese property developer Evergrande in Huaian in China's eastern Jiangsu province. AFP-Yonhap A steady stream of anxious apartment buyers flowed into the sales office of the Evergrande Oasis complex outside the city of Luoyang this week, seeking answers after construction was halted by the giant developer's severe cash crunch. Work on the five-tower condominium and 16 blocks of apartments at the sprawling development in central China has been halted since August and July, respectively, according to a staff member who declined to give his name. The complex is among a host of uncompleted homes across the country that have seen work grind to a standstill as result of the crisis engulfing China Evergrande Group. Evergrande, the country's No. 2 property developer, is scrambling to raise funds to pay lenders, suppliers and investors, with regulators warning its $305 billion of liabilities could spark broader risks to the country's financial system if not stabilised. "We worry that if Evergrande goes bankrupt, its assets could be frozen, and we'll lose the home," said Tan Liangliang, who is part of a social media group of about 200 worried buyers at the Evergrande Oasis project in Luoyang. Numerous such groups have sprung up for the Oasis project, where the unfinished towers stand near rows of completed and occupied high-rise apartments. At the 16 blocks, at various stages of completion, cranes lay idle and no workers could be seen. Plastic sheets flapped from some balconies, steel reinforcement bars protruded from others another. Pedestrians walk in front of an under construction Evergrande housing complex in Shenzhen, south-eastern China, Sept. 16. AFP-Yonhap Stock Market News BAY Shares - Sayer Alenezi Sydney rape victim speaks of distress 17-09-2021 01:14 Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk Stock Market News London Market Today - Blue Air celebrates today its inaugural service between London Heathrow to Nice Cote DAzur! 17-09-2021 03:08 Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.uk The current elections in Russia have been marked by the dirtiest campaign in decades. Having previously declared liberal opposition leader Alexei Navalnys supporters extremists, the Putin regime has now turned the full force of its propaganda and police apparatus against the Communist Party. Against the will of leader Gennady Zyuganov, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is becoming a focal point of the opposition to the regime, around which all currents are gathering, both liberal and left wing. Under these conditions, the need for Marxist ideas and a clear communist programme is growing within the party. It can be said with confidence that the results of these elections will fundamentally determine the place of the Communists Party in the Russian political process for the coming years. How we came to this point The upcoming elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation promise to become an important turning point in the development of the political regime that has existed in Russia since 1993, and in the general socio-political situation. The current moment is marked by several important trends. Firstly, the process that was gradually taking shape in post-Soviet Russia namely the concentration of power and protection of the interests of the oligarchic capital born in the 90s has now developed into its final and most complete form. This is coinciding with a collapse of confidence in the system by the masses. This system, which began to emerge following the Yeltsinist military coup in 1993, ultimately coalesced into three parliamentary parties United Russia, LDPR and Fair Russia which completely dominate Russias political scene today. Since the 90s, they have been unambiguously and unquestioningly subordinated to the will of the executive power and big capital, with Bonapartist, authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin at their head. The president and his parliamentary lap dogs are the determined managers and rabid defenders of the interests of big business. The dominance of oligarchic capital, and the concentration of political power in the hands of Putins clique, were further consolidated with the constitutional referendum in June-July 2020, which allowed Putin to run for additional presidential terms. Putins authority is based on the security apparatus of the Russian state. But for a time he could also depend on his personal popularity, which was rooted in his early days as president, where Russia saw growth coming on the back of a deep economic crisis in the 90s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. On the basis of this, a broad section of the population maintained illusions that Putin was a good Tsar surrounded by evil Boyars. However, the crisis of Russian capitalism is making the utter rottenness of Putins regime increasingly impossible to ignore. The crisis of Russian capitalism is making the utter rottenness of Putins regime increasingly impossible to ignore / Image: The Presidential Press and Information Office Part of the liberal opposition, in the person of Navalny, conducted investigations into the personal corruption of Putin and his entourage. This helped undermine Putins propaganda image as an ascetic national leader. The full picture of the enormous class polarisation of Russian society, where the appalling extreme poverty of the majority of the working people coexists with the opulent lives of the ruling class and the president, is emerging for everyone to see. Superimposed on these revelations is the colossal impoverishment of the working population, combined with the unrestrained rise in prices for basic consumer goods. By the end of last year, according to Rosstat, a quarter of the population spent most of the family budget on basic needs, such as food, utility bills, etc. Secondly, in the first quarter of 2021, the number of overdue payday loans rose from 5 million debtors to 7 million. These two facts are clearly related, since in most cases loans taken via credit cards or microloans are used to cover families housing and food, which were previously provided for by household wages. In a short period, millions of working people were forced to resort to payday loans just in order to survive, and now they cannot fully pay them off, since the real level of their wages is plummeting ever lower, driving them closer and closer towards debt slavery to the banks. This explains the growing understanding by the masses about the essence of capitalism itself. Repression, poverty, degradation, hopelessness and historical deadlock are all that the representatives of capitalist interests that is, president and the majority of Duma factions can offer to the people. It is this understanding that generates a growing mood of protest among the masses against the entire existing order. This may still take the guise of parliamentary illusions, or totally irrational forms, but the tendency towards radical distrust of the current system is clearly maturing in society. It is inexorable and will inevitably lead to a widespread increase in class conflicts in the next period. This creates the ideal conditions for the Communist Party to make major electoral gains. But it faces two powerful obstacles: the compromising policy of the Zyuganov clique in the party leadership, and political repression by the regime. Repression and dirty tricks The first obvious sign of the growing discontent of the people is the colossal decline of support for the ruling United Russia party and its satellites. Even according to the estimates of sociological agencies fed by the Kremlin, at present its approval rating is in the region of 30 percent. Even before these elections, the ruling party was not able to achieve power and the desired majority in elections other than by such methods as falsification, police violence, vote rigging, removal of strong opposition candidates, bribery, driving forced state employees to vote, etc. At the moment, they are doubling down on these methods, and combining them with direct repression of the most radical left-wing, as well as liberal sections of the opposition. They fight with all manner of dirty political tactics against the only legally operating opposition party (CPRF), and use the pandemic as an excuse to curtail independent control over the voting process. Anti-clerical protest in Moscow with speakers from the IMT and leading left figures from the CPRF To remove the most dangerous candidates from the elections, the authorities use a number of underhanded tricks. Legal proceedings on charges of extremism were opened against the most famous member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Bondarenko, whose YouTube channel is the largest left-wing political channel in Russia. A criminal case was opened against Bondarenko under the article of extremism for a video exposing the United Russia manifesto, which he posted 10 years ago! Moreover, the video was recognised as extremist only in 2013, that is, two years after Bondarenko published it. It took more than a month for Bondarenko to fight off these fraudulent charges. The same technique was used earlier against the Tyumen deputy Yukhnevich, who planned to be nominated as a candidate for parliament. He was less lucky than Bondarenko, as he was fined and barred from standing. The list goes on. Also, in order to undermine the activities of the Communist Party as much as possible, the police regularly detain party supporters and subject them to administrative fines and arrests when they go to street rallies and meet with candidates. For example, on 29 July, a member of the International Marxist Tendency in Moscow was detained by police at a rally along with 30 other participants on charges of violating the rules for holding public events. Such detentions in Russia can have serious consequences: a person detained three times can face criminal charges. In these examples, we see a practical expression of the authorities' fear of the Communists. In particular, what they fear is that the Communist Party, or elements within it, should become a focal point for the class struggle, which is brewing underneath the surface of society. Fight as a united front! This state harassment and repression only strengthens our resolve, and that of the left in the Communist Party, to fight against the Putin regime and for a socialist future. For example, every week, Valery Rashkin and a number of left-wing deputies hold a rally in the centre of Moscow against political repression and the existing government. IMT supporters regularly participate in them, distributing our newspaper and leaflets among the audience. Under the impact of repression, more and more members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Komsomol are becoming open to our ideas. The Marxists have also exploited the electoral plane to propagate our programme. In Tver, IMT member Georgy Khovansky has been nominated to stand for the city council by the Communist Party. And in Moscow, despite our limited forces, we played an active role in the campaigns of two candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation who are representatives of university trade unions, Mikhail Lobanov and Nikolai Volkov. Today, in their constituencies, they have a real opportunity to defeat Putin's henchmen. As part of Volkov's campaign, the IMT organised a large anti-clerical rally in the Moscow district of Zyuzino, with speeches delivered by our comrades, Volkov and an independent deputy of the local council, Konstantin Yankauskas. This successful event was achieved despite the fact that the authorities ordered local utility workers to tear down our posters. All of this does not mean that we have limited ourselves to the election campaigns of the left Communist candidates. The Marxists used these elections as a platform for promoting our revolutionary politics. For instance, at a major rally in the centre of Moscow on 15 August, we called for the Communist Party to carry out a consistent programme based on the legacy of the Russian Revolution: the complete nationalisation of the means of production and the organisation of a democratically planned economy; the replacement of the police with a workers' militia; the complete expropriation of the oligarchs and the largest Russian monopolies under the control of the working people, and the release of the repressed left-wing political prisoners. These ideas are receiving an important echo amongst the most determined and militant layers of the Communist movement. What next? It is already clear that an unprecedented level of fraud awaits in this election. As we wrote above, since 1996 there has not been such a dirty campaign of vilification and lies directed against the Communist opposition. All this is because the ruling class sees, despite the continuing relative political apathy, the sympathies of the people are slowly but surely tilting towards the left. This can be seen in a recent poll, which indicates that almost two-thirds of Russians (62 percent) state their preferred economic system as state planning and distribution. This is the highest level of approval ever recorded. By contrast, 24 percent lean towards a system based on private property and market relations. Furthermore, just under half of Russians (49 percent) said they would prefer the Soviet political system. This is the highest proportion recorded since the early 2000s. Only 18 percent chose the current political system, a figure that has halved since 2015. Meanwhile, only 16 percent believe that the best political system is democracy modelled on Western countries. How does the leadership of the Communist Party plan to respond to the intensified political repression they are facing? They announced in advance that they were planning to hold protests throughout the country. We've heard this before. In fact, we've been hearing this for the past 10 years. In the end, this boiled down to one-off rallies, where big words were spoken that did not lead to any practical results. For the Zyuganov clique, the meaning of these events is to give vent to the growing mood of protest in order to then betray the workers, as we have seen many times. If it were not for the compromising and half-hearted attitude of the top leadership of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, we could even talk about a real chance for a Communist majority in the current Duma, albeit not an absolute one. There are more decisive and sincere figures such as Rashkin, Bondarenko, etc. However, for all their radicalism, they restrict themselves firmly within the framework of institutional bourgeois politics, and therefore, in the final analysis, they do not offer a true alternative road forward. Our task as Marxists is to participate in the protests by the Communist Party, but we also say to the workers that the present leaders of the party will betray them, as they have done in the past. The only solution is to re-establish the Communist Party on the basis of true Marxist and Leninist ideas, with the reintroduction of a revolutionary socialist programme! The crisis of Russian capitalism is being reflected inside the Communist Party, which is seen by a growing layer as the main point of opposition to Putin on the political front. Despite the limitations of its leaders, the party has gathered around itself the most militant and progressive elements of society. By fighting alongside Communist Party candidates in these elections, and advocating for the genuine traditions of the Bolshevik Party, we stand to win the best of these elements to the ideas of revolutionary Marxism. Le gouvernment lors de la reunion du Cabinet du 17 septenbre 2021 a pris la decision de promulger cette regulation dans le cadre des mesures annonc0es lors du Budget 2021-2022. Cabinet has taken note that the Local Government (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 regarding the payment of trade fees would be promulgated in line with measures announced in Budget 2021/2022. With a view to further supporting Small and Medium Enterprises by stimulating their growth and thereby mitigating the impact of the pandemic on small businesses, it was announced in Budget Speech 2021/2022 that the exemption on trade fees not exceeding Rs5,000 would be extended for an additional five years and an amnesty on trade fees and related penalties and interests that were due before 01 January 2020 would be granted. With the coming into effect of the new Regulations for the extension of the exemption from trade fees not exceeding Rs5,000 for an additional five years, these business operators would be exempted therefrom up to year 2027. Business operators would be granted an amnesty on trade fees, related penalties and interests that were due prior to 01 January 2020. The Local Government (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 would be deemed to be effective as from 30 June 2021. Fed Ethics Rules Get High-Powered Review Another powerful group of federal officials are in the hotseat after details of their personal finances were revealed. While there are no accusations of wrong-doing (unlike the case of several senators who faced ethics reviews in 2020), the financial disclosures of several Fed presidents have prompted a bank-wide smell test. As Thomas Franck reported for CNBC, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has directed the central bank's staff to review its ethics rules after 2020 financial disclosures from some regional presidents revealed large investments and stock trades. Powell's actions came to light after Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent letters to each of the 12 regional bank presidents demanding stricter rules around stock buying. Three of the presidents had either made large stock trades last year or had substantial existing stakes in mutual and exchange-traded funds (EFTs). Singled out in the Franck article were: Robert Kaplan, Dallas Fed President. His disclosure showed multiple stock trades of $1 million or more including individual trades in stocks like Apple, Amazon, and Delta Air Lines. Eric Rosengren, Boston Fed, was invested in four real estate investment trusts and made trades in several other property-owning vehicles. He also held stock in Pfizer, Chevron, and AT&T. Thomas Barkin, president of the Richmond bank, held over a million dollars in stocks. He also had large positions in EFTs and mutual funds including one that invests in energy companies. Those holdings are under professional management. He reported no 2020 trades. Warren's September 15 letters called on each Fed president to institute a ban on the ownership and trading of individual stocks by senior officials at each regional office and demanded tighter restrictions on the types of financial activities that were permissible. Franck said ten of the letters were similar except for the two addressed to Kaplan and Rosengren. The letter to Kaplan said in part, "As the Fed took extraordinary actions to address the risks to the economy and the banking and financial systems from the COVID-19 pandemic, you and your colleague Eric Rosengren made extensive trades in individual stocks and real estate investment trusts. [That trading] has prompted concerns about conflicts of interest among high-level officials with far-reaching policymaking influence and extraordinary access to information about the economy." Both Kaplan and Rosengren have agreed to sell their individual stock holdings. Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-16 22:59:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Rescuers build temporary shelters for affected residents in Longhua Village of Fuji Town, Luxian County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 16, 2021. Three people were confirmed dead and 88 others were sent to hospital after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Luxian County in the city of Luzhou, in southwest China's Sichuan Province. China Earthquake Administration has dispatched a work team to guide on-site disaster-relief work. A total of 890 commanders and fighters from nearby fire-fighting and rescue brigades have been mobilized, while another 4,600 rescue workers are on standby. (Photo by Qiu Weihong/Xinhua) CHENGDU, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Three people were confirmed dead and 88 others were sent to hospital after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Luxian County in the city of Luzhou, in southwest China's Sichuan Province. Among those hospitalized, three were seriously injured, according to the city's emergency management bureau. China Earthquake Administration has dispatched a work team to guide on-site disaster-relief work. A total of 890 commanders and fighters from nearby fire-fighting and rescue brigades have been mobilized, while another 4,600 rescue workers are on standby. As of 8:30 a.m., the loss figures came in as follows: 737 collapsed houses; 72 houses with serious damage; and 7,290 damaged to some extent. Collapsed walls and houses were seen on the way to rain-battered Jiaming Township in the epicenter area. Electricity in most of the houses in the town has been suspended. Shelves from shops that fell off during the tremors, lay scattered along the street. Residents were seen cleaning up the cluttered scene. The provincial department of finance has allocated 50 million yuan (about 7.8 million U.S. dollars) to support disaster-relief efforts, including the settlement of affected residents. Amid heavy rain in Fuji Township, rescue workers were going door to door searching for people in the damaged houses and moving them to temporary shelters. At the shelter, workers were distributing mooncakes and other food items to the affected people. Lai Jianrong, a Fuji local, told Xinhua reporters that she experienced a mild tremor around 4 a.m., and ran out barefoot in her nightgown when the tremors became intense. "Some bricks fell off the wall and I didn't dare to go in again," she said. She was moved to the temporary shelter in the morning. More than 6,900 affected residents have been relocated, and over 10,000 people have been shifted to temporary shelters as of early Thursday morning, according to the local government. China's Ministry of Emergency Management has allocated 2,000 tents, 10,000 quilts, and 10,000 folding beds to the residents. Sufficient supplies of petrol have also been guaranteed, with over 60 vehicles mobilized to transport petroleum products to the quake-hit areas, according to the Luzhou branch with the China National Petroleum Corporation. According to the China Earthquake Networks Center, the earthquake occurred at 4:33 a.m. The epicenter was monitored at 29.2 degrees north latitude and 105.34 degrees east longitude. The quake struck at a depth of 10 km. Approved by the provincial government, the earthquake relief headquarters of Sichuan has activated a level-II response, the second-highest in China's four-tier earthquake emergency response system. Some telecommunication base stations and cables were damaged. The Luzhou high-speed railway station has been closed, according to railway authorities. All coal mines have been ordered to halt underground operations and evacuate miners in shafts. Zhang Zhiwei, deputy head of the Sichuan earthquake administration, said the quake, unlike the devastating Wenchuan Earthquake and Lushan Earthquake in the province, happened in the fracture zone of Huaying Mountain. An expert analysis concluded that a more serious earthquake is unlikely in the area, but aftershocks may occur. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 10:40:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Elephants are seen at the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, Aug. 30, 2021. Kenya is seeking to lure more visitors for the remainder of the year amid the recovery of the global travel sector. For the first six months of 2021, the country received 305,635 foreign travelers, according to Najib Balala, cabinet secretary of Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife. (Xinhua/Long Lei) Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 19:09:48|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for efforts to promote steady transition of Afghan situation as soon as possible, engage Afghanistan in dialogues, and help the Afghan people tide over difficulties. Xi made the remarks in Beijing while attending a joint summit of the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective Security Treaty Organization member states on the Afghanistan issue via video link. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 19:54:31|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close White flags are seen on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Sept. 16, 2021. More than 660,000 white flags were installed here to honor the lives lost to COVID-19 in the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) As of Wednesday, COVID-19 has caused the deaths of 666,816 people in the United States, including 13,600 just over the past week. "That mounting death count will soon give COVID-19 the title of America's deadliest pandemic," says Fortune magazine. NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government is seeking to achieve broader vaccination against COVID-19, targeting corporates, official departments and global meetings, as the pandemic keeps claiming more and more American lives and will likely become the biggest pandemic killer in the country's history. According to The New York Times, the 7-day average of confirmed cases stood at 152,605 nationwide on Wednesday, with its 14-day change striking an 8-percent fall. COVID-19-related deaths were 1,943 on Wednesday, with the 14-day change realizing a 37-percent rise. Refrigerated trailers are seen at a temporary morgue in Brooklyn of New York, the United States, Sept. 6, 2021. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 40 million on Monday, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University. (Xinhua/Wang Ying) HEAVY FATALITIES, COSTS According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 18 months into the pandemic COVID-19, is again pushing America's health care infrastructure to a breaking point, with intensive care units at capacity and shortages of health workers being reported widely across the country. As of Wednesday, COVID-19 has caused the deaths of 666,816 people in the United States, including 13,600 just over the past week. "That mounting death count will soon give COVID-19 the title of America's deadliest pandemic," reported Fortune magazine on Thursday. In terms of death toll, the pandemic already surpassed the 1968 flu pandemic, which resulted in 100,000 estimated deaths. At its current pace, the disease would also surpass the 675,000 estimated U.S. deaths caused by the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, the deadliest pandemic in U.S. history, before the end of September, it added. Over a recent three-month period, the cost of treating unvaccinated COVID-19 patients around the United States amounted to 5.7 billion U.S. dollars, said a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Peterson Center on Healthcare. Drawing on hospital admissions and public health data, the groups based that estimate on the roughly 287,000 hospitalizations among unvaccinated people between June and August. They assumed the cost of their care at 20,000 dollars per person. "This ballpark figure is likely an understatement of the cost burden from preventable treatment of COVID-19 among unvaccinated adults," the authors wrote. The overall financial costs of treating the unvaccinated are "borne not only by patients but also by society more broadly, including taxpayer-funded public programs and private insurance premiums paid by workers, businesses and individual purchasers." A man gets vaccinated against COVID-19 at a vaccination festival in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States, on May 29, 2021. (Photo by Lan Wei/Xinhua) VACCINATION EXPANDED As a particular group, the world leaders coming to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly's (UNGA) meetings next week will have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, New York City officials has said. New York City's Commissioner for International Affairs Penny Abeywardena told the assembly in a letter last week that officials consider the hall a convention center and therefore subject to the city's vaccination requirement. "We are proud to join in the ongoing efforts to keep all UNGA attendees and our fellow New Yorkers safe during the pandemic," she and Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement issued on Wednesday, adding that the city would offer free, walk-in vaccinations, Johnson & Johnson's single shot, and testing outside the United Nations during the meeting. Another case in point is that United Airlines is well on its way to have the most vaccinated workforce among large U.S. carriers. Following the threat of unpaid leave for unvaccinated staff who lack a waiver, nearly 90 percent of airline's more than 84,000 staff have received at least one jab. On Thursday, Kate Gebo, the Chicago-based carrier's executive vice president for Human Resources, said that nearly 20,000 workers have uploaded vaccine cards since the company mandated COVID-19 inoculations in August. Earlier this month, the airline stipulated that those who do not receive their first shot by Sept. 27 will get unpaid leave. "Getting vaccinated is the most important thing each of us can do to protect ourselves and protect each other from this deadly virus," she said. "Though COVID-19 has deeply impacted our industry and our daily lives, we are certain the road to economic recovery and personal health hinges on vaccination." A student receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Woodrow Wilson Senior High School in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Aug. 30, 2021. (Xinhua) PRESSURE, REFLECTION U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday met with some of the top business leaders in the country, including CEOs of Microsoft, Walt Disney and Walgreens, days after the White House announced strict vaccination rules for millions of workers as the highly contagious Delta variant surged. Biden's new policies require most federal employees to get vaccinated. Private companies that employ more than 100 people are also required to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly. Under the rule, private companies will also provide paid time off for employees to get the shot. "It's about saving lives. That's what this is all about," Biden told the meeting. "Vaccinations mean fewer infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and in turn it means a stronger economy." On Thursday, The Hill reported, "the growing frustration with the ongoing pandemic is boiling over, with all eyes turned to the unvaccinated as the key to getting through the COVID-19 crisis." As cases approach winter levels, the United States has been left to decide how to deal with and treat the millions of people who still haven't received their shots, months after they became widely available, it added. A placard reminding people of having proof of vaccination and photo ID ready is seen in San Francisco, the United States, Aug. 20, 2021. Starting from Aug. 20, only those who have received vaccination could go to indoor public areas, including bars, restaurants, clubs and gyms in San Francisco. (Photo by Liu Yilin/Xinhua) THIRD DOSE? In the mean time, scientists of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have expressed skepticism about the need for additional doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for all people who have received it. The assessment by the agency's staff, included in documents released on Wednesday, sets up a high-stakes debate over who will need an additional booster dose and when they will need it at a meeting on Friday. In the documents, the FDA's own scientists seemed to strike a cautious position about the need for widespread booster shots. Overall, they said, "data indicate that currently U.S.-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States." Also on Friday, in a 52-page report, Pfizer suggested that booster shots may be an "urgent emerging public health issue," citing data from Israel that shows an increased risk of breakthrough infection without the shot. A third dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine six months after a second shot restores protection from infection to 95 percent in a real-world setting in Israel, according to the data submitted by the company to the FDA. While the effectiveness of the mRNA vaccine wanes over time, a booster shot was shown to elicit an immune response similar to the protection generated after a second dose, added Pfizer. Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 21:49:27|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a joint summit of the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states on the Afghanistan issue and delivers an important speech via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for efforts to promote steady transition of Afghan situation as soon as possible, engage Afghanistan in dialogues, and help the Afghan people tide over difficulties. Xi made the remarks in Beijing while attending a joint summit of the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states on the Afghanistan issue via video link. Member states of SCO and CSTO should join hands to safeguard peace and stability, which are "more precious than gold," said Xi. These countries are all in the vicinity of Afghanistan, and are within a community for a shared future and shared security, Xi said, adding that they should work together to play their role in critical moments. In a three-point proposal, Xi urged respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, supporting the implementation of the "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned" principle, and letting the Afghan people independently decide the future of their own country. He stressed supporting all parties in Afghanistan to reach inclusive political arrangements at an early date through dialogue and consultation. Relevant parties in Afghanistan should be urged to resolutely crack down on and eradicate terrorist organizations in the Afghan territory and prevent terrorist forces in Afghanistan from wreaking havoc, said Xi. He called on SCO and CSTO member states to interact with all parties in Afghanistan from a rational and pragmatic perspective, and facilitate a new political structure that is more open and inclusive, and adopts moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies and develops friendly relations with other countries, especially its neighbors. China will provide the Afghan people with timely humanitarian and medical support in fighting COVID-19, Xi said, adding that China has announced it will deliver a batch of emergency relief supplies as soon as possible and will continue to provide more support within its capacity. As the instigators of the difficult situation in Afghanistan, certain countries should especially draw lessons from the past and shoulder their due responsibilities for Afghanistan's future development, he said. Xi stressed that China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with relevant parties and work together to support the Afghan people in pursuing a bright future and safeguarding the lasting peace and stability in the region. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 23:18:41|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addresses the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Sept. 17, 2021. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua) TEHRAN, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi said that strengthening cooperation, especially in the economic field, is an important factor to improve the strategic role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the global economy, Iranian Presidency's official website reported on Friday. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addresses the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Sept. 17, 2021. (Iranian Presidential Website/Handout via Xinhua) Addressed at the SCO summit in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, Raisi reiterated that his foreign policy's orientation focuses on "economic multilateralism," strengthening "neighborhood policy" in its broadest sense, and strengthening Iran's presence in regional organizations. Today, "hegemony and unilateralism are declining, and the international system is changing towards the polarization and redistribution of power in favor of independent states," he said. The world faces many challenges and problems, like the COVID-19 pandemic and unilateral sanctions, which cannot be solved by one government alone, added the president. Sanctions, or "economic terrorism," have become "the most important tool of those seeking domination to impose their will on others," and are "key obstacles" to regional harmony, Raisi noted. The SCO, Raisi said, needs to devise "structures and mechanisms" for a collective response to sanctions. He praised the SCO and its spirit featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity, and pursuit of common development as key tools to maintain peace in the 21st century. "The SCO can turn into a driving force for global multilateralism," he stressed. On the Iranian nuclear issue, Raisi said "diplomacy is one of the means of securing the national interests of countries, but diplomacy is effective when all parties adhere to it in practice." Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-18 00:12:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian speaks during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, July 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) "We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed," French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, calling Australia's about-face a "stab in the back." PARIS, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- France said on Friday that it cannot trust Australia in its ongoing trade talks with the European Union (EU) after Canberra scraped a deal to acquire French-designed submarines and decided to invest in American nuclear-powered submarines instead. Paris called Australia's about-face a "stab in the back." "We're having trade negotiations with Australia," France's Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune told France 24 news channel. "I don't see how we can trust our Australian partners." The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia announced on Wednesday the creation of a new trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS" (Australia-UK-U.S.), whose first initiative will be the delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet to Australia. France considers the deal a "stab in the back," French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday. Back in 2016, Australia signed a contract with France for the purchase of 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) greets Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in front of 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain, on June 15, 2021. (Tim Hammond/No. 10 Downing Street/Handout via Xinhua) "We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed," Le Drian said. The EU started negotiations with Australia for a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2018. So far, the EU and Australia have been conducting their trade and economic relations under the 2008 EU-Australian Partnership Framework. In 2020, Australia was the EU's 19th largest trading partner, and the EU was Australia's third largest after China and Japan and before the U.S., according to EU data. Amid international worries about the proliferation of nuclear material and technology via the deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said in a press release that it will "engage with them (Australia, UK, and the United States) on this matter in line with its statutory mandate, and in accordance with their respective safeguards agreements with the Agency." China has also voiced opposition against the trilateral move, describing it as a "sheer act of nuclear proliferation." Such assistance "will apparently give rise to the proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies by openly providing assistance to Australia," said Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna. U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the EU-U.S. summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 15, 2021. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua) Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-18 01:19:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Huang Jingwen) -- "I am confident that the growing SCO family will stride ahead together with all the progressive forces of the world, and be the builders of world peace, contributors to global development and defenders of the international order," President Xi Jinping said. -- Xi called on SCO members to step up coordination, make full use of platforms such as the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group and facilitate a smooth transition in Afghanistan, encourage Afghanistan to put in place a broad-based and inclusive political framework, and resolutely fight all forms of terrorism. -- To facilitate post-COVID economic recovery in SCO countries, Xi said China will continue to share its market opportunities, strive to reach 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars in its cumulative trade with other SCO countries in the next five years, and improve its trade structure and balance. BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday urged solidarity, upholding common security, openness and integration for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members to forge a closer SCO community with a shared future. Xi made the comments via video link as he addressed the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, hosted by this year's rotating presidency Tajikistan. Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) All SCO members have pledged to further enhance policy communication, security cooperation, smoothing trade, financing and people-to-people exchanges, according to a declaration issued after the conclusion of the meeting. The organization, which covers three-fifths of the Eurasian continent, nearly half of the world's population, and over 20 percent of the global gross domestic product, is embracing its 20th anniversary this year. "I am confident that the growing SCO family will stride ahead together with all the progressive forces of the world, and be the builders of world peace, contributors to global development and defenders of the international order," said Xi. ENHANCING SOLIDARITY TO COUNTER CHALLENGES "We need to follow the journey of enhancing solidarity and cooperation," Xi said, adding SCO members should make the most of the meeting mechanisms and platforms at all levels, step up policy dialogue, communication and coordination. Calling fighting COVID-19 the most pressing task, Xi urged deepening international cooperation against the virus and promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, adding China has provided close to 1.2 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to over 100 countries and international organizations. The first batch of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines arrived at Tashkent International Airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on March 27, 2021. (Photo by Zafar Khalilov/Xinhua) Noting Afghanistan has undergone drastic changes and the country still faces many daunting challenges, Xi called on SCO members to step up coordination, make full use of platforms such as the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group and facilitate a smooth transition in Afghanistan, encourage Afghanistan to put in place a broad-based and inclusive political framework, and resolutely fight all forms of terrorism. Joint efforts were also highlighted at the ensuing joint summit of the leaders of the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization member states on the Afghanistan issue, where Xi urged interactions with Afghanistan from a rational and pragmatic angle, and said that certain countries should shoulder due responsibility for Afghanistan's development. As the SCO members are all near neighbors of Afghanistan, and Afghanistan is an observer state of the SCO, the organization enjoys unique convenience and advantages in addressing the issues compared with other similar international arrangements, said Deng Hao, secretary-general of the China Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies. "Aimed at addressing regional challenges that concern the interests of all, China's proposals have added new dimensions to related cooperation mechanisms, demonstrating a sense of responsibility as a major country to promote peace, stability and people's livelihoods," added Deng. ADVANCING INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT Stressing the SCO members need to follow the journey of promoting openness and integration, Xi said they should continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and create growth drivers of cooperation such as digital economy, green energy and modern agriculture. Photo taken on June 12, 2019 shows the Qingdao multimodal transportation center in the China-SCO local economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng) In 2020, the combined economic size of the SCO countries reached 18.4 trillion U.S. dollars, an 11-fold increase since its founding, while intra-SCO trade jumped eight times to 6.2 trillion dollars over the same period, a vivid proof of intensified SCO cooperation with concrete outcomes. To facilitate post-COVID economic recovery in SCO countries, Xi said China will continue to share its market opportunities, strive to reach 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars in its cumulative trade with other SCO countries in the next five years, and improve its trade structure and balance. "As SCO members are diverse in their national realities and development priorities, China's call for open cooperation and integration has echoed the common aspiration for economic recovery and sustainable growth, showing a strong determination to tide over difficulties together with the SCO family," said Sun Zhuangzhi, director of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. BOOSTING INTERACTIONS Noting interactions between civilizations provide the most solid foundation for the SCO's development, Xi emphasized the need to encourage exchanges, dialogue, harmony and co-existence between civilizations. He proposed more projects including those of science and technology, education, culture, among others, adding China will provide 1,000 training opportunities in poverty alleviation for other SCO countries in the next three years, and host an SCO youth technology and innovation forum next year. He also extended welcome to SCO countries' participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Visitors take a tour near the Olympic sailing center, used as the conference hall during the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, July 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng) At the meeting, the attending leaders of relevant countries and international organizations voiced support for multilateralism, as well as opposition to hegemonism, unilateralism and interference in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of democracy and human rights, and support for the independent choice of development paths for SCO countries. "Amid resurging unilateralism and protectionism, the joint emphasis by SCO members on the importance of mutual learning and exchanges sheds light on the urgency for the region and the international community to adhere to mutual consultation and work for a community with a shared future," said Professor Yana Leksyutina of St. Petersburg State University in Russia. In addition, the meeting has launched procedures to admit Iran as a member state of the SCO, as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar as new dialogue partners. Hailing the SCO as an institution of global governance, Prof. B.R. Deepak at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, said the new developments at the organization will help further extend the reach of multilateralism to more countries, unleash greater cooperation potential, and beef up the international voice of developing countries in the region. Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 10:11:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ACCRA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said late Thursday that it has slapped sanctions on the Guinean military coup leaders and their relatives. Addressing the media after a one-day extraordinary summit of heads of state in the Ghanaian capital over the political developments in Guinea and Mali, ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said the sanctions were to compel the military leaders to return their country to constitutional order without delay. Brou said ECOWAS imposed a travel ban on Guinea's military coup leaders, members of its "National Committee of Reconciliation and Development" and their relatives, and also froze their financial assets. "ECOWAS also demands a short transitional period of no more than six months from the military leaders. They should hold elections and return the country to constitutional order, and immediately release deposed President Alpha Conde from detention," Brou said. He also said that ECOWAS Chairman Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would visit Guinea shortly to hold discussions with the military leaders on the demands of the ECOWAS and see to the release of Conde. In its initial response on Sept. 8 to the military coup in Guinea, the subregional body announced the suspension of the country's membership. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 19:56:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LUANDA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Angolan government and the World Bank (WB) on Thursday signed a financing agreement valued at 150 million U.S. dollars for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines. On the occasion here, the WB country representative, Jean-Christophe Carret, highlighted that the WB and Angola had been working to effectively make the funding project happen. "As director of the WB in Angola, I will do everything in my power to help the local government to achieve its goals," Carret said. For her part, Angolan Finance Minister Vera Daves highlighted the partnership between the Angolan government and the WB, which led to great achievements in strategic domains for the country's socio-economic development. The official also took the opportunity to call on civil societies and all citizens in general to adhere to the vaccination campaign against COVID-19. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 21:46:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ACCRA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana and current chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), led a high-powered delegation to Conakry early Friday to confer with the leaders of the new military administration in Guinea, a source at the Ghanaian presidency told Xinhua. The visit came a day after the subregional bloc slapped sanctions on the leaders of the coup that detained the Guinean President Alpha Conde. A communique issued after the one-day extraordinary ECOWAS summit held in Accra Thursday demanded the military leaders for a swift return to constitutional rule. The 15-member body also urged the African Union and other international partners to help enforce the travel bans and the freezing of financial assets of the coup leaders, members of the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development, and their relatives. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-18 04:50:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the press at the nine Mediterranean European Union member states (EUMED 9) Summit in Athens, Greece, on Sept. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos) ATHENS, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of nine Mediterranean European Union member states (EUMED 9) held talks here Friday, calling for closer cooperation to face various common challenges. "In the face of different yet equally serious challenges, Europe is confronted with, in a wide variety of fields, such as the environment and climate, health, economy, security and stability; it is more crucial than ever to strengthen the European foundations, address the EU's structural deficiencies, enhance the European dimension of defense and build up our collective resilience," read the co-signed declaration of the 8th EUMED 9 summit. The heads of state and government of Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain called for peace, security and stability in the Mediterranean and increased cross border collaboration to address issues such as migration, extremism, developments in Afghanistan, crises like the COVID-19 pandemic or challenges like climate change, green transition and economic recovery and sustainable growth. "The Mediterranean of culture, open horizons and prosperity, asks us to protect peace and security around it, but also the very balance of the ecosystem in its waters," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during joint statements to the press after the closure of proceedings. French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stressed that the EU should send a message that can meet challenges with European solutions. "Cooperation is key to finding mutually beneficial solutions to shared challenges," Malta's Prime Minister Robert Abela added. The climate crisis was a major topic on the agenda of the summit, which also welcomed European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the opening. The leaders co-signed an additional Athens declaration on climate change and the environment in the Mediterranean, urging for "urgent and ambitious global action" to secure a safe, prosperous and sustainable future for societies. "The transformation is indeed gigantic and there is no time (for complacency)," Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi stressed during the press conference, pointing to recent destructive heatwaves, wildfires and floods in the region this summer. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 15:00:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW YORK, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government is seeking to achieve broader vaccination against COVID-19, targeting corporates, official departments and global meetings, as the pandemic keeps claiming more and more American lives and will likely become the biggest pandemic killer in the country's history. According to The New York Times, the 7-day average of confirmed cases stood at 152,605 nationwide on Wednesday, with its 14-day change striking an 8-percent fall. COVID-19-related deaths were 1,943 on Wednesday, with the 14-day change realizing a 37-percent rise. HEAVY FATALITIES, COSTS According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 18 months into the pandemic COVID-19, is again pushing America's health care infrastructure to a breaking point, with intensive care units at capacity and shortages of health workers being reported widely across the country. As of Wednesday, COVID-19 has caused the deaths of 666,816 people in the United States, including 13,600 just over the past week. "That mounting death count will soon give COVID-19 the title of America's deadliest pandemic," reported Fortune magazine on Thursday. In terms of death toll, the pandemic already surpassed the 1968 flu pandemic, which resulted in 100,000 estimated deaths. At its current pace, the disease would also surpass the 675,000 estimated U.S. deaths caused by the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, the deadliest pandemic in U.S. history, before the end of September, it added. Over a recent three-month period, the cost of treating unvaccinated COVID-19 patients around the United States amounted to 5.7 billion U.S. dollars, said a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Peterson Center on Healthcare. Drawing on hospital admissions and public health data, the groups based that estimate on the roughly 287,000 hospitalizations among unvaccinated people between June and August. They assumed the cost of their care at 20,000 dollars per person. "This ballpark figure is likely an understatement of the cost burden from preventable treatment of COVID-19 among unvaccinated adults," the authors wrote. The overall financial costs of treating the unvaccinated are "borne not only by patients but also by society more broadly, including taxpayer-funded public programs and private insurance premiums paid by workers, businesses and individual purchasers." VACCINATION EXPANDED As a particular group, the world leaders coming to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly's (UNGA) meetings next week will have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, New York City officials has said. New York City's Commissioner for International Affairs Penny Abeywardena told the assembly in a letter last week that officials consider the hall a convention center and therefore subject to the city's vaccination requirement. "We are proud to join in the ongoing efforts to keep all UNGA attendees and our fellow New Yorkers safe during the pandemic," she and Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement issued on Wednesday, adding that the city would offer free, walk-in vaccinations, Johnson & Johnson's single shot, and testing outside the United Nations during the meeting. Another case in point is that United Airlines is well on its way to have the most vaccinated workforce among large U.S. carriers. Following the threat of unpaid leave for unvaccinated staff who lack a waiver, nearly 90 percent of airline's more than 84,000 staff have received at least one jab. On Thursday, Kate Gebo, the Chicago-based carrier's executive vice president for Human Resources, said that nearly 20,000 workers have uploaded vaccine cards since the company mandated COVID-19 inoculations in August. Earlier this month, the airline stipulated that those who do not receive their first shot by Sept. 27 will get unpaid leave. "Getting vaccinated is the most important thing each of us can do to protect ourselves and protect each other from this deadly virus," she said. "Though COVID-19 has deeply impacted our industry and our daily lives, we are certain the road to economic recovery and personal health hinges on vaccination." PRESSURE, REFLECTION U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday met with some of the top business leaders in the country, including CEOs of Microsoft, Walt Disney and Walgreens, days after the White House announced strict vaccination rules for millions of workers as the highly contagious Delta variant surged. Biden's new policies require most federal employees to get vaccinated. Private companies that employ more than 100 people are also required to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly. Under the rule, private companies will also provide paid time off for employees to get the shot. "It's about saving lives. That's what this is all about," Biden told the meeting. "Vaccinations mean fewer infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and in turn it means a stronger economy." On Thursday, The Hill reported, "the growing frustration with the ongoing pandemic is boiling over, with all eyes turned to the unvaccinated as the key to getting through the COVID-19 crisis." As cases approach winter levels, the United States has been left to decide how to deal with and treat the millions of people who still haven't received their shots, months after they became widely available, it added. THIRD DOSE? In the mean time, scientists of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have expressed skepticism about the need for additional doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for all people who have received it. The assessment by the agency's staff, included in documents released on Wednesday, sets up a high-stakes debate over who will need an additional booster dose and when they will need it at a meeting on Friday. In the documents, the FDA's own scientists seemed to strike a cautious position about the need for widespread booster shots. Overall, they said, "data indicate that currently U.S.-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States." Also on Friday, in a 52-page report, Pfizer suggested that booster shots may be an "urgent emerging public health issue," citing data from Israel that shows an increased risk of breakthrough infection without the shot. A third dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine six months after a second shot restores protection from infection to 95 percent in a real-world setting in Israel, according to the data submitted by the company to the FDA. While the effectiveness of the mRNA vaccine wanes over time, a booster shot was shown to elicit an immune response similar to the protection generated after a second dose, added Pfizer. Enditem VILLAGERS settling close to the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) cantonment area in Umzingwane, Matabeleland South, face eviction as government moves in to deal with illegal settlements across the country. Land barons and local authorities accused of parcelling out land to illegal settlers will bear the cost of eviction and relocation, Local Government deputy minister Marian Chombo told Parliament this week. Chombo was responding to Umzingwane Zanu PF legislator Levi Mayihlome who wanted to know when the ministry was going to stop and reverse illegal settlements in communal and A1 settlement areas in Umzingwane. She said an inter-ministerial committee has been set up to resolve challenges related to dysfunctional settlements, both urban and communal areas with a view of regularising, demolition and evicting affected people. In Umzingwane, the areas affected by illegal settlers are wards 20 and 5 where people settled themselves and established an urban settlement in communal and resettlement areas in the Mbalabala area, 40 kms from Bulawayo; ward 19 of Godlwayo area where people settled themselves and were given eviction notices; in wards 1 and 2, people were settled next to the cantonment area of the Zimbabwe National Army, the people need to be resettled to safe areas, Chombo said. We have been going through the 10 provinces to make sure that we identify where all those dysfunctional settlements are. There is a programme that is being drawn up to make sure that we identify who settled those people there. Was it the land barons? Was it the local authority or was it us, the Local Government and Public Works ministry? Recently, Lands and Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka revealed that as many as 250 000 people were on the waiting list for farming land. Masuka said the ministrys registry shows that most of the land has been occupied but no farming was taking place in some areas for various reasons, hence the ongoing visit to re-distribute the vacant, abandoned, and derelict farms. First and foremost, we have to identify a place to move those people to and the cost of moving them is going to be borne by either one of them, that is the land baron, local authority or the Local Government and Public Works ministry, Chombo said. If they settled themselves on that ground, then it means that they will bear the cost of moving but the central government is trying to make sure that all those people who illegally settled themselves on those dysfunctional settlements are well settled. We will try to do that before the onset of the rain season. Newsday THE names of Zimbabwes late strongman Robert Mugabe and his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa have been dragged into a blazing dispute over Ran Gold Mine, a Mashonaland Central domiciled asset where domestic investors have fought battles to control the business for a decade, businessDigest can reveal. Fighting reached a tipping point last week when G&P Industries and Ran Mines Private Limited, one of the warring parties, said it was pressing ahead to extract its first bullion at the mine in 22 years, while rivals at Blackgate Investments warned that sinking shafts at the operation was illegal until government makes a determination over ownership. However, documents seen by businessDigest indicated that Blackgate holds permits demonstrating ownership to the goldfields, which were issued by the government. In a 76-page letter submitted to Mnangagwa in December, Blackgate claimed that G&P Industries had warned them to tread carefully as the asset belonged to the feared late statesman, Mugabe, and his family. The letter claimed that after Mugabe unceremoniously left power in 2017, G&P, which is fronted by mining executive Jack Murehwa, somersaulted and claimed that Mnangagwa had taken over the 122-year-old asset, which collapsed in 1999 before attracting armies of artisanal miners. Murehwa pleaded with businessDigest not to escalate the issue in the press, but added that he was too professional to thrive on name dropping. Surely, we are a lot more professional than that, Murehwa said. When we talk business, we talk professional things. What you are saying is for you and your sources. But my plea to you is, dont escalate this in the press. It does not do anyone any favour. It does not help business. We are busy preparing the plant and we want to open next month, he said. G&P has indicated that it has a US$6,5 million war chest to rebuild Ran Mines, which made headlines in November, after its shafts collapsed under heavy flooding as torrential rains swept through Zimbabwe. Businesswoman Angeline Munyeza heads Blackgate, which in 2010 was given full rights to mine at Ran Mines following an investigation into the dispute by a mining commissioner, who said it had demonstrated serious commitment . . . to be allowed to resuscitate the old Ran Mines. In her letter to Mnangagwa, Munyeza said Zimbabwe lost about US$500 million in potential gold exports during the prolonged dispute. She said Blackgate identified Ran Mines after previous owners left, but ran into problems after being swamped with complaints that it had intruded into G&P claims. She said in November the government took the warring parties to the mine, but she was shocked when G&P said she must keep quiet because the mine belongs to the first family. Munyeza is seeking clarity if it was true that Ran Mines ownership had transferred from Mugabe to Mnangagwa. It is in your best interest that I bring your attention to an issue of paramount importance that if left derelict, could derail and negate the efforts that are being made towards establishing a US$12 billion mining industry by 2023 fighting the scourge of corruption that could ultimately result in the perpetuation of the abuse of your name and family by cunning, unscrupulous individuals within society, Munyeza said. The dispute in question has been a prolonged one . . . emanating in 2008 . . . characterised by alarming levels of corruption within the Ministry of Mines and gross abuse of the name of the late President Robert Gabriel Mugabe as well as yours and your family members. These occurrences have led us to seek clarity . . . and . . . impartial recommendation as this matter infringes negatively on your reputation and integrity as you are the chief steward of the country, Munyeza said. The entire top hierarchy at the Ministry of Mines turned down requests to respond to businessDigest yesterday. But presidential spokesman George Charamba said there was a worrying trend of conflicts over claims that the ministry has failed to address. I cannot confirm that we have received the letter at the Presidents Office, Charamba said. Maybe it is still on its way, but this is a clear message to the Ministry of Mines that the whole regime of assigning titles to claims must be tidied up. I am sure there is a need for intervention from the highest office. These conflicts are becoming more prevalent, with some of them violent, actually. There is a similar dispute that has been brought to my attention at Pfungwe. We are also familiar with unethical characters who try to prevail over their opponents through name dropping. Let them be warned that authorities will not take such behaviour kindly. If the President had an interest in the mine, such interest would have been declared, Charamba told businessDigest. Back in November, a Ran Mines shaft carved in hours after the site tour. Days later, a stunned nation watched in horror as decomposing bodies of miners were lifted out of flooded tunnels. But Munyeza said for her the shock had taken place when the group arrived at Ran Mines for the fact-finding mission, when government officials told her that the operation belonged to G&P Industries. This was despite the fact that the mining commissioner had given Blackgate full right to redevelop the mine, according to official reports. There is corruption at a mass scale at the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development as they have failed to resolve the matter for the past seven years as ordered by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, which prejudiced the country of gold exports to the value of more than US$500 million. Following an extensive investigation of the dispute, a mining commissioner assigned by the Ministry of Mines issued a report on January 18, 2 009, which said the most important observation was that G&P had attempted to take over Ran Mines without original copies of registration from the previous owners. The commissioner said it was difficult to understand how the mine kept changing hands without requisite papers. Shumba said in contrast to G&P, Blackgate had produced its certificates. However, it appeared G&P later appealed against the commissioners decision, setting the stage for the prolonged standoff. Shumba recommended Cancellation of claims held by G&P Industries and Ran Mines and asked any aggrieved party to appeal to the Minister of Mines. Zimbabwe Independent THE Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientists Council of Zimbabwe (MLCSCZ) has described two companies that have been offering paternity tests and broadcasting the results on radio and television as bogus, warning people against falling prey to the con-artists. The regulatory body red-flagged Global DNA Zimbabwe and Expedite DNA Zimbabwe saying they were only registered as DNA collection sites and not authorised to conduct the actual tests. The MLCSCZ said the companies were neither professionally qualified nor competent to issue those test results with the participation of radio personality Tilder Moyo. Global DNA principal consultant Tinashe Mugabe hosts The Closure DNA Show while Moyo hosts Expedite DNA on the Tilder Live Show. The weekly programmes have gained popularity among ordinary Zimbabweans for exposing infidelity among couples. But yesterday, the MLSCZ in a statement discouraged Zimbabweans from falling prey to the two firms. The body said health professional bodies had a code of conduct which barred members from divulging, either orally or in writing, any information concerning a patient/client test result to third parties except where so required by law. Mr Tinashe Mugabe of Global DNA of The Closure DNA Show and Jane of Expedite DNA Zimbabwe Tilder Live Zim Show are not registered members of the Medical Laboratory and Clinical Scientists Council of Zimbabwe or sister Health Professional Councils in Zimbabwe. Mr Tinashe Mugabe and Jane are neither professionally qualified nor competent to issue those test results. Therefore, the MLCSCZ condemns such unethical practices on the poor and the marginalised population by Global DNA Zimbabwe and Expedite DNA Zimbabwe. The statement came at a time when a video by Australian broadcaster, Sunday Night has gone viral in which Mugabe was in 2019 accused of producing defective paternity results to a Zimbabwean-born Australian, who went missing at birth in 1983 and wanted to reunite with her family. In an interview with NewsDay Weekender on Thursday before the MLCSCZ statement, Mugabe said: DNA testing is not new, it is even mandatory in some countries. People need to be educated about DNA testing so that they learn. We have created platforms meant to educate people who come for DNA testing. The reason why many people come for DNA testing is because they seek peace of mind. We have noted that there are more negative than positive results, meaning there are many alleged fathers who dont have a biological relationship with the tested child. Earlier in the week, Zimbabweans rapped the public disclosure of DNA paternity test results through broadcasting, saying the practice was alien to the local culture and inconsiderate to the affected children. Popular television show host Rebecca Chisamba said DNA test results were not for public consumption. DNA testing is good, but not for public consumption, Chisamba said. We should consider the psychological factors that can affect the child after he or she discovers that there is no biological relationship with the alleged father. We are destroying the child, forgetting that they should face the public after they are exposed on social media. She said although infidelity was bad and destroying families, DNA tests should be done in private to protect the image of the family. Institute for Young Womens Development knowledge management, documentation and advocacy co-ordinator Tinotenda Chihera said in as much as the Global DNA Zimbabwe was applauded, they should first consider the best interests of the child as per the Constitution. I am not against what Tinashe Mugabe is doing. Yes, infidelity is never a good act, but we should protect the image of the innocent children, Chihera said. National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) spokesperson Obert Gutu said no one should be in a position to give conclusions on such an issue before the topic has been fully debated, discussed and ventilated by the various stakeholders. Pamellah Musimwa of Justice for Children said by publicising paternity results, Mugabe was violating childrens rights. Padare Mens Forum on Gender national director Walter Vengesai said DNA testing should be structured in a way that does not harm those who chose to be tested. It may be very important for people to know their biological test results, but above all peoples rights should be considered. No one should suffer psychologically whenever there is a development process in society. DNA should, therefore, do more good than harm in society. Human rights lawyer Nyasha Machirori said people were much concerned with exposing infidelity and adultery on social media, but forgetting that the programme was damaging the image of children. It is important for children to know their correct heritage, but this should be done in a way that does not harm them, Machirori said. The manner in which the DNA results are disclosed brutalised children, she said. Newsday Asmara, Eritrea (PANA) - Eritrean authorities must immediately and unconditionally release 21 journalists and politicians arrested in a sweeping crackdown on dissent 20 years ago, Amnesty International said as it launched a new campaign on Friday If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Parole of ex-Senator Torlopov overturned by Supreme Court of Russias Komi Republic RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 13:49 17/09/2021 MOSCOW, September 17 (RAPSI) The Supreme Court of the Republic of Komi has overturned a lower court decision to grant parole to former senator Vladimir Torlopov, who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison in the case of ex-head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer, according to the United Press Service the Komi Republic courts. The higher court canceled the respective decision of the Ukhta City Court of the Komi Republic, the statement reads. In June 2019, the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky District Court found Torlopov guilty of serious fraud and money laundering and sentenced him to 6.5 years in prison with a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $7,000 at the current exchange rate). The court established that Torlopov, Gaizer, as well as other defendants tried to take possession of highly profitable regional enterprises or establish control over such enterprises with the aim of illicit enrichment. Suspect in attack on police department in Voronezh region apprehended flickr.com / Keith Allison 15:18 17/09/2021 MOSCOW, September 17 (RAPSI) Law enforcement officers have detained a resident of a village in the Voronezh Region, Viktor Mirsky, on suspicion of killing a family and attacking a police department in the town of Liski, the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee informs. The man put up armed resistance, but thanks to the professional actions the police officers, he was disarmed. During the special operation, the suspect was wounded, he is being provided with medical assistance, the statement reads. Investigators allege that Mirsky committed the murder of a family on the basis of a domestic conflict. After the murder he attacked the Liskinsky district police station with the use of an explosive device and fled the scene of the crime in a car. As a result of the explosion, a police officer was wounded. As to the incident, investigating authorities initiated a criminal case over murder of two or more persons, illegal arms trafficking, attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer, and illegal traffic in explosives. Russian authority urges Twitter to explain blocking of Moscow Election Commission account RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 16:01 17/09/2021 MOSCOW, September 17 (RAPSI) Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has sent a letter to the management of Twitter Inc demanding the company to explain as soon as possible its reasons for imposing restrictions on the account of the Moscow City Election Commission. The agency clarified that this account was created to inform citizens about the elections taking place in the Russian Federation. So, due to the actions of Twitter, the Moscow City Election Commission was forced to open a new account. The letter notes that these actions of the Twitter administration are regarded as foreign interference in the current election campaign in the Russian Federation. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena leaders, and several Chief Ministers, Governors and Bollywood stars on Friday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday. Wishing Modi, President Kovind tweeted, "Happy birthday and best wishes to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. I wish you good health and long life and continue to serve the nation with your well-known spirit of 'Aharnisham Sevamahe'." Vice President Naidu said, "My best wishes to Prime Minister, Narendra Bhai Modi ji on his birthday today. His exceptional vision, exemplary leadership and dedicated service have led to all-round growth of the nation. May he be blessed with a long, healthy and happy life ahead." Greeting Modi on his birthday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "Happy birthday to the country's popular leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I pray to God for your good health and long life. "Modi ji not only gave the country the thought of thinking ahead of time and proving its resolve with the culmination of hard work, but also showed it by making it a reality." Wishing the Prime minister, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, "Happy birthday to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Known for his decision-making ability, imagination and vision, Modiji's resolve to make India a self-reliant India is a symbol of his vision and strong will." Greeting Prime Minister, BJP Chief J.P. Nadda said, "Happy birthday to world's most popular leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the empowerment of the last man in the society, visionary, decisive leadership and a symbol of tireless work. I pray for your long and healthy life." Wishing Modi, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Happy birthday, Modi ji." The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government leaders on Friday warmly greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday, wishing him the best of health and a long life. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said: "We wish him a long and healthy life on his birthday." Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in his birthday greetings added: "We expect the PM to ensure equal justice and development opportunities to Maharashtra and other countrymen." Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut lauded Modi as "the tallest and unchallenged leader" who has brought political stability with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party' full majority. "We may have our political differences but today he is the tallest leader, with nobody who can challenge him, and heading a party with full majority in parliament," Raut said. Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar tweeted: "Warm Birthday wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modiji. I wish him good health and happiness." Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party Leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and others retweeted senior party leader Rahul Gandhi's tweet wishing the PM happy birthday. Leaders from various political parties, celebs, glamour personalities and commoners have expressed their wishes and prayers for Modi. Governors and chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Friday also greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday. Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan took to Twitter to wish Modi. "Happy Birth Day to Visionary leader who made Self reliant India: Reformative India :Resilient India:Resurgent India:Glorious India :Super strong leader who Made Mother India Proud Globally," she wrote. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao greeted the Prime Minister on his birthday. He sent a letter, conveying his best wishes. "On behalf of the Government and people of Telangana, I wish you a very happy birthday. May God bless you with good health and long life for serving the nation for many more years," reads the letter. Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan also greeted Modi on birthday. "I along with the people of Andhra Pradesh, with pleasure and privilege convey our heartiest felicitations and warm greetings to you on your Birthday," tweeted the governor. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has also greeted the Prime Minister. Eminent personalities from the Bollywood and music world like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Anup Jalota and many others recounted their experiences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a social media platform. To mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday and his decades in public service , the BJP youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) will be undertaking various welfare and awareness programmes and host 'Nava Bharat Mela' from September 17 to October 7 across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for a shared template to fight against radicalisation and extremism while virtually addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Addressing the plenary session of the 21st SCO meeting underway in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, he said radicalisation and trust deficit were the biggest challenges to peace in Central Asia and the recent developments in Afghanistan had made this challenge more clear. In his six-minute virtual address, Modi said: "If we look back in the history, we will find that the Central Asia has been the hub of moderate, progressive cultures and values. Cultures like Sufiwad born here and spread to whole world. It can even now be seen in its cultural legacy." The SCO should work to develop strong network among the moderate, tolerant and inclusive institutions and traditions associated with Islam which have already been prevailing in India and member countries, he added. The Prime Minister also asked the Central Asian countries to connect with India's huge markets and gain benefits. "India is committed to enhance its connectivity with these countries and we believe that landlocked Central Asian countries can benefit immensely by connecting with India's vast market." In a veiled reference to China on connectivity issues, he said that any connectivity initiative cannot be a one-way street initiative. "It must be ensured, consultative, transparent and participatory. There should be respect for territorial integrity of all countries," Modi said and also batted for Chabahar and North South International Corridor. Welcoming the new additions to the bloc, he said with Iran being included as the SCO member while Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar as dialogue partners, their participation would further strengthened the bloc. "We must encourage our talented youngsters towards science and rational thinking. We can bring our start-ups and entrepreneurs together to create the innovative spirit towards making India a stakeholder in emerging technology," Modi concluded. As missiles came raining down on Kabul during the early afternoon of September 16, it sent a disturbing message across the world that not all jihadis are on the same page when it comes to establishing an Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan. At least five missiles were said to have landed near the Kabul power plant which shows that the objective of the strike was to throw the capital city into darkness by disrupting the power and electricity supply. Now the Taliban have ordered Afghans living in an abandoned military compound to leave their houses and make way for the group's fighters to move in. There are 2,500 families that are feared to be evicted in the coming days. However, after protests the Taliban are said to have abandoned the plans temporarily. The video of acting Deputy Prime Minster Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar that surfaced on the same day the missile attack took place, has for a moment laid to rest rumours that he had been fatally wounded after a gun fight broke out between the Doha group, which had facilitated the talks between the US, Taliban, and the Haqqani network, which Pakistan had helped to get a large share in the Taliban ad hoc government. Seventeen out of 33 ministerial portfolios have gone to the Haqqani. The missile attack on Kabul comes at a time when the Taliban were holding their first cabinet meeting. The meeting fell apart after heated arguments between several ministers debating among themselves the economic and political catastrophe that the Taliban find themselves facing. On one hand, the IMF and World Bank have brought all aid to Afghanistan to a halt. To add insult to injury, the US government froze Afghan assets which amount to almost $9 billion raising qualms regarding the Taliban's ability to manage the economy in the not so distant future. On the other hand, doubts have risen about the capability of the Taliban to consolidate its rule over Afghanistan. The fighters in the north in Panjshir, led by Ahmad Massoud and former First Vice President Amrullah Saleh, refuse to budge and continue to put up a fierce resistance despite the alleged military assistance provided to the Taliban by neighbouring Pakistan. The Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) has also posed a serious threat to the claims of stability made by the ad-hoc government of Taliban in Kabul. The Khorasan had conducted at least two deadly attacks last month on the Kabul airport which resulted in the deaths of 13 US marines and more than 200 Afghans. Pakistan has allegedly been accused by the Doha group of meddling in the internal affairs of Afghanistan to the detriment of the political wing of the terrorist organisation based in Doha. The sudden dash to Kabul by the Pakistani chief of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed is said to have played an instrumental role in forming the ad hoc Taliban government. This, it is believed to have divided the Taliban into at least three groups. The Taliban, the Haqqani and those who support Baradar. Baradar's sudden disappearance and then reappearing six days later and releasing a pre-recorded video statement claiming that he fine and reading from a piece of paper showed him visibly distressed. This has raised questions regarding him being forced to make an appearance on video. In recent days, the fighters in Panjshir have also shown resilience and have reportedly been attacking the Taliban in the province of Badakhshan. Moreover, it is reported that Massoud has announced that soon they will declare a parallel Afghan government. All these pointers indicate that Taliban rule over Kabul is going to be anything but stable. Another factor to be paid attention to is the resilience with which the Afghan women have taken to the streets to oppose the Taliban. From Kabul to Kandahar and Herat scores of Afghan women have been taking out processions while chanting slogans such as "down with the Taliban" and "death to Pakistan". As the Taliban struggle to subdue internal fighting, gain control over a disgruntled civil society and bring anti-Taliban resistance forces in Panjshir to task one thing is now become clear that the Taliban are finally on the receiving end of the wrath of the wider Afghan society. From being an aggressor and bombarding civilian government of former President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul to being rocket fired upon, the Taliban are now facing a multiple enemies and from various sections of society, something they should get used to very quickly. (Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. He currently lives in exile in the UK. All views expressed are personal.) Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/17/2021 -- The Latest research study released by HTF MI "Gamification in Learning Market" with 100+ pages of analysis on business Strategy taken up by key and emerging industry players and delivers know how of the current market development, landscape, technologies, drivers, opportunities, market viewpoint and status. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth. 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This market study presents basic data and true figures about the market giving a deep analysis of this market based on market trends, market drivers, constraints and its future prospects. The report supplies the worldwide monetary challenge with the help of Porter's Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis. If you have any Enquiry please click here @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/3482767-gamification-in-learning-market Customization of the Report: The report can be customized as per your needs for added data up to 3 businesses or countries or 2 analyst hours. On the basis of report- titled segments and sub-segment of the market are highlighted below: Gamification in Learning Market By Application/End-User (Value and Volume from 2021 to 2026) : K-12, Corporate Training, Universities & Others Market By Type (Value and Volume from 2021 to 2026) : , Cloud-Based & On-Premises Gamification in Learning Market by Key Players: Microsoft, MPS Interactive Systems, Bunchball, NIIT Ltd, D2L Corporation, Cognizant, Fundamentor, Top Hat, Classcraft Studios, Recurrence Inc. Geographically, this report is segmented into some key Regions, with manufacture, depletion, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Gamification in Learning in these regions, from 2015 to 2026 (forecast), covering China, USA, Europe, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia & South America and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2021 to 2026. Informational Takeaways from the Market Study: The report Gamification in Learning matches the completely examined and evaluated data of the noticeable companies and their situation in the market considering impact of Coronavirus. The measured tools including SWOT analysis, Porter's five powers analysis, and assumption return debt were utilized while separating the improvement of the key players performing in the market. Key Development's in the Market: This segment of the Gamification in Learning report fuses the major developments of the market that contains confirmations, composed endeavors, R&D, new thing dispatch, joint endeavours, and relationship of driving members working in the market. To get this report buy full copy @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=3482767 Some of the important question for stakeholders and business professional for expanding their position in the Gamification in Learning Market : Q 1. Which Region offers the most rewarding open doors for the market Ahead of 2021? Q 2. What are the business threats and Impact of latest scenario Over the market Growth and Estimation? Q 3. What are probably the most encouraging, high-development scenarios for Gamification in Learning movement showcase by applications, types and regions? Q 4.What segments grab most noteworthy attention in Gamification in Learning Market in 2020 and beyond? Q 5. Who are the significant players confronting and developing in Gamification in Learning Market? For More Information Read Table of Content @: https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/3482767-gamification-in-learning-market Key poles of the TOC: Chapter 1 Gamification in Learning Market Business Overview Chapter 2 Major Breakdown by Type [, Cloud-Based & On-Premises] Chapter 3 Major Application Wise Breakdown (Revenue & Volume) Chapter 4 Manufacture Market Breakdown Chapter 5 Sales & Estimates Market Study Chapter 6 Key Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Breakdown .. Chapter 8 Manufacturers, Deals and Closings Market Evaluation & Aggressiveness Chapter 9 Key Companies Breakdown by Overall Market Size & Revenue by Type .. Chapter 11 Business / Industry Chain (Value & Supply Chain Analysis) Chapter 12 Conclusions & Appendix Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, LATAM, Europe or Southeast Asia. Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/17/2021 -- Advance Market Analytics published a new research publication on "Office Insurance Market Insights, to 2026" with 232 pages and enriched with self-explained Tables and charts in presentable format. In the Study you will find new evolving Trends, Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities generated by targeting market stakeholders. The growth of the Office Insurance market is mainly driven by the increasing R&D spending across the world. Get Free Sample Copy with TOC, Graphs & List of Figures @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/175557-global-office-insurance-market Scope of the Report of Office Insurance Office insurance is primarily centered on businesses that are run from a commercial property. Office insurance shield working premises against the costs and any loss of productivity caused by physical harm, felony or failure. When the unexpected happens, itas necessary to create sure office head is in an exceedingly position to get on with business as usual. If there's a physical workplace area, it should be insured both ways i.e.; building and contents. Lost productivity means lost earnings, missed deadlines and probably a damaged reputation. Putting an office insurance policy in place ensures business will keep running, even when the premises are out of action. On 14th June 2019, Allianz has invested USD 384 million for a 49 percent interest in an office condominium in New York. Allianz has entered into a sale-leaseback agreement as part of a consortium alongside Related Companies and a third-party investor, who has acquired the remainder of the office condominium. Some of the key players profiled in the study are: Allianz (Germany), AXA (France), Nippon Life Insurance (Japan), American Intl. Group (United States), Aviva (United Kingdom), Assicurazioni Generali (Italy), Cardinal Health (United States), State Farm Insurance (United States), Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance (Japan), Munich Re Group (Germany) The titled segments and sub-section of the market are illuminated below: by Application (Personal, Enterprise, Government), Insurance Coverage (Fire, Natural Clematis, Permanent Fixture, Others) The Office Insurance Market report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, geography segment, end use/application segment and competitor segment and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international major industry players in detail. Market Trends: Introduction of Technology Such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Others Market Drivers: Introduction of Dynamic Risk Modeling Techniques Rising Demand Due to Financial Protection Growing Awareness about the Benefits of Office Insurances Challenges: Presence of Numerous Insurance with Fluctuating Policy Rates Fluctuating Economics Conditions and Government Regulations Opportunities: Rising Industrialization and Small Businesses Rising Opportunity in Emerging Economics Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc. Have Any Questions Regarding Office Insurance Market Report, Ask Our Experts@ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/175557-global-office-insurance-market Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Office Insurance Market: Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Office Insurance market Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Office Insurance Market. Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Office Insurance Chapter 4: Presenting the Office Insurance Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis. Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Office Insurance market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions. Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source Research Methodology: - The top-down and bottom-up approaches are used to estimate and validate the size of the global Office Insurance market. - In order to reach an exhaustive list of functional and relevant players who offer Office Insurance various industry classification standards are closely followed such as NAICS, ICB, SIC to penetrate deep in important geographies. - Thereafter, a thorough validation test is conducted to reach most relevant players specifically having product line i.e. Office Insurance. - In order to make priority list sorting is done based on revenue generation as per latest reporting with the help of paid databases such as Factiva, Bloomberg etc. - Finally, the questionnaire is set and specifically designed to address all the necessities for primary data collection after getting prior appointment. This helps us to gather the data for the players' revenue, profit, products, growth etc. - Almost 80% of data is collected through primary medium and further validation is done through various secondary sources that includes Regulators, World Bank, Association, Company Website, Annual reports, press releases etc. Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/175557-global-office-insurance-market Try a limited scope research document specific to Country or Regional matching your objective. GET FULL COPY OF United States Office Insurance market study @ --------- USD 2000 And, Europe Office Insurance market study @ --------- USD 2500 (*If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.) Page Content Tuesday, September 14, was the official (re)opening ceremony of the sewing center at the Point Blanch prison. The sewing center at the Point Blanche prison has been closed for some years, but after minor renovations it has officially opened back its doors for the inmates residing at the Point Blanche prison. Present during the ceremony were the honorable Minister of Justice, Ms. Anna E. Richardson and her supporting staff, the interim director of the prison, Mr. Aartwichgt Bell, the prison management team, the sewing instructor Mr. Carlos Gomez and prison staff members. In the month of April, 2021, a survey was conducted amongst the inmates to identify their interests in day-time and rehabilitation programs that could be offered by the prison to ensure that the investment that the ministry makes is a positive and necessary one. The results yielded that about 65 inmates, which includes male and female inmates, have expressed interest in the proposed programs, which translates to approximately 85% of the population. Based on the survey, thirty-seven (37) male and three (3) female inmates expressed interest in participating in the sewing center. The sewing center has always been used to teach the inmates how to sew where they learn a trade that can be used after release. Minister Richardson therefore has been adamant in getting the sewing center reopened as soon as possible to allow the inmates to be proactive during their stay and engage in activities that can positively affect their reintegration into society. Now reopened, the inmates will make uniforms for the inmates, prison officers and other prison staff. The aim is to eventually have all uniforms used in the justice sector such as KPSM, douane and so on, to be made by the inmates. This not only provides the inmates with a meaningful day time activity, but it also can reduce the overall uniform expenses within the Ministry of Justice. The (re)opening ceremony commenced with encouraging words by Minister Richardson who stated: Today is monumental. After taking such a hit from the hurricane and some other draw backs, we are here today. It is such a warm feeling to be here right now. I am excited and I welcome Mr. Gomez back to the sewing center. I cannot wait to be able to show the public all what these young men can do under the leadership and guidance of Mr. Gomez. Congratulations to the management team. What you are doing and bringing to fruition is a great deal and it must not go unmentioned. I commend you for your dedication in reestablishing the sewing center and giving our clients the opportunity to be involved and proactive during their stay. Mr. Gomez, the sewing instructor who has been instrumental in setting up the sewing center in the prison in Curacao and has years of service in the Point Blanche prison sewing center stated: I feel very happy. This is my home, and this is my profession. I will continue to teach the inmates how to sew. I thank Minister Richardson, the management team and supporting staff for this opportunity. During the ceremony Minister Richardson was joined by the interim director Mr. Bell, the prison management team and Mr. Gomez for the ribbon cutting, which marked the official (re)opening of the sewing center. The sewing classes will resume as soon as possible which will yield positive results very soon. This is one of the many programs that the Minister is dedicated to (re)establishing at the prison. Other programs and initiatives such as the GED lessons, cooking lessons, improving the gym and library areas with fresh paint and equipment are presently being worked on. Dharmapala was, first and foremost, an international Buddhist missionary, and only secondarily, a Sinhala Buddhist national revivalist and social reformer. Sri Lankans (native Ceylonese) were in urgent need of the brave leadership and guidance of such a heroic figure at that time. by Rohana R. Wasala It may look unfashionable or even indecent to write about Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) in these days of reconciliation politics. But that is due to the deliberate distortion of facts by vested interests. So I beg my readers indulgence. The Anagarika has been consistently misrepresented by antinationalists as a Sinhala supremacist, a Buddhist fanatic, and a propagator of violent nationalism. But the truth was otherwise; he was none of these. As anthropologist Gananath Obesekera, professor emeritus, Princeton University, mentions in his The Doomed King (2017), Dharmapala was the most passionate defender of Sri Vikrama in colonial times; Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe had been demonised by the British in the interest of their imperial scheme to annex the Kandyan kingdom. To the Anagarika, the last king of Lanka was a noble ruler and human being who was betrayed by traitorous chiefs like Ahelepola disava (as he conceived of them). He defended Sri Vikrama and implored Sinhala people to model themselves on his life and history. (ibid.) Gananath says Dharmapala was indulging in hyper-glorification of the last king. Perhaps, he was; but that doesnt invalidate the latters assessment of the king, whose non-Sinhala ethnicity did not trouble him. At the same time, I dont share Gananaths criticism of Dharmapalas alleged anti-Christian attitudes. Dharmapala was, first and foremost, an international Buddhist missionary, and only secondarily, a Sinhala Buddhist national revivalist and social reformer. Sri Lankans (native Ceylonese) were in urgent need of the brave leadership and guidance of such a heroic figure at that time. He excelled in both roles. Anagarika Dharmapala assumed robes as a Buddhist samanera at an advanced age in July 1931, after a very industrious and productive life; he received the upasampada or higher ordination (state of being a fully fledged Bhikkhu or Buddhist monk) under the name of Ven. Siri Devamitta Dhammapala, hardly four months before his death on April 29, 1933. As was the standard practice among the well-to-do families in those colonial days, he received a good school education in the English medium. During all of his active life, he mostly used English for communication. More than 75% of his writings were in that language; he spoke English even more frequently in the course of his lifelong missionary work. No religious leader of the time, whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, devoted so much attention as he did to the need for a good modern education for the young that included mastery of languages and science and technology (practical skills). Anagarika Dharmapala said that he got an insight into Buddhism after reading Sir Edwin Arnolds poem about the Buddha Light of Asia (1879). He treated the latter as his teacher. Arnold received the Anagarika when he visited London. Dharmapala was not an enemy of English or the English people; he was well disposed towards both. But he was a vehement critic and opponent of British imperialism, which though he didnt challenge politically, as he thought that it was not yet the time for it; he wanted to have favourable relations with the existing imperial government in order that he could get on with his global missionary work without any obstruction. His national endeavour was to lead his people towards freedom from foreign rule through peaceful means, which motivated his work for stimulating social reform and bringing about the moral edification of the masses. This year marks the 157th birth anniversary of the revered Anagarika Dharmapala, who made an immense contribution towards the restoration of the national dignity and the religious and cultural regeneration of the oppressed Sinhala Buddhists in the heyday of British imperialism in our country. He was born to a wealthy business family in Colombo exactly 157 years ago, that is, on 17th September 1864. The young Don David Hewavitharne, as he was named at birth, despite his strong dislike of British colonialist rule, had a passionate love of English poetry. He particularly liked the poems of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, both assigned by literary critics and historians to the Romantic tradition of English poetry. Ever since he discovered the latters Queen Mab in a book in his uncles library as a schoolboy, it had remained his favourite English poem. The basis of his admiration of Queen Mab is not difficult to find. He said about the poem: I never ceased . .to love its lyric indignation against the tyrannies and injustices that man heaps on himself and its passion for individual freedom (as quoted in Flame in Darkness the Life and Sayings of Anagarika Dharmapala by the English monk Maha Sthavira Sangharakshita, 1980). There is no doubt that this specimen of Shellys juvenilia (i.e. works done in his youth) was nevertheless an important source of inspiration for the Anagarika in his lifes work. What must have appealed to Don David Hewavitharne in Queen Mab was obviously more than just the polemical attack it mounts on the tyrannies and injustices that humans inflict on fellow humans. The poem embodies many of the radical ideas that Shelley articulated in his works, and some of these such as his atheism, his criticism of meat eating as a cause of vice, and the implicit advocacy of vegetarianism, his idea of death as something not to be feared, his condemnation of political and religious tyranny, his socialist politics, his scientific attitude to human experience and the external world, his belief in the moral perfectibility of humanity, his nonviolence and antipathy towards war, and his vision of social and political change through intellectual transformation are sure to have struck a chord in the great patriot and Buddhist revivalist that the young David later became. Queen Mab, a book-length poem in nine parts, was written and privately distributed by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) in 1813. It was the poets first work of genuine literary merit. His decision to make it available to a select circle suggests the type of audience he wanted to address: the target readers were of the same patrician (aristocratic) background as himself who had the time and the means to get an education, and the leisure to read and enjoy poetry; the mostly illiterate downtrodden masses whose welfare he actually had in mind and who stood to gain most from the revolutionary changes he envisioned were for the most part outside of this circle; the Anagarika belonged to the same higher social class in this country as Shelley did in England. Structurally, Queen Mab is a fairy tale composed in nine cantos (main divisions). A fairy named Queen Mab comes down in her ethereal car to the sleeping Ianthe, a beautiful young maiden. Leaving the girl in her deep slumber the fairy awakens her Soul or Spirit and invites it onboard and transports it to her celestial abode at the uttermost edge of the universe. From that vantage point the Spirit (Ianthes Soul) is given a view of the universe stretching below. The fairy promises the Spirit to reveal the state presumably, of humanitys past and present and the secrets of the future: ..Spirit, come! This is thine high reward: -the past shall rise; Thou shalt behold the present; I will teach The secrets of the future. Ianthes Spirit is afforded a vision of the amazing immensity, wonder and harmony of the universe: Above, below, around, The circling systems formed A wilderness of harmony; Each with undeviating aim, In eloquent silence, through the depths of space Pursued its wondrous way. Humanitys past and present are both shown to be oppressive, unjust, and miserable; they are so not due to mans inherited evil nature (as the priests tell them), but to the fact that Kings, priests and statesmen blast the human flower Even in its tender bud; their influence darts Like subtle poison through the bloodless veins Of desolate society. In the evil society that characterizes the past and the present, innocent children are trained to idolize soldiers and link manliness or machismo with violence in their very infancy: .The child, Ere he can lisp his mothers sacred name, Swells with the unnatural pride of crime, and lifts His baby-sword even in a heros mood. So Shelley puts these words in Queen Mabs mouth that ridicule what people are taught by the priests: Let priest-led slaves cease to proclaim that man Inherits vice and misery, when force And falsehood hang even o'er the cradled babe, Stifling with rudest grasp all natural good. The secrets of the future boil down to the utopian vision of a viciously hierarchical society being transformed into one where egalitarianism, justice, and love reign supreme, bringing peace and happiness to all. At the end of the vision, Ianthe opens her eyes to look at her lover Henry gazing on her waking, with speechless love: (The word casement in the last line means window) The Body and the Soul united then. A gentle start convulsed Ianthes frame; Her veiny eyelids quietly unclosed; Moveless awhile the dark blue orbs remained. She looked around in wonder, and beheld Henry, who kneeled in silence by her couch, Watching her sleep with looks of speechless love, And the bright beaming stars That through the casement shone. Critics have called this poem a dream vision allegory, a fairy tale, a utopian daydream, a protest- poem etc. The young David Hewavitharne might have identified Queen Mab as a protest-poem. In terms of its substance we may call it a philosophical poem as well. In fact, the 1813 title of the poem was Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem with Notes. Shelley was a philosopher among the Romantics in the sense that while treating the usual Romantic themes of beauty, passion, power of the imagination, the natural goodness of humanity, political freedom etc which formed their characteristic subject matter, he discovered and articulated causal connections in them with rare precision and clarity. He was unique in this respect among his contemporaries, with the possible exception of William Wordsworth (1770-1850) as critics have pointed out. Reading Queen Mab we feel that it qualifies for all the above labels. Though it is unselfconsciously melodramatic, coldly polemical, and crudely emotive in much of its versification and though he himself seemed years later to have had second thoughts about its estimation as a poem worthy of publishing for public consumption when he came to know that a pirated edition of the poem had appeared in 1821 (which was just a year before his accidental death by drowning), the philosophy that he versifies in it is found to be as mature as it ever got in his case (considering the fact that he died at the young age of 30). The poem has even been described as monumental by more sympathetic, and in my opinion more rational-minded and more discerning, readers. Obviously, Anagarika Dharmapala was among this group of readers. Both Shelley and Dharmapala were revolutionaries, though of different moulds. They agitated for liberty and morality in the political and socio-cultural spheres. They had similar views about how to foster social and political reform (though the political aspect was more subdued in the case of Dharmapala than in the case of Shelley, a difference between the two that points to the Anagarikas realistic, pragmatic approach as opposed to the dream-visionary impracticality of Shelleys): Shelley believed in the possibility of perfecting humanity by moral means, which forms the nuclear theme of Queen Mab; the revolution he envisaged appears to be something to be achieved in this way, but not through armed struggle (despite his probable allusion to the French Revolution in his sonnet England in 1819 suggested below, which probably was introduced merely for rhetorical effect); the central theme of Canto IV of Queen Mab is war: War is the statesmans game, the priests delight, The lawyers jest, the hired assassins trade, And to those royal murderers whose mean thrones Are bought by crimes of treachery and gore, The bread they eat, the staff on which they lean. Here the hired assassins trade is soldiering; the army is meant. (The phrase is an illustration of the terseness of Shelleys poetic expression for which he is well known. The interested readers may unravel its implications by themselves.) As socially conscious young men in their different places and times Shelley and Dharmapala had much in common. They shared the same reformist ambitions. Both, born into wealth and privilege, showed an unusual concern for the welfare of the poor and were totally committed to the social uplift and moral refinement of the society including particularly the traditionally oppressed. Shelleys relentless criticism of authoritarian institutions in his country is explicitly articulated in his sonnet England in 1819: The state of Shelleys England is such that the king is old, mad, blind, despised, and dying; the princes are the dregs of their dull race; the rulers who are unable to see, feel or know, cling like leeches to their country until they drop, blind in blood, without a blow; the ordinary English people are starved and stabbed in the untilled fields; the army is corrupt and inept; the laws tempt and slay; religion is Christless Godless a book sealed. (Wont this sound familiar to readers in many countries of the world even today?) All these (agents of tyrannous evil) Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may Burst to illumine our tempestuous day (This could be interpreted as an allusion to the French Revolution, in which a crucial event was the storming of the ancient fortress of the Bastille and the releasing of the wretched prisoners there in 1789, just three years before his birth). Shelleys diatribes like these preceded, by about three quarters of a century, the Anagarikas vehement denunciation of the demoralizing British imperialism in our country. Just as Shelley rebelled (ideologically) against what he condemned as the tyranny of the king, priests and statesmen (statesmen not in its current dignified sense, but in the sense of mere politicians), Dharmapala adopted a defiant stance towards the occupying foreigners, errant Buddhist monks, and the Westernized local elite that so slavishly pandered to the interests of the colonial rulers. But he was not an irrational hater of everything Western. He admired the positive aspects of European culture. He possessed a very good knowledge of the English language, which he used to write and edit many English publications in the pursuance of his Buddhist revivalist propaganda. His love of English poetry was consistent with the cosmopolitan Buddhist attitude towards what is admirable in other cultures. He criticized the tyranny and injustice of European colonialism, but he obviously had a high regard for the Western nations scientific and inventive genius. In return, he acted in compassion towards them according to his own religious convictions. He wrote in his My Life Story already referred to: It is time that Buddhists of Asia should give the Dhamma to the people of Europe and America. Buddhism is for the scientifically cultured. The discoveries of modern sciences are a help to understand the sublime Dhamma. The mediaeval theology of ecclesiastical tussle may have satisfied the half-civilized consciousness of pre-scientific Europe and the paganized tribes of Europe of a barbarous age. Today the cultured races of Europe require a scientific psychology showing the greatness of human consciousness. The sublime doctrine of the Lord Buddha is a perfect science based on transcendental wisdom. This Dhamma should be freely given to the European races. The unacceptable reality of our current domestic and international predicament is exactly what the farsighted Anagarika acted to forestall, against many odds, which limited his success. Paradoxically and quite unfairly, leaders like him are held responsible for our present ethnic problems by some individuals. My opinion is that had Anagarika Dharmapala and other patriots that he inspired not been there in that era and after, our plight today would have been worse. A coalition of right-wing forces ranging from agribusinesses, the gun lobby, and evangelicalscollectively known as the bull, bullet, and bible bloc in parliamentis backing Bolsonaros project of destruction of the Amazon and its people. by Nick Estes Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has given new license to the killing of Indigenous people in Brazil. Before he came to power in 2019, it wasnt clear what he wanted to build, but he knew exactly who and what he wanted to destroy: the Indigenous people and the Amazon rainforest, respectively. Bolsonaro attacked a woman first, the land, our mother, the Indigenous leader Celia Xakriaba told me. We have no choice but to fight back. Since becoming president, the former Army captain, who served under the countrys last military dictator, has led an unprecedented war against the environment and the people protecting it. A slew of anti-Indigenous legislation, escalated violence against and assassinations of Indigenous land defenders, and the COVID-19 pandemic have threatened the existence of Brazils original people, the Amazon rainforest, and the future of the planet. Under Bolsanaros oversight, about 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) of the Amazon has been deforested, mostly by fires caused by the cattle and logging industries. The destruction of the Amazon rainforest is pushing the biome toward an irreversible tipping point where it wont be able to renew itself and making the Amazon uninhabitable for Indigenous people. Meanwhile, in 2021, scientists found that for the first time the Amazon has been emitting more CO2 than it has been absorbing. The Amazonoften touted as the lungs of the planet for the oxygen it createsseems to be dying faster than it is growing. But Indigenous people, who call this forest their home, refuse to disappear. At the end of August 2021, red dust rose like smoke from the pounding feet of some 6,000 Indigenous people marching on the main promenade surrounded by Brazils Supreme Court, Congress, and presidential palace in the countrys capital city of Brasilia. One hundred and seventy-six different Indigenous groups from every region of the country arrived at the encampment of Luta pela Vida (the Struggle for Life movement) to protest against their own erasure. This Indigenous mobilization, which is the largest in history, broke a spell of inviolability surrounding the institutions of power that have for centuries excluded Indigenous people or sought their demise. We need a union of Indigenous people, Alessandra Munduruku from the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, known as APIB, said to me. Our lives matter. They have a champion in Joenia Wapichana, the first Indigenous female lawyer and member of Congress. Shes calling for a political renewal of Brazilian and Indigenous rights. And she has helped spearhead the Indigenous movement at a national and international level with APIB. APIB is a powerful unifying tool for the Indigenous peoples of the country. Indigenous Brazilians comprise a small fraction of Brazils populationabout 900,000 Indigenous people survive today in a country of 211 millionyet they possess a profound human diversity in language and culture not seen in most modern countries. And they are now united in a common cause against Bolsonaros belligerence and the powerful forces that brought him into power. On August 9, APIB filed a lawsuit in the International Criminal Court charging Bolsonaro with genocide. Its the first time in the history of the ICC that the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere have defended themselves, with the help of Indigenous lawyers, against crimes against humanity in the Hague. We have been fighting every day for hundreds of years to ensure our existence and today our fight for rights is global, APIBs executive director Sonia Guajajara said in a statement. A coalition of right-wing forces ranging from agribusinesses, the gun lobby, and evangelicalscollectively known as the bull, bullet, and bible bloc in parliamentis backing Bolsonaros project of destruction of the Amazon and its people. Soy fields (mostly for animal feed) and cattle herds have replaced lush forestlands and traditional rural communities. Most of Brazils food is exported, largely feeding U.S. and European markets. And many Indigenous people blame multinational corporations like Cargill, the United States largest privately held company, for their role in driving environmental destruction to produce soy. Rural landowners, loggers, and miners terrorize and evict Indigenous and traditional communities from their lands at the barrel of a gun. Relaxed firearm and ammunition laws have led to a sharp rise in gun ownership, especially among rural landowners, which has led to a subsequent rise in gun violence. Bolsonaros signature finger gun gestures signal support for arming his base. Much of this influence, including ties to evangelical churches, comes from the United States, a country Bolsonaro and his supporters look to for inspiration. Its a shame that the Brazilian cavalry wasnt as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated the Indians, Bolsonaro once lamented. Indigenous extermination has already happened in your country [the United States], Munduruku told me. She sees a similar process unfolding in Brazil. But the connection doesnt end there. At the rate [at which] your country [the United States] consumes soy, it contributes to the destruction of my land, she added. The final front of this onslaught is the very legal and political framework protecting Indigenous territoriesthe 1988 Brazilian Constitution. The Brazilian Congress has been voting on a series of bills that would undo hard-won rights such as protecting Indigenous territories, granting immunity to illegal land-grabbing, and sacrificing Indigenous lands for infrastructure, mining, and energy projects. One of the bills would authorize the president to leave the International Labor Organization Conventions 1989 Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention 169, a major international treaty protecting Indigenous and tribal peoples. At minimum, APIB and Luta pela Vida are asking the government to respect its own laws and constitution. Thats why a group of 150 Indigenous people burned an effigy of a large black coffin at the steps of Brazils Congress on August 27. Scrawled on its sides were the names of the bills aimed at their destruction. The message was clear: Indigenous people refuse to be burned. On September 1, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a case that could lead to either enabling or preventing the usurping of ancestral lands from Indigenous people who were removed from their territories after the ratification of the 1988 Constitution. On September 15, the Supreme Court suspended the case without setting a date to revisit it. APIB claims a positive ruling for Indigenous people would immediately resolve hundreds of land conflicts in the country, and warns a negative ruling could accelerate violence. What is important to consider is that Brazilian democracy is fragile. As Bolsonaros chances for reelection in 2022 dwindle, his supporters called for street mobilizations on September 7 to begin a general cleansing process in Brazil. The targets of the rally were the Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Chinese Embassyand Bolsonaro supporters seemed to take their cues from their U.S. counterparts who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. On August 10, Bolsonaros son Eduardo Bolsonaro shared a stage with Trump supporters in my rural home state of South Dakota, hoping to cast doubt on the 2022 elections and draw international right-wing support. He was joined by Steve Bannon, who called Brazils former leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva the most dangerous leftist in the world because his presidential candidacy poses a great threat of undoing what Bolsonaro has done during his presidential term over the last four years. The following week, in an Indigenous ceremony, Sonia Guajajara designated Lula the guardian of territories, a reminder of his obligations to Indigenous people and the Amazon should he become president. The Indigenous movement goes beyond Brazil and its constitution. Our [Indigenous] history doesnt begin in 1988, was one popular slogan at the Luta pela Vida camp. And the Indigenous struggle is more than recuperating imagined halcyon days that never entirely existed for Indigenous people. The future is ancestral, Guajajara told me. And shes calling on the entire world to take leadership from Indigenous movements in this time of terrible danger. This article was produced by Globetrotter. Nick Estes is a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. He is a journalist, historian and co-host of the Red Nation Podcast. He is the author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (Verso, 2019). ARRL awards Colvin Grant to latest Bouvet Island DXpedition ARRL has awarded a Colvin Grant of $5,000 to Amateur Radio DXpeditions (ARD), the Norwegian non-profit organization that is sponsoring the 3Y0J DXpedition to Bouvet Island next fall. Co-leaders for the effort are Ken Opskar, LA7GIA; Rune ye, LA7THA, and Erwann Merrien, LB1QI. A Colvin Grant in the same amount was returned after the Intrepid-DX Group had to drop its plans for an early-2023 Bouvet DXpedition that would have used the same call sign. The multinational team plans to activate Bouvet in November 2022. A dependency of Norway, Bouvet is a sub-Antarctic island in the South Atlantic and the second-most-wanted DXCC entity, behind North Korea. The last Bouvet activation was 3Y0E, during a scientific expedition over the winter of 2007 2008. Amateur Radio DXpeditions would field a team of 12 operators for a 20-day stay on Bouvet, setting up at Cape Fie in the southeastern part of the island, which the DXpedition organizers called the only feasible part where a DXpedition can safely set up camp on rocky ground; we will not set [up] camp on the glacier. The DXpedition has set a goal of 120,000 contacts during its stay. The Colvin Award is funded by an endowment established by the legendary DX couple Lloyd Colvin, W6KG, and Iris Colvin, W6QL, both now deceased. The Colvin Award is intended to support amateur radio projects that promote international goodwill in the field of DX. Grantees must be groups with a favorable DX track record and with experience directly related to the proposed enterprise. The proposed project must have as a goal a significant achievement in the field of DX. Preference is given to multinational groups, all of whom are members of their own national IARU member-societies. In August, the Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) donated $100,000 to the 3Y0J DXpedition. The NCDXF is now the DXpeditions lead sponsor. We wish to recognize and thank the Northern California DX Foundation as the lead sponsor for our 3Y0J DXpedition to Bouvet, the 3Y0J team said. Without the support of the NCDXF, operations to the worlds rarest entities would be difficult. The 3Y0J team said that with its overall budget of $650,000, this DXpedition to Bouvet will be the most expensive ever. On September 11, the 3Y0J DXpedition announced a donation of 10,000 (approximately $11,815) from the German DX Foundation (GXDF). Visit the 3Y0J DXpedition website or Facebook page for more information or to donate to the effort. Source: ARRL Sri Lankans should decide which category of people they wish to be in the future. by Raj Gonsalkorale But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist- Lysander Spooner Lysander Spooner is the well-known author of the book No Treason thought by some to be the most subversive thing ever written in the United States. However, as a reader had commented the premise of No Treason is that the United State is not a legally constituted government because people can only be governed by consent and no one consented to the social contract we call the Constitution. Spooner writes, The constitution not only binds nobody now, but never did bind anybody. It never bound anybody, because it was never agreed to by anybody in such a manner as to make it, on general principles of law and reason, binding upon him. If the United States is not legally constituted, as Spooner argues, then his treatise can hardly be described as being subversive Democracy works in mysterious ways and no doubt Spooner would have had something to say about the outcomes of democracy in action. For example, in Sri Lanka, in 1977, 51% of the vote gave the then government a 5/6th majority, enough virtually to turn black into white and even a man into a woman! This majority was then used to change the constitution the following year and introduce an all-powerful Executive Presidency. A legitimate question can be asked whether this constitution binds 49% of those who did not vote for the party who won power, and the many who did not vote at all, to this new constitution. There is a fundamental philosophical, ethical gap, if not a legal gap, between the people and the constitution. In Spooners thinking, there is probably a fundamental legal gap as well. Spooners quotation describes what most people probably think and feel about the current state of political affairs in the Sri Lanka. The question now should be whether we want more of the same with adhoc props (poroppa) to prevent leaks and continue with a system that will, at some point in the not too distant future, collapse when the current younger generation, the Millennials, comes of age and find an engine that is puffing smoke and grinding slowly and laboriously, while technology and new social dimensions have taken the world to another platform whether one likes it or not. Clearly, a case exists to examine the extent to which people have a say in the determination of policies and practices by successive governments, and which in turn binds them to such decisions for many generations. The need for constitution reform has been highlighted again by politicians of different shades in the Sri Lankan political arena but, hardly anyone has given thought or expressed their thoughts on the need for individuals and the society at large to consider what perhaps needs change from within themselves rather than engaging in a laborious effort to develop an instrument which in all likelihood will further divide society rather than unifying it. There is also no discernible evidence that any thought has been given to what the future holds for Sri Lanka in decades to come within a world that could well be unrecognisable given the challenges associated with technology developments, approaches to education, health & medical innovations, social changes, environment crisiss and many others. Instead, debateable historical narratives rather than historical injustices, opportunities lost and segregating and layering human beings according to their ethnicity, religion, caste, language and other segregationist traditions and practices, still form the backdrop to constitution making. Constitution and a social contract A constitution, which is essentially a social contract between the people and those they elect to govern the country on their behalf for a given limited period, needs to provide avenues for the people have an input into governance. Just a periodic election under a constitution that does not provide opportunities for such an input, perhaps does more harm than good in the long term. Besides this, if a constitution does not recognise the future and the likely developments that will all have an impact on families, societies, countries and inter country relationships, it would fail as a social contract of any value.The contract would be in a time warp unless the leaders of today recognise this and address the future direction with a mindset that is in not the past. Given that a discussion on the need for a new constitution has surfaced again, some thoughts are presented here as only the contours of a futuristic Constitution which contains some strategic, philosophical changes to how a better social contract may be developed with the people. The proposed theme in presenting the contours is how peoples sovereignty could be better exercised by involving a wide range of stakeholders from different walks of life into a governance planning process that looks to the future and not the past. Firstly, it is suggested that readers ask themselves a few questions 1. Have the constitutions that the country has had so far, including the current one with its amendments, been beneficial to the country and its progress, economically and socially. 2. Economically, the country is nearly bankrupt with debt levels suffocating it, with income streams severely impacted due to COVID. Do the readers think this state of affairs is only account of COVID? If not what else? 3. Socially, minority issues, especially aspirational issues, equality and equity, womens rights, language issues, accountability issues, corruption, unethical conduct, etc., etc., still beset the country. Is it the constitution that is at fault or the politicians which the constitution produces? 4. In reality, while one can boast that people, through their representatives, decide on policies that successive governments have introduced, is this so or is it a fallacy? Except at the time of casting their votes, at what point till the next election do people participate in policy determination? Even during elections, do people really discuss, debate and decide on policies contained in manifestos or are they purely looking for some immediate benefit from one side or another? 5. Do people have a choice in who is standing for elections from a political party? 6. Are political parties democratic and is there a people oriented process to elect their leaders? 7. Does the system in place facilitate the effective participation of experts in economics, business, agriculture, health, education, fisheries and other key areas of the economy in policy formulation, or is this process limited to a few yes men and women who say what politicians wish to hear? 8. The cost of conducting elections is very high, with the last Presidential election costing around Rs 5 Billion and the General election around Rs 10 Billion. To this cost one has to add what candidates and their supporters spend on elections. The issue is not necessarily the overall cost, but whether there has been a justifiable return to the country on the investment made as a consequence of the elections, and whether the return has been more for the candidates and their sponsors. 9. Buddhism, as defined more and more by the Buddhist institution from cultural practices rather than by the doctrinal practices introduced by Buddha, has been given pride pf place in the constitutions while other religions have been more less accommodated in them. Readers should ask whether societal values, ethical behaviour on the part of the people as well as the elected leaders, and indeed on the part of some members of the Buddhist institution have progressed to towards the Buddhas doctrinal teachings. The question to be asked is whether the State should be secular, and all religions treated equally and their role limited essentially for spiritual practices as per their respective religions. 10. Finally, while there would be many more questions that are bound to posted by readers, challenges to what has been stated here, the objective behind posing these questions is for readers to contemplate whether, despite whatever achievements of the past, the coming generations will be served well in years to come with a constitution more or less in the same vein and only cosmetically changed, or whether it is time to think outside the box as it were, and consider a constitution that will produce better outcomes rather than what 70 years of independence has delivered to Sri Lankans, then and now. Sri Lanka has no doubt produced world renowned academics, professionals, business leaders and many other experts in a variety of fields. It is questionable however whether these achievements are related to the constitution of the country and politicians or that they achieved brilliance in spite of the system, and the politicians. Perhaps with the exception of free education, and the swabasha policy, it is hard to find a compelling reason linking the constitution or politicians for these achievements. What is perhaps clear is that many such outstanding men and women have not been able to or willing to participate in governance activities mainly due to the dominance of a political system that is clearly flawed, politicians who are corrupt, an administrative service which in turn has got corrupt, and inclusive of people who are neither competent or capable. Competent professionals are expected to play second fiddle to such sub-standard collection of individuals and it is not surprising they will stay away from them as much as possible. Many have gone abroad and contributing enormously in their adopted countries. Three key features underpin the suggested contour proposal. First one relates to a much needed stakeholder participation outside politics through a National Planning & Monitoring Council (NPMC) mechanism and Regional Planning & Monitoring Councils (RPMC) responsible for developing a high level 10 year (minimum) National Governance Plan. The NPMC & RPMC mechanism and its influence is bound to draw more and more people from the private sector, universities and other special interest groups into economic activity, and lessen the involvement of any government entity in activities they should not be engaged in and not competent to do anyway. The private sector should lead and be the engine of economic growth in the country if the future is to be different to the failures of the past. The second, a devolved political administration via Regional Councils that provides greater inclusiveness and participatory governance, by the people, for the people. The central governments role except in foreign affairs, defence, national budget & economic affairs, will be one of coordinating the implementation of the National Governance Plan developed by the NPMC and the RPMCs. Thirdly, the coordination of implementation will be led by a ten-member central cabinet of ministers drawn from outside Parliament and appointed by the President, who will work with the relevant ministers in Regional Councils for effective implementation of the National Governance Plan. The broad contours of a new constitution based on the above thinking are as follows Political governance to be exercised (a) centrally by aPresident elected by an electoral college comprising of elected members of Regional Councils, elected members of local government bodies (Municipal, Urban and Rural Councils), and a National Parliament comprising of Regional Council members, and (b) regionally, by Regional Councils and local government bodies. Regional Council members therefore will be carrying out a dual role, in Regional Councils and in the National Parliament. The President to be accountable to the National Parliament, and he/she to submit himself/herself for questioning in the National Parliament every three months, and submit an annual report to the electoral college.The President to be assisted by a ten member cabinet drawn from outside politics. A National Planning & Monitoring Council (NPMC) to be responsible for developing a high level 10 year (minimum) National Governance Plan, assisted by similar Councils at Regional level (RPMCs).The 10-year plan will be monitored by the NPMC and the RPMCs and updated every 2 years. Regional Councils will be responsible for political administration in respective regions in line with the approved National Governance Plan. A stronger local government system to which Regional Councils will devolve substantial authority to oversee the provision of basic services to people served by Municipal Councils, Urban Councils and Rural Councils. All administrative services will be managed independently by a National Administrative Service. All religions will be afforded protection by the State An independently formed Inter Religious body will advise the State on matters concerning religions The constitutional structure of Sri Lanka, whether it should be a Union of Regions which is indivisible, or a Unitary State and/or a Secular State should be determined after discussion. It will in any event, should comprise of a union of four Regional Councils.The suggestion that Regional Council members should serve in the National Parliament signifies the efficacy of practical devolution of political power. National Planning & Monitoring Council Members will be appointed by the President on nominations from expert bodies in Business, Education, Higher Education, Health, Agriculture, Fisheries, Export industries, Plantation Industries, Legal Bodies, Sports, Technology and Innovation, Banking, Unions., etc. Key Responsibilities Development of a high level National Governance Plan spanning at least 10 years upon seeking views of relevant stakeholders and Regional Councils Drafting of Parliamentary Bills in line with the National Governance Plan approved by Parliament Monitoring & conducting two yearly review and updating of the National Governance Plan Developing any other National Policy Documents in consultation with Regional Councils and relevant stakeholders. The NPMC will work with the RPMCs in carrying out the above tasks. As stated at the outset, it is not the intention of the article to go beyond the contours of what might be considered as a more effective and efficient structure for a social contract with the people. The key feature of the NPMC and the RPMCs, hopefully will provide opportunities for stakeholder participation in developing long term governance policies devoid of party politics. The future of political parties will be determined on the basis of the quality of their inputs into governance policy making, and importantly, their efficiency in implementing policies designed by the NPMC/RPMC mechanism. The country has a choice. It could go the next few decades with the same flawed system and one which delivers sub-standard, corrupt individuals who have no accountability to anyone, or it can think outside the box and change the system to engage competent, capable individuals to introduce developmental strategies that are futuristic, in keeping with global developments, and a political system that is, through genuine devolution, far better geared for people participation in governance, and which recognises the multi ethnic, multi religious diversity of the country. The contours proposed have taken into consideration some philosophical changes to governance methodology, and how a variety of stakeholders could take part in governance without reliance on political leanings and patronage. It also highlights and provides an avenue for the private sector, to play a significant role in determining the future development trajectory of the country. In looking to the future, it is well to remember George Bernard Shaws quote Some people look at things as they are, and ask why? Some others look at things as they never were, and ask why not? Sri Lankans should decide which category of people they wish to be in the future. If he wanted the welfare of the Muslim people, why did he teach by giving priority to extremist books that promote IS ideology? by Our Defence Correspondent It is a well-known fact that Sri Lankans were among those who joined Islamic State (IS) after the open invitation by its slain honcho Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Following this slain honcho's invitation, Mohamed Muhushin Ishak Ahamed, a Sri Lankan who lived in Tanzania, and his family travelled to Syria in November 2014. Three relatives, including his brother, Mohamed Muhsin Sharfaz Nilam, who lived in Sri Lanka were also going to Syria and joined IS. This group consisted of members of four families. Hejaaz Hizbullah ( File Photo) Meanwhile, in early 2015, an organization called Pearls of Wisdom or Jammiyat-ul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI) was established. Abdul Latif Mohammad Jameel and Umayr Mohammad Iqbal were instrumental in establishing this pro-IS organization. Jameel is one of nine who carried out a series of blasts targeting churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in 2019. He killed himself at the New Tropical Inn Hotel in Dehiwala. Hejaaz Hizbullah joined forces with the members of JMI to launch the Save the Pearl in early 2015. Although it stated that its ultimate goal was to work for the welfare of the Muslim community, the primary but imperceptible mission of this organization was to subtly sow extremism and support extremists. It received the necessary political support from the government in which his political allies were an inseparable part. Because of this, they were immediately given the necessary registration without looking into the real motives behind the projects or the organizations that were going to finance them. Meanwhile, Hejaaz and the team were maintained several social media pages to spread his ideology, reliable sources said. Those pages were managed by Hejaaz, the Ibrahim brothers and Jameel. The position of administrator of a social network account is the power to maintain those accounts in the required manner. The exchange in these accounts was not only about the welfare of the Muslim people but also about how subtle extremism was spread. According to the website maintained to demand his freedom, he plays multiple roles at the same time, including a lawyer, a journalist and a human rights activist. Fortunately, the website did not mention his role as an "unofficial mullah" who supports those who spread violent extremism. Can it be said that Hejaaz, who has held several dignitary positions of social responsibility, worked with these suicide bombers unknowingly for many years? This is where the real extremist adulterous wolf is revealed. His thick relationship with those suicide bombers revealing the nature of deception. Disguised as a so-called human rights activist, he has deceived the whole world while hiding the real-life he has dealt with extremists, including the Ibrahim brothers and others. Series of discussions of his organization was held at the house of Jameel's brother in Dematagoda. Can anyone say that Hejaaz did not participate in these discussions? Can he deny it? The treasurer of the Save the Pearl organization was Mohamed Ilham, a suicide bomber blasted at Shangri-La, appointed by Hejaaz. The organization has received large sums of money and with that money has even bought a piece of land for Save the Pearl in the Madurankuliya area. The deal was carried out by Mohamed Ibrahim Inshan Ahmed, who detonated the bomb at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. What is the reason for this so-called human rights activist to act like this with extremists, claiming that he is doing everything for the welfare of Muslims? Why did he appoint them to high positions in his organization? Was it something that happened out of ignorance? It was during this time that Hejaaz began collaborating with the Qatar Charity. The media loyal to him reported that this charity was registered in Sri Lanka and pointed that some parties were making false allegations intending to damage the purity of this humanitarian bloke. If the NGO registrars in Sri Lanka had executed their duty properly, Sri Lanka would not have been beaten by the LTTE for 30 years. Most of the aid to the Tigers came under the guise of charity. The government agencies responsible for such investigations are merely politicized and no forensic audit has been carried out on the funds received by NGOs in this country. The same thing happened with aid to Muslim extremists. Funds were flooded in various forms but with one ambition, strengthening extremism while promoting the culture of exclusivism. There are several plausible allegations that this Qatari charity has funded financial assistants to terrorist and extremist organizations in the name of the welfare of the Muslim people. Following are the excerpts from in-depth research on this charity. Allegations Against Qatar Charity Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar on June 5, 2017, due to Doha's connections with terrorist organizations. Saudi Arabia also provided a terror list that designated 59 individuals and 12 organizations. Qatar Charity is #3 of the organizations listed. In March 2008, the Interagency Intelligence Committee on Terrorism (IICT) of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center listed Qatar Charity as a "priority III terrorism support entity (TSE)" given its "intent and willingness" to support terrorist organizations that attack the U.S. and its interests. "The Consortium Against Terrorist Finance (CATF) called Qatar Charity a "pioneer and master of terror finance." The Washington Institute reported that in 1993 Osama bin Laden named Qatar Charity as one of the charities that had funded al-Qaeda's overseas operations. Furthermore, Qatar Charity's funds were reportedly used to support an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995." A 2003 report from the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations notes that Qatar Charity had allegedly been engaged in financing al-Qaeda and other terror organizations." Qatar Charity, along with two other organizations laundered money from bank accounts in Gulf nations that supported Bin Laden and used the proceeds to provide travel documents and employment to al-Qaeda members worldwide. The report explained that most of the money was handled in cash and the organizations created false documentation to show that the money was spent on orphans or starving refugees.'" During that time, Qatar Charity had 20 banks accounts in Qatar Islamic Bank and Qatar International Islamic Bank that were available to receive donations. Was this Hejaaz Hizbullah, who claims to be a commercial lawyer, unknowingly receiving money from an organization that is accused of aiding terrorists? If it was obtained out of ignorance, why was the money used to brainwash the children of innocent poor Muslims living in areas like Puttalam? If he wanted the welfare of the Muslim people, why did he teach by giving priority to extremist books that promote IS ideology? Is it not surprising that so-called human rights activists do not see this truth? Let us recall the sage words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. However, it is not surprising that a media outlet like Al Jazeera, which relies on Qatari oil funds, is biased in this regard. But what about others who claim to be defenders of criminal justice? Human rights activist Hejaaz flew to Egypt with his Egyptian wife two days before the Easter attack. Subsequently, he returned to the island six days after the Easter Sunday horror. We dont consider this is a suspicious move. Such a time would have been very convenient for him to meet his wife's relatives. It may be the best time to go boating on the Nile with his Egyptian relatives. As a busy human rights activist, that may have been comforting days for him to spend time abroad while his colleagues back in Colombo taking lives by killings non-believers to claim the reward of eighty thousand servants and seventy-two houri in heaven. We shouldnt be hurried to say that his wife or relatives have thick affiliation with an organization such as the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist organization in Egypt. But according to reliable sources, this exceptional human rights activist who is a commercial lawyer charged high fees for cases he defends for example the case where he defended the men who sabotaged the Buddha statue in Mawanalla has thrown two of his brand-new Apple iPhones in the trash after the law enforcement agencies launched an investigation on him. It is now revealed that he maintained solid links with some key suicide bombers involved in the Easter attack that killed more than 260 unarmed innocents. Those killers have been offered several powerful positions in his organization and have been assigned many responsibilities. He used the suicide bombers who attacked churches and hotels to administer money received from organizations such as the Qatar Charity, a charity that allegedly financed terrorist organizations around the globe. This may be not a problem for His Holiness the Cardinal living in Colombo and keeping himself busy in illustrating conspiracy theories. But these are the real problems to find the truth behind this tragic terrorist attack. Isn't this enough to make anyone realize that Hejaaz, who some have called an innocent humanitarian lawyer, atypical writer, and a big wheel of human rights, is not as innocent as he says he is? Hejaaz! On one fine day, you will be lucky to escape from the institutionalized justice in a world where truth has been suppressed by deception. But nature will share a fair share with your conscience, and then all the innocents who were massacred by your sinful confreres will rest in peace. Until then their broken souls will haunt every moment in and around of those who sponsored and sheltered the murderers. To be Continued The National Institute of Cybersecurity in Spain (Incibe) has warned this week of a wave of fraudulent 'phishing' emails that impersonate the identity of well-known companies with the aim of seizing the personal and bank details of the victims, with the hook of supposed gifts. According to Incibe, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, these emails pose to be from Amazon, MediaMarkt or Apple and promise gifts of electronic products and discount vouchers. Once the user's attention is captured, the scammers ask them to fill out a survey on a fake web page, which imitates one of reputable companies, in which personal and banking data will be requested in order to claim the gift. Surprise These emails are often identified with the subject lines: 'You are on our list', 'We already have your MacBook Air, please confirm you data', 'Amazon has a surprise for you', 'Get the new macbook Pro13', 'You have been selected to obtain an exclusive reward! ', or similar, according to the Incibe alert. Most of the emails are characterised by addressing the user using the first part of their email address instead of their name or surname. The experts of the Institute of Cybersecurity advise never to trust emails from unknown user and delete them and do not reply. The institute advises that if have completed a survey and given your personal data and your credit card details, to "contact your bank as soon as possible to inform them of what happened." Residents in nursing homes in Spain will start receiving a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine immediately. The countrys Public Health Commission approved the administration of this additional dose on Thursday, 16 September, after it had been requested the day before by the Vaccine Report committee and a meeting Ministry of Health and the regions. The decision will also allow the regions to start administering the jabs immediately, instead of waiting for the pencilled-in date of 4 October. Some 400,000 nursing home residents will receive a booster jab in the coming weeks, which will be with messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna. Public Health justifies the need for this third jab to residents in centres for the elderly due to "their profile of frailty, multiple pathologies and closed environments." In addition, it has also given the go-ahead for the extra dose to all people included in Group 7 of the vaccination strategy. Prison inmates and vulnerable The commission is also studying the possibility that the two million people vaccinated in Spain with the Janssen single-dose formula will also receive an extra dose. The request for this second dose was put forward after prison authorities and the regions detected outbreaks of coronavirus among inmates, such as the one that occurred at the beginning of August at a prison in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where 76 people were infected. Janssen's vaccine has been used for people over 70 years of age, although later the age of use fell to those over 40. It was also administered to aid workers, maritime workers and vulnerable groups, such as homeless people or irregular immigrants. If the Public Health Commission gives the green light to this second dose, the Ministry of Health would face the challenge of locating these vaccinated. Furthermore, it remains to be determined whether the extra jab would again be with Janssen or with an RNA vaccine. According to Ministry of Health data, the regions still have 447,697 doses of Janssen in their refrigerators. Spain's tax authorities are going to extraordinary lengths in their investigations into the finances of emeritus king Juan Carlos. Earlier this month, they requested information from employees of the royal household for information on all payments made to the ex-monarch between 2014 and 2018, to check whether they tallied with his former annual state stipend of 198,845 euros. Initially an investigation into funds held in offshore bank accounts, the case against Juan Carlos has turned into an examination of the smallest details of his fiscal activities - but what does the story's newest development signify? The most recent investigation indicates that the two substantial back payments he's recently made have not entirely regularised his affairs, as he was presumably hoping they would. These were of almost 700,000 euros in December 2020 and over four million euros in February this year, both of which concerned undeclared funds used to pay for private expenses. Because they're not focused on cash "gifts" from Saudi Arabian royalty, kickbacks for securing contracts for Spanish firms or allegations of espionage, the latest probes aren't receiving as much media attention as their precedents. Nevertheless, they suggest that the Juan Carlos case is becoming more suspicious from the Spanish tax authorities' point of view. Their hunch - well-founded, one hopes - seems to be that funds used by the emeritus king to pay for private expenses between 2014 and 2018 weren't solely from the Spanish state's coffers. As a result of these ongoing investigations, Spain's once-revered king is now referred to as a "disgraced" monarch, or a monarch who has "fallen from grace". But that appears to be a question of perspective, rather than a fact. Spaniards, certainly, don't seem too concerned about the allegations against Juan Carlos: a recent poll revealed that 57% want him to return to Spain, and that 49.5% think the Spanish royal family hasn't been damaged by the scandal. If Juan Carlos were a politician, similar questions about his alleged fraud would yield much lower and higher percentages, respectively. In fact, outrage at political corruption has been so widespread in Spain over the last decade that in 2015 it fuelled the emergence onto the national scene of two new political parties, leftist Podemos and centre-right Ciudadanos. Polls consistently reveal political corruption and incompetence to be one of Spaniards' top concerns, along with unemployment and the economy. But when it comes to similar allegations against Juan Carlos, popular reaction is much more forgiving, even though each month seems to bring with it new accusations and investigations. Spain's emeritus king might no longer have legal immunity, but his past achievements appear to have inoculated him against public outrage, even as the allegations pile up. He's double-jabbed. The silence from several famous restaurant guides that used to be household names has been deafening of late. Covid is to blame, since although the guide-compilers can get on with their usual tasks, the choice of restaurants has been limited by the pandemic. WINE OF THE WEEK Gargalo Godello 2020 The raucous award ceremonies have all been cancelled or are being Zoomed, and without these media circuses the normal functioning of the guides will take a long time to recover. Nevertheless, The World's 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S Pellegrino and Acqua Panna, will announce its awards live on 5 October in Antwerp, to be broadcast on digital channels. Can all this ever compensate for the usual real-time events with hundreds of jubilant chefs and restaurateurs throwing themselves around the stage in uncontrolled glee? Not a chance, but it is better than cancelling altogether. Obviously there have had to be new procedures, the most welcome being the fund of 1.5 million euros that has been set up for helping the hardest-hit restaurants and bars. At the last count 200 will benefit. As far as most people can remember, this is the first time a guide has actually done something positive to help the trade, rather than just milking it for its own advantage. There won't be many surprises though, as the winner of the 50 Best Icon Award has already been announced - a good-looking lady chef working in San Francisco, Atelier Crenn. Erroneously described as a '3-Michelin star chef' (everyone knows there is no such thing, as there are only Michelin-starred restaurants), Crenn has previously achieved the 2016 title of the World's Best Female Chef. The Perspective Atlanta, Georgia September 17\, 2021 It is a travesty that the second branch of our government the Executive does not have a functioning edifice since the 2006 fire. Yet Liberians seem nonchalant on this issue. Where is our honor, national pride, fidelity, and support for the country we call the Glorious Land of Liberty? Since 1944, the Executive Mansion has been the gravitational center of our political universe. For this generation to have this edifice relegated (since 2006) to ghostly superstition nonsense is the greatest absurdity of our time. The fact that former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf gave credence to the ludicrous ghostly claims and refused to renovate the building during her two-term presidency (12 years) should have caused outrage and great consternation among Liberians everywhere, especially in the diaspora. It did not! The silence of the Liberian community around the world on this issue seems to indicate that we Liberians have no sense of pride in our country. It is now 15 years and counting since that mysterious fire erupted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006, in the Executive Mansion during the 159th Independence celebration. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined even now. The Executive Mansion is still closed, and the prospect of re-opening it seems far-fetched under this administration --- the Weah administration. Reading Helene Cooper's New York Times 2017 article "In Liberia, an Executive Mansion Fit for a President and Ghosts, Too," I was astounded to learn that in the 21st century of human evolution, civilization, and technological achievement, Liberians are still in the mode of primitive superstition, believing in ghosts and spirits. What I found most ludicrous is that Johnson-Sirleaf, a highly Western-educated lady, gave currency to this medieval thinking; she left the Executive Mansion and never returned. President Johnson-Sirleaf's predecessor, George Weah (now President and Pastor) also believed in this crackpot theory and has also eschewed the Mansion. The Executive Mansion is the PEOPLE'S HOUSE. The Mansion serves as the symbol of the second branch of our government, and the residence of our Head of State. This is the building where the President carries out duty and responsibility as a "servant of the people" to defend and protect the Constitution of the Republic. For 158 years, the Executive Mansion received foreign dignitaries and presidents of other nations honors. The Executive Mansion is supposed to be our Curia Julia or Pnyx, the symbol and strength of our Constitutional Republic, and the pride of our people. The writing of this article is prompted by the fact that Liberia is the only sovereign republic on earth without a public residence for the Head of State. The July fire of 2006 did not burn down the entire mansion, and yet, 15 years later, the building is still unfinished despite an annual budgetary appropriation for repair. The fact that Liberia is without an Executive Office building should outrage us. We should be demanding that it reopen. If we truly believe that the ghost of Tolbert still roams the halls and no elected president has the courage to stay there, then the government should do one of the following: give the building to the homeless or demolish it. ABOVE ALL, THE LIBERIAN PEOPLE SHOULD DEMAND A NEW EXECUTIVE MANSION. If the current powers that be have an ounce of pride, dignity, or respect, they should come to terms with this undignified situation. The people in power of the pre-1980s were men and women of culture, sophistication, cosmopolitanism, pride, and dignity despite their abhorrent treatment of the autochthonous. Certainly, they would not have allowed such an episode to persist for such a long time. I am apoplectic that as members of the autochthonous, we are not shouting from the mountain tops for the restoration or reconstruction of the Executive Mansion. We allow ourselves and our government to be without a symbol of Executive power for 15 years and counting. Moreover, we allow our rational faculty to be fogged by superstition. The violent overthrow of the True Whig Party in 1980 and the summary execution of cabinet ministers were enthusiastically welcomed with the hope of bringing enlightenment. However, since then it seems we have moved back to the dark ages with this ludicrous idea of the Executive Mansion being haunted. The time is now to restore the dignity and pride of our republic by erecting an edifice of the executive symbol where the Head of State will carry out his constitutional responsibility to serve the PEOPLE OF LIBERIA. The Executive Mansion is not haunted, cursed, or jinxed. For this nation, after 174 years of sovereignty, to accept this preposterous notion that the Executive Mansion is haunted calls into question the capacity and ability to build a better equalitarian society. Some 85% of Middle East residents between the age of 25 and 34 say they are ready to embrace pre-pandemic shopping, travel, and holiday experiences. Four-fifths (80%) of Middle East consumers surveyed plan to make bigger and more mindful holiday purchases this year, fuelled in part by the fact that 75% of them say they have more savings set aside for the holidays this year compared to last year, according to Sitecore, the global leader in digital experience management software. Sitecore has released its Holiday Shopping Trends 2021 report exploring how consumers in the Middle East intend to celebrate, indulge and recuperate this holiday season. Sitecores Holiday Shopping Trends 2021 report surfaces insights from consumers around holiday shopping, gift giving, spending, and sentiment. The data arms marketers in categories like retail, travel, automotive, and others with the intelligence they need to deliver winning experiences that satisfy the evolving tastes and demands of consumers. 85% of consumers in the Middle East are very clearly ready to move on from the pandemic and are looking at Holiday 2021 as the beginning of the rest of their lives, said Mohammed Alkhotani, Area Vice President Middle East and Africa, Sitecore. Our research shows pent-up demand and more savings than usual will result in younger consumers splurging on self-care and big-ticket items at the register, which is great news for those in retail, travel, and hospitality. Its also heartening to see that 70% of Middle East consumers want to support their local community, including locally-owned businesses. The industry will need to respond with more offerings from these businesses. Middle East Shift in Perspective: *75% of consumers would prefer experience gifts to more stuff; *81% of consumers are now planning the trip of a lifetime; and *72% of consumers under the age of 44 said they are now more spontaneous, more social, and enjoying life more. Young Middle East consumers bringing spending back: *86% of those under the age of 44 stated that following their experiences during the pandemic they now value travel and appreciate other cultures more. Middle East retailers could support more locally-owned businesses: *94% of consumers believe it is essential that retailers offer more products from locally-owned businesses, but only 62% report seeing more locally-owned products when shopping. Buying local and being mindful with purchases is a priority for the Middle East: *70% of consumers are willing to pay more for locally made gifts; *62% of consumers are annoyed when they find a purchase was made in China, when they thought it was a local purchase; and *92% of consumers stated that the pandemic has made them think more carefully about how they spend their money. In the Middle East, self-care now includes self-gifting: *44% of those buying a gift for themselves cite therapy as the main reason.-- TradeArabia News Service Event Chairman Caitlin Long to Launch Wyoming Blockchain Stampede at UW Event Chairman Caitlin Long is looking forward to showcasing opportunities the digital economy can bring the state during the fourth annual Wyoming Blockchain Stampede and WyoHackathon Sept. 21-26 at the University of Wyoming. Long, CEO of Avanti Bank in Cheyenne, is a UW alumna whose expertise contributed to legislation establishing Wyoming as a leader in blockchain regulation. She will be the keynote speaker at opening ceremonies Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 8 a.m. at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center. She has seen the conference grow from a weekend event to a weeklong global program attracting blockchain developers, entrepreneurs, legal experts, legislators, researchers, and educators and students from junior high to college. These efforts not only prepare UW students for jobs in the new digital economy, but also expose Wyomings junior high and high school students to these powerful technologies via their participation in WyoHackathon, Long says. They do not need to leave home to work in this industry. The partnership between Wyoming and the blockchain industry has been a win-win all around. Also at the opening ceremony will be Tyler Lindholm, state policy director for U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and a former state legislator who helped guide blockchain legislation; Rep. Jared Olsen (R-Cheyenne) and Sen. Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie), current co-chairmen of the legislative Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology; and Steven Lupien, director of the UW Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation (CBDI). Lupien says the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede and WyoHackathon promote UWs goal of being blockchain inclusive and demonstrating Wyomings commitment to be a blockchain pacesetter. The stampedes theme, Future Forward, represents our efforts to move ahead in all areas of blockchain, including cryptocurrency, smart contracts and digital assets that will create new entrepreneurial and technological opportunities for Wyoming and the world, Lupien says. The stampede is presented by title sponsors IOHK and Blockchain.com; CBDI; the UW College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; the College of Business; the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Department of Computer Science; and the College of Law. Listed is the event schedule: Sept. 21, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., UW Conference Center -- The Startup Stampede will highlight the companies of the future. Sept. 21-22, 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Room 506, Coe Library -- The Wyoming Legislatures Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology will hear testimony from the public on opportunities to improve the laws. Sept. 22, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m., UW Conference Center -- Future Forward with UW President Ed Seidel. Speakers and panels will discuss initiatives that will drive positive economic development for future generations. Sept. 22, 5-8 p.m., Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center -- The Sandcastle Invitational seeks the best and most promising blockchain startups the world over to compete for the top cash prize. Sept. 23, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., War Memorial Fieldhouse -- The Stampede Law Conference will examine the new laws in Wyoming that impact blockchain and crypto businesses and help form the ecosystem. Sept. 23, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., UW Conference Center -- The Stampede Finance Conference offers a deep dive into the evolving world of finance; how blockchain technology is pushing decentralized finance; and what impact that will have. Sept. 23-24, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., UW Conference Center -- The Stampede Business Conference is two full days of conversations helping attendees understand business opportunities of blockchain and use cases. Sept. 24, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., UW Conference Center -- DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) Day features technical workshops and speakers explaining what DAOs are and the role they will play in our future -- also, how Wyoming is leading the way in terms of DAO regulation. Sept. 24, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., War Memorial Fieldhouse -- The Stampede Developers Conference features technical speakers and workshops to help attendees prepare for the WyoHackathon challenges and to introduce new technologies, concepts and emerging standards. Sept. 24, 5 p.m. and Sept. 26, 10 a.m., War Memorial Fieldhouse -- The WyoHackathon presents challenges and bounties for developers, entrepreneurs and business professionals. Participants will use the weekend to come up with the best solution to the problems presented. For more information about the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede, in addition to the website at www.wyohackathon.io, follow on Twitter; join on Telegram at https://t.me/WyoHackathon; connect on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/wyohackathon; or visit Facebook. NSF Director, UW President, Others to Explore Future of Computing Education National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel, a dozen CEOs/CIOs of leading technology companies, several Wyoming community college presidents and others will discuss the future of computing education Wednesday, Sept. 22, at UW. The Future Forward session, set to start at 10:30 a.m., is part of the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede, a multiday series of events that aims to unite worldwide participants with thought leaders, legislators and change makers at the forefront of major impacts to the worlds future in blockchain technology. Those wishing to participate should register at https://wyohackathon.io/. The computing education discussions will take place at the UW Conference Center. Virtual participation also will be possible via the Zoom link provided upon registration. Seidel and Panchanathan will give opening remarks for the computing education sessions at 10:30 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. roundtable discussion that will focus on The Future of Computing Education. Computing has disrupted virtually every aspect of the world we live in, including computing education, Seidel says. What are the key aspects of computing education that UW, Wyomings community colleges and Wyomings K-12 system should be focusing on? What are the characteristics that we should be working to develop in our students related to computing? Those are the topics we will explore. Seidel will lead another panel to address Action Planning the Future Forward Vision. Providing Wyoming students and citizens with a future-leaning computing education will require a common vision among various stakeholders, tangible goals and objectives, and investments, Seidel says. The Wyoming Innovation Partnership (WIP), a new effort involving UW, the community colleges and Gov. Mark Gordon, is envisioned as a vehicle for such an endeavor. Panelists will suggest and discuss specific goals and objectives that WIP should consider regarding computing in Wyoming. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close In prison, the gym was his safe haven. Now hes helping others reach their fitness goals as a gym owner, trainer Lana Ford, left, owner of So Original Yarn Studio in Columbia, Md., Evie, 7, Sawyer, 4, their father Chris Fuchs and Brittany Harrison with her 2-month-old daughter Quinn, show off the yarn donated by HoCo Pirate Adventures, founded by Fuchs, at So Original. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Under the auspices of the WCO/JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Joint Project, WCO organized a high-level official launching ceremony of the Master trainer Programme (MTP) on Rules of origin (RoO). The High-level official ceremony took place virtually on 8 September 2021 with the participation of 16 Customs administrations in Africa, namely Botswana, Burundi, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, as well as a number of regional entities such as ECOWAS, UEMOA, EAC, and AfCTFA Secretariat. The launch of the new MTP comes to continue the remarkable success of the flagship program of the WCO/JICA Joint Project, especially on the MTP, which recently started its phase 2 of the project for a 4-year project. The MTP aims at developing sustainable training capacity in Africa by 1) developing a pool of well-experienced trainers and (2) developing regionally featured training materials and programs to be used by these trainers. Upon completion of the MTP, successful alumni are expected to become a regional asset and contribute to the sustainable economic development of Africa through Customs modernization. The launching ceremony was attended by WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Ricardo Trevino, WCO Director for Tariff and Trade Mr. Konstantinos Kaiopoulos, Senior Vice-President of JICA Mr. Toshiyuki Nakamura, Director General of Japan Customs Mr. Wataru Sakata, and Heads of the 16 Customs Administrations as well as COMESA, ECOWAS, EAC, UEMOA, and AfCFTA Secretariat. In his opening remarks, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya welcomed the participants and empathized on the importance of the MTP and WCOs series of commitments to support the implantation of AfCFTA and the increase of connectivity in Africa. Dr. Mikuriya pointed that in the MTP was also linked to the WCO accreditation policy and expressed WCOs hope for Master Trainers could be fully utilized inside and outside of Africa and explained that as shown in the past that the MTP encompasses the 4 Ts, namely tool, training, technology and trust that are fundamental to WCO activities. This is how the Master Trainer Program or MTP has been developed in Africa in close collaboration with the JICA. Dr. Mikuriya stated that the MTP in Africa made a tangible success and the MTP-credited experts already trained more than 20,000 Customs officers and the business people in Africa over the three years. Furthermore, he mentioned the new MTP for Africa on RoO is very timely as it will be supporting the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Moreover, touching that the European Union also decided to launch an EU funded project on RoO in Africa to support the implementation of the AfCFTA which would be managed by WCO, he explained that as the sole organization specialized in Customs, WCO was in an ideal position to ensure synergy and coherence of different donor-funded projects while avoiding unnecessary duplication, hence both JICA-funded and EU-funded programs would enhance human capability in a collaborative manner. Mr. Toshiyuki Nakamura Senior Vice-President of JICA welcomed the new cooperation between WCO and JICA as a sign of continuous mutual collaboration. He mentioned that WCO and JICA have deepened their partnership to provide expertise and experiences to developing countries in the field of trade facilitation and Customs development. Based on this partnership and since 2016, the WCO/JICA capacity-building project continued to strengthen trade facilitation in Africa, as well as the MTP for 16 African WCO Members. With the continuous dedication of WCO, JICA, and Japan Customs, this program is now widely recognized in Africa, and around the world, as a great collaborative model for how Africa can build a pool of high-quality experts in African Customs administrations. The MTPs were so far able to strengthen the skills of 140 Master Trainers, across 16 countries, including in the specialties of customs valuation, HS classification, and intelligence analysis, and post-clearance audit. He explained also that now with this new MTP on RoO was decided between WCO and JICA given its importance to the success of the AfCFTA. Since Japan will be co-hosting the summit meeting called TICAD VIII in Tunisia next year, the AfCFTA has garnered the attention of both Japanese and African citizens. JICA is aware that cooperating in the field of trade facilitation to promote Africas regional integration is vital. Therefore, we believe strengthening the capacity of Customs officers on Rules of Origin is a key factor for AfCFTAs success. Then, Japan Customs Director General Mr. Wataru Sakata in his opening remarks confirmed Japan Customs support to the MTP in Africa to contribute to the human resource development for Customs administrations especially with the AfCFTA come into force. He also expressed Japan Customs commitment to the development of Africa in cooperation with WCO and the JICA. The opening remarks were followed by a panel session under the theme of "Key to success and best use of Master Trainer Programme for the day-to-day operation and the implementation of the AfCFTA". The panel session covered the benefits of the use of MTP and how to assure the best use of them as well as The expectation for the MTP and the plan of optimizing the utilization of Master Trainers (MTs), the Regional Entities expectations for the MTP for the region and its members and suggestion for the best use of MTs in the context of Africa. In the panel, not only Customs administrations but also several Regional entities participated as the EAC secretariat, ECOWAS, and AfCFTA. After the panel session, the senior representatives of the 16 beneficiary Administrations confirmed that the MTP is very timely for the region and meets the needs and challenges. Furthermore, they all confirmed their participation and commitment to the MTP activities. At the closing remarks, Mr. Ricardo Trevino Deputy Secretary General stressed once again on the keys to the success of the Master Trainer Programme are 1) strong and continued commitments of participating Customs administrations to the Master Trainer Programme and 2) tailor-made deliverables such as training course and materials which meet the needs of African Customs Administrations 3) the assurance of complemental relationship among projects and programs and thanked all efforts. He also reiterated WCOs deep appreciation to the JICA and Japan Customs for their active collaboration. At the end, both WCO and JICA welcomed the active sharing of views and ideas during the launching ceremony and agreed to continue their collaborative work through the MTP to ensure more sustainable capacity development. For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org On 3 September 2021, the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) held an inauguration ceremony to announce the official launch of a national electronic tariff platform, implemented within the framework of the EU-WCO Programme for the Harmonized System in Africa (HS-Africa Programme). At the invitation of the LRA Commissioner of Customs Mr. Saa Saamoi, the event was attended by the LRA Commissioner General Mr. Thomas Doe Nah, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Liberia Ambassador Laurent Delahousse, ECOWAS Director for Customs Mr. Salifou Tiemtore, senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and a wide audience of stakeholders including the private sector. In his opening remarks, Commissioner General Doe Nah thanked the WCO, the EU and the e-tariff technical team, stressing that the new platform would contribute to the automation and digitalization of processes at the LRA. He pointed out that the initiative would enhance the efficiency of the LRA in how it delivered services to stakeholders. He recalled the ongoing transformation of the revenue system in Liberia emphasizing that the e-tariff platform was an important achievement in the context of this process, contributing to modernization of services across the country. Congratulating the LRA on this important achievement, Dr. Mikuriya expressed his appreciation of the fact that in Liberia the intention of having an e-tariff platform transformed into reality within a rather short time period. He stressed that the emergence of electronic tariff platforms was a major development, which would facilitate the implementation of the Harmonized System by Members and also support Regional Economic Communities in Africa in tariff-related work. He reiterated that the WCO would be delighted to continue this cooperation with the LRA and African members and partners, thanks to the sustained and comprehensive support from the European Union in the context of the HS-Africa Programme. Ambassador Delahousse stressed that he was particularly satisfied to see the continued cooperation between the EU and the WCO, which was bringing good results. He recognized the key role of the LRA and the Ministry of Finance as organizations in charge of issues that were critical for the society. He underlined that the EU had excellent relations with the Ministry of Finance and the LRA and would be glad to continue providing the necessary support. He welcomed the streamlining of the tariff management, which would benefit all actors, in particular, those involved in international trade. Following a brief demonstration of the new platform, other speakers stressed that the initiative would bring Liberia into a better alignment with international standards enshrined in the instruments of the WCO, the WTO and the AfCFTA. The launch event was preceded by a series of workshops benefiting Customs officials and private sector stakeholders. In conclusion of the ceremony, the electronic tariff platform was made fully operational and went live on the LRA web-site. For more details, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org. T.I. and Tameka 'Tiny' Harris will not be charged over sexual assault allegations. The couple were accused in January of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2005 but the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office have now decided against taking the matter further because the statute of limitations expired in 2015. The office stated: "In 2021, the complaining witness reported to LAPD that she believed that in 2005, the suspects, who she met while out with friends, sexually assaulted her." The couple's attorney, Shawn Holley, said the 40-year-old rapper - whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. -and his wife were "pleased but not surprised" that the charges had been dropped and are now ready to "move on" with their lives. The lawyer said in a statement: "Mr. and Mrs. Harris are pleased, but not surprised, by the District Attorney's decision to dismiss these meritless allegations. We appreciate the DA's careful review of the case and are grateful to be able to put the matter behind us and move on." The couple had previously "emphatically denied" the "egregiously appalling" allegations against them and vowed to take "appropriate legal action" if the claims against them persisted. But despite denying doing anything wrong, VH1 suspended production of their reality show, 'T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle', in February. A spokesperson said at the time: "We are aware of the allegations, and while they are not connected to our show, we have reached out to T.I. and Tameka Harris, as well as local and state officials. "Given the serious nature of the allegations, we have decided to suspend production in order to gather more information." In May, authorities in both Los Angeles and Las Vegas announced they were opening separate investigations into allegations made against the couple after another woman, Rachelle Jenks, filed a police report accusing the couple of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2010. However, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Clark County District Attorney's Office declined prosecution on May 18, 2021, because of the statute of limitations. Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 10:47:49|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Misbah Saba Malik ISLAMABAD, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Since its establishment 20 years ago, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has emerged as a strong platform for regional countries to find solutions to security problems and cooperate in the fight against the pandemic, a Pakistani expert has said. The SCO has played an important role in the fight against COVID-19, supporting regional countries and many other states across the globe by providing vaccines and other supplies to people in need, keeping the "Shanghai Spirit" alive, Ghulam Samad, senior research specialist at the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute, told Xinhua in a recent interview. "Pakistan, being a member of the SCO, also experienced moral, medical and scientific support from China when the disease was at its peak in the country and the health department did not have many resources to control the roaring pandemic," he said. Citing the example of the SCO Forum on Traditional Medicine held in July in China's Jiangxi Province, Samad said that the forum enabled the member countries to join forces "to find a new solution to defeat the pandemic through traditional medicine, which had been playing a critical role in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of COVID-19." Talking about the SCO's contributions to building a new type of international relations and advocating multilateralism, the expert said that the organization, based on equality and win-win cooperation, aims to promote the prosperity and development of regional countries. "The SCO has shown that the cooperation among the member countries is equal and constructive. This has been proven by that more and more countries have shown their interest to join the organization," he said. The SCO has promoted multilateralism not only by supporting its member countries but also by playing a coordinating role with the United Nations, Samad said. Talking about the role of the SCO in the economic development of the region and Pakistan, he said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), an important pilot project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, is boosting the Pakistani economy, which is a vivid example of the SCO's vision of regional connectivity, economic prosperity and integration. Samad said that through the CPEC, the region will not only be connected to the Central Asian, European and African countries, but will also gain economic prosperity. The SCO has become a very significant forum for the economic prosperity of the region by successfully addressing multi-dimensional concerns in fields including security and trade, among others, Samad said. The SCO is a forum to find solutions to regional security issues including that of Afghanistan, said the expert, noting that the SCO, as a regional body, has a full understanding of the dynamics of the region besides having the potential to solve it. The SCO has already pledged to make Afghanistan a peaceful and stable country, he said, adding that the organization can help Afghanistan overcome its economic challenges by providing investment opportunities to it as well as offering humanitarian relief. The SCO member countries, including Pakistan, can play an active role in helping Afghanistan eliminate terrorism and prevent it from becoming a hub of militants again. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 10:51:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SINGAPORE, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) grew at a slower pace in August, as the year-on-year growth narrowed from 12.7 percent in July to 2.7 percent, Enterprise Singapore, a government agency, announced on Friday. The electronic NODX expanded by 16.7 percent year on year in August, extending the 15 percent increase in the previous month. The non-electronic NODX declined by 1.4 percent in August, a reversal from the 12 percent rise in July. On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, Singapore's NODX decreased by 3.6 percent in August to 15.5 billion Singapore dollars (about 11.52 billion U.S. dollars), after a 0.9 percent-decrease in the previous month. Singapore's non-oil re-exports (NORX) grew by 19 percent year on year in August, following the 13.9-percent rise in July. Both electronic and non-electronic NORX grew. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 16:20:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ULAN BATOR, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia reported 2,796 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 269,476, the health ministry said Friday. The latest confirmed cases were local infections, and 1,164 of them were detected in Ulan Bator, which is the hardest hit by the COVID-19, the ministry said. Meanwhile, nine more COVID-19 patients aged over 40 died in the past day, pushing the death toll to 1,083. More than 22,300 patients are currently hospitalized across the country, while over 53,000 asymptomatic or mild cases are being treated at home, the ministry said. "The prevalence of the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus has continuously increased. Now, the Delta variant has accounted for at least 60 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the country," Tsolmon Bilegtsaikhan, director of the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases, told reporters. Over 65 percent of the country's total population have so far received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the ministry. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 17:19:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 20,336 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,324,475. The DOH also reported 310 coronavirus-related deaths, raising the country's death toll to 36,328. The active cases stand at 188,108. World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the Philippines Rabindra Abeyasinghe said the active cases now is twice the number of active cases reported in April when the country battled a surge of infections. Abeyasinghe said that the country's health care system is still coping despite the spike of active cases. "That's because the health care system has been expanded ever since April," he told a television interview Thursday night. The Department of the Interior and Local Government said 57 areas with active virus clustering in Metro Manila are now under hard lockdown. Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said "almost all" local government units in the capital region have imposed the 14-day granular lockdowns. Residents in lockdown areas, such as a street or a building, are not allowed to leave houses during the period. The government placed Metro Manila, home to over 13 million people, under alert level 4 on a scale of 5 for two weeks due to the region's high or increasing infections and high utilization of hospital beds. The government urges people to stay at home. However, it also allows some businesses to operate at a limited capacity, including restaurants and salons. The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested nearly 19 million people since the outbreak in January 2020. On Sept. 11, the DOH reported its highest ever daily tally with 26,303 cases. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 17:52:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Raheela Nazir ISLAMABAD, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- With Pakistan witnessing an increase in exports to China, experts and officials here believe that Pakistan should spare no efforts to further strengthen the Pakistan-China trade relations. The country's exports to China increased by 34 percent to 2.33 billion U.S. dollars during the fiscal year 2020-2021 (July 1-June 30), as compared to 1.74 billion U.S. dollars in the previous fiscal year, Abdul Razak Dawood, Advisor to Pakistani Prime Minister for Commerce and Investment, wrote in his Twitter account. Leather, textiles, seafood and agricultural products were among the major products exported to China during the period, government officials said. The Pakistan-China trade volume has shown an upward trajectory over the years. According to official figures from the Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan, in the year 2018 the trade volume between the two countries was 16.4 billion U.S. dollars, seeing a jump from 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2007. Speaking with Xinhua, Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Commerce, Textile, Industries and Production and Board of Investment Aliya Hamza Malik said that the recent upward trend in exports to China is encouraging. "The traditional friendly relations between Pakistan and China have become more pragmatic and productive with time," Malik said, adding that enhanced economic and trade cooperation has further consolidated the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries. China is the second-largest export destination for Pakistan and the government has been making all-out efforts to further boost exports to China by promoting industrialization in the country, providing special subsidies to the business community and working closely with the Chinese government and enterprises to get know-how about the Chinese market requirements, she said. On reasons behind the recent increase in exports to China, Shakeel Ahmad Ramay, director of the China Study Center at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, said that there are multiple factors that have contributed to the remarkable rise. A new awareness is seen among the Pakistani exporters, who previously prefered the European, U.S. and other markets. These Pakistani businessmen, with the help from the government, started to see the Chinese market opportunities, Ramay told Xinhua. In addition, the implementation of the second phase of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Pakistan and China last year has paved the way for the substantial and sustained growth of the bilateral trade, as Pakistani traders are now allowed to export 313 new products to the Chinese market on zero duty. Under the previously-signed first phase of the pact, the country had been already enjoying zero duties on exports of over 700 products to China. Besides, a number of Chinese companies have been cooperating with local enterprises to enhance their production capacity, quality and exports of Pakistani commodities by providing modern technology and equipment, Ramay said. He noted that special economic zones being established under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will promote industrialization in the country and boost exports to not only China but other countries as well to help Pakistan to earn valuable foreign exchange. Pakistani manufacturers need to understand the Chinese market and should focus on improving the quality and standard of their products to be exported to China to further increase exports, Talat Anwar, a renowned economist and former advisor on macroeconomic policy at the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, told Xinhua. Pakistan also needs to make more presence in Chinese market by extensively advertising its characteristic products and actively participating in expos and events in China, he said, adding that in this regard, the government of Pakistan has been making efforts in helping local enterprises in marketing in various cities of China to promote Pakistani products and goods. "China is a huge consumer market with increasing buying power, and there is a greater demand of all kinds of Pakistani commodities in China ... Local exporters should vigorously tap the Chinese market by producing high-quality products and establishing good brands," Talat said. Humayun Iqbal Shami, chairman of the Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Economic Forum, said, "More technical and financial resources need to be devoted to chalking out strategies and upgrading major industries of Pakistan including textile, leather, agriculture, livestock and dairy," Shami told Xinhua. Pakistan not only needs to upgrade existing export-oriented sectors of the country, but also has to move towards new industries to diversify its export products, he said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 19:18:21|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VIENTIANE, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China Railway No. 2 Engineering Group (CREC-2) has welded the last two 500-meter seamless rails for the China-Laos railway in the southern suburb of the Lao capital Vientiane. The seamless rail, also known as continuous welded rail (CWR) which eliminates rail joints, can improve the duration of steel rails, reduce the maintenance costs of locomotives and tracks, improve the stability and speed of trains, as well as enhance travel comfort. According to the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC), a joint venture based in Vientiane in charge of the railway's construction and operation, the CREC-2 has completed the welding of all the seamless rails along the over 400-km railway on Thursday, thus laying a solid foundation for the goal to complete the China-Laos railway construction by the end of this year. Xiao Qianwen, the LCRC general manager, told Xinhua on Friday that the Chinese engineers have welded the seamless rails across all the 75 tunnels, 165 bridges and 20 railway stations since May 2020. According to Xiao, most projects of the China-Laos railway are undergoing the final check and acceptance inspection, and the remaining engineering and preparation for operation are progressing steadily. The China-Laos Railway is a docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub. The over 400-km railway will run from Boten border gate in northern Laos bordering China to Vientiane with an operating speed of 160 km per hour. The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built with the full application of Chinese management and technical standards. The construction of the project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and operational in December 2021. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-17 19:49:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A girl receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at an inoculation site in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Sept. 17, 2021. A COVID-19 vaccination drive for children from 6 to 12 years old began nationwide on Friday. (Photo by Sovannara/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Emotions run high for parents in Cambodia on Friday as the Southeast Asian nation began a COVID-19 vaccination drive for children aged from six to 12 years, with China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines. Children, assisted by their parents or legal guardians, were seen queuing outside vaccination centers in the capital city Phnom Penh as they waited to receive the first shot of the jab. You Sokhuon, the 40-year-old mother of two, said she felt a sense of relief after having her 10-year-old boy and six-year-old girl vaccinated against the disease. "I'm delighted that they've received their first dose of Sinovac vaccine," she told Xinhua. "With the jab, I'm confident that they will be safe facing the COVID-19." You Y, 47, a mother of a seven-year-old and an 11-year-old son, said since the COVID-19 outbreak, she has always worried about her children's safety because the disease was highly contagious. "Now, I feel relieved after having them vaccinated. As a mother, protecting their health is the most important thing," she told Xinhua. "Thanks to China for supplying the vaccine and the Cambodian government for giving all of us free vaccines." In Borey Vathanak, a fourth-grade student at the Sothearos Primary School, said that he hoped the primary schools, which have been shut down since late February, will reopen soon after the 6-12 years age group have been fully vaccinated with two vaccine doses. "I had longed for the vaccine. Now, I got it, I'm very happy," the 10-year-old boy told Xinhua. "I hope the schools will reopen soon because it's boring to learn online and to stay at home all the time." Speaking at the launching event of the vaccination campaign for children, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said the vaccine is free of charge and made on a voluntary basis, saying that the country has almost 1.9 million children in this age group. "We have to take a step forward to protect our children's lives and to enable them to return to schools safely," Hun Sen said. "If we can not reopen primary schools for our children, it is like losing the foundations of our education system." He said that vaccines are very effective to reduce infections, hospitalizations and fatalities. With its total population of 16 million, Cambodia first launched a vaccination campaign for 10 million adults in February and then for nearly 2 million adolescents aged from 12 to 18 in August. To date, 98 percent of the adults have obtained at least one vaccine dose, and 54.8 percent of them have been fully inoculated with two doses, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said, adding that some 87.5 percent of the adolescents have received their first shot, and 62.8 percent of them have been fully vaccinated. Almost all of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the country's immunization campaigns are China's Sinovac and Sinopharm. World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Cambodia Li Ailan said Cambodia has made its really impressive progress in its vaccine rollout. "The country is setting a very good example to put its great efforts in suppressing virus transmission, saving lives and minimizing social disruption," she told Xinhua. "Cambodia's efforts and achievements especially its vaccine rollout is highly commendable." Li said Cambodia has been moving fast in vaccinating other age groups including children. "WHO has advised Cambodia to use safe and effective vaccines for protecting its population including children," she said. "We are aware that China approved emergency use authorization of inactivated vaccines to children aged 3-17 years old." Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-18 01:01:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DUSHANBE, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Senior officials from China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran agreed on Thursday to step up communication and coordination on the Afghan issue. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Assistant to Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Rasoul Mousavi reached the consensus at an informal meeting on Afghanistan in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. Wang said that it is necessary for the four countries to strengthen communication and coordination, speak in one voice, and exert positive influence over the issue, so as to play a constructive role for a smooth transition in Afghanistan. Wang put forward a five-point proposal on the coordination and cooperation among the four countries regarding Afghanistan in the next stage: First, urge the United States to earnestly fulfill its obligations and take its responsibility. Together with other like-minded countries, the four countries should urge the United States to shoulder the primary responsibility for Afghanistan's reconstruction, and provide economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan. Second, engage with and give guidance to Afghanistan. On the premise of truly respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, the four countries should support the Afghan people in independently choosing their development path, push Afghanistan to establish a broad and inclusive political structure eventually, implement moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, pursue friendly relations with neighboring countries, and respect the basic rights of minorities, women and children. Third, guard against the spillover of security risks. It is expected that the new Afghan government will honor its commitment and make a clean break with terrorist forces, especially resolutely combating those targeting neighboring countries. Fourth, encourage all parties to make concerted efforts to assist Afghanistan. As important neighbors of Afghanistan, the four countries should not only provide urgent assistance to meet its needs, but also encourage regional countries and international organizations to help the Afghan people tide over the difficulties. Fifth, help Afghanistan join in regional cooperation. In the long run, the four countries can, based on preserving the overall stability and development of the region, help Afghanistan gradually cultivate its capacity for independent and sustainable development, and join in the regional economic cooperation and connectivity network to shake off poverty and achieve economic development. According to Wang, regional countries have three main expectations for the new Afghan government: inclusiveness, counter-terrorism and good-neighborliness. Other participants at the meeting said that the four countries should speak out and send a consistent and clear signal to the Afghan people, the whole region and even the international community, create a favorable external environment for the Afghan people to hold the fate in their own hands and push Afghanistan to build an inclusive government of different ethnic groups and religions. They also hope that the Taliban will make a clean break with all terrorist organizations and urge the international community, especially the United States and its allies, to shoulder their due responsibilities for resolving the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Enditem Wang Yi Meets with Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan 2021/09/16 On September 16, 2021 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Mongolian Deputy Prime Minister Sainbuyan Amarsaikhan in Dushanbe at the latter's request. Wang Yi said, China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, with bilateral relations featuring a good development momentum. China has always pursued a good-neighborliness policy, and is willing to continue to help Mongolia develop its economy and improve people's wellbeing. Both sides should continue to uphold mutual respect for each other's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and for each other's core interests and major concerns, so as to provide political guarantees for the stable and healthy development of bilateral relations. China will firmly support Mongolia's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, steadily promote bilateral cooperation on major projects, and create more growth points for cooperation. China supports Mongolia in strengthening its cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Amarsaikhan said that China is Mongolia's good neighbor and good partner and that Mongolia sincerely thanks China for supporting its COVID-19 response, especially the provision of high-quality vaccines. With China's help, Mongolia is gradually emerging from the worst in fighting the pandemic. Mongolia firmly supports China in safeguarding its core interests, adheres to mutual respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and attaches great importance to deepening cooperation with China in the fields of economy, trade, education, and people-to-people exchanges. Amarsaikhan hopes that the two sides will strengthen high-level exchanges, lift the level of bilateral cooperation, and further enhance the friendly affections between the two peoples. Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has disclosed that the Federal Government has given approval for the construction of 3000 capacity custodian centers across the country in the six geo-political zones to tackle the scourge of overcrowded correctional centers. Speaking at a one-day Policy Advocacy Conference on Decongestion of Correctional Centers held to mark the 60th anniversary of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba ,Nigeria, in Lagos yesterday, Aregbesola said the Nigeria Correctional Service ,NCOS, the mandate is to rehabilitate and re-integrate inmates back into society. He stated that the Service has been doing all possible and collaborating with bodies such as St. Mulumba on the ways to decongest the center. The minister who was represented by his Special Adviser on Nigeria Correctional Services, Suleiman Tala, stated that the NCOS has been carrying out its core mandate religiously especially in the area of rehabilitation and preparations for life after incarceration saying some 3000 inmates are currently undergoing different degrees programmes with the National Open University while 50 others are studying various programmes for National Certificate of Education. He applauded the NCOS for successfully containing Covid-19 considering the high-risk potential of the centers " a lot of fear arose in the height of the pandemic but gladly the proactive approach of the service as well as that of the Ministry and the federal government paid off. "Presently the Service has 12 Special Study Centres in different Custodial facilities across the country. Since the inception of the collaboration between the NCOS and the National Open University, a total of 36 inmates have graduated in different fields of study such as Conflict and Peace Resolution, Political Science, Sociology, Guidance, and counseling among others," he added. He commended the Order of the Knight of St. Mulumba for the well thought out conference and urged civil society and faith-based organizations to emulate them and play critical roles in rendering services to inmates of the NCOS through offering pro Bono cases, and paying fees for less offenders. Also speaking, the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, represented by the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Hakeem Odumosu, noted that some of the factors influencing congestion in Correctional Centres in Nigeria, include increase in crime rate, changing dimensions and patterns of crime, scientific nature of crime, effects of social dislocation and overburdened criminal justice system among others. "As we are all aware, it is the Correctional Centres that are statutorily established to keep persons to serve punishment for crimes they have committed or while awaiting trial after being accused of a crime and not granted bail by the courts or granted bail but not been able to meet their bail conditions," he said. He pointed out that in order to cope with current and emerging threats, as well as attain the mandate of the Nigeria Police Force on internal security, it is imperative of the police and the citizens to, of necessity, willingly cooperate," he stressed. On his part, the Comptroller General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, represented by the Assistant Comptroller General, Daniel Odharo, said the event is apt and coming at a time when all hands are expected to be on deck to address overcrowding of inmates affecting the country. The Comptroller General added that the NCOS congestion of awaiting trial persons especially in custodial centres located in urban areas has remained one of the major problems affecting credible service delivery. "Our mandate as a Service is to provide safe custody, reform and rehabilitate inmates remanded or convicted by a court of jurisdiction. Unfortunately, overcrowding has continued to make a mockery of this effort. This problem, no doubt, requires a multi-dimensional approach from the national to sub-national governments," he added. On his part, the Metro Grand Knight, William Adebisi, said there have been many other attempts by different governments and many NGOs and other professional bodies and stakeholders in the past to address the decongested correctional centres with no appreciable result but, stressed that no stone will be left unturned to find a lasting solution to the challenge. "The Minister of Interior himself once lamented that the population of inmates had been overshot by 18 per cent. He also stated that most inmates have been in custody for a period longer than the maximum sentence for their alleged offences. Statistics released by the minister clearly show that congestion in Nigerian prisons is a result of a high number of awaiting trial inmates and not the minority population on death row. In our view, a more constructive approach would be a declaration of a state of emergency in Nigeria's criminal justice system," he said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Construction By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Also speaking at the Conference, Lagos State Catholic Archbishop, Alfred Adewale Martins who was represented by Rev. Monsignor Paschal Uwaezeapu stated that decongestion of the prisons would continue to be a matter as long as the government has refused to fix the country. "The prison would continue to be congested if we don't fix the society. As long as our society is a place where everybody takes for himself without considering the neighbour then our prison would continue to be congested. If we need to fix the prison we need to fix the family. These prisoners come from a family. We need to fix the education system also. We need to promote justice, without all these, the prison will soon overflow," he stated. In an interview with newsmen, the Chairman of the Conference Committee Mr. George Agu explained that the Conference was part of the efforts by the Order of Knight of St. Mulumba to reach out to the government on what could be done to decongest the correctional centers. According to him, his group has always been extending hands of fellowship to the centers and the inmates by way of donations both cash and material in order to alleviate the suffering at the center due to overcrowding. The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has sued the Kenyan Government for his " abduction and extra-ordinary rendition to Nigeria". Special Counsel to Kanu, Mr Aloy Ejimakor who disclosed this to Vanguard in a telephone chat, said Kanu's suit had been properly filed at the Kenyan High Court. He said that the suit was filed on September 14 by Luchiri Associates, Kanu's legal team in Kenya. Mr Ejimakor argued that since Kanu is a British citizen and entered Kenya with his British passport, he ought not to have been brought to Nigeria for any reason without valid court orders for his extradition. He said that Kanu's fundamental human rights were grossly violated by those who masterminded his rendition to Nigeria, accusing the Kenyan Government of culpability. He maintained that it was against international laws to illegally arrest somebody on foreign land, an act that amounts to abduction. According to Ejimakor, Kanu cannot be lawfully prosecuted by the federal government unless the issue of his extra-ordinary rendition is first discharged, and if he is to stand trial in Nigeria, he will first be returned to Kenya and Britain where he resides before Nigeria will apply for his extradition in a British court. Kanu's family in its reaction described the move as a welcome development. His younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu said that the Kenyan Government erred by facilitating the abduction of the IPOB Leader and his subsequent rendition to Nigeria. He expressed optimism that Kanu would get justice in the end. This move is coming in less than 24 hours after the South-East caucus at the National Assembly resolved to engage the federal government over Kanu's detention. The NASS members who met at the residence of the former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, strongly condemned the continued injustice against Ndigbo and their exclusion from the power equation in Nigeria and vowed to wade in. Vanguard News Nigeria The Nigerian air force confirmed Thursday an airstrike against suspected Islamic extremists that killed civilians in the northeastern state of Yobe. A spokesman said the Wednesday attack was called in response to movements by suspected members of Boko Haram or Islamic State's West African (ISWAP) branch, which broke away from Boko Haram in 2016. "Unfortunately, reports reaching Nigerian Air Force headquarters alleged that some civilians were erroneously killed, while others were injured," Air Commodore Edward Gabkwetin said in a statement. "Therefore, a board of inquiry has been set up to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident." Reports on the number of people killed range from six to 10. The meeting of the Southern governors held in Enugu, South-east Nigeria. Governors of the states in Southern Nigeria Thursday said they believe states should be responsible for the collection of Value Added Tax, VAT. The governors also said they were satisfied with the efforts of each of the 17 states to pass the anti-open grazing laws to prevent open grazing of cattle. At least 10 of the 17 southern states have passed anti-open grazing laws including Ekiti, Lagos, Enugu, Osun and Ondo states. The two decisions were part of the resolutions the governors reached in their meeting held in Enugu, South-east Nigeria. "... the meeting resolved to support the position that the collection of VAT falls within the powers of the States," one of the seven items in the communique signed by the governors, states. The meeting "expressed satisfaction with the rate at which the States in Southern Nigeria are enacting or amending the Anti-Open Grazing Laws which align with the uniform template and aspiration of Southern Governors and encouraged the States that are yet to enact this law to do so expeditiously." The communique was shared with PREMIUM TIMES by the spokesperson to the Enugu State governor. There has been controversy over the collection of VAT after a federal high court ruled that it was not the duty of the federal government to collect it. The tax had been collected by the federal government since the military era although the money is shared by the three tiers of government. Following the court ruling, Lagos and Rivers states passed laws that allowed them to collect VAT in their states. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which used to collect the VAT on behalf of the federal government, has, however, challenged the court ruling at the appellate court. Read the full communique of the southern governors below. COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE MEETING OF THE GOVERNORS OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA IN THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ENUGU, ENUGU STATE, ON THURSDAY, 16TH SEPTEMBER 2021. The Nigerian Southern Governors' Forum at its meeting of today, Thursday, 16th September 2021 held in the Government House, Enugu, Enugu State reviewed the state of the nation and the progress of implementation of the decisions reached in her previous meetings and further resolved as follows: 1. Expressed satisfaction with the rate at which the States in the Southern Nigeria are enacting or amending the Anti- Open Grazing Laws which align with the uniform template and aspiration of Southern Governors and encouraged the States that are yet to enact this law to do so expeditiously. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Business Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. 2. Encouraged the full operationalization of already agreed regional security outfits; which would meet, share intelligence and collaborate, to ensure the security and safety of the region. 3. Reaffirmed its earlier commitment to fiscal federalism as resolved at the inaugural meeting of the Forum held on Tuesday, 11th May 2021 at Asaba, Delta State and emphasized the need for the Southern States to leverage the legislative competence of their respective State Houses of Assembly as well as representation in the National assembly to pursue its inclusion in the Nigerian Constitution through the ongoing constitutional amendment. 4. Following from paragraph "3" above, the meeting resolved to support the position that the collection of VAT falls within the powers of the States. 5. Expressed satisfaction with the handling of issues around the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and ownership of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the larger Nigerian Governors' Forum. 6. Reiterated their earlier position that the next President of Nigeria must come from the Southern part of Nigeria in line with politics of equity, justice and fairness. 7. The Forum thanked the host Governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and chose Rivers State as the next host for the Southern Governors' Forum meeting in November 2021. Arakunrin Oluwarotimi O. Akeredolu, SAN Governor, Ondo State and Chairman, Southern Governors' Forum Regional leaders from the ECOWAS group of countries have called for elections in Guinea following a military coup. It is the second country in the region now under the rule of a junta. Leaders from 14 of the 15 Western African countries in the ECOWAS regional group met in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Thursday to discuss their approach towards Guinea after it was suspended following a coup there earlier this month. The Economic Community of West African States decided to freeze bank accounts and introduce travel bans for the junta members and their families. They called on the junta to hold elections within six months and release President Alpha Conde from detention. He was ousted on September 5. Representatives from the regional group produced a report after meeting earlier in the week with coup leader Mamady Doumbouya a former member of the French Foreign Legion. "We are required to take informed decisions on these matters," Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo, the current chair of ECOWAS, said at the start of the summit. "I count on your excellencies to help proffer durable solutions to the crisis." Guinean junta facing sanctions The coup in Guinea has stoked fears of further political instability in the region following the two coups that took place in other member state Mali since August last year. ECOWAS had already been pressuring the military junta in Mali to pursue a democratic transition. Similar processes have begun with Guinea, but the coup leaders there were unlikely to discuss a timetable yet, Ghana's Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey said on Wednesday. Botchwey, who led the bloc's 15-member delegation visiting Guinea, also raised the possibility of sanctions against the West African country. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Guinea West Africa Business By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. ECOWAS President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said after the emergency summit on Thursday that the group had indeed imposed sanctions on Guinea and that the member states insisted there was no "need for very long transition for the country to return to democratic order." Following in Mali's footsteps Economic sanctions were imposed on the junta in Mali last year, but they were, subsequently, lifted after it committed to holding democratic elections in February 2022. With the military still in power, the prospect of next year's elections has become dimmer. Following the announcement of sanctions in Guinea, Kassi Brou also announced new sanctions against those it deemed to be impeding the return to democratic, constitutional rule in Mali, Reuters reported. The outlook for a return to constitutional rule in Guinea is similarly unclear. The military coup took place following mass demonstrations against President Conde's controversial new constitution that allowed him to run for, and win, a third term last October. (AFP, AP, Reuters) Addis Abeba The government of Ethiopia and Kenya yesterday signed the Moyale - Moyale One Stop Border Post (OSBP) operational procedure manual on a ceremony held in Addis Abeba. Ethiopia through the Ethiopia Customs Commission and the Border Control and Kenya through Operation Coordination Committee signed the operational procedure manual at an event attended by key private and public sector players from both countries. The Moyale - Moyale One Stop Border Post (OSBP) was inaugurated in December last year. One Stop Border Post (OSBP) started operations in June 2021.With the OSBP operations manual, border clearance processes will be easier, faster and cheaper for traders, transporters and travelers, while maintaining the border regulatory requirements of both counties through coordinated border management operations. The two governments discussed the opportunities available for traders to use the OSBP at a consultative workshop attended by representatives from various public and private sector organisations from both Ethiopia and Kenya. Kennedy Nyaiyo, Kenya's head of delegation and the Secretary of Kenya's Border Management Secretariat said, "The signing of the procedure manual will guarantee that all processes have been reviewed and harmonised . This will ensure that trading and cooperation between Kenya and Ethiopia is efficient and effectively facilitated." His counterpart Debele Kabeta, Commissioner of the Ethiopian Customs Commission said, "Though the two countries have a long time friendly relations, trade connectivity between us has been quite insignificant compared to the potential we have for doing business." Debele further explained that the volume and diversity of goods traded between Ethiopia and Kenya is growing at a higher rate expressing optimism that the operationalization of Moyale One Stop Border Post will boost trade relations and free movement of people between the two countries. The commencement of Moyale OSBP operations was achieved through cooperation of the Governments of Ethiopia and Kenya, represented by Ethiopia Customs Commission, Ethiopia Roads Authority, Kenya National Highways Authority, Border Management Secretariat (Kenya) Kenya Revenue Authority and the other border regulatory agencies, supported by TradeMark East Africa with funding by the United Kingdom. The construction component of Moyale OSBP was funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Governments of Ethiopia and Kenya. Dispatch Somalia's President Mohamed Farmaajo on Thursday said he had suspended his Prime Minister Hussein Roble's powers to hire and fire officials. In a statement to the media, Villa Somalia, Farmaajo's official residence in Mogadishu, said the the suspension of these duties will remain in effect until after elections are held. According to the electoral calendar, elections will be conducted until October 10, but there have been delays on crucial parliamentary polls, suggesting the schedule may drag on. Villa Somalia said Mr Roble had "deviated" from the mandate of the government and violated provisions of the Provisional Constitution of Somalia. Mr Roble will no longer head the government and will have no powers to suspend or dismiss ministers, Villa Somalia said. Abdirashid M Hashi, President Farmaajo's spokesman, said Roble had "not consulted with the President, and proceeded to issue decisions that were inconsistent with the laws and the constitution of the country," which was now being considered as incompetence on the PM's part. He said the President had decided to act and save the country from a potential "political and security crisis". Each minister in government will continue to perform his duties and will be responsible for the ministry's actions until after elections, he said. "During this period, the various organs of the state shall continue to serve the people as necessary for the functioning of the government, in accordance with Article 102 of the Provisional Constitution." The suspension marked a new height in the differences between two of Somalia's highest ranking leaders, which opposition leaders now fear could derail the electoral calendar. Last month, Roble defied Farmaajo's orders not to engage with foreign entities until after elections. The two leaders also differed following events surrounding the disappearance of Ikran Tahlil, a spy agent who went missing on June 26. The National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) says she was abducted and murdered by Shabaabs, but the militants denied the allegations. Last week, PM Roble suspended NISA Director General Fahad Yasin, but hours later Farmaajo overruled him and reinstated the spy chief. Roble ignored Farmaajo's statement and was waiting to preside over a ceremony within three days for his NISA boss nominee General Bashir Mohamed Jama to take office. Instead, just a day after his reinstatement, Yasin resigned from the post of NISA director, which Farmaajo readily accepted. The president then appointed Yasin Abdullahi Mohamud as the new head of NISA. Mohamud was the commander of NISA operations in Banadir region (Mogadishu and surrounding locations) before the new appointment. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Somalia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Farmaajo's appointee Mohamud wasted no time in taking over office while Fahad Yasin, who was in Turkey, joined the handover ceremony on Wednesday virtually and surrendered his powers. That left General Jama, the man chosen by Roble to lead the spy agency, with no chance to go to NISA headquarters and take over the office. Later, Roble sacked Internal Security Minister Hassan Hundubey, a decision Farmaajo nullified. Both Farmaajo and Roble have cited articles in the provisional constitution in defending their actions. The tiff has raised concerns among development partners and leaders of federal states. Last week, Presidents Abdiaziz Hassan Laftagareen of South West state and Ahmed Abdi Karie Qoorqoor of Galmudug flew to the Somali capital Mogadishu in a peace-making role. Their mediation failed, Somalia media reported, as the PM and president could not agree on how to investigate Ms Tahlil's disappearance. Mr Roble had assigned a military court to investigate, but Farmaajo appointed a five-member committee to do the same job. Roble rejected the committee, leaving the actual investigation in limbo. Farmaajo said elections must go on as planned, in accordance with the agreement of September 17, 2020 and the procedures for resolving the concerns raised on May 27, 2021, and the conduct of the bicameral elections. THE Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday set free prominent businessman James Rugemalira, in the 350bn/- economic trial he was facing. Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi discharged the businessman after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided to enter nolle prosequi certificate under section 91 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) to discontinue the prosecution of the charges against him. State Attorney Grace Mwanga presented the certificate in question in court, stating that the DPP would not prosecute the businessman on the charges of conspiracy, leading organised crime, obtaining money by false pretences, occasioning loss to a specified authority and money laundering. Following the DPP's decision, the magistrate ordered the businessman to leave the court premises as freeman, leaving behind his co-accused, Advocate Joseph Makandege, whose case will be mentioned on September 23, 2021, as investigations are still incomplete. He left the court premises with his close relatives and went straight to Makongo Juu Roman Catholic Church - Bikira Maria Mama wa Rozari (Virgin Mary Mother of the Rosary), for thanksgiving prayers to God, for the new dramatic turn of events involving the case in question. The businessman remained in remand for over four years. Nolle prosequi is a Latin phrase, which directly translates to 'not to wish to prosecute'. Nolle prosequi is a legal notice or entry of record that the prosecutor has decided to abandon the prosecution. It is a declaration made by a prosecutor in a criminal case declining to further pursue the case against the accused. Such a declaration may be made because the charges cannot be proved because vital witnesses have become unavailable or uncooperative, or the evidence is too weak to carry the burden of proof, thus, the prosecutor becomes doubtful whether the accused is guilty. Rugemalira was arraigned alongside the Executive Chairman of the Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL), Harbinder Sethi, to face the criminal charges on June 19, 2017. After remaining in remand for some years, the prosecution amended the charge sheet by adding Advocate Makandege into trial. Between October 18, 2011 and March 19, 2014, at various places in Dar es Salaam in the United Republic of Tanzania and various places in Republic of Kenya, South Africa and the Republic of India, jointly and together, they allegedly conspired to commit an offence of obtaining money by false pretences. Within the same period in the city of Dar es Salaam, the prosecution alleged, being not public officials but in collusion with public officers, all accused persons intentionally and knowingly managed, financed and furthered the objectives of a criminal racket with intent to reap profit or other benefit. Between November 29, 2013 and January 23, 2014 at Stanbic Bank Limited, Centre Branch in Kinondoni District and at Mkombozi Commercial Bank PLC, St. Joseph Branch in Ilala District, by false pretences, Rugemalira and Sethi allegedly obtained $22,198,544.60 and 309,461,300,158/27. The court heard further that on November 29, 2013 at Stanbic Bank Limited, Centre Branch in Kinondoni District, by their willful acts, jointly and together, Sethi and Regemalira allegedly caused the government of Tanzania to suffer a pecuniary loss of the said amount. It was alleged that on diverse days between November 29, 2013 and January 23, 2014 at different places in the city, jointly and together, the accused persons conspired to commit an offence of money laundering by acquiring from the Bank of Tanzania the money. On November 29, 2013 at Stanbic Bank Limited, Centre Branch in Kinondoni District, Sethi allegedly acquired the 22,198,544.60 US dollars from the BoT, while he knew at the time of acquisition of the money was the proceeds of the said predicate offence. The prosecution alleged further that between November 29, 2013 and March 14, 2014 at the same bank, Sethi acquired the 309,461,300,158/27 from BoT, while knowing that such money was the proceeds of a predicate offence of participating in an organised criminal group and racketeering. It was claimed also that on January 23, 2014 at Mkombozi Commercial Bank, St Joseph Branch in Ilala District, Rugemalira acquired 73,573,500,000/- from Sethi, while he knew at the time of acquisition the money was the proceeds of the said predicate offence. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The court was also told that on the same day at the same bank in Ilala District in the city, Rugemalira acquired from Sethi $22m (about 51bn/-), while knowing that the said money was the proceeds of a predicate offence of participating in an organised criminal group and racketeering. On his part, Makandege was charged with receiving a sum of $ 980,000 (about 2.3bn/) illegally at Stanbic Bank in Kinondoni District and UBL Bank (T) Limited in Ilala District between January and February 2014. He is also accused of laundering the said sum. In 2020, Sethi and Makandege expressed their wish to enter into agreement with the DPP to end the criminal trial under plea bargaining arrangement. On June 15, 2021, the court set Sethi free after agreeing to pay 26bn/- compensation to the government in the plea bargaining agreement with the DPP. Nairobi A new report has listed Makueni, Milimani Civil Division and Nakuru courts as the best performing courts in the country. The report titled the Performance Management and Measurement Understandings (PMMUs), 2019/2020 was released on Thursday by Chief Justice Martha Koome. Koome released the report when she launched her 10-year vision. She said that the court results had been categorized based on the number of filed cases. The Chief justice named Kisumu, Nakuru as the leading among Labor Courts in the country adding that six Magistrate's Courts performed well in this year's performance evaluation report. "There were six best performing Magistrate's Courts in the different categories. These were Limuru, Marsabit, Mombasa, Engineer, Tononoka Children's Court and Gatundu Magistrate Courts," she said. Garissa and Voi were categorized as the top performing Kadhi courts in the country. The event was attended by Philomena Mwilu, Deputy Chief Justice, Margaret Kamar, Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Jennifer Shamalla and Justice Agnes Murgor amongst others. The Chief Justice also named the Office of the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Office of the Registrar Environment and Land Court, Directorate, Supply Chain Management, and the Judiciary Training Institute as the best performing Administrative Units. Koome said that the Judiciary had chosen to follow the path of transformation and accountability in their efforts to improve service delivery to Kenyans. "As you will see from the vision, the path the Kenyan Judiciary has deliberately chosen is the path of societal transformation and change, the path of accountability for results, the path of transparency and openness, the path of quick and effective dispensation of justice and the path of provision of quality services to 18 litigants placing a lot of emphasis on Results Based Management," she said. The Chief Justice further added that the goal of applying the results-based management includes the institutionalization of a rewards system for high performers. Koome lauded all the key stakeholders for choosing to accept the new changes in regards to the performance of the Judiciary. "I thank all the actors in the Justice Sector, Judges, Judicial Officers, Judiciary staff, members of the Bar, office of the DPP, litigants, and other stakeholders for embracing these changes even as we work to resolve the teething problems experienced to ensure that our processes get more efficient," she said Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Koome said that some of the agendas of the judiciary is to improve service delivery and litigants' experiences in the post-pandemic social transformation era. She added that the next step after the launch of the judiciary's vision is the development of the next 10-year Judiciary blueprint that will guide operations for the next 10 years and standardize the values and systems in the way the judiciary manages courts and registries to support reporting, learning and performance. Koome praised the best performing courts saying their results paves way for the transformation of other courts across the country. "Kindly join me in appreciating the performance of these Courts, Tribunals and Administrative Units. Their exemplary performance will be an anchor-piece to the Vision's intention of internal benchmarking to create centers of excellence in the delivery of Justice.," she said. Koome stated that the benchmarking exercise will commence with the Nakuru Law Courts. She directed the Judiciary Training Institute, Directorate of Planning and Organizational Performance (DPOP) and Chief of Staff, to design performance case studies from the best performing courts in the country. Koome said that next week, her office will commence Town Hall Meetings led by the DCJ to discuss these findings with Judges, Judicial Officers, and members of Staff adding that their performance will be gauged on hoe they deliver justice to the members of the public. At least 75,000 children are set to benefit from home-based Early Childhood Development (ECDs) centres. The centres will provide holistic care to children in terms of education, nutrition, and healthcare. The beneficiaries are mainly from those parents who can't afford to holistically care for their young ones. So far, 4,905 out of the 5,000 home based ECDs have been established in 300 sectors across Rwanda, with focus on rural communities. The remaining 95 centres are expected to be established by September 30. Under the initiative, a home -mainly for one of the beneficiary parents in a given community - is selected to host the centre and it is equipped and caregivers appointed to take of the children in that area. The initiative was introduced by the Imbuto Foundation under the Office of the First Lady and the Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA), which is under the Ministry of Local Government. The plan was to be completed in June this year. However, speaking to The New Times, Clement Kabiligi, the Education Unit Coordinator at Imbuto Foundation, said that they were set back by the Covid-19 pandemic. "The pandemic interrupted field work activities and most required physical gatherings," he said. According to implementers of this project, one of its objectives is to address challenges including stunting in early development; from birth to six years of age. The percentage of stunted children under the age of 5 dropped from 38 per cent to 33 per cent in the last five years, as shown by latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda. About 35,000 caregivers have been trained and mentored to provide ECD services at these centres while 960 grassroots leaders have been trained and equipped with the necessary skills to train, monitor, support and supervise the program at grassroots levels. Each centre will have at least seven caregivers. Local leaders are expected to partner in reducing cases of stunting. Under the home-based ECDs initiative each centre has at least seven caregivers per site, one of them being their leader with 10 to 15 children. The intervention follows a study that assessed the impact of Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP)-which aims at eradicating extreme poverty and malnutrition, among other social-economic challenges. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Children By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Justin Gatsinzi, LODA's Social Protection Division Manager said: "We know VUP by income-generating projects, direct support, loan schemes, and more. We conducted a study, with questions like 'would this programme affect how parents take care of their children'? We thought the project was perfect, but we have since noted areas that needed to be strengthened, including gender equality and taking care of children," he said Currently, 2,318 home based ECDs are operational and 680 of these have started providing parenting sessions to parents in the community within 45 sectors. "These parenting sessions are aiming at building the capacity of parents and the community in general on positive parenting and child care in general," Kabiligi said Adding that other home based ECDs will soon start parenting programme soon before the end of September and expect to reach home-based ECDs program targets by December. However, sustainable results can be expected by December 2022. Trounces Sedimo at Court Judge declares Mogwera, Marenga legitimate BOPEU leaders Sedimo is not BOPEU NEC member - Justice Ketlogetswe * OARABILE MOSIKARE editors@thepatriot.co.bw Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) president Masego Mogwera has survived yet another palace coup engineered by one Kaboyaone Sedimo, who purported to be secretary general of the union. Mogwera and General Secretary Topias Marenga were forced to file an urgent application on the night of July 9, 2021 before Justice Gaopalelwe Ketlogetswe after receiving an email the previous day from Sedimo who had purported to call a special meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Union. One of the key items on the agenda of that special meeting was to deliberate on whether or not the NEC should exercise its powers to take disciplinary action against its president, Mogwera, and pending institution of such disciplinary proceedings, to consider suspending her from office. The special NEC meeting was scheduled to take place on July 10, 2021 at 1000 hours. In the meantime, Mogwera and Marenga were away from the office, and the meeting was to take place while the president of the Union was away. In releasing his judgement on Tuesday, Justice Ketlogetswe said: "In short, the respondent was planning a palace coup by some in the Union leadership, in the absence of the Union president. Masego Mogwera was jolted into action and convened a round robin meeting of the Union NEC to thwart the coup. The result was the institution of the present application on an urgent basis". The Judge said the special meeting was to be convened in the absence of the Union president, and without her knowledge and authority, which was clearly in violation of the Union constitution. "In my view, the applicants could not rely on the fact that the respondent was in any event acting illegally when calling a Union NEC special meeting, and think that it would be sufficient to argue later that such a meeting, being an illegality, did not produce any legally binding outcomes. They were obliged to act to protect the interests of the Union from chaos." In the present case the respondent was due to convene a meeting of the Union NEC which was clearly unauthorised by Mogwera, let alone by BOPEU's constitution. Ketlogetswe said the president was, in all likelihood, going to be suspended and another circle of litigation intended to restore the lawful leadership of the Union embarked upon. "BOPEU has traversed that terrain before, and on many occasions. It came to light during argument, and this came from the submissions of Mr [Yaone] Molatlhegi, that the respondent is not a member of the Union NEC. The Courts have, on many occasions, in the past pronounced who the lawful NEC members of the Union are, and this point needs no further debate, although Mr [Dutch] Leburu] was anxious that I should categorically state in this judgment that Topias Marenga was the lawful secretary general of BOPEU." He added: "I think that point has been made several times before by the courts and it will be of no further value-add even if I was to state it again. That is a settled matter and the respondent, in holding himself out as the secretary general of BOPEU is clearly acting not only unlawfully, but also in contempt of clear court decisions in that regard". The Judge then ordered that the meeting scheduled to be convened on July 10, 2021 at Travel Lodge or any other location found to be available in Gaborone or wherever, at the instance of Sedimo and pursuant to the notice issued on July 8, 2021 be cancelled. The notice disseminated by the respondent on July 8, 2021, dated the same date purporting to be from a Round Robin meeting be declared null and void and set aside. "The respondent is interdicted and/or restrained from purporting to be General Secretary of the 1st Applicant. The parties who are in law recognized as office bearers of BOPEU are as set out in the Notice issued by the Registrar of Trade Unions and dated the 12th May 2021." Ketlogetswe interdicted and/or restrained from obstructing any official of BOPEU as recognized in terms of Section 26 of the Trade Unions and Employers Organizations Act from performing their functions as such, including but not limited to access to the BOPEU offices and related matters. "The respondent be and is hereby ordered to pay the costs of this application on attorney and client scale." This was one of the many applications concerning BOPEU that has come before the Courts concerning the leadership of the Union. There have been many such other applications where either Mogwera, had to come to court to assert her legitimacy as the president of the Union in terms of the Union constitution, or to fend off attempts to undermine her claim to the Union leadership, or by others within the Union leadership, or without, who have also themselves come to court to seek orders legitimising their otherwise usurpation of the Union leadership and oust her from the presidency of the Union. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Botswana Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Mogwera, who is considered the 'Iron Lady' of labour unions, was elected BOEPU in December 2018, but before the ink could even dry on the Union resolution voting her president, she was on April 27, 2019, suspended from office at a gathering of some of the officials of the Union leadership. Alongside her, Marenga, then the union general secretary, was also suspended. In the place of Marenga, the respondent, Sedimo, was appointed by the new union leadership. Mogwera, according to her founding affidavit, challenged her suspension from the union presidency, including her subsequent removal from office, through long drawn legal battles which were resolved in her favour by the Courts. As part of the never-ending story of the fights within the Union according to Mogwera, on July 8, 2021, while she and Marenga were on their way to Maun to attend a meeting of Babereki Investments, she received an e-mail communication from the respondent, in his purported capacity as the general secretary of the Union. Kogi State Governor, His Excellency Yahaya Bello on Thursday played host to former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who just dumped the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Chief Fani-Kayode was earlier led on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House, Presidential Villa Abuja by the Governor of Yobe State and All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) Mai Mala Buni after his defection from the PDP to the APC. Fani-Kayode said his decision to join the APC was in view of the renewed vigour, open-door policy, teamwork, acceptability and inclusiveness that have become the hallmark of the APC today. He said haven worked closely with some key players in the party like Governor Yahaya Bello in resolving some national issues; he was convinced that the party believed in the unity and progress of the country. He commended Governor Yahaya Bello for his convincing role in wooing many oppositions party members into the APC as Chairman, Committee on Sensitization and Mobilization for Women, Youth and People Living with Disability. While congratulating Chief Fani-Kayode, Governor Bello assured the former Aviation Minister of equal rights and participation in the APC. The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has reserved ruling on the application filed by Lagos State Government seeking to join an appeal by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) challenging the judgement of a Port Harcourt Federal High Court. The Federal High Court had on Aug. 9, declared that it was Rivers government and not the FIRS that should collect Value Added Tax, (VAT) and Personal Income Tax in Rivers. At the resumed hearing of the matter on Thursday, Justice Haruna Tsammani, presiding over a three-man panel of the appellate court, reserved ruling after parties had argued the application for joinder filed by the Attorney- General of Lagos State, M.J. Onibanjo, SAN. Onibanjo told the court that the application was essentially seeking leave for Lagos State Attorney-General to be joined as a respondent in the appeal. After adopting all his processes he prayed the court to allow the applicant to be joined as a party in the suit. The Lagos Attorney-General argued that the principle of a joinder application was that the party seeking to be joined was a necessary party. He further posited that a party seeking to join must show that the party's interest would be legally or financially affected by the outcome of the legal action. Thirdly, the senior lawyer submitted that the party seeking to be joined would be bound by the decision arising from the action. He maintained that the 1999 Constitution empowered states as federating units to collect taxes, insisting that the FIRS in its counter affidavit, recognised that Lagos state was an interested party. According to him, the FIRS has made allegations against Lagos state government, and therefore it is not out of place for the applicant to be joined so as to defend the allegations in the spirit of fair hearing. "You cannot shave a man's head behind his back so it is in the spirit of fair hearing that the applicant makes this application." He added that the application for joinder if granted, would avoid a multiplicity of suits, since Lagos state already had a law empowering it to collect VAT. He prayed the court to grant the application for joinder in view of the inconsistencies contained in the counter affidavit of the FIRS. Counsel to the first respondent, (Rivers) Mr Ifedayo Adedipe, SAN, aligned himself with the submission of the Lagos Attorney-General. For his part, counsel to FIRS, Mr Mahmud Magaji, SAN, prayed the court not to join Lagos State government in the appeal. Magaji argued that the application filed by Lagos State was faulty in that it relied on Section 243 (1) (a) (b) and Section 6 (6) of the 1999 Constitution. According to Magaji, in the entire 19 -paragraph affidavit, the applicant has not stated how aggrieved he is with the judgment of the Federal High Court. He urged the appellate court to note that even after the ruling that all parties should maintain status quo, Lagos State Government went ahead to sign its VAT law. He added that where the court was minded to add Lagos State, it should also add the remaining 34 states of the federation. The appellate court reserved the ruling to a date to be communicated to all parties.. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that on Sept. 6, a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, in a judgement declared that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) had no constitutional backing to collect VAT in the state, thereby clothing the Rivers government with the power to do so. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. However, the federal revenue agency was dissatisfied with the trial court's verdict, and subsequently approached the Court of Appeal to stay execution of the decision. A three-member panel of the appellate court, ruling on the application, ordered the parties to "maintain status quo ante bellum." Haruna Tsanami, the judge who delivered the lead ruling of the panel, held that since parties had submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the court for adjudication on the issue, they must not do anything that will destroy the subject matter of the appeal. NAN reports that FIRS in its appeal marked CA/PH/282/202 is praying the court to set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court, in Port Harcourt, which granted power to the state government to collect VAT. (NAN) Vanguard News Nigeria The Ekiti State Government has debunked the rumour that some COVID-19 vaccines are spoilt due to the lack of electricity supply in the state. Dr Oyebanji Filani, the State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, made the denial in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti. Filani noted that the rumour making the rounds in some quarters on the vaccines being spoilt is not only false and unfounded, but also meant to misinform the general public. According to him, the available COVID-19 vaccines were delivered to the State in good condition. "The vaccines are being stored in the State Cold Store in line with the appropriate guidance and requirements on vaccine handling and storage. "The Moderna vaccine is currently stored at a temperature of -43.2-degree Celsius," he said. Filani disclosed that the state had trained, motivated and deployed 92 vaccination teams, comprising 582 persons, to ensure accurate movement and administration of vaccines. "The State Cold Store is equipped with 24/7 power supply to maintain the potency of the vaccines. "During vaccination campaigns, vaccines are moved from the State Cold Store in Cold Chain Boxes to maintain the optimum temperature. "We have continued to ensure that these vaccines are transported within the recommended temperature range. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "As at 12 noon Thursday, the 16th of September, 2021, Ekiti State has exhausted her first dose of the Moderna vaccines with 47,839 persons vaccinated. "This is in addition to over 70,000 persons who have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. "As a matter of fact, the State vaccination wastage rate is currently the lowest in the country," he said. The Commissioner said information on the COVID-19 response in Ekiti State, including vaccination, could be obtained from the Ministry of Health and Human Services through the Office of the Honourable Commissioner for Health. He maintained that the health and safety of the good people of Ekiti remains a top priority for the Dr Kayode Fayemi administration. "We encourage everyone to refrain from spreading unfounded rumours that could create panic and mistrust in the health system. "The available COVID-19 vaccines in Ekiti State are proven to be safe and effective in preventing severe illness from COVID-19 and we encourage everyone to get vaccinated," Filani added. DELTA State Government, yesterday, revoked the multi-million naira contract for the construction of Asaba/Oko-Amakom/Oko-Obiokpu/Oko-Anala Road awarded in 2018 due to poor performance. State Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, who briefed newsmen in Asaba after the State Executive Council, SEC, meeting, presided over by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, said the road transversing the Oko communities in Oshimili South LGA of the state has been a major challenge to the state government over the years, due to the peculiar topography of the area. Aniagwu who was flanked by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Olisa Ifeajika, said the contractor was not working in line with the speed expected by the government which necessitated the revocation. Disclosing that some monies had been paid to the contractor as mobilisation fees, he said the state government would check its records and evaluate the contract performance with a view to finding out if the contractor would refund any money to the government. He said the state government would engage another contractor with adequate capacity to complete the job in line with the speed required for the completion of the project. Aniagwu in another development said the state government had approved the construction and reticulation of a major water scheme in Okerenkoko in Warri South Local Government Area of the state as part of efforts to provide potable water and reduce communicable diseases. He said Exco also approved the inclusion of certain erosion sites in Warri as part of efforts to address flooding in the twin cities of Warri and Effurun. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Transport By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Aniagwu said: "On education, Exco approved the demolition and reconstruction of a two-story building not in good shape at West End Grammar School, Asaba. "The project includes expansion of the building to 20 classrooms to enable the school run one session instead of the morning and afternoon session it currently operates and the provision of a conference hall for assembly as well as toilets. "Exco also approved the renaming of Ogini Grammar School, Oghara to Ogini Model Secondary School, Oghara and the approval of training and acquisition of starter packs in ICT for youths in the state for the Ministry of Science and Technology. "At Exco, we also discussed the provisions made for the various ministries in the 2022 proposed budget and the possibility of a supplementary budget for 2021." Angola is celebrating on September 17, 2021, the 99th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto, writer, politician and first President of the Republic of Angola, born on 17, 1922. As Angola's first President, Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto founded the foundations by which this nation is built daily. Thus, in his tribute and his deeds for the benefit of Angolans, the date of his birth was consecrated as the Day of the Founder of the Nation and the National Hero, aimed to keep the principles, ideals and teachings of this illustrious son of Angola. The national security taskforce has intercepted two fuel tankers carrying 43 000 litres of fuel that was being smuggled from South Africa to Zimbabwe via the Beitbridge Border Post. Each truck was carrying unleaded petrol worth approximately R74 500 in import duty. National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said one of the drivers Joseph Selowa, a South African national was arrested on Wednesday last week. He said the second driver was on the run. "Indications are that on the day in question, our team received a tip-off about the vehicles that were smuggling fuel into the country. "They then reacted and caught up with the suspect at the Beitbridge Border Post". He said Selowa was driving a tanker (HMD 437 FS) with a trailer (HPW201FS) while the other driver of the tanker (319ERBGP) evaded arrest. The two Infinite Transport tankers, he said were carrying a combined 43 800 litres of petrol destined for Memo Petroleum in Bulawayo. A mine manager was attacked and killed on Wednesday night in Saruwe area, Mashonaland West, and the entire night shift of the mine has vanished with 20 tonnes of gold ore and a quantity of explosives. Asst Comm Nyathi identified the dead man as Robert James Chilpott aged 68. A manhunt has been launched, focussing on the missing shift. Although the details were still sketchy by yesterday, police suspect that the employees could have been in the habit of stealing gold or gold concentrates after processing the gold ore during the night. The attack occurred at Sanary Mine at around 11pm with Mr Chilpott managing the mine on behalf of the owner who is based in South Africa. "We have also established that the employees were mining gold ore, which they would later process into gold during the night and on the day in question, the now deceased ambushed the workers at around 11pm and discovered that they had processed the gold," Asst Comm Nyathi said. It is suspected that he questioned them and an argument arose and he was then attacked and died on the spot. Police officers were yesterday still at the mine trying to ascertain what had transpired. This is not the first time that mine employees have been found on the wrong side of the law in Saruwe. In October 2019, ZRP Saruwe recovered 30 tonnes of chrome ore that had been stolen at a mine in Selous through connivance by employees at the mine. The driver of the truck was reported to have taken off with the chrome before the quantity could be verified and through assistance by other employees he managed to leave the company premises. A report was then made to the police and the truck was intercepted at a roadblock. The chrome was valued at US$30 000. Gold panners have also been embroiled in clashes over gold, which have left others seriously injured and others killed. In April this year, a man was allegedly murdered by an artisanal miner at a gold mill in Amatola within the Jumbo Mine area during a scuffle over gold proceeds. Allegations were that the deceased, Richard Makoto, had sponsored a group of artisanal miners to mine the gold and in return would share with them the proceeds after selling the ore. Reports said a heated argument arose between Makoto and the artisanal miners before one of them hit him on the head with a shovel, killing him instantly. The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services yesterday announced the promotion of 1 905 members to various ranks of the non-commissioned officers. The promotions are in terms of section (9)(3)(b) of the Prisons Act Chapter 7:11 and are effective from last Wednesday. Announcing the promotions in Harare of 1 387 males and 518 females, ZPCS Support Services Deputy Commissioner-General Social Ndanga said the promotions were based on a number of considerations. "The Commissioner-General of Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service has in terms of section (9)(3)(b) of the Prisons Act Chapter 7:11 promoted a total of 1 905 members to various ranks of the Non-Commissioned Officers ranks with effect from 15 September 2021. "The promotion coincides with His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe's birthday which falls on 15 September. Male constitute (1 387) 73 percent against (518) 27 percent of their female counterparts," he said. "The promotions were based on merit, professional qualifications, good behaviour, hardworking and loyalty. One of the motivational principles of any organisation is to reward its human capital through promotions hence this gesture." Comm-Gen Ndanga urged the promoted staffers to be innovative. "I implore the promoted to come up with innovations in their levels in complementing Government policies which are aimed at generating and perpetuating economic buoyancy and growth," he said. Nierteti A farmer from North Nierteti camp for the displaced has been murdered and her daughter and mother seriously injured in an attack by armed herders on their farm near Nierteti in Central Darfur on Wednesday. Reporting from the area, Adam Okar told Radio Dabanga that armed herders attacked the farm in the Goz Mata area, 10 kilometres north of Nierteti on Wednesday afternoon. They used sticks and axes to assault Aisha Zakaria (47), her daughter Kawsar Eisa (18), and her mother Fatima Ahmed (65). Aisha Zakaria died instantly from an axe blow to her head. Her mother Fatima Ahmed suffered a serious eye injury. Okar says that the body of the slain woman, as well as the injured, were transferred to Nierteti, where Aisha Zakaria was buried on Wednesday. A report was filed with the police, however, the incident caused a large number of people to leave their farms due to insecurity. He said that a force of the army and police along with the executive director went to the scene of the accident to pursue the perpetrators. Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has suspended the prime minister's power to hire and fire officials, he said in a statement on Thursday, escalating a destabilizing row in the Horn of Africa nation. The dispute between Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble, nominally over a murder investigation, marks an escalation of months of tension between them in a country riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries. "The prime minister violated the constitution," the president said in the statement, saying the suspension will last until the conclusion of elections later this year. There was no immediate comment from Roble. Mohamed and Roble had clashed in April, when the president unilaterally extended his four-year term by two years, prompting army factions loyal to each man to seize rival positions in the capital, Mogadishu. Ghana's President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged leaders of ECOWAS to make informed decisions on Guinea's political crisis as it will have long-term consequences for the stability and the defence of the democratic values of the region. President Akufo-Addo, the current ECOWAS Chair, urged his colleagues' Presidents to proffer durable solutions to the crisis and expressed confidence that "as in the past, we will rise to the occasion." The ECOWAS Chair said leaders attending the emergency summit in Accra on the political crisis in Guinea and Mali -- eight presidents, one vice president and three foreign ministers -- "is a clear manifestation of the solidarity and commitment of the ECOWAS Community, to the democracy, peace prosperity, and unity of the region" Speaking at the opening secession of the Second Extraordinary Summit in Accra on Monday, on the political crisis in those two West African countries, President Akufo-Addo said the ECOWAS Authority had received reports from the high-level delegation sent to Guinea to access the situation, and the mediator of the Malian crisis, Goodluck Jonathan on developments in Mali. Last Friday, Ghana's Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, with the ECOWAS delegation, visited Guinea to assess the crisis and discuss the possibilities of the coup-makers returning power to civilian rule. According to President Akufo-Addo, the delegation met with the military leaders and saw president Alpha Conde in his place of detention. Leaders of ECOWAS member states are meeting in Accra, Ghana, Monday to discuss Mali's political crisis and the military take over in Guinea and the possible return of power to a civilian government. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Mali West Africa Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. At an extraordinary summit held virtually on Wednesday, September 8, the members suspended Guinea's membership. They demanded a return to constitutional order, days after the country's military removed President Alpha Conde from power. The West Africa's regional bloc also demanded the immediate release of Conde, who was arrested by Guinea's special forces led by Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya last Sunday. The leaders at the meeting also agreed to send a high-level mission to Guinea on Thursday, September 9, while at the end of the mission's work, ECOWAS would re-examine its position on the matter. Presidents of Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Cape, Verde, Niger, and Nigeria are attending the summit. Accra, Ghana, Thursday 16 September 2021 - His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio is in Accra to attend the one-day extraordinary summit of Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Authority of Heads of State and Government under the distinguished Chairmanship of His Excellency Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana. Speaking during the opening session, the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Akufo-Addo, thanked his colleagues for honouring his invitation and for the prompt actions they had taken since the occurrence of the political situation in Guinea. He also informed his colleagues that the extraordinary session would be receiving the report of the high-level ECOWAS mission to Guinea, which would form the basis of the deliberation of the closed-door session by the Heads of State and Government. "We hope that this extraordinary summit will help proffer durable solution to the crisis," President Akufo-Addo stated. The expected intervention of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio, during the closed-door session, will be very crucial not only as one of the closest neighbours of Guinea but also as a former military Head of State who transitioned Sierra Leone from military rule to democratic rule in the late 1990s. The President was accompanied to Accra by Sierra Leone's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Professor David J. Francis. For More Enquiries: State House Media and Communications Unit London The government of South Korea, through its Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), has donated 5.7 million US dollars to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for its project to support smallholder farmers in the central Mozambican province of Sofala. According to a WFP press release, the project will improve food security and livelihoods with a focus on climate resilience for smallholder farmers. The project will begin in the districts of Chemba, Maringue, and Caia, and by the time the project is completed in 2025 it will have helped 36,000 smallholder farmers and their families. The project will be run in association with Mozambique's Ministry of Land and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the National Meteorology Institute (INAM). WFP points out that Mozambique is one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and that "over the past three years, five tropical cyclones (Desmond, Idai, Kenneth, Chalane, Eloise, and Guambe) have caused human and material damage mainly in central Mozambique". According to Antonella D'Aprile, WFP Country Director in Mozambique, "this generous donation from the people of Korea through KOICA will help change the lives of Mozambicans most affected by climate change". She explained that "by supporting smallholder farmers to become climate-resilient, we are also protecting their livelihoods and food security of their families and communities". Monrovia A high-level Liberian government delegation currently visiting the United States has met with the Director of the U.S. President's National Security Council, Madam Dana Banks. The delegation discussed a wide range of issues concerning Liberia and the broader West African sub-region with Madam Banks, who is also President Joe Biden's Special Assistant. Banks assured the delegation that Liberia remains a strategic partner of the U.S. She outlined key "contours" of the Biden Administration's policy on Africa. "This policy will be mutually beneficial to Africa and the US, and Liberia as a strategic partner will be very involved in our strategic approach", Madam Banks said. Continuing, she said "some of the key contours of our Africa Policy will be addressing the COVID Pandemic with a focus on assisting countries like Liberia in their economic recovery efforts. We are quite aware of the impact of the pandemic on economies in Africa and will work with countries like Liberia on this front". The themes of the discussion included domestic and international security, the MCC Compact, Energy, with a focus on the Liberia Electricity Corporatioon, the fight against corruption and the upcoming bicentennial celebration of the arrival of freed slaves. Banks pledged to work with Liberia in its drive to secure the second Millennium Challenge Corporation's coveted Compact Program, as she outlined areas Liberia needs to continue making progress that would serve to encourage U.S. policy makers. On the bicentennial, the U.S President Special Assistant, who has a wealth of experience on Africa, said the U.S. will work with Liberia to ensure the commemoration of this milestone program. "Ours [policy] is a positive approach and posture towards Africa and we will be with Liberia with historical ties to the U.S. in commemorating the bicentennial," she said. Making remarks earlier, both Ministers Nathaniel F. McGill and Samuel Tweah Jr., of the Ministries of Sate and Finance respectively, who are senior members of the Liberian delegation, heralded President George Weah's desire for more engagements with Washington. "We are a country founded by freed slaves from the U.S. and Liberians hold the U.S. in a special place. We are therefore looking for more engagements", the Liberian Minister of State for Presidential Affairs averred. For his part, the Minister for Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah, updated Director Banks on Liberia's economic resurgence, saying economic recovery after Covid is positive and that the government is committed to broader economic and investment climate reforms. " The projections for our GDP now show that growth will reach about 4-percent". He said through the "painstaking" macroeconomic reforms the government has undertaken, "we've been able to obtain for the first time in ten years a substantial increase in domestic revenue generation " The government economic and governance programs are already aligned to the Biden Administration's Africa Priorities which is heavy on democratic rights. Tweah said Liberia's democracy is equal to that of America in terms of respect for term limits and fundamental freedoms. President Weah even recently campaigned to reduce his length of time in office from six to five years, indicating his strong committment to democratic values. Meanwhile, renowned Republican Senator, Ted Cruz, has also welcomed the Liberian government's delegation to the U.S. Capital. During a visit to his office, he committed to be a strong voice in the U.S. Congress for Liberia. " We share something in common, the Lone Star", the Senator gleefully remarked - referring to the Liberian and the State of Texas' flags that have the single white star. "Also like President Weah and key members of the Weah led Administration who come from an underprivileged background. My father was imprisoned for his stance on freedom for the underprivileged" Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Governance U.S., Canada and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said he follows Liberia and will be a "voice for the country too along with Lindsay"-a reference to his congressional colleague Senator Lindsay Graham. Minister McGill previoulsy told Senator Cruz of the story of President Weah who emerged from the underprivileged class of Liberians to become the President of the country. He said this feat by President Weah has not gone down well with the longstanding Political Class of the country who go at lengths to malign and demonize the President. Minister McGill then extended an invitation to the Texan Senator to visit Liberia and be a part of the bicentennial commemoration in Monrovia next year. The former Republican Presidential Candidate said he will consider highly the request and could visit Liberia next year The Liberian delegation is expected to meet with more Biden Administration officials, and Congressmen and Women across party lines in the coming days. At a routine Cabinet meeting on 14 September 2019, it was resolved that all civil servants be vaccinated in line with the World Health Organisation Covid-19 protocols, leaving those who do not want to be vaccinated to choose not to report for duty instead. This seems draconian in the eyes of the country's detractors and "dark forces" condition of employment might seem to be infringing on the rights of the individuals that do not want to be vaccinated as it leaves them with no choice. However, this move has to be looked at through the big picture eye. In any case, this is not a move peculiar to Zimbabwe only, as also last week, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring all United States federal employees to be vaccinated. The executive order also specifies that companies with 100 000 employees and above should ensure that their workers are vaccinated or that they test them weekly, failure of which they are fined thousands of dollars per employee. This American executive order came barely a few days after Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi set the tone for the Zimbabwe situation at a meeting in Chinhoyi where he explained that whilst the Government respects the provisions of individual rights as provided for in the constitution, individual rights should not infringe on the rights of the majority and what is a public good. Therefore, Tuesday's Cabinet order is not at all derived from the American stance, but is the new normal happening everywhere and this vindicates the government's action. This should be put in dark ink because some oppositional characters to Government stance on vaccination appear to posit that the authorities are just following what others are doing without serious thought to it. Let it be reiterated that authorities are acting in the interest of public good; the health of citizens takes precedence over other rights. Simple. It is a fact that Zimbabwe has shown the way in dealing with Covid-19 administration to the rest of the continent and the world at large. The Government deserves commendation on this. Anything to the contrary is driven by hatred and malice. A professor at some university in a far afield land, on being asked by a student what he had to say on their university requirements on vaccination as "an infringement on their rights of free movement" had this to say and will quote in verbatim: "We already infringe on your movements. You can't cross the border without a passport. You can't drive a car without a licence. You can't ride the bus without a pass. You can't cross the street unless the light is green. You can't enter a nightclub unless your ID card says you are over 18. You can't enter private property ... and the university is private property ... unless the owners give you permission. "Moreover, you can't inject heroin into your veins because that is against the public good. You can't drive your car as fast as you want because that is against the public good. You can't defecate on the sidewalk because that is against the public good. And you can't come to campus without being vaccinated because that is against the public good. "A free society is not anarchic society. If you do not want to be vaccinated, you have the freedom not to come to campus." It is an accepted reality that Covid-19 is a global pandemic and government swiftly declared it a national disaster in March 2020. In such a scenario, only unbalanced individuals, which some other professor would call retrogressive forces, would expect a responsible government to sit on its laurels whilst humanity is under threat, that threat compounded by the noise of attention seeking conspiracy theorists. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. It is reported elsewhere that Cuba is vaccinating s two-year olds whilst Australia is vaccinating 12-yearolds. Let it be known that if Government missteps in its response to this pandemic the same individuals or groups will still lash out at Government. With this background, Government must continue doing its best to protect citizens. So, yes there will be grumblings around and among civil servants but it is for the good of the public that Government has been forced to take the seemingly infamous position. It is a move showing a Government so sure footed in decision making and on this one, the whole nation must stand behind it. Covid-19 is not for politicking but decisive action. Government employees are, thus implored to stand behind their employer and support it too if they believe in the basic tenets of employer-employee relations. And on this one the employer is right. Get vaccinated. It is either the homeland or not! Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM) has reacted to the arrest of three persons accused of posing as military personnel and extorting money at mine sites in the Manso area of the Ashanti Region. The association has also criticised the military and other security agencies fighting illegal mining for undermining taskforce members formed by the association a few months ago and inaugurated by the Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Mireku Duker, to contribute to the fight of the menace. Last Wednesday, Collins Anim, Obeng Daniel and Edward Akwasi Anokye were arrested at a mining site in the Manso Nkwanta enclave for allegedly extorting money from some miners. Ashanti Regional security liaison, Kofi Arthur (rtd), confirmed that they were arrested by the National Task Force deployed to check illegal mining. According to the Association, it was unfortunate for the three persons members of the taskforce to be accused of harassment and extortion without anyone hearing their side of the story. At a press briefing on Monday, the communications director of the GNASSM, Alhassan Abdul Razak, indicated "... we are very much aware that some individuals within some of our security institutions who are playing various roles in the illegal mining fight are not happy about the formation of our taskforce." But, "we wish to emphasise that we are not here to deprive anybody of his daily bread.We are rather here as investors determined to prevent the bad nuts in the industry from engaging in illegal mining and prevent sanctions from being imposed on all mining investors." Mr Razak wondered why "three persons were paraded instead of five who were arrested", saying that the other two were the cameraman of the association, Prince Amo and AlhassanAcquah, who was visited by the accused. He explained that the association received a report from a member of GNASSM (Acquah) that his concession in the Manso-Watereso- Adeja area in the Amansie South District had been invaded by illegal miners. FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, WATERESO Lupane Health officials in Matabeleland North have intensified surveillance after students and teachers at two Lupane schools tested positive to Covid-19. In an update report, the Education Ministry said the headmaster of Fatima High in Lupane's Gwayi area and a teacher at Mabhikwa secondary in the same district had tested positive. This had forced massive contact tracing and PCR testing resulting in a number of students testing positive. By Thursday the number of positive cases at both schools had risen to 20. "Teams are on the ground in the company of health officials and other stakeholders to assess the situation and test students. More than 300 had been tested at Fatima by Wednesday and we are still waiting for results," said an official from the Education Ministry. Lessons are, however, continuing at both schools. However, NewZimbabwe.com was told that teachers were scared of continuing with lessons fearing for their lives. "Teachers are scared and some are no longer going to classes for fear of being infected. Authorities have, however, assured health teams will be at the schools to monitor the situation," said a source. Lupane District Medical Officer George Mutizira said the situation had been contained. "Everything is under control and we are still doing contact tracing. A majority of them were asymptomatic hence we only detected them through contact tracing, but we have managed to contain the situation as all the affected have been isolated," he said. A number of schools have been hit by the virus since schools opened three weeks ago. Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa Tuesday said 132 Covid-19 cases had been reported in schools this term. Last year, the government prematurely closed schools after hundreds of pupils tested positive as the pandemic spread around learning institutions. THE High Court has quashed a bail application pending appeal by Chinhoyi police armoury officer-in-charge Inspector Clive Kadambure, Edmore Manuwere, former police officer Wonder Kwaramba, and Patrick Chirara, facing charges of smuggling ammunition out of the country. High Court judge, Justice Benjamin Chikowero last week ruled the quartet was not suitable candidates for bail as robberies committed using firearms, both registered and unregistered, were on the increase. "In my judgment, the sense of peace and security among members of the public will be undermined by the release of applicants," the judge. "This is so because even at bail hearing stage, the picture which is before me is that 55 high calibre firearms have fallen into the wrong hands," noted the judge. All the 55 rifles are still unaccounted for. Three different firearms dealers reportedly sold the weapons to Kadambure over five years from 2016 to this year. At least 22 accounts were preferred against Manuwere over the same period with five dealers said to have sold him the weapons. He allegedly sold 20 of them to poachers and armed robbers. Some are alleged to have been shipped out of the country. Kwaramba is facing 17 counts, some of which arose from alleged dealings in firearms. Despite the fact that Kwaramba resigned from the ZRP two years ago, six out of the 17 counts he is facing are alleged to have been committed after he had left the police service. In addition to those firearms alleged to have been smuggled out of the country, some are said to have been sold to poachers and armed robbers. Another three registered firearms dealers sold the guns to Kwaramba. Chirara is charged with nine counts. There are seven counts relate to alleged dealing in firearms in 2019, and two counts committed this year while nine rifles were involved, with two registered firearms dealers having sold the weapons to Chirara. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received Thursday 16/9/2021 Head of Libya's Government of National Unity, Abdel Hamid Al-Dabaiba. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister, Dr. Moustafa Madbouly, and Director of the General Intelligence Service, Abbas Kamel. President El-Sisi welcomed Mr. Al-Dabaiba in Egypt where he arrived to participate in the meetings of the Joint Egyptian-Libyan Higher Committee. The President underscored the utmost priority Egypt accords to restoring stability in Libya so as to enable it to reclaim its regional and international role. The President reiterated Egypt's firm position in respect of Libya's sovereignty and territorial integrity, rejecting all forms of foreign intervention in Libya's internal affairs. President El- Sisi confirmed the importance of strengthening the cohesion of Libya's national institutions and uniting its national army to protect the resources of the Libyan people and reinforce their free will. President El-Sisi lauded the endeavors of Mr. Al-Dabaiba's government, at the domestic level, to improve the living conditions of the Libyan citizen. The President expressed confidence in the ability of the Libyan people to overcome all challenges they are facing in efforts toward the reconstruction of a robust modern state, capable of reinforcing security and stability across all parts of the country. For his part, Mr. Al-Dabaiba reiterated Libya's profound appreciation, at the official and popular levels, for Egypt's key role under the wise leadership of President El-Sisi, to maintain peace and stability in Libya. This comes in light of the historic and brotherly relations that bind the two countries, particularly with regard to supporting Libya's national institutions and transferring Egyptian expertise in the reconstruction and development of Libya to fulfill the aspirations of the Libyan people for a secure and dignified life. The Head of Libya's Government of National Unity looked forward to further advancing Egyptian-Libyan relations across all areas for the benefit of the two peoples and to support Egyptian investments to implement various projects in Libya. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Libya Governance Egypt By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Spokesman of the Presidency noted that the meeting focused on developments in Libya. President El-Sisi valued the recent electoral law passed by Libya's House of Representatives as a cornerstone on the path toward implementing the roadmap agreed-upon by the Libyans, which will culminate in holding parliamentary and presidential elections at end of the year as scheduled. The President voiced Egypt's readiness to provide all assistance necessary to help the Libyan brothers create a conducive environment to implement the fundamental electoral milestone. This comes in respect for and enforcement of the will of the Libyan people, which emanate from the principles of the Egyptian policy, based on cooperation, construction, development and respect for the values and principles of good neighborliness. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli said that the Egyptian government is keen on providing all political, logistical and economic support for Libya to complete the country's political road map. Madbouli's remarks came during a press conference that he held on Thursday with Head of Libya's National Unity Government Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh following the conclusion of the Egyptian-Libyan Higher Committee's meetings that convened for the first time in 12 years. Madbouli explained that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi emphasized during his meeting with Dbeibeh that Egypt is keen on supporting all Libyan parties to finalize the political road map and achieve the Libyan people's aspirations for stability, growth and prosperity in the coming phase. He added that Egyptian and Libyan ministerial delegations agreed to implement several projects in Libya in the fields of energy, electricity, industry, trade, transport, aviation, sports, education, infrastructure and security. Madbouli noted that major Egyptian companies would participate in carrying out infrastructure projects in Libya. A CHINHOYI-based driving school female manager has been sentenced to a custodial jail term for stealing US$1 900 from her colleague's house. Margaret Makosa aged 27 of Gunhill suburb in Chinhoyi was Wednesday slapped with 15 months imprisonment for unlawful entry. However, Makosa, who pleaded not guilty, had three months of the sentence suspended for five years, on condition she does not commit a similar offence. Magistrate Melody Rwizi further set aside six months on condition Makosa restitutes complainant, Mukudzei Masangomai (26), the stolen cash before 30 November 2021. This means Makosa will serve an effective six months behind bars. In her defence, Makosa, who was represented by lawyer Tinashe Dzvore, argued she never stole the cash and denied the chronological account of events on the day the money went missing as given by her aggrieved friend. She further alleged Masangomai, who is employed by the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), was framing her on trumped-up charges, with the help of her landlord, daughter to the house owner, and the police. The state-led by Tendai Tapi told the court on 3 January this year, at around 10 am, Makosa went to Masangomai's lodgings in Mzari suburb, where she found her in the company of her daughter. She reportedly asked for a change for US$100 from Masangomai who went and unlocked her wardrobe containing US$1 900 before drawing out a US$10 note and put back the rest of the cash. The court heard that at around 11 am the same day, the accused person requested Masangomai, her unnamed daughter, and one Mellisa to accompany her to Orange Grove suburb where she wanted to visit an uncle. The quartet jumped into the accused's Nissan March vehicle and drove to the uncle's place and later returned to Masangomai's rented house at around lunchtime. Whilst in the house, Makosa told the complainant that she wasn't feeling well and asked for some pain stop tablets. Makosa slept on the complainant's bed for a while before waking up around 3 pm. She then offered to take everyone to the motel to enjoy dinner later that evening. In preparation for the outing, Makosa asked to be accompanied to her Gunhill home in order for her to change clothes. Whilst at Gunhill, Makosa told Masangomai that she wanted to dash to Banket town, some 20 kilometres away, to collect her lover only identified as Gono. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. She vanished only to return bragging that her boyfriend, who could not come over due to other pressing commitments, had given her US$150 to spend. At around 6 pm, they proceeded to Orange Grove Motel where they found the place closed. They decided to go to Masangomai's residence where she discovered her money was missing. The complainant requested Makosa to take her to Chinhoyi Central Police Station, but she refused. Makosa reasoned that the cash had been taken by goblins. The following morning, Masangomai made a police report and investigations nailed Makosa. Nothing was recovered. opinion On Thursday 2nd September, 2021 the National People's Party (NPP) and the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) formed an alliance that seems not to be a popular initiative. The People Progressive Party (PPP) leader also said his party has no problem with the alliance, arguing that in the 2017 National Assembly and Council elections, the PPP put up candidates throughout the country, half of whom were APRC supporters. Whilst there is little or no objection for a merger between political masses this particular one is unpopular for a number of reasons. Firstly, the alliance potentially could undermine the report of the TRRC; the objectiveis principally for party interest rather than of national interest. Secondly, the merger is likely to try to absolve ex-President Yahya Jammeh from legal responsibility for his actions whilst in office. Another objective for the alliance could be to enhance Barrow's victory on the December 4thPresidential elections. These reasons and conclusions arebeing buttressed by the disclosures of Afrobarameter's recent survey publication that Gambians have expressed mixed feelings for the ex-president Yahya Jammeh to receive amnesty and his assets return to him.According to the survey 73% of people want Jammeh to face justice and his assets confiscated by the state and for all perpetrators of offenses to be prosecuted according to law. The APRC announcement at a press conference held at Coco Ocean Hotel on Saturday 4th September 2021 that it has agreed to form an alliance with the NPP has triggered a wide-scale condemnation. While it is advocated to promote national reconciliation, this initiative of an alliance is probably premature. The alliance could have been propagated after implementation of the Truth, Reconciliation & Reparations Commission (TRRC) report and after ex-president Jammeh had answered to the numerous allegations. The TRRC sittings had received testimonies that revealed that 240 people were unlawfully killed during the 22 years rule of dictatorship of Jammeh.There were challenges faced by the families of victims of enforced disappearances. We heard of testimonies of a woman kicked in her genital area with a military boots. (The Point for Freedom and Democracy)About three hundred ninety-two (392) witnesses including those who participated in the killings through the instructions of Jammeh have appeared before the Commission and the testimonies of nearly all of them included human rights abuses, killings and mysterious disappearances of people; unlawful detention of people for a long period without access to a lawyer; abuse of power, sacking of government officials without genuine reasons, and misuse of government funds. As early as 1994/1995, Yahya Jammeh started calling journalists'the illegitimate sons of Africa'.He illegally and unconstitutionally declared the state Islamic that threatened the religious harmony always known to exist in the Gambia. For all these stated reasons ex-President YahyaJammeh's return to The Gambia has the potential, as stated earlier, to create instability because his victims will not forget easily. Some commentators have dubbed the NPP /APRC Alliance as 'Axis of Evil rather than Axis of Good'.Others refer to it as 'An unholy Alliance'.Playing politics with the TRRC under the pretext of national reconciliation 'Never Again!' would be the greatest deception. The atrocities revealed at the TRRC do not seem to be given any seriousness by the government in all the circumstances. Some personal opinions were expressed, that the NPP/APRC coalition and the return of Yahya Jammeh would bring peace to the Gambia. However, the persons that made such statementshave not indicated whether Yahya Jammeh would be held accountable, whether his allegedly stolen wealth would be returned and whether the victims would be appropriately compensated.The 'Reparations' as is enshrined in the TRRC Act are meant to be delivered. Individuals and merged political masses can forgive and forget but this is not the reactionsbeing received from the general population. It should be noted that a national issue, as significantas this, is well beyond two political entities to negotiate away; the alliance has absolutely nothing to do with Gambia as a country. It has all the indications that it's all about Barrow's desire to stay in power. It's for his personal, rather than the national interest. We still remember 'who held the knife that killed the Lion?'.Matthew Jallow, a distinguished political commentator, has this to say: 'Everyone should put their presidential aspirations in the back burner for the purpose of putting Gambia back on track. This is a moment when everyone's patriotism is put to the test. The Gambia deserves it. Citizens need it'. This alliance, it must be said,even threatens the efforts of national reconciliation and represents an apparent betrayal of the Gambian people notably the victims of state terror and terrorized religious communities. Many who suffered are still distressed as a result of the Jammeh regime. Madi Jobarteh, a reputable political commentator, has justifiably stated: 'So long as Tinpot Dictator Yaya Jammeh and the APRC leadership remain in denial, unremorseful, unrepentant and insulting victims and Gambians every day, any talk of forgiveness and reconciliation is mere hypocrisy! Here is another related quote from Sidi Cherno Jammeh/World Bank Group--IMF African Society Chairman Emeritus; 'Any political alliance and/or partnership between President Barrow and the APRC, even by appearance, will tantamount to a stunning betrayal of everything that Gambians fought so very hard for in December 2016. That would be a mistake'. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Sacrifices were made then to make the Gambia depart from Jammeh's regimeand adventurism. People who had been forced into exile have regained trust and confidence and are returning home. Therefore, any MOU agreed upon by the NPP/APRC alliance, if it is in good national faith, should be disclosed and perhaps justified to the public. It shall be for the State and Courts to determine the outcome of the commission and ex-president Jammeh's return. While the Alliance, which is 'a marriage of convenience', may be contracted in the Gambia, it is likely to have its'honey moon'outside the jurisdiction of the Gambia and may involve Ghana and or the ICC. The words of Aboubacarr Tambadou, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2017-2020),at the 2020 Opening of the Gambia Judicial Year must resonate in our minds. The Gambia Red Cross Society (GRCS) last Tuesday took delivery of medical items jointly presented by Ebou Mala's Children Charity Foundation (EMCCF) and National Police Aid Charity both based in the United Kingdom at a ceremony held at GRCS premises in Kanifing. The items, which worth over 550 (33,000), includes hospital mattresses, examination couch, wheelchairs, folding hospital screen, ultrasound kits among others. The GRCS is expected to distribute the donated materials to various health facilities and other vulnerable people in the society, especially children and women. Fatou Bah- a representative of EMCCF disclosed that the UK charity has partnered with GRCS to complement government's efforts through the provision of valuable items to both individuals and health facilities. She explained that EMCCF has been working with the GRCS since 2019 to help Gambians and public institutions. "Our partnership has been very effective. The GRCS is very effective on their doings. They often provide humanitarian assistance to many vulnerable Gambians." she said. The medical items, she added, would be distributed to various hospitals that are badly in need of such materials, expressing optimism that the items would significantly improve healthcare delivery in the country. Denish Nyamanhindi, a representative of National Police Aid Charity (NPAC)-UK at the ceremony, described his organisation's partnership with Gambia Red Cross Society as wonderful. He said GRCS has been helping many vulnerable Gambians. "When I get back to UK, I will do more for the country and I will continue to do more." he assured. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Health By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Abdoulie Fye, director of programmes and operation at GRCS, expressed delight with his institution partnering with the two UK charities. The two charities, he added, have been supporting vulnerable people as well as schools through GRCS. "Receiving these materials is a happy moment for us. There is a need for a healthy nation," he said. Fye added that for a nation to have a good economy, developed to expectation and be peaceful, her people must be healthy. "Therefore, this gesture would go a long way in helping the country to achieve the national development goals when it comes to strengthening the health sector. We will work with the health ministry to ensure that the materials are delivered to health facilities that need it most. We will ensure the materials are delivered without any commercial activity," he said. Tunis/Tunisia The Tunisian section of Amnesty International called on the Tunisian authorities to immediately release MP and president of the movement "Hope and Work", Yassine Ayari and to drop the military prosecution against him. In a statement released on Thursday, the organisation called on human rights defenders to send letters to the President of the Republic Kais Saied, demanding the release of Yassine Ayari and dropping the military prosecution against him, while stopping the prosecution of civilians before military courts. Amnesty International recalled that Yassine Ayari has been held since 28 July 2021 in the Mornaguia prison to serve a two-month sentence pronounced by a military court in 2018 for his Facebook posts criticising the army. It further reported that the MP started a hunger strike on 7 September to protest his prison conditions. The Hope and Work movement had announced in a statement on September 7 that its president and MP Yassine Ayari started a hunger strike on Tuesday morning, said his party Hope and Labour. He is serving a two-month sentence handed by the military court at El Mornaguia prison, Manouba. The party said the move comes as Ayari exhausted all possible means to "cry foul." The MP is staging a hunger strike over legal action brought against him in connection to social media posts after July 25. Ayari said he is utterly opposed to what happened on July 25, a "serious violation of the freedom of expression" and criticised "the involvement of military courts to stifle the voice of civilians." The decision to go on a hunger strike was also motivated by the unjustified rejection of a parole request though all conditions were met. Tunis/Tunisia The Ministry of Health is organising on September 18 a national COVID-19 vaccination day for teaching staff in both public and private schools. Jabs will be given from 1 pm to 5 pm, said a statement of the Ministry of Health released Thursday. This initiative targets education and teaching staff who have not received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine. People aged between 18 and 39 years will be administered Sinovac vaccine and those over 40 years will be given AstraZeneca jabs, the same source said. Tunis/Tunisia The allocation of special drawing rights of an amount of nearly 522.550 million SDR, granted to Tunisia by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was approved by presidential decree on September 14, according to Wednesday's edition of the Official Gazette. This allocation was the subject of the agreement annexed to the Presidential Decree, concluded on September 14, between the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Investment Support and the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT). The Tunisian State reimburses the commission applied to the use of this amount, for the benefit of the IMF, as well as the principal of the amount, in case of cancellation of the allocation. This is, in accordance with the procedures in force at the Fund, set by that agreement. The quota of Tunisia to the IMF amounted to 545.2 million SDRs In 2020, according to data published by the fund As a reminder, the IMF Board of Governors approved a general allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) equivalent to 650 billion dollars (about 456 billion SDRs) on August 2, 2021, to increase liquidity in the world. The SDR is an international reserve asset created in 1969 by the IMF to supplement the official foreign exchange reserves of its member countries. To date, a total of SDR 660.7 billion (equivalent to approximately $943 billion) has been allocated. This includes the largest allocation in history of approximately SDR 456 billion, which became effective on August 23, 2021. This latest allocation is intended to address the global need for long-term reserves and to help countries deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of the SDR is based on a basket of five currencies: the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen and the British pound. NAMIBIA and Botswana disbanded the two countries' Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security (JPCDS) on Thursday, during its 29th session at Swakopmund. The commission will be elevated to a bi-national commission (BNC) on defence and security, chaired by the heads of state of Namibia and Botswana, according to a joint statement issued by the two countries. The inaugural meeting of the bi-national commission will be hosted by Botswana next year. Although the JPCDS did not deliberate on border tensions in the Zambezi region, it took notice of the incident in which three Namibians and their Zambian cousin were killed, allegedly by Botswana Defence Force soldiers, along the Chobe River in November 2020. "The commission noted with regret and sadness the unfortunate incident that resulted in the death of the Nchindo brothers and their Zambian cousin along the Chobe River," it stated. It added that a joint investigation has been concluded and that Botswana's Directorate of Public Prosecutions has initiated legal proceedings in the matter. Botswana's minister of defence, justice and security, Thomas Mmusi, added that his country was prepared to repatriate the remains of Namibians killed in the past along Botswana's border with Namibia. "Yes, I believe that is something that can be done. We need to look at it and do investigations, [remains should] be identified and be released to the relevant families. We will never refuse that," said Mmusi. Namibia's defence minister, Frans Kapofi, requested relatives of people who died along the borders and whose remains are in Botswana to submit their names for repatriation purposes. Kapofi added that naval patrol boats sent to Impalila Island recently would remain a permanent feature in the area. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission says some court rules are hampering the progress of cases, especially involving senior political figures hence the need for an urgent review. There has been an outcry over the delay in solving corruption cases involving high-level politicians whom most believe are shielded by gaps within the court laws. ZACC spokesperson, John Makamure said his commission is calling for a timeframe that will see cases being solved within that period. He said National Prosecuting Authority is delaying processing some cases which puts a hold on how the issues must be proceeding. "ZACC refers all completed investigations for the prosecution to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Once ZACC has investigated the matters and referred them to the NPA for prosecution - that is the end of ZACC functions. "However, ZACC has taken an interest in how the NPA prosecutes its matters and has been sitting in all prosecution cases to witness such proceedings in court. For the year 2020 the Commission referred ninety (90) cases to the NPA," Makamure said. During the year under review, ZACC said, twenty-six (26) cases were undergoing trial, nineteen (19) were allocated dates and forty-five (45) were still in the set down the office. "However, our worry is the lack of completion of these trials due to the delays in the court process," Makamure further stated. He noted that the high ZACC high-level committee which set last month resolved that the court rules should be reviewed to prioritise the prosecution of corruption cases. "We want to introduce specific timeframes on prosecution and finalisation of corruption, to say, trial and finalisation of a corruption case should not go beyond a certain period. As we speak, the request is receiving due attention and consideration by the authorities," he noted. Furthermore, Makamure stated that most of the corruption cases had been delayed because the suspects were continually submitting applications at the courts in the guise of exercising constitutional rights to deliberately avoid trial. "Lawyers are submitting frivolous applications before the court just to delay the trial in court," Makamure said. "Zacc has a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). The MoU ensures that the two institutions (Zacc and NPA) work in liaison on cases that would have been submitted by Zacc to facilitate their speedy processing in criminal justice," Makamure added. SEVERAL people have been shortlisted for the position of chief executive officer (CEO) at the corruption-tainted National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor). The company's interim board chairperson, Heinrich Mihe Gaomab II, confirmed this yesterday. "Yes, interviews are on Thursday, and seven candidates have been shortlisted. We have engaged the independent HR Consultancy," he said. Gaomab in a previous interview said the consultancy, which has been tasked with shortlisting candidates, would ensure objectivity. "The consultancy is to submit the shortlist to the board, whereupon an interview panel is to be composed as soon as practically possible by the board," Gaomab said. He declined to share the list of candidates, saying the shortlisting was done strictly based on the required criteria as set out in the advertisement and the job description for the position. A master's degree in business administration, public management, finance, maritime or fisheries management, economics, strategy or a closely related field, plus nine years' professional experience in a management position, of which five years were at a senior level at a commercial business, topped the list of minimum requirements. Sources claim Hafeni Mungungu, the former CEO of the Fisheries Observer Agency (FOA) , who is also the current director of operations in the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, is among the shortlisted candidates. The sources are questioning Mungungu's integrity, as he served in an influential position between 2012 and 2014, and 2018 and 2019, when crooked deals under former minister of fisheries and marine resources Bernhard Esau allegedly took place. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Company By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Alex Gawanab, Dundee Precious Metals' project manager for business transformation is also said to be among the shortlisted candidates. The position was left vacant after the arrest of its first CEO, Mike Nghipunya, who is currently in jail awaiting trial. Nghipunya has been charged with money laundering, fraud, and corruption involving more than N$75 million as part of the Fishrot scandal. This is the second time the company is scouting for a CEO after the last candidate was deemed unfit for the position. Current FOA chief Stanley Ndara scored 71%, the highest in the last round of interviews, but was deemed unfit for the position. Current PowerCom CEO Beatus Amadhila scored the second highest. Amadhila was the director of finance and administration at the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management at the time. Tunacor CEO Peya Hitula and Novanam CEO Edwin Kamatoto are also among the shortlisted candidates. The position was readvertised on 27 July. *This article has been updated to reflect a clarification by acting Fishcor CEO Ruth Herunga, who said she has not applied for the position and was therefore not shortlisted. Farmers will this year part ways with K15, 000 to redeem two bags of fertilizers each in the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Lobin Lowe, has disclosed. This is K6, 010 more than what they paid in the 2020/21 agricultural year. Last year, each farmer paid K8, 990 for two bags. On the other hand, the government contribution on seed will be fixed at MK3, 365 per five kilogramme of seed pack, with farmers' contribution to vary depending on the prevailing market prices of each cereal variety. Lowe made the announcements in Lilongwe during his first press briefing ahead of the AIP implementation for the 2021/22 agricultural season. The objective of the briefing was to inform the nation on how the government is going to implement this year's programme and provide an update on the progress of the processes. Lowe said just like last season, the farmers will still be entitled to one bag of Urea, one bag of NPK and one five kg cereal seed pack. "The cost of fertilizer is estimated at MK27,000 per bag whereby government contribution will be MK19,500 whilst farmer contribution will be MK7,500, which is equivalent to the price of a bag of maize when sold at government minimum price of MK150 per kg, unlike last year when it was MK4,495. This year Government contribution on seed will be fixed at MK3,365 per 5kg seed pack. Farmer contribution will be varying depending on the prevailing market prices of each cereal variety," said the minister, adding that the opening up of the farmer contribution on seed will give an opportunity to farmers to buy seed of their choice. Lowe also announced that in addition to crop inputs, the government will provide livestock (goats) on pilot basis in Nsanje and Chikwawa, as a direct substitute of crop production inputs. He said as such, some farmers in the two districts will get two goats each instead of fertilizer and seed. "Livestock beneficiaries in pilot districts will be expected to pay MK7,500 per she goat and Government contribution will be MK20,500," he narrated. Lowe said Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) and Smallholder Farmer's Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) will supply 34 percent of the total tonnage while the private sector suppliers will retail 66 percent of fertilizer requirement, seed and livestock. He said each supplier will be allocated retailing areas within Extension Planning Areas (EPAs) to reduce congestion and travel distances. "Just like last year, suppliers will be retailing their inputs using the electronic system (E-AIP) that Government through the Ministry of Agriculture, E-Government and other agencies has developed. Let me warn those suppliers that would want to increase fertilizer prices unnecessarily that government will not revise these prices," emphasized Lowe. On the use of national registration cards to redeem the inputs, Lowe assured the nation that the government will allow Malawians with expired cards to still access their inputs using their expired cards. On the other hand, farmers who lost their cards, but already started the processing of renewing them, will redeem their inputs using receipts provided by National Registration Bureau (NRB). He urged the farmers to keep their receipts safe. "Government will use its agencies such as Department of Agriculture Research Services (DARS) and Malawi Bureau of Standards to monitor quality of seed and fertilizer in the whole input retailing chain so that the farmers access inputs of good quality and in right quantities. In addition, this year farmers will be able to check seed quality through the seed scratch card using their phone. Various stakeholders like FUM, ACB, Police, Programme Managers, District Commissioners and Civil Society Organisations will be expected to monitor and give feedback when something that needs Government's attention is observed," said Lowe. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Malawi Agribusiness By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Meanwhile, Lowe has indicated that government is looking at ways to make AIP self-sustaining where farmers will be asked to give two bags of 50kg maize to ADMARC soon after harvest and in exchange they will, at a later date, get one bag of UREA and one bag of NPK in preparation for 2022/23 season. He reiterated the Tonse Alliance government's continued commitment to supporting the farmers through the AIP. The Minister said the government acknowledges that the smallholder farmers are the backbone of this country's agriculture sector and ultimately, the national food security. "The support under AIP therefore, enables farmers to have access to affordable agricultural inputs and in turn, guarantee household and national food security. Let me, therefore, take this opportunity to urge all of us to be patriotic in the implementation of the programme for the betterment of the poor farmer in the villages and Malawi at large. May I urge members of the Press to take this message to the nation and continue during the period the AIP will be in progress," said Lowe. The Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (Zacras) has welcomed the licensing of eight additional community radio stations. The Association said the licensing was a positive step towards the achievement of broadcasting diversity and plurality. In a press statement, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) announced the licensing of Matobo Community Radio Trust, Ndau Community Radio Trust and Chimanimani Community Radio Trust. Zacras members who include Twasumpuka Community Radio Trust, Radio Bukalanga (Pvt) Ltd, Vemuganga Community Radio Trust, Madziwa Community Radio Trust and Patsaka Nyaminyami Community Radio Trust trading as Kasambabezi FM were also awarded broadcasting licenses. The latest development brings the total number of licensed community radio stations to 14. Zacras chairperson Ms Perlagia Kapuya said they have been advocating for the licensing of community radio stations in Zimbabwe. "We therefore, commend the Government for taking evident measures towards ensuring broadcasting diversity and plurality in the sector," she said. "We urge Government to continue licensing more diverse players until each and every district in Zimbabwe has its own community radio station. This will not only promote access to information, but also enhances free expression as envisioned in the Constitution of Zimbabwe." GRADE Seven pupils in Goromonzi North constituency Wednesday received a boost after they were given textbooks to prepare for their end-of-year examinations. The books were handed over to the beneficiaries by businessman Ozias Bvute at Kadyamadare Primary School near Juru Growth Point. Bvute is also Goromonzi North legislator. Speaking at the handover ceremony, Bvute said he donated the books after villagers complained about poor pass rates at schools in the area due to lack of learning materials. "I was informed by the local leadership of the poor pass rate being experienced in this area. We then met teachers at Dzvete who revealed that they were facing a shortage of new curriculum textbooks. "I brought 39 000 textbooks. We have 2 200 Grade 7 pupils in the constituency and each pupil will have a complete set of books. We have secured the future of these learners. I will then make sure that other learners will get the books," he said. The donation of textbooks came at a time when learners had been affected by the Ccovid-19 pandemic that saw classes being suspended. Some of the schools that benefited aree Ivordale, Kadyamadare, St Jude, Mavhudzi and Mukombami, among others. The ceremony was attended by top Zanu PF officials from the province and Chief Chikwaka. Chief Chikwaka said it was an honour for the learners to receive such a gift. "I challenge the learners to take their education seriously now that they have been equipped with the necessary tools. "I applaud the MP for injecting life into these learners. By this, we are moulding future leaders, these children are our hope," he said. Chikwaka took the opportunity to enlighten both parents and learners on the dangers of child marriages. The 5 million Kwacha Grand Prize in Airtel Yabeba promotion has gone to a 21-year-old woman from Mchengautuba in Mzuzu. Airtel Malawi presented the prize to Lonines Kamanga on Thursday morning among cheerful faces of Mchengautuba residents. Marketing Manager for Airtel Malawi, Thokozani Kamkondo Banda, presented the prize to Lonines Kamanga, saying as a company, Airtel was so grateful to come closer to its customers through the promotion. "The promotion was about celebrating with our customers that we crossed the milestone of 5 million customers in December last year and it was a way of saying thank you to our customers. That is why we marked the grand prize at 5 million Kwacha," explained Kamkondo Banda. Banda acknowledged gaps in network connection in some parts of the country but said her company was continuously working to improve network and give its customers better services. The promotion ran from 13th May to 15th August, 2021 and 48 people won 1 million Kwacha each, 3,000 people won K10,000.00 each, 150 people won K100,000.00 each while the grand prize of 1 million Kwacha went to Lonines Kamanga. Speaking to Nyasa Times after receiving the prize, Kamanga said she was so happy and never expected such a thing to happen in her life. "I sell bananas in town. I was simply buying airtime worth K200.00 and sometimes K250.00. I never dreamt of winning. "I am so happy that I have this money. This money will help to boost my business. I may also by a piece of land," explained Kamanga. Ethanol distiller, Press Cane Limited, a subsidiary of conglomerate Press Corporation has donated hospital items worth K10.5 million to Chikwawa District Hospital as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandate. The items that were presented include a Diathermy, linen, 1,000 blood giving sets, 50,000 EDTA tubes, 1 theatre bed and 3 patient monitors. Speaking at Chikwawa District Hospital when he presented the materials, Press Corporation plc General Manager (Operations) Lyton Chithambo said the health sector has been stretched because of the Covid-19 pandemic hence the donation. "We realize that the health sector has been overstretched because of the Covid-19 pandemic and that most of the resources have been directed to the fight against the pandemic leaving some areas wanting, and so, our donation is to compliment the government's efforts in providing good health care to its citizens," said Chithambo. "We urge hospital authorities to take good care of these items so that they should serve the intended beneficiaries who are the patients here in Chikwawa," added Chithambo. Chikwawa District Director of Health and Social Services Dr Stalin Zinkanda thanked Press Cane for the donation, promising to put it to the right use so that it benefits the patients. "We are grateful for this donation because it has come at a right time when we all know that the health sector is overstretched at the moment because of the Covid-19 pandemic. "We want to assure Press Cane Limited that materials that they have donated will be put to good use to help our patients," said Zinkanda. He also announced that Chikwawa District Hospital will soon start paying services and that consultations are underway with some organizations so that their employees should not travel all the way to Blantyre to seek medical help when they can be helped at the hospital at a fee. The Kaneshie Magistrates Court Wednesday adjourned to October 5, the case in which 38-year-old Richard Appiah allegedly murdered two children at Abesim in the Bono Region. This is to enable the police prosecuting the case to receive the report on the post mortem examination conducted on the two children by the Pathologist. The adjournment which was at the request of the prosecution is to also enable the police to compile a complete report on the matter and forward the duplicate docket to the Attorney-General's Department for advice. These came to light on Wednesday, when, Appiah (accused) made his second appearance at the Kaneshie Magistrates Court hearing the case in Accra. The magistrate, Madam Ama Adomako Kwakye, after listening to the prosecutor remanded the suspect for further two weeks. When the case was called, Appiah was present in court but without a lawyer. Even though the charges and the facts were read to him in court on August 26, when he first appeared, the plea of the accused was not taken. Appiah is alleged to have murdered 12 and 15 years old boys and a yet-to-be identified man whose bodies were found in his living quarters at Alaska, near Abesim, in the Sunyani Municipality in the Bono Region on Friday, August 20, 2021. The acting Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has since visited the families of the deceased and later directed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), headquarters, to provide technical support to the Bono Regional CID, to effectively investigate the murder of the three persons. Dr Dampare commended the police and the community for the timely arrest of Appiah, and urged for the deepening of civil-police collaboration to promote peace and security in society. Ho The Ho Central Prison is set to revive greenhouse farming, to produce enough vegetables for the consumption of inmates as well as members of the public. Deputy Director Prisons (DDP) Martin Darku, Deputy Director of Prisons in-charge of the Volta Region, who disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times last week Monday said that priority will be given to the production of tomatoes, cucumber and cabbage. He said that greenhouse farming at the prison declined drastically the past six months due to technical hitch. DDP Darku, however, said the problem has been solved and a greenhouse expert, who is a prisons officer, had taken charge of the farm. According him, greenhouse farming would facilitate the reform of some inmates, who could take up commercial farming after completing their prison terms. Meanwhile, one of the largest vegetable farms in West Africa, Maphlix Trust Ghana, at Tadzewu, has offered to give technical support to the greenhouse farm of the Ho Central Prison, DDP Darku said. He said that would boost output of vegetable farming in the greenhouse and build the skills of farmhands. Apart from the greenhouse venture, DDP Darku said that the Ho Central Prison was operating a block factory to help the inmates to acquire employable skills before leaving prison. He said that the non-formal education programme of the prison was put on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic. DDP Darku said that the prison which had 376 inmates, including 35 remand prisoners, had had no case of COVID-19. Osogbo Governor, State of Osun, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola has described textile industry as a strong commercial sector that can play a significant role in the nation's economic development. He said the sector needed to be developed for it to play a significant economic roles to attract foreign investment and generate employment. The governor disclosed this through his Special Adviser on Civic Engagement, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye during an engagement meeting with the Osun State Textile Dealers at the Centre of Civic Engagement, Osogbo, the state capital. Oyetola noted that it was in the realization of historical economic benefits of the sector that his administration has been putting in place necessary infrastructures and enabling environment for not only the textile industry, but also other sectors of economic importance to thrive. He said, "we cannot underplay the pivotal role the sector played in stemming the tide of unemployment between late 1950s and early 1990s and this has precipitated the efforts of the current administration to make this sector thrive among many others for sustainable socioeconomic development. "It should be noted that our administration's declaration of every Thursday being 'Osun Adire Day' and the directive that all public and civil servants be dressed on Adire same day, is in furtherance of our efforts not only to promote our culture and tourism but also, to specifically develop the state textile industry. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Business Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The initiative of establishing an international trade centre in Dagbolu is part of the concerted efforts towards sustainable industrialization and commercialization as its inland port would greatly help the state in strengthening importation and exportation of goods such as textile products as well as giving the state businesses an international exposure. "Many road networks and other necessary infrastructures such as Olaiya flyover, capital city roads, intra and inter community roads among others are being massively constructed to provide ease of doing businesses and to also advance the state foreign investment strategy." Oyetola then, reiterated his administration's commitment to executing and facilitating more empowerment opportunities such as loans and grants to improve the capital base of the textile industry among others and for the purpose socioeconomic development of the state. Earlier in her remarks, the Association's President, Mrs. Misturat Adedapo who spoke on behalf of other members, appealed to the government to consider them for more value added benefits such as intensive loan facility and grants which could bring about a drastic development of their industry. Mrs. Adedapo equally commended the administration of Oyetola for abolishing the single uniform policy in the state education sector, saying reverting to the old school uniforms has indeed improved their businesses which had been negatively affected before. She also eulogized the focused leadership and managerial prowess of the governor, which she said has brought about a tremendous development to all sectors of the economy. Bank Windhoek's Managing Director, Baronice Hans recently met the nine Graduate Development Programme (GDP) inductees in Windhoek. On the same occasion, the graduates signed contracts detailing expectations and their supervisor's duties during the Programme. After the graduates introduced themselves to Hans, accompanied by members from the Bank's Executive Management Team, she said it was refreshing to meet the graduates. Hans encouraged them to stay true to who they are and grab the opportunity to reach their full potential professionally and personally. "The corporate world is full of opportunities, and you should make the best of it," she said. Hans also encouraged the graduate supervisors to nature, guide, and assist them where possible as they expand and grow their skills. The nine graduate trainees are Aina Shangheta, Marketing, and Corporate Communication Services; Johannes Tjitumba, Chief Operating Officer; Heather Maletzky, Corporate and Institutional Banking; Emile Platt, Business Banking; Liina Angula, Human Resources; Owen Muyendekwa, Bancassurance; Joachim Komeheke, Treasury; Penny Heelu, Finance and Procurement and Gervian Du Preez, Capricorn Private Wealth. Shangheta, who spoke on behalf of the graduates, said that it was an honour and privilege to meet Hans. "It is wonderful to be part of a group of leaders who pull in the same direction and have a shared goal. We are excited about our jobs, being part of a genuinely Namibian bank, and ensuring we are future-fit leaders. It is going to be a thrilling 18 months Programme with many ups and downs; we are ready," said Shangheta. The Bank Windhoek's Graduate Development Programme was launched in 2020. It offers the graduates an 18 months on-the-job-training opportunity in preparation for permanent employment. The Bank selected the current group from over 3 000 applicants, including those from the Bank's recruitment system and those provided by the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations, and Employment Creation. During the selection process, the final group of graduates was subjected to a rigorous recruitment process. "Thank you for choosing Bank Windhoek, and we are delighted to have you on board," concluded Hans. Monrovia In June, there was a public outcry about the shortage of vaccines in the country. Calls for the government to ensure vaccines were available in sufficient quantities heightened. It was not long when the Ministry of Health received 302,400 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines from the United States government to get more people vaccinated. And on August 29, Liberia also received another 96,000 doses of AstraZeneca. The Minister of Health said individuals waiting for their second dose would be prioritized while calling on people who have not taken any to opt for the J&J. As calls for more people to get vaccinated intensify, the Director of the General Service Agency (GSA), Madam Mary T. Broh launched a certain strategy to convince more people to get inoculated. Unlike other vaccination centers where there is no special preference for senior citizens, the GSA vaccine center does give preferential treatment. Pregnant women, the elderly (senior citizens), and people with disabilities do not have to get in the queue. Once they arrive at the center, they get their jab in a couple of minutes. The vaccines are administered by the staff of the Ministry of Health but the GSA supervises the process. "When you come in, you tell us whether you were vaccinated with AstraZeneca, and when we know that you are here for the second dose, we get your details and register you and then you go and get your final dose," explains Madam Broh. "We take you to the observation area for 5 to 10 minutes, then we certify you and you take your certificate with you." Certificates given to fully vaccinated people are the GSA's initiative to keep track of those who have been vaccinated, the GSA boss disclosed, adding, "I set up my own IT section that is giving certificates to people". In addition to the expedited service, the center serves its guests -- who are there to get vaccinated and have not eaten - with a hot meal. An average of 300 to 350 people visits the center daily. "We advise that you don't take the vaccine on an empty stomach. We give them tea and bread or whatever and by 4 p.m. we are closed," Madam Broh said, adding that the strategy is geared towards convincing people to get vaccinated. Broh herself has experienced the raft of the virus but recalls that she quickly recuperated because she was already fully vaccinated. "For example, I was exposed to the COVID-19 virus, but I was safe because I took the vaccine April 29, 2021, and by June 12, 2021, I was tested positive," she recounted. "But it didn't heavily land the way it normally does when you have not taken the vaccine. I was able to treat it. I didn't go to the Star Base or any treatment unit." Madam Felecia Veronica Coleman, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court who had just completed her second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, rated the GSA Vaccination Center as the "most organized and professional" center in the country. "I advise people to come to GSA," Madam Coleman said. "This is the most organized and professional site I have seen; they give preference to senior citizens, pregnant women, and people with disabilities." In one incident witnessed by this reporter, a senior citizen, who was unable to walk to the center, was later vaccinated while she sat in her parked car. Madam Coleman's friend, Madam Nadu Cooper, who had praises for the efficiency of the center, added: "They have gone to my friend's car who is a senior citizen to get her details and get her vaccinated right in her car instead of coming down to walk and sit in line." Madam Cooper is also aware of the health benefits of being vaccinated. "If you give birth to your child and you carry them for the nine months' vaccine, they can be prevented from so many illnesses, but those that refuse to carry their children can be exposed. People shouldn't be afraid to take the vaccine because it is good and safe for people." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Like Madam cooper, the GSA Director also warns against "those spreading misinformation about the vaccines" to desist. She said that the coronavirus pandemic should be treated with seriousness, adding, "We need to believe and stop the conspiracy theory." According to Robert Miller, the GSA vaccination center supervisor, from August 5 to September 5, 700 people were certificated by the GSA after taking their final dose of the AstraZeneca or the single of the J&J dose. Many people, especially the elderly and working-class, are trooping daily to the center to get their shot. Upon arrival in the GSA compound, you will be intersected by either a vaccinator or Madam Broh to ask why and what the person came for. This, perhaps has attracted more people to the area and have contributed to the huge turnout since she started about a month ago. This story was produced with support from Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), through the Mobilizing Media in the Fight Against COVID-19 in partnership with FrontPage Africa. Monrovia Young Scholars of Liberia (YSL) who are dedicated to poetry writing, fiction and nonfiction on Saturday, September 11, 2021, thrilled hundreds of people including some of Liberia's best and brightest minds with poems reading for peace and enlightenment. The poetry reading, held on the campus of the New Hope Academy on Peace Island, Jacobs Town, in Paynesville was in line with the annual observance of World Poetry Movement when the literary world celebrated the immense contributions of poets and poetry in building understanding and unity among peoples of the world. This year, the Liberian Chapter of the World Poetry Movement (WPM) chose September 11 for the World Poetry Celebration. Poems were read from the One World One People 2019 DoveTales Anthology which has been guest-edited by a renowned Liberian scholar and poet, Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Professor of English, Creative Writing & Literature at Penn State University, USA, and senior executive of the World Poetry Movement (WPM). The event was organized by Dr. Wesley, who is also founder of the Young Scholars of Liberia (YSL) and National Coordinator of the World Poetry Movement (WPM) in Liberia in collaboration with the Better Future Foundation (BFF). The Liberian youth writers and YSL members including Jee-won M.E. Arkoi, Maureen Jennifer Davis, Kerry Adama Kennedy read their own poems: "My Mother's Tale, Free Me, and Home" respectively which were published in the anthology. Jee-won additionally read the poem Begin by Marjorie Maddox. New Hope Academy students and members of Girls of Distinction (GoD) also joined to read poems. Ms. Mafatta H. Yarmah read the poem: "I Am a Refugee Walking" by Carol Griffin and her own poem "True Friend." Ms. Salimatu M. Sheriff read the poem: "Travel Journal" by Lennart Lundh and her own poem: "Peace and Unity", and Ms. Masue A. Kromah read the poem: "All This is That" by William Conelly. New Hope Academy's consultant, Mr. Selekie Kanneh, read the poem: "Life's Catwalk" by Althea Romeo-Mark; Youth Beyond Barriers member, Ahmed E.O. Rogers, read the poem: "In the Photo" by Georgia Wilder; and Ms. Grace J. Arkoi read the poem: "Forgiving Myself" by Laurie Kolp. Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley joined the program via Zoom and read two of her poems: "On September 11" and "Tugbakeh: After Too Many Years" which are both published in the anthology. Earlier, Dr. D. Evelyn S. Kandakai, a renowned educator who is also former Liberian Minister of Education, asked the audience to observe a moment of silence in memory of over 3000 persons who lost their lives in the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks that took place in the United States of America (USA). Dr. Kandakai, Rev. Gerald B. Coleman, a University Lecturer and former Commissioner of Liberia's erstwhile Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the President of Liberia Association of Writers (LAW) Mr. Samuel Dweh, all published writers, were the Special Guests at the event. In remark, Dr. Kandakai who read two of her published poems encouraged the young Liberian writers and scholars to remain committed and focused in their literary writings as they promote societal peace and progress and to strive for advanced knowledge at all times. Dr. Kandakai applauded YSL Founder and National Coordinator, Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, for her initiative which she described as very good for the consolidation of peace and progress not only in Liberia but also worldwide. Also speaking at the occasion, Rev. Gerald B. Coleman, former TRC Commissioner, expressed delight that young Liberian scholars are using literary writings including poems, fiction and nonfiction to advocate for world peace and progress. He recalled that for more than two years, the Liberian nation, after its decade-long civil war, embarked on a search for peace and national reconciliation through the TRC process but the country still remains challenged in its search for genuine peace. While applauding the Young Scholars of Liberia (YSL) and Dr. Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, he urged Liberians in general to rise above division and treat each other as one family without malice against none and love for all. The President of Liberia Association of Writers (LAW) Mr. Samuel Dweh, expressed similar sentiments. He urged the young scholars to strive for advanced knowledge and skills with the sky being their limit. BFF President, Rev. Augustine S. Arkoi, reminded the audience about the significance of remembering 9/11 when terrorists attacked the United States in 2001 and killed thousands of innocent people and injured so many others. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "This was the day when terrorists attacked facilities in the United States and killed thousands of people." On behalf of Dr. Wesley, Rev. Arkoi then handed out copies of the One World One People Anthology to Dr. Kandakai and YSL members. The program was facilitated by BFF's Senior Associate, Mr. Debo Belvis O'diaji. Hundreds of people attended the event which was carried live on a local television and social media platforms. The World Poetry Movement (WPM), is the coordination of worldwide organizations and poets: international poetry festivals, educational projects and poetry publishing houses. WPM organizes regular world poetry actions, and manages consistent publications centered in preoccupations of current time. Dr. Wesley was appointed by the Coordinating Committee of the WPM on 02 September 2021, with responsibilities to build the Movement in Liberia and to gather and send poetic materials for publication. It is within this context that Dr. Wesley organized this event; hosted and implemented by Better Future Foundation. VODACOM Tanzania Foundation has donated medical equipment worth 60m/- to Mkomaindo Hospital in Masasi District, Mtwara Region. The Director of Vodacom Tanzania Foundation, Rosalynn Mworia mentioned the items as phototherapy machine, oxygen concentrator, incubators, warmer bed, delivery beds, ultrasound machines, speculum, vacuum and others. "For us, it's a pride that the equipment will save lives of infants here at Mkomaindo Hospital and other areas in our country... that's why we did not hesitate to donate when you approached us," said Mworia. She said that they have been donating a lot to maternal and children health care items as well as providing awareness campaigns on fistula countrywide in a pilot project dubbed- M-Mama Project in Sengerema and Shinyanga, which saves lives of expectant mothers and infants. The Acting Districts Medical Officer, Dr Amina Mushi thanked Vodacom for the donation, noting from January to July this year 2067 delivered at Mkomaindo hospital and among them, 2065 infants were born alive. She added from January to December last year, 4714 women delivered at various health service facilities in Masasi District, where 4039 infants were born alive. However, the acting DMO said that the Masasi town council recorded a decrease in the number of maternal deaths from 10 in 2020 to 3 deaths this year. The Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (Investment), Geoffrey Mwambe hailed Vodacom for allocating funds for supporting social services that will surely contribute to saving the lives of infants and pregnant women. "I urge other private institutions to corporate on this just like what Vodacom Foundation has been doing in our country and this is so encouraging," said Mwambe, also the Masasi Constituency Member of Parliament. Speaking at the event, Masasi District Commissioner, Claudia Kitta said that the hospital still faces some challenges, but the donation will serve the lives of many infants and pregnant women in the district and the neighbouring areas. By GEOFFREY OKOT OJOK National Drugs Authority (NDA) has impounded 84 boxes of assorted drugs worth Shs55 million in a three-day operation in Acholi Sub region. More than 110 drug shop outlets were also closed in during the exercise conducted in the districts of Amuru, Nwoya, Gulu, Omoro, Lamwo and Kitgum. "The operation was intended to ensure that those who are operating in assorted drugs businesses are in compliance with National drug policy and authority Act and licensing guidelines," NDA said. NDA head of enforcement, Mr Samuel Kyamukama noted that they seek to wipe out people without licensing requirements and those dealing in unauthorized medicine. "We inspected 232 drug outlets of which 225 were human, 7 veterinary), and then15 clinics during the exercise," he said. Mr Kyamukama added that their routine enforcement doesn't only handle counterfeits but also substandard health products, unqualified personnel and also sensitization of the public and discouraging dangerous practices all in addition to drug stoking and storage. Dr David Kagwa, the manager for the northern region expressed concern over existing unqualified persons operating drug businesses. "The issue of unqualified persons operating the drug shop is still a national concern," Dr Kagwa said. Meanwhile, NDA returned 50 boxes of impounded drugs after an undisclosed owner presented a license of operation. However, NDA authorities observed that despite some drug outlets having licenses, the qualified in charges were not available at the premises leaving the drug outlets in the hands of the unqualified person something he said is very dangerous to the health of the community who access services from such facilities since they don't prescribe the right douses. Background In 2020, 79 illegal drug shops were closed and 165 boxes of assorted medicine worth Shs22 million were also impounded by the NDA in Acholi sub region. The operation also led to the arrest of Ms Nancy Atimango from Obiya highland in Gulu City after she was found trading government drugs at her facility. She was taken to Gulu Central Police Station under SD 37/20/10/2020 but only cautioned. Leaders in Kakanju Sub-county in Bushenyi District have embarked on an exercise to protect Lake Katunga from silting by sensitising the community on how to protect it. Lake Katunga, which is about 20km away from Bushenyi Town, has been a source of water to the communities living around it. The Bushenyi District environment officer, Mr Vincent Kataate, said poor cultivation practices by land owners, including planting crops so close to the lake, have caused continuous silting of the lake. "We have taken an initiative to work with community members in conserving the lake and we have been there. As we speak, the sub-county agriculture officer has already gone to the ground to demonstrate to land owners how to plant elephant grass, dig terraces, and plant trees in a bid to prevent soil erosion," he said. He added: "We have engaged all leaders at different levels to sensitise the local population on sustainable land management practices and planting of water catchment friendly trees. We shall keep doing several interventions including community sensitisation. People need to know the value of this lake and the need to protect it." Concern raised Mr Adnaan Tumuhairwe, the Kakanju Sub-county representative in Bushenyi District local government council, said many locals and leaders raised concern over the state of the lake. He said without being conserved and protected, Lake Katunga could completely dry up. "As local leaders, we have challenged ourselves to take the lead as far as our lake is concerned. We have held some meetings and with support from the district, we are finally doing something," Mr Tumuhairwe said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Uganda Environment Climate By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Bushenyi District head of natural resources, Mr Cyril Mugyenyi, said previous interventions put in place to save the lake were frustrated by the land ownership. He added that land owners around the lake have been asked to plant crops that can prevent soil erosion in a buffer distance of at least 10metres offshore. He suggests that government should compensate the land owners around the lake and leave the place to regain its natural shape for conservation purposes and also recover soil quality. "If resources were available, government would compensate those locals who have land around the lake," Mr Mugyenyi said. Mr Benson Kategaya, a resident of Kacence Cell in Bushenyi, said: "We welcome the new intervention on top of others that have been in place to save the lake. For example, I have planted the grass already with guidance from the agriculture extension officer and fellow residents have agreed to the efforts." He added: "It is not the first time we are moving to save Katunga, but we, the landowners kept on encroaching on the lake because we needed land to survive." On the flip side of the fight against illegal mining, also known as "Galamsey", is the twin problem of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. These two swords of Damocleshung over our necks: the galamsey, which is prominent onshore, and the IUUa form of "gather-and-sell" (galamsey)that is being nicodemously carried out onshore by foreign vessels in active connivance with local vessels. Chinese vesselsare reportedly leading in the transshipment, known in the local parlance as Saiko-an illegal fishing trade on the high seas. The big industrial trawlers engage in a form of informal trade system where the unwanted catches are exchanged in the high seas for food, fruit and livestock brought by the canoes. The industrial trawlers, largely from China, target fish specifically for the Saiko trade, which involves small pelagic species such as sardinella, mackerel, shrimp, sea-bream and yellow croaker, as well as tuna that are in high demand for local consumption. These illegal catches include large quantities of juvenile fish which are frozen in blocks and transshipped at sea to specifically-adapted Saiko canoes, unloaded in ports for sale along the coast and at inland markets, according to a study"The problem with 'Saiko,' an ecological and human catastrophe", by Far Dwuma Nkodo carried out under the Securing Sustainable Fisheries project. In paper on "The cost of illicit trade in West Africa marine resources", Professor Rashid Sumaila of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit (Global Fisheries Cluster), of the University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada stressed the need to "pull resources, both at regional and continental levels, to tackle illegal and unreported fishing, especially those that fuel illicit trade." "In some, we need national, regional and continental level leadership to ensure Africa's rich natural resources benefit people living in Africa," Professor Sumaila postulated. He estimated that Ghana annually loses $46.1 million in net revenue due to illicit fish trade estimated at 97,000 tonnes. Saiko is illegal in Ghana, attracting a fine between $100,000 and $2m where the juvenile fishes are traded or use of prohibited fishing gear. But are the laws enforceable? How deterrent have the laws been over the years? "The sanctions imposed by Ghana on vessels engaging in or supporting IUU fishing activities are not effective and not an adequate deterrent," the EU Commission said in the "yellow card" to Ghana. The fisheries industry in Ghana employs about 2.4 million people, representing 10 per cent of the population, generating over $1 billion in revenue annually. It accounts for 4.5 per cent of Ghana's Gross Domestic Product, providing 60 per cent of animal protein consumed in Ghana. However, the Saiko menace and related IUU militate against sustainable fisheries management, putting the country under the 'yellow card list' by the European Commission, the world's biggest importer of fisheries products. The Commission, which is leading the fight against IUU fishing worldwide, has issued a warning of a "Yellow card" to Ghana that it risks being identified as non-cooperating country in the fight against Illegal Unreported and Unregulated fishing, basing its warning on claims of "Ghana's inability to comply with its duties under international law as flag, port, coastal or market State." The Commissioner of Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission, Virginijus Sinkevicius, in a statement dated June 2, 2021, sighted by the Ghanaian Times, said "The Commission stands for zero tolerance for IUU fishing. Ghana plays an important role in fisheries governance in West Africa. Therefore, we stand ready to work with Ghana to address the threats IUU fishing poses to the sustainability of fish stocks, coastal communities, food security and the profits of those fishermen and women who follow the rules. Sustainable fisheries is key to better ocean governance." Under the unenviable "yellow card" tag, Ghana is expected to take necessary measures to fight the IUU("the high sea galamsey")-as part of its international obligations. The EU Commission has identified shortcomings of Ghana as transshipments at sea of large quantities of under-sized juvenile pelagic species between industrial trawl vessels and canoes in Ghanaian waters; deficiencies in the monitoring, control and surveillance of the fleet; and a legal framework that is not aligned with relevant international obligations Ghana has signed up to. The global annual value of IUU fishing is estimated at 10-20 billion Euros. Between 11 and 26 million tonnes of fish are caught illegally every year, representing at least 15 per cent of world catch. The EU's "IUU Regulations" which came into force in 2010 have as one of the cardinal pillars as catch certification scheme that ensures that "only legally-caught fisheries products can access the European market." Since November 2012, the Commission had engaged in formal dialogues with 27 thirdworld countries and warned them to take effective action to fight IUU. According to it, "Only a few countries have not shown the necessary commitment to reform until now." The regulations also provides for "specific dialogue mechanisms with the countries that are not complying with their obligations as flag, coastal, port and market State under international law. Meanwhile, failure to cooperate with framework of the dialogue can lead to an identification of the country as a so-called red card." The dialogues are based on cooperation and support to countries, and are an important step in tackling IUU fishing, with sanctions, including trade prohibitions, being only a last resort. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ghana Legal Affairs Mining By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Under the European Green Deal and in pursuant of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for conservation and sustainable use of oceans, sea and marine resources, the Commission has committed to a zero-tolerance approach to IUU fishing. The fight against IUU is an important aspect of the EU Biodiversity Strategy objective to protect the marine environment. The Strategy for Africa highlights the fight against IUU fishing as one of the key issues to address with African partners. The yellow card offers Ghana the opportunity to rectify the situation within a reasonable time to restore its international image,and enjoy the benefits of sustainable fisheries management, as the estimated annual loss of $46.1 million in net revenue due to illicit fish trade estimated at 97,000 tonnes, will be reversed. Indeed, Ghana had already received a "yellow card" in November 2013, which was then lifted in October 2015, after the country addressed the shortcomings. Sliding back is not good for our image, given the fact that Ghana Co-Chairs the UN Group of Eminent Persons tasked to assist in the campaign to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Forewarned is forearmed;we must avoid the red card and seen to be taking the 'galamsey fight'to the high seas, where the worse is happening, win the battle and get our name removedfrom the yellow card list. During a visit to a film production site in Arandis, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Peya Mushelenga said the local film sector has the ability to alleviate unemployment and bring development to the country. Mushelenga said he now has a clearer picture of the foreign direct investment attracted to the country by film industry players, adding that there is a need for the government to look critically into this sector. "The importance of collaboration to ensure that we have incentives for foreign producers cannot be overemphasized," Mushelenga said. On Monday, 13 September, the minister led a delegation to the production site of 'Ein Platz an der Sonne' (A Place in the Sun), a multi-million dollar international film production currently filming at the coast, a first since the advent of Covid-19. The film is directed and authored by German filmmaker, Lars Kraume and Executively produced by Thomas Kufus. During the visit, Deputy Minister of Education Arts & Culture, Faustina Caley called for continuous collective collaboration between the different stakeholders for further investment in youth development and training. Her Ministry is working together with the National Arts Council in that regard. According to Namibian Co-Producer and Facilitator of 'Ein Platz an der Sonne', Joel Haikali, over 1644 Namibians are employed on the production in front and behind the camera. This includes award-winning actor Girley Jazama, who plays the female lead alongside German actor Leonard Scheicher. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Haikali said it took two years of pitching against South Africa to convince German executive producers to pick Namibia as a location. Haikali highlighted the challenges faced by local facilitators to attract more foreign investment into the sector with a lack of incentives and benefits to investors. He indicated a need to find the best collaborative models amongst the various government agencies to smooth processes and ensure that most of the budget spent remains in Namibia and not in South Africa as has largely been the case for years. Kraume's film is funded through German subsidies and other private investors to the tune of N$130 million. It follows a young German anthropologist on a study mission in the midst of a war, through the then Deutsch Sud West Afrika, in an attempt to disprove the race theory. His journey becomes one of trying to find a young Herero woman he met in Berlin, during a colonial exhibition. analysis Exclusive breastfeeding, the practice of giving only breast milk (no other food or water), is the ideal for an infant's first six months. Breast milk contains all the essential nutrients an infant needs at this stage. Research has illuminated the longer-term health benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for the mother and child. These benefits include reducing the risk of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence and certain noncommunicable diseases later in life and enhancing human capital in adulthood. Additionally, breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure among mothers. These are just a few of the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding. Overall, it makes more difference to a baby's health and survival than any other intervention. That's the reason why the World Health Organisation (WHO) includes it as a proven protective intervention in the Global Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea. The WHO initially set a global target of 50% prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding by 2025. Recently it was updated to at least 70% prevalence by 2030. It means that every member country is expected to achieve an exclusive breastfeeding prevalence of at least 70% by the end of 2030. Previous research has shown that the proportion of exclusively breastfed children remains low in many lower and middle-income countries, however. As part of the Global Burden of Disease study, my colleagues and I recently published our analysis of data covering two decades (2000-2018) from 94 low- and middle-income countries. We examined the trends and prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and projected the performance of countries in relation to WHO targets. This type of analysis can help countries formulate the necessary policies and interventions to promote breastfeeding practices. Findings from our study Total prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding increased (27% to 39%) across all countries during the study period (2000-2018). But we found significant variations between countries and within regions. This suggests intra-regional inequalities that need attention from leaders. Countries included in the study made substantial progress. For example, 57 of the 94 countries had an aggregate exclusive breastfeeding practice level of less than 30% in half of their basic administrative units (referred to in this study as provinces) in 2000. But by 2018, exclusive breastfeeding prevalence in some of these countries (8) rose closer to 50%, with at least 45% exclusive breastfeeding levels in most provinces. Similarly, 34 countries had at least one province recording more than a 45% increase in exclusive breastfeeding prevalence by the end of 2018. Of the African countries, Chad and Somalia had the highest rates of annualised decline in exclusive breastfeeding practices during the study period. Progress towards the 70% target To estimate future prevalence, we assumed that current trends would continue. We first projected based on the initial target of 25% by 2025, followed by the updated target of at least 70% by 2030. In general, exclusive breastfeeding practices across the countries are expected to increase from 39% in 2018 to 43% by 2025. The practice level will increase to 45% by the end of the new targeted period of 2030. Although this is positive progress, it falls short of the 70% goal. Our analysis projected six countries - Burundi, Cambodia, Lesotho, Peru, Rwanda and Sierra Leone - to meet 70% of exclusive breastfeeding prevalence by 2030. Eighty-eight of 94 countries are unlikely to meet the global nutrition target on exclusive breastfeeding by 2030. Only three countries (Burundi, Lesotho and Rwanda) are predicted to meet this target in all their sub-national level units (provinces and districts). Reasons for low rates of exclusive breastfeeding Several reasons may account for the poor performance of countries towards the goal. They include but are not limited to: manipulative marketing or promotion of breast-milk substitutes lack of workplace support for optimal breastfeeding practices lack of attendance at antenatal care lack of skilled lactation support or breastfeeding counselling in health facilities societal or cultural beliefs favouring mixed feeding. Way forward Breastfeeding requires a lot of effort from mothers and support from wider networks, including their families, communities, workplaces, health systems and government leadership. Advocacy at global, national and sub-national levels is critical and must be pursued by national and sub-national governments. For example, the global breastfeeding advocacy toolkit outlines seven key policy actions to increase breastfeeding practices. These include: increasing funding to support exclusive breastfeeding and continued breastfeeding up to 2 years fully adopting and monitoring the International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nutrition Africa Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. enacting workplace breastfeeding policies and paid family leave implementing the baby-friendly hospitals' ten steps to successful breastfeeding improving access to skilled breastfeeding counselling in health facilities strengthening links between health facilities and communities to support breastfeeding strengthening monitoring systems to track progress. These documented strategies can aid policy-makers in monitoring the success of breastfeeding policy and programme investments. In conclusion, our study found that only six of the 94 low and middle income countries are on course to meet the WHO target of at least 70% exclusive breastfeeding prevalence by 2030. That means that 94% of the countries included in our study are unlikely to meet the target. This projected poor performance calls for deliberate efforts to promote exclusive breastfeeding for better child health and well-being. Robust policy interventions may still make it possible for some of these low and middle income states to achieve the target by 2030. Dr Dickson Amugsi, Associate Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center analysis Across Africa and much of the world, laws passed in the wake of the US attacks have been misused to silence dissent. As the global community commemorates the two decades since the abhorrent attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, it should also be time to reflect on the impact of what followed on human rights and rule of law in Africa. One of the legacies of 9/11 has been government's use of counter-terrorism laws to target human rights defenders, opposition politicians, and others who express views contrary to those in power. Between 2001 and 2018, over 140 states around the world - including a majority of African countries - followed the US and others in passing counter-terrorism or security-related laws. Driven by former President George Bush's dictum that "either you are with us or against us", scores of governments promulgated new laws to supposedly forestall future attacks, respond to real or perceived threats, and conform to international requirements. However, many countries in Africa and across the world have used these laws as a pretext to criminalise dissent. Since 2001, there has been a marked increase in restrictions on civil society across Africa, directly correlated to the actions taken by states in the aftermath of the 9/11. Terrorism is typically broadly or vaguely defined in these counter-terrorism bills, and their provisions are frequently misused. For example, two laws recently approved by Senegal's Parliament in response to threats in the Sahel define terrorist acts to include "criminal association", "seriously disturbing public order", and "offences linked to information and communications technologies". Civil society is concerned these laws could be used to target trade union activities, human rights defenders, and online freedoms. The vagueness in laws across Africa makes it easy for states to subjectively interpret them and use them disproportionately. Take Eswatini members of parliament Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube. They have been in jail since July 2021 and will next appear in court in October to face terrorism charges under the country's notorious Suppression of Terrorism Act. Their only crime was to call for democracy in a country where other activists have been jailed on similar charges for simply wearing t-shirts emblazoned with pro-democracy slogans. Like Eswatini, many states in Africa justify measures against activists through vague interpretations of counter-terrorism laws which, in most cases, are not consistent with the scale of the threat or the approaches needed to address it. Since 2013, for instance, Egyptian authorities have weaponised the anti-terrorism and terrorist entities law to target large numbers of human rights defenders. Many are subjected to pre-trial detention and lengthy jail terms for their peaceful activities. Several African states don't just target individuals but the civil society organisations they represent. Authorities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Tunisia have used anti-terrorism laws to restrict the operations of non-governmental organisations on the grounds that they support terrorist groups. In September 2019, Nigerian authorities closed the offices of international humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger in Maiduguri without prior notification, accusing it of aiding and abetting Boko Haram. Restrictions on peaceful assembly Where formal spaces for citizens to engage in decision-making processes have closed, citizens across Africa are making their voices heard through peaceful protests. But African states are also restricting these spaces through anti-terror laws or security-related public order acts. In Algeria in May 2018, human rights defender Kaddour Chouicha and 12 others were charged with participating in a terrorist organisation and conspiracy against the state after taking part in peaceful protests. Many of them are members of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, part of the Hirak Movement, a network that has been using protests to call for political change since 2019. In January 2017, Cameroonian human rights defender Abor Balla was arrested and charged with eight counts under the country's anti-terrorism law for leading a protest calling for reforms in the educational and judicial systems in Cameroon's Anglophone regions. In Uganda and Zimbabwe, legislation passed to police protests in the name of protecting public order has been used to pre-empt and violently repress demonstrations. Following protests in Zimbabwe in 2020, Zimbabwean authorities accused the Zimbabwean National Trade Union of being a terrorist organisation. Due to the use of anti-terrorism laws to charge protesters, activists and journalists are often tried in military courts, for example in Cameroon and Egypt. Often authorities flaunt due process by preventing human rights defenders from accessing legal representatives or by subjecting them to impromptu court appearances without giving them enough time to prepare for their cases. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Human Rights Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. What is the way forward? From the September 11 atrocity in 2001 to more recent attacks in the Sahel, Kenya and Mozambique, terrorism denies people rights, disrupts economies, and derails efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals. But civil society is not a threat and should not be the target in tackling terrorism. African states need to rethink the way they view human rights defenders and civil society groups and see them for what they are: contributors to development and democracy. Governments need to make a clear distinction between those who wilfully attack communities on the one hand, and human rights defenders, journalists and protesters who peacefully call for reforms and raise concerns over issues affecting citizens on the other. Evidence from the last two decades shows that restrictions on civil society do nothing to counter threats posed and executed by terrorist groups. If states want to show they are taking terrorist threats seriously, they should stop attacking civil society. Kgalalelo Gaebee is a Communications Officer for the global civil society alliance, CIVICUS. David Kode is the Advocacy and Campaigns Lead for CIVICUS. The international advocacy organization, Global Citizen, has revealed the local host's TV personalities Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and Nancy Isime for the Global Citizen Live event in Lagos, Nigeria. Pan-African broadcast partners are AIM Group, MultiChoice and The SABC. Performances from Lagos will be given by Tiwa Savage, Davido, Femi Kuti and Made Kuti, among others. Burna Boy will perform from New York, Sho Madjozi and Muzi from Johannesburg, while Angelique Kidjo will perform in Paris on 25th September 2021. Global Citizen Live is part of the once-in-a-generation day of unity across seven continents, to be broadcast over 24 hours around the world on Apple Music, Apple TV App, YouTube, Twitter and also aired on partner televesion and radio stations across different regions. Global Citizen Live will call for: Wealthiest nations to deliver on their promise to give $100 billion annually to address the climate needs of developing countries. US citizens to contact their representatives pressing for the passage of the largest climate protection bill in American history in order to set the US on track to at least half emissions by 50% by 2030. Congress plans to vote on the bill the week of September 27th. The G7 and the world's billionaires to end the hunger crisis by contributing at least $6 billion for the urgent provision of millions of meals for the 41 Million People on the brink of starvation. The G7 and EU to share at least one billion doses immediately, with those most in need, and to support the proposal by South Africa and India to waive IP around the production of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical tools -- backed by over 100 countries. In Lagos, Global Citizen is working with the Lagos State Government to create a limited-capacity event in celebration of Nigerians working on the frontline in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The show will be filmed in advance with a fully-vaccinated audience or attendees who have presented a negative PCR test. Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said: "Lagos State is thrilled to be a part of Global Citizen Live. With the challenges of rising poverty, hunger and vaccine inequity facing Africa, we need businesses and governments around the world to respond to the call of citizens, stand in solidarity with the people of Africa, and commit to defending the planet and defeating poverty and inequality." Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning said: "Women continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the COVID-19 pandemic - on the frontlines, in various sectors, and in their homes. Every woman and girl should be guaranteed safety in their respective homes, schools, communities, and places of work. This is a shared responsibility and through Global Citizen Live, we are calling on key stakeholders across private & public sectors to join hands in accelerating our common goal of ensuring that women are safe and economically empowered." Dr Herbert Wigwe, Group Managing Director Access Bank PLC, said: "Access Bank strongly aligns with Global Citizen's goals and objectives, possessing a strong drive to ending COVID-19, addressing the global food crisis, achieving education for all, advancing equity, and protecting the environment. In recognition of our responsibilities as an institution/organisation, we have devoted resources to minimise our carbon footprint while also being at the forefront of stimulating environmentally responsible stewardship, development, and sustainability innovation." Global Citizen Live is supported by a corporate coalition, including Access Bank in Nigeria, alongside global partners Accenture, Cisco, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, Google, Live Nation, P&G, Salesforce, Verizon, and campaign partners Hilton, WW International, and World Wide Technology who will engage support from the private sector in driving new commitments toward the campaign's policy objectives. Global Citizen Live has received in-kind support from leading media companies, including AIM Group, BellaNaija, Branded Cities, Brut Media, Captivate, Clear Channel Outdoor, Curb Media, Forbes, GSTV, iHeartRadio, Interstate Outdoor, JCDecaux, Arise TV, Newscentral TV, Outfront Media, Six Flags Theme Parks, The New York Times, Vanguard Media, Big Cabal Media, Cool FM, Nigeria Info, Wazobia FM, and Wazobia Max TV. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2030. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. We post, tweet, message, vote, sign, and call to inspire those who can make things happen to act -- government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens -- together with improving lives. By downloading our app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. For more information, visit GlobalCitizen.org. Benue State is currently facing the worst humanitarian crisis in recent time following the sharp rise in the number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, the state government is currently grappling with. Though official figures had it that over 1.5 million IDPs are taking refuge in several official and unofficial camps as well as host communities spread across the state, but latest figures put the number of IDPs in the state at close to 1.8 million; a development that is way beyond the carrying capacity of the state government. This sudden swell may not be unconnected to recent armed herdsmen attacks in Guma, Makurdi and Gwer West Local Government Areas, LGAs, that forced the locals to flee for safety. Findings from some of the official and unofficial camps in Makurdi and Guma LGAs indicated that the inmates have become weary of their continuous stay in the camps and are asking that the Federal Government accord some degree of attention to their plight as is being done to IDPs in the North East by resettling and supporting them to pick up the bits and pieces of their lives again. At the Tse Yandev IDPs camp on Makurdi-Gbajimba road, though an unofficial camp, the chairman, Gabriel Yev, hinted that the last one month had witnessed a surge in the number of persons running into the camp for safety. He said: "Our figure in the camp has reached 10,102 inmates and recently the figure increased again to 10,407 made up of 3,457 male and 6,645 female and the number of households have also increased from 5,249 to 5,384 after the recent attacks by armed herdsmen. "We are faced with challenges here; the IDPs situation in Benue has grown beyond what the state government can cope with; so we are pleading with the Federal Government to come to our aid as being done in the North East. "We are also Nigerians and we deserve attention; our destroyed villages should be rebuilt to enable us return home because we are tired of living in camps." A nursing mother of four, Mrs. Washima Liambee who said she fled into the camp five month ago from Orogbo, lamented that she was tired of living in makeshift shanty covering that had not been able to protect her and the children from rain. "We want to go home to our communities; all we are asking is for the Federal Government to rebuild our homes so that we can return to our communities." For David Nande who few weeks back fled with his family from Sengev, Gwer West LGA, it was his second time of running into an IDPs camps following herdsmen attacks. "My family and I were displaced in 2012 and after battling so hard to put my house in order I went back with my family one year after and this year 2021 herdsmen came again and burnt our houses and farm land and I and many others have again been forced to flee. "At the moment, apart from the support we get from the state government, spirited individuals, churches and organisations, I also do menial jobs to sustain my family. But "I am tired just like everyone of us here. The Federal Government should fulfill its pledge of resettling us. They are doing it for the IDPs in the North; why is Benue State different? We certainly cannot continue to live like this." At the Uikpam IDPs camp in Guma LGA, Timothy Gar told Arewa Voice that the number of inmates has continued to swell in the last two months, thereby adding to the humanitarian situation in the state. "We are all tired of living in this camp and we want to return home. We are begging the Federal Government to treat us like Nigerians as it is being done to the IDPs in the North East. "The Federal Government cannot continue to pretend that the herdsmen crisis in Benue has not created a humanitarian crisis in the state. We are asking that our destroyed communities should be rebuilt and the victims resettled as being done in the North East." Speaking on the situation in the state and demand by the IDPs, Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Dr. Emmanuel Shior who had persistently cried out over the humanitarian situation in the state, lamented that the Federal Government seemed to be playing politics with the situation in the state. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Refugees By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said: "The humanitarian crisis in the Benue State is worse than the situation in the North East especially in the challenge of food, shelter, WASH and medical care. "Regrettably Benue State government, with well over 1.5million IDPs, is shouldering these responsibilities which is not fair because the challenge is too huge to leave on the shoulders of a state government alone. "The IDPs challenge in Benue is not only a humanitarian crisis but one that affects the development of the people. It is a challenge of development because the infrastructure in most parts of the attacked and sacked communities were also destroyed and need to be rehabilitated." Vanguard News Nigeria analysis Bonn, Germany Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have exacerbated rather than reduced global inequalities. On the one hand, the net wealth of billionaires has risen to record levels since the outbreak of the pandemic (increasing by more than US$ 5 trillion to US$ 13.1 trillion from 2020 to 2021), on the other hand, the number of people living in extreme poverty has also increased massively (by approx. 100 million to 732 million in 2020). These contrasts alone show that something is fundamentally wrong in the world. In response to the disastrous effects of the pandemic, there was much talk of solidarity with regard to health support, including access to vaccines. But the brutal national competition for vaccines shows that solidarity is embraced by many world leaders merely as a rhetorical flourish. The World Health Organization (WHO) made an early appeal to countries to agree on a coordinated distribution of vaccines, with available doses distributed fairly according to the size of each country's population. This has not happened. By the end of August 2021, more than 60 percent of the people in high-income countries had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but less than 2 percent have done so in low-income countries. The European Commission, the USA, the UK, and numerous other countries have signed bilateral COVID-19 Vaccine Agreements with pharmaceutical producers to secure vaccine quotas. By the end of August 2021, more than 400 agreements were concluded, securing over 18 billion doses of vaccine. The European Commission has so far negotiated supply agreements for 4.3 billion doses of vaccine, equivalent to 8 vaccine doses per capita of the EU population. The UK could vaccinate its population 9 times with the contracted doses, the USA 10 times and Canada as many as 16 times. Exacerbating the problem for many countries in the global South is the enormous cost of vaccines. The producers do not charge standard prices, but vary their prices depending on the quantity purchased and the bargaining power of the purchaser. Occasionally, they grant preferential terms to rich countries, while countries in the global South sometimes have to pay higher prices. For example, the European Commission received a batch of AstraZeneca vaccine for US$ 2.19, while Argentina had to pay US$ 4.00 and the Philippines US$ 5.00. Botswana had to pay US$ 14.44 million for 500,000 doses of Moderna vaccine, or US$ 28.88 per dose, while the USA got Moderna's vaccine at almost half the price (US$ 15.00). While the vaccine pharmaceutical oligopoly makes exorbitant profits, countries of the global South are confronted with falling government revenues and rising debt burdens. The situation will worsen as regular vaccine boosters become necessary in the coming years. What is tantamount to a license to print money for the pharmaceutical companies is a massive burden on public budgets. In view of this dramatic disparity, the promise to "leave no one behind" of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development remains an empty slogan. Insufficient responses to the global health crisis As an immediate response to the global health crisis, the People's Vaccine Alliance has formulated "5 steps to end vaccine apartheid". These are in line with the demands derived from the analyses in the Spotlight Report 2021. Increasing global vaccine production capacity, lowering market prices, and substantially increasing public financial support are vital, especially for the poor and disadvantaged people in the global South. One way to overcome the vaccine shortage is to accelerate technology transfer. In May 2020, WHO established the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), designed to pool voluntary licenses, research and regulatory data. But most countries with large vaccine production capacity, such as the USA, Germany, China and India, do not support the initiative. Thus, it has so far remained without any noticeable impact. Faced with scarce global production capacity, India, South Africa, Kenya and Eswatini applied for a waiver under the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO to temporarily remove patent protection for COVID-19-related vaccines, medicines and devices. The TRIPS waiver is intended to enable manufacturers in the global South in particular to produce medicines and vaccines more quickly and at lower cost. More than 100 countries support this initiative, including the USA as of May 2021. The EU, the UK, Switzerland and the pharmaceutical companies and lobby groups based in these countries are particularly opposed and have so far blocked an agreement. In this context, the more fundamental question arises as to whether medicines vital to realize the human right to health should be patented at all. Should they not in principle be considered global public goods, especially when, as in the case of the COVID-19 vaccines, billions of dollars of public money have gone into research and development? In another initiative, the WHO and several partners--including France, the EU and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -launched the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator and its COVAX initiative. This has shifted the centre of the global COVID-19 response from WHO to a multi-stakeholder initiative with its own governance and decision-making structure, thereby further weakening WHO's role in the global health architecture. But with the unilateral approach of the rich countries to vaccine procurement, COVAX has failed in its claim to serve a global coordination function. Its primary task is now to provide COVID-19 vaccines to 92 low- and middle-income countries with the objective to provide at least 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of 2021. By 14 September 2021, just 270 million doses have been delivered. To date, COVAX has received pledges of US$ 9.825 billion, nowhere near enough to provide sufficient vaccines for about 4 billion people in the 92 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has painfully demonstrated the absence of a functioning global health system. This reality has led to the proposal to create a Pandemic Treaty - a legally binding framework and improved global governance structures for pandemic preparedness and response. Whether it can actually overcome structural weaknesses of the global health architecture, such as the underfunding of the WHO, is very unclear. Depending on its design, it could lead to an actual strengthening of the WHO, or to its further weakening by outsourcing pandemic preparedness and response to multi-stakeholder bodies with limited public accountability. More transformational steps are needed Beyond responding to the global health crisis, far more fundamental transformational steps are needed. An essential aspect of an agenda for change is the shift toward a rights-based economy and a concept of human rights that forms the basis of our vision of economic justice. To make this systemic shift happen, the trend towards privatization, outsourcing and systematic dismantling of public services must be reversed. To combat rising inequality and build a socially just, inclusive post-COVID world, everyone must have equitable access to public services, which must be reclaimed as public goods and run in the common interest, not for profit. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly emphasized that human rights must guide all COVID-19 response and recovery measures. This should also mean strengthening the rights of those on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis. First and foremost, that means the millions of workers in the healthcare sector, 70 percent of them women. Most of them experience poor work conditions, low wages and job insecurity. The situation is similar in the education sector. Research by Education International shows that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers' workloads have steadily worsened, while salaries have remained the same or even decreased. The situation has continued to deteriorate as a result of the pandemic. The global teacher shortage, which the UN estimated at 69 million even before the pandemic, will continue to grow so long as teaching remains to be "an overworked, undervalued, and underpaid profession". A basic precondition for the adequate provision of public goods and services is that States have sufficient resources. To prevent the COVID-19 pandemic being followed by a global debt and austerity pandemic, governments must be enabled to expand their fiscal space and to implement alternatives to neoliberal austerity policies. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Business Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. This includes implementing a progressive tax reform, which prioritizes taxes on wealth and high earners. Over the past year, many UN officials, human rights activists and civil society groups (like in the Spotlight Report 2020) have demanded that the resources of the COVID-19 recovery and economic stimulus packages should be used proactively to promote human rights and the implementation of the SDGs. During that time, initial studies show that this is rarely the case. A report of the Financial Transparency Coalition that tracked fiscal and social protection recovery measures in nine countries of the global South found that in eight of them a total of 63 percent of announced COVID-19 funds went to large corporations, rather than small and medium enterprises or social protection measures. Particularly poorer countries, some of which were already facing massive budget shortfalls before the pandemic, need substantial external support to finance additional healthcare and social spending and measures to overcome the economic recession. In this regard, the general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) equivalent to US$ 650 billion in August 2021 - the largest distribution ever made by the IMF - has been heralded as a major achievement. However, its distribution will not benefit the countries most in need without rechanneling measures and again illustrates existing imbalances in the global economic architecture. Only if the world collectively embarks on the path toward transformational policies is there a chance to reduce global inequalities, protect our shared planet and make the proclaimed goal of solidarity a political and institutional reality. Jens Martens is Director, Global Policy Forum, Bonn, Germany The Spotlight Report is published by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Global Policy Forum (GPF), Public Services International (PSI), Social Watch, Society for International Development (SID), and Third World Network (TWN), supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau The agency also called on Nigerians to stop buying medicines from hawkers. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against storing food in containers formerly used for chemical products. The Director General of NAFDAC, Christianah Adeyeye, gave the warning on Thursday during a sensitisation campaign in Onitsha, Anambra. Mrs Adeyeye, who was represented by Ngozi Onuora, the director of Chemical Evaluation and Research Directorate, said such containers harboured carcinogenic substances, which would not be scrubbed by washing and could develop harmful effects for humans in the long run. The DG, who led the team of NAFDAC top management to the palace of the traditional ruler of Onitsha, Alfred Achebe, said a well-informed society would address the effects of drug abuse. "It is harmful to use kerosene tankers to load groundnut oil, to use potassium bromate to bake bread so as to improve the dough and to use dyes to redden palm oil," she said. Mrs Adeyeye called on Nigerians to stop buying medicines from hawkers, but patronise approved medicine shops which are under the agency's regulatory purview. She said the awareness campaign, which would last for three days, was aimed at sensitising youths on the dangers of consuming codeine, tramadol, and their abuse, as well as the harm caused by other dangerous drugs to their health. "We also advise market women to desist from using chemicals to quicken the ripening of fruits, like plantains and bananas, because it is dangerous to health," she said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Food and Agriculture Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. She called on traditional institutions to use their reach with the grassroots to help NAFDAC achieve optimal results in the quest for a society free of drug abuse and unwholesome products. In his response, the traditional ruler expressed worry over the increasing cases of drug abuse, particularly among youths in the state, saying that Onitsha had zero tolerance for drug trafficking and it employs effective community-based approaches to tackle the menace. Mr Achebe said he had directed the demolition of two buildings housing illegal drug users in the past, but that there was the need for the police and other related agencies in charge of drug control to complement these efforts. The traditional ruler said beyond the prevalence of drug abuse among youths on the streets, investigation had revealed that most people who used motorcycles to peddle drugs ended up in the barracks. "The rate at which the youths in the area engaged in the selling and consumption of illicit drugs is worrisome. "There is a need for the restoration of societal core values to enable the people to avoid engagement in drug abuse. "I believe that people engaged in meaningful activities cannot go into illicit drug consumption, that is why as a community, we are working hard to ensure that youths are trained on skills including ICT," he said. Mr Achebe pledged to partner with the agency to ensure a drastic reduction of the sale and consumption of illicit drugs. The event included a lecture and road show that took the team around the commercial city of Onitsha. Abuja Federal government and the striking resident doctors have, again, failed to reach agreement to put an end to the nationwide industrial action that has grounded the health sector. The much-awaited talks to resolve the issues that led to strike that is in its second month did not hold. The National Industrial Court had stood down the case of striking on Wednesday to allow for an out of court resolution of the dispute. However, what happened on yesterday at the scheduled talks was that the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) merely came with a document containing their positions which they exchanged with the federal government team. The delegation of the doctors led by the Secretary General of NMA, Dr. Philip Ekpe and NARD President, Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi left the conference room of the Ministry of Labour and Employment saying that they were going to consult with their lawyers. When THISDAY asked Okhuaihesuyi why there was no meeting to sign the MoU, he said:" We came here and they gave us a paper and we decided that we should go and showe it to our lawyers. We gave them our own papers and everybody decided to go and more interpretation from the lawyers on the implications so that we can come to discuss on it". Earlier the government side had a meeting in the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige with the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire in attendance However, Ehanire left the venue without speaking with journalists. when journalists also sought to know from the Minister of Labour why MoU was not signed, Ngige said: "No they couldn't have signed an MoU that was done on August 21, what we supposed to do was to see if they can have some addendum to that old MoU because some of things there have been overtaken by events. "So unfortunately we have been able to put the TS and dot the Is so we have given some time to go and consult with their lawyers because tomorrow is court, so that is where we are. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Nigeria Health By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "You can see the government here and we are waiting for our lawyers to come to discuss. Ngige said the reason for the meeting was not to reopen negotiations. We looking ways by which the court can be told that there is room for settlement and for further negotiations". Also when asked about what federal government is doing to end the incessant strike, Ngige said that Health Reform Committee recently set up by the president is going to look so many issues including privatization of the federal tertiary institutions. He said that there is hope that within the next six months, the commitee headed by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo will be able to turn in their report. According to him, a lot of the health system operations needs to be repackaged and there is need for reform. Ngige who was asked to give insight on the content of the new MoU said that it is very okay and that the implementation will be done in a way that will bring about blast peace in the sector. He said that he has been monitoring the government side implementation of the agreement with the doctors and that significant progress is being made. Rashida Hussaini, a 25-year-old woman, suspected to be supplying fuel to bandits in the forest, has been arrested in Katsina State. The suspect was paraded at the headquarters of the state police command on Thursday. Police Public Relations Officer in Katsina, Gambo Isah, said she was arrested along Koar Guga-Jibiya road with gallons of petrol concealed in a sack and a handbag hidden under her hijab. According to Isah, the suspect said she is a resident of Daddara, a village in Jibiya Local Government Area of the state, and claimed she is from Gombe State, as well as from Hirji, a village in the Niger Republic. "Rashida Hussaini, 25-year-old was arrested in Kofar Guga in possession of gallons full with petrol (3 gallons) and concealed in a sack. Similarly, big leather full of petrol (3 gallons) and concealed in a bag zipped, she hides them under her hijab." "Upon interrogation, she said she was from Dadara but she hails from Gombe State. Later, she said she was from Hirji in the Niger Republic," he said. The police spokesman said her matter became more suspicious when she could not give a definite address where she came from. "She couldn't provide a satisfactory explanation on where she bought the petrol and where she was going with it. It was obvious that she came out from the forest and was suspected to be aiding the activities of the bandits by providing them with information and supplying them with petrol for use in their motorcycles. "From all indications, life is miserable for the bandits as they resort to sending their wives to disguise and come out to the town to buy petrol in sacks and leather, hide under their hijab and take to them in Forest." The police spokesman also said the act was against the containment order banning sales of petrol in jerry cans and that she would be charged for aiding and abetting banditry. He said the suspect's husband is presently in the forest. The suspect confessed to have come from Hirji in Niger Republic; and that the petrol was not for bandits but for her grinding machines. She also said her husband is in Ghana, seeking for greener pasture denying that he is not a bandit. The spokesman said investigation is ongoing, she would be charged to court at the end of investigations, to serve as a deterrent to others. SO, where did the mukula logs laden on the 200 trucks which have been seized in Ndola come from? This is beginning to smell like another case of high-level corruption possibly involving senior officials of the previous administration. The Zambian High Commission in Dar-es-Salaam has since confirmed that 200 lorries registered in Tanzania have been seized on the Copperbelt in Zambia because the drivers cannot prove the authenticity of the documents needed for the authorities to clear the cargo. In 2016, Zambia banned the felling and transporting of mukula, a type of rosewood, as part of efforts to curb its rapid loss fuelled by growing demand in Asia. Arising from that ban, logs from the mukula tree species cannot be transported, especially through Zambia, without a valid permit. Last week, Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary Bright Nundwe said the clearance of the trucks has been delayed by changes to the security wings occasioned by the transition to the new United Party from National Development (UPND) Government in Zambia after last month's general elections that ousted the Patriotic Front (PF) from power. It has now emerged that the lorries have been seized because the Tanzanian drivers did not have legal documents and transportation permits to show that the logs were indeed from another country other than Zambia. This is a worrying development that needs thorough investigation because it adds to the many illegalities that are being unearthed, which were allegedly perpetrated by influential people in the previous administration. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zambia Legal Affairs Environment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. On his election as the seventh President of Zambia on August 12, President Hakainde Hichilema alluded to alleged looting, embezzlement and outright theft of public funds by a clique of privileged individuals with access to the country's public finance system in the previous administration. President Hichilema said this should not be allowed to go unpunished. In an interview with the BBC, the President described the abuse of public funds under the previous regime as "horrifying". However, it appears the illegalities were not only limited to abuse of public funds. It also involved theft or looting of the country's natural resources perpetrated by privileged individuals at the cost of the poor. Stakeholders have even alleged that gold mining, which has been going on in locations like Kansenseli in North Western Province, was not being properly accounted for. Traditional leaders in the province have alleged illegalities which they say need to be stopped by shutting down the mine and investigating what has been happening. In the same vein, gold mining in Mumbwa and other parts of Zambia, like Katete in Eastern Province, equally needs to be reviewed to see if it is benefitting the country in any way. So, was the ban of the mukula logs trade just done to play to the gallery while a few 'connected' individuals continued depriving the country of this precious resource? Investigative wings need to get to the bottom of this and many other disturbing issues which have left people wallowing in poverty in a rich country like ours. Maputo Unidentified gunmen shot dead on Monday a Rwandan businessman, Levocat Karemangingo, a few metres away from his home in Liberdade neighbourhood, in the southern Mozambican city of Matola, reports the independent television station STV. The murderers, who drove three vehicles, intercepted the victim's car and then riddled it with bullets causing his immediate death. The police arrived at the crime scene to gather forensic clues and then remove the lifeless body to Matola Provincial Hospital. But the killers and the reasons for the crime, which has deeply shocked the Rwandan community in Mozambique. are yet to be identified. Some of the Rwandan citizens interviewed by the independent newspaper "O Pais" accused the Rwandan government of Paul Kagame of responsibility for the murder, claiming said that the regime is persecuting exiled Rwandans, just because they have different ideas. Others claim that they are on a list of people who will be "executed". The Rwandan community has renewed appeals to the Mozambican government to ensure their safety, because they have not done anything wrong and have been working for the sake of the country's development. Last May, men wearing Mozambican police uniforms kidnapped a former Rwandan journalist, Ntamuhanga Cassien, who was living in exile in Mozambique. According to the Association of Rwandan Refugees in Mozambique (ARRM), Cassien was abducted on 23 May by eight individuals claiming to be Mozambican police agents, accompanied by a man who was supposedly a Rwandan official. Cassien has not been seen since, and so it is not clear whether he is alive or dead. Abuja A pan-Igbo group, Igbonine Sociocultural Organisation(ISO) has flayed the sit-at-home order allegedly declared by separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that has led to the loss lives, the shutting down of businesses, banks, schools and markets in the past seven days. At a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, the President General, Igbonine, Chief Emeka Okonkwo, said the forced order was destroying Igbo enterprise and causing economic hardship and ruin to the businesses of their people, who were losing income on a daily basis in spite of their enterprise and acknowledged dynamism. He warned that South-east zone can no longer continue on the voyage of self-destruction and cutting off its nose in order to spite the face. He said there would be more hunger and poverty if businesses were not allowed to thrive in the zone. "We are constrained to call the attention of our brothers and sisters, who are giving overt or covert support to the misguided youths involved in this damage to the psyche, lives and welfare of the people living in the south-east to the negative impact of their actions on Ndigbo. The state of affairs in the South-east is capable of completely destroying the enterprise of the Igbo man and reversing the gains of Akuluonu (the philosophy of bringing back investment from the rest of the country and ploughing it to the south-east)," Okonkwo said. The group called on all strata of leadership in the South-east, religious leaders, Ohaneze Ndigbo and its affiliates, town unions, community leaders, village heads and age- groups to determine how to end the actions of self-immolation in Igboland. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Okonkwo described Igbo as serious minded and enterprising people, who toil to create wealth for themselves and society. He said sitting at home and indolence were not part of Igbo culture while urging the people to return to work to continue to develop the south-east and Nigeria at large. He said the failure of the political class to address basic societal needs of security of lives and property and a healthy economy is allowing opportunist ethnic promoters to capitalize and almost succeed in dismembering the country. He said rather than institutionalise May 29 as stay-at-home day to commemorate Biafran Day, events should be organised to mark that day in remembrance of those that died during the Civil War. Igbonine also condemned the murder of the priest in charge of St Andrew's Anglican Church in Ihitte Ukwa, Imo State, Rev. Emeka Mezenu on Tuesday for allegedly defying the forced stay at home order and allowing students to sit for West African Senior Secondary School Examination at his Parish the previous day, making the students to lose one year of their academic life. He said they had tried without success to talk with the leadership of IPOB, which is divergent in nature. He blamed miscreants for being behind the pockets of crisis in the South-east. Rival security forces came close to blows in Mogadishu amid a clash between the president and prime minister. These tensions are blocking the path to elections. International actors should name spoilers and wield sanctions against those who keep pushing Somalia to the edge of conflict. After bubbling for weeks, tensions between Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and President Mohammed Abdullahi Mohamed "Farmajo" have burst into the open, nearly triggering another clash between rival branches of the federal forces, in scenes that echoed confrontations in Mogadishu several months ago. Following the unexplained murder of a national intelligence agent and Roble's subsequent suspension of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) chief, both the prime minister and president moved to appoint a new agency leader. The ensuing tensions nearly sparked a firefight, with opposing units facing off at NISA headquarters on 8 September. Although the forces in Farmajo's camp backed down, the underlying frictions could yet cause violence and threaten long-overdue indirect elections. Somalia's factions are playing with fire. All sides need to de-escalate. International partners should publicly name spoilers, threaten sanctions if they do not change course and prepare targeted measures against those who continue destabilising behaviour. Once warm, relations between Roble and Farmajo have been cooling since Farmajo tasked the prime minister with spearheading election preparations in May. He did so after April's clashes in the capital Mogadishu, when security units allied with opposition figures such as former Presidents Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed battled those supporting Farmajo. The president had provoked an uproar when his allies in the lower house of parliament extended his term in office for a period of two years amid a stalled electoral process marked by political infighting. Following the clashes, Farmajo committed to expediting elections and to handing over electoral and security responsibilities to Roble, though he has, in effect, remained president past his term's expiration in February 2021. Yet now the separate dispute over NISA has shed further light on the extent to which the president and prime minister are at loggerheads. As things stand, their supporters could take up arms at any time, further complicating Somalia's electoral saga. A case involving the death of a national intelligence officer is the latest example of the rift. This officer had apparently been poised to blow the whistle on the controversial deployment of Somali troops - perhaps thousands of them - for training in Eritrea since 2019. Somalia's federal government has provided little information about this arrangement. Most of the soldiers have not returned to Somalia, leading their families to demand answers regarding their status. There have been claims, but no concrete proof, that the troops had been deployed to the front lines in Ethiopia's war in Tigray, where the Eritrean army is backing Ethiopian federal troops. The issue has become a political hot potato for the Farmajo administration. Although Somali troops have trained abroad, including in Turkey, in the past, recruitment for the Eritrea training was cloaked in secrecy. Family members have not heard from the recruits since they left for Eritrea. The families have held several demonstrations demanding more information on the training program On 3 September, NISA said its agent, Ikran Tahliil, who had been missing since 26 June and was widely believed to have information about the training program from her time at NISA, had been abducted and killed by Al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group fighting the federal government. Her disappearance triggered widespread public criticism of the agency and its head Fahad Yasin, who is close to Farmajo and a key figure in the president's re-election bid. Ikran's family have called for an investigation into her disappearance and submitted a lawsuit to the Armed Forces Attorney General's Office implicating Fahad, among others, in her disappearance. Several factors aroused the family's suspicions. First, hours after NISA issued its statement saying militants had killed Ikran, Al-Shabaab denied it. Roble, who had already appointed a committee in June to look into the whereabouts of those sent to the Eritrean training program, then immediately demanded that the agency provide a full explanation of Ikran's disappearance within 48 hours. That set in motion a chain of events that nearly ended in a military showdown between NISA units loyal to Fahad and those recognising the prime minister's authority. In a clear rebuke of the prime minister's demand, Fahad said he would not respond to Roble but would instead supply any information to the National Security Council, a body consisting of the prime minister but also other leaders, and which has not met since 2018. On 6 September, however, Roble suspended Fahad as NISA chief, appointing General Bashir Mohamed Jama "Gobe" as interim director. He also ordered the armed forces attorney general to launch an enquiry into the case. Farmajo quickly came to Fahad's defence. He declared Roble's move unconstitutional, insisted that Fahad remain in his position and called upon the prime minister to focus solely on electoral matters instead. Farmajo's supporters argue that NISA is a military institution within his remit as commander-in-chief. Roble's side, however, asserts that it falls under the ministry of internal security, and that since Roble serves as the head of the Council of Ministers, he controls it. Immediate mediation efforts proved futile. Deputy Lower House Speaker Abdiweli Ibrahim Mudey, who hails from the same sub-clan as Fahad, stepped in to broker a compromise on 7 September but failed to ease tensions between the parties. According to insiders, at first Farmajo accepted Fahad's removal at the 7 September meeting and even met Gobe. But he outlined conditions for backing down publicly that Roble could not accept, including dropping the investigation into Ikran's disappearance. With talks flailing, Farmajo began appointing his allies to security positions. He moved Fahad to the post of national security adviser. He also designated Fahad's inexperienced confidant Yasin Abdullahi Farey, who previously ran Godka Jilicow - NISA's custody and investigation centre - as his new interim NISA director, thereby directly challenging Roble's appointment of Gobe. A military standoff quickly developed. On the morning of 8 September, Farmajo's appointee Farey took control of NISA's headquarters in the Haber Khadiijo area of Mogadishu in an attempt to stop Roble from physically installing his appointee. Tensions rose as NISA's various security units faced off - the Dufaan, comprised mainly of Al-Shabaab defectors and loyal to Fahad, were ranged against the U.S.-trained Waran and Gaashaan units. A member of the Gaashaan explained to Crisis Group that they were not backing the prime minister personally, but that they recognised his authority since the May 2020 agreement between political actors placed him in charge of security during the electoral period. Violence was averted, fortunately, as the outnumbered Dufaan stood down. Late on 8 September, however, Roble replaced the internal security minister, who on paper oversees NISA and was close to Farmajo, with his own political ally, signalling further jockeying for control of the institution. The latest crisis illustrates how fragile the situation is in Somalia. The events at NISA show that the arrangement struck between Farmajo and Roble following the April clashes is fraying and that the parties are as far apart as ever. One Roble ally described the relationship to Crisis Group as "beyond repair". Another mediation effort, led by the heads of Galmudug and South West regional states and culminating in a face-to-face meeting between Roble and Farmajo on 11 September, has also collapsed without an agreement. The risks are high that the country will descend into violence as the two leaders continue efforts to undermine each other. Already, both sides have reportedly reached out to security actors in Mogadishu to gauge - or lobby for - support in anticipation of a showdown. The next moves from either side risk inflaming things further. Some are concerned that the president may ask his ally, Lower House Speaker Mohamed Mursal Abdirhaman, to call for a vote on a motion to dismiss Roble. Any move to remove Roble would be highly contentious, given his central role in electoral preparations. Some argue that such a move would also be of dubious legality given that parliament's mandate expired in December 2020. In addition, new lower house representatives have yet to be elected, even as some newly selected senators have taken their seats. Roble has meanwhile sought to shore up his position by asserting control of government finances, declaring that no funds can be withdrawn from Somalia's central bank without his approval - a move bound to upset Farmajo's side. Both sides need to take a step back from the brink. Rather than constantly finding new issues over which to duel, they should instead focus on bringing the long-overdue elections to completion. President Farmajo and his allies should avoid any effort to oust the prime minister so as not to derail election preparations. Other political actors, including opposition members, despite their initial scepticism, have increasingly shown trust in Roble's stewardship of the preparations. Getting rid of Roble would refresh their doubts and likely ruin the deal on which the elections are based. The president should stick to his prior commitment to respect in word and deed the prime minister's authority in handling logistics and security going into the vote. In that vein, Farmajo should accept the prime minister's appointee to run NISA and cease seeking to counter his every move. Roble, in turn, can refocus on pushing ahead with the slowly progressing election cycle as his main priority. Both camps should also avoid attempts to interfere with or manipulate the vote, including by using government levers for political purposes. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Somalia Governance Conflict By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Given the breakdown in ties between the president and prime minister and the failed mediations, further domestic talks are unlikely to produce lasting results. Rather, Somalia's international partners should weigh in publicly and strongly to push for the above measures and be prepared to deploy measures of their own to discourage destabilising actions. International partners should be ready to name those acting as spoilers, threaten sanctions if they do not change tack and prepare targeted measures, potentially including travel restrictions or asset freezes, against those who persist with actions that undermine Somalia's stability and the prospects of getting to a quick election. The U.S., UK and European Union in particular should lead on this matter, given their significant support for Somalia's government. Much of Somalia's political elite retain dual citizenship, and bilateral measures that restrict their travel or financial freedom, including after their time in office, impose a clear cost that can serve as an effective deterrent. As regards Ikran's disappearance, the investigation led by the armed forces attorney general must continue unimpeded. The office should make its findings public, and hold accountable those responsible. Ikran's family has already reportedly rejected diya (the Somali customary practice of paying compensation to a victim's family to resolve charges of wrongdoing) in exchange for halting the investigation. They also opposed an investigatory committee belatedly named by Farmajo on 13 September. Their responses indicate that they will not accept alternative means of justice. Somalia has remained in limbo long enough with a government that has overstayed its mandate but has yet to organise a new election. The tit-for-tat clashes between its two highest-ranking leaders risk upending the modicum of stability the country has enjoyed while distracting politicians from other priorities, including delivering services to Somalis. All domestic actors should de-escalate to prevent the Farmajo-Roble rift from widening. External partners should signal their willingness to use sanctions against those obstructing the path to an election that might allow the country to chart a way forward. GRAPE companies at Aussenkehr in the //Kharas region are stepping up on measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in anticipation of an influx to farms during the harvest season, starting in October. The companies employ about 12 000 employees permanently, but this number could skyrocket to about 17 000 employees when temporary workers are included. Katrina Fourie, general manager of Silverlands Riverside Farm, says the company needs to prepare itself for the influx of seasonal workers and therefore supports the Ministry of Health and Social Services' vaccination campaign. Fourie says during the third wave of infections in Namibia a number of staff members became severly ill, but after workers got vaccinated they reported only one case of Covid-19 in the vineyards. "Solar Grape employs about 600 people, but this number will go up to a thousand as 400 seasonal workers will be employed during this month. We usually source these employees from the Oshana, Ohangwena, Kavango East and West, and Zambezi regions. So, we don't know how the situation would change. We are encouraging our people to get vaccinated to avoid getting severely sick, and the vaccination is free of charge," Fourie says. Charles Munyanu, the human resources manager at Solar Grape, says not one Covid-19 positive case was reported to his office during the third wave. Health ministry teams have visited their company to encourage staff members to get vaccinated, he says. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Munyanu says Solar Grape does not have the facilities to do pre-screening for Covid-19 symptoms, but is reinforcing preventative measures such as proper mask wearing, frequent hand washing, sanitising, and social distancing. He says the number of workers would increase from 200 to 700 during this month, and they would therefore ensure measures are adhered to strictly. "We have done very well with Covid so far. But now that we are experiencing an influx, we will get the police to come and assist us to maintain measures. We cannot afford to have a shutdown during the harvesting period. That would be detrimental to us," Munyanu says. Namibia Grape Company general manager Gideon Nuunyango says staff members visit the local clinic to get vaccinated. Nuunyango says four employees tested positive for Covid-19 in their office building in July, but none in the vineyards. They have all recovered from the illness, he says. He also says those who are getting vaccinated seem to be keeping it a secret. "I think it's because of misinformation and all the different messages being sent about the dangers of vaccination. It is confusing the people. So, those who go to get vaccinated keep it a secret," Nuunyango says. The company employs about 600 people, but this number has shot up to 1 100 in September. Local grape companies exported over 30 000 000 kg of choice table grapes to major export markets, such as the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, South Africa and the United States during a window period just Christmas last year when no other grower could supply these markets. Their export value amounted to over N$800 million last year. NAMIBIAN commercial banks have repossessed cars, properties, and equipment worth over N$157 million at the end of June this year, which is almost double the N$85 million reported for June 2020. This increase is mainly due to the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. These figures were released by the Bank of Namibia recently and depict a worrying picture, with the value of repossessions increasing by at least N$50 million this year alone. The N$71 million yearly increase from June 2020, which is an 83% increase, comes at a time when the banking sector is rocked by a high number of non-performing loans. At the end of June this year, these non-performing loans shot up to over N$6,9 billion. This represents loan balances on which no payment of either the capital balance or interest have been paid for over three months. Over N$5,3 billion in non-performing loans have been granted in the Khomas region. While Covid-19 has accelerated the increase in non-performing loans, the alarms has been raised by the market countless times before - especially on mortgages. Mortgage lending dominates non-performing loans, with a value of N$4,2 billion. The Namibian reported in 2019 that the property sector could be a threat to financial stability in Namibia, given the value of loans extended to the sector. This year the Bank of Namibia indicated that the properties of Namibian homeowners who owe commercial banks about N$26,1 billion in mortgage loans are valued at N$41,5 billion. To this end, the bank said households have amassed N$14,9 billion in equity on these properties. Although this is a monetary value it was still not clear whether it could be used as collateral on new loans. The central bank's analysis has emanated from an update by the national macro-prudential oversight committee's assessment on the Namibian financial system, which found that the system remains "resilient, solvent and sound, despite the Covid-19 pandemic and otherwise challenging economic conditions". Of the identified strengths were that the committee did not observe any undue upward pressure on asset prices that could adversely impact the stability of the financial system. This was particularly because "the property market was already under pressure over the last few years, and prices have stabilised," the committee said in mid-July. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Banking By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The committee, chaired by governor Johannes !Gawaxab, said a significant positive equity build-up was observed where current housing valuations exceeded outstanding mortgage balances by a substantial margin. This involves the N$14,9 billion excess referred to above. The value of repossed items, although small, could have been higher if banks were not auctioning off several properties and items. With many Namibians unable to repay their loans, commercial banks have started scrapping repossessed items to ensure they generate some cash to supplement less profitable banking services. According to the further analysis of the central bank in June this year, repossessed items by commercial banks have a market value of over N$251 million, and properties top the list at N$230 million. Other assets include vehicles at N$21 million. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Lasarus_A Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad went missing on September 8 from Nairobi's city centre. Somali politicians and Muslim human rights activists called for investigations. Security agencies vowed to trace the consultant. The incident resulted in accusations and conspiracy theories. His family accused the Somali government of being behind it. North eastern politicians pointed the finger at the Kenyan government. His friends blamed unnamed foreign governments. Social media activists faulted respected research firms. Others cite a business deal gone sour. And a small group of Somalis believe he was deported by Nairobi to his country, Somalia, without due legal process. But who is Dr Abdisamad? The regional analyst arrived in Kenya as a refugee in 1992 after the collapse of the Gen Siad Barre dictatorship in 1991. A geography and history graduate of Somalia's Lafole University, he was among the 11 Somalis given temporary teaching jobs in north eastern Kenya. He taught briefly at Wajir High School before moving to a Muslim organisation that was later deregistered over its links to the 1998 Nairobi US embassy terror attack. Denounced by Kenyan couple He returned to Somalia, then went to Uganda for post-graduate studies and thereafter sought refuge in Europe in vain. The Horn of Africa analyst is said to have fraudulent secured Kenyan citizenship citing a Kenyan couple as his parents. The couple have since denounced him and the matter is in court. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs Somalia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In the past two years, he was involved in controversial activities like accusing Kenya of 'territory grab' in Somalia amid a maritime border case at the International Court of Justice. He dismissed experts with a different viewpoint on the Tigray war in Ethiopia either as foreign spies or Tigray 'orphans', to be the darling of Nairobi-based Somali TVs and radios. Overwhelmed by his new-found media status, he spewed hate and disparaged Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo's opponents and castigated Arab nations and Western intelligence agencies using his Twitter handle and other platforms. 'Misused at a fee' Many believe the scholar was misused (at a fee) by two leading Nairobi-based Somali lawyers, self-appointed propagandists for Mogadishu, bankrolling its keyboard 'warriors' paid from the accounts of intelligence chief Fahad Yassin Haji Dahir. He was also accused of plagiarising the Horn of Africa Institute for Security Studies name from a think tank group of that name, who have since sought protection of their brand by the authorities. The academic is also mentioned in controversial multi-million-shilling fraudulent land sale, a dispute allegedly mediated by a group of Eastleigh businessmen after he received threats on his life. Dr Abdisamad has too many enemies. His "abduction" need be condemned and probed but Nairobi, which has been too patient with him and his cohorts, should weigh between allowing him and his group to roam freely in Kenya or deport them. Mr Ngoma is a scholar in international relations. [email protected] "How to tell if your drink has been spiked or tampered with?" A graphic posted on Facebook and shared over 38,000 times says to look out for "excessive bubbling" and sinking ice. The drink could also change colour or become foggy, it says. "Drink spiking is when someone has added something, for example, alcohol or drugs, to your drink, without you knowing," according to an information sheet by the UK's National Health Service, or NHS. Drinks are usually spiked at pubs, clubs, restaurants, during dates and sometimes at homes. Spiking causes sleepiness, weakness and reduced ability to walk and move. Victims will often wake up confused and with memory loss. Therefore it's often used to make people an easy target for rape, sexual assault or theft. South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has called gender-based violence "another pandemic raging" in South Africa. He said: "With a brutality that defies any form of comprehension, the women of our country are being raped." But do these methods of checking if your drink is spiked work and can they keep you safe? We checked. What drugs are used to spike drinks? Alcohol is sometimes used to spike both non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks, making the drink stronger than the drinker expects. As a depressant, alcohol slows down the messages from the brain to the body causing slower reflexes. Rohypnol, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and ketamine are all known as "date-rape drugs". Like alcohol, GHB is a depressant and causes sedation and sometimes amnesia. Rohypnol is a benzodiazepine used to treat insomnia or as an anaesthetic. It also causes drowsiness, dizziness, slow reflexes, loss of motor control and amnesia for up to 12 hours. Ketamine is another anaesthetic used to spike drinks. This drug causes relaxation, dizziness, detachedness, slow reflexes and hallucinations for up to two hours. University of Pretoria pharmacology professor, Duncan Cromarty, told Africa Check that the effects of these drugs were usually exacerbated by alcohol. Excessive bubbles and sinking ice? Cromarty said that "only some of the 'facts' given for deciding a drink has been spiked are true, while others are far fetched". One of the far-fetched ideas was that the ice would sink. "The ice will definitely not sink after the addition of any drug," said Cromarty. "If the ice is floating in the glass when the spike is added there may be some sugar-like crystals visible on the ice until it is washed off." The spike might cause some "bubbling", but this would not be visible in a carbonated drink, Cromarty said. Carbonated drinks like soda and some sparkling wines have carbon dioxide gas in them that causes bubbles. Colour changes and fogginess? Some drugs used to spike drinks, such as GHB, won't cause colour changes. Cromarty said that most drugs were colourless so would not change the colour of the drink. But drugs that had colour might cause a change, he said. And "some of the less water-soluble drugs" might cause "murkiness, or cloudiness". But he warned that murkiness "will settle out fairly quickly". And colour changes might not be seen if the drink was dark in colour, such as cola, or the room was dark. Rohypnol was previously "a white tablet that dissolved without colour, taste, or smell" according to drugs.com. But "to help identify tampered drinks at clubs" the manufacturer changed it to an "oblong caplet that is light green with a blue core". "When dissolved in clear liquids the blue core will turn the clear liquid to blue." But this may not be noticeable in dark liquids and generic versions don't always have the blue dye. No foolproof way to tell if drink is spiked The Alcohol and Drug Foundation of Australia told us: "There is no one foolproof way to understand if your drink has been spiked. It could be colourless, odourless and tasteless." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Rohypnol does not have a taste or a smell. But GHB and ketamine might have a soapy or salty taste, according to Cromarty. The US Department of Health's Women's Health Office website said a sign that your drink was spiked was that you "feel drunk even if you haven't drunk any alcohol". Or you "feel like the effects of drinking alcohol are much stronger than usual or more than you expect based on how much you drank". Cromarty said you might start to feel drowsy, numb and agitated. You might experience a change in heart rate, slurred speech and loss of muscle control. And these effects would increase with time. The NHS advises that if you experience these symptoms, get help from a friend, relative or staff member, go to a safe place as soon as possible, and only go home with someone trustworthy. But if you feel "very sleepy, vomit or have hallucinations" get medical help immediately. Precious Chikwendu, ex wife of Femi Fani-Kayode, has joined those criticising him for joining the All Progressive Congress (APC). The politician has been under fire since the news of him returning to the ruling party broke. Videos of him criticisng President Muhammadu Buhari and his government have been trending. In reaction to the news, Precious took to her Instagram page and shared a post. She said, "My Father always told me this, Chi nwam 'ezigbo afa ka ego'. A good name is better than riches. Truly it is. 'Ifele adi'ghi eme onye ori, Obu umunna ya ka ona eme'. A thief is never ashamed but his kinsmen are ashamed on his behalf." The 2021 Nedbank Kapana Cook-off Competition, which was launched on 7 May 2021, will host its central round on Saturday, 18 September, at the Soweto Market in Katutura. The competition, which aims to promote entrepreneurship, was launched in May this year, with the coastal competition already concluded in the same month. With the Covid-19 restrictions now relaxed, Nedbank announced the central and northern rounds of the Kapana Cook-off are scheduled to take place on Saturday, 18 September and 2 October, respectively, with the final set to take place on 16 October in Windhoek. The winner will be awarded a chance to either start up or formalise their existing business with the winning prize of N$100 000, which includes a fully-fledged mobile food truck and a cash prize of N$ 10 000. Second and third place winners will win cash prizes of N$ 7 000 and N$ 3 000, respectively. Covid-19 has highlighted that SMEs are an important driving force of economic growth and engine for job creation. "The Nedbank Kapana Cook-off is one of the vehicles Nedbank Namibia utilises to reach out to the small players in the market, who are ultimately already running a small business, and who aspire to expand and formalise their operations. It is run on a national scale, demonstrating how resolute we are at reaching Namibians everywhere; no one is left behind. The winner could be anywhere in Namibia, and the cook-off opens a door in providing an opportunity someone may never have dreamt of," said Nedbank Namibia spokesperson Selma Kaulinge. To date, Nedbank Namibia has invested over N$3 000 000 in hosting this flagship national competition in support of small businesses and celebrating our true Namibian cuisine. The Nedbank Kapana Cook-off competition is hosted in partnership with Bakpro and the Namibian Chefs Association. Seven local designers are among 21 winners of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother Fashion Awards 2020. They are Linrico Humphries, Stephany-Lee Schmidt (Libi), Aina Shigwedha, Hope Gowera, Joel Musasa, Eugenia Benard and Paulton Luciano Witbooi. The Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology. They recently celebrated the winners via video conferencing. The awards were announced in partnership with African first ladies, including Namibia's First Lady Monica Geingos. Musasa said he is excited to be a part of the 'Fashion with a Purpose' community in Africa. "Thanks to Merck Foundation for involving us in such an important campaign," he noted. Senator, Rasha Kelej, chief executive officer of the Merck Foundation, celebrated the winners and welcomed them to the new fashion with a purpose community. "I am impressed with their designs that deliver strong and influential messages to empower infertile women and say 'No to Infertility Stigma', via sensitising our communities," she said. During the award ceremony, Kelej advised the winners and young African designers on how their respective designs can be created and executed to open a dialogue and create the culture shift desired. "My vision is to develop a community of young African Fashion Designers in order to catalyse a movement, that reaches and extends far beyond just fashion, and creates a culture shift and be the voice of the voiceless in their communities." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. As part of the awards, the winners were given one-year access to an online educational training called 'Masterclass', which covers the art of designing and many more. Two new categories for 2021 were announced, namely, 'Make Your Own Mask' and 'More Than a Mother' awards. In the first category, the foundation strongly invited African designers and students to create and share masks or designs of clothing items that carry a message to show that they care and at the same time make it creative and fun. In the second category, all African designers are invited to create and share designs to raise awareness about infertility stigma and deliver strong and impactful messages to empower girls and women through education. Submissions should be made on the Merck Foundation's website on or before the deadline of 30 September 2021 for the first category and 30 October 2021 for the second category. The City of Windhoek has announced an alarming rise of illegal electricity connections, particularly in informal settlements, and urged residents to immediately refrain from such practices. In a statement on Wednesday, the City of Windhoek warned that bypassing electricity, tampering with an electricity meter or connecting the illegal supply of electricity is a serious offence punishable by a fine of N$16 000 or imprisonment for not more than two years. Residents who suspect that someone had tampered with an electricity meter can call the Customer Contact Centre on 061 290 3777, or report any illegal connections to the City Police on 061 302 302 or SMS 4444. Residents should apply for a legal connection if their current meter is faulty, and are thus strongly discouraged to cut the seal on their electricity box. In the same statement, the City assured the Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) that it does not intend to engage in uncompetitive practices in the development of fibre optics infrastructure in accordance with its business ethics and values. However, they would not tolerate the bad behaviour of certain players in the industry, who are destroying the city's infrastructure and causing damage to it while harassing residents in the process. The statement comes after the NaCC warned the City not to engage in restrictive behaviour with telecommunication companies who intend to roll out fibre in the city. According to the NaCC, it has been inundated with numerous complaints alleging possible anti-competitive behaviour in the information and communication technology industry, specifically in the development of fibre optic infrastructure around Windhoek, since 2017. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Energy By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. These complaints, some of which were lodged by major players in the industry, were all assessed to determine whether there have been possible infringements of the competition law. It said although the commission commends the entrance into the market by the Windhoek municipality, which has the potential to enhance consumer choice, the commission is nevertheless cognisant of the fact that the municipality is the sole custodian of the upstream essential facility (the infrastructure upon which fibre cables are to be installed), and is aspirant to being vertically integrated into the downstream market (installation of fibre optic cables). "The commission, therefore, wishes to caution the Windhoek Municipality that given the position it enjoys over its downstream competitors, the Windhoek Municipality should offer access to the essential facility on equal terms and conditions, and in a non-biased manner. Any unwarranted delays, restrictions, constraints or reluctance in approving applications for the purposes of installing fibre cables in the district of Windhoek without reasonable justification may be construed as a way of restricting competition in the relevant market." Influential U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has committed to rallying his congressional colleagues of the Republican Party to sign a "Letter of Support" for Liberia's second bid of the coveted Compact Program under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a dispatch from a high-level Liberian government delegation to Washington, DC has said. The MCC Development Assistance is a U.S. government foreign aid program that provides beneficiary countries time-bound grants which are targeted at ensuring economic growth, reducing poverty and strengthening governmental institutions. The investments of the MCC do not only support a country's stability and prosperity, but also enhance American Interests. Liberia has already benefited from the MCC Assistance and Investments that led to about US$257 million having been spent on the rebuilding of the country's war-ravaged electricity grid. According to the dispatch, the Senator from South Carolina, during the meeting with the Liberian Government delegation, committed to work with his colleagues to get Liberia a second shot at benefiting from the MCC Strategic Assistance Program. "I'll do a letter in support of Liberia's Bid and have my Republican Colleagues sign up on to it in favor of your country," Senator Graham said. Currently serving his fourth term, Senator Lindsey Graham is currently a ranking member of the Budget Committee and also serves the U.S. Congress Committee on Appropriations and Judiciary. He is regarded by many as a person whose voice is weighty in determining the direction of the U.S. Government's International development assistance. The hustle for a deal Amid a series of daunting political and economic challenges over the past four years, the Weah Administration appears to have combed heaven and earth in a bid to locate and secure funding for this road infrastructure agenda. During the early months of the Administration, it can be recalled, the infamous financing deals proffered by two companies, ETON (believed to be from Singapore) and EBOMAF (believed to be from Niger), met stiff resistance from all angles including the public, the Legislature and the political opposition, citing concerns that those companies either could not be credibly identified and or the terms they were offering were not transparent. One of the requirements for the deals to go through, especially the ETON Fiance arrangement, was that of a "sovereign guarantee" -- the commitment of a national asset to act as collateral. Through both deals, which were slightly under US$500 million each, President Weah aimed to get a head start in proving himself as a pro-development leader. Yet, even when those deals did not materialize, he embarked on a series of much smaller road projects, dubbing himself the "Bad Road Medicine". Millennium Challenge Compact Just like the MCC compact with Liberia, which entered into force on January 20, 2016 and ended at midnight January 20, 2021, all MCC compacts have a fixed 5-year life span, ending on the fifth anniversary after the entry into force of a Compact. At the closure of the compact earlier this year, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Account-Liberia (MCA-L), Monie R. Captan, clarified that MCC compacts are five-year agreements through which the United States provides grants to partner countries to support programs to reduce poverty through economic growth. According to him, the MCC might grant a second five-year compact or even a concurrent regional compact to eligible countries once it has reviewed a country's performance on its first compact and determined that it has satisfactorily passed its scorecard. Regarding the just ended compact implementation, Mr. Captan said MCA-L was producing its compact completion report that will be shared with the Government of Liberia and other stakeholders. He said once a country is deemed eligible by MCC, it enters into a period of compact development, which can take up to two years. After the compact development phase and the approval of a compact program, MCC and the beneficiary country will enter into negotiations leading to another signed five-year compact. Liberia's eligibility for a second compact, Captan continued, will depend on its performance on subsequent MCC scorecards and a performance evaluation on the implementation of the initial compact. During the year 2020, Liberia improved its scorecard performance by passing 9 out of 20 indicators, compared to 8 out of 20 indicators in the previous year. If Liberia's performance continues to improve, eligibility for a second compact is possible since a country needs to pass 10 out of 20 indicators. Every year each MCC candidate country receives a scorecard assessing performance in three policy categories: Ruling Justly, Investing in People, and Encouraging Economic Freedom. In its FY2021 scorecard, Liberia failed to reach the threshold, passing only nine out of 20 indicators. The highest marks this time were earned in the Ruling Justly category (5 out of 6 indicators passed), followed by Economic freedom (3 out of 8 indicators passed). Liberia performed poorly in the category Investing in People, passing in only 1 out of 6 indicators. During FY2018, FY2017, and FY2016, Liberia did achieve the threshold of 10 out of 20 indicators passed. US$500M if approved Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D Tweah Jr., as part of the Liberian Government's delegation, had earlier made the country's case to Senator Graham, seeking his support, while also citing the close historical ties that exist between both nations and Liberia's work with the U.S. at bilateral and multilateral institutions to garner technical and financial support for Liberia's Economic recovery. "We ran a very successful MCC Program inherited from the previous administration and are seeking your support to get us back on the MCC Compact for a second program," the Minister said. The Weah Administration hopes to use the MCC grant, which could be around US$500 million if finally approved, to fund its ambitious road and infrastructure development drive under the national development roadmap -- the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development. The Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel F. Mcgill, who heads the delegation, apprised Congressman Graham of the delegation's overall mission to Washington, noting that they are exploring greater opportunities with the Biden Administration, including U.S. Lawmakers, and also Corporate Policy Makers that could positively enhance Liberia's visibility in the U.S. political, corporate and social arenas. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia U.S., Canada and Africa Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We are messengers of President Weah, whose government represents the poor people of Liberia and believe we must bring our message and agenda to the United States for attention and assistance for our country that was founded by freed slaves from here," he said. Continuing, Minister McGill informed the Senator that "Next year, we [Liberia] celebrate 200 years since the first batch of the freed slaves from the U.S. settled in Liberia leading to the founding of the Republic. There has to be a massive U.S. involvement in celebrating this bicentennial." The Minister then formally extended an invitation, which Senator Graham immediately accepted and committed to being in Monrovia when the bicentennial is launched during the first quarter of 2022. "I want to come when it is winter here [US] and dry out there. It might be around February or March" the Congressman said. The U.S. Senator has also promised to be a voice among his congressional colleagues to promote the bicentennial. The Liberian delegation is expected to also meet Senior Biden Administration Officials and Democratic and Republican Congressmen in the coming days to garner bipartisan support for Liberia's development efforts and Bicentennial commemoration. Members of the delegation include Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee, Ambassador George Patten, Minister of State Nathaniel McGill, Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., Information Minister Ledgerhood J. Rennie, and Abdul Hafiz Koroma. analysis Four years after the last tap ran dry, a number of Eastern Cape villages that fall under the Mnquma Local Municipality and get their water from the Amathole District Municipality have turned to the courts for help after their attempts to access water were met with a 'wall of silence'. It has been four years since the last tap ran dry in Ward 28 of the Mnquma Local Municipality. At the moment, none of the residents there have access to potable water. Now, with the help of the Masifundise Development Trust, villagers, including a group of community leaders who were arrested during the hard lockdown in April last year for having an emergency meeting about water, are turning to the courts in desperation. "There is currently no prospect that we will ever receive water," community leader Lulamile Daveyton Khetshemiya said. Lawyers for the villages will argue that the current state of affairs infringes on residents' right of access to water, dignity and the right to a healthy environment. With the help of the Masifundise Development Trust, the villagers are now taking on the municipalities, the Department of Water and Sanitation and Rand Water, the designated body for the roll-out of... document The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Fikile Xasa, welcomes the delivery of voter registration services to eligible citizens in the communities in which they live, along with the opening of 23 151 voter registration stations around South Africa, from 08h00 to 17h00 on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. The essence of the exercise is to create a platform for South African citizens to exercise their right to vote. Mr Xasa calls on all eligible South Africans to embrace the opportunity to register to vote, presented to them by the Electoral Commission of South Africa this weekend. The local sphere of government is the engine of service delivery in the South African system of state, and Mr Xasa thus calls for maximum participation from all South Africans. "We urge all eligible South Africans, particularly the youth, to register to vote in the November local government elections. We are also calling upon South Africans to adhere to Covid-19 protocols at voter registration stations; please don't lower your guard," Mr Xasa said. -- As prices of frozen foods double Though authorities at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) have persistently rejected claims that they do usually issue the much-publicized Import Permit Declaration (IPD) on a selective basis, the prices of some food items, mainly frozen food, have spiked due to "limited IPDs" in the country. The acquisition of IPD from the MOCI is a requirement to import goods into the country as well as discharge them from the Freeport of Monrovia. Accordingly, during the tour of various markets in Monrovia and its environs on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, it was observed that the prices of frozen foods like chicken feet, pig foot, chicken, turkey wings, chicken wings, and sausage on the local market have doubled on account that the retailers are forced to buy at the prices given by the only importer, who is said to be favored when it comes to the acquisition of IPD. These foods are part of Liberians' everyday food, therefore, the demand for them on the market is very high. In December last year, President George Weah issued Executive Order 103 in an effort to stimulate economic growth. Executive Order 103, among other things, exempted all commercial importers of goods into Liberia from seeking Import Permit Declaration (IPD). The Executive Order stated, "All Commercial Importers of goods into Liberia are exempted from seeking Import Permits and filling Import Permit Declarations. In lieu of the IPD, the Import Notification Form (INF) is now being used as an administrative document to collect trade statistical data to monitor the inflow and outflow of goods and facilitate trade in the Commerce of Liberia." As a result of the lack of adherence to the President's mandate at the Ministry of Commerce, businesses are now compelled to seek IPD as the Ministry of Commerce has been reneging on the issuance of the IPD. However, many of the affected businesses believe that the Commerce Ministry's action is deliberate and intended to create an unfair market situation and suppress some businesses. The report concerning the soaring prices of frozen food on the local market contradicts a recent assertion by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Marwine Diggs that there is adequate frozen food on the Liberian market. Minister Diggs made the clarification when she addressed a well-attended news conference at the Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, regarding reports that there was insufficient rice on the market. Contrary to the reports, the Commerce and Industry Minister clarified that there is sufficient rice at the port of Monrovia that can last from now to November of this year. "The aim of the Pro-poor is to make sure that the people of this country don't find it difficult to afford their daily meal. We all know that the only way items can be less expensive on the market is to encourage competition amongst the importers. If you have only one person importing an item in the country, you are compelling everyone to buy at the price he or she (the importer) is requesting for the item," Josephine Toe, a frozen food retailer at the Water Side Market in Monrovia remarked. Several other marketers at the Waterside Market and other markets within Monrovia and its environs buttressed the assertion by their colleague, Josephine Toe as it relates to the soaring prices of frozen food on the local market. Besides frozen food, it was also observed that other food items like onion and egg are also getting more expensive by the day due to the alleged selective issuance of IPDs. "The chicken feet I used to buy for L$100 is now sold at $150 on the market. The price of the onion and the egg has doubled," Marie Williams, a mother of 10, said. "How do they want us to feed our families when prices are getting unstable and are climbing the ladder every day," she questioned. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Business Food and Agriculture By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "You can't have only one person getting IPD for frozen food and other food items and strangulating others thus putting them in huge fees at the port. That is like saying that you want only one importer in the country. If that is the case, how do you get competition on the market? Everyone knows that without competition on the market prices will always go up at the will of the only importer allowed to obtain IPD," an importer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, decried. "A serious delayed tactics for signing IPDs is affecting other importers and causing serious demurrage, thus triggering the prices of frozen food items on the market to climb at the detriment of the ordinary citizens who have very low purchasing power," the importer further decried while calling on the Minister of Commerce and Industry to resolve this issues. With support from Mercy Corps and Kvinna till Kvinna, the National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL) has launched a joint covid-19 advocacy initiative to work with the Supporting Effective Advocacy in Liberia (SEAL) partners. SEAL is funded by the European Union under its 11th European Development Fund and is being implemented by Mercy Corps in partnership with Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation (KtK), aiming to directly involve and benefit 11 CSOs, 15 Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and the NCSCL. It targets 7 counties of Liberia: Montserrado, Rivercess, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, River Gee, Sinoe and Maryland. The joint advocacy initiative, which was launched in Monrovia was attended by representatives from the NCSCL, CBOs, National Public Health Institute of Liberia, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Embassy of Ireland, EU as well as the Swedish Embassy. The aim of the initiative is to enhance citizens' awareness of their rights to basic services, covid-19 vaccination, mechanisms to access them, and document the evidence of access to services across seven of Liberia's 15 counties where SEAL is operating. Providing an overview of the program, NCSCL Chairperson, Madam Loretta Alethea Pope-Kai stated that the council will work with the SEAL project team including, 10 civil society organizations and 15 community-based organizations to engage with its members' based institutions to provide information necessary for the protection and promotion of rights including the rights to health and other basic services. "Today, we are here to launch our joint advocacy campaign around covid-19 to work with the Supporting Effective Advocacy in Liberia (SEAL) partners and Mercy Corps will work with ten civil society organizations and community based organizations with one in Montserrado and seven in the southeast," Madam Pope-Kai said. She said the council will use the medium to distribute basic hygiene materials and demonstrate COVID-19 safety practices to community members; conduct public awareness with women, girls, men and boys and community stakeholders on prevention and eradication of domestic violence and SGBV amidCOVID-19 through mass communication (posters and radio programs). Madam Pope-Kai also named Montserrado, Rivercess, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, River Gee, Sinoe and Maryland as targeted SEAL counties where the joint advocacy initiative will be carried on. She said, "We will provide education and access to information concerning citizens' rights-respecting to COVID-19 needs to ensure that accurate information is provided promptly." Madam Pope-Kai said the information gathered will be used to develop open position papers or call to action for the government to respond to citizens' rights to basic services. Furthermore, the Council chairperson revealed that the CSOs will develop messages to be aired on radio programs to talk about citizens' rights to basic services, how to access these services and messages of COVID-19. In remarks, Mercy Corps acting programs director, Mwesigwa Bikie Isharaza lauded the NCSCL and others partners for embracing the opportunity to launch such a milestone initiative in the country. Isharaza charged the SEAL partners (CSOs and CBOs) to execute their respective work plans with confidence for the benefit of the people of Liberia. He emphasized the importance of the initiative under the SEAL project because it will enable CSOs to contribute to inclusive wealth, job creation for a more equal and transparent society in support of the Liberia 2020 agenda that talks about transformation. Isharaza further pledged Mercy Corps commitment to work with CSOs to ensure that the initiative becomes successful and as well as contribute towards strengthening not only the CSOs in making them credible actors but also the citizens of Liberia. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Liberia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. For her part, the head of KtK, Aisha Lai, expressed delight over the launch of the joint covid-19 initiative in the country. "My only message to you today is to be an example in your communities, organizations on how to prevent Covid-19," she said. Godo Kolubah, Program Advisor for Governance at the Embassy of Ireland to Liberia, sees the launch of the joint covid-19 initiative as an opportunity to reach many people, especially those who could not get the information about the vaccines and preventions mechanism. Meanwhile, Chester A. Smith, Director of National Health Promotion at the Ministry of Health, and Joseph Weah, Communication and Advocacy Lead of NPHIL, who officially launched the advocacy initiative further commended Mercy Corps, NCSCL and highlighted the urgent need for an all-hands-on-deck approach to end the covid-19 pandemic in Liberia. press release Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane wishes to expresses her shock and deep sadness on the passing of Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Professor Hlengiwe Buhle Mkhize. Professor Mkhize passed away on 16 September 2021 after a short illness. Minister Nkoana-Mashabane said she learnt with shock and sadness of the passing of Professor Mkhize. She described her as a reliable colleague and comrade. "The passing of Deputy Minister Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize came as a big shock to me. I have not just lost a dependable colleague in the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities but also a comrade of both the African National Congress (ANC) as well as the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL). Most importantly, I have lost a dear friend and it is a loss I feel most keenly," said Minister Nkoana-Mashabane. "I am particularly saddened by her passing as I always relied on Professor Mkhize's support, guidance and sisterhood in the work of this important portfolio of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. I have lost a sister, a comrade, and a dear colleague at a crucial time where her insights and knowledge was much needed." The Minister went on to say that ever since Professor Mkhize joined her at the Department, Mkhize dedicated her time and energy to advocating for the rights and interests of the most vulnerable of our people, in particular, persons with disabilities. "She spared no effort in ensuring that the concerns and interests of this sector are frontloaded in our work while also adding value to other work such as issues of women and youth." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Minister spoke of Professor Mkhize as one of the most devoted and grounded people who served the country with an unwavering spirit. "For many years, she served tirelessly for the liberation and service of our people, especially the most vulnerable sectors of our society. She will be remembered for her vast contribution and she rightly deserves her place in our history books." "We served together in the United Democratic Force (UDF), structures of the ANC including NEC, and she also passed on the baton to me as Treasurer General of the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL), and we also worked together in the Progressive Women's Alliance, and we both served our country in diplomatic capacity as Ambassadors." Yesterday on 16 September 2021, Minister Nkoana-Mashabane led a delegation to the home of the Mkhize family to pay respects to the family. Minister expressed the sadness of the nation, and indicated that the country and the world has lost a great leader. The Minister spoke of Professor Mkhize as an intellectual of note and a critical thinker who contributed immensely to the work of Government and other sectors of our society. "Her sharp and eloquent contributions to our department, the movement and broader society will be dearly missed." press release Remarks by Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Sihle Zikalala during the meeting of the Advisory Council of the Intra- Africa Trade Fair held at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre on 16 September 2021 Humble Greetings and a warm welcome to the historic and legendary KwaZulu-Natal! As we gather, I am reminded of a timeless idiom by the people of Africa when they say: "If you want to walk fast walk alone, if you want to walk far, walk with others". This is a saying that resonates with the ancient and resilient philosophy of Ubuntu encapsulated in the idea one's humanity is tied to the next person's humanity, that is, "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu". Our conception of development is communalistic and anchored on the idea that no one must be left behind. As Africans we are clear that our future in Africa and our destiny is joined to the hip with all the sons and daughters of Africa who want this African century, the 21st century, to be a story of unity and shared prosperity on our beloved continent. Today marks International Day of Democracy Today on the 16th of September 2021, we fittingly join the Inter-Parliamentary Union and parliaments around the world to celebrate the International Day of Democracy, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. International Democracy Day was first declared by the International Parliamentary Union on the 16th of September in 1997 in Cairo, Egypt and later adopted by the UN. Through resolution A/RES/62/7 the UN noted that "democracy does not belong to any country or region," and that "while democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy". It is this common and universal adherence to democracy which today brings us together as nations and provinces. With different origins all of us seek to fashion a common future together based on the will of the people and the legitimacy of the governments they choose. In this regard, the public violence that we experienced in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July took us by surprise in its extent and impact. We have condemned the violence, destruction of property, and loss of life. We have spared no effort in strengthening our national security and law enforcement agencies to prevent such occurrences or respond much better and in a coordinated manner in future. In hindsight, it became clear that at the heart of our challenge, it was the divisions in our economy, along race, gender, and class that were raising their ugly heads. We were reminded that as clearly stated by former President Thabo Mbeki in 2003, ours remains a country of two nations - one rich, and one poor. Welcoming the hosting of Intra-Africa Trade Fair in KZN Yet, as the common African saying goes, "the sun that softens the wax, also hardens clay". In other words, we can use the recent challenges as enormous opportunity to rebuild for economic growth which taps into the skills and resilience of the majority in our countries and provinces. As we seek to grow trade between ourselves, this must be people-centred and seeking to address the triple challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty. With people as objects and drivers of economic growth, we must never again leave our people behind. We would like to pay tribute to the tireless work of President Olusegun Obasanjo in ably leading the Advisory Council of the IATF, and for advising that indeed, KwaZulu-Natal is the best place to host this magnificent event. Your Excellency and your team, we can never thank you enough for your unwavering vote of confidence, especially at a time when all our efforts in KwaZulu-Natal are focused on rebuilding our economy and taking advantage of all the growth opportunities that Africa presents for our people. We have no doubt that the Advisory Council noted the location of KwaZulu-Natal as a strategic transit route between the country's two busiest ports of Richards Bay and Durban, and Africa's economic hub Gauteng. The Council also noted that at least 70% of our country's seaborne trade passes through KwaZulu-Natal and is therefore a vital organ to the life of South Africa's economy. KwaZulu-Natal is an important trade route from South Africa into neighbouring countries in the SADC region, especially those that are landlocked. We therefore take this opportunity to congratulate the African Union which in collaboration with the African Export-Import Bank, has put together this ground-breaking initiative of the bi-annual Intra-Africa Trade Fair 2021. Our province already boasts a solid relationship with the AfreximBank having signed an MOU to work together with the Bank in May this year. The Intra-Africa Trade Fair takes place at a historic place where on 09 July 2002 the Organisation of African Union completed its evolution to become the African Union. It is on these shores, in this majestic venue the Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC where the AU was born. This venue itself is named after the late ANC President, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, who sixty years ago became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Today with the launch of the IATF 2021, we are again witnessing Africa's rebirth and renaissance following the devastation of the Coronavirus pandemic. In our province that dream of the African Renaissance, and the vision of the African century was launched in the form of the AU. We are equally enthused with the coming into being of the Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) since 01 January 2020, fulfilling Agenda 2063 and a long held pan-African vision of the founding fathers and mothers of the OAU. Under the agreement businesses and governments will access the integrated African market of over 1.2 billion people, and its combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of around US$3 trillion under the AfCFTA. Welcoming the proposal of the African Sub-Sovereign Governments Conference In this regard, we wish to express our full support for the AfreximBank's African Sub-Sovereign Governments Conference under the theme: "Supporting the Establishment of an African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network to Promote Trade and Investment Among African Sub-Sovereigns". We congratulate AfreximBank for this initiative to promote intra-African trade and investment by setting up government networks at the level of provinces and states. These engagements will be held on sidelines of the Intra Africa Trade Fair. As a province in a unitary state, KwaZulu-Natal is empowered by the Constitution in which three spheres of government have exclusive and concurrent responsibilities. As a sub-sovereign government, we have our own legislature and are also charged with the responsibilities of collecting revenue, managing expenditure, advancing economic development and promoting trade and investment. We believe that broad participation of companies in AfCFTA as sub-sovereigns will deepen access to information, sharing of ideas, knowledge and skills. This will also act as a conduit for the Afreximbank to deepen its intervention within countries and deepen regional integration through grass-roots interconnections and involvement. While the Intra-Africa Trade Fair for 2021 will be held in this great city of eThekwini from the 15-21 November 2021, the African Sub-Sovereign Governments Network will be held on 18 November 2021 at the ICC alongside the IATF. Optimism that a better CORONA-free world is imminent This is a significant marker of the break that we are making with our recent past. A few days ago, His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa in his address to the nation conveyed this spirit of optimism sweeping through South Africa when he declared, and I quote: "South Africa is fast becoming a vaccination site. Over a quarter of all adult South Africans have received at least one vaccine dose, and more than 7 million people are fully vaccinated". The President further said: "We are now administering a million doses every 4 to 5 days. Government has secured sufficient vaccines to vaccinate the entire adult population, and the supply of vaccines is no longer a constraint." The glimmer of hope in the President's address is an illustration of the war currently being waged by the entire world which is to defeat the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. Today the entire world is clear that the vaccination drive is our ticket to a certain time in the near future, when we will fully reopen our provinces, states, counties and countries again to the rest of humanity. We emerge with great resolve from the three waves of infections which cost lives and had devastating consequences for our economy. In the meantime, we gather here under the Adjusted Level-2 restrictions as laid out by our government, which provide greater freedom of association and open a window of opportunity and hope for our economy. IATF 2021 is a shot in the arm for KZN Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Trade External Relations Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. We therefore take a moment to celebrate the prospect of hosting the Intra-African Trade Fair in our warm and hospitable province. This is a welcome shot-in-the-arm for KwaZulu-Natal as we embark on resetting and growing our economy under the Economic Reconstruction and Transformation Plan. In its first edition held in Cairo in December 2018, the event attracted over 1000 exhibitors from 45 countries. This resulted in over US$32 billion worth of trade and investment deals closed at the event. As of 31 January 2021, an amount of about US$ 27 billion has been implemented or is under implementation. We look forward to welcoming the companies, exhibitors and country representatives to KZN. Hosting IATF in KZN is expected to yield the some of the following economic benefits: The signing of billions of dollars' worth of deals; Direct spend of R235 million; A contribution of close to R600milion to the GDP; and, 1200 jobs created during the seven days; Positive spin offs for informal cross-border trade which in itself is a global phenomenon, but already widespread in Africa. It will be a memorable, enriching African experience whose legacy will be an Africa better than we know it today. We thank all your Excellencies and His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We also wish to thank members of the IATF2021 Advisory Council including the African Union (AU), Government of the Republic of Rwanda, AfCFTA Secretariat, African Development Bank (AfDB), African Trade Policy Centre/United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ATPC/UNECA), African Electronic Trade Group (AeTrade), AfroChampions Initiative, International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB)), Ministry of Trade and Industry of Egypt, Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI), the World Trade Center-Miami (WTC-M), and our very own Department of Trade and Industry led by Minister Patel. We look forward to welcoming you to KwaZulu-Natal in November 2021. Together Building and Growing African Trade! And Together Growing KwaZulu-Natal! I thank you! press release Twitter Space engagement on voter registration and youth participation The Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Buti Manamela will host a Twitter Space on Voter Registration and Youth Participation in Local Government Elections. Details are as follows: Date: Friday, 17 September 2021 Time: 15h00 Twitter: @ButiManalema https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1OwxWVeppkjJQ The speakers includes the following: Mr Njabulo Nzuza - Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Ms Thembi Nkadimeng - Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Ms Tessa Dooms - Sociologist and Political Analyst Mr Moagisi Sibanda - Independent Electoral Commission, General Manager Ms Lindiwe Mazibuko - Apolitical Academic Southern Africa, CEO Ms Ashley Barends - SAVETSA, Secretary General Mr Yandicer Ndzoyiya - South African Union of Students, President Mr Mgqappheli Mchunu - Human Sciences Research Council, Researcher The Twitter Space discussion is open for all members of the public to attend. Join the discussion using the hashtags #OfftheCuffwithButiManamela #VoterRegistration #YouthParticapation #YouthandElections press release The Electoral Commission declares that it is ready to receive potential voters at registration stations across the country over the weekend. A total of 23 151 registration stations will be in operation from 08h00 until 17h00 on both Saturday and Sunday. A registration weekend takes the voter registration service into communities where eligible citizens reside. Therefore, the essence of the exercise is to create a platform for citizens to exercise their right to vote. Without enlisting on the voters' roll, taking part in the forthcoming elections is impossible. A total of 48 899 registration officials have been trained to undertake the registration procedures at the voting stations. For the first time registration staff had to complete online training modules as well as a module on the practicalities of the registration process. The online modules related to theoretical concepts associated with the constitutional role of the Electoral Commission as well as the voter registration processes. Staff had to attain 80 per cent competency level in order to proceed to the practical module. This training innovation will strengthen our capacity to offer an excellent registration service to citizens. The new Voter Management Devices (VMDs) will also be used for the first time on a mass scale during this registration weekend. The VMDs represent a departure from the erstwhile 'Zip-Zip' machines which have been in use in the registration process since 1998. The VMDs will essentially operate in online mode in most parts of the country. In parts of the country where internet connection is not strong or reliable, the VMDs have been provisioned to operate in offline mode. In offline mode, devices will be able to record transactions and perform verification based on data stored locally on each device. As soon as the VMD gets in to an area of signal it will automatically and without prompting upload the transactions stored to the memory of the device. The VMD's will enable an almost instantaneous citizenship verification as well as the correct capturing of a residential address assisted by a mapping functionality. Registration applications have been loaded and at least one VMD has been allocated to each voting station on the Logistics Information System. The VMD's will consolidate and integrate business processes which were hitherto separated and thus inefficient. A total of 40 000 have been procured and will be in use during both the registration and election processes. In order to register, voters need to bring an identity document which may be a Smart Card, green barcoded book or a Temporary Identification Certificate. It is essential that a voter indicates an address or a description of a place where they live. Proof of address is not a requirement for purposes of registration. Jurisprudence from our courts provides that the Commission must record a voter's address and ensure that each voter is registered within a Ward in which they are ordinarily resident. The Commission launched a new online registration portal in July 2021 and, as at this morning, 156 651 voters had successfully used the system to register. The online registration system will remain open until the date of proclamation of the elections which we expect on Monday, 20 September 2021. Voters who are registered can confirm their registration online on the website, on the IEC APP and by calling the contact centre at 0800 11 8000 (calls are free of charge from a landline and standard mobile network rates apply). Furthermore, an identity number can be sent to 32810 via the Short Message System (SMS). We have taken note and welcome the decision by the Department of Home Affairs to open their offices over this weekend. This will facilitate the collection of identity documents as well as the acquisition of temporary identification certificates which can used for registration purposes. The safety of voters and staff is a key priority of the Commission including over this weekend as well as other subsequent electoral events. The following registration protocols will apply at all registration stations during the voter registration weekend: Face mask or cloth covering of the nose and mouth; Social distance with a minimum of 1.5 meters; and Sanitizing upon entry into the registration station. All registration staff and stations have been provided the following items for use as precautionary measures to obviate possible COVD-19 transmissions: Disposable Face Mask; Disposable Cardboard Bins; Sanitizer Wipes; Hand Sanitizer; Disinfectant Fogger sprays; and Social Distance markers. The Electoral Commission has noted with gratitude, the decision of the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga to adjust the National Senior Certificate examination timetable in order to accommodate the elections on 1 November 2021. This gesture from the Minister will enable young voters who are writing these examinations to participate in the elections. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Commission has also written to the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi requesting that he facilitates a request to the President asking for election day to be declared a public holiday. This intervention is aimed at affording all voters an equal footing to participate in the elections without being encumbered by business and employment considerations on the day of voting. Participation in the local government elections is important as municipal councils play a crucial role in providing services that directly affect people on a daily basis. Electoral participation which is impossible without registration provides an opportunity to shape the local affairs of communities. Local government will be strengthened by participation of sectors of our society especially by the youth. We therefore call on every eligible voter to register over the weekend and for those who have moved or changed address to use this unique opportunity to amend their registration details. Lawyers have warned of the looming dangerous precedent that courts are currently setting by dismissing election petitions merely on technicality of non-personal service. At least two election petitions in the past two weeks have been dismissed on the technicality of non-service. These include the petitions that saw Kawempe North MP Muhammad Ssegirinya and Muhammad Nsereko of Kampala Central, retaining their seats without going into the merits of the petitions against them. Mr Jude Byamukama, a lawyer, warns that there are already decided cases by superior courts (Supreme Court and other courts involving Sitenda Sebalu Vs Sam Njuba and Rehema Muhindo Vs Winnie Kiiza), that election petitions shouldn't be dismissed on merely condition of non-service. "With such superior decisions that have already guided on the issue of non-service, the high courts, which are subordinate, shouldn't be doing this." Mr Byamukama warned yesterday. His counterpart, Mr John Nsabirye, warned that if a petitioner demonstrated to court that they have failed to find the respondent within the given time to serve them personally, court should allow them serve through substituted service of media or the court's notice board. "As a legal practitioner, if you fail to serve somebody within the particular time and you demonstrate to court that you have failed to serve, they should give you an alternative of a substituted service," Mr Nsabirye said yesterday. He faulted Justice Philip Odoki in the Nsereko petition who rejected to grant Mr Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu a chance for a substituted service after he reported back to court that he had failed to trace Mr Nsereko at Parliament and at his home. Mr Nsabirye also said Justice Odoki instead added Mr Nyanzi more seven days to look for Mr Nsereko for purposes of serving him in person, a move he said was a big toll on his side. He warned that if this trend is not checked now, then it will open flood gates in the subsequent elections with parties whose victories are being contested, going into hiding to elude being service. "For Nsereko, Justice Odoki instead of giving him a substituted service after they failed to locate Mr Nsereko, he just added him more time which was not right according to me," Mr Nsabirye said. "But courts should be liberal because this issue of personal service, the defendant may decide to stay in their house for the period they are supposed to be served and frustrate the other party and yet the intention of the law is not to frustrate the petitioner," he added. Another lawyer in private practice, who preferred anonymity, lashed out at the Judiciary for appointing junior judges to handle the election petitions. "I think the blame should go to the Judiciary for picking recently appointed judges to handle election petitions who might not have enough experience to fairly handle them. Haven't you realised that more than half of the judges appointed to handle the petitions are new?" the lawyer said. Mr Nyanzi has since vowed to appeal to Court of Appeal, saying he effected service on his political rival. Likewise, Mr Suleiman Kidandala Serwadda, who had sought to have Mr Ssegirinya's victory overturned over academic qualifications, has since also vowed to appeal. Mr Jamson Karemani, the Judiciary spokesperson, yesterday said courts allow substituted service as long as there are convincing reasons. "It is not true, if substituted service is allowed, it must be fulfilled as ordered not doing contrary things as we saw in many of the cases. Substituted service is an exception which is applied as a last resort. The primary is personal service." Highlights in dismissed election petitions Nyanzi Vs Nsereko Justice Margaret Apiny dismissed a petition against Mr Nsereko, reasoning that the alleged service of him at Parliament, Chief Magistrates Court of Mengo, his Bugolobi residence without success and on his WhatsApp did not amount to personal service envisioned under Rule 6 (3) of the Parliamentary Elections Rules. Documents show that Jackline Mirembe, a court process server, was chased away from Mr Nsereko's home as a trespasser. She added that Mr Nsereko declined to pick a copy of the petition at Parliament when called. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Uganda Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Kidandala Vs Ssegirinya Presiding judge Henrietta Wolayo while dismissing Kidandala's petition over non service said the court process server only focused on serving Mr Ssegirinya in prison and yet the earlier orders were clear to serve him through the officer in-charge. "An examination of the affidavit of service of Fred Kato shows that his focus was on the respondent (Mr Ssegirinya) in the petition and that at no point did he mention an attempt to require the officer-in-charge (OC) to endorse the petition and stamp it with the official stamp as duly served," Justice Wolayo said. "Service on the OC would have been construed as effective service even if the respondent (Mr Ssegirinya) had declined to accept service. This means that even if the process server did visit the prison, he did not affect service in the manner ordered by the court. I find that the order to serve the respondent personally and the order to pin the petition on the notice board of court had to be effected concurrently and non-implementation of one meant the service was ineffective," she added. But Mr Kidandala had argued that a court official had served Mr Ssegirinya twice. The Ministry of Health has named Jinja, Kyotera, Rukiga, Sheema, and Rukingiri as the best districts in vaccine uptake following the commencement of the exercise on March 10. The top 20 best districts in uptake had rates ranging from 91.6 percent to 107.9 percent, while those with worst uptake had rates ranging from 33.9 percent to 54.7 percent. Terego, Bunyangabo, Buvuma, Amuru, Namisindwa districts exhibited the worst uptake, according to the Ministry. Vaccine uptake refers to the proportion of the eligible population who received a vaccine during a specific time period. This is influenced by people's attitudes and beliefs regarding vaccination, side effects, ease of access and capacity to mobilise people, according to information from the World Health Organisation. Addressing journalists in Kampala yesterday, Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Ministry of Health spokesperson, blamed the low uptake on poor coordination in some districts. Mr Ainebyoona cited Butaleja District which has not utilised vaccines at its disposal. "They were also supposed to have prepared stakeholders meetings to communicate to teachers on where to get vaccines, which has not happened. We appeal to the authorities to ensure they drum up support for the vaccination," he said. Misinformation The district health officer, Dr Siraj Kizito, couldn't be reached for comment, but Mr Filbert Baguma, the general secretary of Uganda National Teachers' Union blamed the low uptake on reported cases of serious side effects like blood clots, misinformation, and "poor" approaches used by the Ministry of Health to promote vaccination. Dr Juliet Ajok, the USAID regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in East Central Uganda Child Health Technical Advisor, told University Research Company (URC) that low uptake among health workers was because they "were exposed to a lot of misinformation and that "the timing was difficult." Statistics from the Ministry indicate that as of September 13, at least 61 out of 135 districts in the country had less than 70 percent uptake while as high as 34 (25 percent) of the districts had less than 60 percent. Surprisingly, up to 11 (eight percent) had less than 50 percent uptake of vaccines distributed to them. So far, 1,697,748 (78.8 percent of all doses distributed) doses of the Covid-19 vaccines have been administered. The country has received 2,799,920 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, comprising AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Moderna... When asked whether a shortage of funds possibly crippled implementation, Mr Ainebyoona, said there should be no excuses for not using vaccines delivered. "We continuously engage with local government and city authorities to address any challenges. Some of these [Covid-19] vaccines can be administered by health workers who provide routine vaccination in the facilities which are in almost all sub-counties," he said, adding, "We applaud city and local government authorities who have led this effort to ensure that vaccines distributed to them through the national medical stores are well utilised and ensure that all the priority." In a race against time Mr Ainebyoona added that since the expiry date for the latest vaccine distributed is September 30, it is "urgent that all districts speed up proper utilisation of available doses so the country doesn't lose doses through expiry hence denting the consumption commitments made at global level." The Ministry has also released a set of recommendations to districts to speed up the uptake and these include quickly reviewing their vaccination plan to ensure no dose is left in the district by September 30. The Ministry has also asked leaders to develop a Subcounties-based supervision plan by the district leadership, District Health Team (DHT) and partners, to vaccinate ALL patients/clients at chronic care clinics (cancer, hypertensive, diabetic, HIV, TB) this week. "Do not turn away clients above 18 years outside the high risk groups (to reduce risk of expiry). Account for every dose of Covid-19 vaccine ever received. All data for vaccine stocks and all persons vaccinated including Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) MUST be promptly entered into the EPIVAC system by the end of each day," the directives read. Mr Ainebyoona revealed that the government is also expecting four million doses of vaccines between this month and next month and that plans are underway to dispatch the 647,080 doses of Moderna vaccines which were received a few weeks ago. Best districts Region District Cumulative uptake Busoga Jinja 107.9% South Central Kyotera 106.8% Kigezi Rukiga 106.4% Ankole Sheema 105.2% Kigezi Rukungiri 104.8% South Central Mpigi 104.5% Ankole Mitooma 103.3% Bunyoro Kikuube 102.9% West Nile Pakwach 101.4% Kigezi Kabale 101.0% Lango Lira 100.6% Ankole Mbarara 99.5% South Central Sembabule 98.6% North Central Kayunga 96.8% North Central Kassanda 96.3% Lango Kwania 95.2% Busoga Bugweri 93.6% Ankole Ntungamo 93.5% Lango Oyam 92.7% North Central Mityana 91.6% National Total 77.9% Worst districts Region District Cumulative uptake West Nile Terego 33.9% Tooro Bunyangabo 43.2% North Central Buvuma 44.0% Acholi Amuru 44.6% Bugisu Namisindwa 44.8% Busoga Namutumba 45.7% Karamoja Nakapiripirit 46.6% Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Uganda Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. South Central Lwengo 47.7% Ankole Rubirizi 48.3% West Nile Madi-Okollo 49.1% Bugisu Manafwa 49.5% Bunyoro Kakumiro 50.6% Teso Kaberamaido 50.7% Karamoja Abim 50.7% Tooro Ntoroko 51.6% Acholi Pader 51.9% West Nile Nebbi 52.1% Teso Kalaki 52.2% Bunyoro Buliisa 54.2% Karamoja Karenga 54.7% National Total 77.9% Crane Bank has in an unprecedented move withdrawn an appeal it filed before the Supreme Court challenging the dismissal of a Shs397b commercial dispute by lower courts against property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia and his Meera Company. In its withdrawal notice dated September 15, Crane Bank -- which is in receivership -- stated that it "does not intend further to prosecute the appeal." It also committed itself to pay the legal costs to Mr Ruparelia and his Meera Investments Company both at Court of Appeal and High Court levels where legal battles were lost. The standoff came after Crane Bank was placed under statutory management by Bank of Uganda (BoU) on October 20, 2016. Hell broke loose after the Central Bank placed Crane Bank under receivership, with some of its assets and liabilities sold to dfcu Bank. On June 30, 2017, Crane Bank -- in receivership -- filed a commercial case before the High Court, Commercial Division in which it was seeking to recover more than Shs397b from Mr Ruparelia. It further accused him of misappropriating the funds as the director and shareholder with his Meera Investment Company. On August 29, 2019, then presiding judge David Wangutusi delivered his ruling in which he dismissed the multibillion commercial dispute on grounds that Crane Bank lost its legal powers to sue Mr Ruparelia or to be sued the moment it was placed under receivership. But Crane Bank in receivership was dissatisfied with the decision of the Commercial Court and lodged an appeal before the Court of Appeal. A panel of three justices led by then Deputy Chief Justice (Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, now Chief Justice), also dismissed the appeal and upheld the ruling of the Commercial Court. "Turning to the facts of this case, under Section 96 of the Financial Institutions Act, it is clear that there is a protection granted to the financial institution in receivership against being sued. In light of Meera Investments decision, it would be unfair to say that the financial institution can sue and on the other hand, it cannot be sued," ruled the justices of the Court of Appeal in June 2020. Still dissatisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal, Crane Bank sought redress in the Supreme Court. It, however, made a U-turn before the appeal could be heard. Efforts to reach Ms Charity Mugumya, the director of communications at BoU, were unsuccessful by press time last evening. About the case Cesar Hinostroza is implicated in a series of audio recordings released by Panorama TV show and investigative journalism site IDL-Reporteros in July 2018. In October 2018, Peruvian Congress approved that Hinostroza be dismissed, banned from holding public office for 10 years , and accused of organized crime involvement. He was also accused of allegedly committing the crimes of illegal sponsorship, influence peddling, and incompatible negotiation. It must be noted that the Judiciary in July 2018 approved a request to forbid Hinostroza from leaving the country However, the ex-judge left the Inca nation through a border control point in northern Tumbes region on October 7 of the same year. On October 17, the Judicial Branch issued a search notice and an international arrest warrant against him , following a preventive detention request by the Public Ministry. ??El Gobierno prorrogo por 31 dias el estado de emergencia nacional por la covid-19. ??https://t.co/33dTeOALa5 pic.twitter.com/SWZasssXLV Presidente @PedroCastilloTe: Vamos a asumir el compromiso y responsabilidad del Estado con las ollas comunes que necesitan apoyo alimentario y otras prioridades como asistencia medica a las familias que las conforman. pic.twitter.com/sJ4WLZbYjL DUSHANBE, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi discussed bilateral relations and attached importance to the two governments harmonious actions. Our activities began in the same period of time, Pashinyan told Raisi at a meeting in Tajikistan, referring to his re-election in August and the Iranian presidents inauguration in the same period. I think this is a nuance which allows us to clearly harmonize our actions, particularly our two countries and regional relations, Pashinyan said. In turn, the Iranian president congratulated Pashinyan on the victory in the parliamentary election. I am happy to meet you. Id like to congratulate you on your [re]appointment as Prime Minister. I am hopeful that in your new term in office good and positive steps will be taken, President Raisi said. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi in Tajikistan, the PMs Office said. The Armenian PM and the Iranian President discussed the further development of the bilateral relations, the uninterrupted operation of cargo transportation between the two countries and the ongoing developments in the region. I am happy to meet with you. I want to once again congratulate you on your victory in the elections and re-election as Prime Minister, the Iranian President told the Armenian PM, expressing hope for new positive steps in the relations of the two countries during their tenure. In his turn Prime Minister Pashinyan said he has returned from the inauguration of the Iranian President to Armenia with good impressions. The activity of our governments has started at the same time, and I think its a very good nuance which gives an opportunity to harmonize our actions, Pashinyan said, adding that the governments action plan has specifically emphasized the importance of regional relations. In this contest the Armenian PM highlighted the statement of the Iranian President according to which the development of relations with neighbors is also important for Iran. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met with leaders of a number of famous international organizations and foundations (Google, Cargill, Nestle, Revolution, Highgate, OneRagtime) on the sidelines of the Summit of Minds in the French city of Chamonix. In a statement the Presidents Office said that this meeting was an exclusive opportunity to present Armenias economic potential, areas of development capacities and directions for mutual interest. In his remarks President Sarkissian introduced Armenias investment climate, the attractive areas for investments and the investment opportunities. Talking about the coronavirus pandemic and the challenges caused by the recent war, President Sarkissian highlighted the need for finding right ways for getting out of this situation, creating conditions for economic development. Answering the questions of the businessmen, the Armenian President presented his vision about the future, about the strong Armenia, which, he noted, requires the use of the greatest advantage of the Armenian people the human resource. One of the key competitive advantages of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian highlighted its bridging role between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union, which, he said, opens new and serious opportunities for foreign businessmen and investors. The President said he is ready to assist those companies and businessmen, who are interested in the cooperation with Armenia, as much as he can within his powers. President Armen Sarkissian invited the meeting participants to attend the Armenian Summit of Minds this year in the town of Dilijan on October 23-24. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan held a telephone conversation today with French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, discussing a number of issues, the Armenian foreign ministry reports. The two ministers praised the constant development of the Armenian-French unique relations and reaffirmed their interest to expand the multi-sectoral cooperation. They agreed to discuss in the future the prospects of boosting the economic partnership, including through the implementation of new development programs in Armenia. The Armenian and French FMs discussed the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, highlighting the necessity of resuming the peaceful settlement process within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. Ararat Mirzoyan said Armenia and its people highly value the position and steps of the French government and parliament during and after the 2020 aggression launched by Azerbaijan against Artsakh. The officials exchanged views also on the post-war humanitarian situation and highlighted the quick repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives from Azerbaijan. They also discussed the current situation caused by the recent illegal incursion of the Azerbaijani armed forces into Armenias sovereign territory. The ministers stressed the need for de-escalation of the situation and efforts for stability. The Armenian FM also thanked the French side for the constant support in fighting COVID-19. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, 17 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 17 September, USD exchange rate down by 1.44 drams to 484.93 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.07 drams to 571.39 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.04 drams to 6.68 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 3.64 drams to 668.43 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price down by 847.15 drams to 27252.04 drams. Silver price down by 6.79 drams to 365.92 drams. Platinum price down by 105.92 drams to 14608.64 drams. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. In the sidelines of large-scale military exercises of the special units of the Armed Forces of Armenia, on September 17, offensive operations were carried out by intelligence groups. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MoD Armenia, personnel destroyed the conditional enemy's firing positions and objects of significant importance, causing great losses of manpower, passing behind the enemy, created favorable conditions for the operations of other units. The US will cease to exist after the House of Representatives election in 2022 and the presidential election in 2024. Former President Donald Trump stated about this in a telephone interview with Newsmax, news.am informs. September 17, 2021, 09:51 Trump predicts disappearance of US STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 17, ARTSAKHPRESS: He noted that the Americans will no longer have a country in three years. According to Trump, the US has rolled down like never before ever since incumbent President Joe Biden took office. On September 16, a memorial evening, dedicated to the 206 Stepanakert boys who have fallen and went missing during the 44-Day Artsakh War, was held at the Stepanakert Culture and Youth Palace. September 17, 2021, 11:53 A memorial evening dedicated to the 206 fallen and missing Stepanakert fighters during the 44-Day War STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 17, ARTSAKHPRESS: At the beginning of the memorial evening, the attendees of the event observed a minute of silence in honor of the immortal memory of the heroes. As "Artsakhpress" reports, the event was organized on the initiative of the Union of Relatives of Fallen and Missing Servicemen of the 3rd Artsakh War and the "Union of Artsakh Reserve Officers" NGOs. During the event, Pastor of the St. Hakob Church of Stepanakert,Father Priest Minas Movsisyan made an opening speech. "Our hearts are full of suffering today, we are broken in spirit and mind, but we look to the future with hope. Indeed, today we live in difficult times, but we must recover, remember our heroic warriors who didnt spare their lives for the sake of the homeland. This was not a war, but a crime against all Armenians. "Therefore, we are grateful to all the martyrs who stood up against this crime," said Father Priest Minas Movsisyan. Afterwards, the students of the Stepanakert Sayat-Nova Music College and Artsakh State University, the students of School N1 after Khachatur Abovyan performed patriotic music and poems at the event. Armen Asryan, President of the Union of Relatives of Fallen and Missing Servicemen of the 3rd Artsakh War, the father of a soldier who went missing in the 44-day Artsakh War, in his speech called on the population to stand up for the salvation of the homeland, continuing the heroism of their children. "It is very difficult to find words to alleviate our grief and pain. Almost a year has passed since the nightmare of the 44-day war, but the fate of 44 servicemen in Artsakh is still unknown. The pain is great, but we must find strength in ourselves, walk forward with pride, remember and honor them, immortalize their names.We must make a small contribution to the strengthening, development and prosperity of Artsakh," said Armen Asryan, in particular. Mikael Hajiyan, the father of two fallen fighters who sacrificed their lives during the Four-Day and 44-Day Wars, said in his speech that the the boys have fallen, hoping that the parents would continue their sacred work. "I am the father with many children. Why? Because I did not have only Norayr and Yervand. All the fallen fighters of Artsakh are my children and we must continue to live in memory of them," said Hajiyan. Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to vote in the elections to the State Duma (lower house) online, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, Tass informs. September 17, 2021, 16:24 Putin to vote in parliamentary elections online, says Kremlin STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 17, ARTSAKHPRESS: "The president will vote online," he stated. Peskov declined to give an exact answer on which day Putin would take part in the voting. "Thats his decision," he explained, adding that the media would be informed about that. "If there is some footage, we will show it to you, if not, we will inform you [about the actual voting]," he promised. On Tuesday, Putin said that he had to self-isolate due to COVID-19 cases in his inner circle. Elections to the 8th Russian State Duma (lower house) are scheduled for September 19, 2021, known as Single Voting Day. The balloting process will span across three days September 17, 18, and 19. In addition to the State Duma elections, voters will go to the polls to cast ballots for the heads of nine Russian regions (in another three regions, local legislatures will elect top executive officials) and in elections for 39 regional parliaments. The SCO summit itself is being held in a hybrid format, which means that some leaders will also attend in person New Delhi: There will be an outreach session on the situation in Afghanistan between the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member nations and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) after the 21st SCO Council of Heads of State meeting that will take place on Friday in Tajikistans capital Dushanbe, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday. The CSTO is a security grouping of some of the post-Soviet nations including Russia and Tajikistan. The SCO summit itself is likely to focus on the current politico-security situation in Afghanistan in the wake of the military takeover there by the Pakistan-backed Taliban, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to raise Indias concerns that Afghan soil should not be used for terrorism against other nations. Mr Modi will participate in and address the summit in virtual mode. The SCO summit itself is being held in a hybrid format, which means that some leaders will also attend in person. The predominantly Central Asian eight-nation SCO comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar reached Dushanbe on Thursday and will be present in the Tajik capital on Friday, the day of the SCO summit, in what observers see as a strong signal by India of regional solidarity with the Tajik leadership that has also been concerned over the developments in Afghanistan. It is also been seen as a message that Central Asia is pivotal to Indias interests in the region with millennia-old historic and civilisational ties. India also has a strong bilateral strategic partnership with Tajikistan, amid rising anger in the Central Asian country over Pakistans alleged role in providing military support to the Taliban in launching the recent attack on the ethnic Tajik-dominated Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan. Apart from the Afghan situation, other issues that are expected to be keenly discussed include the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, possible expansion of SCO membership, multilateral economic cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, and other issues of regional and international importance. Indias areas of interest in the SCO include counter-terrorism efforts, the situation in Afghanistan, as well as economic cooperation. Iran, Belarus and Mongolia are currently observers and understood to be interested in becoming full members. Afghanistan too is an observer and used to be represented by the erstwhile government of then President Ashraf Ghani which has since been vanquished, but the victorious Taliban there now has yet to receive any international recognition as the legitimate governmentof Afghanistan, including by SCO member nations, although it is seen to be fully backed by Pakistan. The Council of the SCO Heads of State is the highest decision-making body in the SCO, which meets for annual summits in member countries by rotation. The SCO meeting this time will be chaired by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. At the meeting, Pakistan PM Imran Khans expected participation will also be watched with keen interest in Dushanbe amid media reports of clear concerns already communicated by an enraged Tajik leadership to Islamabad especially as Pakistan has made no secret of its backing of the Taliban. It may be noted that the MEA had recently said: The SCO Summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO Member States, Observer States, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests. This is the first SCO Summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth summit that India will participate as a full-fledged member of SCO. This summit assumes significance as the organisation is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has accused neighbouring Djibouti of illegally detaining his national security adviser, a criticism which appeared linked to a destabilising row between the president and his prime minister. Djiboutian authorities held the adviser, Fahad Yasin, preventing him from travelling to Mogadishu by air, the director of communications in the presidency Abdirashid Hashi said, without providing more details. "Such acts will not help to strengthen our ties between our governments," Hashi said in a statement. There was no immediate comment from Djibouti authorities. Yasin was suspended from his post as director of the National Intelligence Service Agency (NISA) by Prime Minister Mohammed Hussein Roble last week. The president then stepped in and appointed someone other than Roble's choice to head NISA and gave Yasin a job as his security adviser. The row between Mohamed and Roble, nominally over a murder investigation, marks an escalation of months of tension between them in a country riven by militant attacks and clan rivalries. "His (Yasin's) presence is quite polarising, so if he is back in Mogadishu, that is a boon for Mohamed and it is a concern for Roble's side," Mahmood Omar, Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, told Reuters. Mohamed has not gotten on well with the Djibouti government, Omar said, after he embraced Eritrea and Ethiopia and left Djibouti feeling isolated. "Djibouti has not been happy with the Mohamed government for quite some time so it is not a surprise to see them do something, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that is a detriment to Mohamed," he said. Mohamed and Roble first clashed in April, when the president unilaterally extended his four-year term by two years, prompting army factions loyal to each man to seize rival positions in the capital Mogadishu. The confrontation was resolved when the president put Roble in charge of security and organising delayed legislative and presidential elections. Story continues That process was supposed to be concluded next month but was pushed back again last week. Roble has accused Mohamed of "obstructing effective investigation" of the case of Ikran Tahlil Farah, a NISA agent who went missing while working in the agency's cybersecurity department. Farah's family has said it believes she was murdered, while the agency has not commented on the case. The first thing we all can do is recognize that climate change and its resulting weather pattern changes are real. Community planning, landscaping, agricultural, highway maintenance and even lake level practices that served us in the past may need to be reevaluated to adapt to these changes. Many of us feel helpless in the face of this flooding. There are things that all of us can do to at least slow down the water as it races across the landscape of the watershed. OWLA and the County Soil and Water Conservation District have helped towns seed or riprap ditches along our roads to slow the water and prevent erosion of soils and gravel into streams and the lake. Farmers in the watershed are looking at best management practices to keep soil and nutrients from washing away from their fields. Landowners can add landscape buffers along streams and ditches and along the lake shore. Efforts to improve stream banks and culverts should be encouraged. The Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council, in collaboration with OWLA, has joined neighboring watershed associations to promote lake friendly living through the Lake Friendly Living Coalition of the Finger Lakes. Citizens are asked to pledge to become informed about the issues that affect our lakes and to take action to make positive change. For more information and the Lake Friendly Living pledge, go to olwmc.org/lake-friendly-living. ALBANY New Yorkers will be able to avoid jail time for most nonviolent parole violations under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has said that India's first electric highway is likely to come up between Delhi and Jaipur soon. Gadkari said that his ministry is already in talks with a foreign company to construct the highway between these two cities. Besides the Delhi-Jaipur stretch, talks are also on with a Swedish firm for electric highway stretch on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Gadkari has urged foreign investment in the highways sector and had earlier invited EU to build electric highway in the country. He said that 22 green expressways were on the anvil and work has already started on seven of them. "It is my dream to build an electric highway from Delhi to Jaipur. It is still a proposed project. We are in discussion with a foreign company," Gadkari was quoted by news agency PTI as saying. Gadkari also said he aims to bring an end to use of petrol and diesel and transform public transports like buses and trucks to electric vehicles soon. Earlier, Nitin Gadkari reviewed the progress of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which is expected to reduce time taken to travel between the two cities by road by half from nearly 24 hours. He also announced that the distance between Jaipur and Delhi will soon be completed in just two hours. According to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the travel time between Delhi and Jaipur will be reduced by March next year. By then, NHAI hopes that the Sohna elevated road, currently under construction, and the Sohna-Dausa stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be completed and be signal-free for commute. TVS Motor Company on Thursday said it has bought a majority stake in Switzerland-based e-bike brand EGO Movement for 16.6 million Swiss francs (around 131 crore) to foray into the personal e-mobility segment. The company through its Singapore Subsidiary TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd, is acquiring an 80 per cent stake in the brand with 20 per cent left with the existing company promoters. (Also Read: 2021 TVS Raider track test review: Commuter for the young at heart) Led by the co-founders, Daniel Meyer and Marie So, EGO Movement is a Swiss technology company providing innovative mobility solutions through a portfolio of e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, and e-scooters. The company has an omnichannel network across Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Germany with plans to expand across Europe. It had generated revenues of 5 million Swiss francs in 2020. "The partnership with EGO Movement reaffirms TVS Motor Company's commitment towards electrification and the broader sustainability agenda. We are building a strategic personal e-mobility ecosystem by scaling unique brands which share our vision of delivering compelling customer experience benchmarks through cutting-edge, aspirational products," TVS Motor Company Joint Managing Director Sudarshan Venu said in a statement. EGO Movement has a strong presence in Europe with customer-centric products, a unique omnichannel network, and a visionary team at its helm, he added. "Together, we will address global urbanisation by delivering unique e-mobility solutions with e-bicycles and mobility across a diversity of forms," Venu noted. He further said: "It is also an important milestone in our journey to grow our presence in Europe, with the Norton Motorcycles acquisition last year and now the launch of the personal e-mobility platform." Elaborating further in a virtual press conference, he said that the electric-bicycle segment has been growing dramatically especially in Europe and America. "It is forecasted to be a USD 20 billion market in five years and is growing rapidly. The largest markets currently for e-bikes are Germany and the Netherlands. It is huge in Europe but is also expanding to America and other parts of the world. I think it would also be an important urban mobility solution in various Asian countries including India," Venu said. He noted that the Swiss firm had revenue of 5 million Swiss francs in 2020 and now TVS aims to grow it exponentially over the next five years to 100-150 million dollars. "This year we expect its (EGO Movement) revenues to double to 10 million Swiss francs," Venu said. When asked to elaborate on the future plans for the business, he said: "The plan is to really scale up the business in Europe. There are ten company-owned stores already in Europe. And then potentially look at India, America, and other markets as well," he added. The company plans to scale up the sales network in Europe substantially. In India, the leisure market would have good potential in the short to medium term, Venu noted. EGO Movement has more than 10 products in its portfolio catering to the varied needs of customers. It plans to add 10 more models to the portfolio. "We are confident that together with TVS Motor Company, we will be able to create more value for all partners and customers of EGO Movement focusing on further growth by following our mission of a greener way of e-mobility," EGO Movement Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Meyer said. The company rolls out products from its Switzerland-based manufacturing facility. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. SAIC-GM releases all-new brand emblem, to start presale of first Ultium-based model in 2021 Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC General Motors (SAIC-GM), a 50/50 joint venture between SAIC Motor and General Motors, announced on Sept. 16 it has switched to a fire new brand logo, demonstrating the automaker's transformation towards auto electrification, intelligence, and connectivity. Old logo of SAIC-GM; photo credit: SAIC-GM New logo of SAIC-GM; photo credit: SAIC-GM Compared to the older logo, the new one adopts a more concise design and a more lively color scheme. To be specific, the uppercase lettering GM (standing for General Motors) in the exact middle has been replaced by the lowercase gm with the letter m underscored. At the first glance, the newest logo is shaped like the letter S, which represents the parent company SAIC Motor. The color has been changed from gray to gradient sky blue, embodying SAIC-GM's resolution to offer smart mobility services using innovative environmental-friendly smart technologies. Aoteneng platform; photo credit: SAIC-GM In the meantime, SAIC-GM announced that GM's Ultium EV platform, which features modular battery and drive unit combinations, is named Aoteneng in Chinese. The first model based on the platform is the Cadillac LYRIQ. The automaker will kick off the car presale this year and start delivery in 2022. Currently, the model's tooling trial prototype has already rolled off the assembly line. Cadillac LYRIQ; photo credit: SAIC-GM Positioned as a full-sized SUV, the China-made Cadillac LYRIQ measures 5,003mm long, 1,978mm wide, 1,635mm tall, and has a wheelbase that spans 3,094mm. All variants of the model will come standard with a 33-inch curved OLED screen, which will serve as the infotainment system, instrument gauge, and control for lighting. Gasgoo Daily: Shanghai Jan.-Aug. auto export up by 247.8% YoY With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information. Shanghai Jan.-Aug. auto export up by 247.8% YoY For the first eight months of this year, Shanghais vehicle export surged 247.8% year on year to RMB34.93 billion. During the period, the export volume of battery electric passenger vehicles soared 1430% to RMB20.68 billion. ArcSoft provides solutions to Great Wall Motor As Great Wall Motors long-term partner, Chinas ArcSoft has provided full-stack vision perception technologies to the automaker based on its VisDrive vision solutions. Photo credit: ArcSoft XPeng sets up new firm in Linyi XPeng sets up a new sales service company in Linyi, Shandong province with a registered capital of RMB10 million. The new companys business covers sales of new energy vehicles, sales of battery swapping equipment and sales of charging piles. SVOLT to build 60GWh power battery manufacturing base in Chengdu SVOLT Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (SVOLT), a leading Chinese battery manufacturer carved out of Great Wall Motor (GWM), entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Chengdu Municipal Government to build a power battery manufacturing and R&D base in the capital of Sichuan Province. HUAWEI invests $1 billion in auto parts R&D According to the COO, HUAWEI has invested more than $1 billion in auto parts R&D, with a team of over 5000 members, and put over 30 intelligent vehicle part products on the market. HUAWEI is consistent in its platform + ecology strategy and focuses on building operating systems for autonomous driving, smart cabin and vehicle control domain platforms. SAIC-GM releases all-new brand emblem SAIC General Motors (SAIC-GM), a 50/50 joint venture between SAIC Motor and General Motors, announced on Sept. 16 it has switched to a fire new brand logo, demonstrating the automaker's transformation towards auto electrification, intelligence, and connectivity. NIO ET7s first tooling trial prototypes come off line The first tooling trial (TT) prototypes of the NIO ET7, the fourth production model and first sedan model of NIO, rolled off the production line on September 15 at the JAC-NIO Advanced Manufacturing Center in Hefei, NIO announced via its WeChat account. NIO ET7's first TT prototypes rolling off assembly line; photo credit: NIO Parkopedia partners with CenNavi to provide digitalized parking service in China Connected vehicle parking solutions provider Parkopedia has partnered with location data supplier CenNavi, a subsidiary of the mapping giant NavInfo to provide digitalized off-street parking information for automakers in China. Parkopedia partners with NavInfos CenNavi to provide digitalized parking service in China Beijing (Gasgoo)- Connected vehicle parking solutions provider Parkopedia has partnered with location data supplier CenNavi, a subsidiary of the mapping giant NavInfo to provide digitalized off-street parking information for automakers in China. photo credit: Parkopedia Data showed the number of existing parking spaces in China is roughly 80 million, whereas PV ownership is 281 million, compromising the overall driving experience. By virtue of both companies, the collaborated service will relieve a considerable portion of the parking tension among drivers in China. Parkopedias addition will complement CenNavis existing services, namely real-time traffic and accident information, lane-level traffic forecasting, plate number restriction notification, and EV charging station information. Parkopedias patented parking space availability recommendations technology will be added to CenNavis in-car solution system, allowing vehicles to send out parking recommendations as users approaching their destination autonomously. In addition, both NavInfo (parent company of CenNavi) and Parkopedia have already been collaborating with BMW China. As part of the new partnership, Parkopedia will continue providing detailed parking dynamic information for the automakers iDrive 7.0 infotainment operating system users, such as pricing, operation hours, availability, and precise location in major cities in China. In the meantime, BMW China will provide technical user feedback to Parkopedia to improve its system accuracy. When an all-white Pennsylvania school board was asked why every book it unanimously banned was written by a non-white author, they said is was just a coincidence. The Central York School District baord also took umbrage at the word "ban," insisting the books were merely "frozen," until the books could be vetted by the board, which so far has taken the better part of a year. The list includes a children's book about Rosa Parks, and I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai. The board also banned er, I mean "froze" CNN's Sesame Street Town Hall about racism. From CNN: It's getting darker earlier. There's Christmas stuff out at Costco. You know what that means? The flat, tired, disinterested feeling you may be starting to feel is seasonal depression which all humans experience to one degree or another because of circadian rhythms, serotonin and melatonin. But the further you are from the equator, the more severe the symptoms. But you can treat it with a special light. The severe version, when diagnosed, is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.). If you also have regular Depression the on top of this as I do, you must definitely arm yourself proactively. I knew I had the winter version but forgot how sensitive I was to any lack of sunlight until I moved from LA back to the Midwest. I forgot how bad it could get until it did. I was diagnosed with S.A.D. in a study at University of Minnesota when I was 19 but was kicked out because my symptoms were so severe I was fucking up the control numbers. Anti-depressants work great for my "regular" depression but they didn't help with the increased symptoms from my seasonal affliction. My psychiatrist prescribed a light therapy lamp. I doubted it would do anything. IT TOTALLY FUCKING WORKED AND I WISH I'D USED IT ALL ALONG. But I had the right kind and used it the right way: Light must be 10,000 Lux or more Start late September and stop in mid-March Use it 1-2 hours in morning if possible and at least 1-2 hours at night starting before it gets dark (I also leave it on throughout any cloudy or overcast day.) You're tricking your brain to thinking the day is longer. IMPORTANT: Light must be 12-16 inches from face, just ABOVE eye level, and at a 45 degree angle off to the sidelike the sun would hit your eyes if it were up (see photo). Most of the cheap "SAD" lights aren't built to be used this way which sucks. They are angled up from below sitting on a desk and THIS DOES NOT WORK SO DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY You need a tall and adjustable one. The best I've found is the Theralite Aura Light Therapy Lamp. Ward off the inevitable. It was life-changing for me. Standard model: Theralite Aura Bright Light Therapy Lamp Deluxe model w/wireless phone charger, USB port & alarm clock: Theralite Aura Qi Light Therapy Sun Lamp It would appear that an impressive number of Los Angeles Police Department employees are seeking religious exemptions from vaccination for COVID-19. While the City of Los Angeles has mandated vaccines for all employees, The Los Angeles Times reports that nearly 2600 LAPD employees have indicated an intent to seek a religious exemption. LA Times: Roughly 54% of LAPD employees have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Chief Michel Moore. That rate lags the general public, raising concerns about the health risk posed to the people LAPD employees interact with on streets and in confined spaces such as jails and courthouses. Activists have routinely recorded police officers without masks in public spaces, despite a department directive to wear them "whenever in public or in the workplace." Ten LAPD employees have died of COVID-19, and thousands have been infected. Moore told the Police Commission on Tuesday that there had been 66 new infections in the department in the last two weeks, with more than 140 employees at home recovering and four hospitalized. In recent days, a group of LAPD employees filed a federal lawsuit challenging the vaccination mandate, arguing that it violates their constitutional rights to privacy and due process. Among those who sued are employees "who could not assert a medical or religious exemption," as well as those who contend they have natural antibodies from contracting the coronavirus, according to the legal complaint, filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Perhaps these employees are unsatisfied with simply killing people with guns and fireworks. MeinPillow tycoon Mike Lindell teamed up with sleazy serial felony fraudster Jim Bakker and a gaggle of head-bobbing, cooing sycophants to sell "Children's Bible Pillows" to support their efforts to "Take Back What The Devil Stole From You." The nonsense ran for three days on Bakker's daily infomercial program. In between hawking religious bedding products, Bakker and Lindell engaged in scintillating conversation. For example: Bakker: "We are going to take back what was stolen from us! America needs to take back!" Mike Lindell: "Well, they stoled our country." Lindell is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for 1.3 billion dollars in a defamation lawsuit. Bakker, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison i 1989 after being convicted on 24 counts of stealing $158 million from followers (he served 5), recently had to pay $156,000 in restitution for selling a fake cure for Covid on his program. Southwest Airlines is clamping down on anti-vax shenanigans, offering an enticing perk to employees who are either fully vaccinated or will be by November 15th: they will receive 16 hours of extra pay (or "13 trip segments" for pilots and flight attendants). On the flip side, employees who are not fully vaccinated by November 16th will lose "quarantine pay protections," according to CNBC, which gives employees who caught Covid-19 on the job up to 10 days off (above and beyond their normal sick day allowance). Vaccinated employees who catch Covid on the job will continue to receive these extra sick days. Southwest isn't the first airline to offer incentives to employees who get vaccinated or to make it tougher on those who don't. From CNBC: The airline's new policies come months after carriers including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines offered incentives like extra pay to encourage staff to get vaccinated. Carriers have taken varying approaches to get staff vaccinated. United last month said it will require its roughly 67,000-person U.S. workforce to be vaccinated this fall and said it will put staff who receive religious exemptions on temporary unpaid leave. On Thursday, Kate Gebo, United's executive vice president of human resources, told staff that 90% of United's U.S. employees have been vaccinated. Delta, for its part, plans to charge unvaccinated employees $200 more a month for company health insurance starting in November. American and Alaska Airlines earlier this month announced they were ending pay protections for unvaccinated workers. Image by By Tomas Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA N8704Q Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX s/n 36988, CC BY-SA 2.0 By Susanna Twidale, Isla Binnie and Stephen Jewkes LONDON/MADRID/MILAN (Reuters) - Several European power firms have been shut out of bumper revenues from record high gas and electricity prices as their sales are largely locked in at lower prices, and face extra pressure from governments acting to protect consumers. Power generators say government intervention could prevent longer-term investment needed to drive the bloc's energy transition plans, while smaller retail suppliers without the capital to hedge could go bust - limiting choice for consumers. Benchmark European gas prices have soared some 250% this year due to a number of factors such as low stock levels, high demand in Asia and infrastructure outages, taking power prices to record highs across Britain and Europe. In theory it should be a profitable time for generators with nuclear or renewable wind, solar and hydro generation, able to benefit from the high wholesale prices without also needing to pay the higher coal and gas input costs. But with most generators having already hedged their forward sales they say there has been little opportunity to benefit, while government action in Spain has prompted an outcry. "Electricity companies forward-sold 100% of their base production (hydro, nuclear and renewable) in 2021 and more than 75% of their 2022 production months ago, at much lower prices than the spot market," Spain's electricity providers association AELEC, formed of EDP, Endesa, Iberdrola and Viesgo, said. Endesa, a unit of Europe's biggest utility Enel blamed the impact of soaring gas prices for a 3% drop in earnings for the first half of the year. Spooked by the impact on consumers, with many households still struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19, the Spanish government swooped to ensure generators don't make windfall profits, and claw back the perceived excess. Analysts at Barclays forecast the impact on Iberdrola, Spain's largest power generator, which both generates electricity and has retail customers, at more than 450 million euros for 2021. Story continues An Iberdrola spokesperson said current national regulation had exacerbated the problem of rising international gas and electricity prices, at a critical time for multi-billion euro investment plans to meet emissions reduction targets. "The intervention in Spain will not solve these issues... This reaction will only create more problems for customers in the months and years ahead," the spokesperson said. Madrid's moves rocked power companies' shares. Enel is trading more than 6% down since Monday, while Iberdrola has seen more than 8% of its value wiped off the market this week. "ABSOLUTELY FLABBERGASTING" The move has raised the spectre of possible interventions in other countries. In Germany, energy prices are being debated in the run-up to the Sept. 26 election. Italy, where retail power prices are set to rise by 40%, is looking to review the way electricity bills are calculated in an effort to curb prices, two sources said. Italian broker Equita said the estimated worse-case impact on Endesa core earnings of 1 billion euros is not the main worry, but rather the worsening regulatory environment and the fear of similar decisions in other countries. "It is absolutely flabbergasting that countries randomly break into the market and confiscate revenues, making it impossible for companies to make the necessary modernisation improvements for those generation assets that are going to carry the security of the grid," said Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric, Europe's electricity industry federation. In Britain the price impact has been keenly felt on some of the country's small energy suppliers, less able to hedge their requirements. "The smaller suppliers tend to have less available operating capital, and less capacity to hedge forward, meaning any unhedged positions will be more challenging to meet with the recent spike in wholesale prices," said Dan Starman, Head of Assets and Infrastructure at Cornwall Insights. Four smaller British power companies with more than 600,000 customers combined have ceased trading just this month and more could follow. [nL1N2QG1CT} Ofgem earlier this week issued independent supplier Arvo Energy, which has round 40,000 customers, with an order requesting further details on its financing. Reuters was unable to contact Arvo Energy for comment. Britain already has a cap on the amount suppliers can charge for their standard tariffs set by regulator Ofgem. This is set to rise to an average of 1,277 pounds ($1,762.90) a year but industry sources said on current prices the average would be more than 1,500 pounds a year. Another price cap review will be announced next February with most analysts predicting another rise to come. ($1 = 0.7244 pounds) (Reporting By Susanna Twidale in London, Isla Binnie in Madrid, Stephen Jewkes in Milan. Editing by Veronica Brown and David Evans) Angelina Jolie with the female beekeepers of the 2021 Women for Bees graduating class Marie Rouge Angelina Jolie continues to raise awareness about bee conservation and the importance of investing in women's education as part of her ongoing partnership with Guerlain. As an ambassador of the luxury French beauty house, the actress was named the Godmother of Women for Bees a female beekeeping entrepreneurship program that Guerlain launched last year in partnership with UNESCO and attended the graduation of the first class of women in France this summer, where she learned more about bee-keeping. PEOPLE can exclusively report that Jolie, 46, plans on returning to Cambodia soon to establish the next Women for Bees program in the region of Samlout where she has a home. RELATED: Angelina Jolie Poses Covered with Bees to Raise Awareness for Conservation Efforts "We wanted to make sure there was at least 50x women from 25 biospheres, to understand the biospheres and why it was important to map out and build the team," Jolie tells PEOPLE exclusively of the program, which focuses on women's empowerment and biodiversity conservation. "We are going to be working further with UNESCO to understand how to expand how we are working with some of these countries & biospheres the next training will be in Samlout, in my home in Cambodia." Angelina Jolie with the female beekeepers of the 2021 Women for Bees graduating class Marie Rouge On providing education opportunities for girls and women around the world, the Oscar winner says it's "insane" that the importance of it is still being discussed. "It's angering, really, isn't it? That we somehow have to keep explaining this it's their right." "When a young girl is born, she has the right to education, it's her life," Jolie continues. "The real question is why do we continue to limit that girls' access to education, why do we continue to question it? For anyone, education will help them be more capable, where they can communicate and they can contribute to their family, their community and society." Story continues The actress, who has long been advocating for women's rights among other humanitarian causes and visiting Cambodia since 2000, also knows that this work has a trickle-down effect. "A women who is educated, educates others," she explains. Angelina Jolie with the female beekeepers of the 2021 Women for Bees graduating class Marie Rouge RELATED: Angelina Jolie Highlights Importance of Beekeeping in New Video as Insect Population Dwindles Both Jolie and Guerlain are committed to protecting the environment through Women for Bees and a new skincare launch from the brand which features honeys and royal jelly from four of the Unesco-certified biospheres including Greece, Finland and France. The Guerlain Abeille Royal Advanced Youth Watery Oil is a 3-in-1 multitasker formulated with 95% naturally derived ingredients. The light-weight product absorbs quickly in the skinand delivers the "power of a serum, richness of an oil, and the freshness of a toner for advanced radiance, hydration, and plumpness," according to the brand. Angelina Jolie with the female beekeepers of the 2021 Women for Bees graduating class Marie Rouge Speaking about her work to protect the biospheres from which the Abeille Royal Advanced Youth Watery Oil ingredients are derived, Jolie says the locals can't survive if the environment around them is crumbling. "It is the nature around them that without it, they can't survive," she says of the environmental impact. "If all of the natural resources around them are stripped, it's only a matter of time before they can't exist in that place." "If all of the natural resources around them are stripped, it's only a matter of time that they can't exist in that place," she explains. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Listed property developer D.M. Wenceslao & Associates Inc.'s chairman Delfin Wenceslao, Jr. has died, the company announced on Friday. He was 77. "It is with great sadness that the board of directors and management of D.M. Wenceslao & Associates, Incorporated announce that today, it was informed of the death of its President and Chairman of the Board, Mr. Delfin J. Wenceslao, Jr.," the firm said in a disclosure to the stock exchange. No other details were provided. The company also posted on social media to pay their respects to Wenceslao. The construction tycoon ranked 37th richest man in the Philippines according to the latest list of Forbes - with an estimated net worth of $385 million. DMWAI specializes in land reclamation projects. It is also engaged in real estate, rentals, and construction and sale of condominium units. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) Global smartphone brand vivo, after a successful inaugural partnership with global leader in optics and opto-electronics, ZEISS, continues to build on each others strengths in advancing mobile photography technology with the newest entrant to the X-series, X70. Specifically built to offer the best-in-class smartphone camera that is not only realistic but also exquisite, the vivo X70, launched recently in China, not only takes photos of what you can see but also makes hard-to-take photos easy and more realistic. After the successful release of X60 this year, we realized that the market is and has always looked for that smartphone camera that has it all and more and we continue our partnership with ZEISS with the X70 harboring the same missionto synergize and complement optical expertise and new digital technologiesso both brands can continue to create innovations for mobile imaging and create the next imagery master with the new vivo X70, said Charisma Buan, vivo Philippines PR team lead. With its unique ZEISS Optics-ZEISS T* Coating, vivo X70 can enhance the visible light pass rate which improves the imaging quality and accurately represents colors while reducing reflections and other negative effects. Coupled with the Sony Customized Sensor IMX766V, the X70 can access 8% more light than other devices, ensuring only the best photos are taken. Photo from vivo Philippines. The vivo X70 series, recently launched in China, comprises the X70, X70 Pro, and X70 Pro+ models. The three smartphones are powered respectively by chipsets MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC, Exynos 1080 SoC, and Snapdragon 888+ SoC. Photo from GizmoChina. True to its reputation as the next imagery master, X70 comes with ZEISS Portrait features that simulates the reproduction of four classic ZEISS shotsSonar, Biotar, Distagon, and Planarto give users more fun and flexibility in portrait mode while the ZEISS Portrait 3D-Pop uses a state-of-the-art technology that heightens the three-dimensional portrait atmosphere by presenting a perfect and harmonious blurry transition between the subject and its background. For those who want to take high-action photos and videos, the X70 also comes with a Gimbal 3.0 sensor for maximum stability. The new vivo X70 furthers vivo and ZEISS vision of furthering the professional mobile photography industry anchored on innovation and creativity. For more information and new product updates visit www.vivoglobal.ph, and vivos official Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. Get first dibs on the newest vivo devices on its Lazada and Shopee official stores and its physical stores and kiosks nationwide. About vivo vivo is a technology company that creates great products based on a design-driven value, with smart devices and intelligent services as its core. The company aims to build a bridge between humans and the digital world. Through unique creativity, vivo provides users with an increasingly convenient mobile and digital life. Following the companys core values, which include Benfen*, design-driven and user orientation, vivo has implemented a sustainable development strategy, with the vision of becoming a healthier, longer-lasting world-class corporation. While recruiting and developing the best local talents, vivo is supported by a network of 10 R&D centers in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Xian, Taipei, Tokyo and San Diego, focusing on the development of state-of-the-art consumer technologies. These include 5G, artificial intelligence, industrial design, photography and other up-and-coming technologies. vivo has also set-up five production hubs (including brand authorized manufacturing center), across China, South- and Southeast Asia, with an annual production capacity of nearly 200 million smartphones. As of now, vivo has branched out its sales network across more than 50 countries and regions, and is loved by more than 400 million users worldwide. *Benfen is a term describing the attitude of doing the right things and doing things right which is the ideal description of vivos mission to build technology for good. Please stay informed of vivo's news at https://www.vivo.com/en/about-vivo/news Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Human rights lawyer Chel Diokno may be running as an independent senatorial candidate in next year's polls, but he clarified he is still open to joining the opposition. Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Friday, Diokno bared that he still supports the initiative of opposition coalition 1Sambayan. He stressed, however, the need to have a unity slate "to get anywhere in the coming elections." "There has to be a really unified opposition if we want to get anywhere in the coming elections," said the founding dean of the De La Salle University College of Law and the chief of the Free Legal Assistance Group. "Ayoko pang i-close ang pinto kanino man, bastat masasabi natin na sila ay oposisyon," he added. [Translation: I don't want to close doors on anyone as long as we can say that they are part of the opposition.] Diokno, however, acknowledged the challenge that comes with the political term "opposition" especially during the upcoming elections. "Mahirap talaga ang salitang 'opposition' dahil bago tayo magkaroon ng halalan ay meron talagang nag-o-oppose sa pamahalaan," he said. "Meron din namang mga politiko na nagsasalita lamang pag nalalapit na ang period ng filing ng certificate of candidacy (COC) at yung mismong campaign." [Translation: There are some challenges with the word "opposition" because even before we have an election, there are really people who would oppose the government. There are other politicians who only speak out when the period of filing of certificate of candidacy draws near and during their campaign.] Diokno, who lost to allies of the Duterte administration during his first Senate bid in 2019, said that he already knows his track record and his strengths this time around. The human rights lawyer and educator failed to get to the Magic 12 in the 2019 senatorial election. But he was the third highest ranking opposition bet in terms of votes garnered, behind fellow Otso Diretso candidates former senator Bam Aquino and former senator Mar Roxas. "I could become a guest candidate of different political parties," he said. "This time, I think that unlike in 2019, I have a track record already in terms of the number of votes garnered so wala nang issue po yan pagdating sa pagtatakbo bilang independent (so I don't see any issue anymore in running as an independent)." RELATED: Chel Diokno on renewed Senate bid: 'The pandemic has been an eye-opener' The Commission on Elections has set the one-week filing of COCs for all elective positions from Oct. 1 to 8. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) The Department of Health on Friday said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should study alternative ways to allow COVID-19 patients to vote in next year's elections, warning its plan could lead to more infections. Comelec Chairman Sheriff Abas earlier said COVID-positive voters can still cast their ballots in an isolated area in polling centers. COVID-19 testing will also be available for voters exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the poll body should explore other options for the May 2022 polls since it may lead to the spread of the virus. "Baka pwede namang virtual na lang, digital, through SMS, kung makakagawa ng ganitong proseso," she said in a media briefing. "Talagang ang Department of Health ay hindi nirerekomenda na ang mga COVID positive patients ay lalabas ng kanilang isolation area to do this kind of activity." [Translation: Maybe it can be done virtually or through text messaging. The DOH doesn't recommend COVID-19 patients to leave isolation areas.] In response, Comelec clarified that the isolated areas are intended for those who would show symptoms upon arrival at voting centers. "While these persons may indeed turnout to be COVID positive, they will not be turned away automatically just because they are suspected to be potential cases. Instead, they will be directed to IPPs (isolation polling precincts) where they can vote away from the general public, with all the necessary precautions appropriate to their health condition," Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a statement. "To reiterate- the IPPs are not intended to be polling places for persons who are confirmed to be COVID positive and are, on Election Day, supposed to be in quarantine," he added. Reacting to the proposal on alternative voting methods, Jimenez said these are "not authorized by law" and will therefore not be employed during the 2022 polls. (CNN) New satellite images obtained by CNN reveal North Korea is expanding a key facility capable of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons, renovations that likely indicate the country plans to significantly ramp-up production at this once-dormant site in the near future, according to experts who analyzed the photos. Images captured by commercial imaging company Maxar earlier this week show construction is underway at a uranium enrichment plant located within the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Facility complex -- changes that could allow North Korea to increase production of weapons-grade nuclear material by as much as 25 percent, Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told CNN. "The most recent expansion at Yongbyon probably reflects plans to increase production of nuclear materials for weapons production," he added, noting the ongoing construction is consistent with previous efforts to add floorspace at the facility, allowing it to house more centrifuges and thus, enrich more uranium on a yearly basis. "The new area is approximately 1,000 square meters, enough space to house 1,000 additional centrifuges. The addition of 1,000 new centrifuges would increase the plant's capacity to produce highly enriched uranium by 25 percent," Lewis said. If North Korea were to upgrade the type of centrifuges currently in use at this plant, it "could increase the capacity of the plant substantially," he told CNN. US officials are aware of the recent activity at Yongbyon's uranium enrichment plant and acknowledge those developments could signal plans to increase production of weapons-grade uranium, according to two sources familiar with the situation. The National Security Council, Department of Defense, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and CIA all declined to comment. Signs that North Korea is moving to ramp-up production of this nuclear material are also in line with US intelligence assessments about the country's commitment to its weapons program, the sources said. The same is true for North Korea's latest round of weapons tests, including Wednesday's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, the sources added. Initial analysis also suggests North Korea conducted a missile launch over the weekend, a three US officials told CNN, one day after it claimed to have test fired a long-range cruise missile with range capable of hitting Japan. Together, the activity has resulted in an exponential increase of tensions in what was already one of the most volatile regions on the planet. State Department spokesperson Ned Price condemned North Korea's missile launches Wednesday and again called for a diplomatic approach to the issue. "We have been very clear about what we want to see happen. We are committed to the principle that dialogue will allow us to pursue our ultimate objective and that's quite simply the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Price said. More concerns about activity at once-dormant facility Evidence that North Korea is expanding the size of its uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon will also likely exacerbate concerns stemming from a recent International Atomic Energy Agency report, which said that the country appears to have restarted a nuclear reactor in the same complex. The report said these were the first indications of activity at the reactor since December 2018, calling North Korea's nuclear activities "a cause for serious concern" and the new developments "deeply troubling." North Korean leader Kim Jong Un purportedly offered to dismantle the Yongbyon complex in exchange for sanctions relief during negotiations with former US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in 2019. However, those talks collapsed in part because neither side was willing to budge. Trump's team wanted either ballistic missile or other nuclear sites included in the deal, and Kim refused to accept a trade of Yongbyon for less sanctions relief, Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, wrote in his memoir. While the site appeared to remain dormant until recently, US officials have broadly anticipated activity could resume. US intelligence officials have said publicly they expect North Korea will remain a "Weapons of Mass Destruction threat" for the foreseeable future as Kim remains "strongly committed" to the country's nuclear weapons. Kim, himself, made clear in January that developing lighter, smaller nuclear weapons for tactical uses and pushing forward with production of "super-sized nuclear warheads" are two of North Korea's top priorities. "Achieving these goals will probably require North Korea to increase the amount of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium available for weapons production," Lewis said. Intelligence agencies have also assessed that Kim "may take a number of aggressive and potentially destabilizing actions to reshape the regional security environment and drive wedges between the United States and its alliesup to and including the resumption of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing," according to the intelligence community's annual threat assessment released earlier this year. Recent activity at Yongbyon and a spate of missile tests by North Korea appear to validate both predictions -- reviving concerns about the state of the country's nuclear weapons program. "The continuation of the DPRK's nuclear program is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable," the IAEA report said, referring to North Korea by its official acronym, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). A senior administration official told CNN late last month that the US is aware of the new report and "closely coordinating with our allies and partners on developments regarding the DPRK." The senior official added, "This report underscores the urgent need for dialogue and diplomacy so we can achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We continue to seek dialogue with the DPRK so we can address this reported activity and the full range of issues related to denuclearization." Renewed criticism of Biden's North Korea approach Recent actions by North Korea are also prompting fresh criticism of the Biden administration's policy towards Pyongyang from Republicans in Congress. "Given the Biden-Harris administration's pitiful track record -- it's no surprise that Kim Jong Un now wants his pay-day from President Biden. That's why he feels emboldened to resume testing missiles and restarted the Yongbyon nuclear reactor," Rep. Mike Rogers, top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement this week. "We need to respond by strengthening alliances in the region, enforcing the sanctions regime, and increasing our investment in missile defense," he added. Relations between the two longtime adversaries have been frosty since, and both Washington and Pyongyang have been focused on containing the threat of Covid-19 since the pandemic swept the globe in early 2020. North Korea's borders have been sealed to keep the virus at bay, despite the knock-on effects on trade with China, an economic lifeline for the impoverished country. Kim's regime is now reportedly dealing with a food crisis. President Biden's administration has made several attempts to reach out to North Korea by email to start discussions with Washington, a senior South Korean official with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN. North Korea has acknowledged receipt of the emails, the official said, but did not feel compelled to respond due to what is seen as a lack of a detailed agenda or any serious indication the US is willing to move the conversation forward from what was agreed upon at Trump and Kim's first summit Singapore in June 2018. (CNN) Cigarette giant Philip Morris International has taken control of UK inhaler maker Vectura despite objections from health care charities. The producer of Marlboro and Parliament cigarettes said in a statement on Thursday that it had secured nearly 75% of Vectura's shares, making it the majority shareholder. More than 45% of Vectura shareholders accepted the takeover offer, and Philip Morris international purchased 29% of the company's shares on the open market. "We have reached an important milestone in our acquisition of Vectura," Jacek Olczak, CEO of Philip Morris International, said in a statement. "We are very excited about the critical role Vectura will play in our Beyond Nicotine strategy." The takeover boosts the tobacco company's efforts to generate more than half of its net revenue from smoke-free products such as e-cigarettes and respiratory drugs within four years, up from about a quarter today. PMI currently sells cigarettes in more than 175 markets. Vectura has manufactured 13 inhaled medicines for companies such as Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline to treat lung conditions including asthma. Critics said they would continue to fight the 1 billion ($1.4 billion) takeover. On Thursday, 35 charities, public health experts and clinicians sent a letter to UK health minister Jo Churchill asking the government to intervene. "We think it clear that this deal is not in the public interest and that it creates perverse incentives for [Philip Morris International] to increase harm through smoking so they might then profit again through treating smoking related diseases," signatories including the British Lung Foundation and Cancer Research UK wrote in the letter. Kjeld Hansen, chair of the European Lung Foundation, said he was "very disappointed" to see the deal finalized. "The prospect of someone potentially profiting from selling one product that harms the lungs and another that treats the lung disease it causes is beyond worrying. For someone living with a lung condition, the sale is devastating," Hansen said in a statement. Philip Morris International was separated from Altria in 2008. Altria owns Philip Morris USA, which sells cigarette brands including Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament and Merit in the United States. Hanna Ziady contributed reporting. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Cigarette group takes control of asthma inhaler maker Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) A standard metric may be issued for hospital utilization rate, including emergency room admissions, to determine COVID-19 alert levels, a Health official said on Friday. These information would correspond to concerns raised by the medical group Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 of insufficient data on hospital admissions, a criteria in deciding on an alert level for an area. "Hindi naman sa hindi nakukuha ang datos sa emergency room. Meron kaming daily census for emergency room admissions. Kasama 'yun sa ina-analyze ng DOH. Kasama 'yan sa pinag- aaralan namin paano gagawa ng metrics sa pilot implementation," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a media briefing. [Translation: It's not that we don't get data from emergency rooms. We have a daily census for emergency room admissions, that's included in the data we analyze. We are studying that for the metrics.] She said specific metrics for case and hospital utilization rates will be issued after reviewing results from the pilot implementation in Metro Manila by the end of September. If successful, the protocol will be adopted to other regions. (CNN) -- President Joe Biden announced the United States and European Union have launched a global pledge to reduce emissions of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas -- by nearly 30% by the end of the decade. Biden made the announcement Friday morning during the Major Economies Forum, a virtual, closed-door meeting with other world leaders on climate, ahead of a pivotal UN climate conference in Glasgow in November. The meeting is meant to raise climate ambition ahead of the Glasgow summit, a senior administration official recently told reporters. "This will not only rapidly reduce the rate of global warming, but it will also produce a very valuable side benefit like improving public health and agricultural output," Biden said. "We're mobilizing support to help developing countries that join and pledge to do something significant." Speaking on Friday, Biden called on world leaders to "bring to Glasgow our highest possible ambitions," citing the US's own goals aimed at curbing carbon emissions and his sweeping domestic economic agenda. Biden described the August report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a "code red for humanity," reiterating his belief that the world is at an "inflection point" for climate action, something, he said, that "presents real, incredible economic opportunities." Biden was joined by representatives from a portion of the MEF countries, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Not all of the member countries were represented at the virtual event. With Earth rapidly warming, scientists say methane emissions need to be reduced fast. Charles Koven, a lead author of the UN climate change report published in August, told CNN this is due to methane's incredible warming power. Even though carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere longer, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas, trapping 25 times as much heat. Methane's short lifespan is why countries are targeting it to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their impact. Major countries have recently seized on reducing methane as a fast way to cut down fossil-fuel emissions. The US and the EU began working on this global pledge within the last year, said Drew Shindell, a professor of earth science at Duke University. Shindell is a methane expert and lead a May paper showing that cutting methane emissions would help slow global warming, and have public health benefits. "I've been in touch with both the US government and European Unions commission since the methane assessment came out, and even before the first drafts came to governments for review, they got very excited about methane," Shindell told CNN. The US and EU finalized their pledge about a month ago, Shindell said, and are now trying to get other countries to commit to it. Scientists say reducing methane emissions is the quickest way to slow global warming. For instance, if the world stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow, Koven said, global temperatures wouldn't begin to cool for many years because of how long the gas stays in the atmosphere. Methane has a more potent warming effect, but it doesn't stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide. "Rapidly reducing methane emissions may be the single most effective strategy to keep the 1.5-degree limit in reach, in terms of near-term actions one can take," a senior Biden administration official told CNN recently, adding methane currently accounts for about half a degree of warming. Shindell told CNN the methane pledge is significant. "When you think about it going down 30% in a decade when it's been going up, that's a huge reversal, it's a U-turn," Shindell said. "If they pull this off, this could be huge." Methane is the main component of natural gas, which powers close to 40% of the US electricity sector. It can enter the atmosphere through leaks from oil and natural gas wells, natural gas pipelines and the processing equipment itself. "We've already taken big steps domestically to tackle these emissions and create good paying jobs, introduced by plugging leaks and capping abandoned wells and gas wells," Biden said Friday. "We believe the collective goal is both ambitious but realistic, and we urge you to join us in announcing this pledge at COP 26." According to data from the US Energy Information Administration, the US has thousands of active wells for natural gas, millions of abandoned oil and gas wells, about two million miles of natural gas pipelines, and several refineries that process the gas. One in three Americans lives in a county with oil and gas operations, posing climate and public health risks, according to a report by the Environmental Defense Fund. Biden's Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release new methane regulations later this year, and Democrats in Congress are attempting to pass a new methane fee as part of their $3.5 trillion budget bill. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Biden announces global goal to reduce planet-warming methane emissions" (CNN) A Jakarta court on Thursday ruled the Indonesian government had failed to uphold citizens' right to clean air, in a landmark judgment campaigners hope will force authorities to take action on the city's notorious smog. The long-awaited decision ends a two-year legal challenge brought by 32 Jakarta citizens against Indonesian President Joko Widodo, three cabinet ministers, the Jakarta governor, and two provincial leaders. The court ruled that the defendants were guilty of "committing "unlawful acts" and failing to combat air pollution in the national capital. They had violated the country's environmental protection laws, said the verdict, which called on top officials to establish a national ambient air quality standard, among a number of other measures. Jakarta, home to more than 10.5 million people, consistently ranks among the world's worst cities for air pollution. Alghiffari Aqsa, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the verdict "historic." "We hope all defendants accept this verdict, because they also live here," Aqsa said. "We hope that they abide by this verdict by executing all points through their action and strategic planning." The lawyer for the defendants, who were not present in court on Thursday, declined to comment on the verdict when contacted by CNN. Before the ruling, Leonard Simanjuntak, country director for Greenpeace Indonesia and a plaintiff in the lawsuit as a private citizen, said several claimants had faced significant health problems from breathing Jakarta's "dirty air." He cited asthma, skin problems and the case of one plaintiff who developed an upper respiratory tract infection after moving to the city. The citizens claimed the government had been negligent in upholding its obligations in managing Jakarta's air pollution, and had failed to fulfill residents' right to clean air. "Not all of us have the same sensitivities, but there are those experiencing health problems related to the dirty air we breathe," Simanjuntak said. Choking on smog Indonesia is Southeast Asia's most polluted country, and Jakarta is the world's 10th most-polluted capital, according to the 2020 World Air Quality Report by IQAir. Air pollution is often measured by the concentration of PM2.5 microscopic particles that contain pollutants such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon. They are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and can cause severe health problems including lung cancer, coronary heart disease, strokes and early death. The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the standard for PM2.5 in safe ambient air quality at 10 micrograms per cubic meter. In Indonesia, the national safe standard set by the government is 15 micrograms per cubic meter. But in Jakarta, readings regularly far exceed both levels with an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 39.6 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the IQAir report. Rapid urbanization and high levels of traffic congestion are the main contributors to Jakarta's poor air quality, according to a study by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Coal-fired power plants on the city's outskirts also play a role, the study said. Citizens challenge the government Yuyun Ismawati, co-founder of environmental group Nexus3 Foundation, said she joined the lawsuit after becoming fed up with the city's bad air. "This citizen lawsuit is for me to advocate and to uphold the right to health for everyone, especially for children and for their future," she said. She said her two-year-old grandson had developed symptoms of the skin condition eczema after sitting on the balcony of her family's 15th floor apartment in central Jakarta. "The doctor said we should try to reduce my grandson's exposure to the outdoor air," she added. "This is ridiculous because the sun is supposed to be good for him, but he can't be outside because of the air?" Before the ruling, Yuyun and other campaigners said they hoped a court victory would pressure the government to to enforce national air quality standards in Jakarta. She also said they wanted local and national governments to enforce environmental safeguards, place strict regulations on coal-powered plants, and be transparent on air pollution policies. Simanjuntak, from Greenpeace, said it was almost impossible to avoid being affected by bad air when traveling on Jakarta's roads. "Even a mask couldn't really protect you," he said. Before the ruling, he said he hoped the judgment would compel the government to commit resources to making Jakarta's air more breathable. "What we demand is comprehensive policy reform in terms of regulatory framework, higher ambient air quality standards to be adopted based on WHO standards," Simanjuntak said. In a brief written in support of the lawsuit, United Nations special rapporteur for human rights and the environment, David R. Boyd, said: "Air pollution is a major problem in Indonesia causing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths annually." He added the "problems are particularly severe in Jakarta." "I respectfully submit that the failure of Indonesian governments to improve substandard outdoor air quality in Jakarta, especially when they have failed to act with the requisite degree of urgency and diligence in the face of prolonged and persistent exceedances of air quality standards, is a violation of the constitutional right to a good and healthy environment," he wrote. Efforts don't go far enough When the lawsuit was filed in July 2019, the government denied the city's air quality had deteriorated, and urged the media not to "dramatize" the situation. Irvan Pulungan, climate change envoy for Jakarta's governor, said the government had tried to improve the city's air quality over the past two years. He said after the lawsuit was filed Jakarta's regional government passed numerous regulations, including installing solar panels in government buildings, testing vehicle emissions, improving public transport infrastructure, developing bicycle lanes, and encouraging people to use public transport. But the plaintiffs said those efforts don't go far enough. They said Jakarta's air pollution also comes from outside the city's borders from industrial facilities and coal plants in neighboring provinces and satellite cities. That's why they also sued the governors of the neighboring provinces of Banten and West Java, and Widodo. But the response from the provincial governors and the national government had been minimal and underwhelming, the plaintiffs said. Before the ruling, Yuyun said hoped the campaigners' court victory would more than just symbolic, and that the ruling would local and national governments to prioritize action on air pollution. "I'm advocating for the ecological child rights for my grandson and all the children who will have to continue coping with this poor air quality," she said. "We as adults are responsible for their quality of life." Journalist Masrur Jamal Jamaluddin in Jakarta, and Akanksha Sharma in Hong Kong contributed to this report. This story was first published on CNN.com "Jakarta residents win battle for clean air against Indonesian government" (CNN) As the Taliban entered Kabul last month, the team behind the crowdsourced news alert app Ehtesab deserted their office in the city. But they continued their work of providing Afghans with critical information, such as which roads were congested and where outbreaks of violence had been reported. Days later, when two suicide bombing explosions killed more than 70 people near Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport as people frantically tried to evacuate, the startup used its contacts on the ground to confirm the twin attacks within minutes. Ehtesab was created three years ago to provide real-time alerts and information about incidents in Kabul. The goal at the time was to keep residents engaged, bridge communication gaps between citizens and public officials, and hold government officials accountable. Like Citizen, an app in the United States known for real-time crime alerts, Ehtesab prompts locals to report incidents from around the city, including everything from faulty telecommunications to planned demonstrations. These reports are then verified by Ehtesab's team of security experts. Now this service has taken on new urgency amid the rapid political and social change following the Taliban's takeover. While the app has been downloaded only 5,000 times by people in Kabul and elsewhere a tiny portion of the city's millions of residents the company says usage has surged in recent weeks. "The main focus has been, obviously, providing reports that affect Afghans' access to food, access to banks, access to movement," Sara Wahedi, Ehtesab's 26-year-old founder who is leading the team of Kabul staffers from New York while she completes degrees in human rights and data science at Columbia University, told CNN Business. "We try to mitigate as much anxiety in day-to-day life as best as we can in the current situation," she said. "The main problem I have is: How can I keep my team safe?" An app for Kabul residents and beyond Wahedi was born in Afghanistan but left with her family at the age of six, around the time the Taliban's previous rule of Afghanistan was coming to an end. She moved to Europe and then settled in Canada under an asylum visa. In 2016, she took a break from her political science studies to return to Kabul, eventually spending more than a year working on social development policy in the office of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. In May 2018, Wahedi was walking home from her job in downtown Kabul when she got stuck in the midst of several suicide bombings. She managed to make it home safely, but, she says, the next day there were sanitation problems, electricity outages and closed streets. "I was really confused by the fact that there was no platform ... where you could find verified, real-time information about what was going on in the city, especially a city which is consistently reeling with instability," Wahedi siad. "It just seemed so odd to me that there was no structure. It wouldn't cost much to implement something like that." The potential audience for such a service had grown, too. As of 2019, Afghanistan had nearly 10 million internet users and around 23 million cellphone users, with 89% of Afghans able to access telecommunication services, according to the latest available figures from the country's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. By the end of 2018, she and three friends had begun work on Ehtesab. Three years later, the app now has a staff of around 20 people in Kabul, including developers, user experience designers and employees who work on vetting reports. Users submit reports through the app in one of five categories: security, traffic, electricity, corruption and other. The app instructs users to provide information, including location, a written description and a photo or video. Once verified by at least two sources, the app displays reports on a map of Kabul and adds updates as more information is available. The future of Ehtesab Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Ehtesab's work has become not only more dangerous but also more challenging. The app previously was able to use local police records and information from government officials to help verify reports. It's now become more reliant on news reports, foreign embassies and the United Nations, many of which have reduced their presence in Kabul in recent weeks. The team is also currently working to ensure that no reports sent in by users could be tracked by the Taliban. Despite those difficulties, as well as concerns that the Taliban could crack down on the internet broadly as it did in the early 2000s, Wahedi said the team isn't giving up. "This is the one thing that keeps us going on a day-to-day basis is us knowing that we're able to do something very directly to help," she said. "[The team] said, 'Until we can't, until they shut down the internet, we're going to keep doing this.' And that's what we've been doing." Ehtesab had planned to be operating in at least five more Afghan cities by December, but Wahedi said the Taliban's return will likely set them back until next year. The company is also working to figure out how to help Ehtesab reach not just Afghan citizens with smartphones, but also those in rural areas with more basic devices and only 3G service. In the meantime, Wahedi said the app could use the help of the international tech community, adding that the team is looking for expertise in areas like geofencing, location tracking and satellite services. "We really need the best minds in tech to work with us and collaborate with us on how we can maximize the potential of this," she said. "We do have a lot of Afghan talent, and there are a lot of Afghan companies who are doing great work. But unfortunately once the Taliban came in, everyone packed their bags and left." This story was first published on CNN.com "This mobile app is helping Afghans navigate Kabul following the Taliban takeover" (CNN) The French government has immediately recalled its ambassador to the US for consultation in response to the recently announced national security partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia. Philippe Etienne, the French ambassador to the US, confirmed the news when reached for comment. In a statement, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, said Friday that the move was made at the request of President Emmanuel Macron. "This extraordinary decision reflects the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States," Le Drian said. "The abandonment of the ocean-class submarine project that Australia and France had been working on since 2016 and the announcement of a new partnership with the United States aimed at studying the possibility of future cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines constitute unacceptable behavior among allies and partners; their consequences affect the very concept we have of our alliances, our partnerships, and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe." It's believed to be the first time the French have resorted to such a move in modern times, a French official told CNN. The New York Times was first to report the news of the recalls. The French government said earlier this week that it felt betrayed when Australia pulled out of their existing multi-billion dollar defense deal, agreeing instead to attain nuclear-powered submarines through a new deal with the United States and the United Kingdom. The effort to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines -- a major step toward countering China as President Joe Biden works to build international backing for his approach to Beijing -- is part of a new trilateral partnership among the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, dubbed "AUKUS." France stands to lose the equivalent of $65 billion US dollars from an existing deal to provide Australia with conventional, diesel-powered submarines. The canceled deal with France, a major global weapons exporter, is expected to make a significant economic impact on the French defense sector. France also stands to lose out strategically in the Indo-Pacific, where the country holds significant interests. On Thursday, after the nuclear-powered submarine deal with the US and the UK was announced, Australia formally announced it would be withdrawing from its previous contract for conventional submarines with France. The deal with Paris had been in the works for years. Australia previously planned to acquire 12 conventional attack-class submarines from the French shipbuilder Naval Group, which successfully beat out competing German and Japanese bids in 2016. The Americans and the Australians have indicated that the French government wasn't blindsided by the reneging of the original contract, saying high-ranking French officials were made aware of the decision by the Australian government. This story was first published on CNN.com, "France recalls its ambassadors to the US and Australia over new national security partnership." 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Bangladeshi state-owned operator Teletalk has received 60MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz frequency band from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on subject to condition from BTRC to launch 5G services in Bangladesh. Teletalk had applied for the allotment of 100MHz spectrum as per the direction of BTRC but the commission allotted them 60MHz as they failed to provide enough documents. Teletalk will use this spectrum to launch 5G services on the local market. According to official reports, the Information and Technology advisor of the prime minister directed the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology to permit Teletalk to launch an experimental 40-60 MHz spectrum of 5G in Dhaka city. The present government had promised to launch 5G across the country by 2021-2023. The government plans to launch a 5G spectrum auction in December this year. The BTRC will distribute the remaining 400MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band to other operators via a tender. FPT chairman Truong Gia Binh is pictured during an interview with VnExpress. Photo by VnExpress/Tuan Vu Technology giant FPT will establish a school to raise and educate over 1,000 children whose parents have died of Covid-19. Chairman of the Hanoi-based company Truong Gia Binh announced the decision Thursday, less than 24 hours after learning about the Covid-19 orphanage figures. Binh said he himself had to live far away from his parents starting from the age of eight during wartime. The school will operate for the next 20 years and FPT will commit to spend at least VND80 billion ($3.5 million) each year on it. Students will be trained up to college level and even higher if they want. The urban complex FPT City Da Nang in the central region is set to be the location for the school including accommodation. FPT established its FPT University in 2006 and has trained 90,000 students since. It has campuses in five locations including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. Two passengers wearing protective suits arrive at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport from HCMC, July 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh The Airports Corporation of Vietnam is planning a safe Covid environment to recommence domestic aviation. A representative from the corporation (ACV), which operates 21 airports in the country, said Thursday the "green corridor" would comprise "green people," or staff and passengers that have been fully vaccinated and tested negative, "green infrastructure," meaning airports, aircrafts, and buses disinfected before and after operation, and "green procedures," in which staff and passengers must follow all Covid-19 prevention protocols including wearing masks, disinfection, and keeping a distance from each other. According to the ACV, the green corridor would work as a framework for health and safety measures to reduce Covid-19 risks in the aviation industry. The framework is developed based on the Ministry of Health and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines. Airlines will develop specific criteria for "green passengers", "green aircraft", and "green procedures", while the ACV regulates criteria for green infrastructure and green operation process. It is expected that within next week, all related units would agree on the detailed content for the "green corridor" to start implementation. The ACV representative said the "green corridor" is the basis for restoration of domestic operations and gradually opening international flights. The ACV last week proposed to the Transport Ministry the resumption of domestic flights at a frequency equal to 50-70 percent of the time before the fourth wave appeared in late April. Passengers traveling on domestic flights are divided into three phases. The first phase would be on trial for two weeks to serve passengers who are state workers on missions, Covid-19 frontline forces, passengers that can provide official documents allowing them to leave their localities of departure and reach localities of arrival, passengers that have been fully vaccinated, completed their isolation period, or those carrying documents confirming they have recovered from Covid-19 within 12 months. The second phase will be applied for two weeks, with more passengers allowed to fly, including those that have stayed in areas under Directive 16 for at least 14 days. The directive is the most stringent social distancing rule that bans all from leaving home, except for "essential purposes." For phase three, all restrictions would be lifted. Currently, the aviation industry still operates cargo flights in combination with passengers who are officials, state workers, and frontline forces. The Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh City route now maintains a maximum of two return flights per day. President Joe Biden is facing increased pressure to respond to a growing number of migrants who have converged under a border bridge which connects Del Rio, Texas to Mexico's Ciudad Acuna. More than 10,000 people are thought to be gathered in cramped conditions with scant provisions in sweltering heat. Those gathered are thought to primarily hail from Haiti, although Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans are also amongst the 10,503 present, according to Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano. With the number of people gathered beneath the bridge continuing to swell by the hour there is growing concern about extreme heat as the temperatures rise to 99 Fahrenheit (37 Celsius). What is Bidens stance on the growing humanitarian issue at the Mexican border? The border issue is now thought to be a key focus of the Biden Administration but he is attempting to tread a fine line between the different approaches favoured by those within his own party. Some want a stronger deterrent to discourage anyone from attempting to make the journey, while others would be vocal opponents of anything appearing to bring about a return of the Trump-era detention camps. Earlier this year Biden reintroduced some of the so-called catch-and-release policies that Trump had removed in an attempt to ease the burden on US Border Patrol. However despite that effort, recently released government data revealed that authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border in August alone, close to a 20-year high. The White House had hoped to use a public health order to expel migrant families with children at the Mexican border, but on Thursday a federal judge ruled that it could not do so. Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia District Court asserted that there are sufficient anti-covid measures to mitigate the spread of covid-19 at the border without the extra powers. This ruling does not take effect for another 14 days and already more than 950,000 migrants have been swiftly expelled from the border using the public health authority, known as Title 42. The order will remain in place for single adults and may well be a prominent tool as Biden looks to clear those gathered at the border. Texas clashes with White House guidance Also on Thursday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he had directed the states Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to close six points of entry across the US-Mexico border. He argued that agents are overwhelmed by the chaos and blamed the sheer negligence of the Biden Administration to do their job and secure the border. However the White House has insisted that Texas does not have the power to unilaterally close off the US border and issued a strongly-worded response to the governor. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Marsha Espinosa told CNN that "it would be a violation of federal law for the Texas National Guard to unilaterally do so." The stand-off between the White House and Republican governor will continue until a solution can be found to limit the number gathering at the border, but the situation on the ground is likely to deteriorate for as long as it continues. The shocking news regarding the drone strike is a complete reversal of the line initially given by senior commanders in Afghanistan, who had previously claimed the attack was a righteous strike. The drone strike, which was launched on 29 August, just days before American forces were due to withdraw from the country, was initially said to have killed two ISIS-K fighters planning an attack on Kabul airport. But Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, has now admitted: This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake. McKenzie added: As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike and its tragic outcome. What happened with the American drone strike in Kabul? The final days of American involvement in Afghanistan were marked by chaos and uncertainty but Fridays news adds an extra layer of tragedy to the botched withdrawal. In an extensive report into what happened, the New York Times has released video footage showing Zemari Ahmadi, the target of the drone strike, as he went about his daily life. But Ahmadi was no terrorist. He had actually been a long-time aid worker with an American aid group and had no links to ISIS or any other extremist groups. He was tracked by US military intelligence and was recorded filing the trunk of a white Toyota sedan with suspected explosive materials, which are now thought to have been water canisters. Ahmadi first came under suspicion after allegedly meeting with people in what had been thought to be an ISIS safe house in Kabul. The US military has now confirmed that any fleeting interaction was coincidental and no link to the Islamic State has been found. To clarify, neither Ahmadi nor the car posed any threat whatsoever. General McKenzie revealed that the New York Times investigation of video evidence from the scene was used by military investigators in the aftermath of the strike. He acknowledged that the attack had indeed killed ten innocent people. Tragic killings mark a chaotic end to American involvement in Afghanistan Despite the militarys admission that the strike was completely unjustified, there will still need to be a review to investigate how such a tragic error occurred. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, described the civilian deaths as a horrible mistake, and has ordered a review of the accountability measures involved. The incident arose from the chaos around Kabul airport, which had been flooded with desperate evacuees after the Taliban retook Afghanistan in a matter of weeks. On 15 August the hard-line Islamic group captured the presidential palace and declared themselves the nations government once again. On 26 August an ISIS terrorist attack targeting those attempting to flee the country had killed more than 140 people at Kabul airport. Just three days later the drone operator who had been tracking Ahmadi feared a similar attack was on the cards and opted to carry out the drone strike on the car in a residential area, where US officials claimed there was a reasonable certainty that no women, children or innocents would be killed. In response to todays news Rep. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona has demanded answers: I expect the department to brief us immediately on the operation, focusing on a full accounting of the targeting processes and procedures which led to the determination to carry out such a strike. In the face of multiple pressing challenges and growing uncertainties across the globe, the 20-year-old Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the world's largest and most populous regional institution, has both the responsibility and the capacity to play a more constructive role in enhancing regional security and pursuing common development. As leaders of the SCO members -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan -- convene via video link on Friday, all eyes are on them to see how they will take the good opportunity to better coordinate and pool their endeavors to tide over the trying times and draw a blueprint for a shared future. Under the guidance of the Shanghai Spirit, a bedrock principle of the bloc, the SCO countries have rendered each other respect and support, forging a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect and win-win cooperation. After two decades of growth, the organization, now with eight full members, four observer countries and six dialogue partners, has become not only a strong pillar of regional peace and security, but also a major platform to promote cooperation and exchanges on the vast Eurasian landmass. Its members have been joining forces to fight against the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, bolster trade and economic growth, and advance people-to-people ties. In 2020, the combined economic size of the SCO countries reached 18.4 trillion U.S. dollars, an 11-fold increase since its founding, while intra-SCO trade jumped eight times to 6.2 trillion dollars over the same period. People-to-people exchanges have also maintained strong momentum. Back in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visits between China and other SCO members exceeded 7 million, 3.5 times as many as in 2001. When the contagious disease broke out in many parts of the world, the SCO members have demonstrated a spirit of solidarity. They have helped each other to control the spread of the coronavirus and safeguard public health, and taken a clear stance against political manipulation of the pandemic. The 20-year landmark is a new starting point. The organization, which covers three fifths of the Eurasian continent, nearly half of the world's population, and over 20 percent of the global gross domestic product, is looking to work more closely and earnestly to enhance its "three pillars," or the three major cooperation areas of security, economy and people-to-people exchanges. The SCO members need to maintain close coordination and forge a stronger partnership to safeguard the region's peace and stability, which is also the primary purpose of the organization. As for the Afghanistan issue, the SCO needs to build consensus and work together with other groups such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization to prevent a resurgence of terrorism, promote reconciliation, help reconstruct the war-torn country, and make sure that the country will not fall into chaos once again. Another pressing task for the organization is to step up cooperation in public health governance. Its members have to accelerate vaccine distribution and make vaccines more accessible, and strengthen coordination to facilitate the cross-border movements of both people and goods in an orderly and safe manner. The difficult moment calls for more support and efforts in keeping the global industrial chains running smoothly and building a more open, equitable and inclusive world economy. To revitalize the hard-hit economy in the throes of a still raging pandemic, the SCO members should firmly stick to multilateralism and openness, facilitate trade and investment, and boost connectivity and integration in the region. The Belt and Road Initiative has offered a unique chance for the SCO countries to synergize their respective development plans, tap further into their huge potential and rev up practical cooperation. Last but not the least, it is necessary to increase people-to-people exchanges and enhance mutual understanding within the organization, as flourishing people-to-people exchanges have consolidated public support for the SCO's growth, and will continue to play a key role in its all-round cooperation. Twenty years ago, in the Chinese city of Shanghai, the six founding members announced the creation of the SCO, ushering in a new era that countries in the region are jointly pursuing security, development and prosperity. Today, as the world is going through an era of profound changes, it befits its heft and role that the SCO rises to the occasion, forges an even closer community with a shared future, and makes more contributions to the region and the world at large. BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday addressed the 21st meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing via video link. The meeting was hosted by Tajikistan, which holds the rotating SCO presidency this year. Talking about the relationship between Vietnam and Bahrain, he said that the relationship can be reinforced by organizing business and cultural events. We hope that in the future the two countries will increase bilateral trade, tourism and organize more frequent visits of officials and delegations, he added. Chairman of the ASEAN-Bahrain Business Council Sheik Daij bin Isa Al Khalifa (Photo: thuongiaonline.vn) According to the Chairman of the ASEAN-Bahrain Business Council, the bilateral trade turnover stands at USD50 million per year, which he said was modest and needed the active role of the two Governments in promoting the cooperation between the two sides businesses. Some important trade items that can enhance exchange and cooperation are bamboo products, paper products, medical equipment, furniture, textiles, electronic goods and footwear, he went on to say. Noting that Bahrains businesses have had more understanding and cared more about the Vietnamese market since the first official visit to Vietnam of a Bahrain delegation organized by the ASEAN Bahrain Business Council in 2018, he said that Vietnams key products like furniture, paper products, agricultural products, textiles and medical equipment may be the first items to be promoted in Bahrain, among many others. Talking about the plan of the ASEAN Bahrain Business Council for the future, he said that the council pledged to promote Vietnam - Bahrain bilateral trade as well as the relationship between the two countries. We are willing to support any business from Vietnam who wants to do business in Bahrain, he stressed. The council has also proposed opening a trade center in Bahrain as a link of Vietnamese businesses to Bahrain and vice versa. The ASEAN - Bahrain Business Council was established in 2017 to strengthen business relations between Bahrain and ASEAN members, as well as focus on exchanges in the fields of trade, sports, tourism, and culture. In 2018, the ASEAN-Bahrain business delegation came to Vietnam to seek investment cooperation opportunities and trade connections in Vietnam./. XI'AN, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- As a time-honored cultural heritage in China with a history of more than 1,000 years, dough figurines can help revive people's memories of childhood. Unlike other children who just play with dough figurines, Zhang Beiyuan, from Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, learned the craft of creating them from his uncle when he was very young. With wheat flour as the main material, folk artists mix it with oil, salt, vinegar and other ingredients. By using their hands and simple tools like a pair of scissors and bamboo sticks, artists knead and pinch the dough to forge it into lifelike figures. In 2015, after studying animation and sculpture in Japan for eight years, Zhang decided to return to his hometown and use his knowledge to promote the ancient art of dough figurines. Later, the handicraftsman married his classmate Zhao Jingjing, who had studied animation in France and worked in this field for five years. The couple then pursued a career in dough figurines in China with a genuine love for traditional Chinese culture. The couple often brainstorms ideas together, fully incorporating their professional knowledge of modern art, sculpture and animation design into the ancient handicraft. Recalling an experience of espying impressionist masterpieces in Europe, Zhao said she appreciated them from the bottom of her heart. Similarly, her foreign friends were amazed by China's intangible cultural heritages and artistic creations. "We believe, despite the different cultural contexts, human beings share the same quest for art and a common taste for beauty," Zhao said, adding that many foreign friends and overseas Chinese have come to learn dough figurines from them. "There was an American girl who came to visit Xi'an with her family for four days, and she spent three days learning dough sculptures. An Australian friend of ours is now teaching a course in Sydney after studying the traditional art in China," the couple said. "All of these experiences give us cultural confidence." In recent years, China has rolled out a slew of measures to strengthen the protection of the country's intangible cultural heritage. According to a new guideline released last month, China plans to spread and popularize intangible cultural heritage while integrating it into the national education system by offering related courses in middle and primary schools. The couple has also been teaching the younger generation how to create dough figurines for the past three years. Zhang said the children usually start with simple modern cartoon characters that are popular among them. "When they fall in love with the art, we will teach them to make dough figurines of classic Chinese figures and introduce the traditional culture behind them." The couple said they are glad to see that now the country is providing strong support for the creation and protection of old handicrafts, and more and more young people are devoting themselves to artisanship. Going forward, the couple aspires to make dough figurines more popular in the market by renewing the content so that China's intangible cultural heritage can survive and thrive. Editor: WPY Tajik President Emomali Rahmon (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Sept. 16, 2021. (Xinhua) DUSHANBE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said Thursday that his country is ready to strengthen practical cooperation with China in various fields, including the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and boost bilateral ties further. Rahmon made the remarks during a meeting here with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Rahmon asked Wang to convey his sincere greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and thanked China for its great help to Tajikistan in developing its economy, safeguarding national security and combating the pandemic. He said Tajikistan appreciates China's strong support for Tajikistan's rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and stands ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China on the Afghan and other issues to jointly maintain regional peace and stability. Wang conveyed President Xi's best regards to Rahmon, and noted that China and Tajikistan have taken the lead in building a community of development and security, setting an example for the international community of neighbors building a shared future and pursuing win-win cooperation. No matter how the international situation changes, China and Tajikistan will always stand together as ironclad partners, Wang said. He said that China will continue to provide vaccines and other supplies to Tajikistan, fully supporting it in achieving a complete victory over the epidemic. China believes that under Rahmon's chairmanship, the upcoming SCO summit will be a success and China is ready to play a constructive role in this regard, he added. China is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with Tajikistan on the Afghan issue and protect common interests and regional stability, Wang said. Enditem Editor: Zhang Zhou Yulia Burmistenko, Advisor to DTEK CEO on International Affairs This year, the Yalta European Strategy, YES, managed to convene its traditional meeting. Although the event was held on a lesser scale due to COVID restrictions, YES preserved the most important thing: the same helicopter view, the opportunity to see Ukraine not on its own, but on the global map as a part of the world, with all its challenges. The theme of the meeting related to the pandemic: "Post-COVID = Pre-Disaster? Steps to Survival". Sure though, this was not the only thing being discussed. In particular, half of the sessions focused on climate change and the decarbonization of the global economy. Fareed Zakaria, CNN host, argued that climate change was no longer just environmental issue, but had large-scale social consequences. Mike Berners-Lee, Director at Small World Consulting, noted that much more depends on how humanity frames the climate change. Truly so: in Ukraine many people still try not to notice it or believe that "it is not our problem"/"we are too poor"/"it is not urgent". But sadly, this process is real and cannot be ignored. According to Mike Berners-Lee, the solution is to reduce energy consumption and develop renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. Decarbonization for Ukraine is an impulse for the renewal of the industry, an opportunity to attract funding and create new jobs, a reduced dependence on fossil and imported raw materials and the transition to local renewable energy sources (RES). During the discussions, the most notable was the argument that many sectors of Ukraine's economy, including the traditional ones like steel production, electricity and others, are already at the forefront of decarbonization. As a representative of the energy sector, I fully agree. The energy sector produces more than 40% of Ukraine's CO2 emissions. Thus, it has the most potential for decarbonization. However, to take real steps we need investments: for example, the EU plans to invest in decarbonization about 1.8% of its GDP annually, and Joe Biden announced that the United States will invest $400 billion in clean energy alone by 2030. Of course, the situation in Ukraine is radically different. Last year we saw an outflow of investment, and do not see any significant growth now. While Asia and Europe are gradually recovering from the pandemic-caused slump, Ukraine cannot keep up. Probably because the crisis affected the exact industry that has been the most attractive to investors in recent years: the renewable energy industry. DTEK is Ukraine's largest investor in RES (the company owns about 12% of the country's RES capacity), and together with other investors, we hope that the industry will recover. Considering the Euro-integration aspirations, Ukraine has no choice but to increase the RES share in the energy balance. Compare this: last year RES produced only 8% of electricity in Ukraine, intending to reach 17% in 2030. The goal of European countries is almost twice as ambitious: not less than 32% in 2030. Transformation and development of Ukrainian energy sector should occur together with decarbonization and integration with the continental Europe ENTSO-E energy system. Amos Hochstein from the State Department pinpointed it well: "Ukraine must turn from an exporter of molecules to the EU into an exporter of electrons." Let me note that Ukraine is still integrated in the energy system of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, and the decoupling from these countries and synchronization with the EU is planned for the summer of 2023. All YES participants emphasized that the further development of Ukrainian potential requires a predictable environment and the strengthened rule of law. In a dialog with Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid also mentioned the rule of law and decent conditions for doing business and investment. Speaking of Ukraine's European prospects, President Kaljulaid noted that the country should be ready when the window of opportunity opens. But the President sees no readiness yet. Speaking of EU-Ukraine relations, President Kaljulaid described them as "tough love", when the partner they want to see next to them has to meet quite strict requirements. It is natural, as we all find it really important how those who live with us behave at home. Victoria Nuland, the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, also addressed the reforms. In particular, Nuland praised land and judicial reforms, but noted with concern the problems with corporate governance reform in the public sector. Nuland emphasized that when the rules and legislation constantly change, Ukrainians suffer. Well, it has been well said that that a timely and correct diagnosis is an important requirement for a recovery. We hope that next year, when YES gathers friends again, we will be able to focus on new challenges as the old ones will be no more. At least we will try our best. DTEK on September 16 agreed with the American company HC Trading (Heidelberg Cement Group) on the supply to Ukraine of two shiploads of American thermal coal with a total volume of 150,000 tonnes, the company said in a press release. It is expected that coal will be delivered to Ukraine in two shiploads: the first in December 2021, the second in January next year. "This will become the company's second contract for the import of coal from the United States. The first contract for the supply of 75,000 tonnes of American thermal coal was signed with another supplier at the end of August," the document says. DTEK said the agreement on the import of coal is part of the company's preparation for the heating season, therefore the new consignments of fuel are intended primarily for the needs of Zaporizhia, Ladyzhyn and other TPPs of DTEK Energy. "Before the start of the heating season, there is less and less time left, so our company is doing everything possible to enter it with the maximum resources. For this, we have intensified the repair campaign at our TPPs, open new longwalls and increase coal production at our mines. In addition, we were the first in Ukraine to start the advance import of fuel from Poland, Kazakhstan and the United States," Ildar Saleev, the director general of DTEK Energy, said. As reported, DTEK Energy and PJSC Centrenergo in August agreed to supply 75,000 tonnes of steam coal from the United States, which they will divide equally upon arrival. The supply of American coal from Hamilton mine US will be carried out through the international trader Trafigura. Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna believes that the adoption of Bill No. 4197-d On the timber market will help restore forests and ensure transparency of the timber market in Ukraine and the European Union. "Several important things regarding the bill No.4197-d, which will lift the moratorium on exports of unprocessed timber from Ukraine and introduce a civilized transparent timber market. Today, the main common priority of Ukraine and the EU is reforestation and transparency of the timber market in Ukraine and both in the EU, and bill 4197-d is fully in line with this goal," Stefanishyna told Interfax-Ukraine. According to her, the European Union is considering a number of initiatives to directly limit the import of timber, which is harvested in a way that is harmful to forests, as well as to ban the import of goods whose production is associated with the destruction of forests. "The initiative of the President of Ukraine to plant one billion trees over the next three years completely overlaps with the afforestation goals set by the European Union under the European Green Deal. Therefore, Ukraine, like our European partners, is not interested in returning barbaric practices of uncontrolled and harmful for the environment export of unprocessed wood from Ukraine to the EU," the deputy prime minister said. At the same time, she said that under any circumstances, Ukraine will maintain a ban on the export of valuable tree species listed in the Red Book. "The approach to the export of raw wood stated in the bill meets the requirements of the decision in the arbitration initiated by the EU against Ukraine [] Of course, there are forces in Ukraine that will sabotage the establishment of order in the circulation of wood and will block the adoption of the project, manipulating the idea of allowing the export of untreated wood without respecting the principle of afforestation. 'Such' merchants are only interested in financial benefits, corruption schemes and non-transparent rules," Stefanishyna said. According to her, the government and the parliament are preparing proposals, according to which the control mechanism will be significantly strengthened to ensure that the international trade in timber takes place only if a sufficient level of forest cover is achieved in each region of Ukraine. The refusal of the Council of Judges of Ukraine to appoint Ukrainian judges to restore the High Council of Justice threatens to thwart promises of real judicial reform in Ukraine, said US State Department spokesman Ned Price. "In July, Ukraine enacted an historic law that provides an opportunity for true reform of the judiciary. International partners nominated highly qualified experts to support renewal of Ukraine's foremost judicial governance body, the High Council of Justice, in line with that law. On September 13, however, Ukraine's Council of Judges refused to nominate Ukrainian judges to participate in the process, a refusal that threatens to derail the promise of real judicial reform in Ukraine," Price said in a statement posted on the U.S. Department of State website on Thursday. He stressed that there is still time to save these efforts if the Council of Judges nominates its candidates. "There is still time to save this effort. The Council of Judges can fulfill its obligation to implement the law and put forward nominations," Price noted. The Department of State official stressed that the United States, along with the Ukrainian government, civil society and other international partners, recognizes that judicial reform is critical to strengthening the rule of law and attracting foreign investment to Ukraine. "We remain firmly committed to assisting in this critical reform so that the people of Ukraine may trust their courts and judges and so that Ukraine can continue on its path toward Euro-Atlantic integration. Judicial reform will bring more jobs and economic opportunities, as well as fairness and justice. The Ukrainian people deserve no less," Price said. As reported, at their meeting on September 13, members of the Council of Judges refused to delegate their representatives to the Ethical Council, which is supposed to check the integrity of candidates and members of the HCJ. According to Paragraph 6 of clause 23-1 of the final and transitional provisions of the law "On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine concerning the procedure for election (appointment) to the positions of members of the High Council of Justice and the activities of disciplinary inspectors of the High Council of Justice" No. 1635-IX dated July 14, 2021, the subject of the formation of the Ethics Council submits to the chairman of the High Council of Justice a list of candidates for the Ethics Council within 30 days from the date of receipt of the corresponding appeal from the chairman of the Supreme Council of Justice. The subject of the submission is, among other things, the Council of Judges of Ukraine, which is supposed to delegate three representatives to the Ethical Council, however, the Council of Judges was unable to delegate its representatives to the Ethical Council, which raised concerns about the progress of judicial reform due to the halt in the cleansing of the judicial system. On July 8, on July 8, the head of state vetoed relevant bill No. 3711-d adopted by the parliament at the end of June, and on July 13 the Verkhovna Rada re-adopted the law, agreeing with the president's proposals. The main proposal of the president to the bill on the restoration of the work of the HQCJ concerned clarifications on the adoption of a decision by the competition commission on the selection of its members with the participation of international experts. According to the law, the decision will be taken by four votes out of six if at least two representatives from international organizations voted for this decision. In accordance with the law, the HQCJ is considered plenipotentiary if at least 11 members are appointed to its composition, at least six of which are appointed from among judges or retired judges. Also, the parliament voted in favor of bill No. 5068, which amends the laws "On the rules of procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine" and "On the Supreme Council of Justice" concerning the creation of an Ethical Council, whose members will determine the compliance of a candidate for the post of a member of the HCJ with the criteria of professional ethics and integrity. The first composition of the Ethics Council will include three persons from among judges or retired judges, determined by the Council of Judges of Ukraine, and three persons who will be selected by international organizations providing Ukraine over the past five years with international technical assistance in the field of judicial reform and prevention of corruption in accordance with international or interstate agreements. Such international and foreign organizations agree on a proposal for a common list of candidates. In the future, the Ethics Council will include three persons from among the judges or retired judges proposed by the Council of Judges of Ukraine, one person proposed by the Council of Prosecutors of Ukraine, one - at the suggestion of the Council of Defense Lawyers of Ukraine and one more - proposed by the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine represented by presidium. According to the cards of the bills, the President also signed laws on amendments to some laws on the procedure for election (appointment) to the positions of members of the High Council of Justice and the activities of disciplinary inspectors of the High Council of Justice (No. 5068) and on amendments to Articles 188-32 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses on the establishment of responsibility for failure to comply with the legal requirements of the disciplinary inspector of the High Council of Justice (No. 5069). Bill No. 5069 establishes administrative liability for failure to comply with the legal requirements of the HCJ disciplinary inspector to provide information or documents, or to provide knowingly false information to a request on behalf of the HCJ. On September 10, missions of international organizations and the diplomatic departments of the United States, Germany, Great Britain and Canada in Ukraine formed lists of experts for their selection and appointment to the Ethics Council under the High Council of Justice and the selection committee under the High Qualification Commission of Judges. On September 16, a working meeting dedicated to judicial reform in Ukraine was held at the Office of the President with the participation of the Chairman of the Council of Judges, the Supreme Court, representatives of parliament, government, as well as ambassadors of the G7 countries and the European Union, following which its participants adopted a joint statement. Acting Director of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) Oleksiy Sukhachov has said that the investigation into the "Wagner PMC (Private Military Company)" case has not received confirmation of information that such an operation was carried out on the territory of Ukraine. "This criminal proceeding is overly politicized. We interrogated high-ranking officials, law enforcement officers, representatives of the Ukrainian intelligence agencies. We also requested materials from law enforcement and intelligence agencies that would confirm or deny such an operation," Sukhachov said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. Acting director of the SBI said: "At present, we have not received any information about such an operation on the territory of Ukraine. According to the results of interrogations of officials, such information has not been received either." Speaking about the CNN report about the alleged assistance of the American side in organizing the operation, acting director of the SBI said: "We analyzed it [reportage] with the investigator twice and did not reveal any factual data that this media could provide to the investigation as a version or direction for the study." As for the Temporary Investigative Commission of Parliament on the "Wagner members" case, according to Sukhachov, representatives of the SBI are not invited to meetings and information is not sent. Answering the question whether the SBI is ready to attach the materials of the Commission's report to the case, when the final decision is made, the acting director of the SBI said: "If the Commission sends a corresponding report to our address, it is clear that we will study it as part of the investigation of this criminal proceeding." At the same time, according to Sukhachov, the SBI in contact with parliamentary committees on law enforcement, defense and national security. "If they provide the investigation with information, we will definitely study it and use it in the course of the investigation," he added. As reported, on September 8, the US television channel CNN published material about the alleged assistance of the US CIA to Ukraine in organizing an operation to detain 33 fighters of the Wagner PMC. According to them, the Ukrainian side received cash from the United States, technical assistance and advice from the CIA during the organization of the operation. At the same time, a senior US official told CNN that these allegations were "false." As reported, on July 29, some 33 members of the Wagner PMC were detained near Minsk. On August 12, the Prosecutor General's Office (Ukraine) applied to the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Belarus with requests to extradite 28 people from the Russian Private Military Company Wagner, who "took an active part in hostilities on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as part of the terrorist organizations 'LPR' and 'DPR (Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples' Republics')." "All 28 persons, including nine citizens of Ukraine, were notified of suspicion of participation in a terrorist organization," the press service of the PGO said. However, on August 14 it became known that Belarus handed over to Russia 32 of the 33 detained Wagner members. On August 18, a number of Ukrainian media reported that SBI and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense were preparing an operation to detain members of the Wagner PMC. According to the media, they were supposed to fly from Minsk to Istanbul, but during the flight one of the passengers had to simulate deterioration in health, as a result of which the plane had to make an emergency landing in Kyiv, where the Wagner members were to be detained. The media claimed that the operation was reported to President Volodymyr Zelensky and Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, after which, as a result of a leak, the Belarusian special services learned about it. The information was denied by the authorities. Zelensky noted that the last time he spoke with Alexander Lukashenko when discussing the issue of the detained Wagner members. "When the Wagner members were on the territory of Belarus, I called Alexander Grigorievich, warned him, said that we were ready to convey full information about these people," the president said. The head of state added that Lukashenko told him that he would "not let him down" and "would figure it out." "I was sure that he would transfer us these killers. But then what happened happened, and this was our last conversation," Zelensky said. On September 10, 2021, head of the interim commission of inquiry of the Verkhovna Rada on the investigation of possible illegal actions of representatives of state authorities and other persons against the sovereignty of Ukraine Maryana Bezuhla (Servant of the People faction) stated that a directly authorized special operation regarding the forced landing of a Turkish plane with mercenaries of the Wagner PMC didn't take place in Ukraine, but a special intelligence event was carried out. Head of WHO Office in Ukraine: It is really possible to vaccinate more than 70% of population in Ukraine In an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the WHO Representative, the Head of the WHO Office in Ukraine, Dr. Jarno Habicht, spoke about the global goals of vaccination against COVID-19 and whether Ukraine can achieve these goals. Author: Anna Levchenko How does the WHO assess the current situation with the spread of coronavirus infection? We are approaching the end of the second year of the epidemic, and this is a third school year our children will study in a pandemic. In the coming months we expect the next wave of COVID-19 in Ukraine, and it is too early to say when we will be able to get out of it. In many countries we still see community transmission of Covid - in the country or in the organized groups. Meanwhile, at the global level, we can say that in September the number of cases of the disease got somewhat stabilized. Though, it stabilized at a very high level. That is, the number of cases is not growing? It is stable but at a very high level. If you look into the European region, it accounts for about 30% of the total number of global cases of COVID-19. We are now monitoring variants and mutations of concern and interest. Speaking of mutations of concern, we have the Delta variant, and the evolution of that variant will determine how we get through this autumn. We know that this variant also circulates in Ukraine. This mutation, in comparison to the "Alpha" variant spreads much faster, and that means the number of hospitalizations will increase. I want to say right away that vaccination will play a very important role in overcoming the spread of this mutation of the coronavirus, in particular for the elderly, since vaccination will help to avoid a serious course of the disease. In addition to this mutation, which we already know about and prepare for, there are variants that are classified as of interest. These are, in particular, Lambda and Mu variants. They are being watched because they will determine how COVID-19 evolves Globally and in the European region. In other words, we are now in the middle of another outbreak and we need to stay careful. According to our forecasts, which are confirmed by statistics, in September we will see increase in the number of cases of disease in Ukraine. We see that the rate of positiveness of the tests performed has almost doubled over the past month, which means that more people are sick now. In addition, we see that the number of Ukrainians who end up in a serious condition in hospitals and intensive care units is growing. At the same time, the vaccination coverage in Ukraine has reached almost over 10% of the population. This is not at all the level that we see in other European countries, where vaccination coverage reaches over 60%. Now in Ukraine, the number of fully vaccinated citizens is about 5 million (today 4 959 086) people but our goal, of course, is to achieve a higher figure. In this respect, the following facts are very significant: in high-income European countries the vaccination coverage is about 58% of the population, in middle-income countries it is about 28% of the population, and in low-income countries the vaccination coverage is about 8%. If we compare Ukraine to similar countries, we can say that in these countries the vaccination coverage is at the level of 8-10%. Though, if we talk about Europe on average, then Ukraine needs to catch up with the European countries because today in Europe as a whole we have about 410 million people vaccinated or about 55% of the total population. The main task now is to provide vaccination for everyone with one or two doses of vaccine, and later, in a year or two, if necessary, it will be possible to talk, perhaps, about some additional vaccination. To what extent do you think this task is being fulfilled? Globally the goal was to have 10% coverage by the end of September. In other words, Ukraine has already reached this figure. The next goal is to vaccinate at least 40% of the population by the end of the year, and I think Ukraine will be able to achieve even higher rates by the end of this year. But we need also take to consideration that national vaccination plan targets are higher in Ukraine. How many people can actually be vaccinated in Ukraine - 50%, 70%, 100%? This question is very difficult, and I hope that more than 70% can actually be vaccinated. According to the survey results from August we now see that every second Ukrainian is interested in being vaccinated. The most important thing is that you need to vaccinate the elderly and those who are at risk. The main critical issue is to help people who may have severe illness and even die in intensive care units. Therefore, now we should not chase the indicators but rather aim at certain target groups. When we look at the European region we see that almost 55% of the total population have been vaccinated (with first dose and fully vaccinated). And if we look at the data from 36 countries that provide data on the age of vaccinated patients, we see that in the 60+ group they have more than 70% vaccinated. It is very important to use this approach and focus specifically on older people who have high risks. I hope that this is exactly what Ukraine will do in the coming months. At the same time, in almost all countries we see a situation when the first 50% of population were vaccinated easier than the remaining citizens to reach coverage targets as 60, 70 or more. Will COVID-19 vaccination become an annual mandatory procedure? We don't know that yet. Now all efforts are aimed at ensuring that everyone gets a full course of vaccination. What is the most difficult population group that does not want to get vaccinated? I would say that the question is not whether certain groups of people want to be vaccinated or not, it is more important how the vaccination programs are organized, if they can effectively reach 100% of people. For example, in Ukraine there is an issue with vaccinating the elderly people who live somewhere in the countryside, in remote settlements. Such people are unlikely to be able to come to a large vaccination center in Lviv, Kharkiv or Kyiv. In addition, there is a problem with information about immunization, vaccines and their benefits. We see that more information materials need to be distributed to people so that they understand what vaccines are and what are the benefits of immunization. It is very important that the medical community, academia get united around the idea of immunization. And for all groups of people, you need to think how to organize the process in such a way that it becomes easy to get vaccinated. We started immunization at the end of February, we used mobile teams for this, later stationary immunization sites were added, and only at the beginning of summer the immunization centers began to appear, which are now available almost in all regions of Ukraine. Now we see that people use services of these immunization centers. For example, studies show that 23% of vaccines were administered in these large centers, 46% - in stationary sites, and 31% - by mobile teams. By the way, we found out another interesting fact: not all Ukrainians, even those interested in vaccination, know exactly where they need to go to get vaccinated. The problem in the early months of the immunization campaign was that we lacked the vaccine itself. But now starting from August, there should be enough vaccines in Ukraine. Now in Ukraine there are more than 10 million doses in stock; by the end of this year about 15-20 million doses of the vaccine should be delivered to Ukraine. And now it will be very important to accelerate the pace of vaccination in order to achieve both global and Ukrainian goals. For many Ukrainians, one of the incentives to vaccinate was the opportunity to travel to Europe but Europe did not recognize the Coronavac vaccine, which currently was used to vaccinate about 1.657 mln Ukrainians. What is the WHOs position on the approval of Coronavac vaccine, which is currently recognized by the WHO but not approved by a number of European countries? A lot has already been done in this regard. This topic, the recognition of the Coronavac vaccine, was discussed by the representatives of the WHO and the leaders of European countries. We can say that these are actually not problems of the European region only but also a problem of a global level. In addition, this issue was discussed by the COVID-19 International Health Regulation Emergency Committee in July 2021. The position of the WHO is that we recommend that all countries, including EU member states approve all vaccines that have been listed for emergency use. It is important to note that the EU is not adopting a decision as a single authority regarding the vaccines; such a decision is made by each individual country. Let me note that after meetings of the WHO representatives with representatives of regulators of individual countries, many countries approved the Coronavac vaccine. From my perspective, I would like to say that the situation looks rather confusing when there is a list of about 10 vaccines, and for each one you need to verify separately which countries recognize it and which don't. Nevertheless, it is very important to understand that from the public health perspective vaccines were not created so that people could travel freely, although for this too, but the main purpose of vaccination against COVID-19 is to protect against severe disease and death. It is also very important that now vaccination helps us to gradually return to normal life. Will the WHO recognize the Russian Sputnik V vaccine? The process that could allow the inclusion of the Sputnik V vaccine into the list of those approved for emergency use has not been completed. In order for this vaccine to be included in the WHO list of recommended vaccines, our experts have to examine certain materials that the manufacturer must submit, inspections and audits must be carried out by the WHO team at the manufacturing facility. Let me put it that way: this process has not been completed, moreover, the WHO has not even received a full package of documents for this vaccine. Therefore, it will be possible to speak about any kind of recognition only when we receive a full package of documents. What is the WHO's point of view to the fact that some countries suggest to restrict certain rights of unvaccinated people, for example, to attend certain events? We say that vaccination is not a mandatory measure but we do recommend to use vaccination as a very effective way to deal with epidemic outbreaks. Why not mandatory? We always recommend evidence-based approach and decision made based on balance of risk and benefits. Under National Deployment and Vaccination Plan each country has identified priority groups who should get access to vaccine first, and it is because of their risks due to COVID-19 or their functions. We do not have the same level of risks and benefits for everyone, and we therefore we do not recommend mandatory vaccination enforced by law, unless lack of vaccination harms others. Another important point that for mandatory we should have sufficient vaccine supply to cover everyone upon request, and it is not there yet globally and in many countries. Therefore, as of today in Ukraine, we cannot say that COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory for use. At the same time, we realize that we have overwhelming evidence that the course of COVID-19 in vaccinated people is much lighter and priority groups, those with high risks for COVID-19 complications and severe outcomes, as well as those with essential functions should be vaccinated as soon as possible, and vaccination is the only strong tool we have to protect them. There is a lot of discussion around the mandatory vaccination in the beginning of the school year - if it is necessary to vaccinate all teachers and university professors. What is the WHO's position? Such a discussion is under way in almost all countries. The same questions arise regarding the vaccination of staff in covid and non-covid hospitals. In many countries, the vaccination coverage among the teaching staff is very high. If we talk about the health of each individual teacher and professor, then I would certainly recommend each of them to be vaccinated. Usually, if countries decide that vaccination should be mandatory, they often fail to enforce it fully. This is a complex issue, both from the legal point of view and from the point of view of ensuring the right to education and work. Nevertheless, I am sure that in Ukraine our teachers could be protected much better. In fact, there are many older teachers in Ukraine and their health requires protection, i.e. vaccination. At the same time, it must be remembered that in addition to vaccination in those communities and communities where the virus transmission continues, other protective and preventive measures should be used including distancing, wearing a mask and washing hands. Does the WHO have any leverage to stimulate vaccination or wearing masks, in a word, to contain the spread of the virus? Our influence and, at the same time, our task will be to provide support. This is, for example, what we are doing now in Ukraine: Ukraine gained access to the vaccine through the COVAX mechanism. From the beginning of February to the present day, it is the COVAX mechanism that made available almost 20-25% of vaccines by now. Will the COVAX continue to operate in 2022? In 2022, it's operation will continue for sure, and later we will see, if there will be need for it. Many countries are now organizing their ways to obtain and purchase vaccines, including Ukraine. For example, on the basis of bilateral agreements Ukraine has purchased 15-20 million doses of vaccine. In fact, it is important to make sure that you have sufficient amount of vaccine. For example, now the situation is such that, in a sense, it is even easier to get a vaccine in Ukraine than in the high income countries. Is there enough vaccine manufacturing capacity in the world today or is it still necessary to look for new production sites? Now the number of manufacturers is constantly growing, the number of production sites is increasing, and they are located in different countries. Just in August, a new manufacturing hub was launched in South Africa, to which the mRNA vaccine technologies were transferred with the help of the COVAX mechanism and support from the WHO. Of course, there is and there remains a need for rapid production and rapid development but on the other hand one should not forget that it is necessary to ensure access to vaccination, etc. Globally, we can see that vaccine use is very disproportionate - about 52% of the world's population lives in low- and middle-income countries but only 18% of vaccines have been used in these countries. So, unfortunately, we see inequalities in accessing the vaccines. I really hope to see fewer ICU patients next year than I saw in the past. In recent months, I have spent a lot of time in visiting Oblasts and hospitals and I can say that hospitals are now in better condition, better prepared than they were last year, and nevertheless, I would like to see fewer Ukrainians in intensive care. Ireland's Ryanair airline is planning aggressive expansion in Ukraine if the country joins the European Union's Open Skies deregulated aviation market in the coming months, Reuters has reported, referring to Group Chief Executive Michael O'Leary. "The one market I would point to is Ukraine... I would think we will be a major investor in Ukraine when they join up to European Open Skies," O'Leary told an investor call following the company's annual general meeting. He expected the Ukrainian government to sign up to Open Skies before the end of the year. O'Leary said Ryanair currently operates from five Ukrainian airports on a bilateral basis but that there were as many as 12 suitable airports in the country. Migrant workers would provide a major market for Ryanair's fares, which he said currently average around EUR 40 per flight. The airline also sees potential in the country's domestic market. "I think that will be certainly a model that we will be aggressively moving into," O'Leary said. On Tuesday, September 21, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a roundtable talk entitled "Implementation of customs procedures in accordance with EU practice: what changes may Ukrainian business expect? Practical aspects." Participants include President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hennadiy Chyzhykov; President of the Ukrainian Exporters Club Yevhenia Lytvynova; international expert of the EU Public Finance Management Support Programe for Ukraine (EU4PFM) on customs issues, former Deputy Chairman of the Customs of the Republic of Lithuania Vytenis Alisauskas; Director of the Department of Customs Policy of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Moskalenko; Director of the Department of Implementation of the International Transit System of State Customs Service of Ukraine Serhiy Demchenko; Director of the Department of Customs Audit and Person Registration of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Svitlana Anishchenko; Head of the Directorate for Support of Authorized Economic Operators of the Department for Organization of Customs Control and Customs Clearance of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Andriy Teply; representatives of business associations, media, experts of the Reform Support Team of the Ministry of Finance and State Customs Service. Moderator of the event is its organizer Maksym Urakin. Working languages of the roundtable talk: Ukrainian, Russian, English (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of seats in the press center is limited. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. Details by phone: (068) 099 1709. On Monday, September 20, at 10.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference entitled "MPs vote on bill No.4662 equals patients' lives!" on the need to adopt at second reading bill No.4662 that will provide the possibility of medicine procurement under managed entry agreement (MEA). Participants include MP of Ukraine Oleksiy Movchan; MP of Ukraine Oksana Dmytriyeva; Head of the Research Department of Hemoblastosis Chemotherapy and Adjuvant Treatment Methods of the National Cancer Institute Iryna Kriachok; Head of the Council of Orphan Diseases of Ukraine Tetiana Kulesha; representative of the Zaporuka Charitable Foundation Liudmyla Pelykh; President of Kharkiv Charitable Foundation "Children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy" Vitaliy Matiushenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of seats in the press center is limited. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. KYIV. Sept 17 (Energy Reform) - The Verkhovna Rada may consider bill No. 5464 on the development of biomethane at second reading already at a meeting on October 5, Oleksiy Riabchyn, the advisor to the chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy on the development of low-carbon business and the European Green Deal, has said. "Today I've spoken with Olha Stefanishyna, the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, who is planning a European integration day in parliament. We are considering the possibility that the second reading of this bill will take place on October 5, and it will be finalized. I also spoke about this with my colleagues from the committee," Riabchyn said during a round table in the framework of the Green Deal project on the topic "Ukrainian biomethane: how to dispose of the potential of bioenergetics" at the Interfax-Ukraine agency. "This is preliminary information. But I hope it will be so, and now we are working on the amendments. And indeed we [Naftogaz] have joined our colleagues, the GTS operator and others, in promoting this bill," he added. According to him, for Naftogaz it is very important against the background of decarbonization taking place in the world. "All top companies not only in Ukraine, but all over the world set climate neutrality as the ultimate goal. Therefore, Naftogaz decided to develop low-carbon businesses: energy efficiency, combating methane losses, biogas, biomethane - everything that can decarbonize the conventional oil and gas company," the expert noted. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada adopted draft law No. 5464 on amendments to the law of Ukraine on alternative fuels concerning the development of biomethane production at first reading on September 9. The draft law regulates the concept of "biomethane" as "biogas," which by its physical and technical characteristics corresponds to the regulatory legal acts on natural gas for supply to gas distribution and gas transmission networks or for use as a motor fuel. In addition, the document provides for the creation of a register of biomethane for accounting in the system, establishes the procedure for the formation of guarantees of the origin of biomethane. According to the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, the potential for biomethane production in Ukraine is 8 billion cubic meters per year, which corresponds to 25% of domestic gas consumption. KYIV. Sept 17 (Energy Reform) - NJSC Naftogaz will modernize six combined heat and power plants (CHPP) transferred to it from the State Property Fund, taking into account the latest biotechnologies, Oleksiy Riabchyn, the advisor to the chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy on the development of low-carbon business and the European Green Deal, said. "If we look at the state of these CHPPs, the equipment is outdated, still Soviet. Of course, now the main task is to enter normally and pass the heating season, but then the question will arise of how to modernize them. I would like to note that any modernization will already take into account all biotechnologies that exist in the world. We will no longer modernize with the technologies of the century before last," Riabchyn said during a round table within the Green Deal project on the topic "Ukrainian biomethane: how to dispose of the potential of bioenergetics" at the Interfax-Ukraine agency. At the same time, he noted that against the background of decarbonization and the active aspiration of the company to this, as well as its support for the law on the development of biomethane, the transfer of state-owned CHPPs to the company is an important factor. As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at the beginning of August transferred to NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy the stakes (over 99%) of Dniprovska CHPP, Mykolaiv CHPP, Kryvy Rih CHPP, Kherson CHPP, Odesa CHPP, as well as the integrated property complex of the state enterprise Severodonetsk CHPP. Naftogaz Ukrainy exercises all the rights of a shareholder in relation to the joint-stock companies, in particular, regarding participation in general meetings of shareholders, election of members of supervisory boards. Violation of rights instead of rule of law: VR Capital will appeal to Supreme Court against decision of Court of Appeal on invalidity of the right of claim against Ukrzaliznytsia NEW YORK, September 17, 2021:On September 16, 2021, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal upheld Ukrzaliznytsia's appeal, declaring invalid the contract for the assignment of Ukrzaliznytsia debt between Prominvestbank and the New York-based investment fund, VR Global Partners, L.P. ("VRGP"). VRGP strongly disagrees with the decision of the court, which is clouded by alarming evidence of political interference and manifest violations of due process and will appeal it in cassation to the Supreme Court. "Yesterdays ruling was a travesty of justice which laid bare the key problem of all foreign investors in Ukraine - non-compliance with the rule of law and the inability of investors to protect their legitimate rights in Ukrainian courts. Plain and simple, this was a kangaroo court. Its actions were riddled with due process violations, its deliberation lasted mere minutes and its decision to overturn the lower court verdict was pre-baked," commented Richard Deitz, President of VR Capital Group Ltd. "Sadly, we are not surprised by this decision," Deitz continued. "In July, I was invited to a meeting in Kyiv at the Presidents Office to discuss our dispute with Ukrzaliznytsia. At that meeting, I was explicitly warned by the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Smyrnov, that, while our case was legally sound, I should understand that judges in Ukraine can be fired. Since that meeting, we have seen enormous administrative pressure on the judicial system that culminated in yesterdays decision. Multiple judges have been replaced or have recused themselves in our cases, and, in a particularly egregious example, a new appellate panel of three justices was formed in a "lottery" where 51 of the 54 eligible justices to hear the case were said to be unavailable for selection due to holidays. This is not the way a judicial system is supposed to operate, and it will not help Ukraine attract the investment it seeks to develop its economy and create jobs." "It is particularly ironic that this decision follows so closely on the heels of President Zelenskys White House visit, where he sought foreign investment in Ukraine and pledged to uphold the rule of law. Yesterday, President Zelensky called a meeting with the participation of the G7 ambassadors and judges chaired by Mr. Smyrnov to discuss the stalled reform of the judicial sector and unblock the High Council of Justice, pledging again to clean up the judicial system. The contrast between the Presidents admirable words and the reality of his administration nakedly interfering in the judicial system could scarcely be more stark," Deitz continued. In yesterdays appellate decision, both the law and the established precedent of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court were ignored. Procedurally, the court did not even properly notify the parties of the date of the hearing, citing the absence of stamps in the court. VRGPs application to have the legally mandated two-week notice period observed was denied, and the court provided VRGP less than a day to prepare and submit its position on this high-profile case. Despite such a short timeframe, VRGP submitted overnight its position on 68 pages. The court, however, did not even adjourn to study the materials. Instead, following brief oral arguments, a verdict was issued after two minutes of discussions in the chambers. A VRGP spokesman commented, "The express justice we faced yesterday is all the more shocking when considered against the fact that the appeals by VRGP over the court rulings which block the execution of the Supreme Court decisions on debt recovery from Ukrzaliznytsia have not been even considered by the Court of Appeal for over 5 months. Yet in the current case, one court session without any time to study the materials was sufficient for the court." VRGP has received six Supreme Court decisions in its favor in debt recovery cases against Ukrzaliznytsia. In an attempt to avoid honoring these decisions, Ukrzalyznitsia initiated a claim to invalidate VRGPs acquisition of the loans. The Commercial Court of Kyiv rejected Ukraliznytsias claim on July 27, 2021. Yesterdays decision overturning the commercial court decision will be subject to appeal. VR Global Partners, L.P. ("VRGP"), is an investment fund managed by VR Advisory Services Ltd ("VRASL"). VRASL is registered as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and VR Advisory Services (UK) LLP, a sub-investment adviser for VRGP and certain other funds, is authorized by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.VRGP launched in May 1999 and has been the recipient of over 15 industry awards in New York and London for its performance over the years, including, most recently, EuroHedges 2020 award for Long Term Performance (20 Years) among global macro, fixed income and relative value funds. VR Capital is an international asset management firm serving an institutional investor client base with approximately $5 billion in investor assets under management. VR Capital is one of the largest and most experienced western investors in Ukraine with a track record of investing in the country dating back to 1999. The firm operates via its principal offices in New York and London and serves a client base of leading western institutional investors. Apple's Cook says he will talk with U.S. official on immigration Apple CEO Tim Cook attends the premiere for season two of the television series "Ted Lasso" at Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California, U.S (Photo : REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni) Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook told an all-hands meeting of employees on Friday he planned to discuss U.S. immigration policy with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas later in the day, according to a source familiar with the meeting. During the meeting, Cook also told employees that a recent U.S. court decision in an antitrust case brought by "Fortnite" creator Epic Games hand resulted in a victory for Apple in nine out of 10 counts, the source said. Advertisement The ruling amounted to "one or two sentences scratched out of an agreement" between Apple and developers on the App Store, the source cited Cook as saying. He also told employees that Apple plans to have a physical retail presence in India. The country has a massive smartphone market, but Apple's iPhones have only a small market share there compared with Android devices, the source said. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Resources, speaks during the IHS CERAWeek 2015 energy conference in Houston, Texas (Photo : REUTERS/Daniel Kramer) Top U.S. shale oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources Co has put its assets in the Delaware basin of Texas on the block, aiming to secure more than $2 billion for the properties, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. A strong rebound in crude oil prices following last year's pandemic-led crash has sparked a wave of shale consolidation and opened a window for producers to offload unwanted properties. Pioneer wants to streamline its business and reduce debt after two big acquisitions this year. In March, it sold an oilfield services business for an undisclosed amount. Advertisement There was no guarantee Pioneer would end up striking a deal. The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment. A sale would leave Pioneer focused on the Midland portion of the Permian, its traditional base. The assets now for sale were acquired with its $4.5 billion purchase of Parsley Energy, the sources said. Parsley has about 350 wells across four counties in the Delaware Basin. Pioneer Chief Executive Scott Sheffield last week told investors the company likely would divest some of its less-productive acreage in the Delaware and Midland basins in Texas. Pioneer this year completed two multi-billion dollar takeovers. After closing its Parsley deal in January, Pioneer paid $6.2 billion deal for Midland-basin rival DoublePoint Energy. The deals pushed Pioneer's total debt to $6.9 billion at the end of June, from $3.1 billion six months earlier, according to regulatory filings. As part of the wider industry focus to improve investor sentiment after years of sub-standard returns versus other economic sectors, U.S. shale firms have been boosting buybacks and dividends. Last month, Pioneer said it was bringing forward plans to start paying a variable quarterly dividend to September, from the first quarter of 2022. Ex-lawyer for Clinton campaign law firm pleads not guilty to charge in Trump-Russia probe A sign of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is seen outside of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington, (Photo : REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo) A former lawyer for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign law firm pleaded not guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI, a charge by a U.S. special counsel investigating the origins of a FBI probe of potential ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign. Sean Berkowitz, a lawyer for Michael Sussmann, 57, a cybersecurity specialist who worked for the Perkins, Coie law firm, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui that he was entering "a plea of not guilty on behalf of Mr. Sussmann". Advertisement Andrew Defilippis, representing special counsel John Durham, asked that conditions for Sussmann's release on bail include limiting his travel to Washington D.C. and New Jersey, and that he transfer a firearm he owned to a third party. Berkowitz agreed to the conditions. The next hearing was scheduled for Sept. 22 before U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper. Sussmann was accused in an indictment issued on Thursday by Durham of making false statements during a Sept. 19, 2016, meeting with James Baker, then General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The indictment accused Sussmann of falsely telling Baker he did not represent any client when he met him to give the FBI white papers and other data files containing evidence of questionable cyber links between the Trump Organization and a Russian-based bank. Sources familiar with the investigation identified the bank to Reuters as Alfa Bank. The indictment said Sussmann turned over that information to Baker not as a "good citizen" but as an attorney representing a U.S. technology executive, an internet company and Clinton's presidential campaign. Sussmann "will fight this baseless and politically-inspired prosecution," his attorneys Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth said in a statement on Thursday. Sussmann resigned from Perkins Coie on Thursday. Sussmann is the second person to be prosecuted by Durham since Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney General William Barr tapped him in 2019 to investigate U.S. officials who investigated Trump-Russia contacts. Trump portrayed the 2016 FBI investigation as a political witch hunt. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen answers questions during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing to examine the FY22 budget request for the Treasury Department on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S. (Photo : Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says failure to raise the U.S. debt limit could lead to the unthinkable: a default on government payment obligations. That's an outcome the White House on Friday warned could plunge the economy into recession. If the impasse in Congress over the $28.5 trillion debt limit isn't resolved before an October deadline, what would the Federal Reserve - the backstop for U.S. financial markets as the lender of last resort - be prepared to do? Advertisement As it turns out, Fed Chair Jerome Powell may already have something of a game plan. The country faced a similar crisis over the debt limit in 2011 and again two years later, and at an unscheduled October 2013 meeting, Fed policymakers - including Powell, who was then a Fed governor, and Yellen, who was the Fed's vice chair - debated possible actions in response. 'Loathsome' was how Powell described some of the most aggressive options contemplated, transcripts show, though he was among those who said they might be needed in the face of what could be a drastic market catastrophe. 'COME OUT SWINGING' The plan included a process for managing government payments, given the Fed's expectation that Treasury would prioritize principal and interest but would make day-by-day decisions on whether to cover other obligations. Changes to the Fed's supervision of banks were also planned. Banks would be allowed to count defaulted Treasuries toward risk-capital requirements, and supervisors would work directly with any bank experiencing a "temporary drop in its regulatory capital ratio." The U.S. central bank would also direct lenders to give leeway to stressed borrowers. Policymakers also mapped out approaches to managing market strains and financial stability risks stemming from a technical default. They readily agreed to some measures, including expanding ongoing bond purchases to include defaulted Treasuries, lending against defaulted securities and through the Fed's emergency lending window, and conducting repurchase operations to stabilize short-term financial markets. Other actions sketched out in briefing notes and during the meeting were more controversial, including providing direct support to financial markets buying defaulted Treasury securities, or simultaneously selling Treasuries that are not in default and buying ones that are. It was those last actions that Powell described as "loathsome," while others referred to them as "repugnant" and "beyond the pale." The issue, transcripts suggest, was the worry that such purchases could be seen as crossing a line into direct financing of government. "The economics of it are right, but you'd be stepping into this difficult political world and looking like you are making the problem go away," Powell said at the time. A larger number of policymakers, including Yellen and John Williams, who at the time was San Francisco Fed president and is now head of the New York Fed, felt that such an intervention ought to be part of the U.S. central bank's response if needed. Even Powell agreed it might need to be "under certain circumstances." Congress resolved the debt limit impasse in 2013 and the Fed never had to activate its game plan. Since then it has managed through a number of crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, to which it responded aggressively and with never-before-used tools like purchases of municipal debt. "We crossed a lot of red lines that had not been crossed before," Powell said in an interview in May 2020. Analysts say that the Fed helped stave off a financial crisis and an even worse economic downturn. Christopher Russo, a post-graduate research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, says the Fed's experience may color how it responds to future crises. "The lesson learned is: if they are going to do something, come out swinging," he said. Blinken: U.S. will help foster further Israeli ties with Arab states U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged on Friday to encourage more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel as he hosted a virtual meeting with Israeli and Arab counterparts to mark the first anniversary of a set of landmark diplomatic agreements. The event - held with Blinken's counterparts and senior officials from Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco - was the Biden administration's highest-profile embrace of the so-called Abraham Accords, which were widely seen as a diplomatic success for Republican former President Donald Trump. Advertisement Democratic President Joe Biden has backed the deals since taking office in January, and senior aides have said they want more Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel after decades of enmity. But the administration until now had been cool to the idea of commemorating the anniversary of the U.S.-brokered accords. On Friday, however, Blinken hailed their diplomatic and economic benefits, saying: "This administration will continue to build on the successful efforts of the last administration to keep normalization marching forward." He said the Biden administration would help foster Israel's growing ties with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco - as well as Sudan, which also reached a breakthrough with Israel last year - and would work to deepen Israel's relationships with Egypt and Jordan, which have long-standing peace deals. Blinken said Washington would encourage more countries to follow suit. "We want to widen the circle of peaceful diplomacy," he said. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid agreed, saying: "This Abraham Accords club is open to new members as well." He estimated that the normalization agreements had generated $650 million in direct trade. The leaders of Israel, the UAE and Bahrain signed the accords at the White House last September. The following month, Israel and Sudan announced they would normalize relations, and Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel in December, after Biden defeated Trump in the election. Palestinian officials said they felt betrayed by their Arab brethren for reaching deals with Israel without first demanding progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Some critics said Trump had promoted Arab rapprochement with Israel while ignoring Palestinian aspirations for statehood. But Blinken, who has sought to repair ties with the Palestinians that were badly damaged under Trump, said: "We all must build on these relationships and growing normalization to make tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians, and to make progress toward the long-standing goal of advancing a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians." Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani, in a recorded message, called for a push for "a just and comprehensive resolution" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. U.S. officials have said the conditions are not right to press for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which collapsed in 2014. But they hope to see the foundations laid for future negotiations. The ministry of state for antiquities affairs has released the results of two inventories carried out at theTel El-Faraein storehouse in Kafrul Sheikh in the delta and the Egyptian museum in Tahrir Square in Cairo, both of which were looted in the aftermath of the 25th January revolution. Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, the director of the central administration for antiquities in Alexandria and Lower Egypt told Ahram Online that the inventory at Tel El-Faraein revealed that 27 objects were missing from the storehouse, which houses thousands of objects from excavations carried out in different sites there. He explained that the missing objects included 20 bronze coins from the Roman and Islamic eras, a limestone relief engraved with a Greco text, a statue inscribed with a hieroglyphic text and four clay pots. The storehouse at Tel El-Faraein was looted last week, when an armed gang tied up its guards and succeeded in entering the storehouses. Some of the ministry guards escaped, and caught four gang members red-handed. A list has been sent to the prosecutor for investigation. At the Egyptian museum in Cairo the result of the inventory was published, showing the number of its contents and of the missing objects. It was revealed that 54 ancient Egyptian artefacts disappeared during the break-in. These included four gilded statues depicting Tutankhamun, one of which has been retrieved, as well as bronze statues representing the Nile god Hapi and a collection of objects featuring various ancient Egyptian royalty and deities. The museum director, Tarek El-Awadi said that the list was compiled after photographs of the displays were checked against the museums official registers. He said that among the items were certain artefacts of which certain parts had been found, but the administration has decided to include these amongst the missing objects until the rest are found. The list is now being sent to the prosecutor-general for investigation. Some believe that the release of these two reports is part of the new system in place in the post-Hawass regime, the former minister of state for antiquities affairs. Others maintain that Hawass announced several times that the inventory process at the museum had not been completed A ministry official who requested anonymity told Ahram Online that the report is not a result of the new post-Hawass regime. The report was commissioned under Hawass during his tenure, and the fact that the museum now has a registration department and images of most of its objects, both on display and in storage, is due in great part to his advocacy of training for the ministry staff. The office of minister of state for antiquities affairs is still vacant as no one has been appointed to succeed Hawass. Short link: Egypt reported 569 new coronavirus cases on Thursday bringing the total infection tally officially to 295,051 since the outbreak began in February 2020, said Health Ministry in its daily coronavirus update statement. The health ministry also reported in its statement 13 new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 16,921. The statement added that 477 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 248,425. On Wednesday , Egypts Health Minister Hala Zayed stated in the weekly meeting of the cabinet in Cairo that nearly 13 million citizens in the country have been vaccinated against coronavirus nationwide so far. In another move to widen the span of vaccination in Egypt , the Ministry of health announced on Wednesday that it was planning to begin vaccinating minors between the ages of 12 and 18 years old against the coronavirus within days. Egypt is ramping up its efforts to inoculate 40 million citizens by the end of 2021 in parallel with a low priority plan to provide booster shots to those who were inoculated at least 6-8 months ago. The six vaccines that have been administered in Egypt since the beginning of the vaccination campaign earlier this year are Sinopharm, Sinovac, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnsonm with the latter two currently reserved for travellers in addition to the locally-made VACSERA Sinovac vaccine. Short link: Tunisia has expressed on Friday "astonishment" at Ethiopia's angry reaction to the recent UNSC non-binding statement that was sponsored by Tunis to encourage negotiations as a means to resolve the GERD dispute, faulting Addis Ababa for questioning "Tunisia's sincere and lasting commitment to defending African issues in all international forums." On Wednesday, the UNSC adopted a Tunisia-drafted presidential statement encouraging Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia "to resume negotiations" to swiftly reach a "mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operation" of Ethiopias controversial mega-dam, a source of tension between the three countries over the past ten years. As opposed to both downstream countries Egypt and Sudan who welcomed the statement, Ethiopia slammed on Wednesday Tunisias draft statement, describing it as a historic misstep that undermines [Tunisias] solemn responsibility as a rotating UNSC member for Africa. In response to Ethiopia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia, the non-permanent Arab member at the 15-member UN body, said on Thursday the UNSC statement was issued after consultation and coordination with all stakeholders and UNSC members at various levels. "This initiative was not directed against any party, but rather aimed at encouraging the concerned countries to resume negotiations in a constructive manner as well as value the pivotal role of the African Union," the Tunisian statement read. The statement was tabled by Tunisia as part of its commitment at the African and Arab levels and also a part of its responsibility in the Security Council to serve peace and promote the values of dialogue and negotiation, the ministry added. The goal was to bridge points of view and reach a balanced agreement that takes into account the stakeholders' concerns and interests, guarantees their right to development and at the same time keeps the region free from tension, the ministry stressed. Tunisia reiterated the necessity of the negotiating path as the only way out to surmount all differences, voicing its keenness that the Nile River remain a source of cooperation, prosperity, peace and development for all countries in the region. Ethiopia rejects UNSCs intervention Ethiopia has repeatedly rejected the referral of the issue to the UNSC, a step that both Egypt and Ethiopia restored to after the collapse of the African Union-sponsored talks in April. Ethiopia claims that the issue is outside of the councils mandate. It also rejected many proposals tabled by Cairo and Khartoum to widen the mediation of the GERD negotiations to include other parties alongside the African Union. It is regrettable that the council [has chosen to impose] itself over an issue of water rights and development that is outside of its mandate, Ethiopia reiterated in its Wednesday's statement. The presidential statement came two months after the UNSC held its second session on the long-running issue at the request of Egypt and Sudan, who have been negotiating with Ethiopia for a decade now to reach a legally binding agreement on the filing and operation rules of the dam. Both downstream countries blame the talks failure on upstream Ethiopias intransigence. Ethiopia, which unilaterally completed the first and second filling of its controversial dam despite the absence of agreement, has repeatedly refused to sign such a deal, seeking mere guidelines that can be modified at any time at its discretion. Ethiopia has pinned hopes of development and power generation on the multibillion-dollar hydropower project Both downstream countries do not oppose Ethiopias development goals, but want a legally binding agreement that regulates the rules of filling and operating the dam as Egypt fears an impact on its water supply and Sudan is concerned about regulating flows to its own dams. Following the UNSC's push, the DR Congo, the current chair of the African Union, is planning to resume the talks between the three African countries in a new bid to end the GERD row. Short link: The multinational two-week long military exercise Bright Star 2021 hosted by Egypt was wrapped up on Friday, according to a video statement by Egypts Armed Forces Spokesman Gharib Abdel-Hafez. The drill kicked off on 2 September at Egypt's Mohamed Naguib Military Base in the Northern Military Region with the participation of 20 countries, including Egypt and the US. The final phase of the drill was attended by Egypt's Defence Minister General Mohamed Zaki, Army Chief of Staff Lt General Mohamed Farid, as well as leaders of the main branches and senior commanders. A number of senior commanders of the armed forces of countries participating in the drill attended the final stage as well, according to the Egyptian military spokesman. Defence Minister Zaki conveyed the greetings of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to all 20 friendly and brotherly countries taking part in the exercise. He also praised the participating forces outstanding performance, and their ability to undertake joint tasks in a professional way after making the best use of expertise transfer. The final phase of the drill's activities, the statement added, included a tactical live-fire shooting project with the participation of the various troops taking part in the drill. The exercise also included training activities on first aid and field medical evacuation of injured elements by equipped ambulances and helicopters, in addition to the STX training, the CPX training. Egypt's Army Chief of Staff Lt General Mohamed Farid attended part of the drills in which the participating forces were trained on eradicating a terrorist hotbed, securing a residential area and restoring normalcy. The Bright Star drill is one of the most important joint training activities the General Command of the Egyptian Armed Forces is keen to implement in order to strengthen military relations between Egypt and many Arab and foreign countries, exchange expertise, and develop the leaders and officers' skills. Short link: Libya's interim Prime Minister Abdel-Hamid Dbeibah toured the New Administrative Capital (NAC) in Egypt on Friday, a mega 700-square-kilometre project expected to be a new home to various public agencies. Dbeibah arrived in Cairo on Wednesday on top of a high-level delegation, including several ministers and experts for talks on bilateral cooperation. The Libyan premier started his visit with performing Friday prayer at Al-Fattah Al-Alim Mosque before touring several sites and districts in the new capital, including the Central Business District, in which 20 towers are being built, and the Government District. PM Dbeibah, who was accompanied by a number of Libyan ministers, praised the efforts exerted in the NAC, saying the volume of projects "reflects the strength and originality of Egyptians." Friday's tours come a day after both countries signed a series of memoranda of understanding and agreements in fields of agriculture, social solidarity, civil aviation security, oil and gas, counter-maritime pollution, marine search and rescue, housing, construction, and youth and sports. The MoUs and agreements were signed during the 11th round of meetings of the Egyptian-Libyan joint higher committee, a joint mechanism that focuses on enhancing trade and bilateral cooperation between the two African countries, which convened on Thursday after a 12-year halt. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Thursday that the Egyptian and Libyan ministerial delegations agreed to implement several projects in Libya in the fields of energy, electricity, industry, trade, transport, aviation, sports, education, infrastructure and security. In April, Egypt and Libya agreed to resume flights between the two countries capitals as Cairo seeks to restore normalcy in relations with the neighbouring country. Egypt also reopened its embassy in Libya in May after a seven year-closure. The interest in resuming an Egyptian presence in the neighboring country comes on the back of the latest developments, which culminated in the election of an executive authority to guide the country until legislative elections are held by the end of the current year. Egypt has been pushing for a political settlement in Libya for years, calling for a ceasefire, a complete disarming of militias, an end to foreign intervention in the country. The oil-rich country seeks to restore normalcy after a decade of violence and political turmoil following the ouster and murder of its leader Muammar Gaddafi on the heels of a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. In recent years, Libya was torn between warring administrations, one in the east and one in the west, before the two camps signed a ceasefire in Geneva last year and an interim government was established earlier this year to guide the country towards national elections slated for December. Short link: Hundreds of aid trucks have not returned from Ethiopia's war-hit Tigray region, and their disappearance is "the primary impediment" to ramping up the humanitarian response, the United Nations said Friday. The disclosure from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) comes amid rising fears of starvation deaths in Tigray, where the UN has previously estimated that 400,000 people faced famine-like conditions. Since July 12, 445 contracted non-WFP trucks have entered Tigray, but only 38 have returned, WFP spokeswoman Gemma Snowdon said in a statement. "At the moment this is the primary impediment to moving humanitarian aid into Tigray. We are unable to assemble convoys of significant size due to lack of trucks," Snowdon said. "We are continuing to work with transporters and local authorities in Tigray for trucks to be released." WFP has no information about where the trucks are or what they are being used for, Snowdon said. Tigray has been mired in conflict since November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a move he said came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner promised a swift victory, but the TPLF retook much of Tigray including its capital Mekele in June and Abiy then declared a humanitarian ceasefire. But the UN says Tigray remains under a "de facto blockade" and has warned of a "looming catastrophe" as fighting has dragged on and spread to neighbouring regions. The Ethiopian authorities and Tigrayan rebels have blamed each other for obstructing humanitarian convoys trying to reach Tigray. A government Twitter account on Thursday referred to "suspicions that TPLF (is) seizing trucks for own logistics". But TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda cited obstacles drivers faced while entering Tigray from neighbouring Afar region, adding they have "nothing to do" with Tigrayan officials. "Drivers of trucks that UN has commissioned complain about fuel availability, (security) concerns, harassment at checkpoints, being stranded at Afar for months, etc," he said on Twitter. A humanitarian official in Tigray, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many truck drivers were Tigrayan and had faced ethnically-motivated harassment at checkpoints while heading into the region. Short link: US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order allowing for sanctions against the warring parties in northern Ethiopia if they fail to commit to a negotiated settlement. In a statement, Biden called the 10-month-old war in the Tigray region a tragedy and said: "I am appalled by the reports of mass murder, rape, and other sexual violence to terrorize civilian populations." The executive order establishes a "sanctions regime to increase pressure on the parties fuelling this conflict to sit down at the negotiating table and, in the case of Eritrea, withdraw forces," a senior administration official said. The United States is not imposing sanctions now but is giving itself the authority to do so if necessary, the official said. The order gives the Treasury Department "the necessary authority" to sanction the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), among other parties, the statement said. Unless these parties take "concrete steps" to resolve the crisis the United States is prepared to impose sanctions against a wide range of individuals and entities in coming weeks, the administration official said without specifying who or what organizations might be targeted. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November to topple the TPLF, which at the time was the ruling party in Tigray. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps. The conflict has killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands of others living in conditions bordering on famine, the United Nations says. Eritrea has provided military support to Ethiopia by sending troops to Tigray, which lies along Eritrea's southern border. In August the United States imposed sanctions against Eritrea's army chief over human rights abuses in Tigray. - 'Double standards' - Though Abiy promised a quick victory, fighting dragged on in Tigray until June when, in a stunning turnabout, the TPLF retook much of the region including its capital Mekele. The TPLF then launched incursions into neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, where subsequent fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands and killed an untold number of civilians. Abiy has long accused Western powers including the US of overlooking crimes committed by the TPLF, which lawmakers officially designated a terrorist group in May. He reiterated that point Friday in a three-page open letter to Biden responding to the executive order. "Unfortunately, while the entire world has turned its eyes onto Ethiopia and the Government for all the wrong reasons, it has failed to openly and sternly reprimand the terrorist group in the same manner it has been chastising my Government," he wrote. Later he added: "This unwarranted pressure, characterized by double standards, has been rooted in an orchestrated distortion of events and facts on the ground as it pertains to Ethiopia's rule of law operations in the Tigray region." The back-and-forth between Washington and Addis Ababa came as the UN sounded the alarm about hundreds of aid trucks it said had "not returned" from Tigray, hampering the humanitarian response. The Ethiopian authorities and Tigrayan rebels have blamed each other for obstructing humanitarian convoys trying to reach Tigray. A government Twitter account on Thursday referred to "suspicions that TPLF (is) seizing trucks for own logistics". But TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda cited obstacles drivers faced while entering Tigray from neighbouring Afar region, adding they have "nothing to do" with Tigrayan officials. Short link: Related French forces kill IS Sahel jihadist leader wanted by US The Islamic State group's division in the Greater Sahara, whose boss was killed last month by French forces, is able to recover and will not abandon its jihadist fight, a French general warned on Friday. Speaking in Ouagadougou, Laurent Michon, who heads up France's Barkhane operation, which battles jihadists across the arid expanses in the Sahel region of western Africa, said the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) would continue to terrorise. "Even it is very disorganised, the ISGS will be able to recover little by little, and will not abandon its fight of predation, exaction and terrorist totalitarianism and sowing terror," Michon said after meeting Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The head of ISGS, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, was one of two people killed by a drone strike on a motorbike around Indelimane in northern Mali in mid-August. France announced his death on Thursday, having only just confirmed Sahrawi's identity. Michon said his death was "a real collective satisfaction", adding he was thinking of "the people who for years were victims in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso". The French military has killed several high-ranking members of ISGS under its strategy of targeting jihadist leaders since the start of an intervention in Mali in 2013. But in June this year, President Emmanuel Macron announced a major scaleback in the Barkhane force after more than eight years of military presence in the Sahel region to refocus on counter-terrorism operations and supporting local forces. Short link: Pakistan's prime minister has met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Afghanistan. The Foreign Ministry's statement on Friday said the two leaders met on the sideline of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's meeting in Tajikistan's city of Dushanbe. The discussion centered on Afghanistan and other bilateral issues, with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan underscoring his country's vital interest in a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. Khan is visiting Tajikistan to participate in the meeting of members of the China and Russia-dominated organization. Afghanistan's future has dominated the summit. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month. So far Pakistan, like other countries, has not recognized the new government. Pakistan says any such decision will be announced after consultation with the world community. According to the statement, Khan said it was essential to take urgent steps to stabilize Afghanistan's security, humanitarian and economic situation. Short link: North Korea said Thursday it successfully launched ballistic missiles from a train for the first time and was continuing to bolster its defenses, after the two Koreas test-fired missiles hours apart in dueling displays of military might. Wednesdays launches underscored a return of the tensions between the rivals amid a prolonged stalemate in U.S.-led talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyangs official Korean Central News Agency said the missiles were launched during a drill of a railway-borne missile regiment that transported the weapons system along rail tracks in the countrys mountainous central region and accurately struck a sea target 800 kilometers (500 miles) away. State media showed what appeared to be two different missiles streaking up from rail-car launchers engulfed in orange flames along tracks surrounded by dense forest. A rail-based ballistic system reflects North Koreas efforts to diversify its launch options, which now includes various vehicles and ground launch pads and may eventually include submarines. Firing a missile from a train could add mobility, but some experts say North Koreas simple rail networks running through its relatively small territory would be quickly destroyed by enemies during a crisis. Our military assesses that North Korea is continuously developing various mobile launch equipment, said Col. Kim Jun-rak, a spokesman for South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff. He said the South Korean and U.S. militaries were continuing to examine the Norths launches. The South Korean and Japanese militaries said earlier that North Koreas two short-range ballistic missiles landed inside Japans exclusive economic zone but outside its territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019. Pak Jong Chon, a senior North Korean official who has been seen as influential in the countrys missile development, said Wednesdays tests were successfully conducted in line with the strategic and tactical design and intention of the Norths ruling Workers Party. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed at a party congress in January to bolster his nuclear deterrent in the face of U.S.-led sanctions and pressure and issued a long wish list of sophisticated weaponry, including longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, spy satellites and tactical nuclear arms. In another weapons display over the weekend, the North said it tested new cruise missiles, which it intends to make nuclear-capable, that can strike targets 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) away, a distance putting all of Japan and U.S. military installations there within reach. Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As President Moon Jae-in and other top officials watched, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moons office said. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, threatened a complete destruction of bilateral relations over Moon's comments while he observed the test, when he said the Souths growing conventional missile capacities would be a sure deterrence against North Korean provocation. South Korea, which doesnt have nuclear weapons and instead is protected by the U.S.s, has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles. Observers say Moons government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have wanted to appear tougher in response to criticism that its too soft on the North. Kim Yo Jong took offense to Moon describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation and said warned of dire consequences in inter-Korean relations if he continues on with what she described as slander of North Korea. Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the North Korean photos indicated the rail-fired missiles were a solid-fuel, short-range weapon the North first tested from truck launchers in 2019. The missiles, likely modeled on Russias Iskander missiles, are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes where the air is dense enough to allow for maneuverability in flight, making interception by missile defense systems more difficult. While the North is trying to broaden its launch systems, the analyst Kim questioned whether rail-mobile missiles would meaningfully improve the countrys military capabilities when the Norths simple rail networks would be easy targets during crisis. Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years. Kim Jong Uns government has so far rejected the Biden administrations overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls hostile policies first a reference to the sanctions. The United States said it had no hostile intent and called for North Korea to return to talks. What we seek to do is to reduce the threat to the United States, to our allies in the region, ... and we think we can do that through diplomacy, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington. While testing various short-range weapons recently, North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign it may not want to scuttle chances for diplomacy entirely. Short link: AZHARITES IN KABUL: On the afternoon of 24 August, Al-Azhar University teacher Shawki Abu Zeid landed on a military plane in Cairo after having been evicted from Kabul in the wake of the Taliban takeover of the capital of Afghanistan. The trip from Kabul to Cairo came after over two years that Abu Zeid had spent in the Afghan capital as head of the Al-Azhar Institute in Kabul an educational institute that provides school education for close to 800 Afghan students, all boys, who come from several Afghan regions. Abu Zeid was grateful to have been brought back home with 23 other Egyptian teachers who had been posted by Al-Azhar to Kabul. However, as he also said in comments to Al-Ahram Weekly, he lamented the abrupt end of the mission of an institute that was really helping to provide knowledge to some very keen and brilliant students who really cared to learn. It was in May 2019 that this graduate of the Al-Azhar Faculty of Pedagogy in Cairo was sent on his first overseas posting to Kabul. Having passed the exams, interviews, and training for this job, Abu Zeid, then in his late 40s, was possibly hoping for an easier post in a country not as marred by political uncertainty as Afghanistan. Certainly, he said, his family had been apprehensive about the move, but he nevertheless decided to head to Kabul. When I arrived, it all looked very different but quite nice. My apprehension about the country did not last long because the name of Al-Azhar is a trusted pass to the hearts and minds of the people there, he said. With the warm support he found from some of his coworkers and from an exceptionally kind Afghan group of associates, Abu Zeid started to slowly but surely find his way around and learned to appreciate the beauty and norms of the place and even to cope with the sometimes exceptionally cold weather. The most heartwarming part was the look on the faces of the students who attended the primary, elementary, and secondary classes of the institute that reflected huge keenness and much gratitude for being able to learn in classes organised by Al-Azhar, he said. In addition to managing the institute, Abu Zeid was often engaged in other activities that allowed him to give lectures at public gatherings and to share his thoughts in programmes on national TV. Wherever he went, Abu Zeid said, he only saw welcoming faces. Before I went, I learned from colleagues who had already served there that the Al-Azhar Institute is never involved in any political issues and never gets into any controversy. This made perfect sense because we have a very specific mission, and our mandate requires that we steer clear from politics and just be engaged with knowledge, he said. We conveyed the ideas of tolerance, compassion, and piety that we carry as Azharites. We taught the Arabic language, linguistics, and literature, he added. Prior to the abrupt end of his mission in Kabul, Abu Zeid started working with the Afghan Ministry of Education to start an additional Al-Azhar Institute for girls. There was an agreement and work in progress, and we were not very far from concluding it, but unfortunately with the recent developments things came to a sudden stop, he lamented. Girls are not made to be kept at home and are not meant to be deprived of knowledge and learning. Girls deserve every opportunity to learn, and we had hoped that Al-Azhar would be able to contribute to this in Afghanistan, he said. Today, Abu Zeid is not sure about the fate of this project that he has invested so much in. Nor is he sure whether the Al-Azhar Institute in Kabul will re-open its doors for its few hundred students. The decision, he said, is in the hands of the state and Al-Azhar. It is not clear yet whether our work would still be welcomed and when it could be safe for teachers to be there again. These are matters for high-level decisions, he said. However, he added, if asked to go back and continue my work in Afghanistan, I would certainly be part of the mission again. It was in 2009 that Al-Azhar opened its Institute in Kabul, and the kind of respect that all those who worked there received shows the respect an Azharite has in this city and from this people. We were hoping to reach out to Afghan people all over the country, but this was not what was meant to be, he stated. REACHING OUT: Secretary-general of the Al-Azhar Islamic Research Centre in Cairo Nazir Ayyad explained that the centre has been committed to delivering religious knowledge for some 60 years. It was in the first week of January 1961 that Al-Azhar opened its first overseas institute in Somalia. Sixty years down the road, Al-Azhar is claiming both dedication and success in its operations to establish learning centres that teach the Quran, Islamic theology, and Arabic across many countries that have larger or smaller Muslim populations. According to Ayyad, Al-Azhar is keen on putting across knowledge that reflects the true precepts of Islam that are at odds with all forms of radicalism. Our message is one of tolerance and compassion. This is the commitment that the grand imam of Al-Azhar has made. It is a commitment that the establishment of Al-Azhar subscribes to, he stated. Over the past six decades, Ayyad said, Al-Azhar has been having institutes built and operated in many African countries, particularly those around the Nile Basin and also in Asian states with large Muslim communities. However, Ayyad added, there have been institutes too in other countries, among them Romania. Overall, Ayyad said, Al-Azhar has 30 institutes and centres that fall directly within its central operation. Those, he explained, are divided among 16 countries. The management of these is conducted in partnership with the host countries, Ayyad said. Al-Azhar, he explained, sends out teachers and takes care of their salaries, while the host states provide for local administration staff that help with communication with the population of their countries. The teachers sent overseas, Ayyad said, are selected through a very thorough process that guarantees that they are the best suited to teach foreign students in a foreign country. They have to pass several tests to be accredited as overseas teachers, and we dont keep any teachers for more than three years in any one overseas post, he said. Most recently, Ayyad added, Al-Azhar has opted to expand the profile of its overseas teachers by incorporating some of the foreign students who come to Egypt to study at Al-Azhar University. Once they are eligible for accreditation, Ayyad explained, they go through the necessary tests to qualify as Al-Azhar teachers in their home countries. This new mechanism, he added, has also proved to be a success. The foreign students who come to study at Al-Azhar are usually graduates of Al-Azhar institutes overseas. Some are on scholarships that are granted either by Al-Azhar or by their national governments. Some are enrolled as full-tuition students. Ultimately, Ayyad said, everyone studies the same curriculum of Arabic and Islamic theology. There is no difference between, for example, the curriculum that is offered to students in Afghanistan and that to students in Somalia, he said. The predominance of a particular school of theology in any particular country, he said, is naturally accommodated. We teach all schools of Islamic thinking and regulations. This applies to everyone everywhere, in Egypt or overseas. Obviously, we dont interfere in the personal choices of anyone, and they can choose whichever school they wish to follow, he added. However, more attention is accorded to the predominant school in the different countries. For example, the Institute in Kabul catered for the Hanafi madhab (school), while the one in Somalia catered more to Shafei teachings, he said. In all cases, students receive the same books sent from Cairo through the facilities of the Foreign Ministry, he added. Currently, Ayyad said, Al-Azhar is working on upgrading and revising the curricula it teaches to students overseas. Part of this new plan is to digitise the learning material. There is also a plan, he added, to increase the number of institutes, given the interest that many are showing to join them. A JOURNEY OF LOVE AND LEARNING: Asian and African students who attend Al-Azhar University in Cairo to study Islamic theology, Arabic literature, and medicine often talk about their rewarding experiences.In 2013, Othman, an Afghan student, graduated from his high school in Kabul where he learned Arabic and Islamic studies. His wish was to come to Egypt, the land of Al-Azhar, a minaret of learning, to pursue a university degree in Islamic theology. He applied for a scholarship and was accepted.In 2014, Othman arrived in Cairo for the first time, and since then with the exception of two trips home, he has been in the city where he secured his degree and is now pursuing post-graduate studies.According to Othman, being in Cairo was never anything other than easy. Having been accepted in the dorms of the university, he got a good introduction to the city as he slowly but surely upgraded his Arabic and communication skills.Like most other students who come to study at Al-Azhar, Othman had to do an intensive language course before fully engaging with his academic studies.His hope is to stay on until he gets a PhD degree, which should get him a good job back home. One would always love to stay on at Al-Azhar because it is not just a matter of learning, but also a matter of love. We love Al-Azhar, and we dont just think of it as a place of learning, he said.Othman is one of around 100 students that come to study at Al-Azhar on scholarships every year. The beginning was with 50 students a year in 2010, only one year after Al-Azhar opened its institute in Kabul.During the past four years, these scholarships have been doubled in number to meet the growing demand of students to attend Al-Azhar. This, he said, was unlikely to change with the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The wish to join Al-Azhar will not disappear, but I am not sure about the practicalities, he added.I know that Egypt has other universities, but for us Al-Azhar means something different. We always like to think of Jamaleddin Al-Afghani as being an important historical connection between Afghanistan and Al-Azhar, Othman said.Al-Afghani was a 19th-scholar who came to study in Egypt from an area between Afghanistan and Iran. He lived in the country during the Mohamed Ali period and was one of the names then associated with the expansion of learning.The association between Afghanistan and Al-Azhar did not stop in the 19th century, however, Othman added. Many prominent figures from modern and contemporary Afghanistan studied at Al-Azhar, he said.Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand are other countries that send a considerable number of students every year to attend Al-Azhar, mostly to study Islamic theology but also to study the Arabic language.Khedr, Aisha, and Soheimi have come from these three countries to study at Al-Azhar during different points of the past five years. Like Othman, they all had a good basis to their subjects in their home countries and all shared his dream to be Azharites.None of them was willing to contemplate the argument that what Al-Azhar offers in terms of knowledge is archaic or outdated.What we learn in the classes on Islamic studies is all about moderation, compassion, and peace. This is not just what our teachers preach, but actually what they practise at least in dealing with students, Khedr said.Having been a student at Al-Azhar for the past eight years, Khedr said that he was proud of everything he had learned and that the ultimate lesson put across in the curriculum was about co-existence.The wish to join Al-Azhar had made Soheimi do extra Arabic lessons in a private school in Bangkok in his native Thailand to secure a good place in what he says was a very tough competition among hundreds of students dreaming to do Islamic studies at Al-Azhar in Cairo.It was that same wish that made the parents of Aisha come with her to Cairo a few years ago to launch her in her studies at the Al-Azhar Faculty of Arabic and on life in Egypt.Through the student union, where the three met along with Othman, these young Azharites have found a new community that they call a home away from home. Together, some of them have gone on trips to attend the moulids (birth festivals) of Sufi figures in Tanta and Desouq. They have also attended events hosted by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb, whom Aisha called Abul-Wafedin the father of foreign students.Theirs is also not a strictly Asian community, in fact not at all, said Othman. There are several African friends who are, like us, on a journey of love and learning.FROM AFRICA: Saleh is a student from Chad who is part of the Othman group of friends at Al-Azhar in Cairo. With his friends, Saleh has often enjoyed attending lectures where there is discussion at times in colloquial Egyptian Arabic that he can now follow quite comfortably. Away from the classroom, other African students, whose command of colloquial is advanced, have ventured into attending lectures that independent preachers offer at Al-Azhar Mosque. When they go back home, like fellow student Mohamed did when he went back home to Nigeria, it is always a new phase in their relationship with Al-Azhar. This is a strong bond that can never be broken, Mohamed said. When I went back home, I wanted to teach everything that I had learnt at Al-Azhar. I wanted to convey the knowledge that would bring all good Muslims closer to Allah and to one another and to be able to answer questions on Islam from those who do not subscribe to the faith, Mohamed said. Speaking from the school where he is teaching the Quran and Arabic to children in Lagos in Nigeria, Mohamed said that he was convinced that the knowledge offered by Al-Azhar was one of the best ways to stop the expansion of the ideas of radical groups like Boko Haram in his country. The more scholars Al-Azhar is able to send to Muslim communities all over the world and the more scholarships that keen students can get to study at Al-Azhar, the smaller the space there will be for those who hold radical ideas like Boko Haram and others, he said. These are groups of people whose knowledge of Islam is confused, which makes them basically ignorant. They believe in hatred, and they use poverty to spread fear, he said. One cannot fight Boko Haram with arms; one fights hatred with tolerance and knowledge. This is why Al-Azhars role is more valuable than ever, he added. But for foreign students who come on often enough long and challenging journeys to study at Al-Azhar, Arabic and Islamic studies are not the only objective. Some come to attend other faculties as well. Sogo and Khawlatalemtiaz came from Guinea-Bissau and Indonesia to study medicine at Al-Azhar University. For both, this was a perfect opportunity to see two wishes come true: to improve their knowledge of Arabic, the language of the Quran, and to graduate as medical doctors as they both hope to do. Studying at any university other than Al-Azhar would not have allowed these two things to happen at the same time, Sogo said. According to Khawlatalemtiaz, with a degree in medicine and a good command of Arabic, she will be well positioned to get good jobs in several places. However, she added, the best part really is about being part of this grand university. Its about the journey and not just about the destination. It was in the 10th century CE that the Fatimid rulers of Egypt established Al-Azhar as a venue for worship and the learning of the Muslim Shia faith that was then dominant in Egypt. With the fall of the Fatimids, it did not take long for Al-Azhar to be converted to the Sunni faith of the new rulers. Over the centuries, Al-Azhar has had its ups and downs, and its teaching of Islam has continued to be the subject of debate between those who think it is falling short of catching up with modernity and those who think that it remains a cornerstone of promoting the proper understanding of Islam. Under the rule of Mohamed Ali in the 19th century, Al-Azhar saw many reforms and became part of the modernisation schemes that the ruler of the country was adopting. In the 1930s, Al-Azhar started to teach its students the basics of science, and in the early 1960s under the rule of former president Gamal Abdel-Nasser it successively opened faculties of commerce, law, engineering and agriculture. Faculties teaching other scientific and literary disciplines followed. However, for all students of Al-Azhar there is a mandatory introductory curriculum of basic Islamic studies and Arabic language. In his autobiography Al-Ayyam (The Days, published between 1929 and 1967), the Egyptian writer Taha Hussein, sometimes called the dean of Arabic literature, offers a gloomy picture of a young blind child, as he then was, humiliated by the unsympathetic sheikhs teaching the Quran and Islamic studies at Al-Azhar. A famous quotation from one unkind sheikh is his calling on Taha Hussein to read, you blind child. Al-Ayyam is also a diary of the lack of intelligence that Hussein faced at this old and for him outmoded establishment of education when he attended it at the beginning of the last century. However, such accounts do not register with todays foreign students whose pride in being Azharites cannot be overstated. For each and every one of them, Al-Azhar is the ultimate learning experience. *A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Short link: A four-star general and dozens of other Turkish officers appeared in court Monday charged with plotting to overthrow the country's Islamist-rooted government in a coup. General Bilgin Balanli and 28 others face between 15 and 20 years in jail if they are found guilty of planning to unleash a series of attacks designed to cause panic across the country, allowing them to launch a coup to unseat the government which took power in 2002. Appearing in the courtroom at a detention centre near Istanbul Balanli, a former head of the country's military training academies and the highest-ranking officer indicted in the case, dismissed the charges as a "cowardly plot" to discredit Turkey's military. NTV news channel said the presiding judge had to suspend the court session briefly because of the loud applause for Balanli in the public gallery. About 40 top generals and admirals, equal to one tenth of the military brass, are already implicated in the alleged plot dubbed "Operation Sledgehammer." The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), a liberal offshoot of a banned Islamist movement, says the plan was hatched shortly after the party took power in 2002. Last year around 200 military officials were ordered to appear in connection with the case. Tensions between Turkey's fiercely secularist military and the government have been building for years. Since 1960, the military, which views itself as the defender of secularism in the country, has ousted four Turkish governments, including that of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's mentor Necmettin Erbakan in 1997. Short link: Tunisia 'astonished' by Ethiopia's reaction on UNSC statement on GERD dispute Mohamed Soliman, , Friday 17 Sep 2021 Tunisia has expressed on Friday "astonishment" at Ethiopia's angry reaction to the recent UNSC non-binding statement that was sponsored by Tunis to encourage negotiations as a means to resolve the GERD dispute, faulting Addis Ababa for questioning "Tunisia's sincere and lasting commitment to defending African issues in all international forums." On Wednesday, the UNSC adopted a Tunisia-drafted presidential statement encouraging Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia "to resume negotiations" to swiftly reach a "mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operation" of Ethiopias controversial mega-dam, a source of tension between the three countries over the past ten years. As opposed to both downstream countries Egypt and Sudan who welcomed the statement, Ethiopia slammed on Wednesday Tunisias draft statement, describing it as a historic misstep that undermines [Tunisias] solemn responsibility as a rotating UNSC member for Africa. In response to Ethiopia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia, the non-permanent Arab member at the 15-member UN body, said on Thursday the UNSC statement was issued after consultation and coordination with all stakeholders and UNSC members at various levels. "This initiative was not directed against any party, but rather aimed at encouraging the concerned countries to resume negotiations in a constructive manner as well as value the pivotal role of the African Union," the Tunisian statement read. The statement was tabled by Tunisia as part of its commitment at the African and Arab levels and also a part of its responsibility in the Security Council to serve peace and promote the values of dialogue and negotiation, the ministry added. The goal was to bridge points of view and reach a balanced agreement that takes into account the stakeholders' concerns and interests, guarantees their right to development and at the same time keeps the region free from tension, the ministry stressed. Tunisia reiterated the necessity of the negotiating path as the only way out to surmount all differences, voicing its keenness that the Nile River remain a source of cooperation, prosperity, peace and development for all countries in the region. Ethiopia rejects UNSCs intervention Ethiopia has repeatedly rejected the referral of the issue to the UNSC, a step that both Egypt and Ethiopia restored to after the collapse of the African Union-sponsored talks in April. Ethiopia claims that the issue is outside of the councils mandate. It also rejected many proposals tabled by Cairo and Khartoum to widen the mediation of the GERD negotiations to include other parties alongside the African Union. It is regrettable that the council [has chosen to impose] itself over an issue of water rights and development that is outside of its mandate, Ethiopia reiterated in its Wednesday's statement. The presidential statement came two months after the UNSC held its second session on the long-running issue at the request of Egypt and Sudan, who have been negotiating with Ethiopia for a decade now to reach a legally binding agreement on the filing and operation rules of the dam. Both downstream countries blame the talks failure on upstream Ethiopias intransigence. Ethiopia, which unilaterally completed the first and second filling of its controversial dam despite the absence of agreement, has repeatedly refused to sign such a deal, seeking mere guidelines that can be modified at any time at its discretion. Ethiopia has pinned hopes of development and power generation on the multibillion-dollar hydropower project Both downstream countries do not oppose Ethiopias development goals, but want a legally binding agreement that regulates the rules of filling and operating the dam as Egypt fears an impact on its water supply and Sudan is concerned about regulating flows to its own dams. Following the UNSC's push, the DR Congo, the current chair of the African Union, is planning to resume the talks between the three African countries in a new bid to end the GERD row. https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/423270.aspx A federal judge ruled Thursday that the U.S. government must stop using a Trump-era public health order to quickly expel migrants with children who are apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan gave the government two weeks to halt a practice that opponents say is unnecessary and improperly relies on the threat posed by COVID-19 to deprive people of their right to seek asylum in the United States. A caravan of migrants head north towards the U.S.-Mexico border, as they depart from Tapachula, Mexico, Sept. 4, 2021. [Photo: AP/Marco Ugarte] Sullivan granted a preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of migrant families, saying they were likely to succeed in their challenge to the use of the public health law known as Title 42. President Biden should have ended this cruel and lawless policy long ago, and the court was correct to reject it today, said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project. The Biden administration was evaluating the ruling and had no immediate comment on whether it plans to appeal. The organization Human Rights First, which has documented cases of kidnapping and sexual assault among families and individuals sent to Mexico under the policy, urged the Biden administration to stop the use of Title 42 before the injunction takes effect in 14 days. In the wake of this decision, the Biden administration must choose to uphold the refugee laws enacted by Congress rather than permanently stain the presidents legacy by continuing to perpetuate and escalate this illegal and inhumane Trump policy, said Eleanor Acer, the senior director for refugee protection with Human Rights First. Title 42 was invoked early in the pandemic, under President Donald Trump, ostensibly to help control the spread of COVID-19 in detention facilities by turning back migrants encountered by the Border Patrol without giving them a chance to seek to stay in the U.S. by asking for asylum or for some other reason. Opponents say there is no legitimate public health basis, and no legal authority, to deprive people of their right to seek protection in the United States from persecution in their homeland and that it is essentially a cover for a restrictive immigration policy. The judge said in his ruling that the use of Title 42 in this case is likely unlawful and also unnecessary in view of the wide availability of testing, vaccines, and other minimization measures to address the potential spread of COVID-19. President Joe Biden halted the practice of expelling children crossing by themselves, following reports that they were being sent alone into dangerous Mexican border cities, but continued turning away most other migrants. In recent months, Mexico has begun accepting fewer migrant families with children and the U.S. has been allowing some to remain in the country as they seek to stay. In August, the U.S. invoked Title 42 to expel 16,240 people traveling in family groups who were encountered along the southwest border, according to the most recent statistics from Customs and Border Protection. In the same month, there were more than 86,000 migrants with minor children encountered along the border. Those who aren't immediately expelled are subject to U.S. regulations that allow them to pursue legal residency under asylum through the immigration court system. The total number of migrants encountered along the U.S.-Mexico border in August was nearly 209,000, which was down 2% from the previous month but still exceeded recent periods of higher activity in 2019 and 2014, and was at levels not seen since 2000. One outcome of the rapid expulsions is that people are making repeated attempts to illegally enter the country. Customs and Border Protection said 25% of those it encountered in August had been stopped at least once over the previous year, compared with 14% in earlier years. The Biden administration said in July that it would begin seeking to prosecute repeat offenders. KYODO NEWS - Sep 17, 2021 - 22:24 | World, All Ten Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Friday, the self-governed island's Defense Ministry said, as its military concluded an annual large-scale drill. A total of 25 Chinese warplanes have entered the zone during the Han Kuang Exercise since its start on Monday, according to the ministry. Some of the 10 planes crossed the Bashi Channel, separating southern Taiwan from the Philippines, and flew over waters off the island's eastern shore. Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province to be reunified, has been stepping up military pressure on the island. KYODO NEWS - Sep 17, 2021 - 10:22 | All, Japan Vaccination minister Taro Kono is known for his outspokenness, reform-minded views and social media savvy, making him the most popular pick in opinion polls for future prime minister. Kono's Japanese account on Twitter has 2.4 million followers, making him the most followed lawmaker in the country. But he has toned down his signature reform-minded policies such as phasing out nuclear energy and allowing imperial family members in the matrilineal line to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne to gather support from the Liberal Democratic Party's conservative wing. A Georgetown University graduate, the 58-year-old Kono was foreign minister between 2017 and 2019, a role in which he communicated with his counterparts in fluent English. He subsequently served as defense minister for a year. An eight-term lower house member, Kono was born into a family of politicians. His father Yohei Kono issued an apology statement in 1993 as chief Cabinet secretary on the issue of "comfort women" who worked at Japanese military brothels. The junior Kono donated part of his liver to save his father's life in 2002. Related coverage: Japan's ruling party kicks off campaigning for leadership election How LDP presidential election works KYODO NEWS - Sep 17, 2021 - 22:03 | All, Coronavirus, Japan Japan may start administering third shots of coronavirus vaccines to people by the end of this year, the health ministry said Friday, as the nation looks to respond to the continued spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. Health experts on a government subcommittee agreed on the necessity of the third shot and approved the ministry's plan to start inoculating people at least eight months after they received their second dose. The potential booster shots may start being administered from November when the government aims to have completed vaccinating all eligible people who wish to be inoculated. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said all three doses should be from the same manufacturer in principle, but it will look into more studies before drawing a conclusion. As for the idea of giving people vaccines produced by different manufacturers, the ministry said the first and second shots should be doses of the same supplier, but it will revise rules to enable people to receive a booster vaccine produced by a different company under certain circumstances. Three COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc are currently available in Japan, all of which are administered in two doses. Israel is among the countries that have already started administering booster shots to their population. The Japanese government will also discuss who will be eligible for the third shot and the order of priority, based on data and the progress of other nations. A subcommittee member said medical workers treating COVID-19 patients need to be allowed to receive their third shot as soon as possible, while another member said the booster should not be rolled out until all those who currently want the vaccine have received both doses. The vaccine makers have said third shots would be necessary to increase protection, with the number of breakthrough cases in which fully vaccinated people have contracted COVID-19 increasingly being reported in Japan and abroad. Studies show that COVID-19 antibodies decrease six months after second shots have been administered and vaccine efficacy against the Delta variant becomes lower over time. KYODO NEWS - Sep 17, 2021 - 14:26 | Others, All, Japan The Japanese government said Friday it will carefully analyze whether China is ready to meet the requirements for joining the trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, a day after Beijing announced it has filed a bid to join the framework. "We must thoroughly assess whether China is ready to fulfill the high-standard rules of the TPP-11," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said, referring to the deal formally known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. "We will consult with other members while following the procedures for approving new members," the top government spokesman said at a press conference. China needs the unanimous approval of all 11 member countries to join the pact, which Beijing apparently sees as a way to increase its economic clout. Its accession would have a significant impact on trade in the Asia-Pacific region. Japan's finance and foreign ministers also expressed a cautious stance on China's bid. Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters, "I simply wonder if China is really in a state in which it can join," citing the trade pact's detailed rules over state-owned enterprises. Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi separately said Japan needs to respond "from a strategic standpoint," while noting that procedures for approving Britain's participation following London's application earlier this year will take precedence. The other existing TPP members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The United States remains cautious about returning to the treaty after its withdrawal in January 2017. Taiwan has also expressed interest in joining. Related coverage: China seeks to join TPP free trade pact to boost Asia clout China submits application to join TPP free-trade deal KYODO NEWS - Sep 17, 2021 - 20:36 | All, Japan Campaigning for the Japanese ruling party's leadership election to choose the successor to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga officially started Friday, with four veteran lawmakers vying over policy steps to better fight the novel coronavirus and deal with an increasingly assertive China and other challenges facing the country. In a tightly contested race for the Sept. 29 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, vaccination minister Taro Kono, a reform-minded maverick in the conservative party, who in the past has ruffled feathers by opposing nuclear energy and abandoning a costly missile defense system, is viewed as the early front-runner. However, no candidate has an easy path to victory. Other contenders are former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and two female lawmakers -- Sanae Takaichi, a former minister of internal affairs and communications, and Seiko Noda, executive acting secretary general of the LDP. The winner of the race will become prime minister as the LDP-led coalition controls both chambers of parliament. Suga earlier this month announced his resignation as public support for his government hit new lows due to dissatisfaction with his COVID-19 response. Junior lawmakers with more vulnerable seats are drawn to the 58-year-old Kono, who tops opinion polls on who should become the next prime minister, as they are seeking to install a popular leader ahead of a general election for the House of Representatives this fall, and a House of Councillors vote next summer. Kono on Friday also got the backing of Suga, who praised him for putting Japan on track to finish vaccinating those eligible and willing to get shots by November at the latest. Most of the LDP's major factions are allowing members to vote freely, unlike in past presidential elections in which faction bosses, such as Finance Minister Taro Aso and LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, the party's second-in-command, dictated how votes should be cast. Each candidate gave a speech at the LDP's headquarters on Friday, with Kono saying he wants to create a Japan where people are encouraged to strive to reach their goals rather than settle for what they have. "I think a lot of people want to do something but feel like they can't for whatever reason. If I become the leader of this country, I will be proactive in doing what I think should be done," he said, vowing to invest in technology such as 5G networks to enable more people to work remotely and to tackle climate change by promoting renewable energy. Kishida, another strong contender known for having a steady hand, is expected to gather support from veteran lawmakers who are uncomfortable with Kono's reformist streak. The 64-year-old also has the advantage of counting on votes from his faction, which has 47 members. Kishida reiterated his intent to change course from the "neoliberal policies" the government has taken from the early 2000s, pledging to reduce wealth disparity by boosting middle-class incomes. "There is a division between rich and poor, which has grown only wider due to the coronavirus," he said in his speech. "Now is the time to create a new Japanese model of capitalism and let everyone across the country enjoy the fruits of economic growth." At a joint press conference later Friday, Kishida said if elected, he would aim to implement the LDP's proposal for amending the Constitution, including a reference to the Self-Defense Forces in the war-renouncing Article 9, while in office. Both Takaichi and Noda aim to become Japan's first female prime minister, which would be a historic achievement in a country that places lowest among the Group of Seven nations in the World Economic Forum's gender gap rankings. In the election, each of the LDP's 383 Diet members will cast a vote, and another 383 votes will be determined based on the preferences of rank-and-file members. If no one secures an outright majority, a runoff will be held with the 383 lawmakers and each of the LDP's 47 prefectural chapters casting votes. The late entry of Noda, who announced her bid Thursday, has raised the chances of an indecisive first round, making it harder to predict who the eventual victor will be. The Diet is set to hold an extraordinary session from Oct. 4 to choose the new prime minister, who will then deliver a policy speech and take questions from opposition party leaders. In her speech, Takaichi, part of the LDP's right-leaning cohort and closely allied with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, vowed to "defend Japan's sovereignty and honor," in an apparent reference to territorial disputes with neighboring countries and their criticism against the perception of wartime history by some Japanese lawmakers. The 60-year-old has vowed to continue making regular visits to the Yasukuni shrine, a move sure to strain relations with China and South Korea which both see the site of worship as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Takaichi also argued for "agile" fiscal spending and increasing the defense budget. Noda said women would comprise half of her Cabinet if she is elected prime minister. She underscored the need to create a more inclusive society for sexual minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities, among others, and the importance of tackling Japan's falling birth rate. The 61-year-old also suggested she would reopen an investigation into document tampering at the Finance Ministry related to a scandal involving Abe and said allowing matrilineal emperors is "an option" amid a shortage of eligible imperials. Meanwhile, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan criticized the timing of the LDP presidential election, saying it detracts from the government's COVID-19 response. "A lawmaker's work is in the Diet," CDPJ leader Yukio Edano told reporters. "I think they should do their actual jobs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and after that, they can (campaign)." Gist of policy stances of candidates in LDP leadership election Taro Kono: -- will continue to push forward COVID-19 vaccinations and set a road map for bringing social and economic activities to pre-pandemic levels. -- will conduct a review of Japan's security policy and bolster defense capabilities to deal with new threats. -- supports same-sex marriage and giving married couples the option to have separate surnames. -- has walked back his previous opposition to nuclear energy, saying it is "realistic" to restart reactors that have been confirmed safe, while promoting renewable energy in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. -- has reversed his previous stance of allowing matrilineal emperors amid a dearth in eligible imperials, saying he will respect the conclusions reached by an expert panel advising the government on the issue. Fumio Kishida: -- will break from the "neoliberal policies" the government has taken since the early 2000s and reduce wealth disparity by boosting middle-class incomes. -- will put together an economic package worth "tens of trillions of yen" to support businesses and people hit hard by the pandemic. -- will bolster the coast guard's capabilities and boost cooperation with the Self-Defense Forces to counter intrusions by Chinese ships near the Senkaku Islands. -- will create a new Cabinet post in charge of economic security including the prevention of a technology drain. -- aims to implement the LDP's proposal for amending the Constitution including adding a reference to the SDF to the war-renouncing Article 9. Sanae Takaichi: -- will consider legislation enabling citywide lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. -- will continue to visit the war-linked Yasukuni shrine, seen by China, South Korea and other nations as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. -- plans to implement "Sanaenomics," centering on monetary easing, "agile" fiscal spending during emergencies, and boosting investment in crisis management and growth industries. -- will suspend the government's goal of bringing its primary balance into the black until the Bank of Japan achieves its 2 percent inflation target. -- seeks to give the SDF the capability to strike enemy bases with electromagnetic pulses. Seiko Noda: -- seeks to promote diversity in society welcoming to women, sexual minorities, the elderly and the disabled. She also supports giving married couples the option to have separate surnames. -- will appoint women to half of Cabinet posts. -- will create a government agency dedicated to children and lifting Japan's falling birth rate. -- sees regions as key to dealing with natural disasters and pandemics and will seek to decentralize functions from Tokyo. -- sees allowing matrilineal emperors as "an option." Related coverage: Ex-minister Noda's entry makes LDP leadership election 4-way race Japan ruling party factions to allow free vote in leadership election Japan ex-defense chief Ishiba gives up on running in LDP leader race KYODO NEWS - Sep 17, 2021 - 19:56 | All, Japan A woman chipped her tooth after biting into a hamburger containing a metal-like object at a McDonald's outlet in southwestern Japan earlier this week, McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said Friday. The 26-year-old woman came to an outlet in Fukuoka city at around 2 p.m. Tuesday and purchased a Rich Cheese Melt Tsukimi hamburger to go. She noticed the foreign object -- shaped like a spring and thought to be a part of a cooking utensil -- just after biting into the burger, according to the fast-food chain. The woman said she felt pain in her mouth and went to a hospital the same day. Her tooth had about a 1-millimeter chip, and she was diagnosed with acute pulpitis. "I was looking forward to having lunch. I don't know what I would do if the same thing happens again," she told Kyodo News. The Japanese affiliate of the global fast-food chain apologized to the woman and refunded her money. The company said it has instructed all stores to inspect their utensils and is investigating the cause of the incident. New Delhi: Xiaomi has launched two new smart TVs, the Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4X Pro and the Xiaomi Mi TV 4A Pro in India after the success of Mi TV series in the country. The Xiaomi Mi TV 4A Pro 43-inch is the updated version of the earlier launched model. The new smart TVs are powered by the Amlogic 960X processor. The company has also launched a sound bar in India for Rs 4,999. The new Mi TVs and the soundbar will go on sale in India next week from January 15 on Flipkart, Mi.com, and Mi Home stores from January 15. ALSO READ | Google removes 85 malicious apps from Play Store, check here Xiaomi Mi TV 4X Pro 55-Inch, Mi TV 4A Pro 43-Inch price and specifications: The Mi TV 4X Pro 55-inch is priced in India at Rs. 39,999 and the Mi TV 4A Pro 43-inch is priced at Rs. 22,999. The Mi TV 4X Pro packs a 55-inch 4K UHD 10-bit panel (21603840 pixels) with HDR support and 20W stereo speakers offering the top quality DTS-HD surround sound. The TVs come with metallic finish that the company calls Piano Black. On the software front, the 4X Pro runs PatchWall OS that is integrated with content garnered from 14 content partners making up for 700,000+ hours of video content. Mi TV 4X Pro has a 64-bit Amlogic quad-core processor running the show with Mali-450 GPU, 2GB of RAM and up to 8GB of internal storage. For connectivity, the TVs are supported by the 4X Pro includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) and Bluetooth v4.2. ALSO READ | Honor 10 Lite to launch in India on January 15, check out its specs Eshwar Nilakantan, Category Lead, Mi TVs said in a statement, "We launched Mi LED TVs last year and the phenomenal response to the category has been overwhelming, to say the least. We hit many milestones, including becoming the number 1 smart TV brand in India by selling over a million units in 9 months. We are very excited to take the most exciting category forward with the new TVs and add our first new category for 2019 - Mi Soundbar to our portfolio. I am hopeful that our Mi Fans would love the product with as much enthusiasm as has gone into building it." Mumbai: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has stood by the remarks he made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a rally in Rajasthan over the controversial Rafale deal earlier this week. Talking to reporters in Dubai on Saturday, the Congress chief said that instead of defending himself the prime minister chose another person and that he would have said the same thing if it had been a man. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has helped Anil Ambani steal Rs. 30,000 crore and the House of the people Lok Sabha is where he should have defended himself, but he chose to send another person and that person happened to be a woman. I would have made a very similar comment if it had been a man," news agency PTI quoted the Congress president as saying. Also Read | Rahul Gandhi reacts to SP-BSP alliance, says he has tremendous respect for Akhilesh, Mayawati A controversy had erupted following the Congress leaders "mahila" remark to mock Modi for not defending the Rafael fighter jet deal in Parliament. "The watchman with a 56-inch chest ran away and told a woman, (Nirmala) Sitharamanji, defend me. I won't be able to defend myself, defend me. For two and a half hours, the woman could not defend him. I had asked a straight question - answer yes or no - but she couldn't answer," Gandhi had said at a rally in Rajasthan on Wednesday. Following the remarks, several women BJP leaders expressed their protest. Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Smriti Irani took to Twitter to slam the Congress chief. While Swaraj termed Gandhis remark a new low in Indian politics, Irani called Gandhi a Misogynist. However, the Congress chief didnt indulge in the debate on sexism and stayed put with the Rafale deal. Do not impose your sexism on me. I am very clear that the prime minister should have delivered that defence but he did not have the guts," he said. Also Read | News Nation Opinion Poll: BJP ahead in Himachal, may give tough fight to Congress in Punjab with Akalis While Modi didnt face the Congress chief in Parliament, he called him out during a public rally in Uttar Pradeshs Agra. He accused Rahul Gandhi of "insulting a woman defence minister" but didnt answer the question on Rafale deal. "For the first time, a daughter of the country has become defence minister. Our defence minister silenced all the opposition parties in parliament (on Rafale) and exposed their lies. They were so stunned that now they are insulting a woman defence minister. They are insulting India's women power," the PM had said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Two terrorists have been killed in an encounter with security forces in Katapora area of Kulgam in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. The Hizbul Mujahideen district commander is believed to be among the trapped terrorists. Acting on specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Katpora area of Yaripora in the south Kashmir district, security forces launched a cordon and search operation there in the evening, a police official said. He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists fired upon the forces. Police sources said one of the terrorists killed in the encounter could be Zeenat Ul Islam, the longest surviving militant active since 2015 in Valley. He is among the top most wanted terrorists in the Valley. He had joined Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2015 and then joined the Hizbul Mujahideen. Now, he is the commander of Al Badr, which is a terrorist group operating in the Jammu Kashmir region. The group was allegedly formed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence in June 1998. It is believed the group was encouraged by the ISI to operate independently from its previous umbrella group, Hizbul Mujahideen. In a statement, the J&K police said as the searches were going on, the search party was fired upon by the terrorists. The fire was retaliated leading to a gunfight. "In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists were killed and the bodies were recovered from the site of encounter. Their identities and affiliations are being ascertained," it said. The police added that there was no collateral damage took place during the encounter. The Police have registered a case and initiated an investigation into the matter. "Incriminating material, including arms and ammunition, were recovered from the site of encounter. Citizens are requested not to venture inside the encounter zone since such an area can prove dangerous due to stray explosive material. People are requested to cooperate with police till the area is completely sanitized and cleared of all the explosive materials if any," the statement added. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati on Saturday announced their alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. Both Akhileshs SP and Mayawatis BSP will contest 38 seats each. Addressing a joint press conference with Mayawati in Lucknow, Akhilesh Yadav said that the alliance was necessary to defeat the arrogant BJP and rid the state from the saffron party's "religion and caste politics". "We have come together to rid the state and country of BJPs religion and caste politics. This alliance was a must to destroy BJP, to defeat their arrogance. BJP can go to any extent to create differences in our workers, we must be united and counter any such tactic, Akhilesh Yadav. He further said the SP and the BSP are now together and any insult to Mayawati will be his also. I want to say to BJP that they should know that we (SP-BSP) are in this together. I am grateful to Mayawati for giving me equal status. They should know any insult to Mayawati is my insult, he said. Also Read | Mamata Banerjee welcomes BSP-SP alliance ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections Speaking about shutting the alliance door for the Congress, Mayawati said that they have decided to leave the Congress out of the SP-BSP fold since there was no real gain by allying with the Grand Old Party as its vote is not transferrable. However, she said, two Lok Sabha seats Rahul Gandhis Amethi and Sonia Gandhis Rae Bareli have been left for the Congress party. "We won't gain anything by including Congress in our alliance. Both BSP and SP have experienced in the past that Congress's vote is not transferrable," the BSP chief said adding that the SP-BSP alliance will give sleepless nights to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. The BSP supremo said that there was not much difference between the Congress and the BJP and their policies are same. It is because of the policies of the Congress that parties like ours came into existence. Whether it is the Congress or the BJP that comes to power, it's the same thing, she said. This is not the first time the two parties have joined hands but the alliance of SP-BSP, once the sworn enemies, came together 26 years after then Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram tied up in 1993. However, their acrimonious alliance could not last long and their government in Uttar Pradesh collapsed. Also Read | Will you back Mayawati as Prime Minister? This is what Akhilesh Yadav said Political experts believe the SP-BSP alliance may prove a blow to the BJP's aspirations of repeating its 2014 performance when they won 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. In 2014, the SP had won five seats while Mayawati's BSP could not even open its account. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: In an atypical study, an international team of astronomers, led by the North-western University, United States, has captured the image of a dying star for the first time in the history of astrophysics. The spectacular natural phenomenon is called Supernovae in which a star reaches its last stage of life and collapses to give birth to a remnant or compact object. The new-born object can be one of the three bodies - white dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes. Meanwhile, the unusual burst into the northern sky in June 2018 raised significant questions with scientists debating whether it is a black hole or a neutron star. However, Supernovae are transient events and not permanent bodies. In order to capture the celestial outburst, scientists used NASAs Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System telescope and nicknamed it "the Cow". However, the phenomenon is officially known as Supernovae (SN) 2018cow or AT2018cow and took place inside or near a star-forming galaxy known as CGCG 137-068, located about 200 million light-years away in the constellation Hercules. AT stands for the ATLAS telescopes, and the word cow is coincidental, stemming from the alphabetical naming convention for supernovae. Read | Scientists discover giant streak structure among clouds of Venus According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Cow produces a sudden explosion of light at least 10 times brighter than a typical Supernovae, and then it faded over the next few months. While a typical Supernovae start to brighten gradually, AT2018cow became unnaturally bright almost overnight. Stephen Smartt, an astronomer at Queens University Belfast first discovered AT2018cow and sent out an alert through Astronomers Telegram in no time. While most of the astrophysicists were excited about the rare astronomical phenomenon others claimed it to be a black hole that was ripping a star apart. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Jammu: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday took an apparentA dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for his 'extremely misogynistic' remarks against Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a rally in Jaipur. Mufti said that she feels deeply disappointed when 'misogynistic comments are normalised in political discourse'. As a woman, feel deeply disappointed when misogynistic comments are normalised in our political discourse. Be a man/ man up/ stop behaving like a woman - such phrases reek of blatant sexism. Ironical since Indira ji was referred to aas the only man in the cabineta. a Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) January 10, 2019 "As a woman, feel deeply disappointed when misogynistic comments are normalised in our political discourse. Be a man/ man up/ stop behaving like a woman - such phrases reek of blatant sexism. Ironical since Indira ji was referred to "as the only man in the cabinet," she tweeted. Rahul Gandhi landed himself in a major controversy after he said, "The watchman with a 56-inch chest ran away and told a woman, Sitharaman ji, defend me. I won't be able to defend myself, defend me." The Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah has accused Gandhi of 'insulting' women and demanded his apology. Shah said the Congress and its leaders owed an apology to "India's Nari Shakti". Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has issued a notice to Gandhi. The notice says that the NCW has taken suo motu cognizance of news reports "wherein it is reported that you have allegedly made remarks insulting against a woman minister".A "What is @rahulgandhi trying to imply with his misogynistic statement-A "... ek mahila say kaha meri raksha kiijiye."? Does he think women are weak? The irony- calling an accomplished defence minister of the largest democracy a weak person. @nsitharaman @narendramodi @ncwindia," NCW chief Rekha Sharma tweeted.A A The NCW in the notice said, "It has been reported that you allegedly said, "..... the PM ran away and asked a 'mahila '- a veiled reference to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman - to defend him".A A A The commission said the remarks are extremely misogynistic, offensive, unethical and shows an extreme disrespect towards the dignity and honour of women in general. However, actor-turned-politician has apparently supported the Congress president by saying that Gandhi's remarks were taken out of context. "He is not against women, if he can appoint a transgender representative in important position. Why do you want to look at his statement in only that way? Isnat it true that PM has not answered been in Parl, we should look at that too," Prakash said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A car bomb exploded near a heavily fortified foreign compound in Kabul on Monday, killing at least four people and wounding 44, officials said, in the latest attack to rock the Afghan capital. At least 10 children were among the wounded, said interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the huge blast, which shook the city, but it comes as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war with the Taliban gather pace. Danish added that a number of civilian houses around the area have been damaged in the explosion in Kabul's PD9, Tolo News reported. "Residential houses nearby have sustained heavy damages," Danish said. "Special police forces' units have been deployed to the site to check if there are more attackers." An Afghan government security source told news agency Reuters that the explosion had taken place on Monday in eastern Kabul. "A blast was heard in Kabul, we are still investigating further," police spokesperson Basir Mujahid Kabul told Reuters. Police spokesman Basir Mujahid told Reuters that said a vehicle full of explosives had detonated. The area is cordoned off...and search operation underway for suspects and attackers, he said. It was a powerful car bomb that knocked (down) a wall between Green Village and the (adjacent) customs office, a security source told the news agency. The attack caused at least several casualties who were taken to hospital, he said. The last assault on a foreign compound was in late November when a Taliban-claimed vehicle bomb exploded outside the compound of British security firm G4S, killing at least 10 people. Five G4S employees were among the dead. That was followed by a suicide and gun attack on a government compound in Kabul on December 24 that killed at least 43 people, making it one of the deadliest assaults on the city last year. The latest bombing comes as US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad visits the region for meetings aimed at bringing an end to the 17-year war in Afghanistan, which by some estimates was the world's deadliest conflict zone in 2018. Khalilzad, who met Taliban representatives last month in Abu Dhabi, is travelling to Afghanistan as well as China, India and Pakistan on the trip lasting through January 21. The leaking of US President Donald Trump's plan to slash troop numbers in Afghanistan, however, has threatened to derail those efforts. The recent flurry of activity to get the Taliban to the negotiating table has caused disquiet in Afghanistan, with the government feeling sidelined from the discussions. The Taliban has repeatedly refused to talk to Kabul, which it sees as a US puppet and ineffective. (With AFP inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The stage is set for the biggest alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati are scheduled to announce the tie-up in Lucknow today. The announcement is set to take place at Taj Hotel in Lucknows Gomti Nagar at around 12 pm. The walls of many buildings in Lucknow are plastered with posters of both leaders. This would be the first time in 26 years that both parties will fight the elections jointly. Last time, it happened in 1993, when Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram came together. Catch all live updates here: 13:09 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Varanasi: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) & Samajwadi Party (SP) party workers celebrate after BSP Chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav announce to contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections together. pic.twitter.com/j27dEbd3m9 ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 12, 2019 12:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "Want to thank Mayawatiji for accepting this coalition. We have decided to join hands to wipe out the BJP from UP," says Akhilesh Yadav. 12:49 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mayawati: Amethi aur Rae Bareli ki Lok Sabha seats Congress ke saath gathbandhan kiye bina hi party ke liye chhod di hain, taaki BJP ke log Congress party ke adhyaksh ko yahin uljha kar na rakh saken https://t.co/XAjlmN9vrK ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2019 12:48 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Both BSP chief Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav didn't take RLD's name during their joint press conference. 12:42 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The BSP-SP alliance will defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, says Akhilesh Yadav. 12:41 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In To defeat the arrogance of the BJP, it was necessary for the BSP and the SP to come together. The BJP can go to any extent to create differences in our workers, we must be united and counter any such tactic: Akhilesh Yadav. 12:39 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomes the alliance of the SP and the BSP for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. 12:38 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In "In 1993, the then BSP chief Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav contested together and won the UP polls. The BSP is determined to follow in the footsteps of Dr BR Ambedkar and give the same results this time," says Mayawati. 12:36 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Moreover, we won't gain anything by including Congress in our alliance. Both BSP and SP have experienced in the past that Congress's vote is not transferrable: BSP chief Mayawati. 12:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Seat sharing formula in Uttar Pradesh: SP: 38 and BSP: 38. Mayawati: BSP will contest on 38 seats, SP on 38 seats. Two Lok Sabha seats we have left for other parties and Amethi and Rae Bareli have been left for Congress. pic.twitter.com/lsdCdxKNah ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2019 12:31 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP chief Mayawati takes a dig at Shivpal Yadav during a joint press conference. 12:30 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In SP and BSP to contest on 38 seats each in Uttar Pradesh, announces Mayawati. 12:26 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP and SP to contest 2019 Lok Sabha Elections together, announces Mayawati. BSP Chief Mayawati: We(BSP-SP) have decided to contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections together, this will lead to a new political revolution in the country. pic.twitter.com/eZcEf5Fq0f ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2019 12:24 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP chief Mayawati attacks Congress in joint press conference. BSP Chief Mayawati: Be it BJP or Congress, whoever rules, their policies are mostly the same. For example, we are seeing how both indulged in corruption in defence deals. Congress imposed declared emergency, today there is undeclared emergency pic.twitter.com/aynTqWBpY9 ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2019 12:19 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP-SP have decided to contest upcoming Lok Sabha elections together, this will lead to a new political revolution in the country: Mayawati. 12:15 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In This press conference will rob PM Modi, Amit Shah of their sleep, says Mayawati. 12:10 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP chief Mayawati attacks PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, terms them 'Guru-Chela'. 12:04 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP chief Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav arrive at Hotel Taj. 12:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati leaves for Hotel Taj. 12:01 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In BSP chief Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav to announce poll alliance shortly in Lucknow. 11:45 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Akhilesh Yadav leaves for the venue Samajwadi Party chief has left for Hotel Taj, which is located in Lucknow's Gomati Nagar. This is the same place where Yadav had announced alliance with the Congress in 2017. 11:28 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Mile Mulayam Kanshiram, hawa mein ud gaye Jai Shri Ram In 1993, when Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP founder Kanshiram came together, they defied BJPs Mandir politics This slogan was coined by Khadim Abbas,a journalist who later entered active politics. 11:05 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Why exactly Congress didnt negotiate that hard? Congress leaders like PL Punia, who delivered Chhattisgarh to the Congress as its state in-charge, and UPCC chief Raj Babbar are reportedly of the view that the party should seek its pound of flesh in any alliance. They cite the example of 2009 when the Congress romped home with 22 Lok Sabha seats in UP, surprising many. They also say that with party chief Rahul Gandhi getting more "combative? against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress now stands a better chance than before. 11:03 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In The Formula Sources said the SP and the BSP are planning to contest on 37 seats each out of the 80 on offer in Uttar Pradesh and plan to leave just two, Rae Bareli and Amethi, the bastions of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, for the Congress. 10:58 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Boon for RLD Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh on Friday confirmed that he would be part of the alliance. Other smaller parties the Nishad Party are also likely to be part of the alliance, but were not mentioned in the announcement on the press conference. 10:56 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Congress to go solo? In Lucknow, a Congress spokesperson said the party is ready to fight the Lok Sabha alone. 10:54 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Fear for both Congress and BJP At a meeting in Kannauj, Akhilesh Yadav had said that," Our coming together has not only created fear in the BJP but also in the Congress." 10:50 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In SP-BSP posters and party flags seen in Lucknow SP-BSP posters and party flags seen in Lucknow. Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati will jointly address the media later today pic.twitter.com/bfxRUVMJcx ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) January 12, 2019 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: With the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) made the official announcement of their alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha Election in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has called for a meeting to formulate the party's strategy on Sunday. Several senior Congress leaders including AICC in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad will take part in the meeting. Speaking to news agency PTI, Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Anshu Awasti said, "Ghulam Nabi Azad, UPCC president Raj Babbar and other senior leaders will arrive in the state capital Sunday to hold meetings for finalising the strategy". Early in the day, in a major jolt to the Congress, BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav threw the grand old party out of their alliance. The parties will contest 38 seats each out of the state's 80 parliamentary constituencies. However, they will not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli, the strongholds of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Being asked about the SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Ghulam Nabi Azad said he would speak on the issue only after meeting the state Congress leaders."We have been meeting the leaders district-wise for preparations in the coming elections," Azad said. "In the last two days, we had been meeting the people of western Uttar Pradesh and from tomorrow (Sunday), we will meet party workers belonging to central and western UP. No one will say anything on it (SP-BSP alliance) today (Saturday) and whoever is speaking on it, it will be unofficial," he added. Read | What Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav said on BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh Talking about the latest development, fornmer finance minister P Chidambaram said, "Perhaps this isn't the last word, maybe there will be some rethink as the elections approach. A truly broad-based alliance will be formed in UP. If necessary, Congress party will contest elections on its own strength". Earlier on Friday, the Congress said that it was ready to go alone in Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming Lok Sabha Election 2019. "We are a political party and are ready to fight the coming elections alone in Uttar Pradesh," Congress media coordinator Rajiv Bakshi said, adding that the party alone have 45 seats in the Lok Sabha and it is any day many more than the regional players. A 'mahagathbandhan' in the Lok Sabha elections needs to be built around the party having a national face. We are ready to take along like-minded parties and they can come together with us," Bakshi added. There has been a tussle between the SP and the Congress ever since the grand old party has refused to include one of SP MLAs in the new Madhya Pradesh ministry headed by Kamal Nath. BSP leader Mayawati too has threatened to withdraw its support to the Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan if the cases against lower caste people lodged during a protest in 2018 are not taken back. Read | SP-BSP alliance is incomplete without Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party, says Shivpal Yadav In the recently concluded 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress managed to cross the majority mark in Madhya Pradesh only with the support of SP, BSP, and Independent candidates. While Congress, in a nerve-wracking see-saw battle with the BJP, bagged 114 seats, the SP, BSP and Independents got one, two and four seats respectively in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly. Beijing: Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Saturday sacked a Chinese executive who was arrested on spying charges in Poland, saying his actions have no relation to the company and the incident has harmed its reputation. Poland's counterespionage agency arrested Huawei executive Wang Weijing along with a former Polish security official on Friday on charges of spying for China. Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecom equipment, in a statement on Saturday, distanced itself from the incident and terminated the employment of the executive. "In accordance with the terms and conditions of Huawei's labour contract, we have made this decision because the incident in question has brought Huawei into disrepute," state-run China Daily quoted the statement by Huawei. ALSO READ | Honor View 20 with 48 MP to launch on January 29, know its specs Huawei said in a statement that its employee's alleged actions have no relation to the company. "Huawei complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, and we require every employee to abide by the laws and regulations in the countries where they are based," the statement said. Earlier, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement had said that it was paying close attention to the detention of Wang in Poland. The Chinese embassy in Warsaw held an immediate meeting with the Polish Foreign Ministry, asking the Polish side to notify China of details of the case as soon as possible and arrange an early consular visit. Foreign Ministry said the "The case should be properly handled in a just way according to law, and the legitimate rights and interests, safety and humanitarian treatment of Wang should be guaranteed." Huawei was caught in a major controversy recently after the arrest of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who is also the daughter of the company's founder, in Canada last month. Meng was accused of breaking US sanctions on Iran. She has been released on bail but faces a legal fight over extradition to the US, where she could be jailed for up to 30 years if found guilty. Huawei has repeatedly said it's unaware of any wrongdoing by Meng. Meng's arrest triggered tensions between the US and China, which have been trying to resolve their trade war. ALSO READ | Xiaomi Mi TV 4X Pro 55-Inch, Mi TV 4A Pro 43-Inch launched in India The development came in the backdrop of the US exerting pressure on its allies to blacklist the company over security concerns. The US, New Zealand and Australia have barred the company from involvement in their national 5G networks. New Delhi: They say "never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit..." and Vijayan and Mohana, an aged couple from Kerala, both in their 70s, have proved it right. Yes! You may have come across many a travel thirsty in your life, but the story of this elderly couple we bet is the most unique one among those. While several people sacrifice their dreams of travelling worrying about expenses, this passionate couple made it possible by running a humble tea shop in the city. Many on social networking sites were immensely inspired by the story of this dear couple after Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, highlighted their story while sharing a small footage of the duo shot by travel blogger Drew Binsky. "They may not figure in the Forbes Rich list but in my view, they are among the richest people in our country. Their wealth is their attitude to life," he captioned the footage. They may not figure in the Forbes Rich list but in my view, they are amongst the richest people in our country.Their wealth is their attitude to life. The next time Im in their town I am definitely dropping by for tea & a tour of their exhibits.. pic.twitter.com/PPePvwtRQs anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) January 9, 2019 Read | Youngster in Maharashtra's Pune earns Rs 12 lakhs a month just by selling tea The couple, who have always dreamt of seeing the world hand-in-hand, already explored over 20 foreign countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, New York, Brazil and Argentina in a span of 45 years of their marriage. In order to quench their thirst for travel, the couple has also taken loans from their friends and family. After receiving such stupendous response from Twitterati across the globe, Mahindra further requested people to sponsor the next vacation for the duo on the occasion of their upcoming marriage anniversary. "Well, what about us finding out the date of their wedding anniversary and crowdsourcing the funding for their next trip as an anniversary gift??", Mahindra wrote in response to a tweet by one Mahesh Joshi. The suggestion has been accepted widely and many people have already started funding in order to arrange a special and unforgettable vacation for the globe-trotting couple from Kochi. Read | Lions taking charge of traffic near Kruger National Park left Twitterati amazed - watch video Here is how Twitterati react: Awesome story to start today My only problem, well not a problem per se, is they take loans to travel. I would suggest them use the time to repay loans to save instead and travel loan free. Wish them a happy life and adventures ahead. They have taught me something today. Mahesh Joshi (@dhantantan) January 9, 2019 @anandmahindra I am in. Let's send them to Scandinavia. My kind of couple goals. https://t.co/Hc8qHA1IKi Reham Khan (@RehamKhan1) January 11, 2019 Such a heart warming video that makes us realise what happiness n purposeful living is all about Yes @anandmahindra how delightful to gift them a ticket for their next holiday on their wedding anniversary. https://t.co/kBBpkucSUR Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) January 10, 2019 How beautiful! Following their dream of travel and incorporating tea into it! Sounds like a winning formula - tea and travel - its 4 me! https://t.co/BduqYelLrV Davinder Kaur (@angel4many) January 12, 2019 Good one @anandmahindra! Look at this endearing story! It reinstates my beliefs in the power of purpose and raw instincts to chase your dreams. https://t.co/GGw0VtYqFo Gautam Adani (@gautam_adani) January 10, 2019 Read | Seen the parodies of the Accidental Prime Minister yet? If not, you must! Are you also touched by this awe-inspiring story of Vijayan and Mohana? Go ahead to fund their next travel plan across the globe and become a part of their wondrous journey. For all the Latest Offbeat News News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The controversial movie aThe Accidental Prime Ministera, which has been receiving negative reviews amid protests across the country, has faced further hurdle on Saturday after its screening was stopped at two single-screen theatres and one auditorium of a multiplex chain in Kolkata following protests by Youth Congress workers against the film. "We've stopped the screening of the film from today, the second day after its release, apprehending (any) untoward incident after parts of a screen were torn up in a multiplex in a mall at Park Circus," Navin Chokhani, the owner of single-screen Navina Cinema, said. The movie's screening was stopped, though its 2-pm show on the first day had passed off smoothly, Chokhani said. A spokesperson of Ashoka Cinema, the other single screen where the film was stopped, said: "We have decided to suspend the matinee show of The Accidental Prime Minister from today in view of the agitations by some group." The movie, starring Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna in main lead roles, is based on the memoir of the same name by Sanjaya Baru, the media adviser to former prime minister Manmohan Singh. On Friday, activists of the Congress' youth wing had staged protests against the movie outside an auditorium of a multiplex chain on Ganesh Chandra Avenue and tore the film posters. Another group of the Youth Congress activists had stormed into the auditorium of the same multiplex chain at Park Circus during a late-evening show and allegedly tore parts of the screen. The multiplex chain spokesperson told PTI that the show of the film was cancelled from Saturday only at Hind -- its property on Ganesh Chandra Avenue -- and nowhere else in the city or in the suburbs. Kher, who played Manmohan Singh in the film, tweeted on Saturday: "An appeal to the authorities to stop a section of people who are indulging in acts of violence and hooliganism during the screening of our film The Accidental Prime Minister. Also a call out to other sections of people who believe in selective outrage towards freedom of expression.a An appeal to the authorities to stop a section of people who are indulging in acts of violence & hooliganism during the screening of our film #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister. Also a call out to other section of people who believe in selective outrage towards #FreedomOfExpression.Y pic.twitter.com/ULgSPj2H5l a Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) January 12, 2019 On Friday, the Delhi Youth Wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal wrote to cinema halls urging them not to show the film as it defames both Manmohan Singh and the country across the globe. In Punjab's Ludhiana, the film's screening was stopped in a multiplex following protests, reported News18. (With PTI inputs)A For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal will not be contesting from Varanasi in the coming Lok Sabha elections. The party said it will field a strong candidate for the seat. "Kejriwal will not contest the Lok Sabha polls, as he wants to give special focus to his state. The AAP will contest on all the Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and Goa. The party will contest on some seats in UP, and final modalities will be worked out by February. Apart from Varanasi, the party will contest from seats in eastern and western UP, where the organisation is strong," AAP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh told news agency PTI. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat by defeating Kejriwal by a massive margin of 3.37 lakh votes. Modi polled more than 5,16,500 votes -- about half of the total votes. Kejriwal managed to secure more than 2 lakh votes and was far ahead of other contestants including Ajay Rai of the Congress, Vijay Prakash Jaiswal of the BSP and Kailash Chaurasia of the SP. Singh said in Delhi his party is working on education, health, farmers, power and providing drinking water. "If we foray into national politics, then our issues will be education for all, free education to economically weaker sections of the society, ending unemployment and implementing the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission," Singh said. On a recent statement made by Kejriwal to not vote for the Congress in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Singh said: "Kejriwal was quoted out of context. He had said in a meeting in the national capital that if you want to defeat the BJP, then do not waste your vote by casting it in favour of the Congress. His statement was in the context of Delhi, from where the AAP is contesting on all the seats." (With PTI inputs) Delhi: Be it her chic airport styles or her glamorous red carpet looks - Kareena Kapoor Khanas sartorial choices have rarely failed to hit the mark. And in case you have any doubt, we suggest you check her recent airport pictures as she returned from Paris with little Taimur Ali Khan.A Kareena Kapoor kept it cool and classy in a black full-sleeve tee teamed with a pair of black trousers. The ensemble was paired with a sleeveless leather jacket. This upped the glamour quotient quite a bit. While red lipstick and sunglasses completed her look, a pair of black sneakers and a sling bag rounded it off well. Taimur, on the other hand, was seen looking adorable in an Adidas tracksuit.A Surely, Khan can do the chick style like no one else. Check out the pictures: Kareena Kapoor Khan and son #TaimurAliKhan return from their Parisian getaway! pic.twitter.com/0uSpZv5bHB a Kareena Kapoor Khan (@KareenaOnline) January 12, 2019 With Taimur, how is travelling like now? Kareena answered this question to a media portal recently, and said, ''Well, Iam experiencing motherhood for the first time, so everything with Taimur is a first. Travelling with him is especially new and excitingaeven if weare going to a place Iave been to before, taking him there makes it so different. I loved the Maldives holiday, loved showing him all these new things and places, and seeing them with him.a The country's favourite mini Nawab #TaimurAliKhan is back in townY pic.twitter.com/2e55yDzJKa a Kareena Kapoor Khan (@KareenaOnline) January 12, 2019 Kareena Kapoor was asked to comment on Taimur's growing popularity, and she had recently said, "Taimur canat run away from his popularity and neither can his parents. When I saw the doll, I wondered what was I supposed to say. But Saif pointed out that it is because people love him so much and such things are a blessing for him. There is so much genuine warmth for our son that itas bad to stop people from clicking his pictures or making his dolls. But, they should understand that he is a two-year-old child and needs a normal life. Both Saif and I are struggling to give him that and will continue to do so without telling the media to back off, no matter how annoying it gets after a point. Itas tough on him as itas on Saif and me." On the work front, Kareena will be next seen in Good News with Akshay Kumar, Kiara Advani, and Diljit Dosanjh. New Delhi: Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, has been granted 15-minute time in a week to speak to his family and lawyers by a special CBI Court on Monday. Michel is one of the three middlemen -- the two others Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa -- being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate in the case. Last week, India granted consular access to Michel, a British national who was brought here from the UAE last month in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal. The British High Commission had sought consular access to Michel after he was arrested in the first week of December. Michel, 57, was brought to India following his extradition by the United Arab Emirates in connection with the chopper deal case. At present, he is lodged in the Tihar jail in New Delhi. Michel has denied the charges. The ED, in its charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016, had alleged that he had received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland. The CBI, in its charge sheet, has alleged an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010 for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Congress party president Rahul Gandhi has today approved the appointment of CP Joshi as the Rajasthan Assembly speaker. According to the sources, the senior Congress party leader will soon become the 15th Rajasthan Assembly speaker. The election of the new speaker will be held on January 16. Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh will administer the oath of office on the same day. Rahul Gandhi has also approved the appointment of Mahesh Joshi as chief whip, and Mahendra Chaudhary as deputy chief whip. CP Joshi was the Member of Parliament from Bhilwara in the 15th Lok Sabha and had served as the Union Minister For Road Transport and Highways from 2009 to 2013. Senior BJP legislator Gulab Chand Kataria took oath as the pro term speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly on Monday. He will conduct the first meeting of the 15th Legislative Assembly beginning Tuesday. Once a new speaker is elected, Kataria, who was the home minister in the previous government, will be the leader of opposition, while Rajendra Rathore will be his deputy (leader of opposition) in the assembly. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Lucknow: In a first, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati held a joint press conference in Lucknow to announce their alliance ahead of 2019 General Elections. While addressing the press conference, Yadav told media persons that alliance between SP and BSP was necessary to defeat the arrogance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He also thanked Mayawati for accepting the coalition and advised party supporters to respect Mayawati as much as they respect him. "Samajwadi Party workers should keep in mind that BSP chief Mayawati Ji's disrespect will be my disrespect (Samajwadi Party ke karyakarta ek baat ki gaath bandh len ki adarniya Mayawati Ji ka apman mera apman hai)" the SP leader said. Explaining the reason behind the alliance, Yadav said both the parties will contest elections together to fight against the communal hatred spread by the BJP. "To defeat the arrogance of the BJP, it was necessary for the BSP and the SP to come together. The BJP can go to any extent to create differences in our workers, we must be united and counter any such tactic," Yadav said. Yadav also hinted at supporting Mayawati as a Prime Ministerial candidate. "Uttar Pradesh has produced numerous prime ministers in the past. You know whom I will support. I will be happy if another prime minister comes from the state," SP chief said when asked whether he will support Mayawati as a prime ministerial candidate if the need arises post-2019 Lok Sabha elections. During the joint press conference, BSP chief Mayawati said, "The alliance will rob 'guru-chela' - Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah - of their sleep." "I have full confidence that just as our alliance defeated the BJP in the Lok Sabha bypolls, we will crush the saffron party in the general elections," she said, referring to the BJP's defeat in Phulpur, Gorakhpur and Kairana parliamentary bypolls. Speaking about keeping the Congress out of the alliance, Mayawati said that they have decided to leave the Congress out of the SP-BSP fold since there was no real gain by allying with the Grand Old Party in the past. "In the past, I have seen that our votes get transferred to the Congress, but not vice-versa. We do not gain from an alliance with Congress, whereas vote transfer is perfect in SP-BSP tie-up," Mayawati said. Drawing a parallel between the BJP and the Congress, Mayawati said the Congress had imposed the Emergency while the BJP is responsible for an undeclared Emergency. This would be the first time in 26 years that SP and BSP will fight the elections jointly. Last time, it happened in 1993, when Samajwadi Party veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram came together. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: People complaining of traffic jams across the globe may be extremely common but it was something incredible and scary as well when four gigantic African lions took charge of the traffic on a street near the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Yes! You read it right. In a video that has gone viral on social networking sites, vehicles were seen stalled midway when four full-grown lions marched down a road in Sabi Sand Private Reserve area of the park. The infrequent incident near the South African park was indeed a visual treat for the tourists and mesmerised thousands others with the latest viral video around the world. Taking to Facebook, Lions Of Kruger Park And Sabi Sand shared the tantalizing footage of the four male big cats who were seen taking a stroll down the road in all their glory and without a little bit of hassle by humans or their cars. While most of the people on their way to Kruger was all amazed to see the beautiful animals, several others described it as "stunning but scary". The mind-boggling video, which was shared some 15 days ago, has already garnered 2.3 million views with the comment thread being flooded with over 1,900 remarks. Read | This doggo is simply but a furry Gryffindor, responds to Harry Potter spells Watch video here: All of the four majestic beasts belong to the Kruger National Park and Sabi Sand Private Reserve in South Africa. Kruger is one of Africas largest game reserves and a home to as many as 1600 lions including leopards, rhinos, elephants and buffalos. Hundreds of other mammals make their home in the South African park as do diverse bird species such as vultures, eagles and storks. Mountains, bush plains and tropical forests are all part of the landscape. Read | This celebrity cat in Netherfield tricks shoppers to buy her more food Here is how Twitterati react: WOW! Beautiful animalsaiaiai Tizzy Smoochie (@Tizzy_Smoochie) January 10, 2019 I dare someone to get road rage with these guys! Lilmisscarmen (@Lilmisscarmen) January 10, 2019 I'd get dead trying hug one. No regrets. Rita Skeeter (@ritaresarian) January 10, 2019 i bet they don't even pay road tax jamie (@jamieefc) January 11, 2019 I would be happy to be stuck in that jam if I got to see those beautiful lions. Melanie Masters (@Melxray) January 10, 2019 They take pride in their traffic control.... hey oh! Mike Hayman (@KnightMike2003) January 10, 2019 Though this is not an unprecedented incident for people around the Kruger National Park, social media users find it hard to get over the video and have been going gaga for the last few days. For all the Latest Offbeat News News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Patna: RJD national president Lalu Prasad launched a scathing attack on the BJP on Sunday by issuing a "humble appeal" to the people of the country to be on guard against hate politics, rumour mongering and false propaganda to divide the youth ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The ailing former Bihar chief minister, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases and is currently lodged in a Ranchi hospital, shared his views on the political situation prevailing in the country on his official Twitter handle. "It is a humble appeal to the people of the country that elections are round the corner and those practicing hate politics will provoke the youth and your children to sacrifice their lives by raising false alarms, giving rise to misconceptions and spreading rumours," Prasad wrote on the microblogging website. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo has been away from active politics since December 2017, when he was convicted in the Deoghar treasury case, which was followed by convictions in two more fodder scam cases. He has, however, been sharing his views on his Twitter handle. "While your children would be slaying each other and wasting their lives in the name of cow and cow dung, the kids of the hypocritical jumlebaaz would be busy studying in esteemed schools and colleges and securing their own futures," Prasad said. "Therefore, all parents and guardians are requested to be on guard themselves, besides guarding their children against rumour-mongering sanghs (organisations) and their false propaganda. A beginning has been made by them in UP and Bihar," the RJD supremo added. Prasad's remarks came in the backdrop of mob violence and cow vigilantism reported in many parts of the Hindi heartland, often spurred by fake social media messages circulated by people with alleged links to Sangh Parivar outfits. A staunch opponent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar, Prasad had endeared himself to the minorities when as the chief minister of Bihar, he had ordered the arrest of BJP veteran LK Advani during his "rath yatra" in 1990. He had also succeeded in weaning away the minorities from the Congress during the 15 years when the state was ruled by him and subsequently by his wife Rabri Devi, a period which saw virtually no major communal incidents, despite an overall soaring crime graph. Now an ally of the Congress, the RJD is miffed at the quota for the economically backward sections brought by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. The party has held that it is a step in the direction of diluting affirmative action for the socially and educationally backward segments of the society. New Delhi: Keeping in mind the growing popularity of Journalism in the contemporary world, the Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) is reportedly planning to start a short-term course for working journalists. According to sources close to the Delhi University (DU), the proposed Journalism programme may be introduced in the upcoming academic session, as was originally provisioned in the ordinance under which the varsity established the school. The school is mulling a course for digital journalism and may conduct classes on weekends for the working professionals. Speaking to news agency IANS, Manasvini Yogi, Officer-on-Special-Duty for DSJ said, "Since we are a new college and have just started our second batch, things are bound to take some time. But we are planning to start the short-term courses by 2020 latest, and if we can, we will start the courses from 2019". Read | UGC recommends university status for IIMC "We will have to see about all that. Too early to talk about the kind of courses we will start. But a course in digital journalism will be there and since these would be for working journalists, the classes may be held on weekends," Yogi said. The newly-established school, which started its journey in 2017 with a batch of 120 students is already having a five-year Post-graduate course in Journalism. At present, there are 218 students across the two batches of DSJ. Read | IIT Kharagpur to launch 6-month Artificial Intelligence course About Delhi School of Journalism: The University of Delhi established the Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) in 2017 and introduced a Five-Year Integrated Course in Journalism. The North Campus of the varsity houses the newly-introduced school of journalism along with various other centres and colleges including the Cluster Innovation Centre, Delhi School of Economics and others. Washington: Days after he walked out of a meeting with Congressional leaders when they shot down his border wall funding proposal, US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged the opposition Democrats to visit the White House for talks to end the government shutdown which is now in its record 22nd day. "I am in the White House waiting for you!" Trump told the Democrats through his Twitter account and threatened that the shutdown could continue for a long time if there is no agreement. "Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border," the president tweeted. The partial government shutdown on Saturday entered its 22nd day, surpassing the previous record of 21 days. The longest ever shutdown has been due to the stalemate between the ruling Republicans and the Democrats on funding construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border. Trump has sought USD 5.7 billion in funding from the Congress to construct a concrete wall or a physical steel barrier so as to prevent flow of illegal immigrants and smuggling of drugs. Read | US government shutdown becomes longest in history The opposition Democrats have said that under no circumstances can they approve such a proposal. Trump has said that in the absence of Congressional approval of his wall proposal, he will not sign any budgetary legislation. This has resulted in a partial government shutdown wherein more 800,000 federal government employees have been left without work and have not received their salaries. Trump has promised that he will ensure that these employees get their salaries but functioning of several important wings of the US government has come to a standstill. "We have a massive Humanitarian Crisis at our Southern Border. We will be out for a long time unless the Democrats come back from their 'vacations' and get back to work. I am in the White House ready to sign!" Trump tweeted. "I do have a plan on the shutdown. But to understand that plan you would have to understand the fact that I won the election, and I promised safety and security for the American people. Part of that promise was a Wall at the Southern Border. Elections have consequences!" Trump asserted, indicating that he will not budge from his stand on the border wall. The Democrats, he said, could solve the shutdown in 15 minutes. "Call your Dem Senator or Congresswoman/man. Tell them to get it done! Humanitarian Crisis," he urged his 57.2 million Twitter followers. Referring to official statistics, Trump said 23 per cent of federal prison inmates are illegal immigrants. Read | US to make major changes in H-1B visa programme to attract talented professionals: Trump "Border arrests are up 240 per cent. In the Great State of Texas, between 2011 and 2018, there were a total of 292,000 crimes by illegal aliens, 539 murders, 32,000 assaults, 3,426 sexual assaults and 3,000 weapons charges. Democrats come back!" he said. He refuted media reports that there is chaos in the White House. "I just watched a Fake reporter from the Amazon Washington Post say the White House is 'chaotic, there does not seem to be a strategy for this Shutdown. There is no plan'. The Fakes always like talking Chaos, there is NONE. In fact, there's almost nobody in the White House but me," Trump said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked the previous Congress government for its inability to bring Kartarpur Sabib under India during partition. Releasing a commemorative coin as part of the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of 10th Sikh guru Guru Gobind Singh, Modi also came down on the Congress for the 1984 riots that took place following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Referring to the Kartapur Sahib corridor, he said now devotees do not have to look at the shrine in Pakistan using binoculars and they could visit the place without visa using the corridor. "A mistake took place in August, 1947. It (the corridor) is an atonement of the mistake. An important place of our guru was only a few kilometers away. But it could not be made the part (of India during partition) ... the corridor is an effort to reduce the damage," he said in a veiled attack on the then Congress government. Guru Nanak passed away in Kartarpur on September 22, 1539. Releasing a commemorative coin in honour of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji. https://t.co/roj8OyZmOQ a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 13, 2019 Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former chief justice of India JS Khehar and several Sikh leaders were present at the Prime Minister's residence to participate in the event. Modi said be it Guru Nanak or Guru Gobind Singh, they have taught us to be on the side of justice. Following the path shown by them, the central government is trying to get justice for the people who suffered during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Modi said. "The central government is making efforts to get justice for the period of injustice which started in 1984. For decades, mothers, sisters, daughters and sons have shed tears, the law will deliver justice, wipe (their) tears," the PM said referring to the riots that took place following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. The PM released a Rs 350 denomination commemorative silver coin to mark the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh. He described the founder of the Khalsa sect as a warrior and a poet who had immense knowledge of religious scriptures. Modi said the government now plans to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak across the country. Modi said while the event will be held various states and union territories, Indian embassies abroad will also organise programmes as part of the celebrations Guru Nanak was born on April 15, 1469, in Nankana Sahib, now Pakistan. Modi said, for the last four years, his government has been making comprehensive efforts to bring the cultural and knowledge heritage of India to the world. "From Yoga to Ayurveda, the country has succeeded in re-establishing its status. This work continues," he said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mathura: Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh has referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Smriti Irani as "bull, calf and cow", triggering a row. Calling the remarks "undignified", a BJP leader demanded an apology from the RLD chief. During his 'Kisanon se Samvad' (dialogue with farmers) event at Kosi Kalan in Mathura on Thursday, Singh said it is the virtue of democracy that the people have the right to change a prime minister after five years if they get a "wrong" one. "I read in newspapers these days that your cows, bulls and calves (gai-bail-bachhde) are roaming around a lot," he said in an apparent reference to the stray cattle menace. "You are locking them up in schools and colleges. People call them Modi-Yogi. Is that right?" he added. "Some people also say that a 'hatti-katti gai' (well-built cow) has come. Smriti Irani is also moving around," Singh said. The Union minister recently visited Amethi. The RLD chief led the public in chanting slogans like Modi Haye Haye and Modi Bye Bye". He held the Modi government responsible for the problems faced by farmers, and businessmen after the demonetisation. Local BJP leader Yogesh Goswami said the RLD chief had insulted the Constitution. "This is a very uncivilised and undignified statement," he said. "The prime minister, the chief minister and the Union textiles minister are political figures holding constitutional posts and making indecent comments on them is like insulting the Constitution," Goswami said. He said it is against Indian culture to make such comments against a woman. It does not behove the chief of a political party to make them, Goswami said, demanding that Singh apologise to the BJP leaders. Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after spending 90 days in space. All three have set a new record by completing their three-month mission and walking the space twice. He spent three months in the reserve as the longest crew for China. The Chinese manned space agency said the Shenzhou-12 manned spacecraft, carrying the three astronauts Ni Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo, landed at the Dongfeng Landing Site in northern China's inner Mongolia autonomous region. Earlier this morning, China's official news agency Xinhua was tracking the entire sequence of events, saying that the capsule had entered the earth's atmosphere and that the main parachute was properly deployed and it was coming at a slow pace. The Shenzhou-12 return module separated from the spacecraft's propellant at around 1 pm local time; The propellant burned because it passed through the earth's atmosphere after the return was different from the cabin. According to a report received, the process became so smooth and simple that astronaut Tang Hongbo was seen playing with a pen due to the process of returning to the earth. Speaking the same Chinese proverb, astronaut Ni Hensing jokingly explained that real gold is not afraid of fire and re-entered the earth's atmosphere with its crew. Tell you that China launched the Shenzhou-12 mission in June. In which three astronauts were sent to space so that they could go there and carry out the work under the construction of the Space Station. Italy makes COVID health Green pass mandatory for all workers European Commission launches health emergency response authority Egypt ready to support elections in Libya, says President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi Who doesn't know Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif today? The actress has won fans' hearts with both her work and her style and is soon to be seen in the third film of the Tiger franchise. The actress is currently in Turkey to shoot for the film. The actress who played the lead role alongside Salman Khan in this action series was recently spotted doing the goofing. Katrina Kaif took to Instagram Story to share pictures from her Turkish trip which you can see here. Katrina Kaif also shared a video of her grocery shopping at a Turkish supermarket on her Instagram story. Yes and posting her video on Instagram Story, the actress wrote, "This shopping in the supermarket makes me feel quite excited.'' In this clip, she is roaming in different parts of the shop. You can see Katrina also shared a post in which she was seen enjoying nature. Apart from Tiger's series, Katrina Kaif will soon be seen in Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt's 'Jee Le Zara.' The film will be directed by Farhan Akhtar and co-written by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, and Alia Bhatt will be seen together on screen for the first time with this film. Recently, Katrina Kaif shared a picture with her co-stars on Instagram and wrote in the caption, "It makes my heart smile I just love these girls and it is always a lot of fun to be around each other.'' Mika Singh said this about Rakhi Sawant that everyone stunned Anushka Sharma reaction after Virat Kohli quitting T20 captaincy Priyanka Chopra once again embroiled in controversy, know what's the matter? The business world has gone through drastic and dynamic changes in the working method from the onset of the 21st century. All businesses have taken place on one huge platform of digital and social. It is considered one of the most important assets, tools, and platforms for any company to explore millions of customers and businesses. But there are always pros and cons of each sector, though it provides immense opportunities, popularity, and success, cut-throat competition and survival become a huge challenge. 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Got HEART attack as soon as he came out 5 untold stories related to PM Narendra Modi Rahul Gandhi greets PM Narendra Modi on his birthday Nepal's Premier Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday extended greetings to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday, wishing him good health and success in leading the country. Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has also wished Greetings to PM Modi. Wishes poured in from several dignitaries and politicians from across India for Prime Minister Modi on his birthday. Nepal's Prime Minister Deuba in a tweet said: ''Wishing Sri @narendramodi a happy 71st birthday! May it bring good health and further success.'' The President's brother and Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa too extended his greetings to Modi. ''Warm wishes to my good friend, Prime Minister @narendramodi, as you step into another year of your life. I wish you strength, success and the best of health as you steer #India out of these difficult times,'' Mahinda tweeted. ''My heartfelt wishes to Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi on his birthday! May good health & strength accompany you in the journey through these difficult times,'' Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tweeted. To mark the day, the BJP has asked its workers to facilitate the COVID-19 vaccination drive as it targeted record-breaking numbers on Friday. The BJP will also be distributing over 14 crore ration kits and holding blood camps besides organising other welfare activities during the 20-day campaign. PM Modi's birthday vaccination record crosses this mark till 1.30 pm Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama writes letter wishing PM Modi a happy birthday President Ram Nath Kovind addresses special Himachal Pradesh Assembly session Kathmandu, September 17 Madhav Kumar Nepal, the chairman of the CPN-Unified Socialist, a member of the ruling coalition, says his party has set seven conditions to get the controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact endorsed through parliament. Of late, the MCC deal signed between the governments of Nepal and the US has been a bone of contention in national politics and many fear the issue could divide the ruling alliance too. In this context, Nepal, while inaugurating the central office of his newly registered party, revealed seven conditions to endorse the deal in parliament, which is a pre-requirement of the deals implementation. According to him, these are the conditions: The deal is not a part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy or any security or defence strategy of the US government. The deal respects an independent foreign policy based on the principals of Panchasheel and non-alignment. The deal will not jeopardise the security of neighbouring countries. Nepal owns and holds the sovereign right over the projects launched under the deal. Nepal owns the intellectural property related with the project. Nepalis get employment opportunities in the projects. Nepals Office of the Auditor-General should audit the accounts. Meanwhile, Nepal claimed the dispute would not dissolve the ruling coalition although efforts have been made towards that end. Home Business Nepal internet price to go up by up to Rs 300 a month Kathmandu, September 17 The internet price in Nepal is likely to go up by up to Rs 300 a month as major internet service providers of the country made an agreement. The Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal says its member companies will increase the monthly internet price by Rs 150 in the rural areas and by Rs 300 in the urban areas once the government approves the request. The national telecommunications regulator, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, is expected to make a decision in this regard soon. ISPAN says it is forced to hike the price as the government-owned Nepal Electricity Authority and Nepal Telecom increased the rent they collect from the ISPs for using their utility poles. ISPAN President Sudhir Parajuli says the decision will affect over 90 per cent of internet users in Nepal. Nepals internet service is already blamed for being expensive whereas the quality is also substandard in general. Zhan Sheng is currently serving as a non-resident research fellow of the Chengdu Institute of World Affairs of China and honorary expert advisor of the Jeevraj Ashrit Foundation in Nepal. He has published numerous academic articles and political analysis opinions on various influential media in China and abroad. He is also closely following China-Nepal relations. Onlinekhabar recently talked to him about Nepal-China relations under the Sher Bahadur Deuba government and other bilateral issues. Excerpts: How do you see the Nepal-China relations under the new government led by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba? The political transition of the administrations in Nepal is a domestic affair of Nepal that can never, and should never, be intervened by any foreign states, and China genuinely wishes to improve China-Nepal relations no matter which party or which leader is leading the administration. Back in October 2019, when President Xi Jinping visited Kathmandu, he met Congress Party President Deuba and Xi mentioned two important points: First, the Chinese people would never forget that the Congress Party-led administration made a contribution to China-Nepal relations in history; second, China was serious about improving China-Nepal relations no matter which party rules in Nepal. In July 2021, Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi also met and sent sincere congratulations to Prime Minister Deuba. All of those aforementioned gestures show that China never sees the transition of governments in Nepal as somehow an obstacle to bilateral relations and the Chinese willingness to improve the relations with Nepal is sincere and unwavering despite the change of domestic politics. But, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects have not moved ahead. What could be the factors behind it? First, I have to contest the statement that BRI projects have not moved ahead. In fact, they have and the BRI has already been steadily moving forward in the last nine years. For example, according to the data provided by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Chinese trade with BRI partner countries reached over $960 billion in the first three quarters of 2020, which is 0.8 per cent higher than that of Chinas overall trade. Also, a large number of major infrastructure projects have already been completed. For example, the China-Laos Railway tunnel is already finished; the phase 1 project of China-Thailand Railway has already started; the Jakarta-Bandung Railway reached the goal of this stage, and the Orange Line metro train service has started operating in Pakistan. Those are all evidence of the progress of the BRI. Of course, the challenges are there as well. The most severe challenge to the entire world at this moment is the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused severe obstacles for international travels and international trade between China and the outside world, causing negative impact and inconveniences for Chinese investments abroad. The second challenge is pressure from competitive global powers, for example, the military plan of the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the US which aims to disturb the peaceful construction of China. Third, there are also some non-traditional threats posed by non-state actors, for example, those two recent terrorist attacks targeting Chinese investments in Pakistan. In Nepals case, the BRI is not showing satisfactory results. What could be the reasons? I am not a specialist in the topics of foreign investments, but I can think of many economic factors causing the relatively unsatisfactory status quo. For example, many infrastructures that China and Nepal are cooperating for such as railways, are quite difficult to operate from an engineering perspective. Also, infrastructure conditions, legal issues, social culture, and various reasons can account for why Chinese private companies often have concerns investing in South Asian countries such as Nepal. The Covid-19 pandemic also played a huge role. Besides that, there are also a number of political-social factors. First, at the grassroots level, traditional authorities in Nepal sometimes have lots of influence on local issues, and there are also some occasions in which the centre and the local bureaucratic authorities found themselves in different stances with each other and the enforcement of plans are sometimes quite difficult. Besides that, the change of administrations sometimes would radically change the signed agreement of the previous administration, causing discontinuity to economic development and the construction of large infrastructure, as we see in the Budhigandaki hydropower station issue. My suggestion is that Nepal should first strive to keep the continuity of the economic development issue. Second, of course, the Nepalis understand Nepal much better than foreigners from everywhere in the world, so Nepali specialists and engineers should probably take more of a lead and strive to design more economic, genuine projects with great potential to attract Chinese investments. Buildings allegedly constructed by China on the Nepali side, encroaching the Nepali land, in Limi of Humla, in September 2020. Nepal recently formed a government panel to investigate the reported border dispute with China in the Humla district though the earlier government made it clear that there is no dispute with China. What is your view on it? The China-Nepal boundary has already been settled since 1963, and there is no serious border dispute between the two countries. The norm of international law is that international treaties cannot be automatically changed just because there are elections and transitions of administrations. The report you mentioned argues that there are so-called Chinese constructions on the side of Nepali territory. According to the Purang County officials, the construction was totally on the side of Chinese territory, and the complicated geography on that side makes the distinction of territory sometimes confusing through technical aspects. This year, both the Chinese and the Nepali governments have already conducted several joint investigations on this. The fact is verifiable and it should not be politicised. Arguably, China always stands in favour of the unification of the communist party of Nepal. But, now, it has shattered into pieces. What is your view on this? The Communist Party of Nepal has historically made remarkable contributions to China-Nepal relations and of course the party-to-party friendship. The camaraderie between the CPC and CPN naturally prompts China to favour a unified and stable CPN, contributing socialist wisdom into the construction of Nepal. From the view of an outsider scholar, I do feel unfortunate about the current split of the CPN. But, there is nothing that outsiders can help. Only the Nepali communists themselves can introspect and move forward by themselves. From my understanding, the communist movement in Nepal has this natural tendency of going through the cycles of splitting and unifying ever since the student movement of the 1970s and the peoples movement of the 1990s. This cycle is caused by various factors such as the fractionalised traditional social mechanism, decentralised and multi-centred party organisation systems, prolonged sense of separation caused by two major communist parties historical memories, and the existence of various and complicated interest groups and cliques. The NCP unification once temporarily overcame those factors and gave hope for the future, but there was not enough institutionalised system to guarantee the unification, so we see todays situation happening. Establishing an institutionalised and stable system holding the party organisation together would be a huge mission for Nepali communists in the future. Many Chinese scholars are saying that Nepal should reject Americas MCC project. What is your view on it? Yes, I stand firmly along with many Chinese scholars holding the opinion that signing the MCC agreement is not a wise choice. I would like to emphasise that China always wishes to see and to help developing countries achieve economic prosperity, but the MCC is never a purely economic project, but an element of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is a US-led military framework aiming to contain and suppress the development of China. The Indo-Pacific Strategy is a sugar-coated bullet, and the MCC, of course, is that sugar-coating around the bullet. To see Nepal, a close neighbour and good friend of China, to join the anti-China IPS framework is indeed harming the feeling of the Chinese people. It is the domestic issue of Nepal to choose whether to accept the MCC or not, and Nepals sovereignty ensures that only Nepal can decide for its own national interest. But, even if we let alone China for a second, is the MCC really good for Nepal? Is it respecting Nepals sovereignty? No, it gives American staffs extraterritoriality on Nepali soil, and as you know, extraterritoriality is one of the most frequent characteristics of colonialism in the 19th century. It deprives Nepali law and court of punishing criminals on Nepali soil, and it basically is saying that the Nepali justice system is not so-called civilised enough to legally try foreign personnel on Nepals own soil. I really cannot believe that today, in the 21st century, there is still such a blatant unequal treaty insulting the Nepali people. There is one thing I do not understand: Facing this unequal treaty, my Nepali friends, why are you not angry? Why? China is seeking Nepals support in its position regarding the origin of coronavirus. What are your suggestions to the Nepal government on it? For the origin of the coronavirus, the WHO has already been conducting very detailed and scientific research works. My understanding is that China is not subjectively asking any countries to support any particular statements on the origin of the coronavirus, but urging the entire world not to weaponise or politicise the origin of the coronavirus. All China wishes is that the entire world can unite together and confront the Covid-19 pandemic, instead of making up conspiracy theories trying to blame geopolitical competitors as somehow the inventor, artificially creating the coronavirus. My suggestion is that the Nepali people, along with people from the rest of the world, just unite together and confront the pandemic. On the origin of the coronavirus, lets not politicise and weaponise it. We leave this to scientists to research. Let all respect science and truth. To conclude, what are Chinas key interests in Nepal? China, unlike the other neighbour of Nepal, does not wish to establish any sort of so-called special relationship with Nepal and China never wishes to intervene with Nepals domestic affairs. China does not seek any political interests in Nepal, and the only and modest demand of China is that Nepal should not be used by anti-China forces as a footstool and a stepping board harming China. The key wish of China in Nepal is that Nepal continues to uphold its one-China policy and not to allow any anti-China forces to use the land of Nepal to attack China. Workforce AFGE looks to block Cyber Command reserve program in NDAA The American Federation of Government Employees came out against a proposed cyber reserve pilot program in a Wednesday letter to House Rules Committee leaders. The pilot program, based in U.S. Cyber Command, will be put forth in a floor amendment proposed by Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) when the FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act comes up for debate. Under the reserve program, cybersecurity experts could be noncompetitively appointed into competitive service positions or appointed to excepted service positions for up to 180 days to respond to significant cyber incidents. AFGE National President Everett Kelley wrote on Sept. 15 that the plan would weaken merit systems principles, erode civilian control over DOD and demoralize the existing civilian cybersecurity workforce. The union has been on guard of late about DOD seeking personnel flexibilities. "The perspective of Department of Defense leadership has consistently been one of seeking and obtaining exemptions from the government-wide processes administered by the Office of Personnel Management that are intended to ensure an apolitical civil service," wrote Kelley in a May letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. The new pilot under consideration would cap the number of appointees in the system at 50. While they're working, they'd be considered feds. Current executive branch employees and members of the selected reserve wouldn't be eligible to participate. The union argued that the 150-day deployment timeframe might not give reserve members long enough at the agency to be helpful and would be "highly disruptive to the permanent workforce." "When they have to effectively train temporary civilian reservists on what the problem is, while the reservist waltzes in and out of the agency while the permanent staff are stuck with dealing with the longer-term problem," Kelley wrote. Kelley also raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, calling for additional public disclosure requirements in the bill. "A major motive inducing a profit-based company to agree to losing an employee for something like this is to keep these projects temporary and to get some inside information from the government to enhance competitive advantage," he wrote. The proposed pilot isn't the only system using exceptions to the standard competitive hiring process with the goal of bringing in cyber talent in a tight market. Panetta and other lawmakers have proposed a bill to let the Department of Homeland Security and DOD create temporary civilian cyber reserves made of former feds and military personnel for details up to six months. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reported it out of the committee unanimously in July. DHS is also working on standing up an entire new personnel system for cyber talent, its Cybersecurity Talent Management System. Feds hired into it will be in the excepted service. The union's concerns with the potential DOD pilot, and its criticisms of "misused exceptions to Title 5 and lax OPM oversight" also apply to DHS, said John Anderson, an AFGE lobbyist. It isn't yet clear if DHS employees hired under CTMS will be able to organize and bargain. Jeff Neal, a former top human resources officer at multiple federal agencies, told FCW that "unless they decide that certain positions are exempted for national security reasons, the language indicates Chapter 71 [the Labor Relations statute] applies and the employees can organize." Workforce BLM to bring leadership back to D.C. The Bureau of Land Management, a component of the Interior Department, is restoring its national headquarters to Washington, D.C., after it was moved to Grand Junction, Colo., during the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told BLM employees on Friday that the agency was moving its headquarters back to the nation's capital. The Colorado outpost will serve "as the bureau's official Western headquarters," according to an agency release. The decision will ensure that the agency is present in the capital while the Colorado headquarters will also "reinforce western perspectives in decision-making." "There's no doubt that the BLM should have a leadership presence in Washington, D.C. like all the other land management agencies to ensure that it has access to the policy-, budget-, and decision-making levers to best carry out its mission," Haaland said in a statement about the move. "In addition, the BLM's robust presence in Colorado and across the West will continue to grow." The BLM director and "other key leadership positions" will move back East where they can coordinate with other stakeholders and decision-makers in the capital. The agency says that other senior personnel will stay in the Colorado location. Currently, the agency isn't going to require other employees to relocate. Already more than 95% of BLM employees are located outside of Washington, D.C., according to the agency. The move back to nation's capital is part of a broader effort to rebuild the BLM workforce, the agency says. At the time of the move, Trump administration officials said it was meant to bring officials closer to the land they manage. Democratic appropriators at the time opposed the move, although Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and former Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) supported the move, as did Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.). Opponents said the change was meant to undermine the agency by pressuring longtime career officials living in the National Capital Region to quit. Only 41 people of the 328 positions moved out of Washington, D.C., at the time moved, according to the agency. "The past several years have been incredibly disruptive to the organization, to our public servants, and to their families," said Haaland. "As we move forward, my priority is to revitalize and rebuild the BLM so that it can meet the pressing challenges of our time, and to look out for our employees' well-being." Records Management Hurricane Ida knocked out key NARA system A key records management system at the National Archives facility in in Keyser, W.Va., was knocked out by remnants of Hurricane Ida that caused flooding and significant loss of life on the East Coast earlier this month. The Electronic Records Archives provides an online link between agencies and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for submitting records schedules and to request records transfers. The system is back online after a "sustained outage," according to a Sept. 17 memo to federal records managers from federal Chief Records Officer Laurence Brewer. The outage paused the approval of records schedules. That approval process will restart next week. NARA and agency records managers are operating on an Oct. 1 deadline to get annual move transfer requests into the system. The outage could mean delays, according to Brewer's memo. Brewer said he is hoping to improve the resilience of the current system. "While the outage has been resolved, we are seeking to avoid future sustained outages by strengthening our connectivity by pursuing options like the potential implementation of additional redundancy in our network circuits," he told agency records managers. According to data from Deltek's GovWin database, IBM holds the contract on operations and maintenance for NARA's Electronic Records Archive system. That contract expires at the end of calendar year 2024. Washington Technology senior staff writer Ross Wilkers contributed reporting to this article. The "Clinical Research Services Market" report has been added to SpendEdge's library which is trusted by more than 100 CPOs and 500 category managers who uses our insights daily. NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Clinical Research Services market is poised to grow by USD 17.71 Billion, progressing at a CAGR of almost 7.00% during the forecast period. Clinical Research Services Market Procurement Research Report Receive FREE Sample Report in Minutes! Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation of the pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Fetch actionable market insights on post COVID-19 impact on each product and service segments. Get This Report's (PDF) Sent to Your E-Mail Within Minutes Some of the Top Clinical Research Services suppliers listed in this report: This Clinical Research Services procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. IQVIA Holdings Inc PAREXEL International Corp Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings Fetch actionable market insights on post COVID-19 impact on each product and service segments: www.spendedge.com/report/clinical-research-services-market-procurement-research-report Related Reports on Pharma and Healthcare Include: Drug Development Biometric Services - Forecast and Analysis: The drug development biometric services will grow at a CAGR of 12.30% during 2021-2025. This report evaluates suppliers based on ability to provide tailored services, width of service portfolio, data management and analysis capabilities, and financial performance. See Detailed Trends and Insights about this Market Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Sourcing and Procurement Report: The pharmaceutical contract manufacturing, prices will increase by 4%-9% during the forecast period and suppliers will have a moderate bargaining power in this market. Download Detailed Report on the Effect of COVID-19 on This Market In Vivo Toxicology Testing Services - Sourcing and Procurement Intelligence Report: This report offers key advisory and intelligence to help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their in vivo toxicology testing services requirements. Some of the leading big data analytics suppliers are profiled extensively in this report. For More Insights Request for a Free Sample Now! To access the definite purchasing guide on the Clinical Research Services that answers all your key questions on price trends and analysis: Story continues Am I paying/getting the right prices? Is my Clinical Research Services TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable? How is the price forecast expected to change? What is driving the current and future price changes? Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities? Table of Content Executive Summary Market Insights Category Pricing Insights Cost-saving Opportunities Best Practices Category Ecosystem Category Management Strategy Category Management Enablers Suppliers Selection Suppliers under Coverage US Market Insights Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SpendEdge Logo (PRNewsfoto/SpendEdge) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clinical-research-services-markets-covid-19-impact-and-recover-analysis-procurement-intelligence-report--spendedge-301377583.html SOURCE SpendEdge LONDON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The upcoming report by Fairfield Market Research indicates that the global egg powder market will see a northward gain in the coming years. Between the forecast years of 2021 and 2025, the demand for egg powder will be driven by consumers seeking food products with longer shelf life. the use of egg powder as a replacement to actual egg is expected to give the market a definitive boost. Easier to handle and store are also key attributes that are favour market growth. Fairfield Market Research predicts that the global egg powder market stands to compete with egg consumption fairly and squarely as lifestyles undergo change. Fairfield Market Research Logo Get a Sample Copy of Global Egg Powder Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/egg-powder-market/request-sample Higher Frequency of Avian Flu Brings Attention to Global Egg Powder Market In recent years, the spread of bird flu has created fear amongst consumers about egg consumption. The demand for eggs plummeted in India, Europe, and in UAE due to bird flu in 2020. However, to ensure intake of protein remains unaffected despite the flu breakout, consumers are opting for egg powder. Similar speculation during the early days of COVID-19 hampered egg consumption, bringing the spotlight on egg powder as a convenient substitute. A change in consumer sentiment is expected to play a pivotal role in the shape of the global egg powder market. The global egg powder market also stands to benefit from the fluctuating prices of eggs as industrial users seek price stability. Bakers to Show Keen Interest in Egg Powder as Demand Increases The demand for egg powder will be especially high amongst bakers as it ensures price and quality stability. The constant threat of eggs being affected by avian flu will be the primary reason for the higher uptake of egg powder by bakers. In addition, the varying transport costs that add to the eventual cost of eggs creating price volatility is also expected to encourage bakers to opt for egg powder, which has a stable price. The bakery segment is expected to lead the global egg powder market as the number of bakeries across the globe increase and with a greater number of people taking up home baking. The rise of artisanal baking for leisure and commercial reasons has also contributed to an increase in the sales of egg powder, which is used for making a multitude of baked items. Story continues Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Request Customization of Report: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/egg-powder-market/request-customization Asia Pacific Slated to Lead Global Egg Powder Market In terms of geography, Asia Pacific is expected to hold a lion's share in the global egg powder market. The regional market is expected to win on the basis of the sheer volume of consumption as China and India boast a huge population base. Longer shelf life, affordability, and ability to consume eggs in tough terrains where regular food supply remains challenged are some of the driving factors for Asia Pacific egg powder market. Furthermore, increasing consumption of baked products amongst the younger group of people is also expected to drive up the demand for egg powder in the coming years. Key players operating in the global egg powder market are SKM egg products, Wulro Food Group (Dutch Egg Powder Solution), Ovostar Union N.V., Igreca, Pulviver, Eggway, Sanovo Egg Group, Oskaloosa Foods, The VH group (Venkys), and Ovobel Foods Limited. Browse Our Latest Trending Reports: About Us Fairfield Market Research is a UK-based market research provider. Fairfield offers a wide spectrum of services, ranging from customized reports to consulting solutions. With a strong European footprint, Fairfield operates globally and helps businesses navigate through business cycles, with quick responses and multi-pronged approaches. The company values an eye for insightful take on global matters, ably backed by a team of exceptionally experienced researchers. With a strong repository of syndicated market research reports that are continuously published & updated to ensure the ever-changing needs of customers are met with absolute promptness. Contact Fairfield Market Research London, UK UK +44 (0)20 30025888 USA +1 (844) 3829746 (Toll-free) Web: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/ Email: sales@fairfieldmarketresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn Cision View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-egg-powder-market-thrives-as-frequency-of-avian-flu-increases-says-fairfield-market-research-301379480.html SOURCE Fairfield Market Research Patient Needs and Insights Drive New Era of Global Kidney Research, Discovery, and Personalized Treatments WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the largest independent kidney patient organization in the USA, and its strategic partners at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) continue to make a unique impact in the international battle against kidney diseases. Their 2021 annual Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations focused on expanding patient consumer choices and improved health outcomes, engaged a combined audience of over 20,000 viewers across 80 countries, exceeded their 2020 virtual attendance record established at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to draw viewers worldwide to their online content. The Global Summit is a key component of AAKP's The Decade of the Kidney , an AAKP global initiative ( read article ) launched in 2019 for the 2020-2030 decade to help U.S. and international policymakers better address the devastating human and societal costs of kidney diseases based on patient-defined priorities. (PRNewsfoto/American Association of Kidney) The Global Summit has accelerated engagement in an expanding international consortium of influencers, led by patient consumers and advocates, committed to a new era in kidney medicine marked by more inclusive clinical trials, greater use of patient insight data, personalized medicine, and disruptive technologies including artificial implantable and wearable kidneys. The patient-led consortium includes academic and medical researchers, clinical trial designers, innovators, capital market investors, companies, non-governmental and faith-based organizations, as well as elected and appointed government leaders across the globe. Kidney patients worldwide are demanding an end to outdated dialysis care, characterized by staggeringly high mortality rates, and greater access to new products and solutions aimed at detecting, preventing, and treating kidney diseases earlier and in ways that improve quality of life and decrease dependency and disease-related unemployment. They are also organizing and coordinating their policy and grassroots efforts in a sophisticated effort to advance more common sense regulatory and payment reforms that prioritize patient needs and fully support the timely entry of new, safe products into global consumer markets. Based on the ongoing success and rapidly expanding interest in The Global Summit, AAKP and GWU have already opened pre-registration for the May 2022 Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations . All 2021 Global Summit virtual presentations are available OnDemand through the AAKP website and AAKP YouTube channel . Story continues Dr. Dominic Raj, Co-Chair of The Global Summit, a Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Genetics and Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Director of the Division of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, stated, "As a researcher in molecular biology and genetics, I seek to personalize medicine by genes and molecular pathways, but I think it is more important to personalize by patient needs. This, I believe, is the key take home message from The Global Summit and I am very proud of my colleagues across the globe who are actively incorporating the unique insights of kidney patients in their research and discovery of new therapies to prevent and treat the growing spread of kidney diseases." Hilde Vautmans, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Chair of MEP Kidney Health, and Deputy Coordinator for the Committee on Foreign Affairs for a Renew Europe (EU) provided a virtual presentation in which she praised kidney patients worldwide for their efforts to work alongside government leaders in the fight against kidney diseases. Further, Vautmans invited greater cooperation among elected leaders in the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress, especially among like-minded members of the U.S. Congressional Kidney Caucus, stating, "This battle is difficult. And I can speak from experience here, but [] change is possible [] but we can and have to act more. In Europe but also in the United States. I always say we need more awareness, more funding and more innovation. Today I want to add a fourth element and that is collaboration, because as we all are aware and all are witnessing, diseases know no borders. So, let's work together []We share a common goal, on both sides of the Atlantic: We must further improve the lives of people with Kidney Disease!" The 2021 Global Summit included over 15 panels featuring over 40 patient and medical experts along with a menu 29 expert videos covering COVID-19 kidney-related issues, diversity in clinical trials, APOL-1 genetic research, diabetic kidney disease (DKD), nutrition, and telemedicine. Executives from top companies in the kidney space underscored the importance and value of patient insights in science, discovery, and the development of new drugs, devices, and diagnostics. Emphasizing the key role patients play in the new era of kidney medicine were leaders from Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Baxter International Inc., bioMerieux, CareDx, Inc., CSL Behringer, Novartis, and Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. They were joined by key policy and innovation leaders including Barbara L. Bass, MD, Vice President for Health Affairs, Dean of the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and CEO of the GW Medical Faculty Associates (USA); Vivekanand Jha, MBBS, MD, DM, PHD, FRCP, FAMS; Executive Director, The George Institute for Global Health (AU) and President, International Society of Nephrology (IND); Fokko Wieringa, PhD, Principal Scientist, IMEC of The Netherlands and the Dutch Kidney Foundation (EU) and a member of The Kidney Health Initiative (USA); Murray Sheldon, MD, Associate Director for Technology and Innovations, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USA); Jack Kalavritinos, Founder and Principal, JK Consulting and member of the APCO Worldwide International Advisory Council and Health Advisory Board (USA). Richard Knight, President of the American Association of Kidney Patients, a former hemodialysis patient and 14-year kidney transplant recipient, stated, "Kidney disease is a devastating disease that is rapidly expanding and negatively impacting patients, families, and economies throughout the world. Future innovations in kidney medicine depend upon greater patient engagement through fully inclusive clinical trials and research, and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences is an established global leader in this field. I thank Dean Dr. Barbara Bass, Dr. Dominic Raj, and our new European Union ally Hilde Vautmans for their deep respect for patients and their concerted efforts to unite patients, clinicians, and policy-makers in the fight against all kidney diseases." Knight (read CJASN article) is a former U.S. Congressional staff member and business consultant who serves on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Advisory Council, and as the Co-Chair of the Community Engagement Committee for the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP). Paul T. Conway, Co-Chair of The Global Summit and AAKP Chair of Policy and Global Affairs, a former peritoneal dialysis patient and 24-year kidney transplant recipient, stated, "AAKP and our friend and ally Dr. Dominic Raj envisioned The Global Summit on Kidney Innovations as a unique international event aimed at accelerating cooperation among patients, researchers, clinicians, and policy professionals. Kidney patient consumers worldwide demand and deserve far greater care choice and are well aware of the value they bring as partners to pioneers developing the next generation of diagnostics, devices, and biologics. AAKP has expanded our collaborations with patient groups worldwide to advance innovation and to support all who share our sense of urgency and intent to transcend legislative, regulatory, and payment barriers that limit care choice and delay entry of new, safe treatments into the global consumer markets." Conway (read CJASN article) is a former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor and serves on the External Expert Panel of National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP), the American Board of Internal Medicine's Nephrology Specialty Board, and is a Patient Voice Editor for The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. AAKP has formal partnerships with the multiple international kidney patient organizations including in support of The Global Summit, The Decade of the Kidney, and the growing international kidney innovation consortium, including: Argentina-based Asociacion Solidaria de Insuficientes Renales (ASIR) ; European Kidney Patients' Federation (EKPF) and the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) ; and United Kingdom-based Renal Patient Support Group . AAKP will be announcing multiple additional global partnerships throughout the remainder of 2021 and 2022. AAKP leaders and their global allies have carried the key messages of The Global Summit into other global forums, including the University of Washington's Center for Dialysis Innovation's recent IDEAS Summit, where Dr. Murray Sheldon of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted a presentation on the expanding international kidney innovation consortium . Future presentations on the key learnings and messages of The Global Summit and the international kidney innovation consortium will be conducted at the AAKP Annual National Patient Meeting September 24-25, 2021, and at the American Society of Nephrology's, 2021 Kidney Week , November 4-7, the largest kidney professional conference in the world. Voices in support of AAKP's expanding global partnerships and international collaborations include: Mr. Colm Clifford, kidney patient and AAKP Global Ambassador in the Republic of Ireland: "Change happens when a collective voice sends a strong message that change is required. This begins from the grassroots. While it may eventually be signed off with the stroke of a pen, it's the strong collective voice that can't be ignored that drives that to happen. In kidney disease, after The Global Summit, I'm confident we really are moving forward and it's an exciting time to be involved." Daniel Gallego, President of the European Kidney Patients' Federation (EKPF): "We are more than happy that the AAKP reached out to us to enforce the collaboration of kidney patients worldwide to really give a push for innovation and new therapies that will enhance quality of life of kidney patients, contributing to expand our daily life activities. EKPF strongly believes that in creating these therapies, patients should be included and in the driver's seat to reach next level therapies. Together we can create and extend a platform that is responsible for the long-overdue innovation that kidney patients are waiting for." Raymond Vanholder, President of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA): "Collaboration for improvement of kidney therapies can really benefit by moving boundaries. We are delighted with the expansion of our international collaboration by teaming up with AAKP. At EKHA we strongly believe in the empowerment of patients to enhance quality of life where possible. We therefore adopted their 'Decade of the Kidney' program to create awareness for the unmet needs of kidney patients. An important part of this collaboration will exist in setting the political agenda at the level of the EU and USA to push for real innovative therapies and corresponding funding to realize them." Dr. Maria Eugenia Vivado Duran, President of the Argentina-based Asociacion Solidaria de Insuficientes Renales of Buenos Aires; AAKP Global Ambassador: "ASIR joins together with AAKP in support of the rights of the kidney patients and to share in efforts to further medical innovations that will better prevent and treat kidney diseases and improve the quality of life for kidney patients." Dr. Vivado Duran, a pediatrician and AAKP Global Ambassador, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1979 during her second pregnancy. She was on hemodialysis for many years and in 2001, received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor, allowing her to continue working for patients, educating the community, and enjoying her family. She has been president of ASIR for four consecutive terms and does everything in gratitude to her anonymous kidney donor. Dr. Shahid Nazir Muhammad, Specialist Biomedical Scientist, The University of the West of England (UWE) and Academic Lead, on behalf of The Renal Patient Support Group (RPSG), United Kingdom: "Future research integrating perceptions to acknowledge CKD as a condition with diverse morbidities and investigations to explore educational needs is mission critical. The Renal Patient Support Group (RPSG) is a place where awareness and research meet and encourages healthcare service and support in comprehensible proportions. Innovation is good to an extent. However, timely and targeted education relating CKD and recommendations with a solid focus is where best practice between pediatric and adult nephrology, tackling health inequalities is pinnacle to ensure that CKD patients are not forgotten and become unpeople (disenfranchised), and there is kidney disease awareness on an international level." Ms. Vasundhara Raghavan, caregiver to a son with kidney disease and the AAKP Global Ambassador in the United Arab Emirates: "An international consortium of kidney patient organizations will be a catalyst to drive many innovations and bring in much-needed changes in the kidney patient ecosystem. The consortium can help execute cross border treatments for paired kidney transplants possible through an international donor bank. Sharing of best practices, knowledge, and resources will aid the kidney patient community immensely. A collaborative platform such as this will help us gather momentum in kidney research, patient advocacy, and provide financial aid to needy patients. The needs of kidney patients are best expressed by them. They are going through the arduous journey and having firsthand knowledge of what works best for them. Patients driving these discussions will help bring conclusive decisions on policy matters directly impacting them. Through this platform they will have a channel to voice their opinions and get to share their experiences to a wider community. Getting patients involved early on in these discussions is extremely critical and the value addition that they will provide to the conversation will be vastly practical." AAKP and GW SMHS thank their 2021 Global Summit sponsors. Gold Level: Horizon Therapeutics and Travere Therapeutics; Silver Level: CareDx, Inc.; Patron Level: Hansa Biopharma and Sanofi Genzyme; and Supporting Level: AstraZeneca and Eurofins Transplant Genomics. Information on the 2022 Global Summit is available at https://aakp.org/programs-and-events/global-summit/ . About the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP): Since 1969, AAKP has been a patient-led organization driving policy discussions on kidney patient consumer care choice and treatment innovation. By 1973, AAKP patients had collaborated with the U.S. Congress and White House to establish dialysis coverage for any person suffering kidney failure, a U.S. taxpayer supported effort that has saved over one million lives. In 2018, AAKP established the largest U.S. kidney voter registration program, KidneyVoters. Over the past decade, AAKP patients have helped gain lifetime transplant drug coverage for kidney transplant recipients (2020); new patient-centered policies via the White House Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (2019); new job protections for living organ donors from the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and Congressional legislation allowing HIV positive organ transplants for HIV positive patients (2013). Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on Twitter, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and visit www.aakp.org. The Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations is produced by AAKP's national strategic media partner, Briar Patch Media, which provides creative consulting and full-service media video production and post-production for corporations, non-profit organizations, individuals throughout the U.S., and several international locations. About the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences: Founded in 1824, the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was the first medical school in the nation's capital and is the 11th oldest in the country. Working together in our nation's capital, with integrity and resolve, the GW SMHS is committed to improving the health and well-being of our local, national, and global communities. Visit their website at smhs.gwu.edu . MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Rate Marketing & Communications Manager jrate@aakp.org (813) 400-2394 Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-kidney-innovation-summit-accelerates-international-consortium-301379834.html SOURCE American Association of Kidney Patients Cision View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2021/17/c0207.html Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. announces a significant 3.1 million dollar verdict achieved by Howard P. Ross, ESQ., B.C.S. this week against the City of St. Petersburg. Howard Ross Wins Over $3 Million Verdict Against the City of St Petersburg Howard Ross Wins Over $3 Million Verdict Against the City of St Petersburg Howard Ross Wins Over $3 Million Verdict Against the City of St Petersburg ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. announces a significant 3.1 million dollar verdict achieved by Howard P. Ross, ESQ., B.C.S. this week against the City of St. Petersburg. This case involved development rights to an important commercial property in Midtown St. Petersburg that TLM Investment Group I, LLC had leased. The commercial property was earmarked for the establishment of businesses that could have provided jobs and important services to underserved citizens of St. Petersburg. After TLM started the "initial construction", the City Administration decided that that construction was not sufficient and terminated the Lease and commenced legal proceedings to remove TLM from the commercial property. This is after the TLM had invested significant sums of time and money toward the redevelopment of the parcel. TLM brought a countersuit against the City of St. Petersburg alleging unfair treatment and wrongful termination of a lease. In an initial ruling in April 2020, the judge agreed with TLM that "initial construction" did commence on time and the case proceeded to determine the damages suffered by TLM by the City Administration's actions. In a ruling this week, Pinellas County Circuit Judge Lorraine Kelly, Acting in Circuit Capacity, ordered the City of St. Petersburg to pay TLM Investment Group I, LLC $3,095,920 plus interest in damages stemming from the termination of the commercial lease agreement. This amount reflected the lost profits determined by the expert witnesses and the Court that had been suffered because the lease had been terminated and TLM not allowed to complete the development. Story continues "We were proud to be part of this great win for small African-American businesses in St. Petersburg. It is a shame that the City Administration chose to stop this project and prevent TLM from completing the project as TLM wanted to do," commented Howard P. Ross, ESQ., B.C.S. Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. has Established Themselves as the Top Litigation Attorneys in Florida Since 1958, Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. has been recognized for their skill and experience in handling personal injury claims , insurance disputes , estate planning and probate , wills and trusts , criminal defense , property damage insurance claims , commercial transactions, real estate law , corporate and business litigation , as well as civil litigation . With the recent addition of six lawyers and the opening of a satellite office in Riverview located at 12953 US Highway 301 South, Suite 102, Riverview Florida, 33578, Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. is positioned to serve every personal and corporate legal need. Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. 5858 Central Ave St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.stpetelawgroup.com Divisions of Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas 5858 Central Ave, suite a St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.727injury.com Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas 12953 US Highway 301 South, Suite 102a Riverview Florida, 33578 (813) 639-8111 www.727injury.com St Petersburg Property Damage Attorney Jonathon W Douglas 5858 Central Ave, suite b St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.tampabayclaim.com St Petersburg Criminal Defense Attorney Sean McQuaid 5858 Central Ave, suite c St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.727defense.com St Petersburg Estate Planning & Probate Attorney 5858 Central Ave, suite d St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.bestlegacylawyer.com Riverview Estate Planning & Probate Attorney 12953 US Highway 301 South, Suite 102d Riverview Florida, 33578 (813) 639-8111 www.bestlegacylawyer.com St Petersburg Real Estate Attorneys 5858 Central Ave, suite e St. Petersburg, FL 33707 (727) 381-2300 www.727realestatelaw.com Riverview Real Estate Attorneys 12953 US Highway 301 South, Suite 102e Riverview Florida, 33578 (813) 639-8111 www.727realestatelaw.com Related Images Image 1: Howard Ross Wins Over $3 Million Verdict Against the City of St Petersburg Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & McQuaid, P.A. announces a significant 3.1 million dollar verdict achieved by Howard P. Ross, ESQ., B.C.S. this week against the City of St. Petersburg. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Crown Equipment Corporation, one of the world's largest material handling companies, has launched its own V-Force branded solutions for customers seeking to improve battery electric forklift performance by using lithium-ion technology. Crown's V-Force Energy Storage Systems (ESS) include lithium-ion batteries and chargers and are now available for Crown's entire forklift truck portfolio. Keep charging, stop changing: Crown presents its new V-Force lithium-ion technology For fleet managers, the ability to rely on one trusted supplier for both forklift trucks and battery technology is essential. To provide customers with a top-quality, single-source service dedicated to lithium-ion technology, Crown has now launched its own V-Force batteries and chargers. The whole system is backed by Crown's comprehensive service and support network. Highly qualified service technicians visit customers' premises to help ensure forklifts, chargers and batteries are in proper operating condition. "V-Force lithium-ion batteries last up to three times longer than lead-acid batteries; they also offer faster charging, opportunity charging top-ups and longer run times," explained Henry Larsen, Motive Power Product Manager and Technology Solutions at Crown. "The batteries charge and discharge more efficiently and deliver sustained high performance throughout their charge. Because you can recharge the batteries whenever you like, you can extend your forklift uptime over a 24-hour period. This means you can use them for one or more shifts without having to swap batteries." Lithium-ion systems offer considerable advantages over lead-acid batteries, especially in multi-shift operation. Routine battery maintenance is no longer necessary, and batteries no longer need to be changed or watered. Because lithium-ion batteries do not produce emissions while recharging, separate battery-charging rooms are no longer required. In short, the batteries' increased efficiency and lower service costs over time result in significant advantages for customers. Story continues Crown V-Force batteries comply with New Zealand standards AS IEC 62619 for use in industrial applications. Crown's V-Force batteries are designed to meet international automotive standards and locally adopted industrial standards in terms of extreme safety and ease of use, thus offering more capabilities than many other lithium-ion batteries on the market. Fitted with multiple redundant safety systems, each battery features a multi-level safety architecture incorporating, for example, a variety of fuses plus individual-cell temperature and voltage monitoring. Safety systems built into the battery help protect against overheating, short circuits, overcharging or deep discharging. Even better, various active protection functions prevent operator errors from damaging the battery. The right choice for your battery-charging needs: Crown's V-Force charger Crown's V-Force V-HFM3 Series high-frequency chargers deliver the power your lithium-ion energy storage system needs. The performance of the Crown chargers is excellent thanks to the fast charging process. V-Force chargers use high-frequency technology to achieve charging rates of up to 1C. This means they can fully charge batteries with capacities of up to 400 Ah in less than 60 minutes by delivering a steady charging current of up to 400 A. These figures are among the best in the industry. The user-friendly chargers can handle battery voltages ranging from 24 to 96 volts for the V-HFM3. To detect each battery's voltage class automatically and charge the battery without requiring manual presets, the charger communicates directly with the battery management system via the CAN bus. During the charging process, a large, informative user interface displays an exceptionally clear overview of the battery's charging and operating status. About Crown Equipment Corporation Crown is one of the world's largest material handling companies with a reputation for award-winning product design, advanced engineering and technology, and superior after-sale service. Crown's business philosophy utilises vertically integrated processes to design, manufacture and distribute forward-thinking, innovative solutions that improve customers' productivity and operating efficiency. Crown produces a broad range of forklifts as well as automation and fleet management technologies. The company's global headquarters is located in New Bremen, Ohio, USA, with regional headquarters in Australia, China, Germany and Singapore. Its employees number more than 15,100 worldwide. Crown operates a service and distribution network that exceeds 500 retail locations in over 80 countries. To learn more about Crown's ideas for helping customers advance the productivity of their operations, visit crown.com. Logo (PRNewsfoto/Crown Equipment Pty Ltd) SOURCE Crown Equipment Pty Ltd (Bloomberg) -- PG&E Corp. told a judge it has put into place new safety measures that would have resulted in power being cut to a utility line suspected of sparking the second-largest wildfire in California history. The California utility giant said it changed safety settings on its equipment so electricity can be shut off more quickly in the case of a disturbance or fault on certain lines located in high-fire risk areas, according to a court filing submitted Friday. The move was made after the start of the Dixie Fire in July to help reduce the threat of major wildfires in California in light of the extreme drought conditions and dry vegetation, PG&E said. U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who oversees the companys criminal probation, has been probing the companys role in the Dixie Fire and why it didnt turn off power sooner to the line linked to the start of the blaze. It took a PG&E worker almost 10 hours after an initial report of an outage to discover flames near a tree that had fallen into a line. Alsup questioned the worker, known as a troubleman, during a hearing Monday. The worker said he didnt see signs of a fire or the fallen tree until he arrived at the scene, hours after he had been asked to respond to the power outage at the Cresta Dam, located in the Sierra Nevada mountains north of Sacramento. PG&E said that its policies at the time of the Dixie Fire didnt require cutting energy to a line where was no visible indication of an imminent safety risk or critical fire weather conditions, according to its filing Friday. PG&E also said outages in high-fire risk areas are fairly common and that any de-energization carries its own disruption and safety issues for customers. Alsup had asked PG&E if it was plausible that the tree that fell on the line could have caused a ground fault with electricity from the live wire flowing through it and eventually igniting it. The company said the scenario put forth by the court is plausible, and at this time PG&E is not aware of evidence indicating that such a scenario is wrong. PG&E added that it doesnt have access to evidence collected by fire investigators and it is unable to reach a conclusion as to what happened. Story continues Read More: PG&E Pleads Guilty to Killing 84 People in 2018 Camp Fire The stakes are mounting for PG&E if its found at fault for the Dixie Fire and others that have ravaged Northern California in recent years. The company is fighting criminal charges for a 2019 fire and facing a criminal probe for a 2020 blaze. Alsups scrutiny could put additional pressure on state regulators to escalate their oversight of the company. Meanwhile, if PG&E is found to have willfully disregarded public safety, it may be denied protection in a California wildfire insurance fund. The Dixie Fire has consumed more than 960,000 acres while burning most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville. It was the first blaze in state history to burn from one side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the other. The wildfire has destroyed 1,329 structures and resulted in one death, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The cause of the fire, which is 86% contained, remains under investigation. Separately, the state utility regulators said on Friday they are proposing to adopt specific metrics to evaluate PG&Es safety performance. State regulators are also weighing whether to put PG&E into the second step of a six-step enhanced oversight process that could eventually lead to state control of the utility if it fails to reform itself. 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. The Stage 1 system will be available through authorized Rockford Fosgate retail locations beginning in October TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockford Fosgate, the industry leader in high-performance audio systems, is excited to announce the RNGR18-STG1 audio system, their latest audio innovation for Polaris Ranger vehicles is available soon at a MSRP of $619.99. RNGR18-STG1 All-In-One Front Audio System for select Polaris Ranger Vehicles Rockford sound, easy installation, quick Bluetooth pairing, and out of the box performance, so everything just works. This new all-in-one audio solution is purpose built for the off-road environment featuring a single enclosure that houses a pair of 5.25-inch speakers and a Bluetooth ready source unit. The audio components are pre-installed so that this kit can be quickly installed in place of the factory center cup holder and connected using the included plug-and-play harness. Jake Braaten, VP of Business and Product Development at Rockford stated, "Ranger owners will love that this kit delivers the Rockford Fosgate sound they expect, with easy installation, quick Bluetooth pairing, and right out of the box performance, so everything just works." The 5.25-inch speakers are rated to handle 50 watts of power and feature a full-range coaxial design, for solid mid bass response and crisp high-end output. The PMX-1 source unit includes a 2.3-inch wet bonded dot matrix display, so it's built rugged and it's also easy to read in any light, day, or night. With Bluetooth connectivity, to quickly get your playlist loaded as well as an AM/FM/WB tuner you have all the music and information at your fingertips. Plus, all components of the system are Element Ready so that they perform regardless of water, dirt, mud, or UV rays. Those who want to experience the new Stage 1 system should visit the Sand Sport Super Show being held this weekend in Costa Mesa, California where Rockford will debut this new all-in-one audio solution. For more information on Sand Sport Super Show visit their event site. Story continues About Rockford Corporation Setting the standard for excellence in the audio industry, the Rockford Corporation markets and distributes high-performance audio systems for the mobile, motorsport, and marine audio aftermarket and OEM market. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., Rockford Corporation is a publicly traded company and manufactures its products under the brand Rockford Fosgate. Polaris Ranger is a registered trademark of Polaris Inc. Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rockford-fosgate-introduces-new-all-in-one-audio-solution-for-select-polaris-ranger-2018--2022-vehicles-301379700.html SOURCE Rockford Corporation NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2021 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Concho Resources Inc. ("Concho" or the "Company") (NYSE:CXO). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at newaction@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980. The investigation concerns whether Concho and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. [Click here for information about joining the class action] In 2018, Concho planned and constructed the Dominator Project ("Dominator") in the Delaware Basin, part of the larger Permian Basin, consisting of 23 wells. Then, on July 31 and August 1, 2019, Concho disclosed that the wells at Dominator were spaced "too tight" and that as a result, Concho had drastically reduced its total active rig count to avoid overshooting budgets and would be forced to scale down production targets for the rest of the year. Concho also disclosed that going forward, the Company would begin spacing all of its wells farther apart-revealing at the same time that certain current and upcoming projects were "moderately more dense" in terms of spacing. On this news, Concho's stock price fell roughly 22% on August 1, 2019, damaging investors. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com. Story continues SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/664591/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-Pomerantz-Law-Firm-Investigates-Claims-On-Behalf-of-Investors-of-Concho-Resources-Inc--CXO * Show's last episode said she had "never faced men" * Lawsuit says that is wrong and "degrading" * Netflix dismisses charge, vows to defend the case TBILISI, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The world's first female chess grandmaster, Nona Gaprindashvili, has filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against Netflix over a line in its "The Queen's Gambit" series which her lawyers say is false and sexist. The 80-year old Soviet chess icon, a hero in her native South Caucasus Republic of Georgia, was described in the show's last episode as a female champion who had "never faced men". The suit filed on Gaprindashvili's behalf in a U.S. federal court in Los Angeles said the reference to her was "degrading her accomplishments before an audience of many millions". The legal papers seen by Reuters said the five-times world champion was "the first woman in history to achieve the status of international chess grandmaster among men". She had played against at least 59 male chess players by 1968, the year in which the episode was set, according to the legal papers. Netflix did not immediately reply to a request for comment but was cited in U.S. media as saying it would "vigorously defend the case". "We believe this claim has no merit," a spokesperson for U.S. streaming giant was quoted as saying. "The Queen's Gambit", based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, tells the story of young orphan Beth Harmon who becomes the world's best chess player in the Cold War era. Harmon, who is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, is described by Netflix as someone "determined to conquer the traditional boundaries established in the male-dominated world of competitive chess." The series won two Golden Globes this year and nabbed 18 nominations at this weekend's 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards. It is said to have inspired more women to take up chess. Gaprindashvili's lawyers say the series, released in October 2020, caused her professional harm and want the line about her never facing men removed, calling it "grossly sexist and belittling". The lawsuit accuses the series of continuing to cause Gaprindashvili, who competes in senior chess tournaments, "irreparable damage". Netflix, headquartered in California, hired Russian former world champion Garry Kasparov and American national master Bruce Pandolfini as their consultants. (Reportind by David Chkhikvishvili; Writing and additional reporting by Maria Vasilyeva; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Proclamation of September 16, 2001 as Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Dr. Hong Tao Tze Day in Honolulu Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze Honored for His Peace Efforts in Honolulu in 2001 Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, the leader of Tai Ji Men, is presented with a proclamation by the representative of Mayor Jeremy Harris of Honolulu in 2001, declaring September 16, 2001 as Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Dr. Hong Tao Tze Day in Honolulu. Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, the leader of Tai Ji Men, is presented with a proclamation by the representative of Mayor Jeremy Harris of Honolulu in 2001, declaring September 16, 2001 as Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Dr. Hong Tao Tze Day in Honolulu. HONOLULU, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To honor the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, various commemorative events took place around the United States. Twenty-three Tai Ji Men members visited Honolulu, Hawaii on September 3-5 to reflect on the historic day and the importance of peace. They also celebrated September 15 as International Love and Peace Day, as well as the 20th anniversary of the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Dr. Hong Tao Tze Day in Honolulu . The group visited different locations to promote the idea of conscience, love, and peace, including Honolulu City Hall, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu, Honolulus Chinatown, Diamond Head, Dole Plantation, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Waikiki Beach, and Pearl Harbor. Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, the leader of Tai Ji Men , Mrs. Hong, and Tai Ji Men members were invited to the 54th Annual DPI/NGO Conference in September 2001, and they witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. During those difficult times, Tai Ji Men hosted ceremonies of ringing the Bell of World Peace and Love in New York and Honolulu to soothe people's hearts and pray for the United States and the world, and visionary leaders from all walks of life were invited to ring the Bell and make peace wishes . At that time, New York was in chaos, and the world was under the threat of more terrorist attacks. The iconic World War II port of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was projected to be the next target, and many people sought to evacuate the country. Tai Ji Men had been invited to participate in the Aloha Parade before the 9/11 attacks. Dr. Hong, Mrs. Hong, and the Tai Ji Men members, as martial artists, were adamant that they would fly to Hawaii as promised, despite all odds. Due to numerous flight cancellations, the group waited at the airport every day until they were eventually able to go to Hawaii on the 15th and 16th on separate flights. Despite the cancellation of the Parade, the delegation still held " A Night of Ancient Culture ," a cultural feast and an ancient bell ringing ceremony to pray for Hawaii, the U.S. and the world, in Hawaii Theatre Center on September 16. Story continues 430 Tai Ji Men members were supposed to participate in the parade, but only 36 were able to make it to Hawaii to perform at the theater. Their sincere, peaceful, and righteous performances brought nearly 1,000 people to tears. Jennifer Hung, a Tai Ji Men member who returned to Hawaii 20 years later, recalled, "When everyone closed their eyes, they silently and sincerely prayed that there would be no more terrorist attacks, that the living would be comforted, and that the souls of the departed would rest in peace. At the end of the event, many people were very touched and praised us for being fearless and selfless. During the bell ringing ceremony on September 16, 2001, Dr. Hong explained the significance of the ceremony: The peaceful sound of the Bell brings the blessing of peace and stability. All living creatures in the world are our brothers and sisters. It is with a heavy heart that we pay tribute to the victims of September 11. Global solidarity and cooperation are an urgent imperative, and with sincere care from the heart, we can resolve the sorrow of the world and reignite the hope of life. Dr. Hong expressed his prayers for the 9/11 attacks: "May the souls of the deceased rest in peace, and I lead my disciples to pray with the world with a sincere heart and the mighty righteous energy from the auspicious formation. Let us resolve hatred and conflict with love. Representatives from many faiths and walks of life were invited to join in praying for Hawaii, the United States, and the world. The then Mayor of Honolulu Jeremy Harris expressed his appreciation to Tai Ji Mens contributions to world peace and praised Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze for being an outstanding leader who imparts the philosophy of yin and yang, and advocates the concept of physical, spiritual and mental health. Mayor Harris also commended the Cultural Goodwill Group organized by Dr. Hong for strengthening relationships among countries and cultures through cultural exchange. He proclaimed September 16, 2001 as Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Dr. Hong Tao Tze Day in the City and County of Honolulu. Tai Ji Men s leader and members consoled people's hearts with cultural performances full of love and peace in the aftermath of the terrorist atrocities. Twenty years later, Tai Ji Men members returned to Hawaii, and now the world is facing the impact of the pandemic, natural disasters and war. With the conviction that conscience is the wellspring of love, they promoted the International Day of Conscience in Honolulu and emphasized that conscience leads to good governance, and with conscience-driven politics, people will be blessed. They sang peaceful songs in various tourist attractions, hoping that global citizens will work together to overcome the pandemic with conscience. "When we sing, we think of true love and peace for everyone," said Tai Ji Men member Nunu Tun, adding, "We hope that everyone can return to the origin, which is a peaceful world. We are bringing the energy of love and peace to every corner of Honolulu again by singing songs like Love and Peace Song,' Love of the World ,' and Love.' "Twenty years ago, my parents were members of a cultural goodwill group that was to visit Honolulu for cultural exchange, but they couldn't make it because of the 9/11 attacks," recalled Alan Shih. It's a huge pity. I am delighted to be in Honolulu today, and I bring the best wishes of my parents and all of my Tai Ji Men brothers and sisters to this city. I pray that the world will be filled with love and peace, that everyone will act with conscience, and that every family will be happy. Another Tai Ji Men member Ying-fen Chang said, "We also went to Hawaii with the goal of drawing international attention to the significance of protecting religious freedom and human rights . The sacred land of Tai Ji Men was illegally auctioned and forcibly confiscated by the Taiwanese government on August 21, 2020, severely violating Tai Ji Men members freedom of belief and right to select their own path of self-cultivation. This has become a shocking case of human rights violations in the world." The ECOSOC-accredited NGO CAP-LC (Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberte de Conscience) submitted a written statement about the Tai Ji Men case and other unjust cases to the United Nations Human Rights Council, indicating that in various countries, taxation has been used as a weapon to discriminate against religious and spiritual minorities. On September 3, members of Tai Ji Men and the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 protested in front of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Honolulu, delivering a petition letter to Tseng Yong-Kwang, the Office's director-general, asking him to send their message to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. They were received by Director Joffrey Han of the Office, on his behalf. Tai Ji Men members urged President Tsai to lead her administration to truly rectify the Tai Ji Men case , revoke the unlawful 1992 tax bill, and return the illegally confiscated land to Tai Ji Men as soon as possible. Director Han stated that he would inform the director-general of their message. On September 4 and 5, members of Tai Ji Men and the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 continued to hold signs at various Honolulu attractions to protest the nearly quarter-century-long persecution of Tai Ji Men by a few Taiwanese rogue bureaucrats, and many Honolulu residents expressed their support for the protest and wished for a speedy resolution of the Tai Ji Men case . Tai Ji Men members sincerely hope that everyone's conscience will be awakened, that no more cases of injustice will occur, and that the world will be filled with love and peace! Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy : Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpai (similar to school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation. It has carried forward the wisdom of Daoist philosophy, one of the highest philosophies of humankind. It is an international nonprofit cultural organization. Its contemporary zhang-men-ren (grandmaster), Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide. Dr. Hong teaches his dizi (similar to disciples) methods to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual balance, and tens of thousands of families have benefited from his teaching. At Tai Ji Men, martial arts and wisdom have been passed down from the shifu (master) to his dizi. Through this time-honored tradition, the shifu and dizi promote the Tai Ji Men culture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill . Media Contact: Lily Chen Representative info@taijimenla.org 626-202-5268 www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/31e48365-ac67-48ae-a982-ff9b6e02465d LA HULPE, Belgium, September 17, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unifiedpost Group (Euronext: UPG) (Unifiedpost, the Group or the Company) is pleased to announce its second-quarter and half-year results for the period to June 30, 2021. Highlights Group revenue more than doubled to 80.7 million driven by acquisitions in the period Organic digital processing revenue growth of 13% y-o-y in Q2 2021, up from 10% y-o-y in Q1 2021 Post-IPO acquisition strategy completed and integration of six acquisitions during period is at advanced stages Gross margin of digital processing business increased by 0.8%pts y-o-y while adjusted Group EBITDA 1 improved to achieve break-even Cash and equivalents of 25.1 million with a further 28.7 million available in undrawn-financing sufficient to fund future development Company guidance for FY 2021 and years to come confirmed Commenting on the results, Hans Leybaert, CEO and Founder stated: "As we celebrate our first anniversary as a public company, I am proud of what our teams have achieved across Europe. With six acquisitions completed since the IPO, we have welcomed new colleagues, added new geographies, capabilities and customers large and small. This will enable us to enhance our offering and rapidly scale our network. I am confident that we now have in place the platform that will lead the digital transformation of document, identity, payments and related financial services for European SMEs. Our focus is now to raise organic growth. This will be done by further integration of the acquired companies generating additional sales, creating new ecosystems and speeding the network effects of the platform. Our communication and payments network is being rolled out across 30 countries and we are welcoming more new customers than ever before while growing the volume of services we offer to individual customers faster than ever before." Key Q2 figures (EUR million) Q2 2021 Q2 2020 Change (%) Digital processing revenue organic 18.7 16.6 +13% Digital processing revenue acquired business 7.4 - - Postage & parcel optimisation revenue 14.7 - - Group revenue 40.8 16.6 +146% Key H1 figures Story continues (EUR million) H1 2021 H1 2020 Change (%) Group revenue 80.7 33.5 +141% Digital processing revenue 50.4 33.5 +50% Postage & parcel optimisation revenue 30.3 - - Recurring digital revenue (in % of digital revenue) 94.5% 91.5% +3.0%pts Gross margin digital processing 42.8% 42.0% +0.8%pts Adjusted EBITDA margin 0.0% -3.1% +3.1%pts R&D costs (expensed and capitalised) 15.3 10.5 +46% Loss for the period -11.1 -16.9 +35% Cash and cash equivalents (as of 30 June) 25.1 8.6 - Revenue growth accelerated on the back of organic growth and acquisitions For the first half to June 30, 2021, Unifiedpost more than doubled its consolidated revenue to 80.7 million y-o-y, largely driven by the acquisitions completed in the period. Digital processing revenue, the core business of Unifiedpost, grew to 50.4 million, an increase of 50% y-o-y. Group revenue continued to be affected by COVID-19, notably in the UK, Belgium and Slovakia. However, this is expected to diminish in the coming quarters as economic activity resumes. In H1 2021, 94.5% of the digital processing revenue was recurring. This provides, together with the limited customer churn, a stable base for continued growth. Transaction fees increased by 187% y-o-y to 65.6 million due to the contribution from recent acquisitions, while subscription fees increased 44% y-o-y to 9.3 million fuelled by an increase in SME customers. Gross profit for the first half amounted to 24.9 million compared to 14.1 million in the previous years period. Excluding contribution from acquisitions, like-for-like gross profit for the period was stable. Approximately 87% of the Groups gross margin was generated by digital processing. The growth margin of this business saw an increase from 42% to 42.8%. Unifiedpost continues to invest in its platform development through upgrades and developments of additional services. During the first half of the year, the Group spent 15.3 million in R&D (of which 57% was capitalised and 43% expensed), equivalent to 30% of total digital processing revenue. G&A expenses for the period increased from 13.1 million to 18.6 million compared to the previous year due to a higher number of employees and the Groups general expansion, including its acquisitions. Sales & Marketing expenses were up from 5.0 million to 11.3 million, reflecting the Groups commercial efforts in the first half of the year. Due to the improvement in margins, the Group reported a significant reduction in its loss for the period of 5.8 million compared to the same period in the previous year. During the first six months of the year the Group completed six acquisitions for a total consideration of 146.6 million with 81.9 million in cash and 53.8 million through the issuance of new equity and 6.9 million repayment of loans. At the end of the period, the Group cash position was 25.1 million (cash and cash equivalents) in addition to approved and undrawn facilities totalling 28.7 million. The group has sufficient resources to continue to fund its capital expenditure and debt commitments. Unifiedposts equity increased from 168.2 million to 211.9 million in the reporting period. 53.8 million of this was attributable to the issue of shares in connection with the acquisitions made by means of a contribution in kind of vendor loans. Management guidance confirmed Following strong growth in the second quarter and further anticipated acceleration into the second half of the year, Unifiedpost reiterates its FY2021 organic revenue growth forecast of at least 15% in its digital processing revenue. For FY2022 and FY2023 Unifiedpost also confirms the guidance provided in April 2021, with organic digital processing revenue growth of 25% for FY2022, stepping up to 30% in FY2023. Management also reaffirms digital processing revenue gross margin guidance of +60% by 2023 and an adjusted EBITDA margin expected to exceed 25% by FY2023. Digitalising the financial supply chain processes Unifiedpost enables members of its business network to interact digitally, exchange documents, execute payments and optimise cashflows all via Unifiedposts integrated platform. The Companys ambition is to become the leading player in the ongoing digital transformation and to create an unrivalled pan-European business network. The taken path of geographical expansion, additional network effects and increased digitisation gives Unifiedpost an excellent position to achieve this goal. Building a pan-European one-stop-shop The integration of the six acquisitions is advancing well. The teams involved, including the local management from acquired companies, have been successfully retained, preserving high-value knowledge and experience, facilitating the financial and business integration of all the companies to plan. Consequently, the roll-out and migration of customers to the Unifiedpost premium SME platform has already commenced. Unifiedposts premium SME solution has been rebranded to Banqup to streamline marketing efforts. The managements intention is to gradually phase out legacy brands such as Billtobox. The speed of the roll-out of Banqup has exceeded expectations, from two countries at the end of March, to 13 at present, with plans to roll this out to 30 countries by the end of year four more than originally planned (additional countries include Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal and Austria). Growing the network Unifiedpost has set ambitious targets for new customer onboarding. At the end of the period, the organic new customer growth across the network was 41% y-o-y and 16% compared to the end of December 2020. The consolidated network, including the businesses and customers of the acquired companies, expanded to over 980,000 companies, representing an estimated 4% of SMEs in Europe. In Belgium the number of customers on Billtobox grew by 45% y-o-y at H1 2021. Encouragingly the number of transactions grew even faster than that of the customers, demonstrating the improved adoption of the platform. The number of transactions in the first half of 2021 increased 67% compared to the previous six months, and 170% compared to the same period last year. Unifiedpost has created new business ecosystems through agreements with new partners and wholesalers to offer its SME solution to their customers, the largest representing approximately 80,000 customers. In France the focus was on the integration of JeFacture with the various IT systems. This preparatory work is key to be ready to welcome the flow of enterprises that will have to join the platform before the end of 2022 as the obligation to dematerialise all B2B invoices in France starts to be being enforced as from the 1st of January 2023. The ecosystem of JeFacture is getting enriched by key partnerships with, amongst others, ACD (3rd largest accounting solution), RCA (intranet / extranet solution) and Effiz (a middleware between JeFacture and several accounting softwares). JeFacture.com will be presented jointly with several new partnerships and new features announcements by ECMA during the yearly CPA congress between the 6th and 8th of October 2021. Growing payment service adoption Unifiedpost invoice payment solutions are adopted more and more by the platform users. In total 292,312 payment transactions were processed between business partners on the platform during the period, an increase of 71% y-o-y, representing a total payment value of 51.5 million, equivalent to 176 on average per payment. During the period the Unifiedpost multiple bank portal for corporates handled 32 million payment transactions for the customers (credit transfers and direct debits together), representing a payment value of 12 billion. Investors, analyst & media webcast: Management will host a live video webcast for investors and media today at 2 p.m. CET. A presentation can be followed via live webcast. A recording will be available shortly after the event. To attend, please register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6187452624717239308 A full replay and a copy of the slides will be available after the webcast at: https://www.unifiedpost.com/en/investor-relations Financial Calendar Publication 2021 Q3 business update November 19, 2021 Investor Day December 1, 2021 About Unifiedpost Unifiedpost is a leading cloud-based platform for SME business services built on Documents, Identity, Payments and associated finance services. Unifiedpost operates and develops a comprehensive cloud-based platform for administrative and financial services that allows real-time and seamless connections between Unifiedposts customers, their suppliers, their customers, and other parties along the financial value chain. With its one-stop-shop solutions, Unifiedposts mission is to make administrative and financial processes simple and smart for its customers. Since its founding in 2001, Unifiedpost has grown significantly, expanding to offices in 26 countries, with more than 400 million documents processed in 2020, reaching over 980,000 SMEs and more than 2,500 Corporates across its platform today. Noteworthy facts and figures: Established in 2001, with a proven track record Revenue of 146 million (pro-forma 2020) 1,300+ employees 400+ million documents processed in 2020 Diverse portfolio of clients across a wide variety of industries, including banking, leasing, utilities, media, telecommunications, travel, social security service providers, public organisations, ranging from SMEs to large corporates. Unifiedpost Payments, a fully owned subsidiary, is recognised as a payment institution by the National Bank of Belgium Certified SWIFT partner M&A track record of 17 acquisitions in last 9 years Quoted on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels, symbol: UPG (*) Warning about future statements: The statements contained herein may contain forecasts, future expectations, opinions and other future-oriented statements concerning the expected further performance of Unifiedpost on the markets in which it is active. Such future-oriented statements are based on the current insights and assumptions of management concerning future events. They naturally include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which seem justified at the time that the statements are made but may possibly turn out to be inaccurate. The actual results, performance or events may differ essentially from the results, performance or events which are expressed or implied in such future-oriented statements. Except where required by the applicable legislation, Unifiedpost shall assume no obligation to update, elucidate or improve future-oriented statements in this press release in the light of new information, future events or other elements and shall not be held liable on that account. The reader is warned not to rely unduly on future-oriented statements. 1 Adjusted EBITDA for a period, as EBITDA plus share-based payment expense, non-recurring operational expenses, acquisitions expenses, costs in relation with the Companys listing, less other income and expenses. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210916005920/en/ Contacts Enquiries Hans Leybaert, CEO +32 477 23 94 80 hans.leybaert@unifiedpost.com Laurent Marcelis, CFO +32 477 61 81 37 laurent.marcelis@unifiedpost.com Investor Relations & Media Sarah Heuninck +32 491 15 05 09 sarah.heuninck@unifiedpost.com CARACAS, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Venezuela's government said on Friday that the opposition is aiming to "sabotage" an internationally-mediated dialogue process underway in Mexico between the two sides in an effort to resolve the South American country's deep political crisis. The statement came amid escalating disputes over the country's two main overseas assets, refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp in the United States and chemical company Monomeros in Colombia, which have been under opposition control since Washington and Bogota recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate president in 2019. President Nicolas Maduro's government has said it intends to use the negotiation process, mediated by Norway, to press for the return of those assets to government control. In an earlier round of talks, the two sides had agreed to an agenda, including discussions over the "restoration of the right to assets," without further details. In the Friday statement, the government's delegation pointed to a Colombian regulator's recent takeover https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/maduro-demand-control-crimped-finances-colombias-monomeros-ex-chair-says-2021-09-14 of Monomeros' operations, and to the U.S. Treasury Department's statement that it would reassess whether to continue https://www.reuters.com/business/us-denies-crystallex-request-citgo-shares-will-reassess-2022-2021-09-15 protecting Citgo from attempted seizure by creditors as signs that the opposition, through its key allies, was breaking from that commitment. "The Bolivarian government alerts the Venezuelan people, the countries that accompany this dialogue, and the mediator, the Kingdom of Norway, of this attempt to disregard the agreements reached and break off the dialogue and negotiation process," the government said, according to a statement posted on Twitter by delegation leader Jorge Rodriguez. An opposition spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government this week said it intended to add Alex Saab, a businessman close to Maduro who is currently jailed in Cape Verde, to its negotiating team, and in response the opposition said it would not be "distracted" from its negotiating agenda. The next round of talks are expected to take place from Sept. 24-27 in Mexico City. (Reporting by Deisy Buitrago in Caracas Writing by Luc Cohen; Editing by Aurora Ellis) A woman wearing a surgical mask sits at a sewing machine in a Vietnamese factory. Companies have spent the past several years moving manufacturing out of China and into neighboring southeast Asian nations, both to exploit cheaper labor in other countries and to dodge tariffs imposed during the Trump administrations trade war with China. Vietnam has been one of the most popular destinations for US companies opening up new factories, along with Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Malaysia. Now, companies are scrapping those efforts and moving their factories back to China after a punishing wave of Covid-19 infections has shuttered factories across Vietnam. After three months of lockdowns, the Vietnamese government is only just beginning to gradually ease restrictions. Earnings calls are resounding with executives worries over their lost manufacturing capacity. I talked to one CEO who shared with me that he had six years of supply chain work they undid in six days, said Roger Rawlins, CEO of the footwear and accessory conglomerate Designer Brands, according to a FactSet transcript of a Sept. 14 management conference. And when you think about the amount of effort everyone was putting into getting out of China, and now one of the places where you can get goods is Chinait really is crazy, the rollercoaster that everybodys been on. Vietnam faces its worst coronavirus outbreak Vietnam had largely managed to avoid major coronavirus outbreaks until June, when the highly transmissible Delta variant helped spark a nationwide surge in cases. The outbreak threatened to overwhelm the country, which has fully vaccinated just 4% of its population. In response, the Vietnamese government shut down factories and ordered them to reopen only under strict conditions in which workers had to live in quarantined dormitories attached to their worksites. The restrictions have sharply reduced the countys manufacturing output and have started to eat into global brands bottom lines. Adidas, for instance, has said Vietnamese production delays will cost the company $600 million in lost sales this year. Executives at Hooker Furniture estimated that their Home Meridian International brand will see sales fall 30% this quarter as a result of the lockdowns. Its going to be tough with factories closed like that, CFO Paul Huckfeldt said on a Sept. 9 earnings call. Story continues Manufacturing moves out of Vietnam Some businesses have responded by reversing their move to Vietnam as quickly as they can. Charles Roberson, CEO of protective clothing manufacturer Lakeland Industries, said on a Sept. 9 earnings call that the company hired new executives to help it shift production capacity from Vietnam to China in a matter of weeks. Others have taken a more cautious approach by expanding across the region. We actually have diversified quite a bit out of Vietnam, said Jeremy Hoff, CEO of Hooker Furniture, on a Sept. 9 earnings call. Were in Thailand. Were in different areas. Were evencandidly, weve even gone back to China a little bit when necessary. Executives arent eager to return to China. For one thing, many companies had to overcome significant logistical hurdles to shift manufacturing from China to Vietnam during the pandemic: finding workers, relocating equipment, establishing new freight strategies for getting goods through congested roads and ports. Setting supply chains back up in China will be costly and time-consuming. Theres another cost to consider for businesses: US tariffs for goods exported from China. Shawn Nelson, CEO of the beanbag-focused furniture maker LoveSac, said on a Sept. 9 earnings call that his company has had to divert production orders from Vietnam to China. We know that the inventory that comes in from China is impacted by tariffs, he said, but it allows us to stay in-stock on our inventory, which is super important to us as it is to our customers. The company has eliminated promotional discounts to offset the cost of tariffs. For many, returning to China is simply the least bad option they have to boost production ahead of what is shaping up to be a chaotic holiday shopping season. During the pandemic, China has developed a reputation for stability. Harvard University management professor Willy Shih said some companies began moving back to China as early as last year. There were already spot instances of that, he wrote in an email. The key question is if you want reliable manufacturing, China is often the best place for it. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief, our free daily newsletter with the worlds most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: The Education Ministry of the Taliban-led Afghan government says middle schools, high schools, and madrasahs for males will reopen on September 18, with no mention of when girls in those classes will return amid indications that the department of womens affairs is undergoing a radical change. The order from the Education Ministry applies to boys and teenagers from grade six and above and their teachers according to a statement on September 17. There was no reference to girls in the statement. Students in lower grades have already been told to return to school. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in 1996-2001, girls were not allowed to attend school and women were banned from work and education. After toppling the Western-backed government in Kabul a month ago, the hard-line Islamist group suggested it had changed, including in its attitude toward women and girls. Many Afghans were taken aback when last month the Taliban-led government announced that female university students could continue their studies but only in gender-segregated classes and if they wore a niqab -- an Islamic veil that covers the face and abaya -- a loose-fitting and all-covering robe. For 20 years university students of both genders studied in joint classes and did not have to abide by a dress code. Meanwhile, in Kabul on September 17, workers replaced a sign for the department of women's affairs with one indicating the ministry would revert to the role it played in the earlier Taliban government as its moral police. A sign for the building was covered by a replacement in a mixture of Dari and Arabic reading Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, according to photographs and witnesses quoted by Reuters. Female employees said they had been trying to report to work in the building for several weeks only to be told to return to their homes, according to videos filmed outside the building seen by Reuters. The gates of the building were locked on September 16, one of the women said. A Taliban spokesman did not respond to requests for comment, Reuters said. During the Talibans earlier rule its Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice became known as the group's moral police, enforcing its interpretation of Sharia law that included a strict dress code and public executions and floggings. A list of cabinet posts announced by the Taliban on September 7 included an acting minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice and made no mention of a department of women's affairs. No women were included in the list of senior government positions. This story includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection. With reporting by dpa and Reuters The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Talibans mounting attacks on press freedoms with at least 153 media organizations being forced to cease operations as the hard-line Islamist group solidifies its rule over the country. In a statement on September 17, the world's largest organization of journalists also cited women journalists being barred from working, telecommunication shutdowns, and ever-increasing threats and violence toward media workers. The Brussels-based group said more than 7,000 media workers had been affected by the Taliban takeover, with many prevented from working, in hiding and fearful for their lives and those of their families. I believe what we will see emerge is an official media -- a Taliban media -- and no women. All other journalists will just disappear, said IFJ Secretary-General Anthony Bellanger. The statement cited escalating reports of Taliban militants detaining journalists, seizing their equipment, and subjecting them to torture or beatings. There has been growing fear that the government installed by the Taliban after it gained control of most of the war-torn country a month ago will return to the brutal rule the group employed during its first stint in power from 1996 to 2001. The Taliban has sought to reassure the international community, promising inclusiveness and a general amnesty for former opponents, but many Afghans remain deeply fearful, especially after the group formed an all-male government led by hard-line veterans, banned protests, and cracked down on demonstrators and journalists. The Taliban-led government has also instructed telecommunications providers to cut Internet and mobile service in areas of Kabul, according to the IFJ. It said there were also serious concerns for journalists safety after the Taliban released some 1,000 serious criminals from prisons, who are now threatening reporters who covered their arrests and detention. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged the Taliban to immediately cease the use of force towards, and the arbitrary detention of, those exercising their right to peaceful assembly and the journalists covering the protests. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said incidents involving media personnel have been on the rise in both Kabul and provincial cities, with Afghan journalists being harassed by the Taliban, arrested, and beaten with cables. Leaders of the Russia- and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have urged the world to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets and boost assistance to the war-torn nation as it teeters on the brink of crisis following the Talibans return to power last month. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, told a parallel summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on September 17 that failure to provide necessary support to Afghanistan could allow terrorism and drugs to flourish while pushing the country into a full-blown humanitarian crisis -- a perspective that has raised alarm of the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to pour over the border. Founded 20 years ago to combat what it calls the three evils of separatism, extremism, and terrorism, the Eurasian security bloc initially consisted of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan before India and Pakistan joined in 2017. In Dushanbe, CSTO leaders also said they were beginning the process of accepting Iran into the organization. Since Taliban militants swept into Kabul on August 15, some $9 billion in foreign reserves of Afghanistans central bank have been frozen -- most of it held in the United States. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, foreign governments, and other donors have suspended payments to Afghanistan, while ordinary bank transfers to individuals in the country also have been blocked, leaving ordinary Afghans reeling from rocketing inflation, rising poverty, cash shortages, a plummeting currency, and rising unemployment. Addressing the SCO summit via video link, Putin insisted that the organization should do its "utmost" to prevent the threats of "terrorism, drug trafficking, and religious extremism" emanating from Afghanistan. He added that the security bloc should "use its potential" to "stimulate the new Afghan authorities" in fulfilling their promises on normalizing life and bringing security in Afghanistan. I think it also makes sense to work with the United States [and] other Western countries for a gradual unfreezing of Afghanistans reserves and restoring programs through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund," he added while blaming Washington in large part for the current situation, saying it should bear the "main part" of the expenses related to the rebuilding process. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, whose country borders Afghanistan, called for efforts to prevent the rise of extremism in Afghanistan, saying that unfreezing the assets kept in foreign banks could help achieve these goals by facilitating dialogue with the Taliban-led government in Kabul. Chinas Xi said SCO member nations should help to drive a smooth transition in Afghanistan and assist it in developing an inclusive political structure that would see it follow moderate internal and external policies, according to Chinese state media. Beijing has called on the Taliban to hold to its pledge to restrain militants seeking independence for the northwestern region of Xinjiang. Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan called for economic support for Afghanistan to prevent a humanitarian crisis and an economic meltdown. We must remember that the previous government depended heavily on foreign aid and its removal could lead to economic collapse," Khan said, adding that Islamabad thinks that positive engagement of the international community with Afghanistan is extremely important." Pakistan has been accused of supporting the group as it battled the U.S.-backed government in Kabul for 20 years -- a charge denied by Islamabad. Tajik President Emomali Rahmon called for members countries of the SCO and the CSTO to create a "reliable security belt around Afghanistan to stop the possible expansion of terrorist groups" in the region. "The current developments and the high risks of a catastrophic scenario confirm the necessity of helping countries bordering Afghanistan," Rahmon told the gathering in Dushanbe on September 17. Rahmon said "the entire burden of negative impacts" following the withdrawal of the international coalition from Afghanistan "will be placed on Afghanistans neighboring countries." "Contrary to their statements, the Taliban are following the path of creating an Islamic emirate with rules that are foreign to the modern era and the government they formed consists of their members only," Rahmon said. He said the capabilities of the SCO's regional anti-terrorist structure need to be bolstered along with "the interaction of our countries' law enforcement agencies and special services" in order to counter "challenges and threats" emanating from Taliban-led Afghanistan. Rahmon also expressed serious concern over the situation in Panjshir Valley, the last pocket of resistance to the Taliban takeover, reiterating his call for the international community to provide emergency assistance to the province, which he said has been under a "complete [Taliban] blockade for about two months." With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and AFP The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on September 17 to renew the mandate of its political mission in Afghanistan for another six months following the Talibans takeover of the country in August. The 15-member council asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report by the end of next January on the strategic and operational recommendations for the mandate of the political mission of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan -- known as UNAMA. UNAMAs political mission deals with issues related to development and humanitarian aid but not peacekeeping. The Security Council said the recommendations in Guterress report should address the recent political, security, and social developments since the internationally backed Afghan government was ousted and replaced by a Taliban-led caretaker government. The Security Council resolution also called on the Taliban to establish an inclusive and representative government to replace its recently named caretaker government. It said the Taliban should form a government with "full, equal, and meaningful participation of women, and upholding human rights, including for women, children, and minorities." The Taliban-led caretaker government is composed only of Taliban hard-liners, and the Department of Womens Affairs has been dismantled, the UNs special envoy on Afghanistan said last week. In fact, out of 33 appointees named by the Taliban last week, 30 are ethnic Pashtun Taliban figures. There were only two ethnic Tajik appointees and just one ethnic Uzbek. The Taliban-led government has not been recognized by any country. The resolution approved on September 17 says the UN will continue to play an "important role" in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan. Diplomats said the Taliban did not object to the UNAMA mandate being renewed. Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP FILE - This 2018 portrait released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Connecticut's U.S. Attorney John Durham. Tasked with examining the U.S. government's investigation into Russian election interference, special counsel John Durham charged a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, with making a false statement to the FBI. The case against the attorney, Michael Sussmann of the Perkins Coie law firm, is just the second prosecution brought by special counsel John Durham in two-and-a-half years of work. U.S. Department of Justice via AP, File) Its easy to fall in love with Betty at first sight. Because at first sight, you see the 1958 Mercury canned-ham camper that looks like it was plucked out of a magazine page. Kelli Crosby renovated the vintage camper with that vision in mind. And with help from a certain website. Pinterest, she says. Pinterest with a capital P. She describes Betty as a beauty and pretty darn cute. And shes not just for looks. Betty is a new mobile bar available for rent in the Colorado Springs area and one of two on-wheels pop-up bars run by Crosby under the name Sugar Moon Mobile Bar Co. Starting the business, and bringing the trend to Colorado Springs, was an unexpected path for Crosby. DETAILS To rent one of Sugar Moon's mobile bars, starting at $600 per day, visit sugarmoonmobilebar.com. In May 2020, she left her career of 20 years as a physical therapist in search of something new. The change had nothing to do with the pandemic. It was cancer. When she was 35, 10 years ago, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She fought through what she calls the worst year of her life. And she found a new perspective on life. I realized that life is short, she said. That was the impetus for wanting a change. I was asking myself, What else do I want to do in this lifetime? She started dreaming of owning some land, where she and her husband could run a wedding venue. When she followed that dream, another one stepped in. While researching wedding venues, Crosby came across the trend of mobile bars, built out of pickup trucks or horse trailers or campers. Mobile bars have popped up in Denver, Boulder and Crested Butte. But not in the Pikes Peak region. So Crosby decided to go for it. I just thought, This sounds fun, she said. And Ill do this in the meantime. That turned into the mobile bar business she launched in early June. Along with Betty, the business includes a teal 1962 Cushman Truckster revamped as a convertible tap truck named Otho. Both Betty and Otho are available to book for events like weddings or birthday parties. Crosby and her husband share a love for do-it-yourself projects, which boded well for renovating the vehicles into bars that are not only picturesque, but functional. They just need bartenders and alcohol, details which are left up to customers who book the mobile bar. The allure of the bars comes from the look. Theyre just cool to look at, Crosby said. People always say its such an eye-catching structure. And then they are so excited to figure out its a bar. As for the name, Sugar Moon is a nod to Colorado moonshiners from the 1920s, who started making moonshine from sugar beets, an easy-to-grow crop locally due to an abundance of sunny Colorado days. Locals called that concoction sugar moon. That ties into the vintage aesthetic of the bars, which Crosby sums up as Instagram worthy. These days, its all about photos, she said. And people want to take photos with these. Choose from more than 300 tea varieties and participate in a Chinese tea ceremony at Yellow Mountain Tea House in Old Colorado City. While the tea is made in front of you, youll learn the best way to brew and steep tea. yellow-mountain-organic-tea.com Carlotta Olson Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Colorado Springs, CO (80903) Today Clear skies. Low around 40F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low around 40F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Barry Morphew, who was charged with murder a year after his wife disappeared on Mother's Day 2020, could bail out of jail as soon as Monday ahead of a trial in her death, a judge in Salida ruled Friday. Chaffee County Judge Patrick Murphy ruled there was probably cause to try Morphew three weeks after hearings in his courtroom aired evidence in the case. That evidence included details of the stormy marriage of Barry and Suzanne Morphew, who lived in rural Maysville, just west of Monarch Pass. The judge also decided Morphew should have a chance at freedom ahead of his trial, setting bail at $500,000 in cash. Prosecutors had asked for a $10 million bail to ensure Morphew returns to court, saying some witnesses in the case feared violence. Asking for a low bail, defense attorneys portrayed Morphew as a loving father of two children who owned a local business and had proven himself an upstanding member of society. The also pointed to his 30-year marriage. Murphy set $500,000 amount after citing Morphew's lack of a criminal record and the fact that he's stayed in Colorado while his wife's disappearance was investigated. The court said Morphew could post the bail as soon as Monday. In addition to the murder charge Morphew, 53, faces charges of evidence tampering and attempting to influence a public servant in his 49-year-old wife's disappearance. Her body hasn't been found. His attorneys have argued Barry Morphew should be freed because there's no evidence his wife has died, much less that he killed her. In the absence of a corpse, prosecutors have during the evidence hearing spun a web of circumstantial evidence to tie Barry Morphew to the death, with text messages and contradictions in statements to authorities to show there's cause to take the case to trial. Dressed in a gray suit with no shackles or handcuffs, as has been routine during this summer's hearings, Morphew entered a Chaffee County courtroom filled with lifelong friends who flew to Colorado to support him. Morphew's friend Todd Skinner was at the courthouse door at 5 a.m. to make sure he got a seat for the hearing. "Barry as a murderer is not the guy I knew," Skinner told the Gazette. "Whenever I saw Suzanne and Barry together, they never raised a voice to each other." Although Skinner admits he has seen some red flags which bothered him about his old friend's behavior, he said he wanted to be here to support Barry Morphew. Red flags in the Morphew household were on display during the evidence hearing last month. Prosecutors allege Barry Morphew was angry that his wife was cheating with an old high school flame. They say he killed her after becoming enraged over text messages she sent to her paramour while sunbathing on the deck of their home. According to prosecutors, Suzanne Morphew sent a final proof of life bikini selfie to her lover Jeff Libler at 2:07 pm on May 9, 2020. Half an hour later, cell phone signals showed that Barry Morphew pulled up in the driveway in his truck after running work errands, prosecutors said. According to testimony at the hearing, Mr. Morphew told investigators that he and Suzanne had been fighting recently. But he said they had rekindled their romance the night of May 9, 2020, sharing a steak before a night of love-making, prosecution witnesses testified. A landscaper, Morphew drove to Broomfield that day, he told them, to do a job, witnesses testified. Prosecutors have called out inconsistent statements they say he made throughout their investigation, including the fact that police only found the remnants of one steak, one plate, and one knife. They also noted that Morphew made multiple trash runs in public receptacles once he got to Broomfield. Morphew's Denver defense attorneys Iris Eytan and Dru Nielsen have argued that Suzanne is not dead, but may have run away to wait for her lover in Ecuador. Barry Morphew himself suggested early on that she may have been killed and dragged off by a mountain lion, according to testimony. Reaction to the censure of Tay Anderson on the political front Friday was stone silence, but parents who have been critical of the embattled Denver Public Schools board member said they were still convinced he's undeterred. A man angry about the removal of a sign for his restaurant shot two people in the head during a workplace meeting before opening fire on others on Sept. 9, an open arrest warrant shows. Court papers allege Lamar Taylor, 43, was angry at two managers Kevin Patterson, 62, and James Love, 58, of the Elks Lodge at 3680 North Citadel Drive, who according to a lodge bartender had taken down Taylors sign advertising his catering service, Union Cuisine, also located in the building. The three sat down to discuss the issue sometime before 3:45 p.m. last Thursday in the lodges kitchen, police said in an affidavit backing the arrest warrant. At some point during the meeting, detectives said, Taylor abruptly shouted, stood up, and pulled a small-caliber pistol. Patterson also got up, and tried to run before Taylor shot him. When Patterson fell, investigators said Taylor turned the gun on Love, shooting him in the head. Karen Williams, the lodges bartender who first reported the shooting, told police that as she ran from the building, she heard another shot and glass breaking on the front door, where she had just exited. She told police she thought Lamar had fired at her as well. Police said Taylor shot at Patterson at least one more time before leaving through the buildings back door and walking to his SUV parked nearby. Police said he grabbed a shotgun from the vehicle, and turned back toward the lodge. Jesus Martinez, a 21-year-old construction worker on a job site nearby, told police he was walking to the lodge for a bathroom break when he saw Taylor, shotgun in hand, near the building. Martinez said Taylor aimed the shotgun at him, racked a shell, and fired. When Martinez turned to run, Taylor fired toward the crew, police said. Police said a worker at a nearby auto garage, who gave a description of the shooter that matched Taylor, told detectives that after hearing several shots, he saw the shooter jump into a black Nissan SUV and race toward North Academy Boulevard. Tracy Collins, who worked for Patterson and Love at the lodge, told detectives she was asked to attend the deadly meeting, but had refused out of concern for her safety, court papers allege. She told investigators that was because she'd been harassed by Taylor, and had filed a complaint against him. Police showed Collins surveillance footage of the shooting from cameras inside the lodge and she identified the shooter as Taylor, court papers said. Authorities said they corroborated that identification with a photo and description of Taylor pulled from a Colorado Department of Revenue database. Love and Patterson were pronounced dead at a local hospital on Sept. 10. Police said Taylor is wanted for the murder of Love and Patterson and other potential charges. As easily predicted, Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper did it again! They allowed another loss for Colorado, failing to dissuade the Colorado Republicans behind a plan to cancel the GOP's primary election next year and instead designate nominees at party assemblies say that allowing unaffiliated voters to help pick their candidates is like letting fans of a rival football team choose the Broncos' starting quarterback. IRS plans for cracking cryptocurrency wallets Over the past decade, the emergence and rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies have led many to hold their assets in cryptowallets, purpose-built software and devices that store the public and private cryptographic keys to track ownership of cryptocurrencies so users can send, receive and store digital currency. While cryptocurrencies and wallets are legal, they are often used in ransomware attacks, where criminals demand payment in virtually untraceable Bitcoin. Even if a hardware cryptowallet -- one of the most secure wallet types that is often used for storing large amounts of cryptocurrency -- is submitted as evidence in a criminal investigation, law enforcement has no way to access the data if its owner is unwilling or unable to unlock the wallet. Now, the IRS Criminal Investigation unit will be working to unlock cryptocurrency wallets so investigators can more easily track the movement of cryptocurrencies and potentially recover stolen assets and prevent theft of digital currency. IRS will be working with VTO Inc., a Colorado-based firm specializing in device forensics, to research and develop techniques for gaining access to cryptowallets by exploiting hardware, software and firmware vulnerabilities that may exist in the secure devices. The IRSs goal is to develop a body of research on cryptographic wallet exploitation, leveraging digital forensics for firmware analysis, hardware reverse engineering techniques and deconstruction of printed circuit boards and integrated circuit packages among others. It expects to build a consistent and repeatable process for gaining access to existing and future wallets that can be taught and followed in a digital forensics laboratory. VTO will first be tasked with exploiting a single device type, or specific model, and showing how it can compromise the integrity of the cryptowallet protections and seize its contents. Once this practice can be applied consistently, VTO will work on exploiting a variety of wallets to identify trends in exploitation techniques and any variables that are consistent across different devices. Through this work with VTO, the IRS will have device-specific acquisition/exploitation processes, guide, and training for each device topic for utilization in a digital forensics laboratory. Read more about the project here. " " (From left) Capt. Gary Torgerson of the Colorado State Patrol and James Holahan, manager of the Grand County Office of Emergency Management, examine the fortified bulldozer driven by Marvin Heemeyer where it came to rest at Gambles in Granby, Colorado. Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post via Getty Images Marvin Heemeyer built a tank. He built a tank, leveled a good portion of a previously quiet small town in the Rocky Mountains with it, then immediately gained a measure of fame because of it, and almost as immediately met an inglorious end. But here's where the story gets weird (as if it isn't weird already). Somehow during the past 17 years since, Heemeyer has become a legend of sorts. A patriot, even, in some people's eyes. A hero for our troubled times. Which, for more than one witness to this bizarre chapter in modern American history, is simply wrong. Just flat out wrong. A man with a grudge built something, instantly christened a "killdozer," to tear up a town: How is he a hero? "It is the predominant narrative; that Marv was screwed by this small town board that was out to get him, that the local community was out to get him," says Patrick Brower, the author of a book on Heemeyer and his tank. "People get focused on this, that Marv was victimized by the town. But the idea, somehow, that Granby was sophisticated enough to launch this campaign to go get Marv really defies my imagination." " " Granby is a small town in northern Colorado with about 2,000 residents. Wikimedia/(CC BY-SA 4.0) Advertisement The Start of It All Heemeyer's story, at least the interesting part, begins in Granby, a town in a high basin of the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado. Granby, elevation somewhere around 8,000 feet (2,438 meters), is small. Fewer than 2,000 people live there now, and it was no bigger than that in June 2004, when Heemeyer bulldozed his way into history. Tourism is a draw in the area, though Granby is hardly the center of it. But Rocky Mountain National Park is less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) away. Denver is less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south. If you want to see the grandeur of the Rockies, any time of the year, and want to get away from the crowds, going through Granby would not be out of the question. "It's not like a boutique tourism town, like an Aspen or a Vail. It's not really like that at all," Brower says. "It's really a mix between that and just a service town," with a couple of banks, a concrete plant, an electrical co-op and many businesses that cater to the tourism industry. Granby also is like a lot of small towns in America in that it's a place where it's relatively easy to get to know people and for people to know you. Like it or not. "There's new people coming and going a lot here, but it definitely has its good old boy local element as well," Brower says, "an element that Marv really tried to capitalize on." " " An officer on Main Street looks over the fortified bulldozer driven by Marvin Heemeyer that wreaked havoc in Granby, Colorado. Hyoung Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images Advertisement Who Was Heemeyer? Heemeyer had moved to a town outside of Granby in the fall of 1991 and was running a muffler shop he had opened in Granby years earlier. By all accounts, he was a wizard as a welder. He was, by his own account (on recordings that he made in the weeks before he embarked on his tankcapade), a successful business owner. He was happy, snowmobiling with his friends, hot-tubbing at his cabin and working hard at his shop. But as any small-business owner in any small town anywhere in America will tell you, the red tape can be a bear. And Granby had its share of red tape. Heemeyer found himself at odds with others in the community, both in government and outside of it, after buying some land at auction (to, he says, at least one person's discontent). Then he tried to get an easement for a sewer line. Heemeyer wasn't willing to pay a good deal of money to tie into the existing sewer line, and the problems that caused with the town government bloomed into a multiyear disagreement. Heemeyer complained to the town council about neighboring businesses, lashed out at other land and business owners, and generally railed at anyone who he felt was trying to take advantage of him. He sued, and sued again. Finally, after more than a decade of bad blood between Heemeyer and the town and some of his fellow business owners, he sold his property (for about 10 times what he bought it for) and did what he felt he had to do. "Basically, what all this is going to prove when it's all over with if it's ever all over with, which I doubt it's going to prove, I hope it's going to prove to people, that meddling in your neighbors' business is destructive for the most part," Heemeyer said on one of his pre-tankcapade recordings. "It's going to come back to haunt you ... And it can come back to haunt you in spades. And the only person you have to blame is yourself." Marv Heemeyer took all that money he made on the sale of his property and the welding skills he had honed over a lifetime and, surreptitiously over the course of more than a year, built himself a tank on a bulldozer body. A tank, complete with thick steel-plated walls to ward off attackers and a couple of guns to inflict some harm. And June 4, 2004, Heemeyer took that tank to the streets of Granby to exact his revenge. " " The Granby City Hall building was damaged during Heemeyer's rampage through the town. Hyoung Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images Advertisement A Smoke-spewing Apocalypse The whole ugly Friday is recounted in Brower's book, "Killdozer: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage," and it's the subject of a 2020 documentary, now available on Netflix, called "Tread." A ton of videos of that day, too, are available online, many of them containing archival news footage of the rampage. Heemeyer, behind the controls of his steel-and-concrete reinforced killdozer, began his attack on the town and his enemies at about 3 p.m., bursting through a wall of the secret shop where he constructed his monstrosity. First, he flattened a couple buildings at a close-by concrete batch plant that he had complained about to the town council. And then, with what seemed to be a clear plan, he got even with others on his list. By the time he was finished, he had demolished 13 buildings, including the town hall and the library within it, the police station, the home of the ex-mayor, a bank, numerous vehicles, the newspaper where Brower worked and the local hardware store. During the rampage, law enforcement tried to stop Heemeyer and his dozer with volleys of gunfire. Nothing worked. Heemeyer, with powerful rifles mounted inside the tank, shot at police and at least one of his rival business owners. He aimed his guns at propane tanks and fired, apparently trying to set off a major explosion (with what could have been a great loss of life). He plowed down buildings with people still in them. Others gathered in the streets to watch the odd spectacle. Brower was in the newspaper offices that afternoon when Heemeyer came by, sending the walls tumbling and Brower running into the street. "Right from the start, the day of the rampage, and I was running for my life from my building that he was destroying ... I knew, right away, I said, 'I'm on the wrong side of this story,'" says Brower, who had been covering Heemeyer's interactions with the town government for years and had met with him to hear out his beef against the paper. "There was a woman talking on the local radio station as Marv was going through town ... she was sitting there saying, 'Marv is just a gentle giant, he's a teddy bear of a guy, he would only hurt people who hurt him ... ' It's just galling." The wrecking spree went on for some 90 minutes, but miraculously despite the machine's meme-made name and Heemeyer's best if ultimately inept efforts no one was killed. No one, that is, except Heemeyer, who took his own life not long after his not-quite-lethal weapon bogged down in the middle of razing Gambles hardware store. "The idea somehow that Marv didn't want to hurt anybody is absolutely absurd," Brower says. "He just failed." After hours of trying to get into the stalled-out dozer, police finally cut through a steel door and pulled out Heemeyer's body in the darkened morning hours of June 5. Heemeyer was 52 years old. "Had they not meddled in my business," Heemeyer pronounced in his pre-rampage manifesto, "this whole thing would have turned out completely different." " " A destroyed Xcel energy truck is stuck into the Mountain Parks Electric building after Marvin Heemeyer's rampage with an armored bulldozer. Hyoung Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images Advertisement A Martyr Is Born Granby has been rebuilt, including a new town hall. These days, when the curious roll through the town, they look for wrecked buildings and bulldozer tracks, or some other sign of the tank, but only the stories remain. The killdozer itself was cut into pieces and scrapped. Meanwhile, Heemeyer has become, to many people who inhabit the fringes of the internet, an example of someone who stood up for his beliefs, who took on a corrupt establishment and, when he couldn't beat it, did his machine-welding best to bring it down. As often is the case, the true story has little to do with the internet legend. "I'm happy being the person that kind of wants to dissuade people's perception of it," Brower says now. "But I can tell you that the vast majority of comments that I get, either on my blog or anonymously through email or whatever, are that I'm a SOB, that I'm an a******, all kinds of negative language. That Marv is a hero, that the town tried to screw him, and that I'm a liar. "It's just disturbing. These people want to embrace this, 'Attacking government ... with firearms in a tank,' and make it sound like a good thing. That he was justified. Without really knowing the truth." The indisputable truth is that Heemeyer destroyed a lot of public and private property that day he caused a reported $7 million in damage and could have killed several people, whether he intended to or not. The truth is his actions, even if blurred into the category of some kind of righteous civil disobedience, were hardly heroic to a lot of people in Granby. And the truth, too, is that in the minds of many others who know Heemeyer only through his internet legend, the truth just doesn't matter. To them, Marv and his killdozer will continue to live on, triumphantly. NOW THAT'S INTERESTING According to The Online Tank Museum, Heemeyer's contraption was based on a 49-ton (44.4-metric ton) Komatsu D355A bulldozer that, once he was finished with it, weighed 61 tons (55.3 metric tons). It was equipped with three semi-automatic rifles, and Heemeyer carried two sidearms, including a .357 Magnum that he used to commit suicide. The machine it was air-conditioned, by the way also was equipped with several outside cameras so that he could see his surroundings while hunkering down in the cockpit. The cameras were protected by bulletproof Plexiglas. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. 1. Yes. Several other districts factor them in. It would provide a more complete picture. 2. Yes. Theyre not as accurate, but they can be useful in spotting a trend in infections. 3. No. The district is keeping tabs on those numbers, so the public doesnt need to. 4. No. As long as the public health district is aware of those stats, thats all that matters. 5. Unsure. The district isnt obligated to include them, but it might be helpful. Vote View Results Australias highest court has ruled against some major news media companies in a case about comments on their social media pages. The court decided that the companies are legally responsible for comments because they are the publishers of their pages. The decision is an important win for Dylan Voller. He is seeking legal action against the media companies. As a youth, Voller was placed in a detention center in Australias Northern Territory. His treatment while there was the center of a 2016 documentary film. The film led to a deeper investigation into the mistreatment of young prisoners in Australia. Several news organizations posted pictures of Voller on social media when the film came out. One showed him tied to a chair with a covering over his head. Many Facebook users posted comments about Voller on those companies social media pages. As a result, Voller wants to sue several Australian media companies. The case has been held up by a separate legal dispute over whether the companies were the publishers of users comments. The High Court found that the media groups had permitted and urged comments from Facebook users by setting up a public Facebook page and posting content. The judges said it did not matter that the companies deleted the comments later. A spokesperson for Australias Nine Network, one of the companies involved, said, We are obviously disappointed with the outcome as it will have ramifications for what we can post on social media in the future. Peter OBrien is Vollers lawyer. He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Voller is relieved the long legal fight, is over. People who might be vulnerable to social media mob attacks - they are protected, he said. The High Court decision now permits Voller to continue his legal action against newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and others. The case will continue later in the New South Wales state Supreme Court. A trial there will decide whether the Facebook comments truly defamed Voller. Im Jonathan Evans. Phil Mercer reported on this story for VOA News. Jonathan Evans adapted this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. __________________________________________________ Words in This Story obviously adv. in a way that is easy to see, understand, or recognize disappointed adj. feeling sad, unhappy, or displeased because something was not as good as expected or because something you hoped for or expected did not happen page n. the information found at a single World Wide Web address ramifications n. something that is the result of an action, decision, etc. vulnerable adj. easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally A private space flight launched by Americas SpaceX has carried the first all-civilian crew into orbit. The four civilian passengers are traveling on SpaceXs fully automated Dragon spacecraft, or capsule. They are on a three-day trip orbiting the Earth. The capsule launched Wednesday on top of one of SpaceXs reusable Falcon 9 rockets from Kennedy Space Center on Floridas Cape Canaveral. The trip, named Inspiration4, marks SpaceXs first flight for private passengers. It is the first time a spacecraft has orbited Earth carrying a fully civilian crew. The capsule has already been in orbit. It was used for SpaceXs second astronaut flight for the U.S. space agency NASA to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft was expected to reach an altitude of 575 kilometers above Earth. That is higher than the ISS and just above the current position of NASAs Hubble Space Telescope. The flight is being led by 38-year-old American businessman Jared Isaacman, who used his own money to pay for the trip. With a lifelong interest in flying, Isaacman has flown fighter jets and started a company to train others to do so. But he is not a professional astronaut. Isaacman organized the flight as an effort to raise money for one of his favorite causes, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The hospital treats child cancer patients. When announcing the flight in February, he promised the hospital $100 million and aims to raise another $100 million in donations. Isaacman offered one seat on the spacecraft to Hayley Arceneaux, a former patient at St. Jude. Now 29, Arceneaux was 10 years old when doctors discovered she had bone cancer. The disease led to a medical operation that replaced her thigh bone. She is the first person in space with a prosthesis. Arceneaux said she is happy to represent those who are not physically perfect. Arceneaux went on to become a physicians assistant at St. Jude. She will also be the youngest American to travel into space. She takes this honor from the late Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space in 1983 at age 32. The flights other two passengers were chosen through competitions organized by Isaacman. One of those winners is Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old community college teacher from Phoenix, Arizona. She is also a pilot and was a NASA astronaut finalist candidate about 10 years ago. The other passenger is 42-year-old Chris Sembroski, a data engineer from Everett, Washington. He is a former U.S. Air Force member who has experience with flying and missile systems. Sembroski was chosen from a group of 72,000 St. Jude donors who took part in a lottery for the seat. The effort raised $113 million. The four passengers spent months in intense training before the flight. This included altitude exercises, simulator training, experiences with weightlessness and rides in fighter jets. The crew plans to perform a series of medical experiments during the trip. The members said in a statement they hope the experiments can lead to a better understanding of human health on Earth and during future spaceflights." The SpaceX flight follows recent civilian space trips carried out by two other private companies: Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Those flights, however, were piloted by professional astronauts. The trips did not enter Earth orbit but passengers were able to experience weightlessness and observe Earth for a few minutes before returning home. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press and Reuters. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________ Words in This Story automated adj. fully controlled by machines and not people altitude n. the height of something above sea level prosthesis n. an artificial body part, such as an arm, foot or leg, that replaces a missing part lottery n. a contest in which tickets with numbers are sold to people who then have a chance to win a prize if their number is chosen simulator n. a piece of equipment designed to represent real conditions for training purposes Australia has signed a new Indo-Pacific security partnership with the United States and Britain to share defense technologies. American President Joe Biden announced the agreement Wednesday in a joint statement with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Biden said the three leaders understand the importance of ensuring long term peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region. We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve, he said. The partnership is called AUKUS. The three leaders said there were several possible issues of concern that the alliance might deal with, including territorial disputes, terrorism and organized crime. None of the leaders spoke about China in announcing the partnership. However, experts say the deal is designed to answer the possible threat China poses. The partnership permits Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time. The government in Canberra has said the boats would not be nuclear armed. The alliance also is to share computing technologies and cyber defenses. British leader Johnson described the three nations involved as natural allies. For many years, Australia has sought security through defense and intelligence partnerships. Morrison said that his country, the U.S. and Britain had always seen through a similar lens. But he said the relationship had to be taken to a new level as the world grows more complex. The ANZUS security treaty between the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, recently celebrated its 70th anniversary. Australia is also an active member of the Five Eyes alliance, which includes the U.S., Britain, Canada and New Zealand. The Five Eyes alliance was created to observe the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Australian officials have said the nuclear-powered submarines would be completed and ready for service in the mid to late 2030s. Experts say the nuclear subs can take longer trips than other submarines. They say the boats will give the alliance a stronger military presence in the region. Adam Band, the leader of Australias Greens party, criticized the deal on social media. He said it was dangerous because of possible accidents with the nuclear-powered ships. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had called the leaders of Japan and India to explain the new alliance. Japan, India, Australia and the U.S. already have an alliance known as "the Quad." Biden is planning to welcome the Quad leaders to the White House next week. China calls deal irresponsible China said the alliance would severely damage regional peace and security, as well as efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. It said it was "highly irresponsible" for the U.S. and Britain to export the nuclear technology. It blamed Australia for a breakdown in that countrys relations with China. China has been unhappy with the Biden administrations criticism of human rights abuses in the Xianjing region, attacks on democracy activists in Hong Kong, and cybersecurity violations. Biden spoke by phone with China's President Xi Jinping last week. After the call, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi expressed concerns that U.S. government policy toward China has caused "serious difficulties" in relations. New Zealand is not part of the alliance Australia's neighbor New Zealand is not part of the new alliance. It has long had a nuclear-free policy that includes a ban on nuclear-powered ships entering its ports. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was not asked to be part of the alliance and would not have expected an invitation. Still, it leaves New Zealand out of a deal to share information including artificial intelligence, cyber and underwater defense capabilities. Im Jill Robbins. The story is based on reports from Nick Perry for the Associated Press and Phil Mercer for VOA News. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. ________________________________________________ Words in This Story strategic adj. of or relating to a general plan that is created to achieve a goal in war, politics, etc., usually over a long period of time evolve v. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state : to develop by a process of evolution pose v. to be or create (a possible threat, danger, problem, etc.) submarine n. a ship that can operate underwater lens n. a clear curved piece of glass or plastic that is used in eyeglasses, cameras, telescopes, etc., to make things look clearer, smaller, or bigger; figurative: a way of looking at something artificial intelligence n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence cyber adj. relating to computers What do you think of the agreement between the U.S., Australia and Britain? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section. The graph above shows that the age of a person can be roughly identified by measuring only four metabolites in their saliva. The blue dots each represent one person in the 27-33 age group, whereas the red dots each represent one person in the 72-80 age group. Credit: OIST Researchers in Japan have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the metabolites that make up human saliva using samples given voluntarily from a group of 27-to-33-year-old individuals and a group of 72-to-80-year-old individuals. Metabolites are the intermediate or end products from the chemical reactions that occur within our bodies. They can be related energy synthesis, digestion, growth, cell health, and more. Writing in Scientific Reports, the researchers from the G0 Cell Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) identified 99 metabolites within the samples of saliva. Notably, the quantities of 21 of these metabolites were different between the two groups. "Saliva has not previously been comprehensively studied for the changes that occur as one ages," explained Prof. Mitsuhiro Yanagida who leads OIST's G0 Cell Unit. The unit has already looked at blood and urine and found that the quantities of some metabolites are linked to frailty and dementia. Prof. Yanagida explained that having these indicators means that early diagnosis and intervention should be possible. "Frailty and dementia, conditions that are associated with aging, make the day-to-day lives of patients very difficult. Saliva also has a close connection to mouth health. If a mouth does not function correctly, it can make consuming food challenging, which is highly detrimental to one's quality of life. I hope through this research we can better support elderly people." The sample collection was easy and noninvasive. Twenty-seven volunteers in Okinawa supplied their saliva, which they collected themselves at home. These were transferred to the laboratory for analysis. In general, the concentration of metabolites in saliva is very low compared to that in blood and urine, making it more challenging to detect them. However, using a comprehensive method, the researchers identified 99 metabolites, some of which were previously unreported in saliva. They also found that saliva contains information that reflects biological aging. Twenty metabolites, including those related to antioxidative activity, energy synthesis, and muscle maintenance, were lower in the elderly individuals than the young people, whereas one metabolite actually increased. "It's interesting that ATP, the metabolite related to energy production, increased 1.96-fold in the elderly," commented lead author, Dr. Takayuki Teruya. "This is possibly due to reduced ATP consumption in the elderly individuals. Amongst the metabolites that declined in quantity were two that are related to taste, suggesting that the elderly lose some ability to taste, and others that are related to muscle activity such as swallowing. These age-linked salivary metabolites together illuminate a metabolic network that reflects a decline of oral function during human aging." Two metabolitescreatinine and acetyl-carnosineshowed a significant difference between men and women, with women having lower quantities than men. These metabolites are linked to muscle activity. "In Japan, 90% of people over 90 years of age are women," said Prof. Yanagida. "And many of them have difficulty with their muscles and cognition. Therefore, when we think about the welfare of the elderly, we must think about women's health." Although this is the first comprehensive analysis to be performed on the metabolites of saliva, the researchers are planning to continue this work. In the future, they hope that saliva will be a sample that can be given readily and easily but could provide an enormous amount of information about an individual's health. "In saliva, age-linked metabolites are related to relatively broad metabolic conditions so that age-related information obtained from salivary metabolites may be distinct from that of blood and urine. The results of this study may be useful in the future to assess easily the degree of metabolic aging in humans or to find early indications of age-related diseases," said Prof. Yanagida. Explore further New study reveals signs of dementia are written in the blood More information: Takayuki Teruya et al, Human age-declined saliva metabolic markers determined by LCMS, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Takayuki Teruya et al, Human age-declined saliva metabolic markers determined by LCMS,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97623-7 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The 20202021 flu season was the mildest on record, but experts can't rule out a "twin-demic" of influenza and COVID-19 this time around. Last year, flu cases were 99% lower than a typical flu season. In the Emergency Department at Rush University Medical Center, staff rarely saw patients with severe flu. "It was essentially nonexistent," says Edward J. Ward, MD, MPH, interim chairperson and associate professor of emergency medicine. "We just didn't see it." There are likely several reasons why last year's flu season was so mild, says Michael Lin, MD, MPH, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor at Rush. "COVID mitigation efforts, such as face masking, social distancing, and hand hygiene, played a major role," he says. That's not surprising, given that respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and influenza spread in similar ways. But there was another factor: More people got vaccinated against the flu. "People were just more dialed into the idea of vaccination and being protected," he says. Will the upcoming flu season be just as mild? Lin says flu seasons are notoriously difficult to predict, although there are several reasons for optimism. One is the fact that Australia, which just finished its winter season, had a very mild flu season for the second year in a row. "Oftentimes, what happens in the southern hemisphere is used to predict what will happen here," Lin says. What's more, he believes ongoing efforts to mitigate COVID-19 here at home should also help reduce flu transmission. That said, Lin says it's possible that the United States could face a so-called "twin-demic" of severe flu and COVID-19. Because it has been two years since the population has been subjected to influenza, our immunity to the flu may be waning. "That may prime us to potentially have a worse flu season, especially if mitigation efforts go away," Lin says. And with more schools and businesses being fully open and Americans returning to "normal life," the flu could be transmitted more easily and result in a more typical flu season, he adds. For this reason, Lin recommends a flu shot for anyone six months and older. The flu shot can be given at the same time as the COVID-19 vaccine for those who are not yet vaccinated. How effective is the latest flu shot? The effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies year to year depending on how well it is matched to the circulating virus. However, research shows the vaccine can prevent hospitalizations and deaths from the flu. In a severe flu season, the United States may experience up to 810,000 hospitalizations and 61,000 deaths, Lin says. Getting vaccinated, wearing masks in public, social distancing, and washing your hands frequently can help prevent trips to the emergency department because of the flu or COVID-19, Ward says. As he puts it, "The same things that protect you from COVID protect you from the flu." Explore further What is flu season likely to bring in an era of COVID-19? Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The COVID-19 epidemic and the lockdowns enforced in many countries have imposed high costs on the population: a combined health and socio-economic crisis, during which the world economy shrank by 4.3 percent in 2020 and 130 million people confront starvation as a result. Vaccine strategic distribution plans have generally followed the World Health Organizations guidelines. In many European countries, priority has been given to the population according to multiple risk criteria related to age, work and health vulnerability. Guidelines usually do not provide priority criteria for the low-risk healthy population under 60, composing the large majority of the working force vital for restoring the economy. A new study of researchers at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca proposes a criterion for establishing a priority order in the administration of COVID-19 vaccines in the most advanced stage of the vaccination campaign when the elderly and vulnerable population has been already vaccinated. According to the IMT School researchers, the driving principle should be that the following ones to receive the vaccine should be essential workers, beneficiaries of wage guarantee schemes, and workers facing a high unemployment risk. This would facilitate return to work, the reprise of the economy, and consequently a more efficient allocation of public funds and a reduction of future job losses. The analysis conducted in the study was based on a dataset that integrates data on human mobility, excess death, furlough workers, weather conditions, and other economic variables. The causal impact of mobility restrictions and lockdowns was estimated using weather conditions as an exogenous source of variation. The study shows that, with the restrictions imposed during the lockdown, a 1 percent drop in mobility implies a 0.6 percent drop in excess deaths in the following month. On the other hand, a 1 percent drop in human mobility corresponds to a 10 percent increase in the Wage Guarantee Fund (WGF) in the next month. This effect is more pronounced during the first lockdown and gradually decreases from June on, with the easing of the restrictions. The analysis then suggests that giving vaccine priority to essential workers not eligible for remote working should be the priority. This strategy would help increase mobility, thus helping the economy while reducing higher excess mortality. There is also another aspect to consider: From July 2021 on, the EU Digital COVID Certificate Regulation allows European citizens to obtain a COVID-19 certificate, which in principle should facilitate free movements across EU member states. Some European countries are introducing the COVID-19 certificate not just for traveling purposes but also as a requirement to enter indoor public spaces, attend events, get access to restaurants, and even, as in the case of Italy, to access the workplace safely. In this vein, Italy has already made the certificate compulsory for school and university personnel and is now evaluating whether making it mandatory also for other public and private workers categories. As non-vaccinated workers in more professional categories and countries could be potentially impacted by similar restrictions shortly, the need to account for people's employment status and unemployment risk in delivering vaccine doses gets even more relevant. "The pros and cons of lockdown policies are debated in the literature. In this study, we provide sound evidence of the benefit of the Italian lockdown in reducing excess mortality. However, we also document the collateral harms of lockdowns in terms of unemployment risk. We conclude that lockdowns should be avoided in the future by prioritizing the vaccination of essential workers and people more exposed to unemployment risk among the healthy and active population," says Massimo Riccaboni, Professor of economics at the IMT School and author of the paper. Regarding the short availability of the vaccines and their optimal distribution, the results of the study are particularly relevant for middle and low-income countries, where the share of people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is significantly lower with respect to high-income countries, with percentages ranging between 1 and 30 percent. Future research of the authors will be devoted to understanding how the mobility patterns may influence the employment risk and the vaccination campaigns in other countries and across different sectors of the economy. Explore further Greece launches mandatory testing for unvaccinated workers More information: COVID-19 vaccination and unemployment risk: lessons from the Italian crisis, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports COVID-19 vaccination and unemployment risk: lessons from the Italian crisis,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97462-6 Provided by IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca A mother holds her daughter who is injected with a dose of the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Cuba began inoculating children as young as 2-years-old with locally developed vaccines on Thursday.Credit: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa Sitting on her mother's lap, 2-year-old Lucia looked at the illustrations in her book while around her several children watched the doctors in white coats and nurses with thermometers in amazement. In an adjoining room, Danielito, also 2, sniffled while getting a shot as a clown tried to distract him. Cuba on Thursday began a massive vaccination campaign for children between the ages of 2 and 10, becoming one of the first nations to do so. Health officials here say Cuba's homegrown vaccines have been found safe to give to young children. "Our country would not put (infants) even at a minimal risk if the vaccines were not proven save and highly effective when put into children," Aurolis Otano, director of the Vedado Polyclinic University, told The Associated Press in a vaccination room. Otano said the circulation of the Delta variant produced an increase in infections among the youngest, so Cuba's scientific community decided to "take the vaccine to clinical trial" and it was approved for children. The Polyclinic expects to vaccinate about 300 children between 2 and 5. Those between 5 and 10 are receiving their first shot at their schools. Lucia's mother, Denisse Gonzalez, watched the children in the vaccination room while waiting the hour that her daughter had to be under observation after being vaccinated. Parents wait to have their children vaccinated with the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Cuba began inoculating children as young as 2-years-old with locally developed vaccines on Thursday. Credit: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa "I was very doubtful and worried at first, really, but I informed myself," she said. "Our children's health is first and foremost, which is the main thing and (contagion) is a risk because young children are always playing on the floor," added Gonzalez, a 36-year-old engineer. In previous weeks, the vaccination of Cubans between 11 and 18 began. The plan includes two doses of Soberana 02 vaccine and one of Soberana Plus, as was done with adults. Cuba faces a persistent COVID-19 outbreak that almost collapsed its health-care system. Provinces such as Matanzas, Ciego de Avila and Cienfuegos received support from doctors from other parts of the country and even from international donors. In addition to the Soberanas, Cuba has developed another national vaccine, Abdala. According to Cuba's Ministry of Health, 776,125 positive cases of COVID-19 have been registered with 6,601 deaths. A nurse greets a young girl as she arrives with her mother to receive a dose of the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Cuba began inoculating children as young as 2-years-old with locally developed vaccines on Thursday.Credit: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa A nurse consoles a child after he was injected with a dose with a dose of the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine, at a clinic in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Cuba began inoculating children as young as 2-years-old with locally developed vaccines on Thursday. Credit: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa Parents wait to have their children vaccinated with the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine, at a clinic in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Cuba began inoculating children as young as 2-years-old with locally developed vaccines on Thursday. Credit: AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa In June, Chinese regulators approved the use of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for children ages 3 to 17. The United States and many European countries currently allow COVID-19 vaccinations for children 12 and older. Children have largely escaped the worst of the pandemic and show less severe symptoms when they contract the virus. But experts say children can pass the virus on to others and suffer negative consequences. "As more adults receive their COVID-19 vaccines, children, who are not yet eligible for vaccines in most countries, account for a higher percentage of hospitalizations and even deaths," said Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization. "We must be clear: children and young people also face significant risks." Explore further Cuba approves two more locally made COVID vaccines 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Fig 1. Domains of the Spike protein. N-Terminal Domain (NTD), Receptor Binding Domain (RBD), Subunit 1/Subunit 2 junction (S1/S2), Fusion Peptide (FP), Heptad Repeat 1 (HR1), Heptad Repeat 2 (HR2), Transmembrane Domain (TM), and the Cytoplasmic Tail (CT). Crystallography structure in the conformational state of all 3 RBD domains closed (PDB 6VXX) and of 1 RBD open (PDB 6VYB), binding to ACE2 (PDB 6M17). Credit: DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009286 A group of researchers at Universite de Montreal has simulated the effects of more than 17,000 possible mutations of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. These spike proteins are found on the surface of the virus and are responsible for its toothed appearance. When these proteins are in the "open" state, the virus is able to bind to human cells and trigger an infection. As Najmanovich, project lead and professor in UdeM's Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, explains, "our computer modeling has shown that in the original virus the spike proteins are in the closed state 75% of the time and in the open state 25% of the time. In D614G, the very first spike mutation, the open state is more rigid and the closed state more flexible. This causes the spike proteins to stay in the open state longer, giving the virus more opportunity to bind to human receptors and making it more infectious." This modeling technique has enabled the team to predict future mutations even before they appear in nature and to anticipate their virulence for humans. A proven technique, but one with limitations Prof. Najmanovich, who is a specialist in molecular design and computational structural pharmacology, points out that this model correctly foresaw the emergence of specific mutations that appeared in several variants of concern, including B117 (the "British" variant), B1351 (the "South African" variant), and P1 (the "Brazilian" variant). "Proteins are linear chains of 20 different types of amino acids," explains Najmanovich. "The spike protein contains more than 1,000 amino acids. In our supercomputer simulations, we replaced each amino acid with each of the other 19 possible amino acids, and then repeated the process for each site on the original virus. This gave us not only all existing mutations, but also ones that are not yet present in nature." But these predictions are not always completely accurate. For example, the Delta variant as predicted by the model is no more infectious than other variants. The reason, says Prof. Najmanovich, is that "we had to simplify our model because of the vast number of calculations involved. This meant we weren't able to capture other biological and molecular processes that could potentially help the virus become more infectious." Explore further Structural changes in the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha and Beta variants identified More information: Natalia Teruel et al, Modelling conformational state dynamics and its role on infection for SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein variants, PLOS Computational Biology (2021). Journal information: PLoS Computational Biology Natalia Teruel et al, Modelling conformational state dynamics and its role on infection for SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein variants,(2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009286 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Hispanic people have better disease outcomes than non-Hispanic whites, despite having greater risk factors for poor outcomes. Researchers theorize that the importance of family and strong social networks in Hispanic culture may confer some resilience. When people are diagnosed with health problems, the support they receive from family and friends can have a significant impact on how they ultimately fare. In fact, research has shown that social support can affect survival outcomes more than factors such as body mass index, exercise and even smoking. The power of social support might also help explain why Hispanics and Latinos often have better disease outcomes than non-Hispanic whites, says University of Arizona researcher John Ruiz, who studies a phenomenon known as the Hispanic Health Paradox. A well-established concept in health literature, the Hispanic Health Paradox refers to the fact that Hispanics and Latinos tend to have similar or better survival rates and health outcomes than non-Hispanic whites, despite being more likely to face greater health and socioeconomic risk factors such as lower incomes, harsher job conditions and lack of access to quality care. The reason for the paradox is not entirely clear, but one theory is that cultural differences in the social support networks of Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites may play a role. The idea is that Hispanics may be more resilient in the face of health challenges because they have the support of an especially strong network of family and friendssomething that is highly valued in Hispanic culture. Ruiz and Heidi Hamannboth associate professors in the UArizona Department of Psychologyhave been awarded approximately $3.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to test this sociocultural hypothesis, specifically in Hispanic patients diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. The researchers have previously shown that the Hispanic Health Paradox exists among patients with lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death. "We know that having close social ties and strong, broad social networks is associated with better health. It reduces stress levels, it provides tangible resources, and in a time of illness, those networks can be instrumental in transporting patients to medical appointments and ensuring that the patient gets attention and is receiving everything from meals to engagementwhich all drive better health," said Ruiz, who studies racial and ethnic health disparities and is a member of the university's BIO5 Institute. "As a group, Hispanics and Latinos tend to have cultural values that really emphasize those social tiescollectivism, the importance of family, the importance of interpersonal harmony and, critically, the importance of including older generations in the acute social fabric," Ruiz said. "The older one gets, the more central they become, versus in other cultures where they might begin to drift to the periphery of the social network." Ruiz and Hamannalong with UArizona faculty members Matthias Mehl, Patrick Wightman, Melanie Bell and Linda Garlandwill study the social support networks and health outcomes of more than 670 Hispanic and non-Hispanic lung cancer patients over the course of about 33 months at six geographically diverse sitesin Tucson, San Diego, Miami, Dallas, New York and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Participants will be interviewed about their social support networks at the start of the study and six months later. Some participants will also be asked to take part in a weeklong daily diary activity, in which they will be asked to respond, on a study-provided cellphone, to a series of questions about their health and social interactions. In addition, the study cellphone will be programmed to record random audio snippets of participants' daily lives to provide more information about their social interactionsa technique that is often used in social psychology studies. "The sound sampling is incredibly important because it helps us have an objective measure of the degree to which people are having social interactions," Ruiz said. The researchers will look at patients' survival rates or adherence to treatment at the end of the study period and will examine whether cultural differences in social interactions influence outcomes. They say their findings have the potential to inform health care interventions for all populations. "We hear so much about health disparitiesdisadvantages related to healthand that's very important, but one of the important pieces of this grant and this larger body of work is that it asks, "What about resilience factors?'" said Hamann, a University of Arizona Cancer Center member who has spent her career working in psychosocial oncology. "What are the things that help populations, even in the face of other risk factors, to be more resilient? And what can we learn about that to inform future work and possible interventions down the line?" Ruiz is quick to point out that even though the Hispanic Health Paradox existsand that Hispanics have a life expectancy two to three years longer than other populationsit in no way means that Hispanic health is optimal. It does, however, suggest that Hispanic culture may have valuable lessons to offer. "The dialog among some in the U.S. for a long time has been that underrepresented populations only represent a drain on resources," Ruiz said. "But this is a good example of where something really valuable could perhaps be learned from a population that could benefit the broader public." University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins applauded the work Ruiz and Hamann are leading. "As a Hispanic-Serving Institution located near the U.S.-Mexico border, the University of Arizona is well positioned to learn from the richness of Hispanic culture," Robbins said. "We know that cultural and community values play an important role in many different aspects of life, including our health, and this research on the Hispanic Health Paradox has the potential to help everyone be more resilient in the face of health challenges." Explore further Study on hospital stays contributes to Hispanic Paradox A double stranded DNA fragment. Credit: Vcpmartin/Wikimedia/ CC BY-SA 4.0 Every person appears to have a completely unique immune system. Researchers from Utrecht University discovered this immune diversity after mapping antibodies from healthy and sick individuals. The discovery could help explain why, for example, corona vaccines appear to be less effective for some people. The way our immune system responds to pathogens varies from person to person. Researchers at Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht discovered that each person develops a unique arsenal of antibodies, which are proteins produced as part of the body's immune response to infection. Also, the concentration of these proteins changes in a unique way during illness or after a vaccination. The researchers publish their results today in the journal Cell Systems. The results may help explain why some people are more prone to becoming ill, or why they recover faster from illness than others. Extreme diversity in immune responses could also create new possibilities for personalized treatments and vaccinations. No overlap The Utrecht team discovered the diversity when they monitored antibodies in the blood of healthy and seriously ill individuals. The latter suffered from serious infections, from which they recovered following time spent in intensive care. The researchers analyzed the concentrations of all co-appearing antibodies in the blood. They discovered that there was no overlap whatsoever in this respect between the blood samples of the people investigated. The composition and concentrations of the antibodies were completely different in each person. Rise and fall The concentrations of antibodies also appeared to rise and fall in a unique way during illness. For instance, in some ill individuals, concentrations antibodies against an infection fluctuated more rapidly than in others. The antibodies themselves also differed. Even antibodies that were aimed to target the exact same pathogens appeared to differ slightly at a molecular level. Extremely sensitive measurements Until now, this distinctiveness had not been noticed. Scientists considered it to be impossible to accurately map a complex mixture of antibodies in the blood. But the Utrecht research team, led by biochemist Albert Heck, managed to achieve this. The team developed an extremely sensitive analysis that reveals minute differences in mixtures of antibodies. The method is a refinement of a tried and tested technique called mass spectrometry, which separates substances based on their molecular composition. Never exactly the same "By now we have tested this technique in about a hundred individuals, including Covid patients and people being vaccinated," says Heck. "Not once did we encounter exactly the same antibodies in two different persons. It's safe to say that everyone's antibody profile is as unique as someone's DNA, or perhaps even more so." Small differences, big consequences Even though the differences in antibodies are small, they can greatly influence the course of a disease. According to Heck, the differences can even explain why some people become ill from an infection and others do not. If someone makes fewer antibodies against a certain pathogen, or variants that are less effective, then a disease might strike harder or multiple times. Differences in Covid vaccine success According to Heck, antibody diversity could also explain why some people still contract a disease against which they have been vaccinatedor even when they had the same disease before. This also applies to corona vaccines. Heck says that "after being exposed to the virus, either through infection or vaccination, your body starts producing perhaps dozens of different antibodies against the virus. But those antibodies may act mainly against just one corona variant. If another variant appears, you might become infected again." In other people, the outcome can be very different, because their antibody profiles are different too. Heck says that "another person makes slightly different variants of antibodies, or in different concentrations, which might protect better against other virus variants. Such a person is therefore less likely to become ill from an infection with a new variant." Tailor-made vaccination According to Heck, this opens new opportunities to make optimal vaccinations, tailored to someone's immune system. "By mapping out someone's antibody profile, you can track how the body responds to a vaccination or infection. This way, you can also check whether the body produces enough of the desired antibodies, for example those against the coronavirus. If the production is insufficient, you can consider offering booster shots. " A dream come true Heck describes the publication in Cell Systems as a dream come true. "About five years ago I was wondering if we could achieve this. Now it turns out to be technically possible, thanks to an enormous team effort, and we're seeing it opens up a huge amount of new possibilities for prevention and treatment." More information: Albert Bondt, et al, Human Plasma IgG1 repertoires are simple, unique and dynamic, Cell Systems (2021). Journal information: Cell Systems Albert Bondt, et al, Human Plasma IgG1 repertoires are simple, unique and dynamic,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2021.08.008 Switzerland announced Friday that all travellers entering the country who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 or recovered from the disease will need proof of a negative test. Bern said the measures, which come into force on Monday, were a bid to prevent a spike in cases once people start returning from their autumn vacation, following a surge in Delta variant infections after the summer holidays. "Anyone who has not been vaccinated or has not recovered must present a negative test result on entry," the government said in a statement, adding that after four to seven days in Switzerland, another test must be carried out, subject to a fee. All travellers must also complete a locator form. More than two million people and one million vehicles cross landlocked Switzerland's borders every day. The test and entry form requirements do not apply to transit travellers, professional goods or transport drivers, cross-border commuters or people entering from areas just across the frontier. Vaccination rates in the wealthy Alpine nation are lagging behind those of its neighbours, with only 53.3 percent of the population fully immunised. Some 31 percent of intensive care unit beds are filled with Covid-19 patients. Switzerland now requires people to show proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test to go into bars and restaurants, cinemas, exhibitions and indoor sporting events. From Monday, foreign visitors vaccinated abroad with a jab approved by the European Medicines Agency will be able to obtain a Swiss Covid certificate enabling them to enter restaurants and venues. The restrictions are unpopular with sections of the Swiss population, and demonstrationsnormally rare in Switzerlandare on the increase. On Thursday evening, some 3,000-4,000 people marched in the capital Bern in opposition to the measures and restrictions. Some attacked the fence surrounding the Federal Palace, seat of the government and parliament, and the police responded with water cannon and rubber bullets, Swiss news agency ATS reported. "Anything that is an act of violence is condemned without restriction," Swiss President Guy Parmelin told a press conference on Friday. Explore further Half of Swiss double-jabbed against Covid 2021 AFP Credit: University of Auckland Experts are calling on the Ministry of Health to improve its mask wearing guidelines to ensure New Zealanders are protected in the wake of highly transmissible variants of COVID-19. They say current mask practices at the border are sub-optimal for reducing the risk of aerosol transmission, and are calling for a public education campaign to help New Zealanders improve their mask use. A new rapid evidence brief Improving mask use to stop COVID-19 transmission from Koi Tu: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland, synthesizes the most up-to-date international research on the three main types of face masksmedical, cloth and N95 respirators. It provides suggestions for border workers, essential workers, and everyday New Zealanders. The authors, Chloe Wilkinson, Dr. Felicia Low, Dr. Joel Rindelaub, and Koi Tu Director Sir Peter Gluckman, say N95 masks should be mandatory for MIQ workers, people staying in MIQ and all other personnel connected to border. Sir Peter says: "Mask wearing is a critical part of our defense. Improving guidelines would seem prudent at the border while New Zealand continues to try and exclude the virus from entering the community, a strategy that is clearly required until vaccination rates are much higher." Ministry of Health guidelines on mask use for managed isolation and quarantine facility staff were update in November 2020 and significantly strengthened in August 2021 after the emergence of the Delta variant. That update significantly extended the use of N95 respirators in MIQ although they did not make their use universal at the border. Dr. Low says overseas, mask mandates have changed rapidly in response to rises and falls of case numbers. Several countries tightened mask requirements in response to the Delta variant. "We need to ensure that those most likely to be exposed to the virus have the best possible protection, which would mean all essential and border workers should be wearing properly fitting N95 masks when on the job," she says. Aerosol expert Dr. Rindelaub says a mask is only as good as its fit, so it is important to make sure that there are not any gaps between the face and mask when it is worn, especially along the nose or the sides of the face. Cloth masks need to be at least three layers of fabric, and bandanas and other face coverings aren't enough. Medical masks were originally designed to protect against fluid splashes and other forms of droplet transmission, not the much smaller aerosols as found in the virus that spreads COVID-19. Various laboratory tests suggest medical masks typically filter 5075 percent of various test particles. Gaps around the face allow leakage of air, which significantly reduces mask effectiveness. The effectiveness of medical masks can be greatly improvedfiltering up to 6090 percent of particles when modified to improve the seal against the face. Dr. Rindelaub says one simple way to make medical masks more effective is to "knot and tuck," knotting the sides of the ear loops near the mask and tucking the pleats of the mask inwards. You can view his demonstration video here: youtu.be/m1yzpmqVF34 "Most people might not even realize that their mask isn't being worn correctly. If a mask doesn't fit properly, it will immediately lose much of its filtering power. Taking time to make sure your mask fits tightly could be the difference between getting sick and staying healthy," he says. Suggested guidelines at all alert levels include: For border and essential workers: All workers at the border are strongly recommended to wear certified N95 or similar respirator masks at all COVID-19 Alert Levels. This includes all managed isolation and quarantine facility staff, airport staff, and all other essential personnel. All individuals quarantining in managed isolation facilities are strongly recommended to wear certified N95 or similar respirator masks whenever they are outside their own rooms. Ideally no other types of masks should be used in these high-risk situations. All N95 respirator mask users should receive training on the optimal individual fit and use of these masks. For the public: A public educational campaign emphasizing tight-fitting medical or three-layer cloth masks. It is essential that these fit snugly and seal well around facial contours, particularly across the nose and around the cheeks and chin. Medical masks should not be reused and should be replaced after being worn for a maximum of six hours. Instructions for modifying medical masks to improve the seal should be provided. Cloth masks should be made of at least three fabric layers and shaped to provide a snug seal against the face. Cloth masks with fewer layers, and loose face coverings such as bandannas and scarves, do not provide sufficient protection and should not be used. Cloth masks should be washed frequently (preferably daily) with soap and hot water, and dried thoroughly before being worn again. N95 and similar respirator masks should be prioritized for essential and border workers. Explore further Optimal use time for face coverings to mitigate COVID-19 transmission More information: Improving mask use to reduce COVID-19 transmission. Improving mask use to reduce COVID-19 transmission. informedfutures.org/improving-mask-use/ Influenza virus. Credit: CDC, 2020. Medical experts warn the approaching flu season could be particularly severe, renewing fears of a potential "twindemic," with COVID-19 still spreading. In preparation, health officials are urging the public to get vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible. Here are eight things to know about the upcoming flu season and getting your annual flu shot during the pandemic: 1. After a profoundly mild flu season last year, this one might be rough. Influenza was at record low levels last year across the United States, mostly due to masking and social distance protocols amid the pandemic. But that means many people weren't exposed to the flu last season and didn't have the opportunity to boost their immunity. At the same time, some pandemic restrictions have been loosened or dropped, but COVID-19 is still circulating, said Dr. Jacqueline Korpics, the Cook County Department of Public Health's medical director for COVID-19. "There is concern this will be an especially bad flu season due to loosening of mitigations, the fact that many of us were not exposed last year due to COVID mitigations and because influenza will be circulating simultaneously with COVID," she said. "So individuals could potentially get both at the same time, which could lead to more severe illness and more deaths." The recent surge in local cases of another respiratory illnessrespiratory syncytial virus or RSVmight also be a harbinger of an impending bad flu season, said Dr. Kelly Michelson, professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "If flu behaves like RSV, we should prepare for lots of illness," she said. 2. Now is a good time to get the flu shot. Ideally, everyone would be vaccinated against the flu by the end of October, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Korpics said Septembernowis a great time to get vaccinated against influenza. "Don't wait," she said. Michelson agreed. "Flu vaccines are currently available," she said. "Go get your annual flu vaccine now." 3. The COVID-19 shot and flu vaccine can be administered at the same time. "You can get a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines at the same visit," the CDC says on its website. "You no longer need to wait 14 days between vaccinations." The agency adds that side effects after COVID-19 vaccination are generally the same when given alone or with other immunizations. "You can get (vaccines) on the same day," Korpics said. "We want you to be protected and to protect those around you who are especially vulnerable to influenza and COVID. Don't let yourself or those around you suffer from a preventable illness. Both vaccines are safe and, in general, there are few people with contraindications to either vaccine." 4. It's important to get these vaccines to protect yourselfand to help those who can't get vaccinated. Although children under 12 can't get the COVID-19 vaccine yet, most can get immunized against the flu, and health experts say it's important to protect them against any virus possible to minimize potential illness during the pandemic. For those over 12, it's important to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu, to keep both illnesses to a minimum. "Please get vaccinated for the flu and COVID-19please," Michelson said. "It is important for you, for the children and for everyone." She added that babies under 6 months old can't get flu shots, so it's important that adults and children do so to help keep infants healthy. "So the more adults who get vaccinated, the less likely it will be for vulnerable babies under 6 months to get the flu," she said. "So another reason why everyone should get vaccinated is to help protect infants (under) 6 months old." 5. Flu vaccines are particularly important this season to keep from overwhelming hospitals. In many parts of the country, hospitals are already overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. The southernmost region in Illinois this week reported no available ICU beds this week, due to surging COVID-19 rates. "We are hearing reports that people are not able to get the care they need," Michelson said. "Anything we can do to keep people out of the hospital will be helpful. This is another important reason for people to get the flu vaccine." 6. Flu vaccination rates are generally not that great. Fewer than half of American adults typically get the flu shot each year, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. The nonprofit organization commissioned a survey last year, and found that 59% of adults polled planned to get the influenza vaccine during the 2020-2021 flu season, an increase from 52% the previous year. Of those who were unsure or not planning to get vaccinated, 34% did not believe the flu vaccine worked well, 32% said they never got the flu, 29% were concerned about potential side effects and 22% said they were worried about catching the flu from the immunizationthough that's not possible. Flu shots are made from either the inactivated virus or a single protein from the virus, and cannot cause illness, according to the CDC. 7. There's been a spotlight on vaccinesand vaccine hesitancyduring the pandemic, but experts aren't sure how this might impact flu shot uptake this season. "I can only hope it will encourage more people to get vaccinated against influenza," Korpics said. "Influenza, like COVID, is a preventable illness due to our ability to vaccinate. As a physician, it is incredibly sad to see patients who come to the hospital and die from influenza or COVID, which could have been prevented by the vaccine." She noted that even patients who get the flu or COVID-19 after vaccination generally have a much more mild illness and are still protected from hospitalization, severe illness and death. Michelson said that an April study in the journal JMIR Public Health and Surveillance found that among a sample of people in the United Kingdom "COVID-19 has increased acceptance of influenza vaccination in previously eligible but unvaccinated people and has motivated substantial uptake in newly eligible people." But she added the caveat that the United Kingdom has a different population and culture than the United States, so it's hard to forecast how many people will get the flu shot here this season. "I really think this is hard to predict," she said. "I hope that people will realize that COVID vaccines are literally saving millions of lives every day and that flu vaccines can do the same." 8. While it's hard to tell the flu and COVID-19 apart, there are some differences in symptoms. A stuffy nose is common with the flu but rare with COVID-19; loss of taste or smell is often associated with COVID-19 but unlikely with the flu, health experts say. But body aches, fevers, headaches and fatigue are symptoms of both viruses. Health officials advise getting tested for COVID-19 whenever symptomatic. Explore further How bad will this flu season be? 2021 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Court of Appeal in London on Friday ruled that doctors can give puberty blockers to children under 16 who wish to undergo gender reassignment, provided they believe adolescents are in a position to consent. The ruling overturns a decision in the High Court last year that said it was "highly unlikely" a child under 13 "would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers". It also said it was "very doubtful" a child of 14 or 15 would understand the long-term consequences. The case was brought against Britain's only gender identity development service for children, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which has long faced criticism it is too quick to prescribe the treatment. Lawyers for a woman who took hormone blockers aged 16, before de-transitioning, and the mother of a 15-year-old girl, argued children could not properly understand the nature and effects of the drugs. But the Court of Appeal on Friday said it was up to doctors to decide whether patients could properly consent. "The court was not in a position to generalise about the capability of persons of different ages to understand what is necessary for them to be competent to consent to the administration of puberty blockers," the three appeal judges said in their ruling. "It placed patients, parents and clinicians in a very difficult position," they added. 'For doctors, not judges' The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust has seen a huge rise in recent years of referrals of children from across Britain, from 1,408 in 2015-16, to 2,728 in 2019-20. It argued the initial ruling was "inconsistent" with the established standard that young people could consent to their own medical treatment, and welcomed the appeal ruling. "The judgment upholds established legal principles which respect the ability of our clinicians to engage actively and thoughtfully with our patients in decisions about their care and futures," it said in a statement. "It affirms that it is for doctors, not judges, to decide on the capacity of under-16s to consent to medical treatment." Proponents argue that artificially pausing puberty gives a young person time to consider their options, without the stress of unwanted changes to their body. But clinicians say there may be longer-term effects on fertility, sexual function and bone density, although evidence is limited. Keira Bell, 23, who brought the case, said she was "obviously disappointed" with the ruling, "especially that it did not grapple with the significant risk of harm that children are exposed to by being given powerful experimental drugs. "I am surprised and disappointed that the court was not concerned that children as young as 10 have been put on a pathway to sterilisation," she said. "It has shone a light into the dark corners of a medical scandal that is harming children and harmed me." Nancy Kelley, chief executive of LGBT charity Stonewall, said that the outcome "will be a huge relief for trans young people and their families, as well as the wider trans community." 2021 AFP Ukraine is on the brink of its most deadly period of the coronavirus pandemic, medical experts in the ex-Soviet country warned Friday, with vaccination rates struggling and infections on the rise. The country of 40 million people and an ageing health care system intially struggled to secure jabs and has since been slow to distribute inoculations to a vaccine sceptic population. New infections have steadily been increasing, with 27,600 new cases recorded in the last seven days compared to 17,000 in the previous week. Health officials in Kiev Friday recorded the highest number of new cases since May, while average daily hospitalisations rose by nearly 400 people this week compared to last week. "This wave will mostly likely be the deadliest," former deputy health minister and founder of the Centre for Public Health Analysis, Pavlo Kovtonyuk, told AFP. "We have very few people who are vaccinated to hold it back," Kovtonyuk added. Just 12 percent of Ukrainians are fully inoculated with one of four vaccines available in the country, including AstraZeneca and Moderna while anti-vaccine sentiment is high. Yuri Ganychenko, head of the Health Economics Centre at the Kiev School of Economics, said that although the authorities were unable to detect the dominant strain infecting Ukrainians, there was a "high probability" it was the Delta variant. The wave was likely to peak in mid-October and continue into November with 350 to 400 fatalities per day, Ganychenko said, compared to around 220 earlier in the year. The Ukrainian security service (SBU) said Friday it had dismantled a network of 5,000 internet bots tasked with "discrediting" and "disrupting" the country's vaccine programme. The network was directed by "Russian sponsors", the SBU said in a statement. Both analysts said Ukraine's hospital network was better prepared compared to the beginning of the pandemic, but "no matter how we prepare our hospitals, they will be overcrowded," Kovtonyuk said of the coming wave. The government earlier this week announced new virus restrictions would enter into force Monday. Ukraine has recorded over 2.3 million cases and more than 55,000 deaths from the virus since the start of the pandemic. Explore further Ukraine sees record virus deaths, new curbs in Kiev 2021 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain Work-related illnesses and injuries kill nearly two million people annually, largely due to long working hours, the UN said Friday, warning that the pandemic was likely to worsen the situation. The first-ever joint assessment by the UN's health and labour agencies of the global disease and injury burden linked to jobs stretches from 2000 to 2016, so does not include the dramatic shifts in working conditions brought on by the Covid-19 crisis. Some 1.9 million deaths worldwide were officially linked to work-related causes in 2016, up slightly from 1.7 million at the turn of the century, according to the report, which cautioned these were almost certainly underestimates. Long working hours "are the single deadliest occupational risk factor" World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference in a video statement. Exposure to long working hours, defined as working 55 hours a week or more, was deemed responsible for some 750,000 deaths in 2016, the report said. In all, the study examines 19 occupational risk factors, including exposure to carcinogens like asbestos, ergonomic factors like prolonged sitting and manual handling of loads. After long working hours, workplace exposure to gases, fumes and other air pollution was seen as the top risk, responsible for some 450,000 deaths in 2016. "It's shocking to see so many people literally being killed by their jobs," Tedros said, describing the report as "a wake-up call to countries and businesses to improve and protect the health and safety of workers." Long working hours kill The report found that non-communicational diseases accounted for a full 82 percent of work-related deaths in 2016, with the greatest cause of death being chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which killed 415,000 people that year. That was followed by strokes, at 400,000, and ischaemic heart disease at 350,000. Occupational injuries were responsible for 18 percent of all work-related deaths, and were estimated to have killed 360,000 people in 2016. "All of these deaths are preventable," International Labour Organization chief Guy Ryder said in a video message. "We can and we must ensure safe and healthy workplaces for all workers." On a positive note, the global death rate from work-related causes shrank by 14 percent over the 16-year-period covered in the report, although a growing global population meant the number of deaths remained about the same. The decrease from 39.9 to 34.3 deaths per 100,000 working age people was possibly a reflection of improvements in workplace safety measures, the report said. But while there was a sharp drop in the number of deaths caused by occupational injuries, deaths linked to long working hours surged over the same period. The death rate from heart disease associated with exposure to long working hours ballooned by 41 percent, while stroke deaths brought on by excessive work rose 19 percent, the report showed. While the report did not look at the pandemic impact, the UN agencies have previously warned the crisis appeared to be feeding the trend towards increased working hours, with teleworking blurring the lines between work and home life. Friday's report did not provide estimates of deaths from contagious diseases contracted at work, but the WHO said that aspect might be included in future studies to capture the Covid impact. "We need more epidemiological studies that clearly identify the increased risk for death from Covid as a result of working," Frank Pega, the WHO's technical lead on the report, told reporters. 2021 AFP Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus M.Barysevich meets the Charge dAffaires a.i. of the State of Qatar On September 17, 2021 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Mikalai Barysevich, met with the Charge dAffaires a.i. of the State of Qatar in the Republic of Belarus, Meshaal Al-Attiyah. During the meeting, diplomats confirmed their interest in promoting Belarusian-Qatari cooperation and discussed current issues on bilateral political, trade and economic agenda. Special attention was paid to the upcoming visit of the Belarusian delegation to the State of Qatar for holding political consultations between the Foreign Ministries and a number of meetings. print version Courtesy Palo Alto Firefighters A three-alarm fire at a Palo Alto home owned by billionaire Google co-founder Larry Page has neighbors demanding answers on whether the California mansion was being used unlawfully as an office for tech workers. On Tuesday night, firefighters responded to a blaze at the 6-bedroom, 5.5-bath home, which per county records has an assessed value of more than $10 million. Fire officials say crews were dispatched to the Bryant Street property at 8:10 p.m., after a neighbor who was away at the time spotted trouble on a security camera. The identity of the 911 caller remains unclear. But a fire dispatcher said one caller saw gray smoke on a door camera, according to a radio call on the website Broadcastify, and neighbors told us they heard a loud popping sound which they believed came from shattered windows. Dozens of vehicles swarmed the neighborhood, where Page owns multiple properties, with a robust showing from Palo Alto Police, the fire departments of Mountain View and Santa Clara County, and the volunteer group Santa Clara County Fire Associates. Dirty Hedge-Fund War Exposes Ex-Google Boss Eric Schmidts Love Life According to Palo Alto Online, which first reported on the fire, one neighbor said the home was owned by Page or Google itself and being used during the day as an office for a small group of employees. Indeed, public records indicate the property is owned by an LLC that has shared two addresses with Pages family foundation, but its not entirely clear who is currently using or living at the property. Google did not return messages by press time. A person with knowledge of the property told The Daily Beast that Page bought the home in recent years and has used it as a guest house. And neighbor Rebecca Eisenberg, who took a video of the incident, described the building as a guest cottage. No one was home when the fire started, and no one was seriously injured, Deputy Fire Chief Kevin McNally told The Daily Beast. Two firefighters, however, sustained minor injuries that didnt require medical attention. Story continues Crews arrived to find heavy fire on three sides of the structure and on both stories, noted one Facebook post from the Palo Alto Fire Department. Additionally, flames from the fire threatened tall trees on one side of the structure. The cause of the inferno in Old Palo Altoan affluent neighborhood that Apple mogul Steve Jobs once called homeis under investigation. Initial knock down of the fire happened about 25 minutes into the incident, McNally said. Fire crews remained on scene until the early hours of the morning to put out hot spots and to monitor the scene. McNally said the first and second floors in the back of the structure, as well as the attic, were significantly damaged. But in wake of the incident, some neighbors argued over what they perceived as authorities aggressive response, while others challenged whether the propertys present use adhered to local zoning laws. Within a few hours of the blaze, flames were not visible from the street, according to two people present at the site. He owns what feels like most of that block, Eisenberg, a former city council candidate who previously served as general counsel at Reddit, told The Daily Beast. In the context of a fire department that is operating on a reduced budget with fewer engines and fewer firefighters, we have a billionaire whose small fireat least non-visible firecreated this extraordinarily expensive, publicly financed response, Eisenberg said. (Despite being one of the wealthiest areas in the country, Palo Alto has faced tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts in recent years.) One anonymous commenter on Palo Alto Online, the website for a weekly newspaper, grumbled: I too was stunned at how many fire and police sped past my house on the way to this fire, totally ignoring stop signs. Do multiple police cars really need to speed full-throttle, metal-to-the-petal [sic], through stop signs? I get the fire engines, but more than 10 police cars? My reaction was also that it must be nice to be a billionaire. Another person chimed in that overly wealthy Palo Alto corporate types residing in our neighborhoods need to take more responsibility for their negligence and oversights. The world does not revolve around their narcissistic egos and vast dollar signs. Still, not all residents agreed with some locals suspicions of special treatment for a Silicon Valley celebrity. One neighbor, Diane Christensen, said that during other blazes in the neighborhood, the response was equally quick. She told us Page lives in the area, owns several structures nearby and guards his privacy. He owns different properties in different places, the resident added. He has family members living in some of them and tenants living in others. The homes are well kept, theyre good neighbors, and we dont want to trouble him. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Pages network of properties in Palo Alto has caused intrigue for years. When he acquired a complex of homes over a decade ago, he completed extensive renovations that included an enormous underground hole, according to two people who live in the area. The project raised concerns over how it would affect groundwater and stoked speculation that Page was building a bunker. (In 2010, local press reported on neighbors concerns about what appeared to be nonstop groundwater pumping from a Page-owned residence so contractors could build a basement.) Over the past year Page, 48, has repeatedly popped up in national headlines. For months his whereabouts were a mystery, until Insider tracked him this summer to a remote part of Fiji, where some locals believe he may have purchased his own island. Around the same time, news broke that Page had received New Zealand residency earlier in the year, after applying through the countrys fast-tracked process for the super rich. Hell have lots of time to pal around with fellow tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who owns a 477-acre swath of land on the South Island. Thiel controversially received full citizenship in 2011, even though he had spent just 12 days in the country. Page and his Google cofounder Sergey Brin are each navigating new life chapters. Worth over $100 billion apiece, the pair stepped down from the search giants parent company in 2019. They retain more than half of the businesss voting power, in case they ever change their minds. with additional reporting by William Bredderman Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Covid rules relaxed across Spain: restrictions update September 16 Most communities in Spain have considerably eased restrictions in recent days As Spain continues to beat the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic into submission, many autonomous communities have chosen to relax several restrictions in a bid to move their regions into a state of new normal. On Thursday September 16, the Ministry of Health reported that the crucial cumulative incidence rate has dropped below 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the first time in three months, and with hospital pressure also steadily easing, much of Spain is increasing venue capacity and opening hours. As of Thursday, the measures are as follows: Andalucia The Andalucian Community has drastically reduced its restrictions on Thursday, now allowing theatres, cinemas, auditoriums, concert halls and places of worship to return to 100% capacity in all areas on level 1 alert. The number of diners at indoor tables on both level 1 and level 2 alert has increased from 6 to 8. Balearic Islands One of the latest measures in the Balearic Islands has to do with the Covid certificate, since national travellers who have this passport will not have to fill out the form requested by the Balearic Executive to enter the islands. Canary Islands As of last week, nightlife venues may open in all alert phases, but dancing is prohibited. Additionally, the regional government passed a new law that will open the door for employers to refuse to allow staff who won't show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test to attend work. Galicia The biggest news from Galicia this week is that the Supreme Court has ruled that Covid passports will now be required for patrons wanting to enter hospitality venues Likewise, other rules have been imposed regarding the opening of bars in catering establishments, which divides the hospitality industry into two levels: type one premises must maintain an interior capacity of 50%, and an exterior capacity of 75%. On the other hand, in type two premises, the capacity will be 75% indoors and 100% outdoors. Madrid The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, announced this Tuesday that as of September 20 there will be no time limits for hospitality and nightlife venues. Restaurants will be open until two in the morning and cocktail bars and nightclubs until 6am, as was the case before the pandemic. Indoor capacity goes up to 75% while outdoor terraces can fill to 100%, with ten people per table. Murcia Region On Wednesday, the Region of Murcia approved the reopening of indoor nightlife venues for the first time in more than two months. People still arent allowed to sit at the bar and a maximum of six people are permitted per table. Valencian Community The regional government of the Valencian Community has maintained its desire for a prudent de-escalation and as such, bars, restaurants and cafes must stop serving at midnight. Nightlife venues can stay open until 3am, but last orders are at 2.30am. The night-time curfew has been completely removed. Image: Archive On Tuesday, Apple announced the redesigned iPad Mini which supports 5G connectivity but does not support millimetre-wave at its California Streaming. Support for 5G was one of the stand-out features of Apples iPad Mini reveal; however, the device specs show that it only supports low- and mid-band 5G connectivity. Fast 5G connections rely primarily on coverage, which is limited in South Africa but is expanding with MTN, Rain, and Vodacom rolling out their 5G networks in new cities. The exclusion of mmWave 5G support in the new iPad Mini may not be a huge loss for the device due to the lack of millimetre-wave 5G in South Africa. Currently, Comsol is the only company that has announced mmWave 5G trials in South Africa. MacRumors reported that the new iPad Mini also features a downclocked version of the A15 chip available in the new iPhone 13. Their report comes after benchmark tests revealed that the iPad Minis chip has a 2.9 GHz clock speed compared to 3.21 GHz in all iPhone 13 models. However, it appears that the downclocked chip has a small impact on the iPad Minis performance compared to the iPhone 13. The iPad Minis benchmark scores were 2-8% lower than the iPhone 13, but it is still 40% and 70% faster than its predecessor in single-core and multi-core performance, respectively. Now Read: iPhone 13 South African launch date revealed Health minister Joe Phaahla has said that his department might recommend that government relax its lockdown restrictions in the coming weeks. This depends on whether the number of new Covid19 cases in South Africa continues to decline and good cooperation from the public, the minister said. Speaking during his visit to Universitas Academic Hospital in Bloemfontein, Phaahla said that he would be reporting to the National Coronavirus Command Council in two weeks, where the decision will be made. Phaahla said that the curfew might be further relaxed to start at midnight instead of 23:00. He also said that liquor stores might be allowed to operate on Saturdays if we all behave. According to the latest statistics from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the current surge in Covid19 infections seems to be showing signs of a sustained downward trend. Yesterday the NICD reported 4,215 new Covid19 cases, representing a 9.3% positivity rate. The National Department of Health reported that there were 311 Covid19 related deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 85,779 to date. South Africa administered 220,450 Covid19 vaccine doses yesterday, bringing the total to 15,583,797 doses. A total of 7,734,069 people have been fully vaccinated, comprised of 3,417,321 Johnson & Johnson vaccines and 4,316,748 individuals who have received two doses of Pfizers vaccine. Liquid Intelligent Technologies is proud to launch its OneVoice for Teams Direct Routing platform. The platform brings together solutions from Liquid and Microsoft to enable telephony in your Microsoft Teams client. It is the perfect fit for all sizes of businesses that need to modernise their telephony infrastructure in a hybrid work environment. OneVoice for Teams Direct Routing provides your employees with the added functionality of calling a mobile or a fixed line number from within their Microsoft Teams client. Simpler than PBX Liquids OneVoice for Teams Direct Routing platform brings unbridled convenience as it removes the complication of managing numbers traditionally allocated through your PBX provider or a complex set of scripts. Liquid provides a concierge team to help onboard and activate your OneVoice for Teams Direct Routing users. Liquid has worked to make the acquisition of phone numbers across all our countries simpler than ever before, and now businesses will be able to manage user extensions as simply as they manage Microsoft 365 licenses bought from Liquid, through a new online portal. OneVoice for Teams Direct Routing provides business continuity by leveraging Microsofts global cloud infrastructure and Liquids carrier grade voice platform. Liquid built its pan-African voice platform to cater to customers across the continent whilst adhering to in-country voice regulations, as both Liquid and Microsoft solutions are fully GDPR and POPIA compliant. Ultimately, the solution from Liquid is an extension of your current Microsoft Teams functionality with voice communications as it it enriches your Microsoft Teams client with a PSTN number that enables traditional voice calling. Liquid understands that bill shock is very real and can be seriously disruptive. To solve this problem, it is launching the OneVoice for Teams Direct Routing with integrated calling plans removing the risk of bill shock and easing the budgeting process. Today, Liquid offers this solution in six African countries: South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Learn more at the 2021 Cloud Conference If you would like to learn more about Liquid products, tune into the 2021 Cloud Conference on 21 September. Liquid Chief Digital Officer David Behr will be speaking with Aki Anastasiou about the companys vast range of powerful solutions. He will provide more details about how these solutions can benefit your business, as well as how easy it is to add them to your technology stack. Click here to register for the 2021 Cloud Conference and hear from Liquid Intelligent Technologies. Voucher code: Liquid2021 Local alert featured Politics Full speed ahead on overhauling California recalls Nick Otto Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to the press after visiting with students at Melrose Leadership Academy, a TK-8 school in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, one day after defeating a Republican-led recall effort. (AP Photo/Nick Otto) With the wreckage of the failed recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom still smoldering, California Democrats have reached a new consensus: They really dont want to do that again. On the morning after voting ended and recall candidates conceded, the chairpersons of the election committees in the state Assembly and Senate said theyre kicking off a public debate to overhaul Californias recall process. Californians are very frustrated that we just spent $276 million on this recall election that, from the looks of it, certified what voters said three years ago and what voters could have said next year, Assemblymember Marc Berman of Los Altos said at the virtual press conference Wednesday. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! In unofficial and partial statewide returns, 5.8 million Californians voted to keep Gov. Newsom in office, compared to 3.3 million who voted to remove him. Newsom, himself, says the recall has been weaponized. The voters want to see a more democratic process put in place that keeps elected officials accountable, but prevents political gamesmanship, added Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda. Berman and Glazer said they plan to hold joint hearings as soon as next month. They also want the discussion to be bipartisan. The Little Hoover Commission, a nonpartisan, independent state oversight agency, also announced Wednesday that it would be looking into possible changes to the state recall. But its not clear if any Republicans, who put so many electoral chips on the recall, will get on board. Democrats continuously try to manipulate the rules to support their political interests, so its not surprising to see them trying to do it again at the expense of voters they were elected to serve, California GOP Chairperson Jessica Millan Patterson said in a statement. They wouldnt have to worry about a recall if they were doing their jobs and addressing wildfire prevention, homelessness, crime, taxes and fixing the broken unemployment department. You want to prevent a recall, do your job. Republican Kelly Seyarto from Murrieta, vice-chairperson of the Assembly election committee, was non-committal. I am looking forward to participating in these hearings to ensure that we have a recall process that continues to hold elected officials accountable and protects the rights of voters to participate in our democracy, he said in an emailed statement. GOP political consultant Dave Gilliard is skeptical that any members of his party will ultimately back a change to the recall rules. There is zero chance any Republican will go along, said Gilliard, who worked on the successful 2003 campaign to recall Democrat Gray Davis, as well as this one. Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat from Brea who in 2018 became the most recent state official to be removed from office by recall, also doubts whether any recall reform will be bipartisan. I would be tickled pink if any member of the Republican caucus on either side of the Legislature stepped up to support meaningful changes to the recall at this point, said Newman, who was elected again in 2020. Newman said he will introduce two constitutional amendments to change the process: One to make it more difficult for recalls to qualify for the ballot, and a second that would replace a recalled governor with the lieutenant governor. The recalls unusual rules Once a rarely used and to many voters, thoroughly obscure provision of the state constitution, Californias recall is now the subject of unprecedented scrutiny. Thats because though the states last Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was elected via recall in 2003, this years attempt put some of the systems quirks into sharp relief. Unlike in 2003, when Davis was polling in the mid-20s, Newsom faced a recall despite remaining broadly popular with California voters. Thats convinced many Democratic legislators that the law makes it too easy to put a recall on the ballot. And unlike in 2003, when Schwarzenegger won with 48% of the vote and had more support than the 45% who wanted to keep Davis, there was no such frontrunner this year. Given the quirky two-questioned structure of the recall, 2021s fragmented field could have produced a candidate like Larry Elder to potentially become the next governor after winning fewer votes than were cast in defense of Newsom. While Elder had 47% of the replacement vote, 4 million voters didnt choose anyone. California laws should not allow an elected official to be recalled and then replaced by someone else who receives far fewer votes, and I really look forward to hearing from a bipartisan group of experts about how Californias recall process should be reformed, said Berman. On the Democratic side, momentum for change has been building for months. Earlier this summer, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said the states recall rules deserve a second look. More recently, former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown called the process awkward and cumbersome and certainly a distraction while Davis, the states only recalled governor, has his own ideas for reform. Its a process that was put in place about a century ago and it certainly bears looking at, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said in a television interview Tuesday night. There are two reasons that Democrats will likely have an easier time changing the rules after this recall than they did in 2003, said UC San Diego political scientist Thad Kousser. One, the Democrats won by the rules of the game and now they can change those rules without looking like sore losers, he said. And two, they have the votes. As for Californians themselves, a recent UC Berkeley survey of registered voters found that an overwhelming majority, 75%, look upon the electorates recall powers favorably. But a consistent majority also favor making tweaks to the process. The call for legislative hearings is only the first step in a long process. Any serious alterations would require constitutional amendments. That means getting two-thirds of both legislative chambers on board to put the question to voters. That wont happen until 2022 at the earliest. While Democrats have enough votes in both the Assembly and Senate to put constitutional amendments on the ballot, it would likely take some independent voters, as well as Democrats, to win approval statewide thus at least the window dressing of a bipartisan recall reform effort. Glazer and Berman said they were open minded about the range of changes up for debate. Heres a short list of possibilities, ranked from more minor tweaks to outright nixes: Increase the requirements for recalls A recall election against a governor qualifies for the ballot if its supporters can gather signatures equivalent to 12% of the turnout in the prior gubernatorial election. This time around, that number was just shy of 1.4 million; recall proponents collected more than 1.7 million. Of the 19 states that allow voters to put a recall on the ballot, only Montana makes it easier, with a 10% threshold. Other states put the requirement between 15% and 40%. The current cutoff may have made sense in 1913 when the recall was introduced as a popular check against the political influence of railroad interests, Newman said. But in the age of social media, he said hed like to see the requirement set at something more rigorous to adjust for political inflation. Gilliard, however, dismissed the suggestion that its too easy to put a recall on the ballot. In 108 years, two gubernatorial recall elections have qualified for the ballot, he said. How can anybody with a straight face argue that its too easy or its being abused when its happened twice in 108 years? UC Berkeley Law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who has argued that the states recall may be unconstitutional, countered that Californians live in a more polarized political environment in which Republican activists are more likely to use the recall to win in low-turnout off-year elections when they cant succeed in regularly contests. We should realize that we may be in an era where theres going to be more and more efforts to use recalls if changes arent made, he said. I hope that this is not going to be a situation where people breathe a sigh of relief and just forget about it until the next time this happens. Add a cause requirement In the governors office, as in any job, California is an at-will employment state. Any governor can be recalled at any time for any reason. No justification required. While no-cause recalls are the norm, that isnt true in every state. Rhode Island, for example, requires that the governor have broken a law or gotten into trouble with the states ethics commission before booting them from office. Without weighing in on the idea directly, Berman said the debate over whether criminal misconduct or malfeasance should be a kind of threshold issue is something that were going to discuss. Make the lieutenant governor the replacement Unlike the ballot pairing of candidates for president and vice president, the lieutenant governor is elected separately and serves independently. Newman, for one, favors elevating the lieutenant governor if a governor is removed and going without the second question on replacement candidates. We have a number two constitutional officer in California, he said. If you think the governors malfeasant, by all means, lets have a plebiscite and remove him or her from the office. But lets not use that as the pretext for getting a hidden ball trick do-over. Unlike some more expansive reform proposals, this one would only apply to recall efforts against the governor. Go beyond yes or no As many confused California voters only recently learned, Newsom was not listed among the candidates vying for office on the recall ballot. That wasnt an oversight; election law doesnt allow an incumbent to run as his or her own replacement. Sen. Ben Allen wants to change that. He introduced a constitutional amendment last year in response to Newmans recall that would nix the first question altogether. If a recall qualifies, the state would go straight to a snap election. The idea: Avoid the counter-intuitive possibility that a recall winner could earn fewer votes than those cast to keep the incumbent in office. A potential downside: There would be no requirement that the winner receive a majority. In a large field of candidates, like the 46 on this years recall ballot, the next governor could win with a sliver of the vote. So why not hold a run-off election between the top two vote-getters, as in regular elections? Two rounds of recall elections on top of our regular election cycle? asked Allen. It would certainly be fairer than the current model, but Im not sure that it would be particularly satisfying. In this case we would have had Elder versus (Democrat Kevin) Paffrath would that really have solved everyones problems? Just get rid of the recall Maybe one gubernatorial election every four years is enough? This proposal isnt likely to go anywhere, no matter what some political commentators might say. The recall remains popular as a general concept, even if theres criticism of the specifics. Neither of us, Glazer said with Berman, are suggesting that the recall process be eliminated. CalMatters reporter Laurel Rosenhall contributed to this story. In his winemaking, Arpad Molnar sources grapes from two very different extremes. The first his fathers vineyard lies at the base of the Mayacamas Mountains, and the second sits at 2,640 feet atop the volcanic soils of Red Lake County. When first planting the latter, which would be named Obsidian Ridge, Molnar and the rest of the Obsidian viticulture crew werent entirely sure what they were getting into. They knew that the site was near the Clear Lake Volcanic Field and that the towering Cobb Mountain and Mount Konocti would have some sort of impact on their grapes, but upon digging, they were shocked to find larger-than-life chunks of Obsidian beneath their soon-to-be-planted vineyard. After some major heavy lifting, the high-elevation and widely varied plot was planted, and a few years later, Obsidian had its first drinkable vintage. The hard part was waiting to see if the grapes were gonna be any good, said Molnar. That was the biggest leap for us. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. Special offer: $1 for your first 6 months! Since planting the Obsidian Ridge vineyard in 1999, Molnar and his employees in the field have learned a lot about adapting to the sites harsh climate, which has a tendency to leave vines exposed to the elements due to the elevation level. Justin Sandefur, a senior fellow at the center, contends that the rankings have always reflected a bias against government intervention in the economy. He said, for example, that the rankings have failed to properly assess any benefits from state spending or worker and consumer protections. It came from a very strong anti-regulatory anti-tax, get-the-state-out-of-the-way-so-the-private-sector-can-thrive approach, Sandefur said. That was the original sin. It is deep in the DNA of the report. WilmerHale delivered another blow to the World Bank and the Doing Business rankings. World Bank staffers who were compiling the 2018 report were preparing to knock China down to No. 85 in the rankings from No. 78 the year before. The downgrade would have come at a time when the World Bank was trying to raise capital an effort in which Beijing, the bank's No. 3 shareholder, was expected to play a key role, according to the law firms report. The investigation found that Georgieva became directly involved in efforts to improve China's ranking.'" Firefighters have placed special aluminum wrapping around the base of the General Sherman Tree, the worlds largest by volume at 52,508 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters), as well as some other sequoias and buildings. The material can withstand intensive heat for short periods and has been used in national parks and forests for several years throughout the West to protect sensitive structures from flames. Lower temperatures and a layer of smoke blanketing the area have been a benefit by helping suppress the flames. Its been slow growth, fire information officer Katy Hooper said. A major element of the groves' defense is decades of prescribed burns fires intentionally set to clear the forest floor of vegetation that could feed bigger blazes and thinning projects to remove small trees that could become ladders carrying fire up to the crowns of the giants. The tactic was no match for a fire in the region last year that killed thousands of sequoias, which grow as tall as high-rises at certain elevations on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. David Kankiya from the Golos independent election monitoring group told AP that it was easier for state institutions and companies to force people to vote on Friday because there was less attention from observers. Some observers are busy with work, some with university studies, as it's a work day and not a weekend," he said. "Monitoring is harder to organize, ergo, there are fewer risks for the administrative machine. Peskov dismissed the allegations and suggested that those at polling stations were there voluntarily because they had to work on the weekend or wanted to free up Saturday and Sunday. Putin, who has been self-isolating since Tuesday after dozens of people in his inner circle got infected with COVID-19, voted online Friday an option that is available in seven Russian regions this year. Kremlin critics have said that leaves room for manipulation. Dr. Anna Trushina, a radiologist at a Moscow hospital, told AP she went to a polling station to be honest, because we were forced (to vote) by my work. Frankly speaking. She added: And I also want to know who leads us." Cox, too, might take another shot despite his abysmal showing in the recall. The San Diego County businessman faced one humiliating moment during a debate when he was interrupted and served a subpoena in a legal case alleging he owes one firm about $100,000 from bills run up during his losing 2018 run. Theres also Kevin Kiley, a Republican state assemblyman from the Sacramento suburbs who ran during the recall as essentially the purest of the GOP possibilities. Kiley was given to purveying the occasional disprovable half-truth during his run. This didnt get many votes in 2021, but things could be different in June, when the electorate may be far larger than this months. Any of these Republicans could also run for the U.S. Senate against appointed Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla. Newsom remains the central figure in all this. Just as in 2018, he overcame admitted moral failings in the recall election, but things like his too-large and too-inside birthday dinner for a lobbyist pal may rise up again and strike him down if there are other major Democrats and not just Republicans in the June field. YEREVAN. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on Thursday met with Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The interlocutors touched upon a wide range of bilateral agenda, expressing satisfaction with the high level of Armenian-Indian relations, the Armenian foreign ministry informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. The parties agreed to start substantive discussions on cooperation on specific programs in various fields. FMs Mirzoyan and Jaishankar stressed with satisfaction the mutual support between Armenia and India within the framework of international organizations. The interlocutors discussed also the current developments around the North-South international transport corridor of Armenia. The FMs of Armenia and India reflected also on regional and international security issues. In this connection, FM Mirzoyan briefed his Indian counterpart on the current situation as a result of the Azerbaijani armed forces infiltration of the sovereign territory of Armenia. In this context, the Armenian FM lauded India's principled position as well as its continued support for a peaceful and comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflictand within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Also FM Mirzoyan reaffirmed Armenia's position to support India in the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. The parties discussed the situation in Afghanistan, too. The meeting of the FMs of Armenia and India took place in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, where Ararat Mirzoyan is in order to attend the meetings of the CSTO institutions. Putin, Erdogan to discuss Syria and other regional conflicts Karabakh's Arayik Harutyunyan visits Armenia 1st President, latest developments in Artsakh discussed Members of "Armenia" alliance and MPs of homonymous faction visit Yerablur Military Pantheon (PHOTOS) Monument to Marshal Baghramyan unveiled in Moscow Karabakh President sends condolence message to Russia's Putin Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of another Armenian serviceman found in Mataghis Catholicos of All Armenians visits Yerablur Military Pantheon (PHOTOS) Russian State Duma chairman congratulates Armenian counterpart on Armenia's Independence Day Putin appoints Armenia's Mikayel Aghasandyan Russia's Permanent and Plenipotentiary Representative to CSTO Resident of Karabakh's Karmir Shuka runs over three 14-year-olds, body found hanged from a tree later Adam Schiff congratulates Armenians on 30th anniversary of Armenia's Independence Nikol Pashinyan: Grove of Life will symbolize the start of era of peaceful development of Armenia Armenia premier: History has shown that it's not mandatory and is sometimes unnecessary to defeat others to win Azerbaijan FM meets with Turkish counterpart in New York Karabakh President meets with President of Tashir Group Samvel Karapetyan in Yerevan New Armenian flag placed in Armenia's Tegh village, higher than Azerbaijani flag UN Secretary General urges to ban weapons that kill without human participation Russia Federation Council chairwoman congratulates Armenia Parliament Speaker on Independence Day US may approve Pfizer child vaccine drug soon Biden calls on UN to protect rights of sex minorities from Chechnya to Cameroon "Vivid" Independence Day event kicks off at Republic Square in Yerevan Iranian Deputy FM to arrive in Azerbaijan on a three-day visit Police inspecting citizens with metal detectors before Independence Day event at Republic Square in Yerevan Armenia marks Independence Day: Digest on congratulations from int. leaders Largest flag of Armenia raised in Yeraskh village of Ararat Province (PHOTOS) China PM to Armenia counterpart: Cooperation in sidelines of One Belt One Road joint construction steadily develops Lukashenko to Pashinyan: Belarus, Armenia will be able to fully realize bilateral cooperations potential Kazakhstan President: Armenia achieved great success, enjoys well-deserved reputation in international arena Putin to Pashinyan: Trilateral agreements implementation will ensure your countrys peaceful, prosperous development Mishustin to Pashinyan: Russia-Armenia relations progressively developing in all directions Guy Parmelin: Switzerland remains reliable partner of reforms in Armenia France MP: Armenia fighting for survival of itself, its people, against Azerbaijan, Turkey Wendy Morton: UK will continue to be proud supporter of Armenias democratic, economic development Russia envoy to Armenia: Any challenge in modern world can be overcome only through joint efforts Top Iran officials congratulate Armenia, Armenian people Armenia health minister's vaccinated mother contracts COVID-19 Pope Francis: May divine blessing be with people of Armenia Wreath laid on behalf of Armenia ex-President Sargsyan at Yerevan military pantheon (PHOTOS) Sweden ambassador: My best wishes to all Armenians (VIDEO) Netherlands envoy to Armenia: This beautiful country, wonderful people have bright future (VIDEO) Xi Jinping to Armen Sarkissian: Dynamics of development of China-Armenia relations is maintained Armenia First President: Independence is non-negotiable for me Putin: Development of Russia-Armenia relations corresponds to fundamental interests of our fraternal peoples Blinken: US remains committed to helping negotiate long-term political settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Armenia Security Council chief refuses to speak about possible Pashinyan-Erdogan meeting Biden: US will continue to advocate for release of all Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan Armenia FM to head for New York Macron to Armenias Sarkissian: We will spare no effort to find lasting solution to conflict Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: Defeat, authorities that symbolize it cannot be source of inspiration, creation 494 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Challenging but honorific struggle awaits us ahead Karekin II: Main meaning of 30th anniversary of independence is to rebuild progressive, prosperous country Karabakh President: Strong, developing Armenia has no alternative Shombi Sharp: UN will continue to stand with Armenia in addressing impact of recent crises, pandemic, conflict Armenia President: Today it turns out that we did not appreciate what we had Georgia capital Tbilisi TV tower illuminated in colors of Armenia flag (PHOTOS) US ambassador: We continue to look with confidence at future for Armenia as sovereign, prosperous state Police not allowing reporters to cover PM's visit to Yerevan military pantheon Newspaper: Azerbaijanis get more active after dismissal of commander of Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh Armenia marks Independence Day 30th anniversary Senior officials visiting Yerevan military pantheon on Armenia Independence Day 30th anniversary (PHOTOS) US launches strike at one of al-Qaida leaders in Syria Biden to declare end of "20-year war" in Afghanistan in speech at UN General Assembly US Ambassador to Armenia: Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has yet to be settled, Artsakh status will be clarified Nikol Pashinyan: Russian-Armenians and their businesses stand strong with the Armenian State Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan pledges investments worth $780,000,000 US says it is willing to consider return to nuclear deal with Iran Azerbaijani-Turkish military exercises are being held in Nakhchivan Businessman Samvel Karapetyan: I don't agree that systems have changed in Armenia, only people have changed Two residents of Armenia's Kasakh who disappeared in Vorotan section and were returned, are at home Kyrgyz MP proposes to appoint one Ambassador to Armenia and Azerbaijan Armenia Central Bank head: Buffer of Armenian financial organizations is sufficient to resist challenges OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative for South Caucasus to visit Armenia Armenia PM sends telegram of condolence to Russia President Armenia Deputy PM: Government shouldn't be involved in business Nearly 700 projects considered during "Armenia 2020-Armenia 2041" meeting Putin, Aliyev hold phone talks Armenian filmmaker calls on Armenia citizens to join march to Yerablur Military Pantheon on Independence Day Digest: Armenian women die in the Netherlands shooting, Azerbaijan returns 2 Armenians Relatives of deceased servicemen protesting in front of Armenia government building Russian Expert Center: Russia is ready to offer Yerevan buses and new metro wagons "High-Level Observer Day" held as part of "Three Brothers-2021" Azerbaijan-Turkey-Pakistan military drills Flights to and from Gyumri and Moscow launched Russia deputy PM: Development of new strategic document has started with Armenia Armenian businessman: I would like for Armenia to have three official languages Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains or relics of soldiers not found in Hadrut today COAF and AMAA partner to revamp dairy production in Lori Province of Armenia Gunshots heard in Armenia's Kut village again Alexey Overchuk: Russia is ready to help Armenia overcome economic crisis and pandemic Armenia economy minister: Unblocking of communication will help increase country's GDP by 30% Armenia army's units to march on country's Independence Day Armenia PM congratulates Vladimir Putin on United Russia Party's victory Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sergey Smbatyan, performs at InClassica festival (PHOTOS) Russian official: Bandwidth of Upper Lars checkpoint to grow by 6.5 times in 2022 Armenian Deputy PM: Armenia-Russia trade turnover made up $1.9 billion in first semester of 2021 Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulates Armenia President on 30th anniversary of Independence Iran Ambassador to Armenia: We hope alternative road to Goris is built as soon as possible Egypt President congratulates Armenia President on 30th anniversary of Independence Erdogan to visit Russia on a working visit Young Dutch man with mental disorder shoots at passers-by, kills 2 female members of AGBU Holland Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 17.09.21: Azerbaijan once again demonstrated "peaceful intentions" by shooting at the positions of the Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] Defense Army. According to the Artsakh Ministry of Defense, as a result of the ceasefire violation, Artsakh soldier has been injured. Information about the incident was passed on to the command of the Russian peacekeeping forces. Azerbaijanis on Friday stoppedat the Vorotan village section of the Goris-Kapan motorwaya car delivering bread to Armenian soldiers. Karen Kocharyan, Deputy Mayor of Goris, Armenia, told about this to Armenian News-NEWS.am. "They did not demand money, but they behaved in a very impudent way. They inspected the car in a rough way. The car passed the road accompanied by Armenian and Russian border guards because the driver refused to go unaccompanied," Kocharyan added. The deputy mayor of Goris noted that Iranian trucks were again accumulated on this road. A group of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) residents who have been displaced are protesting in front of the main building of the government of Armenia. Levon Hayryan, the chairman of the executive body of the "For Hadrut" NGO, told reporters: "Our movement and today's gathering are not one-sided. Our issues are political, domestic, and personal. All this arose from the fact that when we found out about the plans of the governments of Armenia and Artsakh4 to 5 months agothat they want to provide us with apartments, we asked [them] to take our opinions into account when implementing the housing programs. As of Friday morning, 759 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 252,082 in the country, Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, 26 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 5,101 cases. Armenia-Azerbaijan agreement details are known. According to Hraparak daily sources, talks were taking place in Moscow with the Azerbaijani side over the so-called 'peace agreement.' "We were told that the negotiations are over, and the Armenian side was very pleased with the results. It seems that an agreement was reached to start the process of [border] demarcation and delimitation without specifying the status of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)], within the framework of the maps of the Soviet Union." "It was managed to extend the presence of the Russian side indefinitely, without the limitations for 5 years." As for the road being given through Syunik province of Armenia, they have reportedly agreed on a transit road which will be monitored by Russia and our border guards, border checkpoints will operate, and the Azerbaijanis will pay a toll to travel along that road. They even mention the number: it is about 150 million dollars a year. Today armed police officers of Azerbaijan stopped a microbus transporting children of Artsakh in the Vorotan section of the Goris-Kapan road of Armenia and tore, with a dagger, the label portraying the flag of the Republic of Artsakh posted on the microbus. Deputy Mayor of Goris Karen Kocharyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the Azerbaijanis obscenely lowered everyone from the bus and started inspecting the car, and luckily, Russian border guards spotted the bus and saw the children off. In the video being disseminated on the Internet, one can see how the Azerbaijani policeman is speaking to the children and teens in a threatening voice. You need to know that there is no more Nagorno-Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh is already Azerbaijans, understood? the Azerbaijani said to the Armenian children. During a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Deputy Mayor Kocharyan had trouble saying whether the microbus was moving towards Artsakh or had come from Artsakh to Syunik. After placing a police checkpoint in Vorotan section, for the past few days, the Azerbaijanis have been stopping Iranian truck drivers and letting them go after inspecting them and charging fees. Two days ago, the Azerbaijanis detained two Iranian drivers, and today, the Azerbaijanis stopped a driver who was taking bread to soldiers. The driver continued with the accompaniment of Armenian and Russian border guards. Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Join the University of Miami Libraries (UML) as we commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month by recognizing the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have enriched our nation and society and inspired others to achieve success. Explore the listing below to discover archives, books, digital resources, films, newspapers and journals, links to useful websites, and so much more in UMLs interdisciplinary Latin American and Caribbean Studies research guides. Every year in this country, families are evicted from their homes not by the tens of thousands or even the hundreds of thousands but by the millions. That stunning fact was written by Harvard professor Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 2017. The book is this years One Book, One U program selection. Evicted is an ethnological study that follows eight poor families in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as they struggle with the interminable task of keeping a roof over their heads. The book highlights issues of poverty, racism, drug addiction, mental illness, government bureaucracy, and other factors that enforce a cycle of poverty on low-income tenants that keeps millions in a constant state of housing insecurity. Although evictions affect all peoplewhite, Black, Latinos, the disabled, and othersit disproportionally affects Black women with children, said the author. Evicted is particularly timely, said Miriam Lipsky, director of special projects in the Office of the Provost at the University of Miami. Right now, with the COVID insecurity, we see that a lot of the government assistance and moratoriums are ending. Lipsky was among the members of the selection committeemade up of University faculty and staff members and studentswho chose the book because of its social relevance but were unaware that the governments eviction moratorium would end. In September 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) imposed a nationwide temporary federal moratorium in residential evictions as a way to stem the spread of COVID-19. The moratorium was extended through June 30, 2021. Congress has approved nearly $50 billion to help people pay back-rent and avoid eviction. But while in some states and counties that has been working well, in many others the help has not reached the vast majority of renters who need it, according to an NPR report. The intention of the author is to make us aware the systems that are in place to help the homeless, said Ava Brillat, program lead for information literacy and instructional design for Richter Library. But unless you have engaged in these systems, it is hard to know them. He does a really good job of revealing all of these systems and how easy it is to slip through the cracks. It just takes one or two changes and all of a sudden you are homeless. To research the book, Desmond immersed himself in the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukeeliving in a trailer park and as a resident of a rooming house in the inner city. He watched and participated in peoples everyday lives, attending church, funerals, and other activities with them. He also accompanied some to eviction court, homeless shelters, and abandoned houses. But he also integrated the landlords perspective and spent time with them collecting rents, issuing eviction notices, and delivering food to some tenants. Although his work was in Milwaukee, the same conditions are faced by low-income tenants throughout the country, according to Desmond. While doing his research, he learned that most low-income residents spend 70 percent of their monthly income on rent and utilities. Most do not have a financial safety net to help them with any illness, accident, or unexpected events. Eviction is not always a question of personal irresponsibility but inevitability, Desmond told a group of readers at the bookstore Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. The One Book, One U program helps promote discussions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in classrooms and workspaces throughout the University. Faculty members are encouraged to integrate the book into their curriculums, said Brillat. Instructors interested in using the book in their classes can take part in a discussion reading group online. Two sessions will be offered: the first on Wednesday, Oct. 27, at 5 p.m., and the second on Friday, Oct. 29, at 1 p.m. Instructors are asked to register for only one session, to allow as many participants as possible to join. Each session will feature a facilitated discussion and guidance on how to integrate the book into the classroom. A website has been established that will list all the programming around the book. Registration links for the instructor reading group will be available soon on both the website and the Instructor Guide. Free copies of the book can be ordered there. Both Lipsky and Brillat believe that Evicted will resonate with many University students. We have students that are very wealthy and others who have experienced housing and food insecurity throughout their lifetime, said Lipsky. To help those students who may be affected by food or housing insecurity, several resources are offered to them, according to the Division of Student Affairs. They include the following. Student Government ECO Agency runs a food pantry located on the second floor of the University Center, in Room 2400L. Housing and Residential Life compiles an off-campus housing guide and maintains a listing guide. The University Ombudsperson can help students to identify resources and find support if experiencing food and/or housing insecurity. Lipsky said that she believes discussions on the topic of eviction and all the factors that surround it will be eye-opening to many. To the extent that this book can inform and educate those students who may not have experience with this topic, I think it will be particularly relevant, she said. Desmond is scheduled to visit the University to speak about his book on Feb. 15, 2022. When University of Miami graduate student Charles Groppe began to record the data from his water sampling trip in Biscayne Bay two weeks ago, he was a little alarmed. The oxygen levels in some of the samples he had collected from northern Biscayne Bay were extremely low, and the water was more green than previous weeks. These elementscoupled with warm weather and calm seascan often signal a threat to survival for marine life, so Groppe immediately showed the data to his advisor, marine biology and ecology professor Chris Langdon at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The pair then shared the information with a network of local scientists and environmental advocates set up during last summers fish kill. That event led to the death of nearly 27,000 fish in Biscayne Bay, according to a report from Miami Waterkeeper. Two days later, their dire predictions came true. The evening before Labor Day, residents from North Bay Village and western Miami Beach began reporting dead fishand the stenchalong their shores. And Groppes data was telling because the fish were dying from whats called hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen in the water. Chris Langdon This used to be a rare event, but Biscayne Bay is becoming less resilient and more susceptible to these events, so its all the more pressing to prevent them, said Langdon, who studies ocean acidification. While this summers fish kill was smaller than last years, and only hundreds of fish floated ashore, there is a possibility for more events this year, since the water in Biscayne Bay often does not cool off until October, said Rachel Silverstein, executive director of Miami Waterkeeper and a Rosenstiel School alumna. Thats why Langdon and Groppe have been surveying the waters of Biscayne Bay twice a week since May. They are focusing on the hottest months, when fish kills typically occur, and are looking at different parameters in the water, like temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, turbidity (how cloudy the water looks), and concentrations of algae, to see if they can pinpoint some of the causes for these events. They are also in touch with a network of other local marine experts, as part of the Biscayne Bay Science Coordination Group, formed by Miami Waterkeeper to share data and brainstorm new avenues for investigation. Charles Groppe I hope our researchand everyone elseswill help identify what factors we can influence to stop these events from occurring. So, we dont have to just hope that it will not turn into a larger environmental fish kill next summer, Groppe said. Although there was a small event in 2019, the thousands of dead fish that washed ashore in August 2020 was the worst fish kill in recent memory for South Florida, Silverstein said. She hopes this summers follow-up does not indicate a yearly trend for North Biscayne Bay. In 2015, Biscayne Bay was named a Habitat Focus Area by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to fight for the areas well-being against multiple growing threats. Some of those threats include nutrient runoff from the countys many residential septic tankswhich are leaching into the water table and eventually reach Biscayne Bayas well as from sewage leaks, stormwater runoff, and fertilizer overuse, according to the researchers. We are at a concerning tipping point with respect to the fate of Biscayne Bay, said marine biology professor Danielle McDonald, who studies fish physiology with a focus on Gulf toadfish, a hearty species that represented 44 percent of the casualties in last summers event. Toadfish are very tolerant to hypoxia. So, the fact that many toadfish died last summer shows how serious it was ... and that other factors might be at play. As these events continue, you can imagine certain species of fish will start to disappear from the bay. Potential catalysts Scientists are still trying to understand what sparked this summers fish kill. A consensus among local scientists points to pollution as the source of an overall decline in the health of Biscayne Bay, Silverstein noted. Last summer, Langdon said, additional stress was added by a large outflow of polluted water from the Little River Canal, but conditions have been different this year. We still dont know why the event was triggered this year. Its probably the fact that we have high pollution levels in North Biscayne Bay, which has also killed off the seagrass in the area, Silverstein said. But when you have an underlying pollution problem and you add the stress of hot weather, then you become very vulnerable to these type of fish kills. Similar to last summers event, the conditions in the past few weeks were ideal for low oxygen levels in the water because of the dramatic heat, along with the calm winds, Langdon pointed out. Less wind on the bay means that not as much oxygen can get into the water from the surface, which is critical for fish to thrive, he added. When its hot, the water near the surface heats up and becomes lighter, so a thin layer of water at the surface acts like a blanket and impedes the oxygen from getting down, Langdon noted. Theres typically a top warm layer of water and a colder layer below it, and the only way that oxygen gets down to where fish live is if the two mix. Still, hindering marine life even more, experts said, is the fact that Biscayne Bay is filled with nutrients from septic tanks across Miami-Dade County, and sporadic content from broken sewer lines that seeps into the ground. Also, summertime rains draw water mixed with lawn fertilizer, trash, chemicals, pet waste, and other pollution from the street into canals like the Little River that feed into northern Biscayne Bay. When these nutrients dissolve in the bay, they often stimulate algae blooms, which decompose and then absorb all of the oxygen, Langdon explained. The blooms also kill off seagrass, which helps produce oxygen in the Bay, according to Silverstein. Larry Brand photographed in his lab in 2019. A little algae is good. But the problem is when you dump extra nutrients into water, you often get more algae, the water turns green, and there are many negative effects, said marine biology and ecology professor Larry Brand, who studies algae growth extensively and has surveyed Biscayne Bay. And here in Biscayne Bay, when you get a lot of algae, it takes the oxygen out of the water and kills fish. This is why you see some fish gasping for air at the surface. However, Brand noted that there is also the possibility that years of runoff nutrients settling at the bottom of Biscayne Bay may be absorbing the oxygen and producing hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is extremely toxic to fish. He mentioned that more research is needed to determine if that is happening. A familiar spot Along with the climate, another similarity of the past three South Florida fish kills is their location. All have taken place in northern Biscayne Bay, a smaller, more enclosed section of the waterway north of the Rickenbacker Causeway. Brand, Langdon, and Silverstein all agree that because North Biscayne Bay is heavily developed, with few outlets for the ocean to flush fresh water into the area, it is simply not as clean as southern Biscayne Bay. This may also be why seagrass beds have died off northwest of the Julia Tuttle Causeway (Interstate 195) in recent years, Groppe explained. North Biscayne Bay is built right up to the waters edge and there are four canals that discharge water from the city into the Bay, Langdon said. Brand spent years surveying Biscayne Bay and found that the areas where pollution was the worst were right at the mouth of canals, even in the cleaner southern part of the Bay. Research indicates that nutrient runoff from canals often triggers a loss of seagrass beds, often called the oceans nurseries because they harbor baby fish, shrimp, and crabs. Seagrass also stabilizes the sediment at the bottom of the Bay, Silverstein added. Danielle McDonald photographed in her lab in 2019. Yet, the problem of nutrient pollution is not limited to South Florida. Fish kills across the world are typically a result of low oxygen levels that occur because of nutrient pollution, McDonald said. During the summer months, the mouth of the Mississippi River becomes one of the largest hypoxic dead zones in the world, and marine life often die or stay away from the area in the Gulf of Mexico because of its low oxygen levels. The annual eventwhich is predicted and monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)is the result of nutrient runoff from farming states upstream, she added. This is where Biscayne Bay is headed if we don't control the nutrients we are dumping into the Bay, McDonald said. Possible solutions So, how can residents protect Biscayne Bay from fish kills? First of all, they can stop fertilizing their lawns during the hot, rainy months of the summer, Langdon suggested, which will hopefully prevent the harmful chemicals from entering the bay. We need to get nutrient pollution under control in South Florida, Silverstein added. Things like nitrogen and phosphorus make plants grow on land, but they overfertilize the algae in water. And as soon as they are added to land and it rains, this fertilized water washes down the drain and that gets into Biscayne Bay and causes pollution. A new county law was passed recently to stop locals from fertilizing in Miamis warmest months; in addition, Miami Waterkeeper was able to persuade commissioners to adopt a year-round ordinance banning fertilizer use within 20 feet of storm drains and waterways. Still, a larger goal is to get Miami-Dade Countys nearly 120,000 homes still on septic tanks connected to sewer lines that would funnel the sewage into water treatment plants. Silverstein and Brand agreed that this would take a major investment but would likely stop polluted runoff water from seeping into Biscayne Bay. The whole area around north Biscayne Bay is covered in dense septic tanks with a very shallow water table and theres also a lot of industrial areas with runoff into the canals, Silverstein said. Therefore, theres a lot of pollution in North Biscayne Bay. Using a grant funded by the EPA, her organization is currently analyzing the water quality in four waterways that feed into northern Biscayne Bay. By collecting samples from Arch Creek, the Oleta River, the Little River, and the Biscayne Canal, the research team is hoping to learn more about the water traveling into this region of the bay. And as part of the project, Miami Waterkeeper is working with faculty members from the University of Miami and Florida International University, as well as with staffers from Beta Analytic, a Miami-based testing lab. The 2021-22 academic year is off to a successful start at Mount St. Marys University, with traditional face-to-face learning and student housing returning to a near-normal status. A near record number of undergraduates are taking classes at the Emmitsburg campus this fall, with 1,887 full-time students enrolled in classes that started Monday, August 23. That figure was 1,899 in 2020-21. The 538-strong Class of 2025 is the fourth largest in Mount St. Marys 213-year history. The Mount also attracted 58 transfer students, the largest number ever. First-year students came to the university from 24 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, as well as 13 countries in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North America and Australia. Thirty percent speak more than one language, including Korean, German, Telugu, Urdu and Yoruba, and 42 percent identify as students of color. The beginning of the academic year is among my favorite times at the Mount, said President Timothy E. Trainor, Ph.D. The Mounts welcoming culture is on full display as everyone pitches in to help students move in and feel that they belong. Faculty are excited to get to know students and help them excel, and students are eager to learn. At Convocation on Monday morning, Provost Boyd Creasman gave students 10 tips for success in the classroom, including the advice to work hard. Try hard. If you are putting a lot of effort into your work, your professors will notice, Creasman said. If you try hard and participate in class, you are not a geek. You are a responsible adult with a much better chance of earning an A. The event also included a traditional pining ceremony for the Class of 2022. Twenty-nine upper-class students moved into new residential housing over the weekend. The new 29-bed two-story residential cottage, built by JEM Group, LLC, is located on Alumni Court. The university also renovated Horning Tower apartments over the summer, completing a project to renovate the three-building Tower apartment complex that began in the summer of 2018. The health and safety of the Mount community and student success remain the universitys highest priorities. Health and illness prevention requirements for the fall semester include COVID-19 testing, prevention measures, isolation and contact tracing. More than 90% of students in Emmitsburg are vaccinated against COVID-19. Students who have received an exemption from the vaccination requirement are regularly undergoing COVID-19 testing. Employees who are not vaccinated also are being tested regularly. More than 87% of employees have been vaccinated to date. Visit the Mount Safe Initiative page for full details on the Mounts health and risk reduction policies for the fall. Beijing, Moscow encourage Kabul to fight terrorism President Xi Jinping said Afghanistan needed to "resolutely fight all forms of terrorism" and live in peace with its neighbours. File photo: AP Russia and China's leaders on Friday urged the new Taliban government in Afghanistan to remain at peace with its neighbours and combat terrorism and drug-trafficking. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping spoke via video link at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an eight-member group. Putin said the organisation, holding its meeting in Tajikistan, should "use its potential" to "stimulate the new Afghan authorities" in fulfilling their promises on normalising life and bringing security in Afghanistan. The hasty withdrawal of US-led forces had left behind "an open Pandora's box full of problems related to terrorism, drug trafficking, organised crime and, unfortunately, religious extremism," Putin said. Partners should work with the new Afghan government, even if it was not representative, the Russian leader added. Xi said it was necessary to "encourage Afghanistan to put in place a broad-based and inclusive political framework" and to "resolutely fight all forms of terrorism" and live in peace with its neighbours. Like Putin, Xi did not attend the summit held in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in person, addressing the meeting by video link instead. Moscow and Beijing have moved to assert themselves as key players in Central Asia, after the United States' hasty retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country. China shares a 76-kilometre-long (47 mile) border with Afghanistan. Countries allied with Russia and China were holding a series of meetings in Dushanbe this week. (AFP) A two-megawatt solar parking canopy at the East Remote Parking Lot is now online, increasing the campuss use of renewable energy while reducing its energy bill. The solar photovoltaic canopy will provide the campus with clean, reliable electricity for at least 20-years and save the campus an estimated $6 million on its energy bill. The array will generate enough energy to meet about 6% of our total campus electrical load. This is a major step towards directly reducing the campus carbon footprint. As climate change impacts become more of a reality in all of our day-to-day lives, I am also encouraged that the chancellor is committed to exploring more options for future renewable energy projects on campus to keep us moving in the right direction, said Elida Erickson, director of the Office of Sustainability. The project will generate more than three million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity each year, enough to power more than 330 houses for a year, according to EPA calculations. The campus is installing a battery storage system, set to be online later this academic year, that will allow the campus to store 1 megawatt of energy to reduce peak demand and shift load to times of day when electricity is less costly. The intelligent use of energy from the storage units combined with on-site solar energy generation helps maximize clean energy utilization and enhances grid performance. The campus partnered with ForeFront Power for the project through a streamlined procurement process offered by the School Project for Utility Rate Reduction, part of the Utilities Joint Powers Authority of California Public Schools. UC Santa Cruz also has a 250 kilowatt photovoltaic array on the McHenry Library, which provides 25 percent of the annual electrical energy needed for the building. It also provides 75 to 100 percent of the power needed for the building during peak times of year. Learn more about UCSCs renewable energy systems and see real-time energy production from both of the arrays from the Energy Management website. The 20172022 Campus Sustainability Plan calls on UC Santa Cruz to develop a plan to add four megawatts of solar photovoltaic to the campus and the new solar array gets the campus halfway to that goal. The Office of Physical Planning, Development and Operations is currently assessing the opportunities for solar at UCSCs Westside Research Park and Monterey Bay Education Science and Technology (MBEST) Center. The Quest's crew paid their respects at the grave of their leader on return to South Georgia It's 100 years to the day since Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton set out on his final expedition. Leaving London through Tower Bridge, and hailed by a large crowd, his intention was to map still uncharted coastal regions of the White Continent. But he never managed it, dying of a heart attack before reaching the polar south at the island of South Georgia. To mark Shackleton's passing, the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT) is mounting a special exhibition. It tells the story of that final expedition, which continued without him, and includes some fascinating archive material recalling his death and burial at the British Overseas Territory. The Quest continued south to Antarctica to try to complete the goals of the expedition You can see, for example, the banners that were walked in front of Shackleton's coffin, and the wooden cross that was erected atop the memorial cairn built by his crewmen. Some of the artefacts have not been seen publicly before, or at least haven't been seen in their proper context. And some objects have been loaned from other museums. For now, the exhibition is online only, but eventually the physical items will be moved to the museum at Grytviken on South Georgia, which attracts a lot of tourists who are drawn to the island's spectacular scenery and wildlife. Lady Shackleton insisted her husband be buried on South Georgia and redirected his remains Covid difficulties mean the artefacts won't be in place for the 100th anniversary of the explorer's death on 5 January, but this actually presents an opportunity says Jayne Pierce, the SGHT's museum curator. "The good thing about the exhibition being online is that anyone can see it. Shackleton has a lot of super fans who never would be able to get to South Georgia, and this way they can see what we've put together," she told BBC News. The 17 September, 1921, departure from St Katherine Dock was the beginning of what turned out to be - literally - Shackleton's "last quest". Story continues Sir Ernest Shackleton: Sailors who survived the Endurance's sinking joined The Boss again on the Quest "Quest" was the name of the ship in which his team would travel south. A Norwegian sealer, the vessel was converted for the purpose and was fitted with a crow's nest to aid navigation through sea-ice and to look out for hazards such as big icebergs. That crow's nest - not much more than a simple barrel - still exists and has been included in the exhibition. It's been scanned so that visitors can turn it around online. "When we started looking at what to do to mark Shackleton's death, we thought we should expand the exhibition to also tell the story of the expedition, even though it wasn't that remarkable and he himself never actually carried it through," explained Jayne Pierce. "But the Quest expedition is still important because it represented his last big push in life. He was desperate to go, and it was almost as if he knew his time was limited." The crowsnest was taken off the Quest and stored after the expedition The Quest expedition (more properly called the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition) was the explorer's fourth Antarctic venture. He's most famous, of course, for his third - the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1917. Trapped in sea-ice for over 10 months, his Endurance ship drifted around the Weddell Sea until ultimately it was crushed by the floes and dropped to the deep. How Shackleton and his men then made their escape on foot and in lifeboats is the stuff of legend. Two banners in the Norwegian style were carried in front of Shackleton's coffin procession Shackleton "mega-fans" now visit South Georgia to retrace the final stages of the escape which saw him walk over the island's mountains to raise the alarm at the Stromness whaling station just along the coast from Grytviken. "His ties to South Georgia are therefore deep," the curator said. "After he died they tried to send his remains home but when they reached Montevideo, word reached his wife and she said 'no, he should be buried in South Georgia because that's where his true soul was'." This turn of events was certainly unexpected for the crew of the Quest. After the death of "The Boss", they had continued on to Antarctica to conduct the planned mapping work, and so were surprised to find his grave at South Georgia when they came back through. Cruise ships visit the islands, drawn to the breath-taking landscapes - but not during Covid Asked to explain the enduring appeal of Shackleton, Jayne Pierce says it has something to do with the romance of the so-called "Heroic Age" of Antarctic exploration. "I guess today technology makes everything so easy. We can go to space, we can go to the bottom of the ocean, we can go to the South Pole. But for Shackleton, these were all unknowns. They didn't have the technologies. And so for lots of people there's this romance to what Shackleton did and to the idea of the wilderness that doesn't really exist anymore." Shackleton will be in the news early next year when another mission is mounted to try to find and photograph the wreck of the Endurance on the floor of the Weddell Sea. The SGHT online exhibition can be found here. Grytviken today. The cemetery is the white square at centre-left It is hoped that the exhibition at the South Georgia Museum can be opened at some point during the coming season or the next, depending on travel restrictions. The online exhibition can be found here. Chase, which was first mentioned in January this year, will be officially launched next week, according to sources close to the process. Photo: Michel Euler/AFP via Getty Images JP Morgan (JPM) is set to launch its new digital bank Chase in the UK next week. The move will be the American lenders first overseas retail operation in its 222-year history, with an aim to upend the UK banking market. Sanoke Viswanathan, head of JPMorgans international consumer division, told the Financial Times that the company would invest heavily to turn Chase into a serious force in the UK, with plans of expanding into Europe and Latin America. This is a very big strategic commitment from the firms standpoint, he said. We will spend hundreds of millions before we get to break-even and get to a place where this is a sustainable business, and were not in a rush. The launch of Chase, which was first mentioned in January this year, will be officially next week, according to sources close to the process. Reports have pointed to a commencement on Tuesday. Read more: JPMorgan buys 3.5bn UK wealth app Nutmeg Before its launch, JP Morgan ran a pilot programme with 6,000 employees for six months. It also has around 600 staff in the UK, 500 of which are new hires. The digital-only bank will at first only offer current accounts with a rewards programme, however, it will eventually delve into personal lending and investment, and mortgages. In the current conditions there is a massive oversupply of mortgages and lots of providers . . . but to be a full service bank and have consumer trust over the long term it is an important product line, Viswanathan added. The new consumer-facing retail bank will be headquartered in London with a contact centre in Edinburgh. It comes after JP Morgan acquired British robo-adviser Nutmeg in June, as part of its expansion plans. Banking rival Goldman Sachs (GS) also launched its own digital consumer bank, Marcus, in Britain in 2018. Goldman so far has used the deposits piled into Marcus to fund its investment banking operations. Watch: How to prevent getting into debt In the UK, startups like Monzo, Revolut and Starling have gained significant market share in the county and poached millions of customers from traditional banks, meaning Chase is entering an increasingly competitive arena. Story continues In response to this, the likes of Barclays (BARC.L), NatWest (NWG.L), and Lloyds (LLOY.L) have all invested huge sums in improving their own apps. In August it was reported that JPMorgan appointed suppliers to provide cloud and digital banking infrastructure, including Amazon Web Services and 10x Future Technologies. Chase is one of the largest consumer banks in the United States serving nearly half of the countrys households, including 55 million digitally active customers. It currently offers a broad range of consumer banking products in America and holds several number-one positions including in deposit taking, digital banking and credit card issuance. Watch: Why your bank statements might say buy-now-pay-later without you realising (Reuters) - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will relocate its headquarters to Washington, D.C., from Colorado, reversing a Trump-era move that the Biden administration said drove hundreds of people out of the agency dedicated to managing federal lands. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the move during a meeting with BLM employees on Friday, the agency said in a statement. Interior is the agency that oversees BLM. The announcement comes two years after the Republican Trump administration said putting BLM's headquarters in the West, where most federal lands are located, would save taxpayers $50 million and bring officials closer to the areas they serve. But Interior said the move had failed to create promised jobs in the West and that hundreds of departures "led to a significant loss of institutional memory and talent." Just 41 people in the 328 positions affected by the move opted to relocate, Interior said. Just three of those moved to the Grand Junction, Colorado, office. BLM manages 245 million acres, or a tenth of America's land base, overseeing programs such as oil and gas drilling, cattle grazing and recreation. The bureau is central to the efforts of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to address climate change through the management of public lands by expanding renewable energy and tamping down on federal oil and gas leasing. The bureau will maintain the office in Grand Junction, which it has promised to expand as a new western headquarters - an apparent concession to efforts by the state's Democratic U.S. senators to preserve the bureau's presence there. U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado, a Democrat, said in a statement he welcomed Interior's commitment to expand the office. The announcement brought criticism from Republicans in Congress. "Today's misguided, partisan decision has nothing to do with executing good land management and everything to do with centralizing and growing big government," U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, the senior Republican on the House Committee on Natural Resources, said in a statement. (Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis) By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will convene a virtual COVID-19 summit on Wednesday on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly aimed at boosting vaccinations worldwide with the goal of ending the pandemic by the end of 2022. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States will be asking participants to commit to "a higher level of ambition" on making vaccines available on a more equitable basis and getting shots in arms, among other steps recommended to address the pandemic. Biden travels to New York on Monday for his first trip as president to attend the U.N. General Assembly and will speak to the gathered world leaders on Tuesday. He will convene the virus summit from the White House. A senior administration official said Biden will issue a call to action. The summit is not a pledging conference, "though we hope and expect some partners will come prepared to announce new efforts." "We need to end the pandemic as soon as possible, aiming by the end of next year. We also need to build capacity so that all countries, everywhere, are able to prevent, detect, and respond to future biological threats and mitigate outbreaks on their communities," the official said. Biden wants to attack the pandemic globally by bringing together global leaders from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists and civil society leaders to help end the pandemic and prevent the next one, the official said. More talks on the subject are expected among world leaders, including at the G20 summit to be held in Rome at the end of October. More than 227.26 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 4,877,603 have died, according to a Reuters tally https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/worldwide-coronavirus-cases-cross-15903-million-death-toll-3444309-2021-05-11. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. (Reporting By Steve HollandEditing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy) Sep. 17The Central Middle School community is celebrating the state Board of Education's approval today of a request to rename the historic downtown campus after the Hawaiian alii who once owned the property. Previous action in the early 1900s that renamed the historic downtown school after Princess Ruth Ke 'elikolani was dropped after it was decided her name was too difficult to pronounce, according to a 1927 newspaper account. "The proposed name, (Princess Ruth ) Ke 'elikolani Middle School, places the uniqueness of our prized place and culture in Hawai 'i at the forefront to celebrate the rich history and diversity of our school campus, " said Principal Joseph Passantino in a letter supporting the change. "As we continue to learn more about our school's history, it became clear and was suggested by historians and cultural practitioners that changing the name of the school to Ke 'elikolani Middle School would solidify and celebrate the school's proud history and profound connection to a cherished ali 'i." Passantino told the BOE committee that plans are under way to paint a large campus mural honoring Princess Ruth to be finished in time to celebrate her birthday on Feb. 9. School leaders and community members have been working since 2019 to rename the school after the princess, whose home, Keoua Hale, once stood on the grounds of the current campus. When she died in 1883, her property, including Keoua Hale, was bequeathed to Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, according to documents submitted in support of the name change. After Pauahi's death in 1885, the property was purchased by the BOE for what became Honolulu High School in 1895. When the high school vacated the property in 1907, it became Central Grammar School before it was briefly changed to Ke 'elikolani School. It reverted back to Central Grammar School and became Central Junior High School in 1928, then Central Intermediate School in 1932 and Central Middle School in 1997. Story continues A building on the campus, which is located on Queen Emma Street, still bears the name Ke 'elikolani School, and several buildings there were placed on the state Register of Historic Places in 1994. According to a profile on the Kamehameha Schools website, Princess Ruth was "an anchor supporter of the perpetuation of Hawaiian traditions, culture and language." Although well-educated and able to speak English, she conducted all business and correspondence in the Hawaiian language. "An incredibly formidable force " in her own right, Princess Ruth was the hanai daughter of two of the most powerful women in Hawaiian history, Ka 'ahumanu and Kina 'u, the profile said. She held several leadership roles in the kingdom as a member of the Privy Council and the House of Nobles, and also served as governor of Hawaii island for nearly 20 years, from 1855 to 1874. She died in 1883 at the age of 57. Other recent public school name changes include East Kapolei Middle School to Honouliuli Middle School in January 2020, and Hale Kula Elementary in Wahiawa to Daniel K. Inouye Elementary School in 2016. SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The Brazilian federal police raided the offices of Precisa Medicamentos, a Brazil-based pharmaceutical company, on Friday as part of a probe into potential irregularities in procuring COVID-19 vaccines from India's Bharat Biotech, according to a statement from the senators handling the investigation. The raid was authorized by Supreme Court Justice Dias Toffoli. Precisa, who used to represent Bharat in Brazil before the allegations surfaced, on Friday denied wrongdoing and said it is cooperating with the high-profile Senate probe. The raids follow evidence raised by a Senate inquiry probing the federal government's plan to purchase 20 million doses of the Covaxin vaccine made by Bharat. The contract was signed in February but later suspended. [L2N2OE1H2] "The Senate inquiry sought in every way to obtain information from the company and the Health Ministry, with no success," according to a note sent by the senators regarding the federal police operation. "Because of this, it was necessary to use this legal instrument." Precisa pushed back, saying on Friday that the company has submitted documents to the senators handling the probe. It also said three company representatives gave testimony before the Senate inquiry committee. (Reporting by Eduardo Simoes; Writing by Ana Mano; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) The giant British retailer Marks & Spencer has shut down 11 of its stores across France, citing supply chain issues and pointing the finger of blame directly at Brexit and the British government. Its a bad sign for Britains economy and also a really bad sign for Paris, which already has a blight of empty stores after COVID, said journalist Dana Thomas, speaking from Saint-Tropez, about the Thursday decision, which has sparked anger from French nationals across the country. Italy Warns U.K.: America Is Feeding You Counterfeit Pasta Im just amazed. Its a sign that the world has been turned upside down, The Wall Street Journals Matthew Dalton added. Where the French are complaining about the inability of Britain to export its food to France. Its a blow for Paris and a blow for the U.K a completely self-inflicted wound. The Marks & Spencer ordeal is just the latest issue in a long list of post-Brexit dramas sweeping Europe. And the worst could be yet to come. Its actually really bad and the shops here do have big empty shelves said The Daily Beasts Nico Hines, speaking from London. What most of them arent saying is, its because of Brexit, you idiot voters who voted for it. And it will get worse and worse and worse. Watch the full The World This Week episode on France 24. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Tabloids have been criticized for their coverage of Harry and Meghan's Time cover. Some publications used body language experts to analyze the couple's pose. Omid Scobie said the outlets are "uncomfortable with the sight of a woman showing confidence." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. The British tabloids are facing backlash for their sexist coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Time photoshoot. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry posed together for the magazine's cover - a first for the couple - and featured in the publication's list of the 100 most influential people which was announced on Wednesday. In the photo, Harry can be seen sitting behind Markle with a hand placed on her shoulder, while the duchess stands and they both look into the camera. Royal author Omid Scobie shared screenshots of a number of articles that used body language experts to criticize the couple's pose. "How is it that in 2021 there are western media outlets still so uncomfortable with the sight of a woman showing confidence or a man secure enough in himself to not be intimidated by it?" Scobie wrote on Twitter. "These hired body language experts are tripping." Scobie shared a screengrab of several headlines, including the Daily Mail's, which read: "'A full-on PR campaign presenting them as the Power Couple': Body language expert says Meghan is striking a 'wide-legged pose' to show herself as 'powerful' while Harry is 'forced to lean into his wife' in ridiculed Time cover pic." Another headline shared by Scobie, featured on The Sun's Fabulous magazine, shared a quote from a body language expert that claimed Harry appears self-conscious in the photo, while another headline from OK! Magazine claimed Harry was "passive" and Markle authoritative. Elizabeth Holmes, author of "HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style," shared the photo of Harry and Markle's cover on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, noting that the couple's pose was similar to Prince Charles and Princess Diana's during their engagement photocall. However, Holmes said that Charles stood one step up from Diana "so he looks much taller" since they were roughly the same height. Story continues "But what Harry has done here! Harry has taken a seat so they are on the same level," Holmes wrote. "Also, his positioning - he's behind her, but he's also leaning on her. Let that soak in!" she added. Representatives for Time, The Sun, and the Daily Mail did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Representatives for OK! Magazine declined to comment. Read the original article on Insider Students are headed back to class amid the coronavirus pandemic, and to keep you posted on whats unfolding throughout U.S. schools K-12 as well as colleges Yahoo Life is running a weekly wrap-up featuring news bites, interviews and updates on the ever-unfolding situation. Brown University stops in-person dining over increase in COVID-19 cases Rhode Island's Brown University has temporarily stopped in-person dining on campus because of a rise in COVID-19 cases. Senior officials at the school shared the news on Monday in an update to COVID-19 restrictions on campus, noting that the school had 82 positive asymptomatic cases among undergraduate students in the past seven days. "To date, very few Brown employees have tested positive, and there is no evidence of spread in classrooms," the update reads. As a result of the increase in cases, Brown administrators announced that the school will "pause" in-person dining at all campus eateries and transition to a "grab and go" program for all meals. The pause is expected to change after the number of positive cases drops, administrators said. The school also implemented new rules, including increasing the frequency of testing on campus to twice a week, mandating indoor masking for everyone regardless of vaccination status, limiting social gatherings to no more than five people and requiring masks outdoors when students interact with people from outside campus. Brown requires that all staff members and students on campus be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, the school allows for medical and religious exemptions. A Brown University spokesperson tells Yahoo Life that there is a 98.3 percent vaccination rate for students and a 95.6 percent vaccination rate for staff. Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, tells Yahoo Life that temporarily halting in-person dining is a smart move. "When masks are down, thats when students are at risk," he says. "I've always worried about transmission in dining halls kids are talking and no one is cautious. It's an at-risk setting." Story continues It is a good sign, though, that the cases detected have been asymptomatic, infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Life. "Many of these positives are being picked up on routine screening and are not necessarily concerning if they are occurring, or example, in low-risk individuals so long as there are testing and isolation protocols in place," he says. "Social interaction is going to lead to transmission, especially with unvaccinated students, but it is going to be very hard to curtail all social interaction amongst students, even if in-person dining is no longer an option." University of Delaware does not allow professors to tell students when a classmate tests positive for COVID-19 The University of Delaware has a new policy in place that prohibits professors from telling a class when a fellow student has tested positive for COVID-19. The policy was enacted as the school reported 145 new COVID-19 cases on campus this week. University of Delaware has a 91 percent vaccination rate among students and an 88 percent vaccination rate among staff. University spokesperson Andrea Boyle Tippett tells Yahoo Life that the school put the policy in place due to concerns about "privacy and inciting panic." "We had a number of professors who were finding out that an individual tested positive and telling the whole class that someone in their class had tested positive," she says. "In a small class of 10, if one person isn't there, it's obvious who that person is." "We also wanted to avoid panic among the students and make sure that the contact tracers could do their jobs effectively," Tippett continues. "Any student who was in close contact with someone who tested positive will be contacted but, in larger classrooms, not everyone will be." Tippett points out that students wear masks "all of the time" in class and that "contact tracing is not showing that the transmission is happening in classrooms." Adalja says that it's important for schools to "promptly" tell students when they may have been in contact with a positive COVID-19 case. "This should be the norm," he says. "Notification allows people to take protective action quickly." Maryland's Montgomery County schools loosen strict quarantine requirements Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland have loosened the district's quarantine requirements when someone develops symptoms of COVID-19 in a classroom. Previously, students who came into contact with someone who had COVID-19 symptoms needed to quarantine for 10 days and monitor their symptoms. The new guidance, which was shared during a Montgomery County Council meeting on Tuesday, says that students who show signs of COVID-19 at school will be given a rapid test for the virus. Only those who test positive and their close contacts will be sent home. Under the past guidance, entire classrooms could be quarantined as someone waited for results of their COVID-19 test, according to Washington D.C. radio station WTOP News. Face masks are required for anyone who enters the district's buildings, including students and staff. During the first two weeks of school, 121 students in the district tested positive for COVID-19 out of 160,000 enrolled students. More than 1,700 students were placed in quarantine under the school system's previous guidance, according to WTOP News. Montgomery County has seen 1,583 new COVID-19 cases so far this month, according to a regional COVID-19 dashboard. Adalja applauds the move. "Quarantining in schools can be something that can be minimized if you deploy tests strategically," he says. "When it comes to schooling, quarantines can be very disruptive, so they should be avoided through the use of aggressive testing to minimize the amount of students that need quarantine." Some Iowa schools will require masks for K-12 students following judge's ruling Several school districts in Iowa, including the Iowa City Community School District and Des Moines Public Schools, have reinstated masks mandates after a federal judge ordered the state of Iowa this week to stop enforcing a law that keeps school boards from requiring masks on campuses. "Because Plaintiffs have shown that Iowa Code section 280.31s ban on mask mandates in schools substantially increases their risk of contracting the virus that causes COVID-19 and that due to their various medical conditions they are at an increased risk of severe illness or death, Plaintiffs have demonstrated that an irreparable harm exists," Judge Robert Pratt wrote in his order. People walk in the Court Ave. district of Des Moines, Iowa. (Rachel Mummey/Reuters) "Per guidance from the CDC, universal masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status, is required in District buildings and on District campuses," the Iowa City Community School District's mandate reads. "Face coverings will be available for students, staff and visitors at each building." Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Ahart announced in a letter sent home to parents on Tuesday that the mask mandate would again be in place, starting on Wednesday. The courts decision to set aside Iowas ban on school districts being able to protect children in our care is welcome news," he wrote. "As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge in Iowa, our families and staff have expressed their concerns about schools not being able to require minimal, effective mitigation steps, such as wearing a mask, in order to keep people healthy and safe. With todays ruling, as Superintendent I will reinstate a mask mandate as we had in place for most of last school year for all students, staff and visitors to Des Moines Public Schools." The state of Iowa has seen 11,588 new COVID-19 cases from Sept. 6 to Sept. 13, according to state data. "I am a fan of mask and vaccine mandates," Russo says. "That's the best way for us to protect ourselves and our children. People opposed to masks and vaccines say that COVID-19 poses a small risk to children. That is absolutely true, but we don't really know the long-term consequences of children getting COVID and we won't know for years. We need to err on the side of caution." Mask mandates in schools can also help reduce cases in the community, Adalja says. "Masking in schools when there are unvaccinated students present can help to keep community spread from engulfing a school and allowing in-person learning to be less disrupted," he says. University of Kansas students protest in favor of campus-wide vaccination mandate A group of students from the University of Kansas gathered on campus on Sunday to demand school officials implement a vaccination mandate on campus. The protest was organized by Vaccinate KU, an on-campus activist group that previously started a petition to request that university officials require students and staff to show proof of vaccination or wear a mask. Vaccine mandates are currently banned in Kansas, under state law. The organization shared on Instagram that it was organizing the protest "because the University of Kansas has been reluctant to go to court to require COVID-19 vaccinations and has been hesitant to instate other COVID-19 safety precautions." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. More than 80 percent of students who live in University of Kansas student housing are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to information on the school's COVID-19 dashboard. The dashboard also shows that 12 people tested positive for the virus the week of Sept. 2 through 8, the most recent data available. The University of Kansas has an indoor mask mandate in place and currently offers free COVID-19 testing on campus to students and staff, as well as vaccinations through student health services. The school also enters vaccinated students who upload their proof of vaccination into a weekly drawing for prizes. School officials state on the university website that they are also using "enhanced cleaning methods and schedules" on campus, posting hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes in all classrooms and around campus and providing personal protective equipment and sanitizing supplies to students and employees. A University of Kansas spokesperson did not respond to Yahoo Life's request for comment. "Vaccination is the best way to put the COVID-19 pandemic into the rearview mirror," Adalja says. "Universities should want to be as resilient as possible to this pandemic, and requiring vaccination for students and staff is the best way to do that." The students requesting a vaccine mandate are "on the right side of science," Russo says, adding, "All the power to them." Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter. The Daily Beast YouTubeThe last text Gabby Petito sent before she went missing while road-tripping across the U.S. with her fiance set off alarm bells for her mother, who became fearful for the 22-year-olds safety after receiving the odd message.Thats according to a newly-unsealed search warrant giving North Port, Florida, police permission to search a hard drive investigators found in Petitos white van, which she and Brian Laundrie, 23, had been using to tour the countrys national parks.The text message The hit series focuses on the fictional chess player Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy Georgian chess icon Nona Gaprindashvili has filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, saying she was incorrectly portrayed in the hit series The Queen's Gambit. The case refers to a sequence in the drama's final episode which says Gaprindashvili, now 80, had never played competitive chess with men. The document says that by 1968, the year in which the episode is set, she had faced at least 59 male players. Netflix said the claim had "no merit". The company said it had "only the utmost respect" for Gaprindashvili and her "illustrious career" but that it would "vigorously defend the case". Nona Gaprindashvili is pictured playing at the International Chess Congress in London in 1964 The Queen's Gambit is based on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis and focuses on a fictional chess player called Beth Harmon, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. The series was released last year, becoming what Netflix described as its "biggest limited scripted series ever". In the final episode, a commentator mentions Gaprindashvili when describing Harmon: "The only unusual thing about her, really, is her sex. And even that's not unique in Russia. There's Nona Gaprindashvili, but she's the female world champion and has never faced men." The 25-page case filed in the Federal District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday said: "Netflix brazenly and deliberately lied about Gaprindashvili's achievements for the cheap and cynical purpose of 'heightening the drama' by making it appear that its fictional hero had managed to do what no other woman, including Gaprindashvili, had done." It added: "The allegation that Gaprindashvili 'has never faced men' is manifestly false, as well as being grossly sexist and belittling." Born in 1941 in the Georgian town of Zugdidi, Gaprindashvili began playing chess at the age of 13, became female World Championship at 20 and was the first woman to be awarded the title of grandmaster, according to the lawsuit. Story continues "By 1968," the lawsuit says, Gaprindashvili "had competed against at least 59 male chess players (28 of them simultaneously in one game), including at least 10 Grandmasters of that time." Gaprindashvili, who lives in Tbilisi and continues to compete in chess tournaments, is seeking $5m (3.6m) in compensation and the removal of the statement that she had never played against men. The lawsuit says the line had been changed from the book on which the series is based. The Queen's Gambit was viewed in more than 62 million households in the first 28 days after its release, according to Netflix. It won two awards at this year's Golden Globes and has garnered 18 nominations at the Emmy Awards, which will take place this weekend. A container ship navigates the Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province. China has applied to join a key Asia-Pacific trade pact as it attempts to strengthen its position in the region. The move comes the day after a historic security deal between the US, UK and Australia was unveiled. The pact that eventually became the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), was created by the US to counter China's influence. However, former President Donald Trump pulled the US out of it in 2017. Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao said the world's second largest economy had submitted its application to join the free trade agreement in a letter to New Zealand's trade minister, Damien O'Connor. New Zealand acts as the administrative centre for the pact. Mr Wang and Mr O'Connor then held a telephone conference to discuss the next steps following China's application, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said. The original Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was promoted by then-President Barack Obama as an economic bloc to challenge China's increasingly powerful position in the Asia Pacific. After Mr Trump pulled the US out of the deal, Japan led negotiations to create what became the CPTPP. The CPTPP was signed in 2018 by 11 countries, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and New Zealand. Regional trade arrangements In June, the UK formally launched negotiations to join the CPTPP, while Thailand has also signalled interest in joining the agreement. Joining the CPTPP would be a significant boost for China, especially after it signed up to a different free trade agreement with 14 countries - called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) - in November. RCEP is the world's largest trading bloc, with South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand among its members. Historic security agreement China's announcement that it has officially applied to join the CPTPP comes the day after the UK, US and Australia launched a historic security pact, in what has been seen as an effort to counter Beijing's influence in the Asia-Pacific region. Story continues The so-called Aukus pact will allow Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using technology provided by the US and the UK. The deal, which will also cover Artificial Intelligence and other technologies, is Australia's biggest defence partnership in decades, analysts said. China has criticised Aukus, describing it as "extremely irresponsible" and "narrow-minded". Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the alliance risked "severely damaging regional peace... and intensifying the arms race". Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian attends a news conference in Beijing, China April 8, 2020. He made scathing remarks against the US, UK, and Australia on Thursday. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins China excoriated the US, UK, and Australia for a nuclear submarine deal announced Wednesday. The deal is seen as move to respond to China's growing military, although leaders never said that explicitly. A Chinese spokesperson accused the three nations of having an "outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. China tore into the US, UK, and Australia for signing a defense technology deal that would help Australia form a nuclear-powered submarine fleet - a partnership that experts believe also serves as a response to Beijing's rapidly growing military might. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian called the deal "extremely irresponsible" and said the trio of nations "should abandon the outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical stability." "Otherwise, they will only end up shooting themselves in the foot," he said at a press conference on Thursday. Zhao highlighted Australia's use of nuclear power for its pending submarine fleet, calling into question if it really intends to keep to its status as a nuclear non-proliferation country. "The nuclear submarine cooperation between the US, the UK and Australia has seriously undermined regional peace and stability, intensified the arms race and undermined international non-proliferation efforts," said Zhao. He also accused the US and UK of holding double standards with their stances on nuclear weapons. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has said the deal has nothing to do with acquiring nuclear weapons, and that Australia has no intention of doing so. Morrison, US president Joe Biden, and UK prime minister Boris Johnson didn't mention China in their announcement of their deal on Wednesday. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. But the security partnership, dubbed "AUKUS," is seen by analysts as a push to rein in Beijing's rapidly expanding military might. Two US officials familiar with the matter told Politico that countering China is an important subtext in the deal. Story continues The West has been increasingly concerned by China's aggression in the South China Sea, where Beijing continues to augment its military presence in disputed waters and escalate tensions with its neighbors. UK defense secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC that China is "embarking on one of the biggest military spends in history." "It is growing its navy [and] air force at a huge rate. Obviously it is engaged in some disputed areas. Our partners in those regions want to be able to stand their own ground," Wallace said. Australia and China have been locked in an ugly trade disagreement since last year, with the latter hiking up tariffs and accusing Australia of manipulating markets. The recent security deal hasn't offended just China; France felt that it had been snubbed when the partnership upended a $35.5 billion contract it signed to help build Australian submarines. "This brutal, unilateral, and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do," said French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. Read the original article on Insider BEIJING (AP) Chinese regulators have set up a platform that allows the public to report on gaming companies they believe are violating restrictions on online game times for children. Chinas National Press and Publication Administration set up the platform. It enables holders of Chinese ID cards to report violations and furnish proof, effectively giving the public the power to police gaming firms such as Tencent and NetEase. This follows Chinas decision to impose the time limits of just three hours a week for minors to combat internet games addiction in children. Gaming companies are expected to enforce the limit of 1 hour of online games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. An earlier limit allowed 90 minutes on most days. Other online platforms exist in China for consumer complaints or the reporting of illegal and harmful activities online. But it's rare for such a site to focus on specific restrictions within an industry. Parents have again welcomed the new limits. They previously also lauded restrictions that banned children from gaming overnight and limited game time to 90 minutes on weekdays. Regulators say that gaming companies are responsible for enforcing these restrictions via real-name registration systems, which would enable them to limit game time for minors and the amount of money they can spend in these games. Regulators summoned gaming firms earlier this month and urged them to safeguard childrens mental and physical health. The companies were ordered to clean up their game content and ensure it is free of wrong values such as violence. Chinese authorities are seeking to curb influences deemed unhealthy for young people, including online gaming and irrational celebrity fan culture. The campaign is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's push for national rejuvenation for a healthier, more powerful nation. The campaign expands government influence over many aspects of life, from the economy and technology to culture, education, religion and society. Lawyer Michael Sussmann pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday after being indicted as part of special counsel John Durhams probe into the origins of the Russia investigation. The indictment states that Sussmann lied by claiming that he was not working on behalf of any client when he gave the FBI information in 2016 on potential communications between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, a Russian ban with ties to the Kremlin. The indictment further alleges that Sussmann was working for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign at the time, as well as a tech industry client. The Special Counsel appears to be using this indictment to advance a conspiracy theory he has chosen not to actually charge, Sussmanns attorneys said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. This case represents the opposite of everything the Department of Justice is supposed to stand for. Mr. Sussmann will fight this baseless and politically-inspired prosecution. However, the attorneys acknowledged that Sussmann was working on behalf of a cyber expert client, according to Fox News. Sussmann was released on a $100,000 bond. If convicted, Sussmann faces up to five years in prison. Durhams investigation has so far netted one other guilty plea. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitted in January to altering an email used to apply for a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page. More from National Review Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined 23 other attorneys general on Wednesday in a court brief opposing Texas new abortion law. The brief asserts that Texas Senate Bill 8 which amounts to a ban on a majority of abortions is an unprecedented attack on our constitutional order. It further contends that the private enforcement mechanism of the law could produce an across-the-board ban on constitutionally protected activity. SB8 requires a doctor to first establish whether a heartbeat can be detected in the womb before any abortion-related procedures can take place. Doctors who violate the law can be criminally charged. Other states that signed onto the brief include Massachusetts, Washington, Virginia, New York, and Michigan. I am committed to defending womens reproductive rights and equality, and Texas new law violates longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent by denying women their constitutionally protected right to make their own healthcare decisions, Weiser said in a statement. I am proud to join attorneys general nationwide in defending womens rights that were clearly established under Roe v. Wade. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for injunctive relief seeking to stop the law from going into effect. The court ruled in a 5-4 unsigned opinion that the injunction didn't meet the burden of proof required for the complex and novel antecedent procedural questions they raised. According to the states' brief, the Supreme Court should stop the law from going into effect because of the the irreparable harm that S.B. 8 is inflicting on people in Texas and across the country. Forcing a patient to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term creates a greatly heightened risk of death, in part due to the dangerous risks of postpartum hemorrhage and eclampsia. Physical violence is a further risk, when carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term results in a person remaining in contact with a violent partner, the brief continues. Story continues Washington Examiner Videos Tags: States, News, Colorado, Texas, Abortion Original Author: Robert Davis, The Center Square Original Location: Colorado attorney general joins states opposed to Texas abortion law Should countries that can afford COVID-19 booster vaccines offer them to residents if scientists recommend them? The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has made his position clear, calling for countries to impose a moratorium on boosters until 10% of people in every country are vaccinated. His plea comes amid mounting concerns about the slow progress getting COVID-19 vaccines to people in low-income countries. Like the WHO, some ethicists, including me, have argued that the world must stand together in solidarity to end the pandemic. Yet as of Sept. 14, of the 5.76 billion doses of vaccine that have been administered globally, only 1.9% went to people in low-income countries. Meanwhile, many wealthy countries have begun offering COVID-19 boosters to fully vaccinated, healthy adults. Early evidence on the benefit of COVID-19 boosters to protect against severe disease and death cuts both ways. Some experts tout their benefits, while others argue against them for now. As a philosopher who studies justice and global bioethics, I believe everyone needs to wrestle with another question: the ethics of whether to offer boosters while people in poor countries go without. A dangerous gap The WHOs call for a moratorium on boosters is an appeal to fairness: the idea that its unfair for richer countries to use up more of the global vaccine supply while 58% of people in the world have not received their first shots. In some countries, such as Tanzania, Chad and Haiti, fewer than 1% of people have received a vaccine. Meanwhile, in wealthy nations, most citizens are fully vaccinated 79% of people in the United Arab Emirates, 76% in Spain, 65% in the U.K., and 53% in the U.S. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended boosters for moderately to severely immunocompromised people. President Biden has publicly endorsed offering boosters to all Americans eight months after they complete their second shots, pending Food and Drug Administration approval. Yet on Sept. 17, the FDAs advisory panel recommended against a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine for most Americans, though they did endorse boosters for people over age 65 or at higher risk. Story continues On Aug. 11, before the CDC had authorized boosters for anyone including immunocompromised people it estimated that 1 million Americans had decided not to wait and got a third vaccine. It is unclear whether some of them were advised by doctors to seek a booster shot based on, for example, age or compromised immunity. Some healthy Americans have reportedly lied to gain access to unauthorized shots, telling pharmacists falsely that this is their first shot. In addition to raising concerns about fairness, gross disparities between vaccine haves and have-nots violate an ethical principle of health equity. This principle holds that the world ought to help those who are most in need people in low-income countries who cannot access a single dose. Theres also a purely utilitarian case to be made for delaying boosters. Even if boosters save lives and prevent severe disease, they benefit people far less than first shots, a notion known as diminishing marginal utility. For example, the original laboratory studies of the Pfizer vaccine showed more than 90% protection for most people against severe disease and death after the primary, two-dose series. Booster shots, even if they boost immunity, give much less protection: perhaps less than 10% protection, according to a preliminary study. As a recent article in a leading medical journal, The Lancet, points out, Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations. Moreover, when scarce vaccines are used as boosters, rather than as first shots for the unvaccinated, that allows the virus to replicate and mutate, potentially creating variants of concern that undercut vaccine protection. Buy it, use it? While the ethical argument for delaying boosters is strong, critics think it is not strong enough to override every nations duty to protect its own people. According to one interpretation of this view, countries should adopt an influenza standard. In other words, governments are justified in prioritizing their own residents until the risks of COVID-19 are similar to the flu seasons. At that point, governments should send vaccine supplies to countries with greater needs. One could argue that since rich countries have bought millions of doses, they are the rightful owners of those vaccines and are ethically free to do as they wish. Yet critics argue that vaccines are not owned by anyone, even by the pharmaceutical companies that develop them. Instead, they represent the final part of product development that is years in the making and the result of many peoples labors. Moreover, most COVID-19 vaccines were publicly funded, principally by governments using taxpayer dollars. Since 1995, the World Trade Organization has required its member states to enforce intellectual property rights, including patents for vaccines. Currently, however, the trade organizations members are debating proposals to temporarily waive patents on COVID-19-related products during the pandemic. [Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.] Some commentators suggest that the whole debate over boosters is overblown and not really about ethics at all. They propose simply calling boosters something else: final doses. But regardless of what we call boosters, the ethical question the WHOs director-general raised remains: Is giving these shots a fair and equitable way to distribute a lifesaving vaccine? This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Nancy S. Jecker, University of Washington. Read more: Nancy S. Jecker 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. Sep. 17A Denmark woman was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to four charges connected to a fatal collision in Windsor that claimed the life of two Williston adults and seriously injured two children on Dec. 14, 2019. Paris Jones, who was 25 at the time of the accident, pleaded guilty to all four charges of hit and run, two of which involved death and two that involved great bodily injury. The plea came without any negotiations with the state, said prosecutor Paige Tiffany. Judge Courtney Clyburn-Pope sentenced Jones to nine years for each charge, but they will run concurrently. Family members of the victims made statements at Thursday's hearing. Two of the emergency responders that were present after the accident also attended. The accident The crash occurred on the night of Dec. 14, 2019, on Charleston Highway in Windsor. A 2015 Nissan traveling east on Charleston Highway made a left turn in front of a 2007 Chrysler 300 traveling west, killing both the driver and the passenger. Delanie Murphy, 41, and Dave Chavis Jr., 29, both of Williston, were pronounced dead at the scene, the Aiken County coroner said. The two victims were the parents of two children who were seriously injured in the collision, the coroner confirmed. Highway Patrol reported the suspect left the scene of the crime and sustained minor injuries. Jones turned herself in to police 18 hours after the accident. An emergency room in Idaho. AP Photo/Young Kwak,File As Idaho hospitals deal with having so many coronavirus patients that they now have the option of rationing health care, the newest member of the state's largest public health board, a doctor who has called COVID-19 vaccines "fake" and "needle rape," is settling in. Ryan Cole, a pathologist in Boise, has replaced Dr. Ted Epperly on the Central District Board of Health. Epperly served on the board for 15 years, but was ousted because he supports taking public health measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Cole, who was backed by the Ada County Republican Party, was chosen by the Republican county commissioners, who said they liked his "outsider" perspective and how he "questioned" medical guidance, The Washington Post reports. The sole Democratic commissioner objected to Cole's appointment. Cole has spent much of the pandemic on the right-wing media circuit downplaying the virus and touting unproven treatments for it, like the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin. During an event this summer in San Antonio, he called the coronavirus vaccine "fake" and "needle rape," later telling KTVB it was a "tongue-in-cheek" comment. Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States, with just 40 percent of residents fully vaccinated, and the state is seeing a surge in new infections and hospitalizations. The Idaho Medical Association released a statement last week saying by choosing Cole, the commissioners "favored politics over public health" and Cole's claims about the coronavirus and vaccine "do not align with the Idaho standards of care." Epperly told the Post that watching "my state implode over political decisions that have adverse consequences on health is horrifying to me. ... That's the tragedy that I'm watching unfold." You may also like Emmys host Cedric the Entertainer has been hoping 'not to get canceled' before the show How Gavin Newsom ran away with the recall Did Theranos Lose Afghanistan? Minneapolis voters began casting early ballots Friday morning to decide historic questions on the future of the city, including issues surrounding policing, rent increase caps and who should run city hall. Voting in the municipal races the first since George Floyd's murder by police last summer began at the city's polling center at 980 East Hennepin Ave., with a ballot that includes a highly debated question on whether officials should be allowed to replace the city's Police Department with a Department of Public Safety. It is an issue drawing national scrutiny in the wake of racial reckoning that emerged in the aftermath of Floyd's killing. City Council candidate Elliott Payne was first in line to vote at the polling center Friday morning. He and a core group of volunteers for his campaign downed a few doughnuts before heading inside to mark their ballots. They were jubilant, Payne said, to learn late Thursday that votes on the policing question would be counted. The state Supreme Court threw out a lower court decision that would have blocked votes on the question from being counted. "I'm really excited about voting on the charter amendments, the Department of Public Safety. That's one of the things that really brought me into the race," said Payne, a candidate for First Ward in northeast Minneapolis. "And those are kind of like the two main things I'm focused on." Ballots also feature questions on rent control and division of power in City hall along with a near-record number of candidates vying to fill elected positions; 102 people have filed to run for public office. Up for election are the mayor's office, all 13 City Council seats, and places on the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Park and Recreation Board. The city uses a ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Voters' second and third choices will play a significant role in determining the winner. Story continues City officials are expecting high turnout at the polls, with more than 250,000 Minneapolis residents registered to vote. About 153,000 early voting ballots have been printed and officials have ordered an additional 183,000 ballots for Election Day, Nov. 2. Voters casting their ballots in-person or dropping them off are required to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19. Staff Writer Susan Du contributed to this report. Faiza Mahamud 612-673-4203 Ebola has been defeated. Vaccines and medical treatments have brought the deadly and terrifying disease under control, says Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese professor who first discovered the virus more than 40 years ago. The 79-year-old virologist was speaking at a ceremony in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa marking the arrival on the market of the "Ebanga" treatment, which was approved last December by the US Food and Drug Administration. Together with more effective clinical treatments, the availability of vaccines means the highly infectious haemorrhagic fever that once proved almost always fatal can now be contained. "For 40 years I have been a witness and a player in the fight against this terrifying and deadly disease and I can say today: it is defeated, it is preventable and curable," Muyembe said. "I'm the happiest of Congolese people." Ebanga, a human monoclonal antibody that prevents the virus from entering a cell and reduces the risk of dying, is "the Congolese molecule", as US biologist Nancy Sullivan put it, having done research in America with Muyembe. - 'Samples with bare hands' - Muyembe first came across the virus in 1976 as a field epidemiologist when he was called to the village of Yambuku in northern DRC, which was then called Zaire. A mysterious illness had just appeared. He took a sample from a sick nun, sent it to Belgium, where microbiologist Peter Piot isolated the virus for the first time -- and is widely miscredited as the man who "discovered" the disease. The virus was named Ebola after a river close to Yambuku. "At the time, I took samples with my bare hands, as blood was flowing", Muyembe told AFP before the ceremony in his laboratory, equipped with gloves, a gown, boots and a protective cap. After 1976, the disease plunged back into obscurity until 1995 when an epidemic of "red diarrhoea" erupted in Kikwit, a 400,000-strong city in western DRC. Story continues Muyembe tried treating eight patients with transfusions of blood from someone who was recovering. Seven survived. That gave him the idea for Ebanga, which was eventually tested for the first time in 2018. "Here we do the diagnosis," said the professor in his lab. "It's very important in the field to know if a patient has Ebola." If the disease rears its head, "we interrupt the chain of transmission, we vaccinate all those around a positive case, and we treat those who are ill," he said. "If the outbreak is declared in time, it can be over in a week," added the virologist, who heads up the DRC's National Biomedical Research Institute and also coordinates the fight against Covid-19 in the country. Since it appeared, Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people. The main symptoms are a temperature, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea. The biggest epidemic hit Western Africa between 2013 and 2016, killing 11,000 people. DRC meanwhile experienced its 12th epidemic this year, which lasted three months. at/mbb/mbx E! News Instead of dancing the night away at an after-party for the 2021 Emmys, Mandy Moore celebrated ending her awards night in the best way possible: by eating pizza in her pantry. Pandemic restrictions on travel into England and Scotland are to be eased, officials said Friday, replacing a complicated "traffic light" watchlist with a simpler regime for fully vaccinated arrivals. The "amber" list covering travel from much of the world, including Europe, will be abolished in the UK's two largest nations, reflecting high levels of vaccination against Covid-19 by other countries. The reform comes after strong disquiet among the public and the travel industry over byzantine rules that made summer holidays prohibitively expensive for many families. "Today's changes mean a simpler, more straightforward system," UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement, announcing the changes for England. "One with less testing and lower costs, allowing more people to travel, see loved ones or conduct business around the world while providing a boost for the travel industry." Only the "red" list will remain, requiring travellers to quarantine in government-approved hotels if they are arriving from Covid hotspots. But eight countries will come off the English and Scottish red list from next Wednesday -- Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, the Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey. From October 4, fully vaccinated travellers coming to England from other destinations will no longer have to take a pre-departure test. And from the end of October, they will not have to take an expensive PCR test on day two of their stay in England, only a rapid lateral flow test. The Shapps statement applied only to England, but Scotland's separate government followed suit with parallel changes scrapping the amber list. However, Edinburgh retained the requirement for pre-departure and day-two PCR tests, "due to significant concerns at the impact on public health". All the UK's devolved administrations -- including Wales and Northern Ireland -- have followed previous changes to travel rules announced by the UK government in London. Story continues The Welsh government said it would "carefully consider" the announcement by London, but also voiced concern at the changes to the testing regime. Nevertheless, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "As global vaccination efforts continue to accelerate and more people gain protection from this dreadful disease, it is right that our rules and regulations keep pace." Travel industry bodies welcomed the move, while the British Chambers of Commerce said it could provide travellers and businesses with "confidence and clarity needed after so much uncertainty". British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle also hailed the changes but urged UK ministers to scrap all testing for fully vaccinated passengers "as soon as possible". Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should go further by negotiating the removal of US travel restrictions on UK nationals. Johnson is due to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, and could meet President Joe Biden during the trip. jit/pvh NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government aims to begin offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots widely next week to Americans age 16 and up. A panel of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted against such broad coverage on Friday but backed a shot for people 65 and older, which the agency may or may not follow. President Joe Biden's administration faces criticism within the scientific community over whether the additional shots are needed for the general population. WHAT DO THE DATA SAY ABOUT THE NEED FOR BOOSTERS? Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE As a result, they say, people who were vaccinated earlier on in the pandemic are now more vulnerable to so-called breakthrough infections, particularly in the face of the fast-spreading Delta variant of coronavirus. Booster doses help restore the waning levels of antibodies produced by the original inoculation, the drugmakers have said. Data from Pfizer's clinical trial of 30,000 people suggest that the vaccine's efficacy diminished by around 6% every two months after the second dose. In a second trial testing booster shots in 300 participants, a third dose generated a better immune response than the second, according to Pfizer. Moderna this week said it found higher rates of breakthrough infection among participants in its clinical trial who received its two-dose vaccine roughly 13 months ago compared with those vaccinated roughly eight months ago. The study period was from July and August, when the highly-contagious Delta variant was the predominant strain. U.S. health regulators are also closely watching real-world data on vaccine effectiveness and boosters from Israel, where a majority of the population has received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Israel is offering booster shots to everyone age 12 and up. Israel's Health Ministry this week reported data showing that more than 1.1 million people aged 60 and older received a booster dose of Pfizer, resulting in a decline in overall infections as well as severe illness from COVID-19 in that group. The authors said their study suggests that a booster dose can restore vaccine efficacy among booster recipients to 95%. Story continues In addition to preventing severe illness, some health officials in the United States and Israel say booster doses may help reduce transmission of the coronavirus at a time of rising infection rates in many countries. WHAT IS THE CRITIQUE? Many vaccine experts say the data so far only suggest a need for boosters in older adults and people with compromised immune systems. The critics include two FDA scientists who resigned as the United States government announced its booster shot plans. For example, a report from Israel's Health Ministry shows a much higher risk of severe breakthrough infection among vaccinated people over the age of 60 compared with people aged 50-59 and 40-49, even though the younger groups include people who were vaccinated more than six months ago. Other studies in the United States show that the vaccines remain highly protective against severe disease and death in adults under the age of 65. Several other countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have so far limited booster plans to older adults and other high-risk groups. The World Health Organization has repeatedly implored the United States and other wealthy countries to hold off on offering booster shots and to use those doses to help inoculate the many people worldwide who have yet to receive their first doses. Scientists also say that there are confounding factors in analyzing waning vaccine effectiveness and the impact of boosters, including whether Delta may have a harsher impact on older adults and whether a return to mask-wearing in some places, rather than booster shots, is helping contain the spread. They also say that randomized trials provide the best estimates of effectiveness in the real world, but most of the data so far is from observational studies or from small clinical trials. (Reporting by Caroline Humer, Michael Erman, Julie Steenhuysen, Josephine Mason and Alistair Smout in London; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Grant McCool) Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP Scientific advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have voted not to recommend a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine for most Americans, a potentially significant blow to the Biden administration after it announced a plan to boost adults before advisory committees had a chance to review scientific evidence in public. Related: Fascist and tyrannical: US vaccine mandates induce rightwing hysteria The committee chair, Dr Arnold Monto, a University of Michigan epidemiologist, continued deliberations after the vote. Sixteen of 18 advisers opposed the broad proposal for boosters for those older than 16, even as some members believed there is a role for a third dose. After the initial no vote, the committee recommended a much smaller number of Americans receive third shots of the Pfizer vaccine at least six months after their first doses, this time under emergency use authorization rather than full approval. The 18-member panel unanimously recommended a booster dose to people older than 65 and at high risk of severe Covid-19. As a result of the emergency use authorization, study will probably continue on booster shots as Pfizer works to achieve full approval. The advisory panel then further clarified the emergency use authorization should include health workers and those at high risk of occupational exposure to Covid-19. The decision by the FDAs vaccines and related biological products advisory committee is not binding, but the FDA usually follows its advice. The decision came after significant public scientific dissent regarding a third dose. Much of the data in favor came from Israel, while data was sparse on whether a booster could help protect people against hospitalization and death. There are too many questions for me to feel comfortable saying yes to this, said A Oveta Fuller, a member and associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Medical School University of Michigan, summing up the views of several voting members. Story continues Another committee member, Dr Eric Rubin, a Harvard assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, said he strongly suspects the vaccine will be low-risk, but we dont have that right now, and I dont think Id be comfortable giving it to a 16-year-old for all the reasons everyone has raised. In its application for approval, Pfizer submitted safety data on only about 300 adults aged 18 to 55 who received a booster shot, a sample size several members said was too small. The decision throws into question the Biden administrations plan to provide a third Pfizer shot to fully vaccinated Americans older than 16. It also throws into question broader booster plans, which the administration had made sound nearly inevitable. Another Covid-19 vaccine maker, Moderna, has applied to provide booster shots. Administration officials have not recommended booster shots for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, though they still may. All vaccines currently available in the US are highly effective against hospitalization and death from Covid-19. FDA committee members questions about waning vaccine immunity tended to focus on how effective vaccines remained against preventing infection, transmission and prevention of mild to moderate disease, and whether that would significantly change the direction of the pandemic. Scientists said they had trouble supporting the Pfizer application for booster doses for most Americans for reasons including the risk of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, in young men especially; a lack of evidence that boosters would significantly curb the direction of the pandemic; and questions about whether boosters should be confined to older Americans. Much of the debate focused on how vaccines provoked immunity: did waning immunity in mild and moderate disease, which requires circulating antibodies, indicate there would be waning immunity from severe disease requiring hospitalization, which relies on a different part of the immune system? Several members felt there was insufficient evidence to answer the question. However, not all voting members agreed. Immunity clearly seems to decrease over time, said Dr Jay Portnoy of Childrens Mercy hospital in Kansas City, a committee member who said he was already prescribing a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Do we want to wait until more previously vaccinated people get sick before we prevent them from getting sick, Portnoy said. Id rather not get the Covid disease. There was agreement on the question of waning immunity in older people, who also face the highest risks of severe Covid-19. The administrations booster plan for the general public has been criticized by scientists and global health leaders. Dissent intensified as the FDAs meeting neared, culminating with two scientists leaving the organization over the booster plan. In an article published in the Lancet, the departed scientists warned: Current evidence does not appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high. The benefits of boosting, they said, will not outweigh the benefits of providing initial protection to the unvaccinated. The most potent criticism has argued that providing booster shots to people in wealthy, western nations is not nearly as effective as vaccinating new people around the world, and that providing booster shots necessarily reduces vaccine supply in poorer countries. The FDA excluded this debate from its deliberations. Regardless of the FDA, some healthy Americans have felt compelled to seek third shots. The US plan for booster shots may have influenced other wealthy nations to roll out booster programs, further reducing available vaccine supply. There is little debate that third shots are appropriate for people who are immunocompromised and mount a less robust response to the vaccine. The FDA recommended third shots for this group in August. Ponomariova_Maria / Getty Images/iStockphoto Though the fight for womens rights and equality has made great progress, women still have a long way to go when it comes to business ownership. According to the National Association of Women Business Owners, just 39% of all privately held companies are owned by women. Yet women-led companies can be great moneymakers; the latest data from the NAWBO shows businesses run by women generate $1.7 trillion in sales. GoBankingRates looked at eight extraordinary female founders who have taken their companies to the next level. Find Out: 3 Money Moves Every Woman Must Make, According to Rachel Cruze Learn More: 3 Alarming Ways Women Are Lagging Behind Men When It Comes to Their Finances Glossier 36-year-old Emily Weiss formed the trendy beauty brand Glossier company in 2014. Her vision? To shake up the beauty industry. Weiss direct-to-consumer beauty business debuted with four products but has since exploded to feature dozens of skincare and makeup products. The e-commerce company expanded its reach by opening brick-and-mortar stores in Los Angeles and Chicago. Though these stores were shuttered due the pandemic, Glossier has since opened a location in Seattle and is set to re-open its LA store later this year. The company recently closed a round of $80M in funding as it eyes a vast international expansion. Glossiers London store is expected to open soon. Most of Glossiers success can be traced back to Weiss highly popular beauty blog, Into the Gloss, launched in 2010. The company has strongly resonated with millennials and celebs alike for its nod to simplicity and its dedication to empowering the customer. Check Out: 4 Essential Tips for Moms Re-Entering the Workforce Lover.ly Upon experiencing difficulty helping a bride-to-be plan her big day, serial entrepreneur Kellee Khalil wanted to start a business. She carried out her wish by founding Lover.ly, a company that provides resources for couples planning on tying the knot soon. From possible wedding destinations, food, comprehensive style guides and planners, Lover.ly is blossoming into one of the go-to wedding sites for modern couples. Story continues Founded in 2011, the company has raised $7 million in venture funding from several investors including, Comcast, Montage Ventures and Female Founder Fund. Start Now: How Millennial Women Can Take Control of Their Debt The Flex Company The Flex Company was founded by Lauren Schulte Wang, who wanted to create a business that developed more health-conscious and hygienic feminine products. Customers can order a set of feminine products every month customized to fit the uniqueness of their menstrual cycles. The company has been praised by investors for tackling a sensitive issue, and its innovation and thoughtfulness surrounding feminine products. It became very clear that it was such a broadly usable product by women all over the world that I felt that it was such a huge opportunity to disrupt something that is currently an uncomfortable experience, said Cyan Banister, partner at Founders Fund and a Flex investor. Since it was founded in 2015, the Flex Company has raised $7.7 million, with $6 million of that coming from a round of funding completed in October 2018. Dont Make These Mistakes: 4 Money Lies Women Tell Themselves (& Why Theyre Not True) Shippo Co-founded by Lauren Behrens Wu, Shippo is a service that provides different shipping carriers and discounted shipping rates for retailers, e-commerce sites and more. Wu wanted to create a company that simplified the logistics of setting up a business after she experienced some pain points while finalizing the shipping process for her own e-commerce business. With Shippo, any customer can compare shipping rates between UPS, FedEx and more. The company, which is based in San Francisco, has more than 70,000 customers, including eBay, beauty brand Ipsy and Martha Stewart. In June, Shippo raised $50 million in funding the largest for the company so far which enabled it to be valued at $1 billion. Breaking the Glass Ceiling: How To Land a Leadership Position Brandless Launched in 2017 by Tina Sharkey and Ido Leffler, Brandless is a company that prides itself on making quality products that are more accessible and affordable than competitors. It does so by relying on direct communication with customers and removing markups like distribution costs and shelf stocking that are usually covered by the consumer indirectly. Brandless offers more than 300 products including household cleaners, food, drinks and beauty products. The startup uses a team of researchers to curate some of the best high-quality products to present to customers. In August, the e-commerce company raised $118 million in a mega funding round led by Clarke Capital Partners, which acquired Brandless in 2020, among other corporate and institutional investors. The integrity of the company and Sharkeys own reputable past might have secured investors trust. Sharkey formerly served as the global chairman of BabyCenter, a Johnson & Johnson company, and sits as a member on the Board of Directors for Ipsy and Brit + Co, and on the board of PBS. Related: 3 Money Moves Women Business Owners Should Be Making Right Now Verge Genomics Verge Genomics is a company dedicated to finding a cure for brain diseases such as Alzheimers and Lou Gehrigs disease (ALS). It was co-founded by Princeton University graduate Alice Zhang in 2015. Zhang was named as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Featured Honoree in 2017. I founded Verge, really, on the vision of building the first pharmaceutical company that could really develop rapidly multiple transformative treatments for patients, and the ultimate goal for us is to build a scalable drug discovery engine that automates the discovery of cures across every human disease personalized for each patient, Zhang told Forbes. In total, Verge Genomics has raised $36.1 million, landing $30 million in its latest round of Series A funding in July from several prominent investors including the ALS Investment Fund, WuXi and Great Oaks Venture Capital. Its Time: How Every Woman Can (and Should) Become a Confident Investor FutureFuel.io Founded by former Google employee Laurel Taylor in 2015, FutureFuel.io is a millennial-focused company dedicated to rapidly reducing student debt by teaming up with employers to implement and keep student debt repayment and refinancing plans in their employee handbooks. According to its website, FutureFuel.ios mission is to empower former students and abolish student debt. Users today prefer student debt repayment over food, foosball, and a 401(k), Taylor told Business Insider. What we see, in general, is that 50 percent of employees opt-out of their 401(k). Theyre saying, My student debt is crushing. I have to pay down my debt first.' According to a recent survey by CNBC, 45 percent of employees would prefer that their employer put $200 toward paying off their student debt over saving for retirement if that were an option. Headquartered in Boston, FutureFuel.io has raised 25.8 million in funding, securing $10 million last March. Be the Boss: How To Thrive as a Female Founder in a Male-Dominated World Girls Who Code Founded in 2011 by Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code was designed to break glass ceilings (and walls) in tech by providing young women with the skills and resources to succeed in computer science and engineering. A decade later, the nonprofit is thriving, having raised a total of $7.1 million. Investors include Walmart, Lyft and Uber, among others. Girls Who Code is also well-respected in the tech community, having partnered with Adobe, IBM and Amazon, to name but a few. More From GOBankingRates Nicole Spector contributed to the reporting for this article. Last updated: Aug. 26, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: These Female Founders Are Leading Their Companies to New Heights The former University of Miami football player accused of murdering star defensive lineman Bryan Pata pleaded not guilty Friday as prosecutors formally filed a charge of second-degree murder with a weapon. Rashaun Jones, 35, is accused of fatally shooting Bryan Pata in November 2006 outside a Kendall apartment complex. Even though homicide detectives long suspected Jones, it took almost 15 years for detectives to arrest him. Jones was originally arrested on a first-degree murder count and could still face the charge. To secure an indictment for first-degree murder, prosecutors would have to present the case to a Miami-Dade grand jury. Its unclear if the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office will do so. In-person court hearings in Miami-Dade have been paused in recent weeks because of a surge in coronavirus cases but are scheduled to resume on Monday. Jones pleaded not guilty through his defense attorney, Michael Mirer. Jones was not present for Friday mornings arraignment, which was held via Zoom. Pata, a 22-year-old senior who was expected to be a high NFL Draft pick, had just returned from practice when he was gunned down. Jones was a defensive back, and police said he had been feuding with Pata for weeks, even threatening to shoot him. According to an arrest warrant, cellphone records placed Jones near the murder scene, contradicting his claim that he had been at home. A key eyewitness, Paul Conner, identified Jones as the person emerging from the parking lot where the shooting happened. Because Conner is now 77 years old, prosecutors are asking a judge to perpetuate his testimony, which means recording it so it can be played or read to a jury. The COVID-19 pandemic is constantly changing the world around us and with Mr. Conners health related issues, he is vulnerable to severe risks if he contracts COVID-19, prosecutor Michael Von Zamft wrote in his request to the court. Mirer, during Fridays arraignment, did not say whether he would oppose the request. Lawyers will return to court on Oct. 27 and might discuss the issue then. Emmanuel Macron. LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images In what's typically seen as a "severe diplomatic step ... usually used against adversaries," France has recalled its ambassadors to both the U.S. and Australia in protest of the countries' controversial nuclear submarine partnership, The New York Times reports. According to the French foreign ministry, this is "the first time ever" France has recalled its U.S. ambassador, writes the Star Tribune. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the "exceptional decision," apparently made by President Emmanuel Macron, "is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States," per the Times. On Wednesday, the U.S. announced a new nuclear submarine partnership with Australia and the U.K. that effectively cancels out an exisiting defense deal between Australia and France. Le Drian called the arrangement a "stab in the back," and likened the situation's handling to that of former President Donald Trump. Friday's recall is an escalation of the conflict, in which Philippe Etienne, the French ambassador the U.S., will return to Paris "for consultations." Le Drian on Friday said the abandonment of the French deal and the newfound partnership "constitute unacceptable behavior among allies and partners; their consequences affect the very concept we have of our alliances, our partnerships, and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe," per CNN. The White House, for its part, will "continue to be engaged [with France] in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points over the course of our long alliance," said an official to CNBC. Read more at CNBC and The New York Times. You may also like Did Theranos Lose Afghanistan? Seven Brides for Seven Brothers star Jane Powell dies at 92 10 things you need to know today: September 17, 2021 France has taken the extraordinary step of recalling its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia after both countries blindsided their French allies with a new military pact and submarine contract, the French Foreign Ministry announced on Friday. The backstory: While sealing an agreement with the U.S. and U.K. to acquire nuclear submarines, Australia ripped up an existing $90 billion submarine deal with France. That led senior French officials to accuse the U.S. of a "stab in the back." Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free Why it matters: It is extremely rare for an ambassador to be recalled from the capital of such a close ally, and a signal of just how furious the French government is with both Australia and the U.S. What they're saying: "Allies don't do this to each other," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian fumed on Thursday, comparing Biden's announcement to "what Mr. Trump used to do." Secretary of State Tony Blinken tried to mop things up by praising France as a crucial ally in the Indo-Pacific, but to no avail. Le Drian said Friday that the decision to recall the ambassadors for consulations was made by President Emmanuel Macron due to the "unacceptable behavior among allies and partners" which would "affect the very concept we have of our alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe." The French Embassy in Washington also canceled a gala on Thursday night that was to celebrate the longstanding U.S.-France alliance. Biden, for his part, heralded a new agreement to help Australia acquire nuclear submarines as part of a trilateral security pact with the U.K. and the U.S. as an "historic step" to update U.S. alliances to face new challenges. The new trilateral partnership, called AUKUS, is part of a wider effort by Biden to develop partnerships in the Indo-Pacific to compete with China across the military, economic and diplomatic dimensions. He has also invited the leaders of Australia, India and Japan to the White House next week for the first in-person summit of the so-called "Quad" countries. But the AUKUS agreement not only outraged France, which had not been informed in advanced, it also came just one day before the EU was set to present its own much-anticipated strategy for the Indo-Pacific, embarrassing the Europeans as they sought to flex their own geopolitical muscle. Between the lines: This move could be in part intended for domestic conception after a major international snub, and with a presidential election looming in April. Story continues Worth noting: The French ambassador to the U.K. is not being recalled, a source with close knowledge of the situation told Axios. The source did not provide any explanation for that decision. Go deeper: Biden blindsides Europe with new AUKUS alliance on China Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. Protesters gathered on Thursday at the Florida home of Brian Laundrie, who has retained a lawyer and refused to cooperate with authorities after Gabby Petito disappeared on the couple's cross-country road trip late last month, according to police. Golf carts drove by on the street as protesters carried signs, such as, "TRUTH ALWAYS COMES OUT! #Justiceforgabby," "North Port Loves Gabby," and "WOULD SHE BRING YOU HOME?" "Were standing up for somebody whos lost that's in our city, and were a big family in our city, in North Port. And we are definitely going to do whatever we can to help the family find this missing daughter," one protester said Thursday. "We all have children. If it were our child, we would want everyone to gather up and help us find our child too. So were going to do whatever it takes." Other protesters chanted outside the home, "Where's Gabby?" Another protest is being planned at the home, which belongs to Laundrie's parents, on Friday evening. PETITO STEPFATHER PLEADS FOR SILENT FIANCE TO HELP POLICE AMID UNSPEAKABLE SITUATION Laundrie returned to the home in North Port, Florida on Sept. 1 with the white van that the couple was traveling in, but without Petito. He was named a person of interest in Petito's late-August disappearance on Wednesday, four days after Petito was reported missing and the van was taken by authorities from the family's home. Petito's family and investigators have pleaded with Laundrie to provide information about the 22-year-old's disappearance. "We believe you know the location where Brian left Gabby. We beg you to tell us," a letter from the Petito family to the Laundries released on Thursday said. "Gabby lived with you for over a year. She was going to be your daughter in law. How can you keep her location hidden? Please, if you or your family have any decency left, please tell us where Gabby is located. Tell us if we are even looking in the right place." CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Laundries have remained almost completely silent, except for Brian's sister, Cassie Laundrie, who told ABC News on Thursday that she hopes the whole thing is a "big misunderstanding" and Petito comes home safe. As a high school student, Blaize Madrid-Evans talked often about his career plans: joining the military after graduation and becoming a combat medic. He took courses at Smithville High School and participated in activities towards that goal, including separate internships at a health care facility and a fire department. But after he graduated in 2018, he decided on a career in law enforcement. Within a few years, at the age of 22, he was setting out for the first time to patrol the streets of Independence. On Wednesday, after 18 days on patrol, he was fatally wounded during an exchange of gun fire with a man being sought for violating parole on a firearm conviction. Accompanied by his field training officer, he had responded around noon to a residence in the 2440 block of South Northern Boulevard. Police received a tip that a man accused of violating his parole for a firearm conviction was inside of the residence. Once there, Madrid-Evans was shot by another man, who was also killed. The suspect, identified by authorities as Cody L. Harrison, 33, died at the scene. Madrid-Evans had just graduated from the Kansas City Regional Police Academy in July, said Officer Jack Taylor, an Independence police spokesman. He was engaged to be married. On Friday, former teachers and school administrators remembered Madrid-Evans as a thoughtful, considerate student who delighted in serving others. He volunteered at a Smithville nursing home. Blaize was an amazing kid and he was always kind and caring, said Mindy Lloyd, a spokeswoman for the Smithville School District. He had a genuine heart. It is a loss to our community. It is a loss to law enforcement as a whole. We need police officers like Blaize Madrid-Evans. He is an amazing person, with such a great heart, she said. Smithville school officials scheduled a moment of silence in honor of Madrid-Evans during Friday nights football against Raytown South High School. Relatives and officers from the Independence Police Department were scheduled to attend, Lloyd said. Story continues Funeral and memorial services remained pending on Friday. The Independence police officer who was shot and critically wounded on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, has been identified as Blaize Madrid-Evans, 22. New high school, new goals Madrid-Evans transferred from the Platte County High School to Smithville High School just before his high school junior year. He has a younger sister who graduated from Smithville High School last year, Lloyd said. He had already mapped out plans to pursue a career as a military medic when he signed up for the Northland Center for Advanced Professional Studies (Northland CAPS), an internship program where students learn about career options while being embedded in different local businesses. Madrid-Evans wanted to enroll in the medical classes but those slots had already filled up. Wanting to remain in the CAPS program, Madrid-Evans took classes in the global business strand. He completed projects in the global business strand and interned with Mosaic Life Care in the Northland. Police officers were on the scene of an officer involved shooting Wednesday afternoon near 78 Highway and South Northern Blvd. in Independence. It was during his junior year, Madrid-Evans was one of six students from his class selected to give Ted Talks for an event that was held at the Mid-Continent Public Library. Madrid-Evans talked about the challenges of being part of a blended family, living in a small town and being raised by two moms. He thought it wasnt anything different, but it just showcased how he is and how his spirit is, Clemens said. It was an interesting snapshot into him and how he got to where he was. Often with a cup of coffee As a high school senior, Madrid-Evans secured a spot in the medical strand and completed an internship with the Gladstone Fire Department. He was also a member of Interact, a high school community organization that performed volunteer work at various public service agencies in the Northland. Members frequently visited a Golden Living Center, where students played bingo and participated in other activities with the centers residents. Alex Houck, who was Mardid-Evanss English teacher during his junior year said he remembered him as a student who welcomed a challenge and wasnt afraid of hard work. I will always remember Blaize as the young man who always worked to do his best work. He wasnt competitive with others he was competitive with himself, Houck said in a statement. Blaize Madrid-Evans is pictured with fellow members of Interact, a high school community organization that performed volunteer work at various public service agencies in the Northland. Back row: Ashley Williams, Blaize Madrid-Evans. Middle row: McKenna McGuire, Caylie McKimens, Brianna Lewis, Arbaz Khan. Front row: Jordyn Beard, Alexis Frey, Devon Hampton. Sponsor: Stacey Sapp. Smithville High School social studies teacher Katy Minnix said Madrid-Evans was among one of the first students in her classroom at the start of the school day and, often with a cup of coffee. His positive energy was extraordinary for a high schooler at 7:45 in the morning, Minnix said in an email. Madrid-Evans would ask a lot of great questions because he just really liked people and wanted to understand them better, she said. He was so genuinely kind and had the best sense of humor. He is a student that I have often thought about since he graduated. He was just a joy to have in the classroom and in our school community, Minnix said. Better collaboration Two days after the shooting, the Kansas City Police Department and the Jackson County Prosecutors Office issued a joint statement. The statement Friday said both agencies agreed to examine opportunities to work together to ensure all dangerous offenders are appropriately addressed. When faced with a tragedy like this we are called upon to improve ways to intervene and prevent senseless gun violence in our community, the statement said. Authorities said the man who shot Madrid-Evans had been arrested on Sept. 2 on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm but he was released on his own recognizance. It was not until Sept. 7 that Kansas City submitted a case to Jackson County prosecutors. Prosecutors said they did not receive the case until Sept. 9, when Harrison had been out of custody for several days. On Monday, an arrest warrant was issued for Harrison in another case. Charged with second-degree burglary and stealing after he was accused of breaking into a business in Grain Valley. Harrison failed to appear for a hearing in late August. Harrison had been sentenced in 2011 to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a firearms charge in Clay County. He was on parole for the Clay County conviction at the time of the shooting earlier this week in Independence, prosecutors said. There have only been a small number of COVID-19 outbreaks in schools in Sacramento County since students returned to the classroom, according to public health officials. Sacramento County Public Health said it is a sign that the safety precautions in place are working. Before the start of the school year, many parents were concerned about how COVID-19 might spread with children being back in person again. There is no vaccine available for children younger than 12 years old and the highly contagious delta variant has become the dominant strain. (Bloomberg) -- The House will vote next week on raising the nations $28 trillion debt ceiling, but a political standoff between Democrats and Republicans still threatens to send the U.S. into a payments default next month. The Treasury Department has warned that without congressional action, the government could default sometime during October. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week rejected an appeal by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for Republicans to join with Democrats in raising the debt limit. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in a scheduling notice Friday that the House will vote next week on the debt ceiling as well as a must-pass stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating past the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. No decision has been made yet on whether to include the debt ceiling provision in the government funding bill, a Democratic aide said. Tying the two together would link the risk of a government shutdown with the potential of a default, raising the stakes of a no vote. The spending resolution also would include new money for natural disaster recovery and to process Afghan refugees, Hoyer said. Democrats are eyeing a stopgap that runs through Dec. 3, according to a person familiar with the bill. The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady of Texas, said he told Yellen on Thursday to present a structured plan for government spending to help grease bipartisan talks on raising the federal debt limit. Will she do it? Or will Democrats? You know, I dont know, Brady said on Bloomberg TVs Balance of Power with David Westin. But it certainly would be a huge step forward. Past debt-ceiling increases have been tied to budget-cap agreements. Democrats could bypass a Senate Republican filibuster of a debt ceiling increase by using a special fast track budget procedure but have so far decided not to do so, insisting the burden of raising the ceiling must be on both parties. That could change closer to the deadline, however. Story continues The Biden administration is ramping up pressure on Republicans to relent on the debt ceiling. In addition to calls by Yellen to McConnell and other senior Republicans, the White House said in a letter to state and local governments that breaching the debt ceiling could cause a recession. Economic growth would falter, unemployment would rise, and the labor market could lose millions of jobs. The House will also vote on the annual defense policy bill next week and abortion-related legislation, Hoyer said. Hoyer said he plans to bring the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill to the floor for a vote on Sept. 27, making good on a commitment from House leaders to moderate Democrats. The House also plans to vote on its version President Joe Bidens tax and spending proposal during the current work period, which ends Oct. 1. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may face a rebellion from progressives in her caucus during the vote on the infrastructure bill. Progressives have demanded that the larger tax and spending bill total $3.5 trillion and that it be enacted before the infrastructure vote. That now appears unlikely. Despite policy committees finishing work on the larger bill, significant differences remain in the caucus and with the Senate over the content and scope of that larger bill. 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. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Garbage and debris are piling up along many New Orleans streets almost three weeks after Hurricane Ida pounded southeast Louisiana as residents react with increasing anger and, in some cases, dark humor. Several residents told a City Council committee Friday that they haven't had their garbage collected since days before the storm hit on Aug. 29. I was at the point of naming every maggot in my garbage and I was going to put them on my income tax as dependents, a woman told council members at City Hall. This is not good government. This is just incompetence. A Facebook posting calling for a "Trash Parade march at City Hall on Saturday had drawn about 1,500 responses as of Friday afternoon. Folks are encouraged to wear garbage bags and garbage related costumes, the post said. Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration says much of the problem arises from labor shortages that have plagued the city for months, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and, then, the storm. The city sought bids from companies wanting to supplement its tow main waste contractors, officials said Thursday. A Sept. 8 deadline was extended to Sept. 13 due to a lack of response. After the later deadline one contractor was hired to aid trash collection efforts Thursday in part of the city. Another contractor who bid on another area had 20 trucks available but no labor. On Thursday, Cantrell's office announced a plan to use workers and equipment from various city agencies to supplement trash pickup. It was dubbed Operation Mardi Gras a reference to the major cleanup efforts that immediately follow the city's large Carnival season parades. Meanwhile, council members, under increasing pressure from constituents, expressed frustration with the administration. Member Jared Brossett called the mounting garbage a public health crisis." Member Joe Giarrusso, meanwhile, said the administration is delivering confusing messages to constituents about what will be picked up when. Aside from there being separate collection efforts for debris and household garbage, the Operation Mardi Gras workers don't have the trucks equipped with the lifts to pick up the 95-gallon (360-liter) garbage bins the city issues to residences. So, some crews are only collecting bags of household garbage and leaving the full bins behind for other crews. Story continues Do I tell them take it out of the can and put in on the side? Giarrusso asked city Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano. Administration officials said myriad labor and logistical issues are at play in the city's efforts. This is the first time where we cannot throw money at a problem to solve this issue quickly, Cantrell's infrastructure chief Ramsey Green said. We've tried that. We've been on the phone with national contractors. We did an emergency procurement ... We had no responsive bidders. New images of the Haitian migrant surge in Del Rio, Texas show chaotic scenes on the ground as numbers soar past 11,000 and Custom and Border Protection (CBP) surges more agents to the area amid reports that tens of thousands more could be on the way. Fox News footage shows Haitian migrants walking across a dam in the Rio Grande, where they have traveled then to the International Bridge in their thousands, raising concerns of a new chapter in the relentless crisis at the southern border that has exploded under the Biden administration. TEXAS REP. GONZALES CALLS SQUALID MIGRANT CAMP UNDER DEL RIO BRIDGE GUT WRECHING AS NUMBER SOAR On Wednesday, the numbers under the bridge were more than 4,000, by Thursday morning that number had spiked to approximately 8,200 and by Friday it was over 11,000. Multiple sources told Fox News that they have been told that there are "tens of thousands" more on their way. Fox had been using a drone to film the astonishing scenes of the thousands of migrants gathered under the bridge, but on Thursday evening the Federal Aviation Administration placed a restriction over the bridge. "The Border Patrol requested the temporary flight restriction due to drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border," the FAA said in a statement. "As with any temporary flight restriction, media is able to call the FAA to make requests to operate in the area." The FAA approved Fox News' request on Friday. Before that, Fox filmed from a Texas DPS helicopter the scenes under the bridge. A source had told Fox on Thursday that Border Patrol was overwhelmed and that the situation is "out of control," while Texas lawmakers have expressed horror at the squalid scenes of thousands of migrants huddled under the bridge waiting to be processed into the U.S. "The sheer amount of people, its like getting hit by a 2x4," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told Fox News in an interview on Thursday. "You think youre in a third-world country, and this is the United States, this is Del Rio Texas, and there is literally no border at all -- its just been muddied over." Story continues BIDEN'S FAA PLACES TEMPORARY BAN ON DRONES FLYING OVER BRIDGE PACKED WITH ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS "To feed these migrants, provide them three meals a day would cost the city of Del Rio $1 million a week," he said. "This is a small town that does not have any resources and yet they are literally having to come up with millions of dollars a week to handle this crisis -- its unfair to them." "This is a disaster, and it is a manmade disaster," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said, who also shared images of the chaos. "When you have open borders, this is what you get. Cruz and others have said that the surge was caused in part by a cancelation of deportation flights to Haiti, which led to more Haitians making the journey to the U.S. DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWS THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS UNDER BRIDGE IN DEL RIO, TEXAS AS LOCAL FACILITIES OVERWHELMED A DHS official told Fox News that a flight to Haiti went out on Wednesday and said flights are continuing, although they could not provide details on upcoming flights due to operation and security factors. Customs and Border Protection told Fox News that Border Patrol is "increasing its manpower in the Del Rio Sector and coordinating efforts within DHS and other relevant federal, state and local partners to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process." "Drinking water, towels, and portable toilets have been delivered for migrants to use while they await to be transported to a facility," a spokesperson said in a statement. Meanwhile, Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano called for the administration to act on the crisis. "This is just something that needs to be brought to light, that we need quick attention from the administration, we need quick attention to this, we need a response in real time," he said. Kameleon007 / iStock.com Following the college admissions scandal of 2019, the media spotlight shone on the dubious practices of elite universities, revealing that some may be more interested in family money than in the integrity and aptitude of their applicants. But the question of whether Ivy League schools are any better than other private and state-run colleges has been a hot topic long before these ugly truths were shown. Is College Really Worth It? A Look at the Grim Reality for Student Loan Borrowers Find Out: Which Degrees Are Still Worth the Investment? So, what is the answer? Are elite universities worth their hefty price tags? What are the pros and cons of attending Yale or Harvard or any other of the top-tier institutions? GOBankingRates consulted education experts to learn the insiders perspective. Take a Look: Explore the Cost of Education in the United States The Biggest Sell? The Public Perception Elite schools are elite because people believe they are elite, said Antonio Cruz, a mentor with Ivy Scholars. The perception of peers is one of the key components of the U.S. News ranking. On top of this, the best ranked schools also have some of the highest endowments, giving them incredible financial resources, Cruz noted. Parents want their students to attend these lofty colleges for good reason: they want their kids to have the best chance at success after college. See: Where Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and 49 Other CEOs Went To College Learn: 15 Rich Influencers Who Didnt Need a College Degree Attending a school with a recognized name provides a measurable boost when searching for jobs, and the networking opportunities at the school are also enhanced, Cruz said. I have worked with hundreds of families and while local State U may be a great school, elite schools are the only ones that elicit ooohs and aaahs from friends and family, said Jack Wang, college aid strategist and wealth advisor at Innovative Advisory Group. After all, most families cant define what a good college is. In the absence of measures, families go towards brand names that are recognized by everyone, such as Ivy League schools. Story continues Factor in the prestigious faculty, the famous alumni and the beaming pride of being able to say, My kid went to the best school, regardless of its veracity, and it makes sense why elite schools are so darn appealing. But there are detailed pros and cons to attending elite universities. Lets first take a look at some of the pros: Pro: Most Elite Colleges Are Need-Blind Elite colleges are almost all need-blind (meaning they dont consider a students ability to pay) and are committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated need, Cruz said. Thus, a school which charges $60,000-$70,000 for tuition, room and board, like Harvard or Yale, could end up costing nothing. Read: The Top Colleges with the Most Financial Aid See: 6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Filling Out Your Federal Financial Aid Form Pro: Students Have Access to People From All Over the World Students are more likely to meet other students from around the globe due to international parents willing to pay to attend private U.S. colleges, said Leo Sanada, CEO and founder, WeAdmit. This will help to grow domestic and international student experiences and understanding of other cultures and ideas. This also contributes to networking with alumni that may contribute to their future success in their career post-college. Pro: The Reputation Goes a Long Way Elite schools hold respected reputations, said Daniel Santos, CEO of Prepory. After graduation, your chances of being hired at reputable companies and/or organizations are much higher. Now, lets review some of the cons. Con: Social Pressures To Spend More I often explain to prospective elite college students and their families that they need to carefully consider the social pressures on campus in addition to looking at academics and tuition, said Steven Roy Goodman, an educational consultant and admissions strategist. These social pressures can become additional financial pressures as students feel compelled to keep up with expensive campus and off-campus lifestyles. Con: The Looming Debt Both bachelors degree holders and those with graduate degrees say their biggest regret [was] taking on any debt, said Christie Barnes, author of What Every Parent Needs to Know about College Admissions. With debt, you have to take the first job that comes along to pay the debt. Changing jobs is more difficult with debt to repay, and debt [also may] delay buying a house, starting a family, [etc.]. Check Out: A Look at Americans Student Loan Debt by State Got Debt?: How To Fight Back Against Student Loan Debt Con: Wheres the Proof? Theres no real evidence to suggest that elite schools provide any better level of education than normal private or even some public schools, said Faisal Nasim, director at Exam Papers Plus In fact, most research suggests that attending schools with a more mixed group (which elite schools most certainly are not) actually better educates children and prepares them for the world outside. How To Know Whats Right for Your Family If youre not rolling in dough, youll want to first sit down and work out a few things before launching into a decision about whether an Ivy League education is worth it. You should also take into account a few bigger picture factors. Before applying to college, families should know their Student Aid Index (SAI) number, said Rachel Coleman of College Essay Editor. This was formerly called Expected Family Contribution (EFC), but the Department of Education just changed the FAFSA rules this year as part of the second COVID relief bill, and this name was one of the things that changed. Check Out: How Gen Z Plans To Avoid Student Loans Discover: How To Ask Your College for More Financial Aid Families can calculate this number here. Now, if the SAI number is a good number for families, i.e. a reasonable number that parents are comfortable paying each year, then students should apply exclusively to colleges that meet 100% of demonstrated financial need, Coleman said. For my low-income students, this number is typically $0, and therefore a good number for them. Here is a list of schools that meet total need. At any of these elite colleges and universities, parents will only pay that SAI number, no matter where the student is accepted, said Coleman. Its All Subjective Ultimately, whether you or your kid should apply to or attend an elite university is a personal and subjective decision. Student debt in America is one of the biggest hurdles young people have to navigate. In light of this, its important to look past the sparkle and sheen of top-tier schools and get down to the brass tacks of your own situation and what makes the best sense for your wallet and your future. More From GOBankingRates Last updated: Sept. 17, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Are Ivy League Schools Worth the Cost? Experts Weigh In Autoblog Right on cue, Ford has confirmed that the Bronco Raptor is on the way. "Ford Performance is excited to share a sneak peek of one of the Bronco special edition vehicles that will be available in 2022," says the teaser text to go along with the video you see above. From the teaser, we can clearly see that Ford will adopt a version of the Raptor-specific grille that it applies to all of its best off-road models. The K-pop group BTS will visit the United Nations as presidential special envoys for South Korea. The Grammy-nominated boy band will be attending the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York, along with South Korean President Moon Jae-in from Sept. 19 to 23. The invite comes after Moon met with the stars and appointed them as special presidential envoy for future generations and culture at a Tuesday ceremony in the country's capital of Seoul. It is a huge honor, both as an individual and a citizen, to be able to hold the title of special presidential envoy for future generations and culture," BTS member Kim Nam-joon, known as RM, shared on behalf of the group, the Korea Herald reported. Were always thinking about how we could give more and return the love we have received, and were just thankful that the president has presented us with such a big opportunity. We will do our best as special envoys, he said. The seven-member group, which were each given diplomatic passports and fountain pens on Tuesday, is expected to make a speech for the United Nations where a video clip of their performance will be played. The K-pop sensation is anticipated to "deliver a message of comfort" to the global youth. Additionally, the group will participate in the second meeting of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Moment on Sept. 20. Among other objectives, the meeting seeks to highlight actions needed to make sure the Covid-19 "response and recovery efforts are equitable, inclusive and accelerate the transition to sustainable development," according to its website. Following Moons announcement, BTS asked their young fans to share how their past two years have been for a collaboration with the United Nations called Youth Today, Your story. It wont be the groups first time visiting the U.N. In an effort to empower the youth, the group attended the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly in 2018 to help launch Generation Unlimited, a campaign to "get every young person into quality education, training or employment by 2030." Story continues The focus behind this year's General Assembly opening will be on emphasizing the "need for greater urgency and ambition to end the pandemic and ensure an equitable and green recovery and accelerated implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals." Joining more than a 100 world leaders in person, President Joe Biden is also set to deliver his first speech before the U.N. General Assembly since taking office on Sept. 21. Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Hospital officials in Kabul say they're on the brink of a COVID-19 disaster. Zalmi Rishtin is the director of the Afghan Japan Hospital in Kabul. "Before the Taliban takeover we had supplies for one quarter. We had brought medicines and the stock was full, and we are issuing medicines from the same stock. In the past, we would purchase medicine whenever there is shortage, but for now we are just using medicines from the same stock." The WHO told Reuters at the start of September that hundreds of medical facilities in the country are at risk of imminent closure as donors who provide the financing are not allowed to deal with the new Taliban government. More than 3.5 million Afghans were already displaced in a country battling drought and the COVID-19 pandemic. The desperation clear in this patient's plea from his hospital bed. "Our country is a poor country. We need medicine, different things - almost everything. If someone will come and give us something and the patients' problems will be resolved with Allah's mercy. This is what I request for." According to UNICEF, less than 4% of the Afghan population is vaccinated. Sep. 17PITTSBURG, Kan. The search for the next president of Pittsburg State University could get underway soon following approval this week of the search process. The Kansas Board of Regents, the governing board of the state's six universities, including PSU, voted Thursday to conduct a closed committee-led search, with Washington, D.C.-based AGB Search as the consulting firm. The closed search is necessary "in the interest of trying to attract as many qualified candidates as possible," said Cheryl Harrison-Lee, the board's chairperson, during Thursday's meeting in Topeka. "What we've learned from our experiences (is) that many of the sought-after candidates in university leadership positions do not want to be publicly tied to a search at another institution." The committee will be chaired by Rick Webb, a PSU graduate and CEO of Pittsburg-based Watco. Board of Regents member Bill Feuerborn, also a PSU graduate, will serve as vice chairman. The board will be involved in appointing additional committee members, Harrison-Lee said. According to board policy, committee members may include classified and unclassified staff, students, faculty, administration, alumni and community members. A new president at Pittsburg State will succeed Steve Scott, who announced in July that he will retire next summer. He has served as president since 2009. Across the state line, the Crowder College board of trustees also has launched the search for a successor for President Glenn Coltharp, who will retire at the end of the academic year. The college announced last month that it will work with the Association of Community College Trustees to develop a profile of the job position, recruit candidates and hold open forums for final candidates. UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution stressing that Afghanistans new Taliban rulers need to establish an inclusive government with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and upholding human rights. The resolution adopted by the U.N.s most powerful body on Friday extends the current mandate of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan for six months. It also stresses the important role that the United Nations will continue to play in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan. The resolution, drafted by Norway and Estonia, essentially delays a decision by the Security Council on a new mandate for the U.N. mission, known as UNAMA, until March 17, 2022, giving members time to assess the actions of the Taliban government in the coming months. In a joint statement to the council, Norway and Estonia said the resolution sends a unified message that we stand behind the U.N.s efforts in Afghanistan going forward. The resolution ensures that the U.N. mission can continue to monitor and report on human rights, protecting civilians, violations and abuses against children, and to support the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all levels of decision-making. ___ MORE ON AFGHANISTAN: Friction among Taliban pragmatists, hard-liners intensifies Indiana Marine killed in Afghanistan remembered as hero Afghan killed by drone praised by co-workers in US aid group Iran resumes commercial flights to Afghanistan AP Interview: UN refugee chief says Afghan stability needed ___ HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING: ___ ISLAMABAD The U.N. refugee agency says Afghans displaced by war and the Taliban takeover of the country are in urgent need of medicine, shelter and other essentials ahead of winter. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, urged the international community not only to give money but also to accept Afghan refugees. He spoke at a press conference in Islamabad on Friday Story continues Giving money is one thing, but also taking some of the refugees is important," Grandi said and appealed on all countries that have the possibility to do that continue to resettle refugees. He stressed that said shelter, food, medicines and other necessities should be arranged for displaced Afghans because winter is coming. He thanked Pakistan for hosting Afghan refugees over the past four decades of conflict and for facilitating recent humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The U.N. refugee agency says over 3.5 million Afghans have been displaced from their homes by the conflict and remain inside the country. ___ ISTANBUL The Talibans education ministry says all male students grades six to 12 and male teachers should resume classes across Afghanistan, starting on Saturday. The statement published on Facebook on Friday did not include girls of that age, and the lack of guidance highlighted ongoing concerns that the Taliban might impose restrictions on girls and women. Since taking over power last month, the Taliban had allowed girls in grades one to six to resume classes. When they ruled Afghanistan previously in the 1990s, the Taliban had forbidden girls and women from attending school and work. In some of the provinces, women still are not allowed to continue their work, with exceptions for women who have worked in health departments, hospitals and education. ___ NEW DELHI Indias prime minister says it's essential that the global community collectively decides on whether to recognize the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. India supports the central role of the United Nations on this issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a video statement on Friday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The economic and security group is made up of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. Modi also said the recent developments in Afghanistan, where the Taliban swept into power in a blitz that stunned the world last month, will have the greatest impact on neighboring countries such as India. Instability and fundamentalism in Afghanistan will lead to terrorist and extremist ideologies all over the world, he said. Other extremist groups may also be encouraged to seek power through violence. We all countries have been victims of terrorism in the past. Together we must ensure that the soil of Afghanistan is not used to spread terrorism in any country, Modi added. India's leader said he sees many other risks from the instability, such as an uncontrolled flow of drugs, illegal weapons and human trafficking. A large amount of advanced weapons remain in Afghanistan, he warned and urged the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to play a positive role in monitoring these flows and enhancing information sharing. ___ BERLIN Germanys president has bestowed one of the countrys highest awards to the commander who led the evacuation of Germans and some Afghans from Kabul last month. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised Brig. Gen. Jens Arlts leadership of an operation that he said was unprecedented in Germanys post-World War II history. The German military evacuated more than 5,300 citizens of 45 countries from the Afghan capital, as part of a wider international effort to airlift 120,000 people after the Taliban takeover last month. Steinmeier noted that Arlt had managed to bring home all of his 500 troops unharmed, despite the risks they faced on the ground. He added that we bear some of the responsibility for human tragedy in Afghanistan. ___ ISLAMABAD --- Pakistans prime minister has met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Afghanistan. The Foreign Ministry's statement on Friday said the two leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's meeting in Tajikistans city of Dushanbe. The discussion centered on Afghanistan and other bilateral issues, with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan underscoring his country's vital interest in a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. Khan is visiting Tajikistan to participate in the meeting of members of the China and Russia-dominated organization. Afghanistan's future has dominated the summit. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month. So far Pakistan, like other countries, has not recognized the new government next door. Pakistan says any such decision will be announced after consultation with the world community. According to the statement, Khan said it was essential to take urgent steps to stabilize Afghanistan's security, humanitarian and economic situation. Morag made an anticlimactic reveal about Josh. (Channel 4) Married At First Sight UK fans have called out Morag for stirring up trouble between Amy and Josh with an anticlimactic reveal about his alleged shady behaviour. In Thursday night's episode, the group split into two for girls' and boys' days out, but a chat between the wives about how their relationships were going turned sour when Morag told Amy she felt that there was something about Josh she needed to share. Read more: MAFS UK fans concerned over Franky 'red flags' After poking at why Josh wouldn't show more affection and hearing Amy defend her husband, Morag made a dramatic declaration that there was something she had to say - but viewers called her "a stirrer", claiming that Josh having messaged her on social media a year earlier was a non-issue. Morag said: "Im really sorry, theres something Im going to have to bring up to you today. I didn't want to mention it because I didn't want to plant that seed of doubt. It was going to come out at some point. Josh has been matched with Amy. (Channel 4) "Last year, Josh may have added me, sent me a message multiple times, liked multiple of my photos. Im sorry I didnt mention it. I didnt want you to be worried." Amy told her: "But he doesn't even like blondes." Morag added that she had told her own partner Luke of the coincidence immediately and began to question Amy over why Josh had not been "transparent and honest" with her. Read more: MAFS UK removes Nikita over 'unacceptable behaviour' But confused viewers pointed out that Josh probably couldn't remember something he'd done a year ago. One fan tweeted: "Morag hun was that it? Josh liked a photo of yours? Only mentioned it to stir the pot and deflect from yourself." Someone else asked: "I really don't get the issue with Josh liking Morag's picture? It was before he entered the show? And he may genuinely not remember or it could just not be relevant like how does it pertain to his feelings/relationship with Amy?" Story continues Amy has been questioing how much Josh likes her. (Channel 4) Another viewer added: "I really think the Morag/Josh messaging scandal is a non-event. If he remembered maybe he could have said to Amy he knew Morag, but otherwise, so what?" Others agreed, with one viewer tweeting: "Morag babe Josh hasn't told her cos he probably doesnt remember." Another person wrote: "Wait, when did she say this happened? Last year?! When Josh didnt even know who Amy was? Josh probably forgot Morag! Why did she feel the need to bring up a message from a year ago?!?! Seriously Morag is a total stirrer." Morag is matched with Luke, but says Josh contacted her previously. (Channel 4) Other drama from the day out included a row between Megan and Alexis over the kiss with Jordon, with Alexis storming off in tears at one point as Megan told the group she was sick of apologising for the same thing. At the boys' day out, Megan's husband Bob was left in an awkward position when the group was asked who they would least like to be married to and all of them chose Megan, giving her cheating as a reason. Watch: Married At First Sight Australia 2022 teaser released AUSTIN, Texas Migrants waiting to be taken into custody by Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas, are leaving the United States to walk back across the international river to Mexico, where they are picking up food from restaurants before returning to the bridge to continue waiting. "There are people going back and forth across the river, going into Acuna [in Mexico] to get food and water to come back. You see them walking down the roads with to-go containers from restaurants in Mexico, but they have like a burger and fries in this to-go container," said Jon Anfinsen, the president of the Border Patrol union's Del Rio chapter. 12,000 MIGRANTS WAIT UNDER DEL RIO BRIDGE TO SURRENDER TO BORDER PATROL The situation in Del Rio has taken a turn for the worse over the past day as more than 12,000 noncitizens who waded across the Rio Grande River wait under a port of entry to surrender to Border Patrol agents, who are solely transporting and processing migrants, too overwhelmed to be on patrol in the field. Migrants wade across the shallow water on top of a long cement sort of bridge at the water's surface. This platform is technically the Weir Dam, but in recent days it has been repurposed as the pathway into America for thousands fleeing their homes and hoping to seek asylum in the U.S. Roughly half have traveled from Haiti. But with an unprecedented level of people crossing, the burden on the federal law enforcement officers who are responsible for guarding the border is also mounting to provide appropriate care for those arriving. The situation indicates how short the Border Patrol has failed to respond adequately to the worsening crisis. Thousands are forced behind a fence into a small outdoor space under the bridge. Portable toilets have been brought in for thousands to use. It is unknown how long people will wait before being transported to local Border Patrol stations for processing. At least 12,000 migrants are camped out under the U.S. side of an international bridge that connects Mexico to Del Rio, Texas Provided to the Washington Examiner Story continues Many people carry large plastic jugs of water as they cross the river from Mexico. Others are carrying bags of food because there are no places to eat near the bridge, and law enforcement is attempting to keep everyone in a secured perimeter away from downtown Del Rio. However, the migrants are allowed to return to Mexico. While the thousands could overwhelm state and federal police, Anfinsen said there has not been an attempt to storm out of the area. "They're certainly not running away or trying to avoid it," said Anfinsen, who is an agent in Del Rio in addition to his duties as local president of the National Border Patrol Council's Del Rio region. "They believe that this is what they're going to have to deal with in order to get picked up and processed and into the asylum process." Despite the crisis unfolding under the port, which Customs and Border Protections Office of Field Operations manage, just a few OFO officers are beneath the bridge, helping to maintain the devolving situation. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The part that's aggravating for me is, this is literally under the feet of Customs. They're right upstairs. And we've seen a handful of officers helping out," Anfinsen said. CBP did not respond to a request for comment. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Texas, Border Crisis, Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, National Security, Homeland Security, Greg Abbott, Immigration Original Author: Anna Giaritelli Original Location: Migrants seen walking back and forth over river to Mexico for food and supplies By Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) - The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that voters could consider a ballot measure to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. The 11th-hour decision, issued by Minnesota's top court one day before early voting is scheduled to begin in local elections, overturns a federal judge who said the language of the so-called Question 2 was confusing and potentially misleading. The proposal, an amendment to the city's charter, was crafted by members of the Democrat-dominated city council after the May 25, 2020, death of Floyd, 46, under the knee of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd's death, caught on film by a bystander, touched off a nationwide summer of sometimes violent protests over police brutality, especially toward young Black men. The proposed amendment would remove a requirement from the Minneapolis charter that the city maintain a standing police department with a minimum number of officers. In its place, Minneapolis would create a new department using a "comprehensive public health approach." Critics of the measure, including Democratic Governor Tim Walz, say the duties and staffing of the proposed Department of Public Safety were too vague. Chauvin was convicted of Floyd's murder in April. He was sentenced in June to more than 22 years in prison. Earlier this week, Chauvin, now 45, and three other former Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd's violent arrest pleaded not guilty to federal charges https://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-police-plead-not-guilty-federal-charges-george-floyd-death-2021-09-14. The other three officers still face a state court trial on charges stemming from Floyd's death. On Thursday, Chauvin pleaded not guilty in a separate criminal case https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chauvin-convicted-floyds-murder-pleads-not-guilty-violating-teens-rights-2021-09-16 to violating the civil rights of a Minneapolis teenager by using a neck restraint similar to the one that killed Floyd. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Karishma Singh and Gerry Doyle) Missouris parole review board violates the constitutional rights of juveniles sentenced to life without parole, a federal appeals court said in an opinion released Friday. The case was brought by four Missouri inmates who were sentenced as juveniles to life without parole. The parole boards practices deprives inmates of their Eighth Amendment right to a meaningful opportunity to obtain release based upon demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed. The case stems from a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision which ruled that juveniles cannot be sentenced to a mandatory life term without parole and another ruling applying that retroactively. The high court has repeatedly concluded that children are constitutionally different from adults for sentencing purposes, in terms of both culpability and capacity for reform. To comply with the Supreme Courts decisions, the Missouri legislature passed a bill in 2016 allowing inmates sentenced to life as juveniles to petition for parole after serving 25 years. But the appeals court said, Missouris parole review process is lacking in several key respects. Inmates are prohibited from reviewing their parole files, making it nearly impossible to identify factual errors or respond to evidence, the court said. They can have one delegate attend the hearing to address issues related to how they would transition into the community, but the delegate is not allowed to talk about trauma or abuse an inmate may have suffered leading up to the crime. Victims are allowed to speak for any length of time and are not limited in what they can talk about, as are prosecutors and police. The board also obfuscates considerations specific to juvenile offenders and fails to adequately focus on a persons efforts towards rehabilitation, the appeals court said. Fridays decision was applauded by the Juvenile Law Center based in Philadelphia, the ACLU of Missouri and the MacArthur Justice Center, which brought the litigation. Story continues Amy Breihan, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said there had been about 100 former juveniles serving mandatory life sentences in Missouri with 17 released since the lawsuit was filed. A handful of other people have had release dates set for later this year or next year. The appeals courts decision was exciting, Breihan said, but she reiterated that the U.S. Supreme Courts 2012 decision was more than nine years old. There are still dozens of people who were sent to die behind bars as kids with no other option who are still waiting for a meaningful opportunity for release, she said. Its always a reminder of how long that arc towards justice is. Marsha Levick, chief legal officer at the Juvenile Law Center, said similar litigation on the parole process for juveniles sentenced to life has been brought in Florida, Maryland, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin, and that the decision impacting Missouri could influence these other cases. Were building a body of favorable case law that states need to do what the court required in these sentencing decisions, Levick said. The Missouri Department of Corrections said it does not comment on litigation. Twenty-six states including Kansas have abolished juvenile life without parole sentences, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Sep. 17Ohio has an settlement agreement with three large opioid distributors that totals around $808 million. The opioid public health crisis has cost thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and led to a flurry of lawsuits seeking to sort blame for the damage and loss. The agreement includes suits against the three largest distributors of opioids Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen which are the companies that just signed off on a settlement with the state and local governments. "This is an historic day for Ohio," said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Yost said at a press conference Thursday afternoon that the settlement agreement includes not just money but important measures to help protect Ohioans from the "reckless distribution and opioid prescriptions that we had seen in previous years." Two of the distributors and Johnson & Johnson, which manufactured and marketed opioids, must make changes to help prevent a similar crisis in the future, including new reports that need filed with the Attorney General. Under the OneOhio agreement, 11% of the state's settlement award goes toward attorney fees and the remaining funds break down to: 55% going to a foundation created to disburse the money and fund programs that benefit Ohioans affected by opioids and/or prevent addiction; 30% earmarked for community recovery programs at the local level; and 15% going to the state of Ohio. The 30% of funding set aside for townships, villages, cities and counties would be distributed based on a population formula. More will flow to communities through foundation spending. The societal and financial cost of the opioid crisis has been massive. From 2010 to 2019, opioid overdoses claimed the lives of 23,743 Ohioans, according to the Ohio Department of Health. In the lead up to the settlement being finalized, local government officials said the money can't make up for lost love ones, but can be used to help with treatment and prevention to avoid further tragedy. Story continues The money could start coming in as soon as November. The deal still needs final ratification from all the governments who agreed to a collective deal, and Yost said he anticipates that happening. The historic deal was years in the making. Yost gave a nod to the some of the key figures who crafted the deal, including Jonathan Blanton, deputy attorney general for major litigation, who had been working on this before Yost was attorney general. "He has a special affinity a special passion for trying to fix the mess that we find ourselves in because of this opiate epidemic," Yost said. Ohio previously was part of a different major public health settlement, in that case with Big Tobacco. The deal was criticized in later years when the tobacco settlement money was used to backfill other budget priorities during the Great Recession. But there are some significant differences to how this consent decree that will be filed with the court "holds that no money goes toward potholes or bureaucrats. It's all going to try to clean up this mess that we have from the opiate epidemic," Yost said. Ousted "Jeopardy!" executive producer and host Mike Richards was spotted with "Price Is Right" host and comedian Drew Carey Thursday in Los Angeles amid news Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings are taking over hosting duties for the remainder of the year. The pair was spotted finishing breakfast when a cameraman fired off questions in rapid succession much to the chagrin of the Hollywood mainstays. Asked if he "got a raw deal" amid his firing from his longtime post at Sony Pictures Television, Richards stayed quiet and let his pal do the talking. "We dont really want to talk to you right now," Carey told TMZ as he attempted to pull attention from Richards. "We just had breakfast," Richard said as he hopped into his truck. FORMER 'JEOPARDY!' CHAMPION JAMES HOLZHAUER APPLAUDS MIKE RICHARDS' FIRING A source at Swingers Diner told Fox News the pair stuck around for about two hours. Carey and Richards appeared to enjoy their conversation at the corner cafe. The pair were seen laughing, while Richards was seen taking notes in a secure black binder. Richards used to be Carey's executive producer on "The Price is Right," which just celebrated its 50th season. 'JEOPARDY!' NOT RELEASING TRADITIONAL CONTESTANT PHOTOS WITH MIKE RICHARDS FOLLOWING HOST'S OUSTING: REPORT Sony Pictures Television confirmed to Fox News that Jennings and Bialik will take over hosting duties for the remainder of the year. Bialik will host several weeks of shows starting Monday that will air through Nov. 5. After that, she and Jennings will split hosting duties as their respective schedules permit. The studio announced Richards as its first choice to replace the late Alex Trebek. But Richards resigned from his hosting duties just nine days after it was announced he would succeed Trebek as its permanent host. 'JEOPARDY!' HOST MIKE RICHARDS APOLOGIZES FOR PAST COMMENTS HE MADE ABOUT WOMEN ON A PODCAST Richards caught flak after past inappropriate comments he made on the "The Randumb Show" podcast resurfaced. The 46-year-old, who hosted the podcast from 2013 to 2014 while working at "The Price is Right," made derogatory comments about women, people with mental disabilities, little people and the poor. Although some "Jeopardy!" episodes Richards has already helmed will air as scheduled, questions still remain as to what the future could hold for the longtime show producer. DUBAI (Reuters) -The third chartered flight bringing civilians from Afghanistan to Qatar since U.S. forces withdrew last month landed on Friday with around 170 passengers on board, including U.S. and European citizens as well as Afghans, a Qatari official said. Foreign nationals on board include those from Belgium, Britain, Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy as well as the United States, the official said. The passengers were transported to Kabul airport in a Qatari convoy after the Gulf Arab state reached a safe-passage agreement with Afghanistan's new rulers, the Taliban, the official said. In Doha, the passengers will initially stay in a compound that is hosting Afghans and other evacuees. Qatar has emerged has a key interlocutor between the West and the Taliban. The Gulf state is a close U.S. ally, hosting the largest American military base in the Middle East, and has hosted a Taliban political office since 2013. (Reporting by Alexander CornwellEditing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Graff) Sep. 17The City Council will begin laying groundwork in its search for a new, full-time city manager to replace Jon Jennings, who is leaving Portland in November for a similar job in Clearwater, Florida. Councilors also met in executive session to discuss appointing an interim manager, but made no announcements afterward. Mayor Kate Snyder said she would assemble an ad hoc committee of councilors to draft a proposals request for an outside consultant to assist with the search and lay out a process for getting community input. "I'm confident we will all have that opportunity to shape what community engagement looks like, and what staff engagement looks like, and what the interview panels will look like," Snyder said. Councilors had been split over whether to begin a search for a permanent city manager with so much uncertainty hanging over the process. Much of that has been driven by the ongoing review of the city charter. Charter commissioners are considering whether to recommend demoting or eliminating the city manager post and strengthening the elected mayor position, and the council will get three new members in November, with Nicholas Mavodones, Belinda Ray and Spencer Thibodeau not seeking re-election. Several councilors have said the uncertainty over how the city manager's job might change could limit the applicant pool. But Thursday, councilors expressed unanimous support for conducting a search for a permanent replacement for Jennings without waiting for the Charter Commission to complete its work. "I think it makes sense to fill this position," said Ray. "If we're not happy with the candidate pool, we go out again." Several councilors noted the importance of getting community feedback during the search. "This is the most important decision we may make as the council," Councilor Mark Dion said. "I want to make it in collaboration with our constituents and other groups that have interactions with City Hall." Story continues The council's public workshop session followed an executive session to discuss the possible appointment of an interim manager. But after roughly 35 minutes, they emerged without making any announcement. After the meeting, Snyder declined to say what was discussed, including how many candidates were under consideration or whether a clear favorite had emerged. She said the council will likely appoint an interim in October so there is overlap with Jennings, whose last day is Nov. 1. Snyder said a public hearing will precede any council vote on hiring an interim manager. "We were not making decisions tonight," Snyder said. "I was seeking guidance from the council. This was for us to talk about our options. We will be happy to share the path forward once we have a path forward." Jennings, who was named Portland's manager in 2015, was expected to leave when his contract expires in July 2022. However, he applied for and was named the new city manager for Clearwater, Florida. The Clearwater City Council approved Jennings' contract Monday morning. Jennings' contract with Portland requires he give 90 days notice, but he has only given the council about two months, increasing the urgency to find a replacement. Portland recently hired Anne McGuire as assistant city manager, but she is new to the city, having previously worked in New York. McGuire, who has known Jennings since the 1990s when she was a special presidential assistant for Cabinet affairs under President Bill Clinton and Jennings was a White House fellow, started her new job on Aug. 30. The city manager reports to the full council and oversees a $268 million municipal budget, including $212 million in general funding spending, and more than 1,400 full time employees. By Liz Lee KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia's AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) has made "substantial progress" in months-long talks with creditors as it aims to convene meetings with them to vote on a restructuring scheme by the end of October, its chief executive said. Benyamin Ismail told Reuters in a telephone interview that negotiations with lessors, planemaker Airbus SE and service providers had progressed, but declined to share details. The airline, an affiliate of AirAsia Group, also hopes to complete talks with potential investors for its recapitalisation by the end of the year. "We plan to raise funding in December and get that completed as soon as possible," Benyamin said, declining to reveal details about the potential investors. Benyamin said talks with creditors were in the final stages and all had indicated they want to see the airline proceed with its restructuring. There were no objections to a proposal to move engine maker Rolls-Royce Group into the same classification as most other creditors, he added. The airline said in a stock exchange filing that "final negotiations are still ongoing, particularly with respect to commercial arrangements going forward". In a court document filed on Monday, AAX said negotiations were still afoot but "various letters of undertaking have been secured" from creditors. Many lessors have already struck other agreements with Southeast Asian airlines to take back planes early or reduce rates, at least temporarily, to help them survive the plunge in air travel caused by pandemic. "Drafts of the lock up agreements and term sheets were sent to the lessors on (May 18). The lessors are presently in the process of reviewing them," AAX said. The airline told the court it has received signed letters of undertaking from three large creditors to support and vote for the scheme, namely Honeywell International, Bridgestone Aircraft Tire Company and Sky High I Leasing Company. Story continues AAX proposed last October to restructure 64.15 billion ringgit ($15.43 billion) of debt, drawing objections from more than a dozen creditors, many of them lessors. Airbus, the airline's biggest creditor, filed an affidavit in December https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airasia-x-lawsuit-airbus-exclusive-idUSKBN28W0JK saying it stands to lose more than $5 billion worth of orders if the scheme goes through. It declined to comment on the restructuring process. This week, the court granted AAX an extension https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/court-grants-malaysias-airasia-x-extension-hold-creditors-meeting-by-march-2021-09-15 to hold its creditors meetings by March next year, when a restraining order https://www.reuters.com/article/airasia-x-restructuring-idCNL2N2O00AA preventing creditors from filing fresh lawsuits against the airline expires. Shukor Yusof, head of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics, said AAX's low-cost, long-haul model was no longer sustainable due to the pandemic. "Creditors, including lessors and Airbus, understandably don't want to see the airline fall as they stand to lose a lot. The decision to work with AirAsia X to restructure is to salvage whatever they can," he said. ($1=4.1570 ringgit) (Reporting by Liz LeeEditing by Lincoln Feast and Mark Potter) There was no physical evidence linking Ralph Blaine Smith to the armed robbery, which a police officer on the scene wasnt sure had even happened Ralph Blaine Smith was freed from an Ohio prison in July after serving 21 years for a crime that may never have occurred. On Wednesday, the Fairfield County prosecutors office dropped all charges rather than pursue a second trial. Smith, 46, spent 21 years of a 67-year sentence behind bars after being convicted of multiple counts of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and kidnapping, the Columbus Dispatch reports. He was accused of being one of two Black men involved in a home invasion robbery in February 2000. A couple and their children were home at the time. The suspects reportedly made off with a collection of rare comic books and around $10K in cash that was stored in a safe. Ralph Blaine Smith (Credit: GoFundMe) There was no physical evidence linking Smith to the crime. The prosecutions case was solely based on Smith being identified by the adult victims in a photo lineup. In June, Fairfield County Common Pleas Judge Richard E. Berens ruled that prosecutors at the time had evidence suggesting the robbery may not have happened at all. Per The Dispatch, a police officer at the scene believed that the story the alleged victims told wasnt credible but that evidence was withheld at Smiths trial. Smith was granted a new trial and was released from prison on bond on July 2. He was fitted with an ankle monitor and has since been living with his family in Columbus. On Wednesday, current Fairfield County Prosecutor Kyle Witt dismissed all charges in the case without prejudice, meaning the office can file them again in the future. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The chances of that happening are very, very unlikely, Witt said Wednesday. Twenty years have passed already We put that language in there because we cant predict the future, but I dont see (the refiling of charges) happening. Smith had his ankle monitor removed by a probation officer in response to the decision. Story continues There are no words to describe how happy I am, Smith said in a phone interview with The Dispatch.I finally got this nightmare over with. I got my life back. If we were to retry this case now, even if we got a conviction, I do not think we would be seeking a sentence in excess of time already served, Witt said. I dont think thats a prudent use of our taxpayer resources, the time and talents of our staff, to relitigate a case where hes already served a sentence of this length. A GoFundMe was launched last year to cover Smiths legal fees. On the page, Smith provided more details about how the case was mounted against him that would allow for questions about his guilt. Smith wrote, The prosecution also withheld video recording, audio recordings, 911 call, police reports and other documents that should have been turned over to my trial attorney Terry Sherman and I. This evidence would have proved I was innocent 20 years ago and that I should have never been arrested. Smith and his lawyers are considering suing for compensation, but because the charges were dismissed as opposed to a new trial proving his innocence, they may be restricted by state law in collecting any financial award. Witt makes clear that he did not dismiss the charges based on the belief that Smith is innocent. Ultimately, this case, then and now, was going to hinge on the testimony of the two people that were in the house that night, he said. And they have been steadfast all these years in saying that this happened and their ID was an accurate oneIm inclined to believe them. The items and cash were never recovered. Have you subscribed to theGrios Dear Culture podcast? Download our newest episodes now! TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today! The post Prosecutor dismisses charges after Ohio man serves 21 years in prison appeared first on TheGrio. Sep. 17SMYRNA On Thursday, Smyrna held two of three open houses where residents gave input on the ongoing design process to redesign the Jonquil City's downtown area. At Brawner Hall, residents perused renderings and maps of two proposed designs, both similar to a concept approved by the City Council last month. Attendees posted sticky notes with comments under "likes" and "dislikes" columns. They also placed stickers under photos of design features they liked and filled out cards with their suggestions. The third open house is next Tuesday, 4 to 7 p.m., in the Smyrna Community Center. The designs can be viewed and input can be submitted online at smyrnagreenspace.konveio.com. Smyrna's planned downtown dates to the early 1990s, when the city, led by then-Mayor Max Bacon, built a roundabout, community center, library and other buildings to anchor the area. Commercial development and the Smyrna Market Village followed soon after. Bacon's successor, Mayor Derek Norton, is leading the redesign, a concept for which was approved by the City Council in late June on a 5-2 vote. Norton said Thursday the final plan would likely be a hybrid of the two options presented at open houses. The redesign concept will do away with the roundabout and extend King Street up to Powder Springs Street. The roundabout area will be replaced with green space and some combination of seating, a plaza/stage area, shade structures and a water feature. Public art installations have been proposed, such as letters spelling out Smyrna without the letter Y. Visitors would pose to fill in the missing letter, what the city calls an "Instagrammable moment," though many sticky notes called the idea "derivative" or "tacky" at the open house. The concept also calls for a piece of city land by the community center bordered by Atlanta Street to the east and Village Green Circle to the south to be sold and developed with a StillFire Brewing brewery and more green space. Story continues The city has signed a nonbinding letter of intent with the brewery to sell the land for $600,000. Norton said the land is being appraised before a final price is decided. Thursday morning's open house lasted from 9 a.m. to noon. By 11:30 a.m., about 80 people had attended, per the sign-in sheet. In interviews, residents expressed a range of opinions. Some fully supported the project, others were opposed to it and some had more nuanced views. The final cost estimate is unknown, but Norton has said the roundabout replacement/greenspace would cost about $2.5 million. The concept also includes a 250-spot parking deck south of the Smyrna Police Department, estimated to cost about $4 million. A traffic study for the project is underway. The project would be funded through Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds, with all the contracting going through Croy Engineering. ReactionsKathy Omaits stood at the rear entrance of Brawner Hall with a sign asking citizens to visit the website of the Smart Smyrna group, which has laid out its concerns with the proposal on its website and Facebook page. Smart Smyrna opposes the scrapping of the roundabout and the (currently nonfunctioning) fountain. The group also is against the brewery, believing it would be better suited to another location, away from the community center and nearby Second Baptist Church. Omaits also took issue with the task force that Norton set up to shepherd the project through its final design phases, which includes three citizens appointed by the mayor, the five council members that voted for the design, but not the two who voted to table it and seek more input Charles Welch and Susan Wilkinson. "(Norton's) task force is comprised of people who agree with him," Omaits said. Norton defended his appointments. "They didn't support the plan," Norton said in an interview. "Why would I have people choosing details of a plan that they didn't support?" Welch said in an interview that he should have been included on the task force, since he has worked in the engineering industry for 40 years. Welch is also worried about cost. "With the list of tasks that are associated with this downtown development plan, $6.5 million is way under budget. And I don't feel like we can get it done for $6.5 million," Welch said. Mike McNabb, a former Smyrna councilman who attended Thursday morning's open house, recommended the council table the plan in June in order to collect more input. "I welcome the opportunity to refresh and upgrade the downtown. And I thank the council for taking the time to finally get public input like this. This was much needed before the first vote, which they didn't get," McNabb said. McNabb and his wife Karleen praised specific aspects of the plan, such as scrapping the roundabout, adding an interactive water feature and using removable bollards to close off streets during festivals. Karleen McNabb was worried about the loss of vegetation earlier plans indicated but said newer plans addressed that concern. Filling out a sticky note with his suggestions, Mike McNabb said he hoped the city genuinely listens to public opinion. "My hope is that this is a legitimate input, that they're going to take time to digest the public input, and then work with the designers to modify the best plans to what the public says," Mike McNabb said. "If this is a sham, then shame on them." Norton has repeatedly shot down criticism that the plan was made hastily or without public input. The concept for the redesign comes from a 2019 update to downtown Smyrna's master plan that incorporated input from hundreds of residents. "This isn't just pulled out of thin air. We've had a lot of due diligence, a lot of public input, we're getting more public input now, and then we'll move forward with a recommendation to council for a vote, probably later October, early November," Norton said. The mayor said the Smart Smyrna group was a small group of 20-30 people. He also said one of their leaders "mistakenly sent me and the council an email that was meant for her group, saying that she wanted all the council to go to hell and enjoy the trip there." Generational divide Allen Potter, a 79-year-old resident who has lived in Smyrna most of his life, called the entire project a "huge waste of taxpayer money." "I think that what they did 30-odd years ago when they designed downtown is great," Potter said "I think it still works. I have no idea why they think that this is needed." Potter added that "there's a lot of folks that are my age or near, born in the '40s, '50s and '60s, that are not for this. I don't know who's for it." The crowd at Thursday morning's open house skewed toward retirees. Vanya Foote, on the other end of the spectrum, supports the redesign plan. As a mother of young children, she believes her generation of residents wants a modernized downtown. "I've had some neighbors my demographic, a little younger, with very young kids and they've moved out of the area, because these are the kinds of things they are looking for," Foote said. The director of an Atlanta chamber orchestra, Foote has a background in arts and entertainment. "So, I love the dedication to a stage. You look like you could probably see it from anywhere, which is great. But that is incorporated into such a flexible space, it can be used for almost anything," Foote said. Foote liked aspects of both designs and said they offer "something for everybody." She approves of the brewery and parking deck (if it offers free parking). Bringing more art and entertainment into the area will help the community grow and increase economic activity, she said. "There has been this desire to really upgrade the downtown, do something to give back to the community, attract new people, keep people here, and help the businesses downtown too," Foote said. SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Friday a raft of constitutional reforms the government will send soon to Congress will not contain decriminalization of abortion, legalization of same-sex marriage or steps to permit euthanasia. The package of planned measures Bukele received this week from Vice President Felix Ulloa includes the extension and possible early termination of the presidential term and the creation of a new body to replace the electoral tribunal. "I have decided, to dispel ANY DOUBT, NOT TO PROPOSE ANY KIND OF REFORM TO ANY ITEMS RELATED TO the RIGHT TO LIFE (from the moment of conception), to marriage (keeping only the original design, A MAN AND A WOMAN) or to euthanasia," Bukele wrote on his Facebook account, capitalizing certain parts. The El Salvador president said he will study the proposals, which were drawn up at Bukele's request by Ulloa with a team of lawyers last year to overhaul human rights legislation, the political and economic system, and the state's judicial structure. El Salvador has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the Americas. The president's announcement on same-sex marriage and abortion was swiftly flagged by his critics. "Just in case any dupe still thought Bukele was a modern leader," Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, said on Twitter, highlighting the 40-year-old president's words. Bukele made no mention of the plan to extend the presidential term from five to six years, nor of other contentious measures, nor did he say when they would be sent to Congress, which his party and its allies control. (Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Editing by Mark Porter) Oliver Quarte was paralysed and needed emergency surgery after he sliced the tendons in his hand while skimming stones at the seaside. (SWNS) A schoolboy has been left with long-term injuries after he sliced the tendons in his hand while skimming stones at the seaside. Oliver Quarte was rushed for emergency surgery after the freak accident on Hastings beach during the summer holidays. The nine-year-old was on a family day out and skimming stones when one hit a concrete pier and smashed into shards. One shard bounced back and sliced into Oliver's hand, completely severing the tendons to his middle finger and severely damaging several others. Oliver, 9, will need intensive physiotherapy to regain use of his hand (SWNS) Oliver Quarte was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery (SWNS) With blood pouring from his left hand, the schoolboy was rushed to hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. It was then that doctors discovered his hand was partially paralysed. Parents Daniel and Bianca Quarte, both 43, were watching Oliver from a nearby restaurant when they heard him scream. Software developer Daniel said: "As soon as we heard Oliver's scream, we felt terror and my heart stopped when my wife mouthed 'hospital' after seeing his hand. "When the paramedics mentioned surgery and said the fingers weren't moving, I realised how serious it was. "I realised this was a potentially life-changing injury." Two weeks after the surgery, Oliver is now regaining a little movement in his hand, but his father said full recovery could take months of intensive physiotherapy. Oliver's parents have warned of the dangers of skimming stones. (SWNS) "We want to warn other parents - we aren't saying don't skim stones but be aware of the dangers," said Quarte, who went on to describe how severely his son was injured. "We struggled to stem the bleeding and people were gathering along the promenade to offer assistance," he said. Some 100% of the tendon controlling Oliver's middle finger had been cut, as well as up to 30% damage to the tendons either side. After spending the night at Queen Victoria Hospital, West Sussex, specialist surgeons made a four-inch long cut to repair the damage. Read More From Yahoo News UK: Eco protesters disrupting M25 for third time 'were released by police on previous day' Story continues 'Beaning': Police issue warning over new TikTok craze Jacob Rees Mogg faces backlash over 'terrifying' face mask comments He had dozens of stitches before being sent home with a heavily bandaged arm - and a set of strict instructions from physiotherapists. Oliver now has to do a set of hand exercises three times a day for 12 weeks if he ever hopes to regain movement in his fingers. His family has been warned there is no guarantee of success. Daniel said: "There seems to be a bit of improvement but we are not out of the woods yet. Oliver Quarte with a friend on the beach near Hastings before the incident. (SWNS) "There is the worry of long-term damage, both physically and mentally. "We have to wash the wound every day but Oliver can't bear to look at it - there's clearly some emotional trauma. "We don't know for sure how much movement Oliver will get back but we have to hope for the best." He added: "We aren't saying don't go to the beach, or even don't skim stones - but just be careful. "We have since found out a friend of ours had a similar incident, so it might not be as unlikely as it sounds. "People should at least be aware of the risk." Watch: How the world could be better after COVID Rivers, lakes and wetlands cover just 1% of the Earths surface but are home to nearly 10% of all species, including fish, mammals, birds, insects and crustaceans. But these rich, diverse ecosystems are in free fall. Worldwide, species are declining faster now than at any other time in human history, and fresh waters are losing more species than land or ocean ecosystems. Today about 1 in 4 freshwater creatures face extinction. Wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. Across the globe, water quality is plummeting, polluted by plastic, sewage, mining sludge, industrial and agricultural chemicals and much more. Its challenging to study how these stresses are affecting aquatic life. There are many diverse threats, and river networks cover broad geographic regions. Often they run through remote, nearly inaccessible areas. Current techniques for monitoring freshwater species are labor-intensive and costly. In our work as researchers in ecology, we are testing a new method that can vastly expand biomonitoring: using environmental DNA, or eDNA, in rivers to catalog and count species. Federal and local agencies need this data to restore water quality and save dwindling species from extinction. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Traditional methods are slow and expensive With traditional biomonitoring methods, scientists count individual species and their abundance at just a few sites. For example, one recent study of mountaintop mining impacts on fish in West Virginia sampled just four sites with a team of four researchers. Collecting and identifying aquatic organisms requires highly skilled ecologists and taxonomists with expertise in a wide variety of freshwater species. For each sample of fish or invertebrates collected in the field, it takes from hours to weeks to identify all of the species. Only wealthy nations can afford this costly process. Conserving threatened and endangered species and keeping river ecosystems healthy requires monitoring broad areas over time. Sensitive aquatic insects and fish species are the freshwater equivalent of the proverbial canary in a coal mine: If these species are absent, thats a strong indicator of water quality problems. The cause may be mining, agriculture, urbanization or other sources, as well as dams that block animals downstream movements. Story continues Free-floating genetic evidence Innovations in genetic technology have created a powerful, affordable new tool that we are now testing. The process involves extracting eDNA from genetic material floating in the water skin, scales, feces and single-celled organisms, such as bacteria. By analyzing this genetic information, we can detect a wide range of species. We started considering using eDNA for our research in 2018, after several studies demonstrated its power to monitor single species of interest or groups of organisms in rivers and oceans. Collecting eDNA is easy: One 4-ounce water sample can capture remnant DNA from thousands of aquatic species. Another benefit is that it doesnt require killing wildlife for identification. In the lab, we analyze the DNA from different taxonomic groups one by one: bacteria, algae, fish and macroinvertebrates organisms that lack backbones and are large enough to see, such as snails, worms and beetles. Many researchers study just one group, but we assess all of them at the same time. We then match our DNA sequences with freshwater species that are already catalogued in existing databases. In this way, we can chart the distribution and abundance of these organisms within and across rivers. This process requires just a cheap filter, a syringe and vials, and anyone can do it. Commercial eDNA companies charge less than $200 to extract and sequence a sample. Graphic showing how scientists analyze eDNA to detect different species. Altered rivers Using this method, we extensively surveyed 93 rivers in West Virginia looking at the entire tree of life, from the tiniest bacteria to fish in two days with a four-person team. The Appalachian rivers that we study teem with life. These are some of the worlds most biologically diverse temperate freshwater ecosystems, home to many fish species, as well as salamanders, crayfish, mussels and aquatic insects. Many are found nowhere else. We tallied more than 10,000 different species in those 93 waterways. The area where we worked is an intensive coal mining region, which heavily affects waterways. Liquids draining from mines are acidic, but in this region they react with limestone rock, so the net effect is to make local streams alkaline. Mine drainage also increases streams salinity and concentrations of sulfate and other contaminants. Our research revealed that mined watersheds held 40% fewer species than areas without mining operations, and the organisms we detected were less abundant than in unaffected rivers. Assessing river health We believe this new approach represents a revolution for biomonitoring, expanding our ability to quantify and study freshwater life. Its also an important new conservation tool, allowing scientists to track changes in populations of endangered or invasive species. Researchers also can use eDNA to monitor biodiversity or discover new species in oceans or soils. This open-science method makes all DNA data widely available, with nearly all sequences placed in public repositories. Moving forward, we expect that it will aid many types of research, as well as state and local monitoring and conservation programs. Investments in collecting eDNA and identifying organisms and analyzing their genetic signatures will continue to make it a more effective tool. [Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.] Efforts are underway to better target various individual species, focusing on those that are endangered, invasives that damage ecosystems and sensitive species that serve as indicators of river health. Scientists are freezing eDNA samples at -112 degrees F (-80 C) in expectation that technological advances may yield more information in the future. Traditional monitoring approaches remain valuable, but eDNA adds an important new tool to the toolkit. Together, these approaches can begin to answer many questions about food webs, the conservation status of species, reproduction rates, species interactions, organisms health, disease and more. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Marie Simonin, Inrae and Emily S. Bernhardt, Duke University. Read more: Marie Simonin is a research scientist at INRAE, the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment. Emily S. Bernhardt has received funding to research the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining from the Foundation for the Carolinas and the National Science Foundation, which supported the work described in this article. She currently is engaged as an expert on these impacts by the US Department of Justice. The mother suffered organ failure due to electrolyte depletion, authorities say (Twitter/ INEA) A shipwrecked woman in Venezuela saved the lives of her children by breastfeeding them for four days before succumbing to dehydration. Eight people, including Mariely Chacon and her family, were on board the boat Thor on a recreational trip from Higuerote to La Tortuga island in Venezuelas Miranda state on 3 September, Newsweek reported. Another boat was also travelling on that route with them. Four people, including Ms Chacons husband, have not yet been found, according to El Diario. Minutes after they left for the uninhabited island of La Tortuga, an electrical fault was reported in one of the boats. While the boat set out again after repairing the fault, it is believed to have been hit by a large wave, which split the vessel in two and left its passengers floating 70 miles out at sea. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. In a desperate bid to keep her six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter alive, Ms Chacon breastfed her children. To keep herself alive, she drank her own urine, according to officials. But Ms Chacon ultimately died due to severe heat stroke and dehydration. Four days after the shipwreck, the children were found clinging to their dead mothers body in a small lifeboat. Authorities took them to a hospital in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, where they are being treated for first-degree burns, dehydration and post-traumatic stress. Ms Chacon suffered organ failure due to electrolyte depletion triggered by dehydration as she resorted to breastfeeding, La Republica reported, citing a forensic medicine source. Veronica Martinez, the childrens 25-year-old nanny, also survived the shipwreck. She was found in an empty icebox. She has now been hospitalised after suffering from a high level of dehydration, lethargy and post-traumatic stress disorder. According to El Diario, the woman had a rapid heartbeat, low blood pressure, fever, delirium and dry wrinkled skin from sunburn. She had to be sedated, the report added. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Authorities are yet to find the childrens father Remis Clambor and three others who were on the boat Vianney Dos Santos, Jose Marcano, Alejandro Osorio. Story continues This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Ms Chacons family members said the boat trip was a simple family outing to entertain the children, according to La Republica. Ms Chacons funeral was held on 11 September in Venezuela and broadcast on YouTube, where several people paid tribute to the woman for her sacrifice. Read More Brian Laundries sister insists Petito is like part of her family Protests outside Laundries home as police say no criminality - follow updates live Thousands of migrants camp under Texas bridge awaiting Border Patrol action Somalia's president accused Djibouti on Friday of unlawfully detaining his national security adviser, a key player in the spiralling feud in Mogadishu's top leadership that threatens to hurl the country into fresh crisis. The row escalated Thursday when President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, popularly known as Farmajo, suspended the executive powers of Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble -- a move swiftly rejected by the premier as "unlawful". The pair have clashed over high-profile appointments this month, including that of national security adviser Fahad Yasin, with their spat now threatening to imperil repeatedly delayed elections and distract from efforts to confront a long-running Islamist insurgency. The UN mission in Somalia (UNSOM) late Friday issued a statement warning the crisis could "undermine Somalia's stability and derail the electoral process". UNSOM also urged the president and prime minister "to resolve their differences immediately, avoid further unhelpful exchanges of public statements and personnel announcements, refrain from any action that could destabilise the security situation, and re-focus on concluding the overdue elections without further delay. A close friend of the president, Yasin was caught in the crosshairs of a new controversy Friday when Farmajo's office accused Djibouti of unlawfully detaining him and other Somali officials at the country's main international airport. "We ask the Djiboutian government to ease... their trip, while it will be fully responsible for any threat to their personal safety. We are very much disappointed with the blunt intervention," a statement released by Farmajo's office said. But Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf denied the allegations, tweeting: "There are fake news released in social media trying to create confusion and drag Djibouti into Somalia('s) internal challenges and crisis." Story continues He said a Turkish Airlines flight to Mogadishu did not take off from Djibouti due to what the company described as "technical problems", adding that one of the pilots was not authorised to land in the Somali capital, which meant all passengers would have to return to Istanbul. He however did not mention Yasin, who was due to attend a national security conference in Mogadishu on Saturday, and it was unclear whether he was on that flight. Turkish Airlines did not comment when contacted by AFP. "We will continue to stand by our brothers and sisters in Somalia but never interfere in their internal affairs," Youssouf said. - Risk of 'instability' - The cross-border row erupted hours after the leaders of Somalia's five semi-autonomous states urged Roble and Farmajo to resolve their differences through mediation. "The current conflict... does not serve the public interest, leads to insecurity and political instability," the leaders of Jubaland, Southwest, Galmudug, Hirshabele and Puntland said in a statement. The pair's bitter power struggle became public last week when Roble sacked Yasin, then Somalia's spy chief, over his handling of a high-profile probe into the disappearance of a young intelligence agent. Ikran Tahlil's family has accused her employers at the National Intelligence and Security Agency of murdering her. Farmajo overruled the premier, appointing Yasin as his national security adviser, and on Thursday announced that he was withdrawing Roble's powers, particularly the ability to hire and fire officials, until the election process was completed. He accused Roble of violating the constitution and taking "reckless decisions which can pave the way for political and security instability". Roble accused Farmajo of seeking to sabotage the government's functioning. - Election impasse - Somalia has been struggling to hold elections for months. Farmajo's four-year mandate expired in February, but was extended by parliament in April, triggering deadly gun battles in Mogadishu, with some rivals viewing it as a flagrant power grab. Roble cobbled together a new timetable for elections, but the process has fallen behind, and on Thursday he accused Farmajo of trying to derail it. Elections in Somalia follow a complex indirect model, whereby state legislatures and clan delegates pick lawmakers for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president. The next phase is scheduled for October 1-November 25 with elections for the lower house of parliament, but voting has yet to take place in some states for the upper house as previously scheduled. Analysts say the impasse has distracted from Somalia's larger problems, notably the Al-Shabaab insurgency. The Al-Qaeda allies were driven out of Mogadishu a decade ago but retain control of swathes of countryside and continue to stage deadly attacks in the capital and elsewhere. "Somalia's factions are playing with fire. All sides need to de-escalate," the International Crisis Group said in a report issued earlier this week. str-amu/txw/mbx/cw/har NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) A tense political dispute between Somalia's president and prime minister threatened to broaden into a regional crisis on Friday after the president accused neighboring Djibouti of unlawfully detaining his former national intelligence chief. Djiboutis foreign minister, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, quickly denied Somalias statement in a social media post, calling the claim fake news that tried to create confusion and drag Djibouti into Somalia internal challenges. He asserted that a Turkish Airlines flight to Somalia's capital with former intelligence chief Fahad Yasin aboard didnt take off from Djibouti because a pilot didnt have special authorization to land in Mogadishu, and that all passengers would return to Istanbul for another flight. Yasin is a close ally of Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed who has been accused by critics of trying to extend his stay in power after national elections set for last February were delayed. Tensions between the president and Prime Minister Hussein Roble, tasked with leading election preparations, have risen sharply in recent days over the high-profile case of a missing intelligence agent, Ikran Tahlil Farah. The prime minister suspended Yasin after the intelligence agency asserted that the al-Shabab extremist group had killed the agent - an allegation that al-Shabab denied. On Thursday, Somalias president suspended the prime ministers powers to hire and fire, leading to a new outcry. The international community has urged calm amid fears of a return to open gunfire in the streets of Mogadishu over heightened political tensions. ST. PETERSBURG Mayor Rick Kriseman said he will not require vaccines for current city employees but will require all new hires to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In a video statement shared with employees Friday, Kriseman said he spent weeks deliberating on what to do about staff vaccinations and decided against a blanket vaccine mandate. Im not going to fight my own employees because we need to fight the virus together, he said. Kriseman pleaded with workers to get vaccinated, saying that too many on our team still remain unvaccinated which is perpetuating the virus and keeping it alive. He said the virus is killing employees and recent retirees. He said the city will offer two hours of paid leave for each vaccination a worker gets during work hours and will provide additional leave if employees have to miss work because of side effects from receiving the shots. In addition, he said, vaccinated workers who do contract COVID-19 or are required to quarantine will be eligible for up to 80 hours of emergency paid sick leave. Unvaccinated workers will not be eligible for that additional paid leave. In the video, Kriseman said vaccine mandates needed to have consequences. But he said he found punitive measures, such as unpaid leave or termination, problematic. A mayor forcing a genuinely frightened person to get the vaccine or get fired isnt going to make us a better organization, Kriseman said. Both the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County have instituted plans to require employees who are not vaccinated (and who do not show proof of antibodies) to submit to weekly testing and wear masks at work. Hillsborough County is also offering $500 and two extra days off to employees who submit proof of coronavirus vaccination, and is requiring all new hires to be vaccinated. Gov. Ron DeSantis this week threatened local governments with $5,000 fines for each employee who is required to get COVID-19 vaccines. Gainesville, Orange County and Leon County have each passed requirements that employees be vaccinated or be fired, with exemptions for religious or medical reasons. Story continues Its not clear whether DeSantis threatened fines would apply to any policies enacted so far in the Tampa Bay area. Pasco County is using federal American Rescue Plan funding to offer $500 to any fully vaccinated employee. Pinellas County is considering using federal money as well to offer $750 to each employee vaccinated by the end of the year. Kevin King, St. Petersburgs chief of policy and public engagement, said last week that about 1,200 employees have disclosed that they are vaccinated so far. The city has roughly 3,500 employees, including seasonal and part-time workers. 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In the months before the fall of Kabul, the White House insisted that the United States would continue its diplomatic work in Afghanistan after most troops departed. Look, I know there are many who will loudly insist that diplomacy cannot succeed without a robust U.S. military presence to stand as leverage, President Joe Biden said in April. We have to change that thinking. The Taliban disagreed. Countless mistakes led to the catastrophe at Kabul airport, but most important was a failure to recognize a basic truth of international relations. The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict, by Elbridge A. Colby. Yale University Press, 356 pp., $32.50. Physical force, especially the ability to kill, is the ultimate form of coercive leverage. While there are other sources of influence, such as wealth, persuasiveness, and charisma, they are all dominated by the power to kill, Elbridge A. Colby writes in The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict. When the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan rushed to strip themselves of their ability to kill or to help Afghan government forces kill, terrorists took advantage. High-minded thoughts about diplomacy meant nothing. As Colby notes, Hard power always has the capacity to dominate soft power. How and where to use that hard power is a difficult question. Working under then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Colby was one of the architects of the 2018 national defense strategy. The document argued that the reemergence of long-term, strategic competition with China and Russia should be the Pentagons leading concern. Yet Mattis ultimately resigned over President Donald Trumps desire to draw down U.S. forces from Afghanistan and Syria. Colby, a critic of the withdrawals execution, nevertheless supports the decision to leave. His book, a thoughtful and rigorous conceptual structure, rather than a set of specific programmatic or operational recommendations, makes an extended case for curtailing other commitments to focus on China. Story continues Colby argues that the American missions in Afghanistan and Iraq are a direct and indirect drain on resources. He asserts that if the United States were to withdraw from Afghanistan, that decision would almost certainly be clearly distinguishable to Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, or India as to how the United States would treat them vis-a-vis China. This thesis will be tested in the coming months, though the early returns arent encouraging. The author still considers the military counterterrorism enterprise and an effective nuclear deterrent, which together make up some 20% of the total defense budget, core missions of the U.S. armed forces. He also acknowledges Russia as a real threat to Europes stability, though he believes Moscow ultimately is incapable of mounting a serious bid for regional hegemony. But the Chinese threat stands alone, and here, Colbys trenchant analysis overshadows any quibbles one might have with his calculation of American interests in Eastern Europe or the greater Islamic world. The books fundamental strength, and perhaps an explanation for why its acknowledgments run from Tucker Carlson to Obama Pentagon officials, is Colbys willingness to test all sides of complicated debates. He identifies as a conservative realist and takes seriously the idea that the costs of resisting Chinese hegemony are likely to be high, while the gains invariably will appear speculative. But in the most important region of the world, the risks of inaction are simply too much to bear. Chinas military spending has risen rapidly over the past decade, and yet, as Colby warns, its defense expenditures are considerably lower than they might be. Chinese Communist Party leaders have vowed to annex Taiwan for years and are building up the Peoples Liberation Army to achieve that goal and perhaps more. It may be an abstract issue now, but Americans would notice if a brutal, mercantilist regime took charge of the most important economic zone in the world. Colby advocates a denial defense run through a U.S.-led coalition. China, the aspirant, is the one that requires dominance or at least a very high standard of local military advantage, he writes. The United States and other defending states do not; they merely need to deny China the degree of advantage it needs to consummate its invasion. Think of Britain in 1940: The Germans sought to carry out an amphibious landing and end the war. The British had a more modest goal of preventing an invasion. This sort of strategy may sound unambitious, but the point is only that this is the bar for success more would be better, but the threshold for defenders is relatively low. Meeting this threshold requires a credible but relatively informal anti-hegemonic coalition. Colby thinks such a group should contain Quad members Japan, Australia, and India, democratic nations with capable militaries that are clearly interested in arresting Chinese hegemony. The U.S. would need to keep its quasi-commitment to Taiwan and existing alliances with South Korea, the Pacific Island states, and the Philippines. Several Southeast Asian nations particularly Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar merit consideration as well. Outside the Pacific, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and some major European powers could backfill in handling security threats secondary but still important to a war in Asia. Colby has said his aspiration is to convince a broad swath of the public to care about the fate of Taiwan and other friendly Asian nations. But this is not the kind of text my father, a retired engineer interested in current affairs, would have the patience to finish. The books jargon-heavy prose is a frequent reminder that it came from an academic press: The prospects for anti-hegemonic coalitions in the worlds key regions should lead the United States to focus on acting as an external cornerstone balancer in Asia to ensure the formation and maintenance of a coalition against any Chinese bid for regional predominance. He may not have a bestseller on his hands, but Colby has produced something even more valuable: required reading for lawmakers, national security hands, and 2024 presidential hopefuls. The Strategy of Denial is the product of an ambitious thinker, and hes made a persuasive case for himself to lead the Pentagon. Adam ONeal is a Europe-based writer for the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: Books, Book Reviews, Foreign Policy, Strategy, China, National Security Original Author: Adam O'Neal Original Location: How to stop worrying and prevent Chinese hegemony TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's government called on the European Union to quickly begin trade talks after the bloc pledged to seek a trade deal with the tech-heavyweight island, something Taipei has long angled for. The EU included Taiwan on its list of trade partners for a potential bilateral investment agreement in 2015, the year before President Tsai Ing-wen first became Taiwan's president, but has not held talks with Taiwan on the issue since then. Responding to the EU's newly announced strategy to boost its presence in the Indo-Pacific, including seeking a trade deal with Taiwan, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said on Friday talks should start soon. The European Parliament has already given its backing to a EU trade deal with Taiwan. "We call on the European Union to initiate the pre-negotiation work of impact assessment, public consultation and scope definition for a Bilateral Investment Agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible in accordance with the resolutions of the European Parliament," it said. "As a like-minded partner of the EU's with core values such as democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law, Taiwan will continue to strengthen cooperation in the supply chain reorganisation of semiconductors and other related strategic industries, digital economy, green energy, and post-epidemic economic recovery." EU member states and the EU itself have no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan due to objections from China, which considers the island one of its provinces with no right to the trappings of statehood, so any investment deal could be tricky politically for the EU. But the EU's relations with China have worsened. In May, the European Parliament halted ratification of a new investment pact with China until Beijing lifts sanctions on EU politicians, deepening a dispute in Sino-European relations and denying EU companies greater access to the world's second-largest economy. The EU has also been looking to boost cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductors, as a chip shortage roils supply chains and shuts some auto production lines, including in Europe. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa) A 15-year-old boy is accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at Olympic High School on Monday afternoon, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said. The teens knew each other, police said in a statement to the Observer on Friday. The suspect is charged with attempted second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and sexual battery. Officials at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said they are aware of the sexual assault allegation at the school on Sandy Porter Road, the district said in a statement to WSOC-TV. We have been in contact with CMPD and will continue to provide any support needed, the CMS statement read. CMS did not immediately respond to an Observer request for comment. The allegation at Olympic comes about a month after CMS said it would strengthen anti-harassment training both for staff and the student body, and create a task force to review how student reports of sexual misconduct are handled, the Observer previously reported. CMS to enhance Title IX training for students, staff following Myers Park complaints Former students at Myers Park High School have said school administrators and a police officer mishandled their reports of being raped, leading to two Title IX lawsuits and other complaints against CMS, the Observer previously reported. The two women reported being sexually assaulted in the woods adjacent to Myers Park High School in 2014 and 2015. Internet Video Archive Flynn: Son of Crimson is a handcrafted 2D action platformer that will take you on a journey of discovery and redemption. In the game, players will join Flynn in his beloved home of Rosantica a beautiful island that was once ravaged by war and an evil presence now banished back to The Scourge. The magical barrier between Rosantica and The Scourge has started to crack, allowing dangerous creatures to slowly seep back in to try and take over the island. Accompanied by his mythical protector Dex, Some Afghan families housed at Fort McCoy are celebrating new lives after three babies were born at hospitals near the military base. All three babies were born in recent days, said Cheryl Phillips, director of public affairs for Task Force McCoy. All the infants were delivered at hospitals because the base does not operate its own hospital. "From all indications, the babies and mothers are doing well," she said. "We appreciate the great support we have received from the local health care community in assisting our Afghan guests, when requested." Wisconsin's Fort McCoy is housing more than 12,000 Afghan evacuees who fled in the days following the collapse of the government in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban. The military base is one of eight installations currently housing evacuees as they work through the immigration process. After the immigration process is complete, the evacuees will then be permanently settled in communities across the U.S. About 400 people are expected to settle in Wisconsin. More: Here's how to donate or volunteer to help Afghan refugees at Wisconsin's Fort McCoy More: Gwen Moore, Ilhan Omar request investigation into any mistreatment of Afghans at Fort McCoy Most of those housed at the military base are family units. They're being housed in barracks typically used to house military members during training. Concerns have been raised about the conditions within the base in recent days, though, with reports of issues within the supply chain for food and a lack of adequate health care for evacuees. Officials have said they are working to correct the issues. Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Three babies born to Afghan refugees at hospitals near Fort McCoy (Independent) The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, has said that the calls he made to his counterpart in China during the last months of the Trump presidency were perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of his job. Gen Milley made his first public comments about the calls on Friday. In October and January, Gen Milley spoke to the head of the Chinese army to reassure him that the US was not about to attack China, and said he would give the Chinese general a warning if any military action was about to be taken. More follows... Associated Press A sheriff said no charges will be filed against a South Carolina father whose 20-month-old boys died from heat after he forgot to drop them off at daycare and left them in his vehicle because he was under intense pressure at work. Watching investigators interview the father was one of the most heartbreaking things Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he has seen in his 46 years in law enforcement. Brycen and Brayden McDaniel died from exposure to the heat as temperatures inside the SUV reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) on a muggy late summer day, Richland County Coroner Nadia Rutherford said. WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States plans to buy hundreds of millions of additional doses of the Pfizer Inc COVID-19 vaccine to donate around the world, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing two unidentified people familiar with the deal. The purchase was to be announced early next week to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, the sources said on condition of anonymity. President Joe Biden has stressed the importance of a global vaccination campaign as a way to defeat the virus and the United States has planned a virtual COVID-19 summit on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting. The United States is pushing global leaders to endorse its targets for ending the COVID-19 pandemic, including ensuring 70% of the world's population is vaccinated by the 2022, according to a draft U.S. document viewed by Reuters. Details of the deal were not final, the Post reported. Comment from the White House and Pfizer were not immediately available. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu;Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Steel Corp. will spend about $3 billion to build a new mill, the latest sign that steelmakers are growing more comfortable that higher prices will last. The so-called mini-mill will combine two electric arc furnaces, which primarily use steel scrap and are far more energy-efficient than traditional integrated plants that are fed by coal. The company expects to begin construction in the first half of 2022 and start producing in 2024. U.S. Steels announcement comes as domestic futures prices have more than tripled in the past year. While this has produced a windfall for domestic suppliers, its driving up the cost of everything from automobiles to wind turbines to kitchen appliances as the world recovers from the pandemic. The company also estimated that it would report record earnings for the third quarter on the back of the strong prices, which will allow it to reduce debt. The benefits of higher prices are being felt across the industry. Earlier Thursday, Nucor Inc., the largest U.S. steelmaker, said it expects record earnings through the end of the year, and Steel Dynamics Inc. on Wednesday forecast fourth-quarter earnings to be stronger than its previous guidance. U.S. Steel characterized the planned mill, expected to produce 3 million tons of flat-rolled steel products, as part of the efforts to achieve its 2030 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 20%, according to a statement. The board has authorized an exploratory site selection process for the location of the mini-mill, according to the statement. Potential locations include Alabama and Arkansas, where U.S. Steel has existing EAF operations as well as greenfield sites. (Corrects lcoations of U.S. Steels EAF operations in last paragraph.) 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. Watch: Tory minister warns of 'full lockdown' if COVID variant evades vaccines A vaccine-evading coronavirus variant could force England into "another full lockdown", a senior minister has warned. Environment minister George Eustice admitted that the government has considered the option as a last resort, despite Boris Johnson insisting it is not what he wants to do this winter. Earlier this week the prime minister announced his plans for controlling COVID-19 over the winter months. He also revealed the government had a Plan B - with mandatory masks and vaccine passports - should a new variant emerge or the NHS show signs of becoming overwhelmed. Johnson did not mention or acknowledge the existence of a Plan C - or a full lockdown - to get cases further under control if Plan B does not prove stringent enough. However, on Friday, Eustice raised the prospect while discussing new, more relaxed rules on foreign travel. Boris Johnson unveiled his 'winter plan' for tackling COVID on Tuesday, but made no mention of a Plan C. (Getty Images) He said: "Arguably the biggest threat to the travel industry is that we do get another variant that manages to get around the vaccine, that the vaccine cant deal with, then were into another full lockdown - and thats not what we want. "Thats why weve taken this cautiously, step by step, because we want each step we take to be irreversible." Also Friday, Public Health England said that some 12,407 people had been admitted to hospital in England in the week up to 12 September who were either confirmed or likely to have the Delta variant of COVID-19. Of this number, 6,230 were under the age of 50 and 6,167 were aged 50 or over. Of the 6,230 under 50, 4,517 (73%) were unvaccinated, 848 (14%) had received one dose of vaccine and 721 (12%) had received both doses. Cabinet minister George Eustice appeared to let slip that there is a possibility of England returning to a full lockdown should a new coronavirus variant emerge. (Getty Images) Of the 6,167 aged 50 or over, 1,786 (29%) were unvaccinated, 435 (7%) had received one dose of vaccine and 3,913 (63%) had received both doses The government's main strategy for controlling the spread of coronavirus is a vaccine booster campaign to tackle waning immunity. Story continues Heath secretary Sajid Javid referred on Tuesday to evidence that the protection given by vaccines reduces over time, particularly older people who are at greater risk. Boosters will be offered to priority groups including over-50s, people with underlying health conditions and health and social care workers. The prime minister described this as building even higher walls of vaccine protection in this country. The booster campaign is just one of a stream of measures being rolled out as part of the government's so-called Plan A. However, Johnson warned on Tuesday that a Plan B may be necessary if the COVID situation deteriorates. COVID is still out there, he said. The disease sadly still remains a risk, but Im confident we can keep going with our plan and turn jabs, jabs, jabs into jobs, jobs, jobs. While the prime minister did not outline exactly what would trigger a move to Plan B, Whitty said a decision would depend on absolute numbers of patients going into hospital; rates of infection, and the overall state of the NHS. No mention was made of a Plan C. Watch: NHS in England begins delivering booster jabs A United Airlines plane is parked at Boston Logan International Airport in this file photo from 2019. United Airlines temporarily halted all of its flights across the U.S. and Canada early Friday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. "This morning we experienced technical system issues that impacted our operations and have since been resolved," United Airlines said in a statement to USA TODAY. "All systems are now working normally and we are working diligently to get customers to their destinations." The ground stop tied to "computer issues" lasted from 6:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. EST, according to the FAA. Only 1% of United flights were delayed as of 8:30 a.m. EST, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks global air traffic in real time. No flights were reported as cancelled. Customers should check directly with the airline for the latest information on upcoming flights. Southwest website woes: Southwest Airlines just started selling tickets for 2022 travel and its website went down The 'perfect flight': British Airways flies first carbon-neutral passenger flight using recycled cooking oil This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: United Airlines lifts temporary groundstop on all US, Canada flights TORONTO (AP) The man who could oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power advertised himself a year ago as a true-blue conservative. He became Conservative Party leader with a pledge to take back Canada - and almost immediately started working to modernize the party by pushing it toward the political center. Erin O'Toole, a military veteran and a member of Parliament for nine years, has only quickened his pace while campaigning for Canada's snap federal election. Despite criticism that the former lawyer would say and do anything to get elected, polls show OTooles Conservatives could defeat Trudeaus Liberal Party on Monday. O'Toole's strategy, which has included disavowing positions held dear by his party's base on issues such as climate change, guns and balanced budgets, is designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbor. Whether moderate Canadians believe OToole is the progressive conservative he claims and whether it has alienated conservatives have become central questions of the election campaign. He has distanced himself from being Conservative, said Jenni Byrne, who served as campaign manager and deputy chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He distanced himself not just from the Harper years but from the leadership campaign that he ran less than two years ago. Byrne calls it a gamble and a mistake. There seems to be a lack enthusiasm everywhere, Byrne said. Hes basically mirroring Liberal policies instead of past conservatives policies. There is no evidence that that has actually worked and gotten Conservatives elected. And theres no evidence that it has been helping Erin. John Baird, a former Conservative foreign minister, said he didn't want to opine on whether he thinks OToole is taking the party in the right direction. But Baird said O'Toole is the opposite of Trudeau, who has made the cover of Rolling Stone and been featured in Vogue magazine. Story continues Hes not the sizzle, hes the steak, Baird said of the Conservative Party chief. A Conservative win would represent a rebuke of Trudeau, 49, who called the election despite the pandemic in hopes of shoring up his minority government but now is at risk of losing office to the head of the opposition, a politician with a fraction of the name recognition. Trudeau said O'Toole can't be trusted. OToole tells Conservative friends what hes really going to do and pretending to Canadians something completely different, Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Montreal on Thursday. Whether its been on guns, on the environment or whether its been on vaccines, Mr. OToole has been misleading Canadians, not leading. OToole calls himself a Conservative leader with a new style and says he rejects the politics of celebrity and division. He describes his views as pro-abortion rights and pro-LGBTQ rights. He told the crowd at a Quebec campaign event: Youve been let down by all parties of all stripes, mine included, at times." From the first day of my leadership, my priority has been to a build a Conservative movement where every Canadian can feel at home: inclusive, diverse, forward-looking, progressive, worker-friendly," O'Toole said Wednesday. "Were not your dads Conservative Party anymore. Thats dramatically different language from what O'Toole used during his bid to become Conservative Party leader last year. OToole won the post with the support of social conservatives and gun enthusiasts, and by disparaging a centrist opponents Conservative credentials. Since then, many of his actions more closely resemble those of the leadership candidate he beat than of a right-wing standard-bearer. For example, he reversed the partys position on guns at the beginning of the month, contradicting the Conservative platform he put out in August by pledging to maintain Trudeaus list of prohibited firearms. OToole also now favors a carbon tax to fight climate change, a policy of Trudeaus which his party vehemently opposed for years and OToole had promised to overturn. He also tempered his support for allowing health care workers to exercise so-called conscience rights by refusing to participate in abortions, assisted suicide or other procedures on moral or religious grounds. Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said an O'Toole victory would give moderate Republicans in the United States evidence to argue that a more centrist, big tent party can win elections. "This is an indication that if you run to the center, which the Republicans always used to do, it works," Bothwell said. If I were a moderate conservative, Id be pleased, and I would point to it as much as I could." Ian Brodie, a University of Calgary professor who served as chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he thinks hatred of Trudeau will prevent the most conservative voters from abandoning O'Toole on Monday. Brodie said many Conservatives in Western Canada think Trudeau, who has talked about a day when oil is not needed, has a condescending view of the oil industry that is central to Albertas economic vitality. I cant overstate how much people want to get rid of Trudeau here, so its all hands on deck, he said. Political observers have been quick to note O'Toole's new stripes. Robyn Urback, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, Canadas national newspaper, wrote, If there are still those who dont like Mr. OTooles position on something, well, all they have to do is wait a few minutes. University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman described O'Toole as two faced but said the party leader's policy reversals do not seem to have registered with voters even though everyone is calling him out on it. But Wiseman thinks that OToole not requiring Conservative candidates to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and refusing to say how many of them are not could cost him Monday, especially after a provincial Conservative government in Alberta apologized this week for mishandling the pandemic. The Conservative position on vaccinations is hurting the party and OToole because growing numbers of the vaccinated are becoming increasingly upset with those who refuse to get vaccinated, the political scientist said. Like Trudeau, the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, OToole was born in Montreal and is the son of a longtime politician. His father served as a Conservative member of Ontarios provincial legislature for almost 20 years. OTooles mother died of breast cancer when he was 9. After his father remarried, he grew up the oldest in a blended family with five children. Influenced by his fathers public service, he entered the military at 18 and went on to attend the Royal Military College of Canada. One of his professors there, Lubomyr Luciuk, said OToole impressed him. Was he my most intelligent student? No," Luciuk said. But he was one who asked good questions and listened and learned. He wasnt afraid to put himself forward and say, What should I read about this? After graduating in 1995, OToole was commissioned as a Canadian Air Force officer. He flew on a Sea King helicopter as a navigator for naval search and rescues, and eventually left military service for law school. After earning his degree, OToole worked on Canadas version of Wall Street in Toronto. He first was elected to Parliament in 2012, representing a suburban district outside Toronto, and three years later joined Harpers Cabinet as minister of veteran affairs. He lost a bid to become party leader in 2017 but won last year with help from the ranked-choice voting system the Conservative Party uses. Longtime friends say the married father of two is neither an ideologue nor a Trump-style populist. Luciuk said he thinks his former student's lack of celebrity appeals to Canadians after more than five years of Trudeau's leadership. Hes not debonair. You dont say, Oh wow, what a handsome man. Hes not, the professor said. I see a pretty ordinary guy, but most of us are. Hes resonating with people because hes got commonsense, hes pragmatic. Hes not doctrinaire. Hes not beholden to some of the wingnuts, frankly, who are in the Conservative Party. File: Brazils president Jair Bolsonaro says he will attend the UNGA meet in New York (AP) Brazils president Jair Bolsonaro, who hasnt been vaccinated against Covid-19 yet, would be in breach of New Yorks health protocols if he attends next weeks United Nations conclave that will be held in the city. The New York mayors office wrote to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday, laying out guidelines that include having delegates show mandatory proof of vaccination, reported news agency AFP. The UN debate hall was classified as a convention centre, which means rules for indoor gatherings will apply to the meeting, said the letter signed by New York citys health commissioner. Mr Bolsonaro, in a social media broadcast on Thursday, announced his plan to attend the UNGA meeting. He had told his supporters earlier this week that he remained unvaccinated. Next week I will be at the UN General Assembly (UNGA), where I will give an opening speech, Mr Bolsonaro said in his address. He also said it will be a calm speech, very objective, focused on the issues that interest us. While confirming that he will be attending the conclave, Mr Bolsonaro did not mention the guidelines proposed by city authorities and his own vaccination status. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has said that he could not impose the requirement on heads of state. But the move has already raised questions about Mr Bolsonaros participation, including whether he would come to New York as claimed. Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he does not intend to take the Covid-19 vaccine, claiming that the coronavirus infection he contracted last year has given him antibodies. Scientists, however, refute claims that antibodies have any long-term role in preventing Covid. Im not going to take the vaccine, period, he said in a television interview in December last year. You think my life is at risk? Thats my problem, period. He also said last year that he will be the last Brazilian to get vaccinated and will not force anyone to get inoculated. Over 585,000 people in Brazil have lost their lives because of the pandemic, which is the second-highest death toll in the world. Calling it a "tragic mistake," the U.S. Department of Defense admitted Friday that it had killed 10 people, including seven children, in a drone strike that wrongly targeted an aid group worker in Afghanistan late last month. I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said at a Pentagon briefing on Friday afternoon. "It was a mistake, and I offer my sincere apology." McKenzie added that the U.S. was exploring the possibility of payments to compensate the families of the victims. The Aug. 29 drone strike came in response to a bombing days earlier at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members as evacuations continued in the waning days of the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Damage outside a house in Kabul on Sept. 11, 2021. (Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) A Hellfire missile launched from the U.S. drone killed 10 people in a Kabul neighborhood, with officials saying they were targeting an ISIS-K terrorist who was planning to use a car packed with explosives in a suicide attack. The official military statement at the time said the U.S. had conducted a self-defense unmanned over-the-horizon airstrike today on a vehicle in Kabul, eliminating an imminent ISIS-K threat to Hamad Karzai International airport. We are confident we successfully hit the target, said Capt. Bill Urban, the U.S. Central Command spokesman. Significant secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material. We are assessing the possibilities of civilian casualties, though we have no indications at this time. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, on screen during a virtual briefing at the Pentagon on Aug. 30. Defense Department spokesman John Kirby is at left. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP file) There were almost immediate reports of civilian casualties, but on Sept. 1, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended the bombing as righteous and still valid. At the time and I think this is still valid we had very good intelligence that ISIS-K was preparing a specific type of vehicle at a specific type of location, Milley said. We monitored that through various means, and all of the engagement criteria were being met. We went through the same level of rigor that weve done for years, and we took a strike. Story continues On Sept. 10, both the Washington Post and New York Times published stories calling the official account into question, with analyses finding no evidence of explosive materials in the car, which belonged to Nutrition & Education International, a U.S. charity. The driver was Zemari Ahmadi, an electrical engineer who was a longtime employee of the aid group. Officials said they did not know Ahmadis identity at the time of the strike but had deemed him suspicious. A photo of a girl who was killed during a U.S. drone strike in Kabul. (Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi/AP) "On behalf of the men and women of the Department of Defense, I offer my deepest condolences to surviving family members of those who were killed, including Mr. Ahmadi, and to the staff of Nutrition & Education International, Mr. Ahmadis employer," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. "We now know that there was no connection between Mr. Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced, and that Mr. Ahmadi was just as innocent a victim as were the others tragically killed." An analysis by Brown University earlier this year estimated that more than 71,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians were killed in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan between its start in October 2001 and April 2021. The war ended on Aug. 30, when the last remaining U.S. troops left the country. ____ Read more from Yahoo News The Biden administration is buying hundreds of millions more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to donate to the world, according to two people familiar with the deal, as the United States looks to increase efforts to share vaccines with the global population. The announcement of the purchase is slated for early next week and timed to the United Nations General Assembly meeting, said the people acquainted with the deal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the donation. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. The White House declined to comment. Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of the deal were not final Friday. In June, the United States purchased 500 million doses of the vaccine to be distributed by Covax, the World Health Organization-backed initiative to share doses around the globe, and officials said the vaccines would be targeted at low- and middle-income countries. The White House is also expected to formally announce Friday that it is hosting a virtual summit of world leaders and global health advocates alongside next week's U.N. General Assembly meetings, said three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the pending announcement. Biden plans to use the summit, slated for Wednesday to call on global leaders to make new commitments to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including fully vaccinating 70 percent of the world's population by next September, securing billions of additional doses for the developing world and achieving other targets, according to a list obtained by The Washington Post. The announcement comes amid growing criticism that the United States is not doing enough to help vaccinate the world, especially as federal health agencies consider whether to recommend booster shots for Americans. The Biden administration has been adamant that the United States has enough vaccine supply for booster shots and global donations. Story continues Related Content Flint has replaced over 10,000 lead pipes. Earning back trust is proving harder. How cast and crew of 'Come From Away' brought their story of human kindness back to Broadway America's oldest World War II vet just turned 112. He stood from his wheelchair and danced. The US government has been facing a growing number of migrant arrivals at the border Some 10,000 migrants have gathered under a US-Mexico border bridge over recent days, leading to a growing humanitarian crisis. The bridge connects Del Rio in Texas to Mexico's Ciudad Acuna and the temporary camp there has grown with staggering speed in recent days. The mostly Haitian migrants, who have crossed the Rio Grande, are sleeping under the bridge in squalid conditions. The US government has been facing a surge of migrants at the border. Earlier this year, it was reported that the number of migrants detained at the US-Mexico border in July exceeded 200,000 for the first time in 21 years, government data shows. And last month, the authorities arrested more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border, according to government data released on Wednesday. This summer's numbers represent a significant increase from the 51,000 arrested in August 2019. The makeshift camp has few basic services, and migrants waiting in temperatures of 37C (99F) are said to be going back to Mexico to get supplies. Migrants seeking asylum in the US bathe in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge They are said to be mostly Haitians, with some Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also present, reports say. They appear to be part of a larger wave of Haitians heading north, many of whom arrived in Brazil and other South American nations after the 2010 earthquake, the Washington Post reports. According to Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano, more than 10,500 migrants were under the Del Rio International Bridge as of Thursday evening, Reuters news agency reports. Ramses Colon, a 41-year-old Afro-Cuban asylum seeker who worked in Peru to save money for the trip, said the Del Rio camp was "chaos". "You stand there among thousands with your little ticket waiting for your turn," he told the Washington Post. Migrants have been given tickets with numbers while they wait to be processed. The migrants have to wait their turn to be processed Border Patrol said in a statement it was increasing staffing in Del Rio to facilitate a "safe, humane and orderly process". Story continues "To prevent injuries from heat-related illness, the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into USBP [US Border Patrol] custody," it added. Drinking water, towels and portable toilets have been provided, the statement added. Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez, whose district includes Del Rio, said in an interview with Fox News that the situation is "as bad as I've ever seen it". "When you see the amount of people and how chaotic it is and how there is literally no border, folks are coming to and from Mexico with ease, it's gut wrenching and it's dangerous," Mr Gonzalez added. Map Immigrants rights activist Jenn Budd told the BBC she believes the situation is a direct result of the Biden administration's extension of Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic policy that allows the US to swiftly expel undocumented migrants. "When you have large numbers of people who need refugee or asylum status, and have essentially closed down the system that deals with refugees and asylum seekers, then you have people with no other choice but to cross illegally," said Ms Budd, a former Border Patrol agent and intelligence analyst. "In order to have national security, you have to have a robust and humane asylum system," she added. "Otherwise, people end up spilling over illegally, nobody gets checked, and then people get hurt like this". On Thursday, a federal judge blocked the administration from continuing to use title 42. The judge said that the policy does not give the government power to expel migrants or deny them opportunities to seek asylum. The order will go into effect in 14 days, giving the government an opportunity to appeal. Since taking office, President Joe Biden, who had vowed to reform US immigration, has created a taskforce to reunify migrant children with their families, paused construction of Donald Trump's border wall, and called for reviews of legal immigration programmes terminated by his predecessor. Mr Biden has also presided over a record-breaking influx of arrivals to the US southern border, including hundreds of unaccompanied children who are being held in US immigration detention facilities. You may also be interested in: (Bloomberg) -- French auto parts-maker Valeo SA has given the clearest indication yet it intends to buy out partner Siemens AG from their electric-car components venture to counter a declining combustion-engine business. Siemens entered this joint venture with the plan to eventually sell and we to buy, Christophe Perillat, Valeos incoming chief executive officer, told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of a Munich car show event this month. Whether this happens soon or in 2022 or in 2024, its not clear. Valeo and Siemens joined forces on Valeo Siemens eAutomotive GmbH five years ago to make e-motors, axles and powertrain electronics. From next year, Siemens may exercise an option to sell its entire stake. The JV will reach a crossroads at a time of relentless pressure on car-parts makers to keep up with the accelerating shift to battery-powered cars. EVs accounted for 17% of total sales in Europe during the first half, up from 11% last year. The Erlangen, Germany-based unit, with first-half orders reaching 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), remained unprofitable last year, though business is expected to boom. Valeos outgoing CEO Jacques Aschenbroich has predicted revenue will reach 2 billion euros in 2024. Valeo has a big problem in terms of risk, said Jean-Louis Sempe, an analyst at brokerage Invest Securities SA. Its expected to buy the venture and this will replace part of the company that will become obsolete. The French companys shares declined as much as 2%, the lowest since June last year. The venture competes with the likes of Vitesco Technologies Group AG, Continental AGs former powertrain division that made its trading debut Thursday, which said this month that it expects its loss-making electrification unit to turn a profit from 2024. EV parts are set to become Vitescos main source of revenue by the end of the decade, CEO Andreas Wolf said. Valeos CEO Aschenbroich said in February that it would be rational for Siemens to decide to stand pat with regard to its role in the venture. Until Siemenss intentions become clear, Valeo has needed to keep its balance sheet ready to take over the business, he said. Story continues Since then, he has declined to speculate while Valeo has outlined a goal for a near quadrupling of order intake to 4 billion euros by the end of next year. Siemens CEO Roland Busch in August dodged a question on the German companys plans, saying only that in terms of value, the JV offers a happy future. Debt Load While the potential deal could be transformational for Valeo, theres worry about the JVs total debt load that amounts to 2.23 billion euros according to its annual report. More broadly, investors are also concerned that carmakers are moving the manufacturing of certain EV parts in-house, potentially impacting suppliers including Valeo, Continental, Vitesco and Robert Bosch GmbH. Its going to be a very competitive business, said Michael Foundoukidis, an Oddo Bhf analyst. While the Valeo-Siemens JV has gotten a lot of orders in the past, its unclear whether this will hold up in the next wave of EV development, he said. (Updates with shares in seventh paragraph) 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. The Village Square Cafe in Cross Keys is set to close Friday after more than a decade in business, according to a Facebook post from the restaurant. Owners Roseann and Robert Glick blamed the shutdown on a lack of workers, writing: We simply cannot find qualified kitchen staff to keep up with the volume of business. Restaurants across Baltimore and the nation have reported hiring woes amid competition for workers and massive upheaval in the labor force during the pandemic. To cope, many business owners are limiting their menu offerings and hours of operation. In Federal Hill, TinyBrickOven pizzeria has been closed since late August because of staffing shortages, according to the business social media accounts. A post last month states: [T]he current state of the labor market has made running the restaurant unsustainable for now. At the Brewers Art in Mount Vernon, a note on the menu encourages people to apply for jobs in the kitchen. The restaurant has adopted a fast-casual format for indoor dining, whereby customers place food orders at the bar before taking a seat in the dining room. And in Hampden, pizza shop Well Crafted Kitchen recently began seeking volunteers to help process tomatoes while the business is understaffed. Other restaurants have begun offering hiring bonuses and increasing wages. Baltimores Atlas Restaurant Group recently announced they were increasing minimum wage to $15 for all positions. The closing of the Village Square Cafe marks the departure of the last remaining restaurant from the Village of Cross Keys in north Baltimore, which is undergoing renovation. Donnas cafe closed in 2018, with owners citing a decrease in sales. Towson-based Caves Valley Partners acquired the Village of Cross Keys for $27 million in July 2020 from previous owner Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp. The center has struggled with vacancies over several owners and was about 60% to 65% occupied in both retail and office portions at the time of the sale. Story continues Caves Valley plans to build additional retail space at the site, including a grocery store and restaurants, as well as a 350-unit apartment building. Village Square Cafe customer Jean Appleton, who lives in Better Waverly, called the restaurant a linchpin to a larger community, including the surrounding area in Northern Baltimore. The closure is an enormous surprise to a lot of people, she said, including elderly residents in the development who counted on the business for dinner. Many customers shared their disappointment at the closure on Facebook, commenting on the restaurants page. And I was just wondering how this year could get any worse, one wrote. It didnt take long for Virginia gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin to drop the niceties, turn up the heat, and get under each other's skin in their first debate Thursday night. Republican Youngkin started by noting he invited McAuliffe to a joint public service announcement to encourage Virginians to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but the Democrat declined. Asking to do a PSA is a political stunt, said McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor seeking a second, nonconsecutive term. I am for requiring mandating vaccinations. He's not. He likes to do PSAs. The moderator pleaded with the two candidates to adhere to the debates time limits as the two talked over each other. VIRGINIA GOVERNORS DEBATE: HOW MCAULIFFE AND YOUNGKIN STACK UP We need all four wheels on the ground, pal, Youngkin said to McAuliffe. Next thing you know, youre going to be yelling at a sheriff, he added, referencing a video of McAuliffe on Wednesday lashing out at the county sheriff for asking about an endorsement from an organization that supports defunding the police. McAuliffe didn't hold his tongue. After Youngkin explained why he wouldnt sign a "clean economy" act despite moderators reminding him that his time was up McAuliffe sniped: Relax, Glenn, I dont want you to pass out. Each came prepared with opposition research to highlight. McAuliffe took a shot at the Carlyle Group, the private equity firm at which Youngkin was co-CEO before launching his gubernatorial campaign. They bought nursing homes, they neglected seniors, people died, including five right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, McAuliffe charged. Your record at Carlyle is outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. Youngkin wryly noted that McAuliffe invested thousands of dollars of his own money in Carlyle. If you can trust me with your money, the rest of Virginia can trust me, he said. I lost it, McAuliffe retorted. It wasn't a good investment. Story continues Youngkin chided McAuliffe for appointing a woman to George Mason Universitys board who was anti-vaccine and making another appointment to a parole board, who an inspector general report later found violated the law. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Despite the attacks, the two did get down to answering or clarifying their positions on substantive policy questions. Youngkin reiterated he would not sign a law akin to the controversial Texas heartbeat law that effectively outlaws abortion after about six weeks. But he did say he would sign a law outlawing abortion after a fetus is thought to feel pain, which is usually around 20 weeks. McAuliffe said he does not support ending qualified immunity, the doctrine that protects law enforcement officials from personal liability for actions they take while on duty. Any officer who's acting in good faith should and will have the full protections of the Commonwealth of Virginia, McAuliffe said. You don't want anyone going out there putting their lives at risk and us not having their back. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, Campaign, Glenn Youngkin, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Original Author: Emily Brooks Original Location: Virginia governors debate gets heated as McAuliffe and Youngkin trade swipes As he was handcuffed by police during a traffic stop over not displaying a license plate, Davion Pringle called out to an unidentified bystander videotaping the encounter. This is literally why I come to a light area, the 21-year-old Charlotte man said as officers, who had approached his vehicle with guns drawn and smashed his window, handcuffed him under the bright lights of a Harrisburg gas station. He wondered aloud what would have happened if hed pulled over in the dark. Pringle has filed a complaint against Concord police for its conduct and that of the the Cabarrus County Sheriffs Departments after his vehicle was stopped at a Shell gas station Aug. 27 in Harrisburg, just north of Stough Road on NC Highway 49. The unidentified man can be heard behind the camera recording the incident and trying to calm the situation. The video was uploaded to Tiktok by a woman who identifies herself as Pringles aunt. Dont do nothing, I got your back, he called out to Pringle. You should not pull your guns (officers), this is crazy. @theamonae Full video of cops pulling my nephew out with guns drawn for no reason ##fyp original sound - Thea$onae Officers say Pringle jeopardized his own safety by failing to stop for more than three miles after officers turned their lights on just before 11 p.m., changing lanes multiple times and appearing to reach under his seat during the stop at the gas station, according to a statement from Concord police. Pringles actions of refusing to pull over, reaching around and under his seat, and refusing to obey lawful, straightforward, and easily understandable directions escalated the situation to an unreasonable and unsafe level, police said. Pringles attorney calls the stop a violent act of police misconduct, saying in a statement to Charlotte television stations Pringle was looking for a well-lit place to pull over to ensure a safe interaction with police. He can be heard on video giving that explanation at the time of the arrest. Story continues If officers behaved this aggressively in a well-lit area with witnesses, how would they have reacted in an isolated and dimly lit area? wrote Darlene Harris, managing attorney for Charlotte-based Oakhurst Legal Group. Pringle had no outstanding warrants and police had no reason to think he was a danger to them, Harris said in a statement. She did not respond to requests for an interview from the Observer this week. In response to Oakhurst Legal Group, Concord police said Pringle was not targeted or singled out. Mr. Pringle was operating a vehicle on a 4-lane divided state highway in violation of the law, and the officer was justified in pulling him over, Concord police said. Mr. Pringle had multiple opportunities to pull over to a safe, well-lit area. He chose not to do so. Concord police said the officer who pulled Pringle over did not know his race or gender at the time of the traffic stop. Pringle was taken to the Cabarrus County jail and charged with misdemeanor resist delay obstruct and misdemeanor failure to stop for blue lights/siren, police said. He was given a warning for failing to display a registration plate and failing to carry vehicle insurance. The Oakhurst law firm is also representing Pringles mother, Melissa Baxter, and Imani Grier, a passenger in the car during the stop. Grier was handcuffed and briefly detained for two minutes for officer safety reasons during the stop, police said, but was not charged. Baxter and Grier filed complaints against the Concord police, which are actively under investigation, a department spokeswoman said. The Concord Police Department takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously. All complaints are subject to a thorough and rigorous investigative process, the spokeswoman said. Safety during police stops Police contend Pringles delay in pulling over was one factor in their subsequent response at the gas station. But advocates for police reform say there are many reasons people, especially if they are Black, feel unsafe during a traffic stop and seek a more visible location. In Pringles case, the dark highway where officers first encountered him offered few witnesses, and he sought a more public location, according to his attorney. In situations where there is not an obvious safe place to immediately stop, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles recommends drivers turn on their emergency flashers and reduce speed by about 10 mph to signal awareness of the officer. If the car is unmarked and a driver doesnt know if its a legitimate officer, the DMV states drivers can call 911 to report their name and location to verify before pulling over. Drivers are encouraged to report an officers behavior if they believe it was inappropriate. Weve all been taught that if you dont feel safe pulling over that you can pull over into a safe location, said Kristie Puckett-Williams, who manages the ACLU of North Carolinas statewide Campaign for Smart Justice. He did that a well-lit spot and despite the amount of cameras and the bystanders, the police still behaved that way. She said drivers should be able to stop in an area where they feel comfortable. Police dont get to determine whats the safe location because safe is subjective, she said. What may appear to be safe to a police officer may not be safe to me. Puckett-Williams said she struggled to get through the video, having seen so many others that end with police killings, often of Black men. She said drivers can avoid having expired plates or lapsed insurance to decrease the chances of police interaction, but said the onus is on the police who initiate contact to keep situations from escalating. Mbye Njie, founder of the Legal Equalizer app, said he understands Pringles fear and wanting to pull over to a well-lit spot, because hes been in a similar situation and did the same thing. Even when youre afraid, you want to be in a place with eyewitnesses that can have your safety in mind as well, he said. Njie said incidents like this are why he created Legal Equalizer, a phone app that records and livestreams interactions with police and immigration authorities. Njie suggests drivers put on their hazard lights so police officers know their intention is to find a well-lit area and not to get away. Concord police and the Cabarrus County Sheriffs Office should understand why people are so afraid and want to drive three miles to a well-lit area, Njie said. Although theres a clip of the incident on social media, Njie said he would like to see the full dash cam footage (which only a judge can order released in North Carolina) to determine if Pringle did drive past several well-lit areas before stopping at the Shell gas station. The polices definition of well-lit places couldve been alone on the side of the road, he said. If they would release their full dash cam video and be completely transparent, then I think that would solve a lot of the issues, he said. I do appreciate the fact that nobody was hurt. Patrick Dempsey's stunning exit from "Grey's Anatomy" in 2015 came after his mood on the set was less than dreamy, according to a new book about the show. In an excerpt in The Hollywood Reporter from Lynette Rice's upcoming book, "How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Greys Anatomy," former "Grey's" executive producer James D. Parriott says that things had reached a boiling point in season 11 before Dempsey's Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd died in a shocking twist to fans. GREY S ANATOMY (Frank Ockenfels / Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images) "There were HR issues," Parriott says in the book. "It wasnt sexual in any way. (Dempsey) sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him. He had this hold on the set where he knew he could stop production and scare people. "The network and studio came down and we had sessions with them. I think he was just done with the show. He didnt like the inconvenience of coming in every day and working. He and (show creator) Shonda (Rhimes) were at each others throats." The book, which comes out on Sept. 21, features interviews with more than 80 cast and crewmembers from the long-running hit show. Another former executive producer, Jeannine Renshaw, said there was also tension between Dempsey, 55, and star, Ellen Pompeo, 51, who played his wife on the show. "There were times where Ellen was frustrated with Patrick and she would get angry that he wasnt working as much," Renshaw says in the book. "She was very big on having things be fair. She just didnt like that Patrick would complain that 'Im here too late' or 'Ive been here too long' when she had twice as many scenes in the episode as he did. "When I brought it up to Patrick, I would say, 'Look around you. These people have been here since six thirty a.m.' He would go, 'Oh, yeah.' He would get it." Dempsey admitted to being burned out by that point. Story continues "Its ten months, fifteen hours a day," he says in the book. "You never know your schedule, so your kid asks you, 'What are you doing on Monday?' And you go, 'I dont know,' because I dont know my schedule. Doing that for eleven years is challenging. But you have to be grateful, because youre well compensated, so you cant really complain because you dont really have a right. You dont have control over your schedule. So, you have to just be flexible." A crew member says Dempsey contemplated leaving a season earlier with co-star Sandra Oh but returned for the money, which Dempsey confirmed in the book. Things eventually came to a head between Dempsey and Rhimes. "I think Shonda finally witnessed it herself, and that was the final straw," Renshaw said. "Shonda had to say to the network, 'If he doesnt go, I go.' Nobody wanted him to leave, because he was the show. Him and Ellen. Patrick is a sweetheart. It messes you up, this business." ABC Signature, Shondaland and Dempsey did not respond to TODAY's request for comment about the book's revelations. ABC declined to comment. "It was just a natural progression with the way the story was unfolding," Dempsey told EW after his departure in 2015."It was like, OK! This was obviously the right time." Pompeo admitted there was "toxicity" on the set while talking last year with Dax Shepard on his "Armchair Expert" podcast, but did not say it was because of any one specific person. However, Dempsey's exit did light a fire under her and provide an opening for change. "When Patrick left, I had something to prove, Pompeo said on the podcast. "He left season 11 and then I was renegotiating season 12, so I could have left, because the man left, which is not a story I want to tell. "After Patrick left I said, 'I am going to stay, I am going to prove that they need me, but then also I really wanted to change the story of the experience of the show," she continued. "And I wanted to see if we could turn the culture around, and we could make the set a happy place because it really had never been." The book excerpt also describes how they filmed episode 21 of season 11 in which Dempsey's character shockingly dies. They shot it at an abandoned hospital in Hawthorne, California, rather than at the regular studio in Los Feliz. Actors in that episode had to sign non-disclosure agreements to keep the explosive secret that Derek Shepherd was being killed off the show by a car accident. "We shot at this closed-down hospital that was absolutely creepy haunted," costume designer Mimi Melgaard says in the book. "All the scenes there were so sad anyway, and in this yucky-feeling haunted hospital? It was really weird. His whole last episode was really tough." Fellow actors in the episode remembered Dempsey as being "very kind" during the filming, but it was a strange farewell with little fanfare. "I very quietly left," Dempsey said. "It was beautiful. It was raining, which was really touching." Any of those ill feelings from that time have clearly dissipated, as Dempsey made a jaw-dropping return to the show last year in season 17 with dream sequences involving Pompeo that had fans buzzing. A West Virginia woman pleaded guilty to an offense related to the alleged rape of a 17-year-old female relative by a local police chief in June 2020 in exchange for money, according to the Justice Department. Kristen Naylor-Legg, 28, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking a minor after twice agreeing to present the young girl to co-defendant Larry Allen Clay Jr., 57, for sexual intercourse, according to court documents and statements. "At the time, Clay was an employee of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department and the Chief of Police for the Gauley Bridge Police Department," the Justice Department said. POLICE BREAK UP SCHOOL BOARD MEETING AFTER DEBATE ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY BOILS OVER The woman admitted Clay paid her $100 for the first occasion and $50 was promised for the second time, according to the Justice Department's statement. "Naylor-Legg faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced on December 9, 2021," the statement read. "She will also be required to register as a sex offender." Clay is charged with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a minor via coercion and sex trafficking of a minor via coercion. He pleaded not guilty in May. Clay's trial will take place on Nov. 9, 2021. His lawyer declined to comment, the Washington Post reported on Friday. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER "This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse," according to the Justice Department. Washington Examiner Videos Tags: News, West Virginia, Department of Justice, Police, sex trafficking, Rape, Crime Original Author: Luke Gentile Original Location: Woman pleads guilty after authorities accuse her of sex trafficking 17-year-old relative to be raped by police chief Kei Komuro, the boyfriend of Princess Mako, plans to soon return from the United States to Japan in order to prepare for their marriage, sources familiar with the situation said Thursday, despite some public discontent over a money dispute involving his mother. The Imperial Household Agency is considering holding a joint press conference for the princess, a niece of Emperor Naruhito, and Komuro, both 29, upon his return from the United States, where he currently lives. The couple are preparing to register their marriage in October, according to a government source. Komuro will be coming back to Japan for the first time since he left for New York in August 2018 to study at Fordham Universitys law school, from which he graduated earlier this year. The couples wedding has been postponed for about three years following a string of reports about a financial squabble Komuros mother was in with a former fiance over 4 million in monetary support, including money spent on Komuro education. The agency is planning to forgo the usual rites associated with imperial family members weddings, such as an official engagement ceremony called Nosai no Gi, in which the families of the betrothed exchange gifts, and a Choken no Gi event to officially meet with the emperor and empress prior to marriage. For Hollywood star Johnny Depp, the story of an act of industrial pollution that devastated the southwestern Japanese coastal community of Minamata over half a century ago is one that had to be told, not only for its victims but for current and future generations. The film "Minamata," which he both produced and stars in, arrives this month to do just that in Japan, where despite perceptions that the incident belongs to history, litigation is still ongoing by those who feel they were overlooked for support. Depp plays Eugene Smith, a renowned American photojournalist whose 1971 photo of a teenage girl sickened by the mercury poisoning that struck the city in the 1950s and 1960s awakened the world to the tragedy and became emblematic of the dangers of industry running amok when economic growth is prized above all else. The disease was formally acknowledged by local health authorities in 1956, although initially without knowledge that it was caused by the dumping of mercury-tainted wastewater into the sea by a Chisso Corp. chemical plant in the city, which continued for more than a decade. People who had eaten contaminated seafood suffered paralysis in the hands and feet and visual-field defects. The disease, which was named after the city, also triggered congenital disabilities. Directed by Andrew Levitas, the film is a fictional portrayal based on actual events described in a 1975 photo essay book by Smith. It covers the three years from 1971 in which Smith and his Tokyo-born wife Aileen Mioko Smith documented the accounts of local patients living with the disease and their campaign to win recognition from Chisso and the Japanese government. Before the end of the year, Japan could start giving COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to people who are at least eight months removed from their second doses. The health ministry on Friday discussed plans with experts on its vaccine subcommittee to provide booster shots as soon as the country has administered two doses to all willing recipients by the end of November. With growing concerns over the ebbing impact of vaccine protection and what that might mean for any future waves of the virus, boosters could provide a solution, although whether or not they are needed remains the subject of debate among scientists. The World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on boosters until nations with low vaccination rates can inoculate more of their population. Moderna Inc. announced Wednesday that a large-scale study showed the impact of its COVID-19 vaccine wanes over time. On Sept. 1, Moderna submitted an application to the United States Food and Drug Administration to seek authorization for COVID-19 booster shots. Booster shot campaigns have already begun in other countries. Israel will be administering additional shots to individuals five months after they receive their second dose, while Americans could get a third dose eight months after their second if the countrys regulators give the plan the green light. New Delhi: PM Modi is addressed the plenary session of the 21st SCO Summit held in Tajikistan. He said, this year we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of SCO. I welcome Iran as a new member country of the SCO. I also welcome the three new dialogue partners Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar. What is SCO Summit? 20th anniversary of SCO is right time to think about future of SCO. The biggest challenges in this area are related to-peace, security& trust deficit, & root cause of these problems is increasing radicalisation.Recent developments in Afghanistan have made this challenge clear, he said. Fight radicalism and extremism. Growing radicalism big concern, said PM Modi. PM Modi further said that India is committed to increasing its connectivity with Central Asia. We believe that landlocked Central Asian countries can benefit immensely by connecting with Indias vast market. We must encourage our talented youngsters towards science & rational thinking. We can bring our startups & entrepreneurs together to make the innovative spirit towards making India a stakeholder in an emerging technology,he said. The recent events in Afghanistan have made the current situation even more clear. SCO needs to take proactive steps in this regard. India is committed to improve its connectivity with Central Asia. We believe that landlocked Central Asian countries can benefit by connecting to Indian markets. Our investment in Irans Chabahar Port and our attempts in International North-South Corridor support this. No attempts of connectivity can be a one-way street. To ensure this, such projects need to be consultative, transparent and participative. New Delhi: The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) has recently published a paper that could be a trendsetter across the world for governments grappling with nicotine and tobacco issues. The paper is significant for countries like India, identified as one of the worlds biggest consumers of tobacco. Titled, Balancing Consideration of the Risks and Benefits of E-Cigarettes, the paper has been written by 15 past presidents of the Society for Research on Tobacco and Nicotine (srnt.org), the worlds leading professional scientific organizations. The authors have assessed the health risks of vaping, the likelihood that vaping increases smoking cessation, the principal concerns about youth vaping, and balancing concerns about risks to youths with potential benefits for adults who smoke. The findings were indeed interesting. The paper, a copy of which is with this reporter, says the following: While the nation focuses on the risks of e-cigarettes for youth, ignoring the potential of e-cigarettes to aid adults in quitting smoking may come at a high cost to public health. Most U.S. health organizations, media coverage, and policymakers have focused primarily on risks to youths. Because of their messaging, much of the publicincluding most smokersnow consider e-cigarette use as dangerous as or more dangerous than smoking. By contrast, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that e-cigarette use is likely far less hazardous than smoking. Policies intended to reduce adolescent vaping may also reduce adult smokers use of e-cigarettes in quit attempts. Scientists are unanimous that e-cigarettes use can increase the odds of quitting smoking. Many scientists, including this essays authors, encourage the health community, media, and policymakers to more carefully weigh vapings potential to reduce adult smoking-attributable mortality. Research comparing vapings risks for youths with potential benefits for adult smokers has found the latter to dominate, potentially avoiding the smoking-produced loss of tens of millions of life-years. We believe the potential lifesaving benefits of e-cigarettes for adult smokers deserve attention equal to the risks to youths, says the paper. The totality of the evidence indicates that frequent vaping increases adult smoking cessation, claim experts. Smokers unable to quit smoking with evidence-based cessation methods should be well informed about the relative risks of vaping and smoking and vapings potential to help them quit smoking, the experts claim. While the long-term health consequences are unknown, completely substituting vaping for smoking likely reduces health risks, possibly substantially. While flavor bans could reduce youth interest in e-cigarettes, they could also reduce adult smokers vaping to quit smoking. Like youths, adults prefer non-tobacco flavours, both groups favoring fruit and sweet flavors. Policies regarding flavors reflect the more general issue considered in this article: the need to create a balance between the sometimes-conflicting goals of preventing youth vaping and supporting adults smoking cessation attempts, particularly for smokers unable or unwilling to quit otherwise. In India, e-cigarettes remain under a government ban though there are reports that the government could take a renewed look at the tobacco market if the FDA of the US takes a call on tobacco and e-cigarettes. In other parts of the world, governments are already making their own changes. The New Zealand government recently approved a new regulatory framework for e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products: the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act. One of its official purposes is to support smokers to switch to regulated products that are significantly less harmful than smoking. The move, claim tobacco experts, is significant. The new law embraces two principles to help reach the target of a smoke-free country by 2025 defined as when 5 percent or less of the adult population smoke. It continues to set strict regulation for combustible tobacco products while setting a differentiated treatment for regulated vaping products, in recognition of their potential harm reduction benefits compared to cigarettes. The intention of the legislationto move smokers away from combustible productsis succinctly summed up in notices that can be displayed by retailers, instore or online. Significantly, the New Zealand government has decided that heated tobacco, as a smokeless product, will now go out of standardized packaging with cigarette health warnings into branded packaging with a text warning differentiated from conventional cigarettes. It is worth mentioning here that New Zealand is not a perfect regulatory model, and its precise policy mix may not be an appropriate model for every market. However, the intent of the legislation makes it global best practice. What is important is that New Zealand has clearly and explicitly rejected the WHOs position that devices should be considered as a tobacco product and regulated equally to cigarettes. The WHO predicts that there will continue to be over 1 billion smokers into 2025 and beyond. That means many smokers will not benefit from tobacco control measures to curb adoption and increase quitting. All eyes on big tobacco debate A growing number of governments are now complementing traditional tobacco control measures with a harm reduction approach, i.e., providing adults who would otherwise continue to smoke with scientifically substantiated less harmful products. Since its policy announcement in July 2017, the FDA has been outspoken about its support for alternatives to cigarettes for adults who want access to nicotine through smoke-free products. It recognizes that the primary cause of harm from smoking is burning, not nicotine. Nicotine, while not an entirely benign substance, is not directly responsible for the cancer, lung disease, and heart disease that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, says the FDA. The agency has been clear that measures intended to more drastically reduce smoking should be complemented by providing adult smokers who would otherwise continue with better, innovative, science-backed alternatives. In July 2017, the UK Department of Health released its five-year tobacco plan for England, in which it aimed for a 12 percent smoking rate by 2022. The government acknowledged the role that science-backed innovations can play in helping to achieve that objective, by helping adult smokers switch away completely from cigarettes. Since 2017, the U.K. government has actively encouraged smokers to consider using e-cigarettes as a way out of smoking, including through its annual Stoptober campaign, a month-long national stop smoking challenge. Subsequent annual evidence reviews by Public Health England have continued to validate the important role that e-cigarettes can play in moving adults away from cigarettes. Countries like Italy, Norway, Greece, Portugal and Uruguay are evaluating data and scientific studies with a view to establishing the reduction of toxic components, the potential risk reduction of novel tobacco products compared to combustible tobacco products, as well as the associated labelling methods. More importantly, the European Union is also supporting special rules for electronic cigarettes. Before 2016, electronic cigarettes were banned or effectively banned across nearly half of the EU. The revised EU Tobacco Products Directive adopted that year lifted those bans and recognized that e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products were different from cigarettes by creating separate regulatory categories with customized rules, for example regarding health warnings. All eyes are now on India, one of the worlds biggest markets for tobacco. New Delhi: Amid all the programs held across the country to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modis 71st birthday, one gift that caught the attention of all was a bouquet of 71 roses. The bouquet of 71 roses and warm wishes were sent to PM Modi by none other than Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Congratulations and best wishes on your birthday Prime Minister Narendra Modi, read the message written on the flower bouquet. Bangladesh High Commission sent the bouquet to PMs office in New Delhi on Friday morning. PM Modi and Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina are likely to meet in New York this year. Last time, the two leaders met was in March 2021, when Bangladesh invited PM Modi to attend golden jubilee celebration of the countrys independence, the birth centenary of Bangabandhu. Bangladesh PM Hasina has sent Indian PM Modi a bouquet of flowers with 71 red roses on his birthday. Bangladesh High commission sources said, the bouquet was handed over to PMs officer today morning. The greetings on the bouquet is written in 3 langauges Hindi, Eng, Bengali. pic.twitter.com/ECS2CjWUo1 Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) September 17, 2021 BJPs grand plans for birthday celebrations Meanwhile, BJP workers are taking part in week-long Seva Saptah to celebrate PM Modis birthday. Over 8 lakh party volunteers took part in mega vaccination drive and helped cross 2 crore vaccination target as birthday gift to PM Modi. Among other programs, about 71,000 diyas (earthen lamps) will be lit at the Bharat Mata Temple in Kashi, 14 crore ration bags will be distributed with Thank-you Modiji printed on them, 5 crore postcards will be sent by mail to the post offices throughout the country, as a part of Seva Aur Samarpan Abhiyan. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. The latest COVID shortage has nothing to do with toilet paper or microchips. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Charell Peterkin walked her two daughters to their bus stops in Williamsburg on the first day of school Monday, her 7-year-old excited to return to a fully reopened school for the first time since the pandemic began. At 7:15 a.m., she was supposed to hop on a bus, then Peterkin was going to walk her 10-year-old daughter about a block away, where she would pick up another bus five minutes later. Instead, the three of them waited a half-hour for the first bus, which never showed up. That wait caused her older daughter to miss her bus to school altogether. Peterkins tight schedule was derailed, forcing her to take the kids to Compass Charter School in Fort Greene by the L train and transfer to the G. The mishap happened again on Tuesday, forcing her to be late for work twice. She kept her kids at home on Wednesday to avoid being late again, even though theyd be marked absent. The government gave out money for everything else, but they forgot about the children and child care, said Peterkin. If theres no busing, I cant work. Peterkin knew the first day back would be crazy, and she even quit her job as a postal worker to find a gig that accommodates working from home to quarantine should a student or teacher in her kids classes contract COVID. Now shes looking for overnight remote work in case she needs to keep taking her kids to school. For now, Peterkin found someone to accompany her kids on Friday, but shes not sure what shell do next week. We are in a pandemic, and also I dont have busing, and on top of that I have a child thats special needs, so theres just a lot on my plate. Shes one of countless parents across the country whove experienced a shortage of school-bus drivers, another sign of how the pandemic has disrupted society almost two years on. NPR reported the nationwide bus-driver shortage may be due to furloughs last year when schools went remote, while some drivers chose to retire and avoid contracting COVID. Renee Applebaum decided to put in her retirement papers after seeing bus routes she said were overcrowded, putting drivers at greater risk of catching the virus and creating long work days for drivers. I just felt my whole heart just sink, the 60-year-old Sheepshead Bay resident said. I went into a panic. I just got overwhelmed. Applebaum had no plans to retire after joining the industry nearly three decades ago as a single mom and it turned into a dream job. I was able to be a mommy and go to work and make a respectable living, she said. I said, Im gonna drive this bus until the day I die. The driver shortage in Massachusetts has gotten so bad the governor deployed the National Guard to drive kids to school, which has spurred some New York legislators to call for Governor Kathy Hochul to do the same. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday he hasnt heard of a bigger trend for school transportation problems so far this year. The first week or two of school, theres always adjustments to be made, but if theres something we can fix, were going to fix it right away, he said during his daily press conference. The president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 representing 8,000 school-bus employees in the city and Long Island, Michael Cordiello, told the Daily News that about 200 workers are needed. Department of Education spokesperson Katie OHanlon denied that the lack of bus drivers nationwide is affecting the city and said complaints about buses are down compared with 2019, but offered the departments help to those who may find themselves without a ride. This year, if a familys bus has an issue, were offering reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses related to transportation, MetroCards, or free private-car service. The problem has left parents coordinating with each other to get their kids to school. At a bus stop in Crown Heights, Beatrice Tony-Jeans third-grader, who also attends Compass, waited 20 minutes after the expected arrival time. Tony-Jean eventually gave up and drove her daughter and two other students to school. When I got there, the operations manager for the school the one whos in charge of busing told me that buses were not showing up at all, she said. The bus company that picks up the students, Jofaz Transportation, told parents there were no drivers and hung up. When Intelligencer tried to reach the company, three phone numbers listed for Jofaz either didnt function or no one picked up. The company also did not respond to an email. Its like a skeleton crew, Tony-Jean said. Another mother, Amy Miles of Sunset Park, gave her 9-year-old son a phone so she could track where the bus, also run by Jofaz, was located while she waited nearly three hours for him to arrive home from P.S. 682 in Bensonhurst on the first day of school. Nobody knew where the bus was except for me, so I was trying to let everybody know because it had been hours before their kids got dropped off, she said. Miles said her son, who is on the autism spectrum, is not supposed to be on the bus longer than 90 minutes. Nobody seems to care about that. Miles was among parents who struggled to file a complaint to the Education Department this week, waiting on hold before eventually being disconnected. Kristina Fiumano, whose kindergartner takes the same bus as Miless son, waited 40 minutes in the dark on Monday, since all families were given the same pickup time, 6:20 a.m. My son is autistic, and this waiting period was very hard for him, she said, adding the two-hour ride home without access to a bathroom was also difficult for her son. Still, to this day, we have not been given individual pickup and drop-off times. For now, Tony-Jean, the mom in East Flatbush, is counting on mutual support and the privilege of some flexibility in her job. Collectively, as a school, were gonna need to just rely on each other to take each others kids. Great expectations. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images The United States likes to think of itself as an exemplar a shining city on a hill that lights humanitys path to a better tomorrow. And in some respects, Americas self-image aligns with its reality. From our peerless research universities to our pathbreaking biotech sector to our first-in-class fleet of homicidal robo-planes, the U.S. is at the bleeding edge of many fields of human endeavor. On paid family leave, however, were a century behind. In 1919, the League of Nations declared that working mothers had a right to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. Today, virtually every developed country boasts a paid-family-leave program that exceeds the 1919 standard except for the United States, which still has no national paid-leave policy whatsoever. But that might be about to change. Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to establish a comprehensive paid-family-leave program. And earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced legislation that would do just that. That bill will need to clear many obstacles before making it into law. And the legislation has many flaws that will need to be redressed, if America is to achieve truly universal paid family leave. But the U.S. is closer than ever before to building a family welfare state fit for the early-20th century. Heres a quick rundown of why Americas current approach to family leave is so dysfunctional, how it got to be that way, and what to expect when youre expecting the U.S. Congress to pass a paid-family-leave bill in 2021. Americas approach to paid family leave is on par with Papua New Guineas. When a couple brings a new life into Sweden, they are entitled to 71 weeks of leave, during which time they receive 78 percent of their normal earnings. In the United Kingdom, couples may take up to 41 weeks of combined paid parental leave. Just across our northern border, Canadians may take up to 50 weeks. America is the only developed country whose citizens are entitled to none. And we arent just an outlier within the OECD. A 2014 United Nations report found that, among the 185 countries with relevant data, only three declined to guarantee some form of paid maternity leave to their citizens: Oman, Papua New Guinea, and the United States. Only the latter two nations are still holding out today. The U.S. has made some fledging progress toward achieving early-20th-century labor standards. In 1993, Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which requires most employers to provide workers with 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave to care for a new child or gravely ill family member. Every other OECD country requires employers to offer a longer period of job-protected leave. And thanks to our loophole-ridden labor laws, about 40 percent of U.S. workers dont even qualify for the FMLAs 12 weeks. But hey, it was a start. The pace of progress has picked up in recent years. Nine U.S. states now have paid family- and medical-leave programs, of which five were established since 2016. Last year, all federal employees secured 12 weeks of paid parental leave through a law signed by Donald Trump. Meanwhile, in response to the COVID pandemic, Congress created the first-ever national paid-leave mandate. Under the emergency program, covered employers were required to give workers up to 50 days of paid leave at two-thirds of their normal wages or salary. The government would then reimburse employers for this expense. Alas, this policy was both temporary and anything but universal. Employers with more than 500 employees were exempt from the mandate (on the grounds that corporations that large can afford to give their workers paid family leave without the governments help), as were employers with fewer than 50 employees. Further, the law only provided 50 days of paid leave to parents with children at home because of closed schools or daycares, rather than to all Americans with a sick loved one to care for or who were personally battling illness themselves. The absence of a comprehensive national paid-leave program exacerbates the inequities of American life. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 25 percent of U.S. firms offer some form of paid family leave, and companies with high-wage workforces are nearly twice as likely to offer such benefits as those with few high-paid employees. That finding comports with Labor Department data, which shows workers in the highest income quartile to be roughly three times more likely to have paid-parental-leave benefits than those in the lowest quartile. This form of inequality is implicated in more fundamental ones. A growing body of sociological research suggests that disparities in the early childhood experiences of well-born and disadvantaged children play a role in reproducing and widening invidious class divides. And studies have demonstrated an association between paid-leave programs and improvements in both child development and maternal well-being. Taken together, this suggests that the class disparities in access to paid leave help perpetuate broader inequalities across the generations. Separately, paid-leave programs appear to improve job continuity and labor-market participation among women. This not only aids growth by expanding the supply of labor in the economy. It also mitigates gender inequalities in earnings and thus the dependence of women on male partners for material security. So long as paid leave remains a luxury of the labor elite, gaps in economic power between men and women will be difficult to close. What explains Americas exceptional lack of a federal paid-leave program? Its always difficult to explain why any given country took a divergent historical path from other similar nations. Human events are replete with uncontrolled variables. That said, there are a few factors that likely contributed to Americas becoming such an outlier on paid family leave. One is Americas relative insulation from the horrors of World War II. As with most other elements of the welfare state, the first paid-leave programs were byproducts of mass bloodletting. During the First World War, European women secured unionized factory jobs in record numbers as the necessity of churning out munitions and the dearth of young men on the home front forced employers and male trade unionists to loosen norms of gender discrimination. This wartime experience left female workers more class-conscious and organized. When peace arrived, they pushed for labor regulations that would help women reconcile their maternal and economic ambitions (hence, the League of Nations call for paid maternity leave in 1919). Still, paid-leave policies did not become the norm throughout the West until after the Second World War. As the historian Mona Siegel argues, in the context of postwar Europe, the ambitions of womens-rights advocates came into alignment with the needs of national economies. Their working-age populations thinned by mass death, European nations were in desperate need of both more labor and more babies. Increasing the supply of both required making it more tenable for women to have demanding jobs and large families. Paid leave helped to square that circle. The United States suffered relatively few casualties during World War Two. Whereas France lost 1.9 percent of its population to the conflict, America lost just 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, Americas industrial base had not been devastated by aerial bombing but, rather, been vastly expanded by overseas demand. These realities, combined with the nations relatively open immigration policies, made it less economically pressing for the U.S. to accommodate women workers. And the relative weakness of the American left particularly after the postwar Red Scare made it politically unnecessary to enact robust family-welfare policies. Thus the American and European approaches to family leave sharply diverged. More proximately, efforts to pass a paid-family-leave policy in recent years have faltered in the face of the GOPs aversion to taxation and an inclusive conception of the family. Many Republicans espouse support for paid leave, as the policy appeals to both fiscally conservative professional women and pro-family social conservatives. But the only funding mechanism that Republicans have been willing to entertain is allowing new parents to withdraw money from Social Security today in exchange for receiving leaner benefits tomorrow. And Republicans are also less interested in providing paid leave either to nontraditional families or to individuals caring for sick family members rather than for newborn children. All this has made it difficult for Democrats and Republicans to reach consensus on a national paid-leave policy. Since control of the federal government was divided between the two parties for most of the past decade, this lack of bipartisan consensus helped frustrate recent attempts at reform. What House Democrats paid-leave proposal would do. For years, the Democratic Partys signature paid-leave legislation was Senator Kirsten Gilibrands FAMILY Act. That bill would guarantee 12 weeks of publicly financed paid leave, at a minimum of two-thirds of ones previous wages (up to a limit of $4,000 a month), to workers who are: caring for newborn children or seriously ill family members battling a serious illness coping with the adverse consequences of a loved ones military deployment mourning a lost loved one or recovering from an incident of domestic violence or a sexual assault The bill finances those benefits through a 0.4 percent payroll tax, split between firms and their employees. This is the same funding structure used by Social Security and all state-level paid-leave programs. But the Family Act is not the version of paid leave thats most likely to make it into law. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a similar but distinct paid-leave proposal. The new legislation, authored by the committees chairman, Richard Neal, retains the bulk of the Family Acts basic design: It guarantees paid leave for the same list of reasons, at roughly the same rate of reimbursement, for the same length of time. But there are a few critical differences between the two plans. One is that Neals proposal lacks a minimum benefit. In order to ensure that part-time workers with low-earnings secure non-negligible leave payments, the FAMILY Act guaranteed all eligible workers at least $580 a month in cash aid, even if they would be entitled to less money under the bills wage-replacement formula. The two bills also have different financing mechanisms. Whereas the FAMILY Act is funded through a dedicated payroll tax, Neals legislation is paid for out of general tax revenue. The most significant difference, though, concerns each bills mode of administration. The FAMILY Act has the same model as Social Security a unified federal program. Neals bill has a much more complex operating structure. In brief, the proposal subsidizes employer-provided paid-leave insurance plans and state paid-leave programs while reserving direct federal benefits as a backup for Americans who lack access to a state or employer plan. In other words, the legislation is modeled less on Social Security than on the tangled web of public-private and federal-state partnerships that the U.S. health-care system comprises. This policy design poses some serious administrative hazards. As Matt Bruenig of the Peoples Policy project argues: By including private insurance in this way, the bill ensures that we will waste some of our paid leave money on private insurer overhead and profits. It also invites employers and insurers to profit off of benefit denials and cream-skimming of various sorts. An employer who has a workforce that takes a below-average amount of paid leave could conceivably get an insurance contract that charges less than the grant the Treasury pays them and then pocket the difference. The employer and state plans will also massively complicate the system for individuals trying to take paid leave. Individuals seeking leave have to figure out firstly whether they are covered by an employer plan, secondly whether they are covered by a state plan, and then, if not, apply to the federal government for benefits and, in that process, prove they arent covered by an employer or state. What happens to someone who was covered by an employer plan at the beginning of the year but was later fired and is now seeking paid leave? According to the bill text, their name will show up in the Treasury database as being covered by their prior employer even though they no longer are. Neals plan also suffers from shortcomings common to all of the Democrats recent paid-leave proposals. The 12-week duration of its individual benefits trails the OECD average of 18 weeks. Further, the duration rules are structured in a manner that disadvantages single parents relative to co-parenting couples. The latter can stagger their respective 12-week leaves, thereby avoiding child-care expenses for a full six months. Single parents are not, generally, more capable of incurring the costs of child care than two-earner couples are. Nor are the children of single parents generally in less need of parental nurturing during their infanthood. A more equitable policy design common to paid-leave programs in many other countries would provide all parental units with the same amount of paid time off and allow couples to divide the time between each other as they see fit, while enabling single parents to take the same amount of total leave as couples do. Separately, the paid leave policys eligibility requirements likely render upwards of 30 percent of all new parents ineligible for cash support during their newborns first months. This is because parents must show labor-market earnings in the months before their desired leave. This excludes parents who have children while attending high-school or college, those suffering long-term unemployment, and the disabled, among others. If the point of paid leave is to allow parents to bond and nurture their newborn children, it is not obvious why unemployed parents should not be provided with at least a modest 12-week subsidy following their infants birth. Why a (deeply flawed and nonuniversal) national paid-leave program will probably pass. Neals paid leave proposal has made it out of committee. But now, like virtually every other item on the Democratic agenda from green investment to universal prekindergarten to child allowances the fate of a national paid-leave program rests on the success or failure of a single megabill. This strange state of affairs is the product of arcane Senate conventions and the thinness of the Democratic Partys congressional majorities. Moderate Senate Democrats are committed to preserving the legislative filibuster, which has established a de facto 60-vote threshold for passing major bills out of Congresss upper chamber. And since Democrats hold only a bare majority in the Senate, they need to defer to Joe Manchins procedural tastes. Fortunately, there is one end run around the filibuster: Once every fiscal year, Senate majorities can pass a single package of measures that concern the federal budget with a mere 51 votes through a process known as budget reconciliation. For this reason, the Democratic leadership has stuffed all of Joe Bidens partisan economic proposals into one $3.5 trillion bill. Passing that mammoth legislation will now require congressional Democrats to achieve unanimity over the fine details of a dizzying array of new tax increases and federal expenditures. That reality has triggered a series of staring contests between the partys various factions, each of which has the votes to kill Bidens entire agenda if its demands arent met. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have vowed to vote against the package if its price tag isnt lowered. Progressives have threatened to oppose it if the price is cut. Democrats who represent high-tax jurisdictions have promised to torpedo the bill if it doesnt lift the cap on the state and local tax deduction, while the pharmaceutical industries Democratic allies have promised to veto the bill if it allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices. If nobodys blinks, Bidens entire agenda will collapse and take paid family leave down with it. But there is reason to believe that someone will blink and that said someone will not be paid-leave advocates. Conventional wisdom on Capitol Hill holds that Manchin and Sinema will bargain the price of the reconciliation package down, thereby forcing the abandonment of some policy initiatives. Still, the Democratic caucus is likely to arrive at a compromise that progressives can live with, since the political and substantive costs of total legislative failure are so high. Paid leave is likely to be part of that compromise, as it is uncontroversial among moderate Democrats and a priority for the partys leadership. By the time Neals paid-leave proposal makes it through the gauntlet of reconciliation, however, its liable to be even more flawed and nonuniversal than it is today. For one thing, theres a good chance that Democrats will end up delaying the programs onset. As currently written, Neals paid-leave plan takes full effect in 2023. In order to keep the reconciliation packages overall cost below Manchins red line, Democrats may move that start date toward the latter part of the decade. This scenario is especially plausible because Joe Bidens initial paid-leave proposal, included in his American Families plan, phased in gradually over a ten-year period. That structure enabled the president to limit the programs estimated price (within the ten-year budget window) to $225 billion. By contrast, the FAMILY Act has a projected cost of more than $320 billion. If the legislative process is liable to delay the paid-leave programs onset, it could also gut one of the policys essential features. In order to qualify for passage through reconciliation, a measure must primarily concern taxing and spending not regulating the economy. Paid-leave benefits meet this criterion. But an accompanying rule forbidding employers from firing workers who take paid leave might not. After all, such a rule would function as a regulatory mandate on employers akin to the minimum wage. And earlier this year, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that minimum-wage hikes are not reconciliation eligible. The existence of the FMLA mitigates this problem. Even if Democrats pass a version of paid leave that lacks a job-protection mandate, workers covered by the 1993 law will be able to take 12 weeks of paid leave secure in the knowledge that they cant be fired for doing so. But roughly 40 percent of U.S. workers do not qualify for job-protected leave under the FMLAs stringent eligibility requirements. A reconciliation-eligible paid-leave policy might provide these workers with benefits they dont feel comfortable using. By the end of 2021, the United States might have a national paid-leave program that meets the labor standards of 1919. But even in the best-case scenario, Americas paid-leave program will remain less generous and inclusive than those of other developed countries. 8 a.m.: Check into your beachfront hotel Delta has direct flights from JFK to Dakar that take about eight hours. I arrived in the morning and had a taxi waiting for me (I called ahead, and the hotel booked it). Dakar is four hours ahead of NYC, so I was ready to start the day after decompressing in my room at Terrou-Bi (Boulevard Martin Luther King), which a local friend recommended for its proximity to the city center. It also has its own private beach as well as a casino (which I didnt use). 1 p.m.: Take a speedboat to Ngor Island On my first day, I made my way to one of Dakars local islands, Ngor. I took a 20-minute taxi ride (the hotel coordinated this) to the Village de Ngor on the northern tip of the peninsula. Once you arrive at the beach, youll see boats lined up waiting to take you across the turquoise-blue waters. When your boat is full, the ride will take about 15 minutes and costs about $1. Before getting on the boat, I met a local guide, Papa Samba, and hired him to be my tour guide for the day. You can find guides near the drivers handing out life vests before boats are boarded. Ngor is known for its landscape lots of bougainvillea, volcanic rock formations as well as its art and surf community. Surfers from around the world come to catch the waves or learn at the surf schools. (Fun fact: The island is electricity-free and runs mostly on solar power.) Here in Ngor, you can walk almost endlessly to explore the island, and youll find a lot of local street art honoring important African figures. Papa Samba told me that from the western part of the island during the winter, you can watch dolphins migrate from Europe to South America. Also, part of 60s surf doc The Endless Summer was shot here. 7 p.m.: Order wok-tossed langoustines I visited Alkimia (Route des Almadies), a restaurant and music venue, which is located in the nightlife area of the city. I chilled on the terrace, ordered the tataki de saumon and wok de langoustes and a glass of wine while I watched the performers get ready for the evenings performance. There are both English- and French-speaking bands that sometimes do covers, and other times there will be an original set with an orchestral blend of West African soul and jazz sounds; thankfully, we got the latter that night. This place is definitely on the pricier side. Decrease Font Size Font Size Increase Font Size Article body Auburn Universitys fall commencement exercises, scheduled for Dec. 10-11, once again will take place in Jordan-Hare Stadium, contingent on current health and safety guidelines and weather. Beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 10, all graduates will attend the University Commencement featuring a keynote address by former chairman and chief executive officer of Accenture, Joe Forehand Jr. In addition to fireworks, a flyover and the formal conferral of degrees by the Board of Trustees, graduates also will receive a commemorative cord and will be seated on Pat Dye Field during the ceremony. Graduates must attend the University Commencement on Friday to pick up their name cards for the Saturday ceremonies. Families and guests of graduates are welcome to attend the University Commencement on Friday. Beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 11, the university will host separate undergraduate and graduate ceremonies at set times throughout the day. Each ceremony will include brief remarks by the dean, followed by the student processionals. All graduates will receive a copy of The Auburn Creed and pose for an official university photograph with their names displayed on the videoboard. Times for each college are available on the commencement website, and graduates must enter the stadium through the Harbert Family Recruiting Center at least 30 minutes before their scheduled ceremony time. Graduates and guests will have access to Pat Dye Field following each ceremony. All ceremonies will be live-streamed on the commencement website for those unable to attend or who have health concerns. Commencement is an important time where we celebrate the culmination of our students hard work and achievements, President Jay Gogue said. I look forward to congratulating all of our fall graduates during Fridays University Commencement and welcoming them to our prestigious family of alumni. In preparing for the fall ceremonies, the university continues to monitor various health scenarios associated with COVID-19 as well as weather contingencies associated with the outdoor venue. Guests will be permitted to enter the stadium through gates 5-8 (Gate 9 will be open for accessibility) and a complete list of safety protocols is available on the commencement website. The University Commencement on Friday, Dec. 10, showcases Auburns graduation traditions, including a keynote address delivered by Forehand, a 1971 Auburn industrial engineering graduate. An internationally recognized business executive and strategist, Forehand is the former CEO of Accenture and is credited with advancing the consulting firms growth. In 2000, he finalized Accentures split from Andersen Worldwide and successfully led its IPO and international rebranding campaign. During his tenure as CEO, Forehand increased its revenue from $9.6 billion to $13.7 billion and added nearly 40,000 employees to its workforce. Following his retirement, Forehand continued to work as a senior advisor with corporations such as Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, First Data Corporation and was chairman of Aricent, a global design and engineering technology company. In addition to advisory and leadership roles at Auburn, Forehand was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2001. Fall graduates who need to order keepsake regalia should place orders through the Auburn University Bookstore. Early regalia orders placed by Oct. 29 can be picked up at the bookstore the week of Nov. 16-19. All other orders can be picked up during the week of final exams, Dec. 6-10. All graduates attending the University Commencement and participating in graduation ceremonies must wear the proper regalia. Additional information is available on the commencement website, and information will be posted on the Auburn University commencement Facebook and Instagram accounts. For questions regarding commencement, please email commencement@auburn.edu. The rumour I heard was that hed disinherited Andrew and that was why it was being kept quiet lol Reply Thread Link Wouldn't that actually make the royal family look good, though? People are waiting for them to condemn Andrew in some way... Reply Parent Thread Link Theyre all protecting him because hes the Queens favourite, showing up Phillip as dissenting just highlights their behaviour more (especially since Phillip wasnt exactly known for being the sensitive woke one) and itd be talked up as a rift Edit: hit send too soon, in reality its probably all more routine than wanting to hide the contents but Im enjoying the rumours lol Edited at 2021-09-17 02:08 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link I would LIVE if he did that. LMAO! Reply Parent Thread Link I would DIE if that were the case. omfg. I suspect it's for a much more boring reason. Idk. I could probably google if the Queen Mum's will was public info to find out how standard it is for royal wills to be kept private. But ugh sounds like it'd take time and I don't feel like it. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I want to believe! Reply Parent Thread Link Sealing of the will seems pretty standard, the Queens mother and sister will are both sealed. I hate that Thomas Markle is still getting press, its clear he has nothing to say he just wants attention. Reply Thread Link Not just them, apparently it's a long tradition. Reply Parent Thread Link The ~emasculation body language experts have me DYING, lmao. Not that it matters, but I feel like that's a fairly typical "male" pose? Reply Thread Link Why is Thomas Markle on Australian tv so much? What's going on down there? but anyway people get absolutely unhinged and psychotic over these two and I hope they have good protection. Also Philip probably left money to his mistress(es). Edited at 2021-09-17 02:04 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link australia media is murdoch owned and a lot of their news is in the fox news vein Reply Parent Thread Link Ironically he doesnt own this station but the mogul who does is paying the legal fees of an alleged war criminal whos suing the moguls competitor for alleging the alleged war criminal committed said war crimes sodifferent zebra same stripes. Reply Parent Thread Link Its part of the royal Commonwealth family. The Queen is grandma, UK is Mum, the US is the prodigal son, Thomas is the creepy guy your parents make you call uncle and Australia is the deadbeat kid who had to be kicked out of home but no hard feelings, just want to be in the will family Christmas photo. Reply Parent Thread Link Meghan's body looks stretched horizontally & squashed vertically. I know she has a boxy body type but she looks weird.Harry's black outfit & his slight crouched pose is making him look weird too. Reply Thread Link Yeah, the criticisms over their ~body language are very stupid, but at the end of the day it's still not a great photo. Awkward editing and posing. Reply Parent Thread Link All the boxy outfits and weird photoshop on her in those photos makes me think it's a poor attempt at covering post-partum weight on Meghan. Not sure if that was her call or the magazine's. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I want these wills to leak is that very unlikely? Reply Thread Link imagine being such a doormat to the point of thinking a wife standing in front of her husband means embarrassing him. tbh women this pathetic are just pitiful to me. and not surprised about the dude's tweet in the least, that's how most men feel but not all of them are stupid enough to voice it. Reply Thread Link Royal wank post?! Right after a Simu Liu dragfest? And a Demi Lovato post! And we haven't even gotten to Friday free for all?? Let the ontd weekend commence! Reply Thread Link The amount of Photoshop they used on that rapidly balding violent racist's hair is staggering. Meghan looks fabulous as always but the other photos from this shoot were far superior to what they chose for the cover. Reply Thread Link it's funny because if i was going to be the kind of person that read into body language of a directed photoshoot, i would have said harry is in the more dominant position. the hands on shoulders behind your wife is a classic one, almost gives the impression that he possesses her and is presenting her to the world. that photoshop is killing me though lol Reply Thread Link right? It's basically the classic prom pose. I see it in wedding pics too. Reply Parent Thread Link @ the media, PLESE stop talking to Thomas Markle and giving him the attention he so clearly craves. I am BEGGING you. Reply Thread Link I read this Twitter thread pulling together the fact that for the Firm to cover up Williams' philandering, they tossed Meghan to the wolves. I also think that it was William who said the sideways comments about Archie and the color of his skin. Harry and Meghan shined too brightly and William (and co.) couldn't handle. And the petty took hold. The connection between Jason Knauf, Will's former communications secretary, as well as Will's former private secretary Samantha Cohen, Will's former deputy communications secretary Christian Jones and Will's former communications secretary Sara Latham - all the folks who had their hands involved in the Letter (and likely its release) is totally there and they ain't shit. Of course Thomas Markle got manipulated - idiot. These people are rich and will be fine at the end of the day - but whew, they ain't shit. The BRF (like all royal families) stand on the blood and bones of millions - its all irredeemable. But they squandered their once in a millennia chance to "shift the narrative" in the most shallow way with Meghan and they got tripped up in their misogynoir and insecurity. Reply Thread Link well damn, if you read it on a twitter thread, it must be true! Reply Parent Thread Link #thetruthisoutthere smh. IKR. That Bird app is that bitch #twitterU smh. Reply Parent Thread Link And this is ONTD not Reuters lol Reply Parent Thread Link Interesting you say that, when on the last post you couldnt be bothered to find out what Meghan and Harry do in their foundation. Reply Parent Thread Link wait so does hiding the will mean no one will inherit anything for 90 years, or just that the money will be distributed quietly and no one besides its beneficiaries will know about it for 90 years? Reply Thread Link No, probate has already been granted, so the money / assets have been dispersed, the will itself just won't be a public document for 90 years. It's also probably not as malicious or scandalous as people are making it out to be - Margaret's will also was sealed for 90 years, and the Queen Mother's. Apparently common for royals. Edited at 2021-09-17 03:30 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link This is what I want to know (without googling myself)! Reply Parent Thread Link I love how hard Conservatives are trying to make this horrendous photoshop into a story about emasculation. The whole reason it looks weird is because they weren't posed like this but it was altered in post you dorks. Reply Thread Link They really want to make Meghan out to be some witchy woman. Casting spells with her misandrist vagina!!! Reply Parent Thread Link As someone who has worked my way up in this industry as a nursing assistant for 7 years then now as a RN for the past 3, JFC yeah its bad. Certain units tend to pull these types of personalities as well as regions. I had a better experience working in SF than I do in LA. Working in the ED has a lot of personality but at least we have a lot of different people from different backgrounds and at least genders so it wasnt hard to feel welcome, especially as a new nurse. It also helped that it was a teaching hospital (Im referring to my time in SF) so the staff there were willing to help out as much as possible and I loved that teamwork. Though working in the LA area I was more independent and but there were some more problematic ladies that just had some aura of fuck off Since the surge its been awful to work bedside. We are seeing a mass exodus of nurses right now. I feel for new grads as they are probably being fast tracked into roles that really need more time and education. Nursing school doesnt do enough to teach you its all about on the job training. When you have good nurses leaving you arent getting a well rounded new grad orientation and will mostly lead to burn out quickly. It wasnt common practice to have new grads be charge nurse within their first 6 months of work but now it is. They hone that shit in big time in school now and its frustrating how much they pressure you into managerial roles. Then again, we do need to have better nursing management and leadership to begin with. The whole profession needs an overhaul. I hope the pandemic will be able to teach these hospital admins something but it may not do much. I left bedside right before the big surge. Its not worth the stress and burn out. Doing Covid compliance and testing is a nice change of pace for once. I may go back into palliative care or hospice once the whole testing situation starts to slow down. Hospice nurses are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Shaun King recently launched his A Real One clothing line, which he describes as a disruptive fashion company designed to completely change the supply chain from the seed to your closet, but already he seems to be stealing borrowing work from other organizations that actually have been involved in the industry he seeks to exploit next. The image you see here is from a Gatsby Foundation report on the Tanzanian cotton and textiles sector, but it's being used uncredited on the A Real One website. The results of an ONTD investigation are below! After kebedes posted a comment in the post about Shaun King launching his A Real One clothing line pointing out that photos on his site are taken from "a BCI feature on Tata Djire about women's economic empowerment in Mali" and a Gatsby Foundation report on the Tanzanian cotton and textiles sector, I decided to reach out to BCI and the Gatsby Foundation to ask whether those photos were used with permission, and if their organizations were affiliated with King and his A Real One clothing line. After asking, "Does he even have the right to use their photos or did he stay true to his scammer ways and steal those too?", kebedes noted, "As far as I can tell, there's no attribution and no mention of Mali, Tanzania, the organizations or the subjects anywhere on his site. Just a generic nod to black production and transparency, which is of course a known strong suit of his." So what's the deal? My correspondence to the Gatsby Foundation is as follows. Hello! It was pointed out to me that a photo from the Gatsby site, specifically a report on the Tanzanian cotton and textiles sector (https://www.gatsby.org.uk/uploads/africa/reports/pdf/2020-tanzanian-cotton-textiles-highlights.pdf) is being used to promote A Real One clothing store launched by Shaun King (https://arealone.com). However, I see no photo credit on the A Real One site or mention of an affiliation, even though other organizations are listed. As someone who works in the media, I am sensitive to proper citations and giving credit where credit is appropriate. Additionally, as a consumer, I try to be conscious and discerning about the brands I support, so I wanted to reach out and see if there is an affiliation between Gatsby and A Real One that just isnt cited (yet) on the A Real One site. Thank you for any assistance you can provide! While I have not yet received a response from BCI, who I sent a similar message to, I did hear back from a representative of the Gatsby Foundation, who shared, its a surprise to see an image of our cotton programme being used on the website. The full response I received from the Gatsby Foundation is below - emphasis theirs. Hi [name redacted for privacy reasons], We received your message about the use of one of our images on the A Real One clothing store. Firstly, I want to say so thank you so much for taking the time to bring this to our attention, it is hugely appreciated! We do not have any affiliation with A Real One clothing or Shaun King so its a surprise to see an image of our cotton programme being used on the website. We will be looking into the matter further in the coming weeks. Thank you so much again for letting us know. Best wishes, Georgia A similar message was sent to BCI with the appropriate links. While I have not heard back from BCI (which stands for the Better Cotton Initiative), I will point out that the photographer is cited on the BCI site, but there is no proper citation or indication of who took the photo or where its from on the A Real One site. So whats this mean? Who knows! But at the very least, if you launch a business saying youre going to interrupt the current supply chain for good and that youre going to empower and employ Black farmers, designers, printers, and partners, maybe dont start off by not crediting the images of the farmers. It doesnt look good to claim youre going to show every single level of production and have the first images you show on your site be ones you're using without permission. P.S. While I did not look into this matter, in the original post about A Real One launching, neonguts commented, "I went to the site and crossed checked some of the 'certifications' the brand supposedly has by simply googling the certifications website and searching if this brand is a member and..yeah its not. Its like they just googled all the best certifications to have and then just photoshopped them all together to put on the site to make themselves look good." That also crossed my mind, but this was enough research for one day. I can confirm A Real One is not listed on the Fair Wear, Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, nor Canopy websites, which they claim to be a member of. To be fair, although King is not deserving of the benefit of the doubt, that could be explained by those organizations not yet updating their websites. As an end note, Canopy just issued a press release with 14 new brand partners on Sept. 15 and a press release announcing 400 new brands and retailers joining CanopyStyle, "a game-changing fashion and forest conservation initiative that is transforming the fashion industrys viscose supply chain," on Sept. 16. Draw from that what you will. Sources A Real One website kebedes comment in the original post about A Real One launching neonguts'comment in that post A BCI feature on Tata Djire Gatsby Foundation report on the Tanzanian cotton and textiles sector Uncredited image of the BCI photo on the A Real One website Uncredited image from the Gatsby Foundation on the A Real One website Canopy website My personal email Despite promises of improved infrastructure and better disaster preparedness, governments and energy giants are failing to provide backup energy provisions to areas hit hard by extreme weather conditions again and again. As these events are becoming more frequent and stronger, how will the energy industry prepare for the future of energy provision? The ongoing discussion over energy infrastructure resilience which is brought up year after year peaked in February in the U.S. as Texas battled against a severe winter storm that saw the electrical grid shut down and thousands of buildings lose power. Many across the state had to rely on generators to heat their houses to escape freezing temperatures for up to a week. A significant proportion of energy production in the U.S.s biggest oil state came to a halt following the storm, having a knock-on effect on energy output levels for the rest of the spring. Oil production is thought to have dropped by around 1.2 million bpd due to freezing pipelines and a lack of electricity to key infrastructure. But could all of this be avoided had the U.S. government and big oil invested in its aging infrastructure long ago? Earlier this year, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Americas energy infrastructure a C-rating score, suggesting the need for significant improvement to prevent future production cuts and potential disasters. Since his inauguration, President Biden has pointed towards his $2 trillion infrastructure plan as the answer to the problem. As well as fixing tens of thousands of roads and bridges, enhancing the countrys transportation links, the plan also intends to improve energy infrastructure and water pipelines across the U.S. over a timescale of eight years. In August, the budget for the infrastructure bill increased to $3.5 trillion as it narrowly passed in the Senate. As well as updating traditional energy infrastructure and transport links, the bill includes efforts to tackle climate change by funding electric vehicles, renewable power, and clean energy initiatives. But as it goes to the House of Representatives, it is clear that Bidens big plan will have to survive all the bureaucracy of U.S. politics before it can put into practice. Realistically, it could be years before we see any meaningful advances in U.S. energy infrastructure coming from this plan. This has driven local powers to devise their own strategies for disaster preparedness when it comes to energy provision. In Texas, the Railroad Commission of Texas commissioners approved proposed rules for critical designation of natural gas infrastructure during energy emergencies this month. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas also published a report in June entitled Never Again in response to the energy failure seen following the February storm. PUC calls upon several Texan energy authorities to work together to winterize power plants and improve all areas of aging energy infrastructure that lead to the failure in energy provision when hit by harsh weather conditions. This call has been replicated in other U.S. states confronted with severe weather phenomena that lead to a reduction in energy production and a lack of energy provision to millions of Americans every year. But it is not only the U.S. that is confronting an energy infrastructure emergency, it is estimated that it will require around $1 trillion in investment to prepare Canadas energy infrastructure to resist against severe weather conditions. The Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development IISD published a report this summer that suggests around one-third of Canadas core infrastructure is in poor condition and not resilient to the impacts of climate change. The report highlights the impact that climate change, leading to severe weather events on a more regular basis, is having on energy provision. Aging infrastructure, not made to withstand freezing winters and summer heatwaves can simply not be relied upon to deliver vital energy to households in its current state. This is true in the U.S., Canada and several other parts of the world battling weather events such as heatwaves, winter storms, hurricanes, and monsoons. As well as major countrywide infrastructure reinforcement plans, relying on majority political support and major funding, experts are now suggesting alternative responses to strengthen energy provision across the most affected areas. Proposals include microgrids, smaller power plants that would be able to operate independently of the main grid to provide energy to households and businesses during a weather event. To conquer the effect of worsening weather events on energy infrastructure and provision, it is necessary to enlist both a top-down and bottom-up approach. While major national infrastructure plans are vital for securing the future of a countrys energy provision, local-level action is also needed. Individual cities and states can better understand the changing weather conditions in the local area and highlight the challenges to their energy infrastructure to better prepare for the future. Local governments will have to dedicate investment in studies and infrastructure reinforcement if they hope to avoid disasters in energy provision leading to deaths, such as those seen over the last year in Texas and California. By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: China's oil consumption could peak in five years at a daily level of around 16 million barrels, a senior Sinopec executive has forecast, as quoted by Reuters. Ma Yongsheng, acting chairman of the state oil major, also said gas consumption will likely peak around 2040. As for oil, Ma said, over the longer term, the commodity will become primarily a raw material for chemicals rather than for fuels. Sinopec will take an active part in the reduction of China's oil consumption by "forcefully promoting" lower-carbon operations and reducing energy-intensive business activities. "We will accelerate the transition from oil to chemicals and boost production of high-end materials...and raise lower-carbon feedstocks to cut down the carbon footprint throughout the manufacturing cycle," the executive said at an event in Beijing. At the moment, China is the world's top oil importer, taking in more than 10 million barrels daily as of August. As such, the country's consumption levels are a major oil price mover as was most recently seen when Beijing announced it would sell some oil from its strategic reserve. The news of the unprecedented move sparked worry that the country was sending a pointed message to OPEC+ with regard to their efforts to keep international prices elevated despite a couple of strong bearish factors such as a production decline in the United States caused by the last two hurricanes and a gas crunch in Europe. Meanwhile, however, the immediate outlook for global oil demand remains bullish. Both OPEC and the International Energy Agency earlier this month issued updates on demand that saw it rising to more than 100 million bpd by the second quarter of next year. "Although much of the OPEC and IEA adjustments are longer-term in nature, they are nonetheless worthy of some buying interest despite significant demand risk across the balance of this year related to the Delta variant (of the coronavirus,)" according to Jim Ritterbusch from Ritterbusch and Associates, as quoted by Reuters. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Natural gas prices all over the world are surging amid a perfect storm of tight regional gas markets and soaring power prices in Europe. The natural gas rally isnt over yetand it has further room to hit fresh record highs, especially if the coming winter turns out to be colder than typical in the northern hemisphere. The natural gas crunch and the sky-is-the-limit rally in electricity prices are most evident in Europe. But the increased interdependence among regional gas markets in the U.S., Asia, and Europe in recent years now means that natural gas price spikes in one region cannot be ignored by the markets in the other regions. As the northern hemisphere prepares for the coming winter, analysts say that weather will be the most important factor for natural gas prices and markets in the next few months. And if its colder than usual, Europe will not be the only one to feel a hot rally in energy prices. The gas supply crunch in Europe is going to put the focus on this commodity thats been overlooked for the last several years, John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital, told CNBC this week. A Perfect Storm In Europe Even Before Winter Europes tight gas market, low wind speeds, abnormally low gas inventories, and record carbon prices have combined in recent weeks to send benchmark gas prices on the continent and power prices in the largest economies to record highs. Almost daily, gas and power prices in Europe surge to fresh records, putting pressure on governments as consumers protest against soaring power bills ahead of the winter heating season. Related: Toyotas Big Bet On Solid State Batteries Could Boost The Entire Sector With just two weeks to go until the end of the injection season, natural gas inventories in Europe are at their lowest level for September in recent memory. This makes the market anxious about a dramatic supply crunch if this winter is anything like last winter, when temperatures were below norms for extended periods of time and a cold snap in the spring depleted stockpiles. Those inventories couldnt be adequately replenished as demand in Asia has also been strong, while supply in Europe has dropped due to lower deliveries from Russia. During the summer, even with the strong rebound in European natural gas demand and surging prices, Russian giant Gazprom did not book additional entry capacity to Europe via Ukraine. Analysts say that this could have been an opportunistic move from the Russian giant to drive up Europes gas prices further and take advantage of the high prices. Other analysts think that Gazproms effective reduction in supplies would force Europe to recognize that gas customers on the continent need the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, which bypasses Ukraine. Kremlin Says Nord Stream 2 Could Come To The Rescue Now that Russia has completed the construction of Nord Stream 2 and awaits a German regulatory nod to start gas flows, the Kremlin says that a quick approval and launch of the pipeline would help tame Europes soaring prices. Obviously, the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 as soon as possible will substantially balance natural gas price parameters in Europe, including on the spot market, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Regardless of whether Gazproms lower summer gas deliveries were a power play or the result of unexpected outages, the fact is that they contributed to the current gas shortage in Europe. Europes Gas Crunch Drives Up U.S. Prices and LNG Exports In todays interconnected regional gas markets, record-high prices in Europe drive U.S. benchmark prices up, too. The U.S. is supposed to be an island, but in the last three or four years, theres an increasing link between the U.S. and global market, Francisco Blanch, head of commodities and derivatives strategy at Bank of America, told CNBC. Weve gone from 50% correlation to 95% correlation. The U.S. market is being dragged around by this, said Blanch. In the United States, the Henry Hub price hit on Wednesday its highest in seven and a half years, seemingly piggybacking off European prices, Bespoke Weather Services said in a note carried by Natural Gas Intelligence. Related: Chevron CEO: Shareholder Returns Are More Important Than Solar, Wind Investment High demand for gas in Europe and Asia and the high Asian spot LNG prices even in the off-peak season are driving record exports of American LNG. High LNG exports, in turn, tighten domestic U.S. gas supply amid relatively flattish production in recent months and the still shut-in 39 percent of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico gas production as of September 15, more than two weeks after Hurricane Ida forced platform evacuations in the area. U.S. natural gas prices may cool with pleasantly warm early fall weather, analysts say. Yet, the natural gas/LNG supply squeeze globally is setting the stage for record winter prices, Lindsay Schneider at RBN Energy wrote last week. The incredible bull run for global gas prices has been underpinned by high demand for LNG and the cascading effect of a supply squeeze in Europe, brought on by the triple threat of low domestic production, decreased imports from Russia, and a scarcity of incremental LNG cargoes, Schneider says. Not only is this driving record-high gas prices and increased volatility now, but the low inventory means sustained high prices for the heating season ahead, the energy analyst noted. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russia's natural gas reserves will last for more than a century, Alexey Miller, chairman of the board of gas giant Gazprom, said on Friday. "Gas reserves in Russia, Gazprom's gas reserves are the largest in the world. And we won't have any problems with our reserves for the next 100 years," Miller said at a business conference in Moscow, as carried by Russian news agency TASS. Some of the gas fields that Gazprom is developing in the Yamal region have the potential to produce gas until 2132, Miller noted. "The prospects for pipeline gas supplies are quite great," Gazprom's head said. Last week, Gazprom completed the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, although gas flows on the controversial Russia-led pipeline cannot begin until Germany grants an operating license to the project. Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia's offshore Arctic resources alone could last for decades and even centuries. "The potential of the Arctic zone is huge. Speaking about offshore resources only, those are 15 bln tonnes of oil and around 100 trillion cubic meters of gas. That will suffice for decades, hundreds of years if they are required and it is economically reasonable," Novak said on Thursday, as carried by Russian news agency TASS. These resources, however, are very expensive to develop right now, the Russian official said, but noted that the government plans to encourage offshore Arctic development regardless. Massive offshore Arctic development would take place only if needed and only if other regions in Russia run out of resources, Novak added. Arctic offshore project developments in Russia are under U.S. sanctions which ban the provision of services or technology in support of exploration or production for deepwater, Arctic offshore, or shale projects. Earlier this year, Russian Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov said that Russia's oil reserves would last until 2080 at the current pace of annual production. Russia also has natural gas reserves for another 103 years of annual production at current output levels, the minister said. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Natural gas supply concerns continue to feed fears and push futures higher. As of Wednesday, the October Nymex contract was trading up over 17 cents, and Europe is in focus. Natural gas prices in Europe continue to rise, and U.S. prices are rallying around this, as well, responding both to European price jumps and concerns about storage capacity on both sides of the Atlantic. Year-to-date, the key benchmark price in Europethe Title Transfer Facility (TTF, a Dutch virtual hub)has shown an increase of 245% and a YOY increase of an astounding 520%, based on the latest data shared by Standard Chartered. LNG exports arent ready to step in to do anything about it. We have now reached a point where Americans might have to adjust their geopolitical thinking about Russias Gazprom-led Nordstream 2 pipeline. This is precisely where geopolitics hits the pocketbookbut not in the way that fits into the American narrative against Nordstream and the political leverage that could give Putin over Europe. Even a regularly cold winter in Europe will send prices--which shot up another 10% just on Wednesday--soaring much further. Anything slightly colder than the norm will be a price shock of new proportions. Another factor is Nord Stream itself. Prices jumped again Monday partly in response to news that it could take four months to clear Nord Stream for operations. Immediately prior to that, Saudi Arabia has prevented yet another attack by the Yemeni Houthis, this time in the city of Jazan, which is home to extensive Aramco oil infrastructure. Reuters reported the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting the Houthis in Yemen had destroyed four Houthi drones laden with explosives and also a ballistic rocket fired at Jazan, where Aramco operates a 400,000-bpd refinery that is often targeted by Houthi attacks. In April this year, the Saudis stopped another attack on Jazan from happening, intercepting five ballistic missiles and four drones launched at the oil city, which is about 60 km from the border with Yemen, which makes it a logical target. Recently, these attacks appear to have become more frequent. Just last week, another Houthi attack put Aramco on lockdown in Saudi Arabias Eastern Region. Aramco oil facilities are understandably a preferred target for the Houthis, which Saudi Arabia is trying to oust from Yemen after they removed the Saudi-affiliated government of the country in 2014 and has since then assumed power in most of Yemen. The Yemeni war, which has resulted in the worst humanitarian crisis in modern times, is widely seen as a proxy war between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. While the Saudi forces intercept most of the drones and missiles the Houthis launch at targets in the Kingdom, some do get through. The most notable one so far was an attack that took place two years ago and took off 5 percent of global daily oil supply offline as the missiles hit an oil field and a processing plant. While the Houthi rebels took responsibility for the attack, the Saudis and their U.S. partners blamed Iran, which backs the Houthis. With Aramco oil infrastructure a primary target for the rebel group, these attacks have the potential capacity to disrupt oil markets again at a time when prices are already sensitive enough due to other factors such as the pandemic. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Several progressive House Democrats introduced this week a bill seeking to mandate the Fed to ban banks from funding all fossil fuel projects after 2030, and require the systemically important large banks to align emissions financing with U.S obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement. Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY), Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) introduced the so-called Fossil Free Finance Act, which would require the Federal Reserve to mandate that all bank holding companies with more than $50 billion in assets and all nonbank Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) align their financing of greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation risk commodities with science-based emissions targets. The bill requires the Fed to mandate large banks to commit to 50 percent reduction in financed emissions by 2030 and 100-percent reduction in financed emissions by 2050. The Fed mandate, as per the bill, would also ban the financing of all fossil fuel projects after 2030 and prohibit thermal coal financing after 2024. For too long, our federal government has looked the other way while our nations largest banks bankroll the dirtiest fossil fuel projects, exacerbating the climate crisis and setting us up for a massive, climate-induced economic collapse. That must change, said Rep. Pressley. Environmental and citizen organizations welcomed the introduction of the bill. The Fossil Free Finance Act sends a powerful message that Congress wont accept the Federal Reserves failure to do its job, said Yevgeny Shrago, policy counsel with Public Citizens climate program. The bill, however, has very little chance of becoming law, The Hill notes. The current term of Fed chairman Jerome Powell, a Republican, expires next February, and there has been pressure from the most progressive Democrats that President Joe Biden do not nominate Powell for another term. According to The Hill, several House Democrats, including Rep. Pressley, have been demanding from President Joe Biden to replace Powell with a liberal who would incorporate climate change issues and concerns in the regulations of the banks. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: More than 40 members of the European Parliament from all political groups are urging the European Commission to launch an investigation into Russian gas giant Gazprom over alleged market manipulation that could have contributed to the record-high natural gas prices in Europe. We call on the European Commission to urgently open an investigation into possible deliberate market manipulation by Gazprom and potential violation of EU competition rules, 42 EU lawmakers wrote in a letter to the relevant European Commissioners seen by Bloomberg. Europe is grappling with soaring natural gas and electricity prices ahead of the winter heating season due to tight gas supplies, very low gas inventories across the continent, and low wind power generation amid still weather. During the summer, even with the strong rebound in European natural gas demand and surging prices, Gazprom did not book additional entry capacity to Europe via Ukraine. Analysts say that this could have been an opportunistic move from the Russian giant to drive up Europes gas prices further and take advantage of the very high prices. Other analysts think that Gazproms effective reduction in supplies would force Europe to recognize that gas customers on the continent need the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany bypassing Ukraine. Last week, Gazprom said it had completed the construction of Nord Stream 2, although gas flows on the Russia-led pipeline cannot begin until Germany grants an operating license to the project. Germanys federal networks regulator BNA said earlier this week that it would decide no later than January 8, 2022, whether it will certify Nord Stream 2 and issue an operating license for the pipeline. The commissioning of Nord Stream 2 as soon as possible will substantially balance natural gas price parameters in Europe, including on the spot market, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. On Friday, Alexey Miller, chairman of the board of Gazprom, said that low gas storage levels across Europe going into the winter season have the potential to push up Europes natural gas prices to new records in the coming weeks. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A Senior Research Fellow of the Kumasi Technical University, Dr. Smart Sarpong, has expressed disappointment in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) over the incessant leak of examination questions and serial cancellation of students' results that keeps recurring every time students are writing their exams. WAEC is said to have rescheduled this year's Physics and Business Management examinations in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The two papers were to be written on Wednesday, September 15 but a new date and time is yet to be announced by the regulatory body. WAEC arrived at this decision following reports that the exam questions got leaked. Speaking on Peace FM's flagship programme 'Kokrokoo', Dr. Smart Sarpong blamed WAEC authorities for the blunder and called for a complete overhaul of the Council. He slammed the WAEC officials stating they always would come up with sugar-coated excuses but never rectifies the problem. "You can have nice words to describe the situation; call it malpractice and so forth. Please, you have lost it; you have lost it. Your systems are down! . . . Some of us don't have confidence in them any longer . . . Our education is being undermined sincerely." He proposed that the Council should be handed over to the Military believing the Military will do a better job eliminating the exam questions leak. "Let's shut down WAEC. It's become one thing too many . . . Let's shut them down; overhaul the place. If we will allow the Military to take over and so forth, do you get it? The civilians in there are disappointing us," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Acting District Chief Executive for Sene East, Honourable Abraham Mbanye has cut the sod for the commencement of construction of the town roads in Kajeji of the Bono East Region. Performing the sod-cutting ceremony on Friday, 17th September 2021, Mr Abraham Mbanye indicated that a total of 3 kilometres of roads within Kajeji will be given a face-lift. With the mainstay of residents of the town being agriculture, the District Chief Executive was confident that the completion of the road will help facilitate the movement of people, goods and services within the town. The contract has been awarded to O.B.J engineering company Lmt and is to use four months to complete the work. The works to be undertaken include the clearing and demolition of existing weak structures, formation, widening of narrow sections, construction of critical culverts, construction of u-drains, construction of trapezoidal drains, sub-base, base, embankment protection, primer and seal. He reassured all persons whose structures may be affected by the construction will be duly compensated, and urged the Chiefs and people of Kajeji to help ensure that the process is completed on time. Nana Krunko Sunkwa, the Acting President for Nkomi Traditional Area, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiary communities, expressed happiness for the development. He said after the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah constucted their town roads, successive governments had failed to construct that portion of the road despite the residents pleas. We are grateful to the government and District Chief Executive for Sene East for their unpresidented developmental projects brought to our district, he said. Nana Krunko said, when completed, the road would improve upon the lives of residents. On his part, Sene East Npp constituency Chairman, Mr. Odonyim Kofi Abraham appealed to the residents of his constituency to look at the numerious number of developmental projects Npp government has brought to the district within few years and stop voting for NDC. Source: Kwabena Manu/Peace fm/Bono East correspondent. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The NDCs National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, was reported widely on Ghanaweb and other news portals, describing the NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, as a failure. In the said publication, Ofosu Ampofo was reported to have said that, John Boadu has no competency or moral authority to criticize John Mahama and the NDC because he [John Boadu] has failed abysmally in managing the NPP. Such criticism of John Boadu especially coming from Chairman Ofosu Ampofo can only be laughable. However, one can pardon Ofosu Ampofo for such absurdity, because he is so unstable as a result of the internal opposition he is receiving from his own NDC. He is unable to withstand the wrath of the rank and file of the NDC who are calling on him to account for his stewardship of the party. The woes of Ofosu Ampofo have become even more exacerbated following Asiedu Nketias decision to contest him for the National Chairmanship position, with the full backing of John Mahama. It is therefore understandable that the man who is still battling with kidnapping cases in the courts (Ofoso Ampofo), will desperately seek to make himself relevant in the NDC by firing salvos at the leadership of the NPP hoping that same would help revive his failing political career. Unfortunately, this strategy of Ofosu Ampofo has yet again failed because he has chosen the wrong target (in the person of John Boadu), whose records in the management of the affairs of the NPP are not only unassailable but also unimpeachable. How can Ofosu Ampofo, who, as director of elections of the NDC during election 2016 till date [more than 4 years now], has not been able to collate the NDCs electoral figures, compare himself with the tried and tested John Boadu? Even with this record, Ofosu Ampofo still had the moral authority to contest for position in the NDC, and in fact, went on to become the Partys National Chairman. It is only the NDC that would reward such crass ineptitude and mediocrity. No wonder he led them to another disastrous electoral defeat in 2020. It is submitted that if it were the NPP, Ofosu Ampofo would not only be unfit to contest for any position in the party, but would not even be able to assert any relevance in the Party. He may even be lampooned and shunned if he attempted to come to the Party headquarters. How can such a failing man compare his records with the results-oriented John Boadu? We are talking about the Ofosu Ampofo who as National Chairman of the NDC cannot still tell the votes his Party got in the 2020 elections. We are talking about the Ofosu Ampofo who lied to his Party supporters that the NDC had won the 2020 elections and called on them to jubilate on the streets. We are talking about the Ofosu Ampofo who led his Party to the Supreme Court to challenge the outcome of the 2020 general elections without a single pink sheet to prove their case. No wonder it was such a monumental embarrassment for them in the Court. Is this what Ofosu Ampofo calls competence, which he claims John Boadu lacks? The gods must be crazy indeed. Well, if Chairman Ofosu Ampofo wants to be taken seriously, then he should first go and account for his stewardship to his party foot soldiers, as they are calling on him to do. Once again, Ofosu Ampofo should not, in his widest dream, seek to compare his abysmal records with John Boadus. The difference is as vast as the size of the elephant. We are talking about John Boadu, the adwenkese, who led the NPP to implement a robust IT architecture both in the 2016 and 2020 elections that made it possible for the Party to collate its nationwide electoral results in all the over 38,000 polling stations and 275 constituencies in less than 12 hours; something Ofosu Ampofo could not do for his party in 4 years and in six months, after the 2016 and 2020 elections respectively. Is Ofosu Ampofo talking about the John Boadu who, in the 2016 elections, led the NPP, as National Organizer, Director of Campaign Operations and as Acting General Secretary, to snatch as many as 55 parliamentary seats from the NDC? Interestingly, this was when Ofosu Ampofo was the NDCs director of elections. In the presidential elections, the NPP also won by a vote margin of over 1million votes, an unprecedented feat in the fourth republic. Who in the NDC has such records? It is obvious that if John Boadu was a member of the NDC, the party would be worshipping him. Obviously, they would have made him their perpetual flagbearer instead of the incompetent one [John Mahama]. Even in 2020 where the NPP made a net loss of 32 parliamentary seats, the party still won the Presidential by over 500,000 vote margin, which again is an unprecedented feat in the 4th republic for a party seeking re-election. Ofosu Ampofo certainly needs to reassess himself before coming to pontificate. He has no records worthy of attention, let alone to seek to compare that non-existing records with John Boadus. Once again, it is undeniable that no man in the NDC has the kind of records that the results-driven John Boadu has. The lion and the lioness can never have the same strength. A word to the wise. 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 " " People are seen praying during Shabbat service at Rodef Shalom Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, in Pittsburgh, just days after the Tree of Life shooting where 11 people were killed. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath, a 25-hour "day of rest" that begins at sundown Friday evening and ends Saturday night when, according to Jewish tradition, it's dark enough to see three stars in the sky. During Shabbat, Jewish people take time out from the busy workweek to light candles, eat a delicious meal with family and friends, perhaps attend services at the synagogue or just go for a long, leisurely walk. Shabbat is more than a "day off;" according to the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) it's a holy day blessed by God. "In Judaism, when you wish somebody a happy Sabbath, you say 'Shabbat shalom,' which means 'Sabbath peace,'" says Rabbi Ron Isaacs, author of "Every Person's Guide to Shabbat." "In our busy lives, it's very difficult to have even one minute of peace and tranquility, but Shabbat often did it for me," says Rabbi Isaacs, reflecting on when his children were young. "When I was sitting with my family watching two candles burn, singing songs around the dinner table, having a time when I didn't have to rush, not looking at my phone, that was very peaceful." Advertisement Where Is Shabbat Mentioned in the Bible? According to the famous opening lines of the book of Genesis, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." He labored for six days creating the sun and moon, the land and the seas, the plants and animals and the first humans. And on the seventh day, God "rested from all his work" and he "blessed the seventh day and made it holy." "When God blesses a day, it's a big deal," says Rabbi Isaacs, explaining that the word Shabbat comes from the Hebrew shavat (), a verb meaning "to rest" or literally "to cease working." When God introduces the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, He lays out the basic ground rules of how to observe Shabbat: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. Later in Exodus, God calls Shabbat a "lasting covenant" and "a sign between me and the Israelites forever." He also warns that anyone who breaks or "desecrates" the Sabbath by doing work should be "cut off from their people" or even "put to death." "I don't take that threat literally," says Rabbi Isaacs. "When the Torah uses that language 'If you do this, you're going to die' it's a way of making it clear that God takes Shabbat seriously and He wants you to take it seriously, too." To show just how seriously God takes Shabbat, the Israelites received a double portion of manna on Fridays while they wandered in the desert for 40 years, so they didn't have to gather the heaven-sent food on the Sabbath, which would have qualified as work. " " A worker at Treat Kosher seals a food order at the catering facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The catering service dedicated its kitchen facility to making and supplying kosher food for the local Orthodox Jewish community in the U.A.E., including meals for Shabbat dinners and lunches. Andrea DiCenzo/Getty Images Advertisement Shabbat 'Rules' Are the Product of Centuries Tradition The Torah says very little about how exactly Jewish people are supposed to observe Shabbat, but the great rabbis of the Talmudic period (roughly 70 to 500 C.E.) had plenty to say. In a thick chapter of the Talmud called "Shabbat," the ancient sages trade opinions on the subtlest minutiae of Jewish law, resulting, for example, in the 39 types of work that are forbidden on Shabbat. No cooking, no washing, no sewing, no planting, no reaping, no burning, no extinguishing, no carrying ... it's a long list. For the most strictly observant Jews, known as Orthodox, the faithful keeping of Shabbat means not violating any of these rules. In practice, that often requires some creativity, or at least a lot of planning ahead. For example, you can't tear paper on the Sabbath, which includes toilet paper. So Orthodox bathrooms are stocked with pre-torn sheets of toilet paper for Shabbat. You can't turn on a light on Shabbat because electricity is akin to a "spark," which is the same as fire. You know that little lightbulb inside your refrigerator that turns on when you open the door? You either need to remove that during Shabbat or buy a Shabbat-approved refrigerator that is programmed to turn off the light one day a week. Rabbi Isaacs says that he recently bought a Shabbat-approved toothbrush out of curiosity. Technically, you wring out the wet bristles when you brush your teeth and wringing falls under the same prohibited category as washing. The Shabbat toothbrush is made with rubber bristles that don't hold water and therefore can't be "wrung" out. In some Orthodox communities, a non-Jewish person called the "Shabbat goy" (Yiddish for "Shabbat gentile") is contracted to visit Jewish homes on the Sabbath to carry out prohibited tasks like turning on the stove or the lights. The one exemption for all of the Shabbat laws is to save a life, says Rabbi Isaacs. Jews aren't supposed to drive or work on the Sabbath, but if a doctor needs to rush to the hospital to attend to a patient, she can both drive and work without fear of divine retribution. It's easy to get caught up in the rules and restrictions of Shabbat and forget why those things were forbidden in the first place, says Rabbi Isaacs. "Shabbat should be a 'holy' day, which in Judaism literally means a day that is distinct and unique. We are commanded to work the other six days of the week, so what we do on the seventh day should be completely different." In other words, all of those prohibitions are highly specific and complicated ways of saying, "please don't work." Do something special on the Sabbath. Spend more time with your family, go to the synagogue and say prayers, eat home-cooked meals and unplug from electronics. It's a day of physical rest, but also emotional and spiritual rejuvenation. " " Myriam Gumerman, center, enjoys the company of her friends as they gather to celebrate the Shabbat at her home on in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Justin Merriman/For The Washington Post via Getty Images Advertisement How Shabbat Is Celebrated at Home There are two spheres of Shabbat observance: in the home and at the synagogue. At home, preparation for Shabbat might begin Friday morning by cleaning the house, preparing food for the Friday night meal (including challah, the traditional braided loaves of bread), and washing and ironing clothes to wear to the synagogue. When the sun sets Friday night, it's time to welcome the Sabbath. In Jewish homes, two candles are lit, usually by the mother, as a prayer is recited. Some families will eat their festive meal right then, while others wait until after attending Friday night services. Before digging into the Friday night meal, the family recites prayers to bless the challah, bless the wine (which sanctifies the Sabbath) and ritually wash their hands. After eating a sumptuous and leisurely feast, the family might sing traditional songs around the table or play games. In Judaism, one of the purposes of Shabbat is to promote shalom bayit or "peace in the home." As families eat, play, sing and study together on both Friday and Saturday, it cultivates a greater sense of family unity and Jewish identity. In his book "The Sabbath, Its Meaning for Modern Man" the Jewish theologian and philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that "strict adherence to the laws regulating Sabbath observance doesn't suffice; the goal is creating the Sabbath as a foretaste of paradise." For busy families that spend the rest of the week running from school to work to activities, the slow pace and simple joys of the Sabbath can feel like that taste of paradise. Advertisement Shabbat Observance in the Synagogue Shabbat is also a chance for the Jewish community to gather in prayer and study. Rabbi Isaacs says that while you can certainly pray or read the Torah in your home, Judaism has always taught the importance of worshipping as a community. "That's why you need at least 10 people to hold Shabbat services," says Rabbi Isaacs, referring to a minyan, the minimum number of attendees required to recite certain prayers in the synagogue. There are three services held during Shabbat: the Friday night "welcoming" service (Kabbalat Shabbat), the Saturday morning service in which the Torah is unscrolled and read, and a "farewell" Saturday afternoon service called Havdalah. Depending on the synagogue (the major branches of Judaism are Orthodox, Conservative and Reform) the service may be mostly in Hebrew or mostly in English. Since the Sabbath is meant to be a day of joy, Rabbi Isaacs says, most synagogue services are also followed by snacks or desserts, offering a chance for the congregation to socialize. "The Sabbath is an opportunity to hang around, talk to friends, sing some songs and eat some cake." Advertisement Shabbat Is a Core Piece of Jewish Identity In the long history of the Jewish people, Shabbat observance became especially important during the Babylonian exile, when Jews lived outside of the Holy Land and had to maintain their traditions and sense of identity. One could argue that Shabbat continues to serve the same purpose a day set aside to remember and celebrate the Jewish people's unique relationship with God. "Shabbat, of all of the holidays, has kept the Jewish people together," says Rabbi Isaacs, whether you observe all of the rules and regularly attend synagogue, or you simply light candles Friday night and temporarily put aside the concerns of the week. " " It is customary for women and girls to wave their hands and then cover their eyes when reciting the blessing upon the Shabbat candles. Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock HowStuffWorks earns a small affiliate commission when you purchase through links on our site. Now That's Cool The idea of the Sabbath isn't confined to Judaism, of course, but Shabbat was the first and the model for a "day of rest." The website "My Jewish Learning" calls Shabbat "Judaism's most distinctive and characteristic practice, as well as one of its most pervasive and long-lasting gifts to Western civilization." Kamikuroiwa rock shelter: this site is located in Kumakogen, Kamiukena District, Ehime Prefecture of Shikoku, where the oldest Jomon individual sequenced in this study was found. Credit: Shigeki Nakagome, Lead researcher, Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. Ancient DNA extracted from human bones has rewritten early Japanese history by underlining that modern day populations in Japan have a tripartite genetic origina finding that refines previously accepted views of a dual genomic ancestry. Twelve newly sequenced ancient Japanese genomes show that modern day populations do indeed show the genetic signatures of early indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherer-fishers and immigrant Yayoi farmersbut also add a third genetic component that is linked to the Kofun peoples, whose culture spread in Japan between the 3rd and 7th centuries. Rapid cultural transformations The Japanese archipelago has been occupied by humans for at least 38,000 years but Japan underwent rapid transformations only in the last 3,000 years, first from foraging to wet-rice farming, and then to a technologically advanced imperial state. The previous, long-standing hypothesis suggested that mainland Japanese populations derive dual-ancestry from the indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherer-fishers, who inhabited the Japanese archipelago from around 16,000 to 3,000 years ago, and later Yayoi farmers, who migrated from the Asian continent and lived in Japan from around 900 BC to 300 AD. But the 12 newly sequenced ancient Japanese genomeswhich came from the bones of people living in pre- and post-farming periodsalso identify a later influx of East Asian ancestry during the imperial Kofun period, which lasted from around 300 to 700 AD and which saw the emergence of political centralisation in Japan. Jomon potteries excavated from the Odake shell midden (Early Jomon). A buried skeleton in this site had a specific burial practice in which the body was placed in a flexed position with bent legs. Credit: Shigeki Nakagome, Lead researcher, Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. Shigeki Nakagome, Assistant Professor in Psychiatry in Trinity College Dublin's School of Medicine, led the research, which brought together an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Japan and Ireland. Professor Nakagome said: "Researchers have been learning more and more about the cultures of the Jomon, Yayoi, and Kofun periods as more and more ancient artefacts show up, but before our research we knew relatively little about the genetic origins and impact of the agricultural transition and later state-formation phase." "We now know that the ancestors derived from each of the foraging, agrarian, and state-formation phases made a significant contribution to the formation of Japanese populations today. In short, we have an entirely new tripartite model of Japanese genomic originsinstead of the dual-ancestry model that has been held for a significant time." Genomic insights into key Japanese transformations In addition to the overarching discovery, the analyses also found that the Jomon maintained a small effective population size of around 1,000 over several millennia, with a deep divergence from continental populations dated to 20,000-15,000 years agoa period which saw Japan become more geographically insular through rising sea-levels. The Japanese archipelago had become accessible through the Korean Peninsula at the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum, some 28,000 years ago, enabling movement between. And the widening of the Korea Strait 16,000 to 17,000 years ago due to rising sea-levels may have led to the subsequent isolation of the Jomon lineage from the rest of the continent. These time frames also coincide with the oldest evidence of Jomon pottery production. Jomon pottery from the Hirajo shell midden (Late Jomon) and a skull from which ancient DNA was extracted. Credit: Shigeki Nakagome, Lead researcher, Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. "The indigenous Jomon people had their own unique lifestyle and culture within Japan for thousands of years prior to the adoption of rice farming during the subsequent Yayoi period. Our analysis clearly finds them to be a genetically distinct population with an unusually high affinity between all sampled individualseven those differing by thousands of years in age and excavated from sites on different islands," explained Niall Cooke, Ph.D. Researcher at Trinity. "These results strongly suggest a prolonged period of isolation from the rest of the continent." The spread of agriculture is often marked by population replacement, as documented in the Neolithic transition throughout most of Europe, with only minimal contributions from hunter-gatherer populations observed in many regions. However, the researchers found genetic evidence that the agricultural transition in prehistoric Japan involved the process of assimilation, rather than replacement, with almost equal genetic contributions from the indigenous Jomon and new immigrants associated with wet-rice farming. Several lines of archaeological evidence support the introduction of new large settlements to Japan, most likely from the southern Korean peninsula, during the Yayoi-Kofun transition. And the analyses provide strong support for the genetic exchange involved in the appearance of new social, cultural, and political traits in this state-formation phase. "The Japanese archipelago is an especially interesting part of the world to investigate using a time series of ancient samples given its exceptional prehistory of long-standing continuity followed by rapid cultural transformations. Our insights into the complex origins of modern-day Japanese once again shows the power of ancient genomics to uncover new information about human prehistory that could not be seen otherwise," added Dan Bradley, Professor of Population Genetics in Trinity's School of Genetics and Microbiology, who co-led the project. The eye-opening research has just been published in Science Advances. Explore further New genetic evidence resolves origins of modern Japanese More information: "Ancient genomics reveals tripartite origins of Japanese populations," Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances "Ancient genomics reveals tripartite origins of Japanese populations,"(2021). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abh2419 This illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star, torn to shreds as it was being devoured by a supermassive black hole. The feeding black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust, not unlike the plate of a toddler is surrounded by crumbs after a meal. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech While black holes and toddlers don't seem to have much in common, they are remarkably similar in one aspect: Both are messy eaters, generating ample evidence that a meal has taken place. But whereas one might leave behind droppings of pasta or splatters of yogurt, the other creates an aftermath of mind-boggling proportions. When a black hole gobbles up a star, it produces what astronomers call a "tidal disruption event." The shredding of the hapless star is accompanied by an outburst of radiation that can outshine the combined light of every star in the black hole's host galaxy for months, even years. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, a team of astronomers led by Sixiang Wen, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, use the X-rays emitted by a tidal disruption event known as J2150 to make the first measurements of both the black hole's mass and spin. This black hole is of a particular typean intermediate-mass black holewhich has long eluded observation. "The fact that we were able to catch this black hole while it was devouring a star offers a remarkable opportunity to observe what otherwise would be invisible," said Ann Zabludoff, UArizona professor of astronomy and co-author on the paper. "Not only that, by analyzing the flare we were able to better understand this elusive category of black holes, which may well account for the majority of black holes in the centers of galaxies." By re-analyzing the X-ray data used to observe the J2150 flare, and comparing it with sophisticated theoretical models, the authors showed that this flare did indeed originate from an encounter between an unlucky star and an intermediate-mass black hole. The intermediate black hole in question is of particularly low massfor a black hole, that isweighing in at roughly 10,000 times the mass of the sun. "The X-ray emissions from the inner disk formed by the debris of the dead star made it possible for us to infer the mass and spin of this black hole and classify it as an intermediate black hole," Wen said. Dozens of tidal disruption events have been seen in the centers of large galaxies hosting supermassive black holes, and a handful have also been observed in the centers of small galaxies that might contain intermediate black holes. However, past data has never been detailed enough to prove that an individual tidal disruption flare was powered by an intermediate black hole. "Thanks to modern astronomical observations, we know that the centers of almost all galaxies that are similar to or larger in size than our Milky Way host central supermassive black holes," said study co-author Nicholas Stone, a senior lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "These behemoths range in size from 1 million to 10 billion times the mass of our sun, and they become powerful sources of electromagnetic radiation when too much interstellar gas falls into their vicinity." The mass of these black holes correlates closely with the total mass of their host galaxies; the largest galaxies host the largest supermassive black holes. "We still know very little about the existence of black holes in the centers of galaxies smaller than the Milky Way," said co-author Peter Jonker of Radboud University and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, both in the Netherlands. "Due to observational limitations, it is challenging to discover central black holes much smaller than 1 million solar masses." When a star ventures too close to a black hole, gravitational forces create intense tides that break the star apart into a stream of gas, resulting in a cataclysmic phenomenon known as a tidal disruption event. Tremendous amounts of energy are released, causing a tidal disruption to outshine its galaxy in some cases. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA/GESTAR) Despite their presumed abundance, the origins of supermassive black holes remain unknown, and many different theories currently vie to explain them, according to Jonker. Intermediate-mass black holes could be the seeds from which supermassive black holes grow. "Therefore, if we get a better handle of how many bona fide intermediate black holes are out there, it can help determine which theories of supermassive black hole formation are correct," he said. Even more exciting, according to Zabludoff, is the measurement of J2150's spin that the group was able to obtain. The spin measurement holds clues as to how black holes grow, and possibly to particle physics. This black hole has a fast spin, but not the fastest possible spin, Zabludoff explained, begging the question of how the black hole ends up with a spin in this range. "It's possible that the black hole formed that way and hasn't changed much since, or that two intermediate-mass black holes merged recently to form this one," she said. "We do know that the spin we measured excludes scenarios where the black hole grows over a long time from steadily eating gas or from many quick gas snacks that arrive from random directions." In addition, the spin measurement allows astrophysicists to test hypotheses about the nature of dark matter, which is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe. Dark matter may consist of unknown elementary particles not yet seen in laboratory experiments. Among the candidates are hypothetical particles known as ultralight bosons, Stone explained. "If those particles exist and have masses in a certain range, they will prevent an intermediate-mass black hole from having a fast spin," he said. "Yet J2150's black hole is spinning fast. So, our spin measurement rules out a broad class of ultralight boson theories, showcasing the value of black holes as extraterrestrial laboratories for particle physics." In the future, new observations of tidal disruption flares might let astronomers fill in the gaps in the black hole mass distribution, the authors hope. "If it turns out that most dwarf galaxies contain intermediate-mass black holes, then they will dominate the rate of stellar tidal disruption," Stone said. "By fitting the X-ray emission from these flares to theoretical models, we can conduct a census of the intermediate-mass black hole population in the universe," Wen added. To do that, however, more tidal disruption events have to be observed. That's why astronomers hold high hopes for new telescopes coming online soon, both on Earth and in space, including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, also known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, which is expected to discover thousands of tidal disruption events per year. Explore further Black hole seeds key to galaxies behemoths More information: Sixiang Wen et al, Mass, Spin, and Ultralight Boson Constraints from the Intermediate-mass Black Hole in the Tidal Disruption Event 3XMM J215022.4055108, The Astrophysical Journal (2021). Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Sixiang Wen et al, Mass, Spin, and Ultralight Boson Constraints from the Intermediate-mass Black Hole in the Tidal Disruption Event 3XMM J215022.4055108,(2021). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac00b5 Photo Illustration of social media applications. Credit: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University There is broad bipartisan support among self-identified liberals and conservatives that social media companies should add warning labels to posts that contain misleading information, or that could lead to the spread of misinformation, data from a new study by Northeastern researchers in the College of Arts, Media and Design shows. Much of the polling on content labeling has been conducted around the U.S. presidential election. But the results of the national survey, published on Wednesday, may speak to new concerns about misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly surrounding the use of vaccines and other health protocols, says John Wihbey, associate professor of journalism and media innovation at Northeastern and co-author of the study. "We're in a new moment, in a new phase of the pandemica moment where we can get a slightly purer sense of what the public thinks about these issues," Wihbey says. Over the last several years, social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook began labeling millions of posts as misinformation, including some from former president Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from the platforms in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building that was perpetrated by his supporters. Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud during last year's presidential election, which have been debunked, and the insurrection that followed sparked a fierce debate over the responsibility of tech companies in monitoring what sorts of information users can share, including limiting or removing so-called fake news, hate speech, and content otherwise considered problematic. Over the summer, the team of Northeastern researchers polled more than 1,400 people in the U.S. through an academic survey platform, called Prolific. Half of the participants said they use Twitter occasionally or more frequently, and 68% said they use Facebook occasionally or more frequently. The survey was published jointly with Northeastern's Ethics Institute as part of a broader effort examining potentially new approaches to content labeling on social media platforms. The study's co-authors include Garrett Morrow, a doctoral student studying political science; Myojung Chung, assistant professor of journalism and media advocacy; and Mike Peacey, associate professor of economics. The study found that 92.1% of liberals, 60.1% of conservatives, and 78.4% of moderates "strongly or somewhat agree" that social media platforms should use labels to inform users about posts that contain misleading information. Such labels have been used to identify misinformation, such as Twitter's "fact check" labels, and warn users about potentially graphic or harmful posts, such as the platform's sensitive media warnings. Participants also expressed that they encounter "problematic content"misleading or incorrect information and hate speechoften while using the social platforms. The researchers don't attempt to define misinformation or problematic content in the study, Wihbey says, opting instead to rely on participants' perceptions of such problems in answering the survey questions. The researchers also note that participants showed a high degree of "overconfidence bias," meaning they said that they trusted their own abilities to discern misleading statements and misinformation online, but expressed distrust in others' abilities to do the same. The significant bipartisan agreement on labeling was slightly surprising, Wihbey says, given how polarizing the issue of content moderation was in the days following the election. Many conservatives opposed the Trump banand banning in generalsaying it amounts to censorship. But the study also upheld some of these partisan differences in opinion over how to best approach content moderation, with 63.2% of conservatives saying that labeling Trump's posts, as opposed to banning him, was enough to deal with his "violating messages." That's compared to the more than 80% of liberals who thought that more severe action was necessary. The study comes as governments try to exert control over the tech giants' moderation policies. Just this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a bill into law requiring that social media companies disclose their content moderation policies and create an appeals process for banned users. Under the new law, users could sue companies to get their accounts reinstated. Florida approved a similar law earlier this year. Democrats have also tried to influence the companies' policies. Over the summer, President Joe Biden urged Facebook to take swifter action against posts that spread COVID-19 misinformation, saying the bad information circulating on the platform about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines was "killing people." "There is a huge need to try to figure out what tools and methods we need to use to combat disinformation and misinformation," Wihbey says, summarizing the survey sentiment. "At the same time, I think people don't believe that shutting down accounts and disabling share buttons is the [only] way to go." Wihbey says the study may indicate that the public is coming to some sort of middle ground. "We find that people want labels to link them to credible sources for checking, prepare them for thinking critically about misinformation, and slow the spread of misinformation by warning people about the content they may be trying to share," its authors state. Explore further Twitter allows some users to flag 'misleading' content More information: John Wihbey, Garrett Morrow, Myojung Chung, Mike Peacey, The Bipartisan Case for Labeling as a Content Moderation Method: Findings from a National Survey (September 14, 2021). Available at SSRN: John Wihbey, Garrett Morrow, Myojung Chung, Mike Peacey, The Bipartisan Case for Labeling as a Content Moderation Method: Findings from a National Survey (September 14, 2021). Available at SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf ?abstract_id=3923905 A helicopter prepares to drop water on the KNP Complex Fire in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger Firefighters wrapped the base of the world's largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning Thursday in California's rugged Sierra Nevada. The colossal General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park's Giant Forest, some other sequoias, the Giant Forest Museum and other buildings were wrapped as protection against the possibility of intense flames, fire spokeswoman Rebecca Paterson said. The aluminum wrapping can withstand intensive heat for short periods. Federal officials say they have been using the material for several years throughout the U.S. West to protect sensitive structures from flames. Near Lake Tahoe, some homes that were wrapped in protective material survived a recent wildfire while others nearby were destroyed. The Colony Fire, one of two burning in Sequoia National Park, was expected to reach the Giant Forest, a grove of 2,000 sequoias, at some point within days. It was unclear Thursday night whether that had happened. The fire didn't grow significantly as a layer of smoke reduced its spread, fire spokeswoman Katy Hooper said. It comes after a wildfire killed thousands of sequoias, some as tall as high-rises and thousands of years old, in the region last year. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Superintendent Clay Jordan speaks with firefighters battling the KNP Complex Fire during a morning briefing in Tulare County, Calif., on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Jordan discussed the need to protect the parks' giant sequoia trees from high-intensity fire in the upcoming days. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger The General Sherman Tree is the largest in the world by volume, at 52,508 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters), according to the National Park Service. It towers 275 feet (84 meters) high and has a circumference of 103 feet (31 meters) at ground level. Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks Superintendent Clay Jordan stressed the importance of protecting the massive trees from high-intensity fire during a briefing for firefighters. A 50-year history of using prescribed burnsfires set on purpose to remove other types of trees and vegetation that would otherwise feed wildfiresin the parks' sequoia groves was expected to help the giant trees survive by lessening the impact if flames reach them. A "robust fire history of prescribed fire in that area is reason for optimism," Paterson said. "Hopefully, the Giant Forest will emerge from this unscathed." Cones block the entrance to Sequoia National Park, Calif., as the KNP Complex Fire burns nearby on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger Giant sequoias are adapted to fire, which can help them thrive by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that allow young sequoias to grow. But the extraordinary intensity of firesfueled by climate changecan overwhelm the trees. That happened last year when the Castle Fire killed what studies estimate were 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias, according to the National Park Service. A historic drought and heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. A national interagency fire management team took command of efforts to fight the 11.5-square-mile (30-square-kilometer) Paradise Fire and the 3-square-mile (8-square-kilometer) Colony Fire, which was closest to the grove. Operations to burn away vegetation and other fuel that could feed the flames were done in that area. A firefighter lays hose around the Foothills Visitor Center while battling the KNP Complex Fire in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger The fires forced the evacuation of the park this week, and parts of the town of Three Rivers outside the main entrance remained evacuated Thursday. A bulldozer was cutting a line between the fire and the community. To the south, a fire on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Giant Sequoia National Monument grew significantly overnight to more than 6 square miles (15 square kilometers), and crews had no containment of it, a Sequoia National Forest statement said. The Windy Fire, also started by lightning, has burned into part of the Peyrone Sequoia Grove in the national monument, and other groves were threatened. "Due to inaccessible terrain, a preliminary assessment of the fire's effects on giant sequoia trees within the grove will be difficult and may take days to complete," the statement said. Flames from the KNP Complex Fire burn a hillside above the Kaweah River in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger Firefighters attend a morning briefing in the Three Rivers community of Tulare County, Calif., while battling the KNP Complex Fire on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger A helicopter drops water on the KNP Complex Fire burning along Generals Highway in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger A sign announces the closure of Sequoia National Park, where the KNP Complex Fires are burning, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in Tulare County, Calif. Individually named the Colony and Paradise Fires, the blazes are burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger Flames from the KNP Complex Fire burn along a hillside above the Kaweah River in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger U.S. Forest Service firefighter Lucas Duarte closes his fire engine's hood in Sequoia National Park, Calif., not far from the KNP Complex Fire, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger As the KNP Complex Fire approaches, U.S. Forest Service firefighters Armando Flores, right, and Heron Hilbach-Barger clear vegetation around structures at the Ash Mountain headquarters in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger Fire-resistant wrap covers a historic welcome sign as the KNP Complex Fire burns in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger The fire led the Tulare County Sheriff's Office to warn the community of Johnsondale and Camp Whitsett, a Boy Scouts camp, to be ready to evacuate if necessary. The wildfires are among the latest in a long summer of blazes that have scorched nearly 3,550 square miles (9,195 square kilometers) in California, destroying hundreds of homes. Crews had limited ground access to the Colony Fire and the extreme steepness of the terrain around the Paradise Fire prevented it completely, requiring extensive aerial water and flame-retardant drops on both fires. The two fires were being managed collectively as the KNP Complex. Explore further Sequoia National Park's giant trees at risk as fires grow 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The launch of Beijing's first crewed mission in nearly five years coincided with the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party. Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after completing the country's longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing's drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the trio deployed its parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:34 pm local time (0534 GMT). "It feels very good to be back!," Tang Hongbo told state broadcaster CCTV after the 90-day mission, a record for China. "I want to say dad, mom, I'm back! In good health and good spirits!" he said after emerging from the capsule within 30 minutes of landing. The crew of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft were in good health, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement. "The first manned mission to the (Chinese) space station is a complete success," it said. The taikonautsas Chinese astronauts are knownwill undergo a 14-day quarantine before they can go home "because their immune systems may have weakened after the long mission," Huang Weifen, chief designer of China's manned space project told CCTV. The mission was part of China's heavily promoted space programme, which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. The launch of Beijing's first crewed mission in nearly five years coincided with the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party on July 1, and was the highlight of a massive propaganda campaign. The crew stayed for 90 days at the Tiangong space station, conducting spacewalks and scientific experiments. "The successful completion of the mission... paves the way for future regular missions and utilisation of the (Chinese space) station," said Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts, which specialises in China's space programme. "It is a very important and very much needed start for the CSS." Tiangong, meaning "heavenly palace", is expected to operate for at least 10 years. The mission is headed by Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot in the People's Liberation Army who previously participated in two space missions. The two other astronauts, Liu Boming and Tang, are also in the military. Space race The Chinese space agency is planning a total of 11 launches before the end of next year, including three more crewed missions that will deliver two lab modules to expand the 70-tonne station. China has poured billions of dollars into its military-led space programme in recent years as it tries to catch up with the United States and Russia. Beijing's space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station, a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan. The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028. "Compared to the US, China is still technically somewhat behind," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP. "The main US lead in human spaceflight is in total experience," he said. "For example, two spacewalks is not the same as hundreds of ISS spacewalks. Quantity makes a difference." Explore further China's astronauts make spacewalk to upgrade robotic arm 2021 AFP Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The internet is playing an increasingly prominent role in radicalisation, with a particular rise in the use of open social media platforms, according to a comprehensive analysis of the online activity of convicted extremists in England and Wales. The research by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) was the first to use closed source data and has been published in a parliamentary report by the Ministry of Justice. Researchers were given access to more than 230 detailed post-conviction assessments to investigate online and offline activities in the build-up to the offense, together with ratings of risk levels and further characteristics of each individual and case. The study explored the relationship between online activity and the type of offenses committed among three groups: those who primarily radicalized online; those who primarily radicalized offline; and those radicalized through both online and offline influences. Findings show that since 2005 the proportion of offenders radicalized online has increased, while at the same time those who were subject primarily to offline influences were found to have decreased. The types of websites, platforms and applications used by those who are convicted of extremist offenses were found to have changed over time, moving away from specific extremist websites towards the use of open social media platforms. The research, which included reports containing assessments of overall levels of engagement, intent and capability, also reveals that those who had radicalized mainly or solely online were the least likely to be engaged with an extremist group, cause or ideology, and least willing and able to perpetrate violent extremist acts. They were also less likely to be socially connected to other extremists offline in the context of the offense and more likely to display strong signs of mental illness or personality disorder. Conversely, those who had radicalized primarily offline were more likely to take on the role of attacker compared against the other two groups and were less likely to follow an Islamist extremist ideology as opposed to another ideological cause. When analyzing the perceived risk of committing future violent extremist offenses, the 'hybrid' group, which included those who were subject to both online and offline influences, were found to have the highest levels of engagement and intent to commit future extremist offenses, compared to the other pathway groups. The group primarily radicalized offline were found to have the highest levels of capability to commit future extremist offenses likely to cause serious or significant harm, again compared to the other pathway groups. Dr. Jonathan Kenyon, HMPPS National Specialist Lead for Extremism, carried out the research as part of a Doctorate in Forensic Psychology. He said: "This current study, using a large and unique dataset, provides a number of interesting and novel insights into the way convicted extremists in England and Wales have used the internet and engaged in online activities in the context of their offending. As such, it makes an important contribution to the literature which up until now has been largely reliant on open-source data or small numbers of case studies drawing from primary data." Co-researcher, Dr. Jens Binder, senior lecturer in Psychology at NTU's School of Social Sciences, said: "Online radicalisation as a route towards extremist offending is on the rise, and the pace of development is in line with the expansion of the Internet into all domains of everyday life. We can see from our findings that the pathway to radicalisation individuals take can make a crucial difference in terms of the risks they posethis highlights the need for a more systematic investigation of online dynamics in the context of radicalisation. "Sustained efforts in the profiling of online and offline pathways into radicalisation can contribute to counter-terrorism measures and more effective offender assessment and treatment with the prison system." Explore further Researchers shed light on the evolution of extremist groups Figure 1. Setup for -CT experiments of the Tamdakht (top) and Tenham (bottom) meteorite samples. Credit: DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ac1749 Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign watched fragments of two meteors as they ramped up the heat from room temperature to the temperature it reaches as it enters Earth's atmosphere and made a significant discovery. The vaporized iron sulfide leaves behind voids, making the material more porous. This information will help when predicting the weight of a meteor, its likelihood to break apart, and the subsequent damage assessment if it should land. "We extracted samples from the interiors that had not already been exposed to the high heat of the entry environment," said Francesco Panerai, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at UIUC. "We wanted to understand how the microstructure of a meteorite changes as it travels through the atmosphere." Panerai and collaborators at NASA Ames Research Center used an X-ray microtomography technique that allowed them to observe the samples in place as they were heated up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and create images in three dimensions. The experiments were performed using the synchrotron Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "The iron sulfide inside the meteorite vaporized as it heated. Some of the grains actually disappeared leaving large voids in the material," Panerai said. "We were surprised by this observation. The ability to look at the interior of the meteorite in 3D, while being heated, led us to discover a progressive increase of material porosity with heating. After that, we took cross sections of the material and looked at the chemical composition to understand the phase that had been modified by the heating, changing its porosity. "This discovery provides evidence that meteorite materials become porous and permeable, which we speculate will have an effect on its strength and propensity for fragmentation." NASA selected Tamdakht as case study, a meteorite that landed in a Moroccan desert a few years ago. But the team of researchers wanted to corroborate what they'd seen so they repeated experiments on Tenham to see if a meteorite with different composition would behave in the same way. Both specimens were from a similar class of meteorite called chondrites, the most common among the meteorite finds that are made up of iron and nickel, which are high-density elements. "Both became porous, but the porosity that develops depends upon the content of the sulfides," Panerai said. "One of the two had higher iron sulfides, which is what evaporates. We found that the vaporizing of iron sulfides happens at mild entry temperatures. This is something that would happen, not at the external fusion crust of the meteorite where the temperature is a lot higher, but just underneath the surface." The study was motivated by the potential threat meteorites pose humansthe clearest example being the Chelyabinsk meteor that blasted the Earth's atmosphere over Russia in 2013 and resulted in about 1,500 people being injured from indirect effects such as broken glass from the shock wave. After that incident, NASA created the Asteroid Threat Assessment Program to provide scientific tools that can help decision makers understand potential meteorite threats to the population. "Most of the cosmic material burns away as it enters. The atmosphere protects us," Panerai said. "But there are significant sized meteorites that can be harmful. For these larger objects that have a non-zero probability of hitting us, we need to have tools to predict what damage they would do if they would hit Earth. Based on these tools, we can predict how it enters the atmosphere, its size, how it behaves as it goes through the atmosphere, etc. so decision makers can take counter measures." Panerai said the Asteroid Threat Assessment Program is currently developing models to show how meteorites behave and models require a lot of data. "We used machine learning for the data analysis because the amount of data to analyze is huge and we need efficient techniques. "We are also using tools refined over the years for the design of hypersonic entry vehicle and transferring this knowledge to the study of meteoroids, the only hypersonic systems in nature, which is very exciting. This provides NASA with critical data on the microstructure and morphology of how a common meteorite behaves during heating, so that those features can be integrated in those models." Explore further Experiments may help assess risks posed by falling space rocks More information: Francesco Panerai et al, Morphological Evolution of Ordinary Chondrite Microstructure during Heating: Implications for Atmospheric Entry, The Planetary Science Journal (2021). Journal information: The Planetary Science Journal Francesco Panerai et al, Morphological Evolution of Ordinary Chondrite Microstructure during Heating: Implications for Atmospheric Entry,(2021). DOI: 10.3847/PSJ/ac1749 Global warming is causing a rapid decline in sea-ice area, which affects weather patterns and, surprisingly, increases wave height in the Arctic. In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters(10.1029/2021GL094646), Japanese scientists analyzed data from a 2018 research expedition into Chukchi Sea to demonstrate the peculiar link that exists between sea spray induced by high waves and the formation of ice-containing clouds. Their results pave the way for more accurate climate change and sea-ice models. Credit: NIPR/JAMSTEC/Kitami Institute of Technology Some of the most well-known and feared aspects of climate change are its potential effects on weather patterns and how this could accelerate the melting of natural ice. Research has already proved that the area of sea-ice in the Arctic is rapidly declining due to global warming, and that temperature and moisture content across the Arctic have changed substantially. Unfortunately, understanding exactly how these changes affect cloud formation in the region is very challenging, and cloud composition and phase are important aspects to consider in predictive numerical models. In a recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a team of scientists led by Dr. Jun Inoue of the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan, sought to answer a peculiar question: can higher waves in the Arctic Sea promote the development of ice-containing clouds? This question may seem strange at first, because most people would not have fathomed that a link could exist between those two natural phenomena. However, as the findings of this study indicate, it's likely that there is one. The field data used in the study was gathered in November 2018 during an expedition to the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic region aboard RV Mirai, a Japanese research vessel. Previous studies in the area had revealed that the sea-ice decline in the Arctic led to more frequent active weather systems, stronger winds, and taller waves. The research team suspected that these factors could affect cloud formation and composition because crashing waves and strong winds can cause organic particles on the sea surface to become dispersed through the atmosphere in the form of sea spray. Once these suspended organic particles reach an altitude high enough, they act as "seeds" that facilitate the formation of ice crystals, earning them the name of "ice-nucleating particles" (INPs). These ice crystals keep growing by freezing the surrounding water droplets, thereby forming what's known as ice clouds. To prove this hypothesis, Dr. Inoue and his crew on the RV Mirai periodically deployed various measurement instruments at key locations in the Chukchi Sea over the course of 12 days. Cloud particle sensors were balloon-launched from the ship to analyze the phase of clouds, ambient aerosols were regularly sampled on board for chemical analysis, and wave height and wind speed measurements were constantly made. Moreover, the researchers conducted turbidity measurements from different depths to clarify the relationship between weather and oceanic conditions. After analyzing all the gathered data, the scientists managed to paint a clearer, evidence-supported view of the situation. "Chukchi Sea is relatively shallow, with a mean depth of only 40 meters. There, a mixed ocean layers develops and taps into the seafloor, which cloud provide a reservoir of INPs that get lifted by turbulent kinetic energy," explains Dr. Inoue, "Sea spray induced by strong winds and high waves brings these INPs to the atmosphere, promoting the formation of ice clouds." He adds that this is one of the first papers to simultaneously link oceanic structure, sea surface conditions, and aerosol and cloud characteristics. The insight gained from this study is very important if we are to accurately predict the effects of global warming on the Arctic. Ice clouds reflect much less shortwave solar radiation than water clouds, and thus the phase of clouds greatly affects the surface heat budget of the polar regions. They may also increase the amount of snowfall, which in turn positively affects sea-ice formation. "Understanding the relationship between cloud formation and the new sea state originating from the recent Arctic sea-ice decline is critical for skillful weather and sea-ice forecasts, as well as future climate projections," highlights Dr. Inoue. Let us hope further studies in the Arctic allow us to elucidate all the fine details and hidden interactions that dictate the weather so that the consequences of climate change don't catch us off-guard. Explore further Arctic ocean expedition advances climate modeling More information: Jun Inoue et al, Oceanic Supply of IceNucleating Particles and Its Effect on Ice Cloud Formation: A Case Study in the Arctic Ocean During a ColdAir Outbreak in Early Winter, Geophysical Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Jun Inoue et al, Oceanic Supply of IceNucleating Particles and Its Effect on Ice Cloud Formation: A Case Study in the Arctic Ocean During a ColdAir Outbreak in Early Winter,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021GL094646 Provided by Research Organization of Information and Systems Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Northwestern University researchers assessing the response to COVID-19 for child care programs in Illinois have found the state's efforts to bolster child care access to first responders while stabilizing the market were equitable and largely successful. Their new report, published Sept. 1, came after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's move to make permanent a pandemic policy that lowered the cost of child care to $1 per month for families living in poverty. On Monday, Pritzker announced that the state will provide three months of childcare assistance to unemployed parents who are seeking to reenter the work force as well as bonuses of up to $1,000 to those who work in a child care center or home child care in the state as part of an effort to stabilize the market. "Governor Pritzker has been a leader in investing in the child care market and easing the financial burden of child care, especially for families facing economic hardship," said Terri Sabol, an assistant professor of human development and social policy in the University's School of Education and Social Policy and a former elementary school teacher. "Together, these policies reduce one major barrier to child care: cost," Sabol said. "Moreover, the state is putting money directly into the hands of child care workers, who are notoriously underpaid. The median hourly wage of child care workers in Illinois is $12 an hour. This recent policy gives bonuses of up to $1,000 to those educators in child care centers who continue to provide a critical service during the ongoing pandemic." At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 60% of programs nationwide were forced to close in spring 2020. The federal government has since provided $3.5 billion in direct childcare relief aid to stabilize childcare programs, largely through the federal CARES Act and American Rescue Plan. States, including Illinois, have also invested in child care programs to help stabilize them. The breakdown of the child care market due to COVID-19 could potentially interfere with both parent and child well being. The child care crisis also has important implications for economic recovery in the United States. Analyzing 8,158 private childcare programs in 757 eligible neighborhoods, Sabol and colleagues from the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern (Olivia Healy, Timi Viragh, and Anika Neralla) recently completed a study on Illinois' response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent to which child care programs received access to resources designed to stabilize operations. The findings show that approximately 15% received emergency day care licenses to stay open during mandated closures for frontline workers, 25% of qualified child care programs received PPP loans (through the CARES Act), and 60% received child care restoration grants (funded through the CARES Act and state funds). The average amount given in PPP loans was $58,705 and was $64,615 in child care restoration grants, which represents funds that went directly to child care programs They also find few differences in the neighborhoods' characteristics based on income, employment or race/ethnicity. However, they did discover that childcare programs in urban areas were more likely to receive resources than those in rural areas. "The fact that so many programs received Child Care Restoration Grants and that we observed few disparities in access to the resources designed by the state and federal governments to stabilize the system is overall good news and suggests that federal and state resources are getting into the hands of the child care providers that need it most. Illinois is national model for how to equitably allocate state and federal resources during trying times for the child care market," Sabol said. Explore further Leaving work to care for special needs child takes big financial toll A female elephant and calf in Samburu National Reserve, northern Kenya. Credit: Robbie Labanowski/Save the Elephants Poaching has longer-term effects on elephant populations than originally thought, according to a pair of studies published recently by researchers at Colorado State University and Save the Elephants. This new research shows that orphaned juvenile elephants have less chance of survival in a herd, and that losing them has a significant impact on population growth or decline. Conservation efforts have traditionally been informed by macro-scale research of populations, said George Wittemyer, lead author of a study published in Ecosphere and a professor at CSU. The research team analyzed how the survival of different age groups affect elephant population trends. Because older male elephants tend to reproduce more than younger ones, and older females are the leaders of family groups and social units, conservation biologists long assumed that the older age group was most important to population trends. But the study showed that's not the case. Research teams used 20 years of data Wittemyer and colleagues from Save the Elephants examined 20 years of data collected in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and looked at how mortality of elephants at different ages impacted populations. Juvenile elephants who are just starting to become independent of their parents are the most important to elephant population dynamics, said Wittemyer. "If they're surviving well, the population is pretty buffered from decline," he said. "If they start to decline, then you're in deep trouble." The data also showed that human activityspecifically, wounding or killing elephantsdecreased survival of all ages in a population. "Even for calves, which we don't think of as being targeted by humans for ivory, their survival was really strongly driven by human impact on the population," Wittemyer said. "Human impacts dominate anything else going on in the population in terms of affecting survival." Wittemyer said if conservationists or governments want to implement more targeted actions, they need to know which animals in the population are driving increases or decreases, which is why these studies are important. Orphans left behind struggle to survive Jenna Parker, who recently received a doctoral degree in ecology from CSU, was the lead author of a study published in Current Biology that showed poaching adult elephants not only directly lowers population growth, but indirectly lowers it as well through the lowered survival of their orphaned offspring. Parker is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "For social populations, poaching has a larger impact than originally thought, because you have to account for the orphans who are left behind who struggle to survive because they don't have a mother," Parker said. Parker and her research team examined 20 years of monitoring data collected by Save the Elephants and compared survival of young elephants who were orphaned by poaching with those who were not. They found that orphans had lower survival probabilities, and that lowered orphan survival further exacerbated declines in populations caused by poaching. And when poaching was more frequent, the effect of orphan survival on these populations was greater. Even orphans who were no longer dependent on their mother's milk had a lower survival rate than their peers with a living mother, the study found. "The total impact of poaching is greater than was originally recognized," Parker said. "In populations that we think have undergone a lot of poaching, even as the poaching slows, we still need to consider its residual effects." The two studies highlight the impacts of poaching on elephant behavior, and in turn, on elephant demographics. "Killing an elephant is not removing one elephant from a population; killing an elephant has downstream effects on those elephants that are bonded to it," Wittemyer said. "These papers give us high-resolution information on elephant demographics that help us to better understand the decline and recovery processes of elephant populations." Explore further Orphaned elephants' social lives substantially altered by poaching More information: Jenna M. Parker et al, Poaching of African elephants indirectly decreases population growth through lowered orphan survival, Current Biology (2021). Journal information: Current Biology , Ecosphere Jenna M. Parker et al, Poaching of African elephants indirectly decreases population growth through lowered orphan survival,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.091 Credit: John A Davis/Shutterstock It's a question that has puzzled observers for centuries: do the fantastic green and crimson light displays of the aurora borealis produce any discernible sound? Conjured by the interaction of solar particles with gas molecules in Earth's atmosphere, the aurora generally occurs near Earth's poles, where the magnetic field is strongest. Reports of the aurora making a noise, however, are rareand were historically dismissed by scientists. But a Finnish study in 2016 claimed to have finally confirmed that the northern lights really do produce sound audible to the human ear. A recording made by one of the researchers involved in the study even claimed to have captured the sound made by the captivating lights 70 meters above ground level. Still, the mechanism behind the sound remains somewhat mysterious, as are the conditions that must be met for the sound to be heard. My recent research takes a look over historic reports of auroral sound to understand the methods of investigating this elusive phenomenon and the process of establishing whether reported sounds were objective, illusory of imaginary. Historic claims Auroral noise was the subject of particularly lively debate in the first decades of the 20th century, when accounts from settlements across northern latitudes reported that sound sometimes accompanied the mesmerizing light displays in their skies. Witnesses told of a quiet, almost imperceptible crackling, whooshing or whizzing noise during particularly violent northern lights displays. In the early 1930s, for instance, personal testimonies started flooding into The Shetland News, the weekly newspaper of the subarctic Shetland Islands, likening the sound of the northern lights to "rustling silk" or "two planks meeting flat ways." These tales were corroborated by similar testimony from northern Canada and Norway. Yet the scientific community was less than convinced, especially considering very few western explorers claimed to have heard the elusive noises themselves. The credibility of auroral noise reports from this time was intimately tied to altitude measurements of the northern lights. It was considered that only those displays that descended low into the Earth's atmosphere would be able to transmit sound which could be heard by the human ear. The problem here was that results recorded during the Second International Polar Year of 19323 found aurorae most commonly took place 100km above Earth, and very rarely below 80km. This suggested it would be impossible for discernible sound from the lights to be transmitted to the Earth's surface. Auditory illusions? Given these findings, eminent physicists and meteorologists remained skeptical, dismissing accounts of auroral sound and very low aurorae as folkloric stories or auditory illusions. Sir Oliver Lodge, the British physicist involved in the development of radio technology, commented that auroral sound might be a psychological phenomenon due to the vividness of the aurora's appearancejust as meteors sometimes conjure a whooshing sound in the brain. Similarly, the meteorologist George Clark Simpson argued that the appearance of low aurorae was likely an optical illusion caused by the interference of low clouds. Nevertheless, the leading auroral scientist of the 20th century, Carl Strmer, published accounts written by two of his assistants who claimed to have heard the aurora, adding some legitimacy to the large volume of personal reports. Strmer's assistant Hans Jelstrup said he had heard a "very curious faint whistling sound, distinctly undulatory, which seemed to follow exactly the vibrations of the aurora," while Mr Tjonn experienced a sound like "burning grass or spray." As convincing as these two last testimonies may have been, they still didn't propose a mechanism by which auroral sound could operate. Sound and light The answer to this enduring mystery which has subsequently garnered the most support was first tentatively suggested in 1923 by Clarence Chant, a well-known Canadian astronomer. He argued that the motion of the northern lights alters Earth's magnetic field, inducing changes in the electrification of the atmosphere, even at a significant distance. This electrification produces a crackling sound much closer to Earth's surface when it meets objects on the ground, much like the sound of static. This could take place on the observer's clothes or spectacles, or possibly in surrounding objects including fir trees or the cladding of buildings. Chant's theory correlates well with many accounts of auroral sound, and is also supported by occasional reports of the smell of ozonewhich reportedly carries a metallic odor similar to an electrical sparkduring northern lights displays. An early photograph of the aurora, captured in 1930 in Finnmark, Norway. Credit: Nasjonalbiblioteket, Norway Yet Chant's paper went largely unnoticed in the 1920s, only receiving recognition in the 1970s when two auroral physicists revisited the historical evidence. Chant's theory is largely accepted by scientists today, although there's still debate as to how exactly the mechanism for producing the sound operates. What is clear is that the aurora does, on rare occasions, make sounds audible to the human ear. The eerie reports of crackling, whizzing and buzzing noises accompanying the lights describe an objective audible experiencenot something illusory or imagined. Sampling the sound If you want to hear the northern lights for yourself, you may have to spend a considerable amount of time in the Polar regions, considering the aural phenomenon only presents itself in 5% of violent auroral displays. It's also most commonly heard on the top of mountains, surrounded by only a few buildingsso it's not an especially accessible experience. In recent years, the sound of the aurora has nonetheless been explored for its aesthetic value, inspiring musical compositions and laying the foundation for novel ways of interacting with its electromagnetic signals. The Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds has used journal extracts from the American explorer Charles Hall and the Norwegian statesman Fridjtof Nansen, both of whom claimed to have heard the northern lights, in his music. His composition, Northern Lights, interweaves these reports with the only known Latvian folksong recounting the auroral sound phenomenon, sung by a tenor solo. Or you can also listen to the radio signals of the northern lights at home. In 2020, a BBC 3 radio program remapped very low frequency radio recordings of the aurora onto the audible spectrum. Although not the same as perceiving audible noises produced by the the northern lights in person on a snowy mountaintop, these radio frequencies give an awesome sense of the aurora's transitory, fleeting and dynamic nature. Explore further Auroral crackling sounds are related to the electromagnetic resonances of the Earth This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: Shutterstock The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is expected to begin a trial using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the future risk posed by known domestic violence perpetrators. Perpetrators identified as "high risk"based on previous calls to an address, past criminal activity and other police-held datawill be visited at home by police before domestic violence escalates, and before any crime has been committed. It is necessary to find better ways to improve safety for women subjected to domestic violence. However, using AI technology in this context may have unintended consequencesand the proposed plan raises serious questions about the role of police in preventing domestic violence incidents. The approach relies on an algorithm that has been developed from existing QPS administrative data (QPRIME). All statistical algorithms must assess risk based on available data, which in turn means they are only as good as the data underpinning them. Experts who criticize the use of data-driven risk assessment tools in policing point to the lack of transparency in the specific kinds of data analyzed, as well as how predictions based on these data are acted upon. Because of how police operate, the key data most consistently captured are information about past situations police have been called to, and criminal history data. Using this information to train an AI algorithm could reinforce existing biases in the criminal justice system. It could create an endless feedback loop between police and those members of the public who have the most contact with police. In Australia, they are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is not difficult to imagine that under this new regime Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be visited more by police. QPS representative Ben Martain has said police won't be able to charge someone they door-knock for a future suspected offense. He also said for the pilot, attributes of ethnicity and geographic location were removed before training the AI model. But despite this, it seems likely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will continue to be disproportionately targeted, since they are over-represented across all kinds of police contact. Introducing risk The aim of such AI-based strategies in policing is to prevent or reduce crime, through an assessment of the risk of future offending. In theory, this means police would intervene early to stop a crime from occurring in the first place. However, with this approach there are risks police may create crime. An unprompted police door-knock would be unwelcome in most householdslet alone one where police have previously attended to carry out searches or make arrests. In this "preventative" program, perpetrators and the victims they live with may be nervous, agitated or even angry at the police intrusion at their home for no apparent reason. A visited person might use offensive language or refuse to provide their name. It would not be surprising if this led to charges. Such charges might lead the visited person to become even more nervous, agitated or angry, and then they may find they are charged with assault and resisting police. This is popularly known as the "trifecta", wherein a person who has otherwise not offended is ultimately charged with offensive language, resisting arrest and assaulting police. The standard powers in the police toolbox are to arrest and charge. With QPS's proposed plan, there is an obvious risk of widening the net of criminalisation for both perpetrators, as well as victims who may be misidentified as perpetrators. For instance, sometimes victims who have used violence in self-defense have been arrested instead of the perpetrator. Bringing further harm to victims The role of the victim in such a program is also of concern. Any program that deepens surveillance of perpetrators also deepens surveillance of victims. Victims do not always want police to intervene in their lives. In some cases, this form of proactive policing might feel like an extension of control, rather than help. What happens when police visit and discover a high-risk perpetrator and victim are living together again? Victims may fear child protection authorities will get involved and feel obliged to cover up the fact they are still with the perpetrator. And once a victim has been pressured to lie, they may be reluctant to call the police the next time they do need police intervention. In some cases, the perpetrator or victim may decide not to take the safety advice of police officers who visit. It is not clear what police might do in a situation where they ask a perpetrator to leave, or try to take a victim to safety, but they refuse. The mission of any domestic violence intervention should be to restore power to victims. But we know interventions do not assist all women (or men) equally. Structural inequalities, including race and class, mean interventions are experienced differently by different people. Will a victim have a say in whether police engage in proactive policing of their perpetrator? Should they have a say? Are there safer options? In the context of risk assessment, many experts argue women often (although not always) have a strong sense of when they are at heightened risk. Family court-ordered contact visits can be one of those moments of high risk. Yet in these situations women often report police refusing to help keep them and their children safe. How is the voice of the victim factored into risk assessment with this tool? One particular concern is whether police are really equipped to intervene in circumstances where there is no crime. QPS representative Ben Martain said when perpetrators are "not at a point of crisis, in a heightened emotional state, or affected by drugs or alcohol"they are "generally more amenable to recognizing this as a turning-point opportunity in their lives." But police themselves have questioned their role in domestic violence circumstancesinstead highlighting the potential role social workers may have, in their place. It is not clear whether police are the best-positioned service to intervene when there is no identified disturbance. Queensland already has information-sharing protocols involving teams tasked specifically with responding to people involved in high-risk domestic violence relationships. These teams include community-based support workers. This may be a better path for intervention during those critical periods of calm. Explore further Pandemic policing undermines public health measures, disproportionately targets Black and minority ethnic communities This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Graphic image of the research. Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST) NO X (X=1 or 2) emitted from stationery/mobile sources are conventionally deemed as notorious, anthropogenic precursors of ultrafine particulate matters (PM2.5) because NO X can undergo a series of SO 2 -assisted photochemical transformative stages to finally evolve PM2.5 functioning as an air pollutant. Recently, a research group in South Korea rectifies the general notion of NO X (vide supra) by proposing an interesting means to exploit NO X in creative fashion. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has announced that a KIST research group with principal investigators of Dr. Jongsik Kim and Dr. Heon Phil Ha has collaborated with a research team led by Prof. Keunhong Jeong in the the Korea Military Academy (KMA) to graft NO 3 - species on a metal oxide via chemical fusion between NO X and O 2 under a low thermal energy ( 150 C). The resulting supported NO 3 - species can then be radicalized to generate NO 3 analogs that serve as degraders of refractory organic substances present in a wastewater. Aqueous recalcitrant compounds including phenolics and bisphenol A are typically eliminated from water matrices via sedimentation with the use of coagulants or via degradation into H 2 O and CO Y (Y=1 or 2) with the injection of OH shuttles such as H 2 O 2 , O 3 , etc. However, these methods require additional stages to recover coagulants or suffer from short lifespans and/or chemical instabilities innate to OH, H 2 O 2 , and O 3 , thus severely limiting the sustainability of H 2 O purification processes currently being commercialized. As a substitute of OH, NO 3 can be particularly appealing due to its longer lifetime and/or greater oxidizing potential in comparison with OH, OOH, or O 2 -, thereby being predicted to enhance the efficiency in degrading aqueous pollutants over the other radicals stated above. Nevertheless, NO 3 production is not trivial and has a bunch of constraints such as the need of highly energized electrons in the presence of a radioactive element or highly acidic environments. Dr. Kim and co-workers make it viable under a wastewater including H 2 O 2 and NO 3 --functionalized manganese oxide that surface manganese species (Mn2+/Mn3+) initially activate H 2 O 2 for the formation of OH, whereas OH subsequently activates NO 3 - functionality for its transition into NO 3 (denoted as OH NO 3 ), all of which are evidenced by density functional calculation (DFT) techniques alongside with a bunch of control experiments. Schematic representation of (A)H2O2 scission cycle on surface Mnn+ species (n=2 or 3) and radical transfer from surface-unbound OH radical to NO2 radical or NO3 radical species supported on -/-/-MnO2 surfaces (NO2 radical SUP or NO3 radical SUP), leading to the production of supported NO2 radical (NO2 radical SUP in B) utilized for degrading aqueous pollutants. Illustration of porous architectures for -MnO2(D). Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST) The resulting NO 3 species were demonstrated to escalate degradation efficiency of textile wastewater by five- or seven-fold compared to those provided by conventional radicals (OH/OOH/O 2 -). Of significance, the catalyst (NO 3 --functionalized manganese oxide) discovered herein is ~30 % cheaper than a traditional commercial catalyst (iron salt) and is mass-producible. Of additional significance, the catalyst is reusable ten times or more. This is in contrast to a traditional catalyst that only guarantees one-time utilization in decomposing aqueous pollutants via homogeneous H 2 O 2 scission (OH generation). Dr. Kim remarks that "The OH NO 3 technology has been patented and sold to a domestic company (SAMSUNG BLUETECH). Given a plenty of merits imparted by the catalyst modified with NO 3 - functionalities, we basically expect to install the catalyst in a wastewater treatment unit so soon." The research was published in JACS Au. More information: Jongsik Kim et al, Deciphering Evolution Pathway of Supported NO3 Enabled via Radical Transfer from OH to Surface NO3 Functionality for Oxidative Degradation of Aqueous Contaminants, JACS Au (2021). Jongsik Kim et al, Deciphering Evolution Pathway of Supported NO3 Enabled via Radical Transfer from OH to Surface NO3 Functionality for Oxidative Degradation of Aqueous Contaminants,(2021). DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00124 Provided by National Research Council of Science & Technology Increasing agricultural productivity on existing farmland could ensure sustainable and resilient food systems in Africa and boost biodiversity through preservation of forest and grassland ecosystems, a new report says. The Africa Agriculture Status Report adds that Sub-Saharan Africa registered the most rapid growth in the agricultural production value of crops and livestock worldwide, increasing by 4.3 percent annually between 2000 and 2018 compared with the global average of 2.7 percent over the same period. But the report launched in Kenya during the 11th annual summit of the African Green Revolution Forum held last week (610 September) warns that the region's agricultural food systems remain fragile with 75 percent of production coming from expansion of cropland. "We wanted to identify actionable and transformative strategies that would embed resilience and sustainability in agri-food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa," says Lulama Traub, a co-author of the report and technical chair of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. "We need to transition from resource-based to productivity-based agricultural growth." Traub explains that development of locally adaptive technologies, investment in research, development and agricultural extension services will help the region to build resilience in the current period of shocks such as climate change, desert locusts and the COVID-19 pandemic. The report warns that expansion of areas under cultivation contributes significantly to deforestation in Africa, with the percentage of the region's land area covered by forests reducing from 31.6 percent in 2000 to 26.6 percent in 2018. A report released in April this year by the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development cites Ethiopia and Ghana as Sub-Saharan African countries that have realized significant agricultural productivity growth, explaining that investment in public spending on local agricultural research, development and extension is the key driver for the success in the two countries. According to Kevin Chika Urama, senior director of the African Development Institute at the African Development Bank Group, building resilience in food systems will require examining the entire agricultural value chain from land preparation to obtaining superior quality seeds, harvesting, and processing, until the food reaches the table. "We focus a lot on farm productivity and not the returns This means our agriculture is not competitive and remains vulnerable to shocks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic," Urama explains. He calls on Sub-Saharan African countries to honor their commitments of allocating at least one percent of gross domestic products (GDP) to research. For example, according to a World Bank report published in 2017, only six countries in Sub-Saharan AfricaBotswana, Cape Verde, Eswatini, Mauritius, Namibia, and South Africaallocate at least one percent of their GDP to agricultural research. "The international community, especially donors, need to help Africa to build its research and innovation capacity to feed itself instead of helping to feed Africa," explains Urama, adding that donors should restructure financing models to make access to capital cheaper for African farmers. The report urges Africa to achieve sustainable food systems by adopting strategies such as building entrepreneurship skills for youth and women farmers to access markets, and making investments that are not harmful to human health and environment. Rwanda's President Paul Kagame says that Sub-Saharan Africa has the knowledge and technologies to build resilient food systems. "What we need is to come up with concrete actions for implementation," he explains. Provided by SciDev.Net The southern white rhino is listed as 'near threatened' by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. A female rhinoceros drowned at a zoo in the Netherlands after a first date with a new male went tragically wrong, the zoo said on Friday. Elena was "startled" on Thursday by the arrival of a white rhino named Limpopo at the Wildlands zoo in the eastern city of Emmen near the German border. After a chase the exhausted female slipped into a waterhole, at which point zookeepers lured the bull rhino away from her. "Unfortunately, this help came too late for Elena and she had already drowned," the zoo said in a statement. The 19-year-old Limpopo had arrived at the park in early September from another Dutch zoo where he sired three offspring as part of a European breeding programme. The male and the Wildlands zoo's two female rhinos, sisters Elena and Zahra, started getting to know each other by smelling and seeing each other in separate pens. The "most exciting" part, the zoo said, was planned for Thursday morning, before visitors arrived, when Limpopo was allowed into the area where the females were grazing. "From that moment on it became restless: both women were startled by the male and instead of putting him in his place together, they both ran off," it said. "As a result, Limpopo gave chase. He seemed particularly focused on Elena, because she was the closest to him." Both animals appeared exhausted after 15 minutes, and Elena slipped into a shallow pool of water, landed on her side and was unable to get up, the zoo said. Caretakers were unable to stop her drowning. Limpopo's past problems Stunned zoo vet Job Stumpel paid tribute to the "beautiful, sweet, stable and calm" Elena "You want to jump over there and lift her head above water but you couldn't. Rhinos are not only very dangerous, but they also weigh almost 2,000 kilos (4,409 pounds)," he told AD newspaper. "We raced to it with a shovel and chased the male away with it, so we could get to the female, but it was too late." The zoo said such an introduction "often requires intervention, but never before has one been fatal". Limpopo had been moved from a German zoo six years ago because he "didn't treat the female there properly", the Brabants Dagblad newspaper said. In his most recent home, the Beekse Bergen safari park near Tilburg in the southern Netherlands, he was a "proven breeder" living with a herd of six females. The southern white rhino is listed as "near threatened" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, with 10,080 animals in existence. Rhinos are killed for their horns, highly prized across Asia for traditional and medicinal purposes. But breeding them is difficult, as a female only gives birth to a calf once every three to four years, after a 16-month pregnancy, the zoo said. 2021 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain Verifying that a satellite will resist the sheer noise of the rocket launching it into orbit is a very important test that every mission must successfully pass. "Typically satellites are tested inside purpose-built reverberant chambers, such as ESTEC's own Large European Acoustic Facility sometimes described as the largest and most powerful sound system in Europe," explains ESA test facility expert Steffen Scharfenberg, overseeing the test campaign together with ESA mechanical engineer Ivan Ngan. A very powerful noise generation system produces a uniform noise field thanks to the reverberation on the thick concrete walls of the chamber. ESA has initiated a working group comprising of European spacecraft testing entities, industries and academics to study an alternative method, in which the satellite is surrounded by less powerful noise generators but these are placed very close all around the satellite. This method is called the Direct Field Acoustic Noise Test. This technique is already in use in several locations but there is not yet much experience of it in Europe. Accordingly ESA has just completed a test campaign where the classic method and the new method have been used on a small satellite to compare their results. Credit: European Space Agency Evaluating this new kind of acoustic test for satellites at ESA's ESTEC Test Centre in the Netherlands, shown via time-lapse. At first glance, the placing of 36 powerful loudspeakers and 18 subwoofers looks like preparations for a big rock concertexcept these speakers are all being placed to face each other in a circle instead of outward. The microphones arranged around the satellite measure the surrounding acoustic field during the test run. The test took a day and a half to set up, then a day to dismantle, with the actual acoustic test run itself taking place in a matter of a few minutes for passing the qualification level requirement. The satellite under test is a 'structural and themal model' test version of the Proba-V Earth-observing mission, manufactured by QinetiQ Space in Belgium. The working group is now assessing the obtained test data in detail, to confirm suitability of the method and defines when and how this method could be employed. Explore further Galileo satellites' last step before launch Credit: Shutterstock What do koalas, barking owls, greater gliders, southern rainbow skinks, native bees, and regent honeyeaters all have in common? Like many native species, they can all be found in vegetation along fences and roadsides outside formal conservation areas. They may be relatively small, but these patches and strips conserve critical remnant habitat and have disproportionate conservation value worldwide. They represent the last vestiges of once-expansive tracts of woodland and forests, long lost to the chainsaw or plow. And yet, the NSW government last week made it legal for rural landholders to clear vegetation within 25 meters of their property boundaries, without approval. This radical measure is proposed to protect people and properties from fires, despite the lack of such an explicit recommendation from federal and state-based inquiries into the devastating 201920 bushfires. This is poor environmental policy that lacks apparent consideration or justification of its potentially substantial ecological costs. It also gravely undermines the NSW government's recent announcement of a plan for "zero extinction" within the state's national parks, as the success of protected reserves for conservation is greatly enhanced by connection with surrounding "off-reserve" habitat. On Saturday the NSW Govt quietly made it legal for rural landholders to clear up to 25 meters of bush from their boundary line, without an approval or assessment of ecological impact. Not recommended by the Bushfire Inquiry, not grounded in science. Slash and burn. #nswpol Chris Gambian (@chrisgambian) September 13, 2021 Small breaks in habitat can have big impacts A 25m firebreak might sound innocuous, but when multiplied by the length of property boundaries in NSW, the scale of potential clearing and impacts is alarming, and could run into the hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Some plants, animals and fungi live in these strips of vegetation permanently. Others use them to travel between larger habitat patches. And for migratory species, the vegetation provides crucial refueling stops on long distance journeys. For example, the roadside area in Victoria's Strathbogie Ranges shown below is home to nine species of tree-dwelling native mammals: two species of brushtail possums, three species of gliders (including threatened greater gliders), common ringtail possums, koalas, brush-tailed phascogales, and agile antenchinus (small marsupials). Many of these species depend on tree hollows that can take a hundred years to form. If destroyed, they are effectively irreplaceable. Creating breaks in largely continuous vegetation, or further fragmenting already disjointed vegetation, will not only directly destroy habitat, but can severely lower the quality of adjoining habitat. This is because firebreaks of 25m (or 50m where neighboring landholders both clear) could prevent the movement and dispersal of many plant and animal species, including critical pollinators such as native bees. An entire suite of woodland birds, including the critically endangered regent honeyeater, are threatened because they depend on thin strips of vegetation communities that often occur inside fence-lines on private land. For instance, scientific monitoring has shown five pairs of regent honeyeaters (50% of all birds located so far this season) are nesting or foraging within 25m of a single fence-line in the upper Hunter Valley. This highlights just how big an impact the loss of one small, private location could have on a species already on the brink of extinction. But it's not just regent honeyeaters. The management plan for the vulnerable glossy black cockatoo makes specific recommendation that vegetation corridors be maintained, as they're essential for the cockatoos to travel between suitable large patches. Native bee conservation also relies on the protection of remnant habitat adjoining fields. Continued removal of habitat on private land will hinder chances of conserving these species. Roadside and fenceline vegetation is often the only substantial remnant vegetation remaining in agricultural landscapes. This section, in northeast Victorias Strathbogie Ranges, running north to south from the intersection, is home to high arboreal mammal diversity, including the threatened greater glider. Credit: Google Earth Disastrous clearing laws The new clearing code does have some regulations in place, albeit meager. For example, on the Rural Fire Service website, it says the code allows "clearing only in identified areas, such as areas which are zoned as Rural, and which are considered bush fire prone." And according to the RFS boundary clearing tool landowners aren't allowed to clear vegetation near watercourses (riparian vegetation). Even before introducing this new code, NSW's clearing laws were an environmental disaster. In 2019, The NSW Audit Office found: "Clearing of native vegetation on rural land is not effectively regulated [and] action is rarely taken against landholders who unlawfully clear native vegetation. " The data back this up. In 2019, over 54,500 hectares were cleared in NSW. Of this, 74% was "unexplained", which means the clearing was either lawful (but didn't require state government approval), unlawful or not fully compliant with approvals. Landholders need to show they've complied with clearing laws only after they've already cleared the land. But this is too late for wildlife, including plant species, many of which are threatened. Landholders follow self-assessable codes, but problems with these policies have been identified time and time againthey cumulatively allow a huge amount of clearing, and compliance and enforcement are ineffective. We also know, thanks to various case studies, the policy of "offsetting" environmental damage by improving biodiversity elsewhere doesn't work. So, could the federal environment and biodiversity protection law step in if habitat clearing gets out of hand? Probably not. The problem is these 25m strips are unlikely to be referred in the first place, or be considered a "significant impact" to trigger the federal law. The code should be amended Nobody disputes the need to keep people and their assets safe against the risks of fire. The code should be amended to ensure clearing is only permitted where a genuinely clear and measurable fire risk reduction is demonstrated. Granting permission to clear considerable amounts of native vegetation, hundreds if not thousands of meters away from homes and key infrastructure in large properties is hard to reconcile, and it seems that no attempt has been made to properly justify this legislation. We should expect that a comprehensive assessment of the likely impacts of a significant change like this would inform public debate prior to decisions being made. But to our knowledge, no one has analyzed, or at least revealed, how much land this rule change will affect, nor exactly what vegetation types and wildlife will likely be most affected. A potentially devastating environmental precedent is being set, if other regions of Australia were to follow suit. The environment and Australians deserve better. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Favela residents with more personal experience and fear of violence have higher levels of mental distress and poorer quality of life, according to the main finding of the international research Building the Barricades. Published in The Lancet Regional HealthAmericas, it is one of the first studies in the world to explore the relationship between experiences of neighborhood violence and mental distress in the context of informal urban settlements. The research investigated the impact of armed violence on the mental health and wellbeing of 1,400 people living in 16 communities in Mare, the largest favela complex in Rio de Janeiro. The territory is controlled by different armed drug gangs and local militias, imposing their rules and impeding any normal police access. The police force enters the favelas only in heavily armed groups and run war-like operations marked by intense clashes with the different drug gangs and militia groups. In 2019 alone, 39 police operations occurred, during which 34 residents were killed. The study showed that over one third of residents surveyed between 20182020 suffered with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, stress post-traumatic and suicidal thoughts, or attempts. 78 percent feared getting hit by a stray bullet; 83 percent worried that someone close to them would get hit by a stray bullet; and 50.4 percent had suffered physical or verbal aggression. A substantial number of interviewees have experienced different types of violence at least once: 33 percent were caught in crossfire; 21 percent experienced someone close being shot or killed; 14 percent saw someone being shot or killed, and 20 percent saw someone being beaten or assaulted. In addition to surveying residents, the research team conducted in-depth interviews, organized focus groups and mapped health and social service support, as well as cultural activities available to the communities that provide support to improve their wellbeing. From June to October 2020, the research team also conducted three sub-studies to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on residents' mental health, wellbeing, cultural activities and income generation. The findings of Building the Barricades were presented in a webinar in Brazil and have been widely covered by the Brazilian national press. People's Palace Projects and partner civil society organization Redes da Mare also launched a mental health awareness week in Mare, Rio de Janeiro. The program included distributing an education guide about mental health, promoting debates with policy makers and social workers, and holding a live show with young poets from the territoryBecos, an immersive performance in 10 parts. "Mental health is not something you can simply take a pill for, like a headache. We must talk about it and provide care to those in need. During our arts interventions we asked if we should be dealing with mental health individually or collectively. How can I look after my mental health and support the wellbeing of people around me?", asked Paul Heritage, Director of People's Palace Projects, Professor of English and Drama at Queen Mary, and the principle investigator of Building the Barricades. "Completing a large population-based survey in the challenging context of a favela is an extraordinary achievement. The study provides good evidence that even within the adverse living conditions of a favela, many people are resilient and do not suffer from mental distress. However, more experiences of violence and fear and extreme poverty are all associated with higher levels of distress" said Professor Stefan Priebe , co-investigator and Professor for Social and Community Psychiatry at Queen Mary. More information: Marcelo Santos Cruz et al, Experience of neighbourhood violence and mental distress in Brazilian favelas: a cross-sectional household survey, The Lancet Regional HealthAmericas (2021). Marcelo Santos Cruz et al, Experience of neighbourhood violence and mental distress in Brazilian favelas: a cross-sectional household survey,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.lana.2021.100067 Russian Media Outlets, NGOs Launch Petition Demanding Cancellation Of 'Foreign Agent' Law More than 150 media and nongovernmental organizations in Russia have launched a petition urging authorities to cancel the controversial foreign agent law, which is widely seen as a tool used by the Kremlin to stifle civil society and independent media. The Russian law, first passed in 2012 and amended several times since, requires designated media organizations (including 9 RFE/RL reporting projects) to label all of their content with an intrusive disclaimer. The petition says that, since January, the Justice Ministry has added six media outlets, 20 journalists, and seven NGOs to the registry of "foreign agents." Between 2013 and 2020, a total of 221 groups and individuals were put on the list. INCIDENTS AND THREATS Witnesses Testify In The Case Of RFE/RL Contributor Vladyslav Yesypenko A court in Simferopol, in Russia-occupied Crimea has heard from witnesses in the case of jailed RFE/RL Ukrainian Service project Crime.Realii contributor Vladyslav Yesupenko. The court heard from two witnesses who saw Yesypenkos detention and an FSB officer. According to Yesypenkos lawyer Dmitry Dinze, these witnesses told the court that after the car was stopped, the traffic police officers took Esypenko out of the car, they walked away from the car, then the FSB officers returned and asked Esipenko to open the doors.Yesypenkos next court hearing will take place on September 21. Yesypenko is standing trial on charges of possession and transport of explosives, which he denies. RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called Yesypenko's detention a Kremlin-backed move to target independent media outlets. (Ukrainian Service/Cirmea.Realii) RFE/RLs Jamie Fly Visits Kyrgyzstan On a visit this week to Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL President Jamie Fly met with Kyrgyz Republic President Sadyr Japarov and Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, representatives of independent news outlets, media freedom advocates, and journalism students, and spent time with RFE/RL`s local journalists to discuss the important role that RFE/RL`s journalism plays in supporting Kyrgyz democracy. More Preelection Censorship: Internet Regulator Shuts Down Website Focused On Putin's Future In the latest example of the Russian authorities' widening censorship campaign ahead of State Duma elections, the country's Internet regulator has ordered the shutdown of an independent website aimed at helping voters learn about candidates. The site, Duma.vote, is backed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled oil tycoon who in recent years has stepped up his criticism of the Kremlin by funding and supporting opposition activists and independent media outlets. Also, a court in Moscow has ordered Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram to pay more fines for failing to delete content banned by Russian law, amid a government campaign to gain more control over the Internet. Activists, Reporter Arrested For Pro-Navalny Protest On Moscow's Red Square Moscow police have detained four activists and a reporter over a brief protest in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny held on Red Square. Sergei Lukashov, Svetlana Lukashova, Sergei Rednikov, and Ilya Yermakov were detained on September 15, seconds after they unfolded a large banner saying "Free Navalny! Putin, go to jail," and chanting "Free Aleksei Navalny!" Yevgeny Yevsyukov, who recorded the protest on video, was also detained. The OVD-Info human rights group said police confiscated Yevsyukov's journalist ID and beat Yermakov. An ambulance was called to treat Yermakov, it said. The protest was held as Russia prepares for elections on September 17-19. Also: Russian journalist Igor Khoroshilov arrested for posting about Navalny's smart voting. Investigative Group OCCRP Leaves Russia To Protect Journalists The investigative journalism group Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) says it has halted its operations in Russia to shield its journalists from an ongoing government crackdown on independent media in the country. OCCRP said on September 15 that most of the Russian partners cooperating with it had been labeled as "foreign agents" or "undesirable" organizations, putting them at risk, given current conditions. It added that it had offered to move employees in Russia to other countries, while those who stayed received severance payments and assistance in finding new jobs. Pakistani Journalists Protest 'Draconian' Draft Media Law Thousands of journalists converged on Pakistans capital, Islamabad, to protest against draft legislation that they say would undermine press freedom in the country. They held an overnight sit-in outside parliament into September 13. The International Press Institute said the law would gravely weaken press freedom in Pakistan," while the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed concerns over what it called a draconian regulatory framework. (Radio Mashaal via Ganghara) Russias Ministry Of Emergency Situations Demands That Journalist Face Criminal Charges For Reporting Following a complaint from the local administration of the Ministry of Emergency Situations about the distribution of false information, the Pskov region Ministry of Internal Affairs summoned the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Pskov Province," Denis Kamalyagin, who was designated as a foreign agent earlier this year. An employee of the Emergency Situations Ministry complained about an article written by Kamalyagin about an alleged chemical spill during a military exercise, which was based on a press release sent by the prosecutor's office to the local press that resulted in four casualties. Later, the prosecutor's office said that this news was fake, and reported that the departments email had been hacked; "Pskov province" then published a correction. The Emergency Situations Ministry, however, is maintaining its demand for criminal charges to be filed against Kamalyagin. (in Russian, Current Time TV) Kazakh Police Summon Reporters Who Covered Deadly Ammo Depot Explosions Police in Kazakhstans southern Zhambyl region have summoned two journalists as part of a probe into what they called the "distribution of false information" over deadly ammunition explosions last month that led to the resignation of Defense Minister Nurlan Ermekbaev. Regional police took the two journalists -- Islambek Dastan of Turaninfo.kz and Daniyar Alimkul -- in for questioning on September 16. Dastan was summoned as witness, while Alimkul's status is a witness with the right to defend himself. Dastan told RFE/RL after the questioning that he answered the investigators' questions regarding his live broadcast on Facebook while covering the explosions and fire at the ammunition warehouse on August 26, which killed at least 17 people; one person is still missing. Ukrainian Judge Involved In Sheremet Murder Case Found Dead Outside Kyiv The Ukrainian judge who oversaw the investigation into the 2016 murder in Kyiv of journalist Pavel Sheremet has been found dead outside the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian media report. The Kyiv regional prosecutor's office announced on September 12 that it was investigating the death of a judge from the Pechersk district court in Kyiv as a case of "premeditated murder" without naming the victim. However, the website of the Pechersk court has published a statement saying all hearings chaired by Judge Vitaliy Pisanets had been indefinitely postponed and "will be redistributed for consideration by other judges." 'I Don't Feel Safe': Iranian Journalist Pressured By IRGC After Fleeing To Turkey Iranian journalist Masoud Kazemi was exultant when he was released from Tehran's notorious Evin prison in April 2020. "The nightmare is officially over," tweeted Kazemi, the former editor of the monthly magazine Sedaye Parsi, posting a photo of the prison where he had been held for 300 days. Following months of pressure and harassment to work with the IRGC, Kazemi left Iran for Turkey, intending to seek asylum in a third country along with his wife. Kazemi says he still worries he could be targeted by Iranian intelligence services, who are known to surveil Iranian activists in Turkey. He told RFE/RL that, four days after purchasing a Turkish SIM card for his mobile phone, he received a call from his former interrogator who said he wanted to say "hi," in a call that let Kazemi know he hasn't been forgotten and that his location is likely known. From Sympathy To Conspiracy Theories: How Mainstream Russian TV Covered 9/11 Mainstream Russian TV outlets initially commiserated with the U.S. after news broke about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But, as the media came more under the Kremlin's control and President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy priorities shifted, conspiracy theories began to replace the facts. NWA ANNOUNCES SPECIAL TAPING IN KENTUCKY, TICKETS ON SALE TODAY The following press release was announced: NWA IS COMING TO OAK GROVE, KENTUCKY BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY A SUPERCARD TELEVISION EVENT OCTOBER 24, 2021 TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 Noon Eastern AT NWATix.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nashville, TN Due to the overwhelming response of the National Wrestling Alliances historic weekend of NWA EMPOWERRR AND NWA 73, the NWA returns to live action in Oak Grove, Kentucky at the Valor Hall Event Center, October 24, 2021 with NWA - By Any Means Necessary. Bell time is at 6:00pm. VIP Front row seats are $40.00. All other remaining reserved seats are just $30.00. Tickets can be purchased online at NWATix.com Friday, September 17, 2021 at Noon eastern, 11:00am Central. Fans can expect a blistering night of wrestling action with the top stars of the NWA for a worldwide broadcast taping to air exclusively on FITE, including Clarksville, Tennessees own Crimson squaring off against his former War Kings partner Jax Dane in a steel cage match. This should settle their particularly violent and bitter feud. Also scheduled to appear at By Any Means Necessary: NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch NWA Worlds Womens Champion Kamille Former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis NWA World Womens Tag Team Champions The Hex: Allysin Kay & Marti Belle Former NWA World Television Champion Pope Former NWA World Tag Team Champion Thom Latimer Former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Tim Storm Judais with Father James Mitchell Kylie Rae Cyon Sal Rinauro with Danny Deals Mims Colby Corino Rush Freeman Kenzie Paige Tootie Lynn NWAs By Any Means Necessary is co-produced by Tried N True Productions; the company is owned and oper ated by Clarksville, Tennessees own Anthony Mayweather. Anthony is known around the world to wrestling fans as NWA star Crimson. Mayweather is a United States Army veteran whose service included two tours in Iraq. Get more NWA each week with theNWA Powerrr subscription on FITE for only $4.99. Includes an exclusive selection of past PPVs and all past Powerr episodes. https://www.fite.tv/join/nwa-powerrr/ About the National Wrestling Alliance Founded in 1948, the National Wrestling Alliance is the oldest and most prestigious professional wrestling organiza tion in the world. Current programming includes the critically acclaimed all womens pay-per-view EmPowerrr, NWA Powerrr, and the documentary series that started it all: Ten Pounds of Gold, plus a recent series, Race To The Chase, which highlighted the NWAs historic return of Wrestling at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis. If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here! Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Members of the 2nd Space Launch Squadron, 30th Medical Group, and Space Delta 5 held the first blood drive since the start of the pandemic at the Base Exchange on Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, Aug. 10, 2021. Utah prosecutors urge repeal of death penalty as "grave defect that creates a liability for victims of violent crime, defendants' due process rights, and for the public good" | Main | "Punishment and the Body" Marc Levin has this notable new commentary on plea practices and the trial penalty over at The Crime Report under the headline "Planning for Losing: A Lesson on Justice Reform from Afghanistan." I recommend the piece in full, and here is a taste: Akin to a peace deal in the American justice system, plea agreements enable defendants to avoid the worst possible scenario in exchange for waiving their right to a battle at trial. However, the current approach to these deals means a defendant who does not concede defeat upfront can obtain no assurance regarding their sentence if convicted. This dynamic has led to a disparity or trial penalty that is so pronounced that, in addition to expending the processing of the guilty, it effectively coerces many innocent defendants to plead guilty. A National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers report, for example, found that the average sentence for fraud defendants who went to trial in 2015 was three times higher than the sentence for those who pleaded guilty; for defendants charged with burglary and embezzlement, the sentence at trial was almost eight times higher. Indeed, one simulation suggests that more than half of participants in an experiment would be willing to confess to a crime they didnt commit in exchange for a significantly lower sentence. Some 15 percent of DNA exonerations, which generally involve charges for the most serious crimes, involve those who pleaded guilty.... The trial penalty that coaxes both the guilty and innocent to enter pleas is exacerbated by mandatory minimum statutes, which trigger automatic penalties if invoked by the prosecutor, as well as sentencing enhancements within the discretion of the prosecutor, such as whether to file notice with the court of a prior offense. One potential solution for reining in the trial penalty is to require that any plea deal offered by prosecutors include a contingency guaranteeing that the sentence would be similar upon conviction at trial. Under this scenario, defendants who exercise their right to go to trial might be entitled to a sentence that is the same or no more than 15 percent longer than the best offered deal. Russell Covey, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law who has studied plea bargaining, has outlined how this sentence ceiling tied to the best plea offer could work in practice. The late dean of Harvard Law School, James Vronberg, has also weighed in, arguing that a differential of 10 to 20 percent would be sufficient to entice defendants who are guilty to enter mutually beneficial plea agreements, and would not be coercive.... Whether in peace deals or plea bargaining, there is value in reaching an advance agreement on at least a range of ultimate outcomes that is contingent on one partys defeat. Yet current plea bargaining practice offers defendants an all-or-nothing proposition, requiring them to accept the risk of a far more severe sentence in order to pursue their constitutional right to trial and thereby test the evidence against them. The imperative for ensuring a sentence bears some relationship to the plea offer is not just about avoiding people pleading guilty to crimes they didnt commit. It is also essential at the systemic level to achieve greater fairness and reduced sentencing disparities in the resolution of comparable cases. Reining in the trial penalty will ensure the efficiency imperative does not sideline the pursuit of equity and due process. Second Texas inmate gets execution stay based on religion claim SCOTUS considering in Ramirez | Main | "'Theyre Taking My Stuff!' What You Need to Know about Seizure and Forfeiture" September 17, 2021 Making the important (but insufficient) claim that jurors should "know what the penalties for a guilty verdict will be" A couple of month ago, I flagged here the notable new article by Daniel Epps and William Ortman titled "The Informed Jury." I was pleased to see that this week Epps and Ortman brought their work to the pages of the Washington Post via this notable commentary under the headline "Jurors dont know what the penalties for a guilty verdict will be. They should." Here are some extended excerpts (with a bit of commentary to follow): The American criminal justice system asks jurors to do something extraordinary: They make decisions that have enormous consequences for their fellow citizens lives depriving them of freedom for decades, for example without knowing those consequences in advance. Thats because most American jurisdictions follow a rule of jury ignorance, meaning that neither judges nor lawyers may tell jurors what punishment a defendant could receive if convicted.... Keeping juries ignorant, however, exacerbates one of the U.S. criminal justice systems worst tendencies its inclination to grow more punitive. Evidence from both history and social scientific experiments suggest that jurors are less likely to convict if they know a defendants punishment could be extremely harsh. The rule of jury ignorance eliminates an important check on the system. If politicians thought juries would be less likely to convict when a sentence was severe, for instance, they would be less likely to pass draconian laws. Replacing ignorant juries with informed ones therefore could be an important criminal justice reform. As a general rule, then, we propose that judges should tell jurors the range of sentences, including the statutory maximum and any mandatory minimums, that a defendant would face upon conviction. (We make the case in a forthcoming article in the Vanderbilt Law Review.)... The argument that juries should be informed about sentences should appeal to both liberal and conservative justices of an originalist bent with liberals focusing on how such a reform would democratize the criminal justice system, and originalists focusing on the fact that the ignorant jury lacks a solid historical foundation. Indeed, juries informed about punishment were quite familiar to the founding generation. In the 18th century, both in Britain and its American colonies, jurors understood that by finding a defendant guilty of a less serious crime (libidinous actions, say) instead of a more serious one (adultery), they could spare them from a death sentence. Often they did exactly that, even when it was obvious to all that the defendant was guilty of the more serious offense. It was only in the 19th century when prisons and incarceration replaced the death penalty as the leading form of criminal punishment that judges undermined jurors opportunity to shape punishment by shielding them from any knowledge of it.... Under our proposal, jurors would know about the punishments that await defendants on the other side of a guilty verdict: Judges would spell out the minimum and maximum sentences as part of their instructions to the jury.... In rare cases, juries would acquit even clearly guilty defendants where they saw the punishment as unjust. But the transformative potential of informed juries goes beyond what theyd do in individual cases. Informing juries about punishment would alter the incentives for three key actors in criminal justice: Defendants might be more willing to roll the dice at trial (counting on juries to see the unfairness of sentences); prosecutors might think twice before overcharging (to avoid losing more cases); and lawmakers might hesitate before enacting severe penalties (after seeing the preceding developments). Informed juries could not single-handedly end mass incarceration or racial disparities, but they could be a step in the right direction.... Informed juries would also be more democratic juries; wed effectively be asking a group of citizens to authorize a punishment before a judge could impose it. While most criminal laws are enacted at the state or national level, criminal juries are typically drawn more locally, from cities or counties. Even when members of the communities impacted the most by punitive criminal justice are shut out of decision-making by lawmakers, they can still have a powerful impact in the jury room if they have the relevant information on which to act. Such juries would also better honor the spirit of the Constitutions guarantee of a jury trial than the juries we have today. Criminal juries were intended by the founders to be powerful checks on state power over criminal punishment; they werent supposed to just be narrow fact-finders. How to bring this reform about? Legislatures could direct courts to inform jurors about sentencing. Or courts could, on their own accord, reverse the wrong turn they made on juries more than a century ago. (Several federal court judges have expressed frustration over jury ignorance in recent years.) By giving jurors the important power to determine the fate of those accused of crime, our system places a tremendous amount of trust in the judgment of ordinary people. We should trust juries with information that is critical to their making the soundest, most just decisions possible. Long-time readers will not be surprised that I support this proposal. Ever since being deeply moved by Justice Stevens' opinion in Apprendi and Justice Scalia's opinion in Blakely, I have been a avid supporter of having juries play a greater role in our criminal justice systems. (I even wrote an article some years ago making an originalist (and modern) argument that juries should be involved in federal habeas decision-making.) But I do not think it is enough to just have juries informed about sentencing possibilities, I think they should also have a direct role in sentencing decision-making. Specifically, in order to better advance many of the sound goals that Epps and Ortman champion, I think citizen jurors, at least in the federal system, should be authorized and encouraged to provide sentencing advice to federal judges somewhat akin to how the federal sentencing guidelines now provide sentencing advice to federal judges. That is, I would like to see citizen jurors provide a suggested sentencing range to federal judges, but that range would be advisory and serve as just one factor for the sentencing judge's consideration along with the other 3553(a) factors. Problematically, because roughly 95% of all criminal cases are resolved by pleas, informing jurors at a traditional trial only impacts a handful of cases. I think Epps and Ortman are right that all other other actors in our criminal justice system will be impacted by informed jurors, but I am not sure the impact will always be significant (or positive). But my vision of advisory federal sentencing juries includes the possibility of making them available in all cases even if the defendant chooses to accept guilt and plead guilty. Of course, the parties could still bargain around these juries (just as now parties can sometimes bargain around the federal sentencing guidelines), but I suspect in a lot of challenging and important cases some or all of the parties would see the benefit of citizen juror involvement in making a suggested sentencing recommendation. September 17, 2021 at 11:34 AM | Permalink Comments I saw this referenced on Twitter and the thread had (mostly) people support the idea of jurors being so informed. One law professor strongly disagreed as did a few other people. I have mixed feelings about the idea and think it is reasonable to have the jurors only focused on the (rather important) factual issue. Now, I'm open to the idea and in the civil context jurors regularly have a role in setting the damages. But, jurors already are a "check" -- in grand jury systems, they have the power not to indict. In petit juries, they have the power not to convict. And, I think the average juror realizes at the very least that people are liable for serious time when convicted of felonies. I think jurors already have a lot on their plate and can be schooled on playing a more educated role in the fact portion. For instance, possibly they can be allowed to ask questions [when I was on one jury, there was a significant thing left out; maybe for reasons we couldn't be told, but I would have asked about it] or take notes. I'm not sure how much more they should be given tasks here. Again, I'm OPEN to the idea. Posted by: Joe | Sep 17, 2021 5:34:04 PM This seems pretty weak to me. Just as a general matter, I find originalist arguments underwhelming. This one is no exception. For example: "juries informed about punishment were quite familiar to the founding generation." I mean great, so what? Were they actually formally instructed on potential sentences or were did they just happen to be aware of that as part of their everyday knowledge? It's not stated in the excerpt, but just from the wording of the sentence I take it to be the latter. Were it the former, I'd expect to see some oddball argumentnot present herethat the jury trial right actually includes a right to a jury informed of punishments. So at most people on juries back then happened to know the punishments coming into it. Not surprising really. I'm no legal historian, but I think there weren't as many crimes back then, people were more aware of such things, and numerous felonies all carried the death penalty as opposed to the different gradations we see nowadays. Moving on past originalism now. "such a reform would democratize the criminal justice system" / "Informed juries would also be more democratic juries" huh? Given all the secrecy around deliberations etc., juries are already a black box when it comes to just guilt/acquittal. Likewise, it can be very hard to ferret out and address the various kinds of juror misconduct. Add to that all the influence that the prosecution and defense have on jury selection. It's not particularly democratic or transparent in the first place. So I'm sort of unsure how throwing sentencing into the mix makes things any more democratic. Rather, it seems like doing that would just make the whole process more opaque. Last one. "If politicians thought juries would be less likely to convict when a sentence was severe, for instance, they would be less likely to pass draconian laws." sorry, that's just embarrassingly incoherent and silly. No offense, but only a law prof could ever produce an absurd claim like that. And it ties back nicely to the previous point about democratic processes. Somehow a random group of unelected people with no accountability deliberating entirely in secret is more democratic than an actual legislature? Spare me. If constituents don't want "draconian laws" they have existing tools at hand. For example, you know, engaging with their representatives like people normally do in democracies. It probably goes without saying, but I also agree with much of what Joe wrote. Posted by: kotodama | Sep 17, 2021 11:24:16 PM It is my understanding that some juries already have a role in sentencing (put aside capital cases). That would be an interesting thing to examine. Posted by: Joe | Sep 18, 2021 12:00:41 AM I don't know about other cases, but yes, juries are already involved with DP. That said, I'm not sure having juries in DP cases is even that helpfulwhere the definition of "helpful" might be up for debate, but to me at least means avoids some injustices and leans a bit sympathetic to defendants. I'd have to see the data on that. Again, I'm not totally opposed in principle to juries at least having some input on non-DP sentencing. Juries in civil cases obviously make determinations beyond just the pure binary one for liability. For example, in patent cases (which I'm more familiar with, but certainly many others too), you get a jury number on damages. In my experience though, they tend not to arrive at an independent calculation. They just pick between one of two numbers spoon-fed to them by the experts. Doing the same in criminal cases seems to me a lot more complex and riskier. For one, obviously, someone's liberty is at stake, not just dollars and cents. Another thing is, while at least even for DP juries it's still just a binary choice, outside that you have all sorts of permutations. The amount of jail time for sure, but also probation, conditions of probation, suspended sentences, community service, etc. etc. If, even when it's only damages, juries will just pick whichever number sounds goodor occasionally split the babywhy expect them to do anything different when confronted with competing proposals from the prosecution and defense? Plus, if the idea is to benefit defendants, it may backfire. As I understand it, appealing a sentence from a judge is hard enough already. If the sentence comes from a jury instead, presumably it would carry additional deference. Also, juries have all kinds of problems to begin with just in the liability context, so maybe let's fix those first before moving on to punishment. Again, I'm not opposed in principle to the advisory jury concept Prof. B. proposes, with all the accompanying caveats of course. I guess I just wonder how much difference it would make. But if it's available and the parties are cool with it, sure why not. In the end, I think some decent arguments could be made for jury input to sentencing, but as I said, the paper seemed to be lacking that. I discerned two strands of argument. As I said, one was originalism, which might be convincing for some, but it never works on me. The other was more along the lines of One Weird Trick/heighten the contradictions. I don't think that even passes the laugh test. Posted by: kotodama | Sep 18, 2021 11:22:43 AM Just an interesting note - At trial for a nonviolent marijuana offender a contingent of RCMP's from Canada came to testify. The defendant received a sentence of life without parole. Fifteen years later I received a message from the head of the RCMP team. He was surprised that the defendant was still in prison and had no idea that a sentence like that could be given. I'm know many jurors feel the same. Posted by: beth curtis | Sep 18, 2021 12:15:16 PM I appreciate kotodama's comments. I also am sure juries would be surprised in some cases, but they would be surprised about appeals overturning their decision and a slew of matters. Jurors have a specific job to do & it's hard enough. There are ways to address that before adding more to it. I also am not surprised if people from other countries are surprised at our excessive penalty system. To be clear, I have heard lawyers say that certain non-capital criminal juries are involved in sentencing. As to capital juries, the Stevens/Breyer argument is that an execution particularly warrants a result that reflects the community. The jury is argued to be better there than a judge. In at least some states, at least, it also results in less death penalties applied. I also am inclined (as a theoretical matter as compared to the law specifically now) to think the death penalty is a special penalty that when applied basically is a judgment call that is at least partially a factual call that makes the jury deciding appropriate. I realize that you can make an across the board argument there, but I think that goes too far. I oppose the death penalty, but if you are going to apply it, it is a moral call that is best done by a jury as a reflection of the community. As a rule as applied to the mass of the criminal justice system, that is a lot more complicated. Something like LWOP can be close enough. I'm sure that is all debatable but it factors into my thinking. Posted by: Joe | Sep 18, 2021 12:57:27 PM Off topic, my state senator (Sen. Alessandra Biaggi) in NY has pushed for various criminal justice reforms, including dealing with solitary confinement. I also see this among the stuff my new governor did: "Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday ordered the release of nearly 200 detainees from New York Citys Rikers Island jail complex, underscoring the growing alarm about violence and unbridled disorder at the notorious facility." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/nyregion/rikers-island-crisis.html More will be transferred, but the article notes that a lot of problems still remains. Noting the wide reach of criminal justice: "Only 36 percent of detainees and 37 percent of the Correction Departments staff are fully vaccinated, according to city data." COVID is in part a criminal justice matter. Actions addressing it helps criminal justice. Posted by: Joe | Sep 18, 2021 1:08:22 PM If folks are interested in some (now dated) accounts of state jury sentencing experiences, Nancy King has a number of great papers from a little less than 20 years ago. Here are two: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=527204 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=692002 Prof King is a bit pessimistic about the state jury sentencing experience, though I think it has rarely been well structured in the states AND non-capital jury sentencing circa 2000 is likely different than jury sentencing circa 2021 (just as we have seen with capital jury sentencing in modern times looking quite different than it did two decades ago). Posted by: Douglas A Berman | Sep 18, 2021 7:26:33 PM A related issue that I find troubling is that the Government frequently uses the statements of co-defendants to increase drug quantity or other sentencing evidence, but the defendant and his attorney sometimes do not have an opportunity to confront and cross-examine these witnesses at sentencing hearing, because the Constitutional right to confront and cross-examine ends at trial and does not continue to sentencing hearings. I have seen several defendants who ended up with very long Federal drug sentences, where the defendants says the witness was lying to curry the Government's favor in their own case, but they couldn't confront or cross examine that evidence against them. Posted by: Jim Gormley | Sep 19, 2021 9:36:17 AM Post a comment US Sentencing Commission releases FY 2021 third quarter sentencing data showing COVID's continued (but reduced) impact on federal sentencings | Main | Making the important (but insufficient) claim that jurors should "know what the penalties for a guilty verdict will be" September 17, 2021 Second Texas inmate gets execution stay based on religion claim SCOTUS considering in Ramirez As reported in this post, the Supreme Court last week stayed the execution of John Ramirez and granted certiorari to consider Ramirezs request that his pastor be allowed to physically touch him and audibly pray in the execution chamber while Ramirez is put to death by the state of Texas. In this follow-up post, titled "A short de facto execution moratorium?: could other condemned inmates secure a stay until SCOTUS decides new Ramirez case on religious liberty?", I wondered aloud if the SCOTUS cert grant in Ramirez could produce a short de facto execution moratorium based on other death row inmates making a religious liberty claim like Ramirezs request. This new AP piece, headlined "Judge delays another Texas execution over religious freedom claims," reports that at least one other Texas inmate has secured an execution stay on the basis of Ramirez. Here are the details: Another Texas inmate has had his execution delayed over claims the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. Ruben Gutierrez was set to be executed on Oct. 27 for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman in 1998. But a judge on Wednesday granted a request by the Cameron County District Attorneys Office to vacate the execution date. Prosecutors said the U.S. Supreme Courts upcoming review of similar religious freedom issues made by another inmate, John Henry Ramirez, whose execution the high court delayed last week, will impact Gutierrezs case. As the Ramirez matter may be dispositive of any issue related to Gutierrezs religious liberty claim, it is in the best interest of the state, the family of the victim of Gutierrezs crimes, that his execution be delayed, prosecutors said in a motion filed Tuesday. Gutierrez was previously an hour away from execution in June 2020 when the Supreme Court granted him a stay because his spiritual adviser was not allowed to accompany him in the death chamber. Last month, Gutierrezs attorneys filed a complaint in federal court alleging the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was violating his right to practice his religion by denying his request to have his priest touch his shoulder, pray out loud and perform last rites when he was executed. Gutierrez, 44, said that these three things need to be done to ensure my path to the afterlife, according to his complaint. His attorneys cited the Constitutions First Amendment and a federal statute that protects an inmates religious rights. Ramirez made similar claims when he was granted a stay. The Supreme Court has dealt with the presence of spiritual advisers in the death chamber in recent years but has not made a definitive ruling on the issue. That could change after it hears oral arguments in Ramirezs case on Nov. 1. Prior related posts: September 17, 2021 at 12:11 AM | Permalink Comments Since the Supreme Court already held up his execution in the past to put the state to the test regarding religious liberty concerns, this isn't too surprising. Posted by: Joe | Sep 17, 2021 8:12:08 AM Agreed, Joe, but I continue to wonder whether the two other executions scheduled in Texas over the next few weeks will go forward. I now particularly wonder if other local Texas DAs were urging the Cameron County District Attorneys Office to make the motion to vacate the execution date in order to signal to state judges that state actors would respect a "Ramirez claim" in some settings, but not others. Posted by: Douglas A Berman | Sep 17, 2021 10:14:16 AM We will see. A major debate, including in the Supreme Court, here is when the claims are made. As with the case taken, this guy's claims overall aren't new. If someone all the sudden had a religious claim, it might be seen as feigned and/or procedurally problematic. But, especially with an accelerated schedule, it would seem sensible for the states to postpone executions until after the case is decided. The case might clarify somewhat other possible claims that can arise. And, Texas already got in trouble for seeming to discriminate. Plus, this is clearly one issue for which there is cross-ideological concern on the Supreme Court to address. Posted by: Joe | Sep 17, 2021 11:23:34 AM Post a comment Representative Image Paris [France], September 17 (ANI): Expressing fury over the Australian submarine deal, France on Thursday (local time) cancelled a gala celebrating relation with the US. US President Joe Biden's announcement of a deal to help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines led to the French angrily cancelling a gala at their Washington embassy to protest what they called a rash and sudden policy decision that resembled those of former President Donald Trump, reported The New York Times (NYT). The event commemorating the "240th Anniversary of the Battle of the Capes," which was supposed to take place on Friday evening at the French embassy and aboard a French frigate in Baltimore, will not happen, according to the official. France's top naval officer, who had travelled to Washington for the event celebrating their navy's help with America's battle for independence in 1781, will return to Paris early instead, reported NYT. The gala's cancellation was an immediate reflection of the rage felt among French officials and diplomats in the wake of the submarine deal, which Biden announced at the White House on Wednesday with the leaders of Australia and Britain joining virtually. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Foreign Minister, in an interview with Franceinfo radio, called the deal a "unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision" like those by Trump. That followed a statement from him and Florence Parly, the Minister of the Armed Forces, calling "the American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France" a "regrettable decision" that "shows a lack of coherence," reported NYT. Le Drian's indignation reflected the fact that France had its own deal with Australia, concluded in 2016, for conventional, less technologically sophisticated submarines. That USD 66 billion deal is now defunct, but a harsh legal battle over the contract appears inevitable. "A knife in the back," Le Drian said of the Australian decision, noting that Australia was rejecting a deal for a strategic partnership that involved "a lot of technological transfers and a contract for a 50-year period." At issue is whether the United States intentionally hid the submarine deal from the French, reported NYT. French officials in Washington said the Biden administration blindsided France and accused top American officials of hiding information about the deal despite repeated attempts by French diplomats, who suspected that something was in the works, to learn more. The degree of French anger recalled the acrimonious rift between Paris and Washington in 2003 over the Iraq war and involved language not seen since then, reported NYT. (ANI) The Covid death of a fully vaccinated 66-year-old Illinois woman was caused by those who chose not to get inoculated, her family has said in an obituary. Candace Cay Ayers, who was from Springfield, Illinois, was the mother of two and the grandmother of three children. She had been fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine in March, but died on 3 September after contracting a breakthrough infection. She was preceded in death by more than 4,531,799 others infected with Covid-19, said the obituary, referring to the worldwide Covid death toll. Sending a strong message to those who remain unvaccinated, the family levelled blame for Ayerss death on vaccine hesitancy. Candace Ayers (Dignity Memorial) She was vaccinated but was infected by others who chose not to be. The cost was her life, it added. Ayerss family said she caught Covid in July when she went to visit an unvaccinated friend, whose husband had died from Covid. She was hospitalised as her condition deteriorated and moved to the intensive care unit, where she spent her final days on a ventilator before dying from the infection. Mom was a fighter and mom was so angry at people for not getting vaccinated and not wearing a mask, her son, Marc Ayers, 36, told USA Today. In a Facebook post almost a month before his mothers death, Mr Ayers said their family believes in science and urged people to get vaccinated and follow mask mandates. If youre able to get vaccinated and/or wear a mask but refuse to, just know that your selfish actions are threating (sic) the lives of others, he said. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. We were responsible, we wore masks indoors, and were so happy to have received a full vaccine so we could exit this pandemic and move on with our lives. Unfortunately some of you bought into the political nature of this crisis and threatened the lives of my family, he added. He said both his parents got Covid during the trip. While his fully-vaccinated father recovered, his mothers condition deteriorated as she had pre-existing rheumatoid arthritis, making her immunocompromised. Story continues Breakthrough infections occur when a person catches Covid at least 14 days after the second dose of vaccination, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There is evidence that vaccinations make illness less severe for those who are vaccinated and still get sick, while others might not have any symptoms. The risk of infection, hospitalisation and death has been found to be much lower in vaccinated people compared to those unvaccinated. A recent CDC study, conducted amid the spread of the Delta variant in the US and published earlier this month, found that around 46,312 cases, or 8 per cent of the total Covid cases between 4 April and 17 July in 13 jurisdictions were breakthrough infections. I would just wish (unvaccinated people) would read the story of my mom, what we as a family went through and see if thats something they want to put their loved ones through, because I can probably assure you that its not, Mr Ayers said. Watch the latest videos from Yahoo News UK By Clare Jim and Farah Master HONG KONG (Reuters) - As Beijing seeks to tighten its grip over Hong Kong, it has a new mandate for the city's powerful property tycoons: pour resources and influence into backing Beijing's interests, and help solve a potentially destabilising housing shortage. Chinese officials delivered the message in closed meetings this year amid broader efforts to bring the city to heel under a sweeping national security law and make it more "patriotic," according to three major developers and a Hong Kong government adviser familiar with the talks. "The rules of the game have changed," they were told, according to a source close to mainland officials, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. Beijing is no longer willing to tolerate "monopoly behaviour," the source added. For Hong Kong's biggest property firms, that would be a big shift. The companies have long exerted outsized power under the citys hybrid political system, helping choose its leaders, shaping government policies, and reaping the benefits of a land auction system that kept supply tight and property prices among the world's highest. The sprawling businesses of the four major developers, CK Asset, Henderson Land Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) and New World Development, extend their influence even further into society. For example, the empire of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing of CK Assets, includes property, supermarkets, pharmacies and utilities. Because the tycoons are so deeply intertwined with the city's economy and politics, it would be difficult for Beijing to sideline them completely, said CY Leung, former Hong Kong leader and now a vice-chairman of China's top advisory body. "They are a major component of our political and economic ecosystem, so we need to be careful," Leung told Reuters. "I think we need to be judicious with what we do and not throw the baby out with the bathwater." Story continues INFLECTION POINT Some Chinese officials and state media have blamed tycoons for failing to prevent anti-government protests in 2019 that they say were rooted in sky-high property prices. The protests, joined by millions of all ages and social strata, demanded greater democracy and less meddling by Beijing in Hong Kong, which had been promised wide-ranging freedoms until 2047. The new directives mark an inflection point in the power play between Beijing and the tycoons, who once held kingmaking sway in Hong Kong's political leadership race. "Now the focus is on contribution to the country; this is not what the traditional business sector in Hong Kong is used to," said Raymond Tsoi, chairman of Asia Property Holdings (HK) and a member of the advisory group Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Shanxi Committee. In March, Beijing made sweeping electoral changes. In a new election committee, responsible for choosing the next leader of Hong Kong and some of its lawmakers, a greater "patriotic" force has emerged, while many of the prominent tycoons, including Li, 93, will be absent for the first time since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Hong Kong's Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said the new election committee would be more broadly representative of Hong Kong, going beyond the vested interests of specific sectors, specific districts and specific groups, which it called "inadequacies" in the system. The source close to Chinese government officials told Reuters a team in the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the Liaison Office (HKMAO) had sought to curtail the influence of groups perceived to have done little for Beijing's interests in the city. HKMAO and the Liaison Office did not respond to requests for comment. SHKP said it was confident about the future of Hong Kong and would continue to invest there and in mainland cities. Henderson Land and New World Development declined to comment, while CK Holdings did not respond to request for comment. Li did not respond to a request for comment. 'GIVE BACK MORE' Developers have already taken measures to show the message was received. New World and Henderson Land have donated rural land as reserves for social housing. In recent weeks, Nan Fung Group, Sun Hung Kai, Henderson Land and Wheelock applied for a public-private partnership scheme, the first applications since the programme was launched in May 2020. The programme offers developers an opportunity to build on a higher percentage of open land, but they must use at least 70% of the extra floor area for public housing. Several told Reuters last year that the programme was unattractive because there were many restrictions and a risk of higher costs. "Beijing is not telling us what to do, but saying you need to solve this problem," Hopewell Holdings' Gordon Wu told Reuters, adding that "it won't be impatient but it will give you pressure." Another developer source, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Chinese officials had laid out expectations, but no strategy or deadline. "We can continue our businesses as long as we give back more to society," said the source, a senior official at a top developer in Hong Kong. The sector needs to step up efforts to ease the housing shortage, he added. Most of the developers have published statements and newspaper advertisements, along with other Chinese corporations, to support the national security legislation and electoral changes. Critics of the moves said they crushed democratic dreams, while authorities said they were necessary to restore stability after the 2019 demonstrations. Adrian Cheng, 41, who took over as chief executive of New World, founded by his grandfather, told Reuters late last year the company needs to become more relevant to society, especially in a new environment where firms have to carefully balance the interests of various parties. "It's not easy. I have a lot of grey hair you can't see," Cheng said. (Refiles to clarify Sun Hung Kai Properties' corporate name in Paragraph 5) (Additional reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Gerry Doyle) Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hosted Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Peter Dutton Washington [US], September 17 (ANI): The US and Australia expressed concerns regarding China's expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea and called on Beijing to implement relevant domestic legislation, including the Maritime Traffic Safety Law, in a manner consistent with UNCLOS. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hosted Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Peter Dutton on September 16 in Washington for the 31st Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN 2021). The two countries called on China to grant urgent, meaningful, and unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent international observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to a joint statement following the talks. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. The Secretaries and Ministers upheld that adherence to international law are essential for regional and international stability and prosperity. "They underlined the importance of countries' ability to exercise their maritime rights and freedoms in the South China Sea, consistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), including freedom of navigation and overflight and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms," the statement read. "The Secretaries and Ministers conveyed ongoing concern regarding the People's Republic of China's (PRC) expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea that are without legal basis, called on the PRC to implement relevant domestic legislation, including the Maritime Traffic Safety Law, in a manner consistent with UNCLOS, and reiterated that the 2016 Arbitral Award is final and legally binding on the parties," the statement added. Story continues The Indo-Pacific region is largely viewed as an area comprising the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean, including the South China Sea. While Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea and has overlapping territorial claims with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. China's territorial claims in the South China Sea and its efforts to advance into the Indian Ocean are seen to have challenged the established rules-based system. (ANI) Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication. Smart, rational people break when it comes to Trump, Lindsey Graham told Bob Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa for their new book, Peril. Hell get you to do things that are not good for you because you dont like him. Graham, whose every attempt to separate himself from Trump has been followed by some groveling, compensatory abasement, ought to know. As Woodward and Costa portray it, Grahams only notable value to his party at present is as a Trump whisperer, tasked with assessing the former presidents state of mind (it doesnt change much) and persuading him to let go of his incessant claims of having been cheated of victory in the 2020 election, an enterprise that is apparently doomed. Advertisement But just this once, Ill have to agree with Graham. My own unabated appetite for tales of Trumps downfallhis weeks in the figurative bunker, surrounded by toadies and cranks, spinning off into ever-more-loony theories of election fraud, as the West Wing empties and Rudy Giuliani, his hair dye dripping down his face, pours poison into his earsdemonstrates Grahams point. Peril is a more virtuous bowl of schadenfreude than Michael Wolffs racier Landslide, published earlier this year. Call it cornflakes to Wolffs Capn Crunch. In either case, its not good for me, but its so hard to pass up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Read: God Help Me, I Savored Every Word of Michael Wolffs Trashy Book on Trumps Final Year] Advertisement For Wolff, the period between the election and Joe Bidens inauguration was a spectacular shitshow, and little more than that. Landslide is a webcam inside a clown car. Trumps incompetence as a leader made it nearly impossibleat the end, when he had driven away any staffer of independent abilityto get much done in the way of governance, good or bad. As Woodward and Costa portray it, the final two months or so of Trumps presidency were a period of veiled crisis in which the handful of sane people left in the Cabinet feared he might do something terrible. The hero of this part of Perils narrative is Gen. Mark Milley, whose strenuous efforts to run interference between Trumps moods and U.S. foreign policy, as reported by the authors, have been making headlines for the past couple of days. Books like this are shaped by their sources, and those sources always have their own agendas. Former Attorney General William Barr, for example, is apparently granting long interviews to everyone writing a book-length account of Trumps final year in office in an evident attempt to pass himself off as someone who moderated the presidents worst excesses. Trump aides who served as sources for Wolff, such as former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, come across as voices of reason in Landslide, then turn up in Peril trying to, say, hire the nutcase conspiracist Kash Patel to run the CIA. Advertisement Advertisement As Peril tells it, Milley virtually saved the republic by setting up buffers between a raging president, who to Milleys mind had gone into a serious mental decline after the election, and the various military buttons the chief executive was empowered to push by virtue of his office. Trump might, Milley feared, set match to his own Reichstag fire, engineering a defense emergency as a power grab, such as by starting a war with Iran or China. Knowing that the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol building made some foreign powers nervous about the stability of the U.S. government, he reportedly contacted Chinese military leaders to assure them that no American attack on them was imminent. Advertisement The flurry of treason accusations and denials that have followed these revelationsnot to mention Peril itselffail to provide any evidence that such a plan even crossed Trumps mind. The only indication that Trump had given a moments thought to anything besides overturning the election was a Nov. 11 memo instructing the acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, to withdraw all U.S. forces from both Somalia and Afghanistan by the end to the year. The resemblance between this document and a real, official National Security Memorandum was so tenuous that it might as well have been written in crayon, yet Trump had signed it with one of his famous Sharpie markersor had he? Months later, Axios reported that the rogue memo had been drafted by Trump favorite John McEntee, the presidents former body man who was then running personnel, along with a bewildered, newly minted senior adviser to Miller. Peril even implies that the signature might have been forged, as Milley at first suspected. At any rate, if Trump did actually issue the directive, he was not invested enough to pursue it. Advertisement Advertisement All evidence, in this book and others about the transition between the two administrations, indicates that Trump was completely preoccupied with his fantasies of election fraud and any scrap of support he could find for them. He seemed incapable of conceiving that Mike Pence would fail to invalidate the election on Jan. 6, or that somehow the Supreme Court, which hed packed with his judges, would not swoop in to overturn it. Milleys vigilance is appreciated by this and many other citizens, but the Reichstag-fire scenario presumes that what Trump wanted was to stay in office by any means necessary, to go on being the president, when in fact, all he really wanted, and still wants, is to prove that he won. I dont care about my legacy, he told Hope Hicks. If I lose, that will be my legacy. In his fervid psyche, his base has replaced the demanding father who drummed into his sons the imperative to be a killer. Whenever someone urges him to be pragmatic, to move on and exercise the considerable power he retains, he refuses, repeating that mantra, They expect me to fight. Advertisement Advertisement [Read: I Read (Almost) Every Memoir by a Former Trump Official] In counterpart to Trumps mercurial narcissism, Peril presents an almost ridiculously glowing portrait of Biden. Chapters about the bungled Trump campaign and the disorder in the White House alternate with snapshots of Biden and his advisers resolutely crafting plans for vaccine distribution. In the authors telling, the new president is humble and diligent and humane, a skilled senatorial negotiator, an attentive listener, a firm leader, and yet ready to drop everything in the midst of a campaign to spend a half-hour consoling the grieving family of a longtime supporter. Only twice do the authors offer anything in the way of personal criticism. Sometimes it seems Biden is testy. Sometimes he misspeaks. But thats about it. At any moment, I expected him to untie a swooning maiden from the railroad tracks. While this is reassuring, its also a bit dull. Which may indeed be the point. Advertisement I cant judge the accuracy of the authors depiction of Biden, but I have no doubt that Woodward himself has much invested in the political establishment. Peril portrays the political events of the past year as a battle between the evil of Trumps self-serving chaos and the orderly virtue of the system he promised to blow up. Bidens election represented a return to that system and its protocols, which is more or less why I and more than 81 million other Americans voted for him. Still, is it really necessary to get quite so starry-eyed over business as usual? The old ways definitely look good compared with the past four years, but their shortcomings were one of the reasons Trump happened in the first place. Care and Feeding is Slates parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. Dear Care and Feeding, Im a divorced man in my 40s. I have a reasonably good relationship with my kids mom. Shes dating a man that I never liked for various reasons, although I dont interfere with their relationship. Last year, my older daughter casually told me that this man had crossed a creepy line a few years earlier (think along the lines of asking what color underwear she was wearing on a regular basis), and I would have done something had I heard this around the time it happened. From what I hear, her mom laughed it off and minimized it. I was frustrated that I hadnt heard this earlier, of course. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, my younger daughter (a high schooler) has told me in confidence that for reasons that are only partially clear, she has panic attacks when this man is present, and shes even let her mother know. However, he still shows up periodically and my daughter runs to her room so that she doesnt have to interact with him. Shes told me that she has had arguments with her mother about this man, that hes broken her heart multiple times, and he has also been in multiple inpatient hospitalizations that dont seem to have changed him for the better. This came out in a tear-filled conversation and she said, Dont tell Mom, because she told me not to tell you. Advertisement I suggested we find her an adult to talk to about things, and she would be very willing to see one. It pains me to see her internalize this, but it wouldnt have come out if I didnt start the conversation. My role as a dad is to allow my kids to grow up happy and safe and I think I can help at least my younger daughter. How can I bring this up with my ex without betraying a confidence? I feel that if I say anything, she might take it out on my daughter, as she consistently chooses this boyfriend over the kids and loves to share how everything in her life is great. But given this, Im ready to hire an attorney if I need to rewrite our custody arrangement. Advertisement Advertisement Mad, Sad Dad Dear MSD, This man seems to have sexually harassed two of your minor children and I am a little perplexed that you seemingly need for someone to tell you that you need to do everything in your power to get your children the hell away from him for good. If you need to go back to court to get custody, then do that. Instead of rushing to confront your ex (lets not even bother with giving this man any decency), get to the business of identifying your legal options and figuring out how soon you can make this happen. Advertisement Sometimes confidence must be betrayed, and this is one of those times. Your daughter can forgive you for thatI dont know how well she will forgive you for allowing her to remain in a situation where she is subjected to the behavior of a predatory man who sounds like he may be a danger to himself and others as well. Get your kids, Dad. They need you nowand not just your youngest. Im not sure what you would have definitely done if youd heard about your older daughters alleged abuse years prior, but you havent done anything despite knowing about that and this? Your girls are watching your inaction now and suffering in the meantime, sir. They both will need support to cope with whats happened thus far. Your need to keep your child safe doesnt end with high school, and I assure you this nightmare hasnt ended for your elder daughter. Get to moving immediately. Advertisement Advertisement Slate Plus members get more Care and Feeding from Jamilah each week. Sign up today! From this weeks letter, My Nephew Threw a Fit Over a Gift I Gave His Brother: How do I give appropriate gifts for everyone while forestalling disappointment in the future? Did I do something wrong? Dear Care and Feeding, We have four adult children (all in their 20s/early 30s) and are currently facing a great deal of family conflict around the unequal way we raised them. To be honest, we were pretty strict parents with our oldest daughter Lily. From the outset, we told her that at 18, shed be moving outliving with us indefinitely was not an optionand shed need to pay for college by herself. She got into an expensive Ivy League school that did not offer enough financial aid. She was heartbroken and ended up going to a lower-ranked, yet still excellent, college on a full merit scholarship. She followed through with our expectations and never asked us to move back in, even when she took a low-paying job right out of college. She made it through her 20s with a few bumps and bruises but is now engaged to a man with a high-paying job, and she has even earned her graduate degree! Were very proud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In contrast, our youngest child Jen was raised without many of these same expectations: We knew we could pay for her college, and having had the benefit of seeing our other children leave the nest successfully, we werent as insistent that she move out immediately. We paid full price for a private college for Jen (equally ranked to Lilys) and she graduated with no debt. We also allowed her to live with us during her first year after college; she had secured a job, but wanted to save money for a down payment on a house. She ended up buying a home at 23 (Lily wasnt able to until 29) and as a result is now significantly wealthier than Lily is. Advertisement Lily and Jen have always had some friction, but now their main conflict is the unequal expectations we had of them. Its true we were much harder on Lily, and Jen had a safety net her older sister never benefited from. Lily has held on to a lot of resentment for this and has started to throw it in our faces during family arguments. In my opinion, we were doing the best we could, and it seems ungrateful of Lily to complain when her life is going so well right now. I think shes harboring jealousy around Jens financial success and its making her feel insecure. Advertisement Advertisement The jealousy is starting to color every interaction between Lily and us, and between Lily and Jen. Did we do something wrong? How should we handle this moving forward? Is it reasonable that Lilys upset? Should we do something to level the playing field, so to speak? Id appreciate any advice you can offer. Advertisement Torn in Tulsa Dear Torn, Lily has all the makings for some deep resentment, but she is also at a point in her life where she has to learn to look at how fortunate she is and to appreciate all that she has, more than she resents the disparity in how she and her sister were raised. What you and your spouse can do to help that is to simply acknowledge the difference and apologize, if theres anything that you sincerely regret or feel bad aboutsuch as being stricter with Lily and making her feel unwelcome to stay in your home beyond the age of 18 just because you were worried she would be unable to learn to live independently. You neednt apologize for having different means at different times, but Lily should hear you recognize how both the change in your financial status and your parenting ideologies affected her and her sister, and that you did the best you could for all of your children. Acknowledge her feelings and encourage her to express them respectfully. You dont owe her a check, just understanding and empathy. Hopefully, she can extend the same to you sooner rather than later. Advertisement Advertisement If you missed Thursdays Care and Feeding column, read it here. Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group! Dear Care and Feeding, Im (17F) the oldest in a family of six. I have a younger brother with autism (James, 15) and two other siblings (Dave, 14, and Liz, 12). I love them all to death, and theyre all incredibly smart, creative, and caring. Thats not to say my family is perfect, however. There were parental issues as we were growing up and we all were affected in different ways. As a result, my family has been left a little bruised. I think we would greatly benefit from family counseling, but thats another issue, as my parents dont 100 percent believe in mental health, or that theres a problem at all. I put myself in my schools counseling program, and thats helped some. Advertisement Im writing because Liz has entered what I think can best be described as a phase. Shes very irritable, petty, and rather aggressive and rude, and whenever I ask her to do something or tell her that she needs a minute to calm down, I get a very snarky response. It was the same with Dave when he was growing up, so this is nothing new. The weird thing with Liz is that its usually over very trivial stuff. For example, Liz acts like shes my motherordering me around, telling me that I need to do various things, yelling at me. I am doing things that need to get done, and I am responsible, so Im not sure where this is coming from. Or if Dave asks her to take something upstairs, since shes heading up anyway, she will purposely ignore him until shes halfway up the stairs, and then the two will start arguing about how she could have taken it up, she was already on the stairs. Shell purposely continue arguments, even when we request her to stop talking, calm down, and come back in a little bit when everybody is more relaxed. Our mother has stepped in multiple times, telling Liz to back off, punishing her if necessary, etc. My father blames my brother for the arguments (they have a long history of arguing), but I feel this is unfair to Dave because, as of late, the problem is usually Liz, and Dave has been making an effort to get along with her, and hes come a long way. My mother and I have both talked to Liz, and Dave is currently actively avoiding Liz to avoid any arguments, but confrontation is inevitable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As I mentioned previously, I went through this with Dave, and I know someone who is in a similar boat as I am, so Im trying to handle this as best I can. But, as you know, weve been in a pandemic. Ive had friend breakups, had to move in the middle of all this, and while Im happy where we are now, Im still stuck at home with them. In short, Im tired. Ive been putting up with this every day, nonstop, dealing with my own mental issues, balancing several crazy social situations, am in my first relationship, and am currently frustrated with the school system in my new state. Its gotten to the point that sometimes, whenever I wake up or hear Lizs harsh tones, I die a little inside. I love and want to hang out with my siblings but its hard when they inevitably start arguing and Im caught in the middle. I dont want to do this anymore. I low-key want to ignore them and tell them to figure it out, but I know thats not fair on Dave. So here I am. Im nearing a breaking point. I need a solution or advice, or both? Advertisement Advertisement Worn Out and Weary Dear WOaW, You have a lot on your plate, and being the eldest sibling of a large family has been said to feel like a full-time job of its own, so its not surprising that your sisters latest phase is rubbing you the wrong way. I think the best solution would be for you to focus on ways to manage your stress. Talk about these stresses with your school counselor. With the pandemic, changes in your social life, the move, and just regular teen stuffas well as the family issues of the past and present you mentionI think youd greatly benefit from having someone outside who can listen to your concerns on a regular basis. Advertisement Advertisement As far as Lizs behavior goes, try to remember what that time period felt like for you. The hormonal changes and introduction to menstruation alone are enough to make a once-chill girl turn into a very unpleasant version of herself. Let her know that you are there to talk and that you understand that shes going through a difficult time, but dont allow her to speak down to or yell at you without correcting her, either. Be as patient as possible, but take the self-care breaks you need when you can; if listening to Liz yell at your brother after a long day at school is stressing you out, it may be easier to take a nap or a walk than to try and redirect her energy. No matter what you do, be sure to always prioritize your own ability to feel OK, and that means remembering that you arent Lizs mother, nor is there anything you can do to make this stage in her life go away or end sooner. The best you can do is to be a loving sister who is happy and whole herself, and to be supportive of both Liz and Dave (and Im sure hed be grateful for some extra encouragement from you when Liz is giving him a hard time). Wishing you all the best luck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more of Slates parenting coverage, listen to Mom and Dad Are Fighting Dear Care and Feeding, I am a 12-year-old girl living in Japan because of my dads job. Im from the U.K., and we went back to visit family this summer after a year away, and I realized just how much I missed it. I never wanted to move here in the first place and I want to move back next summer. I dont think my mum wants to be here either; she misses her mum and sister, who are easily our closest family members. I know Im lucky that I have this opportunity, but Im jealous of all the people that dont have to move like this. I dont want to go to boarding school here, and I think my mum would come back with me, but my little brother doesnt want to leave my dadand I promised I wouldnt leave my little brother. My parents say we are here for our education but Im not happy here. We have lived overseas before but I was much younger then, and my dad has a contract and if he breaks it, its very unlikely he will be able to go overseas again. One of the things that really gets to me is that my grandma and aunties wont be here for my 13th birthday, and theres nothing I can do about that. What do I do? Do I stick it out or follow my heart and go home? Advertisement Advertisement Want to Go Home Dear WtGH, As someone who moved away from my loved ones not that long ago (across the country, though, not to another continent), I can deeply relate to how you are feeling, and even though it was my decision, the longing and isolation that I feel are very difficult. I can only imagine how challenging that would be at 12, when someone has made the choice for you. I think you owe it to yourself to tell your parents exactly how you are feelingall your feelings about being in Japan, going to boarding school, not having your family members nearby, all of it. That is not to say that they will or even can change anything; however, it gives them the ability to have your feelings in mind when they decide what to do next. Perhaps theres a different school or a situation in which you can return home next summer or not long after that, but you wont know until the folks in charge understand just how strongly you feel about where you are. Try to be understanding of how difficult this sort of decision you are looking for them to make would beeither to change your dads employment somehow or to divide the family temporarilyand acknowledge that when you speak to your parents. Let them know youve done your absolute best to be accommodating, but that youre truly unhappy. Wishing you all the best. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jamilah More Advice from Slate My 6-year-old daughter really loves a current popular music group that uses the F-word in a couple of its songs. In one song, the words used as substitute for the phrase messed up. In another song, it refers to having sex. She sings along to both songs, and Im not sure if I should tell her its a grown-up word she shouldnt be using, or if drawing her attention to it will make her want to use it at times other than when shes singing these lyrics that she doesnt understand, since for 6-year-olds I know its sometimes exciting to break the rules. Republicans have declared war on President Joe Bidens plan to mandate vaccinations against the coronavirus. They say Bidens planwhich covers federal workers, health care workers, government contractors, and companies that employ 100 or more peopleviolates individual rights and exceeds the presidents constitutional authority. Its a serious argument, but it isnt being seriously presented. Instead, Bidens opponents are arguing both sides of every question. Theyre doing anything they can to obstruct a solution as the virus kills thousands of people each week. Advertisement The simplest argument against the mandate is that no one should be fired for refusing an injection. You shouldnt have to make the choice of keeping your job or getting a jab in the arm, says Pete Ricketts, the Republican governor of Nebraska. But Bidens plan offers another optioninstead of getting a COVID shot, you can show a negative test at least once a weekand Republicans say thats still too intrusive. Such rigorous testing procedures are an infringement of every citizens fundamental rights, says Sen. Josh Hawley. Other Republicans agree. They wont accept mandatory injection, and they wont accept reasonable alternatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. The GOPs next objection is that employers, not government, should decide whether to require vaccination as a workplace policy. But when employers choose that policy, Republicans attack them. Rep. Andy Biggs, the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, complains about the private sector imposing vaccine rules. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who calls Bidens plan an assault on private businesses, has issued two executive orders barring vaccine mandates by any private entity that receives public funds. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another self-styled libertarian, attacks Bidens mandate while bragging about a new Florida law that prohibits businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. Sen. Ted Cruz says the federal government has no authority to force businesses to require vaccination, but he has filed federal legislation to bar companies from imposing such mandates. In fact, Cruz complains that Bidens mandate is a fig leaf for Fortune 500 companies that want to vaccinate their workers. Advertisement Sometimes Republicans argue that anyone whos afraid of COVID can get adequate protection through vaccination, so theres no need to force vaccination on anyone else. If the vaccine protects, why do the vaccinated need protecting? asks Rep. Jim Jordan. But at other times, Republicans challenge the efficacy of vaccines. I have friends who have actually picked up the virus after being vaccinated, says Rep. Claudia Tenney. She concedes that the vaccine wont prevent you from getting infected, yet she insists that unvaccinated people are entitled to make their own decision, as though that decision affects nobody else. Tenney, DeSantis, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and many other Republicans specifically defend unvaccinated hospital and nursing home workers, who are ideally positioned to infect vulnerable people. Advertisement Advertisement One of the best arguments against Bidens plan is that its unfair to people who, through prior infection, have developed natural immunity to the virus. McCarthy estimates that 40 million Americans are in this category. But by his own calculation, that leaves another 50 million who have been neither vaccinated nor infected. Furthermore, studies show that vaccination boosts immunity even in people who were previously infected. But the central problem with accepting natural immunity as an alternative to vaccination is that the immunity would have to be verified. That would require an antibody test or access to the employees medical records, both of which Republicans oppose. At a press conference in Florida on Tuesday, DeSantis and other critics of Bidens plan accused the president of ignoring natural immunity, yet they vowed to tighten COVID privacy rules because your medical health records are your business, not the governments. Advertisement Advertisement Another common refrain among Republicans is that if unvaccinated people lose their jobs, their children will suffer. J.D. Vance, the Trumpist author whos running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, says vaccine refusers wont be able to feed their families. But McCarthy, Abbott, and other Republicans say just the opposite: that mandates will hurt employers because jobs are so abundant that vaccine refusers will just quit and easily find other work. At the press conference in Florida, DeSantis accused Biden of threatening peoples livelihoods, but other speakers said the mandate would fail because workers who opposed vaccination already had other job offers. Advertisement Despite their outcry over mandatory vaccinations for COVID, Republicans express no objections to vaccine mandates for other diseases, such as polio, measles, and hepatitis. When theyre asked why, they suggest that COVID isnt as worrisome. Its very different from polio, [which] has very devastating effects, says Ricketts. This is spectacularly false, and Republicans know it. At the DeSantis press conference, Rep. Kat Cammackwho has belittled COVID and downplayed the importance of vaccinationinsisted that as a matter of loyalty, unvaccinated first responders should be allowed to keep their jobs, since they had bravely risked their lives by coming to the aid of numerous people infected with the virus. But if the virus posed such a risk to these heroes, why wouldnt it pose the same risk to anyone whom they, as carriers, later encountered? And for that reason, shouldnt they be vaccinated? Advertisement Politicians on the right also argue that COVID vaccines, unlike vaccines for other diseases, should remain voluntary because theyre widely distrusted. But this argument is circular, because the same politicians are inciting that distrust. Last week, in a statement against Bidens mandate, Sen. Ron Johnson said the president had failed to answer basic questions regarding [COVID] vaccine safety. On Monday, Rep. Ronny Jackson told Fox News viewers that the vaccines long-term effects were unknown and that Jackson had agreed to get a COVID shot only under duress. On Tuesday, the first speaker at DeSantis anti-mandate press conference asserted, falsely, that the vaccine changes your RNA. DeSantis, standing next to him, said nothing. Advertisement Republicans have been particularly cynical in their complaints about Bidens failure to control the pandemic. They say he hasnt done enough, yet they refuse to let him do more. Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, says the president failed to shut down the virus because he failed to get people vaccinated. At the same time, she says the RNC will sue to block the vaccine mandate. Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona vows to pursue every legal and administrative option against the mandate, even as he blames Biden for a plummeting rate of vaccinations. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee grouse that if Biden were serious about the mandate, he would have imposed it three months ago and would have extended it to smaller companies. They also argue that the mandate shouldnt exist. Some of these objections are more sensible than others. But all of them are insincere. You cant reject mandates while complaining that voluntary vaccination has produced unacceptable results. You cant argue that vaccination policies must be left to employers unless politicians disagree. You cant sow distrust of vaccines and then plead that the vaccines should be optional because people dont trust them. A party that plays such games isnt a party of liberty, free enterprise, or public safety. Its just a party of opposition. The Person Under Investigation sat on a stretcher in the emergency room, and was drinking a juice box. The coarse blanket draped over him and tangled electrocardiogram leads on his chest, a smudge on the floor, the Persons dark eyesall were illuminated under fluorescent lighting. His cellphone was running out of battery power, which worried him. He wanted to call his kids. He also left the dog in the house five hours ago. He wanted me to know this about the dog. Perhaps I could hurry up my evaluation? Advertisement It was a Saturday. The display over the doctors station showed the department in a snapshot, a line for each bed. Last name, symptoms, pending tests. The pandemic had added a new acronym to the screen: PUI, short for Person Under Investigation. A PUI is someone who might have COVID. If the suspicion that the PUI might have COVID is especially strong, they can be called a COVID suspect or a high-risk PUI. A swab will clarify matters. While the test is pending, there is reasonable doubt. Hence, the investigation into the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The PUI in front of me wanted me to know that none of this was his fault, that he did everything correctlybut sometimes things just happen, right? Nonetheless, here he was: a PUI. Advertisement This is the language of the coronavirus at the ER where I work, and at hospitals and health departments across the country: PUIs. Suspects. Cases. Youve heard it in your own life, too: isolation. Lockdown. The vocabulary we use for people who have contracted the virusor even might have contracted itshares so much with the vocabulary we use for incarceration. As an emergency room doctor and HIV specialist, Ive seen what happens when crime and disease are conflated. Just as an arrest recordeven without convictionelicits judgment, as does being under investigation or a suspect for potentially having a viral illness. Its more than just language, though: Having certain viruses can make someone inherently more dangerous in the eyes of the law. Ive treated people with HIV who were jailed for having sex that was unprotectedbut fully consensual. Ive studied the verdict in Commonwealth v. Walker, a 2003 case in which an HIV-positive man was convicted for terroristic threats after scratching a police officer and then implying the scratch would infect him. It didnt matter that HIV cant be transmitted that way; the mere existence of the virus in his body helped make him guilty. Advertisement Advertisement During my medical residency, I worked at San Quentin, a sprawling prison near San Francisco where the human cages of the main cellblocks tower many tiers high. On my first day, my supervisor told me that I was not allowed to refer to those I treated as patients in clinical documentsonly as inmates. However much they suffered from illness, the language implied, it was essential never to forget their criminality. Learning to refer to my patients only by a word that dehumanized them took practice. For weeks, I messed up in my notes, and was made to correct each instance. Advertisement After the start of the coronavirus pandemic, I didnt have to wait long to see people punished for being sick with the novel virus. In one case, a father in Illinois who was supposed to self-isolate for symptoms was charged with a misdemeanor when he brought his 4-year-old into a gas station so the child could pee. In another case, a homeless man in Nashville fled a temporary isolation shelter for people with the coronavirus and was jailed for a week until his bail could be paid. Punishing him, it seems, took precedence over protecting other people in the jail from exposure to the virus. Advertisement Advertisement The vocabulary we use for people who have contracted the virus shares so much with the vocabulary we use for incarceration. One weekend at my own hospital, a patient came to the emergency room, hacking in the waiting room and snapping at offers of a mask. Hed flown from Atlanta with a carry-on and a secret: the knowledge that his coronavirus test was already positive. Nothing could entice him to forfeit his return ticket. I burned with quiet rage. Theres not much we can do, said the person at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when I called. She said she would try to block him at the airport. Cant you arrest him? I blurted out, before considering the implications: that however reprehensible his behavior, he had come to get care. Not to be seen by a doctor who acted like a jailer. Advertisement The two professions have long interacted. Hospitals and prisons resemble each other, an observation articulated by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish. Having spent time as a physician in both types of institutions, Ive seen the similarities. Nurses stations are like guard towers. Vitals checks are like roll calls. Restraints for the delirious are like shackles for the disobedient. Wards, of rooms or cells. Case files, of patients or criminals. A patient who leaves the hospital without permission is said to have absconded. Advertisement Advertisement And just as the prison system disproportionately affects people of color, so has COVID. Its no surprise that the Person Under Investigation who sat in the emergency room drinking juice that Saturday was Latino. During the early months of the pandemic in San Francisco, where I live, the coronavirus swept through the Latino community. Nationwide, it has killed Latino, Black, and Native Americans at more than double the rate of white Americans, per CDC data. So many people of color are, after all, essential workers who often ventured out to the riskiest jobs, returned to homes crammed with multiple generations, had worse access to testing and treatmentand became all the more likely to wind up PUIs because of it. The language of COVID reinforces the racialized criminalization that already characterizes the United States, where Latinos are imprisoned at three times the rate of white people and Black people at 5.6 times that rate, according to a 2021 publication by the Pew Research Center. Advertisement I cant help but think its no coincidence that San Quentin, where I was told years ago to say inmate and not patient, suffered a massive coronavirus outbreak in 2020. Nationally, people who are incarcerated have died in huge numbers during the pandemic, with COVID mortality rates in federal prisons 2.6 times greater than those of the general population. The spread at San Quentin last summer, where two-thirds of prisoners were infected, was even more staggering than in most places. As documented in a report from the Office of the Inspector General of California, the cause was negligent and haphazard administrative practices by prison officials, including cramming inmatessome with symptomsonto buses together, and then housing them in cellblocks where air circulated freely between cells. But maybe at the root of that, I imagine, was a failure to treat those within the walls as people in need of as much attention and care as those outside. Guy Vandenberg, a nurse and former colleague who worked there during the outbreak with the job title of Investigator, told me that every day his team visited scores of prisoners exposed to or infected with the coronavirus. He recalled that, despite the protestations of health care workers, incarcerated people were not appropriately transferred to reduce the spread of disease, and many of the sick did not have access to what he considered adequate medical treatment. His morning rounds, he said, felt like an exercise in surveillance rather than care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outside of the pandemic, the vocabulary of medicine has evolved dramatically over recent years to become less accusatory and to avoid equating a diagnosis with a persons entire being. Heroin addict has been replaced by person with an opioid use disorder; wheelchair-bound by wheelchair user; patients are not illegal, but undocumented. We recognize peoples autonomy more. We ask people their preferred pronouns in the hospitals where I work. We no longer label people who choose not to accept our treatment recommendations as noncompliant. A change in language alone might not have lessened my fury at the patient with COVID headed to the airport. But it might have checked my shameful impulse to jail him. It might also help us see the pandemic as a collective problem, not a battle between upstanding vaccinated mask wearers and ignorant scofflaws, a conceptualization that does nothing to solve the challenges we face. The mishandling of the pandemic is a crime, for surebut one committed not by individual patients but rather by larger actors: the Trump administration, in its mismanagement and dissemination of misinformation, for instance, or the leadership of prisons in their handling of outbreaks. Advertisement At the hospital, we could remove some of the blame from individuals by tossing the phrase COVID suspect. We could ditch Person Under Investigation too, and replace it with something as simple as patient with a pending coronavirus test. Not catchy, Ill admit, but it conveys what it needs to. As for lockdown, it has come to describe such a spectrum of policies that the word has lost all meaning. Advertisement I dont know what the exact terms should be. They arent for me to decide. But I do know that as the delta variant has surged, the emergency room where I work, like many, has started to see more PUIs again. They panic from air hunger. They call their families, trying to sound calm. They wait for the results of COVID swabs that, in the language of the coronavirus, can feel more like verdicts than like diagnoses. Advertisement Advertisement Some of the sick have made decisions they regret: forgoing the vaccine or attending a wedding without a mask. But even if I struggle at times with anger over the choices people have made, I do know these are mistakes, not crimesand that while investigation is warranted, it should be into how the forces and divisions in our nation have enabled the pandemic to kill hundreds of thousands of people, how we can turn things around now, how we can rebuild our health care system after the stress of this pandemic, and how we can better prepare for the next one. As for those who lie on stretchers across the country, coughing and terrified, they are in no way criminals for having a virus. Spain and Morocco prevent large group of migrants from entering Melilla Both nations worked together to deter more than 100 people from illegally entering Spain Spanish and Moroccan security forces worked together during the early hours of Thursday morning, September 16, to prevent a large group of more than 100 migrants storming the border fence at Melilla in an attempt to enter Spain illegally. Such is the pressure faced by border security in the North African enclaves of both Melilla and Ceuta that the Spanish government announced back in August that it plans to spend 10 million euros to reinforce the boundaries over the next two years. According to a spokesperson, various migrant groups tried to breach the fence at different points throughout the night, but they were prevented by ground forces from the Guardia Civil, who remained in constant contact with Moroccan authorities, and helicopter support monitoring the situation from the air. Such was the strength of the response that the migrant group eventually gave up their attempt at around 7am and moved away inland. A delegate for the government of Melilla, Sabrina Moh, praised the successful collaboration between Morocco and Spain on this occasion, considering that relations have been very strained recently between the two nations Image: Archive https://sputniknews.com/20210916/botched-fbi-probe-into-nassar-abuses-highlights-endemic-failures-within-bureau-former-agent-says-1089142305.html Botched FBI Probe Into Nassar Abuses Highlights Endemic Failures Within Bureau, Former Agent Says Botched FBI Probe Into Nassar Abuses Highlights Endemic Failures Within Bureau, Former Agent Says The US Department of Justices inspector general revealed in July that the FBI made a series of errors in its handling of sexual abuse allegations against... 16.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-16T23:30+0000 2021-09-16T23:30+0000 2021-09-17T13:54+0000 capitol hill fbi usa gymnastics larry nassar /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107042/66/1070426654_0:194:3042:1905_1920x0_80_0_0_edd94e08fd5863a3cc9ffcdd7210720e.jpg The failures exhibited by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Larry Nassar case proves yet again that the agency has dropped the ball when it comes to sharing pertinent information with authorities, a former agent has stated.Coleen Rowley, a lawyer and retired FBI agent who turned whistleblower, revealed to Radio Sputniks Fault Lines on Thursday that the agencys missteps in the handling of the Nassar case underscored that the bureau is suffering from endemic failures.There are endemic failures on the part of the higher levels of the FBI, Rowley said, touching on the revelation in the July inspector general report that determined agents investigating the sexual abuse allegations had failed to act with the utmost seriousness and urgency that the case required.The inspector generals findings revealed that the FBIs Indianapolis field office had first learned of the sex abuse accusations after USA Gymnastics had carried out its own internal investigations, but that the bureau never acted on launching its own probe until October 2016.During that 16-month period, FBI officials did not alert the authorities in Michigan, where the abuses had occurred and where Nassar was continuing to work as a physician at Michigan State University. In fact, the bureaus probe wasnt launched until USA Gymnastics chose to file a new complaint in Los Angeles.The watchdog report also found that federal agents failed to document allegations when they were first brought to their attention, as well as improperly documented the existence of a thumb drive that included slides and videos of the highly intrusive medical technique that Nassar was performing on athletes. The files had been provided by USA Gymnastics President Stephen Penny at the time.Rowley told show hosts Jamarl Thomas and Shane Stranahan that the faults exemplified in the case highlighted that the bureau had the same problems that were seeing with the FBI over and over again.In the end, Rowley told Stranahan that the athletes coming forward with the allegations had better luck divulging the information to the media, saying, thats where some action is taken.Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, US gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols called for change during the first half of Wednesday's hearings at Capitol Hill. Having pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct and using his medical position to assault and molest girls under the guise of medical treatment, Nassar was sentenced in July to 40 to 175 years in prison. During the legal proceedings, more than 150 women testified of the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of the former USA Gymnastics doctor. https://sputniknews.com/20210917/simone-biles-and-others-slam-fbi-for-botched-abuse-investigation-1089134136.html vot tak Botched fbi is the fbi. A political police created to suppress dissent to fascism by a homosexual nazi sympathizer who shared peeping tom tapes of celebrities with his mom. One doesn't get more sick than that. 0 1 capitol hill Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Gaby Arancibia Gaby Arancibia News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Gaby Arancibia capitol hill, fbi, usa gymnastics, larry nassar https://sputniknews.com/20210917/alex-murdaugh-and-the-fall-of-a-southern-dynasty--1089143932.html Alex Murdaugh and The Fall of a Southern Dynasty Alex Murdaugh and The Fall of a Southern Dynasty Alex Murdaugh has been charged with insurance fraud following his confession of a failed suicide attempt by a hitman to secure his son a $10 million insurance... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T01:56+0000 2021-09-17T01:56+0000 2021-09-17T01:55+0000 south carolina murder /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/1b/1082202868_0:192:2048:1344_1920x0_80_0_0_732e9750c5f46b4018781b87ba731997.jpg The legal circumstances surrounding Murdaugh have blossomed, from a contained small-town crime news snippet into a full-blown true-crime saga. The South Carolina attorney and occasional prosecutor faces charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and filing a false police report. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Murdaughs failed scheme to hire a hitman to murder him so his son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy that led to the aftermentioned charges has led to a series of new investigations. Much like William Faulkners American epic, Absalom! Absalom!, each peak into the Murdaugh family unveils a deeper and darker look into a southern patriarchy.The Murdaugh family is the definition of a dynasty. From 1920 to 2006, a man with the surname Murdaugh served as the solicitor of the 14th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina. For 86 years, one family controlled the courts of the Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper and Allendale counties. For 86 years, they determined what charges to bring, what crimes to investigate, and what sentences to recommend. For 86 years, they were the law.The Murdaughs didnt just preside over the 14th Judicial district, they also started and ran the highly successful law firm of Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick, or PMPED Law Firm. One family was on both sides of the courtroom. The power that the Murdaugh family held gave them the ability to be shielded from the law, and to wield it as they saw fit. Alex Murdaugh wasnt born with a silver spoon, but rather a silver gavel.The September 4, 2021 failed assisted suicide attempt by Alex Murdaugh was simply the final breach in a long leaking dam. The day before, he left the family law firm of PMPED over accusations that he misappropriated funds, and, mere months earlier, on June 7, his son and wife were fatally shot in their Islandton home. The murder brought national attention to the family, and resulted in an interview of Alexs two brothers with ABC News. The murder has yet to be solved and no charges have been filed.The interview paints the Murdaughs as a pillar of their community, an upstanding family with nothing to hide. Yet, that wasnt entirely true. Alexs son Paul had faced three felony charges following a February 2019 boating accident that resulted in the death of Mallory Beach. As of June 2021, no trial had been scheduled, and there were whispers that the Murdaughs deep connections at the 14th Circuit may have had something to do with that. However, these remain rumors.Adding further speculation to the Murdaughs using their influence to avoid legal consequences was the death of their housekeeper. Gloria Satterfield died at the Murdaughs home in an apparent slip and fall accident. However, her death certificate said she died of natural causes and was never reported to the local coroners office. Her estate filed a wrongful death suit with the Murdaughs, settling for $500,000, but as of now, the family hasnt received any money. With all of the attention on Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has opened a criminal investigation in Satterfields death.In 2015, Stephen Smith died in a hit-and-run accident about 10 miles from the Murdaughs estate. The case was ruled a hit-and-run, but investigators felt that foul play could have been at hand. Smiths mother believed her son had been murdered and has insinuated that the Murdaugh family was either directly involved or helped facilitate a cover-up.Alex Murdaughs attorney claims his client was severely depressed and addicted to opioids. The combination of his son and wife being murdered, and then his father dying three days later, would send anyone in a downward spiral. Another factor could be that Murdaugh faced serious financial strains. He had yet to pay the Satterfields in the wrongful death suit, and he had misappropriated funds from his familys law firm.The truth in all of these cases has yet to be revealed. Are the Murdaughs a murderous family or have they used their deep connections in the justice system to help shield themselves and others from justice? Were Paul and Maggie Murdaugh slain by someone who felt Paul had skirted retribution for the death of Mallory Beach? Or had Alex Murdaugh done the unthinkable?Perhaps the most puzzling, and likely the most revealing bit of information is why did Alex Murdaugh hire a hitman to carry out his suicide? Was it just for the life insurance payout? Was it to make it look like he had enemies and draw eyes away from the family?The story of the Murdaughs has yet to be fully written. With multiple investigations going on at once, theres no telling what will be revealed. south carolina Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Nevin Brown Nevin Brown News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Nevin Brown south carolina, murder https://sputniknews.com/20210917/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-hit-with-second-ethics-complaint-for-tax-the-rich-appearance-at-met-gala-1089165944.html Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hit With Second Ethics Complaint For 'Tax The Rich' Appearance at Met Gala Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hit With Second Ethics Complaint For 'Tax The Rich' Appearance at Met Gala The Met Gala is an exclusive annual event aimed at raising money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. According to The New York Times, those... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T18:41+0000 2021-09-17T18:41+0000 2021-09-17T18:41+0000 ethics us office of congressional ethics met gala alexandria ocasio-cortez /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/0e/1089057573_0:164:2002:1290_1920x0_80_0_0_9e6741c62bb7f26b0927ca2ea2ca1a79.jpg US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, known by her initials AOC, has been hit with a second ethics complaint in connection her appearance at the Met Gala. A day after the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) accused the 31-year-old of violating the House Gift Rule by accepting an "impermissible gift" (tickets) for the event, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) filed another complaint.The non-profit group, which monitors the ethics of public officials, asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate the politician, claiming that she had violated government rules by accepting tickets and "related gifts before, during, or after the event, including limousine service, the use of the Carlyle Hotel, professional hair and makeup services, and any other related services or goods".Earlier this week, the New York Post reported that unlike other attendees, AOC and her web developer boyfriend Riley Roberts were invited to the event and thus didnt have to shell out around $70,000.However, NLPC argues that since there were no free tickets for Met Gala, they were given to AOC indirectly by the events sponsors. The organisation notes that the congresswoman sat at a sponsored table, which costs between $200,000 and $300,000 as per The New York Times.Accusations of HypocrisyPrior to attending the event, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a statement on Twitter, saying that she had teamed up with Canadian designer Aurora James to send a message to the government. Speaking to reporters on the red carpet, the congresswoman said that Aurora James designed the gown while keeping "working-class women of colour" in mind.However, the politician's attempt to draw attention to the issue of inequality in US society appeared to fail, as she was accused by social media users and experts of hypocrisy. Critics pointed to the lavish gown and expensive jewellery she wore at the high-priced event.Anthony Angelini, a GOP political consultant, told Sputnik that the Congresswoman shot herself in the foot with her dress. Vlad Davidiuk, a political analyst and Republican strategist, argued that the "leftist message" emblazoned on AOCs dress suggests that the politician was not serious about solving the problem of inequality.AOCs office has released a statement saying that the politician did not violate the House Gift rule. "We are confident we complied with all ethics rules", the office said. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Max Gorbachev Max Gorbachev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Max Gorbachev ethics, us, office of congressional ethics, met gala, alexandria ocasio-cortez https://sputniknews.com/20210917/alt-right-proud-boys-warn-members-to-avoid-trap-of-washington-dc-rally-1089167379.html Alt-Right Proud Boys Warn Members to Avoid 'Trap' of Washington DC Rally Alt-Right Proud Boys Warn Members to Avoid 'Trap' of Washington DC Rally Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was arrested in Washington DC two days before the January 6 storming of the US Capitol Building. He began a five-month jail... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T19:28+0000 2021-09-17T19:28+0000 2021-09-17T19:29+0000 joe biden donald trump us washington dc us capitol us capitol police (uscp) proud boys blm black lives matter lloyd austin /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/11/1089167329_0:0:3073:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_5d371a92d3939e3e76909201c43c9fb9.jpg Alt-right group the Proud Boys have once again told members and supporters to stay away from a protest rally in Washington DC calling it a "trap".The anti-communist conservative group told the more than 32,000 followers of its channel on messaging app Telegram on Friday not to attend the protest, ostensibly in support of hundreds facing trial for their part in the January 6 occupation of the Capitol building."Just a reminder that we will not be attending any rally in DC this weekend," the post reads.Earlier, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin approved the deployment of 100 National Guard troops to the federal capital at the request of the US Capitol Police the force which failed to stop protesters entering the seat of Congress to protest the confirmation of Joe Biden as president."We will instead be using that time to improve our local communities and build a better future for our friends and families," the Proud Boys statement continues. "We suggest you do the same."Unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt, US Air Force veteran, was shot dead by USCP Lieutenant Michael Byrd on January 6 while climbing through a broken window into the lobby of the House of Representatives chamber. Months after the riot, federal authorities dropped a murder investigation into the death of fellow USCP officer Brian Sicknick, accepting an autopsy report that his death that evening was from natural causes.The message signs off with the customary "POYB" standing for Proud Of Your Boy, a song from the Disney animated film Aladdin, which the group has adopted as its motto.Another hoax debunked by the Proud Boys in the last year was that of a breakaway, anti-Semitic faction dubbed the "Proud Goys".The group was founded around 2016 by Canadian journalist Gavin McInnes, who launched the news and culture website Vice.com in 1994. Ironically, Vice has become firmly 'woke' in its editorial line.Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was arrested in the capital on January 4, two days before the Stop the Steal rally outside the White House, where then-president Donald Trump addressed some 200,000 supporters protesting alleged ballot fraud on November 3 2020 elections.He was charged with hate crime offenses for burning a Black Lives Matter banner he took from a church in December last year with the help of two Black women. Tarrio pled guilty to lesser charges, including destruction of property, and was sentenced to five months in prison. late last month. He began serving his sentence on September 6. https://sputniknews.com/20210917/us-defence-secretary-approves-request-to-deploy-100-troops-at-capitol-protest-1089165836.html us washington dc Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 James Tweedie https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png James Tweedie https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 James Tweedie https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/1c/1080307270_0:3:397:400_100x100_80_0_0_7777393b9b18802f2e3c5eaa9cbcc612.png joe biden, donald trump, us, washington dc, us capitol, us capitol police (uscp), proud boys, blm, black lives matter, lloyd austin https://sputniknews.com/20210917/as-sweden-tries-nouri-over-iran-prison-massacre-analyst-calls-case-groundless-1089151173.html As Sweden Tries Nouri Over Iran 'Prison Massacre', Analyst Calls Case Groundless As Sweden Tries Nouri Over Iran 'Prison Massacre', Analyst Calls Case Groundless Hamid Nouri is accused of committing war crimes and helping to execute thousands of young Iranians, who dared to go against the authorities in Tehran. His... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T08:20+0000 2021-09-17T08:20+0000 2021-09-17T08:48+0000 trial massacre world iran sweden prison executions ebrahim raisi /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105108/30/1051083018_0:91:1280:811_1920x0_80_0_0_c40f127c3cb06d7b52a36d2bed7d8aab.jpg A court in Sweden's capital Stockholm continues to listen to the testimonies of witnesses in the trial of Hamid Nouri, an Iranian man in his 60s, accused of murdering between 5,000 to 7,000 detainees at the Gohardasht prison next to Tehran in 1988. Although eyewitnesses were instructed not to talk to the media, with the prosecution claiming it could lead to the collapse of the trial, Kaveh Moussavi, an international arbitrator on the International Court of Arbitration, who initiated and is leading the case, says he's collected many testimonies that implicate the man. In the 1980s, during the bloody Iran-Iraq war, groups of Iranians, who opposed the then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, were believed to have cooperated with the government in Baghdad. One such group was the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran, or the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, a militant organisation that wished to overthrow Khomeini and establish their own government in Iran. As a result, Iranian authorities banned the group in 1981, while Supreme Leader Khomeini purportedly issued a fatwa, or a religious decree, allowing to execute anyone who supported or was part of that group. Under Khomeini's instructions, Iran set up secret tribunals that aimed at retrying thousands of prisoners for their political activities. If the judges of those trials found them guilty, they were executed, often by hanging. But Mohammed Marandi, a political analyst from the University of Tehran, has quite a different take on the events of those now remote days. For him, members of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq were "terrorists, who murdered up to 17,000 Iranians and who fought for Saddam Hussein [the then-Iraqi leader - ed.] in his war against Iran", and as such, they were treated as traitors and were given the same sentence as "all those who cooperated with the Nazis in World War II".Marandi believes that Nouri "was tricked and kidnapped in Sweden, whereas the show trial he is currently on is illegal". Similar claims have also been made by Nouri himself, who denied any wrongdoing, whereas his lawyer charged that his client had not even been present at the prison facility at the time of those executions. More Lawsuits Still to Come Yet, no matter what the outcome of this case is, it is the first time anyone has stood trial over the prison executions of 1988. Moussavi is certain that the current trial will implicate others and pave the way for lawsuits against other officials, allegedly involved in the events of those days. According to Moussavi, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who at the time was deputy prosecutor and who reportedly served as one of the three officials that sat on those death committees, could be among those people.If the answers were not to the judges' liking, they would be called "murtadeen", or people, who renounced Islam, and the penalty for that crime was death. "In 2012, we held a symbolic tribunal in London [where Raisi was tried]. That trial was based on multiple testimonies of survivors and their relatives. Now we are planning to turn it into a real trial", said Moussavi. The arbitrator has a team that plans to bring Raisi to justice, and although as the head of state he is entitled to immunity, Moussavi is certain that he can overcome that challenge. Now Moussavi will need to collect enough evidence to strip Raisi of immunity. But even if that happens, Iran, which is not part of the ICC, is unlikely to hand over its president, and the ICC, which doesn't try people in absentia, will refuse to start the process."The practical meaning of this is that Raisi might never face trial, if he doesn't leave Iran. But we believe that justice will prevail. The message that we are trying to put across is that the sooner these people surrender, the better it will be for them. The conviction of Nouri is just the beginning". The verdict in Nouri's case is expected in April 2022. iran sweden Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Elizabeth Blade Elizabeth Blade News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Elizabeth Blade trial, massacre, world, iran, sweden, prison, executions, ebrahim raisi https://sputniknews.com/20210917/at-the-end-of-the-occupation-country-faces-many-challenges---head-of-afghan-national-peace-council-1089142817.html 'At the End of the Occupation' Country Faces Many Challenges - Head of Afghan National Peace Council 'At the End of the Occupation' Country Faces Many Challenges - Head of Afghan National Peace Council It has been more than a month since the Taliban seized Afghanistan's capital Kabul and declared the near 20-year war in the country over. Sputnik spoke with... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T01:33+0000 2021-09-17T01:33+0000 2021-09-17T01:33+0000 afghanistan opinion afghanistan /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/0f/1089089547_0:320:3072:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_1032dd523c0d6b171d82c749c938a9bc.jpg Sputnik: What are some of the problems that the Taliban* government is facing after the long-term US occupation and war? What will be the first steps of the caretaker government?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: In the new phase of our country after the end of occupation, our government and our nation are facing a lot of challenges. The challenges are a food crisis, cash flow crisis, education and governmental offices. And obviously many other sectors of the government are totally shut down. This was intentionally done to Afghanistan to show the world the Taliban is not welcomed. This was done purposely by the people who left Afghanistan and the previous government.Our intention is to get everything back on its feet working, and provide services to our country, as well as be able to deal with the world as good partners and good citizens of the world. Our priorities are to get rid of the problems and start a fresh new era for Afghanistan and a new relationship with the world.Sputnik: It's known that the Taliban experienced great economic difficulties during the previous governance period. What kind of measures will the Taliban take this time in the economic field?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: It is true that our people faced strict economic situations in the past era and we do not expect the world to make mistakes again. The world must understand, if they want a working partner in Afghanistan, they must support the effort of the government and people. Lets not forget, any kind of restriction on cash flow and other issues of governing hurts the Afghan people. My nation has already been hurt badly in the past 20 years and 22 years before that. So it is time for the world to understand that Afghans need them and they need Afghanistan. In order to understand that and in order to facilitate a better partnership condition, the Islamic government of Afghanistan is planning to exploit and explore the mining industry of Afghanistan, which helps in the situation of the economy. Whether communication, transportation... And the geographical position of Afghanistan is connected to Central Asian countries and to the Indian Ocean. As well as customs bringing revenue inside Afghanistan to create jobs for men and women in Afghanistan, to create education situations and develop the agricultural industry. So these are the plans that we have at the moment. Our Afghan National Peace Council has a 15-year policy and strategy to implement in regard to economic development in Afghanistan.Sputnik: And what about the future of bilateral relations with Turkey? The Taliban has given positive messages about Turkey. As a NATO member country, what distinguishes Turkey from the other NATO members?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: Our relationship with Turkey was shaped before NATO. We have very close ties with Turkey. We consider Turkey as our brothers and sisters. The Afghan and Turkish relationship goes back more than 100 years. Obviously from the Islamic point of view, it goes back thousands of years. But in recent history, we are very close to each other, feelings are very good for each other, and in that regard, we hope that the government of Turkey will assist our people and our government, so we could use their experiences. The Turkish people have matured in their politics around the world, we like to use that experience. And Afghanistan would like to have a very peaceful and based on mutual respect relationship with the entire world. Thats what we are planning and thats what we are gonna work for.Sputnik: Is there any official diplomatic contact with Turkey?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: As far as I know, the embassy here that is currently in Ankara, they are not in much contact with Kabul, because the government of Turkey does not recognize the caretaker government of Afghanistan. We are hopeful that our brother nation, Turkey, will take this mature step and recognize the caretaker government and we can start diplomatic relations immediately and discuss the point of view of both sides to form our diplomatic relations.Sputnik: The Taliban has prioritised good relations with China, and it's known that China has some serious security concerns about separatist Uyghur militants. What about the alleged Uyghur militant presence in Afghanistan? Will the Taliban take any steps against them?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: There are not many Uyghur or other foreign nationals in Afghanistan. Those times are gone. They used to be in Afghanistan, almost 20 years ago. But if there are some, soon the caretaker government will announce that all foreigners must register with the interior ministry of Afghanistan, so we know who is in the country or not, who should be or not be. If they need to be given citizenship, we will offer them citizenship so they could be a regular citizen of the country by the laws of Afghanistan, so there is no misbehaviour. That is how we can contain the situation. But as far as China having interest in security, this is their right. Every country has the right to be concerned about their security. As long as they dont interfere in our inner affairs, we would like to have a normal peaceful relationship with China and any other country.Sputnik: How do you respond to claims that the Taliban is becoming a sanctuary for jihadi-terrorist movements?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: If anyone calls jihad terrorism, then all Muslims are terrorist. Because jihad is part of our Islamic belief, and jihad is not only military fighting. If you are referring to the military part of jihad, we will continue jihad so long as we are alive. Regarding al-Qaeda*, there were times that they were many in Afghanistan. But after the situation changed in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, most of them moved to their own countries, because that way they could be in their own countries to continue their struggle within.Sputnik: And Al-Qaeda? It's said that the Taliban has relations with Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda has taken a place in the government through the 'Haqqani Network'.Mohammad Daoud Abedi: We dont think that there are many people associated with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. If there are any foreigners in Afghanistan, we would definitely register them and know what they do. Because we promised the world that we are not going to interfere with anyone's internal politics and behaviour. And we will not allow any of our citizens to create problems for other countries. There is some media propaganda about the Haqqani Network. There is no Haqqani Network. This is just a name. Ive met with Haqqani family members before. I know the entire family, I know everyone. They are very good people. This is just the name that Al-Qaeda has been associated with, the Haqqani Network. There is no network. As you see today Sirajeddin Haqqani is the interior minister of Afghanistan. His uncle, Hac Halil Haqqani, is the minister of border and different tribes.How could they call my own countryman Al-Qaeda? Sirajeddin Haqqani is an Afghan. His family struggled for the independence of Afghanistan for the past 50 years. His father started jihad 53 years ago. They have given martyrs for Afghanistan. Why would somebody call my own people a terrorist and Al-Qaeda? What is the proof? This is just propaganda about one of our heroes.Sputnik: Which are the countries that the Taliban wants to establish good relations with? For example, can you say anything about the relations with Russia?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: Like any other country, we also want to establish good relations with Russia. Even though we have our comments regarding Russia, what they did in the past, I hope the Russian people and the government take that into consideration. They hurt our people, 2 million people killed at the time when the Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan. We like the Russian government to keep those into consideration and deal with us as equal partners now. Assets were damaged during that occupation. So we could forget and forgive the past and start a new good relationship. That is what our people and government have in mind.Sputnik: And can you say the same about Israel and the US?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: Israel's case is totally different. We dont recognize the Zionist regime formally. Palestine is in the heart of every Muslim and every free human being. But in the US, it is the same thing. We like to forget and forgive while we like the US people and government to assist and help for this new era. Lets start fresh whatever happened, whatever the reason was, it passed. We have to understand how to go forward, that is our goal and that's what we are targeting. Because Afghanistan doesn't have the luxury to dig through the past and pick certain things and argue about it. We need to focus and we are planning to focus on our future for the children of Afghanistan. All of them need help.Sputnik: There is another major concern that the Western world has. The Taliban says that the country will be ruled under sharia. But how will that affect Afghan women? Will they be isolated from education and social life?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: When our government says Afghanistan will be ruled with sharia, that is a good thing. Because in sharia law, women is given more rights than men. Women are our mothers, our daughters. The prophet has taught us that paradise is under the feet of the mothers. Education is an obligation for a Muslim man of women. When our religion teaches this, how would the Taliban or any other Muslim deny this specific instruction of Islam and be against that? The Western media does not understand the situation in Afghanistan. When your sister or daughter or mother or wife goes out and is active in the social world, you must provide security for their physical, dignity and for their honour. So, we are trying to do that, trying to create a safe environment for our women, so they can be active in the social life. Our mother, wife of the prophet, was a business lady, so we have the model. Our mother was a teacher. When we have examples like that, why we would deny women to not follow in their footsteps? That is not the reason. We love to have them do all kinds of work that sharia allows them. This is just either lack of understanding or purposely making propaganda against Muslims and against specifically the Taliban.Sputnik: Under the Afghan National Peace Council, what will you do in this new process? Have you met with officials or party leaders in Turkey? And what can you say about the operation of the Kabul airport and Turkey and Qatar's position?Mohammad Daoud Abedi: As I was informed in the last few days, Turkish efforts and Qatari efforts are simultaneously being progressed. They both helped to get the airport running, which we are grateful for. The airports are very important, not only Kabul, all of the airports. All of them must be operational and functional, so the Afghan people can continue their relationship with the world, and the world can come and see Afghanistan with their own eyes and help with their own hands. Those are the gateways between the world and Afghanistan.Under the peace council, I have come to Turkey more than 8 times, and I discussed many issues with party leaders and government officials. This time I had planned to do the same. We have a representative in Ankara. I started my trip on August 23, went to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. By the time I came here, the government of Turkey had started direct talks with our government in Kabul. So far, to respect that relationship from government to government, I stopped requesting any meetings with government officials and any party, because we didnt want to interfere in what was started here. We are going to wait and see what the results of the connections are, if progress at this level is good and satisfying. We will study the situation and I will have a trip to Kabul and discuss the issues with our higher ranks in the foreign ministry.*Terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries. https://sputniknews.com/20210916/biden-went-for-full-afghanistan-pullout-despite-his-cabinets-advice-book-claims-1089125562.html https://sputniknews.com/20210915/taliban-mulling-creation-of-regular-army-in-afghanistan-army-chief-of-staff-says--1089086718.html https://sputniknews.com/20210621/afghanistan-welcomes-turkeys-support-in-safeguarding-kabul-airport-foreign-minister-says-1083197229.html https://sputniknews.com/20210913/taliban-spokesman-dismisses-reports-that-militants-are-sheltering-al-qaeda-leader-in-afghanistan-1089029914.html https://sputniknews.com/20210916/taliban-bans-women-from-entering-ministry-of-women-affairs-employee-says-1089123565.html vot tak Stop trashing these people, israelo-nazis. 2 Gone I hope you fail miserably, you misogynist scum. Little pricks... 1 2 afghanistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 opinion, afghanistan https://sputniknews.com/20210917/aukus-will-make-indo-pacific-fiercely-contested-sinologist-says-1089146563.html AUKUS Will Make Indo-Pacific Fiercely Contested, Sinologist Says AUKUS Will Make Indo-Pacific Fiercely Contested, Sinologist Says US President Joe Biden has announced a new alliance with the UK and Australia named AUKUS to meet growing challenges in the Indo-Pacific. The pact stipulates a... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T10:41+0000 2021-09-17T10:41+0000 2021-09-21T11:16+0000 france indian ocean russia japan china australia scott morrison india south china sea naval drills /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107975/07/1079750786_0:56:3071:1783_1920x0_80_0_0_3805419ef86bc90afa2fb49a55402ca1.jpg The first major initiative under AUKUS is Australia's acquisition of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. China's state-media Global Times wrote that it will stir up a great power competition, and more regions will be involved in the rising tensions. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian lashed out at the US and Australia and termed the announcement as "really a stab in the back". France has expressed fury as Australia scrapped a $90 billion submarine deal with a French firm in favour of nuclear-powered subs from the US.India is a common partner in different alliances, the Quad, Australia-India-France, all constituted in the last few years, with a perceived common agenda of countering China's rise in the region. Sputnik spoke with Professor Bali R. Deepak, an Indian sinologist and professor at the Centre of Chinese & Southeast Asian Studies at Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Delhi over the formation of the new alliance in the Indo-Pacific region and its possible impact on India's relations with other countries.Sputnik: AUKUS is the first security arrangement in the Indo-Pacific. How will this change geopolitics in the region?Bali R Deepak: The defence and technology sharing agreement between Australia, the UK, and the US (AUKUS) demonstrates the fact that the Indo-Pacific strategy is increasingly gaining traction. This is also an indication that Europe is gradually becoming serious about the strategy, the aim of which is to contain an assertive China.There was no doubt that Obama's "pivot to Asia" had a similar aim, however, since the US had been embroiled in conflicts ranging from the Middle East to Afghanistan-Pakistan, it had no leeway to act against China's rise. Now, since the US has freed itself from these wars, and moreover, since the Biden administration has reassured its allies of strategic cooperation, the strategic environment in the region in terms of security alliances, economic and technological cooperation, shifting the global supply chains will witness a huge churning.Essentially, we will witness a fiercely contested region between the emerging and the established hegemons supported by their European and Indo-Pacific alliance partners.Sputnik: How will this impact the Quad as it seems India is pursuing this group as more non-military in nature?Bali R Deepak: This will not have an impact on the Quad, for Quad is another alliance of like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific and an important component of the Indo-Pacific strategy. It is true that to start with India wished to keep the Quad as a loose grouping devoid of any security alliance, or one that is not aimed at a third country. However, given India's asymmetries with China and China's assertiveness along the border, it appears that India is gradually giving up on its earlier thinking.Sputnik: Could this arrangement have any impact on India's relationship with France?Bali R Deepak: I don't think India's participation in the Quad or any other mechanism in the Indo-Pacific will impinge on its ties with France. Rather, France and other EU nations like Germany have also made their intentions clear as far as their engagement in the Indo-Pacific is concerned.The US commitment to supply Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, has irked France because its own submarine deal with Australia is likely to be jeopardised. Sputnik: Will China make any readjustment in its policy after this move by the US, Britain, and Australia?Bali R Deepak: China of course would like to break free from the containment. However, at the moment, it doesn't have many choices besides creating hype and being more belligerent, especially in the Taiwan Strait. China did attempt to create a wedge between the US and its European allies, but AUKUS reaffirms the US commitment to its allies.Secondly, China will continue to pursue its Belt and Road initiative among developing countries and at least secure their neutrality in the conflict and build military and non-military assets in these countries as has been the case. The Afghanistan-Pakistan region and China's involvement there will be interesting to watch, whether it will be successful in integrating the region with the Middle East and Central Asian republics will be keenly observed.China's engagement with the Taliban* and its axis with Pakistan will continue to create anxieties and more trust deficits in New Delhi.*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries. https://sputniknews.com/20210916/aukus-treaty-undermines-regional-stability-chinese-foreign-ministry-says-1089120286.html france indian ocean russia japan china australia india south china sea indo-pacific indo-asia-pacific region Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg Rishikesh Kumar https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg france, indian ocean, russia, japan, china, australia, scott morrison, india, south china sea, naval drills, us-china relations, maritime, quadrilateral security dialogue (quad), indo-pacific, us indo-pacific command, macron, president xijinping, indo-asia-pacific region, india To improve the performance of our website, show the most relevant news products and targeted advertising, we collect technical impersonal information about you, including through the tools of our partners. 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You can withdraw your consent using the method specified in the Privacy Policy. https://sputniknews.com/20210917/cosmic-rerun-10-billion-year-old-supernova-will-soon-appear-again---scientists-reveal-why-1089147542.html Cosmic Rerun? 10 Billion-Year-Old Supernova Will Soon Appear Again - Scientists Reveal Why Cosmic Rerun? 10 Billion-Year-Old Supernova Will Soon Appear Again - Scientists Reveal Why According to astronomers, these reappearances may help them in finding more clues about the nature of dark matter, a mysterious substance that contributes to... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T08:31+0000 2021-09-17T08:31+0000 2021-09-17T08:32+0000 science science galaxy universe explosion supernova /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107295/07/1072950759_0:60:1920:1140_1920x0_80_0_0_b7cb77030f907863472f70221690a7a8.jpg A supernova explosion that took place years ago will soon occur again. In 2016, the faint glint of an ancient 10-billion-year-old explosion appeared three times and was captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Now, scientists predict this same source of light will appear again in 2037. But why? A team of astronomers led by Steve Rodney, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, explained in a study that the gargantuan cluster of galaxies that the supernova's light has to pass by on its way to Earth is the reason behind this cosmic rerun. The study came out in the journal Nature recently. This phenomenon called gravitational lensing occurs when an object with a massive gravitational force covers the light of distant stars and galaxies behind it. Sometimes, this leads to the magnification or distortion of the light of distant objects. According to the researchers, in the case of this supernova explosion, the galaxy cluster MACS J0138 is working as a brightening agent for the light and later multiplies and splits into different images at different points in time. The researchers in their study observed the ancient explosion also known as Supernova Requiem using computer models. Then, they calculated and predicted the pathways this light will go through on its way to Earth. They also studied dark matter's influence on the light. The scientists will be able to measure the precise time difference between all of the supernova images after it reappears. There is also a possibility of the reappearance of the flash for a fifth time in 2042, according to the scientists. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Sushmita Panda https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926186_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_4474d0d7e27a36878eb8727832be74b4.jpg Sushmita Panda https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926186_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_4474d0d7e27a36878eb8727832be74b4.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sushmita Panda https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926186_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_4474d0d7e27a36878eb8727832be74b4.jpg science, science, galaxy, universe, explosion, supernova https://sputniknews.com/20210917/ex-algerian-president-abdelaziz-bouteflika-reportedly-dies-aged-84-1089173352.html Ex-Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Reportedly Dies Aged 84 Ex-Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Reportedly Dies Aged 84 According to local media reports, former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who led his country out of the civil war of the 1990s, died on Friday at the... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T22:39+0000 2021-09-17T22:39+0000 2021-09-18T01:20+0000 algeria abdelaziz bouteflika /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/106930/16/1069301690_0:367:1469:1193_1920x0_80_0_0_64b3ca8733a4e7abff6bb4fc6c59e29f.jpg The elderly Bouteflika was forced from office in 2019 by a mass protest movement called the Hirak, which demanded a change in top faces after he sought a fifth term despite his failing health.Born in 1937 in Morocco to Algerian parents, Bouteflika joined the National Liberation Front in 1956, which was leading the fight against French colonial rule over Algeria. He became the administrative secretary of Houari Boumedienne, and three years after Algeria achieved independence in 1962, he helped with Boumedienne's coup d'etat against Ahmed Ben Bella and subsequently became Algeria's foreign minister.He served in that role until 1974, when he became President of the United Nations General Assembly. After Boumedienne died in 1978, he was seen as one of two candidates likely to succeed him, but lost out to Chadli Bendjedid, an FLN colonel. In 1989, he was reassigned to the FLN Central Committee. He played little role in the civil war that began in 1992, but scored an unexpected victory in the 1999 presidential elections, the first since the civil war began. He remained in that office for 20 years, until being forced out in 2019.As president, Bouteflika presided over Algeria's return to international prominence, including presiding over the African Union and helping to negotiate a peace treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea. While his government undertook several large-scale infrastructure projects aimed at revitalizing the economy, it also oversaw the privatization of dozens of government-owned firms.In 2013, he suffered a major stroke from which he never fully recovered, suffering aphasia that has prevented his speaking in public and confining him to a wheelchair. As he shrank from public appearances, it was widely rumored he was no longer anything more than a figurehead. His seeking a fifth term in 2019 set off the biggest protests in the country since the civil war era, forcing him to resign in April of that year. Francesco Slossel Onore a tutti coloro portano la pace! 2 Najjar My condolences to his family and Algeria. 1 3 algeria Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Morgan Artyukhina https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg Morgan Artyukhina https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Morgan Artyukhina https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/17/1082703728_0:0:800:800_100x100_80_0_0_0b6ce8daa7411284d60c8a0b6d84186d.jpg algeria, abdelaziz bouteflika https://sputniknews.com/20210917/faa-bans-drone-flights-over-texas-bridge-after-thousands-of-haitians-filmed-flocking-to-area-1089158598.html FAA Bans Drone Flights Over Texas Bridge After Thousands of Haitians Filmed Flocking to Area FAA Bans Drone Flights Over Texas Bridge After Thousands of Haitians Filmed Flocking to Area On Friday, Republican Senator Ted Cruz insisted that at least 10,503 "illegal aliens" are currently under a bridge in south Texas, part of the migration crisis... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T12:28+0000 2021-09-17T12:28+0000 2021-09-17T12:52+0000 joe biden haiti donald trump bridge us migrants ted cruz crisis /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/11/1089150309_0:0:3071:1727_1920x0_80_0_0_ddb3f790c1cf393a86eba4cbdb50ebfe.jpg The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) from flying over the Del Rio Bridge in south Texas, where up to 10,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, earlier formed a camp after crossing illegally.In a notice on Thursday evening, the FAA announced a two-week no-fly zone for drones in the area, citing unspecified "special security reasons".Fox News later reported that the no-fly zone was imposed at the request of the US Border Patrol, who claimed that drones were "interfering with law enforcement flights on the border".The move came after aerial drone images of the growing camp surfaced in the early hours of Thursday, showing a massive group of migrants accumulating under the bridge.Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano put the figure of refugees at more than 10,500 as of Thursday night, urging US President Joe Biden to grapple with the "ongoing crisis" in the Texas border town.Referring to the drone ban, Republicans were quick to accuse the Biden administration of censorship, with Senator Ted Cruz describing the ban as "ridiculous".Separately, he tweeted that "10,503 illegal aliens are under this bridge tonight []", adding, "the Border Patrol is overcapacity. It's indefensible, it's inhuman, and it was entirely caused by Biden & Harris".The remarks followed Democrat Ayanna Pressley slamming the Biden administration's decision to resume deportation flights to Haiti despite the country's ongoing political, economic, and environmental disasters.Haiti is now in the grip of a humanitarian crisis following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people and damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes on 14 August. The Caribbean nation is also dealing with political instability after the assassination of former President Jovenel Moise in June.On Wednesday, ICE expelled 86 Haitian nationals from the US and flew them back to their country. In a separate development this week, the US Coast Guard repatriated 102 Haitians to their homeland after their boat was intercepted about 17 miles away from Miami.Texas Governor Greg Abbott has, meanwhile, said that he's ordered state troopers and the Texas National Guard "to shut down six points of entry along the southern border" at the request of the US Customs and Border Protection, also pointing the finger at the Biden administration.Shortly after assuming office in January, Biden began to reverse Trump's hardline immigration policies, halting construction of a border wall, moving to end "harsh and extreme immigration enforcement", and promising to "restore and expand" the asylum system.Other moves included rescinding the Trump travel ban and promising a "path to citizenship" for more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the US. Former US President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Biden's migration policy, arguing that when he was president, the country's southern border was "in great shape stronger, safer, and more secure than ever before". https://sputniknews.com/20210811/un-refugee-agency-voices-concern-over-us-transferring-asylum-seekers-and-migrants-to-mexico-by-air-1083582860.html See you in the ice Those are Pohjolans of the all black HALF of the Tao. In the Incredibles, what does black and white "Buddy" want to do to Superheroes...those HUEman people of color? 10 TruePatriot The FAA practicing the out of sight out of mind, nothing to see here approach more than likely courtesy of Camel Ho not wanting to be bothered of JObama not wanting to be exposed. Again. 1 2 haiti us Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Oleg Burunov https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg Oleg Burunov https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Oleg Burunov https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/0b/1080424846_0:0:2048:2048_100x100_80_0_0_3d7b461f8a98586fa3fe739930816aea.jpg joe biden, haiti, donald trump, bridge, us, migrants, ted cruz, crisis https://sputniknews.com/20210917/france-says-it-cannot-trust-australia-in-trade-talks-after-canberra-ditched-joint-sub-deal-1089160809.html France Says It Cannot Trust Australia in Trade Talks After Canberra Ditched Joint Sub Deal France Says It Cannot Trust Australia in Trade Talks After Canberra Ditched Joint Sub Deal Australia previously dropped a $90-billion agreement with the French firm Naval Group under which the latter was supposed to build several attack-class... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T13:27+0000 2021-09-17T13:27+0000 2021-09-17T14:02+0000 military & intelligence europe asia & pacific submarines european union /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/10/1089119191_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_3a21b8e9e509a18a265d07ec34dfba10.jpg Paris can no longer trust Australia in ongoing negotiations on a trade deal between Canberra and the EU now that the former has decided to suddenly terminate the contract for buying French submarines, France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune has stated.Australia has been in talks to sign an agreement with the European Union, its biggest trading partner, since 2018 having gone through 11 rounds of talks. The next one is due to take place this autumn and is supposed to cover issues of trade, services, investment, and intellectual property rights.However, now the progress in negotiations, led by the European Commission, is in question since Canberra chose to ditch the $90-billion contract with the partly state-owned French company Naval Group to build 12 conventionally powered submarines based on Barracuda nuclear-powered subs. Canberra announced the move soon after the US, the UK, and Australia proclaimed the creation of a new military alliance dubbed AUKUS to operate in the Indo-Pacific region. Under this new union, the US agreed to sell Australia nuclear-powered submarines.France condemned Australia's move to abandon the 2016 sub deal, calling it a "stab in the back". Paris also reportedly called off a gala event that was supposed to be held by the French Embassy in Washington and signify strong ties between the two NATO partners. https://sputniknews.com/20210916/france-reportedly-cancels-washington-gala-after-betrayal-submarine-deal-1089140482.html Chris Libera Well Macron, was it worth it sucking up to USrael in all these wars? 14 Crookim Seems like Australia is gonna end up with no trading partners after all, getting China cranky and now Europe, not a good decision....... 12 10 european union Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Tim Korso https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.jpg Tim Korso https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Tim Korso https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.jpg military & intelligence, europe, asia & pacific, submarines, european union https://sputniknews.com/20210917/happens-to-the-best-of-us-australian-pm-morrison-plays-down-joe-biden-forgetting-his-name-1089147758.html Happens to The Best of Us: Australian PM Morrison Plays Down Joe Biden 'Forgetting' His Name Happens to The Best of Us: Australian PM Morrison Plays Down Joe Biden 'Forgetting' His Name Gosh, what was his (her) name? this is a situation everyone can relate to. Neighbours, colleagues, celebrities, hell, even that school friend with whom you... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T06:06+0000 2021-09-17T06:06+0000 2021-09-17T06:06+0000 joe biden scott morrison gaffe awkward moments memory funny viral /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/10/1089116293_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_98c32f12ce1c410fd0ee5c27acd0dbe2.jpg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has played down Joe Biden's awkward gaffe during their joint press conference. The Democrat appeared to have forgotten Mr Morrisson's name at the end of the virtual event.The incident went viral and prompted a lot of criticism."I can't believe this has to be said, but a president forgets the name of Australia's prime minister!", wrote one user.However, Scott Morrison has downplayed the issue. "It happens to the best of us", the PM told reporters. When asked if Joe Biden apologised to him after the press conference Morrison said the following.Although Joe Biden's gaffe looked extremely awkward, the one made by Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton was no less embarrassing. The official failed to understand how to greet his South Korean counterpart when the latter attempted to do a COVID-19 friendly elbow bump.During Wednesday's press conference the leaders of the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States unveiled a new security pact AUKUS (named after the member nations) aimed at sharing defence technologies as well as strengthening cooperation in artificial intelligence, cyber security, and quantum technologies.Under the deal Canberra will receive its first fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. According to official data, the vessels won't be equipped with nuclear weapons and will simply be powered by nuclear reactors. Posal Hetic Morrison is just the public face of the International Israeli Community - his name is irrelevant. Biden is also just the public face of the Israeli people. Australia will be provided with nuclear/chemical/biological weapons to assist in the coming regime change in China and Russia. 9 WhatTheFishIsThis Show Biden more of your ass .. and call him father, then maybe your name will stick in mind. More - Ass - Son. 1 4 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Max Gorbachev Max Gorbachev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Max Gorbachev joe biden, scott morrison, gaffe, awkward moments, memory, funny, viral https://sputniknews.com/20210917/hitting-us-debt-ceiling-could-trigger-recession-white-house-says-1089161654.html Hitting US Debt Ceiling Could Trigger Recession, White House Says Hitting US Debt Ceiling Could Trigger Recession, White House Says The statement comes several days after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a warning to the Biden administration, saying Republicans won't support... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T13:39+0000 2021-09-17T13:39+0000 2021-09-17T16:14+0000 us debt ceiling joe biden republicans default democrats debt ceiling /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105607/76/1056077692_0:160:3077:1890_1920x0_80_0_0_3c1f93ec9c7877400a73ac3867914f4e.jpg The White House has said that not raising the US debt ceiling could cause a recession. "Economic growth would falter, unemployment would rise, and the labor market could lose millions of jobs," the White House said in a fact sheet.The Biden administration warned that billions of dollars in state aid and federal funding for various programmes could be stopped if the Congress fails to reach a deal on the issue. The statement noted that the government provides $100 billion in infrastructure funding, $50 billion for school programmes, and $10 billion in annual funding for public health programmes. Why Cant The Sides Reach a Compromise and What Will Happen Next?Both parties blame each other for the current predicament. The Democrats argue that the Republicans should support the measure because the government is crashing into the debt limit due to the economic policies introduced by former President Donald Trump. The GOP, in turn, points at President Bidens massive 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and the $3.5 trillion budget plan, the largest in the history of the United States, which the administration plans to push through.Negotiations on the debt ceiling between Democrats and Republicans have been dragging on for months, with no solution in sight. There are two options either the Democrats will persuade 10 Republican lawmakers in the Senate to support the raising of the debt ceiling, or the United States will default on its debt.As mentioned earlier, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned that Republicans wont support the measure, which they deem as a reckless spending spree. McConnell has called on the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling on their own, through the procedure called budget reconciliation. It speeds up the passage of legislation on spending, revenue, and the federal debt limit. Normally to approve a bill, the Senate needs a 60-vote supermajority, but reconciliation allows legislation to be passed with a simple majority. Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said the Democrats wont use the said procedure. monti It's OVER for this sick gang of criminals... Just couldn't come soon enough... 10 wtfud Which debt ceiling, the $29 Trillion Public debt or the $140 Trillion in underfunded Liabilities. The Posse will arrive in the nick of time to Save this House of Cards and every household will receive an ounce of Afghani best Opium to keep the American DREAM alive. 8 6 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2021 Max Gorbachev Max Gorbachev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Max Gorbachev us, debt ceiling, joe biden, republicans, default, democrats, debt ceiling https://sputniknews.com/20210917/india-doesnt-subscribe-to-clash-of-civilisations-theory-jaishankar-clarifies-to-chinas-wang-yi-1089147334.html India Doesn't Subscribe to 'Clash of Civilisations' Theory, Jaishankar Clarifies to China's Wang Yi India Doesn't Subscribe to 'Clash of Civilisations' Theory, Jaishankar Clarifies to China's Wang Yi The remarks by Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar come two days after India's Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat remarked that there was some... 17.09.2021, Sputnik International 2021-09-17T07:06+0000 2021-09-17T07:06+0000 2021-09-17T07:06+0000 wang yi ladakh region china india subrahmanyam jaishankar clash of civilizations samuel huntington /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/07/15/1083430454_0:0:3000:1688_1920x0_80_0_0_22be0f7e3e9c7f3035b566ad4dae73b6.jpg India asked China to avoid viewing the bilateral relations between the two nations from the perspective of Beijing's ties with "third countries", during a meeting between Indian Foreign Proceed to Application NOTE: ONLY online applications will be considered. Applicants are required to scan and attach CERTIFIED copies of the required academic documents only e.g. Degree, Transcript, Diploma, A-level and O-level certificates and PLE results slip. Academic documents for the successful candidates will be vetted and background checks conducted before they are considered for appointment into the Authority. Only short listed and successful candidates will be contacted. All appointments shall be subject to a probationary period of not more than six months and subsequent confirmation in service will be based on satisfactory performance of the individual. Deadline: 4th October 2021 by 11:59 pm. For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline AN OROPUNE woman went from rock bottom to having four streams of income. LaToya Greaves-Tinto hopes her life story will serve as a testament to encourage others to go after their dreams, despite where they start off in life. Do you have a news tip? Want to share good news story, or do you have information that should see the light of day? Then we want to hear from you. More here It is impossible for members of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) to be all over T&T 24/7. After all, what is the workforce of the TTPS? There are many other functions these officers have to perform on a daily basis. China has suspended dragon fruit imports from Vietnamese fruit manufacturers via a border gate in northern Quang Ninh Province, after the coronavirus was found on the packaging of a shipment, according to a notice by the Chinese side. The suspension, applied to dragon fruit imports through a pontoon bridge that is dedicated to trading activities at Quang Ninhs Mong Cai border gate (Dongxing border gate on Chinas side), will last from Wednesday to September 21. In the notice, authorities in Chinas Dongxing City said that they had discovered the coronavirus on both the cover of each item and the cardboard boxes as the outermost layer of the shipment. The imports will be automatically resumed from 11:00 pm on September 21, according to the notice. However, the suspension can be extended for another week if the coronavirus is detected on the packaging of imported dragon fruits again or any other goods, and for four weeks if the products contain the virus for a third time. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health suggested Vietnamese dragon fruit exporters work with their Chinese partners to find another channel for the exporation of the tropical fruit during the suspension. The Quang Ninh Department of Industry and Trade has advised local firms to regularly update information regarding import and export activities at border gates in order to work out a plan that helps prevent goods congestion. This is not the first time that Vietnamese farm produce exports to China through Vietnams northern border gates have been affected by Chinese authorities COVID-19 prevention and control regulations. Previously, the Chinese side temporarily stopped receiving Vietnamese trucks via a number of border gates in northern Lang Son Province between July and August to curb the spread of COVID-19. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! An increase in foreign direct investment commitment in Vietnam last month despite the raging pandemic has suggested foreign investors continued confidence in the Southeast Asian countrys economic potential, the World Bank (WB) has commented. The WB made the statement in the latest Vietnam Macro Monitoring report released on Wednesday. Over the first eight months of this year, FDI commitment reached a total of US$14 billion, only two percent lower than the same period in 2020, while disbursement reached $11.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of two percent, the WB stated. In August alone, the FDI commitment amounted to $2.4 billion, a 65 percent rise compared to a month earlier. The higher FDI commitment, which was driven by newly registered capital flowing into the processing and manufacturing industry, has reflected foreign investors sustained confidence in Vietnams economy in the medium and long term, the WB commented. FDI disbursement in August fell 14.3 percent from the previous month and 12.2 percent year on year because of the lockdown in many major economic centers. The industrial production index last month dropped 4.2 percent month on month and 7.4 percent from a year earlier, as social distancing measures disrupted manufacturing activities. Nevertheless, this decline was not as abrupt as the fall during the COVID-19 outbreak in April 2020. Many processing and manufacturing centers in northern Vietnam have registered double-digit growth rates while sharp output reduction was seen in southern provinces, where many factories shut down due to the COVID-19 impacts. Meanwhile, retail sales continued to deteriorate in August, slipping 10.5 percent from July and 33.7 percent year on year. The past eight months saw export turnover shrink 5.7 percent and import value grow 21.1 percent, leading to a trade deficit of $3.5 billion compared to the $13.7 billion surplus a year ago. The overall performance of the national economy this year will chiefly depend on whether the Vietnamese government can effectively cope with the current COVID-19 outbreak in September to create a base for economic recovery in the last quarter, the bank said. Priority should be given to speeding up the vaccination campaign to cover at least 70 percent of the adult population, the WB advised in the report. The government should boost domestic demand in the short term by accelerating the disbursement of the public investment programs and providing further income support to affected households seriously affected by the pandemic. At the same time, it is necessary to support businesses, especially small-scale ones, to promote economic activities and generate jobs. Since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, Vietnam has documented 656,129 COVID-19 cases, including 423,551 recoveries and 16,425 deaths, which is equivalent to 2.5 percent of the tally of patients, or 0.4 percentage points higher than the global mortality rate, the Ministry of Health reported. Except Cao Bang, the coronavirus has spread to 62 out of the countrys 63 cities and provinces, with Ho Chi Minh City topping the list with 321,343 infections and 12,768 fatalities. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! WASHINGTON -- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other multilateral-organization leaders on Thursday urged countries with high COVID-19 vaccination rates to boost efforts to send doses to low- and middle-income countries. Georgieva and the heads of the World Bank Group, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization expressed concern in a joint statement that it would not be possible to vaccinate at least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 without urgent action. Wide disparities in vaccination rates in advanced economies and developing countries will be a key issue raised during a virtual global summit that the United States is organizing on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters on Thursday that President Joe Biden had invited Georgieva to speak at the Sept. 22 event, which has not yet been formally announced by the White House. A White House spokesman declined to comment. Reuters reported this week that the United States was pushing global leaders to endorse an even more ambitious vaccination target at the summit: getting 70% of the world's population vaccinated by the time of the 2022 General Assembly. The leaders said countries with high vaccination rates - which have collectively pre-purchased over 2 billion doses more than needed - should urgently swap their near-term delivery schedules with global distribution programs to help address gaps in low- and middle-income countries. They urged high-income countries to fulfill their dose donation pledges and release vaccine companies from contracts so those doses can be delivered to people in need. The group also urged vaccine manufacturers to prioritize and fulfill their contracts to COVAX and AVAT, an African distribution program, and improve transparency by sharing details on delivery schedules for all vaccine shipments. Vietnamese State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed ways to foster the two nations comprehensive strategic partnership and cooperation in relation to COVID-19 over the phone on Thursday, according to the Vietnam Government Portal. During the conversation, President Phuc stated that Vietnam treasures its traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia and hopes to strengthen bilateral cooperation across all fields. The two leaders agreed on continuing to boost ties in trade and investment, as well as accelerate the implementation of joint projects in key areas including energy, petroleum, defense, and security. Regarding the fight against COVID-19, Phuc called on Russia to continue supporting Vietnam with vaccines, medicine, and medical supplies, as well as to step up the transfer of vaccine production technology. President Putin praised the bilateral cooperation in pandemic response, affirming that Russia will further support and collaborate with Vietnam to fight the pandemic. Both sides were committed to closely and effectively coordinating at regional forums, and agreed on the settlement of disputes in the East Vietnam Sea by peaceful means and in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Vietnamese president affirmed that the Southeast Asian country is ready to act as a bridge for Russia to expand cooperation with ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region. He asked Russia to continue supporting and creating favorable conditions for the Vietnamese community there, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Putin invited President Phuc to pay an official visit to Russia soon and the invitation was accepted with pleasure. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The Ministry of Health recorded 11,521 coronavirus cases across Vietnam on Friday, in addition to 9,914 discharged patients and 212 fatalities. Thirty-four provinces and cities reported 11,506 domestic cases whereas the country logged 15 separate imported infections, the health ministry said. The ministry had registered 10,482 locally-infected patients on Thursday. Over 6,600 of the latest domestic cases were found in the community, with the remaining detected in cordoned-off areas or centralized quarantine facilities. Ho Chi Minh City documented 5,972 local infections, up by 237 patients from yesterday; Binh Duong Province 4,013, up by 1,015; Dong Nai Province 345, Long An Province 273, Kien Giang Province 180; Tien Giang Province 118; Hanoi 15; and Da Nang eight. Vietnam has confirmed 663,232 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth and worst virus wave emerged in the country on April 27. Ho Chi Minh City tops the caseload with 326,795 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 173,086, Dong Nai Province with 38,081, Long An Province with 29,843, Tien Giang Province with 12,760, Dong Thap Province with 8,036, Khanh Hoa Province with 7,458, Da Nang with 4,854, Hanoi with 4,118, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 3,974. By comparison, Vietnam detected a combined 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in the previous three waves. The health ministry reported 9,914 recoveries on Friday, bringing the total to 433,465. The toll has ascended to 16,637 deaths after the ministry documented 212 fatalities on the same day, including 166 in Ho Chi Minh City and 28 in Binh Duong Province. Vietnam has recorded 667,650 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year. Health workers have administered about 33 million vaccine doses, including 630,323 shots on Thursday, since inoculation was rolled out on March 8. Almost 6.2 million people have been fully vaccinated. Health authorities aim to immunize at least two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A shipment of 852,480 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the German government arrived in Hanoi on Thursday, amid Vietnams acceleration of immunization to drive back the pandemic. This is a contribution from Germany toward the Vietnamese vaccination campaign, the German Embassy in Hanoi said in a press release the same day. The donation is part of the 2.5 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses Germany has previously promised to donate to Vietnam. The vaccine jabs were delivered to Vietnam through COVAX Facility, in close cooperation with UNICEF and WHO Vietnam and the Vietnamese government. I am very happy about this delivery of German vaccines via COVAX," said Dr. Guido Hildner, German Ambassador to Vietnam. "Germany stands with Vietnam in fighting and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic." The diplomat said Germany and the European Union support the COVAX scheme for fair and transparent access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. We can only defeat the pandemic if it is brought under control everywhere, Hildner said. With this shipment, Vietnam has so far received 12,578,110 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility. On behalf of the UN family, we thank the government and people of Germany for sharing with the Vietnamese people these life-saving vaccine doses sent through the COVAX Facility," said Dr. Kidong Park, United Nations resident coordinator ad interim and WHO representative in Vietnam. In addition to Germany, Vietnam has earlier received vaccine donations from many other countries, including the U.S., Japan, Russia, and China, among others. Vietnam has targeted to secure 150 million vaccine doses to vaccinate two-thirds of its 98 million population, but it has got so far only 37 million jabs from different sources, including the COVAX Facility, contract purchases, and donations. Health workers have administered around 32.3 million vaccine doses, including 715,550 shots on Wednesday, since inoculation was rolled out on March 8. Nearly six million people have been fully vaccinated. Vietnam has reported 656,129 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year. The health ministry documented 10,901 recoveries on Thursday, bringing the total to 423,551. The toll has soared to 16,425 deaths after the ministry logged 239 fatalities on the same day, including 160 in Ho Chi Minh City and 46 in Binh Duong Province. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! As food takeaway services in selected areas in Hanoi reopened on Thursday following a relaxation of social distancing rules, many residents can be seen outdoors, searching for the local delicacies they have been craving for nearly two months spent at home. According to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper correspondents, food stall and service businesses in Ba Dinh District, Cau Giay District, as well as 17 other districts declared safe from the coronavirus had prepared for their reopenings since early Thursday morning. After nearly two months of social distancing, these safe zones managed to contain the coronavirus spread, which allowed them to relax the ban on non-essential businesses and outdoor travels. An eatery on Doi Can Street, Hanoi prepares food for a reopening on September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre Nguyen Van Van, 36, owner of an eatery on Ba Dinh Districts Doi Can Street that specializes in bun cha (grilled pork with rice noodles), said he started cleaning up his place on Wednesday after news of the reopening had emerged. As stated in the mandate, Vans stalls, as well as other food businesses in the capital city, would be restricted to takeaway-only. I woke up at 6:00 am today to buy ingredients for the shops reopening, he said. After spending two months at home, this is the day that I have been waiting for. I can finally make some money and stop my body from idling. A 'pho' eatery in Hanoi packs food in a takeaway container, September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre Despite receiving many phone orders since the early morning, Van did not open his stall until 12:00 pm to ensure the best food quality. Many have called for the biggest bowl of bun cha ever to make up for the craving that has built up over the past weeks, Van said. An eatery on Doi Can Street, Hanoi prepares food for a reopening on September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre Also on Doi Can Street, Nga, a roadside 'pho' seller, said she had been looking forward to the reopening as the business provides her with work and income to support her family. She had prepared a pot of pho broth on Wednesday evening to resume business right when the authorities allowed her to. A motorbike repair shop in Hanoi is reopened on September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre A stationery shop in Hanoi is reopened on September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre Many other services were also reopened on Thursday morning, including the bike repair shop of Doan Van Tri on Thuy Khue Street. Rents for this shop were still due during the social distancing months, so were glad that the place is allowed to resume operations, Tri told Tuoi Tre. I have arrived early to disinfect everything in the shop, but customers are still required to wear masks and keep safe distances. A takeaway-only sign in front of a food stall in Hanoi, September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre In the meantime, local residents also show their eagerness to revisit street food stalls and pick up their favorite dishes. Grabbing two servings of pho at an eatery on Doi Can Street, Pham Van Quan, 30, said he had been anticipating the reopening since a week ago. Also searching for local delicacies, Nguyen Hong Hoa, 30, pulled up at her favorite bun cha stall on Thuy Khue Street. It feels nice being out on the street after spending weeks cooped up in the house, she said. COVID-19 safety rules are written on a sign in front of a shop in Hanoi, September 16, 2021. Photo: Pham Tuan / Tuoi Tre Hanoi is seeing positive progress in pushing back the virus, with a total of 5.27 million jabs distributed to more than half of the local populace as of Friday, the municipal Center for Disease Control reported. Local authorities target to test all residents for the novel coronavirus in an effort to drive back its spread and revive the capital's socio-economic development. The city has recorded 4,360 coronavirus cases and 48 deaths since the pandemic erupted in Vietnam in early 2020, the Ministry of Health reported. Nationwide, there have been 656,129 coronavirus infection cases and 16,425 fatalities. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! On Monday a National Commemorative Service to mark the 50th anniversary of Operation Ivanhoe and the Battle of Nui Le will be held at the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial on Anzac Parade in Canberra. 50th Anniversary of Operation Ivanhoe In September 1971, just weeks before they were due to leave for home, soldiers of the Australian Task Force fought their last major offensive operation of the Vietnam War the Battle of Nui Le and part of Operation Ivanhoe. 10:30am Monday on ABC. First names have been announced for the next season of Dancing with the Stars: All Stars. Bridie Carter, Kylie Gillies, Grant Denyer, Sam Mac and Ricki Lee are all confirmed to return to the Seven series. More names are due to be announced including Wildcard additions. As tipped, filming is due to get underway on Wednesday in Sydney but with a virtual audience this time. The show is now expected in 2022. Performer and TV star @TheRickiLee is also hitting the dance floor on the new series on @DancingAU pic.twitter.com/VAQIPcSWDW Sunrise (@sunriseon7) September 16, 2021 Two people after a man reportedly fired a crossbow at passers-by in the Netherlands. Shocking footage shows a topless man calmly pointing a black crossbow from his balcony in the town of Almelo on Friday. Other unconfirmed videos show armed balaclava-clad police officers turning up to the block of flats with the sound of gunfire. Local police said they were called to a stabbing incident at the Mth Steynstraat in Almelo where they found two people dead in a flat. They added a third victim was injured whilst the suspect was arrested and injured. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so. At 10am today, Overijssel police said they had attended an incident in connection with the attack and officers had fired shots. They tweeted: We are with many colleagues at a stabbing incident at the Mth Steynstraat in #Almelo. Colleagues had to use the firearm in this incident. The situation is not safe there at the moment. So do not come to this location. Man points crossbow at police from the balcony (TVOOST) It is not yet clear if the victims were shot with the crossbow or if they were stabbed to death. Forensics were seen placing cones around arrows strewn in the street. Journalist Mark Mensink, reporting from the scene, said he saw a man being taken by police with a cherry picker. Authorities raised the threat level to GRIP 3, meaning there was a threat to the well-being of the general population. Police confirmed they were not assuming a terrorist motive behind the attack. Read More Older people and men more likely to suffer with Covid even after two jabs Rape victim criticises judge for freeing attacker who fled while on bail UK weather forecast: Flood warning as torrential rain to soak England West Africa's main regional bloc imposed sanctions against the junta in Guinea on Thursday and demanded they return the country to constitutional rule within six months, the president of the bloc's commission said. After an emergency summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Accra, Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said they would freeze the financial assets and impose travel bans for junta members and their relatives. "In six months elections should be held," Brou said at a briefing, calling for the immediate release of President Alpha Conde, who was ousted in a military coup last week. Regional leaders who took part in the summit hailed the tough measures agreed by the bloc to West and Central Africa's third coup since April. The political turbulence has intensified concerns about a backslide towards military rule in a resource-rich but poverty-stricken region. Coup leaders in Guinea have not said how long the transitional government will last, or who will lead it. The junta led by Mamady Doumbouya, a former member of the French Foreign Legion, is holding consultations this week with various public figures, groups and business leaders in the country to map a framework for the transition. As part of the four-day consultation, the junta on Thursday met with Guinea's main business lobby and executives of mining firms operating in its bauxite, gold, iron ore and diamond sectors. Among the attendees at the talks in Conakry was the general manager of Guinea's top bauxite producer Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB), Frederic Bouzigues. "Messages have been exchanged, we indicated our engagement and our will to reassure all our investors in order to continue our work, address the challenges that we face," he said, without sharing details on what was discussed with the junta. SMB is owned by a consortium including Singapore shipping company Winning International Group, Shandong Weiqiao - a subsidiary of the world's top private sector aluminium producer China Hongqiao - and Guinea's UMS International. (REUTERS) Two men have been charged with the murder of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Derry in 2019. The pair, aged 21 and 33, have also been charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, riot, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs and arson. The 33-year-old has also been charged with robbery. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said that a third man, aged 20, has been charged with riot, possession of petrol bombs and throwing petrol bombs. All three are expected to appear before Londonderry Magistrates Court via video link this morning. A 19-year-old man also arrested during the same operation has been released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service. Ms McKee was shot dead as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city. She was standing near a police vehicle when she was hit by a bullet fired by a masked gunman toward officers. The attack was claimed by the so-called New IRA, which said Ms McKee was caught in the line of fire. One man, Paul McIntyre, 53, from Kinnego Park in Derry, has already been charged with Ms McKee's murder. Aliaksandr Shylko comes fresh off a fourth place in the 1,700 WSOP International Circuit at King's Resort and made the trip to North Cyprus. He was one of two players who limped in and George Meitanis raised to 5,000 on the button. The small blind and both limpers called. They checked to the turn on which the small blind bet 11,000. Only Shylko called and did so again for 25,000 on the river. The small blind tabled and Shylko had that beat with for a flush. Samantha Wendell Blake-Lamb Funeral Home Samantha Wendell A 29-year-old Kentucky woman who was fearful of getting vaccinated died of COVID-19 after missing her wedding while hospitalized with the virus. Samantha Wendell had spent nearly the last two years planning her wedding to fiance Austin Eskew, obsessing over every aspect of the big day, NBC News reported. The surgical technician from Grand Rivers had put off getting vaccinated, worried that her plans to have three or four kids with Eskew wouldn't be possible after she heard false information from her co-workers that the shots led to infertility. She "just kind of panicked," Eskew, 29, said. The Centers for Disease Control, OB-GYN groups and health experts have emphasized that the COVID-19 vaccines do not cause infertility and are entirely safe for hopeful or expecting moms. "It is just not true that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is associated with infertility in either males or females," Dr. Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, previously told PEOPLE. RELATED: Unvaccinated Pregnant Nurse and Her Unborn Baby Die of COVID: 'It's Hard to Accept' Wendell ended up changing her mind on getting vaccinated as the delta variant spread through the U.S., and decided that she and Eskew should get inoculated before their honeymoon in Mexico. She made appointments for them for the end of July, but after her bachelorette party a week prior, she started feeling sick and tested positive for COVID-19. "She could not stop coughing," Eskew, who got it too, said. Neither of the couple had preexisting health conditions, and Eskew's symptoms were mild. But Wendell continued to deteriorate and was hospitalized in August. She spent six weeks in the hospital, and five days before their planned wedding date of Aug. 21, Wendell was put on a ventilator. Just before, she asked doctors if she could get a COVID-19 vaccine. Story continues "It wasn't going to do any good at that point, obviously," her mother, Jeaneen Wendell, said. "It just weighs heavy on my heart that this could have easily been avoided." RELATED VIDEO: Unvaccinated TikToker Who Died of COVID Spent Last Days Urging Followers to Get the Vaccine On Sept. 10, her family decided to take Wendell off life support, and she died that day. The family is now planning a funeral for her at the church where she had planned to get married. "Misinformation killed her," Wendell's cousin, Maria Vibandor Hayes, said, adding that she hopes the tragedy will encourage others to get vaccinated. "If we can save more lives and families' lives, then this is the gift she left for us to deliver." RELATED: 1 in 500 Americans Have Now Died of COVID-19 Eskew, who had been with Wendell since meeting during their freshman year orientation in college, said that he's been struggling without her. "She had so much influence in everything that I do," he said. "We didn't really ever do anything without the other in mind." As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from the CDC, WHO and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here. Norway, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Azerbaijan and Russia are among the mineral-rich countries that have established sovereign wealth funds to distribute profits from natural resources among their citizens. Such funds are designed with the next generations in mind, to prevent overvaluation of the local currency and to channel revenues into fueling economic growth and spending on fields like education, health and welfare. According to Al-Monitor, Israel established its statutory wealth fund seven years ago, but the promises of billions of shekels in revenues have failed to materialize. The fund has not even been fully established amid the low profits claimed by the companies extracting the gas from the reservoirs. Exploitation of these offshore Mediterranean gas fields began in the middle of the previous decade, and according to 2014 assessments were expected to yield revenues of 260 billion shekels ($81 billion). The forecast stipulated that the sum would depend on the amount of gas produced and on global gas prices. The 2014 law governing gas exploitation mandates that 57% of taxes from gas profits would be placed in the Israeli wealth fund, which would invest the money in high-yield instruments and channel the profits into economic and social goals to be determined by the government in its annual budget. The Bank of Israels forecasts at the time put the amount of the fund at over 14 billion shekels ($4.4 billion) by 2022. However, Shlomo Phillip of the Tax Authority reported this week to the Knesset wealth fund oversight committee that as of the end of June 2021, the tax revenues from the profits of the energy companies had reached only 741 million shekels ($231 million). Phillip added his assessment that the amount would exceed the one-billion-shekel mark within the coming year, reaching the threshold amount for activating the fund. Committee chair Mossi Raz said at the hearing that predictions of billions of shekels flowing into the wealth fund were erroneous and the mechanism should have been called the poverty rather than the wealth fund. Unless the law is amended, he added, there is no point in establishing the fund as the sums are so miniscule. Raz demanded that the gas company profits be examined in an independent audit and that the state explain why it had agreed to a tax write-off for the expenses of the energy companies. The sums are small and worthless; this is one per mille from the state budget. If that were the forecast, the fund would not have been set up. The whole model needs to be changed. It is not possible for the state to allocate natural resources to companies that are not completely transparent." In the past, he said, we thought that natural gas presented an environmental problem, but supported the venture for economic reasons. Now it seems that the economic benefits are marginal. He concluded, "The whole model was a mistake and we will have to change it completely, including the environmental model. Adi Brender of the Bank of Israel's research division explained at the meeting that the gap between the forecasts and actual revenues stemmed from the companies' expenses on other investments in the southern Tamar gas field and in an additional gas pipeline, tax write-offs. As a result, payment of their taxes was postponed from 2018 to mid-2020 and the sum was reduced. Yet another reason and perhaps the most significant, Brender added, is the high gas prices on which the forecasts were based. With the market growing increasingly competitive in recent years, the average price of gas declined and with it the profits. The Finance Ministry's Deputy Chief Economist Lev Drucker was slightly more optimistic in reporting to the panel, saying the states annual gas revenues were slightly over 3 billion shekels ($940 million) and by 2029, the fund is expected to total over 5 billion shekels ($1.56 billion). Profit evaluations have been adjusted over the years, with the Tax Authority reporting in July 2020 that the gas company profits would reach 600-700 million shekels a month within five years, and that the wealth fund would accumulate up to 200 billion shekels ($62.4 billion) in all. That report to the Knesset assessed that the wealth fund would accumulate capital in the amount of at least 38 billion shekels ($12 billion) by the end of the decade. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the forecast on Facebook last year, deflecting criticism from environmentalists and social activists over his approval of the natural gas exploitation plan and its benefits to the gas tycoons. I did not give in, he wrote. The gas produced from Israels reservoirs will funnel tens of billions of shekels into the state coffers for the benefit of Israels citizens, Netanyahu added. Netanyahu was referring to the controversy over taxation of the energy company profits, which delayed the start of production. Following the appointment of various committees to study the issue, the government decided to raise taxes on the companies profits in return for a stability clause determining that the relevant law would remain in force and could not be changed for a fixed time period. The tax increase was defined as a super-profit tax, which would only be collected after gas sales allowed the companies a return on their initial outlays. The companies Delek Drilling and Nobel Energy are now being accused of abusing this clause to pump up their expenses and thereby limit their tax liability. The wealth fund was supposed to address public criticism over the tax payment schedules and address claims that Netanyahu was doing the bidding of the gas tycoons and their megacorporations. According to some publications, these companies appear to be practicing aggressive tax planning to compensate for the decline in the price of gas and reduce the tax liabilities on their profits. The companies have also appealed the amount of tax levied on them by the state and have held up payment. The government has begun advancing an amendment to the law that would oblige the drilling companies to first pay what the state demands and only then begin legal proceedings to contest the sum. Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman argues that the legislation will speed up payments into the wealth fund. The price of Russias flagship Urals grade slumped this week as Russian supply and exports are set to grow and as Iraq cuts the price of its crude for Europe. On Tuesday, the Urals grade from the Baltic Sea was offered at a discount of $2.35 per barrel to Dated Brent, Bloomberg reports, citing the price-discovery window hosted by S&P Global Platts. While the discount to Brent is typical for the Urals grade, this weeks discount is much deeper than the $1.05 a barrel discount at which the Russian flagship crude was offered last week, Oil Prices writes. One of the key reasons for weaker prices of Urals, according to Bloomberg, is the expectation of rising supply out of Russia, which is pumping more oil under its higher OPEC+ quota and which is preparing to export more barrels next month. So far in September, Russias crude oil and condensate production has been higher by 2.4 percent compared to August, according to data from the Russian energy ministry seen by Bloomberg. The other reason for the weakening price differentials of Russias Urals is somewhat unexpected competition from Iraq, which has cut its prices for the United States and Europe (except the Mediterranean), in a rare divergence from the pricing of the top exporter from the Middle East and the worlds largest crude exporter, Saudi Arabia. Iraqs lower crude prices in Europe for October are competing with Russian Urals supply, among others. Last week, tighter supply of U.S. medium sour crudes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida pushed the price of Russias Urals up to a discount of just $1.05 per barrel to Dated Brentthe highest price for Urals in seven monthscompared to a Urals discount to Brent of $1.95 a barrel before Ida, Bloomberg estimates showed. In the days following Hurricane Ida, there was increased interest from refiners for Russian crude, especially the medium sour Urals, which is similar to the U.S. Mars blend whose production was still offline, according to Bloombergs sources. These days, Azerbaijan marks the 103rd anniversary of the liberation of Baku, the country's capital, under the leadership of the Caucasian Islamic Army, which was headed by the 29-year-old Nuri Pasha (Killigil), Yeni Safak writes. The friendly political, legal, trade, and military relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey were documented shortly after the foundation of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic on May 28, 1918 with the Treaty of Batumi, signed between the newly established country and then Ottoman Empire on June 4, 1918. With the pact, the empire recognized the independence of Azerbaijan, which could in return request its military help in case of any threat. After the republic's declaration of independence in Georgia, Fatali Khan Khoyski, Azerbaijan's first prime minister, formed the government in Ganja, now northwestern Azerbaijan, in June, as he was not able to travel directly to Azerbaijan's current capital Baku since the city was then controlled by Armenian militants and Bolsheviks. On Sept. 15, 1918, an elite Ottoman force called the Caucasian Islamic Army under the leadership of Nuri Pasha (Killigil) was sent by then Minister of War Enver Pasha to what is today Azerbaijan in the closing months of the World War I following a plea from the region's people. The Caucasian Islamic Army, made up of Turkish and Azerbaijani soldiers, completed its mission in September, liberating Baku and thus laying the groundwork for the country's independence decades later in 1991. Over 1,100 Caucasian Islamic Army members sacrificed their lives together with the Azerbaijani people for the cause. The Caucasian Islamic Army has an irreplaceable role in Azerbaijan's life, ownership of Baku and turning the city into the capital. The liberation of Baku at the time paved the way for the transfer of the capital from Ganja and ensured the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, providing the basis for its modern day boundaries. Enver Pasha also an elder brother of Ottoman Gen. Nuri Pasha personally conveyed the message to the Ottoman capital Istanbul that Baku had been liberated from Armenian gangs. Situation in region one century ago Emerging from the internal upheaval brought by the fall of the Romanov Tzars in Russia, a Transcaucasian parliament, known as the Seym or Supreme Power of the Transcaucasia, was formed in Tbilisi, the capital current of Georgia, on Feb. 14, 1918, by representatives from the Southern Caucasus. The Muslim faction of the Seym comprised of 44 delegates who were elected from the region to the Russian Constituent Assembly formed after the 1917 Revolution and represented over a million Turkic Muslims in Azerbaijan and the Southern Caucasus. The Muslim faction, or Council of Muslims, was functioning as a Muslim Parliament of Transcaucasia. Following the persistent claims of the Azerbaijani representatives, who were among the most consistent attendees in the parliament, the Seym proclaimed the independence of Transcaucasia on April 9, 1918. This led to the establishment of the United Republic of Transcaucasia. However, serious contradictions and conflicts among the disparate national interests hampered both the Transcaucasian Seym and the Republic of Transcaucasia. As a result, the Georgian delegation left the Seym and announced the independence of Georgia on May 26, 1918. Following Georgia, members of the Muslim faction held a separate meeting one day later and decided to declare the independence of Azerbaijan. With this purpose, the Transcaucasian Muslim Council proclaimed itself the National Council of Azerbaijan the country's lawmaking body. During that meeting, a statesman and prominent public figure, Mammad Amin Rasulzade, was elected chairman of the National Council of Azerbaijan, though he was not present at the meeting, but in Batumi, Georgia. On May 28, 1918, a historic meeting in Tbilisi adopted the Declaration of Independence of Azerbaijan, consisting of six articles, making Azerbaijan the first Parliamentary Republic in the Muslim East. Being the beacon of hope for the independence movement of Azerbaijan in the 20th century with his remarks, "Once raised, the flag never falls!" Rasulzade played a key role in the formation of the modern Azerbaijani identity. The government led by Khoyski then came to Ganja in June, and was not able to come directly to Baku because the city was then controlled by Armenian and Bolshevik militants. The newly founded state managed to form the national army on June 26, 1918. The Caucasian Islamic Army came to help the Azerbaijani people in Ganja upon their appeal to the Ottoman Empire, and completed its mission in September in Baku after liberating the city. In December 1918, the first decision of the newly established Azerbaijani Parliament was to place a monument for the "martyred Ottoman soldiers and officers" at the highest location in Baku. Though its plan and sketches were prepared, the Soviet occupation in April 1920 did not allow its construction. Finally, the monument was erected in 1999-2000. The Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was toppled after almost two years by the Soviet Union, and the country restored its independence only after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Turkey was the first country to recognize Azerbaijan's independence, and Baku opened its embassy in Turkey in 1992. The meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyanwho is on a working visit to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistanwith Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is over, Newa.am reports. "I would like to congratulate you once again on your victory in the [snap parliamentary] elections [on June 220] and re-assuming the post of Prime Minister," said the president of Iran, addressing the Armenian PM, and expressed hope for taking new positive steps in relations between the two countries during his tenure, the premier's office informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.. "The activities of our two governments started at the same time. I believe this is a very good nuance which creates an opportunity to harmonize our actions," PM Pashinyan said, in his turn. There is a new international order, where competition is fierce and some nations "stop at nothing to gain influence," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, CNBC reports. Speaking at her annual "State of the European Union" parliamentary address, von der Leyen described the currrent environment of foreign relations as "a new era of hyper-competitiveness." "An era of regional rivalries and major powers refocusing their attention towards each other," she said, while adding that "recent events in Afghanistan are not the cause of this change but they are a symptom of it." For the first time since the Fukushima Daiichi accident a decade ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revised up its projections of the potential growth of nuclear power capacity for electricity generation during the coming decades, IAEA official website reports. The change in the IAEAs annual outlook for this low-carbon energy source does not yet mark a new trend, but it comes as the world aims to move away from fossil fuels to fight climate change. Many countries are considering the introduction of nuclear power to boost reliable and clean energy production. In the high case scenario of its new outlook, the IAEA now expects world nuclear generating capacity to double to 792 gigawatts (net electrical) by 2050 from 393 GW(e) last year. Compared with the previous years high case projection of 715 GW(e) by 2050, the estimate has been revised up by just over 10%. However, the realization of the IAEAs high case scenario would require significant actions, including an accelerated implementation of innovative nuclear technologies. The low case projections indicate that world nuclear capacity by 2050 would remain essentially the same as now, at 392 GW(e). The new IAEA projections show that nuclear power will continue to play an indispensable role in low carbon energy production, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said. The reports findings represent an encouraging sign of increasing awareness that nuclear power, which emits no carbon dioxide during operation, is absolutely vital in our efforts to achieve net zero emissions. Moscow has submitted its proposals on the process of delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to Baku and Yerevan and expects a quick response, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told reporters today, TASS reports. We are closely monitoring the situation in certain sections of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The development of the situation, including near the village of Vorotan, reiterates the need for an early start of the process of delimitation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border with its subsequent demarcation. Russian proposals in this regard have been submitted to both Baku and Yerevan, we expect a quick response, the diplomat said. Zakharova added that the Russian side will continue joint efforts with Azerbaijan and Armenia to unblock economic and transport ties in the region in line with the trilateral statements of November 2020 and January 2021. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev extended gratitude to the leadership of Tajikistan for the organization of the SCO Summit in Dushanbe, Kazinform reports. While addressing the session of the Council of Heads of State of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), President Tokayev said this year is quite pivotal for the SCO as the declaration on the establishment of the organization had been adopted 20 years ago. Founded at the dawn of the 21st century, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization demonstrated to the world the collective will of its member states to cooperate for the sake of security, development and prosperity of the nations in the Eurasian space. Thanks to joint efforts, the SCO has become the most successful and reputed regional alliance in the world, the Head of State added. According to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, India and Pakistans accession has without doubt strengthened the SCO adding a truly Trans-Eurasian touch to its activity. Many business owners have found major partners after joining international B2B marketplaces. Vihaba is a small and medium enterprise that exports and distributes agricultural products, handicrafts and garments. Since the enterprise began selling products on Alibaba, its revenue has increased by 55 percent over the last two years. Vietnams products are exported to many big markets, including the EU, US, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, thanks to the e-commerce platform. A representative of the company said the company makes the most of the e-commerce platform to effectively manage clients and improve the advertisement of products. DSW received orders soon after entering Alibaba. Its CEO Tran Thi Yen Phi said since the day of getting the first order worth $3,000, the companys export turnover reached $400,000 a month. Ten percent of that comes from the contracts it gets via Alibaba. DSW has expanded its business scale, exporting products to 10 markets, while its staff has increased from 10 to 40 workers. Roger Lou, Vietnam country director of Alibaba, said Covid-19 has changed everything, especially the business model. More and more B2B businesses are trying online business and choose digital transactions instead of traditional ones. Most B2B suppliers prefer online trading and up to 80 percent look to interact online or digitally. Digital trade has a lot of advantages over traditional trade, including easy scheduling, cost savings and safety. It is not a choice but a must for all business fields, not only farm produce trading. A report showed that over 25 percent of Alibabas suppliers are from Vietnam in the field of food and agriculture. F&B and agriculture alone receive over 2,500 inquiries from buyers on Alibaba.com each month. Because of the pandemic, traditional B2B buyers have changed. They tend to seek online supply sources instead of offline. Within one year, from September 2019 to September 2020, the number of buyers on Alibaba rose by 84 percent and the total transaction value by 110 percent. Tuan Luong, deputy director of the Kien Thuan General Service Cooperative, said that global cross-border trade via online platforms is the best solution to help SMEs (small and medium enterprises) overcome difficulties now and in the future. Alibaba earlier this year cooperated with Vietrade, the first step in the path of building alliances with local economic partners, to help promote growth for SMEs by accessing buyers around the globe. Roger Lou said that Vietnam have highly original products and Vietnamese are industrious, friendly and clever, which explains why they have been successful online. Duy Anh Where is Vietnam in the global digital race? Vietnam is one of the fastest growing internet-based economies in the region. E-commerce revenue has been growing at a rate similar to the growth rate of world e-commerce revenue and higher than the countrys GDP growth. Although car manufacturers have cut prices deeply to stimulate demand, the Vietnamese auto market witnessed a record decrease in monthly sales over the past five years when fewer than 9,000 cars were sold in August 2021. Vietnam's auto market has declined for 5 consecutive months. According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), a total of 8,884 vehicles were sold in August, a drop of up to 45% compared to July. This is the 5th consecutive month the auto market recording a decline in retail sales and is also the month with the lowest sales in the history of the Vietnamese auto market since 2015. Monthly sales began to decline from April, when the fourth wave broke out, with 3.7% compared to March, while the decrease of May was 15% compared to April, the decrease of June was 8% compared to May, and the decrease of July is 32% compared to June. Since the fourth outbreak, many factories of VAMA members have had to suspend production sometimes. Some businesses are able to resume operations, and some still maintaining production activities face large inventories of vehicles as many car dealers have closed their stores. According to VAMA, more than 200 auto agencies of its members are still closed and over 200 auto service shops cannot operate. Supply chains and distribution activities have been disrupted and many companies have reported sales declines of over 60%. In the past eight months, car manufacturers under VAMA sold a total of 174,400 vehicles, equivalent to sales in 2020 and 13% down compared to 2019, the time before the Covid-19 pandemic. Many businesses and localities have asked the Government to reduce car registration fees by 50% to stimulate consumption. In May, VAMA suggested reducing registration fees by 50% for newly registered cars to remove difficulties for auto manufacturers. Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has asked the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with relevant ministries, agencies, associations to study the recommendations of businesses to propose timely solutions to remove difficulties for the domestic automobile manufacturing and assembling industry in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic. In the recently issued Resolution 105, the Government also requested that the Ministry of Finance study and evaluate the impact of the pandemic to consider reducing the registration fee for domestically manufactured and assembled cars. Phuc Vinh If a proposed airfare scheme is applied, the fees will make it impossible for low-income earners to travel by air. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) scheme says the minimum airfare would be equal to 20 percent of the maximum fare. The proposal has stirred up the public. Experts warn that the scheme, if applied, will not only eliminate zero-dong and cheap air tickets, but also make domestic flight tickets two or three times more expensive. The cheapest return ticket for the Hanoi-HCM City air route, for example, would be VND2.7-3 million, including taxes and fees, much higher than the current VND1 million. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), the average income per capita in 2020 was VND4.2 million a month, while the family average spending level was VND2.89 million per head per month. The figures are predicted to be lower in 2021 because of the Covid-19 crisis. Luong Hoai Nam, a tourism and aviation expert, said the most affected people are low income earners and tens of millions of Vietnamese able to travel by air thanks to cheap tickets offered by both budget and traditional airlines. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the market share held by budget airlines exceeded 65 percent, which meant that 43 million passengers could fly with cheap tickets in 2019. Nam said if state management agencies, using a tool called floor airfare, eliminates the opportunity of getting cheap tickets, the benefits of these people will be affected. They wont have opportunities to travel by air, but have to use other means of transport that are cheaper and less safe. Ngo Duy Hieu, deputy chair of the Vietnam Labor Federation, said the Covid-19 pandemic has caused 1.3 million workers to lose jobs or take unpaid leave. More than 1,000 businesses with 84,000 workers have to maintain production while staying under quarantine or isolation. In HCM City, hundreds of thousands of workers dont have jobs, and others are working at a moderate level. Because of social distancing and closure of factories, many workers have left cities for their hometowns. In the future, when the pandemic is controlled, thousands of workers from northern and central provinces will return to HCM City to work and wont have the opportunity to travel by air and will have to take long bus or train trips. As a result, enterprises will be slow in resuming production activities because of the lack of workers. This will affect the pace of economic recovery. CAAV, when proposing the floor airfare scheme, said it is a necessary to support air carriers in distress because of the pandemic. This will help ease the risk of Vietnam Airlines going bankrupt and minimize the losses to the State, the shareholder holding more than 86 percent of charter capital. Meanwhile, a senior executive at an aviation enterprise noted that Vietnam Airlines has already received significant support from the State and if it still wants this floor airfare scheme, it shows a lack of responsibility before society. Nguyen Thien Tong, an aviation expert, said that in the current difficult period, Vietnam Airlines should commit to keep airfares unchanged or reduce the airfares to stimulate travel demand, boost trade exchange, and help recover the economy. But it is doing the opposite by proposing increases in airfare. The proposed airfare scheme is among the highest levels in the world (equal to 44 percent of the ceiling price, for three years). Why doesnt Vietnam Airlines to try to reform and optimize operation costs to restructure their resources? Tong said. Nam said he wonders why Vietnam Airlines wants to set up floor airfare scheme, while it is holding the controlling stake of a budget airline Pacific Airlines. When the floor airfare scheme is put into use, budget airlines will not be able to operate effectively. Other airlines have opposed the idea. Nam said that they need the freedom to determine or reduce their airfares to stimulate demand and develop their target markets. In the current conditions, if airlines dont offer cheap tickets, the workforce and airplanes will stay redundant. Experts said the difficulty facing airlines is the lack of markets, and this will be even worse if the floor airfare scheme is applied. Furthermore, the tourism industry will also be seriously affected by the scheme, since 70 percent of travelers go by air and air tickets account for 40-50 percent of tour fees. Ngoc Ha Aviation authority proposes removal ceiling rates of airfares The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has proposed removal of the cap for airfares on domestic flight routes operated by at least three... HCM City authorities are planning to grant green cards associated with personal QR Codes in certain districts; amend regulations on goods delivery and receipt; and allow more business fields to operate, commencing from September 16. The press conference HCM City Vice Mayor Le Hoa Binh announced the Peoples Committee decidion on measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic at a press conference on September 15. Green cards HCM City has decided to extend social distancing until September 30 to thoroughly implement all epidemic prevention and control measures. The granting of travel permits to certain people allowed to travel will continue. The travel permits will be granted by the city police and are valid until September 30. The city pledges to provide food and essential goods to people under plans announced weeks before. In areas which have basically controlled the outbreak, including districts 7, Cu Chi and Can Gio; and export processing zones and industrial zones in districts, and hi-tech zones, some activities will be allowed as follows: People can go to markets once a week under plans approved by the Peoples Committee. Some production and business fields will be allowed to operate in accordance with plans set by the Peoples Committee and local authorities. They must observe the criteria on safety issued by the Peoples Committee. The management boards of industrial zones (IZ), export processing zones (EPZ) and hi-tech zones need to help enterprises organize production plans. HCM City will apply a green card on a trial basis. The pilot implementation will will include the 5K principle and periodic testing. However, according to Lam Dinh Thang, Director of the Information and Communications Department, not all people will be granted green cards. The cards will be granted to certain groups to be determined by local authorities in cooperation with involved parties. For example, in district 7, green cards are expected to be granted to 150 enterprises and business households that the districts authorities will allow to operate. Other localities will also grant green cards to the business fields allowed to reopen and resume operation. Food must not be served on site HCM City authorities are planning to grant green cards associated with personal QR Codes in certain districts; amend regulations on goods delivery and receipt; and allow more business fields to operate. The HCM City Peoples Committee said that shippers (belonging to freight and forwarding companies using technology) are now allowed to travel among districts and in Thu Duc City from 6am to 9pm every day. The shippers must follow regulations on pandemic prevention and control. They have to take a Covid test once every two days. The city will pay for the testing until September 30. HCM City will allow enterprises and business households in some fields to operate from 6am to 9pm every day, including postal service, telecom, office informatics equipment, and teaching and learning aids. Food services must not be provided on site. Food shops can only provide take-away products. Eateries have to operate under the three on-site mode and only receive orders online. HCM City allows the operation of services that support agricultural production and veterinary facilities; maintenance and repair of construction works, equipment, transport means, and supply components; and production, processing and trade of food and foodstuff. Conditions for enterprises, business households Delivery services for enterprises and business households are allowed to operate within only one district or within Thu Duc City. They must strictly apply measures to prevent and control the pandemic, and test their staff once every two days. The workers on site must have at least one vaccination shot and must take a Covid test once every five days. The testing fees will be paid by the enterprises and business households. The enterprises and business households in these fields must register with the local authorities in districts, Thu Duc City, communes and wards to obtain travel permits. Construction and transport works are now allowed on the basis of compliance with safety criteria. VND7.5 trillion relief package At a press conference on September 13, HCM City Mayor Phan Van Mai said that the city will extend the lockdown and will take care of peoples welfare so they can feel secure to "stay where they are" and have no worries about food. Mai said that the city would launch the third support package to support people affected by the pandemic. On September 15, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs submitted to the Peoples Committee the plan on the third support package, expected to be implemented after September 15. The department estimates that there are about 2 million households with 7.1 million people who are living in difficult conditions. There are also 450,000 residents who have lost jobs and have no income. The beneficiaries of the third support package include: members of poor households, near-poor households; people with very difficult circumstances due to job loss, and no income (both permanent and temporary residents); and dependents in households with very difficult circumstances (parents and children) living and present in the city. It is expected that 7.5 million people need support, with a budget of about VND7.546 trillion. Everyone will get VND1 million each which will be paid in cash or transferred via bank accounts. Ho Van Hope rests on economic recovery plan Hopes for the ease of social distancing measures and recovery of the economy are rising along with the decrease in the nber of new cases. The demand for assistance from people who have recovered from Covid-19 patients and finished their quarantine time has increased in HCM City. The demand for asssistants has increased in HCM City Receiving treatment at a field hospital in HCM City, N.N.N, 23, from Tan Phu District, was worried about her grandmother, who has Covid. All of her family members with Covid are being treated in different hospitals. Her grandmother has more severe symptoms. Via a social network, N managed to contact a Covid patient who has fully recovered and completed the 14-day home quarantine. The woman was take care of Covid-19 to earn money while being unemployed. According to N, there are many recovered Covid patients looking for jobs to take care of Covid-19 patients. Many families want to hire them to take care of their sick relatives. N.T.N in an advertisement said: I need a woman who is recovered and now immune to coronavirus, to take care of a Covid-19 patient at a hospital in Thu Dau Mot in Binh Duong province. Pay given daily, negotiable. P.H.Q posted an ad on seeking recovered Covid patients to take care of patients. All her family members are Covid patients with varying symptoms staying at different hospitals. My grandmother is seriously ill. She is in a hospital in district 1 with no relatives next to her. I need a recovered Covid patient to help me take care of her, H.Q wrote. Another person wrote: My grandmother has a very high chance of being saved if she can have nutritious meals. Please inbox me if you can help take care of her. I would be very grateful if you can help. I am Q. My phone is 089. The service fees vary. If patients are older, have to use ventilators and cannot move, the service fees are higher than for those who can feed themselves, N explained. A recovered Covid patient told VietNamNet that the fee is between VND800,000 and VND1 million a day. Nguyen Thanh Tam from the Field Hospital No 1 said the HCM City Healthcare Department only allows to recruit volunteers to work at hospitals, not assisstants to take care for only several patients. The municipal authorities some days ago signed a plan on the use of recovered Covid-19 patients in the fight against pandemic in the city. The recruitment time is between September 10 and December 31. Nguyen Son Steel mills used as oxygen supply stations for Covid-19 patients Some steel mills have converted a part of their production lines into oxygen ATMs As tensions between Japan and China over disputed islands continue to rise, the country is conducting its first major military drills in more than 30 years. Tokyo has ordered the protection of military installations in the wake of growing tensions over the uninhabited Senkaku islands. The defense drills are heightened by already high tensions between the two countries, which are locked in a dispute over a series of key islands that threatens to deteriorate into outright warfare. This year, Beijing's ships and planes have undertaken a slew of intrusions near the uninhabited Senkaku islands, also known as Diaoyu in China. In an unexpected response to rising antagonism, Tokyo has announced military bases to defend the islands. According to the Defense Department, the United States has purchased new F-35 fighters, converted ships into aircraft carriers, and created additional destroyers and submarines. Furthermore, statewide drills involving 100,000 troops from all elements of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Power began this week in a massive show of force on a national scale. The drills, which comprise 20,000 vehicles, 120 aircraft, and a US troop landing ship, are the first of their sort since 1993 and the world's largest. According to some Japanese media sites, the maneuvers directly respond to "China's escalating regional assertiveness." Chinese authorities are claimed to be closely following the drills and have warned that it will have "devastating ramifications" for Japan if a confrontation occurs. According to "military specialists," the drills" could indicate that Japan is "getting ready for war," according to the state-controlled Global Times. It also claimed that Japanese politicians had "lied" to the people, leading to "unreasonable hate and bias" against Chinese leaders. According to Chinese commentators, Japan could not fight back and, in any case, could not act without the agreement of the US administration. It comes when Asian nations are increasingly competing for weaponry, with China and North Korea developing hypersonic missiles and high-tech submarines, among other technologies. Kim Jong-un recently tested a new cruise missile and a train-launched ballistic missile, both of which are capable of hitting Japan. Fumio Kishida, a former Japanese defense minister and presidential contender has claimed that his country should acquire preemptive military equipment such as fighter aircraft and missiles to strike enemy armament on the ground before it can be launched into the air. Tensions over the Senkaku Islands have been building for decades. They are strategically placed near vital shipping routes, have substantial fish stocks, and have oil and gas reserves potential. According to historical sources, China has claimed them since the 14th century, and Japan controlled them from 1895 until World War II. They were handled by the United States after Japan's surrender until 1972 when they were returned to their country of origin. Tensions erupted once more in 2012, resulting in major riots across China. Tensions in the East China Sea have risen again in recent months due to Beijing's increasing military expansionism. According to the Japanese government, the Chinese Coast Guard entered Japanese territorial waters 88 times between January 1 and August. Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi stated this week in an interview with CNN that his country was willing to safeguard its sovereignty and draw a red line around the islands. "We must demonstrate that the Japanese government is aggressively defending our territory by fielding a greater number of Japanese coast guard vessels than China," he said, referring to Chinese measures in response to the disputed territory on the Senkaku Islands and other locations of the East China Sea. According to the Japanese government, "there is no territorial dispute between Japan and other countries over the Senkaku Islands." A new "Great Wall" of fortifications has been built in the South China Sea. Japan is apprehensive that China would try to emulate its illegal seizure of Philippine archipelagos in the region. Beijing insists that there is no dispute over who owns the Senkaku islands. The Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed earlier this year that "Diaoyu Island and its connected islands are intrinsic components of China's territory" and that "it is our natural right to conduct patrols and law enforcement activities in these waters." In a verbal spat with Australia, China has also been mired and has threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in retribution over a submarine-building agreement with the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Taiwan is preparing for an invasion by conducting its defensive training this week. Japan asserts Senkaku Islands claim in dispute with China, Taiwan A major Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory group will meet on Friday to discuss and vote on Pfizer and BioNTech's proposal to provide booster injections to the general population, submitted earlier this year. Independent vaccine advisers from the Food and Drug Administration will meet on Friday to discuss the case for booster injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and vote on whether the agency should approve additional doses for anyone aged 16 and above. The conference and decision, which may have significant consequences for government booster policy, are taking place in the middle of a heated debate inside the Biden administration about whether booster injections are still required today and for whom they should be administered. Suppose the argument reflects the anger that exists inside the government. In that case, the expert panel may become divided, which would impact the Food and Drug Administration's decision-making process. However, while the Food and Drug Administration is not obligated to follow the committee's recommendations, it does so in many cases. Previous meetings conducted throughout the pandemic to review vaccine authorizations were mostly cordial, with unambiguous votes favoring the Food and Drug Administration's stated position on vaccine authorizations. Several federal health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Vice President Joe Biden's senior medical advisor, have been warning for weeks that immunity to infection is eroding in properly vaccinated individuals and that there is evidence of reduced protection against more severe types of Covid-19. A policy statement signed by eight of those officials in August stated that adult boosters could be delivered as early as the week beginning Sept. 20; however, some medical professionals believed this was premature given the fact that boosters were required but had not yet been delivered to adult patients. Although the White House has already been compelled to postpone the administration of booster injections to recipients of the Moderna vaccine, it is only currently preparing third doses for individuals who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, assuming that the Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccine. The use of boosters has been greeted with significant resistance from some federal career scientists and many immunization experts outside of the government, who are opposed to the practice. A pair of top Food and Drug Administration experts wrote in The Lancet this week that, based on their assessment of data from hundreds of studies, there is no evidence that further injections for the general population are necessary at this time. At the meeting on Friday, Marion Gruber, the head of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccination office, shared her thoughts. As a consequence of Covid-19, experts believe that immunization continues to offer substantial protection against severe illness and hospitalization in the vast majority of people who have participated in all of the studies that have been reported so far. As a consequence of the vaccines, people of all ages, particularly those exposed to the more contagious Delta form, seem to be less protected against infection. The Global Health Organization has recommended that world leaders refrain from providing booster vaccinations until the end of the year to accomplish the goal of immunizing 40 percent of the world's population as a starting point for the vaccination campaign. Some high-income countries, like the United Kingdom and the United States, have already begun to give boosters to their people, and others may follow their lead in the near future. There are impartial scientific specialists, infectious disease physicians, and statisticians that make up the committee. They had previously taken part in discussions regarding coronavirus vaccines, which several of them had attended. Independent scientific experts, infectious disease physicians, and statisticians serve on the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which advices on vaccines and related biological products. CDC's vaccination advisory committee is scheduled to meet next week and suggest using the extra doses, assuming the Food and Drug Administration authorizes them. Meanwhile, as administration officials dispute the need for the injections, many Americans are taking things into their own hands and looking for booster doses before the government formally authorizes the shots. WATCH LIVE: EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVES How culture drives innovation Top executives share their views on tech disruptors and how people really drive the change Innovation is one of the biggest buzzwords in todays public sector marketplace as government customers are looking for new solutions that promise efficiency and better mission outcomes, while contractors tout their ability to deliver those solutions. Technologies that fuel the innovation are constantly evolving and creating a challenge for government contractors as they develop new solutions and try to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In reviewing corporate marketing materials, it seems many companies tout similar skills and offerings. That compounds the differentiation challenge. One key question is what does innovation look like and how does a government contractor ensure that they deliver real results as well as separate themselves from their competitors. Much of the answer lies not in technology, but in culture and people. To explore this issue deeper, Washington Technology convened a roundtable of top executives in the market to share their insights on innovation and culture. Also on the discussion agenda was what they expect from themselves and what they look for from their customers. Our discussion was on the record, but we operated under Chatham House rules in that comments by executives will not be attributed to them or their companies. See the sidebar to view those who attended. To look at the current and near-term innovations that are disrupting the market, we started by looking back at the evolution of cloud computing and how that has changed the market over the last decade. Fundamentally it has transformed the enterprise, one executive said. It has transformed how we develop software and how we deploy software. Broad shifts away from data centers and into public and private clouds have been the innovation driver of the last decade as it has changed roles and responsibilities of IT personnel, plus forced government customers to change how they buy and procure technology. The government had to go through a big learning curve on how to even buy it, said another executive. Some basic assumptions around how long it takes to do things and how to account for success from your suppliers really changed in that cloud paradigm. Cloud's continuing rise offers lessons and warnings for newer technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Several executives described cloud as "still in the early innings," which means it isnt done as a disruptor. But the cloud is certainly enabling and driving the adoption of commercial technologies and open architectures. There is a general trend toward commercial technologies that are widely used, are open and can be leveraged across many programs, an executive said. One lesson learned from cloud adoptions is that customers and contractors alike had to weather the hype cycle. For example, an early sales pitch for the cloud was the money it would save but the cost savings never came. The cost savings was pitched as so high, but we couldnt hit them unless we were at scale and you cant just jump to scale, one person said. Agencies pushed back when those cost savings didnt emerge. The industry shifted its focus to outcomes and the impact on the mission as well as cybersecurity. Cloud's use grew, albeit over years, once people changed how they talked about it and their expectations. Thats a lesson these executives carry with them as they advance new innovations. We should remember that its going to be hard for us and for our customers and it takes sustained effort, an executive said. At the heart of enabling and adopting new innovations are culture and people. One positive trend in the market is that as the government moves to the leading edge of technology adoption, younger workers are drawn in by the opportunity to work with these technologies and serve the critical missions of many government agencies. The challenge with people remains getting them to change, particularly when in looking at government customers that want to hang onto to their turf. The most important part is to focus on the mission outcome you are trying to achieve, an executive said. Internally, companies need to work on developing an innovation culture. You have to foster a culture where the best idea wins, one executive said. To get there takes time, patience and effort. Its got to be a culture. It cant be an individual trying to be a hero and change things, this executive said. Its got to be a groundswell coming from the bottom up, coming from the top down and its got to be pervasive. Participants Jason Cunningham Chief Technology Officer, Healthcare Management Solutions David Dacquino CEO, Serco Inc. Paul Dillahay CEO, NCI Information Ssytems Sharon Hays Chief Technology Officer, LMI Srini Iyer Chief Technology Officer, ManTech International JLee Kair Principal, The Chertoff Group Glenn Kurowski Chief Technology Officer, CACI International Ricardo Lorenzo Chief Technology Officer, Parsons Petros Mouchtaris President, Peraton Labs Charles Onstott Chief Technology Officer, Calibre Kim Pack CEO, Wolf Den Associates Kent Wilcher Chief Growth Officer, Linquest Corp. John Griffin Vice President, federal channel and FSI sales, Dell Technoloogies Mark D'Alessandro Senior Director of data center sales, Dell Technologies Note: Washington Technology Editor-in-Chief Nick Wakeman led the roundtable discussion. The March 17, 2021 virtual gathering was underwritten by Dell Technologies, but both the substance of the discussion and the published article are strictly editorial products. Neither Dell nor any of the participants had input beyond their March 17 comments. This part of the discussion sparked talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion for some of the executives. At the end of the day, I need the best talent and I cant achieve that if my company is perceived as one that favors people of a particular race or gender, one said. Once that talent is in house, they have to be on an equal footing to share ideas and their experiences that contribute to a solution. If Im not fostering a culture of inclusion, then Im not going to get the best idea, said an executive. Diversity and inclusion also is more important with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning that can create ethical issues, another executive said. It is really critical to bring a lot of diversity into your design meetings and discussions because issues can get through that might be detected by people looking at it from different walks of life and perspectives, that executive said. A second people and culture issue that is critical to innovation is an atmosphere where it is OK to fail. That brings into view the concept of failing fast. The ability to fail fast is absolutely important and it is a concept that we need to inculcate with our all our talent, an executive said. We have to accept failure and not just say, that was bad; we shouldnt do that again, another said. But we have to learn from the experience and create a culture where people are allowed to experiment and learn. Related to this is creating a culture where people can disagree, and as leaders it is important to listen. One executive shared that when there is a meeting in the conference room, everyone should sit at the table. People early in their careers will often sit along the wall. I asked them to come to the table, that executive said. A second technique is to make sure everyone speaks. If we invited you to the meeting, we want to hear from you, the executive said. The executives offered these other pointers on building an innovation culture: Hire people who are curious by nature and help them find their voice. Use internship programs to infuse talent and new ways of thinking. Convert interns to full-time employees. Connect early career folks and experienced employees with reverse mentorships where the younger person introduces the older one to new technologies and concepts. Building a culture takes leadership but one executive laughed about CEOs who come in and say they are going to change the culture. CEOs alone dont change cultures. You change the behaviors around how receptive you are to ideas, an executive said. It's the culmination of those behaviors that change the culture. VTG nets Navy hypersonics win VTG has won an $11 million contract with the Navy Strategic Systems Programs organization for engineering services to support that branch's hypersonic strike capability. While not a huge contract award dollar-wise, the win comes in a strategic growth area for VTG. Hypersonic weapons deliver their payloads at several times faster than the speed of sound. They are consider the next front weapons development, both for the U.S. and its near-peer adversaries. Hypersonics are one of four growth pillars VTG has been building around. The other three are C5ISR, IT modernization, and unmanned and undersea warfare. VTG will support the Conventional Prompt Strike Program Office with research-and-development expertise, systems engineering, test planning and test engineering, logistics, and other programmatic and technical services. We recognize the importance of hypersonic technologies as a deterrent to near-peer competitors, and we are proud to be a key member of the growing hypersonic industrial base, said VTG CEO John Hassoun. The Conventional Prompt Strike Program Office is tasked with developing a hypersonic conventional weapon that can strike a variety of targets from long range. The missile, which is comprised of a hypersonic glide body and a two-stage booster, will fly at speeds exceeding Mach 5 and be launched from both surface ships and submarines, VTG said. The goal is to begin deploying the missile on Virginia-class attack submarines by fiscal 2028. The contract is one of a series of Navy wins for VTG that support distributed maritime operations. Other awards include a contract to integrate a laser device on destroyers, and another contract to support digital transformation efforts. I see it myself as you are on the internet. Google is being a real ass-wipe about what they send people in Russia on search results. The advertisements on companies like Mail.RU and many more are and is appalling As you know, the patience of the Russian side, which has so far refrained from erecting barriers to American business in Russia, is not unlimited, Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said during her briefing. Source: Russia Threatens to Take Measures Against US Over Interference in Elections, Foreign Ministry Says 16.09.2021, Sputnik International But This is the normality of what the USA does constantly against countries like Russia, who allow freedom of advertising and media. The LGBT propaganda is horrendous at times on some sites. These same sites are into election propaganda full force also I do believe that if the US had a border with Russia they would do like South Korea and toss propaganda flyers over that border Sick countries like the USA need to fix themselves first! WtR The balloting process will span across three days September 17, 18, and 19 Source: Polling stations open in Moscow time zone Russian Politics & Diplomacy TASS Russian officials are waiting for an answer after presenting the American ambassador with a dossier on purported examples of US attempts to interfere in the countrys upcoming elections, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the top diplomat claimed that the evidence was compelling, and had been presented to Ambassador John Sullivan, who was summoned for a meeting on Friday. The evidence was given to him, Lavrov said. It is quite serious, really. We are still waiting for an answer from our American colleagues why this is happening. Source: Russia demands answers from US ambassador over election interference, as Moscow says it has proof of serious sabotage efforts RT Russia & Former Soviet Union Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio said Thursday that he would not seek a third term in Congress next year. He was one of ten House Republicans to vote to impeach President Trump after the January 6 riot at the Capitol. See my full statement below regarding my decision not to seek re-election. pic.twitter.com/vsggxjD1FI Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (@RepAGonzalez) September 17, 2021 Had he remained in the race, Gonzalez was facing a 2022 primary challenge from a Trump-endorsed opponent, Max Miller. While acknowledging that challenge, he emphasized family and quality-of-life considerations as the main reasons for his departure. Gonzalez represents Ohio's 16th congressional district, a strongly Republican area largely south and west of Cleveland and Akron. Gonzalez was reelected by 26% last November, running ahead of Trump's 14% margin in the district. Ohio lost a House seat with the 2020 Census apportionment earlier this year. Upcoming redistricting will determine the new boundaries of the district that will be contested in the 2022 midterms. Gonzalez is the 2nd member of Ohio's delegation to retire. Democrat Tim Ryan (OH-13) is running for U.S. Senate. Overall, 17 current House members - 9 Republicans, 8 Democrats - have announced they are retiring or running for another office in 2022. In celebration of its 40th year, Metallica held a surprise show at San Francisco's Independent this week with tickets for just $19.81. Plus, Dogpatch will soon house SF's Institute of Contemporary Art and more local stories to keep you happily in the know. San Francisco, Oakland chefs honored in Food & Wine's Best New Chefs list, SFGate Horn Barbecue pit master Matt Horn and State Bird Provisions chef de cuisine Gaby Maeda earned spots on the list for their culinary talents and commitment to creating change. Read more. San Francisco Gets Its Own Institute of Contemporary Art, The New York Times When the permanent collection opens on Minnesota Street, visitors will have the chance to peruse a variety of works by established and local artists for free. Read more. Surprise Metallica show at small San Francisco club sells out in minutes, Datebook SF While tix to Metallica's 40th anniversary shows at Chase Center this December are still going for hundreds and thousands of dollars, a surprise show at the Independent with $19.81 tickets sold out in no time. Read more. Over 3,000 acres of East Bay open space to be preserved as state park in $31 million deal, The Mercury News Once Gov. Newsom signs the agreement this week, Alameda County's Tesla Park, home to endangered species, will be preserved. Read more. An American Tourist Broke French Twitter With a Ham and CheeseTopped Baked Potato, Eater SF Oakland resident Steve Olson's thread about "the greatest potato ever made by human hands" got quite a bit of attention in France. Read more. Bloomberg/Getty Images Looking online for love? Be careful. After meeting suitors on Match.com, a well-known dating site, victims across the U.S. have lost upward of hundreds of thousands of dollars to these criminals who pose as perfect partners. When online dating descends into a big fat con, the emotional and financial wallop can be devastating, and older Americans are among those who have paid the price. It happens, as a top federal prosecutor in Oklahoma put it, to people looking for love, companionship and a partner with whom to share their life. Consider the Utah woman, 81, who said she paid about $26 to subscribe to Match.com earlier this year only to meet a con man. Urging her off the dating site to message each other through Google Hangouts and WhatsApp, he pursued her relentlessly. The 21st century Svengali hid behind an attractive photo and said he was a 64-year-old native of Copenhagen, Denmark, educated in the U.S. and the owner of a construction firm and a four-bedroom home in Oklahoma. He called her sweetheart, babe, and the love of my life. Saying he was retiring in November, he promised theyd marry and began addressing her as my wife. Sweetness reeks of stench Ive never had a man talk to me the way he did, and tell me all this garbage. Thats all it was, garbage, the woman, who asked not to be identified by name, tells AARP. She never met the pseudo-suitor in person. The woman alerted the AARP Fraud Watch Network helpline, 877-908-3360, before speaking in an interview. She described being so under the mans spell that she painted her toenails in a color he liked before a planned get-together in Las Vegas, which never happened. When the man told her that he was helping build a skyscraper in Venezuela, he suddenly said he needed money for taxes and other issues, including a stolen wallet. In June, she made two wire transfers totaling $130,000 to an associate of his. That was 5,000 times more than the $26 she recalled paying Match.com. He was very cunning and very smart, she says, and when he figured out that I had enough confidence in him, he played me to the absolute end. These days, Tom Frouge knows how to pivot. As the mastermind behind the annual music event Globalquerque!, Frouge has rolled with it to get the festival ready. Its been different than any other year, he says with a chuckle. We went through lots of changes because of health regulations in the early part of planning for the event. Frouge will be able to breathe a sigh of relief as the festival takes place at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Friday, Sept. 17, and Saturday, Sept. 18. The festival will be smaller than in previous years due to the ongoing health orders. Despite that, Frouge is excited to have an in-person festival. We usually have three stages, but weve pared it down to two stages that will be next to each other on the Plaza Mayor, Frouge says. The audience will then be able to be in one space rather than roam around like in previous years. Another challenge for Frouge was getting musicians to perform. Globalquerque! is known for bringing the world to Albuquerque with the artists selected to perform. With travel restrictions still in place across the world, Frouge once again pivoted. He found world music artists living in the United States. Prev 1 of 7 Next This years lineup includes Moh Alileche (Algeria), Sage Bond (Dine/San Carlos Apache), Maria De Barros (Cabo Verde), Kaethe Hostetter (USA/Ethiopia), Gingee (Phillippines), Newpoli (Italy), Yacouba Sissoko (Mali), Fely Tchaco (Ivory Coast), Tuvergen Band (Mongolia) and The Globalquerque! Latin All-Stars. Globalquerque! is also offering three free on-demand outreach programs, which are available at globalquerque.org. Alhough the event is scaled back this year, Frouge has curated an event that still brings the world to Albuquerque. Were focusing on the celebration of culture, he says. We have gathered some of the most compelling global music acts that are based in the United States. Many countries are represented, and its going to be a celebration. During the event, there will also be food for purchase from Jambo Cafe, The Munchie Truck and Street Food Institute, and beverages from Santa Fe Brewing Co. and Vivac Winery. Frouge says the event will return to its regular madness in 2022. He says the event this year will require proof of vaccinination or a negative COVID test within the past 48 hours. Well also have rapid testing on site, he says. We want the event to be as safe for everyone as possible all while enjoying wonderful music. You would have to shuffle a lot of movie ideas to come up with one that pairs a card sharp with the horrors of Abu Ghraib. But writer-director Paul Schrader has for some time known his cards, playing variations of the same hand over and over again. The protagonist of his The Card Counter William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is the latest in a long line of Schraders tortured, self-hating, deeply habitual, solitary men going back to Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. This repeating figure of Schraders one also seen in his previous film, First Reformed, and in another he wrote for Martin Scorsese, Bringing Out the Dead has never seemed like a rerun. Its more like a spiritual condition that Schrader, raised a Calvinist, cant rid himself of. In making film after film suffused with remorse and isolation, Schraders project takes on autobiographical, ritualistic dimensions. I like the routine. I like the regime. So narrates Tell in the opening moments of The Card Counter, which arrives in theaters Friday. Hes in prison, quite contentedly. There he reads Aurelius, studies card playing and writes in a journal. He has grown accustomed to confinement. And once he is released, his life is hardly any less restricted. He travels to casinos, speaking little and using his analytic know-how to reliably win at blackjack but never too much to arise suspicion. In his motel rooms he covers everything in sheets the lamp, chairs, tables carefully tying them down with twine. Those knots feel like an echo of Schraders First Reformed, with Ethan Hawke as a tormented priest. That movie concluded, memorably, with Rev. Toller wrapping barbed wire around himself. In The Card Counter, nothing gruesome seems near the films lifeless interiors. But the films intense quietude and its central characters heavy gravity radiate something ominous. Such a regimented, restrained life is inevitably going to be released. The taut strings will break. Violence (surely) and redemption (maybe) will follow. Tell is a heightened kind of character a deadpan noir archetype who mostly expresses himself through the films narration. But for a movie with moody monologues, its oddly unstylized in its drab look. Sometimes, The Card Counter risks mistaking airlessness for minimalism. Tells rhythms are disrupted when he encounters a young man named Cirk (Tye Sheridan, a more natural presence), the son of a soldier who served years before with Tell. They meet at a presentation Tell wanders into by John Gordo (Willem Dafoe), a retired major now instructing police departments on interrogation techniques. Tell, we learn, served under Gordo at Abu Ghraib. Disorienting, horrifying flashbacks follow. And the cool veneer of The Card Counter snaps open with an unspeakable past. Cirk wants revenge and tries to draw Tell into his scheme. Tell can no longer deny to himself his hidden demons. Recalling his proficiency at carrying out Gordos directions he writes: I had it in me. I had the right stuff. Believing he can steer Cirk away from his bound-to-fail plot to torture and kill Gordo, Tell takes him under his wing, and signs up with a gambling backer, La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), to raise a nest egg for Cirk. She places him into poker tournaments, taking a cut of the winnings, where Tell faces off frequently with a U-S-A-chanting poker star and a walking metaphor for blind patriotism. There is a lot thats a little awkward about how all this works. The dialogue is sometimes clunky. Haddish, gamely trying her most dramatic role, doesnt quite fit in. But, then again, many of the parts of The Card Counter dont quite fit. Toggling between Texas Hold em and Iraq War nightmares makes for a head-spinning collision. But I think the incongruities of The Card Counter also give it its power. Schraders film is so self-evidently the impassioned work of a singularly feverish mind that its flaws add to its humanity. The atrocities and shame of Abu Ghraib should come back as a piercing interruption. In Isaacs masterful performance, the deep-seated guilt of the Schrader protagonist takes on national proportions. Some elements may be out of balance in The Card Counter, but its morality isnt. CATCHES OF THE WEEK At Alto Lake, Quinton Schmelzenbach of Ruidoso caught an 18-inch, 2-pound, 2.7-ounce rainbow trout using a nightcrawler worm Sept. 11. Evelyn Schmelzenbach, 4, of Ruidoso caught her first fish, a 6-inch largemouth bass, using a nightcrawler worm Sept. 11. Carrolena Serrano, 6, of Las Cruces caught her first white bass at Caballo Lake using a Kalins 3-inch chartreuse curly tail grub Sept. 11. Audrey Cordova of Albuquerque caught a 19-inch rainbow trout at Canjilon Lakes using garlic-scented PowerBait on Sept. 4. Richard Luna of Albuquerque caught a 7-pound catfish at Conchas Lake using a 3-inch yellow tube bait in 20 feet of water Sept. 4. At Eagle Nest Lake, Ember Geissler, 21 months, caught a 22.5-inch, 5-pound, 10-ounce, rainbow trout using a silver Super Duper tipped with rainbow PowerBait on Sept. 4. GianCarlo Herrera, 6, of Nambe caught a 21-inch kokanee salmon using a Christmas tree attractor with a Rapala lure Sept. 4. Antonio Trujillo of Albuquerque caught two largemouth bass at Elephant Butte Lake approximately 20 inches long and 6 pounds each using Whopper Plopper lures Sept. 5. Frank Coates of Albuquerque caught a 20-inch catfish at Escondida Lake using a hotdog Sept. 7. Wright Stanton III of El Paso caught a 21.5-inch, 3.44-pound rainbow trout at Fenton Lake using salmon peach PowerBait on Sept. 11. Brothers Jusiah Estrada and Kedan Coca, 12 and 7, both of Las Vegas caught and released a 23-inch rainbow trout on the Gallinas River using a dragon fly pattern dry fly Sept. 6. Chevy Wyatt, 13, of Roswell caught a 22-inch catfish at Lake Van using a worm Sept. 4. Alex Archuleta of Penasco caught a 20-inch rainbow trout at Morphy Lake using purple nymph PowerBait on Sept. 4. Monica Broderick of Durango, Colorado caught a 4-pound, 1-ounce smallmouth bass at Navajo Lake using a Senko worm Aug. 29. Wayne Garcia of Albuquerque caught and released a 39-inch, 32-pound flathead catfish on the Rio Grande using cut bait north of Elephant Butte Lake on Sept. 6. David J. Otero, 6, of Albuquerque caught three 20-inch rainbow trout at the Seven Springs Brood Pond using worms and green PowerBait on Sept. 4. At Tingley Beach, Alexandria Randall, 3, of Albuquerque caught a 20-inch catfish using a nightcrawler worm on a drop shot rig Sept. 6. Carson Rose, 6, of Albuquerque caught a 10-pound catfish using antelope liver Sept. 4. If you have a catch of the week story send it to funfishingnm@gmail.com. NOTES FROM GAME AND FISH Northeast fishing report Fishing for brook trout was good at Cabresto Lake using small dry flies. Fishing for trout at Charette Lakes was good using homemade dough bait and PowerBait. Streamflow on the Cimarron River near Cimarron on Monday morning was 29.3 cubic feet per second. Fishing for trout was fair to good using beadhead nymph flies, PowerBait and worms. Fishing for trout was fair at Clayton Lake using PowerBait. Fishing for catfish was fair using chicken liver. Conchas Lake State Park has closed access to all boat ramps due to dropping water levels. The boat ramps on the south side of the lake managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are open. Fishing for catfish was fair to good using yellow tube baits. At Costilla Creek, fishing for trout was good using caddis dry flies. The department has implemented the final phase of a project to expand Rio Grande cutthroat trout in 120 miles of the Costilla watershed in northern New Mexico. The final phase involved removal of fish within a designated area (Rio Costilla from Costilla Dam downstream to the Valle Vidal Boundary including all tributaries and Comanche Creek from the road culvert crossing on Forest Road 1950 downstream to its confluence with Rio Costilla and all tributaries) with a tentative restocking of Rio Grande cutthroat in spring 2022. Places to fish nearby include Costilla Creek below the fish barrier, Upper Comanche Creek, Shuree Ponds, Middle Ponil Creek, Upper Powderhouse Creek, Little Costilla Creek, Vidal Creek and McCrystal Creek. The department anticipates completion of this final phase in the fall of 2021. Please check the department website for additional information on the project and to identify alternative angling opportunities in the interim. Fishing for trout at Cowles Ponds was good using PowerBait. Coyote Creek had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Eagle Nest Lake was fair to good using streamer flies. Fishing for kokanee salmon was fair to good trolling Christmas tree attractors with Rapala lures. Fishing for pike was good using silver Mepps spinners. Fishing for trout at Eagle Rock Lake was good using rainbow and pink PowerBait. Fishing for trout on the Gallinas River was good using stimulator dry flies and dragon fly pattern dry flies. Fishing for trout at Hopewell Lake was fair to good using olive Pistol Pete spinner flies. Lake Alice had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Lake Maloya was fair using Pistol Pete spinner flies, PowerBait and various dry and nymph flies. Los Pinos River had no reports from anglers this week. Maxwell Lake 13 had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Monastery Lake was fair to good using Pistol Pete spinner flies. Fishing for trout at Morphy Lake was good using Pistol Pete spinner flies and purple nymph PowerBait. Streamflow on the Pecos River, near the town of Pecos, on Monday morning was 50.3 cfs. Fishing for trout was good using nightcrawler worms, PowerBait and elk hair caddis dry flies. Streamflow on the Red River below the hatchery Monday morning was 34.0 cfs. Fishing for trout was fair to good using dry fly with dropper nymph fly setups. Streamflow on the Rio Grande at the Taos Junction Bridge on Monday morning was 216 cfs. Fishing for trout was good using tungsten beadhead nymph flies sizes 14-18. Streamflow on the Rio Hondo on Monday morning near Valdez was 15.6 cfs. Fishing for trout was good using attractor dry flies during mid-day. Streamflow on the Rio Mora on Monday morning near Tererro was 16.3 cfs. Streamflow on the Rio Pueblo near Penasco on Monday morning was 7.72 cfs. Fishing for trout was fair to good using red Copper John nymph flies. Santa Cruz Reservoir had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Shuree Ponds was good using black dry flies. Springer Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Storrie Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Stubblefield Lake was fair using chicken liver. Fishing for white bass at Ute Lake was slow to fair using blade baits and slab spoons targeting suspended fish 30 feet deep. Fishing for walleye and crappie was slow. Fishing for bass was fair using Whopper Ploppers and drop-shotting or Ned-rigging Berkley MaxScent Hit Worms. Fishing for catfish was slow. The water surface temperature was in the upper 70s and the main lake color was clear. Northwest fishing report Fishing for catfish at Abiquiu Lake was fair to good using corn, cut bait and shrimp. Fishing for carp was fair using corn. Waterflow on the Animas River below Aztec on Monday morning was 36.3 cfs. Albuquerque Area Drains had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for tiger muskie at Bluewater Lake was good using swimbait lures and gold spoons. Fishing for catfish was good using stink bait. Fishing for trout on the Brazos River was fair to good using gold Panther Martin spinners. Fishing for trout at Canjilon Lakes was good using garlic-scented PowerBait and dry flies. Monday-morning flows on the Chama River below El Vado and Abiquiu were 102 cfs and 134 cfs, respectively. Fishing for trout below El Vado Lake was fair to good using worms. Please remember, from the river-crossing bridge on U.S. Highway 84 at Abiquiu upstream 7 miles to the base of Abiquiu Dam is special trout waters with a bag limit of two trout only. Fishing for catfish at Cochiti Lake was good using cut bait and chicken liver on the east side of the lake. Fishing for trout at El Vado Lake was fair to good using PowerBait at the North El Vado Day Use Area off State Road 95. Fishing for smallmouth bass, perch and trout was fair to good near the Dam Day Use Area. Fishing for trout at Fenton Lake was good using peach salmon PowerBait and nightcrawler worms. Please remember, only two cutthroat trout are allowed to be harvested per day within the regular five-fish limit. Willow, Sierra Vista and La Laja boat launches are closed at Heron Lake. The primitive boat launch is open. Shoreline fishing is available between Sierra Vista and the spillway or in Rincon. Fishing for trout was slow. The Quality Waters of the Rio Chama can be accessed at the Rio Chama Trailhead. The stairs are closed so use the road to the spillway. Non-quality waters can be accessed at the North El Vado Day Use Area located on State Road 95, 13 miles west of U.S. Highway 84. At the Jemez Waters, streamflow on the Jemez near the village of Jemez Springs on Monday morning was 3.78. Fishing for trout at Laguna del Campo was fair to good using pink PowerBait. Lagunitas Lakes had no reports from anglers this week. Lake Farmington had no reports from anglers this week. Due to extremely low water levels and unstable ground conditions, stocking efforts have been suspended at McGaffey Lake. Lake conditions will be monitored and stockings will resume once conditions improve. Fishing for bass at Navajo Lake was good using -ounce jigs and 5-inch green pumpkin Senkos. Fishing for pike was good using chigger craw trailer baits on the north end of the lake. Fishing for kokanee salmon was good using firetiger spinners, pink squid and orange spinners tipped with corn. Fishing for catfish on the Rio Grande was fair using worms and shrimp near Albuquerque. San Gregorio Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the San Juan River on Monday morning was 788 cfs. Fishing for trout in the quality waters was good using grey foam wing midge emerger pattern flies, black tungsten beadhead leech pattern flies and size 22-24 black midge pattern flies. Fishing for trout in the bait waters was good using worms, Rapala lures and PowerBait. Fishing for trout at Seven Springs Brood Pond was good using worms and green PowerBait. Fishing for catfish at Tingley Beach was fair to good using nightcrawler worms and antelope liver. Fishing for trout at Trout Lakes was slow. Southwest fishing report Fishing for catfish at Alumni Pond was good using cut carp bait and hotdogs. Fishing for bluegill was good using worms. The water level is extremely low at Bear Canyon Lake and will remain low through October for dam repairs. Fishing for all species at Bill Evans Lake was slow. Fishing for white bass at Caballo Lake was good using 3-inch chartreuse curly tail grubs, live minnows, crankbaits and spinners. Fishing for catfish was good using nightcrawler worms, chicken liver, shrimp and shad. Fishing for white bass at Elephant Butte Lake was good using topwater lures, Whopper Ploppers and long narrow silver spoons. Fishing for largemouth bass and smallmouth bass was fair to good using topwater lures, swimbaits and joined lures. Fishing for walleye was fair using 3-inch swimbaits. Fishing for crappie was fair to good using live minnows. Fishing for catfish was fair to good using dough bait, cut carp, beef liver and shad. Fishing for catfish at Escondida Lake was fair to good using hotdogs and nightcrawler worms. Streamflow on the Gila River on Monday morning was 61.2 cfs. Fishing for catfish was good using cut bait. Glenwood Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Lake Roberts had no reports from anglers this week. Percha Dam had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for trout at Quemado Lake was good using yellow PowerBait. Rancho Grande Ponds had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the Rio Grande below Elephant Butte on Monday morning was 0.0 cfs. Fishing for catfish north of Elephant Butte Lake was good using cut bait. Snow Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Trees Lake was fair to good using worms and cut bluegill bait. Young Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Southeast fishing report Fishing for trout at Alto Lake was good using nightcrawler worms. Fishing for bass was good using nightcrawler worms. Bataan Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Please visit the Open Gate webpage for more information on Berrendo Creek. Fishing for bass was fair to good using Texas-rigged white paddle tail swimbaits and white creature baits. Streamflow on the Black River at Malaga on Monday morning was 14.6 cfs. Blue Hole Park Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Bonito Lake is closed until further notice by the city of Alamogordo due to fire damage. It appears that the lake will be out of commission until 2022. Bosque Redondo Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Bottomless Lakes had no reports from anglers this week. Brantley Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Carlsbad Municipal Lake was fair to good using stink bait. Fishing for catfish at Chaparral Park Lake was fair to good using shrimp and hotdogs. Corona Pond had no reports from anglers this week. Eunice Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for largemouth bass at Green Meadow Lake was fair using dark Rooster Tail spinners. Fishing for catfish at Greene Acres Lake was good using red hotdogs and shrimp. Fishing for trout at Grindstone Reservoir was fair to good using nightcrawler worms and garlic PowerBait. Fishing for catfish was good using shrimp, nightcrawler worms and hotdogs. Jal Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Fishing for catfish at Lake Van was good using worms. Fishing for catfish at Oasis Park Lake was good using a combination of cut bait and worms. Streamflow on the Pecos River, below Sumner Lake, on Monday morning was 102 cfs. Fishing for white bass was good using live shiners south of Malaga. Fishing for catfish was good using cut carp bait south of Malaga. Perch Lake had no reports from anglers this week. Streamflow on the Ruidoso River on Monday morning at Hollywood was 17.4 cfs and had no reports from anglers this week. The boat ramp at Santa Rosa Lake has opened as water levels have increased due to recent rains. Due to low lake levels, Santa Rosa Lake State Park will operate as a no-wake lake until conditions improve. Fishing for catfish at Sumner Lake was good using chicken liver. HOUSTON Another Texas inmate has had his execution delayed over claims the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. Ruben Gutierrez was set to be executed on Oct. 27 for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman in 1998. But a judge on Wednesday granted a request by the Cameron County District Attorneys Office to vacate the execution date. Prosecutors said the U.S. Supreme Courts upcoming review of similar religious freedom issues made by another inmate, John Henry Ramirez, whose execution the high court delayed last week, will impact Gutierrezs case. As the Ramirez matter may be dispositive of any issue related to Gutierrezs religious liberty claim, it is in the best interest of the state, the family of the victim of Gutierrezs crimes, that his execution be delayed, prosecutors said in a motion filed Tuesday. Gutierrez was previously an hour away from execution in June 2020 when the Supreme Court granted him a stay because his spiritual adviser was not allowed to accompany him in the death chamber. Last month, Gutierrezs attorneys filed a complaint in federal court alleging the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was violating his right to practice his religion by denying his request to have his priest touch his shoulder, pray out loud and perform last rites when he was executed. Gutierrez, 44, said that these three things need to be done to ensure my path to the afterlife, according to his complaint. His attorneys cited the Constitutions First Amendment and a federal statute that protects an inmates religious rights. Ramirez made similar claims when he was granted a stay. The Supreme Court has dealt with the presence of spiritual advisers in the death chamber in recent years but has not made a definitive ruling on the issue. That could change after it hears oral arguments in Ramirezs case on Nov. 1. The court was criticized after it declined to halt the February 2019 execution of Alabama inmate Domineque Ray over his request to have his Islamic spiritual adviser in the death chamber, but then a month later granted a stay for Texas inmate Patrick Murphy, who wanted his Buddhist spiritual adviser in the chamber. Since then, the Supreme Court has delayed several executions over requests for spiritual advisers. After the court halted Murphys execution, the Texas prison system banned all clergy from the death chamber. Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics. In April, the Texas prison system reversed its two-year ban. The new policy allows an inmates approved spiritual adviser to be in the chamber, but the two cannot have any contact and vocal prayers are not allowed during the execution. Texas prison officials say direct contact poses a security risk and vocal prayer could be disruptive. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the Ramirez case is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to determine if inmates have the right to a spiritual adviser in a death chamber and if so, what is permitted in exercising that right. The fact this case can provide the court with an opportunity to lay out a blueprint for what is and what is not acceptable, thats not a guarantee that theyll do it, said Dunham, whose group takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. If the Supreme Court doesnt provide clear guidance, this issue will continually come up, Dunham said. Gutierrez has long maintained he didnt kill Escolastica Harrison during what prosecutors say was an attempt to steal more than $600,000 that the elderly woman had hidden in her home. His attorneys have requested DNA testing they say could point to the real killer. Prosecutors have said that request is a ruse and that Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70 Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal Many Albuquerque acequias have supported regional farming for more than 300 years. Local water and government groups will kick off the Atrisco Acequia Madre project Saturday with an event for the community to learn about urban irrigation canals and share ideas for improving the areas outdoor amenities. The initiative includes plans for an outdoor educational site near Central Avenue on the west side of the Rio Grande. Barbara Baca, an at-large board member for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, said the project is about creating a place to celebrate our acequia culture. It might be outdoor interpretive signs, definitely trail connections, Baca said. Theres ideas of adding connections to the Open Space, to neighborhoods, while respecting the natural landscape that is there. The event will be held at the headwaters of the Atrisco Acequia. The main canal and its offshoot deliver water to South Valley farms. The project area crosses riverside city and irrigation district property. Dealing with climate change, we have to get smarter and smarter about the way we use our water, Baca said. This is a great opportunity to educate the community about our water resources, along with kids and school groups, who are the next stewards of our land and water. Bernalillo County, the MRGCD, the city of Albuquerque and the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority have each committed $25,000 to the project planning. The state Legislature also appropriated $65,000 in capital outlay funds earlier this year for planning, design and construction. Residents can share ideas for the project at Saturdays event. A survey is also available on the project website, www.acequiamadreplan.org. The government groups, which are working with the South Valley Regional Association of Acequias, the Center for Social Sustainable Systems and the West Central Alliance of Neighbors, will finalize a conceptual site plan in February. Santa Fe County deputies shot and injured a person Thursday evening in Santa Fe. New Mexico State Police, on Twitter, said no deputies were injured in the incident. State Police said the shooting happened sometime before 6:15 p.m. at Avenida Del Sur and NM Highway 14. Suspect injured, deputies are okay and uninjured, the Twitter post read. More information when available. Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Albuquerque could share a congressional district with Rio Rancho or Santa Fe under proposals moving forward as New Mexico prepares to redraw its political boundaries. Parts of the far South Valley in Bernalillo County, by contrast, could move into a southern New Mexico-based district. The ideas are outlined in seven potential maps covering a host of competing concepts approved Thursday for further scrutiny and to solicit public comment. The newly created Citizens Redistricting Committee agreed to issue the maps but not limit itself to just the seven plans. Members of the public or the committee are still free to propose new maps or suggest changes. Edward Chavez, a retired Supreme Court justice leading the committee, said the initial maps are designed to incorporate ideas presented during public hearings so far all while balancing the population among New Mexicos three congressional districts. This is an important part of our democracy, Chavez said Thursday. We want the public to be active in the process. The committee is set to make its final redistricting recommendations Oct. 15, but its proposals arent binding. The state Legislature where Democrats hold hefty majorities is expected to meet in a December special session to adopt new maps. It can choose among proposals forward by the redistricting committee or craft entirely new plans. The maps under consideration now dont take into account which political party might benefit from the revised boundaries. The Citizens Redistricting Committee is barred by law from using partisan data. Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc., the company hired to help New Mexico draw new maps, said the concepts proposed Thursday are intended to keep communities of interest together, protect the voting rights of Native Americans and others, and maintain compact districts, among other criteria. But some priorities conflict with others, he said, triggering a variety of concepts for how to draw new boundaries reflecting 2020 census data. I think all these maps are worthy of consideration, Sanderoff said. In addition to congressional districts, the Citizen Redistricting Committee also agreed Thursday to authorize proposed maps for legislative seats and the Public Education Commission. The 1st Congressional District is now rooted in Albuquerque but stretches north to pick up the towns of Bernalillo and Placitas and east to capture Moriarty and Torrance County. But the district cant stay unchanged. Its about 11,000 people under the ideal population of 705,841 residents per district, according to Research & Polling. The maps authorized for consideration Thursday propose a host of broad concepts for balancing the population among the congressional districts: The Albuquerque-based 1st Congressional District now represented by Democrat Melanie Stansbury could remain largely intact, with less-obvious adjustments that move the Paradise Hills and Ventana Ranch neighborhoods into the district. They are now in the northern congressional district. Another concept would create an Albuquerque-Santa Fe district, allowing the southern-based 2nd Congressional District now represented by Republican Yvette Herrell of Alamogordo to include all of the states conservative-leaning east side. Yet another proposal would establish an urban Albuquerque-Rio Rancho district, pushing the unincorporated South Valley into the 2nd Congressional District. There are also variations that would keep the South Valley with Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. All of the plans generally preserve the core of the northern New Mexico-based 3rd Congressional District, now represented by Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez of Santa Fe. In some proposals, however, the 3rd district would also include some Native American communities west of Albuquerque, along with the East Mountains. Members of the Citizens Redistricting Committee authorized the seven plans for public circulation to generate public comment, but they made clear they are still keeping an open mind. I think we should move forward with as many concepts as possible, said Robert Rhatigan, the state demographer and a member of the committee. However the districts are redrawn will have enormous political consequences. Herrell is the only GOP member of New Mexicos congressional delegation. Her district now covers the southern half of the state, including the conservative oil patch in southeastern New Mexico. She won the seat last year, defeating incumbent Democrat Xochitl Torres Small. Republicans have held the seat for all but four years since 1981. But Democrats are set to control New Mexicos redistricting for the first time in decades. They hold legislative majorities, and in contrast to 10 years ago the Governors Office. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a former congresswoman, is up for reelection in 2022. New Mexicos redistricting will be watched nationally. Democrats now hold a 220-212 edge in the U.S. House over Republicans. But 2022 could be a tough year for Democrats. The party that doesnt hold the White House usually makes gains in the midterm elections. The Citizens Redistricting Committee, however, is prohibited from relying on political data. No partisan data was used in the creation of any of these plans, Sanderoff told the committee. We didnt look at that in any way, shape or form. Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE A federal judge has rejected a court challenge aimed at halting New Mexico COVID-19 vaccine requirements imposed last month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams administration. In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez cited other court rulings that upheld the legality of vaccine mandates including a 1905 case dealing with the smallpox vaccine and said the New Mexico requirements do not violate constitutional rights. In short, by failing to accommodate plaintiffs (or their doctors) views on the COVID-19 vaccines, the public health order does not lack a rational relationship to a legitimate government purpose, Vazquez wrote in her ruling that denied a request for the vaccine mandate to be lifted. However, the attorney for the two women who filed the court petition said Thursday he had already appealed the judges ruling to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Albuquerque attorney Blair Dunn also said the case, or a similar case filed in another state, could ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. Thats the path this case is on, Dunn told the Journal. New Mexicos vaccine-related public health order was issued Aug. 17 and revised this week. It requires a COVID-19 vaccination for people working in such high-risk settings as hospitals, nursing homes, hospice facilities and prisons. The mandate applies to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others, but allows for exemptions on medical and religious grounds. Employees who refuse to be vaccinated face the possibility of losing their jobs. One of the two plaintiffs in the New Mexico lawsuit is Jennifer Blackford, a Bernalillo County resident who works as a nurse at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque. Presbyterian Healthcare Services, which runs the hospital and eight others around the state, announced shortly after the states vaccine mandate was unveiled that it would require COVID-19 vaccinations for its entire workforce totaling more than 13,000 people with a first dose required by Aug. 27. Blackford is currently on leave without pay due to her refusal to comply with the mandates, Dunn said. The other plaintiff is Talisha Valdez, a Union County resident who is the mother of two children who entered to show their animals at the New Mexico State Fair. While the public health order issued by the Lujan Grisham administration requires that anyone who is eligible must provide proof of vaccination before entering the fairgrounds, this years junior livestock shows and sales were ultimately canceled. Statewide, 79.1% of New Mexicans age 18 and older nearly 1.3 million people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, while 69.3% of adults had gotten all shots necessary to be fully vaccinated, according to state Department of Health data. The states vaccine requirements have prompted protests in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell, but have also drawn support from several health care organizations. Since New Mexico imposed its vaccine mandates, President Joe Biden has also announced a similar requirement for federal workers, health care providers that get federal funding and workers at businesses with more than 100 employees. Meanwhile, the judges order denying the attempt to make New Mexicos vaccine mandate unenforceable marks the latest legal victory for Lujan Grisham. Other pandemic-related lawsuits filed against the Democratic governor targeted a temporary ban on indoor restaurant dining, the states refusal to greatly reduce prison populations, and business losses caused by mandatory closures and capacity restrictions. Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The upcoming Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education election has attracted the attention of an influential local commercial real estate group. The New Mexico chapter of NAIOPs political action committee is backing three candidates for the four open Board of Education seats on the Nov. 2 ballot, the first time the organization has backed so many APS candidates in one election. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce does not have a PAC, but is urging its members to support the same three candidates as NAIOP, plus one in the fourth open seat. Meanwhile, the powerful Albuquerque Teachers Federation which endorsed six of the current seven board members is throwing its support behind an entirely different slate of candidates. The election could have major ramifications for the states largest school district. No incumbents are seeking reelection in any of this years Albuquerque school board races, which means more than half of the Board of Education will soon be comprised of newly elected individuals. NAIOPs PAC is supporting Danielle Gonzales for District 3, Crystal Tapia-Romero for District 5 and Courtney Jackson for District 7. The chamber is supporting the same three plus Arthur Carrasco for District 6. The business community is certainly hoping that we elect school board members who will set meaningful academic goals for the district, ensure education dollars are spent in the classroom, and put student learning first in their decision-making, said Chamber President and CEO Terri Cole. The Albuquerque Teachers Federation is endorsing Jinx Baskerville in District 3, Uche Ohiri in District 5, Josefina Elizabet Dominguez in District 6 and Julie Brenning in District 7. Those seats are currently held by outgoing board members Lorenzo Garcia, Candelaria Patterson, Elizabeth Armijo and board President David Peercy, respectively. In total, 13 candidates are vying for four open seats. District 3 has drawn four candidates: Baskerville, Ali Ennenga, Lucas Stephen Gauthier and Gonzales. In District 5, Emma Jean Jones, Ohiri and Tapia-Romero are competing. District 6 has three candidates: Dominguez, Carrasco and Celia Cortez. And District 7 also has three candidates: Nicholas Dale Bevins, Brenning and Jackson. Lynne Andersen, president of NAIOP New Mexico, said the groups PAC does not formally endorse candidates, but does support candidates through financial contributions. She said the group was motivated to support several candidates after numerous members voiced concerns about the current school boards handling of the pandemic and the states poor education rankings. Education is crucial to economic development, and thats one key thing that NAIOP is interested in is that there are good jobs and strong economic development, Andersen said. Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein said she cant remember the last time this many seats on the board have been open with no incumbents seeking reelection. She said serving on the board is a big commitment and incoming members will have to contend with challenges like balancing the budget in addition to pandemic-related issues around masking and vaccines. We are very dedicated to making sure people get elected to the board who want to protect and preserve public education, who want to support the employees who work with our students and who want to move the district forward in terms of how we provide education for students, Bernstein said. She said that the endorsed slate comes from a diverse set of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, too. Two of the endorsed candidates, Baskerville and Dominguez, are former APS educators, while Ohiri has legal and medical experience and Brenning has policy and research experience. NAIOP PAC member Lance Sigmon said NAIOP members expressed more frustration this year toward the school board than he has seen in the past. Much of that frustration stems from parents who had to choose between staying home with children for remote working and going into work, he said. Sigmon said the drastic changes in education due to the pandemic caused some members to begin attending virtual school board meetings and those members felt that current school board members did not understand what it was like for parents navigating remote schooling. Andersen said the organization would like to see APS operate with a good strategic plan based on solid budgets, which does not always seem to be apparent, at least from the outside looking in. NAIOP has about 300 members of the commercial real estate industry. The organization hosts monthly luncheons, operates a political action committee and lobbies government officials on behalf of the commercial real estate industry. Andersen said this is the first time the groups PAC has backed this many Board of Education candidates in a single election. She said the decision to back several candidates was prompted by interest from NAIOP members many of whom are parents with children enrolled at APS. Each of the candidates the NAIOP PAC is endorsing have backgrounds related to education, are parents and have graduated from APS schools. Sigmon said the election gives the city a chance to correct course in terms of education and larger societal issues like crime. Education has always kind of been a fundamental belief of NAIOP, he said. We have a vested interest in education because we want wonderful employees and we want our children to stay here and not just get educated and leave. Meanwhile, APS board president Peercy, who is also endorsing Brenning, said he is not seeking reelection because he thinks its time for the board to have new members. However, Peercy said he will stay around after the election to help with the transition period and train the new members. He said he hopes the new members of the board will support masking in schools and vaccinations for the coronavirus. Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The last defendant to stand trial in the long-running federal racketeering prosecution aimed at dismantling the violent Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang was convicted Thursday in the strangulation death of a fellow inmate more than 20 years ago. After listening to eight days of testimony from witnesses who included former gang members and DNA experts, the jury deliberated for about six hours in Las Cruces before finding Angel DeLeon guilty of first-degree murder. He faces life in prison. DeLeon, 43, was convicted of participating in a double homicide carried out in 2001 by the SNM against two inmates at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility during an internal gang crackdown on its members. DeLeon, a Mexican national who was deported in 2002, was charged in a December 2015 federal indictment, the first wave of charges to hit the SNM, which exerted control over members inside and outside prison walls, prosecutors say. He was the last to face trial because he wasnt located in Mexico until 2019, He was then extradited to the U.S. to face the charge of committing a violent act in aid of racketeering, which carries a life prison sentence. DeLeon was accused of helping hold down SNM member Frank Castillo on March 26, 2001, while another SNM member strangled him on his prison cell bed. Three other SNM members indicted in Castillos murder were convicted of federal racketeering charges at trial in 2018. In another homicide in a different area of the prison that morning, a different team of SNM members killed fellow member Roland Garza by strangulation. DeLeon wasnt charged in that case. In closing arguments, assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Castellano told jurors Thursday that Castillo, who went by the nickname of Pancho, and Garza had violated SNM rules and were hit. Castillos death is now among 10 homicides considered solved as part of the FBIs massive investigation dubbed Operation Atonement. The investigation into the gangs criminal activities was initiated by the FBI in 2015 after authorities learned of a plot to kill two top state Corrections officials. There came a time when we had to use all means necessary to stop this gang, Castellano told jurors on Thursday. The murder plot was foiled but the investigation dug into the gangs past crimes dating back several decades. Castellano said a corrections official testified that SNM at one time controlled New Mexico prisons. He said after fighting the gangs influence since its formation in the early 1980s, corrections officials were probably relieved to see the results of the federal prosecution. Aside from DeLeon, 10 SNM members, including top leaders, have been convicted at trial of committing murder to maintain or enhance their standing in SNMs criminal enterprise. To date more than 160 SNM members, associates and others linked to the gang have been arrested, with most convicted of either state or federal charges that include drug trafficking and firearms violations. Key to the federal prosecution was the cooperation of former gang members and leaders, who renounced the gang, provided evidence and testified for the government at trial. DeLeons defense attorney Sarah Gorman in closing arguments Thursday said that during the trial the federal government paraded murderer after murderer, the worst of the worst before the jury hoping that because all these other criminals (committed murder) that youll believe Angel was a murderer too. She contended the FBIs crusade against the SNM resulted in a failed investigation and prosecution in DeLeons case. Investigators in 2001 found DeLeons DNA on a drawstring of the prison laundry bag used to strangle Castillo. But 13 years later a subsequent DNA test found no trace of his DNA, Gorman told jurors. Gorman also attacked the credibility of the SNM government cooperators, noting that one defendant who gave the orders to kill Castillo initially faced life in prison but received a reduced sentence of 70 months after helping the government prosecute its case. Castellano said a defense expert agreed that DeLeons DNA was detected in three places on the ligature. As for cooperators who received a reduced sentence, Castellano noted that ultimately a federal judge decides the length of sentence and is not a rubber stamp for the government. When Mel Sussman and his wife moved to Rio Rancho from the East Coast, they noticed that something near and dear to their hearts was missing from their new home a community theater. We saw that there were community theaters in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but none in Rio Rancho, Sussman said. In late 2019, despite a lack of rehearsal space and funding, he and his wife decided to start one of their own called the Rio Rancho Players Community Theatre. They held auditions and cast roles in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town, a production that dates back to the 1930s, following the lives of everyday people in a small town, not unlike Rio Rancho. Unfortunately, the night the group was scheduled to perform, the state went into lockdown. Sussman says he was defeated. I cried a lot, I walked around in circles, he said. But I knew there wasnt anything we could do except wait. Once the state lifted some restrictions, they held more auditions, casting some original actors and some new ones. News Radio KKOB will feature the story Friday as part of its Good News Files. Our Town starts Friday, Oct. 1, and will run through Oct. 16 at Avix Art, 4311 Sara Road SE, Rio Rancho. Visit rr-cc.org for showtimes and to purchase tickets. The Good News Files is a collaboration between the Albuquerque Journal, 96.3 News Radio KKOB and KOAT-TV. The stories highlight good news stories in the community. WATERLOO, Iowa The first Black police chief in Waterloo, Iowa, is facing intense opposition from some current and former officers as he works with city leaders to reform the department, including the removal of its longtime insignia that resembles a Ku Klux Klan dragon. Joel Fitzgerald says his 16-month tenure in Waterloo, a city of 67,000 with a history of racial divisions, is a case study for what Black police chiefs face as they seek to build community trust and hold officers to higher standards. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the attacks were driven by misinformation and racism toward him and his boss, the citys first Black mayor. I dont think theres been any police chief in America in a small- or medium-sized department that have endured this for the reasons I have endured it and I think the reasons have to do with race, said Fitzgerald, who previously served as the chief of larger departments in Fort Worth, Texas and Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is my fourth job being the first Black police chief. Ive dealt with pushback in other places but never so overt. Never so nonfactual. Jacinta Gau, a University of Central Florida professor and expert on race and policing, said new, reform-minded chiefs always face backlash, and that is intensified when they are Black leaders of historically white forces. The power dynamic in America has always been that Black people are subordinate to white people. When Black people acquire leadership positions, that power dynamic is flipped on its head and white people who were comfortable with the status quo are now feeling very threatened, she said. The backlash against Fitzgerald has intensified since last fall when the City Council began pushing to remove the departments emblem a green-eyed, red-bodied, winged creature known as a griffin that had adorned patches on officers uniforms since the 1960s. After a messy process, the council voted 5-2 last week to order the department to remove the symbol from its uniforms by the end of September. It was the latest among several changes the department has made under Fitzgerald that have won praise from Mayor Quentin Hart, most City Council members and some community leaders while angering the police union, retired officers and conservatives. A white City Council member running to unseat Hart in November has portrayed herself as a champion of police while vowing to oust Fitzgerald if elected. A political action committee supporting her and other pro-law enforcement candidates called Cedar Valley Backs the Blue has attacked Fitzgerald and Hart on Facebook, claiming they are mismanaging the department. Three of Fitzgeralds predecessors as chief released a letter saying they were outraged at what the department had become under his leadership, claiming it was imploding and that morale had hit an all-time low. Adding to the backlash is that Fitzgerald is an outsider to Waterloo with academic degrees some critics mock as elitist. He acknowledges it didnt look good when news emerged that he was a finalist for chief openings in bigger cities during his first year. Opponents have attacked everything from Fitzgeralds salary which is in line with similar chiefs in Iowa to his off-duty trips to visit family in Texas, where his teenage son continues treatment for a brain tumor that was removed in 2019. Last year, he took over a department that has long experienced tension with the citys Black community, which comprises 17% of the city population. Hart said Waterloo could have been a hotbed of racial unrest after George Floyds death given its history, but Fitzgerald helped ease tensions the day before he was sworn on June 1, 2020, in by meeting with protesters for hours to hear their concerns. It was a resetting of the clock moment, Fitzgerald said. Numerous changes soon followed: banning chokeholds, outlawing racial profiling, requiring officers to intervene if they see excessive force, and investigating all complaints of misconduct. The Waterloo Commission on Human Rights called for the removal of the griffin emblem, saying it evoked fear and distrust among some given its resemblance to the KKK symbol. But generations of Waterloo officers had seen it as a symbol of their vigilance. The Waterloo Police Protective Association, which represents officers, denied it had racist intent and mobilized against its removal. Fitzgerald, one of a handful of officers of color in the 123-member department, said he was met with fierce pushback when he suggested the department rebrand itself voluntarily before the council acted. Supporters of the griffin, including the Back the Blue group, framed its removal as an affront to officers. The beatdown of our police officers continues, City Council member Margaret Klein, who is running for mayor, wrote on Facebook, citing the devastating impact of removing the beloved 50-year patch design. She has called for Fitzgeralds resignation. Hart said the debate over the griffin missed the bigger picture. He said the department has undergone a complete paradigm shift, adopting a community policing model that has been popular. Decency and respect, thats what I want. But Im pro-law enforcement, said Hart, who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2017 and 2019. The Back the Blue group has labeled Hart a radical mayor and released an anonymous survey taken by half the current officers and dozens of retirees showing all 98 believed Fitzgerald was the wrong man for the job. Officers complained that they didnt feel supported by the community or the administration. Its sad and its pathetic but this is whats going on at the Waterloo Police Department, said group chairman Lynn Moller, a retired investigator. Fitzgerald said officer morale is a national problem and Waterloo has eight vacancies after some officers retired or left for other jobs. He proposed a strategic plan to improve morale and hire more officers in coming years. City Council member Jonathan Grieder said Fitzgerald had been slandered by people claiming to love the police. We are grappling with the very real issues that have long been embedded of race and force and policing, he said. I get that some people have never had to reckon with that until now. I get that its uncomfortable. WASHINGTON The Justice Department is reviewing its policies on housing transgender inmates in the federal prison system after protections for transgender prisoners were rolled back in the Trump administration, The Associated Press has learned. The federal Bureau of Prisons policies for transgender inmates were thrust into the spotlight this week after a leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group who identifies as transgender was sentenced to 53 years in prison for masterminding the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque. Emily Claire Hari, who was charged, tried and convicted as Michael Hari, was sentenced Monday for the bombing of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. It will now be up to the Bureau of Prisons Transgender Executive Council a group of psychology and correctional officials to determine where to house Hari in a system of 122 federal prisons. Under the Obama administration, the bureaus policies for transgender inmates known as the Transgender Offender Manual called for that council to recommend housing by gender identity when appropriate. That language was changed in the Trump administration to require the committee to use biological sex as the initial determination. The Trump-era manual, which remains in effect, says the agency would assign an inmate to a facility based on identified gender only in rare cases. About 1,200 inmates of the nearly 156,000 federal prisoners in the United States identify as transgender, a Justice Department official said. The prison transgender council, established in 2016, consists of about 10 people, including two psychologists, a psychiatrist and prison designation experts, a Justice Department official told the AP. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. The council must consider an inmates health and safety, any potential history of disciplinary action and the security level of the federal prison where the inmate could be assigned. Other factors include staffing in prisons, and the programs or classes the inmate might need. Because Hari has already been sentenced, the council must decide quickly on a prison because Hari will have to be transferred into the Bureau of Prisons. A Justice Department spokesperson said the bureau is committed to providing all inmates with a safe and humane environment, Including providing gender-affirming housing where appropriate. BOP is in the process of reviewing the current version of its policy regarding transgender inmates. There are few high-security federal prisons for female inmates, which would also factor into Haris placement. Because of the crime Hari committed, it is likely Hari would need to be housed in a high-security prison, as opposed to a medium or low-security facility. Many transgender inmates also dont request to be assigned to prisons to match their gender identity, the Justice Department official said, in part for their own safety. Prosecutors said during the trial that hatred for Muslims motivated Hari to carry out the attack, which didnt physically hurt anyone but traumatized the mosques community. Several men were gathered for early morning prayers at Dar Al-Farooq on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown into an imams office and detonated. Hari and co-defendants Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter, were tracked by authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago where they lived, after a seven-month investigation. Hari, 50, was convicted in December of five counts that include using explosives, obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs and damaging property because of its religious character. Prosecutors said Hari masterminded the attack, citing anti-Muslim rhetoric in Haris manifesto called The White Rabbit Handbook, named after the militia Hari formed that included Morris, McWhorter and others. According to court documents, Hari informed a Minnesota jail deputy in late December about her gender dysphoria, and requested to be moved to a womens facility and provided with hormone replacement therapy. Documents filed by the defense describe Haris gender dysphoria as unbearable and that, along with right-wing misinformation, fueled an inner conflict during the time of the bombing. She strongly desired making a full transition but knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything she knew, defense lawyer Shannon Elkins wrote. Thus, as she formed a rag-tag group of freedom fighters or militia men and spoke of missions to Cuba and Venezuela, Ms. Hari secretly looked up sex change, transgender surgery, and post-op transgender on the internet. Elkins said Hari was living a double life, planning a trip to Thailand for male-to-female surgery and purchasing female clothes while buying military fatigues for the militia. Elkins did not return calls seeking an interview on where Hari hoped to serve the prison sentence. Prosecutors said it was offensive to use gender dysphoria to deflect guilt from the attack, which prosecutors said Hari refused to take responsibility for. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said during Mondays sentencing hearing that he was prepared to recommend that Hari be sent to a womens facility but the final decision was up to the Bureau of Prisons. ___ Ibrahim reported from Minneapolis. WASHINGTON President Joe Bidens decision to form a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain to counter China is angering France and the European Union. Theyre feeling left out and seeing it as a return to the Trump era. The security initiative, unveiled this week, appears to have brought Bidens summer of love with Europe to an abrupt end. AUKUS, which notably excludes France and the European Union, is just the latest in a series of steps, from Afghanistan to east Asia, that have taken Europe aback. After promising European leaders that America is back and that multilateral diplomacy would guide U.S. foreign policy, Biden has alienated numerous allies with a go-it-alone approach on key issues. Frances foreign minister expressed total incomprehension at the recent move, which he called a stab in the back, and the EUs foreign policy chief complained that Europe had not been consulted. France will lose a nearly $100 billion deal to build diesel submarines for Australia under the terms of the initiative, which will see the U.S. and Britain help Canberra construct nuclear-powered ones. As such, French anger on a purely a commercial level would be understandable, particularly because France, since Britains handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, is the only European nation to have significant territorial possessions or a permanent military presence in the Pacific. But French and European Union officials went further, saying the agreement calls into question the entire cooperative effort to blunt Chinas growing influence and underscores the importance of languishing plans to boost Europes own defense and security capabilities. Some have compared Bidens recent actions to those of his predecessor, Donald Trump, under Trumps America First doctrine. Thats surprising for a president steeped in international affairs who ran for the White House vowing to mend shaken ties with allies and restore U.S. credibility on the world stage. Although its impossible to predict if any damage will be lasting, the short-term impact seems to have rekindled European suspicions of American intentions with potential implications for Bidens broader aim to unite democracies against authoritarianism, focused primarily on China and Russia. Just three months ago, on his first visit to the continent as president, Biden was hailed as a hero by European counterparts eager to move beyond the trans-Atlantic tensions of the Trump years. But that palpable sense of relief has now faded for many, and its one clear winner, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is on her way out. Since June, Biden has infuriated Americas oldest ally, France, left Poland and Ukraine questioning the U.S. commitment to their security and upset the European Union more broadly with unilateral decisions ranging from Afghanistan to east Asia. And, while Europe cheered when Biden pledged to return to nuclear negotiations with Iran and revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, both efforts remain stalled nine months into his administration. The seeds of discontent may have been sown in the spring but they began to bloom in July over Bidens acquiescence to a Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline that will bypass Poland and Ukraine, and a month later in August with the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that left Europe scrambling to keep up after it had expressed reservations about the pullout. Then just this week, Biden enraged France and the European Union with his announcement that the U.S. would join post-Brexit Britain and Australia in a new Indo-Pacific security initiative aimed at countering Chinas increasing aggressiveness in the region. Unsurprisingly, China reacted angrily, accusing the U.S. and its English-speaking partners of embarking on a project that will destabilize the Pacific to the detriment of global security. But, the reactions from Paris and Brussels were equally severe. Both complained they were not only excluded from the deal but not consulted on it. The White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken say France had been informed of the decision before it was announced on Wednesday, although it was not exactly clear when. Blinken said Thursday there had been conversations with the French about it within the past 24 to 48 hours, suggesting there had not been an in-depth consultation. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who in June extolled the excellent news for all of us that America is back, expressed total incomprehension at the announcement of the initiative. It was really a stab in the back, he said. It looks a lot like what Trump did. White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed the comparison. I would say the president doesnt think about it much, she told reporters. The presidents focus is on maintaining and continuing our close relationships with leaders in France, with the United Kingdom, with Australia and to achieving our global objectives, which include security in the Indo-Pacific. In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed the French ministers complaints. I suppose that an agreement of this nature was not cooked up the day before yesterday. It takes a certain amount of time, and despite that, no, we were not consulted, he said. That obliges us, once again to reflect on the need to put European strategic autonomy high on the agenda. Indeed, the 27-member European Union on Thursday unveiled a new strategy for boosting economic, political and defense ties in the Indo-Pacific, just hours after the announcement by the U.S., Britain and Australia. The EU said the aim is to strengthen and expand economic relations while reinforcing respect of international trade rules and improving maritime security. It said it hopes the strategy will result in more European naval deployments to the region. U.S. officials brushed aside the French and EU complaints on Thursday. There are a range of partnerships that include the French and some partnerships that dont, and they have partnerships with other countries that dont include us, Psaki said. That is part of how global diplomacy works. Speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Australian defense and foreign ministers, Blinken said there is no regional divide with Europe over Indo-Pacific strategy. We welcome European countries playing an important role in the Indo-Pacific, he said, calling France a vital partner. But how closely they will work together remains to be seen. AP writers Darlene Superville, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report. TORONTO The man who could oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power advertised himself a year ago as a true-blue conservative. He became Conservative Party leader with a pledge to take back Canada and almost immediately started working to modernize the party by pushing it toward the political center. Erin OToole, a military veteran and a member of Parliament for nine years, has only quickened his pace while campaigning for Canadas snap federal election. Despite criticism that the former lawyer would say and do anything to get elected, polls show OTooles Conservatives could defeat Trudeaus Liberal Party on Monday. OTooles strategy, which has included disavowing positions held dear by his partys base on issues such as climate change, guns and balanced budgets, is designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbor. Whether moderate Canadians believe OToole is the progressive conservative he claims and whether it has alienated conservatives have become central questions of the election campaign. He has distanced himself from being Conservative, said Jenni Byrne, who served as campaign manager and deputy chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He distanced himself not just from the Harper years but from the leadership campaign that he ran less than two years ago. Byrne calls it a gamble and a mistake. There seems to be a lack enthusiasm everywhere, Byrne said. Hes basically mirroring Liberal policies instead of past conservatives policies. There is no evidence that that has actually worked and gotten Conservatives elected. And theres no evidence that it has been helping Erin. John Baird, a former Conservative foreign minister, said he didnt want to opine on whether he thinks OToole is taking the party in the right direction. But Baird said OToole is the opposite of Trudeau, who has made the cover of Rolling Stone and been featured in Vogue magazine. Hes not the sizzle, hes the steak, Baird said of the Conservative Party chief. A Conservative win would represent a rebuke of Trudeau, 49, who called the election despite the pandemic in hopes of shoring up his minority government but now is at risk of losing office to the head of the opposition, a politician with a fraction of the name recognition. Trudeau said OToole cant be trusted. OToole tells Conservative friends what hes really going to do and pretending to Canadians something completely different, Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Montreal on Thursday. Whether its been on guns, on the environment or whether its been on vaccines, Mr. OToole has been misleading Canadians, not leading. OToole calls himself a Conservative leader with a new style and says he rejects the politics of celebrity and division. He describes his views as pro-abortion rights and pro-LGBTQ rights. He told the crowd at a Quebec campaign event: Youve been let down by all parties of all stripes, mine included, at times. From the first day of my leadership, my priority has been to a build a Conservative movement where every Canadian can feel at home: inclusive, diverse, forward-looking, progressive, worker-friendly, OToole said Wednesday. Were not your dads Conservative Party anymore. Thats dramatically different language from what OToole used during his bid to become Conservative Party leader last year. OToole won the post with the support of social conservatives and gun enthusiasts, and by disparaging a centrist opponents Conservative credentials. Since then, many of his actions more closely resemble those of the leadership candidate he beat than of a right-wing standard-bearer. For example, he reversed the partys position on guns at the beginning of the month, contradicting the Conservative platform he put out in August by pledging to maintain Trudeaus list of prohibited firearms. OToole also now favors a carbon tax to fight climate change, a policy of Trudeaus which his party vehemently opposed for years and OToole had promised to overturn. He also tempered his support for allowing health care workers to exercise so-called conscience rights by refusing to participate in abortions, assisted suicide or other procedures on moral or religious grounds. Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said an OToole victory would give moderate Republicans in the United States evidence to argue that a more centrist, big tent party can win elections. This is an indication that if you run to the center, which the Republicans always used to do, it works, Bothwell said. If I were a moderate conservative, Id be pleased, and I would point to it as much as I could. Ian Brodie, a University of Calgary professor who served as chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he thinks hatred of Trudeau will prevent the most conservative voters from abandoning OToole on Monday. Brodie said many Conservatives in Western Canada think Trudeau, who has talked about a day when oil is not needed, has a condescending view of the oil industry that is central to Albertas economic vitality. I cant overstate how much people want to get rid of Trudeau here, so its all hands on deck, he said. Political observers have been quick to note OTooles new stripes. Robyn Urback, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, Canadas national newspaper, wrote, If there are still those who dont like Mr. OTooles position on something, well, all they have to do is wait a few minutes. University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman described OToole as two faced but said the party leaders policy reversals do not seem to have registered with voters even though everyone is calling him out on it. But Wiseman thinks that OToole not requiring Conservative candidates to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and refusing to say how many of them are not could cost him Monday, especially after a provincial Conservative government in Alberta apologized this week for mishandling the pandemic. The Conservative position on vaccinations is hurting the party and OToole because growing numbers of the vaccinated are becoming increasingly upset with those who refuse to get vaccinated, the political scientist said. Like Trudeau, the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, OToole was born in Montreal and is the son of a longtime politician. His father served as a Conservative member of Ontarios provincial legislature for almost 20 years. OTooles mother died of breast cancer when he was 9. After his father remarried, he grew up the oldest in a blended family with five children. Influenced by his fathers public service, he entered the military at 18 and went on to attend the Royal Military College of Canada. One of his professors there, Lubomyr Luciuk, said OToole impressed him. Was he my most intelligent student? No, Luciuk said. But he was one who asked good questions and listened and learned. He wasnt afraid to put himself forward and say, What should I read about this?' After graduating in 1995, OToole was commissioned as a Canadian Air Force officer. He flew on a Sea King helicopter as a navigator for naval search and rescues, and eventually left military service for law school. After earning his degree, OToole worked on Canadas version of Wall Street in Toronto. He first was elected to Parliament in 2012, representing a suburban district outside Toronto, and three years later joined Harpers Cabinet as minister of veteran affairs. He lost a bid to become party leader in 2017 but won last year with help from the ranked-choice voting system the Conservative Party uses. Longtime friends say the married father of two is neither an ideologue nor a Trump-style populist. Luciuk said he thinks his former students lack of celebrity appeals to Canadians after more than five years of Trudeaus leadership. Hes not debonair. You dont say, Oh wow, what a handsome man. Hes not, the professor said. I see a pretty ordinary guy, but most of us are. Hes resonating with people because hes got commonsense, hes pragmatic. Hes not doctrinaire. Hes not beholden to some of the wingnuts, frankly, who are in the Conservative Party. ACANDI, Colombia It was 5 a.m. and in dozens of small tents around 500 migrants began showing signs of life, rising, packing their bags and preparing to cross the Darien Gap, the thick jungle teeming with snakes, bandits and treacherous rivers that separates Colombia from Panama. Over a fire, Emile and Claude cooked some yucca and pasta to take on the six-day journey, along with 20 liters of drinking water for which they paid the steep price of $20. The men declined to provide their last names because they had entered Colombia illegally and feared being fined. Emile, 29, said he had left his home country of Haiti 13 years ago to work in the Dominican Republic. Then he lived in Chile for four years, and two months ago he decided to leave for the United States. The pair picked up their belongings and started walking away from the grasslands that surround the Colombian town of Acandi toward the rainforest. Residents of Acandi served as guides, charging the migrants $50 each to show them the way toward Panama. As borders open around the world after months of pandemic-related lockdowns some illegal migration routes are also seeing an uptick in crossings. Muddy paths across the Darien jungle have long been used by smugglers to take migrants from South America to Central America as they make their way to the U.S. Panamanian immigration officials say the number of people crossing the Darien Gap has reached record levels, with 70,000 migrants making the dangerous trek so far this year and registering at shelters in Panama. Most of those currently crossing the Darien are Haitians who were living in Brazil and Chile and were left with little work due to the pandemic. Visa requirements make it almost impossible for low-income migrants from Haiti to take flights to Panama, Mexico or the United States. So many make the dangerous trek across the jungle in the hopes of starting a new life in the U.S. The jungle is very tough, we just walk without a precise idea of where were headed, said Davidson Lafleur, a 24-year-old Haitian. Lafleur had lived in Chile for three years, and was traveling to the U.S. with his wife and their 11-month old daughter. I paid someone $120 to carry my bags to the (Panama) border, he said. In August, Colombia and Panama agreed to limit the number of migrants crossing the Darien each day in a bid to ease pressure on shelters on the Panamanian side of the jungle. But this created bottlenecks and confusion on the Colombian side. Every day hundreds of migrants arrive in the town of Necocli on Colombias Caribbean coast, where they need to catch a boat that will take them across the Gulf of Uraba. Necoclis mayor, Jorge Tobon, says 1,000 to 1,500 migrants are arriving in the town each day, but only 500 are allowed to leave on boats heading across the gulf and toward the Panamanian border due to the recent agreement between the countries. Tobon says more than 14,000 migrants are currently stuck in the town, with boat tickets sold out until the end of this month. Accommodation in hotels and local homes is scarce. Many migrants sleep in tents next to the beach, where they use seawater to bathe and cook. Once migrants are able to sail out of Necocli their next stop is the Colombian town of Acandi. There the migrants are sprayed with an alcohol solution at the towns ramshackle port by locals trying to stop the spread of COVID-19. The trail into the jungle begins 6 miles (10 kilometers) away from the towns center across a green savannah dotted with farms. While some walk, many pay $20 to get to the start of the trail on a cart pulled by a horse. Others hop on motorcycle taxis that take them for $35. Ones Armonte, a 36-year-old migrant from the Dominican Republic, paid for the motorcycle ride. Within an hour he was at the edge of the rainforest where a seven-day trek across the jungle awaited him. We depend on Gods will now, he said. Nobody wants to face the risk of crossing this jungle, but I need to make money to send to my children. After spending a night at the start of the trail, Armonte and dozens of others began the trek through the jungle. They descended a steep hill and waded across a river where the water reached waist level. The current was strong and the sound of the water drowned out the voices of migrants and guides. As they headed into the rainforest many of the migrants became exhausted and started to leave some of their belongings behind to carry less weight. Wedding portraits, jackets and jeans were strewn along the trail. A woman carried a foam mat in her arms, and was told by guides to drop it because it would be of no use in the jungle. She persisted and carried it while balancing a bag on her head. Trailing the group, a 50-year-old woman fainted after crossing a river. She suffered from asthma and obesity. Yesterday we had another lady with asthma, her inhalator emptied and we had to turn back, said one of the local guides, who declined to give his name over fears of being prosecuted for human trafficking. In the jungle, dangers are plenty. Some migrants try to keep snakes away by tying pieces of garlic to their ankles, or rubbing a disinfectant on their legs. The greatest danger, however, are other humans. In the Darien, armed groups control trails that are also used to traffic drugs. Once migrants cross into Panama they are often abandoned by Colombian guides, who do not want to risk being captured abroad for human trafficking. Bandits often target groups of migrants and steal their possessions. According to Doctors Without Borders, which runs a health post in the village of Bajo Chiquito on the Panamanian side of the Darien, 96 women were sexually assaulted by bandits in the months of May and July, while they tried to cross the jungle. The illnesses most frequently reported by migrants who make it across the jungle are foot funguses, gastrointestinal problems and respiratory infections. Yet thousands continue to make the trek. According to Panamanian officials more than 20,000 people crossed the Darien jungle on foot in August, accounting for almost a third of all crossings this year. Children have reportedly died in the jungle, and some pregnant women have given birth. Migrants say they have seen skulls and cadavers along the routes that cross the Darien. Fear is always with us, Lafleur said as he crossed a river. But we have no choice but to keep on going. TOKYO The race is on for the next Japanese prime minister. Official election campaigning began Friday for the new head of Japans governing Liberal Democratic Party, who typically becomes the national leader because of the partys control over parliament. Four candidates are competing in the Sept. 29 vote to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who will quit when his term ends at the end of this month after serving only one year. He took over from predecessor Shinzo Abe. Their policies largely focus on the pandemic and its economic fallout, and on the increasingly assertive role China is playing in regional affairs. Taro Kono, currently the Cabinet minister in charge of vaccinations and a front-runner, said in his kickoff speech on Friday that he wants a society that people see as compassionate. On foreign policy, Kono, who has served as foreign and defense ministers, said Japan and the international community should resolutely address Chinese attempts to change the status quo in the region and let China know it has to pay a certain cost if it violates international rules. He said, however, that Japan-China relations are not only about security. Kono, considered a maverick in Japans conservative political culture, says he also seeks to reform his own party. Suga later Friday said he wants Kono to be his successor. Suga handpicked him to help speed up vaccinations to achieve his ambitious goals of bolstering daily doses to above 1 million and possibly finish inoculating all those who wish to get their shots by October to early November. It is Minister Kono who made such plans under me and has achieved great results in the middle of a national crisis, Suga said. Continuity is extremely important for COVID-19 measures. With that in mind, I support Mr. Kono. Support ratings for Suga and his government nosedived over his handling of the coronavirus and insistence on hosting the Olympics despite the pandemic, and the party is hoping that a new leader can bring it victory in general elections that must be held by late November. Abes long rule brought unusual political stability but also what critics described as an autocratic and ultra-nationalistic approach. Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, considered a close contender with Kono, said he will listen to the voice of the people and restore a sense of unity to this country divided by the coronavirus pandemic. Once seen as a moderate, he has shifted to a security and diplomatic hawk as he seeks support from influential conservatives such as Abe. Unusually for Japan, two women are competing in the race. The only other female challenger was in 2008, when Yuriko Koike, who is currently Tokyo governor, made a run. Seiko Noda, who has served as postal and gender equality ministers and is seeking to become Japans first female leader, said the countrys rapidly aging and declining population pose a serious security and economic threat because there wont be enough troops and police in coming decades. She has pledged to achieve a diverse and inclusive society. Sanae Takaichi, who shares Abes right-wing political views and historical revisionism, called for a stronger military. The former internal affairs minister said she wants ample government spending to create a beautiful and strong Japan that grows. DENVER A Colorado state panel has recommended that a mountain peak west of Denver be renamed in honor of a Native American woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century. Thursdays recommendation comes amid national efforts to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native Americans and other people of color after last summers protests calling for racial justice reform. It is the first of several name changes being considered by the state panel. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board recommended changing the name of Squaw Mountain, located in Clear Creek County about 30 miles (48 kilometers) miles west of Denver, to Mestaaehehe Mountain, which is pronounced mess-taw-hay. The name honors an influential Cheyenne translator known as Owl Woman, who facilitated relations between white settlers and Native American tribes in the early 1800s, The Colorado Sun reported. The word squaw, derived from the Algonquin language, may once have simply meant woman. But over generations, the word morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage Indigenous women, according to experts. In a similar fashion, the Squaw Valley Ski Resort in California, owned by Denvers Alterra Mountain Co., announced Monday that the new name would be Palisades Tahoe. The resort is in Olympic Valley, which was known as Squaw Valley until it hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Tribes in the region had been asking the resort for a name change for decades. The Lake Tahoe area valley is about 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco and is within the ancestral homeland of the Washoe people, according to Darrel Cruz of the Washoe Tribe Historic Preservation Office. Washoe Tribal Chairman Serrell Smokey said the tribal council expressed its appreciation for the name change and that they plan to work with officials to rename other places in the Olympic Valley that continue to use the derogatory word. The Denver-based company said it is partnering with the Washoe Tribe to educate resort guests about tribal culture, which will include an exhibit on the Washoe way of life. Northern Cheyenne Tribal members filed the application to change the Colorado mountains name in October with the U.S. Geological Surveys Board on Geographic Names, which officially decides federal land name changes. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis had revived the states 15-member panel in July 2020 to make recommendations that he will review and forward to the federal group. The mountain is among 13 locations throughout Colorado for which residents have requested name changes. One of the other geographic areas under review by the state board is Mount Evans, which is named after Colorados second territorial governor, who resigned after the U.S. cavalry massacre of nearly 200 Arapaho and Cheyenne tribal members at Sand Creek in 1864. Other locations on the boards list of possible name changes include Chinaman Gulch in Chaffee County, just over 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) west of Colorado Springs and a mesa and creek in Delta County in western Colorado, named by Mexican settlers for the color black. WASHINGTON The White House on Friday threatened to impose sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders involved in a conflict gripping the Tigray region, where 10 months of fighting have left hundreds of thousands of people facing famine. A new executive order allows the U.S. Treasury Department to sanction leaders and groups seen as fueling the violence if they dont take steps soon to stop the fighting. Senior U.S. officials who previewed the order Thursday said that while it does not set a deadline on the leaders, they wanted to see progress made toward a cease-fire in the coming weeks. But the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy, said they were not optimistic Abiy would change course. Abiys office responded Friday in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden that said Ethiopia would not succumb to consequences of pressure. The 10-month conflict in Tigray has grown from a political dispute into a more serious war threatening stability in Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa and a key U.S. security ally in the region. The fighting, which involved various forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, has triggered the worlds largest hunger crisis in a decade. The U.S. and United Nations say Ethiopian troops have prevented passage of trucks carrying food and other aid. Scores of people have starved to death, The Associated Press has reported. U.S. officials said Thursday that just 10% of humanitarian supplies intended for Tigray have been allowed into the region during the last month. As the situation deteriorates, Bidens executive order gives the Treasury and State departments authority to impose sanctions against leaders of all sides in the conflict the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments as well as the regional forces in Tigray and Amhara. The Treasury Department will exempt humanitarian efforts from any potential sanctions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the executive order underscores our resolve to use every appropriate tool at our disposal to bring relief to the long-suffering people of the region. Previous U.S. pressure on the combatants has failed. A U.S. announcement in May of visa restrictions against Ethiopian and Eritrean officials was dismissed by Abiys government as an effort to meddle in our internal affairs. U.S. officials who spoke Thursday called on Abiy to show he would move toward a settlement before the new Parliament is seated on Oct. 4 following his partys landslide victory in July. He now has a new five-year term. No voting was held in the Tigray region. The war has the potential to fracture Ethiopia just a few years after Abiy moved to resolve the countrys decades-long conflict with neighboring Eritrea. The U.S. officials expressed concern that Abiy will press for a military success to present to lawmakers when the new government is formed on Oct. 4. His governments recent call for all able citizens to join the fight and stop the Tigray forces once and for all caused some international alarm. Abiys letter Friday again referred to Tigray forces as terrorists and accused the U.S. of not reciprocating support Ethiopia has given American efforts to fight the al-Shabab extremist group in neighboring Somalia. We have seen the consequences and aftermaths of hurried and rash decisions made by various U.S. administrations that have left many global populations in more desolate conditions than the intervention attempted to rectify, the letter said. Since retaking much of their embattled region from Ethiopian forces in June in a dramatic turn in the war, the Tigray forces have brought the fighting into the countrys neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara. The Tigray forces say they are pressuring the government to lift a blockade on Tigray that has left millions of people without telecommunications, electricity, banking services and almost all humanitarian aid. Now the massive humanitarian crisis that affects millions inside Tigray is spreading as hundreds of thousands of people in Amhara and Afar flee the Tigray fighters, some alleging retaliatory attacks, which the Tigray forces have denied. The Amhara regional government in a statement said that the Amhara people have the natural right to defend themselves against the Tigray forces, which it accused of numerous abuses. Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for restoring ties with Eritrea but has since joined forces with Ethiopias former enemy to wage war in Tigray. Eritrean soldiers have been accused by witnesses of some of the wars worst atrocities. Now they are active again inside Tigray, after pulling back in June when Ethiopian forces retreated. ___ Associated Press journalist Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report. New Mexico State Police identified the man shot and injured by a Sante Fe County Sheriffs Office deputy Sept. 16 as Marvin Montoya, a 39-year Allsups employee. Lt. Mark Soriano, a State Police spokesman, said in a news release that deputies were called at about 2 p.m. to the Allsups on Avenida Del Sur and New Mexico Highway 14, where Montoya had barricaded himself in the bathroom. Responding deputies found Montoya in an embankment south of the store, Soriano said. He said Montoya fired a shot in the air and deputies retreated and called for the agencys SWAT team. Soriano said that while the SWAT team was trying to talk to Montoya, he fled with a weapon and a deputy fired a shot, striking him. Montoya was taken to a local hospital and will be charged after he is released, according to police. Police said they would identify the deputy who shot Montoya after interviews in the case are completed. Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Rio Rancho could gain a seat in the state House under redistricting plans issued this week as New Mexico prepares to draw new political boundaries. The new Rio Rancho district would come at the expense of either rural northern New Mexico or the Northeast Heights of Albuquerque. But neither idea is set in stone. Theyre just among the options the Citizens Redistricting Committee is asking New Mexicans to evaluate and comment on. Also up for consideration are maps that would ensure the North Valley and West Side arent lumped together in any legislative districts. Instead, the Rio Grande would serve as a dividing line north of Interstate 40. The International District in Albuquerque, by contrast, could stay intact, getting its own legislative seat in each chamber. The ideas come as the Citizens Redistricting Committee tries to balance the population in 42 state Senate districts and 70 House seats, based on the 2020 census. The panel is also working on congressional and Public Education Commission maps. This is a key component to our democracy, Edward Chavez, a retired Supreme Court justice leading the committee, said of the work. Voting is important, but it begins here whos going to be advocating for your interests and your needs. The committee is seeking public comment in a series of hearings Sept. 28 through Oct. 8. Final action is set for Oct. 15. The committee recommendations arent binding. The state Legislature where Democrats hold large majorities is planning a December special session to consider the proposed maps or craft its own. For legislative districts, a key factor is accommodating growth in Rio Rancho and adjacent neighborhoods on the West Side of Albuquerque. Rep. Joshua Hernandez, R-Rio Rancho, said an extra House seat would ensure its residents arent underrepresented. The population in Sandoval County, which includes Rio Rancho, jumped 13.1% over the last decade more than four times as fast as the state as a whole. Theres no sign of the growth in Rio Rancho slowing down anytime soon, Hernandez said in an interview Friday. The home-builder signs as you drive through Rio Rancho theyre everywhere. To accommodate a new Rio Rancho-based seat in the House, the proposed maps could consolidate two districts in rural northern New Mexico, where separate districts cover much of Mora and San Miguel counties along Interstate 25. Or lawmakers could eliminate a district in Albuquerques mid-heights that now covers some neighborhoods along Eubank between Spain and Lomas. Less-drastic options are also possible, such as having some West Side districts shuffle north a bit to capture the excess population. Some principles show up repeatedly in the proposed legislative maps: Making the Rio Grande north of Interstate 40 a hard boundary for legislative districts in Albuquerque, dividing the West Side and North Valley. Many legislative districts now cross the river in the Albuquerque area, requiring legislators to balance the interests of much different neighborhoods. The West Side tends to be more suburban, for example, while parts of the North Valley are semi-rural. Keeping the two areas separate came up repeatedly in public testimony. Theres a perception on the West Side that they feel underrepresented, so they wanted to make sure West Side neighborhoods werent included in North Valley districts, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc., which works for the redistricting committee. Keeping the International District in Albuquerque intact. The area covers Expo New Mexico and much of East Central Avenue between San Mateo and Wyoming. The district is now split between districts in each legislative chamber. Chavez said residents in the area believe the division weakens their influence, subordinating their interests to more affluent neighborhoods nearby. Allowing the East Mountains community of Edgewood to sit in one district rather than be split. OLIVEHURST, Calif. - Two people died in a head-on collision with a stolen truck on Wednesday in Olivehurst, according to California Highway Patrol. The Yuba County Sheriffs Office advised CHP of a pursuit of a stolen truck towing a trailer around 2:08 p.m. on Wednesday. Deputies requested CHP to take over the pursuit and it was at slow speeds. At about 2:16 p.m., deputies said the stolen Ford crashed after traveling the wrong way on Highway 65 near where it splits with Highway 70. CHP said the truck was driving northbound on Highway 70 in the southbound lane and crashed head-on into a Dodge Durango. The Dodge then rolled over and caused the driver, Deanna Hernandez, and the passenger, Cary Ojeda, to become trapped in the vehicle. The two women, who were mother and daughter, suffered major injuries and were transported to the hospital. CHP said Hernandez and Ojeda were pronounced dead at the hospital. The trailer the stolen truck was towing hit a Chevy Silverado during the crash. The driver of the Silverado was not injured. The driver of the Ford took off on foot but was caught by deputies shortly after. Chase Hammonds, 25, was arrested as the suspect driving the stolen vehicle. Hammonds is facing several charges including auto theft, felony evading, crossing a divided highway, felony hit and run and two counts of murder. Hammonds will also be booked on multiple violations of probation warrants for prior stolen vehicle cases, the Yuba County Sheriffs Department said. Hammonds is in custody at the hospital and will be booked into jail following his release from the hospital which is expected today. Deputies on scene performed life-saving measures on the two victims until medics arrived. I want to extend my sincere condolences to the family who is innocent victims in this tragedy, Yuba County Undersheriff Nick Morawcznski said. I can assure our community that our office will conduct a thorough investigation. The roads were closed from 2:22 p.m. to 8:35 p.m. as CHP investigated the crash. OROVILLE, Calif. - An Oroville man was arrested for starting a fire that broke out in Oroville on Thursday, according to Oroville Police Department. The report of the fire came in around noon and was threatening multiple homes. CAL FIRE said the fire burned in an area between homes but the fire did not cause any damage to the structures. Officials said they arrested a person who is facing a charge of arson to property. Oroville Police Department said the man was recklessly mowing in the field knowing there was a high risk of fire danger. 57-year-old David Walker of Oroville continued to mow and caused a fire that got out of control, according to police. Police said the man doesn't live at the address but offered to mow the yard a few weeks ago but mowed it Thursday. The fire was stopped at about eight acres, according to officals. The fire was in the area of 3020 Greenville St., according to police. CAL FIRE said it is assisted the Oroville Fire Department. We are assisting @OrovilleFire on a vegetation fire in south Oroville. Spread has been stopped. Mop up underway. Approximately 5 acres. Burned in an area between homes but there was no damage. #V7Fire pic.twitter.com/BL3F21rZ1c CAL FIRE Butte Unit/Butte County Fire Department (@CALFIRE_ButteCo) September 16, 2021 This is a developing story. Action News Now will keep you updated with new information on-air and online. ORLAND, Calif. - The Orland Unified School District told Action News Now they've closed bathrooms in several schools after a viral trend to damage school property. Janitors and custodians are the ones that have help fix it or replace it. A school staff member said off-camera three out of the five schools in Orland Unified have been hit by this destructive trend, its shutdown bathrooms that parents and janitors are fed up with. An Orland Unified custodian, Matthew, called on the board to give those responsible consequences. RELATED: Chico High deals with troubling TikTok trend "During the day the classes and campus are taken care of," said Matthew. "However, as of lately, it seems that people have given up and don't care what the kids do on this campus anymore." Right next to the bathroom, closed to all students from damage, is the janitor's closet, where one of the custodians says these are constant reminders of the viral violations they'll have to clean up. "There are kids ripping down paper towels, soap dispensers, kicking holes in tile walls in the bathroom, and just recently a new trend of students stealing items from the campus and classrooms such as teachers personal items and safety equipment," he said. Staff says with each new video they've seen, those responsible try to 'one-up' the damage done by other students, even in other schools. "They are no longer allowed to use the restroom, I said what do you mean?" said a concerned parent. "Same type of thing going on, pulling off equipment from bathrooms." RELATED: Troubling TikTok trend is taking its toll on one local high school Parents fear this trend will only get more popular. "Putting into light that this is all trauma, trauma-based, and it's only going to get worse," the parent said. A staff member says the soap dispensers cost roughly $200 each and they've had to replace several of them, some even multiple times. The Orland Unified Superintendent said he will send a message to parents to remind students to not take part in the trend. All bathrooms and damage done are expected to be repaired. CHICO, Calif. - Chico Police Department arrested a person riding a stolen bike on Thursday, the police department said. Police received a report of a stolen bike and they got a detailed description of the suspect. Officer Bob Kurtz searched the area of Comanche Creek. Officer Kurtz detained the suspect riding the bike without incident. The suspect Devin Guill, 33, was arrested for grand theft due to the value of the bike. The bike was returned to the owner. CHICO, Calif. - Police arrested a woman Friday morning after they responded to a fight that involved a gun in Chico, according to Chico Police Department. Police said six people got into a fight at the 1700 block of Oakdale St., at the Uptown Place Apartments. Action News Now is working to gather more information about the incident. This is a developing story. Action News Now will keep you updated with new information on-air and online. Fashion house High Street Essentials modern Indian wear brand Indya, has signed Bollywood actor and style icon, Shraddha Kapoor as its first brand ambassador. The star will be seen as the face of the brand, promoting its contemporary Indian wear in a variety of campaigns across media platforms. Indya, an Omni channel fast fashion brand, was born out of a thought to re-look ethnic fashion and design by considering the lifestyle and changing needs and choices of the modern Indian woman who wants to update her traditional ethnic wear with elements that are current and in line with whats happening from a global fashion point of view. Shraddha Kapoor with her experimental fashion choices and vivacious personality has been signed on to communicate this brand ethos. Commenting on the announcement, Tanvi Malik and Shivani Poddar, Co-founders, Indya said- Shraddha personifies the millennial Indian woman that our brand is centered on independent, aware and rooted in her being yet modern in her outlook. She truly exemplifies the confidence and determination of the free spirited Indya woman. Our association with her is a step towards strengthening the connection with our customers and reaching out to millions of more women who will emotionally and sartorially associate with our brand. We are confident that her voice will inspire them to be bold, experimental and comfortable in their fashion choices. We couldnt be more thrilled to have her as the face of Indya. On being the brands first ambassador, actor Shraddha Kapoor shares, Indya has re-invented Indian fashion by beautifully capturing the essence of what the modern Indian woman is looking for today. Im always on the lookout for stylish clothes that I can simply slip into and go, and so my personal style preferences completely resonate with the experimental and fuss-free essence of the brand. I am an Indya woman and am glad to be associated with them. The announcement comes with the launch of the brands first campaign and digital film with Shraddha - Thats My Indya. Debunking common and unpopular opinions about Indian and traditional festive wear, the campaign sets the tone for the brands modern Indian design philosophy and positioning. The digital film shows Shraddha Kapoor donning Indyas Autumn Festive' 21 collection that is a stylistic melange of contemporary, fashion-forward, and playful designs. The film Thats My Indya echoes the eclectic spirit of new-age woman aligned effortlessly with the brands ethos and design language of being bold yet traditional, experimental yet timeless, and effortless yet chic. The film will be followed by a campaign shoot shot by photographer Rohan Shreshtha. Jagran New Medias flagship brand, Jagran.com celebrated the 1stedition of the Naya Bharat SME Awards on September 15th, 2021. The main objective of this virtual ceremony and behind the entire effort was to recognize, applaud and honour the players from the SME sector . Through this annual awards, Jagran.com intends to bring the best of SME industry from all across India under one roof. In order to do so, a separate microsite was created to vote and with all the details https://event.jagran.com/events/SMB-awards/smb-landing-event.html, the voting ended on Sep 12 th. Sponsored by Indusland Bank and partnered by solarbyluminous.com and Havells, Naya Bharat SME Awards had as many as 9 categories: Startup of the Year, The Budding Entrepreneur Of The Year, Health & Wellness, Founder Of The Year, Heroes During The Pandemic, Smart/Out of The Box Startup Of The Year, Innovation Led Startup Of The Year, Enabler Of the Year, Woman Entrepreneur Of The Year. The winners in each category were chosen on several parameters by the special jury. The Jury panel boasts of names like Mr. Vipin Anand (Former Md, LIC) , DK Aggarwal (Chairman &Managing Director,SMC Investments and Advisors Limited), Waqar Naqvi (CEO, Tauras Mutual Fund), Dr. (Mrs.) Brinda Jagirdar (Former Chief Economist, SBI),Mr. Vivek Bindra (CEO & founder of Bada Business), Kishor Ostwal (CMD, CNI Research Ltd), Pratyush Ranjan (Executive Editor, Jagran New Media and Vishvas News). S. no CATEGORY WINNERS 1 STARTUP OF THE YEAR BELLA VITA ORGANIC LOOM SOLAR 2 THE BUDDING ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR Mr. LAKSHAY JINDAL - JINDAL BRICKS 3 HEALTH & WELLNESS CRITERION TECH 4 FOUNDER OF THE YEAR AAKASH ANAND - BELLA VITA ORGANIC 5 HEROES DURING THE PANDEMIC LIFE ESSENTIALS PERSONAL CARE 6 SMART / OUT OF THE BOX STARTUP OF THE YEAR YIPLI: THE SMART MAT 7 INNOVATION LED STARTUP OF THE YEAR HOP ELECTRIC MOBILITY 8 ENABLER OF THE YEAR MILESWEB 9 WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR NIHARIKA BHARGAVA- THE LITTLE FARM Besides, the editors choice awards went to KRAFTON, the South Korean video game developer is all set to pump in more adrenalin for the millions of BATTLEGROUNDS enthusiasts in India, with the introduction of Flora Menace, special features and realistic game dynamics in version 1.6 rolling out on the Google Play Store and iOS App Store. The update will be rolling out sequentially starting today, so fans are requested to be patient for it to show up on your app store. A new mode Flora Menace has been added to BATTLEGROUNDS, bringing in interesting possibilities. In Flora Menace Mode, a life barrier is created in some part of the map that is encroached by alien creatures. In the wall, players HP gradually recovers. Players can loot Nacore in the mode and use the item to buy battle items. The mode is available in Classic Theme Modes and starting from Erangel, it will be added to Sanhok and Livik. Exclusively in Erangel Flora Menace, players can enjoy Cell Matrix content. The Cell Matrix is an airship floating in the air and players can ride it using Cells that can be found in the map. In Cell Matrix, players have three chances to revive themselves and get to fight with randomly provided weapons. They can acquire Nacore by eliminating enemies or robots infected by an alien creature in the airship. The latest update will pack a lot of surprises later in the month as EvoGround will feature the popular Zombie mode Survive Till Dawn where the last surviving player in the zombie attack gets the final victory. Many more popular game modes such as the Payload Mode will be appearing in EvoGround so players are requested to keep a close eye on our social channels for launch dates or directly dive into EvoGround in matchmaking. As many as 8 different game modes will appear over a period of time. The new version also includes the recording option, allowing players to record their gameplay and showcase their clips on social media platforms. In fact, a slew of community contests on our social channels will be rolled out around recorded clips in-game. Fans can participate and win amazing rewards. Taking feedback into consideration from valued BATTLEGROUNDS enthusiasts, certain refinements have also been incorporated to smooth out animations allowing more agility and flexibility to the players. The full patch notes together with the refinements can be found on our news section. With the idea of keeping more strategic tools at players disposal, auto-bandage option has been added, distance information is included in the In-Game Mark, and the famous flight path can now be replayed after landing. Additionally one can test out weapons like P90, MG3, ASM Abakan in the all important training ground before heading into a match. With 1.6.0, KRAFTON aims at providing an overall improved battle-feel to the players with features like Improved camera vibration effect on grenade detonation, configurable headshot sound adjustments, dynamic scope adjustment options. Finally, rolling out today, straight from the Chefs kitchen, with his flavours, is the RPM3 - Royale Pass Month 3. Priced similarly like other months, starting at 360UC, theres an array of outfits on offer. Catering to the upcoming festive season, month long in-game events around Dusshera and Diwali will be flowing in from the second half of the month, lasting right into the Diwali week. All details will be announced at a later date. BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA is available exclusively to play in India Merlin, the independents digital music licensing partner, has extended and enhanced its existing music licensing partnership with JioSaavn, a leading music and audio streaming service for South Asians. The expansion of Merlin and JioSaavns deal deepens what was already a significant music partnership. The deal marks the first renewal between the two parties since regional music streaming service Saavn merged with Indias JioMusic, the music streaming service owned by telecom service provider Reliance Jio. The merger, which made Saavns entire catalogue available on the JioSaavn app, grew JioSaavns monthly active users to more than 100 Mn. JioSaavn now comes preinstalled on Jios own JioPhone and is also available for web, Android, and iOS users. The expanded partnership will enable Merlins membership to increase their presence in South Asia, and will expand JioSaavns catalog offering to its worldwide audience. Accounting for more than 15% of the global digital music market, Merlin members represent tens of thousands of labels and hundreds of thousands of artists from every country in the world. On JioSaavn, music fans can find a diverse array of tracks and videos from hundreds of Merlin members, including Armada Music, an independent internationally-awarded record company founded by a.o. Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren, with a roster including dance-music heavy-hitters such as Loud Luxury, Andrew Rayel and Arty; Because Music, home of Christine and the Queens, Manu Chao, Justice, Metronomy, Parcels, and Ed Banger Records; Fluxus, a South Korean record label founded by Kim Byung-chan that has found success with artists spanning across genres such as Clazziquai, Yi Sung-yol, and Urban Zakapa; and Sanjivani, an India-based music distribution company Keshav Bhola, Vice President - Content Partnerships at JioSaavn said, We look forward to collaborating with Merlin on impactful initiatives. This is a strategic step to work towards the growth of partners, artists and the music industry in the long term. This endeavor will further build on our commitment to make a positive impact on the music streaming ecosystem. Our audience will now have access to an elevated experience with regard to global music, while artists and musicians from around the world will have a borderless platform for their work. Were grateful to expand our partnership with JioSaavn, and to enable our members to share their diverse catalog with JioSaavns global South Asian audience. As the scope of the Merlin membership grows around the world, were excited to grow the opportunities for our members and their repertoire, said Charlie Lexton, COO of Merlin. Energy powers the world. But the emissions generated from fossil fuels have deepened the claws of the carbon footprint on our planet. Highlighting the importance of ground-breaking innovation to build a clean-green India, National Geographic in India is all set to bring forth Tata Motors mission to mainstream EV technology in India, and its efforts to make the country evolve to electric. Titled Evolve to Electric with Tata Motors, the exclusive documentary scheduled to premiere on September 18th, 2021 at 7.00 pm on National Geographic will establish the dire need and evolution of EVs and delve deeper into the genesis of Tata Nexon EV. The 44-min documentary will highlight Tata Motors plan introduce an EV version of its Nexon in 2018 and have it hit the roads in just 12-16 months. Unveiling the mechanism behind the operations, the film will also take the viewers behind-the-scenes at Tata Motors sprawling state-of-the-art factory in India, showcasing the making of Nexon EV, focusing on the car performance in different weather conditions, battery technology, and setting up the charging infrastructure. While the film articulates the mission of Tata Motors to mainstream the EV revolution in India, the film will also shed some light on the companys plans to build the infrastructure support towards the growth of this entire ecosystem of electric mobility. National Geographic believes in inspiring people through ground-breaking stories and experiences that help them see, engage and care about the world through an optimistic, energetic and hopeful voice. With this film, our endeavour was to bring forth the engaging narrative of Tata Motors; highlighting their innovative approach to adapt to the discerning Indian consumer and their vision of creating a sustainable future in the auto-mobile industry, said National Geographic India Spokesperson. Ahead of the airing, Mr. Vivek Srivatsa, Head-Marketing, Passenger and Electric Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors said, We are glad to have partnered with National Geographic, one of the best in the business when it comes to science, environment and exploration, to bring out the story of Nexon EV and what goes behind creating an entire EV universe. With #EvolveToElectric as our philosophy, we wanted a platform that could help us bring out the message of moving to a more environmentally friendly and future facing mobility solution, in a credible and authentic manner. This documentary is our ode to all who have supported us in this journey and we expect it to be a seminal point in accelerating India towards greater EV adoption. We hope that the show would be liked by the viewers and would encourage them to contribute in their own ways to the fast-spreading EV revolution in India. Catch the promo here Evolve to Electric with Tata Motors, will premiere on September 18th, 2021, at 7.00 pm on National Geographic Channel India TVS Motor Company, a reputed two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, today announced a partnership with EGO Movement as a majority shareholder, in an all-cash deal through its Singapore Subsidiary TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd. The partnership is in line with TVS Motor Companys commitment to building an aspirational product portfolio while nurturing sustainable and scalable brands. It also reiterates the companys strategy to expand its global presence in developed markets, commencing with Europe, which serves as the heart of the e-bike mobility landscape. Led by the Co-founder's Daniel Meyer and Marie So, EGO Movement is a Swiss technology company providing innovative mobility solutions through a portfolio of e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, and e-scooters. The company combines unique designs with innovative software and hardware to deliver a differentiated customer experience. It has an omnichannel network across Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany with plans to expand across Europe, combining the best of strategically located stores with a seamless online experience. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company, said, The partnership with EGO Movement reaffirms TVS Motor Companys commitment towards electrification and the broader sustainability agenda. We are building a strategic personal e-mobility ecosystem by scaling unique brands which share our vision of delivering compelling customer experience benchmarks through cutting-edge, aspirational products. EGO Movement has a strong presence in Europe with customer-centric products, a unique omnichannel network and a visionary team at its helm. Together, we will address global urbanisation by delivering unique e-mobility solutions with e-bicycles and mobility across a diversity of forms. Mr. Venu further added, It is also an important milestone in our journey to grow our presence in Europe, with the Norton Motorcycles acquisition last year and now the launch of the personal e-mobility platform. Over the past decade, the personal mobility landscape has evolved significantly with the global sustainability agenda, increasing urbanisation and advancement in battery technology. The global pandemic also became a key catalyst in accelerating the adaption to personal mobility. The e-bike market has been at the forefront of personal mobility innovation, with new business models and technologies advancing rapidly with global trends. Various sub-segments have also emerged to cater to customers' evolving needs - ranging from city bikes for daily commute to mountain bikes for adventures or cargo bikes for carrying loads or people. Co-founder and CEO of EGO Movement, Daniel Meyer, commented As a Swiss based strongly mission-driven company, we are excited to be teaming up such a highly respected global partner and industry leader. Our team is fully committed to taking the company to the next phase. We are confident that together with TVS Motor Company, we will be able to create more value for all partners and customers of EGO Movement focusing on further growth by following our mission of a greener way of e-mobility. EGO Movements product portfolio focuses on delivering sustainable products with the latest technology and stylish designs.. A powerful battery is blended harmoniously into the frame, whose ergonomic design allows for a comfortable upright sitting position. In addition, with technical refinements such as a powerful mid-motor including a torque sensor, a USB port on the removable lithium-ion battery and an LED light that automatically switches on at dusk. The unique and innovative design philosophy has earned the company multiple awards, including the prestigious Red Dot Award. TVS Srichakra has refuted reports carried in a section of the media, wherein it was stated that the group has entered into a deal with IPL franchise team Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for three seasons of the Indian Premier League, starting with the 2022 edition of IPL. The sponsorship deal was stated to be valued at Rs 23 crore. In a statement issued, TVS Eurogrip said, There is recent speculation in the media about a CSK-TVS Srichakra association in IPL 2022, we would like to inform that this is not true. The group further said that it would keep the media informed of there is any announcement in the future. Please avoid any kind of speculation at this point of time, which will mislead the customers, shareholders and stakeholders, the group urged. The Federal Council Bern, 17.09.2021 - At its meeting on 17 September 2021, the Federal Council took note of the 201820 Activity Report of the Interdepartmental Working Group (IDWG) on Combating Corruption. During the reporting period, the IDWG on Combating Corruption drafted the Federal Council's Anti-Corruption Strategy 202124, which was adopted by the Federal Council on 25 November 2020. The establishment of the federal-cantonal information network on corruption in November 2018 was another highly significant event for the IDWG on Combating Corruption. The network, which is also supported by the Conference of Cantonal Governments, offers a platform for the regular exchange of experience and best practice with cantonal administrations. The report provides an overview of corruption in Switzerland, as well as information on the relevant legislative work and Switzerland's commitment at the international level. It also outlines the implementation of recommendations from country reviews. The IDWG on Combating Corruption, whose mandate was renewed by the Federal Council in April 2018, is responsible for coordinating the Confederation's anti-corruption efforts and monitoring normative developments at the international level. Its members include the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and the federal offices working to combat corruption. Address for enquiries Federal Department for Foreign Affairs FDFA For further information: FDFA Communication Tel. +41 58 460 55 55 kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Publisher The Federal Council https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html Federal Department of Foreign Affairs https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html The Federal Council Bern, 17.09.2021 - At its meeting on 17 September 2021, the Federal Council decided to enact the indirect counter-proposal to the the Fair Prices Initiative on 1 January 2022. This indirect counter-proposal, adopted by Parliament, entails an amendment of the Cartel Act and the Federal Act against Unfair Competition. On 19 March 2021, Parliament adopted an indirect counter-proposal to the Fair Prices Initiative, which aims to fight against high prices in Switzerland. The indirect counter-proposal implements four of the five demands of the Fair Prices Initiative. Following Parliament's decision, the initiative was conditionally withdrawn on 25 March 2021. The referendum period expired unused on 18 July 2021. Undertakings with relative market power The indirect counter-proposal adopted by Parliament involves an amendment of the Cartel Act (CartA) in two respects. Firstly, the concept of relative market power will be explicitly incorporated into Swiss competition law (insertion of the new Art. 4 para. 2bis CartA and an amendment of Art. 7 para. 1 CartA). Secondly, the existing general examples that may constitute an abuse of a dominant position will be expanded to include an additional one (Art. 7 para. 2 let. g I-CartA). This new general example concerns freedom of procurement abroad and will apply to both undertakings with relative market power and dominant undertakings. An undertaking will in future be considered to have relative market power if one or more other undertakings are dependent on it in such a way that there are no sufficient and reasonable possibilities for them to switch to other undertakings. Both commercial customers and suppliers of goods and services can be dependent, provided that they are undertakings. Individual consumers are not included. This exclusion also applies to the public sector, provided that it is not considered an undertaking in individual cases (e.g. hospitals, transport companies). Private geo-blocking is unlawful in principle Parliaments indirect counter-proposal also includes an amendment of the Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UCA). With the introduction of Art. 3a UCA, the use of geo-blocking measures by companies that are not imposed by the state (private geo-blocking) is to be considered unfair and therefore unlawful. Consequently, discrimination of Swiss customers with regard to prices or terms of payment in distance selling (i.e. internet, telephone, catalogue) will in future only be possible if there is an objective reason. Address for enquiries EAER Communications info@gs-wbf.admin.ch +41 58 462 20 07 Publisher The Federal Council https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research http://www.wbf.admin.ch The Federal Council Bern, 17.09.2021 - In summer, the Federal Council set the priorities for the UN General Assembly. At its meeting of 17 September 2021, it was informed about the Foreign Affairs Committees consultation. The priorities are Switzerland's candidacy for the UN Security Council, sustainable development and dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and current cybersecurity and cybercrime processes within the UN. This includes bolstering International Geneva's role in the areas of cyber and digitalisation. Switzerland will be represented at the high-level opening of the UN General Assembly at the end of September in New York by President of the Confederation Parmelin and Federal Councillor Cassis, head of the FDFA. Pandemic-related restrictions will also apply to this year's event. Switzerlands three priorities for the UN General Assembly 76th session are the following: - Promoting Switzerland's candidacy and preparing for a seat on the UN Security Council: In the year leading up to the elections, Switzerland's activities in the General Assembly (UNGA) should be used to highlight the country's proactive and constructive profile at the UN with a view to Security Council membership. For example, Switzerland will take the leading role in several areas including humanitarian work, budgeting and peacebuilding. The objective is to ensure that Switzerland is elected by the UNGA in June 2022 with a solid mandate. - Sustainable development and dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Switzerland is committed to ensuring that the UN can continue to work effectively despite the current pandemic. To this end, the UN's responses should be based on scientific evidence. Implementation of the 2030 Agenda also remains a key concern. During the UNGA's 76th session the focus will be on the sustainability of food systems, the availability of reliable data, and environmental aspects. Switzerland will also present its second national country report on its implementation of the 2030 Agenda in July 2022 in New York. - Promoting a free, open and secure digital space: Switzerland plays an active role in the UN's processes on cybersecurity and cybercrime and promotes the application of international law in the digital space. It will also underline the key role played by International Geneva in the areas of cyber and digitalisation. Switzerland will continue to work on all UN-related themes in addition to these three priorities so as to ensure that Swiss interests remain safeguarded. These topics include in particular the commitment to international law and specifically human rights as well as international humanitarian law, humanitarian affairs and sustainability and disarmament issues. Switzerland will also continue to play an active role in the ongoing UN reform process and in safeguarding the interests of International Geneva. All activities carried out by Switzerland are based on its foreign policy strategies, dispatches and guidelines. Opening week still dominated by COVID-19 The UNGA's 76th session officially began on 14 September 2021 and will continue for one year. The high-level opening of the new UNGA is taking place from 20 to 24 September. Last year's opening was carried out entirely online; this year, several face-to-face meetings will be possible again. President Parmelin and Federal Councillor Cassis will travel to New York to take part in a series of events, and use the opportunity to discuss a range of subjects with other heads of state and government and foreign ministers. Although some restrictions have been relaxed, this year's opening week remains far from normal. As last year, most events will be conducted in hybrid form or entirely online. President Parmelin and Federal Councillor Cassis will therefore, where necessary, also represent Switzerland virtually, such as in pre-recorded video statements or live appearances on virtual conference platforms. In the run-up to the high-level week, on 18 September Federal Councillor Cassis will present the UN with an ephemeral environmentally friendly land art painting. On 21 September, President Parmelin will deliver Switzerland's official address at the general debate. The following evening, he will meet with his Senegalese and Costa Rican counterparts for a trilateral exchange on sustainable food systems before attending the UN Summit on Food Systems on 23 September. The UN Secretary-General has also requested Switzerland and Sweden to organise another conference on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen which will be chaired by Federal Councillor Cassis together with his Swedish counterpart. In addition, Federal Councillor Cassis will represent Switzerland also in a ministerial meeting on the peace process in Libya. Address for enquiries Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA FDFA Communication Tel. +41 58 460 55 55 kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Publisher The Federal Council https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html Federal Department of Foreign Affairs https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research http://www.wbf.admin.ch The Federal Council Bern, 17.09.2021 - The Federal Council wants to prevent an increase in the number of infections caused by people returning from the autumn holidays. From Monday 20 September, travellers entering Switzerland who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered from COVID-19 will have to present a negative test result. They will then have to be tested again after four to seven days. This was decided by the Federal Council at its meeting on 17 September. The Federal Council has also set out details of how people who have been vaccinated abroad or have recovered abroad can obtain a COVID certificate. With the autumn school holidays approaching, the Federal Council has decided on new public health requirements at the border. This comes in response to experience made after the summer holidays: data from the cantonal contact tracing offices indicates that returning holidaymakers contributed to the worsening situation after the summer. The new rules reflect the fact that the highly contagious Delta variant can cause case numbers to rise very rapidly on a regional basis. It has therefore been decided that keeping and updating a list of risk countries is no longer the most appropriate health protection measure at Switzerlands borders. Compulsory testing on entry for travellers who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered Anyone who has not been vaccinated or has not recovered must present a negative test result (antigen or PCR) on entry into Switzerland, irrespective of where they are travelling from or by which means of transport they are entering the country. After four to seven days in the country, another test must be carried out, subject to a fee. The result of the second test must be sent to the relevant cantonal office. Testing is not required for vaccinated or recovered travellers who can present a COVID certificate or other valid proof of vaccination or recovery. Entry form required for everyone All travellers entering Switzerland whether vaccinated, recovered or with a negative test must also complete the entry form (Passenger Locator Form, SwissPLF). This will enable the cantons to carry out random checks to determine whether people who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered and who entered the country with a test have actually taken the second test after four to seven days. No test or form requirement for cross-border commuters The test and entry form requirements do not apply to travellers in transit through Switzerland without stopping, drivers who transport people or goods professionally, and cross-border commuters or people entering from border areas. The Federal Council is thus taking account of the close economic, social and cultural exchange in the border regions. Children under 16 are also exempt from the test requirement. Risk-based inspections More than two million people and one million vehicles cross Switzerland's borders every day. Risk-based inspections are to be carried out to ensure compliance with the new rules. Anyone required to present a negative test result and who cannot do so on entry must take a test immediately after entering Switzerland. The cantons are required to carry out random checks to ensure that incoming travellers who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered have actually taken the required second test. Fines may be imposed if these rules are breached (CHF 200 for missing test certificates and CHF 100 for incomplete forms). In international travel, the airlines and bus companies are responsible for ensuring that travellers to Switzerland have completed the Passenger Locator Form and can present a COVID certificate or a negative test result. The Federal Customs Administration and local police forces will carry out risk-based inspections on all modes of cross-border travel. In a few weeks, the Federal Council will evaluate the experience with the new entry rules and make adjustments if necessary. The existing entry regulations remain unchanged. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) continues to operate a list of high-risk countries, which is used to determine who may enter Switzerland. Any non-Schengen state not on this list is still considered a risk country for which restrictions on entry to Switzerland apply to unvaccinated third-country nationals. As a Schengen associated country, Switzerland aligns its entry regulations as far as possible with the decisions taken by the European Union. The Travelcheck online tool can be used to check the conditions for travellers wishing to enter Switzerland from specific countries. Swiss COVID certificate for individuals vaccinated or recovered abroad As of 20 September, anyone who has been vaccinated abroad with a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and who is resident in or travelling to Switzerland will be able to obtain a Swiss COVID certificate. This means that people who have been vaccinated abroad or have recovered abroad, such as tourists, can also participate in social activities here. Currently, only the certificates of countries using the EU Digital COVID Certificate are compatible with the Swiss system. The documents can be submitted electronically. Each canton must designate a contact point for persons who have been vaccinated abroad. All cantonal contact points will be listed on a federal website. A federal working group (FDHA, FDFA, FDF) will oversee implementation together with the cantons and other agencies (data protection). The aim is to find a solution that is as efficient, straightforward and user-oriented as possible. In a transitional phase until 10 October 2021, all foreign vaccination certificates for EMA-approved vaccines will be valid for access to events or facilities requiring a COVID certificate. As in neighbouring countries, access to the Swiss COVID certificate will not be extended to all WHO vaccines. Exceptions are being made for Swiss citizens living abroad returning to the country, non-EU citizens working in Switzerland, employees of international organisations and accredited diplomatic staff, as well as students. Outcome of the consultation The Federal Council had consulted on two variants for adapting the entry regulations, one with a requirement to take two tests and one with mandatory quarantine. Based on the results of the consultation, the Federal Council decided in favour of the first variant, which was found to be more practicable and should involve less additional work for the cantons. Address for enquiries Federal Office of Public Health Coronavirus Infoline +41 58 463 00 00 COVID-19 Vaccination Infoline +41 58 377 88 92 Publisher The Federal Council https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html Federal Department of Home Affairs http://www.edi.admin.ch Federal Office of Public Health http://www.bag.admin.ch The Federal Customs Administration http://www.ezv.admin.ch Has the news got you down? Watching JV-Team-Biden destroy our credibility abroad, flood our towns with illegal aliens and unscreened Afghani refugees, and print greenbacks faster than Prez Mitty can spin up tales about his innumerable alter-egos, you thought you had seen it all. Then our nations highest-ranking military officer casually fessed up to committing at least one act of what some have called treason. Who could blame you for cashing out and caving in? But I say take heart. The tonic I offer is an observation I found in a century-old work by an obscure Frenchman who dissects the perennial beast were up against and exposes its Achilles heel. Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931) was a psychologist, sociologist, and anthropologist who studied the relationship between the person and the group. He was not fond of the latter, much less the mentality it spawns. In 1899, M. Le Bon published The Psychology of Socialism, in which he equates the battle between democracy and socialism to the struggle between the individual and society. Though I presume he appreciated the distinction between the USAs representative democracy and the direct democracies of Europe and Latin America, it was immaterial to his analysis. Because I am quite keen on our representative democracy, I will substitute the word republic for his references to democracy (except, of course, in direct quotes). Now, back to that struggle. M. Le Bon (p. 12): "What in effect is Socialism ? He first defines individualism, citing the qualities of self-reliance, maximal work effort, strength of will and self-control (p. 88): "that internal discipline which makes it needless for the individual to seek other guides than himself." By contrast, socialism seeks "equality of condition" (p. 8), minimal work effort (p. 13), forced wealth redistribution (p. 28), a centralized government bent on righting every perceived injustice, however trivial (pp. 130-131), and the suppression of competition (p. 220). Who is most likely to clamor for such a system? He who (a) consistently finds himself on the losing end in competition or (b) has never acquired the practical tools to thrive in modern civilization -- the sort M. Le Bon refers to as The Unadapted (p. 262). The unadapted are, among other things (pp. 268-9), the chronically indolent who reproduce at an alarming rate (pp. 103, 251), youths who are utterly bereft of worldly wisdom, and career academicians who very likely couldnt cut it beyond the ivied walls (p. 270). In M. Le Bon's words (p. 151): "It is among individuals whose needs are very great, and who have neither the capacity nor the energy to acquire the means to satisfy them, that Socialism most easily develops." The most insidious facet of socialism is that it is the predictable result of a republic gone astray. As special interest groups demand ever more of the impossible, politicians grow ever more desperate to promise them the moon and stars, fomenting the "redoubtable popular delusion -- that all ills can be remedied by laws. The Chambers are thus condemned to enact an immense number of laws and regulations of which nobody foresees the consequences, and which have scarcely any other result than to surround the liberty of the citizen with a thousand fetters, and to increase the ills they should remedy." (p. 212) Inevitably, a lazy, self-absorbed, and uninformed electorate will quite enthusiastically misinterpret their republican form of government as a system intended to elevate "the disenfranchised" (the slothful, the dull and the shortsighted) over their "oppressors" (the energetic, the intelligent and the prudent) -- despite the fact that its purpose is just the opposite: to protect the enterprising and self-sufficient individual from the capricious parasitism of gang rule. "But if," the old argument goes, "the adapted individual possesses qualities superior to the inept, why does he need protection?" M. Le Bon answers (p. 103): Unhappily they are the most incapable, the weakest, and the most imprudent who maintain the numerical level of the population." "The individual who is sufficiently strong to count only on his own intelligence and initiative finds himself face to face with the masses to whom their number gives might, the only upholder of right." (p. 13) By sheer force of numbers, then, may the derelict horde neutralize the individual despite the fact that his aptitude surpasses that of any single constituent of the delinquent pack. What motivates this fickle flock? the hatred of the Socialists for the democratic system, a hatred far more intense than was felt by the men of the Revolution for the ancien regime. (p. 221) And what of their leaders? As its name suggests, the purported goal of communism is to engineer an egalitarian paradise where there is no need for government or police or leaders of any ilk, and everyone lives in perfect commie-cola harmony. But the student of history finds two curious things about communism in practice. First, to achieve such a sublime state of being, citizens must first be forcibly stripped of their hard-earned private property -- and a great many their lives, it appears (see Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot). Second, the leaders of the successful revolution are never eager to abdicate the power they have seized to make way for this ever-elusive heaven-on-earth (see Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot). M. Le Bon offers this insight (p. 221): There is to-day no lack of flatterers ready to persuade the masses that the realisation of such an ideal is easy. These dangerous prophets know they will live long enough to reap the fruits of their popularity, but not long enough for events to expose them as impostors, so that they have nothing to lose. But the victory of the socialist will prove fleeting, for within us all resides the genetic imprint of time immemorial: we are hard-wired for aspiration and competition. M. Le Bon speaks of (p. 280): " all through nature an incessant struggle, resulting always in the extinction of the weakest; a cruel law, no doubt, but the origin of all progress, without which humanity would never have emerged from its primitive savagery, and would never have given birth to a civilisation." Let that sink in: competition is the natural order of life. Thus, the fundamental fallacy of socialism is exposed: because the bedrock nature of humankind is to compete, any artificial uniformity socialists impose will ultimately be undone (pp. 225-6). The upshot? Entertain, if you dare, the worst-case scenario: our judges and appellate justices and elected representatives, by intention or apathy, unanimously fail to uphold our constitutional rights as well as the natural rights from which they derive. Would the bold experiment of 1776 die? I think not. Here is why: A right ignored is not a right erased. Hope, creativity and ambition are in our DNA. So, I submit, is the resilience of our founders. Forsaken though our founding documents are now, or may become, they can never be unwritten. I, for one, remain optimistic. Therefore, socialism, be not proud. Image: Public Domain To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Let's get this right: global warming caused the record cold in Texas last winter. And the climate will be even colder for decades to come because the climate is warming, so let's spend trillions to make it colder. Global warming is making us cold, so we need to make it colder, or else the Earth will burn up. That's the conclusion of climate scientists in a new report. Now that the climate appears to be cooling, at least in many heavily populated regions, environmentalists are desperate to salvage their theory of global warming since that theory is the only way that government will be able to take control of the energy industry, which constitutes 8% of the U.S. economy. If greens really believed that carbon emissions were a threat to the planet, they would focus on Asia, not on the U.S., where we have already cut carbon emissions to 1990 levels. But little is said about China, India, Indonesia, and other carbon emitters and nothing in the Paris climate agreement addresses the vastly greater emissions of those countries. The U.S. share of global emissions is only 14%, the same as it was in 1866! Meanwhile, China's share of global CO2 emissions is 27.32% (2017 number). Yet the Paris agreement includes no enforceable plan to reduce Chinese emissions. The real prize for the environmental movement is the U.S. energy industry, one of the last bastions of true capitalism in America. For radical environmentalists, the problem with companies like ExxonMobil isn't emissions it's that it supplies the free market for oil and gas, or did, until the election of board members from Engine No. 1 this year, a recently created group that appears determined to shift American oil and gas companies from fossil toward alternative fuels. Even the United Nations' IPCC admits that reducing carbon emissions in the U.S. will have an extremely limited impact on climate, yet the focus of environmentalists and liberal media is on a small set of companies within the United States. That focus on Big Oil will not change global temperatures, but it may help environmental groups raise money. It changes nothing except to raise the cost and reduce the availability of reliable fossil fuel and to kill tens of thousands of good jobs for American workers and endanger those who are still working. Environmental policies, especially under special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry and energy secretary Jennifer Granholm, politicians with no experience in producing energy, are moving in the wrong direction. More than half of Americans heat their homes with natural gas, but Kerry and Granholm are doing all they can to curb U.S. natural gas production. Only 4% of cars sold in 2020 were electric, but Kerry and Granholm have allowed gas prices to rise by 50%, pressuring the 96% of Americans who purchased gas-powered cars last year and the nearly 100% who owned them before then. In other words, their policies are not market-based they are driven by ideology. Just as climate scientists can say the climate is warming when it's cooling, Biden officials think that Americans want wind and solar when they don't. What Americans really want is cheap and reliable fuel, and that doesn't come from windmills. Kerry and his billionaire wife Teresa Heinz, by the way, own multiple homes, multiple cars, and a $5-million Gulfstream private jet. So far as I can determine, those vehicles include or have included at least one large black SUV and two large Chryslers. In a 2015 disclosure, the Kerry-Heinz family trust was invested in 94 fossil fuel companies and 56 other companies tied to fossil fuels and only one electric vehicle company. So much for Kerry's 2016 statement at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change that "we will live up to our responsibility ... to save our planet from ourselves." Kerry's boss is even less consistent and more hypocritical. Biden's thinking, if one can call it that, is that there is a long-term forecast for colder temperatures, and the way to address this new Ice Age is to eliminate the cheap and reliable energy we've used in the past and replace it with wind and solar, which don't seem to work in extreme conditions. Moreover, we should spend trillions of dollars attempting to make the climate cooler at the very moment in history when the world's leading climate scientists say much of the U.S. is going to get colder much colder. And, at the same time, phone Saudi Arabia and beg them to produce more oil and gas. That prediction of colder temperatures, by the way, is backed up by the Old Farmer's Almanac, which has a way of being right more often than not. The Almanac states that the coming winter will be perfectly horrible, at least in the eastern half of the country, with frigid temperatures and plenty of ice and snow. Even Florida will be cold just the sort of weather environmentalists seem to love. Maybe John Kerry will be able to ski his way through the winter at expensive mountain resorts, but for most of us, it's just miserable. What's the advice from those scientists who are predicting much colder temperatures? According to the report's lead author, Dr. Judah Cohen, it's to shelter in place when the electrical system shuts down, as may well happen. As Cohen put it, "In Texas ... some people froze to death in their homes and perhaps they could have gone to seek shelter." Yes, probably best to seek shelter rather than freezing to death, but where and how does one "seek shelter" when the roads are iced over, trees are down, gas stations can't pump, and there may be no power even in the designated shelters? Just like in Afghanistan, liberals talk in nebulous terms about "having a plan," but when the plan doesn't work, lives are lost. Then liberals want to "move on" and not talk about it. "Don't worry if we're entering a new Ice Age just grab a pillow and head for the nearest shelter. Spend your winter on a cot with hundreds of other COVID-infected refugees from the cold. That's better than sitting in a warm, comfortable home heated by natural gas because oil and gas are evil." Obama's health czar once said the best plan for the elderly is to provide them with painkillers and just let them die. That same callous cruelty is apparent in much the Biden administration has been doing, from Afghanistan to the southern border to climate change. When politics is driven by ideology, there's not much room for human beings. When the windmills freeze up this winter, you can thank Joe Biden and his climate advisers. And think about how warm you'd be with natural gas. Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011). Image via Public Domain Pictures. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Immunity, according to the CDC website, is Protection from an infectious disease. If you are immune to a disease, you can be exposed to it without being infected. They explain that Immunity to a disease is achieved through the presence of antibodies to that disease in a persons system. These antibodies are disease specific. There are two types of immunity, active and passive. Active immunity results when exposure to a disease organism triggers the immune system to produce antibodies to that disease. This occurs through infection with the actual disease, resulting in natural immunity, or introduction of a killed or weakened form of the disease organism through vaccination. COVID has added a twist to the vaccine concept by using messenger RNA rather than an attenuated virus to create immunity. This is a new approach to vaccination and if validated as safe and effective, opens the door to disease prevention on a previously unimaginable scale. But with all new technologies, like self-driving cars, the proof is in the pudding. In addition, breakthrough infections, on the rise, challenge the definition of immunity as being exposed without being infected. This would explain the CDCs recent decision to change the definition of vaccine from immunity to only protection. These immunology basics are taught in high school biology classes and if understandable to teenagers, they should be clear to the medical establishment and leaders of our national health institutions. Yet Dr. Anthony Fauci appears to struggle with these basic concepts, as he had difficulty discussing natural immunity in a recent interview with CNNs Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I must add the standard and unfortunately necessary disclaimer that I am not anti-vaccine, having been personally vaccinated before Christmas of last year. Nor am I offering medical advice. Instead, Ill emphasize that the current vaccines reduce the risk of severe COVID illness hospitalization and death and for those at highest risk, make good sense, in conjunction with consultation with ones own physician. Sorry, but this is a necessary paragraph these days. YouTube screen grab Back to Dr. Fauci who was finally asked by Dr. Gupta about natural immunity. Here is the exchange. GUPTA: And just real quickly, there was a study that came out of Israel about natural immunity, and basically, the headline was that natural immunity provides a lot of protection, even better than the vaccines alone. What do people make of that? So as we talk about vaccine mandates, I get calls all the time, people say, I've already had COVID, I'm protected. And now the study says maybe even more protected than the vaccine alone. Should they also get the vaccine? How do you make the case to them? FAUCI: You know, that's a really good point, Sanjay. I don't have a really firm answer for you on that. That's something that we're going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response. The one thing that paper from Israel didn't tell you is whether or not as high as the protection is with natural infection, what's the durability compared to the durability of a vaccine? So it is conceivable that you got infected, you're protected, but you may not be protected for an indefinite period of time. The Israel study mentioned above found that fully vaccinated individuals are 27 times more likely to become COVID-infected and symptomatic, and seven times more likely to be hospitalized compared to those unvaccinated but with natural immunity. These results suggest that natural immunity is far more robust than vaccine immunity, which was what Dr. Gupta was asking Dr. Fauci about. I wonder if Dr. Gupta will be reported to his state medical board for asking such a question? A July report by Israels Health Ministry described recent COVID cases. Fewer than one percent were among individuals previously infected and recovered, while 40 percent involved those who were vaccinated, contradicting the media-driven pandemic of the unvaccinated narrative. Dr. Fauci acknowledged that this was a really good point but had no firm answer to explain it. If Dr. Fauci was told that seat belts reduce the risk of death from car crashes by 45 percent, would he brush it off the same way saying there is no firm answer to explain it? Dr. Fauci then went on to question the durability of protection from natural versus vaccine immunity. While no one can predict the future with absolute certainty, we do have a good idea of durability. Dr. Faucis employer, the NIH, announced in January 2021, The immune systems of more than 95% of people who recovered from COVID-19 had durable memories of the virus up to eight months after infection. At that time, COVID had been prominently on the scene since March 2020, 10 months previously. Allowing time for the NIH to gather data and report it, in essence, they are saying that thus far, immunity in the infected has not waned. Another study, published in the prestigious journal Nature, demonstrated that T-cell immunity in patients recovering from 2003 SARS (similar to our current SARS-CoV-2 infection) was still robust 17 years post-infection. This study was performed 17 years after the 2003 SARS outbreak meaning that immunity showed no signs of waning to date and could potentially last a lifetime. While antibodies may fade below the limit of detection within 2 to 3 years, as this scientific paper suggests, T-cell immunity likely lasts far longer. Interestingly this immunity from 2003, according to the paper, displayed robust cross-reactivity to the N protein of SARS-CoV-2, our current scourge. Why is this important? There are six coronaviruses known to infect humans, four causing a common cold and two causing severe pneumonia and all of these coronaviruses trigger antibody and T cell responses in infected individuals. This could explain why some individuals infected today had mild or no symptoms, based on immunity from previous similar infections in the past. The FDA also acknowledges the waning durability of the Pfizer vaccine in a report this week evaluating a booster dose, saying several times in the executive summary, confirming the waning of vaccine effectiveness over time. Is Dr. Fauci not aware of this research and the likelihood of natural immunity with potentially extremely long durability? Compare this to vaccine immunity durability, which Dr. Fauci hints may be more durable than natural immunity despite the FDA saying clearly, Vaccine protection against COVID-19 infection wanes approximately 6 to 8 months following the second dose. A Yale infectious disease specialist had a good answer, We can only say that a vaccine is protective as long as we are measuring it which is now only about eight months. Yale Medicine went on to say that studies from the CDC suggested vaccine protection against infection is waning. Common sense suggests that booster injections would not be necessary unless vaccine protection is dropping. Dr. Fauci acknowledged this in his shift from every eight to every five months COVID booster shot recommendations. Simply put, why would he recommend booster shots if the vaccines provided long-acting immunity? We have good evidence that natural immunity is long-lasting, decades or more, and that vaccine immunity is short-lived, months at best, hence the talk of booster shots before the vaccine has even been in use for a year. Where is the thoughtful research and analysis from the medical establishment on natural immunity? Could current vaccines be engendering mutations and variants through immune escape as this paper suggests? Vaccines target only the spike protein, which can mutate, unlike natural immunity which targets dozens of viral proteins, making mutation or resistance far less likely. In addition, natural infection provides mucosal immunity, according to this microbiology paper published last month, providing a first line of defense in our airways, something that vaccine immunity does not offer. As we enter Fall with unpopular vaccine mandates and passports, dividing society in a new form of apartheid, why are basic immunology concepts like natural immunity being tossed aside? Not by everyone though. Spectrum Health in Michigan is granting temporary exemptions from employee vaccine mandates for those who can demonstrate natural immunity to COVID. A recent blood bank study published in JAMA found that 83 percent of Americans have COVID antibodies, either natural or vaccine-induced. We should be celebrating rather than continuing to wring our hands in fear. Leave it to the Brits, in a British Medical Journal article, to ask the question not asked here in the US, Vaccinating people who have had covid-19: why doesnt natural immunity count in the US? Why indeed? Brian C. Joondeph is a physician and writer. He is on sabbatical from social media. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. As with many people this last weekend, I encountered something about the 9/11 attacks. My wife and I watched the movie, Worth, with Michael Keaton as the NY mediating lawyer, Ken Feinberg, whose job it was as a Special Master, to come up with the massive financial compensation package for the victims of the twin towers terrorist attack. We enjoyed the movie, but a line in it so stood out that I found myself pondering its resonance with the current state of America. In a re-creation of the discussion on how to proceed in awarding compensation to the 9/11 victims, one of the lawyers at the table observes, Pretty soon somebodys going to have to do the vulgar work. That line crystallized the monumental challenge the Special Master faced determining who was entitled to receive compensation and how much they were entitled to receive. I imagined the vulgar balancing act of objectivity and subjectivity that is crushingly inevitable. In the end, that vulgar number was seven billion dollars allocated among 5540 people via some calculated formula. Life is filled with vulgarities as when the funeral home director tries to up-sell a casket to grieving relatives of the deceased. It is, after all, how funeral homes make their living. It is true; we dont like to see how the sausage is made. We get offended or squeamish when we are forced to see it which may be why twenty years passed before someone made a movie about the wrenching process of compensating the 9/11 victims. This brings me to the current political situation in America. The reason Trump detractors hated him and still do is that Trump is the vulgar still encouraging the deplorable. Trump forced Democrats to put on hip waders to protect their swamp. His supporters were ready to follow someone who would actually wade into the swamp and drain it. On the other hand, Democrats didnt and dont relish getting soiled. Both my wife and I have similar liberal friends who prefer their politics with tea and crumpets so they get their news from NPR where all things are considered. When they get together, they elbow & fist-bump their covid greetings and laughgag me. People on the conservative side have stronger stomachs for what it takes to restore America. People on the liberal side dont, so they let Antifa and BLM anarchists do their wet work for them. Biden and Fauci now have displaced Trump as the ones causing Democrats to put on their hip waders, what with Afghanistan, the insane covid messaging, and $3.5 trillion in spending. The Biden administration has forced their supporters to notice how their sausage is made, and it is gross and it smells. I dont think Democrats anticipated this any more than they anticipated President Lyndon Johnson blowing it over the Viet Nam war. In the end, the repellent sausage making at the core of the lefts political strategy is also the lefts biggest problem. Their slogan, by any means necessary, is coldly obscene, but it also contains a subtext: that the militant, political jackboots of the Democrat party will do the vulgar work so basic liberals can remain above the fray watching Rachel Maddow and PBS, put up virtuous yard signs, and leave their hip waders hanging next to the garage refrigerator. The problem is every day Biden and Fauci make it harder and harder to do that. Photo credit: kitmasterbloke (cropped) CC BY 2.0 license Spruce Fontaine is the pen name of an artist and retired college art instructor. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. From the beginning, Democrats have used COVID to gain control over Americans. They've been uninterested in treatment and have focused entirely on locking Americans up and, now, forcing a very new, minimally tested, and remarkably ineffective vaccine on them. A few Republican-run states, however, have had a different approach. They've tried to protect the vulnerable, and now that monoclonal antibody drugs seem to stop the virus in its tracks, they've been increasing citizens' access to that treatment. Biden has responded by rationing these drugs so that the states that want them get fewer doses than citizens desire. From the beginning of this pandemic, Democrats have furiously fought COVID treatments. In 2020, their ferocious hostility to potential treatments such as hydroxychloroquine (a drug I was given without even a warning as a prophylactic against malaria when I went to Cambodia) seemed to arise from their desire to ensure that as many people as possible died on Trump's watch, helping to deny him an election victory. Since Biden entered the White House, Democrats again seem determined to deter any COVID treatments calling time-tested, award-winning ivermectin a horse parasite medicine while focusing entirely on forcing Americans to get vaccinated and get passports. Of course, data from all over, especially Israel, reveal that the vaccines have limited efficacy. Just recently, when a vaccinated woman died, her family blamed unvaccinated people for killing her. As Inigo Montoya says when Vizzini keeps incorrectly using the word "inconceivable" in The Princess Bride, I would say to the family: "You keep using that word [vaccine]. I do not think it means what you think it means." In keeping with the "treat people before they end up in hospitals" theory animating conservatives, four states Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama have been aggressively using monoclonal antibody drugs. Even Yahoo! News, as hard-left a media outlet as any you will find, concedes that this treatment "has been shown to reduce hospitalization rates by 70 percent for high-risk COVID-19 patients treated within 10 days." Florida's Gov. DeSantis (who seems to be Biden's particular nemesis), recently set up 25 REGEN-COV sites that dispense Regeneron's version of the monoclonal antibody treatment. The sites have been hugely popular and have coincided with a 50% decrease in Florida hospitalizations. The federal government covers the REGEN-COV cost, which is $1,250 per dose. The COVID vaccine apparently costs $20 per dose (but that ignores the billions of sunk taxpayer costs). The fact that the only FDA-accepted treatment is so expensive also reflects the Democrats' hostility to cheap, non-patent-protected drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. Also, given that the Biden government has impliedly promised to provide welfare, including health care, to the world's illegal aliens, it's pretty rich for it to deny REGEN-COV to American citizens. Biden cannot have states successfully dealing with COVID without relying upon mandated vaccines, vaccine passports, lockdowns, and masks. He's therefore imposing limits on how many doses each state can have, regardless of the different demands among states: The Biden administration is imposing new limits on states' ability to access to Covid-19 antibody treatments amid rising demand from GOP governors who have relied on the drug as a primary weapon against the virus. Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week. The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions. This approach seems to be step one in Biden's threat to governors who resist vaccines and mandates that "I'll use my power as president to get them out of the way." According to RedState, after falsely representing to Florida that it would continue to get the supplies of REGN-COV that it needs, it will lose 6,000 doses per day. And here's the really important thing: Biden's rationing is unrelated to supply and demand. Regeneron has said it will have no problem producing enough drugs to cover nationwide demand. The only reason to cut supplies of REGEN-COV to Republican states is to ensure that more residents of those states die, justifying Biden's demand for mass vaccinations across America. There's a word for people like Biden: evil. Image: REGEN-COV administration in Florida. YouTube screen grab. H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) defined "democracy" as "the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."* Gavin Newsom, flush with his successfully having defeated the recall election, has interpreted the election's results to mean that Californians want him to double down on COVID restrictions. I would assume he also wants to increase the misery of those who dared challenge his regime. When Newsom was interviewed on CBS News following his victory, he made it clear that the lesson he took from the whole experience is that Democrats must be even more aggressive about their policies: In response to a question about what his victory means for national Democrat leaders, Newsom was clear that the message for Democrats across America was to get even tougher on policing everything to do with COVID. [It means t]hat we need to stiffen our spines and lean in to keeping people safe and healthy. That we shouldn't be timid in trying to protect people's lives and mitigate the spread and transmission of this disease. That it's the right thing to do but it's also a motivating factor in this election. Newsom said that he regretted his appearance at the French Laundry, unmasked, with a crowd of people, while Californians were locked up, isolated, and wearing face diapers. However, the way he referred to it and sloughed it off makes one think that Newsom is like the thief who isn't sorry he stole but is terribly, terribly sorry he got caught: Humbling. Made a mistake. And you own it. And no one has beaten me more up than I have myself for just not getting up when I sat down. But more than anything, Newsom's lesson from the recall election is that Californians must want more, and more stringent, COVID policies. He advised Democrats, "Don't be timid. Lean in." Ultimately, as far as Newsom is concerned, his moral high ground was just affirmed. "It's not just about the formal authority of setting the tone and tenor on vaccines and masks, but it's the moral authority that we have." It is true that, despite being the most populous state in America, California is not in the top ten for deaths. Indeed, according to Statista, California comes in at 33 for the number of deaths in America. However, by October of last year, over 19,000 businesses had permanently closed in California. That's 19,000 lives and dreams ruined that we know of. The real picture is almost certainly worse, but after October 2020, the media lost interest in closed California businesses, and you can't find records for the numbers that have closed in the 11 months since October. And while California may have saved some lives by locking people up, shutting down businesses, closing schools, and traumatizing children, it lost many more people than usual thanks to drug overdoses. Overall, in 2020 alone, America suffered a 30% increase in drug overdose deaths. California was part of this trend, with COVID and the homeless crisis that has grown under Newsom resulting in a sharp increase in overdose deaths in just the first two quarters of 2020. California still isn't talking about drug deaths in the remainder of 2020 or during 2021. So it's questionable how much good Newsom did for the people of California. Still, fraud notwithstanding, Californians were scared by the thought of a conservative governor and went with the Devil they knew and we can predict that the Devil they know will force vaccines on them and their children, prevent normal education for those children, continue to force people to wear masks (despite their dubious effectiveness), and keep the screws on small and mid-sized businesses. I would say this serves Californians right, but I know what's really going to happen: a mass exodus, and that's a very bad thing. We've seen with Colorado and Virginia what happens when Democrats, having despoiled their own communities, move into well-managed Republican regions. Having learned nothing from fouling their own nests, they proceed to impose their leftist policies on their new community, wreaking havoc wherever they go. ____________________ *For those wondering, yes, I know that Mencken opposed all forms of democracy, believing that the common man is a numbskull and that the elites ought to control government. Were he here today, I think he would say that, at least as to California, he was right about the common man but wrong to think American governance should ever be left to self-styled "elites." Image: Gavin Newsom. YouTube screen grab. I am cautiously optimistic over the indictment handed down yesterday, accusing attorney Michael Sussman, then of Perkins Coie, representing the Hillary Clinton campaign, of lying to the FBI. It has been very easy to despair that anything would ever come of Durham's special counsel probe, especially after the slap on the wrist delivered to Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI lawyer who lied to a court by changing evidence 180 degrees in order to facilitate a FISA warrant extension. For an officer of the court to lie to a court ought to be a career-ending event for, without integrity, the judicial system falters. But Clinesmith never spent a night in jail and has been readmitted to the bar. Durham asked for six months, but Judge James Boasberg thought otherwise. Writers whom I respect, such as Don Surber and John Hinderaker, make me look Pollyanna-ish. Surber: "I am unexcited because none of the co-conspirators Hillary, Obama, Comey, and the media were indicted." Hinderaker: "Durham harvests more small potatoes." But what gives me hope is the possibility of conspiracy charges developing. The statute of limitations on lying to the FBI was about to expire, so Durham's team had to indict now, even before other evidence might be ready to indict others or bring other charges against Sussman. Retired FBI special agent Mark Wauck, who has graciously given me permission to quote his work beyond fair use limits, is optimistic: John Durham's indictment of Michael Sussmann has been a long time coming, but it doesn't disappoint. The indictment is 27 terse pages long, dense with documentation of legal services billing and communications regarding technical internet matters. Nevertheless it sketches out the overall shape of a conspiracy in which Sussmann played a central coordinating role, but in which other top Dem operatives figure prominently. For now analysis is focusing on the document itselfit charges Sussmann with a single count of making a false statement to the federal governmentbut attention will quickly shift to speculation about who else is implicated. Mark digests and summarizes the indictment (read it here): The indictment begins with a narrative style overview. The case first came to public attention when just one week before Election 2016 multiple media outlets began reporting that the US government was investigating a claimed "secret channel of communications between the Trump organization ... and "Russian Bank-1" Alfa Bank. In fact the FBI had initiated such an investigation at the behest of Michael Sussmann. Sussmann, a lawyer at a major DC law firm, Perkins Coie [Law Firm-1], had presented various files to FBI General Counsel James Baker, which purported to support the idea of this secret channel of communications. However, Sussmann had lied to Baker, denying that he was presenting the materials on behalf of "any client." In actual fact, Sussmann was acting on behalf of: Rodney Joffe [Tech Executive-1] of Neustar [Internet Company-1]; and The Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign. In fact, Sussmann billed his meeting with Baker to the Clinton Campaignproof positive that he had come to Baker's office on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Mark makes the point that had the FBI known that the allegations against Trump came directly from the Clinton Campaign, the credibility of the allegations would have been seriously undermined. The FBI would have thought and rethought the idea of even opening such an investigation. That was the reason Sussmann lied, and by doing so he gained his end: a media buzz about the FBI investigating Trump's supposed secret channel to Russia, just a week before the election. Cui bono? ("Who benefited?") Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016 If a big if evidence is developed that Hillary herself and/or top campaign officials, including the campaign's general counsel (and at the time Sussman's law partner) Marc Elias participated in planning and implementing this hoax, it opens the door to conspiracy indictments for more than just lying to the FBI. And there may already be such evidence in hand: What Durham's investigation determined was that Joffe who hoped to obtain a plum cybersecurity position in a Clinton administration had exploited his access to non-public internet data to conduct opposition research against Trump and recruited others to assist him. Joffe, Sussman, and Perkins Coie had coordinated with representatives of the Clinton Campaign to concoct the material that Sussmann presented to Baker. According to the indictment, the role of Perkins Coie in this conspiracy was to retain the services of Fusion GPS [Investigative Firm-1] on behalf of the Clinton Campaign. This was essentially a money laundering ploy the use of the notorious opposition research firm and its controversial principal, Glenn Simpson, would not be easily traceable to the Clinton Campaign through financial disclosures. At the same time, a partner at Perkins Coie, Marc Elias [Campaign Lawyer-1], was acting as General Counsel for the Clinton Campaign and coordinating closely with Sussmann and Fusion/Simpson in concocting the material that Sussmann eventually presented to the FBI's Baker. At some point in July, 2016, Sussmann alerted by Joffe began working on what he called a "special" or "confidential project" the Alfa Bank hoax narrative about Trump's supposed secret channel of communications with the Russian government. All his work on this project as Durham[] documents was billed to the Clinton Campaign, including all his communications with Elias and Joffe[.] Now, I am far from an expert on cyber-crime, but Joffe's "access to non-public internet data" sounds a lot like hacking to me. While somebody like Sussmann or his former partner Elias might be a "stand-up guy," as the Mafia calls them, meaning somebody who'd take a prison sentence rather than implicate his partners in crime, I am less certain that Joffe would be reluctant to name those who commissioned him (and therefore conspired) to hack internet accounts of others. Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer, sees this as big: There are other figures who might be caught up in conspiracy charges: What we learn in the leadup to Sussmann's meeting with Baker implicates others in the conspiracy. At every step of the way, we find Sussmann consulting with Elias the Clinton Campaign's top lawyer. We also find Sussmann and Elias meeting multiple times with Fusion GPS/Simpson. Although Durham doesn't include this in the indictment, we know from civil court testimony that Chris Steele was present at one of those joint meetings and that Steele claims it was Sussmann and Simpson who instructed him to concoct one of the documents that was submitted to the FBI. Clearly all of these players have reason to be concerned about Durham's future moves. Nick Arama of RedState is also favorably impressed with the possibilities of hitting the Clinton campaign (and, I might add, its principal, Hillary) opening up: The charge is that he lied to the FBI, telling them that he wasn't representing the Clinton 2016 campaign when he was spreading the false stories about the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. In other words, the very charge is saying that, yes, he indeed was working for the Clinton campaign in spreading these false stories saying officially (although we've obviously always known it) that the Clinton campaign was behind it. So that declaration is in itself is big. It's not yet time to break out the champagne, but cautious optimism seems warranted. We've all been impatient with Durham, but as several people have pointed out, no doubt Perkins Coie fought like crazy eating up plenty of time to shield its billing records and other internal documents from scrutiny. Also, COVID has slowed down the courts, so delivering an indictment a few days before the statute of limitations hits shows at least a determination to see the case through. Graphic credit: Nick Youngson, CC BY-SA 3.0, Pix4free.org. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. CNN, MSNBC, and the alphabet networks have all have ignored the massive invasion of illegal aliens touched off by the Biden administration's welcome mat. They, and their Democrat colleagues, do not want the public to see evidence of the 200,000 a month arriving. Fox News, to its everlasting honor, is covering the invasion thoroughly and has been using drones to show the magnitude of the problem. Until just a few hours ago. On Tucker Carlson's top-rated program, news broke that the FAA has grounded the drone Fox was using at Del Rio to show at least 10,000 Haitians sheltering under a bridge on the U.S. side of the border: Migrants at Texas border waiting to be processed double in one day | https://t.co/gok1IsiOo0 Bookwormroom (@Bookwormroom) September 17, 2021 .@FoxNews has been covering the border nonstop for almost 7 months now, we use the drone constantly, and it has never been an issue. We have reached out to the FAA to ask for clarification on why this TFR was implemented. We havent heard back yet. Will update if/when we do. Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021 The FAA later made an update, claiming that the Border Patrol (where? In D.C.?) requested the TFR: UPDATE: FAA statement The Border Patrol requested the temporary flight restriction due to drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border. As with any temporary flight restriction, media is able to call the FAA to make requests to operate in the area.@FoxNews Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021 I don't like the language "requests to operate" one bit, for it gives a government agency veto power over news reporting. I presume that Fox News is fighting the order in court, but they must also make a steady stream of requests (hourly?) to operate drone flights to follow the crowds of aliens at Del Rio and elsewhere along the border. Photo credit: YouTube screen grab. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Something exponential is happening now that 200,000 illegals are swarming our borders. For sure, Joe Biden's invitation is fueling decisions to come. But the vehicle making it happen is important, too: Facebook, which is now hosting human smuggling rackets and worse on its pages. It's allowing them to recruit and message freely. I wrote about that in April here. Behind every human-smuggling racket is a cartel. Here's the worst of it: they're operating freely on Facebook, too. According to an investigative series on Facebook's activities done by the Wall Street Journal: In January, a former cop turned Facebook Inc. investigator posted an all-staff memo on the company's internal message board. It began "Happy 2021 to everyone!!" and then proceeded to detail a new set of what he called "learnings." The biggest one: A Mexican drug cartel was using Facebook to recruit, train and pay hit men. The behavior was shocking and in clear violation of Facebook's rules. But the company didn't stop the cartel from posting on Facebook or Instagram, the company's photo-sharing site. Scores of internal Facebook documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show employees raising alarms about how its platforms are used in some developing countries, where its user base is already huge and expanding. They also show the company's response, which in many instances is inadequate or nothing at all. Did we read that right? "Recruit, train and pay hit men"? On Facebook? We did, and cartels are the number-one threat to Mexico as well as a threat here. It would be comparable to Facebook allowing al-Qaeda to operate freely on its pages recruiting, training, and paying terrorists to strike the U.S. But for Facebook, they're just Mexicans, so it's aren't going to stop it, not when third-world accounts make up the active part of Facebook's revenue (currently up 55%) with around 90% of the growth. The money is rolling in. Facebook's responses to these charges (and plenty of others from the Journal) has been execrable: While there is always more we can do, these teams have helped us to find and disrupt gangs and traffickers operating on our platform. Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 16, 2021 Always more we can do? They aren't doing jack, and cartels are having a field day. How hard is it for these people to hit "delete"? What's more, why was it easy for them to hit "delete" on President Trump but a matter of hems and haws on gruesome organized murder? In the past, cartels would recruit by word of mouth, from reform schools, jails, and village raids. Cartels in the early 21st century would use individual blogs to post their pornoviolence. But their audiences were small. Today, Facebook has made recruiting easy, with much bigger pools of ever-younger recruits all a cartel needs now is a Facebook (or Instagram) page, complete with sickening videos of gold-plated guns, car tires running over opponents' heads, beheaded bodies hanging from bridges, big dollar piles, and rotting mass graves. The Journal notes that pornographers, child-traffickers, and organ-traffickers are also having a field day, and Facebook, despite warnings, is doing nothing. Social media, according to this Federation of American Immigration Reform study, is far and away the number-one way Latin Americans (to take one relevant example to cartels) get their news now. In recent years, the use of social media has proliferated among human smugglers and migrants due to the ability of these platforms to communicate within seconds and being able to connect random users together from all parts of the world. Talk radio, which was once seen as the dominant method of communication and coordination for migration in Central and South America, has seen a significant decline in these regions. The State Department has recently revealed that "data shows mobile is the dominant source of media consumption in the region," and digital ads placed on Facebook and Instagram have reached more than 26 million people since Inauguration Day." What's wrong with social media, and why is Facebook so clearly arrogant and deceptive, literally boosting the cartel trade and the human-smuggling rackets affiliated with cartels even as Mexico struggles? Most likely, it's political power. They've got Democrats on their string. Not only do they donate to Democrats and pay for projects to encourage mass migration and illegal immigration, but they ban opposition conservatives. Worse still, their personnel offices are a revolving door between Democrat operatives and Facebook honchos. Stone is one, and there are several others. In California, they've actually taken orders from leftist state legislators. So to say Facebook and Democrats are separate beasts is actually a little skeezy. But why are they supporting cartels, even as they say they're trying to not do that? Likely for the same reason they are supporting coyote operations on their pages cash, but also happy Democrats who are quite pleased about Joe's open borders and all the Democrat voters they expect to get from it. It wreaks havoc, and it's way past time for this to be illegal. Facebook is protected by Section 230, which, unlike newspapers, immunizes it to whatever content it hosts. Are banks immunized from deposits coming in from drug lords? Not in the least; they go to great lengths to make sure their money is clean, and if it's not, they get slapped with big fines. There are many examples. Why isn't Facebook, a money machine of its own, regulated like a bank and its deposits, if not like the rest of the press? The immunity and impunity they've got here and the destruction they've wrought are enormous. Image: Eldwin Lopez via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. While it should be a no-brainer that the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan has emboldened like-minded (read: "radical") Muslims to no end, few in the West appreciate how this episode especially America's disastrous retreat is being used to validate the Koran itself, and thus Muslim zeal and faith in Islam. Beginning around August 15, 2021, when the Taliban reconquered Afghanistan, every time I watched an Arabic-language program or sheikh speak, they cited several Koran verses as "proof" that it was only inevitable only a matter of time that the U.S. would be humiliated and the Taliban exalted. Consider, as one example, the words of popular sheikh Wagdi Ghoneim. An Egyptian scholar of Islam and member of the Muslim Brotherhood, he is notorious for issuing violent fatwas against Israel and inciting hatred against other "infidels" (including by threatening Egypt's indigenous Christian minority, the Copts, with genocide). With such "credentials," it should come as no surprise that he once served as the imam of the Islamic Institute of Orange County, California, and was a fundraiser for the Toledo, Ohio charity KindHearts (a Hamas front). On August 15, 2021, this Ghoneim offered a "victory" speech that at least as of the publication of this article still appears on YouTube, titled (in translation), "Allahu Akbar: The Taliban's Victory Represents the Power of Jihad in Allah's Way." As might be expected, his talk is replete with Koran verses praising the virtues of jihad. For example: O believers! Be mindful of Allah and seek what brings you closer to him and perform jihad in his way, so you may be successful (5:35). O believers! March forth [into battle] whether it is easy or difficult for you, and perform jihad with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah. That is best for you, if only you knew (9:41). Having laid the doctrinal framework for jihad, Ghoneim moved on to its most important aspect: perseverance. "The Taliban persevered in its jihad for 20 years. This isn't a problem what's 20 years in the context of history? Who said [the outcome of] jihad is instantaneous? No! It requires patience and time!" Patience and perseverance in the jihad was his grand point not to mention the grand takeaway lesson of Afghanistan for all Muslims. It is for Allah to decree when the jihad succeeds; for everyday Muslims, the duty is simply and always to wage it. If they do so, Allah, according to his word, shall eventually bless them with victory. Supporting Koran verses Ghoneim cited include: We will certainly test you until we learn who among you are the true mujahidin [jihadists] who remain steadfast and how you conduct yourselves (47:31). Do you think you will enter Paradise without Allah proving which of you truly performed jihad for his cause and patiently endured? (3:142) O believers! Patiently endure, persevere, stand on guard, and be mindful of Allah, that you may be successful (3:200). Interestingly, the phrase "stand on guard" in Koran 3:200 literally means "perform ribat" that is, man the frontier zone, whence the infidels should be harried, including through guerrilla tactics. That's precisely what the Taliban did. Finally, Ghoneim moved onto Allah's words concerning infidels, especially those who try to prevent Muslims from performing jihad and enforcing sharia. He quoted Koran 8:36: "Surely the infidels spend their wealth to prevent others from the Way of Allah [sabil allah, i.e., jihad]. They will continue to spend to the point of regret. Then they will be defeated and the infidels will be driven into hell." As countless other Muslim clerics and leaders have done, are doing, and will do for years to come, Ghoneim explained how that particular Koran verse foretold America's defeat that is, so long as there were always Muslims willing to persevere in the jihad. At one point he descended into wild gloating: "See how much they lost by way of dead and wounded and trillions, all lost! So you see, trillions they have lost!" At any rate, the takeaway lesson from Afghanistan for millions of Muslims the world over is that perseverance in jihad and patience pays off just as the Koran says it will. Put differently, the roles of both the Taliban and the U.S. have now confirmed for Muslims the truths of the Koran specifically, that perseverance in the jihad always leads to victory over and leaves infidels broken, even if it takes years and decades. "Therefore, thanks be to Allah," concluded Ghoneim, "that they [Taliban] were patient and steadfast, and Allah rewarded them with victory over the infidel nations." He closed by supplicating Allah to let the umma, the entire Muslim world, learn from the Taliban from "those heroes who raised all of our heads up high and cast the infidels' heads down in shame." As such, expect to see a renewed and unwavering commitment to the jihad in the foreseeable future. Raymond Ibrahim, author of Sword and Scimitar, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center; a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum; and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute. Image: newsonline via Flickr, CC BY 2.0 (cropped). To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Once upon a time, the sole motivation for joining the armed forces was patriotism. The fervor for the well-being of the nation was such that individuals were willing to make supreme sacrifices, including laying down their lives. Now for the General Mark Milley story that hit headlines a day ago. The following is an extract from Bob Woodward's recent book, Peril: Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country's top military officer was so fearful that the president's actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict. In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike. ... One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election ... and the other on Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol siege[.] ... Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they'd established through a backchannel. "General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise." ... In the second call, placed to address Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6, Li wasn't as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him, "We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes." Li remained rattled, and Milley, who did not relay the conversation to Trump, ... understood why. The chairman ... believed the president had suffered a mental decline after the election ... a view he communicated to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ... on Jan. 8. He agreed with her evaluation that Trump was unstable. ... Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises. ... The admiral complied. Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an "oath." President Donald Trump's secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, said he did not sign off on a call from Milley to his Chinese counterpart. Miller added that Milley's action "represents a disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination by the nation's top military officer." We go back to the basics. The main function of all personnel of the armed forces is not devising military strategies or fighting wars; it is to defend and maintain democracy within the country. Since 300 millionplus people cannot all run the country, they lend power to an individual through their votes. A duly elected president is hence authorized to conceive, plan, and implement the policies that he has the mandate for. The armed forces must always function as a watchdog who is on the alert for even the slightest attempts to subvert democracy A military officer must always be loyal to the president and assiduously follow orders. If circumstances arise where a military officer has a vehement difference with his commander-in-chief, he must voice his opinion and expound his reasons for disagreement, which perhaps changes the commander-in-chief's mind. If, however, the nature of the disagreement is so strong that the military officer feels he will not be able to follow orders, he has no option but to resign. The military officer can inform his superiors in civilian leadership if he senses the possibility of a crisis. He can always voice his differences later, provided no state secrets are divulged. He can always join politics, run for office, and become a policymaker himself. But under no circumstances does a military officer have the right to circumvent civilian leadership and act according to what he deems right. George Bernard Shaw once said, "I never expect a soldier to think." This may sound like a derisive remark, but Shaw is absolutely right in this situation. The job of each and every individual in the armed forces is to follow orders from their commander-in-chief. Reacting to the news in a written statement, Milley's spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said Milley acted within his authority as the most senior uniformed adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense. Despite Woodward's dubious record, his account of Milley appears to be factual, else Milley would have issued a detailed denial. This leaves us with two open questions: Why did Milley feel empowered to go rogue and even warn a foreign adversary? Why was Milley so confident about his anti-democratic actions that he would talk about the matter to Woodward? The fault here lies within the Washington swamp. Over decades, the swamp has grown to the extent that it no longer respects the will of the people. In fact, it has disdain for regular people. It functions solely to serve its own interests and maintain the status quo. To maintain the status quo, its denizens present to the public with myriad candidates from various parties, to create an illusion of variety. Upon election, the individual may move a little to the left or a little to the right, but if they attempt any drastic changes, the swamp will strike back with a vengeance. The Bushes may sound and appear very different from Bill Clinton, while Barack Obama may sound like an idealist. The public is fooled into thinking real changes are about to occur. But if you scrutinize their policies, there is very little difference. When they leave office, they show their true colors and even sound alike. The same set of problems remains unresolved for decades, and the same group of people gets paid handsomely to resolve them. The likes of General Milley, who are the masters of the swamp, are the ones in charge while the elected official is often just a rubber stamp. When an individual such as President Trump is elected solely due to the will of the people from a grassroots movement, the disapproving swamp places innumerable obstacles to prevent his ability to bring about any major change. In a functioning democracy, Milley would have been summarily dismissed and be court-martialed for attempting to subvert democracy. Unsurprisingly, quite the opposite has occurred. The reaction from within the swamp has been an endorsement of Milley's actions. Biden has said he has "great confidence in Milley." Milley obviously knew this would be the case, which gave him to confidence to brag about it. Therefore, it seems unlikely that Milley will suffer any punishment. We hence have a new rule: acts bordering on treason are no longer punishable. However, walking down the street without a mask is most certainly a grave offense. Image: Screen shot from ABC News video via shareable YouTube. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Douglas MacArthur was one of the nation's greatest generals. In his time, there was no more revered, lauded, and beloved military figure. He graduated first in his class at West Point, where, after service in WWI, he served as its superintendent. During WWII, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army in 1944 and given command of all Army forces in the Pacific. On September 2, 1945, it was MacArthur who accepted Japan's unconditional surrender, ending the war. Following the surrender, he served as the military governor of Japan, helping to usher in a modern government and economy. When North Korea invaded South Korea, in June 1950, it was MacArthur whom Truman put in command of the U.N. forces to repel the invasion and prevent South Korea from falling to communism. It was a no-brainer. After MacArthur drove the North Korean forces back across the 38th Parallel, the official demarcation line between the North and the South, beginning with a brilliant landing at Inch'on harbor, the Communist Chinese sent massive forces into Korea in support of the North and drove the U.N. forces back below the 38th Parallel and into South Korea. Unfortunately for MacArthur, he had an ego to match his brilliant military acumen. It was this brash and flamboyant side that resulted in his being unceremoniously relieved of command of the U.N. forces. Truman's stated policy was for a more limited war in Korea to limit casualties and not risk a third world war. MacArthur disagreed with this policy and wanted to expand the conflict to continue the advance into China and said so, publicly. In doing so, he defied the commander-in-chief, President Truman, and thus, he was deemed to have threatened the civilian-military control balance. For this transgression, along with several other earlier episodes of defiance, on April 11, 1951, Truman removed MacArthur from his command for insubordination. In a statement made to the American people regarding the firing, Truman explained he had done it "so that there would be no doubt or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy." In short, the civilians are in charge and set the policy, not the generals. It has now come to light that while Trump was president, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley, on his own initiative, in a demented effort at professional courtesy, contacted a top-ranking Chinese general to give him the "heads-up" that if the U.S. were to attack, he would call ahead to let him know. In addition, Milley communicated to and apparently coordinated with speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and thenminority leader Charles Schumer, in the waning days of the Trump presidency, to limit Trump's abilities as the constitutionally designated commander-in-chief by improperly inserting himself into the nuclear launch sequence. Not only were these acts insubordinate, but they arguably constitute conspiracy to commit treason. They make what MacArthur did look like an infraction of failing to salute a superior officer. One of the greatest military leaders in the history of this country was removed from command of forces engaged in a shooting war for questioning the civilian war policy. In contrast, Milley not only spoke against policy but affirmatively acted against a sitting president. This warrants not only immediate removal from his post but also a referral for court-martial. If convicted, Milley should be stripped of rank and dishonorably discharged. In 1951, that is exactly what would have occurred. Unfortunately, this is 2021, and, given the degenerated mental acuity of the current commander-in-chief and the clown show that is his administration, it is unlikely that anything will happen to Milley. Congress, which is controlled by power-hungry wannabe Marxist Democrats, who, ironically, once held a deep distrust of the military, will also sit idly by as the destruction of the Constitution by the military leadership continues. To paraphrase the late Senator Fritz Hollings, I never knew Douglas MacArthur, and he was obviously no friend of mine, but rest assured nonetheless: General Milley is no Douglas MacArthur. If being removed from command can happen to a great military leader and great American like Douglas MacArthur, then it should definitely happen to the likes of General Mark Milley. Image via Picryl. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. As I recall, President Obama ended the Iraq War 10 years ago. We returned in 2014 and are still there. Will we watch a repeat performance and return to Afghanistan? According to a new poll, a majority of Americans believe that we are going back: Nearly 7 in 10 Americans, 69 - 24 percent, say it was the right thing to do to end the war in Afghanistan. However, Americans give Biden a negative 31 - 65 percent score for the way he handled withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. More than 6 in 10 Americans, 62 - 28 percent, say they think American troops will have to return to Afghanistan to fight terrorism. Time will tell but I agree with the aforementioned 62%. We got out prematurely and poorly and that usually means that a future brigade will have to go back and clean up the mess. Perhaps my fellow Americans are pessimistic because they saw Secretary of State Antony Blinken testify before Congress. The Secretary looked weak even when he got softballs from Democrats. He tried to blame the Trump administration but the polls show that the voters are holding the Biden administration on this one. He answered with "false choices" about leaving now or staying around for a long time. Then he tried to politicize the story by saying that the Trump team did not leave him a plan. So its likely we will go back. I pray that it wont be in response to a major terrorist act hatched in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, hatching terrorist attacks is what terrorists do. Do you remember the 1990s? P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk). Image: Screen shot from NBC video, via shareable YouTube To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. As a Vietnam veteran whos been watching media coverage of 20 years of war, including the pullout from Afghanistan, I would like to tell the media that they make me sick with their obligatory statement of thank you for your service to our country that they blandly regurgitate whenever they talk to current or former members of the armed forces. I have some suggestions for ways to help all veterans feel genuinely appreciated. I served from 1967 until 1971 but, as a member of the Air Force Band of the West, I never saw combat. Still, we veterans who never served on the battlefield know that our support was important to the overall mission. We have profound respect for our band of brothers who put their lives on the front line. Many of them came home wearing prosthetic arms and legs while battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, homelessness, and drug addiction for the rest of their lives. Too many others came home in a flag-draped coffin. As a band member, I saw the tragic results of combat up close. I played taps at Fort Sam Houston Cemetery for a 19-year-old soldier who was killed In Vietnam. I heard his mother scream, You killed my baby as the Officer in Charge presented her with her sons flag. One Sunday afternoon, I was sent to Brooke Army Medical Center to entertain the soldiers who were recovering from severe combat burns and injuries. I saw soldiers show their appreciation as they clapped their prosthetic arms and legs together. One soldier, without legs, used his only remaining prosthetic arm to clap against his wheelchair to show his appreciation. As our combo was packing up, he wheeled up and thanked us for coming. Our full military parade band was sent to Kelly Air Force Base to play patriotic music while hundreds of wounded soldiers were taken off the plane. After the wounded left, I saw many flag-draped caskets come down to a long line of black hearses each waiting to receive a soldier. These sacrifices deserve more than a rote thank you for your service. For those members of the press who have never reported from the battlefield, please consider doing the following before thanking us for our service. Visit a Veterans Hospital or Walter Reed Army Hospital and interview some veterans. See and hear their stories tell what war is really like before publishing your next story or posting your next tweet or video from the comfort of your home or office. Talk to the families of soldiers who are still classified as Missing in Action in Vietnam. They are never forgotten. Their parents, siblings, spouses, and children live every day wondering if their loved one is alive, where he is, and how he is being treated. For decades, they have celebrated birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, graduations, and weddings with that shadow hanging over them. Visit a veteran who lives in a Tunnel to Towers home to see how the scars of war affect the way she moves through her home, cooks a meal, takes a shower, and mows her lawn. Then have her take you in her special-equipped car to go grocery shopping or to the VA for treatment. Research Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee to learn how she dealt with the loss of her son Marc A. Lee, a Navy Seal, who was killed in Iraq in 2006. Learn how she still honors her son through an organization she formed called Americas Mighty Warriors. If you have the courage, read Marcs last letter to Debbie, which is a testament to how great our soldiers are. And finally, interview those members of the press who covered the battlefield. Many were wounded and some were killed. Hear from your band of brothers how their battlefield experience changed their lives. Congress, with its 535 strong band of brothers, also makes me sick, but thats another story for another day. As veterans, we know what we did and why we did it. We took our oaths and we did our job. After 20 years of war and an embarrassing withdrawal, the least the media can do is truly honor our military. Image: A 9/11 remembrance ceremony aboard the USS Portland. Department of Defense photo. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Mobile users in need of more basic devices have new flip phone options available from TCL and Alcatel. And were not talking about foldable phones of the Android variety. Instead, these are old-school but still modernized feature phones. Specifically, for use with 4G via carriers Verizon, T-Mobile, and prepaid subsidiaries. What kind of phone is the TCL FLIP Pro, Alcatel GO FLIP 4 It may or may not come as a shock that both of these phones are effectively identical. TCL has been manufacturing devices for Alcatel for quite some time. And this time around its bringing its own to the table to match. So they pack the same basic shape, a textured design with a 1.44-inch, 128 x 128 resolution screen on the outside. Inside, things get a bit clearer with a 2.8-inch, 320 x 240 resolution panel. Although thats not altogether surprising since the handsets only measure 4.22-inches by 2.19-inches. Thats at a thickness of 0.78-inches and a weight of just under 133g. Advertisement And, of course, neither of these two devices runs Android, either. Instead, TCL and Alcatel opted to utilize KaiOS. Thats a relatively new operating system centered on non-touch interfaces, with an Android-like app experience. Including support for Chrome and other Google apps. Given that Google invested as much as $22 million in the project back in 2018, it should offer a great if trimmed back experience. At least for those who only really need the basics. That means that the specs under the hood dont look the snappiest either. At least not on paper. The companies chose to go with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 SoC, for starters. And it paired that with 512MB of RAM and just 4GB of storage, expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. And the camera game isnt the strongest here either, with a single 2-megapixel snapper. Thats capable of shooting 480p at 30 frames-per-second and 1080p at 30 frames-per-second on the playback side. Advertisement Both phones are made by TCL but the Alcatel GO FLIP 4 goes its own way Now, there are a few differences between these phones as well. For instance, the spec sheet on the two devices shows that the Alcatel GO FLIP 4 comes with acrylic glass on the internal and external screens. The glass type, conversely, for the TCL FLIP Pro isnt specified. Theres also the fact that the Alcatel GO FLIP 4 operates on different mobile bands than its TCL-branded flip phone counterpart. And that comes down to the fact that these phones support different carriers entirely. Alcatel will support T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile with its flip phone while TCL is supporting Verizon prepaid, postpaid in the coming weeks and US Cellular. Beyond that, although no reason for the discrepancy is given, the Alcatel GO FLIP 4 will last longer than the TCL flip phone. The company indicates that it can go more than 18 days in between charges on standby. With up to 37 hours of use time and up to 12.7 hours of talk time. By comparison, the TCL FLIP Pro can last for up to 14 days on standby with 14 hours of talk time. Time under usage is listed as up to 24 hours. Advertisement Similarly, while both phones support 4G LTE and VoLTE, the Alcatel GO FLIP 4 only supports up to 8 gadgets on its mobile hotspot. The TCL FLIP Pro, on the other hand, supports up to 10. Last but not least, the TCL FLIP Pro comes in a Slate Gray coloration, while the Alcatel flip phone ships in Midnight Blue. Pricing and availability Pricing and availability for the two new flip phones will vary as well. As noted above, TCL FLIP Pro has landed at Verizon Prepaid first, as well as US Cellular. It will arrive for postpaid customers on Verizon in the coming weeks. Advertisement That phone will start off at a retail cost of $69.99 or, at US Cellular, at $99.99 with payment options starting at $4.16 per month over 24 months. Conversely, T-Mobile will be selling the Alcatel GO FLIP 4 at $4 per month over a 24-month contract. Metro will sell the phone for $99.99. But will also offer a discount, putting the price at $49.99 with an eligible update. Buyers can also get the phone for free with a new line addition or by switching to Metro. TCL Flip Pro - US Cellular Advertisement Alcatel GO FLIP 4 - T-Mobile Bear cub Wonder is rescued from illegal traffickers and arrives safely at Animals Asias Vietnam sanctuary 17 September 2021 Late on Monday night, our Vietnam sanctuary team was contacted by a police officer in the Dien Bien border region of North Vietnam. They had confiscated a bear cub from an illegal wildlife trafficker and asked us to come and rescue them. The police had been tipped off by Education For Nature Vietnam (ENV) who had been monitoring the traffickers movements for a month. They intercepted the trafficker as he crossed the border from Laos to likely sell the cub into bear bile farming or as an exotic pet. As the cub is so small - around 30kg - its also likely they were snatched from the wild and saw their mother being killed as she would have fought fiercely to protect her cub. A hopeful new future From the heartbreaking video the police had sent of the little bear in a tiny cage, we saw that they have a beautiful, distinctive W shaped crescent on their chest. So we have nicknamed this little one Wonder because there are many things we dont know about them... We wonder where they came from, we wonder how they suffered and what became of their mother. We wonder what would have happened if they hadnt been saved from an unknown yet certain terrifying fate. But what we did know is that this little cub would soon be safe in our care, and will never have to suffer and be scared or alone ever again. The rescue mission begins Dien Bien is around 500km from our sanctuary in Tam Dao and travel between provinces is strictly restricted due to the current covid-19 situation, so our rescue team couldnt rush to go and get the cub as they normally would. Before our team could even leave the sanctuary they each had to take a covid-19 test, await the results and be given the all-clear. They sent our Bear Cub Care Guide to the Dien Bien police to ensure they could take care of the cub until we reached them. Thankfully all members of our rescue team were cleared to travel and on Wednesday they began the long journey to Dien Bien. They had to stop at regular checkpoints to prove they were safe to travel between provinces. Thankfully, the Dien Bien police had sponsored our journey to ensure it was as smooth and quick as possible. Our rescue team arrives! Early on Thursday morning the Animals Asia rescue team arrived at the police station and went straight to the tiny cub. Rescue leader and Bear Team Manager, Hiep, immediately crouched down to their level and began talking in a calm, soothing tone as he offered the cub honey and dried fruit on a long spoon. At first the cub was understandably nervous at this new person, but soon became more confident as Hiep kept feeding them tasty treats. They even started reaching out of their temporary cage to grab fruit from Hieps hand! The police had been feeding the cub different kinds of fruit and the cub showed a preference for watermelon, so we will be sure to feed them lots of that in the coming days and weeks. Moving the cub from their temporary cage, into the transport cage and onto the rescue van was a smooth, easy and calm process as Hiep kept the cub distracted with tasty snacks and continued talking to them throughout. Once on the van, the team and police staff chopped down some banana leaves to put in the transport cage for the cub to chomp and curl up with on the journey home, as well as plenty of lovely fresh fruit and water. Home at last Today, the team and cub arrived safely at our sanctuary where the cub will be taken to have an initial health check and we can determine their gender. They will then be moved to our quarantine area where they will spend 45 days adjusting to their new environment. Our team will start the process of building the cubs trust in us and confidence that they are finally safe and their new, happy life is just beginning. After this essential quarantine period Wonder will begin to be able to get a feel for the real wonders of sanctuary life; stepping outside, making new friends, foraging for treats and being cared for with the kindness you make possible. With heartfelt thanks to all our supporters, everyone who has donated to help rescue this little bear, to the Dien Bien Police for their quick thinking and commendable actions and to ENV for their efforts in monitoring and exposing the trafficking operation. To help this little bear heal from his/her traumatic past, please donate today. Read more: BREAKING NEWS: Two moon bear cubs rescued in time for Moon Bear Day! Five years after being rescued, sun bear Mr. Dave proves that the only cure is kindness Hungary: Orban, EU funds not given due to LGBTQ policy PM, no chance of a 'Huxit' (ANSA) - BELGRADE, SEP 17 - "Continuous challenges" can be expected from the European Parliament, but Hungary will stand up for its sovereignty and competencies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a interview on Kossuth Radio today. "Reconstruction funds are loans that Brussels does not want to give us now because of the debate around LGBTQ policy," Orban added. Orban noted that "we will be among the last ones in the EU, should it ever cease to exist." In relation to Pope Francis' visit to Hungary on Sunday, Orban said that while they avoided some topics like immigration, where their views differ, the two agreed on the importance of protecting families. "According to Pope Francis, the family consists of a father, a mother and children," the PM said in closing, the governmental portal About Hungary reported. (ANSA). Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved Internazionale Festival back in Ferrara 1-3/10 Journalism and foreign affairs, documentaries and events (ANSAmed) - ROME, SEPT 17 - Debates, workshops, documentaries, and a broad overview of the big issues at the international level in terms of the directions taken and where they may lead will be the focus of the Internazionale Festival in Ferrara. Internazionale is an Italian weekly magazine focusing on international issues and news. The festival will be held October 1-3 and will once again be in person after last year it was forced to hold almost all events online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There will once again be documentaries, exhibitions, film screenings, and events with journalists, writers, photographers, and artists: 100 hours of planned events with 137 guests from 27 countries that will be discussing key international issues and what has changed over the year in which the pandemic seemed to have ground the world to a halt. The logo, designed as usual by Anna Keen, shows a world holding a torch to illuminate one's way and find the road once more. Among the top events will be a new story on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including Mariam Barghouti, a journalist and researcher born in Ramallah, and Mohammed El Kurd, a Palestinian writer and poet named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2021 by Time magazine. There will also be an in-depth look at Syria with the writer and activist Yassin Al-Haj Saleh and one on Afghanistan, as well as reflections on an "offensive" conducted by nationalists in Europe and on inclusive language with debate between Kubra Gumusay, a German linguist and activist against hate speech, and sociolinguist Vera Gheno. The Turkish journalist and writer Ece Temelkuran will also be in Ferrara for the festival, as will writer and translator Claudia Durastanti and Argentinian writer Martin Caparros. There will also be focus on the climate crisis and environmental sustainability, gender identity, and activism by young Africans. Opening the festival on October 1 will be a look at Europe and its "green revolution", which aims to transform Europe in the first continent with zero environmental impact by 2050. However, to do this everything will have to change: the economy, industry, transportation, housing, and the lives of individual citizens. Discussing the matter will be the guests Liina Carr, confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, Monica Frassoni from the European Green Party, and Antonio Parenti from the European Commission. (ANSAmed). ROME - Italian Premier Mario Draghi said Friday that the climate pledges the international community made to cut emissions under the Paris agreement were not being respected and called for bold action to avert a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. "In the Paris agreement, we pledged to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels," Draghi said in a video message to a meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MET) convened by US President Joe Biden before the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference this autumn. "Most of our countries renewed this commitment in recent G20 meetings. "However, we must be honest to ourselves and to our citizens: we are falling short of this promise. "Under current policies, we'll reach almost 3 degrees of global warming by the end of the century. "The consequences of such an increase in global temperatures would be catastrophic". The former president of the European Central Bank went on to give examples of the consequences of the climate criss that the world has already seen. "Wildfires are ravaging forests, from California to Australia," he said. "And from Germany to China, we are witnessing ever more destructive floods. In Italy, we are dealing with rising sea levels in Venice and melting glaciers on the Alps. "Severe water shortages and droughts have become increasingly common and are hitting disproportionately some of the world's poorest, for example in Africa". The premier said it was time for action. "We must honour our climate pledges and, in some cases, be ready to make bolder ones," he said. "And we must support our own citizens and developing countries as we undergo this costly transition". EuMed kicks off for southern European neighbourhood Summit in Athens with Draghi, climate and Afghanistan crisis (ANSAmed) - ATHENS, SEPT 17 - Regional crises as well as the issue of the climate and immigration linked to Afghanistan will be the focus of the Summit of the Leaders of Southern European Union Countries, which began on Friday. Croatia and Slovenia will also be taking part, for the first time Italy will be taking part through Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who will land in the Greek capital around lunchtime. The summit in Athens will be between countries that in addition to profound historical and geographical affinities and maritime issues, also share views on some EU-wide economic and social issues, especially as concerns the EU monetary and economic union and the response to COVID-19. The work will revolve around two plenary sessions: one on climate change and the other on several issues including peace, security, and stability in the Mediterranean; the European Agenda; and promoting reinvigorated and strengthened partnerships with other countries in the southern neighbourhood. It will be held at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, a new cultural center designed by Renzo Piano and located at Faliro Bay near Piraeus. The discussion will continue over a dinner between the heads of state and government in which issues linked to the Afghan crisis will be discussed, form "hybrid threats" to the migration crisis. The main aim, government sources said, is for the leaders of the "Med9" to promote initiatives to benefit future generations of European citizens and foster closer collaboration with countries in the southern part of the EU, focusing on the regional economy and youth employment. Investing in a timely manner in effective European politics for the future is a main aim of EuMed 2021. (ANSAmed). Turkish bombing in northern Syria kills four Including a minor in attack on Ain Issa (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, SEPT 17 - At least 4 people including a minor were killed Friday morning after Turkey conducted a missile attack on an area in northern Syria controlled by the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Friday. SOHR noted that the attack had occurred in the Debs area near Ain Issa, between Raqqa and the Turkish border. (ANSAmed). Tunisian NGO warns emergency measures 'risk to democracy' ADLI asks president for clarification on extension (ANSA) - TUNISI, 17 SET - The Tunisian Association for the Defence of Individual Liberties (ADLI) warned Thursday of "many dangers threatening democracy and the rule of law" under President Kais Saied's "state of exception", asking for clarification on the reasons behind its extension. The measures were adopted on July 25 and have been extended indefinitely. The NGO said that the measures - which include arbitrary house arrest, travel bans, and the incarceration of MPs for alleged crimes of opinion - are "dangerous risks to democracy". ADLI holds that many of Saied's measures run counter to the country's laws, such as the appointment of ministers without parliamentary approval, the firing of governors, and searches conducted in and the later closure of the National Anti-Corruption Authority (INLUCC). In the eyes of ADLI honorary president Wahid Ferchichi, "almost all the freedoms granted by the Constitution have been violated", citing freedom of expression and freedom to travel as examples. He added that since July 25 there had been "a period of great confusion and ambiguity" in the country. (ANSA). France has taken the dramatic step of recalling its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in the worsening row over their nuclear submarine deal. French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the exceptional decision was justified by the exceptional gravity of the actions of the two Western allies. It followed the announcement earlier this week that the US and the UK had agreed to help the Australian navy acquire for the first time a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. To the fury of Paris, the decision meant the cancellation of a 30 billion deal for France to supply conventional diesel-electric submarines to the Australians. Mr Le Drian made no mention of recalling the French ambassador to London suggesting the French regard the US as the prime movers in the deal. However it is highly unusual for a country to recall its ambassadors from such important allies, suggesting Britain is unlikely to escape the diplomatic fallout completely. In his statement, Mr Le Drian who had previously accused Canberra of a stab in the back said he was acting on the instructions of President Emmanuel Macron. This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States, he said. He said their actions constituted unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners, whose consequences directly affect the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. The so-called Aukus defence pact between the UK, US and Australia has been widely seen as an attempt to counter the growing military assertiveness of China in the Indo-Pacific region. Boris Johnson said relations with France are rock solid (Victoria Jones/PA) Beijing swiftly denounced the initiative as extremely irresponsible and a threat to regional peace and stability. In the Commons on Thursday, Boris Johnson said it was not intended as an adversarial move against China or any other power. He also insisted that relations with France remained rock solid while Downing Street described Paris as a close ally and friend of the UK. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister also made clear he expected the agreement to bring hundreds of highly-skilled jobs to Britain jobs which may well have otherwise gone to France. Furious parents are campaigning to save a secondary school teacher who was suspended after allegedly calling pupils 'retards' and 'cowards'. The male teacher was accused of making the remarks during an emergency assembly this week to address the poor behaviour of Year 11 students. A social media post claiming that the teacher referred to students as "chicken shits, retards and cowards" later went viral, leading to his suspension. But angry parents have since slammed the kids who complained as "snowflakes". They've written to the school to demand that the teacher, who has been named locally on social media, is allowed to keep his job at Gable Hall School in Corringham, Essex. Headmaster Ceri Evans is due to publish the outcome of the school's investigation into the teacher's behaviour tomorrow (Sep 17). Local resident Jayne Louise said that she was "at a loss how this poor fantastic teacher is being suspended". She added: "Over 80% [of parents and pupils] are fed up with those kids in question and are saying what a fantastic teacher he is." Tegan Herbing, who claims to be a former pupil at the school, said the suspended teacher was an "absolutely amazing and supportive teacher". She said on Facebook: "As a past student from that school can speak from experience that the kids are absolutely awful and can almost guarantee they needed to be put in their places. "Gable would be at an absolute loss if they lost [the teacher]." Others took to social media to slam the pupils who complained about the teacher. Samantha Taylor commented: "What a bunch of snowflakes. Come on he said a few bad words oh no. Grow up." Moose Dineen agreed: "If these kids are offended by a few words from a teacher what hope have they got when they get out in the big wide world." Malcolm Lewis said: "Poor kids... I bet they use much worse language than that, they all must be so traumatized to the point of needing therapy....." In a statement, headteacher Ceri Evans said that the teacher will remain suspended until an internal investigation is completed. He said: It has come to my attention that a member of my teaching staff has made derogatory comments to the cohort of year 11 students. "As a school we do not tolerate or accept such behaviour. A formal investigation is now underway which has been assigned to a senior leader within the Ortu trust. The teacher is suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. The decision of the investigation will be implemented by myself with the support of the governing body. On Facebook, some recalled their own school days and times when they had been disciplined by teachers. Carmine Rizzo said: "Jesus !!! back in my day we were all called d**k heads no one got sacked or investigated." Dominica Crawley added: "Lol. We heard far worse. Had objects thrown across room at ya." A meat and potato creation has taken the crown at the British Pie Awards. The meat and potato pie from Nottinghamshire based Bowring Butchers got the upper crust against more than 800 entries, which were submitted across 23 categories. Bowring Butchers also beat 36 contenders in the best beef and cheese pie category, with their steak and stilton bake. The winner of the Supreme Champion of the 2021 British Pie Awards, Robert Bowring and his son George (Martin Elliott/British Pie Awards/PA) There were honourable mentions for a rhubarb and custard dessert pie, made by Portsmouths Mad K Pies, and an authentic Melton Mowbray pork pie by Dickinson and Morris. Matthew OCallaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association and host of the British Pie Awards, said: Bowring Butchers submitted a truly scrumptious pie, and it was agreed across the board that their classic Meat and Potato masterpiece was the Supreme Champion of 2021. The competition welcomed an array of exciting creations, like cherrywood smoked pulled pork and black pudding, and goats cheese, spinach and sweet potato pie. A chicken curry pie clucked its way to victory in the best chippie pie group, whilst the vegan category received the most entries, with 72 offerings. The mother of a housebound disabled woman who killed herself after her benefits were cut has lost a High Court bid for a fresh inquest into her daughters death. Jodey Whiting, 42, from Stockton-on-Tees, died in February 2017 around two weeks after her disability benefit was stopped when she did not attend a work capability assessment. Her mother, Joy Dove, asked the High Court in London in June to grant a new inquest to investigate the role of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Ms Whitings death. The original inquest, which lasted 37 minutes, determined that Ms Whiting had taken her own life. Ms Doves lawyers argued there were multiple, significant failings by the DWP when it terminated her daughters Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) that were not considered at the previous inquest. But in a ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Warby, Mrs Justice Farbey and Judge Thomas Teague QC the chief coroner for England and Wales dismissed the claim, finding the original inquest was sufficient. Ms Dove has said she is bitterly disappointed by the High Courts ruling on Friday (Victoria Jones/PA) Mrs Justice Farbey said it would not be in the interests of justice for a new inquest, adding: It is likely to remain a matter of speculation as to whether or not the departments decision caused Ms Whitings suicide. In my judgment, it would be extremely difficult for a new inquest to conclude that the department caused Ms Whitings death. At the hearing earlier this year, the court heard Ms Whiting had received benefits for more than a decade due to serious, long-term physical and mental health issues, including severe pain and a history of self-harm. In late 2016, the DWP started to reassess Ms Whiting, who said she needed a house visit as she was housebound, had severe anxiety and was unable to walk more than a few steps. Ms Doves lawyers argued that a house visit was not properly considered before the DWP terminated her disability benefit, which led to Ms Whitings housing benefit and council tax benefit also being terminated. The decision to terminate Ms Whitings benefit was overturned on March 31, weeks after her death. The independent case examiner (ICE), the body which investigates complaints about the DWP, later found multiple breaches of department policy, significant errors by staff and several missed opportunities for the DWP to reconsider the claim. Jonathan Hough QC, for the coroners service, told the High Court in June that the coroner had called sufficient evidence to address how Ms Whiting died. It is unquestionable that the failures of DWP staff were serious and indefensible but that does not mean that the first inquest was inadequate, he said. In the judgment, Mrs Justice Farbey agreed and said: It is not necessary and would not be in the public interest for a coroner to engage in an extensive inquiry into the departments decision-making. The fact that the ICE found numerous significant failings does not mean that an inquest should adduce substantial evidence about them. The inquest conducted by the coroner was short but fair. It covered the legal ground and dealt with the evidence before the coroner including the views of Ms Whitings family, she concluded. After the decision, Ms Dove said: I am bitterly disappointed by the High Courts ruling. More than four years on from losing Jodey the DWP has still not had to answer for the role that I believe they played in her death. Despite dismissing my application the judgment makes it clear that the behaviour of the DWP has been shocking and I welcome the High Court ruling that Jodeys ESA should never been withdrawn. This is not the end. I am not giving up and I will continue to fight for justice for Jodey. Thank you to all those that have supported me in this fight so far. The head of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has urged the preservation of powersharing government at Stormont, describing it as precious. Dr David Bruce was speaking at an event organised by the church to mark Northern Irelands centenary. On These Steps took place at the Union Theological College in Belfast where the regions first parliament originally sat, and was attended by Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, Northern Ireland Office minister Conor Burns, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, First Minister Paul Givan, Sinn Fein junior minister Declan Kearney and SDLP MP Claire Hanna. The Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin Primate and Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell also attended. The Presbyterian moderator was speaking after Sir Jeffrey warned that his partys ministers could withdraw from the Executive if the UK Government does not take action over the Brexit Protocol. The powersharing arrangements which exist here, while not by any means perfect, are precious, he told those assembled. They are a table around which we will find political friends and foes, and that in itself is a prophetic instrument which we need to protect. That said, the right to argue for an important principle belongs to all our elected representatives that is after all, why we elected them. We have long supported the existence of devolved governance here, and lament the use of those institutions as a bargaining chip, or indeed the bypassing of those institutions by governments for reasons of their own. Such actions do not serve us well, or build confidence for the future. Dr Bruce told the politicians: We support you in your work and that support transcends the divisions of party or even ideals you may espouse, but urged gritty determination. He added: North, south, east and west on these islands present us with a web of opportunities to grow economically, culturally, spiritually, if we have the vision for it. In a post-Brexit, Protocol environment some of this has been made more complicated, but if anything it has been made more urgent. We must work tirelessly to sort out the new configurations of our cultural, commercial and spiritual connections. No shortcuts. No quick fixes. No buck-passing. Just gritty determination to get it done. Looking to the future, Dr Bruce said while Presbyterians may have historically been regarded as thran or dissenting, the denomination is respectful in the face of difference. He added: We recognise the important benefits of a shared space, and that our vision for the future means that a Presbyterian can feel equally at home in the Gaeltacht, as they can in the Braid and equally (with hope for the future) call both of them home. Two men are due to appear in court charged with the murder of Belfast journalist Lyra McKee. The 29-year-old was shot dead by dissident republicans in Londonderry in April 2019 as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city. The two men, aged 21 and 33, have also been charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, riot, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs and arson. The 33-year-old has additionally been charged with robbery. A third man, aged 20, has been charged with riot, possession of petrol bombs and throwing petrol bombs. All three are expected to appear before Londonderry Magistrates Court via video-link on Friday morning. A 19-year-old man also arrested during the same operation has been released pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service. The extremist group that styles itself the New IRA has previously claimed it was responsible for the killing. Following the charges in connection with the murder of Lyra McKee, please see my statement below pic.twitter.com/oDQRBrJ2oo Brandon Lewis (@BrandonLewis) September 16, 2021 Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis welcomed the development. The tragic murder of Lyra McKee was a reminder that a small minority of individuals continue to seek to cause harm to communities, he said. This was an utterly senseless and shocking crime and I applaud the continued work of the PSNI to bring those responsible to justice. The fact that serious charges have been brought forward, which includes two individuals being charged with Lyras murder, is to be strongly welcomed and is testimony to that hard work. I would like to thanks the PSNI and security partners for their dedication to keeping the people of Northern Ireland safe. The University of St Andrews has become the first to beat Oxford and Cambridge to be named the top university in the UK in an annual guide. It is the first time a university other than Oxbridge has been at the top of the The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide, which has been running since 1993. Meanwhile, the University of Glasgow has been named Scottish University of the Year and is placed 12th in the UK-wide league table. Editors of the guide said the way the University of St Andrews responded during the pandemic helped its performance in the league table as it flipped its small-class teaching model to online delivery during the pandemic. Top of the class St Andrews makes history by topping definitive UK university ranking The University of St Andrews has been ranked the top university in the United Kingdom in the @thetimes #GoodUniGuide https://t.co/cYV478HksM#evertoexcel pic.twitter.com/I9njMwbNxp University of St Andrews (@univofstandrews) September 17, 2021 It registered only a slight decline in satisfaction rates across the annual National Student Survey (NSS) while scores in other institutions have largely fallen off a cliff. Alastair McCall, editor of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide, said: Never before has any university other than Cambridge and Oxford finished top of our or any other domestic ranking of universities. It is no fluke. The university has been closing in on the Oxbridge duopoly for several years, buoyed by outstanding levels of student satisfaction which have peaked during the past year of pandemic disruption on campus. The lead St Andrews now has over other universities in this key area of university performance is remarkable. Its wider contribution as a centre of teaching and outstanding research marks it out as a global player in the international higher education marketplace. In terms of academic research, St Andrews scored highly in the most recent Research Excellence Framework, especially for its work with Edinburgh University on chemistry and physics. It is also renowned for its marine research, pioneering medical work and the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. The University of Glasgow was placed second in Scotland (Danny Lawson/PA) Professor Sally Mapstone, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, which was third in the UK rankings last year, said: I am thrilled for our students, staff and alumni. They are the people who made this happen. As one community, we strive constantly for excellence, and have a strategy that hasnt been afraid to believe St Andrews could challenge at the very top by combining the best teaching, world-leading research, and an unswerving commitment to student satisfaction and achievement. She added: I hope the fact that the staff and students of a small, Scottish institution have been able to break through the hitherto impenetrable Oxbridge ceiling will inspire others, and show that the status quo is only that if you allow it to be. The University of Glasgow was ranked second in the Scottish league table, followed by the University of Edinburgh, which was 13th in the UK rankings. In fourth place was the University of Strathclyde, which was 17th in the UK rankings, while the University of Aberdeen was fifth in Scotland and 20th in the UK league table. Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow said: It is very encouraging to see the University of Glasgow once again rising in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide. This represents our best performance in this ranking and is yet more evidence that the university continues to thrive in the face of increased national and global competition in the sector, consolidating our position as a truly world-leading university, both nationally and globally. Wedding bells rang for Colorados first family this week in a historic first. Gov. Jared Polis married his long-time partner Marlon Reis Wednesday at the University of Colorado in Boulder on the 18th anniversary of their first date. The couples 7-year-old daughter served as the flower girl, while their 9-year-old son was the ring bearer. The now-husband and husband tied the knot in a small and intimate ceremony, a traditional Jewish wedding, which marked the first same-sex marriage of a sitting U.S. governor. We just thought we would have a small gathering: family, a few close friends, just keep it very intimate, but still have something that was meaningful to us and our nuclear families, the 46-year-old Democratic governor told Colorado Public Radio. Polis made history in 2011, when the then-lawmaker became the first gay parent in Congress. In January 2019 he made history again, when he was sworn in as the nations first openly gay governor. (The openly bisexual governor of Oregon, Kate Brown, became the first out-and-proud member of the LGBTQ community elected as governor in the U.S. in 2016.) In this photo provided by Jocelyn Augustino, Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, center, officiates a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony attended by family and friends for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, left, and his partner, Marlon Reis, in Boulder, Colo. on Wednesday Sept. 15, 2021. Polis, who became the first openly gay man in the United States to be elected governor in 2018, married his longtime partner and first gentleman Reis, a writer and animal welfare advocate. In this photo provided by Jocelyn Augustino, Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, center, officiates a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony attended by family and friends for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, left, and his partner, Marlon Reis, in Boulder, Colo. on Wednesday Sept. 15, 2021. Polis, who became the first openly gay man in the United States to be elected governor in 2018, married his longtime partner and first gentleman Reis, a writer and animal welfare advocate. (Jocelyn Augustino/) Same-sex marriages were prohibited in Colorado as recently as 2014. That only changed in July of that year when a state constitutional ban was struck down in state district court. The following year, the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex unions legal across the country. As I was growing up, marriage was not even in the realm of possibility, Reis said earlier this week. There was a lot of misinformation out there about what could potentially happen if you came out what opportunities would you lose? How it would negatively impact you. So for a long time, the idea of getting married, we didnt talk about it, he told CPR. The couple got engaged in December 2019, during a delicate time for the family. Reis, whos in his 40s, had been battling COVID-19 for about a week. The proposal came as he was getting ready to go to the hospital after his oxygen saturation levels dropped to a concerning level. I was getting my things ready. My daughter was crying in the corner she didnt want me to go, he told The Colorado Sun. My son was asking me a lot of technical questions: When are you coming back? Do they know exactly whats wrong? It was a very tense moment. As Polis assured him that everything was going to be fine, he got down on one knee and asked Reis to marry him. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during an event in London LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi cautioned Britain on Friday that if the Northern Irish peace deal was destroyed then there would be no post-Brexit trade deal with the United States. The United States has expressed grave concern that a row between London and Brussels over the implementation of the 2020 Brexit treaty could undermine the Good Friday accord, which effectively ended three decades of violence. "If there is destruction of the Good Friday accords, they [are] very unlikely to have a UK-U.S. bilateral," she told a Chatham House event. After the United Kingdom exited the bloc's orbit on Jan. 1, Johnson has unilaterally delayed the implementation of some provisions of the deal's Northern Ireland Protocol and his top negotiator has said the protocol is unsustainable. The 1998 peace deal largely brought an end to the "Troubles" - three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant "loyalist" paramilitaries in which 3,600 people were killed. The British-run region remains deeply split along sectarian lines 23 years after the peace deal brokered by the United States. Many Catholic nationalists aspire to unification with Ireland while Protestant unionists want to stay part of the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland Protocol aims to keep the province, which borders EU member Ireland, in both the United Kingdom's customs territory and the EU's single market. The EU wants to protect its single market, but an effective border in the Irish Sea created by the protocol cuts off Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom - to the fury of Protestant unionists. Some unionists say the protocol contravenes the 1998 peace deal. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House warned on Friday that a failure by the U.S. Congress to extend the debt limit could plunge the economy into a recession and could lead to cuts in critical state services. The government faces an October deadline on the debt limit, after which it may not be able to pay all of its bills without congressional approval. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his aides have been trying to broker a deal with Republicans to resolve a showdown over raising the $28.5 trillion federal borrowing limit. The administration is warning lawmakers that the country risks a new financial crisis and a default on its payment obligations. "Economic growth would falter, unemployment would rise, and the labor market could lose millions of jobs," the White House said in a new fact sheet. For months, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged Congress to act, saying cash and "extraordinary measures" being used to temporarily finance the U.S. government will run out in October. But Republicans, who lost control of the White House in the 2020 election and do not hold the majority in the Senate or the House of Representatives, have balked and placed the potential crisis on Democrats' shoulders. "It's absolutely unspeakable, unthinkable that we would allow the federal government to default on the obligations it has already made," White House economic adviser Brian Deese told MSNBC on Friday. "We're confident that this is going to get done." (Reporting by Susan Heavey, Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, Chizu Nomiyama and Andrea Ricci) YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Armenia instituted proceedings against the Republic of Azerbaijan at the International Court of Justice for violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), stating that for decades, Azerbaijan has subjected Armenians to racial discrimination and that, as result of this State-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred, Armenians have been subjected to systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other abuse. The United Nations Hague-based top court said in a statement that Armenia has stated in the proceedings that these violations are directed at individuals of Armenian ethnic or national origin regardless of their actual nationality, and that these practices once again came to the fore in September 2020 when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia and Artsakh, and that during that armed conflict, Azerbaijan committed grave violations of the CERD. Armenia accuses Azerbaijan in continuing to engage in the murder, torture and other abuse of Armenian POWs, hostages and other detained persons even after the ceasefire took effect. "Armenia further contends that all good-faith efforts by Armenia to put an end to Azerbaijans violations of the CERD through other means [have] failed," the tribunal said in the press release. In addition, Armenia has called on the tribunal to take provisional measures "as a matter of extreme urgency" in order to "protect and preserve Armenia's rights and the rights of Armenians from further harm, and to prevent the aggravation or extension of this dispute". Pursuant to Article 74 of the Rules of Court, [a] request for the indication of provisional measures shall have priority over all other cases. Editing by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is strongly interested in the effective restraint of threat of international terrorism in the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations space, considers unacceptable the use of terrorist groups by separate countries for achieving some military-political goals, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the joint session of the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tajikistan, Armenpress correspondent reports from Dushanbe. First of all, the Armenian PM congratulated the session participants on the 20th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, stating that over the past years this Organization has developed as an important cooperation platform in the fields of regional security and partnership. Pashinyan also thanked the President of Tajikistan for the warm reception and the organization of todays meeting. Our meeting is taking place in a period when the radical changes in Afghanistan have created an absolutely new situation in the country. Their nature significantly affects the developments not only in the country and the region, but also the further development of the situation around the globe. We are closely following the developments in and around Afghanistan, the Armenian PM said. He noted that the statements made at the preliminary stage about the wish to end the military operations, pardon the officials, create an inclusive coalition government, respect the rights of women in the Islamic legal system and eradicate the production of drugs in the country were accepted with optimism by the international community. The implementation of such actions would have contributed to the establishment peace, discipline and stability in the country. However, we have to note that at this stage these intensions are not seen yet in the actions of the Taliban. We are confident that the guarantee to the long-term settlement of the situation in Afghanistan is the fair political process with the involvement of all Afghans and with the representation of all ethnic and religious communities in the country, Pashinyan said. For this purpose he stated that all sides must demonstrate soberness and reaffirm their readiness to solve all disagreements exclusively through dialogue and negotiations. As a member state of the CSTO, we wished to see peace and calmness in the entire responsibility zone of the CSTO, in all regions of the collective security. Armenia is strongly interested in effectively curbing the threat of international terrorism in the CSTO and the SCO regions. In case of the absence of an adequate response at the right time, this could lead to further escalation of the situation and the infiltration of terrorist networks to neighboring countries and especially conflict zones. We strongly condemn terrorism and extremism in all their forms and manifestations. The use of terrorist organizations by separate countries for some military-political goals is particularly unacceptable, Pashinyan added. He stated that Armenia calls for closer dialogue and mutual partnership in this respect, first of all at the level of law enforcement agencies and special services, for exchange of experience and information, as well as for conducting effective joint operations for neutralizing terror threat within the frames of mechanisms operating in our Organization. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan The grand events come as Modis popularity has dipped to 24% from 66% a year ago, the lowest point since he came to power seven years ago New Delhi: The BJP is set to launch a mega 20-day public outreach from Friday on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 71st birthday and it will continue till October 7 to also commemorate his 20 years in public life, including as Gujarat chief minister. The party has asked its workers across the country to facilitate COVID-19 vaccination drive on the birthday as part of its "Seva and Samarpan" campaign. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya called for a major push to the vaccination drive on Friday, saying it would be the perfect gift for Modi on his birthday. "Tomorrow is the birthday of our beloved prime minister, lets do #VaccineSeva by helping all unvaccinated people including their loved ones, family members and all sections of the society by getting them vaccinated. This would be a birthday gift for the prime minister," he said in a tweet in Hindi on Thursday. Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, the BJP has been celebrating his birthday as 'Seva Diwas' (Service Day) and organises welfare activities across the country for a week but this time it has been extended to 20 days as he is completing his two decades holding public office. BJP president J P Nadda has issued a set of instructions to party workers for organising health and blood donation camps and distributing rations to poor as part of the campaign. Over 14 crore ration bags printed with Modi's pictures will also be distributed among the needy during the exercise. As part of the campaign, the BJP workers will carry out a large-scale cleanliness drive on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and people will be encouraged to use Khadi and local products. On this occasion, the party has said that five crore postcards will be sent from the BJP booth workers to Modi across the country highlighting that they are committing themselves to public service. The party has also asked workers to publicise the auction of gifts received by Modi. The LJP faction headed by Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras will also celebrate Modi's birthday by distributing food among the poor and planting saplings in the national capital. The party will observe the day as "Seva Sankalp Diwas", its spokesperson Shravan Kumar said. It is understood that the developments in Afghanistan figured in the talks External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Chinese FM Wang Yi in Dushanbe on the sidelines of SCO meet. (PTI Photo) New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that progress in the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh was essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity and that it is the basis for the development of overall ties. At a meeting on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe, the two foreign ministers exchanged views on global developments. It is understood that the developments in Afghanistan figured in the talks. "Met Chinese FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe. Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties," Jaishankar tweeted. After the meeting, Jaishankar said India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory. "Also exchanged views on global developments. Emphasized that India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory. It is also essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country," he said. "As for Asian solidarity, it is for China and India to set an example," the external affairs minister said. The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area last month, in a significant forward movement towards the restoration of peace and tranquillity in the region. In February, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. MQB Looking at pictures of the 2022 Skoda Scala and its predecessor side by side, we can see that the new one has a narrower and taller grille. The headlamps have different graphics, and the front bumper was modified, getting a smaller lower air intake, or at least thats the general impression, as the camouflage does prevent us from taking a better look at it.Out back, the Czech companys designers gave it a new bumper, with repositioned reflectors that now sit further down. Likely flanking the SKODA lettering, the taillights do not appear to have changed at all, but there is enough time to modify them. Elsewhere, the compact hatchback will probably get new wheels and paint finishes, together with updated infotainment system and digital cluster software inside, and perhaps revised upholstery.Slotting between the Fabia and Octavia in terms of size, the Skoda Scala is built on theA0 platform, which is shared with the VW Groups subcompact models. However, thanks to the clever packaging, it has more space between the axles than the Audi A3 Sportback. Its still too early to say for sure whether it will receive any changes under the hood, but we suspect it might, as the automaker could make it less polluting and more frugal.Some of that thick camouflage covering its front and rear ends will be peeled off in the coming months, as the car approaches its unveiling date. Speaking of it, the facelifted Scala is expected to be officially shown in the first half of 2022. kW Back in the 1960s, the term supercar was used on American shores to describe what we now refer to as muscle cars. With the emergence of luxurious European mid-engine, high-performance machines like the Lamborghini Miura and other similar models, it took on a new meaning in the decade that followed.While supercars were getting better and crazier during the 1970s, back in the U.S., two energy crises ended up crimpling the automotive industry. The golden era of muscle cars was over, and no manufacturer dared to build a vehicle capable of rivaling Lamborghini or Ferraris flagship models. Supercar enthusiasts had to settle for the DeTomaso Pantera which was made in Italy, but was powered by a mid-mounted Chevy V8.Thankfully, some of those people refused to settle and one of the most famous examples is that of the late Gerald Wiegert. After finishing college, he teamed up with Lee Brown, one of Hollywoods most famous car experts, and founded an independent design studio called Vehicle Design Force in 1971.Their goal was simple yet completely insane for the era: build Americas first supercar. So, they got to work and a year later, a non-functional prototype dubbed Vector was ready for the spotlight. Inspired by the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo concept and the fighter jets of the era, it was so outrageously beautiful that Motor Trend magazine featured it on the cover of their April issue.The car evolved in the years that followed into the W2; a new prototype revealed in 1978. A year after that, it became fully functional, thanks to a twin-turbocharged 350-ci (5.7-liter) aluminum Chevrolet V8 mounted in the middle of the chassis. It was now ready for production, but Wiegert could not secure enough funds, so for the next nine years, the W2 got stuck into a seemingly endless development process, racking up over 100,000 miles (160,934 km) of testing.Finally, by the late 1980s, things began to move in the right direction. The company grew and moved to a new facility, which was enough to turn Wiegerts lifelong dream into reality. With the help of David Kostka, Vector's head of engineering, the W2 was converted into a new, more modern vehicle named W8. Two prototypes were revealed in early 1989 and by the end of the year, after passing DOT (Department of Transportation) crash and emissions tests, a limited production run began.The car was built around a semi-aluminum monocoque chassis bolted to an aluminum honeycomb floor pan using aircraft-spec rivets. For the suspension system , a double A-arm setup was used up front, while the rear got De Dion tubes held in place by four trailing arms. The cherry on top was a set of perfomance adjustable shocks, with concentric springs developed by Koni.Built in large part using lightweight carbon fiber and Kevlar, the bodywork retained the futuristic, wedge-shaped design of its predecessors, along with the awesome Lamborghini-inspired scissor doors.Inside, everything was upholstered in high-quality materials such as leather, suede, or wool. The car came with a premium air conditioning system and a Sony stereo with a ten-disk CD changer built-in the passenger side of the dash. The high-tech features continue with power windows and electrically adjustable full-leather seats that were manufactured by Recaro.Arguably its ugliest feature, the steering wheel was adorned with a leather stitched center pad that was designed to tear up and make room for the airbag in case of a collision. Yes, the W8 had a frontal airbag and its actually the first supercar to offer this safety feature as standard.While the steering wheel was the ugliest part of the cabin, the dashboard was by far the coolest. It was riddled with buttons and switches similar to those in an aircraft cockpit. This might have been a nightmare in terms of convenience, but it sure looked awesome.To top off the aircraft look, an LCD screen taken from an actual fighter jet was incorporated on the drivers left-hand side. It was used to display relevant information like gear, speed, fuel level, or oil pressure as well as other telemetry figures.Another eccentric feature worth mentioning is the transmission lever. Probably in order to place the drivers seat as close to the center of the car as possible, Vector chose to fit the lever on the drivers side door sill. It was easy to reach, but its unusual positioning made it hard to adjust to.At the core of the W8 stood a high-performance twin-turbo Rodeck aluminum 365 ci (6.0-liter) racing engine based on a Corvette unit. It utilized two intercooled Garrett turbochargers, forged pistons, stainless-steel conrods and valves, roller rocker arms, a forged crank as well as a dry-sump lubrication system with three separate filters and braided stainless-steel hoses.Output was rated at a whopping 625 hp (466) and 649 lb-ft (880 Nm) of torque, considerably more than what supercars of the era could deliver.Theres no doubt that the powerplant was absolutely insane, but Vector chose to link it with an antiquated GM Turbo-Hydramatic 425 three-speed automatic. Yes, it was heavily modified to cope with the immense power, but it was still a 1960s design.In terms of performance, the manufacturer stated that its formidable machine could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (097 kph) in about 3.9 seconds and achieve a top speed of 242 mph (389 kph). This would have made it the fastest production car of the era by a large margin. However, all three cars delivered for testing to Car and Driver broke down , so those figures were not independently confirmed.Mainly because of this failed test, the Vector W8 got a bad reputation which influenced public perception. With a price of up to $455,000 ($939,854 today), the few who could afford it were hesitant to buy one.Ultimately, only 22 units were produced between 1989 and 1993, despite Road & Tracks successful test in 1992. While the team didnt perform a high-speed test , they recorded a 0-60 mph (0-97 kph) time of 4.2 seconds, and the resulting article praised the cars overall performance.Today, the W8 is proof that, with enough perseverance, even the most insane dreams can become reality. It remains one of the most outrageous supercars ever built and is highly sought-after by collectors. The value for one in perfect condition exceeds $1.5 million.Below, youll find the most comprehensive video of this amazing vehicle. It was posted on YouTube by the one and only Doug DeMuro and although its over 38 minutes long, its worth every second. kW The F1 driver is still on a high after a magnificent win at the Italian Grand Prix, after Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen crashed out on lap 26, giving McLaren its first win since 2012. Its no small feat, and Ricciardo is just getting started. The driver had mentioned that he had fallen out of love with F1 prior to his win.But the victory in Monza must have changed his mind. He is now more excited than ever, and hes giving us a glimpse of the life in the fast lane as he drives a McLaren GT through the canyons in a partnership with GoPro, sharing amazing shots of his not so casual drive. Ricciardo shared the video on his Instagram, claiming hes letting [his] hair down in the canyons.Lets talk about the car, though. The McLaren GT that he's driving along the winding roads is powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 which generates 612 horsepower (620 ps) with 465 lb-ft (630 Nm) of torque, paired up with a seven-speed automatic transmission. The company claims it can sprint from 0-62 mph (100 kph) in 3.2 seconds, and 0-124 mph (200kph) are achieved in 9 seconds. Its top speed is as impressive as youd expect 203 mph (326 kph).Previously, Ricciardo paired up with McLaren for a test drive for the 2021 Artura hybrid supercar, and he praised the internal combustion engine, saying that it sounds so good. This model features a carbon lightweight architecture and a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6 assisted by an electric motor, boasting a combined 670 hp (680 ps / 500) and 531 lb-ft (720 Nm) of torque. The model has a starting price of $254,548.A fan account for Daniel Ricciardo called danriccloset claims the Aussie driver treated himself with the McLaren GT after his amazing win at Monza, but theres been no confirmation that he owns the vehicle. The supercar has a starting price of $213,000, and it would surely look good in Ricciardo's collection. Chevrolet Bolt EVs are still flabbergasted with the companys latest recommendation for it: parking their cars at least 50 feet (15 meters) from other vehicles and structures. They demand a fast repair for their vehicles or that the company buys them back as soon as possible. While that discussion happens, Reuters informs that General Motors has decided to push back the EV production restart to mid-October. The reason would be the car recall. 12 photos The RS Lambo was, we were to learn, just the first in a longer line of Lamborghini-inspired builds we later discovered, a line that also includes the Aventador-matched Outerlimit (made by the same Thunderbike), and this here Huracan.This here Huracan is not, obviously, a four-wheeler made in Italy, but a two-wheeler concocted all the way in the U.S., and reshaped overseas, in Germany, by a shop called X-Trem The bike started life as a Night Rod, one of those American muscle bikes made by Harley from 1999 to 2017. Like many others of its breed, it reached a point in its life when a new look was in order, and X-Trem was more than happy to make that happen.Sporting the name Huracan on the left and right sides of the fuel tank, the Night Rod underwent a conversion process to make that 280-wide rear tire possible. The Huracan rides on a progressive suspension system, and comes with a Dr. Jekill & Mr. Hyde exhaust slapped on one side to help the engine breathe.The list of extras is not as extensive as were used to when it comes to X-Trem, and includes, aside from the hardware listed above, No Limit Custom covers where covers are due, and custom fenders.What makes this bike really stand out is the use of a color called Rosso Mars on all of the body parts, and the wheels. Its the same color, at least in name, we sometimes get to see on roaring Lamborghinis.As usual, the German custom garage does not say how much it cost to put this thing together. While most guards that are working the night shifts are taking a nap every now and then, a robot wont do that. It also wont drink, or eat, or watch games when on duty. Boston Dynamics already had a quadruped robot named Spot , which proved to be very creative thanks to its AI functions.Built with an integrated thermal camera and 3D LiDAR , the robot can detect high-temperature areas and alert the fire department for potentially hazardous situations. In addition, its integrated 3D map allows it to roam around the factory and check for opened doors or detect uninvited guests. Of course, it wont fire at them (yet), but at least it can spread the image thanks to its live stream images sent to a secured webpage.Based on these features, it can take snapshots showing who left its locker opened or where is an opened jar on a table. In addition, thanks to its small size compared to a human, it can walk in tight areas. Like the regular Spot, the new safety robot can climb stairs, crawl under tables and see through dark places.Hyundai put the new robot to the test at the Kia plant in South Korea and, by the time of writing, it already learned its way around, as shown in the video below. If the experiment is successful, the carmaker plans to introduce Safety Robots in all of its factories so that no one can leave an open can under a table. I wonder if it can detect empty beer cans too.Dong Jin Hyun, Head of Hyundai Motor Group Robotics Lab, said that The interview was published on August 28, but Autocar only brought it up on September 17. Thanks to the British magazine, we also had the chance to check what Li told our German colleagues. However, we understood it differently.For Autocar, the fact that Li mentioned the European manufacturing capacity could imply he is willing to use Lotus as a manufacturing partner. What the British magazine missed is that Lotus does not have that much production capacity; on the contrary. The British brand will make its future cars in Wuhan, in a plant Geely is building specifically for that.What the NIO CEO really seems to be eyeing is idle production capacity from major European car companies. Volkswagen, Renault, and some Stellantis brands are among those who could improve production in its factories. For them, it may be attractive to partner with NIO to keep jobs in local factories and even raise the number of employees, depending on the demand NIO vehicles have.In China, NIO did not make its own factory right off the bat. It joined forces with JAC Motors , which allowed it to lower initial investments. If the company can establish a manufacturing partnership with a relevant European carmaker, that can be a win-win deal. NIO only needs to have a high demand in Europe that justifies having a factory there, according to Li.If that happens, NIO could seize a partnership to allow other car companies to use its battery swapping system. The Chinese company already told me that it is open to doing that and that theres ato make it happen. Producing its cars in Europe may be the first step for these synergies, as Li implied in his interview with FAZ With the Nissan Z car born way back in 1969, there are more than five decades of models to choose from. Of course, some fancy the 240/260/280 series over the 350/370 range and vice versa. But the Japanese carmaker is almost ready to spice everything up with something that should have been the initiator of the 400 age.Instead, they opted for naming it simply as the 2023 Nissan Z , and they even kept the Z34 internal designation of the previous iteration. Although, most everybody else keeps referring to it as the 400Z to avoid potential confusion with the rest of the lineage and because of the V6 engine power.But whatever the moniker, one thing is for sure. Nissans 2023 Z faces an uphill battle to convince diehard fans of the previous generations that its a new way forward. As far as virtual artists are concerned, they were all quick to point out the diverse combinations that could be possible with the new Z once it starts deliveries.Some even offer more than one takes, such as Musa Rio Tjahjono, the pixel master behind the musartwork account on social media, who just revisited his initial widebody project for something that looks a tiny bit CGI-cleaner and subtler. His original take was bright yellow, but that or the three-piece staggered Savini Wheels were not controversial. Instead, that would have been the racetrack-inspired humongous wing out back.Anyways, the fresh JDM tuning-inspired 2023 Z now has a different crowd to attend to. Its been repainted white and for added contrast, theres also a Nismo-inspired forged carbon fiber engine hood. Widebody kits go naturally hand in hand with the bagged attitude, of course. Additionally, this time around, it rides on a set of VIP Modular deep-dish wheels, all for good measure. EV SUV If you want to be bold, you have to go off script is the punchline in the new Cadillac Lyriq campaign video, where Regina King is changing the storyline as she goes, and making it her own. The idea behind the film is that the first Cadillacbreaks with tradition, while also challenging the preconceived notion of what EVs are all about.The 2023 Lyriq proves that sexy and innovation can go hand in hand, said the actress earlier this year, in a social media post where she announced the partnership with the car brand. Kid Cudi, another ambassador for the new Lyriq, also shared images of the futureon his social media accounts, saying that it has the right vibe. Cadillac is getting ready to launch reservations for the Lyriq on September 18, at 4 p.m ET/1 p.m. PT. Promising a range of over 300 miles (483 km), with power ramped up to 340 hp and 440 Nm of torque, the Lyriq is designed to be just as efficient as it is luxurious.By ditching the engine, Cadillac focused more on the vehicles interior, which is supposed to be ultra-comfortable, boasting a curved 33 diagonal advanced LED display, noise cancellation technology and choreographed LED lights (activated by automatic driver detection).However, not everyone is excited about this future electric SUV. According to recent reports , several Cadillac dealers in the U.S. have preferred to close their franchise instead of investing an extra $200,000 in their showrooms, in order to adapt to selling and servicing EVs. This came as a result of General Motors reportedly asking dealers to choose between investing or being paid to cancel the franchise agreement.Whether or not there will be fewer Cadillac dealers in the U.S., the new Lyriq is ready to debut with pricing starting at $58,795. Orders for the following Performance all-wheel drive model will be available in late 2022. Troops of the Northern fleet recently participated in a series of trainings that took place near the Franz Josef Land archipelago, in the Barents and Kara Seas, and the Laptev Sea, near the Novosibirsk Islands. According to an official statement, over 800 combat units and 8,000 servicemen were involved in this huge exercise.Try to imagine 40 tanks, 50 ships, 460 armored combat vehicles, 120 aircraft and several rocket launch systems, all in one place, joining forces for simulated attack operations.Tactical units at sea, plus units of land and coastal groups performed coordinated training tasks, including neutralizing attacks of illegal armed forces and intelligence missions, all with the greater purpose of defending Russias territories in the Arctic area.Some of Russias greatest warships carried out missile attacks against mock enemy targets. The heavy nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, nuclear submarine missile cruiser Orel, the Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser and the Admiral Ushakov destroyer launched Vulkan and Moskit anti-ship missiles, in spectacular displays of power.They were joined by coastal missile systems Bal and Bastion, which launched missiles against targets at sea, from the coast of several Arctic islands.Acting as a beehive, the Bal coastal missile system stands out due to its massive salvo. It can aim missiles at six, 12 and even 24 targets at once. It boasts a 260 km (161 miles) fire range, and its passive radars are able to detect targets up to 450 km (280 miles) away. Bastion, on the other hand, is known for the supersonic speed of its missiles, which are meant for an instant strike, in addition to its impressive fire range of 300 km (186.4 miles).A total of six of these spectacular sea- and land-based missile launches were successfully performed in the Arctic region. Heng Hank Yang, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is working with Luca Carlone, the Leonardo Career Development Associate Professor in Engineering, on something called certifiable perception, a project that aims to develop algorithms that can optimize robot perception.The premise is that robotic systems that are designed to interpret their surroundings (such as the ones implemented on driverless cars) use algorithms to make estimations, but theres no way of establishing whether those estimations were correct or not. This is why a certification would be helpful. self-driving car takes snapshots of an approaching car, for example, and then tries to match every key point in that image with the labeled key points in a 3D car model. This is a machine-learning process called neural network. What the algorithm developed by Yangs team does is try to find the successful match. If the match is incorrect, it will know how to keep trying, and when there are no better solutions, thats when a certificate is given.Ultimately, the goal is for the perception system to be able to know when it has failed, and send an alert to the driver, to take over the steering wheel, when this happens.The 3D model would also allow driverless cars to identify car shapes that are not present in their library of car models, by morphing until it matches the 2D snapshot.Yang teams algorithm already won Best Paper Award in Robot Vision, at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and was a Best Paper Award finalist at the Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Conference.The young researcher says that next-generation algorithms could be the key to achieving trustworthy autonomy for vehicles The two-wheeled stallion you see in the photo gallery above is a 1997 variant of Ducati s 916 Monoposto family. Underneath its glamorous bodywork, the Duc carries a liquid-cooled 916cc L-twin power source, with eight desmodromic valves, dual overhead cams, and a compression ratio of 11.0:1. This ruthless piece of Italian machinery will be more than happy to summon 109 feral ponies at about 9,000 revs per minute.When the tachometer shows 7,000 spins, a generous torque output figure of 63 pound-feet (86 Nm) will be fed to a six-speed gearbox, which keeps the rear wheel in motion through a chain final drive. This whole shebang enables the 916 to reach a brutal top speed of 155 mph (250 kph), while the quarter-mile sprint will be covered in less than eleven seconds.A tubular steel trellis skeleton is tasked with holding everything in place. In turn, the framework is supported by fully-adjustable 43 mm (1.7 inches) inverted forks from Showa up front and a top-shelf Ohlins monoshock on the opposite end. The creatures front wheel is brought to a halt by dual 320 mm (12.6 inches) brake discs and four-piston Brembo calipers. At the rear, ample stopping power comes from a single 220 mm (8.7 inches) rotor and a twin-piston caliper.Now, we bet youll be thrilled to learn that Bolognas mechanical gladiator is going under the hammer with as little as 6k miles (9,700 km) on the clock! Additionally, the predator flaunts a premium pair of aftermarket mufflers, as well as new spark plugs, timing belts, and battery cables.To further optimize performance, the starter relay and camshaft seals have also been replaced by the seller. This 97 MY 916 Monoposto can be found on Bring A Trailer, where the auction will be open for another three days (until Sunday, September 19). At the time of this article, the top bidder is offering a hefty $12,500 to get their hands on Ducatis graceful phenom. A retro Beemer is all about great looks, bulletproof reliability and smooth-as-silk performance. As the years went by, the House of Munich produced dozens of remarkable machines, among which youll find the gorgeous R90S. In the photo gallery above, youll see a revamped 1974 variant of BMW s range, and this sexy beast is searching for a new home as we speak!The creature is brought to life by an air-cooled 898cc boxer-twin powerplant, with dual DellOrto carburetors and two valves per cylinder head. Moreover, the horizontally-opposed mill prides itself with a healthy compression ratio of no less than 9.5:1. At 7,000 rpm, the mill is capable of spawning up to 67 hp, while a torque output of 56 pound-feet (76 Nm) will be supplied at approximately 5,500 revs.A five-speed transmission is tasked with routing this force to the rear wheel by means of a shaft final drive, resulting in a top speed of 124 mph (200 kph). The R90S will accelerate from zero to 62 mph (0-100 kph) in 4.8 seconds, to then complete a quarter-mile sprint in just 13.3 ticks. Now, lets take a quick look at the restoration work thats been performed under current ownership, shall we?After treating the bike to a new windshield and a fresh coat of paint, the seller proceeded to rebuild the wheels using stainless-steel spokes. Next, their rims were enveloped in a pair of Metzeler tires thatll bring about ample grip on the tarmac. The brakes have been subjected to a comprehensive makeover, while the original shock absorbers were replaced with modern Ikon alternatives.The twin-cylinder engine was also sent to the mechanic for a thorough overhaul, thus concluding the performance upgrades. At the time of this article, the highest bid for the 74 MY R90S is rated at a mere $3,000, and you may submit yours by visiting the BaT ( Bring A Trailer ) website before Thursday, September 23. According to Autonews Europe , certain people are estimating that Volvo could be set for a valuation thats as high as $30 billion in the planned Stockholm listing, while others believe a $16 billion valuation would be more realistic, given the companys revenue outlook.For Volvo, even that $20 billion valuation would be equivalent to six or seven times its earnings, which is indeed pretty high and would put the carmaker in line with rivals such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. At the same time, brands that Volvo clearly wont touch as far as valuation include General Motors and obviously Tesla , which at one point this year stood as the seventh most valuable company in the world, having even surpassed Facebook.The strong margins seen in the first half of 2021 are unlikely sustainable as the market benefited from a strong post-pandemic rebound that is unlikely to continue, said NordLB automotive analyst Frank Schwope, who estimates Volvos value to be in the range of $10 billion to $15 billion.Of course, as far as Geely is concerned, who bought Volvo for just $1.8 billion, even a $10 billion listing would represent a solid return on its investment.As of right now, its hard to anticipate exactly what the number will be, especially with Volvo themselves saying that sales volumes in the second half of 2021 could fall year-on-year due to material shortages.From the outside looking in, we cant help but wonder if this is actually the right time for Volvo to seek an IPO, given the fact that its transformation into a fully electric car company has barely gotten under way. The Countach was originally designed by Marcello Gandini , but this reimagined take has been subject to a certain degree of deresolution. But in reality, the Lo Res Car looks like a precursor to the Tesla Cybertruck Rem D. Koolhaas, who just happens to be the nephew of the world-famous Rem Koolhaas, is a Dutch-born architect and designer and the creative director and founder of the women's footwear brand United Nude. His uncle, Remment Lucas Koolhaas, is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.So theres a bit of familial lineage to the Lo Res Car Rem D. Koolhaas took on the idea of deconstructing a car, and he and his United Nude team hoped to achieve the purest shape possible for a car. What it meant in practice is a vehicle defined by an angular steel frame wrapped with smoked polycarbonate bodywork.And this machine is entirely functional as a car. Lo Res Car does lack traditional doors and requires that the driver and passenger lift the body from the front of the vehicle for access to the interior. The polygonal-shaped car is essentially a transparent capsule designed to provide a full 360-degree view for the occupants, and the passenger sits behind the driver. Its not exactly meant for the highway or the track as its electric engine is only capable of a modest 31mph.Those amenities include a cockpit with a pair of seats, a stylish hexagonal steering wheel, and an electric drivetrain to move it along. The car received an award from Wallpaper Magazine back in 2016, and it has starred in music videos, including New Freezer by Rich the Kid featuring Kendrick Lamar.A portion of the auction proceeds benefits the Petersen Automotive Museum, and thats a good thing as the museum helps to preserve, show and facilitate a sustainable future through automotive history. DriveH2.org will also benefit and its a public service initiative from Energy Independence Now (EIN), an environmental nonprofit organization combating climate change and air pollution by promoting hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Guinean soldiers on Sunday seized control of state television airwaves to announce that President Alpha Condes government had been dissolved, AP reports. The latest: The coup's leader, Army Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, announced Monday that government officials will be barred from foreign travel and requested that they return their official vehicles, per Reuters. He promised that "there will be no witch-hunt." The country's land and air borders had also been reopened, Reuters reported, citing a military spokesperson. Doumbouya also allowed mining companies to continue their operations, effectively exempting them from a national curfew, according to the BBC. He said that a new government will be formed in the coming weeks, but did not elaborate on a timeline, the BBC reported. The big picture: Heavy gunfire reportedly erupted near the presidential palace early Sunday before the coup leaders announced they had dissolved the National Assembly and the countrys constitution. Conde, 83, has faced stark criticism after seeking a third term last year with his popularity plummeting significantly in the time since, per AP. His whereabouts are not immediately known. What they're saying: "The personalization of political life is over," Doumbouya said Sunday, per AP. "We will no longer entrust politics to one man, we will entrust it to the people," he added. Doumbouya did not explicitly mention Conde during his televised statements Sunday. State of play: The coup garnered widespread international condemnation. "The United States condemns todays events in Conakry. Violence and any extra-constitutional measures will only erode Guineas prospects for peace, stability, and prosperity," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement late Sunday. "I strongly condemn any takeover of the government by force of the gun and call for the immediate release of President Alpha Conde," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted. Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details throughout. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is taking a bus tour across the Midwest seeking to reassure parents and teachers as safety measures surrounding the pandemic in schools continue to be a political flashpoint. Why it matters: The Biden administration is grappling with how to maintain in-classroom learning while controlling the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Cases largely involving the Delta variant are surging, and some governors have blocked local districts from mandating masks. Most students across the country are returning to school in person after the pandemic, but those under 12 remain ineligible to be vaccinated. The details: The secretary will visit five states in the Midwest beginning Sept. 20, stopping at 10 schools and universities over four days. The destinations include Eau Claire, Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Palatine and Chicago, Illinois; Kendallville, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; and Mt. Pleasant, Lansing, Detroit and Canton, Michigan, according to a release shared with Axios. The secretary will visit students from preschool through college age. What they're saying: The return to school this year is more special than ever, after many of our nations students have been disconnected from their peers, educators, classrooms, school communities and learning routines for over a year," Cardona said in a statement. The backdrop: Cardona has waded into the debate over mask-wearing in schools, and the Department of Education has launched investigations into the mask-mandate bans in several states, including Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah. Raisi and Pashinian met on the sidelines of a Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Tajikistan as Azerbaijani officers stopped and demanded hefty payments from Iranian trucks transporting goods to and from Armenia for the sixth consecutive day. More than a hundred such trucks were reportedly stranded on Thursday at a 21-kilometer section of the highway which the Armenian government controversially ceded to Azerbaijan following last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani authorities set up the checkpoint there on Sunday after again accusing Iranian trucks of illegally shipping cargos to Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian governments press office said Pashinian and Raisi discussed, among other things, ways of organizing unfettered cargo shipments between the two countries as well as processes taking place in the region. It gave no details. The official Iranian readout of the talks made no mention of the new obstacle to Armenian-Iranian trade and wider transport links. It said Raisi stressed the need to increase the current level of economic relations between Iran and Armenia. In that regard, the recently elected Iranian president was reported to say that an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation should become more active. He proposed that Yerevan and Tehran set up joint specialized working groups that would deal with obstacles to the implementation of their joint economic projects. According to the statement posted on the Iranian Foreign Ministrys website, Pashinian pledged to instruct relevant ministers to remove those obstacles. It was Pashinians second meeting with Raisi in less than two months. The two men held their first face-to-face talks in early August when the Armenian premier visited Tehran to attend Raisis swearing-in ceremony held in the Iranian parliament. During those talks Pashinian reaffirmed his governments readiness to have Iranian companies participate in its plans to refurbish Armenian highways leading to the Islamic Republic. The two governments set up in May a working group tasked with looking into practical aspects of such participation. For decades, Azerbaijan has subjected Armenians to racial discrimination, with Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev himself leading the way, reads its lawsuit announced by the Hague-based UN tribunal on late Thursday. As a result of this state-sponsored policy of Armenian hatred, Armenians have been subjected to systemic discrimination, mass killings, torture and other abuse, it says, adding that they once again came to the fore during last years Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Nagorno-Karabakh. It claims that Azerbaijan has continued to kill and torture Armenian prisoners of war and civilian captives even after the six-week war was stopped by a Russian-brokered ceasefire last November. Dozens of Armenians are believed to remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Yerevan wants the ICJ to find Baku guilty of violating several articles of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). It is also seeking urgent measures to protect and preserve Armenias rights and the rights of Armenians from further harm. Responding to the Armenian move, Azerbaijan said it is poised to file a similar lawsuit against Armenia in the same court. The Foreign Ministry in Baku said it has been carefully documenting and compiling evidence of gross human rights abuses for that purpose. This includes Armenias targeting of Azerbaijanis for expulsion, torture, murder and serious mistreatment, it said in a statement reported by the AFP news agency. In comments cited by the Interfax news agency, the ministry spokeswoman, Leyla Abdullayeva, accused Yerevan of hampering the return of Azerbaijani civilians to districts around Karabakh retaken by the Azerbaijani army during and after the hostilities. She said the Armenians are refusing to share with Baku all maps of their landmines laid in those areas. Ara Ghazarian, a Yerevan-based international law expert, welcomed the Armenian governments decision to take Baku to the UN court. For Armenia and its people, this lawsuit is a means for legal protection and also deterrence against Azerbaijan, Ghazarian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service on Friday. The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule on disputes between UN member states. The court usually takes years to hand down rulings on cases brought by them. Simonian decided to reward them on the occasion of the countrys Independence Day that will be marked on September 21. The one-off payments will be equivalent to 75 percent of the parliament deputies monthly wages, meaning that each of them will get at least 380,000 drams ($770). Both opposition alliances represented in the National Assembly criticized the decision as profligate and unethical, saying that the Armenian authorities are continuing to neglect the countrys socioeconomic problems aggravated by last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh. At a time when the country has severe socioeconomic problems and more than 10,000 wounded and disabled persons, public officials, including National Assembly deputies, are continuing to get bonuses, said Ishkhan Saghatelian, a deputy parliament speaker and senior member of the opposition Hayastan bloc. In line with our campaign platform and statements, we will not benefit from these sums, Saghatelian told reporters. We will either return them to the state budget or use them for implementing a [charity] project in of Armenias border regions. The opposition Pativ Unem bloc likewise said that all of its seven parliamentarians will donate their bonuses to victims of the Karabakh war and their families. In a statement, it said accepting the money means living a normal life as if nothing happened to Armenia and Karabakh. The parliamentary group of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinians Civil Contract party did not officially react to the opposition criticism. One of its members, Hovik Aghazarian, praised his opposition colleagues for planning to use their bonuses for charitable purposes. But Aghazarian made clear that he himself will take the extra cash. Another pro-government parliamentarian, Heriknaz Tigranian, said there is nothing wrong with accepting what she described as a symbolic reward worth roughly twice the amount of the average monthly wage in Armenia. Government officials said that all Armenian civil servants will receive Independence Day bonuses. Armenias previous parliament also controlled by Pashinians party faced similar criticism earlier this year when it decided to add 250,000 drams to its deputies monthly wages worth at least 473,000 drams. The extra sum was supposed to cover their job expenses. Kocharians office revealed the invitation last week, saying that the leadership of the United Russia party wants to deepen partnership with Hayastan, Armenias second largest parliamentary force. The trip was due to start at the end of Russian parliamentary elections slated for September 17-19. Kocharian needs a court permission to leave Armenia because of standing trial on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated. Anna Danibekian, the judge presiding over the trial, repeatedly allowed him to visit Moscow earlier this year and last fall. She also cleared him of other, more serious charges in April. Hayastan said on Friday that Danibekian has refused to give such permission this time around without any legal reason. We are forced to cancel the visit, the opposition bloc said in a statement. The statement charged that the judge made the decision under strong government pressure. It said the move is aimed at restricting Hayastans political activities and undermining Russian-Armenian relations. Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, is thought to enjoy a warm rapport with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter has repeatedly made a point of congratulating the ex-president on his birthday anniversaries and praising his legacy ever since Armenian law-enforcement authorities first indicted him three years ago. Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has described Kocharian as a big friend of Russia and said the two men talk to each other quite often. But he insisted in March that the Kremlin is not supporting or guiding Kocharians political activities in any way. Kocharians bloc was the main opposition challenger of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his party in snap parliamentary elections held June. It finished second in the polls. Kocharian told senior members of the bloc to intensify its activities and public outreach efforts at a meeting held on Tuesday. According to a Hayastan statement on the meeting, they assured him that they remain committed to ousting the government wrecking Armenia and leading it to destruction. Very soon you will also witness street actions, Ishkhan Saghatelian, a senior Hayastan figure, told reporters earlier on Friday. He did not go into details. Asked whether this means the alliance is planning to hold anti-government rallies, Saghatelian said: We never gave up rallies in the first place. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Clear skies. Low near 70F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Clear skies. Low near 70F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Where is Gabby? What we know about the Florida woman who went missing on a road trip The board of the Rosedale Union School District wrote a letter to Gov. asking for the universal mask mandate in schools to be overturned. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a box office success, and in Southeast Texas, it seems the people the film set out to represent are loving it the ones who see it, anyway. But not everyone is. The film set out to be for Asian-Americans what Black Panther was for African-Americans a chance for a marginalized ethnic group to see themselves on the big screen in something other than a supporting or comedic role. But when Shang-Chi debuted September 3, it was censored in China over concerns about the corresponding comic books racist roots. In China, one of the biggest markets for Hollywood, foreign films have to be approved by the local government. And Shang-Chi has not been approved. Im not sure about China because they are so sensitive right now. said Yaying Alice Lu, a Taiwanese student of Chinese descent who came to America to study accounting at Lamar University and who plans to watch the movie on Disney+. They think everything is trying to insult them. There is some truth behind these feelings. In 1913, an English novelist named Sax Rohmer published a novel called The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu. The first book spawned a series of others and in 1973, Marvel licensed the titular character for a line of comic books in which Manchu was Shang-Chis father. But Fu Manchu was based off of racist Asian stereotypes. He was a mystic villain with yellow skin; long, curved fingernails; and a long, thin mustache. He embodied yellow peril the idea that Asians are the yellow man who wants to conquer the West. While the first book was published more than a century ago, anti-Asian hate has seen a resurgence during the coronavirus pandemic. When that anti-Asian hate started, it reminded me of the stuff I dealt with when I was younger, said William Fermo, a Filipino-American who moved to Beaumont from Oklahoma more than thirty years ago. That stuff is deep. It really opens up the wounds. He recalled a middle school teacher asking him if he spoke English when he asked for help. English was all he had ever spoken. He was born in America. The teacher asked again if he spoke English it was like a punchline Fermo said and the whole class laughed. After he went home crying, the vice principal, teacher, Fermo and his mom had a meeting. On the spot, the vice principal asked if he wanted to switch teachers and he declined. I didnt know what to do. I dont know why he gave me the option, Fermo said, reflecting now as an adult. I said no because I didnt want the other kids to know that that was the reason I was being switched. That really was a pretty traumatic thing for me as a kid when a teacher looks at you like that. Fermo and his friends went to see Shang-Chi together and didnt find it racially offensive. In fact, the director and studio made a concerted effort to modernize the old story to be more inclusive. This movie is representative of a thing that has not happened, generally, in Western culture, which is a $200 million investment in Asian faces, screenwriter Dave Callaham told Forbes. He is half-Chinese and writing the script was cathartic for him. It was important to me that Asian audiences felt seen. So any references, or experiences that I had that I thought might be validating to an Asian audience member I wrote in, he said. And it seems to have struck a chord with many local Asian-Americans. Its not the stereotypical Asian story line. Its actually, like, the opposite, said 15-year-old Joanne Yi, a Korean-American high schooler in Lumberton. Usually, family is number one. In this (movie), it is too, but they had to turn on each other. I think its promising to see that Hollywood is connecting a little bit more with peoples roots and backgrounds, said Harold Yi, Joannes father. Most of the time, Asians are viewed as very smart, very successful, very hardworking, and the two main characters were very disappointing. The family laughed. If youre an Asian parent, thats what you dont want, said Joanne, referencing the protagonist and his friend who began the movie hotel valets. Its relatable. Like a demanding dad? Harold cut in, teasing. A dad that wants you to achieve? In a certain way thats different from what your own vision is? No. Joanne said emphatically. No. Overall, Harold thought the directors and scriptwriters understood that Asian culture is not one-dimensional and it made a good origin story. Christina Yi, his wife, really liked the kung-fu. Eunice Yi, their daughter, said that she just liked the story. But for the youngest Yi, the focus isnt on ethnic representation. I just like Marvel because I like the action, said Joshua Yi, a seventh grader. I dont really care. Its good to see progress, Harold said. Its a step forward. rachel.kersey@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/ontheREKord Texas' budding wine scene is getting a magical new entrant all the way from Paso Robles, California. Serrano Wine, founded by husband and wife team Brice and Sarah Garrett, is bringing its "Harry Potter"-themed wines to the Texas Hill Country next spring. The Garretts met at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and moved to Paso Robles after graduating to start their winery. The winery's name "Serrano" means "one of/from the mountains." "Today, we still cling to the idea of conquering our mountains, but the meaning of Serrano has evolved a bit," Sarah Garrett writes on the winery's website. "It is now a journey of freedom, passion, and discovery. With that in mind, we have decided to take on another big challenge: the Texas wine scene! We bought a 10-acre property in Hye, TX and are planning on building a tasting room (hopefully to be open by Spring 2022) and winery, while working to make the best wines possible from both Texas and Paso Robles." Sarah Garrett, a self-proclaimed "Harry Potter" enthusiast (and reported Slytherin), has named several of their wines after items from the series, such as the "Firebolt" white blend, "Liquid Luck" white blend, and "Horcrux" red blend. Hye is located in the Texas Hill Country near Fredericksburg and is already home to William Chris Vineyards and Hye Meadow Winery. Screenshot via Instagram/@serrano_wine No word on if there will be a variation of Butterbeer at the new tasting room, but a version of Felix Felicis is more than welcome in Texas. There was a lot to like in Austin when Kevin Longley moved there a month and a half ago from Maryland's Montgomery County. His wife had gotten a promotion at her tech company, and their new city already had a solid reputation as a less expensive, more chill Silicon Valley. They bought a 3,000-square foot, five-bedroom house, far bigger than what they could afford outside of D.C. There were breakfast tacos, and amazing barbecue, and weekend day trips to nearby lakes with their 5-year-old daughter. And then. In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning government entities, including public schools, from requiring masks or vaccination (the Texas Supreme Court denied his request last month), despite the state's rising death toll: more than 6,000 Texans have died of covid-19 in the past month. On Sept. 1, legislation allowing Texans to carry a handgun in public without a permit or the background check and training the state previously required went into effect. The same day, the Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law that banned abortions beginning at six weeks of pregnancy, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. (The Justice Department has sued Texas to challenge the law.) On Sept. 7, Abbott signed into law a bill that creates strict new voting rules in the state. For newly minted Texans who had emigrated from bluer pastures, even just one of these laws would be a lot to take. And now, all of them, within two months? "It's hard to believe that some of these laws actually exist," says Longley. "And then you look around and you're like, 'Oh. Wait. That's our state. That's where we live.'" From the depths of the pandemic Texas beckoned, with its spacious, affordable four-bedroom homes with yards and swimming pools, big-city amenities, quirky charm and excellent food scene. The 2021 Texas Relocation Report from Texas Realtors found that more than half a million people relocated to Texas from other states in 2019, the latest year for which data was available. Many Texans have noticed an influx from California in particular - some are even commuting between the two states - and William Fulton, the director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, broke it down further in a blog post: In 2018 and 2019, a little over 80,000 Californians became Texans. Many of them followed their tech jobs. Apple, Facebook and Google have satellite offices in Austin. Oracle announced in December that it was moving to Austin, too (though founder Larry Ellison would not: He moved to Hawaii). Hewlett-Packard announced last year that it would move its headquarters from San Jose to Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Tesla and its chief executive, Elon Musk, moved to Austin last year, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CNBC that he talks "frequently" with the tech billionaire. "Elon consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas," said Abbott. "In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness. That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics," Musk tweeted in response. (A representative for SpaceX, one of Musk's companies, did not respond to an inquiry about which social policies in Texas Musk does or does not support.) The celebrities have come too, in droves, mostly to Austin: "Westworld" star James Marsden, "Girl, Wash Your Face" author and motivational speaker Rachel Hollis, controversy-courting podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently fell ill with covid-19. "Dawson's Creek" star James Van Der Beek, his wife, and five children posed for a spread in Austin Life magazine on their new ranch ("I felt an energy to Austin," the star said). Actresses Haylie Duff, Becca Tobin and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who had formed a pandemic pod together, moved their families to Austin as a unit. ("You don't pay for parking anywhere," Tobin marveled to the New York Times.) "Queer Eye" star Jonathan Van Ness was filming a season of his show in Austin, and liked it so much that he and his husband decided to stay. ("I had my four cats and was on this lake at an Airbnb, and I was like, Do I love Austin? Is this a liberal bastion in Texas? And it kind of is," he told Self Magazine.) Really, the state solved problems for expats from both political poles. For conservatives, it was a place where they could put their kids back in schools without mask mandates, and own guns and not have to pay state income taxes. For liberals, it - well, Austin, specifically - was a city of abundant tech jobs, relief from the Bay Area housing market and brimming with like-minded voters. The blueberry in a cherry pie, as an apocryphal Texas adage goes. "The pandemic lockdown put a lot into perspective for me," says Lexx Miller, 27, who moved from Brooklyn to Austin. "I was getting older and wanted a change in scenery, people and quality of life, but I still wanted to feel like I was in a major city." For Brian Harden, 47, of Seattle, it was the taxes that made him consider moving to Texas. "They don't have a state income tax," he noted. Besides, "My wife and I are both gun owners, and we're big Second Amendment advocates." But everything's bigger in Texas, including the regrets. They set in immediately for Tanny Martin, 66, a retired nurse who moved from Massachusetts to Austin last year to be closer to her son and enjoy a lower cost of living. A self-described "blue-state person," and "aging hippie," she had rationalized it by reminding herself that she would be moving to a liberal city. It's "the part of the state where people have purple hair, and that's comforting," she says. "But there's also three-percenters here and, you know, secessionists, and I mean, it's still Texas." The new gun law is the most terrifying part of her new home to her. Between that and the threat of covid, "I'm not going out very much because I don't really feel safe," she says. That makes it hard for newcomers to make friends, too. "It definitely feels very isolating when you just move here. You want to go see all the sights and meet new people and nobody's going anywhere," says Kyle Miller, 27, who moved to Austin from the Dayton, Ohio, area (and isn't related to Lexx Miller). Seeing all the maskless people out and about, he says, was "very weird." And yet the state exerts a powerful lure, packed with its own outsize mythology, swaggering style and the promise that life will be a little different there. That's what Bill Ross, 63, loves about it. When Ross moved from California, "I got nine-milimeters for each member of the family," he says. "I went out and bought an AR-15, and I think it's a very healthy thing." Guns weren't the primary reason for his move. He took his family to Boerne, Texas - pronounced "Bernie," it's one of the Hill Country's towns with German heritage - after he became dissatisfied with his son's middle school in his Los Gatos, Calif., community, as well as the state's fiscal and political trajectory. His one regret in leaving California, he says, was that he would not be able to vote to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. He says Abbott is doing a fine job. He supports the state's new voting laws. "I don't think they're extreme. I think they make a lot of sense," he says. "I think that if you can't control voting, you can't control the protection of the Constitution." The abortion law gives him pause, though: "I don't know if six weeks is the right thing," he says. "I'm pro-choice. I'm not happy with how abortion is used as a method of birth control." But Ross is thrilled with his new life in Texas. He no longer has to worry about California wildfires. He sold his house for well over its asking price over the summer and was able to buy one outside of San Antonio nearly three times its size, at about a third of the cost. Plus, it has a pool. He loves his neighbors, who have been "very welcoming." "Whenever people would ask, 'Well, where are you from?' we'd cower and say, 'California,'" he says, "And then immediately say, 'But you picked up conservative voters!' " The liberal-leaning new Texans have felt welcomed by their new neighbors, too. It's the people they left behind that have been giving them guff. "I chose just the worst possible time to move down here," says Kyle Miller. In the wake of the abortion law, his friends have been posting anti-Texas memes. "My friend took it down already, it seems, but there was one (meme) which was like, an outline of Texas, and it was just labeled 'Dumba**istan," says Kyle Miller. Another, tweeted by @sundae_gurl2 and several others: "The single star on Texas' flag is actually a review." The culture shocks haven't all been political, though. Miller, who delivers food for DoorDash, had to adjust to the city traffic and the abundance of scooter riders, who can be reckless around cars. Lexx Miller was taken aback the first time she saw employees in stores wearing buttons that said "mask-exempt." Ross was impressed by how much better the roads were than in California. And Longley was pleasantly surprised that people in Texas talk about things other than politics. "When you're in that D.C. bubble, it seems like just everything's on high alert in terms of political news all the time," he says. "It weighs down my psyche." But maybe not talking about politics enough is part of what got the state to where it is now. The left-leaning voters see a silver lining to the latest political turmoil: Now that they live here, they can work to correct its course. "I definitely see myself going out and voting and trying to reverse a lot of these laws that just got passed," says Kyle Miller. "I don't know how long that fight is going to be or how successful it's going to be." In Maryland, "Your vote is kind of like a drop in the bucket," says Longley. "Out here, you know that your vote really matters." Still, as much as they might lament their timing, the new Texans are mostly glad they made their moves. Lexx Miller doesn't see herself as a lifelong Texas resident, but she doesn't have any regrets: "As a minority, there are few places where I can feel completely safe in America anyway," she says. "My quality of life here is better." Not for everyone. Abbott's handling of covid gave Harden, the Seattle gun owner, a pause. But he finally abandoned his plans to move to Texas after the abortion law came out and his wife vetoed the move: "That was the nail in the coffin." Now, he says, "We're toying with possibly Tennessee." HOUSTON (AP) Another Texas inmate has had his execution delayed over claims the state is violating his religious freedom by not letting his spiritual adviser lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection. Ruben Gutierrez was set to be executed on Oct. 27 for fatally stabbing an 85-year-old Brownsville woman in 1998. But a judge on Wednesday granted a request by the Cameron County District Attorneys Office to vacate the execution date. Prosecutors said the U.S. Supreme Courts upcoming review of similar religious freedom issues made by another inmate, John Henry Ramirez, whose execution the high court delayed last week, will impact Gutierrezs case. As the Ramirez matter may be dispositive of any issue related to Gutierrezs religious liberty claim, it is in the best interest of the state, the family of the victim of Gutierrezs crimes, that his execution be delayed, prosecutors said in a motion filed Tuesday. Gutierrez was previously an hour away from execution in June 2020 when the Supreme Court granted him a stay because his spiritual adviser was not allowed to accompany him in the death chamber. Last month, Gutierrezs attorneys filed a complaint in federal court alleging the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was violating his right to practice his religion by denying his request to have his priest touch his shoulder, pray out loud and perform last rites when he was executed. Gutierrez, 44, said that these three things need to be done to ensure my path to the afterlife, according to his complaint. His attorneys cited the Constitution's First Amendment and a federal statute that protects an inmates religious rights. Ramirez made similar claims when he was granted a stay. The Supreme Court has dealt with the presence of spiritual advisers in the death chamber in recent years but has not made a definitive ruling on the issue. That could change after it hears oral arguments in Ramirezs case on Nov. 1. The court was criticized after it declined to halt the February 2019 execution of Alabama inmate Domineque Ray over his request to have his Islamic spiritual adviser in the death chamber, but then a month later granted a stay for Texas inmate Patrick Murphy, who wanted his Buddhist spiritual adviser in the chamber. Since then, the Supreme Court has delayed several executions over requests for spiritual advisers. After the court halted Murphys execution, the Texas prison system banned all clergy from the death chamber. Texas previously allowed state-employed clergy to accompany inmates, but its prison staff included only Christian and Muslim clerics. In April, the Texas prison system reversed its two-year ban. The new policy allows an inmates approved spiritual adviser to be in the chamber, but the two cannot have any contact and vocal prayers are not allowed during the execution. Texas prison officials say direct contact poses a security risk and vocal prayer could be disruptive. Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the Ramirez case is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to determine if inmates have the right to a spiritual adviser in a death chamber and if so, what is permitted in exercising that right. The fact this case can provide the court with an opportunity to lay out a blueprint for what is and what is not acceptable, thats not a guarantee that theyll do it, said Dunham, whose group takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. If the Supreme Court doesnt provide clear guidance, this issue will continually come up, Dunham said. Gutierrez has long maintained he didnt kill Escolastica Harrison during what prosecutors say was an attempt to steal more than $600,000 that the elderly woman had hidden in her home. His attorneys have requested DNA testing they say could point to the real killer. Prosecutors have said that request is a ruse and that Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70 WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Bidens build back better agenda is poised to be the most far-reaching federal investment since FDRs New Deal or LBJs Great Society a prodigious effort to tax the rich and shift money into projects and programs touching the lives of nearly every American. The thousands of pages being drafted and debated in Congress are the template for grand ambitions of the Biden agenda, a full funding of Democratic orthodoxy. The plan envisions the government shoring up U.S. households, setting industrial policy to tackle climate change and confronting the gaping income inequality that was laid bare by the COVID-19 crisis. On Thursday, Biden framed the package as a long-overdue opportunity to reshape the modern economy to be more equitable for middle class families. This is our moment to deal working people back into the economy. This is our moment to prove to the American people that their government works for them, not just for big corporations or those at the very top, Biden said during remarks at the White House. Biden cited the climate change provisions of the plan, declaring that they would confront the crisis of extreme weather events. But he emphasized the way his package would hike taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for what he said amount to tax cuts for the middle class. As the contours of the $3.5 trillion package come into focus, an undertaking on par with those earlier landmark programs, Americans will have to assess: Is this what they signed up for when Biden won the White House? Lawmakers on the front lines are about to find out. Were doing hard things, said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Democrats' campaign committee tasked with maintaining the party's slender majority. Were not perfect, he said in a conference call Wednesday about the party and its goals, but were responsible adults, and were here to fix problems. Republicans fundamentally disagree, attempting to label the Biden agenda as far left and socialism" that they will fiercely oppose. If Biden can pass his plan, it will become a central referendum in the midterm elections in 2022 on whether voters embrace the vision put forth by Democrats who control the White House and Congress. Among the Democrats' goals are priorities like universal child care and lower prescription drug prices that have been elusive for decades. Republicans have largely sidelined themselves from the debate, other than to say they are a hard no on Biden's priorities. Democrats are relying on a budget process that will enable them to pass or fail with their votes alone, resulting in bruising internal party debate between centrists and liberals. Biden referenced the clash within his party, noting that some of my liberal friends would like to see him lower the $400,000 threshold he set at which Americans should expect to see higher taxes. The Democratic differences may yet doom Bidens project. Biden was meeting separately Wednesday at the White House with key centrist holdouts, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who want to lower the price-tag substantially. Meanwhile, the House was almost forced to halt deliberations as centrists objected to new restrictions on pharmaceutical company drug pricing. Still, Democrats appear determined not to let this moment slip. Even with their majority at risk, they appear poised to push the package to passage. Democrats see that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to head this country in a better direction, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., after an intense private meeting of Democrats this week. People talk about how big this package is, it's big because we have under-invested for so long, she said. For all its scope, many of the tax and spending policies are not necessarily new, or even that revolutionary. The tax provisions largely push top rates back to where they were before the 2017 GOP tax cuts, and the spending expands on popular safety net programs -- for example, adding dental, vision and hearing aid benefits for seniors on Medicare. The top tax rate bumps up to 39.6% on households earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for married couples, before then President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress lowered the top rate to 37%. For corporations, the proposed 26.5% rate would be an increase from today's 21%, but not as high as the 28% it had been before the GOP tax cuts. There would be a tax on wealthier Americans -- 3% on earnings above $5 million a year -- but so far the House has refrained from imposing a billionaires or wealth tax as the Senate is considering, mindful as Republicans pile on complaints that Democrats are sliding toward European-styled socialism. The demonization of prosperity is unwise, said Republican Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska, during Wednesday's session at the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee. On the spending side, the bill would mostly expand on existing programs continuing a COVID-19 increase in subsidies for people who buy their own health insurance and boosting funding for states to make community colleges free and for Pell Grants to make university tuitions more affordable. As the coronavirus forced millions of parents, particularly women, out of the workforce to care for children and elderly adults, the Democrats are seizing on the opportunity to upgrade the safety net and begin to address simmering inequities along racial and class lines. There's universal pre-kindergarten, lower cost child care, paid family leave for working adults, an extension of the $300 a month child tax credit that was put in place during the COVID crisis. To help care for elderly Americans, it would shift Medicaid funding away from nursing homes for poorer seniors and toward home healthcare, as many older adults prefer to age in place. The climate change provisions tap into long-running ideas to impose new emissions restrictions with a federal clean energy requirement and to boost the electrical vehicles industry with tax breaks and charging station infrastructure. The last time Democrats succeeded in accomplishing something this big, the Affordable Care Act, it cost them their House majority in the 2010 midterm election, during then-President Barack Obama's first term. Americans say they overwhelmingly support the public works infrastructure proposals in an earlier $1 trillion package for roads, bridges, broadband and water systems that was approved by the Senate last month. But slimmer majorities backed some of the other ideas being considered now, including expanding child tax credits, according to July polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs research. Support is generally stronger for funding for free preschool programs, with about two-thirds in support, including about 8 in 10 Democrats and about half of Republicans. Having learned lessons from the Obamacare debate, Democrats and allied groups are fast at work framing the arguments to avoid a repeat of the health care battles from a decade ago. We have their backs, said Danielle Melfi, the executive director of Building Back Together, which organized some 1,000 events supporting the project during the August congressional recess. The organization's own survey of polling shows the Biden plans are popular. The American people voted for President Joe Biden and Democrats to deliver on the promises, she said. "On our side we have such a strong case to make. AP writer Alexandra Jaffe contributed reporting. A Beaumont anesthesiologists license has been restricted after concerns regarding his behavior with young patients during procedures. The Texas Medical Board late last month ordered the restriction of Dr. Guoxin Wus license after determining not taking such action would pose as a continuing threat to public welfare. That decision was released this week. Wu, 56, was immediately prohibited from seeing, examining, treating, prescribing, consulting on or otherwise practicing medicine on female patients, including telemedicine. A representative for the Medical Board could not immediately be reached for more information regarding the decision or the next steps in the process. Based on the reporting, Dr. Wu was the subject of complaints made by nursing staff for placing his hands under patient covers during the administration of anesthesia, according to documents regarding the decision from the Texas Medical Board. The temporary restriction remains in place until the board takes further action. The board said Wu was not board certified and has resigned privileges to the hospital while under investigation. In May 2021, the Texas Medical Boards staff learned the hospital reported Wu to the National Practitioner Data Bank. The data bank was established by the U.S. Congress to prevent practitioners from moving states without disclosing previous damaging performance, according to their website. The Texas board later discovered that a nurse at Baptist Hospital in Beaumont in April reported witnessing three incidents within a period of six months that made her feel uncomfortable. She was concerned that Wu was inappropriately touching patients, the documents said. The next day, Wu voluntarily removed himself, at the behest of Baptists Chief of Staff, from all anesthesia schedules until a review of the allegations could be completed, the documents said. Wu also met with a quality improvement committee to discuss the allegations, the Texas Medical Boards documents said. Wu told the committee he reached under the blanket to clean up patient stool following the procedure, according to the documents. But the committee recommended Wu resign his privileges at the hospital based on a trend of these allegations that cannot be ignored. After being asked to meet with the Medical Executive Committee on May 12, on May 17 Wu resigned his privleges, the documents said. The next day, the hospital reported that Wu was the subject of complaints. He no longer has privileges at Baptist Hospital, according to hospital officials. Out of an abundance of caution to protect patients in the community, the hospital turned the case over to the Texas Medical Board to conduct to their own investigation, according to Baptist Hospital spokesperson Stephanie Harris. A summary of investigative findings provided to the Texas Medical Board by the Medical Executive Committee in mid-May shows Wu has previously been the subject of similar allegations. A total of eight incidents were reported by staff members from 2013 until present time, the board said, noting that each case involved the same components. The hospital took disciplinary measures in March 2019, which included the completion of a continuing medical education course, Boundaries for Physicians: The Code of Medical Ethics, within two weeks. Wu vowed to change the pattern of practice that resulted in the original complaints by Baptist staff, the documents said. Despite corrective measures, the behavior repeated itself and culminated in the complaint made by (the nurse), the documents continued. Regarding the past complaints and disciplinary measures, Harris said Baptist has investigated all allegations when they were brought to light. Based on the reviews, actions were taken to address the issues found at the time, Harris said. Harris confirmed it is not uncommon for the physicians to be asked to participate in continuing education. Wu has been actively practicing in the United States for 20 years and in Texas for 10 years, according to the Texas Medical Board. He obtained his physician license, which is set to expire November 2022, in November 2009. meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/megzmagpie (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Iain Boyd, University of Colorado Boulder (THE CONVERSATION) The latest episodes of so-called Havana syndrome, a series of unexplained ailments afflicting U.S. and Canadian diplomats and spies, span the globe. They include two diplomats in Hanoi, Vietnam - which disrupted Vice President Kamala Harriss foreign travel schedule - in August, several dozen reports at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna earlier this year, and a pair of incidents at the White House last November. The cause of these incidents is unknown, but speculation in the U.S. centers on electromagnetic beams. If Havana syndrome turns out to be caused by weapons that shoot energy beams, they wont be the first such weapons. As an aerospace engineer and former Vice Chair of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, Ive researched directed energy. I can also personally attest to the effectiveness of directed energy weapons. In 2020, a study on Havana syndrome by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded that the more than 130 victims experienced some real physical phenomena, and that the cause was most likely some form of electromagnetic radiation. These incidents began in 2016 with reports of multiple personnel at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, experiencing alarming and unexplained symptoms. The symptoms included a feeling of pressure on the face, loud noises, severe headaches, nausea and confusion. In some cases, the victims seem to have been left with permanent health effects. Scientists from Cubas Academy of Sciences issued a report refuting the U.S. National Academies report and ascribing the reported symptoms to psychological effects or a range of ordinary ailments and preexisting conditions. But based on my own experience, directed energy appears to be a plausible explanation. Heres how these beams affect people. At the right wavelength There is a very wide range of electromagnetic waves that are characterized by wavelength, which is the distance between successive peaks. These waves can interact with different types of matter, including human bodies, in a variety of ways. At short wavelengths, a few hundred-billionths of a meter, ultraviolet rays from the Sun can burn the skins surface if someone is exposed for too long. Microwaves have longer wavelengths. People use these every day to reheat meals. Microwaves transfer energy into the water molecules inside food. The U.S. military has developed a directed energy technology that shoots beams of a slightly longer wavelength in a focused area over distances up to a mile. This directed energy technology was designed for nonlethal control of crowds. When these waves interact with a person, they pass through the skin and transfer energy to the water that lies just under the surface. I had the opportunity to be zapped by one of these systems. I stood about a half-mile from the source and the beam was turned on. The portion of my body exposed to the beam got hot really quickly, and I immediately stepped out of the beam. The feeling was as though someone had just opened the door of a large furnace right by me. At even longer wavelengths, electromagnetic radiation can interact with electronic systems and can be used to disable computers and control systems. For these waves, interaction with matter generates electrical currents and fields that interfere with the electrical systems. The military is developing these technologies to defend against drone attacks. Defense through detection Its plausible that at just the right wavelength, an electromagnetic beam could be projected over hundreds of yards to create the symptoms seen in Havana syndrome incidents. If this is the case, its likely that these beams are interfering with the electrical functions of the brain and central nervous system. For example, the Frey effect involves microwaves activating the auditory sensory nerves. Other studies have noted potential effects of microwaves on the central nervous system, such as decreased response time, social dysfunction and anxiety. Further study is needed to determine the cause of Havana syndrome incidents. Unfortunately, this type of electromagnetic radiation does not leave a telltale trace like sunburn, which makes it difficult to be certain of the explanation. While the results of the National Academies study were made public, it is likely that federal agencies are carrying out additional activities behind the scenes to try to explain these incidents and determine who is to blame. Similar to responding to cyberattacks, though, the government may be reluctant to release too much information to the public because it could reveal techniques for detecting and countering the attacks. If the source of Havana syndrome turns out to be electromagnetic waves, then in principle, buildings could be hardened against them. However, it would be expensive and would still leave people vulnerable outdoors. Perhaps the best option to prevent further attack is detection. It is relatively simple and inexpensive to install sensors to detect electromagnetic waves on buildings and vehicles. Such sensors could also help identify the location of the source of the attacks and, in this way, act as a deterrent. Assuming Havana syndrome is the result of deliberately targeted electromagnetic beams, employees of the U.S. government and other nations will remain susceptible to these attacks until governments take such defensive measures. [Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversations science newsletter.] This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/directed-energy-weapons-shoot-painful-but-non-lethal-beams-are-similar-weapons-behind-the-havana-syndrome-167318. AUSTIN, Texas (AP) A federal judge in October will hear the Biden administration's efforts to block Texas' new law banning most abortions, which is already putting a strain on clinics and patients in the two weeks since it took effect. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, an appointee of President Barack Obama, will decide whether to grant a temporary hold that could allow Texas clinics to resume performing abortions on most patients. Currently under the new law, abortions in Texas are now prohibited once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks. Supporters of the law known as Senate Bill 8 are preparing for a ruling that favors the Justice Department's challenge but believe the measure the strictest abortion law in the nation will ultimately be upheld. Here are some questions and answers about what's next and the impact so far: ___ WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT? Abortion providers say the ramifications have been punishing and exactly what we feared. More than 100 pages of new court filings this week offered the most comprehensive glimpse at how the near-total ban on abortion in Texas has played out. Physicians and executives at Texas nearly two dozen abortion clinics described turning away hundreds of patients, and some who show up for appointments cannot proceed because cardiac activity has been detected. One Planned Parenthood location in Houston normally performed about two dozen abortions daily, but in the 10 days after the law took effect, the clinic had done a total of 52. Clinics in nearby states, meanwhile, say they are struggling to meet surging demand and care for their own residents is being delayed to accommodate women making long trips from Texas. At a Planned Parenthood clinic in Oklahoma City, more than 60% of the 219 appointments over the next two weeks are for women from Texas. Doctors say recent patients from Texas have included rape victims, as SB8 makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Texas abortion providers say they are complying with SB8, and there are no reports of lawsuits accusing clinics of violations. ____ WHAT WAS THE LANDSCAPE IN TEXAS BEFORE? More than 55,000 abortions were performed last year in Texas, which already had some of the nation's strictest abortion laws, including a ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy. ____ IF A JUDGE SIDES WITH CLINICS, HOW SOON COULD THEY REOPEN? If the new Texas law is put on hold by a court, abortion providers say it could be done quickly, but how soon is likely to depend on several factors. Abortion providers in Texas have experience when it comes to abruptly ramping up operations again. In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, abortions in Texas were all but banned for weeks under orders by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that postponed surgeries not immediately medically necessary." But providers are already reporting staffing issues and worry some clinics will permanently shutter the longer SB8 is in effect. A decade ago, Texas had more than 40 abortion clinics, but more than half of them closed for good during a protracted legal battle over a 2013 law that was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court. I believe that, without court-ordered relief in the next couple of weeks, SB8 will shutter most if not all of the remaining abortion clinics in Texas, Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of the abortion provider Whole Woman's Health, told the court this week. Seth Chandler, a professor of law at the University of Houston, said he believes the judge will act within two weeks. But he said even if Pitman temporarily stops the law from being enforced, abortion clinics may still be reticent to quickly resume normal operations over concerns of a swift appeal. If I were an abortion clinic, I would still be concerned," Chandler said. ____ WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The Biden administration filed its lawsuit a week ago and this week asked for a temporary restraining order that would put SB8 on hold while the lawsuit proceeds. Texas Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group and a driver of the new law, has cheered the fact that it has stopped abortions everyday that it has been in effect. A ruling to grant a temporary hold wouldn't decide the constitutionality of the law, though whether the administration's lawsuit which calls it "clearly unconstitutional" is likely to succeed is a factor in putting the law on hold. At the hearing, Pitman will hear from both sides, and a written ruling would likely follow. In the short term, that means SB8 is in effect unless and until Pitman says differently. Supporters of the law are already anticipating Pitman will rule against the law and are preparing their next move. If they're right and Pitman puts the law's enforcement on hold, abortion providers could theoretically resume their previous practices. But Texas could also quickly ask a federal appeals court to reinstate the law, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that oversees Texas is a conservative-leaning panel with a track record of staying lower-court rulings from Austin. The law has already made one trip to the Supreme Court. The justices voted 5-4 not to intervene to prevent it from taking effect, but they said further challenges were possible. With the Biden administrations challenge underway, the law could return to the justices quickly. __ HOW ARE OTHER STATES RESPONDING? After Texas' law went into effect Republican lawmakers in at least half a dozen states said they would consider introducing bills using the Texas law as a model, hoping it provides a pathway to enacting the kind of abortion crackdown they have sought for years. Those states include Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, two dozen state attorneys general, all Democrats, submitted a brief in the Biden administrations lawsuit saying a substantial reduction of abortion access in one state would result in health care systems being burdened elsewhere. They asked Pitman to block enforcement of the law. The City Council in Portland, Oregon, briefly considered a boycott of Texas businesses because of the new law but instead decided to set aside $200,000 to fund reproductive care. __ Gresko reported from Washington. With the assistance of authorities in Laredo, a mother was recently reunited with her daughter who was abducted in 2007. Authorities identified the daughter as Jacqueline Hernandez, 19, of Chilpancingo, Mexico, who is also a U.S. citizen. Hernandez reached out to her mother, Angelica Vences-Salgado, through social media in June 2021 and the mother and daughter arranged to meet on Sept. 10 in Laredo. Vences-Salgado is a Mexican national residing in Mascotte, Fla. She contacted the Clermont Police Department to let them know about the Sept. 10 meeting in Laredo. Clermont police worked with federal partners through the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, or CPIX, to help ensure a smooth reunification at the border, according to HSI. An Enforcement and Removal Operations officer assigned to the CPIX was instrumental in the cross platform communications, HSI said. At the request of HSI Orlando and the CPIX, HSI Laredo special agents arrived at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge and informed U.S. Customs and Border Protection of the situation to facilitate the reunification. In an interview with special agents, Hernandez stated that she had been living in Chilpancingo, Mexico, with her father. She stated she was able to contact her mother three months ago via social media and managed to escape from her father before traveling to Laredo to meet with her mother. HSI Laredo also interviewed the mother, Vences-Salgado. She stated Hernandez had been abducted in 2007 by her father and that she and her daughter were able to make contact three months ago. In addition, Vences-Salgado provided several documents about the abduction case and Hernandez Illinois birth certificate. HSI Laredo confirmed that Clermont police had an open missing person case for Hernandez. HSI Laredo agents contacted the Laredo Police Department and informed them about the situation and provided them with Hernandezs and Vences-Salgados information. The LPD was able to immediately compare Hernandez fingerprints taken in 2007, by a school in Florida, with the fingerprints obtained by CBP on Sept. 10, 2021, and produced a 100% match, HSI said in a statement. Authorities in Florida said this case is a great example of how they worked together. A kidnapped daughter was reunited with her mother as a result of law enforcement working together, said HSI Orlando Assistant Special Agent in Charge David Pezzutti. This is a great example of how strong partnerships in law enforcement can work to solve problems no matter the complexity or distance. Clermont Police Chief Charles Broadway added, This is a prime example of what can be accomplished when multiple law enforcement agencies and their respective communities work cooperatively together and maintain open lines of communication. In this case, several agencies in different counties and states across the nation were able to create a force multiplier and aid in reuniting the victim with her mother after 14 years. ATLANTA (AP) A former cast member on the reality television show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta has been sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison for conspiracy and wire fraud related to a Ponzi scheme and related charges involving a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan application. U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen sentenced Maurice Fayne, also known as Arkansas Mo, to 17 and a half years behind bars and five years of supervised release. Fayne, 38, of Dacula, Georgia, also was ordered to pay restitution of nearly $4.5 million to the victims. Fayne pleaded guilty to the charges on May 11. Those also included charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution involving a loan application for the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Fayne planned to use the PPP program as a cover for his long-running Ponzi scheme, said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine in a news release Wednesday. The funds the program supplies serve as a lifeline to many businesses desperately trying to stay afloat during the pandemic, and unfortunately his fraud helped deplete those precious dollars. Erskine said from March 2013 through May 2020, Fayne ran a multistate Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 20 people who invested in his trucking business. Instead of using investors' money to operate the business, he used the funds to pay personal debts and expenses and to fund an extravagant lifestyle, Erskine said. During the scheme, Fayne spent more than $5 million at a casino in Oklahoma, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said. In April 2020, Fayne submitted a $3.7 million loan application to United Community Bank, falsely claiming that his trucking business had 107 employees and an average monthly payroll of $1.4 million. Prosecutors said that instead of using the money to retain workers and other business expenses, Fayne used the loan to cover expenses including $40,000 in past-due child support, $50,000 for restitution owed in a previous fraud case, $85,000 for custom-made jewelry, $136,000 to lease a Rolls-Royce and $907,000 to start a new business in Arkansas. Fayne appeared on season 8 of VH1s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta as the love interest of longtime cast member Karlie Redd. Timothy Abero, Contributor / EyeEm / Getty Images / EyeEm Authorities do not suspect foul play in the death of a woman whose body was found in Newton County on Monday. The body was discovered by utility workers in a wooded area on Texas 87 in the Devils Pocket Community, according to Newton County Sheriff Robert Burby. PHOENIX (AP) A Scottsdale man who failed to appear for his sentencing in a tax fraud case has received more prison time, according to federal authorities. In August 2020, Thomas Rampetsreiter was given a two-year sentence in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $2.2 million restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. ARANSAS PASS, Texas (AP) A South Texas teen who said he killed his family and posted graphic images of their bodies on social media killed himself after officers found him at his home, authorities said Thursday. The Aransas Pass police and San Patricio County sheriff's office say they started investigating after being alerted to the images on social media. They say the teen, identified as 15-year-old William Quince Colburn III, had also threatened to continue the violence at a school. Law enforcement agencies late Wednesday night tracked the teen to a recreational vehicle park near Aransas Pass. Officers asked him to step outside of his motor home, but he refused. Officers then heard a single gunshot and the sound of a person falling to the ground, police said. When officers entered the recreational vehicle they found the teen dead from a gunshot wound, along with the bodies of three other people and two dogs, police said. San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera said the other three people also had been shot to death. He identified them as: William Colburn Jr., 63; Janna Colburn, 53; and Emma Colburn, 13. Rivera said William Quince Colburn III and the three others found slain in the RV were related, but he did not yet know specifically how. Police said that had it not been for the speedy action of the social media website and other teens within the group where the threat was made, we might well have been working on an even more tragic event later this morning. Im glad that we were able to find him before something worse could have happened, Rivera said. Rivera said it was unclear what school the teen might have been threatening. He said the teen wasn't registered at any local schools and authorities believe he was homeschooled. I'm not sure which school he planned to attack but he certainly had the weapons and ammunition to do so," Rivera said. He said the teen had at least two guns and a rifle. It was bad enough that Gov. Greg Abbott bizarrely thinks he can eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas instead of taking a realistic approach to this age-old crime and how it impacts women who are now prohibited from seeking an abortion after six weeks of conception, a brief time period that is usually before most women know they are pregnant. In effect, the new law, which blatantly contradicts the precedent of legal abortion, will force some women and girls to bear the child of their rapist whether they want to or not. Even worse, however, is the news that all this is playing out in a state with nearly 5,300 untested rape kits. That number is appalling enough, but it doesnt even include the number of untested kits from the 231 law enforcement agencies that did not respond to a state audit for these totals, even though that is required by law. This backlog is scandalous. Abbott and every elected official in the state should vow to eliminate that once and for all. Then once that has been done, every law enforcement agency and prosecutors office in Texas should make sure to process all new rape kits quickly so that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes might be brought to justice. The state has made considerable progress on this front after Abbott signed a law in 2019 designed to heres that word again eliminate the backlog in untested rape kits. At one point, there were 19,000 untested kits, an inexcusable total that showed just how little focus was devoted to this serious crime. Getting that number down to 5,300 is progress of sorts, but its hardly something that anyone can be satisfied with. The state has allocated $50 million to help test the kits, but the main problem is a shortage of forensic investigators to process them. The women who have been victimized by this crime should at least know that law enforcement and public officials are doing every possible to find their abusers. With modern technology, it is often possible to find a match between the DNA in the test kit and the other samples of DNA (many from criminals) that have been cataloged. Some rapists attack multiple victims, so finding one of these serial offenders can save many other girls or women from that traumatic experience. Each box is not just a box sitting on a shelf, said state Rep. Victoria Neave (D-Dallas), who has been working on this issue for years. It represents a survivors story. It represents an individual, a family who has been impacted by this. It represents women who are waiting for justice. Since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to immediately strike down the new Texas abortion law, analysts say it could be months before the court reviews the issue again. With the three conservative justices appointed by President Donald Trump, theres also no guarantee that legal abortion will be preserved in all states. While that legal drama plays out, the focus in Texas should be on processing all untested rape kits. If Abbott sees that this backlog is eliminated, he will have truly accomplished something on an issue that deserves the greatest compassion and urgency. Weve always known America to be a religiously devout democracy, even more so than other Western democracies. Yet, religion is declining at a rapid pace, changing the religious landscape. The overarching conclusion we can take away from American religion over the past few decades is that fewer people identify with an established religious tradition each year, and the religious nones continue to grow. Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University, explains that nearly two-thirds of people raised as nones are still nones, even in adulthood, meaning the retention rate is high. We are now seeing second and third-generation nones. As our nation grows to be more secular, it has opened the space for our country to be more divided, including divides around political ideology. This brings up the question, have politics replaced religion in America? First, we have to look at how we got here. The rapid shift in American religion was mainly driven by evangelicals who began to become more prominent in American culture. There was also the rise of televangelists like Jerry Falwell that overlapped with the Religious Right starting to assert itself in electoral politics. At the time, the religious nones were a much smaller group. Evangelicals had become 25 to 27 percent of the population, and the mainline population was just around 20 percent by the last 1980s, Christianity Today reports. While evangelicals hit their peak in the data around 30 percent in 1993, they have been on a slow but steady decline over time. Before the major religious declines, there was more religious commonality. This helped our country maintain a certain level of political cohesion. When people in a society abide by roughly the same religious beliefs, there are better odds that pollical common ground will be broader among its members. Now that religion has declined, and weve become more politically divided, Americans have much less common ground than ever before, particularly when it comes to deeply-held values and beliefs. There was a time when Christianity provided a significant amount of commonality among our culture, but the intrusive political chaos is tearing away at the fabric of our society. While these ideologies are not only ascending and dominating, they cant fill the void left by the Christian faith. As religion has declined in America, many are asking if political tribalism is filling the vacuum left behind? In the essay Americas New Religions, Andrew Sullivan says he believes established faiths in America are giving way to political tribalism. He explained that the desire for religious fulfillment is in our genes. Sullivan expressed that as Christianity declines in America, two discrete political religions are taking their place in search of meaning. He says that this has given rise to Trumpism and the cult of social justice in recent years. In the essay, he appeals to Evangelicals who voted for Trump when he was the least Christian person in America. Throughout Americas history, people have replaced faith in God with political ideology. Trumpism is one modern example of it. In our nation and across our world, people have been placing their faith in God with a multitude of ideologies and worldly pursuits. As Christians, we know that the only path to God is through Jesus Christ. If we are clear about this, we can also be clear that there are many ways to go astray from Him. There is so much division between the Left and the Right, and God doesnt appear to be at the center. There are so many problems that need solving, and there are growing spiritual needs of our country. When God is not placed at the center, we become even more desperately in need. This is the time where we need to work together and come in unity. First John 4:7-21 says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Maybe the key to diminishing political divides and bringing religion back to the forefront is love. Our society emphasizes focusing on the flaws and sins of elected officials. While we should always hold government leaders accountable, we need to take a look at our flaws and sins. Gods Word instructs it. Matthew 7:3 says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? We must focus on living our lives in pleasing and dignified ways. Psalm 47:8 says, God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. Many kingdoms and nations have appeared and disappeared throughout history, but Gods kingdom is eternal. Headlines can make you feel uneasy, but we should always remember that God is in control. We cant deny that we are living in a politically divided nation. Sometimes political ideologies seem to supersede religious ones. There is so much hatred, fear and violence taking place in the hearts of those around us. It feels like God is no longer in the public square. As Christians, we must remember that God is present and call on Him in these divided times. The wreckage of a Rimbun Air cargo plane is seen from a rescue helicopter after crashing on a mountain in Papua province in Indonesia, Sept. 15, 2021. Indonesian police killed a separatist rebel during a clash this week in Papua province that was followed by a deadly insurgent attack on public facilities, a provincial police spokesman announced on Friday. Meanwhile, the armed wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) on Friday claimed that its fighters shot down a small cargo plane, killing three people on Wednesday, although authorities insisted the crash was an accident. Provincial police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said soldiers and police on a joint patrol on Monday in Pegunungan Bintang regency returned fire against insurgents. From the firefight, joint military-police personnel managed to kill one separatist member and two were injured, Kamal said in a statement. The rebel who died was Elly M. Bidana who claimed to be the operation commander of the Ngalum-Kupel separatist group. The situation is safe now, though public services have been affected because of arson attacks on public facilities carried out by the armed criminal group, Kamal said. After the encounter, the rebels set fire to public buildings, including a health clinic, an elementary school, a bank, and housing for teachers and health workers, police said. An OPM spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police retrieved the body of a nurse killed in the attack on the health clinic in Kiwirok district, a police spokesman said on Thursday. Gabriella Meilani, 22, died after falling into a ravine while trying to flee from the scene of the attack. Her colleague, Kristina Sampe Tonapa, survived after suffering stab wounds and bruises. Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the separatist movements armed wing, the West Papua National Liberation Army, said the groups were waging a revolutionary war. Therefore, all development programs carried out by the colonial government of Indonesia must stop, and the colonial government must be prepared to sit at the negotiating table with Papuan negotiators, Sambom told BenarNews on Friday. He confirmed that security forces had killed local separatist commander Bidana. Sebby also claimed that rebel fighters were responsible for bringing down a Rimbun Air cargo plane in Intan Jaya regency on Wednesday. The crash killed the three people on board. The plane was carrying food and construction materials for the military. Rebel commander Sabinus Waker issued a statement saying rebels under a leader called Odiut Kogeya shot down the aircraft. He said the rebels began efforts to shoot down the plane on Sept. 12. Accidents involving small aircraft are common in jungle-covered Papua, which relies on air transport in the absence of substantial road networks. Arrest the perpetrators Meanwhile, Yan Christian Warinussy, a Papuan human rights lawyer, criticized the rebels actions. It is not permissible for medical facilities to be attacked, because these facilities are also used by OPM people, he told BenarNews. I hope that the TNI [military] and police will immediately arrest the perpetrators of the crime, he said. The Indonesian Medical Association in Papua called on the government and security forces specifically to guarantee the safety of health workers in response to Meilans death. The Indonesian Medical Association Papua Region condemns the action, association chairman Donald Aronggear said in a statement. We hope that a similar tragedy will not happen again so that health workers can provide their services peacefully and without fear. The attacks occurred even as authorities stepped up security ahead of the National Games set to be hosted by Papua Oct. 2 to 15. The separatist insurgency has simmered for decades in the Papua region, which consists of Papua and West Papua provinces, but violence has intensified in the past three years. In April, the government designated separatist rebels as terrorists after insurgents ambushed and killed an army general who headed the Papua regional branch of the National Intelligence Agency. The killing prompted President Joko Jokowi Widodo to order a crackdown. Earlier this month, suspected separatist rebels killed four soldiers and wounded two others during a pre-dawn raid on their post in Maybrat, a regency in West Papua, in the single deadliest attack on government forces in the region this year. In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded Papua and annexed the region. Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia after a U.N.-sponsored ballot called the Act of Free Choice in 1969. Locals and activists said the vote was a sham because only about 1,000 people took part. However, the United Nations accepted the result, which essentially endorsed Jakartas rule. The region is rich in natural resources and minerals, including copper and gold, but remains among Indonesias poorest and underdeveloped ones. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne (left), accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaks to journalists at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 16, 2021. Countries bordering the South China Sea who are wary of great power rivalries are reacting slowly and cautiously to the announcement of a trilateral defense agreement among the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The AUKUS pact, hailed by leaders from the three powers as historic, is thought to be designed to counter Chinas growing influence in the Indo-Pacific, especially in the South China Sea where China holds sweeping claims that are disputed by its neighbors. The pact will also see the U.S. and U.K. provide Australia with the technology needed to build nuclear-powered submarines. The pact has been denounced by China, which claims it will stoke an arms race. Critics, meanwhile, speculate it could provoke a new Cold War. Tensions have been building up in the region over territorial disputes, as China develops its military might. Southeast Asian countries have responded cautiously to AUKUS an abbreviation of the three participating nations amid concerns of a new, intense strategic rivalry in the Indo-Pacific. Many regional countries do not want to be drawn into U.S.-China rivalry, Rizal Sukma, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former Indonesia ambassador to Britain, told BenarNews. AUKUS was announced on Thursday. China wasted no time in registering its disapproval. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called the pact extremely irresponsible and said it would backfire on the three powers involved. He said they had seriously undermined regional peace and stability, intensified the arms race, and undermined international non-proliferation efforts. Among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore reacted positively, but other governments were more guarded. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry said Friday it is watching with caution the Australian governments decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. Indonesia is one of Australias closest neighbors and even though the country is not a territorial claimant in the South China Sea, its exclusive economic zone overlaps Chinas claims. Indonesia is very concerned about the continued arms race and projection of military power in the region, a ministry statement said. Jakarta encourages Australia and other related parties to continue promoting dialogue in resolving differences peacefully and urges other parties in the region to adhere to international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Indonesia was among the first nations in the Indo-Pacific to be informed of the new AUKUS deal and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reportedly said he would seek to speak to President Joko Jokowi Widodo soon. Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had a phone conversation with his Australian counterpart, Peter Dutton, on Friday, where Dutton underscored that Australia wants to be seen as a neighbor that promotes regional peace, according to the Philippine Department of Defense. Lorenzana told Dutton that his country would like to maintain good bilateral defense relations with all other countries in the region, suggesting that Manila does not want to be seen as officially taking sides. Philippine Defense Secretary Secretary Delfin Lorenzana speaks during a meeting at the Pentagon in Washington, April 1, 2019. [AFP] 'China reaps what it sows' A lack of a solid regional security structure means that Southeast Asian countries risk being sidelined on their own strategic chessboard. ASEAN, established 54 years ago, has become lackluster and more irrelevant, according to Sukma who said he doubted that the grouping has the capacity to be a place where great powers interests can be managed. Most Southeast Asian governments including Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have yet to comment on AUKUS hinting at the prevailing strategic uncertainty in the region. Singapore, however, was upbeat. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who said in a phone call with Australian premier Morrison that he hoped the new deal would contribute constructively to the peace and stability of the region and complement the regional architecture. Lees statement suggests there could be more support in the region for having a deterrent, military presence than openly claimed. No one country in the region wants to be under the domination of China and the U.S. presence is thus a necessity, said Kasit Piromya, Thailands former minister of foreign affairs. In the last 40 years, China has become the second-largest economy in the world and makes gains in technological advancement. However, the current Chinese leadership has become revisionist with assertive and aggressive ambition, Kasit said. The ball is more in the Chinese court whether China wants to keep on continuing to dominate the region or to take stock of the limitation of power and the resources to back up the power, he said. The United States has more allies while China only has a marriage of convenience with Russia. Apart from the new tripartite alliance, the U.S is part of an Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad, together with Australia, India and Japan. President Joe Biden will be hosting a summit of the Quad leaders in Washington next week. The U.S.-led alliances are playing an important role in countering and containing Chinas assertiveness, said Nguyen Ngoc Truong, a former Vietnamese ambassador and political affairs analyst. Vietnam has been making an effort to balance the relationships with China and the U.S. with the countrys leaders always insisting that they would not side with any country against China, he said. Yet Vietnam and China are embroiled for years in a tense territorial dispute in the South China Sea and AUKUS should bring a new confidence to countries contesting Chinas excessive claims, the former ambassador said. Beijing may become even more aggressive. But China reaps what it sows. Ahmad Syamsuddin and Tria Dianti in Jakarta and Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report. The Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 10 is seen on a visit to Pakistan in February 2019. Ship-tracking data obtained by BenarNews on Friday shows the Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 10 continues operating in Tuna Block in the Indonesian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), almost a week after a flagship U.S. aircraft carrier sailed within 50 nautical miles of the ship. An Indonesian naval ship, the Kapitan Patimura-class corvette KRI Teuku Umar (385) was seen near the Haiyang Dizhi. The corvette is believed to have been dispatched to the area earlier this week. On Friday, the Indonesian Navy said it deployed ships to secure the Natuna Sea. Ship-tracking data and witness accounts reported in Indonesian media also indicated several Chinese ships, including Chinese Coast Guard Ship 4303 have been in the area this week. Four KRIs [Indonesian ships] are in the North Natuna Sea. We want to give confidence to fishermen or sea users in North Natuna Sea, and the sea is under control because of the presence of the KRIs there, Rear Adm. Arsyad Abdullah said during a virtual news conference. In addition to the KRIs, operations in the North Natuna Sea also involved Indonesian Navy aircraft to carry out routine maritime air patrols in the area, said Arsyad, commander of the Indonesian Navys 2nd Fleet. US carrier The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson passed by the Haiyang Dizhi 10 on Sept. 11 as the American warship sailed through the southern part of the South China Sea, a move analysts said was intended to send a message to the Chinese ship. On Monday, the Indonesian Navy deployed the KRI Bontang (907) to the same area. Ship-tracking records show it was following the Haiyang Dizhis movements in the Tuna Block, an important oil and gas field in the North Natuna Sea. The KRI Bontang (907) has since withdrawn to Natuna Island. The Indonesian government has been under immense domestic pressure to protect natural resources. Since late August, the Haiyang Dizhi has been operating about 90 to 100 nautical miles north of Indonesias Natuna Islands. Ship-tracking records show its back-and-forth pattern typical of a maritime survey. Chinese ships have been accused of harassing neighboring countries oil exploration activities but Beijing insists they are operating within Chinas jurisdiction. Although Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the northern part of the Natuna Sea overlaps with the nine-dash line that China uses to demarcate its sweeping claims in the South China Sea a position not recognized by international law. Tria Dianti in Jakarta contributed to this report. Catholic priest Flavie Villanueva places a rosary in front of the tomb of a victim of the Philippines war on drugs before exhumation from a public cemetery in Manila, Sept. 17, 2021. The remains of eight victims of alleged extrajudicial killings in Philippine President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs were exhumed from a public cemetery on Friday after their grave leases expired. The dead are among thousands of poor killed since Duterte launched an unrelenting crackdown against illegal drugs, a bloody legacy of his six-year term ending next year. Many could not make that payment, and so are transferred, Catholic priest Flavie Villanueva, who has been a vocal critic of Duterte and his drug war, told BenarNews. Because they [the families] do not have money, the bodies of their loved ones temporarily rested in these apartments for rent, and were in danger of being lost forever. Workers carry remains past colorfully painted apartment for rent tombs, Sept. 17, 2021. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews] Apartment for rent is a term used for maze-like rows of tombs stacked atop each other meters above ground in impoverished sections of Manila. Such tombs are leased at several thousand pesos (1,000 pesos is $20) a year. In many cases, remains are taken out of the tombs once their leases are up and families fail to settle accounts, according to officials. Fridays exhumations came just two days after the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized international prosecutors to begin an investigation into drug war killings after finding a reasonable basis for allegations of crimes against humanity during Dutertes anti-drug campaign. Villanueva visited three cemeteries in northern Manila where the remains of eight victims were exhumed. Wearing his white vestment and a green stole, the priest offered prayers and sprinkled holy water on the skeletal remains of the victims. A body bag is used to carry a corpse from a Manila cemetery, Sept. 17, 2021. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews] Killed in knock and plead operations Villanueva heads a program called paghilom (to heal), which aims to help needy families of those slain in tokhang operations, a combination of the Filipino words to knock and plead a term used by the police to knock on homes of known drug users and addicts and plead for their surrender. Tokhang has come to be associated with killings in the drug war. Villanuevas paghilom project aims to have victims remains exhumed, cremated and returned to their families in urns. This will help families in the process of healing, he said. Thousands of deaths The national police have said about 8,000 suspected addicts and dealers have been killed since Duterte took office in 2016. Rights groups claim the figure could be three times higher with many uncounted victims killed by vigilantes. Duterte has blamed rival gangs for the other killings. Father Favie Villanueva and survivors offer a prayer for victims of the Philippine drug war, Sept. 17, 2021. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews] While his administration does not deny that there have been killings, claims that the use of lethal force during official anti-drug operations was for self-defense were undermined by findings in their prosecutors preliminary investigation, according to the ICC judges. The Duterte administration has insisted it would not entertain any move by the ICC, raising questions about any effort to prosecute. On Thursday, Dutertes lawyer said the president would not cooperate with the ICC inquiry and no investigator would be allowed into the Southeast Asian country. The Philippines has not been a member of the ICC since 2019 when Duterte pulled out of the treaty. The foreign institution has no as it never had jurisdiction over the affairs of the Republic of the Philippines and its people, said chief presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo. His statement goes against the Philippine Supreme Court, which ruled in July that the ICC maintains jurisdiction before the pullout and authorities are obliged to cooperate with an investigation. Dutertes six-year term ends in 2022. He cannot seek a second term under the constitution, so he has announced plans to run for vice president. Bennington, VT (05201) Today Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Investigations editor Larry Parnass joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, CommonWealth Magazine and with the Reuters news service. Mark Roberts, of Stow, will make the journey from West Stockbridge to Provincetown alongside Mocha, a 6-year-old labradoodle, seeking to raise money and awareness for food insecurity in Massachusetts and beyond. Massachusetts State Police Trooper Cody Titus walks a horse to safety Wednesday, after it escaped from a farm in Lee. The author says that the coronavirus pandemic death toll in the U.S. has surpassed that of the Civil War, infamous for having the highest American death toll of any war in history, and has killed more people in this country than cancer does annually. Enough said on reasons for getting vaccinated. An American flag hangs in an archway to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. "From vaccine mandates to religious liberty, your allies often matter more than your ideology," writes The New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat. What Is the Meaning of Concupiscence? Concupiscence is one of those words which derives its meaning from the contextspecifically the object toward which it is directed. At its core, concupiscence is desire or coveting (epithymia). The term is not employed in the British and American Revised version, but its use is still present in the King James Version (Romans 7:8, Colossians 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:5). In each KJV rendering of the term concupiscence, the meaning is a desire for what is forbidden. The word used in the ESV for the three verses above is desire, covetousness, or passion of lust. Lustas we usually define the verbis a sinful, carnal desire. Is Strong Sexual Desire a Sin? Strong sexual desire in and of itself is not a sin. For instance, a husband and his wife should have a strong sexual desire for one another (Song of Solomon, Ephesians 5:21). Its part of a healthy marriage, yet it is not to be the only mutual desire. More often than not, marriages built solely on the shifting sand of lust and sexual desire fail. Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28, any man who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Lustful intent is what defines the sin of adultery about which our Lord spoke. Our hearts, as we know, are deceitful above all things and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). Verse 10 explains the consequences of the offensive hearts intent, I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. The evil thoughts of man proceed from peoples hearts (Matthew 15:18-20), such that the sinful thoughts turn to sinful deeds. Strong sexual desire outside the confines of marriage is defined as lustsinful lust with selfish desire. Its entirely selfish and leads one away from godly living (pleasing God) and to destruction (Romans 1:18, 24; Colossians 3:5-6; 2 Peter 2:9-10; 1 John 2:16-17). Is There More Than One Type of Concupiscence? Yes. As stated above, the direct context of the use of the Greek word, epithymia changes its meaning. The Lord Jesus Christ used the term when He said, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer (Luke 22:15). Jesus used the same Greek word as used in Romans 7:8, Colossians 3:5, and 1 Thessalonians 4:5, but He had a direct object for it, and His desire is godlyalways! When concupiscence is used with no direct object, it takes on the meaning of lust as sinful intent. Two other Scripture passages depict concupiscence in like mannerPhilippians 1:23 and 1 Thessalonians 2:17. In the Philippians passage, Paul addressed the Philippian church and emphasized Christs humility, submission to Him, and Christs provision for believers. He spoke of his chains, and said they would turn out for his deliverance, and his hope was Christ would be magnified in his body. The well-known quote, To live is Christ, and to die is gain precedes his mental process of whether it would be better to be on earth or in heaven. He went on, in verse 23, to say, For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. The object of the desire is to depart, the direct object which makes his concupiscence a godly one. 1 Thessalonians 2:17 is spoken to the Thessalonian church, who questioned why Christians were dying before the promised return of Christ. In this passage, Paul said, But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person and not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face (emphasis mine). Again, there is a direct object that coordinates with great desire, to see you face to face. Once again, the meaning is a godly one. The vast usage of the term throughout Scripture, however, refers to a forbidden longing, specifically, lust. Its not limited to lasciviousness, but it includes the pursuit of ones heart and will toward that which God does not want us to possess or to be. The ninth commandment is clear, You shall not covet (Exodus 20:17). Following is a selection of Scripture passages that deal with evil concupiscence and its consequences: 2 Samuel 13 recounts the history of Amnon and his lust for his sister, Tamar (2 Samuel 13:11). It led to all sorts of strife, including murder. Solomons love for foreign women led his heart away from the Lord (1 Kings 11:1-3). Shechem forced himself on Dinah, Jacobs daughter (Genesis 34), and the consequences were dire, as his sinful lust led to her shame and the murder (wrought by Simeon and Levi) of the Canaanite males of the city. Elsewhere in the Bible are further commands to avoid concupiscence (sinful lust and desire): 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, Mark 7:21-23, Romans 1:22-29; 7:8; 13:13, 1 Corinthians 6:9-18; 9:27, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:17-19; 5:5, Colossians 3;5, 1 Thessalonians 4:5, 2 Timothy 3:6, 1 Peter 4:2-3, and Jude 1:4-7. While this list is not exhaustive, it gives us an array of passages that speak to the command to avoid the sin of lust and instead strive to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). Why Do Humans Struggle so Much with Evil Concupiscence? This may sound too simple, but the answer to this question is, because we are human, and therefore sinful (Psalm 51:5). Our hearts are deceptively wicked, even believers hearts, because we wont be free of sin until glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) when Christians will have totally surrendered to Christs Lordship. Thank God for sanctification, which is a lifelong process. Yes, we are immediately justified when we recognize we are sinners, repent, and turn to the Lord in faith, and say yes to His kind invitation to salvation. Were not there all at once, though. How could we be? Its this authors contention that we cant accept full glory all at once because our sinful heads would explode with the heavenly weight (Job 42:3, Psalm 139:6, Proverbs 30:18). Our most gracious and merciful heavenly Father knows this. Thats why He allows us to grow more and more into the image of Christ, from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18), and at a pace that suits our unique selves. Some mature faster than others, and thats okay if there is growth in the right direction. But Christians indeed continue to struggle with sin, as Paul declares in Romans 7:14-25. He had a hard time doing the things he should and not doing the things he shouldnt. Its the same for us. Daily prayer, time in the Word, and regular gatherings with fellow Christians behooves our walk. Through these regular acts, we remember from where we have fallen (Revelation 2:5), and that we were at one time darkness, but we are now light in the Lord, and we are commanded to walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). Christians are no longer slaves to sin, and its not that we cant sin, but we dont have to sin anymore. Were no longer held by the evil ones power (darkness). We are not of the world any longer (John 17:16), and we are to glorify God in our body as we are transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). Humans without the indwelling Holy Spirit, however, are slaves to the worlds values and its false wisdom (1 Corinthians 3:19, Galatians 4:3). They cant not sin. The devil operates in the world under the guise of fun and fanciful feelings, with a desire for better things at the fore. But the better things from a worldly view are the things which keep a human in bondage to sin and evil, concupiscence gaining top billing. The only answer to the question of how to eclipse the struggle with evil concupiscence is Jesus, the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). A Christians bondage to Jesus Christ is something the world will never understandit is freedom (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). The best we can do as Christians is to immerse ourselves in Gods Word and do what it says, which includes reaching out to the lost (Matthew 28:19-20). Take that, devil! Photo credit: Unsplash/Jared Sluyter Lisa Loraine Baker is a rock & roll girl who loves Jesus. She and her husband, Stephen, inhabit their home as the Newlyweds of Minerva with crazy cat, Lewis. Lisa is co-author of the non-fiction narrative, Someplace to be Somebody (End Game Press, spring 2022). She has also written for Lighthouse Bible Studies, and CBN.com, PRIEST LAKE - On Thursday, September 9, 2021, Idaho Fish and Game staff located a female black bear that had been shot and left to waste near Hills Resort on Priest Lake in North Idaho. As any local will attest to, Priest Lake is not only known for its beauty, but also for its high densities of both black and grizzly bears. Unfortunately, there are times when bears can become habituated to being near humans as they seek easy food from bird feeders, garbage cans and other easy sources. In August, Fish and Game received reports of a female black bear and three cubs that had been frequenting the Hills Resort area for several weeks. The bears appeared to have little fear of humans, which created a dangerous situation. Initially, Fish and Game staff provided local residents with assistance and suggestions for bear awareness and securing trash and attractants to try and reduce potential for human and bear conflicts. In late-August, the sow quarreled with two dogs at separate residences in the area as she was defending her young. The incidents resulted in the death of one dog and multiple stitches for the other. From September 1 to September 8, Fish and Game staff attempted to trap the bears in the area. In situations like this, the hope is the bears can be trapped and relocated unharmed. The trapping attempts were unsuccessful, and reports of the bears in the area continued. Then, on Wednesday, September 8 between 8:30p.m. and 9:30p.m., rifle shots near the dumpsters in Hills Resort were heard by residents in the area. On September 9, Fish and Game staff located the dead sow. She had been shot several times and her body was left to waste. The cubs were not in the area and have not been seen since the time of the incident. If they are located, they will likely have to be put down as they will likely not survive the winter months on their own. Although frustration with the bears among the local residents was entirely justified, the circumstances surrounding the poaching incident were dangerous for other citizens, and the use of artificial light and the waste of game are punishable wildlife crimes. It is not legal for citizens to take matters into their own hands in these circumstances; however, bears that are posing an immediate threat to a person or property may be killed in self-defense without a license or tag. Fish and Game staff have received specialized training to handle situations such as this one. How you can help Information leading to charges being filed would be eligible for a reward from the Citizens Against Poaching program. Please contact the Citizens Against Poaching hotline (1-800-632-5999) and declare that you may have information regarding a black bear poaching case near Hills Resort on Priest Lake. Poaching information can also be reported online. Individuals providing information can remain anonymous. LANSING Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 23 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of the U.S. Department of Justices (DOJ) challenge to Texas new ban on abortions, according to a news release from the Attorney Generals office. The brief specifically supports DOJs motion for a preliminary injunction of the law, which went into effect earlier this month. My sentiments on this issue have never changed, nor has my commitment to protecting a womans right to make decisions in respect to her own body, Nessel said in a news release. We cannot stand idly by as Texas legislators show blatant disregard for federal precedent. Outlawing abortion will not prevent abortionsit only prevents access to safe abortions. We, as elected officials, have a responsibility to recognize the harm this law inflicts and I am proud to join my colleagues in this fight against this constitutional upheaval. The brief, which was filed Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, argues that by banning nearly all pre-viability abortions within Texass borders, the law, Senate Bill 8 (SB8), violates nearly 50 years of Supreme Court precedent affirming the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy before viability. The brief further contends that the Texas legislature sought to circumvent prior Supreme Court rulings and to prevent judicial review of the law by delegating enforcement authority to private individuals instead of the government and, as such, SB 8 is an unprecedented attack on our constitutional order and the rule of law, the news release said. The release said that the coalition of states who filed the brief, contend that the clear purpose of SB 8s private enforcement scheme is to produce an across-the-board ban on constitutionally protected activity, and that the private enforcement mechanism does not shield Texass unconstitutional law from judicial review. It describes how Texas created a structure within its state court system that requires courts to provide monetary and injunctive relief to claimants who bring cases against doctors who provide abortions and those who aid and abet such constitutionally protected care. The coalition argues that the federal district court should not allow Texas to render the constitutionally protected rights recognized in Roe v. Wade legally void through the laws transparent scheme. The Amicus briefs also argues that it is essential for the federal district court to grant a preliminary injunction of the law to stop the irreparable harm that SB 8 is inflicting on people in Texas and across the country, including the amici states. Forcing a patient to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, the coalition argues, will lead to negative health and socioeconomic consequences, including placing people who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term at greater risk of life-threatening illnesses and harming their ability to maintain full-time employment. Joining Attorney General Nessel in filing this brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the release said. Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, on General Mark Milley's call to the Chinese. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Wir, die Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH, einer der Amgen State of the Art-Forschungsstandorte mit Sitz im Munchner Suden und rund 200 Mitarbeitenden, suchen zum nachstmoglichen Termin einen Aufgaben Die Stelle ist in Vollzeit und unbefristet zu besetzen. Ihre Aufgaben: Aufarbeitung primarer humaner und tierischer Zellen aus Blut und Gewebe Sterile Kultur eukaryotischer Zellen Charakterisierung von Zelllinien bzw. Antigenen im Durchflusszytometer (FACS) Planung und Durchfuhrung funktioneller, zellbasierter immunologischer Assays zur in-vitro- oder ex-vivo-Charakterisierung von BiTE-Molekulen im FACS oder ELISA (z. B. Zytotoxizitat, Zellaktivierung und -proliferation, Zytokinproduktion) Auswertung von Experimenten sowie deren Dokumentation Mitwirkung bei der Aufrechterhaltung des Laborbetriebs und Ubernahme von Verantwortung bei der Verwaltung von Reagenzien und Laborgeraten Anforderungen Ihr Profil: Abgeschlossene Ausbildung in einem Laborberuf (Biologielaborant*in, BTA, MTA) Erfahrung mit Zellkulturen, zellbasierten Assays, etablierten Zelllinien sowie mit primaren Zellen und Geweben (human, murin) Erfahrung in der Durchfuhrung verschiedener Analysemethoden (z. B. FACS, ELISA) und deren Auswertung (u. a. Dosis-Wirkungs-Beziehungen) Kenntnisse in der Mehrfarbendurchflusszytometrie Kenntnisse in der Handhabung von Analysesoftware wie FACSDiva oder FlowJo Gute Englisch- und MS-Office-Kenntnisse Selbststandiges und sorgfaltiges Arbeiten, Flexibilitat Freude an der Arbeit im Team Was wir Ihnen bieten: Als innovatives Unternehmen, das sich der Verbesserung der Lebensqualitat von Menschen auf der ganzen Welt verpflichtet hat, fordert Amgen ein integratives Umfeld mit ethischen, engagierten und hochqualifizierten Mitarbeitern, die sich gegenseitig respektieren. Unsere Kultur unterstutzt den offenen Dialog und Austausch unterschiedlicher Sichtweisen, um die besten Losungen zu erzielen. Neben einem attraktiven Vergutungspaket und flexiblen Arbeitszeiten bieten wir vielfaltige Moglichkeiten zur beruflichen und personlichen Entwicklung. Wir fordern Chancengleichheit, Vielfalt sowie ein inklusives Umfeld und berucksichtigen alle qualifizierten Bewerber ohne Rucksicht auf Herkunft, Hautfarbe, Religion, Geschlecht, Alter, sexuelle Orientierung, geschlechtliche Identitat oder Behinderung. Unternehmen If you feel like youre part of something bigger, its because you are. At AMGEN our shared mission - to serve patients - drives all that we do. AMGEN discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers innovative human therapeutics. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, AMGEN was one of the first companies to realize the new sciences promise by bringing safe, effective medicines form lab to manufacturing plant to patient. AMGEN therapeutics have changed the practice of medicine, helping millions of people around the world in the fight against cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, bone disease, and other serious illnesses. With a deep and broad pipeline of potential new medicines, AMGEN remains committed to advancing science to dramatically improve peoples lives. Biologielaborantin BTA MTA CTA PTA Medizinisch-technischer Assistent Medizinisch-technische Assistentin Biologisch-technischer Assistent Biologisch-technische Assistentin Labortatigkeit Laborarbeit Analyse FACS ELISA Auswertung Dosis-Wirkungs-Beziehunge Mehrfarbendurchflusszytometrie Biotechnologie Biotechnik Pharma pharmazeutische Industrie Pharmaindustrie Naturwissenschaften AMGEN Research (Munich) GmbH Munchen 81477 80331 Bayern GUNG-HO PHARMA R&D INVESTMENTS SURPASS $3B While the pharmaceutical industry helped combat COVID-19, from R&D actions on potential treatment strategies to balancing the medicines supply chain in the time of crisis, it struggled to maintain the natural market flow. As a result, many pharma companies had to abort some of their ongoing R&D investment plans. However for FY20-21, the average R&D expenses constituted 7.2 per cent of the total revenues of the pharma companies, with Lupin, Alembic Pharma and Dr. Reddys spending more than others. With the recent announcement of Paula Hulley's resignation as CEO of IAB SA, we spoke with her to find out more about her time as IAB SA's CEO. Paula Hulley Could you specify some highlights and achievements during your time with IAB SA? What are the greatest lessons you have learned during your time with IAB SA? What challenges do you expect your successor to face? What qualities are essential, in your opinion, to be successful as CEO of IAB SA? Any last pearls of wisdom to impart with? Although Hulley is still in her role until December, the search for her successor has started. Here, she tells us more about highlights in her career with IAB SA and what she hopes for the future of IAB SAAligning globally with 47 countries in our ability to empower the media and marketing industries to thrive in a digital economy and our 2018 conference in London was a big highlight for me. To meet and talk to so many country leads coming together in support of the industry and articulate the key challenges we face together while collaborating on solutions defines what the IAB network is all about.This process and experience of sitting around the table (even if virtually) with leaders and future leaders from agencies, publishers, brands, platforms, tech, education and specialists to define and solve challenges and open up the digital opportunity is a big highlight for me. It was part of our process at Ogilvy and Gloo (in my previous roles there), and I am grateful to all my colleagues who helped shaped this way of thinking and operating, and those who continue to do so under the incredible leadership and safe hands of our current IAB SA chair, Haydn Townsend and IAB SA vice-chair, Claire Cobbledick.Our culture - to collaborate and to cooperate - in our focus to move the industry forward, and the people who live it every day, are instrumental in the expansion and delivery of projects like the IAB SA Annual Digital Landscape Survey; the annual IAB SA online advertising revenue report; our monthly online audience consumer insights reports with Narratiive; and our programmes such as the IAB Insight series of monthly webinars, IAB SA Trusted Brand Round Tables and lots more.IAB SA is also enabling a more robust discussion around Transformation and Education and creating access and value including the IAB SA Digital Skills Gap report with Red & Yellow, IAB SA Youth Action Council, the newly transformed IAB SA Transformation Council and working groups, along with key projects such as IAB SA Front Row, IAB SA Future Masters, IAB Youth Action Townhall, IAB Learning, #AlliesinAction and key collaborations with our fellow local bureaus on the global WFA D&I survey, as well as collaboration locally with SheSays and Kantar on the IAB South Africa survey on gender representation, as an example.These are just some examples of the work I had the privilege of being a part of. During 2020, we all navigated a global health crisis (ongoing), we took the opportunity to open up access to digital learning by moving our IAB Insight Series and 2020 Bookmark Awards online and free - a testament to the priorities that exist at IAB SA.As a volunteer-based NGO and NPO business, none of our work would be possible without key partnerships to bring all our ideas and projects to life. We have so many great programmes and projects some still in the pipeline (IAB Play, IAB Open Source +) that are only possible with our partners and the value they bring in capacity, thought leadership, content creation, access, expertise, amplification, software, sponsorship, and in opening doors for more partnerships. 100% of our projects are brought to the industry because of these incredible partnerships I am so grateful to all our partners, many of which are years in the making and will continue with us into the 2022 year and beyond.To listen to both the challenges our members face and the great ideas and solutions our members have to solve them through our board, councils and committees. Thats where the magic is, our role is simply to nurture and deliver on them.To have patience hard work pays off, sometimes you just dont know when so keep on swimming (with breaks!) and watch it come to life.To be grateful I am bowled over every day by the stretch and resilience of our industry and the joy we experience together in the in-between moments. I am grateful for every minute and every WhatsApp and idea I receive to help move the industry forward and help others along the way.That challenges are opportunities I am still working on this one!Again, challenges are opportunities - and to see that creates clear direction. There are big changes in our industry, as always. Hopefully, as I was enabled to build on the platform handed to me our new CEO will be able to leverage our current platforms, projects, programmes and partnerships to do the same it is the most exciting time.Google search says these qualities are essential; vision, receptiveness, motivation, adaptability, and trust. I cant argue with that!We cant do this alone find the people, partnerships (and bureaus) to support and evolve your vision, your culture, your objectives. Bureaus and industry bodies are a vital part of our ecosystem to create the support, momentum and change we need to move the industry forward. Eset Southern Africa is offering local, tech businesses the chance to win advertising worth over R20,000. During the month of October, the cybersecurity company will be honouring and celebrating the role of local business by offering advertising space on MyBroadband and Bizcommunity to one small tech business that inspires through their positive impact. Eset Southern Africa is a leading cybersecurity company helping South Africans enjoy safer technology. Since 2003, Eset has proactively taken part in forming the tech industry landscape in the Southern African region.Driven by their culture of diversity, top talent, mastery, and growth, Eset is giving back to the South African tech community and supporting local with R20,000 in advertising this Heritage Month. Diversity of thought, experience and mindset is core to our company values and how we like to develop relationships with like-minded and unique businesses and partners, explained Eset Southern Africas CEO, Carey van Vlaanderen. The more we support and connect with each other, the more well learn as individuals, companies and as a country. Together we should encourage and support innovation in our industry. This mindset of change-thinking in SMBs is what we want to support, and in turn help us understand the needs and concerns of our customers, she said.Throughout Heritage Month and into October, small tech businesses will have the opportunity to take their brand to the next level. All they need to do in order to stand a chance to win is enter here and share how their business is making a positive impact in South Africa.SMBs have been the life blood of South Africa for many years, explained van Vlaanderen. South Africans resilience shows through entrepreneurship, but it is scary and hard to start and keep a company going, she went on, recalling her own experience starting the company. This giveaway was brought about to encourage small businesses within the tech space to keep trying and do good in the process. Van Vlaanderen summed it up simply as the product of a core ambition: Were driven by a passion for doing the right thing. Following the success of last year's virtual European Film Festival, the 2021 edition will take place predominantly online from 14-24 October. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis A selection of 18 films from Europe, 13 of which have been directed by women, will be screened free of charge, providing a window onto what is fresh and new in the film industries of the respective countries. Four new participants the Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland and Ukraine will complement those from last year: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, along with the return of Portugal.This is reflected in the theme of this years festival, Healing Journeys. Healing be it mental, physical, spiritual or societal is vital to the human condition, to our humanity, to our existence. This applies in both South Africa and in Europe, where despite our different contexts and histories, there exists common experience and a mutual need for healing.The films on show will present, through the lenses of European filmmakers, a snapshot of experiences of re-establishing oneself after sometimes traumatic and possibly cathartic experiences. They deal with journeys that include organic growth, transition, and processes of self-discovery. Many include a healthy dose of humour, bringing some possibly much-needed laughter into our lives. Much of the humour is of a more cerebral nature films that make you smile and think at the same time.Essentially, these films present stories of hope, humanity and thought-provoking intrigue, showcasing new work by some of Europes most accomplished filmmakers alongside exciting new talent.We are deep into our second year of confronting the threat of Covid-19, both in terms of our lives and our livelihoods. It has been difficult everyone is affected. This years European Film Festival has been inspired by overcoming difficulty and challenge. Its theme, Healing Journeys, seems rather appropriate for our times. I take this opportunity to invite you irrespective of whether you are a repeat or a first-time viewer to join us on this years exciting cinematic, and healing, journey, says EU Ambassador Riina Kionka.For more, go to www.eurofilmfest.co.za Studio RX Content Studio Animation Director Remuneration: negotiable cost-to-company Benefits: Medical Aid, Remote Working Location: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Remote Education level: Diploma Job level: Senior Job policy: Employment Equity position Type: 1 Year Reference: #Fuel/Studio RX Company: Fuelcontent Expert level skill motion design skills in After Effects, High level editing skills in Premiere Ability to break down scripts into visual stories. Experience with other forms of visual storytelling a plus (3D animation, illustration, or traditional cel animation) Extremely strong organizational skills required - file management & attention to detail are a must. Ability to manage others, including management of at least one direct report Five+ years-experience working with After Effects and Adobe Creative Suite Degree in design, animation, or filmmaking or equivalent experience. High level motion design skills in After Effects Expertise in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign Ability in Premiere or Cinema 4D a plus Ability to break down scripts into visual stories. Extremely strong organizational skills required - file management and attention to detail are a must. Two+ years experience working with After Effects and Adobe Creative Suite Degree in design, animation, or filmmaking or equivalent experience. Studio RX is a global studio made up of multi-talented team of creators animators, editors, illustrators, developers, producers, and filmmakers. We are passionate about using our skills to create content that makes difference in the health of people around the world.A passionate animator/editor who loves bringing video content to life. You love finding right tools and techniques to transform a video from good to great. And you also know how to match the right technique to the right project, and ensuring the work gets done on schedule and on budget. You can look at a script on paper and imagine how it will become film. You can share your vision at the start of project, and then get it made both by being a hands-on creator and by guiding a small team.In this role you will create short-form and long-form video content for the healthcare industry. The primary tools are the Adobe Suite (After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop, etc), however skills in other tools such as Cinema 4D is a plus. Tasks may include: design of style frames and storyboards, animation, and video editing. You will also manage other creators to help get the projects made. You will work with Producers to ensure the project is on schedule and on budget.In this role you will help create short-form and long-form animated video content for the healthcare industry. The primary tools are the Adobe Suite (After Effects, Premiere, Photoshop, etc), however skills in other tools such as Cinema 4D is a plus. Tasks may include: Prepping received assets for animation, creation of animated videos, design of style frames and storyboards, animation, and video editing.Proven track record and recent relevant contactable references are essential. Salary negotiable, depending on experience. Please be advised, only successful candidates will be contacted for an interview. Posted on 17 Sep 11:52 Brown Universitys Costs of War Project released a new report Monday detailing post-9/11 spending by the Pentagon. The study found that of the over $14 trillion spent by the Pentagon since the start of the war in Afghanistan, one-third to one-half went to private military contractors. The report, authored by William Hartung of the Center for International Policy, said $4.4 trillion of the total spending went towards weapons procurement and research and development, a category that directly benefits corporate military contractors. Private contractors are also paid through other funds, like operations and maintenance, but those numbers are harder to determine. Out of the $4.4 trillion, the top five US weapons makers Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman received $2.2 trillion, almost half. To put these huge numbers into perspective, the report pointed out that in the 2020 fiscal year, Lockheed Martin received $75 billion in Pentagon contracts, compared to the combined $44 billion budget for the State Department and USAID that same year. Besides getting paid for weapons and research, US corporations profit from private contractors that are deployed to warzones. The most notorious private security contractor previously employed by the Pentagon is Blackwater, the mercenary group whose employees massacred 17 people in Iraqs Nisour Square back in 2007. Besides armed mercenaries, the Pentagon employed private contractors for just about every task in US warzones. Demonstrating the Pentagons reliance on contractors, at the end of the Trump administration, only 2,500 US troops were left in Afghanistan, but over 18,000 Pentagon contractors were still in the country. The report explained how China is the new justification for military spending. The most likely impact of the shift towards China will be to further tighten the grip of major weapons makers like Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon Technologies on the Pentagon budget, the report reads. Back in the early 1990s, I spoke with John Marks, author of The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. This was the book (1979) that helped expose the existence and range of the infamous CIA MKULTRA program. Marks related the following facts to me. He had originally filed many Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests for documents connected to the CIAs mind-control program. He got nothing back. Finally, as if to play a joke on him, someone at the CIA sent Marks 10 boxes of financial and accounting records. The attitude was, Here, see what you can do with this. Ive seen some of those records. Theyre very boring reading. But Marks went through them, and lo and behold, he found he could piece together MKULTRA projects, based on the funding data. Eventually, he assembled enough information to begin naming names. He conducted interviews. The shape of MKULTRA swam into view. And so he wrote his book, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate. He told me that three important books had been written about MKULTRA, and they all stemmed from those 10 boxes of CIA financial records. There was his own book; Operation Mind Control by Walter Bowart; and The Mind Manipulators by Alan Scheflin and Edward Opton. After publishing his book, Marks continued to press the CIA for more MKULTRA information. He explained to me what then happened. A CIA official told him the following: in 1962, after ten years of mind-control experiments, the whole program had been shifted over to another internal CIA department, the Office of Research and Development (ORD). The ORD had a hundred boxes of information on their MKULTRA work, and there was no way under the sun, Marks was told, he was ever going to get his hands on any of that. It was over. It didnt matter how many FOIA requests Marks filed. He was done. The door was shut. Goodbye. The CIA went darker than it ever had before. No leaks of any kind would be permitted. In case there is any doubt about it, the idea of relying on the CIA to admit what it has done in the mind-control area, what it is doing, and what it will do should be put to bed by John Marks statements. The CIA always has been, and will continue to be, a rogue agency. To give you an idea of how far the CIA, the US military, and its allied academics will go in MKULTRA research, here is what I wrote in 1995 about several human experiments. My information was based on the three key books I mentioned above, as well as Martin Lees classic, Acid Dreams: Dr. Robert Heath of Tulane University, as early as 1955, working for the Army, gave patients LSD while he had electrodes implanted deep inside their brains. In the mid-1950s, Paul Hoch, M.D., a man who would become Commissioner of Mental Hygiene for the State of New York, then a laborer in the field for the CIA, gave a pseudoneurotic schizophrenic patient mescaline. The patient had a heaven-and-hell journey on the compound. But Hoch followed this up with a transorbital leucotomy [aka lobotomy] Hoch also gave a patient LSD, and a local anesthetic, and then proceeded to remove pieces of his cerebral cortex, asking at various moments whether the patients perceptions were changing. People need to understand how the history of mind control and psychiatry are interwoven, and how the madmen and murderers within these professions are content to use torture in the name of science. From a naturalnews.com article by the heroic whistleblower, psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin (Never again! The real history of psychiatry), we get insight into one aspect of that history. Breggin: [Before World War 2, in America], organized psychiatry had been sterilizing tens of thousands of Americans. For a time in California, you couldnt be discharged from a state hospital unless you were sterilized. In Virginia the retarded were targeted. American advocates of sterilization went to Berlin to help the Nazis plan their sterilization program. These Americans reassured the Germans that they would meet no opposition from America in sterilizing their mentally and physically unfit citizens. While the murder of mental patients was going full swing in Germany, knowledgeable American psychiatrists and neurologists didnt want to be left out. In 1942, the American Psychiatric Association held a debate about whether to sterilize or to murder low IQ retarded children when they reached the age of five. Those were the only two alternatives in the debate: sterilization or death. After the debate, the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association published an editorial in which it chose sides in favor of murder (Euthanasia in the American Journal of Psychiatry, 1942, volume 99, pp. 141-143). It said psychiatrists would have to muster their psychological skills to keep parents from feeling guilty about agreeing to have their children killed. The psychiatrists who later went to work for the CIA, in the MKULTRA program, were devoid of conscience. Any experiment was a good experiment. Human beings were useful subjects. Here is an MKULTRA sub-project you may not have heard of. I wrote about it several years ago Some would say the 1940s and 50s were the most vibrant and innovative period in the history of American jazz. During those years, it was common knowledge that musicians who were busted for drug use were shipped, or volunteered to go, to Lexington, Kentucky. Lex was the first Narcotics Farm and US Health Dept. drug treatment hospital in the US. According to diverse sources, heres a partial list of the reported hundreds of jazz musicians who went to Lex: Red Rodney, Sonny Rollins, Chet Baker, Sonny Stitt, Howard McGhee, Elvin Jones, Zoot Sims, Lee Morgan, Tadd Dameron, Stan Levey, Jackie McLean. Its also reported that Ray Charles was there, and William Burroughs, Peter Lorre, and Sammy Davis, Jr. It was supposed to be a rehab center. A place for drying out. But it was something else too. Lex was used by the CIA as one of its MKULTRA centers for experimentation on inmates. The doctor in charge of this mind control program was Harris Isbell. Astonishingly, Isbell was, at the same time, a member of the FDAs Advisory Committee on the Abuse of Depressant and Stimulant Drugs. Isbell gave LSD and other psychedelics to inmates at Lex. At Sandoz labs in Switzerland, Dr. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, also synthesized psilocybin from magic mushrooms. The CIA got some of this new synthetic from Hofmann and gave it to Isbell so he could try it out on inmates at Lex. Isbell worked at Lex from the 1940s through 1963. It is reported that in one experiment, Isbell gave LSD to 7 inmates for 77 consecutive days. At 4 times the normal dosage. That is a chemical hammer of incredible proportions. To induce inmates to join these MKULTRA drug experiments, they were offered the drug of their choice, which in many cases was heroin. So at a facility dedicated to drying out and rehabbing addicts, the addicts were subjected to MKULTRA experiments and THEN a re-establishment of their former habit. Apparently, as many as 800 different drugs were sent to Isbell by the CIA or CIA allies to use on patients at Lex. Two of the allies? The US Navy and the US National Institute of Mental Healthproof that MKULTRA extended beyond the CIA. In another MKULTRA experiment at Lex, nine men were strapped down on tables. They were injected with psilocybin. Bright lights were beamed at their eyesa typical mind control component. During Isbells tenure, no one knows how many separate experiments he ran on the inmates. As I say, Lex was the main stop for drying out for NY jazz musicians. How many of them were taken into these MKULTRA programs? As Martin Lee explains in his book, Acid Dreams, It became an open secretthat if the [heroin] supply got tight [on the street], you could always commit yourself to Lexington, where heroin and morphine were doled out as payment if you volunteered for Isbells whacky drug experiments. (Small wonder Lexington had a return rate of 90%.) A June 15, 1999, Counterpunch article by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CIAs Sidney Gottlieb: Pusher, Assassin & Pimp US Official Poisoner Dies, contains these quotes on Dr. Isbell: Gottlieb also funded the experiments of Dr. Harris Isbell. Isbell ran the Center for Addiction Research in Lexington, Kentucky. Passing through Isbells center was a captive group of human guinea pigs in the form of a steady stream of black heroin addicts. More than 800 different chemical compounds were shipped from Gottlieb to Lexington for testing on Isbells patients. Perhaps the most infamous experiment came when Isbell gave LSD to seven black men for seventy-seven straight days. Isbells research notes indicates that he gave the men quadruple the normal dosages. The doctor marveled at the mens apparent tolerance to these remarkable amounts of LSD. Isbell wrote in his notes that this type of behavior is to be expected in patients of this type. In other Gottlieb-funded experiment at the Center, Isbell had nine black males strapped to tables, injected them with psylocybin, inserted rectal thermometers, had lights shown in their eyes to measure pupil dilation and had their joints whacked to test neural reactions. If you think these experiments were so extreme they bear no resemblance to modern psychiatry, think again. Thorazine, the first so-called anti-psychotic drug, was researched on the basis of its ability to make humans profoundly quiescent and passive. Electroshock and lobotomy are straight-out torture techniques that also destroy parts of the brain. SSRI antidepressants increase violent behavior, including homicide. Among its many documented effects, Ritalin can induce hallucinations and paranoia. Well, all these effects are part and parcel of the original (and ongoing) MKULTRA. But now the whole population, via psychiatry, is included in the experiment. Which is one reason why THE RIGHT TO REFUSE MEDICATION must be protected and expanded. Including, of course, the right to refuse VACCINES. For example, the COVID vaccines. (To join Jons email list, click here.) (To read about Jons mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.) The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here. Personal carbon allowances are being advanced in alignment with the goals of Agenda 2030, the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the manmade climate change hoax. I have written about this hoax before in articles such as Good Hearts, Fooled Minds: Top 4 Fallacies of the Hijacked Environmental Movement where I have pointed out that humanity is indeed polluting the planet, but that such pollution has absolutely nothing to do with carbon dioxide or CO2, which is a gas of life. Since Operation Coronavirus is a natural outgrowth of the New World Order (NWO) agenda in general, it is to be expected that its pattern of deception would mimic other scams and hoaxes promoted by the cabal. There are many examples of this, but are 2 quick ones: check out the similarities between COVID and 9/11 (the 20th anniversary of which just recently passed), and between COVID and the manmade climate change scam. This article will explore the latter, especially the specific area of personal carbon allowances. The Technocratic Idea of Carbon Credits The idea of personal carbon allowances and carbon credits has been around a long time, and has its roots in technocracy, which can be defined as a government or social system controlled by technicians, especially scientists and technical experts. The technocrats want to set up a system where the energy unit of society is under their control, and thus all people, naturally dependent upon energy, would also come under their control. In a way, we have such a system now, where money is energy and that form of energy is under the control of private central banks. But carbon credits take the idea way, way further. Imagine a world where everything people did eat, drink, travel, use appliances, use electricity in any way, even breathe was all tied to their personal carbon allowances. And imagine if all carbon credits were controlled and distributed by technocrats. Any dissident could then easily be cut out of the system at the flick of a switch, with devastating real life consequences. Study Concludes Personal Carbon Allowances Could be Trialled in Climate-Conscious Nations A study in Nature entitled Personal carbon allowances revisited, published August 16th 2021, analyzes how person carbon allowances could be used to achieve climate goals. To those familiar with the NWO agenda, climate goals is an Orwellian term which basically translates to the creation of an artificial limit to human energy consumption (to fulfill the technocratic objective) and the creation of propaganda to make people think they are somehow saving the planet or helping the environment by going along with it. Here are a few quotes from the study: Here we discuss how personal carbon allowances (PCAs) could play a role in achieving ambitious climate mitigation targets. We argue that recent advances in AI for sustainable development, together with the need for a low-carbon recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, open a new window of opportunity for PCAs. Furthermore, we present design principles based on the Sustainable Development Goals for the future adoption of PCAs. We conclude that PCAs could be trialled in selected climate-conscious technologically advanced countries, mindful of potential issues around integration into the current policy mix, privacy concerns and distributional impacts. This is designed to dictate every little detail of your life: the allowance could cover around 40% of energy-related carbon emissions in high-income countries, encompassing individuals carbon emissions relating to travel, space heating, water heating and electricity. Allowances were envisioned to be deducted from the personal budget with every payment for transport fuel, home-heating fuels and electricity bills. People in shortage would be able to purchase additional units in the personal carbon market from those with excess to sell. New, more ambitious PCA proposals include economy-wide emissions, encompassing food, services and consumption-related carbon emissions, for example. This next quote lets the cat out of the bag. The whole point is that personal carbon allowances are about behavioral modification or behavioral change. This entire scheme is a psychological operation designed to change your actions. They want you to perform carbon budgeting which would mean, essentially, becoming OCD about your every act! There is yet another parallel with COVID, which has been encouraging people to be OCD about touching any surface or having human interaction: Building on this literature, PCAs are envisaged to deliver carbon-emissions-related behavioural change via three interlinked mechanisms: economic, cognitive and social. Similar to a carbon tax, a policy with which it is often compared, the economic mechanism of PCAs is envisaged to influence decision-making by assigning a visible carbon price to the purchase and use of fossil-fuel-based energy in the first instance, and possibly also to consumption-related emissions in more advanced PCA designs. However, in addition to the economic mechanism, PCAs aim to influence energy and consumption behaviour by increasing carbon visibility, by evoking users cognitive awareness of carbon in their daily routines and by encouraging carbon budgeting. Moreover, the shared goal of emissions reduction and the equal-per-capita allocation of PCAs is envisaged to create a social norm of low-carbon behaviour. It Worked for COVID, So Why Cant It Work for Climate Change? Here is same theme yet again, which goes something like this: it worked for COVID, so why cant it work for climate change? If the NWO controllers can trick people and propagate mass fear over a bogus virus that has never been proven to exist, why not try the same thing over an imaginary impending carbon apocalypse? In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions on individuals for the sake of public health, and forms of individual accountability and responsibility that were unthinkable only one year before, have been adopted by millions of people. People may be more prepared to accept the tracking and limitations related to PCAs to achieve a safer climate and the many other benefits (for example, reduced air pollution and improved public health) associated with addressing the climate crisis. Other lessons that could be drawn relate to the public acceptance in some countries of additional surveillance and control in exchange for greater safety. For instance, in many countries, mobile apps designed for COVID-19 infection tracking and tracing played an important part in limiting the spread of the pandemic. The deployment and testing of such apps provide technology advances and insights for the design of future apps for tracking personal emissions. Introducing AI into the Decision-Making Process Remember the creepy Google video The Selfish Ledger (my analysis here) which outlined a dystopian future where decision-making was surrendered to AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the ultimate act of social engineering? Thats also promoted right here: Finally, advances in digitalization and AI for sustainable development promise to shrink implementation costs and logistical challenges for PCAs An ever-increasing number of decision-making tasks are being delegated to software systems, allowing the presentation of targeted personalized information to future users on their emissions patterns. The latest science on AI for learning, including the use of virtual agents, could help refine the type of information that users are shown to manage and reduce their carbon emissions. To the user, all of the above could be packaged in an easy-to-use smartphone app that presents tailored information and advice on personal carbon emissions and facilitates carbon savings. Personal Carbon Allowances: Final Thoughts Some scams and hoaxes need an injection of new variants to keep the official fear narrative alive. We now have ISIS-K (sounds like a cereal) and the dreaded Delta variant and Mu variant. At some point, after all the new variants, vaccines, boosters and whatever else, the NWO controllers may find it is too difficult to keep up the pretense that theres an imminent threat. They may then pivot to the decades-old concocted climate change threat and push for personal carbon allowances, riding on the back of COVID or other propaganda. The details of the scam du jour may change, but the patterns of manipulation remain the same. We must remember that the war on carbon is a war on life, since we are carbon-based creatures living in a world of carbon-based life. The dodgy or rather non-existent science behind the official COVID narrative is the same non-existent science behind the manmade climate change narrative. Dont give up your freedom and rights or sell yourself short by confining your behavior to a carbon scheme that purports to save the environment when it does nothing of the sort. ***** Makia Freeman is the editor of alternative media / independent news site The Freedom Articles, author of the book Cancer: The Lies, the Truth and the Solutions and senior researcher at ToolsForFreedom.com. Makia is on Steemit and Odysee/LBRY. Sources: *https://thefreedomarticles.com/hijacked-environmental-movement/ *https://thefreedomarticles.com/9-11-covid-similarities-16-glaring-parallels/ *https://thefreedomarticles.com/eerie-similarities-between-coronavirus-and-climate-change-hoaxes/ *https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00756-w *https://thefreedomarticles.com/10-reasons-sars-cov-2-imaginary-digital-theoretical-virus/ *https://thefreedomarticles.com/selfish-ledger-google-social-engineering/ On election day this coming Monday, there are four candidates vying to earn votes from the residents of Brandon-Souris to become the ridings next member of Parliament. Advertisement Advertise With Us On election day this coming Monday, there are four candidates vying to earn votes from the residents of Brandon-Souris to become the ridings next member of Parliament. This includes incumbent Larry Maguire, running for the Conservative Party of Canada, Linda Branconnier of the Liberal Party of Canada, Whitney Hodgins for the New Democratic Party, and Tylor Baer of the Peoples Party of Canada. To help voters get a better idea of what the candidates and their parties stand for, we sent out seven questions on important issues to each candidate and asked them to submit written answers. All candidates participated except for Baer, who did not respond. Answers have been edited for length, clarity and style. In Saturdays paper, the Sun will run answers to similar questions from candidates in Westmans other riding, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa. The NDP candidate for Brandon-Souris is Whitney Hodgins, a local advocate for people with disabilities who speaks openly about living with autism. This is her first foray into federal politics, but she did spend time as a vice-president for the Brandon University Students Union. 1. How would you and your party support the hard-hit businesses of Brandon-Souris as the country attempts to recover economically from COVID-19? For me as a candidate, economic recovery is a priority and its a priority for the rest of the NDP candidates as well running in this election. I know a lot of businesses, especially small businesses, have been hit hard by the lockdowns issued by the Manitoba government and elsewhere. Our platform not only wants to focus on an economic recovery, we want it to encapsulate everyones needs in a meaningful way. We are committed to creating a million new jobs over the next few years. We want to also build a greener economy where we are providing a meaningful solution to climate change through consultation and teamwork with all levels of government, including Indigenous governments. 2. How do you think the idea of vaccine mandates and immunization cards should be handled? I believe that until such a time as we get a handle on the pandemic, immunization cards need to remain in place. However, if there was anything that I could change and fight for is we need to have alternative measures for people who for health reasons cant be vaccinated. This will be a very small minority of folks who are unable to be vaccinated. But we would need to work with medical professionals and provincial governments to possibly create that alternative. Because as a disability advocate and a person living with a disability, its been extremely difficult for the disability community. And increasingly thats what they say is a possible thing we can do is having an alternative for them. 3. There have been instances of political candidates getting threatened or having things thrown at them on the campaign trail. What do you believe should be done in response to these incidents? As a candidate who has been threatened personally on the campaign trail, I believe there need to be stricter measures put in place to protect candidates. Elections Canada has very little power in their investigations to actually act on some of the things that take place. I believe we need to be doing more for those who put their name on the ballot. We are human beings just like everyone else, and there is no place for threats and acts of violence to be directed towards us. 4. What will you and your party do to meaningfully address reconciliation and racism? We as a party are committed to implementing all of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions 94 Calls to Action, the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, as well as working with Indigenous communities in a collaborative way to bring Indigenous communities out of poverty. We also are committed to investing in having all major cities have hate crime investigation units as well as create a national working group to counter online hate. The NDP will always stand up against all forms of racism and hate. 5. Canada has seen a lot of extreme weather this year, causing drought, flooding, wildfires and massive storms. What would you and your party do to tackle climate change and its effects on Canadians? The first thing we need to do is we need to create an aid program for farmers through consultation that addresses the needs of all farmers struggling due to climate change. Under the Liberal government, they had addressed the issue right before the writ dropped as an emergency measure. But with no guarantee that that support will be there next year, we need to ensure there is the creation of a long-term aid program. When addressing climate change, we are committed to reaching zero net emissions by 2030. We are committed to retrofitting homes with green renewable energy. In addition, we are working to invest in clean renewable energy sources that are here in Canada. We also are committed to consulting with all levels of government, including Indigenous communities. 6. Gun control has been a hot topic during the campaign. What are your and your partys stances on how the government regulates firearms? The NDP is committed to keeping assault weapons and handguns off the streets by addressing gun smuggling and organized crime. We want to tackle gang activity by making sure communities have access to anti-gang project funding to deter at-risk youth to join gangs. 7. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare deficiencies in Canada and Manitobas health-care systems. What would you and your party do to fix the gaps and improve patient care? When I look at Brandon-Souris, I see great potential when we look at addressing health care. For a number of years, the provincial government has made significant cuts to health care and education alike. One of the things the NDP is committed to doing is investing in long-term care facilities that are publicly owned, not privately owned. I know that we are actually due to have another long-term care facility. Having another long-term care facility would reduce the practitioner-to-client ratio that exists in our current long-term care facilities. It would increase the amount of one-on-one time that clients have with staff, and it would greatly improve health care for our seniors. We are also wanting to have prescription drug coverage for Canadians regardless of income, job status, age or health status. These two things will create a ripple effect that would lead to better health care for all citizens. The Brandon Sun On election day this coming Monday, there are four candidates vying to earn votes from the residents of Brandon-Souris to become the ridings next member of Parliament. Advertisement Advertise With Us On election day this coming Monday, there are four candidates vying to earn votes from the residents of Brandon-Souris to become the ridings next member of Parliament. This includes incumbent Larry Maguire, running for the Conservative Party of Canada, Linda Branconnier of the Liberal Party of Canada, Whitney Hodgins for the New Democratic Party, and Tylor Baer of the Peoples Party of Canada. SUBMITTED Linda Branconnier is the Liberal Party of Canada candidate for Brandon-Souris. To help voters get a better idea of what the candidates and their parties stand for, we sent out seven questions on important issues to each candidate and asked them to submit written answers. All candidates participated except for Baer, who did not respond. Answers have been edited for length, clarity and style. In Saturdays paper, the Sun will run answers to similar questions from candidates in Westmans other riding, Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa. In the upcoming Sept. 20 federal election, Linda Branconnier is running for the Liberal Party of Canada in Brandon-Souris. 1. How would you and your party support the hard-hit businesses of Brandon-Souris as the country attempts to recover economically from COVID-19? The fight against COVID-19 is not over, but the Liberal Party has been there to support workers and businesses since the pandemic began. One year ago, we launched a campaign to create over one million jobs, and even as we fought back against the second and third wave of COVID-19, we are on track, with almost 900,000 jobs regained. To date, Canada has recovered 92 per cent of jobs lost during the pandemic (compared to 75 per cent in the United States). We created the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) to provide direct support for eligible workers who lost income due to COVID-19, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) which helped businesses keep more than five million Canadians at work, the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) to support businesses with their rent payments, and the Canada Recovery Hiring Program will be extended to provide supports to businesses hiring more workers and getting Canadians back on the job. We will continue to support Canadians and their businesses as we build back better from COVID-19. 2. How do you think the idea of vaccine mandates and immunization cards should be handled? Vaccination is the best defence against COVID-19, and the best way out of this pandemic. In order to protect people at work, ensure businesses can operate safely and make sure kids can stay safely in school, we must do what we can to keep public spaces safe. Vaccination cards give people the confidence of knowing that others around them are fully vaccinated. Data also shows that this leads to increased vaccination rates and gives people confidence that it is safe to go to restaurants, to shop and to be out in their communities. 3. There have been instances of political candidates getting threatened or having things thrown at them on the campaign trail. What do you believe should be done in response to these incidents? It is completely unacceptable to threaten candidates and to assault them. This has no place in our democracy and in our country. We understand that there are different beliefs, different ideologies, different ideas on how to best move our country forward. We should be able to discuss and debate these ideas in a civilized and respectful manner. There are laws to deal with those that make the decision to threaten and assault those they disagree with, and those responsible for such unacceptable acts should be charged. 4. What will you and your party do to meaningfully address reconciliation and racism? We have been committed to working with Indigenous Peoples to build a nation-to-nation, government-to-government relationship that is based on respect, partnership and the affirmation and recognition of rights. Significant progress has been made with First Nations, Inuit and the Metis Nation, but we must continue this work. A re-elected Liberal government will continue to support Indigenous-led processes for the rebuilding and reconstituting nations, advance self-determination and work in partnership on the implementation of treaties, land claims, and self-government agreements. We must address the legacy of colonialism and residential schools. We have and will continue to support and provide funding to Indigenous communities in their work to uncover burial grounds, for commemoration ceremonies, honouring memorials and re-burial in their home communities. We will also implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), continue to support First Nations-led processes to transition away from the Indian Act, accelerate the resolution of land claims, and further support and fund the revitalization of Indigenous laws, legal systems and traditions to name just a few. 5. Canada has seen a lot of extreme weather this year, causing drought, flooding, wildfires and massive storms. What would you and your party do to tackle climate change and its effects on Canadians? The extreme heat wave and wildfires across Canada this summer have underscored the urgency of fighting and adapting to climate change. Canadians need leadership that is prepared to face the reality of climate change and to take strong action to prepare for future extreme weather events and keep Canadians safe and healthy. We introduced Canadas first-ever national climate plan in 2016, becoming the first government to set a climate target and lay out a path to meet it. Under our plan, emissions in 2030 will be 36 per cent lower than 2005 levels, unlike the previous Conservative governments plan that was on a path for a 12 per cent emissions increase by 2030. We will continue to support Canadians by investing in the green economy, public transportation, electric vehicles, eliminating single-use plastics and ensuring that there is a price on pollution. A lot has been done, but we must continue this work. Our planets future depends on it. 6. Gun control has been a hot topic during the campaign. What are your and your partys stances on how the government regulates firearms? Our communities should be safe and peaceful places to live and to raise our children, but we have seen incidents of gun violence increasing in our country. There is no reason why a Canadian needs to own military-style assault weapons like the AR-15 or Rugar Mini-14 (that was used in the Ecole Polytechnique massacre). Responsible, law-abiding hunters do not need, nor would they use, an AR-15 to take down a deer. We need to take a strong stand to make sure all Canadians feel safe, which is why we banned 1,500 assault firearms like these from Canada. A re-elected Liberal government will toughen the laws on banned assault weapons by making it mandatory for owners to either sell the firearm back to the government for destruction and fair compensation or having it rendered fully and permanently inoperable at government expense and cracking down on high-capacity magazines to limit capacity. Our government will continue the work of protecting Canadians, and unlike the Conservatives, we will not co-operate with the gun lobby to repeal the ban on these assault weapons. 7. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare deficiencies in Canada and Manitobas health-care systems. What would you and your party do to fix the gaps and improve patient care? From day one of the pandemic, we made significant investments to ensure Canadians have the health care they need. Eight out of every 10 dollars spent in response to COVID-19 came from the Liberal government. From investing in pandemic surge capacity, public health care, moving forward on pharmacare or procuring vaccines for every single Canadian, we have had Canadians backs. We will continue to invest in improving the quality and availability of long-term care beds, eliminating wait lists, hiring more family doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, expanding virtual health services, mental health services, better substance abuse treatment programs and continuing to stand up for our Universal Public Health Care System. Unlike the Conservatives, we will also protect a womans right to choose and will establish regulations under the Canada Health Act governing accessibility for sexual and reproductive health services so there is no question, that no matter where someone lives, that they have access to publicly available sexual health services. The Brandon Sun I have conducted myself like a true professional and I have no skeletons in my closet. My biggest disappointment is that I will no longer be able to carry your voice for freedom and try to make changes that would help. I can honestly say that I do not know the reason why I have been denied a place on the upcoming ballot. "I have conducted myself like a true professional and I have no skeletons in my closet. My biggest disappointment is that I will no longer be able to carry your voice for freedom and try to make changes that would help. I can honestly say that I do not know the reason why I have been denied a place on the upcoming ballot." Unsuccessful PC leadership candidate Ken Lee in a Facebook post Oh, to be a fly on the wall Thursday afternoon in the Winnipeg headquarters of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba on Kennedy Street. FACEBOOK Ken Lee On Wednesday, news broke that Ken Lee a leadership candidate who has been running on a political platform that would remove vaccine mandates and vaccine passports in this province was in the process of securing the party leadership by selling more than the required 1,000 members needed before the Wednesday deadline. Significantly more. Initially considered a so-called right-wing fringe candidate (ironically within a right-wing party), Mr. Lee had the endorsement of the federal Peoples Party of Canada and the help of a Winnipeg man who was offering $20 loans at zero per cent interest to potential new members on Mr. Lees behalf loans that would not have to be paid back for 100 years. Manitoba Progressive Conservative leadership candidates Heather Stefanson and Shelly Glover will go head to head this October in the race to replace former premier Brian Pallister. (The Brandon Sun / Winnipeg Free Press) Though Elections Manitoba ruled that this action did not appear to be a violation of campaign finance rules, Mr. Lee found himself on the outside looking in on Thursday morning when the partys Leadership Election Committee announced to media that only Shelly Glover and Heather Stefanson would be allowed to vie for the title of premier in October. Instead of speaking to media yesterday, Mr. Lee posted on his Facebook page early Thursday afternoon that the party "did not have the courtesy" to explain why he had been denied a place on the ballot. "It seems to be this decision was discretionary," he said. The maelstrom of angry phone calls to Kennedy Street that followed must have made for a rather large headache for the poor souls left to deal with the fallout if they bothered to pick up the phone, that is. PPC voters have been growing in number over the last several weeks throughout the federal election campaign, threatening the fortunes of the more centre-right Tories under Leader Erin OToole. That the Manitoba provincial Tory brass removed from contention a favoured provincial leadership candidate clearly irritated several PPC adherents on social media yesterday, many of whom were angrily demanding their money back. We are not privy, of course, to the exact reasons behind the committees decision to exclude Mr. Lee. Of course, on the face of it, it was an odd decision to exclude the longtime party supporter, volunteer and former employee. As per his website biography, the longtime accountant served as the partys chief financial officer for 12 years and, together with Clayton Manness, wrote the rules for the "one-member, one-vote" system that are still currently in use. He has worked in a financial capacity on provincial campaigns on the partys behalf and was recently a campaign manager in Seine River. In other words, he has party bonafides. But his candidacy would also come with several drawbacks. Mr. Lee does not care for vaccine passports, has openly criticized his partys actions regarding the pandemic and would like to remove the vaccination job requirements put in place for government workers, health care and teaching staff. His platform is decidedly PPC-friendly, and would almost certainly have caused at least a few caucus members to revolt should he have become the new party leader. Its also quite likely a majority of Manitobans would have found his views politically unpalatable, putting the party in significant danger come the next election not to mention putting Manitobans in significant danger from the ongoing pandemic in the meantime. Though Glover, too, is not a fan of vaccine mandates, she and Stefanson still appear to be more middle-of-the-road candidates for the Tories, compared with where Mr. Lee would have taken the party. Its possible, of course, that Mr. Lee didnt meet the entry requirements. Candidates were required to have the endorsement of 50 established party members by the 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline, but the Winnipeg Free Press reported yesterday that by midday he was still a dozen signatures short of that total. He did, however, make it through the partys initial vetting process without being cut, meaning either the committee believed that he wasnt a threat to win the leadership of the party because of his far-right views, or perhaps that they were in agreement with his potential candidacy. Parties do, of course, have the right to decide who will run to represent them. Newly signed up and now viscerally angry members want to complain that their democratic rights have been trampled with the decision to exclude Mr. Lee. However, the reality is that while there are political rules that govern how political parties operate in this province under Elections Manitoba, these entities remain a system apart from the democracy they seek to rule. Internal party politics have their own nuances and are guided by differing, sometimes competing interests. In this case, however, we have to wonder if internal party interests were aligned preventing future electoral defeat. The price of iron ore, Australias biggest export, has continued to plunge as top customer China steps up moves to cut its steel output and reduce carbon emissions for the third straight month. After hitting a record-breaking $US230 a tonne in May, the key steel-making material has had its value slashed in half and is now trading below $US110 a tonne, hammering the share prices of the ASX-listed mining heavyweights BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue. Iron ore is Australias biggest export, raking in more than $100 billion a year. Credit:Krystle Wright Investment bank UBS on Friday lowered its iron ore price forecasts out to 2023 by about 10 per cent amid a slowdown in property activity in China and expectations the seaborne market would soon be oversupplied. The correction in iron ore prices has played out faster than expected, analyst Lachlan Shaw said. THE ENVIRONMENT Questions Raised by Quolls Harry Saddler Affirm Press, $32.99 In 1956 Melbournes The Argus reported that a colony of eastern quolls inhabited the wilder parts of Melbournes Studley Park, just a few kilometres from the CBD. Gone by 1959, they were the last survivors of what had once been among the most abundant and conspicuous of all of Victorias marsupials. Indeed, a visitor to the state in the 1850s was more likely to see a quoll than a brushtail possum, which were then avidly hunted for their pelts. As foxes spread, eastern quolls vanished. By 1900 they were gone from most of Victoria, so their survival in the centre of the great wen that was 20th-century Melbourne is surprising. In Questions Raised by Quolls, naturalist Harry Saddler tells us that quolls were the first carnivorous marsupials that he became aware of. They later became very important to him, and in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic he describes searching those wilder parts of Studley Park. He discovered a surprisingly empty bush, devoid of small birds, and silent even at dawn. Before Harry Saddler puts down his pen, many quoll populations start to bounce back. Credit:Rewilding Australia Questions Raised by Quolls is a deeply philosophical book whose principal concern is questions that preoccupy its author as he searches for the last surviving eastern quolls. Saddler tells us about a visit to Studley Park on a first date in 2019. FICTION The Airways Jennifer Mills Picador, $32.99 Dyschronia by Jennifer Mills was an eerie and atmospheric novel about the sudden disappearance of the ocean at an Australian coastal town. Its title, an invented illness, refers to the protagonists ability to perceive time funny, between the past, present and future. Rather than whimsical, a la Vonneguts Slaughterhouse-Five, or the scientific romance of H.G. Wells Time Machine, Mills time-bending was a deeply unsettling, neo-Gothic take on ecological instability. Her latest novel, The Airways, uses the same uncanny dream logic for a queer ghost story about haunted souls. Yun, a non-binary student in Sydney, is murdered footsteps away from their share house. Although the murderer is never caught, Yuns ghost rises from their dead body and learns how to inhabit the living by entering through their airways. In their astral state, Yun pursues Adam, an ex-roommate who wronged them in the past. Adam watches people while they sleep. Sometimes he films them. When they lived together, Yun discovered Adams sleazy, predatory impulses: Adam had disturbed my surfaces. In retrospect, we were phenomenally fortunate. At the end of our last stay overseas, which was a period of sabbatical spent at New York University, we returned in January 2020, by which time COVID-19 was already circulating in the city. My partner and I were not only travellers, but for long periods committed expatriates who lived for months or years separately or together in Kathmandu, Oxford and Brooklyn. We learned ways of subsisting in other places: how to navigate a subway system; how to prevent a monkey from stealing fruit from the kitchen (close the windows at night!); how to pronounce key words so that we were understood. We studied, volunteered and worked, mostly in places where English was spoken, but also where we had to get by in other languages. Reading is a chance for kids to journey in time, often to worlds that are entirely invented, through the eyes of characters who are distinct from them. They met people from all over the world, discovered that they had the capacity to buy tickets and board a train in a country where they could speak the language only as well as a local toddler, and were often brought face to face with a sense of their privilege. If youve been anywhere, youve met other Australians who might make you want to say that youre a New Zealander. Its nonetheless difficult to hold on to a singular way of viewing the world, and the people in it, if you spend time outside this country. Until early 2020, large numbers of Australians were committed travellers and expatriates: known to drink too much in Bangkok, backpack through Vietnam, trek in Nepal, as well as tour the Dalmatian Coast and climb Mt Kilimanjaro. In the process, they wrote about it for better or worse in books from Sarah Turnbulls Almost French to Sarah Macdonalds Holy Cow, as well as in blogs, reviews and social media posts. My partner later husband and I had both lived shiftless existences as children. My husband moved back and forth between Britain and Australia. I lived albeit briefly in Toronto and London, as well as in three Australian cities. We mustve decided to inflict the same kind of existence on our kids. They, too, have spent years of their lives overseas, mostly in the United States. They attended local schools, made friends and stressed about homework (three hours per night in middle school was the norm). While both kids were homesick before we came back to Australia, they were also grateful for the different worldview they brought home with them. Both felt less fixed in their identities as Australians, as though travel itself lent them a kind of fluidity, a recognition that how they felt about themselves and related to the world changed in part according to their context. Their sense of who they were was enlarged by meeting relatives overseas, too. Travel is safest right now within the pages of a book, writes author Lucy Neave. Credit:Hilary Wardhaugh Right now, of course, with no travel on the horizon and I recognise how ridiculously privileged my kids were, to have had an experience that at the time we took for granted we are, like many, reluctant to travel far until were all fully vaccinated, and deeply sympathetic to the plight of Australians who didnt make it home in as timely a way as we did. Our appetite for travel, which was already attenuated by our understanding of the environmental consequences of taking intercontinental flights, has been further eroded. My second novel, Believe in Me, traces the experiences of an American woman who is sent to relatives in Australia in her late teens in the 1970s, because she is about to become an unmarried mother. Sections from the beginning of the novel are about what it is like to be a homesick young parent a long way from family support an experience I lived myself, with my first child. The mother in the novel, Sarah, moved overseas at a time when travel and international phone calls were expensive, decades before WhatsApp, which renders her relationship with her family even more distant and estranged. She travels until she is stuck in Adelaide, unable to return home because she doesnt have the money (or the courage) to face the family she has left behind. During lockdown, Jocasta has been making a weekly cobbler. Its a baked fruit dessert and is more delicious than can be easily described. It makes an appearance about 9.30 pm on a weekday night. Heres your cobbler, cobber, says Jocasta, as she hands me a serve of yummy loveliness. Its so crisp on top, I say, plunging in my spoon, yet so fluffy and delicate inside. And then the soft layer of fruit. It really is a marvel. You are a genius. Jocasta nods. I know, she says, spooning down some herself. Fully vaccinated people returning to NSW will be able to quarantine in their homes by December if a new trial proves successful, raising the likelihood of stranded Australians making it home for Christmas. The NSW government on Friday announced the home quarantine trial involving 175 people would be undertaken in October, with the isolation period halved from 14 to seven days for the participants. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres and Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale in Sydney on Friday. Credit:Rhett Wyman NSW Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres told the Herald that the trial was the first major step in reshaping the states quarantine system, which he was tasked with setting up last year. He added that he wanted to see the international arrival cap increased over the coming months. Today is the first step in removing hotel quarantine altogether for fully vaccinated people, Mr Ayres said. Loading Uneven COVID-19 restrictions have brought dormant resentments roaring back to life. It has definitely drawn more attention to existing inequalities in Sydney and shone a light on things that were pretty invisible, says Sydney Universitys Kurt Iveson, who researches the citys geography. Instead of imposing city-wide restrictions, as Melbourne did, the NSW Coalition government introduced a two-tiered system to target areas with higher cases. The 47 per cent of Sydneysiders subject to tighter restrictions includes some of the citys most disadvantaged. The decision spared half of the city the more onerous limitations, such as curfews and strict limits on exercise. It also worked; case numbers in hotspots are, slowly, going down. But from Penrith to Pagewood, anger is building over what many residents consider arbitrary, unfair and economically damaging rules. We are so angry, but outside the hotspots no-one cares, says Grace Smith, a public servant from Earlwood. We feel like we have no power, and no voice. Accusations that those in the west and south-west who speak up are fanning the flames of division have done little to quell that fury. Residents want to know what the government will do to make it up to them. And if its not enough, their anger could influence the next state election. Loading Division has been a hallmark of the Delta outbreak. The past few months have pitted state against state, region against city, council against council and even neighbour against neighbour, as residents follow ministerial directions to dob each other in. The national discourse is all about conflict, says Professor Ian Hickie, the co-director of Health and Policy at the University of Sydneys Brain and Mind Centre. Weve lost the capacity for empathy, for the difficulty other people face. Hickie is concerned the division and resentment will linger well beyond the pandemic, deepening Sydneys divisions and further marginalising those already at risk of alienation, such as the refugee and muslim communities. Professor Marc Stears, the director of the Policy Lab at the University of Sydney, agrees, and has been shocked by the willingness of those who usually speak out against inequality to look the other way as harsher restrictions - some with little evidence - were imposed on the most vulnerable. If youd locked down [poorer] Brixton in London with different rules than [wealthier] Chelsea or Kensington, there would have been front page news, he says. You cant help but worry that there were whole communities who just felt that nobody cared when things were really bleak for them. The Delta outbreak began in mid-June, and by mid-August, 12 Local Government Areas had been declared hotspots due to rapidly climbing case numbers. That number hasnt changed in more than a month. At first, they had stricter mask rules and more limits on unnecessary travel, but restrictions soon widened to essential workers, who needed regular testing to leave their area, a curfew, and an exercise limit. The curfew was lifted on Wednesday, but while vaccinated adults can now enjoy a picnic with four friends in other parts of Sydney, those in hotspot suburbs can only have one with members of their household, for no more than two hours. The curfew was deeply unpopular. Berejiklian imposed it on hotspots on August 20, after saying for weeks that there was little evidence to support it. A fortnight later, Deputy Premier John Barilaro told regional journalists that curfews didnt work and were imposed on residents due to media pressure. It hurt shift workers, and people who needed to dash to the shops unexpectedly or wanted a late evening walk. But for many, it was more psychological, says Jihad Dib, the Labor MP for Lakemba; an unfamiliar curb on freedoms. Berejiklian has defended all the decisions by saying they were based on health advice. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres on Friday. Ayres expects Local Government Areas will no longer be used to mark boundaries of concern once a 70 per cent vaccination is achieved. Credit:Rhett Wyman Residents have also been angered by the perception of inconsistency. Case numbers are growing and vaccinations are lower in the city and Randwick, yet they are not hotspots. Why is Burwood still an LGA of concern, when it has fewer cases than Waverley, which is not, asks Burwood Mayor John Faker? It doesnt make sense, says Faker. You cant get a clear criteria [on what constitutes a hotspot] from anyone in the government. [Residents] are doing the right things but theyre still being punished. Hotspot boundaries have also angered residents. The Coalition pushed council mergers in 2016, a policy never intended as a public health measure. Canterbury merged with Bankstown to become the citys largest Local Government Area. Some councils, such as Woollahra and Waverly, did not merge, even though their union would have made more sense than plonking Botany and Rockdale, on different sides of the airport, in an awkward marriage to create Bayside, a hotspot. The context of COVID, where the restrictions are at an LGA level, really highlights how some of this doesnt make sense, says Professor Roberta Ryan, a political sociologist at the University of Newcastle. The only council area not made a hotspot in its entirety was Penrith. There, some suburbs - mostly those represented by Labor - were included, while others were not. Like her Burwood counterpart, Penrith Mayor Karen McKeown still does not know how the hotspot designation was decided, the criteria under which it will be lifted, or why Penrith became an exception. Loading Some residents have asked whether it was an attempt to protect cabinet minister Stuart Ayres marginal seat. The perception out here is that the decisions are political, and in the absence of more information, what else can people think?. Ayres categorically rejected that politics was involved in the decision. The cases leaked into the area from hotspots to the south, such as Liverpool. Is the Mayor of Penrith really suggesting we should lock all of Penrith down? he asks. Ayres expects Local Government Areas will no longer be used to mark boundaries of concern once a 70 per cent vaccination is achieved. It is incredibly blunt and while it worked when there was low vaccination, why would you knock out an entire LGA when there is 70, 80, 90 per cent vaccination? he says. Liberal MPs have also been pushing the government to base restrictions on suburbs rather than LGAs. But some dont believe its the answer. Given the high vaccination numbers, this proposal reinforces division when we need more unity, says Lakemba Labor MP Jihad Dib. Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has said he wants the whole city to emerge from lockdowns together, too, although Berejiklian has not yet backed that view. Perrottet, who has met most of the hotspot mayors over the past week, says the big challenge is restoring confidence. He will use the mayors feedback as he develops an economic recovery plan, which is expected in early October and likely to include funding for infrastructure, tutoring and mental health services. We need to re-open as much of Sydney and NSW together to avoid disruptions and dislocations, he tells the Herald. If anger does not subside, some Coalition electorates will be in the firing line. Several of the partys seats along the hotspot belt, including Parramatta and Oatley, are held by a slimmer margin due to a redistribution. East Hills, which covers the Revesby area, is held by Wendy Lindsay by a wafer-thin 0.5 per cent. Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has said he wants the whole city to emerge from lockdowns together. Credit:James Brickwood Labor leader Chris Minns was targeting those areas before the Delta outbreak, raising issues such as high tolls and rapid development. The growing fury over COVID-19 restrictions has given him a better shot at winning back the partys traditional heartland. [The west and south-west is] the target for anyone looking to win the next election, says Labor strategist Bruce Hawker. If residents anger dims in the 18 months until the March 2023 election, Labor will remind them. How long did you spend in a hard lockdown with very limited movements allowed to you, with a curfew, when people in the eastern suburbs had no such restrictions? he says. There is mounting evidence that, while the lockdown has caused economic pain across the city, LGAs of concern have taken the hardest hit. Seven weeks after the city went into lockdown the largest employment losses were in Fairfield (down 17.7 per cent) Canterbury (17 per cent) and Bankstown (15.6 per cent), Australian Bureau of Statistics payrolls data shows. Small independent firms in the west have also been hit harder, with purchases at that type of business plunging 70 per cent. In the north and east, spending at small retailers has been higher than pre-lockdown levels. Nick Kamper, from business analytics firm Purpose Bureau, warns western Sydney faces an employment crisis. The restrictions may have been blunt and uneven, but they worked. Professor Mark Stoove from the Burnet Institute says they drove case numbers down, although he cannot pinpoint which measure was most effective because they were introduced in a bundle. However, cases in other areas of Sydney are now going up. He argues the restrictions should have been applied uniformly across the city. It would be a pity for all the hard work of those 12 LGAs to ultimately be undone because cases are increasing elsewhere, he says. Discussion of the plight of people in hotspots irritates some residents of the northern beaches, who argue they did their bit for the state for three weeks over Christmas. Many businesses paid a heavy price; those who were forced to take out loans to survive the last lockdown have not survived this one. Mayor Michael Regan admits to a little us and them resentment when the northern part of the region was locked down, yet the southern end was not. He says he heard from angry, lockdown-weary Victorians when he spoke out for his constituents doing it tough, but the majority of people were positive and looking on the bright side. He criticised the western and south-western suburbs mayors for their outspokenness during the Delta outbreak, arguing they have fanned the flames of division by saying they deserved better. However, Hickie says empathy for others is an important element of social cohesion. The long-term impacts [will be] on those who are already marginalised; they become angry and more marginalised. Public health and mental health and wellbeing depends on shared pro-social values, not on more anger, more alienation. Stears agrees. In order for the city to heal, he says, people who usually care about those questions of inequality, injustice are going to have to start caring again and do what they usually do - be loud about the problem. Loading Sydney can learn lessons from its COVID-19 experience. One, says Professor Ryan, is that we really are all in this together, regardless of political or social differences. You can be as rich as you like, she says. If everyone is not vaccinated, then none of us is safe. Another is ensuring that infrastructure keeps pace with development, local services are properly funded and community voices are heard. The real leaders in this have turned out to be community leaders, non-government organisations, people embedded in the community, trying to articulate what their community needs, says Hickie. Even if the economy bounces back, the hardest-hit workers and businesses will have depleted savings, mounting debts and lingering health issues, warns Iveson. He must have been completely brainwashed by them to even consider something like that, to sever communication with your family including your ex-wife and daughter. She was his world. Annette travelled down to Sydney and found him selling flowers in restaurants, though he would not know the difference between a daisy and a dandelion, she says. Kenja had provided him with accommodation in exchange for chores such as feeding a budgerigar, but he had no spending money. He sent abusive messages to his parents calling them hypocrites and liars. When his ex-wife arranged for him to meet their daughter in a park, he was filthy and mumbling and acting so erratically that she knew he would be incapable of looking after her on his own. I thought, Youre having a breakdown, theres no doubt about that, Annette says. Chris Rau, left, with Cornelia after she was found in the Baxter detention camp in 2005. Credit:Steven Siewert Kenja counselled against medication and doctors, and members who displayed signs of mental illness were expelled from the group when they became a liability. But the mind games employed by the group under Dyers, including gaslighting and public humiliation for those who stepped out of line, are believed by family members to have exacerbated the symptoms of people who had a pre-existing condition. Cornelia Rau, who would end up in immigration detention after providing authorities with a false identity, was showing signs of mental illness when she joined Kenja, but her sister Chris says she seriously deteriorated during her five months with the group. Rau told 60 Minutes in 2005 that she lied to Queensland police about who she was when they picked her up while hitchhiking because she was terrified Kenja would track her down. It would have known where I was and what I was doing, she said. I just felt pretty vulnerable. Michael Beaver, who died by suicide in 1993 after spending time in Kenja. Another member, Michael Beaver, told cult-busting NSW Liberal MP Stephen Mutch in 1992 that he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and hospitalised five times due to Kenja. He died by suicide the following year, and the publicity raised by Mutch prompted the first tranche of sexual assault allegations to be brought against Dyers. But Beavers mother, Wendy Fitzpatrick, has never recognised the schizophrenia diagnosis and believes his mental fragility was precipitated by Kenja. The psychiatrist who diagnosed Beaver Eric Gassy would be jailed a decade later for murdering his former boss, after himself being diagnosed with a delusional disorder. A second psychiatrist did not believe Beaver had schizophrenia. He was a robust young boy, loved his footy, had girlfriends, Fitzpatrick says. But he got very strange after Kenja. He thought the spirits had got him. I really believe that something Ken Dyers was doing was playing with his brain. Michelle Ring, a former Kenja member, says Dyers constantly criticised Beaver to his face and behind his back. Michael was a fundamentally good, beautiful person who would never hurt a fly and he was belittled so horribly, she says. Beaver took his life at a place in Kurnell where Kenja used to hold picnics. The spiritual notions entertained by the group, and Dyers ability to undermine the self-esteem of those who were not useful to him, exerted an insidious effect on its adherents. Rebecca McCrohan, who joined Kenja with her mother and three siblings in the mid-1980s when she was 12, says she still bears the scars of her two years in the group. Dyers sexually abused her during a one-on-one processing session, a type of meditation that served as the spiritual nucleus of the groups activities. By staring into one anothers eyes for long periods, it was supposed to eradicate negative energy. McCrohan had been sexually abused by another man as a small child. She says that when she told her mother that Dyers had touched her inappropriately, her mother said he was just trying to help her get over the earlier abuse and that she should go back for more sessions. Rebecca McCrohan was sexually abused while a member of Kenja in the 1980s. They absolutely ripped lives apart. Credit:Justin McManus All four of the siblings now suffer from mental illness. Their mother remains in Kenja. The sexual abuse was really, really bad, but its not just that, McCrohan says. There are so many more layers to it. What Kenja did, they took in vulnerable people and threw in some basic psychology which was all new to my mother and cut you off from other people. They absolutely ripped lives apart. Kenjas aversion to western medicine meant that her father frequently had to rush her younger brother to hospital for his asthma because their mother refused to do so. Mum would say, You can work this off, its up to you, McCrohan says. He spent a month in hospital after his stomach pain was ignored for so long that his appendix burst. The Kenja philosophy held that an individual could control what happened to them so she had permitted the abuse she endured at a young age, just as her brother had a choice to work off his asthma rather than use medication, McCrohan says. Her other brother, now 34, was in the group for 14 years and still struggles with the abandonment of their mother. He needed and still does need a whole re-wiring over whats true and whats not true and whats his fault and whats not. It messes with you for a very long time. One man who left Kenja in the 1990s struggled with the estrangement of his daughters until 2019 before he took his life, three days after Christmas. His family believe Kenja was one element among many that caused his decision. He told a friend in 2015 that he had accepted there would be no place for him in his daughters lives as long as they remained in Kenja with their mother. They are always in my heart, he wrote. It is impossible to know for certain whether peoples experiences in Kenja contributed to their mental health problems, or their existing vulnerabilities drew them to Kenja, or both. On Christmas morning, 1992, Richard Leape rang his parents from a phone box in Newcastle and said he needed help. Annette prepared to drive down from Murwillumbah, but an hour later he called back and said he was catching a train to Sydney instead. She later learnt that he had visited the Kenja office near Central Station on Boxing Day and caused a disturbance. They had kicked him out. The food packs were delivered to the quarantine hotels to welcome the Afghans on arrival. Afghan-Australian Neamat Rahimi quarantined at a hotel in Epping, after being evacuated out of Kabul with his wife Fouzia and four-year-old son Mirwais. Neamat Rahimi, with wife Fouzia and son Mirwais. Credit:Justin McManus They were greeted with almonds and pistachios and served chicken biryani, a popular dish in Afghanistan cooked with dried fruit and rice. I give thanks to the special properties of those who prepared really delicious foods for us, he said. Mr Rahimi said Fouzia, who had never been to Australia before, was surprised by the Afghan food. I explained to her that in Dandenong they have everything in the shop. The same things they have in Kabul, we have as well. People leaving Afghanistan for Australia last month in the wake of the Taliban takeover. Credit:Defence Images CQV Commissioner Emma Cassar said the contribution made by the Afghan community, Victorian Multicultural Commission and CQV cultural liaison officers had been incredible. She had watched the distressing footage of air lifts from Kabul airport and knew that ensuring the quarantine program was culturally appropriate would be critical. It was really important for us to make their first experience in their new country as pleasant as possible and when you overlay that with hotel quarantine, its not easy, Ms Cassar said. Its not easy for you and I to do, let alone someone whos just fled a war torn country, so it was so important for us to get right. The Rahimi family in hotel quarantine in Melbourne. CQV cultural liaison officer Yusuf Liban, who came to Australia as a refugee, reached out to his networks to source prayer packs, with prayer mats and Korans donated from mosques across Victoria. Being a Muslim myself I understood that in times of hardship and distress, when people do feel overwhelmed, they tend to develop a stronger connection to their faith, Mr Liban said. Mr Liban and a local Imam plugged the co-ordinates of each hotel room into a live Google map and satellite map to determine the direction of Mecca, with the details included in their prayer packs. Of course they didnt have a compass, so the interpreter could then tell them pray towards the doors if you are on the east side of the hotel or pray towards the TV. Mr Liban was also responsible for ensuring the male and female hygiene packs which included shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, shaving cream and sanitary items were religiously and culturally appropriate and did not contain alcohols or gelatine, which can be made from pigs. He liaised with the logistics teams to modify the bathrooms with watering cans sourced from Bunnings In Muslim countries toilet paper is not very common and people use water to clean themselves and washing buckets for them to wash their clothes. Many entered the hotel with the clothes on their backs and a few belongings in plastic bags. Kmart donated more than 2500 items of clothing, CQV provided 400 tracksuits, underwear and socks and Victoria Police, CFA and SES donated backpacks, stuffed toys, colouring books and pencils. Ms Cassar watched all the flights arrive from the Melbourne airport control room. You couldnt help but cry, she says. She describes mixed emotions as people walked off the planes; fear and trepidation as well as happiness. When people first get off the plane the first thing they see is people in PPE, which is really daunting, Ms Cassar said. But they visibly relaxed, she says, when they saw interpreters at the health screening areas, who allocated them to the most appropriate hotel. The staff kept saying they wanted to come and touch and grab their hands and say thank you, but because of our IPC (infection prevention and control) requirements and social distancing it was a really hard thing for staff to manage, Ms Cassar said. CQV Commissioner Emma Cassar. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui The final 236 Afghans on the rescue flights will be released from hotel quarantine on Saturday. The federal government and AMES Australia which provides settlement support to migrants will be responsible for their resettlement. Loading AMES Australia chief executive Cath Scarth says they will be assisted with finding accommodation, connected to health and education services and provided with language tuition. Its been fantastic to see how many Victorians have come out and offered support to the newly arrived Afghans in so many ways. In a couple of weeks the Rahimi family, who are now staying with relatives in Sunshine West, will settle into their own home. But Mr Rahimis happiness is marred by his concern for his sisters who are still in Kabul. Singapore: Whats in a name? When it comes to Taiwan and China, a lot. Australias links with the disputed island under its One China policy are so delicate that Taiwans de facto embassy in Canberra is carefully titled the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen speaks with military personnel on Wednesday as part of Taiwans five-day Han Guang military exercise designed to prepare the islands forces for an attack by China. Credit:Taiwan Presidential Office But with Australia and the United States on Friday proclaiming an intention to deepen ties with Taiwan, while neither country officially recognises it as a nation, a leading Taiwanese official would like to put a name change on the agenda. How to name our friends offices in Taiwan and our representative offices in other countries, it does matter. It is important to us, Wang Ting-yu, the co-chair of Taiwans parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. London: France will take the extraordinary step of recalling its ambassadors from Australia and the United States, as the fallout grows from a new defence pact that has infuriated French President Emmanuel Macron. The extraordinary move follows the Morrison governments decision to tear up a $90 billion contract to buy 12 French submarines in favour of a new nuclear-powered fleet using technology from the US and United Kingdom. French President Emmanuel Macron has been angered by Australias decision. Credit:AFP This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said in a statement. The abandonment of the ocean-class submarine project that had linked Australia to France since 2016, and the announcement of a new partnership with the United States aimed at launching studies on possible future co-operation on nuclear-powered submarines, constitute unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners the consequences of which affect the very conception that we have of our alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. Los Angeles: A California jury on Friday found multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst guilty of murdering his best friend Susan Berman in 2000, the first homicide conviction for a man suspected of killing three people in three states over the past 39 years. Durst, 78, faces up to life in prison. Superior Court Judge Mark Windham, who oversaw the trial, will set a date for sentencing. Millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst during a 2016 court appearance. Credit:AP The jury of nine women and three men had deliberated for seven-and-a-half hours over three days. Los Angeles County prosecutors called Durst a narcissistic psychopath who killed Berman in an attempt to cover up the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, in New York in 1982. Guillaumetre had returned to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande to charge his phone and find food for his family. I have many dreams and dont give up easily, he said, holding a ticket that, by his estimation, puts his family 2000th in line to be processed by Border Patrol. The Biden administration has curtailed deportation flights to Haiti after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July and a 7.2-magnitude earthquake August 14 that killed more than 2000. DHS has extended temporary protected status, or TPS, eligibility for Haitians a measure that allows Haitians living in the United States without legal status to qualify for provisional residency and avoid deportation. How many more may arrive in the next few days is unclear. CBP is scrambling to send additional agents to Del Rio to help process the migrants, issuing them numbers as they queue up to be formally apprehended, the first step in applying for asylum or another form of US protection. Most of the migrants are likely to be released into the United States with a notice to appear in court at a future date. The Border Patrol is increasing its manpower in the Del Rio Sector and coordinating efforts within DHS and other relevant federal, state and local partners to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process, CBP said in a statement. To prevent injuries from heat-related illness, the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into USBP custody. Along the banks of the Rio Grande on Thursday, hundreds of migrants waded through knee-high water along a concrete spillway, moving back and forth between the camp and shops in Acuna on the Mexican side. They carried ice, plates of food and other supplies; one man forded the river with a rolled-up mattress on his shoulders. Loading Others bathed in the river, cleaned clothes and cooled off from the muggy heat. Mexican vendors wandered through the crowd selling snacks, water and ice cream. Several migrants said there was nothing to eat on the US side. A few in the camp had strung up clotheslines and fashioned shelters out of sticks and carrizo cane. Ramses Colon, a 41-year-old Afro-Cuban asylum seeker among the mostly Haitian crowd who worked in Peru to save money for the trip, said the Del Rio camp was chaos. You stand there among thousands with your little ticket waiting for your turn, he said. Colon and his partner, Estephany Cabrera, 30, joined the crowds of Haitians in Colombia, crossing the Darien jungle and using the groups numbers to protect themselves. I joined them because I look like them, Colon said. He was walking back into Mexico to pick up cash wired by his family in the United States. Without money, you are nothing here, he said. CBP said it is providing drinking water, towels and other provisions to the site, but one agent in the Del Rio Sector said sanitary conditions are poor. There are 20 portable toilets at the site, according to Jon Anfinsen, the top Border Patrol union official in the Del Rio Sector. Were scrambling to bring every resource we can, but its a logistical nightmare, he said. Were pulling agents from across the country to help, but theyre not going to be there today, and were just trying to keep heads above water. Families with small children are given priority, Anfinsen said, in order to move them out of the bridge area as soon as possible. Many agents are mothers and fathers, and seeing kids in this situation is sad for everyone, he said. Morale is terrible. US officials say they will continue to use emergency authorities under Title 42 of the US public health code to rapidly return or expel migrants. But Mexican authorities have declined to take back Haitians in recent months. The government is also contending with new court orders related to its border policies. On Thursday, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan in the District of Columbia blocked the Biden administration from using Title 42 to expel migrant families, though he stayed the order for 14 days. The percentage of families returned under Title 42 has been declining in recent months; in August authorities used it on just 19 per cent of the more than 86,000 family members taken into custody. The Supreme Court also said last month that the Biden administration must restart a Trump administration program that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated in US courts. The Del Rio border sector has been among the busiest for illegal crossings in recent months as thousands of Haitians, Cubans, Venezuelans and Hondurans climb down from the limestone bluffs on the Mexican side to wade across the Rio Grande. Lozano, a Democrat, warned the Biden administration in a February video that his community needed more federal support to cope with a surge in crossings. I thought the worst-case scenario was having a couple of people, maybe 150 people roaming the streets, said Lozano. Although I foreshadowed a worst-case scenario, this is probably a worse case of worst-case scenarios, he said. I need the administration to recognise that there is a border crisis happening in real time right now and it has dire consequences on security, health and safety. A migrant man washes up in the Rio Grande near Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, on Thursday. Credit:Sergio Flores/The Washington Post In recent months, the city has been a testing ground for Republican Governor Greg Abbotts most aggressive border security plans, including charging migrants with state crimes such as trespassing. Val Verde County, which includes Del Rio, went for former president Donald Trump in 2020, voting for a Republican at the top of the ticket for the first time in decades. Lozano said while he initially welcomed the Republican governors effort, the local judicial system is now overwhelmed. Haitian, Venezuelan and Cuban migrants often say they prefer to cross in the Del Rio area because of its reputation as comparatively safer than the Rio Grande Valley downriver. Many of the migrants arrived to the border on buses that appear to be part of a large smuggling operation, Lozano said. It just sounds like theres an off-grid bus system thats not registered with the Mexican government that are driving these individuals north, he said. Loading Some Del Rio residents, particularly those living along the river and on ranches, have raised alarms in recent months about the large groups of migrants appearing on their properties. She walked without shoes for eight hours a day to go to school and studied by the light of grass fires. But Bongai Mungunis implacable spirit - along with the kindness of friends and strangers - led her on, and she is now studying for a joint PhD at the University of Bristol. Bongai was born during Mozambiques bloody civil war. From her familys temporary home a few miles over the border in Zimbabwe, they could hear the conflict rage around their village. Soon after the fighting ended Bongais father died, and she and her 13 siblings and step-siblings returned home to their life as subsistence maize farmers in their village in Mossurize district, Mozambique. Long walk to education It was from here that Bongai would set off at 5am each day, walking barefoot for four hours to get to Mafumise Primary School across the border in Zimbabwe. And it was here that she returned to each evening after another four hour trek, her belly empty but her head full. At the time, Bongai knew little of the dangers that beset the route: the rogue soldiers, wild animals and muti killers murderers who kill people and sell their body parts for ritual medicine. Instead, it was the forest ghosts said to be the spirits of dead kings that made her young heart beat with fear. As a child you think all the adults you meet are going to be friends. As I walked through the forest in the dark I prayed to meet men anyone but the ghosts, she said. When I was 12 years old a family friend was murdered in our village and my mother decided it was too dangerous for me to walk to school. I wasnt happy because I loved school, but I had to comply. It was also very expensive for the uniform and books. Instead I helped in the fields. One day I walked to my old school to sell bananas and my teacher, Mr Chipongo, spotted me. I explained that I had no choice but to stop studying and he offered to pay for my Grade 7 exams. Like so many that would come after, this simple selfless act would change Bongais life. Although she was too busy in the fields to go to school, she was able to study at home, devouring the teachers notes late into the night by the light of grass fires. Earn and learn Typically, Bongai aced the exams and aged 15, she moved to a Zimbabwean tea plantation where she could earn and learn. We picked tea leaves from 6am to midday and then studied at school until 7pm, she explained. It was tiring and sometimes wed fall asleep during lessons but I was so happy to be learning, so pleased to have textbooks and teachers. And it was much better than walking eight hours every day. In a country where women marry young and education opportunities are few, Bongai beat her own path. Today, aged 31, she is studying for a joint PhD at Cape Town University (UCT) and the University of Bristol, a new scheme which sees her split her time between the two cities. But then, aged 18, the idea of going to university at all was a storybook dream. With top grades under her belt, Bongai was able to get a place at the University of Zimbabwe, the countrys top institution. Her family spent days calling friends and neighbours to pull together the necessary funds. They were successful, but in the end Bongai was offered a Government of Zimbabwe Cadet Scholarship and she moved to the capital Harare to study economics. The accidental scholar Later, as she worked as a maid to save for a graduation gown, she was offered a job as a teaching assistant at the University. Her monthly salary soared from US$60 to US$1,500. While teaching she studied for a masters. Graduating in 2016 she was capped by then-President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. But life had more surprises in store for Bongai. Testing UCTs application process for a friend, she wrote out a mock application on herself and was stunned when a few weeks later she was given a place at the Universitys School of Economics. As she prepared to go to one of the worlds top universities, her siblings banded together to raise the funds. She planned to study for the first semester and then leave to work for as long as she needed to afford another semester. But impressed by her assignments and her story of tireless fortitude, her lecturer Prof Murray Leibbrandt, ensured she was given a scholarship: For the first time ever I could simply focus on being a student. Then, in 2019 through a joint academic agreement between UCT and the University of Bristol, and funded by a Cotutelle Scholarship, Munguni entered a joint PhD: the inaugural UCTBristol University Researchers without Borders programme. She is being supervised by Professor David Gordon and Professor Richard Harris. Leaving Africa She studied at Bristol during the 2019/2020 academic year the first time she had left Africa - and will return to the city in 2022. Bongai was introduced to Jenny and David Cobbold, who volunteered to deliver her arthritis medicine and made her feel at home in Bristol, and Avril Chadwick and her family. Avril offered Bongai accommodation at their home in Congresbury, Somerset, but refused to charge her rent. It was like having another family. Their friends became my friends, their family became my family, Bongai said. We ate together African food three nights a week and English food the other nights. And we would take the car to places all over the suspension bridge, Oxford, different churches. It was so amazing. Ill always treasure my time at Bristol I loved the lectures and the people and I cant wait to come again. Giving back The Chadwicks helped Bongai collect second-hand clothes to ship back to Mozambique and set-up a crowd-funding page to raise money for a borehole so her home village could get easy access to clean water. We were donated so many things clothes, toys, books. When the clothes arrived in Mozambique the kids were so happy, for some of them it was the first time they had worn nice clothes, Bongai said. The crowd-funding page raised 2,600 and added to the 2,500 of rent that Bongai did not have to pay, it was enough for the borehole to be dug last week. Bongai hopes the new infrastructure will mean the women of the village do not need to spend hours each day collecting water from the river, and can instead begin their own education journeys. The long walk isnt over But Bongais ambitions are far from satisfied. She is helping to teach maths to children free via Whats App, a scheme she hopes to grow over the coming years. She writes out notes and records voice notes (videos take up too much data) so the children can learn at home. It is helpful for those grounded by coronavirus and also for those whose walk to school is an eight hour round trip. In two years time she will graduate from Bristol and UCT with a PhD from each ("I have told my friends they have to call me doc-doc"). Afterwards she hopes to become a professor perhaps via post-doc work at Harvard or Oxford as well as a social entrepreneur. Professor David Gordon, Bongais PhD supervisor at Bristol, said: Bongai is an inspiration to others and has overcome numerous obstacles to obtain the academic knowledge she needs to help her local community and the people of Mozambique." Bongai said: I want to help communitys create businesses so they can become self-sufficient, for the community and by the community. I want to remove barriers so anyone can get the education they deserve. Bongai and her Bristol family are still collecting money to connect more houses to the borehole. You can donate here. Academy, the edtech arm of the e-commerce giant, has formed a strategic collaboration with Sri Chaitanya, one of Indias leading educational groups, to introduce full syllabus courses for Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) aspirants. The collaboration between the two is aimed at getting students the best of both worlds Sri Chaitanyas teaching experience of 35 years and Academys high quality content, deep learning analytics and technology backed curriculum design in Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Biology. "Our collaboration with Sri Chaitanya is part of our focus on providing high quality, affordable educational content and test preparation services to aspiring students, said Amol Gurwara, director of education at India. We are delighted to give students access to experienced faculty from Sri Chaitanya. In January this year, Amazon launched Amazon Academy to cater to students preparing for the JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) for entrance to engineering colleges. The move has enabled it to take on top edtech such as Byjus, Unacademy, Vedantu and traditional education institutes and tap countrys $180-billion education sector which has gone online to adapt to the new reality. Gurwara said Amazon Academy will continue to focus on content quality, deep learning analytics and features for both, self-paced as well as instructor led learning. We look forward to seeing this collaboration add value to our students learning experience, said Gurwara. As part of this collaboration, teachers from Sri Chaitanya will conduct live online classes on Amazon Academy. They would be covering concepts from basic to advanced level, help clear students doubts and prepare students to excel at these engineering and medical entrance exams. "Technology in education is evolving and this collaboration will help us bring our 35 years of rich teaching experience to aspirants across the country, said Sushma Boppana, Director of Infinity Learn (Sri Chaitanya group). Last year we had 20,904 selections in JEE Main, 3,449 in JEE Advanced and 36,547 Ranks. We are confident that with this association with Amazon Academy, we will be able to bring a lot more students closer to their dreams. These structured courses from Amazon Academy will offer students a range of JEE/ preparatory resources including specially crafted mock tests by subject matter experts, over 17,000 handpicked questions with hints and detailed step by step solutions for practice. An expansive question bank that simulates the exam pattern is organised in the form of chapter tests, part tests, mock tests and full tests. Students can also manage exam preparedness at their own pace, while gaining confidence, speed and accuracy. Amazon Academy conducts live All India Mock Tests (AIMT) at scheduled intervals. These tests are designed to mirror the actual test experience helping students understand the nuances of the examination. Students will also benefit from shortcuts, mnemonics, tips and tricks that are made available daily, helping them retain concepts and solve questions effectively. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of of India (SII), expects the restrictions on export of Covid vaccines to ease within two months, provided that India has created enough stockpile to weather a third wave. Raw material supplies for the Novavax have improved compared to March, and SII plans to announce its monthly production plan in December, Poonawalla told the media on Friday. There was no ban on exports, but there were temporary restrictions, and rightly so. I think these will slowly ease in the next month or two, but I dont want to venture a guess. But it will happen very soon, he said, adding that India is very close to a point where there is more than enough stock. Poonawalla said easing the export restrictions is a government of Indias decision, and he will go by what the Centre feels is appropriate. The Centre has to balance the needs of the country and stockpile vaccines for India in case of the third and fourth waves. Taking lessons from the first and second waves, the government is rightly being very cautious, he said. Stepping up Covid fight Paediatric Covovax may be ready for approval by Jan-Feb Raw material supplies for Novavax have improved SII to announce monthly Covovax production in December To produce 200 mn monthly doses of Covishield from October SII is expanding its Covishield capacity, which now stands at around 160 million doses a month. From October, it is expected to touch 200 million doses a month. On the other hand, the production of the Novavax vaccine is not constrained by SIIs capacities, but by raw materials, Poonawalla said. SII is working on developing alternative vendor sources for critical raw materials. Developing new supplies takes time. The silver lining is we have got people who can make quality raw materials, but they are inundated with orders from different vaccine from Korea, China, Europe, etc, he added. SII is trying its best to scale up the production of the Novavax vaccine, Poonawalla said, and that there have been major improvements in raw material supplies since March. We will wait and see, and in December, for sure, we can comment on what our monthly production will be, he said. As for the Novavax vaccines clinical trials on paediatric population, Poonawalla said the company has started trials, and three to four months is the minimum timeframe for that. By January-February, there is a possibility that Covovax (SII-manufactured Novavax vaccine) could be ready for approval for use in kids. The reforms package announced by the government will sustain telcos' businesses, is credit positive for operators, including Airtel and Jio, and provides support for 3+1 players structure, Moody's Investors Service said on Friday. The views come against the backdrop of a blockbuster relief package announced earlier this week for the that includes a four-year break for from paying statutory dues, permission to share scarce airwaves, change in the definition of revenue on which levies are paid, and 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route. The measures, aimed at providing relief to such as Vodafone Idea that have to pay thousands of crores in unprovisioned past statutory dues, also include the scrapping of Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) for airwaves acquired in future spectrum auctions. In a statement on Friday, Moody's said the change in the AGR definition to exclude non-telecom revenue will ultimately boost sectorwide EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) as it will reduce licence fees paid by telcos. All in all, it said, the reforms are credit positive for Indian telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio (the telecom arm of Indian conglomerate, Reliance Industries) because they free up cash flow for reinvestment, enable further investment in next-generation technologies and provide support for a three private plus one state-owned telecom operational structure. Bharti's leverage has been improving over the last 12 months on the back of better profitability of its core Indian mobile business and capital interventions, it noted. "Should Bharti opt for the moratorium on payments for past spectrum purchases and AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) statutory fees, we expect this could free up around Rs 120 billion-Rs 130 billion (Rs 12,000-13,000 crore) of cash flow annually, which could be used to reduce debt further," it said. It expects excess cash flow and proceeds from the equity raise (up to Rs 21,000 crore via rights issue announced by the company) will be used in part to help accelerate debt reduction and for investment in next-generation technologies. For RIL, the removal of SUC for spectrum acquired in future auctions would improve the profitability for its telecom operations while the extension of moratorium on payments for past spectrum purchases will improve its cash flow generation and strengthen liquidity. "That said, we expect RIL's earnings from its digital services segment to grow over the next 12-18 months on the back of a further ramp up of its home and enterprise broadband services," it wrote. Increased remote working and shift to online transactions would drive data consumption higher and also raise earnings and cash flow for the segment, it said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Twelve more people died in incidents of wall and house collapse in taking the death toll due to heavy rain in recent days to 24, officials said on Friday. The first house collapse was reported on Wednesday. Till Thursday, 12 deaths due to rain-related incidents took place in the state, officials said. Incidents of wall and house collapse were reported from Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Amethi and Sultanpur districts leading to loss of 12 more lives, officials said on Friday. Three people, including a woman and her two children, were killed when their 'kutcha' house collapsed in Karhi village under Mau Police Station area of Chitrakoot district on Friday evening, they said. Yashoda (25), her son Rishi (5) and daughter Richa (3) were buried under the debris of the house, SHO of Mau Police Station Gulab Tripathi said. In Pratapgarh, seven people, including a child, died in house and wall collapses due to in the last 24 hours, officials said. Amit (4) and Om Prakash (50) died in separate villages under Antu Police Station area in the district due to wall collapses amid incessant rains on Thursday, police said. Kalika (80), hailing from a village under Sagipur Police Station area, Kalawati (65) in Kohdaur Police Station area, Chamela Devi (54) and Kusum Maurya (25) in different villages under Kotwali Patti Police Station area, and Amarjit Singh (65) in a village under Udaypur area died in similar incidents of wall and house collapses, police said. In Amethi's Madhupur Khadri village under Sangrampur Police Station area, Gayadin (52) was cleaning the drain when the wall of his 'kutcha' house collapsed on him leading to his death, SDM Amethi, Mahatma Singh said. In a similar incident in Sadarpur village under Chanda Kotwali area of Sultanpur, Surajpal (55) was killed when a wall collapsed on him on Thursday night, police said. There are reports of some other houses collapsing due to the ongoing incessant rains since the last 72 hours in some other parts of the district and detailed information was being gathered, police said. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday reviewed the situation arising out of excessive rainfall in the state and directed officials to carry out prompt relief works and extend immediate help to the affected persons. In a meeting with senior officials, the chief minister directed for making immediate drainage arrangements in waterlogged localities both in the urban and rural areas besides all necessary arrangements to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, a state government spokesperson said. The chief minister directed the officials of the health department to maintain the availability of all essential medicines and staff, including doctors, paramedics in primary/community health centres and district hospitals, while ensuring fogging and anti-larva spray in urban and rural areas. He also instructed for extending permissible financial assistance to the affected persons promptly, the spokesperson said. In view of the continued rains, Adityanath had on Thursday directed the closure of all educational institutions, including schools and colleges, for two days on September 17 and 18. The schools will now reopen on Monday. According to the Met office, heavy rainfall has been reported from Azamgarh, Ayodhya, Sitapur, Barabanki, Kannauj, Lucknow, Ambedkar Nagar, Gonda,Basti, Bahraich, Unnao, Gorakhpur, Kanpur Dehat , Etawah, Allahabad, Farrukhabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Amethi, Sant Kabirnagar, Siddharthnagar, Pratapgarh and Sonbhadra. More showers are likely to lash few places in eastern and western on Saturday and Sunday. (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 UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said the world is facing an crisis due to the COVID pandemic, which has left nearly 77 million shut out of the classroom for the past 18 months. This Thursday, the UN agency is closing down its social media channels for the next 18 hours to send one message to the world: #ReopenSchools for in-person learning as soon as possible, UN News reported. "117 million students, representing 7,5% of the total student population, are still affected by complete school closures in 18 countries. The number of countries with partly open has declined from 52 to 41 over the same period. have remained closed for a total period of 18 months in five countries, accounting for 77 million students," said in a statement. In all countries having experienced prolonged full school closures, was provided through a combination of online classes, printed modules, as well as TV and radio lessons. "For UNICEF, the right to go to school is central to every child's development, safety and well-being. Yet in too many countries, classrooms remain closed while social gatherings continue to take place in restaurants, salons and gyms," the UN agency said. It added that "this generation of and youth, cannot afford any more disruptions to their " New numbers from UNESCO, released this Thursday, show that are now fully open in 117 countries, with 539 million students back in class, ranging from pre-primary to secondary levels. This represents 35 per cent of the total student population across the world, compared to 16 per cent who returned to school in September 2020, when schools were only open, or partially-open, in 94 countries. UNESCO and its other partners have been advocating for the safe reopening of schools, urging full closures to be used as a measure of last resort. The agency said the past two academic years have resulted in learning losses and increased drop-out rates, impacting the most vulnerable students disproportionately. (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 gave more than 22 million Covid doses in a single day on Friday, setting a new record for daily vaccinations in the country. The milestone was achieved on Prime Minister Narendra Modis birthday. Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya described the achievement as a birthday gift on behalf of health workers and citizens to Modi. Mandaviya raised his fists in the air and said, We did it. He was visiting the Covid site at Delhis Safdarjung Hospital where he distributed sweets to health workers and other staff and congratulated them on the landmark Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states including Bihar, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat gave maximum jabs. The significant jump in the daily numbers, which had so far crossed the 10-million mark on a few occasions, has also improved Indias overall inoculation coverage. The CoWIN website too highlighted a tracker showing the real time administration. The share of fully vaccinated people among the eligible population now stands at 21 per cent, up from 20 per cent a day earlier. Around 63 per cent of the population above 18 years has received a single dose so far. Business Standards analysis showed that of the 20 million doses on Friday, nearly 40 per cent were second and remaining 60 per cent were first doses. The average daily vaccinations are also up for the month of September to more than 8 million daily doses. This number was just about 6 million average daily doses per day in August. The government has urged people to ensure that they are fully vaccinated, especially ahead of the upcoming festive season. While Indias weekly test positivity rate is at 1.97 per cent, the daily positivity rate as on Friday morning was higher at 2.25 per cent. Thirty-two districts in India are still reporting a weekly positivity rate between five and ten per cent and 34 districts are reporting more than 10 per cent weekly positivity. So far ten states in India including Kerala which is contributing highest to the active caseload of the country, have vaccinated more than 85 per cent of their eligible population with a single dose of Covid As the new academic year gets underway, there is understandable concern over how to curb the spread of COVID in Air-quality specialists in Australia have recommended that air purifiers with high-efficiency particulate air (Hepa) filters be installed in all classrooms. The Welsh government, meanwhile, has set aside 6 million for air technologies - specifically, carbon dioxide sensors and ozone disinfection machines. Although, implementing ozone disinfection machines is currently on hold, pending evidence to support their use. This raises several questions. What are these different air cleaning technology options? What can they do that opening a window cant? And how important is ventilation in curbing the spread of COVID? As indoor air quality experts, we have spent the last 18 months writing COVID ventilation and air cleaning tech guidance, and conducting research on the risk of catching COVID indoors. We developed whats called a relative exposure index: a tool for comparing the risk of being exposed to the virus in different indoor settings. This was used by the UK governments scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) in drafting their ventilation advice for schools, workplaces and other public buildings. New air cleaning technologies Filtration systems, such as HEPA-grade air purifiers, have long been used indoors to deal with airborne dust and pollution. Research has demonstrated their effectiveness at removing small aerosols solid and liquid particles suspended in the air such as those from car exhausts, as well as removing respiratory aerosols breathed out by an infected person that may contain virus. Another option being trialled, alongside Hepa filters, in in Bradford, is ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UGVI). UGVI systems, which use UV light to destroy germs in the air, have been used for decades to reduce the transmission of diseases, particularly tuberculosis. However, they must be carefully installed and maintained to protect occupants from dangerous UV rays. Not much research has been done on the use of standalone Hepa filters in real buildings to assess their capacity to reduce respiratory viral transmission, although there is good evidence that they can remove the aerosols in which viruses can be transported. However, they can be noisy and expensive. Crucially, there are no standard methods for testing their performance, and there is no guidance on maintenance. A further option that has been floated is the use of ozone disinfection machines, to clean surfaces or the air. The problem here is that ozone is chemically active and reacts with all kinds of substances found in indoor spaces. For example, ozone can react with the hydrocarbons in furnishings, or the natural oils left on surfaces by small and large hands, to produce chemicals that can be harmful to health, including formaldehyde. For this reason, Sage cautions against using these machines indoors. There are other air cleaning technologies under consideration, but a wider question is: is air cleaning necessary to curb the spread of COVID? Or is adequate ventilation good enough? COVID ventilation Most people catch COVID from breathing in shared air. In the same way that you are more likely to smell what one might call coffee breath at close quarters, you are more likely to catch COVID by coming into direct contact with an infected persons exhaled air. This is because the virus is more concentrated in exhaled air than when breathing it in once it has been diluted by the air within a room. The virus has in fact been modelled to be more than a thousand times more concentrated in exhaled puff than when fully mixed with air in a room. Ventilation and air cleaning technologies have little effect in removing virus in that exhaled puff. This is why social distancing is the best safeguard. As engineers, we operate on the principle that it is impossible to achieve zero risk. Consequently, we try to reduce the highest risks for the greatest number of people. When increasing ventilation, there is a law of diminishing returns for the risk of COVID infection. Improving the air in poorly ventilated classrooms has a greater effect on risk than increasing ventilation in an adequately ventilated classroom. Design guidance on ventilation and air quality for English school classrooms is better explained than for most other public spaces. We expect that classrooms that comply with these standards are adequately ventilated. Rooms that werent specifically designed as classrooms or those where the ventilation design is not working correctly for example, windows painted shut are of greater concern. Air cleaning technologies are probably best suited to rooms where adequate ventilation cant be easily provided. A carbon dioxide monitor can be used to identify poorly ventilated classrooms in some circumstances. And, if you dont have one, you can use your nose: if an occupied room smells bad when you enter, it needs more air. A carbon dioxide sensor can also be a useful tool to let teachers and other school staff know when to open the windows, for example. Particularly in colder weather, this can help to balance the need for fresh air with warmth. There are other happy consequences to be had with this push to ensure adequate ventilation in It will reduce concentrations of indoor air contaminants, such as gases emitted by furnishings and water vapour, which, if left to build up, can be bad for your health. Further, ventilation has been shown to boost childrens performance at school and contribute to keeping them healthy. (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 Friday reported a net decrease of 3,867 in active cases to take its count to 339,056. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 1.82 per cent (one in 54). The country is seventh among the most affected countries by active cases. On Thursday, it added 34,403 cases to take its total caseload to 33,381,728 from 33,347,325 an increase of 0.1%. And, with 320 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 444,248, or 1.33 per cent of total confirmed infections. With 6,397,972 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Thursday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 772,425,744. The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 32,560,474 or 97.65 per cent of total caseload with 38,303 new cured cases being reported on Friday. Now the seventh-most-affected country by active cases, third by deaths, second by total cases, and first by recoveries, India has added 206,774 cases in the past 7 days. India now accounts for 1.82% of all active cases globally (one in every 54 active cases), and 9.49% of all deaths (one in every 10 deaths). India has so far administered 772,425,744 vaccine doses. That is 2313.91 per cent of its total caseload, and 55.36 per cent of its population. Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Uttar Pradesh (95477595), Maharashtra (57209651), Gujarat (57209651), Madhya Pradesh (56340725), and Rajasthan (57209651). Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Kerala (994334), Uttarakhand (906725), Gujarat (895687), Delhi (890429), and Jammu and Kashmir (766532). Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 28 days. The count of active cases across India on Friday saw a net reduction of 3,867, compared with 8,164 on Thursday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are Maharashtra (310), Karnataka (282), Meghalaya (140), Tamil Nadu (120), and Andhra Pradesh (105). With 37,950 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 97.65%, while fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.33%. The Indian states and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.74%), Uttarakhand (2.15%), and Maharashtra (2.13%). The rate in as many as 16 is higher than the national average. Indias new daily closed cases stand at 38,270 320 deaths and 37,950 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 0.83%. Indias 5-day moving average of daily rate of addition to total cases stands at 0.1%. Indias doubling time for total cases stands at 672.2 days, and for deaths at 961.9 days. Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Kerala (22182), Maharashtra (3595), Tamil Nadu (1693), Andhra Pradesh (1367), and Mizoram (1121). Among states with more than 100,000 cases, the five with worst recovery rates at present are Kerala (95.28%). India on Wednesday conducted 1,527,420 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 549,229,149. The test positivity rate recorded was 2.3%. Five states with the highest test positivity rate (TPR) percentage of tested people turning out to be positive for Covid-19 infection (by cumulative data for tests and cases are Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (14.74%), Goa (13.63%), Kerala (13.17%), Sikkim (12.56%), and Maharashtra (11.51%). Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added are Kerala (18.26%), Sikkim (10.72%), Mizoram (9.66%), Manipur (6.92%), and Meghalaya (5.67%). 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 (1429160), J&K (1039863), Kerala (945324), Karnataka (678711), and Telangana (653165). The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (6511525), Kerala (4446228), Karnataka (2965191), Tamil Nadu (2640361), and Andhra Pradesh (2034786). Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 3595 new cases to take its tally to 6511525. Kerala, the second-most-affected state by total tally, has added 22182 cases to take its tally to 4446228. Karnataka, the third-most-affected state, has reported 1108 cases to take its tally to 2965191. Tamil Nadu has added 1693 cases to take its tally to 2640361. Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 1367 to 2034786. Uttar Pradesh has added 23 cases to take its tally to 1709628. Delhi has added 28 cases to take its tally to 1438373. A meeting among intelligence agencies and police forces of Delhi and its neighbouring states is underway to discuss the scenario in the backdrop of Pakistan-backed terror module being busted here, officials said on Friday. "The Afghanistan situation after the Taliban took over the country is also on the agenda," a senior police official said, adding the meeting was called by the The meeting was held at the headquarters to discuss the issue of and the scenario in the neighbouring states, he added. Several senior officials of neighbouring states and intelligence agencies attended the meeting. On Tuesday, the Delhi Police's Special Cell busted a Pakistan-organised terror module and arrested six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists. The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, during the upcoming festivals of Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Ramleela, the police had said. Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, who is brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was connected with the underworld operatives to execute the terror plan, they had said. Interrogation has revealed that Pakistan terror module was being operated through two components -- via underworld and the Pak-ISI trained terror module, it had said. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US' complete troop withdrawal on August 31 after a costly two-decade war. Thousands of Afghan nationals and foreigners have fled the country to escape the new Taliban regime and to seek asylum in different nations. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minister on Thursday held talks with his Chinese counterpart in Dushanbe during which he emphasised that progress in the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh was essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity. Jaishankar and Wang are in Dushanbe to attend meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). "Met Chinese FM on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe. Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties," Jaishankar tweeted. After the meeting, Jaishankar said both sides also exchanged views on global developments and that India India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory. It is understood that the developments in Afghanistan figured in the meeting. "It is also essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country," Jaishankar said. "As for Asian solidarity, it is for China and India to set an example," he said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Administering at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to the eligible population in states like and where assembly elections are scheduled to be held next year is on the priority list of the government, according to official sources. Also, the target of a landmark 100 crore Covid vaccination doses is likely to be completed by the second week of October, Union health ministry sources said on Friday. "Inoculating eligible people in states like and where assembly elections are to be held next year with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine is on the priority list of the government," a source said. The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 78 crore on Friday. The government said 20 per cent of India's adult population have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccine and 62 per cent have got at least one dose. Of all the vaccines used, around 87.8 per cent are Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute, around 12.11 per cent are Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and less than one per cent Sputnik V. At least 50 per cent of the beneficiaries have been administered the first dose in The target is to cover the 100 per cent eligible population with at least one shot before the polls, the sources said. Commenting about the delay of Pfizer and Moderna's Covid vaccines in India, the sources said change in the demands of the manufacturers from time to time is leading to delay in making these vaccines available in the country and as to why they have not been given indemnity. (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 has told China that their bilateral relations will only develop when both countries pull their troops back from a deadly confrontation on their disputed Himalayan border, the Indian foreign minister said. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the possibility of both sides withdrawing from their high-altitude face-off when he met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of a regional conference in Dushanbe on Thursday. "Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties," Jaishankar said on Twitter. Thousands of Indian and Chinese soldiers have been locked in confrontation in the western since last year when animosity over a decades old border dispute blew up. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Welcoming the verdict allowing the Kerala government to hold physical exam for Class XI, the state government on Friday said it was prepared to hold the exam adhering to COVID-19 protocol. Reacting to the verdict, state General Education Minister V Sivankutty said a majority of students wanted to write the examination offline and it will be held without creating any difficulties for them. He said once the details of the apex court verdict are available, the examination date will be fixed in consultation with the Chief Minister and other departments. He said a new timetable will be prepared for conducting the examination. The minister also sought cooperation of all local bodies, political parties, youth organisations and people's representatives in carrying out disinfectant activities in schools across the state. Dismissing a plea challenging the Kerala government's decision to hold physical exam for Class XI, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar today said holistic approach has to be taken in the matter and the authorities are conscious of their duties. "We are convinced by the explanation offered by the state and trust authorities will take all precautions and necessary steps so that no untoward situation is faced by students who are of tender age and appearing for the proposed examination. Dismissed," the bench said. The Kerala government in an affidavit had told the top court that online examinations will be a disadvantage for students with no access to laptops and mobile phones. "The conduct of examination through online mode will prejudice a large number of students who have no access to laptops, desktops or even mobile phones. The students belonging to the lower strata of society are depending on mobile phones or tablets for attending online classes. In many areas, internet connection or mobile data are not available. These students will never be able to write online examinations," the state government said. The apex court on September 3 stayed for a week the state government's decision to conduct offline exams for Class XI commencing from September 6 amid rising COVID cases, saying "there is an alarming situation in the state". (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The on Friday said the government has the responsibility and liability to ensure that the shameful practice of is not carried out anywhere in the state. A division bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav Jamdar sought to know from the state government if it had carried out a survey identifying manual scavengers across the state after the enactment of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act in 2013 and what steps it had taken to rehabilitate them. The court also sought to know how many manual scavengers had died at work since 1993 and if the state government had awarded compensation to their family members. The court was hearing a petition filed by three women, whose husbands were employed as manual scavengers and had died while cleaning a septic tank at a private society in suburban Govandi here in December, 2019. The petitioners had sought compensation from the government as per provisions of the Act. The court on Friday directed the Mumbai suburban collector to pay each of the petitioners a sum of Rs 10 lakh by way of compensation. The amount shall be recovered by the Collector from the person or entity responsible for the death of the petitioners' husbands. The amount has to be paid within a period of four weeks, the court said. Government pleader Purnima Kantharia told the court that the company, which had hired the victims, had deposited three cheques of Rs 1.25 lakh for each of the petitioners after the incident. The court directed for the cheques to be handed over to the petitioners and said the remaining amount should be handed over to them by the collector. The court noted that considering the importance of the issue it was of the view that it should monitor the same to ensure that justice is dispensed. The Act of 2013 has clearly stated that all state governments have to ensure that is completely eradicated from the society. However, despite such strict legislative intent, this shameful practice continues and this should shock the collective conscience of the society, the court said. The state government is liable and responsible to ensure that an end is put to this practice. Several courts including the Supreme Court have held from time to time that is a humiliating and shameful method of employing people from the lower strata of the society to carry out the hazardous job of cleaning septic tanks, the court said. The court directed the state government to submit all the information it has sought on October 18, when it would hear the plea next. The bench also sought to know the status of the FIR lodged by the Govandi police station in the case of the deaths of the petitioners' husbands. (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.) (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were detained by the Delhi Police on Friday as they led a protest march in the capital to mark the first anniversary of the passage of three contentious farm laws. The SAD, which walked out of the ruling coalition at the Centre last year over the farm laws, is observing September 17 as Black Day. The protest march was taken out from Gurudwara Rakab Ganj to the Parliament House. "The protest march today not only symbolises the farmers' dissent but will also be remembered as a historic event that struck at the root of tyranny. Let's unite to mark this day as the beginning of a renewed revolt to bring justice for farmers," the SAD president tweeted. Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav said SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal along with 15 other party leaders have been detained at Parliament Street police station. According to the police, the leaders were detained for taking out the protest march in violation of Covid-19 guidelines. They were subsequently released. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister on Friday said the recent developments in have demonstrated that increasing radicalisation was the root cause of biggest challenges relating to peace and security in the region and pitched for developing a common template by the to deal with these challenges. Speaking at the meeting of the (SCO) Council of Heads of State, Modi also called for enhancing connectivity between land-locked Central Asia and India and noted that such projects should be transparent and respect the territorial integrity of all countries, in comments that came amid growing criticism of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In his virtual address at the meeting, held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in a hybrid format virtual as well as in-person, the Prime Minister talked about Sufism and cultural heritage of Central Asia and said the should develop a common template to fight radicalisation and extremism on the basis of the historical heritage of the region. The 20th anniversary of the is also a suitable occasion to think about the future of the SCO. I believe that the biggest challenges in this area are related to peace, security and trust-deficit and the root cause of these problems is increasing radicalisation, the Prime Minister said. The recent developments in have made this challenge more apparent and the SCO should take an initiative on this issue, he asserted. ALSO READ: UNSC extends mandate of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan If we look at the history, we will find that the region of Central Asia has been a bastion of moderate and progressive cultures and values. Traditions like Sufism have flourished here over the centuries and spread throughout the region and the world, the Prime Minister said. We can still see their influence in the cultural heritage of this region. On the basis of this historical heritage of Central Asia, SCO should develop a common template to fight radicalisation and extremism, he said. In India, and almost in all SCO countries, there are moderate, tolerant and inclusive institutions and traditions associated with Islam. SCO should work to develop a strong network between them. On trade Members of the SCO reaffirmed to uphold and strengthen a transparent, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system and oppose unilateral protectionist measures that undermine and threaten the global economy. The members will consistently uphold and strengthen an open, transparent, equitable, inclusive and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system based on the principles and rules of the WTO, promote an open global economy and oppose unilateral protectionist measures that undermine the multilateral trading system and threaten the global economy, it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The winner of the Air India disinvestment process will be declared in three weeks. will utilise the relief offered by the government to invest in technology and scout for equity investors. More on these stories and other top headlines of the day: Amazon, Microsoft swoop in on India farm-data trove Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. are among technology giants lining up to harness data from Indias farmers in an ambitious government-led productivity drive aimed at transforming an outmoded agricultural industry. Read more Telecom relief likely to cost Rs 14,000 crore to govt Govt may select winner in Air India's disinvestment in 3 weeks The government will select the winner in Air Indias disinvestment in about three weeks and two high-level committees will finalise the reserve price for the carrier within this period. The reserve price of the carrier will be soon decided by the inter-ministerial group (IMG) headed by the secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), based on the inputs from government-appointed valuers. Read more The governments telecom package, announced on Wednesday and comprising a moratorium on spectrum charges and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues for four years, is likely to reduce non-tax revenues from the sector by around Rs 14,000 crore this fiscal year if companies opt for the offer. Read more 5G tech, new equity investors to be Vodafone Idea's calling card (Vi), a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Group, will continue to scout for new equity investors and invest in new technologies, including in fifth-generation-based technology, after the central governments bailout package. GST Council extends concessions on certain Covid drugs till Dec 31: FM The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which met on Friday in Lucknow, took a slew of decisions, including extension of concessions to specified drugs used in Covid treatment till December 31, 2021. This was the first physical Goods and Services Tax (GST) meet since the Covid pandemic began. GST Council granted exemption to two Covid drugs Zolgensma and Viltepso. Read more India administers 20 mn vaccine doses, sets new record on PM's birthday India set a record on Friday by administering over 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, in a major push to the inoculation drive on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday. The cumulative doses administered in the country reached 2,00,41,136 at 5.10 pm, according to data on the Co-WIN portal. Read more World Bank to discontinue 'Doing Business' report after China-linked probe The World Bank Group has decided to discontinue publication of its Doing Business report on country investment climates following allegations of irregularities. The decision was taken after a probe of data irregularities allegedly due to pressure by some top bank officials to boost China's ranking in 2017 came to light. Read more Telecom relief package credit positive for Airtel, Jio, says Moody's The reforms package announced by the government will sustain telcos' businesses, is credit positive for operators, including Airtel and Jio, and provides support for 3+1 players structure, Moody's Investors Service said on Friday. The views come against the backdrop of a blockbuster relief package announced earlier this week for the that includes a four-year break for companies from paying statutory dues, permission to share scarce airwaves, change in the definition of revenue on which levies are paid, and 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route. Read more In view of a protest march organised by members of the (SAD) against the Centre's farm laws, the Police on Friday alerted commuters about closure of specific roads and suggested diversions to avoid any inconvenience. Taking to Twitter, the Police informed about closure of roads at Jharoda Kalan border and suggested commuters to refrain from using these routes in view of the farmers' movement. A senior police officer said, "Members of have gathered at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj on Friday morning in view of a protest march organised by them against the farm laws." The SAD under the leadership of its President Sukhbir Singh Badal had given a call to take out a the march starting from Gurdwara Talab Ganj Sahib to Parliament House against the "anti-farmer" laws passed by the Central government. Due to a demonstration call by farmers to assemble at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj, police pickets have been placed in precaution at different areas in the capital while traffic is being released after vehicles have been checked, a senior traffic police officer said. The protesters had given a call for a march from Gurudarwa Rakab Ganj to Parliament to oppose the Centre's new farm laws. "Gurdwara Rakabganj Road, RML Hospital, GPO, Ashoka Road, Baba Kharak Singh Marg will be full due to the farmers' movement. Please refrain from using these routes," the Police tweeted in Hindi. "Jharoda Kalan border both the roads have been closed by barricading dye to the farmers movement, please refrain from using this route," another tweet mentioned. According to police, the road from Sardar Patel Marg to Dhaula Kuan has been closed for traffic due to the farmers' movement. "The traffic coming from Gurgaon to Sadar Patel Marg and the traffic coming from Narayan to loop has also been diverted towards Ring Road Moti Bagh, the traffic will remain heavy," the traffic police said in another tweet. Traffic going from Pusa roundabout towards Shankar Road has also been diverted towards Pusa Road, the traffic police said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The (GST) Council on Friday decided to tax online food delivery operators such as Swiggy and Zomato on behalf of restaurants from January 2022. The Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also exempted expensive life-saving drugs from indirect tax, extended concessional rates on Covid-related drugs for three more months, and addressed the issue of inverted duty structure in textiles, footwear, pens, specified renewable energy devices, and parts of locomotives, among other items. However, the Council decided against bringing petroleum products under the regime for now, she said while addressing the media after the 45th Council Meeting held in Lucknow. Sitharaman said compensation to the states would not be extended beyond June 2022, citing revenue concerns. Many states said they wanted its extension but did not press for it since the issue was not elaborately discussed. She, however, explained the need for extending compensation cess till March 2026, saying the Centre has to service the principal and interest on loans that were taken to compensate the states after Covid-19 hit the collection last year and this year. The cess imposed on automobiles and cigarettes, which draw the peak rate of 28 per cent, is to expire on June 30, 2022. The compensation mechanism itself will expire on June 30, 2022. The states are given full compensation for the first five years of the introduction of on the assumed revenue growth rate of 14 per cent on the base year of 2015-16. The fitment panel, comprising central and state officers, estimated a GST revenue loss of Rs 2,000 crore in 2019-20 and 2020-21. As such, it recommended a 5 per cent rate on online food delivery operators without input tax credit. Many restaurants were found to be not depositing GST with the government, while some were not even registered. ALSO READ: GST Council extends levy of compensation cess till March 2026 The finance minister said the states were explained the revenue position from GST. At the time of GST, revenue neutral rate (RNR) was 15 per cent; now it has come down to 11.6 per cent, she said. The Council will go to the Kerala High Court and apprise it of the position of the states regarding the inclusion of petroleum in GST, she said. The court had suggested that such a proposal be placed before the Council after a writ petition was filed for the inclusion. Sitharaman said life-saving drugs such as Zolgensma and Viltepso that are priced at about Rs 16 crore and used for curing muscle atrophy would be exempted from GST if imported for personal use. Besides, reduced GST on remdesivir as well as concessional rates of the tax on other Covid-related drugs will be extended till December 31. However, the concessional rate on equipment used to cure Covid will expire this month. Also, GST on drugs such as Keytruba would be reduced from 12 per cent to 5 per cent. The Council also reduced GST on biodiesel supplied to oil-marketing companies from 12 per cent to 5 per cent. It also exempted transport of goods for export purposes by vessel and air for one more year to help exporters, the finance minister said. She said such exemption would also be made available to special economic zones. The Council also exempted aircraft and other goods imported on lease from integrated goods and service tax to address the issue of double taxation. Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. are among technology giants lining up to harness data from Indias farmers in an ambitious government-led productivity drive aimed at transforming an outmoded agricultural industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration, which is seeking to ensure food security in the worlds second-most populous nation, has signed preliminary agreements with the three U.S. titans and a slew of local businesses starting April to share farm statistics its been gathering since coming to power in 2014. Modi is betting the private sector can help farmers boost yields with apps and tools built from information such as crop output, soil quality and land holdings. io Platforms Ltd., the venture controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries Ltd., and tobacco giant ITC Ltd. are among local powerhouses that have signed up for the program, the government said this week. With the project, Modi is seeking to usher in long-due reforms to make over a farm sector that employs almost half of the nations 1.3 billion people and contributes about a fifth of Asias third-biggest economy. The government is counting on the projects success to boost rural incomes, cut imports, reduce some of the worlds worst food wastages with better infrastructure, and eventually compete with exporters such as Brazil, the U.S. and the European Union. This is a high impact industry and private players are sensing the opportunity and want to be a large part of it, said Ankur Pahwa, a partner at consultancy EY India. India has a very high amount of food wastage because of lack of technology and infrastructure. So theres a huge upside to the program. The idea is simple: Seed all the information such as crop pattern, soil health, insurance, credit, and weather patterns into a single database and then analyze it through AI and data analytics. Then the goal is to develop personalized services for a sector replete with challenges such as peaking yields, water stress, degrading soil and lack of infrastructure including temperature-controlled warehouses and refrigerated trucks. Under the agreement, the big tech companies help the government in developing proof of concepts to offer tech solutions for farm-to-fork services, which farmers will be able to access at their doorstep. If beneficial, firms would be able to sell the final product to the government and also directly to growers and the solutions would be scaled up at the national level. So far, the government has seeded publicly available data for more than 50 million farmers of the 120 million identified land-holding growers. Some of the local companies that have signed up include Star Agribazaar Technology, ESRI India Technologies, yoga guru Baba Ramdevs Patanjali Organic Research Institute and Ninjacart. A smartphone is used by a field worker to collect data such as land profile, crop estimation, soil degradation and weather patterns. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg But success is far from guaranteed. The plan to rope in big corporations is already drawing fire from critics, who say the move is yet another attempt by the government to give the private sector a greater sway, a development that could hurt small and vulnerable farmers. The program may even add fuel to the protracted protests Modis government has been struggling to tackle for more than nine months after controversial new agricultural laws riled up some farmers. With crucial state elections due in 2022, it may get tougher to sell the technology-to-help-agriculture plan to a farming community already suspicious of the governments intentions. With this data they will know where the produce wasnt good, and will buy cheap from farmers there and sell it at exorbitant prices elsewhere, said Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra, a farmer from the northern state of Punjab, who has been protesting since November against the new farm laws. More than the farmers it is the consumers who will suffer. Technology adoption is still at a nascent stage in India, said Apeksha Kaushik, principal analyst at Gartner. Limited availability of technology infrastructure and recurring natural phenomena like floods, droughts have also worked against the deployment of digital solutions, she said. Anxiety over data privacy could be another challenge. Abhimanyu Kohar, a 27-year-old farmers leader, who has been supporting the protesting farmers, said its a serious issue. We all know the record of the government in keeping the data safe, he said. Despite the hurdles, a few one-year pro bono pilot programs are already underway. Microsoft has selected 100 villages to deploy AI and machine learning and build a platform. Amazon, which has already started offering real-time advice and information to farmers through a mobile app, is offering cloud services to solution providers. Representatives at the India offices of Microsoft and Amazon didnt respond to emails seeking comment. Star Agribazaar, whose co-founder Amit Mundawala calls the project a game changer, will collect data on agri land profiling, crop estimation, soil degradation and weather patterns. ESRI India is using geographic information system to generate data and create applications, according to Managing Director Agendra Kumar. Once you have the data, you can correlate with on-ground reality and improve your projections, take informed decisions and see which regions need policy intervention, said P.K. Joshi, former director for South Asia at Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute. A similar data-driven system implemented in the southern state of Karnataka last year helped increase efficiency in delivery of government benefits, said Rajeev Chawla, the states additional chief secretary. Some bank loans have even been made to farmers using the centralized data, and all government programs, verification for insurance and loans and minimum support price are being routed through the mechanism, plugging leakages and eliminating frauds, he said. Besides the tech giants, many smaller companies and startups are likely to join the program. When completed the project will form the core of a national digital agriculture ecosystem to help farmers realize better profitability with access to right information at the right time, and to facilitate better planning and execution of policies, according to the governments consultation paper on digital agriculture. How this exercise will translate into action or lead to higher production and farm income, that remains to be seen, said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings Ltd. (With assistance from Colum Murphy.) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister on Friday said that for a population of 135 crore, the nation needs more technology centres which need to be speedily constructed. He said this while virtually inaugurating a Technology Centre at Rohtak, Haryana. He added that the new technology developed in these centres should be taken to more and more people, for building a nation of entrepreneurs. "The technology developed in these centres will give a good impetus to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, during the tough times of the COVID-19 pandemic," he added. In a separate statement, the ministry said the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched the SPIN (Strengthening the Potential of India) scheme and set up a pottery cluster under SFURTI Scheme in Varanasi to empower over 1,100 people of the marginalised potters' community. Under SPIN, KVIC will facilitate potters to get easy loans from banks that will help the potters to diversify their activities and enhance their income. A Kashi Pottery Cluster was also started at Village Bhatti in Varanasi. The cluster, set up over an area of 7,100 square feet at the cost of Rs 2.50 crore, has provided direct employment to 340 pottery artisans. It is equipped with modern equipment like furnaces, electric potter wheels, blunger machines, pugmills and other modern equipment for the higher production of clay pottery. (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.) Rajiv Mehrishi, the former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has said the centre has held back a report he had submitted to the President of India, to end what he called a nightmare of accounts that militates against good governance. The report is still not in the public domain; for some reasons that I dont know it is not out for discussions, which disturbs me, he said, criticising the finance ministrys decision this year to set up a non-lapsable fund for defence modernisation. Such funds promote corruption, he said in a speech at a seminar this week. Mehrishi said he submitted the report under article 150 of the Indian Constitution to the President in April 2020, months before his term as ended in August 2020. As an example of his concerns, he claimed in several central government ministries 25 per cent of spending is classified as other expenditure. This means you really do not know where the money has gone, he said. Article 150 of the Constitution says: The accounts of the Union and of the States shall be kept in such form as the President may, on the advice of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, prescribe. Mehrishi said none of his predecessors in had offered such advice. We departed from that to give a detailed advisory to the President on how the form and manner of keeping public accounts should be. The CAG, as a constitutional figure, takes an apolitical stand in its reports. Mehrishi held high-profile posts in the Narendra Modi government. Before assuming charge as CAG, he was Indias home secretary for two years. Before that he was made the finance secretary in October 2014 in the first term of the government that came to power in May. While Mehrishi did not commit if his report (a detailed letter with annexes) criticised the governments subsequent decision to form a non-lapsable fund for capital expenditure in the defence sector, he made his objections clear while speaking at the CSEP-World Bank seminar, where the chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, NK Singh, was also present. "We need to be really careful with non-lapsable funds as they promote corruption and laziness in the ministries which receive this money, he said in an hour-long speech. While it is true that due to the interference by the courts and the lengthy standard operating procedures money often reaches the target late, non lapsable funds as a solution scares me. You cannot make a system and then continue to make exceptions. He said the trend could intensify after instituting such funds for North East and defence I do not know where it will go next. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in Lok Sabha (February 2021) in the course of the debate on Budget FY22: We have agreed, in-principle, to the 15th Finance Commissions recommendation for a non-lapsable defence fund. The modalities and the structure will be worked upon. The Commission had asked for the fund to bridge the gap between projected budgetary requirements and budget allocation for defence and internal security. This may be called Rashtriya Suraksha Naivedyam Kosh or any other appropriate name. Singh did not respond to the comments made by Mehrishi against the Finance Commissions proposals. Mehrishi, who was also chief secretary in the Rajasthan government under BJP chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, said a better option to reform government budgeting--to make them transparent and help intended beneficiaries--is to have a two-year rolling budget. There can be yearly reviews of the allocations, he said. Here too he suggested caution based on the audit reports. He also took on the trend in state governments for allegedly not reconciling thousands of crores of rupees given out as "temporary advances for decades. Money given by the Centre for MGNREGA, he claimed, is booked by different states through different departments which makes it difficult to know what you are spending money on. About government accounts, he said: What deeply disturbs me is that we are an allocative regime. We just imagine if we can announce an allocation for a problem, it will be solved. Offering various examples like that of the National Health Mission he said just raising the budget for health and education will not solve the problems of lack of health care or poor educational outcomes. He has instead suggested government accounts use an end-to-end enterprise-based IT system that tracks and traces all expenditure and revenue so that Parliament gets a clear picture. While the former did not say if the current efforts at the Centre to upload all government data on the computerised PFMS will help in this direction, he said the note to the President has outlined a law based on the USA Data Accountability Standards Law to make it possible. The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in will get an impetus with the state cabinet approving rules to provide a legal framework for their operations, with effective mechanisms to mitigate the problem of delayed payments to such enterprises. The Cabinet, in a virtual meeting on Friday under chairmanship of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, okayed the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Councils Rules, 2021 under Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006, to facilitate promotion, development and competitiveness of These rules provide the first-ever legal framework for recognition of the concept of "enterprise" (comprising both manufacturing and services), and integrating the three tiers of these enterprises, namely micro, small and medium, an official statement said. Apart from clearer and more progressive classification of each category of enterprises, particularly the small ones, the Act provides for a statutory consultative mechanism at the national level, with wide representation of all sections of stakeholders and with a wide range of advisory functions. One of the salient features of the Act is that it provides an effective mechanism for mitigating the problems of delayed payments of micro and small enterprises, the statement said. With a view to eliminating the pendency of Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and rape cases, the Cabinet also approved the setting up of 9 fast track special courts with the creation of 117 posts for the same. These nine fast track special courts would be set up in Amritsar, Bathinda, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Mansa, Moga, Patiala and S.A.S. Nagar. To facilitate quick and effective implementation of mission "Lal Lakir", the cabinet decided to cut down by half the time for filing objections prepared under the Svamitva scheme - from the existing 90 to 45 days. Earlier in February this year, the cabinet had approved implementation of mission "Lal Lakir" aimed at facilitating villagers to monetise property rights and availing benefits provided by government departments, institutions and banks in all villages across the state. Fulfilling his government's universal healthcare poll promise, the chief minister announced free insurance cover for the 15 lakh families who were earlier not included in the ambit of the Ayushman Bharat-Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana (AB-SSBY). The chief minister announced his decision at the cabinet meeting, where the health department had proposed bringing these families into the government schemes cover on a co-sharing basis, which would have required the beneficiaries to pay for part of the expense. However, Amarinder suggested making the insurance cover for these families also completely free in line with his government's promise of universal healthcare for the people of Barring the families of government employees/pensioners, who were already covered under Punjab Medical Attendance Rules, all the remaining nearly 55 lakh families in the state will now come under the ambit of this scheme. The state government will now be bearing a total cost of Rs 593 crore per annum to cover 55 lakh families to provide insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family for secondary and tertiary care treatments in empanelled public and private hospitals. Further, fulfilling a pending demand of terrorism/riot affected families and Kashmiri migrants, the Cabinet also gave approval to enhancing their subsistence allowance. While subsistence allowance of terrorists/riot affected families has been hiked from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per month, financial assistance being given to Kashmiri migrants as ration money has been increased from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 per month per family. This move would benefit 5,100 terrorists/riot affected families and 200 Kashmiri migrants with an annual outlay of Rs 6.16 crore, the statement said. The financial assistance of terrorists/riot affected families was earlier increased in 2012 and for Kashmiri migrants, it was hiked in 2005. In another decision, to strengthen industry-oriented teaching, skill training and research in the state, the cabinet approved the establishment of private self-financed 'Lamrin Tech Skills University' at Railmajra in Balachaur (SBS Nagar). It will have an annual intake of 1000-1100 students when the campus is fully established. The Punjab government has made it mandatory to reserve 15 per cent seats exclusively for students from Punjab in the upcoming University. The Cabinet also accorded its approval for the establishment of private self-financed 'Plaksha University' in Mohali's IT city. The cabinet also approved the Punjab Custom Milling Policy for Kharif 2021-22, for conversion of paddy procured by state procurement agencies (Pungrain, Markfed, Punsup) into custom milled rice and its delivery into the central pool. (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.) Anyone can be a banker these days, you just need the right code. Global brands from Mercedes and to IKEA and are cutting out the traditional financial middleman and plugging in software from tech startups to offer customers everything from banking and credit to insurance. For established financial institutions, the warning signs are flashing. So-called embedded - a fancy term for companies integrating software to offer financial services - means can let customers "buy now pay later" when they check out and Mercedes drivers can get their cars to pay for their fuel. To be sure, are still behind most of the transactions but investors and analysts say the risk for traditional lenders is that they will get pushed further away from the front end of the chain. And that means they'll be further away from the mountains of data others are hoovering up about the preferences and behaviours of their customers - data that could be crucial in giving them an edge over in financial services. "Embedded financial services takes the cross-sell concept to new heights. It's predicated on a deep software-based ongoing data relationship with the consumer and business," said Matt Harris, a partner at investor Bain Capital Ventures. "That is why this revolution is so important," he said. "It means that all the good risk is going to go to these embedded companies that know so much about their customers and what is left over will go to and insurance companies." WHERE DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? For now, many areas of embedded are barely denting the dominance of banks and even though some upstarts have licences to offer regulated services such as lending, they lack the scale and deep funding pools of the biggest banks. But if financial technology firms, or fintechs, can match their success in grabbing a chunk of digital payments from banks - and boosting their valuations in the process - lenders may have to respond, analysts say. Stripe, for example, the payments platform behind many sites with clients including and Alphabet's Google, was valued at $95 billion in March. Accenture estimated in 2019 that new entrants to the payments market had amassed 8% of revenues globally - and that share has risen over the past year as the pandemic boosted digital payments and hit traditional payments, Alan McIntyre, senior director at Accenture, said. Now the focus is turning to lending, as well as complete off-the-shelf digital lenders with a variety of products businesses can pick and choose to embed in their processes. "The vast majority of consumer centric companies will be able to launch financial products that will allow them to significantly improve their customer experience," said Luca Bocchio, partner at venture capital firm Accel. "That is why we feel excited about this space." So far this year, investors have poured $4.25 billion into embedded finance startups, almost three times the amount in 2020, data provided to Reuters by PitchBook shows. Leading the way is Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) firm Klarna which raised $1.9 billion. DriveWealth, which sells technology allowing companies to offer fractional share trading, attracted $459 million while investors put $229 million into Solarisbank, a licensed German digital bank which offers an array of banking services software. Shares in Affirm, meanwhile, surged last month when it teamed up with Amazon to offer BNPL products while rival U.S. Square said last month it was buying Australian BNPL firm Afterpay for $29 billion. Square is now worth $113 billion, more than Europe's most valuable bank, HSBC, on $105 billion. "Big banks and insurers will lose out if they don't act quickly and work out where to play in this market," said Simon Torrance, founder of Embedded Finance & Super App Strategies. YOU NEED A LOAN! Several other retailers have announced plans this year to expand in financial services. launched a startup with investment firm Ribbit Capital in January to develop financial products for its employees and customers while IKEA took a minority stake in BNPL firm Jifiti last month. Automakers such as Volkswagen's Audi and Tata's Jaguar Land Rover have experimented with embedding payment technology in their vehicles to take the hassle out of paying, besides Daimler's Mercedes. "Customers expect services, including financial services, to be directly integrated at the point of consumption, and to be convenient, digital, and immediately accessible," said Roland Folz, chief executive of Solarisbank which provides banking services to more than 50 companies including Samsung. It's not just end consumers being targeted by embedded finance startups. Businesses themselves are being tapped on the shoulder as their digital data is crunched by fintechs such as Canada's Shopify. It provides software for merchants and its Shopify Capital division also offers cash advances, based on an analysis of more than 70 million data points across its platform. "No merchant comes to us and says, I would like a loan. We go to merchants and say, we think it's time for funding for you," said Kaz Nejatian, vice president, product, merchant services at Shopify. "We don't ask for business plans, we don't ask for tax statements, we don't ask for income statements, and we don't ask for personal guarantees. Not because we are benevolent but because we think those are bad signals into the odds of success on the internet," he said. A Shopify spokesperson said funding goes from $200 to $2 million. It has provided $2.3 billion in cumulative capital advances and is valued at $184 billion, well above Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest traditional lender. CONNECTED FUTURE? Shopify's lending business is, however, still dwarfed by the big banks. JPMorgan Chase & Co, for example, had a consumer and community loan book worth $435 billion at the end of June. Major advances into finance by companies from other sectors could also be limited by regulators. Officials from the Bank for International Settlements, a consortium of central banks and financial regulators, warned watchdogs last month to get to grips with the growing influence of technology firms in finance. Bain's Harris said financial regulators were taking the approach that because they don't know how to regulate tech firms they are insisting there's a bank behind every transaction - but that did not mean banks would prevent fintechs encroaching. "They are right that the banks will always have a role but it's not a very remunerative role and it involves very little ownership of the customer," he said. Forrester analyst Jacob Morgan said banks had to decide where they want to be in the finance chain. "Can they afford to fight for customer primacy, or do they actually see a more profitable route to market to become the rails that other people run on top of?" he said. "Some banks will choose to do both." And some are already fighting back. Citigroup has teamed up with Google on bank accounts, Goldman Sachs is providing credit cards for Apple and JPMorgan is buying 75% of Volkswagen's payments business and plans to expand to other industries. 06:00:00 "Connectivity between different systems is the future," said Shahrokh Moinian, head of wholesale payments, EMEA, at JPMorgan. "We want to be the leader." (Reporting by Anna Irrera and Iain Withers; Editing by Rachel Armstrong and David Clarke) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The new trilateral security alliance AUKUS is not about any one country but aimed at advancing the strategic interests of the US, Britain and and upholding the rules-based order while promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, the White House has said. The US, Britain and on Wednesday announced the AUKUS alliance for the Indo-Pacific to take on the threats of the 21st century and allow for greater sharing of defence capabilities, including help acquire nuclear-powered submarines, in a bid to counter China's growing power in the strategically vital region. Unveiling the ambitious security initiative virtually, US President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in a joint statement said their move will promote stability in the Indo-Pacific and support of their shared values and interests. "This partnership announced yesterday is not about any one country. This is about advancing our strategic interests, the strategic interest of the United States, upholding the rules-based order, and promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily news conference on Thursday. Psaki was responding to a question on the Chinese reaction to the alliance. on Thursday sharply criticised the trilateral alliance, saying such grouping has no future and will gravely undermine regional stability and aggravate the arms race and hurt non-proliferation efforts. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: To form an exclusive and closed clique or small group goes against the trend of the times and the aspiration of regional countries. The relevant countries should abandon the obsolete Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical concept, respect regional people's aspirations and do more things conducive to regional peace, stability and development, Zhao said. I would note that the United Kingdom and Australia also have a long history as the of upholding the international rules-based order, Psaki said. So, our hope is that the three countries who have consistently worked with regional supporters to support a secure and stable, and peaceful Indo-Pacific can now work together to do exactly that. As it relates to China, we welcome stiff competition with the PRC (People's Republic of China), she said. We do not seek conflict. Obviously, the president spoke with President Xi just a few days ago, and certainly, we are committed to maintaining an open high-level dialogue between the leaders, Psaki said. France, an ally of the United States, has also expressed its outrage at the AUKUS alliance. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reportedly expressed total incomprehension at the announcement of the initiative, terming it really a stab in the back and an initiative that looks a lot like what Trump did. I would first say that we value our relationship and our partnership with France on a variety of issues facing the global community, whether it's economic growth or whether it's the fight against COVID, or addressing security throughout the world. That has been a longstanding partnership for many, many years, Psaki said. France will lose a nearly USD 100 billion deal to build diesel submarines for Australia under the terms of the new AUKUS initiative, which will see the US and help Australia construct nuclear-powered ones. I would leave it, of course, to our Australian partners to describe why they sought this new technology, and why they pursued this technology from the As you know, part of their issue is that there was a purchase of technology that Australia had made with the French, but we'll let Australia speak to that and why they or why they purchased this technology, Psaki said. We cooperate closely with France. As the president said yesterday, we have a range of shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific, and that will certainly continue. We don't see this from our end as a regional divide. We see these as areas and security issues that we want to take on together, Psaki said. Responding to a question, Psaki said that the government's focus is on what steps it can take to increase security in the Indo-Pacific. There is a range of countries that could pose a threat and we'll let an outside analysis give their analysis, she said. The announcement of AUKUS has come a week before a meeting of Quad leaders to be hosted by US President Biden in Washington on September 24. The meeting will also be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia Morrison and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga. The evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of China's increasing military muscle-flexing has become a major talking point among leading global powers. The US has been favouring making Quad a security architecture to check China's growing assertiveness. In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence. Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South Sea as its sovereign territory. has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. China has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Both maritime areas in the South and East China seas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are also vital to global trade. (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.) Prime Minister on Friday rejected Chinese criticism of Australia's new nuclear submarine alliance with the United States and said he doesn't mind that President Joe Biden might have forgotten his name. reacted angrily when Biden, Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a virtual news conference this week to announce a trilateral defense alliance that will provide with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said it was highly irresponsible for the U.S. and Britain to export the nuclear technology. Morrison said wanted to boost peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Everything we've done with the United States is consistent with the partnerships and relationships and alliances we've already had with the United States, Morrison told Radio 3AW. News of the alliance received a positive response in Singapore. The island-state's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Morrison in a phone call he hoped the nuclear deal would contribute constructively to the peace and stability of the region and complement the regional architecture, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. French leaders have been scathing of the deal that scuppers a contract with France to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines for Observers say Biden appeared to have forgotten Morrison's name during Thursday's news conference, which was televised from three countries. The president referred to the Australian as pal" and that fellow Down Under. Biden didn't use Morrison's name, while he referred to Johnson as Boris. It reminded Australians of when then-President Donald Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer repeatedly referred to Morrison's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, in 2017 as Mr Trumble. Morrison laughed off what some have described as an awkward exchange with Biden that undermined Australia's significance to the United States. Usually when we speak privately, he refers to me as pal,' Morrison told the Seven Network. Morrison said he and the president enjoyed a great working relationship. Oh, I didn't pay much attention to it. I mean, these things happen. They happen frequently, Morrison told Nine Network. From time to time, you know, I've been known to let the odd name slip from my memory that's pretty normal in our line of work, I've got to be honest, he added. Morrison said he referred to Biden as Mr. President or mate in private conversations. Morrison will visit the United States next week for the first time since Biden became president. The pair will be joined by the leaders of India and Japan for a meeting of the Quad security dialogue. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) has applied to join an trade pact once pushed by the U.S. as a way to isolate and solidify American dominance in the region. submitted a formal application letter to join the deal, known officially as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to a statement late Thursday in The treaty was originally envisioned by the U.S. as an economic bloc to counterbalance Chinas growing power, with then-President Barack Obama saying in 2016 that the U.S., not China, should write the regional rules of trade. His successor Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2017, with Japan leading the revised and renamed pact to a successful conclusion the following year. The application is certain to spark a reaction from Washington, where a number of lawmakers had already expressed concern about Chinas efforts to join. There have been no signs from the administration of President Joe Biden that its interested in rejoining the deal. The application is the result of months of behind-the-scenes discussions after President Xi Jinping said in 2020 the nation was interested in joining. is the second country to apply to join the 11-nation deal, after the U.K. asked to become a member earlier this year. Its a perfectly rational calculation by the Chinese leadership, said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Centre for Political in Brussels. Given how the Chinese market is driving the economic recovery, their cards will never be this strong again. Or rather, the cost of rejecting Chinas application will never be this high. Diplomatic Disputes The application underlines the increasingly complicated geopolitical situation in Asia, where China is the dominant and main trading partner for many, but competition with the U.S. is getting worse. Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan are CPTPP members and close allies of the U.S., but along with China theyre also members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which was successfully negotiated last year. Military and diplomatic tensions between China and Japan, the largest in CPTPP, have been increasing due to Chinas increased military presence around islands that both nations claim as their own, Chinese threats to Taiwan, and other factors. Regarding Chinas application, Japan must look properly at whether it is ready to reach the high level of TPP, Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu said in Tokyo Friday. We will confer with other member countries and deal with this, taking into account strategic issues, he said, adding that the U.K.s application would be dealt with first. Taiwan had also expressed interest in joining CPTPP and had been talking with members of the group, with some Japanese ruling party lawmakers last month supporting Taiwans entry. However, the Chinese application will complicate that as opposes Taiwan joining any organization or group. Taiwan will continue to talk to the members and will apply when there is consensus, the islands Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua told reporters Friday in Taipei. Chinas surprised the CPTPP members with its sudden bid, according to Wang, who said there were concerns whether China could meet the deals high standards. Tensions with Australia The bid from China to join CPTPP was made less than a day after Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. announced they would form a more cohesive defense arrangement to offset Chinas rising military prowess. China attacked that agreement, but it will now need to negotiate with Australia and probably the U.K. about CPTPP accession. Any talks wont be simple -- China and Australia are already in the midst of an economic and trade dispute, which has seen Beijing apply tariffs or block billions of dollars of Australian exports, despite the two nations having a free-trade agreement. Still, China last week publicly lobbied Canberra for its support to join the deal. Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said Friday that all 11 member nations would need to be in agreement for negotiations to start, and pointedly noted China would have to talk directly to the other nations. Australia ministers havent talked to their Chinese counterparts since early last year, and Tehan is still waiting for a response to a letter he sent Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in January. After Chinas application was submitted, Wang had a follow-up call with his counterpart Damien OConnor of New Zealand, which is the depositary nation for the agreement. China will, according to procedures of CPTPP, engage in necessary consultations with members, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing. On the basis of the conclusion of RCEP, Chinas accession to CPTPP will be beneficial to the regional economic integration process. Canada is another CPTPP member thats in a dispute with China, with one Canadian citizen jailed for 11 years and another still awaiting sentencing in cases that are seen as linked to the arrest in Canada of the daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies Co. A number of members of Congress have been calling for the U.S. to either rejoin the CPTPP or to be more active on trade diplomacy in the region. However, the Biden administration hasnt announced any concrete trade policies for the region, although there are reports its discussing a digital covering economies. The future of technology, trade and defense is either going to be led by the Chinese Communist Party or by the United States and our allies, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse said in response to the news. If China sees the value in building alliances across the Pacific, why cant the United States? Lets get back into a position of leadership instead of retreat. Trade Rules A former U.S. trade official said Chinas membership in the group isnt assured given its trade regime and direction toward more central control of its economy. Its extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see how they could embrace the CPTPP rules governing state-owned enterprises, labor, e-commerce, the free flow of data, among others, as well as comprehensive market access commitments, said Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former acting deputy U.S. Trade Representative. Japanese Finance Minister Aso Taro also expressed doubt that China could meet the requirements. Is China in a state where it can join? Aso asked Friday in Tokyo. From the perspective of the 11 nations that will be accepting new members, right now were just at the point of asking are we going to do this? Really? Others were more confident China will be successful. In the long term, they will be able to work out some of the differences, especially as these countries realize that China is going to be the biggest market for them and the U.S. is not going to join anytime soon, said Henry Gao, associate professor of Law at Singapore Management University, who has written extensively on Chinese law and the World Trade Organization. But it wont happen anytime soon, he said, as the accession process would probably drag on for a couple of years. The U.K. applied to join first and is seeking to conclude talks to join by the end of 2022, the former British trade secretary said in August. The CPTPP ranks third among the largest free-trade agreements behind the $26 trillion Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the $21.1 trillion U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Chinas addition to the CPTPP would make it the most valuable free-trade agreement ever signed. The 11 signatories of the CPTTP have combined economic value worth about $13.5 trillion, or about 13% of global gross domestic product. BEIJING (Reuters) - has filed an application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the commerce ministry said, as the world's second-biggest looks to bolster its clout in Commerce Minister Wang Wentao submitted China's application to join the free agreement in a letter to New Zealand's minister, Damien O'Connor, the Chinese ministry said in a statement late on Thursday. The CPTPP was signed by 11 countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and New Zealand in 2018. Before that, it was known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and seen as an important economic counterweight to China's regional influence. Japan, the CPTPP's chair this year, said it will consult with member countries to respond to China's request, but stopped short of signalling a timeline for doing so. "Japan believes that it's necessary to determine whether China, which submitted a request to join the TPP-11, is ready to meet its extremely high standards," Japanese Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters on Friday. The TPP was central to former U.S. President Barack Obama's strategic pivot to Asia but his successor, Donald Trump, withdrew the United States from the pact in 2017. Accession to the CPTPP would be a major boost for following the signing of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade agreement last year. Beijing has lobbied https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-lobbies-australia-parliament-joining-regional-trade-pact-2021-09-10 for its inclusion in the pact, including by highlighting that the Chinese and Australian economies have enormous potential for cooperation. However, relations between the two countries have soured. Britain in June began negotiations to enter the trade pact, while Thailand has also signalled interest in joining it. Wang and O'Connor held a telephone conference to discuss the next steps following China's application, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said. (Reporting by Colin Qian, Twinnie Siu and Tom Daly in BEIJING, Daniel Leussink in TOKYO; Editing by Edmund Blair, Jonathan Oatis and Himani Sarkar) (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.) injected more cash into its banking system in a sign authorities are seeking to avert a funding squeeze amid a seasonal rise in financing demand and the intensifying debt crisis at Evergrande. The Peoples Bank of added 90 billion yuan ($14 billion) of funds on a net basis through seven-day and 14-day reverse repurchase agreements on Friday, the most since February. Today was the first time this month it added more than 10 billion yuan short-term liquidity into the banking system on a single day. The move comes as the trouble facing China Evergrande Group fuels investor concern over the health of and credit markets. Adding to the stress is a seasonal spike in demand for cash as banks are hesitant to lend toward the end of the quarter ahead of regulatory checks. Liquidity also tends to diminish at this time of year ahead of a one-week holiday at the start of October. Avoiding a systemic liquidity squeeze is the absolute priority for the PBOC and it has means to do so, Societe Generale SA economists led by Wei Yao wrote in a research note. A Lehman-style financial-market meltdown is not our top concern, but an extended and severe economic slowdown seems more probable. Still, the PBOCs operations have yet to push money-market rates lower. The seven-day repo rate, an indicator for interbank borrowing costs, jumped 14 basis points Friday to 2.4%, the highest since June 30. Disquiet over Evergrande comes at a time when Chinas economy is already slowing. Strict movement controls put in place to curb Covid-19 outbreaks have hurt retail spending and travel, while steps to cool property prices have also taken their toll. On Wednesday, the country reported a sharper-than-expected slowdown in retail sales in August, along with weaker growth in industrial production and fixed-asset investment. The PBOC is seeking to strike a balance between stimulating the economy and making sure its cash injections dont result in asset bubbles. Since July, it refrained from adding additional medium-term liquidity as policy loans come due. On Friday, the central bank injected 50 billion yuan through its seven-day reverse repos, and another 50 billion yuan via 14-day contracts, which havent been used since February. Some 10 billion yuan came due Friday. Its fair to say that the Evergrande situation and its repercussions on the broader property market will have a far greater direct impact on Chinese growth than any of the other regulatory crackdowns, said Alvin Tan, head of Asia foreign-exchange strategy at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. I would not be surprised that the PBOC is acting to contain the fallout in the money markets. The uncertainty over Evergrande is spurring China watchers to game out potential worst-case scenarios as they contemplate how much pain the Communist Party is willing to tolerate. Pressure to intervene is growing as signs of financial contagion increase. Numerous industries could be exposed to credit risks if Evergrande was to default, Fitch Ratings warned. It said smaller banks and vulnerable developers would be hurt the most. With more than $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrandes liquidity stress is stoking worries over the broader Chinese property industry. Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs slashed forecasts for the industry citing the potential of an Evergrande default to roil its suppliers, other developers and financial markets. Much hinges on how big the real-world impact winds up being on the wider property sector, which is key to the Chinese economy. Risks are growing that consumers could retrench further as the company falls behind on promised construction work and faces repayments on wealth management products sold to individuals. Senior officials from China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran agreed on Thursday to step up communication and coordination on the Afghan issue. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Assistant to Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Rasoul Mousavi reached the consensus at an informal meeting on in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, Xinhua news agency reported. Wang said that it is necessary for the four countries to strengthen communication and coordination, make unanimous voices, exert positive influence, and play a constructive role in stabilizing the situation in Countries in the region expect the new Afghan government to be inclusive, anti-terrorist, and friendly to neighbors, he stressed. --IANS int/shs (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 Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigrid Kaag has resigned for her role in the evacuation of local embassy staff from Kaag on Thursday announced her decision after a motion of disapproval against her was passed by a majority of parliament, Xinhua news agency reported. "The House judges that the cabinet has acted irresponsibly," Kaag said. "Although I stand by our commitment, I can only accept the consequences of this judgment as the Minister with ultimate responsibility." The parliament held Kaag responsible for not picking up signals from the parliament and from embassy staff in that an emergency situation was about to arrive. As a result not everyone could be evacuated in time and local embassy personnel ran into "serious danger", according to the majority of the parliament. There was also a lot of irritation about the late and incomplete provision of information to the parliament. Officially, a minister does not have to resign following a motion of disapproval. The motion of disapproval against Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld also obtained a majority. But Bijleveld had already announced that she would remain as Defence Minister regardless of the vote, noting that "my priority is still to bring everyone who is still in to safety." --IANS int/shs (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.) Official election campaigning started Friday for the next head of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party. The winner will almost certainly become leader of the world's No. 3 economy, shaping key political, military and security roles in the region. Two men and, unusually for Japan, two women are competing in the Sept. 29 vote to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Their policies focus on anti-coronavirus measures, an economy hobbled by the pandemic and how to deal with, from Tokyo's perspective, China's increasingly menacing role in regional affairs. The Associated Press explains who these politicians are, their policies and the importance of the election for both and Asia. ___ THE CANDIDATES TARO KONO: Considered something of a maverick in Japan's largely conservative political culture, he is the minister in charge of vaccinations and a front runner in the election. Kono, 58, is a fluent English speaker who graduated from Georgetown University. He is an avid Twitter user, with many young fans, a rarity in a Japanese political world dominated by elderly men. A liberal on social issues, Kono supports same sex marriage and advancing the role of women. Having served as foreign and defense minister, Kono says he will work with countries that share democratic values to counter China's growing assertiveness in regional seas. He stressed his achievements in speeding up Japan's delayed vaccinations, portraying himself as a leader who gets things done by tearing down bureaucratic barriers if necessary. Suga announced his support for Kono, praising his achievement in speeding up vaccinations. He is backed by other popular reformists and is seen as a rival to supporters of former arch-conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. FUMIO KISHIDA: The 64-year old former foreign minister was once seen as an indecisive moderate. Of late, however, he has shifted to a security and diplomatic hawk as he seeks support from influential conservatives like Abe. Kishida calls for a further increase of Japan's defense capability and budget and vows to stand up to China in tensions in the Taiwan Strait and Beijing's crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong. On the economy, Kishida calls for a new capitalism of growth and distribution to narrow income gaps between the rich and the poor that have been worsened by the pandemic. He pledges to promote clean energy technology to turn climate change measures into growth and proposes a hefty economic recovery package. SEIKO NODA: A longtime hopeful to become Japan's first female leader, she is entering the race for the first time at age 61. She has served as postal, internal affairs and gender equality ministers. Noda, who has long sought to address the country's declining birth rates, had her first child at age 50 after fertility treatment. Japan's rapidly shrinking population is a serious national security risk because won't have enough troops or police in coming decades, she said. She supports same-sex marriage and acceptance of sexual diversity, as well as a legal change to allow separate surnames for married couples, and has campaigned for a quota system to increase the number of female lawmakers. Noda, a late entry in the race, said she is running for the weak and to achieve diversity a goal that other candidates did not highlight. SANAE TAKAICHI: An ultra-conservative former internal affairs minister, Takaichi, 60, shares Abe's revisionist views on Japan's wartime atrocities and hawkish stance on security. She regularly visits the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines war criminals among the war dead and is viewed by China and the Koreas as proof of Japan's lack of remorse. Her security policies include developing a preemptive strike capability to counter threats from China and North Korea. Takaichi introduced a Sanaenomics policy of big government spending similar to Abe's signature economics policy. A drummer in a heavy-metal band and a motorbike rider as a student, she favors traditional gender roles and a paternalistic family system and staunchly supports the imperial family's male-only succession. ___ WHAT THE ELECTION MEANS FOR JAPAN The sudden resignation of Suga, who was chief cabinet secretary for Abe for nearly eight years before rising to prime minister last year, means a possible end to an era that saw unusual political stability even amid corruption scandals and strained ties with China and the Koreas. The upcoming election will determine whether Japan's governing party can move out of Abe's shadow, said Masato Kamikubo, professor of policy science at Ritsumeikan University. Little change, however, is expected in Japan's diplomatic and security policies whoever becomes prime minister, he said. Support ratings for Suga and his government nosedived because of his handling of the virus and insistence on hosting the Olympics during the pandemic. The ruling LDP is hoping that a new face in leadership can rally public support ahead of lower house elections that must be held by late November, says Tetsuo Suzuki, a political journalist and commentator. But, with Suga's term ending after only one year, there are fears of a return to Japan's revolving door of short-lived prime ministers. ___ HOW THE ELECTION WORKS The campaign is only for Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers in the parliament and grassroots members, not the general public. Whoever wins will likely become the next prime minister in a parliamentary vote, expected in early October, because the LDP and its coalition partner hold the majority in both houses. If no one gets a majority in the Sept. 29 ballot, a winner will be determined in a runoff, which will likely be influenced by a power struggle among party heavyweights that political watchers say could work in favor of Kishida. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Andrea Shalal and Leigh Thomas WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) -The Monetary Fund's executive board is reviewing a report prepared for the that found that chief in her previous senior role at the pressured staff to change data to favor China, the said on Friday. Georgieva has said she disagrees "fundamentally with the findings and interpretations" https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/world-bank-kills-business-climate-report-after-ethics-probe-cites-undue-pressure-2021-09-16 of the independent report, prepared by the law firm WilmerHale at the request of the World Bank's ethics committee and issued on Thursday. The report found that Georgieva and other officials applied "undue pressure" on staff https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/world-bank-kills-business-climate-report-after-ethics-probe-cites-undue-pressure-2021-09-16 to boost China's ranking in the bank's "Doing Business 2018" report on nations' business regulations. The review was launched after Georgieva briefed the board on the issue on Thursday. "The IMF board is currently reviewing this matter," IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told Reuters. "As part of the regular procedure in such matters, the ethics committee will report to the board," Rice said, but gave no time table. Georgieva addressed the issue at the start of a previously scheduled town hall-style meeting with IMF staff on Friday, according to three people who participated in the virtual event and a fourth who was briefed on her remarks. 'NOT TRUE' She said she highly values data and analysis and does not pressure staff to change data as the report found, according to a transcript provided to Reuters. "Let me put it very simply to you. Not true. Neither in this case, nor before or after, I have put pressure on staff to manipulate data," Georgieva told IMF staff, according to the transcript. The Washington-based multilateral lender was seeking China's support for a big capital increase at the time. Georgieva at the time served as the World Bank's chief executive. Georgieva has led the IMF and its roughly 2,500 staff since 2019. She has helped lead the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic while securing support of a $650 billion expansion of IMF emergency reserves. Some of the IMF's 190 member countries, which fund its lending and other projects aimed at alleviating poverty and bolstering global financial stability, said they are reviewing the ethics report as well. The U.S. Treasury Department, which manages the dominant U.S. shareholdings in the IMF and the World Bank, said it is analyzing the report's "serious findings." "It's a serious subject. The independent report is not a judgment and the IMF's ethics committee and board must study the report, listen to the managing director and present its conclusions," a French ministry source said. "It's on this basis that France will be able to fully evaluate the situation," the source added. Britain is committed to the good governance of the World Bank Group and is considering the investigation's findings, a government spokesperson said. Officials from Japan, another key donor to both institutions, are talking to counterparts in other countries about the findings, a government source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The World Bank said on Thursday it would cancel the "Doing Business" report series, which has run since 2003, dismaying investors who rely on it to help them assess country risk. The news and any fallout is likely to dominate the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, which occur concurrently in Washington the second week of October. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Leigh Thomas in Paris; Additional reporting by David Lawder; Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Catherine Evans, Will Dunham and Heather Timmons) (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.) Top Republican lawmakers have demanded that the be designated as a organisation, arguing that the government led by the hardline group in has several cabinet members who are UN designated terrorists. The lawmakers have also sought sanctions against the countries that recognise the government led by the in Senators Marco Rubio, Tommy Tuberville, Moore Capito, Dan Sullivan, Thom Tillis and Cynthia Lummis have introduced the Preventing Recognition of States Act, which would direct the US Secretary of State to designate the illegitimate Islamic Emirate of as a state sponsor of terrorism and the as a organisation. The bill, if passed by the Congress and signed into law, would also impose sanctions against foreign individuals who knowingly provide assistance to the Taliban and require a report, within six months, from the US Department of State that determines whether the Taliban should be designated as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The legislation would also require the US government to ensure that taxpayers' dollars do not go to foreign terrorist organisations in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan poses a direct threat to our national security interests and that of our allies and partners both in the Middle East and in Central Asia, Rubio said. Following the Biden Administration's disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country is already becoming a safe haven for terrorists who hate America. Unfortunately, there is no reason to think President Biden will treat the Taliban like the terrorists they are. Congress must take action to deal with this new reality and keep Americans safe, he said. Four Senators Joni Ernst, Rick Scott, Dan Sullivan and Tommy Tuberville in a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken demanded that Taliban be designated as a terrorist organisation. We believe the Taliban easily meets all three criteria and urge you to consider designating the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organisation and treating them as such to the maximum extent of the law, they said. The Taliban appointed Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network and a known terrorist wanted by the FBI for the murder of American citizens, as Interior Minister and allowed terror organisations to join the government, they wrote. Given their history of supporting terror attacks on the United States, their brutal style of governance, their continued display of atrocities against Americans and our allies, and now, their enhanced military capability, the current version of the Taliban government presents a significant threat to the "Further, the Taliban display the will and the means to attack Americans and American interests, the senators wrote. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, ousting the previous elected leadership which was backed by the West. The interim Cabinet announced by the Taliban consists of high-profile members of the insurgent group. Several world leaders have announced they would see whether the Taliban fulfils its promises to the community on issues like an inclusive Afghan government and human rights before giving their regime diplomatic recognition. Senator Tellis said the Taliban is a terrorist organisation with a long history of oppressing and murdering Afghans and providing safe haven to the same al-Qaeda terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks. It is shocking that the White House would even consider giving foreign aid to the Taliban. This legislation would prevent that from happening, appropriately designating the Taliban as a terrorist organization, he said. The Taliban have a long record of human rights violations and terrorist actions, said Lummis. We must not exacerbate the Biden administration's failure in Afghanistan by legitimizing the Taliban's government. We should call the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan what it is: a state sponsor of terror run by a terrorist organisation, he said. In an interview to Fox News, Senator Lindsay Graham also demanded that the Taliban be designated as a terrorist outfit. If we designate them as a foreign terrorist organization under US law, which they should be, the Haqqani Network is a foreign terrorist organization, the Pakistan Taliban under our law are a foreign terrorist organization, he said. Why would not the Taliban in Afghanistan be a foreign terrorist organization, because they're a bunch of damn terrorists. So, if I have our way, they will be designated a foreign terrorist organization, we cannot legally give them a dime, we will isolate them, we will come after any country who empowers the Taliban, he said. And I want to tell every country out there, if you give these guys money, you're giving people money who have American blood on their hands and led to the first 9/11 and God allow the second 9/11. So, you're going to have a real problem with the US Congress if you legitimize the Taliban, he said. At least 14 members of the Taliban's interim government are on the UN Security Council's terrorism blacklist, including acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan and his both deputies. The Taliban had promised an "inclusive" government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup, but there is no Hazara member in the Cabinet. No woman has been named in the interim Cabinet. (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.) Corp. sold about $1.69 billion worth of its stake in Coupang Inc., the South Korean e-commerce giant whose stock surged and then tumbled after its initial public offering in March. SoftBank sold 57 million shares at $29.685 on Sept. 14, the company said in a statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Japanese company is still Coupangs largest shareholder. Masayoshi Son has stepped up sales of stakes in his portfolio of public in recent months, funneling the cash into more investments in technology startups. SoftBank sold roughly $14 billion worth of listed stocks last quarter, nearly triple the amount in the previous period. The selloff includes shares in some of Sons biggest IPO hits like DoorDash Inc. and Chinese online property platform KE Holdings Inc. Coupangs March debut contributed $24.5 billion to SoftBanks profit in that quarter, marking Sons best return since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.s listing in 2014. But the shares have dropped about 16% below the $35 IPO price since, forcing SoftBank to book a $4.3 billion unrealized loss in the three months ended June. SoftBank rose less than 1% to 6,591 yen in Tokyo on Friday. Coupang closed at $29.41 in U.S. the previous day. South Africa's top court on Friday rejected former president Jacob Zuma's application to rescind his 15-month-jail sentence for contempt of court. Zuma handed himself over in July after the Constitutional Court found him to be in contempt of court for repeatedly refusing to return to the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, where several witnesses have given details of his alleged role in a number of issues relating to the looting of state departments and parastatal organisations. In a majority judgement of the Constitutional Court, Judge Sisi Khampepe dismissed 79-year-old Zuma's application of rescission with costs. Commenting on Zuma's conduct, Khampepe said that he had wilfully refused to participate in litigation and then reopened the case when it suited him. The majority emphatically reject any suggestion that litigants can be allowed to butcher of their own will judicial process which in all respects has been carried out with the utmost degree of regularity, only later to plead the absent victim, Khampepe said. The former president started his sentence on July 7 this year and was granted a controversial medical parole barely a month later. The parole is being challenged by several institutions after it was found that the parole had been granted by a senior official of the Department of Correctional Services who had been appointed by Zuma during his tenure as president, and not by the Parole Board. Zuma remains in hospital as details of his medical condition remain secret. Zuma had earlier argued that he had not been granted a fair hearing because of his absence, but had not provided reasons to the court when it had offered him the opportunity to do so in mitigation of sentence. Elected absence, like that of Mr Zuma, constitutes more than litigious skulduggery which does not have the effect of turning a competently granted order into one erroneously granted. Mr Zuma had multiple opportunities to bring these matters to the attention of the court. That he opted not to, cannot mean that the court committed an error in granting the order," Khampepe said. A dissenting minority judgment, found that Zuma's rights were breached in terms of law and the judgement could therefore be rescinded. The majority, however, said that law could not be enforced if it had not been accepted by the South African Parliament. With costs of the case believed to run into millions of rands, Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi reiterated his earlier plea to the public to contribute towards this as Zuma did not have such resources. Manyi had said then that Zuma's palatial homestead did not belong to him, but to a trust that allowed him occupation. Zuma is also expected to be back in the high court in Pietermaritzburg next week as hearings continue into alleged amounts paid to him by French company Thales to influence a billion-rand arms supply deal nearly two decades ago. This case has been repeatedly deferred as Zuma approached what analysts have called a Stalinist approach by getting it postponed through changing lawyers and citing illness. Manyi said the Foundation would release a statement on Saturday on whether Zuma would appear in court next week or not. (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.) Foreign Office on Thursday expressed "surprise" over US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's remarks on reassessing bilateral ties with Islamabad, saying it was "not in line with the close cooperation" between the two nations. This comes after State Secretary told Congress that the US will be looking at ties with in the coming weeks to formulate the role America wants Islamabad to play in the future of During a weekly presser, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad on Thursday termed Blinken's statement a "surprise", Dawn newspaper reported. The spokesperson also highlighted that Pakistan's role in the Afghan peace process, facilitation of the multinational evacuation effort from Pakistan has had deep ties with the and other outfits in the region. Moreover, the country has been accused of supporting the group during the US's war on terror. During his first testimony in US Congress after the seized control of Kabul, Blinken on Monday noted that Pakistan has "harboured" members of the including the terrorists from the proscribed Haqqani network. Asked by lawmakers if it is time for Washington to reassess its relationship with Pakistan, Blinken said: "We are going to be looking at in the days and weeks ahead, the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years, but also the role that we would want to see it playing in the coming years." Blinken made the remarks during his first testimony before Congress since the Taliban took control of Kabul. The top US diplomat laid out the Biden administration's posture toward the Taliban in remarks to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. (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.) Russian President on Friday said that the government formed by the is not representative and inclusive, but it is essential to work with it as he stressed on the need to coordinate the stance of other countries on the issue of recognition. Putin, addressing the joint meeting of the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) via video link, said that the movement, having actually become the country's sole master, formed its government, which assumed responsibility for Afghanistan's future, Russia's official TASS news agency reported. This is an interim government, as the themselves say, and it cannot be really called representative or inclusive," he said, adding that there are no members of other ethnic groups in it. "However, it appears that it is necessary to work with it too. As for recognition, I believe, and I agree with those who spoke about it, that we need to coordinate our stance on the issue," Putin said. The Taliban is banned in Though the Russian government has not yet formally announced its recognition to the interim government of the Taliban, it along with China and Pakistan, has kept its embassy open in Kabul. According to Putin, it would be optimal to foster the dialogue "through the mechanism of the extended troika on (Russia, China, Pakistan and the US), this work is already in progress." He also cited the previous Moscow format of consultations on that involved other countries of the SCO and the CSTO. "Its work can be revived if necessary and if all its member states agree," Putin said as he mentioned his proposal to explore the possibility of resuming the activities of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group, "which was set up to work with Afghan partners.". Founded in 1992, the CSTO groups six former Soviet republics of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan with the aim of safeguarding peace and stability in Eurasia. On Thursday, the CSTO military bloc led by said that the situation in Afghanistan following the Taliban's seizure of power last month is alarming and it is ready to "take effective measures" to ensure safety of its member states' borders. Meanwhile, addressing the 21st summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Dushanbe, Putin hailed the decision to grant dialogue partner status in the SCO to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. "A fairly impressive portfolio of applications from other states wishing to cooperate with the organisation in one capacity or another" requires careful consideration, he said. Russia hails the decision to grant dialogue partner status in the SCO to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, he said. "Of course, we welcome the fact that dialogue partner status has been granted to Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Russia is a proponent of these countries' active involvement in various aspects of the SCO's activities," Putin said. "In practical terms, we believe it is appropriate to think about how to modernise and make more effective the participation of observers and dialogue partners in the work of the SCO. "In our view, it would be useful in the future, in parallel with the summits of the SCO member states' leaders, to hold top-level and high-level events in the so-called SCO+ format with the invitation of all our partners," Putin said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Chinese President Xi Jinping also addressed the SCO summit via video link. The eight-member SCO grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan held its 21st summit at Dushanbe. Afghanistan is an observer in the SCO. The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an economic and security bloc which has emerged as one of the largest transregional organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO also has four Observer states -- Iran, Mongolia, Belarus and Afghanistan and six Dialogue Partners -- Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka. (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.) Shares of continued their northward movement and were up 10 per cent at Rs 12.37 on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Friday. The stock has zoomed 39 per cent in the past two trading days after the government announced relief package for the telecom sector. On Wednesday, the Union Cabinet announced key telecom reforms, including moratorium of telecom dues both adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and Spectrum for 4 years, effective October 2021, which is a key cash flow relief measure for According to ICICI Securities, the option to pay interest through equity to the government and the government option to convert the dues into equity after four years, also ensures survival visibility for beyond four years albeit with massive equity dilution for the existing shareholder. In the past 11 trading days, the stock price of Vodafone Idea has more-than-doubled with a 103-per cent surge from level of Rs 6.09 on September 1, 2021. It had hit a 52-week high of Rs 13.80 on January 15, 2021. At 09:44 am, the stock was trading 3 per cent higher at Rs 11.62, as compared to a 0.60 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The counter has seen huge trading volumes, with a combined 554 million equity shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE in the first half an hour of trading. "Vodafone Idea, which had annual commitment of around Rs 24,000 crore towards spectrum payment and AGR dues, will be the key beneficiary. While the current rate of EBITDA/capex implies that cash burn will come down to Rs 1,400 crore, the lagging network spends (its capex is one-fourth of Airtels India capex) will keep the risk of churn high," ICICI Securities added. For Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the moratorium would help to solve the immediate liquidity woes of Vodafone India, but its ballooning debt and payment after four years will be difficult to address. "For Vodafone India, we await further guidelines on debt to equity conversion but the interest component is huge (Rs 500-550 billion) against its current market capitalisation of Rs 390 billion. Hence, the conversion of interest accrued into equity could have a significant impact on the shareholding," it said. Asian Granito India is eyeing exponential growth from exports business in the current fiscal. Anti-China sentiments, lower duties on export to USA, robust export orders from USA, Europe, UK and Middle East are driving the export business in the current fiscal and it is expected to get further momentum in coming months. Company expects to clock export business of around Rs. 350 - 400 crore in the current fiscal of FY21-22 and also aims to expand its business network in over 120 countries from 100 currently. For FY20-21, consolidated export sales for the company was reported at Rs. 216 crore. Asian Granito is one of the largest tiles exporter among organised players from India. Consolidated export of the company grew to around 17% of total revenues in FY21 vs. 14% in the FY20. For the three months ended June 2021, company reported consolidated exports of Rs. 53.19 crore despite covid, freight cost rise and container availability challenges. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Equity indices traded at record high level with strong gains in morning trade. The Nifty scaled 17,750 level and marched towards 17,800 mark. Metal and media shares lagged broader rally. Banks and financial stocks jumped after the country's finance minister laid out details for the establishment of a bad bank. At 10:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 496.37 points or 0.84% at 59,637.84. The Nifty 50 index gained 135.60 points or 0.77% at 17,765.85. The Sensex hit record high of 59,668.37 while the Nifty hit an all-time high of 17,774.95 in early trade. Government support measures for some beleaguered sectors along with provisions for PLI schemes buoyed investors sentiment. A rebounding rupee and persistent foreign capital inflows added to the momentum. The broader market lagged benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.01% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.12%. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative. On the BSE, 1396 shares rose and 1530 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged. COVID-19 Update: Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 227,019,435 with 4,669,895 deaths. India reported 342,923 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 443928deaths according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Economy: The Union Cabinet has approved central government guarantee up to Rs 30,600 crore to back security receipts (SRs) to be issued by National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL) for acquiring stressed loan assets. The government guarantee, which will be valid for five years, can be invoked by NARCL for meeting the shortfall between the face value of the SRs and the actual realization upon resolution or liquidation. GoI's guarantee will also enhance liquidity of SRs as such SRs are tradable. NARCL proposes to acquire stressed assets of about Rs 2 lakh crore in phases within extant regulations of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It intends to acquire these through 15% cash and 85% in SRs. NARCL has been incorporated under the Companies Act and has applied to RBI for license as an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC). NARCL has been set up by banks to aggregate and consolidate stressed assets for their subsequent resolution. PSBs will maintain 51% ownership in NARCL. The government is also setting up an India Debt Resolution Company Ltd (IDRCL) to manage the Non-Performing Assets (NPAs). IDRCL is a service company/operational entity which will manage the asset and engage market professionals and turnaround experts. Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Public FIs will hold a maximum of 49% stake and the rest will be with private sector lenders. The NARCL will acquire assets by making an offer to the lead bank. Once NARCL's offer is accepted, then, IDRCL will be engaged for management and value addition. Buzzing Index: The Nifty Metal index slipped 1.7% to 5,723.25, extending its losing run to second trading day. The index has lost 2.32% in two days. Tata Steel (down 3.07%), Steel Authority of India (down 2.59%), Vedanta (down 2.35%), NMDC (down 2.2%) and Jindal Steel & Power (down 1.84%) were the top losers. Among the other losers were JSW Steel (down 1.52%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.67%) and Hindalco Industries (down 0.59%). Stocks in Spotlight: Poonawalla Fincorp hit a lower circuit of 5% at Rs 163.55 after the company's managing director, Abhay Bhutada, resigned on Thursday, a day after being barred from the securities markets by Sebi for alleged insider trading. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday passed an interim order banning Poonawalla Fincorp's MD and CEO Ajay Bhutada and seven others from the securities market after they were found guilty in an insider trading case. Intellect Design Arena advanced 3.17% to Rs 683.30 after the company bagged a large multiple-year digital transformation destiny deal from Resurs Bank. The bank has chosen Intellect to implement Intellect Digital Core (IDC) and iKredit360. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Biocon jumped 3.58% to Rs 390.40 after the drug company announced that it will sell 15% stake in its subsidiary Biocon Biologics to Serum Institute Life Sciences. As part of the agreement, Biocon Biologics will offer approximately 15% stake to Serum Institute Life Sciences, at a post-money valuation of $4.9 billion. Biocon Biologics will get an access to 100 million doses of vaccines per annum for 15 years, primarily from Serum Institute's upcoming vaccine facility in Pune with commercialization rights of the SILS vaccine portfolio (including COVID-19 vaccines) for global markets. In addition to vaccines, the strategic alliance will also develop antibodies targeting several infectious diseases like Dengue, HIV, etc. The two companies will enter Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for manufacturing and distribution of the vaccines and antibodies. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Biocon Biologics will generate a committed revenue stream and related margins, commencing H2, FY23. Adar Poonawalla will also have a board seat in Biocon Biologics. Biocon Biologics would issue shares and receive the contemplated rights through a merger with Covidshield Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Serum Institute Life Sciences, on customary closing conditions and receipt of regulatory approvals. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson of Biocon and Biocon Biologics said, This alliance will complement the strengths and resources of the two leading players in vaccines and biologics. Our shared vision of building large scale businesses having global impact makes it a unique and synergistic value creation opportunity. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, said, We look forward to complementing each other's capabilities and capacities in vaccines and biologics, with the objective of addressing inequitable access both in emerging and developed markets for life saving vaccines and biologics. Biocon Biologics also announced that it will establish, at its cost, a vaccine R&D division to support the strategic alliance in developing both vaccines and biologics for communicable diseases. Additionally, the company will make available its cell culture and sterile fill and finish capacities, for vaccine production under the strategic alliance. Serum Institute Life Sciences (SILS) is a subsidiary of Serum Institute of India (SII). Serum Institute of India, the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines, is an Indian biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals company. Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon, is a fully integrated global biosimilars organization. It is leveraging cutting-edge science, innovative tech platforms and advanced research & development capabilities to lower treatment costs while improving healthcare outcomes. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Benchmark indices sharply pared gains amid bout of volatility in early afternoon trade. The Nifty recovered after briefly slipping below the 17,600 mark. IT and financial stocks bucked wider selling pressure. At 12:31 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 151.21 points or 0.26% at 59,292.84. The Nifty 50 index was up 12.45 points or 0.07% at 17,641.85. The Sensex hit record high of 59,737.32 while the Nifty hit an all-time high of 17,792.95 in morning trade. The broader market tumbled. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index tumbled 1.39% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.71%. The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1138 shares rose and 1959 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged. All eyes are on the GST Council meeting today, 17 September 2021 in Lucknow. The agenda for the GST Council meet includes considering taxing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under the single national GST regime. Broader Market Losers: IDFC First Bank (down 5%), Bank of Baroda (down 4.83%), Indiabulls Housing Finance (down 4%), Vodafone Idea (down 4%) and Canara Bank (down 3.78%) were top losers in Mid Cap space. Can Fin Homes (down 3.86%), Indian Bank (down 3.66%), National Aluminium Company (down 3.48%), Birlasoft (down 3.25%) and Ceat (down 3.16%) were top losers in Small Cap space. Derivatives: The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 7.04% to 15.4275. The Nifty 30 September 2021 futures were trading at 17,707, at a premium of 7 points as compared with the spot at 17,700. The Nifty option chain for 30 September 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 14.7 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 35.5 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price. Stocks in Spotlight: KEI Industries jumped 4.91% to Rs 877.45 after the credit ratings agency ICRA upgraded its rating on the long-term and short-term bank facilities / debt instruments of the company. ICRA upgraded the company's long-term rating to '[ICRA] AA-' from '[ICRA] A+', the short-term rating to '[ICRA] A1+' from '[ICRA] A1' and the medium-term rating (the fixed deposit rating) to '[ICRA] MAA-' from '[ICRA] MA+'. Cosmo Films rose 2.95% to Rs 1535.95 after the company's board approved setting up of new production line for biaxially oriented poly propylene (BOPP) film at Aurangabad, Maharashtra with rated capacity of 67,000 MT annually. The new BOPP line will require an investment of Rs 350 crore and this funding will be met via internal accrual, debts. The line is expected to commence production by FY2024-25. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dynamatic Technologies rose 1.52% to Rs 3070.05 after the company said that it has been awarded a contract for manufacturing assemblies for Boeing's newest tactical fighter, F-15EX Eagle II. This is a first where aerostructures for the latest and most advanced F-15EX Eagle II will be made in India, the company said. Dynamatic Technologies will supply the F-15EX aerostructure assembly requirements from FY 2022. The company will manufacture these aerostructures from their manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Udayant Malhoutra, CEO & managing director, Dynamatic Technologies, said, Dynamatic has been associated closely with Boeing as a strategic tier-1 supplier partner for over a decade. The award for manufacturing aerostructures for the F-15EX Eagle II to Dynamatic is a testimony of our partnership with Boeing. Dynamatic Technologies designs and builds highly engineered products for automotive, aerospace, hydraulic and security applications. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs Rs 2.52 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 as against net loss of Rs 16.94 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2020. Net sales during the quarter rose 72.82% YoY to Rs 320.41 crore. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor Key indices slightly came off the day's high but traded with decent gains in mid morning trade. The Nifty traded firm above the 17,750 mark. Banking, financial, auto and aviation stocks saw buying demand. At 11:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 441.85 points or 0.75% at 59,583.84. The Nifty 50 index gained 112.25 points or 0.64% at 17,741.85. The Sensex hit record high of 59,737.32 while the Nifty hit an all-time high of 17,792.95 in early trade. Government support measures for some beleaguered sectors along with provisions for PLI schemes buoyed investors sentiment. A rebounding rupee and persistent foreign capital inflows added to the momentum. The broader market lagged benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.08% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.33%. The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1355 shares rose and 1723 shares fell. A total of 143 shares were unchanged. All eyes are on the GST Council meeting scheduled today, 17 September 2021 in Lucknow. The agenda for the GST Council meet includes considering taxing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under the single national GST regime. COVID-19 Update: Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 227,019,435 with 4,669,895 deaths. India reported 339,056 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 444,248 deaths according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In the last 24 hours, India added 34,403 new covid cases. Active cases accounted for 1.02% of total cases. Recovery Rate currently stood at 97.65% with 37,950 recoveries in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to 3,25,98,424. Buzzing Segment: Shares of two aviation firms rose after domestic air traffic passenger traffic increased 33.8% in August 2021 over July 2021. InterGlobe Aviation (1.93%) and Spicejet (1.71%) advanced in morning trade. The total passenger load during August 2021 stood at 67.01 lakh compared with 50.07 lakh in July, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said yesterday. The passenger traffic surged 136.62% last month when compared to the same month last year, when it was barely at 28.32 lakh. Passenger load factors (PLF) of major scheduled commercial airlines were between 60.3%-79.6% during August, up from 53.6%-74.6% in July. During August, IndiGo ferried 38.16 lakh passengers to report a 57% market share and 74% PLF. SpiceJet carried 5.84 lakh passengers during the month, registering a 79.6% PLF and 8.7% market share. Stocks in Spotlight: Rajesh Exports rose 1.40% to Rs 621.40 after the company bagged an order worth Rs 691 crore for designer range of jewellery from Germany, to be executed by December 2021. The company said it will be executing the order from its own manufacturing facility, which possess a processing capacity of 250 tons of jewellery and gold products per annum. TVS Motor Company rose 1.65% to Rs 554.05 after its Singapore-based arm, TVS Motor (Singapore) acquired 77,19,786 common equity shares and 14,01,072 preferred equity shares of Swiss firm, EGO Movement at CHF 1.825 per share in an all-cash deal. TVS said the partnership will build a product portfolio while nurturing sustainable and scalable brands. It also reiterates the company's strategy to expand its global presence in developed markets, commencing with Europe. Global Markets: Asian stocks were trading mixed on Friday, as traders weighed risks from China to the global recovery and the prospect of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus. U. S. stocks closed mostly lower on Thursday after swinging between gains and losses after unexpectedly strong retail sales data underscored the strength of the U. S. economic recovery. US retail sales increased in August, rising 0.7% from the previous month. The initial estimate for July, however, was revised down to a decline of nearly 2% from a month-over-month gain of 0.5%. Meanwhile, the latest unemployment insurance weekly data showed 332,000 first-time jobless claims last week. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) SGX Nifty: Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could advance 93 points at the opening bell. Meanwhile, all eyes are on the GST Council meeting scheduled today, 17 September 2021 in Lucknow. The agenda for the GST Council meet includes considering taxing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under the single national GST regime. Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has approved central government guarantee up to Rs 30,600 crore to back security receipts (SRs) to be issued by National Asset Reconstruction Company Limited (NARCL) for acquiring stressed loan assets. NARCL proposes to acquire stressed assets of about Rs 2 lakh crore in phases within extant regulations of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It intends to acquire these through 15% cash and 85% in SRs. Global markets: Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Friday, as traders weighed risks from China to the global recovery and the prospect of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus. U.S. stocks closed mostly lower on Thursday after swinging between gains and losses after unexpectedly strong retail sales data underscored the strength of the U.S. economic recovery. US retail sales increased in August, rising 0.7% from the previous month. The initial estimate for July, however, was revised down to a decline of nearly 2% from a month-over-month gain of 0.5%. Meanwhile, the latest unemployment insurance weekly data showed 332,000 first-time jobless claims last week. Domestic markets: Back home, benchmark indices ended with robust gains on Thursday, supported by firmness in banks and FMCG stocks. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 417.96 points or 0.71% at 59,141.16. The Nifty 50 index advanced 110.05 points or 0.63% to 17,629.50. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,621.88 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 795.13 crore in the Indian equity market on 16 September, provisional data showed. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) There is a simple way to explain the shift of naval power in East Asia over the past two decades: The region was handed to Beijing on a platter. Back in the year 2000, Chinas defence expenditure in relation to the US outlay was in the ratio of 1:11. By last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, that ratio had changed dramatically to 1:3. Chinas defence outlay multiplied six-fold while Japans stayed where it was and Taiwans increased by just 10 per cent. South Korea, in a contest with North Korea rather than China, did better by ... India recorded 50,035 cases of cyber crime in 2020, an 11.8 per cent surge in such offences over the previous year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week once again cautioned bank customers of fraud, including those in Know-Your-Customer (KYC) cases. In fact, certain frauds have become more prevalent than others, and being aware of them is the first step towards protect yourself. Mayur Joshi, chief executive officer, Indiaforensic.com, a company engaged in the prevention, detection, and investigation of frauds says, "It is necessary to learn, to read about these scams." Here are some such frauds, their methods and what you can do to avoid them. Fraud: Due to the pandemic, many people stopped visiting bank branches, providing fraudsters an opportunity to use as a reason to engage with customers by pretending to be bankers. Ritesh Bhatia cyber-crime investigator, cybersecurity and data privacy consultant, says, "The modus operandi is simple. You get an unsolicited SMS saying your card or account will be blocked, or rewards points will be disabled--the kind of message that creates panic in the customer. And that customer naturally reacts to the SMS, without considering the legitimacy of the message," Once you call the number mentioned in the SMS, they entice you for personal details under the pretext of verification. For instance, you will be asked for account or login details, card information, PIN, OTP, etc. Bhatia says, "They may also ask you to install a remote access app, which will give them complete access to your mobile." The fraudster quickly cleans the account empty, while the victim keeps getting SMS of the amount debited from the account. What to do: Remember the KYC update will never happen via a third-party app. Bhatia says, "You should get in touch with the bank or card issuer--not on the number in the SMS, but the one on the reverse of your card--or call your bank customer care." Don't even go by web-searches, as fraudsters are also spreading fake customer care numbers of banks or UPI platforms online. Yash Tyagi, chief technology officer (CTO) CASHe, says, "Be very careful to whom you give out your information or documents for KYC purposes as well, even if you are doing so on a website. There are many fraud sites that collect such data. Fraudsters can make copies of KYC data and use it to apply for loans." So it's not just SMS, calls or email you should be wary of, but websites as well. Sim Swap Fraud: Swap simply means exchanging one thing for another. Let's say you have a 3G SIM card and want to upgrade to 4G. You request a swap 3G SIM for a 4G SIM from the service provider. This is an authentic SIM swap. Here you are putting the request to your service provider who deactivates your old SIM and gives you a new one, which activates within a few hours. Our mobile phones are loaded with information, right from contact lists, photos, emails, and SMS to financial details such as ATM withdrawals alerts and one-time passwords sent by banks for net banking transactions. Joshi says, "The SIM Swap fraud is a nightmare that many mobile holders faced during the pandemic. Many users were locked in when they started receiving messages that their SIM card has been blocked or the request for changing the SIM had been received." Fraudsters use SIM swap techniques to steal your financial details by blocking your SIM card and exchanging it with a fake one. Joshi says, "The swapsters approach the service provider (posing as a genuine card holder, with fake papers), requesting to swap the SIM. After verification, the service provider deactivates the old SIM. The fraudsters get a new active mobile SIM card." This means once the SIM is swapped they get access to your OTPs, financial accounts and card related alerts, which they used to commit the fraud. Before contacting a service provider, the fraudster will usually engage in some form of social engineering to try and gain information about their intended victim that can be used to answer security questions related to the victims mobile number. Joshi adds, "This can be done by researching the victims social media accounts or gathering information about them from other public sources. The person attempting the SIM swap might also send phishing emails to a potential victim in the hope of obtaining other sensitive information that can be used to unlock his mobile phone number." Phishing is a kind of e-mail fraud technique in which the crook sends out genuine-looking emails or website links in an attempt to gather your personal and financial information. What to do: Dont give away your details to anyone. If you see no service on your SIM, contact the service provider at the earliest. If your SIM has been deactivated at midnight, you cant do much about it, really. UPI-related Frauds: Unified payments interface (UPI) has a feature in which you or the merchant can send the user a request to collect money. This feature is being used by fraudsters on second shopping websites. Manoj Chopra, head, innovation & product development, InfrasoftTech says, "When you try to sell an item on such a site, fraudsters feign interest in buying and send you a collect money request instead of sending money. Remember, you don't need to authorise a transaction if the money is being transferred to your account, but the fraudster makes you believe you do and you end up sharing the PIN, and your hard-earned money gets re-routed." What can you do: Remember when you are receiving money in your bank account you don't have to give a PIN or OTP. Likewise when you are receiving money in UPI you don't need to enter any PIN. Treat your PIN exactly like you treat your ATM PIN. Don't disclose it to anyone. Offline Frauds: Oftentimes we take cash withdrawal from an ATM casually, not realising that a little carelessness could cost us our hard earned money. Shoulder surfing is such a danger associated with ATMs. Shoulder surfing is, in simple terms, when someone stands close to you or at a very close distance in order to get information. Chopra says, "So, while using an open ATM, be careful that nobody is shoulder surfing you. You can never tell whether or not the person shoulder surfing is a fraudster. Such people stand close to you to get the personal identification number (PIN) of your card while you are feeding it." Once your PIN is compromised, it can be used by fraudsters in ways you can't even imagine. Chopra says, "He could also have tampered with the ATM, by inserting a device in the ATM card slot. So, when you punch your PIN, the device captures the number and other information stored on your card." Fraudsters who use the data to make cloned cards and withdraw cash at overseas ATMs, or shop online. What can you do: First, look closely at the card slots in the ATMs. Ensure that there ae no parts jutting out, no broken pieces, no cracks or any glue-like substances around the slot. It's a good practice to cover the hand while punching your PIN on the key. Also make sure no one is shoulder surfing. Things to keep in mind: Theres very little you can do at your end, apart from being more vigilant. But some things that you must do can make a lot of difference. First and foremost, follow the basic online security hygiene against phishing. (See box). Ankit Ratan, co-founder and CEO, Signzy, an AI-based banking workflow automation solutions provider, says, "Use the facility that allows you to set and modify transaction limits on your cards and savings account. That way, you will be able to reduce the risk considerably." You can set limits on all types of translations--domestic, international, POS, ATM withdrawals, and online. Banks also alllow you to switch on and switch off your debit and credit card. Imagine the peace of mind when you temporarily switch off a card you aren't using and set a limit one those that you use. This way at least some damage will be next to zero. MP and his wife Friday approached the seeking quashing of summons issued to them by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal, saying they are residents of Kolkata and should not be compelled to join the probe in the national capital. The plea was mentioned before the high court for urgent listing and is likely to come up for hearing on September 21, the day when he and his wife Rujira Banerjee have been asked to personally appear before the agency in Delhi along with a voluminous set of documents. Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and his wife have challenged the September 10 summons and also sought to direct the ED not to summon them for their appearance in Delhi and thereby not compelling them to join the investigation in the instant case here. The 33-year-old MP represents the Diamond Harbour seat in Lok Sabha and is the national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The plea also said that a greater degree of protection is granted to a woman under Section 160 of the CrPC, which mandates that she shall not be required to attend any place other than where she resides. It said the repeated issuance of summons to Rujira Banerjee to appear before the ED is ex-facie illegal and mala fide and sought court's intervention before any coercive measures are resorted to by the agency. The ED lodged a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Act on the basis of a November 2020 FIR registered by the CBI that alleged a multi-crore coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields Ltd mines in the state's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. Local coal operative Anup Majhi alias Lala is alleged to be the prime suspect in the case. The ED had earlier claimed that was a beneficiary of funds obtained from this illegal trade. He has denied all charges. said ED has repeatedly summoned him and his wife for examination in person in Delhi without supplying a copy of the ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) and without specifying whether they are being summoned as witnesses or accused, nor indicating the scope of the investigation being carried out. He said their examination may take place in Kolkata where ED has a functional and fully equipped zonal office. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister on Friday addressed leaders including Union minister Raosaheb Danve at a function here as former and possible "future colleagues", leading to speculation as to whether a political realignment was in the offing. Thackeray-led Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP after the 2019 Assembly polls and formed government with the NCP and Congress. Addressing the dignitaries on the dais at a function here, Thackeray said, "My former, current, and if we come together, future colleagues." Danve, a BJP leader from Maharashtra, was present, so was senior state minister Balasaheb Thorat of Congress. Later, speaking to reporters at another event, Thackeray clarified that he said former and current colleagues because there were leaders from all parties on the dais. "If everybody comes together, they can become future colleagues too. Time will tell," he added cryptically. Notably, state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil had said earlier this week that he should be no longer called a 'former' state minister' as things were changing. Reacting to Thackeray's remarks, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis told reporters elsewhere that he must have realized that the state was suffering because of the Sena's "unnatural alliance" with the NCP and Congress. "He must have expressed his thoughts after realizing what kind of people he is working with....Everything is possible in politics, but the state BJP is not eyeing power. We are an efficient opposition party and will continue our work," the former chief minister added. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut sought to downplay Thackeray's comments, stating that Danve was everybody's friend. "When he was state BJP chief, all was well. There is nothing earth-shaking in the comment. Those who want to come with us can join and become future colleagues. Don't read too much into this," Raut added. He also claimed that he had learnt that Chandrakant Patil was offered the post of Nagaland governor by the BJP. (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.) Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) President hit out at Sukhbir Singh Badal, the president of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) calling him the 'creator and defender' of the farm laws passed in the Parliament last year. "There are lies, white lies, then there is a bundle of lies called Sukha Gappi @officeofssbadal. The creators and defenders of the black laws are shedding crocodile tears today!! Your drama stands exposed. #BlackDay," said Sidhu in a tweet. Badal today reached the Rakabganj Gurdwara in Delhi where SAD workers had gathered in large numbers to protest against the three farm laws. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday said that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) double-crossed the farmers over the issue of farm laws and claimed that the laws were drafted with the consent of SAD, with Harsimrat Kaur Badal as a Union Minister. He also claimed that even the former CM Parkash Singh Badal, at that time, argued in favour of those laws, but the SAD is now changing their tune completely when their move has backfired. Farmers have been protesting since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws: Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (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 SP, and the are competing for power in without any base among the masses, Union minister said on Friday, asserting that the opposition parties were fighting to become a "landlord without land". He said the mafias that were flourishing under the previous governments in have been put behind bars during the Yogi Adityanath dispensation, and asserted that there was a sense of security in the state. While participating in various programmes on 'Seva Diwas' in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur, Naqvi told reporters that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was taking stringent action against goons and mafias" due to which "their political protectors are being hurt the most. For the people of the state it is a choice between "apradhiyon ki hirasat (detention for criminals)" versus "apradhiyon ki hifazat (protection for criminals)". The people of are living with a sense of security under the Adityanath government, but this has made those people restless who had been "reaching the throne of power by sitting on the shoulders of these goons and mafias", Naqvi was quoted as saying by a statement from his office. The Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the are in a competition for power without any base among the masses, he said, adding that they are fighting to become a landlord without land. Indian has taken a positive turn due to the of commitment to performance, good governance and integrity being practiced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Naqvi said. But those political parties who are confined to the "family nest" can neither understand nor accept this positive change in politics, Naqvi said. Prime Minister Modi is synonymous with determination, dedication and development without discrimination, the minister said. Naqvi said that Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have played the role of trouble-shooters during the coronavirus pandemic and led the fight against the pandemic from the front. Modi's commitment to the health and well-being of the people has ensured that India, despite having a huge population, is strongly coming out of the coronavirus pandemic. Naqvi said that the world's largest coronavirus vaccination drive is going on in India where more than 77 crore doses have been administered till now. Naqvi participated in various programmes in Rampur as part of 'Seva Diwas' organised to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday. He also visited a vaccination centre at Dhamora in Rampur where he encouraged people to get inoculated and contribute in the campaign to make India coronavirus-free. The minister felicitated farmers and retired army personnel at Zila Sahakari Bank in Rampur. He also felicitated women for exceptional work during 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.) IT services major on Friday announced the launch of the Wipro- Arena in Bengaluru to accelerate adoption of This cloud collaboration space will provide in-house technical expertise, ensure seamless cloud adoption, and accelerate to drive business transformation for customers, a statement said. "By combining the expertise and resources of FullStride and Google Cloud, this jointly developed centre will offer a unique combination of people, processes, and platforms that will collectively create a futuristic experience for customers globally," it added. This arena will also showcase the talent, tools and best practices required to develop and deploy applications on "We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Google Cloud, and look forward to leveraging the Wipro- Innovation Arena to increase cloud capabilities, build solutions across industries, and help our customers simplify their processes and workflows," Senior Vice President, Global Head of Ecosystems and Partnerships Jason Eichenholz said. This new Innovation Arena is the latest example of Wipro's continued commitment to providing customers with world-class resources and support, and a vision for their cloud future, he added. "Innovation and business differentiation are key drivers of cloud adoption, which is why innovation labs where customers can brainstorm, design, and pilot innovation use cases with the help of industry experts have become increasingly important, Google Cloud Corporate Vice President (Partner Ecosystem) Kevin Ichhpurani said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Facing Kremlin pressure, and on Friday removed an opposition-created smartphone app that tells voters which candidates are likely to defeat those backed by Russian authorities, as polls opened for three days of balloting in Russia's parliamentary election. Russian authorities are seeking to suppress the use of Smart Voting, a strategy designed by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The election is widely seen as an important part of President Vladimir Putin's efforts to cement his grip on power ahead of the 2024 presidential polls, in which control of parliament will be key. and have come under pressure in recent weeks, with Russian officials telling them to remove the Smart Voting app from their online stores. Failure to do so will be interpreted as interference in the election and make them subject to fines, the officials said. Last week, Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador John Sullivan over the issue. On Thursday, representatives of and were invited to a meeting in the upper house of Russia's parliament, the Federation Council. The Council's commission on protecting state sovereignty said in a statement afterward that Apple agreed to cooperate with Russian authorities. Apple and Google have not responded Friday to a request from The Associated Press for comment. Google was forced to remove the app because it faced legal demands by regulators and threats of criminal prosecution in Russia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who also said Russian police officers visited Google's offices in Moscow on Monday to enforce a court order to block the app. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday the presidential administration definitely, of course welcomes the companies' decision to remove the app, because it complies with Russian laws. Peskov said that the app was outside the law in In recent months, authorities have unleashed a sweeping crackdown against Navalny's allies and engaged in a massive effort to suppress Smart Voting. Navalny is serving 2-year prison sentence for violating parole over a previous conviction he says is politically motivated and his top allies were slapped with criminal charges. Many have left the country. Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, as well as a network of regional offices, have been outlawed as extremist organisations in a ruling that exposes hundreds of people associated with the groups to prosecution. About 50 websites run by his team have been blocked, and dozens of regional offices have been closed. The authorities have moved to block the Smart Voting website as well, but some internet users can still access it. Navalny's team also created a Smart Voting chat bot on the messaging app Telegram and published a list of candidates Smart Voting endorses in Google Docs and on YouTube. Western tech giants such as Twitter, Facebook and Google have come under pressure this year from the Russian government over their role in amplifying dissent. The authorities accused the platforms of allegedly failing to remove calls for protests, and levied hefty fines against them. The companies face similar challenges around the world. In India, the government is in a standoff with Twitter, which it accuses of failing to comply with new internet regulations. Turkey passed a law last year that raised fears of censorship, giving authorities greater power to regulate social media companies that also were required to establish local legal entities a demand that Facebook and Twitter have met. Twitter has been banned in Nigeria since June, when the company took down a controversial tweet by the country's president, although the government has promised to lift it soon. Navalny's close ally Ivan Zhdanov on Friday tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be an email from Apple, explaining why the app should be removed from the store. The screenshot cites the extremism designation for the Foundation for Fighting Corruption and allegations of election interference. Google, Apple are making a big mistake, Zhdanov wrote. Leonid Volkov, Navalny's top strategist, wrote on Facebook that the companies bent to the Kremlin's blackmail. He noted that the move doesn't affect users who have already downloaded the app, and that it should be functioning correctly. Volkov told the AP last month that at some point in August, the app ranked third on Google Play in among social networking apps and fourth on the App Store in the same category. Peskov on Friday called Smart Voting another attempt at provocations that are harmful for the voters. As voting began Friday, long lines and large crowds formed at some polling stations in Moscow and other cities. Russian media attributed them to state institutions and companies forcing their employees to vote. David Kankiya from the Golos independent election monitoring group told AP that it was easier for state institutions and companies to force people to vote on Friday because there was less attention from observers. Some observers are busy with work, some with university studies, as it's a work day and not a weekend," he said. "Monitoring is harder to organize, ergo, there are fewer risks for the administrative machine. Peskov dismissed the allegations and suggested that those at polling stations were there voluntarily because they had to work on the weekend or wanted to free up Saturday and Sunday. Putin, who has been self-isolating since Tuesday after dozens of people in his inner circle got infected with COVID-19, voted online Friday an option that is available in seven Russian regions this year. Kremlin critics have said that leaves room for manipulation. Dr Anna Trushina, a radiologist at a Moscow hospital, told AP she went to a polling station to be honest, because we were forced (to vote) by my work. Frankly speaking. She added: And I also want to know who leads us. (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.) introduced a pop-up window for iPhones in April that asks people for their permission to be tracked by different apps. recently outlined plans to disable a tracking technology in its Chrome web browser. And Facebook said last month that hundreds of its engineers were working on a new method of showing ads without relying on peoples personal data. The developments may seem like technical tinkering, but they were connected to something bigger: an intensifying battle over the future of the The struggle has entangled tech titans, upended Madison Avenue and disrupted small businesses. And it heralds a profound shift in how peoples personal information may be used online, with sweeping implications for the ways that businesses make money digitally. At the center of the tussle is what has been the internets lifeblood: advertising. More than 20 years ago, the drove an upheaval in the advertising industry. It eviscerated newspapers and magazines that had relied on selling classified and print ads, and threatened to dethrone television advertising as the prime way for marketers to reach large audiences. Instead, brands splashed their ads across websites, with their promotions often tailored to peoples specific interests. Those digital ads powered the growth of Facebook, and Twitter, which offered their search and social networking services to people without charge. But in exchange, people were tracked from site to site by technologies such as cookies, and their personal data was used to target them with relevant marketing. Now that system, which ballooned into a $350 billion digital ad industry, is being dismantled. Driven by online privacy fears, and have started revamping the rules around online data collection. Apple, citing the mantra of privacy, has rolled out tools that block marketers from tracking people. Google, which depends on digital ads, is trying to have it both ways by reinventing the system so it can continue aiming ads at people without exploiting access to their personal data. If personal information is no longer the currency that people give for online content and services, something else must take its place. Media publishers, app makers and e-commerce shops are now exploring different paths to surviving a privacy-conscious internet, in some cases overturning their business models. Many are choosing to make people pay for what they get online by levying subscription fees and other charges instead of using their personal data. Jeff Green, the chief executive of the Trade Desk, an ad-technology company in Ventura, Calif., that works with major ad agencies, said the behind-the-scenes fight was fundamental to the nature of the web. The is answering a question that its been wrestling with for decades, which is: How is the internet going to pay for itself? he said. The fallout may hurt brands that relied on targeted ads to get people to buy their goods. It may also initially hurt tech giants like Facebook but not for long. Instead, businesses that can no longer track people but still need to advertise are likely to spend more with the largest tech platforms, which still have the most data on consumers. David Cohen, chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade group, said the changes would continue to drive money and attention to Google, Facebook, Twitter. The shifts are complicated by Googles and Apples opposing views on how much ad tracking should be dialed back. wants its customers, who pay a premium for its iPhones, to have the right to block tracking entirely. But Google executives have suggested that Apple has turned privacy into a privilege for those who can afford its products. For many people, that means the internet may start looking different depending on the products they use. On Apple gadgets, ads may be only somewhat relevant to a persons interests, compared with highly targeted promotions inside Googles web. Website creators may eventually choose sides, so some sites that work well in Googles browser might not even load in Apples browser, said Brendan Eich, a founder of Brave, the private web browser. It will be a tale of two internets, he said. Businesses that do not keep up with the changes risk getting run over. Increasingly, media publishers and even apps that show the weather are charging subscription fees, in the same way that Netflix levies a monthly fee for video streaming. Some e-commerce sites are considering raising product prices to keep their revenues up. Consider Seven Sisters Scones, a mail-order pastry shop in Johns Creek, Ga., which relies on Facebook ads to promote its items. Nate Martin, who leads the bakerys digital marketing, said that after Apple blocked some ad tracking, its digital marketing campaigns on Facebook became less effective. Because Facebook could no longer get as much data on which customers like baked goods, it was harder for the store to find interested buyers online. Everything came to a screeching halt, Mr. Martin said. In June, the bakerys revenue dropped to $16,000 from $40,000 in May. Sales have since remained flat, he said. To offset the declines, Seven Sisters Scones has discussed increasing prices on sampler boxes to $36 from $29. Apple declined to comment, but its executives have said advertisers will adapt. Google said it was working on an approach that would protect peoples data but also let advertisers continue targeting users with ads. Since the 1990s, much of the web has been rooted in digital advertising. In that decade, a piece of code planted in web browsers the cookie began tracking peoples browsing activities from site to site. Marketers used the information to aim ads at individuals, so someone interested in makeup or bicycles saw ads about those topics and products. After the iPhone and Android app stores were introduced in 2008, advertisers also collected data about what people did inside apps by planting invisible trackers. That information was linked with cookie data and shared with data brokers for even more specific ad targeting. The result was a vast advertising ecosystem that underpinned free websites and online services. Sites and apps like BuzzFeed and TikTok flourished using this model. Even e-commerce sites rely partly on advertising to expand their businesses. But distrust of these practices began building. In 2018, Facebook became embroiled in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where peoples Facebook data was improperly harvested without their consent. That same year, European regulators enacted the General Data Protection Regulation, laws to safeguard peoples information. In 2019, Google and Facebook agreed to pay record fines to the Federal Trade Commission to settle allegations of privacy violations. In Silicon Valley, Apple reconsidered its advertising approach. In 2017, Craig Federighi, Apples head of software engineering, announced that the Safari web browser would block cookies from following people from site to site. It kind of feels like youre being tracked, and thats because you are, Mr. Federighi said. No longer. Last year, Apple announced the pop-up window in iPhone apps that asks people if they want to be followed for marketing purposes. If the user says no, the app must stop monitoring and sharing data with third parties. That prompted an outcry from Facebook, which was one of the apps affected. In December, the social network took out full-page newspaper ads declaring that it was standing up to Apple on behalf of small businesses that would get hurt once their ads could no longer find specific audiences. The situation is going to be challenging for them to navigate, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, said. Facebook is now developing ways to target people with ads using insights gathered on their devices, without allowing personal data to be shared with third parties. If people who click on ads for deodorant also buy sneakers, Facebook can share that pattern with advertisers so they can show sneaker ads to that group. That would be less intrusive than sharing personal information like email addresses with advertisers. We support giving people more control over how their data is used, but Apples far-reaching changes occurred without input from the industry and those who are most impacted, a Facebook spokesman said. Since Apple released the pop-up window, more than 80 percent of iPhone users have opted out of tracking worldwide, according to ad tech firms. Last month, Peter Farago, an executive at Flurry, a mobile analytics firm owned by Verizon Media, published a post on LinkedIn calling the time of death for ad tracking on iPhones. At Google, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive, and his lieutenants began discussing in 2019 how to provide more privacy without killing the companys $135 billion online ad business. In studies, Google researchers found that the cookie eroded peoples trust. Google said its Chrome and ad teams concluded that the Chrome web browser should stop supporting cookies. But Google also said it would not disable cookies until it had a different way for marketers to keep serving people targeted ads. In March, the company tried a method that uses its data troves to place people into groups based on their interests, so marketers can aim ads at those cohorts rather than at individuals. The approach is known as Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLOC. Plans remain in flux. Google will not block trackers in Chrome until 2023. Even so, advertisers said they were alarmed. In an article this year, Sheri Bachstein, the head of IBM Watson Advertising, warned that the privacy shifts meant that relying solely on advertising for revenue was at risk. Businesses must adapt, she said, including by charging subscription fees and using artificial intelligence to help serve ads. The big tech companies have put a clock on us, she said in an interview. Redington, a supply chain solutions provider, will offer the latest range of 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max at its retail stores in 3,500 locations across the country. The city-based company has partnered with private sector HDFC Bank to provide cash back offers on the full range of iPhones, the company said in a statement on Friday. 13 and 13 Pro Max were recently launched by the Cupertino-based Inc. Powered by the A15 bionic chip, the handset would be available in the 3,500 retail locations in various colours, the release said. In view of Covid-19 pandemic, the company said it was providing time slots for those customers who pre-book the device to make their purchase. recently unveiled 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max with prices ranging from Rs 69,900 to Rs 1,79,900. Customers in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan and the United Kingdom, Unitd States and more than 30 countries and regions would be able to pre-order the phones from Friday, said in a statement. (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.) Jakarta [Indonesia]/ New Delhi [India], September 17 (ANI/PRNewswire): (https://indepay.com) Indepay, today announced the launch of its mobile-first transfer platform (https://tara.app). (https://tara.app) is an interactive social commerce framework meant for D2C businesses, brands merchants, micro-merchants, warungs, and nearby retailers powered by the (https://indepay.com) Indepay Transfer Platform. It is designed to bring new online orders and instant payments for Indonesian MSMEs through an open platform by providing instant technology enablement to fast-track merchants & brands digitisation process and ride on the accelerated growth. It allows them to enable their social commerce interface quickly, conveniently, and economically. The (https://tara.app) framework relies majorly on high-end technology revolving around open APIs with deep integration with major banks, financial institutions, and new-age technology partners. The idea of interactive social commerce backed by BEENEXT and T8 Capital Partners was conceptualised a year back, since then the company has connected all the nodes and built the robust technology to bring (https://tara.app) framework to reality. After Indonesia, (https://tara.app) will soon be launched in all other South East Asian countries and the Indian subcontinent. The Indonesian payment system is still in its early stage of evolution, approximately 80% of the bank accounts are still not fully digitised. 3 out of 5 transactions are from ATM/Debit Cards withdrawals or cash transactions, which is true even for transactions done for e-commerce and bill payments. The importance of platforms like (https://indepay.com) Indepay has become more significant for MSME driven economies like Indonesia poised for a big digital transformation. Recent studies and research also show the wide mobile internet usage and change in the user behaviour towards social media commerce, suggesting the importance of growing interactive social commerce. (https://tara.app) intrinsically maps the customer's mobile number with their bank account as their Unique Pay-ID for a faster and secure Account-to-Account Transfer experience. Pay-ID also empowers users to build their digital reputation and helps to maintain security and consent-based control over their financial data. It facilitate the consumers to get over the worries of maintaining multiple bank apps and user IDs with their Mobile Number being the Pay-ID for faster, convenient, and secure transfers. Rajib Saha, CEO, Indepay, who holds a pristine experience in SEA payment space of more than a decade said, "Higher payment and transfer fee is the major bottleneck in the development of Indonesia's startup ecosystem. (https://tara.app) working alongside (https://indepay.com) Indepay team in Jakarta is going to disrupt the market. The deep integration with Banks and Financial Institutions will unlock endless possibilities for Indonesia." Teruhide Sato, Founder & CEO, BEENEXT said, "I see the Indonesian Economy to be positively influenced by the evolution of startups and they will have a massive impact in accelerating the GDP growth of the country. We have been investing in various fintech startups globally and observed that the presence of digitised bank account transfers further drives the growth of the digitized economy in every country. Thus, we have partnered with Indepay to build the much-awaited open transfer platform in Indonesia connecting Banks, Payment Gateways, Switching, and Settlement Operators to offer an ultra-low-cost seamless transfer experience." "COVID-19 has pushed digital commerce into a hyper-acceleration mode globally. In Indonesia too brands, companies, and micro-merchants want to up their digital commerce game as quickly as possible," added Rajib Saha. To empower the MSME segment in Indonesia, the (https://tara.app) has curated a blended model - embedding products with easy and economical payment solutions to drive consumer engagement. Allowing easy discoverability of their products online and supporting them with network and community participation. It is meant to bridge the gap between merchants and banks through digitisation, enabling interactive commerce through social channels with the (https://tara.app) framework. As per the published data by the Bank of Indonesia, the country has 160 Mn registered bank accounts out of which only 3-4% are digitised. (https://indepay.com) Indepay aims to digitise 100 Mn Indonesian customers and achieve 1Bn transactions per month in the next 3 years. It is also going to facilitate the consumers and merchants with enablement like instant credit and many more features. (https://indepay.com) Indepay open transfer platform endeavours to position itself as the most convenient & economical digital payment option with interactive social commerce to make faster transfers, payments, and receive orders. Unleashing the full financial potential using the platform opens endless opportunities for Startups, Fintechs, Brands, MSME Businesses, and micro-merchants leading to a truly cashless economy. This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire) DISCLAIMER (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Unisoc 5g mobile phone chip at an exhibition in Shanghai on Feb. 23. Photo: VCG The global microchip shortage will persist through 2021 but should end by the second or third quarter of 2022 on the back of manufacturers heightened efforts to boost production, according to an industry expert. The remarks by Chu Qing, CEO of phone-chip producer Unisoc, were made at an industry summit on Thursday and come as makers of everything from smart vehicles to consumer electronics grapple with supply chain disruptions caused by the semiconductor crunch. Chu listed the U.S. tech export restrictions on some Chinese tech companies including Huawei as a key factor behind the chip shortage, saying the containment policy has led to stockpiling which has only aggravated the problem. The stockpiles should have met huge market demand, said Chu, adding that the situation worsened when some distributors and resellers speculated on the market. In response Chu said he ordered a ban on stockpiling, also effective on the companys agents. Another key factor, Chu said, was the coronavirus-induced abnormal operations at ports globally, which have affected the normal offloading of goods from ships. Research and advisory firm Gartner predicted in May that the worldwide semiconductor shortage would likely persist until the second quarter of 2022. To mitigate risk and losses at that time Gartner suggested manufacturers tighten ties with distributors, resellers and traders on more urgent, niche components, and extend supply chain visibility to the silicon level addressing bottlenecks. Since the Covid-19 pandemic catalyzed the global chip shortage last year, the worlds leading chipmakers have moved to ramp up their production capacities. Earlier this month Chinas largest contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. unveiled plans to spend $9 billion on a new factory in Shanghai, which will focus on the production of 28-nanometer-and-above integrated circuits. In June Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. started construction of its $12 billion plant in Arizona, which will focus on producing advanced 5-nanometer computer chips. Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. Shareholders in a securities firm linked to fallen tycoon Xiao Jianhuas Tomorrow Holding Co. Ltd. have put their combined 98.24% stake up for sale as regulators take another step forward in dismantling the once free-wheeling financial conglomerate. The eight largest shareholders of New Times Securities Co. Ltd., some of whom are connected with Tomorrow Holding, are offloading 2.9 billion shares on the China Beijing Equity Exchange, a property rights trading platform based in the capital. They are aiming to raise no less than 13.1 billion yuan ($2 billion), according to a filing (link in Chinese) on the exchange Thursday. New Times Securities is one of nine financial companies controlled by Tomorrow Holding that were taken over by financial regulators in July 2020 as part of efforts to untangle the secretive conglomerates sprawling financial empire that also included Baoshang Bank Co. Ltd., the regional lender seized by regulators in 2019. The takeover of the nine companies, which played a key part in Xiaos business and backed many of its high-profile acquisitions, was initially only supposed to last one year, but was extended for a further 12 months in July this year. Founded in 1999, Tomorrow Holding grew into a conglomerate with businesses as diverse as banking, securities, insurance, coal and real estate. Through complicated and sometimes illegal shareholding arrangements, Tomorrow Holding controlled a large number of financial institutions that helped fund Xiaos business expansion. Chinese authorities detained the tycoon in January 2017 as part of an investigation into corruption. Read more Five Things to Know About the Dismantling of Xiao Jianhuas Tomorrow Holding There are strings attached for the new owners of New Times Securities they should comprise no more than three entities and include one that is willing to take a controlling stake in the brokerage, according to the filing. They will be required to cooperate with regulators to deal with the asset management products sold by New Times Securities that are now in default, and must also agree to maintain the stability of the brokerages business operations and staff. At least four of the brokerages eight largest shareholders have direct connections with Tomorrow Holding, and Caixin revealed (link in Chinese) in July that shares were pledged by Tomorrow Holding as collateral for loans of about 12 billion yuan. The conglomerate owns 40% of Shanghai Yili Industrial Development Co. Ltd., 98.6% of Baotou Beipu Industrial Co. Ltd., 99.9% of Weifang Chuangke Industry Co. Ltd., and 2% of Beijing Xintiandi Interactive Multimedia Technology Co. Ltd. respectively the largest, third-biggest, fourth-biggest and fifth-biggest shareholders of New Times Securities, with stakes of 45.5%, 10%, 9.8% and 7.8% respectively, In 2020, New Times Securities reported a net profit of 36.5 million yuan on revenue of 1.6 billion yuan, the Thursday filing showed. Its net assets stood at 10.2 billion yuan at the end of last year, the companys 2020 annual report (link in Chinese) showed. In February, a consortium led by China Chengtong Holdings Group Ltd., an investment company supervised by the State Councils State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, offered to buy New Times Securities at a price-to-book (PB) ratio of 1 an offer price equivalent to the brokers net assets and a valuation lower than the industry average. New Times Securities rejected the offer and demanded a higher price after it found Guorong Securities Co. Ltd. was in talks to sell a stake for 8 billion yuan with a PB ratio of 2.88. Experts said a PB ratio of 1.6 would be reasonable for New Times Securities, suggesting a price of 16 billion yuan. Unwinding the complex web of companies controlled by Tomorrow Holding and selling off its assets has been a difficult task for regulators. They began picking the conglomerate apart in 2019 with the seizure of Inner Mongolia-based Baoshang Bank because of its severe credit risk that threatened the stability of the banking system. The good assets of the lender were later taken over by Mengshang Bank, whose major shareholders include a national deposit insurance fund managed by the central bank, the government of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Anhui-based Huishang Bank Corp. Ltd. Read more Chinas Graft Busters Reveal Shocking Corruption Among Local Regulators of Failed Baoshang Bank As well as cleaning up New Times Securities, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has been tasked with sorting out another brokerage, Guosheng Securities Co. Ltd., and a futures firm, Guosheng Futures Co. Ltd. Their daily operations are being managed by CSC Financial Co. Ltd., Avic Securities Co. Ltd., China Merchants Securities Co. Ltd. and Guotai Junan Futures Co. Ltd. The other six companies included in the nine seized by regulators in 2020 four insurers and two trust firms are being dealt with by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com) and editor Nerys Avery (nerysavery@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. Chinas benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (000001.SH) gained 0.19% on Friday, while the Shenzhen Component Index (399001.SZ) rose 0.71%. Shanghais tech-heavy STAR 50 Index (000688.SH) lost 0.13% for the day, while Shenzhens similar ChiNext Index (399006.SZ) rose 2.06%. Below is a rundown of the top China business and finance stories, plus other news for the day: Source of Fujian Outbreak May Have Been Infected in Quarantine Man who returned from Singapore tested negative nine times in 21 days of quarantine before Covid-19 appeared after 38 days in China, top immunization official reports Energy Insider: China to Sell 7.38 Million Barrels From Crude Reserves Chifeng Jilong Gold Mining to invest $1.46 million for exploration in Slovakia; aluminum prices reach 15-year high; China-Africa sea-rail service starts China Formally Applies to Join CPTPP Multilateral Trans-Pacific trade pact includes Australia, Canada and Singapore but not the U.S. after Trump withdrew from bloc conceived by Obama MSCI Outlines Regulators Role in New Offshore Stock Index Futures Global index provider explains background, design of A-share index futures that will start trading in Hong Kong Evergrande Chairman Quits as Director of Luxury Hong Kong Property Firm Hui Ka Yan remains as sole shareholder of house estimated to be worth $103 million Top Chinese Diplomats Overseas Trip Focuses on Tighter Collaboration With Neighbors South China Sea tensions, Belt and Road links and multilateral cooperation were key issues addressed during foreign minister Wang Yis visit State-Owned Chinese Coal Giants Pledge to Buy Green Power A dozen producers vowed to participate in the new trading program that aims to support the countrys transition away from polluting fuels like coal New Book Says Top U.S. Military Officer Secretly Called Chinese Counterpart, Infertility Rate Rises, Earthquake Strikes Sichuan Cyberspace regulator tells platforms to manage accounts better, authorities announce blacklist for misconduct in after-school tutoring GMs China Venture Is Developing Its Own Microchips, Report Says SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile says it aims to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of its chips through a project it has been working on since 2018 Over 90% of Chinese Students Aged 12 to 17 Fully Vaccinated Against Covid More than 95% of pupils, teachers and school staff have received two doses, state media reports Click here to read more of the latest news. This article was generated by Caixin Automation. Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Follow the Chinese markets in real time with Caixin Globals new stock database. 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 following Chinas three astronauts safe return to earth after three months in the Tianhe space station core module. They also showed interest in the new development in the countrys fight against Covid-19 booster shots will soon be administered in Central Chinas Henan province. Netizens also welcomed news that Russian President Putin accepted Chinas invitation to attend the Beijing Winter Olympics next year. 1. Denmark removes all Covid-19 restrictions Denmark had lifted all restrictions (external source, in Danish) to curb the spread of Covid-19 as of Friday, including a rule requiring people to present proof of vaccination to enter nightclubs. The decision was taken after more than 83% of eligible people aged above 12 in Denmark had been fully vaccinated, according to the Danish Health Authority. 2. Uniqlo boss loses crown as the richest person in Japan Takemitsu Takizaki, founder of electronic-sensor maker Keyence Corp., has beaten out Uniqlo billionaire Tadashi Yanai (external source) to become the richest person in Japan, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Takizaki is worth $38.2 billion after his companys shares almost doubled from last year. Fast Retailings Yanai is now worth $35.6 billion. 3. Chinas two epidemic prevention mini programs on Alipay combined Chinas two epidemic control functions on Ant Groups Alipay a national health code and a travel card that traces where citizens have been within 14 days have been combined into one (external source, in Chinese) to facilitate Covid-19 inspection at checkpoints, Chinese media reported. 4. Covid-19 booster shots will be administered in Central Chinas Henan province China will soon launch a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot program (external source, in Chinese) in the central province of Henan, the first of its kind at provincial level for fully vaccinated people to receive an extra dose of vaccine. The program will prioritize adults under 60. 5. Shenzhou-12 astronauts land safely Having worked in the space station core module Tianhe for three months, three "taikonauts" of the Shenzhou-12 crew returned to Earth on Friday (external source). The return capsule of the manned spaceship, carrying Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Photo: Xinhua 6. Russian President Putin confirms visit to 2022 Winter Olympic Games Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted China's invitation (external source) to attend next year's Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday. The 2022 Winter Olympics are due to take place from Feb. 4 to 20. 7. Shoemaking industry in Fujian hit by Covid-19 outbreak The shoemaking industry, one of the pillar sectors in East Chinas Putian in Fujian province, has been heavily hit by the latest Covid-19 outbreak (external source, in Chinese) that emerged in early September. Some shoemaking factory staff interviewed by national broadcaster CCTV in the city said that theyve shut down and domestic and foreign business orders have been canceled. 8. Top American military officer made secret calls with Chinese counterpart, new book alleges A forthcoming book written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa said that top U.S. military officer Mark Milley (external source, in Chinese) has made two secret phone calls with his Chinese counterpart in October and January to reassure Beijing that U.S. would not attack China, U.S. media reported. http://news.cyol.com/gb/articles/2021-09/16/content_3MPG8fz7j.html 9. Infertility rate rises to 12%-18% The infertility rate (external source, in Chinese) among Chinese couples of childbearing age has risen to 12%-18%, according to state media. 10. Putin self-isolates after coming in contact with Covid case Russian President Vladimir Putin (external source, in Chinese) is self-isolating after coming into close contact with a staff member in his inner circle who had been infected with the coronavirus, according to media reports. Putin has tested negative for Covid-19, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Translated by reporter Lu Zhenhua. Caixin has not independently verified the veracity or accuracy of all of the headlines or stories. 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. The recent Covid-19 outbreak in southern Chinas Fujian province was probably caused by a patient who was infected during quarantine, a Chinese health expert said. The latest outbreak totaled 200 cases in three cities as of Wednesday. The first cases in two students were detected through routine testing at an elementary school. Their father, who returned from overseas in early August, is considered the likely origin. The father was quarantined in a hotel in Xiamen for 14 days after arriving Aug. 4 on a flight from Singapore, followed by an additional seven-day quarantine at his final destination in Xianyou county about 95 miles from Xiamen. He tested negative nine times during quarantine, according to local health authorities. When he finally tested positive Sept. 10, he had been in the country 38 days. Based on epidemiological investigations and laboratory testing, it is now believed that the man may have contracted the coronavirus during his second quarantine, said Wang Huaqing, chief expert for Chinas immunization program at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a press conference Thursday. This led to the further infections, Wang said. The Fujian outbreak is Chinas first to include a significant number of schoolchildren. Since Sept. 10, more than half of the newly confirmed local cases were teachers and students at schools and kindergartens and factory workers, indicating an infection cluster, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said at the news conference. After the outbreak, Xiamen and Putian conducted citywide mass testing. That was necessary as the infected include asymptomatic people, who can spread the virus no matter whether they develop into patients or continue as asymptomatic, Wang said. The education ministry ordered that all students and teachers have negative test result before they return to school this fall. Border areas and other regions with frequent visitors from abroad are encouraged to conduct regular nucleic acid testing for teachers and students, said Wan Lijun, an official with the Ministry of Education. Starting Tuesday, all kindergartens, primary and middle schools in Xiamen and Putian will be closed, and students have been asked to attend classes online. More than 90% of Chinese students ages 12 to 17 have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, state media reported Wednesday, citing the Ministry of Education. In total, more than 1 billion people have been fully vaccinated in China, according to the National Health Commission. China CDCs Wang also suggest the vaccination of children younger than 12. To contain the spread of the disease, more than 10,000 major tourist attractions across the country will be closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. Welcome to Caixins Tech Insider, your twice-weekly wrap on the movers, shakers and deal-makers in Chinas tech scene. Alibaba bets on self-driving delivery vans Alibaba has led a $300 million funding round for Shenzhens robotaxi service provider DeepRoute.ai, reflecting the Chinese e-commerce giants interest in a technology which looks set to make parcel delivery cheaper. In a Tuesday statement, DeepRoute.ai, which aside from taxis is seeking to develop midsized self-driving delivery trucks, said it wants to spend the money on research and development, to expand its fleet and grow ties with automakers. Other investors include Jeneration Capital, Fosun RZ Capital, Yunqi Partners and Glory Ventures. The investment comes days after domestic rival WeRide announced plans to mass-produce an autonomous cargo van designed for urban logistics. Xiaomi shoots for spectacles Xiaomi Corp. teased new smart glasses as it seeks to add to a product range that includes smartphones, computers and web-enabled home appliances. The glasses will be able to take photos, display messages and notifications, make calls, and help a wearer navigate and translate text, Xiaomi said in a Tuesday WeChat post. The firm, which added making electric cars as one of its major businesses this year, did not say how much the glasses will cost or when they might hit the market. Huawei goes underground Huawei Technologies this week launched Kuanghong, an operating system designed for Chinas coal mining industry, which currently runs on operating systems like Linux, Unix and Windows. It comes as more Chinese companies seek to replicate or replace foreign-built systems in line with the broader goal of technological self-sufficiency. But the Kuanghong platform, based on Huaweis Harmony OS, adds new features, according to the firm. That includes a unified data protocol, which enables all underground mining equipment to use a single interface to transmit and gather data for analysis. The system is compatible with nearly 400 types of equipment used in coal mines. Juzhen chooses U.S.-developed lidars Shanghai-based self-driving startup Juzhen Data Tech said this week that it has agreed to buy 1,190 lidar sensors from California-based tech firm Ouster Inc. through 2025. Juzhen will install the lidars in its new electric vehicles to help them drive themselves on Chinas roads, according to a joint statement. Automotive lidar uses spinning lasers to scan the environment around a car. It bounces laser pulses off surrounding objects and measures how long reflected light takes to return in order to gauge distances and shapes. Service robots make bank Keenon Robotics Co. Ltd., a Shanghai-based company which develops service robots for industries including real estate, healthcare and hospitality, said on Wednesday that it has raised $200 million in a series D funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The proceeds will be spent on research and development, and to scale its platform into new markets, Keenon founder Tony Li said in a statement. The 11-year-old company says it operates in the U.S., Europe, South Korea and Singapore. Meanwhile PuduTech, which is in a similar line of work, said this week that it has raised 1 billion yuan ($155 million) in a series C funding round, including two tranches, with participation from a group of investors including food delivery giant Meituan, Sequoia Capital China and Shenzhen Investment Holdings. Founded in 2016, the Shenzhen-based startup sells its products to hospitals, hotels, restaurants and office buildings for things like deliveries, disinfection and cleaning. Huawei exile Honor teams up with Microsoft Honor, which started life as Huaweis low-end phone brand but sloughed itself off last year as sanctions crippled the parent firm, has signed an agreement with Microsoft. The deal will allow it to adopt smart speech and translation services based on the U.S. tech giants Azure cloud computing platform. They will support Honors smart voice assistant Yoyo, and for other applications. As part of the deal which was announced on Thursday, the Honor MagicBook V 14 laptop will come preinstalled with the Windows 11, becoming the worlds first batch of computers to run on the operating system. The laptop is set to be unveiled on Sept. 26. This Caixin Tech Insider was compiled by Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and edited by Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com). Send us your tips and feedback. Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. Journalists Flavia Fontes Mantovani, of Folha de Sao Paulo daily newspaper in Brazil, and Katherine Stanley Obando, from solutions journalism outlet El Colectivo 506 in Costa Rica, will receive USD$5,000 to investigate mental health in their regions. The Carter Center in Atlanta and Universidad de La Sabana in Bogota, Colombia, in partnership with the Gabo Foundation, announces the recipients of two fellowships awarded by the 2021-2022 Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in Latin America. Since 2013, the Latin American fellowships have been awarded annually by The Carter Center and Universidad de La Sabana to journalists in the region to investigate and produce in-depth journalism related to mental health in Latin America. In 2019, the program was extended from Colombia to other Latin American countries, with support from the Gabo Foundation. Fellows receive US$5,000 for their projects and specialized training in the Rosalynn Carter Journalism Fellowships Learning Lab from at the beginning and end of their fellowship year. They also receive mental health support as they work on their projects. Due to pandemic restrictions, this years Learning Lab will be held virtually from September 20-22. In 2021, the Latin American fellowships received close to 60 applications. It has been particularly difficult to choose the winners this year because of the quality of the proposals we received and because mental health as a medical and social issue has grown to unprecedented levels during the pandemic in the region and the world, said Victor Garcia, administrator of the Latin American fellowships and professor at Universidad de La Sabana. Were seeing more journalists investigating issues related to the inequality gap that seems to hit vulnerable populations the hardest. As part of the fellowship selection process, the Gabo Foundation verifies that applications meet the minimum requirements before moving into two rounds of project reviews. In the first round of review, a committee of fellowship administrators in Colombia and the Gabo Foundation reviewed the applications and selected seven outstanding projects to advance to the second round. In the second round of evaluation, a group of external journalists and mental health experts selected three finalist projects, who went on to a final interview with administrators. The 2021-2022 recipients of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in Latin America are: Flavia Montes Mantovani Outlet: Folha de Sao Paulo Country: Brazil Flavia Montes Mantovani is a journalist on the international desk at Folha de Sao Paulo, specializing in migration and human rights. Montes Mantoyani was previously a reporter for portal G1 of Revista Capital in Spain and former editor of the Sunday magazine and science and health at Folha. Montes Mantoyani is a social communicator and journalist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, won second place in the Red Cross Award for Humanitarian Journalism (2020) and was the winner of the Folha Journalism Award (2008). Topic: The mental health and social conditions of Venezuelan migrants in Brazil during the pandemic. Katherine Stanley Obando Outlet: El Colectivo 506 Country: Costa Rica Katherine Stanley Obando is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Colectivo 506. She was previously director and editor of The Tico Times, a blogger for the Costa Rica Daily Boost, and communications advisor to Nobel Oscar Arias. She has also freelanced for El Faro, Yes Magazine and Huffington Post. Stanley Obando holds a Master's in education from the University of Arizona and is a graduate in American History and Literature from Harvard University. Topic: Solutions journalism and community networks in action to improve mental health and reduce trauma and stigma in the rural population of Costa Rica. More information: Tips for journalists covering mental health and trauma (Spanish) Follow @CarterFellows on Twitter to learn more about Carter Fellows and their work. For more information, follow Universidad de la Sabana and its Communication faculty on Twitter. Contact: In Atlanta, Rennie Sloan, rennie.sloan@cartercenter.org Contact for fellowship questions: carterfellows@cartercenter.org "Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope." A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Photo: Contributed Pent-up travel demand could spark a boom for the travel industry in the coming year. A new survey by Pacific Blue Cross and Insights West reveals many British Columbians are eager to travel again, soon. The survey indicates 76 per cent of those surveyed want to take a trip by the end of 2022 and 43 per cent plan to take trips to the United States and 39 per cent plan to take trips to other international destinations. The survey also found that, as B.C. continues to administer COVID-19 vaccines, 62 per cent of British Columbians will be comfortable taking a local trip involving no air travel by December 2021. Peoples focus is on family and friends right now. We see from the survey that 82 per cent of British Columbians plan future trips for reunions with family or friends, where 73 per cent are to de-stress and relax, says Cathy Nurmi, senior manager, travel plans, Pacific Blue Cross. Impacted by COVID-19, many people have been forced to live apart from their friends and family for more than 18 months so safe travel to reunite is definitely on British Columbians radar. The survey also shows British Columbians are dreaming of safe international travel, with top destinations outside North America being Europe and the Caribbean, followed by Asia and the South Pacific. The survey also found British Columbians are willing to comply with additional requirements to ensure safe, enjoyable travel, with 74 per cent indicating they would probably or definitely buy travel medical insuranceeven if theyve been fully vaccinated. We know in the past, travel medical or trip protection insurance wasnt universally adopted by B.C. travellers, but the first question were being asked about is COVID coverage, says John Crawford, president and CEO of Pacific Blue Cross. The increase were seeing in the desire for buying travel insurance is unprecedented and shows that, while people want to travel, they want to do so safely, so they can protect their financial health and physical well being. Photo: The Canadian Press A watch camp that was recently abandoned because members formed a new blockade a few kilometres away is shown in the Fairy Creek area near Port Renfrew, B.C., on May, 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jen Osborne A British Columbia court heard today from lawyers who say people from all walks of life with concerns about protecting old-growth trees from logging on Vancouver Island are being treated like terrorists by the police and a forestry company. The lawyers represent about half a dozen people who oppose a court application by Teal Cedar Products Ltd. to extend an injunction order against protest blockades in the Fairy Creek area by one year. About 1,000 people have have been arrested in the area north of Port Renfrew since May when the RCMP started to enforce an earlier B.C. Supreme Court injunction against blockades erected in several areas near logging sites. Lawyer Elizabeth Strain showed the court videos and photographs of police allegedly unsafely removing protesters from trees and ditches, and pulling off the face masks of people at the blockades before dousing them with pepper spray. She says the protesters include youth, teachers, retired scientists, doctors, lawyers and students with fears about climate change and they want to protect the trees, but they are being treated like terrorists. During the hearing, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson said the protesters appear to be employing tactics purposely designed to make enforcement of the injunction difficult for the police. Lawyer Matthew Nefstead, who is representing several members of the Rainforest Flying Squad protest group, says granting the injunction extension should be denied because it could be viewed by the police as granting them further powers. Teal Cedar lawyer Dean Dalke told the court Tuesday the blockades are impeding the company's legal rights to harvest timber and alleged the actions of the protesters pose dangers to employees and the RCMP. Photo: The Canadian Press Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison participates in a virtual meeting in Sydney, Saturday, March 13, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dean Lewins/Pool via AP Nothing to see here, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted Thursday after the United States and two other major Canadian allies unveiled a new intelligence-sharing agreement in the Indo-Pacific region one that's prompting questions about the future of the so-called Five Eyes alliance. The Five Eyes Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. is the colloquial name of a long-standing multilateral arrangement for keeping security tabs on a part of the world where China's growing influence is being watched with apprehension around the globe. That's why the unexpected new bargain between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, christened AUKUS, is raising eyebrows in foreign-policy circles internationally, as well as on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. "We continue to be strong members of the Five Eyes, and continue to share information and security approaches with our partners," Trudeau said during an election campaign stop in Montreal. He characterized the new agreement as being mainly about a decision by Australia, increasingly nervous about Chinese ambition in its backyard, to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, scuttling long-standing negotiations to procure a submarine fleet from France. "This is a deal for nuclear submarines, which Canada is not currently or any time soon in the market for; Australia is," Trudeau said. "That is what we will continue to work alongside our partners to ensure that we're keeping ourselves safe, that we're standing up against challenges, including those posed by China." Those challenges have become substantial in recent years, compromising Canada's ability to frame its relationship with China as one rooted largely in mutually beneficial trade and economic growth, with a periodic shove on matters of human rights and national security. Former prime minister Stephen Harper struggled to walk that line in 2012 when he grudgingly approved a Chinese state-owned company's takeover of Calgary-based oilsands giant Nexen Inc., while simultaneously unveiling stringent new foreign-ownership rules. The Liberal government abandoned its pursuit of a trade deal with China, and has long hedged its bets on Huawei Inc., the Chinese tech monolith whose 5G network ambitions are seen by many around the world as a major national security threat. Of the Five Eyes partners, only Canada has stopped short of a ban. The 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, wanted on a U.S. extradition warrant, thickened the plot considerably especially when China detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in what was widely seen as an act of retribution. "There's a line in the Rush song 'Free Will' that says, 'If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice,'" said Eric Miller, a Canada-U.S. expert and president of the D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group. "That's been the problem: that Canada hasn't known what it wants out of the China relationship." Canada's diplomatic response Thursday stood in stark contrast to the reaction in France, which piqued by the U.S. role in abetting Australia's decision to abandon its original submarine talks cancelled a planned gala event in D.C. meant to celebrate the close ties between the two countries. White House press secretary Jen Psaki wasn't asked specifically about the Five Eyes, but did acknowledge the frustration in France, saying the U.S. has diplomatic relationships and mechanisms in place with allies and regions around the world. "This is not the only global engagement or global co-operative partnership the United States has in the world," Psaki said. "There are a range of partnerships that include the French, and some partnerships that don't, and they have partnerships with other countries that don't include us. That is part of how global diplomacy works." China called the deal a "closed and exclusive clique" and suggesting the pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines was a direct affront to a number of nuclear non-proliferation treaties to which all three countries are signatories. "They are using nuclear exports as a tool for geopolitical games and adopting double standards. This is extremely irresponsible," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman told a news conference. "Relevant countries should abandon the outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical perception, respect the will of the people of regional countries and do more to contribute to regional peace, stability and development." Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and White House adviser who now works as a consultant in Washington, said it's likely Canada invited or otherwise would have wanted nothing to do with the talks, given the risk of exacerbating tensions with China and endangering Kovrig and Spavor further. But the absence is conspicuous nonetheless, he said. "I imagine that Canada is reluctant to poke the panda bear at a time when they already have a whole lot of issues they're contending with," Bruen said. "But if I were Canadian, it would seem that not being in that elite club comes with significant costs. So it's not an obvious choice to say, 'Well, we'll just sit this one out.' Because if you're not in that inner circle of the closest co-ordination, there are costs." With Monday's federal election drawing near, Trudeau's rivals on the campaign trail promptly seized on the AUKUS deal as evidence that the Liberal government has abdicated Canada's international responsibilities. "Mr. Trudeau is not taken seriously by our friends and allies around the world," said Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, pitching his promise to seek closer economic and trade ties with Australia and New Zealand if elected prime minister. "This is another major gathering of our closest allies that Mr. Trudeau is not even given a phone call." NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh accused Trudeau of missing an opportunity to press China to release Kovrig and Spavor. "Canada should have been part of the pact," Singh said. "This pact seems like a potential avenue to apply more pressure, but Canada was absent." Photo: The Canadian Press Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Alberta businessgroups say a new program the province has launched to fight COVID-19 has been short on details while giving business owners little notice to make dramatic changes to their operations. The Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Thursday that their members have uncovered plenty of confusion as they scramble to make sense of the restriction exemption program Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced Wednesday. "Yesterdays announcement prompted more questions than answers for our business community," said Deborah Yedlin, the chamber's president and chief executive, in a statement. "Answers and clarity are needed urgently." The program Yedlin was referring to is meant to force people in Alberta to show proof of vaccination to enter non-essential businesses, including select stores, restaurants, nightclubs, casinos, concerts and libraries as of Sept. 20. Businesses can opt out of the program but must operate at reduced capacity and with distancing rules or restrictions. For example, restaurants not in the program are limited to outdoor dining with no more than six people at a table. Just after the program was announced, Annie Dormuth, the CFIB's provincial affairs director for Alberta, was already hearing from owners confused about if they will have to apply to use the program or to opt out of it. Others were concerned the government didn't offer guidance or training to staff around how to check if vaccination proof is fraudulent or deal with unruly patrons who disagree with the measures. Some even lamented a lack of time to reorient their businesses and retrain staff for the new policies because the program has more exemptions than initiatives in other provinces and was announced roughly four days before it will go into effect. "In the province of B.C., they were given a week and they were given support in the form of posters and guidance documents and here, we are three-and-a-half days away from this now and there's not a whole lot of guidance being provided to business owners right now," said Dormuth. The lack of details is the latest challenge for small business owners who have spent much of the pandemic dealing with lower sales and fewer patrons. CFIB estimates that small businesses in Canada now have debt totalling $139 billion due to COVID-19, a slight increase from the estimated $135 billion in February of this year. Three-quarters of small businesses that took on debt believe it will take more than a year to repay. In the hospitality sector alone, 87 per cent believe it will take longer than two years to deal with their debts. Despite the pandemic challenges, Andrew Cowan had no qualms about requiring guests to show proof of vaccination before they visit Northern Chicken, the Edmonton restaurant he co-owns. "Between my business partner and I, there were chats about how maybe we were going to do a vaccine passport ourselves, but the government is doing it now, so we don't have to worry," he said. Cowan believes the changes won't take much effort for his restaurant to implement because it doesn't seat too many people and his staff have become accustomed to adapting to changes quickly after more than a year of pandemic regulations. The biggest task stemming from the new program, he said, is training staff to check vaccine statuses and deal with any guests that try to buck the new regulations. "It was a pretty muddy announcement, but we've got it pretty much figured out now and it doesn't really change much from our perspective," Cowan said. "We were already being careful and trying to keep everything socially distanced in the restaurant already." The program that his restaurant and others are now adjusting to was introduced because a wave of new COVID-19 cases has overwhelmed hospitals. Seeing droves of unvaccinated patients, health-care workers intensified their calls for more stringent safety measures amid polls showing support for vaccination passports in recent months, but Kenney refused to heed their advice until this week. "Jason Kenney has demonstrated himself to be a skilled contortionist, bending himself virtually into a pretzel in order to appease a small fringe but vocal group of individuals who are opposed to vaccination," University of Alberta assistant professor of infectious diseases, Dr. Ilan Schwartz, said at a Wednesday press conference held by Protect Our Province. Photo: The Canadian Press The Minnesota Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday evening for voters in Minneapolis to decide on the future of policing in the city where George Floyd was killed, just ahead of the start of early and absentee voting. The states highest court overturned a lower court ruling that rejected ballot language approved by the City Council. A district judge said the wording failed to adequately describe the effects of a proposed charter amendment that would replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety that could include police officers if necessary. But Chief Justice Lorie Gildea said in a three-page order that the justices concluded that the challenge to the ballot language did not meet the high standard that the court set in earlier cases. She said the court will issue a full opinion laying out its legal reasoning sometime later to avoid impeding the start of voting. Now voters have the opportunity to make their voices heard on this ballot question, City Attorney Jim Rowader said. The Supreme Court was under pressure to rule quickly because early and absentee voting opens at 8 a.m. Friday in the Minneapolis municipal elections. The ballots were already being printed when Hennepin County District Judge Jamie Anderson ruled against the language Tuesday. It was the second time she had struck down the councils wording. Gildea put the case on the fast track Wednesday. Lawyers on both sides said beforehand that they expected the high court ruling allowing the ballot language to be the final word, given the late hour. Leaders of the pro-amendment Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign have a rally set for Friday afternoon. We're all very pleased that the system worked, said Terrance Moore, an attorney for Yes 4 Minneapolis. "As ugly as it sometimes looks, the process went through from beginning to end and in the end the Supreme Court followed the law and its precedent. And the voters get to vote on the ballot question. The proposal has its roots in the defund the police movement, which gained steam after Floyds death last summer sparked protests, civil unrest and a national reckoning on racial justice. The amendment does not use the term defund. But it would remove the city charters requirement that Minneapolis have a police department with a minimum staffing level. Many details of how the new agency would work would be left up to the the City Council and mayor to decide later. Yes 4 Minneapolis, which spearheaded the initiative, insists that the city would continue to have police if voters approve the amendment, but that the new department would be free to take a fresh approach to public safety that could reduce excessive policing against communities of color. Opponents of the amendment, including former council member Don Samuels and his wife, Sondra, who were behind the court challenge, said the ballot language leaves too many important questions unexplained for voters about how the new department would be implemented, led, staffed and funded. The All of Minneapolis anti-amendment campaign said it will start running its first ad on Friday. Its message is that the lack of a plan for what comes next if the proposal passes is alarming to many residents, especially given the track record of City Council members who have expressed varying degrees of support over time for defunding or abolishing the police. Yes 4 Minneapolis argued in its filing with the Supreme Court that the Minneapolis Police Department would not automatically disappear if the amendment passed. The group said the department would continue to exist under current city ordinances until the City Council passed new laws to establish the new agency, and that the council could keep the force in place as long as necessary for an orderly transition. Photo: Wikimedia Commons A five-year-long quest has finally paid off. The Howe Sound area has been given worldwide recognition as an area of importance by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The region has been recognized as Canadas 19th biosphere region by UNESCO, according to a news release from the Howe Sound Biosphere Region Initiative. This means that the international organization has deemed the place a zone of global ecological significance. Its really gratifying and its almost surreal, said biosphere spokesperson Ruth Simons. Certainly, when we looked at the nomination documents, the blank template, it was quite daunting. And so its just really satisfying to know that all the great work that everybody collectively put in towards this project has been recognized by this prestigious international body. While the title does not create a park or grant any legal authority, the international designation does carry prestige and can be a point of leverage for environmental advocates. Simons added that some people are under the impression that the UNESCO designation will mean another layer of bureaucracy in decision-making. This, she said, is not true. Its not a mechanism to stop development it is a framework under which all the authorities come together and have a holistic plan, said Simons. The hope is that this designation will encourage sustainable development, she said. The biosphere regions actually are places for learning, for science, for research and restoration. And the more we know, the more we make better decisions, Simons said. So I think for developers coming into the region that hopefully with the tools and more data and more information, then we make better decisions. This newfound title is not a given it will have to be maintained. Locals must demonstrate to the organization every 10 years that the location is living up to the standards of a UNESCO biosphere, or Howe Sound will lose its status. I think the ultimate game plan is ... healthy clean air, healthy waters, healthy soil, said Simons. The biosphere region covers 218,723 hectares of land and sea, encompassing the entire Howe Sound watershed. Its boundaries begin near Point Atkinson in West Vancouver, running north to Black Tusk near Whistler, and as far west as Gower Point on the Sunshine Coast. The core protected area traverses five B.C. provincial parks, one B.C. provincial conservancy, and several marine refuges. Photo: The Canadian Press Softwood lumber is pictured along the Fraser River in Richmond, B.C., Tuesday, April 25, 2017.Fire has charred huge piles of logs stored at a northeastern B.C. lumber mill operated by West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward Fire has charred huge piles of logs stored at a northeastern B.C. lumber mill operated by West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. A statement from the company says flames broke out in the log yard of the Chetwynd Lumber Mill early Thursday afternoon and continued to burn Friday. The company says there were no injuries. The mill is not at risk and the statement says the fire has been contained to the log yard while firefighters from several area departments work to stop its spread. Chetwynd Mayor Allen Courtoreille says two BC Wildfire Service helicopters equipped with water buckets were among the crews that responded. West Fraser says an investigation of the cause and estimate of the damage will begin when the fire is out. Photo: CTV News As we enter the final days ahead of Monday's federal election, voter sentiment in British Columbia has narrowed and solidified. The latest survey by Vancouver-based Insights West shows the Liberals in third place with 22 per cent of decided voters, and the Conservatives and NDP in a statistical tie. It appears as though the Liberals will be the losing party in this electionat least among BC voters when we look at the popular vote says Steve Mossop, President of Insights West. The Liberals were unable to stop the slide throughout this campaign, as the electorate was never able to get over the audacity of having what is perceived to be an expensive and unnecessary election during the fourth wave of the pandemic. As a result of this, there is an overwhelming sentiment that a change is needed in governance at the federal level here in BC, and the NDP and Conservatives will benefit most from this feeling. Whether the change here in BC is enough to upset the apple cart in the House of Commons for the rest of the nation will be understood better on election day when the final ballots are tallied in the rest of the country. Mossop says according to the latest poll, the Liberals will end up in third place in British Columbia after only a minor increase in voter support in the final days of the campaign and since their last poll (conducted September 1-4, 2021). "Current indications are that the NDP has 33 per cent of decided voters, down 2 points from two weeks ago, and the Conservative Party is up one point to 34 per cent, while the third-place Liberals, despite being up three points will only get 22 per cent of decided voters in the province. The Green Party has the support of 7 per cent of the decided vote, down 1 point, and a small number, 4 per cent currently support the Peoples Party," Mossop says. The NDP is more popular among female voters, and 18-34 year-olds, while the Conservatives are more appealing to males, and the 55 years+ age group. The Liberals are also slightly more popular among female voters, and those who live in Metro Vancouver. "Voter certainty has increased dramatically since our last poll two weeks ago, 80 per cent of decided voters are very certain their vote will not change now compared to 62 per cent two weeks ago," says Mossop. Insights West examined voter motivation and broke it down by party voting intentions, which revealed some interesting findings. A significant percentage of BC voters, 72 per cent are voting the way they are because they want a change in governmentbut that number is dramatically higher for Conservative voters, 94 per cent, and NDP voters, 81 per cent versus Liberal voters, 19 per cent. Many voters, 74 per cent, are voting against the platform and policies of another party. Hurting the Liberals perhaps most is the finding that nearly half, 49 per cent of all voters are voting against the Liberals because they called an unnecessary election. On an overall basis, the vast majority, 87 per cent of voters indicate they are selecting the party based on the platform or policies, and this does not vary by partisan vote. Photo: The Canadian Press Liberal leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ont, on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau made an appeal to progressive voters in southern Ontario on Friday morning, but was forced to face questions about a past sexual assault charge against one of his candidates that was later dropped. Speaking in Windsor, Ont, Trudeau said Spadina-Fort York candidate Kevin Vuong has been asked to "pause" his campaign after the party learned about the allegations. "We are a party that always takes seriously any allegations or reports of sexual harassment or intimidation or assault," Trudeau said. "That has been clear from the very beginning." He said his party had not been aware of the charge until Thursday, when the Toronto Star published a report on the matter. "We are looking into it very carefully and we have asked the candidate to pause his campaign," he said. Vuong said in a statement that the allegations are false. I vigorously fought these allegations when they were initially brought forward. The allegations were withdrawn. Had they not been withdrawn, I would have continued to defend myself against these false allegations, he said. This resurfacing three days before the election is deeply troubling to me and my family. I will be taking some time with my family. Court documents confirm Vuong was charged with sexual assault in 2019 and that the charge was withdrawn later that year. Brian Gray, a spokesman for Ontarios Ministry of the Attorney General, said in a statement that, in general, the Crown "has a duty to assess the strength of a case throughout a prosecution, and is duty bound to withdraw charges if there is no reasonable prospect of conviction, or if it is not in the public interest to proceed." The Conservatives and the NDP both sent out statements criticizing Trudeau and calling for Vuong to be booted from the Liberal party. "By defending this candidate, Justin Trudeau is still putting the ambitions of himself and other men over the lives and well-being of women," NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in a statement. The Conservatives, for their part, accused Trudeau of hiding the charge form Canadians and called on the Liberal leader to promise that Vuong would not sit in the Liberal caucus if elected. Trudeau did not specifically answer a question about whether Vuong would be fired, saying the party still had "questions about exactly what happened." "We are looking into that very rapidly," he said. Spadina Fort-York was previously represented by Liberal Adam Vaughan, who is not running again in 2021. The report comes after many Canadians have already voted in advance polls and mail-in ballots. Trudeau chose to highlight the theme of sexual assault at an afternoon whistle stop in London, where he expressed support for the thousands of Western University students who walked out of classes on Friday to protest a "culture of misogyny" on campus. "It's not OK for women to feel unsafe in classrooms, in workplaces," Trudeau told the crowd on a restaurant patio, before pointing out that he was one of the first male volunteers at a student society sexual assault centre during his own university days at McGill some 30 years ago. Trudeau was greeted in both Windsor and London by small groups of protesters who hurled insults his way. In Windsor, about two dozen people chanted "traitor!" at Trudeau, whose supporters tried to respond by chanting the leader's name. In London, a man with a megaphone shouted "masks are ineffective!" and said it was his duty to oppose "tyrannical laws." In both cases, the Liberal leader ignored the protesters and went on greeting supporters. The questions around the candidate came as the leaders are making their pitch to voters in the final days of the campaign. At the same event in Windsor, Trudeau said he "took it personally" in 2019 when experts labelled the NDP and Greens' climate plans as more ambitious than his own. "It really bugged me that in 2019 the experts came out and looked at the various parties climate plans and said, 'the Liberal party has a great ambitious, concrete deliverable plan to fight climate change, sure, but the NDP and the Green party have more ambition in their plan,'" he told reporters. He said the experience motivated him to create his new plan, which he says is not just more concrete and realistic than the other two parties' plans, but also more ambitious. Trudeau spoke of his climate plan as he made a pointed plea to voters considering the New Democrats or the Green Party in the final days of the campaign. He said the Liberal party is the only one that can stop the Conservatives from governing, and also the one with the best plan, meaning voters are no longer facing the "impossible choice" of whether to vote strategically. "I will ask progressives across the country who are maybe thinking about voting for the NDP or Green Party to think about the top issues they are concerned with for the future," Trudeau said. The Liberals are promising a 40 to 45 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over 2005 levels by 2030 a target submitted to the United Nations earlier this year. The Conservatives are promising a 30 per cent reduction, while the NDP is promising 50 per cent and the Greens are promising 60 per cent. Differing priorities for Oman's leading cement players 17 September 2021 This week, Oman Cement Co announced that it is planning a 5600tpd brownfield expansion of its plant in Rusayl, Oman, as it builds a new kiln line, upgrades an existing line and shuts down some capacity. The capacity programme will improve its domestic production, which is currently behind market leader Raysut Cement. The latter catapulted its cement capacity ahead with the acquisition of Sohar Cement in 2019. The lure of foreign markets has also seen Raysut Cement expand its capcity, but both companies will anticipate a pick-up in domestic cement demand on hearing the recent government plans for a huge infrastructure programme. Oman Cement's new 10,000tpd kiln line will be the largest in the country and will operate using alternative fuels with the potential to include a waste heat recovery system. The company is also upgrading Line 3 from 4000tpd to 5000tpd but will close two small kiln lines. These investments follow the digital system overhaul that has seen ABB implement its Ability system 800xA to optimise kiln line performance at the start of this year. New cement plants in progress and on hold Already under construction in Oman is Raysut Cement's Duqm 0.75Mta grinding plant and the 2Mta Al Sahara cement pant. Meanwhile, announcements for two greenfield cement plants have been made by Dhofar Cement and International Cement project in Dhofar and Duqm, respectively. However, the speed of investment in Oman's cement sector has been checked. CemNet's plant database records that four cement projects in the country are currently on hold. The projects include Al-Yamama General Contracting Co's 2Mta grinding plant, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion's (MoCIIP) 0.3Mta white cement plant in Doqum, Oman Cement's Al Wusta 1.75Mta plant in Duqm and Hormozgan's 1Mta Al Anwar cement plant. This leaves domestic cement capacity at around 9.79Mta. Creating domestic cement demand The sultanate has been looking to increase cement production particularly around the Duqm Port area. The additional capacity will be needed to support a massive US$7.2bn infrastructure programme that has just been announced by the MoCIIP. Oman is making a concerted effort to kickstart investment in its tourism, mining and industry, logistics and food, fishing, health, ICT, waste management and education sectors with 90 investment programmes. Tourism, food and mining will spearhead the government's plans for creating new investment. Among the programmes, Madayn, the state-backed entity managing industrial cities, is seeking investments for new manufacturing hubs in Shinas, Marmul and Thamrait. The domestic cement market needs to recover. Oman Cement Co saw a decline in revenues of 16 per cent in the 1Q21 and a five per cent net profit fall in the 1H21. Raysut Cement Co faired slightly better with a five per cent increase in revenues in the 1Q21, and recorded a net loss after tax in1H21 to OMR3.2m (US$8.3m) from OMR10.9m in the 1H20. Raysut Cement looks to other markets The slow pick-up in domestic demand has forced Raysut Cement to look at various export options. It recently received certification to export to the European Union and already it exports 50 per cent of its output to east Africa, India, Maldives, South Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. The company also secured a new export order from Reunion recently and will send 8000tpm of cement to the market. Raysut Cement's capex plans go further with a new 0.75Mta grinding unit planned for Madagascar, where it aims to benefit from the 7-8 per cent market expansion. It is also investing, through its Pioneer Cement subsidiary, in a 1.2Mta greenfield plant in Georgia. While Raysut Cement has a current capacity of 6Mta of cement, it says it will increase this to 10Mta by 2022 and later to 22Mta. Summary Oman's government recognises that more needs to be done to encourage infrastructure investment, especially with COVID-19 still slowing the economy. Its fresh stimulus for infrastructure will be welcomed by the established cement plants in the country. Raysut Cement has firmly grasped the need to expand and looks towards export markets as well as aiming to expand capacity at home, while Oman Cement's next step is to make its domestic output more efficient. Published under RHI Magnesita appoints new COO 17 September 2021 RHI Magnesita has announced a new member of its global executive management team. Effective from 1 October 2021, Rajah Jayendran, currently head of operations Europe/CIS/Turkey, succeeds Gerd Schubert, who is preparing to retire, as chief operations officer (COO). Stefan Borgas, CEO of RHI Magnesita, emphasises: "Rajah Jayendran has proven in- and outside our company that he is an excellent operations manager, holding the reputation of a reliable and accurate partner. His track record and experience make him the right choice to follow Gerd Schubert as COO. Gerd will withdraw from the Executive Management Team, but continue to work for RHI Magnesita, driving initial Projects until he takes his well-deserved retirement. I would like to thank Gerd for 30 years of passionate engagement on behalf of our company." Born in 1969, Rajah Jayendran is a German national who holds an engineering degree from the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum. Mr Jayendran began his career in 1995 as a senior project manager at multinational conglomerate Thyssen-Krupp Uhde GmbH. Since 2018 Mr Jayendran has been a key team member at RHI Magnesita, the global leader and driving force of the refractory industry, holding the position of senior vice president operations Europe/CIS/Turkey. Published under Page not found Please try the following step instead: - Check your network connection and refresh the page - Check if the URL is correct - Try other interesting CGTN content This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Hamilton County will celebrate Constitution Day at noon this Friday on the south lawn of the Hamilton County Courthouse. In the event of rain, the ceremony will move to the Courthouse Rotunda. The public is invited to join the celebration. The 2021 Constitution Day Commemoration is hosted by the Chattanooga Area Regents Council, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, chaired by Jessica M. Dumitru. The Regents Council is comprised of the regents of the five area NSDAR Chapters: Gayle Burrows, regent, Chickamauga; Meegan Rogers Burton, regent, Judge David Campbell; Linda Crawford, regent, Nancy Ward Chapter; Linda Moss Mines, regent, Chief John Ross Chapter and Tina Statom, regent, Moccasin Bend Chapter. Hamilton County Government, the Chattanooga Bar Association and the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council are participating co-sponsors.Linda Moss Mines, Hamilton County historian, said, "Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the U. S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787 by the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, then meeting in Philadelphia. While the Articles of Confederation had been created to provide a governmental framework during the early days of revolution and the republic, by 1787, the union between the states was unraveling and the Articles of Confederation had become ineffectual in dealing with the rising conflicts."The writing of the Constitution is often referred as the Miracle in Philadelphia because the blending of the ideas and concepts advocated by the delegates required skillful negotiations and a willingness to compromise for the success of the young nation. The Framers, the delegates, worked tirelessly in drafting a document that would, by 2021, become the shortest and the longest-continuously used constitution in the history of the world. While three-fourths of the Framers had served in the earlier Congress and most had been leaders during the American Revolution, delegations were chosen by states so that each of the thirteen states would potentially have its voice reflected in the new document. Rhode Island, concerned about the possible changes that might impact its small state status, refused to participate but would ultimately ratify the finished document."Fridays commemoration of Constitution Day celebrates the creation of the United States of America as a republic. In an eighteenth-century world dominated by absolutist monarchy and tyranny, with the lone excepts of constitutional monarchies in Great Britain and the Netherlands, the Framers chose to create a government based on the will of the people, using the model of the Roman Republic. Three fundamental factors guide a republic: 1) The people hold the power of government. 2) The people give power to the leaders they elect to represent them and to serve their interest. 3) The representatives are responsible for helping all citizens, not a selected few with wealth and influence."Additionally, the Framers carefully crafted the mission of the new republic in writing the preamble, clarifying its purpose for existence. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America is certainly the most recognizable excerpt from the U. S. Constitution. The seven articles and twenty-seven amendments each support one or more of the overlying missions identified in the preamble."The rule of law - - a division of power between three branches - - a checks and balances system - - the right to vote - - an amendment process allowing change. Constitution Day celebrates a governmental system that, while not perfect, inspires people and nations to push for liberty, equality and justice." We can play these political word games all we want. The fact remains - people continue to get sick and die from the COVID virus - and we know exactly what we need to do and how to do it. We can continue to listen to the political posturing we hear every day or we can stop our whining and fix it. This is America - we are Americans. We should be lining up to do our part. We love to brag about how great we are - how smart, generous, adventurous, prosperous, etc. we are. It seems, however, we have become a nation of spoiled, rotten and entitled victims. We don't want to take responsibility for ourselves - we want someone else to do it for us and if they don't - we blame them - it's their fault - not ours. Why are we waiting for someone to tell us what we already know? I don't need Trump or Biden to tell me to get a vaccine or to wear a mask. I can read. I can get information from the finest and brightest scientific and medical minds on the planet and follow their suggestions. Why would I ignore experts from the Mayo Clinic, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Johns Hopkins, etc. and follow the lead of Marjorie Taylor Greene? Someone please explain to me the logic there because I don't get it. Like it or not - the battle to stop COVID is political. We clearly don't care what experts say. We are taking the word of elected officials and talking heads pretending to be journalists. Again - someone please explain the logic - I don't understand. In 2017, former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter shared the stage to collectively raise money and awareness for hurricane relief. Wouldn't it be great if Trump, Biden, Bush, Obama and Carter - set aside their obvious differences and got together for one common humanitarian goal? And maybe - if everyone else would stop for just a minute - to remind ourselves who we are - and what we are - maybe we can put the breaks on this thing. I once read - "...the best thing a parent can do for their child is to do just that - be at their best..." At our best - we/human beings are pretty much unstoppable. Surely we haven't forgotten how - or maybe we have? George Parker The Walker County Planning Commission on Thursday night voted unanimously to recommend denial for a rezoning request for a planned 156-unit low income development across from Ridgeland High School. The final decision will be by the five-member Walker County Commission after a second public hearing on Oct. 14. County officials had noted that "It was just recently brought to our attention that we inadvertently skipped a step in the rezoning process for 2563 Happy Valley Road. The second public hearing was advertised for Feb. 27, 2020, but on that date, it was postponed and never rescheduled." Jack Mullinax, who made the motion to deny, said he had made a similar motion after a hearing in February 2020 for traffic and other concerns. An attorney for the Hutcheson estate said he considered that the property had been rezoned correctly already. He said the property had long been rural, but the former Happy Valley Farms was recently divided up and sold. He said the Gateway Development Corporation would be "good neighbors to Walker County." Josh Manville of Gateway denied that the apartments would be, or could be in the future, Section 8. He said they would meet the needs of working people who were having more and more difficulty finding a place to live. He said rentals in Walker County currently are at about a 99 percent fill rate. Mr. Manville said the apartments would rent for $750 per month for one bedroom, $900 for two bedroom and $1,150 for three bedroom. He said market rate would be much higher. He said no rent subsidy is involved, and he said tenants are carefully screened, including criminal background checks. Traffic engineer Steve Meyer said he calculated that the apartments would raise traffic along Happy Valley Road by 2.7 percent in the mornings and four percent in the afternoons. A number of residents of nearby Mission Glen subdivision spoke against the project and presented a petition bearing 200 names. They cited increasing traffic, multiple wrecks at the junction of Highway 2A and Happy Valley Road, and concerns about crime and overcrowding of nearby schools. Paul Wells said a project on a large portion of the farm that is set to bring hundreds of new homes was a good addition, but the low income apartments were not. Several residents said they had moved to Mission Glen for the rural atmosphere and were opposed to multi-family. On the crime issue, one man said a nearby store hides its straws to keep them away from drug users. Another said since moving to Mission Glen "I've already been robbed twice." A nearby resident said multi-family went in behind him and "they shoot guns every night, the music is turned up loud, and the dog craps in my yard." The Planning Commission gave approval to the plat for the first of four phases of the major new subdivision at the farm. It will include a playground and park area. There will be three entrances to the development, with one aligning with a planned grocery and mixed-use project at the main intersection. The Hamilton County delegation of the Tennessee Democratic Party takes allegations of sexual assault very seriously. Our national bylaws guide us to believe women and other alleged sexual assault or misconduct victims when they come forward. We continue to stand for unwavering Democratic values, which include supporting women and encouraging them to share their truths. While we acknowledge and respect the fact that due process and the criminal justice system must always be followed in the wake of such allegations, there must also always be a practice of protecting and supporting survivors. This is neither a partisan issue nor a personal issue, but simply a human right that should not be abridged. Signed by the Hamilton County delegation of the Tennessee Democratic Party: Chris Anderson, District 10 Executive Committeeman Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod, District 10 Executive Committeewoman Ryan Scofield, District 11 Executive Committeeman Rachel Campbell, District 11 Executive Committeewoman A woman on Rocky River Road told police she placed her check for $125 for her church tithe to the Ministry Center in her mailbox. She said the check was stolen from her mailbox and altered. The check cleared her TVFCU account for $425 payable to a woman. She said they cannot tell where the check was cashed, but she thinks it was a check cashing business. She said she has contacted TVFCU and they requested a police report and are returning the $425 to her checking account. * * * A man on Cherry Street told police that someone has been drawing unemployment checks using his name and Social Security number. He said that checks were going to an address on Race Street, Memphis Tn. 38106. He said he learned of this from his employer CHI Memorial and the Tennessee Department of Labor. He said he was called into a hearing to attest that he had not filed for unemployment. Police gave him the phone number for the Memphis Police Department and suggested that he file the report there. He said he has already contacted the credit bureau and placed a freeze on his record. Police also gave him the website "identitytheft.gov" to read to further protect his identity. * * * Police were investigating the scene of a car fire the previous night at 1020 N. Moore Road. An unknown caller said they witnessed a female exit the burning vehicle and throw a pistol into shrubbery on the side of Brainerd Road. Police and K-9 arrived on scene. K-9 was able to locate a black Nike bag packed inside some shrubbery close to the Brainerd High School parking lot. Inside the Nike bag, police discovered a black CF revolver containing two .22 cal rounds. Police also found a cell phone and a $10 bill in the grass within close proximity to the gun. Police have no further leads and no crime has since been reported. All items were turned into Property. * * * A shoplifting was reported at Walmart, 490 Greenway View Dr. Loss Prevention officers said a white male had stolen items and left the store. The man took a JBL Bluetooth speaker, a pack of socks and a pack of underwear. LP officers stated they did not wish to prosecute at this time. Police canvased the area but did not locate the man. * * * Police were notified by CHA police of a found stolen vehicle parked in front of 2552 6th Ave. Police secured the vehicle and the owner was notified. The vehicle was towed by Cain's Wrecker Service per the vehicle owner's request. Police observed on CHA camera footage the vehicle pulling into the above address at 7:34 p.m. Police then observe four unidentified black males get out of the vehicle. (Photos of the men have been secured.) Police observed a man in a light blue shirt and red shorts get out of the driver's seat. Police also observed the men then leave the scene walking westbound on 26th Street. * * * A man told police he had pumped gas at the Exxon, 2301 4th Ave. He said he then left the lot and realized he left his rental vehicle's key at the gas station. He said when he returned, the key was gone. Police watched the surveillance video from the gas station which showed a tall black male, wearing a black shirt and black shorts, pick the key up off of the ground, at approximately 1:35 p.m. Police then observed the man walk into the store and appear to ask the clerk about the keys. The man then exited the store, with keys in hand, and left the lot in a smaller maroon-colored sedan. Police were unable to get the vehicle registration from the gas station cameras and RTIC was unable to get the registration from their cameras located nearby. Dispatch informed the officer no one has called in regarding found keys or found property. Police gave the complainant a card, containing the report number, to be given to Budget Rental (vehicle owner). * * * Panhandlers were reported at 3700 Tennessee Ave. Police observed a man holding a sign, panhandling at the corner and the man stepped into the street to accept money. Police told him the laws about panhandling and he said he wouldn't do it anymore. * * * An employee at the Home Depot, 7421 Commons Blvd., told police that a white male ran out the fire exit with a Dewalt saw worth $250. The employee said she recovered the saw before the man left the scene. The man left in a grey Rav 4 (TN tag). * * * A man called to update police that during a theft from his vehicle at the Publix, 8644 E. Brainerd Road, two Echo weed eaters and two Echo backpack leaf blowers were taken out of the back of his truck. He provided police with the serial numbers and the correct values of the items that were taken during the incident. * * * A man on Wheeler Avenue told police that a couple, who were his tenants, were evicted recently and he found bank statements not belonging to them in the house while cleaning it out. He had paperwork that were bank statements of other individuals saying they were late on payment. One of the statements showed there were no charges placed on the card from February 2021 and March 2021. He turned the documents over to the police. * * * Police received a call about a vehicle being parking in the roadway at 705 E. 4th St. Police found the vehicle and began a tow when a man came walking from down the street and said the vehicle was his and that he had taken off for a "run." Police asked the man for some ID and he said his ID was in his wallet that fell while he was running. Police noticed he had an empty Glock 17 case in the vehicle. The man said he was coming from his sister's house, who lives on Bonny Oaks Drive. He was issued a ticket for unlawful parking. * * * A shoplifting was reported at Kanku's Express, 3604 Brainerd Road. An employee told police that a black male wearing a dark hat (face mask), dark short-sleeved shirt, dark cargo pants and black boots, had entered the store and shoplifted. He said the man took $100 worth of liquor (Jack Daniels x2) and broke the glass door ($1,500) after being locked in by the manager. Officers arrived on scene were provided the description and a possible suspect vehicle being a white 4-door sedan (possibly Nissan/Maxima), with a TN registration that did not come back, proceeding east. A possible suspect vehicle with a different registration has been provided in case RTIC is able to identify that vehicle in the near future via Crime Eye cameras. That registration comes back to a possible Hispanic male, while the suspect appeared to be a black male via internal camera footage. At this time the business will be pressing charges for felony vandalism and shoplifting. A suspect picture has been provided for follow up if that person can be identified. The employee was provided a complaint card in case that man were to return. * * * An anonymous caller said there was a man on the front porch of a residence on Walker Avenue, sleeping and he should not be there. Police spoke with the sleeping man, who was identified. The man said he missed the last bus back to where he was staying on Arlington Terrace. He requested a ride back to the residence from police. A check for warrants was conducted with negative results. He was provided a ride by police to the address on Arlington Terrace without incident. * * * A noise complaint was reported at an apartment on Lake Resort Drive. A man told police that the resident above him has a drinking problem and has kept him awake all night from running around. Police were unable to make contact with the resident at the apartment above the man after multiple attempts. Police did not hear any noise coming from the above apartment when on scene. * * * Police were dispatched to Parkridge North, 7402 Lee Hwy., on a report of a delayed stabbing. Police spoke with a man who said he didn't call or want to talk to police about anything that happened. The man said he did not want a report done or to press any charges against anyone. BWC was worn and activated during this call. * * * Police responded to an alarm at the Montessori School, 301 Montessori Way. Police found an open door on the south side of the building. There was no forced entry observed from this doorway and it was observed from the inside that the door was just left unlocked. The building was cleared with no one located inside and no obvious signs that anyone had been inside or that any criminal activity had taken place. No one responsible could be reached for the building. The door was able to be secured by police on scene. * * * Officers were on routine patrol when they noticed a suspicious vehicle backed into a parking spot at 1111 Grove St. Officers proceeded to run the tag and it came back confirmed stolen. NCIC notified the owner and he responded to the scene. The owner regained possession of the vehicle and had it towed by United Transport. The vehicle was taken out of NCIC as stolen * * * A caller reported a suspicious person at Sport Clips, 5591 Hwy. 153. Police found a white male sleeping in front of the doorway of the business. Police were able to identify the man and he did not have warrants and was able to move on without incident. * * * An employee at Chattanooga Floor Care, 2500 E 18th St., told police that the catalytic converter had been cut off of one of their company vehicles sometime overnight. He said the vehicle was okay when it was parked the day before around 5 p.m. and this was discovered when they tried to start it around 9 a.m. that morning. There were metal shavings on the ground from where the converter had been cut off, but he said no other evidence was left behind. * * * A woman on Parkway Drive called police because a man was banging on her door, wanting his dog back. Police spoke with the woman and the man and learned that control of the dog had been given to the woman, due to it not receiving any care. Because control of the dog had been given to the woman, the officer told both of them that the status of the dog would not change, but the woman would need to contact McKamey to find out whether the transfer of control of the dog was permanent or not. Lifelong resident of Soddy Daisy Eric Booker came to the Soddy Daisy Commission meeting Thursday night asking for help. He said he has invested in a home around the lake. The house next door to his has recently sold to an out-of-town investor, he said, and I am scared to death that it is being turned into an Airbnb. Work is being done on the house now, and Mr. Booker wanted assurances from the commissioners that a permit would not be given to the new owner of the house, which would allow a short-term rental there. The neighborhood is zoned R-1, Single Family Residential, not for a hotel, which is basically what an Airbnb is, he said. Especially since it has the extra value of being on the lake, and believes the city will see a growing number of applications. He is anticipating that there will be multiple cars blocking the roads bringing many people to crowd into the house, and partying all night long. That would allow strangers to be five feet from his porch, he said. In researching Airbnbs, he said, different cities have different protections in place for its citizens. Chattanooga will only allow the short-term rentals in specified zones, and if there are objections from four residents nearby the property, the commissioners have the ability to deny a permit. He asked the commissioners to put similar restrictions in place in Soddy Daisy to protect his family and the subdivision. Commissioner Gene Shipley said he did not think that was a bad idea. He said he did not know any of the board members who would like to have a short-term rental next door to their house. Mayor Rick Nunley said problems are not exclusive to short-term rentals - some houses that are rented long term end up being a public nuisance. He told Mr. Booker that he appreciated his concern and that the ordinance is what gives the commissioners the ability to control the rentals and revoke permits. City Attorney Sam Elliott will add wording to the ordinance regarding restrictions to short-term rentals. The additions he will make to the ordinance will then be considered and accepted or rejected by the commissioners. Attorney Elliott also remarked that there is a presumption legally, that people can do what they want with their property. The city cannot hold off on issuing a permit unless the ordinance is amended. The commissioners passed a resolution which established a policy for deannexation from the city. This is just a guideline, said Attorney Elliott. The council would make the final decision on any deannexation request. Commissioners authorized making an application for the Public Entity Partners Driver Safety Matching grant program. The money received will go toward reimbursing the city for in-car cameras that have already been ordered. Other help to pay for them comes from a TSO grant and the sales of surplus equipment. City Manager Burt Johnson gave the commission bad news about the paving project on Dayton Pike. The city put the work out to bid and received just one proposal. That bid was for $4.4 million - much higher than the $3.5 million the city received in the form of a grant for this paving. Mr. Johnson said that $1 million of the bid price was for guardrails. The cost for guardrails has increased from $25 to $60 per foot. The commissioners agreed with the recommendation to reject the resurfacing bid and wait until the spring. During that time, prices will be monitored and there will be a new request for bids in the spring. Guardrails will be removed from the plans and will be replaced as the city is able. The cost of dispatch consoles has also increased since they were included in the budget. The cost of the software has gone from $130,000 to $155,000. A recently sold transport van brought $9,000 that will be used to help pay for the increase. The mayor was authorized to sign a contract for communications with Motorola. City Manager Johnson announced that the Farmers market fall festival will be taking place October 2 at the park around Poes Tavern. There will be a lot of vendors, games and blow-ups as well as live music, he said. The Soddy Daisy Chamber of Commerce wants to hold a grand reopening / ribbon cutting during their lunch meeting on Friday, October 22, said Mayor Rick Nunley after attending a chamber meeting on Thursday. The BLVD is a grassroots organization working under a nonprofit called ELLA Library. The group seeks to improve safety, transportation, aesthetics, and business along Rossville Blvd. The corridor begins at the I-24 overpass and continues 2.2 miles south to the Georgia state line. The corridor has a rich Hispanic culture which The BLVD plans to highlight with a taco tour from Sept, 18 through Oct. 2. Seven restaurants will participate including Miss Gs, El Gallo Giro, La Familia, Taqueria La Delicia, Amigos, Tacos Las Chula, and Huerto Fruteria. National Hispanic Heritage Month is in September and celebrates the contributions, cultures, and histories of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The BLVD wants to celebrate the month by inviting the community to a taco tour featuring Guatemalan and Mexican cuisine. Executive Director Heather Herweyer says, part of our heart with this work of revitalizing Rossville Blvd is to engage the Latino community. We value the community and we know how important their culture is to the residents living nearby. Its time to let them shine and show us what the corridor has to offer. Each of the restaurants will feature a unique taco for $2.50 available for two weeks. Miss Gs owner Guillermina Solana-Chala is excited to highlight the boulevards corridor, saying, we are happy to be part of such a great celebration and excited to participate. All restaurants will have to-go options and hand sanitizing stations for the convenience and safety of the community. The Rossville Boulevard corridor dates to 1907 and is a major connector facilitating transportation and commerce between Chattanooga and North Georgias surrounding communities. Despite the significance to the local economy, the surrounding commercial district and neighborhoods have been largely neglected over the past several decades. Rossville City Councilman Michael Hicks says it is exciting that The BLVD is working to improve the area. He said, They are an inspiring bunch and match the City of Rossvilles enthusiasm for raising both of our communities up together, united across state lines, to create more opportunity for our citizens and businesses. I hope this is just the beginning and that we have many more collaborative projects together on the horizon. String Theory at the Hunter, in partnership with Lee University, announces the return of in-person performances for its 13th season, featuring some of the worlds most sought-after musicians. I am filled with joy and anticipation as we look forward to being back at the Hunter Museum, experiencing superb musical performances together, live and in person, said Dr. Gloria Chien, String Theory founder and artistic director. String Theory is a chamber music series that brings artists from around the world to perform in the Hunter Museum of American Art. The 2021-22 season, beginning in October, will feature five world class concerts with 21 musicians, eight of which are making their Chattanooga debut. String Theory will open on Tuesday, Oct. 19, with the much-anticipated world premiere of Patrick Castillos Winter Light performed by musicians from Music@Menlo. The group includes violinists Kristin Lee and Sean Lee, cellist Dmitri Atapine, and pianists Hyeyon Park and Dr. Chien. Horn virtuoso Radovan Vlatkovic will make his Chattanooga debut for the Nov. 16 concert, joined by violinist Soovin Kim and Dr. Chien. Their performance will include Brahams nostalgic Horn Trio, Bahuslav Martinus Variations on a Theme of Rossini, Beethovens Horn Sonata Op. 17, and Eugene-Auguste Ysayes Sonata No. 4 for Solo Violin. The first concert of 2022, taking place Feb. 8, will feature chamber music by Josef Suk, Zoltan Kodaly, and Bedrich Smetana to present a Bohemian Rhapsody with Dr. Chien, violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, and cellist David Requiro. Before the October, November, and February performances, String Theory will host Musical Dialogues, featuring a conversation with the musicians on their lives, inspirations, and the masterpieces being performed at the concert. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will present Magical Schubert on March 1, 2022, a celebration of the composer Franz Schubert. Dr. Chien will be joined by pianist Alessio Bax, violinist Benjamin Beilman, and cellist David Requiro. Wrapping up the 2021-22 season on April 5, 2022, String Theory will welcome violinists Arnaud Sussmann and Chad Hoopes, violists Matthew Lipman and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, and cellists Nick Canellakis and Colin Carr for a piano concerto featuring Chien. They will perform Mozarts Piano Concerto No.12 in A major and Brahms Sextet in B-flat Major. Prior to the March and April performances, Art Connections will take place, giving attendees the opportunity to engage with the intersection of art and music in the Hunter galleries. Former Hunter Chief Curator Ellen Simak and Maestro Robert Bernhardt will compare works from the Hunter collection to the music featured in the concert. The week of Jan. 25-30, pianist Mika Sasaki and violinist Rebecca Anderson will take part in String Theorys Annual Outreach Week, bringing classical music to all corners of the Chattanooga community. The week of school and community performances will culminate in the Annual Family Concert on Jan. 30 at the Hunter, which is free and open to all ages. I am counting down the days until I can be back at the Hunter Museum sharing music with the community again, said Dr. Chien. This season will bring some of the most beloved chamber music repertoire to the stage, and we are excited to present a vibrant year of outreach initiatives. Tickets are available now. Individual concert tickets are $35 for Hunter members, $45 for non-members, $10 for students and music teachers with ID, and $25 for groups of 20 or more. Individual tickets can be purchased up until the day of the concert. Season subscriptions are available for $175 for Hunter members, $225 for non-members, and $50 for students and music teachers. Season subscriptions can be purchased up until the first concert, Oct. 19. The Hunter Museum of American Art currently requires all guests over the age of five to wear a mask while inside the museum. They ask anyone with symptoms or exposure to COVID-19 to stay at home. They have cleaning protocols including hand sanitizer stations and cleaning of frequently touched surfaces in place. For more information on String Theory at the Hunter or to purchase tickets, call 414-2525, or go to stringtheorymusic.org. Victoria Elizabeth Alston Jennings, 66, of Red Bank, Tennessee, died peacefully at home after a short illness on September 15, 2021. She was surrounded by her loving husband, her precious cats, and close personal friends. Vicky was born in Atlanta. She grew up on Lookout Mountain, Tn., where she attended Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church and Grammar School. From there, Vicky went to Girls Preparatory School before graduating from Notre Dame High School where she met her husband, Jack. Vicky became the first director of the St. Jude Catholic Preschool where she worked for 20 years. Vicky was a member of St. Jude Catholic Church. Ms. Vicky was adored by many children. She was kind and gentle to each and every child. Vicky was a great teacher and nurturer. Her loving heart will always be remembered. After leaving St. Jude Pre-School she ended her career at Red Bank City Hall. The things that were most loved by Vicky were her family, friends, cats, home, hanging out by her pool, taking walks across the Walnut Street Bridge, and her love of music. Vicky was preceded in death by her parents, Robert A. Alston and Caroline Hardin Alston, and brother, Bobby Alston. Vicky is survived by the love of her life and devoted husband of 46 years, Jack E. Jennings, Jr.; her three wonderful sons, Zachary (Amy) Jennings, Bradley (Kate) Jennings and Daniel (Jennifer) Jennings; her adored grandson, Will Jennings; her precious cats, Pippa and Sweetie Pie; her sister, Lansing (Ian) Hamilton; and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. The Jennings family would like to thank Hospice of Chattanooga. They also wish to express much love and appreciation to Vickys special friends, Claudia, Kathy and Priscilla. There will be a private family graveside service. A Celebration of Life will be planned very soon. Memorial contributions can be made to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital (501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105) or to the Tennessee Humane Animal League (THAL) Pet Placement Center (5975 Dayton Blvd., Chattanooga, TN 37415). Arrangements are by the Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory & Florist North Chapel. Please share your condolences at Chattanooganorthchapel.com. This summer, Dawson Davis, Eleanor Earles, Jonathan Gebbie, Peyton Laylock, Emma Osko, Megan Rogers, and Andrew Vick, all students from Lee Universitys Spanish program, served in various Spanish-speaking countries on missions projects. Lees Spanish department is proud of these students who decided to serve overseas, especially in academic institutions, all affiliated with the Church of God, said Dr. Alexander Steffanell, professor of Spanish at Lee. Each one of these students showed the love of Christ to others, considerably improved their Spanish and level of proficiency, and impacted these communities they served. I have witnessed how transformative this was for them. Mr. Davis, a senior Spanish and TESOL double major and linguistics minor from Polk County, Tn., served for five weeks at Seminario Biblico Pentecostal Centroamericano, a seminary affiliated with Lee, in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. While there, Mr. Davis taught weekly English classes to students at SEBIPCA, helped with translation work, and practiced improving his Spanish. Mr. Davis also went to Guatemala in 2020 for a trip with other Spanish majors and decided to go back this year for an experience of full immersion. My experience in Guatemala allowed me to connect on a much deeper level that has led to lifelong friendships, which would have never been possible without being able to relate with the people in their own native language, said Mr. Davis. Because of this, I felt so at home during the entirety of my trip. Upon graduating, he plans to return to Latin America in hopes to minister and teach there. Ms. Laylock, a junior Spanish and pastoral ministries double major from Florence, Ky., served on a mission project in Cuenca, Ecuador, at Comunidad Cristiana El Redil, a Church of God church. During her two months there, Ms. Laylock helped with projects, teaching, and worship at the church. She stayed with the pastors family and shadowed him during the week. Along with attending church services, Ms. Laylock taught English to the community, was involved with various weekly Bible studies, attended church ministry programs, and met with congregation members individually for interviews, baptisms, and other events. Ms. Laylock was also able to see and tour the country during her free time. More than anything, this trip improved my confidence in not only my Spanish-speaking ability, but also my ability to engage with other cultures, said Ms. Laylock. Ive gained a new point of view of how other cultures interact with their community and with God, and my calling in ministry has been reaffirmed. Ms. Laylock is a senior resident assistant for Residential Life and a School of Religion mentor at Lee. She is also in the process of starting a student-led feminist organization on campus called Beyond. Upon graduating, she plans to pursue ministry outside the United States. Ms. Earles, Mr. Gebbie, Ms. Osko, Ms. Rogers, and Mr. Vick all served in Cota, Colombia, immediately following a month-long Global Perspectives trip to the country. They decided to stay in the city to further immerse themselves in the culture and experience teaching English firsthand. In Cota, the group served for several weeks at a local church, Comunidad Cristiana Jireh, and a local school, Gimnasio Jireh. They taught English and math at the school, helped at an after-school program called Risa, and assisted with worship at the church. They were also able to travel and spend time with locals. My time in Colombia allowed me to experience a side of life bigger than I imagined, said Mr. Vick, a junior Spanish, math, and computer science triple major from Toledo, Ohio. I found new calling, friendship, and home through loving and serving alongside those who have lived a very different life. Many of the group did not plan on staying after the original trip was over, but they all agreed it was an enriching experience. I never thought that I would teach in another country, even for a brief time, said Ms. Earles, a senior international studies and Spanish double major from Damascus, Maryland. I can say it was humbling, yet fulfilling, to do something out of my comfort zone. It helped me grow not only in my Spanish proficiency, but also as a person. Several of the students are involved with Lees Center for English Language and Literacy program and worked together to begin offering online classes for students in Cota. Mr. Gebbie, a senior TESOL major and Spanish minor from Knoxville, expressed his plan to return to Colombia to start the first international branch of CELL along with seniors Ms. Osko and Ms. Rogers. My dream is to move to a Latin American country and start an English school that offers free English classes to those who may not have access to English classes, said Ms. Osko, a TESOL major and Spanish minor from Colorado Springs, Co. This trip has opened doors and moved me one step closer to my dream and calling to provide resources, training, and leadership development to English teachers in these countries who feel underprepared and overwhelmed. For more information about Lees Spanish program, visit https://www.leeuniversity.edu/academics/arts-sciences/lang-lit/spanish-licensure-option/. The halls of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre were filled with cheers and laughter as seniors from across the Tennessee Valley demonstrated a wide range of unique talents before a panel of judges and a live audience at the Second Annual Morning Pointe Seniors Got Talent showcase. First place and the $250 cash prize went to Ms. Barbara Dooley playing a Johannes Brahms song on the piano. Second place went to pianist Ms. Ernestine Eldridge playing gospel hymns. Rhonda Atkins took third place with a hilarious comedy routine. Calvin Sneed, longtime Chattanooga television anchor, was the esteemed emcee for the evening. I was very surprised, pleased, and excited! said Barbara Dooley, regarding her first place finish. In all, over $10,000 was raised to support the Morning Pointe Foundations mission of providing nursing scholarships at schools like Chattanooga State, Cleveland State, and Tennessee College of Applied Technology, in addition to funding caregiver support programs for seniors. These performers really brought down the house tonight," said Morning Pointe Foundation Executive Director Audra Hopkins. "It is such an honor to be able to spotlight them. Thank you again to all of our sponsors, including RBA, Edward Jones Financial, Yardi, Heritage Funeral Home, Guardian Home Health, Hearth Hospice, Chattanooga State Community College, Cleveland State Community College, Alzheimers Association, and CHI Memorial. Seniors Got Talent would not be possible without each one. The returning judges panel for the event brought back some familiar faces, such as Carla Pritchard, owner of Chattanooga Presents; Nina Coppinger, retired longtime music teacher; Rodney Van Valkenburg, executive director of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre; and newcomers Steve Darmody, award-winning Christian recording artist; and H. Buddy Shirk, professional organist and pianist. All proceeds from the event benefitted the Morning Pointe Foundation and its work providing nursing scholarships and caregiver support programs across Tennessee and the greater Southeast. Each year as the Morning Pointe Seniors Got Talent competitions grow across the Southeast, the Morning Pointe Foundation remains committed to celebrating the talents of local seniors while supporting caregivers and nursing scholarships, added Morning Pointe Senior Living president and co-founder Greg A. Vital. This is such an important cause, and we look forward to continuing to grow Seniors Got Talent in the years to come. Amidst the constant bombardment of vaccination headlines and total blitz our politicians push to have Americans do nothing but fantasize the euphoric paradise that is a 100 percent vaccinated populous constantly above any alternative priority I feel obliged to come forward and explain why me, and many of my close friends, are not only choosing not to be vaccinated, but finding it highly honorable to make such a decision. The COVID obsessed would like you to believe Kung Flu is the new leprosy or the 21st century equivalent of the Bubonic Plague. Theyd also like you to believe being unvaccinated is an obvious moral failure justifying nothing short of an inquisition. Such beliefs are absurd yet the rhetoric fails any metric of balance. Polarization is the idol of the constant news cycle. Many forget that at the beginning of the pandemic, trust in the government was already so low that doubting COVID was real at all was considered by some to be a reasonable position. Were shamelessly lied to at a constant rate. I dont presume to know the truth, but Im not stupid enough to ignore when I know Im being lied to and nothing makes me mad like knowing Im being lied to. It immediately provokes my disrespect towards the liar. Many forget a vaccine is completely based on trust. And many arent willing to do anything to acknowledge the lack of trust. I applaud my darker skinned brothers who remember their sterilized ancestors who were told its a vaccine for your good and I remember too well how much the leftists hate the lighter skinned people now. Theres always a vulnerable sub-population anywhere you look. Ill learn from my brothers and realize their story is my own warning. Trust is earned, not given. Yet our politicians think trust is in abundant supply what a fantasy. Its not that the vaccine was bad its that they werent given the vaccine. Even if you prove the vaccine is great and flawless, which you havent, you are still going to have to prove the needle in their hand is indeed the vaccine which you cant. Remember all those academics who preach the world is overpopulated? All those green freaks who believe humanity is a curse on the planet. Youd be wise not to trust them with anything. These are the same noble liars who would gladly line up smokers and execute them for the sake of public health. They even brag about how noble they are at lying. Should you trust someone who brags about how much they lie? Many forget the senseless recall on the vaccine. Many forget the reasons given for it - less than 10 cases of error justified a recall? Ive remember Fight Club. I remember the difficulties of a recall. And I remember the wisdom in realizing then that we are being lied to about the vaccine. What a shattering of trust. I recommend looking up vaccination acceptance in America. Youll notice a the decline in new vaccinations right at the April 14 mark - not a coincidence. And one thats never been recovered since. Many forget that the highest percentage of the unvaccinated population for months was those who have a graduate school education level, followed by those who havent graduated high school. Theyd love to have you believe being unvaccinated is the uneducated position how wrong they are. Many forget that the virus has only killed .2 percent of Americans a number thankfully lower than the 3-4 percent originally projected. When youre off by a magnitude of a logarithmic scale, the appropriate response is thanksgiving and rejoicing, not fear and tyranny. Many forget that there are those who were willing to die violently for our freedoms. Those who sacrificed their precious blood for us will be valued and the freedom they valued will be valued higher than any fear of a horrible disease let alone such a pathetic virus as this. That freedom is a higher value to me than my own life. Many forget there are things better than life and worse than death. The freedom they died for is worth it. The threat of tyranny towards any end will be met with hesitation and resistance honorably. I will not comply with anything that encroaches upon that sacred right no matter how much you believe its for my, or your, benefit. And I should strive to defend that freedom in anyone else I disagree with. Many forget the Black Lives Matter riots where suddenly politics was following the science of hypocrisy. Many forget how much Biden and Harris hated the vaccine as long as it was Trumps. Many forget how, almost immediately, Fauci was expected to have funded the virus in a Chinese Lab. That was all just a conspiracy nothing to see here. Bats and Bush meat. But now we know that wasnt a conspiracy and that Fauci lied under oath, yet via corruption walks free. Im reminded again how God hates a proud look Yet Im supposed to trust the CDC and the government while he is honored? I dont think so. Many forget Sweden and how different their successful approach was to ours. They now enjoy a powerful natural immunity seemingly better than the vaccine. They enjoy almost no COVID because they earned it the hard way. Id rather have COVID, suffer through it for a few days, than risk a political vaccine one in which the president is hellbent on making more political each day. Remember those parents who bring their kids over to play with the one who has chicken pox? Lets get this over with. Thats how many of us feel. We trust COVID more than we trust the politicians and doctors. Many of us also think COVID is that lame - because many of our friends who have had it have barely noticed it. Experience beats the news cycle. Experience is not aligning with the news cycle either. Many forget ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, fluvoxamine, arguably hydroxychloroquine, and of living healthy, not being fat, exercising, etc. They want any fix other than self-responsibility. Many forget Joe Rogans quick turnaround and positive attitude. I found honor in his approach. Many forget vaccination isnt the only viable option. Many forget COVID doesnt at all look like Polio and that the COVID vaccine doesnt operate as well as the polio vaccine against COVID, but they certainly remember to shame you like Polio and COVID are identical. Does the Polio vaccine wear off over time. Do you need a third Polio booster shot once every six months? Many forget that being asymptomatic absolves any guilt of wrongdoing towards transmitting any disease. Many forget that its nothing more than the cost of living. To overreact is to dampen life itself. And anything with a risk of only .2 percent isnt close to being worth it. Many forget we were promised two weeks when the two weeks became two months became 200 days became Australia and New Zealand. Many forget The Hangman by Maurice Ogden, believing standing up for the rights of those who choose not to be vaccinated isnt any of their business. The scaffold was raised for none but you. Honorable? To stand tall for your rights. To not live in fear. To live bravely and courageously. To abhor cowardice. To value your potential offspring. To look at the data and come to your own conclusion. To distrust liars. To recognize hypocrisy and say not me. To honor others who value your freedoms. To respect alternative approaches to complex problems. To live in a manner that values human connection and relationships. To live in mutual respect with those who disagree with you. To seek subtlety and doubt anything that is touted as absolute especially when its a politician telling you its absolute. To believe church is essential. To believe any job you have is essential because youre the one who has it and because you are essential intrinsically. To breathe fresh air. To sing without a muzzle. To trust only that which is trustworthy. To say Heck No to some old fart who makes a power grab towards being a king in a land with an awesome constitution. To think about something else To think about anything else Yes. Id say being unvaccinated is quite honorable. As for me and my house, we will roll our own dice dice that arent any of your business. Stephen Sells * * * Mr. Sells, You wasted a lot of time and effort just to tell everyone that you're an incredibly selfish person. There's absolutely no honor in that. Time to take a long hard look at yourself and grow up. Amanda Jenkins * * * Maybe if all the honorable unvaccinated people would get vaccinated, all of the children wouldnt have to. Larry Carlton * * * Mr. Sells, I admire your willingness to share your personal decision. I discussed my decision with my doctor and ultimately chose to get vaccinated, but its no one elses business. Having served in the military and being vaccinated for a possible Desert Storm deployment, my shot record already looks like a legal pad. So, I thought two more (or three) might not hurt. Again its no ones business. Liberals Including deeply Catholic Joe Biden believe when it comes to abortion that decision should be made by the mother in consultation with her physician and not her government, a judge, or her employer. Why doesnt that logic apply to vaccinations? And I hope no one responds because abortion doesnt kill like COVID does. Brian Watson * * * Mr. Sells, I'm going to take this opportunity to disagree with pretty much every word of your comment. In my way of thinking - there is nothing honorable about ignoring science and medicine. Personally - I don't get my information regarding COVID from Washington. I choose to seek the advice of experts - experts in science and medicine. Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, etc. are not those experts. In fact - they are the last people on this planet I would ask for advice on any topic. I've seen friends and family get sick with COVID. Witnessing their suffering and knowing my taking a vaccine might help prevent one other person - if not hundreds - from getting sick with it - I am happy and excited to do, what I believe, is my duty to help get rid of it. I believe this as an American and I believe it as a human being. I'm originally from Memphis - home of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Quite possibly the most inspiring place on the planet. Maybe all of us should take a trip to a children's hospital and see for ourselves the pain of an innocent child suffering. I do not see any honor in ignoring the vaccine and frankly, I don't understand how you can. We know it is safe and we know it works. I don't need to know anything else. George Parker * * * If you have been vaccinated why should you worry even though many COVID-vaccinated citizens are getting COVID and dying. Makes no sense. What good was the vaccine to them? In America you are supposed to have a freedom of choice and not mandated to. I mean dictated to. Michael G. Mansfield * * * So very well expressed Mr. Sells and I for one stand with you. For many who place their faith in a mandate to force vaccinations on all let me point you to the testimonies given Friday at the FDA for the attempted approval of the next round of boosters of this so-called vaccine which was voted down 16 to 2. Although the testimony was eight hours long, many clips can be found of front line doctors expressing their concerns and experiences up to and including their opinion that the risks of cardiac and neurological damage do not outweigh the benefits nor the unknown side effects down the road. Furthermore, there is testimony and references to the use of Ivermectin and other treatments other than the iron-handed mandates put forth as treatments which in my opinion are not as effective as what they are doing and seeing results in Third World Countries. Just as one doctor's testimony concerning vaccine hesitancy he made the comment that those of us who will not take this vaccine are more informed than those who are willing to roll up their sleeves all for a virus that is no more deadly (percentage wise) than any other flu which weve had to endure since the Spanish Flu. Be blessed and ready, Jay Reed The Company Lab is one of 84 prize winners in the U.S. Small Business Administrations Growth Accelerator Fund Competition. CO.LAB is one of two Tennessee organizations to get the prize. Chattanoogas nonprofit joins FoundersForge, a Johnston City-based accelerator. The value of this prize shouldnt be understated, CO.LAB CEO Lindsey Cox said. It will allow us to focus on supporting women founders by connecting them with mentors and resources through our GIGTANK 365 program. CO.LAB is committed to helping close gaps in access to innovation and resources, and these funds will help us do that. A fresh take on the traditional accelerator model GIGTANK 365 will relaunch this fall as a year-round, stage-gate mentoring program. It will be a fresh take on the traditional accelerator model. The prize is the result of a new component from the SBA aimed at spurring investment in underrepresented communities within the innovation economy at scale. Along with the Small Business Innovation Research Catalyst competition, SBA gave a total of $5.4 million in prize money. This years cohort of winners emphasizes our commitment to equity, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said. Our awardees have innovative plans to support underserved entrepreneurs, including women, people of color, and individuals from underrepresented geographic areas. The winners come from 48 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia, and have been awarded based on their proposals for innovative ideas that inclusively support entrepreneurs researching and developing STEM-related innovations. Competitors were required to submit a presentation deck and a 90-second video to describe their overall plan for an award, including their work with targeted entrepreneur groups, experience with STEM/R&D, and implementation plans for the prize funds. Applications were judged by panels of experts from the private and public sector with experience in early-stage investment, entrepreneurship, academics, startups, and economic development. For a full list of winners, visit www.sbir.gov/accelerators. In the summer of 1959, the Roark-Conner family held its first reunion in Birchwood, Hamilton County. Every year, descendants gathered in the Birchwood area to meet with each other, remember ancestors, visit local historical sites, and share family history. The annual Roark-Conner Association Reunion has become an important gathering of Roark and Conner descendants and relatives of local pioneer families who settled, during the mid to late 1830s, in the eastern portion of Hamilton County. With continued COVID-19 uncertainties, this year the Association will hold its 63rd Family Reunion virtually on its website: Roark-Conner.org. The theme for the Virtual Reunion is: How do you want to be remembered? After 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, the program will be available for cousins to view. Participants may visit the Virtual Reunion at their convenience and return as often as they wish through Sept. 26. Featured presentations will highlight ancestors Joseph and Juda Roark and The Conner Family, headed by Martha Palmer and Maximillian H. Conner, two of the pioneer families who settled in the Birchwood area in the 1830s. Programs will include an interview with author and past president, John J. Roark, and a tribute to cousins 90+ years young. There will be a Birchwood Cemetery Tour and a workshop on Writing a Legacy Letter by Jay Sherwin, Life Review Advisor. The Board of Directors Meeting will include a memorial service for cousins who have passed. Family members will be able to participate in Worship and Song with messages from cousins Rev. James Scott and his son Rev. Aaron Scott. A song written for the reunion entitled, To Be Remembered will be provided by musician Dan Roark. The Learning Center will allow family members to learn about ancestors; link to R-CA books and DVDs which are at the heart of the familys rich, well-documented history; and participate in activities for children. Visit the Roark-Conner.org website, and click on 2021 Virtual Reunion on the home page, to participate. For information, call (801) 450-6864. Erlanger Health System welcomes Doug Brewer, MD, FASCRS, MSc, CPE, as senior vice president and Erlanger Medical Group chief medical officer, as well as a physician with Erlanger Gastroenterology. As CMO of Erlanger Medical Group, Dr. Brewer will work in partnership with leadership, to advance the interests of employed physicians, advanced practice providers, specialty services and outpatient clinics. Were excited to welcome Dr. Brewer to the team as he has extensive provider leadership experience that I believe will serve Erlanger Medical Group well, said Erlanger President and CEO Dr. William Jackson. I look forward to his contributions furthering our success. Dr. Brewer graduated with honors from the Medical College of Georgia in 1987, after which he completed a general surgery residency at the University of Louisville. He then served a one-year research and clinical senior registrar fellowship at the University of Sydney with a dual role of clinical colorectal work and molecular genetic colorectal cancer research. In 1994, Dr. Brewer completed his clinical education with a colorectal surgery residency at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, and in the same year, he established central Georgias first and only surgical subspecialty practice: Colorectal Surgery Associates in Macon, Ga. After 24 years of group private practice, Dr. Brewer remained in Macon and joined Navicent Health Medical Center in 2018 as a colorectal surgeon and physician leader, as well as Medical Informantics Officer for the department of surgery. Before his appointment to Erlanger, Dr. Brewer most recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Atrium Health Baldwin Hospital in Milledgeville, Ga. Dr. Brewer's academic appointments include clinical professor of surgery and chief of colorectal surgery at Mercer University School of Medicine. He also has considerable medical staff leadership experience, including the roles of chief of staff, chair of peer review and chair of credentials committee. Dr. Brewer completed a masters degree in healthcare leadership and management from the University of Texas at Dallas in April 2018 and received the Certified Physician Executive accreditation from the American Association for Physician Leadership in June 2019. Netflixs crime docuseries, Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami focuses on the crack cocaine epidemic in the United States. From director Billy Corben based on his film of the same name, the series specifically focuses on Miami drug lords Augusto Willie Falcon and Salvator Magluta. The men were high school dropouts in the 70s and began selling drugs as a way to make money. Both men were from immigrant families but found a way to become two of the richest men in Miami while evading the law for decades. According to Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami, Falcon, and Magulata headed the largest cocaine smuggling organization on the East Coast. Each year, the duo was making $2 billion in cash. They fed Miamis insatiable drug habit by smuggling in 75 tons of cocaine from Colombia. Eventually, their arrogance would lead to the downfall of their empire, but where are the Cocaine Cowboys today? Salvator Magluta and Augusto Willie Falcon in Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami | Netflix Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami chronicles the rise and fall of Willie Falcon and Sal Magluta At the height of their empire, Falcon and Magluta were at the head of one of the biggest drug organizations in the world. The lifelong friends werent shy about their wealth either. After years of escaping the law, the pair were indicted on 17 counts of drug trafficking on October 14, 1991. Shockingly in 1996, the duo was acquitted in one of the most shocking trials of the 20th century. However in Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami we learn that amid their trial, money was transferred, and witnesses were found murdered. It was later discovered that they had paid off jurors to rule in their favor. In 1999, Magluta and Falcon were finally charged with ordering the deaths of three witnesses, bribing jurors, and using laundered money. But where are they over 20 years later? The Kings of Miami, or Los Muchachos, as the billionaire Cubans came to be known, knew how to make money and look good while doing it https://t.co/I4grisoTbo Tatler Asia (@TatlerAsia) September 11, 2021 Where is Sal Magluta now? Magluta refused to plead guilty to the charges brought against him and Falcon in 1999. Therefore, when he has tried again in 2002, he was convicted of money laundering and bribery. This time, the judge took no chances with setting him free. During his sentencing, Magluta received a maximum sentence of 205 years in prison. The former drug lord did appeal his sentence bringing it down to 195 years. Though he was never convicted of any of the drug or murder charges against him, he will likely spend the rest of his days behind bars. Magluta is currently serving out his sentence at a maximum-security federal prison in Marion, Illinois. Is Willie Falcon still alive? Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami reveals that Falcon spent 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering charges in 2003. He was released from prison in 2017. At the request of his lawyers, the former kingpin was deported to the Dominican Republic. Falcon was born in Cuba but was a lawful permanent resident of the United States. However, he feared for his life in Cuba. Falcon did not receive a warm welcome in Cuba and fled soon after his arrival. According to Cocaine Cowboys, he has not been located since. He is 66 years old if he is still alive. Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami is currently streaming on Netflix. A new action-thriller is in our midstOn its nationwide Sept. 17. premiere, the latest Copshop reviews trickled in. While some arent positive, many critical reviews prove the film is worth watching. Some already asked if Copshop 2021 is streaming anywhere. Theyre thrilled to see the Marvel Studios alum, Frank Grillo, as the movies con artist alongside Gerard Butler. Grillo unpacked how he embraced his con artist character. Not only that, but he also revealed a few details about the Purge 6 and his Marvel exit. Frank Grillo stars in Copshop | Kevin Winter/Getty Images Plot/cast/release details, and Copshop reviews According to Open Road Films, the Copshop synopsis focuses on a con artist, a hitman, and a rookie police officer. Screaming through the Nevada desert in a bullet-ridden Crown Vic, wily con artist Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo) hatches a desperate plan to hide out from lethal hitman Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler): He sucker-punches rookie officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder) to get himself arrested and locked up in a small-town police station. But jail cant protect Murretto for long. Viddick schemes his own way into detention, biding his time in a nearby cell until he can complete his mission. When the arrival of a competing assassin (Toby Huss) ignites all-out mayhem, mounting threats force Viddick to get creative if he wants to finish the job and escape the explosive situation. Countless fans are asking, is Copshop streaming anywhere? Open Road Films released the film exclusively in theaters. So Copshop 2021 is not actively streaming for free. However, that could change amid the hybrid-streaming release trend. Aside from Grillo and Butler, Copshop 2021 includes Alexis Louder as the rookie cop, Valerie Young. According to the plot details, Louder takes a face punch by Grillo. Toby Huss plays the mobster Anthony Lamb. Huss starred in the 1990s Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Ryan ONan from the Queen of the South series plays Huber. Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau from Den of Thieves plays Barnes. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Copshop reviews differentiate between critics and audiences. The movie holds a critics score of 82%, and the audience score is 50%. Frank Grillo plays a sleazy character in Copshop In an interview with Weve Got This Covered, Grillo admitted he initially didnt relate to his Copshop character. So he played around a little bit to establish a sleazy persona. Its hard for me to be the little, weak, accountant-type weasel, right? Grillo explained. It just doesnt work physically. So we had to kind of make some adjustments. Alongside Mel Gibson in Boss Level, the actor plays his typical role of an assassin. Overall, Grillos Copshop character is a new experience for the actor. Butler initially presumed he would play Teddy because of his past roles. Once Grillo became comfortable with the character, he had a lot of fun with Butler. Ultimately, Copshop is new territory for Butler and Grillo. Nevertheless, Grillo said he would have played either character. I think its easier for me to play the assassin, you know? Grillo acknowledged. But Ive seen that in my own stuff too many times[Gerard and I] didnt always agree. You know, Gerard thought my character should be a little more mysterious and not such a badass. Grillo revealed Purge 6 and explained his Marvel exit Frank Grillos Copshop character differs from the Purge movies. And thanks to him, fans discovered that Purge 6 would debut next year. I dont want to date it, but I think well be shooting that movie sometime second or third quarter of 2022, Purge 6, Grillo unveiled. But the actor is also a famous face in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Grillo plays spy operative Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones. He expressed gratitude for his role, mentioning how fans still recognize him. However, Grillo explained his perspective on parting ways with Marvel. Frank Grillo / Crossbones pic.twitter.com/yepcR0S3WZ Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) April 24, 2019 Its always been a bit of a heartache because it was going in a different way, and then the popularity of Marvel just shifted, Grillo disclosed. Grillos character was killed off in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Although he returned for a cameo in Avengers: Endgame, the actor initially declined the offer. RELATED: Copshop: Gerard Butler Feels Horrible About Injuring 3 People On Set in 1 Day If youre looking to watch episodes of this Disney Channel original series, well, good luck, Charlie. Its been a few years since this comedy series was broadcast on Disneys television network. Thankfully, Good Luck Charlie is available on one major streaming platform. Heres what we know about this show. Disney Channels Good Luck Charlie episode titled Good Bye Charlie | Eric McCandless/DISNEY CHANNEL via Getty Images Good Luck Charlie originally debuted on the television network, Disney Channel Most viewers can agree that the Duncans are a pretty special family. To help her baby sister navigate the challenges of adulthood, Teddy Duncan created video diaries throughout high school. As a result, fans saw her unique adventures with her bug-obsessed father, eccentric mother, troublemaking brother Gabe, and kind brother PJ. Eventually, another baby, named Toby, was added to the Duncan family. The first episode of Good Luck Charlie premiered in 2010. Since then, Disney Channel released four seasons featuring actors like Shane Harper and Genevieve Knight Hannelius. Most episodes starred Bridgit Mendler as the main character, Teddy Duncan. Now, there are a few ways to watch episodes of this comedy. Is Good Luck Charlie available on Disney+? Good Luck Charlie was initially broadcasted on the television network titled Disney Channel. This series has since ended. However, there are still a few ways to binge-watch episodes of this original comedy. Good Luck Charlie fans can purchase physical copies of this series at retailers like Target and Amazon. Additionally, digital copies are available for purchase and for rent on Amazon. To binge-watch the entire series, fans can head to Disneys streaming platform, Disney+, where every episode of Good Luck Charlie is available. That includes the two-part Hawaii special and the crossover episode with the Disney Channel series Jessie. Because this series is listed in the Disney+ streaming library, it will presumably never make its debut on rival subscription services like Netflix and HBO MAX. Disney+ also features Good Luck Charlie, Its Christmas! In 2011, the cast of this Disney Channel original series also acted in the holiday special. Thats Good Luck Charlie, Its Christmas, where the Duncan family took a Christmas vacation to sunny Palm Springs. That was their intention, at least. When Teddy took a later flight in exchange for a free plane ticket, she and Amy went on an adventure together, traveling through Nevada by bus, car, and even bicycle. This TV movie is also available on Disney+. This wouldnt be the last fans saw of the Good Luck Charlie cast. In 2020, these actors reunited for a virtual reunion in light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Some Good Luck Charlie cast members even attended Mendlers wedding. Your big brothers always here for you, B. Love you, and wish you all the best. Congratulations, Jason Dolley captioned his Instagram photos. Good Luck Charlie is available on Disneys streaming platform, Disney+. To learn more about this subscription service, visit their website. RELATED: The Original Cast Returns to Voice The Proud Family in the Disney+ Spinoff, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder On Sept. 17 and Sept. 18, the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021 will take place in Las Vegas. The annual music festival will feature several big-name performers including Billie Eilish, Coldplay, and Olivia Rodrigo. While BTS are not listed as performers at this years iHeartRadio Music Festival, have Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook ever performed at the festival before? BTS | Noam Galai/Getty Images BTS performed at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival The 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival took place on Sept. 18 and Sept. 19. Due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, remote performances were filmed for the concert event. BTS performed at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival along with Usher, Coldplay, Khalid, Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, Jennifer Nettles, Kane Brown, Swae Lee, Keith Urban, Migos, Miley Cyrus, and Thomas Rhett. For their iHeartRadio Music Festival set, the septet performed their songs Dynamite, Make It Right, Spring Day, and Boy With Luv. Dynamite is BTS first English-language single and the band released the song in August 2020. Make It Right and Boy With Luv are both songs on BTS 2019 EP Map of the Soul: Persona. Spring Day was released on the bands 2017 repackage album You Never Walk Alone. RELATED: How Many Awards Did BTS Win at the 2021 MTV VMAs? Will BTS perform at iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021? The iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021 will occur on Sept. 17 and Sept. 18. While BTS performed at the 2020 music festival, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook will not make an appearance at the 2021 event. According to iHeartRadio, the performers for the main concert at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021 are Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Khalid, Journey, Dua Lipa, Lil Baby, Sam Hunt, Cheap Trick, Darius Rucker, FINNEAS, J. Cole, Nelly, Weezer, Florida Georgia Line, and Walker Hayes. While the Daytime Stage was not able to happen at the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Festival because of the coronavirus, the Daytime Stage is back at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021 and will be held on Sept. 18. Olivia Rodrigo, The Kid LAROI, Saweetie, All Time Low, 24kGoldn, Russell Dickerson, YUNGBLUD, Gabby Barrett, Tate McRae, and Conan Gray are the slated performers for the Daytime Stage. RELATED: How to Listen to a Preview of Coldplay and BTS Upcoming Single My Universe BTS will put on their own online concert Even though BTS will not take part in the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2021, ARMY will not have to wait long to see them perform. On Oct. 24, the band will put on an online concert called Permission to Dance On Stage. According to a press release about the concert, 21st century pop icons BTS are returning with the live-streaming concert BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE on October 24. The announcement was made on global fan community platform Weverse, accompanied by a vibrant poster in the key color of Butter CD single that includes Permission to Dance, heightening excitement for the event. Permission to Dance On Stage will be livestreamed on Oct. 24 at 5:30 a.m. EST and 6:30 p.m. KST. More information about purchasing tickets will be released at a later date. Sometimes, a film just sticks, never seeming to lose any of its appeal no matter how many times you see it. As far as Halloween movies go, Disneys Hocus Pocus is undoubtedly one of them. The 1993 beloved classic still gets played every year to the delight of devoted fans everywhere. The long-awaited sequel has been in the works for a while now, and more details are coming out all the time. It looks like production is underway for Hocus Pocus 2, with some recent pictures revealed about the future set. Pictures reveal the Hocus Pocus 2 set Took a stroll through Chase Farms in Lincoln, where theyre reportedly in the process of building the set for the filming of Hocus Pocus 2! pic.twitter.com/tQncZUTPFK Ryan Welch (@RyanWelchPhotog) September 11, 2021 A recent tweet from a Rhode Island news photographer shows that construction of the set is underway on Chase Farms. According to Movieweb, the pictures show the building of some structures for the set. All in all, eight one-story buildings are being made, which will transform into a 1600s style village. Apparently, this part of the set will only play a small role in the film, but its exciting to know that the filming for Hocus Pocus 2 is starting to get going. The set will take 10 days to build, with two days of filming to follow. Additional filming will take place at the Cranston Street Armory and other historic buildings in the area. The Cranston Street Armory is very spacious; its got very high ceilings, its open space Because of its height ability, it gives an opportunity for a few of those witches to fly around, executive director of the Rhode Island Film & Television Office Steven Feinberg told The CW38. Disney has paid for intensive cleanup of the facility. Theyve added carpets, some mold removal. Theyre also paying for all the utilities, so the state doesnt have to pay the utilities. Its a very net gain for the state of Rhode Island. The town got $25,000 for letting them use it for filming, with an additional $10,000 per month for the building. More details are sure to follow once filming starts ramping up. Its huge, its huge. Its very exciting, and were looking forward we talked with Disney about doing a big screening of the film when its completed next Halloween, not this one, Feinberg said. Next year, we plan to have a very big Rhode Island extravaganza premiere to share with the local folks. The Sanderson sister make their return Disney+s Hocus Pocus 2 logo | Walt Disney Studios Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, the original Sanderson sisters, are all returning for their roles. Anne Fletcher is taking over as director from Adam Shankman, who will stay on as an executive producer. Shankman, who is currently working on Disneys Disenchanted, told The Hollywood Reporter that, As heartbroken as I am that I wont be able to direct my friends Bette, Sarah Jessica, and Kathy in what is sure to be nothing short of a major event for Disney+ due to scheduling conflicts, I couldnt be more pleased to be handing over the reins to Anne, who has brought so much laughter and joy into peoples lives with her previous work. The storyline for Hocus Pocus 2 will follow a young girl who is a bit of a loner and doesnt get along with her stepmother. She begins to practice witchcraft and purchases the cursed black candle from a magic shop. She sets it up in the Sanderson cottage and resurrects the evil sisters. With filming beginning this October, we are on our way to getting the sequel we all have been waiting so long for. While there is no set release date yet, we can expect the film to come out sometime around Halloween 2022. Considering it has been 30 years since the original, one more year doesnt sound too bad. RELATED: The Lost Daughter: Olivia Colmans New Netflix Film Scores Perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes Its previously been reported that Prince Harry has said of his wife Meghan Markle: what Meghan wants, Meghan gets. Now, a documentary is revealing thats what happened on their wedding day as Harry defied Prince Philips demand so Meghan could get her way. Heres what Harrys grandfather wanted that the Duke of Sussex ignored because Meghan wanted the opposite. Prince Philip, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle arriving to the royal familys Christmas Day church service | Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images What was Meghans relationship like with Prince Philip? Prince Philip was reportedly very upset when he learned about Meghan and Harrys decision to step down from royal duties. The Daily Mail reported that upon hearing the news, the Duke of Edinburgh responded by shouting: What the hell are they playing? But prior to Megxit, Philip was said to have had a good relationship with his granddaughter-in-law. A royal source told the Express that Meghan had lengthy conversations with Philip about his background and ancestry. The Duke of Edinburgh really got on with her, the source told the publication. The reason he liked her was because she was very bold. Meghan asked a lot of questions about Philips side of the family and his connection to Greece. Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and Prince Philip standing outside Church of St Mary Magdalene following Christmas Day Service in 2017 | Chris Jackson/Getty Images RELATED: Prince Harry Accused of Throwing Queen Elizabeth II and the Late Prince Philip Under the Bus in Podcast Interview Prince Harry defied Philips demand because what Meghan wants, Meghan gets Prince Harry and Meghan tied the knot on May 19, 2018, and Philip reportedly had one demand for the duke and duchess on that day. The Express noted that in the documentary Fergie & Meghan: Inconvenient Royals Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke revealed Philip stated that he did not want Prince Andrews ex-wife Sarah Ferguson at the wedding. The Duchess of York was not invited to Prince William and Kate Middletons wedding in 2011 at Philips request. But because of Meghans friendship with Sarahs daughter, Princess Eugenie, and the fact that Fergie was the first person who taught Meghan how to curtsy, the former Suits star wanted her at the wedding. Montague claimed that when Prince Philip demanded Fergie not receive an invite to the affair: Harry intervened and said, This is what I want. This is what my bride wants as well. She has bonded with Fergie and she wants her there.' Did Prince Philip and Sarah Ferguson bury the hatchet before his death? Sarah Ferguson and Prince Philip | Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images RELATED: Prince Andrews Ex-Wife Sarah Ferguson Says She Still Stands by Her Wedding Vows to Him Sarah and Philips feud went back decades. Back in 1992, the Duke of Edinburgh was furious with Fergie after her toe-sucking scandal became a hot topic in tabloids around the world. He refused to speak to her after that and she was shunned from several royal events. According to Telegraph journalist Camilla Tominey, while the royal family patriarch never fully forgave Sarah he did soften his stance toward her in the later years of his life. Prince Philip has never really forgiven Fergie for some of the unfortunate headlines of the past, Tominey previously said, before adding, It used to be the case that when the queen invited Fergie and the girls up to Balmoral, he would disappear and go to the Isle of Wight because he didnt want to be in the same place as her. That slightly melted in that he was at both Eugenie and Beatrices wedding. Prince Philip died on April 9, 2021. He was 99. Its almost officially the fall. For Gilmore Girls fans, that means its time to start another rewatch. For some reason, the fall feels like the perfect time to reconnect with Lorelai and Rory Gilmore in their tiny Connecticut town of Stars Hollow. Maybe thats because New England is known for its fall foliage. No matter the reason, Gilmore Girls screams autumn, but was the series filmed in Connecticut? The answer is no. Most of the series was filmed far away from the east coast and its cool autumn winds. Warner Bros. created most of the Gilmore Girls world on a studio lot in Burbank, California Gilmore Girls might have relied on the Northeast to set the stage for the dramedy, but not a single scene of the series was actually filmed in the state of Connecticut, at least not scenes that included any of the cast members. In fact, the majority of the series was filmed clear across the country. Taylor Doose and Kirk Gleason in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life | Netflix The bulk of Gilmore Girls was filmed on a soundstage in Burbank, California. Stars Hollow, while influenced by a New England town, was built on a soundstage. Warner Bros. used the same setup in another series. Stars Hollow was transformed for Pretty Little Liars. For example, the building that served as Stars Hollow High School might be recognizable to Pretty Little Liars fans as Rosewood Town Hall. A city-owned mansion in Beverly Hills served as Chilton While the bulk of Gilmore Girls was filmed on a production lot, a few key elements of the series required the cast to head into the real world.. Rorys schooling moments, for example, were sometimes filmed on location. Chilton, Rorys prep school, was an important element of the shows first, second, and third seasons. Scenes that showed the outside of Chilton were filmed on location in Beverly Hills. Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life | Netflix Chilton, modeled after a prep school on the East Coast, utilized the Greystone Mansion in California for its exterior shots. The city of Beverly Hills currently owns the building, but it was originally built in 1927 by Edward Laurence Doheny, Jr. on a parcel of land gifted to him by his father. According to the Friends of Greystone, the mansion took three years to build and cost over $3 million in the 1920s. Collegiate moments utilized college campuses not far from the Warner Bros. lot. The location of Richard and Emily Gilmores house is a bit more complicated Richard and Emily Gilmore, Lolelias parents, allegedly lived in Hartford, Connecticut. Connecticut natives often argue that the duo would have most likely lived in West Hartford instead of the city proper. While thats likely true, the house that stood in for Richard and Emilys spacious abode was nowhere on the East Coast. In fact, the property used in the pilot was markedly different than the home scene in every other episode of Gilmore Girls. Kelly Bishop as Emily Gilmore in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life | Saeed Adyani/Netflix According to Scene Therapy, the house that appears in the pilot episode of Gilmore Girls is located in Toronto. The bulk of the episode was filmed there, too. Later, when the series was picked up, the production company created an exterior facade for the house. It was created on the same soundstage that housed Stars Hollow. The facade, however, was modeled after a real mansion in California. Even the gates match. RELATED:Gilmore Girls: Yale Scenes Were Filmed at Several Schools, but Never at Yale On August 29, as American troops were accelerating their pullout from Afghanistan, the US military ordered its last drone strike in the 20-year war. The missile destroyed a parked car that military officials said was operated by an Islamic State sympathizer and contained explosives for a suicide attack on the Kabul airport, where American forces and civilians had gathered for evacuation. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told a news conference, We think that the procedures were correctly followed and it was a righteous strike. Last week, separate investigations from The New York Times and The Washington Post questioned those assertions, reporting that the driver was Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime engineer for the California-based aid group Nutrition and Education International. The supposed explosives, said the Times, were canisters of water Ahmadi was bringing home to his family because Talibans takeover of the city had cut off his neighborhoods water supply. The Times also reported that 10 members of the Ahmadi family were killed in the Hellfire missile attack, including seven children. General Milley told reporters, We went through the same level of rigor that weve done for years. Yes, there are others killed. Who they are, we dont know. We'll try to sort through all that. The British-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has counted that the US military conducted more than 13,000 drone strikes in Afghanistan over the years, with at least 4,126 people killed, including at least 300 civilians and 66 children. Drone policies changed over the years under during different presidencies, as did the way the US counted civilian deaths by drone strikes. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has a dramatically higher count for civilians killed in Afghanistan by drones: more than 2,000, with more 785 of them children. If accurate, that would mean that about 40 percent of civilians killed by drones in Afghanistan were children. It appears that drone warfare will continue to play a major role in Afghanistan. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden promised Islamic Stateor ISIS-K, We are not done with you yet. We will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth, and you will pay the ultimate price. But without troops in the country, that hunting will almost certainly be done mostly through unmanned aircraft. Back in 2011, CT ran a story asking Is It Wrong to Kill by Remote Control? This week, we want to revisit that question. Joining CT executive editor Ted Olsen and managing editor Andy Olsen this week is Paul D. Miller, a professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown Universitys School of Foreign Service. He earlier served in the US army, the CIA, and on the National Security Council staff as director for Afghanistan and Pakistan. These days, in addition to his post at Georgetown, he is a research fellow with the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and is author of Just War and Ordered Liberty, published earlier this year by Cambridge University Press. Among that books chapters is one one on the ethics of drone warfare. Quick to Listen listeners may also remember Miller from our January episode on Christian Nationalism. What is Quick to Listen? Read more. Rate Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts. Follow the podcast on Twitter. Follow this week's hosts on Twitter: Ted Olsen and Andy Olsen. Follow our guest Paul D. Miller. Music by Sweeps. Quick to Listen was produced this week by Ted Olsen and Matt Linder. The transcript is edited by Faith Ndlovu. Highlights from Quick to Listen: Episode #281 Is the threat to civilians worse with drone strikes than it is with other forms of military action that are not unmanned aircraft? Paul Miller: No. The opposite is true. Drone warfare matched with precision-guided ammunition is among the most discriminating and surgical forms of aerial bombing in the history of warfare. They have enabled us largely, with mistakes and exceptions, to initiate military operations again, in a more targeted surgical and discriminating fashion. In World War 2, when we had conventional aerial bombing, we killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. Sometimes deliberately, but oftentimes not. We would try to bomb a factory and instead, the bombs fell on a neighborhood and just killed tens of thousands of civilians. There are some problems with drone warfare, but it does not pose a greater danger to civilians than other forms of warfare. This is one of the good things about drones and targeted munitions; that it is more discriminating than other forms of warfare. How should we interpret the last few days of this description of a righteous strike, and the counter-narrative of a guy who was an aid worker moving folks around and working for this aid organization? Paul Miller: The problem with the strike on August 29th wasn't the drones, but it was the intelligence guiding the drones. Any kind of military operation works when it is guided by good intelligence about where the bad guys are that we're trying to get at. So, drones always need intelligence for targeted and precise strikes. In Afghanistan, we had withdrawn almost all of our troops. The only troops remaining were at the airport. That means we had also withdrawn almost all of our intelligence assets. When you withdraw the military you also, by definition, are withdrawing most of your intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets. That means when we undertook that drone strike, we were doing so, I presume with far less reliable intelligence. They did so, I'm guessing because it was a chaotic situation, thousands of civilians around the airport were believed to be in danger and they had some intelligence suggesting that there was going to be another suicide bombing and so they took action based on incomplete information and faulty intelligence. Again, the problem isn't the drone, the tool used to carry out the strike. It's the underlying information that led to the faulty targeting. From a Christian ethics perspective, is there a way to balance in warfare the tactical need for decisive action based on the intelligence that we have, with the Christian ethic of humility, a healthy skepticism of what we think we know because the consequences are especially dire when using unmanned remote vehicles? Paul Miller: This is a question about intelligence, more than about drones per se. All military operations are indeed more effective when they're driven by accurate, timely, relevant intelligence. When military operations are more targeted, they're also more defensible because they are targeted at the correct people, the enemy on the battlefield, they're more militarily effective. You call for an epistemological humility. What that means is, we ought to have a greater appreciation for what it takes to gain good intelligence around the world. What it takes oftentimes is a ground presence. The military and the intelligence community are far more intertwined, when you pull the military out, you're also pulling out intelligence. Therefore, you're losing your eyes and ears and if you try to do a strike in that context, it may be less reliable. My impression is, over the past 20 years, we have often got it right because we had sufficient presence in the theater, whether you're talking Iraq and Syria, or we're talking Afghanistan, Pakistan. We've had people on the ground; Americans and allies, Iraqis and Afghans who have helped provide that intelligence, which makes the drones targeted surgical and effective. As we've withdrawn from both places, we lose those eyes and ears, and our subsequent military operations are less reliable. Andy Olsen: We often tend to think of drones as these solo operations when in fact they're often used in larger operations as well. Have drones changed the way that the military and the American people, in general, think about targeted killings though, as we think of this more stereotypical concept of how we use drones? Paul Miller: Yes, and I think it's also caused American presidents to think differently about the use of force. Drones are cheap, easy, risk-free, and convenient. That makes it tempting to use them not as a last resort but use them when convenient and use in place of other tools of warfare that might be more appropriate to fighting and winning in a just way. It's hard for me to make the judgment as to whether we've done that or not over the past 20 years. I do see evidence that we have not fought in a way to facilitate peace and justice in the region, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan. We haven't facilitated that, which says to me we've probably have relied on these kinds of tools of warfare, like drones and special forces raids that are easy and convenient for taking out individual bad guys but don't resolve conflict. Article continues below They don't create conditions of peace, which is what just war is supposed to be. A number of listeners are familiar with some of the Christian origins of the just war theory, but help us understand, on one hand, there is Christian prohibition on killing and on the other hand there is this Christian mandate for peace, especially in the government bearing the sword. Balancing that is just war theory. Can you explain that and briefly, ways that drones may change some of that equation? Paul Miller: Just war theory is largely a Christian response to the question; is it ever just for the state to kill people? Passivists say, no, realists say, of course and it needs no justification other than the needs of the state. A Christian just war thinker says, maybe under certain conditions it is just to kill specifically for peace and justice. That's why we understand domestic policing to be just, even if it requires force. That's why it's just to use force internationally against international criminals, those who wage aggressive warfare or violate international law or crimes against humanity, what older thinkers would call crimes against nature. So, it is just to use force in those conditions, but for it to be just it has to meet a number of criteria. You have to be fighting for justice and peace, in the origination of the war. You have to fight for justice and peace in how you fight, the tools you use, the people you target, the kinds of weapons you use. Finally, you have to fight for justice and peace in how you end a war, how you bring it to a conclusion, and in the kind of aftermath, the peace and justice that you build in the aftermath of a war. So, it's not a simple question about whether a war is just, or not. The question has to be asked throughout the beginning, the duration, and the end of that war. How do drones play into this? Generally speaking, some tools have been really good in helping us fight more justly because they often are more discriminating, more targeted, more surgical, and more proportionate. They allow us to use violence on a smaller scale and presumably we try to make them target just the bad guys. The kinds of missiles that drones drop are smaller, usually, the kind of bombs and missiles dropped by conventional airplanes. That's a good thing about drones and it contributes to wars being fought in a more just manner. The concern I raised earlier is that they make war feel easy, cheap, convenient, and risk-free. When war feels that way, presidents might be tempted to use them when not necessary, or they might be tempted to rely on them exclusively and not fight for true justice and peace in the aftermath of conflict. People complain about the endless wars. I'm concerned about endless drone wars that never actually achieve peace. We're killing individual combatants and I think it's just for us to defend ourselves against terrorists. It is just for us to target enemy combatants. I don't have a problem with that, but if that's all we ever do, we're not achieving justice or peace. We're just sustaining an endless war without any attention to the underlying root causes of conflict. I feel that's exactly what's happened again in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere, Libya where we're sustaining this kind of indefinite campaign of targeted killings, while we allow these societies to continue forever in conditions of insecurity, violence privation, misery, poverty and so forth and there's no end to this. I think that's the wrong way to approach our effort to fight justly and for peace. The war on terror isn't like other wars, like the American Civil War, for example, because the Civil War had an end in mind while the terrorist war does not. It focused on killing rather than peacemaking. How are drones shaping that problem and the perceived solution? Paul Miller: They don't create the problem. I know some people do attribute the problem of terrorism as a reaction to unjust American foreign policy. I dont believe that. If you look at the terrorists, the jihadists, Al-Qaeda Islamic state, their justification for their terrorism shifts over the years depending upon the most convenient argument. It used to be about the so-called American occupation of the Holy Land and then it shifted to the war in Iraq, and then it shifted to something else. The only consistent feature is they want to kill Americans, which is wrong and unjust, and they have no just cause. So, we should not spend time blaming ourselves for the creation of terrorism. We should blame the terrorist for that. It's very clear to me that they've made a conscious choice. They've invented a theology that justifies them for murder and there's no compromise with that. We are fighting a just war against them. I think drones make it easier to fight justly on the criteria of discrimination and proportionality. Drones are a good tool of warfare when used to target individual terrorists and individual leaders, but they cannot be a strategy, which is precisely what I think we probably have done. When I look at the record last 20 years, it seems to be the only strategy that we've stuck with over 20 years. While other strategies have come and gone, they succeeded or failed, we just keep on doing the targeted killings. Do you think that we have been using drone strikes as a cure for terrorism? Are we likely to continue to see them as a cure for terrorism, especially in some places where we don't have much ground presence? Paul Miller: Yes. At the same time that President Obama ramped up drone strikes, and it spiked pretty dramatically under his watch at the same time that President Trump's sustained drone operations, the United States reduced and cut back the money we spent on civilian reconstruction assistance in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama had just simply decreased foreign aid worldwide and he decreased democracy assistance funding worldwide. So, he's using more drones and less foreign aid. I also observed that over the same timeframe that he's using more drones, he's withdrawing combat troops. So, there are fewer boots on the ground, there's less attention to defeating the enemy through conventional military means, more reliance on pinprick attacks where possible with less reliable intelligence since we have fewer and fewer boots on the ground over those years. So that's the pattern I see, more drones, less foreign aid, fewer troops, probably less intelligence. That paints a troubling picture of the kind of warfare that the Obama administration gravitated towards and that I think the Trump administration continued. I think the Biden administration is likely going to continue even further. The full, complete pullout from Afghanistan is part of this. I think it was a grave mistake. It was morally inexcusable. You also see the drone strike in the final days which again is an example of a mistaken drone strike because it was fed by faulty intelligence, which is more likely when you have withdrawn the boots from the ground. I think the Biden administration seems set to continue that same style of warfare; of relying on one-off strikes by drone or whatever else, in the absence of boots on the ground and no foreign aid and worse intelligence. That's not a style of warfare designed for justice and peace. We want to stave off conflict as much as we can to protect American lives but at the same time, to your point about the Augustinian just war theory, having as much to do with what we do after the conflict, as it has to do with what we do during the conflict or before the conflict, what is the lesson for the American people? How do we manage that tension as Christians who are subject to a government and trying to help our leaders make good choices? Paul Miller: It's as important for us to keep in mind the difference between a policy, which is popular with the American people, and a policy that is morally defensible and strategically effective. Drones are probably popular. I think most people like the idea and would voice public support for the idea of risk-free cheap, easy military strikes against bad guys around the world. What can be bad about that? It sounds great. The injustice is doing so without attention to broader conditions of peace and justice, which is precisely what we have done. We ought to try to communicate that to the American people. Presidents ought to communicate that at the beginning, before dropping a bomb so that the American people understand along with the bomb comes with a responsibility to invest in broader conditions of peace and justice in the society in which we're dropping bombs and in our society. Article continues below In a just war you fight for just peace for ourselves, our enemies in the world, that's the responsibility. I think the American people probably don't want to hear that because we're tired of being told of our global responsibilities. We sat through a half-decade of rhetoric about the evils of globalism and the evils of nation-building. I get that a lot of people resonate with those critiques and I think what I'm trying to do is push back on that and say, if you take that to its logical conclusion, you will turn America into the nation that is known for nothing more than drone striking at will and then going home. Is that what you want our country to stand for? Is that what is the best of our moral aspirations? I thought, and I think that we ought to stand for liberty, peace, justice, and equality for all. That does mean as we have done for most of the century, try to fight when we have to fight in a way that respects those values and those ideals and that does mean helping our enemies and the societies in which our enemies find a haven. What would be an example of getting it right where war is undertaken with the idea of peacemaking rather than just kill the bad guys? Paul Miller: Remember the difference between how World War 1 ended and how World War 2 ended. I know that people are deeply skeptical of nation-building but if we recall, we won World War 1 militarily, and then we lost the peace. We lost the peace because after the treaty of Versailles was defeated in the Senate, Americans turned against the war. They went along with a victor's peace that imposed a vengeful burden on Germany, which sowed the seeds for the next conflict. It was part of what caused the Great Depression and then the rise of fascism. After World War 2, policymakers understood that imposing a vengeful peace on Germany was not a good idea but instead we actually should do the opposite. That's why we stayed for 10 more years in Germany, and we spent untold billions of dollars rebuilding the place. People like to say that we shouldn't fight forever wars. We should have a clear exit strategy and an endpoint like World War 2 that rewrites the history of World War 2. We indeed got a surrender document on the given day but that did not end the military intervention, which lasted 10 more years in Germany, 7 more years in Japan. It was open-ended. We didn't know how long it would take, nor did we know if it was going to be peaceful or violent. We had prepared for the possibility of violent resistance to the military occupations there and yet we stayed because that was the obligation and the strategic necessity of building conditions of lasting peace and justice. We knew from the experience in World War 1 what would happen if we didn't do that. So, we stayed, and we rebuilt. That I think is how you effectively end a war and win the peace as well, which is something we essentially haven't done, maybe we did it in Korea, but we haven't done it since. We briefly mentioned the killing by remote control at the beginning of the podcast. Is there anything for us to be concerned about in terms of the distance aspect of it? Should we be concerned about the unmanned aspect of drone warfare? Paul Miller: No. I think this is a good thing because it does reduce risks to our troops, at least. There is an alternate view of war that says you have to expose yourself to danger, to give the enemy a fair chance, and to demonstrate your vulnerability. That's best described as the Viking theory of just war, not the Christian one. They saw war as a chance to prove their manliness and courage, and they had to expose themselves to risk and that's never really been part of the Christian just war tradition. In fact, in the Christian tradition, the virtue is to fight a war so effectively and efficiently that you win it and end it quickly to minimize the killing. In the Viking theory, there's an incentive to prolong the war to give yourselves more opportunities to prove how courageous and manly you are. I don't think there's any Christian virtue in that at all. So, the fact that we can fight wars from a distance is generally a good thing and I don't feel any more qualms about minimizing risk to our soldiers in the course of fighting wars efficiently and quickly. My concerns are elsewhere, the other things we've talked about so far. Church leaders are cautious or nervous before addressing matters of foreign relations in general which just feel very distant and otherworldly, for example, the pullout from Afghanistan. It's hard to talk about those things in concrete ways within a church community. Are there ways that church leaders, clergy, or laity can offer church folks better ways of thinking or navigating this in the future? Paul Miller: We probably don't need a sermon series on the war in Afghanistan. Perhaps, a sermon or a Sunday school series on the Christian just war tradition would be appropriate if you're preaching through Romans 13 (Rom 13) or Genesis 9 (Gen 9). It would be a good place to educate the congregation about how to think like a Christian where war and peace are concerned. The church ought to be a place where away from the Sunday morning pulpit, but in the small groups and the fellowship hall, people actively talk about these things. There's this weird sense that you're not supposed to talk about politics or religion in polite company because you don't want to offend people. I think that's terrible advice. I think we should talk about politics and religion especially with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We should be unafraid of talking about hard, sensitive things together because if we can't do it, no one can. If we who have Christ in common, can't talk about these things there's no hope for anybody. So, we should talk about it without fear. What is the church's role? I wonder if pastors should recognize part of their role in preaching a Sunday morning sermon when they preach the gospel, to then draw an application of the gospel to our lives as citizens, our lives as members of groups, our lives as people who live in communities, neighborhoods, states, counties, and nations. I'm sorry if that's a bit abstract, but what I'm getting at is, sometimes you hear a Sunday morning sermon where you hear the gospel, and then the application point is to live a holy life and love your family and raise your kids. But I think the gospel has more implications than that. It has implications for how we live in community with our neighbors and how we understand our citizenship in a secular polity and how we understand our responsibilities as members of other institutions like our workplaces. We Americans have such a firm individualism drilled into us. It's almost as if we need remedial education on how to be a member of a group of any kind. I think this is where the church's role is, to reform us, reshape us as members of groups, including nations, teach us what responsible Christian citizenship looks like in those contexts. If the church teaches us how to be responsible citizens, there's a whole lot of things that flow from that, including how we hold our government accountable, how we educate ourselves about certain specific political issues, how we agree with or disagree with our nation going to war, what the war is about and how to end that war. That's all part of responsible Christian citizenship, but we're not being taught that by anybody, not by our schools or churches, or families. Andy Olsen: Yeah. Paul, I think one of the reasons that we're perhaps not being taught is that we live in an era that is decades into a post-draft era. This isn't the 40s or the 60s, when everyone who is sitting in the pew to your right or your left had someone in their family or knew close friends serving in the armed forces overseas somewhere. I think it speaks to the nature of drone warfare and everything it symbolizes. This idea that conflict each year seems more and more of a distant thing, something that's conducted by remote control which to your point can have great benefits, but I think it makes it even harder for average people to know how to engage the topic. This week, former Bachelor star and Bachelorette contestant Ben Higgins joins Heather for an insightful conversation about the emptiness of fame, the criticism he faced as a Christian on a reality-television dating show, and why authentic connections with people are more important than having millions of social media followers. Higgins is also garnering attention as an author. His new book, Alone in Plain Sight: Searching for Connection When Youre Seen but Not Known, explores his struggles with loneliness and insecurity, and shows how he finds ultimate hope in his connection with God. Find Ben on Instagram @higgins.ben. And in our #GrowingViral segment, meet Vimbo Zvandasara-Zhou, creator of Between Believers, an online speed dating event meant to bring love and connection to people who are searching for it right from their phone screens. Vimbo created Between Believers after journeying through her own singleness during the pandemic. Find Vimbo on Instagram @betweenbelievers and on Twitter @ohvimbo. Reach out to Heather Thompson Day on Twitter @HeatherTDay and Instagram @heatherthompsonday. Viral Jesus is a production of Christianity Today Host and creator: Heather Thompson Day Producer: Loren Joseph Executive Producer: Ed Gilbreath Director of CT Podcasts: Mike Cosper Why Owen Strachan thinks critical race theory is a threat to the Church Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As a student at Bowdoin College in Maine, Grace Bible Theological Seminary Provost and Research Professor Owen Strachan was so deeply interested in diversity and societal fragmentation he almost minored in Africana Studies. His interest in the subject never drove him to become an academic expert in the discipline, but in recent months, Strachan has emerged as an expert on social justice and wokeness and a strident opponent of critical race theory. The controversial ideology is defined by the Southern Baptist Convention Americas second-largest denomination and the worlds largest Baptist denomination as a set of analytical tools which can aid in evaluating a variety of human experiences. Secular scholars define it as a framework through which they seek to understand how victims of systemic racism are affected by cultural perceptions of race and how they can represent themselves to counter prejudice. Scholarship on the theory traces racism in the U.S. through the legacy of slavery, the civil rights movement and recent events. Kimberle Crenshaw, a founding critical race theorist and a law professor at UCLA and Columbia universities, explained the idea to CNN last year. "Critical race theory is a practice. It's an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it," she said. Strachan, who is also a senior fellow with the Family Research Council who once served at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sees the idea as demonic." And in his new book, Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel - and the Way to Stop It, he seeks to save the American church from the slithery hiss that he believes to be a threat to Christians and white people. In seven chapters, spread over 270 pages and a strong foreword from California megachurch Pastor John MacArthur, Strachan presents a studied exploration of critical race theory. He argues it produces a mindset of wokeness that seeks to exact reparations from white people for the sins of their forebears. He also goes as far as contending that unrepentant church leaders who embrace it should be excommunicated. I think the major problem with wokeness that requires excommunication is that its anti-Gospel when you really examine it as a system. It compromises the unity of the truth. It lies about the human person. It says that white people in America are fundamentally oppressors of people of color and thats not a biblical truth," Strachan told The Christian Post in a recent interview about his book published by Salem Books in July. "Thats not found in Scripture. Thats injurious and unjust toward white people, and it will violate and compromise the unity of the church." In the book, he wrote that [w]okeness is first and foremost a mindset and a posture." "The term itself means that one is awake to the true nature of the world when so many are asleep," the book reads. "In the most specific terms, this means one sees the comprehensive inequity of our social order and strives to highlight power structures in society that stem from racial privilege. In intellectual terms, wokeness occurs when one embraces Critical Race Theory. Strachan says pastors embracing wokeness is problematic because the ideology unfairly maligns innocent white people. I know a prominent example of a pastor of a megachurch who took [to] the pulpit and told the congregation that white people should repent for their complicity in white supremacy," he told CP. "And this was said to a wide range of people, including white people, who had adopted numerous children out of desperate circumstances that had different skin colors than them and were very much trying to love those children and had not been white supremacist toward them in any known way whether in word or deed. That is an example of the evil nature of wokeness. I am here to stand against it, call it out and say it is anti-Gospel." He said that if he ever heard someone preach like that in front of his family at his church, he would pursue "excommunication." If a man stood up in a pulpit and said that before me and said that before my family, I would attempt to talk to him. And I would attempt, if he did not repent of that, to talk to the elders and encourage them to ask him to repent of that. And if he did not do that, I would pursue excommunication as much as I could as a church member. And I would do so with a 100% clean conscience, he continued. I pray many people who read this book [will] pursue that action because that is the action that is fitting." In the Church, he warns that "wokeness is spreading like a cancer and it's training so-called white people who have no racial prejudice in their heart." "They are literally at great cost, physically, financially and otherwise adopting children out of Christian love and then [a] pastor brings mans law, not Gods law, into the Church and condemns them as evil," he stressed. "And that is the doctrine of demons, and Im here to call it out. I do so unequivocally and unapologetically. The example was a very personal one for Strachan because his family adopted his sister from South America. He said, her skin color was not exactly like mine or like several people at our small church, but that did not matter a bit, he wrote in his book. My father and mother loved her, I loved her (and always will), and she loved us. God gave our family a blessing in the form of my sister a Christian and a woman who loves and serves her family well. And I am so thankful for my parents commitment to adoption, he explained. Along with his independent research on race, this family dynamic is one of the reasons why Strachan feels he is in a good position to openly discuss an issue that has divided denominations along racial lines. At their 2020 annual session, the SBCs Council of Seminary Presidents, comprised of six seminary heads, voted to reject critical race theory as incompatible with their faith while condemning racism in any form. The vote caused some black pastors who disagreed with the wholesale rejection of the concept to leave the denomination. In the wake of that controversy this summer, Southern Baptist messengers affirmed their commitment to racial reconciliation and the sufficiency of Scripture to address issues of race by adopting a resolution that avoided the contentious debate over critical race theory. There had been concerns that messengers would have rescinded Resolution 9 On Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. In sharing his thoughts on Resolution 9, Strachan believes his book can alleviate the confusion about critical race theory among Southern Baptists. There is a lot of confusion among Southern Baptists, like evangelicals, like American citizens more broadly, which is why I wrote the book, he said. I dont think most or many Southern Baptists understand what the convention affirmed. Resolution 9 was passed in 2019 under tremendous confusion. And no small amounts of opposition. And the confusion has only continued. The wording analytical tool, it certainly appears to me based on James Cones black liberation theology, which is anti-Gospel theology. Most people dont know what it is, and it can sound in neutral terms like it could be a tool. But my prayer is that the Southern Baptist churches will understand the true nature of critical race theory. Its not a tool of analysis. Its a tool of division formed by the enemy of the Church. In his book, Strachan argues that academic theory and social activism should not supplement Christian thought and practice as the Bible is sufficient for these things. Simply put, the Bible gives us exactly what we need to find unity, hope and justice in this world. The Bible, furthermore, fuels a life of scriptural reasoning of thinking well about all things according to the conviction that God is God, and everything else is not, he wrote. When asked why he quoted 18th-century writer Edgar Allan Poe, who he notes was an atheist, to illuminate the vengeance of the human conscience but criticizes Christians who use critical race theory to try to explain how racism works, he admitted that unbelievers will see different elements of the truth. So someone like me, being a Christian, Im not necessarily a brilliant economist just because Im a born-again believer and I have a redeemed mind. God has allowed me to learn through a range of sources, and so the problem with critical race theorists is not that they are not Christian," he added. "The problem with woke voices is not that theyre not Christian. Some of them are born-again. The problem is that they are not getting the truth right. They are operating by the wrong system. They are operating by a secular system that is godless and bankrupt, Strachan said. Im not saying you would never quote an unbeliever. That would be fundamentally inconsistent for me to do, given who I quote in my book. Im saying unbelievers cant give you the ultimate solution. [There is] no unbeliever you can find, however brilliant who can give you the ultimate answer to the problem of unity. There are unbelievers who are going to get different things right about our world." A new study from Arizona Christian University published earlier this month showed an estimated 176 million American adults who identify as Christian, just 6% or 15 million, hold a biblical worldview. More than half of self-identified Christians also reject a number of biblical teachings and principles, including the existence of the Holy Spirit. And among the 6% that qualified as holding a biblical worldview, strong minorities of that group hold unbiblical views. For example, 25% say there is no absolute moral truth; 33% believe in karma; 39% contend that the Holy Spirit is not a real, living being but is merely a symbol of Gods power, presence or purity; 42% believe that having faith matters more than which faith you pursue; and 52% argue that people are basically good. Asked if he would excommunicate these Christians for their unbiblical views, Strachan said he would first try to disciple them. There are many people that profess to be Christian who are not truly born again. And so, I think part of what this poll could be capturing is the compromised nature of todays church." He said there are "many people today in the Church who say they are a Christian, who believes that white people are fundamentally oppressors of people of color. So thats an anti-Gospel position, he insisted. While his book has received praise from some of his supporters online, Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel - and the Way to Stop It, Strachan rejects one critic online who argues that the book is a masterpiece in straw man arguments." I actually have labored to not produce a book that is a strawman book. Somebody can think that I have done that. I can't control how anyone thinks. What I have tried to do is not live up to the stereotype that if you are unwoke, you simply burn down who you believe are. And thats why I think a fair assessment of my book would not say that it is a strawman compilation, he stated. I hope that they will read my book and see that Im trying to respect and understand the other side. 35-y-o pastor dies in whitewater rafting accident, leaves behind 'legacy of Jesus' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Hundreds of people in Hopkins County, Kentucky, gathered this week to honor the life of a Baptist pastor who died in a whitewater rafting accident. He is remembered as a vibrant and cheerful "Jesus person" with "God-given abilities." Rev. Clint Brame, the 35-year-old education minister at Olive Branch Baptist Church in Hanson, died last Friday in West Virginia. He leaves behind his wife, Amanda, and one daughter. Brame was widely known in his church community for being a silly, balloon-animal-making servant of God who occasionally dressed in a colorful, clown-like jacket while preaching in the pulpit. Brame served in full-time ministry roles for five years at Olive Branch Baptist Church. Pastor Brame was humble. He listened to you. He had a servant heart. He loved the people. He loved the Lord Jesus. He loved his family. And He loved the people, said Rev. Gary Taylor, the 58-year-old senior pastor of Olive Branch Baptist Church for the past 17 years. Pastor Brame wanted to see people grow in Christ and he was hands-on in working with both Christians and non-Christians to help them as part of his evangelistic duties. He truly knew how to share and live out his faith in Jesus. When Brame was not leading the churchs various small groups, running Sunday school classes and discipleship programs or aiding in missions efforts, he was recognized for being out and about in the local community to perform acts of service. Always known for smiling from ear to ear, the Hopkinsville native would be seen in the neighborhood's streets, sharing with others about Jesus. He was also known to teach the churchs youth how to make animals and various shapes out of balloons to give to other children in need. He also had a quieter side, in which he played video games, watched "Star Wars" movies and devoted time to spend with his wife and daughter. Before serving at Olive Branch, Brame earned his bachelor's degree from the Baptist institution Campbellsville University in Kentucky. He later graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Taylor told The Christian Post that Brame would preach in his place on Sundays when he was not available and was heavily involved in helping run the church's behind-the-scenes operations. His duties included overseeing the church's media services and sound booth. He also made sure that people had access to Sunday sermons online and that the live videos on the churchs Facebook page were accessible. He was always ready to help me and he met the needs that I couldnt meet at certain times. He was a great support system and he was a servant leader, Taylor said. Pastor Brame was a Jesus-centered person with God-given abilities. Everything he did pointed to Jesus, the Son of God. He was a Jesus person. And he had God-given abilities that he used to point people to Jesus. He helped people to understand that Jesus is the way to Heaven and that declaring Jesus as Lord is key. On various occasions, Brame wore a brightly colored jacket that he originally wore to his brothers wedding. Taylor recalls the first time Brame wore that suit to church was when Brame was preaching in his place when the senior pastor was away from the church for the weekend. As Rev. Brame preached, multiple congregants captured pictures in admiration and amusement of what they viewed as a unique suit. Soon after, the article of clothing became one of the things Rev. Brame was known for among his church body. Pastor Brame and that very funny and silky clown suit in the pulpit ... we always had a ball. So much laughter, Taylor recollected, with a giggle. In a Facebook post late last week, Amanda Brame said she never imagined when her husband got the suit that she would "be laying it out for funeral clothes." "Not even when I started trying to pick out clothes for him to wear, did I think that he would be wearing this of all things, Amanda Brame wrote. So, here we are, Clints crazy suit. The suit has special significance to the family [and] to our church. Due to the pandemic, Olive Branch Baptist Church had not had an in-person service for nearly two years. But after Brames death, the senior pastor said he wanted to gather as a church community. To create unity and comfort during a time of mourning, Taylor held a parking lot worship service for the congregation last Saturday. Roughly 335 people gathered for the service to sing, pray and read Scripture as they honored Brame. Several attendees took time to share the joyful and inspiring memories that they had with their deceased friend. Since attending the service, two people have told Taylor they wanted to fully dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ because they were inspired by hearing about all Brame has done. God has started a healing process within our church. This brought the church back together, and I believe the greatest thing is sharing the stories of brother Brame and his heart for Jesus. ... Pastor Brame might have only been 35, but he left a legacy of Jesus, Taylor said. God is sovereign and He has a purpose and plan. Losing Rev. Brame is horrible and terrible, but in the midst of it, we see God moving. The visitation wake for Brame will occur Friday, and the funeral service will be Saturday at First Baptist Church in Hopkinsville County. President George Bushs 9/11 speech: A model of presidential leadership Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have come and gone. I suspect many Americans join me in finding the events and commentary associated with that somber observance to have been different than we had expected them to be and somehow emotionally and spiritually dissatisfying. All Americans above a certain age remember vividly exactly where they were and exactly what they were doing when those heinous and evil assaults on our nation took place. I had spent the previous Thursday and Friday participating in a U.N. event in New York and had flown back to Nashville on Friday night, passing right by the Twin Towers in all their illuminated majesty. (As a baby boomer who grew up in boomtown Houston, I feel the same way about skyscrapers that some people feel about mountain peaks.) One speech did, however, arrest my attention, lift my spirits, and provide much-needed perspective on that horrible day and our current national crisis of identity. Former President George W. Bushs speech was delivered in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the Flight 93 memorial, the site where a heroic group of extraordinary Americans brought down a hijacked airliner before it could attack either the White House or the Congress, killing many more Americans. As I watched the speech on television, I was vividly reminded of what presidential leadership is and how uniquely important it is to our country. Presidential leadership may be hard to define precisely, but to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewarts famous observation concerning pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964), I know it when I see it, and our 43rd president furnished us with a vivid example of such presidential leadership on September 11th. President Bush reminded us of just how shocked the entire nation was by the unprecedented attacks on 9/11. There was horror at the scale of destruction, and awe at the bravery and kindness that rose to meet it in the sacrifice of the first responders, in the mutual aid of strangers, in the solidarity of grief and grace, the actions of an enemy revealed the spirit of a people. President Bush, speaking as a proud American to his fellow countrymen, recounted that, We learned that bravery is more common than we imagined, emerging with sudden splendor in the face of death. Turning specifically to the extraordinary heroism of the passengers of Flight 93, the president recounted that the terrorists soon discovered that a random group of Americans is an exceptional group of people. Facing an impossible circumstance, they comforted their loved ones by phone, braced each other for action, and defeated the designs of evil. Reminding his fellow countrymen of who they are and have been, the president concluded, Those Americans were brave, strong, and united in ways that shocked the terrorists but should not surprise any of us. This is the nation we know. And whenever we need hope and inspiration, we can look to the skies and remember. As I listened to the speech, I thought, This is Lincolnesque and I do not use that word lightly. As I listened, I thought of President Lincolns first inaugural address, when he appealed, albeit unsuccessfully, to a nation on the verge of civil war to listen to the better angels of our nature. This was the recurring theme of the presidents speech. Deeply concerned about a malign force at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures, President Bush attempted to remind us of who we are and what we have, and do, stand for as a nation. Essentially, he reminded us that our heritage and our history tell us that we are better than we have been behaving. President Bush is justifiably proud of our country. America is not a perfect nation, but there is a reason people from all over the world, of every ethnicity, risk life and limb to come here. We are a unique country, and the American ideal has bettered the human condition for more than 200 years and will continue to do so. Recounting the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the months afterward, President Bush reminded us That is the nation I know. When I was a boy, virtually every time I would leave the house, my mother would say, Richard, remember who you are! She was telling me to behave the way I had been brought up to behave and not to bring discredit to my family. Just so, President Bush is reminding us to remember who we are and who we can still be as a people. The medias reaction to President Bushs speech illustrates that his concern over our civil, or should we say uncivil, discourse, is justified. It is as if President Bushs speech functioned as a type of national Rorschach or inkblot test, with each side, seeing what it wanted to see, thus illustrating just how irrational and dysfunctional our national discourse has become. The liberal media have praised former President Bush for condemning the extremism that produced the Capitol Hill riots of January 6, blind to the fact that the president was acting as an equal opportunity offender, criticizing extremes of the Right and the extremes of the Left that produced Black Lives Matter, Antifa and widespread violence and riots over the past 18 months. Remember the protesters marching through American cities chanting, Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon, encouraging violence against perhaps the most visible symbol of law and order, the police force? Remember when they attempted to tear down statues of Lincoln, Grant and Washington and suggested that the capital city be renamed? On the right, conservative media have also too often assumed former President Bush was only criticizing extremes of the Right and not the Left. I know the man and I am certain he was condemning extremism in all its various manifestations and was calling on Americans to quit thinking the worst about each other and find common ground in our priceless heritage as Americans. President Bushs 9/11 speech is what real presidential leadership looks like and it was indeed reminiscent of the Great Emancipator, and no higher praise can be given to anyone who has had the privilege of occupying the oval office. Such inspirational rhetoric from our 43rd president should not surprise those who actually listened to him during his tenure in office. In his much-underrated first inaugural address, the president declared: America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American. Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nations promise through civility, courage, compassion and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us goodwill and respect, fair dealing, and forgiveness. May we all heed President Bushs prophetic reminder of what it means to be an American, and may we all strive to live up to that noble heritage. Roger Stone shares dramatic testimony, says God saved him for a reason: 'I was doomed' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Roger Stone can still recall, in detail, the moment he realized hed hit rock bottom and the power of prayer. In January 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged Stone, a veteran political operative, with lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into Democrats' claim that Donald Trumps campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. The special counsel investigation concluded finding no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Stone, 69, maintained his innocence. Still, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison and a $20,000 fine, four years of probation after his prison term, and 250 hours of community service. It was, he told The Christian Post, in essence, a death sentence. I was framed by evil people who had a political motive, who fabricated crimes by me, put me through a completely corrupted Soviet-style show trial, were prepared to ship me off at age 68 and with a lifetime history of asthma to a dank Georgia prison facility where the government insisted there were no COVID-19 cases, but the prison guards union president assured us there were hundreds that the government was hiding. He proved to be right, Stone recalled. I was depressed, angry, frustrated, I was scared. Just days before Stone was set to report to prison, then-President Trump pardoned him. Roger Stone has already suffered greatly, the White House said in a statement. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man! It was, Stone said, nothing short of an act of God. I learned firsthand the power of prayer because I was doomed, he said. I lost everything. My rights, my free speech, my home, my savings, my ability to make a living, my voice to defend myself. I was being lynched while being gagged. The only thing [I could do was] turn my problem over to the Lord, and the Lord would beat back my persecutors. Since the 1970s, Stone has established himself as a fixture in American politics. A conservative political consultant, he worked on the presidential campaigns of a slew of Republican politicians, including Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Congressman Jack Kemp of New York, who was the vice presidential nominee with Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas in 1996, and Presidents George W. Bush and lastly, Trump. Hes also one of the most colorful figures in politics, known for his flashy fashion and bold interview style and the Nixon tattoo on his back. He was even the subject of a 2017 Netflix documentary, Get Me Roger Stone. Though raised in a Catholic home, The New York Times bestselling author acknowledged he fell away from the faith he was raised in for many years, despite maintaining respect for Christianity and its adherents. It was the manufactured nonsense and outrageous claims perpetuated by the corporate media the truth never comes out no matter how concisely you prove it, he said coupled with the extraordinary commuting of his prison sentence that compelled him to confess his sins, re-affirm his faith, and seek out Gods calling on his life. I'm a warrior, he said. I was saved; I was spared for a purpose. God spared me for some greater purpose. He has, I believe, some mission for me, perhaps some last mission. So I'm open to God's Word. Stone credits the influence of the late evangelist Billy Graham and his son, Franklin Graham, for playing a key role in his faith journey. He recalled attending a Billy Graham crusade in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as a young man and being struck by the evangelists effectiveness as a speaker. He was truly one of the greatest men of that century, the 20th century. He was that powerful moral force; he was that compelling speaker, Stone said of the famed evangelist. Later, the elder Graham gifted a signed Bible to Stone, something he still treasures. Many years later, it was Franklin Graham, Stone shared, who more than any other figure taught him he could be truly free if he chose to walk in Gods way. I have huge respect for both father and son, Stone said. I don't agree with either one of them about everything, obviously. But fundamentally, the important thing is we believe in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Stone said he has no illusions about the fact that many particularly the liberal elites will label his conversion a fake and bid for public sympathy. But he dismisses such accusations. It doesn't matter to me. [God] knows what's in your heart. There's no fooling God, he said. Though it was Baptist pastors who brought him back to Jesus, Stone said hell stay in the Catholic Church despite holding the belief that Pope Francis is a communist and disagreeing with the pontiff's political views. His left-wing views, I think, are harmful to the Church. That's just my personal view. I'd rather stay and try to reform my own Church than join some other Christian sect, he said. When it comes to how Christians should vote, Stone stressed that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat. He noted that former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Harry Truman, both Democrats, were both righteous men. Yet, Stone maintains that the old, anti-communist tradition within the Democratic Party no longer exists, adding: Therefore, you have a party now dominated by the ideas of socialism or communism, but at a minimum, authoritarianism. Authoritarianism does not recognize the Lord. Authoritarianism does not allow the free practice of the religion of our choice. Not all Democrats are evil and corrupt, just the vast majority of them, he added. Rather than focusing on Republicans versus Democrats, Stone advised looking at individuals as insiders versus outsiders. He said he believes the country is facing an epic struggle between good and evil, between dark and light, between the godly and the godless. Christians, he said, are without a doubt outsiders. Were censored, were de-platformed, our communications are controlled, our views are ridiculed as archaic fairy tales. Elites scoff at us, Stone said. We are now on the outside, he emphasized. I urge people to study very carefully, on an individual basis and vote your Christian values. Vote your constitutional values. The Constitution in our form of government is rooted in our belief in Jesus Christ. It's on our money. they'd like to take it off, but so far, they have not been able to do so. Though he finds comfort in his faith, Stones troubles arent over. He continues to face lawsuits while his wife of three decades, Nydia, is battling stage four cancer. Hes launched a Family Support Fund that allows his supporters to donate to him and his wife to cover their rent, food, medical expenses, insurance, gasoline, and the most basic of living expenses. I can't imagine being on this planet without my wife. She was my rock; she was the one who, in the darkest days of my ordeal, said, Keep faith in the Lord, the Lord will deliver you. The Lord will surely not abandon you. And she was right, he said. When it comes to those who have tried to destroy his life and wellbeing, Stone said he prays they get enlightened about the falsity of what they're saying about me. Still, he takes great comfort in Hebrews 10:30, which reads: For we know Him who said, It is mine to avenge; I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. All of those who have tried to bury me and my wife, all of those who have tried to destroy us for political motives, not because we did something wrong, but for ideological and political motives, the Lord will take care of them in due time. Justice will come to them. It's no longer something I have to worry about, Stone said. They have a far more powerful and all-knowing problem. Jesus Christ our Lord. 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' director on how greed, power corrupted televangelist's good intentions Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Michael Showalter, director of the forthcoming film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, believes that when televangelist Tammy Faye first exploded on the scene with her husband, Jim Bakker, her intentions were good. She seemed to have a very pure belief that God is love, and love thy neighbor, and that kind of thing, the 51-year-old actor, director, writer and producer told The Christian Post. But as Bakkers fame grew, so did their thirst for greed and power and Tammy Faye Bakkers values began to conflict with some of the voices that had sway in her community. The Bakkers are kind of known, first and foremost, as subjects of this gigantic scandal," Showalter said. The saga of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker is one of the most notorious in the history of televangelism. At the height of the duo's success, Jim Bakker was accused of using ministry funds to pay for the silence of a rape accuser and to support a lavish lifestyle, including an air-conditioned dog house and a fleet of Mercedes-Benzes and Rolls-Royces. The fallout was devastating. In 1988, Jim Bakker was indicted on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy and spent eight years in prison. The couple, who later divorced, ended up in financial ruin and the subjects of public disdain. The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which releases on Friday, follows the rise and fall of the Bakkers and their PTL "Praise the Lord" empire. Starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, the film follows the couple as they meet at a Bible college and mingle with the likes of Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell Sr. and CBNs Pat Robertson. It documents their rise from the fresh-faced duo behind a traveling puppet show to the luxury-loving force behind a multimillion-dollar TV network. It also features the many scandals that marred the couples personal life, from infidelity to drug addiction, and their seismic fall from grace. On the surface, the Bakkers story has all the elements of a great page-turner, defined by lust, greed and rag-to-riches and then back to rags. Its enormously entertaining, Showalter said. But as he peeled back the layers of Tammy Faye Bakker, Showalter said, what he discovered was a trailblazer, a woman who was far more complex than the cartoonish figure whose exaggerated lashes and high-pitched voice inspired SNL skits and humorous T-shirts. For most of her career, Tammy Faye didn't have the makeup that we all think of her as having, Showalter said. As her life was starting to fall apart, as the empire that they were building was crumbling, her makeup got more extreme. For her, her makeup was her armor and her mask. When you look at it that way, its not so fun to make fun of her. Despite growing up with little religious affiliation, Showalter remembers watching the Bakkers from his television with fasciation. Even as a child, he felt Tammy Faye Bakker had a likable personality. You couldnt take your eyes off of them, he recalled. I would equate it to an infomercial or QVC; something that is just so strange, a world that you dont understand, but youre fascinated by it. So decades later, when approached with the opportunity to bring their story to life, he jumped at the chance. There are just great costumes and music and sets it's a period piece. It just felt like a really rich world I wanted to revisit and bring to life, he said. Tammy Faye Bakker, Showalter pointed out, never fit in with the evangelical world she claimed. The film portrays the televangelist interviewing AIDS activist Steve Pieters on her show, sparring with Falwell Sr. over the issue of homosexuality and hosting a TV segment about penile implants. She was, as Showalter put it, a complicated figure. You've got to try to see these characters as real people and not as caricatures, he added. I think when you do that, you discover all these things about them that you go, Well, I never really thought about that. Though Tammy Faye Bakker, who remarried after divorcing Bakker in 1992, died from cancer in 2007, both of her children, Tammy Sue and Jamie Charles, were involved in the making of the film. Jim Bakker, who recently claimed his downfall was an "early example of cancel culture, today hosts "The Jim Bakker Show." The Eyes of Tammy Faye is about scandal, relationships and politics, Showalter said, but it also tries to promote a message of tolerance, love and acceptance something he feels Tammy Faye Bakker believed was the most important practice. Whatever our flaws, at the end of the day, were all human and we all want to be happy, he said. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in theaters on Sept. 17. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment This Friday is Constitution Day, a national holiday to commemorate the federal constitution. Christians should take this day as an opportunity to obey the Apostle Pauls teaching in Romans 13 and commit to honoring our constitution. The constitution is our highest governing authorit[y] under God, instituted by God for our good, and therefore Christians must be in subjection to its authority for the sake of [our] conscience before God. Submission to the law is central to Christianity. When the Lord Jesus saves us from our sin, one of the things He does is save us from our rebellion against the law. Every person is born a rebel against God naturally inclined by sin to disobey God, to reject Gods design for our life, and to rebel against the government God has established to create order and prosperity in society. This disobedience against God, his rule, and his rulers starts in childhood, as every child rebels against their parents and adult authorities. But that rebellion continues into adulthood in the form of disobedience to the laws of society particularly when those laws restrict a persons sinful desires. Even civilized, law-abiding people often harbor resentment against the laws that tell them what they can and cannot do. The sad irony of our sinful rebelliousness is that obeying Gods law, His design for our life, and the government He establishes over us, is necessary for us to live a full and happy life. The laws of society restrain our sinful inclinations and behavior, protect us from harming people, and redirect our energies toward righteous ends. The rule of law is the precondition of human flourishing. Without it, there can be no enterprise or trade, art or study, planning or investment, or any other productive human activity that prospers a society. God gives us the law as a gift. That is particularly true in America. God has given the American people an incomparable gift in the United States constitution. After the American Revolution, delegates from the 13 states drafted a federal constitution to govern our nation. Their constitution creates various government offices, such as the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, and it gives these offices specific powers to solve national problems. The constitution also places limits on federal officers, prohibiting them from going beyond the constitutions enumerated powers. The constitution also protects fundamental individual freedoms, such as the right to speak freely and to practice religion. The constitution is, according to its own words, the supreme law of the land. It gives our rulers their limited powers and continuously rules over them. It requires every government official to submit to its rule by taking an oath to support th[e] Constitution as the highest law. It declares that any law, any action, any decisionby any person claiming governmental authority anywhere that violates the constitution, is illegal. As Justice Marshall explained in the famous Marbury v. Madison decision, any government act repugnant to the constitution is void. The term void means having no legal force or binding effect. In practical terms, this means that a Christians ultimate political allegiance as a U.S. citizen is to the federal constitution not the Presidents executive orders, Congresss laws, or the Supreme Courts opinions. If a President issues a mandate beyond the powers of the constitution, it is null and void, because it violates our highest law, the constitution. In the words of Saint Augustine, lex iniusta non est lex an unjust law is no law at all. Christians have a duty to honor the constitution, to obey it as our highest governing authority, and to protect it from politicians who seek to undermine its authority. This is a difficult calling for Christians in 2021. Every day in America, government officials across the land at the state and federal level take actions that disregard, undermine, or openly violate the constitution. To make matters worse, this rebellion is often done with the approval of the Supreme Court, which gives it the veneer of legality. Moreover, our major political parties are complicit in this development. The Democrat party is openly committed to policies that violate the constitution, and the Republican party too often falls short of its promises to restore constitutional government. There is also widespread confusion in American churches over how to think about our system of government. American Christians are often told that Romans 13 requires honoring and submitting to any government mandate, even if it is clearly unconstitutional, unless it is sinful to comply with it. But that is not what Romans 13 teaches. Of course, Christians should always err on the side of obeying government officials. But it is wrong, and it begs the question, to suggest that all laws and regulations that purport to be government mandates are legal. Consider an example. Imagine you receive a letter in the mail, stamped important tax document. It bears an official government seal. You open it, and it declares that according to the law, you owe $1,000.00 in taxes. It gives you the address to an official government office to send your payment. But it is signed by the Prime Minister of France. Upon further investigation, you learn that the French Parliament has passed a new law that taxes every American citizen by $1,000.00. In that situation, a Christian is free to obey and send a check to France. But obeying this mandate is not Romans 13 submission. A Christian who pays the tax is not being subject to the governing authorities, because the Prime Minister of France has no authority over American citizens. The same is true for unconstitutional mandates. These government actions are not actually laws. Since our courts may still enforce them, in most cases it is necessary and wise to obey them anyway. But in some cases, Christians may disobey in good consciencefor example, when the government orders a Christian crisis pregnancy center to refer women to abortion clinics, or when it commands a Christian business to pay for abortion-inducing drugs. In some cases, Christians will disagree about what wisdom requires for example, whether to obey an unconstitutional order that Christians must stop worshipping on Sunday to slow the spread of a disease. But if Christians choose to obey these mandates, they should not invoke the Bible to dignify them with the status of law. That is a grave mistake. Doing so only enables and emboldens politicians who seek to overthrow our constitutional system. The founders of our nation faced a situation like ours and had to decide how they would respond. The American colonists, as English subjects, were ruled by the English common law and had rights under that law. But the King of England, through a long train of abuses and usurpations, sought to overthrow English law and replace it with his own absolute Despotism. Because the King was acting outside of the law to take away their right to live under English law, the colonists decided that they had a right and a duty to declare independence and reestablish the rule of law. As Americans living today under the federal constitution, we are blessed that God gave success to the American revolution. Because of the founders courage, we live under a republic where we submit to the law, not a dictatorship where we submit to the arbitrary will of men. We should be grateful for this gift and recommit ourselves to upholding our constitution against the intense political subversion it faces today. The survival of our constitutional system of government may depend on it. Finally, Christians should not worry or despair if it looks like our rulers are succeeding in their rebellion against the constitution. Even if they appear to succeed, Christians can rest assured that, in the words of Romans 13, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. Christians can trust the fate of our republic to the sovereign hands of a good and just God and look forward to an eternal kingdom that will never fail. ELCA becomes first mainline denomination in US to install trans-identified bishop Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has installed Rev. Megan Rohrer as the first openly transgender bishop to serve in the liberal mainline Protestant denominations history. For the next six years, Rev. Rohrer, 41, who identifies as both a male and female and uses the pronouns "they" and "them," will head the California-based ELCA Sierra Pacific Synod. In the role, Rohrer will oversee nearly 200 congregations in Northern California and northern Nevada. Rohrer won on the fifth ballot during the online synod assembly in May, receiving 209 votes and narrowly defeating the Rev. Jeff R. Johnson of Berkeley, California, who received 207 votes. Rohrers installation service took place at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek, California, on Sept. 11. In a statement, Rohrer, who is married and has two children, said that stepping into the new role would not be possible without a diverse community of Lutherans in Northern California and Nevada prayerfully and thoughtfully voting to do a historic thing. "My installation will celebrate all that is possible when we trust God to shepherd us forward," Rohrer said, according to The Associated Press. In the role, Rohrer promised to love others and love what others love. Rohrer previously served as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco and a chaplain coordinator for the citys police department. In a May 2018 interview with Gender Spectrum, Rohrer shared how falling in love with a campus pastors daughter in college was just the beginning of being open about sexuality. Rohrer described life as a long stretched out journey of figuring out identity. As someone who was also a devout Lutheran after coming out as gay, Rohrer decided to go into ministry. However, the congregation associated with Rohrer at the time was not supportive" of her effort to go into ministry. My home congregation originally refused to support me for ministry even more extreme than what the Lutheran Church policy was at the time, so they said, We think Meagan will be a great pastor, we just want her to stop being gay first, Rohrer said. Rohrer later attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary but did not find that the school was accepting enough and later transferred to the Pacific School of Religion. She graduated in 2005 with a master of divinity degree. In 2006, Rohrer was ordained in the ELCA through an "extraordinary candidacy process, as the church did not allow LGBT individuals to serve in office. Rohrers ordainment was officially recognized by the church in 2010 after the ELCA changed its policy a move that prompted hundreds of congregations to leave the denomination in protest. Rohrer is one of the seven LGBT pastors accepted by the progressive church since 2010. The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with about 3.3 million members. In recent years, many congregations have left the denomination due to its increasingly progressive stances on theology and politics. Though Rohrers ordination was applauded by many, others took issue with the move. The theologically conservative blog Exposing the ELCA called it a complete slap in the face to God. The ELCA is thumbing its nose at God, His Word and Truth and effectively showing that they are part of the uber left and its rejection of Christianity, stated the blog. How can God-fearing, Bible-believing individuals remain in the ELCA? How can churches remain? Let Us Worship draws thousands to National Mall to pray for ongoing divides: 'Total God setup' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Drawing thousands to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Sunday, Christian artist Sean Feucht led worship as part of his ongoing tour of American cities in a larger weekend event he called a divine setup. Coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the 38-year-old worship leader told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he hoped for a date in October. However, the National Park Service could only offer him this last weekend. "They came back to me and said, 'Actually we can't give you a date in October. The only dates we have available are September 11 and 12.' And I knew in that moment this was a total God setup," Feucht said. On Sunday, before the Let Us Worship event began at 5 p.m., Feucht and his team led prayer at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial and White House with the goal of filling the nation's capital with worship and prayer. The D.C. event kicked off 21 days of prayer for the nation. The previous night, Sept. 11, President Donald Trump addressed the crowd in an 8-minute recorded message in which he urged Americans to pray. He spoke of the 13 fallen soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan. "I just feel like we're in the middle of a leadership crisis in America. ... I think everyone would understand that. I think having the former president give an address where he calls America to pray, honor the fallen, honor the military, which I don't feel like has been done in a great way from this current administration," Feucht told CBN News. "We need somebody of that caliber, of that level to call America to pray, but also to give us some reassurance that we're not in this thing alone." In remarks to the crowd gathered on the National Mall Sunday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., described what was happening in the nations capital as the sounds of revival. Gesturing to the U.S. Capitol behind him, the senator said that though bad news sometimes comes from that place, we have the best news of all. God has dreams for America that arent fulfilled yet, he declared, adding theres more to come. The best is yet to come because we serve a King who is on the throne and His Kingdom is ever-advancing. When it comes to our country, He is just getting started, Hawley contended. The senator went on to share from the book of Judges, highlighting the story of when Gideon hid from his enemies, and the angel of the Lord showed up and called him a mighty man of valor. Relating that story to current events in the United States, Hawley continued that it may feel like the U.S. is under siege and that Christians should hide and remain quiet when the reverse is true. I think the Lord is saying to us, Rise up, mighty men and women of valor. Rise up for this time.' Rise up, the Lord is on the move! And the Lord is going to release a revival over this nation, and its going to be released through you ... when we take our stand in the strength of the Lord, he said. Pastor Jentzen Franklin, who leads the Free Chapel in Gainesville, Georgia, spoke of the dire social breakdown as a result of sin, conditions especially unignorable in several major U.S. cities. Theres only one solution to the pollution problem of drugs and alcoholism and sexual abuse and immorality, and pain and depression and suffering, and hopelessness, and fear and desperation," Franklin said. "Theres only one solution for COVID-19. After its all said and done, we need the Holy Spirits wind from elsewhere to sweep through our cities, to sweep through our homes, to sweep through and clean out the pollution of sin, the pollution of fear and worry and torment and depression and hopelessness and despair." Franklin referenced the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, noting that the bones were dead, dry and divided. The condition of those bones reminded him of the current state of the Church in the United States. Were divided, were dry and were dead, he said soberly. We need a wind from elsewhere, he reiterated. As God told Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind after asking Him if the dry bones could live, so too must the Church declare for such a wind of Gods Spirit. There is coming a wind from elsewhere that restores the years that the locust and the cankerworm have taken away, he said. The Let Us Worship movement began last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has held public worship events in outdoor arenas in dozens of cities. Sadie Robertson Huff urges Christians to differentiate God's truth from their own opinions Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Duck Dynasty star and outspoken Christian Sadie Robertson Huff urged young people to discern between God's truth and Satan's lies at a recent womens conference in Louisiana, challenging those in her generation who call their personal opinions "my truth." At the LO Sister Conference on Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 in West Monroe, Huff presented the audience with the idea that they can either choose to be influenced by Gods voice of truth or Satans voice of lies." She pushed back against the trend today of people being influenced by prevailing societal opinions on certain topics rather than discerning what God has to say on those matters. Girls, there is a truth, and there is a lie. You have to understand that, said Huff in her sermon. There is a Savior who is the truth and there is a devil who is a liar. They are both available. They are both going to be speaking. The question is: who are you listening to? When a lie is mixed in with the truth, Huff said, it can be hard for people to see the truth. The hardest thing for our generation is knowing what truth is, the reality TV star continued. This is really leading us down a bad path. Thats a scary way to live. When we are so entitled in our opinion that we change our truth so that no one can tell [us] that its wrong, she said. It can be very confusing when we dont have a standard for truth because if nothing is true, then now we will say, what is love? or what is freedom' because its all relative and it can all change? She pointed out that some today refer to their personal opinions as "my truth" so that nobody can tell them they are wrong. She cited an Urban Dictionary definition of "my truth" being nothing more than a "Pretentious substitute for 'non-negotiable personal opinion.'" Huff said in order to avoid temptations from the enemy in the world, one must be on guard. She also said when Christians do not allow the Holy Spirit to convict them, it can be because they listened to a lie. When we dont allow the Spirit to stop us in the moment, to have discernment to hear the voice of the enemy ... we start to change our whole identity," she said. "And all of a sudden, we are our anxiety, we are our depression, we are our sexuality, we are our addictions, we are all of these things and we dont know how we got here or why we got here. But if you go all the way back, there was a little lie planted that you took on as your truth." The 24-year-old said that reading the Bible can serve as a guide that can potentially lead to being able to tell the difference between lies and truth. But, instead, you would hear [lies] and read the Word and say, I am not my sexuality, I am actually not my anxiety. That is not my identity. I am a daughter of a good Father, who created me, who has healed me, who has redeemed me, who has washed me clean by the blood of sin, Huff continued. Huff added that it's better for Christians to find their truth in the Word of God and not based on what everyone else says or does. This is whats really happening in our day: Whatever the majority says is true without even thinking, 'is this actually logical' and without even thinking, 'does this actually benefit my life' we just take it as truth. And it impacts our lives in greater ways than you think, she shared. Huff followed up with a scripture reading of Jesus speaking in John 8:43. Why do you not understand what I say? Is it because you cannot bear to hear My Word? You are of your father, the Devil, and your will is to do the fathers desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and he is the father of lies. After reading the Bible passage, Huff presented a series of questions relating to the process of decision making. Is it because the crowd is doing it? Is it because thats what's trendy? Is it because thats whats cool right now?" she asked. "Or is it because [you] believed a lie a long time ago and didnt realize? Do I feel like I have truth in me or do I feel like a thief has come and stolen, killed and destroyed my life? If youre sitting here right now and youre saying, Ive chosen what the crowd has chosen, Ive chosen what the enemy spoke over me, I am living a lie. I believe my life is meaningless. I believe my life has no purpose. I identify with my sexuality. I identify as my addiction. I identify with the things the enemy has spoken over me and convinced me to do. Im living a sinful life, but today I want to choose Jesus. You can, Huff added. Huff stressed to attendees that they all have the option to choose Jesus. Your life is not over because your life does have meaning, she concluded. Theres a reason youre here tonight, opening the Word of God. Theres a reason theres conviction in your heart because the Holy Spirit is moving. Christian boy who suffered burns to 65% of his body in anti-Christian attack has slim chance of survival Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian boy who suffered burns to 65% of his body in an acid attack in eastern Indias Bihar state is in "very, very critical condition and is unlikely to survive, according to the doctor treating him. The family said they suspect Hindu nationalists are behind the attack because the boy is a leader in a local church and the area they live in has anti-Christian sentiments. The victim, identified as Nitish Kumar, was attacked with acid after he left his house in a village to go to the market in the early morning on Aug. 11. Now, Dr. K.N. Tiwari of the burn unit of Appolo Burn Hospital in Patna city said his survival chances are low, Morning Star News reported. Drenched, Nitish initially thought they had mischievously thrown water on him, the victim was quoted as saying. But soon my skin began to burn. The burning sensation increased with every passing second. I dropped the basket and ran toward my house [820 yards away] screaming and howling. The motorbike did not stop, and in his pain he couldnt see its license plate, he added. The acid burned 65% of his body, with 15% being deep burns, Sushma Sharma, a hospital volunteer treating Kumar, was quoted as saying. Dr. Tiwari said Nitish will need skin grafting. There is only one treatment for his condition, and that is skin grafting, but there is not enough skin left on his body to be used except for a socks-length portion on one of his feet and some portion of his chest. The little amount of skin left cannot cover the entire area of his body that is burned. The victims 17-year-old brother, Sanjeet Kumar, said: A month before the attack, some extremists spread word in the village that they would expel all the people who follow the Christian faith from the village. We also heard about it, but it did not deter us from our faith. And suddenly this attack took place. In December, Hindu extremists blocked the roads going to Sunday services and questioned Christians, he said. They would question everybody as to why do they go for prayer. They used to ask us if we had been given money or other allurement to attend the meetings, or were we forced to do so. So all of us clarified that nobody asks us to come to church. We all go to church of our own will, and we go there for the Lord. The family, which regularly holds Christian gatherings in their home, converted to Christianity two years ago after being delivered from an evil spirit, and the victim and his brother are active in the church and conduct daily prayer gatherings. Christians make up about 2.5% of Indias population, while Hindus comprise 79.5%. India ranks as the 10th worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USA's 2021 World Watch List. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the U.S. State Department to label India as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating severe religious freedom violations. Open Doors USA warns that since the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party took power in 2014, persecution against Christians and other religious minorities has increased. The group reports that Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences. Hindu extremists believe that all Indians should be Hindus and that the country should be rid of Christianity and Islam, an Open Doors fact sheet on India explains. They use extensive violence to achieve this goal, particularly targeting Christians from a Hindu background. Christians are accused of following a 'foreign faith' and blamed for bad luck in their communities. For peace in Ethiopian conflict, church leaders say diplomatic process must be fair Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment As tensions continue to mount in the ongoing civil war in Ethiopia that has left thousands dead and some 2 million people displaced, leaders in the North American Dioceses of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church urged the Biden administration and Congress this week to intensify efforts to bring an end to the conflict in Tigray. Ten archbishops attended meetings this week with the U.S. State Department, Congress and the White House, calling for a fair diplomatic process that will hold the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front accountable for atrocities they have committed. The atrocities that have been done by this terrorist organization is untold," Archbishop Abune Fanuel of Washington D.C. and chairperson for the Ethiopian Religious Council told The Christian Post in an interview Thursday. "Millions have been destabilized from their property and the kind of damage they do to the people takes different forms. He was also joined by Archbishop Abune Nathanael, who oversees the archdioceses of Colorado, Utah, Kansas and Nebraska. The current conflict in Ethiopia erupted last November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive against the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, a left-wing rebel group that led Ethiopia from 1991 until Abiy became prime minister in 2018, The New York Times reported. Abiy reportedly preached a message of hope and unity and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. He has accused TPLF of attacking a federal military base and attempting to steal weapons. The conflict has since escalated and militia fighters from the Amhara region to the south and Eritrean troops from the north joined the Ethiopian military in opposing the Tigrayan rebels who have also captured Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigray. In May, President Joe Biden expressed concern over the escalating violence and noted that his administration was working with the Ethiopian Government, the African Union, the United Nations and other international partners to reach a diplomatic solution to the crisis. He also urged Ethiopian officials to promote reconciliation, human rights, and respect for pluralism. Doing so will preserve the unity and territorial integrity of the state and ensure the protection of the Ethiopian people and the delivery of urgently needed assistance," Biden said. "The Government of Ethiopia and other stakeholders across the political spectrum should commit to an inclusive dialogue. Working together, the people of Ethiopia can build a shared vision for the countrys political future and lay the foundation for sustainable and equitable economic growth and prosperity." The church leaders who met with senators and members of Congress about the situation in Washington Thursday argued that the international partners need to hold TPLF accountable if a peaceful solution is to be reached. The religious leaders were scheduled to meet with Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., according to a source with knowledge of the arrangements. Lasting solution can come only when its based on fairness and truth, Archbishop Nathanael said, noting that the analysis of the conflict by American government and media has been biased. That may be the policy of the American government to invite diplomats, but what has actually [been happening] is a very biased part of the terrorist groups even when it is clearly seen that these terrorist groups have been killing thousands and violating every [law] on the books, Fanuel added. Even before this war began, there had been a lot of attempts by the Ethiopian government and the Ethiopian people for a peaceful resolution to the problem. But they started the war and they have done a lot of damage," he added. "Even when the government has taken a unilateral ceasefire, they wage war in Amhara and the Afar regions. Thats the reason for millions fleeing those places." Abiy had called for a ceasefire in June. How could negotiations go with a terrorist organization when they are not willing to take a ceasefire? When they are not willing to negotiate with the people in the Ethiopian government? Fanuel asked. If it could be balanced in terms of holding both parties accountable, then that is how [it can work]. He further added: As spiritual leaders, our primary responsibility is to pray to the Lord to bring solutions. But what we also say at the same time, the process has to be fair for the Ethiopian people and the Ethiopian government. There is an elected government that is putting conditions on the terrorists to respect the Ethiopian sovereignty. Nathanael said spiritual leaders have been to the Tigray and pleaded for peace many times, but TPLF has refused to come to the table. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango," he said. "It takes two parties to bring peace." A source with knowledge of the meetings said that the archbishops sought to encourage the U.S. to "work more constructively with the Ethiopian Government to ensure aid is made available to the vulnerable and those who have committed atrocities are prosecuted." There was much international media focus at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 surrounding the military offensive carried out in the Tigray region. Reports had circulated about atrocities committed against civilians in the Tigray region by suspected Eritrean troops. Among the dead were said to be priests, women, entire families and even a group of Sunday school children. Some witnesses claimed that Eritrean soldiers went from door-to-door to kill Tigrayan men and boys as young as 7 years old. Reports indicate that the Tigray forces retook their home region in June. Since then, the conflict has crept into the Amhara region. While much international attention was placed on the actions of the Eritrean and Ethiopian military in Tigray, Tigray militants are facing growing allegations that they have attacked civilians in retaliation for the atrocities committed in Tigray. A dozen witnesses told The Associated Press about how Tigray forces have attacked communities and religious sites with artillery. Witnesses say that civilians were killed while schools and health centers were looted, leading to thousands of people fleeing from their homes in the past two months. Additionally, a Human Rights Watch report released this week details that both Eritrean government forces and Tigrayan militias have committed killings, rape and other grave human rights abuses against Eritrean refugees in the Tigray region. Federal judge denies Biden DOJ's emergency demand to block Texas' 6-week abortion ban Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A federal judge has rejected the Biden administrations emergency request to block a Texas abortion law, marking the latest setback for abortion advocates seeking to overturn the pro-life measure. In a one-page opinion released Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pittman rejected the request of the U.S. Department of Justice to issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8. The law, which went into effect Sept. 1, bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks gestation. It also allows private citizens to sue individuals who perform abortions and those who help women obtain illegal abortions. This case presents complex, important questions of law that merit a full opportunity for the parties to present their positions to the Court, wrote Pittman, appointed by former President Barack Obama to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the United States Opposed Motion for Expedited Briefing Schedule is DENIED. Pittmans ruling comes two days after the DOJ filed its motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the Texas law. Accusing Texas of preventing women from exercising their constitutional rights, the DOJs request asserted that this relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States in ensuring that its States respect the terms of the national compact. The DOJ cited the U.S. Supreme Court cases Roe v. Wade, which determined that the U.S. Constitution protects a womans decision whether or not terminate her pregnancy and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed a womans right to terminate her pregnancy before viability as evidence that SB 8 was unconstitutional. The term viability refers to a baby's ability to survive outside the womb. The decision by Pittman to deny the DOJs request to strike down the law is the latest setback pro-abortion activists have faced when attempting to challenge the law using the judicial branch. Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court rejected a request filed by abortion groups to block the law. A majority of justices on the court agreed that their decision to allow the law to remain in place is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas law. They argued that the plaintiffs did not have a strong enough legal case to justify judicial intervention because enforcement of the law was left to private citizens rather than state officials. Attorney General Merrick Garland first announced the U.S. governments intentions to challenge the law in court at a press conference last week. In a filing submitted Sept. 9, the DOJ sought a declaratory judgment that S.B. 8 is invalid under the Supremacy Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, is preempted by federal law, and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity. Tuesdays filing was an attempt to convince a judge to block the law immediately, before both the U.S. and Texas had a chance to make their arguments in court. While all attempts to put the law on hold have failed thus far, the legal battle surrounding Texas SB 8 will continue for the foreseeable future. On Wednesday, before deciding whether or not to grant the DOJs Tuesday request to immediately put SB 8 on hold, Pittman scheduled a hearing on the matter for Oct. 1. Pittman agreed to the states request to hear arguments before ruling, according to The Texas Tribune. As litigation over SB 8 continues, congressional Democrats are vowing to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law in an attempt to nullify pro-life laws passed at the state level. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed that upon returning from recess, the House will bring up Congresswoman Judy Chus Womens Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America. Public opinion polling indicates that the American people remain divided in their opinions on SB 8. A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports earlier this month found that 46% of likely voters approve of the measure while 43% disapprove. However, 46% of respondents expressed support for President Joe Bidens vow to launch a whole-of-government effort ... to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions. Polling conducted exclusively among Texans revealed slightly stronger support for banning abortions after six weeks gestation. In April, before SB 8 was signed into law, 49% of Texans surveyed told pollsters at the University of Texas at Austin that they supported banning abortions more than six weeks into a pregnancy while 41% opposed. The litigation surrounding SB 8 comes as the Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on the constitutionality of Mississippis 15-week abortion ban in its upcoming term, which begins next month. A ruling in favor of the state of Mississippi, which is asking the justices to uphold the ban, would significantly weaken the precedent set by Roe and Casey and give states more latitude to regulate abortions before viability. Ohio mayor orders school board to resign or face criminal charges over 'child pornography' taught in schools Course materials ask students to write about orgasms, 'X-rated Disney scenario' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The mayor of a city in Ohio ordered the school board to either resign or face criminal charges for allowing high school students to be exposed to course material that he described as child pornography. At the Hudson City School District Board of Education meeting Monday, Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert, a Republican, addressed the school board, saying, It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom. I have spoken to a judge this evening; she has already confirmed that. Im going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged, he added. The crowd gathered at the board meeting erupted into applause following Shuberts speech. BREAKING: Hudson mayor demands all school board members resign or face possible criminal charges over high school course material that he said a judge called "child pornography." I'm going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign or you will be charged." pic.twitter.com/guhp0zc0ns Jenny Beth Martin (@jennybethm) September 14, 2021 The course material that raised concerns for Shubert and many parents and students who attended the school board meeting is called, 642 Things to Write About, one of several required texts for composition in the liberal arts II, a college-level English course offered at Hudson High School in conjunction with Hiram College. Before Shubert spoke, a local resident shared his concerns about the book with the board. Do not sexualize our kids, he demanded. The raw filth that snuck past the gatekeeping functions of this board of ed of 642 Reasons was disgusting. The man listed one of the prompts students were asked to write about, including explain a time when you wanted to orgasm but couldnt. He alleged that students were told not to take the book home so that their parents would not be aware of the material their children were exposed to at school. Meredith Judson, a student at Hudson High School, recalled: The first day we got it, within 10 minutes of us getting this book, all of us around the room had already found the things out about the problematic prompts in the book. If we found out in 10 minutes ... that all of these prompts were in the book, its just interesting how the teacher wouldnt have known about this. Judson indicated exposure to sexually explicit material in the classroom was not an isolated incident. She described how in a previous class, she was watching movies that were rated R that showed very sexual scenes and very explicit content, including a child that was a 10 year old that was up on stage taking off her clothes to do a perverted dance. Monica Havens read aloud several additional prompts from the book. One prompt asking students to Write a sex scene you wouldnt show your mom was followed up by a subsequent prompt asking students to rewrite the sex scene from above into one that youd let your mom read. According to Havens, 642 Things to Write About also asks students to describe your favorite part of a mans body using only verbs, write a sermon for a beloved preacher who has been caught in a sex scandal, write an X-rated Disney scenario, drink a beer and write about the taste, discuss the first time you had sex and write a scene that begins It was the first time I killed a man. I hope each and every one of you is as uncomfortable as I am after reading that, she remarked. Now, imagine you are 17 and in a room full of peers with an adult teacher. How do you feel now? This is what Hudson teachers are asking our children to write about. When these topics are encouraged and read by adults, that is pedophilia and this is happening on your watch. Accusing the school board of allowing grooming to take place, she told them that all of you need to be replaced. Noting that the book has been in schools for six years, she concluded that you have allowed the sexualization of our youth and grooming material to be approved for classroom content. In response to Shuberts call for him and his colleagues to step down, Hudson City Schools Board of Education President David Zuro issued a statement asserting that While we respect the Mayors position at this time, no board of education member has indicated any intention to resign. The terms of three of the five members of the board of education will expire on Dec. 31, while the other two members have two years left in their terms. At Mondays meeting, Board Vice President Steve DiMauro proclaimed that the fact that our children were exposed to this, it needs to be addressed. Superintendent of Schools Phil Herman maintained that an investigation into the matter was underway. Over 40K back campaign urging porn sites to require ID for accessing explicit adult content Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Christian nonprofit that seeks to abolish sex trafficking has launched a new campaign backed by over 40,000 supporters urging government leaders to require porn platforms to install more effective age verification methods to prevent the dangers of early childhood exposure to porn. Exodus Cry, an organization that has advocated against sexual exploitation for the last 10 years and has worked to expose the links between porn and sex trafficking, launched the new campaign Protect Children Not Porn on Sept. 7. An online petition associated with the campaign is supported by over 43,000 individuals and addresses congressional committees, President Joe Biden and Big Tech executives. The campaign is also supported by 100 anti-trafficking, womens rights and child protection organizations, a coalition that represents over 2,000 organizations. The petition asks that lawmakers pass legislation requiring adequate safeguards to be put in place to protect children from porn exposure. Such measures include requiring websites that host pornographic content to require "their site visitors to verify their age with a government-issued ID, validated by a third-party platform." Additionally, the petition calls for all internet-accessing devices to be sold with safety filters enabled. Exodus Cry Founder and CEO Benjamin Nolot told The Christian Post that at least one study suggests children and teens ages 10 to 15 are five times more likely to exhibit sexually aggressive behavior if violent porn is consumed. Additionally, he pointed to another study that suggests children addicted to hardcore porn have an increased likelihood of committing sexual harassment and rape. Meanwhile, girls exposed to porn are at a greater risk for sexual victimization. Childhood exposure to porn is a huge and very damaging problem in our world, and the distribution of porn is so rampant that it gets into the lives of our kids and disrupts their sexual development, said Nolot, who has dedicated the past 14 years working to eradicate sexual exploitation. When kids watch porn, the wet concrete of their sexuality becomes formed around most often violent and aggressive sexual content. They associate these images with intense arousal and they are made to more likely act out in sexually aggressive manners and that in itself is alarming because they are awakened prematurely in their sexuality. Based on scientific research about the brains development, Nolot said the frontal lobe is the judgment center of the brain and aids humans in making critical decisions about what is right or wrong. The frontal lobe of the brain, he said, is not fully developed until about age 25. We need to make wise decisions to stop proliferating this adult content without age verification because children and teens without fully developed brains are being exposed to graphic hardcore sexuality, which is damaging, he said. We wouldnt just let our kids buy hard liquor from liquor stores, so why is this so different? Nolot said girls exposed to pornography are at greater risk for sexual victimization because porn often perpetuates the idea that objectifying women is pleasurable. Its deeply sinister and disturbing. Girls who are exposed to porn begin to see themselves in the role that is embodied in the females that are degraded, dehumanized and humiliated for the pleasure of men, Nolot stated. Porn shows women that this is OK and porn normalizes feeding the ego of men. And women become complicit in their own sexual degrading not realizing they are buying into lies. The activist warned that pornography also promotes rape culture. Rape culture is about the pleasure of men at the expense of women. ... As boys grow into men, they often try to see how far they can push past girls resistance to get to first and second base and then eventually get a home run, Nolot told CP. Watching pornography further emphasizes this societal idea that as a man, my gratification is more important than yours. We grow up being socialized by that story and the construction of our worldview and values. And now, we are seeing a generation growing up with these ideas, and its resulting in rape culture, where men view women as objects instead of people with lives. Nolot advises parents to monitor their children's online activity and prevent porn from being accessed on the childrens devices. He said parents should only allow their children access to the internet in public spaces like the family living room. Parents should also talk to their children about what to do if they are at a friends house and they are exposed to porn, he added. Even if we guard it in our own home, theres no guarantee that they wont be exposed on their friends device, he said. According to Nolot, practicing open dialogue around pornography and related topics on sexuality is vital for parents. Its important for parents to normalize discussion about sexuality, bodily anatomy and boundaries with bodies. Its not a matter of if. Its a matter of when the child will be exposed to pornography, he said. The more we can equip them, the more they will be prepared for this and this can only be achieved by creating a shame-free environment in the home. Nolot warns that parents should avoid conversations about purity and instead assure their children that we are all flawed and broken, but we have a God who loves and empowers us in His Grace to live a life of freedom. We should not say that purity is virginity because that is shame-based. It says we can lose our purity, even if we had not consented to sex. And it says we are stained. And so, we have to take shame out of the equation of sex, Nolot said. We tend to place a high value on sex and the world says, There is no bad sex out there. And our world is centered around sex. But, we intrinsically and inherently know that sex is meaningful and it should have meaning. And we know this because why is adultery wrong? he continued. Satan knows that if he can derail someone in the realm of sexuality, it can derail their whole life. If a child has already been exposed to pornography or child is already addicted to porn, Nolot believes parents should seek professional help for their child. Once a parent discovers that their child is addicted to porn, protective measures need to be put in place to stop the bleeding, so to speak, he concluded. Visit with a child therapist to help them regain emotional and psychological health. A child psychologist can help heal the wounds so it doesnt derail their entire life. Also, there is so much pressure on parents. There is no parent that is a cyber security expert. We also need a community and support system. Christian Rep. Lauren Boebert: I don't give a darn about mask mandates because my colleagues are hypocrites Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christian Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado says she doesnt give a darn about mask mandates because some of her colleagues like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, only wear masks for political theater. Let me tell you why right now I dont give a darn about mask mandates. Despite what the resident president in the White House says, it has always been about freedom and personal choice, Boebert, who represents Colorados third district, told a group of conservative Christians at the 2021 Truth & Liberty Coalition Conference at Charis Bible College in Woodland Park on Saturday. I dont give a darn about mask mandates because the people who mandate them dont give a darn about mask mandates. I have seen Nancy Pelosi in-person break her own mandates the day she reinstitutes them. The day she reissues them. Ive seen AOC sit on the Capitol steps in a group without social distancing, but then somebody says, oh, we want to take a picture. Oh, a picture? Great, lets put on our masks, the first-term congresswoman said in a voice mimicking the famous New York congresswoman while lightly flipping her hair. As soon as she puts on her mask. Oh, the picture is done? Great. Lets take it off. How you doing, girl! President Joe Bidens Executive Order, Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing, requires masks and specific physical distancing requirements in federal buildings, on federal lands, on military bases, and other overseas locations, consistent with CDC guidance. Government experts maintain that masking, even for fully vaccinated individuals, is needed as part of a multi-layer COVID-19 prevention strategy. Mask mandates, however, continue to be a contentious issue across the country. Boebert contends that she cant take mask mandates seriously because her colleagues in the House tend to wear masks for political theater. They dont care about the mask mandates. They care about the optics. Thats why members of Congress are fined $500 for the first offense for not wearing their masks in the House chambers and $2,500 every time thereafter. Now, this might sound like they are taking this really serious at the Capitol, but its only in the rooms where the C-SPAN cameras are rolling. We dont get fined anywhere else. Just where the C-SPAN cameras are rolling because this is political theater, she said. If these people really cared about whats going on, they wouldnt be punishing business owners, our children, our churches, everyone in America. They wouldnt be mandating vaccines; they would allow you to make that choice between you and your doctor one of the most trusted relationships that we have. And if they were really serious about this virus, they would have shut down the southern border and stop letting 1.5 million illegal immigrants pour in unvaccinated, she added. Boebert, 35, is a mother of four boys, a member of New Creation Church in Glenwood Springs and is a strong gun rights advocate. She owns Shooters Grill in Rifle, where waitresses carry firearms openly while serving customers. She told the audience at the conference that God wants to be involved in government and they should vote out ungodly leaders. I dont care what it looks like right now, the United States of America and the people here will glorify God. We will exalt Jesus as Lord. It is so refreshing to be with likeminded individuals today. Im not always in the presence of so many people who agree with what we live by on a daily basis, but that is why Im here, she said. God wants to be involved in the affairs of government. God cares about the affairs of man and government and there are some unjust things that are taking place that God wants to make right. He holds the kings heart in his hand and he directs it whichever way he desires. But Hes going to use His church. Hes going to use His children to infiltrate these people because we understand, the book of Isaiah says arise and shine for the glory of the Lord is upon you. It said that darkness will cover the Earth and deep darkness the people. How many of you are seeing that right now? she asked while lamenting how people are being deceived and dont even know it. You dont even know that youre believing a lie," she continued. "People are trading the truth for a lie. I serve in the United States House of Representatives, and Ive been on the House floor arguing that a boy is not a girl. I have these conversations with adults. Christians, she said, need to be involved in government because there are important conversations being had at tables that you need to be seated at. Ive seen it firsthand. Ive been in meetings that I never would have expected to have an invitation to and I can tell you, theyre all searching for an answer and you have the answers because the Creator lives on the inside of you, she added. Gov. Gavin Newsom declares victory as AP projects him surviving California recall election Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment California Gov. Gavin Newsom has survived a recall challenge, according to the projected results from The Associated Press. For the recall ballot, a voter first was asked whether they supported recalling Newsom and then, as a second question, they were asked which of the 46 registered candidates they wanted to replace Newsom as governor. With approximately two-thirds of the ballots counted, the no to recalling Newsom answer held a 30-point lead over the yes option, according to the AP. Fox News also reported that the race was called for Newsom, noting that of the 68% of the vote counted, over 5.8 million voted no to recall while nearly 3.3 million voted yes. At a press conference held late Tuesday evening, Newsom claimed that his victory meant that we said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to diversity, we said yes to inclusion, we said yes to pluralism, Newsom added. We said yes to all those things we hold dear as Californians and, I would argue, as Americans. Larry Elder, a 69-year-old African American conservative radio host considered the front runner among the 46 candidates running against Newsom, conceded the race on Tuesday evening. However, Elder also hinted at a rematch with Newsom, who will be up for reelection next year, telling supporters to stay tuned and that we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war. Elected governor by a landslide in 2018, Newsom became the subject of a recall election when critics of his administration gathered enough signatures in April to trigger the special vote. Polling before the recall had indicated that Newsom was likely going to survive the challenge, with both FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics predicting a win for the incumbent Democrat. Before and during the recall election, allegations of voter fraud and mishandling of ballots garnered attention online and in local media. Conservative political commentator David Rubin took to YouTube to claim he had had issues with his ballot being processed, while some in San Fernando Valley said their ballots were denied by the machines. Regarding the San Fernando situation, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorders office replied to local media outlet KTLA that there were device issues that were eventually handled. After troubleshooting the issue, the equipment at the locations was replaced and voting continued, a spokesman for the office said, as reported by KTLA. Tuesdays vote marked only the fourth recall gubernatorial election in American history, with the first being held in 1921 and the next three having been held after 2000. In 2003, California voters successfully recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, with Republican and notable action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger winning the recall election. Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was the subject of a recall election in 2012. However, he secured enough votes to remain in office. Walker was later defeated by Democrat Tony Evers in the gubernatorial election of 2018. Pro-life group crashes abortion rally at Supreme Court to be there as a light;' plans to continue mission Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A pro-life group that crashed an abortion rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court is planning to continue their operation by sharing the pro-life message at other pro-abortion demonstrations in the coming weeks. Pro-life activists with Students for Life of America showed up at a Self-Managed Abortion Teach-In rally held by the pro-abortion group Reproaction. The group held the event outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., Thursday as part of an effort to highlight what they viewed as the benefits of chemical abortions, also known as the abortion pill. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, pro-abortion activists have worked to make the abortion pill available via telemedicine, meaning that women do the abortion at home, also called a DIY abortion, where they induce a miscarriage and are advised to flush the baby down the toilet or throw it in the trash, thus saving abortion clinics money on medical waste disposal. This also means that abortionists don't have to physically see their clients before dispensing abortion-inducing drugs and only see women for a follow-up visit to ensure the abortion was complete. Reproaction characterized telemedicine abortions as self-managed abortion. In an interview with The Christian Post, Tina Whittington, executive vice president of Students for Life of America, explained that the purpose of the counter-protest was to ensure that the life narrative is engaged anywhere where the abortion narrative is. Wherever theres going to be this abortion narrative, we want to be there as a light to bring in the pro-life narrative, Whittington added, noting that the pro-abortion rally was the most subdued event weve ever been to. The dueling protests did not lead to violence and Whittington reported that some of the women protesting with Reproaction did take home materials handed out by Students for Life, which included fact sheets about the risks and dangers of chemical abortions as well as information about abortion pill reversals. She said that her team has phone numbers and cameras should violence break out, adding, we walk them through before they get into these situations how to handle themselves if it does start to escalate, how you de-escalate it. The pro-life activist noted that Thursdays counter-protest, where pro-life activists highlighted their concerns about chemical abortion, is just the latest example of the pro-life groups activism on the topic. Students for Life of America has partnered with Charlotte Pence Bond, daughter of former Vice President Mike Pence, to create a docuseries about chemical abortion. Video from Thursdays event, published by Breitbart, showed pro-abortion protesters holding signs emblazoned with phrases such as Stop prosecuting abortion and supporters wearing T-shirts that read pro-abortion, pro-family, pro-justice. Several participants held flags featuring the word abortion. Chants shouted by pro-life counter-protesters included, Hey hey! Ho-ho! The abortion pill has got to go! We are the pro-life generation! We will abolish abortion! and Abortion harms women! Meanwhile, a speaker at the Self-Managed Abortion Teach-In vowed that We will not stop until each person in this country has full reproductive self-determination. We are standing up for abortion, we are standing up for gender justice, and we are not going to stop. The most frequent chant shouted by the pro-abortion group was Abortion is unstoppable. Signs held by pro-life counter-protesters included messages such as Dear Women, the abortion industry is lying to you, Chemical abortion hurts women, Chemical Abortion is 4x more dangerous than surgical abortion, Chemical abortion is death by mail and Fetal poisoning is wrong. Throughout the counter-protest, the pro-life group played testimony of women who went through chemical abortion on a loop. One sign provided women with a phone number where they could obtain information about chemical abortion reversals. Another sign listed the side effects of chemical abortion, including severe pain and bleeding, future infertility, depression and anxiety and infection and death. Reproaction lists some side effects of the abortion pill on its resource page, Understanding and Advocating for Self-Managed Abortion, but also labels such complications rare. When sharing pictures of the event on social media, Reproaction accused so-called pro-life supporters of engaging in exclusionary and transphobic rhetoric for holding signs proclaiming that chemical abortion hurts women. Reproactions resource page uses the gender-neutral term pregnant person instead of women several times, although it includes the words woman and women as well. Once again so called 'pro-life' supporters are exclusionary and transphobic in their harmful rhetoric pic.twitter.com/EZVfbDOvz8 reproaction (@reproaction) September 9, 2021 The group also remarked that The anti-abortion crowd is here because theyre afraid. They know they cant stop abortion because abortion is unstoppable! In her interview with CP, Whittington also discussed the state of the pro-life movement in the U.S., specifically addressing the Texas Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill 8. The law prohibits abortions after a baby's heartbeat can be detected, usually at around six weeks gestation. Additionally, it enables private citizens to sue individuals who perform abortions and those who help women obtain illegal abortions. The Supreme Court declined a request from abortion providers and pro-abortion groups to block the law, enabling it to go into effect on Sept. 1. While litigation against the measure is expected to continue in the lower courts, the Supreme Courts decision sparked outrage among pro-abortion groups and led to many nationwide protests. A progressive group called Shut Down DC held a protest Monday night in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh lives. Kavanaugh is one of five Supreme Court justices who declined to block SB 8 from going into effect. Students for Life of America activists held a counter-protest at that event as well. The #SupremeCourt approving Texas' #abortionban? That's gonna be a no from us. Tell Brett Kavanaugh what you think in person, at his house. Monday 9/13, meet at 6:30 PM at Chevy Chase Local Park. https://t.co/ZN2aD7yxFfpic.twitter.com/z3JdOuzx5Q ShutDownDC (@ShutDown_DC) September 7, 2021 Whittington recalled how when Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2018, Students for Life of America did rallies for him in front of senators offices, such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. She told CP that Mondays counter-protest was a continuation of that support from when he was first nominated and went through the hearing process of confirmation. He is someone who the abortion lobby has decided is their enemy number one, she added. The abortion industry has painted a target on his back and we can be that passionate voice in support of him and his position for life. Whittington told CP that Students for Life of America will hold another counter-protest outside a Womens March taking place in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2. She predicted that the presence of the pro-life movement at the Womens March would serve as a counter-voice to the pro-abortion narrative. Texas pro-life group evacuated by police over bomb threat, suspicious package Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A pro-life activist organization based in Texas that advocated for the states new abortion law received a bomb threat last Friday, leading police to evacuate the office as a precaution. Texas Right to Life received an email last Friday that included a bomb threat, with a suspicious package being delivered to its headquarters in Bellaire later that day. The Bellaire Police Department sent The Christian Post a statement about the situation on Monday, noting that the suspicious package ultimately did not include an explosive device. While Bellaire police officers were one scene, a U.S. Postal Service employee was delivering the mail and in that delivery was a suspicious package. Officers recognized the suspicious nature of the packaging and cleared the offices and the building, stated the police department. Houston Polices Bomb Squad was contacted and technicians responded to evaluate the package. After X-raying the package, it was discovered that the contents were inert. The Bellaire Police Department is continuing its investigation into the incident, explaining that bomb threats are a criminal offense classified as a Terroristic Threat and can be punishable with a fine of up to $4,000 and as much as a year in jail. Texas Right to Life did the right thing in contacting the police, continued the police department's statement. It was fortunate that our officers were on scene when the suspicious package was delivered and we appreciate the occupants of the building working with police to quickly clear out in the event that this was an actual bomb. Soon after the incident, the pro-life group released a statement tying the bomb threat and other disparaging acts against them to the newly enacted Texas heartbeat abortion ban. A lot of people are still FURIOUS about the Texas Heartbeat Act. Theyre trying to silence us. They despise us for even talking about a life-saving law, stated Texas Right to Life. Their ire and vitriol wont stop us from protecting pregnant women from the same lies. Their clamors wont silence us from protecting babies. On Sept. 1, a Texas law that prohibits abortions in most circumstances after a baby's heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks into a pregnancy, took effect. Known as Senate Bill 8 or the Texas Heartbeat Act, the law allows private citizens to sue anyone who performs illegal abortions or helps a woman obtain an illegal abortion. Last Thursday, the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against the Texas Heartbeat Act in district court, arguing that the legislation is in defiance of the Constitution. It is settled constitutional law that a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability, reads the lawsuit in part. The United States seeks a declaratory judgment that S.B. 8 is invalid under the Supremacy Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, is preempted by federal law, and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity. Earlier this year, a declassified report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security named both pro-life and pro-choice abortion-related domestic violent extremists" as one of the categories of domestic violent extremists identified by the intelligence community. Domestic violent extremists are defined as U.S.-based actors who conduct or threaten activities that are dangerous to human life in violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state; appearing to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; and influence the government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping. The report didn't mention any specific group or organization by name. Trump joins missionary Sean Feucht in call for 21 days of prayer Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Declaring that turning to God is the ultimate answer to evil, former President Donald Trump joined missionary and political activist Sean Feucht in calling the nation to a period of 21 days of prayer on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 during a prayer event at the National Mall on Saturday. Turning to God, the ultimate answer to evil that we see here today as thousands of Americans gather on the mall to pray for our beloved nation and to pray for one another, Trump said in a video message during the event known as "Let Us Worship. "I want to thank Let Us Worship for calling Americans to 21 days of prayer in the coming weeks. America is a nation strengthened and sustained by God and the prayers of all His children. Your faith is a force that our enemies can never, ever extinguish," he said. "Your love of God, family, and country is more powerful than any adversaries' hatred, or malice, or scorn. So as we remember those Americans we lost two decades ago, we return again and again to the same simple prayer that was heard echoing all across our land in the days after the Sept. 11th attacks. God bless our first responders. God bless our service members. God bless the memory of all who died on 9/11 and God bless America." Trump called 9/11 a terrible day as he honored the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed during the attacks and praised especially the resilience of the incredible city of New York. We cherish their legacy and we reaffirm our everlasting vow to never forget. We all remember hearing in the hours and days after the attacks, the stories of police officers, firefighters and first responders who showed bravery and daring far beyond the call of duty," Trump said. "As a lifelong New Yorker, it was extraordinary to witness the strength and resilience of people in that incredible city and it is indeed an incredible city. They raced into danger and toward the smoke without a thought of their own safety. The heroism of the NYPD and the FDNY, the fire department, the police department, the port authority police as well as the first responders at the Pentagon and so many others will live in our national memory for all time, he said. Trump, who also visited New York City on Saturday and spoke with members of the New York Police and Fire Departments, was asked if he planned to run for president again. He joked at first that the question was difficult, then noted: Actually, for me, its an easy question. I know what Im going to do, but were not supposed to be talking about it yet from the standpoint of campaign finance laws but I think youre going to be happy. The former president later teased his intentions in a Fox News Digital interview where he said, "I don't think we're going to have a choice." He then went on to criticize President Joe Bidens handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Last month, 13 members of the U.S. military were killed during a terrorist attack on the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as they worked to evacuate people to safety, The Christian Post reported. The average age of the soldiers was 22 and President Joe Biden has faced much criticism for their deaths from some families. "When you look at Afghanistan and what happened, and the death for no reason, just for no reason, parents they want to speak with me they dont want to speak with Biden," Trump said. Results of a new CNN survey released Sunday shows that a majority of Republican voters believe the former president should continue to lead the party and be the GOP presidential nominee in 2024. Some 51% said his presence at the top of the ticket would help Republicans reclaim the White House while 48% preferred someone new. In March 2019, 78% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents felt the same compared to 17% who preferred someone new. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment In Matthew 17:21, Jesus said that a certain evil spirit does not go out of a person except by prayer and fasting. Some manuscripts disagree on whether this verse should be included or not, but the principle is found throughout Scripture: Fasting applies pressure to the spiritual realm. Arthur Wallis notes, Often, pressure has to be maintained before there is a breakthrough in heavenly warfare. It appears that some demonic activity is not released until pressure is applied through prayer and fasting. The weapons we use to fight Satan are not physical; they are spiritual. The weapons should match the warfare! Satan cannot be eliminated with an AR-15, but we can fast and pray. Those two high-caliber spiritual bullets do substantial damage. Open the Word, pray, meditate, and worship for the fatal blow: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts (Zech. 4:6). So yes, I would definitely encourage you to fast during this difficult season in our history. A hunger strike against hell Two wills cannot successfully live in the same body. Either our self-will or Gods will is in charge. We cant defeat what we feed. Gods Word states, For all that is in the worldthe lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of lifeis not of the Father but is of the world (1 John 2:16). Society says, Be yourself! Embrace your longings! Feed your desires! However, we know that gluttony and indulging the flesh never lead to spiritual victory, or any victory for that matter. Some strongholds hang on piece by piece. We must resist the devil and he will eventually flee (James 4:7). Fasting disciplines the body, prayer and worship bind the enemy, and the Word provides wisdom. Fasting ignites a hunger for God and provides direction. Dont misconstrue what I'm saying. Im not promoting a works-based religion. Im demonstrating the importance of spiritual disciplines that produce godly fruit. What is dead in your life that you know God is wanting to resurrect? What dream, goal, or godly ambition is waiting to be realized? Is there a stronghold that has been gripping your life? Do you desire a deeper walk with God and increased spiritual hunger? Do you need help in self-discipline and temperance? Do you need a breakthrough, direction, or peace? Is all hell breaking loose in your life? Are there great obstacles ahead? Then its time to prepare for battle through prayer and fasting. Ask God for direction and set a target date. Remove the hindrances within your home such as junk food and junk mediaout of sight, out of mind. Fuel the completion of your fast by praying, reading, worshiping, and listening to sermons on fasting. Have a prayer list available. Its a battlea hunger strike against hell. Its challenging and difficult, but the pain of discipline far outweighs the pain of regret. Our fullness is our downfall After I stumbled through my first seven-day water fast a few years ago, Fox News contacted me to fly to New York to debate a pastor with opposing views on morality. My wife and I also met two Christian men who have encouraged me through their ministriesJim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle; and actor, producer, and evangelist Kirk Cameron. Additionally, God grew our church, expanded its reach, and healed old wounds. A perfect fast didnt do this, but God, through His mercy, honored my feeble attempt, and He will do the same for you. The vast majority of the heroes of the faith fasted, and its still very common in many places. But in America, our fullness is our downfall. Leonard Ravenhill once said, When theres something in the Bible that churches dont like [such as fasting], they call it legalism. Whether its on the radio, television, the internet, or at church, we often hear that God has a wonderful plan for our life and that Christianity is easy and carefree. We have changed following Christ into an easy path rather than a narrow road. Weve made Jesus a butler rather than a King. We want the cross light, the road easy, and the burdens lifted. Spiritual disciplines are intended to not only break down strongholds but also to build us up. Yes, God blesses His peoplewe should pray for, enjoy, and encourage His blessings. But a wonderful, comfortable life is not always a blessing. As the Bible teaches, the presence and the power of God in our lives is always a blessing: The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace (Ps. 29:11 NIV). We crave what we feed A Christian is called to be a lean, fighting machine. Im not talking about body weight, but spiritual weight. The weight to pull down strongholds. Leonard Ravenhill has said, How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you dont even have the strength to turn off your TV? We could add How can we pull down strongholds of Satan if we dont even have the strength to say no to food? Im not teaching perfectionism. No one has complete mastery over the flesh, but our goal should be victory rather than constant defeat. Deeply embedded addictions can be reversed by starving the flesh. We are not powerless. We give control to either the flesh or the Spirit. James 4:5 reminds us that our spirit has envious yearnings. Do we yield to these yearnings, or do we give in to the pull of the flesh? We will crave more of what we feed. Fasting silences the voice of the flesh. We all fall short. The only difference between those who succeed and those who fail is that those who succeed get back up again. Fasting doesnt twist Gods arm; it realigns our heart with His and gets us back on track. It gives us wisdom and discernment for crucial issues. Discernment is one of our greatest challenges today. I came across this news clip some time ago that illustrates my point: A 17-year old Dutch girl who died on Monday during a bungee jump misheard instructions and jumped on the no jump instruction. One of the Spanish instructors on the bridge when the teenager plunged 40 meters to her death told the police that the girl jumped before her harness was clipped on to the bungee cord. An instructor told Spanish television channel RTVE that she had said, No jump. No jump, but that the girl may have misheard and thought she said, Now jump. So tragic. Too many today are listening to the wrong voice. Are you? The goal of sin is to destroy our testimony and our lives by following the wrong voice. Obviously, we are to spend time in Gods Word seeking wisdom and discernment, but fasting aids the process. We dont want to go when God says, No! David Yonggi Cho, founder of worlds largest church, dies at 85 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Christians mourned publicly across continents Tuesday as news spread of the passing of David Yonggi Cho, the co-founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church, the worlds largest congregation headquartered in Seoul, Korea, which encompasses a network of churches that once claimed more than 800,000 members. He was 85. Yonggi Cho, who retired from leading the church in 2008 and was named pastor emeritus, died at 7:13 a.m. at a Seoul hospital, The Korea Herald reported. The beloved pastor was being treated for cerebral hemorrhage since July 2020. He conveyed the gospel of hope to the Korean people who fell into despair after the Korean War, the church said in a statement to The Associated Press. He was instrumental in growing the Korean church, particularly developing Yoido Full Gospel Church as the worlds largest church. Billy Wilson, president of Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, called Cho one of the great leaders of the Spirit-Empowered movement. I am sorry to hear of the passing of Dr. David Yonggi Cho, one of the great leaders of the Spirit-Empowered movement," Wilson said in a statement on Twitter. "His ministry, writings and fatherhood blessed millions. Dr. Chos legacy and impact will continue for many generations." Spirit-empowered Christians are generally known as Pentecostals, charismatics or any other number of groups that emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit and the direct experience of the presence of God by the believer. It is generally accepted by adherents of the Spirit-empowered way that faith must be powerfully experiential and not something found merely through ritual or thinking. Spirit-empowered churches also stress the importance of conversions that amount to a baptism in the Spirit. This fills the believer with the Holy Spirit in an encounter revealed through speaking in tongues and other spiritual manifestations. Yoido Full Gospel Church is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination. Born in a family of Buddhists, Cho became a Christian after he was introduced to the faith through a friend of his sister, The Korea Times reports. He later met Kenneth Tice, a missionary from the Assemblies of God in Busan, and began working with him. That led to Cho's enrollment in the Full Gospel Theological Seminary of the Assembly of God in September 1956 at the age of 20. After he graduated in 1958, he opened a tent church in northwestern Seoul, which eventually grew into today's massive operation with powerful global influence. Rest in Peace God's general! wroteGodman Akinlabi, lead pastor of Elevation Church in Nigeria. He lived a life of service and sacrifice for the Gospel of Christ. He is Heavens Gain. The Rev. Dominic Yeo, lead pastor of Trinity Christian Centre in Singapore, called the late leader a great man of God in a statement on Facebook. Today, we celebrate the homegoing of Rev Dr Cho Yonggi, a great man of God and faithful servant of the Lord whose burden was to see revival come into the nations. He was an amazing servant, prophet, and messenger of God who lived an abundant life. He planted one of the world's greatest apostolic churches in South Korea in 1958. Yoido Full Gospel Church has grown exponentially to impact many churches and ministries worldwide, Yeo said. I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Rev. Cho and have been touched by his gentle yet strong leadership approach in guiding churches and discipling his flock. He was truly one of the greatest leaders and preachers in church history, having brought the Gospel to the discouraged, downcast, and lost. While the world has lost this mighty man of God, heaven is rejoicing at the homecoming of a saint. While many gave Yonggi Cho high praise for his work with his church, he was not without flaws. Cho leaves behind three sons. His funeral is scheduled for Saturday. Former Archbishop of Canterbury denounces assisted suicide Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams of Oystermouth has spoken strongly against assisted suicide. Parliamentarians are once again considering changing the law to permit assisted suicide, having previously rejected an attempt in 2015. In a statement to the British Medical Journal, Williams said it was "hard to see that any new facts have emerged in recent years that would justify the changes envisaged." "The arguments remain essentially the same," he said. The former archbishop said that although he opposed legalizing assisted suicide "on religious principle," there were further strong grounds for maintaining a legal ban. "The concerns that continue to be expressed are about what we believe to be the unacceptably high price of a change in the law," he said. Some of these concerns involve pressure on seriously ill patients "which may (very understandably) come from overstrained families as well as overstretched medical systems." "We should note that fear of such pressure within the medical system may discourage seriously ill patients from seeking appropriate medical help; the issues of doctor-patient trust involved are real," Williams added. He questioned whether the quality of palliative care in Britain would diminish "if there are less expensive options," and warned of the difficulty in establishing the conditions for an assisted suicide to be granted. "There are immensely complicated questions around how the law is to identify conditions that would 'justify' medical intervention that has the direct and intended consequence of ending life," he said, adding, "Many disability groups also have strong views on this set of problems." His comments stand in stark contrast to another former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who has reiterated his support in recent days. A recent YouGov poll found that only a third of MPs support changing the law to legalize assisted suicide. Originally published at Christian Today They were trailblazers in reviving the reputation of Victorian art and design: the collection of Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan Rose and Gallichan covered every inch of their home, from skirting board to ceiling, with Victorian ceramics, sculpture, watercolours, copperware and glass, says Christies consultant Philippe Garner. Now some of their finest treasures are being offered in London Behind the front door of a handsome late-Regency stucco house in Brighton, on Englands south coast, lay a remarkable secret. The home contained one of the most important surviving collections of 19th-century British decorative art. It belonged to Peter Rose (1927-2020) and Albert Gallichan (1930-2001), and was the result of their two-man mission to collect the best Victorian art and objects at a time when they had fallen from favour. Rose and Gallichan covered every inch of their home, from skirting board to ceiling, with Victorian ceramics, sculpture, watercolours, copperware and stained glass, says Philippe Garner, former head of Decorative Arts and now consultant to Christies. It became a temple to the 19th century. As tastes changed over the decades, the collection came to be recognised by scholars and institutions as being of great significance. On 30 September, 300 lots from their home including objects by great reforming designers such as William Morris, Augustus Pugin and Christopher Dresser will be offered in An Aesthetic Odyssey: The Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan Collection at Christies in London. The De Morgan bathroom was populated by an array of lustreware chargers and colourful tile panels by the eponymous potter Rose and Gallichan began collecting in the early 1950s, when they moved into their first home together, above an antiques shop on Rosslyn Hill in Hampstead, north London. They shared a love of unfashionable Victorian design, which was shunned by dealers in favour of the restrained style of the Regency period. As Rose once lamented, The description of anything as Victorian was almost invariably preceded by the word ugly. However, it meant that they could furnish their flat easily and cheaply with Victorian pieces from junk shops and flea markets. They realised that this was fertile ground for collecting, says Garner. They were self-taught, learning on the job by reading journals from the period. The inspiration for the red dining room room came from 19th-century travellers, explorers and archaeologists. The walls were filled with depictions of Italy and beyond by John William Inchbold, George Price Boyce and Edward Lear The Aesthetic bedroom, with one of the stars of the collection, Henry Scott Tukes Bathing Group. A sketch for Herbert Drapers The Lament for Icarus (Tate Britain) hangs beneath In 1965 the pair relocated to Brighton. Back then, the city was a national centre for antiques, Garner explains. Every Friday, dealers would line The Lanes [Brightons shopping district], selling the weeks pickings of Victorian country-house clearances from their car boots. For Rose and Gallichan, it was like being children in a sweet shop. As fashion turned full circle, by the 1980s Victorian art was in demand. Their collection became a reference point for anyone interested in the subject Philippe Garner Both men had a flair for design. Gallichan became successful in the advertising world, and Rose worked in art education, including a stint at St Marys College in Strawberry Hill, a Gothic Revival villa built by the English antiquarian Horace Walpole. They set themselves a firm rule for collecting: each acquisition had to be different from, or better than anything else they already owned. They were also very particular about how they grouped the collection, with each room having its own theme and every object its place. The drawing room (below) was painted in peacock blue, adorned with Morris fabrics and matching turquoise Minton vases (above) designed by Dresser. It also doubled as a Victorian picture gallery one of Gallichans special areas of interest. The blue drawing room, with Edward Robert Hughess studio version of William Holman Hunts masterpiece The Light of the World hanging to the right of the chimneypiece. The rooms furnishings included reformed Gothic oak furniture and Minton porcelain alongside examples of the New Sculpture and avant-garde metalware by W.A.S. Benson Edward Robert Hughes, R.W.S. (1851-1914), The Light of the World. Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, heightened with gum arabic and with scratching out on paper laid on canvas. 36 x 19 in (91.7 x 50.3 cm), arched top. Estimate: 60,000-100,000. Offered in An Aesthetic Odyssey: The Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan Collection on 30 September 2021 at Christies in London Among the gilt-framed landscapes and domestic scenes was a version of William Holman Hunts 1853 masterpiece, The Light of the World, by his studio assistant Edward Robert Hughes. In its heyday Hunts painting of Christ, depicted at night holding a lantern and knocking on a door covered in brambles and weeds, was one of the most famous images in the world. During the 1860s, it was circulated as an engraving to thousands of homes and churches. Rose and Gallichans version was the result of Hunt deciding on painting a third Light of the World the original is housed at Keble College, Oxford, and a second version is at Manchester Art Gallery to hang in St Pauls Cathedral. A life-sized replica of the Manchester painting, it was probably painted in order to test out the alterations Hunt required. The study was moss-green, a colour favoured by the Aesthetic Movement pioneer Dante Gabriel Rosetti (whose designs for stained glass also feature in the sale). On the mantelpiece was a bronze of Frederick William Pomeroys dynamic nude, Perseus with the Head of Medusa (above right) the original life-size plaster version of which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898. On one side of the room was the couples collection of Victorian opalescent glassware by the Arts and Crafts manufacturer James Powell & Sons. On the other was a Grecian Revival cabinet (below) by the Scottish architect and designer Daniel Cottier, full of Doulton ceramics and Martinware the grotesque, anthropomorphic pottery figures of birds and other animals made between 1873 and 1914 by the avant-garde Martin Brothers. Chief among these was a Wally Bird tobacco jar, an object that might once have been dismissed as an oddity but is now considered highly desirable, with some examples selling for six-figure sums. The dining room, painted a deep red, was themed An Englishman Abroad and filled with Empire furniture and sketches of Italy and other foreign lands by Henry Wallis, J.R. Spencer Stanhope, George Price Boyce and Edward Lear. The Aesthetic bedroom, covered in vivid floral wallpaper, had a section dedicated to nautical and coastal pictures. Among works by Alfred William Hunt and Lionel Percy Smythe hung Bathing Group (below), a painting by the celebrated Newlyn School artist Henry Scott Tuke of two young men relaxing on a beach. No space was left unfilled. Away with the tasteful gap, Rose would say, echoing his mentor, Charles Handley Read. Hallways were meticulously curated with clusters of sculptural reliefs, and a bathroom was filled with works by the English potter William De Morgan. Even window recesses were fitted with display shelves. They certainly adopted the 19th-century maxim of more is more, says Garner. A collection of glass by James Powell & Sons filled the window of the Whitefriars bathroom The nature room was a celebration of the most eccentric, colourful and fun Victorian creations, including a Burmantofts dragon-wrapped vase on a table with three herons to support it The highlight for many guests was the couples Bad Taste Room, later becoming the Nature Room. A celebration of the Victorian obsession with the natural world, it was piled high with seashell sculptures, dried-flower displays and stuffed birds. Among these objects was a superb brass-and-copper lamp (below) fashioned from a pink nautilus shell by W.A.S. Benson, a designer championed by the artist Edward Burne-Jones and adored by Rose. Its so clever, says Garner. The metal deflects the light to give the object warmth. Its very emblematic of the playful design ethos of the era. A leopardskin rug completed the rooms look. They knew that by trying to rehabilitate something deemed bad taste they would have naysayers, but it didnt bother them, Garner explains. They were up for the challenge and believed in their cause. After Gallichan died, in 2001, the collection became largely static. Rose spent more time researching and writing about his passion, while continuing to enjoy welcoming visitors for a fish-pie supper and a tour of the house. Albert Gallichan (above) and Peter Rose (right) photographed in the mid-1950s, probably shortly after the couple had first met Over the years, Rose and Gallichan became known as Brightons own Victoria and Albert, says Garner. They were trailblazers in reviving the reputation of Victorian art and design, the rumblings of which began in the 1970s. As fashion turned full circle, by the 1980s Victorian art was in demand. Their collection soon became a reference point for anyone interested in the subject, and the objects they had picked up from markets ended up being loaned to museum exhibitions. In 2004, the house was documented in the book The Best of British Arts & Crafts. Sign up today Christies Online Magazine delivers our best features, videos, and auction news to your inbox every week Subscribe In the latest trading session, Suncor Energy (SU) closed at $19.57, marking a -0.25% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.16%. Prior to today's trading, shares of the energy company had gained 9.06% over the past month. This has outpaced the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 3.37% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.46% in that time. SU will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect SU to post earnings of $0.55 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 266.67%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.95 billion, up 84.74% from the prior-year quarter. Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.89 per share and revenue of $32.15 billion. These totals would mark changes of +271.82% and +71.47%, respectively, from last year. It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for SU. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook. Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model. Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 5.5% lower. SU is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now. Valuation is also important, so investors should note that SU has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.38 right now. This represents a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.38. We can also see that SU currently has a PEG ratio of 3.46. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Oil and Gas - Integrated - Canadian was holding an average PEG ratio of 3.46 at yesterday's closing price. The Oil and Gas - Integrated - Canadian industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 25, which puts it in the top 10% of all 250+ industries. The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1. Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com. Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double" From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all. You know this company from its past glory days, but few would expect that it's poised for a monster turnaround. Fresh from a successful repositioning and flush with A-list celeb endorsements, it could rival or surpass other recent Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in a little more than 9 months and Nvidia which boomed +175.9% in one year. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Suncor Energy Inc. (SU): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The following editorial was published in the Dallas Morning News: (TNS) The suicide bombings that ripped through Kabuls airport in late August and killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 160 Afghans upped the ante for the U.S. to thwart more terrorist attacks in the final days of its withdrawal. The Biden administration said it prevented another suicide bombing a few days later with a drone strike that officials said killed a suspected Islamic State group driver and an associate near the airport. U.S. officials told reporters that the target had been under surveillance for hours and that people were seen loading explosives into the trunk of his car. But two separate investigations by The New York Times and The Washington Post cast doubt on that narrative. These news reports must elicit a fuller explanation than what the Biden administration has offered so far. Relatives and co-workers of the target, engineer Zemari Ahmadi, told journalists that he was an aid worker with a California-based nonprofit in Afghanistan. Video obtained by The Times shows Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring to his family on the day he was killed. Ahmadis family members said 10 people were killed, including seven children. The relatives showed reporters photos of burned bodies belonging to children, and neighbors confirmed that childrens bodies were removed from the site. The Biden administration must conduct a thorough investigation. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the administration is looking at the matter very, very, very carefully. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that while officials are investigating, hes not aware of a plan to put investigators on the ground in Kabul. If two American newspapers can check out information on the ground, why cant the U.S. government? We hope the Biden administration follows through on its word to be transparent about its findings. Without troops in Afghanistan, the U.S. will have to rely even more on drone technology to hit terrorists. A strike on the family of an aid worker who may not have done anything wrong should prompt our military to seriously examine its drone policies and decisions. Donald Trump just cant quit trying to interfere in the 2020 election. As a criminal investigation moves forward in Georgia into his attempts to overturn the states 2020 election results, the former president sent a letter Friday to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that calls the election illegitimate and asks him to start the process of decertifying the election and announce the true winner. In the letter, Trump claims as usual without evidence that some 43,000 absentee ballot votes from DeKalb County violated chain of custody rules, making them invalid. The Washington Posts Phillip Bump points out, this bogus chain of custody story originated on a pro-Trump, misinformation-spreading website called The Georgia Star News, which Bump says is part of a group of sites established to mimic local news coverage but which largely promotes stories friendly to the right. NEW! President Donald J. Trump's letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pic.twitter.com/RrFWVWsLT0 Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) September 17, 2021 Trump continued his missive, writing, People do not understand why you and Governor Brian Kemp adamantly refuse to acknowledge the now proven facts, and fight so hard that the election truth not be told. Trumps letter comes at the same time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Williss investigation into his election interference is progressing. According to a Daily Beast report, Willis and her investigators have interviewed at least four staff members from the Georgia Secretary of States office and obtained documents. But the investigation is still in its beginning stages, and key witnesses, including Kemp and Raffensperger, have not yet been interviewed. What I can tell you is that the Trump investigation is ongoing, Willis told reporters this week, according to CNN. As a district attorney, I do not have the right to look the other way on any crime that may have happened in my jurisdiction. We have a team of lawyers that is dedicated to that, but my number one priority is to make sure that we keep violent offenders off the street. The Fulton County DA is not just looking into the former presidents actions. She is investigating Trump allies Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who placed a call to Raffensperger asking him to use his power to throw out mail-in ballots, and Rudy Giuliani, who like the president, is also under investigation for lying a lot about the election. NEW YORK (AP) A very special document will be auctioned off later this year a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution. Sotheby's announced Friday appropriately on Constitution Day that in November it will put up for auction one of just 11 surviving copies of the Constitution from the official first printing produced for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress. It's the only copy that remains in private hands and has an estimate of $15 million-$20 million. This is the final text. The debate on what the Constitution would say was over with this document. The debate about whether the Constitution was going to be adopted was just beginning," Selby Kiffer, an international senior specialist in Sothebys Books and Manuscripts Department, told The Associated Press. This was the Constitution, but it didnt take effect until it had been debated and ratified. So this was the first step in the process of us living now under this 234-year-old document, he said of the document created during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia. It will join about 80 constitutional and related documents up for auction by the venerable house. The copy of the Constitution is on public view at Sothebys York Avenue galleries until Sept. 19 and then travels to Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, before returning to New York this fall. It is Kiffer's second time handling the rare document. He also spearheaded its auction in 1988. Back then, it went for just $165,000. While its a lot of years later and Ive handled a lot of great things and Im more experienced, I have to say its just as exciting, if not a little bit more exciting, the second time around, he said. The document is from the collection of Dorothy Tapper and proceeds from the sale of the collection will benefit The Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation, which is dedicated to furthering the understanding of U.S. democracy and how the acts of all citizens can make a difference. It would have belonged to either a member of the Continental Congress or to one of the delegates to the Continental Convention. Those were the only people who had access to this first printing, Kiffer said, estimating that there were several hundred copies made originally. Your eye is immediately drawn to that first line, We the people of the United States. The Pentagon acknowledged Friday that a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, had not hit a military target but instead had killed civilians including up to seven children and a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The acknowledgement contradicts earlier assertions that the strike was a successful effort to ward off an attack. Our investigation now concludes the strike was a tragic mistake, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command, said at a news conference Friday. Gen. McKenzie: "I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to 7 children, were tragically killed in that strikeit is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-KI offer my profound condolences." pic.twitter.com/w6M4LEbX3b CSPAN (@cspan) September 17, 2021 The drone strike happened on August 29th, days after a terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport during the massive airlift operation in the final days of the Afghan war. Two suicide bombings killed 13 American service members and 60 Afghans.The U.S. military said the bombing was carried out by ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist organization. The drone strike targeted a car believed to contain a bomb that ISIS-K was planning to detonate at the Kabul airport. The retaliatory strike destroyed the vehicle believed to contain the bomb, the driver, and several other civilians nearby. The Pentagon initially stood behind its August 29th drone strike, saying that the vehicle targeted with a Hellfire missile contained explosives. But the New York Times reported on September 10th that the man driving the vehicle was an aid worker with an American humanitarian group, and he was likely transporting containers of water. I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike, McKenzie said, adding, Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K, or a direct threat to U.S. forces. The botched retaliatory attack was the final missile fired in Afghanistan and the latest strike in a years-long campaign of drone warfare not only in Afghanistan but across the Greater Middle East and Africa. The U.S. military has used unmanned drones, piloted remotely by service members thousands of miles away, to attack targets in the Middle East since at least the mid-2000s. From 2009 to the end of 2015, the U.S. reported carrying out 473 strikes in areas of active hostilities that led to as many as 2,581 combatant deaths and as many as 116 civilian fatalities, according to the data released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. President Obama authorized the first drone strike of his administration within days of taking office, and the use of drones escalated during his eight years in office. The Trump administration went even further with the use of drone warfare while at the same time halting the governments periodic release of data on the number of strikes and the casualties caused by those strikes. According to research by the New America Foundation, close to 1,500 civilians were killed in U.S. drone strikes during Obamas time in office. Internal government documents obtained by The Intercept pointed to much higher civilian casualty rates as the use of drones has escalated in the nations war-fighting across the Middle East. One special-operations campaign carried out in Afghanistan in 2012 and 2013 called Operation Haymaker, the Intercept reported, killed more than 200 people. But of those fatalities, the story said, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. One of Houston's newest restaurants just got some high praise from Texas Monthly critic Patricia Sharpe. Le Jardinier, the French restaurant located in Houston's Museum of Fine Arts, impressed Sharpe enough that she noted it should be counted as the best museum restaurant in Texasand perhaps as one of the best in the country. Over two dinners, she sampled the restaurant's cocktails, small plates, a "remarkable chicken breast," and desserts "more dramatic than the outfits on 'RuPauls Drag Race.'" "Often when I eat at a new restaurant, I wonder how it will do over the next year or two," Sharpe writes in her review for the upcoming issue of Texas Monthly. "Im especially curious about Le Jardinier, if for no other reason than, one of these days, the Michelin Guide might come snooping around Houston. "If and when it does, I cant imagine that its inspectors would fail to visit the sibling of a property upon which they had bestowed a star. Until that happens, though, Le Jardinier will just have to content itself with being the best museum restaurant in the state. And one of the best in the country. Come to think of it, thats saying a lot." Ricardo Mejia Le Jardinier has two other, non-museum locations in New York and Miami. Its New York location currently has one Michelin star. Michelin has never produced a guide for Texas, though critics are pointing out it's past time its inspectors head south, especially to Houston. The location at MFAH opened in May and offers a la carte menus for lunch and dinner, as well as a seasonal tasting menu. A Lake Conroe tour boat operator whose double-decker vessel capsized last month did not have proper insurance coverage, according to the attorney for the family of a passenger who died. After the Lake Conroe Queen tipped over Aug. 14 following a windstorm, Karl Katzenberger, 80, of Montgomery, died of reported cardiac issues at a hospital. He and 52 other passengers, including his wife, Jean, 77, were stranded in the water. Several other passengers who sustained injuries already filed a lawsuit against Dale Shaver, the boats owner and operator. A letter from Shavers insurance company explains the policy on the Lake Conroe Queen does not cover bodily injuries incurred during business operations. The letter, sent to Shavers attorney, was shared with the Houston Chronicle by Jean Katzenbergers attorney, Mark Murray. What it means is if you dont have the right policy, we dont have the obligation to indemnify you and so youre exposed for these problems, Murray said about the five-page letter dated Aug. 26. However, Murray said the couple of nearly six decades were running late for the 90-minute, $16 sunset cruise and were instructed by crew members to board without paying or signing a disclaimer. The Katzenbergers did sign a manifest, he pointed out. CRIME: Authorities investigate shooting between students in The Woodlands The Houston-based attorney is looking to see if those factors will exempt Jean Katzenberger from prohibitive insurance rules. Murray said it appears Shaver switched policies from commercial-use liability to personal use when he moved from Louisiana to Texas to operate the Lake Conroe Queen. Shavers attorney did not respond to requests for comment. Billed as a paddle boat and styled after 1860s riverboats, the 35-year-old vessel began tours on Lake Conroe in June. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department requires commercial boats have a minimum $300,000 liability insurance, said Cody Jones, a commander with the agency, in an Aug. 24 interview. The San Jacinto River Authority requires businesses on Lake Conroes waters to hold liability insurance to compensate those with injuries or other damages, its general manager, Jace Houston, said in an Aug. 24 interview. We tell companies you cant come here and do business if youre not gonna protect the public by carrying insurance, Houston said. Jean Katzenbergers claims in a potential lawsuit would include injuries for being doused in diesel from the wrecked boat and for witnessing her husband die, Murray noted. He said the widow also represents her husbands estate, meaning she could potentially be owed for injuries sustained by Karl Katzenberger, including his pain, suffering and mental anguish prior to his death. Shes been deprived of the care, comfort, solace and companionship of her life-long partner, Murray said. The boat was so rocky the evening of the incident, Jean Katzenbergers plastic chair on the second deck broke before the vessel was swamped with water, Murray said. Then, Karl Katzenberger fell through the stairwell to the first deck, the lawyer added. Jean Katzenberger managed to get off the boat but did not have enough time to properly put on her life jacket and she began to float away, seeing her husband clinging to the side before he disappeared, Murray detailed. Murray said Karl Katzenbergers official cause of death is pending autopsy results. Montgomery County Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack said it would take 60 to 90 days for the return of Katzenbergers autopsy results. FIRE: 50 people saved from fire by sprinklers at Spring LA Fitness All cause of death eventually gets to cardiac arrest and the question was, is that because he could not get air. Did he inhale water? Murray said. I dont know if the event was so traumatic that it caused him to go into shock and die. A few days after the Lake Conroe Queen capsized, Houston attorney Ryan MacLeod filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million on behalf of eight passengers. Personal injuries incurred by some of the plaintiffs include leaking diesel inhalation and fractured ribs, according to an Aug. 23 interview with MacLeod. Passengers received life jackets about 15 seconds before the boat flipped and those on the top deck were never told to go to the bottom deck, according to the suit and MacLeod. Jean Katzenberger has three children with her late husband. The two moved to Texas from St. Louis in 1985 to be close to a daughter, according to Murray. The couple booked the reservations for the Lake Conroe Queen the night they celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary, Murray said. jose.gonzalez@chron.com twitter.com/jrgzztx LANDOVER, Md. (AP) Three men have been charged in the death of an 8-year-old Maryland boy who was struck by a stray bullet last month, police said. Prince Georges County Police have charged Desmond Nkwocha, 21; Mark Nkwocha, 23; and George Shamman, 23, with attempted first-degree murder, second-degree murder and weapons-related charges. Theyre charged in the death of Peyton John PJ Evans in Landover on Aug. 24. How Houston's most famous streets got their names These are some of the people behind the monikers for the Bayou City's most well-known roadways. Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott face backlash over Houston Zoo visit The celebrity couple angered some locals during their visit to the Houston Zoo. DENVER (AP) A judge on Friday sentenced a former student to life in prison without parole for a 2019 shooting inside a suburban Denver high school that killed one teenager and injured eight others, telling the defendant he had shown no remorse and had failed to help a devastated community understand his actions. Devon Erickson, now 20, was convicted in June of 46 charges, including first-degree murder in the death of Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old senior hailed as a hero for trying to stop the attack on a classroom at STEM School Highlands Ranch, south of Denver. Prosecutors said Erickson partnered with fellow student Alec McKinney in the May 7, 2019, shooting. McKinney told investigators that he planned the attack for weeks and intended to target classmates who repeatedly mocked him because he was transgender, according to court documents. Since Erickson was 18 at the time of the attack, he faced a mandatory life sentence. After a lengthy and emotional hearing in which survivors shared their pain, trauma and disruptions to their lives, Judge Theresa Michelle Slade added hundreds of years of prison time to Erickson's life sentence for multiple charges of attempted murder and other counts. Wearing handcuffs, a red-and-white-striped prison suit and a blue mask amid the coronavirus pandemic, Erickson displayed virtually no emotion except for blowing his nose into his mask after sentencing. But just after his parents, sister and grandfather told him they loved him in their testimony, his voice broke when the judge asked if he wanted to speak. He declined. I dont think there is anything I can say to you, Mr. Erickson, that would make any difference," Slade said, recounting how the shooting had devastated not only those at the school and their families but untold numbers of people beyond the suburban community where the school is located. The judge said Erickson never tried to explain his actions, leaving a gaping hole for a community seeking at least some sense of closure. I dont believe, Mr. Erickson, at least for now, that it makes a difference to you, Slade said. So what you do the rest of your life in prison, that's not on me. It's on you. McKinney, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison last year but could become eligible for parole after about 20 years under a program for juvenile offenders. Erickson and McKinney targeted a classroom of students sitting in the dark as they watched a movie at the end of their senior year. The two entered through separate doors to maximize the number of students they could kill, prosecutors said. Erickson and McKinney concocted a victim-hero plan in which McKinney would either kill himself or be killed by Erickson, prosecutors said. The shootings stopped when Castillo and two other students, Joshua Jones and Brendan Bialy, charged Erickson, whose gun jammed after he fired four times. A school security guard apprehended McKinney. Defense attorneys argued that Erickson was pressured into participating by McKinney, who testified against Erickson after pleading guilty last year. The defense also suggested that Castillo was accidentally shot as he pushed Erickson against a wall. Statements Friday by teachers, former students, their parents and Castillos mother and father wove a harrowing picture of lives shattered by enduring trauma, panic attacks, recurring nightmares of gunshots, blood, screams and heavily armed SWAT teams rescuing those in hiding inside the school. One teacher said she became so frightened of working with older students and worrying about what they might do that she now teaches younger children. Jones and Bialy, who were shot while helping Castillo subdue Erickson, didnt hide their disgust. He killed Kendrick, and he didnt care, Jones said, nearly heaving at the witness stand. I would implore you to put him in jail for as long as you can. The defendant is a loser, Bialy said. He walked into a classroom, armed, with vulnerable students, and he lost. Castillos parents, John and Maria Castillo, proudly, if painfully, described their son as an only child who was happy a young man of faith always ready to help others. We dont want to forget Kendrick, but its an emotional journey that most people will never understand, and I hope they dont, John Castillo said. Defense attorney David Kaplan insisted that Erickson was exceptionally remorseful. Witnesses and family described him as an unselfish and cheerful person who helped others and loved school, a jazz singer who gave lessons to younger students and someone who fell under the sway of McKinney. Ericksons father, Jim Erickson, read aloud the names of those injured and apologized to them, teachers, students, law enforcement and the broader community. We pray for these people every day, he said, crying. We hope that they can find peace, and we hope that they can find forgiveness and I know thats a hard ask, forgiveness. At his sentencing last year, McKinney said he did not want leniency. But he also suggested the shooting was Ericksons idea. INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst on Friday of murdering his best friend 20 years ago, a case that took on new life after the New York real estate heir participated in a documentary that connected him to the slaying that was linked to his wifes 1982 disappearance. Durst, 78, was not in court for the verdict from the jury that deliberated about seven hours over three days. He was in isolation at a jail because he was exposed to someone with coronavirus. Durst, who faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole when sentenced Oct. 18, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Susan Berman. She was shot at point-blank range in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in December 2000 as she was prepared to tell police how she helped cover up his wifes killing. Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Dursts longtime confidante who told friends she provided a phony alibi for him after his wife vanished. Prosecutors painted a portrait of a rich narcissist who didnt think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way. They interlaced evidence of Bermans killing with Kathie Dursts suspected death and the 2001 killing of a tenant in a Texas flophouse where Robert Durst holed up while on the run from New York authorities. Bob Durst has been around a lot of years, and hes been able to commit a lot of horrific crimes. We just feel really gratified that hes been held accountable, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said. Lewin met with jurors after the verdict and said they thought prosecutors had proven Durst had killed his wife and had murdered both Berman and his Texas neighbor in an effort to escape justice. He said jurors did not find Durst credible as a witness. Hes a narcissistic psychopath. He killed his wife and then he had to keep killing to cover it up, Lewin said. Lewin said he hoped Durst understands what its like to be held accountable even if it took 40 years. Considering what hes done, he got a lot more of a life than he was entitled to," the prosecutor said. Durst was arrested in 2015 while hiding out in a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the airing of the final episode of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, in which he was confronted with incriminating evidence and made what prosecutors said was a confession. Durst could be heard muttering to himself on a live microphone in a bathroom: There it is. Youre caught. Dursts decision to testify in his own defense hoping for a repeat of his acquittal in the Texas killing backfired as he was forced to admit lying under oath, made damning admissions and had his credibility destroyed when questioned by the prosecutor. Defense lawyer David Chesnoff said Friday they believed there was substantial reasonable doubt and were disappointed in the verdict. He said Durst would pursue all avenues of appeal. The conviction marks a victory for authorities who have sought to put Durst behind bars for murder in three states. Durst was never charged in the disappearance of his wife, who has never been found, and he was acquitted of murder in Galveston, Texas, where he admitted dismembering the victims body and tossing it out to sea. The story of Durst, the estranged scion of a New York real estate developer, has been fodder for New York tabloids since his wife vanished. He provided plot twists so numerous that Hollywood couldnt resist making a feature film about his life that eventually led to the documentary and discovery of new evidence in Bermans slaying. Durst ran from the law multiple times, disguised as a mute woman in Texas and staying under an alias at a New Orleans hotel with a shoulders-to-head latex mask for a presumed getaway. He jumped bail in Texas and was arrested after shoplifting a chicken sandwich in Pennsylvania, despite having $37,000 in cash along with two handguns in his rental car. He later quipped that he was the worst fugitive the world has ever met. Durst escaped close scrutiny from investigators when his wife disappeared. But his troubles resurfaced in late 2000 when New York authorities reopened the case. His lawyer told him to be prepared to be charged in the case, and he fled a life of luxury to Galveston, Texas, where he rented a cheap apartment as Dorothy Ciner, a woman he pretended couldnt speak. He eventually dropped the disguise after mishaps that included walking into a mens restroom and igniting his wig at a bar while lighting a cigarette. Just before Christmas, he testified that he traveled to LA to visit Berman for a staycation with plans to see some of the tourist sites. Durst, who had long denied ever being in LA at the time of Bermans death, testified at trial that he found her dead on a bedroom floor when he arrived. Berman, a writer who had been friends with Durst since they were students at the University of California, Los Angeles, had serious financial problems at the time. Durst had given her $50,000, and prosecutors suggested she was trying to leverage more money from him by telling him she was going to speak with the cops. Nine months after her death, Durst killed his Galveston neighbor Morris Black, in what he said was either an accident or self-defense. Durst said he found Black, who he had become friends with, in his apartment holding Dursts .22-caliber pistol. Durst was acquitted after testifying the 71-year-old was killed in a struggle for the gun. Durst then chopped up Blacks body and tossed it out to sea. He was convicted of destroying evidence for discarding the body parts. After the trial and the ghastly evidence of the dismemberment, Durst found he was a pariah, he said. Despite an estimated $100 million fortune, he was turned away by multiple condominium associations and said the Los Angeles County Museum of Art wouldnt take his money unless he donated anonymously. Durst thought a 2010 feature film based on his life, All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling as him and Kirsten Dunst as Kathie, had been largely accurate and painted a sympathetic portrait, despite implicating him in three killings. He only objected that he was depicted killing his dog something he would never do. He reached out to the filmmaker and agreed to sit for lengthy interviews for a documentary. He encouraged his friends to do the same and gave the filmmakers access to boxes of his records. He came to deeply regret his decision after The Jinx aired on HBO in 2015, calling it a very, very, very big mistake. The documentary filmmakers discovered a crucial piece of evidence that connected him to an anonymous note sent to police directing them to Bermans lifeless body. Durst, who was so confident he couldnt be connected to the note, told filmmakers only the killer could have written the note. Filmmakers confronted him with a letter he sent Berman a year earlier. The handwriting was identical and Beverly Hills was misspelled as Beverley on both. He couldnt tell the two apart. The gotcha moment provided the climax of the movie as Durst stepped off camera and muttered to himself on a live microphone in the bathroom: Killed them all, of course. During 14 days of testimony that was so punishing Judge Mark Windham called it devastating, Durst denied killing his wife and Berman, though he said he would lie if he did. He tried to explain away the note and what prosecutors said was a confession during an unguarded moment. For the first time, Durst admitted on the witness stand that he sent the note and had been in Los Angeles at the time of Bermans death. Durst said he sent the note because he wanted Berman to be found but didnt want anyone to know he had been there because it would look suspicious. He acknowledged that even he had difficulty imagining he could have written the note without killing Berman. Its very difficult to believe, to accept, that I wrote the letter and did not kill Susan Berman, Durst testified. A prosecutor said it was one of the truest things Durst said amid a ton of lies. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) Two people were killed in a stabbing incident in the eastern Dutch town of Almelo and a suspect was detained by armed police, the town's municipality said Friday. There were no immediate details of the identities of the victims or whether the suspect knew them and no word on a possible motive in the slayings. JERUSALEM (AP) The grandfather of a 6-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy that killed his immediate family and is now the target of a bitter custody battle on Friday defended his decision to spirit the child off to Israel. Eitan Biran's parents and younger sibling were among 14 killed in May when a cable car slammed into a mountainside in northern Italy. He is now the focus of a custody battle between his maternal grandparents in Israel and his paternal relatives in Italy. Shmulik Peleg, his maternal grandfather, was questioned by Israeli police on kidnapping suspicions and placed under house arrest amid an ongoing investigation. Biran's paternal relatives say he was taken without their knowledge and have filed a legal complaint in Italy seeking his return. In an interview with Israel's Channel 12, the 58-year-old Peleg said Biran was happy, surrounded by his family members. He is in the place where he is supposed to be, in his home, in Israel, he said. He acknowledged driving the child from Italy into Switzerland before flying him back to Israel, saying we departed in a totally legal way. He insisted that his thoughts are devoted only to the good of the child, the good of Eitan. Eitan and his parents were living in Italy at the time of the accident, and after his release from a Turin hospital following weeks of treatment, Italian juvenile court officials ruled the child would live with a paternal aunt near Pavia, in northern Italy. Italian daily Corriere della Sera said Peleg drove Eitan in a rented car to Lugano, Switzerland, where they boarded a chartered flight to Tel Aviv. In the interview, Peleg declined to comment on why he did not take a regular flight out of Italy. Italian authorities also opened an investigation this week. The boys paternal aunt, Aya Biran, filed a formal request with the Italian court system seeking Eitans return to Italy. She had also told police that Peleg last Saturday had failed to return Eitan to her home as agreed. Eitans relatives in Israel deny abducting him and insist they are acting in his interest. Peleg told Channel 12 he had given up on contesting custody in the Italian court system and said he expected the boy to understand once he got older. I believe that one day Eitan will grow up and say grandfather, you did everything for me, you saved me, he said, breaking into tears. "And my daughter, who one day will meet me in heaven, will be proud of me that I saved her son. LA PINE, Ore. (AP) Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it. We were going to grow our own food. We were going to live righteously. We were going to grow organic, Dwyer said. Over the decades that followed, he and his family did just that. But now, Deer Creek has run dry after several illegal marijuana grows cropped up in the neighborhood last spring, stealing water from both the stream and nearby aquifers and throwing Dwyer's future in doubt. From dusty towns to forests in the U.S. West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when there often isn't enough to go around for even licensed users. Conflicts about water have long existed, but illegal marijuana farms which proliferate despite legalization in many Western states are adding strain during a severe drought. In California, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2016, there are still more illegal cannabis farms than licensed ones, according to the Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. "Because peak water demand for cannabis occurs in the dry season, when streamflow is at its lowest levels, even small diversions can dry streams and harm aquatic plants and animals, a study from the center said. Some jurisdictions are fighting back. California's Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors in May banned trucks carrying 100 gallons or more of water from using roads leading to arid tracts where some 2,000 illegal marijuana grows were purportedly using millions of gallons of water daily. The illegal grows are depleting precious groundwater and surface water resources and jeopardizing agricultural, recreational and residential water use, the county ordinance says. In Oregon, the number of illegal grows appears to have increased recently as the Pacific Northwest endured its driest spring since 1924. Many are operating under the guise of being hemp farms, legalized nationally under the 2018 Farm Bill, said Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. Under the law, hemp's maximum THC content the compound that gives cannabis its high must be no greater than 0.3%. Fibers of the hemp plant are used in making rope, clothing, paper and other products. Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel believes there are hundreds of illegal grows in his southern Oregon county alone, many financed by overseas money. He believes the financiers expect to lose a few grows but the sheer number of them means many will last until the marijuana is harvested and sold on the black market outside Oregon. None of the new sites has been licensed to grow recreational marijuana, Pettinger said. Regulators, confronted in 2019 by a backlog of license applications and a glut of regulated marijuana, stopped processing new applications until January 2022. The illegal grows have had catastrophic consequences for natural water resources, Daniel said. Several creeks have dried up far earlier than normal and the water table the underground boundary between water-saturated soil and unsaturated soil is dropping. Its just blatant theft of water, Daniel said. Last month, Daniel and his deputies, reinforced by other law enforcement officers, destroyed 72,000 marijuana plants growing in 400 cheaply built greenhouses, known as hoop houses. The water for those plants came through a makeshift, illicit system of pumps and hoses from the nearby Illinois River, which belongs to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, created by Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values. Daniel said another illegal grow that had 200,000 plants was drawing water from Deer Creek using pumps and pipes. He called it one of the most blatant and ugly things Ive seen. They had actually dug holes into the ground so deep that Deer Creek had dried up ... and they were down into the water table, the sheriff said. Dwyer has a water right to Deer Creek, near the community of Selma, that allows him to grow crops. The creek can run dry late in the year sometimes, but Dwyer has never seen it this dry, much less this early in the year. The streambed is now an avenue of rocks bordered by brush and trees. Over the decades, Dwyer created an infrastructure of buried water pipe, a dozen spigots and an irrigation system connected to the creek to grow vegetables and to protect his home against wildfires. He uses an old well for household water, but it's unclear how long that will last. I just dont know what I will do if I dont have water, the 75-year-old retired middle school teacher said. Marijuana has been grown for decades in southern Oregon, but the recent explosion of huge illegal grows has shocked residents. The Illinois Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, where Dwyer lives, held two town halls about the issue recently. Water theft was the main concern, said Christopher Hall, the conservation district's community organizer. The people of the Illinois Valley are experiencing an existential threat for the first time in local history, Hall said. In the high desert of central Oregon, illegal marijuana growers are also tapping the water supply that's already so stressed that many farmers, including those who produce 60% of the world's carrot-seed supply, face a water shortage this year. On Sept. 2, Deschutes County authorities raided a 30-acre (12-hectare) property in Alfalfa, just east of Bend. It had 49 greenhouses containing almost 10,000 marijuana plants and featured a complex watering system with several 15,000- to 20,000-gallon cisterns. Neighbors told detectives the illegal grow has forced them to drill a new well, Sheriff Shane Nelson said. The Bend area has experienced a population boom, putting more demands on the water supply. The illegal grows are making things worse. In La Pine, south of Bend, Rodger Jincks watched a crew drill a new well on his property. The first sign that his existing well was failing came when the pressure dropped as he watered his tiny front lawn. Driller Shane Harris estimated the water table is dropping 6 inches (15 centimeters) per year. Sheriffs deputies last November raided an illegal grow a block away that had 500 marijuana plants. Jincks' neighbor, Jim Hooper, worries that his well might fail next. He resents the illegal grows and their uncontrolled used of water. With the illegals, theres no tracking of it, Hooper said. "Theyre just stealing the water from the rest of us, which is causing us to spend thousands of dollars to drill new wells deeper. ___ Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky ___ Follow APs complete drought coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/droughts WASHINGTON (AP) The leaders of a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection said Thursday they have sought records related to calls from Gen. Mark Milley, the top U.S. military officer, to his Chinese counterpart in the turbulent final months of Donald Trumps presidency. Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement that they had already asked for records connected to the calls, which Milleys spokesman has said were intended to convey reassurance to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The House committee asked the Defense Department in August for a broad swath of records related to the November election, the transfer of power to President Joe Biden and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Select Committee has sought records specifically related to these matters and we expect the Department of Defense to cooperate fully with our probe, Thompson and Cheney said in the statement. A soon-to-be published book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril, says Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that he would warn him in the event of a U.S. attack. General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him in an October call, according to the book. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. Another call was placed two days after the Jan. 6 insurrection. The statement from the leaders of the panel, created by the House to investigate the insurrection, comes as it reviews thousands of pages of documents requested from multiple federal agencies and technology companies about the insurrection and its origins. Thompson and Cheney said in the statement that the panel is dedicated to telling the complete story of the unprecedented and extraordinary events of January 6th, including all steps that led to what happened that day, and the specific actions and activities that followed between January 6th and January 20th, 2021," the day Biden took office. Milley was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2019 by Trump and has remained in the position in Bidens administration. Both Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have said they have confidence in Milley as some Republicans in Congress urge his firing. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans serving on the panel along with Cheney, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that he believes there is a lot more to the story, and thats why I think its important for the Jan. 6 committee to deal with it. Kinzinger said lawmakers should get the full answers before we start jumping to making it political. He said it will also be important for Congress to hear from Milley, who is scheduled to testify in the House Armed Services Committee this month. Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the November election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had on Jan. 8, according to officials. Milley also asked senior officers to swear an oath that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book. ____ Associated Press writers Padmananda Rama, Lolita Baldor and Robert Burns contributed to this report. BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) A former high-ranking election official violated federal law in 2016 when he granted requests by Kansas, Georgia and Alabama to modify the national voter registration form to require documentary proof of citizenship in those states, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon threw out the contested decisions made by Brian Newby, then-executive director of the Election Assistance Commission, an independent federal agency, after finding on Thursday that Newby failed to determine whether the proposed requirements were necessary to register to vote. WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department is reviewing its policies on housing transgender inmates in the federal prison system after protections for transgender prisoners were rolled back in the Trump administration, The Associated Press has learned. The federal Bureau of Prisons policies for transgender inmates were thrust into the spotlight this week after a leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group who identifies as transgender was sentenced to 53 years in prison for masterminding the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque. Emily Claire Hari, who was charged, tried and convicted as Michael Hari, was sentenced Monday for the bombing of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. It will now be up to the Bureau of Prisons Transgender Executive Council a group of psychology and correctional officials to determine where to house Hari in a system of 122 federal prisons. Under the Obama administration, the bureau's policies for transgender inmates known as the Transgender Offender Manual called for that council to recommend housing by gender identity when appropriate. That language was changed in the Trump administration to require the committee to use biological sex as the initial determination. The Trump-era manual, which remains in effect, says the agency would assign an inmate to a facility based on identified gender only in rare cases. About 1,200 inmates of the nearly 156,000 federal prisoners in the United States identify as transgender, a Justice Department official said. The prison transgender council, established in 2016, consists of about 10 people, including two psychologists, a psychiatrist and prison designation experts, a Justice Department official told the AP. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. The council must consider an inmates health and safety, any potential history of disciplinary action and the security level of the federal prison where the inmate could be assigned. Other factors include staffing in prisons, and the programs or classes the inmate might need. Because Hari has already been sentenced, the council must decide quickly on a prison because Hari will have to be transferred into the Bureau of Prisons. A Justice Department spokesperson said the bureau is committed to providing all inmates with a safe and humane environment, Including providing gender-affirming housing where appropriate. BOP is in the process of reviewing the current version of its policy regarding transgender inmates. There are few high-security federal prisons for female inmates, which would also factor into Haris placement. Because of the crime Hari committed, it is likely Hari would need to be housed in a high-security prison, as opposed to a medium or low-security facility. Many transgender inmates also dont request to be assigned to prisons to match their gender identity, the Justice Department official said, in part for their own safety. Prosecutors said during the trial that hatred for Muslims motivated Hari to carry out the attack, which didnt physically hurt anyone but traumatized the mosques community. Several men were gathered for early morning prayers at Dar Al-Farooq on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown into an imams office and detonated. Hari and co-defendants Joe Morris and Michael McWhorter, were tracked by authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Chicago where they lived, after a seven-month investigation. Hari, 50, was convicted in December of five counts that include using explosives, obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs and damaging property because of its religious character. Prosecutors said Hari masterminded the attack, citing anti-Muslim rhetoric in Haris manifesto called The White Rabbit Handbook, named after the militia Hari formed that included Morris, McWhorter and others. According to court documents, Hari informed a Minnesota jail deputy in late December about her gender dysphoria, and requested to be moved to a womens facility and provided with hormone replacement therapy. Documents filed by the defense describe Haris gender dysphoria as unbearable and that, along with right-wing misinformation, fueled an inner conflict during the time of the bombing. She strongly desired making a full transition but knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything she knew, defense lawyer Shannon Elkins wrote. Thus, as she formed a rag-tag group of freedom fighters or militia men and spoke of missions to Cuba and Venezuela, Ms. Hari secretly looked up sex change, transgender surgery, and post-op transgender on the internet. Elkins said Hari was living a double life, planning a trip to Thailand for male-to-female surgery and purchasing female clothes while buying military fatigues for the militia. Elkins did not return calls seeking an interview on where Hari hoped to serve the prison sentence. Prosecutors said it was offensive to use gender dysphoria to deflect guilt from the attack, which prosecutors said Hari refused to take responsibility for. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said during Mondays sentencing hearing that he was prepared to recommend that Hari be sent to a womens facility but the final decision was up to the Bureau of Prisons. ___ Ibrahim reported from Minneapolis. SEATTLE (AP) Seattle and King County officials said Thursday that proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test will be required to enter certain establishments and attend outdoor events. Public Health Seattle & King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin issued the order, which will go into effect Oct. 25. The order will require vaccination proof or a negative COVID-19 test in order to attend outdoor events with 500 or more people such as sporting events and to visit indoor establishments such as museums, theaters, live music events, gyms, sporting events and conferences/conventions. The order also applies inside restaurants and bars. It doesnt affect outdoor dining, take-out orders and shopping in places including grocery stores. Duchin said the move will protect customers and workers through providing safer spaces, protecting the health care system, and helping prevent business closures. High levels of preventable COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations and increased deaths driven by the highly contagious delta variant prompted the order. King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and others in the community support the order, according to the news release. We must act now and act boldly to change the trajectory of the virus and keep our communities safe, Durkan said. "After extensive engagement with community partners, small businesses, venues, and hospitals, Seattle is proud to implement a vaccination verification policy. The requirements are similar to those recently enacted in New York, San Francisco and New Orleans, as well as in Washington state's Clallam and Jefferson counties. More than 150 restaurants and bars in King County have already implemented some form of vaccine requirement to enter, The Seattle Times reported. And King County members of the Washington Nightlife Music Association, a coalition of independently owned music venues, last month called on government officials to implement a vaccination-check mandate and the development of a statewide vaccine verification system. Customers can use their vaccine cards or a photo of a vaccine card, documentation from a medical record or vaccine provider, or a printed certificate from MyIRMobile.com to enter establishments already requiring vaccine proof. Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association, said in a statement Thursday that the announcement creates different standards for different types of eating places and no additional standards for most businesses. The data shows without a doubt that COVID spreads everywhere, and any policy to reduce the spread must similarly apply everywhere," Anton said. Anything less than that amounts to using our industry which has been the hardest hit by far as a carrot-and-stick for the small percentage of people in King County who have been unwilling to be vaccinated." He said the association would continue working to be part of a solution based on science and urged people to be kind to hospitality workers as they work to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Duchins order is not meant to be permanent and will be reviewed within six months after the implementation date, officials said. WASHINGTON (AP) A prominent cybersecurity lawyer on Friday pleaded not guilty to making a false statement to the FBI in a charge stemming from a probe of the U.S. governments investigation into Russian election interference. Michael Sussman appeared Friday in D.C. federal court before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui. He is just the second person to be prosecuted by special counsel John Durham in two-and-a-half years of work. The indictment accuses Sussmann of lying to the FBI when he was questioned about a September 2016 conversation he had with the FBIs general counsel in which he relayed concerns from cybersecurity researchers about potentially suspicious contacts between Russia-based Alfa Bank and a Trump Organization server. The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections. Sussmann is a former federal prosecutor who specializes in cybersecurity. He resigned this week from the firm Perkins Coie. Sussmanns lawyers, Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth, said their client is a highly respected national security lawyer and they were confident he would prevail at trial and vindicate his good name." No case brought by Durham so far undoes the core finding of an earlier investigation by Robert Mueller that Russia had interfered in sweeping fashion on behalf of Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and that the Trump campaign welcomed that aid. The Alfa Bank matter was not a pivotal element of the Russia probe and was not even mentioned in Muellers 448-page report in 2019. Still, the indictment may give fodder to Russia investigation critics who regard it as politically tainted and engineered by Democrats. Sussmanns firm, Perkins Coie, has deep Democratic connections. A then-partner at the firm, Marc Elias, brokered a deal with the Fusion GPS research firm to study Trumps business ties to Russia. That work, by former British spy Christopher Steele, produced a dossier of research that helped form the basis of flawed surveillance applications targeting a former Trump campaign official, Carter Page. The Durham investigation has already been ongoing months longer than Mueller's probe. It was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and leadership tumult following the abrupt departure last fall of a top deputy on Durhams team. Until now, Durham had brought only one criminal case a false statement charge against an FBI lawyer who altered an email related to the surveillance of Page to obscure the nature of Pages preexisting relationship with the CIA. That lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. Shock. Thats what Ruth Simmons, the president of a historically Black university in Texas, felt in December when she received a call informing her that the school would be gifted $50 million many times the size of the previous largest contribution it has received. Simmons, who leads Prairie View A&M University, thought she misheard the caller, so she asked for the amount to be repeated: Five-Zero. The donor this time was MacKenzie Scott, who has reset the philanthropic agenda for racial equity while barely saying a word. Similar stories of surprise have flooded in from across the country in the past year as colleges and nonprofits received unexpected gifts from Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett. Scott, a 51-year-old novelist, received the bulk of her fortune from her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. After the police killing of George Floyd, she funded the top recipients of racial equity donations in 27 states, according to an AP analysis of preliminary data from the philanthropy research organization Candid. The data, which includes only contributions from institutional funders, shows that Scott was responsible for $567 million distributed to such organizations. (Two organizations declined to say how much they received from the philanthropist.) In at least 11 states, Scott provided the majority of racial equity-oriented contributions to the top recipients. She was the sole major donor to these groups in 10 other states, with donations for education dominating her giving. Scotts impact in some states could be larger still, because it remains unclear how all of the $8.7 billion she has donated since 2020 has been distributed to individual organizations. The impact of the donations per state is also difficult to analyze because some of them, like those given to schools and national organizations, may have broader benefits. Theres no question in my mind that anyones personal wealth is the product of a collective effort, and of social structures which present opportunities to some people, and obstacles to countless others, Scott wrote in a July 2020 post announcing $1.7 billion in contributions. She said her funding decisions were driven by a deep belief in the value different backgrounds bring to problem-solving on any issue. Scott, later joined by Jewett, backed those words with hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to HBCU powerhouses like Morehouse College and Hispanic-Serving Institutions, to little-known groups like Yee Ha olnii Doos Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund and to chapters of international groups like United Way. Many organizations say Scotts gifts were the largest theyve ever received. After Scott's split with Bezos, she pledged to give most of her wealth away, echoing the vows of other mega-donors like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Since then, her donations have flowed into the hands of organizations focused on racial equity, COVID relief and other issues. Because of the extraordinary growth in the value of Amazon stock, Scott's wealth is even larger today about $60 billion, according to Forbes than it was when she started giving her money away. That means Scott's ability to influence philanthropy will continue for the foreseeable future. Her intention, she has said, is to keep giving until the safe is empty. And because her gifts come with no strings attached and allow organizations to set their own priorities, it's been a welcome change for many who feel hamstrung by donor pet projects. The most cherished gifts are definitely those that are unrestricted because a complex university has a wide variety of needs, said Simmons, who notes those gifts allow universities to deal with their meat-and-potatoes issues. When Prairie View A&M received Scotts $50 million gift last fall, it created a $10 million scholarship fund for students most vulnerable to dropping out because of a job loss or some other financial stress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, Simmons said, the school has given more than $5 million in scholarships from that fund, with the rest set to be awarded by the middle of next year. It helped immensely in terms of addressing the pressing needs of students who could not meet their financial obligations, said Simmons, adding that many Prairie View A&M students work to supplement their financial aid. A large chunk of Scott's donation $35 million was put in the schools endowment, which now stands at $143 million. This is just a stark contrast to what weve seen, particularly in recent decades, as donors have asserted themselves not only through the gifts, but also (by) wanting to be on boards or being able to get as close to the things that theyre funding as possible, said Tyrone Freeman, a professor at Indiana Universitys Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. (The AP and the Lilly School receive funding from the Lilly Endowment.) Yet Scott's donations have also prompted some calls for greater transparency. As an individual, she isn't subject to the same disclosure requirements that apply to mega-donors who contribute through charitable foundations. Nor do her announcements reveal how much she gives to individual groups. That means the amounts that these organizations receive are known only if they announce it themselves. Many have not. By providing such sizable donations to nonprofit organizations, Scott took on the role as a leading benefactor of the U.S. nonprofit sector, said Maribel Morey, executive director of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences. Asking for greater transparency is just giving more agency to the public, so they know how and why decisions are being made about the public good. A spokesperson for The Bridgespan Group, the philanthropic consultancy firm that advises Scott on her donations, told the AP that the company doesnt comment on its clients but encourages unrestricted donations. Some of Scotts racial equity contributions intersected with COVID-19 relief because the effects of the pandemic were disproportionately felt in minority communities. Around the same time that Prairie View A&M received millions, Ethel Branch, a former attorney general of the Navajo Nation who started a COVID relief fund for Native American Navajo and Hopi families in the early days of the pandemic, received a call informing her that $10 million was coming her way. It was at a time when we had pretty much exhausted all of our GoFundMe dollars, said Branch, who leads the Utah-based Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund. I couldnt even go on social media because there were too many people posting about losing family members. And it was just a really dark time. The group, and its 1,300 volunteers, used the funding to provide water, personal protective equipment and food to Navajo and Hopi families in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, Branch said. All told, they reached over half a million people. But nearly a year since Scott's gift, Branch says the relief fund's resources are dwindling a result, perhaps, of pandemic donor fatigue and an assumption that the group might no longer need money because of Scott's gift. By contrast, Prairie View A&M has had more contributions from other donors after Scott's donation. At universities, big donors commonly have buildings or centers named after them. Yet there isn't going to be a Scott Center at Prairie View. She didnt want that, Simmons said. So the HBCU head came up with a little secret and established a writing program named after Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning Black novelist who taught Scott during her college days at Princeton University and who hired her as a research assistant on the 1992 novel Jazz. Thats as far as we could go in demonstrating our gratitude for her generosity, Simmons said. ___ AP Business Writer Glenn Gamboa contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. TRENTON, N.J. (AP) The first ballots in this year's contest for governor must start to go out to voters by Saturday. The return of the ballots will kick off voting in the Nov. 2 race between Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican former Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli. Murphy is aiming to become the first Democratic incumbent to win reelection in 44 years. Ciattarelli faces an uphill climb in Democrat-leaning New Jersey, where polls show Murphy ahead. The governor also has a fundraising advantage. The race has Murphy's record front and center, including his stewardship of the state during the COVID-19 outbreak. The state has had mixed outcomes during the pandemic. It was an early hotspot and until recently had the highest rate of deaths from the disease before Mississippi supplanted it. The state, though, has among the highest rates of vaccinations and while cases and hospitalizations spiked this summer, New Jersey hasn't seen levels like in the South and West. Murphy also has accomplished many of the pledges he made while campaigning in 2017: legalizing recreational marijuana, instituting some free community college and pre-K, hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour over time and fully funding the state's pension. He also increased school aid and fulfilled a campaign promise to raise taxes on incomes over $1 million. His campaign points to polling showing the programs as popular. Ciattarelli is betting that high-taxed residents are willing to abandon the governor for him. He's put making the state, which has among the highest property taxes in the nation, more affordable at the center of his pitch to voters. He says he wants to rewrite the state's school funding formula to lower property taxes, which finance education, but he has not said exactly how. Known as a moderate in the Legislature who says he supports Roe v. Wade and a women's right to an abortion, Ciattarelli has tacked toward the right, at least rhetorically. Once a skeptic about Donald Trump, he now says the former president's policies worked. It's a balancing act given the strong support Trump has in the GOP base, though tough in a state that rejected the former president in two elections. And unlike Murphy, who is concentrating on national issues with the aim of energizing the Democratic base, Ciattarelli has focused on state issues, hoping to lure independents and persuadable Democrats. Any registered voter can choose to vote by mail in New Jersey, and ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 2 to be counted. Any voter who requested to vote by mail for all elections will continue to get mail ballots until they opt out. Under a 2018 law, voters who got a mail ballot for the 2016 presidential election were also slated to get mail-in ballots unless they opted out. In addition to mail-in voting, New Jersey will have early in-person voting for the first time this year. It runs Oct. 23 through Halloween. ST. LOUIS (AP) A statue of a Native American that served as a landmark at an intersection in a St. Louis business district was removed Friday after officials determined it did not appropriately honor indigenous communities. The statue will be donated to the National Building Arts Center, a repository for area architectural artifacts, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Its sculptor, Bill Christman, endorsed the statues removal. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshires two members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday urged President Joe Biden to reopen the land border between Canada and the United States. Democratic U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas sent a letter to the president urging him to allow the safe and responsible reopening of the land border between the two countries to vaccinated, non-essential Canadian travelers. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Construction has started at Kirtland Air Force Base for a new digital laboratory for advanced wargaming and other simulation and analysis work involving laser weapons and space vehicles. The Air Force Research Laboratory' s $6 million Wargaming and Advanced Research Simulation Laboratory is intended to spur strategies involving innovation, speed and partnerships within the laboratory, said Col. Eric Felt, director of the Space Vehicles Directorate. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this week sharply criticized a new Texas law that essentially bans most abortions and said that her state intends to assist women who want to leave the Lone Star State to access the procedure. For women in Texas, we want you to know: We will help you find a way to New York. And right now we are looking intensely to find what resources we can bring to the table to help you have safe transport here, and let you know there are providers who will assist you in this time of your need, Hochul said in a Wednesday night interview on MSNBC. She went on to attack Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, saying he and Republicans like him claim to be proponents of deregulation and small government, but then seek to control womens bodies. Im going to help women get elected all over this country who are pro-choice. Im going to use my energy and my resources to make sure that happens as well. Thats the only thing thats going to change this: We have to wipe out men like Governor Abbott, said Hochul, a Democrat who became the states first woman governor last month. Its so appalling whats going on in these Republican states. And their people are suffering, and I cant stand it any longer. We have to take a strong position against this and call it out whenever we see it. A spokeswoman for Abbott did not respond to a request for comment. Its unclear from Hochuls remarks whether she means that New York will have a policy to financially assist Texas women seeking to travel to her state for abortions, or whether she simply means that New Yorks existing clinics that perform abortions will be open to Texans. New York State provides care for people regardless of residency. We will do everything we can to help individuals who are seeking the procedure in New York State, Haley Viccaro, a spokeswoman for Hochul, wrote in an email. Some nonprofit groups have already announced plans to help women get around the states abortion law. Planned Parenthoods website encourages Texas women who are pregnant to schedule ultrasounds quickly to confirm the pregnancy and to schedule abortion procedures soon afterward if that is their choice. The organization says women can call (210) 736-2262 for help finding a clinic to perform the procedure in Texas before the six-week deadline, or to help them find an out-of-state provider if the pregnancy has progressed beyond six weeks. If you need to get an abortion out of state, we can help you find a provider and resources to get there, including financial assistance, the website reads. Texas new abortion law, which went into effect Sept. 1 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. The high court has not ruled on the substance of the law. Pregnancy dates are measured from a womans last menstrual period, and most women find out they are pregnant when their periods are late, placing them often at around four weeks of pregnancy. That leaves them less than two weeks to access abortions under the new law. Hochul said at an abortion rights rally this week that during the pregnancy of one of her children, she went whitewater rafting three months into the pregnancy because she did not know. The Texas law differs from abortion bans or restrictions passed in other GOP-led states, such as Missouri, Alabama and Georgia, in its enforcement mechanism. Rather than leaving enforcement to the state attorney general or local prosecutors, the law explicitly bans such officials from enforcing it. Instead, it is to be enforced privately through lawsuits that can be brought by private individuals against anyone who assists a woman getting an abortion in violation of the new state law. Such individuals can be forced to pay up to $10,000 in damages if successfully sued, as well as the court costs of the party that brought the suit. The law does not include a penalty for making a false claim under the law, nor a means for people who are sued to recover legal expenses if the case against them is unsuccessful. The maneuver has made it more difficult to challenge the laws constitutionality, stymying those seeking to ensure access to abortion rights guaranteed for now by the high courts 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to halt enforcement of Texas' new abortion law, which Attorney General Merrick Garland has called an unconstitutional scheme. An Abbott spokesperson said this week that the law ensures that the life of every child with a heartbeat will be spared from the ravages of abortionWe are confident that the courts will uphold and protect that right to life. Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, said an important change thats not getting enough attention is the increased funding that the Texas Legislature provided for expecting mothers in the last session, setting aside $100 million over the next two years to promote alternatives to abortion. Women dont need to go out of state to seek abortions. Texas has the resources to help them successfully give birth to the child, and keep the child if she wishes or place the child for adoption, he said. That is the goal of the state programs, and its also the goal of hundreds of nonprofit organizations. While the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the substance of the Texas law, critics say the majority-conservative courts decision has had the effect of banning most abortions in the state and created a model for other Republican-led states to follow. That is not acceptable, say Hochul and other pro-choice Democrats. Setting up this whole system of vigilantes, this is just I cant believe this is even going on in our country, said Hochul, who like Abbott is a lawyer. And whats so disgusting to me is that our own Supreme Court and we saw this possibly coming, but the reality is hitting us hard but the Supreme Court will not stand up and protect the women of this country. Abbott faces two primary challengers next year, and Hochul will seek to be elected governor in her own right after recently succeeding Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations. edward.mckinley@chron.com From Texas Sen. Robert Nichols: This week Hurricane Nicholas made landfall, impacting the coastal region of Southeast Texas and neighboring counties. Though the storm hit as a hurricane, it was later downgraded to a tropical storm and then to tropical depression. There are 19 counties under the disaster declaration and five are in Senate District 3, including Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Newton, and Orange Counties. If you have been affected by Hurricane Nicholas, please complete the Self Reporting Damage Survey found on Texas Department of Emergency Managements website to help the state identify damages to private homes and businesses at https://damage.tdem.texas.gov/. 1. Texas Health and Human Services Commission to award $5 million to rural hospitals HHSC and Governor Abbott announced that the commission will receive $5 million in federal funding for rural hospitals through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The funding is coming through an innovative new program at CMS called the Community Health Access and Rural Transformation (CHART) Model. CHART is aimed at improving health outcomes, ensuring access to telehealth, and addressing health disparities in rural communities. It is a seven-year cooperative agreement for rural communities to address significant barriers in access to health care. The funding will help rural hospitals maintain financial stability due to low patient volumes, higher average fixed costs, and difficulty attracting and maintaining healthcare workers. Eligible communities in Senate District 3 include areas within Angelina, Polk, and San Augustine counties. HHSC may expand eligibility as funding allows. 2. Governor Abbott signs bail reform legislation This week Governor Abbott signed Senate Bill 6 into law in Houston, finalizing bail reform measures he named as an emergency item in January before the regular legislative session. The Damon Allen Act, as the legislation is known, is designed to make it harder for violent offenders to be released from jail. The bill bans the release of those accused of violent crime on personal bonds. Personal bonds do not require offenders to post any bail, they just require a promise that the accused will appear in court. The problem was that numerous violent offenders would go on to commit more violent crime, even murder, while on personal bonds. For example, a pregnant Houston-area woman was murdered by her estranged husband after he was released on a personal bond after being arrested for attacking her. Keeping these violent offenders behinds bars while their case is being resolved keeps the public safe from further criminal acts. 3. DSHS to award $10 million in grants for local vaccination efforts The Department of State Health Services announced it is awarding $10 million in grants for local vaccination efforts through the Texas Vaccine Outreach and Education Grant program. They are encouraging education entities, faith-based organizations, government entities, community coalitions, associations, and non-profit groups to apply for grants ranging from $50,000 to $150,000. Community groups should be engaged in vaccine education and aiming at increasing the number of vaccinated Texans. Priority is given to rural communities, disability organizations, and communities of color. 4. SFA launches inaugural Aviation Science Program class This fall, Stephen F. Austin State University is offering a new degree program Aviation Science. This month the inaugural class began piloting aircraft at A. L. Mangham Airport. The program is a public-private partnership with Nacogdoches-based HCH Aviation and other entities. The City of Nacogdoches is providing the airport, HCH Aviation and Piper Aircraft provide the planes, and HCH Aviation provides the instructors. Aviation Science graduates will be FAA certified upon graduation. The flight training program is open to collegiate and non-collegiate students, as well as those not interested in earning a bachelors degree. Though the program now only has 21 students, program leaders are hoping to expand their offerings to have up to 200 or more students in the program. 5. Texas Veterans Commission grants $1 million to East Texas veterans services Six veterans services groups in East Texas received a combined $1 million in grants from the Texas Veterans Commission this month. Grants range from general assistance to housing and transportation assistance. The money for these grants comes from veterans cash lottery tickets, vehicle registrations, and hunting and fishing licenses, which all have the option to donate to the Texas Veterans Commission. Through these small donations, the Texas Veterans Commission has been able to award over $33 million just this year. Over 5,000 East Texas veterans receive help from the community organizations that received grants this month. Veterans have access to other important resources through the Texas Veterans Commission and can learn more at https://www.tvc.texas.gov/. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina judges struck down the states latest photo voter identification law on Friday, agreeing with minority voters that Republicans rammed through rules tainted by racial bias as a way to remain in power. Two of the three trial judges declared the December 2018 law is unconstitutional, even though it was designed to implement a photo voter ID mandate added to the North Carolina Constitution in a referendum just weeks earlier. They said the law was rushed and intentionally discriminates against Black voters, violating their equal protections. The law was motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intent to target African American voters, Superior Court Judges Michael OFoghludha and Vince Rozier wrote in their 102-page order. Other, less restrictive voter ID laws would have sufficed to achieve the legitimate nonracial purposes of implementing the constitutional amendment requiring voter ID, deterring fraud, or enhancing voter confidence," the judges added. The majority decision, which followed a three-week trial in April, will be appealed, Republicans at the legislature said. A state appeals court had previously blocked the laws enforcement last year. The law remains unenforceable with this ruling. With a similar lawsuit in federal court set to go to trial this January and another state court lawsuit now on appeal, its looking more unlikely that the current voter ID law will be enforced in the 2022 elections. Allison Riggs, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, praised the decision. Riggs said the ruling reflects how the states Republican-controlled legislature undeniably implemented this legislation to maintain its power by targeting voters of color. Republicans have said voter ID laws are needed to build public confidence in elections and to prevent voter fraud, which remains rare nationwide. Many Democrats see the mandates as attempts at voter suppression. In July 2016, a federal appeals court struck down several portions of a 2013 North Carolina law that included a voter ID mandate, saying GOP lawmakers had written them with almost surgical precision to discourage voting by Black residents, who tend to support Democrats. Lawyers for the voters who sued over the 2018 law said it suffered from similar racial defects as the 2013 law following a long effort by North Carolina elected officials to weaken African American voting as a way to retain control the General Assembly. The 2013 law was carried out briefly in 2016 primary elections. GOP legislative leaders and their attorneys disagreed, saying the latest ID rules were approved with noteworthy Democratic support and improved to retain ballot access while ensuring only legal citizens can vote. The categories of qualifying IDs were greatly expanded compared to the 2013 law to include college student and government-employee IDs. Free IDs also were made available, and people without IDs can still vote if they fill out a form. Sam Hayes, an attorney for House Speaker Tim Moore, said liberal judges have defied the will of North Carolinians on election integrity with the decision. Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger are among defendants in the lawsuit. Photo voter ID laws are designed to bolster confidence in elections. Calling this law irredeemably racist does the exact opposite, Sen. Paul Newton of Cabarrus County said. In the dissenting opinion, Judge Nathaniel Poovey wrote there was not one scintilla of evidence presented that any legislator acted with racially discriminatory intent. The plaintiffs evidence relied heavily on the past history of other lawmakers and used an extremely broad brush to paint the 2018 General Assembly with the same toxic paint, Poovey wrote. But the panel's majority wrote that while they found no legislator harboring racial animus toward Black voters, Republicans targeted voters who, based on race, were unlikely to vote for the majority party as the federal court also ruled in 2016. About three dozen states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls, and about half want photo ID only, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Six voters five Black and one biracial sued in Wake County court on the same day GOP lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Coopers veto of the 2018 voter ID bill. Some plaintiffs testified at trial about difficulties obtaining an ID or voting when the earlier photo ID law was in effect. Lawyers for the GOP said all voters would continue to be able to vote under the 2018 law. The plaintiffs case emphasized the state's history of discriminatory voting laws, as well as an analysis from a University of Michigan professor who said Black voters are 39% more likely to lack a qualifying photo ID than white registered voters. The analysis, however, left out data on some categories of qualifying IDs. Changes to these and other voting procedures in North Carolina once needed federal preapproval. But a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling meant such preclearance actions were no longer required. The 2013 voter ID law was approved shortly after that ruling. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The Oklahoma Supreme Court will expedite an appeal of an injunction limiting a ban on mask mandates in public schools. The court, in an order dated Wednesday, placed the appeal on its fast-track docket, giving Attorney General John OConnor 20 days to file briefs in the case and opponents 20 days to respond. FOWLERVILLE, Mich. (AP) A pilot safely landed his single-engine aircraft in a field after encountering mechanical trouble Thursday afternoon, Michigan State Police said. The 33-year-old pilot was able to land the plane with no damage or injuries in Handy Township in Livingston County, southeast of Lansing, police said. JOHANNESBURG (AP) South Africa's highest court on Friday denied an application by former president Jacob Zuma to rescind his sentence of 15 months in jail for contempt of court in a ruling viewed as a stern test of the country's resolve to hold powerful figures to account. The Constitutional Court judgment upheld its own ruling that Zuma should go to prison for refusing to testify at a commission of inquiry into widespread corruption in government and at state-owned companies while he was president of South Africa from 2009-2018. Zuma, who was forced to resign as president in 2018 amid corruption allegations, still has significant support in parts of South Africa and within the ruling African National Congress party. He was jailed in July after a long-running dispute with the judicial commission of inquiry, which saw him walk out midway through testimony and refuse to appear again. The 79-year-old Zuma has since been granted medical parole for an undisclosed illness after serving two months of his sentence. His release from prison has been questioned by opposition parties who say procedure wasn't followed. The latest judgment doesnt affect Zumas parole, although South Africa's main opposition party and at least two other organizations have indicated they will challenge that in court as well after the head of the department of corrections said he overruled a decision by the parole board and authorized Zuma's release himself. That will put the judiciary back in the spotlight. Justice Sisi Khampepe read out Friday's judgment at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg and said it was a majority decision of 7-2 judges to uphold Zuma's sentence. Zuma argued his sentence was improper because, among other things, he had been jailed without trial and the sentence was delivered in his absence. In their ruling, the seven judges said Zuma refused to participate in the Constitutional Court proceedings that led to him being sentenced and then attempted to reopen the case after it was concluded. The hands of the Constitutional Court are bound and Mr. Zuma himself bound them," Justice Khampepe said. Zuma's imprisonment sparked violent riots and looting in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal and the Gauteng province, South Africa's economic hub, in one of the country's most uncomfortable moments since the end of apartheid in 1994. More than 300 people died, malls were looted and factories and warehouses were burned in what current President Cyril Ramaphosa described as an orchestrated attempt to destabilize Africa's most developed economy. The riots raised concerns Zuma might be spared jail and the justice system overridden to appease his supporters. Zuma, a contentious figure for much of his political career, also faces corruption charges in a separate case, where he is accused of taking bribes in connection with South Africa's $4 billion arms deal in 1999 with French manufacturer Thales. His corruption trial, which opened in May, is due to resume next week. Both cases against Zuma have tested South Africa's resolve to bring an influential figure to justice after years of allegations of wrongdoing. Ramaphosa, who succeeded Zuma, made a drive to root out corruption the centerpiece of his presidency. Ace Magashule, another powerful figure and the ruling ANC party's secretary general, also faces corruption charges and will go on trial. Zuma is currently being treated at a hospital, according to his foundation, which has refused to disclose his whereabouts, when he will be discharged or if he will attend court for the scheduled resumption of his corruption trial. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) South Dakota legislative leaders on Friday distributed a petition to lawmakers asking them to support a special session to consider impeaching Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg for a car crash last year that killed a pedestrian. House Speaker Spencer Gosch released the text of the petition. Two-thirds of both the Republican-controlled House and Senate must sign on to convene the special session. Lawmakers would meet in November, the day after they are scheduled to hold a special session to consider new legislative districts. MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. - Twenty miles outside Phoenix in a desolate cemetery, a funeral director opened the door of a black minivan, dusty from the desert dirt. He lifted out the remains of Marjorie Anderson, her ashes inside a plastic urn transported in a cardboard Costco box. An Episcopal chaplain and a few county workers were on hand for her burial, but nobody was there who knew Anderson, a 51-year-old mother of two. Her urn looked exactly the same as 13 others placed alongside the edge of a freshly dug trench. Tom Chapman, the chaplain, wore a wide-brim hat for shade in the treeless expanse and prayed. He called out Anderson's name, and those of five other women and eight men. Not one had a relative or friend to hear him. "There but for the grace of God we all could be," Chapman said quietly before turning to leave. Every week, there is a similar lonesome service at Maricopa County's White Tanks Cemetery, where a record 551 people were laid to rest last year, part of a nationwide surge of unclaimed bodies. There are no official statistics about how many unclaimed bodies are buried across America, but a Washington Post investigation that included more than 100 interviews over six months with medical examiners and local officials from Maine to California found that every year tens of thousands of lives end this way. Covid-19 increased the number of unclaimed bodies in many places, including Maricopa, which had a 30% spike, according to the investigation. But even before the pandemic, this was a growing problem. A rare federally funded study published in 2020 found that in recent years in Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous, 2 to 3% of about 60,000 deaths per year resulted in an unclaimed body. Maryland, unlike most states, tracks the unclaimed in all its cities and towns, and has seen the number climb steadily in recent years. Last year during the pandemic, Maryland's 2,510 unclaimed bodies accounted for more than 4% of all deaths. Conservative estimates are that 1% of all deaths result in an unclaimed body, which would mean that last year, when 3.4 million Americans died, there were 34,000 bodies left for local governments to bury. But many coroners and others who handle these bodies say the national figure could be as high as 3%, which would bring the unclaimed count to more than 100,000. Across the country, big cities and small towns increasingly have become the funeral director of last resort. "It's very jarring," said Betsy Gara, executive director of the Council of Small Towns in Connecticut. "These people have lost their connections." Patrick Kearney, a state representative in Massachusetts, said the large number of unclaimed bodies is a red alert that American families are in crisis. "At its core, it's about the country not addressing the issues that are tearing families apart," he said. Unclaimed bodies are distinct from unidentified bodies. Often, quite a bit of information is known and local officials are able to track down relatives. But many decline to take on the responsibility, sometimes citing the cost of a funeral and burial, which can easily run over $7,500. Several county coroners said they first started noticing families abandoning relatives' bodies in hospitals in 2008 during the Great Recession. Funeral costs kept rising as incomes sank. Then the opioid epidemic sent the number of unclaimed bodies soaring. "It's a mix of economic and societal issues," said Adam Puche, chairman of the Maryland board that handles the unclaimed. "It is tough economic times at the moment and funerals are expensive. Families are perhaps less connected to each other than in previous generations." Sheriffs, medical examiners, local social service workers and others dealing with the unclaimed say a confluence of other factors contributes to the rise. Many people pull up anchor, move and marry often and completely lose touch with close family members - the people who, by law, are asked to make burial arrangements if no executor of a person's own wishes has been named in advance. Some people outlive all close relatives. Some local officials say they see more isolated people, and note that without any human contact, people can work, watch movies and grocery shop from home - even get a beer from the corner bar delivered to their door. One common pattern is a struggle with severe depression, drug abuse or some other mental health disorder that went untreated and shattered the family. "We've had some people say, 'I'm glad they're dead. . . . I hope they burn in hell,'" said Lindsey Sales, who runs the Maricopa office that deals with the unclaimed. Maricopa, which now employs five full-time researchers to track down family members, spends about $1 million a year to handle its unclaimed. In Anderson's case, police had her driver's license and investigators sought to identify her family. They mailed 13 letters to possible relatives. Her sister received one, but never responded. The county reached Anderson's daughter, but a lack of money and a lifetime of heartache kept her from coming. - - - Anderson, who died in December, grew up in Utah, a blonde, hazel-eyed girl who adored her father, a United Airlines pilot. She married at 18 and had a baby at 19. But happiness never lasted. Neither did Anderson's two marriages, or any job. At one point, she moved to Las Vegas and worked at a casino. Her family didn't understand why she allowed herself to be drawn to people, places and things that only seemed to make her life worse. Before Anderson's daughter, Milissa, was old enough for kindergarten, her mother would go to bars and leave her home alone, she said. When Milissa's father came home from work, he was furious. "I do remember a bit about that time period, just watching 'The Little Mermaid' on VHS a lot," said Milissa, now 33. Her parents soon split and Milissa first lived with her father. By high school, she was back with her mother, who tried to steady her life, earned a degree from community college and worked as an accountant. But in her early 30s, with a second daughter from a brief, tumultuous marriage, Anderson was diagnosed with schizophrenia. "She would drink to keep the voices out," Milissa said. Her mother heard people at the door who were not there, and was constantly saying people were trying to break into their house. "I would go out with flashlights and check and try to show her that no one was there," Milissa said. Ten years ago, after Anderson lost her job and was drinking way too much tequila and vodka, she was evicted from her public housing apartment in Fort Collins, Colo. Milissa was 23 and living nearby with her in-laws. She helped move her mother's few belongings into storage and gave her money to stay at a motel. Later that week, over Thanksgiving dinner, she planned to tell her mother that she was pregnant, that Anderson would be a grandmother. Then they could figure out a plan for where she would live. But the day before Thanksgiving, her mother called. "She was completely drunk and had really, really loud opera music going on in the background that was drowning out anything she said." Milissa was abrupt: "Be sober, I'm picking you up tomorrow night." Those were the last words she said to her mother. When she arrived the next day, her mom had left the motel. A few months later, Milissa filed a missing person's report with the Fort Collins police. "I had a police officer come over and talk to me, and he told me sometimes people just don't want to be found. That's kind of where I gave up." - - - On Dec. 3, 2020, at 10:23 p.m., in a tiny efficiency apartment east of Phoenix, paramedics pronounced Marjorie Anderson dead. She had been living in the low-rent Desert Lodge with a man 20 years older. She had met Ronald Opachinski eight years earlier, at a Catholic church community center that served hot food to the homeless. He was volunteering and she was hungry. They hit it off. He found her funny and intelligent. She was broke, her family was in Colorado. She soon accepted his offer to share his apartment. Twenty-five years before they met, Opachinski had been convicted of attempted sexual abuse of a minor, and he had spent more than a decade in prison. The Air Force veteran with a learning disability found it impossible to land a decent job. He was tidy and earned cash doing building maintenance or hauling trash. "She was the best thing I ever had," he said of Anderson. He said "Margie" didn't think he was a bad guy. He said he didn't know where she went on the bus sometimes or how she got all the pills she took. Her health was failing, she used a walker, and he did his best to help her. He pointed to the pile of blankets where he slept on the floor and the narrow sofa where she died. While there may have been romance in the beginning, he said they had become "like brother and sister." Opachinski called 911 when she started gagging and vomiting in her sleep. When he tried to roll her on her side to keep her from choking, she slipped to the floor. By the time the ambulance arrived she had stopped breathing. For four hours, police investigators came and went, studying the scene, talking to Opachinski and neighbors, examining Anderson's considerable stash of prescriptions. She had lots of pills - some meant to treat mood swings, others for depression, still more for pain. At 2 a.m., Anderson's body was lifted onto a gurney and driven to the medical examiner's office. There, an autopsy found acute levels of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid used to ease severe pain, and her death was ruled an accidental overdose. With Anderson's body in a county morgue filling with people dying from covid-19, the search was on for someone to bury her. - - - Because Anderson had no will laying out her own burial arrangements and no spouse, according to Arizona state law "the duty of burying the body" fell to her adult children. If no child exists or agrees to make the arrangements, the duty falls to parents, then to siblings. And, if no relative steps forward, "an adult who exhibited special care and concern for the dead person" is asked. Police started looking for Anderson's daughters. A detective, with access to birth and health records and other government databases, found Milissa in Colorado, while she was working as a medical assistant in a nursing home. "Do you know Marjorie Ann Anderson?" Her heart fluttered. She had never stopped wondering where her mother was. For a second she thought she might somehow have her back. But then the detective said she died near Phoenix, nearly 1,000 miles away, and told her where she could claim her body. As Milissa hung up, she relived that Thanksgiving, back in 2011, when she went to get her mother but found an empty motel room. As time passed, she had made sure to keep her same phone number, hoping her mother might call. Anderson's sister also kept her landline long after it was useful. "None of us got a f---ing call," Milissa said. Heidi, Anderson's younger daughter, was only 16 when her mother walked away. She is now married and works in a Colorado retail store but said news of her mother's death, "really opened up some trauma," about the years her mother neglected her and she went to live with her grandparents. She feels her mother robbed her of a normal childhood. She only met her father after finding him on Facebook when she was a teenager. "I'm still kind of jarred why you care so much about my family's situation/background," Heidi texted a reporter, after a phone conversation about her mother. "I know she has passed but it just seems strange for someone to care so much for someone who didn't care for anyone else." - - - Despite their volatile relationship, Milissa also remembered the good days. She was haunted by their final conversation. "I was blaming myself," she said. After her mother was buried, she was stunned to learn from a Washington Post reporter that 10 years ago when she thought her mother had walked out on her, she was actually locked up in jail. Records show that Fort Collins police arrested Anderson on Nov. 24, 2011 - Thanksgiving Day - for violating her probation related to a misdemeanor conviction. A few months before, Anderson, in a delusional state, had attacked Milissa, tried to choke her and bit her on the arm. Milissa was so upset she called the police, who charged her mother with misdemeanor assault. Anderson was sentenced to one year's probation and ordered to stop using alcohol or drugs, including medical marijuana, and to take her prescription medications, according to Larimer County court records. At some point, she violated her probation. The court records do not explain what she did, but drinking alcohol could have triggered her arrest. A police officer picked her up on Thanksgiving Day and she spent the next five nights in jail. When the judge released her, she was ordered her to pay $758 in court costs. She did not have the money, but if she didn't pay, she could be arrested again. So Anderson vanished and wound up in Arizona. Milissa is angry that the police never told her that they had her mother in custody. She now thinks that when her mother disappeared, maybe she was running from the law, not her family. "I understand her actions and motivations a bit more now." But it's too late, she said: "She's gone." - - - Anderson's family felt the health system failed her and her family. They understand the shortage of psychiatrists and therapists and the waiting lists to get into affordable treatment programs. Perhaps if they had more money it would be different, but they felt blocked at every turn, including by privacy laws. "We took a huge bag of pills that she had been taking into the doctor and waited to talk to him, but he would never come out to talk to us," said Anderson's sister, who asked not to be identified by name out of concern she would add to the family's strain. Anderson did not authorize the release of her medical information, so the doctors said they could not talk to them. Anderson's family fed her, helped her find places to stay, tried to get her sober, and more than once drove her to the emergency room in the middle of the night, but felt powerless and cut out of her medical care. "We begged for help," her sister said. Many doctors, too, are frustrated by the mental health care system. They see patients in the emergency room where they can treat them. But when the crisis passes and patient is alert and seems competent, doctors must defer to their wishes - even if that means rejecting further treatment. When Anderson's sister got a letter from Maricopa County, which was trying to find a relative to bury her, she didn't answer. "It wasn't that her family didn't love her. Everybody was shook over this," she said. "We've all helped, we've prayed, we've cried. . . . At some point, you have to wash your hands and live your own life." - - - On April 8, the day Anderson was buried, Opachinski stood in the room he shared with her, looking at her white plastic sunglasses and pink covid-19 mask with rhinestones. Her CDs by Fleetwood Mac and Abba were stacked in shelves and her father's tattered leather bomber jacket hung in the closet. Opachinski opened a folder of papers that offered a glimpse of her life's highs and lows: a W2 tax form showing she earned $10,363.44 from the Standard Insurance Company in 2010, Heidi's birth certificate, unpaid medical bills and her 2011 eviction notice. "People tell me, 'Get rid of this, get rid of that,'" he said. "Why should I? You can't just throw a person away. Every time I look at it, I see her." As he spoke, Opachinski struggled to maintain his train of thought. Over two hours, he broke down and sobbed several times. When Anderson's cat wandered in, he couldn't remember the pet's name. He apologized and blamed "my learning disability." He said Anderson was smart and explained things to him: "I didn't understand stuff, so she would read it to me. She would comfort me." Opachinski said Margie talked about her two daughters. "She loved both of them," he said. But when he offered to help her find their phone numbers, but she said no. "I think she was scared. She didn't know what to do," he said. "I think her mind wasn't really right." Maricopa County officials, after getting no response from Anderson's family, talked to Opachinski when they were trying to find someone to bury her, but realized he was unable to make the arrangements. Holding Margie's red Mickey Mouse watch, Opachinski said she sometimes spoke of dying and of having her ashes spread in Colorado. He asked where her grave was. Told that White Tanks Cemetery was on the other side of Phoenix, 52 miles away, he exclaimed, "Way the hell out there!" He was silent for a few minutes. "I'm trying to figure how to do it. I'd try to take the bus as far as I can, then ride the bicycle, but I'm 71 . . ." His voice trailed off. For a trip like that he would need Margie. - - - Milissa spoke to Maricopa County officials after her mother's death and thought about flying out to claim her body and bury her. But it would have cost thousands of dollars. She was raising two children on her own and though some county aid was available, the bill would be steep. So would the emotional cost. "To be honest, I'm scared," she said. "A little part of me, that little girl part of me, wants to believe that she's still alive." Milissa hopes to visit her mother's grave someday and thinks it might give her some peace. She finds it hard not to be angry at doctors, at police, judges, her mother, herself. Maybe everyone could have done more. Asked about Anderson's burial arrangements, her sister said, "Was it our responsibility? I don't know. Maybe . . . but at the end of the day, I lay my head down knowing I did everything I could. I took her food. I took her into my home. I found her an apartment. I have a clear conscience." While Maricopa County officials spent weeks combing databases, mailing certified letters and making calls in search for someone to bury Anderson, her body lay in a cooler in the medical examiner's office and then at a funeral home. Three months after she died, the Indigent Decedent Services Program paid to have her body cremated. Then on April 8, a county gravedigger opened a trench in the barren cemetery, as he does every Thursday morning for the latest group of people who died and had no one claim their bodies. The brief prayers over, he hopped into the ditch and, one by one, set the 13 identical urns in the ground. Each was stamped with a bar code. Anderson's read 01444816. - - - The Washington Post's Alice Crites contributed to this report. DEL RIO, Texas (AP) The Biden administration plans the widescale expulsion of Haitian migrants from a small Texas border city by putting them on flights to Haiti starting Sunday, an official said Friday, representing a swift and dramatic response to thousands who suddenly crossed the border from Mexico and gathered under and around a bridge. Details are yet to be finalized but will likely involve five to eight flights a day, according to the official with direct knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. San Antonio, the nearest major city, may be among the departure cities. Another administration official speaking on condition of anonymity expected two flights a day at most and said all migrants would be tested for COVID-19. U.S. authorities closed traffic to vehicles and pedestrians in both directions at the only border crossing in Del Rio, Texas, after chaos unfolded Friday and presented the administration with a new and immediate challenge as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching U.S. soil. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was closing the border crossing with Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, to respond to urgent safety and security needs. Travelers were being directed to Eagle Pass, Texas, 57 miles (91 kilometers) away. Haitians crossed the Rio Grande freely and in a steady stream, going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico through knee-deep water, with some parents carrying small children on their shoulders. Unable to buy supplies in the U.S., they returned briefly to Mexico for food and cardboard to settle, temporarily at least, under or near the bridge in Del Rio, a city of 35,000 that has been severely strained by migrant flows in recent months. Migrants pitched tents and built makeshift shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river. The vast majority of the migrants at the bridge on Friday were Haitian, said Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens, who is the county's top elected official and whose jurisdiction includes Del Rio. Some families have been under the bridge for as long as six days. Trash piles were 10 feet (3.1 meters) wide, and at least two women have given birth, including one who tested positive for COVID-19 after being taken to a hospital, Owens said. Val Verde County Sheriff Frank Joe Martinez estimated the crowd at 13,700 and said more Haitians were traveling through Mexico by bus. The flight plan, while potentially massive in scale, hinges on how Haitians respond. They may face a choice: stay put at the risk of being sent back to their impoverished homeland -- wracked by poverty, political instability and a recent earthquake or return to Mexico. Unaccompanied children are exempt from fast-track expulsions. About 500 Haitians were ordered off buses by Mexican immigration authorities in the state of Tamaulipas, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) south of the Texas border, the state government said in a news release Friday. They continued toward the border on foot. Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many of them having left the Caribbean nation after a devastating earthquake in 2010. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle. It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border, including in Tijuana, across from San Diego, to wait while deciding whether to attempt to enter the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. We will address it accordingly, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on MSNBC. An administration official, who was not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the action is not targeting Haitians specifically and does not reflect a policy shift, just a continuation of normal practices. The Federal Aviation Administration, acting on a Border Patrol request, restricted drone flights around the bridge until Sept. 30, generally barring operations at or below 1,000 feet (305 meters) unless for security or law enforcement purposes. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and frequent critic of President Joe Biden, said federal officials told him migrants under the bridge would be moved by the Defense Department to Arizona, California and elsewhere on the Texas border. Some Haitians at the camp have lived in Mexican cities on the U.S. border for some time, moving often between them, while others arrived recently after being stuck near Mexico's southern border with Guatemala, said Nicole Phillips, the legal director for advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance. A sense of desperation spread after the Biden administration ended its practice of admitting asylum-seeking migrants daily who were deemed especially vulnerable. People are panicking on how they seek refuge, Phillips said. Edgar Rodriguez, lawyer for the Casa del Migrante migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, north of Del Rio, noticed an increase of Haitians in the area two or three weeks ago and believes that misinformation may have played a part. Migrants often make decisions on false rumors that policies are about to change and that enforcement policies vary by city. U.S. authorities are being severely tested after Biden quickly dismantled Trump administration policies that Biden considered cruel or inhumane, most notably one requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for U.S. immigration court hearings. Such migrants have been exposed to extreme violence in Mexico and faced extraordinary difficulty in finding attorneys. The U.S Supreme Court last month let stand a judge's order to reinstate the policy, though Mexico must agree to its terms. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that discussions with the Mexican government were ongoing. A pandemic-related order to immediately expel migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum that was introduced in March 2020 remains in effect, but unaccompanied children and many families have been exempt. During his first month in office, Biden chose to exempt children traveling alone on humanitarian grounds. The U.S. government has been unable to expel many Central American families because Mexican authorities have largely refused to accept them in the state of Tamaulipas, which is across from Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. On Friday, the administration said it would appeal a judge's ruling a day earlier that blocked it from applying Title 42, as the pandemic-related authority is known, to any families. Mexico has agreed to take expelled families only from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, creating an opening for Haitians and other nationalities because the U.S. lacks the resources to detain and quickly expel them on flights to their homelands. In August, U.S. authorities stopped migrants nearly 209,000 times at the border, which was close to a 20-year high even though many of the stops involved repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for being expelled under Title 42 authority. People crossing in families were stopped 86,487 times in August, but fewer than one out of every five of those encounters resulted in expulsion under Title 42. The rest were processed under immigration laws, which typically means they were released with a court date or a notice to report to immigration authorities. U.S. authorities stopped Haitians 7,580 times in August, a figure that has increased every month since August 2020, when they stopped only 55. There have also been major increases of Ecuadorians, Venezuelans and other nationalities outside the traditional sending countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. ___ Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Ben Fox, Alexandra Jaffe and Colleen Long in Washington, Paul Weber in Austin, David Koenig in Dallas and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report. Thousands of students have requested to go mask-free in Pennsylvania schools, claiming a medical exemption amid fierce local opposition to the state's new face-covering mandate. The order, which went into effect Sept. 7 and applies to all K-12 schools and child care facilities in Pennsylvania, requires students, staff and visitors to wear masks inside school buildings, regardless of vaccination status. But an apparent loophole has made it easier for parents in some districts to request medical exemptions for their children. Those districts are using exemption forms that require nothing more than a parents signature. State officials are pushing back, but its not clear how far they will go to get districts to enforce the masking requirement more stringently. At least two lawsuits are seeking to get the mandate overturned. In a Sept. 10 communication to all 500 Pennsylvania school districts, the Education Department asserted that any school entity simply permitting a parents sign-off without evidence that the student has a medical or mental health condition ... is not in compliance with the order. It said districts should determine eligibility in accordance with federal disability laws, and request medical documentation as they normally would. Some school district officials counter that if the Wolf administration had wanted to require a doctors endorsement, it should have done so in the masking order itself. Richard Mextorf, superintendent of the Hamburg Area School District, said the state put local officials in a bind by abruptly reversing course on masking, promising local control before issuing a statewide mandate after many schools were already back in session. It's pretty difficult when a school board says, We're going to make masks optional for kids,' and then school starts and then the mandate comes. I think it would have been a lot cleaner if we had a mandate before school started," he said. All of the sudden it changed, and I think it just made people angry. ... I think it's been handled about as backwards as it can possibly be handled." Hamburg's board opted to let parents sign off on masking exemptions without a doctor's note, and 674 students, about 30% of the population, have requested them, according to the superintendent. Elsewhere, the percentage of students seeking exemptions are lower. Central Bucks School District outside Philadelphia one of the states largest said it has received more than 1,100 exemption requests, representing more than 5% of the student population. A spokesperson said Friday that each of those students will have to be evaluated for a disability before an exemption is approved. In the Quakertown Community School District, also in the Philadelphia area, 330 students, or 7% of the student body, have requested exemptions, which were granted so long as the form was properly completed and turned in, a spokesperson said. In Blue Mountain School District, which neighbors Hamburg, 159 students, or more than 6% of the student body, have sought permission to go mask-free, the district said. Some districts that had previously accepted a parents signature as proof of medical necessity will no longer do so as result of the Education Departments Sept. 10 warning. Laurel School District, in Lawrence County, said that students who were previously granted an exemption would have to secure a doctors excuse or start wearing a mask on Oct. 1. The state has now upped the ante, if you will, Laurels superintendent, Leonard Rich, said in a video message to parents and students. This is why were doing what were doing. Timothy Gilsbach, solicitor for several school districts in the Philadelphia area, said that while the masking order does not explicitly require a doctor's note, it uses a legal term reasonable accommodations that indicates the state expects districts to carefully evaluate all such requests, and not grant exemptions on a parent's say-so. That phrase keys us into the idea that there's a conversation to be had. That's not just someone saying, I need it,'" he said. I think part of the real struggle for school districts is that a lot of kids asking for exemptions wore masks without any issue last year. Some parents who oppose masks contend they make it hard for their children to breathe and are tantamount to child abuse. Since Sept. 1, the state's ChildLine child abuse reporting hotline has received about 50 reports concerning masks in schools. There are about 1.7 million public school students in Pennsylvania. This shows that only an extremely tiny number of people would incorrectly equate wearing a mask to child abuse, said Ali Fogarty, spokesperson for the state Department of Human Services. Likening this life-saving measure to child abuse is a disrespectful misrepresentation of a separate, serious issue and can tie up already limited resources. Dozens of Pennsylvania organizations including those in pediatrics, public health and child abuse prevention and treatment likewise issued a rebuttal to the child-abuse claim on Friday. Such claims brazenly diminish the harsh reality of child abuse and demonstrate a callous disregard for the lifelong physical, emotional and economic impact of child abuse, said the statement, released by the Center for Childrens Justice in Bernville. In point of fact, there is NO similarity between face coverings and actions that interfere with a childs airway. There is no scientific evidence to show that masks are harmful to childrens health. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has said a universal, statewide order was necessary after most Pennsylvania school districts did not impose their own mask mandates and the delta variant of the coronavirus caused a statewide surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Far more school-age children in Pennsylvania are testing positive for the virus now. The state Health Department reported more than 7,200 infections in children aged 5 to 18 over the past week more than 11 times the number testing positive in the same period a year ago. SPRINGFIELD, Vt. (AP) Vermont is going to spend $25 million in state funds to help redevelop old industrial sites in the state. Historically, the costs of cleaning up former industrial sites that may be contaminated from previous industrial or commercial activities, known as brownfields, have been funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Vermont officials traveled Thursday to Springfield where they highlighted that some of the state funds will be used to help redevelop the 270,000-square-foot (25,084-square-meter) former Jones & Lamson Machine Co. building that once employed 1,500 factory workers. Other sites that will be redeveloped with some of the money are in St. Albans and Burlington. Its an understatement to say this is just another brownfield site," said Bob Flint, the executive director of the Springfield Regional Development Corp., which owns the 14-acre property. "This beats them all. The projects were announced by Gov. Phil Scott. This presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address longtime challenges and finally make good on the promise to increase economic equity from region to region and bring growth to all areas of the state, not just Chittenden County, Scott said. The Valley News reports that over the years nearly $2.5 million, including $1.2 million from the U.S. Environmental Agency has already been spent on assessments and preliminary cleaning of the site, which is contaminated with a host of toxic industrial chemicals. The $3.7 million in state funding destined for Springfield will go to the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, which is contracting with a Massachusetts company to demolish and clean up the site. Two portions of the building will remain. Flint said the long-term plan is to return the site to its commercial roots. It wont be residential, and the use will be something that is job-producing and will have a positive economic impact, Flint said. It wont be a warehouse with two people working there or minimum-wage jobs. VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) A judge has sentenced a Virginia teenager to 17 years in prison after his guilty plea earlier in the year to second-degree murder in a fatal shooting outside a restaurant. Cameron Barclift, 18, was identified by witnesses and arrested just moments after the shooting in May 2019 near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reported. Barclift was hanging out with friends and smoking marijuana in the parking lot when a number of restaurant workers walked out and got into a truck. HOUSTON - Up the silver escalators they went, in their MAGA hats and tank tops and College-Republican blue blazers and death-metal merch and "Socialism Distancing" tees and, in one case, a tie-dyed sweatshirt that read "Virginity Rocks." There were roughly 2,000 of them, ages 14 to 24, mostly - though not exclusively - White, roaming the carpeted ballrooms of this Houston hotel, for a right-wing youth summit hosted by Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. They wore punchy, adolescent politics on their sleeves and excited, nervous grins on their faces. They did not wear masks. They were here to laugh: "It's a war," YouTube comedian J.P. Sears would say onstage, "don't you want to be on a side with all the guns?" They were here to learn: Ben Shapiro would give them tips on how to destroy their liberal classmates in debates. They were here to shout guttural sounds with motivational speaker Tony Robbins (whose introduction video included clips of him helping Oprah walk on burning coals but neglected to mention a BuzzFeed News investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct; Robbins has vehemently denied wrongdoing and sued BuzzFeed over its reporting). And they were here to queue up to shake hands and take pictures with Crenshaw, the eyepatch-wearing Navy SEAL turned congressman who many believe could be the future of a Republican Party that remains (in theory) undecided about whether to move on to its next leaders or reboot the Trump Show. "Trump is not a God," said conservative commentator David Rubin, mingling with the crowd. "Politics has to be bigger than one specific person." And so, here came a parade of other specific people. People such as occasional Trump critic Shapiro, former Fox News personality Megyn Kelly, the psychologist and self-help author Jordan B. Peterson (via video), and a slate of speakers that did not include Trump or anyone in his family. One thing most, if not all, of those in attendance seemed to agree on: President Joe Biden is dead-wrong to be ordering vaccine and testing requirements for businesses with more than 100 employees as the delta variant drives surges in hospitalization and death in many Republican-dominated states, including Texas. "I'm very, very pro-vaccine, but I'm also more pro-freedom," Shapiro told an electrified crowd, announcing his media company, the Daily Wire, was gearing up for a legal battle with the federal government over the new requirements. "Who loves breathing sweet, delicious, free air, maskless?" shouted Benny Johnson, a Trump-loving meme-maker for Turning Point USA. Harris County, where Crenshaw and company had convened the conspicuously maskless confab, had seen an average of more than 2,000 cases the previous week, prompting officials to urge unvaccinated people to stay home as much as possible. At this very hotel in downtown Houston, dozens of traveling nurses from all over the country had flown in and were using the lobby downstairs as a staging ground; jumping on buses and being brought to hospitals in the area that were dealing with covid-related shortages. "It's pathetic," said a nurse who had flown in from Boston and spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized by her employer to speak to the media. "They are complaining about having their freedoms taken away. But the people in that room clearly don't know real suffering." Among the conference-goers, most of whom didn't notice the nurses going down the same escalators that brought them to the ballroom, the grave admonitions of public health authorities were ripe for the mocking. "This room is absolutely jam-packed!" Rubin shouted over a Blink-182 cover band during the conference's opening night, on Sept. 11. "And I'm fairly certain no one is going to die here!" Rubin explained that he was sick of being surrounded by terrified, masked-up liberals in Los Angeles, where the only socializing he could do were the events he hosted in secret in his house. But the Houston conference was more than a chance to breathe the sweet, carpet-shampoo aromas of a hotel ballroom without a face covering; it was an opportunity to start working out what exactly the conservative movement stood for beyond fealty to the ex-president. Enter Dan Crenshaw. "I'm trying not to shake," a teenage boy whispered to his friend, when the Texas congressman first appeared on the opening night, striding through the ballroom to take photos with adoring fans. With more than a million Twitter followers, Crenshaw has been described by his fans as an antidote to "the Squad" - the conclave of young liberal putatively led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. - someone who makes politics relatable and understandable to a next generation of potential voters. But it's not just his Twitter game that gets people excited. Crenshaw is a genuine war hero, a Navy SEAL who lost his right eye to an improvised explosive device during his third deployment to Afghanistan. The eye patch Crenshaw now wears only enhances the idea that he's a cartoon supersoldier, almost like the "Rambo Trump" meme come to life. "I love Trump, love, love Trump," said Zerah Steltzer, 20, of Oregon. "But I think he's getting too old, and it's time for someone fresh in there." "If Crenshaw were to run for president," said Esteven Lopez, 17, of Texas. "I'd have a hard time deciding between him and Trump." The two-term congressman is both Trumpy and not. He criticized Trump before he was elected but voted against both impeachments. He spoke at the 2020 convention, but made waves by not mentioning Trump's name once. In December, after Trump lost, Crenshaw was one of 126 Republicans who signed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit that aimed to delay certification of presidential election results in certain, strategically important states that President Joe Biden won - tantamount to co-signing Trump's false narrative that Democrats had cheated. (The U.S. Supreme Court snuffed out that legal challenge.) However, when 147 Republican members of Congress later voted against certifying Biden's win, Crenshaw was not one of them. Recently, the Texas congressman was overheard at a fundraiser telling the audience to "not kid yourself" into thinking that election fraud was why Trump lost the election. Naturally, a Republican who refuses to be completely loyal to the party's loyalty-obsessed leader is bound to face some blowback. When the speaker list for this youth conference became public, for example, the website Big League Politics, a far-right, conspiracy theory-loving website, accused the congressman of hosting a "Never Trumper" RINO (Republican in Name Only) fest. "I dismiss these people," Crenshaw said of such critics. "And I think they're stupid." His conference was not anti-Trump, but unlike the worshipful right-wing youth bonanzas held by Turning Point USA, it was not exactly a Trump rally, either. His name was hardly mentioned. "They want to make the party all about Donald Trump," Crenshaw said of the political left - and of some members of his own party - in an interview. "This summit is a reminder of what conservatism is, because it's not anti- or pro- anyone." On the first full day of the conference, conservatism appeared to be, at the very least, pro-lasers and pro-fog machines. There was a screening of a mini-movie about Crenshaw escaping from antifa kidnappers and parachuting to the roof of the Hilton hotel, before rappelling down from the rafters and appearing onstage in camo pants and a tight black shirt. "I went to St. Petersburg once," Crenshaw told Kelly during one session. "The Putin fan base is very interesting. There's, like, mugs with him in sunglasses and helicopters and fire behind him." "They like a strong man," Kelly said. "They don't want this whole Brooklyn, pumpkin-spice latte-drinking man that they are creating here. I don't want that either." The merchandise store didn't feature mugs of Crenshaw with sunglasses, but it did feature mugs of him with a Texas-flag eye patch and shirts featuring the congressman decked out in full combat fatigues, clutching a gun and smoking a cigar. But these visions of Crenshaw as the last action hero belie the fact that he is, in many ways, a traditional Republican politician - one who thinks how right-wing populism is not always great, and that maybe maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan is actually a good idea, and that "being nice" is an important skill to cultivate. "I really like Crenshaw's mentality, his morals, and I love the eye patch," said Pete Empey, a 19-year-old from Seattle. "Honestly, I think everyone here is just figuring out their stuff. We're still developing as humans." Last year, while the Trump White House was busy downplaying the pandemic, Crenshaw canceled his youth summer conference out of an "abundance of caution." This year, deciding they weren't "going to live in fear forever," he declined to cancel, despite the delta surge. "If you're of student age and you're unvaccinated, you are still better off than a vaccinated adult," Crenshaw told The Washington Post after the conference ended. "I follow the science, unlike everybody else, when it comes to covid fear porn." By Monday morning the kids had left, taking with them all they had taken in at the conference: talking points, punchlines, long-distance friendships and a reinforced understanding of their role in the fight for America's future. Back at the hotel, the nurses descended the escalators and jumped on buses bound for area hospitals. GENEVA (AP) The United Nations' health agency, which has repeatedly urged the world to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and other illnesses, on Friday declined to say how many of its own staffers have followed that advice. We wont have that because its confidential, said Dr. Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokeswoman. Referring to United Nations personnel, U.N. Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said: We dont disclose this kind of information. Its something that is said to the medical service. So, no, unfortunately, we wont be able to give you these numbers. Vellucci said she would look into whether percentages of U.N. staff that had been vaccinated could be provided. In November, the WHO indicated 65 of its staffers had tested positive for COVID-19 at the time, confirming information in an internal e-mail obtained by The Associated Press. The U.N. office in Geneva has often indicated how many of its staff tested positive. Governments list how many people are vaccinated against the coronavirus, and the WHO compiles the information and reports on it. Some countries and companies require vaccines for their workers to go to their jobs. The refusal to provide vaccination figures by the WHO and the U.N. itself point to legal strictures that many organizations face about privacy, particularly in Europe. The U.N. and the WHO have repeatedly trumpeted vaccination as part of an array of measures like mask-wearing, proper hygiene, and physical distancing needed to help try to beat the pandemic. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said hes been vaccinated, and he has encouraged others to do so too. His agency and many health authorities worldwide have struggled to beat back a wave of anti-vaccine sentiment in many places. WASHINGTON - Who in the federal government should police data abuses by tech companies - and how do you make sure they aren't hopelessly outgunned against the vast resources of Silicon Valley? Those questions have puzzled lawmakers on Capitol Hill for years. A bipartisan cast of lawmakers have long called on Congress to supercharge existing agencies with an influx of cash, while some Democrats have pushed for the creation of a new digitally focused regulator altogether. But House Democrats this week took a major step toward uniting on an answer by pushing for the nation's current top data privacy watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission, to get a huge funding boost. To that end, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday advanced a proposal to create a new privacy bureau at the FTC and set aside $1 billion for the initiative - a roughly 30% increase to the agency's total projected funding over the next decade. The measure is slated to be folded into Democrats' $3.5 trillion economic package. It's a compromise for Democratic leaders, who have offered up competing visions for how the government should bolster its enforcement against privacy abuses, with some arguing no amount of funding is enough to reinforce the FTC. The most notable alternative is to create an entirely new regulatory agency that could police privacy issues and potentially even online competition, as proposed by prominent Democrats such as Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., privacy advocates and former regulators. The idea has been sternly rebuffed by Republican leaders, who are wary of government overreach and creating new federal bureaucracies. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the top Republican on House Energy and Commerce, in 2019 said that while she is "committed to strengthening the FTC . . . a new federal agency is unnecessary." On the competition front, some Republicans have gone even farther, suggesting the FTC should relinquish control of antitrust oversight to the Justice Department to streamline the process. That opposition has effectively sealed the fate of proposals to create a new regulator, which would likely need bipartisan support to be signed into law. At Tuesday's House markup, one of the Democrats leading the push for a new agency got behind the idea of expanding the FTC's privacy enforcement, at least for now. A new bureau is "short of an independent agency, but I think it's a big step in the right direction," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who introduced legislation in 2019 to create a new regulator. At the session, lawmakers lamented that, beyond lacking will, the FTC has lacked the resources and staffing to effectively oversee the conduct of the tech sector's trillion-dollar behemoths. That's long been a knock on the FTC's track record policing the tech sector, from both Democrats and Republicans. While the proposed funding boost may not even the odds entirely, Democrats are largely aligned behind the idea that any added firepower for regulators is a positive step. "While I certainly feel we need a focused and specialized agency to oversee the digital platforms, a new digital division at the FTC is a good first start in that it recognizes Congress is looking for solutions to the well-identified problems of the digital platforms," former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler told The Technology 202. Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the privacy advocacy group EPIC, said the proposal would not only allow the agency to build up its staffing capacity and to retain more talent, such as technologists, but it would send "a really clear signal from Congress that they want the FTC to be more active on privacy." If the proposal advances out of the full House unscathed, it'll face its next big test in the Senate, where centrist Democrats are already balking at the size of the reconciliation package and hoping for significant cuts. That could put the privacy language at risk. "I imagine it will stay intact," Fitzgerald said. But she cautioned, "Like every other budget item . . . if things need to get cut, it'll be one of the pieces that gets looked at." And don't expect privacy-minded Republicans to rally around that part of Democrats' massive economic package. "The $1 billion promised in the Democrat spending bill is more than the current budgets of FTC and FCC combined," said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. "Until Congress completes our work creating a national consumer privacy law, this spending puts the cart before the horse." The Federal Trade Commission announced that Big Tech has made hundreds of small acquisitions in the past decade that weren't subject to review by federal regulators, Protocol's Ben Brody reports. The findings from the FTC's new report on the subject, which studied Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft, could increase regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech's smaller acquisitions. The report "captures the extent to which these firms have devoted tremendous resources to acquiring start-ups, patent portfolios and entire teams of technologists, and how they were able to do so largely outside of the purview of the antitrust agencies," said Big Tech critic and FTC Chair Lina Khan, who recommended looking at the FTC's thresholds for disclosing acquisitions. The company pays teams to study its underbelly "only to ignore, downplay, and suppress the results of their research when it proves awkward or troubling," Will Oremus writes. At least part of the reason for turning its back on the research is Facebook's culture and organizational structure. The result is bad press when news organizations like the Wall Street Journal reveal that Facebook suppresses inconvenient internal research. "I keep talking about how organizational design is a huge problem at Facebook," former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos tweeted Wednesday, after the Wall Street Journal published the third report in a series on Facebook. "In these cases, the unified product policy/government affairs structure and the isolation of people who care in dedicated integrity teams are the problem. And Zuck," he wrote, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for the moratorium but stopped short of saying an outright ban on facial recognition technology is necessary, Sammy Westfall reports. Bachelet's call came as the U.N. Human Rights Council published a report on the human rights risks of AI such as profiling. The consequences of the unfettered spread of AI technology, Bachelet said, would be "catastrophic." Critics say artificial intelligence systems can perpetuate racism and discrimination by using biased data sets. They can also increase police profiling of minorities. "We cannot afford to continue playing catch-up regarding AI - allowing its use with limited or no boundaries or oversight, and dealing with the almost inevitable human rights consequences after the fact," Bachelet said. COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) A federal judge who sentenced a California architect on Friday to probation for her role in the Capitol riot stressed that the Jan. 6 insurrection represented a threat to democracy" and continues to resonate in sad and unfortunate ways. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman noted that security fencing has gone up around the Capitol in preparation for a rally on Saturday by what he called misguided people protesting what they allege is the mistreatment of jailed insurrectionists who tried to stop the certification of former President Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden. Friedman sentenced Valerie Elaine Ehrke to three years of probation and ordered her to perform 120 hours of community service. Justice Department prosecutors said they recommended a probationary sentence for Ehrke because she was inside the Capitol for about one minute, only stepped about 15 feet into the building and didnt engage in any violence or property destruction. Friedman said Ehrkes role in the insurrection was about as minimal as it gets. More than 600 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Ehrke is one of about 70 defendants who have pleaded guilty to riot-related charges. Friedman noted that some believe the jailed insurrectionists are patriots. And some of them may be on some level. But on another level, the conduct they engaged in in order to pursue their beliefs is not First Amendment speech and not First Amendment legitimate protest, Friedman said. What came to be was a riot, was an incitement, was an insurrection. He echoed another judges position that probation shouldnt be the automatic outcome for misdemeanor convictions like Ehrkes. Everybody who stormed the Capitol represented a threat to democracy, to our democratic norms, and continue to resonate in sad and unfortunate ways, Friedman said. Ehrke is the seventh Capitol riot defendant to be sentenced. She pleaded guilty on June 30 to illegally parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Over 40 other Capitol riot defendants have pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor offense, which carries a maximum sentence of 6 months imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. Ehrke told the judge that the Jan. 6 riot was such a unique situation. I did not have the depth of experience to understand that I needed to get out of there or stay away, she said. In a letter submitted to the court before her sentencing, Ehrke called herself a fine member of society who often picks up trash in her neighborhood and has worked on architectural projects in her community free of charge. I am a small town girl who loves my town, my state and my country, she wrote. Prosecutors asked Friedman to sentence Ehrke to three years of probation and 40 hours of community service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Birney said Ehrke was among the first Capitol riot defendants to agree to plead guilty. The government places a lot of weight on that, he added. Ehrke traveled to Washington, D.C., from her home in Arbuckle, California, on Jan. 5 to attend Trump's speech on the following day. After hearing the speech, she initially returned to her hotel room. However, when she saw a news story about how people were going to the U.S. Capitol, she decided she wanted to be part of the crowd, prosecutors wrote in a court filing. Ehrke recorded and uploaded videos to Facebook as she walked to the Capitol, including one with a caption that said she was heading to the "breached" building. Ehrke would have heard an alarm sounding throughout the Capitol when she entered. She was stopped at the back of a crowd of people when police started pushing them back through a hallway and out of the building through a door. We made it inside, right before they shoved us all out. I took off when I felt pepper spray in my throat! Lol, Ehrke posted on Facebook. The picture for Ehrke's Facebook profile was a flaming Q, an apparent reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Many QAnon followers believe Trump was fighting a secret campaign against a Satan-worshipping cabal of deep state enemies, prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites operating a child sex-trafficking ring. The riot disrupted the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count. More than 100 law enforcement officers were injured during the mob's attack, which also caused more than $1 million in property damage. U.S. Rep. August Pfluger held a Second Amendment rights rally at Ally Outdoors in Midland on Thursday with fellow freshman Congressional member Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Pfluger said in an interview that he wanted to host a rally with Boebert because shes a gun-rights activist and theyve both signed on to pieces of legislation regarding Second Amendment rights. Shes a champion for that issue and I want to make sure that people here in Midland, Texas, and all throughout Texas know theres many people fighting these battles, that were doing it together as a team, and that were going to protect that right for all Americans, he said. The congressman pointed to President Joe Bidens nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as evidence of the administrations intention to limit the Second Amendment. Biden had nominated David Chipman, a senior policy advisor for the gun control group Giffords. The White House withdrew Chipman from consideration last week. Pfluger also said Democrats are introducing legislation every single day to limit gun rights, such as House Resolution 5717, which would raise taxes on firearms to 30 percent, among other things. That bill has not moved forward since it was introduced in January 2020. Enough is enough, Pfluger said. This is a constitutional right and were going to continue to fight a war. Boebert, who owns a restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, called Shooters Grill where staff open carry, touched on several other topics during the rally besides gun rights. She criticized Bidens tyrannical authoritarian regime, his policies on immigration and Afghanistan and his administrations decision to put fences around the U.S. Capitol building, which Boebert called the Peoples House. There are so many issues that come up even in a Second Amendment rally because that is what the Second Amendment protects, Boebert said in an interview. It protects us against all of this tyranny, all of this authoritarianism that we are seeing right now in America. If we want the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, we have to make sure we have a way to secure that, she said. Boebert also told the crowd of about 100 people that shed drafted Articles of Impeachment for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and she intends to introduce those on the House floor when Congress is back in session. She declined in an interview to say what offenses she would be accusing Biden and Harris of but said dereliction of duty would be one of the articles. Pfluger said he was waiting for investigations to be finished and evidence to be presented before he decides if he will vote for impeachment. Unlike Democrats, we take [impeachment] very serious, he said. This is the most important thing that somebody in Congress, elected by the people can do. Were gathering evidence right now. There will be accountability. DEL RIO Five days after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated by a group of foreign mercenaries on July 7, 29-year-old Stelin Jean decided to flee the country with his wife and two children traveling to Bolivia, where many Haitians have arrived recently before starting an arduous overland trek to the United States. The family was in Panama last month when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, destroying thousands of homes and killing more than 2,000 people. Jean said some of his family members were injured in the earthquake, which only increased their sense of urgency to make it to the United States. Theres people killing each other in Haiti, theres just no justice, said Jean, who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday afternoon after a two-month trek through the jungles of South America and then crossed the Rio Grande at Del Rio to claim asylum. I just want to live a calm life without any problems, I want to live somewhere where I know theres justice. The family has joined an estimated 12,000 migrants who in recent days have arrived at the border and are now waiting under the Del Rio international bridge, about 150 miles west of San Antonio, to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Most are from Haiti and are seeking asylum in the U.S. On Friday, Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano declared a local state of disaster and said the city is closing the toll booths on the international bridge connecting the city to Ciudad Acuna to halt traffic across the bridge, as a security measure. Lozano said he has requested assistance from the state to help deter more migrants from entering the city. He said the city expects an additional 8,000 migrants to arrive in the coming days. The sheer numbers arriving so quickly in Del Rio, a city of about 35,000 residents, has local officials worrying about how to feed and house thousands of migrants who for now are being forced to wait in the shade of the bridge. Dire circumstances require dire responses, Lozano said. Theres people having babies down there [under the bridge], theres people collapsing out of the heat. Theyre pretty aggressive, rightly so theyve been in the heat day after day after day. Many of the migrants in Del Rio said they began their journey years ago, fleeing Haiti after previous disasters such as the devastating 2010 earthquake. Junior Pacheco, 38, said he left Haiti for Chile, where he lived for five years before he made his way to the Texas-Mexico border in August. He said that after arriving in Mexico, police asked for his passport as he was exiting a charter bus and never returned it. Theres a lot of abuse on the way here. From people to the police, they steal our money, our passports. Theres some people who get stranded on the way, he said in a phone interview from Ciudad Acuna, where he was buying food, water and a tent so his family could have somewhere to sleep. Things are calm right now, we just wanted to get here, he said. Were not afraid anymore. Migrants who fled to South America say the trek north was treacherous, with criminals and vendors taking advantage of vulnerable migrants. Videos shared widely on social media in recent weeks show the Mexican military using force as they attempted to stop Haitians from crossing the countrys border with Guatemala. On Thursday, hundreds of migrants waded across the Rio Grande between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, carrying children on their shoulders, carrying water bottles over their heads and gathering cardboard to sleep on. Eduardo Vargas, 27, said he arrived in Del Rio from his native Chile on Tuesday with his 8-month-old daughter and his wife to make an asylum claim. He said he left Chile because he couldnt find work to support his family. Like the others waiting under the bridge, he said he received a ticket from U.S. officials and is waiting for his number to be called so he can request asylum. He said in the time his family has been in Del Rio, he and other migrants have routinely crossed the shallow Rio Grande to buy food and water in Ciudad Acuna. Theyve been sleeping on the ground under the bridge and bathing and washing their clothes in the river, he said. We want to leave here, he said. We dont have a lot of money to buy food, and were not eating well or drinking a lot of water. Were hungry. Tomas Jean, 49, left his wife and son in Haiti, and if he is able to start a new life in the U.S., he said he plans to bring his family. He said he left because of the political turmoil in Haiti. In Haiti theres a lot of problems, thats why a lot of Haitians are leaving because they're looking for a better life, he said. He said he started his trip with money, legal papers and other personal belongings. By the time he arrived in Del Rio, he said, he only had his passport and enough money to buy deodorant in Ciudad Acuna, where he was also scavenging for cardboard. There was a lot of problems coming through South America, there were criminals, the police and immigration, he said. Robbers demanded my money and took a lot of my paperwork, too. Tiffany Burrow, operations director of the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition respite center, said once the thousands of migrants waiting under the bridge are released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the coalition wont have the space or resources to help them all. Simple things, like juice boxes, weve run out of, but there will be community people who will ask what we need and well be able to [get more], she said. But can we get 10,000? Probably not. Jordan Vonderhaar contributed to this story. The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. A coalition of zoos and wildlife scientists recently released 204-captive raised Texas horned lizard hatchlings into the wild, marking a milestone in an attempt to save the species. The Texas horned lizard is one of more than 1,300 species of concern throughout the state, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The latest release was done after evidence showed that that previously released lizards are now reproducing. We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form The healthcare industry in the US is a $3 trillion market, and despite Big Tech companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook trying to take over various aspects of it for years, they've failed miserably. The reason? Without a complete understanding of the operating model, healthcare can't be disrupted by technologists, specifically on the health system side. The new CEO of Cerner, David Feinberg, came from Google and oversaw Google Health. According to Business Insider, a letter stated that the Google Health division was disbanding. The employees are transitioning to different parts of the company. Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly scaling back its HealthHabit app to focus on Apple Watch development. This is a significant health initiative developed inside of Apple's clinics. Employees used the software to track fitness objectives, control high blood pressure, and communicate with doctors via the internet. There were hints that HealthHabit's early success in a small trial with 500 patients showed that more than 91% of patients lowered their blood pressure through lifestyle treatment. What should Big Tech do to crack healthcare? Open the wallet Technologists cannot disrupt healthcare without a complete understanding of the operating model, specifically on the health system side. Big Tech companies must look past the partnership model. They must buy a few hospitals to get further involved with understanding healthcare operations. This is an alternative approach for companies like Google and Apple to tackle their healthcare strategy. How cool would it be to be an Apple hospital if your parent company is Apple? Apple and Google have the resources to buy a few distressed hospitals. Do you think Big Tech will continue its disappointing run into healthcare, or will it finally get involved with purchasing a facility? Tackle a specific segment Let's use Apple in this use case, Apple has a clear opportunity on the messaging platform, and this platform can be vital for clinical communications. I have always said that if Apple decides to make iMessage HIPAA compliant, it will instantly pick up market share for secure texting. Let's take the Apple ecosystem a step further with Facetime. Facetime can be used for virtual care in tandem with iMessage, making it a strong player in clinical communication. Creating a health cloud is not a solution Many different healthcare interoperability clouds are on the market offered by every Big Tech vendor right now. Which one should you choose? The answer is not so easy, because each company promises to be better than the next. Some offer pipelines for information management, and others focus on digital imaging communications in medicine (DICOM). This approach is complicated because of one reason: You need to establish trust with the health system to capture all of the data for insight. Many organizations are still hesitant with this approach, unfortunately. Co-creation is the way of the future Healthcare institutions must think creatively with new affiliations and partnership models to meet the current evolving market environment's strategic needs and financial demands. I recommend the co-creation framework outlined below. Big Tech and hospitals must align on the joint model. This allows a vendor the ability to test its solution in an operational organization with live patients. The hospital can focus on the core mission of patient care while benefiting from a customized solution tailored for its operating model. Investments of either time or money by both the vendor and hospital are crucial for success. Co-creation means sharing and opening up. Focus on determining the intellectual property management structure upfront and accelerate the discussion until reaching an agreement. The value-creation model must focus on the outcome of the solution and the impact that the potential effect may have on the industry. While the IP discussion is just one major topic, it can potentially become a great asset for both parties. Once you have determined the IP, keep an open mind and view the venture as a partnership in which both parties address their weaknesses by combining their strengths. What's next Big Tech must understand that healthcare is complicated. The industry needs innovative ideas, but many fresh ideas die out because they're unproven and have limited value. On the other hand, there may be a tremendous creative notion that delivers benefits to patients and hospitals, but the political bureaucracy slows the process down, and the idea fizzles out as a result. Healthcare organizations must figure out the best way to fast-track their ideas from concept to product. Big Tech can help, but only if they invest in the right operating model. Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access The union behind the Fight for $15 movement is suing to overturn a Trump-era rule that makes it harder to hold companies like McDonalds Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. accountable for violations of franchised or sub-contracted workers rights. In a lawsuit filed Friday in Washington D.C. federal court, the Service Employees International Union challenged the legality of a 2020 National Labor Relations Board regulation that narrowed the definition of a joint employer. The designation refers to a company with enough control over workers to be liable if theyre mistreated and obligated to negotiate with them if they unionize, even though the individuals get their paychecks from a different company. Joint employer liability has been one of the most controversial and closely watched issues facing the labor agency in recent years, as major companies have increasingly been relying on workers officially hired by someone else, like the temps, vendors and contractors who in 2018 became the majority of Alphabet Inc.s global workforce. The standard had become more worker-friendly under the Obama administration, when Democratic labor board appointees established a broader definition of joint employer. Under President Donald Trump, Republicans worked to reverse the precedent, initially with a ruling that was invalidated over an ethics violation and later via regulatory rule-making authority. The labor boards Republican majority said last year that having control over workers doesnt make a company a joint employer unless it meets narrower criteria, such as setting their specific pay rates. In its federal court complaint, the SEIU said that regulation is arbitrary and capricious, disregards the significance of corporations control over safety conditions, and is inconsistent with the National Labor Relations Act, which the labor board exists to enforce. The final rule betrays the acts fundamental promise by empowering large, highly organized employers to hold control over workers and extract the maximum amount of profit from their labor while unilaterally opting out of the legal duty to negotiate over working conditions, the union said in the filing. In an emailed statement, the union, which has tried to win higher pay and unionization for fast food workers through the Fight for $15 campaign, cited the need for essential workers who labored through the Covid-19 pandemic to be able to negotiate over safety issues. Speaking Out When I put on a McDonalds uniform, it means Im working for McDonalds, period, Delia Vargas, an employee at a franchised McDonalds restaurant in Oakland, California, said in the statement. We know McDonalds is our boss, and well keep speaking out and fighting for a voice on the job until they take responsibility for keeping us safe. A representative for McDonalds didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the labor relations board didnt immediately provide comment. The agency last month became controlled by Democrats again, following confirmation of President Joe Bidens nominees. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) More firefighting resources were being brought in Thursday to battle two forest fires that have shut down Californias Sequoia National Park and threaten its ancient trees. A national interagency management team equipped to handle the largest and highest-complexity emergency situations was scheduled to take command of the firefighting effort, according to a statement from Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. The Colony and Paradise fires named for the areas where they started were ignited by lightning strikes last week and on Wednesday covered about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) in Californias rugged Sierra Nevada. The Colony Fire as of Wednesday was about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Giant Forest, a grove of about 2,000 sequoias, according to Mark Ruggiero, fire information officer for the two national parks. Ground crew access to the Colony Fire was limited and the extreme steepness of the Paradise Fire terrain prevented any ground access, requiring extensive aerial water and retardant drops on both fires. The two fires were being managed collectively as the KNP Complex. The fires are among the latest in a long summer of blazes that have scorched more than 3,500 square miles (9,065 square kilometers) in California, destroying hundreds of homes. Sequoia National Park has been closed and its headquarters and resident employees have been evacuated, along with a portion of the community of Three Rivers outside the entrance. The parks historic wooden entrance sign dating to 1935 was covered in fire-resistant wrapping, and hoses were in place at the headquarters area for structure protection. More than 300 firefighters were on the lines, aided by helicopters and air tanker planes when smoke conditions allowed them to fly. A 50-year history of using prescribed burns _ fires set on purpose to remove other types of trees and vegetation _ in the parks sequoia groves was expected to help the giant trees survive by lessening the impact if flames reach them, Ruggiero said. Giant sequoias, some thousands of years old, grow on the western flank of the Sierra. They are adapted to fire, which can help them to thrive by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that allow young sequoias to grow. But Ruggiero noted that the extraordinary intensity of fires in current climate conditions can overwhelm sequoias, a scenario that happened when the 2020 Castle Fire killed many trees in the region. Studies estimate that 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias were killed by that fire, along with many of other sizes, according to the National Park Service. The Colony Fire also poses a broader danger because it is burning at an elevation of the central Sierra where there are 280 million pine trees and other types of trees that have been killed by drought and bark beetles, Ruggiero said. The Colony Fire specifically is burning in a really bad spot where these trees are like jackstraws and its difficult to put fire personnel into some of these areas because of that, he said. Elsewhere, two California fires that have caused extensive destruction in the northern Sierra and southern Cascades were not growing. The states second-largest fire on record, the Dixie Fire, was 86% contained Wednesday after burning 1,500 square miles in the northern Sierra and southern Cascades region. Near Lake Tahoe, containment of the 342-square-mile (885-square-kilometer) Caldor Fire increased to 71%. North of San Francisco, a 20-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and jailed on suspicion of starting the Hopkins Fire in Mendocino County, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a statement. The fire that sparked Sunday north of the small city of Ukiah charred 257 acres (104 hectares), destroyed 30 homes and forced evacuations. About the photo: Fire-resistant wrap covers a historic welcome sign as the KNP Complex Fire burns in Sequoia National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The blaze is burning near the Giant Forest, home to more than 2,000 giant sequoias. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Australias trilateral agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom aims to strengthen peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region, according to a briefing by Australian defense chief Peter Dutton for Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. The new pact dubbed AUKUS was one of the matters raised during the first defense bilateral meeting on Friday, the Defense department said in a statement. Minister Dutton informed Secretary Lorenzana about the recent announcements made by Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) on their trilateral pact, referred to as the AUKUS alliance, and Australia's acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, the agency said of the phone conversation. The department added Dutton also expressed concern over possible conflicts in the region. [T]he intention to acquire submarines is to develop Australias capability to protect its territories as well as that of its friends in the region, the agency said, citing the Australian official. AUKUS formally announced by the powerhouse nations earlier this week aims to strengthen the diplomatic, security, and defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Initiatives include deeper information and technology sharing among partners, the White House said in a statement. The deal will also see the US and UK support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. RELATED: Biden and UK to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines in new pushback on China For his part, Lorenzana said the Philippines is also building its own capability to protect its territory. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Cebu Pacific is providing free antigen tests to all flyers bound for Hong Kong from Manila until the end of September. This was in response to the move of Hong Kong's Health department to suspend the airline's operations for two weeks after recording imported COVID-19 cases. In a statement on Friday, the low-cost carrier said the program is part of its "multi-layered approach" to ensure its passengers are free from the virus. "Antigen rest results will be released within 30 minutes, and only passengers with negative results may proceed to the check-in area," it said. "Guests who will be unable to take the Antigen Test or receive a positive test result will not be accepted for check-in," it also said. The testing is open from 1:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m., six times a week at the Philippine Airport Diagnostic Laboratory at NAIA Terminal 3. Cebu Pacific said passengers who will fail to secure their antigen tests have the option to rebook or refund. Earlier this month, Hong Kongs Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health imposed a ban on Cebu Pacific's operations from Sept. 3 to Sept. 16 as four of its passengers from Manila tested positive for the virus. The Gokongwei-led carrier is requiring passengers traveling the Manila-Hong Kong route to present a negative RT-PCR test result, conducted within 72 hours before the scheduled time of departure. Flag carrier Philippine Airlines was also barred from carrying passengers from Manila to Hong Kong for two weeks as the latter traced three COVID-19 passengers. The suspension was lifted on Sept. 11. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) For lawyer Chel Diokno, a lot has changed since the midterm elections, particularly the impact of the administration's pandemic response, making it worth another shot at a Senate seat in the upcoming polls. "First of all, I think, the pandemic has really been an eye-opener for all of us. And the area of where theres going to be a legal battlefield will be in the Senate because there are so many issues that are affecting our country now that did not affect us before," Diokno told CNN Philippines' The Source. He said: "The staggering impact on the economy, the soaring debt of the government, the problem with unemployment, marami na sa ating nagugutom at nangangilangan sa ilalim ng pandemya. Kailangan mabigyan ng high priority ng ating pamahalaan yan." [Translation: A lot of Filipinos are getting hungry and are in need amid the pandemic. The government should give them a high priority.] "I don't see it happening under this administration and I want to be part of a movement that will really be able to help the ordinary Filipino," added the founding dean of the De La Salle University College of Law and son of late opposition Senator Jose W. Diokno. Diokno first sought a Senate post in 2019, with a campaign promise of reforming the country's justice system. The human rights lawyer, along with other opposition candidates of Otso Diretso, failed to get a single seat in the higher chamber and lost to allies of the Duterte administration. READ: 2019 for the opposition: The uphill climb that fell flat Diokno acknowledged that they were "at a big disadvantage" in 2019 because President Rodrigo Duterte still had three more years in his term. Now, he sees a huge difference in a term-ending election. "So much has changed since 2019. We did not have a pandemic at the time. The people did not see how it was managed, now they have seen it first hand and it has affected everyone directly," he said. "Yung buong buhay natin ay talagang nabaligtad nitong COVID-19 at pamamahala ng ating pamahalaan pagdating sa issue ng pandemya." [Translation: Our whole lives were turned upside down by COVID-19 and by the governance of the administration when it comes to the issue of pandemic.] Diokno added that he also draws his strength from the youth, whom he described as a source of "the energy of change in our country." Diokno will run as an independent candidate in 2022. He said he is open to becoming a guest candidate of other political parties and still supports the initiative of opposition coalition 1Sambayan. RELATED: Chel Diokno eyes Senate seat anew in 2022 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the pilot run of the alert level system in Metro Manila is going well, but admitted it is challenging to implement the new scheme. "So far, so good kasi...napakalat naman iyong ating mga bagong pamantayan," Malaya said in a Laging Handa briefing. [Translation: So far, so good because the new guidelines were properly disseminated.] "This is really a challenge to us dahil marami na ang negosyo na pinapayagan nating magbukas under the new alert level system," he added. [Translation: This is really a challenge to us because we are allowing many establishments to reopen under the new alert level system.] The policy shift aims to let the ailing economy recover from the health crisis. Malaya noted there were just instances in which authorities asked unvaccinated clients inside barbershops to go home. Metro Manila is currently under Alert Level 4. Under this alert status, only fully vaccinated persons are allowed to avail themselves of personal care services indoors. The DILG earlier ordered village officials and Metro Manila police to ensure compliance with the minimum health standards amid the still-rising COVID-19 cases. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat is optimistic that with fresh supplies of COVID-19 vaccines arriving by the latter part of the year, all tourism workers will be protected "before Christmas." "Goal namin sana as supplies are coming, lahat ng tourism workers [vaccinated] before Christmas," she told CNN Philippines' Newsroom Ngayon. [Translation: Our goal, as supplies are coming, is to have all tourism workers (vaccinated) before Christmas.] She said around 50% of tourism workers across the Philippines are now protected against COVID-19. In Metro Manila alone, she said customers will be assured as 99% of staff in the capital region's hotels are fully vaccinated. In Baguio City, all tourism workersincluding those manning land transportation and tourism siteshave already secured their coronavirus shots, Puyat added. "Swerte kami dahil walang vaccination hesitancy when it comes to tourism workers," she said. "We won't stop until we vaccinate 100%." [Translation: We're lucky there's no vaccination hesitancy among tourism workers.] Puyat also said the department is studying the strategy of the Thai government in opening Phuket Island to fully vaccinated foreign tourists, while also dropping quarantine rules. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) After being the subject of his recent tirades, Senator Richard Gordon slammed President Rodrigo Duterte for defending individuals linked to the controversy surrounding the government's COVID-19 response funds. "Ang taga-sagot nila ngayon is si Atty. Duterte. Naga-abogado na po si Atty. Duterte ngayon. Hindi na siya pangulo ng Pilipinas," said the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman on Friday. [Translation: They have Atty. Duterte to answer for them. Atty. Duterte is lawyering for them now. He's no longer the president of the Philippines.] Gordon was referring to the chief executive's recent efforts to defend former Budget Usec. Lloyd Christopher Lao and presidential adviser Michael Yang both at the center of the Senate probe along with the country's top medical supplier Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. The senator likewise called Duterte a "cheap politician," accusing him of standing by Lao to settle his debt of gratitude for his help during the elections. "Cheap politician, as cheap as they come, Mr. President. I'm sorry. Mr. President, ang ipinagtatanggol niyo, si Yang? Mr. President, kailangan 'nyo bang ipagtanggol? Bilyonaryo 'yan," decried Gordon. [Translation: Mr. President, it's Yang you're defending? Do you need to defend him? He's a billionaire.] Gordon likewise called out Duterte for his past controversial remarks such as his "kill, kill, kill" and "shoot the vagina" orders against female rebels. "You're not a president the Filipino people can respect," Gordon added. Duterte has consistently berated Gordon and his fellow senators during his public addresses as they continue their investigation into the issue. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) If the International Criminal Court (ICC) has sufficient evidence, it can summon the "masterminds" of the Philippine government's deadly drug war, including President Rodrigo Duterte and former police chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, law professor Chel Diokno said on Friday. In his interview with CNN Philippines' The Source, Diokno explained the investigation process into the alleged crimes against humanity committed under the Duterte administration. He was also asked who can be summoned during the pre-trial and if the ICC can include Duterte. "The policy of the prosecutors, as far as I know, is only to investigate and, if ever, charge those who are primarily responsible for the crime. In this case, the charge revolves around crimes against humanity. Kumbaga yung nasa likod, yung tinatawag nating mastermind (Those who are behind it, the so-called masterminds) are those chiefly responsible," said Diokno, chair of Free Legal Assistance Group. "In our case, it can include the President and others who were directly involved in the operations of the war on drugs," he added. Diokno also noted that the ICC pre-trial chamber mentioned in its decision that the drug war was being operationalized through Command Memorandum Circular 16-2016 signed by Dela Rosa, who was the chief of the Philippine National Police in 2016. The human rights lawyer explained that the Office of the Prosecutor will only issue summons to appear or an arrest warrant once it finds probable cause for crimes against humanity by those who are liable. By then, a formal trial can be conducted. The ICC recently gave a go signal to investigate the killings "allegedly committed in the Philippines between Nov. 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019. The prosecutor estimated that 12,000 to 30,000 civilians were killed in the drug war between 2016 and 2019, but the Philippine government recorded 6,000 deaths. RELATED: ICC pre-trial chamber authorizes PH drug war probe Duterte and his allies said the administration will not allow ICC investigators to enter the country. They also reiterated that the country already withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, on March 17, 2019. Diokno refuted this, saying that all the offenses committed prior to the country's withdrawal is still part of ICC's jurisdiction. "There are many ways the prosecutors office of ICC can gather evidence. If they really will be refused entry into the country, they can still take evidence in other ways," he said. "We still have an international legal obligation to cooperate with the court and with the prosecutor given that there is already a formal approval of the investigation," he added. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) The Pateros municipal government said its new system of tying yellow ribbons on houses with confirmed COVID-19 cases will effectively contain the virus in their area. Pateros Mayor Ike Ponce pointed out that it will be easier for their local health officers and neighboring houses to monitor whether the household with a close contact or COVID-19 patient is strictly following health and safety protocols. "Hindi halos nababantayan lahat at any given time, kaya kailangan na ring tumulong ang ating mga kababayan (We cannot monitor all of them at any given time, that's why we need the help of our citizens)," Ponce told CNN Philippines' News.PH on Friday. The "yellow ribbon system" will also alert people to stay away from places with confirmed infections, the mayor added. Neighbors can also complain to local officials if members of the household - where a positive COVID-19 case stays - are not complying with health protocols. Ponce assured the public the system is not discriminatory, adding he hopes it will break the stigma of people contracting the disease. "Wala naman nagrereklamo sa ating mga kababayan kasi tanggap naman natin at hindi na tayo nahihiya na may positive sa bahay at may close contact (No one is complaining on this rule because it is now accepted and we're no longer shy if someone in our house tested positive or is a close contact)," Ponce said. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) Over 660,000 more doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine purchased by the private sector and local governments arrived in the country on Friday morning. "Malaki ang maitutulong nito dahil kasi unang-una 80% ng vaccine na ito pupunta sa LGUs (local government units)," vaccine czar Carlito Galvez told reporters at the Ninoy International Airport Terminal 1, where he received the shipment of 661,220 vaccine doses. [Translation: This is a big help, as 80% of these vaccines will go to LGUs.] Meanwhile, the country expects to receive 190,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine on Saturday, Galvez said. Nearly 18 million Filipinos are now fully vaccinated, according to Galvez. This story will be updated as soon as more information becomes available Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) The Sandiganbayan Fifth Division has denied former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon's motion to dismiss the graft cases filed against him over his involvement in the alleged smuggling of 34.04 million worth of Vietnam rice into the country more than four years ago. Faeldon was accused of conspiring with Cebu Lite Trading Incorporated (CLTI) by allowing 40,000 bags of rice through the Port of Cagayan De Oro in two separate deliveries in 2017 without the need to present the required import permits. In May, Faeldon's camp filed an urgent motion to recall the resolution, hold departure order and warrant of arrest, as well as to dismiss the case against him, arguing against how the court found probable cause to charge the former official. But the anti-graft court maintained that the findings were based on evidence showing Faeldon "caused undue injury to the government," and gave "unwarranted benefit, advantage and preference" to CLTI. The Sandiganbayan also denied a similar motion for Rowena Lim, a corporate officer of CLTI. It also warned Faeldon's counsel, Atty. Jelina Magsuci, against using "intemperate" or inappropriate language in writing motions. The Sandiganbayan quoted a statement in Faeldon's motion which alleged that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led the court to an "oversight of their duty to conduct a punctilious review" of the records of the preliminary investigation. The motion also called the private complainant an "epal-litico" with "grandstanding allegations." "Assisting counsel Jelina Maree D. Magsuci is directed to be circumspect and cautious in the writing of her submissions, with a stern warning that a repetition of a similar or analogous act shall be properly dealt with more severely," the Sandiganbayan's ruling stated. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) The first batch of the single-shot Sputnik Light vaccine is expected to arrive this month, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said Friday. The government-procured shipment will consist of one million doses, Galvez noted in a statement. The Sputnik V Light is more efficient because we will be able to protect more people faster. This would eliminate the problem wherein people fail to return for their second dose, Galvez said. The Sputnik Light earned emergency use approval from the Food and Drug Administration in August. The vaccine developed by Russian manufacturer Gamaleya Institute requires a storage temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius. The Russian Direct Investment Fund said it has 79.4% efficacy. Meanwhile, the country is also expecting the delivery of 190,000 doses of Sputnik V (component 2) by the weekend or early next week, according to Galvez. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 17) The government plans to issue digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates in more areas after addressing encoding issues, an official said Friday. "Eventually, ang plano po namin ay ma-launch ito sa (our plan is to launch this in) Region 3, Region 4, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao," Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said in a briefing, referring to VaxCertPH. Currently, overseas Filipino workers and outbound Filipinos from Metro Manila and Baguio City are eligible to receive VaxCertPH that serves as digital proof of COVID-19 vaccination status. More areas will be included in the VaxCertPH's rollout once they are able to iron out issues on COVID-19 vaccination records, Malaya said. "Inaayos natin iyong quality of the data. Minsan nagkakamali sa pag-encode iyong ating encoders from the LGU level," Malaya said. [Translation: We are fixing the quality of the data. Sometimes, encoders at the local government unit level make encoding mistakes.] "Once this is fully completed by the various local government units, pwede na po nating buksan para sa ibang tao, he added. [Translation: Once this is fully completed by the various local government units, we can already offer this to other people.] The VaxCertPH includes the holder's personal data, the brand and lot number of the vaccines, as well as the date and place of inoculation. It also contains a QR code that will be used to match data in the Vaccination Information Management System, a central database serving all local governments. Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. Elected officials and advocates, usually quick to comment on sexual harassment allegations, so far have little to say about Tay Anderson, the school board member in Denver. Sexual assault allegations against him were found to be unproven but it was determined he made "unbecoming" comments to minors. Some parents, however, were vocal in condemning Anderson's actions, and called for his removal. Anderson faced a censure vote by the Denver Public Schools Board on Friday and tweeted Thursday night he had received "official confirmation" he will be censured. +9 Tay Anderson says 'I will not resign,' answers no questions On the eve of the Denver Public Schools board's vote on a censure motion at 1 p.m. Friday, board member Tay Anderson refused to answer questions and set the stage for an angry, defiant defense. According to a DPS spokesman, that is the extent of the punishment the board can dole out, even if the Investigations Law Group had corroborated allegations in all five of the areas its investigators probed. "Director Anderson is a publicly elected official who answers to the voters," said DPS spokesman Will Jones after confirming with the agency's legal counsel. "The Board does not have the authority to remove him from office." Jones added voters did have that power though and a recall election was possible. "A recall is a voter initiated process. It is up to the voters to decide who will represent them on the Board of Education," he said. Analysis: The investigation on Tay Anderson sexual misconduct allegations While an independent investigation for Denver Public Schools was unable to substantiate sexual assault allegations against Tay Anderson, one of its members, the details of the report released Wednesday confirmed what appear to be incidents of sexual harassment against teens by Anderson. Here is Colorado Politics' analysis of the 96-page report from ILG Legal Services. Colorado Politics reached out to a dozen organizations and women's rights leaders, all of whom would only speak off the record. They admitted being apprehensive to confront Anderson and his allies, including some in the Democratic Party, who have said the 23-year-old elected official is being targeted because he is a fast riser in politics but, more, a young Black man. Such accusations are Kryptonite to advocates championing reform, especially at a time when race is a central issue across the country with reforms championed by Democrats in Colorado and across the nation. The most serious claims against Anderson, that he sexually assaulted women, could not be corroborated, according to an independent investigation that the board will discuss Friday afternoon as it considers whether to censure Anderson. "The reason they're not substantiated," one Democrat who is keeping quiet publicly told Colorado Politics, "is because the intimidation is substantiated." Several people who declined to speak on the record, fearing political retribution or the potential impact of their future requests before governing bodies that include Anderson's allies, pointed to a widely televised March press conference that made it clear that race would be a central issue in Anderson's defense. "I am the son of a single mother who is a survivor of sexual assault," Anderson said in the beginning of his remarks, "and (in) a family that knows what it's like to be Black in America." He said when he ran for school board "I wanted to uplift the community not tear it apart." Anderson wept as he spoke about his then soon-to-be-born child. "I want my son to be able to look up to his dad, not be ashamed of him" said Anderson, who is midway through his four-year term. "Our community deserves leaders they can trust." Anderson and his supporters have spoken publicly in other venues about the role they believed his race played in the allegations. Democratic activist and Anderson supporter Hashim Coates told Colorado Politics Thursday that the allegations were a set up and a farce from the beginning," calling one of Anderson's critics "a tool or instrument of white supremacy." He said of the investigation, It was a waste of taxpayer money. There's nothing that report discovered that we did not already know. Brother Jeff Fard, another influential voice in the Denver's Black community and the namesake of Brother Jeff's Cultural Center in Five Points, stood with embattled school board member. Tomorrow, the Denver Public Schools board is going to do what they intended to do anyway," Fard said Thursday evening. "They're going to continue to tarnish that man's reputation. I find that so hard to believe, but they're going to do it. Fard said the case never amounted to sexual assault, but rather a young man communicating on social media. On face value, this doesn't add up and it doesn't take an investigation over this long period to realize that something was wrong with that story," he said. Investigators noted that Anderson sent flirtatious emails to a 16-year-old DPS and a 17-year-old from Douglas County, who told investigators she spurned his advances. In 2018, Democrats in the state legislature led the push to remove one of their members, Rep. Steve Lebsock of Thornton, over alleged inappropriate remarks to lobbyists and Rep. Faith Winter of Westminster. Winter did not return a text to her personal cell phone from Colorado Politics asking her to comment on what Anderson said to the teenagers on social media. Parents contacted by Colorado Politics, however, were dissatisfied with the outcome before the meeting. Jeanna Hoch, the parent of a 16-year-old, 7-year-old. and a toddler, said her middle child was being homeschooled this year "due to my absolute disgust with DPS policies." Her oldest wanted to graduate with his class. "Censure is not strong enough," Hoch said. "Anderson needs to resign. He's long been a sexist who ignores the upset caused by men and boys in spaces intended for women and girls. He calls those of us who fight for the rights we once had the most despicable names." Hoch, a Democrat, cited instances of intimidation over her criticism of Anderson, singling out Coates, after she wrote a critical blog in March. "Anderson personally attacked my family and posted pics of my children to his (Instagram account)," she said. "He was the final straw as to why I no longer vote blue. She added, "I don't need another reason, or proof of a heinous crime, to know he doesn't belong on a school board or in any position of authority over children, for that matter." Gerad Smith said he has enrolled his child in a Catholic school because he had lost faith in Denver Public Schools because of Anderson, even before the sexual misconduct allegations surfaced. "My lack of faith was largely due to Andersons bullying of parents at school board meetings, and the rest of the boards demonstrated cowardice in not publicly condemning his behavior," Smith said. "You couple Andersons cavalier behavior with gutless peers on the board, and see that all in the context of a district with horrifyingly low academic achievement, and you just give up on the district wholesale. DPS can rot, right alongside Andersons political ambitions." Ann Shiveley, another parent, did not expect Anderson to be held to "the highest standard" of conduct, and they wouldn't right that with a "weak-tea censure." "I saw firsthand what Tay Anderson did to bully, harass, and intimidate a DPS parent last spring," she recounted. "He's unfit to represent DPS parents and many parents have expressed their concern at school board meetings about his fitness to represent children ever since the investigation started." Another parent, Jennifer Smith, said she hoped that peace could be restored and the board could get back to doing the work they were elected to do. "I wasn't there. I don't know what he did, other than use bad judgment talking to young girls," she said. "I know this, though, our children shouldn't be caught up in the Tay Anderson tornado. He's been a me-me-me controversy on the board since he got there. I knew he needed to go way before I knew anything the report told me." 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! A graph shows monthly COVID-19 cases for 2021, with counts in Wasco County hitting a new high in August. We really hit it out of the ball park in August, and not in a new way, said Martha McInnes, clinical program supervisor for North Central Public Health District. The graph includes Hood River county to illustrate the significance even a slightly higher vaccination rate can have in reducing the spread of the delta variant. Grace Nieland is a general assignment reporter at the Missourian. She has reported on public health and safety, judicial proceedings and breaking news. She can be reached at grace.nieland@mail.missouri.edu or in the newsroom at 573-882-5720. Follow this search Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form You must be logged in to participate in the Show Me the Errors contest. 09/17/2021 Photo (c) filadendron - Getty Images Coronavirus (COVID-19) tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.) Total U.S. confirmed cases: 41,796,204 (41,645,545) Total U.S. deaths: 670,128 (666,806) Total global cases: 227,185,960 (226,643,823) Total global deaths: 4,672,629 (4,662,980) FDA panel meeting to discuss boosters Whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends vaccinated Americans get a booster shot may be determined by the outcome of an FDA advisory committee meeting in Washington today. Various experts are discussing the data and debating the merits for and against. As the meeting got underway, Dr. Peter Marks, an FDA official, urged the committee members to follow the science as they pore over data from various studies. He noted there may be various interpretations of the data. We're committed to focusing on the science, and we'll drive our decision-making, and we'll carefully consider those data in the context of the clear and obvious public health need to continue slowing the spread of Covid-19, which at this time is leading to the deaths of close to 2,000 Americans each day," Marks said. United Airlines says most of its employees are vaccinated United Airlines has disclosed that about 90% of its employees have now been vaccinated. That news follows the airlines mandate that all employees get a vaccination or be placed on unpaid leave. To show that they have been vaccinated, Uniteds employees were told to upload an image of their vaccination card. As of Thursday, United said about 20,000 employees had done so. The deadline to receive their first shot is Sept. 27. So far, United is the only major domestic carrier to mandate vaccinations for its employees. Other airlines have strongly urged vaccinations and offered incentives for their employees to get the shot. Florida governor complains about treatment reductions Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has strongly opposed COVID-19 mask and vaccination mandates in his state, says the Biden administration has cut Floridas allocation of antibody treatment drugs in half. He said the drugs are critical to reducing COVID-19 deaths. This is a dramatic reduction, DeSantis said at a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, where he appeared with health care providers. We are facing a massive cut in antibody treatments. The Department of Health and Human Services says it faces a shortage of the treatment drugs because of surging demand, especially in Southern states. Officials said 70% of the drugs have been distributed to Southern states, with Florida receiving the most of any state. Around the nation 09/16/2021 Photo (c) andresr - Getty Images Hopeful international travelers are coping with new reports from the White House. On Wednesday, Biden administration Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients told the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board that the Biden team has zero plans to relax any travel restrictions anytime soon. Citing the rising COVID-19 delta variant cases in the U.S. and around the world, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo supported Zients, saying that, before the U.S. can fully reopen, it has to prove it can handle the COVID-19 situation at home first, which requires us to get everyone vaccinated. While thats an obstacle, Reuters reports that the U.S. is working on creating a "new system for international travel" that will include contact tracing when it ultimately lifts the current travel restrictions that keep many travelers from entering the U.S. For travel companies who feel this development might hinder their return to normal, Zients urged them to pick up the pace on mandating employee vaccinations and sharing contact tracing information so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can make contact with travelers who have been exposed to COVID-19. "The American people need to trust that the new system for international travel is safer even as we -- I mean at that point -- we'll be letting in more travelers," Zients told the board. Long overdue In response to the White Houses intentions, the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) claimed that the plan to restart international travel is long overdue. We urge the Biden Administration to finalize this plan as quickly as possible and to otherwise make safely restarting international travel occur by opening borders an immediate priority, ASTA wrote in a statement. "The plan should incorporate the common-sense measures we called for along with our travel industry colleagues last week, including expeditiously developing clear vaccination and testing standards, loosening entry restrictions for fully-vaccinated travelers and aligning standards with the governments of our main outbound markets, including Canada, the EU and the U.K. Given its enormous impact on the global economy, an expedited recovery of cross-border travel is critical. Its not exactly news that the travel and tourism industry has been devastated by the pandemic, but ASTA feels that any help the sector has been given by the U.S. and other governments has been uneven at best. "The travel industry as a whole will not recover from COVID until international travel restarts in earnest. We urge the Biden Administration in the strongest possible terms to do its part to make that happen, the group concluded. Tit for tat? While the U.S. is keeping international visitors at arm's length, countries around the world are forcing Americans into a holding pattern, too. In late August, after seeing the rise in COVID-19 cases in the U.S., the European Union (EU) recommended that Americans be banned from nonessential travel to its 27-nation bloc, which includes France, Germany and Italy. The EU's move prompted some countries, like the Netherlands, to reinstate quarantines for American travelers, according to Travel + Leisure's Stefanie Waldek. "It remains to be seen if those restrictions will be lifted in time for Christmas, a traditionally popular period for overseas travel," she wrote. Nonetheless, Americans hoping to get out of the country for the holidays aren't giving up hope -- just shifting how they approach their travel plans. Matt Clarke, the VP of marketing at online travel agency Kayak, told Travel + Leisure that, unlike the pre-pandemic era when Americans would book holiday flights weeks or months in advance, he thinks they're patiently waiting for changes to settle in before they leap for the 2021 holidays. "The trend for last-minute bookings is strong," he says. Congratulations, arab-talk.com got a very good Social Media Impact Score! Show it by adding this HTML code on your site: Arab-talk.com scored 71 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3.5/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 17 Jul 2014, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. arab-talk.com is very popular in Facebook. Furthermore its facebook page has 775 likes. Add a widget like this on your site: click here This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the arab-talk homepage on Twitter + the total number of arab-talk followers (if arab-talk has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the arab-talk homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the arab-talk homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the arab-talk homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the arab-talk homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if arab-talk has a Facebook fan page). Basic Information PAGE TITLE | | ArabTalk.com | Chat DESCRIPTION Welcome to ArabTalk.com - Featuring english and arabic chat messenger - UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Tunisia, Bahrain, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, American, UK - , , , , KEYWORDS , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , OTHER KEYWORDS arabic, The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. Domain and Server DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE Arabic (Egypt) UTF-8Arabic (Egypt) DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux Operative System running on the server. Type of server and offered services. Character set and language of the site. The language of arab-talk.com as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for arab-talk.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK FOUND FACEBOOK PAGE www.facebook.com/Jawjorcom DESCRIPTION www.jor9.net LIKES 775 PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT 6 PAGE TYPE Fictional character TIMELINE PAGE TIMELINE The type of Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Bakubulvar.gov.az scored 44 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 30 Dec 2012, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. It is liked by 39 people on Facebook and it has 1 google+ shares. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the bakubulvar homepage on Twitter + the total number of bakubulvar followers (if bakubulvar has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the bakubulvar homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the bakubulvar homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the bakubulvar homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if bakubulvar has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the bakubulvar homepage on Delicious. Basic Information PAGE TITLE AZ RBAYCAN RESPUBLI KASININ NAZI RL R KABI NETI yan nda D N DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS Azrbaycan Respublikasnn Nazirlr Kabineti yannda Dnizknar Bulvar Idarsi, Xbrlr, Bak, Baku, Baki, Bulvar, Prezidentin Bulvara glisi, Prezidentin, Gec goruntulri, Fvvarlr, Kohn Bulvar, Yeni Bulvar, Yeniliklr, Elanlar, Video, Musiqi, Dovl OTHER KEYWORDS The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. Domain and Server DOCTYPE CHARSET AND LANGUAGE UTF-8 SERVER nginx OPERATIVE SYSTEM Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. The language of bakubulvar.gov.az as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Type of server and offered services. Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for bakubulvar.gov.az by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The type of Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND Khabria.pk scored 59 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 3/5.0 Stars by Social Team This CoolSocial report was updated on 9 Jul 2018, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the khabria homepage on Twitter + the total number of khabria followers (if khabria has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the khabria homepage on StumbleUpon. The total number of people who shared the khabria homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the khabria homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the khabria homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if khabria has a Facebook fan page). Basic Information PAGE TITLE Daily Khabria Sargodha Pakistan DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS daily khabria sargodha pakistan, daily khabria sargodha, khabria sargodha pakistan, na 88 candidates, daily khabria, khabria sargodha, sargodha pakistan The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. Domain and Server DOCTYPE HTML 5.0 CHARSET AND LANGUAGE English (United States) UTF-8English (United States) DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER Apache OPERATIVE SYSTEM Linux Linux Operative System running on the server. Character set and language of the site. Type of server and offered services. The language of khabria.pk as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world. Referring domains for khabria.pk by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines. Facebook link FACEBOOK PAGE LINK NOT FOUND The type of Facebook page. The description of the Facebook page describes website and its services to the social media users. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. Facebook Timeline is the new layout of Facebook pages. The URL of the found Facebook page. A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who like website Facebook page. Twitter account link TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND After the war, US intelligence heard about the Butcher of Lyon and were like wow, weve gotta get that guy! Barbie was promptly signed up as an informer by the Army Counterintelligence Corps, receiving the princely salary of $1,700 a month (in comparison, US army privates started out at $50 a month, although they were allowed to keep any shrapnel they could pry out of their kneecaps). Barbie worked for the US until 1951, when French intelligence suddenly noticed that the creepy guy who kept poking around asking about communists was one of their most wanted criminals. They promptly issued an arrest warrant, at which point the Americans realized that hiring a literal child-murderer was going to make them look very, very bad. So they quietly arranged for Barbie to escape to South America. Continue Reading Below Advertisement The Armys role in all of this might have escaped notice if Barbie hadnt bumped into an international jewel thief named Bobby Wilson, who was also lying low in Bolivia. The pair hit it off and Barbie told Wilson about his wartime experiences, including his work for the Americans. In the 1980s, Wilson shared tapes of these conversations with ABC News, sparking an investigation by the Department of Justice, which concluded that officers of the United States government were directly responsible for ... arranging his escape from the law. The US subsequently issued a formal apology to the French government (we assume theres a special Hallmark store in Washington selling little whoops, our bad! cards for these occasions). French Archives In fairness, hard to turn down the kind of brilliant superspy who instantly confesses all his crimes to any random thief who asks. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Barbie wasnt alone in heading for South America. As many as 9,000 suspected Nazi war criminals are believed to have fled via the Ratlines to South America. The majority headed for Argentina, where President Juan Peron believed that German expertise could help develop the countrys economya fiction that he was only disabused of after a former Nazi rocket scientist tricked him into spending quite a lot of Argentinas GDP developing a phony cold fusion reactor in an isolated mountain fortress. But Barbie ended up settling in Bolivia, where he set himself up as a freelance security consultant. And thats when things got weird. Continue Reading Below Advertisement The phrase is popular because it goes all the way back to the founding of America, right? In 1630, before colonists departed to settle Massachusetts Bay, Puritan lawyer John Winthrop told his fellows that the community they were about to found would be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people upon us. Thats practically a prophecy about how awesome America would be, right? via Wiki Commons "When we up in the club, all eyes on us." - John Winthrop But wait, whered the shining go? Is it later in the speech? Winthrop kept going to say, uh, So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Oh. Yeah, Winthrops speech wasnt a prediction that America was destined for unbridled greatness; it was a warning that theyd be criticized if they failed to live up to the high standards theyd set for themselves. The city isnt shining, its exposed. David Jackson/Unsplash All eyes on us. Whoops, should have worn underwear. The full lecture, dubbed A Model of Christian Charity, goes on to spout hippie business like We must love one another with a pure heart fervently, we must bear one anothers burdens, We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man, and There is a time when a Christian must sell all and give to the poor. Likewise, community of perils calls for extraordinary liberality. Funny how those parts dont make it into many newspaper columns. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Historian Daniel T. Rodgers, who wrote a whole book about Winthrops speech, called it a radical exhortation to love and fellow-feeling, a plea to lay aside self-interest when the social good demanded it. No wonder it lingered in obscurity until the Cold War, when it was dug up and eventually stripped of all that complicated love crap so jingoists could insist that the rest of the world thought a shiny America kicked absolutely all the ass. Today, the word filibuster is associated with senators wasting even more time than usual. In the nineteenth century, though, filibuster meant daring adventurers and obvious violations of international laws. Filibusters attempted to seize control of territory without the approval of the U.S. government. The most famous and unsuccessful of these filibusters was William Walker. Walker was born in 1824, and he was a firm believer of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States was meant to expand and bring civilization to the world. While some thought that they simply were meant to expand from coast to coast in North America, Walker wanted to see American influence elsewhere. In 1853, Walker was living in California practicing law. However, he saw an opportunity to bring more territory to the United States in the borderlands of Mexico. The Mexican-American War had ended in 1848, and aside from expanding U.S. territory, it also left Mexico struggling to maintain its border region. For William Walker, this meant he had a chance to claim territory for his own. Wiki Commons They'll retreat like my hairline! Now, invading a country with whom the U.S. was at peace may seem like it would be breaking laws, and that would be correct. It was a direct violation of the Neutrality Act. This did not stop Walker, though, who recruited a small group of adventure seekers (who were really just looking for opportunities after failing to get rich from the Gold Rush) and found a ship to sail from the Bay Area to Baja California in Mexico. His original ship was taken by the American military, which was cracking down on filibusters, but the ambitious Walker simply found another and snuck away with a makeshift army of fewer than 50 men. SPOILER WARNING: This article contains several rumored spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Although Spidey can save the world from imminent doom, he can't swing from through your screen and save you from reading ahead if you want to be surprised when the threequel hits theaters this December. Read at your own risk. When non-Tobey Maguire/Tom Holland Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield recently announced that he would not be appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home despite the endless fervor of the MCU rumor mill, it seems nearly everyone was skeptical. Its important for me to say on the record that this is not something Im aware I am involved in, the actor told Variety at the time. "But I know Im not going to be able to say anything that will convince anyone that I dont know whats happening. No matter what I say, Im f----d. Its either going to be really disappointing for people or its going to be really exciting. Despite realizing he's screwed either way, it seems Garfield has stayed true to his denial -- even in the face of some allegedly leaked images claiming to be taken on-set of Spider-Man: No Way Home, seemingly depicting both the actor and Maguire in full spidey-get up. Earlier this week, the star appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon where he addressed the snaps' legitimacy or lack thereof. STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) A Connecticut town's police force is warning residents to stay away from aggressive minks. In a recorded message sent to residents, Capt. Todd Olson of the Stonington Police Department urged people to stay away from a mink if the see one, The Day of New London reported Thursday. Olson said that even though they resemble a pet ferret, minks are territorial and are not friendly. One of them chased a person Wednesday, he said. Olson said the departments animal control officer notified the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection about the minks and the agency is looking into the situation. A mink farm once operated in the town. A former Waterbury resident was sentenced to five years in federal prison in connection with his role in trafficking heroin and fentanyl in some of the states major cities, prosecutors said. Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven sentenced 47-year-old Wilton Reynoso also known as Manuel Jose Echevarria-Lugo to 60 months in prison. He pleaded guilty on June 19 to conspiracy to distribute, and to possess with intent to distribute, 400 grams or more of fentanyl. Reynoso, a citizen of the Dominican Republic with a last known address in Waterbury, faces immigration proceedings when he completes his prison term. In late 2019, the Drug Enforcement Administrations New Haven Task Force launched an investigation into the distribution of heroin and fentanyl in New Haven and Waterbury. The investigation, which prosecutors said included thousands of intercepted communications via wiretaps, indicated Renoso was receiving large amounts of heroin and fentanyl from a source in New York. Prosecutors said he would then sell the drugs to others who would distribute it. On June 13, 2020, investigators sought to arrest Reynon and Tyson Quinones, also of Waterbury, after intercepting a series of calls about a 200-gram heroin sale, prosecutors said. That day, Quinones was arrested at the planned meet-up. Reynoso fled in his vehicle, which investigators found abandoned nearby. He was arrested soon after when he returned for the vehicle. When investigators searched a location in Waterbury that Reynoso used to store narcotics, they found more than a kilogram of a mixture of heron and fentanyl, as well as items used to process and package narcotics, prosecutors said. Reynoso has been detained since his arrest. Quinones pleaded guilty on July 23 to related charges and awaits sentencing. WASHINGTON (AP) Burned before, Capitol Police say they are taking no chances as they prepare for a Saturday rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of rioters imprisoned after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection. Though it is unclear how big the rally will be, the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department are fully activating in an effort to avoid a repeat of the pre-inauguration attack. Underprepared police were overwhelmed as hundreds of President Donald Trump's supporters broke into the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden's victory. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said at a news conference Friday it was difficult to say whether threats of violence at the event are credible, but he said that chatter online and elsewhere has been similar to intelligence that was missed in January. A permit for the protest allows 700 people. Manger said he believes the most likely possibility for for violence Saturday will involve clashes between the protesters and counter-protesters who may show up. Were not going to tolerate violence, and we will not tolerate criminal behavior of any kind," Manger said. The American public and members of Congress have an expectation that we protect the Capitol. And I am confident that the plan we have in place will meet that expectation. After multiple missteps in January, law enforcement is out in full force. The fence around the Capitol is back up, temporarily. Police are preparing for the possibility that some demonstrators may arrive with weapons. The D.C. police department is at the ready, and U.S. Capitol Police have requested assistance from nearby law enforcement agencies. The rally, organized by former Trump campaign strategist Matt Braynard, is aimed at supporting people who have been detained after the Jan. 6 insurrection about 60 people held behind bars out of the more than 600 charged in the deadly riot. It's the latest attempt to downplay and deny the January violence. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans serving on a House committee investigating the January attacks, said he supports the aggressive law enforcement efforts. Hopefully the overreaction of law enforcement is actually the thing that can keep this from getting out of hand, Kinzinger said in an interview Thursday. He predicted that people will criticize the effort if the protest is small and nonviolent, but thats what needs to happen because January 6th obviously was an underreaction and it escalated. Intelligence collected ahead of Saturday's rally has suggested that extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers will turn up. But some prominent members of the groups have sworn they arent going and have told others not to attend. Far-right online chatter has been generally tame, and Republican lawmakers are downplaying the event. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request for about 100 members of the D.C. National Guard to be stationed at a city armory near the Capitol, to be called if needed as backup for other law enforcement agencies. They will primarily protect the Capitol building and congressional offices. They'll be without firearms, but will be equipped with batons and protective vests for self-defense. Meanwhile, a Homeland Security intelligence report warned of social media posts that discussed possibly storming the Capitol the night before the rally. One user also commented on kidnapping an identified member of Congress, the document said, though the lawmaker wasnt identified by name in the report. No lawmakers were expected to be in the building Saturday, as Congress is out of session. Other references to violence identified on social media include discussions of using the rally to target local Jewish institutions, elected officials, and liberal churches,'" the intelligence report said. Many commenters on online platforms popular with the far right like Telegram disavowed the rally, saying they believed law enforcement was promoting the event to entrap Trump supporters. Some urged their followers not to attend what they said was a false flag event they believed was secretly organized by the FBI. At the same time, however, some commenters continued to promote rallies planned for Saturday in cities and state capitals across the country. In a notice to House members this week, Sergeant at Arms William Walker urged lawmakers to stay away from the Capitol complex on Saturday. And lawmakers who supported Trumps efforts to overturn his election defeat distanced themselves from the event. I dont know what it is, said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said when asked about the rally. Trump is still using his platform as the most popular leader in the GOP to express sympathy for those who were arrested and continue spreading election misinformation. In a statement Thursday, he said: Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election." The Associated Press reviewed hundreds of court and jail records for the Capitol riot defendants to uncover how many were being detained and found about 60 held in federal custody awaiting trial or sentencing hearings. Federal officials are still looking for other suspects who could also wind up behind bars. Just Friday, a judge ordered the pretrial detention of a Pennsylvania woman who contends the court doesnt have jurisdiction over her. At least 30 are jailed in Washington. The rest are locked up in facilities across the country. They have said they are being treated unfairly, and one defendant said he was beaten. Federal authorities have identified several of those detained as extremist group leaders, members or associates, including nine defendants linked to the Proud Boys and three connected to the antigovernment Oath Keepers. Dozens are charged with conspiring to mount coordinated attacks on the Capitol to block Congress from certifying the 2020 Electoral College vote, among the most serious of the charges. Some jailed defendants are charged with assaulting police officers, others with making violent threats. A few were freed after their arrests but subsequently detained again, accused of violating release conditions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has set standards for judges to apply in deciding whether to jail a Capitol riot defendant. A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in March that rioters accused of assaulting officers, breaking through windows, doors and barricades, or playing leadership roles in the attack were in a different category of dangerousness than those who merely cheered on the violence or entered the building after it was breached. ___ Associated Press Writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Jacques Billeaud, David Klepper, Lisa Mascaro, Jake Bleiberg, Amanda Seitz and Robert Burns contributed to this report. Its the time of year when people start seeing more bats, when more bats get into their houses, when more bats are submitted for rabies testing. Its a new generation of bats, testing their wings. This is the time of year when young bats are learning how to fly, said Jenny Dickson, director of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protections Wildlife Division. Everyone leaves the roost and goes one way, the dumb kid goes the other way, into someones house. Its pretty common, she said. While we may be seeing more bats now, the population has not rebounded from the devastating white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats since it was first found in 2007 in bats in a cave near Albany, N.Y. Even if we could wave a magic wand and get rid of white-nose tomorrow, it would be decades before we could rebuild the population, Dickson said. While bats are more prey than predator, bats get a bad rap; theres no two ways about it, Dickson said. They can carry rabies. Since it is fatal if not treated, rabies is a pretty frightening disease. Bats also are suspected of being the source of the coronavirus that began the COVID-19 pandemic. But while there are a lot more bats flying around now eating millions of mosquitoes, by the way rabies does not pose a significant threat, Dickson said. Less than half of one percent will have the rabies virus, she said. And in order to catch rabies from a bat, a person would have to be bitten or scratched. In the past year, the State Public Health Laboratory tested 459 bats submitted by the public and 15 tested positive, a rate of 3.3 percent. But those were bats submitted that were behaving strangely in the first place, Dickson said. But its best to keep them out of the house. If one is flying around the bedroom at night, a series of rabies shots may be in order, as a precaution, experts said. The rabies vaccine isnt as frightening as people think either, said Laura Simon, field director for the Humane Society of the United States. It requires four shots in the arm over two weeks, plus a dose of immunoglobulin. Its not painful at all and its 100 percent effective, Simon said. Rabies is extremely low in this country among people, Simon said. We have one to three people die in this country every year. Thats in large part because dogs are required to be vaccinated for rabies. Despite how low the risk is of a person in this country contracting rabies, we go to extraordinary lengths to protect them, she said. In one of the most high-profile rabies cases, Greenwich teenager Maria Fareri, an eighth-grader at Central Middle School, died of rabies in 1995, after she was exposed to a rabid bat. Her family did not know she had been bitten, and she was not treated in time. Fareri became the first person to die of rabies in Connecticut since 1932. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 5,000 animal cases of rabies in the United States each year, 90 percent in wildlife. This is a major change in the past 60 years. Back then, most cases were in domestic animals, primarily dogs, the CDC reported. According to the state Department of Public Health, of 949 animals tested in the past year, 40 tested positive for rabies: two bobcats, three cats, two coyotes, three foxes, nine raccoons, four skunks and two groundhogs, in addition to the 15 bats. You never want to handle wild animals, Dickson said. You want to avoid interactions with them, but its not something that warrants a high level of concern. Also, the fear of being attacked by a rabid bat isnt warranted, she said. When bats get the rabies virus, they typically dont get the furious form of rabies. Theyll get sick and die. Seeing a nocturnal animal such as a bat during daytime also isnt necessarily reason to fear. There are those situations where you might see them active in the daytime, Dickson said. If the weather has made it hard for them to get their full meal of insects at night, they might still be hunting when the sun comes up. A bat also may become tired and settle under an eave at the end of a long night. Those bats certainly have been active at night. They can eat something on the range of 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour or so, Dickson said. And this has been a really good year, weather-wise, for a lot of invertebrate species. Its important for the bats to be out eating up bugs, because theyre trying to put on weight before they go into hibernation, Dickson said. If youre a little bat, youre going to pack on a couple ounces. Thats a big deal for them. There are nine bat species native to Connecticut, although the population of little brown bats has been reduced by 90 percent by white-nose syndrome, according to a study in the journal Conservation Biology. Big brown bats also have seen their numbers shrink from the fungus, which grows on bats while they are hibernating. Dickson said three species in Connecticut are considered tree-roosting bats. They typically will fly further south, and theyll stay active all year long, she said. Of the rest, some hibernate in Connecticut, some will travel to nearby states, flying hundreds of miles. Theyre really particular about the temperature and humidity conditions, she said. Big brown bats, which Dickson said stay out later and can typically take a little frost, arent really that big, she said. When we talk about those guys, were still taking about a wingspan of 12 inches or so but a body length of about 5, she said. If they get into the house, its because a hole has been created for them, maybe by another animal chewing through a screen. A lot of times, people have bats in and around their homes and they dont realize it, Dickson said. They may be under an eave or flashing. Bats are extremely loyal to a roost location and may stay there for decades, she said. If they do get in, open a door or a window, dim the lights indoors and turn on an outdoor light. That will attract insects and the insects will attract the bat. A box or blanket can help trap them. They usually cant fly off the ground or floor. Droppings and dark brown stains may appear near eaves and beneath entrance holes and roosts, according to DEEP. Further, according to DEEP: one of the simplest techniques for solving nuisance problems is letting the bats exit on their own and then preventing their re-entry. Those who do appreciate bats can put up bat boxes, which are open on the bottom. They do work if you build them right and put them in the right location, Dickson said. That would be somewhere where there is at least four hours of sunlight during the day and in an open area, not in a tree, where predators can find them. Bats like to be warm during the summer months, Dickson said. The heat helps the young bat grow during the summer. edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382 Phone service was restored to various networks after it was down for the better part of Wednesday, according to statements from officials. New Milford and Fairfield police departments, as well as Brookfield Public Schools, Nuvance Health and Hartford HealthCare, said their phone lines were having problems Wednesday, citing a statewide issue with the phone system. Police in Fairfield said Frontier reported a fiber issue leading to a loss of service statewide. All town lines were affected, but the 911 system continued to be fully operational. The issues were resolved later in the day, Frontier said in a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media around 5:40 p.m. John Rossi, the vice president of systems and Fairfield region operations for Hartford HealthCare, said phone lines starting with the area code 475 were affected early evening Tuesday and were functioning again around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The health care organization did have mitigation efforts in place, rerouting calls to appropriate offices via a switchboard. No care was delayed, Rossi said. Still, the outages were concerning, Rossi said, and is unsure why the issue occurred in the first place. Rossi said he hopes Frontier is putting in the necessary steps to make sure it doesnt happen again. John W. Barile, superintendent of Brookfield Public Schools, said a service outage with Frontier was affecting the entire phone system. This outage is part of a larger service breakdown affecting both inbound and outbound calls for much of the Fairfield County area and throughout Connecticut, Barile said. This current situation is impacting both private and public sector entities. Barile said some calls went through, but the service was inconsistent overall. Nuvance Health said it was working with its vendor to resolve an inbound phone call problem that impacted Danbury, New Milford and Norwalk hospitals. Medical practices in those areas overseen by Nuvance Health were also having this issue. Nuvance Health said its hospitals and other medical facilities were fully open and are keeping appointments. Staff writer Liz Hardaway contributed to this report. PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SAMOA -- American Samoa reported its first case of coronavirus on Friday. The U.S. territorys acting governor and health officials said the islands first case of COVID-19 was of a resident who returned to America Samoa from Hawaii this week. The infected traveler flew in on Monday, the first day of newly resumed commercial flights from Honolulu to Pago Pago. The route had been suspended since March 2020. Officials say the resident was fully vaccinated and had traveled to Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. They say the traveler tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding the flight back to American Samoa. American Samoa requires all travelers to be vaccinated and to quarantine. ___ MORE ON THE PANDEMIC: FDA advisory panel rejects widespread Pfizer booster shots Biden faces limits of $1.9T COVID aid as some states resist England simplifies COVID-19 rules for international travelers Trial begins over coronavirus outbreak at Austrian ski resort in 2020 ___ See AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic ___ HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING: BATON ROUGE, La. -- A child is among the latest to die from COVID-19 in Louisiana, state health officials said Friday. Heath department figures showed the state death toll from the illness grew by 52. One of the victims was a child between the ages of 5 and 11. It was the 15th death of someone younger than 18 in Louisiana since the pandemic began early last year. And its the sixth pediatric death since a fourth surge began this summer. Coronavirus hospitalizations continued to drop. They fell to 1,367 in Fridays figures, 64 fewer than the previous day. Hospitalizations are down from a peak of more than 3,000 in August but still well above the pre-surge levels of mid-summer. ___ WASHINGTON After overwhelmingly rejecting a plan to give Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans, an influential federal advisory panel has approved the extra shots for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease. The twin votes Friday represented a blow to the Biden administrations sweeping effort to shore up nearly all Americans protection amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The decision was made by a committee of outside experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration. The vote recommending the booster shots for older Americans and other high-risk groups helps salvage part of the White Houses campaign but is still be a huge step back from the sweeping plan proposed by administration a month ago to offer booster shots of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to nearly all Americans eight months after they get their second dose. During several hours of vigorous debate Friday, members of the panel questioned the value of offering boosters to nearly everyone. ___ WASHINGTON The White House says President Joe Biden will host a virtual summit next week aimed at calling the world to account on defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting, to take place on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, is meant to encourage more countries to do more to vaccinate the world against COVID-19 and improve coronavirus treatments. Press secretary Jen Psaki says Biden will be asking participants to commit to of a higher level of ambition on global vaccinations and therapeutics, along with preparing for the next pandemic. The U.S. has committed to donating the more COVID-19 vaccine doses than any other nation to the rest of the world, and Biden is expected to ask other well-off nations to make bolder vaccine sharing commitments. The White House says world leaders, philanthropists, industry representatives and non-governmental organizations will participate. ___ BEND, Oregon Dozens of people in Oregon have contacted the states poison center after self-medicating against COVID-19 with a drug used to treat parasites, with five becoming hospitalized and two of them winding up in intensive care units, authorities said Friday. The drug they used was ivermectin, which has no proven use against the coronavirus and is instead approved to treat some parasites in people and some animals. COVID-19 is a devastating disease and can be very frightening, but the public does not need to use -- nor should it use -- unproven and potentially dangerous drugs to fight it, said Robert Hendrickson, medical director of the Oregon Poison Center at Oregon Health & Science University. Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 14, the Oregon Poison Center at OHSU managed a total of 25 cases. Five of those cases involved hospitalization, and two people were so severely ill that they had to be admitted to an intensive care unit. Across the country, calls to poison control centers regarding ivermectin overdoses or exposures has increased five-fold from the pre-pandemic level, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ___ WASHINGTON An influential federal advisory panel has overwhelmingly rejected a plan to offer Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans, dealing a heavy blow to the Biden administrations effort to shore up peoples protection amid the highly contagious delta variant. The vote by the committee of outside experts assembled by the Food and Drug Administration was 16-2, with members expressing frustration that Pfizer had provided little data on the safety of extra doses. Many also raised doubts about the value of mass boosters, rather than ones targeted to specific groups. In an extraordinary move, both FDA leaders and the panel indicated they were likely to take a second vote Friday afternoon on recommending the booster shots for older Americans and other high-risk groups. That would help salvage part of the Biden administrations campaign but would still be a huge step back from the sweeping plan proposed by the White House a month ago to offer booster shots of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to nearly all Americans eight months after they get their second dose. ___ MEMPHIS, Tenn. A federal judge has again blocked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee from allowing parents to opt out of school mask requirements aimed at limiting coronavirus infections. U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman issued a preliminary injunction on Friday for schools in Shelby County, Tennessees largest county. Parents in two Memphis suburbs are suing on behalf of their children with health problems. They argue the Republican governors executive order has endangered these students and harmed their ability to attend classes in person by allowing others to opt out of a mask mandate and spread infections. It is that unmasked presence that creates the danger to these Plaintiffs, the judge wrote Friday. Lipman had already issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 3 stopping schools from allowing parents to opt-out. It was set to expire Friday. The preliminary injunction continues blocking the governors order as the federal lawsuit proceeds. ___ ISLAMABAD The British government took Pakistan off from its travel ban list starting next Wednesday, a move which was welcomed by Pakistani authorities. The announcement was made by the top British diplomat to Pakistan, Christian Turner and the British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Twitter. Pakistan was added to the red list in April, and people traveling from Pakistan to Britain had to quarantine and pay for a 10-day stay in a government-approved hotel. On Friday, Turner in a tweet said he was pleased to confirm Pakistan is off the red list, saying I know how difficult the last 5 months were for so many who rely on close links between the two countries. Pakistans planning minister Asad Umar took to Twitter to welcome the British governments decision. The country is currently facing a fourth wave of coronavirus, which has started subsiding. Pakistan has reported 1.2 million confirmed cases and 27,072 confirmed deaths since the start of the pandemic. ___ YUMA, Ariz. An Arizona couple was sentenced after coughing on Walmart employees who asked them to wear masks and for fighting with police. A judge sentenced 39-year-old Frank Robert Montoya to 18 months in state prison minus 113 days served. Victoria Parra-Carranza, 25, received 30 days in the county jail and a three-year probation term. Both were convicted in April of aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and other crimes for the incident in 2020, the Yuma Sun reported. ___ WASHINGTON The federal government is spending $2.1 billion to improve infection control procedures in health care settings, aimed at preventing the transmission of diseases inside hospitals, dialysis centers and other facilities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is allocating the funding from the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that was signed into law by President Joe Biden this year. Of the new funding, $500 million will create and train strike teams to help facilities with known or suspected COVID-19 outbreaks. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the funding will dramatically improve the safety and quality of the health care delivered in the United States during the pandemic and in the future. Nearly $900 million will be spent over the coming years to support research and training on new ways to control the spread of infections. ___ NEW DELHI India officials say a record 21 million vaccine doses were given across the country in a special drive on Friday, a birthday gift to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who turned 71. India has vaccinated 770 million people, 20% fully vaccinated and 62% with single doses, according to the Health Ministry. The ministry advised people to take precautions to avoid another deadly surge during the upcoming October-November festival season. India was hit by a devastating surge of infections from April to June this year, overwhelming hospital beds and oxygen supply in hospitals. Meanwhile, youth members of main opposition Congress party clashed with police during a street protest Friday demanding jobs amid massive unemployment triggered by the pandemic. On Friday, India reported 34,403 new cases and 320 confirmed deaths. ___ INDIANAPOLIS Indianas largest hospital system says 125 workers are no longer employed with the health network after they didnt comply with its mandate for all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Indianapolis Business Journal newspaper reported Indiana University Health says the employees left the hospital system after a two-week unpaid suspension period that ended Sept. 14. The employees represent less than 1% of IU Healths work force of about 36,000. The health system operates 15 hospitals and dozens of outpatient clinics around the state. IU Health said Sept. 2 it estimated 97% of its employees were vaccinated. IU Health announced in June it would require all doctors, nurses and other employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 1. ___ WASHINGTON Government advisers are debating whether to recommend extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine, a key step toward the Biden administrations plan to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to most Americans. Scientists inside and outside the U.S. government have been divided in recent days over the need for boosters and who should get them. A panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers will vote Friday on the safety and effectiveness of boosters. This week, two top FDA vaccine reviewers joined a group of international scientists in publishing an editorial rejecting the need for boosters in healthy people. The scientists said continuing studies show the shots are working well despite the delta variant. A Pfizer study of 44,000 people showed effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 was 96% two months after the second dose and 84% after about six months. If the FDA approves the extra doses, a separate committee convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will debate on Wednesday who should get boosters and when. The CDC has said it is considering boosters for older people, nursing home residents and front-line health care workers, rather than all adults The World Health Organization has strongly objected to rich nations giving a third round of shots when poor countries dont have enough vaccine for their first. ___ LONDON The British government says it plans to simplify rules for international travel during the coronavirus pandemic and will make an announcement Friday. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says on Twitter hell set out measures to simplify international travel later today in order to reduce costs, take advantage of higher levels of vaccination, and keep us all safe. The government is under pressure to scrap its traffic light system that ranks countries as red, yellow or green -- high, medium or low risk from the coronavirus. Airlines and travel businesses say Britains requirements are keeping people away and hampering recovery from the pandemic. At present, people coming from red list countries must spend 10 days in a government-approved quarantine hotel. Unvaccinated travelers from yellow list countries must self-isolate for 10 days at home, while fully vaccinated travelers need to take coronavirus tests before and after arriving in Britain. Its likely the government will ease the rules that require travelers to take a highly sensitive and pricey PCR test two days after arrival. They could use a cheaper but less sensitive test instead. Any changes will apply only to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own policies. ___ PHNOM PENH, Cambodia Cambodia is vaccinating children ages 6 to 11 so students can safely return to schools that have been closed for months due to the coronavirus. Prime Minister Hun Sen inaugurated the campaign Friday, with his grandchildren and young family members of other senior officials shown being given their shots. Cambodia already has been vaccinating older children. Hun Sen says he ordered health officials to study if children ages 3 to 5 can be vaccinated. Nearly 72% of Cambodias almost 17 million people have received at least one COVID-19 shot since vaccinations began in February. Chinas Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines account for most inoculations. ___ GENEVA The World Health Organization and United Nations on Friday declined to indicate how many in their workforces have been vaccinated. We wont have that because its confidential, said Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman. U.N. Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said: We dont disclose this kind of information. Its something that is said to the medical service. So, no, unfortunately, we wont be able to give you these numbers. Vellucci says shell look into whether percentages of staff that had been vaccinated could be provided. In November, WHO indicated 65 of its staffers had tested positive for COVID-19 at the time, confirming information in an internal e-mail obtained by The Associated Press. The U.N. office in Geneva has often indicated how many of its staff tested positive. Governments list how many people are vaccinated against the coronavirus, and the WHO compiles the information and reports on it. Some countries and companies require vaccines for their workers to go to their jobs. 10 events to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in Connecticut Here are Hispanic Heritage Month events, celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, around the state. MATHER, Calif. (AP) President Joe Biden on Monday used his first Western swing in office to hold out the wildfires burning across the region as an argument for his $3.5 trillion rebuilding plans, calling year-round fires and other extreme weather a climate change reality the nation can no longer ignore. We cant ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change, Biden said, noting that catastrophic weather doesnt strike based on partisan ideology. It isnt about red or blue states. It's about fires. Just fires. With stops in Idaho and California, Biden sought to boost support for his big rebuilding plans, saying every dollar spent on resilience would save $6 in future costs. And he said the rebuilding must go beyond simply restoring damaged systems and instead ensure communities can withstand such crises. These fires are blinking code red for our nation. Theyre gaining frequency and ferocity, Biden said after concluding an aerial tour of the Caldor Fire that threatened communities around Lake Tahoe. We know what we have to do. The presidents two-day Western swing comes at a critical juncture for a central plank of his legislative agenda. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working to assemble details of the infrastructure-plus plan and how to pay for it, a concern not just for Republicans. A key Democratic senator said Sunday that he will not vote for a package so large. In California, Biden took an aerial tour of land charred by the Caldor Fire after getting a briefing from officials at the state emergency services office. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall vote Tuesday, joined Biden for the briefing. Hours later, Biden campaigned with the embattled governor in Long Beach, tying Newsom's leading Republican challenger to former President Donald Trump and telling voters their decision would reverberate around the nation and, quite frankly, not a joke, around the world. By voting against the recall, Biden told the crowd, you'll be protecting California from another Trump climate denier. Newsom joked at the briefing that the California emergency center had become his office because fire season has just kept going, as he amplified Bidens message. This has been a hard year and a half, Newsom said. During an earlier briefing in Boise at the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the government's wildfire response, Biden noted that wildfires start earlier every year and that this year they have scorched 5.4 million acres. That's larger than the entire state of New Jersey, Biden said. The reality is we have a global warming problem, a serious global warming problem, and it's consequential, and what's going to happen is, things are not going to go back," he said. Biden, who visits Denver on Tuesday before returning to Washington, aimed to link the increasing frequency of wildfires, drought, floods and other extreme weather events to what he and scientists say is a need to invest billions in combating climate change, along with vastly expanding the nation's social safety net. The president argued for spending now to make the future effects of climate change less costly, as he did during recent stops in Louisiana, New York and New Jersey all states that suffered millions of dollars in flood and other damage and scores of deaths after Hurricane Ida. Biden also praised firefighters for the life-threatening risks they take, and discussed the administration's recent use of a wartime law to boost supplies of firehoses from the U.S. Forest Service's primary supplier, an Oklahoma City nonprofit called NewView Oklahoma. In deep-red Idaho, several opposing groups leveraged Bidens visit as a way to show resistance to his administration. GOP gubernatorial candidates, an anti-vaccine organization and a far-right group were among those urging people to turn out against the president. More than 1,000 protesters did so, gathering in Boise before Biden arrived to express displeasure with his coronavirus plan, the election and other issues. Chris Burns, a 62-year-old from Boise, said, Im against everything Biden is for. Burns was especially displeased with a sweeping new vaccine mandate for 100 million people that Biden announced last week. Hes acting like a dictator, Burns said. The White House is trying to turn the corner after a difficult month dominated by a chaotic and violent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the surging delta COVID-19 variant that have upended what the president had hoped would mark a summer in which the nation was finally freed from the coronavirus. Biden acknowledged his polling numbers have dipped in recent weeks, but argued his agenda is overwhelmingly popular with the public. He said he expects his Republican opponents to attack him instead of debating him on the merits of his spending plan. Besides the Republican opposition in Congress, Biden needs to overcome the skepticism of two key centrist Democrats in the closely divided Senate. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed concerns about the size of the $3.5 trillion spending package. Manchin said Sunday, I cannot support $3.5 trillion, citing his opposition to a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and vast new social spending envisioned by the president. Manchin also complained about a process he said feels rushed. In California, Biden appeared to respond to those concerned about the plan's size, saying the cost may be as much as $3.5 trillion and would be spread out over 10 years, a period during which the economy is expected to grow. The 100-member Senate is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Given solid GOP opposition, Bidens plan cannot pass the Senate without Manchin or Sinemas support. The climate provisions in Bidens plans include tax incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles, investments to transition the economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources such as wind and solar power, and creation of a civilian climate corps. The Biden administration in June laid out a strategy to deal with the growing wildfire threat, which included hiring more federal firefighters and implementing new technologies to detect and address fires quickly. Last month, the president approved a disaster declaration for California, providing federal aid for the counties affected by the Dixie and River fires. He issued another disaster declaration for the state just before Monday's visit aimed at areas affected by the Caldor Fire. ___ Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Rebecca Boone and Keith Ridler in Boise and Aamer Madhani in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed to this report. BRIDGEPORT A Bridgeport man pleaded guilty Thursday after participating in multiple gang-related shootings, according to Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Leonard Boyles office. Undrea Kirkland, 25, also known as Spooda, has been a member of a gang based in the Charles F. Greene Homes housing complex in Bridgeports North End, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. Members of that gang have been known to distribute heroin, crack, cocaine, marijuana and narcotic pills as well as commit acts of violence. The gang members then celebrate their crimes on social media, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Officials identified three shootings where Kirkland, and sometimes others, shot and attempted to kill members or associates of rival gangs. The first shooting, which occurred on May 22, 2015, involved Kirkland alone shooting someone connected to a gang near Park and Shelton streets on Bridgeports east side, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. On Feb. 27, 2018, Kirkland and others shot people connected to an east end gang at a deli in Bridgeport. Then, on Oct. 4, 2018, Kirkland and others shot a member or associate of an east end gang inside of the Greene Homes housing complex, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Kirkland then appeared in a YouTube video, surrounded by other Green Homes members, as well as members of an ally north end gang. Kirkland was seen holding a firearm and talking about their acts of violence. The group was also celebrating a jury acquittal in Kirklands state trial for attempted murder, the U.S. Attorneys office said. Kirkland has been in custody since April 11, 2019. He pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity, which has a maximum prison term of 20 years. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 9, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are investigating these Bridgeport-based gangs. DENVER (AP) A Colorado state panel has recommended that a mountain peak west of Denver be renamed in honor of a Native American woman who acted as a translator for tribes and white settlers in the 19th century. Thursday's recommendation comes amid national efforts to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native Americans and other people of color after last summer's protests calling for racial justice reform. It is the first of several name changes being considered by the state panel. The Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board recommended changing the name of Squaw Mountain, located in Clear Creek County about 30 miles (48 kilometers) miles west of Denver, to Mestaaehehe Mountain, which is pronounced mess-taw-hay. The name honors an influential Cheyenne translator known as Owl Woman, who facilitated relations between white settlers and Native American tribes in the early 1800s, The Colorado Sun reported. The word squaw, derived from the Algonquin language, may once have simply meant woman. But over generations, the word morphed into a misogynist and racist term to disparage Indigenous women, according to experts. In a similar fashion, the Squaw Valley Ski Resort in California, owned by Denvers Alterra Mountain Co., announced Monday that the new name would be Palisades Tahoe. The resort is in Olympic Valley, which was known as Squaw Valley until it hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Tribes in the region had been asking the resort for a name change for decades. The Lake Tahoe area valley is about 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco and is within the ancestral homeland of the Washoe people, according to Darrel Cruz of the Washoe Tribe Historic Preservation Office. Washoe Tribal Chairman Serrell Smokey said the tribal council expressed its appreciation for the name change and that they plan to work with officials to rename other places in the Olympic Valley that continue to use the derogatory word. The Denver-based company said it is partnering with the Washoe Tribe to educate resort guests about tribal culture, which will include an exhibit on the Washoe way of life. Northern Cheyenne Tribal members filed the application to change the Colorado mountain's name in October with the U.S. Geological Surveys Board on Geographic Names, which officially decides federal land name changes. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis had revived the state's 15-member panel in July 2020 to make recommendations that he will review and forward to the federal group. The mountain is among 13 locations throughout Colorado for which residents have requested name changes. One of the other geographic areas under review by the state board is Mount Evans, which is named after Colorados second territorial governor, who resigned after the U.S. cavalry massacre of nearly 200 Arapaho and Cheyenne tribal members at Sand Creek in 1864. Other locations on the boards list of possible name changes include Chinaman Gulch in Chaffee County, just over 100 miles (160.93 kilometers) west of Colorado Springs and a mesa and creek in Delta County in western Colorado, named by Mexican settlers for the color black. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New Yorkers will be able to avoid jail time for most nonviolent parole violations under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The Less is More law largely eliminates New York's practice of incarcerating people for technical parole violations, including being late to an appointment with a parole officer, missing curfew, or failing to pay fees or to inform a parole officer of a change in employment. Starting in March, people on parole will land back behind bars only for drug or alcohol use if they were convicted of driving under the influence of those substances. Supporters of the law say that New York has one of the the nation's highest rates of incarcerating people for technical parole violations, and that the practice is costly and fuels the cycle of people landing behind bars again after serving their time. Criminal justice advocates applauded the law but urged Hochul and lawmakers to make it effective immediately. That would "stop the unnecessary suffering, said Shaun Whitaker, a member of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, an advocacy group. This bill passing will eliminate the fear of missing a call from my parole officer, or being late to a meeting. I wont have to fear asking for help when it comes to substance abuse counseling. And the move means an estimated 5,000 people who are behind bars in New York for technical parole violations could eventually be eligible for release. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will be releasing hundreds and hundreds of people the right way. The governor said she's going to sign off Friday on the release of 191 eligible inmates from New York Citys notorious Rikers Island jail complex, troubled by years of neglect. They shouldn't have to wait until the enactment date, Hochul said. She said she's working with corrections officials to start transferring incarcerated people from Rikers Island to state corrections facilities. Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin sponsored the legislation, which allows people on parole to receive earned time credits to encourage positive behavior and grants them the right to counsel at parole revocation hearings. When you get to understand the complications ... around how technical parole violations can lead to more incarceration then the original crime in some cases, you say to yourself: Was this done particularly to harm poor Black and brown communities, or was this done to keep us safe? Benjamin, a Harlem Democrat, said. Currently, people suspecting of violating parole can be immediately jailed for up to 105 days while awaiting hearings. The new law speeds up the hearing timeline. Courts must use least restrictive means to ensure people appear, though they could detain people with proven substantial risk of refusing to show up. Courts could direct people who violate most technical rules to receive reentry services from nonprofit community groups, rather than jail. The law caps how long people can be imprisoned again for other violations. Parole rules will no longer include fraternizing with others with a criminal record, or conduct related to cannabis that is legal under state law. Republicans, a minority in the Legislature, have accused Democrats of focusing more on perpetrators of crimes than victims. Benjamin stressed the issue isnt simply about letting people out of prison. If someone has a mental health issue, is someone has drug addiction, the answer should not be prison, Benjamin said. Prison is not a drug treatment facility, its not a mental health facility. We should be driving them toward the help they need. BRIDGEPORT A 16-year-old was arrested Friday morning and charged with the August slaying of Jamel Hayden, a city official said. The juvenile is charged with murder, felony murder, criminal attempt to commit first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit, said Scott Appleby, the citys emergency management director. The facts of the case indicate that the juvenile and his accomplice attempted the rob the victim of $250 worth of marijuana. When the victim refused to surrender it, the juvenile shot him in the back, Appleby said. The investigation continues, and at least one more arrest is expected. The teen was held in lieu of a $3 million bond, Appleby said. Hayden was killed Aug. 28 in a shooting on Lincoln Avenue, police have said previously. Officers were first called to the 100 block of the avenue around 12:30 p.m. when they received reports of a motor vehicle accident with shots fired and a person down, officials said. Police learned the driver of a red Honda CRV, later identified as Hayden, had been shot and involved in the crash. Hayden was transported to St. Vincents Medical Center following the shooting, but was later pronounced dead, according to officials. william.lambert@hearstmediact.com PARIS (AP) Americas oldest ally, France, recalled its ambassador to the United States on Friday in an unprecedented show of anger that dwarfed decades of previous rifts. The relationship conceived in 18th century revolutions appeared at a tipping point after the U.S., Australia and Britain shunned France in creating a new Indo-Pacific security arrangement. It was the first time ever France has recalled its ambassador to the U.S., according to the French foreign ministry. Paris also recalled its envoy to Australia. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a written statement that the French decision, on request from President Emmanuel Macron, is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made by Australia and the United States. He said Australia's decision to scrap a big French conventional submarine purchase in favor of nuclear subs built with U.S. technology is unacceptable behavior between allies and partners. Ambassador Philippe Etienne tweeted the announcements are "directly affecting the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. The Biden administration has been in close contact with French officials about the decision to recall Etienne to Paris, National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said. We understand their position and will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points over the course of our long alliance," she said in a statement. France is our oldest ally and one of our strongest partners, and we share a long history of shared democratic values and a commitment to working together to address global challenges. State Department spokesman Ned Price also stressed the value the U.S. places on its relationship with France and expressed hope that talks between the two sides will continue in the coming days, including at the United Nations General Assembly next week. Macron, however, for the first time since he came into office in 2017, won't be making a speech to the annual meeting of world leaders. Le Drian will instead deliver the French address. The Australian government said it regretted France's decision to recall its ambassador to that nation. Australia understands Frances deep disappointment with our decision, which was taken in accordance with our clear and communicated national security interests, Foreign Minister Marise Paynes office said in a statement. It added that Australia valued its relationship with France and looked forward to future engagements together. The decision to recall the ambassador represents a shocking turnaround for France under Macron, who after an increasingly bitter relationship with former President Donald Trump warmly clasped hands with Biden at a G-7 summit in June and confirmed that America is back. Macron has not yet commented on the issue. The recall is his boldest foreign policy move yet in a four-year presidency in which he has sought to strengthen Frances diplomatic footprint and role in European policy-making, and to rally Frances neighbors around his vision for a Europe less dependent on the U.S. military umbrella. France has pushed for several years for a European strategy for boosting economic, political and defense ties in the region stretching from India and China to Japan and New Zealand. The EU this week unveiled its plan for the Indo-Pacific. Earlier Friday, a top French diplomat, who spoke anonymously in line with customary government practice, said that Macron received a letter from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday morning announcing the decision to cancel the submarine deal. French officials then decided to reach out to the U.S. administration "to ask what was going on," he said. He added that discussions with Washington took place just two to three hours before Biden's public announcement. Le Drian on Thursday expressed total incomprehension at the move and criticized both Australia and the U.S. It was really a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed, he said. This is not done between allies. He also compared Biden's move to those of Trump under his America First doctrine. Paris had raised the issue of the Indo-Pacific strategy during the June 25 visit to Paris of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, expressing the importance of its submarine program with Australia, the French diplomat said. We said that it was for us a very important and critical component in our Indo-Pacific strategy, he said. Blinken met with Macron during the visit. The French diplomat said Australia never mentioned to France its will to shift to nuclear-powered submarines, including during a meeting between Macron and Morrison in Paris on June 15. A recall of ambassadors is highly unusual between allied countries. In 2019, Paris recalled its envoy to neighboring Italy after the countrys leaders made critical public comments about the French government. Last year, France recalled its ambassador to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Macron needed mental health treatment. ___ Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington, Edith Lederer at the United Nations, Rod McGruk in Canberra, Australia, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to the story. ACANDI, Colombia (AP) It was 5 a.m. and in dozens of small tents around 500 migrants began showing signs of life, rising, packing their bags and preparing to cross the Darien Gap, the thick jungle teeming with snakes, bandits and treacherous rivers that separates Colombia from Panama. Over a fire, Emile and Claude cooked some yucca and pasta to take on the six-day journey, along with 20 liters of drinking water for which they paid the steep price of $20. The men declined to provide their last names because they had entered Colombia illegally and feared being fined. Emile, 29, said he had left his home country of Haiti 13 years ago to work in the Dominican Republic. Then he lived in Chile for four years, and two months ago he decided to leave for the United States. The pair picked up their belongings and started walking away from the grasslands that surround the Colombian town of Acandi toward the rainforest. Residents of Acandi served as guides, charging the migrants $50 each to show them the way toward Panama. As borders open around the world after months of pandemic-related lockdowns some illegal migration routes are also seeing an uptick in crossings. Muddy paths across the Darien jungle have long been used by smugglers to take migrants from South America to Central America as they make their way to the U.S. Panamanian immigration officials say the number of people crossing the Darien Gap has reached record levels, with 70,000 migrants making the dangerous trek so far this year and registering at shelters in Panama. Most of those currently crossing the Darien are Haitians who were living in Brazil and Chile and were left with little work due to the pandemic. Visa requirements make it almost impossible for low-income migrants from Haiti to take flights to Panama, Mexico or the United States. So many make the dangerous trek across the jungle in the hopes of starting a new life in the U.S. The jungle is very tough, we just walk without a precise idea of where were headed, said Davidson Lafleur, a 24-year-old Haitian. Lafleur had lived in Chile for three years, and was traveling to the U.S. with his wife and their 11-month old daughter. I paid someone $120 to carry my bags to the (Panama) border, he said. In August, Colombia and Panama agreed to limit the number of migrants crossing the Darien each day in a bid to ease pressure on shelters on the Panamanian side of the jungle. But this created bottlenecks and confusion on the Colombian side. Every day hundreds of migrants arrive in the town of Necocli on Colombias Caribbean coast, where they need to catch a boat that will take them across the Gulf of Uraba. Necoclis mayor, Jorge Tobon, says 1,000 to 1,500 migrants are arriving in the town each day, but only 500 are allowed to leave on boats heading across the gulf and toward the Panamanian border due to the recent agreement between the countries. Tobon says more than 14,000 migrants are currently stuck in the town, with boat tickets sold out until the end of this month. Accommodation in hotels and local homes is scarce. Many migrants sleep in tents next to the beach, where they use seawater to bathe and cook. Once migrants are able to sail out of Necocli their next stop is the Colombian town of Acandi. There the migrants are sprayed with an alcohol solution at the towns ramshackle port by locals trying to stop the spread of COVID-19. The trail into the jungle begins 6 miles (10 kilometers) away from the towns center across a green savannah dotted with farms. While some walk, many pay $20 to get to the start of the trail on a cart pulled by a horse. Others hop on motorcycle taxis that take them for $35. Ones Armonte, a 36-year-old migrant from the Dominican Republic, paid for the motorcycle ride. Within an hour he was at the edge of the rainforest where a seven-day trek across the jungle awaited him. We depend on Gods will now, he said. Nobody wants to face the risk of crossing this jungle, but I need to make money to send to my children. After spending a night at the start of the trail, Armonte and dozens of others began the trek through the jungle. They descended a steep hill and waded across a river where the water reached waist level. The current was strong and the sound of the water drowned out the voices of migrants and guides. As they headed into the rainforest many of the migrants became exhausted and started to leave some of their belongings behind to carry less weight. Wedding portraits, jackets and jeans were strewn along the trail. A woman carried a foam mat in her arms, and was told by guides to drop it because it would be of no use in the jungle. She persisted and carried it while balancing a bag on her head. Trailing the group, a 50-year-old woman fainted after crossing a river. She suffered from asthma and obesity. Yesterday we had another lady with asthma, her inhalator emptied and we had to turn back, said one of the local guides, who declined to give his name over fears of being prosecuted for human trafficking. In the jungle, dangers are plenty. Some migrants try to keep snakes away by tying pieces of garlic to their ankles, or rubbing a disinfectant on their legs. The greatest danger, however, are other humans. In the Darien, armed groups control trails that are also used to traffic drugs. Once migrants cross into Panama they are often abandoned by Colombian guides, who do not want to risk being captured abroad for human trafficking. Bandits often target groups of migrants and steal their possessions. According to Doctors Without Borders, which runs a health post in the village of Bajo Chiquito on the Panamanian side of the Darien, 96 women were sexually assaulted by bandits in the months of May and July, while they tried to cross the jungle. The illnesses most frequently reported by migrants who make it across the jungle are foot funguses, gastrointestinal problems and respiratory infections. Yet thousands continue to make the trek. According to Panamanian officials more than 20,000 people crossed the Darien jungle on foot in August, accounting for almost a third of all crossings this year. Children have reportedly died in the jungle, and some pregnant women have given birth. Migrants say they have seen skulls and cadavers along the routes that cross the Darien. Fear is always with us, Lafleur said as he crossed a river. But we have no choice but to keep on going. The next time you are heading out the door, pause at the mirror and make sure that what you see reflects your purpose and value. Amy Spiegel Nothing stirs up a good fight in your credit union like a discussion regarding the dress code. If you want to kill a meeting or talk endlessly about a topic, then all you have to say is dress code. But as we teach our clients: branding touches everything. Including your dress code. How your employees answer the phone matters. How your restrooms smell matters. And yes, how your employees dress matters as well. Your dress code can absolutely derail your brand. Talk to any H.R. professional or a manager and more than likely theyve had to have a conversation (or two or twenty) with an employee who pushes the envelope regarding what to wear to work. Think jeans, flip flops and all sorts of other options! The best way to deal with the dress code? Tie it back to your brand. Here are some dress code tips when it comes to your brand: Consider your niches Are your target consumers more like factory workers or office workers? One principle to keep in mind is that your dress code should mirror your members/customers. A blue collar worker will more than likely feel uncomfortable (or even intimidated) talking about their financial situation with someone in a suit. When one of our clients went through a rebranding process recently, they actually went down in their dress code. Prior to their brand refresh employees dressed in business attire. However, one of their main targets were rural farmers and workers who often came to the branch in faded and worn-out jeans. Thus, they went not just to business casual but nice jeans and logo wear. After the change many of their members commented about how much more relatable the credit union employees were. Are your target consumers more like factory workers or office workers? One principle to keep in mind is that your dress code should mirror your members/customers. A blue collar worker will more than likely feel uncomfortable (or even intimidated) talking about their financial situation with someone in a suit. When one of our clients went through a recently, they actually went down in their dress code. Prior to their brand refresh employees dressed in business attire. However, one of their main targets were rural farmers and workers who often came to the branch in faded and worn-out jeans. Thus, they went not just to business casual but nice jeans and logo wear. After the change many of their members commented about how much more relatable the credit union employees were. Consider your employees Your employees are your brand ambassadors. So its important to seek their input regarding the dress code. Of course, you must balance their suggestions with your organizations sense of professionalism. There is a huge difference between business casual and Home Depot casual! Most employees will probably want to wear jeans. If you dont feel comfortable with that approach, can you offer one jeans day or tie wearing jeans to some type of charity? As you are considering your employees, examine if there is a different dress code between executives and the rest of the financial institution. For example, at some organizations, the C-Suite wears suits while front-line staff are more casual. That actually can send the wrong message to staff and create a gap between management and everyone else. Your employees are your brand ambassadors. So its important to seek their input regarding the dress code. Of course, you must balance their suggestions with your organizations sense of professionalism. There is a huge difference between business casual and Home Depot casual! Most employees will probably want to wear jeans. If you dont feel comfortable with that approach, can you offer one jeans day or tie wearing jeans to some type of charity? As you are considering your employees, examine if there is a different dress code between executives and the rest of the financial institution. For example, at some organizations, the C-Suite wears suits while front-line staff are more casual. That actually can send the wrong message to staff and create a gap between management and everyone else. Consider your brand messageWhat is your vision, what are your core values and what is your tagline? If you had to communicate those key elements with what you wear, how would you do that? Some financial institutions are now adopting logo wear as the standard requirement for all employees all the time. There are pros and cons with this approach. The pro is that the uniform approach means everyone is always on brand; the con is it takes away some individuality (think robots and everyone looks the same). If you do go with logo wear as a dress code requirement, then also be prepared for the added expense of providing attire for your employees. There is no right or wrong way to do your dress code. You can take an all business approach with coats, ties and dresses. You can take a business casual approach with khakis, slacks and dress shirts. You take a casual approach with jeans. So what should your dress code be? It should match your brand. How often do you hear advice suggesting you make a change or step out of your comfort zone? Theres a reasonconsistency might be easier, safer, and reliable, but it doesnt promote growth. Making a change is good, if its in the right direction, for the right reasons. Yet not all change is the same. And thats ok. So how do we make sure our diligent effort produces the best (or any) results? By understanding the kind of change you need. Away Means Different Things Regular readers know I love to travel, especially to see friends who happen to live in really cool places. Theyre no longer off-limits (thank you thank you thank you vaccine researchers and nurses!). Far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise! My last post came from the seaside deck of a Rhode Island home. I had a lot to say about creativity being driven by a change of scenery. Perhaps after all our time stuck in the same environments, variety is a hot topic. Consider this, change stuff, part 2. Since that trip, Ive done more traveling! Crazy, I know. When in RI, I can count on connecting with kids, participating in impromptu art projects, and riding around in Teslas. Really, its a tough life. And the inspiration I get from the experiences are unique. Last month, I reconnected with one of my best friends. She lives with her boyfriend and foster rabbit north of Atlanta. Theyre child-free, big on hiking, RVing across the country, kayaking, boating, and cars that go fast while making satisfying noises. Its a vastly different environment. Their neighbor even built a Miata race car (I was able to ride along, which was a blast)! We also had the chance to go on longer hikes through nearby National Park sites, see deer, and jet boat around on big lakes. More change, totally different. You Get What You Experience Each of these trips provided a separate set of insights. For the former, well, you saw my writeup. From the latter, I had less downtime. Whether playing complex and awesome board games or learning how to engineer a solar system into an RV, we were always active. Turns out, I needed a bit of this, too. Sure, I didnt sit down on my computer and draft out posts as much (maybe not exactly ideal), but we were tending to bonds built over many years. Had I gone with the same expectations of seeing nephews, Id have been really disappointed. Its a bit like traveling to Disney (which I also did in this span). No one goes there to relax and settle down for a while, as much as their marketing might imply you can. Many know the feeling of needing a vacation from that vacation. Still fun, just totally different. Be open to getting the most out of every experience while pushing expectations aside. Now Im starting to sound like my Tai Chi instructor. Maybe thats not a bad thing. Right Change. Right Place. Right Time. Each day, I read articles about credit union evolution, digital transformation, and emerging competition. Most of these pieces miss the point, which I touched upon way back in 2016. Exponential change means these ideas are already outdated. It would be like me traveling to visit my nephews expecting to engage with them as they were during my last visit18 months earlier. Or planning to do the same things with friends, even though they moved from one side of the country to the other. Or, what any Disney person can understand: Planning to do a theme park with a set schedule for every attraction, show, and food stop. I point and laugh at those people. Thats too stressful, and its just not going to happen. Things will change, and youll have to adapt. Start With Your Need The best industry articles encourage leaders to focus on the mission, understand their staff and members, and recognize the needs. Individual product choices, marketing decisions, and strategy plans follow from this analysis. (We do the same with potential and existing clients.) Whats the change you need to serve your need? Sure, credit unions are evolving. So is everything else. How can you best evolve to meet the needs of your members today, tomorrow, and maybe next year (looking ahead really is hard with exponential change)? For example, tackling your digital transformation is essential. But, deciding to add a chatbot because it makes your service better for young people or on the go is the wrong approach. Just ask Anne Legg of THRIVE, who specializes in that data side of things. Looking at your services lineup and coming to the conclusion, theres just not enough member choice well, thats likely not a great formula, either. Rick Leander at LFB Holdings understands that more progress can come from subtraction, not addition. Find the change that gets your institution on the path it needs. Is that from insights gained while watching the sea roll by in the Northeast? Or more literally, found on a trail in a National Park? Maybe the bustle of Disney provides the right kind of change. Next time youre looking to make changes at your credit union, approach them from a range of perspectives to ensure theyre both the right things and for the right reasons. Because goodness knows change is only going to continue. That might seem a bit outside your comfort zone. Perfect, youre already on the right road. Advertisement Silver Price Outlook: As the US Dollar and US Treasury yields swing higher, silver prices have plunged. The latest batch of US economic data suggests the economy is weathering delta variant concerns, increasing odds for a Fed taper announcement shortly. Recent changes in sentiment suggest that silver prices have a mixed bias in the near-term. No Silver Bullet Delta variant concerns remain at the margins of financial markets, but the recent positive surprises in US economic data have returned focus to the idea that the Federal Reserve may be soon approaching a taper announcement. Rising US Treasury yields (as well as US real yields) have lifted the US Dollar (via the DXY Index), reducing investor appetite for precious metals. Silver prices are now approaching their worst performance since June 17, which preceded a one-month long sideways move before another drop lower. These are ominous signs for silver prices. Silver Prices and Silver Volatility Relationship Atypical Both gold and silver are precious metals that typically enjoy a safe haven appeal during times of uncertainty in financial markets. While other asset classes dont like increased volatility (signaling greater uncertainty around cash flows, dividends, coupon payments, etc.), precious metals tend to benefit from periods of higher volatility as uncertainty increases silvers safe haven appeal. That volatility measures have ticked higher alongside weakness in silver prices is a significant red flag. VXSLV (SILVER VOLATILITY) TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY PRICE CHART (September 2020 to September 2021) (CHART 1) Silver volatility (as measured by the Cboes gold volatility ETF, VXSLV, which tracks the 1-month implied volatility of silver as derived from the SLV option chain) was trading at 29.96 at the time this report was written. The 5-day correlation between VXSLV and silver prices is -0.97 and the 20-day correlation is -0.43. One week ago, on September 9, the 5-day correlation was +0.86 and the 20-day correlation was -0.40. SILVER PRICE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (February 2020 to September 2021) (CHART 2) At the start of September, silver prices were making an attempt to climb through the descending trendline from its summer swing highs, but a false bullish breakout materialized. The latest drop in silver prices has seen a return to the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of the 2020 low/2021 high range at 23.0713, setting up the potential for its lowest close of the year. Silver prices are falling below their daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, which is quickly aligning in bearish sequential order. Daily MACD is trending lower while below its signal line, while daily Slow Stochastics are slumping back towards oversold territory. A return to the August low at 22.1020 appears likely in the near-term. SILVER PRICE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: WEEKLY CHART (November 2010 to September 2021) (CHART 3) In early-August, it was noted that failure to return into the ascending triangle this week would increase the likelihood of a deeper setback, potentially as far as the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the 2011 high/2020 low range at 20.6500. A loss of the August low at 22.1020 would increase the odds of a return to the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement. IG CLIENT SENTIMENT INDEX: SILVER PRICE FORECAST (September 16, 2021) (CHART 4) Silver: Retail trader data shows 91.38% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders long to short at 10.60 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 1.17% lower than yesterday and 10.22% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 6.69% lower than yesterday and 10.40% higher from last week. We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests Silver prices may continue to fall. Positioning is more net-long than yesterday but less net-long from last week. The combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a further mixed Silver trading bias. --- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Strategist How wonderful to have three different things to cheer about in one week. All three of them are linked and, yes, Emma Raducanu is one of them. I'm usually a bit of a grump when it comes to great sporting triumphs. I still yearn for the days of amateur sport when the great athletes did it for glory, not greed. I was 11 when I watched Roger Bannister become the first man ever to break the four-minute mile, shake a few hands and go back to being a doctor the next day. How different from watching the graceless Ronaldo pocket half-a-million for a game, even if he does manage to score a goal or two. Too many of us have seen loved ones suffer at the end of their days, perhaps because dementia has robbed them of a meaningful existence or because they have been struck down by a dreadful incurable disease Yes, Emma became stinking rich the minute she hit that final ace and will become much, much richer and even more famous if she wins another Grand Slam. But there's something about her that suggests it's possible to be a sporting superstar and still be a decent human being. It's hard to define, but it's there. Maybe it's because she seems genuinely to enjoy playing. More, she seems to enjoy life. There's none of that tortured stuff you get from so many great athletes. It's as if we should pity them for being so talented. So that's one good thing that happened this week. Another and I promise you there is a link is that doctors at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association voted not to oppose physician-assisted dying. For the first time in their history, they are now neutral on this profoundly important moral issue. Perhaps they were swayed by the polls, which unfailingly show that the public is way ahead of them. Every year the majority in favour increases. There is a simple reason for that. Too many of us have seen loved ones suffer at the end of their days, perhaps because dementia has robbed them of a meaningful existence or because they have been struck down by a dreadful incurable disease. The last time I wrote about this I described the desperate plight of a woman I first met 20-odd years ago. A bright, funny woman who loved life, until dementia struck. Within ten years she was physically and mentally devastated. Incapable of speech or any independent movement. Two weeks ago she died. Her suffering had finally ended. And a terrible burden had been lifted from her wonderful daughter who had sacrificed her own life to care for her mother. But twice in those hellish years she had developed life-threatening infections. Twice she was rushed to hospital and 'cured'. Why? This week, as the BMA was voting, the mother of another old friend died. She was in her 90s, in poor health and had been in a nursing home, but with all her mental faculties. She wanted to die at home and her children respected her wishes. They were with her in her final hours. They did nothing to hasten her death, but she had made it clear she did not want to be kept alive. They mourned her death, but celebrated her life. This was not assisted suicide, there was no doctor present. But she had a dignified end surrounded by those she loved. This is surely what many of us would hope for. Physician-assisted dying is something different, but it need not be the monstrous act conjured up by so many of its opponents who call it 'euthanasia' and paint terrifying pictures of helpless victims being bumped off by unscrupulous relatives desperate to get hold of their inheritance. The bill now being considered in the House of Lords makes a nonsense of that. It would mean dying in dignity will become a right just as it is already in a growing number of countries. The BMA's vote makes it a little more likely that Parliament will pass the assisted dying bill when it leaves the Lords. Once upon a time scientists and doctors examined our bodies to work out what makes us tick. Now they read our genetic code And yet more good news this week. This time it's about life rather than death. A British genetics pioneer Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian has won one of science's most valuable prizes and is on the point of unveiling a new technology that may transform our understanding of disease and ageing. Once upon a time scientists and doctors examined our bodies to work out what makes us tick. Now they read our genetic code. The simple bit is that DNA is called the code of life because it tells our body how to build proteins. Without proteins, our cells wouldn't work. In fact, there wouldn't be any cells. No cells: no life. That's why, when scientists Francis Crick and James Watson walked into a pub in Cambridge in 1953 and announced 'We have discovered the secret of life', they weren't kidding. They had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. It took another 45 years for scientists to unravel the genetic code of an entire human chromosome. They had to decipher 33.5 million letters. Now, thanks to scientists like Balasubramanian, we have something called Next Generation Sequencing which can do the job a million times faster. That matters because everybody's genetics are different. The cost of sequencing that first human genome is reckoned to have been $1 billion and it took ten years. The new technology means they can do 48 genomes in 48 hours and it costs less than $1,000 a pop. And what all this means is that we are moving closer to being able to control individual genes, which seem to be linked to diseases like cancer. This is where 'personalised medicine' comes in. If we can tell our genes to behave themselves, it changes everything. So perhaps we should be a little more impressed, and even grateful, when Jeff Bezos boasts of spending billions to discover the holy grail which means we can live for ever? On the contrary. We should laugh even louder. The Bezos bunkum distracts attention from what really matters: making our limited time on this earth as fulfilling and pain free as possible. And accepting our death as inevitable and sometimes even welcome. Words like 'women' matter when they die defending their own sex Some thought your tweet was funny. Others thought our most popular living author was 'disgusting' ... a transphobe using her great power to 'punch down' Sorry Ms Rowling, but I'm afraid you've lost. Remember wading into the transgender battle last year over a headline that appeared on a website about 'people who menstruate'? You followed it up with a tweet in which you said 'Surely there used to be a word for those people ... Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?' Some thought your tweet was funny. Others thought our most popular living author was 'disgusting' ... a transphobe using her great power to 'punch down'. Most, I suspect, kept their views to themselves. Why risk being 'cancelled' in a cause that has probably been lost? Anyone who heard the interview Martha Kearney conducted with Dr Viki Male on Radio 4's Today programme this week will have concluded there's no 'probably' about it. Dr Male is a reproductive immunology expert at Imperial College. She has been researching the effects on the menstrual cycle of women who have Covid jabs. Or rather, as she puts it, on people who have periods. Martha, to her credit, used the word 'women'. Dr Male used 'people' not once, not twice, but ten times in a three-minute interview. Intriguingly she even used 'people' referring to those who are 'thinking of becoming pregnant'. The word 'women' did not pass her lips. Maybe it's only words after all. But words matter. Sex is a biological reality and countless brave women have fought for their sex. Many have died in that noble battle. George Orwell knew that thought is dependent on words. That's why his sinister Ministry of Truth in 1984 removed certain words from the dictionary. We must not remove 'women' from ours. Much titteration because the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are featured in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential list for 2021, but why? It was only a matter of time before the couple were honoured in these most spurious of non-awards the global equivalent of a Milk Monitor badge or a Good Attendance certificate. Why, even the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made the list back in 2011 (actually, Kate has been on it three times), along with such fellow visionaries and global motivators as former Prime Minister David Cameron, Bruno Mars, Sting and Colin Firth. Yet the question of who does and who does not influence us, especially among the celebrity brigade, is an interesting one. Today, social media gives them a reach and power to use and disabuse their fame as inclined; to plunge into politics and public health matters, to meddle and muddle the waters in ways that are often unhelpful. Hypocrisy: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes a statement as she attends the 2021 Met Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday in New York Particularly as so many of them are blinkered, hand-wringing Lefties determined to show the public why they are wrong, while they themselves are right. For example. Just before winning his Most Influential award, Colin Firth announced his support for the Liberal Democrats this was during the 2010 general election. I sincerely hope no one back then was influenced by his avowed stance, as the actor withdrew his Lib Dem support a few months later, following their U-turn on tuition fees. What a complete waste of time for all concerned, but especially for Firth's politically vacillating fans, potentially looking for a sign from their hero. Were there some of them, so thrilled by his turn as Harry the banker in Mamma Mia!, that they decided to vote Liberal Democrat, too? This is the terrible question, the great unknowable of the modern age but surely such blind faith is what stars hope lies behind any kind of declaration or endorsement on their part? Think like me. Perhaps Time magazine itself was influenced by the fact that Firth had just won an Oscar for his role in The King's Speech. 'I've got the feeling my career has just peaked,' he famously joked as he accepted the award, although sadly it turned out to be all too true. Ahead of him lay the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, plus the third Bridget Jones film and a complete silence on the political front, thank heavens. Of course, I adore Colin, but the only thing he has ever influenced me to do is reconsider the allure of a damp Regency shirt. Meanwhile, there has been uproar over rapper Nicki Minaj telling her 22 million Twitter fans that her Trinidadian cousin's friend's testicles ballooned after he had the Covid vaccine. The question of who does and who does not influence us, especially among the celebrity brigade, is an interesting one, writes Jan Moir (pictured above) She doesn't say if she was there at the time and witnessed this sight with her own eyes, but surely that might be the explanation? With her terrifying cleavage, claw manicures and fierce personality, Nicki might well make a great number of young men's testicles swell in fear. Yet what is behind her harmful stance on this life-saving matter? Sheer ignorance and the misbegotten desire to influence millions into not having the jab, just like her? The vaccine hesitancy among ethnic minority groups makes her position seem even more irresponsible, yet despite all expert evidence to the contrary, Nicki is the kind of woman who still thinks she knows best. And she does not discourage her followers from concluding that anyone who disagrees with her is racist, misogynist or worse. Chris Whitty, White House chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci and Trinidad's health minister and various others have all challenged her views, but she will not budge and is even having a ferocious online row with Piers Morgan. This is unfortunate, as it forces many bystanders to think about Piers's own testicles, and whether they are shrinking in horror or distending like furious timpani at Nicki's impertinence, particularly as she has called him a 'stupid piece of s***' on Twitter. Which sums up the intellectual rigour of her argument. Of course, Nicki Minaj has been on the Time Most Influential list, too. She was there in 2016, along with Barack Obama, Donald Trump and the supermodel Karlie Kloss. Meanwhile, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this week's other great influencer exhibitionist, made the list in 2019. On Monday night the Democrat politician saw no hypocrisy in turning up to the 21,000-a-head Met Ball in a couture gown that had 'Tax the Rich' emblazoned on the back. But where else would you wear such a thing? It just wouldn't have the same impact at your Auntie Betty's party, would it? My point is that if you hang around long enough, in a silly dress or otherwise, you'll get onto Time's Most Influential list. And considering the number of dopes who make the cut, there seems to be an unhappy conflation between fleeting popularity and actual, enduring influence. Much titteration because the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are featured in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential list for 2021, but why?, asks Jan Moir Even Bart Simpson got on it one year and, speaking of misunderstood sons, we need to talk about this year's prize pick, Prince Harry. Don't you just love his nerve? Last week he made a virtual appearance at the GQ awards and said he was worried about families 'being overwhelmed by masses of misinformation across news media and social media' about the vaccine. Yet here he is, pictured on the Time magazine cover with a mass of misinformation glued to the top of his head. What was that stuff, clearly designed to mislead the public about the abundance of his hair? A computer-generated pelt of pumpkin-coloured turf or something tufty harvested from the nether regions of an unlucky squirrel gambolling in the grounds of the Sussexes' Montecito mansion? Search me. However, if you are thinking this column has been all balls, then for once you are right. Middletons' matches are made in heaven Are the Middletons the luckiest family ever? Blessed with good looks, sunny dispositions and charm, they have always seemed the happiest of units. They started a small kitchen-table business dealing in party accessories that went on to make them millions, so they can add success to their good fortune. And above all this, as Jane Austen might say, they seem to be most fortunate in matrimonial matters. Daughter One (Catherine) marries a future king. Daughter Two (Pippa) marries a multi-millionaire whose parents coincidentally own a highly desirable hotel on St Barts, the Middletons' favourite holiday island. Divine! Alizee Thevenet and James Middleton are pictured attending the Bvlgari Magnifica Gala dinner at Spencer House on June 24 this year in London Meanwhile, only son and youngest child (James) marries a rich and beautiful financial analyst called Alizee Thevenet and has his wedding reception at the Chateau Leoube in the South of France. Hello rose nirvana! James and Alizee seem utterly perfect for each other, in the way that some couples just do. In her novel Mansfield Park, Austen calls marriage 'a manoeuvring business'. But how marvellous if you can manoeuvre yourself into true love and some smashing good luck at the same time. Well done, everyone. Oh dear. Some of my fellow Scottish country folk are furious that all 12 contestants in the new Great British Bake Off series are English. The fact that last year's winner, Edinburgh student Peter Sawkins, was Scottish does not appease. 'You might think, given that there are a dozen people competing, even just the law of chance would mean at least one of the bakers would come from Scotland or Wales,' fumed The National, the SNP-supporting Scottish newspaper. 'But no. Keeping pace with the attitude of the UK Parliament, those two nations have been entirely snubbed in favour of England.' If there were a Scottish Bake Off, no one would have to explain what a fly cemetery is to Paul Hollywood, or be embarrassed about our national shame, the macaroni pie Keep your kilt on, pals! Don't get your clooties in a stooshie. After all, we're talking about burning bannocks here, not Bannockburn. My suggestion for peace? Perhaps there should be a Scottish Bake Off to show off the glories of our traditional Scottish teatime. Why not? Obviously empire biscuits would be forbidden and millionaire's shortbread needs rebranding, but there is so much more to tempt fern cakes, tablet, paradise slices, not to mention onion bridies and the brutal pleasures of the mince round. If there were a Scottish Bake Off, no one would have to explain what a fly cemetery is to Paul Hollywood, or be embarrassed about our national shame, the macaroni pie. In the meantime, the Sassenach version begins on Channel 4 next Tuesday at 8pm. Ready, steady, rage. 'In a world where everyone has an opinion about people they don't know, the Duke and Duchess have compassion for the people they don't know,' reads the gushing citation to the couple's Most Influential award. Shame they don't seem to have much compassion for those they do know. Particularly their respective fathers, the Prince of Wales and Thomas Markle. Begum to help us fight terror? It's a no from me Sometimes it is hard to join in the jubilation for our mighty, axe-wielding leader. Yes, super-great that Boris has finally reshuffled his cabinet of dunces and jettisoned Dominic Raab and Gavin Williamson. Yet many of us are still suffused with deep gloom that they were ever there in the first place. How can men like them so obviously lacking in polish, strategy, vision, humanity, emotional intelligence, culture and common sense rise to such high office? Yes, super-great that Boris (pictured at 10 Downing Street on Thursday) has finally reshuffled his cabinet of dunces and jettisoned Dominic Raab and Gavin Williamson. Yet many of us are still suffused with deep gloom that they were ever there in the first place Although there are always a few shining stars, the general calibre of today's politicians is depressingly low. And not just at Westminster, either. From Biden to Trudeau, Macron to Sturgeon, and Lukashenko to Putin there is little to cheer and much to fear. Still, did Boris miss a trick in the cabinet reshuffle? Surely there is a place in his top team for Shamima Begum as the new Minister for Security and Counter-Terrorism? 'I think I could very much help you in your fight against terrorism because you clearly don't know what you're doing,' she said in an address to the Prime Minister. Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, she added that the British public should see her 'as an asset rather than a threat to them.' Thanks for the tip! Miss Begum wants to return to the UK, but seriously, how can that ever happen? Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain (pictured above), Shamima Begum added that the British public should see her 'as an asset rather than a threat to them.' We all make mistakes in our teens, but few of us take it to the extreme of travelling across continents to join a death cult. And then to stay there and assist ISIS fighters to prepare for their terrible deeds. It may well be that Shamima Begum's biggest crime is one of stupidity rather a thirst for blood and warmongering. But the problem is that her return to the UK would set a terrible legal precedent, one which could haunt us in the future. So I'm afraid it's a no from me. Sports Direct, Saga and We Buy Any Car have been fined a total of 495,000 after sending 354 million unsolicited marketing texts and emails in the UK most people received five each. But will the fines make them stop? It still seems a paltry punishment, leaving them free to carry on regardless. Should the public be tortured with spam text and nuisance calls in this way? Or besieged by Phillip Schofield advertising for them. 'He is our spirit animal,' say We Buy Any Car. Well, perhaps now Phillip will weasel off and cease to be associated with such national pests. Or perhaps not. Did you chance to read yesterday's story about the motorist who came up with a credulity-stretching excuse for speeding off after police had pulled him over for driving without insurance? No sooner had Rhys Boylan given the officers his details, apparently, than he stamped on the accelerator and raced away, starting a high-speed chase. Videos showed him driving at twice the speed limit, haring across a zebra crossing and mounting a pavement on the wrong side of the road. His extraordinary explanation of his behaviour? He needed to get away quickly, he said, because his 'dog was becoming upset' in the back of the car. Well, we've all heard of dogs eating children's homework particularly when the children in question happen to be the laziest and most mendacious in the class. But this was a new one on me. Suffice it to say that Judge Michael Roques was unconvinced that an upset dog in the back of the car was a legitimate reason for driving like a lunatic. Handing down an eight-month suspended sentence to 26-year-old Boylan of Roade, Northamptonshire, the judge told him at Amersham Law Courts: 'That was the worst excuse for putting the lives of others at risk I have ever heard.' Blush But though we may laugh at Boylan's explanation while disapproving, naturally, of his potentially lethal conduct how many of us can put our hands on our hearts and swear that we've never been guilty of offering imaginative excuses for the inexcusable? I certainly can't. As someone who's always found it hard to get up in the mornings, I blush to admit that I spent much of my childhood dreaming up implausible excuses for being late for school. Why was it always me, my teachers began to wonder, whose alarm-clock batteries had gone flat, whose bus pass had been stolen or who'd tripped and fallen into a pool of mud and had to go home to change? As for the vagaries of public transport, scarcely a week went by when my bus to the railway station didn't suffer a puncture, or my train wasn't cancelled or held in a tunnel for hours. Or so I asked the authorities to believe. How many of us can put our hands on our hearts and swear that we've never been guilty of offering imaginative excuses for the inexcusable? I certainly can't [Stock image] Where transport-related excuses were concerned, indeed, I was a veritable Reginald Perrin. As devotees of the eponymous 1970s sitcom will recall, this was the character, played by Leonard Rossiter, who came up with a different excuse every morning for being late for work: 'Eleven minutes late, derailment of a container truck, Raynes Park'; 'Seventeen minutes late, water seeping through the cables at Effingham Junction'; 'Twenty-two minutes late, badger ate a junction box at New Malden . . .' Of course, just occasionally an implausible excuse may turn out to be true. Witness the teacher who contacted a phone-in on Radio 5 this week to say that a pupil had claimed: 'I'm sorry I'm late, but I was chased by an elephant.' To teach the boy a lesson, the teacher entered this excuse in the register and left it for the Head to deal with the culprit. But sure enough, inquiries revealed that the boy had indeed been chased by a circus elephant on his way to school. I fear that I can claim no such justification for some of the excuses I've offered. Indeed, I'm sorry to say that even at the age of 67, I've been known to blurt out a whopper in order to get out of an unwelcome invitation. 'Oh, dear, we would love to see your performance as King Lear in the parish hall,' I might say, 'but the infuriating thing is that we'll be staying with my sister-in-law in Gloucestershire that weekend.' The key thing to remember there, of course, is to settle on the same story with our other halves. After all, it's no good for me to say we'll be in Gloucestershire if Mrs U tells the same budding thespian that we'll be away on a city-break in Paris. Cynic It's also important not to forget the excuse we've put forward. Otherwise, we could be in for a highly embarrassing conversation the next time we meet the author of that unwelcome invitation. 'So how was your sister-in-law, Tom?' 'Oh, we haven't seen her for ages.' 'But I thought you said . . .' Before you condemn me for my questionable excuses, however, let me at least plead that I'm in exalted company. Remember how President Bill Clinton sought to dodge censure for smoking cannabis by promising, 'but I didn't inhale'? More recently, meanwhile, didn't I read somewhere about a certain aide to Boris Johnson, who drove his wife and child to Barnard Castle at the height of the pandemic in apparent defiance of the rules simply in order to test whether the state of his eyesight made it safe for him to drive? But then a cynic might say that Boris Johnson himself may occasionally have put forward an implausible excuse for dodging his responsibilities. Remember when he swore to his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituents that he would move heaven and earth to prevent the expansion of Heathrow Airport? To quote his exact words: 'I will lie down with you in front of those bulldozers and stop the building, stop the construction of that third runway.' So how unfortunate it was for poor Boris that on the very day that MPs were due to vote on the matter, he happened to be called away for a flying visit to Afghanistan, which made it impossible for him to put his vote where his mouth was. Heartfelt Trusting souls may believe that if it hadn't been for that unexpected commitment in Afghanistan, he would happily have defied the Government Whip and voted against the runway even though this would have meant losing the job he then held as Foreign Secretary. The rest of us may not be so sure. Mind you, Boris is far from the first ambitious politician who has found himself unavoidably detained elsewhere at a crucial moment. I'm thinking of Sir John Major, who famously nominated Margaret Thatcher to retain the Tory leadership in the 1990 contest but no sooner had he emerged as her likely successor than he found he had a dental appointment and was unable to vote for her! It's also important not to forget the excuse we've put forward. Otherwise, we could be in for a highly embarrassing conversation the next time we meet the author of that unwelcome invitation [Stock image] And what about Sir Alex Ferguson, the former manager of Manchester United? His famous excuse for Southampton's 3-1 victory in 1996, which ended Man U's unbeaten run of 12 games, was that his team couldn't see each other properly in the grey away strip they were made to wear in the first half. True or untrue? I leave that decision to you. But let me end with a heartfelt plea to politicians of every hue. Yes, I know there have been teething problems with Brexit, as was always inevitable (though there have not been a fraction as many as die-hard Remainers predicted, with their prophesies of catastrophic unemployment and economic meltdown). I know, too, that the pandemic has caused massive unforeseen difficulties for Whitehall. But is it too much to ask that Remainers stop blaming Brexit, and ministers the pandemic, for absolutely everything that has gone wrong in Britain since Boris came to power? Danish skincare guru Ole Henriksen has revealed his secrets for radiant, youthful-looking skin - and the one product you never knew you needed, until now. The age-defying cosmetician, 71, whose eponymous skincare line is beloved by some of world's biggest stars, is a firm believer that beauty starts from the inside out - and says cutting out sugar is the greatest gift you can give your complexion. Mr Henriksen, who boasts a glittering celebrity client list that includes Naomi Campbell and Kris Jenner, says his latest product, 'Dewtopia 20% Night Acid Treatment' ($85 AUD), is unparalleled in its ability to transform tired skin while you sleep. The renowned expert, who has even advised Australian-born Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, told Daily Mail Australia that skincare should never be rushed, allowing at least two minutes for each product to soak in for maximum results. 'It doesn't take much longer to do it in this way than it does to slap it on in a rush. It's a moment to give back to yourself - make love to your skin!' he said. Age-defying: Danish skincare guru Ole Henriksen, 71, has revealed his secrets for radiant, youthful-looking skin The Danish cosmetician, 71, whose eponymous skincare line is beloved by some of world's biggest stars, is a firm believer that beauty starts from the inside out - and says cutting out sugar is the greatest gift you can give your complexion. FOR HYDRATION For supple, healthy skin, Mr Henriksen recommends his 'Truth Serum' ($182) and 'C-Rush Brightening Gel Creme' ($62) - but admits the real key to hydration is actually free. He says drinking plenty of water is the secret to natural radiance, adding that you must 'hydrate, hydrate, hydrate' in pursuit of a glowing complexion. Mr Henriksen also believes exercise is essential, noting: 'The skin must be kept in motion just like the body.' He is known to perform 300 push-ups a day and run long distances barefoot, as well as being a long-time fan of yoga and dancing. Mr Henriksen emphasised the importance of drinking plenty of water and eliminating junk food completely FOR BRIGHT EYES AND CLEAR SKIN Mr Henriksen laced many of his best-selling treatments with vitamin C, after learning about its healing and restorative benefits from leading cancer specialists. Also among them are his famous 'Truth' collection and the cult favourite 'Banana Bright Eye Creme' ($54), which promises to stimulate the production of collagen and brighten dark under-eye circles like a natural concealer. 'It's light as a feather - it's makeup and eye care in one jar!' he said. Mr Henriksen also raved about the 'Banana Bright Vitamin C Serum' ($96 AUD), which is the best-selling vitamin treatment in its category in Sephora Australia. 'It gets rid of dead skin cells to reveal a beautiful brightness,' he said. Mr Henriksen laced many of his best-selling treatments (pictured) with vitamin C, after learning about its healing and restorative benefits from leading cancer specialists FOR YOUTHFUL-LOOKING RADIANCE Radiant skin starts when the sun goes down, according to Mr Henriksen, who says a simple night-time routine and enough sleep is the secret to the natural dewy finish everybody craves. 'The night is when skin repairs itself, so sleep is vital,' he said. To achieve a youthful-looking glow, he believes it's hard to look past his 'Goodnight Glow Retin-ALT Sleeping Creme' ($88 AUD), which has been proven to improve firmness by up to 60 per cent in just four weeks. Made with bakuchiol, a plant-based alternative to retinol, the cream reduces the appearance of fine lines and pigmentation by exfoliating dead skin cells, transforming the face overnight. Mr Henriksen also recommends his best-selling 'Dewtopia 20% Night Acid Treatment' ($85 AUD), which has repeatedly sold out since launching in Australia in July 2021. his latest product, 'Dewtopia 20% Night Acid Treatment' ($85 AUD), is unparalleled in its ability to transform tired skin while you sleep The serum, which is packed with powerful natural ingredients such as aloe vera, Nordic birch sap and licorice extract, promises to nourish and brighten skin while you sleep. 'You can see the difference almost immediately,' he said. Independent product review site Finder Australia declared: 'If you can afford it, this potent night serum will make a great addition to your skincare routine.' A customer shows the brightening benefits of Ole Henriksen's $64 Banana Bright cream Mr Henriksen's tips could best be described as the secret to celebrity skin. The Danish skincare king has treated the the faces of pop icons such as Cher, Katy Perry and Madonna, as well as movie stars including Hugh Jackman, Charlize Theron and Vanessa Hudgens. He has been photographed at elite events with some of the world's top models like Danish-born Nina Agdal and once gave a facial to the queen of the catwalk, Naomi Campbell. He even enjoyed a long-standing professional relationship with the late David Bowie. When it comes to his ultra-famous clientele, Mr Henriksen is characteristically humble. Ole Henriksen's single step treatment for acne and breakouts Asked for his best advice on curing acne and breakouts, Mr Henriksen had a simple answer. 'Diet, diet, diet.' he told Daily Mail Australia. The cosmetician, 71, described acne as a 'modern day skin disease' which can be linked to the widespread availability of sugar-laced, processed food. He advises dramatically reducing your intake of sugar and bathing your face with a muslin cloth soaked in warm water and 10 to 15 drops of eucalyptus and tea tree oil. 'That in itself will purify the skin and disinfect blemishes,' he said. Mr Henriksen said erupted skin with active breakouts should never be treated with exfoliants or products that will spread bacteria. Advertisement 'I view it as an honour to have worked with so many celebrities - the list is a mile long,' he said. In August, he secured the coveted seal of approval from Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner, who gushed about his West Hollywood spa on social media. 'Just had the most amazing facial ever! Been going here for 30 years and it's never been better,' she wrote on her Instagram Stories. Days earlier, the 65-year-old 'momager' shared her gratitude for a lavish gift basket she had received from the skincare king himself, telling her 42.7 million followers she is a 'long-time fan' of his brand. 'I have loved this brand and Ole for decades. Just amazing!!!' she wrote. Australian shoppers can get their hands on the full Ole Henriksen collection at Sephora Australia. Emma Weymouth looked sensational last night in a black mini dress as she joined her husband Ceawlin Thynn, 47, for a night out in London. The Marchioness of Bath, 35, wrapped up for the autumnal weather in a blue shawl with a silver a gold trim which showed off her lithe limbs. Highlighting her trim waistline, the socialite, who is married to Ceawlin, Viscount Weymouth, 8th Marquess of Bath held the dress together with her hands as she slipped into the back of taxi. Emma Weymouth looked sensational last night in a black mini dress as she joined her husband Ceawlin Thynn, 47, for a night out in London The Marchioness of Bath, 35, wrapped up for the autumnal weather in a blue shawl with a silver a gold trim which showed off her lithe limbs Emma tied her long hair back into a low bun, leaving two strands of hair highlighting her face. She added a pair of statement gold and blue earrings which dangled down her neck. The mother-of-two opted for a light make-up look with a light dab of foundation and highlighter to emphasise her dewy skin. She added a dark pink lip gloss and smoky eyeliner around her eyes, with a gold eyeshadow to add an extra touch of glamour. Highlighting her trim waistline, the socialite, who is married to Ceawlin, Viscount Weymouth, 8th Marquess of Bath held the dress together with her hands as she slipped into the back of taxi Meanwhile, Ceawlin opted for a smart casual look in a navy suit with an open collar white shirt and no tie. Emma's appearance comes after the Strictly Come Dancing star returned to the UK after attending the nuptials of her friend Lady Kitty Spencer in Italy followed by a short break in France with her children. Princess Diana's niece, 30, wedded her long-term boyfriend Michael Lewis, 62, at a 17th century Italian castle last Saturday. Lady Kitty's father Earl Spencer, 57, did not attend and she was walked down the aisle by her brother Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, 27, and half brother Samuel Aitken, whose father is businessman Jonathan Aitken. During her time aboard she was spotted exploring Venice with her hunky Serbian model pal Alessandro Egger this month. Emma tied her long hair back into a low bun, leaving two strands of hair highlighting her face She jetted to Italy to attend a slew of events hosted by Dolce & Gabbana over the bank holiday period and appeared to be making the most of the idyllic city as she went exploring with her good friend Alessandro. The hunk, 29, who is in a relationship with Italian model Madalina Doroftei, shared a snap on Instagram showing himself and Emma posing up a storm by the water. Of their time together, a source told The Sun: 'Alessandro is a hot property on the fashion scene and has a stunning girlfriend in Italy and, of course, Emma is married. Ceawlin opted for a smart casual look in a navy suit with an open collar white shirt and no tie 'But while she's been in Venice, they have been stepping out with each other and enjoying the city together.' There is no suggestion Emma and Alessandro are romantically involved, with fashion insiders telling the publication the pair are just 'good friends'. MailOnline contacted Emma and Alessandro's representatives for comment at the time. Emma's father-in-law Alexander Thynn died from Covid-19 in April, making her husband the Marquess of Bath in April, and inheriting the estate Longleat, which is famous for being the first drive-through safari park outside of Africa. The mother-of-two opted for a light make-up look with a light dab of foundation and highlighter to emphasise her dewy skin Emma added a dark pink lip gloss and smoky eyeliner around her eyes, with a gold eyeshadow to add an extra touch of glamour Emma has been married to Viscount Weymouth since June 2013, with the couple sharing sons John, five, and Henry, three. On her wedding day Emma became the first black marchioness in British history. Yet in Novemeber Emma said she doesn't want her skin colour to be a 'defining characteristic' and is a reluctant role model after becoming Britain's first black marchioness. Emma starred on the cover of Tatler's January 2021 issue and opened up about her family's wildly ambitious plans for Longleat, their Wiltshire estate. Emma has been married to Viscount Weymouth since June 2013, with the couple sharing sons John, five, and Henry, three. While Emma, the daughter of a Nigerian oil tycoon, is deeply respectful of her new title, she is a reluctant role model, according to the society magazine. 'Where I have been discussed in a positive light, as positive change, I'm grateful for being included in the conversation,' she said. 'I see my role as a practical thing: as a wife, mother and someone with a responsibility to maintain this incredible estate. I aspire to a future where [my skin colour] is not a defining characteristic.' Good Morning Britain viewers were not impressed by a fierce debate on today's show about whether people should use pet names like 'honey,' 'darling,' or 'sweetheart in the workplace. Celebrity chef Rustie Lee and author and journalist Ella Whelan discussed a recent tribunal ruling that stated pet names are 'demeaning' in the workplace with hosts Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway. Rustie, speaking from Edinburgh, didn't like pet names, and said it is 'unprofessional' to use them in the workplace, while Ella, a resident of East London, said we shouldn't be 'instituting policies to protect wallflowers.' Meanwhile, viewers said pet names have been used for years and always as a term of endearment. Celebrity chef Rustie Lee, pictured, speaking from Edinburgh, said she thinks using pet names in the workplace is unprofessional Rustie opened up the debate by saying she uses pet names with her loved ones, calling her husband 'darling' and her friends 'sweetheart.' However, she said she disliked when people she doesn't know use a pet name talking to her. 'It is totally unprofessional for someone you don't know to rock up, coming out with "Hi darling, you alright?" No, I'm not alright, don't call me darling, you don't know me,' she said. She gave the example for a phone call she recently has had with an insurance company representative who called her by her first name, and whom she asked to call her 'Miss or Mrs Lee.' Journalist and author Ella Whelan said workplaces shouldn't be 'instituting regulatory policies to protect wallflowers' Viewers said people who complained about pet names were 'cry babies' while others said they hated when their colleagues called them 'mate' She said using pet names with people you don't know is 'not on,' and added 'I don't accept that and I don't think people should do it.' While she agreed most people mean the pet name as a term of endearment and as a 'nice thing,' she added you needed to 'know when to stop. 'If a person doesn't like it, don't do it, because it's hurting their feeling, their soul, and it should stop. Rustie said she agreed with the ruling, because: 'Some people aren't strong enough to stick up for themselves and say "I don't like being called darling, sweetheart and love. That is for my husband or wife, or whoever who's dear to be to call me that, not you".' However, Ella added that despite her dislike of pet names, a tribunal should not be ruling on the terms people use for each other in the workplace. 'Rusti makes the important point that this is all contextual: it matters if you know or don't know the person, it matters, like someone said earlier, whether they are good looking or not,' she said. 'The subjective way we deal and talk to each other shouldn't be regulated by a tribunal ruling,' she said. 'If a woman has language directed at her that she doesn't like, she should feel empowered to say, "Hang on a minute, my name is Ella, don't call me darling" or have a conversation with that person rather than running to HR,' she added. The debate took place after a Manchester judge ruled pet names such as 'sweetheart,' 'love' and darling in the workplace is 'demeaning' The journalist gave more details about the legal case which sparked the ruling and subsequent debate. 'The case that we're talking about, at the funeral home, it wasn't that he was just using words like "sweetie" or whatever, he was also making jokes about looking up her skirt, making jokes about her chest. It was an ongoing issue, and so that's why he had disciplinary action against him, which you can understand,' Ella said. 'At the risk of sounding cruel, if we start instituting more and more regulatory policies in the workplace to protect wallflowers, that's a problem. 'It's a particular problem for women's freedom. The underlying assumption here is that women need HR reps and tribunals in order to protect their right to fact back against sexism,' she added. She went on to say she knows 'many' feminists, some of who had taken part in the Sarah Everard protest of last winter, who don't feel like they need protection 'more often than not from male HR reps.' 'There is a distaste to this, the repetition of sexist ideas that women are weak and kind of cowering every time someone comes round and call them "babe", and that men always all have bad intensions. 'I think we need to push back at that very stereotypical gender norm and be a bit more informal in the work place,' she said. She said that work culture pre-pandemic saw people spend more and more time at work, and treating their colleagues like family, and that relations within the workplace needed to become more informal. Viewers were not impressed with the debate, saying they didn't understand the need to ban pet names, and that women used them more than men. Viewers said the debate had gone too far, but some agreed men often used 'love' in a patronising way The debate arose after a judge in Manchester ruled that calling women at work 'love' or 'hun' is demeaning but it's acceptable to use 'mate' for a male colleague, at a tribunal involving a funeral firm manager who was sacked for using inappropriate language towards female staff. Mike Hartley had claimed he was a victim of the Me Too movement when he was fired from Blackpool-based funeral firm D Hollowell & Sons Limited in January of this year. A Manchester tribunal heard how he regularly called women 'sweet', 'love', 'chick' and 'honey', which he argued was the same as calling male counterparts 'mate' or 'lad'. However the tribunal found it was inappropriate to compare the two, as the way he addressed men did not undermine them in the way his names for women did. 'Calling someone "mate" or "lad" is not a "pet" name in our opinion, it is a nickname,' Employment Judge Pauline Feeney said. 'They are not demeaning... however, chick, babes, bobs, honey, hun and sweetie are all demeaning and infantilising ways of referring to women.' The final straw came when he called a colleague 'Rachie boobies' after making a comment about looking up her skirt, leading her to file a sexual harassment complaint which led to his dismissal. The hearing heard how Mr Hartley began working as a driver and bearer for D Hollowell & Sons Limited in 2017 where he was promoted to client liaison and HR manager the following year. In 2019, colleague Rachel Anderton complained about him making 'insulting' and 'very inappropriate' comments. The panel heard Mr Hartley requested to add her on Facebook 'immediately' after meeting her, asked her what her 'vital statistics' were when enquiring about uniform size and called her pet names such as 'honey', 'babe' and 'chick' numerous times. Questions about Meghan Markle's jewelery look set to overshadow her appearance on the cover of Time magazine, amid a growing mystery surrounding the ring on her right pinky finger. Yesteday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle denied claims that the ring, made by celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz and reportedly worth an estimated $62,000, was fashioned with diamonds gifted to the couple by a mystery donor in the Middle East. They said the ring was sourced by a stylist on the shoot directly from the designer and that there was no link to a mystery donor in the Middle East. But in a spectacular U-turn, they later rolled back the denial, and clarified that they were referring only to a ring on Meghan's left hand - a $525 pinky ring from Shiffon, which is meant to represent women's empowerment There was no further mention made of the Lorraine Schwartz ring in question on her right hand, begging the question of whether Meghan has something to hide about the provenance of the diamond, which was first seen on her finger in October 2020. If the diamonds did indeed come from the Middle East, it's not clear if Meghan received the gift while she was still a working royal, or after she performed her final official duties in early March 2021. She did not visit the region officially, but there's always the possibility she made a private trip. Buckingham Palace only publishes a list of gifts received by royals while on duty in the UK or overseas, and there is no public record of Meghan being given any diamonds. Gifts sent to the royals outside of official engagements are recorded but not made public. The palace directed inquiries about the diamonds back to the Sussexes' representatives in the US. It comes after Meghan was criticized earlier this year when it emerged she wore a pair of dazzling diamond earrings on her tour of Fiji in October 2018 that were a wedding gift from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who's been accused of ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Meghan Markle sported a staggering $384,000 worth of jewelry while posing for the cover of Time's most influential people issue alongside her husband Prince Harry (pictured) Meghan Markle wore a $62,000 ring (pictured) for her Time cover shoot, first debuted in 2020, when it was reported that the piece was made with diamonds gifted to the couple from the MIddle East Meghan debuted the piece, reportedly made by celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz, for a photo in October 2020, marking her participation win a specially curated edition of TIME100 Talks with Prince Harry The Duchess also showed off the gem in her video chat with Melissa McCarthy to mark her 40th birthday Meghan sported a staggering $445,000 worth of jewelry while posing for the cover of Time's most influential people issue alongside her husband Prince Harry, including the Lorraine Schwartz piece that's been spotted on her hand several times. She debuted it for another Time shoot back in October 2020 - when Page Six claimed that Lorraine Schwartz' who 'fashioned [it] from a gift of diamonds that the couple received from the Middle East', and wore it for her 40th birthday video with Melissa McCarthy. The pinky ring modeled by Meghan on her Time cover has been valued at $62,000 - adding another hefty price tag to her already-impressive collection of jewels. Speaking exclusively to FEMAIL, Alexandra Michell Gemologist Prestige Pawnbrokers of Channel 4s Posh Pawn commented: 'It's a simple emerald cut diamond on band, which is usually high clarity due to the cut. I'm estimating this as 1.50cts high colour (D) high clarity (internally flawless) and to be worth around $62,039 (45,000).' Anthony French, diamond expert at Austen & Blake commented: 'I would say it is approximately 2ct emerald solitaire. I would suspect it to be worth around $62- $69,000.' Laura Lambert, Founder of Fenton added: 'Meghan has selected an emerald cut bezel set solitaire, which is a traditional engagement ring style. Wearing it as a pinky ring is Meghan's modern take on a classic style with a diamond, which in this size and scale is usually worn on the engagement or cocktail ring finger.' After denying that Meghan was wearing a ring made with diamonds gifted from the Middle East, her reps clarified that they were referring only to the pinky ring on her left hand. Among the jewelry she sported were two $525 diamond Duet Pinky Rings, from New York-based brand Shiffon, which are meant to represent female empowerment According to Page Six, Meghan 'turned to celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz to fashion the ring from a gift of diamonds that the couple received from the Middle East.' Pictured, the jewelry on the Times magazine cover Other trinkets worn by the Duchess for the shoot include the Cartier Tank watch that once belonged to Princess Diana and was gifted to her by her husband in the early days of their relationship, which she paired with a $6,900 Cartier Love bangle. In March this year, the royal was criticized by a lawyer fighting for justice for murdered Jamal Khashoggi over her decision to wear diamond earrings in Fiji in 2018, given to her by the man accused of ordering the brutal killing. Michael Eisner, who heads a human rights group founded by Mr Khashoggi three months before his death, claimed the stunning chandelier earrings were 'bought with blood money' by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Duchess of Sussex attends a reception and dinner hosted by the President of Fiji at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, Fiji, October 2018 wearing the earrings BRUTAL DEATH: Journalist Jamal Khashoggi He said he was 'baffled' that the Duchess did not know the Prince, known as MBS, was linked to the murder when she wore the earrings at a State dinner, or his appalling human rights record. 'Those earrings were bought with blood money and given to her by a murderer,' said Mr Eisner, chief operating officer of Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn). 'She has no business wearing them.' The Chopard earrings were presented to the Queen by the Crown Prince as an official gift for Meghan on her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018. The Duchess wore them on the first night of a visit with her husband to Fiji on October 23, 2018 three weeks after Mr Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and when there were prominent media reports linking MBS to the shocking assassination. The Duchess's lawyers insisted that at the time of the dinner she was unaware of speculation that MBS was involved in Mr Khashoggi's murder. How was it that the campaigning duchess didn't know Saudi ruler was murder suspect? Fearless dissident Jamal Khashoggi was last seen alive entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on the afternoon of October 2, 2018. Within two hours he was killed by a Saudi hit squad, who dismembered his body using a bone saw. Mr Khashoggi was an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime and suspicion quickly grew that the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, was involved. On October 18, The Times reported how a close circle of officials and security officers around MBS were the focus of the murder probe. A day later, The Sun told how one of MBS's bodyguards was suspected of the brutal killing. Later that day Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, told the BBC's World at One radio programme that 'all the evidence points to [the killing] being ordered and carried out by people close to Mohammed bin Salman'. Sir John's damning comments were reported widely. The Duchess of Sussex wore the earrings given to her as a wedding gift by MBS to a state dinner in Fiji on October 23. Ten days later, on November 2, the BBC's respected security correspondent Frank Gardner wrote an article on the BBC News website entitled: 'Khashoggi murder: Is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed finished?' He wrote: 'Official Saudi denials that he himself had anything to do with the murder in a plot hatched from right within his inner circle have been met with profound scepticism.' On November 14, the Duchess wore the earrings again at Prince Charles's 70th birthday party at Buckingham Palace. Advertisement At the time, the Kensington Palace press office told the media that the earrings had been 'borrowed' but did not say from whom. While the Royal Family's guidelines regarding the acceptance and ownership of gifts were adhered to, The Mail on Sunday learned that Palace aides were frustrated that the earrings were worn. 'Nowhere in the gift policy does it say you have to wear them,' one source said. It is understood the diamond earrings were presented by MBS as a wedding gift for Meghan during his three-day State visit to Britain in March 2018. Court Circular records show he had lunch with the Queen and Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace on March 7, 2018. There is no suggestion he gave the earrings to the Duchess in person, or indeed has even met her. It is understood the earrings were logged on an official register of gifts and that Meghan was informed about them in July 2018. They were then selected as part of the jewelery collection to accompany the Duke and Duchess on a 16-day tour of Fiji, Tonga, Australia and New Zealand. Every detail on such tours is meticulously planned months in advance, including the clothes and jewelery to be worn at each event. The couple were accompanied on the Fiji and Tonga leg of their tour by the hugely experienced Sir David Manning, a former British ambassador to the US and Tony Blair's former foreign policy adviser. On October 18 five days before Meghan wore the earrings The Times newspaper reported how a close circle of officials and security officers around MBS had emerged as the focus of the investigation into what had happened to Mr Khashoggi. Lawyers for Meghan told The Times that although she may have said they were borrowed, every relevant member of staff knew who they were from. They added that she was unaware of the rumours at the time that the Crown Prince was involved in the murder. Lauren Kiehna, author of royal jewellery blog The Court Jeweller, said: 'What was unusual was the statement the jewels were 'borrowed' without explaining who owned them. When jewels are borrowed from the Queen, the Palace generally says so.' The Duchess wore the earrings for a second time on November 14, 2018 to Prince Charles's 70th birthday party at Buckingham Palace. This prompted an aide to confront Harry about the earrings, according to The Times. The Prince was reported to have looked 'shocked' that people knew where the earrings came from. Mr Khashoggi, who wrote for the Washington Post, was killed and dismembered by a Saudi hit squad inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. His body has never been recovered. An explosive CIA report released by US President Joe Biden nine days ago claimed MBS approved Mr Khashoggi's murder. The Crown Prince, who is Saudi Arabia's Deputy Prime Minister and day-to-day ruler, has said he bears responsibility for the murder 'because it happened under my watch', but has denied prior knowledge of the execution. The Dawn human rights group and Hatice Cengiz, Mr Khashoggi's fiancee, last year filed a lawsuit against MBS and 20 alleged co-conspirators in a US court. The Saudi royal family has regularly given jewellery to their British counterparts. Royal jewellery expert Lauren Kiehna said Princess Diana received a suite of diamond and sapphire jewels from Crown Prince Fahd as a wedding present in 1981, and the Duchess of Cornwall received three suites of jewellery during her official visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2006. Help viewers were left 'in bits' by the 'scarily true' scenes in Jodie Comer's new drama as they slammed the 'disgraceful' government for the lack of PPE for staff who were forced to watch residents die from Covid-19. The Channel 4 drama, which aired last night at 9pm, was set in a fictional Liverpool care home and told the moving story of young care home worker Sarah, played by Jodie Comer, and a challenging patient during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year. Intelligent social misfit Sarah unexpectedly found her calling as a carer with a special talent for bonding with residents - in particular Tony, 47, played by Stephen Graham - whose onset Alzheimer's resulted in moments of violent outbursts. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck just six weeks into her probation period, the urgent need for more PPE and staff became only too apparent. And emotional viewers were quick to take to social media to explain how the harsh reality of the moving scenes had left them 'in bits.' The Channel 4 drama, which aired last night at 9pm, was set in a fictional Liverpool care home and told the moving story of young care home worker Sarah (pictured), played by Jodie Comer, and a challenging patient during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year In poignant scenes, family members were shown speaking to loved ones through glass windows (pictured) Taking to social media, one person penned: 'Don't think I had a dry eye through the whole thing. People should never forget how care home patients and staff were treated' 'Don't think I had a dry eye through the whole thing. People should never forget how care home patients and staff were treated,' wrote one, while a second penned: 'In bits the whole way through! Amazing performances from the two best actors in the country.' A third added: 'The fact the average wage for a care worker in the UK is 8.80 an hour shows just how unbalanced the social care system is. The way people in care have been treated the past 2 years is disgraceful! Jodie Comer & Stephen Graham did an amazing job of bringing this to light in #Help.' During the show, panic hit when Covid-19 was brought into the care home by one of the 'bed-blockers' the hospital delivered in a bid to free space for the increasing number of patients being diagnosed with the virus. In one particularly poignant moment the ambulance crew who brought them asked where the staff's masks were, to which they replied: 'We were told we didn't need them.' As the poignant drama progressed, residents around Sarah were seen dying and with the government offering all PPE to hospital, care homes were left in desperate need. Sarah (pictured, played by Jodie Comer) is only six-weeks into her probationary period when Covid-19 strikes across the nation As the poignant drama progresses, residents around Sarah are dying (pictured) or falling ill, with the government offering all PPE to hospital, leaving care homes in desperate need When Steve made several urgent phone calls to try and get his hands on some PPE for staff, he eventually had no choice but to settle on some dust masks he managed to get hold of from a builder friend. And as things took a turn for the worse, Covid distancing rules resulted in the laundry service being reduced and bedsheets being washed less than usual, while residents were banned from the communal area and had to be fed in their rooms. Eventually, when Steve and other care home staff caught Covid-10, Sarah was left on her own to deal with all of the residents including Kenny, who fell seriously ill. With the local surgery not answering her calls, she found herself in a queue to be answered by 111, and when she rang 999, she was told an ambulance would not arrive for hours. With no other option, she asked Tony for a helping hand to turn Kenny on his front to help him breathe more easily, something which she said she had 'read about on one of the forums.' One person took to social media and penned: 'Thank you to Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer for doing such a poignant project that's very much needed for everyone to watch . Amazing performances' While many who tuned in were left in tears due to the poignant scenes, others praised the brilliant performances of the actors. '#Help is a brilliant, but sad watch. Learning the reality of what carehomes suffered during Covid was shocking. Jodie Comer & Stephen Graham are geniuses,' wrote one, while a second commented: 'Watched #Help last night and wow. What a gut wrenching heart warming film.' 'Thank you to Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer for doing such a poignant project that's very much needed for everyone to watch . Amazing performances.' A third added: 'Fantastic programme, but truly heartbreaking,' while a fourth penned: 'Powerful TV viewing and a real damning look at how governments treated care homes.' Elsewhere, a fourth commented: 'So, @channel4's #help was an absolute masterpiece. It's beautifully produced with impeccable performances all round. Utterly devastating to watch because it's so real. It happened. It happened right here in our care homes just over a year ago under. Products featured in this Mail Best article are independently selected by our shopping writers. If you make a purchase using links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission. From Emma Chamberlain's neon green eyeliner to Megan Fox' 50's inspired Bettie bangs, the 2021 Met Gala saw celebrities bringing their A-game with bold outfits and trendsetting beauty looks. Another best beauty moment was supermodel's Gigi Hadid's fiery red hair, black cat-eyeliner, powdery blue eyeshadow and long fluttery eyelashes, created by celebrity makeup artist and Maybelline New York Global Brand Ambassador Erin Parsons. To create Gigi's voluminous lashes, Erin used a surprisingly affordable mascara, Maybelline's The Falsies Instant Lash Lift Mascara. And today, you can get the look for less, as the bestselling mascara is on sale for 5.49 on Amazon. To create Gigi's voluminous lashes, celebrity makeup artist and Maybelline New York Global Brand Ambassador Erin Parsons used Maybelline's The Falsies Instant Lash Lift Mascara - now sale for 5.49 (was 9.99) on Amazon Maybelline's Falsies Lash Lift Mascara quickly became the fastest-selling mascara of 2020, with one tube selling every 15 seconds. So don't hang about if you want to score an unmissable 45 per cent off the lash lifting mascara. The Gigi Hadid-approved mascara boasts a double-curved lifting brush and a formula that combines polymers, flexible film formers and waxes to help stretch, lift, and hold lashes for a locked-in lash lift all day. This creates an eye-opening effect that mimics the look of a professional lash lift. And the Maybelline Falsies Lash Lift Mascara wasn't the only affordable high street makeup item Gigi wore as she stepped out onto the white Met Gala carpet. 'Maybelline New York's NEW Instant Perfector 4-in-1 Matte Makeup (launching in 2022) was the main focus for Gigi's look,' explained Maybelline New York Global Brand Ambassador, Erin Parsons. 'Its 4-in-1 formula made the skin flawless in one step, providing me more time to perfect tricky details such as eyeliner and shadow. This product not only smooths out pores but achieves coverage in literally an instant. Velvetine matte is the moment and trend we'll be seeing in 2021!' When it comes to style, we are all inspired by what we see; whether it be a well-dressed celebrity, a blow-your-mind catwalk presentation or even a fashionable passerby. As fashion editors, we're moved by all of the above, and then some. We're exposed to under-the-radar labels; we get a first-hand look at collections months before they hit stores; we attend VIP events; we're tapped into brands with chic-yet-cheap offerings and we shop a lot. To share our knowledge, FEMAIL brings you Style Swoon, a weekly series of the latest, greatest and on the verge. We hope this Friday series will serve as a buying guide and point of inspiration for all. This week's edition: hot store openings. Goodlife Clothing opened their fourth location and their first flagship store at 375 Bleecker Street in New York City on Wednesday The charming 1,000-square-feet location offers the full Goodlife assortment of casual-yet-refined wardrobe staples for men and women, alongside a collection of limited-edition tees, sweatshirts and exclusive collaborations Goodlife: 375 Bleecker Street, NYC Goodlife Clothing opened their fourth location and their first flagship store in New York City's West Village on Wednesday. The charming 1,000-square-feet location offers the full Goodlife assortment of casual-yet-refined wardrobe staples for men and women, alongside a collection of limited-edition tees, sweatshirts and exclusive collaborations. The aesthetic of the store stays true to the upscale-casual vibe of the brand with a modern, clean and inviting design featuring hanging plants and neon signage. 'As Goodlife continues to expand the collection beyond our legacy T-shirts, were elevating our brick-and-mortar experience to inspire customers to explore the brand in a deeper way,' said Founder and CEO Chris Molnar (right) pictured with co-CEO Andrew Codispoti The Bleecker Street store opened showcasing photography by Ted Gushue and House of Spoils, custom pottery by Wyatt Little, and a limited-edition co-branded hat with Mad Tasty CBD water 'As Goodlife continues to expand the collection beyond our legacy T-shirts, were elevating our brick-and-mortar experience to inspire customers to explore the brand in a deeper way,' said Founder and CEO Chris Molnar. 'We want to surprise visitors with unique items, while also offering the full range of thoughtfully-crafted, high-quality clothing were known for.' The Bleecker Street store opened showcasing photography by Ted Gushue and House of Spoils, custom pottery by Wyatt Little, and a limited-edition co-branded hat with Mad Tasty CBD water. The second edition of Goodlifes collaboration with WM Brown will also be available exclusively at this shop, along with books by WM Brown Founder Matt Hranek and photographer Ben Watts. In addition, the flagship carries luxury handbags from Sharkchaser, an Italian brand known for its built-in cellphone radiation blocking technology. Daily Mail's US Style Director, Pandora Amoratis, Influencer Zachary Weiss, MR Mag editor Stephen Garner and more fashion insiders celebrated the exciting launch at a cocktail party held in the store followed by a dinner at The Little Owl Townhouse. Daily Mail's US Style Director, Pandora Amoratis, Influencer Zachary Weiss, MR Mag editor Stephen Garner and more celebrated the exciting launch at a cocktail party held in the store followed by a dinner at The Little Owl Townhouse Brazilian brand PatBO opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Soho on Thursday this week The gorgeous two-level space instantly transports you to the tropical oasis of your fashion dreams Patbo: 65 Greene Street, NYC Brazilian brand PatBO opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Soho on Thursday. The gorgeous two-level space instantly transports you to the tropical oasis of your fashion dreams. The store design was conceptualized by Philip Turley with the support of Sargenti Architects to bring the vision to life. Walls are lined with an original wallpaper created in Brazil featuring palm trees and birds, one of Founder & Creative Director, Patricia Bonaldi's hand-drawn prints. Furniture was sourced from LuLu and Georgia as well as custom pieces brought in by Claude Homes Maggie Holladay. 'We launched our international business out of our NY office four years ago,' said Patricia Bonaldi, Founder & Creative Director, pictured in Custom PatBO Fringe Midi Sheath Dress in Almond The store will carry all product extensions; Ready-To-Wear, Swim, Bridal and Leisure along with exclusives that will only be found in the flagship PR extraordinaire Savannah Engel wowed in the blossom cut-out beach dress and Daily Mail's Style Director, Pandora Amoratis, wore a one shoulder lace beach dress in teal from the PatBO Resort 22 Collection Sixty-five Greene Street will carry all product extensions; Ready-To-Wear, Swim, Bridal and Leisure along with exclusives that will only be found in the flagship. 'We launched our international business out of our NY office four years ago,' said Patricia. 'It was an organic and natural decision that we have our flagship store be where our expansion began and to have the full support of the local team in this first venture into retail. 'Weve amassed an incredible following here in the US through our marketing and PR efforts and have longed to create an environment where these loyal clients and friends of the brand can appreciate the intricate hand-embroidery and bold prints in person.' New York's most fashionable (in PatBo, of course!) gathered to the new beautiful location to celebrate the launch Guests enjoyed an array of artisanal cocktails hand-mixed with Cincoro Tequila and non-alcoholic drinks by Starla Wine New York's most fashionable (in PatBo, of course!) gathered to the new beautiful location to celebrate the opening. American actress Elizabeth Gillies donned a lurex bustier maxi dress in gold, while PR extraordinaire Savannah Engel wowed in the blossom cut-out beach dress and Daily Mail's Style Director, Pandora Amoratis, wore a one shoulder lace beach dress in teal from the PatBO Resort 22 Collection. Guests enjoyed a DJ Set by Vashtie and an array of artisanal cocktails hand-mixed with Cincoro Tequila, food by Berimbau Brazilian Kitchen, non-alcoholic drinks by Starla Wine, and gift bags by Simple Organic Beauty. Good news for PatBO enthusiasts outside of the New York area, Bonaldi anticipates continued growth with plans to open 3 stores in the US in the next 5 years. Guests enjoyed a DJ Set by Vashtie Good news for PatBO enthusiasts outside of New York, Bonaldi anticipates continued growth with plans to open 3 stores in the US in the next 5 year Knix opened a store at 2929 Main St in Santa Monica, CA Canadian intimates and apparel brand Knix entered the US brick and mortar space for the first time Knix: 2929 Main St, Santa Monica, CA Canadian intimates and apparel brand Knix entered the US brick and mortar space for the first time, kicking off a three-store unveiling with their Santa Monica location this week. Among other socialites and influencers, actress and model British actress and model Jodie Turner-Smith stopped by the store opening to support the brand. The 'Anne Boleyn' star perused the racks and chatted with Founder and CEO Joanna Griffiths. British actress and model Jodie Turner-Smith stopped by the store opening to support the brand Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Alli Dore has slammed the 'really sick' trolls who have made cruel comments about her premature newborn baby's feeding tube. The 32-year-old Australia native and her boyfriend, Benny Thompson, welcomed a baby boy named River George on August 26, but the newborn was born prematurely and had to spend several weeks in the NICU. During that time, Dore shared several photos of her bundle of joy, who required a feeding tube through his nose while he was hospitalized and apparently, some very cruel commenters had nasty things to say about the medical device. Mama bear: Below Deck Sailing Yacht star Alli Dore has slammed the 'really sick' trolls who have made cruel comments about her premature newborn baby's feeding tube Little guy: The 32-year-old Australia native welcomed a baby boy named River George on August 26, but the newborn was born prematurely and had to spend several weeks in the NICU Hitting back: When 'really sick people' trolled her baby for his tubes, she wrote: 'When will this type of behaviour be made a law?' 'Really sick that people will still troll a newborn baby of photos in hospital. I don't care what is said about me but multiple people making fun of my baby's tubes, are there no limits?' she wrote in an Instagram story slide on Wednesday, according to People. 'When will this type of behavior be made a law? Bullying and verbal assault on the internet is still verbal assault. 'I'm certainly not the first person who has thought this and sadly will not be the last. Time for some change!' The negative comments appear to have been deleted, and fortunately, the vast majority of comments on Dore's posts are positive. Dore has been documenting the early days of her son's life since he arrived 'a little prematurely but is doing better every day.' Yay! Earlier this month, she shared a snap of him in a moment without a tube. On Wednesday, she revealed that the tubes were gone and he was coming home New addition: Dore has been documenting the early days of her son's life since he arrived 'a little prematurely but is doing better every day' 'We are so proud of our strong little man,' she wrote on Instagram, announcing his birth last month. 'The last couple of weeks we faced challenges I never thought wed have to its been really emotional but also the most special time in our lives because we have River at the end of it all. 'Im so grateful to have @bennithompson by my side because I couldnt have done this without him. Proud of our little family and counting the days until River gets to come home.' On September 2, she wrote that she was 'absolutely smitten by this little fighter' as she shared a snap of 'a moment without any tubes and wires' in which 'he looks so serene.' This Wednesday, she also announced that the tubes were coming out, and her baby boy was coming home. 'We are so proud of our strong little man,' she wrote on Instagram, announcing his birth last month 'We are incredibly thankful to all the NICU and SCN nurses at the Royal Womens and Sandringham hospitals,' she wrote 'All our hard work paid off and the last of his tubes are gone, which means HOME TIME! So proud of my little fighter!' she wrote. 'We are incredibly thankful to all the NICU and SCN nurses at the Royal Womens and Sandringham hospitals. Leaving River every night was so hard but knowing he was in such capable and caring hands made it a manageable experience,' she went on 'The last 3 weeks was an emotional roller coaster but I do want to say I have so much respect and understanding now for anyone who has been on this journey or is currently doing it, because it is the most challenging way to begin as a parent. 'I never knew until we had to do this ourselves so just want to acknowledge those warrior women and men, especially being NICU Awareness month.' She and her boyfriend, Benny Thompson, announced that they were expecting earlier this year Dore had shared details about her pregnancy on the Unpopular podcast in June. The reality star admitted at the time that she'd been on birth control when she became pregnant, taking a budget pill she purchased in Spain that had concerned Ben right off the bat. She also admitted that she made the mistake of not taking the pill at the same time each day, which led to her surprise pregnancy. 'I'm a bit slack...' she said with a laugh. 'I think you get a bit comfortable when you're in a relationship.' She added: 'My only form of contraception was relying on the pill. I would always try to take it as soon as I would wake up, but sometimes it wouldn't be until later in the day. 'I didn't realize that was such a sensitive thing. Now I've learned!' A Florida man barred from visiting his wife in the hospital while she battled COVID made sure she knew he was with her by standing outside her window every morning with a sign that read 'I love you.' Donna Crane, 56, from Port Orange, Florida, suffered a rare breakthrough case of COVID-19, testing positive a week after receiving her Johnson & Johnson vaccine - and one week before she was considered fully-vaccinated. When she experienced trouble breathing and was rushed to a local hospital, she was told that due to pandemic restrictions, visitors were not allowed. So her husband Gary Crane, 61, went home and drew up a sign proclaiming his love for his wife, and returned every morning to hold it up outside her window for her to see. Scary: Donna Crane, 56, from Port Orange, Florida, tested positive for COVID-19 a week after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Love: Her husband Gary Crane, 61, stood outside her window at the hospital every day holding this sign Donna quarantined at home for several days after testing positive, but her condition soon worsened and she was struggling to breathe. 'Gary heard me gurgling at night trying to breathe,' she told Good Morning America. 'He woke me up, got the scuba tanks out of the garage and was blowing air, trying to get me to breathe that way. That wasn't working and then he was like, "All right, we're going to the hospital."' 'It is the most terrifying thing you will ever experience in your life, just laying there not being able to take a breath,' she added to WESH. She was immediately admitted to the ICU and diagnosed with double pneumonia as a result of COVID-19, which she said 'tore my lungs up.' COVID-19 hospitalizations have been quite high in Florida, with a daily average of 11,206 hospitalizations and 363 deaths. Due to overcrowding, most hospitals are restricting visitors or banning them outright which was the case for Donna when she was admitted. Painful: She was immediately admitted to the ICU and diagnosed with double pneumonia as a result of COVID-19, which she said 'tore my lungs up' Alone: Due to overcrowding, most hospitals are restricting visitors or banning them outright which was the case for Donna when she was admitted 'I couldn't see him and that was the hardest part is not being able to have somebody there,' Donna said. 'It was really rough on both of us,' Gary added. 'It was the last I saw her for ten days. That was the hardest part just not knowing. I would call the nurses and they could only give me basic stuff like her vitals.' After being turned away from the hospital, Gary went home and made his 'I [heart] U' sign, and the next morning, he held it up outside her window, which was ten floors up. He texted her, telling her to look outside, and Donna said she' started bawling' when she saw him. 'I just wanted her to know that because I know she was going to be scared and I couldn't be there with her, and I just wanted her to know that I'm there,' he said. 'She's worth it, and I just wanted her to know that I was rooting for her,' he told CNN Sweet: Donna said it was 'amazing' that 'every day I got the see my baby in the parking lot' Helpful: Now they are encouraging others to get the vaccine, and say they were told that Donna's infection would have been much worse without it Gary returned every morning, giving Donna something to look forward to. 'Gary coming with a sign every day to tell me he loves me was amazing. He was doing everything in his power to be there,' she said. 'The nurses would sit me up in the bed ... let me look out the window, let me see he was there at 8 a.m. and I knew, "OK, we're going to, we're going to do this,"' she went on. 'The nurses said, "Oh my God, he has a sign! That's so sweet!" Every day I got the see my baby in the parking lot,' she said. Both Donna and Gary had been COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, but eventually realized that when they 'take the politics out' of the equation, they do have had all their other shots and this one should be no different. Now they are encouraging others to get the vaccine, and say they were told that Donna's infection would have been much worse without it. Dazzled in a diamond necklace, earrings and sparkling headband as she clutched a cream and white bouquet Opted for an elegant lace square neck dress with puff sleeve detail, believed to be a Dolce & Gabbana design Sabrina Percy, 29, tied the knot to fiance Phineas Page at Chelsea Old Church, London this afternoon Advertisement Sabrina Percy looked every inch the blushing bride as she tied the knot to fiance Phineas Page at Chelsea Old Church, London this afternoon. The illustrator and model, 29 - who is a distant relation of the Duke of Northumberland and his daughter, Hogwarts heiress Lady Melissa Percy - opted for an elegant lace square neck dress with puff sleeve detail, believed to be a Dolce & Gabbana design. To complete her stunning gown, Sabrina dazzled in a diamond necklace, earrings and sparkling headband, and was seen clutching a cream, white and green bouquet. Meanwhile, Franco Manca pizza heir Phineas, 37, looked dapper in a black jacket, mustard-coloured waistcoat, white and blue stripe shirt and grey trousers, which he paired with smart black brogues. Sabrina Percy, 29, looked every inch the blushing bride as she tied the knot to fiance Phineas Page at Chelsea Old Church, London this afternoon Sabrina Percy, who wore a pair of flat lace dolly shoes underneath her dress, had a helping hand from bridesmaid Amber Le Bon (pictured, together) One bridesmaid (pictured) was even captured taking a distanced selfie as guests and groomsmen posed in the background Sabrina and Phineas enjoyed a chat with their guests who waited outside the venue for them to exit as husband and wife The bridesmaids - who included Sabrina's close friends Amber Le Bon - daughter of Yasmin and Simon - looked in high spirits as they arrived at the venue in floor-length emerald gowns which featured slit detail. They paired the square-neck dresses with different choices of open-toe beige sandals, adding their own unique touch to their outfits. One bridesmaid was even captured taking a distanced selfie as guests and groomsmen posed in the background. After the couple exchanged vows, they could be seen leaving the venue arm-in-arm, before being whisked off in a chic white taxi, complete with white ribbon to signify they had just got married. The illustrator opted for an elegant lace square neck dress with puff sleeve detail, believed to be a D&G design. Pictured, with Phineas After the happy couple exchanged vows, they could be seen leaving the venue arm-in-arm (pictured) To complete her elegant gown, Sabrina (pictured, talking to a guest) dazzled in a diamond necklace, earrings and sparkling headband as she clutched a cream, white and green bouquet Sabrina Percy could be seen holding up the veil of her lace gown as she chat with guests outside the venue Franco Manca pizza heir Phineas looked dapper in a black jacket, mustard-coloured waistcoat, white and blue stripe shirt and grey trousers, which he paired with smart black brogues. Pictured, with Sabrina and a guest The bridesmaids paired the square-neck dresses with different choices of open-toe sandals to add their own unique touch to their outfit. Pictured, Amber Le Bon The couple's special day comes after they celebrated their engagement party in London in March, where Sabrina was the belle of the ball in her 3,300 frothy pink boudoir-inspired dress by Dolce & Gabbana. Sabrina and Phineas were joined by a gaggle of glamorous friends for the festivities at Chelsea's No. Fifty Cheyne. The restaurant, which offers up high-end comfort food, opened last year and has fast become a favourite of London's young society set. Guests included Sabrina's close friends Amber Le Bon and chocolate dynasty scion Jemima Cadbury, who works for private members' club Annabel's. One bridesmaid looked in high spirits as she arrived at the venue in a floor-length emerald gown which featured slit detail The newlyweds were whisked off into a chic white taxi, complete with white ribbon to signify they had just go married (pictured) Amber Le Bon, who wore her brown hair loose, added a dainty necklace to complete her bridesmaid look Natural beauty Amber Le Bon was all smiles as she fulfilled her role of bridesmaid for the day (pictured, left and right) Sabrina, who was seen strolling alongside her husband, showed off her stunning veil which featured lace detail The bridesmaids, who opted for natural makeup, all accessorised with open-toe beige sandals The brunette beauty, who has modelled for the Italian fashion label on a number of occasions, took to Instagram to thank the designers for the 'incredible piece', calling it the 'dress of her dreams'. It appears the label was also behind the dazzling necklace and chandelier earrings worn by the bride-to-be, who added a thanks for the 'jaw-dropping jewellery set that came with it [the dress]'. Despite being blue-blooded through and through - the Percys' ancestral seat is Northumberland Castle, where Harry Potter was filmed - Sabrina is known for being down-to-earth and used to pull pints in a Chelsea pub in order to pay her way through college. She went on to study at the London College of Fashion and now juggles a career as an illustrator - her clients include lulemon and Rolls Royce, as well as society pals - with modelling gigs, namely for D&G. Sabrina has also graced the cover of Tatler in addition to being named as one of the society bible's 'Babe of the Month'. When she's not working, Sabrina often attends society events with fellow It-girls including Lady Kitty Spencer and Emma, Viscountess Weymouth. Phineas Page was seen patiently waiting outside the venue for his future wife to arrive In one snap, Phineas could be seen holding up the veil of wife's lace dress as they posed for a photograph The happy couple exited the venue with their photographer, before being whisked off in a wedding taxi Wedding guests put their best foot forward in elegant gowns (left and right) and dapper suits (lef) as they arrived for the ceremony this afternoon Another guest braved the cobbled streets of London a pair of high black wedges which she paired with floral black dress A male suitor made sure he stood out from the crown in a bold, bright red waistcoat which he contrasted with a navy tie Richard Percy, father of the bride and second cousin of the 12th Duke of Northumberland (pictured), looked smart in a tailcoat suit and floral pale blue waistcoast Pretty in pink! This guest brought the sunshine in a bold fuschia outfit complete with matching shoes and accessories The pair were missing from the engagement party, which was a decidedly more intimate affair than the wedding. Acoustic guitarists played in the background as guests sipped on glasses of Champagne as they toasted the happy couple, who became engaged on Christmas Day. Phineas, whose family co-owns restaurant chains Franco Manca and The Real Greek, popped the question by presenting his girlfriend with not one, but four rings. Speaking previously about the special moment, Sabrina said: 'Inside my stocking were three small and beautifully wrapped gifts. The first was an emerald ring. I asked Phineas if it was an engagement ring and he said no. 'I opened the second, a sapphire and diamond ring, and asked again if this was an engagement ring. He again said no. 'I opened the third box, a beautiful ruby and diamond ring. I asked: 'Is this an engagement ring?' Phineas again said no. It was an emotional rollercoaster. 'He then said: "There's one more present".' 'He handed me quite a large box. Inside was an elegant mini Cinderella pumpkin princess carriage I love Disney and inside the carriage was a beautiful diamond eternity ring.' From stiletto heels to cool shades, guests were sure to put their best fashion foot forward for the society wedding (left and right) Flower power! These two guests both opted for floral full-length dresses as they arrived at the London venue The couple had been due to tie the knot in June - one of a number of society weddings planned for this year - however they revealed to the Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare that they have now put the plans on hold due to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Im not really committing to a date at the moment because of Covid-19, she said. Sabrina Percy is the daughter of Richard Percy, who is the current Duke of Northumberland's second cousin. Richard is the grandson of the 8th Duke of Northumberland's younger brother Lord William. This makes the children of the current Duke of Northumberland Sabrina's third cousins, including Lady Melissa Percy, a close friend of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Alnwick Castle, which featured in the Harry Potter movies and Downton Abbey, is the seat of the Duke of Northumberland. What would you be prepared to sacrifice for your child? Most mothers would instinctively say they'd lay down their life for their offspring. But mercifully, few are ever put to the test. Poignantly, however, it's a dilemma that Kathleen Osborne found herself presented with last year and she never wavered. Kathleen, known as Kat, is the young mother who revealed this week that, having sacrificed her leg so that she could save the life of her unborn baby, she is now terminally ill. Diagnosed with bone cancer weeks into pregnancy, she was faced with the choice of aborting her third child and starting chemotherapy immediately, or having her right leg amputated. Without hesitation she chose amputation. Tragically, it wasn't enough and the cancer has now spread through her lungs and is inoperable. Kathleen, known as Kat (pictured with her daughter Aida May), is the young mother who revealed this week that, having sacrificed her leg so that she could save the life of her unborn baby, she is now terminally ill The chances of Kat, 28, seeing any of her children into teenagehood are infinitesimally small, but she refuses to succumb to self-pity. 'I've been dealt the worst set of cards,' she says. 'But that doesn't mean my babies have to suffer. My children are my world. They won't have me for long. So I'm doing everything in my power to give them enough love to last a lifetime.' Every day she insists on walking her two sons Hayden, nine, and Leo, five, to school, all the while grappling with a crutch under one arm and pushing six-month-old baby Aida-May in her pram. The journey is short but painfully slow. Kat only lost her leg to cancer last November and is still mastering her new situation. Bending down to kiss the boys goodbye before they scamper into class is taxing. But it's a ritual she insists on. 'I won't ever let them leave before I've kissed them,' she says. 'There can't be enough kisses and cuddles. They need to remember how much I love them.' It's impossible not to feel immensely sorry for Kat. She's been dealt one blow after another. Each time she's managed to bounce back, which makes her current situation so cruel. Kat was just 11 when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. The most common type of bone cancer, usually found in teenagers and young adults, it occurs when the cells that grow new bone form a cancerous tumour. It started as a seemingly innocuous soft lump on her right knee. When it became painful, her mother took her to the GP who organised a range of scans and a biopsy. 'Mum was with me when the doctor explained I had cancer,' she recalls. 'I was really scared and angry. I remember shouting and crying a lot.' Diagnosed with bone cancer weeks into pregnancy, she was faced with the choice of aborting her third child and starting chemotherapy immediately, or having her right leg amputated. Without hesitation she chose amputation Kat had every reason to be angry. Just a year earlier in February 2004 her father, Shaun, an IT worker, had died of a sudden heart attack when he was 38. 'Dad went to the loo in the middle of the night and collapsed on the bathroom floor,' she says quietly. 'I heard Mum crying and trying to push the door open to get to Dad. But we couldn't manage it. The paramedics took him away and I never saw him again. I was a real Daddy's girl and I missed him like crazy.' Still grieving her dad, Kat found herself undergoing an operation at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in which most of her kneecap was removed and two metal rods inserted into her leg. She then endured chemotherapy while learning to walk again. During the treatment all her hair fell out. 'The whole thing was tough,' she recalls. 'Mum was working and looking after my six-year-old brother, so she couldn't visit often. I had to grow up fast.' The treatment was regarded as a complete success. Kat went on to gain six GCSEs and planned to train as a nursery nurse. But, aged just 17 and in a steady relationship, she found herself pregnant. 'It was a huge shock,' she says. 'I had been warned that the chemo would probably affect my fertility, so I wasn't as careful as I should have been. But I'm not one to cry over spilt milk so I decided to make the best of it.' It's a life lesson Kat has been forced to embrace time and again. Hayden was born on October 24, 2011, and Kat and her partner, Darren, settled into family life at their new home in Wisbech, Cambs, where she still lives. 'Right from the start I loved being a mum,' she says. 'Being ill had made me grow up and appreciate the simple things in life. I was happy just playing with Hayden and taking him for little walks in his buggy.' However, the strain of a new baby proved too much for the relationship. And when Hayden was three, she and Darren parted. Kat was single for a year before she fell in love with an old school friend. Still grieving her dad, Kat found herself undergoing an operation at Addenbrooke's Hospital (pictured), Cambridge, in which most of her kneecap was removed and two metal rods inserted into her leg. She then endured chemotherapy while learning to walk again 'I've known James who is a year younger than me for years,' she says. 'Right from the start he was wonderful with Hayden, who, sadly, doesn't see his natural dad.' Eager to extend her family, Kat was overjoyed when, in January 2016, their son Leo arrived. With a new baby and a boisterous four-year-old to care for, Kat was able to ignore the niggling pains in her shoulder. But then, in May 2016, she was in such agony that James took her to A&E. Scans revealed that, after 11 years, the cancer had returned. It was now in her lungs. She would need chemotherapy to shrink the tumour followed by an operation to remove it. 'I was devastated,' she says. 'The doctors were shocked, too. Childhood cancers normally come back within three years. I had been clear for 11 years and annual check-ups showed nothing.' Leo was just three months old when Kat, then 22, started a gruelling chemotherapy treatment at Leicester Royal Infirmary. It was to last six months, with Kat only allowed home one week in four. 'It was so much harder because I had my boys to think of,' she says. 'Leo was too tiny to understand why I had disappeared. But Hayden cried when I told him I needed to be in hospital and the medicine would make my hair fall out. 'James brought them in to see me almost every day. But Hayden was so clingy, he had to be peeled off me when it was time to go. 'I was in pieces, but I tried to make it as light as possible. He loves trains so I would promise him: 'Next time you come, Daddy will bring you on the train.' ' Kat missed so many milestones, such as Leo rolling over for the first time and taking his first faltering step. But one milestone she moved heaven and earth not to miss was Hayden's first day at school. 'I was there in the morning to get him dressed in his new uniform and walk him to school,' she says. 'I was so proud and terribly tearful.' Kat finished her treatment in time for Christmas. In February 2017 she had the lower lobe of her right lung removed. Doctors told her it had been a complete success. She had six-monthly check-ups just to be on the safe side. But then, in August 2020, she found a pea-shaped lump at the top of her right thigh. Her GP organised a series of scans at Leicester Royal Infirmary. The results left Kat reeling. The cancer was back in her leg. She was also 16 weeks pregnant. The chances of Kat, 28, seeing any of her children into teenagehood are infinitesimally small, but she refuses to succumb to self-pity. 'I've been dealt the worst set of cards,' she says. 'But that doesn't mean my babies have to suffer. My children are my world. They won't have me for long. So I'm doing everything in my power to give them enough love to last a lifetime.' Pictured: Kat with her daughter Aida May and her two sons Hayden and Leo 'I sat there numb with shock,' she recalls. 'My periods have always been irregular so I had no idea. I was so excited to be expecting but devastated to know that the cancer had returned.' The news left her with a dilemma. She could start chemotherapy immediately to shrink the tumour and it would hopefully save her leg, but she would need to terminate her pregnancy. Or she could save her baby and have her entire leg amputated. 'I burst into tears,' Kat says. 'I'd only just discovered I was pregnant. Now I faced losing my baby. 'They gave me the night to think it over but I knew my decision. The chances of beating the cancer were just as good either way. I could live with only one leg but I could never forgive myself for aborting my baby. 'James was happy whatever my decision, but many of my friends thought I was mad.' The amputation at London's National Orthopaedic Hospital was scheduled for November 17, 2020. Leo was just three months old when Kat, then 22, started a gruelling chemotherapy treatment at Leicester Royal Infirmary (pictured). It was to last six months, with Kat only allowed home one week in four 'I couldn't get my head around any of it,' Kat says. 'I went onto the [online] message boards for people with similar cancers but couldn't find another young mum like me.' She eventually broke the news to her boys as they were cuddled up on the sofa watching a Transformers film and told them she had something bad in her leg that doctors needed to take away but they weren't to worry because the Transformers who are robots would make her a new leg: 'They got very excited.' But nothing could take away the dread. 'Even in hospital it seemed unreal,' she says. In fact, it wasn't until eight days after the operation, as Kat recovered in the Intensive Care Unit, that she could bear to look down at the empty place under the sheets where her leg should have been. Still, she refused to waste time on self-pity. 'My baby was safe and I was told that all the cancer was gone,' she says. 'My priority was getting home to my boys, so I pushed hard to get out of a wheelchair and get walking again.' Incredibly, less than a month after the amputation, Kat walked through her front door on crutches. 'I was a little wobbly and I had to collapse onto the sofa for cuddles,' she says. 'But the boys were so thrilled to see me, they didn't seem fazed.' Adapting to life with one leg must have been extraordinarily taxing, particularly as, perhaps due to the strain of her illness, her relationship with James had begun to fracture. Although he plays a big part in the children's lives (Hayden has always called him 'Daddy'), he no longer lives with the family. Kat doesn't want to elaborate on the reasons for the split but says: 'I miss him and life is much harder as a single mum. But I know the last few years have been horrendous for him, too, and I can't blame him for needing some space.' She dared to feel that her bad luck was finally behind her, particularly when she discovered she was expecting a little girl. But then, in March, when she was 32 weeks pregnant, came the news that far from being eradicated, the cancer had returned with a vengeance. 'I'd gone into hospital for an MRI scan for a completely unconnected issue when the oncologist rang,' she says. 'The scan had shown cancer cells in both my lungs.' Kat needed to start chemotherapy as soon as possible. Although her baby was not due for another eight weeks, she agreed to have a Caesarean two days later once the doctors had given the baby steroids to help speed up the development of her lungs. 'They promised that my baby was in no danger,' says Kat. 'I just tried to focus on how lucky I was to meet my little girl early.' Aida-May was born on March 12 weighing a healthy 4 lb 3 oz. Kat was allowed a cuddle before her little girl was whisked off to the Special Care Baby Unit. 'I drank in every bit of her,' says Kat. 'She was tiny but so perfect.' Less than two weeks after giving birth she found herself starting chemotherapy yet again. 'The nurses allowed me my first cuddle in the Baby Unit on Mother's Day,' she smiles. 'It was the best present ever. 'When she came home in mid-April, we had the biggest party. She's been through so much but she is a total joy. She is the cuddliest, smiliest baby you could wish for.' Kat is acutely aware that because the cancer is so widespread, there is no prospect of a cure; the treatment which ended this week will simply buy her extra time with her family. 'The oncologist has been frank,' she says. 'Because the cancer cells are so widespread it is inoperable. I haven't asked how long I have left I don't want to know. And I haven't told the boys. I don't want them to worry. 'So far scans have shown the cancer isn't spreading, which is good. I don't have time to waste in moaning. And in many ways I'm lucky. I have lost my hair, but I'm not suffering any other side-effects from the chemo. And I have the most wonderful children on earth. 'I veer between being over-protective they are still my babies and trying to prepare them for life without me. Because I have one leg, they are inevitably doing more around the house. They get themselves ready for school and have started making their own breakfast. I just want every day to be happy and to leave them with memories of how much I loved them. 'At some stage I need to plan who will care for them. My priority is that they stay together. When I am gone, they will need each other even more. 'I worry that Aida is too little to remember me. But I hope the boys will talk about me and tell her how much I loved them and how I tried my hardest to always be there for them.' Better manage your medication, banish cold sores and win amazing prizes with this week's top 10 tips for health and wellness, courtesy of Checklist. The secret to younger-looking skin Looking for a miracle when it comes to anti-ageing skincare? 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On the day before he died, the Duke of Edinburgh was in good form, joshing with his eldest son over the telephone. Were talking about your birthday, said the Prince of Wales as he broached the delicate subject of a party to mark the Dukes forthcoming centenary. He knew his father was not terribly keen on the idea. The Duke was a little hard of hearing so the Prince said it again, more loudly. Were talking about your birthday! And whether theres going to be a reception! The Duke was underwhelmed. Well, Ive got to be alive for it, havent I? I knew youd say that! his son shot back. That little exchange is etched in Prince Charless mind. Its a happy memory, he adds with a gentle smile as he tells me the story. It is one of so many happy memories in what is surely the most poignant royal documentary in a long time. Coming to BBC One on Wednesday night, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers is also, to use that well-worn phrase, genuinely unprecedented. For it includes contributions from more members of the Royal Family than any programme ever made 15 of them all told. Coming to BBC One on Wednesday night, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers is also, to use that well-worn phrase, genuinely unprecedented. For it includes contributions from more members of the Royal Family than any programme ever made 15 of them all told. Pictured, the Queen and Prince Philip with their children in 1972 They have all gladly sat down to share their memories of the Duke, reflections that are tender, at times emotional, often hilarious and always insightful. From the Dukes teenage entrepreneurial leanings to his art, his crusades, his passion for (and struggles with) gadgets and, above all, his love of family life, this is the ultimate portrait of the longest-lived consort in British royal history. For this cast of characters most of them instantly recognisable are talking about their father, grandfather, great-uncle, father-in-law or a very popular boss. With the honourable exception of the Queen (who does not give television interviews), this is a full house of those who knew the Duke better than anyone. There are no royal commentators or dim and distant friends in this film. As for a presenter, there isnt one. The whole Royal Family is our narrator. They have all gladly sat down to share their memories of the Duke, reflections that are tender, at times emotional, often hilarious and always insightful. Pictured, Robert interviews Prince Charles for the show The Duke of Edinburgh with Prince Andrew at Christmas 1964 We hear the Dukes children discuss what his own childhood must have been like. Others talk of how he inspired or pushed them in a certain direction or deliberately avoided getting involved at all. What is abundantly clear is that life around the Duke was enormous fun. Bedtime stories every night The Duke of Edinburghs love of literature is not only reflected in his extensive library but in the number of books he wrote himself. They include works on theology, the environment and selected speeches. One of the most popular was inspired by his voyages in the Royal Yacht, called Birds From Britannia and published in 1962. He took the photographs himself and we found some of the originals in his study at Buckingham Palace. Philip at Gordonstoun in the early 30s He was also punctilious about telling his children bedtime stories, as all of them remember fondly. He always made the point of coming up of an evening to read, the Princess Royal tells me. The Duke was particularly fond of childrens classics. Prince Charles can still recite whole chunks by heart. An incredibly special memory was when he read the poet Longfellows Hiawatha. For some reason or other it has always remained with me, he says. It always conjured up the most incredible images in my mind. My father did that wonderfully. Advertisement The Duke Of Cambridge shares the priceless tale of the day he and other members of the family were driving with Prince Philip across a remote part of the Balmoral estate. Suddenly, they encountered a subject close to his grandfathers heart. We came across what was very obviously some Duke of Edinburgh Award people with their rucksacks on, Prince William explains. He stopped and wound down his window and said, Good morning. How are you getting on? To which the smallest young chap at the back turned round and effectively said, Jog on Grandpa! The Duke of Edinburgh then wound up the window, drove on and turned to his family saying, The youth of today! Guffawing at the memory of it at his Norfolk home, Prince William lets slip that the youngster actually said something very much ruder (and unprintable). But for the purposes of this film, I thought jog on was a more appropriate way of saying it! The Duke of Edinburgh, needless to say, found the whole episode hilarious. As the Duke of Sussex explains, his grandfather never took himself too seriously. What you see is what you got with my grandfather and thats what I love more than anything else, Prince Harry says. He was unapologetically him at all times no matter where he was, no matter who he was speaking to. There are some especially touching moments. Princess Eugenie takes a deep breath as she relives the moment when she introduced the Duke to the new great-grandson who carries his name. There have been reports that Prince Philip never met August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, who was born in February. Not so. I brought little August to come and meet him, says Princess Eugenie, blinking hard at the recollection. I told him that wed named him after him. It was such a lovely moment. We were very lucky to do that. It was around this time last year that I first approached Buckingham Palace with the idea of making a film to mark the Dukes 100th birthday. Some years before, I had interviewed the Duke for the BBC (The Duke: In His Own Words is now on iPlayer) and it included a very memorable and enjoyable tour of Windsor Castle and its estate. The Duke of Edinburgh sharing a joke with Prince William in 2016, as they opened the new East Anglian Air Ambulance Base at Cambridge Airport Back came word from the Palace. The Duke had no wish at all to be involved in any birthday film but nor would he stand in our way. So, with a small team from Oxford Films, we set about asking various members of the Royal Family if they would take part. Role model for royal newcomers Marrying into the most famous family in the world is not easy. Having learned the ropes himself more than 70 years ago, the Duke of Edinburgh would go on to act as a role model for those who followed. The Duchess of Cornwall certainly studied his example after her marriage to the Prince of Wales in 2005. The Duchess of Cornwall (pictured) certainly studied his example after her marriage to the Prince of Wales in 2005 I saw the way he supported the Queen, she says, not in a flashy sort of way but just by doing it quietly. You know, following along behind. Its something that Ive learnt by watching him. The Duke of Cambridge is full of admiration for the way his grandfather adjusted to his new role. It was very much a mans world back then. And so for a man to give up his career to support a woman, albeit the Queen, was still quite a big step. Prince Philip with the Duchess of Cambridge in 2017 Advertisement Such is the universal love for the Duke that everyone said that they would. I went to Gatcombe Park to interview the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence about the Dukes love of the sea, among other things. Having learned to sail with her father, Princess Anne always found that he excelled when things start to get a bit hairy but was less content when things were calm. The worst, as far as he was concerned, was when there wasnt enough wind. That always caused a certain amount of aggravation. Sir Tim looks through the Dukes handwritten midshipmans log of going into battle during the war and is impressed as he examines the Kings Dirk the prize for best cadet at Dartmouth Royal Naval College, which was awarded to the Duke in 1939. Most people who go to Dartmouth are just very glad to get through it, Sir Tim observes. If you can do well enough to get their top prize, then youre something a bit special. At Bagshot Park, I sat down with the Earl and Countess of Wessex to look through pictures and reports from the Dukes Gordonstoun schooldays and to talk about that famous DofE Award scheme. He always joked that they set up this little pilot project back in 1956, says the Earl, and as far as hes concerned that pilots never stopped. Whats more, the Duke would never regard it as his own award. As Prince Edward would say to people, Never ask the Duke of Edinburgh to blow his own trumpet. He will not. Hell talk about anything else. In the programme, the Wessexes are joined by their 17-year-old daughter, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, who gives us a delightful interview, her first on television. She happened to be working towards her first Duke of Edinburgh Award at the time. There was certainly an element of making my grandfather proud and honouring him by taking part, she says. At Windsor, the Duke of York sat down in front of a camera for the first time since speaking to Newsnight in 2019. This would be a programme solely about Prince Philip and nothing else. The Duke talks of how his hands-on father taught him all about sport, how to swim and even how to drive. Prince Andrews elder daughter, Princess Beatrice, explains how her grandfathers celebrated one-liners were a means of getting people to feel at ease by breaking the ice. (The Princess Royal makes an important point on the same subject: He could be a bit sharp with his wit. But I always felt that he was never cruel.) inside the Duke's HQ: This Pine Room was home to his private secretary and assistants. Books, curios, amphora and mementos from his travels cover the shelves BLUEBOTTLE in miniature: This is a model of the 26ft Dragon class racing yacht Bluebottle, built in 1948 by Camper and Nicholsons at Gosport, Hampshire, and presented to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in 1952 by members of the Island Sailing Club at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Charles got to sail in it with his father in the 50s (above) Desk Job: Philip at his hexagonal desk in the Library in 2001 (above). His statuettes of prime ministers are behind him Among the eclectic collection of books sits a copy of The Honourable Schoolboy, the second in John le Carres' Karia triology Princess Beatrice remembers the Duke of Edinburghs artistic eye, showing me his design for an eye-catching lotus flower fountain on Windsors East Terrace. We had already filmed several interviews when the Dukes death was announced on 9 April. Obviously, work on the project then ceased as the world paid its respects to a man who had been at the centre of public life for the best part of a century. Over the subsequent days, Britain and the wider world discovered many things they never knew about a prince who was born into one monarchy and devoted his life to another. Once the funeral was over, we reviewed what we had already filmed. Along with the BBCs commissioning editor Simon Young and executive producer Nick Kent, we realised that these were important reflections for posterity, not just for a 100th birthday which was no longer going to happen. Members of the Royal Family agreed. They wanted to ensure that everyone had their say in a project that is now, finally, complete. His study, the inner sanctum, which he designed himself on the bridge of a ship. Switches operated the blinds and the intercom, and the desk was custom-built. His archivist Alexandra McCreery showed Robert around the rooms A heated black pudding debate! The Duke had a long-running, good-natured debate with another national treasure famous for his pithy one-liners: Les Dawson. The Duke with Les Dawson at a Variety Club event in 1983 Sir Tim Laurence recalls that the two were at a dinner where they fell into conversation about the correct way to cook black pudding. Prince Philip declared that the correct way was to fry it and Les Dawson said, Absolutely not! The correct way is to boil it. Eventually the evening ended and they parted friends but disagreeing on this important point. Some time later, Les appeared at the Royal Variety Performance, and even sang a song about black pudding. Afterwards there was a royal introduction to all the cast. As the royal party came down the line they reached Dawson. He thrust out his hand and declared, Boiled! The Duke shook it warmly, said Fried! and walked on. Advertisement We resumed our interviews during the summer, starting with the Prince of Wales, whom I interviewed at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire. Covid, time differences and royal timetables did not make things easy. There were relatives in Germany. An American crew would need to film Prince Harry in Los Angeles. He offers unalloyed praise for the way his grandfather has supported all the family, especially the Queen. From my grandmothers perspective, to have someone like that on your shoulder for 73 years of marriage it doesnt get better than that. There was an element of urgency about it all, too. Buckingham Palace is currently undergoing a major refurbishment and, following the Dukes death, the builders were about to strip out his quarters. Ever since the Queen came to the throne, this grand and gloriously quirky suite of tall, north-facing first-floor rooms crammed with the Dukes 15,000 books, his paintings, his private papers, glass cases of medals, coins and curios, small statuettes of birds, of animals and even of prime ministers had been the Dukes HQ. Before the current reign, these had been the Kings rooms, the place where George VI would often plot the direction of the Second World War with Winston Churchill. Heaven knows what these walls could say. All this was still as it was but not for much longer. Our directors, Faye Hamilton and Matt Hill, wanted to capture the essence of the man before this historic collection was removed. The Dukes archivist, Alexandra McCreery, was our guide, starting in the Pine Room, home to his office staff his Private Secretary and a team of five assistants, known as the girls. Alexandra started here herself, working her way up from fifth girl. She describes how everyone was included in discussions and they all adored working for the Duke. He was a very fair boss and there was tremendous love for him, love for the office, loyalty to the private secretaries. It was a good ship to be in. I learnt first-hand from him One of the most striking moments at the Dukes funeral was the sight of his carriage and ponies saluting their former master. The Duke did not just enjoy carriage-driving. He wrote the rulebook and made it a sport. One of the most striking moments at the Dukes funeral was the sight of his carriage and ponies saluting their former master (pictured) Now it is his granddaughter, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, supported by her mother, the Countess of Wessex, who is continuing the royal link. Down at Windsors Royal Mews, she gives us a demonstration of a challenging sport she approaches with much the same gusto as the Duke. Its incredible to have learned first-hand from him. Its definitely made us closer, says Lady Louise, 17, during a polished television debut. After a competition hed always ask how it went. His eyes would light up, because hed get so excited. He is honestly one of the most interesting people Ive ever met. Now it is his granddaughter, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor (pictured), supported by her mother, the Countess of Wessex, who is continuing the royal link The Duke found Lady Louise a more promising pupil than his eldest son. The Prince of Wales bursts out laughing as he tells me what happened when he had a go. He tried to teach me to drive a carriage pair but that didnt last very long. I got complete hysterics driving up the Long Walk, with him getting more and more annoyed that I wasnt concentrating properly! Advertisement Alexandra leads us through to the Library, a bright conference room with a hexagonal conference table beneath the bulk of his library collection. There are shelves of cookery books, a large section on Antarctica, what appears to be almost everything ever written on horses (The White Stallions Of Vienna, The Heavy Horse Manual). There are whole cases filled with books on the Second World War, others crammed with ornithology (I spot two separate editions of Birds Of Pakistan), dictionaries of Gaelic, Greek and Spanish Even though she is now a Palace veteran, Alexandra is still unearthing fresh discoveries. Flicking through his carefully compiled flight logs, she suddenly chances upon the day in 1972 when the Duke flew Concorde. She has never seen it before. Gosh, thats really lovely. You see, I told you I learned something new every day! Finally, we go through to the inner sanctum, the Dukes study, which he designed himself (along the same lines as the bridge of a ship, says the Duke of York). There are old-fashioned switches for operating blinds and intercoms and a custom-built desk. It must have been very cutting-edge back in the 50s. The Duke would later have one of the Palaces first computers in here, though modernity could be a trial. He loved technology, he loved gadgets, says Peter Phillips. They didnt always work, chuckles sister Zara. Peter does a delightful impression of his grandfather coming to terms with some new device. Why is it doing this? Why is it doing this? Peter would explain, Well, Grandpa, thats what its supposed to be doing because it helps you. Back came the response: Well, thats just bloody stupid! Even at the age of 99, the Dukes death still came as something of a shock to everyone. He was getting older and he absolutely hated it, says Zara. He was the worst patient in the world! But, actually, you never really prepare yourself for losing him because he was always there. The Duke of Sussex goes back to one of his grandfathers favourite sports. He had a fantastic innings. Its almost as though, at 99, he came running out of the crease, went for a massive six, scored the six but didnt actually want to get to a century. As the Duchess of Cornwall tells me, he was one of the last of the greats. It felt like the end of an era. Theyre a very difficult generation to live up to but Im very proud and very pleased that I knew him. The last word goes to a wistful Prince of Wales. We were lucky to have him for nearly 100 years. Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers will be shown on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One. Everyone knows that sleeping in your make-up is a cardinal skincare sin, but do we really know what damage it's doing to our faces when we forget to cleanse before bed? Leading skincare experts have revealed exactly what happens to our face when we leave make-up on overnight, from bacteria causing nasty breakouts to dirt getting trapped in your skin and slowing down collagen production. Problems caused by leaving your cosmetics on for too long include eye infections , brittle lashes and rashes, while dermatologist Dr Catherine Borysiewicz revealed why double cleansing in the evening could be the secret to glowing skin. Here, FEMAIL reveals the five things that can happen to your skin when you hit the pillow with make-up and how to fix them. Leading skincare experts have revealed exactly what happens to our face when we leave make-up on overnight, with issues including breakouts and eye infections caused by bacteria (stock image) BREAKOUTS By sleeping with your makeup on, you are trapping natural oils, environmental nasties and a whole host of other harmful bacteria in your pores, which can result in nasty breakouts. As you sleep, the cell regeneration process causes your hair follicles to lubricate, allowing natural oils to flow to the surface of your skin. When you leave your make-up on, this oil gets trapped and mixes with all the other product on your face, getting stuck in your pores and causing breakouts. Lou Sommereux, Clinical Director at Cosmex Clinic, a leading skin rejuvenation clinic in Cambridge says: 'Bacteria is the main cause of breakouts. Throughout the day your makeup mixes with a whole host of bacteria and pollutants from the environment; these by-products break down into your makeup, getting sucked up by your pores. Why you should be cleansing your face TWICE: Dermatologist reveals thorough make-up removal could be secret to great skin Dr Catherine Borysiewicz, Consulant Dermatologist at the Cadogan Clinic, said: 'Its important to thoroughly cleanse the face in order to remove makeup, skincare products, dirt and oil which have accumulated throughout the day. Over time sleeping in makeup may also accelerate skin ageing, so its important to take the time every evening to remove makeup thoroughly. Every day our skin sheds around 50 million cells and the renewal process mostly occurs at night. Makeup which is left on the skin overnight can prevent the natural exfoliation process, causing skin to become dull, lackluster or oily and pores can appear enlarged. Old makeup can also prevent oxygen flow to the skin, which is important for skin repair and the regeneration of collagen and elastin, which gives our skin structure and support. Double cleansing is recommended in the evening to thoroughly remove makeup, skincare products as well as dirt and bacteria which naturally accumulate through the day. I would recommend a good pH balanced cleanser followed by a gentle Micellar Water such as Bioderma. This is also a good product to use in the morning to remove products from the night before. Many people love the convenience of Micellar Water as it doesnt necessarily need to be rinsed off great for late nights or those makeup free days! However, if used on a regular basis as part of a double cleansing routine, it should be rinsed off as it will enable skincare products to be properly absorbed. It is a very gentle, user friendly way of cleansing the skin. Despite their convenience, face wipes are not environmentally friendly and they arent effective in properly cleansing the face. They dont remove all makeup, oil and dirt they move it around the face and can lead to increased skin breakouts, irritation and sensitivity and cause skin dehydration. There are non-rinse cleansers available such as creams and lotions that can be applied to the skin and removed with a cotton pad. They are soap free so a good option for sensitive skin. Astringents, which generally contain alcohol are applied with a cotton pad, which may be harsh and drying to sensitive skin. Facial cleansers are designed to remove dirt, oil and bacteria from the face whilst makeup remover is formulated to remove makeup from the surface of the skin. Water temperature should be warm. If its too hot it will dry out your skin, if its too cold and it wont efficiently remove dirt. Dont leave cleanser on the skin for too long gently massage it into the face for a few seconds and then rinse off with warm water. If your skin is feeling tight or dry or sensitive with dry, red patches, you may be over-washing or using skincare products that are too harsh for the face. Skin can also become oily if over-washed as the skin overcompensates by producing extra oil. If your skin is suffering from being over-washed, its important to give your skin a break and adequate time to repair. Strip back on skincare products and use gentle cleansers or an oil cleanser. Facial massage not only feels great (especially if somebody else is doing it) but it also helps improve circulation, reduce puffiness, relax the muscles and can help improve the appearance of the skin. It should be gentle and there are various facial massage devices that can be used at home on a regular basis. Eye makeup remover is essential for removing eye makeup. Products like mascara can be notoriously difficult to remove so its important you select a gentle, hard-working eye makeup remover. Its important to be gentle when cleansing the eyes -soak the cotton pad with eye makeup remover and press it on the eyelid for 30 seconds before gentle wiping away resist the urge to rub!! When it comes to removing cleansers, there are many different products and they all have their advantages it mostly comes down to personal preference or environmental considerations. It is extremely important to consider hygiene. If you are using a cloth , you need to remember that it is removing bacteria and dirt so you need to ensure this is cleaned regularly and dried properly so its not harboring germs which can be detrimental to skin health.' Advertisement 'To prevent breakouts, the answer is annoyingly simple: take your makeup off before you go to sleep. A double cleanse is an absolute must to remove all traces of makeup, bacteria. I advise starting with an active cleanser to gently break down the make-up on your skin. Follow up with a deep cleaning cleanser that will draw all the bacteria from your pores.' Dr. Martin Kinsella, a cosmetic doctor from Re-Enhance Clinic and aesthetician to the stars added: 'Additionally, if you have an active pimple, sleeping in makeup will only make that spot worse, and can lead to acne or an infection. Furthermore, foundation and thick, oil-based primers often produce blackheads and lead to dull skin, so maybe consider the type of makeup you're wearing. 'I would recommend incorporating a chemical exfoliant, such as salicylic acid to your skincare routine around three times per week to give your pores a really deep clean.' Lou added: 'If your skin needs a deep down clean, there are also advanced treatments on the market, like Stratum Synergy that we use at the clinic. It can will help treat all layers of the skin simultaneously and offer deep cleansing, exfoliation, hydration, leaving your skin feeling squeaky clean - and most importantly your pores bacteria free.' PREMATURE WRINKLES Throughout the day, dirt and makeup become trapped against your skin and cause environmentally induced oxidative damage. This leads to a breakdown of your skin's natural moisture barrier and the slowing down of collagen production. Dr. Kinsella explained that collagen is a vital ingredient to youthful skin, and by breaking it down we open ourselves up to premature wrinkles and sallow skin. He said: 'Produced by the body, collagen is a protein responsible for your skin's elasticity and stretchiness. By sleeping in makeup, you are disrupting your skin's natural moisture barrier, and prematurely breaking down collagen production which leads to fine lines, wrinkles, and a lackluster complexion.' Mel Gravel-Barnes at Croma Pharma, a leading producer of hyaluronic acid for non-invasive aesthetic medicine added: 'As you sleep, your skin goes through a cell turnover process which allows new skin cells push to the surface and sheds any dead cells. Makeup traps these dead skin cells, which in turn leaves you with a dull complexion, which can make your skin look older than it is. 'Besides taking your make-up off every night - without fail - I would recommend really stepping up your skincare routine. Make sure you don't skip cleansing and make hyaluronic acid and retinol your best friends. 'When it comes to youth and hydration, hyaluronic acid is essential. It holds up to 1,000 times its weight in water, which really helps to quench the skin and lock in moisture, which in turn helps to repair your natural skin barrier. Studies also show that hyaluronic acid can smooth fine lines and wrinkles and reverse those early signs of ageing. 'Retinol is another active ingredient you should consider adding to your skincare routine. It promotes skin cell renewal, which helps to boost collagen production. It can also help with pigmentation and skin texture. 'The Farewell Ageing Skin Serum is enriched with Hyaluronic Acid and Marine ferment (a plant-derived alternative to Retinol) and Madecassoside to keep the skin hydrated and improve its overall suppleness and firmness that's suitable for almost anyone too!' DULL AND GREY SKIN If you're looking for brighter skin, properly removing your make-up at night could be the way to do it. When you sleep in your makeup, oils, and dead skin cells on the outer layers of the skin are trapped against your pillow all night. All this bacteria compromises your skin's natural processes, halts cell turnover, and leaves your complexion looking dull. Lou says: 'Regular cleansing and exfoliation are integral to revealing healthy new skin cells and allowing the natural repair processes of the skin to occur. Whilst cleansing takes care of the dirt in your pores, exfoliating is essential to removing dead skin cells and promoting a glowing complexion. 'You should opt for acid treatments, for example Glycolic Acid to exfoliate with rather than harsh scrubs that can damage the skin's moisture barrier. Exfoliating gives your skin a deep clean and removes dead skin cells to control breakouts and make the skin appear smoother and more radiant.' Dr. Kinsella added: 'Really focus on your skincare routine to help keep your complexion radiant and fresh a bespoke skincare system is best. In the clinic, I use an intelligent skincare system called Universkin, which uses AI (artificial intelligence) via a state-of-the-art app to identify individual skin concerns, such as a dull complexion to match the patient to tailored skincare that will keep the skin in tip-top condition. 'You may well find that by introducing a thorough skincare routine that focuses on your individual needs, your skin will be so radiant that you won't need nearly as much makeup, and you can enjoy an extra ten-minute snooze bonus! EYE INFECTIONS Residual eye makeup can irritate the delicate eye tissue and result in a nasty eye infection. When you are sleeping with makeup on, you are not only spreading bacteria around your face, but you are also rubbing it around your eye area, and onto your pillows and blankets, thus creating a breeding ground for potential eye infections. Dr. Kinsella explained that the skin is the first line of defence against infection and by sleeping in makeup we are exasperating that risk. 'The side effects that come with sleeping in makeup can include itchy, bloodshot eyes, an allergic reaction, and even a full-blown infection if you are not careful. Problems caused by leaving your cosmetics on for too long include eye infections , acne, brittle lashes and rashes. Stock image 'Your pillow already holds a lot of bacteria, by adding makeup to the equation you are asking for trouble. Think about it, if you sleep in makeup for three days, that's three days' worth of additional bacteria hitting your face every night. Not only can this lead to eye infections, which can be tricky to clear up - but it can also lead to acne.' Lou added: 'Regularly sleeping in makeup can also age the skin around your eyes. Makeup stops the cell turnover, causing your skin to hold on to dead skin cells, which leads to wrinkles, dark circles under the eyes, and overall older-looking skin. 'By leaving mascara on, you could make your lashes brittle. If done too many times, your lashes could end up thinning and falling out. IRRITATION AND RASHES Makeup often contains fragrances and other irritants like dyes and perfumes. When left on the skin for long periods of time, these irritants can cause inflammation, which is especially risky for those with rosacea or sensitive skin. Mel said: 'If you are already susceptible to sensitive skin, sleeping in makeup will only make matters worse. 'I recommend adding hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, and vitamin c to your skincare routine to help combat sensitivity and improve the overall elasticity and the smoothness of the skin.' The founder of a multi-million dollar fashion brand has revealed how she built her empire without money or experience - and she still doesn't have a business plan. Jane Lu, 34, launched clothing website Showpo from the garage of her parents' home in Sydney in 2010. The brand turned over a reported $85million in 2019 alone. In a recent TikTok video titled 'What I get asked as the CEO of a global fashion brand', the self-made businesswoman revealed she was so 'broke' starting out that she relied on free Facebook marketing and 'maxed' out her credit card to buy stock. Before her big break, the mother-of-one - who shares one-year-old son Lachie with her long-time love, James Waldie - said she worked as a bartender and accountant, with no background in fashion or retail. Scroll down for video Self-made: Sydney woman Jane Lu (pictured) is the founder of Showpo, one of Australia's leading fast fashion websites Ms Lu (pictured) launched clothing website Showpo from the garage of her parents' home in Sydney in 2010; the brand turned over a reported $85million in 2019 alone The CEO, whose website was named Australian Online Retailer of the Year in 2018, also revealed she has never had a business plan, making her extraordinary success all the more remarkable. Responding to a fan who asked if she needed 'a lot of money' to launch her brand, Ms Lu said: 'No, I was broke. I bought stock on consignment, used Facebook for free marketing and maxed out my credit card for everything else.' Consignment stock is a term used to describe products in a retailer's possession that are still legally owned by the supplier. The products are only bought from the supplier once they have been resold by the retailer, meaning they do not have to tie money up in stock before it has been sold. Ms Lu's revelations, which have been viewed 97,500 times since they were uploaded online on July 22, sparked stunned responses. Ms Lu (pictured), whose website was named Australian Online Retailer of the Year in 2018, also revealed she has never had a business plan The mother-of-one let fans in on the early days of her story in a recent TikTok video titled 'What I get asked as the CEO of a global fashion brand' 'Love your story and your brand,' one woman replied. 'You are a huge inspiration to me,' said a second, while a third added: 'So impressive.' Others shared memories of the early days of the brand, saying they remembered seeing Ms Lu running a small pop-up stall in a Westfield shopping centre. Some pointed out that her background in accounting would have helped her to manage the financial side of the website, but Ms Lu rubbished the claim. As well as her rags to riches rise to fortune, Ms Lu (pictured at Sydney Fashion Week in 2021) has also enjoyed something of a fairytale love story 'I dunno how much it helps, well I certainly wouldn't recommend it for anyone who wants to start a business!' she said. As well as her rags to riches rise to fortune, Ms Lu has also enjoyed something of a fairytale love story. She met her future husband and long-term business partner James Waldie on an exchange trip to Sweden in 2008. James, who was appointed CFO of Showpo in 2018, proposed during a romantic gondola ride in Queensland a decade later. Showpo CEO Jane Lu tied the knot with her CFO James Waldie in October 2019 surrounded by close friends and family in a lavish ceremony at Sergeants' Mess in Mosman, Sydney Jane (centre) wore a $299.95 wedding gown from Showpo's bridal collection and dressed her bridesmaids in various shades of pink from her own design racks The couple tied the knot surrounded by close friends and family in a lavish ceremony at Sergeants' Mess in Mosman, Sydney, in October 2019. Jane wore a $299.95 wedding gown from Showpo's bridal collection and dressed her bridesmaids in various shades of pink from her own design racks. The newlyweds welcomed their first child, a son named Lachie, less than one year later in August 2020. Ice cream giant Messina has announced an Iced Vovo Bavarian to celebrate the start of picnic season as lockdown restrictions ease across the country. The popular Australian ice creamery said the new limited-edition dessert was designed to celebrate spring time and new-found freedoms. The dessert has a coconut biscuit base topped with coconut bavarois (mousse), raspberry bavarois and raspberry gel. Ice cream giant Messina has announced an Iced Vovo Bavarian to celebrate the start of picnic season as lockdown restrictions ease across the country The popular Australian ice creamery said the new limited-edition dessert was designed to celebrate spring time and new-found freedoms It is finished off with raspberry marshmallow and desiccated coconut, just like the iconic Australian biscuit. 'It's decadent and rich, not to mention easy on the eyes,' the Messina team said. The Bavarians will go on sale on September 20 and will be available for pick up at select stores between September 24 and 26. The dessert serves six to eight people, according to the Messina team, and costs $38. Details on how to order the luxurious picnic treat can be found on the website. The dessert is available in Messina stores across NSW, Victoria and the ACT. Messina's popular limited-edition desserts sell out quickly, there are no refunds available and they must be picked up at a specified time. The dessert has a coconut biscuit base topped with coconut bavarois (mousse), raspberry bavarois and raspberry gel A Facebook announcement for the fancy mousse cake went viral with thousands of dessert lovers commenting on, liking and sharing the post. 'I want to marry you but if you don't get me this Bavarian i won't be able to,' one woman laughed, tagging her fiance. 'You are probably onto this already but if not, you are welcome,' another woman said tagging a friend. Aldi has revealed its very indulgent Christmas range for 2021 - including an Espresso Martini Cheese and a box of game. The UK budget supermarket - which was named Christmas Retailer of the Year for the second year in a row at the Quality Food and Drink Awards - has a a huge range this year, including katsu chicken sliders and specially selected cheese truckles. It comes as the supermarket had a staggering 47 products receiving recognition at the Awards. The discount retailer also picked up the sought-after title of Christmas Product of the Year for its Specially Selected Exquisite Belgian Caramel Thins (3.99, 180g). Aldi has revealed its very indulgent Christmas range for 2021 - including an Espresso Martini Cheese and a box of game (pictured) The budget supermarket - which was named Christmas Retailer of the Year for the second year in a row at the Quality Food and Drink Awards - has a a huge range this year, including katsu chicken sliders and specially selected cheese truckles. Pictured is the Garlic Tear & Share bread The range even has an Espresso Martini cheese (Pictured) sure to be a delight of festive food boards WHAT'S IN ALDI'S CHRISTMAS RANGE? Specially Selected Exquisite Pate Ingot An indulgent triple layer of smooth British chicken & duck liver parfit, topped with a vibrant passionfruit & clementine jelly and a hidden cranberry centre. Laced with craft distillery Galloway Gin and blended with Scottish Cream & herbs, this deliciously moreish pate is the ultimate accompaniment to any festive cracker. On sale TBC Specially Selected Pigs in Beds Two pork piglets on an apple & honey sausage meat bed, nestled on cranberry pillows under a duvet of smoked bacon. On sale 19th December Mini Chicken Sliders Get in the party spirit with Aldi's handmade Mini Chicken Burger Sliders, available in spicy chicken or katsu chicken. So delicious, guests will keep coming back for more! Spicy Chicken Sliders Spicy Breaded chicken burger, with a spicy salsa sauce and mini sesame seed bun. This mini version may even remind you of your favourite from 'the Colonel'. Katsu Chicken Sliders Aromatic breaded chicken breast in a katsu style sauce in in a mini sesame seed bun. On sale 10th December Pavlova Towers Raspberry and White Chocolate Pavlova Stack has layer upon layer of chewy meringue with white chocolate flavour cream and raspberry sauce, hand finished with heritage raspberries and white chocolate mini curls. Alternatively, our Millionaire's Pavlova Stack has toffee meringue with salted caramel sauce and finished with a biscuit crumb, drizzled in milk chocolate. On sale 25th October Figgy Pudding Sparkle through Christmas with the ultimate sweet, boozy pudding with a twist. A luxurious Christmas pudding made with succulent vine fruits, candied diced figs, white rum, almonds and walnuts. Fully coated in edible gold sparkle glitter, with a hidden pocket of silky rum and toffee sauce in the centre. On sale 1st November Specially Selected Cheese Truckles Sweet dreams are made of cheese! Treat guests to these rich and smooth Cheese Truckles that simply melt in the mouth. Choose from: Wensleydale with Raspberry & Pink Gin Let's Party Tear & Share Garlic Doughball Tree Made using a traditional dough recipe and assembled, topped and finished by hand with a garlic flavour, a fabulous festive table centre piece treat! On sale 10th October Specially Selected Exquisite Game Box This selection of fresh British game is set to impress guests. From British estates, it is pre prepared and beautifully presented featuring a brace of garnished partridge, four delicious pheasant breasts and two rolls of pork & cranberry stuffing. On sale 19th October Specially Selected Partridge in a Pear Tree Wellingtons British Partridge from British estates, complete with succulent pork and pear stuffing and encased in the finest shortcrust pastry. On sale 19th December Specially Selected Perfect British Duck Duo This fresh British duck is the perfect duo of seasoned boneless duck breast joint with gluten free stuffing and confit seasoned slow cooked duck legs, complete with a port and plum glaze to accompany. On sale 19th December After Dinner Mint Bar A base of dense chocolate sponge topped with layers of dark chocolate mousse with chocolate chip inclusions, a crunchy mint chocolate feuilletine with meringue pieces, a layer of creamy textured mint fondant, topped off with rippled dark mint chocolate. On sale 25th October Specially Selected Honeycomb Chocolate Cracker Cake Luxurious, moist & golden Belgian chocolate cracker sponge filled with a hidden golden honeycomb centre and topped with a sticky Belgian chocolate sauce and edible gold stars. On sale 10th December Specially Selected Raspberry & White Chocolate Christmas Tree / Black Forest Christmas Tree Specially Selected Choux Rings Five Choux rings filled with chocolate mousse and a rich toffee sauce hand finished with a Belgian chocolate ganache, gold stars and glitter. On sale 21st December Wensleydale Spiced Rum & Honey o Wensleydale with a celebratory combination of Jamaican Rum and warming cinnamon and nutmeg spices. Advertisement Made in a family-run bakery in Somerset and decorated by hand, smooth caramel is enrobed in Fairtrade Belgian chocolate and topped with pistachios, orange pieces and caramel. The award-winning luxury thins are on sale from 2nd December. More than 400 judges from the food industry tasted hundreds of products for the QFA, which recognises products leading the way in their sector. Products were rated on taste, flavour, texture, aroma, ingredients list, value for money, innovation, aims in the marketplace, presentation and packaging. Julie Ashfield, Managing Director of Corporate Buying at Aldi, told FEMAIL: 'We are delighted to have been named Christmas Retailer of the Year for the second year running. 'After last year, shoppers are looking forward to Christmas more than ever before. We can't wait to share our festive food range, which is full of innovative, high quality products that will help customers take their celebrations to the next level and make Christmas amazing for everyone all at a price they can afford.' Pictured: Specially Selected Raspberry & White Chocolate Christmas Tree / Black Forest Christmas Tree Aromatic breaded chicken breast in a katsu style sauce in in a mini sesame seed bun make the katsu chicken sliders Wensleydale with Raspberry & Pink Gin is among the boozy cheeses on offer at Aldi this year Five Choux rings filled with chocolate mousse and a rich toffee sauce hand finished with a Belgian chocolate ganache, gold stars and glitter are sure to be a Christmas showstopper Luxurious, moist & golden Belgian chocolate cracker sponge filled with a hidden golden honeycomb centre and topped with a sticky Belgian chocolate sauce and edible gold stars will be a hit with the kids Pictured: Raspberry and White Chocolate Pavlova Stack has layer upon layer of chewy meringue with white chocolate flavour cream and raspberry sauce, hand finished with heritage raspberries and white chocolate mini curls. Alternatively, our Millionaire's Pavlova Stack has toffee meringue with salted caramel sauce and finished with a biscuit crumb, drizzled in milk chocolate Specially Selected Partridge in a Pear Tree Wellingtons include British Partridge from British estates, complete with succulent pork and pear stuffing and encased in the finest shortcrust pastry. WHAT AWARDS DID ALDI WIN AT THE QUALITY FOOD AWARDS? Aldi Christmas Retailer of the Year Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Belgian Caramel Thins Christmas Product of the Year Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Pate Ingot Christmas - Deli Aldi Specially Selected Truffle Proscuitto Christmas - Deli Aldi Specially Selected Almond Mince Tarts Christmas - Alternative Mince Pies Aldi Exquisite Rib Joint Christmas - Beef Aldi Specially Selected White Christmas Tree Christmas - Centrepiece Desserts Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Belgian Caramel Thins Christmas - Chocolate Aldi Specially Selected Champagne Christmas Pudding Christmas - Christmas Puddings Aldi Specially Selected Cauliflower Cheese Christmas - Seasonal Sides - Vegetables including Potatoes Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Mini Mince Pies Christmas - Traditional Mince Pies Aldi Free From Christmas Pudding Christmas - Free From Desserts Aldi Free From Mince Pies Christmas - Free From Mince Pies Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Belgian Pop Up Advent Calendar Christmas - Gifted Items/Gift Selections Aldi Specially Selected Christmas Ice Cream Christmas - Novelty Aldi Specially Selected Panettone - Fruit Christmas - Panettone and Stollen Aldi Specially Selected Pigs in Beds Christmas - Pigs in Blankets Aldi Hog Roast with Stuffing Christmas - Pork Aldi Specially Selected Pembrokeshire Free Range Corn Fed Cockerel Christmas - Poultry excluding Turkey Aldi Specially Selected Stuffing Slab Christmas - Seasonal Sides - Stuffing Aldi Specially Selected The Perfect Turkey Christmas - Turkey Aldi Specially Selected Organic Free Range Whole Turkey Christmas - Turkey Advertisement The news comes as Aldi unveils some of its Christmas range. Joining its selection of British turkeys and Red Tractor approved stuffing, are Aldi's Specially Selected Pigs in Beds (3.99, 456g), named by QFA as Best Pigs in Blankets. A twist on the Christmas classic, there's snow way shoppers will want to miss out on the British pork, apple and honey sausage meat 'bed' with cocktail sausage 'pigs' all tucked up in oak smoked bacon 'blankets' with cranberry 'pillows'. On shelves from 19th December. The Aldi Christmas range is also choc full of sweet treats, including the Specially Selected Exquisite Mini Mince Pies (2.49, pack of nine), named best Traditional Mince Pies, and the Specially Selected Raspberry and White Christmas Tree (7.99, 540g), named best Centrepiece Dessert. The white chocolate and vanilla mousse Christmas tree serves six and is filled with layers of sponge cake, topped with raspberry inclusions, a praline feuillantine and raspberry crumb decorations. Available to buy from 15th November. Chocoholics will also rejoice at Aldi's highly commended Honeycomb Cracker Cake (5.49, 700g). On sale from 10th December, the cake combines luxurious, moist and golden Belgian chocolate sponge, with a sticky Belgian chocolate sauce and edible gold stars. Not forgetting a hidden golden honeycomb centre. It comes as the supermarket has partnered with much loved brand Tonys Chocolonely to create a 100 per cent responsibly sourced own label chocolate bar. The Fairtrade approved Choceur Choco Changer (1.99) aims to change the norm of the cocoa industry by following Tonys Chocolonely values. Three delicious bars will be launching as a Specialbuy in stores nationwide from 19th September. It comes as the supermarket launched their biggest ever range of Christmas hampers. Having sold out in record time last year, Aldi expects this years collection to sell out even faster, as a quarter of Brits have already started their Christmas shopping. The hamper range includes returning favourites, such as The Ultimate Celebration Hamper, packed with cakes, chocolates, wine and savouries. These are joined by two new additions The Sommeliers Six Wine Hamper and The Ultimate Decadence Hamper. The luxurious range starts from just 19.99, over 50 eer cent cheaper than luxury favourite Fortnum & Mason. Whether shopping for a cocktail connoisseur, chocolate aficionado or ardent foodie, there is a decadent hamper selection to suit all tastes and budgets to truly sleigh gifting during the festive season. For a selection of festive heroes at a tree-mendous price, look no further than the Christmas Favourites Hamper (19.99). Filled with festive picks including: Specially Selected Strawberry Conserve, Florentines, Chocolate & Salted Caramel Bombe, Moser Roth Milk Chocolate Mountain Bar and a bottle of Specially Selected Argentinian Malbec. Advertisement Coronavirus cases are continuing to flatten across the country as the U.S. approaches the end of the fourth wave of the pandemic. On Thursday, officials recorded 157,957 new cases of COVID-19 with a seven-day rolling average of 155,523, which is a 10 percent increase from the 140,567 average reported on August 19. However, during the same time last month, new infections had spiked by 212 percent over a four-week period. This means that although the overall number of cases has risen from mid-August, the growth rate has significantly slowed to the lowest since early summer. Nearly half of U.S. states have seen Covid infections either decline or hold steady over the last two weeks, a DailyMail.com analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University shows. What's more, hospitalizations have also declined from 101,634 last week to 93,703, a seven percent drop, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). However, deaths have risen with 3,393 virus-related fatalities recorded on Thursday and a seven-day rolling average of 1,993. This is a 133 percent increase from the 852 average deaths recorded one month ago and the highest average reported since February. Experts say that fatalities are a lagging indicator and often don't start to decline until three or four weeks after cases and hospitalizations do, which means that deaths are expected to soon fall as well. Additionally, not every state reports Covid deaths every day so it is likely that this figure includes deaths not reported earlier in the week. Despite most hotspots including Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi now reporting declines, a few states are still experiencing surges - including Montana, Tennessee and West Virginia - driven by low vaccination rates. On Thursday, the U.S. recorded 157,957 new cases of Covid with a seven-day rolling average of 140,567, a 10% rise from the 137,058 average reported one month ago, a decline from the 212% increase in average reported over a four-week period last month COVID-19 hospitalizations have also fallen by 7% from 101,634 last week to 93,703, according to the HHS Deaths are continuing to rise with 3,393 virus-related fatalities recorded on Thursday and a seven-day rolling average of 1,993, is a 133% increase from one month ago and the highest average since February, but deaths are expected to decline soon as well Public health experts and doctors say that the decline is likely due to the fact that country has a high level of hybrid immunity with 180.1 million Americans fully vaccinated and an estimated 120.2 million true infections - although there is high probability of some crossover. 'This is good news,' Dr Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNBC. 'It could represent that we have reached a peak and we are now on the way down.' America has seen various peaks and valleys when it comes to daily average COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. Average cases reach nearly 32,000 in early April 2020 before declining. Infections rose once again over the summer and peak at 66,800 in July 2020 before dropping. The deadly third wave then took hold in the fall and the country saw its highest number of average cases ever recorded at 247,500 in mid-January. Cases declined once again until late June, when the Delta variant became the dominant strain. 'Every epidemic goes through cycles and eventually wanes, and that happens when you have enough people who are resistant,' Casadevall said. But Casadevall warned to not declare victory too soon and to keep following mitigation measures - and the unvaccinated Americans continue to get shots. 'I would just be careful declaring anything except some degree of optimism with the fact that the numbers are going down,' he told CNBC. Despite the overall good picture for the country, some states are still continuing to experience surges due to few restrictions and low vaccination coverage. In Tennessee, average daily Covid cases currently sit at 10,664, a 129 percent increase of 4,648 average cases over the last month, according to Johns Hopkins data. The Volunteer State is currently record the highest number of infections per capita with a seven-day average of 760.6 cases per 100,000 people, CDC figures show. 'We don't really know how bad it's going to get or how bad it's going to last,' Dr James Shamiyeh, senior vice president of the University of Tennessee Medical Center, told the Knoxville News Sentinel. 'There's really not extra staff to bring in from outside the community. There are limits to what we can do.' In Tennessee, average daily Covid cases currently sit at 10,664, a 129% increase of 4,648 average cases over the last month Average cases in West Virginia, which has the lowest vaccination rate in the country, have risen 173% over the last month from 634 per day to 1,734 per day Cases are also rising in Montana with average infections per day sitting at 918, a 185% increase from 322 CDC data show just 43.8 percent of Tennessee's total populations is fully vaccinated, below the national average of 54.2 percent. 'Vaccinate. Vaccinate. Vaccinate. Please consider the vaccine,' Dr Harold Naramore, chief medical officer at Blount Memorial Hospital told the News Sentinel. 'Truth is that if you get the vaccine you very likely won't come to the hospital.' In nearby West Virginia, average infections have risen by 173 percent over the last month from 634 per day to 1,734 per day, according to Johns Hopkins. The state has the second-highest rate of cases per capital at 743.5 per 100,000 over a seven-day average, CDC data show. At a press briefing on Wednesday, Gov Jim Justice reported that West Virginia set a new record number of COVID-19 at 893 patients as well as a record number of those in intensive care units (ICUs) at 275 patients. Justice revealed that nearly 85 percent of those in the hospital are unvaccinated as are at least 90 percent of those occupying ICU beds. 'We know that, for the most part, we're dealing with a disease that is attacking the unvaccinated,' he said. 'If you're still unvaccinated, you need to make a great decision right now and get yourself vaccinated.' The Mountain State currently has the worst Covid vaccination rate in the country with just 40 percent of the total population fully vaccinated. 'You can see, there's no getting away from it. It's all around everywhere,' Justice said. 'The only way you're really going to stand a great chance to get away from it is to be vaccinated.' Cases are also rising in Montana with average infections per day sitting at 918, a 185 percent increase from 322. Montana has a high level of transmission with about 527.4 cases per 100,000 people, but only 47.5 percent of residents are fully vaccinated. According to Dr Nathan Allen, a ER physician at Billings Clinic, 90 percent of patients being admitted to hospitals with Covid are unvaccinated, reported MTPR. The hospital says it is considering implementing 'crisis standards of care' to deal with the recent surge of patients as seen in the northwestern part of the state. This protocol allows hospitals to prioritize patients who are more likely to survive while providing less care for others. 'It is still surreal to see a tragedy like this unfolding before you that you hoped would never happen to your community, Allen told MTPR. Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is the most effective at protecting recipients against hospitalization, a new report suggests. There are currently three immunizations authorized for use in the U.S.: Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that efficacy of the Moderna shot is 93 percent against hospitalization. Comparatively, the Pfizer jab was 88 percent effective and the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 71 percent effective. A new CDC report looked at the efficacy of three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S.: Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen. Pictured: Aggie Health and Wellness Center Nurse Marissa Archule administers a Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine to Lauren Naranjo at a walk in clinic at Corbett Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, May 13 Researchers found that the Moderna shot is 93% effective against hospitalization compared to 88% for the Pfizer vaccine and 71% for Johnson & Johnson (file image) For the report, published on Friday, CDC researchers looked at data from 3,689 adults aged 18 and older. The participants had all been hospitalized at 21 hospitals across 18 states between March 11, 2021 and August 15, 2021 - but not all due to the virus. Researchers also recruited a control group of 100 healthy volunteers and looked at blood samples between two and six weeks after they were fully vaccinated. No patients with immunocompromising conditions were included in the study. Among the hospitalized patients, 64 percent were unvaccinated. Antibody levels in blood samples were highest among Moderna recipients in a separate group of healthy volunteers compared to levels for Pfizer and J&J recipients Of the remaining group 476 (12.9 percent) were fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine; 738 (20.0 percent) with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 113 (3.1 percent) with the J&J vaccine. When the team looked at COVID-19 cases among fully vaccinated patients, they found that some immunizations were more effective than others. Among the Moderna vaccine recipients, there 54 Covid infections among 476 participants, or 11.3 percent. Comparatively, there were 128 cases among 738 participants who had received Pfizer, or 17.3 percent, and 37 cases among 113 J&J recipients, or 32.7 percent. This translates to 93 percent efficacy against hospitalization for the Moderna vaccine, 88 percent for the Pfizer vaccine and 71 percent for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, researchers said. They also compared antibody levels among the 100 healthy volunteers, 32 of whom received Moderna, 51 of whom received Pfizer and 17 of whom received J&J. Results were highest among the Moderna recipients compared to those who were given one of the other two vaccines. 'These real-world data suggest that the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine regimens provide more protection than does the one-dose Janssen viral vector vaccine regimen,' the CDC authors wrote. 'Although the J&J vaccine had lower observed [vaccine efficacy], one dose of Janssen vaccine still reduced risk for COVID-19associated hospitalization by 71 percent.' The authors still insist that all three vaccines are highly effective and that unvaccinated Americans should get whichever shot is available to them. 'Although these real-world data suggest some variation in levels of protection by vaccine, all FDA-approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccines provide substantial protection against COVID-19 hospitalization,' they added. My wife, Clare, and I are both in our 60s. Our children have grown up and left home so we thought that by now our lives would be slowing down. Yet we seem to be busier than ever. We talk about wanting to do less, but the fact that we can't decide what to cut back on fewer Zoom calls, fewer projects or fewer Instagram posts suggests we are happy as we are. And that seems to be true of a lot of busy people. Although we moan about not having enough hours in the day to get things done (busy people like to brag about how busy they are), a recent study concluded that having more free time does not necessarily make people happier, while having lots of spare time can make us positively unhappy. The findings, from the University of Pennsylvania, were based on a questionnaire filled out by more than 21,000 Americans; they were asked to provide a detailed account of what they did during the day and to score their sense of wellbeing how good they felt about their lives. Although we moan about not having enough hours in the day to get things done (busy people like to brag about how busy they are), a recent study concluded that having more free time does not necessarily make people happier The researchers found that people who had very little free time were the least happy and that, as free time increased, so did the sense of wellbeing. But this levelled off once people had about two hours of free time (time they could spend how they wanted, without work or domestic chores) a day, and began to decline if they had more than five hours. Why? It stands to reason that being busy gives us a sense of purpose. It also helps keep our brains in good shape. Proof of this comes from a number of studies, including one carried out a few years ago by the University of Texas. They asked middle-aged and elderly volunteers to do brain tests and fill in a 'busyness' questionnaire. This included questions such as: how often do you have too many things to do each day to actually get them all done? How often do you have so many things to do that you go to bed later than your regular bedtime? They found, not surprisingly, that people tend to get less busy as they get older, and that women of all ages seem busier than men. They also discovered that busy people of all ages in the study had better working memories (the ability to hold more than one thing in your mind at the same time); better episodic memories (the ability to recall past events); and greater processing speed, i.e. their brains seemed to be working faster. Researchers found that people who had very little free time were the least happy and that, as free time increased, so did the sense of wellbeing. But this levelled off once people had about two hours of free time The researchers put this down to people with busy lifestyles being out in the world, having new experiences and meeting new people all of which is more mentally demanding than being at home trying to decide which programme to watch on Netflix. They also suggest that because busy people are often having to learn new things, this leads to the growth of new brain cells, particularly in the hippocampus, the area of the brain linked to memory. Studies have shown that spending your spare time struggling with a new language, or a mentally challenging physical activity, such as dancing, is really good for the middle-aged brain. The downside of being busy is that it can be stressful, particularly if you have to work long hours or don't have control over what you do in your spare time. It also means that you may not be carving out time to meet with friends and family. And that's bad because maintaining close relationships is hugely important for our physical and mental wellbeing. We know this from research such as the Harvard Longitudinal Study, one of the longest human studies ever carried out. In the 1930s researchers recruited 724 students from Harvard University (all male), as well as young men from the Boston area, for a life-long study. Some of those men, such as John F. Kennedy, went on to become rich and famous, while others led normal lives. The main finding of the study was that the men who had close friends and partners were far more likely to stay happy and healthy into old age than those who didn't. A nd the effect on your health of having close friends is significant. A study where they monitored more than 300,000 middle-aged people for an average of seven-and-a-half years found that those with the strongest social ties were 50 per cent more likely to be alive at the end of the study than people with fewer friends. The impact of having close friends is comparable to quitting smoking and is much bigger than, say, slimming or becoming more active (though, of course, both are good things to do anyway). I'm not as good as I'd like to be at keeping up with old friends (though I am resolved to do better), but one thing I have managed to prioritise is our local book club, which has met for many years, and we are now all close friends. If you're already very busy, then you won't want any advice from me about things you can productively add to your life to make yourself even busier. But if you do have more time on your hands than you would ideally like, I recommend getting in contact with old friends, inviting others to go on walks with you, taking up a new hobby or volunteering. As the American philosopher Henry Thoreau once said, 'It's not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?' Prolonged sitting is sometimes described as the new smoking not only is it really bad for the heart, it increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and has even been linked to some cancers. Most of us spend far too much time sitting down, either working at computers, playing games or watching TV. One of the best ways to counter the effects of prolonged sitting is to get up and move every 30 minutes or so. And now we know how long you need to do this: a study in Sweden found two to three minutes of being active for every 30 minutes of sitting, seems to be what it takes to protect your metabolic health, ideally strolling around even better, stair climbing or doing squats. To ensure you actually do it, get an app or set your phone to remind you to move twice an hour. Why I can't wait to have a booster jab When the time comes I will be eagerly lining up to get my booster Covid jab, and hopefully get a flu jab at the same time. I am a big fan of vaccines the fact is, they work and a recent study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed what a brilliant job the Covid vaccines in particular are doing. Out of 51,281 Covid deaths in the first half of this year, only 458 (that is about 0.9 per cent) were in people who'd been double jabbed. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence that Covid vaccines are safe and effective, there are still millions of adults in the UK who have so far chosen not to have one. They not only put themselves at risk, but the rest of us as well. One of the vaccine-hesitant is a friend of mine. A few days ago she told me she hadn't had the jab and isn't sure she wants to. She's in her 40s and doesn't think she's at risk. As I pointed out, she might not become seriously ill, but if she gets infected there's a good chance she'll get long Covid. While Covid kills mainly older men, the people most likely to get long Covid are women aged 35 to 69 years. According to the ONS, around one in four in this group will have at least one lingering symptom five weeks after being infected, and the symptoms can be really unpleasant, ranging from loss of taste and smell to mental fogginess, being completely drained of energy, and, as another friend put it, 'feeling like there is someone sitting on your chest'. The best way to save yourself from long Covid is to get vaccinated. A study by King's College London showed that being double vaccinated not only slashes your risk of feeling ill if you get infected, but if you do develop symptoms, it halves the chance that these will persist. I've told my friend the facts. I really hope she changes her mind. A central Arkansas hospital system is requiring staff members who receive a religious exemption from getting the COVID-19 vaccine to also give up other popular medications. Conway Regional Medical Center has joined the growing number of hospitals mandate Covid shots for workers. Employees of the hospital system will have until October 8 to be fully vaccinated, but there is an option for some to get a religious exemption from the requirement. Hospital leadership noticed that many were applying for religious exemptions based on the potential use of fetal cell lines in the development of the vaccine. To make sure that employees applying for waivers to dodge vaccine requirements are doing so because of their truly-held beliefs, the hospital is making them attest that they will stop using 30 other common drugs that also used fetal cell lines for development, including Tylenol and Tums. Conway Regional Health System is requiring all employees to get vaccinated by October 8 to keep their jobs. Those who apply for a religious exemption on the basis of vaccines using fetal cell links in development will also have to attest to not use other drugs that used the same process in development 'This was significantly disproportionate to what we've seen with the influenza vaccine,' Matt Troup, CEO of Conway, told Becker's Hospital Review. 'Thus, we provided a religious attestation form for those individuals requesting a religious exemption. 'The intent of the religious attestation form is twofold: to ensure staff requesting exemption are sincere in their beliefs and to educate staff who might have requested an exemption without understanding the full scope of how fetal cells are used in testing and development in common medicines.' Hospital workers applying for exemption will have so sign a form attesting that they will also seize any use of aspirin, Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Motrin, Tums, Benadryl, ibuprofen and others. None of the three Covid vaccines - Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson - approved in the U.S. contained aborted fetal cells. However, fetal cell lines, which are laboratory-grown cells based on aborted fetal cells that were collected in the 1970s and 1980s, were used for research and development of the shots. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines did not use fetal cell links in development, though the Johnson & Johnson vaccine did (File Photo) One cell is gathered, then multiplied infinitely to create cells used for science experiments. They are often used in vaccine development to help create virus cells that can be used for the shots. According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines did not use fetal cell lines in development, though the Johnson & Johnson vaccine did. Some object to this practice on religious grounds because they oppose abortion and the use of fetuses in medical development. The practice of using fetal cell lines in medical development is common, though, and as the hospital notes, many popular medications also used the process. Employees who fail to sign the attestation that they will not use the other drugs will only receive temporary exemption, and they will be open to discipline when it expires. Any non-exempt employee who is not vaccinated by the October 8 deadline will be subject to disciplinary action and potentially termination, the hospital says. New hires at Conway are also required to get fully vaccinated within 30 days of their start of employment. 'This is a decision that has come after much discussion, analysis, and education. It's one we do not take lightly,' Troup wrote in a statement about the new hire vaccine mandates. 'As the community's health system for 100 years, we feel strongly that we must lead our community in vaccine adoption and set an example for the communities we serve. 'We have a responsibility to our patients, to our team members, and to the community to do the right thing,' 'The evidence is clear that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, as well as hospitalizations and death.' Around five percent of employees at the hospital are seeking a religious exemption to receiving the shots. Getting tested for COVID-19 before a flight can greatly reduce the number of infected travelers, a new study finds. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, the Georgia Department of Public Health and Delta Air Lines looked at different testing strategies for passengers traveling by air. They found that getting a nasal swab test up to 72 hours before the flight decreased the number of infected customers to about 0.05 percent. That's equivalent to about one in every 2.000 people testing positive for the virus. The team says the findings show that preflight testing programs can help dramatically reduce the risk of infections and can lead to safer flights. A new study from the Mayo Clinic looked at 10,000 passengers who were tested to fly from the U.S. to Italy between December 2020 and May 2021. Pictured: A man receives a nasal swab COVID-19 test at Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, December 2020 Not being tested was linked to estimate prevalence of COVID-19 infection on flights to 0.2% or one in every 500 people. Getting a nasal swab test up to 72 hours before the flight and a test at the airport led to a 0.05% prevalence or one in every 2,000 travelers For the study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the team looked at Delta's preflight testing program than ran from December 2020 to May 2021. The program allowed people to travel internationally and avoid quarantine if they tested negative prior to arrival. Data was examined for 9,853 people traveling from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta or John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Rome or Italy. There were five different testing options: 72-hours pre-flight molecular test and a molecular test at airport; 72-hours pre-flight molecular test and an antigen test at airport; antigen test only at airport; molecular test only at airport; or no testing. Molecular tests, also known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, are considered the gold standard in COVID-19 testing. They are considered to be highly accurate because they detect genetic material of the coronavirus in a patient's mucus or saliva. However, they are costly and have long turnaround time because the sample needs to be submitted to a lab and analyzed by a professional. Results generally take at least two days to be returned, making it hard for PCR tests to be used for widespread surveillance. Meanwhile, rapid tests look for antigens, or proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus. This screening method is faster, with results returning in 15 minutes, but less precise with patients more likely to have false negatives - receiving a negative result even though they're actually infected. Of the nearly 10,000 passengers who underwent testing, there were four - 0.04 percent - who tested positive by both the molecular test and the rapid antigen and were not allowed to fly. There were no false-positive rapid antigen tests. That means only one in about every 2,000 people flying Delta Air Lines is likely to be infected with COVID-19 'That's a pretty darn low number,' lead author Dr Aaron J Tande, an infectious disease specialist at the Mayo Clinic, told CNBC. The no testing option - for those who opted to quarantine abroad- was the most likely to have infected onboard at 0.2 percent or one in every 500 people. The authors say there are limitations including people who suspected they were infected not flying and people being more careful about wearing masks and social distancing because they knew they could not fly if they contracted the virus. 'I can't say that that's what made the number of tests that were positive so low - or was it truly that the 72-hour test was so good,' Tande told CNBC. 'Butthe end result is that it's a safer flight for people, and that's what we want.' An independent panel at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted unanimously to recommend approval of booster doses for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine - but only for specific at-risk groups. These groups include older adults aged 65 and older and those who are at high risk of developing a severe case of the virus. It comes after a first vote Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) was 16-2 against boosters for all healthy Americans. Members said said there was not enough evidence that a third dose was safe and effective for use in people under age 65. The FDA is not bound to follow the advisory group's recommendations but the agency rarely goes against the guidance of VRBPAC. The next step before the FDA can issue authorization is a recommendation for approved by the advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Pfizer had previously submitted data that the company claimed show its vaccine's efficacy falls by about six percent every two months following the second and final dose. But many scientists, including senior officials at the FDA, disagree and argue that the vaccines are still highly effective at preventing severe illness and death. The FDA's advisory committee has voted to recommend approval of the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots only in people aged 65 and older and at high risk of severe disease. Pictured: Nurse Kevin Grellman administers a third booster dose of Pfizer's vaccine to Jose Gomez, 80, after his wife Armida Gomez, 81, received hers in Pasadena, California, August 2021 The first vote by the advisory committee voted 16-2 to not recommend approval of Covid booster shots of Pfizer's vaccine for healthy people under age 65 Last month, boosters were approved for immunocompromised Americans who had received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine after data showed they were less likely to develop high antibody levels after two doses. At least 2.04 million people in the U.S. have received booster doses as of Friday, according to data from the CDC. The White House also announced last month booster shots would become available for all Americans starting on September 20 due to data suggesting waning efficacy of the initial shots. At the time, Pfizer said its early data suggested people who received booster doses between six and 12 months after their final dose had high levels of protection. The company filed for emergency use authorization for booster doses in late August and submitted data to the FDA, which made public on Wednesday. The documents suggest that protection from two doses of the Pfizer vaccine declines from 96.2 percent at seven days after dose 2 to 90.1 percent two months later to 83.7 percent up to six months later. What's more, they cited data from Israel showing people fully vaccinated in January 2021 had a 2.26-fold increased risk for breakthrough infections compared to those fully vaccinated in April 2021. Pfizer said data suggested efficacy of two doses declines from 96.2% to 83.7% after six months but that a third dose boosts antibody levels (above) Another Israeli study discussed in the documents showed that effectiveness against infection was 39 percent and against symptomatic disease was 40 percent from June 20, 2021 to July 17, 2021, when the Delta variant was the dominant strain. Comparatively, between January and April, these rates were at 95 percent or higher. The team also released data from a clinical trial involving 23 participants who participated in Pfizer's early-stage trials last year. Each had received two doses of the vaccine and were given a booster dose at least six months later. Of the participants, 11 were in the younger adults group of those aged 18 to 55 and 12 were aged 65 to 85. After the third dose, neutralizing antibodies against the original strain of the virus rose five-fold in the 18-to-55 age group and seven-fold in the 65-to-85 group. Against the Delta variant, antibody levels after a booster shot rose five-fold in the younger adult group and 12-fold in the older adult group. During the VRBPC meeting, members pushed back against these data. Dr Phil Krause, deputy director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review, said that Pfizer's data had yet to be independently reviewed by experts. 'One of the issues in this is that much of the data that's been presented and being discussed today is not peer-reviewed and has not been reviewed by FDA,' he said. FDA and CDC officials have previously expressed to their doubts to the White House about the need for extra doses. In a separate briefing document also published Wednesday, FDA scientists wrote with a skeptical tone about the need for booster shots. 'Overall, data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States,' the scientists wrote. They added that studies on booster doses have presented conflicting findings and that 'known and unknown biases that can affect their reliability.' Mississippi health officials are sounding the alarm about some pregnant women being turned away when they go get a COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccines are deemed safe and effective for pregnant women, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been urging expectants mothers to receive the shots. However, some providers have been refusing to give women the jabs when they arrive at the clinic and reveal they are carrying a child. State officials this is a problem because pregnant women are more likely to suffer severe symptoms and even death from the virus, and failing to get vaccinated could leave them exposed to infection. Some pregnant women report being turned away from vaccine clinics in Mississippi. They are among the least vaccinated group in America, with only 25% having received the shots. Pictured: A pregnant woman in Provo, Utah, receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot 'Some of the patients had reported to us that they had gone to be vaccinated, and were turned away because they were pregnant,' Dr Michelle Owens, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), told ABC News. Some of these pregnant women have ended up hospitalized, where they are notifying doctors the reason they are unvaccinated. One expert told ABC that some physicians may not be comfortable with giving drugs to pregnant people, even a vaccine. 'People are kind of adverse to pregnant patients when they come in. They're hesitant to give pregnant patients medications, and certainly, vaccinations kind of fall into that,' said Dr Marty Tucker, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at UMMC. State officials are hoping to rectify the issue, and issued an advisory to vaccine providers in the state to allow pregnant women to receive the jabs. 'The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and CDC strongly support vaccination of pregnant women as an effective way to prevent death and adverse outcome,' State Health Officer Dr Thomas Dobbs wrote in a statement on September 9. 'COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy and lactation.' Dobbs also noted that a minority of pregnant women in the state are vaccinated for COVID-19. Pregnant women are one of the least likely groups to have been vaccinated for COVID-19, with only 25 percent having received the shots. This is because the CDC initially did not explicitly recommend that pregnant women get vaccinated and instead said they were 'eligible.' In August, the CDC declared that it had received enough data to determine the vaccine did not increase the risk of miscarriage and urged pregnant women to get vaccinated. Since the pandemic began, more than 21,000 women have contracted the virus and 155 have died. Women who contract the virus while pregnant are also at an increased risk of giving birth prematurely or suffering other negative health outcomes at birth. 'There are NICUs all over this country that are filling up with babies who will not get to know their moms, and that's devastating,' Owens told ABC. 'There are families who are losing their matriarchs, and then, there are women who have been infected by this virus who won't ever be the same.' Many experts have noted that the Delta variant seems to be hitting pregnant women especially hard, and some are having their physical condition rapidly deteriorate after infection. 'We are seeing women, who may not have other co-morbid conditions, being affected at an earlier gestational age,' Owens said. 'Most of the people who we're seeing now, are affected in the middle of their pregnancy, and they have a much more aggressive form of the disease. 'The next thing you know, they end up progressing very quickly to need intubation.' A 15-year-old boy who inserted a knotted USB cable into his penis ended up needing surgery after it got stuck inside him. The unidentified teenager, of London, told doctors he inserted the cable to 'measure the length of his penis'. But his experiment went wrong when the already-knotted cable got stuck, with both ends of the USB left hanging out of his member. The boy made several attempts to remove it himself but this resulted in him urinating a large amount of blood, prompting his family to take him to A&E. The X-Ray of the knotted USB cable after it became stuck inside the boy's body. The teenager inserted it into his penis in a sexual experiment gone wrong. After repeated attempts to remove the item by both himself and medical professionals were unsuccessful, an X-Ray was ordered to determine the exact size and location of the object ahead of surgery. Hospital staff also failed to pull out the cable using special tools due to the position of the knot, doctors detailed in the journal Urology Case Reports. The boy was urgently transferred to University College Hospital London for further treatment. He asked to be examined without his mother present, and confessed to staff that he inserted the cable to measure his penis out of sexual curiosity. After an X-ray revealed the exact size and positions of the knot, the teen was sent to surgery. In an effort to remove the cable, surgeons cut lengthways into his bulbospongiosus muscle, an area between the genitals and the anus. Medics managed to extract the knot through the incision and then cut it free from the rest of the cable. Once the knot was removed, the remaining two pieces of the cable were pulled out the opening of his penis. There were no complications in his recovery and he was discharged from hospital the next day. The USB cable after it was removed from inside the boy's penis. Surgeons cut through the muscles surrounding the penis and scrotum and then severed and removed the knot. The two ends of the cable were then pulled out through the penis opening. What is sounding? And why can it be dangerous? Sounding is when men insert items into the opening of the penis to enhance their sexual pleasure. It usually involves specially designed tools made from glass or metal. Doctors at clinic International Andrology London said there has been a dramatic increase in the number of men having urethral problems due to sounding as men look to expand their sexual activities and enhance their sexual experiences Men interested in the practice should understand the risks and purchase equipment from reputable businesses and ensure they do it hygienically. But they warned the practice can damage the sensitive tissue in the urethral pathway, which releases urine and sperm. It can also lead to a lack of bladder control and infection. And the penis and urethra may even require surgery or implants to rebuild sensitive tissue. Source: International Andrology London Advertisement Follow-up scans two weeks after the surgery revealed no lasting damage but doctors noted the boy will need ongoing monitoring in the future. Although stating that cases like these are rare, the doctors said previous cases had shown a wide variety of objects had been inserted into the opening of penises in a similar manner. Clio Kennedy and fellow medics who treated the boy listed needles, pins, iron wires and pistachio shells, as examples. The most common reasons for doing so involve sexual curiosity, sexual practice after intoxication, and as a result of mental disorders, the doctors noted. The insertion of objects into the opening of the penis for sexual pleasure is known as sounding, which carries a number of risks. If an object gets stuck inside the penis it can cause several potential problems. These can range from a burning sensation after urinating, large amounts of blood in the urine, an inability to urinate, and painful erections. More serious complications, such as bladder a hole appearing in the bladder, and scarring of the tube that carries urine out of the body can require major reconstructive procedures to fix. The doctors noted that a detailed history from patients on the object inserted and the method to do so are critical to health professionals investigation. This highlighted the need to discuss the issue with patients in a 'a supportive and nonjudgmental manner' as patients may feel 'uncomfortable' about providing all relevant information, the doctors said. Dr Amr Raheem a consultant andrologist, from private health clinic International Andrology London, told MailOnline that this case highlighted the most serious consequence for sounding with the object needing surgery to remove. 'Although the surgery was successful and without immediate complications, he may later develop narrowing of the urethra which can give him problems when passing urine or predispose him to recurrent urinary tract infection,' he said. Dr Raheem said even if a man or teenager manages to remove an object inserted into their penis it was still a risky sexual practise. 'When you introduce anything inside your body that is not sterile, you can cause a tissue infection, infections can sometimes be serious especially in people with low immunity as in diabetics, a serious infection can lead to tissue necrosis or even sepsis,' he said. Other potential dangers he listed included developing a urinary tract infection (UTI), injury of your urethra, or fistula formation meaning that urine comes out of an artificially, and in case of sounding, self-made, hole. While Dr Raheem said he was unaware of any studies into how common sounding is in the UK he added that he had seen a rise in the number of patients with symptoms that could be linked to the sexual practise and said social media could be to blame. 'I believe it is becoming more common as everything is thanks to social media and in general the easier ways that misinformation can be spread,' he said. 'We certainly have seen an increase in these practices amongst patients that present with symptoms in our clinics.' For those curious about trying sounding Dr Raheem offered this simple advice: 'Don't'. If they insisted on going ahead, the andrologist urged men to use something smooth and blunt, sterile, and to use lubricant, preferably an item designed for this purpose such as the tools used by doctors for medical urethral sounding. He added, that if men experience bleeding, or a burning sensation in their penis after sounding they should consult a medical professional. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to reimburse New York City's public hospitals nearly $1 billion for treating Covid patients in spring 2020. New York Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Ritchie Torres announced the news at a press conference on Wednesday outside of Lincoln Hospital - one of the city's 11 public hospitals - in the Bronx, reported The New York Times. The first wave that struck the Big Apple was the city's most devastating, sending cases rising and seeing hospitalizations and deaths reach record-high levels. Officials say the money will cover the costs hospitals made by hiring additional staff, buying more equipment, stocking up on personal protective equipment and expanding capacity to treat the surge of patients. FEMA has agreed to reimburse New York City's public hospitals nearly $1 billion for treating Covid patients in spring 2020, during which hospitalizations at 1,791 on March 31 (above) NYC Health + Hospital asked FEMA in October 2020 for compensation of $864 million but, at the time, FEMA said it would only reimburse $260 million because H+H had allegedly included costs unrelated to COVID-19. Pictured: COVID-19 patients are taken into to the Wakefield Campus of the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, April 2020 The system, NYC Health + Hospital (H+H), asked FEMA in October 2020 for compensation of $864 million to cover the spring 2020 costs. However, in March 2021, FEMA said it would only reimburse $260 million, only about one-third of the request. The federal agency claimed this was because the system had included costs unrelated to COVID-19. FEMA claimed that coronavirus-related hospital expansion costs are eligible for reimbursements, but not costs for regular hospital operations. In letter to FEMA in June 2021, Dr Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC H+H wrote that this differentiation is 'artificial' because every aspect of the public health system was affected by the pandemic. 'The distinction being assumed by FEMA between COVID and non-COVID areas is an artificial one not reflective of the real world operational and clinical circumstances and needs faced by H+H hospitals,' he wrote, according to the New York Daily News. He added that during the first wave of the pandemic, many patients admitted to hospitals for non-Covid reasons were testing positive during their stay. Because of that, doctors and nurses 'operated under the assumption' that every patient was a potential COVID-19 case and took 'Covid precautions in treating them,' Katz wrote, according to the Daily News. Torres said on Wednesday that it wasn't until he and Schumer got involved that FEMA agreed to reimburse an additional $604 million, reported The Times. Katz thanked Schumer and Torres on Wednesday and said their help 'proved that the federal government can work.' e first wave of the pandemic was the city's most brutal with cases quickly rising from the first confirmed infection on March 1, 2020 to 6,258 on April 7 Deaths were never high than during the first wave with a record-high 814 reported on April 7 New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was also presented for the announcement, commended the public hospital system's workers, according to The Times. 'What I saw from all of you was extraordinary courage, strength, resiliency, incredible commitment,' he said. The first wave of the pandemic was the city's most brutal with cases quickly rising from the first confirmed infection on March 1, 2020 to 6,258 on April 7, data from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shows. And while cases didn't reach record-high levels until the winter 2020 surge, single-day totals for hospitalizations and deaths were highest in the spring. Hospitalizations reached a record-high 1,791 on March 31 and deaths reached 814 fatalities on April 7. THE MAGICIAN by Colm Toibin THE MAGICIAN by Colm Toibin (Viking 18.99, 448 pp) The novels of the great Irish writer Colm Toibin can roughly be split into two sorts intimate portraits of small-town Irish life and fictional biographies of towering literary figures. This belongs to the latter, a study of the modernist German novelist Thomas Mann who, in this country, is the sort of literary giant of whom many people are aware but whose books Death In Venice; The Magic Mountain they have rarely read. Im not sure The Magician will change that: its a fairly heavy-going trudge through the life of a married father of six whose soul was tormented as much by the political convulsions of his native Germany in the first half of the 20th century as by his furtive homosexual desires, quietly tolerated by his sparkling wife, Katia. You cant fault Toibins research, but you do wonder if the torrent of facts rather gets in the way. Mann comes across as a bit of a cold fish, emotionally distanced from his six children whose soap opera antics are what, in the end, provide much of the novels colour. THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS by Ruth Ozeki THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate 18.99, 560 pp) Storytelling rarely comes more capacious than Ruth Ozekis latest novel which, in its most simplest terms, is the story of a 13year-old boy, Benny, grieving after the death of his jazz musician father. Increasingly withdrawn, Benny has become convinced objects in the house many hoarded by his equally grief-stricken mother are talking to him. Following a spell in a childrens psychiatric unit, he seeks solace in the silence of the library. Here, he strikes up a friendship with the beautiful, enigmatic Aleph and a curious homeless philosopher poet called the Bottleman, who together slowly help him on a voyage of self-discovery. Ozeki interconnects zen philosophy, the environmental crisis, a critique of our mass consumer lifestyle and a playful post-modern sensibility one of the characters is a talking book within a novel that, for all its wide-ranging intellectual restlessness, remains grounded in its characters emotional reality. Plus its hard to not admire a novel that uses a maximalist approach to narrative to argue for a more minimalist approach to life. BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers (Hutchinson-Heinemann 18.99, 288pp) Theos day job as an astrobiologist involves searching for other planets, but his young son, Robin, is preoccupied with the threat to our own. However, since the death of Theos wife, Robin has been struggling. Desperate to spare his son medication, Theo agrees to a pioneering new treatment. But when Robins personality changes completely, Theo begins to wonder where it will lead. The Overstory, Powerss monumental 2018 eco-fable, was beloved of readers and celebrity fans from Emma Thompson to Barack Obama. While thoroughly immersive, this Booker shortlisted tale isnt (quite) in the same orbit: intriguing, hinted-at backstory goes undeveloped; the contrivances are rather obvious; and the writing sometimes teeters on the sappy. But its deftly crafted, packs an emotional punch, and Powerss urgent environmental message, delivered by the Greta Thunberg-like Robin, comes through loud and clear. The Hut Group (THG) is planning to spin-off its beauty arm next year and list it on the London Stock Exchange. The online retailer, which only ventured onto the public markets itself last year in a 5.4billion float, could be worth more if broken up into its individual components, bosses think. A separation of THGs beauty business, which owns online stores such as Look Fantastic and Cult Beauty as well as eight make-up and skincare brands could prove lucrative for the companys shareholders. Hut founder Matt Moulding, the group's largest shareholder (pictured with his wife, Jodie) has a 14.2 per centstake in the group worth 1.1bn This would include founder Matt Moulding, THGs largest shareholder, who has a 14.2 per cent stake in the group worth 1.1billion. A spin-out of the beauty arm would leave THG with its so-called ingenuity business, which creates the technology to run online shopping websites for retailers from Asda to Argos, and its nutrition brands. In the first half of this year, THGs revenues were 958.8million, but the group made a loss of 81.3million after buying a number of brands and facing higher delivery costs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Philip Morris has sealed a controversial 1billion buyout of asthma inhaler maker Vectura despite a furious backlash from health experts. Almost 75 per cent of Vecturas shareholders backed the Marlboro Mans takeover throwing into question the Citys repeated commitments to ethical investing. The tobacco giant whose brands include Marlboro, Chesterfield and Parliament has said the tie-up with the Wiltshire-based firm would help it transform into a broader healthcare and wellness company. 'Healthcare and wellness': Philip Morris - whose brands include Marlboro, Chesterfield and Parliament - has defied health experts to seal a 1bn buyout of asthma inhaler maker Vectura But health specialists and politicians have vigorously campaigned against the deal branding it unethical and saying it could kill the company. They raised concerns that Vectura could be frozen out of academic studies and conferences if it was owned by a cigarette maker. Philip Morris had spent months competing with private equity giant Carlyle with both putting forward multiple takeover bids before Vecturas board backed the tobacco titan last month. The deal has thrown a spotlight on how far City promises to only invest in companies with good environmental, social and governance credentials actually go. Investors including Legal & General backed the deal. L&G said it was the optimal result for our clients, investors and the futures of both companies. Danni Hewson, AJ Bell financial analyst, said the takeover had been uncomfortable. Hewson said: Despite the ethical outcry, Vectura shareholders have succumbed to Big Tobaccos big pockets. However good Philip Morriss intentions, the bottom line is with this acquisition its playing both sides, making money from tobacco which makes people sick and inhalers which help them feel better. Philip Morris boss Jacek Olczak says the Vectura buyout is crucial to the companys Beyond Nicotine plan to move away from being a tobacco seller and the group has said it intends to stop selling cigarettes in the UK within the next ten years. Some have argued that Philip Morris with billions of pounds at its disposal is a logical buyer as it has huge funds at its disposal and is already ploughing money into non-tobacco products such as e-cigarettes. It intends to generate at least 725million a year from these lines by 2025. But charities said Vectura had sold out millions of people with lung disease. The FTSE 250-listed firm is one of the UKs leading science companies. It makes inhalers and nebulisers but also works with top drug companies such as Hikma and Glaxosmithkline to convert their medicines into powders that can be inhaled. The company was founded in 1997 by students from the University of Bath and joined the stock market in 2004. A coalition of 35 charities, clinicians and health specialists, including Dr Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians and Michelle Mitchell, head of Cancer Research UK, have written to health minister Jo Churchill urging the Government to block the deal. Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation, said: Vectura has sold out millions of people with lung disease. She added the firm is now owned by a tobacco company, and this could cause considerable problems, such as the firm being excluded from research and clinical networks. Labour health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth branded the Philip Morris deal a disgrace. Lord Sikka, who advised MPs on audit reform, said: The company is disabling millions of people by selling tobacco products to make profits. Then it makes more money by selling asthma drugs. What next go into funeral business? One of the worlds richest men has thrown his weight behind British biotechnology star Oxford Nanopore. American billionaire Larry Ellison has committed to invest 150million in the company when it floats on the stock market in London next month. The investment will be made through 77-year-old Ellisons cloud computing business Oracle Corporation. Backing: American billionaire Larry Ellison has committed to invest 150m in Oxford Nanopore when it floats on the stock market in London next month Oxford Nanopore makes so-called DNA sequencing technology, which allows experts to read the information stored in cells and identify changes which may cause disease. The company could be worth as much as 4billion when it lists in London though the price has not yet been decided. Who is Larry Ellison? Technology entrepreneur Larry Ellison is the ninth-richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionares Index. The 77-year-old, who was born in New York City and given by his single mother to her aunt and uncle for adoption, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on anti-ageing research and once said that death never made any sense to me. Ellison has been married and divorced four times, and has a penchant for boats. That would net its British academic founders chief executive Gordon Sanghera, 60, business development chief Spike Willcocks, 45, and Hagan Bayley, 70 a combined paper fortune of 150million. So far, the business has sold its technology mainly to researchers. But its bosses think there is a huge opportunity for the service to be put to more practical uses, helping doctors to diagnose patients and sewage companies to analyse the quality of their water. Oracle, founded by Ellison in 1977, is planning to work with Oxford Nanopore to combine some of their services. Mike Sicilia, an executive vice president at Oracle, said: Oxford Nanopores innovative sequencing technology is unparalleled in the market. Oxford Nanopore plans to raise 300million by selling new shares in its float next month, and some of its existing investors will also sell down their stakes. Current backers include Acacia Research Corporation, the US investor which snapped up a stake of around 6 per cent from Neil Woodfords doomed Equity Income fund. The Government must reform business rates, shake up the apprenticeship system and commit to new gigafactory plans to unlock a 'wall of investment', according to the CBI. The business organisation said it was no time for a 'play-it-safe Budget' and urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to introduce sweeping policies to tempt private companies to invest in the UK. The next Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review is scheduled for October 27. It will be the first since pandemic support packages such as furlough and the stamp duty holiday have been rolled back. Shake-up: The CBI said it was no time for a 'play-it-safe Budget' and urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) to introduce sweeping policies to tempt private companies to invest in the UK The CBI said the Government should reignite its role as a 'market maker' by reforming taxes to reward firms that invest in research, innovation and green technologies. It should also deliver on commitments to invest 22billion in direct domestic research and development funding by 2025. The CBI also urged reform of the business rates system that has ravaged the High Street and called for the apprenticeship levy to be turned into a lifelong learning levy to unlock business investment in training across age groups. CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith said: 'The reality is that while the UK is one of the best places in the world to do business, we do not have the same investment levels as international peers. 'This autumn is a once-in-a-generation opportunity.' An age old motto is: practice what you preach - but how many financial services firms are environmentally-friendly, alongside offering 'green' funds and investment products? Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance along with sustainability have become buzzwords in the financial services industry in recent years. However, it is difficult to separate firms with genuine commitment and those merely greenwashing. Advice firm Progeny claims to be in the former camp and it is in the process of being certified as a B Corp - a tag which proves eco-credentials in five different areas. The pandemic has delayed Progeny's hopes of becoming a B Corp After the pandemic and increasing talk of sustainability within the wealth management industry, chief executive Neil Moles has some ideas on how the industry will approach sustainability and whether B Corp could be the driving force behind that. He tells This is Money: 'If we want to talk to our clients about ESG and sustainability, if we're not living and breathing it ourselves how can we recommend it?' Here, as part of our new B Corp Beat series - focusing the spotlight on 'green' British companies - we find out more Few wealth managers are B Corp While there are a growing number of companies looking to become a B Corp, there are very few wealth managers who have achieved certification. The vast majority of companies in our B Corp Beat series so far have offered physical products - whether it be eco nappies or sustainable clothing - suggesting the process is perhaps not best placed to measure the impact of service providers. Leeds-based Progeny is hoping to join the list of 'eco-friendly' listed companies. It has been on somewhat of an acquisition spree during the pandemic. In February the advice firm snapped up Watsons Law before buying financial advice firm Affinity two months later. Progeny chief executive Neil Moles It's now turning its attention to bolstering its sustainability credentials. Its website already boasts its commitment to charity and the community and it is a signatory of the Treasury's Women in Finance charter. So is B Corp just another one to add to that ever growing list? Does the certification risk becoming too diluted? 'We don't need to be judged by the kitemarks and accreditations that we've got. We've done it for the right reasons,' says Neil definitively. 'If you're applying, running a business and the standards to that level because you want to do that then B Corp is a good natural thing to do.' 'I think a lot of the questions do lend themselves more to people who manufacture or produce goods, because the potential impact on the environment is more wide ranging. I think it could be tweaked,' says Neil. 'We're looking at an understanding of our impact on the planet and our communities is probably the starting point but it is different We don't create waste that goes somewhere, we're not buying lots of different products, all we're doing is bringing people from one place to another. 'And it's the impact of that on the environment and on society that needs to be measured from what we do.' Industry is paying lip service to sustainability Could this be why there are so few wealth managers who have achieved B Corp status? Neil is unconvinced and thinks it is a reflection on the industry rather than the B Corp process. 'You have to have a look at the wealth management industry and see how many genuinely want to run the businesses properly up to a B Corp standard,' says Neil. If we want to talk to our clients about ESG and sustainability, if we're not living and breathing it ourselves how can we recommend it? Neil Moles - Progeny 'Maybe the tale of that is people will start following because it becomes the accepted norm. 'I don't it has yet in this profession at all but watch this space. 'It will happen and as more and more of us do it, the rest will have to follow. It's quite sad it should be something you want to do not forced to do.' The words ESG and sustainability are all over the industry right now. Sustainable funds are all the rage but critics, including Neil, have labelled it as lip service. 'For the most part not enough people are doing it properly If we want to talk to our clients about ESG and sustainability, if we're not living and breathing it ourselves how can we recommend it? 'I think clients will start to push back and say well actually you've got none of these accreditations, show me your credentials in the ESG space.' What is a B Corp? In our new B Corp Beat series, we are interviewing British businesses which meet these strict standards. They are described as businesses that are said to meet the 'highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.' One the website, it says: 'B Corp Certification doesn't just evaluate a product or service; it assesses the overall positive impact of the company that stands behind it. And increasingly that's what people care most about.' B Corp was started in 2006 and gives scores to companies in order for them to be verified. These five areas are: governance, workers, community, environment and customers. 'Ultimately I think it will be the clients and the consumer that push back on the industry.' Neil reflects on Progeny's own decision to become a B Corp, emphasising the firm's dedication to the project. 'We're passionate about sustainability, we're passionate about creating an environment where we're trying to do our best... for the planet but also for our people,' says Neil. It sounds similar to other wealth managers' mission statements on sustainability that have been doing the rounds in recent years and who Neil has criticised. He is adamant that Progeny's commitment to sustainability is not a PR exercise. Running alongside its carbon neutral project, Progeny made its commitment to becoming a B Corp in November 2019. One pandemic later and it is yet to receive official certification but the process has offered some valuable lessons. 'You can't control what you can't. It was challenging for us to start looking at our suppliers, even the cleaning products our cleaning company uses,' says Neil. 'We had to look at different parts of the business in different ways and those bits that we potentially didn't control properly how we can take back control of those and look at our supply chain.' He said his eureka moment came when he thought about how Progeny's supply chains had an impact on the planet. The biggest change for the firm however came in its collection of data of how the business operates. 'That is what B Corp is all about: you go through a list of questions, throw out a list of additional questions and it's about challenging whether you have the information or not and the knowledge about what these questions mean and how it impacts your business.' 'I think you're born out of what you're doing, you build lots more better procedures around running the business, but it's all built around that initial gathering of data and making sure that you do know exactly what's going on in your business at all times.' As a result his main piece of advice for companies, particularly service providers, considering becoming a B Corp is to find a project manager. 'If you don't, you'll commit a lot of time and effort to it and not go anywhere. It's not something you can just do on a Sunday afternoon, tick a few boxes and think I've done that, here we go 'It takes hours and hours and hours of meetings and gathering data, updating it, reviewing it and going again. So don't underestimate it.' A female teacher has been arrested for allegedly abusing three teenage boys at a school in Sydney's glamorous eastern suburbs. The woman is accused of sexually assaulting three male students then aged 13, 14 and 15 between the years of 1977 and 1980. NSW Police arrested a 67-year-old woman at a home in St Ives in Sydney's north at around 8am on Friday. A female teacher has been arrested for allegedly abusing three teenage boys at a school in Sydney's glamorous eastern suburbs more than forty years ago The woman was taken to the nearby Hornsby Police Station where officers expect to lay charges. It comes after Strike Force Sportsground was formed in May to launch an investigation into the alleged abuse of the three male students. NSW Police have said inquiries are continuing. More to come. Notorious rapist Mohammed Skaf (pictured above) will leave prison next month after being granted parole with strict conditions Notorious Sydney gang rapist Mohammed Skaf will leave prison next month after being granted parole with strict conditions. Skaf, now aged 38, has spent two decades in jail after being convicted for a series of terrifying rapes in Sydney throughout 2000 involving another 14 men, including the ringleader - his brother - Bilal. He first became eligible for release on parole in 2018. The State Parole Authority on Friday said Skaf would be granted parole under strict conditions and 24-hour electronic monitoring. The board said freeing Skaf at the end of his 23-year sentence in early 2024 without any conditions would have posed an unacceptable risk. 'This is the only opportunity to supervise a safe transition into the community in the small window of time that we have left,' SPA Chairman David Frearson SC said in a statement. Skaf will be released no later than October 8. An artist's impression of how Mohammed Skaf looked when appearing at his adjourned parole hearing in February Skaf has spent two decades in jail after being convicted for a series of terrifying rapes in Sydney throughout 2000 involving another 14 men When he was 17, Skaf and other members of the gang would lure teenage girls away from public places with the promise of smoking marijuana. Some were then seized and repeatedly sexually assaulted. In August 2000, he led the pack rape of an 18-year-old girl where the victim was sexually assaulted more than 40 times by 14 men, including himself, and taunted as an 'Aussie pig'. She was then dumped at a train station after being hosed down. Mohammed Skaf in a police photo taken at the time of his arrest in October 2000. He will now leave jail within weeks During her ordeal the woman was called an 'Aussie pig', told she was going to get it 'Leb-style' and asked if 'Leb c*** tasted better than Aussie c***'. Weeks earlier, Mohammed lured another teenage girl to a park in Greenacre where she was pinned down and raped by his railway worker sibling Bilal and another man, while up to 12 other men watched on. Earlier this month, the judge who sentenced Skaf warned against his release from prison as the 'vicious, cowardly bully' has never shown any remorse and even blamed his victims for the sickening attacks. SKAF GANG RAMPAGE: A TIMELINE August 10th, 2000: Two teenagers (one 17 and the other 18) were offered drugs. They were taken by car to the gang, who were waiting at Northcote Park in Greenacre. They were forced to perform sex acts on eight men. August 12th, 2000: Mohammed took a 16-year-old friend to his brother and friends. Bilal and another male raped the girl in front of 12 men. August 30th, 2000: Woman known only as Ms C was raped by Mohamed who told her he was going to 'f**k her Leb style'. She was taken to a separate location and raped and assaulted by 14 men for for six hours. September 4th, 2000: Two girls were attacked at a train station and taken to a home where they were assaulted by three men over a five hour period. Advertisement Few crimes in recent Australian history have stirred more community outrage and fear than the series of pack rapes committed by the group of young Lebanese-Australian men targeting 'white women'. 'What concerns me is that according to reports of the Parole Board hearings, Mohammed Skaf has never expressed any remorse,' Mr Finnane told The Daily Telegraph. 'That could mean that he is a continuing threat.' He said the offences perpetrated by the group are crimes which are normally only read about 'in the context of wartime atrocities'. Bosses should engage staff in small talk and offer them free yoga or meditation classes to protect their mental health at work, suggest official guidelines. Health chiefs want companies of all sizes and in all industries to train managers so they are able to spot signs of stress and help affected workers. This could involve offering them flexible hours or less challenging tasks, Public Health England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence suggest. Their draft document, which is subject to consultation, says action is needed to reduce the stigma of mental health. It makes a number of recommendations that are intended to help firms 'create the right conditions' to support mental wellbeing in the workplace. This includes encouraging managers to 'foster good relationships' with employees, 'for example by socialising with them or making 'small talk'.' Bosses should engage staff in small talk and offer them free yoga or meditation classes to protect their mental health at work, suggest official guidelines [Stock image] Another says all employees should be offered mindfulness, yoga or meditation, which can be delivered in a group or online. And a third recommendation calls for all line managers to be given 'mental health training', so they can spot signs in their staff and can discuss their concerns sensitively. The guideline committee included mental health experts, employers, professionals from across the NHS and local authorities, and lay members. Their report says: 'The committee recognised the importance of good relationships between managers and employees, and of employees being able to approach managers to discuss any concerns.' The report comes after a 2020 study by Deloitte, estimated that poor mental health among staff costs UK firms up to 45billion a year. Dr Paul Chrisp, director of NICE's centre for guidelines, said: 'Providing managers with skills to discuss mental wellbeing improves the relationship between manager and employee so that they can identify and reduce work stressors.' The report comes after a 2020 study by Deloitte, estimated that poor mental health among staff costs UK firms up to 45billion a year [Stock image] Emma Mamo, head of workplace wellbeing at the charity Mind, said some peoples mental health worsened during the pandemic, with redundancy, furlough, and juggling work and childcare all factors. She added: Investing in staff wellbeing has never been more important and benefits the entire workforce. Training alone is not enough to protect and promote the wellbeing of staff - it should be part of a wider comprehensive package of support for staff. Lots of employers particularly smaller ones feel they do not have resources to invest in staff wellbeing, but interventions need not be large or expensive. Above all, we want to see all employers proactively creating a culture where staff of all levels can talk about their mental health and know that if they do, they'll be met with support and understanding, rather than experiencing stigma and discrimination. The Confederation of British Industry said: 'Supporting the wellbeing and mental health of staff has been on the agenda for many business for some time now and the global pandemic has accelerated this journey. 'Of course, businesses can always do more but providing managers with the knowledge and skillset required to support their teams can only be beneficial in the long run. Scott Morrison has laughed off the awkward moment where President Joe Biden forgot his name by saying 'it happens to the best of us'. The slip-up happened during a virtual press conference on Thursday morning to announce a new alliance between the Australia, the US and the UK. When it was his turn to speak, 78-year-old Mr Biden thanked UK leader Boris Johnson, who had spoken before him, but then forgot the Australian PM's name. 'Thank you Boris, and I want to thank...' he began, before an awkward pause in which he turned and pointed to the screen showing Mr Morrison's smiling face. 'That fella Down Under... Thank you very much pal... Appreciate it Mr Prime Minister,' he continued. In an interview on Melbourne's Fox FM radio on Friday, Mr Morrison laughed as he was played a clip of the moment. 'It happens to the best of us,' he joked. Asked if Mr Biden had texted him to say sorry, Mr Morrison said: 'There's no need for that, it's all good.' 'He actually does refer to me privately when we speak as pal, it's a phrase that he uses a fair bit, I suppose that's mate in similar ways,' he added. Australia will follow its allies the US and UK, which both use nuclear technology, by building its own nuclear-powered submarine fleet Media commentators were quick to point out the 'awkward' gaffe. 'A very political announcement,' Today show host Karl Stefanovic said after the press conference was aired live. 'But that fella from Down Under, I mean totally awks.' Nine political editor Chris Uhlmann replied: 'Almost as awkward as the acronym AUKUS, Australia, United Kingdom and United States.' Americans, Australians, and Britons quickly flocked to social media to have a chuckle at the bizarre moment. 'Just a public speaking tip - if you're going to mention someone by name WRITE IT DOWN,' one American woman Tweeted. 'How did you not remember the prime minister's name? That was honestly so embarrassing.' British journalist Graeme Demianyk wrote: 'Biden calls the Australian prime minister 'that fella down under' and tosses in a 'thank you very much, pal'.' 'I'm definitely a 'thanks, mate' kind of guy if I forget someone's name.' 'AUKUS getting off to a great start with Biden not knowing Scott Morrison's name,' another wrote. Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday morning unveiled Australia's role in a historic tripartite security group alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson The deal will mean Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90 billion buying French diesel-powered submarines. This is the first time Australia has embraced nuclear power after decades of debate - and the first time the US and UK have shared their nuclear submarine technology with another nation. Mr Morrison said though Australia has no plans to acquire nuclear weapons or build its own nuclear power capabilities. 'Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region the Indo-Pacific. This affects us all. The future of the Indo-Pacific will impact all our futures,' Mr Morrison said. The new International Trade Secretary has become embroiled in a row on her first day after it emerged she once dismissed those who believe in global warming as fanatics. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who replaced Liz Truss in Wednesdays reshuffle, was yesterday accused of rejecting the science behind climate change after a series of old tweets came to light. The tweets, sent between 2010 and 2012, include one which says: [There is] clear evidence that the ice caps arent melting after all, to counter those doom-mongers and global warming fanatics. Anne-Marie Trevelyan (above), who replaced Liz Truss in Wednesdays reshuffle, was accused of rejecting the science behind climate change after a series of old tweets came to light Another, sent in support of a campaign against windfarms, said: We arent getting hotter, global warming isnt actually happening. A third approvingly shared an article by Climate Realists, a Twitter group that rejects global warming. And another from 2011 compared the views of a climate change denier with the ideological obsession with human-made climate change of the then energy secretary Chris Huhne. Yesterday Labours trade spokesman Emily Thornberry blasted the comments. Labours trade spokesman Emily Thornberry (pictured in January last year) tweeted: At least the last Trade Secretary only hired climate change deniers' Referencing Miss Trusss decision to appoint former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott as a trade envoy, she tweeted: At least the last Trade Secretary only hired climate change deniers. Asked about Mrs Trevelyans tweets, the Prime Ministers official spokesman said: Every single member of Cabinet is united in our approach to achieve our ambitious climate target goals. The Department for International Trade has been contacted for comment. Advertisement Thousands of migrants continue to converge in a makeshift camp under the bridge that connects Del Rio, Texas and Mexico's Ciudad Acuna, in the latest border emergency and humanitarian crisis facing US President Joe Biden. The camp had swelled to some 10,000 migrants on Thursday, with thousands seen wading across the Rio Grande River daily. Most are Haitians, with some Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also present. Amid the surge of the highly infectious Delta variant, the crowded conditions of the camp also raised concerns about the possibility of COVID-19 outbreaks endangering the health of the migrants. Biden, who imposed sweeping vaccination rules on many Americans last week, has admitted that people who cross the border illegally won't be required to get vaccinated, and the Border Patrol has said that it has insufficient time and space to even test most migrants upon their arrival. After aerial drone images of the growing camp surfaced Thursday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration, overseen by Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, imposed a two-week flight restriction banning drones from flying in the area, citing unspecified security concerns. Critics of the administration immediately accused the administration of censorship. 'It really is ridiculous. I've never seen anything like that,' Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, told Fox News of the FAA ruling. 'The drone footage started this morning, and people all across the country were horrified, and I guess the political operatives at the Biden White House saw that,' Cruz said in an interview from near the migrant camp. The FAA told DailyMail.com in a statement on Thursday night: 'The Border Patrol requested the temporary flight restriction due to drones interfering with law enforcement operations.' Food and water has been scarce in the makeshift camp, around 20 migrants told Reuters, and temperatures have risen to around 99 Fahrenheit. Reporters witnessed hundreds of migrants wading through the Rio Grande river and back into Mexico to stock up on essentials they say they are not receiving on the American side. Migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. walk in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S., as they wait to be processed, in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico on Thursday The camp had swelled to some 10,000 migrants on Thursday, with thousands seen wading across the Rio Grande River daily. Most are Haitians, with some Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans also present Food and water has been scarce in the makeshift camp, and temperatures have risen to around 99 Fahrenheit Migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. rest near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S. on Thursday The FAA imposed a two-week flight restriction banning drones from flying in the area, citing unspecified security concerns Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Thursday that he directed state troopers and the Texas National Guard 'to shut down six points of entry along the southern border' at the request of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, before reversing himself and blaming the confusion on the Biden administration. 'Six hours after U.S. Customs and Border Protection requested help from Texas to close ports of entry and secure the border, the Biden Administration has now flip-flopped to a different strategy that abandons border security and instead makes it easier for people to cross illegally and for cartels to exploit the border,' Abbott said in a statement. 'The Biden Administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan. I have directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings,' added the governor. The flight restriction came after Fox News published drone images showing the overcrowded camp Following the confusion, Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, called on Abbott to seize control of the border from the federal government. 'Texas ought to start disregarding this president and start taking it to our own hands, in Texas, the need to secure the border of the United States for the welfare of the people,' he told Fox News on Thursday night. 'We need to go forward and secure the border -- the governor, the state of Texas needs to own this and seal the border,' said Roy. The squalid conditions in the makeshift camp in Del Rio are reflective of the humanitarian challenge facing Biden as border arrests hover around 20-year highs. U.S. authorities encountered more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border in August, according to government data released on Wednesday. Haiti is in the midst of its own humanitarian crisis after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on August 14, which killed more than 2,200 people and damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes. The impoverished country is also being wracked by fresh political instability caused by the assassination of its former president Jovenel Moise in June, with the island's prime minister Ariel Henry since named as a suspect in the investigation. A CBP official said that there were more than 6,000 migrants waiting under the bridge to be processed on Wednesday, but by Thursday night that number surged to some 10,000, according to a Fox News reporter. As conditions in the squalid camp deteriorate, some migrants have been crossing back and forth into Mexico to bring back vital supplies. Ernesto, a 31-year-old Haitian migrant, slipped back into Mexico on Thursday to buy water and food - for the fourth time, he said, since arriving in the United States on Monday morning. U.S. authorities encountered more than 195,000 migrants at the Mexican border in August, near a 20-year high As conditions in the squalid camp deteriorate, some migrants have been crossing back and forth into Mexico to bring back vital supplies Migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. walk in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S. Amid the surge of the highly infectious Delta variant, the crowded conditions of the camp also raised concerns about the possibility of COVID-19 outbreaks endangering the health of the migrants Attempting to escape the sweltering heat, migrants bathe in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge on Thursday Ernesto, who declined to give his surname to protect his identity, said he and his three-year-old daughter had not been fed at the camp, where migrants are jostling for shade. Sometimes, he said, he runs to avoid Mexican migration officials but is usually not bothered by them. 'But now money is running out,' he added. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions about the number of people in the Del Rio camp. Migrants showed Reuters tickets with numbers they had received from U.S. Border Patrol. Several said other migrants told them they could be stuck at the camp for up to five days. Border Patrol said in a statement it was increasing staffing in Del Rio to facilitate a 'safe, humane and orderly process.' Drinking water, towels and portable toilets have been provided, the statement added, while migrants wait to be transported to facilities. Biden, a Democrat who took office in January, has rolled back many of the hardline immigration measures of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump. But he has been caught between pro-migrant groups and some Democrats who have criticized him for not doing more to help migrants, and opponents who say his policies have encouraged illegal immigration. Border Patrol said in a statement it was increasing staffing in Del Rio to facilitate a 'safe, humane and orderly process' Migrants seek shade in a makeshift tent near the International Bridge between Mexico and the U.S. on Thursday A CBP official said that there were more than 4,000 migrants waiting under the bridge to be processed on Wednesday, but by Thursday night that number surged to some 10,000, a reporter on the ground said Del Rio is in Val Verde County, which voted for Trump in 2020. Some residents in this sprawling, bilingual border town say they feel abandoned by the federal government on border security. 'Are they doing anything to stop them from coming?' one woman said while she looked down at the encampment while driving over the bridge. Carlos, a 27-year-old Venezuelan who said he left his home after graduating university in July, said he thought the camp had doubled in size since he arrived on Tuesday. Carlos, who declined to give his full name, said he had only $10 left, and that there were 400 families ahead of him in the queue for processing. Both migrants and Mexican officials said many more people are expected in coming days. Some told Reuters they had chosen to cross here because the river is shallow and they felt there was comparatively less cartel activity. Jeff Jeune, a 27-year-old Haitian who was reselling water bottles for a 3 peso (15 cent) profit, said he and his young family were exhausted, hungry and sleeping on the ground. He fretted about his kids falling ill in the makeshift camp. 'My ten-year-old asks: "When are we leaving?" He's always asking that.' The Coptic Orthodox church has backed an extraordinary claim by the parents of 'miracle boy' AJ Elfalak who insist an angel is responsible for the safe return of their child. Kelly Elfalak believes the image of a blurry angel could be seen in the rock beside her toddler when a police chopper found him in dense bushland after three days missing in the NSW Hunter Valley, on September 6. 'If you saw the picture of AJ in the creek, you can see the angel next to him,' Mrs Elfalak said. A spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Sydney told Daily Mail Australia the family had been 'blessed by a miracle'. 'We thank our Lord Jesus Christ and his saints for returning AJ to his family safely,' Bishop Anba Daniel added. Little AJ was found after three days in bushland behind his family home in Putty, 150km northwest of Sydney, with nothing more than some scratches, ant bites and nappy rash. AJ Elfalak (pictured) went missing on September 3 and was found three days later, covered in cuts and bruises A blurry image taken from a police helicopter has given Anthony 'AJ' Elfalak's family all the proof they need that he was being cared for by an angel while lost in the bush With her three-year-old nuzzling into her neck and holding onto her tightly, Kelly Elfalak revealed she had no doubt that the 'power of prayer' kept AJ safe Mrs Elfalak had been at a neighbouring monastery praying for the child's safe return less than an hour before he was found. 'I prayed one hour before, I took the holy communion and I said ''please show me where AJ is'',' Ms Elfalak said. 'I just had that feeling, I said to myself ''I'm going to see him soon'' and as soon as I came back to the house they told me they found him.' With her three-year-old nuzzling into her neck and holding onto her tightly, Ms Elfalak revealed she had no doubt that the 'power of prayer' kept AJ safe. 'If you saw the picture of AJ in the creek, you can see the angel next to him,' she said. Ms Elfalak clarified that she and her family are certain the guardian angel stayed with little AJ to keep him alive while rescuers scoured the property for any sign of life The photo has been circulating on social media and within paranormal activity groups. But Ms Elfalak clarified that she and her family are certain the guardian angel stayed with little AJ to keep him alive while rescuers scoured the property for any sign of life. She agrees it is a 'miracle' that he was found safe and well, a reflection of the strength of prayer and their faith. The family, along with friends and thousands of supporters from afar, prayed for his safe return constantly while he was missing. 'AJ is doing really well,' Ms Elfalak revealed. 'He is healthy, happy, he only has a few cuts but nothing serious.' Little AJ appeared in a Zoom prayer with his mother and Leila Abdallah, the mother of three children who were killed by a drunk driver in 2020 This aerial image shows the distance between AJ's home and the area where he was found - complete with the dense bushland and dangerously steep terrain in between A police source told Daily Mail Australia in the days after his rescue that his autism likely helped to keep him alive as he didn't process the imminent threat to his life while in the wilderness. 'The reality is he didn't know he was lost so he wasn't scared, he didn't panic,' an investigator said. 'If he was tired, he slept... he had access to water, which is a big thing for survival in the bush.' But Ms Elfalak said AJ certainly knew he was lost. 'He was distraught, he knew something was wrong,' she said. 'He was really scared, clinging onto me really tightly.' The moment they were reunited, Ms Elfalak said she got a sense that AJ finally felt as though he could relax. 'He looked at me and with his eyes I could see he thought ''oh my God, my mum's here'', and then fell asleep,' she said. Friends and family who had gathered at the Putty home celebrated for two days straight after his rescue, but his father says it will be dwarfed by the party when Covid restrictions ease in the coming months. 'When Covid is over we're going to have the biggest party for AJ... Everyone's invited,' he said. Friends and family who had gathered at the Putty home celebrated for two days straight after his rescue, but his father says it will be dwarfed by the party when Covid restrictions ease in the coming months The supposed 'personal website' of controversial MP Craig Kelly has been given a dramatic makeover just weeks after he sent a series of unsolicited text messages to 14 million Australians about Covid vaccines. The Daily Telegraph alleged Mr Kelly, the member for Hughes, used the website name craigkellymp.com to share his policies but after failing to renew his payment for the domain name of the website it was hijacked by an internet troll connected to the YouTuber FriendlyJordies. However, according to the member for Hughes, that website name was only registered on September 7 - and wasn't previously owned by the politician. 'Craig Kelly is a massive f***head', a heading on the website states, with an image of Mr Kelly reading a book Photoshopped to read 'gigantic ar**s'. Mr Kelly's political benefactor and United Australia Party founder Clive Palmer also features on the website. The personal website of controversial MP Craig Kelly was allegedly given a dramatic makeover by an internet troll The member for Hughes has angered many after spamming people about supposed adverse vaccine reactions. A supporter of YouTube sensation Jordan Shanks is believed to be the unknown internet troll - but not Shanks himself 'Craig forgot to renew his f***ing lease,' the troll has written on the site. 'Send memes now.' A further video created by YouTuber FriendlyJordies on the two United Australia Party figureheads also features. In an added twist, a fundraiser link supporting FriendlyJordies is on the website. The popular YouTuber - also known as Jordan Shanks - is currently locked in a legal battle with Deputy Premier John Barilaro, who is suing the social media sensation for defamation. However, it is believed Shanks is not the internet troll. The development comes after Australia's medicines regulator - the Therapeutic Goods Administration - accused Mr Kelly of breaching copyright and demanded he cease spamming people with text messages about supposed adverse vaccine reactions. Mr Kelly, who quit the Liberals over his refusal to stop spouting unfounded Covid-19 treatment claims, has engaged in a far reaching text message campaign about vaccines. This includes a message with a link taking people to a database of adverse event notifications for coronavirus jabs. Lawyers for the TGA have written to the embattled MP alleging he is in breach of copyright. Many Australian residents have randomly received text messages from Mr Kelly and the UAP in recent weeks. While there is no law to stop politicians sending voters text messages, the alleged copyright breach identified by the TGA is a different story. A text message many Australians received from Mr Kelly and the UAP - there is no law preventing the politician from sending the texts to masses of people Travellers arriving from overseas to NSW will soon be able to quarantine at home instead of a hotel, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has revealed, as the state recorded 1,284 new Covid cases and 12 deaths. The trial will let 175 people who have received both doses of a vaccine approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration to quarantine at home for seven days - instead of 14. Prime Minister Scott Morrison expects the program, run by the state and federal governments, to let more Australians come home and boost the supply of workers from overseas. It will also be used for air crew with Qantas, which is mandating vaccines for its employees. The government will likely expand the system - if successful - to the broader public once 80 per cent of the population have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. New South Wales is set to begin a trial of a seven-day home quarantine for fully-vaccinated international returns as the state recorded 1,284 new cases of Covid-19 and 12 deaths (pictured, a resident in Sydney) It was announced 175 fully-vaccinated people will take part in the test of the new system which will slash the time required for returned travellers to isolate (pictured, a passenger in Sydney) NSW Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said 30 people a week would take part in the trial with different types of accommodation, age groups and conditions to be tested. 'Today is an important step on the reopening of NSW to the rest of the world,' the minister said. 'Our roadmap is really driven by the fantastic vaccination take-up rate by NSW citizens, and because of that, today we are able to announce the next step on the reopening strategy.' Mr Ayres reiterated that the home quarantine trial would only be extended to fully-vaccinated people with TGA approved vaccines who lived in NSW. Participants in the four-week test will be selected before they arrive in Australia and will not be charged for the home quarantine. Health authorities will transport participants directly to their homes and will closely monitor their movements. NSW Police will conduct one random physical compliance check each night with participants subject to random location check-ins using live facial verification three times a day. 'We want to expand the amount of people who can come back to Sydney as quickly as possible. We want Australians is coming back through Sydney airport, we want international tourists coming through Sydney,' Mr Ayres said. Scott Morrison said the announcement was the 'next step' for Australia to reopen, with the pilot program to be run in partnership with the Commonwealth. 'NSW has carried the lion's share of quarantining returning Australians and will be leading the way with this trial that could set the standard for the next phases of the way we live with Covid-19,' Mr Morrison said in a statement. The benchmark of 50 per cent of eligible adults fully-jabbed was expected to be reached on Friday. As it stands, 49.6 per cent of people have received two jabs (pictured, passengers at Sydney airport) There are currently 1245 cases of Covid-19 in hospital, 228 people in intensive care, and 112 people requiring ventilation (pictured, people receiving a vaccine at a pop-up drive in Sydney on Friday) 'This could mean more families and friends being able to reunite more quickly, more business being able to be done here, and more workers for key industries being able to fill critical jobs.' Ms Berejiklian said nearly 250,000 returning Australians had spent their quarantine in NSW hotels and predicted it was as much as all the other states combined. The benchmark of 50 per cent of eligible adults fully-jabbed is expected to be reached on Friday. As it stands, 49.6 per cent of people have received two jabs. International travellers returning to Australia are currently required to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel. The NSW Premier announced the government had started work on a roadmap for the 80 per cent double-vaccination benchmark. The state should hit 80 per cent double vaccinated on October 23, where restrictions will ease further and sport stadiums will reopen. 'It gives us heart that is some weeks, we'll reach 70 per cent double dose and enjoy many more things than we can today and start to feel more normal about life at that stage,' Ms Berejiklian said. 'I can confirm that the NSW government has started work ... on our 80 per cent plan and what happens at 80 per cent double dose. 'One of the things that we obviously expect to occur at 80 per cent double dose is to consider our international borders. 'That is Aussies coming back home through Sydney Airport, but also our citizens having the opportunity to go overseas where previously they weren't able to.' NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) has announced the state government had started work on a roadmap for the 80 per cent double-vaccination benchmark NSW is set to hit 70 per cent double vaccinate on October 11, which will see the lifting of the lockdown that has been in place since June 25. That milestone will see up to five fully vaccinated visitors allowed into homes where all adults are immunised, and 20 allowed to meet outside. Hospitality and retail will be allowed to open under the one person per four square metre rule, with bars and restaurants permitted to have one person per two sqm outside. Gyms and indoor recreation facilities will also reopen at 70 per cent, as will hairdressers and salons. They will all fall under the one person per 4sqm category. Ms Berejiklian also said the five-kilometre travel rule had the potential to be loosened before the state hits 70 per cent double-vaccination target. However health authorities are still unsure if the states outbreak had peaked. 'I can't hand on heart say we've peaked, I'd like to think we have but we have a conservative approach,' Deputy chief health officer Marianne Gale said on Thursday. 'It's pleasing at the moment for our case numbers to have stabilised. We do know they bounce around a little bit. 'We may yet see an increase but really the key thing for all of us is this is in our collective hands.' Of the twelve new deaths recorded on Friday, six were men and six were women, two of whom were aged in their 20s. The death toll of the latest outbreak is 222. One of the women aged in her 20s was from western Sydney and died at Nepean Hospital. She had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and had underlying health conditions. HOW WILL HOME QUARANTINE WORK? The NSW Government will trial a new quarantine system that will allow returned travellers to isolate for seven-days in their own homes: *The trial will include 175 participants and span over four weeks. It is due to begin in the coming weeks *Around 30 people will participate in the trial each week to be chosen by NSW Health before they re-enter Australia *Qantas air crew will also take part in the trial, said to be a 'logical' decision given flight staff work on tight turnaround times *Participants must have received two doses of a vaccine accredited by the Therapeutic Goods Administration including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca *Participants will need to provide a negative test result 72 hours before their flight departs for Australia, another on arrival and then further tests on days three, five, seven, nine and 13 *They will be transported from the returning flight to their homes by NSW Health authorities and will not be charged for the home quarantine *They will be monitored by NSW Police who will conduct one random physical compliance check each night *Participants will also be subject to random location check-ins using live facial verification three times a day *NSW Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said different types of accomodation, age-groups and family situations will be tested *Children who are not yet eligible for a vaccine will be allowed to take part in the trial as long as their other family members have received both jabs *The home quarantine trial will see the isolation period slashed from 14 days to seven days Advertisement The other woman aged in her 20s died at Gosford Hospital and was not vaccinated. She was a resident of the Life Without Barriers group home in Wyong, where she acquired her infection. Of the remaining 10 deaths, three people were in their 50s, one person was in their 60s, two people were in their 70s, three people were in their 80s, and one person was in their 90s. There are currently 1245 cases of Covid-19 in hospital, 228 people in intensive care, and 112 people requiring ventilation. There were 155,334 Covid-19 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous day's total of 129,266. Across the state, 80.7 per cent of the over-16 population has received a first dose Covid-19 vaccine, and 49.6 per cent are fully vaccinated. Sydney's first drive through Covid-19 vaccine hub opened its doors this morning at the Belmore Sports Ground, normally home to the Canterbury Bulldogs NRL team. The hub will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as supply is available, with the aim to inoculate entire families in one go, including children aged 12 and over. Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca will be available at the drive-through centre. 'It gives us heart that is some weeks, we'll reach 70 per cent double dose and enjoy many more things than we can today and start to feel more normal about life at that stage,' Ms Berejiklian said on Friday (pictured, healthcare workers at a hospital in Camperdown) Of the twelve new deaths recorded on Friday, six were men and six were women, two of whom were aged in their 20s (pictured, a frontline worker at a hospital in Camperdown) It comes as NSW Labor wants the state government to restore more outdoor recreation freedoms to western Sydney locals, after two regional NSW areas went back into lockdown. Two regional NSW local government areas have been forced back into Covid-19 lockdown as the Labor opposition demands more requests more freedoms for those in virus-hit western Sydney. Lismore and Albury have re-entered lockdown for at least the next seven days after three cases were detected across the two areas. The sources of the infections in both regions are unknown but NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale suspects they are linked to Sydney. The Lismore case has prompted a shift in the 'border bubble' arrangement negotiated days ago by Queensland and NSW, while the effect of Albury's lockdown on Wodonga is not yet clear. Wodonga is in Victoria, on the south side of the Murray River. Just hours before Lismore and Albury were plunged back into lockdown, stay-at-home orders were repealed across 12 other regions. NSW Labor has asked the state government to restore more outdoor recreation freedoms to western Sydney locals (pictured, residents in Sydney's Waverley LGA on Friday) Meanwhile, NSW Labor has called for more freedoms for outdoor exercise and recreation to be restored to western Sydney locals, including additional freedoms for outdoor picnics. 'The chief health officer has repeatedly informed the community that the transmission of the Delta variant is far more prevalent in indoor settings so it makes sense for the government to take a look at this,' opposition health spokesman Ryan Park said on Friday. 'It still could remain restricted to double vaccinated households but surely spending a few hours outdoors at this very good time is a small way that families can try and get some enjoyment back.' Deputy Premier John Barilaro on Friday said his government would stick to its 'measured approach' for reopening after lockdown. Meanwhile, a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the state's outbreak will resume on Friday, focusing on issues in western Sydney. A NSW parliamentary inquiry into the state's outbreak will resume on Friday, focusing on issues in western Sydney (pictured, a passenger in Sydney Airport) It comes as NSW recorded 1,351 new local cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths on Thursday, in its equal-deadliest day of the pandemic. Twelve people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 across three social housing buildings in inner Sydney's Redfern. A mobile vaccination team is visiting each tower building to provide vaccinations. Elsewhere, a man has been charged with the serious assault of another man at a drive-through Covid-19 testing clinic in Auburn. The 18-year-old man allegedly pulled the 55-year-old male victim from his car and punched and kneed him before driving away. He will appear at Burwood Local Court later on Friday. The suspects in the slaying of four close friends are a father and son and were known to at least one of the four victims whose bodies were found in a Wisconsin cornfield, her family has confirmed to DailyMail.com. The older man, Darren McWright, was arrested Wednesday night while his son Antoine Suggs, remains on the loose, believed to be in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Suggs is described by police as armed and dangerous. Damone Presley, the father of victim Nitosha Flug-Presley, says the last time he saw McWright, 56, was in the Little Six Casino in Prior Lake, Minnesota, when the man now accused of killing his daughter approached him to offer his condolences on the death of Presleys father. We go way back, said Presley, 50, standing outside his home in St. Paul. I wouldnt say he was a close family friend but he was a well-known friend of the family. He certainly wasnt a stranger. We go way back, said Damone Presley, 50, of 56-year-old Darren McWright, who is accused of killing his daughter Nitosha Flug-Presley and three of her friends. I wouldnt say he was a close family friend but he was a well-known friend of the family' Darren Lee McWright, left, was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of four friends in Wisconsin. Police are looking for Antoine Darnique Suggs, a possible accomplice Just a month and a half ago I spoke to him or should I say he spoke to me. My father had passed last year in December, so he came up to me in the casino and gave his condolence we shared our childhood memories and chit-chatted about some of the work I and my parents have done in the community. He said he hadnt seen McWright who also uses the alibi Darren Osborne in four years prior to that. Flug-Presley, 30, was one of four people found shot to death in an abandoned SUV in rural Sheridan, Wisconsin, some 70 miles from the Twin Cities. Also dead were her close friend Jasmine Sturm, 30, and Sturms brother Matthew Pettus, 26, and boyfriend Loyace Foreman III, 35, The four had all gone out to Shamrocks a popular bar in downtown St. Paul on Saturday night. Their bodies were found the following afternoon. None of the victims had any ties to Sheridan, which is in Dunn County, Wisconsin. However, there is an outstanding Dunn County warrant for the arrest of McWright, the Star-Tribune reported. Victims Jasmine Sturm (left) and Matthew Pettus (right) were half-siblings, and worked together at Shamrocks Irish bar and grill in St. Paul Victim Loyace Foreman III (left) was Sturm's boyfriend, while Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley (right) was a friend of Sturm Presley said his daughter also knew Suggs, 38, who was even in her house at her sons birthday party earlier this year. He is a friend of two of her cousins and at our last gathering three months ago I remember seeing him there. I am trying to process it all now, Presley added. And he had a message for his erstwhile friend and his son. How dare you? he raged. How dare you? But justice will be served. Not only for you but to everyone else involved. Justice will come. Presley has been involved in social issues in the Rondo area of St. Paul for years. A yard sign on his front lawn reads: Guns Down St. Paul. He said he believed McWright would have stopped the murders if he had known that his daughter was one of the intended victims as disputes in the area are normally settled between family elders It really alarms me that if he had any indication that she was a Presley because our family is well known in the community that he would not have stopped this tragic thing that happened. He said he is convinced there are more than the father and son involved in the slayings of his daughter and her friends. Four young people died, he said. That wasnt the work of one or two people. Pettuss brother Zach Pettus had earlier told the Star-Tribune that he had an idea who had killed the quartet. But when contacted by DailyMail.com after McWrights arrest he said he had spoken too soon and had no further comment. Public records show McWright has a long rap sheet going back years. The offences include several DWIs and assaults. Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said investigators believe the bodies 'were randomly brought to' the Town of Sheridan and that someone intentionally drove the SUV into the tall corn Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said he believed the four bodies were randomly brought to Sheridan from the Twin Cities. Bygd said that motive in the case remains a mystery, and that all possibilities are under investigation, including the involvement of personal acquaintances, organized crime, or a drug connection. He said earlier this week there was no preliminary evidence of drugs as a motive, but that 'it very well could be, and that's going to be discovered through our investigation.' Investigators believe the killers brought a second vehicle to the dump site and used it to escape. Police are seeking information about a possible second dark-colored SUV that may have been involved. Investigators remain tight-lipped about many aspects of the case, and Bygd refused to answer many key questions, including ownership information for the SUV the bodies were found in, and the position of the bodies in the vehicle. However, audio from a police scanner obtained by the station KSTP revealed that none of the victims were in the driver's seat. Autopsies that were performed on Monday by Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office in St. Paul determined that all four victims died from gunshot wounds. Loyace Foreman III was the son of Loyace Foreman Jr, senior pastor at New Vision Faith Center in Saint Paul. 'He was stolen from us,' Loyace's mother, Jessica, wrote in a post. 'And we will find the thief. If it takes my very last breath. We will not rest. Loyace PulzeRazr Foreman III was my Prince.' Presley, 30, Matthew Pettus, 26, Loyace Foreman III, 35, and Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, were found murdered inside the car in a field in Sheridan, rural Wisconsin, Sunday afternoon. Pictured the scene taped off According to recent social media posts, the 35-year-old Foreman III had two children and was in a romantic relationship with Jessica Sturm. He worked as a demolition contractor and enjoyed drawing in his free time. 'He was a doting uncle to his four nieces and nephews,' Jessica Foreman told Twin Cities. 'He was the protector of his three sisters. He was not perfect and we loved him unconditionally. He left an unfillable void.' Investigators remain tight-lipped about many aspects of the case, and Bygd refused to answer many key questions, including ownership information for the SUV the bodies were found in, and the position of the bodies in the vehicle Sturm, who worked a second job as a paralegal at a law firm, and was raising her two sons, ages 11 and 5. The youngest boy had just celebrated his birthday last month. Mourners online described Strum and Nitosha Flug-Presley as very close friends. 'There was never a time where i would see 1 without the other,' a mutual friend wrote. 'Y'all were literally inseparable and to think we lost y'all together don't even sit right.' Flug-Presley leaves behind a young son and daughter. 'She was an outgoing person, a very good mother, exceptional daughter,' Presley's father said. 'She was very vibrant, she had a good heart, someone who would lift up your spirits.' The first signs of what quarantine will look like in Australia after the nation hits its vaccination targets have been revealed in a pilot 'at home' program launched by NSW. Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Friday that the state will launch a four week trial to allow 175 fully-vaccinated returned travellers to self-isolate for seven days, rather than a fortnight in the hotel quarantine system. The state's Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said from the end of September some 30 participants a week will be chosen by NSW Health to take part in the trial. Participants must have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine accredited by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and will be pre-selected for home quarantine before their flight. Passengers arrive at Sydney International Airport off a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong on August 23. NSW is launching a four-week trial to allow 175 fully-vaccinated returned travellers to self-isolate for seven days at home HOW WILL THE NSW HOME QUARANTINE TRIAL WORK? How long will returned travellers in the home quarantine trial be in self-isolation? Seven days, rather than the standard 14 days in hotel quarantine How will police track people in home quarantine to make sure they are actually self-isolating? The program will build on the existing home quarantine trial in South Australia and use facial recognition and location technology to monitor compliance. No exact details have been given yet about the exact process, but the SA trial subjected participants to random location check-ins using live facial verification three times a day What are the rules about vaccines? Participants must have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine accredited by the Therapeutic Goods Administration Unvaccinated children can take part as long as their adult family members have received both jabs. When will hotel quarantine end? Officials haven't set an exact date for when home quarantine will replace the 14-day hotel quarantine requirement. But Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said the goal was to eventually end hotel quarantine for travellers who are fully vaccinated. How will participants be selected? Those taking part will be pre-selected for home quarantine before their flight and chosen at random from a range of different accommodation types, age groups and family situations. Advertisement 'We are sending a really clear signal that the future of hotel quarantine will end for people who are double vaccinated,' Mr Ayres said. 'This is an important step in getting to that objective.' Mr Ayres said travellers will be chosen from a range of different accommodation types, age groups and family situations to ensure the trial is representative of the wider population. Qantas air crew will also take part in the trial, which the minister said was a 'logical' decision given flight staff work on tight turnaround times. Children who are not yet eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine will be allowed to take part in the trial as long as their other family members have received both jabs. 'We want to expand the amount of people who can come back to Sydney as quickly as possible,' Mr Ayres said. Passengers in the baggage hall at Sydney Airport. Participants must have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine accredited by the Therapeutic Goods Administration 'We want Australians coming back through Sydney Airport - we want international tourists coming through Sydney.' The program will build on the existing home quarantine trial in South Australia and use facial recognition and location technology to monitor compliance. Participants in that trial needed to provide a negative test result 72 hours before their flight departs for Australia, another on arrival and then further tests on days three, five, seven, nine and 13. They were also subject to random location check-ins using live facial verification three times a day, while police will conduct at least one random physical compliance check each night. A resident in the the Waverley LGA in Sydney's east. Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said the scheme will eventually replace the requirement of two weeks in hotel quarantine The announcement came as NSW recorded 1,284 new cases of Covid-19 and 12 deaths on Friday. Of the twelve new deaths recorded, six were men and six were women, two of whom were aged in their 20s. One of the women aged in her 20s was from western Sydney and died at Nepean Hospital. She had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and had underlying health conditions. The other woman aged in her 20s died at Gosford Hospital and was not vaccinated. Of the remaining 10 deaths, three people were in their 50s, one person was in their 60s, two people were in their 70s, three people were in their 80s, and one person was in their 90s. There are currently 1245 cases of Covid-19 in hospital, 228 people in intensive care, and 112 people requiring ventilation. Construction workers have blocked streets across Melbourne to protest the state government's hefty new coronavirus restrictions for the industry. From midnight Friday, construction workers will be required to show evidence that they've had their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, tea rooms will be forced to shut and travel between Melbourne and the regions for work will be banned. Dozens of workers dressed in hi-vis set up plastic chairs and tables while they took a smoke break along Lonsdale Street on Friday. The flash protest forced the cancellation of trams on nearby Spencer Street sparking commuter chaos. Similar demonstrations have also occurred in Brunswick, Coburg, Kew, Parkville and Richmond. The roads have now been cleared. Construction workers have blocked streets across Melbourne to protest the state government's new coronavirus restrictions for the industry Dozens of workers blocked Lonsdale Street with plastic chairs and tables while they took a smoke break, forcing the cancellation of trams on nearby Spencer Street on Friday morning Victorian state construction union secretary John Setka said the decision to close tea rooms was 'appalling', given it was made without consulting the CFMEU. 'It's not really a protest,' he told 3AW radio on Friday. 'What they decided was if we can't sit in the smoko shed, where do we have our break? So they've taken all the tables and chairs out into the fresh air. 'They've got nowhere else to have their smoko.' Premier Daniel Andrews said the decision was backed by health advice and designed to keep the construction industry open at its 25 per cent workforce cap. 'If they want to work and be part of that 25 per cent, they need to be vaccinated with one dose by midnight next Thursday night,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'If they're not, they won't be able to come on site. That's keeping them open. The other thing would be to close them down to zero.' The industry was earlier this week warned it risked losing its authorised worker status amid the launch of an enforcement and vaccination blitz. Similar protests have also occurred in Brunswick, Coburg, Kew, Parkville and Richmond. The roads have now been cleared It comes after the Victorian government imposed tough restrictions on the industry, given 13 per cent of the state's active COVID-19 cases have been linked to transmission at construction sites At the time, the state's COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar described tea rooms as the 'most dangerous place' to contract the virus. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Dr Weimar stood by the decision to introduce the new restrictions. 'We've seen a number of examples, and I appreciate people think it's amusing, but when you have people across the industry in the construction industry and they're in a small cabin or hut enjoying food and drink together, that's a significant risk of transmission,' he said. 'The CHO has talked about it many times. It's a self-evident risk we need to manage. The weather is getting better and it doesn't seem unreasonable to partake in those activities outside, preferably not on tram tracks.' Dr Weimar urged construction workers to follow the new restrictions pointing out they were lucky to be in an industry that was still operating during the pandemic - unlike hospitality and retail businesses that had been forced to close. 'I'd appeal to the industry and to the employees, so many sectors, so many employees would love to be at work,' he said. The protests were held as the state recorded 510 new cases and one death - a woman in her 50s 'So many of us would love to be working almost normally and actually, people are bending over backwards to keep the construction industry going and keep important sites going for important reasons. 'Please don't. I think we all need to be humble on this and recognise the privilege that those of us who are still able to work can get. 'If you can't sit next to your mates having a sandwich, that doesn't seem a huge burden to bear.' The protests were held as the state recorded 510 new cases and one death - a woman in her 50s. Of the new cases, only 124 have been linked to known outbreaks with the source still unknown for 386 new infections. The majority of cases have been recorded in Melbourne's northern suburbs with 276 infections recorded across Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park and Broadmeadows. A Pennsylvania school board has clashed with its students and parents over its 'ban' on 'anti-racist' books. Last year, Central York School District's all-white board banned 40 books including I am Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai's autobiography, as well documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro and multimedia resources like CNN's Sesame Street town hall on racism. 'That resource list has some bad ideas in some books that I definitely not want in our district,' said Vickie Guth, the treasurer of the board. Some parents backed the decision, saying they feared the racial focus of the books would harm their kids. 'I don't want my daughter growing up feeling guilty because she's white,' said a Central York parent. But students were furious and have protested the ban which they say is disruptive to their education and stopped them learning inclusively. 'I don't think that a board that lacks diversity is the appropriate authority to determine what qualifies as appropriate material to address race in this community,' one parent agreed. This week, parents, students and board members at the 82 percent white school district, had an online meeting to discuss the issue. But little progress was made and the district has refused to overturn the ban until they have reviewed all the resource list media. Pennsylvania students are protesting their 82percent-white school district ban on over 40 books and resources that tackle race issues The district refused to reverse the ban, even after students of Central York High School shared their disagreement in a series of protests Lat year, Central York School District's all-white board banned teachers from 'I am Rosa Parks,' Malala Yousafzai's autobiography and countless others books in their classes. The district also banned documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro and multimedia resources like CNN's Sesame Street town hall on racism All of the books and articles in the list have been authored by people of color or are about race, but the board said that the decision was based on the 'content of the resources, not the author or topic.' The move has left many teachers facing a daily battle, caught in between their students and their employers. 'I have to, now, with this resource ban, think twice about whether or not I should or could use a James Baldwin quote as an opening for my class,' teacher Ben Hodge told CNN. They said they are at a loss of what they can and cannot teach and feel constantly worried they'll receive backlash from the parents. 'This is a board that after hearing their students' concerns about diversity in the district, hearing my struggle with race, being an Indian American and consistently feeling like I didn't belong. After all those conversations for weeks on end, they still pursued the book ban,' Senior Edha Gupta told CNN. When asked if she thought that the school board had read any of the books in the resource list, senior Christina Ellis said she didn't believe so. Students at Central York High School argue that the ban jeopardizes their chances of having an inclusive education and is disruptive for both educators and students 'I want to hear all of it. I don't want everyone to be worried about how we feel because no one was worried about how BIPOC members of the community felt.' Olivia Pituch said 'I don't think a moral compass will let you ban books about equality and loving each other,' Ellis said. 'Why is a Sesame Street episode threatening the education of children. If anything this school board is threatening education,' she added Fellow student Olivia Pituch also told CNN that she didn't want a 'white-washed' version of learning, and that she wanted to hear about the struggles of minorities. 'I want to hear all of it. I don't want everyone to be worried about how we feel because no one was worried about how BIPOC members of the community felt.' Pituch said. The school board has contended that the books are not banned and are simply 'frozen' until they decide whether the content is appropriate or not. But the ban has been going on for a year, and students are pressuring the board to lift it. The district also banned documentaries like I Am Not Your Negro and multimedia resources like CNN's Sesame Street town hall on racism All of the books and articles in the list have been authored by people of color or are about race, but the board said that the decision was based on the 'content of the resources, not the author or topic' An identical measure was taken by a Texas school District this August. Leander Independent School District banned nine books that addressed race, gender, LGBQT issues and mental health issues. 'It is disheartening to see a school district closing off avenues for learning and engagement across lines of difference,' said Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America. 'Not only is the removal of these books harmful to the literary community as a whole, it also contributes to the further minimization of the issues that people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals face. 'The district has an obligation to open students' minds to the difficult issues these books reckon with, not close them off to diverse lived experiences.' Parents in New York City are also fighting private schools and accusing them of 'woke indoctrination.' 'We want [school administrators] to be afraid and to know we're not kidding,' a mother told the New York Post. The parents behind the movement have children who attend prestigious private schools such a Dalton, Spence, Horace Mann, Collegiate, and Riverdale Country School. In June, a Florida mother blasted critical race theory as racist, dangerous and claimed it will destroy America at a state Board of Education meeting. Keisha King said: 'Just coming off of May 31, marking the 100 years [since] the Tulsa riots, it is sad that we are even contemplating something like critical race theory, where children will be separated by their skin color and deemed permanently 'oppressors' or 'oppressed' in 2021.' Educators have constantly reminded parents that critical race theory is not part of any school district's curriculum in the country. Even though critical race theory is not taught anywhere in the country, it is banned in six states and a ban is in progress in ten others. An Australian rocket company claims it is ready to provide civilian space flight by 2030 for a fraction of current costs, if it is properly backed. Gilmour Space, was founded by brothers Adam and James Gilmour on the Gold Coast in 2013, claims it could bring prices down to about '$3million a ticket' for an Australian-built and Australian-crewed flight. This week four civilians went into space in Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket, launching from Florida. It was the first time a crew of all amateurs made such a flight. Gilmour Space is aiming to begin human space flights in 2030 and wants to bring the price down The Gilmour brothers, Adam and James, are pictured second and fourth from left with their company's staff on May 4, aka Star Wars Day 'We are looking at a 2030 launch date for human space flight at Gilmour Space,' Adam Gilmour told Daily Mail Australia. 'Mostly it'll be astronauts going, but we'd love to get the price of a civilian ticket down to around $3million to go into lower earth orbit.' 'At the moment it's about $20million.' Mr Gilmour said the likelihood of achieving the 2030 goal was probably '50 per cent, because we need government support. Every trip is so expensive you need millions'. If properly supported, Mr Gilmour said he'd be '100 per cent' confident' his company could achieve the goal. The mission could as low as $320million - about a tenth of current costs, he claimed. 'We've already got people in our company who have built human space craft before. We can do this,' Mr Gilmour said. The rocket would cost about $250million to develop and the capsule around $50million, plus $20million to build the final version. Mr Gilmour said it was a pity people still thought the idea of Australia being active in space was a joke. 'There's something terrible in our culture were we dont believe in anything outside of what we already do. We think we are good at the Olympics, swimming, mining swimming nothing else and we never will be, it's bulls***. Gilmour Space launches rockets for satellites now but with government support it hopes to develop Australia's first human space craft for $320million Adam Gilmour wants Australia to be flying into lower earth orbit with the US, China, Russia, India, European nations and Japan by 2030 'The US, China and Russia are already providing civilian space flight. By 2030, seven or eight countries will be doing it. India is already planning it, Europe will come next and then Japan. Then it should be us.' The likely trips Australians would take would be to future space stations hanging in 'low earth orbit', which is considered the area between 160km and 1000km above the surface of the planet. Mr Gilmour said launching humans into space would be a good use of taxpayer money because it 'is the highest technical achievement'. It would also create new industries, benefit existing ones and 'result in hundreds, and eventually thousands, of new jobs'. The ideal launching spot, they say, would be Abbot Point, near Bowen, Queensland. 'We like Abbot Point because it has good access to many equatorial orbits that interest our small satellite customers.' Gilmour Space signed a 'Space Act' agreement with NASA in 2018 for research, development and education initiatives. The company currently launches satellites and bases its business model on 'innovative hybrid propulsion technologies'. The Australian Space Agency was formed in 2018 and is based in Adelaide. Among its activities is finding Australian businesses and researchers to be involved in the supply chain for NASAs Moon to Mars program. Daily Mail Australia approached the Australian Space Agency for Comment but it was unavailable. Authorities have pleaded with Queenslanders to make the most of a state-wide vaccination blitz this weekend, with 38 community hubs open for walk-in jabs. There was one new local case of Covid-19 reported on Friday but it poses no threat. It's linked to Brisbane's Sunnybank cluster, and the person had been in home quarantine for their entire infectious period. There was one new local case of Covid-19 reported in Queensland on Friday linked to the Sunnybank cluster, but poses no threat to the state (pictured: Healthcare worker at a pop-up Covid-19 testing site in Sunnybank, Brisbane) Health Minister Yvette D'Ath says Queenslanders can walk into any of the state's 38 community vaccination hubs this weekend and get Pfizer without an appointment. Anyone aged 12 and over is eligible. There will even be a pop-up vaccination centre for footy fans. It will open this afternoon ahead of the two NRL matches to be played in Mackay. Almost half of the doses needed to vaccinate all eligible Queenslanders have now been administered. Authorities have called on Queenslanders to walk into any of the state's 38 community vaccination hubs this weekend to receive the Pfizer jab with no appointment needed 'We are starting to get that big ramp-up in vaccine supply that we've been promised for many months now,' Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said. 'It's taken us since the 22nd of February, when we did the first vaccination of a nurse on the Gold Coast, to get half of the doses out the door. The aim is over the next month or two to get the rest out.' Queensland Health delivered more than 25,000 vaccines on Thursday with 58.17 per cent of eligible Queenslanders having had one dose of a vaccine, and 39.95 per cent now fully vaccinated. Ms D'Ath said Queensland had been getting less than its Pfizer allocation but she was hopeful that would be delivered by November, or earlier. Three young girls have been found dead just days after their family finished hotel quarantine - as the woman suspected of killing them was rushed to hospital. The bodies of a seven-year-old girl and her three-year-old twin sisters were discovered at a home in the regional town of Timaru on New Zealand's South Island on Thursday night. Emergency crews discovered the grisly scene after they were called to the home on Queen Street about 10pm. A woman has been rushed to Timaru Hospital and is in a stable condition, police said on Friday. A neighbour reported hearing someone 'wailing' outside the property 15 minutes before police arrived. Three young children have been found dead in a home on Queen Street in Timaru on New Zealand's South Island just days after their family finished hotel quarantine 'The first noise we heard was somebody sobbing, and then we heard a loud thud like someone just slammed a door,' the neighbour Jade Whaley told Stuff. 'We could see someone through our fence wandering behind the house and wailing.' Another resident Karen Cowper described hearing a man crying and saying 'is this really happening?' just after 10pm on Thursday night. 'We asked him if he was OK. He did not respond to us and was screaming and crying hysterically,' Ms Cowper said. The family had recently arrived in NZ from South Africa and had only been in the town for a week. Canterbury Police District Commander Superintendent John Price said the family appeared to have few contacts in New Zealand. The mother had earlier this month asked for help preparing for the move on social media. She had asked for advice about buying furniture in Timaru and wanted to know schools would be best for her children. The family had recently arrived in NZ from South Africa and had only been in the town for a week Detective Inspector Scott Anderson said NZ Police was 'speaking with people from the address and no-one else is being sought at this time'. The deaths are the second tragedy in as many months to befall the South Island community. Last month, five teenage boys were killed in a one-car crash in which only the 19-year-old driver survived. That crash was the South Island's worst car accident in a number of years. Brian Laundrie's sister has broken her silence about the disappearance of her brother's girlfriend and said her and her family 'obviously want Gabby to be found safe' just after Brian was named a 'person of interest' in her vanishing. Cassie Launderie told ABC News Gabby Petito is like 'a sister' to her and emphasized that her 'children love her'. 'All I want is for her to come home safe and sound and this to be just a big misunderstanding,' she added. Cassie's ABC News interview came after Petito's family penned an emotional letter begging the Launderies to help them find their missing daughter and suggesting that the family might be withholding information about where she is. Brian Laundrie's sister Cassie Launderie (pictured) has broken her silence about the disappearance of her brother's girlfriend and said her and her family 'obviously want Gabby to be found safe' just after Brian was named a 'person of interest' in her vanishing Gabby Petito (left) was last seen on August 24 leaving a hotel with Brian Laundrie (right) in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the couple's cross-country campervan trip A preview of the interview was released by the network on Thursday night and the full clip will be aired Friday morning on Good Morning America. The heartbreaking letter was read aloud by family attorney Richard Stafford in a press conference held in Petito's hometown of Long Island on Thursday. 'We understand you are going through a difficult time and your instinct to protect your son is strong. 'We ask you to put yourselves in our shoes. We haven't been able to sleep or eat and our lives are falling apart,' the Petitos wrote. They added: 'As a parent, how can you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabby's younger brothers and sisters through this?' The letter also confirmed reports that the young couple were engaged to be married and suggested the Laundries were 'so happy' that the two were planning to spend their lives together. During the press conference Stafford would not provide further details about Petito's suspicious final text message to her family and refused to comment on the body camera footage from the August 12 incident. In the newly-released bodycam video, an emotional Petito is seen with tears streaming down her face telling officers the couple 'have been fighting all morning' and admitting that she slapped him. Petito set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with her boyfriend in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 Attorney Richard Stafford on Thursday read out an emotional letter from Petito's family begging the Laundries to cooperate, saying 'we believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby' A map shows the last known movements of Petito and Laundrie along their cross-country road trip which began July 2 Laundrie was named a person of interest and is refusing to cooperate with cop. The couple with their campervan Petito said she suffers from OCD and anxiety, with both her and Laundrie saying she was stressed because of the YouTube blog they were working on to document the doomed cross-country trip. Laundrie was seen with scratches on his face and arm which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone'. When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation. The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and said they were going to separate the couple for the night. At the press conference Stafford revealed the couple's cross country road trip included plans to visit Oregon on October 2, meaning Laundrie's premature return to his family's Florida home on September 1 would have seemed odd or unexpected. 'The family is devastated. Every day that this goes on, they get more and more desperate. They're at the point that this desperation as turned into anger,' the family lawyer added. 'They know that the Laundries know where their daughter is. And they will not tell them. That's infuriating.' New bodycam footage emerged Wednesday showing police being called to an incident involving the couple in Moab, Utah, on August 12 - 13 days before Petito was last heard from. A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone' Stafford also said the Laundries had already retained legal representation by the time police came knocking on their door a week later. Petito was last seen on August 24 leaving a hotel with Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the couple's cross-country campervan trip which they started early July. On August 25 she made her final call to her mom, telling her she and Laundrie had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. She was reported missing by her family on September 11 after they hadn't heard from her in 13 days. Meanwhile, Laundrie - who was named a person of interest in the case Wednesday - returned to the couple's home in North Port, Florida, on September 1 with the van but without Petito, police said. Earlier this week Petito's father said the main priority must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about' her boyfriend, who had already been named a 'person of interest' in her disappearance. Joe Petito told Fox & Friends First on Thursday that he doesn't 'give two craps' about Laundrie and slammed him for 'sitting home in his lazy boy chair' instead of helping in the search for his missing girlfriend. 'I don't care what happens to him right now,' he said. At the press conference Stafford revealed the couple's cross country road trip included plans to visit Oregon on October 2, meaning Laundrie's premature return to his family's Florida home on September 1 would have seemed odd or unexpected A suspected murder attempt against a member of the Hamze clan has been foiled following a police traffic stop in Sydney's north. Police believe gangland rivals had been planning to carry out an attack on Ibrahem Hamze when a stolen Mercedes was spotted on Walker Street on August 14. The driver allegedly refused to stop the vehicle for officers before speeding off and running through a red light. But the car suffered a flat tyre forcing the driver and another passenger to abandon the vehicle on Miller Street at Cammeray. The pair then allegedly stole a Toyota Camry after threatening its 76-year-old driver. On Friday, NSW Police arrested a 31-year-old man and took him to Granville Police Station where he was charged with six offences. A suspected murder attempt against Ibrahem Hamze (left) has been foiled following a police traffic stop in North Sydney Police believe gangland rivals had planned to carry out an attack when a stolen Mercedes was spotted on Walker Street on August 14 The charges include conspire and agree to murder any person, armed with intent commit indictable offence, drive conveyance taken without consent of owner, police pursuit - not stop - drive recklessly, in company rob while armed with dangerous weapon, and, drive motor vehicle during disqualification period. NSW Police criminal groups squad commander Detective Superintendent Grant Taylor said the two men were in the area 'for the sole purpose of shooting dead a man who they believe is a rival in territorial disputes in south-west Sydney'. 'This individual (arrested on Friday) is part of a criminal syndicate, that's what we will allege,' he said. Superintendent Taylor said the target of the alleged planned shooting should 'thank his lucky stars that he is alive'. 'That individual who we will allege was on that street on the day in North Sydney is an at-risk individual and will continue to be at risk,' he said. 'When the information comes out, of the timeline of events that day, he can thank his lucky stars that he is alive.' The incident comes months after Hamze's older brother Bilal was gunned down in a hail of bullets while taking a woman on a date in Sydney's CBD in June. Bilal had just walked out of trendy Japanese restaurant Kid Kyoto on Bridge Street, near Circular Quay when he was executed. The driver allegedly refused to stop the vehicle for officers before speeding off and running through a red light Bilal was later laid to rest by family and about 100 associates in prayers at the Lakemba mosque. His funeral was closely monitored by dozens of uniformed and plain-clothed police including the gang-busting Raptor Squad. Dozens of male mourners carried the crime boss's green coffin - emblazoned with Arabic writing - into the mosque. The incident comes just weeks after Hamze's older brother Bilal was laid to rest at a funeral after he was gunned down in a hail of bullets while taking a woman on a date in Sydney's CBD in June Hamze's green coffin was carried into the wash bay area of the mosque ahead of his funeral in June Bilal, who had a distinctive tear-shaped tattoo under his right eye, was walking along Bridge St when up to 10 shots were fired at him from a stolen black Audi. He died a short time later in St Vincent's Hospital. Police claimed Bilal's execution is the result of the escalating Alameddine and Hamze gang war. The man arrested over the alleged conspiracy to murder Ibrahim will face Parramatta Local Court on Friday. Investigations are continuing. A Chicago gang has been wreaking havoc with paintball guns, targeting a woman walking her dog, a homeless woman sleeping on a park bench and diners at a sushi restaurant over the past several days. Around 8.45 pm that night, according to Fox 32, there were two instances where pedestrians walking on the sidewalk in the 1800 and 2000 block of West Division Street were victimized. 'I definitely knew it was shooting of some kind, didnt know if it was a gun, paintball gun, bb gun,' Taylor Mogged, who was walking her 7-month-old mini dachshund when she was attacked, told CBS Chicago. She whipped around and saw a vehicle quickly drive away - she said her assailants were driving a dark-colored crossover, and a 'dude [was] hanging out the window with a gun.' 'I definitely knew it was shooting of some kind, didnt know if it was a gun, paintball gun, bb gun,' said Mogged. 'I definitely knew it was shooting of some kind, didnt know if it was a gun, paintball gun, bb gun,' said Taylor Mogged (pictured), who was struck in the back and missed by several more paintball pellets while she was walking her dog on Tuesday night There were no injuries reported in any of Tuesday's attacks 'One woman got hit in the mouth. One of the ladies, who we think was pregnant, she got hit in the back,' said Brian Robinson of the attack at Sushi Taku on Tuesday night. 'Someones out there trying to instill fear and thats the disappointing part about living in Chicago now' 'I could tell they were younger just by the fact that they were laughing - I could hear them when they were driving away they were laughing,' Mogged said of her attackers. She said that the shooters were driving a dark-colored crossover with a 'dude hanging out the window with a gun' 'I could tell they were younger just by the fact that they were laughing - I could hear them when they were driving away they were laughing.' Mogged was struck in the back with one pellet, narrowly evading five more that whizzed past her face. Mogged told the outlet her small dog that'could have been severely injured' if she was shot. Earlier, outdoor diners at the sushi restaurant near the intersection of Division and Wolcott Streets ducked for cover when a dark SUV pulled up and its occupants started shooting around 7.30 pm on Tuesday, according to NBC Chicago. 'Everyone was laying down and hiding under the tables,' Sushi Taku manager Angel Zhao told news outlets of the attac that took place around 7.30 pm at his restaurant. 'Its very scary. A few of our customers left without eating because they were scared.' 'All you hear is psh-psh-psh-psh. Thats when everybody started screaming,' Brian Robinson, who was struck in the shoulder and the foot while dining at the restaurant, told CBS Chicago . 'We saw glass flying and people diving and ducking' 'Everyone was laying down and hiding under the tables,' Sushi Taku manager Angel Zhao told the outlet. 'Its very scary. A few of our customers left without eating because they were scared.' Zhao said one woman was struck in the foot and was bleeding from the wound, but no one was hospitalized. 'All you hear is psh-psh-psh-psh. Thats when everybody started screaming,' Brian Robinson, who was struck in the shoulder and the foot while dining at the restaurant, told CBS Chicago. 'We saw glass flying and people diving and ducking.' 'One woman got hit in the mouth. One of the ladies, who we think was pregnant, she got hit in the back,' Robinson said. 'Someones out there trying to instill fear and thats the disappointing part about living in Chicago now.' Later that evening, NBC reported, a cyclist was struck with paintballs by the unknown assailants. Around 8.45 pm that night, according to Fox 32 , there were two instances where pedestrians walking on the sidewalk in the 1800 and 2000 block of West Division Street were victimized There were no injuries reported in any of Tuesday's attacks. This is not the first barrage of paintballing to hit Chicago - more than 280 paintball attacks were reported in the city last fall with an uptick in incidents as Halloween approached, NBC reported Last Friday, however, a 45-year-old woman sleeping on a park bench in the 100 block of North Western Avenue was shot in the face with a paintball pellet, according to ABC 7 Chicago - she was taken to Stroger Hospital for her injuries. This is not the first barrage of paintballings to hit Chicago - more than 280 paintball attacks were reported in the city last fall with an uptick in incidents as Halloween approached, NBC reported. 'It makes it kind of crazy that its 2021, as if theres not enough going on,' one neighbor told NBC. 'I could be on a peaceful walk, and someone can shoot a paintball at me. Thats pretty scary.' A veteran paramedic and deputy mayor has raised more than $35,000 in a day in his bid to overturn NSW's vaccine mandate for health workers. Tumut paramedic John Larter is seeking declaratory relief to allow him to continue to work unvaccinated after September 30 as long as he's wearing appropriate personal protective equipment. 'Why are they happy for me to work until the 30th? If it was such a danger, you'd have me taken off the road today, wouldn't you?' he said this week. 'Why are the GPs exempt?' The father-of-six, married to a registered nurse, is also the deputy mayor of the Snowy Valleys region in the state's south. John Larter is seeking declaratory relief to allow him to continue to work unvaccinated after September 30 as long as he's wearing appropriate personal protective equipment His case against what he calls 'medical apartheid' will be heard for the first time by the NSW Supreme Court on Friday. Some legal fees will be covered by crowdfunding, with Mr Larter's GoFundMe page collecting $35,000 inside its first 24 hours online this week. He will likely need every cent - having briefed the eminent Bret Walker SC as well as junior counsel Mark Maconachie. Mr Larter, who has previously sought Liberal preselection for local seats and claims his stance is leading to workplace bullying, has thanked two state MPs for their 'unwavering support': Berejiklian Government backbencher Tanya Davies and One Nation's Mark Latham. In a Facebook video with Mr Larter on Thursday, Ms Davies said vaccine mandates were a 'serious, critical issue of our community'. 'I just want to applaud you for doing what you are doing leading the charge in this area,' she told the paramedic. Medical staff sit outside a Sydney hospital. All health workers must be vaccinated against Covid-19 by September 30 or risk losing their jobs The Berejiklian Government is defending three other similar challenges to its vaccine mandates, including a group of nurses, aged care workers, and workers inside areas of concern. One law firm leading one challenge has raised more than $400,000 through crowdfunding. Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Thursday thanked the high numbers of healthcare workers who had rolled up their sleeves to be vaccinated. With Christmas nearing, he urged the community to do the same. 'The best present you can give yourself, your family, your friends and the state is to get vaccinated... go and do it,' he said. Prosecutors in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial won't be allowed to argue that the Illinois teenager who shot three people during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha believes in the Proud Boys' violent tactics or was affiliated with the white nationalist group the night of last year's shootings, a Wisconsin judge ruled Friday. Jurors also will not be allowed to hear a video of Rittenhouse talking about wanting to shoot people, the judge ruled. Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder's decisions mark a victory for Rittenhouse, who sat alongside his attorney Mark Richards in the courthouse Friday as he prepares for his trial in November. The ruling removes a line of attack for prosecutors who had hoped to show that Rittenhouse, as Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger described him in court, was a 'chaos tourist' drawn to Kenosha 'like a moth to a flame.' Rittenhouse traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, about 20 miles to Kenosha on August 25, 2020, after seeing a post on social media for militia to protect businesses. The city was in the throes of several nights of chaotic protests that began after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a black man, during an altercation as police tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down. Kyle Rittenhouse, right, listens to his attorney, Mark Richards, during Rittenhouse's pretrial hearing at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin Rittenhouse (pictured) carries a weapon as he walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha during a night of unrest following the weekend police shooting of Jacob Blake Black Lives Matter supporters have painted him as a trigger-happy racist, pointing to photos of Rittenhouse posing with Proud Boys members (pictured) at the Racine Bar in January Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, opened fire with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle on Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, and Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake, killing both. He also shot Gaige Grosskreutz, of West Allis, who survived. All three men were white, as is Rittenhouse. His attorneys argue all three men attacked Rittenhouse and that he was acting in self-defense. The case has become a rallying point for conservatives, who funded Rittenhouse's $2 million bail with donations. Black Lives Matter supporters have painted him as a trigger-happy racist, pointing to photos of Rittenhouse posing with Proud Boys members at the Racine Bar in January. Binger said in court Friday that Rittenhouse traveled to Miami days after the meeting at the Wisconsin bar to eat lunch with the Proud Boys' national president. Two people, one of them with a Proud Boys shirt, gesture with the White Power sign, as supporters of Trump gather to support his legal challenges to the 2020 presidential election 'Part of my job is also to help people' Rittenhouse portrays himself as an 'American Patriot' in video released by his defense Rittenhouse appears during a court hearing in Lake County, Illinois on September 25, 2020 Binger argued he should be allowed to argue that Rittenhouse has adopted the Proud Boys' philosophy and was looking to perpetuate violence in Kenosha. 'Most everyone there was there because of their beliefs, one way or the other, in regards to the shooting of Jacob Blake,' Binger said. 'Chaos tourists like the defendant were drawn like a moth to the flame to our community. He was drawn to this incident because of his beliefs, which align with the Proud Boys. They take pride in using violence to achieve their means.' Rittenhouse attorney Cory Chirafisi countered that there's no evidence Rittenhouse was affiliated with the Proud Boys the night of the shootings and there's no evidence on his cellphone related in any way to any white nationalist groups. He also pointed out that Rittenhouse opened fire on three white men. A protester clashes with armed civilian Kyle Rittenhouse as a man (picture right) shot in the chest during confrontations between protesters and armed civilians A protester carries a Proud Boys banner, a right-wing group, while other members start to unfurl a large U.S. flag in front of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem, Oregon 'There is nothing in this evidence that would support that the shootings were race-based,' Chirafisi said. 'We are hoping to try this case on the facts.' Schroeder said nothing suggests the meeting at the Racine bar was prearranged or that Rittenhouse knew who the Proud Boys members were. The judge said it's reasonable to assume Rittenhouse was just happy to take pictures with supporters. 'I certainly would keep the door open if you can show that there is any connection between the defendant on the day in question and this organization,' Schroeder said. 'But as I said before, if this this this organization embraces the defendant after the fact because hes lionized because of his behavior, that is not something that the jury can make anything out of that would be lawful.' An Indiana woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering her boyfriend with her son - who is still awaiting trial - three years after she was charged for the crime. Vivian Moore pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to commit murder on Tuesday after playing a role in killing her boyfriend Dennis Dziwulski back in 2018. She will spend three decades behind bars. Moore's son Justin Girdler, 25, was also charged in Dziwulski's death, as reported by Local 12, but is awaiting trial for the murder charge. The Moore, allegedly assisted by her son, fatally hit Dziwulski in the head with a hammer and iron skillet. According to court documents Girdler admitted to the crime when it happened two years ago just after his mother confessed - a month after Dziwulski was reported missing. Vivian Moore (left) pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to commit murder on Tuesday after playing a role in killing her boyfriend Dennis Dziwulski back in 2018. Moore's son Justin Girdler (right), 25, was also charged in Dziwulski's death but is awaiting trial for the murder charge The mother-son killer duo allegedly fatally hit Dziwulski (pictured) in the head with a hammer and iron skillet and told officers he was abusive to Moore throughout their relationship In July 2018 Switzerland County sheriff's deputies found Dziwulski's body in a wooded area behind the home he and Moore rented, where Dziwulski was allegedly abusive towards his girlfriend. According to Local 12 deputies had been called three times over the course of their relationship, which neighbors said was more activity than was usual in the quiet area. Jason Scudder, who lived near the couple, told the local news station: 'It's about as laid back as you can get. We noticed right down the road here a lot of investigators, cops, state cops, county cops.' According to an affidavit Girdler made a 911 call on June 2 relating to domestic violence at the couple's mobile home. When officers got to the house Girdler was standing outside with a sledge hammer, court documents said, and Dziwulski was inside the house with his mother. Shortly after Moore and her son left. Moore and Girdler returned to the house later that night, the affidavit revealed, and Moore admitted to hitting Dziwulski in the head with an iron skillet as Girdler confessed to striking him with a hammer three times. Girdler then placed Dziwulski's lifeless body under the mobile home and 24 hours later moved it to the woods, as reported by Local 12. The news station said that Moore first told officers that her boyfriend moved back to Maryland. She later told the truth, saying she was tired of Dziwulski's abuse. Moore first told officers that her boyfriend moved back to Maryland. She later told the truth and said she was tired of Dziwulski's abuse. She will now spend three decades behind bars for her role in Dziwulski's death According to Local 12, the man who owned the property Dziwulski rented from said the couple had lived there since August of 2018 and also noted that the sheriff's office had been called on more than one occasion for domestic violence incidents. Court documents also said officers had surveillance video from a local convenience store showing Girdler driving Dziwulski's SUV the night of the crime, according to Local 12. The vehicle was found the next day in Carroll County, Kentucky. An experienced snake catcher who relocated a record number of serpents this week has issued a chilling warning to Australians, urging them to be cautious during the animals' mating season. On Monday Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake catcher Tony Harrison broke a 30-year record with his team by relocating 19 snakes in a day, claiming the warmer temperatures in spring invite snakes to lounge in suburban backyards. 'If you see a snake, don't assume the species,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Friday. 'Plenty are out and about at the moment during mating season. The weather is also a key factor. 'I've been doing this line of work since 1994, and last Monday was incredible, it was just non-stop. Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake catcher Tony Harrison said the warmer temperatures in spring present dangerous times for many suburban residents Snake catcher Tony Harrison (pictured) said people should never assume a species - and to expect more reptiles to potentially enter homes over the next few months 'We had three staff - including my wife - working from 7am to 11pm... we didn't miss a beat from start to finish. 'Our previous record was 16 (snakes) in one day.' Mr Harrison also had some timely advice for those living in Australia's more remote regions: If you see a snake in your home, take a photo from a safe distance and send it to a professional handler. 'We will be able to tell you whether it is venomous or not,' he said. 'Don't ever attempt to catch them yourself because that's when you get bitten.' Mr Harrison said the most common snake he is called out to remove are non-venomous carpet pythons, but he sees 'plenty' of venomous brown snakes, who are renowned for their aggression. 'Generally speaking, snakes only get defensive if they feel threatened,' he said. 'Think logically, your safety is key.' Mr Harrison has also removed a number of venomous brown snakes (pictured) recently Former Boeing pilot Mark Forkner could face criminal charges in a matter of weeks Federal prosecutors are preparing to criminally charge a former Boeing pilot who is suspected of misleading regulators about safety issues during the approval process for the troubled 737 MAX, according to a new report. Mark Forkner, Boeing's 737 MAX chief technical pilot during the aircraft's development, could face charges in the next few weeks, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors have been probing whether Forkner intentionally lied to the Federal Aviation Administration about the nature of new flight control software on the jet, which suffered two deadly crashes within months, killing 346 people. Forkner's attorney David Gerger did not immediately respond to an inquiry from DailyMail.com early on Friday. Gerger has previously said that his client would never intentionally hide a safety issue. A Boeing 737 MAX airplane lands after a test flight at Boeing Field in a file photo. Forkner was Boeing's 737 MAX chief technical pilot during the aircraft's development 'Mark flew the MAX. His Air Force buddies flew the MAX. He would never put himself, his friends or any passenger in an unsafe plane,' Gerger told the Journal in 2019. It wasn't immediately clear what criminal charges might be brought against Forkner, but Boeing previously admitted in a settlement that two unnamed employees conspired to defraud the FAA about MAX training issues to benefit themselves and the company. Forkner had said he might have unintentionally misled regulators, in a series of internal messages from 2016 that became public in October. The messages appeared to have been the first publicly known observations that the crucial MCAS anti-stall system behaved erratically during testing before the aircraft entered service. Malfunctions with the MCAS system, complicated by inadequate training, were implicated in the fatal crashes of Lion Air 610 in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines 302 just months later. Wreckage is piled at the crash scene of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 near Bishoftu, Ethiopia The comments by Forkner in internal messages were among those pinpointed by U.S. lawmakers in hearings in Washington as evidence that Boeing knew about problems with flight control software. Forkner persuaded regulators to approve excluding details of the new MCAS flight-control system from the 737 MAX's pilot manuals, according to a U.S. House investigation. Boeing benefited from the exclusion, because it reduced the mandatory new training for pilots who had flown older models of the 737, making the upgraded jet more attractive to potential airline customers. The MCAS, which kicks in automatically in some flight conditions, is intended to push the nose of the plane down to compensate for a tendency of MAX planes to pitch up due to larger engines. Investigators believe that when it malfunctioned on the fatal flights, the pilots did not realize that the MCAS was pushing the noses of the planes down, and thus didn't take steps to disable it. Boeing 737 MAX jets are seen grounded last November. The 737 MAX aircraft were only cleared to return to the skies in late 2020 Prosecutors are also reportedly looking at another former Boeing pilot, Patrik Gustavsson, in their criminal probe. Forkner left Boeing in 2018 to work for Southwest Airlines, where he worked until last year. If he were to be charged, it would mark the first criminal charges against an individual in the two fatal crashes. Early this year, Boeing agreed to pay $2.5 billion in fines and settle a criminal charge over claims they defrauded regulators overseeing the 737 MAX. The settlement attempted to pin the blame on a handful of rogue employees, stating that the misconduct was 'neither pervasive across the organization, nor undertaken by a large number of employees, nor facilitated by senior management.' Then in May Boeing also agreed to pay a $17 million fine and improve its supply chain and production practices after installing unapproved equipment on hundreds of planes. Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft were only cleared to return to the skies in late 2020, and the firm has also suffered from the collapse of the travel industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has revealed what would happen if a person drank a Covid-19 vaccine instead of injecting it into the arm. Dr Karl, who is dubbed 'the people's scientist', revealed stomach acid would likely destroy a Covid vaccine ingested via the mouth. '[The vaccine] is optimised to work by a tiny amount of it being injected into the muscle and then various things happen there,' he explained during an interview on Triple M's The Danny Lakey Show. 'The vitamin is not that much, it's less than a mil, so I'm guessing on average, you could swallow it into your mouth, no worries, and it would go down into your esophagus, no worries. 'In the stomach, the extreme acidity may very well break it down and destroy it.' Dr Karl Kruszelnicki said stomach acid would likely destroy a Covid vaccine if swallowed Dr Karl, 73, said that while there are vaccines that are swallowed, including for polio, the health industry was moving towards vaccines administered via a spray. 'We're now moving to vaccines that work where the centre of all the action is, the lungs,' he said. Host Lakey asked whether the vaccine would taste like medicine. 'It's only a mil, half a mil, so it would depend on the individual vaccine because there's so many,' Dr Karl said. While a human being's stomach acid, enzymes and gut bacteria generally kill vaccine antigens, ingestible vaccines for diseases such as polio and rotavirus exist because both of those are gut pathogens. Instructions on Covid-19 vaccines stress they should be administered intramuscularly (above) and not swallowed It comes after the beloved science boffin took to TikTok to share an important message about the risk of dying from a Covid-19 vaccine compared to the disease itself. 'One in a million is the odds of dying from the AstraZeneca vaccine,' the expert said. The figure is taken from Therapeutic Goods Administration data, which shows there have only been nine deaths linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine from more than 9.6 million doses administered across Australia as of August 29. The vaccine has been linked to extremely rare blood clotting incidents but Dr Karl said the risk of dying in a road accident is still much higher at 40 deaths in a million. He said the chance of dying from Covid-19 once infected is 22,000 in a million, 550 times higher than the risk of being killed on Australia's roads. '22,000 to one. Those are really good odds,' Dr Karl said. 'That's why I got vaccinated as soon as possible - and so should you.' During Melbourne's Covid-19 second wave there were 18,628 cases and 800 deaths as the virus ripped through Victoria's unvaccinated population in late 2020, according to the state's Department of Health. Those figures equal a death rate of 42,000 in a million. Victor Aguirre and his wife, Claudia, named warehouse owner Steve Sungho Lee and the owners of Green Buddha and Smoke Tokes, the two smoke shops housed in Lee's East 3rd Street building where the explosion that injured 12 firefighters took place A Los Angeles fire captain is suing two vape shops and their landlord after an explosion left him with 'catastrophic injuries' and without fingers. Victor Aguirre was battling a blaze at an LA warehouse housing smoke shops Green Buddha and Smoke Tokes, at 327 East Boyd Street, on May 16, 2020 when the building exploded. Twelve firefighters were injured including Aguirre who lost all his fingers. The explosion was blamed on an excess of nitrous oxide and butane containers in the shops. On Wednesday, the firefighter and his wife, Claudia, named warehouse owner Steve Sungho Lee and the owners of Green Buddha and Smoke Tokes, in a negligence lawsuit. Aguirre accused the three parties of 'hazardous activity, premise liability and negligence,' according to the Los Angeles Times. Attorney Patrick Gunning wrote in the complaint Lee and business owners Raheel Lakhany and Shafaq Sattar are 'to blame for the horrific injuries Mr. Aguirre and the other 11 firefighters suffered.' Gunning alleges in the lawsuit that responding firefighters thought they were fighting a 'routine ventilation limited structure fire' - moments after they entered the building, however, they heard a 'popcorn-like noise that became a 'jet-like rumble.' The enormous explosion that ensued - caused by an excess of nitrous oxide and butane containers in the stores, the LAPD and the ATF determined in a later investigation - engulfed Aguirre and the other firefighters in flames. Video and still images taken by witnesses that day, according to the LA Times, capture the firefighters headed down the ladder of a fire truck while totally consumed by flames. Aguirre was allegedly the last firefighter out of the building. Video and still images taken by witnesses that day, according to the LA Times, capture the firefighters headed down the ladder of a fire truck while totally consumed by flames. Aguirre was allegedly the last firefighter out of the building After two months in the hospital, 20-year department veteran Aguirre had to have all of his fingers partially amputated - his body, according to the lawsuit, was covered in severe burns. Since the explosion, he said he has undergone 25 surgeries. Although he has returned to the department in an administrative capacity, the lawsuit alleges that he has been left with a 'lifetime of pain and suffering,' according to the Times. The explosion was caused by an excess of nitrous oxide and butane containers in the two stores, the Los Angeles Police Department and the ATF determined - the Los Angeles Fire Department had not inspected the building in a year. Aguirre accused the three parties of 'hazardous activity, premise liability and negligence,' according to the Los Angeles Times Attorney Patrick Gunning wrote in the complaint Lee and business owners Raheel Lakhany and Shafaq Sattar are 'to blame for the horrific injuries Mr. Aguirre and the other 11 firefighters suffered' The explosion was caused by an excess of nitrous oxide and butane containers in the two stores, the Los Angeles Police Department and the ATF determined - the Los Angeles Fire Department had not inspected the building in a year Fire chief Ralph Terrazas told the Times that a fire inspection likely would have resulted in the removal of some of the materials that sparked the explosion. The store and property owners have already been charged with over 300 criminal counts. In a plea agreement last November, the proprietors and building owner agreed to shut down their businesses and pay out more than $100,000 to the city. The parties also had to shell out $127,000 to the Los Angeles Fire Department for the cost of their investigation, the Times said. Criminal charges against Sattar and Lakhany were dropped per the plea deal; charges against Lee are pending. A federal judge denied the Department of Justice's request to temporarily block the enforcement of the controversial Texas abortion ban. In a one-page decision, United States District Judge Robert Pitman denied the DOJ's request to grant a temporary restraining order that would have blocked Texas from enforcing the newly passed law that bans all abortions in the state past six weeks while court proceedings unfolded, Newsweek reported. Pitman, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled that the October 1 hearing to consider blocking the abortion ban will not be rescheduled to a sooner date, which means the ban will remain in place for the next two weeks. Pitman ruled that the October 1 hearing to consider blocking the abortion ban will not be rescheduled to a sooner date, leaving the ban in place for two weeks 'This case presents complex, important questions of law that merit a full opportunity for the parties to present their positions to the Court,' Pitman wrote in his decision on Thursday. 'Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that the United States' Opposed Motion for Expedited Briefing Schedule... is DENIED.' Steve Vladeck, professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said that Pitman was 'going by the book' with his decision, Newsweek reported. 'The Court of Appeals already cut off his effort to hold a similar hearing in the challenge to SB 8 brought by Texas abortion providers,' Vladeck said on CNN. 'By not issuing a temporary restraining order here, he's effectively preventing Texas from asking the Court of Appeals to also block this hearing before it happens.' U.S District Judge Robert Pitman (right) denied the DOJ's request. Attorney General Merrick Garland (left) blasted the law at a press conference last week in the Justice Department's first legal action against the legislation Leen Garza (pictured) participates in a protest with others against the six-week abortion ban at the Capitol in Austin, Texas earlier this month Furious abortion rights groups have said many women at six weeks do not even know they are pregnant The DOJ argued in a filing, submitted in a district court in Austin on Tuesday, that the Texas law was enacted 'to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.' 'This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States,' the statement added. The DOJ said Tuesday that if the restraining order is granted, not only should the law not be enforced but also anyone who tries to enforce SB 8 must be informed they no longer have the authority the law offered them while the matter is being litigated. The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision earlier this month denied an emergency request to block the bill from taking effect while its most controversial provisions get litigated, but did not rule on the constitutionality of it. 'In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants' lawsuit. In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts,' the court said in the unsigned order. The Texas law outlaws abortion at the sign of a heartbeat, or around six weeks into a pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The law also deputizes private citizens to report women who get abortions and anyone who helps them to do so, even Uber drivers. Successful plaintiffs are entitled to $10,000 from defendants, though they cannot sue the woman who sought the abortion herself. Gov. Greg Abbott, a key advocate of the law who signed it in May, promised to 'eliminate all rape' since the legislation did not provide for an exception for victims of the crime. 'Let's make something very clear - rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.' The White House has already said the Justice Department and other agencies are looking for what actions they can take to counter the law. 'There are possibilities within the existing law to have the Justice Department look and see whether there are things that can be done that can limit the independent action of individuals in enforcing in a federal system a state law,' President Biden said. Furious abortion rights groups have said many women at six weeks do not even know they are pregnant. Attorney General Merrick Garland blasted the law at a press conference last week in the Justice Department's first legal action against the legislation. 'The statute deputizes all private citizens without any showing of personal connection or injury to serve as bounty hunters,' Garland added. The DOJ action marked the second major lawsuit the Biden administration has filed this year trying to block a move by a Republican-controlled state government. The Justice Department sued Georgia in June, challenging the state's sweeping new voting law. Two areas in regional NSW will be plunged into lockdown from 6pm on Friday for seven days after a positive Covid case was discovered. The Glen Innes and Hilltop local government areas will be placed under stay at home orders from Friday at 6pm, NSW Health announced. This follows a positive Covid case in Glen Innes LGA on Thursday after an essential worker returned to their home in Sydney. While they are now isolating at home, the residents was infectious in the community for three days. Two regional LGAs of Glen Innes (pictured) and Hilltop will be plunged into a 7-day lockdown following a positive case in Glen Innes that was infections in the community for three days NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and an independent panel of medical experts reviewed information relevant to the case in Glen Innes and determined a seven day lockdown be imposed in order to protect the community. Everyone in these LGAs must stay at home unless it is for essential reasons. These essential reasons include shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can't work or study at home. Everyone in Hilltop and Glen Innes (pictured) LGAs are under stay-at-home orders and are urged by officials to come forward to get tested and vaccinated Residents who are fully vaccinated may gather outdoors in groups of up to five for exercise or outdoor recreation as long as everyone above the age of 16 are fully vaccinated. Government officials are asking the community to come forward and get tested. A strong response to testing as well as high vaccination numbers will determine whether the lockdown is extended beyond a week. NEW REGIONAL NSW EXPOSURE SITES Kent Engineering and Mechanical, Glen Innes, on Tuesday, 14 September, from 9am to 9.10am National Australia Bank, Glen Innes, on Tuesday, 14 September, from 10.25am to 10.35am Pathology New England, Collection Centre, Glen Innes, on Tuesday, 14 September, from 9.45am to 10.15am Advertisement NSW MP for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall (pictured) posted updates to his Facebook, saying he wanted to give residents as much notice as possible about the lockdown NSW Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall posted an announcement about the lockdown to Facebook on Friday afternoon, saying he wanted to give residents 'as much notice as possible' about the impending lockdown. 'I am very sorry and realise this was not the news many of you were wanting to hear, especially small business owners, and I fully appreciate the stress and strain this will place on you,' he wrote. There have been three confirmed exposure sites in Glen Innes. Anyone who attended the venues must get tested immediately and isolate until a negative test result is received. This follows 1,284 new local cases of Covid-19 and 12 deaths recorded in NSW on Friday. There are currently 1,245 cases of Covid in hospital, 228 people in intensive care, and 112 people require a ventilator. Currently, 80.7 per cent of over-16s have received a first dose of the vaccine and 49.6 per cent are fully vaccinated. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also announced on Friday returning travellers from overseas may soon be able to quarantine at home instead of in the hotel system. The trial will allow 175 fully vaccinated people accredited by the Therapeutic Goods Administration over four weeks to quarantine at home for 7 days instead of 14. Participants in the test are selected before they arrive in Australia and will be transported directly from the airport to their homes by health authorities who will closely monitor their movements. NSW Police will also conduct one random physical compliance check each night with participants subject to random local check-ins using live facial verification three times a day. The system is likely to be expanded by the government if it is successful to the broader public once 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated. Prime Minister Scott Morrison anticipates the state and federal government run program will allow more Australians to come home and boost the supply of workers from overseas. Jamie Kah (pictured) has learned her fate after she kept back vital details about star rider Mark Zahra being at her lockdown party Jamie Kah will not be able to ride until the end of January after having another two months added to her suspension for misleading an inquiry into a wild party attended by other jockeys. Kah, 25, who is the leading jockey in Victoria and one of the most prominent in Australia, was suspended along with four other leading riders for attending the party at a luxurious AirBnB on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula on August 25. Mark Zahra, Ben Melham and Ethan Brown stayed at the property with Kah and apprentice jockey Celine Gaudray. All five pleaded guilty to 'failure or refusal to comply with an order, direction, or requirement of the stewards or an official'. Stewards last week suspended their racing licences for three months, meaning none of them can ride in the 2021 Spring Racing carnival. Zahra, Melham and Brown have each lodged appeals against the riding bans and fines imposed, while Kah has apologised for her behaviour and so far has not joined the appeal bid. Kah, 25, was suspended along with four other leading riders for attending the party at a luxurious AirBnB (pictured) 'I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed with myself,' she said on Friday in a statement on Twitter. However, despite being contrite about attending the party, Kah was on Friday suspended for another two months by the Victorian Racing Tribunal for not naming Zahra as an attendee of the party. The suspension will cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars - if not over $1million - in lost earnings. While accepting Zahra was only there briefly, and not when police attended, she was reprimanded for not saying he was there. 'You did not give his name until directly confronted by stewards (August 30)' Judge John Bowman said it handing down the decision,' racenet reported. 'Your evidence was that, while you knew he had been at the premises, you thought the stewards were inquiring about who had been present at a later time. 'We made it clear this is an excuse which we simply do not accept.' Police have arrested a murder suspect after a body was discovered in London three weeks after a man disappeared from his home in Reading. The missing person, who has not been named, went missing on August 24 but the investigation switched to Erith, London, after a body was found yesterday. Detectives from the Thames Valley Police Major Crime Team have not named the missing person or given any further details about the case. The dead man's next of kin have been informed, a spokesman said. They added: 'Thames Valley Police's Major Crime Unit has launched a murder investigation as a result of an ongoing missing person investigation. 'Yesterday (Wed) the body of a person was discovered in Erith, London. 'A missing person investigation had been launched by Thames Valley Police on August 24 following a report that a person had gone missing from the Reading area. The person's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specially-trained officers. 'Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, we are currently not in a position to offer any more information as to the person's identity.' Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Blaik, of the Major Crime Unit, said there is currently a scene watch in place in Hadrian Walk in Reading. The missing person, who has not been named, went missing on August 24 but the investigation switched to Erith, London, after a body was found yesterday. Pictured, police said there was a police watch at Hadrian Walk in Reading He added: 'We have launched a murder investigation following the discovery of the body of a person in London. 'The investigation is in its early stages and we are conducting thorough inquiries in order to establish what has happened. 'There is a scene watch currently in place in Hadrian Walk in Reading and so you may see an increased police presence in the local area whilst our inquiries continue. 'If anyone has any concerns or has information we would advise them to speak to one of our uniformed officers.' A Sydney Islamic State member whose online martyrdom posts included Canberra's Parliament House flying a black flag, says he was naive and brainwashed. 'I have completely renounced my membership of IS and any other terrorist organisation,' Youssef Uweinat told the NSW Supreme Court on Friday. 'I feel everything I said was false and wrong.' The 23-year-old has pleaded guilty to being a member of IS knowing it was a terrorist organisation, between June and December 2019. He also admitted advocating the doing of a terrorist act, being reckless as to whether another person will engage in a terrorist act, between July and December 2019. Youssef Uweinat told the NSW Supreme Court on Friday he was 'naive' and 'brainwashed' when he became a member of the terrorist organisation Sydney Islamic State in 2019 In December of 2019, Uweinat was charged with preparing possible terrorist acts, advocating terrorism and being a member of a terrorist organisation He had posted increasingly more serious extremist material online and sought to convince others, including underage teenagers, to pledge allegiance to IS. Uweinat, who was arrested at his Riverwood home in December 2019, testified at his sentence hearing, saying he had been young and naive. He pledged allegiance to IS informally and non-verbally, by copying and pasting a statement he saw online. He saw himself as a member, but now understood why it was illegal due to followers being ordered to carry out terrorist attacks, 'to commit mass murder and they influence other members to turn against governments'. He was prompted to renounce IS after doing his own research about the true meaning of Islam and reading the Koran, now realising IS only used sections to justify their actions. 'I would say I was brainwashed by IS propaganda,' he said. He was 'deeply embarrassed' by his actions and wanted to put it all behind him, hoping to help young Australians to turn away from extremism on his release. Under cross-examination, he agreed he told a psychologist he had not been prepared to die for his religion. Referred to posts where he had mastered images of himself with flags and other IS symbols, he agreed they referenced dying for Allah and martyrdom as something desirable. But while he then believed that, he said he had not been prepared to die and meant others should. Despite the image of the black flag at Parliament House and a martyrdom reference, he said 'I never supported a terrorist attack in Australia'. At the time of his arrest in December of 2019, Mr Uweinat (pictured) also allegedly downloaded a document on how to use knives and other blunt instruments in a terrorist attack His parents gave evidence, telling the judge of their shock over his actions, with his mother saying 'it is not the way we brought him up'. But they accepted he had learnt his lesson and would support him on his release. A prison chaplain, who said he has dealt with most of NSW's terror-related offenders, said Uweinat was no longer a religious extremist and posed no risk to society. Justice Geoffrey Bellew will sentence him on October 8. Head of British military intelligence Lieutenant General Sir Jim Hockenhull has revealed there will be a shift in deployments to Asia The head of British military intelligence today revealed they are actively recruiting more spies for rapid deployment to Asia as the UK and the US' new nuclear submarine deal with Australia caused more waves with China. Lieutenant General Sir Jim Hockenhull has said there will be a more 'imaginative' approach to increase the number of officers the country has operating in the Far East. He revealed that he is turning a Japanese-speaking member of the Army into an intelligence officer to increase numbers because it is easier than teaching an existing spy a complicated Asian language. He said: 'We are deploying defence intelligence personnel and we have started into a range of locations around Europe and we are currently recruiting for those that will go further east. 'I am in the process of recruiting a fluent Japanese-speaking member of the military who I will then turn into an intelligence officer because I think that is a shorter way of working than it is to take a serving intelligence officer and try and get them to be a fluent Japanese speaker. 'We are trying to be imaginative in the way we do this and I hope that individual will be available to deploy if not later this year then certainly next.' It came as diplomatic experts raised fears that Boris Johnson's nuclear submarine deal with the US and Australia means Britain could be dragged into war if China invades Taiwan. He was asked yesterday what the new naval alliance - dubbed Aukus - would do if Beijing marched on Taipei. The sabre-rattling PM refused to rule anything out, saying it was the UK's job to 'defend international law'. Meanwhile his national security adviser hailed the cooperation between the nations as creating 'indissoluble bonds'. Boris Johnson was asked yesterday what the new naval alliance - dubbed Aukus - would do if Beijing marched on Taipei The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in the ground-breaking agreement. Pictured: China;s submarine in the Yellow Sea in 2019 Former Prime Minister Theresa May asked her successor what would happen if China invaded Taiwan. Mr Johnson refused to rule anything out His national security adviser hailed the cooperation between the nations as creating 'indissoluble bonds'. Sir Stephen Lovegrove (pictured) said the move marked a 'profound, strategic shift' and welcomed Australia becoming the seventh nuclear power State-backed Chinese paper says subs deal could 'make Australia a NUCLEAR target' Chinese state media has warned Australia will become a 'potential target for a nuclear strike' after it acquires nuclear-powered submarines in a deal with the US and UK. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the 'AUKUS' alliance 'seriously damages regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race, and undermines the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons'. And China's Global Times news website - a mouthpiece for the communist government - went one step further, saying the move could result in a nuclear strike on Australia. The article cited an anonymous 'senior Chinese military expert' who said Australia would pose a nuclear threat to other countries because the new subs could be fitted with nuclear weapons provided by the US or UK. 'This would make Australia a potential target for a nuclear strike, because nuclear-armed states like China and Russia are directly facing the threat from Australia's nuclear submarines which serve US strategic demands,' the expert said. 'Beijing and Moscow won't treat Canberra as ''an innocent non-nuclear power,'' but 'a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons anytime,' the expert added. Beefing up Australia's military 'could bring destructive consequences' in the event of a nuclear war and said any insistence that Australia does not want nuclear missiles is 'meaningless'. Advertisement Sir Stephen Lovegrove said the move marked a 'profound, strategic shift' and welcomed Australia becoming the seventh nuclear power. The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in the ground-breaking agreement. Mr Johnson met with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June where they discussed the subs. The move has provoked some countries, including China for strategic reasons, the EU for blindsiding it and France as it rips up a 30billion deal they had with Australia. Former Prime Minister Theresa May asked her successor what would happen if China invaded Taiwan. She said: 'What are the implications of this pact for the stance that would be taken by the United Kingdom in its response should China attempt to invade Taiwan?' Mr Johnson refused to rule anything out in his response to her in the House of Commons yesterday. He said: 'The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law and that is the strong advice we would give to our friends across the world, and the strong advice that we would give to the government in Beijing.' He said Britain's new defence pact will 'preserve security around the world' and ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region. He said it would help generate 'hundreds of high-skilled jobs' in Scotland and parts of the North of England and the Midlands. Meanwhile his National Security Advisor Sir Stephen hailed the move in his first public speech in the role at the Council on Geostrategy. He said: 'There is a commitment by the three nations to deliver a plan that will enable the Royal Australian Navy to field nuclear powered - not nuclear armed - submarines in the coming years. 'It is perhaps the most significant capability collaboration anywhere in the world in the past six decades. 'This has been a project in gestation for some months - right through the Afghanistan drawdown - and is a powerful illustration of how we are building new long term partnerships rooted in Britain's values, its scientific and engineering excellence, and in our alliances. Why is Australia getting the subs? Why nuclear submarines? Nuclear submarines are powered by nuclear reactors which produce heat that creates high-pressured steam to spin turbines and power the boat's propeller. They can run for about 20 years before needing to refuel, meaning food supplies are the only limit on time at sea. The boats are also very quiet, making it harder for enemies to detect them and can travel at top speed - about 40kmh - for longer than diesel-powered subs. The first nuclear submarines were put to sea by the United States in the 1950s. They are now also in use by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India. A senior US defence official told reporters in Washington DC: 'This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to basically deploy for a longer period, they're quieter, they're much more capable. 'They will allow us to sustain and to improve deterrence across the Indo-Pacific.' Zack Cooper, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said nuclear submarines would hugely boost Australia's military capability. They are going to be much, much more capable in the large, expansive ocean that is Australia has to deal with,' he told the ABC. Will Australia have nuclear weapons? Scott Morrison made it clear that the nuclear-power submarines will not have nuclear missiles on board. Australia has never produced nuclear weapons and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1973 which prevents non-nuclear states which don't already have them from developing nuclear weapons. Mr Morrison also said the Australia has no plans to build nuclear power stations which are widely used around the world. 'But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,' he said. 'And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.' Advertisement 'There are only six nations capable of fielding nuclear powered submarines - ourselves, the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, and India. 'Australia will become the seventh, representing a significant commitment to peace and stability in the region, mirroring our own defence settlement, which saw a 10 per cent uplift in spending agreed last year. 'These are profound, strategic shifts, and collaboration on nuclear projects creates indissoluble bonds around which new matrices of collaboration can be built.' He said Britain's special relationship with the US - which has been on rocky ground since the Afghan crisis - needed to 'accelerate'. Sir Stephen added: 'We need to accelerate this vital partnership further including in critical areas such as strategic planning, future force design, technological and industrial cooperation and a systematic approach to reducing or removing barriers to sharing information, data and technology where it is in our mutual advantage to do so.' The new alliance was fiercely opposed by China, which described it as 'extremely irresponsible' and 'narrow-minded'. State media said it was 'Cold War thinking', and warned that Australian soldiers will be the 'first to die' in a Chinese 'counterattack'. But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Chinese were wrong to see the agreement as an attempt to engage in a new Cold War. France was furious after Australia said it would scrap a 30billion deal for diesel-electric subs for the stealthier craft to be built using UK and US components. In Paris, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was 'really angry' at the contract breach. He added: 'It was a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this was betrayed.' But Mr Johnson insisted yesterday the UK's military relationship with France was 'rock solid'. Mr Wallace said he recognised French frustration but insisted the UK 'didn't go fishing' for the contract and had instead been approached by Australia. Amid the anger from China, Mr Johnson told MPs the AUKUS pact was 'not intended to be adversarial' towards any nation. He said: 'It merely reflects the close relationship that we have with the United States and with Australia, the shared values that we have and the sheer level of trust between us that enables us to go to this extraordinary extent of sharing nuclear technology in the way that we are proposing to do.' Scott Morrison meeting with Boris Johnson and Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall back in June, where the trio put pen to paper on a new military alliance that will give Australia its first nuclear-powered submarines The pact does not make the design of Australia's new submarines clear, but they will be based on previous US and UK designs. Pictured above is a cross-section of Britain's Astute-class nuclear attack subs, which is likely to mirror the new vessels China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory, to the objection of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific Britain and America are to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines as part of an unprecedented alliance known as AUKUS to combat China (pictured, a British Astute-class nuclear sub which is likely to mirror the Australian design) China has transformed several uninhabited islands in the South China Sea into military bases and has begun warning ships away from them, including threatening rival naval vessels Brussels was blindsided by the announcement, with the European Commission saying it was urgently seeking more information. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the AUKUS allies needed to abandon their 'outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality' otherwise they would 'only end up shooting themselves in the foot'. New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said the submarines will be banned from her country's waters as it has a long-standing nuclear-free policy. Miss Ardern said she was not approached about the pact, 'nor would I expect us to be'. Furious EU complains that it was 'not consulted' on AUKUS submarine deal while France blasts Australia for stabbing it in the back Josep Borrell said union was only made aware of new alliance through the media And French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Australians of a betrayal Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for agreement Pact with US will provide at least eight nuclear-powered submarines to Australia The EU has complained that it was 'not consulted' on the AUKUS submarine deal while France has lashed out at Australia for 'stabbing it in the back'. Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said the union was only made aware of the new alliance through the media. And French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has accused the Australians of a betrayal because the alliance meant they scrapped a multi-billion deal for France to provide subs. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for the pact to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia with the US after France called it a 'stab in the back'. The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in a ground-breaking agreement dubbed AUKUS. But this meant that Canberra ripped up a deal worth around 30billion that was struck with Paris in 2016 for France to provide 12 diesel-electric submarines. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (pictured on September 7) insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for the pact to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia with the US A diplomatic row broke out, with Mr Le Drian telling France-Info radio: 'It was really a stab in the back. 'We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed.' Meanwhile Mr Borrell, ex-President of the European Parliament, said: 'This alliance we have only just been made aware and we weren't even consulted. 'As high representative for security, I was not aware and I assume that an agreement of such a nature wasn't just brought together over night. I think it would have been worked on for quite a while.' He added: 'We regret not having been informed not having been part of these talks. We weren't included, we weren't part and parcel of this.' Mr Wallace said he recognises the 'frustration' from France after speaking to his French counterpart Florence Parly on Wednesday night. He told BBC Breakfast: 'I understand France's disappointment. 'They had a contract with the Australians for diesel-electrics from 2016 and the Australians have taken this decision that they want to make a change. 'We didn't go fishing for that, but as a close ally when the Australians approached us of course we would consider it. 'I understand France's frustration about it.' French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, above, has accused the Australians of a betrayal because the alliance meant they scrapped a multi-billion deal for France to provide subs Boris Johnson told MPs today that the UK's military relationship with France is 'rock solid' and insisted 'we stand shoulder to shoulder with the French' despite the row. The Prime Minister met with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June. Downing Street confirmed that the three leaders discussed the subs at the meeting. The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'I wouldn't say there was one single meeting that did it, this has been something that has been an undertaking of several months, it's a culmination of that work.' Mr Morrison told a press conference it was undecided if Australia would purchase British-built BAE Systems Astute class submarines or the Virginia class vessels constructed in the US. But Mr Johnson said during a Commons statement on Aukus he expects the deal will bring 'hundreds of high-skilled, high-wage jobs' to the UK. Mr Johnson, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison (centre) and US President Joe Biden attend a joint press conference to announce the AUKUS partnership last night Australia is now set to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines to present a counter-balance to Beijing's growing navy, and will also be sharing other advanced military technologies with Washington and London The row with France comes at a time when relations are already strained over the situation with migrant crossings in the Channel. The French warned against the UK using 'blackmail' tactics after suggestions from Home Secretary Priti Patel that she could withhold millions of pounds of cash unless there was an improvement in the number of migrants intercepted by the authorities across the Channel. The Prime Minister's official spokesman sought to smooth relations by stressing that 'we very highly value our relationship with France both in terms of defence and security and more broadly'. He insisted talks with France would continue over efforts to prevent migrants risking crossings of the Channel, despite the row over the defence deal. Australia 'as a close ally and friend of this country' had asked for help on the defence scheme and 'it was something we were pleased to be able to assist with, not in the least because it benefits the people of the UK'. 'With regards to the ongoing issues in the Channel, we want to work with our French counterparts, the Home Secretary has had a number of discussions with her counterpart, and we will continue to do so.' An Australian woman has shared a poignant photo of a packed flight in Europe to show those currently in lockdown what 'living with Covid' will eventually look like Down Under when restrictions ease. Sally, 26, who hails from Sydney, was onboard a flight from Helsinki, Finland, to Prague in the Czech Republic on Thursday when she shot the image that 'brought tears to her eyes'. 'Sounds kind of silly but this packed flight from one European country to another is my first glance at normality in a post-Covid world,' Sally wrote on Facebook. Sally, 26, was on board a flight from Helsinki, Finland, to Prague in the Czech Republic on Thursday when she captured the image that made her emotional She said that everyone on the flight was vaccinated or had tested negative for Covid-19 before walking onboard. While masks were still compulsory there are no harsh Covid lockdowns in much of Europe - unlike Australia's eastern states which are still under intense stay-at-home orders until October. 'Yes masks but no endless lockdowns, no mandatory, expensive 14 day hotel quarantines, no exit ban on citizens, no groveling to the government for permission for the privilege of seeing a dying loved one or partner,' she said. 'There is no risk of being forced into isolation when vaccinated, no being locked out of your own country, no 5km or 10km radius crap, no constant hurdles preventing basic freedoms Australians have not had for 18 months and counting. 'This is living with Covid.' The 26-year-old woman decided to leave Australia in May 2021 to see her partner in Hong Kong, who she had been separated from for 14 months The 26-year-old told Daily Mail Australia she decided to leave Australia in May 2021 to see her partner in Hong Kong, who she had been separated from for 14 months. She stayed there for three months without a visa before starting to search for flights in August to return home but there weren't any available. Caps on international arrivals made it near impossible for her to jet back home so she she extended her visa in Hong Kong by 45 days, hoping that a flight back to Australia would appear. But NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's move in September to halve the number of overseas arrivals to NSW, allowing only 750 people to land in Sydney per week, meant that Sally was locked out of the country. She didn't want to apply for another visa extension in Hong Kong and decided to fly to Europe instead. 'I had no choice but to "flee" to Europe,' she said. She arrived earlier this week and is monitoring the Covid restrictions in Australia for the next three months while she travels around the continent. Sally tried to find flights back to Australia in August, but the caps on international arrivals meant she was locked out of the country even longer than she anticipated Many Facebook users who saw Sally's heartwarming post were disappointed Australia wasn't able to enjoy the same freedoms. One person wrote: 'Twelve months ago Australia was a leader in tackling the virus but now it's a laughing stock'. Another said: 'I had to come back for my young children, but if you don't have to, stay away.' A third wrote: 'I suppose it makes it easier for Aussies to put up with the very tough situation they are in with the impossible Aussie zero-Covid policy if they pretend the rest of the world is in a worst condition'. The NSW cap on international arrivals is expected to be in place until the state reaches its 70 per cent vaccination targets in October. Australian airlines have also indicated that Australia could see international flights recommence before Christmas this year. People in west and southwest Sydney have been traumatised and made to feel like criminals in their own homes, an inquiry into the state government's handling of the pandemic has heard. The majority of the 12 local councils under the harshest lockdown restrictions are in the city's west and southwest, which are hubs of multiculturalism and home to many people from non-English speaking backgrounds. A group of community leaders on Friday told the parliamentary inquiry people in the region feel 'totally alienated from the rest of Sydney'. Many feel targeted because of their ethnicity. People in west and southwest Sydney have been traumatised and made to feel like criminals in their own homes, an inquiry into the state government's handling of the pandemic has heard Bankstown locals line up for Covid vaccines in a blitz last month to combat huge case spikes in the area. As a result, it now has one of the highest vaccination rates While people in the city's east have been pictured sunbaking at Bondi, some in its west have been arrested for watching a relative's funeral at a distance from inside their car, the inquiry heard. 'We have been made to feel like criminals in our own homes,' Arab Council of Australia chief executive Randa Kattan said. 'That's what happens when you find yourself flanked by police as you leave the 7-Eleven store. 'That's how it feels when you wake to hear choppers hovering overhead.' The disparity in lockdown approaches is embodied by the curfew placed on the hotspot areas, the group said. Premier Gladys Berejiklian had previously ruled out curfews, saying the measure did not work in the fight against Covid-19. But in late August introduced one after media pressure, claiming the advice from health and police had changed. The councils under hard lockdown are hubs of multiculturalism and home to many people from non-English speaking backgrounds While people in the city's east have been pictured sunbaking at Bondi, some in its west have been arrested for watching a relative's funeral at a distance from inside their car, inquiry heard The curfew was this week lifted following a furious backlash, but community leaders say the damage has been done. Amar Singh, President of Turbans 4 Australia, told the inquiry seeing military and police patrol the streets had been extremely triggering. 'Curfews is what we've heard of as migrant Australians from our mothers and grandmothers,' he said. 'Bringing in those things mentally made a very big dent, a scar, on the average person living in southwest and west Sydney.' Ms Kattan said the curfew broke a community 'already on their knees' with the heavy lockdown. 'It is absolutely sadistic to roll it out when you have no evidence that it would work,' she said. 'It was just another message that you don't matter.' Local leaders said the curfew broke a community 'already on their knees' with the heavy lockdown The disparity in lockdown approaches is embodied by the curfew placed on the hotspot areas, the group of local leaders said The measure also added unnecessary financial and job-related stress, Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey said, with the vast majority of people in the area not working nine-to-five jobs. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke, who leads the southwest metropolitan area command, denied the area was being singled out. 'The numbers of fines across the three metropolitan regions are very, very similar,' he said. 'In fact, more have been issued in the central metropolitan region than have been in southwestern Sydney.' Officers who responded to the highlighted funeral in Rookwood on Wednesday were just doing their job enforcing public health orders, he said, and most attendees in their cars agreed to move on and were not fined. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke, who leads the southwest metropolitan area command, denied the area was being singled out But with vaccination rates ramping up and an end to lockdown in sight, community leaders fear recovery from the outbreak will also be a tale of two cities Clear and consistent restrictions and messaging for everyone in Sydney is all those in the city's west want, the inquiry was told. 'What is good enough for Merrylands is also good for Mosman,' Ms Kattan said. It would also help increase compliance, Lebanese Muslim Association director Rabih Elkassir said. 'Harmony and compliance have a shared correlation,' he said. But with vaccination rates ramping up and an end to lockdown in sight, community leaders fear recovery from the outbreak will also be a tale of two cities. 'The road out must be a broad highway that can carry all of us, not just the lucky few,' Ms Kattan said. The owner of eco-resort in Wales that banned all visitors who have had Covid jabs has revealed it is now fully booked for weeks. Blaeneinion eco-retreat in Machynlleth, Powys announced it will only welcome unvaccinated guests back in July. Owner Sharon Girardi branded the vaccine 'experimental' and said that a 'duty of care' to her family and guests is the reason for the ban. Now, a notice on the resort's website states that it is fully booked until the end of September after it received 'an unexpected and overwhelming outpouring of love and support from many like-minded souls'. Sharon Girardi, 44, claims people who have been vaccinated are 'triggering' miscarriages, swollen testicles and nosebleeds in anyone who has not been jabbed Now, a notice on the resort's website states that it is fully booked until the end of September after it received 'an unexpected and overwhelming outpouring of love and support from many like-minded souls' Blaeneinion is described as an 'idyllic and secluded conservation project set in 75 acres of land at the head of the Artists Valley'. The resort aims to 'create an inspiring conservation, recreation and educational resource that can be enjoyed by future generations'. But in a public notice, the owner said: 'With great sadness we have made the decision that we will be unable to welcome folk on site that are 'vaccinated' with the experimental CV19 jab.' She added: 'We have honoured all previous bookings regardless of visitors' beliefs on vaccination. 'There are many people with the same views that I are cautious about the experimental nature of the injections. They are grateful to have somewhere to go.' Ms Girardi continued: 'I would like to point people to the MHRA website to see the side effects of the vaccine.' Clinical trials have shown the Covid-19 vaccine to be safe and effective, providing immunity against the virus. However, Ms Girardi said: 'I have a duty of care to my family, to our staff and to anyone staying on site.' She also claimed people who have been vaccinated are 'triggering' miscarriages, swollen testicles and nosebleeds in anyone who has not been jabbed. Blaeneinion is described as an 'idyllic and secluded conservation project set in 75 acres of land at the head of the Artists Valley' She has previously been backed by the Forestry Commission to plant 34,000 native saplings at her Blaeneinion estate. Furious locals now claim Ms Girardi is 'discriminating' against the millions of people in the UK who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Up to 30 people can stay at cottages and wood cabins on Ms Girardi's 'idyllic and secluded' 75-acre estate. But Mrs Girardi is prepared to close her eco-tourism business rather than welcome anyone who has been vaccinated. In a Facebook post to her 1,300 followers Mrs Girardi claims people's pets have died because their owners have been given a Covid 19 vaccine. The businesswoman, who funds her environmental projects by growing organic vegetables, said her father-in-law died after being one of the first people in the UK to be vaccinated. Locals who have supported Mrs Girardi's conservation work have backed off over her anti-vax rant. One neighbour said: 'She's done some good things but banning holidaymakers is madness. 'She is discriminating against people who have done the right thing by having the vaccine to stop the spread of Coronavirus.' Western Australian firefighters have issued a stern warning to Australians after an image encouraging residents to get vaccinated generated too much heat. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA uploaded a photo to its Facebook page which showed a buff firefighter encouraging residents to get the Covid-19 jab . 'Starting the shift right. Always doing what we can to keep you safe,' the DFES wrote as part of the 'Roll up 4 WA' vaccination campaign on Friday. Alongside the caption was an image of a firefighter with the slogan: 'Flat White with an extra shot', which shows the firefighter brandishing his vaccinated bicep while holding his morning coffee. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA have had an unexpected response to its post promoting vaccination (pictured) The well-meaning public health message caught the attention of thousands online but for all the wrong reasons. 'Have him at the injection site - I would have a third dose for good measure haha,' wrote one woman. 'Can he jab me??' Wrote another. 'I don't like to objectify men, but you make it so tough to bite my tongue,' added a third. But the DFES were soon forced to douse the flames after some users got a bit too fired up in the comments section, leaving it no choice but to issue a stern warning. 'Hello guys, just a gentle reminder that this is a person, not an object and we're not impressed with having to respond to blatant sexualised comments on this individual just doing their job, which is protecting you,' the DFES wrote. 'Regardless of gender or your opinion on their looks, keep your commentary respectful'. Western Australia has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country with 59.1% of residents having received only one dose and 40.5% double jabbed (pictured, resident line-up at a Perth mass vaccination hub) The post appears to be part of the 'Roll up 4 WA' campaign that encourages residents to 'roll up our sleeves and get vaccinated for Covid-19'. As of Friday the state holds one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country with 59.1% of residents having received only one dose and 40.5% double jabbed. Premier Mark McGowan announced on Monday that WA has expanded its eligibility criteria for Covid vaccinations allowing children aged 12 to 15 to receive a Pfizer shot. He's now pleading with parents to sign their kids up for the jab, as the state continues to linger behind the national average when it comes to vaccination rates. The Labor leader has also doubled down on threats to keep the WA borders closed to the rest of the country once NSW and Victoria hit 70 per cent vaccination. He has since declared the domestic border may remain shut until April 2022, meaning Western Australians could remain isolated for another seven months. A vile and infamous child molester has been jailed after filming himself sexually assaulting children as young as ten - but he could be released in just three years. Geoffrey William Moyle, 47, from Adelaide pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the children - aged between 10 and 12 - while he worked as a foreign aid worker in Cambodia between 2002 and 2005. A 20-year manhunt had been ongoing to find Moyle, otherwise known as 'Waka', who was one of the first to film child abuse and upload it online for others to see. To fellow peadophiles, he was praised as the man who 'wrote the Bible on child abuse' and had played a huge role in creating the online exploitation trade, The Advertiser reported. The 47-year-old was jailed on Friday for eight years and nine months. Geoffrey William Moyle, 47, is pictured wearing the same watch as in his sick videos, a detail which helped authorities to finally identify him He was also given a nine month sentence for possessing child exploitation material in Australia. Moyle was given a non-parole period of four years and six months but Judge Paul Cuthbertson took into account the two years he'd already served in custody - meaning he could be released on parole in 2024. The videos he shared had all been filmed by himself and were compiled into 'collections' to be viewed by others online. It's understood the girls he abused had been child sex slaves held in Cambodian brothels. He was first investigated in 2019 by the AFP after he posted an interest for young Asian girls on a known child abuse website. Detectives found USB containing child exploitation material but further investigations revealed a man by the same name was wanted by both Cambodian police and the US Homeland Security. Homeland Security Investigation authorities had managed to arrest 72 members of an online pedophile bulletin board and while Moyle escaped undetected he left behind an IP address. He never showed his face or spoke in his sickening homemade videos but was eventually caught when authorities were able to match a watch, shoes and a growth on his thigh to that of Moyle's. SA Police detectives had to scour through the horrific footage to try and identify his victims while child exploitation taskforce JACET narrowed in on finding the man responsible. When his parents' house was raided, detectives found photos of Moyle wearing the same pair of shoes and wristwatch they'd seen in the disturbing videos. Moyle also made his victims hold the remote control for his camera while he abused them with detectives seeing this same remote in his hand in another photograph. Only three of six victims were identified and one was found. To fellow peadophiles, Moyle was praised as the man who 'wrote the Bible on child abuse' and had played a huge role in creating the online exploitation trade Earlier this year, one of his victims demanded compensation of $84,000, which Moyle agreed to pay. Judge Cuthbertson said Moyle was involved in the 'most vile sexual activity' against children. 'You knew that by placing their images on the worldwide web, you would be perpetuating their shame and jeopardising their futures,' he said. 'You did this for your own gratification and with no consideration for the welfare of the children you abused.' The judge also said Moyle had shown remorse, was at a low risk of reoffending and was a 'loving father, son and husband', the ABC reported. AFP Detective Superintendent Gail McLure spoke outside court following the sentencing and said the victims Moyle abused were forever impacted. 'The girls who were abused by this offender are now young women, however their lives have been impacted, their childhood has been stolen,' she said. 'I'd like to issue a warning to any individual who would seek to prey upon vulnerable children.' 'The AFP and its partners will come for you, no matter when the abuse occurred and no matter where you are in the world there's nowhere for you to hide.' An unvaccinated Alabama councilmember who opposed mask mandates and called vaccines a personal choice is battling COVID-19-related pneumonia. Decatur Councilman Hunter Pepper, 19, was hospitalized September 16 after suffering complications from the virus. The politician, who vowed to 'fight to the end' against mandatory face coverings, said yesterday that it feels terrible not to be able to breath. Pepper shared his diagnosis on Facebook, where he said he was being treated at Decatur Morgan Hospital for difficulty breathing. Well, it has finally happened to me, he said. Everything in me wants to tell myself it is something different but every way I look its Covid this, Covid that and it has terrified me and my family. The media continues to report on Covid-19 and explains Death each time they do. That is honestly terrifying to me but I have faith in the lord. Maybe this will clear up soon and the symptoms of this sickness shall not progress as I can tell you, it feels terrible not to be able to breathe. Councilman Hunter Pepper, who has COVID-19, says 'it feels terrible not to be able to breath' Pepper was elected to city council last year and made quick business of condemning mask mandates. I believe the seatbelt thing should be your choice, Pepper said during an April 9 council vote to repeal the regions face covering requirement. It comes back to masks, I believe wearing a mask should be my choice. The 19-year-old who opposed mandatory mask mandates says he now has COVID pneumonia Pepper, the youngest person elected to the local city council, also opposes mandatory vaccines. He said in an earlier Facebook post that inoculations should be optional. I will say if you choose to get vaccinated, that is your choice, he said in a July 24 post. I will NEVER blame an individual for something that we cant stop. .I will NEVER push something on you or tell you your (sic) not a great member of society (sort of live Governor Ivey did yesterday) because I do not agree with it. Pepper likened mandatory masks to seatbelt laws, saying he thinks both should be optional In Alabama, where 41 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, 72 people have died from the virus in the past day. John Hopkins University data indicates 12,856 Alabamians succumbed to the virus since the start of the pandemic. A recent surge in cases has strained hospitals and left a shortage of available intensive care unit (ICU) beds. Ray DeMonia, 73, of Cullman, Alabama Alabamas ICU beds were at 101 percent capacity last week, according to Johns Hopkins' most recent data, with COVID-19 patients accounting for half of the available beds. Earlier this month, an Alabama man died of heart failure after being turned away from 43 hospitals across three southern states that were overrun with COVID patients. Ray DeMonia, 73, was eventually admitted to a hospital in Meridian, Mississippi, 200 miles away from his home in Cullman, Alabama, but was too sick to save, and died September 1. Councilmember Pepper said he was optimistic he'd be back to work by Monday. 'If I am well enough, I will be attending the meeting via the phone as in I will call in to the meeting and vote over the phone, again, if Im well enough,' he said, thanking followers for their 'thoughts and prayers.' Data shows COVID-19 patients are taking half of Alabama's available intensive care unit beds Some fellow councilmembers called upon Pepper to resign earlier this year after learning of a 2018 social media post where he joked about running over Black Lives Matter protesters. Pepper, who was 16 at the time, posted an article about people protesting the police shooting of an armed Black man in Birmingham, who was mistaken for a gunman at an earlier mall shooting. Pepper commented: See I have to go shopping there next week and we gone play a game called red rover red rover you fools gone get ran over! He later apologized for the post, calling it very ignorant. This is the moment a woman narrowly avoids being plowed into by a motorbike while standing on her porch in Ohio. In a video shared online, the homeowner can be seen walking out of her front door in Columbus before a yellow and blue dirt bike is suddenly seen coming straight towards her. She then quickly throws herself to the left to avoid being struck. The man driving the vehicle swerves to make sure he misses her but takes out the wooden post of the porch before crashing out of view. Moment Ohio woman jumps out of the way of an oncoming motorbike on her front porch in Columbus The man driving the dirt bike steers away from the woman to avoid hitting her The driver smashes through the post of the porch which has an American flag attached to it The woman can be heard shouting: 'Roger!' before walking around the corner to see the damage. She adds: 'Are you okay? What did you do?' The man replies calmly: 'I hit the gas instead of the brake.' The woman then chastises him for not wearing safety gear, adding: 'And you didn't even have a helmet on!' Bits of the wooden post and the American flag that was attached to it can be seen strewn across the ground. The footage was captured by the family's doorbell cam last Friday. It's not the first time such dramatic moments have been captured by the camera devices, designed to tell homeowners who is knocking at their doors. A camera in Janesville, Wisconsin last year captured the moment a young man came within inches of being struck by a tree when it fell across his front yard during lashing rain and high winds. Timothy Sheetz was almost crushed by a tree when it fell during rain and high winds in Janesville, Wisconsin Heart-stopping footage shows Timothy Sheetz head out onto his porch and lock the door to the family home. But just as he is stepping onto the driveway the tree comes crashing down, sending him back up on to the porch. The tree misses Timothy but it brings down the power lines stretching from the house to the street. Relieved mother Lori Sheetz Blank posted the footage on social media, which showed how Timothy is undeterred by his near-miss, returning coming back into shot, skirting around the fallen tree and leaving. Lori remarked: 'The wires are right above his head. Aside from the tree he could have been electrocuted. 'Thank you God for keeping him safe and giving us one more story to share. You are so good to us and we are grateful.' A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a Metropolitan Police Sergeant who was shot dead at a south London custody centre last year. Louis De Zoysa is accused of shooting Matt Ratana in the chest while handcuffed during a search at a police station in Croydon in the early hours of September 25, 2020. The 24-year-old answered 'Yeah' when asked to confirm his identity during a brief hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday morning. Sgt Matt Ratana, pictured, died after being shot twice while in the custody suite of Croydon Police station in the early hours of September 25, 2020 Louis De Zoysa, sketched today during a video link hearing at the Old Bailey this morning where he is accused of Sgt Ratana's murder De Zoysa, sketched during a previous hearing confirming his name and date of birth, has also been charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition No plea was asked for or entered, and a further review hearing has been set for December 23. Judge Mark Lucraft QC, the Recorder of London, said: 'It seems to me that there are certain things that we just need to put in place before conducting what would otherwise be a plea and trial preparation hearing.' A bearded De Zoysa appeared in a small square at the bottom of a screen during Friday's hearing wearing a blue top and flanked by two people who were both wearing masks. He is expected to also appear via videolink at the December hearing. Addresses for De Zoysa have previously been given in Banstead in Surrey and Norbury in south-west London, but a court official on Friday said he was of no fixed address. He is accused of discharging four bullets in a holding cell at Croydon Custody Centre during the alleged incident last year, in which he was also injured. The first shot hit 54-year-old Sgt Ratana in the chest, causing a fatal wound, while he was also hit in the leg. De Zoysa received a life-threatening bullet injury during the incident and had been recovering in hospital under police guard since the killing. He is understood to remain in hospital. Police charged him with murder as well as possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition on June 29 following changes in his medical condition. At an Old Bailey hearing in July, the court heard New Zealand-born Sgt Ratana was allegedly shot and killed by De Zoysa after he was arrested following a stop and search in Norwood, south London. De Zoysa is expected to reappear at the Old Bailey again on December 23 at a further review hearing. He has not yet been asked or entered a plea to the three charges Sgt Ratana was taken to St George's Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, while De Zoysa survived after he was treated by officers and London Ambulance staff. Following Sgt Ratana's death, his partner Su Bushby described him as a 'gentle giant'. In a tribute, she said: 'Matt was my partner, friend, confidant, support and soul mate. 'He will be greatly missed but never forgotten. Matt will always be in my head and in my heart.' A memorial for the police officer was held at a chapel in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, in November, with the event live-streamed around the world so well-wishers in New Zealand and the UK could join amid coronavirus restrictions. Loved ones and police colleagues paid tribute to Sgt Ratana as a man with a 'lion's heart' during the funeral service. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick and Home Secretary Priti Patel were among those who paid tribute. The heartache of Alizee Thevenet as she married James Middleton at their glittering wedding in the South of France can be revealed today. Her father died just months before the ceremony which had to be postponed twice due to Covid. Friends say it meant the newlyweds' big day was a joyful occasion tinged with some sadness because retired diplomat Jean Gabriel Thevenet could not be there to walk Alizee down the aisle. James Middleton and his bride Alizee Thevenet beam for the camera as they announced their wedding at an exclusive chateau in the south of France on Saturday on Instagram However their big day was tinged with some sadness, say friends, because Alizee's beloved father retired diplomat Jean Gabriel Thevenet (pictured) passed away a few months before Mr Middleton and Alizee married in front of 50 guests including her mother Laurence at the Chateau Leoube (pictured), an exclusive vineyard that produces some of France's finest rose Chateau Leoube in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas in Provence is owned British billionaire JCB chairman Anthony Bamford and is a favourite holiday destination for the rich and famous A source told MailOnline: 'It was a happy day but sadly Jean Gabriel was not there. He died five months ago. He was only in his 60's. It is a real tragedy. His wife Laurence was at the wedding, of course. 'I know that Alizee wanted her father to be there too. But it wasn't to be. They had to delay the wedding twice and it was too late for him.' Mr Middleton and Alizee got engaged in September 2019 and the ceremony was originally planned for summer last year. However it had to be postponed due to Covid restriction and a second attempt to re-arrange it over the last 12 months also failed. By the time they were finally able tie the the knot in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas near the Cote d'Azur on Saturday it was too late for Mr Thevenet. It is not know what he died from. 'Jean Gabriel would have loved to be there on Alizee's special day. It is so sad that Laurence had to go to the wedding on her own,' added the friend. Jean Gabriel Thevenet and his wife Laurence (pictured together) ran a bed and breakfast hotel in the mountains of Condat-sur-Ganaveix, before he died in April from an unknown illness Mr Middletony, 34, and Alizee wed in front of 50 guests including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their three children over the weekend at the Chateau Leoube, an exclusive vineyard owned by British billionaire JCB chairman Anthony Bamford in Provence that produces some of France's finest rose wine. Earlier the couple had been married by the mayor at the town hall. Mr Middleton announced the marriage on Instagram with a photo of the happy couple smiling with the caption: 'Yesterday I married the love of my life surrounded by family, friends and of course a few dogs.' Alizee's father previously revealed his joy when their fledgling relationship emerged in January 2019 and said he was 'delighted' when announced their engagement eight months later. Speaking from the window of his rustic bed-and-breakfast in the mountains of Condat-sur-Ganaveix, rural France, Mr Thevenet, told MailOnline: 'My daughter Alizee is very happy with James, they are very much in love. James is a very charming man. I am very happy that Alizee is together with James. I know she is very happy. We keep our fingers crossed for them.' Mayor of Condat-sur-Ganaveix Michel Plazanet confirmed Mr Thevenet's death. His spokeswoman told MailOnline: 'Mr Thevenet died about five months ago. It is very sad.' James (pictured right alongside Pippa and husband James Matthews in 2019) is the youngest of the three Middleton siblings, after his eldest sister, Kate, 39, and Pippa, 38 The family friend added: 'Jean Gabriel was not from Condat-sur-Ganaveix but he threw all his energy into his new adventure, the bed and breakfast business at the old mill. 'Now his wife Laurence is alone and has had to do everything.' Mrs Thevenet declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline. Another Afghanistan evacuee who has recently arrived in the United States has been revealed to be a convicted felon who was deported from America four years ago. This is the second recent case of a felon coming over from Afghanistan as America tries to bring over people seeking freedom from the Taliban's return to power in the country. The unidentified man was convicted of aggravated robbery in 2011. He was deported in 2017. He got through the Biden administration's vetting process, boarding a flight to Washington Dulles International Airport to come to the country. Another Afghanistan evacuee who has recently arrived in the United States has been revealed to be a convicted felon who was deported from America four years ago A convicted rapist who was deported from the US in 2017 was recently arrested at Dulles after catching Ethiopian Airlines evacuation flight out of Kabul. Ghader Heydari, 47, boarded a flight for evacuees but was flagged by border officials upon arrival into Washington. A man whose name and age match Heydaris pleaded guilty to rape in Ada County, Idaho, in 2010, and he served more than five years in prison. According to The Washington Times, Heydari came to the US as a refugee and was granted a green card in 2000. It's not clear how he got on the flight because it was 'unlikely' that he had a Special Immigrant Visa or that he was a refugee. Evacuees are supposed to be undergoing security screening at transit hubs outside the U.S. before being allowed to enter the country, and Heydari may have slipped through. A senior administration also said that his rape conviction was not enough to keep him off the flight due to the extreme nature of the humanitarian crisis. He was being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia, according to DailyWire, after border officials spotted his criminal and immigration history. When Heydari arrived in the US on the evacuation flight, officials tried to persuade him to cancel his request to enter but he appears to have refused. An Idaho sheriff said that his victim has been alerted about Heydaris return to the country. The U.S. evacuated 13,400 people from Kabul in late August, taking the evacuees to bases in Qatar, Bahrain or Germany before they return to the states. They flew 5,100 people out of Kabul on US military planes. Another 8,300 were saved by coalition flights. The total - 13,400 - was drastically less than the 19,000 rescued the previous day. Customs and Border protection flagged both felons' arrival in the United States. The unidentified man is now in deportation proceedings. Department of Homeland Security and State Department officials would not immediately comment about the specific cases. ICE deported over 200 people from the United States to Afghanistan between 2012 and 2020. The unidentified man was convicted of aggravated robbery in 2011. He was deported in 2017 President Biden has steadfastly defended the exit from Afghanistan amid criticism of many aspects of the withdrawal. A defiant Biden said in late August that the operation couldn't have been done in a 'more orderly manner' and 'respectfully disagreed' with critics who said he should have started the evacuation sooner to avoid the chaos. The president also hailed the 120,000 people they have gotten to safety in 'one of the biggest airlifts in history', vowed to keep working to get Afghan allies out and said the State Department had reached out to stranded Americans 19 times since March asking if they wanted to leave. Biden spoke passionately as he defended his actions, at times waving his arms and gripping the podium, amid intense criticism from Democrats, many Republicans and fellow world leaders about his handling of the U.S. drawdown. Advertisement Leading comparison website Compare the Market today froze its energy switching service because the wholesale price crisis is now so severe that there are only a handful of suppliers left on the market. Families in Britain are facing a punishing hike of as much as 280 in annual energy bills amid a surge of more than 60 per cent in the wholesale cost of gas and electricity. Global gas prices, much of which is used to fuel UK power stations, are rising sharply because of higher demand caused by the economic recovery following the pandemic. Prices will also be pushed up after a large fire in Kent at one of the country's most important electricity cables this week hit supplies. Compare the Market told MailOnline today that the 'unprecedented rises in wholesale energy costs' meant that a number of energy companies have temporarily made their tariffs unavailable to people wishing to switch. Other comparison websites such as USwitch, MoneySuperMarket and Go Compare appeared to still be operating as normal today, but the decision by Compare the Market will no doubt stoke fears that they could follow suit. Compare the Market said that the 'unprecedented rises in wholesale energy costs' has seen it suspend energy comparisons A Compare the Market spokesman said: 'Due to unprecedented rises in wholesale energy costs, a number of energy companies have temporarily made their tariffs unavailable to people wishing to switch. 'At comparethemarket.com, our priority is to ensure that our customers can be confident that the product they purchase is going to meet their requirements. 'In order to protect our customers we have therefore decided to temporarily stop offering energy quotes via our website during this period of uncertainty. We will resume energy comparison as soon as we can be confident we can offer true comparison for customers.' On Wednesday, a fire in Kent knocked out a cable that brings in electricity from France, most of which comes from nuclear power stations. The news triggered a shock rise in the spot price of electricity of some 20 per cent, however this fell back yesterday following reassurances from National Grid. This MoneySavingExpert graph shows how wholesale prices have gone from record lows in May 2020 to record highs now The cable is expected to be bringing in French electricity again next week, however it will not return to full operation until March. At the same time Britain and, particularly Europe, are reliant on gas from Russia, however supplies from this source have been squeezed. The rise in prices has been so steep that some energy intensive firms are scaling back or stopping production in the UK because it has become too expensive. A number of small gas and electricity suppliers have recently gone bust because they have been caught out by the surge - with customers transferred to alternative firms - and there are fears others will follow. It has also been necessary to bring some dirty coal-fired power stations back on line, which is at odds with efforts to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions, in order to keep the lights on. A fire at a site in Sellindge, Kent, on Wednesday knocked out an important cable that brings in electricity from France Energy industry regulator, Ofgem, recently raised the cap on standard variable energy bills by the equivalent of 139 a year because of wholesale price rises. However, a new analysis suggests that this figure will rise again by as much as 280 a year for a typical user in April next year, when the cap is next reviewed. Analysis by industry experts, Joe Malinowski, of TheEnergyShop.com, points out that wholesale gas prices for this winter - pence per therm - are up 68 per cent in the past five weeks. He said the cost of gas this winter is some 324 per cent higher now than if it was bought a year ago. Mr Malinowski said it is difficult to get accurate figures for UK wholesale electricity prices, but he said equivalent data from Germany gives a useful guide. This graphic shows how the Interconnexion France-Angleterre subsea electricity operation works between France and Kent These show a 66 per cent increase over the past five weeks and a rise of 174 per cent on a year ago. He said: 'The shocker is that the level of wholesale energy prices has increased by twice as much in the last five weeks as it did in the six months prior. 'The simple maths implies that, as things stand, the next level of the cap will increase by around 275-280. This would take the energy price cap, when it is next reviewed, and increased, on April 1, 2022, to around the 1,555 mark. 'To put that into context, price protected standard tariffs would be 50per cent higher than they were two years prior. They would also be twice the level that the cheapest tariffs were in the summer of 2020.' The National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) moved to reassure customers and businesses, saying: 'We have a sufficient buffer of spare capacity to continue operating the electricity system safely and securely.' The IFA (thick line in green) is one of a series of electricity interconnectors between Britain and other parts of Europe Britain's reliance on coal for electricity has fallen dramatically in recent years. Recently, coal-fired power stations at West Burton, Lincolnshire, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, have been brought on line to guarantee electricity supplies. The surge in gas prices has forced a major fertiliser producer to halt operations at two UK plants. CF Industries Holdings is halting operations at its manufacturing complexes at Billingham, in County Durham, and Ince, in Cheshire. The company, which manufacturers hydrogen and nitrogen products, blamed the move on 'high natural gas prices'. An interstate truck driver has been arrested by Queensland Police after ramming through a border-checkpoint 300km west of Brisbane. A 26-year-old man was refused entry to Queensland in Goondiwindi on Wednesday, before ramming into check point barriers at Texas later that evening. Both towns are along the Queensland-NSW border and are routinely patrolled by police due to the state's COVID-19 entry restrictions. A 26-year-old man was refused entry to Queensland in Goondiwindi on Wednesday, before ramming into check point barriers at Texas later that evening Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the man has been charged with illegally entering Queensland in breach of a health order, and with wilful damage. "That person was turned around. They didn't have a right of entry at Goondiwindi, chose to go to another border crossing at Texas, tried to drive through it in a truck - didn't work," he said. Both towns are along the Queensland-NSW border and are routinely patrolled by police due to the state's COVID-19 entry restrictions Police used CCTV footage to identify the vehicle before locating the man about 5pm on Thursday. The truckie has since been returned to NSW but will face Inglewood Magistrates Court on November 18. Police have carried out 16,000 vehicle checks in the past 24 hours along the border, with 191 people turned around. A heartless daughter who squandered her vulnerable father's life savings on a secret gambling addiction has been jailed. Yasmine Tattersall, 57, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was in charge of purchasing food and tobacco for her 81-year-old father, James Hargreaves, a British Army veteran with three decades of service. But instead, she was caught spending 20,000 of his money on slot machines after care firm 'Care 4 U' complained to Mr Hargreaves' family that he was behind on his payments. When confronted by her sister Jacqueline Glover, Tattersall broke down and confessed to her crime: 'I'm sick. I have a problem. I have gambled it all.' Mr Hargreaves, whose late wife used to deal with their finances, was said to be 'devastated' by the thefts before he passed away. Tattersall broke down in tears as she was jailed for six months at a Manchester court, and was slammed by both the judge and family members in attendance. Yasmine Tattersall, 57, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was jailed for six months after being caught spending 20,000 of her 'vulnerable' father's life savings on slot machines Minshull Street Crown Court heard the thefts occurred between March 2016 and September 2019. Tattersall had responsibility for two of her father's debit cards, which should have been used for food and tobacco purchases. There were also arrears owed to 'Care 4 U', whose carers would come in to help Mr Hargreaves twice per day, that were not being paid despite Tattersall promising to make weekly payments. Tattersall told the court her gambling addiction had spiralled 'out of control' over the three year period, having initially started as a 'coping mechanism' for her deteriorating mental health. After she admitted theft, the court heard Barclays Bank, which handled Mr Hargreaves account, had refunded 13,150. Her sister, Jacqueline Glover, said in a statement: 'You were our sister, and we could have come together as a family to help each other. We always help each other. We would also have lent you money had you needed it and even got you a job. 'I think that you have killed the family with this act. The children have lost an aunt. They do not understand why you would take their grandfather's money. When confronted by her sister Jacqueline Glover, Tattersall (above) broke down and confessed to her crime: 'I'm sick. I have a problem. I have gambled it all' 'You took advantage of the situation by taking all of dad's money when he was vulnerable. If the pressure of looking after dad was too much, you should have shared this with us. It was mum and dad's money, not yours. 'You didn't leave him enough money to pay for his care. He gave thirty years to his country. 'He wanted this to be reported officially, and dad wanted you to be punished for your actions. You left him destitute. 'I hope you can acknowledge what you have done to me and the whole extended family, who are devastated by your actions.' Tattersall told the court her gambling addiction had spiralled 'out of control' over the three year period, having initially started as a 'coping mechanism' for her deteriorating mental health Jailing Tattersall for six months, Judge John Edwards told her: ' Your father was vulnerable, had medical issues and his needs were meagre. 'He relied on his savings and his army pension that just put him above the threshold for help with the care that he needed, which was pretty modest. 'He needed help getting dressed, making a cup of tea and a sandwich. You abused the trust that he put in you and you now have the ignominy of sitting in the dock of a crown court, and I accept that must be profound. 'I accept that you are sorry, and this was unforgivable, and to use your phrase, that it was 'disgusting'. 'But having taken on a mantle of responsibility, you abused that trust over a period of three and a half years, and you frittered away his life saving on a slot machine. 'You have brought shame on yourself and hurt a lot of people. A clear message has to be given out that those who have a duty of care for others' lives must not behave in the way you have chosen to do.' Advertisement Boris Johnson's new-look Cabinet faced an awkward first meeting in Downing Street this morning as Liz Truss had to sit next to Dominic Raab - the man she replaced as Foreign Secretary. Ms Truss and Mr Raab, who was demoted to the role of Justice Secretary but also handed a new title of Deputy Prime Minister, sat shoulder to shoulder and directly opposite Mr Johnson. The Prime Minister delivered a lengthy speech to his new top team which he described as a 'half-time pep talk'. He said it was now time to 'spit out the orange peel, we adjust our gum shields and our scrum caps and we get back out onto the pitch' to 'fulfil our fundamental project of uniting and levelling up across the whole country'. The Prime Minister wielded the axe on Wednesday as he sacked Gavin Williamson, Robert Buckland and Robert Jenrick from the Cabinet. Mr Johnson then shuffled his deck, with the elevation of Ms Truss and the demotion of Mr Raab the most high profile moves. Meanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi was one of the major winners from the shake-up as he was bumped up from his role as vaccine minister to become the new Education Secretary while Michael Gove was moved from the Cabinet Office to housing. Liz Truss, the newly appointed Foreign Secretary, this morning sat next to the man she replaced at the reshuffle, Dominic Raab, who was demoted to the role of Justice Secretary, as they attended the first meeting of the new Cabinet Boris Johnson welcomed his new-look Cabinet to Downing Street this morning following his brutal reshuffle which started on Wednesday Mr Johnson will be hoping the reshuffle will provide his Government with a boost as he looks to build momentum ahead of the next general election in 2024 Mr Johnson will be hoping his Cabinet changes will provide the Government with a boost as he looks to build momentum ahead of the next general election in 2024. He told his ministers at the start of this morning's meeting that 'this is a Government that is an historic government, that gets things done and delivers things that I think people previously thought were impossible'. He said: We are going to fulfil our fundamental project of uniting and levelling up across the whole country and that is what our mission is. Mr Johnson stressed the importance of delivering on the Government's promises as he made a joke about being familiar with 'delivery rooms'. He said: You are all here on your merits because you have worked incredibly hard and I want you to work even harder now. I want us all to work even harder. I was just thinking about delivery and you know, I have seen a few delivery rooms, Ive probably seen as many delivery rooms as anybody in this room with the possible exception of Jacob. And I know that delivery, delivery normally involves a superhuman effort by at least one person in the room. We have all discussed the various mandates that you have, the things that we need to do to unite and level up. But there are plenty of other people in that room who are absolutely indispensable for that successful outcome To mix my metaphors, this is if you like the half-time pep talks, folks, this is the moment when we spit out the orange peel, we adjust our gum shields and our scrum caps and we get back out onto the pitch in the knowledge that we are going to have to do it together and we are going to have to do it as a team because that is what the people of this country want to see. Mr Johnson's Cabinet ministers banged their fists on the table once he had finished his remarks. The PM's reference to 'half-time' immediately prompted speculation that Mr Johnson may have been giving a hint about the timing of the next general election. The last election was held in December 2019 and the next one is not due to take place until 2024 but some Tory MPs believe Mr Johnson could go to the nation early in 2023. Downing Street said after the meeting that the Cabinet had 'agreed that shared data would be vital' to delivering on the Government's promises. Number 10 said shared data would enable 'ministers and the public to clearly see what progress is being made on each challenge' in comments which appeared to suggest the Government could bring forward some sort of online progress dashboard. The PM continued the overhaul of the Government yesterday as he made a raft of changes to the ranks of junior ministers as a number of lengthy frontbench careers were ended. Nadine Dorries, pictured second from the left, was promoted to the role of Culture Secretary in the reshuffle, replacing Oliver Dowden who was made chairman of the Conservative Party Michael Gove was moved from his role as Minister for the Cabinet Office to become the new Housing Secretary. He will also be in charge of overseeing the PM's 'levelling up' agenda The Prime Minister delivered a lengthy speech to his new top team at the start of this morning's meeting which he described as a 'half-time pep talk' Sajid Javid, pictured leaving 10 Downing Street this morning, was reappointed by Mr Johnson to his role as Health Secretary Former Cabinet minister John Whittingdale who had been serving as media minister was the most high profile casualty, while Nick Gibb's lengthy tenure in the Department for Education was also brought to an end. Jesse Norman, Caroline Dinenage, Luke Hall, Justin Tomlinson, Graham Stuart, James Duddridge and Matt Warman also lost their ministerial jobs. Penny Mordaunt was replaced as Paymaster General by former solicitor general Michael Ellis, but picked up a role at the Department for International Trade. Alex Chalk has been appointed Solicitor General while Chloe Smith has been made a minister of state at the Department for Work and Pension and Robin Walker goes to the Department for Education. A shake-up of Treasury ministers saw Lucy Frazer become Financial Secretary and Helen Whately become Exchequer Secretary. At the Department of Health and Social Care, Gillian Keegan is a minister of state while Maggie Throup is a junior minister. Victoria Atkins moves from the Home Office to become minister of state at the Ministry of Justice but will remain responsible for the Afghan resettlement scheme and Operation Warm Welcome. Lee Rowley has been made a junior minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and a Government whip, while Amanda Solloway also heads to the whips' office. Neil O'Brien who was Mr Johnson's 'levelling up' adviser has been made a junior minister at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Cabinet appeared to be in good spirits as Mr Johnson stressed the importance of delivering on the Government's promises as he made a joke about being familiar with 'delivery rooms' Nadhim Zahawi was one of the big winners from the reshuffle as he was elevated from his role as vaccines minister to become Education Secretary Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg was one of a number of Cabinet ministers who were retained in their role Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, and Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, also kept their roles Priti Patel, pictured leaving 10 Downing Street this morning, was reappointed by Mr Johnson to her role as Home Secretary Among the other appointments, Mr Johnson's former ministerial aide Trudy Harrison is now a junior minister in the Department for Transport. Today's meeting of the Cabinet saw Mr Raab take up his new role as Deputy Prime Minister. Downing Street said he would continue to play an 'important senior role' in Government despite his demotion from foreign secretary. The announcement that he was to be given the title Deputy Prime Minister was seen as little more than a consolation after losing one of the 'great offices of state'. Downing Street refused to be drawn on reports that Mr Raab had resisted the change during a tense conversation with the Prime Minister on Wednesday. However, Mr Johnson's official spokesman insisted it had been a 'planned move' and that the Esher and Walton MP's new title reflected the Prime Minister's continuing trust in him. 'This formalises Dominic Raab's position as the Prime Minister's deputy he will stand in for him at PMQs; it demonstrates his seniority within Government and the trust the Prime Minister places with him,' the spokesman said. 'You can expect him to be involved in cross-governmental work when that is necessitated. It is clear he will play an important senior role in Government.' Mr Raab's replacement by Ms Truss followed criticism of his handling of the Afghanistan crisis and his delay in returning from his holiday in Crete after Kabul fell to the Taliban. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Ms Truss's replacement as International Trade Secretary, has been criticised by Labour over past tweets denying climate change. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is pictured arriving in Downing Street this morning Therese Coffey (pictured left) was kept on in her role as Work and Pensions Secretary while Anne-Marie Trevelyan (pictured right) made a return to the Cabinet as the new International Trade Secretart Kit Malthouse remains Minister of State jointly at the Home Office and Ministry of Justice and will attend Cabinet 'We aren't getting hotter, global warming isn't actually happening,' one message from 2012 said. Shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry said 'at least the last Trade Secretary only hired climate change deniers', in an apparent reference to former Australian premier Tony Abbott, who is a trade adviser. In a letter to Ms Trevelyan, she added: 'Whatever your past statements on this issue, you have an opportunity to make a difference in a key area before Cop26.' A serial violent sex offender involved in the 1988 Sydney abduction of Janine Balding - who was raped and murdered - should stay in jail for now, a judge has been told. Wayne Wilmot was ordered to spend another two years behind bars in 2019, despite having served his jail term. That continuing detention order (CDO) expires on September 23, which led the State of NSW on Friday to apply for an interim detention order (IDO) in the Supreme Court. Sydney woman Janine Balding (pictured) was raped and killed The State wants him to stay behind bars until Justice Julia Lonergan can hear its application for Wilmot to be subject to an extended supervision order (ESO) on his eventual release. Wilmot's extensive criminal history officially began with a sex attack on a woman walking through a park when he was 13, after which he said "I've ... got a problem" and "This is not the first time I've done this". He served eight years for the abduction and rape of Ms Balding. The 20-year-old bank teller was grabbed from a Sydney train station by a gang of homeless youths before she was repeatedly raped. Wilmot remained in the car when Ms Balding was then bound, gagged and thrown over a fence before being held underwater in a dam until she drowned. The 20-year-old bank teller (pictured) was grabbed from a Sydney train station by a gang of five homeless youths before she was repeatedly raped He has committed sexual offences against woman and men, involving at least eight victims including a woman he beat, bound and raped at another Sydney train station in 1998. The sentencing judge found the victim "was subjected to extreme brutality and sexual violation", which had a devastating impact on her. In granting the CDO in 2019, Justice Lonergan noted Wilmot's "appalling criminal history and pattern of offending" and his repeated denials and/or chilling minimisations of his violent sexual offending. He also blamed his victims, lacked insight, and had a personality disorder and antisocial and aggressive traits and behaviours. "I am satisfied to a high degree of probability that the material relied upon by the State establishes that the defendant poses an unacceptable risk of committing another serious offence if not kept in detention under the order," she said. Wilmot's lawyer on Friday did not oppose the granting of the IDO until the judge considers the application for his extended supervision in the community. The judge previously refused an application to suppress Wilmot's name. A guest who was left 'writhing in agony' when she slipped on the dance floor at a friend's wedding has won nearly 32,000 damages after suing the groom's family. Gosia Anthony, 49, who lives in Plymouth, snapped her hamstring when she slid in spilled drink at her friends Ania and Chris Richardson's wedding reception in September 2016. Ms Anthony had been dancing in the function room of the White Horse in Welwyn, Hertfordshire - which describes itself as a 'quintessential village pub' - when she slipped and was left in excruciating pain, Central London County Court heard. She sued the pub operator Cellar Door Pubs Ltd, a company that was owned and run by members of groom Chris Richardson's family, and has been awarded nearly 32,000 in damages by a judge. The judge also ordered Cellar Door Pubs Ltd to pick up Ms Anthony's lawyers' bills of about 50,000 for the trial. Gosia Anthony (pictured), 49, who lives in Plymouth, snapped her hamstring when she slid in spilled drink at her friend Ania Richardson's wedding reception in September 2016 Gosia Anthony hurt herself at Ania and Chris Richardson's wedding reception in September 2016. Pictured, Mr and Mrs Richardson According to Companies House records, Cellar Door Pubs Ltd's directors include managing director (L-R) Adam Richardson, his father John and brother Joseph - the father and brothers of the groom, Chris Richardson Ania's hen party celebrations in 2016, a few weeks before her wedding and reception - where Ms Anthony fell and injured herself Do you know members of the wedding party? Email kate.dennett@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement Judge Richard Roberts said the pub had created the hazard by providing a water dispenser without a drip tray and not clearing up the spillage. At the time of the accident, the 'bride's husband's family owned or operated' The White Horse pub, the court heard. According to Companies House records, Cellar Door Pubs Ltd's directors include managing director Adam Richardson, his father John and brother Joseph. Ms Anthony said that she had been invited to Mr and Mrs Richardson's reception and was staying at the bride's home after the wedding. The council worker claimed she only had a couple of glasses of wine and had changed into flat shoes when she went on the dance floor late in the evening. She told the court: 'The room was dark and there were disco lights. 'I was dancing. I put my left foot down and I slipped. I didn't have a chance to rebalance my body or break my fall, I just went straight down. 'I was in a lot of pain. I realised something was wrong. Ms Anthony had been dancing in the White Horse (pictured) in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, when she slipped and was left in excruciating pain, Central London County Court heard 'It was almost like I heard elastic breaking, even though it was a loud room. I felt something snap and immediate pain.' Ms Anthony was taken home by other guests, but she went to the doctors when she was still in pain the following morning. She was diagnosed with an 'avulsion injury to her left hamstring', which involves the hamstring tendons being torn from the bone. Ms Anthony went to her native Poland for treatment and had her hamstring, which had shrunk by four inches following the accident, stretched back into place. She told the court her hamstring had to be secured with three metal screws which even now, five years on, cause her pain when she is sitting down. Ms Anthony was also left with a five-inch scar which is visible when wearing shorts or beachwear and suffered a frozen shoulder due to using crutches after the accident. Her barrister, Mark King, argued that pub owner, Cellar Door Pubs Ltd, was negligent in allowing the accident to happen. A water dispenser had been placed in the function room with its spout directly over the floor, with no drip tray in place to catch any spillages. Mr King said: 'The bride's husband's family own or operated the pub. 'This hazard has been created by the occupier itself. This is so obviously wrong in the way it's been set up. All one needs is a tray to slip underneath it.' Cellar Door Pubs Ltd denied liability for the accident, but neither the managers nor lawyers turned up for the Central London County Court trial this week. Giving judgment, Judge Roberts rejected claims that Ms Anthony might have been inebriated or at fault in any way for her fall. The council worker (pictured) sued the pub operator Cellar Door Pubs Ltd, a company that was owned by members of Chris Richardson's family, and was awarded nearly 32,000 in damages He ruled that she had been wearing flat shoes and could not have seen the spillage because the room was dark and full of dancers. 'At the time of the index accident, the main function room where the dancing was taking place was very dark, save for flashing disco lights,' he said. 'The claimant said in her oral evidence that at the time of the dancing, she did not see any members of the defendant's staff. 'I reject the defendant's contention that it would have been easy to see a spillage of water on the floor, bearing in mind that it was very dark. 'Having regard to the set up of the water dispenser and the absence of a water tray, I find that spillage or the presence on the floor was likely. 'I further find that the defendant knew or ought to have known of the likelihood of a dangerous slipping hazard arising, particularly as the floor was being used for dancing late at night, when the room was dark. 'In these circumstances I find that the claimant has proved that the defendant was in breach of the common duty of care...and was negligent at common law.' He awarded Ms Anthony a total of 31,871 for her pain and suffering and to reimburse her for travel and medical care costs. He also ordered the company to pick up her lawyers' bills of about 50,000 for the trial. MailOnline has contacted Chris and Adam Richardson for comment. A university student's 'side-hustle' has turned into a budding business thanks in large part to bored Sydneysiders looking for a bit of luxury. Lily Avery, 20, from Sydney's north shore, came up with the idea for 'The Boujee Boards', a luxury charcuterie platter service, while confined to a hospital bed in April. The third year marketing, management and accounting student at Macquarie University, had undergone surgery for stage four endometriosis. However, due to complications from the surgery her hospital stay lasted a month. It was during this stint that the young woman had a 'light bulb moment' and decided to launch a business. Lily Avery, 20, kickstarted her luxury charcuterie platter service (pictured) while in lockdown and battling a chronic health condition from her hospital bed 'This business was born from a hospital bed,' she told Daily Mail Australia. Ms Avery said she had always loved making cheese boards, she would often make them for friends birthdays and other events. But during her time hospital started to plot out a proper business plan. And then she put that plan into action. The Boujee boards luxury charcuterie platters have been delivered all over Sydney during lockdown The gourmet grazing boards have been in high demand with Sydney-siders desperate for a taste of luxury food She launched her luxury catering service on Mother's day, starting with a few loyal customers and using a couple thousand dollars from her savings account. The Boujee Boards, which is based in Lane Cove, 'boomed dramatically once lockdown hit', receiving over a hundred orders a week from customers desperate for a dose of luxury food. Father's day alone saw the business cater for over 150 orders. 'We started delivering in the lower and north shore regularly, then orders came from the east and west,' she said. 'We've really taken over Sydney.' She has had to hire four extra staff and rent out a commercial kitchen just to keep up with demand. Since the lockdown the business has catered for corporate orders to send to staff as gifts, missed wedding dates, birthdays, bereavements, girls zoom nights and even HSC students. The boards cost between $60-$160. She has been making about 100 orders every week, meaning she is raking in about $10,000 a week. Ms Avery came up with the idea for her business from a hospital bed after undergoing surgery for stage four endometriosis (pictured) As a Covid-safe precaution she made sure her staff were kept off the roads for unnecessary travel and delivers all her products using Silver Service Taxis. Since demand for the business exploded Ms Avery had to drop down to part-time study too. After formerly working in social media and childcare Ms Avery says she feels lucky she is now able to be her own boss. 'I don't want my health to define me and creating a business with stage four endometriosis is a really fantastic thing for me,' she said. Despite her chronic illness, Ms Avery works around 70 to 80 hours a week. Her own battle has motivated her to help others living with health conditions and is currently working on a 'Pink Box' in honour of breast cancer awareness month in October. 'Since the surgery, my life has been a lot better but still a bit up and down, but I'm giving my business 110%' She said. Advertisement Demand for travel to 'red list' countries such as the Maldives, Mexico and Sri Lanka is surging amid hopes they could be among the next destinations downgraded in the UK Government's next travel shake-up. Travel experts anticipate a 'large increase in bookings this weekend' for foreign trips if the Government goes ahead with tearing up testing rules for the fully vaccinated in time for the half-term holidays. Under a major raft of changes to be announced today, the double-jabbed will no longer have to take costly PCR tests when they return from abroad - and will instead only need a cheaper lateral flow test. The 'pre-departure tests' that travellers are forced to take before flying home are also likely to be scrapped amid a long-awaited review of the travel restrictions that will also see the controversial traffic light rules radically redrawn. Expedia said today that Mexico is the most popular red list country when comparing this month with September 2020, with a rise in interest of 70 per cent, while the Maldives is up 30 per cent and Sri Lanka 20 per cent. And Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told MailOnline this morning: 'I think you'll see a large increase in bookings this weekend, if the Prime Minister goes ahead with the measures.' Skyscanner said it had seen a 92 per cent increase in the last full week for return searches by UK travellers with Dubai, 'everywhere', Alicante, Malaga and Dublin in the top spots, while interest in Turkey has also seen an uptick. TravelSuperMarket added that average holiday prices to Spain for this month and next are 38 per cent down on the same period in 2019 given that it remains on the amber list, but green list Malta is up 29 per cent. Expedia said today that Mexico is the most popular red list country when comparing this month with September 2020, with a rise in interest of 70 per cent. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is pictured above Expedia also said it had seen an increase in interest of 30 per cent for the Maldives. The beach at Gili Lankanfushi is pictured Demand for Sri Lanka is up 20 per cent this month compared to last year. The Nine Arch Bridge in Demodara is pictured Amid the changes, instead of the green, amber and red system that was introduced in May, there will be a simplified 'go/no-go' regime. All current amber list countries will effectively become green or 'go' destinations. And the number of red list, or 'no-go' countries, will be slashed in half. This means popular destinations such as Turkey are likely to open up to fully jabbed Britons next month, although Mr Charles said this 'could go either way'. At a glance: Seven new rules for UK travellers Traffic light system radically redrawn into simple go/no-go system Almost all existing amber list countries become 'go' destinations Number of red, or no-go, destinations slashed in half Double-jabbed travellers no longer need to take a PCR test after returning from 'go' or green country only cheaper lateral flow So-called pre-departure tests, taken 72 hours before someone flies home, likely to be scrapped Tougher rules for unvaccinated they have to isolate after returning from abroad and take two PCR tests on day two and day eight Hotel quarantine remains for remaining red list countries, even for double-jabbed Britons Advertisement Speaking about the surge in demand, an Expedia spokesman told MailOnline today: 'Overall, Mexico has proven the most popular destination with the greatest interest of approximately 70 per cent this month when compared to this time last year. We also saw an interest increase of 30 per cent for the Maldives and 20 per cent for Sri Lanka. 'No doubt these surges are a result of the upcoming update that the need for expensive PCR tests for the double vaccinated will be scrapped - saving travellers money and putting their minds at ease when booking their next holiday. 'This surge in interest also shows that the public is confident to travel abroad when these guidelines lift and eager to explore these once-in-a-lifetime destinations.' Skyscanner said that in the last full week of September 6 to 13, it had seen a 92 per cent increase for all economy, return searches by UK traveller. It added that in terms of upcoming October half term week, weekly booking volumes for trips in half term have increased by 22 per cent in the last week. A survey of more than 2,000 British adults, conducted last week by Skyscanner and OnePoll, found that 43 per cent would be more likely to book travel abroad if the current system was changed. It also found that 36 per cent still find the traffic light system confusing. Meanwhile Emma Coulthurst from TravelSupermarket told MailOnline: 'In the last few weeks, we have seen a rise in people searching and booking holidays for September and October. 'We anticipate it is people who did not make plans this summer abroad but spent their holiday time in the UK due to the rule changes coming late.' All current 'amber list' countries will effectively become green or 'go' destinations while the number of 'red list', or 'no-go' countries, will be slashed in half. This means popular holiday destinations such as Turkey are likely to open up to fully jabbed Britons next month She said prices to Spain for this month and next are 38 per cent down compared to the same period in 2019 - adding that the country has really suffered from a lack of demand because of its position on the amber list. What are the current travel traffic light rules? Green list: Travellers must take a pre-departure Covid-19 test and book a day two follow up after arrival. There is no quarantine requirement unless the test is positive. The rules apply even to the fully-vaccinated. Amber list: Travellers must take a pre-departure Covid-19 test and book and pay for post-arrival follow up tests. This applies to everyone, regardless of vaccination status. The fully vaccinated must take a day two test. People who are not fully-vaccinated must quarantine for 10 days at home and take tests on day two and day eight. Red list: Travellers must take a pre-departure Covid-19 test and book an 11 day stay in a Government-backed quarantine hotel where they will be tested on day two and day eight. This applies to all travellers, even those who are fully-vaccinated. The quarantine hotel costs 2,285 which must be paid by the traveller. Advertisement Ms Coulthurst added: 'We are expecting a surge in holiday interest on the back of the expected simplification of the travel rules. 'Despite being on the red list, so far this month Turkey has still been the fourth most popular country to compare package holiday prices for via TravelSupermarket for a holiday from the UK in September and October - dropping from third place in 2019 at this time. 'This just shows the pent-up demand to travel to this low cost, warm late summer destination and suggests that people had been hoping that it would turn amber in the last traffic light update. 'People are still searching for holidays there in the hope of a traffic light change.' And Ryan Pearson, regional manager at Booking.com, told MailOnline: 'We welcome today's announcement which should simplify international travel, whilst at the same time keeping people's safety a priority. For the first time in a long time, there seems to be a real sense of optimism amongst us Brits on future travel. 'In light of the vaccine rollout and with many of us eager to experience the world once again, it is no surprise that we have started to see an increase in international booking searches - even if these trips are being booked last minute as people wait to see if government guidance changes. 'Our Q2 room nights (bookings) were up 59 per cent versus Q1 and we see this driven by domestic and international booking trends across Europe. It's really encouraging to see travel reopening as people across the nation get ready to explore the world once more.' Last night, sources said the changes to the Government's travel rules will save a typical family 'hundreds of pounds'. But as part of the package, those who are not vaccinated face even tougher restrictions. They will have to quarantine on their return from all countries even those on the 'go' list and will still need to take PCR tests. Insiders hope the strategy will help to drive up vaccination rates. Ministers will meet this morning to finalise the plans, with a formal announcement expected this afternoon. The changes will be a boost for the beleaguered industry, although travel chiefs said last night they didn't go far enough and called for all testing for the double-jabbed to be scrapped. It came as: What are the best value beach destinations? TravelSupermarket has crunched its holiday price comparison data to identify the 25 beach destinations which are offering the, on average, best value September and October package holidays from the UK. The data is for any duration of holiday, and in brackets below is the average percentage price difference of the package holiday compared to if you had booked at the same time and gone in September or October 2019, and the relative cheapest price position in 2019: Costa Dorada (3rd to 1st -27%) Costa Brava (1st to 2nd, -11%) Costa de Almeria (11thth to 3rd -38%) Valencia , Costa del Azahar (2nd to 4th, +4%) Majorca (9th to 5th, -15%) Zante (5th to 6th, -8%) Algarve (8tht to 7th-13%) Costa del Sol (7th to 8th --13%) Costa Blanca (4th to 9th, +2%) Corfu (14th to 10th- -15%) Istrian Riviera (21st to 11th -20%) Crete (18th to 12th -14%) Halkidiki (- -7%) Kefalonia (15th to 14th -10%) Menorca (12th to 15th -4%) Fuerteventura (26th to 16th -20%) Central Dalmatia (10th to 17th +7%) Dubrovnik Riviera (20th to 18th -7%) Rhodes (22nd to 19th +7%) Gran Canaria (19th to 20th -2%) Malta (6th to 21st +29%) Kos (23rd to 22nd -6%) Lanzarote (25th to 23rd -7%) Te n erife (- -5%) Ibiza (17th to 25th +5%) Advertisement The booster programme got under way yesterday, with a maternity support worker among the first to receive the jab; It emerged that a care worker and her daughter died in the same hospital less than a fortnight apart after both refused to get vaccinated; Industry leaders warned that care homes will be forced to shut, break the law or drop standards if ministers fail to push back the deadline for compulsory jabs; Nicola Sturgeon has called in the British Army to deal with Scotland's ambulance crisis after she was forced to apologise for life-threatening delays; A survey found that a majority of people believe workers will never return to the office full-time after the pandemic; The latest figures showed that Covid infections appear to be falling in all regions of England, even after children have returned to school. The travel industry has been calling for testing requirements to be eased or scrapped for the fully vaccinated for weeks. Many countries in Europe have seen their travel industries recover much quicker than the UK's, having already dropped PCR testing rules for double-jabbed arrivals from low-risk countries. There has also been huge controversy over the Government's approved list of PCR testing providers, with a litany of complaints that the tests are too expensive, and a disincentive to foreign travel. Although the travel 'red list' of countries deemed to pose a high risk from new Covid variants will remain in place, the number of countries will be reduced by more than half from the current 62, opening up the vast majority of destinations to those who are fully jabbed. Those returning from red list countries will still have to undergo a hotel quarantine at a cost of 2,285. However, the unvaccinated face an even tougher regime from today. At present, unvaccinated travellers returning from green list countries such as Croatia, Denmark and Germany have to take a PCR test within two days of their arrival home. Under the new system they will have to isolate at home for ten days and take PCR tests on both day two and day eight, as they currently do for amber list countries. The changes will be in place in time for the October half-term. Last night, a government source said the shake-up reflected growing confidence in the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines, coupled with a desire to cut travellers' costs. The Office for National Statistics' weekly surveillance report estimated there were 697,100 infections in England in the seven days to September 11, down 8 per cent on the previous week The UK is currently recording 1,000 Covid hospitalisations per day, the bulk of which are occurring in England (shown). This is up from around 750 from 'Freedom Day' on July 19, when all legal curbs were lifted in England Deaths have remained low despite high levels of transmission thanks to the rollout of the vaccines There will be widespread relief at the scrapping of the traffic light system. Since its launch in May, travellers have been subjected to a series of confusing and last-minute announcements. What school wave? Covid cases in England fall AGAIN as mass testing survey estimates rates dipped by 8% to below 700,000 in first week of children being back in classrooms Covid cases fell again in England last week despite fears of a fresh wave of infections on the back of children returning to school, official figures show. The Office for National Statistics' weekly surveillance report estimated there were 697,100 infections across the country in the seven days to September 11, down 8 per cent on the previous week. Most schools in England went back from the summer break on Wednesday, September 1, meaning today's data includes the first full week of the new school term. There had been widespread concerns that England would see a meteoric rise in infections like Scotland did when classes north of the border resumed in mid-August. Covid cases there trebled to record highs in the following fortnight which put pressure on health officials to finally approve vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds this week. The latest estimates, based on random swabbing of 100,000 households in England, suggest one in 80 people were carrying the virus on any given day last week. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, said: 'It does look like those strongly expressed views that we would see a surge in infections after schools went back has not turned out to be the case.' Separate data from Public Health England found that more than nine in 10 of England's local authorities saw their outbreaks shrink in the first week of schools returning. At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 people in England were estimated to have coronavirus. The percentage of people testing positive for Covid is estimated to have increased in north-west England and decreased in the West Midlands and the East of England, the ONS said. The trend for all other regions is uncertain, with the outbreaks believed to have flatlined in the most recent week. North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest proportion of people of any region likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to September 11 around one in 60. Eastern England had the lowest estimate, around one in 120. Advertisement Today's changes could also see the number of red-list countries slashed to fewer than 30. Cape Verde, Egypt, the Maldives and Turkey are among the holiday destinations currently on the red list. Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said: 'Getting rid of PCR testing would be a real step forward but not if we still end up with two tests you have to pay for. We need to follow Europe's example and remove these requirements if you've been vaccinated.' Charlie Cornish, chief executive of the Manchester Airports Group, said: 'People should be free to travel again to low-risk destinations without having to take any tests whether that is PCR or lateral flow. The time for baby steps is over.' George Eustice said that while no decisions have yet been taken on a potential shake-up of travel rules, the Covid Cabinet sub-committee is expected to meet today to look at the current restrictions. The Environment Secretary told Sky News: 'My understanding is that no decisions have actually been taken yet, although I understand there may be a meeting today to review this. We regularly review those travel restrictions.' Mr Eustice said the travel industry's concerns that current testing protocols are 'unnecessary' and 'onerous' have been heard. 'The Government will be listening to that and the Covid sub-committee of Cabinet that decide these things will be considering that probably later today,' he added. Mr Eustice stressed, however, that there are issues in switching to using lateral flow tests instead. The senior Conservative said the 'difficulty' with using the rapid-result tests, which are 'cheaper and simpler to do' than PCR tests, is that they are 'not able to pick up' coronavirus variants of concern that could potentially evade vaccines rolled out in the UK. Labour said it will support a change to the travel testing regime as long as it is 'based on evidence'. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps's expected announcement, which could come today or possibly overnight, will only apply to England, but recently the devolved administrations have implemented rule changes for travel announced in Westminster. It is anticipated that people arriving from red list countries will continue to be required to spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel, at a cost of 2,285 for solo travellers. There are currently 62 countries on that list but this is expected to be reduced. A Department for Transport spokesman said: 'Our top priority is to protect public health - decisions on our traffic light system are kept under regular review and are informed by the latest risk assessment from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and wider public health factors.' Labour's shadow policing minister Sarah Jones said her party has been 'calling for ages' for ministers to scrap the amber travel list because it has 'always added to confusion'. 'People never quite understood what the system was,' she told Sky News. 'We've been calling for a proper process to work out an international vaccine passport so we can get people safely moving around.' The travel sector has been desperate for the testing and quarantine rules for international travel to be relaxed. Heathrow said this week it has gone from being Europe's busiest airport in 2019 to number 10 on the list, behind rivals in cities such as Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. Speculation that travel restrictions might soon be overhauled sent shares in airlines soaring. AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson said: 'October half-term is the next big opportunity for the travel sector and any changes that can make travelling less unsettling and testing less expensive will yield dividends.' The Environment Secretary has defended the 'difficult but necessary' decision to euthanise Geronimo the alpaca, saying there was a danger of a 'false negative' if vets continued to test the animal for bovine tuberculosis. Speaking on LBC radio, George Eustice, 49, also defended the test method used by DEFRA officials saying it very rarely shows false positives, after a furious row erupted over whether or not the Emperplex test was accurately recording bovine TB results. He also argued that euthanising the popular alpaca was a 'difficult' decision, but ultimately the correct one - and compared the case to his own family's experience with the 'terrible' disease after his father slaughtered a show cow that contracted TB. Mr Eustice said: 'These cases are always difficult, and I had looked at the Geronimo case three years ago, and a couple of other times since, actually.' 'The important thing to recognise is that every week we have to remove and slaughter about 500 cattle who test positive. 'I know this particular owner was attached to Geronimo, but there are farmers up and down the country who suffer similar heartbreak every week - my own family, who have cattle, have lost show cattle, excellent cattle they wanted to show, through this terrible disease, and it is difficult but necessary.' Environment Secretary George Eustice (above) has defended the 'difficult' decision to euthanise Geronimo the alpaca, saying there was a danger of a 'false negative' emerging if vets continued to test the animal for bovine tuberculosis Three Government officials, who arrived with a police escort, surround Geronimo the alpaca at Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire on August 31 Helen MacDonald and Geronimo the alpaca at her farm near Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, before he was euthanised Geronimo was dragged from owner Helen Macdonald's farm in Gloucestershire last month by Government officials in boiler suits and facemasks - before being executed by staff from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, bringing a four-year legal battle to a close. Miss MacDonald was campaigning for the destruction to be halted after insisting the bovine tuberculosis tests previously carried out returned false positives. LBC's Nick Ferrari quizzed Mr Eustice on the death of the south American mammal, who twice tested positive for bovine TB, asking him: 'Are you the man who needlessly killed Geronimo the alpaca?' She had wanted him to be tested for a third time or allowed to live to aid research into the disease. A Defra spokesman told MailOnline that Geronimo was euthanised by APHA in line with strict animal welfare policies. By law, any animal with a suspected TB infection must be disposed of properly and safely as part of rigorous and consistent disease control measures. Did Geronimo have TB or not? Experts won't know until the end of this year Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Christine Middlemiss said that the initial post-mortem examination of Geronimo found a 'number of TB-like lesions'. These are now undergoing further investigation, with tests including the developing of bacteriological cultures (growths) from tissue samples. This normally takes several months, and experts expect to complete the full process by the end of this year. A lesion is an area of tissue that has been damaged through disease - and in some cases, the microscopic lesions of TB in the affected organs can take a very long time to progress to larger, visible lesions, if at all. Mycobacterium bovis can be grown in the laboratory from clinical samples, usually from tissue samples collected post-mortem. The culture process takes a long time because the bacterium grows slowly. This process can only be carried out in specialist laboratories, and it is not always successful even in lab conditions. It is only after growth in the laboratory that the species of Mycobacterium can be identified. Advertisement LBC's Nick Ferrari quizzed Mr Eustice on the death of the south American mammal, who twice tested positive for bovine TB, asking him: 'Are you the man who needlessly killed Geronimo the alpaca?' Mr Eustice responded: 'The truth is he [Geronimo] had tested positive for bovine TB using a test called the Emperplex test, which very rarely has false positives. 'The owner at that point said she was unsure about the result, would we give her a second test. 'We don't really do that, but the vets, to do her a favour, said "OK, we'll give you a second test". 'That also came back positive, so she said "Well, now I want a third test", and at that point the danger of just relentlessly testing is you will at some point get what is called a false negative, and that is that it will tell you it is clear when it is not. 'Difficult though it is, and I know she was very attached to Geronimo, we do have to maintain consistency in our fight against TB, and at post-mortem they did find TB-like lesions.' But Helen MacDonald has remained firm in her stance, and claims the initial findings of the post-mortem showed no signs of the disease. She said the preliminary post-mortem findings were 'negative for visible lesions typical of bovine tuberculosis'. However, the Chief Veterinary Officer said in a statement that 'a number of TB-like lesions were found'. The veterinary nurse also argued that the Enferplex test was fundamentally flawed and said Geronimo tested positive because he had repeatedly been primed with tuberculin - a purified protein derivative of bovine TB bacteria. The farmer has publicly called on Environment Secretary George Eustice to resign. Mr Eustice also spoke to LBC's Nick Ferrari of his father's own experience of having to slaughter a pedigree South Devon cattle after it contracted bovine TB. 'My own family, who have cattle, have lost show cattle, excellent cattle they wanted to show, through this terrible disease, and it is difficult but necessary. 'My family have a pedigree herd of South Devon cattle. 'They are wonderful, gentle animals, native to the West Country, but, yes, a few years ago we had an outbreak of TB and my father was very distraught because he lost one of the cows that he said was one of the best South Devon cows he had ever seen.' Jacqueline Goldsworthy, 57, said she had a vaginal bleed after getting the Covid vaccine A mother claims she was left bleeding from her vagina after getting her first dose of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine. Jacqueline Goldsworthy, from Barnet in north London, was rushed through for medical tests in case it was cancer or a sign of another illness. But results ruled out anything untoward in the post-menopausal 57-year-old, who has not had a period in two decades. Ms Goldsworthy, a social worker who got her first jab in December, believes the vaccine triggered her bleeding. However, NHS doctors insisted there was 'no way' it was to blame. She told MailOnline the bleeding was much heavier than what she used to suffer with her periods and lasted for about a week. It cleared up before her second dose in March, and didn't happen again. Official data shows there have been 366 reports of postmenopausal haemorrhage or vaginal bleeding after the menopause in women who've had a Covid jab made by AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna. But the data, collated by the UK's medical watchdog, does not necessarily mean that jabs were to blame. It is entirely possible the effects were simply coincidental and would have happened without the vaccine, doctors say. The catalogue of incidents is kept to monitor potential risks of approved jabs. Every recipient is asked to report any side effects to allow health chiefs to spot trends. It helped medical regulators work out the rare risk of blood clots with AstraZeneca's vaccine, and heart inflammation triggered by the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. Experts say post-menopausal women who experience any vaginal bleeding should consult their doctor. There have been 366 reports of postmenopausal haemorrhage or bleeding after the menopause after receiving either the AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The above graph shows how the vaccine roll out is going across Britain Postmenopausal bleeding is not usually serious but can be a sign of cancer, the NHS says. That does not mean vaccines trigger cancer. Nearly 35,000 women in Britain have also complained of suffering heavier periods or ones that come earlier or later than usual after getting the vaccine. But health officials are yet to accept any link between the jabs and an irregular cycle, despite calls from leading experts for the issue to be investigated further. What can cause post-menopausal bleeding? There can be several causes of postmenopausal bleeding. The most common causes are: Inflammation and thinning of the vaginal lining (atrophic vaginitis) or womb lining (endometrial atrophy) caused by lower oestrogen levels Cervical or womb polyps growths that are usually non-cancerous A thickened womb lining (endometrial hyperplasia) this can be caused by hormone replacement therapy (HRT), high levels of oestrogen or being overweight, and can lead to womb cancer Less commonly, postmenopausal bleeding is caused by cancer, such as ovarian and womb cancer. There is no research at present suggesting that vaccines can trigger post-menopausal bleeding. Treatment options depend on what's causing the bleeding. For bleeding caused by cervical polyps, these may need to be removed by a specialist to stop it from happening. Source: NHS England Advertisement Yesterday doctors lined up to dismiss fears that the jab may hamper fertility, saying disrupted periods are 'transient' in nature. Discussing her symptoms, Ms Goldsworthy told MailOnline: 'I am 57, on HRT patches and have not had a bleed in 20 years. 'But after I had the vaccine I had post-menopausal bleeding.' The mother-of-one said the NHS immediately rushed her for screening in case the symptoms were a sign of cervical cancer. But the tests did not turn up anything untoward. She had been on HRT for seven years, but had not experienced vaginal bleeding before she got the jab. HRT can trigger vaginal bleeding in rare cases. Ms Goldsworthy said her bleeding subsided ahead of her second dose in March. After this jab she was left with common side effects of headaches, shivering and aches but did not experience any more period problems. 'There is not much information about this at all,' she told MailOnline. 'I could not find much information on this when I looked online. 'I can't fault the NHS how speedily they got everything done for me in case it was cervical cancer. 'But when I said it was due to the vaccine, they said "no, no way!".' A woman in her late 60s who asked not to be named also contacted MailOnline to say that she started bleeding after getting the AstraZeneca vaccine. About a week after receiving the jab she woke up in the middle of the night to find that her sheets were covered in blood. Panicked, she rung her brother in floods of tears convinced she had stomach cancer. But tests did not show up any signs of the condition. The NHS says there are other causes of bleeding, such as inflammation of the vaginal lining or growths on the vagine that are not cancerous. The woman added that the jab left her with pain in her abdomen and swollen nipples as though she was pregnant, although two months later this has now subsided. Dr Jo Mountfield, vice president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: 'We would encourage anyone who experiences heavy bleeding that is unusual for them, especially after the menopause, to speak to a healthcare professional.' She added: 'It is important to get vaccinated as the best protection against coronavirus.' Nearly 35,000 women have now come forward to say their periods were disrupted after getting a Covid vaccine, it was revealed today. (stock) Woman, 31, says her periods were delayed after getting the jab Faye Leadbeater, 31, Manchester A 31-year-old woman says her periods are delayed after getting the Covid vaccine. Faye Leadbeater, a creative director in Manchester, got her first dose in early May, ahead of others in her age group because she suffers from asthma. Her periods had been on the dot for years, and she had not taken contraceptive pills so they never changed. But after getting her first dose of the Pfizer jab she said her periods became 'irregular', heavier and were later than normal. 'After the first dose I saw an irregularity, and I nearly missed my first period afterwards,' she told MailOnline. 'After the second vaccine I had the same symptom again. 'Then when my period came it hit me like a brick wall. When I had my period it was much heavier.' Faye said she had seen people posting about period changes after getting the vaccine before, but thought nothing of it. But now she wants research to be carried out to establish whether changes to periods are a side-effect of the vaccines. She said: 'I just want answers really because none of us are medical professioanls. '(But) no one is giving any scientific answers for how it could be affected, but it is clearly having an affect on things.' Advertisement Dr Jackie Maybin, a consultant gynaecologist at Edinburgh University, said: 'Women who are experiencing persistent menstrual changes, very irregular bleeding or who have any vaginal bleeding after the menopause should speak to their doctor to exclude other serious causes. 'Otherwise, the available evidence supports a short-lived effect and there appears to be no evidence of a negative impact on fertility.' Other jabs such as the HPV vaccine have already been found to disrupt periods, bolstering the claims that the Covid jabs may trigger irregular cycles. Covid itself and other viruses such as HIV are known to disrupt the menstrual cycle, too. Doctors said yesterday it was plausible that the immune response triggered by the vaccine could cause period problems. Dr Raj Mathur, a consultant in reproductive medicine and the chair of the British Fertility Society, told MailOnline: 'It does appear the Covid vaccine can be followed by a transient disturbance in the menstrual cycle in some women. 'However, the evidence also shows that there is no effect on fertility or on the risk of miscarriage. 'Women (and men) who have the Covid vaccine demonstrate no change in their sperm quality or chance of success with IVF.' He added that menstrual changes were a common symptom that women report with any stress or illness. 'Also, the ovaries contain immune cells and these may be affected in the same way as other parts of the body in response to the vaccine,' Dr Mathur added. A letter published this week in the British Medical Journal highlighted that the jabs may be causing period problems, and called for more research into this as a potential side effect of the vaccines. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Britain's medical regulator says: 'The rigorous evaluation completed to date does not support a link between changes to menstrual periods and related symptoms and Covid vaccines.' The MHRA says online it is investigating reports that the jabs have triggered period problems and unexpected vaginal bleeding. But it adds: 'The menstrual changes reported are mostly transient in nature. 'While uncomfortable or distressing, period problems are extremely common and stressful life events that can disrupt menstrual periods. 'Changes to the menstrual cycle have also been reported following infection with Covid and in people affected by long Covid.' The MHRA insists: 'There is no evidence to suggest that Covid vaccines will affect fertility and your ability to have children.' Guidance published by the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists and the British Fertility Society says there is 'absolutely no evidence, and no theoretical reason, that any of the vaccines can affect the fertility of women or men'. The MHRA has yet to uncover any pattern between the vaccines and any increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth. He was sentenced to nine months in prison and has now been fined 10,000 He crashed into a telegraph post and nine cars before he attempted to flee The lawyer had left work at S. Satha & Co Solicitors, where he was drinking A top lawyer drunkenly drove his car towards oncoming traffic and smashed into a telegraph pole and nine parked vehicles, a disciplinary hearing has heard. Kalum Gunarathna left work at S. Satha & Co Solicitors after drinking in February 2019 and got into his car, before driving into oncoming traffic and crashing into a telegraph post. As children looked on, the veteran lawyer struck parked cars and reversed at speed in an attempt to flee the scene of the accident, but smashed into more cars. In 2019, Mr Gunarathna was sentenced to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, and disqualified from driving for two years. Now, he has been fined 10,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, who said it was 'fortuitous that no physical harm' was caused in the incident. Kalum Gunarathna (pictured) left work after drinking in February 2019 and got into his car, before driving into oncoming traffic and crashing into a telegraph post He worked at S. Satha & Co Solicitors in London at the time of the incident, where he specialised in immigration and asylum cases. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard Mr Gunarathna, who qualified as a lawyer in Sri Lanka 35 years ago, left work in the evening after drinking and got into his car. He then drove into oncoming traffic and narrowly avoided a collision, before he smashed into a telegraph post and struck four parked vehicles, pushing one into the middle of the road. A witness said they saw him reverse at speed in an attempt to flee the scene but he was blocked by one of the cars he had previously hit. Mr Gunarathna, who has been a solicitor in the UK for 17 years, then reversed again and smashed into another vehicle, which was shunted into yet another parked car. In another attempt to reverse, Mr Gunarathna again crashed into the first car he struck, before hitting another two cars and driving the wrong way down a one-way street. The lawyer eventually stopped his vehicle after he crashed into yet another vehicle, the hearing was told. The witness approached Mr Gunarathna, who said he had been trying to reverse in order to leave but was unable to do so. The veteran lawyer worked at S. Satha & Co Solicitors (pictured) in London at the time. Now, he has been fined 10,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal Police officers found Mr Gunarathna smelling strongly of alcohol and having difficulty standing up straight. Mr Gunarathna pleaded guilty and was convicted of dangerous driving at London's Snaresbrook Crown Court in April 2019. He was sentenced to nine months in jail which was suspended for two years, ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and was disqualified from driving for two years. Mr Gunarathna was also ordered to pay 750 in compensation and pay 1,500 in legal costs. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal said Mr Gunarathna should have known better as a man with his professional experience. It said: '[Mr Gunarathna] should have known better as a man of his age and professional experience. He was solely and highly culpable. 'It was fortuitous that no physical harm was caused to the public but emotional harm was undoubtedly caused to those that observed the events as they unfolded. 'Those observers included children in a vehicle with their father.' The tribunal ordered Mr Gunarathna to pay a 10,000 and 2,000 in costs. The mother of three young girls who were found dead just days after the family finished hotel quarantine in New Zealand has been charged with their murder. Lauren Dickason, 40, from South Africa, has been accused of killing two-year-old twins, Maya and Karla, and their six-year-old sister Liane at a home in Timaru, in the Canterbury region, on Thursday. Her husband Graham Dickason discovered the bodies of his three children after returning home around 10pm, and was heard by neighbours screaming: 'Is this really happening?' Graham, who is an orthopaedic surgeon, and Lauren, also a doctor, had just moved their family to New Zealand in order to start a new life. South African doctor Lauren Dickason, 40, has been charged with the murder of her two-year-old twins, Maya and Karla, and their six-year-old sister Liane (pictured together) The childrens' father Graham Dickason, who is an orthopaedic surgeon, had returned to their Timaru home at around 10pm on Thursday where he discovered the children's bodies. Pictured: Graham and Lauren The family arrived in New Zealand in late August and had finished their 14-day hotel quarantine stay days before the tragedy unfolded. A photograph posted on social media on August 30 shows the three girls happily clutching little kiwi cuddly toys with beaming smiles as they arrived in the country. According to reports, a neighbour heard someone 'wailing' outside the property, on Queen Street in the suburb of Parkside, 15 minutes before police arrived. 'The first noise we heard was somebody sobbing, and then we heard a loud thud like someone just slammed a door,' the neighbour Jade Whaley told Stuff. 'We could see someone through our fence wandering behind the house and wailing.' Another resident, Karen Cowper, described hearing a man crying and saying 'is this really happening?' The young family (pictured together) had just moved to New Zealand from Pretoria, South Africa and recently finished their 14-day hotel quarantine The girl's mother Lauren was charged with the murder of her three daughters and is due to appear in the Timaru District Court on Saturday. Pictured: Police tape protects the scene on Queen Street in Timaru, New Zealand's South Island 'We asked him if he was OK. He did not respond to us and was screaming and crying hysterically,' Ms Cowper said. The girl's mother Lauren was taken to the nearby Timaru Hospital on Thursday, where she is in a stable condition. On Friday she was charged with the murder of her three daughters and is due to appear in the Timaru District Court on Saturday. The family had recently arrived in New Zealand from Pretoria, South Africa, and had only been in the town for a week. The girls' grandmother said the family was struggling to comprehend what had happened. 'It hasn't actually sunk in yet. We're in a terrible state of shock. We are devastated,' she told Stuff. Canterbury Police District Commander Superintendent John Price said the family appeared to have few contacts in New Zealand. A photograph posted on social media on August 30 (pictured) showing the three girls happily clutching little kiwi cuddly toys with excited smiles as they arrived in the country Earlier this month the mother took to social media asking for help as they prepared for the move. She had asked for advice about buying furniture in Timaru and wanted to know which schools would be best for her children. Detective Inspector Scott Anderson said NZ Police was 'speaking with people from the address and no-one else is being sought at this time'. The deaths are the second tragedy in as many months to befall the South Island community. Last month, five teenage boys were killed in a one-car crash in which only the 19-year-old driver survived. A knifeman pointed a crossbow at police officers after stabbing two people to death and injuring a third in a shocking attack in the Netherlands today, according to local media. Footage shows the suspect aiming his weapon at officers while standing on a balcony in Almelo before shots are fired by police. A body was later found inside the home and the man was arrested after he was also injured. A knifeman pointed a crossbow at police officers after stabbing two people to death and injuring a third in a shocking attack in the Netherlands today, according to local media Six ambulances and six police cars were at the scene and a SWAT team was also deployed. At 10am today, Overijssel police said they had attended an incident in connection with a stabbing and officers had fired shots. They said: 'The situation there is not safe at the moment. So do not come to the location.' They later announced that a person had been arrested and the situation was under control. Police said: 'At the stabbing incident at the Mth Steynstraat in #Almelo two people died. Footage shows the suspect aiming his weapon at officers while standing on a balcony before shots are fired by police 'A third victim was injured. 'One suspect has been arrested and injured. 'The further police investigation is ongoing.' Bystanders said they heard 'multiple shots' fired during the standoff between the crossbow-wielding suspect and police. Authorities raised the threat level to GRIP 3, meaning there was a threat to the well-being of the general population. A Veteran Affairs hospital employee has been banned from accessing patient records after being accused of tweeting a patient's preoperative notes ahead of surgery. In a now-deleted tweet, Carrie Christian, formerly Twitter user @CarrieeeeC, allegedly shared a photo of a patient's preoperative anesthesia note for a penile implant surgery. A '72[-year-old] male gets government-funded surgery,' Christian tweeted Monday along with an eggplant emoji. Without specifically naming Christian, Veterans Affairs press secretary Terrence Hayes confirmed to the Washington Post on Thursday that the tweet was sent by an administrative officer in the D.C. VA Medical Center's anesthesia department who has since been banned from accessing patient records. He also confirmed that the department has launched an investigation into the incident. 'VA is aware of the incident and takes it very [seriously],' Hayes said. 'An investigation is underway and the employee has been removed from all access to Veteran medical records for the foreseeable future.' Veterans Affairs press secretary Terrence Hayes confirmed that the employee responsible for the above tweet has since been banned from accessing patient records. He also confirmed that the department has launched an investigation into the incident Carrie Christian (pictured) is accused of tweeting a patient's preoperative notes ahead of surgery. The D.C. VA Medical Center employee allegedly shared a photo of a patient's preoperative anesthesia note for a penile implant surgery According to Hayes, the photo included in the tweet was of records 'for a Veteran who had surgery last week'. Although the photo did not include the patient's name, personal medical information such as the veteran's heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and mental status were listed. However, before her Twitter account was deleted, Christian did make a post claiming that the medical record she shared was something she found on the internet and not actual VA patient records. MailOnline has contacted Christian requesting comment. Patient records and personal health information are protected and considered private under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In a VA pamphlet on privacy obtained by the newspaper, the department claims that employees are trained annually on HIPAA and required to comply with its rules. 'Our employees know they must exercise care not to disclose information inadvertently,' the pamphlet reportedly reads. It is unclear at this time if Christian will be fired for the alleged potential HIPAA violation. According to the HIPAA Journal, all violations of HIPAA are considered a 'serious matter' and warrant an investigation. However, some violation are more severe than others. Depending on the nature of the incident and the organization's policies, termination could be a possible outcome for violating HIPAA laws. German ministers have cracked down on 'gender neutral' language in universities as a culture war rages against the use of male and female nouns. Last month, nine German universites including Konstanz and Stuttgart released common guidelines which gave advice to staff and students on how to avoid the use of masculine and feminine forms of nouns. However, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soder, 54, has slammed the new gender neutral language regulations at universities as 'indoctrination'. He has also ordered a review into the contents of the guides saying that language cannot be 'prescribed' and that students who do not use the new terminology should not be marked down. German Minister Markus Soder, 54, (pictured) has slammed the new 'gender neutral' language guidelines published by universities as 'indoctrination' The special language guides warned against the use of male forms of words to refer to groups of men and women - which has been traditionally used in German to address groups in general. Speaking to local newspaper, Augsburger Allgemeine, Mr Soder, who is also the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party, said that it would be intolerable if academics were to mark down students who failed to use the new gender conventions. He slammed the newly published advice by universities as 'indoctrination', and warned that the terminology could lead to referring to a mother and father as 'parent one and parent two'. 'It's not on,' he said. 'Bavaria is a free state, not an indoctrination state. Anyone may use language however they want but everyone should make sure to show sensitivity and respect in their language.' He continued: 'At the end of the day, it's not on for language to be prescribed. We can't end up with a kind of gender law or gender violation notices. 'You should be able to go on saying' mother and father. You don't have to say parent one and parent two. I don't want to be addressed by my children as parent.' He has also ordered a review into the contents of the guides adopted by nine German universities last month, saying that language cannot be 'prescribed' and that students who do not use the new terminology should not be marked down. Pictured: University of Stuttgart German, like many other languages, has masculine and feminine forms for thousands of words but in recent years, many left-wing institutions and public bodies have begun to adopt hybrid terms in order to be 'gender-neutral'. For example, according to The Times, voters can be referred to as either Wahler (male voters) or Wahlerinnen (female voters), with the masculine, Wahler, normally used to refer to voters in general. However, a new hybrid term, Wahlende (voting persons), has been coined to address voters in general, to avoid using the male form. The policy shift in language use has been criticised by conservative groups as an ideologically driven imposition, with the German Language Society issuing a 'call to resistance' against the 'ridiculous language structures' and 'gender nonsense'. At the CSU party conference that took place in Nuremberg last weekend, 96 per cent of members voted in favour of a motion condemning 'politically indoctrinating, artificial excesses of gender-moralising language acrobatics' in public bodies and educational institutions. The police officer filmed punching a drinker who 'swore at him' has been revealed as the same man who previously Tasered a pregnant woman - who went on to miscarry. Campaigners have called for 'bully' officer PC Matthew Hughes to be sacked after he was caught on camera appearing to punch and kick Stephen Dawe, 42. And last June PC Hughes Tasered Leanne Perrett, 35, when he intervened in a domestic bust-up between her and her boyfriend, it has now emerged. Perrett was three months pregnant but suffered a miscarriage after she was hit by the high-powered stun gun in a busy street, a court heard last year when the pair admitted assaulting an emergency worker. More recently Mr Dawe was pepper sprayed in the eyes and taken to the ground after allegedly calling an officer a 'd***head' in a pub. South Wales Police say he was arrested after allegedly being drunk and disorderly and abusing the officers. Campaigners have called for 'bully' officer PC Matthew Hughes (pictured) to be sacked after he was caught on camera appearing to punch and kick Stephen Dawe, 42 Footage showed the moment Perrett lost consciousnesses and landed face-first after PC Hughes pressed the trigger. At court District Judge Shoman Khan told Perrett and her boyfriend Kyle Butts the police officer had been right to use his Taser. He said: 'The officer's reaction was instinctive, it was a heated situation and I thought he dealt with it very well.' PC Hughes stepped in when Perrett and her partner Kyle Butts, 34, were seen arguing in the street, and fired the Taser while trying to control them. Speaking outside court at the time, Perrett said: 'I suffered a miscarriage after it happened. I was three months pregnant and I lost the baby. I know that's what caused it.' Perrett said the Taser should not have been used to break up the row. She said: 'The first thing I remember was waking up and being pushed into the back of the police van. The copper's reaction was completely over the top, he was well out of order. He had no need to Taser me.' A spokesman for South Wales Police said: 'Suffering a miscarriage is an extremely traumatic experience and our sympathies are with anyone who loses a child in this way. 'The court recognised there was no medical evidence that this incident was the cause of the miscarriage. The Taser footage was reviewed by South Wales Police with no issues identified. 'We hope the sentence ordered by the court, along with the drug treatment programme, provide the necessary support.' Butts, of Llantwit Major, South Wales, was handed an eight-week suspended sentence and a nine-month drug rehabilitation order. Perrett, also of Llantwit Major, was handed a 16-week suspended sentence and ordered to do a thinking skills programme. South Wales Police say Mr Dawes was arrested after being allegedly being drunk and disorderly and abusing the officers Last June PC Hughes Tasered Leanne Perrett, 35, when he intervened in a domestic bust-up between her and her boyfriend, it has now emerged Ms Perrett was three months pregnant when an officer fired his stun gun at her during a the row between her and her partner Kyle Butts (pictured) in Barry, South Wales Mr Dawe's family have complained to the Independent Office for Police Conduct about PC Hughes' behaviour. Mr Dawe's daughter, who asked not to be named, claimed: 'My dad said hello to them and they ignored him, so he called them out. 'Next thing he knew they'd grabbed him and taken him outside. My six-year-old brother and 10-year-old sister were also there and are traumatised by what they saw. 'I shot the video and watching it back makes me feel sick to my stomach. Our family is definitely going to be taking this further.' In a Facebook post she encouraged people to complain to the IOPC. In a statement, South Wales Police said officers attended the Tadcross Hotel as part of an unrelated matter before arresting Mr Dawe. A spokesman said: 'While at the premises a man became abusive and aggressive and, as a result, PAVA - an incapacitant spray - was discharged. 'A 42-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer by spitting. He has been released on conditional bail pending further enquiries. 'We are aware of footage being circulated on social media and the matter is being considered by the force's Professional Standards Department.' An eight-year-old boy who died after three doctors missed signs of undiagnosed meningitis was 'completely failed' by hospital staff at an 'unsafe' children's unit, an inquest was told. Logan Jones, from Magor, Monmouthshire, died on November 19, 2019, after he left the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, South Wales, without being seen by a doctor. His mother Michelle Allen, who described Logan as a 'very happy child', took her son home before he was seen, saying the hospital was 'chaotic' with nowhere for her unwell son to lie down. Just hours later at 3.50am, the youngster died at home, with his medical cause of death recorded as pneumococcal meningitis. Three doctors missed signs of the illness, the inquest heard. The eight-year-old was born with a heart defect and a genetic condition known as Chromosome 14, which meant he had learning difficulties and required feeding by tube. A children's nurse told the inquest that the conditions at Royal Gwent Hospital's Child Assessment Unit were not 'safe' on the evening of November 18, when Logan was at the unit. Senior coroner for Gwent, Caroline Saunders, said Logan was seeking care within a 'broken system' and that his mother's decision to take him home was the 'lesser of two evils'. Ms Saunders said Logan was 'completely failed' by hospital staff but added that she couldn't determine whether his experience directly contributed to his death and therefore recorded a conclusion of natural causes. Logan Jones (pictured), from Magor, Monmouthshire, died on November 19, 2019, after he left the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, South Wales, without being seen by a doctor The inquest heard a statement from Logan's mother Ms Allen, who said Logan first started feeling unwell on November 15, 2019. She said he had a headache, felt lethargic and had vomited. The next day, she called the out-of-hours service and although Logan had perked up a little, the first responder advised her that she should take him to A&E at Royal Gwent Hospital. At around 11am, Logan was triaged and had his vital signs observed by triage nurses and the ambulance crew. Though everything appeared normal when he was later seen at 2pm, Logan should have been seen within one hour due to his complex medical history. Dr Alejandro Levin, a junior registrar with four months of paediatric experience, saw Logan at the hospital and he told the inquest Logan was not showing any key symptoms of meningitis such as a stiff neck or obvious light sensitivity. He said that 'no doctor wants to miss meningitis' but concluded at the time Logan's problems were 'most probably a viral illness'. Dr Levin 'did not think it was necessary' to consult with a more senior colleague before discharging Logan. This decision was supported by consultant Edward Valentine in his evidence because '[Logan] had been there for three hours and his vital signs hadn't changed'. His mother Michelle Allen took Logan home from Royal Gwent Hospital (pictured) before he was seen as she said the hospital was 'chaotic' and there was nowhere for him to lie down Ms Allen was offered to keep Logan in hospital for observations, but she took him home and agreed to bring him back if his condition worsened, the inquest heard. In her statement, Ms Allen said Logan seemed to perk up briefly, but he went 'downhill' so she took him to see his GP, Dr Andrew Gray. FAMILY PAY TRIBUTE TO 'BEAUTIFUL BOY WITH AN INFECTIOUS CHUCKLE, WHO WAS CRUELLY TAKEN' A statement made on behalf of Ms Allen, read by her representative, Andrew Collingbourne, said: 'Logan, our beautiful boy, was cruelly taken from us on November 19, 2019. 'He was just eight years of age but had courageously battled complex medical conditions all his young life with a smile on his face. 'Logan was a very happy child with an infectious chuckle and a sunny disposition. Logan loved dressing up, wearing designer clothes including Hugo Boss. He also enjoyed his iPad and music. 'We sincerely hope his death was not in vain and Aneurin Bevan [University] Health Board insert policies to insure children with complex medical needs are prioritised when presenting at the hospital and receive the professional healthcare required. 'We will remember him with great love and affection and he will main close to us and in our hearts for the rest of our lives.' Advertisement Appearing at the inquest, Dr Gray said on examining Logan he could not find a rash and that there was no evidence of a stiff neck, scoring him as 'low risk' for meningitis. But Ms Allen remained concerned and Logan seemed unwell, he 'wasn't happy to send him home' so referred Logan to Royal Gwent Hospital's Child Assessment Unit (CAU), now named the Children's Emergency Assessment Unit. When Ms Allen arrived at the CAU at 6.02pm, she described the scene as 'chaotic' and she knew she would be there 'for some time'. She asked for a bed so Logan could lie down, but she claimed she was told it was not possible and to stay in the waiting area with her son. Ms Allen said she asked for an indication of waiting times and was told by a member of staff that it was 'busy', so with no end in sight, she decided to take Logan home. Ms Allen said in her statement: 'We got him to bed [at around 10.30pm]. Logan said to me: 'See you' and I replied: 'Love you'. I woke up at 3.50am and decided to give Logan some water. 'He was lying there...I touched him, he was stiff, and I started screaming.' Logan was pronounced dead at around 4am, with his medical cause of death recorded as pneumococcal meningitis. When the coroner asked children's nurse Joanne Anslow whether it was safe in the CAU that evening, she replied: 'It wasn't safe.' However, she said there had since been several improvements in the department which made it easier to manage, including more available nurses and improved shift patterns. Nurses were aware Ms Allen was considering taking her son home and that normal practice is that parents should be advised to wait until they're seen, the inquest heard. Dr William Christian, who was at the inquest to give supporting evidence, said he believed Dr Levin's notes gave a 'very brief assessment for a child with complex needs'. Senior coroner for Gwent, Caroline Saunders, said Logan was seeking care within a 'broken system' and that his mother's decision to take him home was the 'lesser of two evils' It was heard that Dr Levin had not made a record that he had not found Logan to have a stiff neck or that he had checked to see if Logan was sensitive to light. Dr Christian said if Logan had been seen by a doctor when he should have been, he would have likely been kept overnight. But he added that meningitis can deteriorate very quickly and that he 'could not say for definite' that the outcome would have been different for Logan. WHAT IS MENINGITIS? Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord (meninges). It can affect anyone, but is most common in babies, young children, teenagers and young adults. Meningitis can be very serious if not treated quickly. It can cause life-threatening blood poisoning (septicaemia) and result in permanent damage to the brain or nerves. A number of vaccinations are available that offer some protection against meningitis. Meningitis is usually caused by a bacterial or viral infection. Bacterial meningitis is rarer but more serious than viral meningitis. Meningitis is usually caught from people who carry these viruses or bacteria in their nose or throat but are not ill themselves. It can also be caught from someone with meningitis, but this is less common. Source: NHS Advertisement Ms Saunders said Logan not being seen by 2pm was a 'significant delay', but added that she didn't think this affected the overall outcome. She also said Dr Levin should have recorded any findings or non-findings relating to whether Logan had a stiff neck or sensitivity to light, describing it as 'inconceivable' that he did not record the results. Ms Saunders added that Dr Levin, who only had four months paediatric experience, should have sought a 'more senior review'. Ms Saunders said Logan arrived at Royal Gwent Hospital while the children's unit was 'extremely busy', adding that the 'staff could not cope' and 'the environment was not safe'. Ms Saunders said she accepted it was Logan's mother's decision to take him home, adding: 'I can understand it felt like the lesser of two evils.' The coroner said she believed from the evidence that if Logan had been seen when he should have been, his complex medical needs would have been given more consideration and he would possibly have been kept in overnight, giving staff 'an opportunity to save his life'. The inquest heard that changes had been made since 2019 as the paediatric services were centralised at the new Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran. Susan Dinsdale, assistant divisional nurse, said leaflets were now handed to people who came to the unit and people are advised not to leave without speaking to a nurse. A spokesman for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: 'Our thoughts and deepest sympathy remain with the family of Logan and we're very sorry for the circumstances surrounding the care he received. 'The events surrounding Logan's death have been fully investigated through the Health Board's Serious Incident review process. Our investigation findings, actions and learning have been fully and openly shared with the family and the Gwent Coroner. 'The Health Board and its staff have fully contributed to the recent Inquest to help provide answers to the family and to assist the Coroner. 'The Health Board has undertaken comprehensive corrective actions to address the issues raised through our investigation, including a review of escalation protocols, further recruitment, staff training, and a move to the new Children's Emergency Assessment Unit at The Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran.' A female FIFO worker has revealed the sickening sexual harassment she was subjected to by her male supervisors while working in the mining industry. Astacia Stevens, 33, shared her shocking experiences to a Western Australian parliamentary inquiry examining sexual harassment in FIFO workers in the sector. She claims she was subjected to unwanted touching and sexual harassment, with her refusal to perform degrading acts only resulting in her being bullied. While trying to swap roles at mining group Rio Tinto, the mother-of-two alleged a supervisor unzipped his pants while the pair were sitting in a car on site. 'He was not wearing any underwear and said to me ''if you want your (Rio Tinto) shirt, you have to get on your knees first'',' she claimed in her submission to the inquiry, The West Australian reported. Astacia Stevens, 33, claims she was subjected to unwanted touching, grooming and sexual harassment as a female FIFO worker She claimed that when she refused the man's request, he promised her he'd make sure she wouldn't find a job. The same supervisor then began to follow her around at the mine site, intimidating her and abusing her over the work radio. She claimed women in the industry were given the impression that 'the best way to get ahead is by getting your knees dirty'. A different male manager went out of his way to make Ms Stevens uncomfortable, constantly grabbing her bottom and making sexual movements, she alleged. She said she was working for hospitality and cleaning company Sodexo at the time when the supervisor began making unwanted advances. 'He would frequently grab my bum, putting his fat gut into the small of my back as if though he would try to 'ride me', he would laugh when he did it, and he did it often in front of others present,' she said. When she was interested in changing roles, the manager told her to 'show special favours', which she understood to be sexual acts. Shockingly, Ms Stevens alleged some female mining workers are being drugged and sexually abused while on site. Witnesses have been sharing testimonies into an inquiry on sexual harassment experienced by FIFO workers (stock of mine site in Western Australia) 'I know this because women colleagues would often say to me ''I did have a drink, but I didn't drink that much, but I can't remember anything about how I woke up in that man's bed'',' she said. Ms Stevens said many female FIFO workers were too afraid to speak out and often nothing was done if they did. The mother said while on site she was forced to go to the communal gym as early as 3am to avoid the attention of male colleagues. 'When I'd leave the gym, men would leave at exactly the same time and I could see them following me,' she said, the ABC reported. 'I felt safer to get up at 3.00am when no-one else was generally awake to go to the gym.' In another allegation from Ms Stevens, she said while she worked as a contractor for Macmahon Australia Mining she was nearly caught in an accident with her haul truck and another vehicle. 'The superintendent at Macmahon that was heading the investigation propositioned me that if I had sex with him, he would make the investigation go away,' she said. Deputy Liberal leader Libby Mettam called for the parliamentary inquiry and said testimonies coming forward from witnesses were 'horrific allegations'. More witnesses are expected to tell their stories in the coming months. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Sexual Assault Counselling Australia: 1800 211 028 LIFELINE 13 11 14 The mother of a housebound disabled woman who killed herself after her benefits were cut has lost a High Court bid for a fresh inquest into her daughter's death. Jodey Whiting, 42, from Stockton-on-Tees, died in February 2017 around two weeks after her disability benefit was stopped when she did not attend a work capability assessment. Her mother, Joy Dove, asked the High Court in London in June to grant a new inquest to investigate the role of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Ms Whiting's death. Joy Dove, the mother of a housebound disabled woman who killed herself after her benefits were cut has lost a High Court bid for a fresh inquest into her daughter's death The original inquest, which lasted 37 minutes, determined that Ms Whiting had taken her own life. Ms Dove's lawyers argued there were 'multiple, significant failings' by the DWP when it terminated her daughter's Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) that were not considered at the previous inquest. But in a ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Warby, Mrs Justice Farbey and Judge Thomas Teague QC the chief coroner for England and Wales dismissed the claim, finding the original inquest was sufficient. Mrs Justice Farbey said it would not be in the interests of justice for a new inquest, adding: 'It is likely to remain a matter of speculation as to whether or not the department's decision caused Ms Whiting's suicide. Jodey Whiting, 42, (pictured) from Stockton-on-Tees, died in February 2017 around two weeks after her disability benefit was stopped when she did not attend a work capability assessment 'In my judgment, it would be extremely difficult for a new inquest to conclude that the department caused Ms Whiting's death.' At the hearing earlier this year, the court heard Ms Whiting had received benefits for more than a decade due to serious, long-term physical and mental health issues, including severe pain and a history of self-harm. In late 2016, the DWP started to reassess Ms Whiting, who said she needed a house visit as she was housebound, had severe anxiety and was unable to walk more than a few steps. Ms Dove's lawyers argued that a house visit was not properly considered before the DWP terminated her disability benefit, which led to Ms Whiting's housing benefit and council tax benefit also being terminated. The decision to terminate Ms Whiting's benefit was overturned on March 31, weeks after her death. The independent case examiner (ICE), the body which investigates complaints about the DWP, later found multiple breaches of department policy, significant errors by staff and several 'missed opportunities' for the DWP to reconsider the claim. Jonathan Hough QC, for the coroner's service, told the High Court in June that the coroner had called sufficient evidence to address how Ms Whiting died. 'It is unquestionable that the failures of DWP staff were serious and indefensible but that does not mean that the first inquest was inadequate,' he said. Her mother, Joy Dove (middle), asked the High Court in London in June to grant a new inquest to investigate the role of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Ms Whiting's death. Pictured right: Jodey's daughter Emma Bell In the judgment, Mrs Justice Farbey agreed and said: 'It is not necessary and would not be in the public interest for a coroner to engage in an extensive inquiry into the department's decision-making. 'The fact that the ICE found numerous significant failings does not mean that an inquest should adduce substantial evidence about them.' 'The inquest conducted by the coroner was short but fair. It covered the legal ground and dealt with the evidence before the coroner including the views of Ms Whiting's family,' she concluded. After the decision, Ms Dove said: 'I am bitterly disappointed by the High Court's ruling. 'More than four years on from losing Jodey the DWP has still not had to answer for the role that I believe they played in her death. In a ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Warby, Mrs Justice Farbey and Judge Thomas Teague QC the chief coroner for England and Wales dismissed the claim, finding the original inquest was sufficient. Pictured: Jodey's parents Joy Dove and Eric Whiting 'Despite dismissing my application the judgment makes it clear that the behaviour of the DWP has been shocking and I welcome the High Court ruling that Jodey's ESA should never been withdrawn. 'This is not the end. I am not giving up and I will continue to fight for justice for Jodey. Thank you to all those that have supported me in this fight so far.' Alex Kennedy, head of campaigns and public affairs at Rethink Mental Illness, said: 'This ruling is terrible news for Jodey's family, who have fought so hard to get justice on her behalf. 'Jodey, who lived with serious long-term physical and mental health issues, was desperately let down by the DWP but this heart-breaking case is far from unique. 'Recent figures revealed that in the past three years there have been 124 internal investigations by DWP into cases of death or serious harm. The lack of transparency and accountability is inexcusable. 'At a time when millions of people rely on support from benefits, this should be a national scandal. 'Our Stop Benefit Deaths campaign is calling for a public inquiry to give families the answers they deserve, and to prevent others from being failed by a system which is supposed to support them.' Brussels is set to ask Boris Johnson to agree a defence and security pact with the EU, it was claimed today. Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, is due to meet Mr Johnson for a working dinner in Downing Street this evening. Reports suggest Mr Rutte will offer Mr Johnson the chance to work more closely with the EU on defence and security matters. The offer to the UK will be viewed as a direct response to European disquiet over the manner of the US exit from Afghanistan. It comes despite French fury over a new defence agreement struck by the US, UK and Australia earlier this week. Brussels is set to ask Boris Johnson to agree a new defence and security pact between Britain and the EU Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, is expected to make the offer when he meets Mr Johnson for a working dinner in Downing Street this evening Mr Johnson and other European NATO leaders had urged Joe Biden to delay the US withdrawal from Kabul to provide more time for humanitarian airlifts. But the requests were snubbed and the US President opted to proceed with his hard deadline of August 31. That decision left MPs wondering if the UK's foreign policy, which has long been linked to Washington's actions, was at a crossroads. Senior figures in the EU now want to develop the ability to act militarily without having to rely on the US. Defence cooperation was not included in the Brexit negotiations but Brussels now believes the UK could be more open to increased working together. A diplomatic source told The Times: 'Afghanistan is a catalyst for further discussion on European defence cooperation, preferably including the UK. 'Since Brexit, not enough European leaders have been in touch with Johnson. 'It is important to look at the geopolitics without being divided and there is a need to work with the UK.' France and Germany are both said to be on board with the EU proposal set to be made by Mr Rutte despite French anger over the new AUKUS security pact. The deal between the US, UK and Australia will see the latter provided with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. But Paris reacted with fury to the agreement and called it a 'stab in the back' because it means Australia is pulling out of a multi-billion pound contract for France to provide a fleet of diesel-electric submarines to Canberra. The AUKUS deal, widely interpreted as an attempt to check China's growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, was swiftly condemned by Beijing as a 'geopolitical gaming tool'. Mr Johnson told MPs that the agreement was 'not intended to be adversarial towards any other power'. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he recognised 'frustration' in Paris at the deal after speaking to his French counterpart Florence Parly on Wednesday night. But he insisted the UK did not 'go fishing' for the agreement which will see the UK and US share nuclear-powered submarine expertise with the Australians. He said: 'I understand France's disappointment. They had a contract with the Australians for diesel-electrics from 2016 and the Australians have taken this decision that they want to make a change. 'We didn't go fishing for that, but as a close ally when the Australians approached us of course we would consider it. I understand France's frustration about it.' The offer will be viewed as a direct response to European disquiet over the manner of the US exit from Afghanistan One source said the Dutch 'can be a bridge' between the UK and the rest of the EU 'but we have to see if the British leader is interested, first and foremost if there is fertile soil for the offer'. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman would not be drawn on the reports but said: 'I have seen the speculation obviously of the reporting this morning but I am not going to preempt what he will say. 'We have a strong defence relationship both with the EU and individual EU member states. 'Obviously we have always been clear that NATO remains the cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic security and we are its biggest European contributer.' Apple and Google have come under fire for political meddling after they both removed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's tactical voting app from their stores under pressure from the Kremlin. The move comes as Russians prepared today to elect a new parliament in a three-day election widely presumed to be fixed. Allies of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic opponent, planned to use the mobile app to organise a tactical voting campaign to deal a blow to United Russia, which is expected to win the election. But Russia demanded this month that Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, saying a refusal to do so would be treated as meddling in its parliamentary election. Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally based abroad, said today the removal amounted to political censorship and described it as 'a shameful act' that would 'thrill' Russia's 'authoritarian government and propaganda'. The move was welcomed by the Kremlin. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Apple and Google have come under fire for political meddling after they both removed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's tactical voting app from their stores under pressure from the Kremlin Allies of Navalny planned to use the mobile app (pictured) to organise a tactical voting campaign to deal a blow to United Russia, which is expected to win the election Russia demanded this month that Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, saying a refusal to do so would be treated as meddling in its parliamentary election Zhdanov confirmed the news posting a letter from Apple online. 'We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the Russia App Store because it includes content that is illegal in Russia,' it said, citing the 'extremist' designation Navalny's organisation received earlier this year. Zhdanov also said his team would considering a legal appeal against the tech firms' decision. On Thursday, Russia said official approaches had been made to the two companies' chief executives threatening sizeable fines if they failed to delete the app, which Moscow considers illegal. 'We will now consider applying turnover fines on those companies that systematically violate Roskomnadzor's demands,' Interfax news agency cited Vadim Subbotin, deputy head of state communications regulator Roskomnadzor, as saying yesterday. Subbotin named Facebook, Twitter and Google as some of the firms at risk. Roskomnadzor now has 'substantial' tools capable of enforcing the requirements of Russian law, he said, without giving further details. Both firms were fined earlier this year - Apple was charged $12million for allegedly holding a monopoly in the app market while Google received a rap on the knuckles as regulators demanded social media sites remove content banned in Russia. Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally based abroad, (pictured with Navalny's wife Yuliya) said today the removal amounted to political censorship and described it as 'a shameful act' that would 'thrill' Russia's 'authoritarian government and propaganda' The app disappeared today as Russians prepared to elect a new parliament in a three-day election widely presumed to be fixed (pictured, a woman votes in Krasnoyarsk) Earlier on Thursday, lawmaker Andrei Klimov said Russian prosecutors had made official approaches to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on September 9, telling them to stop breaking Russian law by continuing to allow people to access Navalny's banned tactical voting app on their companies' stores. '(Apple and Google's) actions during Russian elections are seen as illegal and directly linked to interference in Russia's purely domestic affairs,' Interfax cited Klimov as saying. Company representatives in Russia were warned they could face criminal prosecution if the tech giants failed to comply with Kremlin demands. 'Entities and persons associated with Apple and Google should realise that the knowingly unlawful actions and criminal inaction demonstrated upon receiving relevant warnings from Russian officials will invariably entail legal consequences, up to criminal prosecution,' Federation Council member Vladimir Dzhabarov yesterday, Interfax reported. Kremlin officials also pressured the US ambassador, who was told 'the Russian site possesses irrefutable evidence of the violation of the Russians laws by US "digital giants"' before Russia's elections. Ruling party United Russia is expected to win this weekend's election despite a ratings slump after the biggest crackdown on the Kremlin's critics in years (pictured, people wait to vote in Krasnoyarsk) Moscow public election monitoring centre monitor the elections, set to take place over the weekend in Russia Meanwhile Apple's AppStore suffered an outage earlier this week and GlobalCheck, a group that monitors websites' accessibility in Russia, late on Wednesday said telecoms operators had started blocking access to Google Docs. And internet services have come under increasing pressure this week ahead of Russia's September 17-19 parliamentary vote. Russia's authorities have said foreign firms are hampering their efforts to block virtual private networks (VPNs) and online resources linked to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Roskomnadzor has also successfully slowed the speed of Twitter since March, impeded some VPN providers from operating, and last week blocked major domain name system (DNS) services for several hours. 'Now, Russia is way ahead of China in terms of blocking capabilities,' IT expert Mikhail Klimarev said. Ruling party United Russia is expected to win this weekend's election despite a ratings slump after the biggest crackdown on the Kremlin's critics in years. Advertisement Australia's defence minister has admitted that war with China over Taiwan is a possibility and warned that his country needs to start preparing - just a day after signing an historic defence pact with the UK and US. Peter Dutton, speaking from Washington where he is meeting with US officials, insisted that the new alliance - which will give Australia at least eight nuclear submarines and other advanced military technology - was about securing 'peace' in the region but the odds of a conflict with China 'shouldn't be discounted'. 'The Chinese.. are very clear of their intent with regard to Taiwan [and] the United States has been very clear of their intention toward Taiwan,' he said. 'Nobody wants to see conflict but that really is a question for the Chinese.' President Xi Jinping has vowed to 'reunify' Taiwan with China in the near future, and in 2019 said he will use force if necessary. Meanwhile Joe Biden recently vowed to defend the island if it is attacked - though officials later said he 'misspoke' and that America's long-standing policy of 'strategic ambiguity' remains in place. Mr Dutton issued the grim warning as Beijing continues to fume over the submarine pact - dubbed AUKUS - with state newspapers penning furious columns while unnamed military sources warned the deployment of nuclear-powered subs could make Australia the target of a nuclear strike. Meanwhile Boris Johnson was forced to defend Britain's involvement in the alliance amid fears the UK could now be dragged into fighting in the South China Sea. The Prime Minister refusing to rule anything out, telling the House of Commons: 'The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law.' Underlining the immediacy of the threat, Taiwan said its air force was today scrambled to warn away Chinese jets - including eight fighters and two support aircraft - that had strayed into its airspace. Australia will acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines and a host of other advanced military technology from the UK and US after singing an historic deal aimed at countering China's growing power Australia's defence minister has today admitted that war with China is possible in the South China Sea (pictured) with Taiwan (top) as the likely flashpoint. China claims control over the whole of the sea, which other nations dispute The pact does not make the design of Australia's new submarines clear, but they will be based on previous US and UK designs. Pictured above is a cross-section of Britain's Astute-class nuclear attack subs, which is likely to mirror the new vessels Furious EU complains that it was 'not consulted' on AUKUS submarine deal The EU has complained that it was 'not consulted' on the AUKUS submarine deal while France has lashed out at Australia for 'stabbing it in the back'. Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said the union was only made aware of the new alliance through the media. And French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has accused the Australians of a betrayal because the alliance meant they scrapped a multi-billion deal for France to provide subs. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for the pact to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia with the US after France called it a 'stab in the back'. The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in a ground-breaking agreement dubbed AUKUS. But this meant that Canberra ripped up a deal worth around 30billion that was struck with Paris in 2016 for France to provide 12 diesel-electric submarines. A diplomatic row broke out, with Mr Le Drian telling France-Info radio: 'It was really a stab in the back. 'We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed.' Meanwhile Mr Borrell, ex-President of the European Parliament, said: 'This alliance we have only just been made aware and we weren't even consulted. 'As high representative for security, I was not aware and I assume that an agreement of such a nature wasn't just brought together over night. I think it would have been worked on for quite a while.' He added: 'We regret not having been informed not having been part of these talks. We weren't included, we weren't part and parcel of this.' Mr Wallace said he recognises the 'frustration' from France after speaking to his French counterpart Florence Parly on Wednesday night. He told BBC Breakfast: 'I understand France's disappointment. 'They had a contract with the Australians for diesel-electrics from 2016 and the Australians have taken this decision that they want to make a change. 'We didn't go fishing for that, but as a close ally when the Australians approached us of course we would consider it. I understand France's frustration about it.' Boris Johnson told MPs today that the UK's military relationship with France is 'rock solid' and insisted 'we stand shoulder to shoulder with the French' despite the row. The Prime Minister met with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June. Downing Street confirmed that the three leaders discussed the subs at the meeting. The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'I wouldn't say there was one single meeting that did it, this has been something that has been an undertaking of several months, it's a culmination of that work.' Advertisement Combat aircraft were sent to drive away the Chinese jets, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said, while missile systems were also deployed to monitor them. Self-governing Taiwan, which is home to the remnants of the Republic of China which fought against the Communist Party when it first emerged, views itself as an independent state while Beijing views it as a breakaway province. It has long-standing ties with the US, which historically recognised it as the legitimate government. The island's government has complained for a year of repeated missions by China's air force near its borders, often in the southwestern part of its air defense zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. The incident came a day after Taiwan proposed extra defense spending of $9billion over the next five years, including on new missiles, warning of an urgent need to upgrade weapons in the face of a 'severe threat'. Speaking earlier on Friday, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government had to take the threat from China seriously. 'The Chinese Communists plot against us constantly,' he said. Taiwan's defense spending 'is based on safeguarding national sovereignty, national security, and national security. We must not relax. We must have the best preparations so that no war will occur,' he added. China's government, for its part, criticized Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Friday for comments this week in which he said Taiwan was a 'sea fortress' blocking China's expansion into the Pacific. Wu's 'aim is to deceive public opinion, to rope in and collude with anti-China foreign forces,' China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in statement. Tensions have been simmering in the South China Sea - a strategic body of water located between China, Vietnam, and the Philippines - for years, but have been brought to a head recently because of Beijing's increasingly aggressive posturing. President Xi lays claim to the body of water in its entirety, which would had him control over valuable shipping lanes, oil and gas deposits, and fertile fishing grounds which provide a large source of food in the region. But the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam also lay partial claim to the waters and have been supported by the US and other western powers who are keen to deny Beijing control over the strategic asset. In violation of international law, China has been building military bases on artificial islands - including the Spratly and Paracel Islands - and warning other nations to keep away from them. America and Britain have been sailing what they called 'freedom of navigation' operations near the bases, arguing they are necessary to keep the waterways open for all nations to use - much to the ire of Beijing. Australia acquiring nuclear submarines - which can sail much further than traditional subs and conceal themselves easier - will potentially allow the country to join such missions or else covertly spy on what China is doing, which is why the pact has so infuriated Beijing. The backlash marks a new low in relations between Australia and China - the country's largest trading partner - which were already at rock-bottom following calls from Canberra for a probe into Covid's origins. China reacted by cutting off all diplomatic contact with Australia and has since engaged in a trade war, whacking tariffs on Australian goods that are thought to have cost the country $2.6billion annually. But the war of words could now spiral into all-out conflict with China's Global Times news website - a mouthpiece for the communist government - warning of the possibility of a nuclear strike on Australia. The article cited an anonymous 'senior Chinese military expert' who said Australia would pose a nuclear threat to other countries because the new submarines could potentially be fitted with nuclear weapons provided by the US or UK. 'This would make Australia a potential target for a nuclear strike, because nuclear-armed states like China and Russia are directly facing the threat from Australia's nuclear submarines which serve US strategic demands,' the expert said. 'Beijing and Moscow won't treat Canberra as ''an innocent non-nuclear power,'' but 'a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons anytime,' the expert added. Peter Dutton insisted that the aim of the new defence pact is to ensure peace in the region, but that the risk of fighting with China 'shouldn't be discounted' and was 'up to the Chinese' Scott Morrison meeting with Boris Johnson and Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall back in June, where the trio put pen to paper on a new military alliance that will give Australia its first nuclear-powered submarines Why is Australia getting the subs? Why nuclear submarines? Nuclear submarines are powered by nuclear reactors which produce heat that creates high-pressured steam to spin turbines and power the boat's propeller. They can run for about 20 years before needing to refuel, meaning food supplies are the only limit on time at sea. The boats are also very quiet, making it harder for enemies to detect them and can travel at top speed - about 40kmh - for longer than diesel-powered subs. The first nuclear submarines were put to sea by the United States in the 1950s. They are now also in use by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India. A senior US defence official told reporters in Washington DC: 'This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to basically deploy for a longer period, they're quieter, they're much more capable. 'They will allow us to sustain and to improve deterrence across the Indo-Pacific.' Zack Cooper, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said nuclear submarines would hugely boost Australia's military capability. They are going to be much, much more capable in the large, expansive ocean that is Australia has to deal with,' he told the ABC. Will Australia have nuclear weapons? Scott Morrison made it clear that the nuclear-power submarines will not have nuclear missiles on board. Australia has never produced nuclear weapons and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1973 which prevents non-nuclear states which don't already have them from developing nuclear weapons. Mr Morrison also said the Australia has no plans to build nuclear power stations which are widely used around the world. 'But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,' he said. 'And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.' Advertisement The article warned Mr Morrison's ambition to beef up Australia's military 'could bring destructive consequences' in the event of a nuclear war and said his insistence that Australia does not want nuclear missiles is 'meaningless'. China is believed to have between 250 and 350 nuclear weapons, compared to American's arsenal of 5,800 and Russia's total of 6,375. In July satellite photos emerged which appeared to show China building a huge missile silo base in the desert town of Hami, northern Xinjiang province Researchers believe the site could expand to 110 silos, which can be filled an intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. China's DF-31 nuclear missile can travel up to 11,200km at 8km per second, reaching the US or Australia in less than half an hour. In January China shared video of it testing a DF-26 or Dongfeng-26 missile, a medium-to-long-range non-nuclear missile said to be able to reach Guam, a US territory about 3,200 miles from the Chinese coast. Only eight countries have nuclear weapons: The US, UK, France, China, India, Russia, Pakistan and North Korea. Australia has no experience with nuclear weapons or energy and Mr Morrison said he has no intentions to change that. Prime Minister Morrison had been working in secret for nearly two years with a group of advisors to secure a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, allowing Australia to push back against an increasingly assertive China. The plan is thought to have been hatched as early as August 2019, with Mr Morrison asking a team of scientists, Navy top brass, engineers and other experts to look again at a deal Australia had signed with France to buy 12 diesel-powered subs and to see whether better options existed. Ultimately, the task force concluded that going nuclear - an option that Australia has long-resisted due to the lack of a domestic nuclear industry and a commitment to nuclear non-proliferation - would be preferable to paying France $90billion for its vessels, after the cost ballooned from the $50billion first agreed upon. Just a few years earlier in 2016 when former PM Malcolm Turnbull signed off on the deal for France to build a dozen attack-class subs, the notion of going nuclear was not on Australia's radar. But two key factors changed in that short time which would leave Australia desperate to torpedo the French deal. Australia in the past was resistant to building a nuclear-powered fleet as it would have required civil nuclear power capability onshore, but advances in military technology available via a deal with the US and UK mean that is no longer an issue. At the same time an increasingly belligerent and hostile China motivated Mr Morrison to plan and set up the historic AUKUS military alliance which will see Australia get its hands on up to eight nuclear-powered submarines. The Prime Minister's vision first began when he attended the G7 Summit in the quaint French coastal community of Biarritz in August, 2019. China has transformed several uninhabited islands in the South China Sea into military bases and has begun warning ships away from them, including threatening rival naval vessels China has been rapidly expanding its military in recent years and has become increasingly bullish with its neighbours, leading to fears that it could start trying to seize territory Concerned about the French deal and wanting to ensure Australia wouldn't regret its costly purchase, he tasked defence adviser, Jimmy Kiploks, with making 'discreet enquiries' about the possibility he could acquire nuclear-powered submarines, The Australian reported. Mr Morrison soon set up an off-the-books technical group, overseen by Defence department secretary Greg Moriarty and former chief scientist Alan Finkel to consider other options - as well as speaking to colleagues in the US and UK. From there, it wasn't long before plans for the AUKUS alliance started to fall into place. Mr Morrison decided to bring the program to the surface in April 2021, as China continued to impose arbitrary bans and tariffs on Australian exports as a way to punish Canberra for its calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. He drafted a formal framework for the plan, and by May of this year, briefings with the UK and US led to Mr Morrison having a conversation with British leader Mr Johnson. Mr Johnson agreed to set up talks with US President Biden at the G7 a few weeks later, with the trio finally meeting on June 12 - the final day of the summit - at Cornwall's Carbis Bay Hotel. It was during this meeting that Mr Biden agreed for the first time in more than 50 years to share the secrets of America's nuclear submarines with a third country. Britain is the only other nation to have acquired such technology. But at the time the trio remained tight-lipped about what went on during the meeting. 'They discussed a number of issues of mutual concern, including the Indo-Pacific region,' a short joint statement read. 'They agreed that the strategic context in the Indo-Pacific was changing and that there was a strong rationale for deepening cooperation between the three governments.' On the home front, Mr Morrison was ruthlessly mocked by his Labor opposition and some sections of the media after his one-on-one meeting with President Biden was gate-crashed by the UK leader. There were suggestions President Biden 'snubbed' the private chat and included Boris Johnson at the last minute because he didn't feel the Australian leader was worth the 45minute window set aside for the meeting. In reality, the seemingly uneventful talks, with no press conference to follow, was the culmination of Mr Morrison's nearly two years of relentless strategising and a landmark moment that will eventually see Australia become only the seventh nation in the world to acquire nuclear submarine capabilities. Advertisement Covid cases fell again in England last week despite fears of a fresh wave of infections on the back of millions of children returning to school, official figures show. The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) surveillance report estimated there were 697,100 people infected on any given day across the country in the seven days to September 11, down 8 per cent on the previous week. Most schools in England went back from the summer break on September 1, meaning today's data includes the first full week of the new school term. There had been widespread concerns that England would see a meteoric rise in infections like Scotland did when classes north of the border resumed in mid-August. Covid cases there trebled to record highs in the following fortnight which put pressure on health officials to finally approve vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds this week. The latest estimates, based on random swabbing of 100,000 households in England, suggest one in 80 people were carrying the virus on any given day last week. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, said: 'It does look like those strongly expressed views that we would see a surge in infections after schools went back has not turned out to be the case.' Meanwhile, the Government's top scientists said England's R rate remained flat in the past week at around 1, but could be as low as 0.9 or as high as 1.1. The R, or reproduction, rate is the average number of people each Covid patient goes on to infect and it needs to be below 1 for there to be a consistent decline in the epidemic. However, it is a lagging indicator, and represents the situation the country found itself in three weeks ago. Separate data from Public Health England yesterday found that more than nine in 10 of England's local authorities saw their outbreaks shrink in the first week of schools returning. The Office for National Statistics' weekly surveillance report estimated there were 697,100 infections in England in the seven days to September 11, down 8 per cent on the previous week Meanwhile, the Government's scientific advisory group said that England's R rate remained flat in the past week at around 1, but could be as low as 0.9 or as high as 1.1 The UK is currently recording 1,000 Covid hospitalisations per day, the bulk of which are occurring in England (shown). This is up from around 750 from 'Freedom Day' on July 19, when all legal curbs were lifted in England Deaths have remained low despite high levels of transmission thanks to the rollout of the vaccines At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 people in England were estimated to have the coronavirus. The percentage of people testing positive is estimated to have increased in the North West and decreased in the West Midlands and the East of England, the ONS said. The trend for all other regions is uncertain, with outbreaks believed to have flatlined in the most recent week. North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest proportion of people of any region likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to September 11 around one in 60. The East had the lowest estimate, around one in 120. Speaking about the anticipated school surge last night, Professor Hunter said: 'Today was the first day we would have expected to see any clear impact of schools opening on daily reports of Covid case numbers in England. 'We started seeing case reports below the same day in the previous week on September 9, about eight days after most pupils went back to school at the point when any impact may have been seen.' He added: 'In an endemic infection, like Covid has now become, infections reach an equilibrium point where the proportion of the population becoming susceptible balances the likelihood of transmission and of course a lot of people have developed some degree of immunity in recent months as a result of either immunisation or infection. 'Also although case numbers seem to have started falling in all age groups, age specific data is always reported somewhat later and it will be later next week before we can know for certain what the trend in each age group really is. 'Nevertheless it does look like those strongly expressed views that we would see a surge in infections after schools went back has not turned out to be the case. Cabinet minister George Eustice says there will be 'another full lockdown' if a vaccine-dodging coronavirus variant emerges The emergence of a vaccine-dodging coronavirus variant will force the Government to impose 'another full lockdown', a Cabinet minister said today. Environment Secretary George Eustice let slip that a national shutdown is in the Government's toolbox to prevent the spread of the disease should the virus manage to 'get around' the jabs. Mr Eustice insisted another lockdown 'is not what we want' but his confirmation that it is on the table is likely to spark Tory fury, with many MPs vehemently against the potential return of nationwide draconian curbs. His comments come just days after Boris Johnson unveiled his Winter Plan for stopping the spread of the disease in the coming months. The document contained no specific mention of a potential lockdown but said 'more harmful economic and social restrictions would only be considered as a last resort' if the NHS was at risk of being 'overwhelmed'. Mr Johnson repeatedly said he wanted the UK's exit from the last lockdown to be 'irreversible'. Mr Eustice was grilled this morning on Sky News about expected changes to the Government's international travel rules. The minister would not be drawn on specifics as he said the Cabinet sub-committee in charge of the issue is expected to make its decisions later today. Told that the travel industry is at a critical point and that now is the time to change the traffic light system, Mr Eustice replied: It has been a very, very difficult time for the travel industry, we absolutely recognise that. That is why we have done all we can to have those easements in place, reduce the restrictions as quickly as we can. But arguably the biggest threat to the travel industry is that we do get another variant that manages to get around the vaccine, that the vaccine cant deal with, then we are into another full lockdown and that is not what we want. That is why we have taken this cautiously, step by step, because we want each step we take to be irreversible. Advertisement 'How long and low this decline in cases and hospital admissions will go is not clear. 'I suspect case numbers will level off at some point and there is still the possibility that cases could increase again as we move through autumn, though I doubt anywhere near as high as we have seen in the past or as has been predicted by some.' In Wales, around one in 60 people are estimated to have had Covid in the week to September 11, up from one in 65 in the previous week and the highest level since the week to December 23, 2020. In Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is one in 75, down from one in 60 in the previous week. For Scotland, the ONS estimates that around one in 45 people had Covid in the week to September 11, the second week in a row it has been at the highest level since estimates began for Scotland in October 2020. The ONS said that while the percentage of people testing positive had increased slightly (from 2.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent) in the week ending September 11, the rate of increase had slowed. All figures are for people in private households. It has been suggested that high antibody levels in youngsters may be keeping the virus at bay. Nearly nine in 10 people in the UK aged 16 to 24 have Covid antibodies, according to official estimates. Rates of the virus-fighting proteins will also start rising quickly in 12 to 15-year-olds next week, when the jab rollout opens to them for the first time. The ONS, which carries out blood tests on youngsters across the UK's four nations, found between 87 and 89 per cent of them had antibodies that help fight the virus. The presence of coronavirus antibodies suggests someone has been infected in the past or has been vaccinated, and therefore has some immunity. Children under 16 are not routinely tested for antibodies. PHE data revealed Covid cases continued to grow in just 11 parts of the country between September 6 and 12, in more evidence that schools have not triggered a surge. Newcastle upon Tyne saw the biggest surge in the country, with cases rising by 11.1 per cent. It was followed by Northumberland (10.3 per cent) and Leicester (9.5 per cent). Local outbreaks also pushed case numbers up in the rest of Leicestershire (5 per cent), Oldham (4.6 per cent), Blackpool (3.1 per cent) and Coventry (1.4 per cent). Meanwhile, tiny increases in infection rates were spotted in Middlesbrough (0.9 per cent), Redcar and Cleveland (0.8 per cent), Southend-on-Sea (0.8 per cent) and Calderdale (0.4 per cent). At the other end of the scale, data showed infections more than halved in West Berkshire (down 54.2 per cent) and Gloucestershire (down 52.7 per cent). Cases also fell in South Gloucestershire (down 49.5 per cent), Bristol (down 49.4 per cent) and Swindon (down 48.9 per cent). PHE data showed cases fell at a national level and in all nine regions of the country, in a marked change from last week when increased slightly in every area apart from the South West. The North-East had the highest rate, with 370 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to September 12. Meanwhile, they were the lowest in London, where 212 per 100,000 people tested positive last week. But with large numbers returning to offices last week and Transport for London experiencing its busiest day since before the pandemic, cases in the capital could rise in the coming weeks, experts fear. Lawyers for Prince Andrew's accuser Virginia Roberts have released a photograph showing that papers notifying him about the civil sex case were posted to his home. The picture shows a large white envelope with the head of his mother the Queen on a first class stamp being put into a Royal Mail postbox last week on September 9. It was posted by an employee from the London office of Boies Schiller Flexner in what is said to have been one of five attempts to reach Andrew, reported The Sun. The letter was addressed to 'Prince Andrew' at his 30-room mansion at Royal Lodge on the private Windsor Great Park, which is three miles from Windsor Castle. It comes as the High Court gave Andrew's legal team seven days to challenge its decision to begin notifying him about the civil sex case in New York against him. The picture shows a large white envelope with the head of his mother the Queen on a first class stamp being put into a Royal Mail postbox last week on September 9 The letter was posted by an employee from the London office of Boies Schiller Flexner in what is said to have been one of five attempts to reach Andrew over the civil sex case The court in London accepted on Wednesday a request by Virginia Giuffre's lawyers to formally contact the Duke of York about the legal proceedings launched in the US. Andrew's team are said to be contesting the court's decision, over the lawsuit by Ms Giuffre who alleges the Queen's son sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager. Ms Giuffre, who was previously known as Virginia Roberts, is seeking unspecified damages but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars. She claims she was trafficked by Andrew's former friend and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the duke when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law. The judge in the case, US district judge Lewis Kaplan, has ruled that Ms Giuffre's legal team can try delivering the papers to Andrew's Los Angeles-based lawyer, regardless of whether the duke authorised him to accept it. Prince Andrew is pictured on Wednesday at Balmoral, where he is staying with the Queen Ms Giuffre's lawyers have said the service of the papers 'is not intended to be a game of hide and seek behind palace walls.' Virginia Giuffre is pictured after a hearing in the Jeffrey Epstein case in New York in 2019 Andrew, who is currently at Balmoral with the Queen, has repeatedly denied the allegations. The High Court said in a statement: 'Lawyers for Prince Andrew have indicated that they may seek to challenge the decision of the High Court to recognise the validity of the Hague Convention request for service made by Ms Giuffre's lawyers. 'The High Court has directed that any challenge must be made by close of business on September 24.' The issue of whether or not Andrew has been notified about the case - known as service of proceedings - was contested during the first pre-trial hearing of the civil case on Monday in New York. David Boies, representing Ms Giuffre, said papers had been 'delivered to the last known address of the defendant' and documents had also been sent 'by Royal Mail'. Andrew B Brettler, the duke's attorney, said the royal's team contested the validity of service to date, adding he has not been properly served under either UK or international law. Under the Hague Service Convention, a treaty that governs requests between countries for evidence in civil or commercial matters, Ms Giuffre's legal team can ask the High Court in London to formally notify Andrew about her civil action. Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, then 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in London in 2001 Court papers filed in New York last night show Andrew's lawyers want to argue over the definition of a 'judicial officer', in a possible indication of how he plans to concede no ground in the civil case against him. US district judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled that Ms Giuffre's legal team can try delivering the papers to Andrew's Los Angeles lawyer In the court claim filed under her married name, Ms Giuffre alleges she was trafficked to the duke by Epstein and is claiming damages for rape, sexual assault and battery. Andrew's high-powered legal team claim that Ms Giuffre's attorneys do not have the authority to approach the High Court, which this week said it would serve the case papers on the prince if the two sides failed to agree it themselves. Andrew's side have argued that Mr Boies is not a 'judicial, consular or diplomatic officer' of the US. The London court originally agreed with the duke before changing its decision following representations by his opponents, Boies Schiller Flexner (BSF), who cited US law. But Gary Bloxsome, acting for Andrew, wrote to Senior Master Barbara Fontaine within hours on Wednesday, saying: 'We contend that your original decision of 14 September 2021 to reject BSF's direct request was correct, and your subsequent decision of 15 September 2021 is wrong. Prince Andrew is seen with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson leaving Windsor on September 7 'We ask that the original decision be restored, and the reasons communicated promptly to BSF.' Ms Giuffre claims she was trafficked by Andrew's former friend and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the duke The judge said she would not 'determine this disputed issue by email' and ordered Andrew to file a proper legal application, which could result in an appeal being heard in court. However Andrew's argument may prove moot anyway after Mr Boies last night petitioned the New York court to directly contact its London counterpart. In his bid, Mr Boies wrote: 'Ms Giuffre requests that the court exercise its discretion to order alternate service pursuant.' The paperwork has already been left with police guards at Andrew's Windsor home, Royal Lodge, and emailed to his lawyers but he disputes that they have properly been served upon him. Her side last night accused him of trying to dodge the case by arguing against service while at the same time looking to build up his defence by asking for a copy of the deal. In the court papers, they wrote: 'Prince Andrew is both actively evading service of Ms Giuffre's claims... while at the same time attempting to avail himself of discovery in order to aid his defence.' Queen Elizabeth II with her son Prince Andrew on the Buckingham Palace balcony in June 2019 Andrew also plans to argue that a financial settlement Ms Giuffre signed with Epstein in 2009 precludes her from bringing a legal action against him. But the duke's hopes of getting the Epstein deal unsealed quickly suffered a blow last night when a judge ruled it would stay under wraps for now. Last month, Ms Giuffre agreed to drop a claim for sexual assault against US lawyer Alan Dershowitz as a result of the settlement. Mr Dershowitz has strenuously denied her claims. He has since lodged a request to have the original agreement unsealed, as he believes it may help to get the case against Andrew also thrown out. But yesterday Judge Loretta A Preska, a senior US district judge, denied his application, saying that Dershowitz's claim had 'no basis'. General Mark Milley pledged to give a full account of his controversial phone calls with his Chinese counterpart during the final months of Donald Trump's presidency when he testifies under oath before Congress at the end of the month. On Friday, Milley made his first public comments on revelations he called Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army to reassure him the U.S. was not going to suddenly attack China. Milley defended his calls to his Chinese counterpart as 'perfectly within the duties and responsibilities' of his job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The general was blasted by the former president and several conservatives for his conversations, including being accused of 'treason' for breaking the chain of command. He told reporters traveling with him to a NATO conference in Athens he would discuss the matter in greater detail in the days to come, when he testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 28. 'I think it's best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military,' Milley said. 'I'll go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.' General Mark Milley defended his calls to his Chinese counterpart during the final months of Donald Trump's presidency In the final days of Trump's presidency, Gen. Mark Milley called Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army to reassure him the U.S. was not going to suddenly attack China - the two men are seen above at an honor guard review in Beijing in August 2016 Republican members of the committee include Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, both staunch supporters of Trump, and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, one of Congress' most vocal critics of the Biden administration. The embattled general was scheduled to testify before the panel on President Biden's Afghanistan crisis, but the revelations on Milley from 'Peril,' the forthcoming book by the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, have become a central focus for Republicans - particularly allies of the former president. September 28 will likely be the first time lawmakers have the opportunity to press Milley under oath since news of the China calls emerged. Speaking to the media Friday he said the calls are 'routine' and were done 'to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.' 'These are routine calls in order to discuss issues of the day, to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case, in order to ensure strategic stability,' he said. 'And these are perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of the chairman.' Senators Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn and Tom Cotton are all members of the Senate panel that Milley will be testifying in front of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command chief General Kenneth McKenzie will also be witnesses at the September 28 hearing. Some members of the panel have already spoken out against Milley. On Fox News Tuesday, Hawley blasted the general's actions as 'dangerous.' 'I mean, this is this is dangerous, dangerous territory that we're in. And we're going to have to get to the bottom of it,' he said. 'He needs to resign, and if he won't resign, he needs to be fired. I mean, he has broken the trust of the American people.' Blackburn made several Twitter posts on Thursday and Friday attacking Milley as treasonous and accused him of dereliction of duty. 'General Milley should be removed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs while his phone calls with Communist China are investigated,' her most recent post on Milley reads. 'Peril' says Milley made the phone calls to Li in October 2020 and January 2021 amid concerns from Beijing that Trump would mount an attack as tensions between the two nations rose. It reports Milley told Li that he would warn Li in the event of an attack. 'Things may look unsteady,' Milley told Li. 'But that's the nature of democracy, General Li. We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.' 'General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise,' Milley reportedly told him. Trump, in response, called Milley 'a complete nutjob' and accused him of 'treason.' 'He put our Country in a very dangerous position but President Xi knows better, and would've called me,' Trump said in a statement Wednesday, denying he was considering an attack on China. Trump also accused Milley of treason, a call echoed by some in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. 'I've had so many calls today saying that's treason,' Trump told Newsmax. He followed up in a statement on the general: 'I assume he would be tried for TREASON in that he would have been dealing with his Chinese counterpart behind the President's back and telling China that he would be giving them notification 'of an attack.' Donald Trump blasted Gen. Mark Milley as a 'nutjob' and said he committed 'treason' General Mark Milley called Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army in October 2020 and January 2021 to tell him he would give him a head's up if an attack was coming Fox News' Sean Hannity also painted Milley as a 'traitor.' 'Peril,' by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa will be released by Simon & Schuster on September 21 'If this is true, General Milley would be a traitor to this country and should be tried for treason immediately. If true, he should be fired and tried for treason immediately,' Hannity said on his show on Tuesday night. President Joe Biden and officials in his administration have defended Milley, whose term as head of the Joint Chiefs runs until 2023. 'I have great confidence in General Milley,' he said on Wednesday afternoon. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reaffirmed the administration's support for Milley, lauding him as a 'patriot' and urged people to remember Trump's final two months in office. 'The outgoing president of the United States, during this period of time, fomented unrest leading to an insurrection and an attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6,' she said, adding that it was 'one of the darkest days in our nation's history.' She added: 'There was broad concern from a range of members of his national security team about his behavior and fitness for office.' Advertisement Governor Greg Abbott has slammed Joe Biden for the 'complete disarray' at the US-Mexico border which has left agents 'overwhelmed' as the number of Haitian migrants camped out under a bridge in Texas has now swelled to around 12,000. The Texas governor announced he was sending National Guard troops and officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety to the state's ports of entry to 'deter crossings' as he compared the migrant crisis to the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. 'The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,' he said. Abbott made the announcement Thursday, just hours after he said he was shutting down six ports of entry - before backtracking one hour later and accusing the Biden administration of 'flip-flopping' on its efforts to 'secure the border.' Around 12,000 mostly Haitian migrants have gathered at the Del Rio Port of Entry and the International Bridge in the city of Del Rio, Texas, in recent days, in a temporary camp which is said to have ballooned after Joe Biden paused deportation flights back to Haiti. New aerial footage, shot by Fox News Friday, reveals streams of people continuing to cross over the Rio Grande river from Mexico into Texas and joining the already overflowing camp. New aerial footage, shot by Fox News Friday, reveals streams of people continuing to cross over the Rio Grande river from Mexico into Texas and joining the already overflowing camp The footage was captured by Foxs national correspondent Bill Melugin from a Texas Public Safety (TPS) helicopter Haitian migrants use a dam to cross to and from the US from Mexico, Friday, as they are said to be returning to Mexico for basic supplies Thousands of migrants are currently living in the makeshift camp in squalid conditions with a lack of clean water and food Migrants wait Thursday under and around the international bridge between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico to be processed Migrants camp out Thursday by the International Bridge in the city of Del Rio, Texas, which connects the US to Mexico Thousands of migrants are currently living under the bridge in cramped, squalid conditions after crossing the border into US More than 10,000 mostly Haitian migrants have gathered there in recent days, in the temporary camp which has have ballooned since Joe Biden halted deportation flights back to Haiti Most of the migrants have fled to the country from Haiti - where the country is in turmoil after the assassination of its president and a huge earthquake last month Why Haitians are fleeing to America: Thousands of Haitians are traveling to Mexico and crossed the border into Texas at a time when the Caribbean nation is being ravaged by political and economic turmoil and hammered by natural disasters. In early July, Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in his home of Port-au-Prince in a dramatic plot which authorities are yet to determine who the mastermind was. The murder threw the troubled nation into uncertainty with gun battles breaking out in the streets and a fight over who was the rightful successor as questions continued to mount about a possible inside job. This week, Haitis chief prosecutor said there was evidence linking the country's Prime Minister Ariel Henry to the plot and banned him from leaving the country until he answers questions about his potential involvement. One month after the assassination, the island nation was dealt another blow as a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck in August. More than 2,200 people were killed and 100,000 homes destroyed. This marks the biggest natural disaster Haiti has seen since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January 2010 which killed over 200,000 people. The nation was still recovering from the devastation it wrought and its economy was already in tatters as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Most Haitians who have traveled to the border in recent weeks are thought to have already been living in South America after the 2010 earthquake. Many have then traveled up through Mexico into the US recently - likely driven by the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on South America and the pause on deportation flights to Haiti. Data released by Border Patrol shows 28,000 Haitians have been arrested along the border this fiscal year, which began last October. This dwarfs the 2020 number of 4,395 and 2,046 in 2019. Last month, 6,768 Haitians were detained by Border Patrol, up from 5,000 in July. Advertisement The footage was captured by Foxs national correspondent Bill Melugin from a Texas Public Safety (TPS) helicopter after the Biden administration was accused of trying to cover up the extent of the migrant crisis by issuing a flight ban over the US-Mexico border. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) implemented a two-week flight ban over the bridge Thursday night to stop drones capturing footage of the thousands of people living camped out under the Del Rio bridge. The agency claimed the move was for 'special security reasons' to prevent 'drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border'. The ban effectively grounded a Fox News drone hours after the network released shocking footage showing thousands of migrants living in squalor under the bridge as they crossed the US's southern border and waited to be processed by Border Patrol. Abbott claimed Thursday had been asked by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to shutter the points of entry along the border to 'stop these caravans from overrunning our state'. However, just one hour later, he backpedaled on the unprecedented move, claiming the Biden administration had 'flip-flopped' on its request. 'Six hours after US Customs and Border Protection requested help from Texas to close ports of entry and secure the border, the Biden administration has now flip-flopped to a different strategy that abandons border security and instead makes it easier for people to cross illegally and for cartels to exploit the border,' he said in a statement. Instead, Abbott directed troops to 'maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings.' The DHS denied asking for help and saying it would be a violation of federal law if Texas closed the ports, because only the federal government has the power to do so. '[The Biden administration] is not seeking assistance from the State of Texas to shut down ports of entry,' it said in a statement. 'It would be a violation of federal law for the Texas National Guard to unilaterally do so,' the statement said. The president paused deportation flights of migrants to Haiti and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) extended temporary protected status (TPS) to Haitian nationals after the country was rocked by its biggest crises since the 2010 earthquake. Under TPS, foreign nationals cannot be deported back to countries hit by natural or manmade disasters, enabling Haitians to live in the US without legal status to qualify for provisional residency. Texas Senator Ted Cruz blamed this pause for the dramatic surge in people arriving at the camp. He told Fox Thursday that, in the space of just eight days, the population at the camp surged from 700 on September 8 to 10,503 on September 16. However, Biden is facing a backlash from both sides of the political aisle over the increasing crisis under the Del Rio bridge, as it has emerged that the president has quietly resumed deportation flights this week. Witness at the Border revealed that flights deporting Haitians began again this week, reported CNN. The DHS also admitted that 86 Haitian nationals were loaded onto a flight by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and sent back to the Caribbean country Wednesday. Haitian migrants set up make-shift camp along the Rio Grande after crossing into the United States from Mexico on Friday Governor Greg Abbott has slammed Joe Biden for the 'complete disarray' at the US-Mexico border which has left agents 'overwhelmed' as the number of Haitian migrants camped out under a bridge in Texas has now swelled to around 12,000 Haitian migrants use Carrizo cane to build a shelter along the Rio Grande after crossing into the U.S. Migrants gather at the camp under the bridge in Del Rio, Texas, as they wait to be processed by Border Patrol agents Around 12,000 mostly Haitian migrants have gathered at the Del Rio Port of Entry and the International Bridge in the city of Del Rio, Texas, in recent days The temporary camp which is said to have ballooned after President Joe Biden paused deportation flights back to Haiti They were deported under the Title 42 order - a Trump-era policy where migrants are repatriated to their home nations without the possibility of requesting asylum due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of Democrats have blasted the president for sending people back to the Caribbean nation which is in economic and political turmoil after the July assassination of its president and was ravaged by an August earthquake which killed over 2,200 people. More than 50 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to DHS and Health and Human Services Friday calling on them to halt the deportations. 'The Haitian government's ability to safely receive its citizens will take months, if not years, to secure,' they wrote. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat, slammed the deportations 'cruel and callous' and called on Biden to end Title 42. 'The Biden Administration must immediately halt all deportations to Haiti, return these individuals to the United States, and abandon the harmful Title 42 order that has been weaponized to deny families their fundamental right to seek asylum,' said Pressley, according to The Hill. 'The Biden Administration has a moral obligation to lead with compassion and support those fleeing from the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Haiti.' On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to stop using Title 42, but the order will not take effect for 14 days. The Biden administration has been accused of trying to cover up the extent of the migrant crisis after the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) issued a flight ban over the US-Mexico border to stop drones capturing footage of the more than 10,000 people living camped out under a bridge The footage shows thousands of mostly Haitian migrants gathered under the bridge after crossing the US-Mexico border Migrants are seen bythe Del Rio Port of Entry and the International Bridge in the city of Del Rio, Texas, Thursday night Judge Emmett Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said the policy denies migrants the 'opportunity to seek humanitarian benefits.' Biden has long pledged to create a more 'humane' immigration system to his predecessor Trump. Leaked documents, obtained by NBC News, reveal the administration is planning to dramatically ramp up the deportation of Haitians over the coming weeks. The ICE has eight deportation flights to Haiti planned for next week, rising to 10 per week thereafter. Each flight can carry around 135 migrant passengers, reported NBC. The documents also reveal there will be lateral flights to take migrants to other parts of the US for processing to reduce the vast numbers camping out in Del Rio. The number of people crossing the southern border from Mexico into the US has surged in recent months to record numbers not seen in two decades, after Biden overturned some of Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies. In July, the numbers reached a 20-year high with more than 200,000 people crossing into the US from Mexico while another 195,000 migrants were detained last month. Border Patrol is struggling to process the sheer volume, as around 60,000 Afghans also expected to be resettled in America after the US pulled all troops out of the country in August. Now, thousands more are now fleeing to the US from Haiti after the Caribbean nation plunged into turmoil this summer with the assassination of its president followed by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in August, which killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed 100,000 homes. Others have traveled from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, with many paying human smugglers to help them make the perilous journey across the Rio Grande River. Border patrol officials have said there are only 20 portable toilets at the site where over 10,000 are currently staying Migrants cross the Rio Grande river - which connects the US and Mexico - close to the bridge which is now their temporary home Migrants seeking asylum in the US walk in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge between Mexico and the US Thursday as they wait to be processed, in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico Food and water has been scarce in the makeshift camp, and temperatures have risen to around 99 Fahrenheit The camp had swelled to some 10,000 migrants on Thursday, with thousands seen wading across the Rio Grande River daily Thousands are fleeing to the US from Haiti after the Caribbean nation plunged into turmoil this summer with the assassination of its president followed by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in August After reaching Texas, conditions in the Del Rio camp aren't much better, with food and clean water in short supply and dangerously high temperatures. According to the top Border Patrol union official in the Del Rio Sector Jon Anfinsen, there are only 20 portable toilets at the site, reported the Washington Post, while many migrants are crossing back into Mexico to get access to basic supplies. There are also fears the squalid, cramped conditions will serve as a breeding ground for COVID-19. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it is increasing its manpower to the Del Rio area to try to speed up the processing of migrants camped out under the bridge, which connnects Del Rio in Texas to Mexico's Ciudad Acuna. The agency said in a statement that 'the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into USBP custody.' Cruz blasted Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris - who was tasked by the president with tackling the migrant crisis - on Fox Thursday night, saying he had 'never seen anything like' the FAA ban and he accused the White House of trying to stop the public seeing the truth of the crisis. 'The drone footage started this morning, and people across the country were horrified, and I guess the political operatives at the Biden White House saw that and decided the last thing they want is Fox News actually reporting on what's happening down here,' he said. Migrants are seen close around the bridge Thursday. Most are from Haiti while others have traveled from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua Migrants cross the Rio Grande river heading to the makeshift camp under the bridge which is now home to more than 10,000 The FAA imposed a two-week flight restriction banning drones from flying in the area, citing unspecified security concerns Thousands of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. are gathered under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. pic.twitter.com/hUS7iASv3Z TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 17, 2021 Fox's Sean Hannity said the ban - which stops it and any other network from capturing aerial footage - is an attempt to 'cover up for Biden's failures.' The FAA 'is trying to prevent Fox's drone from showing you the American people the truth and capturing images just like this,' he said. 'In other words, the FAA is being used to cover up for Biden's failures. And we are going to let that stand? I don't think so.' The network had been flying drones over the border for the last seven months without issue, according to Fox News national correspondent Bill Melguin - until the latest damning footage of the crisis emerged. The FAA released a statement Thursday denying there is any a political motive to the grounding of flights and said the media can request permission for flights. 'The Border Patrol requested the temporary flight restriction due to drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border,' it said. 'As with any temporary flight restriction, media is able to call the FAA to make requests to operate in the area.' Fox News' Bill Melugin published drone images showing the overcrowded camp DailyMail.com has reached out to the FAA to ask for specific examples where drones have interfered with law enforcement flights, thus creating the need for the ban. Republican Senator Cruz - one of Biden's fiercest critics - shared new footage of the Del Rio bridge from the ground and claimed the 'mass of humanity' living there had doubled overnight from around 4,000 Wednesday morning to over 10,000 Thursday night. 'This is a man-made crisis. Eight days ago, on September 8, under that same bridge, there were between 700 and 1,000 people,' he said. 'That was what was coming a day about 1,000, sometimes 1,100 but it would range between 700 and 1,100.' 'Right now, as we're speaking, there are 10,503 people under that bridge. It is packed in as a mass of humanity,' he told Sean Hannity. 'The scope of it, until you see it it just goes on and on and on. Infants, little children, people struggling enormously.' Around 85 percent of all migrants living under the bridge have come from Haiti, Cruz said, after Biden canceled deportation flights for Haitians. 'On September 8th, the Biden administration made a decision to cancel deportation flights back to Haiti,' he said. Cruz said this decision led migrants to contact their friends and families who then also fled to the border. 'And [when the Biden administration] made that decision eight days ago, the 700 to a thousand people who were here discovered they could stay, they pulled out their cell phones,' he said. Senator Ted Cruz said, in the space of eight days, the population under the bridge has increased from 700 to 10,503 This chart shows the number of unaccompanied minors stopped at the southern border over the last four years Migrants bathe and wash their clothes in the Rio Grande river near the International Bridge between Mexico and the US Officials said some migrants are crossing back into Mexico in order to get basic supplies while there are said to be just 20 portable toilets for use by 10,000 people Most of the migrants are from Haiti, a nation that has been ravaged by an earthquake as well as political unrest. Pictured the Fox footage Border Patrol has been overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of those crossing the border in recent months and processing people is slow 'They called their friends, they called their family, and eight days later, 700 people became 10,503.' Cruz added: 'If you're from Haiti, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have said we have open borders, come to Del Rio and they will let you in.' Cruz blasted it a 'manmade disaster' brought about by 'political decisions' which are 'inviting suffering' as he demanded Biden reopen deportation flights. 'This is a disaster and it is a man made disaster. It is the result of political decisions and Joe Biden could end this tomorrow by simply following the law and reinstating deportation flights back,' he said. North Korea is rapidly expanding its plutonium-producing reprocessing reactor just days after it was revealed it was restarting the facility. The former dormant Yongbyon Nuclear Research Facility, which is capable of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons, is being renovated showing signs Kim Jong-un is planning to ramp up production. Satellite images show construction is underway at the plant which could allow North Korea to increase its nuclear material by 25 per cent. North Korea is rapidly expanding its plutonium-producing reprocessing reactor just days after it was revealed it was restarting the facility. Pictured: September 14 The former dormant Yongbyon Nuclear Research Facility, which is capable of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons, is being renovated. Pictured: September 1 The 5-megawatt reactor was believed to have been inactive since 2018, and its reactivation comes with nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington at a standstill. The reactor produces plutonium, one of the two key ingredients used to build nuclear weapons along with highly enriched uranium. In 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered to dismantle part of the Yongbyon complex at a second summit with then US president Donald Trump but not other sites, in exchange for sanctions relief. His offer was rejected. Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told CNN: 'The most recent expansion at Yongbyon probably reflects plans to increase production of nuclear materials for weapons production. 'The new area is approximately 1,000 square meters, enough space to house 1,000 additional centrifuges. The addition of 1,000 new centrifuges would increase the plant's capacity to produce highly enriched uranium by 25 percent Satellite images show construction is underway at the plant which could allow North Korea to increase its nuclear material by 25 per cent. Pictured: August 3 The reactor produces plutonium, one of the two key ingredients used to build nuclear weapons along with highly enriched uranium. Pictured September 14 He added that the construction is consistent with earlier efforts to add floorspace to allow more centrifuges and enrich a larger quantity of uranium. The professor said if North Korea also upgrades the centrifuges currently being used at the complex, it 'could increase the capacity of the plant substantially'. US officials are aware of the construction at the plant and admit it could signal plans to increase stocks of weapons-grade uranium, sources say. And on Wednesday, North Korea test-fired two ballistic missiles just days after firing a new kind of cruise missile with possible nuclear capabilities. The activity has stoked fears in one of the most volatile regions as Kim expands his nuclear arsenal. South Korea's military said the two missiles fired this week came from an unknown inland location before coming down somewhere near the east coast. In 2019, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered to dismantle part of the Yongbyon complex at a second summit with then US president Donald Trump. Pictured: August 14 The move is likely designed as a provocation to Joe Biden and other world leaders, as ballistic missile tests violate UN resolutions on the North's weapons programme and are likely to trigger a diplomatic response. Hours later South Korea's presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton submarine flew a set distance before hitting a designated target. The statement said the weapon is expected to help Seoul deter potential external threats, boost its self-defence and promote peace on the Korean peninsula. Joe Biden has said he is willing to meet with Kim, but said the pre-condition of any such meeting would be a serious commitment to scrapping his nuclear arsenal. The activity has stoked fears in one of the most volatile regions as Kim expands his nuclear arsenal 'What I would not do is what has been done in the recent past,' Biden said back in May, referring to Trump's summits with Kim. 'I would not give him all he's looking for, international recognition as legitimate, and give him what allowed him to move in a direction of appearing to be more serious about what he wasn't at all serious about.' Biden has since appointed South Korean ambassador Sung Kim as envoy to North Korea, who is working on establishing diplomatic links with a view to arranging a summit and ultimately to getting rid of North Korea's nukes. Kim's regime test-fired a cruise missile just hours after Biden took office in January, and launched a short-range ballistic missile in March. However, it has stopped short of testing its intercontinental-range ballistic missiles - which are capable of ranging the US - since the Trump negotiations began. Joe Biden has said he is willing to speak with Kim, but the pre-condition of talks must be a firm commitment to getting rid of North Korea's nuclear weapons (pictured at talks in South Korea) It is unclear what the range of the missiles launched on Wednesday are, or whether they are of a new type. North Korea typically test-fires its ballistic missiles on a steep trajectory, meaning they go up into the atmosphere before coming back down well short of their maximum range. Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called Wednesday's launch 'outrageous', saying it threatened peace and security in the region. 'North Korea fired two unidentified ballistic missiles from its central inland region toward the east coast, and intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting detailed analysis for further information,' South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The latest launch came as foreign ministers of South Korea and China held talks in Seoul amid concerns over North Korea's recent cruise missile test and the stalled denuclearisation negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. North Korea said it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile at the weekend, calling it 'a strategic weapon of great significance.' Kim's regime typically uses the phrase 'strategic weapon' to refer to nuclear missiles, leading analysts to conclude that it could be the North's first cruise missile that is able to carry a nuclear warhead. If so, it poses security risks to neighbours such as Japan and South Korea because their missile defences are set up to detect and destroy incoming ballistic missiles. Cruise missiles are self-propelled and fly along a relatively straight and flat trajectory for most of their flight, similar to the way fighter jets fly, meaning they can sneak under radar defences but have a shortened range since they need to carry more fuel. Ballistic missiles travel along an arched trajectory and are only powered for the first part of their flight before using gravity to fall back to Earth, similar to the way that space rockets fly. It means they are easier to detect using radar but have a much longer range because they need to carry less fuel. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, when asked about the earlier cruise missile tests, said all parties should work to promote peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. 'Not only North Korea but other countries are carrying out military activity,' he told reporters. 'All of us should make efforts in a way that helps resume dialogue.' In a meeting with Wang on Wednesday, Moon asked for China's support to restart dialogue, saying North Korea has not been responding to offers from South Korea and the United States for talks or engagement such as humanitarian aid, Moon's spokesperson said. The nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan, and the United States were meeting in Tokyo this week as well. read more US envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, said on Tuesday the United States has no hostile intent towards Pyongyang and hopes it responds positively to offers for talks on its weapons programmes. Oxford and Cambridge universities have been beaten in the national league table for the very first time after St Andrews was named the top university in the UK. Before now no university had ever been placed higher than the elite Oxbridge institutions in the 30-year history of the Good University Guide, compiled by The Times and The Sunday Times. The majority of universities saw a dramatic fall in student satisfaction and teaching quality results this year due to closed campuses and a shift to online lessons. The University of St Andrews has become the first institution to displace Cambridge and Oxford Universities from the top of the The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide in the 30-year history of the guide St Andrews, praised for flipping its small-class teaching model to online delivery, subsequently saw only a small decline in satisfaction rates to take number one spot for 2021. Cambridge, however, dropped from first to third, while Oxford kept hold of the second place it achieved in 2020. Bosses at St Andrews said it has been closing in on the number one spot after consistently being among the top three in the guide in recent years. Alastair McCall, editor of The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide, agreed and said the result was 'no fluke' for the Scottish institution which has been around for 600 years. Cambridge University dropped from first place to third in this year's guide as a majority of universities reported a dramatic fall in student satisfaction because of campus closures during the pandemic, and the subsequent move to online learning Oxford University kept hold of the second place it achieved in 2020. On that occasion, it finished behind Cambridge University, in a 1-2 finish for the Oxbridge institutions which had remained the same until this year's guide Professor Sally Mapstone, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews, said: 'I am thrilled for our students, staff and alumni. They are the people who made this happen. 'As one community, we strive constantly for excellence, and have a strategy that hasn't been afraid to believe St Andrews could challenge at the very top by combining the best teaching, world-leading research, and an unswerving commitment to student satisfaction and achievement. 'Of course we'll enjoy this remarkable result, and I expect there may be a little good-natured cross-border teasing amongst colleagues. The Good University Guide 2021: Top 10 University of St Andrews University of Oxford University of Cambridge Imperial College London London School of Economics Durham University University College London University of Warwick University of Bath Loughborough University Source: The Times and The Sunday Times Advertisement 'Principals have a longstanding tradition of celebrating good league table results, and quietly ignoring those that may not be so flattering, and I have every intention of observing that tradition. 'We have been in very good company close to the top of this important league table for several years but, until now, always on someone's shoulder. 'I hope the fact that the staff and students of a small, Scottish institution have been able to break through the hitherto impenetrable Oxbridge ceiling will inspire others, and show that the status quo is only that if you allow it to be.' President of the St Andrews Students' Association, Lottie Doherty, said it was 'amazing news'. She added: 'It's brilliant that St Andrews has made number one, not just for the University and its staff but for all the students here as well. 'It really is a testament to how well the last year has gone despite the difficult conditions. 'Students worked so hard to get good grades and engage with their classes and studies even though it has been online and under very difficult circumstances. 'It is brilliant to see that recognised. 'I think it really shows how hard working and passionate the students and staff are about St Andrews and about their learning to adapt to such difficult circumstances and come out number one this year.' The guide shows only two universities - Imperial College London and the University of Surrey - out of 132 on the list managed to increase their results from the annual national student survey (NSS) amid the pandemic. However, Mr McCall said St Andrews' achievement in topping the institutional table 'should not be underestimated'. He added: 'Never before has any university other than Cambridge and Oxford finished top (of the) domestic ranking of universities. 'It is no fluke. The university has been closing in on the Oxbridge duopoly for several years, buoyed by outstanding levels of student satisfaction which have peaked during the past year of pandemic disruption on campus. 'The lead St Andrews now has over other universities in this key area of university performance is remarkable. 'Its wider contribution as a centre of teaching and outstanding research marks it out as a global player in the international higher education marketplace. 'Strange to say for an institution that has been around for 600 years, but topping our UK rankings for the first time truly marks St Andrews "arrival" as a serious challenger to Oxford and Cambridge.' St Andrews University Chancellor, Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, said: 'This welcome and deserved achievement reflects the outstanding nature of the student experience at St Andrews University. 'Under the inspired leadership of the Principal, Professor Sally Mapstone, and her senior team, the standards set in these difficult times in teaching, research, and management at every level are truly remarkable.' Imperial was named University of the Year for student satisfaction - a notable achievement in a year which saw many campus closures. It also overtook the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as the top university in London, now ranked nationally fourth and fifth respectively. Mr McCall added: 'Imperial College showed the university sector how to deliver higher education for undergraduates in lockdown. 'No-one did it better, a fact reflected in this year's national student survey, where Imperial improved its scores for student satisfaction during a year that took a heavy toll on those scores elsewhere.' Advertisement Heartbreaking messages from loved ones to family members killed by COVID-19 fluttered on more than 670,000 white flags placed on the National Mall in Washington on Friday in an art installation that captures the magnitude of the US toll since the pandemic began last year. Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, a Washington DC artist, and her team of volunteers hand-placed the flags over the course of three days to create the poignant exhibit across 20 acres of land in the center of the nation's capital. An aerial view provides a stark picture the toll COVID-19 has taken, but standing among the rows and rows of flags gives visitors a personalized view of the tragedy's depth. Families of lost ones posted messages on the flags, with some reading, 'I miss you so much mom,' and 'Forever loved, forever missed. Always in our hearts, forever our inspiration.' The flags also give families who were not able to have a funeral or a memorial service for their loved ones a chance to pay their final respects and be surrounded by others who understand their anguish. Although Firstenberg has not suffered a personal loss to COVID-19, her time as a hospice volunteer has taught her to 'acknowledge the pain of others.' Firstenberg created this installation to create empathy and unity among a nation so divided, she said. 'I wanted to make a community over our loss,' she told DailyMail.com on Friday. 'We have a lot of things that divide us, but we are all united here. 'I wanted to create empathy, the physical manifestation of empathy.' The National Mall's grounds will be filled with white flags to honor COVID-19 victims in a new art installation by Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg Firstenberg and her team started out with 666,624 flags, but more will be added as the death toll rises. They are already up to 670,000 flags as of the first day. The art piece will stay on the grounds until October 3 Aerial view of National Mall shows patchwork of white flags planted to pay tribute to COVID death toll start of pandemic Firstenberg only had three days to plant the more than 670,000 flags, and was helped in the project by Ruppert Landscaping and almost 300 volunteers. 'It was extraordinarily hard to have to plant each one slowly and think about the life that person represented,' she told DailyMail.com. A standstill moment for the artist came when she stood by two flags: one for a 15-year-old, another for a 99-year-old World War II veteran. The pair were divided by so many years and different experiences, yet they ended up side by side. 'The difference in age was fascinating. It speaks to how this pandemic was first favoring the elderly and now everyone is here. Every race, every political bent, is here,' she said. Firstenberg's installation, titled In America: Remember, was originally named almost a year ago. The word 'remember' was chosen specifically because the artist thought the pandemic would be under control by September 2020. 'I named this art because it was going to be September and people were supposed to be going back to work and school. This pandemic was supposed to be over,' she said. 'It's horrifying. I never would have guessed we could suffer this much.' Firstenberg and her team have since added 4,000 flags overnight to the originally 666,624, in an event she described as 'heartbreaking.' When she first purchased flags for the make-shift memorial, she only purchased 630,000, never thinking she'd need more. When she refreshed the death toll, she had to order 60,000 more and two days ago she had to order another 25,000. When asked if she thought she was going to have to order more, she paused before saying: 'I'm going to have to order flags. If this continues, I'm going to have to order more flags. It's heartbreaking.' The most heartbreaking moment for her is going to be changing the sign outside the installation with the new death toll each day, she said. The artist began envisioning the tribute in March 2020 as the pandemic settled in with full force across the US. She was also spurred to act after Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told Americans 'there are more important things than living, and thats saving this country' in an interview with Tucker Carlson. 'That really disturbed me. I just felt as though someone had to do something to make a statement that with all these people dying, we had to value each of these lives as well,' she told NPR. 'Last fall, I create the art out of outrage,' she told Daily Mail. 'We were devaluing the lives of the elderly and of people of color. We were devaluing people to a number.' Her outrage has since lessened by the show of humanity. She recently saw a deaf man consoling another through an interpreter, a doctor donated flags for the patients he personally lost, and a CDC employee came to take pictures to bring back to the office so his coworkers understood the devastation this country has faced. Her art was built to honor the lives lost and make sure their stories and memories lived on. She wanted to make sure they were no longer considered a number. 'It was so important to have on flag for each person. We care and will never let you be a number,' she told Daily Mail. Over all of her years as a hospice volunteer, she has seen the pain and suffering on the small, individual scale when families lose a loved one. She said the hardest part for grieving families was thinking their loved one would become just a number and that no one cared. 'We will never let their loved ones be just a number. Just today, a woman came to the flags and thanked me, because the hardest part of her grief was thinking her lost mother was just a number and no one cared anymore.' Almost 300 volunteers helped Firstenberg plant the flags, some with personalized notes from loved ones (pictured: volunteer) Firstenberg announced the installation earlier this summer to allow families to have time to make travel arrangements, but she certainly didn't forget those who would not be able to make the trip to DC to leave a hand-written note for their loved ones. In partnership with In America Flags, the artist has made it available to families to fill out a form with a message that someone will handwrite for them and place among the others. The messages that are submitted are printed off and immediately brought to the National Mall where visitors are asked to help volunteers write the love notes and goodbye letters on the flags. There is also an interactive map that families who use this option can see where their flag was placed and see a picture of the message on the flag. Some of the heart-breaking messages read: 'My father was a kind unique soul. He was my best friend. I was lucky enough to have him in my life. He is dearly missed.' Another read: 'My beautiful cousin and sister by choice. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of you.' 'The absence of my mom's love has left a huge void in all the lives she touched. We love you mom,' one wrote in the wake of her mother's death. The flags were planted in even squares across one section of the lawn by several volunteers 'We have lost so many loved ones too soon, but we carry the memories with us,' a positive one said. And one wrote what so many feel: 'Wish we had more time.' After the art installation closes, the flags will be cleaned, kept, photographed, and archived. Some will make it to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Among the 300 volunteers, who help write the messages and plant the flags, some have been impacted by COVID-19 themselves. Jeneffer Haynes lost her brother John to COVID-19 in January, before he had access to the vaccine. She helps plant the flags to honor and remember those lives. 'It brings me some form of comfort to keep their memories alive. That's what this is all about to memorialize and keep them alive in some way, shape or form,' she told Roll Call. The installation is supposed to show the magnitude of the loss from COVID-19. 'Encountering a personalized one and then lifting ones gaze across this immense fieldI think that will help people understand the magnitude of our loss,' the artist said Messages can be left by family members to honor their loved ones. For those who cannot make it to DC, Firstenberg and her team has a website available for family members to fill out a form and have someone write their message on a flag. They will also be able to use an interactive map to locate the flag and see a photo of the message So many families lost loved one too soon, including parents and children. The installation is meant to honor their grief and their loved ones lives Haynes, who had to take medical leave at her job after her brother's death, now suffers from panic attacks and is still reeling with grief. Getting to see her dying brother through glass for only 30 minutes a day still affects her, she said. Like so many others, her brother died alone in a hospital room without a loved one to hold his hand. 'I couldnt hold his hand, I couldnt hug him, I couldnt tell him, "Hey, Im here." None of that,' she told Roll Call. 'When he passed away, he was without his family.' Firstenberg's art installation is the largest interactive piece on the Mall's lawn since the AIDs Quilts, according to Firstenberg and her team. And this isn't the first time she has honored COVID-19 victims either. Last October, when the death toll was in the low 200,000s, she and her team planted 219,000 flags near Washingtons RFK Stadium. By the end of the five-week display, they planted 267,000. Although there has been talks about a COVID-19 memorial, Firstenberg doesn't believe the time is now. 'The plane is still crashing,' she said. 'We're still in the middle of this. But I hope one day there will be a memorial, but now is not the time.' The installation will run for 17 days until October 3 and volunteers will continue to add more flags as more lives are lost. A British Army officer has been locked up for groping a female soldier's thigh and 'grabbing' her breast in a taxi following a night out clubbing. Warrant Officer class 2 Paul Stafford sexually assaulted the Lance Corporal on the way back from a nightclub and then tried to take her back to the mess with him, a court martial heard. WO2 Stafford, of the Royal Tank Regiment, denied sliding his hand under her dress and claimed he fell asleep in the taxi so nothing inappropriate happened. Warrant Officer Paul Stafford, pictured at Bulford Military Court, was found guilty of sexually assaulting a female Lance Corporal following a night out in Pembroke Stafford, 40, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan claimed he could not remember what happened in the back of the taxi But the 40 year old, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was convicted of sexual assault following a trial at Bulford Military Court, Wiltshire in August. He has now lost his rank and was sentenced to 60 days detention at the same court, but he was not dismissed from the military. The female Lance Corporal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the trial she had been to a pub with colleagues in Pembroke before heading to a nightclub shortly before midnight. WO2 Stafford was in that club and she said they all left together in a seven seat taxi. The woman said she was sat between WO2 Stafford - who was his squadron's Sergeant Major - and a Major who was the commanding officer, while there was also a driver and three other soldiers in the vehicle. She told the court 'a couple of minutes' into the journey back to camp 'WO2 Stafford put his right hand on my left thigh. I asked him to stop... It was under my clothing, I was wearing a dress'. She added: 'He carried on doing it... He tried it once more and then reached his arm around [my neck] and touched my left breast. Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor said Stafford had drank heavily on the night in question. He said he would not dismiss Stafford from the Army but would reduce him in rank to Staff Sergeant and order him to pay 1,000 in compensation to his victim. Stafford will also be held in detention for 60 days 'As he reached around me he pulled me in towards him and then managed to get his hand on my left breast. 'I was angry and in shock that he tried to do that... It all happened quite quickly. '[Back at camp] WO2 Stafford grabbed my arm and tried pulling me down the road. He mentioned that he wanted me to go back to the mess with him. I told him to get the fuck off.' The officer, who had served more than 20 years in the military, told the trial he could not remember the journey back to camp because he was asleep in the taxi. A statement from the victim was read at the sentencing hearing, saying she is now so anxious she is unable to be in social settings with large crowds or go to the supermarket. Gemma White, defending, said Stafford had enjoyed a 'very successful military career' and has twice in recent years been put forwards for promotion. She added: 'He is highly regarded and has been effectively looking towards continued success in the military.' Sentencing Stafford, Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor said: 'You consumed a very large amount of alcohol. 'We have no doubt that due to your significant intoxication your judgement was severely impaired during that taxi ride. 'You are clearly highly regarded by your superiors... you are not going to be dismissed, however your behaviour was such that you must lose your rank.' The judge decided not to dismiss WO2 Stafford, but reduced his rank to Staff Sergeant, sentenced him to 60 days detention and ordered him to pay 1,000 in compensation for the single charge of sexual assault. The crisis is expected to hit millions of Britons after wholesale energy prices went from a record low last May because of a lack of demand due to global lockdowns to the highest rates since the 1990s. Scott Byrom, Chief Executive Officer of TheEnergyShop.com, told MailOnline the 650,000 customers at the five energy companies to have folded in the past month were likely to be paying around 850-a-year for their energy because of the deals on offer in 2019 and 2020. But could immediately face a hike to 1,277 from October 1 due to the energy cap rise and may be paying as much as 1,500 by next April when they are moved to a new provider. There are concerns that millions more people could be in the same situation after energy consultants Baringa predicted that the number of UK energy companies could fall from 49 to 10 in the next 12 months if wholesale prices remain the same. Experts have said that many of the companies that have gone bust brought in customers on 'dirt cheap' fixed deals on the back of low prices last year - but now have no hope of making any money so either folded or are seeking a Government bailout. Ofgem will automatically move customers of Hub Energy, PfP, MoneyPlus, Utility Point, People's Energy to a new supplier in the coming days with British Gas taking 350,000 of them today and EDF 220,000 last week. Seven firms have collapsed in 2021 in total and many have only been in existence for five years. But energy market rules demand that customers whose supplier goes bust must be offered a fair deal by the new supplier - not the same one they had - meaning they are likely to pay significantly more. Stacey Stothard was one of 220,000 customer at Dorset-based Utility Point, which has gone bust. She believes her bill will now go up by up to 300 or more. Advertisement The mother of missing 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito has blasted her fiance's sister for claiming she loves Gabby like a sibling, yet failing to get her own brother to share information about her disappearance. 'Instead of just saying Gabby's like a sister and that you hope she's found, how about beg and plead to your brother, from sister to brother, to tell us where she is,' Nichole Schmidt told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. Cassie Laundrie became the first member of her family to speak publicly since Gabby was reported missing, but offered no specifics about her brother's actions. In an interview with ABC News that aired Friday morning, Cassie told the news station: 'Obviously me and my family want Gabby to be found safe. 'She's like a sister and my children love her, and all I want is for her to come home safe and found and this to be just a big misunderstanding,' she added. But to Schmidt, the comments are particularly frustrating to hear because Cassie's brother Brian, who had been traveling with Gabby on a cross-country road trip when he returned home without her on September 1, has remained silent about her disappearance. The 23-year-old, who was living with Gabby at his family's home in North Port, Florida, has refused to speak with investigators and cooperate with the probe, as have his parents. Gabby Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt (pictured together left) slammed Brian Laundrie's sister after she gave an interview claiming she loves Gabby 'like a sister' but failing to get her brother to share information on her disappearance Cassie Laundrie (pictured) became the first member of the Laundrie family to break her silence about Gabby's disappearance in an interview with ABC News that aired Friday morning 'What's that statement do? It does nothing,' Schmidt added. 'She might have been out of the loop from the beginning. Who knows what the parents kept from family members. 'But instead of saying that, if these people supposedly loved Gabby, if she's like a sister, if your kids love her so much, why aren't you begging them to talk?' Cassie told Good Morning America that she has not yet spoken to her brother, who was named a person of interest earlier this week, and that she has done all she can to assist in the case. 'I haven't been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him. I've cooperated every way that I can,' she added. 'I wish I had information or I would give more. This is all I have. I gave it to the police.' She described her brother as a 'wonderful uncle' and as someone who has 'always been there' when she or Gabby needed him. Schmidt also had strong words for Steven Bertolino, the lawyer representing Laundrie and his parents, specifically over his decision to speak out about a possible link between her daughter's disappearance and a recent double homicide involving a store worker at a Utah co-op where Gabby, had a fight with her fiance. Police in Utah on Thursday revealed they are investigating a possible connection, prompting the lawyer to offer his two cents. 'Whether or not these two cases deserve to be linked will be determined at some point in the future,' Bertolino said in a statement. Cassie (left) says she has not yet spoken to her brother, who was named a person of interest earlier this week, and that if she had more information she would share it Schmidt has issued several desperate pleas for the Laundries to cooperate with the investigation into Gabby's disappearance, but the family has refused to help or even reply to her messages Gabby's stepmother Tara Petito (left) and father Joe Petito urged the Laundries to tell them where their daughter is in an emotional press conference with police in North Port, Florida Thursday. Gabby and her younger brother TJ Schmidt. Their mother told DailyMail.com she hasn't been able to sleep or eat since her daughter disappeared 'I don't know anything about any kind of link,' Schmidt said in response. 'Obviously, they were in Moab at the same time as that couple that was killed. That's not our concern now. 'Let those police do their job figuring out how those poor people were killed. But for the lawyer to even comment on that, he's just trying to throw people off the track of getting them to talk about Gabby. 'Let's focus on the family telling us where Gabby is,' she added. 'All I'm concerned about it is the fact I know 100 percent Brian was the last person with her.' Attorney Richard Stafford on Thursday read out an emotional letter from Petito's family begging the Laundries to cooperate, saying 'we believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby' Nicole said her daughter's disappearance is taking a tremendous toll on her and her family as they struggle to find answers. Her husband, Jim Schmidt, is now out in Wyoming, where her daughter was last seen, searching for her. She has remained home in Blue Point, Long Island. 'I'm not sleeping, I'm barely eating and I'm just in a lot of pain right now. A lot of pain,' she said. 'I'm trying not to lose hope but it's hard.' She's also finding it hard to believe the system protects a person like Brian, allowing him a right to remain silent when her daughter is likely in peril. 'The fact that there's a constitution that protects him, it's making me sick because he's home safe while my daughter is probably not safe,' she said. 'The FBI and police is trying, they are doing their job,' she said. 'But I'm thinking long term. There's got to be law changes for situations like this. I will fight to end of earth not only for Gabby but for anyone else that ends up in this situation. 'If somebody is known to be the last person with a missing person, then they shouldn't have a right to not talk. They should lose that right altogether. This can't be allowed.' The Petito and Schmidt family on Thursday issued yet another public plea for the Laundries to come forward with information and help find their daughter. In a press conference held in Gabby's native Long Island, family attorney Richard Stafford read aloud a heartbreaking letter from her parents begging Laundrie and his parents to tell them where she is. 'We believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby. We beg you to tell us,' they said. 'As a parent, how can you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabby's younger brothers and sisters through this?' Six days after Petito and Laundrie had a physical altercation at Moonflower Community Cooperative, store worker Kylen Schulte, 24, and her wife Crystal Turner, 38, were found dead and partially undressed where they had been camping Police in Utah are investigating a potential link between 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito's disappearance and the murder of a woman who worked at the Moab co-op where Petito and fiance Brian Laundrie had an explosive fight. Around the time Schulte and Turner were killed in Utah, police across the state line in San Miguel County, Colorado warned campers after they found more than 30 weapons at a man's campsite in Telluride Petito and Laundrie had started a fight at the Moonflower co-op, before they checked out and continued fighting in their van and police was called Stafford also revealed the couple's cross country road trip included plans to visit Oregon on October 2, meaning Laundrie's premature return to his family's Florida home on September 1 would have seemed odd or unexpected. 'The family is devastated. Every day that this goes on, they get more and more desperate. They're at the point that this desperation as turned into anger,' the attorney said. 'They know that the Laundries know where their daughter is. And they will not tell them. That's infuriating.' Later on Thursday it was reported that police in Utah are investigating a potential link between Gabby's disappearance and the murder of a woman who worked at the Moab co-op where Gabby and Brian had an explosive fight on August 12. Six days after Petito and Laundrie had a physical altercation at Moonflower Community Cooperative, store worker Kylen Schulte, 24, and her wife Crystal Turner, 38, were found dead and partially undressed where they had been camping. Schulte and Turner told friends about a 'creepy man' that had been bothering them and that 'if something happened to them, that they were murdered.' On August 18, their bodies were found at a campsite in the La Sal Mountains, an hour away from Moab. Around the time Schulte and Turner were killed in Utah, police across the state line in San Miguel County, Colorado warned campers after they found more than 30 weapons at a man's campsite in Telluride, just over two hours away from Moab. Schulte and Turner told friends about a 'creepy man' that had been bothering them and that 'if something happened to them, that they were murdered' The pair was found dead in a nearby creek, partially undressed and with multiple gunshot wounds to the bodies The arsenal found in Telluride included knives, hatchets, a cross-bow and several swords. 'In light of the past week's double homicide of campers outside Moab, l want to caution people to be aware of their surroundings,' the sheriff office said at the time. Police did not release the identity of the man citing 'pre-trial publicity' Police said his whereabouts were unknown and it is unclear if police eventually arrested him. Now police in Moab and North Port, Florida, where Petito and Laundrie lived, are looking into possible links between the the double murder and Petito's missing person case. 'The Grand County Sheriff's Office has been in contact with Florida authorities and we are actively looking into any connection between the Gabby Petito missing person case and the double homicide that occurred in Grand County,' the sheriff told FOX in a statement. North Port Chief of Police said: 'We provided them with whatever information we could. They don't have any [murder] suspect information right now. They told us that they're looking at everything at this point.' The arsenal found in Telluride included knives, hatchets, a cross-bow and several swords. 'In light of the past week's double homicide of campers outside Moab, l want to caution people to be aware of their surroundings,' the sheriff office said at the time. Police did not release the identity of the man citing 'pre-trial publicity,' and as of August 23 his whereabout were unknown. 'The individual has been arrested three times in the Norwood and Telluride areas since July 1st for charges including weapons offenses, burglary of a local laundromat, possession of meth, trespassing, and theft. A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation and cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' Emotional new police bodycam footage has revealed the moment Utah cops asked missing 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito why she slapped her fiance Brian Laundrie in a dramatic incident 13 days before she disappeared on their cross-country trip Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone' Laundrie shows the officers his hands during the incident on August 12 - two weeks before his girlfriend vanished 'The judge has repeatedly released this man from jail on PR bonds over the objections of the District Attorney's office,' San Miguel County Sheriff shared on Twitter. Petito and Laundrie got into a physical fight at the Moonflower co-op on August 12, a day before Schulte and Turner were last seen leaving a bar in Moab. Police bodycam footage from the incident showed an emotional Gabby telling cops why she slapped her fiance after they were pulled over in their van. The altercation took place 13 days before Gabby's final phone call to her family letting them know she was at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The statement from Brian Laundrie's attorney: 'Many people are wondering why Mr. Laundrie would not make a statement or speak with law enforcement in the face of Ms. Petito's absence. 'In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this and the warning that 'any statement made will be used against you' is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito's disappearance. 'As such, on the advice of counsel Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on the matter. 'I have been informed that the North Port, Florida police have named Brian Laundrie as a 'person of interest' in this matter. 'This formality has not really changed the circumstances of Mr. Laundrie being the focus of attention of law enforcement and Mr. Laundrie will continue to remain silent on the advice of counsel.' Advertisement The video shows the 22-year-old with tears streaming down her face, telling officers she 'was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down' and admitting the couple 'have been fighting all morning.' She also reveals that she suffers from OCD and anxiety, and both she and Laundrie said she was stressed about the YouTube blog they were working on their doomed cross-country trip. Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face and arm which he tells an officer were caused when Gabby 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone'. He later said she was angry with him because of his dirty feet. When an officer asks Gabby if Laundrie hit her, she replies 'I guess' and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation. The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and say they are separating the couple for the night. An incident report released by the Moab Police Department revealed officers received a call of a 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple near the co-op around 4:30pm. In his account, one of the responding officers Eric Pratt, wrote that 'all three individuals' - Gabby, Laundrie, and the witness - gave 'a similar and consistent story, consisting of the basic idea that the driver of the van, a male, had some sort of argument with the female.' Pratt said no one reported 'that the male struck the female' and that both Gabby and Laundrie said 'they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime.' The report was redacted to conceal sensitive information but suggested Gabby told police she and her fiance got into a physical altercation that was fueled by mental health issues. Laundrie told the officer that issues between the two 'had been building over the last few days.' 'This in turn, caused them to argue more than usual,' the report said. 'Brian explained he and Gabrielle have been traveling together for the last four or five months. That time spent created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments.' On Thursday, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said at a press conference that the case was still being treated as a missing person's enquiry, and that there is so far no evidence of criminality in her disappearance. 'Right now, we are investigating a missing person case,' he said. Garrison, joined by Petito's dad, said police were aware of Laundrie's current location but cannot bring him in for questioning 'right now.' A map shows the last known movements of Petito and Laundrie along their cross-country road trip which began July 2 According to the document, cops were called to a local business in Moab, Utah on August 12, after a witness reported seeing the couple 'arguing over a phone' outside their van In his report, responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins said he pulled the couple over as they were driving towards Arches National Park and noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat 'Two people went on a trip, one person returned. And that person that returned isn't providing us any information,' he said. Garrison added that it was Laundrie's 'constitutional right' not to speak with law enforcement but said his lawyer had handed over some property they requested from him. Laundrie's attorney released a statement saying he is not speaking to police or making a statement 'on the advice of counsel' because 'intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this.' Petito's father Joe told Fox & Friends First Thursday that the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'start worrying about Brian' later. 'I don't care what happens to him right now,' he said. 'That can't be my primary focus if he's going to sit in the comfort of his home, you know, and get home cooked meals, why my daughter's out, you know, God knows where, you know, I don't give two craps about him.' 'I got to be out there to help her, because the one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair, you know, not talking to anybody.' Joe said learning about the August 12 incident and Laundrie being named a person of interest, had left him feeling 'it's not what you thought it was.' However, he said he just wants to keep the focus on finding his daughter. 'It's not what you thought it was,' he said. 'August 12, the person of interest... I get it from a legal side of it but from a family side we don't have Gabby. 'I want to care about finding my daughter first. That's my first objective.' The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park Police on Tuesday revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving 22-year-old 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she was last seen Schmidt said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island. 'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating' Addressing reports of the incident on Wednesday, Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt told DailyMail.com: 'It's irrelevant. 'Two people traveling together with each other 24 hours a day, it's not going to be perfect, it was an argument, and that's all I'm going to say about it.' The family released a statement Wednesday condemning Laundrie as the 'one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help.' 'The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help. Brian Laundrie was traveling with Gabby in the Grand Teton Yellowstone area. They were traveling together in Gabby's 2012 Ford Transit van. That is where we believe Gabby was last seen. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers. 'The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life. How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located?' they said. Schmidt said she sent her daughter's fiance and his parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, desperate texts looking for her on September 10 and 11, but was ignored. 'I texted Brian's mom that I was trying to get in touch with Gabby. I also texted Brian. I got no replies,' Schmidt told DailyMail.com. 'I knew something was wrong,' she said. 'I felt something was off and I needed to get her reported missing immediately.' She went to report Gabby missing later that day but police initially blew her off. The next day, she was allowed to file a report with the Suffolk County police department. Schmidt described how Brian's parents had been warm and welcoming to Gabby during their relationship. She recalled a time when his mother even knitted her future daughter-in-law gifts for Christmas. Gabby set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with fiance Brian Laundrie in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 at Zion National Park Brian Laundrie's parents Christopher and Roberta refused to let police speak with their son. He returned to their home on North Port,Florida on September 1 Above is the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, where Brian Laundrie returned in the couple's van without Gabby after their trip 'She loved her like a daughter,' Schmidt said. 'As far as I knew they were all very caring and treated her like one of the family. His mom was so excited about the engagement.' The distraught mother also clarified that Gabby and Brian had been engaged, but decided to call it off and go back to just dating because they felt they were too young for marriage. 'I think they kind of put that on hold just because they felt it was a little fast. They were excited at first, but then they were like, let's just wait, we're very young. So they were really just boyfriend and girlfriend,' she said. She said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island. 'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating,' she said. In light of the disappearance, Schmidt says she's now viewing everything under a new lens. 'Maybe the relationship wasn't what I thought,' she said. She's also questioning Brian's trip back to Florida in August to help his father move their things into a storage unit. She wonders why it was necessary to move Gabby's things during their road trip and what became of her stuff. 'Where are her things?' she asked. When asked why Brian chose to lawyer up, she replied, 'You know I wish I knew that answer, why.' 'I know that's the reason this story is so sought after is because it's odd. The police have said it's very odd. We don't know what's going on, and where is my daughter. I just want to find her.' Her last Instagram post on August 25, shows her visiting the Monarch Wall in Ogden, Utah with the caption 'Happy Halloween'. The pair were heading from Ogden to Yellowstone National Park, just north of Grand Teton. Gabby Petito's father says the main priority is to get her home safely - and then he'll start worrying about why her fiance refuses to speak to cops: 'The one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair' Gaby Petito's father has said the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about' her fiance Brian Laundrie later - after he was named a 'person of interest' in her disappearance and is still refusing to cooperate with police. Joe Petito told Fox & Friends First Thursday he doesn't 'give two craps' about Laundrie and slammed him for 'sitting home in his lazy boy chair' instead of helping in the search for his missing girlfriend. 'I don't care what happens to him right now,' said Petito's father. 'That can't be my primary focus if he's going to sit in the comfort of his home, you know, and get home cooked meals, why my daughter's out, you know, God knows where, you know, I don't give two craps about him. 'I got to be out there to help her, because the one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair, you know, not talking to anybody.' He added: 'I want to worry about getting my daughter home first and then we'll start worrying about Brian.' Gaby Petito's father has said the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about' her fiance Brian Laundrie later - after he was named a 'person of interest' in her disappearance and is still refusing to cooperate with police Joe also hit out at Laundrie's family who have so far shielded him from law enforcement. Police said they attempted to speak with Laundrie at his family property at the weekend but his parents refused to allow officers from doing so. 'It must be very difficult for the Laundrie family to have their son home while we're looking for ours so I'm not too concerned with how they're feeling,' said Joe. Petito's family issued a statement Wednesday slamming Laundrie for his refusal to cooperate saying the 'one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help' and urging him to break his silence about what happened. An attorney for Laundrie meanwhile said his client is not speaking 'on the advice of counsel' because it may be used against him as 'intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this'. John said the new developments in the case, including Laundrie being named a person of interest and the release of the police report from the August 12 'domestic incident' involving the couple, had left him feeling 'it's not what you thought it was.' However, he said he just wants to keep the focus on finding his daughter. 'It's not what you thought it was,' he said. Joe Petito told Fox & Friends First Thursday he doesn't 'give two craps' about Laundrie and slammed him for 'sitting home in his lazy boy chair' instead of helping in the search for his missing girlfriend 'August 12, the person of interest... I get it from a legal side of it but from a family side we don't have Gabby. 'I want to care about finding my daughter first. That's my first objective.' Petito's father said it was 'heart-wrenching' that he is unable to hug his daughter, saying she 'needs help and she is nowhere to be found.' 'It's heart-wrenching,' he said. 'That's my only daughter. Right now I can't give her a hug and she needs it, she needs help and she is nowhere to be found.' He added: 'I don't know where do you even begin. We're just doing what we can and it's just difficult. 'She needs help and we got to get it to her.' Joe said he didn't want to speculate on what has happened to his daughter because 'when I put scenarios in my head it doesn't end well.' 'I can't focus on that,' he said, adding that he was hopeful she was 'just stuck somewhere'. 'If I think of any other type of scenario in my head, I'm going to be on the floor so I can't do that,' he said. 'I got to focus that she is hurt and needs our help and we've got to find her as fast as we can.' The Victorian government has threatened to shut down the construction industry altogether following an 'unacceptable' protest held by workers across Melbourne. Further restrictions could be enforced upon those in the sector after the demonstrations stopped traffic around the city's streets on Friday. Tradies were protesting against the state's hefty new Covid-19 mandates for the industry, which will require them to show proof they've had their first vaccine shot. Tea rooms will also be forced to shut and travel between Melbourne and the regions for work will be banned. Dozens of workers dressed in hi-vis set up plastic chairs and tables while they took a smoke break along Lonsdale Street on Friday. The flash protest forced the cancellation of trams on nearby Spencer Street sparking commuter chaos. Similar demonstrations also occurred in Brunswick, Coburg, Kew, Parkville and Richmond. In the wake of the rallies, the government has urged tradies to reconsider their behaviour if they want to keep working. The Victorian government has threatened to shut down the construction industry altogether following an 'unacceptable' protest held by workers across Melbourne Construction workers have blocked streets across Melbourne to protest the state government's new coronavirus restrictions for the industry 'The sort of behaviour we saw from some construction workers today is completely unacceptable,' a government spokesperson told the Herald Sun. 'Due to ongoing transmission at construction sites, this industry could very well face further restrictions or even closure. 'We'll continue to work with the industry but the best way for them to stay open is to get vaccinated and work within the rules.' Government and WorkSafe authorities have been conducting compliance checks on construction sites around the state. More than 70 per cent of sites were found to not be complying with health orders on Thursday alone, including for inadequate CovidSafe plans, no mask signage and a lack of QR codes. Tradies were protesting against the state's hefty new Covid-19 mandates for the industry which will require them to show proof they've had their first vaccine shot The protest stopped traffic around the streets on Melbourne on Friday Dozens of workers blocked Lonsdale Street with plastic chairs and tables while they took a smoke break, forcing the cancellation of trams on nearby Spencer Street on Friday morning Victorian state construction union secretary John Setka said the decision to close tea rooms was 'appalling', given it was made without consulting the CFMEU. 'It's not really a protest,' he told 3AW radio on Friday. 'What they decided was if we can't sit in the smoko shed, where do we have our break? So they've taken all the tables and chairs out into the fresh air. 'They've got nowhere else to have their smoko.' Premier Daniel Andrews said the decision was backed by health advice and designed to keep the construction industry open at its 25 per cent workforce cap. 'If they want to work and be part of that 25 per cent, they need to be vaccinated with one dose by midnight next Thursday night,' he told reporters on Thursday. 'If they're not, they won't be able to come on site. That's keeping them open. The other thing would be to close them down to zero.' The industry was earlier this week warned it risked losing its authorised worker status amid the launch of an enforcement and vaccination blitz. Similar protests have also occurred in Brunswick, Coburg, Kew, Parkville and Richmond. The roads have now been cleared It comes after the Victorian government imposed tough restrictions on the industry, given 13 per cent of the state's active COVID-19 cases have been linked to transmission at construction sites At the time, the state's COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar described tea rooms as the 'most dangerous place' to contract the virus. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Dr Weimar stood by the decision to introduce the new restrictions. 'We've seen a number of examples, and I appreciate people think it's amusing, but when you have people across the industry in the construction industry and they're in a small cabin or hut enjoying food and drink together, that's a significant risk of transmission,' he said. 'The CHO has talked about it many times. It's a self-evident risk we need to manage. The weather is getting better and it doesn't seem unreasonable to partake in those activities outside, preferably not on tram tracks.' Dr Weimar urged construction workers to follow the new restrictions pointing out they were lucky to be in an industry that was still operating during the pandemic - unlike hospitality and retail businesses that had been forced to close. 'I'd appeal to the industry and to the employees, so many sectors, so many employees would love to be at work,' he said. The protests were held as the state recorded 510 new cases and one death - a woman in her 50s 'So many of us would love to be working almost normally and actually, people are bending over backwards to keep the construction industry going and keep important sites going for important reasons. 'I think we all need to be humble on this and recognise the privilege that those of us who are still able to work can get. 'If you can't sit next to your mates having a sandwich, that doesn't seem a huge burden to bear.' The protests were held as the state recorded 510 new cases and one death - a woman in her 50s. Of the new cases, only 124 have been linked to known outbreaks with the source still unknown for 386 new infections. The majority of cases have been recorded in Melbourne's northern suburbs with 276 infections recorded across Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park and Broadmeadows. A 29-year-old surgical technician who was set to be married this summer - but died after not taking the COVID-19 vaccination over unfounded fears it would make her infertile - will be mourned in the church she had booked to say her vows. Samantha Wendell, of Grand Rivers, Kentucky, was set to walk down the aisle at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lisle, Illinois, in late August with her fiance Austin Eskew, a correctional sergeant. Instead, funeral services for the 29-year-old will be held on Saturday at the same church, where her parents had married years ago, according to NBC News. The couple had both refused to get vaccinated after Wendell's co-workers incorrectly told the bride-to-be, who wanted to have three to four children, that the vaccine can cause infertility. Samantha Wendell (right), of Grand Rivers, Kentucky, was set to walk down the aisle in late August with her fiance Austin Eskew (left), a correctional sergeant Pictured: Samantha Wendell, a 29-year-old who was set to be married this summer, but died after not taking the COVID-19 vaccination over unfounded fears it would make her infertile The CDC has confirmed the vaccination is safe for 'people who are trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future, as well as their partners.' But still, Wendell was hesitant. While she waited to make up her mind, she caught COVID-19. She spent her August 21 wedding day on a ventilator and died a short time later. 'Misinformation killed her,' Wendell's cousin Maria Vibandor Hayes told NBC News. Her cousin said her family is now telling her story in the hopes that it wont happen to someone else. 'If we can save more lives and families' lives, then this is the gift that she left for us to deliver,' Vibandor said. The couple had both refused to get vaccinated after Wendell's co-workers incorrectly told the bride-to-be, who wanted to have three to four children, that the vaccine can cause infertility Wendell, who wanted to have three to four children, was scared off the vaccine due to the ever-growing claim that the COVID-19 vaccine effects fertility Services for the 29-year-old will now be held on Saturday at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lisle, Illinois, pictured, where her parents had married themselves years ago Tragically, despite her earlier hesitancy Wendell had turned a corner on the vaccine and decided to get the shot after the delta variant surge, NBC News reported. Wendell and her fiance set an appointment to be vaccinated for the end of July ahead of her honeymoon in Mexico, but it would be too late. Before her trip she held her bachelorette party in Nashville and when she returned home, just a week before she and her fiance were set to get vaccinated, she began feeling sick, NBC News reported. 'She could not stop coughing,' Eskew said and when she began gasping for air, she was taken to the hospital. Both Wendell and Eskew, who both had no underlying conditions, tested positive for the virus, but Wendell suffered the more serious symptoms and in a bid to stabilize her, doctors put her on a ventilator on August 16, just five days before she was set to be married. 'Samantha had a heart of gold and when she set her mind on something, she let nothing stand in her way,' her obituary read. She spent her August 21 wedding day on a ventilator and died a short time later Wendell's mother told NBC News before being put on the ventilator the 29-year-old asked if she could receive the vaccine. 'It wasn't going to do any good at that point, obviously,' Jeaneen Wendell said. 'It just weighs heavy on my heart that this could have easily been avoided.' Despite hopes the wedding would only be delayed, not cancelled, on September 10 Wendell's family made the choice to take her off life support when doctors told them there was no chance for survival. Now Wendell's fiance says he feels 'lost' without his future bride, who he had been with since college. Samantha Wendell, 29, of Kentucky died after she decided to hold off on getting the vaccine after some of her co-workers told her the vaccine causes infertility 'She had so much influence in everything that I do,' he said. 'We didn't really ever do anything without the other in mind.' Now instead of a wedding her family is hosting a funeral set for September 18. Family and friends remember Wendell for her 'heart of gold' and her determinate spirit. 'Samantha loved her job as a surgical technician and she rescued and raised numerous pets, her obituary said. 'She loved Christmas and elaborate decorations for all the holidays, as well as surprises. Samantha loved her time at Lake Maxinkuckee and hanging out with her many friends.' 'Samantha had a heart of gold and when she set her mind on something, she let nothing stand in her way,' the obituary added. Police have launched a criminal investigation into the 2018 'trip-and-fall' death of Alex Murdaugh's housekeeper Gloria Satterfield (pictured) Alex Murdaugh has been accused of pocketing a $4 million insurance payout owed to the grieving sons of his longtime housekeeper after he convinced them to sue him for wrongful death when she died in his home. Police launched a criminal investigation into the 2018 'trip-and-fall' death of Murdaugh's housekeeper Gloria Satterfield just one day after investigators said the legal scion had paid a hitman to kill him in a botched assisted suicide scheme following the double murder of his wife and son. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is also investigating the the subsequent handling of Satterfield's estate. The 57-year-old had been the Murdaugh housekeeper and nanny for around 25 years when she suffered a fatal brain injury following a mystery fall inside the family home. She died several weeks later on February 26, 2018. According to Eric Bland, the attorney working for Satterfield's family, Murdaugh convinced Satterfield's sons, Michael Satterfield and Brian Harriott, to file a wrongful death lawsuit against him, and introduced them to a lawyer - his best friend and college roommate - who handled the case. Alex Murdaugh (left) is being accused of swindling the sons of his deceased housekeeper out of $4 million. Eric Bland (right) is representing the Satterfield family in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday against Murdaugh, Fleming, Westendorff, Palmetto State Bank and Moss, Kuhn, Fleming, P.A. The disgraced South Carolina lawyer allegedly convinced Satterfield's sons to file a wrongful death suit against him and connected them to his best friend, lawyer Corey Fleming, to file the suit (Pictured September 16, 2021, in Varnville, South Carolina) Murdaugh settled the wrongful death claim with the housekeeper's family for $500,000 in 2018. Bland said on Friday that the figure paid out by insurance policies was actually closer to $4 million. Satterfield's family sued Murdaugh on Wednesday claiming he had not paid out 'one single dime' of the settlement. 'We've learned since the lawsuit was filed that the amount that has been unaccounted for and misappropriated is $4 million and we were told that those monies were misappropriated either whole or in part by Alex Murdaugh,' Bland told Fox News. 'He had home owners insurance and access umbrella coverage and so he took these boys to his best friend, his college roommate Corey Fleming and told them to bring a lawsuit against him and then he admitted liability, which forced these insurance companies that insured him to pay large amounts of money in connection with Gloria Satterfield's death,' Bland explained. The new lawsuit against Murdaugh claims that following Satterfield's death, he claimed 'he was going to take care of the boys because he was going to 'sue [himself]' for the death.' Fleming then allegedly chose a mutual friend of his and Murdaugh's, Chad Westendorf, to represent Satterfield's estate in the prosecution instead of one of Satterfield's family members. This made Westendorf the only person required 'to petition the court for approval of any future settlements and/or appear at any future hearings to approve settlements.' The new lawsuit claims that 'Tony and Brian did not participate in the settlement negotiations; Neither Tony, nor Brian signed any settlement agreements; Neither Tony, nor Brian, were told that any money was recovered for them.' Satterfield's family is suing Murdaugh, Fleming, Westendorff, Palmetto State Bank and Moss, Kuhn, Fleming, P.A. for the alleged insurance fraud scheme. Murdaugh's attorney denies he had any involvement with Satterfield's death and said the insurance company that paid the money determined it was an accident. Bland says it was paid out, but not to his clients. '$4 million was paid and my clients got none of it. And they were supposed to get all of it,' Bland stated. Murdaugh appeared in court on Thursday where his lawyer pointed to the mysterious murder of his wife and son and his opioid addiction, suggesting it led to Murdaugh's life spiraling out of control. But Bland wasn't buying it. He claims Murdaugh's legal team is 'casting a defense that doesn't exist.' Buster, Margaret 'Maggie', Paul and Richard Alex 'Alec' Murdaugh (left to right). Paul and Maggie were shot dead at the family hunting lodge June 7 Family murders, deaths, drug addictions, thefts and arrests: The riddles facing investigators who've now charged Alex Murdaugh 2015: Teenager Stephen Smith dies Smith was found on the side of the road. Cops investigating the double murder have also reopened the case into a 2015 hit-and-run of teen Stephen Smith Police officially rule his death a hit-and-run but he had suffered blunt force trauma to the head His mother has since shared her belief that she thinks he was killed in a hate-crime because he was gay Case notes obtained by DailyMail.com revealed Paul's older brother Buster was named multiple times in the investigation. Police wanted to know more about his relationship with Stephen Stephen's mother said he had been having a 'fling'. In a deposition years later, one of Paul's friends said the family had 'covered' other killings up. He mentioned Smith's death. 2018: Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield dies Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Sattlerfield dies Gloria died after 'falling' down the stairs in the family house The family gave her family $500.000 in a wrongful death settlement but it's unclear why her death was ruled to be their fault. Alex Murdaugh was listed as the defendant in the lawsuit. Satterfield was only 57 when she died. She left behind a husband and children. Her death was also mentioned in the deposition by Paul Murdaugh's friend. 2019: Mallory Beach dies being thrown from boat driven by Paul Murdaugh Mallory Beach, 19, died in February 2019 Paul was charged afterwards because he'd been drinking and was behaving 'belligerently' that night. He had been released on bond. Other kids were on the boat but were unharmed. One testified that they were scared to speak about the Murdaugh family because they knew how to 'cover things up'. That boy named Stephen Smith and the housekeeper, and claimed Paul pushed her June 7 2021: Paul and Maggie are murdered The mom and son were found shot dead at the family home in Hampton, South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh says he found them at the home. The medical examiner said the pair had been dead for an hour at most when he discovered them. Alex's son Paul, 22, (left) and wife Maggie, 52, (right) were found dead from multiple gunshot wounds on June 7 at the family hunting lodge Alex's father Randolph Murdaugh III died 'peacefully' at home three days after Maggie and Paul were found shot dead June 10 2021: Alex's 81-year-old father Randolph Murdaugh III dies 'naturally' and 'peacefully' at home September 3: Alex resigns from his law firm amid claims he misused funds The firm has hired a forensic investigator to go through the accounts September 4: Alex calls 911 claiming he's been shot in the head in a drive-by. He only had 'surface' wounds and was also able to call his brother September 6: Alex resigns from his law firm The South Carolina legal scion releases a statement confirming his resignation from the firm and announcing he has entered rehab He said: 'I'm resigning from my law firm and entering rehab after a long battle that has been exacerbated these murders.' September 16: Alex turns himself into police over insurance fraud scheme Murdaugh handed himself over to cops in connection to insurance fraud scheme where he arranged his own killing so that his surviving son could collect $10 million payout. He faces charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report. Advertisement SLED said that it had opened a criminal investigation into Satterfield's death based on a request from the Hampton County Coroner, as well as 'information gathered during the course of our other ongoing investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.' The investigation into the housekeeper's death marks the latest twist in the Murdaugh family saga, which gained national attention when Murdaugh's wife Maggie and son Paul were shot dead at the family's hunting lodge on June 7. Three months on, their deaths remain a mystery with no arrests made and no suspects or persons of interest named. Then, on September 4, Murdaugh was shot in the head and rushed to hospital where he survived, in what his own attorney now admits was a botched assisted suicide scheme. He checked himself into rehab days later for opioid addiction and resigned from his law firm as it emerged he was being investigated for allegedly misappropriating millions of dollars of funds. Investigators alleged Tuesday Murdaugh had in fact orchestrated his own shooting, paying a former client to kill him so that his surviving son Buster could collect a $10 million life insurance payment. Satterfield is also the third mystery death connected to the Murdaugh family, which has come under closer scrutiny following the double murder of Paul and Maggie. At the time of his murder, Paul was awaiting trial for the 2019 death of 19-year-old Mallory Beach, who was killed as a passenger in a boat he crashed while allegedly heavily intoxicated. Police have also investigated the family for possible ties to the 2015 death of gay teen Stephen Smith, which was ruled a hit-and-run, though no suspects have ever been named or charged. SLED has also reopened the investigation into Smith's death in the wake of Paul and Maggie's murders. Investigators are weighing all three suspicious deaths -- those of Satterfield, Beach and Smith -- as potential motives in the murder of Paul and Maggie. Alex Murdaugh and wife Maggie. Satterfield's family sued Murdaugh Wednesday claiming he had not paid out 'one single dime' of the settlement reached for her 'wrongful death' Spokesman Tommy Crosby said the SLED was opening the investigation into Satterfield's death at the request of the Hampton County Coroner 'as well as information gathered during the course of our other ongoing investigations involving Alex Murdaugh.' Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper sent a letter to the department saying the 57-year-old's death was not reported to the coroner at the time and no autopsy was carried out. The death certificate cites the manner of death as 'natural', wrote Topper - something that 'is inconsistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fail accident' and that does not match the information documented in the wrongful death suit. In the petition for approval of a wrongful death settlement, Satterfield is listed as dying as a 'result of injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident, in Hampton County', writes Topper. Alex Murdaugh is listed as the defendant. 'In light of the inconsistencies noted above, I feel that it is prudent to pursue an investigation into Gloria Satterfield's death,' she wrote. An attorney for Satterfield's estate filed a lawsuit against Murdaugh on Wednesday claiming he had failed to pay out any of the settlement in the almost three years since it was reached. 'My client has not been paid one single dime since this was settled in 2020,' said Eric Bland, according to WTOC. 'My job is to get information and find out why these boys didn't get any money when there was a settlement.' The suit claims Satterfield was 'part of the Murdaugh family' after working for them for decades. 'In February, 2018, Gloria Satterfield fell while working in Alex Murdaugh's home. The exact details of the fall remain unclear to the Plaintiffs,' the suit says. Following her death, Murdaugh allegedly told Satterfield's two sons Brian Harriott and Tony Satterfield he would 'take care of' them. According to the suit, Murdaugh introduced Satterfield's family to an attorney who would represent them in the wrongful death claim. This attorney - Tony Fleming - was also one of Murdaugh's 'best friends and college roommate' and the godfather of his son Paul, it is claimed. Murdaugh's attorney admits that he orchestrated his own shooting in botched suicide attempt but insists he is innocent in the murder of his wife and son 'Hitman' Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on Tuesday charges of conspiring in the assisted suicide scheme Alex Murdaugh's attorney Dick Harpootlian, who is also a South Carolina state senator, on Wednesday admitted his client's involvement in his own shooting, but said he was innocent of murdering his wife and son. Murdaugh survived being shot in the head on September 4 while changing a tire on a rural highway, after allegedly hiring a hitman on himself so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance payment. Harpootlian says that the motive for the June 7 murder of Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, was 'personal' and that the identity of the suspect could be revealed sometime this week. Murdaugh has previously said that he has an 'iron clad' alibi for his wife and son's murders. He discovered the bodies at the family hunting lodge and called 911. Harpootlian told NBC's TODAY that Murdaugh, 53, was addicted to opioids and fell into depression after the murder of his wife and son. The lawyer says that his client hatched the hitman scheme 'to protect his child' - 25-year-old Buster Murdaugh. 'He was in a dark, dark, dark place and he wanted to help his remaining son, Buster, in any way he could,' Harpootlian says. 'He thought this was the only way he could leave him with anything.' 'It was an attempt on his part to do something to protect his child,' Harpootlian says of the suicide-for-hire scheme. Alex Murdaugh's lawyer, Dick Harpootlian (left), says he knows who killed the South Carolina legal scion's wife and son earlier this year though he does expect his client to be arrested for embezzling funds from a law firm to fuel an addiction to painkillers. Murdaugh is seen right with his late wife, Maggie Investigators work the scene where Alex Murdaugh was shot in the head and injured on Sept. 4, 2021 after he had car trouble on a rural road in in Hampton County, S.C. 'He didn't want law enforcement spending time on this fake crime instead of focusing on solving the murders of Maggie and Paul.' Harpootlian acknowledged that Murdaugh is likely to be arrested for allegedly misappropriating millions from his own law firm. Harpootlian told TODAY that he and another lawyer visited Murdaugh at an out-of-state detox facility on Monday. He said it was the first time he and the other lawyer, Jim Griffin, spoke to Murdaugh 'when he wasn't on opioids or Oxy (oxycodone).' 'He clearly knew that what he had done was wrong,' Harpootlian told TODAY on Wednesday. 'He believed that $10 million policy had a suicide exclusion,' according to the attorney. 'Suicide exclusions are only good for two years, and he didn't realize that. So he arranged to have this guy shoot him.' Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show Richard Alexander 'Buster' Murdaugh Jr. at the family's Edisto Island property in South Carolina on Monday. Buster is Alex Murdaugh's sole surviving heir after the murder of his brother Paul in June Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on Tuesday charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Smith, from Walterboro, South Carolina, is a former client of Murdaugh, 53, who represented him in minor traffic matters as well as a 2015 lawsuit that Smith filed against a forest management company. According to police, Murdaugh paid Smith to shoot him in the head and kill him, making it look like a random, drive-by attack. But the plan failed as the shot only grazed his head, according to state police. On June 7, the bodies of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found by Alex Murdaugh at their South Carolina home. Alex Murdaugh immediately identified himself on the 911 call and told the operator his 'wife and child have been shot' near dog kennels on his property. 'I've been up to it now. It's bad,' Murdaugh said. During the 911 call, dogs could be heard barking in the background and Murdaugh sounded deeply upset and agitated. He told the operator several times that neither his son or wife was breathing. No arrests have been made. Moselle Hunting Lodge where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down June 7. Their bodies were discovered by Murdaugh by the dog kennels On June 7, Alex Murdaugh (right) discovered his son Paul and wife Maggie (center) dead at the dog kennels on the family property Harpootlian adds 'The murder of his wife and son 90 days ago took a tremendous toll on him.' The lawyer denied that Alex Murdaugh had anything to do with the deaths of his wife and son. 'He did not murder them. He is totally distraught about their deaths,' Harpootlian tells NBC's TODAY. Alex Murdaugh's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, died of cancer the same week that Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found dead, according to Harpootlian The lawyer says that in the time he has spent with the family, they were 'affectionate' with each other and that there was no indication Alex Murdaugh wanted to do them harm. Harpootlian also claims that he and Griffin are pursuing leads and have gathered information that may implicate a suspect in the June killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. The attorney says that he and Griffin have zeroed in on 'an individual or individuals we believe - may - have some culpability' or had carried out the murder. 'We think we'll know this week whether the one suspect we're looking at bears further scrutiny and we'll make that information available to law enforcement,' Harpootlian says. When asked what motive this individual may have had in killing Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, Harpootlian says: 'Well, that would reveal who that person is, but it's personal.' 'The motive would be personal.' Harpootlian says that his client used 'the vast majority' of the funds that he is alleged to have embezzled from his law firm 'to buy drugs.' The attorney says that he made Alex Murdaugh available for interviews with South Carolina law enforcement. According to Harpootlian, Alex Murdaugh told investigators that he wrote personal checks to 'drug dealers' to obtain the painkillers. The lawyer says that he left a paper trail that law enforcement officials are now looking at. When asked if he expects Alex Murdaugh to be arrested, Harpootlian replies: 'Yes, I think he will be charged. 'But what he doesn't want - and we don't want - is an effort to deal with these issues [which] distract from law enforcement resources that could be used to solve the murders of Maggie and Paul.' Mallory Beach, 19, was killed in a fatal boating accident in February 2019 when Paul, 'intoxicated' and 'belligerent' ploughed his father's boat into a piling in Archers Creek It was Alex Murdaugh who discovered his wife and son's bodies near dog kennels on the property and called 911 shortly after 10pm on the evening of June 7. According to investigators mother and son were killed between 9 and 9.30pm. Paul suffered fatal shotgun wounds to the head and torso. His mother was killed with a semi-automatic rifle. Murdaugh was visiting his sick father in hospital on the night of the shooting Randolph Murdaugh III died three days later after a long battle with cancer. What little information has emerged since, has only served to deepen the mystery surrounding the events on the Islandton estate in June. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial on a charge of boating under the influence causing death in a February 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Whether local law enforcement agencies tried to obstruct the investigation into the boating death is also being reviewed by state officials. Joe Biden will welcome Boris Johnson to the White House next week as the US and UK look to repair the Special Relationship after the Afghanistan crisis, it was claimed today. There has been mounting speculation that Mr Johnson will travel to Washington DC after he addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The visit to the White House is yet to be confirmed but there is a growing expectation that it will take place. US President Joe Biden is widely expected to welcome Boris Johnson to the White House next week There has been mounting speculation that Mr Johnson will travel to Washington DC after he addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York Officials in London and Washington will be hoping to use the meeting to repair any lingering tensions over the manner of the US withdrawal from Kabul. Mr Johnson had asked Mr Biden to delay the US exit in order to provide more time for humanitarian airlifts. But Mr Biden stuck to his hard deadline of August 31 as all remaining US forces left the country. The fact that the UK's request was dismissed prompted some MPs to question whether British foreign policy was at a 'crossroads' after decades of being interwoven with that of the US. Mr Johnson met Mr Biden in person for the first time at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June this year. He appeared virtually at the White House on Wednesday this week during the unveiling of a new defence pact between the UK, US and Australia which will see the latter provided with nuclear-powered submarines. Mr Biden said during that briefing that he 'looked forward to seeing you in person, very soon I hope'. Mr Johnson met Mr Biden in person for the first time at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June this year Mr Johnson could be one of a number of world leaders visiting the White House next week as nations try to arrange trips to coincide with the UNGA summit, according to The Telegraph. Number 10 has not yet confirmed whether Mr Johnson will meet with Mr Biden next week. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said yesterday: 'I've seen some speculation on that, but there are no confirmed plans.' Australia has threatened to block China's bid to join a global trading pact as tensions continue to worsen between the two nations. China applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on Thursday. The pact has 11 members, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, which will all have to unanimously agree before China can join. However, due to frictions between the Asian nation and Australia, Scott Morrisons' government has made it clear China's bid won't be approved until they call off strikes on barley and wine exports. Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said China would need to prove its 'track record of compliance' with members of the pact and resume high-level communication with the Morrison government. Australia has threatened to block China's bid to join a global trading pact as tensions continue to worsen between the two nations 'CPTPP parties would also want to be confident that an accession candidate would fully implement its commitments under the agreement in good faith,' Mr Tehan told The Weekend Australian. 'As we have conveyed to China, these are important matters which require ministerial engagement.' Beijing's strike on Australian trade was estimated to be affecting $20billion worth of exports and put a large strain on the relationship between the two countries. In the trade pact, New Zealand handles the requests for new members while Singapore, Japan and Australia assess potential new additions. Wang Huiyao, who is the president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, said accepting China's approval could relive tensions between Canberra and Beijing. 'It will also help to balance Australia's relation with China and US, given Australia has just joined a regional defence framework with the US,' Dr Wang said. The timing of China's application has also been called into question as it came just hours after Mr Morrison announced the historic AUKUS deal which will see eight nuclear-powered submarines delivered to Australia The timing of China's application has also been called into question as it came just hours after Mr Morrison announced the historic AUKUS deal. Australia, the US, and Britain on Thursday morning formed a new alliance to beef up security in the Asia Pacific to counter the rising threat of China. At least eight nuclear-powered submarines are expected to be delivered to Australia under the deal. 'It is the first time this technology has ever been made available to Australia. This is a one-off, as the President in Washington has made very clear. This is a very special arrangement,' Mr Morrison said. None of the leaders mentioned China by name but the West is increasingly concerned about Beijing's growing assertiveness and huge military build-up. In response, China's Global Times news website - a mouthpiece for the communist government - published a scathing article and warned of the possibility of a nuclear strike on Australia. The article cited an anonymous 'senior Chinese military expert' who said Australia would pose a nuclear threat to other countries because the new submarines could potentially be fitted with nuclear weapons provided by the US or UK. 'This would make Australia a potential target for a nuclear strike, because nuclear-armed states like China and Russia are directly facing the threat from Australia's nuclear submarines which serve US strategic demands,' the expert said. The article warned Mr Morrison's ambition to beef up Australia's military 'could bring destructive consequences' in the event of a nuclear war and said his insistence that Australia does not want nuclear missiles is 'meaningless'. China has vastly built up its military in the past few years and now possesses six Shang-class nuclear powered attack submarines, equipped with torpedoes and cruise missiles. This graphic shows a comparison of the two militaries The Home Office has confirmed that UK authorities had to rescue or intercept 174 migrants today in six boats. It takes the total number to arrive so far this year to a record-breaking 15,116. In 2020, 8,410 arrived. And it means 2,689 migrants have made the dangerous cross-Channel journey in September alone in 96 boats. Dan O'Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said: 'This unacceptable rise in dangerous crossings is being driven by criminal gangs and a surge in illegal migration across Europe. 'We're determined to target the criminals at every level, so far, we have secured nearly 300 arrests, 65 convictions and prevented more than 12,000 migrant attempts. 'But there is more to do. The Government's New Plan for Immigration is the only credible way to fix the broken asylum system, breaking the business model of criminal gangs and welcoming people through safe and legal routes.' Pictures taken in Dover, Kent on Friday showed Border Force officials marshalling dozens of migrants off of boats and inside to be processed. Eyewitnesses estimate 'at least 80' migrants were brought into Dover Marine, Kent so far on Friday. The Home Office has been contacted for comment. If confirmed, that would take the total number of migrants to have reached the United Kingdom so far this year beyond the 15,000 milestone. It comes as more than 200 migrants crossed the Channel by small boat on the same day Home Secretary Priti Patel was given a guided tour of operations on the frontline of the ongoing crisis. Record-breaking numbers of migrants have so far made it across the Channel this year - with numbers already nearing double those recorded in the whole of 2020. In total, 14,942 people have made the dangerous crossing across the Channel in 2021 according to official Home Office records. More families, including a baby (pictured) were intercepted by Border Force officials crossing the English Channel on Friday Pictures taken in Dover, Kent on Friday showed Border Force officials marshalling dozens of migrants off of boats and inside to be processed A Border Force vessel intercepts a group of people thought to be migrants in a small boat off the coast of Dover in Kent A man carrying a young child on his shoulders - who was wrapped in a blanket and wearing a woollen hat - were among a group of people seen arriving in Dover on Friday amid bright and breezy conditions at sea. Border Force brought the first group aboard catamaran Hurricane in for processing shortly before 12pm, as approximately 30 people were escorted off for processing by Immigration Enforcement. The migrants, who were mainly male, wore red blankets for warmth and held their possessions in clear plastic bags. Shortly after they disembarked, another Border Force cutter docked carrying 23 migrants. The family were followed by 20 men who were wearing orange lifejackets. Border Force vessel Seeker was next to enter the harbour around 1pm with approximately 30 male migrants. At least 481 migrants have arrived in the UK since Monday after making the journey across busy shipping lanes from France. The crossings continued as Home Secretary Priti Patel was seen meeting Border Force officers in the Kent port town on Thursday. But the numbers so far are substantially lower than the week before. A new record was set for the year so far when 1,959 people made the crossing in the week to September 10 - the highest total for any seven-day period in 2021. A new record was set for the year so far when 1,959 people made the crossing in the week to September 10 - the highest total for any seven-day period in 2021. Pictured: A Border Force vessel intercepts a small boat off the coast of the English Channel A man carrying a young child on his shoulders - who was wrapped in a blanket and wearing a woollen hat - were among a group of people seen arriving in Dover on Friday amid bright and breezy conditions at sea At least 14,900 people have crossed to the UK on board small boats this year as record-breaking numbers of migrants have so far made it across the Channel in 2021 At least 14,900 people have crossed to the UK on board small boats this year. The total for 2021 so far is already more than 6,500 higher than the number of people who made the crossing in 2020. Border Force detained 222 people across 10 separate incidents on Thursday as people smugglers took advantage of the unusual warm September weather. One of the first small boats to arrive contained six people from Syria and Sudan. And a second boat with around 50 people on board was also intercepted at sea and brought into the harbour at Dover Marina. Border Force catamaran Hurricane dropped off approximately 30 more migrants around 11am. The men could be seen draped in light blue blankets wearing orange lifejackets as they disembarked and were escorted up the gangway by Immigration Enforcement for processing. It comes as more than 200 migrants crossed the Channel by small boat on the same day Home Secretary Priti Patel (above) was given a guided tour of operations on the frontline of the ongoing crisis At least 481 migrants have arrived in the UK since Monday after making the journey across busy shipping lanes from France In total, 14,942 people have made the dangerous crossing across the Channel in 2021 according to official Home Office records It came on the same day Ms Patel, who says she will prioritise 'tackling illegal migration' after retaining her role in the cabinet reshuffle, visited Dover wearing a camel jacket, blue dress and sunglasses in the warm sunshine. She could be seen being given a guided tour of Dover Marina by Border Force officers who showed her around their cutter Eagle docked in the harbour. French authorities also said they intercepted 95 people in two incidents on Thursday. It comes after 85 migrants crossed the Channel in four boats on Wednesday, with the French preventing 162 people from making the dangerous journey in five incidents. And Border Force intercepted 11 migrants in one boat on Tuesday. It takes the total number to arrive in September to 2,515 across 90 boats. The total so far this year stands at 14,942, according to official Home Office figures. Dan O'Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, said today: 'This unacceptable rise in dangerous crossings is being driven by criminal gangs and a surge in illegal migration across Europe.' 'We're determined to target the criminals at every level, so far, we have secured nearly 300 arrests, 65 convictions and prevented more than 12,000 migrant attempts. 'But there is more to do. 'The Government's New Plan for Immigration is the only credible way to fix the broken asylum system, breaking the business model of criminal gangs and welcoming people through safe and legal routes.' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Jan. 6th Capitol riot an 'assault from within' during remarks in London, where she compared the events to the Sept. 11th attacks. Speaking at Chatham House, the London-based think tank Friday, Pelosi described the riot not as a failing of democracy but of former President Donald Trump. She said both events were 'assaults' she termed 'horrible,' crediting social media companies and Trump with fueling the Capitol riot on the day Congress met to count electoral college votes. 'We do not see January 6 as a failure of the Democratic democratic system in the United States. We see it as the actions of a president who do not respect the oath of office that he took or the office that he served,' she said. In comparing the riot to the Sept. 11th attacks, she mentioned the recent marking of the 20th anniversary of the event. 'But it was a horrible, horrible, horrible day for our democracy, there's no question about that. Strength of our democracy is how we would deal with it. But as I suppose I just go back to where we were last weekend. Many of us gathered in New York for the 9/11 [anniversary]. Now that was an assault from outside. What happened on January 6 and assault from within. Horrible in both cases,' she said. Her comments about Trump came after she was quoted in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, Peril, telling Gen. Mark Milley two days after the riot, regarding Trump: 'He's crazy. You know he's crazy.' 'Thank you Facebook for to sell 2 million members of QAnon,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at an event at Chatham House in the UK. She blasted social media groups for allowing the spread of conspiracy theories while slamming former President Donald Trump for fomenting the Jan. 6th Capitol riot Pelosi also went after social media companies for failing to find sufficient ways to police their sites for extreme content. She swatted at Facebook for allowing the proliferation of QAnon conspiracy theories on its platform. 'This president, that president he did not create those problems I mentioned, but he galvanized them. And this is what you have to be aware of every place. He galvanized them, and the social media ... enabled that to happen. Social media, 2000 2 million QAnon, Finding like minded thinking people in that in that world, in the social media.' Supporters of US President Donald Trump, including member of the QAnon conspiracy group Jake Angeli, aka Yellowstone Wolf (C), enter the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC. - Demonstrators breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the a 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification Then, she sneered: 'Thank you Facebook for to sell 2 million members of QAnon. So we have to look at how social media [is] a blessing, but a double edged sword,' she added. She was referring to an internal Facebook audit that concluded millions of users follow QAnon conspiracy theories. Pelosi is in the UK for a meeting of G7 heads of parliament, but spent Thursday with Cambridge University students and in meetings with British officials. She is seen on Thursday at 10 Downing Street Pelosi arrived at Number 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the evening She extended sympathy to victims, including UK citizens who perished in the attacks. Pelosi travelled to the U.K. this week for a meeting of G7 heads of parliament. On Thursday she addressed the Cambridge Union, where she told students that Trump would take his place in American history as a two-time loser if he ran for the White House again in 2024. 'I don't ever talk about him,' she said, before proceeding to talk about him - although without using his name. 'I reference him from time to time as "What's His Name,"' she continued. 'If he wants to run again, he'll be the first president who was impeached twice and defeated twice.' While in London, she visited Number 10 Downing Street for a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Anglo-American relations. She posed on the step outside the famous black door with her husband before entering. She said a breakdown in talks over Northern Ireland would be 'problematic' for a U.S.-UK trade deal being negotiated in the wake of Brexit. She said it would be very unlikely for the two nations to reach a trade agreement 'if there is destruction of the Good Friday accords' due to the deal. The number of EU nationals living in Britain has plunged to 3.5million - the lowest level since 2015. Thousands of EU nationals left the country during the coronavirus pandemic, figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed. And next year's statistics could be lower still as almost 60,000 EU citizens missed the deadline to apply to live and work in the UK after Brexit last month. The decline is one of the main factors being blamed for the UK's current labour shortage. Restaurants, cafes, warehouses and factories are just some of the sectors which are currently short of workers. Thousands of EU nationals left the country during the coronavirus pandemic, figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed The last time there were so few EU nationals living in the UK was 2015, when there were 3.1million. One in three hospitality firms are finding job vacancies difficult to fill One in three hospitality firms in the UK are finding it difficult to fill job vacancies as the nation's economy recovers from the coronavirus crisis. New data published by the Office for National Statistics showed three in 10 bars, pubs and restaurants are currently struggling with recruitment. Meanwhile, hospitality businesses are more than twice as likely as other industries to be experiencing difficulties in filling vacancies. It comes after the number of job vacancies surged to record levels, with 1,034,000 jobs unfilled in June to August this year. That represented an increase of 35.2 per cent - almost 270,000 - on the previous quarter and is the highest number recorded by the ONS since it started measuring the metric in 2001. Advertisement In the last five years the numbers shot up to a peak of 3.7million in 2017 - before falling again amid then pandemic. Some 79,000 EU nationals left Britain between September 2019 and September 2020, according to the data. Jay Lindop, Director of the Centre for International Migration, said: 'Our best estimates show that while non-UK born and non-British populations remained broadly stable in 2020, the number of people living in the UK with EU nationality fell.' Ms Lindop stressed it was difficult to compare the figures with previous years because of the impact of coronavirus on how data was collected, but said the results of the census would help guide next year's results. It comes after more than 58,000 applications were made to the EU Settlement Scheme in the month after the deadline passed, official Home Office figures reveal. EU citizens and their families were asked to apply to the Home Office by June 30 in order to carry on living and working in the UK after freedom of movement ended following the Brexit transition period. According to provisional Home Office figures, 58,200 applications were received after the deadline up to the end of July. While the Government has not set a cut off for making applications, there are limited reasonable grounds for submitting late applications. They include parents, guardians or councils failing to apply on behalf of a child; those with serious medical conditions preventing them from applying in time; or 'compelling or compassionate reasons' in light of the coronavirus pandemic. It means that many could face an anxious wait to see if they are able to stay under the terms of the scheme. More than six million applications (6,015,400) were submitted between the launch of the scheme in March 2019 and the closing date of June 30 2021, and more than five million have already been given permanent or temporary leave to remain. Poles, Romanians and Italians led the way in terms of applications to stay, with 1,091,500, 1,067,200 and 545,600 applications respectively. They were followed by Portuguese, Spanish and Bulgarian nationals. Campaigners have previously called for the law to be changed to automatically protect the rights of EU citizens and their families continuing to live in the UK to make sure they do not face discrimination or lose access to services like healthcare. The Government insisted that those who applied by the deadline but have yet to receive a decision will have their existing rights protected, subject to the outcome of the application and any appeal. However, those who do not apply and continue to live in the UK without being able to prove their immigration status have been warned they could face enforcement action. Now, Court of Appeal said it was inappropriate for High Court to give guidance But the NHS Trust brought an appeal against last year's High Court ruling in June It was ruled it was 'unlikely' 13-year-old could consent to puberty-blocking drugs Children under-16 can now take puberty blockers without their parents' consent as the Court of Appeal overturned landmark ruling against an NHS gender clinic. In an historic ruling last December, the High Court ruled that children under 16 with gender dysphoria could only consent to the use of hormone-blocking treatments if they understood the 'immediate and long-term consequences'. The judges said it was 'highly unlikely' that a child aged 13 or under would be able to consent to the treatment, and that it was 'doubtful' that a child of 14 or 15 would understand the consequences. But the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service for children, brought an appeal against the ruling in June. In a judgment on Friday, the Court of Appeal said it was inappropriate for the High Court to give the guidance, finding doctors should instead exercise judgment about whether their patients can properly consent. The original case was brought by Keira Bell - a 24-year-old woman who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16 before later 'detransitioning' - against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service for children. Critics had argued that puberty blockers could leave youngsters infertile and have longer-term effects on sexual function and bone density. Ms Bell today said she was 'obviously disappointed' with the ruling, and said the case had 'shone a light into the dark corners of a medical scandal that is harming children.' She added: '[Today's ruling] did not grapple with the significant risk of harm that children are exposed to by being given powerful experimental drugs. 'I am surprised and disappointed that the court was not concerned that children as young as 10 have been put on a pathway to sterilisation.' High Court ruled it was 'unlikely' a child aged 13 or under could consent to puberty-blocking treatment. But the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (pictured) brought an appeal A mother of an autistic teenager who is on the waiting list for treatment, only known as Mrs A, supported Ms Bell in their successful legal challenge. Hormone, or 'puberty', blockers pause the physical changes of puberty, such as breast development or facial hair. In Friday's ruling, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, with Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lady Justice King, said: 'The court was not in a position to generalise about the capability of persons of different ages to understand what is necessary for them to be competent to consent to the administration of puberty blockers.' They added: 'It placed patients, parents and clinicians in a very difficult position.' During the two-day appeal earlier this year, Tavistock's lawyers argued the ruling was 'inconsistent' with a long-standing concept that young people may be able to consent to their own medical treatment, following an appeal over access to the contraceptive pill for under 16s in the 1980s. But Jeremy Hyam QC, representing Ms Bell and Mrs A, argued procedures at the Tavistock 'as a whole failed to ensure, or were insufficient to ensure, proper consent was being given by children who commenced on puberty blockers'. Human rights group Liberty, which intervened in the appeal, said the High Court had imposed a serious restriction on the rights of transgender children and young people to 'essential treatment'. The Court of Appeal heard the Tavistock does not provide puberty blockers itself but instead makes referrals to two other NHS trusts University College London Hospitals and Leeds Teaching Hospitals who then prescribe the treatments. The case was brought by Keira Bell (pictured), a woman who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16 before 'de-transitioning', and mother of a teenager who is on the waiting list What are puberty blockers and how can children transition gender? If a child is under 18 and may have gender dysphoria, they'll usually be referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. GIDS has 2 main clinics in London and Leeds. The team will carry out a detailed assessment, usually over 3 to 6 appointments over a period of several months. Young people with lasting signs of gender dysphoria may be referred to a hormone specialist (consultant endocrinologist) to see if they can take hormone blockers as they reach puberty. These hormone, or 'puberty' blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) pause the physical changes of puberty, such as breast development or facial hair. Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria. Although the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be. It's also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children's bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations. From the age of 16, teenagers who've been on hormone blockers for at least 12 months may be given cross-sex hormones, also known as gender-affirming hormones. These hormones cause some irreversible changes, such as breast development and breaking or deepening of the voice. Long-term cross-sex hormone treatment may cause temporary or even permanent infertility. Source: NHS Advertisement John McKendrick QC, for the other trusts, told the court the median age for consenting to puberty blockers is 14.6 for UCL and 15.9 for Leeds. The chief executive of LGBT charity Stonewall welcomed the Court of Appeal's ruling. But Keira Bell said she was 'surprised and disappointed' in the decision but said she had no regrets in bringing the case. Adding that she believed the medical service had become 'politicised', Ms Bell said she will be seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. She said: 'I am obviously disappointed with the ruling of the court today and especially that it did not grapple with the significant risk of harm that children are exposed to by being given powerful experimental drugs. 'I am surprised and disappointed that the court was not concerned that children as young as 10 have been put on a pathway to sterilisation.' 'It has shone a light into the dark corners of a medical scandal that is harming children and harmed me,' she continued. Ms Bell also said: 'A global conversation has begun and has been shaped by this case. There is more to be done. 'It is a fantasy and deeply concerning that any doctor could believe a 10-year-old could consent to the loss of their fertility.' Adding that she believed the medical service had become 'politicised', Ms Bell said she will be seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. After the ruling, a Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: 'We welcome the Court of Appeal's judgment on behalf of the young people who require the GIDS (Gender Identity Development Service), and our dedicated staff. 'We recognise the work we do is complex and, working with our partners, we are committed to continue to improve the quality of care and decision making for our patients and to strengthen the evidence base in this developing area of care.' An NHS spokesperson said: 'The NHS commissioned Dr Hilary Cass to review gender identity services prior to the original High Court ruling to ensure the best model of safe and effective care is delivered - this will set out wide-ranging recommendations, including on the use of puberty blockers and the many contested clinical issues identified by the court. 'An independent multi-professional review group will continue to confirm whether clinical decision making has followed a robust consent process now that the endocrine pathway has been reopened by the Tavistock.' In a judgment on Friday, the Court of Appeal said it was inappropriate for the High Court to give the guidance. Pictured: Supporters of Gendered Intelligence at the Royal Court of Justice Human rights group Liberty, which intervened in the appeal, said the High Court had imposed a serious restriction on the rights of transgender children and young people to 'essential treatment'. Liberty director Gracie Bradley said: 'This ruling is a positive step forwards for trans rights in the UK and around the world. WHAT IS GENDER DYSPHORIA? Gender dysphoria is the term for when a person's emotional and psychological identity is different to their physical form. It is estimated that one per cent of the population is affected somehow. Caitlyn Jenner is the most famous person to have changed genders. The former Olympian and reality TV star underwent the surgery in January 2017, nearly two years after announcing she would transition to a woman. In the ICD-11, the WHO created new categories that cover trans identities under conditions that relate to sexual health. Gender dysphoria once was considered a personality or behaviour disorder. But its definition has changed as it is now called gender incongruence. It is described as 'characterised by a marked and persistent incongruence between an individual's experienced gender and the assigned sex'. Advertisement 'As the court has recognised, trans children should be able to choose and receive the healthcare they need on the same basis as all other children. 'Access to treatment is life-affirming for trans children and young people - without it the risk of serious, long-term harm dramatically increases. 'This case has implications for trans children not just in the UK, but also all over the world. Other countries had already started using the UK ruling to restrict trans rights - now they must take note of this judgment, too. 'Liberty has a long and proud history of standing up for trans rights and we will keep working with others to build a society where trans rights are recognised as human rights.' According to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) guidelines, very few people regret treatment of their gender dysphoria, the court heard. 'They refer to satisfaction rates across studies ranging from 87% in male to female patients and 97% of female to male patients and regrets were extremely rare,' Fenella Morris QC, for the trust previously said in court. Ms Bell's lawyers previously argued there is 'a very high likelihood' that children who start taking hormone blockers will later begin taking cross-sex hormones, which they say cause 'irreversible changes'. But the Court of Appeal previously heard it is not inevitable that a young person will move from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones - which will only be prescribed to those over 16 - with even fewer going on to have surgery. Ms Morris later said that puberty blockers are said to be 'fully reversible' in international guidelines relied upon by the trust. She added that children or young people who are considering going on to puberty blockers are told about the effects on their fertility that may be caused by later stages of transition. Highlighting that it is not inevitable that a young person will continue on to cross-sex hormones after puberty blockers, she added: 'The question is whether a child is counselled about fertility implications at the next stage and you can see from the material ... all of that is explained at the initial stage 'There is no suggestion anywhere that this is one pathway ... there is no shying away from explaining to children and young people what the possibilities are.' Appeals Court reverses landmark ruling on puberty blockers Today's appeal verdict has reversed December's ruling that children under 16 with gender dysphoria can only consent to the use of hormone-blocking treatments if they can understand the 'immediate and long-term consequences'. So what does this mean for child gender reassignment laws? What were the old laws? In Britain, under a 1985 court ruling, children under the age of 16 can consent to medical treatment if they are deemed to understand and fully appreciate the implications, in what is known at the Gillick competence test. This concept meant that young people were able to get gender reassignment treatment without their parents' consent. Under the old measures, if a child was under 18 and had gender dysphoria, they'd usually be referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Gender dysphoria is the term for when a person's emotional and psychological identity is different to their physical form. Tavistock would then carry out a detailed assessment, usually over 3 to 6 appointments over a period of several months. Young people with lasting signs of gender dysphoria may be referred to a hormone specialist (consultant endocrinologist) to see if they can take hormone blockers as they reach puberty. These hormone, or 'puberty' blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) pause the physical changes of puberty, such as breast development or facial hair. What did December's ruling change? Opponents of puberty blockers said they wanted to make sure adolescents understood the drugs' long-term consequences. In December, Keira Bell successfully brought legal action against the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the UK's only gender identity development service for children. Ms Bell, a 23-year-old woman who began taking puberty blockers when she was 16, was injected with testosterone at 17 and had a mastectomy aged 20, before 'detransitioning'. She claimed she was treated like a 'guinea pig' at the clinic, and said doctors failed to carry out a proper psychiatric assessment and should have challenged her more over her decision to transition to a male as a teenager. She was successful in her bid and judges said in their ruling: 'It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers. 'It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers.' They said puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones were 'two stages of one clinical pathway'. They said once on that pathway, 'it is extremely rare for a child to get off it'. Under the ruling, doctors may have been forced to seek approval or support from the court before prescribing puberty blocking drugs to children, to try and avoid liability. What did the Court of Appeal rule? In a judgment on Friday, the Court of Appeal said it was inappropriate for the High Court to give the guidance, finding doctors should instead exercise judgment about whether their patients can properly consent. The Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, with Sir Geoffrey Vos and Lady Justice King, said: 'The court was not in a position to generalise about the capability of persons of different ages to understand what is necessary for them to be competent to consent to the administration of puberty blockers.' They added: 'It placed patients, parents and clinicians in a very difficult position.' Campaigners are now expecting the NHS to update its guidance on child gender reassignment. Advertisement The Taliban has banned female members of staff from entering the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kabul. The Islamists, who seized control of Afghanistan last month last amid the chaos following the withdrawal of US troops, locked women out of the building today and replaced the department with the 'morality police'. Workers in the Afghan capital covered the women's ministry signs with a replacement in a mixture of Dari and Arabic, reading 'Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice'. Female employees said they had been trying to come to work for several weeks only to be told to return to their homes, according to videos filmed outside the building seen by Reuters. The gates of the building were finally locked on Thursday, one of the women said. A senior Taliban leader said earlier this week that women would not be allowed to work in government ministries with men. The Taliban has banned female members of staff from entering the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Kabul and replaced the department with the 'morality police' (pictured, women protest for their rights in front of the presidential palace in Kabul) Works in the Afghan capital covered the women's ministry signs for a replacement in a mixture of Dari and Arabic, reading 'Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice' 'I am the only breadwinner in my family,' said a second woman, who also said she worked in the department. 'When there is no ministry, what should an Afghan woman do?' Taliban spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Women gathered outside the presidential palace yesterday, calling on the Taliban to protect their rights and allow girls to study and work. Despite insisting they will rule more moderately this time around, the Taliban have not allowed women to return to work and introduced rules for what they can wear at university. A new Taliban government announced two weeks ago had no women members or even a ministry to represent their interests but included an acting minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers. Hundreds of thousands have entered the workforce - a necessity in some cases as many women were widowed or now support invalid husbands as a result of two decades of conflict. But since returning to power on August 15 the Taliban have shown no inclination to honour those rights. When pressed, Taliban officials say women have been told to stay at home for their own security but will be allowed to work once proper segregation can be implemented. The Islamists, who seized control of Afghanistan last month last amid the chaos following the withdrawal of US troops, locked female staff out of the women's affair's building today as workers swapped the department building's signs Taliban officials say women (pictured in Kabul yesterday) have been told to stay at home for their own security but will be allowed to work once proper segregation can be implemented Meanwhile the Taliban's education ministry said today all male students grades six to 12 and male teachers should resume classes across Afghanistan, starting on Saturday. But the statement published on Facebook today did not include girls of that age, and the lack of guidance highlighted ongoing concerns that the Taliban might impose restrictions on girls and women. During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative. Enforcers from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were known to lash women found walking alone. They were also responsible for strictly implementing other hardline interpretations of Islam, such as compulsory attendance at prayers, and no trimming of beards for men. British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney was named as one of 17 special advisers to the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday. Amal, 43, was appointed as an adviser on the Darfur region of Sudan, where prosecutors allege that government forces and militias backed by Khartoum carried out a campaign of genocide. Other advisers focus on topics including crimes against children, gender persecution, sexual violence and slavery. British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, 43, (pictured in 2019) was named as one of 17 special advisers to the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Friday Amal recently served as a legal representative for 126 survivors of crimes committed in Darfur, in a case against a leader of the government-backed Janjaweed militia. Her husband, actor George Clooney, 60, has campaigned for years to stop the human rights atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. Clooney founded NGO Not on Our Watch in 2008 with his fellow Oceans 11 co-stars to bring global attention to the human rights violations in Darfur. In a statement on the International Criminal Court appointments, Prosecutor Karim Khan said: 'I am delighted to welcome such an outstanding group of experts and I am grateful for their willingness to serve as my Special Advisers. 'I have no doubt that with their enormous experience and hugely impressive credentials, they will significantly contribute to the work of the Office and the cause of international criminal justice.' The Oxford-educated barrister is qualified to practice in the United States and the UK and specializes in international law and human rights. Amal, 43, was appointed as an adviser on the Darfur region of Sudan, where prosecutors allege that government forces and militias backed by Khartoum carried out a campaign of genocide (pictured at the European Court of Human Rights in 2015) Her husband, actor George Clooney, 60, has campaigned for years to stop the human rights atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. Pictured: Clooney at a camp in Darfur in 2008 She has represented clients before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, with one of her notable clients being Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, Amal has been married to her actor husband for almost seven years and they have four-year-old twins together, Alexander and Ella. Earlier this year, the celebrity couple, who wed in 2014, were forced to shut down speculation they were expecting their third child. Meanwhile, her husband George recently said he didn't realise there was something missing in his life until he met his spouse. Speaking on Today back in March, he said: 'There are some people, their goal was: "I have to have children." Mine wasn't. I wasn't looking at life, going: "My life will be unfulfilled without children." I felt like I had a pretty full life. 'Then I met Amal and realized that my life had been pretty empty. And then when you throw these two kids in there, then suddenly you realise how incredibly empty it was.' New Zealand's ban on quarantine-free travellers from Australia will remain until November at least, with future trans-Tasman travel hinging on vaccination rates. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the increased infectiousness of COVID-19's Delta variant, present in uncontained outbreaks in NSW and Victoria, led to New Zealand's decision for lengthen its travel ban. 'Decisions we make about everything COVID are led by a health response,' Robertson said. 'We are pushing out for another eight weeks and will re-assess.' New Zealand's ban on Australian travellers could stay in place until November depending on vaccination rates Jacinda Ardern's government halted the trans-Tasman bubble back in July for eight weeks. Friday's fresh eight-week extension takes the travel pause through to November 19. Robertson said New Zealand would be 'extremely unlikely' to fling open the borders in November, suggesting re-openings would rely on vaccination rates. 'What we want to do is see where we are - both countries and states within Australia ... on vaccination rates in eight weeks time,' he said. Deputy PM Grant Robertson said New Zealand would be 'extremely unlikely' to fling open the borders in November with fate lying in vaccination numbers 'We have a desire to get New Zealanders vaccinated and once we do that, that opens up a series of options. 'The more people we get vaccinated and the quicker we get them vaccinated, the more options open up for us.' The trans-Tasman bubble was first agreed in principle by the Australian and New Zealand governments back in May 2020. In October that year NSW became the first state to allow travellers across the Tasman Sea without quarantining. New Zealand reciprocated six months later in April, creating the trans-Tasman bubble. However, operating the bubble proved difficult. New Zealand's travel ban has been in place since July after Jacina Ardern slammed the borders shut to Australians Kiwi health officials paused the travel arrangement several times in response to COVID-19 outbreaks in different parts of Australia. The bubble was also unpopular in New Zealand. While scenes of long-awaited family reunions pulled at the heartstrings, most Kiwis feared the bubble would see the return of COVID-19 in the community. This week, a poll conducted by Labour's pollsters showed 54 per cent of New Zealanders viewed the opening 'as the wrong thing to do'. The bubble was unpopular in New Zealand with a poll conducted by Labour's pollsters showed 54 per cent of New Zealanders viewed the opening 'as the wrong thing to do' Just 29 per cent of Kiwis - and just 24 per cent of Labour voters - approved of the bubble. Ironically, the trans-Tasman bubble saw hundreds of thousands of travellers between Australia and New Zealand without spreading coronavirus. Instead, it was a leak from New Zealand's border regime last month that produced NZ's first major outbreak in a year. Instead of the return of quarantine-free travel, New Zealand will open up thousands of spaces in its quarantine regime, known as MIQ, for Australian-based Kiwis to come home. Flag carrier Air New Zealand said on Friday it will operate 'a limited number of quarantine flights' across the Tasman for eager travellers. Those travellers will need to spend two weeks in quarantine, and pay the costs as per each jurisdiction's policy. 'We understand this continues to be a very distressing time for people trying to get home,' Air NZ executive Leanne Geraghty said. 'We're committed to doing everything we can to get customers back to where they need to be as safely and quickly as possible.' President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order authorizing new sanctions on Ethiopian and Eritrean government officials engaged in conflict in the Tigray region in an attempt to encourage a ceasefire among the warring parties. The administration did not immediately impose sanctions under the new order, which comes as reports of atrocities continue to emerge from the region. But a senior administration official warned they are prepared to take 'aggressive action' unless the parties - Ethiopian government, the Eritrean government, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, and the Amhara Regional Government - take 'meaningful steps.' That includes all parties to 'enter into talks for a negotiated ceasefire and allow for unhindered humanitarian access' to the region, the official said Thursday on a briefing call with reporters. President Joe Biden signed an executive order authorizing new sanctions on Ethiopian and Eritrean government officials engaged in conflict in Tigray As a result of the conflict, the Tigray region is facing a famine and humanitarian crisis The conflict over Tigray has been ongoing for 10 months and previous attempts to pressure the warring party into talks have failed The new sanctions are part of the U.S. pressure campaign to end the 10-month conflict, which have left hundreds of thousands of people facing famine. But not applying them is the administration's way of trying to avoid punishing officials from Ethiopia, the second-most populous country and a key U.S. ally. As the conflict continues, there have also been reports of mass detention, sexual violence, and killings that bear the hallmarks of genocide in Tigray, a region in the north of Ethiopia that borders Eritrea. Human Rights Watch issued a report this week claiming that Eritrean government forces and Tigrayan militias have killed and raped Eritrean refugees. There also have been reports of atrocities from Ethiopian and Eritrean troops fighting the Tigrayans - an ethnic group in northern Ethiopia. 'The ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia is a tragedy causing immense human suffering and threatens the unity of the Ethiopian state,' Biden said in a statement Friday. 'Nearly one million people are living in famine-like conditions,' he noted. 'Humanitarian workers have been blocked, harassed and killed. I am appalled by the reports of mass murder, rape and other sexual violence to terrorize civilian populations.' U.S. and United Nations officials said that humanitarian access to deliver food, fuel and medicine has been largely cut off. Just 10 percent of humanitarian aid reached the Tigray region last month as a result of Ethiopian government obstruction, administration officials said on the briefing call. WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES A mass grave for victims that were killed in an alleged massacre in Ethiopia An unidentified corpse with a military uniform - reports of atrocities are growing Nearly a million people in the region are facing a famine as food and aid relief is blocked Biden administration officials characterized the new sanctions as a last resort but previous pressure from the U.S. has failed to end the conflict. 'This is not a decision that this administration has taken lightly and our preference, quite frankly, is to not to use this tool,' a senior administration official said. 'We would prefer that the parties to the conflict work with the international community to advance discussions toward a negotiated ceasefire.' The Biden administration in May announced visa restrictions on current and former Ethiopian and Eritrean officials and, in August, sanctioned the chief of staff of Eritrea's defense forces over human rights abuses under the Global Magnitsky Act. Forcing travellers to stay in quarantine hotels may have prevented thousands of potential Covid infections and deaths, a new report suggests. The report, from No10's scientific advisory group SAGE, collected evidence from international studies on Covid transmission in hotel quarantines. Britain's hotel quarantine scheme has been controversial, with MPs slamming them as prison-like and authoritarian. Those who were forced to stay in them were made to pay up to 2,000 out of their own pocket. Yet the latest study suggests that, despite their faults, they may have protected the UK. The SAGE file, released by the Government today, cited a study on hotel quarantine breaches in Australia and New Zealand. The study found that there had just been one breach of the countries' combined hotel quarantine efforts per 173 Covid positive cases among travellers, as of March 2021. This means the vast majority of travellers with Covid were kept in the quarantine system, rather then spreading the virus to hotel staff or other guests or the wider community. A SAGE report suggests controversial hotel quarantine rules may have prevented thousands of infections reaching the community. Scientists cited data showing Australia and New Zealand's quarantine system had recorded only one breach per 173 Covid positive cases. The SAGE document also highlighted some potential dangers of Covid quarantine breaches. The scientists cited the case of the Australian state of Victoria's second Covid wave, which was caused by a hotel quarantine breach, and resulted in over 800 deaths. Current rules in England mean people who visited a country on the 'red' travel list in the 10 days before they returned to the UK must quarantine in a hotel for 10 days upon arrival. They are charged fees of around 2,000 per person. Anyone in the UK who breaks quarantine can be fined up to 10,000. But many forced to stay in them have complained about 'inedible food'. NHS worker Amil Arif was one of those who said the meals served while in hotel quarantine were 'unappetizing' (meal pictured left). The Holiday Inn Slough (pictured right) cost Ms Amal 3,000 to spend 10 days in isolation. Similar quarantine requirements also apply in the other UK nations. The SAGE report also highlighted the hotel quarantine system in Singapore. Between January and May 2021, Singapore had more than 10,000 people staying in its system every day. There were only a dozen-or-so cases of Covid transmission within Singapore hotels in that time, with the outbreaks attributed to human error. In contrast to the UK, breaking hotel quarantine rules in Singapore carries a prison sentence. All of the three countries referenced in the SAGE report Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, have vastly fewer Covid cases than the UK. Statistics from Our World in Data which tracks the state of the pandemic show Britain recorded an average of 436 daily cases for every million people in the week ending September 16. This compares to 116 daily cases per million people for Singapore, 68 for Australia, and just 4 for New Zealand. People with Down's syndrome, sickle cell disease and kidney transplant patients are most at risk of dying from the coronavirus after having two vaccines, experts have found. Findings from a tool developed by UK researchers concluded that those with certain conditions are up to 12 times more likely to be hospitalised or die from the virus after being jabbed, compared to healthy people. And the likelihood of hospitalisation and dying from Covid also increased as people got older, while men and those of Indian and Pakistani origin were at higher risk. A person's overall risk from severe health outcomes after being double-jabbed is still very small, with the vaccines having already tens of thousands of lives. But the study confirms that those who were already at-risk before being vaccinated are still more likely to be hospitalised or die if they catch it, compared to healthy double-jabbed people. Researchers said the calculator can help the Government make policy decisions, such as who should be given additional Covid vaccines. And medics can use it to make clinical decisions, such as which patients should receive the new monoclonal antibody treatment. The graph shows the risk of dying from Covid after being double-jabbed for people with health conditions, as well as the risk among different ethnic groups and care home residents Experts studied 6.9million adults who had one or two Covid vaccines by mid-June. The study aimed to find out which groups were most at risk of hospitalisation and death after being vaccinated. The research, carried out by experts at the universities of Oxford, Nottingham and Edinburgh, was published in the British Medical Journal. Some 1,929 hospital admissions and 2,031 deaths among all the participants were recorded. But just 71 admissions (3.7 per cent) and 81 deaths (four per cent) had occurred two weeks or later after the second dose. This data was used to create a risk algorithm of an individual's likelihood of needing hospital care or dying from the virus after vaccination. It was based on age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation, body mass index and underlying health conditions, as well as the background Covid infection rate. Researchers found that those with Down's syndrome are 12.7 times more likely to die from the virus, than healthy adults. While kidney transplant patients are 8.1 times more at risk and those with sickle cell disease are 7.7 times more at risk. Other groups at risk include chemotherapy patients (4.3 times), those with HIV/AIDS (3,3 times), care home residents (4.1 times) and those with neurological conditions (2.6 times). The virus is also more likely to affect those who have had a recent bone marrow transplant, or have ever had a solid organ transplant (2.5 times), those with dementia (2.2 times) and Parkinson's disease (2.2 times). Researchers said their tool can help determine which patients are most at risk of being hospitalised or dying from Covid after vaccination. Pictured: Nurses changing PPE at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley How does the Covid risk calculator work? The tool developed by researchers to determine someone's risk of dying or being hospitalised due to Covid is only available to doctors and academics. But in their study, they gave examples of the risks some patients face from the virus. Example 1: A 72-year-old white man with a first vaccine dose, atrial fibrillation and body mass index of 30. When 22 people per 100,000 in England are testing positive, he would have: 0.04% risk of Covid-related hospital admission over a 70 day period 0.02% risk of dying from Covid over a 70 day period 5.15% risk of dying from the virus after testing positive Example 2: A 62-year-old Pakistani woman with two vaccine doses, chronic kidney disease stage 5 with transplantation, and body mass index of 24. When 20 people per 100,000 in England are testing positive, she would have: 0.04% risk of Covid-related hospital admission over a 70 day period 0.003% risk of Covid death over a 70 day period 0.10% risk of dying from Covid after catching the virus Example 3: A 60-year-old white man with a first vaccine dose, stroke, epilepsy, well-controlled type 2 diabetes, Down's syndrome and body mass index of 41. When infection rates are at 60 per 100,000 in England, he would have: 0.56% risk of Covid-related hospital admission over a 70 day period 0.46% risk of dying from the virus over a 70 day period 24.3% risk of dying from Covid after testing positive Advertisement Other conditions with an increased risk include chronic kidney disease, blood cancer, epilepsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, strokes, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, thromboembolism, peripheral vascular disease and type 2 diabetes. But the threat posed by the virus to people with these conditions depending on how severe they were. For example, those with stage five kidney disease - which means they require a transplant - were 8.1 times more likely to die from Covid after vaccination than double-jabbed people without the disease. But those with stage three kidney disease were at just 1.23 times greater risk. Additionally, researchers found that the likelihood of death increased with age and deprivation levels. Men are also more at risk, as well as those of Indian and Pakistani ethnic origin. Researchers said the increased chance of these groups being admitted to hospital followed 'a similar pattern'. The experts tested their calculator on a dataset of Covid patients who were not included in the study and found it was 78.7 per cent accurate at identifying coronavirus deaths. The tool has been published by the researchers online, but is only available to those who are using it for academic purposes. Britons will need to see their GP to find out how at-risk they are based on their health profile. Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox, an expert in clinical epidemiology and general practice at the University of Oxford, co-author of the paper, said: 'The UK was the first place to implement a vaccination programme and has some of the best clinical research data in the world.' Professor Aziz Sheikh, an expert in primary care research and development at the University of Edinburgh and other of the study co-authors, said ministers could use the calculator to determine which groups under-50 should be offered a booster vaccine. And GPs could use it to determine whether their patients need to shield, while medics could use it to determine which patients get monoclonal antibody treatment. This therapy can slash the risk of death by a fifth in seriously ill patients whose immune systems can't fight the virus themselves, but costs an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 per patient, meaning it is not likely to be widely used. Professor Sheikh said some of the most at-risk patients remained more vulnerable to the virus after being double-jabbed because they were unable to mount the same kind of immune response as healthy people. And the higher risk for people with Down's syndrome may be because of 'difficulties in following behavioural advice', but more research is needed to determine whether other factors are at play. Commenting on the variations between ethnic groups, he said: 'I think the fact that some of the ethnic variations are diminishing suggests that a lot of this was because it's socially patterned perhaps because of occupational risk considerations. 'I think with the two subgroups that remain, this is speculative, but these groups the Indians and Pakistanis do tend to have slightly higher household sizes and so there may be that kind of within household transmission going on.' Dr Peter English, former chair of the BMA Public Health Medicine Committee and not involved in the study, said the tool can help identify people who may benefit from additional measures to protect them from catching the virus, or reduce their risk of severe illness after becoming infected. He said: 'We cannot give everybody who is exposed antivirals or monoclonal antibody therapy to prevent the disease developing to the serious autoimmune phase. 'But we could consider such treatments for some; and the tool may also assist policy-makers in decisions about, for example, whom to prioritise for earlier, more frequent vaccination or vaccination with new anti-variant vaccines. The calculator can also help people make better decisions about whether they should shield, take public transport or meet people indoors, if they know their risk is higher, Dr English said. Nannatt Waldrop, 37, is accused of boarding a yellow bus in the town of Center Point at 7:18 a.m. Tuesday morning and getting in a fight with the 11-year-old she believed was picking on her child An Alabama woman was arrested after allegedly taking things too far in attempting to defend her child from their suspected bully. Nannatt Waldrop, 37, is accused of boarding a yellow bus in the town of Center Point at 7:18 a.m. Tuesday morning and getting in a fight with the 11-year-old she believed was picking on her child, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. A video of the scrap went viral and brought it to the attention of authorities, who arrested Waldrop. It's unknown if the child suffered any injuries. The Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools, Dr. Walter Gonsoulin, said the incident was 'unacceptable' and added that 'it will not be tolerated,' according to NBC 15. 'While this is now a law enforcement matter, let me just say what I saw on that video deeply disturbs me,' he continued. 'At no point is any type of violence acceptable, especially violence against students.' Waldrop was taken into custody by deputies but was released on a $10,500 bail later the same day having faced charges of third-degree assault, trespassing on a school bus and disorderly conduct. Gonsoulin added that adults who are not school employees are not allowed on the buses and administrators are reviewing the situation. A 12-year-old girl from Russia has revealed she is pregnant and says she is 'delighted' to be expecting, as police interrogate her adult lover over the alleged rape. The schoolgirl, named Dasha, went public with her pregnancy to 'hit back at web trolls' and told Russian channel NTV she initially pretended to her then boyfriend that she was 16. But before they had sex for the first time, Dasha told her partner, who was above the age of 18, that she was in fact 12. A 12-year-old girl from Russia (pictured) has revealed she is pregnant and says she is 'delighted' to be expecting, as police interrogate her adult lover over the alleged rape The schoolgirl, named Dasha, went public with her pregnancy to 'hit back at web trolls' She is no longer in a relationship with the alleged abuser, but Dasha said she is delighted' to be pregnant and intends to raise the baby with her mother, Elena, 42, while continuing her education in the hopes of becoming a dentist. Russian police are 'interrogating' the unnamed father of the unborn child amid reports he will face 'criminal liability'. Mother Elena said: 'I was shocked. I asked her [Dasha] what she wanted to do. To my surprise, she was happy. 'I was shocked, but she wasn't. She loves small children, and had always asked me about having a sister or a brother.' Elena said her family including her construction worker father Sergei, 52, were bombarded by trolls. Dasha said she is delighted' to be pregnant and intends to raise the baby with her mother, Elena (pictured together), 42, while continuing her education in the hopes of becoming a dentist NTV reported: 'In social networks, buckets of dirt were poured on her and her daughter.' Elena added: They started writing all sorts of nasty things about my daughter and my family. 'That her dad left us, that she is a lecherous child, that we are registered with some social services. I decided to stop it. I decided to say what really happened. 'People could simply support and give advice, but they started insulting us from the beginning.' Dasha said: 'We started dating on June 28, I told him I was 16 at first, because I thought he wouldn't date me if he knew I was too young. 'A day or two days later I told him I was 12.' She said her mother had explained to her about contraception but he 'didn't want' to use a condom. Russian police are 'interrogating' the unnamed father of the unborn child amid reports he will face 'criminal liability' Dasha said: 'I told him what was needed. He refused. 'I fell in love with him, he was my first boyfriend. It all happened in a rented apartment at the end of July. 'He invited me over, to spend some time there, to watch a film. We chatted, we watched a movie, and it all happened, unexpectedly. 'I wasn't scared but it was unexpected. We only had intercourse once.' She added: 'I expected him to say "let's keep the baby, raise the child together, and have a family". 'I didn't expect him to turn around and leave. 'There is no support from him. He was making fun of me about being pregnant, so I broke up with him.' She said her mother had explained to her about contraception but he 'didn't want' to use a condom She said she would raise the baby and 'become a dentist in future', while Elena praised her daughter for being mature for her age. She said: 'I had talked to her about [contraception] earlier, that it was necessary not only because of pregnancy, but also because of STDs.' She insisted the child's father 'knew she was 12 before they had sexual intercourse'. NTV panelist, Artur Bagdasarov said the parents should have monitored their daughter instead of being so 'calm' about the pregnancy. He said: 'I have a feeling that I am from a different planet. My daughter would certainly not get pregnant at 12.' In an earlier Russian case, a schoolgirl aged 13 became a social media influencer after claiming a boy, ten, made her pregnant. She later claimed she had lied and became pregnant when she was raped by a boy, 16. Darya Sudnishnikova also insisted on keeping her child - a girl - and gathered more than 650,000 followers. The Biden administration is targeting individuals linked to terrorist group Hezbollah with a fresh round of sanctions, the Treasury Department announced Friday. Earlier the same day, footage showed Hezbollah-directed trucks bringing Iranian fuel into Lebanon through Syria to try and ease the country's months-long energy crisis. The move, however, violated previously existing sanctions imposed on Iran by former President Donald Trump. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station said the truck convoy was brought to 'break the American siege' and would be brought to a Hezbollah-linked group called al-Amana to distribute the fuel. The company is already under U.S. sanctions. The new sanctions are imposed on on Lebanon and Kuwait-based financial conduits that fund the Lebanese Shi'ite group, as well as financial facilitators and front companies that support the group and Iran. A convoy of trucks under Hezbollah's control brought Iranian fuel into Lebanon amid the country's energy crisis Sanctions against Hezbollah-linked actors were announced later that day Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that funds from the parties sanctioned have been directly used to finance terrorism. 'Hezbollah uses revenues generated by these networks to fund terrorist activities and to perpetuate instability in Lebanon and throughout the region,' the statement said. Among individuals designated and sanctioned, the U.S. Treasury said the measures apply to Iranian businessman Morteza Minaye Hashemi, who lives in China and who had funneled money to Iran's Quds Force. The Quds force (IRGC-QF) is an arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) that controls its allied militia abroad. The new economic measures were announced by the U.S. Treasury Department (pictured: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen) Two Chinese nationals had helped Hashemi establish bank accounts and served as straw owners for his companies, which were based in Hong Kong and mainland China, according to a Treasury news release. It named the Chinese nationals as Yan Su Xuan and Song Jing. The statement said Yan Su Xuan, on Hashemis behalf, also purchased U.S.-origin, dual-use products for onward shipment to Iran. 'Hezbollah uses revenues generated by these networks to fund terrorist activities and to perpetuate instability in Lebanon and throughout the region,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement 'Together, these networks have laundered tens of millions of dollars through regional financial systems and conducted currency exchange operations and trade in gold and electronics for the benefit of both Hezbollah and the IRGC-QF,' U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Blinken said Hezbollah was increasingly looking for additional sources of revenue to bolster its coffers and he called on governments around the world to take steps to ensure it and other terrorist groups do not exploit their territory and financial institutions. 'The United States will not relent in targeting these networks, and we will continue to take actions to disrupt their activities,' he said. The Treasury Department said the sanctions action would involve the seizure of U.S.-based property of the individuals and entities and prohibit all transactions with them. Two men have appeared in court charged with the murder of Belfast journalist Lyra McKee. The 29-year-old was shot dead by dissident republicans in Londonderry in April 2019 as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city. Geroid Cavanagh, 33, and Jordan Devine, 21, both from Derry appeared by videolink at the city's magistrates' court where they were charged with her murder. Lyra McKee, pictured, was shot dead in April 2019 while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry City Two men appeared in court today in the city having been charged with their murder Geroid Cavanagh, 33, and Jordan Devine, 21, both from Derry appeared by videolink at the city's magistrates' court where they were charged with her murder. They were charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, riot, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs and arson. Cavanagh was further charged with robbery They were both also charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, riot, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs and arson. Cavanagh was further charged with robbery. A prosecuting lawyer told the court the police case is that the two defendants were with the gunman who fired the shot on the night that Ms McKee was killed. Defence lawyers said the evidence against their clients is weak. Regarding the case against Cavanagh, the prosecuting lawyer said: 'At 11pm the gunman walks out with the gun exposed, and the prosecution case is the gunman was being escorted by Gearoid Cavanagh, who carries out a stewarding role as the gunman takes up position.' Cavanagh's defence lawyer said: 'It is my view that the images upon which police have based their identification of Mr Cavanagh are absolutely beyond belief, (it is) impossible to identify Mr Cavanagh from those pictures.' Regarding the case against Devine, the prosecuting lawyer said: 'At the time of the shooting at 11pm, Jordan Devine is present. He encourages the gunman when the shots are fired by punching the air. He cheers, he throws a missile, he again raises his arm, and afterwards he assists in tidying up, appearing to lift items from the ground.' Devine's defence lawyer said: 'In the old days this is the sort of thing that would have been laughed out of court. The reason that there has been such vast hesitancy over the past two-and-a-half years is no doubt because of the fact that the evidence is so poor. 'We say that, given the jurisprudence in relation to identification and description, this is not a case at all.' The two defendants were granted bail by district judge Barney McElholm and will appear in court again on October 7. A third man, Joe Campbell, 20, from Derry, was charged with riot, possession of petrol bombs and throwing petrol bombs on the night that Ms McKee was killed. He was also granted bail and will appear in court again on October 7. The extremist group that styles itself the New IRA has previously claimed it was responsible for the killing. A 'manufactured' economic recession could plunge the United States into chaos and result in 'millions of jobs lost' if Congress doesn't take action on the debt ceiling, the White House warned Friday. 'Hitting the debt ceiling could cause a recession. Economic growth would falter, unemployment would rise, and the labor market could lose millions of jobs,' a new White House fact sheet reads. Failing to raise or suspend the country's borrowing limit would hinder the country's recovery from the heavy toll the COVID pandemic took on the hospitality and travel industries, resulting in millions of Americans losing employment. 'The U.S. economy has just begun to recover from the pandemic and a manufactured debt ceiling crisis would threaten the gains weve made and the future recovery. If the U.S. defaults on its obligations, the ripple effects will hurt cities and states across the country,' the White House said. Congress missed a deadline to raise or suspend the debt ceiling in July 2021, forcing the Treasury into extraordinary measures to keep the government funded. When House lawmakers return next week they will look at suspending the debt limit, according to a letter from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to House colleagues. President Biden met with Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer on how to plot a path forward on the debt ceiling Hoyer privately told Democrats they're looking at a potential extension to keep the government open from September 30 through December 10, Politico reported late last week. Treasury Secretary Yellen warned lawmakers multiple times that those measures will run out sometime in October. Among the federal programs that could stop seeing cash flow when the measures dry up are FEMA and Medicaid. Money given to states by the government to pay for disaster relief efforts, school lunches and infrastructure dollars for public transit and highways could all be halted. More than $10 billion allocated to states for public health measures also hangs in the balance, at a time when some states' hospital systems are once again buckling under the strain of new COVID cases. A lack of action on the debt ceiling would also prevent the federal government from mitigating the worst effects of a potential recession. The White House points out that if nothing is done states and cities would face a 'double-whammy' between falling consumer income and spending brought on by a recession, and no federal aid to make up for some of the loss. Yellen sent multiple warnings to Congress that the US faces possible economic peril if it defaults on its debts and financial obligations 'This means critical state services will be at risk for budget cuts, from education to healthcare to pensions.' Raising or suspending the debt ceiling doesn't authorize new spending, the White House points out. Rather it gives the government room to pay for obligations that Congress and both President Biden and former President Trump already approved. The line is a direct answer to Republicans' defense that they refuse to raise the debt limit to pay for Democrats' spending. Speaker Nancy Pelosi previously hit back at the accusation, claiming last week the limit needs to be raised to 'pay off the Trump credit card' for the $7 trillion debt the ex-president accrued for the US. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to budge on the debt ceiling after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called him on Wednesday to implore the Kentucky Republican to take action before the United States runs out of cash and defaults on its debts. McConnell demanded that Democrats navigate the federal debt limit without Republican support, deepening the emerging standoff in Congress over how to boost the government's borrowing authority. McConnell refused to budge on his position regarding the US debt ceiling even after Treasury Secretary Yellen called him on Wednesday During the Wednesday phone call McConnell reiterated the GOP's position that they will not partner with Democrats to lift the cap on federal debt, which now stands at $28.4 trillion. The total represents both public and private debts. 'The leader repeated to Secretary Yellen what he has said publicly since July: This is a unified Democrat government, engaging in a partisan reckless tax and spending spree,' McConnell spokesman Doug Andres said Thursday. 'They will have to raise the debt ceiling on their own and they have the tools to do it.' Forced to push through the unpopular debt limit increase with no sign of GOP help, the White House blasted Republicans in a statement Thursday evening following a readout of President Joe Biden's meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. 'They also discussed plans for moving forward to ensure that the full faith and credit of the United States is not in doubt, and to pass a continuing resolution to fund government operations,' according to the readout of the talks. 'These are bipartisan responsibilities, especially given that a substantial debt was run up during the previous administration in pursuit of COVID relief and other measures, that received bipartisan support. Any suggestion by Republicans that they will shirk their responsibility is indefensible,' it said. Pelosi and Schumer spoke with Biden by phone on Thursday to discuss the debt limit as well as infrastructure spending The dueling statements are a sign of the return of tense potential government shutdowns and stand-offs over a potential default, a regular feature of the Obama administration when the GOP seized control of Congress. Biden, Pelosi and Schumer also reaffirmed Thursday that 'it is only fair that we pay for these tax cuts and investments by repealing the Trump tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and big corporations, who often pay little to nothing in taxes.' In the Friday release, White House officials pointed out the volatility US financial markets saw the last time the debt ceiling came close to being breached - noting that the S&P 500 fell by 17 percent in the months approaching the critical threshold. Pelosi last week shut down the possibility of raising the debt limit through Democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation infrastructure package which would have it move with all Democratic votes. Congressional leaders are already struggling to find unity among Democrats to get the package through the House and the 50-50 Senate. A Treasury Department official said Yellen is resolving to continue talks. 'Secretary Yellen will continue to talk to Republicans and Democrats about the critical need to swiftly address the debt ceiling in a bipartisan manner, to avoid the catastrophic economic consequences of default,' Principal deputy assistant secretary Lily Adams told Punchbowl News. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer sent a letter to House colleagues on Friday vowing to take up the debt limit when lawmakers return to the Capitol next week That means lawmakers only have a few weeks to reach a compromise over the federal government's debt limit before the Treasury is forced to delay or miss payments. Former President Trump suspended the debt ceiling for two years when he was in the White House, and Congress missed a July 2021 deadline to raise or suspend it again. The Treasury was forced into what Yellen calls 'extraordinary measures' to keep up payments. Yellen has sent multiple letters to lawmakers urging them to take action, warning that those measures will likely run out in October. Should the country run out of money without a new limit in place, the Treasury would be unable to pay for expenses with anything other than tax revenue. That won't be enough to cover the vast number of national financial obligations - which include paychecks for federal employees, federal pensions for former workers and for veterans, funding government agencies and money for foreign lenders, among others. In her latest letter to lawmakers on September 8 Yellen highlighted that the US has never in history failed to meet its financial obligations. 'A delay that calls into question the federal government's ability to meet all its obligations would likely cause irreparable damage to the U.S. economy and global financial markets,' Yellen wrote. 'At a time when American families, communities, and businesses are still suffering from the effects of the ongoing global pandemic, it would be particularly irresponsible to put the full faith and credit of the United States at risk.' Senate Republicans still insist that the majority pass legislation without their help that would include an increase or suspension of the debt limit - but Democrats note that on three occasions during Trumps presidency, they worked with a Republican-controlled Senate and White House to suspend the borrowing limit. They are insisting that Republicans reciprocate and share in what can be a politically unpopular vote that allows the government to not only promptly pay its bills but also to take on more debt. 'Senators from both parties overwhelmingly voted in support of the many laws that contributed to this obligation,' said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. 'So neither party can wash its hands of responsibility to pay the bills.' The debt limit caps the amount of money Treasury can borrow to keep the government running. When it was suspended for two years in July 2019, the public debt subject to the limit stood at $22 trillion. It now stands at $28.4 trillion. An Associated Press analysis of data from the US Treasury shows that nearly 98 percent of the nation's $28.4 trillion debt predates Bidens inauguration in January. That includes about $7.8 trillion heaped onto the pile during Trumps four-year presidency. San Francisco Mayor London Breed has sparked outrage after she was spotted partying maskless at a local night club with one of the Black Lives Matter co-founders in defiance of her own rules. Breed mandated last month that residents need to wear masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status, and the state's health department ordered that people dining and taking part in other indoor activities need to show proof of vaccination. But Breed disregarded her own rule and was seen partying at the Black Cat jazz nightclub along with BLM co-founder Alicia Garza on September 16. She was spotted taking photos and dancing - with not one mask in sight. The club posted and then removed photos of the event from its Instagram page, but they emerged in the San Francisco Chronicle, and Breed was hit with a barrage of outrage on social media over her 'hypocritical' actions. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, second from the left, was attended an event at the Black Cat jazz club along with Black Lives Matter co-Founder Alicia Garza, left. Neither of them, nor most patrons, were wearing masks despite the city's mandate Breed, center, posed for photos with the musicians playing at the club. She was seen not wearing a mask for the majority of the night I chose to go to @sfblackcat last night for my first indoor concert since the pandemic ... and this happened pic.twitter.com/x68lRya0Wh Mariecar Mendoza (@SFMarMendoza) September 16, 2021 Social media erupted with posts critical of the mayor for not following her own masking policy The SF Chronicle reported that while Breed had drinks in front of her and was often holding one, she spent the majority of the night dancing, singing and posing for photographs without a mask on. Breed said that she everyone who came into the club had to show proof of vaccination, which gave her 'a lot of reassurance.' 'I've been very careful, not just because I want to set an example but because I don't want to get COVID. I also want to make sure that I'm not someone transmitting COVID to other people,' she told the SF Chronicle. 'This entire pandemic has been focused on keeping people safe.' Breed did not immediately respond to the DailyMail.com's request for comment. On Twitter, people called Mayor Long Breed a hypocrite for not wearing her mask indoors London Breed announced that indoor businesses would have to check for proof of vaccination from their patrons in August. She also pushed for a return to masking while indoors San Francisco is one of several major US cities to pass vaccine mandates Matthew Foldi, a reporter for the conservative Washington Free Beacon, tweeted, 'Do Any Democrats actually obey their own mask mandates,' criticizing Breed who has been adamant about masking and vaccination policies to help combat COVID-19. Twitter user John Schuab wrote, 'What's worse is the constituents won't hold them responsible. It's unbelievable to me that the citizens of Dam Francisco see time and time again their representatives do this and still applaud and prop them up!' Another person with the username Graham demanded Breed respond to the photos. 'Where is your mask. Answer us,' he wrote. A person with the handle LM77 claimed that Democrats in the state now thing 'they are untouchable' after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom won the recall election against him this week. 'I wish the left would wake up & realize we are all on the same side even if we don't always agree on political points.' Breed spent her time at the nightclub without a mask even when she was not drinking The Black Cat is a jazz nightclub in San Francisco. The club had deleted posts on their Instagram page showing the maskless Breed This is the second time Breed has come under fire for violating her own orders during the pandemic. Just a day before California Gov. Gavin Newsom ill-advised appearance at a dinner party at the French Laundry restaurant in November, Breed was spotted at the restaurant with eight other people during a time when the state discouraged social gatherings. Newsom's dinner eventually sparked his recall election. San Francisco has reported about 103 new COVID-19 cases in the past week and three deaths so far in September, according to Johns Hopkins University's COVID tracker. The city has among the lowest rate of cases in California, which now has less COVID-19 transmission than any other state in the country, the New York Times reports. San Francisco reported that nearly 80 per cent of all eligible residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 73 per cent are fully vaccinated. California reported more than 82 percent of its eligible residents have received at least one jab. The US continues to see a spike in cases due to the Delta variant as it reported nearly 158,000 new cases and about 3,393 new deaths on Thursday. A mother in Honduras cried tears of joy after stumbling across a TV clip that captured her four-year-old son safe and sound after he was found naked on a road about 60 miles from Mexico's border with the United States. Alma Cabrera was watching a Univision news segment on September 11 when she discovered that Mexican authorities were looking for the parents of Nahun Elias George, who had been spotted on a field by a family driving through General Bravo, Leon, and turned over to the local police a day earlier. 'It was a moment of happiness for me,' Cabrera told the network. 'That moment was like if I was getting my life back.' Four-year-old Honduras native Nahun Elias George was found naked and walking on a road by himself on September 10 in General Bravo, a city in northern Mexico that is located 50 miles from the United States border. The boy was with his father and son when they truck they were traveling on was abandoned by a migrant smuggling driver in the same city on September 9. The child somehow separated from his family and spent the day walking along before a family spotted him on the side of a road and turned him over to local authorities Alma Cabrera told Univision that she gave her husband permission to migrate to the United States with their four-year-old son because she heard immigration agents were allowing children under the age of five to cross into the U.S. as long as they were accompanied by a parent Some of the 103 migrants who were rescued from a locked cargo truck in General Bravo, a city in the northeast Mexico state of Nuevo Leon. The town is about 58 miles from the U.S. border Cabrera said she agreed to allow her son to migrate to the United States with her spouse Nahun George, and her sister, Norma Cabrera, because she had heard that the U.S. Border Patrol was allowing children under the age of five to cross from Mexico to the U.S. as long as they were accompanied by a parent. Her husband contracted the services of a smuggler and left the northern Honduran town of Yoro on August 29 with his son and sister-in-law before they migrated into Mexico. But the trio's journey to the United States unraveled when the truck they were being ferried on was found by the National Institute of Migration and the National on a General Bravo road near Nuevo Leon's border with the state of Tamaulipas on September 9 at 8:30am local time. The driver left the trailer locked and took off running into the mountain area before agents heard the screams of 103 migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua and pulled them out to safety. It's unknown at what point Nahun Elias became separated from his father and aunt. Somehow the boy spent the next 24 hours walking through the city before he was discovered by the motorist. National Institute of Migration and the National System for Integral Family Development officials were able to confirm he was traveling in the vehicle after showing him pictures of the cargo truck. Nahun Elias George, of Honduras, was found without clothes and walking along on the side of a road in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, on September 10, just a day after he became separated from his father and aunt when the truck they were traveling on was abandoned by a smuggler Mexico's National Institute of Migration and the National Guard rescued 103 migrants from a locked cargo truck on September 9 in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Nahun Elias is currently staying at a shelter operated by the National System for Integral Family Development and his father remains stranded in the northern Mexico border town of Reynosa. However, Alma Cabrera is unaware of her sister's whereabouts. 'I am happy because of my child,' Cabrera said as she fought back tears, 'but there is hope, hope that she may be in (custody) of immigration (agents).' Data released by the National Institute of Migration earlier this month showed that 34,427 minors had illegally entered Mexico between January 2021 and August 2021 - a 194 percent increase compared with the same period in 2020 when 11,703 underage children entered the country. At least 8,525 unaccompanied children transited through Mexico during the first eight months of 2021. Advertisement Nancy Pelosi, America's third most powerful politician, warned today that a breakdown in the talks over the Northern Ireland Protocol would be 'problematic' for a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who is currently visiting Britain, has been critical of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's approach to Northern Ireland following the UK's exit from the European Union. The pair discussed the issue in Downing Street yesterday and Mrs Pelosi today expanded on her views about the talks underway between the UK and Brussels to resolve issues surrounding the protocol's implementation. Mrs Pelosi, 81, said she felt it would be 'very unlikely' for London and Washington to agree the fresh trade terms coveted by the UK Government 'if there is destruction of the Good Friday accords' as a result of the negotiations. It is not the first time there has been intervention from the US about Brexit's impact on Ireland, with President Joe Biden - who has Irish ancestry - and other Democrats, such as Mrs Pelosi, taking a keen interest in the situation. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Downing Street yesterday Mrs Pelosi speaks to an audience at Chatham House in London this morning as her visit to Britain continues Mrs Pelosi walks alongside Alok Sharma, president of this year's United Nations COP26, in London this afternoon Mrs Pelosi told a Chatham House event in London today that she was 'glad that more time' had been afforded for talks At a time when the UK was considering overriding parts of the deal in 2020, Mrs Pelosi warned that Congress would never pass a free trade agreement with the UK if the Government's actions imperilled the peace process. The UK wants to rewrite the protocol, which avoids a hard border with Ireland by effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the European Union's single market for goods. What is the Northern Ireland Protocol and why is the US so involved? Britain is angling for a trade deal with Washington now it has left the EU, but it remains locked in talks with Brussels and Dublin about how best to implement tricky post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Protocol aims to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland, a key plank of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to decades of violence. But pro-British unionists say the deal to mandate checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea from mainland Britain creates another de facto border and puts Northern Ireland's place in the wider UK in jeopardy. London and Brussels agreed this month to indefinitely extend a grace period on implementing some checks. Any UK-US trade deal will need to be passed by the House of Representatives led by Nancy Pelosi, whose boss, US President Joe Biden, is of Irish descent. The US, which played a key role in securing the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, has cautioned Britain against doing anything to undermine the peace settlement. Advertisement The post-Brexit rules have led to trade barriers for goods crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain, even with grace periods in place to help goods such as chilled meats continue to be exchanged. Mrs Pelosi told a Chatham House event in London today that she was 'glad that more time' had been afforded for talks between the UK and the EU on how to operate the protocol. But she said there 'has to be an agreement' that respects the terms of the peace agreement in Northern Ireland or transatlantic relations and the prospect of a trade concord could suffer. 'If it takes a little more time, then so be it,' the senior US politician said. 'This is not said as any threat, it is a prediction: if there is destruction of the Good Friday accords, it would be very unlikely to have a UK-US bilateral. 'We have to have a path that includes it. It would be problematic in terms of a bilateral.' She revealed that Mr Johnson had given her 'reading material' about the issues Britain faces around the protocol when they met at No 10 this week. And in the clearest indication yet that the Prime Minister will travel to Washington as part of his trip next week to the US for the United Nations general assembly, Mrs Pelosi said she 'hopes to host' the Conservative Party leader at the House of Representatives, where she will raise any matters that arise from her reading. Reports on both sides of the Atlantic have suggested Mr Biden is set to welcome his UK ally to the White House as the pair look to work closely together on climate change and their approach to China. It comes after the US, UK and Australia announced a new defence pact, known as Aukus, which is being seen as an attempt to keep China's military expansion in the Indo-Pacific in check. After Mrs Pelosi's meeting with Mr Johnson yesterday, his office said the Prime Minister 'outlined the UK's concerns with the way the Protocol is being implemented and the impact it is having on the people of Northern Ireland.' Mr Sharma accompanies Mrs Pelosi as she holds her mask while they walk along Downing Street in London this afternoon Mrs Pelosi shakes hands with Mr Sharma as she leaves Downing Street this afternoon Mrs Pelosi leaves Chatham House in London today after speaking on the subject of the 'state of American democracy' Mrs Pelosi poses outside 10 Downing Street in London yesterday where she visited to speak with Boris Johnson The 1998 peace deal largely brought an end to the 'Troubles' - three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalist militants and pro-British Protestant 'loyalist' paramilitaries in which 3,600 people were killed. The British-run region remains deeply split along sectarian lines 23 years after the peace deal brokered by the US. Many Catholic nationalists aspire to unification with Ireland while Protestant unionists want to stay part of the UK. The Northern Ireland Protocol aims to keep the province in both the UK's customs territory and the EU's single market. The EU wants to protect its single market, but an effective border in the Irish Sea created by the protocol cuts off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK - to the fury of Protestant unionists. Some unionists say the protocol contravenes the 1998 peace deal. China has flown ten aircraft including fighter jets into Taiwan's air space just a day after the UK, US and Australia signed a defence pact to push back against Beijing. Taipei said two J-11 fighters, six J-16 fighters, one Y-8 anti-submarine plane and one Y-8 spy aircraft entered its air defence identification zone near Pratas Island today. Fighter jets were scrambled to turn the aircraft back while radio warnings were also broadcast and missile defence systems activated to monitor the situation. Taiwan scrambled fighter jets and activated its missile defences today to drive away what it said were ten Chinese aircraft that encroached into its airspace Details of the flights published by Taiwan's defence ministry show the Chinese fighters briefly skirted into the defence zone before turning back. But the spy plane and anti-submarine aircraft made a longer route, flying several miles along Taiwan's south coast before turning around and heading away. The island's government has complained for a year of repeated missions by China's air force near its borders, often in the southwestern part of its air defense zone close to Taiwan-controlled Pratas Island. Self-governing Taiwan, which is home to the Republic of China which fought against the Communist Party when it first emerged, views itself as an independent state but Beijing views it as a breakaway province. It has long-standing ties with the US, which historically recognised it as the legitimate government of China. Tensions around the island have been mounting since President Xi Jinping vowed in 2019 to 'reunify' Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, using force if necessary. Among the aircraft Taiwan said it intercepted were six J-16 fighters (pictured, file image) and two J-11 fighter jets which were quickly turned away A Y-8 anti-submarine plane and a Y-8 spy aircraft (pictured, file image) also entered Taiwan's airspace and flew a longer route before turning back The standoff entered a new phase on Thursday when Australia, the UK and US announced a new defence pact to share military technology that will include giving Australia its first fleet of nuclear submarines. Beijing reacted angrily to the deal, denouncing the allies' 'Cold War mentality' while warning it risks stability in the region and could make Australia the target of a nuclear strike. Shortly after the alliance was announced, Australian defence minister Peter Dutton admitted that war with China is possible - with Taiwan likely to be the flashpoint. The deal is about securing 'peace' in the region, Mr Dutton insisted, but added that the odds of a conflict with China 'shouldn't be discounted'. 'The Chinese.. are very clear of their intent with regard to Taiwan [and] the United States has been very clear of their intention toward Taiwan,' he said. 'Nobody wants to see conflict but that really is a question for the Chinese.' The incident came a day after Taiwan proposed extra defence spending of $9billion over the next five years, including on new missiles, warning of an urgent need to upgrade weapons in the face of a 'severe threat' from China. Peter Dutton, Australia's defence minister, warned that war with China is possible after signing joint defence deal with the UK and America Speaking earlier on Friday, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government had to take the threat from China seriously. 'The Chinese Communists plot against us constantly,' he said. Taiwan's defence spending 'is based on safeguarding national sovereignty, national security, and national security. We must not relax. We must have the best preparations so that no war will occur', he added. China's government, for its part, criticised Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Friday for comments this week in which he said Taiwan was a 'sea fortress' blocking China's expansion into the Pacific. Wu's 'aim is to deceive public opinion, to rope in and collude with anti-China foreign forces', China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in statement. Four people, including a 16-year-old boy, have been arrested on suspicion of plotting an Islamic extremist attack a synagogue in Germany on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The detentions took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, and two years after a deadly attack in another German city on the same holiday. Police cordoned off the synagogue in Hagen on Wednesday and a worship service planned for the evening was called off. Officials had received 'very serious and concrete information' that there could be an attack on the synagogue during Yom Kippur, said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Hagen is located. The tip pointed to 'an Islamist-motivated threat situation,' and named the possible timing and suspect, he added. Four people, including a 16-year-old boy, have been arrested on suspicion of plotting an Islamic extremist attack a synagogue in Germany (pictured) on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur Police cordoned off the synagogue in Hagen on Wednesday and a worship service planned for the evening was called off Police using sniffer dogs found no dangerous objects in or around the synagogue, Reul said. On Thursday morning, the 16-year-old, a Syrian national who lives in Hagen, was detained. Three other people were detained in a raid on an apartment, and authorities are investigating whether they were involved in the suspected plan, the minister said. Reul said searches were ongoing in Hagen, but gave no details and took no questions. He didn't say where the tip came from. News magazine Der Spiegel reported, without identifying sources, that the tip came from a foreign intelligence service. It said the teenager told someone in an online chat that he was planning an attack with explosives on a synagogue, and the probe led investigators to the 16-year-old, who lived with his father in Hagen. Officials had received 'very serious and concrete information' that there could be an attack on the synagogue during Yom Kippur, said Herbert Reul, (pictured) the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Hagen is located The tip pointed to 'an Islamist-motivated threat situation,' and named the possible timing and suspect. Police formed a 'ring of steel' around the site to prevent the attack Police using sniffer dogs found no dangerous objects in or around the synagogue in Hagen Two years ago on Yom Kippur, a German right-wing extremist attacked a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle. The attack on is considered one of the worst anti-Semitic assaults in the country's post-war history. The attacker repeatedly tried, but failed, to force his way into the synagogue with 52 worshippers inside. He then shot and killed a 40-year-old woman in the street outside and a 20-year-old man at a nearby kebab shop as an 'appropriate target' with immigrant roots. He posted an anti-Semitic screed before carrying out the October 9, 2019, attack in the eastern German city of Halle and broadcast the shooting live on a popular gaming site. German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht sharply condemned the foiled Hagen attack. 'It is intolerable that Jews are again exposed to such a horrible threat and that they cannot celebrate the start of their highest holiday, Yom Kippur, together,' the minister said. Shocking footage in Russia shows evidence of large-scale 'vote-rigging' ahead of this weekend's parliamentary elections, opposition activists claim. Huge queues of 'state employees' including soldiers were seen at polling stations around the country amid claims they had been ordered to vote at specific locations to sway the result. In St Petersburg, a woman was detained after carrying a bag to a voting place stuffed with 100-plus ballot papers. Vladimir Putin casts his vote online for the parliamentary elections as he remains in self-isolation due to Covid Russia on Friday began three days of voting in nation-wide parliamentary elections and local contests. Although 14 parties are taking part, many candidates who are considered to be anti-Putin have been banned from entering. Key opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the fiercest critic of Vladimir Putin, remains in jail after he was allegedly poisoned with a chemical warfare agent, and anyone associated with him is barred from the vote. Other Russian opposition figures even flown into exile, fearing imprisonment. Golos movement for the defence of voters' rights claimed as many as 1,600 alleged violations but they had not been verified. Activists pointed to 'suspicious' and 'untypical' snaking queues in Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg and Moscow as evidence that state employees had been ordered to register and vote at certain polling stations close to their work, with claims they were 'instructed' to support pro-Putin United Russia. Huge queues of 'state employees' including soldiers were seen at polling stations around the country The charge was robustly denied by the Kremlin. But in Khabarovsk soldiers were seen surging into a polling station to vote, while a swarm of national guards massed at a polling station in Omsk to cast their votes. Troubling footage of a woman named Lyubov Zenkova in St Petersburg appeared suspicious. She was challenged after refusing to open her bag at a polling station. Election official Vladimir Molodozhenya told Fontanka news outlet: 'The woman was stopped by a policeman at the entrance to the station. Russia on Friday began three days of voting in nation-wide parliamentary elections and local contests 'She had a bag in her hand, which he asked to open. There was a stack of ballots, more than one hundred. 'She turned around and walked away.' The official said: 'We insisted on her detention, and the police caught up with her. 'She was taken to the 78th police department along with a bag.' Independent TV channel Rain claimed the woman had been seen talking privately with the senior local election official. Folded votes were also seen clumped together in a ballot box in Krasnoyarsk - a sign of rigging, says the opposition. Other footage reportedly shot today in St Petersburg appeared to show multiple voting by people in a polling station. But electors in the city legitimately had to vote in up to five contests so it was not clear that this represented abuse. Although 14 parties are taking part, many candidates who are considered to be anti-Putin have been banned from entering The spectre of vote-rigging has dogged voting in all recent Russian elections. The Kremlin was forced to deny that long lines of workers queuing to vote was evidence of state workers being coerced to cast ballots for pro-Putin candidates in the United Russia party. One video showed hundreds queueing in Moscow, near the Russian foreign ministry, but similar scenes were seen around the country's 11 time zones. 'They made a decision and came to vote, you must agree,' insisted Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. 'Or maybe some of them work on Saturday and Sunday, perhaps they have a shift. 'There is absolutely no problem in this, absolutely.' Peskov had been asked to comment on the queues which, according to the Interfax news agency, have been observed outside police voting precincts. 'Why should we assume that this is coercion? I just do not understand the essence of your question. The Kremlin was forced to deny that long lines of workers queuing to vote was evidence of state workers being coerced to cast ballots 'People come to vote. It's a three-day vote, many people want to vote quickly and free themselves up for the weekend. 'Where is the conclusion that this is coercion?' Putin - in quarantine after his entourage was hit by a Covid outbreak - voted online. He will have the chance of winning a flat or car in an election lottery for online voters. Navalny and other opposition figures called for 'smart voting' - even for the Communists - in a bid to defeat pro-Putin candidates. Results will be declared on Sunday night. Advertisement Britain's daily Covid cases dropped today, official figures showed in yet more proof that the return of schools has failed to trigger a fresh wave. Department of Health statistics showed another 32,651 infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, down 13 per cent from last Friday. Today's figures included two days worth of data for Scotland, which did not report any cases yesterday because of a 'technical issue'. But despite the bumper reporting cases continued to trend downwards. It marks the ninth day in a row that the UK's cases have fallen week-on-week, with the surge in infections expected once classrooms reopened in England, Wales and Northern Ireland having failed to materialise. Latest hospitalisations showed 909 people were admitted to wards suffering from the virus on September 13, the latest available. This was down 14 per cent from the same time the previous week. But there were also 178 deaths, up by a fifth on last Friday. Both hospital admission and death figures lag weeks behind cases because it takes time for an infection to trigger serious illness. Separate figures today offered more proof that the return of millions of children to schools has yet to spark any uptick in cases. The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) surveillance report estimated there were 697,100 people infected on any given day across England in the seven days to September 11, down 8 per cent on the previous week. Most schools in England went back from the summer break on September 1, meaning today's data includes the first full week of the new school term. There had been widespread concerns that England would see a meteoric rise in infections like Scotland did when classes north of the border resumed in mid-August. Covid cases there trebled to record highs in the following fortnight which put pressure on health officials to finally approve vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds this week. The latest estimates, based on random swabbing of 100,000 households in England, suggest one in 80 people were carrying the virus on any given day last week. ENGLAND: The above graph shows Covid cases in England by date reported. It reveals that cases in the country are trending downwards as the predicted spike in infections due to the reopening of schools fails to materialise SCOTLAND: The above graph shows Covid cases in Scotland by date reported. The country reported no Covid cases yesterday because of a technical issue WALES: The above graph shows Covid cases in Wales by date reported. It reveals they are trending downwards NORTHERN IRELAND: The above graph shows Covid cases in Northern Ireland by date reported. They are trending down The Office for National Statistics' weekly surveillance report estimated there were 697,100 infections in England in the seven days to September 11, down 8 per cent on the previous week Meanwhile, the Government's scientific advisory group said that England's R rate remained flat in the past week at around 1, but could be as low as 0.9 or as high as 1.1 The UK is currently recording 1,000 Covid hospitalisations per day, the bulk of which are occurring in England (shown). This is up from around 750 from 'Freedom Day' on July 19, when all legal curbs were lifted in England Deaths have remained low despite high levels of transmission thanks to the rollout of the vaccines DoH data showed England recorded 23,265 cases today, which was down 13 per cent on the same time the previous week. In Scotland they dropped by 19 per cent week-on-week, despite the country today reporting two days worth of infections. Scottish officials posted 5,529 cases today, compared to 6,815 last Friday. In Northern Ireland infections dipped by 26 per cent in a week after 1,239 were recorded. Wales was the only area to see its infections rise, after they went up six per cent in a week when 2,618 were recorded. Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, said: 'It does look like those strongly expressed views that we would see a surge in infections after schools went back has not turned out to be the case.' Meanwhile, the Government's top scientists said England's R rate remained flat in the past week at around 1, but could be as low as 0.9 or as high as 1.1. The R, or reproduction, rate is the average number of people each Covid patient goes on to infect and it needs to be below 1 for there to be a consistent decline in the epidemic. However, it is a lagging indicator, and represents the situation the country found itself in three weeks ago. Separate data from Public Health England yesterday found that more than nine in 10 of England's local authorities saw their outbreaks shrink in the first week of schools returning. At the peak of the second wave in early January, around one in 50 people in England were estimated to have the coronavirus. The percentage of people testing positive is estimated to have increased in the North West and decreased in the West Midlands and the East of England, the ONS said. The trend for all other regions is uncertain, with outbreaks believed to have flatlined in the most recent week. North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest proportion of people of any region likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to September 11 around one in 60. The East had the lowest estimate, around one in 120. Speaking about the anticipated school surge last night, Professor Hunter said: 'Today was the first day we would have expected to see any clear impact of schools opening on daily reports of Covid case numbers in England. 'We started seeing case reports below the same day in the previous week on September 9, about eight days after most pupils went back to school at the point when any impact may have been seen.' He added: 'In an endemic infection, like Covid has now become, infections reach an equilibrium point where the proportion of the population becoming susceptible balances the likelihood of transmission and of course a lot of people have developed some degree of immunity in recent months as a result of either immunisation or infection. 'Also although case numbers seem to have started falling in all age groups, age specific data is always reported somewhat later and it will be later next week before we can know for certain what the trend in each age group really is. 'Nevertheless it does look like those strongly expressed views that we would see a surge in infections after schools went back has not turned out to be the case. Cabinet minister George Eustice says there will be 'another full lockdown' if a vaccine-dodging coronavirus variant emerges The emergence of a vaccine-dodging coronavirus variant will force the Government to impose 'another full lockdown', a Cabinet minister said today. Environment Secretary George Eustice let slip that a national shutdown is in the Government's toolbox to prevent the spread of the disease should the virus manage to 'get around' the jabs. Mr Eustice insisted another lockdown 'is not what we want' but his confirmation that it is on the table is likely to spark Tory fury, with many MPs vehemently against the potential return of nationwide draconian curbs. His comments come just days after Boris Johnson unveiled his Winter Plan for stopping the spread of the disease in the coming months. The document contained no specific mention of a potential lockdown but said 'more harmful economic and social restrictions would only be considered as a last resort' if the NHS was at risk of being 'overwhelmed'. Mr Johnson repeatedly said he wanted the UK's exit from the last lockdown to be 'irreversible'. Mr Eustice was grilled this morning on Sky News about expected changes to the Government's international travel rules. The minister would not be drawn on specifics as he said the Cabinet sub-committee in charge of the issue is expected to make its decisions later today. Told that the travel industry is at a critical point and that now is the time to change the traffic light system, Mr Eustice replied: It has been a very, very difficult time for the travel industry, we absolutely recognise that. That is why we have done all we can to have those easements in place, reduce the restrictions as quickly as we can. But arguably the biggest threat to the travel industry is that we do get another variant that manages to get around the vaccine, that the vaccine cant deal with, then we are into another full lockdown and that is not what we want. That is why we have taken this cautiously, step by step, because we want each step we take to be irreversible. Advertisement 'How long and low this decline in cases and hospital admissions will go is not clear. 'I suspect case numbers will level off at some point and there is still the possibility that cases could increase again as we move through autumn, though I doubt anywhere near as high as we have seen in the past or as has been predicted by some.' In Wales, around one in 60 people are estimated to have had Covid in the week to September 11, up from one in 65 in the previous week and the highest level since the week to December 23, 2020. In Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is one in 75, down from one in 60 in the previous week. For Scotland, the ONS estimates that around one in 45 people had Covid in the week to September 11, the second week in a row it has been at the highest level since estimates began for Scotland in October 2020. The ONS said that while the percentage of people testing positive had increased slightly (from 2.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent) in the week ending September 11, the rate of increase had slowed. All figures are for people in private households. It has been suggested that high antibody levels in youngsters may be keeping the virus at bay. Nearly nine in 10 people in the UK aged 16 to 24 have Covid antibodies, according to official estimates. Rates of the virus-fighting proteins will also start rising quickly in 12 to 15-year-olds next week, when the jab rollout opens to them for the first time. The ONS, which carries out blood tests on youngsters across the UK's four nations, found between 87 and 89 per cent of them had antibodies that help fight the virus. The presence of coronavirus antibodies suggests someone has been infected in the past or has been vaccinated, and therefore has some immunity. Children under 16 are not routinely tested for antibodies. PHE data revealed Covid cases continued to grow in just 11 parts of the country between September 6 and 12, in more evidence that schools have not triggered a surge. Newcastle upon Tyne saw the biggest surge in the country, with cases rising by 11.1 per cent. It was followed by Northumberland (10.3 per cent) and Leicester (9.5 per cent). Local outbreaks also pushed case numbers up in the rest of Leicestershire (5 per cent), Oldham (4.6 per cent), Blackpool (3.1 per cent) and Coventry (1.4 per cent). Meanwhile, tiny increases in infection rates were spotted in Middlesbrough (0.9 per cent), Redcar and Cleveland (0.8 per cent), Southend-on-Sea (0.8 per cent) and Calderdale (0.4 per cent). At the other end of the scale, data showed infections more than halved in West Berkshire (down 54.2 per cent) and Gloucestershire (down 52.7 per cent). Cases also fell in South Gloucestershire (down 49.5 per cent), Bristol (down 49.4 per cent) and Swindon (down 48.9 per cent). PHE data showed cases fell at a national level and in all nine regions of the country, in a marked change from last week when increased slightly in every area apart from the South West. The North-East had the highest rate, with 370 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to September 12. Meanwhile, they were the lowest in London, where 212 per 100,000 people tested positive last week. But with large numbers returning to offices last week and Transport for London experiencing its busiest day since before the pandemic, cases in the capital could rise in the coming weeks, experts fear. A QUARTER of 'Covid inpatients' in England are primarily being treated for a different illness or injury, official data shows By Connor Boyd Assistant Health Editor for MailOnline Nearly a quarter of Covid inpatients in England are actually in hospital for a different reason, according to official figures. Health service statistics show there were 6,146 NHS beds taken up by people who were coronavirus positive on September 14, the latest date data is available for. But just 4,721 patients (77 per cent) were primarily being treated for the virus, with the remaining 1,425 receiving care for other illnesses or injuries. They could include patients who've had a fall or even new mothers who tested positive after giving birth. In NHS hospitals in the Midlands, around a third of Covid patients were mainly being treated for another reason on September 14. Separate NHS figures suggest as many as half of daily hospitalisations only test positive after being admitted for a separate condition. Hospital numbers have become the key metric for ministers and their scientific advisers, now that vaccines have taken the emphasis away from infection numbers. Boris Johnson has said lockdown curbs may have to be reintroduced if Covid hospital numbers rise sharply as part of his winter blueprint to tackle the virus, which could see masks and working from home mandated again. But he did not put a firm figure on the threshold that would trigger the return of restrictions when he announced the contingency plans earlier this week. The latest figures suggest the standard Covid hospital numbers have become a less reliable way of gauging the outbreak and NHS pressure. Health service statistics show there were 6,146 NHS beds taken up by people who were coronavirus positive on September 14, the latest date with data. But just 4,721 patients (77 per cent) were primarily being treated for the virus, with the remaining 1,425 receiving care for other illnesses or injuries Broken down by region, the Midlands saw the highest proportion of Covid patients being treated for a different illness on September 14. Covid was the primary diagnosis in just 883 out of 1,228 (68 per cent) patients who were in a hospital bed and positive. It was followed by the North West, where nearly 29 per cent of Covid patients were actually being treated for a separate issue. NHS carried out 1MILLION fewer emergency procedures last year because of Covid, More than a million emergency hospital admissions were 'lost' to the coronavirus pandemic, according to official data. There were 5.45million emergency procedures carried out across all NHS England services in the 12 months to March, down 16 per cent on the 6.5m the previous year. The NHS Digital statistics, published on Thursday, include admissions for accident and emergency, mental health, maternity and even dental patients. Figures also show there were 3.2m fewer elective surgeries in the same period, with 5.6m coming in for care during the pandemic compared to 8.8m pre-Covid. Patients were left struggling to access care through repeated lockdowns as the health service turned its attention to Covid. Many were also reluctant to come forward for fear of being a burden on the NHS or catching the virus. There is mounting pressure on the NHS to start chopping down record waiting lists that have amassed during the pandemic, now that Covid vaccines have largely broken the link between infections and severe illness. Advertisement At the other end of the scale, Covid was the primary reason for 83 per cent of patients in London and the South West. Health officials say those classed as 'primarily non-Covid' could be suffering from an illness that is exacerbated because of the virus. The NHS only started to differentiate between the types of patients in hospital in June to get a better idea of the scale of the outbreak. It was instructed to do so by the then-newly-appointed Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who is much more of a 'hawk' than his predecessor Matt Hancock. Hospitals were told to give a breakdown of those who went to hospital primarily because of Covid and are suffering from severe symptoms. Those who test positive but are in hospital for another reason are referred to as 'incidental cases' and are picked up because of routine swabbing in the NHS. Since the figures began to be published on June 18, the proportion of incidental cases has varied between a fifth and a quarter. These patients appear to make up a bigger proportion of the daily hospital admission numbers. Leaked figures in July suggested more than half (56 per cent) of these were patients who only tested positive after admission. This trend is largely consistent with separate data published every fortnight by Public Health England, which shows four in 10 Covid admissions in patients with the Delta variant are 'incidental'. At best, experts say the data suggests that hospital figures reported on the Government's Covid dashboard are 'misleading'. But at worst, according to Reading University's Dr Simon Clarke, they may signal that the virus is still spreading on NHS wards, putting the most vulnerable at risk. The microbiologist told MailOnline: 'A quarter of potentially incidental cases still far too many people, that's still a huge problem. 'You've got people in hospital who have just had surgery and whose immune systems have taken a hit, if they catch Covid on ward they could be very ill.' Dr Clarke said the findings do not mean the NHS is under any less pressure, which some critics have argued. Public Health England's fortnightly update on coronavirus strains circulating around the country showed 7,285 people had spent at least one night in hospital with the Delta variant of the virus by August 15. But it admitted as many as 3,154 (43 per cent) had likely come to A&E for 'a diagnosis unrelated to Covid' and tested positive later through routine swabbing SAGE's gloomy models return: Government scientists warn Covid hospital admissions may breach 6,000 a day by mid-October The Government's scientific advisory group warned there could be more than 6,000 daily Covid hospital admissions by this time next month, as it called for ministers to be prepared to roll back 'light' lockdown curbs. Modelling by SAGE now infamous for repeatedly overegging the UK's epidemic found that hospital numbers could eclipse the peak of previous waves if the R rate were to rise to 1.5 in the coming weeks. While the group admitted the jabs have tamed the virus, it claimed there was 'potential for another large wave of hospitalisations' due to waning immunity, schools returning from summer and workers going back to offices. SAGE's most optimistic scenario still forecasts about 2,000 daily hospital admissions double the amount occurring now which it warned could lead to a 'difficult few months' for the NHS. The panel has recommended a 'relatively light' set of restrictions are brought back at the first sign of an uptick in hospital numbers, including masks, working from home and a return to isolating all close contacts of Covid cases. It said that going hard and early with light restrictions this autumn could avoid the need for more drastic measures later on in winter. The advice was revealed in a batch of scientific papers made public today but submitted to Government last week. SAGE's models did not factor in the effect of vaccinating healthy 12 to 15-year-olds or giving booster doses to 30 million vulnerable Britons, two policies that were only announced in the last two days. But the guidance will have been factored into Boris Johnson's winter Covid plan, which gives ministers the power to reinstate a catalogue of social restrictions even a 'last resort' lockdown. Advertisement But he admitted they could make the Covid outbreak itself look more severe than reality. 'If you look at the numbers [reported by the Government each day] and think they are all people going into hospital because of Covid, then clearly that's not true. 'But just because somebody comes in with a broken ankle and has asymptomatic Covid does not mean they are not difficult to manage. 'In some ways it could create even greater pressure because they are less obvious so they need to be identified and separated from other patients. 'But of course we wouldn't have this problem if infection numbers in society weren't so high.' The UK is currently recording 1,000 Covid hospitalisations per day, up from around 750 from 'Freedom Day' on July 19, when all legal curbs were lifted in England. But the Government's scientific advisory group has warned there could be 7,000 daily admissions by this time next month. Modelling by SAGE now infamous for repeatedly overegging the UK's epidemic found that hospital numbers could eclipse the peak of previous waves if the R rate were to rise to 1.5 in the coming weeks. While the group admitted the jabs have tamed the virus, it claimed there was 'potential for another large wave of hospitalisations' due to waning immunity, schools returning from summer and workers going back to offices. SAGE's most optimistic scenario still forecasts about 2,000 daily hospital admissions double the amount occurring now which it warned could lead to a 'difficult few months' for the NHS. The panel has recommended a 'relatively light' set of restrictions are brought back at the first sign of an uptick in hospital numbers, including masks, working from home and a return to isolating all close contacts of Covid cases. It said that going hard and early with light restrictions this autumn could avoid the need for more drastic measures later on in winter. The advice was revealed in a batch of scientific papers made public today but submitted to Government last week. SAGE's models did not factor in the effect of vaccinating healthy 12 to 15-year-olds or giving booster doses to 30 million vulnerable Britons, two policies that were only announced this week. But the guidance will have been factored into Boris Johnson's winter Covid plan, which gives ministers the power to reinstate a catalogue of social restrictions even a 'last resort' lockdown. SAGE models have previously been ridiculed for exaggerating the UK's epidemic, most recently estimating there would be 100,000 Covid cases per day over the summer. Peter Mandelson has confessed he would be 'delighted' to work in a Sir Keir Starmer-led Labour government and revealed former Tony Blair is offering advice to the party leader. Lord Mandelson, one of the architects of New Labour, said the former Prime Minister had urged Sir Keir to do more to 'project his personality' in a bid to win round more voters in the next general election and is contact with him 'from time to time'. In an interview with The Telegraph, the former MP for Hartlepool admitted he would 'love' to be back in Government but confessed the likelihood was 'fairly small'. 'I'd love to go back to the government. There's not a day that passes without my missing being in government', the 67-year-old told The Telegraph's weekly politics podcast Chopper's Politics. Lord Peter Mandelson, the ex-political fixer for Tony Blair, admitted that 'not a day passes' without him missing being in Government 'The likelihood of my going back to government, I think, is fairly small, but it doesn't stop you dreaming.' Asked if Mr Blair was advising Sir Keir and the Labour leadership, Lord Mandelson said: 'He talks to Keir from time to time.' In response to suggestions Mr Blair was 'pushing out' Sir Keir with his various ideas through his Institute for Global Change, Lord Mandelson added: 'I don't think he pushes him out at all, it stimulates him, it adds to the debate. 'I think what Tony Blair is doing at his institute is very welcome. I think people have really welcomed what he has had to say about Covid.' Lord Mandelson rejected reports he was advising the current Labour leadership but said he would speak to anyone in the party who wants to hear his views. He described Sir Keir as being the 'opposite of Boris Johnson' as he has a 'very good and very strong character but he doesn't project his personality enough'. Pressed on the issue surrounding former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had the party whip suspended after saying the scale of anti-Semitism under his leadership was overstated, Lord Mandelson said Sir Keir should avoid readmitting him to the party. Looking ahead to Labour's prospect in future general elections under Sir Keir's leadership, Lord Mandelson said the party needed to 'be bolder' with ideas around reshaping the economy. Lord Mandelson revealed former Prime Minister Tony Blair (right) is offering advice to current party leader Sir Keir Starmer (left) Lord Mandelson was the first ever 'spin doctor' and helped Labour sweep to power in 1997 under Mr Blair. MP for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004 he held a string of senior Cabinet posts including Norther Ireland Secretary and trade and industry secretary. After becoming a peer he was First Secretary of State under Gordon Brown. But his career was dogged by controversy. He was forced to resign as a minister in 1998 after failing to register a loan of 373,000 from Labour MP and multi-millionaire Geoffrey Robinson. After being brought back into the Cabinet he quit for a second time in 2001 after being accused of using his position to help an Indian businessman, Srichand Hinduja, receive a UK passport. He was later cleared of wrong-doing. Advertisement Diagnoses of chronic illnesses in England fell by up to half last year in a trend that was partly fuelled by fewer GP appointments during the pandemic, stark official figures revealed today. Incidence of chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) a group of lung diseases that can cause breathing difficulties was down 51 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019. The number of patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rate which raises the risk of strokes and heart attacks, fell by 26 per cent, followed by heart failure and diabetes, which both dropped by a fifth. Coronary heart disease cases were also down 17 per cent, the report found, and strokes fell by 16 per cent. The Department of Health and Office for National Statistics report suggests tens of thousands fewer people got a delayed diagnosis, risking their condition worsening. It claimed 'reduced general practice activity' was likely partly behind the trend. The figures came as the chair of the doctors' union the British Medical Association (BMA) said patients were wrong to think they received 'worse care' as a result of a lack of in-person consultations during the pandemic. Dr Richard Vautrey, head of the BMA's General Practitioners committee, claimed GP surgeries needed more money to get face-to-face GP appointments back to pre-pandemic levels. The timing of his comments were slammed as being 'tone deaf' by the Adam Smith Institute thinktank, which said: 'It shows the BMA does not want to see the problem and doesn't want to see the real solution.' NHS figures suggest around 23million fewer face-to-face GP consultations were carried out in the first wave of the Covid pandemic alone, as NHS services and practices were encouraged to move to virtual settings and Brits were more reluctant to come forward due to virus fears. As well as missed diagnoses, the shut down of NHS services during the pandemic allowed waiting lists to spiral to record highs, with 5.6million people now waiting for routine operations. Boris Johnson's has pledged a manifesto-busting 30billion to the NHS over the next two years to help clear the mammoth backlog. But Dr Vautrey said ministers weren't 'investing in general practice as seriously as they need to'. Diagnoses of chronic illnesses fell by up to half last year fuelled by a lack of GP appointments during the pandemic. Incidence of chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties was down 51 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, a damning Department of Health report found. The number of patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rate which raises the risk of strokes and heart attacks, was down by 26 per cent, followed by heart failure and diabetes, which both dropped by a fifth. Coronary heart disease cases were also down 17 per cent, the report found, and strokes fell by 16 per cent The report also found that thousands fewer people were admitted for cancers during 2020, which it warned 'these treatment delays are likely to lead to poorer health outcomes for patients' It found that GP appointments for children under the age of 11 had the most sustained fall (23 per cent below four-year average). The 11 to 19 age group also seen sharp falls (13.4 per cent), which were most pronounced when lockdown restrictions were in place. Amongst older people, the impact was less significant, with a 7.6 per cent drop in consultations in 2020 relative to the four-year average. But this still translates to millions of missed consults Today's report on missed diagnoses was submitted to Government on September 9 but made public today as part of a batch of scientific and public health reports used to guide ministers through the pandemic. It found that GP appointments for children under the age of 11 had the most sustained fall (23 per cent below four-year average). The 11-19 age group also saw sharp falls (13.4 per cent), which were most pronounced when Covid lockdown restrictions were in place. Amongst older people, the impact was less significant, with a 7.6 per cent drop in consultations in 2020 relative to the four-year average. But this still translates to millions of missed appointments. The report also found that thousands fewer people were admitted for cancers during 2020, which it warned 'these treatment delays are likely to lead to poorer health outcomes for patients'. Meanwhile, MailOnline's analysis of NHS data yesterday found, as well as elective treatment and GP appointments, more than a million emergency hospital admissions were 'lost' to the coronavirus pandemic. There were approximately 5.45million emergency procedures carried out across all NHS England services in the 12 months to March, down 16 per cent on the 6.5m the previous year. The NHS Digital figures included admissions for A&E, mental health, maternity and even dental patients, showing how the pandemic impacted every corner of the health service. There were 5.45million emergency procedures carried out across all NHS England services in the 12 months to March, down 16 per cent on the 6.5m the previous year The number of patients waiting for routine hospital treatment hit 5.6million in July, the highest figure since records began in 2007. And health chiefs have warned the backlog is going to get much worse before it gets better, with projections that it could soar up to 13million by the end of the year if no action is taken Patients forced to wait more than 18 weeks for routine surgery - the maximum time someone should wait under the NHS's own rules - reached 1.7million in July, the highest level in four months Some 293,000 people had been waiting more than a year for treatment on the NHS by July this year, figures showed. This was down slightly on last month when there were 304,803 people on the list, but still almost three times the same levels last year. The list has surged after the pandemic forced hospitals to turn over whole wards to fighting the virus 'Eye-watering' one in 10 people in England are now waiting for routine operations on the NHS One in ten people in England are stuck on the NHS waiting list for routine operations, extraordinary figures revealed today as queues hit another record high. Latest NHS data showed that 5.6million people across the country were waiting for elective surgery in July the most since records began in 2007 after the number rose continuously during the pandemic. Waiting lists spiralled after Covid forced hospitals to cancel routine operations and turn over whole wards to patients suffering from the disease. Social distancing and extra Covid precautions have made it even harder to start chipping away at the record waiting lists. Record numbers of patients are now turning to private health rather than waiting for help from the NHS, figures show, with one private provider seeing patient numbers rise by 80 per cent on the back of the pandemic. The waiting list includes people waiting for operations like knee, hip and joint replacements, as well as cataracts surgery. The number who've waited more than a year to start treatment stood at 293,000 last month, almost three times as high as the same time last year when 83,000 had been on the list for this long. And more than 1.7million people have been waiting more than 18 weeks for surgery, outside the period in which the NHS aims to see every patient. The Royal College of Surgeons said today that behind these 'eye-watering' statistics were patients 'waiting in pain' that was leaving them unable to work or carry on with their daily lives. Top medics said the NHS was already 'running on empty' as it heads into winter which is its busiest period. Advertisement Figures also show there were 3.2million fewer elective surgeries in the same period, with 5.6million coming in for care during the pandemic compared to 8.8million pre-Covid. Addressing the row over the lack of face-to-face GP appointments which has erupted over the past few weeks, Dr Vautrey told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the BMA recognises there arent enough GPs and nurses. To rectify this, he said the Government must do what it 'promised to do which is to recruit 6,000 more GPs, to invest in our premises, to invest in our staff and our service and by doing that we will get a better service for our patients'. He said 'we need the number of GPs to increase' to get back to pre-Covid levels of in-person appointments, and 'we need the space within our surgeries to increase to be able to do that safely'. Matt Kilcoyne from the Adam Smith Institute told MailOnline: 'The BMA's response is typical of the BMA, it just wants more cash for its members, which never fixes the actual issues. 'The problem is the BMA is acting in the interest of its members and it is is putting patients' lives at risk.' It comes after a senior coroner last week ruled a lack of face-to-face GP consultations contributed to the deaths of five people. A third fewer people are seeing their GP in-person now compared to before the pandemic and tens of millions of appointments were 'lost' during the Covid crisis. GPs were urged to conduct all consultations remotely and strongly encouraged not to invite patients for an in-person appointment unless they deemed it an emergency. But trusts have continued to incentivise the practice more than a year after the original lockdown, with doctors being offered bonuses to keep attendances low. Health Secretary Sajid Javid fired a warning shot at GPs in the Commons earlier this week, telling them: 'GPs should be offering face-to-face access.' Meanwhile, a total 5.6million people across the country were waiting for elective surgery in July the most since records began in 2007 a number which has risen continuously during the pandemic. Waiting lists spiralled after Covid forced hospitals to cancel routine operations and turn over whole wards to patients suffering from the disease. Social distancing and extra Covid precautions have made it even harder to start chipping away at the record waiting lists. Record numbers of patients are now turning to private health rather than waiting for help from the NHS, figures show, with one private provider seeing patient numbers rise by 80 per cent on the back of the pandemic. The waiting list includes people waiting for operations like knee, hip and joint replacements, as well as cataracts surgery. The number who've waited more than a year to start treatment stood at 293,000 last month, almost three times as high as the same time last year when 83,000 had been on the list for this long. And more than 1.7million people have been waiting more than 18 weeks for surgery, outside the period in which the NHS aims to see every patient. Woman, 27, died from liver cancer after GPs failed to spot tumour for five MONTHS during virtual appointments and refused to see her in-person because of Covid fears Jessica Brady, 27, died from stage-four cancer in December after struggling to get an in-person appointment with her GP during the pandemic The mother of a young woman who died from cancer has told MPs her daughter might still be alive if she was seen by her GP face-to-face. Jessica Brady, 27, from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, passed away from liver cancer in December after a series of virtual appointments over the course of five months failed to spot her tumour. Her mother, Andrea, told the Health and Social Care Committee today that Jessica was repeatedly denied an in-person appointment after first complaining of abdominal pain last summer, despite the epidemic being largely under control at that point. She was diagnosed with a kidney infection 'in the absence of any diagnostic testing or any physical examination at all' and prescribed with antibiotics. When she became extremely fatigued and her symptoms worsened, she was only prescribed more antibiotics, steroids, and an inhaler. One set of blood tests even revealed Jessica had high D-dimer levels, which can be a signal of solid cancers, the mother told MPs. And subsequent tests identified concerns regarding her liver function which her mother said makes sense now as she had liver cancer but medics decided to wait six weeks to see what happened. Doctors didn't put 'the pieces of the jigsaw together' that it was cancer until five months later, by which point the cancer had spread around Jessica's body and become untreatable. It comes as Health Secretary Sajid Javid demanded 'more GPs should be offering face-to-face access' and 'we intend to do a lot more about it'. Figures show a third fewer people in England are seeing a GP now than before the pandemic and tens of millions of appointments were 'lost' during Covid. Andrea Brady, Jessica's mother, told MPs her daughter needed a face-to-face appointment 'really early on'. She was told to get a gastroscopy after in-person appointments, but if this happened a few months earlier, her cancer 'wouldn't have spread so aggressively', Mrs Brady said Ms Brady revealed that Jessica was only finally seen in person by a GP when she bombarded her local surgery with more than 20 phone calls. The family doctor told the family that Jessica 'probably needs a gastroscopy', her mother told the committee. If this procedure which involves a camera taking pictures inside the stomach happened a few months earlier, her cancer 'wouldn't have spread so aggressively', Ms Brady said. 'Jess was a very gentle, sweet person, but she really did attribute her late diagnosis to the slow reaction of her GP surgery,' her mother added. Even after seeing a GP in-person, it was not until she sought private health care that she was diagnosed with stage four cancer of the lungs, bones, spine and liver. She went to hospital on the day of her diagnosis and died three and a half weeks later on December 20. Asked about Jessica's challenge in getting a GP appointment, she said: 'It was incredibly challenging for Jess, just navigating the whole system of consult procedures. 'I think the most important thing is we feel, and Jess felt that no one listened, no one took it seriously and more than anything, she needed a permitted face-to-face appointment really early on, with people making notes. 'And also, during all that time, she wasnt seen by one designated doctor, four different doctors spoke to Jess and prescribed her medication. And we think that was really key. 'No one person was looking at the whole picture and putting the pieces of the jigsaw together. That didnt happen until two days before Jess received her diagnosis, when I think there was an element of panic, because she was receiving quite a lot of phone calls at that stage, and saying you probably need a gastroscopy. 'In fairness, if that had happened three months earlier, obviously her cancer would not have spread well we think it wouldnt have spread so aggressively by then so I think its fair to say that Jess was a very gentle, sweet person, but she really did attribute her late diagnosis to the slow reaction of her GP surgery.' Her parents have launched a petition calling for a cancer specialist in every doctor surgery, a dedicated GP for each patient, frequent courses for GPs and a public health campaign on the warning signs of cancer in young people. In response to Jessica's case, Dr Richard Roope, clinical adviser for cancer at the Royal College of General Practitioners, told MPs: 'In general practice we talk about learning events and this is the mother of all learning events. 'To state obvious, no GP gets up in morning to miss a diagnosis. 'We are there to help our patients and to enable access to the best treatment and diagnostics in a timely fashion and I think we can do things better than what has happened. 'And I think the narrative that weve heard is in a way a manifestation of essentially demand outstripping supply. 'That all GPs could do more if we had more time and if there was more GPs we could give more time to each patient.' It comes as the Health Secretary said today that 'everyone can understand' why GPs 'couldn't provide access in the normal way' during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. But he said 'we are way past that now' and doctors should be following society in going back to 'completely normal' life. He said that 'more GPs should be offering face-to-face access' and 'we intend to do a lot more about it'. Virtual appointments were heavily encouraged throughout the Covid crisis in an attempt to keep social mixing low and hospitals virus-free. But trusts have continued to incentivise the practice, with GPs being offered bonuses to keep in person attendances low. There are fears that some people, particularly the elderly, are being left behind. Recent data from NHS Digital showed 57.2 per cent of appointments in July were conducted face-to-face. That is higher than the low of 46.8 per cent last April, as the first Covid wave swept across the UK, but much lower than the 80 per cent pre-pandemic figure. The coronavirus is evolving to become better at spreading through the air, scientists say. People infected with the Alpha variant, which triggered Britain's devastating second wave in January, expel up to 100 times more of the virus into the air than those who caught the original Wuhan strain. That is according to researchers from the University of Maryland, who say Delta likely transmits even easier through the air. Lead author Dr Don Milton said the findings indicate variants 'just keep getting better at travelling through the air'. The study, which was based on monitoring the air that infected volunteers exhaled into a machine, also claimed cloth and surgical masks can halve the amount of virus that an infected person exhales. Participants in the study breathed into a machine called a Gesundheit-II - for 30 minutes without wearing a mask and 30 minutes while wearing a mask to determine how face coverings impact the spread of the virus The experts focused on the Alpha strain which emerged in Kent last autumn and became dominant in the UK by January and in the US by March. This is because it was the prevalent strain when they carried out their research. Delta, which was first spotted in India last October, quickly overtook Alpha to become the prevailing strain in Britain and America by July. The study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, examined 49 people infected with Alpha and earlier strains of the virus who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms between May 2020 and April 2021. Participants breathed into a machine called a Gesundheit-II for 30 minutes without wearing a mask and 30 minutes while wearing a mask. Schools will trial using air purifiers and UV lights in a bid to make classrooms even safer in fight against Covid Schools in England have installed air purifiers and UV lights in classrooms as part of a Covid-fighting trial. The equipment has been installed in 30 schools in Bradford to assess whether they curb the spread of the coronavirus and other respiratory diseases. It will also evaluate how feasible it is to implement the technologies in primary schools and is expected to yield its first results by the end of the year. Schools Minister Nick Gibb said in August whether the scheme is rolled out to other schools nationwide depends on the result of the trial. The study is backed with 1.8million of funding from the Department of Health and Social Care, which will consider the final results from the study once available. It is being conducted by the Centre for Applied Education Research and could lead to the technologies being rolled out in schools from 2022. The randomised trial will consist of a third of schools equipped with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, a third with UV purifiers and a third without any equipment to serve as a control group. Advertisement Volunteers were either asked to repeat the alphabet three times while taking part in the study, or sing 'happy birthday' three times. They found the amount of virus Alpha-infected people exhaled was 43 to 100 times higher compared to earlier strains, depending on which type of particles the experts looked at. But it has previously been found people infected with Alpha have higher viral loads, meaning there is more of the virus in swabs taken of their nose and throat. When researchers adjusted for this, they claimed levels of Alpha circulating in the air were still 18 times higher than earlier versions of Covid. But when wearing a mask, infected people exhaled 48 per cent less of the virus, they found. The finding was true for both for people wearing surgical or cloth masks. The researchers are yet to enroll someone who is infected with the Delta strain. But they claimed their findings suggest there will be an 'additional large increase in aerosol shedding' in people who have that strain. Despite air transmission of the virus being widely recognised as a main way the virus spreads, studies on how well it spreads when exhaled and the effect of face masks were previously lacking, the researchers said. Researchers said their study shows that a 'layered approach' that includes improved ventilation, UV air sanitation and tight-fitting masks along with the vaccine rollout is 'critical to protect people in public-facing jobs and indoor spaces', the researchers said. The Government announced last month that it installed air purifiers and UV lights in 30 classrooms as part of a trial to determine whether they curbed the spread of the virus, with results expected later this year. Dr Milton said: 'Our study provides further evidence of the importance of airborne transmission. 'We know that the Delta variant circulating now is even more contagious than the Alpha variant. 'Our research indicates that the variants just keep getting better at travelling through the air, so we must provide better ventilation and wear tight-fitting masks, in addition to vaccination, to help stop spread of the virus.' Dr Jennifer German, an assistant clinical professor in applied environmental health at the university and co-author of the study said: 'The take-home messages from this paper are that the coronavirus can be in your exhaled breath, is getting better at being in your exhaled breath, and using a mask reduces the chance of you breathing it on others.' Michael Sussman, a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday. The charge stemmed from special counsel John Durham's two-and-a-half year probe into the government's investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. Sussman was indicted for allegedly telling the FBI in September 2016 that he was not doing work 'for any client' when he requested a meeting with the FBI's general counsel to warn them of concerns from cybersecurity researchers of potentially suspicious contact between Russia and the Trump team. At the meeting the attorney allegedly gave the FBI data and analytics from cybersecurity researchers who thought the numbers might be evidence of hush-hush communications between Trump Organization's computer servers and Alfa Bank - a Kremlin-linked Russian financial institution. The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections. Former federal prosecutor Sussmann, 57, who this week resided from his position as a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm, represented the Democratic National Committee when Russia hacked its servers back in 2016. Sussman now has a court date of September 22 for a status conference before D.C. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Sussman's attorneys Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth of the law firm Latham & Watkins claimed that the prosecution was "baseless and politically-inspired." 'We are confident that if Mr Sussmann is charged he will prevail at trial and vindicate his good name.' Sussmann's lawyers told the Justice Department that he originally organized the 2016 meeting because he and the cybersecurity researchers believed The New York Times was about to publish an article on the Alfa Bank data. As reported by The Times, Sussmann wanted to give the FBI a heads-up before the paper ran the story which, in fact, they never did. The Times did, however, publish an article mentioning Alfa Bank six weeks later. Michael Sussman, a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI on Friday Sussman, seen in Washington, DC Friday when he pled not guilty to lying to an FBI agent Sussmanns firm, Perkins Coie, has deep Democratic connections. A then-partner at the firm, Marc Elias, brokered a deal with the Fusion GPS research firm to study Trumps business ties to Russia. That work, by former British spy Christopher Steele, produced a dossier of research that helped form the basis of flawed surveillance applications targeting a former Trump campaign official, Carter Page. Durham found that James A Baker, the FBI's top lawyer in 2016, reportedly told investigators he remembered Sussmann telling him he wasn't arranging the meeting on behalf of any client. Then, in a deposition before Congress in 2017 Sussmann testified otherwise, saying that he sought the meeting on behalf of an unidentified client who was a cybersecurity expert and assisted in data analyzation, as reported by The Times. Durham later acquired internal billing records from Perkins Coie that show Sussmann logged certain hours as working on the Alfa Bank matter and billed the time to Clinton's 2016 campaign. Oddly enough, those working hours did not include the time he spent at the meeting with Baker, according to The Times. The case against the attorney, Michael Sussmann of the Perkins Coie law firm, is just the second prosecution brought by special counsel John Durham, above in two-and-a-half years of work No case brought by Durham so far undoes the core finding of an earlier investigation by Robert Mueller that Russia had interfered in sweeping fashion on behalf of Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. The Alfa Bank matter was not a pivotal element of the Russia probe and was not even mentioned in Muellers 448-page report in 2019. Still, the indictment may give fodder to Russia investigation critics who regard it as politically tainted and engineered by Democrats. Until now, Durham had brought only one criminal case - a false statement charge against an FBI lawyer who altered an email related to the surveillance of Page to obscure the nature of Pages preexisting relationship with the CIA. That lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took his millionaire mistress abroad more than 60 times on 'diplomatic missions' and bankrolled her luxury lifestyle, a new report from Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's team has revealed. Actress and restaurateur Svetlana Polyakova, who has held a position in the Russian Foreign Ministry since 2014, has a 'long-standing and very close' relationship with Lavrov. She has travelled with the Lavrov, who is married and has a daughter, to France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, Portugal, and Greece, and used the foreign ministry's plane frequently in the last seven years. Some of trips included luxury holidays and visits to opulent houses, and yachts - among them a ship owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska - with the couple, in some instances, joined by Polyakova's mother, daughters, and niece. Lavrov's mistress has also engineered senior appointments for friends and family within the foreign ministry, appeared publicly alongside President Vladimir Putin and has been named among his elite entourage, according to the report. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (centre) took his millionaire mistress Svetlana Polyakova (right) abroad more than 60 times on 'diplomatic missions' and bankrolled her luxury lifestyle Little is known about Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's wife Maria (left) and daughter Ekaterina (centre) Navalny's team's report, published yesterday and titled 'Yachts, bribes and a mistress. What is Minister Lavrov hiding', is a follow-up to iStories' bombshell investigation released on Tuesday. It found Polyakova was so close to the foreign minister some people listed her contact information as 'Svetlana Lavrova' - with some government officials even believing she was Lavrov's wife. Sources said foreign ministry officials who disagreed with Polyakova were forced over of the department. The investigation also uncovered Polyakova's extraordinary wealth and family properties across Russia and the UK worth $13.6billion. The mistress also owns at least $545,000 in luxury cars, including a Mercedes worth $274,758. Polyakova appeared alongside Lavrov at St Sergius of Radonezh Russian orthodox church in December 2014 and since then much of the couple's opulent lifestyle was documented on the Instagram on Polyakova's 26-year-old daughter, Polina. The account was made private and later deactivated after the report was published on Thursday. Polyakova appeared alongside Lavrov at St Sergius of Radonezh Russian orthodox church in December 2014 and has since shared an opulent lifestyle with the foreign minister It comes as Russians head to the polls over the weekend to elect a new parliament in a vote widely presumed to be fixed. Ruling party United Russia are expected to win the election, despite seeing popularity plummet after a crackdown on opposition such as Alexei Navalny. The jailed Kremlin critic's team had hoped to encourage Russians to vote tactically and deal a blow to United Russia with an app available on Google and Apple app stores. But pressure from the Kremlin saw the apps dropped by both sites ahead of the three-day election starting today, sparking accusations of political meddling. Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally based abroad, said today the removal amounted to political censorship and described it as 'a shameful act' that would 'thrill' Russia's 'authoritarian government and propaganda'. The move was welcomed by the Kremlin. Russia had threatened to fine Apple and Google if they refused to remove the app, claiming it contained material illegal in the country because Navalny's organisation has been designated 'extremist'. 'We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the Russia App Store because it includes content that is illegal in Russia,' the letter from Apple said. Apple and Google have come under fire for political meddling after they both removed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's tactical voting app from their stores under pressure from the Kremlin A woman who was attacked a rapist who has been at large for 16 years after being granted bail by a judge has said he should never have been released. Carly Carter, now 37, was attacked by Mohammed Zamani in Bristol in June 2005. Despite having fled the UK and then being arrested on his return, Zamani was granted bail ahead of his trial, and within weeks he had left the country again. The Iranian national, now 52, was tried and convicted in his absence last week and given a 16-year prison sentence. Miss Carter has waived her right to anonymity to criticise the judge who granted Zamani bail at a hearing in November 2005. 'The police were so good. And they did everything right. And we came so close to getting him off the streets. And it was that one judge, Carol Hagen, who let him go,' she told ITV News. A woman who was attacked a rapist who has been at large for 16 years after being granted bail by a judge has said he should never have been released. Carly Carter, now 37, was attacked by Mohammed Zamani in Bristol in June 2005 'I knew from the moment he was given bail it was inevitable he was going to go (abroad). 'I could have had closure 16 years ago. And that's a long time to carry this. And there's no doubt in my mind he's out there doing it to other women. And we came so close to stopping that. 'I felt numb. I was numb for years. Everyone else around me was getting angry and it wouldn't sink in.' Miss Carter was returning home from a night out in central Bristol when she was attacked by Zamani. His DNA was left at the scene and he was identified as a potential suspect soon afterwards. When officers went to arrest him, he had already left the country and his car was found at Heathrow Airport. DNA samples taken from his car matched the scene of the attack. Zamani was arrested when he returned to the UK. He admitted having sexual contact with Miss Carter and another woman who was the victim of an attempted rape in Bristol in 2003, but he denied both offences. Iranian national Zamani, now 52, was tried and convicted in his absence last week and given a 16-year prison sentence He was charged and appeared at Bristol Crown Court where Judge Hagen granted him conditional bail to wear a security tag and also surrender his passport. Zamani failed to attend his next hearing and has been at large ever since. Miss Carter explained why she had waved her right to anonymity. 'I've waited 16 years to tell my story. I want to get his face out there, I want to get his name out there,' she said. 'And I think if people can see a face to tie to a story, more people might come forward.' Miss Carter, who gave evidence at the trial at Bristol Crown Court, said she hoped her attacker would be brought to justice. 'I have to believe he does. I can't begin to process that he wouldn't. I think he'll slip up and make a mistake and they'll get him. I have to believe that,' she said. Miss Carter has waived her right to anonymity to criticise the judge who granted Zamani bail at a hearing in November 2005. 'The police were so good. And they did everything right. And we came so close to getting him off the streets. And it was that one judge, Carol Hagen (pictured in 1993) , who let him go,' she told ITV News. Judve Hagen retired in 2013 'People like that don't stop until they're caught and put away. I hate him. And that's not something I say lightly. 'I hate him for what he did to me and the other person, and I hate him for what he's likely doing now. It is all-encompassing.' Detective Sergeant Nicholas Lawson, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: 'Mohammed Zamani is a highly dangerous sexual offender and he remains wanted by police. 'He's proven himself to be a calculating predator in the way he walked the streets of Bristol late at night looking for a woman to attack in this abhorrent way. 'The victims who gave evidence against him during this trial have shown immense bravery, but there will be no sense of justice until Zamani is apprehended and imprisoned to serve out the sentence imposed by the court. 'It's possible he may still be in the UK, but our working hypotheses is that he's abroad and we're working with our international law enforcement partners to find him as a matter of urgency.' Judge Hagen retired in 2013. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pledged to 'fight like hell' after the Biden administration moved to ration the use of monoclonal antibodies following a sharp spike in popularity in the drug therapy to treat COVID-19. 'I will fight like hell to overcome Bidens cruel decision to drastically reduce lifesaving monoclonal antibody treatments for Floridians,' DeSantis wrote on Twitter Thursday night. 'We've seen steep reductions in hospital admissions due to early treatment efforts. Its wrong to penalize Florida for his partisan bitterness.' Earlier the same day he went after Biden and his Health and Human Services Department (HHS) at a press conference in Fort Lauderdale. 'Weve been thrown a curveball here with this really huge cut from HHS and the Biden administration,' he told reporters. He said the state's supply has been slashed by half. The White House is tightening its grip on the critical drug just days after Biden pledged to expand access to it when he announced his sweeping new vaccine rules. DeSantis said the Biden administration cut Florida's supply of monoclonal antibodies by half He reiterated his criticisms of Biden on Twitter later that same night HHS announced on Monday that US health officials will be distributing the country's supply of monoclonal antibodies to each state based on perceived need. Previously states and healthcare centers were able to order supply at will, but a recent surge in demand has fueled concerns of an imminent shortage. 'Transitioning to a state/territory-coordinated distribution system gives health departments maximum flexibility to get these critical drugs where they are needed most,' HHS said. Earlier this week the federal government secured deals to buy a total of nearly 2 million more doses of COVID antibody therapies from Eli Lilly & Co. and Regeneron. But in the immediate future, the new rules almost certainly mean that some of the states currently using the lion's share of the treatment - Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee - will face cuts. Those five states have been using about 70 percent of the country's monoclonal antibody supply in recent weeks, the Washington Post reports. Biden announced the government would be expanding access to the COVID therapy when he rolled out his sweeping new vaccination rules Many of the states using the majority of the US monoclonal antibody supply have also seen their healthcare systems strained by the virus this summer Other states that have been battered by the Delta variant like Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky have also relied heavily on the treatment and may see their supply reduced. All the above states except for Florida fall below the national average for COVID vaccinations. On Friday DeSantis said Florida's supply had been cut by 50 percent - a 'dramatic reduction.' 'They say they're cutting it because of equity - well look, the South has had higher prevalence this summer, that will shift, and then as more states and other regions need it we understand that, but part of the reason weve used a lot is because I have made it a priority in the state of Florida,' DeSantis said. The rate of COVID infections has been falling nationwide recently after a summer surge fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant. The number of new COVID infections nationwide has begun to drop off recently after a summer surge One in every 500 Americans has died of COVID since the pandemic began Health experts have partially credited a resurgence in vaccinations, but hospitals in mainly Southern states are still strained by mounting cases and the newer Mu variant could also pose further threats. During the entire pandemic the US has seen 41.7 million reported COVID cases and more than 670,000 deaths. One in every 500 US residents have now died of COVID. Governors aside from DeSantis have also expressed anger at the Biden administration for rationing the national supply of monoclonal antibodies. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Thursday that his state may not have enough to meet rising demand. 'Were going to be at a point, within a week, where there are going to be folks that want and probably need this treatment and were not going to have enough of it,' he said. Alabama has also braced itself for a shortage of 30 percent, WBRC reports. A Metropolitan Police firearms officer who pressured his girlfriend to lie to investigators after he was caught speeding has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice. Richard Hammond, 36, was caught speeding over Tower Bridge as he drove home from a shift as a specialist firearms officer in his then-partner Vicky Courtis's car at 6am on August 26, 2018. Inner London Crown Court heard on Friday that he persuaded her to tell investigators she could not be sure who was driving her Fiat 500 as it passed through a 20mph zone at 30mph. Richard Hammond (pictured), 36, was caught speeding over Tower Bridge as he drove home from a shift as a specialist firearms officer in his then-partner Vicky Courtis's car at 6am on August 26, 2018 A jury was told that shortly after receiving a notice telling him he would be prosecuted he instructed Ms Courtis to contact City of London Police and 'say you don't know who was driving' in an attempt to thwart the investigation so he could save his career. He previously denied doing an act intending to pervert the course of justice, but was found guilty earlier this month. At a sentencing hearing, Hammond stood in the dock wearing a grey long-sleeved top and a black face mask and spoke only to confirm his name. Addressing Judge Maya Sikand, prosecutor Obi Mgbokwere, said: 'The defendant initiated a false story. 'It was about one minute and 20 seconds after he received the notice of intended prosecution that he then sent that message. 'The defendant instructed Vicky Courtis to write to the process team and each time she wrote to the process team she sought his approval. Inner London Crown Court heard on Friday that he persuaded her to tell investigators she could not be sure who was driving her Fiat 500 as it passed through a 20mph zone at 30mph 'The prosecution submits that the defendant's instruction was intended to cause her to act to her own detriment. 'He created an elaborate, false story which he maintained for three years from August 29 2018 until the trial in September of this year. 'He was motivated by a selfish end.' Hammond joined the Metropolitan Police in 2011 and became a specialist firearms officer in 2017. Benjamin Summers, mitigating, told the court the offence was 'a once-in-a-lifetime event' and there was 'a realistic prospect of rehabilitation'. He presented a medical report stating that Hammond suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and was at risk of suicide, adding: 'A custodial sentence will make his condition much worse.' He said the still-serving officer has since married and has a young daughter, and that 'by imposing an immediate custodial sentence there will be a harmful impact which is significant - the loss of income and a parent'. Judge Sikand ordered a pre-sentence report to consider the option of a suspended sentence, and adjourned the case until October 15. Hammond was released on unconditional bail. A neighbour has been caught on camera attempting to sabotage the Ring doorbell on the property next door, claiming it overlooked his home. Stephen Grove, 56, had attempted to damage the video doorbell at the bungalow in Birmingham on three separate occasions in 2021 - leading to an appearance in court after cutting wires with a pair of pliers. He pleaded guilty to criminal damage in August after CCTV captured him in the act and was handed a 12-month conditional discharge. The incident involving the pliers occurred in March, while he was also filmed using a marker pen on the doorbell's lens just days after his appearance in court. Stephen Grove, 56, had attempted to damage the video doorbell at the bungalow in Birmingham on three separate occasions in 2021 (pictured attempting to damage the doorbell with a screwdriver) And in July, he was also seen attempting to tear the doorbell off of the wall by hand, before returning a couple of weeks later with a screwdriver. Stephen was also spotted in December taking a hammer to a different camera on the property and covering the doorbell's lens with a marker pen. Speaking to the Sun Online, Stephen said that he felt he needed to act because the doorbell overlooked his own home. He told the website: 'It's pathetic, I know. But I feel like a prisoner. I open the gate and the camera is looking straight at me. It's just not right.' He pleaded guilty to criminal damage in August after CCTV captured him snipping wires with a pair of pliers and was handed a 12-month conditional discharge. Pictured: Stephen using a hammer to change the position of a camera on his neighbour's property However, Victoria Riscinskis, 39, who had purchased the smart doorbell, said she had done so in order to look after her vulnerable 61-year-old uncle who lives alone at the property. She said that her uncle had fallen last year and had been on his own for 45 minutes - making the doorbell crucial for his safety. Her uncle also needs carers to visit four times a day and requires the use of a wheelchair to move around. Speaking about the situation, she told the Sun Online she had contacted the police, her local council and her MP around 50 times out of fear for the safety of her uncle. She said: 'The council needs to take action with their tenant because we can't keep living with the constant fear of his unpredictable behaviour. In July, he was also seen attempting to tear the doorbell off of the wall by hand, before returning a couple of weeks later with a screwdriver 'No one is taking responsibility and enough is enough. How much do we have to put up with until something is done?' Responding to Victoria's comments, a Birmingham City Council spokesperson said that their safety team were dealing with the concerns and are working to address them. While a West Midlands Police spokesman said that they have taken action and investigated each of the reported incidents - which led to Stephen's prosecution. They added that they are aware the problems remain ongoing though and remain in contact with Victoria and her family. A mansion tied to Google co-founder Larry Page has burned in a mysterious blaze A mysterious Palo Alto mansion that appears to be owned by Google founder Larry Page has been destroyed in a massive fire. The six-bedroom home on Bryant Street was severely damaged in the blaze on Tuesday night, after a neighbor who was not at home spotted the fire on a security camera and called 911. The mansion is either owned by Google or Page himself, and is 'used as an office by a small team of workers' with many cars frequently outside during the day but no activity at night, a neighbor told Palo Alto Online. The property is owned by 2175 Bryant Street LLC, which shares the same registration address as Page's charitable foundation, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation. Though it's unclear what Page, 48, may have used the building for, his family investment office has never been publicly identified, and little is known about how he manages his $123 billion fortune. A mysterious Palo Alto mansion that appears to be owned by Google founder Larry Page has been destroyed in a massive fire The six-bedroom home on Bryant Street was severely damaged in the blaze on Tuesday night, after a neighbor who was not at home spotted the fire on a security camera The mansion was heavily damaged in the fire, which was concentrated in the rear of the home Google and the Palo Alto Fire Department did not immediately respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com on Friday. The fire department said in a press release that a 911 call first came in at 8.10pm on Tuesday, when 'a resident, who was not home at the time, saw fire on a security camera.' Nobody was inside the mansion at the time of the blaze, which was concentrated toward the rear of the building, the fire department said. The fire consumed both stories of the structure and had spread to three sides of the building when crews arrived. The fire department called for a three-alarm response due to the challenges of fighting the blaze, and police evacuated neighbors on both sides of the building. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while battling the fire. The cause of the blaze is currently under investigation. The mansion, seen from the street before the fire, is either owned by Google or Page himself, and is 'used as an office by a small team of workers' according to a neighbor The fire drew a three-alarm response and two firefighters were injured fighting the blaze Nobody was at home when the fire broke out, but neighbors were evacuated on both sides Page owns several homes in the neighborhood and is jealous in guarding his privacy, a neighbor told the Daily Beast. 'He owns different properties in different places,' the neighbor said. 'He has family members living in some of them and tenants living in others.' 'The homes are well kept, they're good neighbors, and we don't want to trouble him.' The Bryant Street home is currently valued at $10.9 million, and was purchased in 2012, the same year that 2175 Bryant Street LLC was formed as an apparent special vehicle for shielding the home's true owner. At around the same time, Page was snapping up properties around Palo Alto, and drew concerns from neighbors over a huge digging project that neighbors speculated was a bunker. Page, an elusive figure who has not spoken in public since December 2016, was discovered in July to be living 'off the grid' on an isolated Fijian island, where he has apparently spent most of the pandemic. In August, officials in New Zealand confirmed that the billionaire had been granted residency in that country. The mansion, seen center, is valued at $10.9 million and is owned by an LLC that is registered at the same address as Page's charitable foundation Immigration New Zealand said Page first applied for residency last November under a special visa open to people with at least 10 million New Zealand dollars ($7 million) to invest. 'As he was offshore at the time, his application was not able to be processed because of COVID-19 restrictions,' the agency said in a statement. 'Once Mr. Page entered New Zealand, his application was able to be processed and it was approved on 4 February 2021.' New Zealand lawmakers confirmed that Page and his son first arrived in New Zealand in January after the family filed an urgent application for the son to be evacuated from Fiji due to a medical emergency. Gaining New Zealand residency would not necessarily affect Page's residency status in the U.S. or any other nations. Some local news organizations reported that Page had since left New Zealand. This is the heart-stopping moment a model scrambles to save her son from their car after she was hijacked at knifepoint by armed robbers who lured her into a trap on Snapchat. Courtney Slater, 21, was lured into a trap after her boyfriend Brandon Higgins advertised a pair of designer Louis Vuitton sunglasses via Snapchat. The couple were due to meet a prospective buyer in Gorton, Manchester, only for three masked hoodlums to ambush her in the street as Miss Slater waited in their Renault Clio. A neighbour caught the hijacking on camera as Mr Higgins was chased away before Miss Slater was dragged screaming from the car shouting: 'Please, my baby.' Footage shows Courtney Slater, 21, being dragged from her car after her boyfriend Brandon Higgins was chased away by two men with knives Courtney Slater, 21, has spoken out after she was dragged out of a car with a knife to her throat as her vehicle was stolen in broad daylight Miss Slater relived her ordeal today as Brandon Smith (centre), 21, of Wildclough, Hyde, Kaydn Jones (right), 18, of Salford and Tyrese Chisholm (left), 18, of Manchester were locked up after pleading guilty to robbery She dashed to the back of the vehicle to save her son Lekai who was strapped in his car seat before the hoodlums drove off leaving Miss Slater cradling the infant at the roadside. Miss Slater relived her ordeal today as Brandon Smith, 21, of Wildclough, Hyde, Kaydn Jones, 18, of Salford and Tyrese Chisholm, 18, of Manchester were locked up after pleading guilty to robbery. 'These guys just came out of nowhere, one tried to stab my boyfriend and another had a knife to my throat. I started screaming and crying and thought, ''Oh my God, Lekai is in the back. What if he gets in the car and takes Lekai? I'm going to have to get stabbed''. 'I just thought a s long as my kid was safe, that's all I was bothered about. The he told me: ''Get the kid from the back,'' and pushed me. I tried to run but my legs were jelly but I made way round to the rear passenger door and grabbed my baby as these guys got into the car. Harrowing footage captures the moment Slater was dragged from her vehicle by a knife-wielding assailant Slater said her first thought when the brazen thieves put a knife to her throat was for her toddler, who was in the back of the car 'I had barely had time to pull Lekai out of the vehicle before they sped away. At one stage Lekai was caught in the seatbelt but these people didn't care - they just started driving. 'It was terrifying - all I could think about was keeping Lekai safe. I really thought I was going to get stabbed as there was no way I was willingly leaving the car with my baby in there.' The incident took place on June 17 after Mr Higgins advertised the sunglasses and a Louis Vuitton manbag for sale and later that day he was contacted and a price of 400 was agreed. He offered to meet the prospective buyers at home at 3pm and passed their postcode. Harrowing footage shows the moment Slater leaves the vehicle and rushes to rescue her baby while the thief gets into the driver's seat Slater and her two-year-old son were left stranded at the scene in Gorton, Manchester, on Thursday evening But just before 7pm the victim was messaged by the buyer saying 'they' were at the top of his road waiting to meet up. The couple then went to the agreed location before Chisholm lunged at Mr Higgins with a knife and chased him away before turned on Miss Slater. Chisholm demanded the woman get out of the car before holding a knife to her throat and grabbing her coat to pull her from the driver's seat. Miss Slater was given just seconds to free her son from the back of the car before all three men fled the scene in the vehicle. Multiple items including two iPhone 12s, designer Dior trainers and the Louis Vuitton bag and sunglasses were stolen along with the vehicle. The car was later found dumped. Terrifying footage showed two more men getting into the car while Slater rushed to get her two-year-old son from the back seat Police used CCTV to track down the gang. Smith was jailed for three years and three months whilst Jones who also admitted possession of a knife got three years and six months. Chisholm was locked up for jailed for four years.. He also admitted driving while disqualified and threatening a person with a blade in a public place. After the case Det Sgt Helen Fletcher of Greater Manchester Police said: 'This was a terrifying ordeal for the victim and his partner as well as her young child who had to witness his mother being dragged at knifepoint from a car. 'Thankfully no one sustained any injuries during the robbery but the end result could have been far worse. I'm glad we've been able to secure a conviction for all three males and I'm sure they'll have plenty of time to consider their actions behind bars. 'I hope this sends a stark warning to anyone who thinks they can commit any type of violent robbery and get away with it without any consequences.' Four killers who stabbed an NHS worker to death while hunting down rival gang members have been jailed for a total of 101 years. David Gomoh, 24, was chased and knifed at least nine times 'simply for the sake of it' as he spoke to his girlfriend on the phone near his home in Canning Town, east London, on April 26 last year. Mr Gomoh was chosen at random by members of the Northside Newham gang who stabbed the NHS worker with Rambo knives and machetes to send a message to their Custom House and Beckton rivals. David Ture, 19, Vagnei Colubali, 23, and Muhammad Jalloh, 19, were found guilty of Mr Gomoh's murder in August. A fourth boy who was also convicted of murder but could not be named as he was under 18, can now be identified as Alex Melaku. Today, each of them was jailed for life, with Jalloh and Colubali sentenced to a minimum of 27 years, Ture to a minimum of 26 and Melaku to a minimum of 21. David Gomoh, 24, was stabbed to death as he spoke to his girlfriend on the phone near his home in Canning Town, east London, on April 26 last year Muhammad Jalloh (left), 19, of Pinner, north London, and Vagnei Colubali (right), 23, of Cambridge, both received a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years David Ture (left), 19, received a life sentence of 26 years and Alex Melaku (right), 18, of Telford, Shropshire, received a life sentence of 21 years On April 26 last year the gang members drove to the scene in a stolen silver Dodge Caliber to ambush Mr Gomoh near the NHS Nightingale hospital at the ExCel centre in Newham. Terrifying footage showed them try to target another innocent man minutes earlier, but he managed to run away. Mr Gomoh, who worked at St Bart's Hospital, managed to get to his feet and stumble the short distance home where he bled to death in front of his family. He died days before he was due to attend the funeral for his father, Ken Gomoh, who died after contracting coronavirus. After the killing Ture made 'storyboard' cartoons of the murder and all four defendants sniggered throughout their Old Bailey trial. Collubali bragged about the stabbings carried out by his gang in graffiti he scrawled on his cell wall during the trial, a court heard. Peter Ratcliff, prosecuting, told the court: 'In the prosecution's submission there are the following aggravating features of the murder. 'There was a significant degree of planning involved; particularly dangerous weapons - Rambo knives and machetes - were used; this was an attack on an unsuspecting, entirely innocent, victim; the context of the murder was gang rivalry; and the murder was marked by its brutality.' Mr Gomoh, a marketing graduate from South Bank University in London, lived with his mother and sister, who also worked for the NHS. In a victim impact statement, Mr Gomoh's mother, Marian, said she was 'haunted' by recurring nightmares about what happened, adding: 'I felt numb, paralysed by grief and pain. Why David?' She said: 'My husband passed away on April 7 and we were in the process of planning his funeral. David had planned to pay for his funeral. 'In two months I lost the two men in my life. Drawings from David Ture's bedroom showing a number of young men carrying out a stabbing Mr Gomoh's killers stole a silver Dodge Caliber found abandoned minutes after the stabbing 'I lie awake at night thinking about the fear he felt when he knew he was going to be killed. Marian Gomoh's victim impact statement 'My husband passed away on April 7 and we were in the process of planning his funeral. David had planned to pay for his funeral. 'In two months I lost the two men in my life. 'I lie awake at night thinking about the fear he felt when he knew he was going to be killed. 'The grace of God allows me to sleep for a short time before the relentless images haunt me again. 'I have sleepless nights knowing now, from the trial, the extent to which my son suffered. '[The defendants'] contempt for human life is just beyond comprehension.' Advertisement 'The grace of God allows me to sleep for a short time before the relentless images haunt me again. 'I have sleepless nights knowing now, from the trial, the extent to which my son suffered. '[The defendants'] contempt for human life is just beyond comprehension.' She added that her son had 'so much to live for; so much unfulfilled promise and so much needed by the NHS trust he worked for to help distribute PPE and other stocks, so much humanity and compassion to share'. She said her son's murderers had 'walked uninvited into our lives and destroyed David's life'. His sister Lizzie Gomoh said in a statement: 'I am furious that those four thought they had the right to kill my brother, to sit there and stand there laughing during the trial. 'That one of them had the gall to turn it into a comic is beyond words.' After the attack, the killers attempted to make a getaway in the Dodge Caliber but one of the wheels came off and they had to walk back to the north side of Newham. Mr Gomoh suffered catastrophic injuries, including severed carotid and brachial arteries. Passing sentence, Judge Mark Lucraft QC, the Recorder of London, said the killers had carried out a 'brutal murder' which had involved a 'significant degree' of planning. He said: 'Marian Gomoh describes the death of her son in a moving impact statement. 'As she remarks, David's brutal and senseless murder came very soon after his 24th birthday and just 20 days after the death of his father. 'The four of you were part of the Northside Newham gang who have argued with gangs on the south side of the borough. 'I have no doubt there are many who live in all parts of the borough who are impacted by the acts of those like the four of you who seem to kill simply for the sake of it and show little or no reward for human life.' Judge Lucraft described the extent of planning that went into the attack, including turning off phones and multiple outfit changes. He continued: 'It is clear that you did not have a specific target, but rather intended to attack any young man considered by you to be connected to a rival territory by virtue of their presence in that area. 'David was a lone, innocent and entirely unsuspecting victim. 'The three of you laid into him with the long knives you were each carrying. 'David Gomoh was stabbed no fewer than ten times. The stab wounds were to his head and body. Some of the wounds were as much as 19.5cm in depth. 'Even with the injuries the three of you caused, David managed to stagger back the short distance to his home where he collapsed on the doorstep. 'Despite emergency surgery, he died soon after he reached hospital. 'The four of you then made your escape from the scene in the stolen vehicle before you were forced to abandon it in north Newham when one of the wheels came off. 'You sought to wipe down the areas of the car you had touched and remove anything connecting you to it.' Detective Chief Inspector Laurence Smith, who led the investigation, said: 'These four defendants carried out a senseless attack on a completely innocent man and there is absolutely no doubt that London is a safer place with them behind bars. 'Despite the significant evidence linking them to this crime, all four refused to admit to their actions meaning David's family and friends had to sit through a trial and re-live the worst night of their lives. 'Our thoughts, as always, remain with them and we hope they can now begin to grieve for the loss of their son and brother.' Jalloh, Colubali, Ture, and Melaku, all denied but were convicted of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm after a six-and-a-half-week trial. Jalloh, of Pinner, north London, and Colubali, of Cambridge, both received a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years. Ture, of no fixed address, received a life sentence of 26 years, and Melaku, of Bishops Dale, Telford, Shropshire, received a life sentence of 21 years. Jalloh, Ture and Colubali received six year concurrent sentences for conspiracy to cause bodily harm, while Melaku received five years. After ordering the defendants be taken down to the cells, Judge Lucraft said: 'David Gomoh had no gang connections. 'He was an innocent man who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.' Colorado Governor Jared Polis married his longtime partner Marlon Reis in a small traditional Jewish ceremony which served as the first same-sex marriage for a sitting governor. Gov. Polis became the first openly gay man elected governor and the state's first Jewish governor when he was sworn into office in January 2019. 'Over the course of Jared's career in Congress, you know, we didn't set out to be the first of anything. Things sort of happened that way,' First Gentleman Reis told CPR News. Polis, 46, and Reis, 40, have been together for 18 years and have two children, ages 7 and 9. Colorado Governor Jared Polis (left) married his longtime partner Marlon Reis (right) on Wednesday, September 15 The small Jewish ceremony was the first time a sitting governor has had a same-sex wedding (Pictured: Polis (left) and Reis (right) on their wedding day) Polis (right) became the first openly gay man elected governor and the state's first Jewish governor when he was sworn in as Colorado's governor on January 2019 The Governor (right) and First Gentleman (left) were married on the 18th anniversary of their first date The couple was engaged in December and married in Boulder on Wednesday celebrated by a small circle of friends and family. All guests were required to get a negative COVID test before the ceremony. Polis proposed to Reis while both of them were suffering from COVID, with Reis' symptoms worsening. 'I've been thinking about it for a while,' the governor told CPR. 'I'd ordered the rings, with an inscription from Isaiah, and had them hidden and ready to go. And he was going off to the hospital with COVID. I mean, I knew he'd probably get better, but obviously, you never know. I thought now's a good time to give (their children) something to remember here as we leave the house to take him to the hospital.' They were married on the 18th anniversary of their first date when they went to the Boulder Bookstore before going to dinner. The nuptials were held at Colorado University- Boulder, the school Reis was attending when the couple began dating. In a joint statement following the celebration, Polis and Reis said, 'The greatest lesson we have learned over the past 18 months is that life as we know it can change in an instant. 'We are thankful for the health and wellbeing of our family and friends, and the opportunity to celebrate our life together as a married couple. 'After eighteen years, we couldn't be happier to be married at last.' The outdoor ceremony was officiated by Rabbi Tirzah Firestone. Every detail was meticulously planned including vegan locally sourced meals, flowers grown in-state, wine from Colorado wineries, and tables named after Colorado animals - the First Gentleman is an animal rights activist. The couple's daughter walked down the aisle as the flower girl and their son as the ring bearer. Polis (right) and Reis (left) are the parents of 7-year-old girl (pictured) and a 9-year-old boy (pictured) who walked in the wedding ceremony Commenting on the historic occasion Reis said, 'Over the course of Jared's career in Congress, you know, we didn't set out to be the first of anything. Things sort of happened that way' Same-sex marriage was prohibited in Colorado until October 2014 and the United States until June 2015 Polis proposed to Reis in December before he took him to the hospital. Both of the men were diagnosed with COVID Polis posted several photos from the special day. The governor announced the news with a famous quote from The Princess Bride, 'Mawage. Mawage is what brings us together today.' He wrote: 'We are both excited for this new chapter in our lives together, and our hearts are full with the blessings of health, love, and family.' Reis also shared the news on social media making sure to thank everyone involved in their historic ceremony. He ended the post thanking, 'our dear Family and Friends, who have been by our side through thick and thin, and who we love more dearly than can ever be expressed in words.' 'We just thought we would have a small gathering: family, a few close friends, just keep it very intimate, but still have something that was meaningful to us and our nuclear families,' Polis told CPR News. Same-sex marriage was prohibited in Colorado until October 2014. The US legalized same-sex marriage the next year following the US Supreme Court's landmark decision. 'It was just kind of a moment of pure euphoria where the system worked,' Reis remembered. Ahead of the nuptials, Reis stated that marriage wasn't always something that he and Polis thought of as a option. 'As I was growing up, marriage was not even in the realm of possibility,' Reis told CPR News. 'There was a lot of misinformation out there about what could potentially happen if you came out what opportunities would you lose? How it would negatively impact you. So for a long time, the idea of getting married, we didn't talk about it.' 'But it was great to celebrate our love for one another with our family.' An otherwise healthy eight-year-old Minnesota girl who contracted COVID has been left paralyzed and fighting for her life after the virus triggered a rare auto-immune disease - and her doctor says there is a rash of similar cases around the world. While Avella Braun was a perfectly normal young girl living in the south Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington just six months ago, her whole life changed after she tested positive for the virus in early March. She initially only suffered from low fevers, until her mom, Lani Bauer, discovered her unconscious just days after her positive COVID test, taking the girl to a nearby hospital where she was rushed to the intensive care unit and intubated. Avella was diagnosed with a rare case of acute disseminated Encephalitis (ADEM), or inflammation of the brain, when the bodys immune system attacks itself, causing the spinal cord and brain to swell. ADEM is caused by viral infections, with the only virus Avella testing positive for being coronavirus, according to local news network KMSP. 'We have every reason to believe that COVID was the triggering virus here,' Dr. Michael Pitt, Avella's pediatrician, told the network. 8-year-old Avella Braun, pictured, tested positive for the virus in March 2021, and suffered only low fevers for the most part until her mom Lani discovered her unconscious one day Avella was a healthy young lady just six months ago before contracting COVID-19, which triggered a rare version of acute disseminated Encephalitis (ADEM) ADEM is caused by viral infections, with the only virus Avella testing positive for being Coronavirus 'We're seeing cases all over the world of ADEM where the only virus they find is COVID.' Avella, who her family said had no preexisting conditions, has now undergone a blood transfusion and the removal of part of her skull to relieve brain pressure and swelling, according to her GoFundMe. Medical professionals began making the connection between coronavirus and ADEM in June. The majority of children recover within four-to-six months, however Avella is reported to have a particularly rare case called AHEM (acute hemorrhagic encephalomyelitis. 'We're seeing an extreme that is very, very rare, but it's certainly something we would want to prevent,' Dr. Pitt told NBC News. Avella was intubated and had a piece of her skull removed along with a blood transfusion to treat her ADEM Avella, left, pictured with her mother Lani Bauer, right Avella was diagnosed with a rare case of ADEM, or inflammation of the brain, when the bodys immune system attacks itself, causing the spinal cord and brain to swell Her mother is hoping Avella's story will inspire other parents to get their children vaccinated and for kids to wear their masks. Meanwhile, over $25,000 has been raised on the family's GoFundMe as of Friday. 'If getting the shot and wearing your mask is one step closer to preventing this (happening) to another child, that's what I want to stress,' she told NBC News. 'I want to stress to make sure you wear your mask.' The average age of children who contract ADEM from viral infections are between three and seven years old, with 35 percent of infected children being asymptomatic, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Typical symptoms of ADEM are fever, malaise, vomiting, and/or headaches. Avella's mother, Lani, says the family has incurred medical bills totaling over $1.2 million and counting. The average age of children who contract ADEM from viral infections are between three and seven-years old, with 35 percent of infected children being asymptomatic Fugitive Colombo crime family consigliere turned himself in to the FBI in New York City Friday morning after his son posted - and later deleted - a picture of him sitting poolside in Florida, law enforcement sources told DailyMail.com. Ralph DiMatteo, 66, walked into the Brooklyn federal courthouse with his lawyer to surrender and was arraigned via teleconference on racketeering charges Thursday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and will be held in jail until his next court appearance, which is scheduled for October 21. The alleged mobster was the only one to avoid arrest in Tuesday's sweeping federal raid targeting the leadership of the Colombo crime family. The alleged consigliere, or advisor to the crime boss, made national headlines after his son Angelo posted a picture of his dad - shirtless and waist-deep in a Florida pool - to his Twitter account on Wednesday and removed it by Thursday morning. DiMatteo's wife is pictured behind him, with her head at the edge of the pool as she relaxes and enjoys its waters. Ralph DiMatteo, 66,(pictured) taunts the FBI with a pool picture after federal law enforcement arrested other members of his Colombo crime family He also tweeted a picture of a rat, suggesting the family is unhappy about snitches getting them in trouble, on Tuesday. That too has been removed. The indictment accuses the crime family of running a scheme involving labor union shakedowns, extortion, loansharking, drug trafficking and money laundering. DiMatteo is accused of colluding with fellow defendants to devise a scheme to launder money from union healthcare contracts and payments. DiMatteo is said to have done this through various channels linked to Joseph Bellantoni, who was named as a co-conspirator in the indictment, and eventually to the Colombo crime family's leaders, according to the federal indictment. He was also accused of threatening bodily harm to control the management of the labor union that they were targeting and influencing decisions that benefitted the family. Reputed Colombo street boss Andrew 'Andy Mush' Russo, 87, and his underboss, Benjamin 'The Claw' Castellazzo, 83, were also scooped up by federal agents and New York police, along with seven other members of the Colombo crime family. Among those charged was 75-year-old capo (captain) Vincent 'Vinny Unions' Ricciardo, who was recorded during a phone call in June threatening to kill a labor union official if he didn't play ball, according to the 19-count indictment. The other captains, or capos, arrested include Richard Ferrara, 59, and Theodore 'Skinny Teddy' Persico Jr., 58, who is the nephew of the late Colombo boss Carmine 'The Snake' Persico. Colombo soldier Michael Uvino, 56, and associates Thomas Costa, 52, and Domenick Ricciardo, 56 - Vincent's cousin - were also booked. Reputed street boss of the Colombo crime family Andrew 'Mush' Russo, 85, (left) and Capo Vincent 'Vinny Unions' Ricciardo (right) arrested in an early-morning raid Tuesday in NYC Colombo underboss Benjamin 'The Claw' Castellazzo (left), 83, and high-ranking capo Theodore 'Skinny Teddy' Persico Jr. (right), were among the 13 arrested mobsters, feds said 'Everything we allege in this investigation proves history does indeed repeat itself,' FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll said concerning the indictment. 'The underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well.' 'These soldiers, consiglieres, underbosses, and bosses are obviously not students of history, and don't seem to comprehend that we're going to catch them. Regardless of how many times they fill the void we create in their ranks, our FBI Organized Crime Task Force, and our law enforcement partners, are positioned to take them out again, and again.' According to the indictment, the defendants and their co-conspirators committed and are charged with a wide array of crimes including extortion, loansharking, fraud and drug trafficking on behalf of the Colombo organized crime family. In 2019, the family sought to divert more than $10,000 per month from the union's healthcare system directly to the administration of the Colombo crime family. The Colombo family is one of five major mafia organizations in the northeastern United States. The others are the Genovese, Lucchese, Gambino and Bonanno families. The latest indictments leave it unclear who remains to take control of the Colombo syndicate on the street. The entire administration of the Colombo crime family, including Russo and Castellazzo, already pleaded guilty to a variety of mobster activities in 2012. The New York mafia has been weakened by several blows in recent years, including arrests, fratricidal struggles and competition from other criminal organizations, but they are still considered active. The reputed boss of the Gambino clan, 'Frank' Cali, was shot and killed outside his home in the New York borough of Staten Island in March 2019. One of just 11 surviving original copies of the United States Constitution is set to go up for auction later this year and is expected to get bids for up to $20 million. Sotheby's announced they are putting a rare, original copy of the historic document, with an estimated value of between $15 million and $20 million, under the hammer at their Manhattan auction house in November. Signed in 1787 in Philadelphia, It is one of only 11 known surviving copies from the official first printing produced for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress, USA Today reported. One of only 11 known surviving copies of the American constitution will be sold in New York in November (pictured) The rare document is from New York- based philanthropist Dorothy Tapper Goldman's collection It's the only copy that remains in private hands and will be sold at the New York auction house in November. 'It's incredibly rare,' Selby Kiffer, a manuscripts and ancient books expert at Sotheby's, told AFP. Kiffer added that it was probably printed on the eve of the signing. 'This was probably printed in an edition of 500 copies. Now only eleven are known to survive and this is the only one in private hands,' he said. The rare document will joint will join nearly 80 constitutional and related documents up for auction by Sotheby's and is currently in public view at the auction house's Manhattan galleries until September 19. It will then travel to Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas before returning to New York this fall for its sale. The document is one of only 11 known surviving copies from the official first printing for the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and for the Continental Congress Sotheby's is auctioning an original copy of the American constitution, with an estimated value of between $15 million and $20 million, in November The rare document is from New York- based philanthropist Dorothy Tapper Goldman's collection. She inherited the copy following the after the death of her husband, Harry Goldman in 1997. He originally purchased it in 1988 at Sotheby's for $165,000, when it was sold by a collector from Philadelphia, Artnews.com reported. Kiffer actually spearheaded its auction in 1988 and said he looks forward to doing it again three decades later. 'While it's a lot of years later and I've handled a lot of great things and I'm more experienced, I have to say it's just as exciting, if not a little bit more exciting, the second time around,' he told USA Today. As for where he believes the document will end up, Kiffer says he thinks it will stay in the United States. 'It's the longest-serving charter of government in the world. I think it's already been a model for other constitutions around the world,' he told AFP. 'But I think when it comes down to it, no one values American history more highly than Americans and I would be surprised that the new owner was not an American.' The original Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights are all house at the National Archives Museum in Washington DC. The last original copy sold at auction was sold in June 2000 for $8.14 million. A recreational vehicle parked on the streets of Seattle with a makeshift plywood shanty built on top is infuriating neighbors, as the city struggles with an epidemic of homelessness. Residents of the Ballard neighborhood first noticed construction of the rustic second story last week, and fear that it could topple on a passing car or a pedestrian, according to KOMO-TV. 'It's called a shack,' a female living inside the classic Winnebago F-17 explained to the outlet, declining to answer further questions. Residents of the affluent neighborhood, which is filled with upscale bars and boutique shops, say their streets are now lined with RVs and tent encampments, and blame city leaders for failing to address the issue. A recreational vehicle parked on the streets of Seattle with a makeshift plywood shanty built on top is infuriating neighbors who fear the structure could collapse on a pedestrian or car 'We feel like they have more rights than us. I mean to go up on our house (to add a story) we would have to have several permits,' neighbor Lane Imbler-Bremner. Imbler-Bremner said that he had reported the makeshift double-decker to City Hall, but has so far received no response. Complicating matters, city officials seem perplexed about who has oversight authority, and what ordinances the haphazard construction might be violating. 'To my knowledge, I have never seen anything like this,' a spokesman for the city's Department of Transportation admitted. There are an estimated 2,700 people living in cars and RVs in Seattle, and last month the Washington state Supreme Court effectively banned towing vehicles that are used as residences. The Seattle Times editorial board recently called the city's approach to dealing with people sleeping in vehicles 'a singular failure.' Pedestrians walk past tents used by people lacking housing at Denny Park near the Space Needle in Seattle in March Local residents (not homeless) are pictured at the Miller Playfield park despite the homeless tent encampment at the park in a residential area of Seattle in March Some business owners have resorted to blocking off street parking with large boulders, drawing threats of fines and citations from city officials. In Ballard, residents say that RVs now line both sides of the streets, now parked with impunity in the knowledge that they cannot be towed. The makeshift double-decker is behind Reuben's Brew and Fremont Brewing Company, a high-traffic area surrounded by several residential streets. 'I want the city to go to them and say they have to take it down,' business owner Elise Vincentini told KOMO. She said she feared that the lax enforcement could embolden other RV owners in the area to build similar structures. 'I mean honestly, is it going to take that thing falling over then we do something?' she asked. Seattle has more than 11,700 homeless people, the third largest homeless population in the nation and second only to New York City and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the city is struggling with an increase in violent crime and dire shortage of police officers following mass resignations from the force. Washington State saw a rise in homelessness of six per cent in 2020. Pictured, Homeless encampments in Downtown Seattle area Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is seen above. The city is struggling with an increase in violent crime and dire shortage of police officers following mass resignations from the force Last year, homicides in Seattle jumped 68 percent, with 52 murders in 2020 compared to 31 in 2019. So far this year, there have been 31 murders in the city, putting Seattle on pace to again exceed 2019 levels. The Seattle Police Department is still reeling from a 17 percent budget cut following a push to defund the police last year, and nearly 300 cops have quit since the start of 2020. Democrat Mayor Jenny Durkan addressed the crisis at a July 28 press conference saying: 'As a city, we cannot continue on this current trajectory of losing police officers. 'Over the past 17 months, the Seattle Police Department has lost 250 police officers which is the equivalent of over 300,000 service hours. We're on path to losing 300 police officers.' Last week, Durkan announced that all Seattle police officers would be required to get vaccines for COVID-19, a mandate that led to fears of more resignations. Roughly 20 percent of the department's 1,080 deployable officers have not yet been vaccinated, according to department data. The husband of missing mom Suzanne Morphew will be released on bond - despite being sent to trial on charges of first degree murder and tampering with a dead body, a Colorado judge has ruled. Barry Morphew, 53, was in court in Salida, Colorado, to hear closing arguments from the prosecution who said Suzanne's 'road to being murdered' began when she told him she wanted a divorce days before she vanished and described it as 'a domestic violence homicide'. A judge ruled Friday there is enough evidence for the case to proceed nearly a year after his wife was reported missing on Mother's Day 2020. Prosecutors also revealed Suzanne had texted her sister Melinda the day before she vanished on May 10 to complain Morphew was 'physically and emotionally abusive' towards her. Barry Morphew, 53, is to go on trial for the murder of his wife Suzanne next May Cadaver dogs are brought back to the scene where Chaffee County Sheriff's officers, FBI and CBI were searching for Suzanne Morphew in May 2020 Morphew sat impassively through the closing arguments and barely reacted when Judge Patrick Murphy announced his decision, telling court that he did see 'probable cause' for both first degree murder charges and a trial. Murphy said Morphew might have had motivation to murder his wife, but the judge also noted that probable cause is the lowest standard of proof in the criminal justice system. 'Is it possible Mr. Morphew would be convicted? Yes,' the judge said. 'Is it fairly likely he would be convicted? ... This case could go either way in front of a jury.' He outlined three possible scenarios: Barry Morphew killed his wife, someone else killed her or she disappeared on her own. Judge Murphy also emphasized texts from Suzanne saying she felt 'unsafe' with Morphew and said his discovery of her affair amounted to a credible motive for murder. He also said the court 'can confirm' that Morphew disposed of his wife's bike helmet - which was found close to the Garfield Mine - and questioned why he drove 150 miles that Sunday morning for a job that couldn't begin until the following day. Morphew, who was wearing a light gray suit and cowboy boots for the hearing, will now be processed for release until the trial begins which has been scheduled to begin next May lasting for about one month. The decision to set bond was opposed by the prosecution who asked for it to be $10m cash only - citing his lack of ties to Colorado and cash assets of approximately $3m following the sale of his Salida home and business. In this still image from video, Barry Morphew, center, appears in court in Salida, Colorado earlier in the year Morphew (pictured in court last May) will be released on Monday but will have to wear an ankle monitor as a condition of his release and will be forced to stay in Chaffee county Judge Murphy eventually decided to set bond at $500,000 cash and agreed to the prosecution's request for him to be monitored by the police and to be forced to surrender his guns. He denied the defense's request for Morphew to be allowed to live in Gunnison while he awaits trial and banned him from contacting any of the witnesses. Morphew will now be released on Monday but will have to wear an ankle monitor as a condition of his release and will be forced to stay in Chaffee County as well as being made to attend every hearing in person. Mom-of-two Suzanne, 49, disappeared on Mother's Day 2020 and was reported missing when daughters Mallory, 21, and Macy, 17, were unable to get hold of her. Barry Morphew posted a video on social media tearfully pleading for his wife's safe return soon after she vanished. He was arrested May 5, 2021, amid what authorities described as an extensive and ongoing investigation that involved dozens of searches in Colorado and interviews of more than 400 people in multiple states. Suzanne Morphews body has not been found. Pictured, Garfield mine near Morphew's home where it is believed that Barry dumped evidence Barry's mother Shirley, 75, was seen wiping away tears as she left court with her granddaughters (foreground) and another woman on the last day of preliminary hearings last month Barry Morphew also is charged with tampering with a human body, tampering with physical evidence, possession of a dangerous weapon and attempting to influence a public servant. He also faces one count of t voter fraud, after he cast a ballot for President Trump in his wife's name during last year's election. Prosecutors told the court that they believe Morphew killed his wife on the night of May 9 and could have disposed of her body at the remote Garfield Mine, 12 miles from Salida. Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show the pitted remains of the former lead mine which sits 10,000ft above sea level and still retains a set of crumbling wooden buildings. In police interviews, Morphew admitted driving close to the turn-off to the mine in the early hours of May 10 but claimed he had done so because he had spotted a bull elk. Barry and Suzanne's adult daughters Mallory (left) and Macy (right) - who reported their mother missing on Mother's Day 2020 - are seen leaving the court for a lunch break August 23 The decision to send Morphew to trial came after a four-day preliminary hearing in August that shattered the portrait he had painted of a happy, problem-free marriage. Morphew has not yet been asked to enter a plea. Police revealed in court that Suzanne had been having a two-year fling with married Indiana dad-of-six Jeff Libler, while Morphew had accessed porn website Celebrity Jihad and extramarital dating site Ashley Madison. Prosecutors also presented text messages between her and a friend from 2019 and 2020 in which she complained that her husband was picking fights and putting their children in the middle. Cops said the pair had been fighting for years, with Morphew accusing his wife of being a habitual drunk and a drug addict who bought cannabis from street dealers. But they also said he was desperately fighting to save his marriage but to no avail with Suzanne texting him on May 8 to say 'I'm done'. That evening, Suzanne had a pizza from Moonlight Pizza and Brew Pub, telling her lover Lidler that she had enjoyed herself. The following morning, Suzanne and Morphew had discussed going hiking but she spent most of the morning sending photos to Libler while he worked. Morphew returned home at 2.40pm at 2.47pm, his phone was put in airplane mode where it stayed until 10.17pm that evening. Suzanne sent a final message to Libler just after 2.30pm and made one last call. The phone was not used again. Police and prosecutors say it was that afternoon that Suzanne was killed, with witnesses revealing Morphew had a dart gun that investigators said was the murder weapon. Agent Johnny Grusing of the CBI told the court that the animal tranquilizer it contained would have knocked Suzanne out in around 10 minutes and then caused breathing difficulties and hypoxia. Barry appeared in court for the first time in May after he was arrested on charges of murdering his wife Suzanne, whose body has still not been found after she vanished last year Grusing said the heavy breathing caused by the drug would have sounded like snoring Morphew repeatedly told investigators that the last sound he heard from his wife was 'light snoring'. On the morning of May 10, data from Morphew's white truck shows the door was opened seven times between 3.25am and 3.49am. At 5am, the truck left the Morphew home and drove close to the Garfield Mine before being picked up on camera in nearby Poncha Springs at 5.14am. Morphew then drove to Broomfield, near Denver, for a landscaping job but truck data showed he stopped several times and he was picked up on camera dumping trash in dumpsters along the way including at a McDonalds and at a Men's Wearhouse. He then headed to a Holiday Inn in Broomfield, where he left the room reeking of chlorine and littered with wet towels according to co-workers Morgan Gentile and Jeff Puckett. Morphew has consistently denied the allegations and, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Johnny Grusing, appeared shocked when he was arrested on May 5 Puckett told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview last September that he had also found ripped up insurance documents stuffed in the trash can. In police interviews, Gentile said the job which Morphew claimed was urgent was scheduled for the following day and that he had been due to pick her up to drive to Denver at 5.30pm on May 10. Instead, she received a call at 11am telling her he was already there and to drive herself up, and to bring an extra worker. By the time Gentile and Puckett arrived, Morphew had already left citing a family emergency. The next morning, she received another call from Morphew at 7.30am in which he said Suzanne had vanished and suggested a mountain lion could be to blame. Undersheriff Rohrich described the video Morphew made pleading for his wife's safe return as 'crocodile tears'. The couple with their two daughters, Mallory and Macy, who have been supporting their father Barry learned his wife Suzanne had been having a two-year affair with one of her high school classmates, Jeff Libler (pictured), in the days before allegedly killing her He told the court: 'I thought of it like crocodile tears. He acted like he was crying but no tears.' When police searched the home, they found it 'perfectly clean' but found a live .22 caliber bullet lying on the floor next to Suzanne's side of the bed in the master bedroom. They also discovered the charred remains of ring binders and a lacquered piece of wood in the fireplace despite firewood placed nearby and discovered an empty tranquilizer casing in the dryer, along with a pair of Morphew's khaki shorts. Police also revealed that the door of the master bedroom bore marks consistent with being forced open, while Morphew himself was found with scratches to both hands and his upper left arm. Former British military translators have been forced to turn to people smugglers to escape Afghanistan as the Taliban wages a murderous vendetta against those who helped the West. At least three interpreters who worked on the frontlines have handed over thousands of pounds to be smuggled out of their homeland. They say they would rather gamble with the perilous illegal routes run by traffickers than risk being caught by the Taliban. The fears of those who risked their lives beside UK troops have been fuelled by executions, beatings and house-to-house searches in Kabul and surrounding areas. One former translator was taken by Taliban gunmen from his home and held in a tiny cell, accused of working for the British, while a 30-year-old ex-interpreter said his mother was beaten during a search for him on Thursday night. One translator, Khan, 30, was taken to hospital after being shot in an ambush he blamed on the Taliban The fear has seen a boom in business for human traffickers, increasing by 150 per cent since the Taliban took Kabul last month. The three men, two of whom took their families with them, said they had no alternative but to turn to the smugglers, joining thousands of Afghans paying up to 20,000 for a family to reach countries such as France and Germany. It costs even more to get to the UK. They are now in Iran, waiting to hear when they can move on. Using WhatsApp, smugglers plot the route of the refugees who they call 'guests' on separate legs of journeys from Afghanistan either via Pakistan or directly into Iran and on to Turkey. Separate teams of smugglers then orchestrate travel through Europe. Prices for various stages of the journey are increasing rapidly as demand rises, starting with an initial 2,000 per adult from Afghanistan through Pakistan and on to Iran and 1,100 to get to Turkey. An option involving visas and flights from Pakistan to Turkey costs around 10,000. From there, one route involves going by boat to Italy for around 8,000. The former UK military translators now in hiding in Iran are expected to be joined by more Afghans who worked with British troops soon. Their stories have been highlighted by the Daily Mail's Betrayal of the Brave campaign. One translator, Khan, 30, who worked for the Electronic Warfare Unit for two years, was taken to hospital after being shot in an ambush he blamed on the Taliban. He was rejected for relocation after being dismissed for using drugs. He said last night: 'This is my only option. The journey is dangerous but it is safer than staying at home. The smugglers have been professional, like an army. 'When I reach Turkey, I will try to come to the UK. They will not send me back to the Taliban. They should have rescued me.' A second ex-interpreter, aged 34, who worked for the UK military for three years, is too frightened to be named while in Iran, where Afghan translators have been killed. He said: 'I had no alternative but to escape because I am a target for the Taliban. This is very dangerous but it is less dangerous than living a life in hiding. 'If I reach England, I am sure the people will not send me back.' The third, Ahmad, 35, speaking from close to the Turkish border, said people smugglers had presented his family with 'hope' as staying in his home city of Kandahar meant 'possible death'. He said he plans to get to Germany where he has a brother. The embattled peer Lord Bethell has quit following scrutiny over 33,000 emails linked to 90million of Covid deals in his private account. The Conservative peer's departure from the Department of Health and Social Care comes after he faced calls to resign earlier this year over his use of a personal email account rather than official communication channels. Downing Street has previously acknowledged Lord Bethell was using a private email address, but suggested that was allowed, while the peer has insisted he has done nothing wrong. The embattled peer Lord Bethell (far right) has quit following scrutiny over 33,000 emails linked to 90million of Covid deals in his private account Lord Bethell and former health secretary Matt Hancock have faced claims that they used their private accounts to discuss Government business during the pandemic, including potential coronavirus contracts. The peer previously insisted he sought to uphold the ministerial code 'in everything I do'. Last month, it was confirmed that an Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) inquiry into the use of private communications channels by ministers and officials at DHSC will cover WhatsApp and other phone messaging apps. It followed pressure from Labour for more details on the investigation after it emerged Lord Bethell had recently replaced his mobile phone and that data on the old one may no longer be retrievable. Lord Bethell and former health secretary Matt Hancock have faced claims that they used their private accounts to discuss Government business during the pandemic, including potential coronavirus contracts In a letter to the Good Law Project - which is engaged in legal action against the DHSC over the award of Covid-19 contracts - Government lawyers previously said the old phone had been 'broken' six months ago and that data held on it was not contained on the replacement. The lost information was reported to have included WhatsApp and SMS messages. Lord Bethell tweeted on Friday afternoon: 'Sad to be standing down but I want to thank @borisjohnson for the opportunity to serve my country during this awful pandemic. Letters from the Government's lawyers say searches of Lord Bethell's private email accounts using keywords relating to the Covid contracts reveal there are between 8,463 and 33,428 separate emails in his private accounts that contain them 'It's been a privilege to work with wonderful colleagues in @dhscgovuk (and healthcare generally) during these times.' Lord Bethell was appointed as a parliamentary under secretary of state at DHSC in March last year and was responsible for representing health matters and legislation in the House of Lords. He previously served as government whip from July 2019 to March 2020. The Prince of Wales has revealed how he spoke to his father the day before he died about planning his 100th birthday and got a vintage Prince Philip response. In a poignant interview, Charles says he called the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor on April 8 and broached the delicate subject of a party to mark his centenary in June. 'We're talking about your birthday,' Charles said, slightly tremulously, knowing Philip wasn't keen on the idea. Aware his father was also slightly hard of hearing, he repeated himself a little more loudly: 'We're talking about your birthday! And whether there's going to be reception!' Prince Charles has revealed how he called his father at Windsor the day before he died about planning his 100th birthday. Pictured: Prince Charles and Prince Philip during a visit to Poundbury in 2016 The Prince of Wales says he called the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor on April 8 and broached the delicate subject of a party. Pictured: The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles in 1969 The response was typically pithy. 'Well, I've got to be alive for it, haven't I?' Philip challenged. 'I knew you'd say that!' Charles shot back in what was possibly their last conver-sation together. The charming exchange is recalled by the future king in a new BBC One programme to be broadcast on Wednesday night, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers. It is a remarkable tribute featuring every one of Philip's children and adult grandchildren recalling some of their fondest and funniest memories of the indomitable duke, who died on April 9 at the age of 99. The Mail's Robert Hardman wrote and co-produced the programme, interviewing Prince Charles and other members of the family in the process. He has given the Mail's Weekend magazine an exclusive insight today and it is clear it is one of the most personal and intimate pieces of royal television ever produced. Prince William shares a hilarious anecdote about his adored grandfather, who famously created the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme. On an outing to a remote spot on the Queen's Balmoral estate, the two of them stumbled across a group of young walkers undertaking an expedition for their award. William recalls: 'He stopped and wound down his window and said, 'Good morning. How are you getting on?' To which the smallest young chap at the back turned round and effectively said, 'Jog on Grandpa!' In fact, William admits, the response was ruder than that. But his grandfather, unperturbed, wound the window back up, turned to his grandson and said: 'The youth of today!' He found the whole exchange hilarious. Prince Harry, taking part in his first 'family project' since quitting as a working royal, says his grandfather was always 'unapologetically him'. Speaking from California, he also offered praise for the way he supported the Queen. The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince William at Prince Harry's Sandhurst graduation in 2006 The Queen, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during a reception at Buckingham Palace in 2019 The monarch is joined by Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for the reception for the G7 leaders in Cornwall this year 'From my grandmother's perspective, to have someone like that on your shoulder for 73 years of marriage it doesn't get better than that,' Harry says. And Philip's granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, reveals that contrary to conjecture that he never got to met his great-grandson, August Philip, the two did in fact bond before he died. 'I brought little August to come and meet him,' she says, emotional at the recollection. 'I told him that we'd named him after him. It was such a lovely moment. We were very lucky to do that.' Princess Anne, his only daughter, says her father always made a point of coming up to read his children a bedtime story. Even at the age of 99 the duke's death, which was said to have been very peaceful, still clearly came as a shock to his family. 'He was getting older and he absolutely hated it,' says his granddaughter Zara Tindall. 'He was the worst patient in the world! But, actually, you never really prepare yourself for losing him because he was always there.' His daughter-in-law the Duchess of Cornwall says: 'It felt like the end of an era. They're a very difficult generation to live up to but I'm very proud and very pleased that I knew him.' A wistful Charles adds: 'We were lucky to have him for nearly 100 years.' Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, Wednesday, 9pm, BBC1 A case of mad cow disease has been confirmed on a farm in Somerset. The Animal and Plant Health Agency said the infected animal was dead and had been removed from the farm. It said there was 'no risk to food safety'. The agency said precautionary movement restrictions have been put in place to stop the movement of livestock in the area while further investigations continue to identify the origin of the disease, the official name of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Today's case is the first since 2018, when the disease was found on a farm in Scotland. A case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - an infection commonly known as mad cow disease - has been confirmed on a farm in Somerset (file photo) Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss said the dead animal was tested as part of 'TSE [transmissible spongiform encephalopathies] surveillance controls'. She added: 'This is further proof that our surveillance system for detecting and containing this type of disease is working. 'We recognise this will be a traumatic time for the farmer and we are on hand to offer advice through this difficult period. 'The UK's overall risk status for BSE remains at 'controlled' and there is no risk to food safety or public health.' Confirming the case on Friday, Apha said it will launch a 'thorough investigation of the herd, the premises, potential sources of infection and will produce a full report on the incident in due course'. It added that there have been five cases of confirmed BSE in the UK since 2014, all of which have been in animals not destined for the human food chain and posed no risk to the general public. A spokesperson for the Food Standards Agency said: 'There are strict controls in place to protect consumers from the risk of BSE, including controls on animal feed, and removal of the parts of cattle most likely to carry BSE infectivity. 'Consumers can be reassured that these important protection measures remain in place and that Food Standards Agency Official Veterinarians and Meat Hygiene Inspectors working in all abattoirs in England will continue to ensure that the safety of consumers remains the top priority.' Millions of cattle were culled in the UK in the 1990s during a BSE epidemic. Strict controls were introduced to protect consumers after it was linked to a fatal condition called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans. Millions of cattle were culled in the UK in the 1990s during a BSE epidemic At the disease's peak in the early 1990s, it was infecting more than 30,000 cows a year. It was first discovered in 1984 in Sussex and in the ensuing outbreak British beef exports were banned, cows were culled and people died because of a brain illness caused by BSE. The first cow to be diagnosed, known as cow 133, had an arched back, had lost weight, suffered tremors and lost its co-ordination it died within six weeks. Officials found giving cows 'cannibal' feed with protein from other cows or sheep was the cause of BSE, so banned the practice in 1989. The Government ordered that infected cows be killed but only offered a 50 per cent compensation to farmers, leading some of them to illegally sell infected animals for human food. By 1992 and 1993, thousands of cows were infected. At the disease's peak in the early 1990s, it was infecting more than 30,000 cows a year. Above: Culled cows on a French farm after a single outbreak in 1996 In those two years alone, 72,370 cows in the UK were found to have mad cow disease. By 1996, people had begun to die from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which occurs in the brain of people infected with mad cow disease. In the same year, all beef exports from Britain were banned by the European Union and the ban wasn't lifted until 2006. Cows over the age of 30 months were ordered to be killed to halt the spread of the disease called the Over Thirty Months Scheme. New York City mayoral hopeful Eric Adams blasted current Mayor Bill de Blasio for allowing crime to ravage the city as the former NYPD captain vowed to crack down on violent criminals while he visited a trendy restaurant that was the site of a recent high-profile robbery. 'Right now no one wants to do business in the city,' Adams said Friday on Bloomberg Radio - less than 48 hours after masked men with guns attacked random outdoor diners at the popular Philippe Chow restaurant on Manhattan's East Side. One patron was shot in the leg during a struggle for the gun while a second patron was robbed of his Rolex. Neither victim knew each other. 'We have been defined as a business-enemy city instead of a business-friendly city,' Adams said. The outgoing Brooklyn borough president - who's heavily favored to win November's general election over Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa - said business leaders have been asking him to focus on curtailing crime throughout the Big Apple. Scroll down for video. Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams had lunch at Philippe Chow on Thursday, the day after the brazen armed robbery Police said a 28-year-old male was dinning outside Philippe Chow when an armed man stepped up to his table shortly after 10pm and demanded his watch and shot him in the leg during a struggle for the gun. Another patron was robbed of his Rolex 'What I've heard over and over again in all of the meetings? Public safety,' Adams said during his radio appearance. And that includes mending the fractured relationship between the mayor's office and the New York City police unions. During his Thursday lunch visit to Philippe Chow, Adams said, 'This is not a restaurant where crime problems are happening, but for someone to come by and attempt a robbery while you sit down and enjoy a meal is just unacceptable. 'Our restaurants are really the bellwether of how well we recover. And I constantly state that the prerequisite of our prosperity is public safety.' He outlined his plan to curtail violence, which includes reinstituting the NYPD's gun unit and plainclothes unit to target gangs and get guns off the streets. The two masked gunmen and a getaway driver are still on the loose, NYPD said during a Thursday afternoon press conference. The man who was shot is reportedly in stable condition in the hospital. Chief of Detectives James Essig police are looking at other 'familiar, similar patterns in the precinct' to see if the robbers' MO matches any other robberies. Like many metropolitan cities in the U.S., crime in New York City is still high, but has recently leveled off following a bloody summer and start to 2021. Overall,. crime is down 0.9 percent year over year, murders are down 4.4 percent and robbery is down 1.4 percent, according the NYPD's most recent crime data. There's one fewer shooting victim this year (1,341) than there was at this point last year (1,342). But felony assaults are up 5.9 percent, and rape is up 3.7 percent. The stats are being compared to 2020, which was one New York City's deadliest years in the last two decades. The number of murders alone jumped from 319 in 2019 to 468 in 2020 - a 47 percent spike. At this time in 2019, there were 229 murders and in 2018, there were 223 murders. In a stunning break with the United States' oldest ally, France has recalled its ambassador to the US after a blowup over a new pact between the US, Great Britain, and Australia. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves LeDrian announced the move to recall ambassador Philippe Etienne Friday night, saying it came in a request from French President Emmanuel Macron. He cited the 'exceptional seriousness of the announcements' which caught France off guard and resulted in the cancelation of multi-billion dollar contracts for Australia to build and purchase French diesel submarines for its defense. France also recalled its ambassador to Australia but not to the UK, although a diplomat also dinged Britain for acting 'opportunistically.' French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves LeDrain announced the move to recall ambassador Philippe Etienne Friday night, saying it came in a request from French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured) He called the nixing of the $90 billion sub contract 'unacceptable behavior.' Le Drian said in a statement: 'At the request of the President of the Republic, I have decided to immediately recall our two ambassadors to the United States and Australia to Paris for consultations. This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States.' The move, reported by the Associated Press, comes amid a huge backlash in France over the move. A French diplomatic source also lashed out at Britain, telling Reuters: 'The UK accompanied this operation opportunistically. We do not need to consult in Paris with our ambassador to know what to think and what conclusions to draw from it.' A top French diplomat told the AP Macron got a letter from Australian PM Scott Morrison announcing the sub deal's cancellation on Wednesday morning. The French reached out to Washington 'to ask what was going on,' but the resulting discussions occurred just hours before Biden announced the deal in a video conference with the two key allies. AU REVOIR: French Ambassador to the US Philippe Etienne has been recalled amid a diplomatic row over a new US-UK-Australia alliance Le Drain on Thursday called the move a 'stab in the back.' 'We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed. This is not done between allies.' The U.S. during regular diplomatic events with French diplomats points to France's essential support for the U.S. during the American Revolution, and numerous US presidents have taken part in annual commemorations of the Normandy invasion that attest to the close historical bonds between the two nations. The stunning diplomatic slap comes a day after France made a lesser statement by nixing a planned gala at its luxurious embassy in Washington that was meant to celebrate the U.S.-French relationship, while also ditching another event in Baltimore. The embassy gala was to mark the 240th anniversary of the Battle of the Capes, when the French Navy fought the Royal Navy of Britain during the Revolutionary War. It all came at the end of a week where President Joe Biden announced a new agreement between the US, the UK, and Australia, in a move meant to counter China and bolster security in the Indo-Pacific region. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (l) described President Biden's deal as a 'unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision' amid French fury that it triggered cancelation of an Australian agreement to buy French diesel powered submarines America and the UK are to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines as part of an unprecedented alliance known as the AUKUS pact to combat China's naval dominance and will likely be the similar design as this Astute class submarine HMS Ambush (pictured) The French embassy event was supposed to commemorate the 1781 'Battle of the Capes when the French Navy delivered a decisive blow to Britain's Royal Navy in the Revolutionary War. The Battle of Virgina Capes shows British forces on the right and French on the left Under the terms, Australia for the first time would purchase US-made nuclear submarines, which are quieter, faster, and must come to port less frequently than diesel or electric boats. The move infuriated France, which said it had not been informed long in advance. Biden, who ran in part trumpeting his deft touch in diplomacy after helming the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, now finds himself at the center a diplomatic row with a key ally. It comes at a time when his handling of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is also under scrutiny. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said France had been informed in advance of the move, and tried to put the best light on the state of relations. 'France in particular is a vital partner on this, and so many other issues,' he said. The diplomatic slap came just minutes after the US military had to admit that a US drone strike in the final days before the US pullout in Afghanistan had mistakenly hit an aid worker, killing nine family members, including seven children. Australia had been relying on French shipbuilder Naval Group to construct its disel submarine fleet, set to be delivered in the mid 2030s. The move also piqued the government New Zealand, which has a longstanding opposition to nuclear energy, and which was not included in the agreement. The pact does not make the design of Australia's new submarines clear, but they will be based on previous US and UK designs. Pictured above is a cross-section of Britain's Astute-class nuclear attack subs, which is likely to mirror the new vessels Australia's defence minister has today admitted that war with China is possible in the South China Sea (pictured) with Taiwan (top) as the likely flashpoint. China claims control over the whole of the sea, which other nations dispute Australia will acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines and a host of other advanced military technology from the UK and US after singing an historic deal aimed at countering China's growing power Why is Australia building nuclear-powered submarines? Why nuclear submarines? Nuclear submarines are powered by nuclear reactors which produce heat that creates high-pressured steam to spin turbines and power the boat's propeller. They can run for about 20 years before needing to refuel, meaning food supplies are the only limit on time at sea. The boats are also very quiet, making it harder for enemies to detect them and can travel at top speed - about 25mph - for longer than diesel-powered subs. The first nuclear submarines were put to sea by the United States in the 1950s. They are now also in use by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India. A senior US defense official told reporters in Washington DC: 'This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to basically deploy for a longer period, they're quieter, they're much more capable.' Will Australia have nuclear weapons? Scott Morrison made it clear that the nuclear-power submarines will not have nuclear missiles on board. Australia has never produced nuclear weapons and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1973 which prevents non-nuclear states which don't already have them from developing nuclear weapons. Mr Morrison also said the Australia has no plans to build nuclear power stations which are widely used around the world. 'But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,' he said. Are they safe? The nuclear reactors are shielded from the rest of the submarine in a separate section to protect the crew from dangerous radiation. The US has an excellent safety record with its nuclear-powered fleet although early Russian subs suffered a few accidents which caused 20 servicemen to die from radiation exposure between 1960 and 1985. At the end of their 20-year lifetimes, the contaminated parts of nuclear reactors need to be disposed deep underground in special waste storage cells. Anti-nuclear campaigners say any leaks of radioactive waste could lead to an environmental disaster. Why now? Australia needs to replace its six ageing Collins-class submarines. In 2016 it signed a deal with French Company Naval Group to build 12 diesel-electric attack subs - but the parties were in dispute over the amount of building that would be done in Australia. That deal has now been torn up in favour of nuclear powered subs aided by the US and UK who will provide the technology to Australia. The West is becoming increasingly concerned about the growing assertiveness of China in the Indo-Pacific region where it has made huge territorial claims in the South and East China seas, clashed with Indian troops and repeatedly flown planes over Taiwan. Advertisement Advertisement France has recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in protest over a UK and US submarine pact as officials have admitted war with China over Taiwan is possible and Britain could even be dragged into the conflict. Australia's defence minister Peter Dutton, speaking from Washington where he is meeting with US officials, insisted that the new alliance - which will give Australia at least eight nuclear submarines and other advanced military technology - was about securing 'peace' in the region but the odds of a conflict with China 'shouldn't be discounted'. 'The Chinese.. are very clear of their intent with regard to Taiwan [and] the United States has been very clear of their intention toward Taiwan,' he said. 'Nobody wants to see conflict but that really is a question for the Chinese.' President Xi Jinping has vowed to 'reunify' Taiwan with China in the near future, and in 2019 said he will use force if necessary. Meanwhile Joe Biden recently vowed to defend the island if it is attacked - though officials later said he 'misspoke' and that America's long-standing policy of 'strategic ambiguity' remains in place. Mr Dutton issued the grim warning as Beijing continues to fume over the submarine pact - dubbed AUKUS - with state newspapers penning furious columns while unnamed military sources warned the deployment of nuclear-powered subs could make Australia the target of a nuclear strike. Meanwhile Boris Johnson was forced to defend Britain's involvement in the alliance amid fears the UK could now be dragged into fighting in the South China Sea. The Prime Minister refusing to rule anything out, telling the House of Commons: 'The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law.' Underlining the immediacy of the threat, Taiwan said its air force was today scrambled to warn away Chinese jets - including eight fighters and two support aircraft - that had strayed into its airspace. Australia will acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines and a host of other advanced military technology from the UK and US after singing an historic deal aimed at countering China's growing power Australia's defence minister has today admitted that war with China is possible in the South China Sea (pictured) with Taiwan (top) as the likely flashpoint. China claims control over the whole of the sea, which other nations dispute The pact does not make the design of Australia's new submarines clear, but they will be based on previous US and UK designs. Pictured above is a cross-section of Britain's Astute-class nuclear attack subs, which is likely to mirror the new vessels Furious EU complains that it was 'not consulted' on AUKUS submarine deal The EU has complained that it was 'not consulted' on the AUKUS submarine deal while France has lashed out at Australia for 'stabbing it in the back'. Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said the union was only made aware of the new alliance through the media. And French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has accused the Australians of a betrayal because the alliance meant they scrapped a multi-billion deal for France to provide subs. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for the pact to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia with the US after France called it a 'stab in the back'. The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in a ground-breaking agreement dubbed AUKUS. But this meant that Canberra ripped up a deal worth around 30billion that was struck with Paris in 2016 for France to provide 12 diesel-electric submarines. A diplomatic row broke out, with Mr Le Drian telling France-Info radio: 'It was really a stab in the back. 'We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed.' Meanwhile Mr Borrell, ex-President of the European Parliament, said: 'This alliance we have only just been made aware and we weren't even consulted. 'As high representative for security, I was not aware and I assume that an agreement of such a nature wasn't just brought together over night. I think it would have been worked on for quite a while.' He added: 'We regret not having been informed not having been part of these talks. We weren't included, we weren't part and parcel of this.' Mr Wallace said he recognises the 'frustration' from France after speaking to his French counterpart Florence Parly on Wednesday night. He told BBC Breakfast: 'I understand France's disappointment. 'They had a contract with the Australians for diesel-electrics from 2016 and the Australians have taken this decision that they want to make a change. 'We didn't go fishing for that, but as a close ally when the Australians approached us of course we would consider it. I understand France's frustration about it.' Boris Johnson told MPs today that the UK's military relationship with France is 'rock solid' and insisted 'we stand shoulder to shoulder with the French' despite the row. The Prime Minister met with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June. Downing Street confirmed that the three leaders discussed the subs at the meeting. The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'I wouldn't say there was one single meeting that did it, this has been something that has been an undertaking of several months, it's a culmination of that work.' Advertisement Combat aircraft were sent to drive away the Chinese jets, Taiwan's Defence Ministry said, while missile systems were also deployed to monitor them. Self-governing Taiwan, which is home to the remnants of the Republic of China which fought against the Communist Party when it first emerged, views itself as an independent state while Beijing views it as a breakaway province. It has long-standing ties with the US, which historically recognised it as the legitimate government. The island's government has complained for a year of repeated missions by China's air force near its borders, often in the southwestern part of its air defense zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. The incident came a day after Taiwan proposed extra defense spending of $9billion over the next five years, including on new missiles, warning of an urgent need to upgrade weapons in the face of a 'severe threat'. Speaking earlier on Friday, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government had to take the threat from China seriously. 'The Chinese Communists plot against us constantly,' he said. Taiwan's defense spending 'is based on safeguarding national sovereignty, national security, and national security. We must not relax. We must have the best preparations so that no war will occur,' he added. China's government, for its part, criticized Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Friday for comments this week in which he said Taiwan was a 'sea fortress' blocking China's expansion into the Pacific. Wu's 'aim is to deceive public opinion, to rope in and collude with anti-China foreign forces,' China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in statement. Tensions have been simmering in the South China Sea - a strategic body of water located between China, Vietnam, and the Philippines - for years, but have been brought to a head recently because of Beijing's increasingly aggressive posturing. President Xi lays claim to the body of water in its entirety, which would had him control over valuable shipping lanes, oil and gas deposits, and fertile fishing grounds which provide a large source of food in the region. But the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam also lay partial claim to the waters and have been supported by the US and other western powers who are keen to deny Beijing control over the strategic asset. In violation of international law, China has been building military bases on artificial islands - including the Spratly and Paracel Islands - and warning other nations to keep away from them. America and Britain have been sailing what they called 'freedom of navigation' operations near the bases, arguing they are necessary to keep the waterways open for all nations to use - much to the ire of Beijing. Australia acquiring nuclear submarines - which can sail much further than traditional subs and conceal themselves easier - will potentially allow the country to join such missions or else covertly spy on what China is doing, which is why the pact has so infuriated Beijing. The backlash marks a new low in relations between Australia and China - the country's largest trading partner - which were already at rock-bottom following calls from Canberra for a probe into Covid's origins. China reacted by cutting off all diplomatic contact with Australia and has since engaged in a trade war, whacking tariffs on Australian goods that are thought to have cost the country $2.6billion annually. But the war of words could now spiral into all-out conflict with China's Global Times news website - a mouthpiece for the communist government - warning of the possibility of a nuclear strike on Australia. The article cited an anonymous 'senior Chinese military expert' who said Australia would pose a nuclear threat to other countries because the new submarines could potentially be fitted with nuclear weapons provided by the US or UK. 'This would make Australia a potential target for a nuclear strike, because nuclear-armed states like China and Russia are directly facing the threat from Australia's nuclear submarines which serve US strategic demands,' the expert said. 'Beijing and Moscow won't treat Canberra as ''an innocent non-nuclear power,'' but 'a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons anytime,' the expert added. Peter Dutton insisted that the aim of the new defence pact is to ensure peace in the region, but that the risk of fighting with China 'shouldn't be discounted' and was 'up to the Chinese' Scott Morrison meeting with Boris Johnson and Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall back in June, where the trio put pen to paper on a new military alliance that will give Australia its first nuclear-powered submarines Why is Australia getting the subs? Why nuclear submarines? Nuclear submarines are powered by nuclear reactors which produce heat that creates high-pressured steam to spin turbines and power the boat's propeller. They can run for about 20 years before needing to refuel, meaning food supplies are the only limit on time at sea. The boats are also very quiet, making it harder for enemies to detect them and can travel at top speed - about 40kmh - for longer than diesel-powered subs. The first nuclear submarines were put to sea by the United States in the 1950s. They are now also in use by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India. A senior US defence official told reporters in Washington DC: 'This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to basically deploy for a longer period, they're quieter, they're much more capable. 'They will allow us to sustain and to improve deterrence across the Indo-Pacific.' Zack Cooper, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said nuclear submarines would hugely boost Australia's military capability. They are going to be much, much more capable in the large, expansive ocean that is Australia has to deal with,' he told the ABC. Will Australia have nuclear weapons? Scott Morrison made it clear that the nuclear-power submarines will not have nuclear missiles on board. Australia has never produced nuclear weapons and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1973 which prevents non-nuclear states which don't already have them from developing nuclear weapons. Mr Morrison also said the Australia has no plans to build nuclear power stations which are widely used around the world. 'But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,' he said. 'And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.' Advertisement The article warned Mr Morrison's ambition to beef up Australia's military 'could bring destructive consequences' in the event of a nuclear war and said his insistence that Australia does not want nuclear missiles is 'meaningless'. China is believed to have between 250 and 350 nuclear weapons, compared to American's arsenal of 5,800 and Russia's total of 6,375. In July satellite photos emerged which appeared to show China building a huge missile silo base in the desert town of Hami, northern Xinjiang province Researchers believe the site could expand to 110 silos, which can be filled an intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. China's DF-31 nuclear missile can travel up to 11,200km at 8km per second, reaching the US or Australia in less than half an hour. In January China shared video of it testing a DF-26 or Dongfeng-26 missile, a medium-to-long-range non-nuclear missile said to be able to reach Guam, a US territory about 3,200 miles from the Chinese coast. Only eight countries have nuclear weapons: The US, UK, France, China, India, Russia, Pakistan and North Korea. Australia has no experience with nuclear weapons or energy and Mr Morrison said he has no intentions to change that. Prime Minister Morrison had been working in secret for nearly two years with a group of advisors to secure a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, allowing Australia to push back against an increasingly assertive China. The plan is thought to have been hatched as early as August 2019, with Mr Morrison asking a team of scientists, Navy top brass, engineers and other experts to look again at a deal Australia had signed with France to buy 12 diesel-powered subs and to see whether better options existed. Ultimately, the task force concluded that going nuclear - an option that Australia has long-resisted due to the lack of a domestic nuclear industry and a commitment to nuclear non-proliferation - would be preferable to paying France $90billion for its vessels, after the cost ballooned from the $50billion first agreed upon. Just a few years earlier in 2016 when former PM Malcolm Turnbull signed off on the deal for France to build a dozen attack-class subs, the notion of going nuclear was not on Australia's radar. But two key factors changed in that short time which would leave Australia desperate to torpedo the French deal. Australia in the past was resistant to building a nuclear-powered fleet as it would have required civil nuclear power capability onshore, but advances in military technology available via a deal with the US and UK mean that is no longer an issue. At the same time an increasingly belligerent and hostile China motivated Mr Morrison to plan and set up the historic AUKUS military alliance which will see Australia get its hands on up to eight nuclear-powered submarines. The Prime Minister's vision first began when he attended the G7 Summit in the quaint French coastal community of Biarritz in August, 2019. China has transformed several uninhabited islands in the South China Sea into military bases and has begun warning ships away from them, including threatening rival naval vessels China has been rapidly expanding its military in recent years and has become increasingly bullish with its neighbours, leading to fears that it could start trying to seize territory Concerned about the French deal and wanting to ensure Australia wouldn't regret its costly purchase, he tasked defence adviser, Jimmy Kiploks, with making 'discreet enquiries' about the possibility he could acquire nuclear-powered submarines, The Australian reported. Mr Morrison soon set up an off-the-books technical group, overseen by Defence department secretary Greg Moriarty and former chief scientist Alan Finkel to consider other options - as well as speaking to colleagues in the US and UK. From there, it wasn't long before plans for the AUKUS alliance started to fall into place. Mr Morrison decided to bring the program to the surface in April 2021, as China continued to impose arbitrary bans and tariffs on Australian exports as a way to punish Canberra for its calls for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. He drafted a formal framework for the plan, and by May of this year, briefings with the UK and US led to Mr Morrison having a conversation with British leader Mr Johnson. Mr Johnson agreed to set up talks with US President Biden at the G7 a few weeks later, with the trio finally meeting on June 12 - the final day of the summit - at Cornwall's Carbis Bay Hotel. It was during this meeting that Mr Biden agreed for the first time in more than 50 years to share the secrets of America's nuclear submarines with a third country. Britain is the only other nation to have acquired such technology. But at the time the trio remained tight-lipped about what went on during the meeting. 'They discussed a number of issues of mutual concern, including the Indo-Pacific region,' a short joint statement read. 'They agreed that the strategic context in the Indo-Pacific was changing and that there was a strong rationale for deepening cooperation between the three governments.' On the home front, Mr Morrison was ruthlessly mocked by his Labor opposition and some sections of the media after his one-on-one meeting with President Biden was gate-crashed by the UK leader. There were suggestions President Biden 'snubbed' the private chat and included Boris Johnson at the last minute because he didn't feel the Australian leader was worth the 45minute window set aside for the meeting. In reality, the seemingly uneventful talks, with no press conference to follow, was the culmination of Mr Morrison's nearly two years of relentless strategising and a landmark moment that will eventually see Australia become only the seventh nation in the world to acquire nuclear submarine capabilities. Gabby Petito's friend Rose Davis (pictured) said her fiance Brian Laundrie was a jealous and controlling partner The fiance of missing 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito presents himself as a sweet and caring guy, but is actually jealous and controlling, her friend has claimed in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com. Rose Davis said Brian Laundrie, 23, allegedly went so far as to hide Gabby's ID once so that she couldn't meet up with her at a bar, trigging a violent episode similar to the one police investigated weeks before her disappearance. 'Brian took her ID just so she wouldn't be able to come out with me,' she told DailyMail.com on Friday. 'He's got these jealousy issues and he struggles from what Gabby called these "episodes," where he would hear things and hear voices and wouldn't sleep. 'Gabby had to stay at my house a bunch of times because she just needed a breather and didn't want to go home to him.' Laundrie, who was traveling with Gabby out west while filming their adventures for a 'van-life' YouTube channel she was creating, returned home to Florida alone on September 1. Scroll down for video In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com Friday, Rose revealed she met Gabby early last year and they instantly hit it off. She shared videos of them taking part in a TikTok dancing trend earlier this year Rose who lives in Sarasota, a half hour from Gabby and Brian's home in North Port, said she last spoke to Gabby in early August and was planning to meet her in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park in September The friend said Laundrie came off as 'sweet and nice' but was allegedly always worried that Gabby was going to leave him 'When I saw that Brian was back from the trip, that was the first thing that popped into my mind - that Brian had one of his episodes - and I was just hoping he didn't have a snapping moment,' Rose said. Rose, 21, who lives in Sarasota, a half hour from Gabby and Brian's home in North Port, said she last spoke to Gabby in early August and was planning to meet her in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park in September. Rose had even asked her boss for days off for the trip. They were planning to lock in a specific date on August 29, Rose's birthday, but Gabby never called. The next day, Gabby's mother Nichole Schmidt received a text from her daughter's phone with a confusing message: 'No service in Yosemite.' Yosemite is about 800 miles from the Grand Teton National Park-Yellowstone area where Gabby was last known to be on August 25. Gabby's mother told DailyMail.com she's certain her daughter didn't send that message, suggesting it could have come from Brian, to possibly distract from her real whereabouts. She reported her daughter missing on September 11, and police have since identified Brian as a 'person of interest.' Rose said she met Gabby early last year on Bumble BFF, a meeting app for friends, and they instantly hit it off. Rose has also shared this photo of herself with Gabby before her best pal vanished Rose spoke animatedly and cheerfully about her friendship with Gabby, sharing photos of them together but began to break down as she appealed to Laundrie to talk to cops about her best friend She recalled one occasion in which Laundrie allegedly stole Gabby's ID so she couldn't go out with Rose to a bar Police on Tuesday revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving 22-year-old 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito and her fiance, Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she was last seen 'Neither of us had any friends,' Rose recalled, laughing. 'She had texted me, saying: "You seem so cool. I really want to be your friend. Can we be friends?" And I was like, "Yes, I'd be happy to be your friend." 'We just went everywhere together,' she said. Gabby, who worked last year at Taco Bell and then took a job at a smoothie place, would sometimes join Rose when she was working her job delivering pizza. 'We'd tell people she was my emotional service human,' Rose giggled. Rose got to know Laundrie early on when she'd visit their home in North Port. 'I used to consider him a friend, for sure, because I'd hang out with them a good amount,' she noted. 'He had this composure as a sweet, nice, caring guy. But you could tell he's a little off, a little weird. Like, he'd set up our hammocks when we'd go to beach, but wouldn't sit with us, which I found bizarre. 'Brian has a jealousy issue,' Rose said. 'I'm her only friend in Florida to my knowledge and that's not because she can't make friends, he just didn't want her to have friends.' Rose and Gabby were so close that they'd share their locations with each through an iPhone app 'in case we got lost,' Rose said. But when Laundrie found out, he made Gabby delete it, she said. 'I didn't push the issue because I didn't want it to cause an argument with him,' she said. 'He was always worried she was going to leave him,' she added. 'It was a constant thing to try to get us to stop hanging out. Cassie Laundrie (pictured) became the first member of the Laundrie family to break her silence about Gabby's disappearance in an interview with ABC News that aired Friday morning Cassie (left) says she has not yet spoken to her brother, who was named a person of interest earlier this week, and that if she had more information she would share it 'He'd demand she be home for dinner, often cut our time short. He'd demand to pick her up from my house, even when I had a car and offered to drive.' She said the couple wouldn't argue in front of her, but she could tell afterward. Gabby would appear upset, but he'd seem calm. She said it was evident in the body camera footage police shared of an incident involving the two in Moab, Utah on August 12. A witness had called 911 after seeing the couple fighting. When police pulled the couple over, Gabby appeared was breathing heavily and crying, while Laundrie seemed composed, even as he exhibited scratch marks on his face. Gabby was seen with tears streaming down her face, telling officers she 'was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down' and admitting the couple 'have been fighting all morning.' She also told cops that she suffers from OCD and anxiety. Both she and Laundrie also said she had been stressed about the YouTube blog they were working on about their cross-country trip. Rose, who knew that her friend suffers from anxiety, said 'for her anxiety to act up like that, there has to be a decent thing to trigger it. Something had to happen, or just a lot of things had to build up.' 'I'm a little upset she didn't just call me after that fight, because she would have before,' Rose added. The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park Brian Laundrie had been traveling with Gabby on a cross-country road trip before he returning to Florida in the couple's camper van without her on September 1 Gabby Petito's mother Nichole Schmidt (pictured together) slammed Brian Laundrie's sister after she gave an interview claiming she loves Gabby 'like a sister' but failing to get her brother to share information on her disappearance She said the body camera footage reminded her of the ID episode from Florida. Last summer, Gabby was driving to a bar to go line-dancing with Rose in Sarasota when she noticed her driver's license missing from her wallet. Gabby returned home and confronted her boyfriend, who Rose said admitted he took her license. 'Brian didn't want her to go out with me, so he took it,' she recalled. 'She was so hysterical. She told me she slapped him and said something about him pushing her. 'She was holding back. I told her you need to tell me the deep of what happened and she just wouldn't.' Rose also tried, delicately, to get Gabby to reconsider her engagement to Laundrie. Gabby told her mother she'd put off the engagement, but according to Rose, they were still looking to get married. 'I told her you're young and Brian is a little controlling for her, but I also told her to do what makes you happy and I'm here to support you,' she said. Rose spoke animatedly and cheerfully about her friendship with Gabby but began to break down as she appealed to Laundrie to talk to cops about her best friend. She also smiled as she scrolled through videos of Rose and Gabby together on her phone. One of them is fun footage of them dancing together in a clip for TikTok. Cops received reports of a possible domestic violence incident near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12 A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation and cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone 'On the outside [Brian] is very charismatic, seems very loving. There is no doubt in my mind that she loves him and from how I have always seen it he loves her. 'Of course, like any relationship there were arguments. She would come and stay at my house when there were arguments, to get away from it. Within the first year I want to say at least seven to ten times. 'I do believe that their relationship as they kept going on was getting more problematic. It just seemed like there was more and more arguments. Everything she did, I feel like he thought was wrong. 'Even as she said in the bodycam, he didn't even support her with her blog. That's not what a fiance or boyfriend does. That in itself made me feel that it continued to get worse.' She said it didn't appear Laundrie had any friends. 'That's why he was always in the woods camping, or at the house reading or painting,' Rose said. Gabby, for her part, had lost touch with some acquaintances from Blue Point, New York, where she grew up and graduated high school. In his report, responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins said he pulled the couple over as they were driving towards Arches National Park and noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat 'Her friends from New York were bullying her when she got with Brian,' Rose said. 'It was something about Brian that they didn't like her being with. She was upset about it once. I went through it with her and was like, screw them.' Gabby said she spoke with North Port police on Thursday and shared what she knows about the relationship. She said she's also considered contacting Laundrie. 'I wanted to stand outside his house and to just beg him to tell me where he last saw her, but I know he won't and I can't force him to talk to me,' she cried. 'For all we know, he's scared and handling this all wrong. I just wish he would talk. Just give me three words, the name of a park. Give me something, something.' She is holding out hope that Gabby will return home safely but fears the worst. 'I just know she's not out there on her own and just hiding, not talking to anyone,' she said. 'I know my friend.' 'My worst case scenario is that this remains unsolved,' she continued. 'It's just been so many days, and it just gets harder each day. Schmidt has issued several desperate pleas for the Laundries to cooperate with the investigation into Gabby's disappearance, but the family has refused to help or even reply to her messages Gabby's stepmother Tara Petito (left) and father Joe Petito urged the Laundries to tell them where their daughter is in an emotional press conference with police in North Port, Florida Thursday. Gabby and her younger brother TJ Schmidt. Their mother told DailyMail.com she hasn't been able to sleep or eat since her daughter disappeared 'I pray and pray and hope that she's just trying to survive right now and pray that we find her. 'Even if it's the worst situation, I want to find her and I will. And I will do everything I can to get justice for her. Because she doesn't deserve this.' Rose struggled to compose herself as she then made a general appeal for any information that could help solve the mystery. Battling her emotions, she said: 'If anybody knows or receives any information, or thinks they have any information, please, please say something. 'We are relying on you to say something. I want to find my friend.' Laundrie, who was named a person of interest in the case on Wednesday, has lawyered up and is refusing to speak to authorities about Gabby's disappearance. His sister Cassie on Friday became the first member of the family to speak publicly since Gabby was reported missing, but offered no specifics about her brother. 'Obviously me and my family want Gabby to be found safe,' she said in an interview with ABC News. 'She's like a sister and my children love her, and all I want is for her to come home safe and found and this to be just a big misunderstanding.' Cassie said that she has not yet spoken to her brother and that she has done all she can to assist in the case. 'I haven't been able to talk to him. I wish I could talk to him. I've cooperated every way that I can,' she added. 'I wish I had information or I would give more. This is all I have. I gave it to the police.' She described her brother as a 'wonderful uncle' to her children and as someone who has 'always been there' when she or Gabby needed him. Her comments were slammed by Gabby's mom Nichole, who questioned why she hasn't tried to get Laundrie to speak. Gabby set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with fiance Brian Laundrie in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 at Zion National Park 'What's that statement do? It does nothing,' she said. 'She might have been out of the loop from the beginning. Who knows what the parents kept from family members. 'But instead of saying that, if these people supposedly loved Gabby, if she's like a sister, if your kids love her so much, why aren't you begging them to talk?' Nichole said her daughter's disappearance is taking a tremendous toll on her and her family as they struggle to find answers. Her husband, Jim Schmidt, is now out in Wyoming, where her daughter was last seen, searching for her. She has remained home in Blue Point, Long Island. 'I'm not sleeping, I'm barely eating and I'm just in a lot of pain right now. A lot of pain,' she said. 'I'm trying not to lose hope but it's hard.' She's also finding it hard to believe the system protects a person like Laundrie, allowing him a right to remain silent when her daughter is likely in peril. 'The fact that there's a constitution that protects him, it's making me sick because he's home safe while my daughter is probably not safe,' she said. 'The FBI and police is trying, they are doing their job,' she said. 'But I'm thinking long term. There's got to be law changes for situations like this. I will fight to end of earth not only for Gabby but for anyone else that ends up in this situation. 'If somebody is known to be the last person with a missing person, then they shouldn't have a right to not talk. They should lose that right altogether. This can't be allowed.' A six-year-old boy is fighting for his life after a lawn mower threw a 12-inch piece of steel at his head while he was playing in a school field. Alex Hook is in a medically-induced coma after suffering severe brain damage since the incident on September 10 just behind Riverview Elementary in Silver Lake, Wisconsin. His mother Caryn, 49, said: 'When I arrived at the hospital the emergency room team were prepping him for the scan. 'He was already sedated and had several machines hooked up. 'I kept telling myself that I must be having a nightmare because that can't be my beautiful boy. Alex Hook is in a medically-induced coma after suffering severe brain damage since the incident on September 10 just behind Riverview Elementary in Silver Lake, Wisconsin 'It feels like the hands of Father Time have stopped. 'Every day that goes by we thank the Lord that Alex is still with us and fighting for his life.' At about 11.30am, the mower ran over a waste piece of rebar and it was projected out through a chain link fence that surrounded the school grounds and towards the kids. The metal projectile, believed to be 12 inches long and half an inch wide, struck first-grader Alex, who was bending down at the time, in the back of his head. He was knocked unconscious and started to have seizures. The school contacted Ms Hook and the emergency services to inform them of the freak accident. At about 11.30am, the mower ran over a waste piece of rebar and it was projected out through a chain link fence that surrounded the school grounds and towards the kids The mother-of-two said: 'I was in total shock but composed myself immediately and rushed to the school. 'I had no idea the severity of his injury until I saw him on the ground bleeding from his head and convulsing. I really don't know what prevented me from fainting.' The boy was airlifted to the Children's Hospital of Milwaukee while paramedics tried to stabilise him. When he arrived, he was taken for a CT scan where he was found to have a fractured skull, and that a piece had broken off and lodged into his brain causing a bleed. He was taken for emergency surgery to remove the largest fragment, as well as removing some healthy skull to relieve some pressure. The metal projectile, believed to be 12 inches long and half an inch wide, struck first-grader Alex, who was bending down at the time, in the back of his head The little boy remains in a medically induced coma as a bacterial infection causes a spike in his fever and puts dangerous pressure on his brain whenever he is weaned off. Ms Hook, who works for a pharmaceutical company, said: 'The doctors said the first 72 hours were critical, but here we are a week later and he's still in critical condition. 'While sitting vigil at his bedside, when possible, I read aloud the thousands of comments and prayers people are writing on the Facebook support page. 'I hope he can hear me, so he knows how many people love him and are praying for a complete recovery. The little boy remains in a medically induced coma as a bacterial infection causes a spike in his fever and puts dangerous pressure on his brain whenever he is weaned off His aunt Michelle has since set up a GoFundMe to help cover Alex's medical costs 'Don't let a day go by without hugging and telling your children you love them - life can change in the blink of an eye.' His aunt Michelle has since set up a GoFundMe to help cover Alex's medical costs. Sales director Michelle said: 'The family is trying to stay positive despite the constant medical setbacks. 'We are literally on an emotional rollercoaster. 'It is heart-breaking to see this beautiful boy non-responsive and hooked up to so many machines. 'The outpouring of love, prayers, positive thoughts and donations have been incredible and greatly appreciated.' Advertisement Holiday bookings soared yesterday after punitive travel restrictions were finally lifted. Within minutes of the official announcement, travel agents were deluged with inquiries and predicted this weekend would be their busiest of the year. Demand for October half-term trips was three times higher than in August as firms slashed prices. Turkey and the Maldives, both removed from the red list yesterday, were among the most sought after destinations. The traffic light system is also being replaced with a simpler 'go/no-go' regime with far less coronavirus testing. The fully vaccinated will no longer have to pay for costly PCR swabs or pre-return tests. Instead they will need to purchase only a cheaper lateral flow test within two days of returning, taking a free PCR swab if this is positive. The shake-up means testing bills faced by families will be slashed by hundreds of pounds. The only destinations that will remain off limits for the double jabbed are on the red list. All arrivals from these countries will still have to quarantine in hotels for 11 nights on arrival in England at a cost of 2,285, regardless of vaccination status. The rule changes will apply to visiting foreigners jabbed with UK-recognised vaccines, meaning a boost to domestic businesses starved of tourist spending. The new regime will be introduced in three steps, starting with eight countries being removed from the red list at 4am on Wednesday. Pre-return tests will be scrapped for the double jabbed on October 4, when the new 'go/no-go' system will come into force. The traffic light system will remain until then. Costly PCR swabs will then be ditched for the fully vaccinated towards the end of October. The changes to the travel rules came as: The vaccine booster programme got under way yesterday, with a maternity support worker among the first to receive the jab; Industry leaders warned that care homes will be forced to shut, break the law or drop standards if ministers fail to push back the deadline for compulsory jabs; Nicola Sturgeon has called in the British Army to deal with Scotland's ambulance crisis after she was forced to apologise for life-threatening delays; A survey found that a majority of people believe workers will never return to the office full-time after the pandemic; The latest figures showed that Covid infections appear to be falling in all regions of England, even after children have returned to school. Ministers today announced they are replacing the current international travel traffic light scheme with a simplified 'go and no-go' system as they also scrapped pre-departure tests for fully-vaccinated travellers returning to England Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that from October 4 the current approach of green, amber and red will be ditched in favour of a single red list of banned countries and a 'rest of the world' category for everywhere else. Ministers face backlash over 'U-turning' red list pledge Ministers were last night facing backlash after they were suspected of U-turning on pledge to halve the number of countries on the red list. The Department for Transport announced that just eight countries would be removed from the 62 currently on it. Turkey, Kenya, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Oman, Pakistan and Egypt won't be known as 'high-risk' countries and tourists will be able to go there without quarantining at a hotel on their return at a cost of 2,285 per person. Most of South America including Argentina and Brazil are still on the list alongside popular tourist spots such as Thailand and the Seychelles. Environment Secretary George Eustice said yesterday that the country could be put under another lockdown if a new variant of coronavirus develops that is resistant to the vaccine. Advertisement What are the new travel rules from October 4 and how do they compare to the current traffic light system? As of October 4, the Government's travel traffic light system is being replaced with a simplified two-tier 'go/no-go' scheme. There will be a 'red list' of banned countries and a 'rest of the world' list for everywhere else. Travel to and from nations in the 'rest of the world' list will be easier but there will be different rules depending on vaccination status. This is how the new system will work: Travel from the 'rest of the world' if you are fully vaccinated Travellers must book and pay for a day two coronavirus test to be taken after arriving back in England. They do not need to take a pre-departure test before coming back to the country or take a day eight test. There is no quarantine requirement assuming the day two test is negative. Travel from the 'rest of the world' if you are not fully vaccinated Travellers must take a pre-departure coronavirus test before coming back to England. They must also book and pay for a day two and day eight test. After arriving in England they must quarantine at home for 10 days. Travel from red list countries Normal travel from these countries remains banned and only UK nationals can return from them. Travellers must take a pre-departure test. They must also book and pay for a Government-backed quarantine hotel package. The stay in hotel quarantine will cost more than 2,000 and will involve two tests. The 'red list' rules apply regardless of vaccination status. WHAT IS CURRENTLY IN PLACE? RED: Travel to the UK from a red list country is banned for non-UK nationals. Britons returning to the UK must take a pre-departure test and book a ten-day stay in hotel quarantine including tests at a cost of 1,750. Countries include Brazil, Turkey, Bangladesh and South Africa. AMBER: A pre-departure test is required before heading to Britain while non-vaccinated people have to quarantine for ten days at home and book tests on day two and day 8. They can also pay for a day 5 test under the 'test to release' scheme. The fully-vaccinated do not have to isolate but they do have to book a day 2 test. Countries include Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. GREEN WATCHLIST: This is a category for countries which are at risk of losing their green status (see below). Countries include Barbados, Croatia and Israel. GREEN : Returning travellers must take a pre-departure test and book a day two test as well. Quarantine is not required for anyone unless the test is positive. Countries include Bulgaria, Canada , Iceland and Malta. Advertisement Ministers did not specify a date but said they were aiming to have this in place 'for when people return from half-term breaks'. Another crucial change means passengers who transit through a red-list destination, having been in a safe country, will not be subjected to hotel quarantine. The unvaccinated face even tougher rules under the new regime in a bid by ministers to encourage more people to get jabbed. Even when returning from countries on the 'go' list, they will have to isolate at home for ten days and take PCR tests on days two and eight. They will still have the option of taking an extra post-arrival PCR test on the fifth day to be released from self-solation early. MPs and the travel industry welcomed the shake-up, having warned for weeks that failure to overhaul the system could lead to thousands more job losses. But some questioned why ministers were not scrapping PCR tests for the double jabbed for another month, and stepped up calls for all testing to be scrapped. Alan French, chief executive of Thomas Cook, was among those reporting a bookings rush. He said: 'The news today is a shot in the arm for both the travel industry and families up and down the country who are crying out for some much-needed late summer sun. Based on our bookings already today, I would expect this weekend to be the biggest of the year so far. 'Bookings for October half-term are up more than 200 per cent compared to August as people lock in great prices for beach breaks in their favourite Mediterranean sunspots.' Package holiday giant Jet2.com also reported a bookings bonanza. Chief executive Steve Heapy said: 'There has been an immediate and massive surge in bookings for flights and package holidays on the back of this welcome news for holidaymakers in England.' The carrier will resume flights to Turkey from Thursday next week. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: 'By reducing the number of red-list destinations and scrapping PCR testing, ministers have paved the way for people to get away this October half-term and into the winter following 18 months of uncertainty.' John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, added: 'This simplification of the travel rules is very welcome for businesses and families across the country but the decision to require fully vaccinated passengers to take more costly private lateral flow tests is an unnecessary barrier to travel, which keeps the UK out of step with the rest of the EU.' Travel firms were offering discounts of more than a third on holidays to traditional hotspots such as Spain, Greece and Portugal. The shake-up will apply to England only, with Scotland last night saying it would not follow suit. Holyrood said it had 'concerns at the impact on public health' of the changes and would not be adopting them. Wales and Northern Ireland have not yet said whether they will fall in line. In a further boost for families, the new regime will carry over the current rules on children. It means under-18s will be treated as though they are fully jabbed, even if they are not. However, returning holidaymakers will still be required to fill in a passenger locator form before travelling back to England. They will need to prove they have ordered a day two lateral flow test and input their order number into the form. Free NHS lateral flow tests will not be available. Announcing the move last night, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: 'Today's changes mean a simpler, more straightforward system.' The shake-up means that the amber list is officially dead, with those countries joining 'green' nations in the new 'rest of the world' category. The Board of Airline Representatives in the UK also welcomed the changes, with chief executive Dale Keller saying: 'Greater freedom of movement for many vaccinated passengers, without the anxiety of pre-departure tests and the high cost of PCR testing on arrival, will help restore traveller confidence and set the aviation, travel and tourism sectors on what is still a long road to recovery.' Mr Keller said moving to a binary system and creating a 'two-tier entry regime' based on vaccination status will help bring 'greater clarity to entry requirements'. He said the announcement is a 'step towards properly rebalancing international travel risk' in the UK but warned the existing rules had 'decimated' passenger numbers which means firms must now try to 'claw back lost ground'. British Airways chief executive and chairman Sean Doyle urged the Government to go further and sweep away all testing requirements for fully-vaccinated travellers. Hated travel testing rules are to be torn up for the fully jabbed in time for the half-term holidays - but unvaccinated Britons will still have to quarantine on their return. Library image Those who are unvaccinated face even tougher restrictions. They will have to quarantine on their return from all countries, even though on the 'go' list. Insiders hope the strategy will help to drive up vaccination rates All current 'amber list' countries will effectively become green or 'go' destinations while the number of 'red list', or 'no-go' countries, will be slashed in half. This means popular holiday destinations such as Turkey are likely to open up to fully jabbed Britons next month Huw Merriman, the Tory chairman of the Transport Select Committee, also welcomed the overhaul of the 'cumbersome' existing rules. 'The need for caution is clear but with 80 per cent of our country now vaccinated, UK travel needs a shot in the arm and this could be it,' he said. 'It's a relief to see the Government move on these issues and this announcement, timed ahead of October half-term, could have an immediate impact on the UK's travel industry.' Mr Shapps said the new system was 'proportionate' and 'reflects the new landscape' of the numbers of those who are fully-vaccinated. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: 'Today we have simplified the travel rules to make them easier to understand and follow, opening up tourism and reducing the costs to go abroad. 'As global vaccination efforts continue to accelerate and more people gain protection from this dreadful disease, it is right that our rules and regulations keep pace.' Flexible hours from first day for new employees? Employees will be given the legal right to request flexible working from their first day in a new job under government plans. At the moment, new staff must wait 26 weeks before applying to work from home or have flexible start and finish times. But in a potential shake-up the Government is consulting on whether they can request flexible working on day one. At the 2019 general election, the Tories said they would encourage flexible working, and working from home became the norm for many during the pandemic. Flexible working can make jobs more accessible to under-represented groups and allow access to a wider talent pool. A Whitehall source said: This wont just be about working from home flexible working is about so much more, from staggered start times and job-sharing, to flexitime and phased retirement. Advertisement Fury as minister says new variant could see England plunged into a 'full lockdown England will be plunged back into a 'full lockdown' if a vaccine resistant variant of Covid-19 enters the country, a Cabinet minister warned yesterday. Environment Secretary George Eustice insisted that importing a variant that the jab has no effect on was a bigger threat to the travel sector than coronavirus controls. In an interview with Sky News yesterday, Mr Eustice said: 'It has been a very, very difficult time for the travel industry we absolutely recognise that and that's why we've done all we can to have those easements in place and reduce the restrictions as quickly as we can. 'But arguably the biggest threat to the travel industry is that we do get another variant that manages to get around the vaccine, that the vaccine can't deal with, and then we're into another full lockdown. 'That's not what we want and that is why we've taken this cautiously, step by step, because we want each step that we take to be irreversible.' Mr Eustice's comments sparked anger among Conservative MPs. Boris Johnson repeatedly said he wanted the UK's exit from the last lockdown to be 'irreversible'. Former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: 'There is no way this economy can afford to shut down. 'If we shut down one more time then we are absolutely going down the plughole. 'And if ministers think that this is even on the cards, then it is time they checked out.' David Davis said ministers would likely struggle to get another lockdown through the Commons. 'Talking about it is one thing but if they did it, there would be a demand that they should justify it,' he said. Advertisement The Department for Transport confirmed the eight countries coming off the red list as of 4am on Wednesday are Turkey, Pakistan, the Maldives, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh and Kenya. British Airways chief executive and chairman Sean Doyle welcomed the changes but urged ministers to go further. He said: 'We welcome the simplification of the traffic light system, and the changes to the testing requirements allowing UK travellers to benefit from our world-leading vaccination programme and finally giving customers and business the confidence to book the journeys they've been waiting for. 'Based on the scientific evidence, with fewer than one per cent of people returning from low-risk countries testing positive for Covid (lower than the UK's rate), we urge ministers to keep this policy under review, eliminating all testing for fully vaccinated travellers as soon as possible in the future, in line with most other European countries.' Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick Airport, said the changes were a 'significant and welcome step towards recovery' and a boost for travellers seeking to get away this winter. He said: 'Fully vaccinated passengers now have a larger choice of destinations and can book with more confidence in the months before Christmas and beyond free from the need to arrange pre-departure tests before coming back into the UK.' Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, said: 'This is a welcome step forward for our customers and a move that will make it significantly easier for the fully vaccinated to travel to Europe, opening up flying again for many more UK consumers. 'Removing the pre-departure test coupled with the disbanding of the traffic light system will inject some much needed confidence into travel once again. 'However, vaccinated travellers and those from low-risk countries will still have to do an unnecessary test after arriving in the UK, making travel less affordable for all.' Karen Dee, Airport Operators Association chief executive, said: 'The easing of travel restrictions is a good step forward. By reducing complexity and the cost of testing, this should encourage more people to travel this winter and allow airports to see a further uplift in passenger numbers. 'However, this last formal checkpoint of the Global Travel Taskforce should have been the time to return to restriction-free travel at a time when nearly all of the population has been vaccinated. Instead, we continue to have a more onerous approach to travel than our European competitors.' Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss added that Boris Johnson should go further by negotiating the removal of transatlantic restrictions for UK citizens travelling to the US. He said: 'We urge the UK Government to use the Prime Minister's upcoming visit to the USA to work with the Biden administration to remove transatlantic restrictions for UK citizens, just as the UK has done for US travellers, helping loved ones to reunite safely and businesses to restore ties with our largest trading partner.' Thomas Cook chief executive Alan French said October half-term bookings were up 200 per cent compared to August and he expects this figure to rise as a result of the simpler system. He said: 'The news today is a shot in the arm for both the travel industry and families up and down the country who are crying out for some much-needed late summer sun. The Government has also slashed the number of countries on the red list, with eight nations being removed from 4am on September 22, including Turkey, Pakistan and the Maldives. Above: Passengers at Heathrow Prime Minister Boris Johnson greets Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, outside 10 Downing Street ahead of a bilateral meeting on Friday Airline bosses have said Boris Johnson should go further than the newly-announced changes by negotiating the removal of transatlantic restrictions for UK citizens travelling to the US Today's changes could also see the number of red-list countries slashed to fewer than 30. Cape Verde, Egypt, the Maldives and Turkey (pictured) are among the holiday destinations currently on the red list Many countries in Europe have seen their travel industries recover much quicker than the UK's, having already dropped PCR testing rules for double-jabbed arrivals from low-risk countries 'Based on our bookings already today, I would expect this weekend to be the biggest of the year so far as people take advantage of the great deals on offer, the new easier rules on testing and the simplified system for international travel.' Red list booking surge: Holiday sites see increase in demand for trips to Maldives, Mexico and Sri Lanka Demand for travel to 'red list' countries such as the Maldives, Mexico and Sri Lanka is surging amid hopes they could be among the next destinations downgraded in the UK Government's next travel shake-up. Travel experts anticipate a 'large increase in bookings this weekend' for foreign trips if the Government goes ahead with tearing up testing rules for the fully vaccinated in time for the half-term holidays. Under a major raft of changes to be announced today, the double-jabbed will no longer have to take costly PCR tests when they return from abroad - and will instead only need a cheaper lateral flow test. The 'pre-departure tests' that travellers are forced to take before flying home are also likely to be scrapped amid a long-awaited review of the travel restrictions that will also see the controversial traffic light rules radically redrawn. Expedia said today that Mexico is the most popular red list country when comparing this month with September 2020, with a rise in interest of 70 per cent, while the Maldives is up 30 per cent and Sri Lanka 20 per cent. And Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told MailOnline this morning: 'I think you'll see a large increase in bookings this weekend, if the Prime Minister goes ahead with the measures.' Skyscanner said it had seen a 92 per cent increase in the last full week for return searches by UK travellers with Dubai, 'everywhere', Alicante, Malaga and Dublin in the top spots, while interest in Turkey has also seen an uptick. TravelSuperMarket added that average holiday prices to Spain for this month and next are 38 per cent down on the same period in 2019 given that it remains on the amber list, but green list Malta is up 29 per cent. Advertisement Managing director of TUI UK Andrew Flintham said he has already seen 'an uptick in bookings for Turkey in October' and expects customer confidence to have been boosted further by the new rules. He added though that 'fully vaccinated customers (in the UK) still have more travel restrictions in place than many other countries around the world, so as an industry we will not see the return of operations as we would like'. Many countries in Europe have seen their travel industries recover much quickly than the UK's, having already dropped PCR testing rules for double-jabbed arrivals from low-risk countries. There has also been huge controversy over the Government's approved list of PCR testing providers, with a litany of complaints that the tests are too expensive, and a disincentive to foreign travel. Although the travel 'red list' of countries deemed to pose a high risk from new Covid variants will remain in place, the number of countries will be reduced by more than half from the current 62, opening up the vast majority of destinations to those who are fully jabbed. However, the unvaccinated face an even tougher regime from today. At present, unvaccinated travellers returning from green list countries such as Croatia, Denmark and Germany have to take a PCR test within two days of their arrival home. Under the new system they will have to isolate at home for ten days and take PCR tests on both day two and day eight, as they currently do for amber list countries. The changes will be in place in time for the October half-term. This evening a government source said the shake-up reflected growing confidence in the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines, coupled with a desire to cut travellers' costs. There will be widespread relief at the scrapping of the traffic light system. Since its launch in May, travellers have been subjected to a series of confusing and last-minute announcements. Today's changes could also see the number of red-list countries slashed to fewer than 30. Cape Verde, Egypt, the Maldives and Turkey are among the holiday destinations currently on the red list. Airlines UK's Mr Alderslade said: 'Getting rid of PCR testing would be a real step forward but not if we still end up with two tests you have to pay for. We need to follow Europe's example and remove these requirements if you've been vaccinated.' Charlie Cornish, chief executive of the Manchester Airports Group, said: 'People should be free to travel again to low-risk destinations without having to take any tests whether that is PCR or lateral flow. The time for baby steps is over.' Travel expert Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said earlier this week that 24 countries 'should be taken off', including Pakistan, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Chile. He added that he would be 'very surprised' if Turkey is removed due to 'worsening' coronavirus data. But coronavirus data analyst Tim White said: 'With Grant Shapps and the travel lottery, no-one can be sure. Scotland will NOT remove pre-departure test requirement Scotland will not follow England in removing the requirement for people who are fully vaccinated to take a pre-departure test before returning from non-red list destinations. In a statement, the Scottish Government said: 'A UK Government decision to implement proposals to remove the requirement for a pre-departure test in England and to use lateral flow tests on day two have not been adopted at this stage in Scotland due to significant concerns at the impact on public health.' Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said the Scottish Government 'has concerns that the UK Government's proposals to remove the requirement for a pre-departure test for some travellers will weaken our ability to protect the public health of Scotland's communities'. He added: 'While we want to maintain a four-nations approach to these matters, we need to consider urgently their implications.' Advertisement 'But the data firmly support Turkey being removed as it has no threat of variants and a lot of genomic sequencing.' However in a big boost to millions of Britons hoping to catch some late season sun, it was today reported that Turkey will be removed from the Government's red list in time for the school half-term holidays. According to the Times, the red list will be more than halved, with Turkey one of the countries set to be removed from the list. The country is one of the UK's most popular destinations for late autumn/winter sun - with average highs of around 26C. More than two million Britons holidayed in the country in 2019, Officer for National Statistics figures show. But the country has been on the red list since May. Meanwhile, Jamaica, which is currently on the amber list, is one of the countries which could find itself moved up rather than down when changes are announced today, experts warn. The island's seven-day average for Covid cases has been on the rise since July, peaking at 769 cases at the end of August. Yesterday Jamaica - a country of around 3 million people - recorded 510 new cases with a seven day average of 572. Jamaica remained amber in the last traffic lights update, but the Foreign Office has since changed its guidance for the country and advises 'against all but essential travel to the whole of Jamaica based on the current assessment of COVID-19 risks'. The Caribbean island of Grenada, which is currently on the green list, is also at risk of being move on to the red list, according to data expert Tim White. Jamaica, which is currently on the amber list, is one of the countries which could find itself moved up rather than down when changes are announced today, experts warn. Pictured: Montego Bay in Jamaica The Caribbean island of Grenada (pictured: St George's Grenada) , which is currently on the green list, is also at risk of being move on to the red list, according to data expert Tim White. Covid figures have spiked since the start of September, with the country's seven day average rising from 39 cases on September 1 to 164 in a fortnight Covid figures have spiked since the start of September, with the country's seven day average rising from 39 cases on September 1 to 164 in a fortnight. Serbia, Kosovo and Albania, according to data expert Tim White. Mr White told Sky News that Nigeria could also be vulnerable. The travel sector has been desperate for the testing and quarantine rules for international travel to be relaxed. Heathrow said this week it had gone from being Europe's busiest airport in 2019 to number 10 on the list, behind rivals in cities such as Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. After all those gloomy claims, infections dip By Victoria Allen, Science Correspondent Infection levels in England have fallen slightly in the wake of gloomy warnings over cases. About one in 80 people had Covid in the week to September 11, which was down from one in 70 the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics. The highest rates were seen in secondary school pupils, suggesting the return to school is causing the virus to spread. About one in 25 of those aged 11 to 16 tested positive. But just 0.7 per cent of over-70s were estimated to have the virus in the latest survey results. A rate of one in 80 means about 700,000 have the virus in England. The figures exclude hospitals and care homes. In Scotland, one in 45 people had Covid in the week to September 11, according to the ONS. It is the second week in a row that the rate has been at its highest level since Scottish estimates began in October last year. Professor James Naismith, from the University of Oxford, said the numbers tell a 'mixed story', adding: 'Scotland is not well placed for the oncoming winter... 'I think it is very important to figure out quite quickly why Scotland is in such difficulty.' In Wales, around one in 60 are estimated to have had Covid in the week to September 11, up from one in 65 in the previous week. In Northern Ireland, the latest estimate is one in 75, down from one in 60. Yesterday, 32,651 cases and 178 deaths were recorded in the UK. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson unveiled his Winter Plan for Covid as officials warned the disease remains a risk. Advertisement The transport hub announced it recorded a 48 per cent increase in passenger numbers in August compared with the previous month. Some 2.2million passengers travelled through the west London airport last month, up from 1.5 million in July and the highest monthly passenger total of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the airport noted that demand was still down 71 per cent compared with before the coronavirus crisis. In August 2019, passenger numbers reached 7.7 million. Heathrow has urged the Government to 'streamline' the rules for international travel, calling for the amber list to be scrapped, and a two-tier system introduced. Under the airport's proposals, fully vaccinated arrivals from green list locations would no longer be required to take a test, whereas those who are not fully vaccinated would need to take lateral flow tests pre-departure and post-arrival. Only those who test positive would need to take a more expensive PCR test. Hotel quarantine would be retained for arrivals from high-risk red list countries. Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: 'The Government has the tools to protect the UK's international competitiveness which will boost the economic recovery and achieve its 'global Britain' ambitions. 'If ministers fail to take this opportunity to streamline the travel rules then the UK will fall further behind as trade and tourists will increasingly bypass the UK.' Meanwhile Gary Wilson, the chief executive of easyJet Holidays, earlier this week said Britain was lagging behind the rest of Europe in terms of travel. For example, Germany, which has low case rates, has a red list but no countries currently appear on it. Mr Wilson told a Travel Weekly conference that the company was 'back to pre-pandemic levels' in Europe. He urged ministers to adopt a less restrictive approach to holidays. He said: 'The government throwing us scraps and expecting us to be grateful for that isn't good enough. 'They may continue not to listen but it shows the disconnect between the government and the industry.' Meanwhile, Steve Heapy, the chief executive of Jet2, the UK's second biggest tour operator, said of the system: 'It's impossible for customers to plan. Winter is very popular with city breaks and short breaks, [but] people are just not going to risk it for two or three days as long as this complexity remains.' By TikToker Miranda Baker (pictured) said she and her boyfriend were at Grand Teton National Park in Colter Bay, Wyoming, on August 29 when Laundrie approached the couple and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm A TikToker from Wisconsin has claimed she picked up Brian Laundrie, the person of interest in Gabby Petito's disappearance, as he was hitchhiking alone five days after his girlfriend went missing and one day before she last texted her mother. In the video posted to the social media site Miranda Baker said she and her boyfriend were at Grand Teton National Park in Colter Bay, Wyoming, on August 29 when Laundrie approached the couple and asked them for a ride at 5.30pm. 'He approached us asking for a ride because he needed to go to Jackson and we were going to Jackson that night. So I said, ya know, "hop in" and he hopped in the back of my Jeep,' Baker explained. She noted Laundrie, 23, was wearing 'a backpack, a long sleeve, pants and hiking boots' and said that before he got in the car he offered to pay the couple $200 to give him a 10-mile ride. 'So that was kind of weird,' she said. Baker spoke hours before 'He approached us asking for a ride because he needed to go to Jackson and we were going to Jackson that night. So I said, ya know, "hop in" and he hopped in the back of my Jeep,' Baker explained. She called the entire interaction with Brian Laundrie 'a weird situation' Baker supposedly picked up Laundrie (left), the person of interest in Gabby Petito's (right) disappearance, as he was hitchhiking alone five days after his girlfriend went missing and one day before she last texted her mother Baker noted Laundrie, 23, was wearing 'a backpack, a long sleeve, pants and hiking boots' and said that before he got in the car he offered to pay the couple $200 to give him a 10-mile ride Baker explained that her, her boyfriend and Laundrie 'then proceeded to make small talk' and found out he had been camping for multiple days without his fiancee. 'He did say he had a fiancee and that she was working on their social media page back at their van,' Baker said. In a later video she added that Laundrie supposedly told her he and Petito, 22, were not camping on a regulated campsite through the national park. 'They were camping basically out in the middle of nowhere along Snake River,' she said. Baker recounted the alleged story Laundrie told her and her boyfriend: 'This is key information. He said that he had hiked for days along Snake River but looking at his backpack, it wasn't full. 'And he said all he had was a tarp to sleep on. And, if you'd think you're going camping for days on end you'd want food and a tent and he had none of that.' She added: 'He had scruff but he didn't look dirty for someone who was camping for multiple days. He didn't look dirty, he didn't smell dirty, so that part was kind of weird.' Then, when Baker told Laundrie they were driving to Jackson Hole he supposedly 'freaked out' and asked them to pull over and said: 'Nope, I need to get out right now.' Petito was last seen on August 24 leaving a hotel with Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the couple's cross-country campervan trip Petito set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with her boyfriend in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 Baker said they pulled over at the Jackson Dam in Grand Teton National Park, which she noted was not very far from where they originally picked Laundrie up. He allegedly hurried out of the car and told the couple he would find someone else to hitchhike with. 'We dropped him off at 6.09pm on August 29,' Baker said, adding that she hopes her videos would find someone who could also help solve the case and find Petito. She called the entire interaction with Laundrie 'a weird situation'. In her latest video she addressed skeptics and said that the story she detailed in the previous videos posted to TikTok she also told detectives and the FBI. 'I am actively in contact with these people,' she said. Her allegations come five days after Petito was last seen in public - on August 24 - when she and Laundrie checked out of a Fairfield Inn hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah. On August 29 Baker only saw Laundrie. One day later Petito's mother Nicole Schmidt received a curious text from her daughter that read: 'No service in Yosemite.' The mother refused to disclose the contents of her daughter's texts but told DailyMail.com: 'That text was NOT from Gabby I know it!' She believes Laundrie may have sent the message from her phone possibly to mislead her family and investigators as to her whereabouts. A map shows the last known movements of Petito and Laundrie along their cross-country road trip which began July 2 Laundrie was named a person of interest and is refusing to cooperate with cop. The couple with their campervan Attorney Richard Stafford on Thursday read out an emotional letter from Petito's family begging the Laundries to cooperate, saying 'we believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby' The letter also confirmed reports that the young couple were engaged to be married and suggested the Laundries were 'so happy' that the two were planning to spend their lives together Laundrie returned home to Florida from the couple's road trip alone on September 1 - two days after hitchhiking with Baker and 10 days before Petito's family reported her missing. If the couple were in fact together in Yosemite on August 30, that would mean Brian drove over 3,000 miles within two days to arrive in Florida on September 1. Now police have officially named Brian Laundrie a 'person of interest' in their inquiry into her mystery disappearance as he refuses to cooperate, although they say there is no evidence any crime has been committed. Cops in North Port, Florida, said: 'Brian Laundrie is a person of interest in this case. As of now, Brian has not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details.' Brian's family refused to let authorities speak to their son when the 2012 Ford van was seized from their property late on September 11. Most recently, Brian Laundrie's sister broke the Laundrie family silence about the disappearance of her brother's girlfriend and said her and her family 'obviously want Gabby to be found safe'. 'All I want is for her to come home safe and sound and this to be just a big misunderstanding,' she said in an interview with ABC News. Brian Laundrie's sister Cassie Laundrie (pictured) has broken her silence about the disappearance of her brother's girlfriend and said her and her family 'obviously want Gabby to be found safe' just after Brian was named a 'person of interest' in her vanishing Policed released a photo of the Ford van that was seized from the Laundrie property on September 11, the day Petito's family reported her middding Cassie's interview came the same day the Petito family penned an emotional letter begging the Laundries to help them find their missing daughter and suggesting that the family might be withholding information about where she is. The heartbreaking letter was read aloud by family attorney Richard Stafford in a press conference held in Petito's hometown of Long Island on Thursday. 'We understand you are going through a difficult time and your instinct to protect your son is strong. 'We ask you to put yourselves in our shoes. We haven't been able to sleep or eat and our lives are falling apart,' the Petitos wrote. They added: 'As a parent, how can you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabby's younger brothers and sisters through this?' The letter also confirmed reports that the young couple were engaged to be married and suggested the Laundries were 'so happy' that the two were planning to spend their lives together. During the press conference Stafford would not provide further details about Petito's suspicious final text message to her family and refused to comment on the body camera footage from the August 12 incident. New bodycam footage emerged Wednesday showing police being called to an incident involving the couple in Moab, Utah, on August 12 - 13 days before Petito was last heard from. A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone' In the newly-released bodycam video, an emotional Petito is seen with tears streaming down her face telling officers the couple 'have been fighting all morning' and admitting that she slapped him. Petito said she suffers from OCD and anxiety, with both her and Laundrie saying she was stressed because of the YouTube blog they were working on to document the doomed cross-country trip. Laundrie was seen with scratches on his face and arm which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone'. When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation. The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and said they were going to separate the couple for the night. At the press conference Stafford revealed the couple's cross country road trip included plans to visit Oregon on October 2, meaning Laundrie's premature return to his family's Florida home on September 1 would have seemed odd or unexpected. 'The family is devastated. Every day that this goes on, they get more and more desperate. They're at the point that this desperation as turned into anger,' the family lawyer added. 'They know that the Laundries know where their daughter is. And they will not tell them. That's infuriating.' At the press conference Stafford revealed the couple's cross country road trip included plans to visit Oregon on October 2, meaning Laundrie's premature return to his family's Florida home on September 1 would have seemed odd or unexpected 'No service in Yosemite,' reads the text from Petito's cell phone, sent August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt, DailyMail.com can reveal. Her uncle Mike Schmidt posted this handwritten timeline of events Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters about her daughter Gabby Petitio. Schmidt told DailyMail.com she doesn't beliece the last text she received from Gabby's phone was actually sent by her daughter Stafford also said the Laundries had already retained legal representation by the time police came knocking on their door a week later. Petito was last seen on August 24 leaving a hotel with Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the couple's cross-country campervan trip which they started early July. On August 25 she made her final call to her mom, telling her she and Laundrie had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. She was reported missing by her family on September 11 after they hadn't heard from her in 13 days. Meanwhile, Laundrie - who was named a person of interest in the case Wednesday - returned to the couple's home in North Port, Florida, on September 1 with the van but without Petito, police said. Earlier this week Petito's father said the main priority must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about' her boyfriend, who had already been named a 'person of interest' in her disappearance. Joe Petito told Fox & Friends First on Thursday that he doesn't 'give two craps' about Laundrie and slammed him for 'sitting home in his lazy boy chair' instead of helping in the search for his missing girlfriend. 'I don't care what happens to him right now,' he said. The new Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has raged against 'Left-wing snowflakes' and once dubbed the BBC a 'biased Left-wing organisation which is seriously failing in its political representation, from the top down'. As if to prove her point, she was appointed on the very day the Beeb unveiled one Jess Brammar as its new executive news editor. While 64-year-old Dorries a novelist and reality TV star who once ate an ostrich's nether parts on I'm a Celebrity can be outspoken and divisive, Miss Brammar has turned baiting Tories into an art form. This June, Maitlis was meanwhile forced to delete a tweet accusing the Government of 'failing to properly protect the country from a pandemic' Nadine Dorries a novelist and reality TV star who once ate an ostrich's nether parts on I'm a Celebrity can be outspoken and divisive The former editor of Left-wing website HuffPost UK, Brammar recently tried (and failed) to erase evidence of her hard-Left sympathies by deleting more than 16,000 Twitter posts. They included tweets from the last election campaign in which she repeatedly called Boris Johnson a liar, claimed that 'Black Brits' were 'genuinely considering leaving the UK because of the level of racism, particularly if Boris Johnson wins' and gleefully promoted 'the group of young women behind the #FCKBoris posters' on the London Underground. Elsewhere, she has argued that the term 'woke' is a 'dogwhistle', compared Brexit to a bad comedy 'like [Netflix's] Better Call Saul but less funny or interesting or enjoyable', and urged people to 'fight for a properly funded NHS'. The former editor of Left-wing website HuffPost UK, Brammar recently tried (and failed) to erase evidence of her hard-Left sympathies by deleting more than 16,000 Twitter posts On other occasions, Brammar has accused the former foreign secretary Dominic Raab of being sexually insecure on the grounds that he once said he was 'probably not' a feminist, described a shortage of home-testing sexual health kits as the 'reality of austerity Britain', endorsed the view that 'transphobia is rife in the gender-based violence sector', and so on. Brammar is just one individual. Yet there is undoubtedly a widely held perception that the BBC has an overwhelming tilt to the Left, not just in its newsroom but other areas, too, such as comedy shows. And this is important. For, unlike other broadcasters, the BBC funded, as it is, by licence-payers who can be arrested if they do not stump up has a duty of impartiality. Of course, questions of impartiality and bias can be subjective. But one objective way of finding out whether there is bias in the BBC newsroom is to examine what those who work there from the leading lights to the less well known write and, perhaps more importantly, 'like' on social media. Here, GUY ADAMS does just that and suggests there are, indeed, a number of culprits that woke-loathing Ms Dorries might want to get her teeth into... NEWSNIGHT POLICY CHIEF WITH A HARD-LEFT AGENDA In 2018, Lewis Goodall wrote a book singing the praises of Jeremy Corbyn called Left for Dead? The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party Lewis Goodall, the policy editor of Newsnight, has never sought to hide his hard-Left agenda. While studying history and politics at Oxford, he began writing opinion pieces for The Guardian, which described him as a Labour Party activist and blogger, and after graduating he worked for the Left-wing Institute for Public Policy Research. In 2018, he wrote a book singing the praises of Jeremy Corbyn called Left for Dead? The Strange Death and Rebirth of the Labour Party. By then, he was a political correspondent for Sky News with a reputation for using social media to mount vigorous attacks on Brexit and the Tory party. When Boris Johnson was at the centre of a row in 2018 over his remarks likening Muslim women wearing burkas to letterboxes and bank robbers, Mr Goodall compared him to the late Tory MP Enoch Powell, and accused him of fuelling racist attacks. 'Burkagate reminds us you can say whatever you like in Britain, be rude or even prejudiced and be respected for it, so long as you're posh and powerful,' he argued, saying Johnson's remark 'legitimises the prejudices of others, further down the class food chain it suggests that certain things which probably ought not to be alright, in fact are. That is why I give the suggestion that there has been an increase in the numbers of attacks on women wearing the niqab in recent days absolute credibility.' Later, when Johnson became PM and prorogued Parliament, Mr Goodall used Twitter to accuse him of 'embarrassing the Queen', which he described as 'astounding'. He added that the Tory party was increasingly 'willing to tolerate a leader who does things/says things they never would have been willing to countenance previously just because they think he'll bring them electoral success', adding that it mimicked the 'slow nervous breakdown on the Right' in the US. Naturally, he sailed into a job at the BBC where he continued his outspoken attacks on the Tory government, one of them last year in a cover story for the Left-wing New Statesman magazine, headlined: 'Failed: How the Government's ineptitude created a lost generation.' This was criticised by Sir Robbie Gibb, former director of communications at No 10 and ex-head of the BBC's Westminster unit, who said: 'Is there anyone more damaging to the BBC's reputation for impartiality than Lewis Goodall? This is so off the scale I don't even know where to begin.' Goodall's partisanship continues to this day. A couple of weeks back, BBC bosses forced him to delete a tweet describing critics of Brammar's appointment as 'unhinged' and 'misogynistic'. NEWSNIGHT HOST WITH IMPARTIALITY ISSUES A serial offender, Newsnight host Emily Maitlis most famously delivered a staggeringly partisan attack on both Dominic Cummings and the Prime Minister last May, declaring before any independent investigation had been carried out that the former had 'broken the rules' during lockdown on a visit to his family home in County Durham and made the public 'feel like fools', accusing the PM of 'blind loyalty'. There were 20,000 complaints and the BBC censured her, saying the remarks failed to meet 'standards of due impartiality'. In September 2019, the corporation's complaints unit found against her for a 'sneering and bullying' interview in which she asked the pro-Brexit journalist Rod Liddle if he would describe himself 'as a racist', saying 'many see you that way' and claiming: 'All you do is write about suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Tower Hamlets.' Liddle responded: 'Do you have to, at every possible juncture, show the BBC's grotesque bias?' For more bias, one need only venture on to her Twitter feed, where she once accused Boris Johnson of 'fuelling racism'. There, Maitlis last May retweeted LBC radio presenter and arch-Remainer James O'Brien saying: 'The far-Right routinely disseminate and pretend to believe things they know not to be true to stoke hatred and division. 'To see the tactic being adopted by Conservative MPs and even an actual minister is a moment of real danger for our democracy.' During the first lockdown, she shared remarks by an anti-Tory doctor who said: 'I'm so grateful you are calling out the lies, u-turns and incompetence of this government', and by Times columnist Jenni Russell who argued: 'Boris was never up to the job of crisis leader... We're being led by bunch of inadequates.' This June, Maitlis was meanwhile forced to delete a tweet accusing the Government of 'failing to properly protect the country from a pandemic'. THE RISING STAR AND BREXIT MOANER Mr Rotherham had decided to mock then Brexit secretary Dominic Raab's decision to quit in protest at Theresa May's deal A rising star of the BBC newsroom who cut his teeth as a graduate political reporter for Radio One, Nick Rotherham was in 2018 made inaugural chairman of the BBC's 'Under 30s News Panel', a committee created to help promising young journalists shape the future of its current affairs output. Last summer, he was promoted to 'senior news editor, commissioning'. But with his growing profile came increased scrutiny and, in July, it emerged that he'd used a personal Twitter account to post several highly critical remarks about Brexit. They dated back to January 2017, when he'd already been a BBC employee for two years. One suggested the UK leaving the single market should lead to a second referendum on Scottish independence: 'Out of the Single Market. Over to you Nicola Sturgeon... #Indyref2.' He'd followed that up two months later by attacking a proposed Brexit settlement, tweeting: 'This Brexit divorce bill will be a bitter pill to swallow for many younger voters. Seven years of austerity and being told there's no money. EMA [European Medicines Agency] and housing benefit taken away, only for 50bn to find to leave a club most didn't want to.' Then, in November 2018, Mr Rotherham had decided to mock then Brexit secretary Dominic Raab's decision to quit in protest at Theresa May's deal, saying: 'So, Dominic Raab just resigned over a deal he negotiated.' A few weeks later, he shared graphics appearing to make the case for proportional representation showing how the Tories would have won 80 fewer seats at the 2019 election. Tory MP Peter Bone said his comments revealed him to be 'clearly biased against Brexit', but no further action was taken. Mr Rotherham's Twitter account is now set to private, meaning only friends are able to read it. BREAKFAST HOST WITH NO TIME FOR DONALD TRUMP Munchetty had to be 'reminded of her responsibilities' by the corporation because she 'liked' a series of anti-Conservative tweets after she and co-host Charlie Stayt had ridiculed then housing minister Robert Jenrick for having a Union flag and a portrait of the Queen in his office In a surreal episode that read like a sub-plot from the TV comedy spoof W1A, the BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty was found by the corporation's executive complaints unit to have breached editorial guidelines in 2019 by suggesting that Donald Trump was a racist. There followed a raft of criticism by Left-leaning celebrities, who wrote a letter to The Guardian where else? calling for the internal regulator's decision to be reversed. The BBC's then director general Lord Hall swiftly gave in to their demand. Further rows followed. The following year, she was accused of firstly 'endorsing criminal behaviour' during a report on Black Lives Matter and secondly showing 'political bias' during an interview with Chancellor Rishi Sunak. This time, the complaints unit decided to find in her favour. Fast forward to this March, and Munchetty had to be 'reminded of her responsibilities' by the corporation because she 'liked' a series of anti-Conservative tweets after she and co-host Charlie Stayt had ridiculed then housing minister Robert Jenrick for having a Union flag and a portrait of the Queen in his office. One of the messages she so admired said 'the flag sh**gers will be up in arms'. Another ventured the opinion: 'This should be done every time the Tories roll out one of their talking head ministers.' Munchetty later apologised in an illiterate statement saying: 'I 'liked' tweets today that were offensive in nature about the use of the British flag as a backdrop in a government interview this morning. I have since removed these 'likes'. This [sic] do not represent the views of me or the BBC. I apologise for any offence taken.' EUROPE SUPREMO EMBEDDED IN BRUSSELS Adler was at the centre of a further row after she claimed that Boris Johnson was 'berating' the EU during the AstraZeneca vaccine row Few BBC jobs have required a greater devotion to impartiality in recent years than the post of Europe editor. But only a fool would expect our national broadcaster to navigate the choppy waters of Brexit without sometimes allowing metropolitan bias to shine through. Which brings us to Katya Adler, holder of the 215,000-a-year post, whose appointment in 2015 met with criticism from Tory MPs who noted that according to her Linked In profile the veteran journalist had from 1996 'to the present day' been 'hosting public, corporate and private events including for the EU Commission, the European Space Agency, CERN, London's Frontline Club and the Austrian government during its EU presidency'. Subsequent years brought endless allegations of partisanship, always denied, and in 2017 Adler went so far as to admit to a 'perceived' anti-Brexit bias in the BBC's coverage. However, she argued that it was all the EU's fault, saying: 'We do not have the same access to talk to the same players as we do on the British side to put the difficult questions to them.' The BBC's executive complaints unit took a different view last year, however, when it found that Adler had breached anti-bias rules in her reporting of comments by Michael Gove to the House of Commons Committee on the Future Relationship with the EU. Mr Gove had suggested that Covid might 'concentrate the minds' of Europe's Brexit negotiators. Adler used Twitter to describe his comment as 'delusional'. The regulator found that her tweet went beyond the guidelines' licence for 'professional judgments, rooted in evidence'. Over the winter, Adler was at the centre of a further row after she claimed that Boris Johnson was 'berating' the EU during the AstraZeneca vaccine row. In fact, critics argued, the Prime Minister was 'remarkably calm' and 'measured' throughout. THE CORBYNIST CORRESPONDENT WHO CALLS BORIS A CLOWN At Cambridge University, she was a proud Corbynist, using social media to make the improbable claim that 'Oh Jeremy Corbyn has been chanted at the end of every May Ball this week' and alleging shortly before the 2017 election that 'Boris Johnson on #mayvscorbyn tonight was an embarrassment can't believe he's our foreign secretary'. Having graduated that summer, Croxford criticised centrist Labour MPs for resigning and 'slating the party in the process' and in a separate post wrote that 'major Labour gains' in that year's election had been 'unbelievable'. She also posted an article by Left-wing columnist Owen Jones, titled 'Please, Theresa, sack Boris Johnson Britain needs leaders not clowns'. And in June that year she wrote: 'Why blame the Tory spin advisers? No amount of spin would have saved their dire manifesto policies: Dementia tax, fox-hunting, unpaid leave.' Naturally, this highly partisan political pedigree did nothing to prevent her sailing into a graduate job at our national broadcaster, where she is now a correspondent. By 2020 her reporting had sparked allegations of anti-Tory bias. In June that year, then equalities minister Kemi Badenoch became embroiled in a row with the BBC over an article in which Croxford questioned whether a Government review into coronavirus risk factors had actually been led by a black doctor named Professor Kevin Fenton, as Public Health England had claimed Croxford posted an article by Left-wing columnist Owen Jones, titled 'Please, Theresa, sack Boris Johnson Britain needs leaders not clowns'. Badenoch said: 'In a rush to discredit the Government, the BBC downplayed the contributions made by an eminent, black physician, seeking to undermine the Government's ability to reach out to these communities that desperately need help.' The BBC responded that it stood by Croxfords reporting. THE HEAD OF INVESTIGATIONS STILL FIGHTING REFERENDUM Mr Perkins retweeted an apparently light-hearted suggestion to make the generation who 'mostly voted' for Brexit pay the cost of it by slashing their pensions by 65 per cent The Twitter feed of the BBC's 'head of journalism, investigations' leaves little doubt to his political persuasion. In between posts promoting the Africa Eye documentary programme, which he edits, Mr Perkins devotes himself to critiques of Brexit along with attacks on news outlets that fail to share his Left-wing worldview. When Donald Trump was doing well in the run-up to the US elections, for example, he shared an anti-Trump tweet saying: 'Fox News and Facebook did to our parents what they said video games would do to us.' In February 2018 he retweeted a blunt riposte by Gary Lineker to Lord [Digby] Jones who had asked 'Remoaners' to stop undermining the UK's negotiating position and that the country should not give in to bullies. It read: 'No, we should never give in to bullies so, please, just stfu [shut the f*** up].' A few months earlier, Mr Perkins retweeted an apparently light-hearted suggestion to make the generation who 'mostly voted' for Brexit pay the cost of it by slashing their pensions by 65 per cent. Shortly before the 2019 election, he retweeted an attack on the 'Red Wall' Tory MP Ben Bradley by a Guardian journalist, arguing that post-Brexit trade deals would force British consumers to eat imported meat produced via 'horrendous animal welfare conditions'. Victoria has recorded 535 new Covid-19 cases and one death amid hopes the state could end lockdown as soon as Melbourne Cup day if the wait time between Pfizer doses is halved. World Health Organisation epidemiologist Professor Adrian Esterman said it was time to revise the window period between receiving both doses of the vaccine. The waiting period could be cut down from six to three weeks and ultimately fast track the state to reach its 80 per cent vaccination target by November 2. At its current pace, Victoria is expected to reach the milestone by November 19. 'Now is absolutely the time to revise those wait times and get more people fully protected,' professor Esterman said. The promise of reopening comes despite case numbers continuing to climb. The new cases announced on Saturday add to the 510 reported on Friday. Only 62 have been linked to known outbreaks. Melbourne is also on track to setting an unenviable world record with the city set to claim the top gong for the longest lockdown. Victoria could be lifted out of lockdown as early as Melbourne Cup Day if the state halves the time between doses of the Pfizer vaccine The waiting period between both Pfizer doses could be cut down from six to three weeks and ultimately fast track the state to reach its 80 per cent vaccination target by November 2 Buenos Aires, in Argentina, currently holds the record after the city endured 234 days under lockdown. Melbourne - which has gone through six lockdowns - is expected to hit 235 days on September 23. There were 45,537 vaccines administered and 61,622 tests conducted in the last 24 hours. Residents can already get the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine within three weeks by visiting their GPs. However, state vaccination hubs still have a waiting period of six seeks. Melbourne University's School of Population and Global Health criticised the different wait times. 'To me it is bananas that you have different programs where there's no consistency,' she said. The state government is planning to outline a full roadmap out of lockdown on Sunday, tied to double dose vaccination rates and based on Burnet Institute modelling. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation says it's critical Victoria doesn't open up too hastily, as hospitals brace for a wave of Covid-19 patients in coming weeks. 'It's not about getting on the beers too early because there won't be beers to be had whilst you're in hospital in an ICU bed,' ANMF Victorian branch secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said. More than 100,000 doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health workers issued a joint plea through their unions for 'accurate modelling' on expected ambulance demand, hospitalisations, intensive care patients and deaths. Health Minister Martin Foley said these workers had 'shared their concerns very forcefully' with the state government. 'They've expressed, quite rightly, their concerns about what would happen if we continue to have high levels of uncontrolled infections in our community,' he said. It comes as police embark on their biggest operation in two decades to quash a Melbourne anti-lockdown protest, as 'picnic day' arrives for pandemic-fatigued residents Authorised workers and those with Covid-19 vaccination bookings at two city-based hubs will need to show proof to board limited buses and pass through checkpoints from 8am to 2pm 'We're working with them, and we're working with our health services, to make sure that we have plans in place to try to avoid that.' Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Paul Guerra has joined calls to reopen businesses when it is safe. 'We've known for some time that the key to getting Victorian businesses open again is to get vaccination rates up as quickly as possible and the Victorian Chamber welcomes all initiatives that safely enables that to happen,' he said It comes as police embark on their biggest operation in two decades to quash a Melbourne anti-lockdown protest, as 'picnic day' arrives for pandemic-fatigued residents. The Melbourne CBD will effectively be turned into a no-go zone for Saturday's planned rally, with most public transport to and from the city suspended and a 'ring of steel' erected around its fringe. Authorised workers and those with Covid-19 vaccination bookings at two city-based hubs will need to show proof to board limited buses and pass through checkpoints from 8am to 2pm. The partial public transport shutdown was made at the request of police after 4000 people attended a violent anti-lockdown protest on August 21. Some 2,000 officers will be deployed during Saturday's operation, which will involve road checkpoints, barricades and roving patrols. It comes as Melbourne and Ballarat residents simultaneously prepare to revel in modestly eased Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday after reaching 70 per cent first dose coverage across Victoria's eligible population Chief Commissioner Shane Patton previously labelled it the biggest Victoria Police operation since the 2000 World Economic Forum was held in Melbourne. Organisers have flagged the protest will be moved, with a new location set to be revealed on Saturday morning. A Victoria Police spokesman would not confirm if they were aware of the potential location change, but said the force would have a 'highly visible presence'. It comes as Melbourne and Ballarat residents simultaneously prepare to revel in modestly eased Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday after reaching 70 per cent first dose coverage across Victoria's eligible population. Among the changes, people will be able to meet one person from another household for a walk or picnic, outdoor exercise time is doubled and the travel limit expanded to 10km. Fully vaccinated adults can see five people from two households, plus dependants for a picnic. Real estate heir Robert Durst has been found guilty of the 2000 murder of a confidante who threatened to retract her alibi over the 1982 killing of his wife. He wasn't present when the Los Angeles jury reached a verdict Friday in the lengthy murder trial of New York real estate heir. Jurors deliberated about seven hours over three days, and said they agreed with the prosecution's assertion that he also killed his first wife Kathleen McCormack in 1982, although he wasn't charged over that. Durst, 78, is in isolation after his driver tested positive for Covid and now faces life in prison without parole at his sentencing on October 18. Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said outside the Inglewood Courthouse: 'Bob Durst has been around a lot of years, and he's been able to commit a lot of horrific crimes. 'Considering what he's done, he got a lot more of a life than he was entitled to.' The global pandemic significantly altered the course of the trial, suspending it in March 2020 after only two days of testimony. After a 14-month break, possibly the longest in the US legal system, the case resumed in May for four more months of testimony. He appeared in a Los Angeles court earlier this month in a wheelchair in his current gaunt and ailing state. He pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank shooting of his best friend, Susan Berman, at her Los Angeles home in December 2000. Prosecutors said Durst silenced Berman to prevent her from telling police what she knew about the disappearance and suspected killing of McCormack, who vanished in New York in 1982, and who he is suspected of killing. Durst testified he didn't kill his wife or Berman and doesn't know who did, though he said he'd have lied any way had he murdered either woman. Real estate heir Robert Durst (pictured last month) has been found guilty of the 2000 murder of a confidante who threatened to retract her alibi over the 1982 killing of his wife Durst, 78, wasn't present when the Los Angeles jury reached a verdict Friday in the lengthy murder trial of New York real estate heir. Jurors deliberated about seven hours over three days Durst appeared in court in Inglewood, California, on September 8, 2021, with his attorneys for closing arguments presented by the prosecution in the murder trial of the New York real estate scion who is charged with the longtime friend Susan Berman's killing in Benedict Canyon just before Christmas Eve 2000 Prosecutors also said he would have gotten away with Burman's murder if filmmakers had not unearthed a damning letter that had identical handwriting to the infamous cadaver note, a prosecutor said Thursday in the New York real estate heir's trial. Durst testified that he lied for decades about sending police the note, directing them to the dead body of Berman, because he feared it would implicate him in the killing. 'He killed his wife and then he had to keep killing to cover it up,' Lewin said. Lewin, who met with jurors after the verdict, said they believed prosecutors proved Durst killed Kathie Durst and murdered Berman and Black. The defense said they believed there was 'substantial reasonable doubt' and were disappointed in the verdict, attorney David Chesnoff said. He said Durst would pursue all avenues of appeal. Prosecutors said was so hard to fathom that Susan Bermans killer was not the same person who sent police a note directing them to her 'cadaver' that Durst even questioned the plausibility of that explanation. In closing arguments at the New York real estate heir's trial earlier this month, prosecutors said that an anonymous note directing police to the lifeless body of Berman was the 'smoking gun' in the case against him. While filming the documentary The Jinx: The Life And Deaths Of Robert Durst, filmmakers discovered an envelope Durst sent Berman a year earlier. The handwriting was identical to the note sent to police after Berman's death - and Beverly Hills was misspelled as 'Beverley' on both. 'You can ignore everything else in this case,' Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian said. He added: 'If we spent one day trying this ... here's what you'd have: You'd have a note sent by the killer that only the killer could have written that the defendant has admitted that the killer wrote. And the defendant has stipulated, "I wrote the cadaver note and envelope that only the killer could have written".' On September 8 David Chesnoff argued a point before closing arguments presented by the prosecution his murder trial at the Inglewood Courthouse Durst took the stand earlier in the trial on August 9 and testified, answering questions from defense attorney Dick DeGuerin (left) But Durst had long denied writing the anonymous cadaver note, although he conceded at trial that he sent it after finding her dead body in her Los Angeles home in December 2000. He testified that he wanted police to find her but didn't want anyone to know he had been in her house because he feared he would be suspected of killing her. Balian scoffed at that explanation, describing it as chapter 5 in what he called Durst's playbook to get away with murder: Changing his story when necessary. Susan Berman (pictured) was murdered execution style shortly before she was due to speak to investigators about Kathleen's disappearance. While giving his testimony at trial on September 9, Durst had acknowledged on the witness stand that even he had difficulty imagining he could have written the note without killing Berman. 'It's very difficult to believe, to accept, that I wrote the letter and did not kill Susan Berman,' Durst testified. Balian said it was one of the truest things Durst said amid a ton of lies. However, in giving closing arguments in Durst's defense, he said he is a sick, old, defenseless man who is demonized by prosecutors determined to cover up a lack of evidence against him, despite acknowledging that he penned the note. His attorney Dick DeGuerin told jurors not to be swayed by ghastly images of the body Durst dismembered in Texas and tossed out to sea, saying it was only meant to make them hate him. He was acquitted of murder in the 2001 killing of his neighbor Morris Black in Texas, after insisting he'd only shot and dismembered Black in self-defense after being attacked by him. DeGuerin conceded his client did look 'really bad' after nearly three weeks of testimony, including nine days of punishing cross-examination that exposed several lies. He accused the prosecutor of 'beating up on a sick, old man who can't defend himself'. Lawyers for New York real estate heir Robert Durst acknowledge that he penned a note tipping off police to the location of the body of a friend he's accused of killing Robert Durst admitted 'cadaver' note (pictured) made him look guilty during the murder trial in Los Angeles 'I wouldn't blame you after hearing what you've heard if you hate Bob Durst and believe he's a liar,' DeGuerin said in Los Angeles Superior Court. 'Making Bob Durst a liar does not make him a killer.' Yet during his many days on the stand Durst said he had lied under oath and would lie to get out of trouble. DeGuerin said prosecutors failed to prove how, when and where Kathie Durst was killed, though he said circumstantial evidence indicates she is probably dead. She was officially declared dead in 2017. Her body has never been found and no one has been charged with a crime in connection with her disappearance. Durst said he put his wife on a train bound for New York City after a weekend at their lakeside home in Westchester County and never saw or heard from her again. He has admitted lying about having cocktails with neighbors that night and speaking with his wife over the phone after she reached their Manhattan penthouse. The defense claims there is no credible evidence to support the prosecution theory that Berman had impersonated Kathie the next day to phone in sick at the medical school she attended. Prosecutors said the call made it appear Kathie was alive after she was last seen by her husband. She is believed to have suffered domestic violence at Durst's hands, with investigators speculating that he killed the medical student after she tried to leave him. The lead suspect in the 1982 disappearance of Kathleen 'Kathie' Durst (pictured) is her husband, due to new evidence 'If you remove the emotions that the prosecution has played upon that Bob Durst is a bad guy and Bob Durst lies and that Bob Durst will lie about anything and look at what the evidence or lack of evidence is, then you see there's no evidence,' DeGuerin said. His attorney compared the situation to asking the trick question: 'Have you quit beating your wife?' 'What's a good answer to that?' DeGuerin said. 'The problem is the false premise: beating your wife. If you had killed Susan, would you tell us?' It's a false premise.' Although Durst is only on trial in Berman's killing, prosecutors presented evidence he killed his wife to provide the motive for killing Berman, who was a key witness. Several of Berman's friends testified she either told them Durst admitted killing his wife or she helped cover his tracks. Prosecutors have also introduced evidence from a Galveston, Texas, trial in which Durst was acquitted of murder. DeGuerin successfully defended Durst in the 2001 killing of Morris Black. Durst testified that Black pulled a gun on him and was shot during a struggle for the weapon. He was convicted of disposing of evidence for chopping up Black's body and dumping it in Galveston Bay. DeGuerin accused prosecutors of trying to inflame the jury by dredging up the Texas case, particularly displaying gruesome images of body parts that washed ashore. 'The prosecution is trying to get a do-over of that trial,' DeGuerin said. In interviews for a documentary film, Durst (pictured) denied writing the note that he said 'only the killer could have written' This is the moment brave deputy officers rescued dozens of cats and dogs from a fire in an Orlando pet shelter that killed thirteen rescue cats. Orange County Fire Rescue found flames 'through the roof' when they arrived at the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando shelter shortly after 10.20pm Wednesday, the agency said. Bodycam footage from Orange County Sherriff shows officers entering the building in flames and evacuating dogs by carrying them on their arms. 'Come on. Come on, baby!' an heroic officer says in the video, while him and his colleagues desperately try to take as many animals to safety as possible. No workers from the shelter were in the building. The fire was spotted by an Orange County Animal Shelter officer who was just across the street from the shelter. The officer called 911 and started rescuing animals on his own. Thirteen cats were killed when a fire broke out in a pet shelter in Orlando. Forty-five cats, and all 26 dogs were rescue. Four more cats remain missing Orange County Fire Rescue found flames 'through the roof' when they arrived at the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando shelter shortly after 10.20pm Wednesday Rescue crews were able to safely evacuate all 26 dogs at the center, as they were further away from the fire's point of origin. The dogs were temporarily taken to the Orange County Animal Shelter. Forty-five cats were rescued, but some of them might not survive. All the surviving animals were eventually taken to the Pet Alliance center in Sanford. Steve Bardy, the executive director of the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, called the fire his 'worst nightmare.' 'It appears the fire started in the front building by the clinic, which made it more difficult for fire rescue to go into the adjacent cat room,' Bardy said as his voice broke with emotion. 'If you run a shelter, this is literally your worst nightmare - to see your building on fire and know that there are animals in there that you're charged to care for and you can't go in,' he added. Half of the building, located at 2727 Conroy Road, was heavily damaged by the fire. The cause was not immediately known All the surviving animals were eventually taken to the Pet Alliance center in Sanford Bodycam footage from Orange County Sherriff shows officers entering the building in flames and evacuating dogs by carrying them on their arms 'Come on. Come on, baby!' an heroic officer says in the video, while him and his colleagues desperately try to take as many animals to safety as possible Half of the building, located at 2727 Conroy Road, was heavily damaged by the fire. The cause was not immediately known. Pet Alliance has said they do not plan to rebuild the burned shelter as there is an ongoing construction for a new one at another location. Four cats are currently missing, and traps have been set up at the location in hopes of finding them. Many rescues in the building at the time of the fire had been transferred from rural costal shelters in Louisiana affected by Hurricane Ida. Pet Alliance has said they are grateful, however, that about 140 of their rescues were in foster homes and not at the shelter when the fire broke out. Pet Alliance has said they do not plan to rebuild the burned shelter as there is an ongoing construction for a new one at another location Many rescues in the building at the time of the fire had been transferred from rural costal shelters in Louisiana affected by Hurricane Ida The dogs were temporarily taken to the Orange County Animal Shelter. Forty-five cats were rescued, but some of them might not survive Four cats are currently missing, and traps have been set up at the location in hopes of finding them The shelter had announced that they would be closing the clinic this month. 'We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from our community today. 'It has been an extremely difficult day for our front line animal care staff and all of our volunteers and staff throughout the agency. 'Your words of kindness and sympathy mean so much. We will be posting additional information on how to help and immediate next steps tomorrow and in the coming days,' Pet Alliance shared on Facebook. The shelter has said they are receiving donations made via their website and people are welcomed to bring animal food and care items to the Sanford shelter located at 2800 County Home Rd. A 15-year-old boy shot his family and two dogs dead and then posted disturbing pictures of their bodies on social media before killing himself when police arrived. William Quince Colburn III took to social media to admit killing his parents and sister before sharing images of his slain family and threatening to carry out more violence at an unnamed school. The posts led local cops to his RV home in Aransas Pass where they tried to coax him outside only for the teenager to shoot himself dead. Inside they found 63-year-old William Colburn Jr., 53-year-old Jana Colburn, Colburn III and 13-year-old Emma Colburn. Texas police say William 'Buck' Colburn Jr. (top left), his wife Jana Colburn (top right), and their daughter Emma Colburn (bottom left) were killed by William 'Quince' Colburn III (bottom right) Colburn III posted 'disturbing' photos of the slayings on social media before taking his own life Mahria Batts, who lost her parents and siblings in the shootings, said she learned of the sad news on the morning of her mother's birthday. 'This morning, we all woke up excited to tell our Mother a Happy 53rd Birthday,' Batts said on a GoFundMe page. 'Instead, we were devastated with news that has broken us to our core.' Jana Colburn and her husband, Buck Colburn Jr., were shot in the family's Aransas Pass home Batts said she was struggling to understand the slayings. 'As you can imagine, this is hard for us right now,' she said. 'This is not something we ever imagined to happen. We were not prepared for one loss, yet alone our. 'We are hurt. We do not understand. We are lost. We are angry.' The triple murder-suicide happened Wednesday at an RV park in San Patricio County, Texas Police said that had it not been for the 'speedy action' of the social media website and other teens within the group where the threat was made, 'we might well have been working on an even more tragic event later this morning.' San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera said he was thankful police acted quickly in the case. 'Im glad that we were able to find him before something worse could have happened,' Rivera said. Colburn III is pictured with his sister Emma and father Colburn Jr. in this undated photo Emma Colburn, 13, was the youngest victim in a case that left relatives 'hurt, lost, and angry' Rivera said it was unclear what school the teen might have been threatening. He said the teen wasn't registered at any local schools and authorities believe he was homeschooled. 'I'm not sure which school he planned to attack but he certainly had the weapons and ammunition to do so,' Rivera said. He said the teen had at least two guns and a rifle. Two dozen Republican attorneys general warned the White House on Thursday of impending legal action if a proposed coronavirus vaccine requirement for as many as 100 million Americans goes into effect. 'Your plan is disastrous and counterproductive,' the prosecutors, led by Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina, wrote in a letter sent to President Joe Biden. 'If your Administration does not alter its course, the undersigned state Attorneys General will seek every available legal option to hold you accountable and uphold the rule of law.' The state AGs call Biden's vaccine mandate on private businesses an 'edict,' that they call 'unlikely to win hearts and minds.' It comes after Biden announced mandates that the White House says impact 100 million people, amid the push to boost vaccinations amid the spread of the deadly Delta variant of COVID-19. The letter is the latest GOP opposition to sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors announced by Biden earlier this month. The requirement, to be enacted through a rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is part of an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant. They call it a 'threat to individual liberty' and a 'public health disaster,' at a time when the nation is experiencing what Biden has called a 'pandemic of the unvaccinated,' who make up the vast majority of severe cases. The OSHA rule, which covers nearly two-thirds of the private sector workforce, would last six months, after which it must be replaced by a permanent measure. Employers that dont comply could face penalties of up to $13,600 per violation. President Joe Biden leaves after speaking about the economy in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Once it is s out, the rule would take effect in 29 states where OSHA has jurisdiction, according to a primer by the law firm Fisher Phillips. Other states like California and North Carolina that have their own federally approved workplace safety agencies would have up to 30 days to adopt equivalent measures. Republican leaders - and some union chiefs, too - have said that Biden was going too far in trying to muscle private companies and workers. One of the first to speak out was Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, who said on Twitter that his state would fight to 'the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.' Writing to Biden that the vaccine 'edict is also illegal,' Wilson warned that courts have fully upheld only one of 10 emergency temporary OSHA standards in recent decades The prosecutors also cautioned that the 'edict is unlikely to win hearts and minds - it will simply drive further skepticism' over vaccines. 'Your vaccine mandate represents not only a threat to individual liberty, but a public health disaster that will displace vulnerable workers and exacerbate a nationwide hospital staffing crisis, with severe consequences for all Americans,' they write. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is leading the effort by 24 GOP state attorneys general The letter calls Biden's mandates 'disastrous and counterproductive' In lieu of vaccine or weekly testing requirements, the prosecutors proposed that some companies could have employees work remotely, rather than report in person. In addition to Wilson in South Carolina, the letter was signed by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. The letter complains that Biden's policy 'fails to recognize natural immunity,' although the CDC recommends vaccinations even for people who have already had COVID-19, due to diminishing antibodies and the transmissibility of Delta. 'Your edict is also illegal,' they write, noting that the OSHA emergency standard has only been rarely used. Former US Attorney General Bill Barr warned President Trump that independent voters thought he was a 'f**king a*****e' and that he could lose the 2020 election over his 'outrageous' behavior, according to a new book. Barr, who resigned from his post in December, told Trump that his supporters didn't 'give a s**t' about his petty 'grievances' as he urged him to get his act together in a meeting before the election. Details of the conversation are revealed in Peril, by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, covering America's dramatic transition from President Trump to President Biden. The book - out September 21 - lifts the lid on Barr's clashes with the former president, including how he chided him for 'wheeling out a clown car' of lawyers to baselessly challenge the results of the election after his defeat last November. Among them was Rudy Giuliani, who Barr believed was 'the worst' lawyer of them all and a 'f**king idiot,' according to the authors. Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, lifts the lid on Bill Barr's strained relationship with President Donald Trump during the last months of his presidency According to the book, Barr believed having lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who both spouted conspiracy theories, on Trump's legal team was a bad move The book claims that while the former DOJ chief initially enjoyed being attorney general under Trump, the role soon became like the film, Groundhog Day, where he felt trapped in an 'endless and tortuous time loop.' Trump appointed Barr as his attorney general in February 2019 after firing Jeff Sessions, who he never forgave for setting up the US Special Counsel's investigation into his dealings with Russia. Barr had remained in Trump's good books with his 2019 summary of the Mueller report into the president's links to Russia, which gave the misleading impression he had been exonerated. Later that year, Barr also spoke out against the DOJ's inspector general investigation after the watchdog found no evidence of wrongdoing by the department or the FBI over the origins of the Russia investigation. Peril, by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, covers America's dramatic transition from President Trump to President Biden. It is due for release September 21 This infuriated Trump who was looking to the report for evidence that the 'deep state' was out to get him. But according to the book, Barr eventually grew tired of Trump's 'pigheadedness and blindness' - which he had seen before during his time as President George H. W. Bush's attorney general 28 years earlier. Matters came to a head in spring of 2020, when Barr became one of several administration officials who tried to get Trump to change course ahead of the November election. At the time, his handling of the coronavirus pandemic had been destroying his ratings in the polls and the economy was in freefall. Barr warned the president that as things stood, 'you're going to lose' the election. He told Trump that even his most fervent supporters were telling him to 'dial it back' and that he was 'his own worst enemy.' 'This election is about the suburbs. You know you're going to bring in your base and you don't gain anything by continuing to be more and more outrageous,' Barr said according to the book. 'And I think you have some repair work to do among Republican and independent voters who like your policies generally,' he said, before pausing and adding: 'They just think you're a f**king a*****e'. He said: 'Your base cares about seeing (former FBI director James Comey) and the rest of those guys held accountable, but these other people don't. 'They don't care about your f**king grievances. And it just seems that every time you're out there, you're talking about your goddamn grievances.' During a conversation last spring, Barr told Trump that his base of supporters merely 'tolerate' his wild behavior but they 'don't support you because you act that way,' the book claims Barr had remained in Trump's good books with his summary of the 2019 Mueller report which gave the misleading impression he had been exonerated Barr also told Trump that his base of supporters merely 'tolerate' his wild behavior but they 'don't support you because you act that way.' By then the pair's relationship had already soured and the attorney general was feeling like he was in the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray's character relives the same day every day. The two would clash again after the election when Trump began pushing claims of widespread voter fraud after he lost. A few weeks later on November 23, Barr told Trump that his claims were 'all b******t', especially the allegations about irregularities with voting machines, the book reveals. During another conversation in the White House the following month, Barr also warned the president that having lawyers like Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who both spouted conspiracy theories, representing him was a bad move. 'What you needed was a team of crackerjack lawyers ready to go who could quickly formulate a strategy that would actually be able to say: "We're going for these votes here, these votes here, and here's our argument here" and execute,' he said. 'Instead you have wheeled out a clown car. 'Every self-respecting lawyer in the country has run for the hills. Your team is a bunch of clowns.' Barr privately thought to himself that Powell was 'certifiable' and that Giuliani was 'the worst - a f****** idiot,' the book claims. Woodward writes that Barr said Giuliani was 'drinking too much and was desperate for money, representing lowlifes and creeps.' He also chided Trump that he had wasted a month 'on the one theory that is demonstrably crazy, which is these machines.' The attorney general lasted a few more weeks in office until he stepped down in late December. The book also includes a conversation between Trump and Barr about the prosecutor's weight. Barr chided Trump for wheeling 'out a clown car' of lawyers to baselessly challenge the results of the election after his defeat, according to Peril The book claims Barr privately thought to himself that Sidney Powell was 'certifiable' and that Giuliani was 'the worst - a f****** idiot' Former First Lady Melania Trump took one look at Barr, with his large belly and his powerful voice and said he looked like an attorney general 'right out of central casting', Woodward writes. Trump agreed and told Barr: 'You do look like you come out of central casting.' The ex-POTUS, who like him was overweight added: 'You hold it well Bill. You carry it well. be careful because if you lose too much weight, your skin is going to start becoming saggy.' Among the other anecdotes in the book is a conversation between Trump and Steve Bannon, his former strategist, on December 30 last year in which they plotted against Joe Biden. Bannon told Trump to focus on the now infamous rally planned for January 6, which ultimately led to a deadly insurrection after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol. 'We're going to bury Biden on January 6, f**king bury him,' Bannon said, the book states. 'We are going to kill it in the crib. Kill the Biden presidency in the crib.' Mitch McConnell also used colorful language when Trump rang him up in the middle of the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Trump asked how McConnell felt about Kavanaugh and he replied: 'I feel stronger about Kavanaugh than mule p***'. Woodward writes that 'in Kentucky', where McConnell is from, 'nothing is stronger than mule p***'. During the widespread protest over the death of George Floyd, Trump's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, became furious when Trump's adviser Stephen Miller said there should be troops on the streets. Trump and Barr's relationship started off strong after he was appointed AG in 2019, however, Barr eventually grew tired of the president's 'pigheadedness and blindness' the book claims Miller told Trump: 'Barbarians are at the gate.' Milley turned around to face Miller and said: 'Shut the f*** up, Steve'. Elsewhere in the book Woodward details how Milley, the top US general, called his Chinese counterpart on two occasions to reassure him that the US would not launch a nuclear strike against Beijing. Milley also told subordinates that he had to be informed if any order came down to launch such a strike because he was so concerned about Trump's mental state. The claims sparked a firestorm with Trump calling Milley a 'complete nut job'. Trump said: 'He put our country in a very dangerous position but President Xi knows better, and would've called me. 'The way Milley and the Biden Administration handled the Afghanistan withdrawal, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in our Country's history, would not exactly instill fear in China. 'The only reason Biden will not fire or court-martial Milley is because he doesn't want him spilling the dirty secrets on Biden's deadly disaster in Afghanistan'. Biden said that he has 'full confidence' in Milley, who remained in his post after the change in administrations. Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, will be published by Simon & Schuster on September 21 The Justice Department has challenged a bankruptcy deal that would see the Sackler family pay $4.5billion and sell off drug-maker Purdue - but would mean they cannot be sued again over the drug which sparked America's opioid crisis. The settlement was approved earlier this month by bankruptcy judge Robert Drain and has the support of the Sackler family and some victim groups. But the Justice Department has now asked that the settlement be put on hold so it can challenge the deal in the higher courts, branding it 'unconstitutional'. States attorneys from Washington, Maryland, Oregon and Connecticut have also come out in opposition to the deal, saying it lets the Sacklers 'off the hook'. The Justice Department has challenged a deal that would see the Sackler family - makers of Oxycontin - pay $4.5bn and sell drug-making firm Purdue, but avoid all future lawsuits In a court filing released Wednesday, Justice Department Trustee William Harrington argues the deal falls short of providing accountability for the nationwide addiction crisis that caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States over the past 20 years. The agreement 'harms both the public and countless individuals by extinguishing the rights that opioid victims hold against possibly thousands of Sackler Family members and associated parties.' If the settlement is allowed to proceed, there will be no 'full accounting' of these individuals and groups' roles in the 'opioid disaster,' the government argues. Mr Harrington argues the money that would be gained from future victim lawsuits against the Sacklers are a form of property that is protected by the constitution and cannot be taken away without giving people their day in court. Facing an avalanche of litigation, Purdue last year pled guilty to three criminal charges over its aggressive drive to push sales of OxyContin, a highly addictive prescription painkiller. Under the terms of the deal, the company will be sold by 2024 to be replaced by a new entity managed by a trust, and its involvement in selling opioid products will be restricted. Purdue also will be required to create a repository for tens of millions of documents detailing its sales and marketing practices. The Sacklers have welcomed the deal, saying it avoids litigation that could take years to resolve, though detractors including Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson have argued it lets the families 'off the hook.' Like many American billionaires, the Sacklers have made donations to prestigious institutions such as the Met Museum in New York. Many of the institutions now ban their donations. The family's fortune diminished amid the crisis, but was still estimated at around $10.8 billion late last year, according to Forbes, which said much of that wealth came from Purdue. Advertisement Police in Utah are investigating a potential link between 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito's disappearance and the murder of a woman who worked at the Moab co-op where Petito and fiance Brian Laundrie had an explosive fight. Six days after Petito and Laundrie had a physical altercation at Moonflower Community Cooperative, store worker Kylen Schulte, 24, and her wife Crystal Turner, 38, were found dead and partially undressed where they had been camping. Schulte and Turner told friends about a 'creepy man' that had been bothering them and that 'if something happened to them, that they were murdered.' On August 18, their bodies were found at a campsite in the La Sal Mountains, an hour away from Moab. Around the time Schulte and Turner were killed in Utah, police across the state line in San Miguel County, Colorado warned campers after they found more than 30 weapons at a man's campsite in Telluride, just over two hours away from Moab. Police said his whereabouts were unknown and it is unclear if police eventually arrested him. Scroll down for video Six days after Petito and Laundrie had a physical altercation at Moonflower Community Cooperative, store worker Kylen Schulte, 24, and her wife Crystal Turner, 38, were found dead and partially undressed where they had been camping Police in Utah are investigating a potential link between 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito's disappearance and the murder of a woman who worked at the Moab co-op where Petito and fiance Brian Laundrie had an explosive fight. Around the time Schulte and Turner were killed in Utah, police across the state line in San Miguel County, Colorado warned campers after they found more than 30 weapons at a man's campsite in Telluride Petito and Laundrie had started a fight at the Moonflower co-op, before they checked out and continued fighting in their van and police was called Now police in Moab and North Port, Florida, where Petito and Laundrie lived, are looking into possible links between the the double murder and Petito's missing person case. 'The Grand County Sheriff's Office has been in contact with Florida authorities and we are actively looking into any connection between the Gabby Petito missing person case and the double homicide that occurred in Grand County,' the sheriff told FOX in a statement. North Port Chief of Police said: 'We provided them with whatever information we could. They don't have any [murder] suspect information right now. They told us that they're looking at everything at this point.' The arsenal found in Telluride included knives, hatchets, a cross-bow and several swords. 'In light of the past week's double homicide of campers outside Moab, l want to caution people to be aware of their surroundings,' the sheriff office said at the time. Police did not release the identity of the man citing 'pre-trial publicity,' and as of August 23 his whereabout were unknown. 'The individual has been arrested three times in the Norwood and Telluride areas since July 1st for charges including weapons offenses, burglary of a local laundromat, possession of meth, trespassing, and theft. 'The judge has repeatedly released this man from jail on PR bonds over the objections of the District Attorney's office,' San Miguel County Sheriff shared on Twitter. Petito and Laundrie got into a physical fight at the Moonflower co-op on August 12, a day before Schulte and Turner were last seen leaving a bar in Moab. Police bodycam footage shows Petito telling cops why she slapped her boyfriend Brian Laundrie in a dramatic incident 13 days before she was last seen in Gran Teton National Park in Wyoming. She was in a cross-country trip with Laundrie set to end in Halloween, but was reported missing by her mother on Sept 11 two weeks after they last spoke on the phone. The video shows an emotional Petito, 22, with tears streaming down her face telling officers she 'was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down' and admitting the couple 'have been fighting all morning.' In the clip, shot near Moab in Utah, Petito says she suffers from OCD and anxiety, with both her and Laundrie saying she was stressed because of the YouTube blog they were working on to document the doomed cross-country trip. Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face and arm which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone'. He later said she was angry with him because of his dirty feet. When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and makes a grabbing motion on her chin. Schulte and Turner told friends about a 'creepy man' that had been bothering them and that 'if something happened to them, that they were murdered' The pair was found dead in a nearby creek, partially undressed and with multiple gunshot wounds to the bodies The arsenal found in Telluride included knives, hatchets, a cross-bow and several swords. 'In light of the past week's double homicide of campers outside Moab, l want to caution people to be aware of their surroundings,' the sheriff office said at the time. Police did not release the identity of the man citing 'pre-trial publicity' Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation. The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and say they are separating the couple for the night. The couple had been traveling around the country in their camper van since early July and were visiting Moab, Utah when they got into an altercation, an incident report reveals. The report says officers received reports of a 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12 around 4:30pm. The report, released by the Moab Police Department on Wednesday, documented that the couple admitted they had been going through 'issues' over the last couple days. On Thursday, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said at a press conference the case was still being treated as a missing person's enquiry, and that there is so far no evidence of criminality in her disappearance. 'Right now, we are investigating a missing person case,' he said. Garrison, joined by Petito's dad, said police were aware of Laundrie's current location but 'right now, no' they cannot bring him in for questioning. 'Two people went on a trip, one person returned. And that person that returned isn't providing us any information,' he said. Garrison added that it was Laundrie's 'constitutional right' not to speak with law enforcement but said his lawyer had handed over some property they requested from him. A tearful Petito is seen in the back of the police car. Laundrie admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation and cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' Emotional new police bodycam footage has revealed the moment Utah cops asked missing 'van-life' woman Gabby Petito why she slapped her boyfriend Brian Laundrie in a dramatic incident 13 days before she disappeared on their cross-country trip Laundrie is seen with scratches on his face which he tells an officer were caused when Petito 'was trying to get the keys from me' and 'hit me with her phone' Laundrie shows the officers his hands during the incident on August 12 - two weeks before his girlfriend vanished The statement from Brian Laundrie's attorney: 'Many people are wondering why Mr. Laundrie would not make a statement or speak with law enforcement in the face of Ms. Petito's absence. 'In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this and the warning that 'any statement made will be used against you' is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito's disappearance. 'As such, on the advice of counsel Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on the matter. 'I have been informed that the North Port, Florida police have named Brian Laundrie as a 'person of interest' in this matter. 'This formality has not really changed the circumstances of Mr. Laundrie being the focus of attention of law enforcement and Mr. Laundrie will continue to remain silent on the advice of counsel.' Advertisement Petito was reported missing on September 11 after her family hadn't heard from her in 13 days. She last spoke to her mother on the phone on August 25 and her last known location was Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Laundrie returned to their home in North Port, Florida, alone on September 1 in the couple's camper van - which has now been seized by police - 10 days before she was reported missing. On Wednesday police officially named Laundrie a 'person of interest' in her mystery disappearance and said he is refusing to cooperate with their investigation. Laundrie's attorney released a statement saying he is not speaking to police or making a statement 'on the advice of counsel' because 'intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this.' Petito's father Joe told Fox & Friends First the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about Brian' later. 'I don't care what happens to him right now,' said Petito's father. 'That can't be my primary focus if he's going to sit in the comfort of his home, you know, and get home cooked meals, why my daughter's out, you know, God knows where, you know, I don't give two craps about him.' 'I got to be out there to help her, because the one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair, you know, not talking to anybody.' Joe said learning about the August 12 incident and Laundrie being named a person of interest, had left him feeling 'it's not what you thought it was.' However, he said he just wants to keep the focus on finding his daughter. 'It's not what you thought it was,' he said. 'August 12, the person of interest... I get it from a legal side of it but from a family side we don't have Gabby. 'I want to care about finding my daughter first. That's my first objective.' The bodycam footage shows an officer reporting that the driver of a vehicle ahead is showing 'obscure driving', driving 45mph in a 15mph road, and is 'possibly intoxicated.' He says the vehicle has bumped a curb and puts the sirens on. The officer then gets out the vehicle and approaches the couple's white camper van, which they have pulled over. Petito, who is crying, is seen sitting in the the passenger seat and Laundrie is driving. The officer asks them to turn off the vehicle and asks their names and 'What's going on? Why are you crying?' 'We've just been fighting this morning, some personal issues,' says Petito. Laundrie says it was 'a long day' of camping yesterday. The officer asks Petito to step out of the vehicle and takes her down the road, separating the couple to ask her what happened. 'I have OCD and I was just cleaning and straightening...,' she says, while sobbing. 'And I was apologizing to him and saying I'm sorry that I am so mean as sometimes I am so mean because I have OCD and get really frustrated. 'Not like mean towards him, I guess my vibe is like in a bad mood, and I said I'm sorry I'm in a bad mood I am stressed I had so much work.' She tells the officer they are traveling the country and trying to 'build a blog'. 'We have been fighting all morning and he wouldn't let me in the car before,' she says. When the officer asks why he wouldn't let her in the car, she says 'he told me needed to calm down' adding that he 'really stresses me out' and that it's 'been a rough morning.' A map shows the last known movements of Petito and Laundrie along their cross-country road trip which began July 2 According to the document, cops were called to a local business in Moab, Utah on August 12, after a witness reported seeing the couple 'arguing over a phone' outside their van The officer tells Petito she is 'not in any trouble' and escorts her to the back of the cop car so she can 'take a breath' and have 'a few minutes.' The officer then asks Laundrie to step out the vehicle and asks him what has happened. 'She gets really worked up sometimes and I try to distance myself from it,' Laundrie says. Laundrie also mentions her work on the blog and that 'she got worked up.' He goes on to say they had a 'little squabble' which started in the coffee shop 'when I moved our food around' and 'I'm dirty, and I can't change being dirty, I got sand in my flip flops and stuff.' The officer asks about the scratches on his face, with Laundrie explaining that there was an altercation involving her cellphone and their keys. 'She had her cellphone in her hand, that's why I was pushing her away,' he says. 'Coz I had the keys... I said let's take a breather and let's not go anywhere. Let's calm down a minute.' He adds: 'And she had her phone, and was trying to get the keys from me. 'I know I shouldn't have pushed her but I was just trying to push her away to say take a minute step back and breathe. And she hit me with her phone.' A tearful Petito tells cops she has OCD and anxiety and that she was stressed because she was trying to 'build a blog' When an officer asks Petito if her boyfriend hit her, she replies 'I guess' and gestures to her chin. Petito admits he 'pushed her' during the altercation Laundrie shows cops his arms which they say note scratches on, before officers determine Petito was the 'primary aggressor' At one point, officers check Laundrie's hands, arm and torso, noting scratch marks on his arm. A second officer is then seen talking to Petito who is sitting in the back of the cop car. 'Did he hit you?' the officer asks. 'I guess,' she replies, becoming tearful. When the officer asks where Laundrie hit her, she clasps her chin in a grabbing motion. 'He like, did that with his hand,' she says. Much of the audio is unclear at this point. Petito tells the officers she suffers from 'anxiety' and that Laundrie 'gets frustrated a lot'. She insists neither of them have been drinking because 'we don't drink'. Petito admits she was 'yelling at him', then said 'you're an idiot'' and made a punching motion. She is later seen in the back of the car with a distressed expression on her face and her hands clasped in front of her on her lap. 'Were you attempting to cause him physical pain or impairment? Is that what you were attempting to do to him?' an officer asks. Petito, who is looking at the officer, replies no. The cops determine Petito was 'the primary aggressor' and say they are separating the couple (pictured together) for the night 'What were you attempting to do?' the cop asks. 'What was the reason behind the slapping and stuff? What was it you were attempting to accomplish by the slapping?' 'I was trying to get him to stop telling me to calm down,' Petito says, as her face crumples in tears. The officer replies to her that 'it doesn't sound good.' Later in the footage, the officer is seen telling Petito he will be keeping her and Laundrie apart for the night. 'I am separating you two tonight, okay?' the officer is heard telling Petito. The 22-year-old nods through tears in response and mouths 'okay.' 'I want you guys both to be tonight, away from each other,' the officer says. 'Relax, breathe, because there's no need to be crying now,' he tells Petito. Petito nods and wipes tears from her eyes. 'I understand that this can feel like a nightmare,' the officer says. 'But you have come out as the golden flower on top.' The cops are also seen talking in the footage about the accounts given by Petito, Laundrie and the witness who reported the incident to police, where they agree she was 'the primary aggressor.' Laundrie says he doesn't want to pursue any charges but the cops say they have no choice but to separate the pair for the night. In his report, responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins said he pulled the couple over as they were driving towards Arches National Park and noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat According to the police incident report, a witness, identified only as Christopher, had reported seeing the pair 'arguing over a phone.' In his account, one of the responding officers Eric Pratt, wrote that 'all three individuals' - Gabby, Laundrie, and the witness - gave 'a similar and consistent story, consisting of the basic idea that the driver of the van, a male, had some sort of argument with the female.' Pratt said no one reported 'that the male struck the female' and that both Gabby and Laundrie said 'they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime.' The report reveals Laundrie told officers that he had tried to create distance between the two by telling Gabby 'to go take a walk to calm down', but 'she didn't want to be separated from [him] and began slapping him.' 'He grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van, he tried to lock her out and succeeded except for his driver's door, she opened that and forced her way over him and into the vehicle before it drove off,' Pratt states. The bystander who reported the incident told cops a similar version of events but noted that he saw 'what appeared to him as Gabrielle hitting Brian in the arm and then climbing through the driver's window' after she appeared to be locked out. A second officer, Daniel Scott Robbins, later located the couple - who had already left the scene by then - driving in their Ford Transit van towards Arches National Park and pulled them over. He said he noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat as he approached the vehicle and asked to speak to her outside. The report was redacted to conceal sensitive information but suggests Gabby told police she and Laundrie became embroiled in an altercation that was fueled by mental health issues. Cops received reports of a possible domestic violence incident near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12 'Gabrielle told me that she suffers from [redacted] with [redacted],' Robbins wrote. 'Because of her [redacted] and [redacted], combined with little arguments she and Brian had been having that day, she was struggling with her mental health, which led to the incident that was reported to law enforcement.' He added that at 'no point' in his investigation did Gabby 'stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands.' Robbins said that he had seen Petito and Laundrie's van traveling 45mph in a 15mph zone while he tried to catch up to them earlier and activated his lights to initiate a traffic stop. But upon doing so, he noticed the vehicle abruptly swerve to the right and the rear right wheels hit the curb before finally coming to a stop. Robbins said Petito later told him that this was a result of her trying to get Laundrie's 'attention to notice me as I was behind them with my lights on' and that she did not intend to hurt him. But during his conversation with the cop shortly after, Laundrie said that when he noticed police lights flashing behind them, he thought Gabby 'had grabbed the wheel of the van and pulled it, causing the van to hit the curb.' The report says Laundrie told the officer both he and Gabby suffer from the same problem and that issues between the two 'had been building over the last few days.' 'This in turn, caused them to argue more than usual,' Robbins wrote. 'Brian explained he and Gabrielle have been traveling together for the last four or five months. 'That time spent created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments.' Police on Tuesday revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving 22-year-old 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she was last seen Gabby's family lashed out at the Laundries in a statement Tuesday. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers.' Laundrie went on to describe the events leading up to the altercation, saying he and Gabby had gotten into an argument near Main Street and he tried to create space between them 'so they could calm their emotions.' He said he then got into their van and that Gabby went into a 'manic state.' 'Brian said Gabrielle, thinking he was going to leave her in Moab without a ride, went to slap him,' the report states. He then pushed her away in an attempt to dodge the hit, but still sustained minor visible scratches to his face. When questioned about the scratches to his right arm, Brian told Robbins they must've happened when Gabby was trying to alert him that they were being pulled over by police, the report states. 'This, however, was not consistent with Gabrielle's statement, further suggesting her confused and emotional state,' the officer wrote. Robbins later concluded that he did not believe the situation 'escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis.' According to officer, both expressed a 'desire to remain together and ultimately agreed to be separated' with Brian staying in a hotel room and Gabby in the van until the following day. A statement provided by a second responding officer, Eric Pratt, said he believed the initial witness reported that it was Laundrie who had 'assaulted' Petito. 'It wasn't clear, but I believe it was reported the male had been observed to have assaulted the female,' he wrote. Laundrie was then assessed to be 'at low risk of danger or harm as a result of his proximity' to Gabby and no charges were filed, Pratt wrote. Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters in Bohemia on Monday afternoon about her daughter Gabby Petitio, who has been missing since August 24. Schmidt tells DailyMail.com that on September 10 she texted Brian and his mother Roberta trying to get in touch with Gabby, but neither replied On Tuesday, Moab Chief of Police Bret Edge confirmed that cops had responded to an incident involving the pair but they later 'determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges,' Fox News reported. He did not disclose additional details at the time. Addressing reports of the incident on Wednesday, Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt told DailyMail.com: 'It's irrelevant. 'Two people traveling together with each other 24 hours a day, it's not going to be perfect, it was an argument, and that's all I'm going to say about it.' The family released a statement Wednesday condemning Laundrie as the 'one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help.' 'The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help. Brian Laundrie was traveling with Gabby in the Grand Teton Yellowstone area. They were traveling together in Gabby's 2012 Ford Transit van. That is where we believe Gabby was last seen. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers. 'The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life. How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located?' they said. 'The Schmidt and Petito family implore Brian to come forward and at least tell us if we are looking in the right area.' Meanwhile, Laundrie's attorney released a statement saying he is 'not speaking on the matter' and 'will continue to remain silent on the advice of counsel.' 'Many people are wondering why Mr. Laundrie would not make a statement or speak with law enforcement in the face of Ms. Petito's absence,' the statement read. 'In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this and the warning that 'any statement made will be used against you' is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petito's disappearance. 'As such, on the advice of counsel Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on the matter. 'I have been informed that the North Port, Florida police have named Brian Laundrie as a 'person of interest' in this matter. 'This formality has not really changed the circumstances of Mr. Laundrie being the focus of attention of law enforcement and Mr. Laundrie will continue to remain silent on the advice of counsel.' Laundrie was named a person of interest by police Wednesday, who said he 'has not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details.' Petito, who had been traveling across the country with Laundrie in their camper van since July 2, was last known to have been visiting Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on August 25. She was reported missing by her mother on September 11, two weeks after she had last spoken on to her on the phone, and ten days after Laundrie returned to his home in North Port, Florida without her. Laundrie, who drove to Florida in the van he shared with Petito, has since hired a lawyer and refused to tell Petito's family where she was last seen. Schmidt sent her daughter's boyfriend and his family desperate texts looking for her but was ignored. Schmidt said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island. 'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating' Gabby set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with boyfriend Brian Laundrie in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 at Zion National Park Schmidt told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that on September 10 she reached out to Brian and his mother Roberta Laundrie trying to reach her daughter after she had not heard from her. The gloves are off: Schmidt and Petito want answers 'The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help. Brian Laundrie was traveling with Gabby in the Grand Teton Yellowstone area. They were traveling together in Gabby's 2012 Ford Transit van. That is where we believe Gabby was last seen. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers. 'The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life. How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located? 'The Schmidt and Petito family implore Brian to come forward and at least tell us if we are looking in the right area.' Advertisement 'I texted Brian's mom that I was trying to get in touch with Gabby. I also texted Brian. I got no replies,' Schmidt said. 'I knew something was wrong,' she said. 'I felt something was off and I needed to get her reported missing immediately.' She went to report Gabby missing later that day but police initially blew her off. The next day, she was allowed to file a report with the Suffolk County police department. Brian's family have since refused to let authorities interview their son when the van that the couple had traveled in before she disappeared was seized from their property late on Saturday night. Schmidt said Brian's sister Cassie is the only member of Brian's family who has spoken to authorities. She said she can't understand why neither Brian nor his parents have reached out to her in the aftermath of her daughter's disappearance. 'It's a very mysterious situation. We don't understand why he's doing this. Everybody's assuming the worst and thinking he's guilty of this. But I don't want to believe that. I want to believe she's just in need of help out there and that everybody needs to keep searching.' Schmidt described how Brian's parents had been warm and welcoming to Gabby during their relationship. She recalled a time when his mother even knitted her future daughter-in-law gifts for Christmas. 'She loved her like a daughter,' Schmidt said. 'As far as I knew they were all very caring and treated her like one of the family. His mom was so excited about the engagement.' The distraught mother also clarified that Gabby and Brian had been engaged, but decided to call it off and go back to just dating because they felt they were too young for marriage. 'I think they kind of put that on hold just because they felt it was a little fast. They were excited at first, but then they were like, let's just wait, we're very young. So they were really just boyfriend and girlfriend,' she said. She said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island. 'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating,' she said. Brian Laundrie's parents Christopher and Roberta refused to let police speak with their son. He returned to their home on North Port,Florida on September 1 Above is the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, where Brian Laundrie returned in the couple's van without Gabby after their trip In light of the disappearance, Schmidt says she's now viewing everything under a new lens. 'Maybe the relationship wasn't what I thought,' she said. Schmidt has recently seen photos in the news of Brian's father performing yard work. 'If they cared about her, they would want to find her,' she said. 'Why aren't you out helping find her?' 'I don't want to seem accusatory,' she said. 'It's confusing, my mind is turning right now.' She's also questioning Brian's trip back to Florida in August to help his father move their things into a storage unit. She wonders why it was necessary to move Gabby's things during their road trip and what became of her stuff. 'Where are her things?' she asked. Asked why Brian chose to lawyer up, she replied, 'You know I wish I knew that answer, why.' 'I know that's the reason this story is so sought after is because it's odd. The police have said it's very odd. We don't know what's going on, and where is my daughter. I just want to find her.' Gabby, who grew up in Blue Point, New York, was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah. The following day she made her final call to her family, telling them that she and Brian had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Her last Instagram post on August 25, shows her visiting the Monarch Wall in Ogden, Utah with the caption 'Happy Halloween'. The pair were heading from Ogden to Yellowstone National Park, just north of Grand Teton. Gabby Petito's father says the main priority is to get her home safely - and then he'll start worrying about why her boyfriend refuses to speak to cops: 'The one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair' Gaby Petito's father has said the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about' her boyfriend Brian Laundrie later - after he was named a 'person of interest' in her disappearance and is still refusing to cooperate with police. Joe Petito told Fox & Friends First Thursday he doesn't 'give two craps' about Laundrie and slammed him for 'sitting home in his lazy boy chair' instead of helping in the search for his missing girlfriend. 'I don't care what happens to him right now,' said Petito's father. 'That can't be my primary focus if he's going to sit in the comfort of his home, you know, and get home cooked meals, why my daughter's out, you know, God knows where, you know, I don't give two craps about him. 'I got to be out there to help her, because the one person who is supposed to be leading the charge is sitting home in his lazy boy chair, you know, not talking to anybody.' He added: 'I want to worry about getting my daughter home first and then we'll start worrying about Brian.' Gaby Petito's father has said the focus must be 'to make sure we get my daughter home first' and then 'we'll start worrying about' her boyfriend Brian Laundrie later - after he was named a 'person of interest' in her disappearance and is still refusing to cooperate with police Joe also hit out at Laundrie's family who have so far shielded him from law enforcement. Police said they attempted to speak with Laundrie at his family property at the weekend but his parents refused to allow officers from doing so. 'It must be very difficult for the Laundrie family to have their son home while we're looking for ours so I'm not too concerned with how they're feeling,' said Joe. Petito's family issued a statement Wednesday slamming Laundrie for his refusal to cooperate saying the 'one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help' and urging him to break his silence about what happened. An attorney for Laundrie meanwhile said his client is not speaking 'on the advice of counsel' because it may be used against him as 'intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focus their attention on in cases like this'. John said the new developments in the case, including Laundrie being named a person of interest and the release of the police report from the August 12 'domestic incident' involving the couple, had left him feeling 'it's not what you thought it was.' However, he said he just wants to keep the focus on finding his daughter. 'It's not what you thought it was,' he said. Joe Petito told Fox & Friends First Thursday he doesn't 'give two craps' about Laundrie and slammed him for 'sitting home in his lazy boy chair' instead of helping in the search for his missing girlfriend 'August 12, the person of interest... I get it from a legal side of it but from a family side we don't have Gabby. 'I want to care about finding my daughter first. That's my first objective.' Petito's father said it was 'heart-wrenching' that he is unable to hug his daughter, saying she 'needs help and she is nowhere to be found.' 'It's heart-wrenching,' he said. 'That's my only daughter. Right now I can't give her a hug and she needs it, she needs help and she is nowhere to be found.' He added: 'I don't know where do you even begin. We're just doing what we can and it's just difficult. 'She needs help and we got to get it to her.' Joe said he didn't want to speculate on what has happened to his daughter because 'when I put scenarios in my head it doesn't end well.' 'I can't focus on that,' he said, adding that he was hopeful she was 'just stuck somewhere'. 'If I think oif any other type of scenario in my head, I'm going to be on the floor so I can't do that,' he said. 'I got to focus that she is hurt and needs our help and we've got to find her as fast as we can.' Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 28, was arrested on Thursday in North Carolina Nine years after a student at the University of North Carolina was brutally raped and beaten to death, her suspected killer has been arrested. Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 28, was arrested on Thursday and charged with first-degree murder in the 2012 slaying of 19-year-old Faith Hedgepeth in her Chapel Hill apartment. Details of the violent murder shocked the normally quiet college town, including the taunting note the killer scrawled on a fast-food bag and left next to Faith's body, reading: 'I'm not stupid b***h jealous'. Salguero-Olivares was tied to the murder through a DNA match with evidence collected at the crime scene, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said at a press conference. After nine years, police have finally charged a suspect in the murder of 19-year-old UNC sophomore Faith Hedgepeth, who was brutally raped and beaten to death in 2012 Details of the violent murder shocked the normally quiet college town, including the taunting note the killer left next to Faith's body, reading: 'I'm not stupid b***h jealous' Police declined to comment on whether the suspected killer had any prior relationship with the victim, and also would not say whether Salguero-Olivares would be charged with sex crimes in addition to murder. 'Our agency has been committed to bringing justice to Faith and her family since the day of her murder, ' Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said. 'Nine years and nine days ago tragedy struck our community,' Blue said. 'Police officers responded to a heartbreaking scene. One where a promising young life had ended way too soon.' 'While today's arrest will not bring Faith back, we are not yet done getting answers for Faith's family,' Blue added, saying that the arrest of Salguero-Olivares marks the 'the next phase of this investigation.' Faith Danielle Hedgepeth was found dead inside her off-campus apartment on Friday, September 7, 2012. Faith had won a scholarship to study biology to UNC Chapel Hill and initially planned on becoming a doctor. However, she fell behind in her studies and changed her major in her sophomore year after losing financial aid, deciding to focus on becoming an elementary school teacher. Faith was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe and grew up in Hollister, a small community in northeastern North Carolina Faith's sister Rolanda Hedgepeth, mother Connie Hedgepeth and cousin Jonathan Hedgepeth join other family, friends and community members at a candlelight vigil in 2012 Members of the Stoney Creek drum group and others participated in the 2012 vigil for Faith at the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School in Hollister, North Carolina Faith's grave is seen at Mount Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery in Warrenton Faith was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe and grew up in Hollister, a small community in northeastern North Carolina. At the Thursday news conference announcing the arrest of her suspected killer, Faith's parents both spoke briefly. 'When I got the news this morning I didn't do anything but cry. And thank God and praise God because I put it in his hands and it was his timing,' Faith's mother Connie said. 'It was an honor to be Faith's dad,' her dad Roland added. In 2016, police released an autopsy report that revealed chilling details of the murder. The report showed Faith had suffered extensive skull fractures and cuts to her face and head. She was also badly beaten on her arms and legs. Faith and her roommate Karen Rosario had spent the previous evening out at a local club, returning home at around 3am. Rosario then left their apartment at around 4.30am, the last time anyone saw Hedgepeth alive. The roommate returned approximately seven hours later and found Faith 'covered by a blanket on top of her slightly askew mattress with large amounts of blood.' North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (above) said Salguero-Olivares was tied to the murder through a DNA match with evidence collected at the crime scene Police said her body was found in a pool of blood, and blood spatter was found on the wall and bedroom closet door of her apartment. She was naked from the waist down and had her shirt pulled up over her breasts. Investigators also discovered semen on her body, thought to be left by her killer, that matched a man's DNA found elsewhere in the apartment. The autopsy determined that she had been beaten to death, dying of blunt force trauma to the head. Initially, suspicion had focused on an allegedly violent ex-boyfriend of the roommate Rosario, who had placed a restraining order against him. However, those suspicions did not ultimately pan out. Salguero-Olivares was taken into custody in nearby Durham on Thursday morning with the assistance of State Bureau of Investigation agents. A rebellious Aussie teen who admitted to punching her mother and 'smoking pot every day' on reality TV has revealed how she has transformed her life. Melbourne woman Eva was just 16 years old when she appeared on the reality TV program World's Strictest Parents Australia in 2010. The popular show, produced by the Seven Network, sent troubled Aussie kids to live with strict American families in hopes they would return less badly-behaved. The now 27-year-old Eva has recently taken to social media to reflect on her experience on the show and reveal how much she has changed in 11 years. A rebellious Aussie teen who admitted to punching her mother and 'smoking pot every day' on reality TV has revealed how she has transformed her life Eva (right) and her mother Sian (left) are introduced at Melbourne's International Airport as the troubled teen waits for the flight that will deliver her to a strict family in Florida In her episode Eva and her mother Sian are introduced at Melbourne's International Airport as the troubled teen waits for the flight that will deliver her to a strict family in Florida. 'I don't really like being told what to do,' a smug Eva tells the camera as it is revealed the pair have been non-stop bickering for over two years. Sian admits her headstrong daughter continues to blatantly smoke and drink despite her protestations, adding that something 'has to change'. 'I can't live without my cigarettes, my weed and my hip-hop,' Eva admits. 'I drink every weekend and I smoke pot everyday. I've taken speed, ecstasy, magical mushrooms, ice and acid.' Sian said their problems began when her daughter was expelled from high school, around the same time she began to smoke everyday. The now 27-year-old mother posted a comical clip from her episode to TikTok where her Florida father sprays her down with a hose for smoking a cigarette on his property Eva says she punched her mother on the nose during one of their heated arguments before chasing her into a bedroom and stabbing at the door with a knife. A concerned Sian revealed she had once been forced to call the police during one of their violent altercations. 'I don't listen to anyone else who tells me how to live my life. They can try and change me, but good luck to them,' the teen says. Eva has recently spoken out about her more boisterous days. She posted a comical clip from her episode to TikTok where her Florida father sprays her down with a hose for smoking a cigarette on his property. The clip quickly went viral with hundreds of viewers saying they remembered her episode and wanted to hear more about the experience. Eva (pictured) said while the experience on the reality show didn't change her overnight it did 'realign her priorities' and made her respect her mother a lot more on her return to Australia Eva, also known online as @violentbarbieTV, (pictured) posted a video to her TikTok account to answer questions, now sporting long purple hair, thick black eyeliner and glasses Eva, also known online as @violentbarbieTV, posted a video to answer questions, now sporting long purple hair, thick black eyeliner and glasses. She told her 11,0000 followers she had been approached by the shows producers while loitering outside a Melbourne McDonalds during school hours. Eva said while the experience didn't change her overnight it did 'realign her priorities' and made her respect her mother a lot more. A year later she signed up for a cooking course and got hired in pubs and restaurants as a chef, before giving birth to her first child when she was 19. 'I ended up kicking goals, I got off all of the drugs and all of that stuff. I still smoke cigarettes but I quit when I got pregnant which is what counts,' she said. Eva (pictured) now has two 'beautiful kids', has completed a business diploma and works as a disability support worker in Melbourne Eva then addressed the 'haters', telling online trolls she had since completed a business diploma and currently worked as a disability support worker. 'I have two beautiful kids and hey, I didn't turn out to be a crackhead after getting hosed on national TV,' she said. The clip of Eva being sprayed with the hose has almost 400,000 views on TikTok, with several users commending the mother-of-two for her transformation. 'Glad you're doing well!' one viewer viewed. 'That's awesome to hear,' a second commented. A traffic controller accused of attacking another man at a Covid-19 testing clinic was arrested at his home wearing a Mickey Mouse Oodie. Omar Saraya, 19, allegedly dragged the 55-year-old motorist from his car at a drive-thru clinic in Auburn in Sydney's west on Tuesday afternoon. The teenager appeared in Burwood Local Court on Friday where he entered not guilty pleas to two charges of grievous bodily harm and negligent driving. Police alleged in court that Saraya punched the other man in the face and kneed him in the ribs after pulling him by his collar out of the car. The court heard the brawl was allegedly sparked by the older man's comments about Saraya's driving, the Daily Telegraph reported. Omar Saraya, 19, was charged over an alleged road rage brawl at a Covid-19 drive thru testing clinic. He was arrested wearing a Mickey Mouse Oodie - a popular brand of clothing Saraya's lawyer Ben Clark told the court his client had no criminal record. 'This was a one-off,' he said. 'He has entered pleas of not guilty. We have a completely diametrically opposed view of what the facts are to how this matter occurred.' The teenager was granted bail but will have to stay at his Merrylands family home unless accompanied by his parents. An investigation led to the arrest of Saraya at a home in Merrylands on Thursday afternoon. He was seen exiting the house wearing a Mickey Mouse Oodie - a popular brand of wearable blankets - and entering the back of the police van. Police collected other items from the house as part of the investigation. Police alleged in court that Saraya punched the other man in the face and kneed him in the ribs after pulling him by his collar out of the car An infected resident of an Sydney apartment block hit by a Covid outbreak claims authorities told him to 'mind his own business' when he tried to report cases. The six-storey building on Crown Street in Darlinghurst, home to several vulnerable residents, has at least five cases. Tony Slan said he pleaded with the public housing authority to intervene as residents could unwittingly expose local shops and bus routes. It is understood at least five residents at 254 Crown Street in Darlinghurst, Sydney have tested positive to Covid One resident A NSW Health spokesperson confirmed the five cases 'an apartment building located in Crown St, Darlinghurst' in a statement to Daily Mail Australia. Mr Slan claims he was instead told to shut up and 'mind your own business we dont want to scare anybody', he told News Corp. A source from the public housing authority which asked not to be quoted denied a staff member told the resident to be quiet and not worry. Mr Slan, who has a compromised immune system due to having AIDS, tested positive on Saturday. He came into contact with neighbours while watering the plants in the building's foyer and after hearing several residents had tested positive and been taken to hospital. At least five residents in the tower also tested positive - that he knew about. 'Who knows how many are infected?' he said. Mr Slan posted notices around the complex warning residents of the outbreak and begging them to stay in their flats and get tested if they felt unwell. A man who lives at 254 Crown Street, Darlinghurst has pleaded with authorities to stop the spread of Covid in his building He was concerned his neighbours, who he says include gay, lesbian and transgender people with dementia, cancer, and in wheelchairs, could die if they got infected. Mr Slan claimed to have contacted NSW Police, NSW Health and NSW Department of Communities and Justice and been told there was 'nothing to worry about'. A housing assistant also told him nothing could be done until NSW Health had contacted it and became defensive, saying they knew how to do their job. 'How many people does it take to get sick for them to at least notify all the people living in this building?' he said. 'Following the identification of these cases, the public health unit (PHU) has been working with the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) to provide support and facilitate access to testing for all residents,' the NSW Health statement said. 'All residents are receiving support from DCJ to isolate in their homes until testing results are known.' The outbreak follows several similar clusters emerging at housing blocks across inner Sydney this month. The notorious public housing estate at 57 Morehead Street, Redfern, has been shut down and residents ordered to remain inside after a new Covid cluster emerged there sparking fears it is 'riddled' with the virus NSW Health said the residents at 43-47 Morehead Street, many of whom were 'vulnerable people with complex health and social needs' were being 'supported' by health teams and 'Department of Communities and Justice' workers In each case hundreds of vulnerable residents were ordered to isolate after positive cases at each site. This week the three 17-storey public housing towers at 43-57 Morehead Street, Redfern, were shut down after 12 positive cases, with vulnerable 630 residents ordered not to use the lifts. Over 100 residents at Mission Australia's Common Ground homeless service were forced to stay home after four tenants tested positive at the start of September. 'Residents of numerous apartment blocks across South Eastern Sydney Local Health District have been advised to monitor for symptoms in recent weeks,' NSW Health confirmed. 'The PHU routinely notifies residents of apartment blocks when there has been a case of COVID-19 in another resident or a visitor, that may impact the health of residents or visitors in the building.' Boris Johnson's nuclear submarine deal with the US and Australia has raised fears Britain could be dragged into war if China invades Taiwan. He was asked yesterday what the new naval alliance - dubbed Aukus - would do if Beijing marched on Taipei. The sabre-rattling PM refused to rule anything out, saying it was the UK's job to 'defend international law'. Meanwhile his national security adviser hailed the cooperation between the nations as creating 'indissoluble bonds'. Boris Johnson was asked yesterday what the new naval alliance - dubbed Aukus - would do if Beijing marched on Taipei The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in the ground-breaking agreement. Pictured: China;s submarine in the Yellow Sea in 2019 Former Prime Minister Theresa May asked her successor what would happen if China invaded Taiwan. Mr Johnson refused to rule anything out His national security adviser hailed the cooperation between the nations as creating 'indissoluble bonds'. Sir Stephen Lovegrove (pictured) said the move marked a 'profound, strategic shift' and welcomed Australia becoming the seventh nuclear power State-backed Chinese paper says subs deal could 'make Australia a NUCLEAR target' Chinese state media has warned Australia will become a 'potential target for a nuclear strike' after it acquires nuclear-powered submarines in a deal with the US and UK. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the 'AUKUS' alliance 'seriously damages regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race, and undermines the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons'. And China's Global Times news website - a mouthpiece for the communist government - went one step further, saying the move could result in a nuclear strike on Australia. The article cited an anonymous 'senior Chinese military expert' who said Australia would pose a nuclear threat to other countries because the new subs could be fitted with nuclear weapons provided by the US or UK. 'This would make Australia a potential target for a nuclear strike, because nuclear-armed states like China and Russia are directly facing the threat from Australia's nuclear submarines which serve US strategic demands,' the expert said. 'Beijing and Moscow won't treat Canberra as ''an innocent non-nuclear power,'' but 'a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons anytime,' the expert added. Beefing up Australia's military 'could bring destructive consequences' in the event of a nuclear war and said any insistence that Australia does not want nuclear missiles is 'meaningless'. Advertisement Sir Stephen Lovegrove said the move marked a 'profound, strategic shift' and welcomed Australia becoming the seventh nuclear power. The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in the ground-breaking agreement. Mr Johnson met with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June where they discussed the subs. The move has provoked some countries, including China for strategic reasons, the EU for blindsiding it and France as it rips up a 30billion deal they had with Australia. Former Prime Minister Theresa May asked her successor what would happen if China invaded Taiwan. She said: 'What are the implications of this pact for the stance that would be taken by the United Kingdom in its response should China attempt to invade Taiwan?' Mr Johnson refused to rule anything out in his response to her in the House of Commons yesterday. He said: 'The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law and that is the strong advice we would give to our friends across the world, and the strong advice that we would give to the government in Beijing.' He said Britain's new defence pact will 'preserve security around the world' and ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region. He said it would help generate 'hundreds of high-skilled jobs' in Scotland and parts of the North of England and the Midlands. Meanwhile his National Security Advisor Sir Stephen hailed the move in his first public speech in the role at the Council on Geostrategy. He said: 'There is a commitment by the three nations to deliver a plan that will enable the Royal Australian Navy to field nuclear powered - not nuclear armed - submarines in the coming years. 'It is perhaps the most significant capability collaboration anywhere in the world in the past six decades. 'This has been a project in gestation for some months - right through the Afghanistan drawdown - and is a powerful illustration of how we are building new long term partnerships rooted in Britain's values, its scientific and engineering excellence, and in our alliances. Why is Australia getting the subs? Why nuclear submarines? Nuclear submarines are powered by nuclear reactors which produce heat that creates high-pressured steam to spin turbines and power the boat's propeller. They can run for about 20 years before needing to refuel, meaning food supplies are the only limit on time at sea. The boats are also very quiet, making it harder for enemies to detect them and can travel at top speed - about 40kmh - for longer than diesel-powered subs. The first nuclear submarines were put to sea by the United States in the 1950s. They are now also in use by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India. A senior US defence official told reporters in Washington DC: 'This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to basically deploy for a longer period, they're quieter, they're much more capable. 'They will allow us to sustain and to improve deterrence across the Indo-Pacific.' Zack Cooper, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said nuclear submarines would hugely boost Australia's military capability. They are going to be much, much more capable in the large, expansive ocean that is Australia has to deal with,' he told the ABC. Will Australia have nuclear weapons? Scott Morrison made it clear that the nuclear-power submarines will not have nuclear missiles on board. Australia has never produced nuclear weapons and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1973 which prevents non-nuclear states which don't already have them from developing nuclear weapons. Mr Morrison also said the Australia has no plans to build nuclear power stations which are widely used around the world. 'But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,' he said. 'And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.' Advertisement 'There are only six nations capable of fielding nuclear powered submarines - ourselves, the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, and India. 'Australia will become the seventh, representing a significant commitment to peace and stability in the region, mirroring our own defence settlement, which saw a 10 per cent uplift in spending agreed last year. 'These are profound, strategic shifts, and collaboration on nuclear projects creates indissoluble bonds around which new matrices of collaboration can be built.' He said Britain's special relationship with the US - which has been on rocky ground since the Afghan crisis - needed to 'accelerate'. Sir Stephen added: 'We need to accelerate this vital partnership further including in critical areas such as strategic planning, future force design, technological and industrial cooperation and a systematic approach to reducing or removing barriers to sharing information, data and technology where it is in our mutual advantage to do so.' The new alliance was fiercely opposed by China, which described it as 'extremely irresponsible' and 'narrow-minded'. State media said it was 'Cold War thinking', and warned that Australian soldiers will be the 'first to die' in a Chinese 'counterattack'. But Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Chinese were wrong to see the agreement as an attempt to engage in a new Cold War. France was furious after Australia said it would scrap a 30billion deal for diesel-electric subs for the stealthier craft to be built using UK and US components. In Paris, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was 'really angry' at the contract breach. He added: 'It was a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this was betrayed.' But Mr Johnson insisted yesterday the UK's military relationship with France was 'rock solid'. Mr Wallace said he recognised French frustration but insisted the UK 'didn't go fishing' for the contract and had instead been approached by Australia. Amid the anger from China, Mr Johnson told MPs the AUKUS pact was 'not intended to be adversarial' towards any nation. He said: 'It merely reflects the close relationship that we have with the United States and with Australia, the shared values that we have and the sheer level of trust between us that enables us to go to this extraordinary extent of sharing nuclear technology in the way that we are proposing to do.' Scott Morrison meeting with Boris Johnson and Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall back in June, where the trio put pen to paper on a new military alliance that will give Australia its first nuclear-powered submarines The pact does not make the design of Australia's new submarines clear, but they will be based on previous US and UK designs. Pictured above is a cross-section of Britain's Astute-class nuclear attack subs, which is likely to mirror the new vessels China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory, to the objection of its neighbours in the Asia-Pacific Britain and America are to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines as part of an unprecedented alliance known as AUKUS to combat China (pictured, a British Astute-class nuclear sub which is likely to mirror the Australian design) China has transformed several uninhabited islands in the South China Sea into military bases and has begun warning ships away from them, including threatening rival naval vessels Brussels was blindsided by the announcement, with the European Commission saying it was urgently seeking more information. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the AUKUS allies needed to abandon their 'outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality' otherwise they would 'only end up shooting themselves in the foot'. New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said the submarines will be banned from her country's waters as it has a long-standing nuclear-free policy. Miss Ardern said she was not approached about the pact, 'nor would I expect us to be'. Furious EU complains that it was 'not consulted' on AUKUS submarine deal while France blasts Australia for stabbing it in the back Josep Borrell said union was only made aware of new alliance through the media And French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Australians of a betrayal Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for agreement Pact with US will provide at least eight nuclear-powered submarines to Australia The EU has complained that it was 'not consulted' on the AUKUS submarine deal while France has lashed out at Australia for 'stabbing it in the back'. Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said the union was only made aware of the new alliance through the media. And French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has accused the Australians of a betrayal because the alliance meant they scrapped a multi-billion deal for France to provide subs. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for the pact to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia with the US after France called it a 'stab in the back'. The UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy in a ground-breaking agreement dubbed AUKUS. But this meant that Canberra ripped up a deal worth around 30billion that was struck with Paris in 2016 for France to provide 12 diesel-electric submarines. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (pictured on September 7) insisted Britain did not 'go fishing' for the pact to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia with the US A diplomatic row broke out, with Mr Le Drian telling France-Info radio: 'It was really a stab in the back. 'We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed.' Meanwhile Mr Borrell, ex-President of the European Parliament, said: 'This alliance we have only just been made aware and we weren't even consulted. 'As high representative for security, I was not aware and I assume that an agreement of such a nature wasn't just brought together over night. I think it would have been worked on for quite a while.' He added: 'We regret not having been informed not having been part of these talks. We weren't included, we weren't part and parcel of this.' Mr Wallace said he recognises the 'frustration' from France after speaking to his French counterpart Florence Parly on Wednesday night. He told BBC Breakfast: 'I understand France's disappointment. 'They had a contract with the Australians for diesel-electrics from 2016 and the Australians have taken this decision that they want to make a change. 'We didn't go fishing for that, but as a close ally when the Australians approached us of course we would consider it. 'I understand France's frustration about it.' French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, above, has accused the Australians of a betrayal because the alliance meant they scrapped a multi-billion deal for France to provide subs Boris Johnson told MPs today that the UK's military relationship with France is 'rock solid' and insisted 'we stand shoulder to shoulder with the French' despite the row. The Prime Minister met with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, and US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June. Downing Street confirmed that the three leaders discussed the subs at the meeting. The Prime Minister's official spokesman added: 'I wouldn't say there was one single meeting that did it, this has been something that has been an undertaking of several months, it's a culmination of that work.' Mr Morrison told a press conference it was undecided if Australia would purchase British-built BAE Systems Astute class submarines or the Virginia class vessels constructed in the US. But Mr Johnson said during a Commons statement on Aukus he expects the deal will bring 'hundreds of high-skilled, high-wage jobs' to the UK. Mr Johnson, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison (centre) and US President Joe Biden attend a joint press conference to announce the AUKUS partnership last night Australia is now set to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines to present a counter-balance to Beijing's growing navy, and will also be sharing other advanced military technologies with Washington and London The row with France comes at a time when relations are already strained over the situation with migrant crossings in the Channel. The French warned against the UK using 'blackmail' tactics after suggestions from Home Secretary Priti Patel that she could withhold millions of pounds of cash unless there was an improvement in the number of migrants intercepted by the authorities across the Channel. The Prime Minister's official spokesman sought to smooth relations by stressing that 'we very highly value our relationship with France both in terms of defence and security and more broadly'. He insisted talks with France would continue over efforts to prevent migrants risking crossings of the Channel, despite the row over the defence deal. Australia 'as a close ally and friend of this country' had asked for help on the defence scheme and 'it was something we were pleased to be able to assist with, not in the least because it benefits the people of the UK'. 'With regards to the ongoing issues in the Channel, we want to work with our French counterparts, the Home Secretary has had a number of discussions with her counterpart, and we will continue to do so.' Boris Johnson last night cleared out a generation of middle-aged white men in a bid to make the Tories look more diverse. In a cull of the so-called 'pale, male and stale', the Prime Minister axed a string of long-serving men from the middle ranks of government. Of nine middle and junior ranking ministers sacked in the latest round of the reshuffle, culture minister Caroline Dinenage was the only woman. Their replacements were dominated by women. Sources said more female MPs are set to join the Government today when the Prime Minister completes the reshuffle. Downing Street said Mr Johnson was proud to preside over 'one of the most diverse Cabinets in history'. Boris Johnson last night cleared out a generation of middle-aged white men in a bid to make the Tories look more diverse. Ousted ministers included the culture minister John Whittingdale (left), 61, and the veteran schools minister Nick Gibb (right), also 61, who has served in the role on and off since 2010 Government sources said the PM wanted to maintain a 'pipeline' of talented women by promoting more to middle and junior ranks. Ousted ministers included the culture minister John Whittingdale, 61, the veteran schools minister Nick Gibb, also 61, who has served in the role on and off since 2010, and the Treasury minister Jesse Norman, 60. Mr Gibb said he was 'sad' to lose his role, which came as part of a wider clear-out of the struggling Department for Education. Downing Street said Mr Johnson was proud to preside over 'one of the most diverse Cabinets in history'. Jesse Norman (left) was financial secretary to the Treasury. Justin Tomlinson Served as minister for disabled people under three PMs ...it's changing times at the top Men sacked from Government Nick Gibb: Had been schools minister for most of the past decade John Whittingdale: Ex-culture secretary was made media minister last year Jesse Norman: Old Etonian and author, was financial secretary to the Treasury Luke Hall: Local government minister Justin Tomlinson: Served as minister for disabled people under three PMs Graham Stuart: Minister for exports had held a trade brief since 2018 James Duddridge: Minister for Africa Matt Warman: Formerly a whip, had been minister for digital infrastructure ... and the Women on the up Lucy Frazer: Former justice minister is now financial secretary to the Treasury Victoria Atkins: New prisons minister also leads Afghan resettlement scheme Gillian Keegan: New care minister Maggie Throup: Vaccine minister is ex-whip Helen Whately: Former care minister is exchequer secretary to the Treasury Amanda Solloway: Science minister is now a government whip Chloe Smith: Moves from the Cabinet Office to minister for disabled people Trudy Harrison: Former aide to the PM becomes junior transport minister Advertisement Officials were later seen removing Mr Whittingdale's possessions from his ministerial office, including a framed gold disc by the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Other ministers who faced the chop included minister for the disabled Justin Tomlinson, 44, local government minister Luke Hall, 35, trade minister Graham Stuart, 59, Foreign Office minister James Duddridge, 50, and digital minister Matt Warman, 40. Mr Warman appeared to see the writing on the wall earlier in the day, referring to himself as the 'current broadband minister' when answering questions in the Commons. When he was congratulated on the speed of the broadband rollout, he replied: 'I hope that is not the kiss of death.' As the men departed, Mr Johnson promoted a number of female rising stars to more senor positions. Barrister Lucy Frazer, 49, replaced Mr Norman as financial secretary to the Treasury. Fellow barrister Victoria Atkins, 45, was promoted to minister of state level at the Ministry of Justice. Former skills minister Gillian Keegan, 53, was also promoted to the middle ranks at the Department of Health. In an eye-catching appointment, little-known whip Maggie Throup, 64, will succeed Nadhim Zahawi in the high-profile role of vaccines minister. Former care minister Helen Whately, 45, was shuffled sideways to the role of exchequer secretary at the Treasury while the Prime Minister's own parliamentary private secretary Trudy Harrison, also 45, became a junior minister at the Department for Transport. It followed a Cabinet shake-up the previous day in which men were also the main victims. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick were all sacked. Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said the PM 'wanted to bring forward a number of women MPs'. Mr Wallace said: 'He's determined to both level up not only in the country but also in my party's representation around the cabinet table.' But Sir Bob Neill, chairman of the Commons justice committee, described Mr Buckland's dismissal as 'unjust and outrageous'. Another backbench Tory MP last night described the shake-up as 'unfair', adding: 'It doesn't pay to be a white man at reshuffle time.' Former care minister Helen Whately, 45, was shuffled sideways to the role of exchequer secretary at the Treasury. Chloe Smith Moves from the Cabinet Office to minister for disabled people However, a number of men also received promotions. Rising star Neil O'Brien, who first elected in 2017, was appointed to Michael Gove's new housing department where he is expected to focus on the PM's 'levelling up' agenda. Lee Rowley, another from the 2017 intake, joined the Government as a business minister. Alex Chalk was promoted to the role of solicitor general. And Mr Johnson's long-time ally Conor Burns was brought back as a Northern Ireland minister. Former skills minister Gillian Keegan, 53, was also promoted to the middle ranks at the Department of Health. Barrister Lucy Frazer, 49, replaced Mr Norman as financial secretary to the Treasury Analysis by the Sutton Trust suggested the proportion of privately educated ministers fell slightly to 60 per cent, but is still far higher than the national average. The figure was 64 per cent in Mr Johnson's first Cabinet in 2019, and 65 per cent in a 2020 reshuffle. In its analysis of educational backgrounds, it found the 2021 percentage for private education compares to 29 per cent when it comes to all MPs in the House of Commons and just 7 per cent of the wider population. A British university student convicted of crying rape in Cyprus faces an agonising six-month wait to find out if her attempt to clear her name has been successful. The 21-year-olds lawyers appeared before the islands Supreme Court yesterday to try to get her conviction overturned. But the three appeal court judges reserved their decision, and while her lawyers said they were satisfied with the proceedings, they warned it could take up to six months for a judgment to be given. The young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has maintained that she was gang-raped by up to 12 Israeli youths while on her summer break in a budget hotel in the resort of Ayia Napa in 2019 when she was 18. The 21-year-olds lawyers appeared before the islands Supreme Court yesterday to try to get her conviction overturned Her legal team argued in court in the capital, Nicosia, that all her rights were violated when local police interrogated her for more than six hours without access to a lawyer while her alleged attackers were set free. They claimed she was bullied into signing a retraction statement, which was used to charge and eventually convict her of public mischief at a shambolic trial in Cyprus. After spending five weeks in prison and almost six months trapped on the island, the woman was given a suspended four-month jail sentence in January last year. She vowed to clear her name and yesterday her legal team led by campaign group Justice Abroad argued in court that her conviction is unsafe and should be overturned. Protesters are pictured outside the Supreme Court yesterday. After spending five weeks in prison and almost six months trapped on the island, the woman was given a suspended four-month jail sentence in January last year The woman chose not to return to Cyprus for the hearing and instead followed it from her home in Derbyshire, supported by her mother, who said last night: We are relieved the appeal has been heard. Its been a stressful time leading up to it. She barely slept last night and the appeal is bringing back lots of bad feelings from what happened to her 2019. In Saturdays Daily Mail the student described the nightmares she suffers and how her ordeal has overshadowed her new life at university. The 12 Israeli men and boys aged 15 to 20 at the time arrested over the incident denied any wrongdoing and returned home. The building industry and the Government knew of the dangers posed by cladding 13 years before the Grenfell Tower fire, leaked documents suggest. Five cladding systems failed fire tests as early as 2004, including one similar to that used on the west London tower block which has since been blamed for the spread of the blaze. The results, marked 'commercial in confidence', have only been made public after they were disclosed by the BBC last night. It came after new Housing Secretary Michael Gove faced calls to sort out the cladding crisis. Thousands of protesters descended on Parliament Square yesterday to demand an end to the building safety scandal once and for all. Hundreds of thousands of flat owners face bills of up to 150,000 each because their homes are wrapped in unsafe cladding. The building industry and the Government knew of the dangers posed by cladding 13 years before the Grenfell Tower fire, leaked documents suggest The 2004 tests, commissioned by the then Labour administration, were among the first of full-scale building systems developed in the late 1990s. All five cladding systems tested failed 'proposed performance criteria'. Cladding expert Dr Jonathan Evans said the results could have been 'vital' in assessing fire risks after the 2017 Grenfell tragedy, in which 72 died. He told the BBC: 'We all proceed along the route of thinking these systems are safer than they are, until there's a disaster.' The UK Cladding Action Group said the leaked documents showed 'the Government and its advisers knew these materials were dangerous, but simply stood back and allowed them to be installed on hundreds of thousands of buildings. The British state knew from this moment on that it was gambling with a disaster in a high-rise, but it chose not to act.' Tory rebels on the cladding issue said yesterday that the early signs were 'positive' after contacting Mr Gove to hold talks in the coming weeks. The Daily Mail has led the way in calling on ministers to fix unsafe flats. The Government has tripled its fund to fix dangerous cladding to 5.1billion, but it excludes those living in smaller blocks and non-cladding related defects. Commenting on the leaked documents, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the 2004 tests were designed 'to check the criteria for testing', not the 'intrinsic safety of building materials' and the findings fed into a review of technical standards used by building designers to assess the safety of cladding. England has the highest university tuition fees in the world but might struggle to justify these rates if courses stay online, an expert warned yesterday. The average cost of an undergraduate degree is greater in this country than in publicly funded institutions around the developed world including the US. Students have faced a tripling in charges over the last decade to 9,250 a year following government reforms that raised the cap on tuition fees in 2012. England now has the highest tuition fees for a bachelor degree out of the 46 countries including New Zealand and Japan which provided data to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. England has the highest university tuition fees in the world but might struggle to justify these rates if courses stay online, an expert warned yesterday (stock image) New Zealands fees are around 3,439 a year on average, while Japan charges about 3,884, according to the OECD. The figure for publicly funded universities in the US was second-highest to England at 6,911 per year. But private institutions like Harvard and Yale have far higher annual fees of around 39,000 and 42,000 respectively. The findings come as several British universities announced a third academic year of remote lectures. Many are adopting a blended approach to learning with a mix of in-person and online teaching this autumn. But the OECDs director for education and skills, Andreas Schleicher, insisted yesterday that students want more out of campus life. He said: Students go to university to meet great professors, they go to university to work with colleagues and researchers in a laboratory, they go to university to experience social life of campus. The OECDs director for education and skills, Andreas Schleicher, insisted yesterday that students want more out of campus life (stock image) Despite calls to move back to in-person teaching, a survey published yesterday shows that many lecturers remain reluctant. The Times Higher Education polled 535 academics with 53 per cent saying they did not feel safe returning to face-to-face teaching or on-campus working while Covid cases remain high. Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: The fact weve now got the higher tuition fees in the world but not providing face to face provision is something of a national scandal. A Universities UK spokesman said: UK universities are world-leading, with the benefits of obtaining a degree here wide-ranging. They added that graduates earn 10,000 more a year than non-graduates. A university dropout who conned investors out of AU$123million in a crypto currency scam claimed he battled with sex and video game addictions. Canberra-born Stefan He Qin, 24, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to securities fraud in Manhattan, in the US, on Wednesday. Qin cheated more than 100 investors and used their money to bankroll extravagant parties and pay for a $35,000-a-month penthouse in Lower Manhattan. His lawyers Kaplan Hecker & Fink claimed their client had made the mistakes because of a traumatic childhood that had led to sexual and video game addiction. Qin told US district judge Valerie Caproni he believed he was the main character of a game. Canberra-born Stefan He Qin, 24, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to securities fraud in Manhattan, in the US, on Wednesday While Qin was operating Vigil Sigma he was invited to appear on CNBC's 'Fast Money' to give advice on how to invest in cryptocurrency Bitcoin 'I thought I was the main protagonist and life was a video game and I had just found the cheat code to beat it,' he told US district judge Valerie Caproni. 'As we know, life is not a video game.' Court documents claimed that Qin suffered from a traumatic childhood that involved bullying at school and parents who were physically abusive towards each other. The court heard his parents, who are Chinese nationals, were 'overbearing' with his education and that he was physically bullied at school by students. Qin then retreated into video games and would play for up to 16 hours a day, court documents state. The 24-year-old told the judge he was 'absolutely heartbroken' as he read letters from victims about the pain he'd caused investors, including family members, friends and business associates. 'Now I feel ashamed to even look them in the eye and tell them I am sorry, but I must,' he said. Authorities said the fraud occurred from 2017 to 2020 as Qin operated the fund, called Virgil Sigma. During this time, he was invited by CNBC to appear on their program 'Fast Money' and give advice on investing in cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Caproni noted that there was a charm to Qin, but she also said that a victim of his Ponzi scheme had warned her not to be taken in by his charm. She said that if his contrition were sincere, he'd never be in a courtroom again. 'But if he's charming me the way he charmed his victims; he's a real danger because he thinks his needs are more important than everyone else's,' she added. The 24-year-old told the judge he was 'absolutely heartbroken' as he read letters from victims about the pain he'd caused investors, including family members, friends and business associates She said he deserved a measure of leniency, though, because he had cooperated with authorities as they tried to identify where money from investors went. U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Qin promised his investors safety, but 'investors soon discovered that his strategies weren't much more than a disguised means for him to embezzle and make unauthorized investments with client funds' She said in a release that he doubled down on his scheme when he was faced with redemption requests. 'Qin's brazen and wide-ranging scheme left his beleaguered investors in the lurch for over US$54 million, and he has now been handed the appropriately lengthy sentence of over seven years in federal prison,' she said. Qin pleaded guilty in February, admitting he carried out the fraud when he owned and controlled two Manhattan-based cryptocurrency investment funds, Virgil Sigma and VQR. Qin, who was ordered to forfeit US$54.7 million, told Caproni that he had learned through his crime that success, money and fame were not what was important in life. 'I know now that the world is not a video game,' he said. 'I deserve the punishment that I'm going to receive today. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the pain I've caused. I am so, so, so sorry.' He was ordered to report to prison on December 15. A US judge has dealt another blow to Prince Andrew's bid to dodge being served sex abuse legal papers by saying they can be given to his LA based lawyers instead. He said Virginia Giuffre's plan to deliver them to his US lawyer was 'reasonably calculated to bring the papers served to the defendant's attention'. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan it did not matter whether the Duke of York 'authorised' the lawyer to accept them. The lawyer, Andrew Brettler, had no immediate comment and Ms Giuffre's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mr Kaplan ruled barely six hours after Ms Giuffre formally requested his intervention, with her lawyers saying 'service is not intended to be a game of hide and seek behind palace walls.' Earlier the Prince had challenged a High Court ruling that he can be served with papers in his US sex case. In what was being seen as another delaying tactic by the duke, his legal team said it would look to overturn the decision on a legal technicality. It comes as the Prince's mood has reportedly changed over the past few days and he has become 'worried' and is 'not his usual blase self'. He is said to be readying himself for a brutal legal battle that he fears could cost him millions of pounds. A US judge has dealt another blow to Prince Andrew's (pictured earlier this week at Balmoral) bid to dodge being served legal papers by saying they can be given to his LA based lawyers instead He said Virginia Giuffre's (pictured) plan to deliver them to his US lawyer was 'reasonably calculated to bring the papers served to the defendant's attention' District Judge Lewis Kaplan (pictured) in Manhattan it did not matter whether the Duke of York 'authorised' the lawyer to accept them The Duke, 61, was sued by Giuffre last month, accusing him of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress over alleged misconduct. Giuffre, 38, was underage at the time of Andrew's alleged abuse, which she said occurred when his friend, the financier Jeffrey Epstein, was sexually abusing her. She is arguing she was trafficked for sex by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell while she was 17 and Andrew had sex with her on three occasions. The civil lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. Andrew has denied Giuffre's accusations, and Brettler at a Monday court hearing called Giuffre's case a 'baseless, nonviable, potentially unlawful lawsuit.' The Royal stepped down from royal duties as details emerged over the last two years about his relationship with Epstein. Epstein was a registered sex offender who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, then 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell are pictured at Maxwell's townhouse in London in 2001 The judge issued his order a day after London's High Court said it would arrange for Andrew to be served if the parties failed to work out their own arrangement. Lawyers for Giuffre argued they already served Andrew in England, when a copy of the lawsuit was left with a police officer guarding the Prince's home in Windsor. In her lawsuit, Giuffre accused Andrew of having sexual intercourse with her while she was being trafficked for sex by Epstein and Maxwell at the latter's London home. Giuffre also claims Andrew similarly abused her at Epstein's mansion in Manhattan and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands. Maxwell faces a November 29 trial on charges she helped recruit and groom underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. She has pleaded not guilty while in custody in the US. Andrew has not been charged with crimes. Andrew is seen this week at Balmoral next to his Range Rover and the lodge he was staying in Andrew is being sued by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accuses him of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. She claims to have been trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein Earlier yesterday he challenged a High Court ruling he can be served with papers in his US sex case. His legal team said it would look to overturn the decision. Court papers filed in New York last night show Andrew's lawyers want to argue over the definition of a 'judicial officer', in a possible indication of how he plans to concede no ground in the civil case against him. But attorneys for his long-term accuser Miss Giuffre yesterday claimed he is playing a 'game of hide and seek behind palace walls'. The prince is being sued by Miss Giuffre, who claims Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and a victim of sex trafficking. In the court claim, she alleges she was trafficked to the duke by Epstein and is claiming damages for rape, sexual assault and battery. Andrew, who is currently at Balmoral with the Queen, has repeatedly denied the allegations. His high-powered legal team claim that Miss Giuffre's attorneys do not have the authority to approach the High Court, which this week said it would serve the case papers on the Prince if the two sides failed to agree it themselves. Andrew's side have argued that David Boies, Miss Roberts' Manhattan lawyer, is not a 'judicial, consular or diplomatic officer' of the US. The London court originally agreed with the Duke before changing its decision after representations by his opponents, Boies Schiller Flexner (BSF), who cited US law. But Gary Bloxsome, acting for Andrew, wrote to Senior Master Barbara Fontaine within hours on Wednesday. He said: 'We contend that your original decision of 14 September 2021 to reject BSF's direct request was correct, and your subsequent decision of 15 September 2021 is wrong. 'We ask that the original decision be restored, and the reasons communicated promptly to BSF.' Prince Andrew with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson leaving Windsor to drive to the Queen's Balmoral estate in Scotland last week The judge said she would not 'determine this disputed issue by email' and ordered Andrew to file a proper legal application, which could result in an appeal being heard in court. But Andrew's argument may prove moot anyway after Mr Boies last night petitioned the New York court to directly contact its London counterpart. In his bid, Mr Boies wrote: 'Ms Giuffre requests that the court exercise its discretion to order alternate service pursuant.' The papers were left with police at Andrew's Windsor home, Royal Lodge, and emailed to his lawyers but he disputes they have properly been served upon him. Her side last night accused him of trying to dodge the case by arguing against service while at the same time looking to build up his defence by asking for a copy of the deal. In the court papers, they wrote: 'Prince Andrew is both actively evading service of Ms Giuffre's claims... while at the same time attempting to avail himself of discovery in order to aid his defence.' Andrew also plans to argue that a financial settlement Miss Roberts signed with Epstein in 2009 precludes her from bringing a legal action against him. But the Duke's hopes of getting the Epstein deal unsealed quickly suffered a blow last night when a judge ruled it would stay under wraps for now. Last month, Miss Roberts agreed to drop a claim for sexual assault against US lawyer Alan Dershowitz as a result of the settlement. He has since lodged a request to have the original agreement unsealed, as he believes it may help to get the case against Andrew also thrown out. But yesterday Judge Loretta A Preska, a senior US district judge, denied his application, saying that Dershowitz's claim had 'no basis'. The Prince is said to have become 'worried' and is 'not his usual blase self' amid the allegations. A source told the Mirror: 'He's not been his usual blase self, acting like everything is in hand. 'The issue has suddenly become very pressing and there is a distinct tension in the air. 'There has been a dramatic shift in mood and the reality that this could not only go on for many months, if not years, as well as costing potentially millions of pounds is very real.' It's the go-to store for people looking for furniture on a budget, and now IKEA has announced that it's venturing into the world of gaming. The Swedish firm will launch a range of furniture for gamers next month in collaboration with Republic of Gamers (ROG). The range will include desks, chairs and accessories, ranging in price from 7.50 to 350. 'We believe there's a lot to be done to democratise the gaming experience', said Ewa Rychert, Global Business Leader of Workspaces at IKEA. 'We've taken the first step on our gaming journey, and have done it by offering consumers affordable, high-performing gaming products and complete home solutions that we hope reflect people's personality and taste.' The Swedish firm will launch a range of furniture for gamers next month in collaboration with Republic of Gamers (ROG) Common gaming injuries According to a recent report by Casinosource, the five most common gaming injuries are: Neck strain Eye strain Headaches and migraines Gamers thumb/tenosynovitis (repetitive use of the thumb) Back strain Advertisement The gaming range will include six product families - UPPSPEL, which is designed in collaboration with ROG, and LANESPELARE, MATCHSPEL, GRUPPSPEL, UTESPELARE and HUVUDSPELARE, which were solely designed by IKEA. In total, the gaming range includes more than 30 products. This includes furniture such as gaming desks, chairs and drawer units, and accessories, such as mug holders, neck pillow and ring lights. Johnny Chan, a designer at ROG, said: 'We know a lot about gamer needs, pain points and expectations, and we want to design solutions for ultimate, immersive gaming experiences.' The gaming range will go on sale on October 1, both in store and online. While buying furniture specifically for gaming may seem excessive for some, a recent study found that using the wrong equpiment can actually result in some nasty injuries. The study, by Pew Research, found that the most common injuries seen in gamers are overuse injuries of the hands, including carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and synovitis. In total, the gaming range includes more than 30 products. This includes furniture such as gaming desks, chairs and drawer units, and accessories, such as mug holders, neck pillow and ring lights Dr Pedro Beredjiklian, from Jefferson Health, explained: 'A lot of these problems are caused by non-ergonomic designs in the devices. 'The keyboards become smaller and smaller. As technology gets smaller, it becomes harder for the hand, causing inflammation.' This isn't the first time that IKEA has ventured beyond the world of furniture. In 2019, IKEA launched its first range of smart products, including speakers designed in collaboration with Sonos. Some of the cheaper items in IKEA's new range include accessories such as this hand-shaped headphone holder and cup holder Evanthia Nikoglou, Home Smart Sales Leader at IKEA UK and Ireland said: 'Sound is a powerful mood booster and is as important for creating the perfect atmosphere at home as any rug, art piece, or sofa. 'Designed in collaboration with Sonos, the new SYMFONISK speakers blend effortlessly into the home in a versatile way, allowing you to really set the mood within your home by furnishing with sound. 'The speakers can also be used with the SYMFONSIK remote, which allows users to control play and volume without their phone.' Two new emoji 'pregnant man' and a gender neutral 'pregnant person' are among those coming to smartphones later this year, it has been confirmed. The Unicode Consortium, the central bank of all approved emoji, has officially signed off candidates for the next emoji release, version 14.0. The pregnant man and pregnant person recognise that 'pregnancy is possible for some transgender men and non-binary people', Emojipedia, a voting member of the Unicode Consortium says. Men get pregnant in both real life and in fiction, Emojipedia claims, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1994 film 'Junior'. Guidelines to use the term 'pregnant person' instead of 'pregnant woman' as issued by the British Medical Association in 2017, in an attempt to recognise trans and non-binary people were at the time called 'an insult to women'. 'Pregnant man' and 'pregnant person' emoji could also be used as 'a tongue-in-cheek way to display a food baby, a very full stomach caused by eating a large meal EMOJI VERSION 14.0 HIGHLIGHTS - Pregnant Man - Pregnant Person - Troll - Coral - Nest with Eggs - Mirror Ball - Low Battery - X-Ray - Bubbles Advertisement Now, emoji users have flocked to Twitter to share their displeasure of the new 'gender inclusive' emoji. Twitter user @doggerinos said: 'I could probably count on one hand the number of people who asked for a pregnant man emoji. 'Im not trying to hate on trans people or anything, Im just wondering who tf is gonna use that?!' Another user, @libertythot_, called the emoji and everyone who uses it 'stupid'. Meanwhile, @ErnstRoets said: 'Someone told me they're making an emoji of a pregnant man. I thought it was a joke, only to discover that it really is to be released soon.' On the other hand, @pibesson said a pregnant man emoji was 'sorely missing' and the lack of it until now a 'gross oversight' from the Unicode Consortium. Jane Solomon, Emojipedia's 'senior emoji lexicographer', outlined the new emojis in a blog post entitled 'Why is there a pregnant man emoji?' 'The new pregnancy options may be used for representation by trans men, non-binary people, or women with short hair though, of course, use of these emojis is not limited to these groups,' she said. Twitter user @doggerinos said : 'I could probably count on one hand the number of people who asked for a pregnant man emoji' ErnstRoets said he though a pregnant man emoji was just a joke. The new pregnancy options may be used for representation by trans men, non-binary people, or women with short hair 'Men can be pregnant. This applies to the real world (e.g., trans men) and to fictional universes (e.g., Arnold Schwarzenegger in [1994 film] "Junior". 'People of any gender can be pregnant too. Now there are emojis to represent this.' For now, Unicode is keeping the more conventional 'pregnant woman' emoji, which has been an emoji since 2016. From left, Danny Devito, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emma Thompson appear in the 1994 film 'Junior' Emojipedia argues that men get pregnant in both real life and in fiction, citing the film as as example MAKING NEW EMOJI The working list of emoji are determined by the California-based Unicode Consortium. Third parties can make applications in support of new emoji. Candidates must work well at emoji sizes, convey new meaning and must appear to be in demand. Patterns of existing emoji usage are used to help guide the uptake of new additions to the Unicode Standard. Advertisement Solomon also said the two new emoji could potentially be used as 'a tongue-in-cheek way to display a food baby', a very full stomach caused by eating a large meal. Emojipedia had published a proposal back in 2019 to add 'pregnant man' and 'pregnant person' to Unicode's library. 'Currently, emojis only depict people assigned female at birth in a role of pregnancy,' it said in the proposal at the time. 'If emojis are designed in a manner to be as inclusive as possible this emoji should present its gender more ambiguously. 'One's sex does not dictate the capacity to care for children in the home or work in the market.' All 37 new additions that make up version 14.0 were originally detailed by Emojipedia prior to World Emoji Day (July 17). As well as 'pregnant man' and 'pregnant person', version 14.0 includes new variations of the distinctive circular yellow face Melting Face, Saluting Face, Dotted Line Face and Face Holding Back Tears. The 'version 14.0' list of new emoji also includes a motorcycle tyre, a slide, a disco ball, a troll with club and several different versions of a royal member wearing a crown, which vary by skin colour. The list also includes a motorcycle tyre, a slide, a disco ball, a troll with a club, coral, kidney beans and a low battery. Companies including Apple, Google and Microsoft apply stylised versions of the consortium's designs to their own operating systems. No release dates have been confirmed for the emoji on different operating systems, but they will likely be seen on all platforms by June 2022, with early support for some platforms later this year. 'Designs shown here are Emojipedia Sample Images, just one way in which these emojis might look,' Emojipedia explains. From left: Melting Face, Face with Open Eyes and Hand Over Mouth, Face with Peeking Eye, Saluting Face, Dotted Line Face, Face with Diagonal Mouth and Face Holding Back Tears. All are among the emojis approved in September 2021 Emoji 14.0 should be rolled out next year after being approved this month by the Unicode Consortium 'Actual vendor designs will vary from those released by major vendors, and Emojipedia's own sample images may also be updated when Emoji 14.0 final is released.' Emojipedia has all the Emoji 14.0 designs listed with their names on its website, as well as old emojis included in previous instalments. This includes all emoji for version 13.1, which was finalised in September last year and is now generally available on iOS 14.5, Google Pixel devices and Twitter. Version 13.1 includes a heart on fire, a face exhaling and a face in the clouds, as well as 'couples kissing' and 'couples with heart' in more variations of skin tones and genders. Prior to this, version 13.0 introduced in 2020 added a transgender flag, a gender-neutral alternative to Santa Claus and the famous extinct dodo. Facebook has released its first ever pair of smart glasses, created in partnership with luxury sunglasses maker Ray-Ban and they're priced at a rather hefty 299. Facebook Ray-Ban Stories, as they're called, are about 30 cheaper than those offered by Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat. Packed with dual integrated five megapixel cameras, a three microphone array and discreet open-ear speakers, they let wearers secretly snap photos and video on the go and have control over some apps hands-free. MailOnline has tried out the new glasses, which are said to be a first step in Facebook's plans to turn the social media platform into a 'metaverse' a collective virtual shared space featuring avatars of real people. Apple threatened to remove Facebook's apps from the App Store in 2019, following a BBC report that showed human traffickers set up 'slave markets' to sell women to the highest bidder, according to The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ obtained internal documents from the social media firm that detail how its own employees were searching for human traffickers in the Middle East. Facebook investigators found these groups posted advertisements for domestic workers as a front for selling women off as slaves or sex workers. The WSJ found that Facebook does remove some of these pages, but it has yet to design a system that stops offenders from reposting under a new account. A Facebook spokesperson told DailyMail.com in an email that they social media firma has 'had people working on this issue for many years but expanded our efforts to include a dedicated team in 2019.' 'We do not allow content or behavior on Facebook or Instagram that may lead to human exploitation, the continued. 'Our policies are developed in consultation with expert organizations, including the UN, and do not allow people to post content or accounts related to domestic servitude. 'We've been working to combat human trafficking for domestic servitude on our platform for many years.' Apple threatened to remove Facebook's apps from the App Store in 2019, following a BBC report that showed human traffickers set up 'slave markets' to sell women to the highest bidder On the other hand, fixing this system does not put money in Facebook's pocket and the company would rather spend its time retaining users, helping business partners and 'at times placating authoritarian governments,' according to WSJ. Brian Boland, a former Facebook vice president who oversaw partnerships with internet providers in Africa and Asia before resigning at the end of last year, told the paper that the social media company looks at abuse in developing countries as 'simply the cost of doing business.' It is not yet clear why Apple did not follow through with its threat in 2019. DailyMail.com has reached out to Apple for comment and has yet to receive a response. Brian Boland, a former Facebook vice president who oversaw partnerships with internet providers in Africa and Asia before resigning at the end of last year, told the paper that the social media company looks at abuse in developing countries as 'simply the cost of doing business' The WSJ notes that Facebook's investigation team spent more than year documenting a booming slave trade in the Middle East, all of which was happening on its own apps specifically the main Facebook app and Instagram. They found offenders shared photos, skill description and personal details of their victims, along with a specific hashtag that buyers know means they are looking at sex workers. Facebook was found to have removed some of the pages, but this only occurred after Apple threatened to remove it from its App Store, according to the WSJ report. And the threat was in response to a BBC story on maids for sale. The WSJ notes that Facebook's investigation team spent more than year documenting a booming slave trade in the Middle East, all of which was happening on its own apps specifically the main Facebook app and Instagram An internal memo found that Facebook was aware of the practice even before then: A Facebook researcher wrote in a report dated 2019, 'was this issue known to Facebook before BBC inquiry and Apple escalation?,' per the Journal. And the answer includes: 'Yes. Throughout 2018 and H1 2019 we conducted the global Understanding Exercise in order to fully understand how domestic servitude manifests no our platform across its entire life cycle: recruitment, facilitation, and exploitation.' The internal documents also note that Facebook is limited in how it operates in some countries due to the language barrier. The social media firm, according to the documents, has few to no people who speak specific dialects necessary to identify such criminal acts. A 12th-century idol representing the Hindu god Ganesh has been discovered accidentally in southeastern India. A farmer in the village of Motupalli in Prakasam District stumbled across the stone statue while tilling his land. In Hinduism, Lord Ganesh is presented as a portly elephant-headed figure with four arms. He is considered the god of wisdom, the patron of science and art and the remover of obstacles. Standing about 18 inches tall, the idol displays Ganesh sitting cross-legged, known as the 'Padmasana' posture, on a lotus pedestal. Two of the idol's hands are brokenin one remaining hand he holds his broken tusk and in the other a sweet Indian dumpling known as a modaka. The announcement of the idol's discovery came during the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival, when Hindus celebrate Lord Ganesh's birth. Scroll down for video A 13 inch stone idol of Ganesh, the Hindu remover of obstacles, was discovered in Andhra Pradesh on the eve of a festival celebrating the elephant-headed god's birth Farmer Siripudi Venkateswaralu discovered the idol on September 9 while tilling his farm in Motupalli, a village in the Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, The Hindu reported. Found on the eve of a festival devoted to Ganesh, the 800-year-old idol drew crowds of locals and visitors alike. Running from September 10 to 19 this year, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with fasting, offerings, and prayers. Later, modaka is distributed and public feasts and martial arts exhibitions are held. Ganesh is typically presented with four arms, with an ax in his upper right hand, a noose in his upper left hand and sweet dumplings in the lower left. His broken tusk is often shown his lower right though sometimes the hand is extended out to the viewer in a posture of enlightenment. On the tenth day, idols of Ganesh are carried in a public procession and immersed in a nearby river or sea. The statue found in Motupall is 42 inches long, 30 inches wide and 18 inches tall, and is missing Ganesh's typical mukut, or crown, according to archaeologist E. Sivanagi Reddy. Reddy dated the icon to the 12th century, when Andhra Pradesh was ruled by the Chola dynasty, based on its style and inscriptions in the ruins of nearby Kodanda Ramaswamy temple. The Chola dynasty was a Tamil empire that governed southern India until the 13th century. Running from September 10 to 19, Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates Ganesh's birth with fasting and prayers, followed by feasts, martial arts exhibitions, and a public procession On the tenth day of Ganesh Chaturthi, idols of the elephant-headed deity are immersed in a nearby river or sea In Hindu iconography, Ganesh is usually depicted with an elephant head and a stout human body with four arms. Each appendage carries an item with ritual significance: An ax in his upper right hand, and his broken tusk, or 'danta,' in his lower right. (In one story, Ganesh's tusk was broken by an ax thrown by a warrior seeking to attack his father, Shiva.) A noose is in his upper left hand and sweets are in the lower left. The idol was taken to the temple by the Motupalli Heritage Society, though its final disposition is unknown. In August, archaeologist E. Sivanagi Reddy (center) found a 14th century Tamil inscription in Kodanda Ramaswamy temple, near where the idol was discovered In August Reddy was part of a team of archaeologists who found a Tamil inscription in the temple dedicated to Prataparudra, emperor of the Kakatiya dynasty that supplanted the Chola. The inscription dated to the early 14t century and registers the land as a gift 'for the merit of the king,' The Deccan Chronicle reported. Prataparudra was the last Kakatiya ruler: He died during a 1323 invasion that saw the kingdom annexed to the Islamic Delhi Sultanate. Modern Japanese populations are descended from three ancient cultures rather than just two, as previously thought a new genetic analysis has determined. While the Japanese archipelago has been occupied by humans for at least 38,000 years, Japan underwent rapid transformations only in the last 3,000 years. These saw shifts from foraging, to wet-rice farming and on to the development of a technologically-advanced imperial state. It had been thought that today's Japanese populations derive their ancestry from the indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherer-fishers and the later-arriving Yayoi farmers. While the Jomon occupied the archipelago from around 16,0003,000 years ago, the Yayoi migrated from the Asian continent to live in Japan from 900 BC to 300 AD Researchers led from Trinity College Dublin studied 12 ancient genomes sequenced from the bones of people who lived both before and after the farming period. This revealed a second, later influx of East Asian ancestry during the imperial Kofun period from 300710 AD, when political centralisation emerged in Japan. These findings are supported by several lines of archaeological evidence for the introduction of new, large settlements to Japan in this period, the team noted. Modern Japanese populations are descended from three ancient cultures rather than just two, as previously thought a new genetic analysis has determined. Pictured: one of the ancient Japanese skulls from which DNA was extracted While the Japanese archipelago has been occupied by humans for at least 38,000 years, Japan underwent rapid transformations only in the last 3,000 years. Pictured: an early Jomon skeleton from which genetic material was sampled from the Odake shell midden COMPARING AGRICULTURAL TRANSITIONS According to the team, the advent of agriculture is typically associated with population replacement. This is the case for the Neolithic transition across much of Europe, with only minimal observed contributions from huntergatherer populations. The researcher's genetic evidence, however, indicates that this was not the case in Japan. Instead of replacement, the switch to farming saw a process of assimilation between the indigenous Jomon and the incoming Yayoi wet-rice farmers. Advertisement 'Researchers have been learning more and more about the cultures of the Jomon, Yayoi, and Kofun periods as more and more ancient artefacts show up,' explained lead paper author Shigeki Nakagome of Trinity College Dublin. 'But before our research we knew relatively little about the genetic origins and impact of the agricultural transition and later state-formation phase. 'We now know that the ancestors derived from each of the foraging, agrarian, and state-formation phases made a significant contribution to the formation of Japanese populations today. 'In short, we have an entirely new tripartite model of Japanese genomic origins instead of the dual-ancestry model that has been held for a significant time.' The team's analysis also determined that the Jomon maintained a small population population size of around 1,000 people of several millennia, having diverged from continental populations around 20,00015,000 years ago. This period saw Japan become increasingly more isolated as sea levels rose removing the connection to the Korean Peninsula forged around 28,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum. The widening of the Korea Strait 16,00017,000 years ago coincides with the oldest evidence of Jomon pottery production. 'The indigenous Jomon people had their own unique lifestyle and culture within Japan for thousands of years prior to the adoption of rice farming during the subsequent Yayoi period,' said population geneticist Niall Cooke, also of Trinity. 'Our analysis clearly finds them to be a genetically distinct population with an unusually high affinity between all sampled individuals even those differing by thousands of years in age and excavated from sites on different islands. 'These results strongly suggest a prolonged period of isolation from the rest of the continent,' he explained. The widening of the Korea Strait 16,00017,000 years ago coincides with the oldest evidence for the production of Jomon pottery, examples of which are pictured 'We now know that the ancestors derived from each of the foraging, agrarian, and state-formation phases made a significant contribution to the formation of Japanese populations today,' Professor Nakagome said. Pictured: the Kamikuroiwa rock shelter in the Ehime Prefecture of Shikoku, from where the oldest Jomon individual sequenced was unearthed 'The Japanese archipelago is an especially interesting part of the world to investigate using a time series of ancient samples,' said paper author and population geneticist Dan Bradley, also of Trinity College Dublin. The reason for this, he explained, is Japan's 'exceptional prehistory of long-standing continuity followed by rapid cultural transformations.' 'Our insights into the complex origins of modern-day Japanese once again shows the power of ancient genomics to uncover new information about human prehistory that could not be seen otherwise.' he concluded. The full findings of the study were published in the journal Science Advances. Researchers led from Trinity College Dublin sequenced 12 ancient genomes extracted from the bones of people who lived both before and after the farming period from across Japan An artificial-intelligence program is able to predict missing words from cuneiform tablets that are up to 4,500 years old with stunning accuracy. The tablets include information about Mesopotamia from between 2500 BC and 100 AD, but missing text has hindered scientists' abilities to uncover the secrets of the ancient civilization. The AI, which was taught how to read 104 languages, was fed transcriptions of 10,000 cuneiform tablets. It accurately predicted the missing words, phrases and sentences, similarly to how the autosuggest feature on your phone suggests the next line. Mesopotamia is one of the world's oldest known civilizations and gave rise to the Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian empires. A deep-thinking AI system called the Babylonian Engine is able to scan damaged cuneiform tablets and predict contextually accurate words and phrases to fill in the missing parts Part of the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia was spread across what is present-day Iraq, as well as parts of Iran, Turkey, Syria and Kuwait. It is considered the birthplace of mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, written history, and numerous other disciplines. Several Mesopotamian civilizations, including the Babylonians and Assyrians, spoke Akkadian, the oldest know Semitic language. They wrote in cuneiform, a writing form that employs wedge-shaped characters and survives today mainly on clay tablets. Part of the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia was spread across what is present-day Iraq, as well as parts of Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Kuwait 'These tablets are the main record from the Mesopotamian cultures, including religious texts, bureaucratic records, royal decrees, and more,' the authors wrote in a paper being presented in November at the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. 'Therefore they are a target of extensive transcription and transliteration efforts.' But over the millennia the tablets have deteriorated and researchers often have to rely on contextual cues to manually fill in missing text. It's a process the authors call 'subjective and time-consuming.' So they developed a deep-learning AI system that could make educated guesses at the missing words and phrases. They used a model that was already trained on other Semitic languages, like Hebrew, which share similarities with Akkadian. They tested the system first by hiding existing parts of the tablets, and the model completed the sections with 89 percent accuracy. A clay tablet with its corresponding Latin transliteration. Portions of text that are missing due to deterioration are indicated with an 'x' and highlighted in red. Sometimes the model threw [the experts] into a new line of thinking they didn't have,' co-author Gabriel Stanovsky, a computer scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, told New Scientist. Then they fed the AI written transcriptions of some 10,000 cuneiform tablets, ranging from 2500 BC, when Mesopotamia was political fragmented, to 100 AD, when parts of it were under Roman control. The system was able to suggest contextually accurate words and phrases to fill in the gaps, or lacuna. Stanovsky told New Scientist the AI program is 'an assistive tool,' not a replacement for human experts. 'Archaeologists take into consideration a lot more context about the tablet,' he said. 'They know where it was excavated, know where from and the geopolitical forces and take that into account.' Archaeologist Shia Gordin, director of the Digital Humanities Ariel Lab at Israel's Ariel University, previously used an AI system, the Babylonian Engine, to fill in the gaps in documents from the Persian Empire, between the sixth and fourth centuries BC. In a statement from November, Gordin said, 'historians with less formal training in Akkadian can try and enter Akkadian text and get results which are citable in their research and publications.' 'For scholars of ancient Near Eastern history, this tool can help with their work on text editions and going back to earlier publications in an attempt to restore broken sections of texts,' he added. Researchers have already used AI to decipher damaged engravings from ancient Greece. Scientists at Google AI subsidiary DeepMind trained a neural network dubbed Pythia to guess at missing words or characters from tens of thousands of Greek inscriptions between 1,500 and 2,600 years old. Named for the oracle at Delphi, Pythia recognized patterns in grammar, context, and layout, Tech Crunch reported, and provided 20 different possible answers. The AI achieved approximately 70 percent accuracy, compared to a group of graduate researchers at Oxford University, who were correct about 43 percent of the time. What's more, Pythia provided its suggestions for the whole set in seconds, while the pros took two hours to get through 50 inscriptions. Like Stanovsky, DeepMind scientist Yannis Assael sees AI as a collaborative tool, one with 'the potential to impact meaningfully the study of inscribed texts, and widen the scope of the historian's work.' A pair of mass grave containing 25 Crusaders who were slaughtered during a 13th-century war in the Holy Land have been unearthed in Lebanon. A team of international archaeologist uncovered the gruesome scene at Sidon Castle on the eastern Mediterranean coast of south Lebanon. Wounds on the remains suggests the soldiers died at the end of swords, maces and arrows, and charring on some bones means they were burned after being dropped into the pit. Other remains show markings on the neck, which likely means these individuals were captured on the battlefield and later decapitated. Historical records written by crusaders show that Sidon was attacked and destroyed in 1253 by Mamluk troops, and again in 1260 by Mongols, and the soldiers found in the mass graves likely perished in one of these battles. A pair of mass grave containing 25 Crusaders who were slaughter during a 13th century war have been unearthed in Lebanon The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the near East, including Lebanon where the 25 dead soldiers were found. The mass graves were found within the town walls and were rectilinear grave pits that also contained artifacts that belonged to the Crusaders. 'Within the grave pit (burial 110) a wide variety of artefacts were observed dispersed amongst the human and non-human bones, with no immediate patterning evident, reads the study published in the journal PLOS ONE. 'Metal finds included copper alloy buckles and fittings, at least two different sizes of iron nails, other iron fittings, a silver coin, a silver finger-ring and a single copper alloy arrowhead. A team of international archaeologist uncovered the gruesome scene at Sidon Castle on the eastern Mediterranean coast of south Lebanon The mass graves were found within the town walls and were rectilinear grave pits that also contained artifacts that belonged to the Crusaders 'Other finds included medieval potsherds, residual Persian period potsherds, glass fragments, and a small piece of charred, twisted fiber.' Archaeologists knew the remains belonged to Crusaders after discovering the European style belt buckles and a crusader coin within the graves. DNA and isotope analyses of their teeth further confirmed that some of the men were born in Europe, while others were the offspring of crusader settlers who migrated to the 'Holy Land' and intermarried with local people. The team ventured into the grave pits to take a closer look at the pile of bones that showed many of the soldiers were attacked from behind as they were running away from battle. Archaeologists knew the remains belonged to Crusaders after discovering the European style belt buckles and a crusader coin within the graves Others have sword wounds across the back of the neck, indicating they were possibly captives executed by decapitation after the battle. Dr Richard Mikulski of Bournemouth University, who excavated and analyzed the skeletal remains and worked with the archaeologists at the Sidon excavation site, explained, 'All the bodies were of teenage or adult males, indicating that they were combatants who fought in the battle when Sidon was attacked. 'When we found so many weapon injuries on the bones as we excavated them, I knew we had made a special discovery.' DNA and isotope analyses of their teeth further confirmed that some of the men were born in Europe, while others were the offspring of crusader settlers who migrated to the 'Holy Land' and intermarried with local people Others have sword wounds across the back of the neck, indicating they were possibly captives executed by decapitation after the battle Bournemouth University colleague Dr Martin Smith, said in a statement: 'To distinguish so many mixed up bodies and body parts took a huge amount of work, but we were finally able to separate them out and look at the pattern of wounds they had sustained.' 'The way the body parts were positioned suggests they had been left to decompose on the surface before being dropped into a pit some time later. Charring on some bones suggests they used fire to burn some of the bodies.' Dr Piers Mitchell of the University of Cambridge, who was the crusader expert on the project, explained: 'Crusader records tell us that King Louis IX of France was on crusade in the Holy Land at the time of the attack on Sidon in 1253. 'He went to the city after the battle and personally helped to bury the rotting corpses in mass graves such as these. Wouldn't it be amazing if King Louis himself had helped to bury these bodies?' Patrice Evra has mocked Cristiano Ronaldo with a hilarious social media video which shows him transporting sheep in reference to his former team-mate's alleged house move. The Manchester United forward, who returned to Old Trafford after 12 years this summer, reportedly switched mansions due to loud animal noises. And Evra's Instagram video to his 8.3million followers, seeming to showing him herding sheep with a whistle in a clear and direct reference to Ronaldo, has already been viewed more than 780,000 times. Patrice Evra mocked Cristiano Ronaldo in a hilarious video showing him transporting sheep Ronaldo and his family (above) reportedly moved to a new mansion because of sheep noises The post's caption read: 'Don't worry bro @cristiano I'm moving my sheep (sheep emoji) far away from your (house emoji) shepherd mister #ilovethisgame can do everything #positive4evra @skysports'. Evra's video shows him on a boat, with several sheep at the front of the craft, before the Red Devils icon blows a whistle and smirks. Star forward Ronaldo, 36, was initially put up in a mansion with his family after signing from Juventus in August. But the Portuguese has now moved to a different property, a 6million Cheshire pad with a cinema, pool and four-vehicle garage formerly owned by ex-United striker Andy Cole. The Sun reported his move was because of particularly loud sheep disturbing Ronaldo's equilibrium, although his press team later denied this. And Red Devils legend Evra posted the video in reference to his former team-mate's switch A Sun source said: 'While the property is beautiful and is nestled in rolling fields and woodland, it was also close to sheep which are very noisy early in the morning. 'It had a public footpath across the land and the road at the front gave a view inside its gates. 'Ronaldo is a true pro who places a lot on rest and recovery after games, so it was decided it was best if he and his family moved.' His press team claimed the story was 'entirely fabricated' and added: 'We do not comment on any private matters'. Evra's sheep video was in fact shot while he was filming a scene for Sky's sports-comedy show A League of Their Own, coincidentally at around the same time stories about the reasons for Ronaldo's move were reported. Advertisement Amazing video footage has been released showing the world's largest cruise ship Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas completing her sea trials. And it has been announced that the 1,188ft- (362m) long behemoth will debut in the U.S and Europe next year, sailing from her home in Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean on March 4, 2022, before making her way to Barcelona and Rome 'to kick start the summer holidays in May'. The sea-trial footage shows Wonder of the Seas being towed out of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, where she was built - then being put through her paces on the open seas. Amazing video footage has been released showing the world's largest cruise ship Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas completing her sea trials Over four days she covered 1,550 nautical miles (about half the distance from London to New York) and was 'pushed to the limit on propulsion', hitting speeds of up to 24 knots (27mph). More than 40 sea acceptance tests were completed, along with 'plenty of inspections'. Around 500 workers were involved in the trials, the completion of which marks a significant milestone for Wonder of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's fifth Oasis Class ship. Next May, Wonder of the Seas will head to the Mediterranean for seven-night cruises from Barcelona and Rome that will take in destinations such as Palma de Mallorca and Capri, Italy. It has been announced that the 1,188ft- (362m) long behemoth will debut in the U.S and Europe next year During the sea trials Wonder of the Seas covered 1,550 nautical miles (about half the distance from London to New York) and was 'pushed to the limit on propulsion', hitting speeds of up to 24 knots (27mph) Royal Caribbean promises that families and holidaymakers alike 'will have a new wave of possibilities across Wonder's eight distinct neighbourhoods, an Oasis Class first'. These include 'all-new features such as the Suite Neighborhood which offers Royal Suite Class guests an elevated "Suite Sun Deck", complete with a plunge pool, bar and plenty of loungers and nooks to kick back in - a cantilevered pool bar named The Vue, and Wonder Playscape an interactive, open-air kids' play area with awe-inspiring views'. It adds: 'With returning favourites also on deck, like The Ultimate Abyss, the tallest slide at sea; Central Park, the neighbourhood filled with real plants from end to end; and the vibrant Caribbean-inspired pool deck experience, the innovative, new ship invites adventurers of all ages to reimagine, explore and make memories once again.' Michael Bayley, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean International, said: 'The momentum taking off across bookings and our returning ships in the U.S. and Europe is significant. With half of our fleet sailing again, we are encouraged by what we're seeing. These regions are in the position to welcome a brand-new, innovative ship like Wonder of the Seas. Around 500 workers were involved in the sea trials, the completion of which marks a significant milestone for Wonder of the Seas, Royal Caribbean's fifth Oasis Class ship Royal Caribbean promises that families and holidaymakers alike 'will have a new wave of possibilities across Wonder's eight distinct neighbourhoods' Wonder of the Seas is 210ft (64m) wide, can accommodate 6,988 guests across 16 of her 18 decks, has 24 guest elevators, will have 2,300 crew members and can cruise at 22 knots (25mph) Michael Bayley, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean International, said: 'The momentum taking off across bookings and our returning ships in the U.S. and Europe is significant. With half of our fleet sailing again, we are encouraged by what we're seeing' 'Wonder will shine bright as the world's newest wonder in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. And what's in store is the ultimate vacation experience that highlights the very best of Royal Caribbean, reimagines renowned favourites and introduces new adventures every guest, no matter their age, can enjoy.' Wonder of the Seas is 210ft (64m) wide, can accommodate 6,988 guests across 16 of her 18 decks, has 24 guest elevators, will have 2,300 crew members and can cruise at 22 knots (25mph). Wonder's Caribbean itineraries are available to book today on Royal Caribbean's website. The new ship's European sailings will open on Wednesday, September 22. Last year fans were shocked when Jessica Marais pulled out of the much-anticipated Amazon Prime reboot Back To The Rafters due to mental health reasons. And now her former co-star Angus McLaren has given an update on how the popular star is doing. 'Jessica is doing well... it was good to see her in Sydney,' the Melbourne-based actor told Daily Mail Australia this week. 'She's doing well': Last year fans were shocked when Jessica Marais pulled out of the much-anticipated Amazon Prime reboot Back To The Rafters due to mental health reasons, and now her former co-star Angus McLaren has given an update on how the popular star is doing Jessica, 36, was initially set to reprise her role of Rachel Rafter, after previously starring on the beloved Channel Seven drama from 2008 until 2013. While she wasn't technically on set, Angus, 32, said she was a stone's throw away from him during filming. 'Yeah we definitely missed her on set, but the good thing about Jess is she lived quite close to me when I was in Sydney. So I actually got to see her, I really have a lot of love for Jess,' he added. 'It would've been great to work with her, she's certainly one of those people who brings a good vibe to the set.' Missed her on set: Jessica, 36, was initially set to reprise her role of Rachel Rafter, after previously starring on the beloved Channel Seven drama from 2008 until 2013 Angus also praised his talented former co-star, saying he's learned a lot from working with her in the past. 'When we caught up she was really well, you actually cant do the roles that she does and bring so much humanity, talent to them without being so good as a person,' he said. In February 2020, Jessica's management team shared an official statement to Daily Mail Australia, confirming: 'Jessica Marais has decided to step away from the new series Back to the Rafters for personal reasons.' 'She thanks everyone involved on the show for their ongoing support and love, especially her 'Rafter's family', and sends them her very best wishes for the production.' No show: In February 2020, Jessica's management team shared an official statement to Daily Mail Australia, confirming: 'Jessica Marais has decided to step away from the new series Back to the Rafters for personal reasons' The role of Rachel Rafter is now being played by fellow blonde actress Georgina Haig, who Angus says is bound to be a hit with fans. 'I think Georgina Haig has absolutely smashed the role of Rachael in a brand new way... It was one of those times, where one door closes and another one opens,' he said. 'I cant wait to watch it, Georgina didnt try and copy Jess - she just put her heart and soul into the character.' New Rachel: The role of Rachel Rafter is now being played by fellow blonde actress Georgina Haig, who Angus says is bound to be a hit with fans Angus plays the role of Nathan, the often lost soul amongst the vibrant Rafter clan. He returns to the series six years later, as a single parent who has to navigate a series of struggles - but not without the help of his trusty family. More drama: Angus plays the role of Nathan, the often lost soul amongst the vibrant Rafter clan. He returns to the series six years later, as a single parent who has to navigate a series of struggles - but not without the help of his trusty family. Pictured, Angus as Nathan Rafter alongside Hugh Sheridan who plays Ben Diamonds are Liisi LaFontaine's best friend in more ways than one. The Los Angeles native used the number made famous by Marilyn Monroe as her audition song and it helped her win her latest West End role. On Monday, she begins rehearsals for the London production of Broadway smash success Moulin Rouge!, which starts previews at the Piccadilly Theatre on November 12. The eye-popping show, with a range of pop songs including Lady Marmalade, Nature Boy and Your Song, is set in Paris in 1899. LaFontaine plays Satine, a can-can dancer and courtesan (the role created by Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's classic 2001 film) who may look voluptuous but is suffering from consumption. Smouldering in style: The cast of Moulin Rouge! Clockwise from left: Timmika Ramsay, Clive Carter, Liisi LaFontaine, Jamie Bogyo, Elia Lo Tauro, Sophie Carmen Jones, Simon Bailey, Jason Pennycooke, Jonathan Bishop and Zoe Birkett 'She's had a rough life and now, as she's reaching the peak and the pinnacle of success, she's battling this disease,' LaFontaine told me as we sipped mineral water (later swapped for a Starbucks latte) in the Mandrake Hotel in Fitzrovia, a boutique spot as deliberately decadent as the Moulin Rouge itself. 'Life is fragile when you're young you think you have all the time in the world,' she said. 'The show has all this glitz and extravagance, but it's underpinned by how important it is to love while you're here.' It's a coming home, of sorts, for Ms LaFontaine. She played Deena Jones, the Diana Ross figure in Dreamgirls, at the Savoy Theatre in 2016. At just about the same time Jamie Bogyo who plays Christian, her impoverished American lover in Moulin Rouge! arrived in London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Ewan McGregor played that role in Luhrmann's picture. LaFontaine plays Satine, a can-can dancer and courtesan (the role created by Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's classic 2001 film) who may look voluptuous but is suffering from consumption. Jamie Bogyo plays Christian, her impoverished American lover I have a vague recollection of sampling some champagne, straight from a magnum, with McGregor and Kidman in the back of a stretch limousine when the film premiered at Cannes in 2001. We were young(ish) then . . . what can I say? I also remember the first time I saw the musical on Broadway, at the Al Hirschfeld in 2019. The theatre's front of house, lobby and auditorium had been decorated in shades of red by scenic designer Derek McLane: rude rouge all over the place. LaFontaine was 22 when she did Dreamgirls in London. It launched her career and, while she had a great time, it was sometimes tough. She told me she got tonsilitis 'seven times' during the run. LaFontaine said Moulin Rouge! reminded her of a layer cake. 'When you take a bite, there are so many flavours!' I have a vague recollection of sampling some champagne, straight from a magnum, with Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman (pictured) in the back of a stretch limousine when the film premiered at Cannes in 2001 The 27-year-old travelled back to London a week ago in good health even though she'd just had those pesky tonsils removed. 'Fully healed!' she trilled. 'There's nothing that can emulate the amount of energy it takes to do a show like this,' she said, referring to her new project. 'Especially eight times a week.' Director Alex Timbers is 'excited' about working with his new leading lady. 'She has huge star charisma, and depth and complexity,' he said down the phone from New York. Of his leading man, Timbers said Bogyo had a look of 'guileless innocence' which he was seeking in Christian. McGregor and Kidman are seen with Moulin Rogue co-stars Jim Broadbent (centre), Gary McDonald (left), Jack Koman (second from right) and John Leguizamo (right) He also liked the fact that Bogyo, like his character, is a writer. In fact, the actor's first play, Safe Space, is expected to premiere in London this year. Bogyo studied at Yale before going to Rada. Moulin Rouge! will mark his professional stage debut. He talked fondly of being taken to countless shows in New York, where his father was a Broadway general manager, when he was growing up. I remember the first time I saw the musical on Broadway, at the Al Hirschfeld in 2019. The theatre's front of house, lobby and auditorium had been decorated in shades of red by scenic designer Derek McLane: rude rouge all over the place He declared that 'musicals in general have this magic about them, but this is a show dialled to you times ten'. LaFontaine, meanwhile, said Moulin Rouge! reminded her of a layer cake. 'When you take a bite, there are so many flavours!' Well, I'm desperate for another slice. I was lucky enough to see it three times in New York. And I'm looking forward to catching it again at the Piccadilly Theatre. Sir Elton John and the creators of landmark musical Billy Elliot have granted permission for the award-winning show to be staged in a brand new version. The production, set to run at the Curve in Leicester for six weeks from July 7, 2022, will start from scratch and differ from what artistic director Nikolai Foster called the 'blisteringly brilliant' original that opened at the Victoria Palace in 2005. That show was directed by Stephen Daldry, with a story and lyrics by Lee Hall and a fabulous score by Elton. For months I followed its rehearsal progress, from a sound stage at a film studio in Bow, East London, all the way to the Victoria Palace, where I witnessed Daldry and choreographer Peter Darling and his team create a masterpiece. Foster told me how he and Curve chief executive Chris Stafford met with Billy Elliot producer Eric Fellner, of Working Title, and asked if he would allow them to make a fresh start, with a smaller production. The deal allows the Curve to make the show their own 'and there isn't any pressure to honour what came before', according to Lucy Hind, the new show's choreographer. 'We're standing on the shoulders of giants,' Hind said. Sir Elton John and the creators of landmark musical Billy Elliot have granted permission for the award-winning show to be staged in a brand new version 'We're starting from scratch, from the script as it was delivered to them [Daldry's team] on day one.' Foster, who's directing, and Hind will be reaching out to local ballet schools, stage schools and theatre groups for their young stars. Casting director Jo Hawes has the task of finding the right youngsters. 'We have to be realistic,' Hind said. 'They have to be of a standard where they can learn choreography.' But she and Foster would prefer children who haven't had 'their individuality and liveliness knocked out of them'. The production, set to run at the Curve in Leicester for six weeks from July 7, 2022, will start from scratch and differ from what artistic director Nikolai Foster called the 'blisteringly brilliant' original that opened at the Victoria Palace in 2005 (above) 'Show me what makes you shine!' Hind said. I've always felt, as Daldry once put it, that 'the fabric of our country runs through Billy Elliot'. Foster agreed, noting that it's a show not just about community, but about gender and sexual equality where great art becomes provocatively political. For me, that's why Billy Elliot remains one of the best musicals, ever. She is never one to shy away from daring and vibrant ensembles. And Iris Law turned heads once more on Thursday in an unusual green dress as she attended The Face's London Fashion Week party in the capital. The actress, 20 - who recently shaved her tresses - highlighted her lithe figure in her bright outfit as she worked her best angles at the party at The Standard. Green without envy: Iris Law turned heads on Thursday in an unusual green dress as she attended The Face's London Fashion Week party in the capital The skirt on her garment wrapped around her thigh to reveal a racy cut-out section. Iris also teased a look at her black bra in her revealing dress and she boosted her height with suede heels. The daughter of Jude Law and Sadie Frost enhanced her flawless complexion with a dewy make-up finish as she rocked a peroxide blonde buzz cut for the outing. She rounded off the look with dangling earrings. Stunning: The actress, 20 - who recently shaved her tresses - highlighted her lithe figure in her bright outfit as she worked her best angles at the party at The Standard Fashion Week in the Big Smoke takes place twice a year, in February and September. It is branded one of the Big Four fashion weeks, along with the New York, Milan and Paris. The events showcase over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers throughout the week. Numerous other celebrities were seen attending opening night events across the city on Thursday including Amelia Hamlin, Anna Wintour and Jorja Smith. It's all in the details: The skirt on her garment wrapped around her thigh to reveal a racy cut-out section Radiant: The daughter of Jude Law and Sadie Frost enhanced her flawless complexion with a dewy make-up finish as she rocked a peroxide blonde buzz cut for the outing Iris showed off her quirky sense of style once again last week in a colourful ensemble during a sunny getaway. The model took to her Instagram to share the stunning snaps with her 461K followers. The beauty turned heads in a purple halterneck top which donned a split down the front to showcase her toned abs. Underneath the quirky top the star was beach ready in a neon green bikini top. Arm candy: She rounded off the look with dangling earrings and a neon green handbag Fun! Iris showed off her quirky sense of style once again last week in a colourful ensemble during a sunny getaway She flaunted her toned legs in pink and brown striped shorts and completed the look with yellow sandals. Adding a bit more colour to her ensemble she covered her arms in a lime green fleeced cardigan. She accessorised with a brown checkered bucket hat, large gold earrings and layered necklaces. Irish carried her belongings in a bright pink handbag which she draped over her arm for the snaps. Change: Iris changed her look completely from the signature brunette locks she's known for in July Home and Away is gearing up for what they've declared 'the wedding of the year'. Fan favourites Tori and Christian - played by actors Penny McNamee and Ditch Davey, respectively - will finally tie the knot in an episode set to air later this month. A teaser trailer for the highly anticipated episode was released on Wednesday, showing a montage of the onscreen couple's most romantic moments. Getting married: Home and Away is gearing up for what they've declared 'the wedding of the year'. Pictured, actors Penny McNamee and Ditch Davey 'You know this time tomorrow we'll be married...' a smiling Tori told Christian as they sat side-by-side. 'And I can't wait,' he finished, before leaning in for a kiss. Later in the trailer, Tori was seen walking down the aisle in a stunning white lace wedding dress. 'Wedding of the year': Fan favourites Tori and Christian - played by Penny and Ditch, respectively - will finally tie the knot in an episode set to air later this month As she walked towards Christian at the outdoor ceremony, the nervous groom turned around, before breaking into a relieved grin. 'I didn't find true love. It found me,' Tori said in a voiceover. The popular onscreen couple got engaged in an elevator, which was a throwback to their awkward first kiss. Flashback: A teaser trailer for the highly anticipated episode was released on Wednesday, showing a montage of the onscreen couple's most romantic moments 'You know this time tomorrow we'll be married...' a smiling Tori told Christian as they sat side-by-side As Christian went to press an elevator button, Tori misinterpreted it as him leaning in for their first kiss. But despite their embarrassing beginning, the doctors soon embarked on a fairytale romance culminating in their upcoming wedding. Meanwhile, Penny, 38, couldn't resist teasing the wedding in a series of posts on her Instagram page on Friday. Here comes the bride: Later in the trailer, Tori was seen walking down the aisle in a stunning white lace wedding dress Groomed to perfection: As Tori walked towards Christian at the outdoor ceremony, the nervous groom turned around, before breaking into a relieved grin 'I know what you're all thinking Is there a gift registry?' she captioned the teaser trailer. In a separate post on Instagram Stories, she jokingly added: 'For all gift registry inquiries [sic] please contact Myer.' Tori and Christian's wedding will air on Channel Seven's Home and Away on Monday, September 27 at 7pm. Help Rating: Patrick Kielty: One Hundred Years Of Union Rating: The title of Help (C4) was slightly misleading. For this was a gruelling lockdown drama in which much-needed help pointedly failed to arrive. Set in a care home in Liverpool as the pandemic takes hold, the screenplay is a rage against what happened in such homes last year, and probably a better tribute to the efforts of care workers than any amount of clapping on our doorsteps. 'We've had word from the hospital,' says care home boss Steve (Ian Hart). 'We are going to be taking on a few more residents.' Help's rather depressing message was that, when real trouble strikes, there's often nobody to rely on but yourself 'Is it safe?' asks feisty new recruit Sarah (a magnificent Jodie Comer). 'They're doctors, love,' says Steve. 'This is us, doing our bit.' We all know how it turned out. Before long, Covid was spreading through the home and staff were poignantly removing patients' names from their now empty rooms. In one of the most powerful passages, Sarah is working a 20-hour shift on her own when an old man becomes critically ill. For personal protective equipment, she has a builder's mask and a modified bin bag. She frantically phones for help but no doctor is available and the ambulances are all busy. She has to wake up an early-onset Alzheimer's sufferer called Tony (the excellent Stephen Graham) to help turn the old man over on to his stomach so he can breathe more easily. All the while, in the background, you can hear her mobile phone repeating the same message: 'We are experiencing a high volume of calls . . . Please continue to hold.' TRIBUTE OF THE WEEK: In Comedy Legends (Sky Arts) Barry Cryer paid tribute to U.S. actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd. That's all very well, but isn't it time someone celebrated comedy legend Barry Cryer? Perhaps Dan might oblige. Advertisement The old man, of course, doesn't make it. What made the scene particularly dramatic is the thought that somewhere, in a care home or perhaps in many care homes, this actually happened. Before taking up journalism, I was a care assistant in a psychiatric hospital. It was a long time ago, but Help's residential home was very recognisable. There was the way that residents can switch between hopelessness and cheerful lucidity. And I remembered how staff have to think quickly on their feet because you never know what the people in your care will say or do. In the end, Help's rather depressing message was that, when real trouble strikes, there's often nobody to rely on but yourself. There wasn't much more cheer in Patrick Kielty: One Hundred Years Of Union (BBC1, BBC2 Wales) in which the comedian returned to his childhood home in Northern Ireland to mark 100 years since the creation of the province. This year has seen violence in the streets, thought to have been a thing of the past, in response to problems with the border after Brexit and amid talk that a united Ireland might be a real possibility. Kielty, a former Catholic altar boy, has direct experience of the bad old days. His father, a builder, was murdered by loyalist gunmen because he refused to pay protection money. There was footage of young Patrick carrying his dad's coffin on his shoulder. In one extraordinary encounter, Patrick helped an articulate young loyalist build one of the area's famous bonfires, set alight each July 12 in celebration of the Battle of the Boyne. Later, they were joined by a former loyalist paramilitary commander who is now a community worker. Which meant that Patrick was talking comfortably to a man from the organisation that murdered his father. That was cause for optimism, but the overall message was mixed. In the centre of Belfast he found a lively social scene, but you couldn't escape a sense of underlying fear for the future. There was an odd moment on Friday's Today show when host Karl Stefanovic ended a live cross from Washington, D.C., by complimenting the reporter on his good looks. The 47-year-old raised eyebrows by telling U.S. correspondent Michael Genovese he was 'incredibly handsome' after a dispatch from outside the White House. He began by praising Michael's professionalism, saying: 'You've done a terrific job over there in the last 24 hours, terrific stuff.' Better call HR! There was an odd moment on Friday's Today show when host Karl Stefanovic (left, with Allison Langdon) ended a live cross from Washington, D.C., by complimenting the reporter on his good looks But things took a turn when he added: 'And might I just say, I don't know whether it's the light but you look incredibly handsome.' The Today studio burst into laughter as Michael awkwardly giggled under his umbrella. Karl asked for further validation from newsreader Alex Cullen, who said of their man in Washington: 'Delicious, Karl, delicious.' Laughing it off: The 47-year-old raised eyebrows by telling U.S. correspondent Michael Genovese (pictured) he was 'incredibly handsome' after a dispatch from outside the White House Michael was a Perth-based reporter for Nine before being promoted to the network's U.S. correspondent last year, taking over from Tim Arvier. His wife, Jerrie Demasi, a fellow Nine journalist, joined him at their new base in LA. She continues to work for the network on a freelance basis, reports TV Blackbox. Stateside: Michael (pictured with his wife, Jerrie Demasi) was a Perth-based reporter for Nine before being promoted to the network's U.S. correspondent last year The Nine power couple tied the knot in a Greek Orthodox church in 2019. Karl's bizarre exchange comes after the Today show defeated its breakfast TV rival Sunrise for the first time in three years. In a major victory for Nine, Today drew 248,000 metro viewers on Wednesday while Seven's Sunrise lagged behind with 237,000. Chrishell Stause and 'boss beau' Jason Oppenheim were spotted filming scenes for the upcoming fourth season of Selling Sunset in West Hollywood on Thursday afternoon. The reality television couple appeared to be enjoying their time in the shining California sun while they shot parts for the forthcoming run of episodes. The real estate-centric show premiered on the Netflix streaming service in 2019, and the release date for its new season has not been set as of yet. Doing their thing: Chrishell Stause and Jason Oppenheim were seen working on the upcoming fourth season of Selling Sunset in West Hollywood on Thursday Stause, 40, wore an elegant red-orange dress that exposed the bottom portion of her toned legs during the shoot. The reality television personality paired her outfit with a set of high-heeled shoes and carried a sizable bag with her as she made her way around Sunset Plaza with 'boss beau' Jason. The All My Children actress added numerous elements of shine to her outfit with several pieces of jewelry. Her gorgeous blonde hair remained free-flowing during the shoot and fell onto her shoulders and backside. Ooh la la! The realtor sported a red-orange dress that exposed the bottom portion of her toned legs during the day's shoot Dressed for work: Oppenheim wore a dark blue jacket on top of a lighter shirt while spending time with his colleagues. Stause also sported a set of high-heeled shoes while working on the program Comfortable attire: The realtor also sported a set of slim-fitting jeans and a pair of black leather shoes Oppenheim wore a dark blue jacket on top of a lighter button-up shirt as he spent time at Sunset Plaza. The 40-year-old real estate broker complimented his top choices with a pair of slim-fitting jeans. The reality television figure added an element of darkness to his clothing ensemble with a pair of leather shoes. He is currently romantically involved with Stause, and the two were seen staying close while filming a scene. Lovebirds: Oppenheim and Stause are currently romantically involved, and they were seen getting close during filming Starting off strong: Selling Sunset initially made its debut on the Netflix streaming service in 2019 and gained a solid following Also seen on set was Mary Fitzgerald sported a white button-up shirt that was left open-faced and tucked into a pair of slim-fitting leather pants. The 39-year-old reality television personality also wore a set of stylish high-heeled shoes and accessorized with numerous articles of jewelry. Her golden blonde hair was tied back into a loose bun as she filmed scenes for the new run of episodes. She notably carried a pair of chihuahuas while making her way around the program's production area. Getting used to it: During a sit-down with Cosmopolitan, Stause noted that she experienced 'a learning curve that comes with living your life on camera' No lies: Stause also spoke about how she had to become accustomed to having her professional experiences shown on screen, writing that 'with scripted television, there are no surprises' Selling Sunset initially made its debut in 2019 and quickly gained a following with viewers. A second season was released to the public the following May and was quickly followed by a third, which premiered that August. The program has received largely mixed to negative reviews from critics, although it has developed a loyal fanbase. Earlier this year, the show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program, although it lost to RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked. Mixed feelings: She then remarked that 'There are times where we're really great and then there are times that we aren't' During an interview with Cosmopolitan, Stause spoke about how she had to become used to working on a reality series. 'There's a learning curve that comes with living your life on camera, but they want to tuck away and be unnoticedas much as that's possible,' she said. She also noted that, despite the disagreements that are featured on the program, the cast was committed to doing their best as professionals. Color theory: Also seen on set was Mary Fitzgerald sported a white button-up shirt that was left open-faced and tucked into a pair of slim-fitting leather pants Puppy love: She notably carried a pair of chihuahuas while making her way around the program's production area Stause noted, 'It feels like we all want the show to be great. It feels like Adam and his team are rooting for you. I don't feel like these are reality producers that are rooting against you or want to see you fail.' She did point out that she had to become accustomed to having her failures shown to the public on the program. 'There are times that you win, and there are times that you don't. And I feel like the camera captures all of that. With scripted television, there are no surprises. There can't be,' she said. Stause added, 'even though it's on a more exaggerated scale, at the end of the day, when you break it down...heartbreak is all the same.' Moving fast: The program's second and third seasons were both released in 2020. Earlier this year, the show was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program Shared goal: The reality television personality also pointed out that all of the figures featured on the program 'want the show to be great' The reality television personality then noted that she was happy to see numerous women pushed to the forefront of the program. She expressed that 'it's great to watch all these women dominate a career that, for a lot of the past, has really exclusively seen men on television doing it. There's a lot of women doing this. It was always so misrepresented on television!' Stause concluded by expressing that, although she and her colleagues disagreed on numerous subjects, they were enthusiastic about performing well as realtors. 'When we get along, we get along so well. There are times where we're really great and then there are times that we aren't. But at the end of the day, it is who we are,' she said. Diane Kruger and her Out of the Blue costar Ray Nicholson shared a steamy kiss against a tree while shooting their upcoming thriller in Rhode Island. While shooting a scene for their film, billed as a modern tale of passionate love, deceit and the perfect murder, the 45-year-old German-American actress wore a flirty blue dress with a low-cut neckline and her hair in curls. As Jack Nicholson's youngest child, 29, locked lips with the Troy star, he wore a faded crewneck sweater and charcoal grey cargo shorts. Locking lips: Diane Kruger and her Out of the Blue costar Ray Nicholson shared a steamy kiss against a tree while shooting their upcoming thriller in Rhode Island Before getting in front of the camera, Kruger stayed warm in a long black parka and brushed up on her lines. The mother-of-one's sighting comes after she sparked engagement rumors with The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus earlier this month. Most recently, she stepped out with a large square-cut diamond sparkler at this year's Met Gala on Monday. The 45-year-old German-American actress wore a flirty blue dress with a low-cut neckline and her hair in curls Bundled up: Before getting in front of the camera, Kruger stayed warm in a long black parka and brushed up on her lines Kruger and Reedus first unveiled their romance in 2017 after meeting on the set of their 2015 film Sky. They welcomed a daughter, whose name has not yet been revealed, in 2018. In addition to their daughter, Reedus also has a 21-year-old son named Mingus Lucien whom he shares with his supermodel ex Helena Christensen. Big ring: The mother-of-one's sighting comes after she sparked engagement rumors with The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus earlier this month; seen in 2021 The sparkler: Diane wore a huge sparkler on her left hand to the Met Gala Diane, meanwhile, was previously married to French film star Guillaume Canet and was also in a ten-year-long relationship with actor Joshua Jackson. In 2017 she told Vulture their breakup, which became public in 2016, had been 'a long time coming.' While Diane and Norman have kept the identity of their daughter shrouded in secrecy, they do occasional offer glimmers of their life as a family on social media. Romance: Kruger and Reedus unveiled their romance in 2017 after meeting on the set of their 2015 film Sky (pictured in lower Manhattan on December 02, 2018) Father's Day: In June, the actress gushed about her partner while posting several sweet snaps of him with their daughter in honor of Father's Day In June, the actress gushed about her partner while posting several sweet snaps of him with their daughter in honor of Father's Day. 'We (heart emoji) U Papa. Happy Fathers Day to the one with the sweetest heart,' she posted in the caption. The tribute included a photo of their little girl and her husband-to-be walking and playing around. Kaia Gerber and Jacob Elordi were ever the loved-up couple in a series of black-and-white snaps that were shared to her Instagram account on Thursday. The pictures were taken during the model's 20th birthday party, and she was seen spending time with her friends and partner during her celebratory blowout. The happy couple has been romantically involved ever since September of last year, and they have been spotted together in public several times since then. Special occasion: Kaia Gerber was seen getting close to her boyfriend, Jacob Elordi, in a set of loved-up black-and-white snaps that were shared to her Instagram account on Thursday Gerber wore a beautiful sparkling dress that placed her toned arms on full display during the party. The social media personality's light outfit was contrasted perfectly by the dark brunette shade of her hair. The American Horror Stories actress also wore a pair of necklaces while she spent time with her pals. Elordi, 24, opted for a dark button-up shirt worn on top of a white undershirt as he celebrated his girlfriend's birthday. Impressive outfit: The model was seen wearing a sparkling dress while celebrating her 20th birthday with her friends in the snaps Color coordination: The social media personality's eye-catching dress was beautifully contrasted by the dark brunette shade of her hair The happy couple was initially linked in September of 2020 when they were spotted stepping out together in New York City and Los Angeles. That same month, the model joined her boyfriend and his family during a getaway trip to Mexico. Prior to becoming involved with his current romantic interest, the actor was linked to his costars Joey King and Zendaya, although both romances fizzled out. In the past: Elordi was previously romantically linked to his costars Zendaya and Joey King, although he ultimately separated from both of the two; he is seen with the latter in 2017 The still-strong couple eventually went Instagram official last October when they dressed up as Elvis and Priscilla Presley for Halloween. The performer has made sporadic appearances on his girlfriend's account ever since then. Last November, a source spoke to People and noted that Elordi had become heavily invested in his girlfriend's lifestyle. They specifically noted that the Euphoria actor had 'embraced Kaia's Malibu life and seems to love it as much as she does.' Quality time: Gerber and her boyfriend were initially romantically linked last September and have been going strong ever since then; they are seen in 2020 The insider went on to illustrate what the happy pair enjoyed doing together when their hectic schedules gave them breaks. 'They rarely leave Malibu and instead enjoy the beach, go hiking and meet up with friends for dinner,' they said. The source concluded by expressing that the model's parents were happy about their daughter's choice of partner. 'Jacob is very sweet to Kaia. They are always very loving and cute...it's obvious that Cindy and Rande approve of Jacob too. They spend a lot of time together,' they remarked. Bradley Cooper played an ambitious carny with Rooney Mara as an electric girl in a teaser trailer released Thursday for Nightmare Alley. The 46-year-old actor portrays Stanton 'Stan' Carlisle in the psychological thriller directed by Guillermo del Toro, 56, based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. The teaser trailer opened with Stanton entering carnival life and showed him dancing with fellow carnival worker Molly Cahill, played by Rooney, 36. Carnival life: Bradley Cooper played an ambitious carny with Rooney Mara as an electric girl in a teaser trailer released Thursday for Nightmare Alley. Carnival talker Clem Hoately, played by 66-year-old William Dafoe, throughout the preview barked about a 'man or beast' creature as he offered folks a chance to see the 'supreme oddity'. Stanton later becomes psychic 'The Great Stanton'and is shown growing close to psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter, played by Cate Blanchett, 52. Clips were shown of the ensemble cast that also includes Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, David Strathairn and Ron Perlman. Rooney's character Molly was shown with sparks flying as she sat strapped to an electrified chair as part of a carnival act. Electric girl: Rooney Mara's character Molly Cahill was shown with sparks flying as she sat strapped to an electrified chair as part of a carnival act Starting out: The teaser trailer opened with Bradley's character Stanton being introduced to carnival life Supreme oddity: Carnival talker Clem Hoately, played by 66-year-old William Dafoe, throughout the preview barked about a 'man or beast' creature as he offered folks a chance to see the 'supreme oddity' Acclaimed director: Guillermo del Toro directed and co-wrote the screenplay for Nightmare Alley Nightmare Alley is scheduled to be released on December 17 by Searchlight Pictures. It is the second film adaptation of the novel following a 1947 version by 20th Century Fox. The 1947 version starred Tyrone Power as Stanton, Colleen Gray as Molly and Helen Walker as Lilith. Psychological thriller: The psychological thriller is based on the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham Tender moment: Molly danced with Stanton at the carnival in a tender moment The new version has a screenplay written by del Toro and Kim Morgan based on the 1946 book. Principal photography began in January 2020 in Toronto, Canada, but was shut down in March 2020 due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Production resumed in September 2020 in Toronto and production officially wrapped in December 2020. Femme fatale: Dr. Lilith Ritter, played by Cate Blanchett, 52, was shown getting close to Stanton Joel Edgerton stepped out for dinner with some friends in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The 47-year-old actor was spotted outside Giorgio Baldi restaurant in Santa Monica, just four months after welcoming his first child with stylist Christine Centenera. The Boy Erased star stood talking with a female friend as they waited outside the restaurant. Out and about: Joel Edgerton stepped out for dinner with some friends in Los Angeles on Wednesday He was dressed casually for the outing, showing off his boho-inspired style in a pair of black jeans, which he paired with a dark blue denim jacket. The Underground Railroad star also wore a patterned blue button-up shirt underneath, which he styled with the sleeves rolled up. He rounded out his ensemble with a pair of tan Chelsea boots and a green knit beanie, and he stayed safe with a nude-coloured face mask. New dad: The 47-year-old actor was spotted outside Giorgio Baldi restaurant in Santa Monica, just four months after welcoming his first child with stylist Christine Centenera Joel revealed that he and Christine, 39, had welcomed their first child together in an interview with Oprah Daily back in May. 'I just ran away from the hospital for a moment. I can't even put it into words. I'm in love,' the new dad told host Oprah Winfrey at the time. He also confessed that he was 'very nervous' he'd miss the baby's birth in Sydney, because he was working in Queensland at the time. Plus one: Joel revealed that he and girlfriend Christine Centenera (pictured) had welcomed their first child together in an interview with Oprah Daily back in May 'There are some border issues with Sydney and Queensland that pop up. I was getting very nervous that I'd get stuck,' he added. 'But I was working with some wonderful people who said, "We will move heaven and earth to make sure you don't miss something this important."' The Daily Telegraph revealed back in February that the Vogue Australia fashion director was believed to be in her second trimester. 'I just ran away from the hospital for a moment. I can't even put it into words. I'm in love,' the new dad told Oprah Winfrey in May. Pictured at The King press conference in LA in October 2019 Sources told the publication at the time that the couple had been trying to fall pregnant for some time. It's the first child for the notoriously private couple, who started dating back in 2018. In an August 2012 interview with SheKnows, Joel said: 'I've always held hopes for myself to be a father. I'd like to think that I would be a good father.' Jasmine Yarbrough attended the funeral of her late grandmother on Friday, who passed away at the age of 96. The shoe designer and wife of Today co-host Karl Stefanovic was spotted with her family at the funeral in Brisbane, Queensland, as the pallbearers carried the casket out of the church. Jasmine, 37, wore a simple black dress and a matching face mask, and carried an order of service with a picture of her grandmother on the front. Tragic: Jasmine Yarbrough attended the funeral of her grandmother, who passed away at the age of 96 She was spotted standing beside family members and other mourners as the procession continued. The designer then began walking alongside her family, including her grandfather, arm-in-arm. Jasmine's sister Jade shared a sweet tribute to their grandmother on the same day. Procession: The shoe designer and wife to Today co-host Karl Stefanovic was seen with her family as the pallbearers carried the casket out of the church Attire: Jasmine, 37, wore a simple black dress and a matching face mask, and carried an order of service with a picture of her grandmother on the front Memorial: She was spotted standing beside family members and other mourners as the procession continued The tribute was posted to Instagram and included a series of photos with a lovely message. '96 years young. What a life lived,' Jade wrote. 'Not like any nana, but a second mumma to us and the matriarch of our family.' 'Hand and hand forever. Hope you are dancing the night away now,' she added. 'A second mumma to us and the matriarch of our family': Jade Yarbrough, sister of Jasmine, posted a tribute to her nan on the same day The first picture is a recent photo of the two sisters with their grandmother at a function, while the last one, taken around the same time, sees Jade dancing with her. An older photo is also shared in the post showing Jade and Jasmine as children smiling with their nan. The sisters had been taking care of their grandmother for a while, with Jasmine flying into Brisbane, Queensland from covid-stricken Sydney last month to help look after her. Sweet: Jade posted the tribute on Instagram with a series of photos with Jasmine and their grandmother with a lovely message attached Memories: An older photo shows Jade and Jasmine as children smiling with their nan Jasmine's husband, Karl Stefanovic, announced on-air in August that his wife had flown into hotel quarantine with their one-year-old daughter Harper May. He said that she had acquired a special exemption from Queensland Health. The TV host emphasised that Jasmine and Jade's grandmother was 'really, really, really sick' at the time. Serious: Today host Karl Stefanovic (left, with Allison Langdon) revealed Jasmine had travelled to Brisbane with their daughter to be with her sick grandma The shoe designer visited her ailing nan after she completed 14 days of hotel quarantine with Harper. Last week, Jasmine shared a photo of her holding her grandmother's hand in hospital as she sat by her bedside. She wrote in the caption, 'Nana ~ with you now and forever.' She has been sharing several scantily-clad snaps this summer on various European jaunts. And Anais Gallagher was flaunting her phenomenal figure yet again on Thursday as she slipped into a pair of ab-flashing co-ords. The 21-year-old daughter of rocker Noel Gallagher looked incredible in the blue and multicoloured crop top and matching wide-leg trousers. Style: Noel Gallagher's daughter Anais was flaunting her phenomenal figure yet again on Thursday as she slipped into a pair of ab-flashing co-ords Anais completed her look with huge gold stilettos as she showed off her peachy posterior in another snap. The blonde beauty accessorised her edgy look with a gold pendant and wore a pair of pink-tinted sunglasses on her face as she posed in her room. She wore her light tresses in her natural curly style and opted for a low-key makeup look. Fashionista: The 21-year-old daughter looked incredible in the blue and multicoloured crop top and matching wide-leg trousers The stunning shots comes after Anais admitted that fans are disappointed when they hear her speak because they expect her to have a northern twang like her father, 53. But as she spent many of her younger years in southern England, she instead has a 'posh' accent - much unlike her father and uncle Liam, 48. She told the Daily Star: 'It disappoints people when they hear me because they have a perception that I'm going to be so Mancunian, then I come along and sound so posh. I want to be my own person.' Figure: Anais completed her look with huge gold stilettos as she showed off her peachy posterior in another snap Speaking previously to NME, Anais told how it was normal for her to watch her father perform on stage as a child and she has only become 'emotional' watching his shows more recently. Anais revealed the band's Wembley Stadium gig in 2009 is her earliest memory of an Oasis performance. She said: 'Obviously I went to lots of Oasis gigs, but this is the one I can remember most vividly. 'I particularly remember being very upset there were no Cadbury Buttons in the dressing room a huge travesty for eight-year-old me. 'People expect the memory of Oasis to have been just as crazy for me as it was for them, but I was born watching my dad onstage so it didn't really faze me. 'I've only started getting properly emotional when I see him onstage recently. Before, I was slightly oblivious.' Noel shares two sons, Donovan, 13, and Sonny, 10, with his wife Sara MacDonald, whereas he had his only daughter Anais with his ex-wife Meg. Famous father: Anais recently admitted fans are disappointed when they hear her speak as they expect her to have a northern twang like her father Noel, 53 (pictured in October 2019) Elsewhere on Thursday, Noel Gallagher cut a casual figure as he attended the world premiere of film Oasis Knebworth 1996 at Picturehouse Central in London. The musician, 54, could be seen wearing a Fear of God FG hoodie and a pair of black jeans as he posed for pictures at the event. He completed his look with a pair of white trainers and was seen posing with the movie's director Jake Scott, 56. Keeping it casual: Elsewhere on Thursday, Noel Gallagher cut a casual figure as he attended the world premiere of film Oasis Knebworth 1996 at Picturehouse Central in London Former Oasis star Noel reunited with her bandmate brother Liam, 48, last month after an ongoing feud since Oasis split up 12 years ago. The siblings put aside their differences as they both worked on a new documentary film on the band's iconic Knebworth shows in 1996, although Liam was not at the premiere. Speaking about the project where both brothers serve as executive producers, Noel previously told The Sun: 'Theres lots me and Liam will never agree on, and with Oasis we both have the chance to say no to anything, but doing this was a no-brainer.' Maddison Brown has strongly denounced and criticised the Australian government after taking a trip to her home country last month from the United States. The actress, who is the former partner of Liam Hemsworth, shared her difficult experience flying to Australia to see her family again in a post to Instagram and provided some choice words for the government over their border policy. 'The last year or so I would regularly wake up in the middle of the night feeling sick because I couldnt see my family, and I was so scared I'd never see them again, 'the 24-year-old wrote and accompanied with a picture of a horizon. Furious: Liam Hemsworths Dynasty star ex Maddison Brown has slammed the government over border closures after jetting back to Australia from the United States to visit her family 'Going home was logistically difficult with all the hurdles I had to jump through to just see them and hold them for 3 weeks in a lockdown, but I would do it all again a thousand times over,' she continued. Maddison states that she has since made the return trip to America and explained that leaving her family again was 'one of the hardest goodbyes' because she had a 'sinking feeling' that she might not see them again at the time. 'Australia I love you, but I think we need a break. Separating families from each other is inexcusable and inhumane, and at this point in the pandemic we know this is not the way to go,' the actress said. 'My story is just one person's experience, out of hundreds of thousands of people in the same boat right now who cant see their loved ones. I am so, so lucky I was able to make it work, but there are so many who cant, and my heart breaks for them.' 'Separating families from each other is inexcusable and inhumane': The actress explained that leaving her family again was 'one of the hardest goodbyes' because she had a 'feeling' that she might not see them again. Pictured with her father at the 2015 premiere of Strangerland The Dynasty star says that money should not be a determining factor in whether families can see one another and states the government is 'disgusting and abhorrent' for 'allowing this to continue.' 'You just cant keep families separated from each other, especially when most of us overseas trying to get home are vaccinated. It is the most horrible feeling in the entire world and Id never wish it on anyone,' she continued. 'I have heard so many stories and I know soon this nightmare will be over, but there is a real emotional cost being absorbed by innocent citizens due to the government's mishandling of the pandemic.' Sympathy: The Dynasty star says her story 'is just one person's experience, out of hundreds of thousands of people in the same boat who cant see their loved ones. I am so, so lucky I was able to make it work, but there are so many who cant.' Pictured: Maddison's mother Maddison asserted that there is 'no excuse' for 'forcibly separating families for 18 months straight' and added that she is 'sorry' to those who have had similar experiences of family separation due to border closures. The Strangerland actress was seen in August stepping out of hotel quarantine in Sydney in tears as she was reunited with her mother. The pair hugged before leaving the hotel. The last time Maddison is believed to have been in Australia was in late 2019. Twilight star Ashley Greene kept it effortlessly chic on Thursday when she attended dinner at celebrity hangout Craig's in West Hollywood. The actress, 34, opted for a black chiffon style square necked speckled blouse and matched it with a pair of black skinny jeans. She slung a tan YSL bag over her shoulder and rocked a pair of on trend black pointy heels. Chic: Ashley Greene stepped out looking effortlessly chic as she arrived for a dinner date at celebrity hangout Craig's in West Hollywood on Thursday night Ashley, who recently returned from a trip to Mexico, for her husband Paul Khoury's 33rd birthday, kept her make up minimal with pink lipstick. She finished the look by wearing her brown shoulder length hair down with a distinctive middle parting. Clutching her mobile phone and a napkin, the star looked amazing as she headed to one of Hollywood's hottest hangouts. More to come: Ashley will next star with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman in The Retirement Plan Ashley will next star with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman in The Retirement Plan. The director is Tim J. Brown, and filming took place in the Cayman Islands. Ernie Hudson, Jackie Earle Haley, Joel David Moore, Grace Byers, Rick Fox and Lynn Whitfield also feature in the ensemble. The story centers on Ashley (Greene) and her daughter Sarah (Thalia Campbell) as they get caught up in a criminal enterprise that puts their lives at risk. She turns to the only person who can help, her estranged father Matt (Cage), currently enjoying retirement on the Cayman Islands. However, they are soon tracked down by crime boss Donnie (Haley) and lieutenant Bobo (Perlman). As the trio become entangled in an increasingly dangerous web, Ashley learns that her father had a secret past that she didn't know anything about and that there is more to him than meets the eye. William G. Santor is producing the project for Productivity Media along with Nicholas Tabarrok, the President of Darius Films as part of their multi-pictured deal with the Cayman Islands authorities. Jason Jallet and Doug Murray also serve as producers. Santor said: 'The global reach and legendary appeal of Nicolas, Ashley, Jackie, Joel, Grace, Ernie, Rick and Lynn as well as gifted newcomer Thalia, is spot-on for this exciting action movie. 'I am proud to say that we have managed to have a Ghost Rider, a Hellboy and a Rorschach in the same film together, with a Ghostbuster to keep the Ghost Rider in check! You can't get better than that! 'And we continue to receive incredible support from the Cayman Islands Government as we start production on our third film.' She's regularly spotted running errands in Manhattan inbetween her busy filming schedule and social life. And Katie Holmes was almost unrecognisable as she stepped out in a black bucket hat while shopping for supplies in New York on Thursday. The 42-year-old actress cut a casual figure in a khaki rain jacket and black tracksuit bottoms as she went incognito in a white protective face mask. Incognito: Katie Holmes was almost unrecognisable as she stepped out in a black bucket hat while shopping for supplies in New York on Thursday Katie opted to style her skinny cut joggers with a comfortable grey blue jersey jumper while she checked off tasks on her to-do list. She layered over the green parka to keep off the chill and nailed mid-season dressing as she completed the ensemble with a pair of black Birkenstocks. The Dawson's Creek actress toted her belongings in a trusty reusable shopping bag, which featured a blue and white stripe pattern. Katie swept her chestnut tresses up into her leather-look bucket hat and appeared to go make-up free for the outing underneath her white face mask. Keeping it casual: The 42-year-old actress cut a casual figure in a khaki rain jacket and black tracksuit bottoms as she went incognito in a white protective face mask Katie has recently completed work on a yet-to-be-titled TV movie from writers Ilene Chaiken and Melissa Scrivner-Love. The story will follow an FBI special agent who tries to rebuild her career after an illicit affair damages her professional reputation. Her other project, also still untitled, is a romantic drama following two strangers both in bad relationships who end up at the same Airbnb in upstate New York. Written, produced, directed by and starring Holmes, the movie will also star Jim Sturgess, Derek Luke, Melissa Leo, Zosia Mamet and Becky Ann Baker. While the new film serves as Katie's feature film writing debut, she has previously helmed one other movie the 2016 drama All We Had. Katie, who is mom to daughter Suri, 15, with ex Tom Cruise, split from Emilio Vitolo Jr., 33, in April after nine months of dating. 'They figured out theyre better off as friends. Theres no drama that went down with the breakup and in fact, theyre still friends.' a source told Us Weekly at the time. Emilio collaborates with his father to run the popular Italian restaurant Emilio's Ballato, a favorite of celebrity visitors including Tom Hanks, Bradley Cooper and even former president Barack Obama. His romance with Katie reportedly faded after she left for Connecticut to film her second feature as a director. She stars in the untitled film with Jim Sturgess as two strangers stuck in unhealthy relationships who find themselves forced to quarantine together at an Upstate New York Airbnb, according to Deadline. According to ET, Katie took a 'wait and see' approach to her relationship while she was out of the state filming. 'Before she left, [Katie and Emilio] were inseparable, but their relationship was existing in a bubble,' said an insider. 'Because of the pandemic, she wasn't jet setting around the country for jobs and he wasn't tied up every night working at his family's restaurant.' But once their regular social lives resumed, the couple found they were not 'as compatible anymore.' She has been busy filming series two of The Outlaws in Bristol in recent weeks. And Eleanor Tomlinson was back on set again on Thursday as she filmed a car washing scene with a bucket and sponge. The former Poldark starlet, 29, looked pretty in a floral blouse tied in at the waist and black tulle skirt as she shot the latest storylines. Work: A stylish Eleanor Tomlinson was back on the set of The Outlaws series 2 on Thursday as she filmed a car washing scene with a bucket and sponge The Stephen Merchant-written production was formerly known as The Offenders however in a press release this week it was announced it will now be known as The Outlaws when it airs in the autumn. In between takes the beauty donned a cosy-looking grey dressing gown and chatted to the crew on set. Eleanor wore her russet mane in gentle waves around her features and her costume was decorated with various items of statement jewellery. Beaming: The former Poldark starlet, 29, looked pretty in a floral blouse tied in at the waist and black tulle skirt as she shot the latest storylines Style: She donned a sweeping black skirt which fell to her ankles, and added wedge peep-toe heels to the look tied with a red ribbon She added porcelain make-up to complete the ensemble, with deft brushes of bronzer. Also on set was former EastEnder Claire Perkins who plays one of the seven offenders. The show focuses on seven strangers forced together to complete a community payback sentence in Bristol. Change: The Stephen Merchant-written production was formerly known as The Offenders however in a press release this week it was announced it will now be known as The Outlaws when it airs in the autumn Warm: In between takes the beauty donned a cosy-looking grey dressing gown and chatted to the crew on set Cast: Also on set was former EastEnder Claire Perkins who plays one of the seven offenders Smile: Eleanor wore her russet mane in gentle waves around her features and her costume was decorated with various items of statement jewellery The show is new to the BBC and Amazon Prime, with season one yet to air this year, and season two already being shot. The Office co-creator Stephen wrote the show, with absent Eleanor playing Gabby, an 'aristocratic celebutante whose glamour and life of leisure masks deep-rooted problems'. In a recent interview, she said of her character: 'Gabby is a social-media influencer with a drink and drug problem. Radiant: Eleanor wore her russet mane in gentle waves around her features and her costume was decorated with various items of statement jewellery Glowing: She added porcelain make-up to complete the ensemble, with deft brushes of bronzer 'She is wild and uncontrollable and, without being unkind, blissfully unaware of the lives of others around her, which makes her outrageously funny to play.' Filming began last year but was postponed because of Covid. Discussing his forthcoming series, Merchant - who comes from Bristol, where the show is based - admitted production was initially hampered by the spread of coronavirus in 2020. Exciting: The show is new to the BBC and Amazon Prime, with season one yet to air this year, and season two already being shot Trouble: The Office co-creator Stephen wrote the show, with absent Eleanor playing Gabby, an 'aristocratic celebutante whose glamour and life of leisure masks deep-rooted problems' He told The Sun: 'Like so many other productions, we'd just begun filming when COVID-19 struck and we had to shut-down. 'I'm delighted that we're now finally able to resume filming with this incredible cast and finish this long-standing passion project. 'This is the first series I've made in my hometown of Bristol and I'm so excited to showcase the city and utilise the amazing local talent.' Oh dear: Filming began last year but was postponed because of Covid Difficult: Discussing his forthcoming series, Merchant - who comes from Bristol, where the show is based - admitted production was initially hampered by the spread of coronavirus in 2020 Name change: The Stephen Merchant written production was formerly known as The Offenders Plot: Seven outlaws are brought together to complete a community payback sentence in Bristol Community: She was filming scenes at a charity car wash Project: The actress was seen on location in Bristol with her co-stars Star: Clare Perkins looked casual in a pink jacket and khaki trousers Filming ground to a halt after just 12 days due to health concerns, but work has since continued in earnest as Britain's third national lockdown was lifted. Reflecting on the BBC's unorthodox decision to commission a second series before gauging the popularity of the first, producer Kenton Allen told Deadline: 'We said, 'We'll write Season 2 if you commission Season 2'. 'We were able to rewrite Season 1 to reflect what we know is going to happen to the characters in Season 2. We were able to deepen it and layer it.' Bold: Reflecting on the BBC's unorthodox decision to commission a second series before gauging the popularity of the first, producer Kenton Allen told Deadline: 'We said, 'We'll write Season 2 if you commission Season 2' Naomi Campbell has opened up about her experience becoming a mother to a baby girl, after announcing the arrival of her daughter in May. The supermodel, 52, discussed her child for the first time during an interview with BBC HardTalk, where she described her as being 'independent and smart'. Naomi told listeners: 'I'm really lucky I think have a dream child', as she detailed the first few months of being a mother on Thursday. Love: Naomi Campbell has opened up about her experience becoming a mother to a baby girl, after announcing the arrival of her daughter in May Naomi, who was recently appointed Queen's Commonwealth Trust Platinum Jubilee Global Ambassador, said: She's wonderful. She's very independent already, very smart, alert, sleeps 12 hours. She's a good girl' When asked if she planned to instil the values in her to be a strong independent woman, Naomi said: 'Absolutely. Right down to the hygiene part.' Elsewhere during the chat, Naomi touched on the ongoing row between Harry and Meghan and the Royal Family - but admitted she didn't really want to be drawn in. So sweet: The supermodel, 52, discussed her child for the first time during an interview with BBC HardTalk, where she described her as being 'independent and smart' She said: 'I actually am not going to comment too much on that. This was what I said to my friends in the room when I was watching it, and this is what I'm going to say now. 'It was sad for me knowing Princess Diana to see that her two boys were not on good terms. As a mother, that's the last thing you want to happen to your boys. She's no longer here. That's her legacy, her two boys. You don't want to see that happen.' Naomi announced the arrival of her daughter in May with a sweet Instagram post of her daughter's tiny feet. 'A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother,' she wrote on Instagram. 'So honoured to have this gentle soul in my life there are no words to describe the lifelong bond that I now share with you, my angel. There is no greater love.' The British supermodel wrote: 'A beautiful little blessing has chosen me to be her mother' Friends said they believe that Campbell used a surrogate, and the supermodel is understood to have a new boyfriend with whom she will raise the child. 'I'm not out here on my own,' she told The Cut. 'It's simple, and it's small. To be with your loved ones who just want to enjoy the quality time. 'When I reach out to people, and I need help and understanding and guidance, it's important for me to remember to say 'Thank you.' You never know when you may need that person to help you again or guide you.' Waiting for a baby: She posted a picture of herself cradling a newborn at an orphanage in Lagos in 2019 Though Naomi announced this spring that she had welcomed a baby girl, she admitted in a new interview that her high-powered jetset lifestyle has meant at least one big sacrifice: finding a long-term romantic partner. 'I'd say the sacrifice is really finding that soul mate who will understand you,' she told The Cut. 'It's really like you feel if they look at you as if you're strong you know, I'm strong, but I'm also sensitive. I know that in relationships I have to compromise.' Sacrifice: Naomi said in an interview that because of her career, she gave up finding a 'soul mate who will understand you' Campbell has has plenty of well-publicized relationships and romances over the years, including with Leonardo DiCaprio, Diddy, Gerard Butler, and recently, according to reports, Liam Payne. Her longest known relationships were with Vladislav Doronin from 2009 to 2013 and Flavio Briatore from 1998 to 2002. She was reportedly keen to have children with Russian businessman Doronin, but Doronin was married. She has certainly moved forward with force since her modeling career began at age 15. By then, she'd already been in music videos for Bob Marley and Culture Club. She was on a steep trajectory, covering British Elle before she turned 16 and spending the next decade walking runways for designers including Versace, Azzedine Alaia, Isaac Mizrahi, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Chanel, Fendi, Balmain, Vivienne Westwood, and Ralph Lauren. She also posed for the most famous photographers in the world, including Peter Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, Steven Meisel, Annie Leibovitz, and Bruce Weber, and earned the cover of Anna Wintour's first September issue of Vogue. Versace! But she has 'no time for bitterness' and 'I want to keep going and doing things that I love doing in my life,' including her mega-successful career (pictured in 1991 Flashback: In the '80s, she earned the cover of Anna Wintour's first September issue of Vogue Iconic: She'd reached icon status by 1990, and in June 2018 received the Fashion Icon award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America She'd reached icon status by 1990, and in June 2018 received the Fashion Icon award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She has released 25 fragrances for women, published four books, released music, and appeared in a dozen and a half films. Now she's taking on motherhood, something she's long dreamed of. In 2017 she told ES magazine: 'I think about having children all the time. But now with the way science is I think I can do it when I want.' Asked if she would have the child herself rather than adopt, she replied, 'maybe,' but she went on to add: 'I do want a father figure. I think it's important.' In 2018, she said: 'I'd love to have kids. I don't discount anything in life. I love kids and always will. When I'm around children, I become a child myself. That's the little girl I don't ever want to lose.' Channel Nine dropped its first teaser for the ninth season of Married At First Sight during the network's upfronts on Wednesday. And now, Daily Mail Australia can exclusively reveal that a DJ, a glamorous beautician and driving instructor are all set to walk down the aisle. Ella Ding, 27, is the first bride to be identified ahead of the highly anticipated season. Married At First Sight 2022: Melbourne beautician Ella Ding is the first bride to be identified ahead of the highly anticipated season Ella briefly appears in a teaser trailer released by Nine this week, which offers viewers a sneak peak of the show's upcoming brides and grooms. She works as a beautician in Melbourne and is understood to have bad luck when it comes to choosing the right guys. While little is known about her private life, her reality star friends including former MAFS grooms Michael Brunelli and Sam Carraro. In a telling clue she's joined the cast, her Instagram account with more than 2,300 followers is now private - which is a requirement for upcoming brides and grooms. Daily Mail Australia can reveal the 27-year-old briefly appears in a teaser trailer released by Nine this week, which offers viewers a sneak peak of the show's upcoming brides and grooms Looking for love? While little is known about her private life, her reality star friends including former MAFS grooms Michael Brunelli and Sam Carraro Olivia Frazer is also hoping to find love on the Channel Nine show. Understood to be in her late 30s, a friend close to Olivia told Daily Mail Australia that they weren't surprised to see her join the cast. 'I'm not surprised she's going on MAFS. Olivia hasn't had the best luck with guys,' they said. 'She's a great person, very open, but nice.' The next Booka? Olivia Frazer is also hoping to find love on the Channel Nine show Unlucky in love: Understood to be in her late 30s, a friend close to Olivia told Daily Mail Australia that they weren't surprised to see her join the cast. 'I'm not surprised she's going on MAFS. Olivia hasn't had the best luck with guys,' they said Olivia works as a driving instructor and is no stranger to reality TV with her brother reportedly working as a lifeguard on Bondi Rescue. Meanwhile, Jack Millar joins previously announced groom Brent Vitiello in the quest to get his blue tick and find love on the Channel 9 social experiment. The 28-year-old DJ was also spotted in the teaser dropped this week. Hello! Meanwhile, Jack Millar, 28, (pictured) joins previously announced groom Brent Vitiello in the quest to get a blue tick and find love on the Channel 9 social experiment Photos from his now private Instagram account show him as a playful larrikin who enjoys spending time with his friends and cuddling up to his pet dog Finn. It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed that tattooed hunk Brent Vitiello was the first participant from the upcoming series to be announced. The tattooed hunk is well-known in the Sydney party scene and until recently was living and working in photography and hospitality in Dubai. Will he find his Melissa? The Sydney DJ was also spotted in the teaser dropped this week So cute! Photos from his now private Instagram account show him as a playful larrikin who enjoys spending time with his friends and cuddling up to his pet dog Finn The new season of MAFS will see the return of Puerto Rican sexologist Alessandra Rampolla, as well as veteran relationship experts John Aiken and Mel Schilling. Married At First Sight is produced by Endemol Shine Australia, and filming for the new season has already commenced. If you recognise any of the participants, email tips@dailymail.com Married At First Sight returns to Channel Nine in 2022 She never fails to look sensational during her commute to work. Amanda looked flawless as she showcased her enviable figure in a navy maxi dress as she exited the Global Studios in London following her Heart FM show on Friday. The presenter, 50, put on a street-side fashion show as she strutted her way through Leicester Square in a pair of navy heels, before stopping to kiss Charlotte Hawkins goodbye as she made her way home. Beauty: Amanda Holden showcased her enviable figure in a navy maxi dress as she puckered up to Charlotte Hawkins while departing from the Global Studios on Friday Pals: Upon her exit, the Britain's Got Talent judge looked delighted as she crossed paths with Classic FM presenter Charlotte Hawkins, 46, who was heading to her shift Amanda was clutching an emerald green handbag and framing her face with a pair of tortoiseshell shades. Upon her exit, the Britain's Got Talent judge looked delighted as she crossed paths with Classic FM presenter Charlotte, 46, who was heading to her shift. They each placed a loving hand on each other's shoulder while puckering up for a sweet kiss on the cheek. Amanda styled her glossy sandy locks into a silky middle-parting and appeared to be in high spirits as she continued her walk to a nearby car following the encounter. Hot stuff: She never fails to look sensational during her commute to work Gorgeous: The presenter, 50, put on a street-side fashion show while strutting her way through Leicester Square in a pair of navy heels Looking good: Amanda clutched an emerald green handbag by Lalage Beaumont and framed her face with a pair of tortoise shell shades Warm: They put on a tactile display after kissing each other on the cheek Charlotte looked ethereal as she donned a summery yellow midi dress, which highlighted her svelte waist along with her busty assets. The Good Morning Britain presenter added inches to her height with a pair of cream heels and wore her luscious blonde locks in gorgeous curls, which flowed in the autumn breeze. Earlier on, Jenni Falconer, 45, demanded attention as she flashed her toned legs in an eye-popping cherry red midi dress. Wow! Charlotte looked ethereal as she donned a summery yellow midi dress, which highlighted her svelte waist along with her busty assets Confident: The Good Morning Britain presenter added inches to her height with a pair of cream heels Accessorised: Charlotte clutched an off-white handbag featuring a silver chain The Smooth FM breakfast host glowed as she swept her way through the West End in a pair of stone heels. Keeping her shoulders warm in a coordinating cardigan, the former National Lottery Draws presenter carried a heavy-looking black leather handbag while beaming from ear-to-ear. The blonde bombshell wore her shiny blonde locks in a sleek side-parting and sported a delicate silver chain. An Australian reporter dubbed the 'world's most beautiful news anchor' while covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is making a major career move. Sarah Williamson, 31, is leaving Israeli news channel i24 News to take up a new position at conservative American news network Newsmax. The blonde beauty announced the news on Instagram this week, telling her thousands of followers that she was leaving Tel Aviv for New York. New gig! Sarah Williamson, 31, is leaving Israeli news channel i24 News to take up a new position at conservative American news network Newsmax 'In three weeks time this incredible, life changing chapter comes to a close and oh my, is it bittersweet,' she wrote. 'Im not quite ready to pay homage to this city and the beautiful people that I have met along the way, but that will come in a later post.' Sarah later reiterated that she wasn't returning home to Australia, and was instead taking up a new role as a news anchor and reporter for Newsmax in the States. 'And just to be clear, I am really f***ing excited! Like really!!!!!' she wrote. 'I honestly can't wait for this new chapter.' 'I can't wait for this new chapter': The blonde beauty announced the news on Instagram this week, telling her thousands of followers that she was leaving Tel Aviv for New York Newsmax is known for its right wing perspective and has gained popularity in recent years due to its unwavering support of former US President Donald Trump. It comes after Williamson slammed Australia's lockdowns earlier last month. The reporter shared a post to Instagram saying 'brainwashed' Aussies were 'living in a totalitarian society'. 'I never thought I would say this... I'm not proud to be Australian at the moment, considering the mindset of the government and the majority of the people living inside the country. I'm sorry,' she wrote. Stunning: When she's not reporting on geopolitical conflicts, Sarah works as a model 'I'm well aware I'm about to receive a barrage of abuse by brainwashed Aussies. I'm sorry you feel this way,' she continued. I'm sorry you live in a totalitarian society.' When she's not reporting on geopolitical conflicts, Sarah works as a model. She has even appeared in a major campaign for an Israeli footwear brand. She's not afraid to showcase her sizzling figure in raunchy lingerie on her social media channels. And Rhian Sugden put on a very busty display in pink lace lingerie for a sultry new snap uploaded to her Instagram on Friday. The glamour model, 35, showed off her ample assets and left little to the imagination in the corset-style one piece. Wow! Rhian Sugden put on a very busty display in pink lace lingerie for a sizzling new snap uploaded to her Instagram on Friday Rhian's lingerie boasted a plunging neckline and lace detailing as well as a cut-out section and silk belt that cinched her in at the waist. The model let her underwear do all the talking as she leant over the counter at the swanky London hotel where she was staying. She sported a pared-down makeup palette for the snaps and styled her long bob in a sleek straight style. It comes after last month, Rhian revealed that her fourth round of IVF had failed while admitting that she is struggling to put on a 'brave face'. Tough: It comes after last month, Rhian revealed that her fourth round of IVF had failed while admitting that she is struggling to put on a 'brave face' The star showed her vulnerable side as she candidly discussed feeling down on Instagram amid her challenging fertility journey. She announced her decision to start the in-vitro fertilisation process in 2019 after she was told by doctors that she has an egg count of someone at least 13 years older. And sharing a glamorous photo clad in lingerie, Rhian provided an update: 'Been feeling blue [blue heart emoji]. Had a hell of a tough few weeks 'For those that have been following my journey IVF round 4 failed but it's now time for me to pick myself up and carry on! Honest: The model, 34, who is married to Oliver Mellor, 40, showed her vulnerable side as she candidly discussed feeling down on social media amid her challenging fertility journey (pictured in 2019) 'Being in the public eye and trying to keep a brave face on his harder than it looks but I've done it many times before and I will do it again. 'It's time to stick on my best undies, get myself back to normal and get back behind that camera doing what makes me happy! Big shout out to my support network. You're the best! #ivfwarrior [pineapple emoji].' [sic] In April 2019, Rhian, who is married to actor Oliver Mellor, 40, discussed her plans to have IVF after being told she has an egg count of 'a woman over 45' but added that the procedure carries only a 'two per cent' success rate. Knock back: She said: 'Been feeling blue [blue heart emoji]. Had a hell of a tough few weeks For those that have been following my journey IVF round 4 failed' Rhian explained: 'I was told that I may never be a mum and I'm heartbroken. 'Doctors said I have the egg count of a woman over 45, meaning it's unlikely I would ever conceive naturally. 'It also means the odds of getting pregnant by IVF have gone down from 30 per cent to two per cent which was pretty devastating to hear.' Fans will be pleased to hear that filming is well and truly underway for Grantchester's seventh series. And recently stepping out on set in the town, located near Cambridge, fan favourite Tom Brittney was spotted rehearsing lines with co-star Robson Green, 56, before interacting with passers-by. The actor, 30, who plays Reverend Will Davenport in the ITV series, was dressed in character as he stopped to fuss over a fan's dog in between filming. Man's best friend: Grantchester star Tom Brittney was seen taking a break from filming the show's new series to fuss over fan's dog while on set recently Tom was seen beaming away as he doted on the pup, passing by with a dog walker, in between takes. He was filming outside a church in the village of Grantchester, with production grabbing the attention of fans as they walked by, as many stopped to interact with the cast. When he wasn't charming the locals, Tom was busy gearing up for his upcoming scenes with co-star Robson, who plays Geordie Keating in the show. The pair brushed up on their lines as they read through a script of a new episode, before stepping out on set as the cameras began to roll. Reunited: He and the cast are already filming for season seven of the ITV series, with the actor, 30, joining his co-star Robson Green on set in the village near Cambridge Taking a break: The pair, who head up the cast, were seen rehearsing their lines and having a chat in between takes as they filmed new scenes together Proving their friendship is just as strong offscreen as it is on, the actors were seen chatting away in between filming as they sat together while taking a break. They joined Al Weaver and former EastEnders Kacey Ainsworth, who were also seen on set filming scenes for series seven. The cast looked delighted to be back on set once more as production continues for the new series of Grantchester. Filming kicked off for series seven in July. It comes as season six of Grantchester plays out on TV screens, with the first episode airing on ITV earlier this month. Close: Tom and Robson proved their friendship is just as strong offscreen as it is on Huge hit: Tom, who plays Reverend Will Davenport on the show, stopped to interact with fans including their pet pooches as they walked by while filming took place Back in action: Tom (L) and Robson (R) were dressed in character and looked delighted to be back on set once again Roll the cameras: Kacey Ainsworth and Al Weaver were also spotted filming new scenes Fans of the show were treated to a dramatic trailer ahead of its release which saw the Reverend's step-sister causing chaos while the Keatings and the vicarage family were on a well-deserved summer break. The relaxing break they'd hoped for was not all it seems to be, however, as Geordie and Will soon discover the suspicious death of the camp's owner, with Will's step-sister being arrested amid the murder investigation. The cast have filmed season six and seven of Grantchester back-to-back following filming being disrupted amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement, Executive Producer Emma Kingsman-Lloyd previously said: 'In these difficult times we are delighted to be able to film another series of our beloved Grantchester. No rest for the wicked: Season six and seven of Grantchester has been filmed back-to-back following disruption to the series due to the coronavirus pandemic (pictured above: Tom Brittney) Working hard: The cast have been filming for season seven since July, while series six of Grantchester first hit screen earlier this month Moving forward: James Norton was previously the lead actor of the show, playing Reverend Sidney Chamber onscreen, until his departure in series four which saw Tom take over Exciting: Coronation Street actress Louiza Patikas and Nick Brimble were also spotted on set 'The cast and crew have worked tirelessly to bring the series to the screen and we know the audience are very excited to see what Will, Geordie and the Grantchester family have in store for them.' The TV series is adapted from the Grantchester Mysteries novels penned by James Runcie and was developed for television by Daisy Coulam. James Norton was previously the lead actor of the show, playing Reverend Sidney Chamber onscreen, until his departure in series four in 2019 He was replaced by Tom's character, Will, who has taken over as the village's new crime-solving Vicar. Grantchester's fourth series saw the departure of lead actor James Norton, who played Reverend Sidney Chambers, with Tom taking over as the village's new crime-solving vicar. Fans can expect to see the relationship between Will and Geordie grow in season six of Grantchester, with the pair's friendship set to be put to the test. Sharing an insight into the differences between the pair, Robson told The Express: 'Will is that kind of son I never had, but also what I went through in the war, he doesn't understand. 'You know he believes in marching for peace whereas I see the world as it is. I think that message is really pushed through the series.' Grantchester airs Fridays on ITV at 9pm. Strictly's John Whaite revealed he is making 'big steps forward' in rehearsals ahead of the first live show next Saturday and this weekend's pre-recorded launch. The former Great British Bake Off winner, 32, said 'today was a good day' as he shared a snap in the studios on Thursday night, hot on the heels of speculation that he is paired with Johannes Radebe after they were seen at rehearsals together. He then took part in a Q&A on his Instagram Story where he was quizzed about the prep for the show, his love life and told how he was 'truly honoured' to be the show's first all-male pairing - while also giving a cheeky look at his fake tan regime. Nice! Strictly's John Whaite has said he is making 'big steps forward' in dance rehearsals ahead of the first live show next Saturday and this weekend's pre-recorded launch Taking to his social media he captioned the snap: 'Today was a good day. Big steps forward, I can't wait for you to meet me and {???} as a partnership. 'From Saturday, he'll be right here in this photo with me. I feel guilty that the journey has been so far mine and not ours.' He looked sporty in a white T-shirt and black shorts while wearing a cap for the mirror selfie snapped in the midst of a rehearsal session. Ahem! He then took part in a Q&A on his Instagram Story where he was quizzed about the prep for the show, his love life and told how he was 'truly honoured' to be the show's first all-male pairing - while also giving a cheeky look at his fake tan regime Later in the Q&A, he expressed how he was feeling about being the first all-male partnership when a fan asked if he was excited. Heading home: According to onlookers, John was seen leaving the studio after a full days training at 7pm - before Johannes was spotted exiting just minutes later Groundbreaking: John revealed he wants to 'bring hope' to the show's young fans by being part of the show's first ever male same-sex pairing He replied: 'I'm truly honoured. I hope this kind of representation will inspire the next generation to live their true selves without shame or fear or judgement and/or persecution... 'I hope it also has a knock-on effect for more homophobic nations to wake up and make steps forward. On his favourite thing about his professional dance partner, John sweetly penned: 'His smile and his heart'. Touched: He replied: 'I'm truly honoured. I hope this kind of representation will inspire the next generation to live their true selves without shame or fear or judgement and/or persecution' When asked about how he was feeling, John went on: 'I'm feeling all kinds of way. Excited. Nervous. Scared. But mostly proud.' When asked about his personal life and whether he is single, John paid tribute to his husband Paul Atkins, as he penned: 'I'm lucky to have @peebsykins by my side for the past 13 years. He's my favourite person on the planet'. When asked about what tan he uses on the show, he said: 'I've no idea. The lovely Marie and Nat do it. Al I know is they give me the shade of Venetian Plus'. Touching: On his favourite thing about his professional dance partner, John sweetly penned: 'His smile and his heart' It comes after John said he's been overwhelmed by the support he has received since he was announced as the first all-male pairing on Strictly. The star said he was bracing himself for a barrage of abuse from online trolls when it was confirmed he would be dancing with a man but the opposite has happened. He also expressed his wish to be partnered with South African dancer Johannes, saying, 'It has to be Johannes!' Oh! When asked about how he was feeling, John went on: 'I'm feeling all kinds of way. Excited. Nervous. Scared. But mostly proud' Speaking ahead of the launch of the BBC ballroom show he said: 'The reaction has been so positive. 'I genuinely did think I was going to receive a fair bit of hate in my inbox because you do as a gay man, you get a lot of hate. It's something you grow up and you learn to deal with. 'Shouldn't have to, but we do. And I can honestly say that I haven't had a single message of negativity.' Happy days: He shared another selfie and spoke about being on the sister show It Takes Two John is not taking his history-making appearance lightly, explaining that being a gay man on a prime time Saturday night show performing with another man will give young people at home who are discovering their sexuality a role model on screen as well as educating boys about the importance of male intimacy. He added: 'I realised how important a step forward this is. 'Because kids who watch the show, to have same sex role models, it'll give them a little bit of hope for the future. It won't make them grow up with the same shame that I grew up with. Pains: He also revealed he was undergoing acupuncture 'It's not just about queer people. It's about intimacy generally. Two men, whether they're straight or gay, can be intimate with each other. I hope this comes to show that it breaks down that notion of toxic masculinity, which is so rife, especially in Britain.' Strictly Come Dancing launches this Saturday and John spoke previously about hid desire to be paired with South African dancer Johannes, who mentored Caroline Quentin last year. He said: 'It has to be Johannes. It'd be really important for him to have the first all-male couple, it would be a really powerful message for him as well. That's not to say in the future it has to be two gay men.' Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One on Saturday at 7.45pm. Help viewers have tipped lead stars Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham for awards success after watching their 'exceptional performances' in the Channel 4 drama. The Covid drama was set in a fictional Liverpool care home and told the moving story of young care home worker Sarah, played by Jodie, and a challenging patient during the onset of the pandemic last year. After watching the feature-length episode on Thursday evening, many viewers took the time to comment on the 'outstanding' acting from Jodie and Stephen. 'Give them all of the awards!' Help viewers have tipped Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham for awards success after watching their 'exceptional performances' in the Channel 4 drama Suggesting that they would receive a BAFTA for their performance, one person wrote: 'And the BAFTA goes to... And the NTA goes to... #JodieComer #Help Stephen Graham and co-stars! Absolutely outstanding performances.' One angry viewer said: 'Give Stephen Graham & Jodie Comer the BAFTA now. Actually, give them every award out there for showing us the incredible, disgraceful, heartbreaking truth.' A third penned: 'If you didn't watch Help last night on Channel 4, you really should. It gives some idea of how horrific and terrifying was for care homes and the front line in the arly days of the pandemic. Reaction: After watching the feature-length episode on Thursday evening, many viewers took the time to comment on the 'outstanding' acting from Jodie and Stephen Story: The Covid drama was set in a fictional Liverpool care home and told the moving story of young care home worker Sarah, played by Jodie 'Plus, the acting from Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham and phenomenal. #Help.' Another person was in agreement and wrote: 'Just finished watching Help with Stephen Graham & Jodie Comer. It was heartbreaking, inspiring and most of all brutal. 'Our care home workers are the true heroes of this pandemic and this drama truly lays bare the hellish conditions they had to endure. Plz watch if you can.' One other viewer discussed the feelings of 'rage' she felt while watching the show, writing: 'I have just put myself through C4's Help and I am now feeling a mix of rage, sadness and despair. 'If anyone hopes to better Jodie Comer's performance, or Stephen Graham's this year they will have to be beyond excellent. 'Yes the last section was a bit cheesey but understandable.' One other said: 'A lot of us still shaken from watching #Help last night. Jodie Comer @ Stephen Graham really are exceptional.' A different person said: 'When did all lives stop being worth the same? Help was amazingly done, felt all the emoions as a viewer. 'Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham deserve every award.' Heartbreaking: Emotional viewers were quick to take to social media to explain how the harsh reality of the moving scenes had left them 'in bits' Intelligent social misfit Sarah unexpectedly found her calling as a carer with a special talent for bonding with residents - in particular Tony, 47, played by Stephen - whose onset Alzheimer's resulted in moments of violent outbursts. But when the coronavirus pandemic struck just six weeks into her probation period, the urgent need for more PPE and staff became only too apparent. Emotional viewers were quick to take to social media to explain how the harsh reality of the moving scenes had left them 'in bits.' Tragic: In poignant scenes, family members were shown speaking to loved ones through glass windows (pictured) Taking to social media, one person penned: 'Don't think I had a dry eye through the whole thing. People should never forget how care home patients and staff were treated' 'Don't think I had a dry eye through the whole thing. People should never forget how care home patients and staff were treated,' wrote one, while a second penned: 'In bits the whole way through! Amazing performances from the two best actors in the country.' A third added: 'The fact the average wage for a care worker in the UK is 8.80 an hour shows just how unbalanced the social care system is. The way people in care have been treated the past 2 years is disgraceful! Jodie Comer & Stephen Graham did an amazing job of bringing this to light in #Help.' During the show, panic hit when Covid-19 was brought into the care home by one of the 'bed-blockers' the hospital delivered in a bid to free space for the increasing number of patients being diagnosed with the virus. In one particularly poignant moment the ambulance crew who brought them asked where the staff's masks were, to which they replied: 'We were told we didn't need them.' As the poignant drama progressed, residents around Sarah were seen dying and with the government offering all PPE to hospital, care homes were left in desperate need. Harrowing: Sarah (pictured, played by Jodie Comer) is only six-weeks into her probationary period when Covid-19 strikes across the nation Struggling: As the poignant drama progresses, residents around Sarah are dying (pictured) or falling ill, with the government offering all PPE to hospital, leaving care homes in desperate need When Steve made several urgent phone calls to try and get his hands on some PPE for staff, he eventually had no choice but to settle on some dust masks he managed to get hold of from a builder friend. And as things took a turn for the worse, Covid distancing rules resulted in the laundry service being reduced and bedsheets being washed less than usual, while residents were banned from the communal area and had to be fed in their rooms. Eventually, when Steve and other care home staff caught Covid-10, Sarah was left on her own to deal with all of the residents including Kenny, who fell seriously ill. With the local surgery not answering her calls, she found herself in a queue to be answered by 111, and when she rang 999, she was told an ambulance would not arrive for hours. With no other option, she asked Tony for a helping hand to turn Kenny on his front to help him breathe more easily, something which she said she had 'read about on one of the forums.' One person took to social media and penned: 'Thank you to Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer for doing such a poignant project that's very much needed for everyone to watch . Amazing performances' While many who tuned in were left in tears due to the poignant scenes, others praised the brilliant performances of the actors. '#Help is a brilliant, but sad watch. Learning the reality of what carehomes suffered during Covid was shocking. Jodie Comer & Stephen Graham are geniuses,' wrote one, while a second commented: 'Watched #Help last night and wow. What a gut wrenching heart warming film.' 'Thank you to Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer for doing such a poignant project that's very much needed for everyone to watch . Amazing performances.' A third added: 'Fantastic programme, but truly heartbreaking,' while a fourth penned: 'Powerful TV viewing and a real damning look at how governments treated care homes.' Elsewhere, a fourth commented: 'So, @channel4's #help was an absolute masterpiece. It's beautifully produced with impeccable performances all round. Utterly devastating to watch because it's so real. It happened. It happened right here in our care homes just over a year ago under. Fans were finally able to watch the highly-anticipated third series of Sex Education, following its release on Netflix on Friday. And to celebrate the show's return, Gillian Anderson, who plays sex therapist Dr Jean Milburn, delighted viewers by sharing behind-the-scenes snaps from filming. The actress, 53, was seen posing with Asa Butterfield, who plays her onscreen Otis, and Alistair Petrie (Mr Groff) in one selfie, while another snap captured a tray of cupcakes aptly decorated to look like vaginas. What a treat: Sex Education's Gillian Anderson, who plays sex therapist Dr Jean Milburn on the show, delighted fans by sharing behind-the-scenes snaps from filming (pictured above with Asa Butterfield and Alistair Petrie) Also included in Gillian's post was a photo of Sex Education stars Patricia Allison, who fans know onscreen as Otis' love interest Ola Nyman, and Aimee Lou Woods who appears in the show as Aimee Gibbs. The girls were dressed in character in school uniform and were seen playfully pulling faces on the set of Dr Jean's home, as they posed alongside crude ornaments hung on the wall. 'Yonis for everyone! @sexeducation S3 out today,' Gillian captioned her post, giving a nod to the #YoniOfTheDay hashtag she first trended back when Sex Education's first series was released. Gillian started the fun-loving trend - which sees her sharing pictures of random everyday objects that look like genitalia - after being inspired by her character's home and the 'erotic' objects it was filled with. Strike a pose: Sex Education stars Patricia Allison (L) and Aimee Lou Woods (R) were seen in character as they playfully posed next to crude ornament's on set 'Yonis for everyone': Gillian celebrated the release of Sex Education's new series with an apt photo of cupcakes decorated like vaginas The hashtag took off on social media, with fans now using it to share their own genitalia-inspired snaps of random objects with Gillian online. Speaking to ELLE UK, Gillian revealed: 'On set, I would take pictures of stuff that was around Jean's house, because its pretty extraordinary. Just about every inch is covered by an erotic image of one kind or another.' She noted that she has 'blocked her children' from her social media so she can happily share the X-rated shots with her followers. Speaking about her kids, Gillian reflected on how she was initially hesitant about taking the role of Otis' mum in Sex Education because she was worried about the impact being in an explicit show would have on them. 'It's one thing to have a mum who's in a successful show where there's penises and yonis in every scene, but it's another thing to have a mum in a show that everybody cringes about,' she mused. Much-loved: Gillian's character, however, has become a fan favourite on the show which follows socially awkward student Otis and his school friends and their sexual experiences Exciting: Asa Butterfield, who plays Otis, revealed there's a 'time jump' in series three and teased changes he hadn't expected (pictured above with Emma Mackey as Maeve) Gillian's character, however, has become a fan favourite on the show which follows socially awkward student Otis and his school friends and their sexual experiences. Season three picks up from where things left off in the second series - Otis was seen declaring his love for Maeve, played by Emma Mackey, but his message was deleted by Isaac (George Robinson). Actor Asa revealed that there's a 'time jump' in the third series and teased that there are a few changes this series that he hadn't expected. Speaking to The Guardian, he teased: 'Otis is back at school but he's got different things on his plate. 'He's grown up a bit and become slightly more sassy. It's been fun to portray his newfound charisma. Don't worry, though, he's still tragically awkward too.' Sex Education also stars Simone Ashely, who has been cast as the lead in season two of Bridgerton, Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells and Tanya Reynolds. Sex Education is available to watch on Netflix. Rose McGowan capped off a string of controversial appearances in recent days by sharing her support on social media for Nicki Minaj and her misleading comments about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. The 48-year-old Charmed star posted a short clip of herself nodding her head to some of the 38-year-old rapper's music while standing up for her in the caption. '@nickiminaj aj & all who see what is happening,' she wrote. 'Both of us know the powerful elite & its likely you do not.' Joining sides: Rose McGowan, 48, defended Nicki Minaj, 38, after the rapper revealed she wasn't vaccinated against COVID-19 and falsely claimed a vaccine made a cousin's friend impotent McGowan also appeared to defend Minaj's seemingly debunked comments about the vaccine causing impotence in men, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said there is no evidence that the vaccine causes fertility issues for either men or women. 'If you are freaking out because she said something you dont believe, its most likely because you are scared to examine the thought too closely,' she continued. 'Millionaires have become billionaires, billionaires are now trillionaires. think. question,' she added. 'Just cos you want to believe what your cult leaders say, doesnt make it fact.' The actress' post featured a short black-and-white clip of herself nodding along to Yo Gotti's Rake It Up, which features Minaj, though she was not on the portion of the song McGowan used. She superimposed herself over a picture of the rapper which was mostly blocked behind her head. Rocking out: McGowan nodded her head to a song Minaj was featured on. 'If you are freaking out because she said something you dont believe, its most likely because you are scared to examine the thought too closely,' she wrote Conspiracy: 'I stan/d with @nickiminaj,' she captioned the video, while insinuating a vaccine conspiracy because it was backed by wealthy individuals (Minaj seen at the Met Gala in 2019). Minaj also recently claimed to have been invited to the White House after her controversial tweets, but a White House official denied it, stating the singer was only invited to have 'conversation' with a doctor about her vaccine concerns 'I stan/d with @nickiminaj,' she captioned the video. It seems McGowan's friends are concerned by the new conservative's choices to defend the singer. In a text conversation with someone named Amanda that McGowan posted on her Instagram story, shows the spitfire activist unpleased with the show of concern. Amanda sent McGowan an NBC article titled 'Nicki Minaj and her husband are accused of lawsuit of harassing his sexual assault victim' before commenting: 'Not a stellar person to be putting your reputation behind.' She also told the star that Minaj goes 'against your principals intentions.' Amanda implored that she was 'looking out' for the star who has claimed she was raped by movie producer Harvey Weinstein and told her she 'deserved peace.' McGowan did not like the comment, and replied: 'Don't condescend me. It is probably not your intention but it is what you are doing. Your reality is not mine.' She accused the woman of 'gaslighting' and throwing back: 'But you listen to Biden right? And he's a rapist.' McGowan shared her feisty tests with a friend of hers named Amanda on her Instagram stories after she was told Minaj wasn't a 'stellar person to be putting your reputation on.' She accused the woman of 'gaslighting' She also claimed she stands 'for [the] truth' after her friend told her Minaj and her boyfriend don't stand for her principal intentions. She also accused Biden of being a rapist Minaj has recently come under fire for debunked comments she made about Covid-19 vaccine side effects. On Monday, she revealed that she was unvaccinated and had opted not to attend the Met Gala because of its vaccination requirement for attendees. 'If I get vaccinated it won't be for the Met,' she wrote while claiming she was doing her own 'research.' The hitmaker still recommended her fans continue wearing masks, however. Later, she revealed that she had also tested positive for Covid-19, which explained her absence at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday. Minaj was widely mocked on social media after she described part of her hesitation about getting the vaccine to a story about a cousin's friend who developed 'swollen' testicles after supposedly getting the shot. 'My cousin in Trinidad won't get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen,' she claimed. 'His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you're comfortable with ur decision, not bulled.' Trinidad's health chief Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh subsequently criticized the rapper for her false claims and because the health department had 'wasted so much time running down this false claim.' Debunked: She was widely mocked after claiming a cousin's friend in Trinidad became impotent after getting vaccinated. Trinidad's health chief later shot down her claim Deyalsingh added that no cases of impotence or swollen testicles had been reported following vaccination in Trinidad. The singer also recently claimed she was invited to the White House, which the Biden Administration has denied. The White House confirmed they offered her a call with a doctor to discuss her concerns. White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reported on Thursday at a press conference that it was in the 'early stages' and only a 'conversation' had been offered. 'If we believed that everybody who had skepticism about the vaccine wasnt someone we should engage with or talk to, we wouldnt have made the progress weve made,' Psaki said. Psaki did not know if the call would actually take place. McGowan recently took the spotlight when she campaigned for Republican Larry Elder in his attempts to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom, who resoundingly defeated the recall attempt. Over the weekend, she announced that she was no longer a Democrat, and during a campaign stop with Elder on Monday she said, 'Everybody who's systematically traumatized, terrorized, harassed, stalked and stolen from me, during my time in California and in Hollywood, has been a Democrat.' In 2017, it was revealed that McGowan had received a $100,000 settlement from film producer and future convicted abuser Harvey Weinstein after accusing him of raping her in 1997. On the trail: McGowan recently announced she was no longer a Democrat and campaigned against California Governor Gavin Newsom in the recall election, which he won handily; seen in 2019 in NYC Amid California's recall, she also accused Newsom's wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom of offering to buy her silence on her accusations against Weinstein prior to bombshell articles revealing numerous instances of sexual misconduct. A spokesperson for Siebel Newsom subsequently denied McGowan's claim and called it a 'complete fabrication.' The actress later accused Sideways director Alexander Payne of statutory rape, claiming that he had sex with her when she was only 15 and he was in his late 20s. She first describing the alleged event anonymously in a 2018 interview with Ronan Farrow, before accusing him by name in August 2020. In a guest column for Deadline from September 2020, Payne claimed the two had had consensual sex after she was of legal age. 'While I cannot allow false statements about events twenty-nine years ago to go uncorrected, I will continue to wish only the best for Rose,' he concluded. Kendall Jenner wants her tequila brand to support the Jalisco community. The 25-year-old model was accused of culturally appropriating Mexican culture earlier this year, when she starred in a controversial advertising campaign for 818 Tequila, but Kendall has now revealed how she and her brand are supporting the community where the drink is made. The brunette beauty said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she was giving back to the people in the area where 818 is made. I care: Kendall Jenner wants her tequila brand to support the Jalisco community, she told Jimmy Fallon while on The Tonight Show this week (pictured on the show) Ouch: The 25-year-old model was accused of culturally appropriating Mexican culture earlier this year, when she starred in a controversial advertising campaign for 818 Tequila 'At our distillery, which I was just at the other day, we found a way to take the agave fibres and water waste and build sustainable brick that were are actually dominating back to the community of Jalisco,' shared the Vogue model. And the daughter of Kris Jenner added: 'Along with saving the planet it's important for us to be friendly to the community as well. We're donating them and building homes for people that need homes.' Andy Coronado, who co-owns La Gritona Tequila with businesswoman Melly Barajas Cardenas, previously bemoaned celebrities like Kendall entering the drinks industry. She knows how to push it: She said she is giving back now, even building homes for the poor. Here she is seen in a green dress this summer as she plugs 818 Drinking with the locals: She employs people in Jalisco, Mexico for her tequila brand Sitting pretty: The star seen on her 818 Tequila Instagram page in Mexico He warned that celebrity tequila companies 'pull away resources from smaller brands'. Andy said: 'It is a commodity, and it boosts the prices. It leaves the rest of the tequila world to trying to survive.' Meanwhile, Melly thinks the drinks industry is becoming more globalized. She said: 'If you say tequila, you immediately think about Mexico. 'I would love for it to be known all over the world by whoever because although an American creates their own brand and whether you like it or not, Mexico also sees that money because there's no other country.' But that appropriation is not the only issue Kendall has had with 818. In May Jenner's 818 Tequila brand was accused of being strikingly similar to a rival. The model has developed her own brand, but Tequila 512 CEO Nick Matzorkis has already taken to Instagram to point out the similarities between the two products. He wrote in a now-deleted message on social media: 'Note the similarities including the color, the name and it is made in the same distillery in Tequila Mexico as ours.' Making at splash at the Met Gala: Jenner is seen on September 13, 2021 in New York City Nick also observed that the brunette beauty's product costs twice as much as the Texas company's drink. However, he subsequently insisted he's not accusing Kendall of doing anything wrong. He told TV station KXAN: 'To be clear, the post does not accuse them of 'stealing our idea,' but does point out obvious undeniable similarities that in their entirety makes a worthy point on the face of it.' The family can next be seen on Hulu's new Kardashian show. Kris, 65 - who has starred on the long-running series since 2007 - said: 'This is the next chapter. 'In the new show, you'll see us evolving as a family, fans want us to be who we are and since moment one, they've been emotionally invested in our show just like we are. 'The fans will love seeing us continue the journey. I can't say much about what's coming but spoiler, we're going to look fabulous and everyone's going to watch.' Heather Rae Young and her fiance Tarek El Moussa couldn't keep their hands off each other as they headed to her surprise birthday bash on Thursday night. The Selling Sunset star, who was turning 34, held hands with the 40-year-old Flip Or Flop star as they arrived at Hollywood's upscale restaurant Beauty & Essex. The real estate expert set heads turning at the eatery when she arrived in a gorgeous tan minidress covered in gleaming sequins. Birthday girl: Heather Rae Young glowed in a sequin-covered minidress while her fiance Tarek El Moussa, 40, took her to a surprise 34th birthday party in Hollywood at Beauty & Essex on Friday Her short outfit highlighted her toned legs and featured long sleeves. The real estate agent elevated her 5ft7in stature in black open-toe heels that strapped around her ankles, and she wore her blond tresses tied back in a low-slung bun. Heather accessorized with a black quilted handbag while carrying multiple bags from a birthday shopping spree earlier in afternoon. Tarek was dressed more casually in a black graphic T-shirt and a black-and-gray Louis Vuitton varsity-style jacket. He rounded out the dark look with black jeans and matching black boots. Stunner: Heather paired her dress with black open-toe heels and a black quilted handbag. Tarek rocked a black-and-gray Louis Vuitton varsity jacket Before stepping into the restaurant, the lovebirds paused for a sweet kiss. The party was attended by several of Heather's coworkers at The Oppenheim Group who also appear with her on Selling Sunset. Chrishell Stause looked glamorous in a low-cut black dress with an intriguing white halter collar and black open-toe heels. She arrived with Jason Oppenheim, the owner of the realty group, who looked casual in a charcoal blazer with a mauve shirt and gray jeans. Selling Sunset pals: Chrishell Stause looked glamorous in a low-cut black dress with an intriguing white halter collar and black open-toe heels, while Jason Oppenheim wore a charcoal blazer Sparkler: Mary Fitzgerald glittered in a navy blue sequined minidress and a pair of black fishnet-covered heels. She was accompanied by her husband Romain Bonnet Contrast: Brett Oppenheim looked casual while his girlfriend Tina Louis added a splash of color with a silky magenta crop top, yellow skirt and blue suede boots Mary Fitzgerald glittered in a navy blue sequined minidress and a pair of black fishnet-covered heels. Her husband Romain Bonnet complemented her with a silky blue shirt, gray jeans and brilliant white sneaker. Brett Oppenheim, Jason's brother, arrived sporting a stylish salt-and-pepper beard with a gray shirt, black jeans and black-and-white trainers. His girlfriend Tina Louise flashed a winning smile while standing out with a satin magenta crop top highlighting her tattooed arms and a vibrant yellow skirt with blue suede boots. On Instagram, Heather shared clips from her birthday celebrations, which included lunch with her family. Back at home, Tarek had a gorgeous bouquet of flowers delivered, but he kicked things up a notch by creating a path of rose petals leading to the bedroom, where he had set up a variety of Dior gifts for his fiancee. Flower power: Heather got a lovely bouquet of flowers from Tarek for her birthday Going all out: The Flip Or Flop star also left a trail of rose petals leading to a trove of Dior gifts in the bedroom Loved-up: 'OMG the best surprise bday din,' Heather captioned a clip of her and Tarek kissing passionately after walking in on their friends at dinner 'OMG the best surprise bday din,' Heather captioned a clip of her and Tarek kissing passionately after walking in on their friends at dinner. Tarek also included plenty of sweet birthday wishes for his love in an Instagram post for her special day. 'Its just crazy how time flies! I feel like it was just yesterday I was announcing to the world I was with @heatherraeyoung and today marks us celebrating her third birthday together,' he wrote. 'Not 3 years old but 3 birthdays lol.' 'I cant believe our wedding is weeks away and Im marrying my best friend in the world,' he continued. 'Ill say it again, shes the best person Ive ever met. She has turned me into a different person and brought me back to life. Sweet: Tarek gushed about marrying his 'best friend in the world' in a loving birthday post on Instagram The Flip Or Flop star gushed about how Heather 'cares' for his children 'as if theyre her own.' 'I wake up every day feeling like the luckiest guy in the world. BunnyI love you to the moon and back ,' he concluded. Tarek met Heather at a Fourth of July party in 2019 and proposed one year later on Catalina island. He was previously married to his Flip Or Flop costar Christina Haack. The exes married in 2009 but split in 2016, with a divorce finalized in 2018. They are regulars at The Corinthia when they travel to London for work. And Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright took yet another visit to the swanky hotel on Friday and they stepped out for a stroll after their stay. The Our Girl star, 34, looked casually chic as she was joined by the former TOWIE hunk, also 34, ahead of the weekend. Romantic: Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright took a visit to The Corinthia hotel in London on Friday and stepped out for a stroll after their stay Michelle was typically stylish in a cream T-shirt, high-waisted white jeans and khaki jacket while accessorising with a tan handbag and huge sunglasses. Meanwhile Mark looked handsome and showed off his muscular figure in a black T-shirt and jogging bottoms. The pair looked happy and relaxed as they stepped out and checked on their parked Range Rover before going for a walk. Day out: The Our Girl star, 34, looked casually chic as she was joined by the former TOWIE hunk, also 34, ahead of the weekend Fashionista: Michelle was typically stylish in a cream T-shirt, high-waisted white jeans and khaki jacket while accessorising with a tan handbag and huge sunglasses Michelle is in London to take a break from filming the fourth series of Brassic. On Wednesday she cooled herself off with a handheld fan on the set of the show in Abergele, North Wales. Taking to Instagram, the star revealed she'd been forced to pump air into her face with the bright blue device after becoming hot beneath her character's heavy camo fleece. Toned: Michelle flashed her abs in the cream crop top as she stepped out Accommodation: They are regulars at The Corinthia when they travel to London for work Low-key: Meanwhile Mark looked handsome and showed off his muscular figure in a black T-shirt and jogging bottoms Michelle also shared a short clip of the bright blue skies looming above her, suggesting it was a hot day, while crew could be seen in T-shirts and shorts in photographs published by Wales' Daily Post, with the outlet confirming Michelle was filming Brassic scenes. In her clip, the brunette beauty looked typically radiant and wore her glossy hair loose. Panning the camera upwards, the star flashed fans a hint of her toned midriff. Work: Michelle is in London to take a break from filming the fourth series of Brassic Checking: The pair looked happy and relaxed as they stepped out and checked on their parked Range Rover before going for a walk Michelle quipped: 'Putting in work for a bit of breeze.' The third series of Brassic is set to hit screens later this year. Series two ended on a cliffhanger as Vinnie (Joe Gilgun) confessed his true feelings for single mum Erin (Michelle), just as he was being carted off by the police. Michelle and co are currently filming for season four. Holiday: It comes after Michelle was seen in Mallorca last week with her husband Mark, after jetting off to the island to watch Mark's sister Jess wed her partner William Lee-Kemp Helpful: Mark even offered to carry her bag as they stepped out Taking a look: He glanced into the boot of the vehicle Speaking on Instagram in June, she confirmed Brassic season three will premiere in October and that season four filming was set to kick off 'in August'. It comes after Michelle was seen in Mallorca last week with her husband Mark, after jetting off to the island to watch Mark's sister Jess wed her partner William Lee-Kemp. Jess and William exchange vows in front of their nearest and dearest. Prior to heading overseas for the wedding, Jess had marked the occasion on Instagram as she teased her upcoming nuptials. Close: The pair strolled along next to each other Outing: They checked on the car before they left She shared a picture of herself enjoying a glass of champagne in British Airways First Class Lounge at Heathrow Airport and captioned the snap: 'And so the journey begins!' Jess previously said she 'can't wait' for her lavish wedding day to go ahead, after being forced to delay it due to the pandemic. Mark also made sure to mark Jess' 36th birthday on Instagram on Tuesday, dedicating a sweet message to his sibling. Sporty: Mark teamed his black ensemble with a pair of chunky white trainers Tresses: Michelle tied her brunette hair up in a sleek pony tail What's going on? They seemed intent on looking inside the car He wrote alongside a snap of the pair: 'Happy birthday to my big sister @jesswright77 Literally never a dull day. I dare anyone to go to a party and say 'I am only staying for a bit and driving home soon'. 'I guarantee she will have you on the dance floor within minutes and the last one there. The life and soul of every party. 'Last week we celebrated her wedding and it was perfect!! It was done JESS style. Can't wait for you all to see. Love ya girl'. Actor Jason London of Dazed and Confused fame has been arrested in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The 48-year-old San Diego native was reportedly taken into police custody Tuesday night after police found him in the driver's seat of a 2010 Nissan Maxima that was not in a ditch but also on fire. According to TMZ, there was also a passenger on the scene, who was standing outside the vehicle when cops arrived at 11:30 pm. Bad night: Actor Jason London of Dazed and Confused fame has been arrested in Ocean Springs, Mississippi on Tuesday; seen here in his latest mugshot Rough night: The 48-year-old San Diego native was reportedly taken into police custody Tuesday night after police found him in the driver's seat of a 2010 Nissan Maxima that was not only on fire, but in a ditch. Seen in 2015 in LA Police believed that Jason swerved off the road, toppled a sign and then hit a 'concrete object' before landing in a ditch, the site added after speaking to law enforcement. Somehow the car caught on fire as Jason remained in the driver's seat. It was also reported that the actor had claimed someone had sideswiped them and run them off the road. According to cops, London 'reeked of booze, could barely keep his balance and had slurred speech.' The police also shared with the site that the car had not fared well. The vehicle had 'heavy damage on the passenger side,' according to the site. And it was also on fire by the time police arrived, it was added. Not good: According to TMZ , there was also a passenger on the scene, who was standing outside the vehicle when cops arrived at 11:30 pm; seen in Hollywood in 2013 His 2013 arrest: He has a history of arrests dating back to 2013 when he was locked up for a bar fight in Arizona that left him with two black eyes London was booked for public intoxication and leaving the scene of an accident, though when police arrived he was reportedly still in the car. He was not booked for a DUI and police explained to the site that they used their discretion on that choice, choosing to arrest him on other charges. An Ocean Springs PD spokesperson told the site that London was so drunk when he arrived at the jail in Jackson County, that the police were not able to fingerprint him. This is not the nineties star's first run-in with the law. Good start: London had a successful career as an actor beginning in 1991 when he landed a role as Court Foster opposite Reese Witherspoon in The Man In The Moon He has a history of arrests dating back to 2013 when he was locked up for a bar fight in Arizona that left him with two black eyes. Law enforcement also said he defecated in his trousers while in the back of their vehicle. London had a successful career as an actor beginning in 1991 when he landed a role as Court Foster opposite Reese Witherspoon in The Man In The Moon. He went on to star in 1993's Dazed And Confused then did several TV movies such as A Matter Of Justice. In 1994 he appeared in the film Safe Passage, then was in Fall Time. Happier times: London seen in the middle in an outtake from 1993's Dazed and Confused; also pictured are Sasha Jenson, left, and Rory Cochrane, right In the late Nineties he appeared in several smaller films such as Mixed Signals, Broken Vessels and Frontline. And in the 2000s he popped up as a guest star on shows like 7th Heaven, CSI and Grey's Anatomy. For the past 15 years he has worked nonstop on smaller films such as Full Count and Acceleration. A smaller film: Jason, far left, with Leonor Varela and Griff Furst in Monsterwolf (2010) The star's last movie was this year's Weekend Warriors. He currently has six films that are either completed or are in post production. And he has two films in pre-production. He seemed fine in October 2020 when the cast of the classic Dazed And Confused reunited for a live script reading of the 1993 Texas coming-of-age film. The venture was part of a fundraiser for Dallas-based nonprofit March For Science and the Texas efforts of Voto Latino Foundation. Director Richard Linklater was joined by McConaughey and two dozen of the original cast that includes Affleck, Parker Posey, Jason, Joey Lauren Adams and Adam Goldberg. Advertisement She scooped up the Best Actress award for her appearance in movie Madres Paralelas during the closing ceremony of Venice Film Festival. And shining the spotlight on another of her recent projects, Penelope Cruz was the guest of honour at the San Sebastian Film Festival premiere, held in Spain, for her film Official Competition on Friday. The actress, 47, had all eyes on her during the event hosted at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre, as she dazzled on the red carpet in an elegant white ruffled dress and heels. All white on the night: Penelope Cruz dazzled on the red carpet in an elegant white ruffled dress at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Friday while attending the screening of her move Official Competition Penelope looked incredible in the chic design that perfectly highlighted her frame with its belted waisted and tiered skirt. Her dress came with a revealing scooped neckline and she added a boost to her gown with a pair of silver metallic heels. To finish off her red carpet look, Penelope accessorised with a metallic clutch bag and wore a stylish bangle on her wrist, while sporting large gold hoop earrings. The movie talent wore her lightened locks down in a voluminous style and opted for a glamorous make-up look that came complete with a nude lip. Stunning: Penelope had all eyes on her hair as she made her way along the red carpet Wow factor: The chic design perfectly highlighted Penelope's physique with its belted design Gang's all here: Penelope stood out as she joined her co-stars on the red carpet (pictured R-L Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz, Oscar Martinez, Irene Escolar, Pilar Castro and Jaume Roures) Ready for her close up: Penelope wore glamorous make-up for the high-profile event that came complete with a nude lip Centre stage: She was joined by Banderas and their co-star Oscar Martinez for the screening Smile: The actress was seen showing off her gown from all angles Official Competition is a Spanish comedy starring Penelope and directed by Gaston Duprat & Mariano Cohn. Penelope stars alongside Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez in the movie which follows renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas (played by Penelope) who is recruited by an 80-year-old billionaire entrepreneur to create an iconic movie starring Hollywood heartthrob Felix Rivero (Banderas). The movie had its world premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival, where Penelope scooped up a Best Actress award. She won a Coppa Volpi award during the festival's closing ceremony for her appearance in movie Madres Paralelas, directed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. Lovely: The movie talent wore her lightened locks down in a voluminous style Rubbing shoulders She features in the movie alongside Spanish actor Antonia Banderas Suited and booted: Banderas looked dapper in a navy suit jacket and matching trousers Good spirits: The actor put on an animated display as he headed into the event Accepting the award, Penelope said: 'Thank you Pedro. This is 100 percent yours. 'Thanks for once again trusting me, for inspiring me every day with your search for truth, outside and inside.' She had previously described acclaimed director Almodovar as 'my safety net' in a press conference ahead of their red carpet appearance in Venice. Penelope explained: 'He can ask me to do something that can really scare me but I know he will be there waiting to sustain me,' adding that she was grateful to the director for giving her 'so many different, challenging characters'. The actress stars as Janis in the highly-anticipated film which sees two women meet in a hospital room where they are both about to give birth. Turning heads: Penelope and her co-stars were among the first to grace the red carpet at this year's San Sebastian festival High-profile: The international film festival kicked off on Friday and runs until 25 September (pictured L-R Banderas, Cruz, Oscar Martinez and Irene Escolar) High-profile: The San Sebastian Film Festival is hosted in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastian Stand-out: Penelope upped the sartorial stakes on her arrival to the screening (pictured above L-R: Escolar, Cruz and Martinez Penelope has appeared in seven of Almodovar's movies, including All About My Mother and Volver. The 2021 Venice Film Festival took place between 1-11 September and is considered one of the world's oldest awards ceremonies, as well as one of the 'Big Five' events across the global film calendar. The jury is headed by Parasite frontman Bong Joon Ho, who said he is 'honoured' to be woven into its beautiful cinematic tradition. Following on from Venice, the San Sebastian Film Festival is currently underway. The annual international film festival takes place in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastian and will run from 17-25 September. Beaming: Penelope had a huge smile on her face as she posed ahead of the screening Happy: The star looked delighted to be in the company of her co-stars once again (pictured with Banderas) Beautiful: Penelope's flawless red carpet look will have no doubt turned heads Commanding attention: The Pirates of the Caribbean star looked radiant in her flattering outfit choice Pretty: Penelope commanded attention ahead of the festival's first screening Earlier in the day, Penelope was seen arriving to the 69th San Sebastian Film Festival decked out in head-to-toe Chanel. She was seen greeting fans in her stylish monochrome getup, which paired together jeans and a knitted cardigan. She teamed her outfit with an embellished belt from fashion house Chanel and finished off the sophisticated look with black court heels, a big pair of shades and a chic black and white designer bag that came with a gold chain strap. Style queen: Penelope rocked another great outfit as she arrived to the San Sebastian Film Festival earlier in the day Smile: The star was clearly excited to be at the annual event as she was seen beaming from ear-to-ear while waving to fans Decked out: Penelope was decked out in Chanel, even toting a sophisticated monochrome bag that came with a chain strap Incredible: Penelope showcased her slender frame in her designer outfit which she paired with a flawless make-up look Gorgeous: The Spanish actress wore Chanel hoop earrings and completed her day look with nude lipstick Masking up: Penelope was seen covering up with a white mask amid the coronavirus pandemic Outfit switch up: Penelope was also spotted in a collared black ensemble during the Film Festival Celebrations: (from L-R) Oscar Martinez, Penelope and Antonio Banderas attended the 'Competencia Oficial / Official Competition' photocall Greeting: Penelope looked radiant as she waved to onlookers Beaming: Antonio looked in good spirits in Spain Rocking up: Producer Jaume Roures (left) was also in attendance Ready for action: Antonio also kept it casual in a grey and yellow polo shirt and clutched onto his sunglasses in his hand Also spotted in Spain for the event was actress Marion Cotillard, who was seen attending the photo call for the Donostia Award. The award-winning French actress caught the eye in bright pink tailored trousers, which she teamed with a sheer white blouse. Her revealing blouse teased a look at her lingerie underneath and came with a ruffled collar and sleeves. Marion will be honoured with the Donostia Award at this year's festival, along with actor Johnny Depp. The festival's award is given every year to a number of actors and film directors. Star-studded: Also spotted at the film festival was Marion Cotillard, who was seen attending the Donostia Award photo call She is known for her award-winning performances in numerous acclaimed films, including Inception, Nine, and Rust and Bone. And Marion Cotillard looked every inch the leading lady as she showcased her lithe legs in a pair of hot pink jeans at San Sebastian Film Festival on Friday. The 45-year-old French actress accentuated her endless pins in a pair of towering black stilettos as she stepped out at the Kursaal Centre for a photocall. Stunning: Marion Cotillard looked every inch the leading lady as she showcased her lithe legs in a pair of hot pink jeans at San Sebastian Film Festival on Friday Marion looked effortlessly cool as she rolled up the leg of her eye-catching trousers to show off her chic monochrome heels. The movie star fearlessly wore a sheer white blouse over a black strapless bra as she flaunted her underwear in the San Sebastian sunshine. She looked elegant in the bell-sleeved blouse and swept her brunette tresses up into a sleek high bun. Marion shielded her eyes from the rays at the famous La Concha beach as she worked her angles for the camera next to the large San Sebastian Film Festival sign. Wow: The 45-year-old French actress accentuated her endless pins in a pair of towering black stilettos as she stepped out at the Kursaal Centre for a photocall Bold: The movie star fearlessly wore a sheer white blouse over a black strapless bra as she flaunted her underwear in the San Sebastian Sunshine The outing comes ahead of Marion scooping San Sebastians 2021 Donostia Award on Friday night. A lifetime achievement honor, the star will receive her gong at San Sebastians glittering opening gala alongside other A-list attendees. The annual international film festival kicks off on the 17 September and will run until 25 September with a series of film premieres and high profile galas. Alongside Marion, Johnny Depp will controversially also be honoured with a Donastia Award during the festival. Stylish: She looked elegant in the bell-sleeved blouse and swept her brunette tresses up into a sleek high bun He made an appearance at the film festival last year as he was presenting Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan, and previously attended back in 1998 ceremony with Terry Gilliam. Alumni of the honour being given to Marion and Johnny include many famous Hollywood names including Ethan Hawke, Judy Dench and Penelope Cruz. Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny lost his legal battle against the The Sun and his wife Amber Heard in 2020. But San Sebastian Film Festival has never been one to shy away from controversies, and opened last year's ceremony with a viewing of Woody Allen's latest film Rifkins Festival. Accolade: The outing comes ahead of Marion being presented with San Sebastians lifetime achievement Donastia Award on Friday night We couldn't help but wonder, what happened to Carrie Bradshaw's leg? Sarah Jessica Parker's Sex and the City character appeared to have an injured leg in a scene for the upcoming reboot, And Just Like That, which was filming in Manhattan on Friday. A muscled man in a pair of tight hot pants was spotted carrying the 56-year-old star up the steps of her apartment building which is set in the Upper East Side on the show but is actually located in the West Village. Hot fella! A beefy man lent a hand to Sarah Jessica Parker in a scene for the upcoming Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That, which was filming in Manhattan on Friday Parker was fashionable as ever in a grey sweat jumpsuit with a pair of chunky black leather high heeled clogs. Her sex columnist character appears to have suffered an injury in the reboot and had a large black knee brace strapped around one leg. In the scene, Carrie is munching on a freshly baked baguette, curly blonde hair blowing in the breeze, while a burly beefcake of a man holds her like a baby and walks her up the stairs to her apartment. The buff Good Samaritan evidentially works for the bakery that provided Bradshaw's baguette as his uniform was emblazoned with 'Hot Fellas Baked Goods.' Beefcake: A muscled man in a pair of tight hot pants was spotted carrying the 56-year-old star up the steps of her apartment building which is set in the Upper East Side on the show but is actually located in the West Village Carried away: Parker was fashionable as ever in a grey sweat jumpsuit with a pair of chunky black leather high heeled clogg Noshing: In the scene, Carrie is munching on a freshly baked baguette, curly blonde hair blowing in the breeze Seems the fictitious bakery serves up multiple kinds of buns, the Hot Fella was dressed in a tight denim jumpsuit with short-shorts that showed off his Kardashian-worthy derriere. He was costumed in a pair of shin-high blue striped tube socks and a pair of work boots. Either the hunky actor filmed more than one scene as Carrie's personal caretaker or the grey sweatsuit scene was just rehearsal. Later SJP was still in the knee brace while sporting a funkier ensemble of white cuffed trousers, a white top and white Oxford. Real deal: Either the hunky actor filmed more than one scene as Carrie's personal caretaker or the grey sweatsuit scene was just rehearsal. And just like that: Later SJP was still in the knee brace while sporting a funkier ensemble of white cuffed trousers, a white top and white Oxford Take a look! Always one to rock a jaw dropping pair of shoes, the actress certainly made a statement in sherbet colored puffy tulle slides The buff Good Samaritan evidentially works for the bakery that provided Bradshaw's baguette as his uniform was emblazoned with 'Hot Fellas Baked Goods.' She was munching on the same loaf of bread while being carried down the sidewalk in the arms of her savior. Always one to rock a jaw dropping pair of shoes, the actress certainly made a statement in sherbet colored puffy tulle slides. After filming her two-person scene, Sarah was seen again exiting the brownstone on her own. All about the men: Seems the fictitious bakery serves up multiple kinds of buns, the Hot Fella was dressed in a tight denim jumpsuit with short-shorts that showed off his Kardashian-worthy derriere Reboot: While the premise of the new series has yet to be revealed, Mr. Big and Bradshaw are in the depths of marital woes in the new film as a script leak revealed Carrie wasn't so sure about her role in her marriage Back for more: After filming her two-person scene, Sarah was seen again exiting the brownstone on her own Woman in white: She had on her same all-white costume, though this time she wore sensible black clogs instead of her eye-catching tulle shoes She had on her same all-white costume, though this time she wore sensible black clogs instead of her eye-catching tulle shoes. The actress also had a SallyeAnder soaps tote bag slung over one shoulder as she descended the stairs. Her costar Kristin Davis was also seen Friday filming another scene for the forthcoming project. Dressed in the prim and proper style of perpetually perky Charlotte York, Davis glowed in a printed yellow A-line skirt with a matching mustard belt and stilettos. Low key: The actress also had a SallyeAnder soaps tote bag slung over one shoulder as she descended the stairs Healed: SJP didn't have a visible leg brace, which had been part of the previously shot scene On top the conservative convert sported a white blouse with puffy short sleeves and oversized lapels. Her brown tresses were slighted in sleek curls and she carried two small hot coffees while trotting down a city sidewalk. Later in the day, Kirstin changed into a black-and-white striped skirt and a ruffled top as she walked around set with co-star Mario Cantone. Adding to her already busy day, Sarah reemerged in the late afternoon to film another scene on the steps. This time, the mother of three modeled a rainbow striped top and a white tulle skirt that flowed down to the floor. Third time's the charm! Adding to her already busy day, Sarah reemerged in the late afternoon to film another scene on the steps Costume change: This time, the mother of three modeled a rainbow striped top and a white tulle skirt that flowed down to the floor Careful: As she navigated around set, the SATC alum was forced to lift up her skirt in order to protect it from getting dirty She had a tote bag slung over her arm and a glitzy purple bag in her clutches as she waited for the director's cue. As she navigated around set, the SATC alum was forced to lift up her skirt in order to protect it from getting dirty. While the premise of the new series has yet to be revealed, Mr. Big and Bradshaw are in the depths of marital woes in the new film as a script leak revealed Carrie wasn't so sure about her role in her marriage, according to Page Six. In the scene, Carrie is dining out with a few of her best friends, including Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis). Charlotte York Goldenblatt: Co-star Kristin Davis was also seen Friday filming another scene for the forthcoming project dressed in a printed yellow A-line skirt with a matching mustard belt and stilettos Exciting! DailyMail.com exclusively reported that the reboot will likely return for a season two Gentleman: Later in the day, Kirstin walked around set with co-star Mario Cantone Stunning: She changed into a black-and-white striped skirt and a ruffled top Bradshaw, who's now in her 50's and hosts a podcast, seems to say she isn't in a good place: 'I was taping the podcast, I was washing my hair. 'Yes, I wasn't eating or sleeping, but at least I felt good about my marriage. Now I'm just one of the wives he was taking care of?' Carrie and Big were married at City Hall after plans failed for an elaborate wedding at the New York Public Library in the first Sex and the City movie. Noth admitted he was 'hesitant' to reprise his Mr. Big role for the revival and felt as though he gave the character his all, but was swayed to come back after a little pep talk from producers. Modernizing: Bradshaw, who's now in her 50's hosts a podcast in the reboot, which follows Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte 'It was a little bit of a sort of creative negotiation because I didn't really feel I had anything to offer in that role again,' he told Yahoo! Finance Live. 'It kind of felt like I had done it. 'But [executive producer] Michael Patrick King is just an incredible writer and has incredible creative ideas. And once we got together and talked about the potential of what we could do with the character, I was all in.' New cast member Karen Pittman recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight and expressed that the continuation series would not hold back with its content and feature 'plenty of sex.' Development on And Just Like That... was initially announced last December, and the series was officially greenlit the following month. The involvement of Parker, Davis and Nixon was also confirmed when the show was given its official order. Other returning cast members include Chris Noth, Willie Garson and Mario Cantone, among numerous others. Kim Cattrall was notably absent from the casting announcements, and she will not be returning to portray her iconic character, Samantha Jones. London Fashion Week kicked off on Thursday, with numerous events taking place throughout the day and evening. And Friday was no different, as Sabrina Dhowre Elba and Edward Enninful were among the influential figures who attended the Nensi Dojaka show as part of London Fashion Week's schedule. Sabrina, 32, looked effortlessly chic in a denim ensemble, consisting of a shirt and flared bottoms. London Fashion Week: Idris Elba's wife Sabrina (pictured) and British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful were among the influential figures at the Nensi Dojaka show during London Fashion Week on Friday She coiffed her hair into a plait and applied glowing makeup that accentuated her cheekbones. Her sense of style was highlighted by her matching gold earrings and necklace. She was presented with a front-row viewing of the catwalk, as she sat alongside British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward, 49. Prime spot: The 32-year-old was presented with a front-row viewing of the catwalk, as she sat alongside British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward, 49 (second left) Also in attendance was British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, 25, who lapped up the prime spot in the front row. She sported a stunning chocolate-hued dress for the fashion show and traded the trainers for glamourous heels. The athlete posed with the suave-looking fashion director, as he donned a large black coat layered over a white shirt and navy trousers. Smiles: Also in attendance was British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, 25, who lapped up the prime spot in the front row Spruce: The suave-looking fashion director donned a large black coat layered over a white shirt and navy trousers Radiant: Sabrina coiffed her hair into a plait and applied glowing makeup that accentuated her cheekbones Gorgeous: Later Sabrina was seen attending the Mark Fast show after changing into an eye-catching satin black shirt dress The iconic clothing trade show in the Big Smoke takes place twice a year, in February and September. It is branded one of the Big Four fashion weeks, along with the events in New York, Milan and Paris. The fashion catwalk shows and events exhibit over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers throughout the week. Angelina Jolie cut a chic figure as she returned to Los Angeles in sophisticated all-black. The actress, 46, took air travel fashion to a whole new level as she jetted out of New York on Thursday wearing a black turtleneck and matching eyelet skirt. It has been quite the busy few days for Angelina, who was in Washington D.C. advocating for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and meeting with gymnasts testifying in a hearing in the FBI's botched probe into Larry Nassar's sexual abuse. So fly! Angelina Jolie cut a chic figure as she jetted out of New York on Thursday in sophisticated all-black Angelina was spotted making her way through the airport looking calm and collected with a small entourage escorting her through the transport hub. An airport employee assisted Angelina through airport while another gentleman wheeled her Louis Vuitton suitcase around. She carried a few of her essentials inside a camel hued tote bag while striding through the airport in her black high heels. And in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, she coordinated her outfit with a black face mask. Simply chic: Jolie looked stunning in a black turtleneck and matching eyelet skirt Helping hand: An airport employee assisted Angelina through the transport hub while another gentleman wheeled her Louis Vuitton suitcase around Angelina's recent trip to Washington D.C. has been making headlines, with the actress meeting with Larry Nassar victims and an officer who defended the Capitol from rioters on January 6. The actress posted a photo of herself posing with gymnasts and Nassar abuse victims Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols, and Jessica Howard amid a Senate hearing into the FBI's botched probe into Nassar's sexual abuse. 'I was honored to meet with some of the brave US gymnasts who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday,' Angelina began in the post's caption. 'Im in awe of their courage and commitment to preventing future failures to investigate abuse. Looking glam: She carried a few of her essentials inside a camel hued tote bag while striding through the airport in her black high heels 'As Aly Raisman said in her testimony, "Over 100 victims could have been spared the abuse. All we needed was one adult to do the right thing." Sending support and respect to them, and to all who are reliving this trauma so that system reforms can occur. 'I was on Capitol Hill this week, engaging with Senators on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization and FBI reforms, including better protections for abused children, non-biased forensic evidence collection, trauma care, and judicial training.' During her trip to the U.S. Capitol, Angelina took the opportunity to thank Capitol Officer Harry Dunn, who testified in Congress after he was called racial slurs and physically assaulted during the insurrection. A picture of Jolie standing next to Dunn was shared on Twitter. 'I was honored': The actress posted a photo of herself posing with gymnasts and Nassar abuse victims Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols, and Jessica Howard amid a Senate hearing into the FBI's botched probe into Nassar's sexual abuse Dunn lost fellow officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes a day after keeping rioters from entering the Capitol and harming lawmakers. Four other officers who were on duty during the riot in January died by suicide after defending the site. Officers Gunther Hashida, Jeffrey Smith, Howard Liebengood, and Kyle deFreytag took their lives in the months after the attack. Taking a stand: Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman were among the gymnasts testifying Jolie also met with Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer to talk about the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, but lapsed in 2019. 'I'm in DC leading up to the VAWA reauthorization, FBI reforms, and other important protections and rights. 'I've met with experts for years now, learning about best practices including non-biased forensic evidence collection, and advocating for improvements,' Jolie said in a statement. Brave: Jolie posted a photo of Simone Byles and McKayla Maroney swearing in 'I'm grateful for these timely and valuable meetings with senators, especially focused on provisions for children's health,' she added. The VAWA was introduced by President Biden when he was a senator. In March, the House of Representatives passed legislation to restore it. If approved, the act would give funding to states that make dealing with sexual assault and domestic abuse a priority. Jolie reportedly asked senators to consider expanding the act to cover abuse targeted at children and 'prioritize children's health and safety in legal responses to trauma, including through judicial training and advancements in forensic evidence collection.' She is known for displaying her impressive sense of dress on programs such as America's Got Talent. And on Friday afternoon, Sofia Vergara was pictured stepping out in a well-put-together outfit while leaving a spa after finishing up a solo trip in West Hollywood. The 49-year-old actress was seen leaving the wellness center and making her way back to her car following the end of her appointment. Pampered: Sofia Vergara was seen cutting a seriously stylish figure while leaving a spa in West Hollywood on Friday Vergara wore a beautifully patterned sleeveless top that placed her impeccably toned arms on full display during her spa trip. The Modern Family star contrasted her top with a pair of cuffed and heavily distressed light blue jeans that added a bit of brightness to her clothing ensemble. The Primetime Emmy-nominated performer sported a set of heeled shoes and kept a light beige bag slung over her left shoulder. Her beautiful brunette hair gracefully cascaded onto her shoulders as she left the spa. Dressed for the weather: The America's Got Talent judge sported a multi-patterned top and distressed blue jeans during her outing Vergara accessorized with several pieces of sparkling jewelry during her outing. The performer also sported a sizable white facial covering to keep herself protected from COVID-19 during her time in public. On Thursday evening, the actress shared several videos and snaps that had been taken during her son Manolo's 30th birthday party to her Instagram Story. Her first photo showed a lengthy dining table that had been set up in anticipation of the arrival of the party's guests. Life of the party: On Thursday evening, Vergara shared several videos that had been taken during her son Manolo's 30th birthday celebration to her Instagram Story Vergara's son was then seen standing up and singing along while an attendee belted out ABBA's hit Dancing Queen during the celebratory event. Several other partygoers were spotted performing the track while the other guests did their best to match the notes. The reality television personality was also seen dancing with several of her friends in two of the last videos that were shared. She was dressed in a low-cut black top and a contrasting pair of wide-legged bright yellow pants during her son's birthday party. Up front and center: In one of her clips, the performer's son was seen singing along to ABBA's hit Dancing Queen in front of several guests Dressed for the occasion: The Primetime Emmy-winning actress wore a low-cut black top and wide-legged yellow pants during the party Vergara shares Manolo with her first husband and high school sweetheart, Joe Gonzalez. The couple initially tied the knot in 1991 and welcomed their only child that same year, although they went on to split in 1993. She went on to begin a long-term relationship with Nick Loeb, to whom she was engaged for two years, and their time together eventually came to an end in 2014. The actress is currently married to Joe Manganiello, and the pair tied the knot in 2015 after just six months of dating. She is famed for her award-winning performances in numerous critically acclaimed films, including Inception, Nine, and Rust and Bone. And Marion Cotillard was every inch the deserving heroine as she accepted the prestigious Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain on Friday. The actress, 45, wiped away her tears of joy as fellow actress Penelope Cruz presented her with the award - which celebrates outstanding contributions to the film industry. Deserving: Marion Cotillard was every inch the deserving heroine as she accepted the prestigious Donostia Award at San Sebastian Film Festival on Friday Appearing on stage in a black mid-length gown, the star got emotional as she received the prize - exclaiming: 'I didn't expect that at all, I love this woman so much!' The presenter of the award, Penelope, looked dazzling in a silver bejewelled flapper-style frock - sharing an embrace with Marion before sweetly helping to wipe her tears. The Pirates Of The Caribbean star handed over the award, whispering 'mon amour' (my love) to Marion, before going on to deliver a prize-giving speech in Spanish to the audience at the awards. 'Mon amour': The Pirates Of The Caribbean star handed over the award, whispering 'mon amour' (my love) to Marion, before going on to deliver a prize-giving speech in Spanish Caring: The actress wiped away her tears of joy as she presented Marion with the award on stage The award-winner seemed humbled and even shocked by the prize-giving, stopping to place her hand on her heart before giving a speech in French, her native language. Marion looked beautiful at the awards show in her dress, which boasted both halter and off-the-shoulder chiffon straps and a tiered A-line skirt. She paired her youthful dress with a pair of matching Mary Jane style heels and accessorising with a silver bracelet and rings. Humbled: The award-winner seemed humbled and even shocked by the prize-giving, stopping to place her hand on her heart before giving a speech in French, her native language Beautiful: Marion looked beautiful at the awards show in her dress, which boasted both halter and off-the-shoulder chiffon straps and a tiered A-line skirt The raven beauty wore her hair in an intricate plaited updo, while she modelled a palette of subtle makeup. But it was Penelope who made a big entrance with her number - which featured sequins, sparkling tassels, and a plunging neckline. The Spanish native looked as glamorous as ever as she handed over the award, beaming at her well-deserving long-time friend. Big entrance: Penelope made a big entrance with her number - which featured sequins, sparkling tassels, and a plunging neckline Sweet embrace: Fellow actress Penelope Cruz presented her with the award - which celebrates outstanding contributions to the film industry Sweet: The presenter of the award looked dazzling in a silver bejewelled flapper-style frock - sharing an embrace with Marion before sweetly helping to wipe her tears It has been known for a while that Marion was set to scoop San Sebastians most prestigious award at the event. A lifetime achievement honour, the star received her gong at San Sebastians glittering opening gala alongside other A-list attendees. The annual international film festival kicked off on the 17 September and will run until 25 September with a series of film premieres and high profile galas. Long time coming: It has been known for a while that Marion was set to scoop San Sebastians most prestigious award at the event Alongside Marion, Johnny Depp will controversially also be honoured with a Donostia Award during the festival. He made an appearance at the film festival last year as he was presenting Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan, and previously attended back in 1998 ceremony with Terry Gilliam. Alumni of the honour being given to Marion and Johnny include many famous Hollywood names including Ethan Hawke, Judy Dench and Penelope Cruz. Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny lost his legal battle against the The Sun and his wife Amber Heard in 2020. But San Sebastian Film Festival has never been one to shy away from controversies, and opened last year's ceremony with a viewing of Woody Allen's latest film Rifkins Festival. Controversial: Alongside Marion, Johnny Depp will controversially also be honoured with a Donostia Award during the festival Titania McGrath Mxnifesto Garrick Theatre, London, October 18-23 Rating: Titania McGrath is a radical feminist poet and eco-sexual who uses her exciting and confrontational slam poetry to challenge homeless people on the streets to examine their white privilege. Admittedly from a somewhat privileged background, this simple Kensington girl with a modest trust fund, as she describes herself, was lavished with a fine education and foreign holidays by her wealthy parents, including ski-ing trips to Val dIsere. But as she explains, this was only to make up for the fact that, as a woman, she has always been so oppressed. An unsmiling icon of the new world order, her greatest passion remains social justice. Marshall has Titanias self-regarding mannerisms down to a tee: Her flicky long blonde hair, her perpetually indignant stance at the worlds unfairness towards her, hands on her hips, a sigh on her lips The best thing about her, though, is shes fictional. Although you do have an ominous sense that there are many, many more like her out in the real world, and probably blocking a junction near the M25 even as I write. Titania McGrath is in fact the monstrous comic creation of satirist Andrew Doyle, and she began life as a mock Twitter account, commenting in her inimitably daft-woke way on the great issues of the day. She has amassed no fewer than 650,000 followers, written two books, and is now brought brilliantly to life on the stage by the actress Alice Marshall, in a new show called Mxnifesto. Marshall has Titanias self-regarding mannerisms down to a tee: Her flicky long blonde hair, her perpetually indignant stance at the worlds unfairness towards her, hands on her hips, a sigh on her lips. I went along on Thursday night to see a preview of the new show at the Leicester Square Theatre prior to a nationwide tour. Its clever and blissfully funny. The bullseye humour had the audience howling with mirth from the start. Pretty much everything Ms McGrath says is either inept, ignorant or just plain wrong. At one point she says that, as a life-long anti-fascist, she really identifies with the person who finally killed Hitler, whoever it was. (Think about it). Say what you like about the Taliban, she observes triumphantly, at least theyre not Islamophobic! And arguing how successful socialism has always been at creating happy and prosperous societies in the real world, she draws our attention to contemporary Venezuela, where someone can earn a whopping 14.6million bolivars just by selling a single chicken. And they say socialism makes people poor! As part of her tireless war against the rise of fascism, Titania believes that democracy must be cancelled, and only those with the right opinions should be allowed to vote. The State should also stamp down hard on free speech, which is just hate speech anyway. Debate is violence! she proclaims, before launching into another one of her poems, the impassioned but hard-to-pronounce I Am Womxn. She has even more radical ideas. She looks forward to the day when heterosexuality itself will simply no longer exist. I think future generations will really thank us for that. She identifies herself as trans-disabled, which means she is entitled to use those more spacious loos designed for wheelchair users when she feels like it. The delighted audience around me were overwhelmingly in their twenties and thirties themselves She recently went round to a friends little boys fifth birthday party, where she proceeded to smash up a fifth of all his presents with a hammer, to impress upon him early in life the realities of the 20 per cent gender pay gap. With the election of Donald Trump, she promptly took to the streets with her fellow protesters to denounce him as a Nazi, whilst dressed as a giant vagina. And she once flew into Namibia, briefly, to distribute food to the people there. We duly see a photograph of Titania, immaculately dressed for the occasion, handing out little bags from Pret a Manger to a group of baffled-looking villagers. For some reason, a powerful image of Meghan Markle came to my mind at this point. Its a great comfort to know that not all young people are like her, though. The delighted audience around me were overwhelmingly in their twenties and thirties themselves. If you were to judge by the regular hurricanes of moral indignation and spiteful calls for cancellation that sweep over social media almost daily, you might get the impression that pretty much everyone under thirty is a grim-faced Social Justice Warrior. But this simply isnt true, and in the preposterous figure of Titania McGrath and her growing army of young fans, we are happily reminded of the fact. The puritans and the cultural-Marxist bullies, the would-be commissars and apparatchiks of a joyless and soulless new order, are actually fairly few in number. They just make a very, very loud noise. Perhaps the answer is to drown them out with laughter. And Mxnifesto provides plenty of that. Just a few months after her much discussed departure from The View, Meghan McCain has no regrets about leaving her life in New York City behind for greener pastures. The self-proclaimed rabble rouser is joining the Daily Mail family as a columnist, and the 36-year-old exclusively sat down with DailyMailTV host Thomas Roberts to talk about what's in store. Meghan says she is looking for three simple things in the next chapter of her career, opportunities that are 'meaningful and impactful and make me happy.' Making her voice heard: Meghan McCain has no regrets about leaving her life in New York City behind for greener pastures and the self-proclaimed rabble rouser exclusively sat down with DailyMailTV host Thomas Roberts to talk about what's in store McCain's new opinion column with DailyMail.com was announced last week and will provide space for the political commentator and author to lay out her take on the news, no-holds-barred, twice a week. All too aware that her often fiery POV has gotten her into heated discussions and downright feuds in the past, Meghan revealed that she's made peace with the notion that she will undoubtedly ruffle feathers no matter what she does. 'People really love fighting with me and I've come to terms with the fact that people love me and love to hate me,' Meghan admitted. 'I really have gotten to a place where I'm comfortable with that.' She's outspoken, opinionated and has a history working as a columnist, Meghan began her career in media writing a column for The Daily Beast, making her a perfect addition to the Daily Mail brand. 'People really love fighting with me and I've come to terms with the fact that people love me and love to hate me,' Meghan admitted. 'I really have gotten to a place where I'm comfortable with that.' 'I just thought it was such an interesting opportunity to work for a news site that I know, for a fact, incredibly powerful politicians read, my girlfriends from high school read,' Meghan said. 'That's what I love about the Daily Mail [it] runs the gamut of audiences. I feel like everybody in America reads it and the traffic numbers don't lie,' she continued. 'Being able to have that kind of platform is just - I don't know - I couldn't say no. So I'm really excited.' The column will be her first big gig back in media after a very brief hiatus at the end of the summer when she quit The View. Meghan left the long running daytime show in August, following a successful, newsmaking four-year run at the hot topics table. 'I just thought it was such an interesting opportunity to work for a news site that I know, for a fact, incredibly powerful politicians read, my girlfriends from high school read,' Meghan said. 'That's what I love about the Daily Mail [it] runs the gamut of audiences.' 'After The View, like post-View, I really want to do things that I think are meaningful and impactful and make me happy,' Meghan revealed. 'And this, working for this company, really hit all three checkmarks.' Fireworks were frequent with her co-hosts on The View, and the show is no longer the talk of social media or dominating the headlines without her, but her departure had less to do with the goings on of the show and more to do with her family of three finding a permanent home in Washington D.C. 'When I think about where I want Liberty to take her first steps and her first words, I just have this wonderful life here that I felt ultimately like I didn't want to leave,' McCain explained. Meghan and her husband Ben Domenech welcomed their first child together in 2020. 'I left New York during the pandemic and I had sort of had an existential crisis when my dad died. I got really scared and I just really started thinking about life and what I wanted and what I said on The View was true. 'After The View, like post-View, I really want to do things that I think are meaningful and impactful and make me happy,' Meghan revealed. 'And this, working for this company, really hit all three checkmarks.' 'I just didn't feel like moving back to New York was the right choice for me. And it was a really hard decision, but, I feel really good about it now and I don't miss it at all.' Meghan's father, longtime republican Arizona senator, war hero and one-time GOP presidential nominee, John McCain, died in 2018 from cancer. The blonde firebrand revealed that, while making the big life decision was hard, she was grateful to be able to do it on her own terms, as The View has been a revolving door of fired co-hosts over its 25 seasons on television. I felt like I was really happy to do it on my own terms because a lot of people get fired from that show. 'I left New York during the pandemic and I had sort of had an existential crisis when my dad died. I got really scared and I just really started thinking about life and what I wanted and what I said on The View was true. 'I just didn't feel like moving back to New York was the right choice for me. And it was a really hard decision, but, I feel really good about it now and I don't miss it at all.' 'I was happy that I got to make the decision and be in control of my own life. And, you know, The View was and is incredible and gave me so much,' she explained. 'I don't feel anything negative about it. But I also really pride myself in life on knowing when to hold them and when to fold them, like I'm such a gambler.' 'I like change. I like trying new things. And, you know, one of the opportunities here -- and I'm also working on a lot of other projects -- but especially at the Daily Mail, being completely uncensored and working for a company that really values true free speech.' she said. The television personality also recently shared the trailer for the film project, Don't Sweat The Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story, starring Heather Locklear in her comeback role. 'When I think about where I want Liberty to take her first steps and her first words, I just have this wonderful life here that I felt ultimately like I didn't want to leave,' McCain explained. Meghan and her husband Ben Domenech welcomed their first child together in 2020. The movie, which is based on the book Heartbroken Open by Kristine Carlson, is executive produced by the DailyMail.com columnist. It follows Carlson, co-author of the book series Don't Sweat The Small Stuff with her late husband Dr. Richard Carlson, and her struggles to come terms with his sudden death. Heather, 59, plays Carlson in what is her first significant on-screen role since 2017. Announcing the new gig on Instagram back in July, Meghan opened up about the personal significance of the project, explaining that the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff book series - which began in 1997 - helped her to process her own feelings of loss and grief in the wake of her father senator John McCain's death from brain cancer in 2018. 'I am beyond excited and honored to be partnering with @lifetimetv and @kristine_carlson to executive produce the legendary "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" book into a Lifetime film with icon @HeatherLocklear starring as Kristine,' she wrote. I felt like I was really happy to do it on my own terms because a lot of people get fired from that show. I was happy that I got to make the decision and be in control of my own life. And, you know, The View was and is incredible and gave me so much,' she explained. 'I don't feel anything negative about it.' 'This book helped me through my own journey in grief and loss with inspiration from Kristine and the "Dont Sweat The Small Stuff" story. 'I can't wait to continue on this journey with the creation of this movie and to be given the opportunity to share it with all of you and be a part of the "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" family. 'I know this movie, like the book is going to help and inspire so many people and there is no better time than now for it to be made!' McCains new book Bad Republican will be released in late October. Meghan McCain's twice-weekly column is set to debut on DailyMail.com during the week of September 20. Meghans interview airs on the latest episode of DailyMailTV. Check your local listings. She was the most talked-about woman of the 2019 Brownlow Medal after bravely fronting the red carpet just months after separating from Geelong great Jimmy Bartel. But now Nadia Bartel is determined to keep a low profile on AFL's night of nights. It's almost certain she won't be making an appearance this year - and may even be the butt of a few cruel jokes - after her white-powder scandal two weeks ago. Fall from grace: She was the most talked-about woman of the 2019 Brownlow Medal after bravely fronting the red carpet just months after separating from Geelong great Jimmy Bartel - but now Nadia Bartel is determined to keep a low profile on AFL's night of nights Footy fans will recall Nadia's appearance at the 2019 Brownlow was a cause celebre as she'd only recently ended her five-year marriage to Jimmy. Many described her show-stopping red carpet look as the ultimate 'revenge' as she stunned in a strapless blue J'Aton Couture dress with a daring thigh split. In the ultimate snub to her estranged husband - who won the Brownlow Medal in 2007 and with whom she attended several ceremonies during her years as a top-tier WAG - she even landed a plum role interviewing celebrity arrivals for Channel Seven. While her presenting skills left much to be desired, she nonetheless walked away from the Brownlow with her head held high as the fawning Melbourne press hailed the arrival of Nadia 2.0: single, stronger and unstoppable. Fast-forward two years and things couldn't be more different. Scandal: It's almost certain she won't be making an appearance this year - and may even be the butt of a few cruel jokes - after her white-powder scandal two weeks ago. The influencer (left) was filmed snorting white powder at an illegal gathering during Melbourne's lockdown on September 2 and the footage (above) was accidentally uploaded to Instagram by her friend The influencer and founder of fashion label Henne is now shamed after being caught attending an illegal gathering during Melbourne's Covid lockdown. She and three other women were each fined $5,452 after damning footage of the party was accidentally posted on Instagram by her friend Ellie Pearson. But the most humiliating part of the scandal was seeing Nadia, once known for her impeccably clean-cut image, snorting a line of white powder off a $1.50 Kmart plate. Revenge: Fans will recall Nadia's appearance at the 2019 Brownlow was a cause celebre as she'd only recently ended her five-year marriage to Jimmy. Many hailed her show-stopping red carpet look as the ultimate 'revenge' and she even interviewed guests for Seven's live coverage Take that! Her comeback was described as the ultimate snub to her estranged husband Jimmy, who won the Brownlow Medal in 2007 and with whom she attended several ceremonies during her years as a top-tier WAG. The Bartels are pictured at the 2018 Brownlow Medal - their last before splitting - when Nadia was pregnant with the couple's second son, Henley While she wasn't charged with drug offences because police couldn't prove what she was snorting, the video nonetheless caused irreparable damage to her brand. Just 24 hours after the video leaked on September 2, Nadia issued a grovelling apology on Instagram, where she has 568,000 followers. 'Hi everyone, I have let you all down by my actions,' she wrote. In happier times: The Bartels are pictured at the 2010 (left) and 2014 (right) Brownlow Medal ceremonies. Nadia would often make the annual best-dressed lists 'I take full responsibility and I am committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure I make better choices in future. 'To my family and friends, my business partners and the public health workers trying to keep us all safe, I am embarrassed and remorseful. 'I am truly and deeply sorry. I hope I can earn your forgiveness and, in time, your trust.' The 2021 AFL Brownlow Medal airs live on 7Mate in Sydney and Channel Seven in Melbourne on Sunday from 7pm Caught on camera: The influencer and founder of fashion label Henne is now shamed after being caught attending an illegal gathering during Melbourne's lockdown earlier this month The London Fashion Week opening night party welcomed a slew of famous faces on Thursday evening. And multi-talented Amy Jackson, 29, rocked her incredible fashion sense at The Windmill in Soho for the well-regarded event, wearing a sparkly mini dress that she layered with an orange blazer worn off-the-shoulder. The actress-come-model looked in high spirits in the capital as she further showcased her style by carrying a bow-embellished bag that perfectly colour-matched her loose blazer. Colourful: Amy Jackson stunned in a sparkling mini dress layered with an off-the-shoulder orange blazer as she attended the London Fashion Week opening night party on Thursday As always, Amy's makeup looked flawless, a touch of highlighter defining her cheekbones. She swept her hair into a stylish up-do, keeping a middle-parting to easily leave a few strands to fall loose around her face. Her glitzy attire was complemented by strappy nude heels. Happy: The actress-come-model looked in high spirits in the capital as she further showcased her style by carrying a bag that perfectly colour-matched her loose blazer Glowing: Multi-talented Amy Jackson, 29, rocked her incredible fashion sense at The Windmill in Soho for the regarded well-regarded event Glam: As always, Amy's makeup looked flawless, a touch of highlighter defining her cheekbones Flawless: She swept her hair into a stylish up-do, keeping a middle-parting to enable a few strands to fall loose around her face The iconic clothing trade show in the Big Smoke takes place twice a year, in February and September. The fashion catwalk shows and events exhibit over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers throughout the week. During the dazzling opening night at the renowned Soho venue, Amy was also photographed with models Betty Bachz and Jordan Grant. Trio: During the dazzling opening night at the renowned Soho venue, Amy was also photographed with models Betty Bachz (l) and Jordan Grant (r) Amy is best known for her work in for her work in Indian films, predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages. 12 years ago, the star won the Miss Teen World title in America and embarked on her modelling career in the UK when she was 15. Amy's most significant acting roles include her debut into the industry as Amy Wilkinson in Madrasapattinam, a period action drama. Gogglebox's Mary Killen has admitted no one thought the show would last in the beginning but now even Boris Johnson is said to be a fan. The fan favourite appears on the show alongside her husband Giles and admitted she was hesitant to join the Channel 4 series at first. Speaking to The Sun, she said: 'In the beginning, nobody thought it could possibly work. It would just be absurd. I didn't want the invasion of privacy but Giles wanted to be on, so I agreed. Honest: Gogglebox's Mary Killen has admitted no one thought the show would last in the beginning but now even Boris Johnson is said to be a fan 'But it's a very simple, brilliant idea. You get snippets of the good programmes and you can tell, rather like speed dating, whether you'd want to see the whole show as a result. 'But then Gogglebox became a barometer of what the public is thinking. For that reason I know that quite a lot of the Government watch it, and Boris Johnson will even be told what's going on.' Mary, who lives in Wiltshire and is originally from Northern Ireland, added the show gives viewers a 'snapshot' of the country, making it a uniquely British programme. Gogglebox first aired in 2013 and its 18th series is premiering on Friday, with viewing figures surging during the coronavirus lockdown. Mary said: 'I know that quite a lot of the Government watch it, and Boris Johnson will even be told what's going on' Elsewhere, Marcus and Mica Luther from South London believe the show portrays Britain at its best. Mica said it's important to have people on screen who look like you and its also a way to learn about other cultures. Stephen Webb, who has been on the show since the beginning, said he was also not sold on the idea right away. Stephen appears on Gogglebox with his husband Daniel and believes its important for a gay couple to be shown on screen and said everyone should be represented on TV. Stars: Marcus and Mica Luther from South London believe the show portrays Britain at its best Couple: Stephen Webb (left) appears on Gogglebox with his husband Daniel and believes its important for a gay couple to be shown on screen Pictured: Five stars of Gogglebox are stepping back from the show following the death of their loved ones (PICTURED: Mary Cook, left, who passed away last month, her friend Marina Wingrove, right, who is stepping away from the show) He also said he has no plans to quit the series anytime soon and would love to still be doing it in his nineties. It comes after it was revealed that five stars of Gogglebox are stepping back from the show following the death of their loved ones. The Channel 4 programme has seen three regulars sadly pass away this summer, within months of one another, after Pete McGarry died in June, aged 71, after a short illness, and Andrew Michael, 61, and Mary Cook, 92, passed away last month. It has been confirmed that Pete's partner Linda, Andrew's wife Carolyne and children Louis and Alex, and Mary's friend Marina Wingrove won't be back on screens for now. Tragic: Andrew Michael (second right) died last month. His wife Carolyne and children Louis and Alex (pictured) are stepping down in the wake of his death Prince Andrew's former girlfriend Koo Stark looked effortlessly stylish as she hosted event Stark Image an Exhibition of photographs by Koo Stark at the Zari Gallery in London on Thursday night. The photographer and actress, 65, could be seen wearing a flowing white top and ankle-length black skirt as she posed in front of her portraits. The New York-born star wore open-toed black shoes and her long silver hair rested gently on her shoulders. Stepping out: Prince Andrew's former girlfriend Koo Stark looked effortlessly stylish as she hosted event Stark Image an Exhibition of photographs by Koo Stark on Thursday Koo met the Duke of York, 61, then second in line to the throne, after being introduced by a mutual acquaintance on his 21st birthday in February 1981. Their relationship was discovered a year and a half later, and Koo was subjected to frenzy of media attention when nude images emerged of the actress starring in 1976 film Emily. She later spoke out to claim she began the life of the 'unwilling celebrity' at the time. Work of art: The photographer and actress, 65, could be seen wearing a flowing white top as she posed in front of her portraits While she is not connected, Koo's outing comes as it emerged Prince Andrew has challenged a High Court ruling that he can be served with papers in his US sex case. In what is being seen as another delaying tactic by the duke, his legal team said it would look to overturn the decision on a legal technicality. Court papers filed in New York last night show Andrew's lawyers want to argue over the definition of a 'judicial officer', in a possible indication of how he plans to concede no ground in the civil case against him. International: The New York-born star's long silver hair rested gently on her shoulders as she launched her exhibition Blast from the past: Koo and Andrew's relationship was discovered a year and a half after they met in 1981 when she received media attention when nude images emerged of the actress Former couple: Koo met the Duke of York, 61, then second in line to the throne, after being introduced by a mutual acquaintance on his 21st birthday in February 1981 (pictured 1999) The prince is being sued by long-term accuser Virginia Roberts, who claims Andrew had sex with her when she was 17. In the court claim filed under her married name, Giuffre, she alleges she was trafficked to the duke by billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and is claiming damages for rape, sexual assault and battery. Andrew, who is currently at Balmoral with the Queen, has repeatedly denied the allegations. His high-powered legal team claim that Miss Roberts' attorneys do not have the authority to approach the High Court, which this week said it would serve the case papers on the prince if the two sides failed to agree it themselves. Case: Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Maxwell's house. Miss Roberts alleges she was trafficked to the duke by Jeffrey Epstein, which Andrew denies Andrew's side have argued that David Boies, Miss Roberts' Manhattan lawyer, is not a 'judicial, consular or diplomatic officer' of the US. The London court originally agreed with the duke before changing its decision. Following the communications from Andrew's legal team, the judge said she would not 'determine this disputed issue by email' and ordered Andrew to file a proper legal application, which could result in an appeal being heard in court. Last month, Miss Roberts agreed to drop a claim for sexual assault against US lawyer Alan Dershowitz as a result of a settlement Ms Guiffries made with in a previous case abour her alleged treatment by Epstein and Maxwell in which Prince Andrew was not a party. But yesterday Judge Loretta A Preska, a senior US district judge, denied his application, saying that Dershowitz's claim had 'no basis'. An Australian model has blasted the random men who send her inappropriate private messages on Instagram. In a post on Instagram on Friday, Simone Holtznagel shared some of the sleazy messages she gets on the app. 'The cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption of men in the DMs,' the 28-year-old former Australia's Next Top Model star captioned the post. Gross: Australian model Simone Holtznagel has blasted the random men who send her inappropriate private messages on Instagram. One message read: 'Very beautiful woman, you like me, more kisses to you'. Another man sent Simone repeated messages, with the first reading: 'You are a goddess and I need to spoil you.' He followed it up with another message, which read: 'Take my money you absolute stunner...' Just no: In a post on Instagram on Friday, Simone shared some of the sleazy messages she gets on the app Refusing to give up: One man sent Simone repeated messages, with the first reading: 'You are a goddess and I need to spoil you' Meanwhile, another man said he 'would love to meet you and take you out'. One particularly inappropriate message was sent to Simone in response to a series of lingerie photos she shared. 'Hot as get em out!' wrote the man. 'The cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption of men in the DMs,' the 28-year-old former Australia's Next Top Model star captioned the post Obsessive: Another persistent follower inundated Simone with sleazy messages over a years-long period Responding to the same photos, a separate man messaged: 'Supple nips dear'. Another persistent follower inundated Simone with sleazy messages over a years-long period. 'Hi sexy... Morning baby... You look so sexy... R u single baby... I like your boobs babe,' read just some of the messages. Not a fan: Many of Simone's followers appeared mortified by the vile messages, expressing their disgust in the comments Many of Simone's followers appeared mortified by the vile messages, expressing their disgust in the comments. 'We're not all like that Simone hopefully,' commented one man. Added another fan: 'I don't know about anyone else, but I've never, not once, written to a guy like this. WTF are these creeps thinking.' 'How's the f**king tin foil hat going now, bro?' the MKR judge wrote on Instagram Colin Fassnidge mocked Kairouz after he was removed from ICU on Wednesday He shot to fame by correctly revealing NSW's Covid-19 case numbers on TikTok Comedian gave his lawyer instructions from his hospital bed on Wednesday He is facing three charges for attending an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney The TikTok star was admitted to the ICU at St George Hospital in Kogarah Jon-Bernard Kairouz, 24, is in hospital with Covid-19 alongside his father Richard Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge has offered a brutal response to the TikTok 'comedian' who correctly predicted NSW's daily case numbers for five days then addressed an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney - only to be left fighting for his life in a Covid-19 ward. The no-nonsense My Kitchen Rules judge, 46, whose restaurant was forced to close due to the lockdown, shared a screenshot on Instagram on Thursday of a news article about Jon-Benard Kairouz's recent hospitalisation. He then mocked Kairouz, 24, for his conspiratorial views about Covid, writing: 'How's the f**king tin foil hat going now, bro?' Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge (pictured last July) has offered a brutal response to the TikTok 'comedian' who correctly predicted NSW's daily case numbers for five days then addressed an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney - only to be left fighting for his life in a Covid-19 ward Dublin-born Fassnidge has been an outspoken voice for the hospitality industry during the Covid pandemic. His restaurant was forced to shut its doors last year and he later offered free takeaway meals to struggling Sydneysiders. His generosity is in stark contrast to the selfish attitude displayed by his former MKR co-star Pete Evans, who spreads dangerous misinformation about Covid and vaccines to his rapidly dwindling audience on fringe social media apps. The no-nonsense My Kitchen Rules judge, 46, whose restaurant was forced to close due to the lockdown, shared a screenshot on Instagram on Thursday of a news article about Jon-Benard Kairouz's recent hospitalisation. He mocked Kairouz, 24, for his conspiratorial views about Covid, writing: 'How's the f**king tin foil hat going now, bro?' Daily Mail Australia was first to report Kairouz was in intensive care at St George Hospital in Kogarah, in Sydney's south, after being diagnosed with coronavirus. He is facing two counts of not complying with Covid-19 directions and one count of encouraging the commission of crimes after he attended a violent anti-lockdown protest in Sydney's CBD on Saturday, July 24. Mr Kairouz's lawyer, Eidan Havas, told Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday his client was forced to give instructions from hospital where his father is also battling the virus, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. He pleaded not guilty to all three counts. 'This should highlight to everyone in NSW how serious Covid-19 is and everyone should be getting vaccinated and staying home in order to stop the transmission of this terrible virus,' Mr Havas said. Jon-Bernard Kairouz (left) and his father, Richard Kairouz (right), have been hospitalised with Covid-19. Jon-Bernard was removed from ICU on Wednesday afternoon, but his father continues to battle the deadly disease in hospital Kairouz (pictured) shot to fame after he correctly predicted the daily Covid case numbers in NSW. He repeatedly insisted his predictions were the result of 'simple maths', but has not released a single video since his suspected leak was outed The case has been adjourned to Sydney's Local Downing Centre Local Court on October 26. Kairouz was removed from ICU on Wednesday afternoon, but his father continues to battle the deadly disease in hospital. Richard Kairouz, a gym owner, was admitted to hospital nearly a fortnight ago and has been placed in an induced coma in the intensive care unit. A source close to the family said last week they had been hit hard by Covid-19. 'He was symptomatic... and kept deteriorating,' they said, referring to Mr Kairouz Snr. '[He] decided to go to hospital on the Saturday afternoon. The whole family is at home in isolation. 'After predicting the Covid-19 numbers daily, [Jon-Bernard] couldn't predict that he [his father] would contract it.' Mr Kairouz (pictured in one of his viral videos) became known as 'the TikTok guy' earlier this year after repeatedly revealing the NSW Covid tally hours before Premier Gladys Berejiklian Kairouz became known as 'the TikTok guy' after repeatedly revealing the NSW Covid tally hours before Premier Gladys Berejiklian's 11am daily updates. He predicted the case numbers for five days in a row in July, leading to speculation NSW Health had set up a 'sting' to catch a possible conspirator leaking the data. His streak ended on July 19 with a prediction of 109 case numbers when the actual figure was 98. Kairouz repeatedly insisted his predictions were the result of 'simple maths', but has not released a single video since his suspected leak was outed. The TikTok star caused further controversy when he fronted a violent anti-lockdown protest in July, disappointing many of his 57,000 followers. The self-appointed 'people's Premier' spoke to a cheering crowd who gleefully clutched signs condemning lockdowns, masks and vaccines. 'All we want is freedom,' he told about 3,500 protesters on the Town Hall steps. 'I must say I've crunched the numbers, I don't think the cases are going to go up tomorrow.' 'From what I've calculated there's over 50,000 people here today,' he wrongly claimed. Kairouz fired up anti-lockdown protesters during an illegal rally in Sydney in July (pictured) But the stunt backfired, with many of his fans questioning why he'd joined thousands of protesters and risked extending the city's lockdown. 'Hope you enjoyed the protest, because everyone has lost respect for you,' a woman commented on one of the comedian's TikTok videos. 'You had a big rise and an even bigger fall; how hilarious,' a second wrote. 'Maybe he can predict how many people will be in court to greet him,' a third joked. NSW Police set up Strike Force Seasoned to track down all attendees at the protest, which health officials feared would become a Covid super-spreader event. Officers arrested 63 attendees at the rally and a further 60 for a variety of offences, including striking a police horse and assaulting a police officer. Kairouz is seen above when he was charged by officers near his family's home on July 25 Kairouz was nabbed outside his home in Belmore, in Sydney's south-west, on July 25 when three detectives arrived to serve him his court attendance notice. He was rounding the corner wearing a NSW Blues Origin jersey when a detective approached him and explained the criminal charge. Kairouz interrupted him and motioned for officers not shown in the police video to move back. 'I'm listening, yeah... can you just take it easy?' he asked one of the other officers as a friend filmed the encounter. The comedian appeared unworried when the notice was handed to him, thanking the police and telling them to 'have a good day'. An Afghan by birth, Mullah Baradar (originally Mullah Abdul Ghani) has been vital in the rise of both of the Talibans regimes. He now finds himself among TIMEs 100 Most Influential People 2021. The magazine describes Baradar as a charismatic military leader and a deeply pious figure. Mullah Baradar on the TIME 100 2021 list. Photo: Screenshot/TIME WHY: Baradar is on the list because he has made all decisions, especially the ones in regards to the amnesty offered to members of the former regime, the lack of bloodshed when the Taliban entered Kabul, and the regimes visits with China and Pakistan. WHO: Powerful yet calm, Baradars rise to power can be credited to his close familial relations to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban during the late 90s. It is because of their closeness that Omar changed Mullah Abdul Ghanis name to Mullah Baradar, which translates to brother. Baradar has been a founding member of the Taliban, deputy minister of defence during Talibans rule from 1996 to 2001, and now is the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Baradar is known to employ the strictest sharia rule in Afghanistan and swears by violent jihad. Mullah Baradar is the new Taliban Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan. Photo: Getty Images QUOTE: "His [Baradar] wife is Mullah Omar's sister. He controlled the money. He was launching some of the deadliest attacks against our security forces," an Afghan official told the BBC in 2013. CONTEXT: Baradar negotiated the USs departure from Afghanistan this August. His skills in negotiating with the West also secured him a release from Pakistan in 2018, specifically at the request of the Trump government. Post creating the Taliban, Baradar began his role as a military strategist. He went on to become the de-facto leader of the Talibani forces in both Herat and Kabul. During the Talibans rule in the late 90s, in an email exchange with Newsweek, Baradar vowed to continue the "jihad" until "the expulsion of our enemy from our land" and that his basic condition for peace talks was the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan. Mullah Baradar is apparently trying to gain roles of higher significance in the current Taliban regime. Photo: Getty Images TALIBAN NOW: Now that foreign forces are out of Afghanistan, it is being speculated that there is a power struggle within the Taliban. Baradar is apparently trying to gain roles of higher significance in the new Talibani regime under Hibatullah Akhundzada. Eventually, this led to a gunfire clash where it had been presumed that Baradar had died. Soon, Baradar claimed otherwise. In a video statement accessed by ARY News, Baradar is heard saying, There had been news in the media about my health and death. Over the past few nights, I have been away on trips. Wherever I am at the moment, we are all fine, all my brothers and friends. He also denied reports of internal clashes, The media always publish fake propaganda. Therefore, bravely reject all those lies, and Im 100 percent confirm to you (sic) there is no issue in the ranks of the Taliban and we have no problem. THE O: Mullah Baradars influence in Afghanistan (before and) after the USs exit has found him a place among TIMEs 100 Most Influential People 2021. His ability to negotiate deals, said the magazine, was why he was on the list. ALSO READ: New Delhi and the Kabul conundrum The annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit was held on Friday, September 17, in Tajikistans capital Dushanbe, which Prime Minister Modi virtually addressed. The SCO Summit 2021, comprising Central Asian countries and Russia, focused on the situation in Afghanistan. PM Narendra Modi virtually addressed the SCO Summit on September 17. Photo: PTI Some of the key takeaways from PM Modis speech, which was centred on radicalisation and extremism, are: United Central Asia: The biggest challenge that the SCO currently faces is a peace, security and trust deficit due to radicalisation and extremism. Central Asia is crucial here because it holds modern and progressive values at its core, and can unite together to propagate such ideas in Afghanistan. Innovative youth: Trust should be placed in the youth. They should be encouraged to pursue science and technology, and efforts should be made to boost their innovative spirit. Building connections: The twin challenges of extremism and radicalisation have kept Central Asia from realising its true potential. Countries in this region should work on building connections with each other to combat these ailments. Develop networks, establish norms: India is ready to build connections with Central Asia to increase trade exponentially, but this cannot be a one-way street. Countries need mutual counsel to develop networks and respect territorial integrity. To do so, norms need to be established by nations. THE O: To help battle radicalisation and extremism in Afghanistan, a well-connected Central Asia is necessary. Unlike most black people, track legend Usain Bolt enjoys his steak medium. During a recent interview with BBCX1xtra, Bolt surprised host Seani B when he described how he likes his steak. Bolt disclosed that his first preference was well-done as is custom for most Jamaicans, but this had changed since an experience in Italy. I went to Italy, and I went to this steak place, and theyre like what do you want, and I said, give me a well-done steak, and the guy was like no, I am not doing a well-done steak, Bolt recalled. Bolt exclaimed that they were so adamant at the restaurant, that the chef came out personally to him and declared that they wont be doing a well-done steak. According to Bolt, they say it [a well-done steak] takes away from the quality of the food, so they did a medium and a medium-well and I liked the medium its nice man. Taken aback by Bolts new preference, Seani B replied sarcastically, Are you Jamaican, Do I know this man? Bolt replied, I travel. Do you know how many black people are screaming at their radios right now like no Usain, do not advertise the fact that some of us eat meat with blood coming out of it? Seani B said. Next, you gonna tell me that you dont wash chicken! But Bolt quickly affirmed, in his native patois, No man, nuh badda wid dat man, nuh badda wid dat. Bolt share a clip from the interview and wrote in the caption: Listen me the Country Yute is well travelled. What can I say @, in reference to his debut album Country Yutes, which debuted No. 6 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart this week. Seani B commented, They could send me go Mars and me still cooking it right through Blessings Mi Don . New Delhi: After two years of decline, jewellers are expected to see double-digit growth in revenues this fiscal. Increased spending on wedding and festive jewellery might support sales. Stable gold prices and recovery in discretionary spending will see gold jewellery sales growing 12-14 per cent this fiscal, according to Crisil. The growth this fiscal will come on a low base as revenue had contracted 3 per cent in FY20 and 8 per cent in FY21. Demand in FY20 had taken a knock after import duty was hiked by 250 bps to 12.5 per cent in the Union Budget presented in July 2019. In fiscal 2021, pandemic-induced lockdowns and store closures impacted revenue. But the increase in gold prices helped limit the decline in sales to single digit levels. This fiscal, the revenues of organised jewellers is also set to benefit from lower import duty and introduction of mandatory hallmarking from June 16, 2021. This will make them more competitive compared to unorganised players., said Anuj Sethi, senior director, Crisil Ratings. Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, Kalyan Jewellers, said, The pace of demand recovery witnessed in the first quarter was higher than what we experienced in Q1FY21, and the momentum in the stores that were operational was similar and comparable to that in Q4FY21. The compulsory hallmarking move by the government will play a significant role in transforming the sector. TIRUPATI: The Kalikiri police on Thursday arrested 16 persons, including 11 bank employees, in connection with the embezzlement of funds in the Kalikiri branch of Bank of Baroda. The fraud, involving 11 bank employees and their relatives, came to light after complaints were lodged by customers Majjiga Prasanna Lakshmi and some other victims. It turned out that, in the last three years, huge amounts were being deducted from over 150 accounts of DWCRA members and customers having fixed deposits in the bank. They received no message on their phones about these deductions, and noticed the fraud only when they updated their passbooks. Following this, they lodged complaints. Disclosing the case details to the media at Kalikiri on Thursday, ASP Mahesh said the first accused Mulla Sayed Ali Khan (34), a messenger at the Kalikiri branch of BoB, and four of his relatives were arrested by the police from Indiramma colony on Thursday morning. Ali Khan and some of the bank staff got together and swindled over Rs 1 crore from the accounts of Sangha Mitra members and from the personal savings and fixed deposit accounts of customers without their knowledge, policed found out. The accused bank staff had used the IDs and passwords of customers and created fake loan documents with forged signatures. The loan amounts were further transferred to the savings accounts of Ali Khans relatives, it was learnt. During this time, the staff, using new technology, stopped the transaction messages going to the respective clients' mobile phones, the ASP said. After the money was transferred to various accounts of Ali Khans relatives, Khan withdrew the amounts and bought 1,120 grams of gold ornaments. He pledged these in the same bank and took money. He then shared the booty with other bank staff. They were doing this for the past three years and have looted over Rs1 crore, the ASP said. With the help of bank officials, all the jewel loans in the name of Ali Khans family members have been frozen. The police recovered Rs 70,20,000 in the form of Rs 20 lakh in cash, papers related to the 1,120 grams of gold pledged in the bank, 12 cell phones and three two-wheelers, and also frozen eight bank accounts of Ali Khans relatives. Those arrested in the case were BoB joint-manager Jaya Krishna (34), head cashier Shek Moulali (32), bank agricultural officer Ramaswamy Eswaran (24), bank officer Patan Abeedh Mubeen (32), clerk Teja Sai (27), operations officer Ramachandrudu (35), clerk Eelu (28), bank officer Shareef Basha (28), business associate Surendra Nayak (33), business associate Mohamad Shareef (43), bank officer Chinnaiah (62) and Ali Khans relatives Chandini (24), Shek Kadirunnisa (39), Sayed Arifunnisa (28) and Moghul Hajirunnisa (22). Hyderabad: The Telangana State excise and prohibition department and the special investigation team (SIT) constituted in 2017 to investigate Tollywoods drugs-related cases have filed an affidavit before the high court on Thursday, saying they have no material or evidence to supply to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) other than copies and charge sheets related to the cases. We detected 12 cases of possession, transport and sale of drugs in 2017 and cases were registered. In all these, investigation has been completed and charge sheets filed before the trial court. All related material collected in the investigation including the digital evidence and the statements of the involved persons had been submitted to the court. Now, there is no more material to deliver to the ED, the director of prohibition and excise informed the high court. The affidavit was submitted in response to a HC order to the SIT to share the material available with it to the ED. In 2017, then MLA and now Congress MP Revanth Reddy had filed a PIL, seeking direction to the state government to entrust the investigation to the Narcotics Control Bureau, ED, CBI and other central agencies, and not to the SIT of the state excise department. He had contended that the state has no power to investigate the case. Meanwhile, ED filed an interim application, urging the court to direct the Telangana government and SIT to render all necessary assistance to it by way of sharing all certified copies of the documents, statements taken by the involved persons and digital evidences seized during the investigation, so as to initiate proceedings under the provisions the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Since 2020, the high court has repeatedly directed the Telangana state to provide the documents it had. The court had also cautioned the state excise department that if it did not handover the material, then it would direct the SIT to produce the documents before the HC. In this context, Sarfaraz Ahmad, director of state excise and prohibition department, filed the affidavit stating that the agencies did not have any additional material to handover to the ED. The states second Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Policy was unveiled by IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday. (Photo:Twitter) Hyderabad: The states second Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Policy aimed at achieving exports of over Rs 3 lakh crore and generating 10 lakh jobs in the sector in the next five years was unveiled by IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday. The policy also aims at attracting investments of Rs 70,000 crore and creating three lakh jobs in the electronics sector, the government said. It focuses on digital empowerment of citizens, innovation and entrepreneurship, and aims to raise the innovation ecosystem to global levels, it said. The policy aims to create over 50,000 jobs in Tier II and Tier III cities by establishing them as the future IT hubs. Rama Rao said the first policy, that lasted five years was successful at meeting the goals and in some cases even performing beyond the set targets." He said: "This has also shown a strong positive impact on the citizens, investors, and the government itself." Rama Rao said that over the last year, Telangana achieved an increase of 12.98 per cent in the IT/ITeS exports over the previous year, recording a total exports of Rs1,45,522 crore. It is more than double the estimated average national growth rate, the minister said. He said that Telangana state had passed several milestones in the IT and electronics sectors, not only in terms of the growth of the industry but also in adaptation for public purposes. "Telangana has seen the highest annual growth rate in IT/ITeS exports in the last five years and has created over 2.5 lakh jobs, bringing is several marquee investors. The electronics sector saw over 1.5 lakh jobs being created and Telangana now accounts for the production of 7 per cent of India's electronics output and is ever-growing, Rama Rao said. Explaining the key initiatives of the new ICT policy, Rama Rao said basic artificial intelligence (AI) training will be provided for all technology graduates, in order for them to be prepared for the next wave of employment creation in the new technologies. The state will set up a start-up fund with Rs 1,300 crore and a government investment committee with a goal to support over 8,000 start-ups, making Telangana the top choice for start-ups in the country, the minister added. New Delhi: Addressing the 21st Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State meeting in a virtual mode at Tajikistans capital Dushanbe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday suggested that the SCO should develop a common template to fight radicalism and extremism and strict norms to ensure that Afghan territory is not used for terrorism against any country, adding that such norms should be based on a policy of zero tolerance against terrorism and can become the basis of a template for global anti-terror cooperation. He also suggested that the grouping frame a code of conduct to prevent cross-border terrorism and terror financing along with a mechanism for enforcement. Lashing out at the Taliban without naming it directly, PM Modi questioned any acceptance of the new ruling dispensation in Kabul, arguing that the regime change was not inclusive and had not taken place on the basis of negotiations. Pointing out that representation for Afghan women and minorities was important, he also advocated a global collective decision-making approach after careful deliberations on whether such a regime should be given recognition, further stating that India would support a central role for the United Nations on this subject. The eight-nation SCO that comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan now will have a ninth new member Iran, whom PM Modi welcomed along with three new dialogue partners Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar. PM Modi further suggested that the SCO should work to develop a strong network between moderate, tolerant and inclusive institutions and traditions associated with Islam that exist in India and almost all the other SCO countries. Pointing out that the situation in Afghanistan would have the maximum influence on its neighbouring countries like India, PM Modi said that if fundamentalism persisted in Afghanistan, it would only promote global terrorism and extremist thought and encourage extremist organisations to grab power through violence. He also felt the presence of a huge number of modern and advanced armaments in Afghanistan would be a source of instability in the region and felt that the SCOs anti-terror mechanism RATS could monitor this. On the deteriorating humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan, PM Modi said India wanted to send food and medicines for the Afghan people and promised full cooperation to any global effort for such humanitarian assistance. On the crucial issue of connectivity, PM Modi also felt the SCO should develop suitable norms for connectivity projects in the region. Launching a veiled critique of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) without any direct mention, PM Modi said that connectivity was not a one-way street and that connectivity projects should show respect for the territorial integrity of all countries and be consultative, transparent and participatory to ensure mutual trust. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a flagship project of the Chinese-led BRI. PM Modi chose instead to focus on Indias development of the Iranian port of Chabahar and the North-South Corridor as an effective connectivity initiative with land-locked Central Asia. My suggestions on radicalisation, connectivity and people-to-people relations will further strengthen this role of SCO, Mr Modi said. The Prime Minister initially made some of the remarks while addressing the plenary session of the predominantly-Central Asian grouping in a virtual mode. Some of the comments on Afghanistan were made later again in a virtual mode at an outreach session on the situation in Afghanistan between the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a security grouping of some of the post-Soviet nations, including Russia and Tajikistan. Mr Modis comments urging an SCO response to the threats of radicalism and terrorism are seen as a veiled attack on the Taliban which captured power in Afghanistan a month ago through a lightning military conquest there. The comments are also being seen as a gesture of solidarity with the Central Asian Republics (CARs), especially the meetings host Tajikistan which has been concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and the Talibans atrocities on Afghanistans ethnic Tajik minority. PM Modi also praised Tajik President Emomali Rahmon for his successful presidency of the SCO Council and for managing the organisation efficiently in a very challenging global and regional environment. In his address in Hindi, PM Modi said, The 20th anniversary of the SCO is also a suitable occasion to think about the future of the SCO.I believe that the biggest challenges in this area are related to peace, security and trust-deficit and the root cause of these problems is increasing radicalisation. Recent developments in Afghanistan have made this challenge more apparent. SCO should take an initiative on this issue. If we look at the history, we will find that the region of Central Asia has been a bastion of moderate and progressive cultures and values... On the basis of this historical heritage of Central Asia, SCO should develop a common template to fight radicalisation and extremism. He added, Fighting radicalisation is not only necessary for regional security and mutual trust, but it is also necessary for the bright future of our younger generations ... I appreciate the useful work being done by SCO-RATS (the anti-terror mechanism of the grouping). We expect our SCO partners to actively participate in the calendar of activities that has been built for Indias presidency of SCO-RATS. The comments are being seen as another veiled barb at Pakistan which is also an SCO member. On connectivity, PM Modi said, Any initiative on connectivity cannot be a one-way street. The connectivity projects should be consultative, transparent and participatory to ensure mutual trust. In this regard, respect for the territorial integrity of all countries should be implicit. Based on these principles, SCO should develop suitable norms for connectivity projects in the region. With this we will be able to restore the traditional connectivity of this region and only then connectivity projects will work to connect us, not to increase the distance between us. For this effort, India is ready to make any contribution from its side. In a veiled barb at Pakistan, he added, The vast economic potential of this region has also remained untapped due to radicalisation and insecurity, be it mineral wealth or intra-SCO trade, to take full advantage of them, we have to emphasise on mutual connectivity... India is committed to increasing its connectivity with Central Asia. We believe that land-locked Central Asian countries can benefit immensely by connecting with Indias vast market. Unfortunately, many connectivity options are not open to them today due to lack of mutual trust. Our investment in Irans Chabahar port and our efforts towards the International North-South Corridor are driven by this reality. Hyderabad: The capture of a young wild leopard last Sunday in Medak district has added to the number of spotted cats that have been rescued by officials of the state forest department. According to department insiders, the leopard caught near Kamaram village in Chinnashankarampet mandal in Medak district, is the 10th to be caught in the state in five years for straying into expanding human habitations and killing domestic cattle. It is not just leopards that are unable to stay away from villages, and even cities like Hyderabad. The conflict between wild animals and people is only growing though the state forest department appears to have adopted an approach of treating each of such cases as a single isolated incident instead of treating the rising number of such conflicts as a trend and an issue that needs to be addressed. According to information gathered from officials of the forest department, the past few years saw at least 40 cases of sloth bears coming into towns, and villages. Most of these were caught and released in forests near the location where they were caught. Then there are the numerous instances of wild boar raiding crops in many villages in the state, and it was possibly one such sounder of these wild pigs that finance minister T. Harish Raos convoy hit on June 21 this year as he was coming from Siddipet to Hyderabad. The ones that make the most news are the interactions between people and tigers, which are becoming increasingly common in the former united Adilabad district area. It may be recalled that last year, in November and December, two persons were killed by a tiger, identified as a male, that had come into Telangana state from forests in Maharashtra. A senior forest department official said that it was not surprising to see increasing instances of wildlife entering villages, towns, or even cities in some instances as was the case with a leopard that kept officials on their toes for six months and was caught in October 2020 in Rajendranagar area of Hyderabad. Before that, two leopards were trapped in the Icrisat campus at Patancheru. The official said more and more people are now venturing into forested areas, and even scrub forests, the latter which are also suitable for leopards to live in, as also sloth bears, wild boar and some other smaller wildlife. There is so much grazing of cattle, and sheep it is inevitable that leopards will attack and kill cattle. In most areas that are ideal for leopards, there are very few of their natural prey animals, such as deer. Where will they go, other than to enter villages in search of prey? another official, who was formerly involved in trying to catch one such leopard, said. Free meals are being provided to devotees in the noon at 754 temples across the State. Representational image/DC Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin launched free meals facility in three more temples, in addition to the two temples already practising it. Free meals are already being served through the day in Dhandayuthapani Swamy temple in Palani and the Aranganathar Swamy temple in Thiruvaiyaru. The scheme is being implemented by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Board. According to press release on Thursday, the facility, launched in virtual mode from the Secretariat, would benefit 7,500 devotees daily visiting Subramania Swamy temple in Tiruchendur, Mariammal temple in Samayapuram and the Subramania Swamy temple in Tiruthani. On September 4, HR & CE department minister P.K. Sekar Babu announced that devotees visiting the above three temples can enjoy the facility very soon. Meanwhile, free meals are being provided in the noon at 754 temples across the State. In tune with the tradition of serving food to the poor in temples, food packets were distributed to the needy when Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak and many of the big temples had obtained a quality certification for the food prepared on their premises from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, the release added. People living upstream and downstream of Tungabhadra are in panic over a large number of crocodiles being present along the river near their habitations. | DC Photo ANANTAPUR: People living upstream and downstream of Tungabhadra are in panic over a large number of crocodiles being present along the river near their habitations. The river flows towards Mantralayam in Kurnool district from Raichur and Koppal districts of Karnataka. Tungabhadra is famous for its rocks, where crocodiles make their appearance frequently. A crocodile was put inside a cage after being found close to Karnataka minister Anand Singh residence in Hospet town of Vijayanagar district. In another instance, a priest M. Vishnu had a miraculous escape from a crocodile near the bank of the river at St. Naraharitheertha Brindavan on outskirts of Hampi last month. The Brindavan is located on an island, which is reached by devotees with the help of small boats. When I went to get water from the river for pooja, the crocodile attacked me. I luckily escaped unhurt, Vishnu recalled later. Three years ago, a seven-foot crocodile weighing about 300 kg was found dead on the river bed. It died after being unable to digest a sheep near Anegondi. M.S. Somalingappa, MLA from Bellary district, raised in the Karnataka assembly the threat posed by crocodiles to habitations near Tungabhadra River. The MLA sought action from forest and departments concerned for saving people and cattle living in these habitations. AP irrigation authorities say they always exercise caution when inspecting banks of Tungabhadra River and its main canals. In fact, historians say crocodiles were a major issue even when the Vijayanagar Empire flourished under Emperor Sri Krishnadevaraya. The 35-km Tungabhadra Otter Conservation Reserve (TOCR), which stretches from Tungabhadra Dam to Kampli, once harboured a good number of smooth-coated otters, mugger crocodiles, four species of rare turtles and hundreds of species of fish listed as vulnerable and endangered under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). VIJAYAWADA: The YSR Congress has welcomed the verdict of the AP High Court bench in the MPTC and ZPTC (Parishad) election case and accused the Telugu Desam of putting spokes in the state governments wheel. Adviser to government on public affairs, Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, addressing a press meet here on Thursday, alleged that former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu killed the democratic spirit in the Parishad elections. He caused multiple hurdles and the Telugu Desam encouraged the then state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar to disrupt the election process. The adviser said the high court verdict has given a respite to the stalled Parishad polls. The Opposition parties have conspired to obstruct democracy and subvert the peoples mandate, he said. Reddy said the ZPTC and MPTC polls were to be held between 2018 and 19, but Naidu as CM had postponed the elections fearing a defeat to the TD. However, Chief Minister Jagan initiated the polls process soon after forming the government in 2019. But, again, it was postponed on the issue of reservations, followed by the "oppositions conspiracy." Recalling the earlier incidents, Ramakrishna Reddy said he was outraged that the elections were unilaterally postponed by the former SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh in March 2020 citing Covid19. This was done at a time when there were only six days left to complete the polling. Each time when the government was ready to hold the polls, an attempt was made by the TD to obstruct it as they knew they cannot win. He said that TD made such moves with tacit support from Ramesh. It brought the sarpanch elections in the forefront and kept aside the parishad polls and further tried to obstruct the unanimous elections. The adviser expressed confidence that the YSRC will win any election with 80-85 per cent positive vote, as the people are on our side since they are happy with the good governance of Jagan. On TD leader Nara Lokesh for burning the Disha copies, the adviser said he had no concern towards women safety. Ramakrishna Reddy said the Solar Energy Corporation has lauded the state governments proposal for establishing a solar power project to supply free electricity to farmers. The opposition approached the court to stall this project too. However, many are appreciating the states efforts to cut down the power cost, he said. HYDERABAD: The Telangana state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has accused Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao of lying and misleading the people in the matter of the state getting central funds. The Modi government has given over Rs 2.52 lakh crore to the Telangana government in the last seven years, he said during the course of his Praja Sangram Yatra in Kamareddy district, which was on its 20th day, on Thursday. BJP national leader Muralidhar Rao also took part in padayatra. He said that the Centre also released over Rs 1.4 lakh crore as the states tax share to TS. Sanjay alleged that while the wealth of KCR and his family increased manifold in recent years, the financial condition of Telangana state was getting worse by the year. CM KCR has pushed TS into a debt-ridden state. It was the richest state at the time of the formation of the new state in 2014, he said. Giving details of the central funds given to the TS government, Sanjay said the Modi government gave over Rs 2.52 lakh crore to the state for development purposes in the last seven years. The Centre has given Rs 122 lakh crore only for implementation of welfare programmes in the state. In addition, it sanctioned Rs 40,000 crore for construction of national highways, of which Rs 21,000 crore has already been released. The Centre also sanctioned Rs 23,491 crore for railway projects and Rs 2700 crore for the 2.71 crore free vaccinations in the state. Bandi said the Centre is funding all schemes including on ration rice, construction of graveyards, rural roads, toilets, farmer welfare, Haritha Haram, nurseries and Swachh Bharat programmes. Condemning the murder of BJP activist Eukula Mahesh in Bhootpur mandal of Mahabubnagar district during the Ganesh immersion procession, Sanjay said Mahesh was attacked by 15 persons including the husband of the village sarpanch belonging to the TRS. The local police kept quiet and failed to take any action against the culprits, he said. The massive gathering at the Congress' Dalit Dandora in Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Raos home constituency Gajwel on Friday seems to have boosted the morale of party leaders and cadres. (Photo:Twitter) HYDERABAD: The massive gathering at the Congress' Dalit Dandora in Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Raos home constituency Gajwel on Friday seems to have boosted the morale of party leaders and cadres. Congress leaders are said to be surprised at the turnout even as the ruling party allegedly created hurdles to prevent people from attending the meeting by exerting pressure on them through the TRS elected representatives, threatening them with cancelling their Aasara pensions, 2BHK houses etc if they attended the meeting. Congress sources said they never expected such a turnout in the Chief Ministers home turf as traffic came to a grinding halt in a radius of 20 km around Gajwel. Several thousands of people failed to make it to the meeting venue due to traffic jams and lack of space in the grounds. The response was so huge that the sprawling ground was lit with thousands of mobile phone torches when Revanth asked people to switch on the lights to extend support to the rally and urged people to show way to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chandrashekar Rao who were stuck in darkness. Revanth Reddy dared the CM and the intelligence department to count each head who attended the meeting and ascertain for themselves whether one lakh people attended or not as stated by him earlier. He said if their count came even one less than one lakh, he was ready to hold a meeting again in Gajwel with five lakh people in six months. Looking at the huge response, Revanth Reddy announced from the dais itself that he would undertake the next round of Dandora rallies for the cause of unemployed and students in Telangana from October 2 to December 9. The Congress also released a 15-point chargesheet against the TRS government on the occasion highlighting the failures of the KCR government. Hyderabad: The High Court here on Friday passed strictures against the Telangana government, saying it was making contradictory statements and submissions with a view to evading the grant of ex-gratia to farmers following the massive crop loss due to the rains and floods in the 2020 Kharif Season. The court noted that the state failed to discharge its duty even as the central government released Rs 245 crore for this purpose. The TS government, after the court's grilling, admitted it diverted the central funds sent for flood relief for Covid fight in the state. Finding fault with the submissions made before the court by the state, like no single paisa worth crop loss occurred other than a reduction of yield, the high court asked, if so, why the websites of government agriculture department showed a huge crop loss. And, why did the state sought assistance from the central government under the Disaster Relief Fund? Advocate General BS Prasad was grilled by the division bench comprising acting chief justice Ramachandra Rao and Justice Vinod Kumar in relation to the non-distribution of ex-gratia for crop loss and the failure of the government to provide crop insurance to Telangana farmers. The bench was adjudicating a PIL, which complained that assistance was not extended to farmers for loss of crops and livestock after the incessant rains that lashed the state in September and October last year. The petitioners also brought to the notice of the court that there existed no provision for crop insurance in the Telangana State. You (the government) gave Rs 10,000 as financial aid to each family in the flood-hit areas of GHMC in the run-up to the municipal elections. But you did not give a single paisa to the farmers. Worse, now you say there was no loss to the crops. But we note that the Chief Minister sent a letter to the Prime Minister, saying crops worth about Rs 1,300 crore were damaged, the court noted. A central team inspected the affected areas and estimated a loss of crops worth around Rs 188 crore. But, concealing all these facts, now you are submitting before the court that there was no loss, the court noted. Further, the bench observed, It is difficult to believe there is no crop loss. A miracle it was if the estimated huge crop loss became zero. How could the magnitude of this loss become zero, the court asked the TS government. The court asked the government: After the chief minister wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, a central team visited the state for field inspection and estimated the crop loss. If there was no crop loss, did you bring this aspect to the notice of the central government? Was the central team informed about this aspect? Did you inform them that the crop loss was estimated wrongly and now you have realized this was an error on your part? Advocate general informed the bench that the cause espoused by the petitioners was not real and the quantum of loss projected by the petitioners was incorrect. The extent of crop loss was assessed based on the preliminary estimations of the government, he said. Sharply reacting to this, the bench observed, Prima facie, this court will not accept your contention that there is no loss, because the central government has furnished a memo dated 7 September 2021 stating that an amount of Rs 599 crore has been deposited into the account under SDRF for this purpose. The central team visited the state and assessed the crop loss and reduced the crop loss estimates prepared by the Telangana from Rs 595 crore to Rs 188.23 crore. Such data is on record and this cannot be disputed, observed the acting CJ. AG said the Rs 595 crore included the funds allotted for the damage occurred in Hyderabad city due to the floods. He also submitted that some amount released under state disaster relief fund scheme has been diverted and utilised for the Covid19 fight. The central government submitted before the court that Rs 977 crores had been released for TS under SDRF. Amit Shah was addressing a public meeting in connection with the Telangana Liberation Day after paying tributes to Adivasi legends Ramji Gond and Komaram Bheem, organised by the BJP. (Photo:DC/Pavan Kumar) ADILABAD: Union minister for home affairs Amit Shah on Friday said the BJP would come to power in Telangana after 2024 elections and celebrate the Hyderabad Vimochan Din officially across the state on September 17. Amit Shah said the BJP would win all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana though it won only four in the last elections. He recalled that the BJP won the Dubbak seat and the party's performance was good in the GHMC elections. Amit Shah was addressing a public meeting in connection with the Telangana Liberation Day after paying tributes to Adivasi legends Ramji Gond and Komaram Bheem, organised by the BJP. He also hoisted the National Flag on the outskirts of Nirmal town on the occasion. Amit Shah said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao used to talk much about celebrating September 17 as Telangana Liberation Day during the statehood agitation but he had forgotten the issue after coming to power due to the fear of MIM. He said Hyderabad Vimochan Din was nothing but Independence Day for Telangana state. "The BJP has no fear of anybody like the TRS and the Congress have, said Amit Shah and added that BJP was the lone party which could liberate the people of Telangana from the clutches of the TRS family rule. He said 1,400 people sacrificed their lives for Telangana and the BJP would respect their sacrifices and help their families during the BJP government in the state. Referring to the TRS, Amit Shah said the car steering was in the hands of Owaisi and added that the BJP was against the reservations based on religion and would abolish such reservations. Union minister for tourism and culture Kishan Reddy, party state president Bandi Sanjay, party Telangana in-charge Tarun Chugh, MPs Soyam Bapurao, Aravind Dharmapuri, senior leaders D.K. Aruna, Muralidhar Rao, newcomer Etala Rajendar others were present. The recent meeting of 19 Opposition parties held in a virtual format and with representation at the highest level could herald a transformative shift in India politics to reclaim the nations moral centre. The resolution adopted at the end of the online meeting signalled the Opposition parties concerted resolve to defend the secular, democratic, republican order with all their might. This convergence of views was inspired by the arithmetic of electoral politics and mood of the nation that demands a larger unity of purpose in aid of democracy and its concomitant values that are reminiscent of our constitutional moment. The divisive and majoritarian agendas of the ruling establishment, which are incompatible with the preambular promise of fraternity, have shrunk the social space across India for bonding amongst fellow citizens as equal stakeholders in a shared destiny. The erosion of a nurtured culture of tolerant coexistence questions our democratic resilience. A majoritarian interpretation of constitutional guarantees premised on electoral majorities negate the first principles of constitutionalism. The unremitting persecution and silencing of the Opposition, systematic intimidation of civil society organisations and the undermining of democratic institutions interrogate the libertarian promise of our national charter. Arrogant indifference to constitutional morality that is understood in terms of the scrutiny of the exercise of public power and the expansion of fundamental freedoms have suborned the promise of responsive democracy, offering us instead ... a democratic language without the grammar of democratic punctuation. The right to offend, a key attribute of a functional democracy, has been bludgeoned and buried, courtesy the violence of the vigilantes and armed constabulary of the Indian State. The foisting of sedition charges against farmers questioning the unjust farm laws and against other innocent citizens, the detention without bail of political opponents and dissenters under the stringent national security laws enacted to deal with terrorists have robbed several laws of their legitimacy. The dysfunctionality of Parliament as a check against administrative excesses has denuded the administration of its moral claim to executive authority. The march of democracy rooted in social justice and conducive to human dignity has been reversed. A free nation, which, in the infancy of its birth had aspired to become the Vishwa Guru on the basis of its soft power, stands internationally condemned after 2014 as an elected autocracy (Sweden based V-Dem institution). India was ranked at 111 out of 162 nations in the Human Freedom Index of 2020 and 142nd out of 180 nations in the World Press Freedom Index. Those who want to hide behind a false nationalist narrative to debunk the findings of independent global organisations of repute need only to look at the reality around them. The invasion of citizens privacy in different ways, including the Pegasus snooping and routine surveillance of the inconvenient, signal the governments singular disdain for constitutional niceties. A vast majority of our people are oppressed and diminished under the weight of rising unemployment and poverty. A Pew Research Centre study has estimated a 75 million rise in the number of poor people in the country with the middle class shrinking by 32 million in 2020. The poor, with their souls scarred and freedoms fettered, are, therefore entitled more than ever before to ask: Atka kahan Swaraj?/ Bol Dilli! Tu ab kya kehti hai,/ Tu raani ban gayi, vedna janta kyun sehti hai? The poets lament about obstructions to freedom and the insensitivity of the power centres to the peoples pain retains a deafening echo in these troubled times. A pervasive feeling of suppressed freedom and its consequences is captured by Javed Akhtar in his compelling verse: Kisi ka hukm hai dariya ki lehren/ Zara yeh sarkashi kam karlein, apni hadd mein thehrein/ Ubharna phir bikharna aur bikhar kar phir ubharna/ Galat hai yeh unka hungama karna! Kisi ko yeh koi kaise bataye/ hawayein aur lehren kab kisi ka hukm/ sunti hain hawayein hakimo ki mutthiyo mein hathkadi mein/ qaid-khano mein nahi ruktin/ yeh lehren roki jaati hain/ toh dariya kitna bhi ho pursukoon, betaab hota hai/ aur iss betabi ka agla qadam sailaab hota hai! In the disquieting context of the sustained assaults on freedom and democracy, the coming together of the Opposition is a welcome declaration of an awakened collective responsibility to push back the autocratic impulses of unrestrained power. The long and arduous battle ahead for freedom, equality and justice as integral to our cherished democracy will be a test of leadership. It is evident that the initiative of the Congress president will need to be backed by the processes and practice of politics that inspire hope and faith in the exertions of the Opposition. It is also clear that those on the side of freedom will find themselves standing on the right side of history. And those who remain smug in the belief that the Opposition is incapacitated to lead due to its internal compulsions must learn from history that when the moment arises, the crown always finds its way to the right head. Whether this moment is close or distant will depend on the selflessness of leaders and their unfaltering pursuit of an ennobling project of national renewal. We know that it is in the defence of freedom that the nations suppressed soul will find utterance. For the vacillators, one may return to the poets interrogatory: Takaaza hai maujon ka, toofan se khelo/ kab tak chaloge, kinare kinare! (The waves beckon you to accept the challenge, for how long will you walk the easy path?) Americas secretary of state Antony Blinken earlier this week faced the US House Foreign Affairs Committee for the first time since the destabilising US military withdrawal from Afghanistan, where the real surprise was that not only the Republican Congressmen excoriated him, but his own partys representatives also posed tough questions. Mr Blinken, of course, offered the standard alibis that his boss, US President Joe Biden, has been dispensing ever since Kabul fell to the Taliban fighters on August 15. One, he said that Mr Biden had inherited a bad deal that the US had negotiated with the Taliban in February 2020 under President Donald Trump. The alternative to US troop withdrawal was escalation and more loss of US lives. The Trump administration had ordered the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, including top war commanders, when the US had only 2,500 troops deployed to defend Afghanistan. The US also did not expect the rapid collapse of the Afghan National Army (ANA), which has left Afghanistan in chaos. In fact, he added, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had told him a day before he fled that he would fight to death. Mr Blinken also shared that the US was conducting intense diplomacy with its allies and partners. India has meanwhile been reiterating the message contained in UN Security Council Resolution 2593, passed on August 30, under Indias chairmanship. The core principles in that are the need for Afghanistan to uphold human rights, including of women and the minorities, not to allow its territory to be used for sheltering, aiding and abetting terror abroad and finally to allow safe passage to Afghans and foreigners wishing to travel abroad. Sadly, Russia and China abstained from it, making them alongside Pakistan as the three states most likely to be least condemnatory of the Taliban. Interestingly, it was Pakistan that found itself at the receiving end at the US House of Representatives hearing. The attack came from both sides of the political divide, forcing Mr Blinken to concede that the United States would look at the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years that is, ever since the 9/11 attacks on America. The clear implication was that finally the US was confronting the truth that it had known all along that Pakistan was indeed a major non-Nato ally, as it had been christened, as indeed the Talibans creator, protector and mentor. This was known a decade ago when Osama bin Laden was eliminated in a secret US raid on a house in Abbottabad, without informing the Pakistanis as they were not trusted. Suddenly, now with the US embarrassed by the sudden rise to power of the Taliban, the thoughts about Pakistani duplicity are out in the open. The gloating in Pakistan has only added to the ire. Some of the questioning at the hearing shifted the debate to what the US plans to do next in the region to safeguard its interests and ensure that the Taliban sticks to the red lines laid down in UNSC Resolution 2593. Mr Blinken summed up the conundrum by saying that while Pakistan has a multiplicity of interests, there are some that are in conflict with ours. Clearly, the US will now reassess its relations with Pakistan, but this public posturing may be more to bring Pakistan to heel rather than begin sanctioning or punishing it. Linked to that were questions about US-India relations and whether India, as Republican Congressman Mark Green put it, could be a possible staging area for an over the horizon response. India has never allowed a foreign power to operate a military base on its soil. The closest that India has militarily cooperated with the US has been within the four-nation Quad framework. Allowing the US to operate militarily from Indian soil would have major implications. For one, China would see India as having moved deeper into the US embrace. Next, the Taliban may, currently less than warm towards India, turn into a declared enemy. But what can be expected is for India and the US to have closer coordination on how to use the full spectrum of economic and security levers to keep the Taliban from either becoming isolationist pariahs or Pakistani errand boys. It is good to remember that US-Pakistan relations have a history of close collaboration followed by a vicious falling out. After their joint campaign to use jihad to eject the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in the 1979-88 period, the US suddenly discovered in 1990 the Pressler Amendment of 1985. Under this law, US sanctions had to kick in once the US administration could not annually certify that Pakistan does not possess a nuclear explosive device. This certification continued so long as Pakistan was strategically needed by the US in the anti-Soviet crusade in Afghanistan. The question that now arises is how this history might get replayed and what are the Indian options. Both Russia and China would want stability to be quickly restored in Afghanistan with minimum international attention drawn by the Talibans governance. The Taliban also needs the major powers, including the G-7, to quickly recognise its interim government. So far, their record is poor. Not only have they used brute force and not negotiations to bring the rebellious Panjshir Valley under control but rumours have swirled about Mullah Baradar getting injured in factional fighting. This was denied via a delayed video tape, but meanwhile added to the uncertainty. The kidnapping of an Indian indicates the possibility of such acts feeding public concern in India. Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla recalled the 500 projects across 34 provinces of Afghanistan, costing nearly $3 billion, as proof that Indias destiny is inextricably linked with its neighbours. These are brave words as revolutionary regimes can often have conflicting visions that belie such hope. India will simply have to wait and watch before stepping into the mess that Afghanistan has now slipped into. The Biden administration is receiving political flak at home and thus can be expected to blame Pakistan or others to evade its own responsibility. But for India the best path is to work with Iran and Russia to engage whoever controls Kabul to ensure that those opposed to Indian interests are contained. Meanwhile, Pakistan can be expected to try replaying its 1990s game to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir via non-state actors. For starters, the BJP needs to curtail its communal discourse in Uttar Pradesh, which is headed for Assembly polls in the early part of 2022. The writer is a former secretary in the external affairs ministry. He tweets at @ambkcsingh. As the Supreme Court barred any change in the definition of AGR retrospectively, the government has decided to exclude non-telecom revenues from the definition of AGR in future. (PTI Photo) The Union Cabinets decision to announce a relief package to the debt-laden telecom sector was a long-awaited measure to stabilise one of the crucial strategic infrastructure sectors of the country. If the decision was delayed any further, it could have created an avoidable duopoly in the telecom sector, while the government-owned BSNL playing an also-ran role on the fringes. The most prominent decision taken by the Cabinet is a moratorium on the spectrum and AGR payments up to four years from October 2021. This measure gave a virtual lifeline to debt-laden Vodafone Idea Ltd, which was on the verge of collapse because of exorbitant demands raised by the telecom department in the form of its share in the Adjusted Gross Revenues (AGR). The moratorium on AGR payment will reduce the annual cash outgo for Vodafone over the next four years from Rs 25,300 crore starting from April 2022 to an interest of Rs 3,100 crore. The company would also have an option of converting the interest component into equity for the government at the end of the moratorium period. The relief to Vodafone Idea would also help banks and financial institutions to avert a default on their Rs 23,400-crore loan book. It would on paper prevent nearly Rs 1.7 lakh crore that it owed to the government towards AGR and spectrum payment from going into thin air. The collapse of Vodafone, one of the prominent foreign companies to set up its business in India, would have been bad optics for a government that is keen to promote itself as investor-friendly. Its collapse could have had an accentuated effect especially after several automobile car makers gave up on their plans to manufacture cars in India for local sales and attempts to rein in foreign e-commerce players. As the Supreme Court barred any change in the definition of AGR retrospectively, the government has decided to exclude non-telecom revenues from the definition of AGR in future. This would have a positive impact on the telecom companies as it would reduce their annual payouts to the government. Apart from the moratorium, the government has also relaxed KYC norms which could significantly lower the cost of customer acquisition. The move to replace paper-based customer acquisition forms with digital forms would paper and storage costs. The app-based self-KYC and e-KYC would help people to get mobile connections without any hassle. The waiver for fresh KYC submission for shifting from pre-paid connection to post-paid and vice-versa will also help people in choosing the best plan for them. Though the government has allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the telecom sector through automatic route, up from the existing 49 per cent, no foreign company could step in this muddled sector, until the government stops treating telecom companies as cash cows. Unless the government prevents instances such as retrospective application of new capital tax norms and an extraordinarily delayed realisation of its rights under AGR, only those foreign companies which have high-risk appetites will invest in this country. India can get foreign investment as it truly deserves only if it provides policy stability and continuity to investors. Biocon Ltd said late on Thursday its biologics unit will sell a 15% stake to a Serum Institute of India (SII) subsidiary for access to 100 million doses of vaccines annually for 15 years, including Covid-19 shots. SII, which makes AstraZeneca's Covid-19 shot, branded as Covishield in India, is the world's largest vaccine maker. The deal with Serum Institute Life Sciences values Biocon Biologics at about $4.9 billion and will solely focus on Covid-19 vaccines in the initial years, the companies said. The 15% stake in the Biocon unit is valued at more than $730 million, Biocon's Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said. The unit, which makes pharmaceutical ingredients, will gain a foothold in the vaccine manufacturing space following the deal. As part of the deal, the Biocon unit and the SII subsidiary will make and distribute vaccines and antibody treatments. CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL COVERAGE ONLY ON DH Biocon Biologics will also invest in setting up a research division for vaccines, with SII Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla getting a seat on the board of the Biocon unit. SII also expects to ramp up its Covishield manufacturing capacity to 200 million doses per month, Poonawalla said at a media briefing on Friday. While there is a current ban on Covid-19 vaccine exports in India, Poonawalla said SII was trying to strengthen its supply chain and source raw materials from within the country as well. SII is also manufacturing and stockpiling Novavax Inc's Covid-19 vaccine, which is yet to be granted approval by the Indian health authorities. In January, Abu Dhabi-based investment firm ADQ invested $75.47 million in Biocon Biologics for a 1.8% stake. Biocon Ltd's shares rose as much as 4.6% early on Friday but gave up gains to trade 0.67% lower amid losses in the broader market. Check out latest coronavirus-related videos from DH: The World Bank Group has decided to discontinue publication of its Doing Business report on country investment climates following allegations of irregularities. The decision was taken after a probe of data irregularities allegedly due to pressure by some top bank officials to boost China's ranking in 2017 came to light. "After reviewing all the information available to date on Doing Business, including the findings of past reviews, audits, and the report the bank released today on behalf of the board of executive directors, World Bank Group management has taken the decision to discontinue the Doing Business report," the World Bank Group said in a statement on Thursday. The group remains firmly committed to advancing the role of the private sector in development and providing support to governments to design the regulatory environment that supports this, it said. Read | Probe found 'undue pressure' from World Bank leaders to boost China business rankings "Going forward, we will be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate. We are deeply grateful to the efforts of the many staff members who have worked diligently to advance the business climate agenda, and we look forward to harnessing their energies and abilities in new ways," it said. Observing that the trust in the research of the World Bank Group is vital, it said, World Bank Group research informs the actions of policymakers, helps countries make better-informed decisions, and allows stakeholders to measure economic and social improvements more accurately. Such research has also been a valuable tool for the private sector, civil society, academia, journalists, and others, broadening understanding of global issues, it said. After data irregularities on Doing Business 2018 and 2020 were reported internally in June 2020, it said, World Bank management paused the next Doing Business report and initiated a series of reviews and audits of the report and its methodology. In addition, because the internal reports raised ethical matters, including the conduct of former board officials as well as current and/or former bank staff, management reported the allegations to the bank's appropriate internal accountability mechanisms, it said. As per the 'Doing Business' 2020 report, India had jumped 14 places to the 63rd position on the ease of doing business ranking. India has improved its rank by 79 positions in five years (2014-19). Check out DH's latest videos A 17-year-old student was found dead with a gunshot wound at a BMTC bus stop near Indian Air Force Headquarters Training Command in RMV Second Stage in the early hours on Friday. The police suspect that the deceased boy allegedly shot himself with his father's licensed pistol. The deceased has been identified as Rahul Bandari, a resident of Ganganagar of RT Nagar. According to a preliminary investigation, Sadashivanagar police said that Rahul was found dead on the pavement of the BMTC bus stop around 5.30 am. A passerby who noticed him lying in the pool of blood alerted the police. On reaching the spot police found that Rahul had a gunshot wound on his head. A pistol, pistol bag, a belt and a mobile phone were lying next to his body. Rahul was studying in class XI in the Army Public School. He was the son of retired Army Havaldar Bhagath Singh. Rahul was staying along with his parents and elder sister in a rented house in Ganganagar. MN Anucheth, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) after visiting the spot, told media persons that prima facie it appears that Rahul had shot himself. There is a bullet entry injury on the right side of his head and an exit wound on the left side. Rahul left his house around 3.30 am for a walk. While leaving, he carried his father's pistol kept in almirah without anybody noticing it. When he came to the bus stop, he allegedly shot himself. The reason for his extreme step is yet to be ascertained, Anucheth said. Rahul used to go for a walk in the morning and at night whenever he felt stressed after studying. He was preparing for his class exams. He was studying from Thursday night till the wee hours on Friday. His parents tried to reach him on his mobile phone to check if he had gone for a morning walk, but the calls went answered, a senior investigating officer said. According to Rahul's parents, they had trained him on using the pistol. Bhagat brought the pistol in 2017. The family hails from Uttarakhand and has been residing in Bengaluru for almost two decades. The parents are shocked by the extreme step of Rahul. He didn't have any issues at home, he was also good at studies and had scored around 90 percent in his class X, the officer added. A case of unnatural death has been registered by Sadashivanagar and further investigation is on. Watch the latest DH Videos here: Europe's drugs regulator said on Friday it could not confirm if women and young adults were at a higher risk of rare blood clots with low platelets following vaccination with AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine after it studied available data. Limitations in the way the data was collected meant that the European Medicines Agency could not identify any specific risk factor that made the condition, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), more likely, it said. A US court has sentenced an Indian national to 22 years in prison for defrauding over 4,000 Americans of more than $10 million with his operation of an overseas robocall scam. Shehzadkhan Pathan, 40, operated a call center in Ahmedabad from which automated robocalls were made to victims in the United States. After establishing contact with victims through these automated calls, Pathan and other closers at his call center would coerce, cajole, and trick victims into sending bulk cash through physical shipments and electronic money transfers, the Department of Justice said on Thursday. Pathan and his conspirators used a variety of schemes to convince victims to send money, including impersonating law enforcement officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and representatives of other government agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, to threaten victims with severe legal and financial consequences. Conspirators also convinced victims to send money as initial installments for falsely promised loans, federal prosecutors said. This defendant has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for being the mastermind and leader of an extensive multimillion-dollar robocall scheme that, from overseas, exploited over 4,000 American victims, said Raj Parekh, Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The impact of the harm inflicted on the victims of these robocall schemes can be devastating. The victims, many of whom are elderly, continue to endure significant financial hardship from the defendants vast fraud enterprise, he said. Pathan operated and supervised the call center and was the closer when speaking to victims. He managed the money couriers who illegally sent millions of stolen and hard-earned funds belonging to the victims back to his call center, Parekh said. When you consider the sheer number of victims this defendant extorted and the magnitude of their losses, the scale of harm and pain he caused is enormous. As this case demonstrates, we will continue to work closely with our partners to investigate, apprehend, and prosecute transnational criminal enterprises that steal from vulnerable American victims, and will bring the perpetrators of these scams to justice no matter where they are located, he said. Pathan is the fourth of six defendants in this case to be sentenced for their role in the conspiracy. Co-defendants Pradipsinh Parmar, 41, and Sumer Patel, 38, both from Ahmedabad acted as money couriers during the conspiracy, and are scheduled to be sentenced on September 20. Check out latest videos from DH: Weeks after their dramatic escape from Kabul, tens of thousands of Afghans hoping to be resettled in the United States remain on military bases across the country and overseas as medical and security screenings slow the process. A small but worrisome measles outbreak has contributed to the delays, causing a halt in evacuation flights as federal officials scramble to contain cases and inoculate new arrivals against the disease and other illnesses, including the coronavirus. As of Sept. 14, about 64,000 evacuees from Afghanistan had arrived in the United States. The vast majority were at risk under Taliban rule after the US withdrawal from the country last month. Nearly 49,000 are living on eight domestic military bases, waiting to be resettled in the United States, according to an internal federal document obtained by The New York Times. Roughly 18,000 are on bases overseas, largely in Germany. Some leave within weeks, but most stay longer. The screenings, which involve an array of federal agencies, follow a condensed and harried evacuation effort last month shortly before the United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan. About 100 Americans who want to leave, and an unknown number of vulnerable Afghans, remain in the country. Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administrations evacuation operation during hours of congressional testimony this week, which included calls from Republican critics for his resignation and charges that the administration failed to adequately plan for the Afghan governments collapse to the Taliban. Blinken said there was no deadline for getting people out of the country and that in the end, we completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated to safety. While Afghan evacuees have escaped the Taliban, their lives remain in limbo, with restless children and little to do on the bases across the United States, including Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, where more than 12,700 people were being housed as of last week, and Fort Bliss in Texas, which has received more than 9,700. We will be here one month or more, said Milad Darwesh, who arrived Saturday at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey after traveling for days to reach the United States. There are nearly 8,000 evacuees at the base. Darwesh said he and his family narrowly escaped Kabul in a harrowing journey with the Taliban on their heels to the gates of the airport there. They spent four days in Doha, Qatar, along with thousands of other evacuees, with little water for drinking or washing. He and his family were then transported to an airplane hangar at a base in Italy before finally making it to Fort Dix. Its nice here, said Darwesh, a former military translator who has been waiting for two years to have his visa processed. We now have our own room. Zainullah Zaki, who is traveling with his family, landed in Qatar on Aug. 18 and traveled on to Germany, where he has been told over and over again that he might be on a flight in days. Because of measles, all the flights are paused right now, John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday about those still on military installations overseas. So nobody is going anywhere. But our goal has been to try and move them as quickly as possible. We know that these men and women and their families want to get on with their lives. Also read: Modi govt in touch with Taliban govt in Kabul after kidnapping of Indian national in Afghanistan Seven measles cases were discovered among Afghans at the domestic military bases. Very few evacuees have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a Sept. 10 internal government update. Afghan nationals settling in the United States are required to have a series of vaccinations, which are being given at military bases in the United States and will soon be administered overseas as well. Many evacuees have arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and hospitals in the state have complained to the federal government that they have been overwhelmed by Afghans in need of medical treatment. Health care providers have asked for financial assistance, and Virginias senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, sent a letter to Biden administration officials pushing for better coordination. Virginia ambulances and hospitals, already occupied with regular patient needs and dealing with the additional stress of COVID, have done superb work to partner with federal agencies managing this processing effort and make sure that emergency health needs of our Afghan partners are met, said Katie Stuntz, a spokeswoman for Kaine. The health providers deserve reimbursement for this work, and Sen. Kaine is working with all stakeholders to make sure that happens. Refugee groups have scrambled for weeks to prepare for large numbers of Afghan refugees but so far have seen only a trickle of people ready to be resettled. In last few weeks, we served more than 100 people, said Krish OMara Vignarajah, CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a resettlement agency that has affiliates in 22 states. Some are coming with little more than a backpack. We know the importance of an orderly system that processes and prepares these new Afghan arrivals, helping them make informed decisions on where they ultimately want to resettle. Ned Price, a State Department spokesman, said Wednesday that the administration was trying to move the evacuees off military bases as quickly and efficiently as we can. We would like to see them resettled in communities, Price said. So it is not in our interest, its not in their interest for them to reside on a US military base or any other official installation for any longer than is necessary, and I think youll see that were able to administer these vital steps with a good deal of efficiency. US military service members have been supporting Afghans at bases by raising funds and delivering items such as prenatal vitamins, nutritional supplements and clothing. Many nonprofits, including Armed Services YMCA and the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Texas, have also been helping, but the distribution of supplies has been slow because of a dearth of personnel. Check out latest videos from DH: Federal prosecutors are preparing to indict a former Boeing test pilot suspected of misleading aviation regulators over the safety issues blamed for two fatal 737 MAX crashes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Mark Forkner was the lead contact between the aviation giant and the United States' Federal Aviation Administration over how pilots should be trained to fly the planes, the Journal said. According to documents published in early 2020, Forkner withheld details about the planes' faulty flight handling system known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS -- later blamed for both crashes -- from regulators. The 737 MAX was formally certified in March 2017, but was grounded worldwide for 20 months following two crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 that killed 346 people. The MAX was allowed to fly again at the end of 2020, once the MCAS software was modified. Boeing has acknowledged its responsibility in misleading regulators and agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion dollars to settle certain lawsuits. Neither the US Justice Department nor Forkner's lawyer responded to requests for comment. The Wall Street Journal said it was not clear what charges Forkner would face. Check out DH's latest videos The only two known male members of the Piripkura tribe in Brazil live in isolation on ancestral lands the size of Luxembourg in the Amazon rainforest, resisting decades of invasion by loggers and cattle ranchers. Brazil's indigenous affairs agency Funai renewed a protection order on Friday for the 242,500-hectare (599,230-acre) area in western Mato Grosso state. But the renewed protection will last just six months, unlike the three-year extensions granted for the territory since 2008. The Piripkura's fate has become a test of indigenous rights under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticised reservations for giving too much land to too few people and blocking the expansion of mining and farming. Indigenous rights advocates had pressed for a three-year extension as in previous renewals. Advocate group Survival International called it a "stay of execution" by the government to gauge reactions before ending the protection altogether. Also read: Amazon rainforest deforestation falls for second month "We are still deeply concerned as the Piripkura's future still hangs very much in the balance, while the landgrabbers are circling round and poised to invade," said Fiona Watson, director of research and advocacy at Survival International. Federal prosecutor Ricardo Pael, who has been seeking a court-ordered extension, said it should be renewed until a final decision on making the Piripkura an official tribal reservation is taken by Funai. But he said the agency had selected a team of people to study the land demarcation that has no experience with uncontacted tribes, and some of its members had conflicts of interests due to links with the farming sector. Sporadic encounters The Piripkura men, Baita and nephew Tamandua, have only been seen in recent years in sporadic encounters with Funai staffers. Unshaven, long-haired and naked, they quickly disappear back into the forest, where other Piripkura are believed to live. Baita's sister Rita Piripkura has been the men's contact with the outside world since she emerged to marry into another tribe on the nearby Karipuna reservation. "I'm worried they'll be killed. There are lots of outsiders around there. They could kill them both and there won't be anyone left," Rita told Survival International in a recorded interview, recalling a massacre of her people years ago. "White men arrived at dawn and killed everyone. They killed nine of us. My family escaped in a canoe," she said. In July, federal prosecutor Pael got a court injunction for the eviction of farmers from the Piripkura land, the most deforested territory of any isolated or recently contacted Amazon people. Police have not yet acted on the order. Anthropologists say the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon cannot survive without their land and are increasingly pitted against armed invaders interested in poaching, farming and mining in their territory. The invaders have become bolder since the 2018 election of Bolsonaro, who once praised Colonel George Custer in a speech for his role in clearing the US prairies of indigenous people. He is backing a bill in Congress that would limit indigenous land claims and help to open tribal reservations for commercial mining and plantations. Bolsonaro said on social media on Thursday that global food security would be endangered if top farm exporter Brazil did not limit native land claims. Indigenous advocates worry that means an eventual extinction of protected territories in limbo, including the Piripkura land. "It will be the end of the Piripkura," said Fabricio Amorim, a former Funai employee now with OPI, an NGO advocating for the rights of isolated and recently contacted indigenous people. Check out latest videos from DH: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday said that the SCO countries should step-up coordination and encourage Afghanistan to put in place an inclusive political framework wedded to moderate policies and resolutely fight all forms of terrorism after the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Addressing the 21st summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Dushanbe via video link, Xi said: Afghanistan has undergone drastic changes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the summit via video link and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended the meeting of the eight-member bloc comprising China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. Xi, in his address without naming the Taliban, said: the withdrawal of foreign troops has opened a new page in its history. But Afghanistan still faces many daunting challenges, and it needs the support and assistance of the international community, particularly countries in our region. We, the SCO member states, need to step up coordination, make full use of platforms such as the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group and facilitate a smooth transition in Afghanistan. We need to encourage Afghanistan to put in place a broad-based and inclusive political framework, adopt prudent and moderate domestic and foreign policies, resolutely fight all forms of terrorism, live in amity with its neighbours and truly embark on a path of peace, stability and development, he said. China, which has maintained contacts with the Taliban before and after it took over power in Kabul in mid-August, has announced a USD 31 million aid for food and vaccines for Afghanistan. Also read: China says it agrees with Jaishankar; says Sino-India ties have their own 'intrinsic logic' Though it has not yet formally announced its recognition to the interim government of the Taliban, China along with Pakistan and Russia has kept its embassy open in Kabul. Its envoy formally met the officials of the interim government. Xi also said that the SCO countries need to follow the journey of upholding our common security. Faced with complex and fluid security dynamics in the region, we need to pursue common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and take tough actions against terrorism, separatism and extremism, he said. He particularly named the Uygur militant organisation, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is fighting for the independence of the volatile Xinjiang province where the US and the EU countries accuse China of committing human rights violations against the native Uygur Muslims. China has asked the Taliban not to permit the ETIM in Afghanistan to stage attacks on Xinjiang which shares borders with the war-ravaged country. Xi, in his speech, said that the SCO countries need to strengthen cooperation on counter-narcotics, border control and security for major events, and speedily improve the SCOs security cooperation mechanism. We need to further implement the Convention on Countering Extremism and other legal instruments, and enhance the capacity of competent authorities of SCO countries to maintain stability and respond to emergencies, he said. He also called on the SCO countries to promote openness and integration. We need to follow the journey of enhancing solidarity and cooperation, the Chinese President said, adding that the SCO countries should step up policy dialogue, communication and coordination, respect each others legitimate concerns and promptly resolve problems that may arise and affect our cooperation, thus keeping the SCO on a steady course of development. Xi, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), also called for the defence of political systems followed by the member states. The SCO countries should maintain firm confidence in their systems, reject condescending lecturing, and firmly support countries in exploring development paths and governance models that are compatible with their national conditions, he said, amidst constant pressure from the West on the CPC to relax its monopoly on political power since the country's founding in 1949. We should support each other in steadily advancing important political agenda including domestic elections. We must never allow any external interference in the domestic affairs of countries in our region under whatever pretext. In short, we should keep the future of our countries development and progress firmly in our own hands, Xi said. To facilitate the post-Covid economic recovery in SCO countries, China will continue to share its market opportunities, strive to reach USD 2.3 trillion in its cumulative trade with other SCO countries in the next five years, and improve its trade structure and balance, he said. China will open a China-SCO Business and Trade Institute to promote business and trade cooperation among SCO countries. As phase one, the 30 billion yuans equivalent special lending facility set up by China in 2018 within the SCO framework will soon be completed. China will launch the second phase of this special lending facility to promote Belt and Road cooperation, the Chinese President said, adding that such lending will mainly cover projects related to modernisation, connectivity, infrastructure and green, low-carbon and sustainable development. Xi said China was the first to call for fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism. We have taken tough actions to curb the spread of drug trafficking, cybercrime and transnational organised crime, and jointly held counter-terrorism exercises and border control operations. We call for seeking political settlement of international and regional hotspot issues, and we have erected a strong defense to uphold peace and tranquility in our region, he said. On the Covid-19 pandemic, he said that fighting the coronavirus remains the most pressing task facing all the SCO countries as he firmly opposed any act of politicising its origin tracing. We should follow the principle of putting people and their lives first and promote the spirit of science. We need to deepen international cooperation against the virus, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and firmly oppose any act of politicising Covid-19 origins tracing, Xi asserted. China is still facing pressure from the US and some western countries to be transparent regarding the outbreak of the pandemic in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. To protect the lives and health of people from around the world, China has provided close to 1.2 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to over 100 countries and international organisations, thus becoming the biggest vaccine provider in the world, he said. China will step up efforts to provide a total of two billion doses to other countries in the course of this year, Xi added. Concluding his address, the Chinese Presidents said that procedures will be launched to admit Iran as a member state of the SCO, and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar as new dialogue partners. I am confident that the growing SCO family will stride ahead together with all the progressive forces of the world, and be the builders of world peace, contributors to global development and defenders of the international order. China will support Uzbekistan in its upcoming SCO presidency. I am sure that with the joint efforts of all our member states, the SCO will continue to scale new heights in all areas of cooperation, he added. Could delivering Covid-19 immunity directly to the nose -- the area of the body via which it is most likely to be transmitted -- help conquer the pandemic? The World Health Organization says clinical trials are underway to evaluate eight nasal spray vaccines that target Covid-19. The most advanced effort so far by China's Xiamen University, the University of Hong Kong and Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy has completed phase-2 trials. "When the virus infects someone it usually gets in through the nose," said researcher Nathalie Mielcarek who is working with the Lille Pasteur Institute to develop a nasal spray vaccine against whooping cough. "The idea is to shut the door." Also read: Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 nasal vaccine gets regulator's nod for holding phase 2, 3 clinical trials An article published in Scientific American in March urged developing nasal spray vaccines because they have an immediate effect on the virus in an infected person's mucus. There they trigger production of an antibody known as immunoglobulin A, which can block infection. "This overwhelming response, called sterilising immunity, reduces the chance that people will pass on the virus," said the article. The vaccines currently available offer strong protection against severe forms of Covid-19 but are less reliable at preventing the spread of the virus. Stimulating immunity directly in the nose "lowers the risk of infecting other people", said Mielcarek. "From there you have less of the virus infecting the lungs and so fewer severe cases since the viral load is lower," she added. An article published in March by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance noted other advantages, including the fact that the sprays don't need refrigeration and don't need to be administered by health professionals. "People would be able to self-administer them at home," the article says, adding "they are likely to be more popular for the millions of people who don't like needles". And in a French study on mice presented last week, 100 per cent of subjects vaccinated with the spray survived infection by Covid-19 while all unvaccinated mice died. "The vaccinated animals... showed low levels of the virus so they are not contagious anymore -- that's one of the advantages of the nasal spray," Philippe Mauguin, CEO of the French institute that hopes to patent the vaccine told AFP. Isabelle Dimier-Poisson who led the research has high hopes. "It could allow us to get back to life before the pandemic, without social distancing, and without masks," she said. Check out latest videos from DH: An old man in the Panjshir Valley sadly describes the last stand resistance fighters made against the Taliban's relentless sweep of Afghanistan: "There were too many of them." Leaning against the door of a closed shop in the village of Khenj, Abdul Wajeed said the group's forces massed in September at the mouth of the valley, north of the capital Kabul. The sight of dozens of armoured Taliban vehicles powering through the narrow gorge is burned into his memory. Read more: Taliban replace women's ministry with notorious vice department "There was nothing more we could do," he said. For three days his village and the National Resistance Forces (NRF) -- a mix of Panjshiri fighters and remnants of the defeated national army -- had fired "with heavy weapons" from the rugged cliffs above the valley. The charred and twisted wrecks of more than a dozen Taliban vehicles are testimony to their intense struggle. But the hardline Islamists continued their relentless advance, emboldened by sweeping victories across the rest of the country and armed with an enormous weapons arsenal seized from the Afghan army. "We were surprised, we did not know what to do," said one NRF fighter, who remains hidden in Panjshir. "We did not have enough weapons." In Malaspa, a farming village surrounded by lush fields, 67-year-old Khol Mohammad said the Islamists convoy had been so large it seemed like "a thousand vehicles full of Taliban" had swept in. Panjshir fighters earned a legendary reputation for resistance, defending their mountain homes first from the Soviet military for a decade, throughout the following civil war, and against the first Taliban regime from 1996-2001. The 115-kilometre (70-mile) valley surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks offers defenders a natural advantage. But two decades since the late veteran fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud led the Panjshiris to victory, the province is no longer as isolated. On August 30 the Taliban launched a multi-pronged offensive -- with some residents claiming the Panjshiri fighters were outnumbered three-to-one. Many of the Panjshiri guns were decades old, Taliban commander Mullah Sanaullah Sangin Fatih told AFP, as he showed off a huge cache of weapons and rockets he said was abandoned as resistance fighters fled. "It dates mainly from the time of the Soviet occupation," Fatih said. That stands in stark contrast to the modern arsenal the Taliban had at their disposal. One Panjshiri fighter said the Islamists used a drone, "which enabled them to easily locate and bomb our positions". Multiple witnesses reported aerial bombardments, but it was not clear who carried them out. Some in Panjshir accuse neighbouring Pakistan of air strikes against them, claims Islamabad has rejected outright. Others criticise the lack of leadership, saying that the 32-year-old Ahmad Massoud -- the son of the legendary fighter -- lacked both experience and international backing. The other leader, ex-vice president Amrullah Saleh, did little to galvanise support. "When he came in August to call on people to fight with him, the elders criticised him for never having done anything for Panjshir," a local journalist said. It is unclear what remains of the resistance, and whether its leaders are even still in the country. On September 6, the Taliban seized the Panjshir's capital of Bazarak and raised their white banner. Today, the valley appears calm, with Taliban rule going "well", according to several residents interviewed by AFP. As a sign of respect, the group have repaired the tomb of Ahmad Shah Massoud, which some of their fighters damaged when they seized Bazark. They say they want to bring "peace and security" to Panjshir, while continuing to hunt down remaining resistance fighters. But Khair Mohammad, an elder from Peshjrur village, said it reminded him of the Soviet occupation. "It was exactly the same. They came, they told us at the beginning that we could be friends, and we said yes of course," he said with a smile. "And you know what happened next." Check out the latest DH videos: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that a security bloc led by Moscow and Beijing should take the lead in ensuring the Taliban kept its promises on preventing terrorism and drug trafficking. The Kremlin chief said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) should "use its potential" to "stimulate the new Afghan authorities" in fulfilling their promises on normalising life and bringing security in Afghanistan. He was speaking via video link at a summit of the eight-member SCO held in Afghanistan's neighbour Tajikistan. Countries allied with Russia and China are holding a series of meetings in the Central Asian state this week. Moscow has been cautiously optimistic on the Taliban since it came to power last month after a series of lightning offensives across Afghanistan. Nevertheless, the Kremlin has said it is in no hurry to recognise Afghanistan's new authorities, calling on the Taliban to curb drug trafficking and fight against extremist groups. Moscow and Beijing have moved to assert themselves as key players in the region, after the United States' hasty retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country. Other founding members of the SCO are former Soviet Central Asian states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the bloc in 2017. Check out the latest DH videos here: US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order allowing for sanctions against the warring parties in northern Ethiopia if they fail to commit to a negotiated settlement. In a statement, Biden called the 10-month-old war in the Tigray region a tragedy and said, "I am appalled by the reports of mass murder, rape, and other sexual violence to terrorize civilian populations." The executive order establishes a "sanctions regime to increase pressure on the parties fuelling this conflict to sit down at the negotiating table and, in the case of Eritrea, withdraw forces," a senior administration official said. Read more: Eritrea rejects US 'blackmail' after sanctions on army chief The United States is not imposing sanctions now but is giving itself the authority to do so if necessary, the official said. The order gives the Treasury Department "the necessary authority" to sanction the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), among other parties, the statement said. Unless these parties take "concrete steps" to resolve the crisis the United States is prepared to impose sanctions against a wide range of individuals and entities in coming weeks, the administration official said without specifying who or what organizations might be targeted. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November to topple the TPLF, which at the time was the ruling party in Tigray. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps. The conflict has killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands of others living in conditions bordering on famine, the United Nations says. Eritrea has provided military support to Ethiopia by sending troops to Tigray, which lies along Eritrea's southern border. In August the United States imposed sanctions against Eritrea's army chief over human rights abuses in Tigray. Though Abiy promised a quick victory, fighting dragged on in Tigray until June when, in a stunning turnabout, the TPLF retook much of the region including its capital Mekele. The TPLF then launched incursions into neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, where subsequent fighting has displaced hundreds of thousands and killed an untold number of civilians. Abiy has long accused Western powers including the US of overlooking crimes committed by the TPLF, which lawmakers officially designated a terrorist group in May. He reiterated that point Friday in a three-page open letter to Biden responding to the executive order. "Unfortunately, while the entire world has turned its eyes onto Ethiopia and the Government for all the wrong reasons, it has failed to openly and sternly reprimand the terrorist group in the same manner it has been chastising my Government," he wrote. Later he added: "This unwarranted pressure, characterized by double standards, has been rooted in an orchestrated distortion of events and facts on the ground as it pertains to Ethiopia's rule of law operations in the Tigray region." The back-and-forth between Washington and Addis Ababa came as the UN sounded the alarm about hundreds of aid trucks it said had "not returned" from Tigray, hampering the humanitarian response. The Ethiopian authorities and Tigrayan rebels have blamed each other for obstructing humanitarian convoys trying to reach Tigray. A government Twitter account on Thursday referred to "suspicions that TPLF (is) seizing trucks for own logistics". But TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda cited obstacles drivers faced while entering Tigray from neighbouring Afar region, adding they have "nothing to do" with Tigrayan officials. The United Nations' health agency, which has repeatedly urged the world to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and other illnesses, on Friday declined to say how many of its own staffers have followed that advice. We won't have that because it's confidential, said Dr Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokeswoman. Referring to United Nations personnel, UN Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said: We don't disclose this kind of information. It's something that is said to the medical service. So, no, unfortunately, we won't be able to give you these numbers. Vellucci said she would look into whether percentages of UN staff that had been vaccinated could be provided. In November, the WHO indicated 65 of its staffers had tested positive for Covid-19 at the time, confirming information in an internal e-mail obtained by The Associated Press. The UN office in Geneva has often indicated how many of its staff tested positive. Also read: Indonesia in talks with WHO to become global vaccine hub: Minister Governments list how many people are vaccinated against the coronavirus, and the WHO compiles the information and reports on it. Some countries and companies require vaccines for their workers to go to their jobs. The refusal to provide vaccination figures by the WHO and the UN itself point to legal strictures that many organisations face about privacy, particularly in Europe. The UN and the WHO have repeatedly trumpeted vaccination as part of an array of measures like mask-wearing, proper hygiene, and physical distancing needed to help try to beat the pandemic. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said he's been vaccinated, and he has encouraged others to do so too. His agency and many health authorities worldwide have struggled to beat back a wave of anti-vaccine sentiment in many places. Check out latest coronavirus-related videos from DH: The Hezbollah militant group said it trucked more than 1 million gallons of Iranian diesel fuel into Lebanon from Syria Thursday, celebrating the move as a way of spiting the United States while bringing much-needed aid to a country nearly paralysed by fuel shortages. With Lebanon suffering one of the worst economic collapses in modern history, Hezbollah portrayed itself as a national savior, stepping in where the Lebanese government and its Western backers had failed. Also read: Fuel shortage in Lebanon brings life to standstill Hezbollah supporters lined roads in northeastern Lebanon as dozens of tanker trucks arrived. The fuel delivery which a Hezbollah official said was the first installment of more than 13 million gallons underscored the severity of Lebanons crisis, as well as the governments failure to address it. Unable to secure help from elsewhere, it has turned to war-torn Syria and economically damaged Iran. The move appeared to violate US sanctions involving the purchase of Iranian oil, but it was unclear Thursday whether the United States would press the issue. Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, is already subject to US sanctions. Although the group is part of Lebanons government, it appeared to be acting independently. The US Embassy in Beirut declined to comment Thursday. But when Hezbollah announced last month that fuel was on the way from Iran, the US ambassador played down any threat of punitive measures. I dont think anyone is going to fall on their sword if someones able to get fuel into hospitals that need it, Ambassador Dorothy Shea told Al-Arabiya English. The fuel arrived as Lebanon struggles through what the World Bank has called one of the worlds worst economic meltdowns since the mid-1800s. Since the fall of 2019, the national currency has lost 90% of its value, and prices for many goods have tripled. Fuel shortages have caused widespread electricity cuts and left many Lebanese waiting in long lines to fill up their cars. Lebanon's prime minister, Najib Mikati, who formed a new Cabinet this week and has vowed to work to ease the countrys woes, made no public statement about the fuel shipment Thursday, nor did authorities overseeing the borders. Check out the latest DH videos here: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday greeted people of Telangana and the Marathwada region on the occasion of Hyderabad liberation day and said the country will forever remain indebted to those who laid down their lives for the unity of the country. On September 17, 1948, the then Hyderabad state was merged with the Indian Union following military action, initiated by the then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. "Greetings to the people of Telangana and the Marathwada region on #HyderabadLiberationDay. On this historic day, I bow to the brave martyrs who fought against the cruelties of Razakars and Nizams. Nation will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifices," Shah tweeted. Greetings to the people of Telangana and the Marathwada region on #HyderabadLiberationDay. On this historic day, I bow to the brave martyrs who fought against the cruelties of Razakars and Nizams. Nation will always remain indebted for their supreme sacrifices. pic.twitter.com/zy4LJDGlKf Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 17, 2021 He also posted a picture of Patel along with his tweet. Shah is scheduled to visit Telangana on Friday and address a public meeting in Nirmal district to coincide with 'Telangana liberation day'. Check out latest DH videos here China on Friday said it agrees with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's assertion that Beijing should not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country, saying that Sino-India relations have their own "intrinsic logic". Jaishankar, who met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Dushanbe, conveyed that the two sides should work for an early resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. He also told the Chinese Foreign Minister that the two countries need to establish a relationship based on mutual respect for which it was necessary that China avoid viewing the ties with India from the perspective of its relations with third countries. On Twitter, Jaishankar said: "It is also essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country." Earlier, a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement on the Wang-Jaishankar talks in the capital of Tajikistan quoted the Chinese Foreign Minister as saying that China has always been positive to seek a proper solution to the China-India border issue. Read more: Eastern Ladakh: Jaishankar calls for early resolution of remaining issues in talks with Wang Yi Asked for his reaction to Jaishankars remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that we agree with the remarks from the Indian side. China and India are both important Asian countries. For the two countries to develop relations there is an inherent necessary logic. China-India relations never target any third party, Zhao said. To a follow-up question, Zhao said, the development of India-China relations follow its own intrinsic logic. China-India relations do not target any third party and are not based on any third party, he said. In the statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang noted that the recent communication between the two sides through the foreign and military departments was earnest and effective, and the overall situation in the border area was gradually de-escalated. The Chinese Foreign Minister hoped that India will meet China halfway to move the situation towards stability and shift it from urgent dispute settlement to regular management and control. Both sides need to consolidate the disengagement results of the front-line troops, and strictly abide by the protocols and agreements and the consensus reached between the two countries, to jointly safeguard the peace and tranquility of the border area and prevent the recurrence of border-related issues, he said. The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area last month. In February, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake in line with an agreement on disengagement. Wang and Jaishankar had held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of another conclave of the SCO in TajikistanDushanbe on July 14. As two major emerging economies, China and India must continue to uphold the strategic consensus of being opportunities of development to each other rather than threats, push the bilateral relationship and practical cooperation onto a healthy and stable track, Wang said during Thursday's meeting. It serves the common interests of the two countries and benefits regional and world peace and development, the Chinese foreign minister said. Check out the latest DH videos here: The Congress on Friday wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday but said the country is paying the price for his "failures" on several fronts and so the day is being observed as "unemployment day", "anti-farmer day" and "high prices day". Congress leader Rahul Gandhi extended his wishes to the prime minister on Twitter. "Happy Birthday, Modi ji," he said. Happy birthday, Modi ji. Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 17, 2021 For the Indian Youth Congress and the NSUI, it was "national unemployment day". Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said birthdays of former prime ministers are celebrated as different days, with Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday as "Children's Day", Indira Gandhi's as "National Integration Day", Rajiv Gandhi's as "Sadbhavna Day" and Atal Bihari Vajpayee's as "Good Governance Day". But Modi's birthday is being observed as "unemployment day", she added. She said she prays that God gives the prime minister the wisdom to realise what he has led the country to. "It is the prime minister's birthday and from this platform, we wish him a happy birthday. We pray for his well being, but we do believe that this day is being celebrated in many parts of the country as unemployment day, anti-farmer day, high prices day, crippled economy day, as winning over your crony capitalists friends day, as ED, IT, CBI raid day, and the corona mismanagement day," Shrinate told reporters. "We do believe that in the last seven years, you have failed on several fronts and we hope and pray that God gives you the wisdom to realise that this is what you have led the country to. This is where, you have failed and today as a result, India is paying a heavy price for it," she also said. She claimed India has the maximum number of unemployed people despite Modi's tall promises. She said every month, jobs are being lost and asked, "where are those two crore annual jobs, one would want to ask? Why are 61 lakh government jobs lying vacant?". Noting that farmers are protesting for nine long months without a solution in sight, Shrinate said high prices in gas, diesel, petrol, edible oil, pulses, daily essential items are making lives of people difficult. She claimed demonetisation and GST have crippled the economy and there has been shutdown of MSMEs and small businesses as a result, as investment in the consumption chain is completely broken. "Still, you have put India on sale for a few friends of yours and which is why, it is important that we are calling it the 'punjipati poojan divas' (crony capitalist friends day)," she said. Shrinate also alleged that during Covid crisis, the country faced shortage of vaccines, oxygen, essential drugs as the prime minister was too busy electioneering and the "red flags were being manipulated to suit his image". She accused the prime minister of misuse of ED, IT, CBI, as frontal organisations. "The PM has broken the very framework of our Constitution and they have hurt the very foundation of our democracy and which is why, the 'ED, IT, CBI raid divas' is perhaps an apt coinage here," she said. Check out the latest DH videos: Their sizes and weight are different. But a common myth surrounding rhino horns that they contain medicinal properties has kept them in much demand in the international black markets. In a bid to bust such myth and resultant poaching of one-horned rhinos, the Assam Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to burn 2,479 such horns stockpiled in government treasuries across the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati. "Out of the 2,623 rhino horns available with the treasuries, 2,479 will be destroyed by consigning them to flames in public in order to bust the myths about rhino horns and the resultant poaching. Another 94 will be preserved as heritage pieces for academic purposes while 50 to be reserved for court cases," said a statement issued after the Cabinet meeting. "The motif of the exercise is to drive home a message loud and clear that these wildlife parts contain no medicinal properties as is being wrongly spread by the gang of smugglers of wildlife parts," said a forest department official. These horns were stored after the natural deaths of rhinos or those left behind by poachers. The state forest department recently carried out a re-verification exercise of the rhinos' horns by an expert team. With nearly 3,000 one-horned rhinos in its national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, Assam has become a source of rhino horns for the international gang of wildlife traffickers. Several rhinos have been killed by poachers mainly in Kaziranga National Park, which has over 2,400 one-horned rhinos (2018 Census). Kaziranga is the biggest habitat in the world for one-horned rhinos. The number of poaching, however, has come down due to strict steps taken in the past few years. The one-horned rhinos are in Appendix-1 of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and trade of its body parts is prohibited. But international wildlife smugglers sell them at several thousand dollars, particularly in Southeast Asian nations like China and Vietnam. The horns are reportedly used in making traditional medicines. The decision to burn the rhino horns has been hailed by wildlife experts. "This is a bold step taken by Assam Cabinet today. Since India is a signatory to CITES, and since Greater One Horn Rhino is in Appendix-1 of CITES List, India can't trade wildlife trophies. The Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 as amended to date also doesn't allow any trade of rhino horn. As such, rather than keeping a huge stockpile of rhino horns in government treasuries, it is imperative to take bold decision to dispose of the same in public view keeping all transparencies to send a strong message that rhino horn is not medicine," said Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, secretary-general and CEO of Aaranyak, a biodiversity conservation group in Assam. Talukdar is also an expert on rhinos. Check out the latest DH videos here: India had never subscribed to any "clash of civilisations" theory, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told his counterpart in the Chinese Government, Wang Yi, stressing that the example set by the relations between the two neighbouring nations would determine the fate of solidarity in Asia. Jaishankars remarks during his meeting with Wang was in sharp contrast with what the Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat said on Thursday. Gen Rawat referred to eminent political scientist Samuel Huntingtons "clash of civilisation" theory at an event in New Delhi and said that Chinese and Islamic civilisations were coming closer to jointly take on the western civilisation. The External Affairs Minister had a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister in Dushanbe on the sideline of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) late on Thursday. He told Wang that China should avoid viewing its bilateral relations with India from the perspective of its ties with third countries, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi. His comment apparently came amid continuing concerns in New Delhi over Chinas all-weather friendship with Indias arch-rival Pakistan. Chinas growing belligerence along its disputed boundary with India, particularly the continuing military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020, brought the relations to a new low. It prompted India to drift closer to Chinas strategic rival, the United States. Read | China appoints new army commander to head troops along Indian border China too said that it agreed with what India said about avoiding viewing bilateral relations through the lens of a third country. Both China and India are important countries in Asia. The development of China-India relations has its own logic. China-India relations have never targeted any third party, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government said in Beijing on Friday. Jaishankars call to China to avoid viewing its relations with India from the perspective of its ties with other countries also came just ahead of the first in-person summit of the Quad in Washington DC on September 24. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the summit, which will be hosted by US President Joe Biden. The Quad is a coalition India, Japan, Australia and the US forged to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region. New Delhi resisted pressure from Washington DC to turn the Quad into a NATO-like military alliance for Asia, but the Biden Administration earlier this week announced a new and separate trilateral coalition of the US, Australia and the United Kingdom focussing on security cooperation against China. Jaishankar told Wang that the two sides should work towards completely resolving the stand-off along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols. India and China earlier this year mutually pulled out troops from the face-off points on the northern and southern bank of Pangong Tso (lake) as well as on Gogra Post. The soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army, however, are still engaged in a stand-off in other areas along the LAC. Jaishankar told Wang that it was necessary to ensure progress in the resolution of the remaining issues so as to restore peace and tranquillity along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. He noted that peace and tranquillity in the border areas had been an essential basis for progress in bilateral relations. The two sides agreed that military and diplomatic officials of the two sides should meet again and continue their discussions to resolve the remaining issues at the earliest. Check out DH's latest videos The all-powerful GST Council on Friday decided to charge food delivery platforms such as Swiggy and Zomato a tax even as it extended concessional tax rates on certain Covid-19 drugs by three months till December 31. The Council, which comprises the Union finance minister and her state counterparts, decided to continue keeping petrol and diesel out of the GST purview as subsuming the current excise duty and VAT into one national rate would impact revenues. Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Council at a meeting here, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said GST has been exempted on muscular atrophy drugs like Zolgensma and Viltepso, which cost crores of rupees. Read more: Key takeaways from 45th GST Council meeting It extended the period of concessional GST rates on certain Covid-related drugs by three months till December 31 but decided not to give the same benefit to medical equipment. The concessional regime for certain medical equipment will end on September 30. Sitharaman said 5 per cent GST will be levied at the point where the delivery is made by Swiggy and Zomato. Also, the Council cut GST rate from 12 per cent to 5 per cent on cancer-related rugs and on fortified rice kernels to 5 per cent from 18 per cent. GST rate on bio-diesel for blending in diesel was reduced to 5 per cent from 12 per cent, while the national permit fee for goods carriage has been exempt from GST. Import of leased aircraft have also been exempted from payment of I-GST, the finance minister said. "GST Council felt it was not the right time to include petroleum products in GST," she said. The panel decided to levy 18 per cent GST on all sorts of pens. Specified renewable sector devices will be charged 12 per cent tax. GST Council also recommended new footwear and textile rates from January 1. Check out the latest DH videos: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the GST Council has extended concessional GST rates on drugs used in Covid treatment till December 31. The Finance Minister addressed the media after the 45th GST Council meeting, in Lucknow. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that progress in the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh was essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity and that it is the basis for the development of overall ties. At a meeting on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe, the two foreign ministers exchanged views on global developments. It is understood that the developments in Afghanistan figured in the talks. "Met Chinese FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe. Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties," Jaishankar tweeted. Met Chinese FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe. Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties. pic.twitter.com/wmO0sxeWwL Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 After the meeting, Jaishankar said India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory. "Also exchanged views on global developments. Emphasized that India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory. It is also essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country," he said. "As for Asian solidarity, it is for China and India to set an example," the external affairs minister said. The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area last month, in a significant forward movement towards the restoration of peace and tranquillity in the region. In February, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector. Check out latest videos from DH: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday met with his counterparts from Iran, Armenia and Uzbekistan and exchanged views on the recent developments in Afghanistan, confronting regional challenges and the ways to boost bilateral ties. Jaishankar, who is in the Tajik capital to attend a key meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on the situation in Afghanistan after its takeover by the Taliban last month, in a tweet said he was glad to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on the sidelines of the SCO meet in Dushanbe. "Discussed strengthening our bilateral relations and working together on regional challenges, he said. In his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Jaishankar said the two leaders positively reviewed the bilateral cooperation and agreed to work together to expand it further. Also read: Jaishankar meets Chinese counterpart Wang in Dushanbe Good to meet FM Abdulaziz Kamilov of Uzbekistan. Our conversation focused on the Afghanistan situation. As countries combating terrorism and fundamentalism, our close cooperation is in mutual interest, he tweeted after his meeting with the foreign minister of Uzbekistan. Actor Prachee Paandya and her group enthralled the audience with their exquisite performance in the gala concert at the SCO Summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to virtually participate in the annual SCO summit on September 17 that is expected to deliberate extensively on the developments in Afghanistan as well as the overall regional security scenario. Jaishankar will attend a meeting on Afghanistan with the heads of state of SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence. India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region. Check out latest videos from DH: Sri Lanka's top leadership and Nepal's Premier Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday extended their greetings to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday, wishing him good health and success in leading the country. Also read: Modi was first CM to recognise seriousness of climate change: Amit Shah Wishes poured in from several dignitaries and politicians from across India for Prime Minister Modi on his birthday. "My heartfelt wishes to Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi on his birthday! May good health & strength accompany you in the journey through these difficult times," Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tweeted. My heartfelt wishes to Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi on his birthday! May good health & strength accompany you in the journey through these difficult times. pic.twitter.com/hjQKTYzcJ1 Gotabaya Rajapaksa (@GotabayaR) September 17, 2021 The President's brother and Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa too extended his greetings to Modi. "Warm wishes to my good friend, Prime Minister @narendramodi, as you step into another year of your life. I wish you strength, success and the best of health as you steer #India out of these difficult times," Mahinda tweeted. Warm wishes to my good friend, Prime Minister @narendramodi, as you step into another year of your life. I wish you strength, success and the best of health as you steer #India out of these difficult times. pic.twitter.com/vkTJlcfx8Z Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) September 17, 2021 Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also expressed his good wishes to Modi. "Wishing Sri @narendramodi a happy 71st birthday! May it bring good health and further success," Deuba tweeted. Wishing Sri @narendramodi a happy 71st birthday! May it bring good health and further success. Sher Bahadur Deuba (@SherBDeuba) September 17, 2021 To mark the day, the BJP has asked its workers to facilitate the Covid-19 vaccination drive as it eyes record-breaking numbers on Friday. Born in Gujarat in 1950, Modi joined Hindutva organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at an early age and was later drafted into the BJP. Made Gujarat chief minister in 2001, Modi has never suffered an electoral setback when votes were cast on his leadership, leading the BJP to power in the state for three consecutive terms and then at the Centre back to back in 2014 and 2019. The BJP will also be distributing over 14 crore ration kits and holding blood camps besides organising other welfare activities during the 20-day campaign. Check out the latest DH videos here: Track Deccan Herald's latest updates of news from India and across the world here! Prime Minister Narendra Modis government in New Delhi has been in touch with the new Taliban government in Kabul after a citizen of India was kidnapped in the capital city of Afghanistan. We are in touch with all concerned. We have seen reports about local authorities undertaking investigations into this matter. We will continue to monitor the situation," Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), told journalists in New Delhi. Bansri Lal Arendeh was purportedly kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul on Tuesday. Bagchi said that he was given to understand that Arendeh was a citizen of India but the government was in the process of checking his citizenship status. Arendehs family lives at Faridabad in Haryana. He has been engaged in business in Kabul for the last two decades. The Taliban has announced a government in Kabul after taking over Afghanistan through a military offensive across the country taking advantage of the withdrawal of troops by the United States and its NATO allies. New Delhis envoy to Doha, Deepak Mittal, had a meeting with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the head of the Talibans political office in the capital of Qatar, on August 31. It was New Delhis first publicly-acknowledged contact with the Taliban in 22 years. Also read: Taliban hand over seized cash, gold to Afghan central bank New Delhi did not make it clear if it would recognize the new Taliban Government in Kabul, but the kidnapping of Arendeh apparently prompted it to acknowledge that it was in touch with the authorities in the capital of Afghanistan. Though India could evacuate most of its citizens willing to leave Afghanistan, some are still left in the country. "Till now operations at Kabul airport is not resumed, it is difficult to say how to bring them back. Our focus is that operations at Kabul airport resume. Then, it will be easier for us to bring back the people," Bagchi said. New Delhi had evacuated its envoy to Kabul, Rudrendra Tandon, and 175 other officials posted in the Embassy of India in Kabul on August 17. Check out latest videos from DH: Facing flak for its Covid-19 response and a flagging economy, the BJP has turned to its trump card Prime Minister Narendra Modi by launching three-week celebrations to mark his 71st birthday on Friday. The burnishing of Brand Modi comes ahead of the elections in five states Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur early next year and amid a backlash faced by the BJP over the farmers protests over the three farm laws. Modi, through a highly personalised campaign, rode to power with a clear majority in 2014 and won a larger mandate in 2019. The BJP came to power in several states post 2014 on the back of campaigns revolving around the Prime Ministers personal charisma. Read more: PM Modi bats for fighting radicalisation, extremism at SCO Summit However, of late the sheen around Modi appears to be fading with electoral setbacks in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and a slender victory in Bihar. The upcoming elections are crucial for the BJP, if it has to retain power at the Centre in 2024. BJP workers marked the occasion by encouraging people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, distributing free food grains to the poor, and blood donation camps under the Seva aur Samarpan Abhiyan from September 17 to October 7 the day Modi became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001. BJP President J P Nadda hailed Modi as a social reformer whose single call united a nation to achieve tough goals. It has been the belief of our prime minister that the benefits of development should reach the last person of the society. Under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, politics of casteism and appeasement has been replaced by politics of development, Nadda said. Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP, launched the Nav Bharat Mela that include blood donation drives, cleanliness campaigns at temples, lakes and rivers and symposia on the national transformation under the leadership of Modi. Various BJP-ruled governments had announced mega vaccination drives and the impact was visible as the number of jabs administered had crossed the 2.22 crore mark at 7:30 p.m. An exhibition on Modis journey as an administrator 13 years as chief minister of Gujarat and seven years as prime minister was inaugurated at the BJP headquarters here. The government also commenced an auction of mementos received by the Prime Minister, including the javelin of Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, badminton racquets of P V Sindhu, boxing gloves of Lovlina Borgohain among others. The proceeds from the auction will go to the Namami Gange Mission. Earlier, greetings poured in for Modi from across the country with President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, senior ministers, chief ministers and opposition leaders wishing him on his 71st birthday. 527 vaccinations per second today. Breathtaking..., B L Santhosh, BJP national general secretary (organisation), said. Check out the latest DH videos here: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were detained by the Delhi Police on Friday as they led a protest march in the national capital to mark the first anniversary of the passage of three contentious farm laws. The SAD, which walked out of the ruling coalition at the Centre last year over the farm laws, is observing September 17 as Black Day. The protest march was taken out from Gurudwara Rakab Ganj to the Parliament House. "The protest march today not only symbolises the farmers' dissent but will also be remembered as a historic event that struck at the root of tyranny. Let's unite to mark this day as the beginning of a renewed revolt to bring justice for farmers," the SAD president tweeted. Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav said SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal along with 15 other party leaders have been detained at Parliament Street police station. According to the police, the leaders were detained for taking out the protest march in violation of Covid-19 guidelines. They were subsequently released. The protest march led to massive traffic snarls in several parts of the national capital, including Lutyens' Delhi and ITO. Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who resigned from the government last year over the farm laws, said in a tweet that the massive participation in the protest march shows the public anger. "Farmers have been protesting at the Delhi border for a year, but the Centre is keen on quashing them. We are proud to have quit the NDA. Akali Dal will continue to resist despotism," she added. Alleging that the Delhi Police tried to stop their protest march, SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said, "It is an undeclared emergency in New Delhi." A section of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, has been protesting at Delhi border points against the Centre's three farm laws for over nine months now. The protesting farmers have been demanding the repeal of the laws which they feel will do away with the MSP system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations. The government has insisted that these laws have given farmers a new opportunity to sell their produce and rejected claims that they are aimed at doing away with the minimum support price regime and farm mandis. Check out the latest DH videos here: As farmers protest a year of the contentious farm laws, Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the Centre is indifferent to the farmers' needs. "A number of farmers have died and many are still sitting at the state borders but this government (Centre) is indifferent. We will continue our fight until the three farm laws are repealed," he said. The Delhi Traffic Police on Friday alerted commuters about the closure of specific roads and suggested diversions to avoid any inconvenience due to the protests. Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police informed about closure of roads at Jharoda Kalan border and suggested commuters to refrain from using these routes in view of the farmers' movement. A senior police officer said, "Members of Shiromani Akali Dal have gathered at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj on Friday morning in view of a protest march organised by them against the farm laws." The SAD under the leadership of its President Sukhbir Singh Badal had given a call to take out a march starting from Gurdwara Talab Ganj Sahib to Parliament House against the "anti-farmer" laws passed by the Central government. Due to a demonstration call by farmers to assemble at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj, police pickets have been placed in precaution at different areas in the national capital while traffic is being released after vehicles have been checked, a senior traffic police officer said. More to follow... Watch the latest DH Videos here: CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Friday said the latest orders of the Jammu and Kashmir administration regarding termination of a government employee's service for alleged involvement in terrorism and subversion and mandating vigilance clearance for getting passports were arbitrary decisions that are not good in a democracy. "A government employee is a tool to implement policies of the government. If the same employee is made a suspect by doubting him and putting him in the basket of suspicion repeatedly, it will adversely affect his working and in turn affect overall functioning of the government," Tarigami said in a statement. Read more: J&K admin requires employees to maintain absolute integrity, honesty, allegiance to India He said there was already a procedure laid down to deal with any employee involved in anti-national subversive activities and issuing new orders only created an atmosphere of suspicion. "It seems, because of some ill advice, the J&K administration is resorting to such an unwarranted course and to targeting its employees and thereby putting them under constant fear. If an employee is violating the law, he must be dealt with according to the already laid down procedures, but this type of an arbitrary approach is not good in a democracy," the former MLA added. Tarigami said denying anyone a passport based on a vigilance case cannot be a substitute for being found guilty in a court of law. "One of the most sacred principles of the justice system is that a person is innocent until proven guilty. How can the government deny a passport to an employee on mere registration of a case by vigilance?" he asked. "The authoritarian orders issued by the administration are against the interests of the people of all the regions and communities. Instead of issuing such orders, the government must ensure that the rights of the people and their livelihood are protected," the Communist leader added. A Haryana government high-powered committee will on Sunday hold talks with protesting farm union leaders over clearing of the blockade on National Highway-44 on Kundli-Singhu border, an official statement said here. The meeting will take place in Murthal in Sonipat district, it said. The members of the state-level high-powered committee would hold talks with various farmer organisations. Office bearers of 43 farmer organisations have been invited to attend this meeting, the statement said. The Haryana government had formed the committee on Wednesday, a day after Sonipat Deputy Commissioner Lalit Siwach held a meeting with farmers' representatives over the blockade. An official statement on Tuesday had said while taking up a writ petition, the Supreme Court has asked the Sonipat district administration to provide a way to the common people in the public interest. In compliance with these orders, Siwach had held a meeting with farmers' representatives in Sonipat on Tuesday. On Wednesday evening, a high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M L Khattar here, which, Home Minister Anil Vij said, had been convened in the wake of the apex court's orders last month. To comply with the apex court's orders, a state-level high-powered panel has been formed under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajeev Arora, Vij, who was also present in the meeting, had told reporters later. Keeping in view the Supreme Court orders and the fact that common people are facing inconvenience due to the blockade, the committee will hold talks with Samyukt Kisan Morcha on the opening of the way, he had said. The committee has the Director General of Police and Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) amongst its members. On Tuesday, the Sonipat DC had told farmers that while taking up a writ petition filed by Noida resident Monica Agarwal, the apex court has ordered that the farmers protesting on the Kundli-Singhu border in Sonipat district should give way to common people and shift to one side of the road. The court had last month said the Centre and Delhi's neighbouring states should find a solution to the road blockades on the national capital's borders. The farmers are protesting against the passage of three laws -- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Farmers'' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020. Check out the latest DH videos here: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday demanded immediate scrapping of the Centre's new farm laws, calling for detailed discussions with farmers to find a way forward. Pointing out that many farmers had died in the protests against these laws, which were passed by the parliament a year ago, he said the Centre should withdraw the legislations in the interests of farmers and the nation. Singh was speaking after inaugurating the third state-level virtual Kisan Mela organised by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. Read more: Delhi protest: Centre indifferent to farmers' plight, says SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal It is high time the central government realised its blunder and withdraw the legislations in the interest of farmers and the nation, he said. The chief minister, who wore a no farmers, no food badge, said, Till date, the Constitution of India has been amended as many as 127 times, so why can it not be amended once again to scrap the farm laws and resolve the imbroglio resulting from them? What is the problem in doing it a 128th time? he sought to know from the BJP-led central government. He also alleged that the Centre was out to ruin the farmers. The senior Congress leader further said what was happening with the farmers today was extremely sad, given the immense contribution made by them to India's development and progress. The two-day Kisan mela is centred on the theme Karie Parali Di Sambhal, Dharti Maa Hove Khushal in line with the state government's focus on eliminating stubble burning, an official statement said. Recalling that he was asked by the Centre to stop Punjab's farmers from going to Delhi last November, Singh said he had outright refused to do so as protest is the democratic right of farmers. He made it clear that he continues to stand with the farmers in their fight against the draconian legislations, with his government continuing to give compensation and jobs to families of deceased farmers. Noting the contribution of Punjab and its farmers to the country's growth, the chief minister said the state, with only 1.53 per cent of total geographical area of India, produces about 18 per cent of the country's wheat, 11 per cent paddy, 4.4 per cent cotton and 10 per cent milk. For the past many decades, Punjab has been contributing about 35-40 per cent of wheat and 25-30 per cent of rice to the central pool, he said, expressing pride in the achievements of the state's farmers. The CM also pointed out that the state had attained a record wheat productivity (5,188 kg/hectare) and production (182.6 lakh tons) during 2018-19. It also achieved record rice productivity (4,366 kg/hectare) and production (133.8 lakh tons) during 2017-18. Record cotton productivity was also achieved during 2019-20, he added. Singh urged farmers to take full advantage of PAU's advancements in technologies, seeds, among others. Check out the latest DH videos: President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday hailed Himachal Pradesh's contribution to armed forces, saying he "salutes the brave soldiers from the state" who are serving the nation. He also said that Major Somnath Sharma from the state was the first recipient of the prestigious Param Vir Chakra. The president was addressing a special one-hour session of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly here to mark the golden jubilee of its statehood. The hill state attained golden jubilee of its statehood on January 25, 2021, but the special session was delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic. The celebrations will now continue throughout the year. Kovind noted that as many as 1.20 lakh soldiers from Himachal Pradesh are presently serving the nation. Being the head of the defence forces, I salute all the brave soldiers of Himachal Pradesh for serving the nation, he said. In his 18-minute address, the president also said that the entire state should become 'Sirmaur' in terms of development in the entire country. Sirmaur, meaning crown, is one of the districts of Himachal Pradesh. He urged the farmers of the state to adopt natural farming to preserve the beauty of the state. The president said he had been attracted to the natural beauty of Himachal Pradesh for the last 45 years. He visited the state for the first time in 1974, and at that time, he came to Kullu-Manali and since then, he kept on visiting the state every now and then. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi also extended his wishes for the hill state. He noted that all successive governments led by Yashwant Singh Parmar, Thakur Ram Lal, Virbhadra Singh, Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal played vital roles in bringing Himachal Pradesh where it is now. He said the hill state also set an example for other states as the state assembly became the first paperless Vidhan Sabha in the country in 2014. He also congratulated the hill state with regard to NITI Ayog 2020-21 report, whereby Himachal Pradesh is on second number in the entire country. Meanwhile, Kovind also recited a Sanskrit shloka on how the state is considered to be connected with Mahadev Shankar and Parvati. He also expressed condolences for the kin of those who had lost their lives during recent calamities in the state. Kovind is the third president to address the Himachal Pradesh Assembly after A P J Abdul Kalam in 2003 and Pranab Mukherjee in 2013. Union minister Anurag Thakur and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal also attended the special session. However, former Union minister Sukh Ram and former chief minister Shanta Kumar could not attend the session. Forest Minister Rakesh Pathania was also not present as he isolated himself after his PSA recently tested positive for Covid-19, an official said. Sitting and former MLAs and MPs from Himachal Pradesh participated in the special session. Earlier, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and Speaker Vipin Singh Parmar expressed their views. The governor released the 'Who's Who' book and submitted a copy to the president on the occasion. On Saturday, Kovind will attend the valedictory ceremony of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts, Shimla. He will leave for Delhi on Sunday. Check out the latest DH videos here: The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed a plea against administrative reforms being implemented in Lakshadweep. A Bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly dismissed the plea filed by Save Lakshadweep Forum against the closure of dairy farms and changes in the food menu of school children. Also read: Aisha Sultana raises apprehensions over sedition case Expressing solidarity with the people of the island, the Kerala Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution demanding the recall of island administrator Praful Khoda Patel and requesting the Central government's immediate intervention to protect the lives and livelihood of the islanders. An archipelago located in the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep has been witnessing protests by locals over the recent actions and administrative reforms being implemented by Patel. Check out latest videos from DH: The UK on Friday expressed hope that it will be able to soon complete the negotiations for the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India, a move aimed at further enhancing trade and investment ties between the two countries. "I can confidently predict that we will complete the India-UK FTA before we see an India-EU (European Union) FTA completed," UK Investment Minister Lord Gerry Grimstone said. Speaking at industry body CII's India-UK Annual Conference, he said there have been productive discussions on how the trade pact can act as a means to connect the two economies and to double bilateral trade over the next decade. Read more: India, UK moving towards early harvest trade deal: Piyush Goyal India and the UK are aiming to start negotiations for the proposed bilateral FTA by November 1. Recently, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the two countries are moving towards an early harvest trade agreement, with a comprehensive FTA as the next step. In a FTA, two or more trading partners significantly reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them besides liberalising norms to promote trade in services and investments. In an interim trade pact, customs duties are removed on a limited number of goods. The bilateral trade between the two nations stood at $13.11 billion in 2020-21 as against $15.45 billion in 2019-20. Trade balance is in favour of India, according to the data from the Indian commerce ministry. Grimstone also said that "our focus is on boosting investments, exports, addressing market access issues, removing trade barriers that are hindering growth and unleashing the potential for economic growth". India is working on creating a robust FTA with the UK, Gaitri Issar Kumar, High Commissioner of India to the UK, said. India is the second largest FDI contributor in the UK and 850 Indian companies contributed a net revenue of over GBP 50 billion. In a major move, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray announced an over two-dozen point plan for Marathwada to boost infrastructure, tourism and education sectors in the region. We are committed to developing Marathwada, the chief minister said addressing the Marathwada Liberation Day celebrations in Aurangabad. Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray had a special relationship with Marathwada and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government is working towards the region's development and putting it on the international map, he said. The Marathwada Mukti Sangram Din, celebrated on September 17 annually, marks the anniversary of Marathwadas integration with India in 1948, 13 months after Independence. The Marathwada region -- comprising eight districts of Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhani -- is spread over a vast 64,590 sq km. In fact, Aurangabad is the tourism capital of Maharashtra. Thackeray said the state government is working on three key projects to enhance connectivity between Shirdi and Aurangabad. This includes railway connectivity between Aurangabad and Ahmedabad, looking at feasibility of opening Shirdi-Aurangabad flights and widening of the Shirdi-Aurangabad road. A lot of people visit Shirdi for darshan of Sai Baba... we want these people to also visit Marathwada... there is a lot in the region and people of the country must visit it, he said. The chief minister said that 144 schools of the Nizam-era would be redeveloped. A Saint-peeth course on the illustrious saint culture of the state would be started in Paithan and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad must shoulder the responsibility. He informed that the government has approved a highway between Jalna and Nanded cities in the Marathwada region which will connect to the under-construction Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Corridor. Thackeray also said that the government would look at the feasibility of linking Aurangabad and Marathwada to the bullet train route. Check out latest videos from DH: Dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze has alleged in his statement to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh had asked him to collect money from bar and hotel owners, and used to give instructions in high-profile investigations. Earlier, former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had accused Deshmukh of asking Vaze to collect money from bar owners in Mumbai, an allegation which Deshmukh, who later resigned, denied. Vaze's statement is part of a charge-sheet recently filed by the ED against Deshmukh's personal secretary Sanjeev Palande and personal assistant Kundan Shinde in an alleged money laundering case. Vaze, an assistant inspector of Mumbai Police, was arrested in March this year in a case of SUV with explosives found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani's south Mumbai residence. Vaze told the ED that on June 16, 2020, he met Deshmukh at the state guest house Sahyadri where the then state home minister told him that together "they will do good cases". Thereafter, Deshmukh used to call him frequently to take updates on various cases directly and at times for personal work such as arranging vehicles, the statement said. Among other matters, he got instructions from Deshmukh on the TRP rigging case where some TV channels were accused of manipulating TRP to inflate viewership, and the abetment to suicide case regarding the death of architect Anvay Naik in which journalist Arnab Goswami was arrested, as per Vaze's statement. To another query, Vaze alleged that at a meeting held in October, 2020 at Deshmukh's residence Dyneshwari the NCP leader gave him a list of 1,750 bars and restaurants and asked him to collect Rs 3 lakh each from these establishments for granting various favours. The charge-sheet has not named Deshmukh or his family members as accused, but says that Vaze collected money from bars and restaurants at the behest and instructions of Deshmukh and the amount was handed over to Deshmukh's aides Palande and Shinde. Deshmukh received approximately Rs 4.70 crore, collected from orchestra bar owners, and this money was routed to the Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha Trust, managed by the Deshmukh family, as donations, the ED charge sheet alleged. The ED launched a probe against Deshmukh and his associates after the CBI filed an FIR against the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader on April 21 following allegations made by Param Bir Singh. Check out latest videos from DH: Four top ministers of the Narendra Modi government including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, two former Chief Ministers M Veerappa Moily from Karnataka and Devendra Fadnavis from Maharashtra will feature at the Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (BCS), Indias only national conclave for politically-inclined students. Besides Singh and Gadkari, other ministers are health, family welfare minister Mansukh Mandaviya, education and skill development and entrepreneurship minister Dharmendra Pradhan, former Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bias will address students. The Pune-based MIT School of Government will host the 11th edition of the flagship event from 23 September, which will run for six days till 28 September. Nearly 20,000 student leaders from all states of India will participate. The conclave will also conduct two Youth to Youth Connect Programs to enable students to lead the discourse on the most pressing topics around nation-building. In its 11th year, BCS, which is the countrys largest platform that encourages and empowers the youth of the country to participate actively in politics, will be held virtually for the first time to make it accessible to youth from all parts of the country. MIT School of Government is the first school of its kind to create future political leaders, with active support from the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India, Association of Indian Universities (AIU), and the UNESCO Chair of Human Rights, Democracy & Peace, Pune. The BCS began its arduous journey in 2011 under the visionary leadership of young educationist Rahul V. Karad, founder of Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad and chief initiator of MIT School of Government. Through the last decade, BCS has been inspiring the youth of the country to raise their voice, get a better understanding of politics and engage with the most sought-after political and thought leaders through this unique platform. Karad, Managing Trustee & Executive President, MAEERs MIT Group of Institutions and Executive President, MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU), Ravikumar Chitnis, Vice-Chancellor, MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU) and Ravindranath Patil, former IPS officer Senior Director, MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU) and several student leaders from across the country were present at the online announcement on Friday. The last 10 annual conclaves witnessed the participation of 80,000-plus politically and socially inclined students from 450 universities from various states of India, and other countries. Over 500 eminent political leaders, thinkers, business leaders, and youth icons of national and international eminence from all spectrums of ideologies have engaged them in absorbing and thought-provoking sessions. Nearly three months after his arrest, the Maharashtra government has suspended Sanjeev Palande, an additional collector-rank officer who was personal secretary to former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, in connection with a corruption case. Palande was arrested on June 26 this year and is being investigated under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A government order issued on September 16 said that Palande was sent to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody on July 7 and then to judicial custody. He has spent more than 48 hours in custody and as per the Maharashtra Civil Services Rules, he stands suspended since the time of his arrest on June 26 till further orders. Palande 's headquarters during his suspension period will be at Mumbai city district collectorate and he will not be able to leave Mumbai city district without prior permission of the collector, it said. The order said the ED has informed the state government about Palande's arrest and custody through a letter on August 31. He was arrested in connection with money laundering charges against Deshmukh, an NCP leader. Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that Deshmukh had asked police officer Sachin Waze top collec Rs 100 crore from city bars and hotels every month, a charge which the former minister has denied. Check out DH's latest videos The Agreement on Agriculture at the WTO was riddled with deep imbalances, which favour the developed countries and have tilted the rules against many developing countries, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said. He said that historical asymmetries and imbalances must be corrected to ensure a rule-based, fair and equitable order. Goyal said this while addressing the G-33 Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting. Read more: WTO negotiations need transparency It was organised by Indonesia on Thursday to discuss the agricultural priority issues of G-33 and the way forward for the 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 3 this year, an official statement said on Friday. Out of a total of 47 G-33 members, representatives from 21 countries, including India, took the floor to make the brief intervention. In his intervention, Goyal said G-33 must strive for positive outcomes on a permanent solution to public stockholding for food security purposes, which is of utmost importance, finalisation of a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) quickly and a balanced outcome on domestic support. He urged the members to work collectively to retain the cohesion of the G-33 coalition and strengthen it further by reaching out to other like-minded developing groups to secure their support for a fair, balanced and development-centric outcome on agriculture at the 12th conference in Geneva. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the G-33 joint ministerial statement reaffirming commitment for expeditious resolution of the WTO's mandated issues in agriculture. The minister "highlighted that Agreement on Agriculture at the WTO was riddled with deep imbalances, which favour the developed countries and have tilted the rules against many developing countries", the statement said. How do we understand Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's outrageously communal accusations against those who use "Abba Jaan" as a form of address? He rages against Muslims for unfairly cornering free ration under previous governments. Not only have they "digested" their ill-gotten gains, but he also accuses them of smuggling food-grain subsidised by the Indian state across the borders to adjacent Nepal (the Nepalese Terai abutting UP has a Muslim population) and Bangladesh, should anyone miss the communal metaphor. His rhetoric invoked Hindutva's trope of the Muslim being undeserving of state largesse and engaged in criminal activities against the nation. It is not just another instance of communal speech by Adityanath. This time the focus is on the disbursement of sops that have become crucial for his re-election. Read | Is 'Abba Jaan' an unparliamentary word? asks Yogi Adityanath Western UP is slipping out of his hands because of the ongoing farmers' agitation. Eastern UP has seen far too many Covid-19 deaths to feel positive about his administration, and the change of leadership in other election going states must have shaken him. However, the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has spared him for the moment. A desperate Adityanath is using the state's public relations budget to bolster his developmental successes and welfare initiatives. The Central government has put its shoulder to giving momentum to the distribution of freebies before the state Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to launch the Ujjwala-2 scheme of distributing free LPG cylinders from UP, which is expected to benefit about 20 lakh households in the state. The state is already distributing free food grains 3 kg of wheat and 2 kg of rice to about 14.81 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Anna Kalyan Yojna. This will continue till November this year. In passing a supplementary budget on August 19 this year, the state government announced a Rs 3,000 crore scheme to provide tablets or smartphones to students and a '"preparatory allowance" for students preparing for competitive exams for a maximum of three such exams. Here, Yogi took a leaf out of the Samajwadi Party's book, which had promised free laptops to attract young voters in the 2012 Assembly elections. The details of the schemes are to be announced later, no doubt nearer to the Assembly polls. Also Read | Earlier only those who used to say 'Abba Jaan' got ration: Yogi launches attack on SP, calls Cong mother of terrorism The state government has also announced its intention to increase the honorarium of Anganwadi workers and helpers. As the elections come nearer, the state in tandem with the Centre is likely to announce many more welfare schemes. But the latest exercise of name-calling gives state patronage a communal twist. Adityanath's suggestion is that his government distributes subsidies more fairly to poor and marginalised Hindus than earlier regimes. It suggests that welfare measures will be peddled in a way that will consolidate their support, papering over internal caste cleavages. However, it has been pointed out that Adityanath's claim of free food grains being cornered by Muslims are not factually correct. At the fag end of the previous supposedly pro-Muslim regime under the Samajwadi Party, four months before Adityanath became the chief minister, the total ration beneficiaries stood at 14.01 crore. Today the total number of ration cards issued in the state stands at 3.59 crore, covering 14.86 crore beneficiaries. By no logic could the majority of these beneficiaries have been Muslim, as according to the 2011 Census, there were 15.9 crore Hindus in the state and only 3.84 crore Muslims. The census numbers do not support Adityanath's claims. Even if it is factually untrue, the communal rhetoric in which he wraps state patronage could rally the majority community behind him, including those castes that have been the support base of the Samajwadi Party. This kind of communalisation, it is assumed, would coax them to stand with the larger Hindu community against "undeserving" Muslims. Adityanath, in effect, has turned out to be a good student of Prime Minister Modi. He has picked up all the latter's stratagems in the run-up to the 2014 general elections mobilising the electorate by talking of a "development model" while making egregiously communal remarks in the same breath. Will this latest attempt to create a horizontal consolidation around state welfare measures amongst Hindus as a community, which pits them against wily, "pampered" and "undeserving" Muslims, work? Will this bring in the rest of the Hindu vote over and above the "core vote" of the BJP? Adityanath surely hopes that "Abba Jaan" will save him. For the moment, Prime Minister Modi will ensure the largesse of the Centre to promote Adityanath's promises of freebies because he needs a win in the UP Assembly to set the momentum for the 2024 general election. But his cutting Adityanath to size after he wins the UP election would be very much on the cards. (The writer is a journalist based in Delhi) Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH. With the exit of US troops from Afghanistan and its takeover by Taliban, the three Sunni Muslim-majority countries Pakistan, Qatar and Turkey have initiated engagement with Kabuls new dispensation. The proximity of the Pakistani military establishment to the infamous Haqqani clan, who are from Loya (meaning big in Pashtu) Patika, in the eastern part of Afghanistan, is a well-documented fact. Most members of the Taliban leadership have studied in Pakistani Deobandi Islamic seminaries. These facts make Pakistan an influential player in Afghanistan. Along with Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia was one of the few countries that recognised the Taliban when they assumed power the first time in 1996. Various studies have pointed out that during the Afghan jihad, Saudi funding led to the radicalisation of the Deobandi seminaries of Afghanistan and Pakistan with the infusion of its Wahabi ideology, rooted in the Salafi school, a narrow interpretation of Sharia. Outside the region, this time around, Turkey and Qatar are engaging with the Taliban, and this dimension requires more probing than present reports indicate there is. Qatari and Turkish technicians have reportedly helped the Taliban restart Kabul airport. Recently, Qatars deputy prime minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdur Rahman Al-Thani, who is also the countrys foreign minister, visited Kabul to meet the Taliban leadership. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also among the few world leaders who have said that their government is open to working with the Taliban. Also read: Pak NSA criticises wait and watch policy on recognising Taliban regime in Afghanistan Qatar has played host to the dialogue between the Taliban and the US since 2011. The family members of some Taliban interlocutors still live in Qatar. Qatar, which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, maybe amenable to continue assisting the Taliban, particularly in the humanitarian domain. Due to Talibans connection to the 9/11 attacks and domestic political opposition, the US political leadership is likely to abhor any visible engagement with them. However, it may continue to encourage Qatar, which hosts the Al Udeid airbase near Doha, the largest American military outpost in the Middle East, to positively incentivise Taliban and gain some leverage on critical issues, safe passage for potential remaining evacuees, counter-terrorism, womens rights and other pressing human rights issues. With regard to Turkeys role in Afghanistan, it is influenced by history and its own larger foreign policy orientations. Turkey shares the Hanafi school of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence with South Asia and Central Asia. Deobandi Islam, which is the most popular among Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line, is a derivative of the Hanafi school. Broadly speaking, the Hanafi school gives more emphasis to the contextualization of Quranic injunctions and creating consensus. One reason for the spread of Deobandi Islam in the Pashtun areas in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century was that it married neatly into the tradition of consensus-forming among Pashtun tribes, as reflected in the jirga, a tribal tradition of holding community meetings of male elders. In addition, Turkeys involvement in Afghanistan will be tempered by its economic and political interests in the neighbouring Central Asia region. Turkey has some distinct cultural and geographical linkages with Central Asia. Most of the air routes from Europe to the Central Asian countries are through Istanbul. Turkey has sought to create its own sphere of Turkic-speaking countries by forming the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, or the Turkic Council. The council, established in 2009, has headquarters in Ankara and it aims to bring various countries linked by Turkic linguistic roots under one umbrella and coordinate in various spheres, including the economy. In Central Asia, three countries Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are part of the council as the native languages in these countries are of Turkic origin. Russian is also spoken in Central Asia because of its association with the former Soviet Union. The two non-members of the council in the region are Tajikistan, which is Persian-speaking and shares ethnicity with northern Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, where Turkmen, the native language is of Turkic origin but the political leadership invokes the neutrality principle in order to avoid hurting its equities with Russia. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan share ethnicity with Afghanistans northern frontiers. The political elite in Central Asia is perpetually wary of the spread of radicalisation in their own boundaries. Political freedoms are often curtailed, ostensibly to counter the forces of religious extremism. In 2014-15, the highest numbers of foreign fighters that joined the Islamic State in the Syria-Iraq war theatre were from Central Asia, a number reportedly the same as from Western Europe. A number of extremists from Central Asia are already present in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. In addition, Qari Fasihuddin, a Tajik from Afghanistan, is the acting army chief of Taliban. Fasihuddin belongs to the Badakhshan province, an area that borders Tajikistan, China and Pakistan-controlled Gilgit-Baltistan. Turkeys engagement with Afghanistan will be inoculated by its own ambitions in the Central Asian countries. The role of China and Russia, the two pre-eminent powers of the region, is also important in this respect. Both will keep a close watch over any external engagement that impacts Central Asia or their own territory. China, one of the players in Central Asia because of its economic heft, has its own concerns about the Taliban, including Fasihuddin, because of his alleged connections with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a militant outfit of Uighurs from Chinas Xinjiang province. The regions language is of Turkic origin as well. Russia, which in the recent past re-gained its foothold in Central Asia, is perpetually worried over the spill-over effects from the Central Asian region to its own insurgency-hit Chechnya. To sum up, Qatar and Turkeys engagement with Afghanistan must be watched more closely. (The writer previously managed a counter-terrorism project on Central Asia at the UN) Check out latest videos from DH: Doctors have poked and prodded NASA astronauts for years, and the astronauts, as government employees, have largely acceded to their roles as test animals in studying how an alien environment outer space affects the human body. But professional astronauts have historically been a small slice of humanity. Initially, they were chosen from the ranks of military test pilots who were white, physically fit men. Later, as NASA broadened its criteria, it still chose only astronauts who passed their physical thresholds. But that could be changing as private spaceflight opens space to a more diverse cross section of humanity. Also Read | 'Happy' SpaceX tourist crew spend first day whizzing around Earth For scientists, the change will create a bonanza of new data on how the human body adapts to space. The Inspiration4 mission, which launched Wednesday, shows how medical researchers can benefit from the new commercial space travel. The crew of four, none of whom is a professional astronaut, will spend a fair amount of time in orbit helping to advance medical research. One of the passengers, Hayley Arceneaux, exemplifies those possibilities. At 29, she is younger than most space travelers, a cancer survivor and will be the first person in space with a prosthesis metal rods that were implanted after a tumor was removed from her left leg. Were going to learn some things that are very fundamental, said Dorit Donoviel, executive director of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, or TRISH, at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, which is coordinating research during the Inspiration4 flight. Research to date has revealed that fluids shift upward in the body in the absence of gravity swollen heads, shrunken legs. The lack of gravity also weakens bones. Not only does radiation in space slam into DNA, creating mutations, but the unusual conditions of weightlessness cause some genes to turn on and others to turn off. The biological repercussions of these alterations are not yet understood. The crew aboard Inspiration4 will take 10 tests originally designed to gauge the mental performance of NASA astronauts each day. The tests take about 20 minutes to complete. It needed to be brief, because astronauts kind of hate doing these things, said Dr. Mathias Basner, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who is lead investigator for that experiment. Also Read | Chinese astronauts complete three-month space mission But in a dangerous environment like space, small errors can lead to catastrophe. So we need our astronauts to perform at their best all the time, Basner said. Now, the problem is that humans are particularly bad at self-assessing their performance capability, especially in chronic exposure situations. If you sit in the same environment all the time, you think youll be fine, but youre actually not. One test is simply a square that appears on a screen, and one has to tap on it. The square changes position and progressively becomes smaller. That measures the reaction speed and eye-hand coordination. Another measures what is known as psychomotor vigilance. First, the subject stares at a box on the screen. A stopwatch suddenly pops up within the box, counting the milliseconds until the subject presses a button. Which is extremely sensitive to sleep deprivation, Basner said. Yet another test gauges a persons ability to identify emotions in other people. The test displays 20 faces showing a variety of emotions happy, sad, angry, fearful or expressing no emotion. In a so-called bed rest study lying down for extended periods of time mimics many of the physical effects of weightlessness in space subjects were able to still correctly identify most of the emotions. But they took longer to identify them, and their responses skewed to more negative expressions. Mark J. Shelhamer, a professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine, is gathering data on how spaceflight affects the vestibular system the parts of the human body, particularly the inner ear, that maintain balance. His research consists of two parts, to be conducted before launch and after return to Earth. One will measure the crew members postures. Its just what it sounds like, Shelhamer said. Its the ability to stand up. And the ability to stand up is not only based on muscle strength, but its based on coordination. Also Read | Meet the first all-civilian space crew on trip to orbit The Inspiration4 crew members will hold a Windows tablet to their chests, put their feet together and close their eyes. Accelerators in the tablet will measure how much they sway as they stand. Thats not so hard to do on Earth, Shelhamer said. But it can be challenging after having spent some time in space. Shelhamer has also devised a test using the tablet to study whether weightlessness causes eyes to become misaligned. That could give hints of how the brain might become confused, disrupting the sense of balance. What researchers want to learn is how to predict who becomes sick in space. Surprisingly, there is no correlation between who experiences motion sickness on Earth on a boat rocking back and forth, during a long car trip, even short episodes of floating during parabolic plane flights and those who become sick in orbit. We dont understand this at all, Shelhamer said. Its an embarrassment, because we would like to think that its the same fundamental mechanisms the fact that the different sensory systems dont match up. TRISH, the organization Donoviel leads, has built a database to store the study results that not only protects the privacy of private space travelers in accordance with requirements of the federal law restricting release of medical information, but will also allow researchers to compare data from different studies for one individual. For instance, Shelhamer might want to know whether an individual whose ability to stand straight without swaying declined after a trip to space also encountered cognitive slowdowns while taking Basners tests in space. That is often not possible with how NASA reports data collected on its astronauts, he said. In addition, the Inspiration4 crew members are wearing Apple Watches that will measure their heartbeats and oxygen levels. They will also test out ultrasound devices that can track how water in their bodies shifts upward while they float in orbit. That could help solve the puzzle of the squashing of eyeballs and resulting shift in vision experienced by some astronauts. The research does depend on how well the Inspiration4 crew feels during their trip. Because there is no way to predict who gets sick in space, it is possible that they all will and then they may not be able to do much research during the three-day trip. My worry is that theyre not going to enjoy their time in space, Donoviel said. They may not be able to carry out the experiments that we are sending up. So that is a risk that Im taking. Check out DH's latest videos: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya drew parallels between Obamacare in the United States and Modi government's healthcare initiatives, saying 50 crore people have benefited in the country. "A few years ago, 'Obamacare' was brought in the US, providing health security to 10 crore people. It was appreciated across the world. PM Modi provided health security up to Rs 5 Lakhs not to 10 crore people but 10 crore families (that is) to 50 crore people," Mandaviya said. KIOCL Limited Chairman-cum-Managing Director T Saminathan said that the captive mining operations at Devadari in Sandur taluk in Ballari district is likely to begin by March 2023. The company, which recently received stage-1 approval from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for iron ore and manganese ore mining, is expecting to get the stage-2 clearance by March 2022. By all means, the mining operations will begin by 2023, he told mediapersons at Patrika Bhavan. Read more: Karnataka assembly passes 3 Bills including 1 related to identification of prisoners The Devadari will have a mine capacity of 2 MTPA iron ore and 500 TPA Managanese ore with 2 MTPA wet beneficiation plant, he added. "We are in the middle of executing both backward and forward integration plans at Blast Furnace Unit at Mangaluru. The tendering process was delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic, subsequent travel restrictions and changes in public procurement policy, GFR and mandatory registration with Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) GoI by foreign bidders, sharing the country border. The company is investing all its efforts to bring the project at the earliest with the company planning to set up a coke oven plant as part of backward integration. As part of a forward integration plan, we are looking at setting up a ductile iron spun pipe plant and the project is likely to be completed in the two years, he added. Further, he stated that the mineral exploration works assigned by National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET), Ministry of Mines of Government of India and Department of Mines and Geology of Government of Karnataka are under different stages of execution. The KIOCL completed G4 level exploration works for four blocks and submitted the report to the NMET which includes minerals such as Nickel, Limestone and Dolomite. In addition, 10 blocks of iron and Managanese ore allotted by Government of Karnata for G2 and G3 level of exploration works are in progress, he explained. Considering the huge opportunities in both domestic and global markets for its product - high-grade iron ore pellets - KIOCL is planning to explore new business opportunities in India and overseas markets. Consistent efforts are on to expand the markets in Brazil, Oman, Malaysia, MENA countries in addition to Chinese markets. The share of Chinese market is 44 per cent, MENA countries 33 per cent and the remaining is Brazil and Malaysia. Tolling arrangement As a part of Atmanirbhar Bharath, the KIOCL Ltd is looking to enter into tolling arrangement with various oversea suppliers of high grade iron ore. It will be a buy-back agreement after conversion of pellets, it will be supplied to the suppliers of iron ore. This will in turn help to increase the capacity utilization of Pellet plant. The company is in talks with JSPL-Jindal Sadeed, Oman and with Posco of South Korea through Glencore. Check out the latest DH videos: There is anger in Derry where only one school in the city is offering A-Level Irish to Year 13 students from other post-primary schools. Thornhill College and Lumen Christi College are the only two schools in the city providing A-Level Irish, the Derry News has learned. The situation has been described as 'grossly unfair' by the president of Conradh na Gaeilge, Dr Niall Comer, while the Bishop of Derry, Most Rev Dr Donal McKeown, a fluent Irish speaker, said he hoped 'all our excellent post-primary schools can find ways to offer a range of minority subjects.' Derry News understands at least three Year 13 students, from three different post-primary schools in the city who had chosen to study A-Level Irish this year, have been unable to do so. One of the students, who spoke to this paper, said they were 'heartbroken' at the prospect of not being able to continue studying Irish. Their clearly frustrated parent added: Irish is not just a subject for my child, it is a core part of their personality and identity. I cannot understand how, in his jubilee year, in the city of the great Gaelic saint, Colmcille, where renowned poets including Seamus Heaney received their educations, children who want to study A-Level Irish, are being told they cannot. If we lived in France, Spain or Italy, we would not be faced with the ridiculous situation of a young person being unable to study their native language or in their native language. The young person concerned had attended Irish medium nursery and primary school and had studied several post-primary subjects through Irish, before obtaining their GCSE Irish and GCSE Gaeilge. They are now faced with the prospect of not being able to access a Year 13 A-Level Irish class, at any school in the city. Carol Nic Conmara, the education officer with Culturlann Ui Chanain, described the situation as 'scandalous.' She added: I would encourage any young person or adult who is interested in studying A'-Level Irish to get in touch with me here on 028-71264132. We will try and facilitate them in any way we can. If children cannot study A'-Level Irish, it is akin to denying them a future. At the beginning of September, it emerged Thornhill College had withdrawn from the Foyle Learning Community, in terms of its long-standing provision of A-Level Irish to students from other post-primary schools in Derry. At the time of going to press, the school had not provided a requested comment on why it took that decision and whether or not partner schools and the parents of prospective A-Level Irish students had been informed of the decision in a timely fashion. Lumen Christi College is now the only school in the city offering A-Level Irish to Year 13 students as part of the Foyle Learning Community. As well as its own students, pupils from three other post-primary schools are being facilitated in the class. Due to timetabling clashes, three young people who wanted to study A-Level Irish there have been prevented from doing so. It appears, both of the schools offering Year 13 Irish have timetabled the subject at the same time, which effectively means neither of the schools is an option for the three students. Speaking to Derry News, Dr Niall Comer, of Conradh na Gaeilge, which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide, said: The situation that children who have been educated through Irish and, indeed, those who have reached a good standard of Irish and wish to study it to A-Level, not being able to continue their studies to A-Level is grossly unfair. Language teaching, in general, is under serious pressure and there needs to be a complete rethink of how we deliver languages in the English-medium sector in particular. Referring to the 'long history of A-Level Irish in the city and the calibre of students produced,' Dr Comer, who is also the course director in Irish at Ulster University, Magee, agreed that Irish, as a taught subject, was in danger of being available to fewer and fewer students as time progressed He added: Modern languages are in a perilous state. Intervention is needed by the Department of Education to resolve this. Considerable work has been done to highlight this issue by An Greasan, a network of Irish language teachers, and there is no doubt, Irish as a taught subject is under its greatest threat in many years. The continuous reduction of contact time with the language, the absence of a language programme in primary schools and pupils being forced to choose between languages and more 'attractive' subjects on a yearly basis is having a hugely detrimental effect on the uptake. Pupils are being denied in many instances a fair chance to continue their studies. In recent years, there has been a huge emphasis on promoting STEM subjects within schools. In many cases, it would appear, that an emphasis has been disproportionate and that languages have been the greatest to suffer, Irish in particular. This is already having an impact, not only on teaching, but the employment in the Irish language sector in general. Last year alone, there were more than 500 jobs advertised in Ireland outside teaching with the language as a key component, so it is clear there is a high level of demand for students competent in the language. We know there is a dearth of teachers competent enough in Irish to deliver the ever-growing demands of the Irish-medium sector, said Dr Comer. Bishop Donal McKeown, a fluent Irish speaker and chairperson of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), said he had studied Irish to A-Level and had always had an interest in the language. He added: Having been a school principal, I know that there is huge pressure on cash-strapped schools to offer classes for popular subjects and that some subjects are not offered when very few students choose them. That was the whole purpose of the Area Learning Communities (although those Area learning Communities involve all schools and not just to CCMS schools). The idea was that pupils who wish to study a subject like Irish should be able to attend classes in a school and that comes down to both planning and agreement between the schools in question. Thus, if the Foyle Learning Community has not offered that subject co-operation, it would be appropriate to ask them and the governors of schools that are involved. With plenty of fore-knowledge and forward planning, co-operation ought to be possible. However, schools will timetable subjects only when they have some idea how many students are involved. I really hope that all our excellent post-primary schools can find ways to offer a range of minority subjects. Pupils deserve the best that schools can offer, individually and together. CCMS officers will help if asked, but you will appreciate that timetabling issues for individual schools rest with the Governors, said Bishop McKeown. Speaking to the Derry News, Derry City councillor, Emmet Doyle (Aontu) said it was 'not fair or equitable children educated through Irish until GCSE should be denied the option of studying the subject at A' Level. Cllr Doyle added: Not only does this have an impact on students' ability to progress their education in Irish, it often constitutes the end of their Irish journey, unless they then seek to engage with the language in the community or at university level. In many schools, the option to study a language is progressed from GCSE to A-Level and Irish should be no different. It also negates all of the good work being done by the Gaelscoil movement. I simply do not understand how timetabling, which is what I have been told is behind the problem, can stand in the way of a child's education. Foyle SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan told the Derry News he had studied Irish to A-Level and would have been upset had he been denied the opportunity, as have the students this academic year. He added: The opportunities now through Irish are so much greater in terms of future employment; media, teaching with many, many more gaelscoileanna. And there will be more still in public services if and when we see an Irish Language Act in some guise. Therefore, the opportunity being denied is huge. "I would and will urge Foyle Learning Community to re-look at this with schools and even individual muinteoiri to see how this course can be provided within, or if absolutely necessary, without a formal education setting. I would urge any student who has been affected by this to contact my office directly." Professor Malachy O Neill, the deputy vice-chancellor of Ulster University, Magee said he would be following the issue up with the chairperson of the Foyle Learning Community Network in order to clarify the situation. When contacted by Derry News, a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) said: it is essential that every child and young person enjoys their right to a high quality education which develops their personality, talents and abilities to the full. Part of NICCY's role is to ensure that children's rights are realised as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The Education Authority said the choice of subjects offered by a school at GCSE and A-Level was determined by the individual schools, not by the Education Authority or any of the other managing bodies. Foyle MLA, Mark H Durkan, has accused Sinn Fein Minister Deirdre Hargey for failing people in Derry on housing. The SDLP Housing spokesman made his comments after Ms Hargey responded to a written question from him revealing that latest figures showed an increase in the number of people on social housing waiting lists in Foyle and every other parliamentary constituency in the North. In the Foyle constituency, there were 4593 applicants on social housing waiting lists with 3380 experiencing housing stress as of June 30, 2021. Back in December 2019, 3785 people in Foyle were applying for social housing. Across the North of Ireland, the total figures were 44,985 applicants on waiting lists with 30,926 experiencing housing stress. Again, in December 2019, the number of people on waiting lists for housing across the north was 38,308. Mr Durkan said the 6,677 rise in the number of applicants waiting for a home showed the Minister was not taking the Norths housing crisis seriously despite the huge need for social housing. He said: The North is in the midst of a housing crisis, it has been clear for some time and these latest figures on social housing need only reinforce it. Its not just areas like Foyle and West Belfast that has seen a rise in demand for social housing, waiting lists for housing have gotten worse in every single area across the North. The situation has worsened across the North from December 2019, prior to the restoration of the Executive. Our waiting lists were actually shorter before Sinn Fein Communities Minister Deidre Hargey took office. People had a better chance of getting a house before we had a housing minister in place, thats a damning indictment of her performance since taking on this role. These figures typify the lack of delivery for our people that we have seen from both Sinn Fein and the DUP during their past 14 years controlling the Executive. These waiting lists should act as a wake-up call to the Minister and her department. She cant go on burying her head in the sand, people are suffering and deserve better. My constituency office regularly hears from people who feel trapped in a cycle of homelessness they can never get free from. Everyone should have the right to a home they can call their own. Minister Hargey's inaction has resulted in increased overcrowding and high levels of housing stress during a pandemic when people were forced to spend more time at home than ever before. There can be no more excuses, we need strategic action to address our housing crisis and find homes for everyone who needs one. Foyle MP, Colum Eastwood, has called for political leaders in the North to pause for calm over Irish President Michael D Higgins' confirmed non-attendance at a centenary event in Armagh. The SDLP leader said that cynical criticism of President Michael D Higgins decision not to attend the event, commemorating 100 years since the partition of Ireland that created the state of Northern Ireland will not advance the cause of reconciliation. President Higgins has been accused by quarters within the unionist parties of snubbing the the spirit of co-operation between the communities. But Mr Eastwood stated that was somewhat ironic given those same quarters have downplayed and degraded the importance of all-island cooperation for two decades. He went on to say that a two dimensional debate does a disservice to the context and complexity of relationships with partition one hundred years after the event which entrenched division in Ireland. Mr Eastwood said: The partition of Ireland had a profound political, economic and cultural impact on the lives of all those who share this island. It is a fundamental part of our common history but the experience of that moment, and the evolution of a state which embraced sectarian discrimination, was markedly different for our communities. The two-dimensional debate that we have heard over the last number of days has done an immense disservice to the context and complexity of the relationships with partition, even one hundred years later. Political leaders have a responsibility to pause and reflect on the weight of their words in this moment. We should all be committed to respectful understanding of each others position rather than rushing to the comfort of old trenches and battles. President Higgins time in office has undoubtedly contributed to the healing process across these islands. His thoughtful leadership and considered outreach to all communities, beyond the two traditional communities, has stood us in good stead during turbulent times. Mr Eastwood called on those upset by President Higgins' decision to reflect and remember that while the centenary might be a cause of celebration for them, it is not for others living in the North of Ireland. He added: I understand the disappointment that his decision not to attend the event in Armagh will have caused to some. That is natural and, I believe, genuine in most cases. I would respectfully ask that those for whom this is disappointing reflect on the honest remarks made by President Higgins last night and understand the views of those for whom partition is not a cause for celebration or commemoration. Rather than attempting to straighten the arc of our complex shared history to meet our own narratives, we should, all of us, be able to disagree as friends without resorting to insult or enmity. That is the real opportunity of this decade. There has, however, been sustained and cynical criticism from some quarters where I believe the aim of remarks is not to advance reconciliation but to take advantage of grievance for political purposes. The comments from DUP representatives, in particular, ring hollow given the partys 20-year effort to downplay and degrade the importance of relationships across our island. The decade of centenaries has been a challenging period, it was always going to be. We have, in the round, risen to the challenge and remembered the past respectfully. Political leaders have a responsibility, in a tense and fractious moment, to bring people together not exploit difference. Ananya Panday on bagging Kho Gaye Hum Kahan: "I feel really grateful, its like a dream come true" With the announcement of yet another project, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, Ananya Panday has put a tick against Zoya Akhtar's name from the list of directors she'd like to work with. Zoya was one of the many filmmakers who had reached out to Ananya Panday after her debut film Student Of The Year 2 released, to congratulate and laud her work in the film. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ananya (@ananyapanday) After SOTY2 released, in a media interaction Ananya Panday had shared, "I feel really grateful! I have worked really hard for this moment and I have waited for it all my life. I believe its like a dream come true and now that it has come true, it is taking time to sink in - it still feels so unbelievable and surreal. I feel extremely overwhelmed when people come to me to say that they liked my work. It is a happy feeling. I couldnt believe it when the people I have always looked upto, Sajid Nadiadwala Sir, Shahrukh Sir, Siddharth Roy Kapur Sir, Karan Sir, Zoya appreciated my work. I cannot ask for anything else when people say good things about my work. It is an exciting experience and I am loving it. I cant wait for whats next." A good look back at the time when the actress had just started out, 1 film old and now is working with Zoya Akhtar for her upcoming next. Ananya has grown so much actor through the years and so many projects, that shows her passion towards her work. Having added Kho Gaye Hum Kahan to her lineup, in the film she will be seen opposite Siddhant Chaturvedi and Adarsh Gourav. Apart that the actress has a Pan-India film 'Liger' alongside Vijay Deverkonda, yet-to-be titled film alongside Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi which is directed by Shakun Batra. Jiah Khan Suicide Case: Court rejects CBI request for further probe after Sooraj Pancholi's lawyer objected to petitions A special CBI court here on Thursday dismissed petitions seeking permission for further probe in Bollywood actor Jiah Khan's alleged suicide. The trial in the case is already underway. The petitions had been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Jiah's mother Rabiya Khan. Actor Sooraj Pancholi was booked for alleged abetment to suicide in the case and is now out on bail. The CBI had sought permission from the court to send a `dupatta', purportedly used by Jiah to hang herself, to the Central Forensic Laboratory at Chandigarh for further analysis. It also wanted to send seized cellphones to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US to retrieve `deleted' chats between Jiah and Pancholi. Pancholi's lawyer Prashant Patil objected to the petitions, saying the matter has already been decided by the High Court and Supreme court. Special judge A S Sayyad dismissed the pleas after hearing the arguments. Jiah, best known for her performance in the film Nishabd, was found hanging at her residence on June 3, 2013. Sooraj, son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, was allegedly in a relationship with her. The CBI alleged that a three-page note written by Jiah which was seized by the Mumbai Police (who probed the case in the beginning) spoke about her and Sooraj's "intimate relationship" and "her physical abuse and mental and physical torture" by Sooraj which led to the suicide. Manoj Bajpayee's father hospitalised and critical, actor drops shoot in Kerala rushes to New Delhi: Reports Manoj Bajpyees father has reportedly been admitted to a hospital in New Delhi and the actor has rushed to be at his side. While the exact reason for Manojs fathers hospital admission remains unclear, a Spotboye report claims that he is quite critical and the actor who was busy shooting for a project in Kerala has dropped everything and taken off to New Delhi. The Family Man stars father RK Bajpayee is 83 years old. The actor had been shooting in Kerala for the past few days while the details of the project which he is busy working on are still under wraps. Manoj has had an exceptionally busy year with four of his projects having already released on OTT. He was seen in the OTT film Silence Can You Hear It? which the actor followed up with his blockbuster second season of The Family Man. He was also a part of the Netflix anthology Ray while also starring in the Zee 5 film Dial 100. The actor hasnt shared update on his fathers health on social media since the reports of his hospitalization made headlines earlier today. We pray for his fathers speedy recovery. Mrunal Thakur talks not being a part of Baahubali prequel after shooting a few episodes, calls it 'a very special & dear project' Mrunal Thakur has some bit tickets projects lined up and this has been one of the busiest years of the actress career. In an interview, the actress has admitted that she had to drop out of a few projects earlier in the year and admitted she was not okay with it. One of the projects that Mrunal had to drop was the web series prequel of S.S. Rajamoulis blockbuster Baahubali. The Toofan actress was to play the younger Shivagami Devi, the character played by actress Ramya Krishna in the Prabhas starrer films. The Baahubali prequel titled, 'Baahubali: Before the Beginning,' was commissioned by Netflix a few years ago but apparently, the streaming giant wasnt too pleased with the results after the makers had completed nearly 70% of the shoot. Talking to Hindustan Times, Mrunal was asked about the Bahubali prequel to which she said, I was doing that, but not anymore. We did shoot a few episodes two-three years ago, but unfortunately, I am not a part of it. I wish the entire team all the best because thats a very special and dear project. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mrunal Thakur (@mrunalthakur) According to earlier reports Mrunal opted out as she had had no room for the web series on her calendar since the makers planned to reshoot the whole thing. Punjabi actress Wamiqa Gabbi is said to have stepped in Mrunals shoes as the makers re-cast for the web series. Mrunal also spoke about having to drop out of certain projects owning to pandemic and producers wanting to shoot all at once after the lockdown. Talking about letting go of films she told the publication, I am not okay with that, but I have no other option after all. Because of Covid-19 (restrictions) earlier, we couldnt travel. Earlier, I would shoot in Punjab, come to Mumbai, then go to Patiala, then Chandigarh... I was juggling a couple of projects. Right now, if I have to fly somewhere, I have to get tests done, it (the process) has slowed down. What I do is I compensate with a photoshoot or maybe something related to my work like a narration or script reading. On the work front, Mrunal has the release of Jersey to look forward to. She will also be seen in films like Pippa, Aankh Micholi and the Hindi remake of Thadam. Naga Chaitanya talks about meeting with Aamir Khan, reveals if Bollywood debut with Laal Singh Chaddha was a planned move Naga Chaitanya after becoming a fan favorite in Tollywood is all set to explore new horizons with his Bollywood debut in Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha. The actor had shot for the project earlier this year in Ladakh with Aamir and has now revealed how the project came about. During a conversation with Deccan Chronicle about his upcoming film with Sai Pallavi, Naga Chaitanya was asked if his Bollywood debut was a planned move. The actor said, I dont think anyone can ever plan a film with Aamir Khan; it has to happen. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aamir Khan Productions (@aamirkhanproductions) According to the actor, his move to Bollywood has been an organic one. Talking about Laal Singh Chaddha he revealed Aamir Khan impressed with his previous work gave him a call considering him to be appropriate for the part. I got a call from Aamir Khan. After discussing the initial modalities of the script, I went to Mumbai for final discussions and was quickly on board. It was like magic! Aamir said hed watched some of my performances and trailers of my film and was very impressed and that he felt Id be apt for the role, Chay told the publication. Naga Chaitanya joined the shoot for Laal Singh Chaddha in July and his picture with Aamir dressed in an army uniform sent ripples of excitement among fans on social media. The actor is touted to be playing Aamirs friend in the movie and it seems like his part in the film is limited to a specific portion of the movie. The actor wrapped up the shoot in August. Explanation of Vote on UNAMA - Afghanistan by Ambassador Byrne Nason Statement I shall now make a statement my capacity as the representative of Ireland. We welcome the adoption this morning of this resolution extending the mandate of UNAMA, and I want to express my appreciation to Estonia and Norway, as penholders, for their efforts to secure agreement on this text. Todays resolution demonstrates the unanimous support of this Council for the vital work of UNAMA supporting the people of Afghanistan. We welcome the recognition in the text that a sustainable future for Afghanistan can only come through the establishment of an inclusive and representative government. The Council has also reaffirmed the importance of the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in any future political settlement. I also welcome the emphasis we have placed on the responsibility of any future government to uphold human rights, including for women, children and minorities. In welcoming the adoption of todays resolution, we know that this text does not capture all of the issues facing Afghanistan at this time of upheaval. I wish to take the opportunity to reiterate the central importance of the upholding of Afghanistans obligations under international humanitarian, refugee and human rights law. We also reiterate our call that all actors ensure full, safe and unhindered access to all humanitarian workers delivering vital aid in Afghanistan. This is particularly important for women humanitarian workers who are facing challenge as they seek to undertake their life saving and life sustaining work. Ireland also reaffirms our strong commitment to the protection of civilians. This resolution provides a clear and structured basis for the engagement of this Council and that of the Secretary General on the situation in Afghanistan for the next six months. I will not tire of saying that we will judge the Taliban during this period by their actions, not by their words. During this period, we will consider our next steps, including the parameters for future UN engagement. Todays resolution is an important step, but it is but one step. Ireland will continue to place the rights and needs of the Afghan people, in particular women and girls, to the forefront of our engagement in the period ahead. I now resume my function as President of the Council. Previous Item | Next Item Global messaging service, Whatsapp, recently announced its foray into the business directory market with its latest feature that will allow users to search for businesses and vendors near them. This isnt its parent companys, Facebook, first foray into this space, as Facebook has been operating its Marketplace feature since 2016. How is WhatsApp rolling out the new feature The company is currently testing this feature in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and will be including category based search functions for food, local services, retail and more to help consumers find what they need and message vendors directly for information. While Facebook garners its revenue through ads, Whatsapp does not subject its users to advertisements. However, it would be premature to rule out the presence of advertisements on the app, especially with the new Whatsapp business directory feature being tested. In fact, Matt Idema, Facebook's vice president of business messaging, recently said There's definitely a route on ads, which is Facebook's core business model, that over the long term I think in some form or another will be part of the business model for WhatsApp How is WhatsApp handling privacy concerns While Whatsapp has recently been under fire over its data privacy policies, the brand has been rolling out pertinent features like end-to-end encryption, the ability to hide certain information, and more, along with public campaigns designed to reassure consumers of their safety online. Now, with the Whatsapp Business Directory feature being tested, its clear why the brand wants to reinforce the safety angle. If users will be subjected to targeted ads on the app, the brand might have to revisit the conversation about data privacy once more. Also Read: WhatsApp finally introduces end-to-end encryption, gives users a chance to protect their chat backups Video Source: WhatsApp Subscriber content preview When Congress created OSHA 50 years ago, 38 workers were dying on the job every day. Now that figure is closer to 15 even though the American workforce has more than doubled. By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn't make many headlines. Charged with keeping America's workplaces safe, it usually busies itself with tasks such as setting and enforcing standards for goggles, hardhats and ladders. But President Joe Biden this month threw the tiny Labor Department agency into the raging national debate over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The president directed OSHA to write a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free. . . . Subscriber content preview OLYMPIA The Washington state Department of Commerce has announced 20 rural cities, towns and counties will receive more than $11.4 million in Community Development Block Grants for 2021. The grants fund a range of high-priority local projects, including public water, sewer, emergency and fire protection systems, streets, housing, food pantries and more. The 22 projects funded will: improve rural water, sewer, streets, community facilities and fire protection systems; support affordable housing and economic development; and complete community planning for asset management, recreation and growth. . . . Subscriber content preview Rendering by Perkins Will [enlarge] This view looks northeast at the planned tower. Crossing Brooklyn is 43rd, where the city is wrapping up pedestrian improvements to both streets. The south end of the light rail station, above the depicted SUV, is actually there and done. As planned, LPC West has signed its ground lease with the University of Washington, which owns the development rights above U District Station. The station opens next month, and construction is expected to begin next year at 4328 Brooklyn Ave. N.E. Perkins Will designed the 12-story office building, which the UW will later occupy; GLY is the general contractor . . . Subscriber content preview The buyer now has well over 6 acres near the future light rail station. Evans Business Park, at 17725 N.E. 65th St. in Redmond, has sold for over $26.7 million, according to King County records. The buyer was EBP Holdings LLC, associated with Redmond investor and marketing executive J. Patrick Wiley, who this summer acquired the neighboring property to the east. That was a $15 million deal. . . . Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. A new cross-border project which includes Louth County Council will see more electric car charging points installed in the county. The FASTER Project will provide much needed electric vehicle charging infrastructure with the installation of 73 Rapid Charging Points across Northern Ireland, the border counties of Ireland including Louth and Western Scotland with 6.4 million funding under the EU INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the SEUPB. The project will help to reduce reliance on fossil fuels by encouraging increased use of more environmentally friendly forms of transport and also seeks to address some of the barriers to greater public uptake of electric vehicles. The FASTER EV charging network will be installed on a phased basis over the next 18 months supported by a series of public awareness and community engagement events, promotional campaigns and initiatives to address public concerns with existing charging infrastructure and producing materials to support the transition to low emission vehicles. The project is being led by East Border Region, a local authority led cross border organisation, in partnership with a cross border consortium which includes; Ulster University, South West College, University of Strathclyde, HiTrans, Louth County Council and Dundalk Institute of Technology. The Consortium are also working with a range of Local Authorities across the three jurisdictions to identify suitable locations for this much needed infrastructure which will help revolutionise public charging for Electric Vehicles. Match-funding for the project has also been provided by the Department for Infrastructure in Northern Ireland and the Department for Transport, Tourism and Sport in Ireland. Welcoming the project, Irelands Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan said: Electric vehicles play a vital role in decarbonising our transport sector. The rollout of 73 rapid charging stations, as part of the EU INTERREG VA programme, will further incentivise the switch away from fossil fuel vehicles and will benefit drivers across all three jurisdictions. We look forward to working with SEUPB and our Partners in the implementation of this project. Outlining the importance of the project, Gina McIntyre Chief Executive of the SEUPB said: Transport, on both sides of the border, is dominated by car usage, which is only increasing as our population grows. This is not sustainable as the stark realities of irreversible climate change are becoming more and more evident across the world. This new EU INTERREG VA-funded project will create a readily accessible cross-border infrastructure that will encourage increased use of electric vehicles. It will help to address many of the issues that discourage people from using this form of transport and contribute to a reduction in harmful carbon emissions that have such a negative impact upon our environment. I really look forward to hearing how this very important cross-border partnership progresses over the coming months ahead. Speaking at the official launch of the FASTER Project, Cllr Kyle Savage, Chairman of East Border Region stated: East Border Region are delighted to be Lead Partner on this innovative project which will provide much needed EV charging infrastructure across the three jurisdictions. This project clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of cross border collaboration between a range of key stakeholders, and the benefits to be gained by adopting a strategic approach to sustainable infrastructure development Further information about the FASTER Project will be available from a dedicated website and social media channels scheduled to launch this month, but until then regular updates will be available from the South West College website and Facebook page. Investment in modern technology puts icing on Panilinos cake The Moldovan pastry company Panilino delivers on its promise to bring back childhood memories. Cakes, rolls, biscuits and traditional sweet bread cozonacs allow you to travel back in time to cosy family gatherings, conjuring up feelings of nostalgia and happy memories. Panilino has long won the hearts and taste buds of the Moldovan customers. Now the company is expanding its markets with support from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU). Its plan is to delight more people with its products and build a lasting legacy abroad too. Scaling up Panilino, a family business, began its journey in the 1990s and is now one of the largest manufacturers of bakery and confectionery products in Moldova. Quality has always been key. Every month the company produces more than 50 tonnes of confectionery, combining traditional recipes with high quality ingredients. It is the greatest privilege and responsibility to run a business that is beloved by so many. We try to stay ahead with new, forward-thinking plans, focus on quality and modern technology to make our production more efficient and our products famous beyond Moldova, says Sergiu Guzun, the director of Panilino. The EBRD and EU have become firm partners through helping the company to invest in better technology, and to improve health, safety and environmental practices. Panilino is one of 250 companies in Moldova that benefited from the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line. The EBRD offers companies loans to modernise their production to bring them into line with EU standards. These loans, disbursed via local partner financial institutions- in Panilinos case, it was Mobiasbanca and are coupled with grants and technical assistance funded by the EU under its EU4Business initiative. Access to finance and new technology allows companies not just in Moldova, but also Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine, to aim for higher quality products and services, scale up and become greener, resilient and more competitive on local and international markets. After extensive research of the various SME credit offers available in Moldova, we decided in favour of the EU4Business-EBRD Credit Line. The conditions of the credit line are very competitive, and the free-of-charge technical support and the grant component of the loan are truly helpful, says Sergiu. During the overhaul of its production facility, Panilino purchased and installed a new confectionery production line, raw material handling and packaging equipment, transportation vehicles, refrigerator trucks and much more. The new equipment reduces heat, electricity and water consumption, ensures the delivery of high quality products and creates a safe and healthy environment for employees. Investing for the future The results of the investment were immediate and best evidenced by numbers: productivity increased by 15 per cent, accompanied by boosted exports and new contracts signed with distributors from Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Latvia. The investment also led the company to hire more people: its workforce grew from 238 to 257 employees. We increased our product range, improved product quality and significantly optimised our costs. And we do not plan to stop there. Eventually we want to have an even more solid footing in international markets and make Panilino a globally recognised brand, says Mr. Sergiu Guzun. With such determination, hard work and support from its partners, these goals will be more than achievable for Panilino, setting the company up for many years of success. EBRD calls for an increase in rail investment in the Western Balkans The EBRD issued an appeal for more investment in the regions railway sector to address the climate change emergency and improve connectivity at the first Western Balkans Rail Summit in Belgrade this week. The event jointly organised by the EBRD, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Transport Community was dedicated to enhancing the integration of the Western Balkans rail system with the EUs rail system. Together with the EU and EIB, we are strongly committed to continue to provide well-structured and affordable finance for the development of railways as a sustainable, greener and safer means of transport in the Western Balkans, EBRD Managing Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Group, Nandita Parshad said. Learn more In an interview with EURACTIV ahead of the summit, EBRD First Vice President Jurgen Rigterink said the Bank would continue to work with state-owned railways, private investors, clients, and governments in the region to materialise these priorities: The EBRD has an ambitious agenda in the region to improve the quality of services and train speeds throughout the railway network. The plan is to extend the Trans-European Transport Network in line with EU standards, while strengthening the capacity for preparing and implementing projects accordingly, improving management, safety and maintenance, Read more EBRD President on the Banks role in facing Covid-19 and the climate emergency In a wide-reaching interview with the French radio station Radio Classique EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso discusses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the EBRDs countries of operations and the Banks response, the global efforts to address the climate emergency and the Banks contribution, the Banks current strategic priorities and a possible geographic expansion of its activities. She said: At the core of our mandate is the mobilisation of the private sector to support the economic transformation of the countries where we operate. Watch here (in French) EBRD and EU boost Ukrainian climate innovators The EBRD and the EU are extending new grants to help innovative Ukrainian firms seeking to improve climate resilience with new approaches. Six Ukraine-based companies received climate innovation vouchers during an award ceremony in the presence of Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. The prize covers 75 per cent of the eligible costs (up to 50,000) of pioneering solutions and technologies implemented by these private firms to address climate change. Learn more EBRD celebrates 15 years in Mongolia The EBRD this week marked 15 years since the start of its operations in Mongolia and the establishment of its resident office in Ulaanbaatar. To date, the Bank has invested US$ 2.1 billion in the national economy, with 93 per cent in the private sector making the EBRD the largest lender of all IFIs to Mongolias private sector. The EBRD Head of Mongolia, Hannes Takacs, posted a group photo with the words: Amazing team in an amazing country! Learn more EBRD adopts new country strategies The EBRD has adopted new country strategies for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro. Promoting green economy transition and fostering knowledge economy are the two main priorities for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Focusing on supporting the green and inclusive economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis is the main priority for the Czech Republic, while strengthening private sector competitiveness, supporting green economy transition, and fostering connectivity and integration are the main priorities for Montenegro. Read more about the strategies: Estonia | Latvia | Lithuania | Czech Republic | Montenegro Pierre Heilbronn says Goodbye, Sarajevo In a valedictory interview with the Reuters news agency EBRD Vice President Pierre Heilbronn took stock of the Banks activities and achievements in the Western Balkans during his tenure: "Connectivity, green and competitiveness are the three overarching priorities for us," he said. "Making progress in how state-owned enterprises are run would open up interest of foreign investors" who have been largely absent from the region. The EBRD invested 1.3 billion in the Western Balkans in 2020 and will match that amount this year, Mr Heilbronn said. Read more EBRD names Huseyin Ozhan Director for Kazakhstan The EBRD has appointed Huseyin Ozhan appointed Director for Kazakhstan, based in the countrys largest city Almaty. He said: For the EBRD, Kazakhstan is a key country, where a lot can be done in areas such as renewable energy, digitalisation and regional connectivity. I am looking forward to working with our counterparts in the public and private sectors to promote green, inclusive and sustainable projects addressing the key challenges of our time, namely, the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and tackling climate change. Project signings and agreements EBRD lends support to Electric Networks of Armenia The EBRD is providing a loan of US$ 70 million, including a B-loan from the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), to Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), the countrys sole electricity distribution company and long-standing client of the Bank. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is co-financing this project with a US$ 35 million loan. The funding will support the large-scale modernisation of the power distribution network in Armenia. Learn more Supporting the modernisation of Serbias Elektrodistribucija The EBRD is extending a 40 million loan to Serbias electricity distribution company Elektrodistribucija Srbije (EDS) to finance the roll-out of smart metering infrastructure, such as the installation of software and hardware, and integration of the new system. The investment will improve the security and reliability of the power supply, reduce commercial losses and improve tariff collection rates. Around 205,000 smart meters are expected to be installed in the cities of Kraljevo, Cacak and Nis. Learn more Strengthening access to local currency loans for SMEs in Serbia The EBRD is supporting the post-pandemic recovery of the Serbian economy by securing financing for small businesses (SMEs) by extending a RSD 2.9 billion local currency loan (24.7 million equivalent) to Eurobank Serbia. The credit line will help expand lending to private businesses through working-capital lines and investment loans to SMEs, including those operating in economically less-developed regions of the country. Learn more here and here Financing 6th of October Dry Port in Egypt under EBRD Green Cities The EBRD is supporting the construction of the first inland dry port in Egypt, in 6th of October City, with a 25 million loan to October Dry Port Company. The development and construction of the port is the first public-private partnership project in the sector and the first under the EBRD Green Cities programme in Egypt. Learn more here and here Supporting upgrade of municipal vehicle fleet in Tbilisi The EBRD is extending a 9.6 million sovereign loan to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, for the upgrade of the citys municipal services vehicle fleet. The financing is provided under the Green Cities Framework 2 and a follow-on investment from an earlier phase in which the Bank financed the renewal of the citys solid-waste collection fleet and transfer station. Learn more here and here Donors EBRD and EU support better waste management in Ulaanbaatar Across Mongolia, the connection of people to their environment is a very special one, deeply rooted in the local culture. But the environment has been facing some difficult challenges in recent years, mostly because of the rapid development of the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. The EBRD is working with the EU to reduce pollution and increase quality of life in Mongolias capital Learn more Helping Mongolias leading furniture manufacturer go international The EBRDs Women in Business programme, funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), has helped the Mongolian furniture maker Ganbros to keep bankruptcy at bay and transform itself into a regional competitor with a foothold in Russian and Chinese markets. Learn more Cleaning up Central Asias uranium mining legacy The EBRD-managed Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia (ERA) is close to complete the first remediation projects at two critical sites in the Kyrgyz Republic. The fund was initiated by the European Union and so far has received contributions from Belgium, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America. The work on the ground is delivered in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Learn more EBRD and EU make life sweet for Moldovas pastry maker Panilino The Moldovan pastry company Panilino delivers on its promise to bring back childhood memories. Cakes, rolls, biscuits and traditional sweet bread allow you to travel back in time to cosy family gatherings, conjuring up feelings of nostalgia and happy memories. Panilino has long won the hearts and taste buds of the Moldovan customers. Now the company is expanding its markets with support from the EBRD and the European Union (EU). Learn more EBRD in social media The Western Balkans Rail Summit was the main topic on social platforms on Monday with some beautiful pictures from Kosovo railroads. Learn more We talked about the cleaning up of the uranium legacy at Min Kush with our ERA video. Learn more The head of the CIimate Investment Funds (CIF), Mafalda Duarte, shared our article on solar energy. Learn more The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, highlighted his meeting with our President last week. Learn more One of this weeks main topics was 15 years of the EBRD in Mongolia Learn more here and here We also honoured some of our best ASB clients from Mongolia. Learn more We highlighted our new country strategies for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Montenegro Learn more Subscribe to instant email updates on EBRD news about topics such as coronavirus and climate finance. Sign up EBRD President to meet with Kazakh President Tokayev and senior government officials Major infrastructure projects to be signed Roundtables on green economy, digitalisation and SME support The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Odile Renaud-Basso, will visit Kazakhstan from 22 to 24 September for meetings with senior government officials and EBRD clients. This will be her first in-person visit to Central Asias largest state and to the region as EBRD President. During her three-day programme the EBRD President will meet with Kazakhstans senior leadership, including President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Prime Minister Askar Mamin and First Deputy Prime Minister and EBRD Governor Alikhan Smailov. President Renaud-Basso will also meet with National Bank Governor Erbolat Dosaev , the Governor of Astana International Financial Centre, Kairat Kelimbetov, and the Chair of the Agency for the Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, Madina Abylkassymova. Ms Renaud-Basso is due to sign major infrastructure projects and will participate in roundtables with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and civil society organisations on the development of a green economy, digitalisation and SME support in Kazakhstan. The EBRD President said: I look forward to meeting President Tokayev, his government and our clients in person. We have a lot to discuss and to do in order to put Kazakhstan firmly on the path of post-Covid-19 recovery and secure its sustainable future. To date, the EBRD has invested more than US$ 8.4 billion in Kazakhstans economy through 290 projects. Ukrainian firms receive EBRD and EU grants to cover 75 per cent of clean technology costs Innovations include agricultural drones, hemp houses, good plastic and more To date, EBRD and EU have provided 1 million in climate innovation vouchers in Ukraine The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU) are extending new grants to help innovative Ukrainian firms seeking to improve climate resilience with new approaches. Six Ukraine-based companies received climate innovation vouchers during an award ceremony in the presence of Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries and Roman Abramovskyy, Minister of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. The prize covers 75 per cent of the eligible costs (up to 50,000 and excluding VAT) of pioneering solutions and technologies implemented by these private firms to address climate change. Innovations rewarded include agricultural drones, hemp houses, good plastic and more. To date, the EU and the EBRD have provided 1 million in climate innovation vouchers in Ukraine. Irina Kravchenko, EBRD Deputy Director, for Ukraine, said: I am very much impressed by the commitment of the winners to tackling the climate emergency through clean technologies. Investing in innovation will accelerate the development of high-impact, breakthrough clean technologies and the EBRD is delighted to support new successful Ukrainian businesses with our Climate Innovation Vouchers programme. The winners are producer of recycled plastic The Good Plastic Company, architecture studio Ekodar, yeast producer Enzym, engineering firm Dominion, water and rainwater management company Viva Victoria and The Laboratory of Advanced Jet Propulsion, a workshop focused on rocket and spacecraft technologies. The Good Plastic Company is expanding the production of high-quality, recycled and recyclable plastic while lowering its environmental footprint. Ekodar Architecture Studio is pioneering energy-efficient and environmentally friendly buildings based on the use of hemp blocks and boards. Enzym, Ukraines leading yeast producer, is increasing the capacity of its biogas reactor and reducing wastewater in the yeast production process. Dominion has designed an innovative trailer-based mobile plant, which produces large-diameter polymer pipes at construction sites to eliminate the emissions-intensive transportation of pipes from production facilities to construction sites. Viva Victoria is developing remote climate control systems for greenhouses that include remote access and ventilation, heating, watering, dimming, lighting and fertilisation. The Laboratory of Advanced Jet Propulsion is completing the development of a full-sized drone for the aerial application of pesticides or fertilisers, to replace obsolete agricultural Antonov An-2 aircraft. The Climate Innovation Vouchers programme is part of the EBRDs Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC), supported by the EU through its EU4Climate initiative. In 2017, Ukraine became the first country to benefit from the scheme. To date, 1 million has been provided to 28 local companies. In Ukraine, the programme is implemented by a consortium led by a greencubator, a non-profit for sustainable entrepreneurship, with the participation of CIVITTA, a management consulting firm. ACWA Power wins first competitive wind power tender in Uzbekistan New 100 MW wind plant is part of an ambitious renewables target set by the country EBRD supports energy market development to unlock renewables and attract investors ACWA Power has bid the lowest tariff for the construction and operation of a 100 MW wind power project in Uzbekistan, with a tariff of US$ 2.5695 cents per kilowatt hour. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) supported the tender by providing technical assistance. The new plant, located in the Qoraozak District, will diversify energy supply and increase energy security while delivering climate-neutral energy at an affordable price. The district is located in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, in the north west of the country. ACWA Power is a global developer, investor and operator of power plants, with 64 assets in operation, construction or advanced development across 13 countries. Aida Sitdikova, EBRD Director, Energy Eurasia, Middle East and Africa, said: The tender is a landmark for Uzbekistan the first competitively procured wind power plant in the country. The tariff achieved represents a major success for the countrys power sector and shows what a combination of ambitious policy targets and proper competition can achieve. The tender is part of the authorities efforts to increase the share of renewable energy in the Uzbekistans power-generation mix. The government has set itself an ambitious target of installing 5,000 MW of solar and 3,000 MW of wind energy by 2030. By achieving these targets, Uzbekistan will meet the objective of renewables accounting for more than a quarter of the countrys power-generation capacity by 2030. Alkis Vryenios Drakinos, EBRD Director, Head of Uzbekistan said: The tender marks a number of firsts. Not only is it the first competitively procured wind power project in Uzbekistan, it is also the first renewable energy project to be procured under the new public-private partnership law. We are proud to support Uzbekistan in delivering on its ambitious goals for a greener and more sustainable energy sector. The EBRD has been providing assistance to the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade for the preparation and procurement of the project. This technical assistance was supported by donor funds from the government of Japan. The support for the 100 MW wind project is the first phase of a wider programme under which the Bank is supporting the government of Uzbekistan in developing wind power capacity across the country. To date, the EBRD has invested almost 2.6 billion in 101 projects in Uzbekistan. TELL us a little bit about yourself and your work. My name is Ken Fanning. I create devilment with circus, clowns and film. I work with the legendary Tumble Circus, which is Irelands first and only non-traditional big-top touring circus. It might not seem like a big deal, but one day our children will be forced to learn about us in school. We have performed all over the world. In 2019 we headlined the circus big top at the Glastonbury festival; this year we made a circus show on bikes and cycled all over Ireland, performing in schools, parks, care homes, outside pubs, on beaches, and in direct provision centres. Its been wildly successful and we are knackered, but its been great to be back in front of people. Im also a filmmaker and have completed four feature-length films, all of which have been screened at international film festivals. I have won awards for my film making and even went to Hollywood to pick one up I lost it at the airport. Im also a dad to a 14-year-old son, who still thinks Im cool. What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night? Most weekends I work, which means I could be anywhere, in a big top in a field in Donegal, or at a festival in some tiny village in Italy. There will always be something unusual happening, something to look at, people to chat to, and places to discover. Im really looking forward to Friday night (September 17) as Cork city will come alive with arts, music, dance and all kinds of wonderful things in celebration of Cork City Culture Night. This year theres over 70 in-person, outdoor and online free events for all the family to enjoy, and Ill be performing as part of Circus Factorys Pitchd Circus Street Arts Festival on the Coal Quay. I would encourage everyone to log on to culturenightcork.ie to check out whats on. Ken Fanning, Ali Stranger and Henrik Gard from the Tumble Circus performing. Picture: Leon Farrell Lie ins or up with the lark... which is it for you? I like to get up early, watch the sun rise, read, stretch, meditate and slowly prepare a healthy breakfast. This is what I like, but in reality I roll out of bed, fart, groan, and drink coffee. Does work creep into your weekend at all? I think of work as the stuff you get paid to do that other people dont want to do. But I love what I do and refuse to call it work. Its a privilege to be able to do what I love, and I take that seriously and try to be the best I can and make shows and films that people will see and be inspired to live well. If money was no object, where would you head to on a weekend city break and who would you bring with you? I would stay at home in Belfast. Its a great city, full of great people. I travel a lot, so when Im home in Belfast I think of it as holidays. I love bringing any of my international extended circus family to Belfast. They all love it; some have even stayed. Is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries? The Ormeau park is right beside my house and it is a blessing of a place. Its all the countryside I need and is by my doorstep and leads to several great cafes, bars, restaurants and friends houses. Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend? Whenever we are touring, we bump into so many of our extended international circus family and sometimes in the strangest place. Sometimes you might not see some Australian friend for four or five years, and then randomly we both turn up at a gig in Iceland. Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator? Filmmaking used to be my hobby, but now people pay me to do it. But because I never really tried to make money from it or go commercial, I get to make the film I want, the way I want to. Entertain or be entertained? I like both. If I had a signature dish, it would be stuff found in the reduced section of major supermarkets. We have so many places to eat out in Cork, where are your go-to spots for coffee/lunch/special meal? The English Market is a real gem in the city centre. For coffee, the 3 fools. Sunday night comes around too fast... how do you normally spend it? Sometimes tearing down a big top, sometimes feasting at an end-of-festival party, sometimes driving home in a Ford transit. What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning? Ten minutes past seven I immediately turn it off. Rushes is one of those overnight success stories that seems to have been around forever. The accomplished young Cork artist has just released his first full-length project, 'Glowchild', following a string of really strong singles, including 'Wide Eyed', 'Funds' and 'Blue Ghost'. I spoke to Rushes earlier this week about 'Glowchild', and it was great catching up with an artist who I had first interviewed on Corks RedFM when he was just Sean Walsh, way back when he was starting out as a 16-year-old. Hes come a long way since, and a move to Dublin when he finished school found him soon teaming up with the Diffusion Lab label, who house everyone from Soule and Jafaris, and Rushes was soon releasing music too. The pandemic brought him back to Skibbereen for what initially looked like a brief period, but instead the extended stay back home provided him with a different perspective as he launches this next part of his career. Much of the beautiful music soundscapes on 'Glowchild' were produced by Chris and Marcin of Diffusion, and they provide a perfect backdrop for some powerful lyrics, all written by himself. Indeed it was the Dublin label who first encouraged Sean to become an artist himself, after he had submitted some early demos to them. Originally, I didnt want to be an artist really, I wanted to write songs for people, and they said, you should try and do them yourself, so I just gave that a shot, and Ive been going in that kind of journey since. A naturally more reserved character, Rushes took the leap in his stride, but it hasnt always been easy. The self-released 'Glowchild' has been really well received so far and he tells me that the good reception for the new music solidifies that Im on the right track and doing what I should be doing; it gives me confidence and more excitement to go back on stage to perform these songs and let people hear them in a new space. It really is a strong collection of songs, by an excellent writer, and many of the tracks have been accompanied by visuals too, mostly recorded at home in West Cork with Nathan Barlow and Rushes' childhood friend Eddie during the pandemic. Its great to get a visual representation of the songs to go along with things and the next video, for Lost in Therapy, is one Im really excited about it as it matches the song with the emotion I was trying to get across. The visuals are so important to go along with the music and Ill definitely continue to do this in the future. I asked Rushes about his influences and besides listening to RedFM in the car he remembers hearing Michael Jackson on a cassette belonging to his parents. The pop music of the day made an impact too, while songwriter wise, he points to the whole Odd Future crew. A lot of hip-hop and rap, just the storytelling of it, was a big influence on me, and implementing that into more of a singing style. Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt. That kinda group was really important for me. Rushes also points to the greats such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Beatles, Brian Wilson, and is encouraged by the tendency lately for much of music to be more about feel rather than that super clean over-produced pop that has sometimes dominated. Hes encouraged by the possibilities this means for his own music in future. Rushes is very much still at the start of his career but 'Glowchild' is a very strong first project proper. Its not an EP or an album but more of a stepping stone to his eventual first album, by which time he hopes to have all the resources to do whatever you want with it, and make it as incredible as you want it to be. Hes enjoying the whole experience of learning about the music business by releasing this himself, and 'Glowchild' might be a stepping stone to a great career. Hes already played some shows with a small band before the shutdown and he hopes to be able to do some live shows and festivals next summer. 'Glowchild' is streaming now on all platforms and its an assured introduction to his journey so far. A newly-constructed double storey school building built with India's financial assistance of 8.97 million Nepalese rupees after it was damaged by the devastating 2015 earthquake in the country was inaugurated on Thursday in Nepal's Makwanpur district. The building of Shree Bagmati Lower Secondary School in Makwanpur district was jointly inaugurated by Nitesh Kumar, Consul General, the Consulate General of India in Birgunj, and the District Coordination Committee, Makwanpur and School Management Committee and local representatives, the Indian embassy here said in a statement. The school has been built with India's financial assistance of 8.97 million Nepalese rupees (USD 76,347), it said. Currently, a total 355 students are enrolled in the school located in Liti Khola at Phaparbari in Makwanpur district. The Government of India grant, under the Nepal-Bharat Development Cooperation', was utilised for constructing the double storey school building, including 10 class rooms, furniture and sanitation facilities, it said. The project was taken up as a High Impact Community Development Project under a bilateral agreement. The building is constructed in a manner which is conducive to the school needs and will boost the learning environment for students. The Government of India's financial assistance for the construction of this school reflects the importance attached to enhancement of educational infrastructure by the Government of India and Nepal, the statement said. The inauguration of the school is a milestone under various activities undertaken by the Government of India to celebrate 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' (India@75) commemorating 75 years of India's independence, it added. The devastating earthquake, which struck the Himalayan nation in April 2015, claimed over 9,000 lives and damaged more than 800,000 houses and schools. A US district court has sentenced a man who unlocked 1.9 million AT&T phones to 12 years in prison. Muhammad Fahd continued the seven-year scheme to defraud the company even after learning of an investigation against him, according to the Department of Justice. At Fahd's sentencing hearing, Judge Robert S. Lasnik said he committed a terrible cybercrime over an extended period, with AT&T said to have lost $201.5 million as a result. Fahd contacted an AT&T employee through Facebook in 2012 and bribed them to help him unlock customers' phones with "significant sums of money," the DOJ said . Fahd, a citizen of Pakistan and Grenada, urged the employee to recruit co-workers at a Bothell, Washington call center for the scheme too. The DOJ says the employees unlocked phones for "ineligible customers," who paid Fahd a fee. In spring 2013, AT&T rolled out a system that made it more difficult for the employees to unlock IMEIs. Fahd then recruited an engineer to build malware that would be installed on AT&T's systems to help him unlock phones more efficiently and remotely. The DOJ says the employees gave Fahd details about the company's systems and unlocking methods to aid that process. The malware is said to have obtained information about the system and other AT&T employees' access credentials. The developer used those details to modify the malware. AT&T claims Fahd and his associates unlocked just over 1.9 million phones through the scheme. The company says because of the unlocks, customers didn't complete payments on their devices, leading to the nine-figure loss. Fahd was arrested in Hong Kong in 2018 following a 2017 indictment. He was extradited to the US and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in September 2020. Jason London, popularly known for his role as Randall "Pink" Floyd in the 1993 film "Dazed and Confused," was recently arrested for public intoxication. According to TMZ, the actor was so drunk, he lost control and crashed his vehicle multiple times. Per the police report obtained by the outlet, London was arrested on Tuesday evening in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. In addition, his 2010 Nissan Maxima car was also on fire and stuck in a ditch. An unknown passenger was said to be standing near the site; the vehicle was damaged heavily on the passenger side. London defended himself and claimed that someone had "sideswiped" his car and left them after the incident. However, authorities stated that the actor was intoxicated, couldn't keep his balance, and had slurred speech when they arrived. After an investigation was made, cops believed the actor's vehicle swerved off the road and crashed into a sign before ultimately going back to the road only to hit a concrete object. The actor, who also appeared in the 1991 movie "The Man in the Moon," was booked for public intoxication and leaving the scene of an accident. When he took a trip to the police station, law enforcement said he was so intoxicated; they couldn't get his fingerprint. As to why he wasn't charged with DUI, a spokesperson said the officer who arrested him used his discretion and decided to arrest him with other charges. READ NOW: Gabby Petito Update: Fiance Claims Van-Life Blogger Attacked Him Because She Sometimes Had 'OCD' Not Jason London's First Arrest According to Today, London was also arrested in Arizona in 2013 after a bar fight. He was charged with assault and disorderly conduct. The actor defended himself on Twitter, saying the allegations against him were false and he was attacked. (read his tweet below) I would never say or do the crap they are reporting. Have faith in me. The truth will come out and you will see. Jason London (@JasonPLondon) January 29, 2013 He explained that a random guy thought he was hitting on his girl, but he claims his wife, actress Sofia Karstens, was in the other room. Some guy thought I was hitting on his girl and had me jumped. My wife was in the next room, had no idea what even happened. I hate Arizona Jason London (@JasonPLondon) January 29, 2013 Per police officials, a man at the Martini Ranch bar in Scottsdale, Arizona, said the actor had sneezed on him, and he's asking for an apology. Instead of saying sorry, London allegedly threw a punch. Security guards later escorted out the actor. READ ALSO: What Did Jane Powell Die Of? 'Royal Wedding' Actress' Cause Of Death Revealed In the 1998 film "Waterboy," actor Peter Dante got arrested by the cops after making felony criminal threats to his neighbors. Based on a report by TMZ, some cops showed up at Dante's Los Angeles area by Wednesday morning after he allegedly went "berserk" due to the construction noise from his neighbor. The police continued to say that the 52-year-old actor confronted his neighbor "in a big way," and it went to the point where it escalated to threatening them, as well as harming his wife and kids. Their source told the outlet that after talking with everyone involved in the scene, they arrested Peter Dante for felony criminal threats and took him into custody. However, he later posted bail and got released. Not Free From Crime Peter Not only that, but the "Grandma's Boy" actor also had been accused back in 2013 where he got thrown out of the J.W. Marriott in Santa Monica after allegedly making violent threats and racial slurs. The same source even reported that he got arrested after calling a staffer horrible words, which the actor also admitted caught on camera. The incident happened Friday morning after he screamed at the overnight staff as he wanted a new room key, but the staff could not recognize him, which was why he caused the scene. He said, "You better tell this n**ga to give me my fucking room key before I f*ck him up ... he clearly doesn't know who the f*ck I am." READ ALSO: What Did Jane Powell Die Of? 'Royal Wedding' Actress' Cause Of Death Revealed Actor Turned Horrible Person Dante continued to criticize the staffer and directed his venom toward a Latino parking valet -- "Hey Mexican, this is Santa Monica, do you know where you are? We don't need you." That's when Dante upped his threats by dropping some famous names -- the report states, "[Dante] threatened to have Suge Knight, Busta Rhymes and Adam Sandler come to my house and 'f*ck me up.'" According to a report, Dante even mentioned that he's a part of "Hells Angels" and whole-heartedly bragged about having Santa Monica Police Department connections who could freely help him out in case these situations happen. The comedian was a part of numerous Hollywood films from the Happy Madison Productions alongside his friend, Adam Sandler. READ MORE: Gabby Petito Update: Fiance Claims Van-Life Blogger Attacked Him Because She Sometimes Had 'OCD' Angelina Jolie Supports Gymnasts in Fight Against Larry Nassar (Photo : (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)) Angelina Jolie showed her support for the hundreds of gymnasts that came forward in the case against Larry Nassar, their former team doctor accused of sexually assaulting over 150 women and girls. Jolie's Instagram states she spent her time in Washington, DC, "engaging with Senators on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization and FBI reforms." We love to see celebrities actively using their platforms for good. In her post on Instagram, Jolie wrote: I was honored to meet with some of the brave US gymnasts who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. I'm in awe of their courage and commitment to preventing future failures to investigate abuse. As Aly Raisman said in her testimony, 'Over 100 victims could have been spared the abuse. All we needed was one adult to do the right thing.' (Photo : (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)) . The bravery and perseverance of the US Women's Olympic team is an emblem of strength and courage in a situation in which they should not have to be. According to Hollywood Life, allegations against Larry Nassar were made back in 2015, the accusations were swept under the rug. McKayla Marone, the woman that first came forward, has since accused the Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics of actively hiding the actions of Nassar. (Photo : (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)) It has taken six years and the accusations of over 150 women to bring this issue to the forefront. It should not take this long. Furthermore, the women coming forward are world renown, champion athletes that were still unable to get their voices heard. Within the confines of this system, how can anyone who does not have that platform have the hope of being heard? (Photo : (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)) It is through the work of sticking together, speaking up, and helping others in whatever way they can. Angelina Jolie's vocality on this issue is effective and important. I support and send strength to all the women who have come forward. Ground-breaking sustainability Tier 2 sukuk 12-times oversubscribed Turkish lender Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi has raised $350 million from its "landmark" sustainability sukuk, the first Tier 2 regulatory note issued through the sharia-compliant bond structure. To access this article please sign-in below or register for a free one-month trial. With the recent move into a brand-new headquarters in Chesterfield and continued growth of the company, Superior Wellness is also gaining a stronger presence and increased sales success with the Platinum Spas brand. The vision of Platinum Spas is to be the world's leading innovative hot tub and swim spa brand creating world class premium quality products focused on improving your health and well-being. Focus on innovation and the latest technology The company's focus is to grow and develop this brand in Germany in 2021. They have opened a new distribution centre based in the Netherlands to ensure quicker delivery. With three factories based in China producing Platinum Spas products, they have complete ownership of the design and quality. The products are built to last and manufactured with high quality components sourced globally. An abundance of features The new improved Premium range from Platinum Spas is their most luxurious yet and has been built to the highest quality. With a focus on innovation and the latest technology with an abundance of features. They include upgraded corner panels with full LED lighting strip, upgraded jets and upgraded diverters. The new range also includes the new energy efficient insulation Platinum Premium Shield designed by the Superior Heatlock Insulation Process (SHIP). By reflecting the heat back inwards, the wasted heat created by the pumps and other components can be recycled. The Premium range models include the Tokyo, Barcelona, Kenya, Santorini, Onyx, Infinity, Arizona, Topaz and Maximus. Suitable for three up to eight people at varying budgets - there really is something for everyone. Platinum Spas have already seen a huge growth in Germany and they are looking for new partners to work with them. On the one-year anniversary of its launch, Community Labs announced plans to expand its lab capacity from running 15,000 COVID-19 test samples a day to handling more than 50,000 samples a day. The San Antonio nonprofit will switch to a high-volume testing technique called pooling, in which the lab will be able to run many more tests at a time, Community Labs President Sal Webber said. The process involves placing five samples in each of the 384 spots on a testing tray. When a spot has a positive result, those five samples are retested individually. BioBridge Globals chief medical officer, Rachel Beddard, said this is similar to the way it screens blood and plasma samples for hepatitis, HIV, West Nile and other viruses. On Friday morning, at a news conference on the BioBridge Global campus not far from their laboratory, Webber and co-founder Graham Weston reflected on how the idea of creating a low-cost, efficient and accurate COVID-19 test for local schools may have seemed like an ambitious, or even unlikely, goal back then. There were a lot of people who didnt think we could build a lab before COVID was over, Weston said. The speed at which our team was able to develop a functioning laboratory was remarkable. In 60 days, we went from an idea to piloting the concept of assurance testing. Since September 2020, Community Labs has processed more than 1 million COVID-19 screenings by conducting weekly testings on more than 350 campuses at 11 Bexar County school districts, and charter and private schools. The organization also offers testing at the Alamo Colleges District and five area universities. On ExpressNews.com: COVID infections, hospitalizations trending downward, but many still in ICUs The organization was founded by three philanthropists: Weston, who is a former CEO and chairman of Rackspace Technology and founder of the 80|20 Foundation, J. Bruce Bugg Jr., chairman and trustee of The Tobin Endowment, and J. Tullos Wells, managing director of The Kronkosky Charitable Foundation. Weston said its been a great adventure and that they feel honored to have made an impact at such a critical time. With strong financial backing, Community Labs focused on providing tests that would be affordable. It costs $35 per test a third of the market rate for commercial COVID-19 tests. Funding for school testing comes through Bexar County and the states allocation of federal CARES Act money. Weston said that by keeping the cost low, those public dollars have been stretched further. Webber said coming from a customer service and technology background, he cant understand why other providers charge patients or the government up to $350 per test in the middle of a pandemic. The spread of the more contagious delta variant has had an impact on the positivity rate among these schools. Its reached 1.65 percent, up from an average of 0.5 percent last school year. School district administrators at the event said partnering with Community Labs during the pandemic has been a major win for their schools because it enabled them to ensure students could return to classrooms safely. The self-administered COVID-19 tests on campuses identified silent spreaders of the coronavirus, which helped the schools enforce home isolation for those with positive test results. Without this weekly testing, we would most likely have had much more significant numbers of students who were out and students who would be infecting other students and staff members, said Toni Thompson, associate superintendent for the San Antonio Independent School District. On ExpressNews.com: Community Labs will end its COVID testing at community centers to focus on schools Thompson called the partnership a gift that brought more reliable and faster test results. No one has a turnaround time like Community Labs, she said. Results often were provided within 19 hours, Webber said, which is much faster than many PCR polymerase chain reaction screening tests in the city. Most COVID-19 PCR testing sites have delays for appointments and average 24 to 48 hours for results. Some districts even saw a boost in academic performance. We were one of 10 school districts, in about 1,200 across the state, that actually saw an improvement in STAAR scores in reading in math, which is just spectacular, Somerset ISD Superintendent Saul Hinojosa said. Hinojosa credits the school districts early partnership with Community Labs as a pilot client for helping it reach that goal despite the fact that more than 60 percent of its students lack internet access. I still remember that first week of school. We had 38 percent of our kids actually show up for face-to-face instruction. We started posting the numbers, and we were transparent about mass testing. Slowly but surely, students started to trickle back in, and we ended up at the end of the year with 83 percent of our students there for face-to-face instruction, which was one of the highest rates in Bexar County. This year, Hinojosa said, Somerset ISD has 100 percent on-campus attendance. laura.garcia@express-news.net ATHENS, Greece (AP) The leaders of Europes Mediterranean countries pledged late Friday to expand cooperation in the fight against climate change and to back common security and defense initiatives in the European Union. The meetings in Athens were held in the aftermath of massive summer wildfires that ravaged parts of southern Europe, and the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. The nine Mediterranean countries expressed their strong conviction that urgent and ambitious global action" to fight climate change is needed at national, regional and local levels, according to a joint statement issued after the talks got underway. Attending the talks were President Emmanuel Macron of France, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Spains Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and leaders and senior representatives from Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Croatia and Portugal. (The climate initiative) is absolutely the right move at the right time because we all see that climate change is heavily affecting the Mediterranean region, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who also joined the talks. Participants reaffirmed their commitment to goals set out under the Paris accord, the worldwide global climate pact, called for closer integration of climate change policies across Europe and further cooperation within the EUs trans-national disaster response mechanism. The Athens meetings came two days after the United States and Britain promised to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines a pledge that abruptly sidelined Paris, leaving it out of a lucrative submarine deal. Macron did not refer to the development directly, but French government officials confirmed that the issue had been discussed. "We are all convinced of the importance of cooperation on the economy, climate, technology, and on the strategic and military level, to reinforce European sovereignty Macron said. We must be able to face challenges and threats that affect our neighborhood, and create alliances so that we can effectively manage the consequences of these challenges. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis welcomed support expressed by visiting leaders over efforts to avoid a refugee crisis from Afghanistan reaching Europe. He also hailed a joint call on Greece's neighbor Turkey to abstain, in a consistent and permanent manner, from provocations or unilateral actions in breach of international law regarding controversial oil-and-gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. One thing is sure: We will not allow a repeat of the uncontrolled migration that we experienced in 2015, Mitsotakis said. More than a million refugees and migrants, mostly from wars in Syria and Iraq, crossed into Greece and on to other European Union countries in 2015-16. Greece has since hardened its borders and received extensive support from the EU border protection agency Frontex. ___ Follow APs coverage of climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate ___ Follow Becatoros at https://twitter.com/ElenaBec and Gatopoulos at https://twitter.com/dgatopoulos Jacobo Rendon, 14, began setting out in March 2020 with his ornithologist mother on a mission to spot, count and record the birds they saw in their Colombian town of El Carmen de Viboral. Working with binoculars and a borrowed camera, they figured it could make for a nice science fair entry. But after classes went virtual because of coronavirus lockdowns, he turned what had been a mere school project into a labor of love: a photographic and illustrated guide to the areas urban avian life that the teen plans to donate to a local cultural center. He hopes the guide will inspire others to illustrate and help preserve birds especially young people, because were the ones wholl be here in the coming years," Rendon said. "Were going to be responsible for our planet. The project recently earned Rendon recognition from the Action for Nature nonprofit as one of its 2021 International Young Eco-Hero winners, an award honoring young environmental activists for solving the worlds most critical environmental issues. The reaction has been overwhelming. After he posted a video online, donations poured in unasked along with encouraging messages from strangers around the world, and a nature photographer volunteered his time to give him a free lesson. When Rendon offered to draw birds for people to raise further funds for the project, he was kept busy with commissions for months. In just a couple of weeks, he brought in more than $1,000 to buy his first camera, colored markers and other materials. That people support these projects shows that people are generous, that they want to invest in the environment, that they can be moved by young people like myself ... and encouraged to donate, he said. Rendon knows dozens of birds by name and has grown up drawing them after school. In an interview conducted remotely by video, he proudly rattled off the scientific names of several of them and showed off some of his favorite illustrations, including the first guide entry a flame-rumped tanager and another of a sparrow hawk. Johana Reyes Herrera, Rendon's mother, said she is proud of their work to raise awareness in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. It has also been the motto of our home, our family being able to serve the community, Reyes Herrera said. "The fact that hes doing it, and that hes in line with this thought, makes his dad and me very happy. ___ 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 ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content. MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images A girl visiting South Padre Island with her family from Colorado was hospitalized Thursday with a suspected shark bite, according to a city official. An SPI spokesperson told the Express-News that the 11-year-old suffered injuries to her thigh at around 3 p.m. and was transported to a local hospital. COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining across Texas and the Houston region, but ICUs remain stubbornly full, as the sickest patients require care for a longer period of time. Last week, the number of available adult ICU beds in Texas sunk below 300 for the first time in the pandemic, with 270 beds available on Sept. 8 and 279 available on Sept. 9, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. There were 326 beds available this Wednesday, including 65 in the nine-county region surrounding Houston, the data show. Texas Medical Center ICUs for weeks have been hovering around 90 percent full with Phase 2 surge plans which add 373 ICU beds to the 1,330 available in Phase 1 activated. COVID HELP DESK: Are we past the peak of the delta variant surge in Houston? Overall, the situation in hospitals appears to be improving, said Dr. James McDeavitt, executive vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine. He said Houston-area ICU numbers likely peaked at the end of August, when COVID patients took up 49 percent of all critical care beds. As of Wednesday, that number dropped to 45 percent. That may not seem like much, but its a lot, he said. Were still at high levels, but no longer peak levels not the worst its ever been. He added that some people are starting to see theres a light at the end at least of this particular tunnel. Statewide hospitalizations have been steadily declining since Sept. 7, from 13,520 patients to 12,597 on Wednesday, according to DSHS. The weekly average of daily new hospitalizations in the medical center has been dropping from a peak of 390 in mid-August to 328 last week. ICU data typically lags behind hospitalization data, said McDeavitt, due to the length of time patients in these units remain in treatment. He is cautiously optimistic that Texas Medical Center ICU usage will decline in the coming days. Still, the high number of ICU patients forces doctors to delay much-needed procedures that take up bed space. At many hospitals, doctors have daily meetings in which they rank patients based on the level of care needed. Cosmetic surgeries are usually among the first to be delayed, but more urgent surgeries also have to be considered. On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston's medical experts aren't worried after Nicholas halts COVID tests for a day What about the person out there who has a significant blockage in their heart arteries and they cannot come in to have their bypass? asked Dr. Syed Raza, vice president of medical operations at CHI St. Lukes Health-The Woodlands Hospital. Its a discussion we have every day. We try to get the patients that have a possible cancer diagnosis or who have cardiac lesions in as much as we can. That takes a lot collaboration, a lot of energy and a lot of shifting of schedules, trying to figure out where we can get more nurses. In some cases, full ICUs can lead to life-threatening delays. In late August, U.S. Army veteran Daniel Wilkinson was admitted to Bellville Medical Center with gallstone pancreatitis, a treatable condition in which a gallstone blocks the pancreatic duct and causes inflammation. The Bellville hospital could not provide that level of treatment, and doctors could not find him an open ICU bed for about seven hours, said his mother Michelle Puget. His condition had dramatically deteriorated by the time doctors found him a bed at the Houston VA Medical Center, where he died on a Sunday afternoon surrounded by his family. Im just hoping that somebody else doesnt have to go through this, Puget told the Houston Chronicle this week. Im not angry. Im hurt. Im heartbroken. Right now, regional ICU figures remain at the same level since late August, according to state data.ICU capacity has remained steady at Harris Health System hospitals but is beginning to come down, said Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, president and CEO of Harris Health System. He said he could not immediately provide specific data but said the system is still exceeding baseline capacity. While an infusion of nurses from the state and Harris County considerably helped earlier staffing issues, fatigue is the biggest issue among his ICU staff, he said. Its really that more than anything else, he said. ICU nurses are worn out. He also noted a 30 percent decrease in the number of patients compared to last month. Despite the improved outlook, this is not the time to relax, he said. The message hasnt changed, he said. Please, please for Gods sake get yourself vaccinated. julian.gill@chron.com William Quince Colburn IIIs final social media post were the images of his dead family and a threat to commit further violence on a school in south Texas, according to the Aransas Pass Police Department. Hours later, on Wednesday evening, when authorities tracked the teen to an Ingleside RV, the 15-year-old fatally shot himself. Officials say they recovered the bodies of his three family members and two dogs inside the RV. The investigation was conducted by multiple Ingleside and Aransas Pass agencies and is ongoing, San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera said in a Facebook post. Among the dead were William Colburn Jr., 63, and Janna Colburn, 53 and Emma Colburn, 13. "We were devastated with news that has broken us to our core," William Quince Colburn III's aunt Mahria Martin Batts said in a statement. She added: "As you can imagine, this is hard for us right now. This is not something we ever imagined to happen. We were not prepared for one loss, yet alone four. We are hurt. We do not understand. We are lost. We are angry. We are asking that you please understand that no matter what the events are that came to pass, that we are still mourning all four." The family has set up an online fundraiser to help pay for funeral expenses. Late Wednesday, Aransas Pass police began an investigation into threats made by a teenager later identified as Quince Colburn III on social media. Police said his post contained graphic images of dead people who he identified as his family. He said he had killed them, police said. The sheriffs office was investigating a separate complaint shared via the Texas Department of Public Safety. Officials tracked Quince Colburn III to an RV he was living in at the Aransas Oaks RV Resort in Ingleside. Officers asked him to step outside and he refused. The officers heard a single gunshot and the thud of a person falling to the ground, according to an Aransas Police Pass Police Department news release. Entry was made into the RV and immediately discovered the graphic scene shared over social media. Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net Like many of her classmates in officer candidate school, Ginny Hallager embraced the Navy for the opportunity to go overseas and its chance for adventure. But it was September 1964, which meant Navy Officer Candidate School-W the W stood for women offered limited options for service. They couldnt serve aboard ships, fly planes or fight in combat. Decades would pass before they could. We didnt even get a ride on a ship during our class time in the fall of 64. We were hoping to go out on a day cruise but no, there were absolutely no women on board, said Hallager, 79, of San Antonio, who helped organized a reunion of the class this weekend. The gender limits didnt stop with duty rosters. If they got pregnant, the Navy unceremoniously tossed them out. That was the law, practice and custom not just in the Navy but in America. Women had to get their husbands to co-sign a loan, one graduate recalled. Another bought a house when she was single, but lost control of it under Virginia law when she got married her husband became the owner the moment he put a ring on her finger. A hardy band from the OCS-W class, which trained at Newport, R.I., is now in San Antonio 10 classmates who last saw each other after graduating almost 57 years ago. Forty-three officer candidates in all made it through the 16-week course. Some had done eight weeks as enlistees the previous year, and returned for the second half in 1964 after graduating from college. The barriers they faced in serving their country were similar to the wider civilian world, they said, in a time when women frequently went to college in search of a husband as well as a diploma. They were thrilled to be naval officers. For me it was not a problem. That was not my primary focus in being in the Navy, Hallager said of her inability to board a ship. My focus was to have assignments possibly around the world, to travel. Robin Jerstad /Robin Jerstad Michaline Polakowski Larson, who would marry a young officer she met in the mess hall, hoped to learn something while in uniform and maybe serve eight or 10 years. Like the other women, Katharine Laughton knew why they were at Newport to backfill a variety of shore jobs held by men who would be reassigned to ships in the event of a major conflict. The likeliest foe was the Soviet Union. Cold War tensions were high. The Cuban Missile Crisis had happened less than two years earlier and U.S. involvement in Vietnam was about to ramp up. Public respect for anyone in uniform was high. The Navy struck the women as a pretty good deal. I went into the Navy because when I graduated from college there were not a whole lot of opportunities open. And so two years of equal pay for equal work, that was not so bad, said Laughton, who became one of two cadets in the class to eventually retire as a rear admiral. On ExpressNews.com: As their careers take off, Air Force women try to balance work and family They didnt dwell on career fields closed to them holding command roles aboard ships, earning their wings as fighter pilots. Many left the service after marrying and having children. Some left because there was no way to be with their husbands. Some whose pregnancies got them boarded out of the Navy came back years later, when the rules changed. But none of them stopped loving the Navy, several said. I just wish I had stayed in longer, said Elizabeth Carmack, 79, of Sumter, S.C. Thats the only regret I have. I dont think anybody had a bad experience; I really dont. Some people served abroad. It was just quite something that would not have happened if people had stayed in their own little hometowns. Hallagers dreams of joining the Navy went back to high school in Lincoln, Neb. Raised by a single mother for years after her parents divorced, she wanted stability in her life. The Navy would mean a regular paycheck. Robin Jerstad /Robin Jerstad I would have something worthwhile to be doing, Id be serving my country, and it just seemed a logical way of taking care of myself, Hallager said. And I didnt have any plans to get married early on. I thought this would be a career for me, and that would be great. Larson thought about joining the military as a teenager in Detroit, where she served in the Civil Air Patrol. Attending Marygrove College, she figured on joining the Air Force but a Marine Corps recruiter insisted that she belonged in the Navy. Civil Air Patrol had given Larson a sense of structure and she found more of it in OCS, and a chance to do something different. The cadets marched to class, but there was no running or other strenuous physical activity. A good deal of emphasis was placed on academics. I have a feeling they didnt know what to do with us in 1964, said Larson, 79, who lives in a retirement community in Dearborn, Mich. I did intend to stick around, but I married a very handsome young officer. That was Matthew Larson, whom she met in the mess hall at Newport. They liked each others company and later crossed paths in Norfolk, where he served aboard the USS Guadalcanal and she was at the nearby naval air station. A junior in college, Carmack got a letter on Valentines Day 1963 from the Navy asking if she wanted to go to officer candidate school. Summer in Newport, a major naval base, sounded like fun. There wasnt much going on in Tulsa, Okla., and job prospects for women even academic fields leading to those jobs were limited. In fact, one of my very good friends, her father was a noted oil geologist Oklahoma was big in petroleum she wanted to follow and work with her father. They would not allow her to take geology because she was a girl, Carmack recalled, declining to identify the school. Nobody could go to Annapolis; nobody could go to the Air Force Academy. That wasnt possible at that time, Carmack said. We were approaching the Vietnam War; it was a time to make a decision on what you wanted to do, and this was the perfect thing. Laughton became assistant communications officer in her first assignment at Moffett Field in San Jose, Calif., a job that allowed her to sign on as a crew member aboard planes flying out to Hawaii. The Navy, she said, gave her the freedom to use my brain. When you would go into the officers club and you wore your insignia on your uniform, you were treated as an equal, she said. At that period of time, there were a lot of restrictions on women in terms of what they could do, and the Navy gave me the freedom to be treated as an equal, and I loved it. I loved it. I only intended to stay in two years and I stayed for 34, so something must have clicked. Laughton led four different commands in 10 years. She encountered hostility, of course, she said but you run into hostility in life, dont you? And if you do your homework and you know what youre about and youre good at what you do, then thats the best weapon against hostility. Robin Jerstad /Robin Jerstad Once she was commissioned, Larson took charge of smaller tasks senior officers didnt want to mess with, like blood drives, in addition to her principal job, which held both responsibility and the requirement of a security clearance. She kept a .38-caliber handgun in her desk. In time, Larson saw the Navy change. While in Pensacola, Fla., in the 1970s with her husband, women were learning how to fly cargo planes. I saw that enviously, in a way, that they had these opportunities. And of course when they put women on submarines, I couldnt believe it, Larson said. On ExpressNews.com: Air Force leader in San Antonio advised Brie Larson for 'Marvel' role She was a lieutenant junior grade when she became pregnant and had to leave the service. She and her husband, who retired as a commander and died four years ago, had two sons, one of them a Navy lieutenant. Four of their grandchildren also have served in the military. Carmack was in the Navy nearly three years when her husband wanted to go to graduate school. Then I left, she said, but I later wished I had stayed. Hallager calls herself a real short-timer. She met her husband, Donald Hallager a career Air Force pilot who flew the B-47, B-52 and KC-135 tanker and retired as a colonel even before she went to Newport. They had a son and daughter. I had to figure out how this marriage was going to work and for me; it was to have a very short career in the Navy. I got pregnant and got out and became an Air Force wife, and that was my service career, she said. I had no idea that was going to happen because I thought I had chosen the Navy and thats going to be my career, but love stepped in. sigc@express-news.net Imelda Sanchez tries not to go outside if she doesnt have to. Dust from the nearby Martin Marietta batch concrete plant in Kirby cakes on her windows, settles on cars and powders the water she stores in a bucket in the garage. Sanchez, 63, blames it for a deep cough that tightens her chest. Even walking down to the street, she said, I feel out of breath. With more than two dozen such plants that supply wet concrete ready to be poured in the San Antonio area, and more than 1,300 across Texas, many residential neighborhoods like hers live with the dust they generate. But its more than a nuisance. It contains tiny particles that can be hazardous to peoples health. Crystalline silica, a mineral present in the cement and other materials at batch plants, has been linked to lung disease, chronic respiratory problems and silicosis. Whether the concentration of airborne silica in neighborhoods such as Sanchezs is high enough to endanger human health hasnt been established. Plant operators do not monitor silica emissions. Nor does Texas environmental regulator. For years, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the material doesnt need to be regulated at batch plants, and for that reason, the state historically did not require plant operators to monitor the air for silica. That changed, at least on paper, in 2012 when the TCEQ inadvertently removed an exemption for silica. Technically, the plants have been required to eliminate silica from their emissions since then. But no plants in Texas are known to have done so, and the TCEQ has not enforced the requirement. The industry maintains its impossible to produce concrete without releasing silica particles. The matter will be back before the TCEQ on Sept. 22, when it is expected to decide whether to restore the exemption or impose limits on silica emissions that could affect a $10 billion industry. For Sanchez and her husband, whose house is less than 250 yards from the concrete plant, the issue comes down not to money but to dust. Is someone going to do something about this? she asked. A multibillion-dollar industry Concrete batch plants are popping up throughout Texas to meet demand spurred by development in the nations fastest-growing state. The number of applications for air quality permits for batch plants rose 25 percent from 2014 to 2019, according to the Texas Tribune. Of the 27 permits in Bexar County, 12 were applied for in the last five years, according to the TCEQ. The plants are operated by companies that include Martin Marietta Inc., a nationwide supplier of building materials based in Raleigh, N.C.; Alabama-based Vulcan Materials Co.; and Alamo Concrete Products Ltd. Concrete batch plants combine cement, air and materials such as sand and gravel in large drums. The material is loaded into trucks, mixed with water and transported to construction sites. The plants typically occupy at least an acre, with 40-foot silos that store cement and piles of sand and gravel. The sites and their supporting industries employ 100,000 people a year statewide, according to the Texas Aggregates and Concrete Association. The plants produce about 20 percent of all ready-mix concrete in the United States. Most plants are within 30 miles of the construction projects they support since concretes quality can degrade when hauled long distances. With increasing development in towns and cities, plants are often located close to residential areas. Why crystalline silica isnt monitored A company seeking to build a batch concrete plant must obtain an air quality permit that sets limits on emissions of various contaminants including tiny solid or liquid particles known as particulate matter. The Standard Permit for Concrete Batch Plants, which the TCEQ created for this industry, exempts certain types of particulate matter from monitoring. For many years, crystalline silica was among those exempted. The exemption was based on a protectiveness review the TCEQ conducted in 2000 that examined contaminants such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. The study concluded that at a distance of 100 feet from a plant, the minimum permissible distance from a neighboring property, the concentration of particulate matter would not exceed the states safety threshold. On ExpressNews.com: Judge stops planned 1,500-acre quarry near Bracken Bat Cave In 2012, while updating the standard permit, the TCEQ removed the exemption for crystalline silica. The agency now says the removal was an oversight. It went unnoticed until last year, when residents in Tarrant County opposed the construction of a concrete batch plant. In the meantime, batch plants had operated as before, with no objection from the TCEQ. Some 700 plants obtained air quality permits during this period. Without the exemption, concrete batch plants are not allowed to emit any crystalline silica, which is impossible under their current operating procedures, said Adam Friedman, an environmental lawyer in Austin who represented a group of residents living within 440 yards of the proposed Tarrant County plant. They are all emitting it, Friedman said of the plants. Other states regulate the facilities more rigorously than Texas does. In San Diego, the Air Pollution Control District requires companies to monitor and measure crystalline silica emissions. And some states require greater distances between the plants and sensitive areas than the 100-foot minimum in Texas. In New Mexico, concrete batch plants must be at least 1,320 feet from an existing park, recreation area or schoolyard. Silicas effects Crystalline silica is found in the earths crust. A crystalline silica particle is one-hundredth the size of a grain of beach sand, making it easy to inhale. At concrete batch plants, respirable crystalline silica can come from cement and fly ash, a powder used in producing cement. Once inhaled, the mineral can cause lung cancer, kidney disease and silicosis, an incurable lung disease. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate crystalline silica and has never set exposure limits. But the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has. OSHA regulations limit workplace exposure to respirable silica to a maximum of 50 milligrams per cubic meter of air over an eight-hour day. The agency strongly advises people who work around the substance to have chest X-rays every three years. From 2005 to 2014, 1,167 people died of silicosis in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many worry about crystalline silicas effects on people living near plants that emit it. But its difficult to draw a causal link between the plants and respiratory problems among residents living in the vicinity. Elizabeth Matsui, professor of population health and pediatrics at the UT Austin Dell Medical School and a leading expert in environmental exposures, said that compared to the well-established risk to workers exposed to crystalline silica, less is known about its potential harm to communities. But what we do know is communities that are in close proximity to those emissions are at a higher risk of high concentrations of silica in the air, she said. There are certainly concerns about potential health effects. For Krystal Henagan, those concerns are more than academic. She and her family moved into the Cedar Grove neighborhood on San Antonios Northeast Side in 2013, near a concrete plant, quarry and asphalt plant operated by Vulcan Materials. Within three months, her 4-year-old son, Tanner, began suffering from what appeared to be severe allergies. The family moved out at the end of 2013 because of concerns about the boys health. By then, he was on seven medications and had been diagnosed with asthma, allergies and breathing issues caused by limestone and silica respiratory irritants affecting his nose, sinuses and lungs. I cleaned and cleaned, said Henagan, who now lives in Boerne, and the dust just kept coming back. Tanners symptoms eased significantly after the family moved, his mother said. No studies show with any confidence that a certain level of silica exposure is safe for communities, Matsui said.. But to conclude that the absence of strong evidence means theres no health hazard would be a threat to public health and in particular to vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, she said. The call for monitoring William Luther /Staff Dust from concrete batch plants does not respect property lines. Martin Mariettas Kirby Ready Mix plant sits just off Loop 410, a few hundred feet west of the scattering of homes where Sanchez lives. An open field is all that separates the plant from the neighborhood. One of Sanchezs neighbors, Teresa Vogel, 63, said she sometimes sees a cloud of dust moving across the field toward houses. The dust gets into her home and onto window sills and furniture. I know its bad, and its so close, Vogel said, looking at the plant from her doorstep. It looks a lot like caliche dust from gravel roads. Corey Williams, research and policy director at the nonprofit Air Alliance Houston, has studied the environmental effects of concrete batch plants for years. When you hear about communities with dust on their cars and windows, were concerned the assumption being that theyre probably breathing it in, he said. William Luther /Staff Williams is among environmental activists urging the TCEQ to do more research on crystalline silica. He and others believe the protectiveness review conducted in 2000 was inadequate in that regard. They note that the review examined particulate matter as a whole without assessing its components, including crystalline silica. Since the safety limits for crystalline silica and particulate matter overall are different, they contend the study cannot be relied on in making decisions about regulating silica. Crystalline silica has a much lower threshold than just particulate matter, Williams said. The TCEQ sets limits for particulate matter in the air based on two sizes of particulates: those 2.5 micrometers or smaller and those up to 10 micrometers. A micrometer is one-millionth of a meter. Plastic wrap is about 10 micrometers thick. For the larger particulates, the TCEQ limit is 150 milligrams per cubic meter of air over 24 hours. For the smaller ones, the limit is 35 milligrams per cubic meter. The TCEQs protectiveness study predicted that at 100 feet from a batch plant, concentrations of particles in both categories would remain below those safety limits. But the limit for crystalline silica is a fraction of the limit for other particulate matter. So if silica accounted for as little as 2.9 percent of smaller particles in the air 100 feet from a batch plant, that would exceed the safety threshold for silica. Williams said the issue wasnt explored thoroughly in the protectiveness study, and he noted that batch plants are not required to monitor silica concentrations in the air. The TCEQ, meanwhile, recently estimated crystalline silica levels for concrete batch plants and said they dont exceed the agencys limit for the substance, but Williams said such estimates are not a substitute for field-based studies. Texas counties lack zoning powers, which limits their ability to regulate development in unincorporated areas. That means concrete companies can often build batch plants in places where county officials would prefer not to have them near schools, parks and residential neighborhoods. Incorporated municipalities legally can adopt zoning laws, but some have not. Boerne is in that category. William Luther /Staff When Vulcan Materials Co. planned to build a concrete plant across from the Hill Country Montessori School in Boerne in 2018, the Boerne to Bergheim Coalition for a Clean Environment sued to block an air quality permit. The lawsuit failed, but the coalition is appealing. Construction has not started on the plant. Boerne resident Toni Lott, a member of the coalition, said the TCEQs protectiveness review did not consider proximity to homes in its analysis. Theres no reason for a concrete plant and its emissions to be so close to people, said Lott, who transferred her special needs daughter from Hill Country Montessori to a school in San Antonio out of concern that the Vulcan plant would generate hazardous dust. Not only is that going to affect your property value, but beyond that it can damage your health permanently. Disrupting, restoring the status quo The TCEQs failure to enforce the limit on silica emissions after the exemption from it was removed came to light in November, when a judge at the State Office of Administrative Hearings recommended that the TCEQ reject an application for an air quality permit for a batch plant in Tarrant County. The administrative law judge determined that the proposed plant was not proven to be safe in respect to crystalline silica, and the TCEQ commissioners agreed, said Friedman, the lawyer representing opponents of the plant. The judges decision was consistent with a limit of zero for silica emissions per the letter of the standard air quality permit. TCEQ officials said in court that the exemption for silica had been removed inadvertently and that the agency had carried on as if it was still in place. The TCEQ said in a statement in advance of its Sept. 22 meeting that it intends to reinsert the exemption in the standard permit, because the agency has already addressed emission rates and distance limitations for concrete batch plants. The commission originally determined that permits issued to concrete batch plants meeting the requirement of the standard permit were protective of human health and environment, the TCEQ said. The exemptions proponents, including the Texas Aggregates and Concrete Association, see its omission as an administrative error having nothing to do with safety. The science is still very sound from back when the TCEQ first did their original study on this particular standard permit, said Josh Leftwich, president and CEO of the industry association. To suddenly say in 2021 that this protectiveness is not there for these plants, thats just not accurate. Whats next Although the TCEQ has said concrete batch plants that received permits since 2012 can continue to operate without monitoring silica, Williams believes they may be vulnerable to a challenge for not following the letter of their permits. If the TCEQ were to reverse course and put limits on crystalline silica emissions, all concrete batch plants in Texas likely would have to meet the new requirements eventually. Plant operators must renew their air permits every 10 years. How much that would affect the industry depends on how tight a limit the TCEQ imposed. Research may find that the limit for crystalline silica emissions doesnt need to be zero. There are so many communities affected by this issue, Williams said. And because its such a technical issue, it may take a while for people who are not environmental professionals to fully understand whats being proposed and make their concerns heard. Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net. Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images The Texas Comptroller's office on Thursday said it returned $285 million in unclaimed property in fiscal year 2021 and more than $6 billion in cash and valuables that remain unclaimed in the state. Since the establishment of Texas' unclaimed property program in 1962, the comptroller's office says it has returned more than $3 billion in unclaimed property to owners and $2 billion since 2014, when Glenn Hegar was first elected as comptroller. While Janie Martinez Gonzalez was growing up, she watched her mother set up tables at flea markets to make the family some extra cash by selling gloves and bracelets, like the ones Madonna was wearing, or nunchucks, when karate was popular whatever would sell. It was really neat to learn from her, and watch her operate to take $20 and make $200. And for us, $200 was a lot, Gonzalez said. One of the things that I saw right away was how my mom was very smart, and society had told her that her job was to just be a housewife and raise her kids. And I was already being groomed for that. As she entered her teen years, the example of her mothers entrepreneurship led Gonzalez to strive for a future beyond what was expected. After earning an associates degree at Palo Alto College and a bachelors at University of Texas at San Antonio, she became co-founder of one of San Antonios first internet companies, Webhead. Since its founding in 1994, the company has grown into a major defense contractor, with 58 employees developing high-security software and cloud technology while doing work for local and state government, nonprofits and other organizations. Most companies cant do government work and commercial work together. She and her company are able to be flexible enough to go both ways, said J.J. Romano, who worked with Gonzalez while serving as a vice president at SAIC, a major defense contractor. It has to do with the size and having the right people in place. Im looking forward to seeing her get to the next level with Webhead. Gonzalez has also been active in the community, founding Cascaron Bash, an event during Fiesta that raises money to promote education in science, technology, engineering, arts and math among members of minority groups. She is a trustee at CPS Energy where her father worked as a mechanic and serves on the boards of the Alamo Colleges Foundation and Texas A&M University-San Antonio Foundation. She and her husband recently launched a startup in quantum computing, under the name Quantum Reality, which is still in its infant stage, she said. Different culture background Growing up in a blue-collar area of the South Side, the tech industry was not an obvious career path for her. It took courage for her to break away from what was expected, she said. You have to unlearn certain things, and hold dearly to other things that are a core part of who you are, she said. When youre the first, people are afraid for you, and sometimes out of fear comes individuals wanting to discourage you, telling you that youre aiming too high, youll be disappointed. Her experiences have given her insight into how more women and minorities can be led to paths of success in business and technology. A study conducted last year by Accenture and Girls Who Code found that women in the tech industry leave those jobs at a rate 45 percent higher than men. According to a report from the Brookings Institution, only 7.9 percent of jobs in the computer and math fields in the U.S. were held by Blacks in 2016, and only 6.8 percent by Hispanics. Even as the tech scene is struggling with a lack of diversity, five of Webheads seven executives are women and seven of the 10 members of its development team are Hispanic. I think that we have to understand that minorities approach startups very differently. They come from a different culture background, she said. The typical layout of a well-funded tech company with ultra-cool interior design and free high-end snacks can seem foreign to someone from a minority background, she said. And the freewheeling stereotype of a tech entrepreneur could discourage those who have children from pursuing careers in the field. It makes it difficult for someone to walk into that world when thats not your world you just have a great idea, she said. I think that we have to demystify what it is to leverage technology to start your business. You can start it in your house. We need to do a better job of positive reinforcement that being a minority is not a disadvantage, it is a competitive advantage, she said. All those things that are viewed as bad poverty, lacking resources they automatically, in my experience, introduce innovation and resourcefulness and an agile mindset to survive. You see the world very differently. And thats a competitive edge. Finding another way Gonzalez was born in San Antonio to a mother from Laredo and a father from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, who later became a U.S. citizen. After living on both sides of the border, the family settled in San Antonio when she was 3 or 4 years old. I was conceived in Mexico, born here, she said with a laugh. My parents went back and forth. I was literally what youd call a border child. They lived in two worlds. As the oldest of five siblings, she learned to be responsible at a young age. Theres a lot of responsibility thrown at you, she said. I learned to be very diplomatic. I learned how to run an effective board of my brothers and sisters, including my parents. I found myself learning negotiating skills at a very young age. Her mother was an avid reader who encouraged her and her siblings to become educated, taking them to the library when they were young. Her sister is now a professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, while one of her brothers is a digital engineer. On the wall of her office, she has a framed American flag another brother sent to her while serving in the Air Force in Iraq. Once Gonzalez was in her mid-30s, her father came to terms with her career, she said. When she purchased the building where Webhead is located, on San Pedro Avenue in Tobin Hill, he told her he was proud of her. She never thought of her family as poor when she was growing up, she said. Yet she remembers having to wait for hours to see a doctor at a clinic when her family didnt have health insurance. You didnt really know what financial literacy was, she said. I think I had a self-awareness that I would see (my parents) try so hard, and yet not move much. We were raised very well, my parents did a really good job of raising us. It was very traditional you know, the fathers in charge and mom is emotionally supportive. Yet, the family struggled to build wealth. There had to be a different way, she said. A new role model After enrolling in Palo Alto College, Gonzalez found a role model in Leticia Sanchez, the colleges associate director of admissions and records. Sanchez introduced her to feminism and political justice, and Gonzalez became involved in registering voters through the League of United Latin American Citizens. She was very young, very energetic, had a lot of ideas, Sanchez said in an interview. Palo Alto had only been founded a few years before Gonzalez enrolled, and she was eager to become a leader at the new college, helping to form a student recruitment organization she later chaired, Sanchez said. She recalled that Gonzalez was torn about how to respond to the pressure she faced from her father and others to adopt a traditional female role. She was thinking things, but I think that she didnt know how to articulate her feelings at the time. So I was trying to say, Yes, your father, your childhood and all that is a tradition, but we are women and we are strong and thats a concept called feminism, Sanchez said. Gonzalez was introduced to the world of computing through her husband, Bill Gonzalez, who studied computer science at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She recalls meeting with him for lunch in the university computer lab and watching him use Linux and Netscape. She and her husband who now have four children founded the company in 1994 with $500 from a credit card. They operated from the living room of their home on the West Side. She would walk up and down Houston and Commerce streets asking small businesses if they needed help creating a website, she said. A snapshot of their website in 1996 shows that they were charging as little as $15 for a simple webpage, $50 for an animated GIF and $400 for a java app. The company would soon expand to serve nonprofits, startups, chambers of commerce, the city of San Antonio and Bexar County. Her husband, now the companys chief innovation officer, said she acquired the nickname the Rainmaker from her ability to bring in new clients by delivering pitches, writing proposals and answering technical questions. It was gangbusters. We couldnt keep up with the work she was bringing in, he said. We had to tell her, We cant keep up. Grainy cellphone video from the Kabul airport bombings aftermath lit up my phone as I strolled H-E-Bs produce aisle. In the 37-second clip, people yelled as they struggled to help the wounded. Bloody bodies covered the ground and floated in the canals murky water. A young man with a head wound sat in the muck and waved for help. All around me, people knocked on watermelons, inspected strawberries and gripped peaches. They talked about dinner plans, not the carnage from the other side of the world that I held in my hand. The video came from Abubaker, a 24-year-old Afghan who worked as a coalition linguist for the past two years. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: How DOD shaped Americans' view of war in Afghanistan Hed battled the mob scene at the Abbey Gate for three days and nights, and described Taliban fighters using smoke bombs, tear gas and machine guns to disperse the crowd of more than 20,000. Sounds of women and children crying and small arms fire filled the air. People were passing out in the extreme heat. He fled the area a few hours before the bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans, and wounded hundreds more. On another day, as I hunted for a sprinkler part at Lowes, Abubaker shared a video of Taliban forces knocking on doors in search of Afghans whod helped allied troops. He typed three words: Im so scared. These are two examples of the steady barrage of grim realities from Afghanistan that have rocketed into my home over the last few weeks during breakfast, between work meetings, while talking with my kids or as we slept. After the bombing, Abubaker didnt go back to the airport. And despite being a special immigrant visa applicant, he hasnt made it out of Afghanistan. I check on him often via WhatsApp, and his words paint a darker picture with each passing day. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: As Afghanistan falls, memories haunt I dont know whats gonna happen and when they are coming for me, he wrote recently. I am still hiding myself everywhere is under the control of the Taliban. Its tough to respond to messages like this. The best I could manage was, Im so sorry. I asked if hes taken precautions to veil his coalition ties. He said hes burned his documents, stays inside, tells his friends hes not there, deleted photos and hides his face if he must go out. Abubakers co-worker Zarif, who goes by Zee, has had a very different journey. The 30-year-old who worked as a coalition linguist for two years also battled the crowds at the Abbey Gate. The day before the bombing, he lowered himself into the sewage canal and pleaded with a U.S. soldier on the other side of the gate. Zee told the soldier he was an interpreter and showed his documentation. Luck or fate intervened, and soon Zee, whos also a special immigrant visa applicant, found himself inside the airport compound. Then he was on a plane to Bahrain. A few days later, he landed in Italy and shortly thereafter boarded a plane to Philadelphia. On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: Public was indifferent to a war made abstract Zee is now in the refugee camp at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. Hes had initial interviews with State Department officials and looks forward to starting a new life in America. He has an undergraduate degree and wants to pursue a career in cybersecurity, so Ive been telling him about the opportunities in San Antonio. In Kabul, Zee and Abubaker worked for Jason Campbell, a recently retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who deployed to Afghanistan several times throughout the war. From October to May, he was a civilian adviser to an Afghan deputy minister. Zee and Abubaker translated documents coming from the Afghan ministry and vice versa. Campbell wrote both letters for their SIV applications and said he feels fantastic that Zee made it out of Kabul. Hes less hopeful for Abubaker now that the U.S. has left. Is he more or less deserving than someone else to go? No. Is he going to make it out? Are we going to make every effort like we did prior to Aug. 31? I don't believe so, he said. I think once the last American that wants to leave, leaves his chances drop even further. The contrast between Zee and Abubakers journeys is stark. Zee is starting a new life full of liberty, opportunity and hope, while nearly 8,000 miles away Abubakers options and freedoms dwindle with each passing minute. And sadly, while Campbell knows theres little he can do to help Abubaker, he tries to stay positive, and the best advice he can offer is, Good luck. Keep trying. brandon.lingle@express-news.net When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez on Wednesday as the new Chicago Public Schools CEO, she described him as a son of Chicago and an incredible, national leader. Martinez, who will leave at the end of the month, has led SAISD for six years with heart, logic and innovation prevailing over educational inequities and COVID-19. We owe him our gratitude. His aspiration for excellence, reflected in his vision, empathy and leadership, is unparalleled. And his success offers a path forward for SAISD as the district looks for its next superintendent. Leadership can be a lonely place, and while Martinez has many fans in San Antonio, he also drew his fair share of critics. Why? Because rather than going along to get along, he dared to shake up the status quo. Even his fiercest critics must admit that students at SAISD are better off now than before he took the helm. His aim has always been excellence for all students, and that is reflected in the districts new reputation. Those parents heckling at the announcement in Chicago, and the pointed questions from journalists who weaved in descriptions of the challenges faced by Chicagos public schools, might have rattled some but not Martinez. He responded with confidence and vision, just as he has in San Antonio. Under Martinezs leadership, SAISD has transformed into one of the most innovative districts in the state. A number of its schools have shown dramatic academic progress, and certain specialty schools featuring gifted-and-talented and dual language programs have drawn the attention of parents across the district and from the broader community. On ExpressNews.com: The turnaround: SAISDs Pedro Martinez takes on poverty, charters and the teachers union Many of the criticisms that he would sometimes micromanage, was willing to partner with charter school operators, or made unilateral decisions around returning to school during the pandemic from the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel have struck us as failing to see the forest for the trees. Its not that Martinez is not above criticism no one is its that SAISD is undeniably better thanks to his leadership. The trend lines have consistently moved in the right direction because Martinez expects excellence. Responding to Chicago journalists questions, Martinez said he supports the states policy to partner with charter school operators to turn around low-performing schools. While he is not against charter schools, he said, given the chance, districts are best equipped to turn around low-performing schools. Martinez has long held that the safest place for students to be is in the classroom. Ensuring this during the pandemic meant weekly on-site COVID-19 testing, universal mask mandates and vaccine mandates for employees. More broadly, it meant a vision of schools as robust community centers, and this is reflected in the recently approved $1.25 billion bond. Its tempting to feel a loss here, but there is an immense opportunity for SAISD to showcase the systems in place at the district and build on its momentum under Martinez. He said it best in his statement: The strongest organizations are those that are built to outlive us to be sustainable beyond the current leadership. And SAISD clearly has the depth of talent and skill to move gracefully forward. An immigrant from Mexico, Martinez, who will be the first-ever Latino CEO of Chicago Public Schools, was 6 years old when he and his 11 siblings came to Chicago. To return home, and to a district where he served as chief financial officer from 2003 to 2009, is a gift. To Martinez, we wish you the best of luck. To SAISD, we see a chance to continue building something special. Onward. COVID-19 deaths are spiking throughout the country, and nearly all are occurring among the unvaccinated. As hospitals are overwhelmed and leading medical experts debate the merits, or lack thereof, of booster shots at this time, the crisis at hand is one of vaccine hesitancy. Overcome this, and we overcome the delta variant and help avoid manifestation of other variants. As Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser for the White House, said in a recent interview with CNBC: The easiest and best and most effective way that we can prevent the emergence of a new variant and crush the already existing delta variant is to get everyone vaccinated. The resistance to vaccines is mind-numbing. Their rapid creation is a miracle of modern medicine that should be embraced, not resisted. If more people were vaccinated, then the need for masks would subside. And yet, here we are. Polling has shown roughly 15 to 20 percent of Americans indicate they would refuse a coronavirus vaccine if offered. The numbers tend to be highest among Republican white men. An aside to this particular audience: Operation Warp Speed was an achievement under President Donald Trump. Because this enduring resistance presents a danger to all Americans in the form of breakthrough infections and new variants, especially for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons or age, we support President Joe Bidens controversial decision to mandate vaccines for federal workers and contractors, and to require that all businesses with 100 or more employees ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested once a week. This is not a position we take lightly, but like the president, we have run out of patience. Weve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us, Biden said. Two dozen states, including Texas, have threatened legal action against the mandate. In a sharply worded letter, Republican state attorneys general said Bidens mandate is not only a threat to individual liberty, but a public health disaster that will displace vulnerable workers and exacerbate a nationwide hospital staffing crisis, with severe consequences for all Americans. But this flies in the face of public opinion recent polling shows some 60 percent of Americans support the mandate, hardly surprising since some 180 million Americans are fully vaccinated. And it is certainly within the publics interest for the federal government to reduce the spread of a deadly virus, and for Americans to feel safe in the workplace. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called the mandate an assault on private businesses. But we see the mandate as a way to support private business by giving them cover to do the right thing. The more people who are vaccinated, the safer, easier and more comfortable it will be for people to return to work, dine out and go shopping. Heres the bottom line: We have tried voluntary vaccines and preached the mantra of personal responsibility, and the hospitals have become full of people sick with COVID-19. With these vaccines, we have the chance to keep all Americans safe and healthy, and turn our attention to global vaccination efforts where the need is so great. A mandate is a small price to pay when there is so much to gain. To push for a vaccine mandate isnt so much bold as it is necessary. State Rep. Matt Krause, a Fort Worth Republican and founding member of the Texas House Freedom Caucus, is jumping into a crowded primary race for Attorney General Ken Paxton's seat, pitching himself as the staunchest conservative of the three challengers. Our campaign is going to be focused on being that faithful conservative fighter that Texans can be proud of, Krause said. What Texas primary voters in particular are looking for is a proven record of conservative principles, of conservative values, and fighting for the issues they're most concerned about Over the last five sessions, I think folks have seen that I'm about as conservative as you get in the Texas House. The fifth-term state representative and constitutional attorney joins Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman in taking on the incumbent, whom all have described as unfit for the job because of the legal issues swirling around him. Krause, 41, was first elected in 2012 and has continually edged out Democratic opponents over the last three elections, even as his district becomes more competitive. In 2020, his Tarrant County District 93 was a target of Texas Democrats, but Krause won by a 9 percentage point margin. The Tyler-born and San Antonio-raised Republican is secretary and treasurer and one of the original members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group that describes its aim as amplifying the voices of liberty-minded, grassroots Texans. He also serves as chair of the Houses General Investigating Committee. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 for felony securities fraud charges and last year became the subject of an FBI investigation after a handful of his top aides accused him of bribery and abuse of office. While hes denied all wrongdoing, the foundation of widespread Republican support that once made the idea of even one primary challenger inconceivable is starting to show cracks. A Hearst Newspapers analysis in July found that more than two dozen of Paxtons previous donors cut checks for Bush win the weeks after he announced his campaign. Krause and Paxton have shared a close relationship over their political careers. Krause endorsed Paxton both in his initial 2014 campaign and again in 2018. In 2015, Krause downplayed the felony securities fraud indictment, telling the Texas Tribune people ought to have just a little bit of caution with it. The latest allegations, however, have given him pause, he said. If information had come out that eight top lieutenants had resigned, alleging some pretty serious violations of Texas law and having the FBI look into that, that would have certainly changed my view on the race, Krause said about his previous endorsements of Paxton. As you get new information, that kind of changes things. Krause said that he reached out to Paxton as a friend this week to let him know he would be announcing. Former President Donald Trump, who won the state by 6 percent in 2020 and holds considerable sway with Republican primary voters, in July endorsed Paxton. BOOST FROM TRUMP: Trump endorses Texas AG Ken Paxton over George P. Bush in Republican primary Krause helped usher a raft of Republican priority bills through the statehouse this year, including permitless carry of handguns, a measure limiting how public school teachers can talk about systemic racism in the classroom, and limits on when social media companies may block or censor users, all of which he co-authored. He also authored a failed bill this year, one of several similar bills that incensed Democrats, that would have prevented doctors from performing gender reassignment surgeries and prescribing medications to help transgender children transition, though the surgeries are uncommon for minors. In 2019, Krause sponsored the so-called Save Chick-fil-A bill that barred Texas government agencies from punishing people and companies for affiliating with or donating to a religious organization. The bill, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed, was a reaction to the San Antonio city councils decision to ban Chick-Fil-A from its airport. The Texas House has kept him busy and hes enjoyed the work, but Krause said the FBI investigation of Paxton raised red flags for him that we may have an issue here. He held back as Bush, then Guzman waded into the race. But as more challengers got in, nobody really seemed to get any kind of traction, Krause said. Talking to various stakeholders, grassroots activists, donors, even other elected officials, (we) kind of came to that consensus that there was a need for a fourth person to get in, and I think with my record and background I was a good fit for that. Two candidates for attorney general are in the running on the Democratic primary ticket: Dallas-area civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski. taylor.goldenstein@chron.com Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misstated Krause's opponents in two previous elections. Krause faced Democrat Lydia Bean in 2020, but in 2016 and 2018, he went head-to-head with Democrat Nancy Bean. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick referred to the Haitians massing at the Texas border as pawns in a Democratic plan to take over this country in a Thursday night interview on Fox News, making an argument that is part of a conspiracy theory known as The Great Replacement. The theory embraced by white supremacists and far-right nationalists in the U.S. and Europe for about the last 100 years holds that minority ethnic groups are engaged in a plot to take power from whites, with the ultimate goal of domination or extermination of the white race. Let me tell you something, Laura and everyone watching: The revolution has begun. A silent revolution by Joe Biden and the Democrat Party to take over this country, Patrick said, speaking on Laura Ingrahams Fox News show. (Democrats) are allowing this year probably 2 million thats who we apprehended, maybe another million into this country. At least in 18 years, even if they dont all become citizens before then and can vote, in 18 years if everyone of them has two or three children youre talking about millions and millions and millions of new voters. And they will thank the Democrats and Biden for bringing them here. Who do you think theyre going to vote for? Patrick took it a step further. We now will have illegals in this country denying citizens the right to run our government, Patrick said. This is trying to take over our country without firing a shot. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox The Texan who has been charged with shooting and killing 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, Patrick Crusius, was linked to an online manifesto that made a similar argument. This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas, it said, adding that the Democratic Party intends to dominate the U.S. government by flooding the country with immigrants living in the country illegally and courting their votes, drowning out Republicans. According to the Anti-Defamation League, The Great Replacement theory is embraced by white supremacists because it goes hand in hand with their beliefs about the impending destruction of the white race and because it echoes the 14 words of their rallying cry: We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. The Texas AFL-CIO, which has 235,000 members, condemned Patrick on Friday. The El Paso shootings and other violent episodes point up how dangerous it is to mark new Latino and Black immigrants, who cannot vote, as partisan political enemies. The Haitian immigrants who triggered Patricks words are fleeing multiple disasters and taking a lawful road in search of asylum, not invasion, Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy wrote in a statement. Dan Patricks remarks are the essence of white supremacy, and we condemn them. So did representatives of the Anti-Defamation League. Hate must never become a political platform. We need leaders to speak out against this. It will be detrimental to our democracy, said Mark Toubin, the groups Southwest region director. Patricks remarks also ignore recent election returns. Immigrant communities and voters of color, especially Latinos, are far from certain to vote for Democrats. While Latinos have historically leaned Democratic, in 2020 many moved toward the GOP fueling larger-than-expected victories for the party in Texas and Florida. Zapata County, on the Mexican border and with a vast majority of Latino residents, supported Donald Trumps reelection, the first time in more than 100 years that the county went red. Depicting immigrants as an invading force, however, has been a common theme in Republican politics, both in Texas and at the national level. When Trump announced his candidacy for president, he took on anti-immigrant rhetoric as a core part of his platform, famously saying Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. On Thursday night, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, joined Patrick in referring to the Haitians gathering at the border as an invasion in a Fox News interview. Since at least 2014, Patrick has used the term invasion to describe immigrants seeking entry to the U.S. at the border, many of whom are seeking asylum from their home countries because of unsafe conditions. In 2019, Patrick made a similar remark, framing the invasion as a Democratic plot to take over the country. The reason the deceivers the Democrats and the mainstream media have this manufactured cover-up is because they want another 10, 15, 20 million to continue to pour in, to where they turn those into votes one day and they control the country and they move our country to the left, Patrick said in February 2019. And in June, when Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law to erect a wall along part of the Texas-Mexico border, Abbott joined Patrick in describing the immigration influx as an invasion, with Abbott remarking that homes are being invaded. A spokesman for Patrick did not respond Friday to a request for comment. edward.mckinley@chron.com Visitors to the new Sacred Heart University Discovery Science Center & Planetarium can spend the day swimming, eating and hunting as a dinosaur. They can control how the aurora borealis dances across the night sky with a wave of their hand, and even try to land a rover on the moon. These experiences are all part of new or enhanced exhibits at the former Discovery Museum, thanks in part to the new partnership with the university that allowed for these and other improvements. The center, located at 4450 Park Ave. in Bridgeport, is set to reopen Sept. 25 after being closed for more than a year due to COVID. The entire place is not only re-energized, but elevated, said Erika Eng, the centers executive director. Its a proper science center. She said the building has three floors of completely re-imagined exhibit space, most of which has been customized in-house. The planetarium was also upgraded with state-of-the art technology. We have the most cutting-edge planetarium technology in the state, Eng said. Were just so excited to share it with the world. She said its exhilarating to be able to welcome the community back after being closed for so long. The center closed in March 2020 due to COVID-19, but remained closed due to financial reasons, Eng said. State and federal funding helped, and the extended closing gave the center a chance to examine where it was, what it wanted to do and how it could get there, Eng said. The 18-month closing also allowed the museum to complete a large renovation project. We used that time really wisely, Eng said. She said teaming up with Sacred Heart was a natural progression. The university is just down the road from the center and a number of interns and volunteers were already connected to Sacred Heart. The partnership was announced in November and went into effect in January. Under the partnership, the university assumed the management of the building and took on capital costs. This includes the landscaping, plowing and cleaning expenses, which Eng said freed up her budget to put more money into the programs and exhibits. The museum staff also been increased from four to nine employees. The facilities team has been outstanding, Eng said, adding the center is still an independent nonprofit organization. Sacred Heart invested in the buildings infrastructure, bringing it up to the level of the facilities on campus. Upgrades included a new security system, technology, fiber optics, phones, 80 new computers and a new website, shudiscovery.org. Eng said the center works with all of the universitys colleges in some way, from creating the exhibits in the IDEA lab to having the education students work with school groups and summer programs. Eng said using the universitys resources to create the exhibits has also kept costs down and really expanded what the center can offer. For example, she said the museum has invested about $150,000 in the new or improved exhibits alone. The partnership has also allowed the center to offer free admission to Bridgeport students on Wednesdays, though Eng said theyre still looking for other sponsors. Ultimately, she said the goal was to be able to take students from all the way through high school, college and into job placements. Some of the current employees grew up going to the center, she said. All of that is part of embodying the centers mission: STEM for all. She wants all students to have access to the center, regardless of what school they attend, their affluence or their accessibility needs. We want to be the place people come for hands-on learning, Eng said. That expanded access is something the university welcomes, too. The partnership between SHU and the Discovery Science Center & Planetarium expands access so that all children in our region can experience the science centers re-imagined interactive exhibits and programs, said Michael Alfano, dean of SHUs Isabelle Farrington College of Education. Eng is excited to welcome school groups back for field trips into the newly renovated classrooms. Each of the learning labs offered at the center meet the Next Generation Science Standards and students are able to complement what they learn in the lab with the hands-on elements of the exhibit. Thats how we learn, thats how the brain works, Eng said of the interactive portion. To have that at our disposal its an incredible resource. The center has expanded its reach to even more students. It switched to virtual programs after the pandemic put everyone in lockdown. The virtual platform mimicked the centers in-person offerings and attracted school districts from all over. Eng said they plan to keep this element. She said they plan to continue to grow to meet the needs of the community, as well as all of the surrounding school districts. This is only the beginning, Eng said. Consider this phase one. WASHINGTON (AP) One side is energized by the prospect of the greatest expansion of government support since the New Deal nearly a century ago. The other is fearful about dramatically expanding Washington's reach at an enormous cost. They're all Democrats. Yet each side is taking vastly different approaches to guiding the massive $3.5 trillion spending bill through Congress. The party is again confronting the competing political priorities between its progressive and moderate wings. The House version of the bill that was drafted this week ushered in a new phase of the debate that could test whether Democrats can match their bold campaign rhetoric on everything from income inequality to climate change with actual legislation. Any stumble may have serious consequences for the party's prospects during next year's midterms, when it will try to prevent Republicans from retaking Congress. The finished product could alienate centrists who say it goes too far, or frustrate those on the left who argue it's too timid at a moment of great consequence. This is critically important for Democrats and for their message in next years election," said former New York congressman Joe Crowley, a veteran Democrat who was upset in the 2018 primary by progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "Were going to blink and were going to be in 2022. Crowley said bills proposing trillions of dollars in spending were simply something I never had to deal with in my 20 years" in office. "These are enormous figures by any standard, he said. But, Crowley added, no matter the final price tag, Lets not lose sight of the fact that this will be transformational regardless. With Republicans universally opposed to the bill, Democratic leaders have a narrow path as they navigate an evenly divided Senate and thin House majority. Many Democrats agree on the goals included in the legislation, such as providing universal pre-kindergarten and tuition-free community college while increasing federal funding for child care, paid family leave and combating climate change. The party also is aiming to expand health care coverage through Medicare and create pathways to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally. But there are differences over how much such a measure should cost and how it should be paid for. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who met privately with President Joe Biden on Wednesday, have balked at the $3.5 trillion price tag. House Democrats, meanwhile, have proposed a 26.5% top corporate tax rate to help cover the cost. That's less than Biden's 28% target. But Manchin has pushed for an even lower corporate rate of 25%. There are also divides over how to impose levies on top earners. Biden has advocated restoring the top tax rate on capital gains to 39.6%. House Democrats, however, would tax such income, which is often generated by the wealthy, at 25%. They would also impose a 3% surcharge on individual income above $5 million. Biden further supports higher taxes for those earning at least $400,000 annually, even as some progressives would like to see a lower threshold for higher taxes to kick in. Were not going to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000. Thats a lot of money, the president said Thursday. "Some of my liberal friends are saying it should be lower than that. Biden discussed the matter Thursday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and the White House said they agreed it is only fair that the spending bill is paid for by repealing the Trump tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and big corporations. Differences over tax thresholds are technical, but they represent a desire among many House Democratic leaders to protect their most vulnerable members in moderate districts from attacks that they support profligate taxes and spending. Theres a supposition by our friends on the progressive left that it hardly matters what you do, as long as its big," said Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist Washington think tank. Instead, Democrats are ideologically diverse enough that people who run in competitive races simply cant embrace the same kind of ideas that people who run in safe, blue Democratic districts, Marshall said. Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive activist group Our Revolution, countered that "It would be incredibly problematic for the president to say, Look we won both chambers of Congress. We won the White House. We couldnt deliver better health care, we couldnt deliver transformational change on the climate.' It is not going to be explainable to the American people," Geevarghese said, "and I think therell be consequences as a result. Democrats have been here before. The progressive versus moderate divide dominated the early stages of the party's 2020 presidential primary with Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders serving as the most prominent representatives of each end of the spectrum. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, scored early victories. But the party ultimately coalesced around Biden, in part because of an urgent desire to unify behind a candidate who could have the broadest appeal and defeat then-President Donald Trump. Biden has since largely kept the party unified by adopting many top progressive priorities, such as spearheading a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that passed in March and supporting a now-stalled proposal to raise the national minimum wage to $15 per hour. He has resisted, however, some of the biggest progressive goals, including the universal health care proposal known as Medicare for All. But it's unclear whether that equilibrium can be maintained. Already, Our Revolution and other progressive activists have staged protests outside the offices of moderates including Manchin. They've begun referring to themselves as the tea party of the left combatting obstructionist corporate Democrats. Manchin is so far unmoved. "Ive been very clear and very open" about the need to reduce the budget bill's price tag, he said. In the House, meanwhile, Democratic Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy, head of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, opposed parts of the spending package in committee, arguing that her partys effort to muscle it through was too rushed. Progressives, though, have responded by playing their own legislative hardball. Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, co-chairwoman of House Progressive Caucus, said the group remains unified behind a vow not to support a separate bill that many moderate Democrats are more excited about a $1 trillion, bipartisan public works measure until the spending bill advances. Joe Manchin has power, of course. We need his vote. But so do, really, every single one of us, because in the House, (Democrats) have a margin of three votes, Jayapal said on a conference call with progressive activists. Everyones a Joe Manchin here." Sanders, who spearheaded the proposal as head of the Senate Budget Committee after some progressives pushed for spending plans worth as much as $6 trillion, says the current price tag is compromise enough and has vowed not to accept further cuts. He says tax increases on the rich can resonate with working class voters from both parties. Marshall said many voters in battleground House districts do indeed applaud higher levies for the wealthy as tax fairness, but that support wanes if additional spending focuses more on social programs than economic stimulus. It has to be tied to a plan to create good jobs, spur innovation and growth, said Marshall, who added that many in swing districts have also expressed concerns about running up federal debts and contributing to rising inflation. Still, he said, it would be even more costly for Democrats if the squabbles over the budget proposal's final price tag drag on. I think Democrats will find a way to compose their differences simply because they cant afford to have this president fail," Marshall said. "The margins are just too narrow. RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) A former Arkansas sheriff's deputy was charged Friday with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a white teenager whose death has drawn the attention of national civil rights activists. A special prosecutor announced the felony charge against Michael Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office, in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain. Davis faces between three and 10 years in prison if convicted. Davis shot Brittain during a June 23 traffic stop outside an auto repair shop along Arkansas Highway 89 south of Cabot, a city of about 26,000 people roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock. Davis told investigators he shot Brittain once in the neck after the teen reached into the back of his truck and did not comply with his commands to show his hands, according to the arrest affidavit. Brittain was holding a container which his family members have said held antifreeze and no evidence of firearms were found in or near the truck, the affidavit said. A passenger with Brittain said he and the teen had been working on the transmission for Brittain's truck. The passenger told investigators he never heard Davis tell the teen to show his hands. Davis, who is white, was fired by Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley in July for not turning on his body camera until after the shooting occurred. Staley said theres no footage from the shooting, only the aftermath. Several members of Brittains family and friends shouted, Thank you Jesus! as Phillips announced the charge. Arkansas State Police said Davis surrendered Friday after the warrant was issued, and Phillips said a bond hearing would be held on Monday. Jesse Brittain, the teens uncle, said he was glad to see Davis charged with something, though he would have preferred a more serious charge. This is something, he told reporters after the announcement. Were going to take this and see what else (Phillips) has got to say and hopefully this will stick. He wont be an officer no more and he cant kill no more kids. An attorney for Davis said the former deputy would plead not guilty. While he has said all along it was a tragic event, there's no criminal act on his part," attorney Robert Newcomb said. Brittain was eulogized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and two attorneys who represented George Floyd's family. They said the teens death highlighted the need for interracial support for changes in policing. Brittain's family and friends have regularly demonstrated outside the Lonoke County sheriff's office, demanding more details on the shooting. Floyd died in May last year when a white Minneapolis police officer used his knee to pin the handcuffed Black mans neck to the ground. His death sparked nationwide protests over policing and racial inequality. Attorneys Ben Crump and Devon Jacob, who represent Floyd's family, joined with Brittain's family in calling the charge the first step in the pursuit of justice for Hunter Brittain. And Brittain's family repeated its call for the Arkansas Legislature to require officers to wear body cameras that would be turned on as soon as their shift begins. Nothing will bring Hunter back, but we can honor his memory and legacy by calling for justice and change in his name," the attorneys and family said in a statement. FAIRFIELD Lezah Yeoh said her son Mason has to essentially teach himself with the districts current remote option. Mason, a student at Fairfield Warde High School, has to do hours and hours of math, English and science all on his own and then he is given a two-hour tutor, Yeoh said at a recent school board meeting. She said other students who are quarantining due to COVID have more access to their actual classrooms and teachers. This is unacceptable, she said. Its a problem. He is one of nine students considered long-term remote, each of whom has an individualized plan. Yeoh had organized a rally with her son back in August demanding Fairfield at least give students the option to stay at home. Her frustrations then stemmed from the school district focusing on returning all students back to in-person learning and disregarding the students who cannot go back for legitimate health reasons. Shes now asking for her son to have his teachers again. At the meeting she said students attending school who get COVID and then asked to quarantined are able to access Google Classroom and their teachers. They are allowed to access things that my son can no longer access, she said. He has one tutor now who is an English teacher and who is teaching all subjects and even the tutor admitted that he cannot go past geometry and that he is not good at math. This is what were offered. All were asking is for our son to have his teachers. Superintendent Mike Cummings said there is a difference between quarantined, or short-term remote instruction, and instruction for home-bound, or long-term remote, students. For long-term needs there is more one-to-one support, Cummings said. Each plan has to be tailored to the specific needs of the student. For all students we need to work with families on keeping them engaged in school and learning. According to the policy regulations, students in kindergarten through fifth grade who are quarantining will be included in daily classroom morning meeting through Google Meet. The support instructor will meet with the student daily either individually or in grade-level groups provide academic support, monitor work completion and adjust workloads as needed in consultation with the classroom teacher. For quarantined students in grades six through 12, teachers will post relevant lesson materials and assignments in the online Google Classroom. Teachers are also available through their school email. Students can choose how they want to interact in the class. They can have lesson videos ahead of time, check in with their teacher on Google Meets at least once a day for at least 20 minutes or the teacher can turn on the classroom cameras and provide live instruction. The short-term remote learning strategy has been used numerous times since the start of the year. Cummings said they have had students in quarantine since the first day of school, however, numbers have fluctuated since. According to the daily FPS COVID-19 Dashboard, a total of 102 students and staff in the district have had to quarantine so far this year. Within that number, 47 students and staff have actually tested positive. As of Thursday, 22 students are in quarantine and a total of 17 students and staff are positive. School board members encouraged families using any of the remote plans to stay in constant communication with district officials so they can determine if more supports are needed. We are going to be reviewing the process of our plan ongoing, said Robert Mancusi, executive director of special education and student services. We want to work with our families to make this work. We know this is really hard. As significant numbers of Americans seek religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, many faith leaders are saying: Not with our endorsement. Leaders of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said Thursday that while some people may have medical reasons for not receiving the vaccine, there is no exemption in the Orthodox Church for Her faithful from any vaccination for religious reasons. The Holy Eparchial Synod of the nationwide archdiocese, representing the largest share of Eastern Orthodox people in the United States, urged members to pay heed to competent medical authorities, and to avoid the false narratives utterly unfounded in science. No clergy are to issue such religious exemption letters, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elpidophoros said, and any such letter is not valid. Similarly, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued a recent statement encouraging vaccine use and saying that there is no evident basis for religious exemption in its own or the wider Lutheran tradition. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York laid out its own stance during the summer, saying that any priest issuing an exemption letter would be acting in contradiction to statements from Pope Francis that receiving the vaccine is morally acceptable and responsible. Both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have said Catholics can receive the vaccines in good conscience given the lack of alternatives and the goal of alleviating suffering even while objecting to research with even a remote connection to abortion. A number of dioceses have adopted policies similar to New York's, and bishops in El Paso, Texas, and Lexington, Kentucky, have mandated vaccines for employees. But other Catholic jurisdictions are more accommodating of exemptions. The Colorado Catholic Conference, the policy arm of the state's bishops, has posted online a template for a letter that priests can sign saying an individual parishioner may draw on Catholic values to object to the vaccines. South Dakota's bishops have also taken that stance. At issue for many Catholics and other abortion opponents is that the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines were tested on fetal cell lines developed over decades in laboratories, though the vaccines themselves do not contain any such material. The issue is becoming more heated as public- and private-sector employers increasingly impose mandates. A clerical letter wouldnt necessarily be needed for someone to be granted an exemption federal law requires employers make reasonable accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs though a clergy endorsement could help bolster a person's claim. The Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas, a Southern Baptist megachurch, said he and his staff are neither offering nor encouraging members to seek religious exemptions from the vaccine mandates. There is no credible religious argument against the vaccines, he said via email. Christians who are troubled by the use of a fetal cell line for the testing of the vaccines would also have to abstain from the use of Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Ibuprofen, and other products that used the same cell line if they are sincere in their objection. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not provide religious exemptions for vaccines for members, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. Leaders of the Utah-based faith have made pleas for members to get vaccinated even as doctrine acknowledges it's up to individual choice. The church's Brigham Young University has asked students to report their vaccination status but is not requiring vaccinations, and the church is also requiring U.S. missionaries serving in foreign countries to be vaccinated. Some other religious groups, such as the Orthodox Union, an umbrella organization for Orthodox Judaism, and the United Methodist Church, have encouraged people to get vaccines but have not issued policy statements on exemptions. The Fiqh Council of North America, made up of Islamic scholars, has advised Muslims to receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and to debunk baseless rumors and myths about them. ___ Associated Press writers Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City and David Crary in New York contributed to this report. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content. House Democrats said Friday they planned to take action next week to suspend the cap on the government's borrowing authority, and the White House ratcheted up pressure on Republicans by warning state and local governments that severe cuts lie ahead if the measure fails in the Senate. Disaster relief, Medicaid, infrastructure grants, school money and other programs face drastic cuts if the debt limit stays in place, the White House warned in a fact sheet to local governments aimed at putting pressure on Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to block an increase. Democrats in the House are plowing forward despite the uncertainty. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland sent a letter Friday to colleagues saying the chamber would move to suspend the debt limit, instead of raising it. He did not specify whether the action would be tied to a resolution to keep the government operating after the fiscal year ends this month. The Treasury Department has engaged in extraordinary measures to keep the government running after the suspended debt limit was reinstated in August at a level of $22 trillion, about $6 trillion less than the current total debt load. Treasury's extraordinary measures will be exhausted by October, creating the potential for default. The debt limit is the amount of money Congress allows the Treasury to borrow. It was suspended three times during the Trump administration and has been lifted dozens of times since 1960. Created at the start of World War I so Congress would no longer need to approve each bond issuance, the debt limit has evolved into a political weapon as borrowing has sharply escalated over the past two decades. McConnell has said he will not sanction further increases and that the Democrats have the ability to go it alone. With a Democratic President, a Democratic House, and a Democratic Senate, Democrats have every tool they need to raise the debt limit, the Kentucky senator tweeted on Wednesday. It is their sole responsibility. Republicans will not facilitate another reckless, partisan taxing and spending spree. President Joe Biden has countered that Republicans are to blame for the rising deficit and that his plans for child care, schooling, health care, infrastructure and adapting to climate change will be fully paid for in the long term. Let me remind you, these are the same folks who just four years ago passed the Trump tax cut, Biden said in Thursday remarks at the White House. It just ballooned the federal deficit. With the total debt standing at $28.4 trillion, the government would be forced to cut deeply into programs unless the restrictions on borrowing are lifted or suspended. The risk of a recession and turmoil in the financial market would make it harder for states and cities to borrow, while also playing havoc with public pension investments. The U.S. Conference of Mayors on Friday called for a debt ceiling increase, embracing Biden's stance that the issue should be bipartisan. Both parties in Washington have added to our debt, and both parties have an obligation to make sure the United States can continue to pay its bills, said Nan Whaley, the Democratic mayor of Dayton, Ohio, and president of the conference. This is one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress, and there is no good reason for lawmakers to create a crisis that undermines the full faith and credit of the United States. The Biden administration's fact sheet makes the case that the pain would be spread among the states because many programs rely on federal dollars. The government's ability to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes or wildfires would be curtailed. States would face severe Medicaid shortfalls because the federal government covers two-thirds of the costs. About 20% of Americans get their health insurance through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Roughly $100 billion in infrastructure grants for highways, airports and public transit would be jeopardized. The more than $50 billion for special education, school districts serving poorer students and other programs would also be threatened, as would $30 billion in food assistance and $10 billion for public health. A Butte policeman who was engaged in a high-speed chase and shootout with two men suspected of killing a Broadwater County deputy believed he would be calling the family of a fellow officer to tell them hed been killed. Then, when he saw muzzle flashes up close and heard bullets coming over my head, Police Lt. John OBrien said he envisioned that he, too, would be killed and another officer would have to inform his family. I was in fear for everyones life, OBrien told jurors in the homicide trial of 65-year-old Lloyd Barrus. I thought they would not only kill me but every officer who was there. There were more than a dozen there, and though suspect Marshall Barrus was mortally wounded in the shootout off of I-90 in Missoula County in May 2017, his father, Lloyd Barrus, was only hit in the hand and dropped his gun, police said. He didnt immediately comply with shouted orders to get his hands up and drop to the ground, officers testified Wednesday and Thursday, and they werent sure if he was going to pick up or draw a gun and start firing again. Still, they stopped firing until they knew. Why didnt you shoot? prosecutor Stephanie Robles, an Montana assistant attorney general, asked OBrien. At that precise moment, OBrien said, Lloyd Barrus was not a threat. Powell County Deputy Austin Micu was also in the shootout and gave a similar reason. A person has the ability to change their mind at the last second and not pick up a firearm, he said. Marshall Barrus had clearly taken a round to the head and was down, and as soon as officers knew he was immobile, they started rendering first aid. Robles asked OBrien why. Our number one priority is to preserve life, he told her as jurors looked on. It doesnt matter if its the victim of a shooting or a suspect in a shooting, we are professionals and society demands that we be professionals and not take vengeance. Prosecutors say Lloyd and Marshall Barrus were on a suicide mission and shortly after 2 a.m. on May 16, 2017, they provoked Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore by passing him on U.S. 287 south of Townsend and driving 100 mph. They say Moore was struck in the face by a bullet through his windshield, his car stopped in the grass just south of Three Forks, and he was alive until the Suburban returned four minutes later and additional gunshots from a semi-automatic rifle ended his life. Butte-Silver Bow police spotted the Suburban westbound on I-90 about an hour later and started a 90-mile chase that ended in Missoula County. Bullets fired from the Suburban knocked two Butte patrol cars from the pursuit, but by then, troopers and police from several counties were involved. Lloyd Barrus is charged with deliberate homicide by accountability, two counts of attempted deliberate homicide by accountability and one count of assault on an officer. Each of the homicide charges carries a possible life sentence. OBrien and Missoula County Deputy Michael Hash testified Wednesday and Micu was among officers who testified Thursday. All took part in the shootout and said the firefight started immediately when the Suburban stopped. It was around 4:35 a.m. and still dark and OBrien and Micu said they saw muzzle flashes coming first from the passenger side of the Suburban, where Marshall Barrus was ultimately shot. They returned fire then saw muzzle flashes from the driver side. After Lloyd Barrus dropped his gun, they said, he moved past the back of the Suburban and bent down apparently to check on his wounded son then moved back around before finally putting his hands up and walking backward. Hash said two officers then rushed him and tackled him in the middle of the interstate, which can be seen and heard via body cams. No officers were injured in the shootout but Marshall Barrus died from his wounds. Prosecutors say Lloyd Barrus had strong anti-government and pro-militia views and they played a part in that days events. Just after he was cuffed, they say, he told an officer We're just evil militia. Defense attorneys say their client was only trying to avoid a DUI and keep his son out of more legal troubles when the chase with Moore began, and they have suggested through questions at trial that theres no proof he turned the Suburban around and had a direct role in Moores death. They have also tried to cast doubt that Lloyd Barrus actually fired at officers during the shootout. But prosecutors have yet to rest their case, and when they do, defense attorneys Greg Jackson and Craig Shannon can present their own witnesses and direct testimony. The trial was moved to Butte because of pretrial publicity and testimony began Sept. 9. It is likely to last into next week and maybe longer. Robles, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Guzynski and Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson are the lead prosecutors in the case, though others are assisting for the state. A Bozeman nonprofit and a group of local parents are suing school districts in Gallatin County, including Bozeman School District, over their policies requiring masks for students, staff and visitors. The nonprofit Stand Up Montana and 13 parents, represented by Missoula attorney Quentin Rhoades, filed a lawsuit against Bozeman, Monforton and Big Sky school districts on Monday, arguing the districts mask requirements are unconstitutional and asking a judge to end them. The case filed in Gallatin County District Court is similar to one filed against school districts in Missoula County in late-August by Stand Up Montana and a group of Missoula County parents, also represented by Rhoades. Stand Up Montana, an organization whose stated mission is to encourage residents to stand up for the constitutionally protected liberties during the pandemic, has previously filed lawsuits against mask mandates one against former Gov. Steve Bullock for his administration's mask mandate, which was dismissed when now Gov. Greg Gianforte rescinded the order, and another pending against the Missoula City-County Health Department. The three district superintendents in Gallatin County said they were unable to comment on pending litigation. Missoula-based attorney Elizabeth Kaleva is representing all three Gallatin County district school boards in the lawsuit. In an interview Thursday morning, Kaleva said the school districts have yet to be served. The districts feel very strongly that their right of local control is paramount in this and they are adopting rules pursuant to Montana law that address student health issues, she said. Kaleva is also representing the school districts in the Missoula County case. For that lawsuit, there is an injunction hearing on Sept. 29 and a bench trial in which a judge decides a verdict, not a jury scheduled for March, she said. She anticipates the Gallatin County case will follow a similar path. The lawsuit says the mask mandates are unconstitutional and each of the parents feel masks should be optional and left to parental choice. The lawsuit says, COVID-19 is not much of a threat to schoolchildren. There is one parent of a child from Monforton involved in the lawsuit, while Bozeman and Big Sky districts each have six parents represented. Defendants mask mandates infringe on the rights of Plaintiffs and their children to privacy, dignity, and free expression without the necessary showing of a compelling government interest in doing so, the lawsuit states. We dont believe theres any science to support the idea that forcing students to mask in a school setting has any statistically significantly effect on the spread of COVID-19 in the school or in the community, Rhoades said in an interview on Thursday. He said it came down to parental rights and masking should be up to the parents. While he didnt ask for a temporary restraining order against the mask requirements in the Missoula case, which was filed before the start to school, Rhoades said he is asking for one in the Gallatin County case since the school year has already started. Rhoades is also asking for repayment of attorney fees and other costs by the school districts as part of the judgment. The school districts carry liability insurance for instances like this but each district will still be responsible for paying their individual deductibles, Kaleva said. The lawsuit also says the mask requirements will be in violation of Senate Bill 400, when it goes into effect Oct. 1. The Montana Legislature passed the bill earlier this year that limits government entities from interfering with parental rights. Bozeman School Districts interim Superintendent Casey Bertram said the districts mask requirement remains in place and that the district continues to actively manage COVID-19 in the school system using a variety of mitigation strategies. Our biggest celebration continues to be that all of our schools are open five days a week, we have visitors and community members back in our buildings and our co-curricular, extracurricular, club, and arts activities are all forging ahead with few restrictions, Bertram said in a statement. The Bozeman School Board passed its mask policy on Aug. 23, which allows the superintendent to implement and remove a mask requirement based on COVID-19 transmission data for elementary, middle and high schools. With transmission high according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the district has had a mask requirement at all schools and administrative buildings since the Aug. 30 start to school. Big Sky School District also started its school year on Aug. 30 with a mask requirement for all students, staff and visitors. Monforton School District, the K-8 district west of Bozeman, initially started school on Aug. 26 with a mask optional policy. Following a COVID-19 outbreak that forced two grade levels and a handful of classes to go remote in early September, the school board required masks on Sept. 7. The CDC has said the delta variant spreads faster and can cause more severe illness than other versions of the coronavirus. There are also signs it is impacting more children than the viruss original lineage. For the week ending Sept. 9, 28.9% of the reported weekly COVID-19 cases were among children, per the American Academy of Pediatrics. Children under 18 make up 22.2% of the total U.S. population. After declining in early summer, cases in children have increased exponentially, with about 500,000 cases in two weeks, according to the report. This story has been updated to better specify separate Stand Up Montana lawsuits challenging mask requirements. A 21-year-old man has died following a tractor accident in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, police have confirmed. Emergency services were called to reports of an incident involving a tractor near Islandmagee on Wednesday (15 September). The tractor driver, named locally as Bradley Beck, 21, died at the scene of the incident. The Health and Safety Executive (HSENI) is currently making enquiries into the tragedy. The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) both attended the scene. An NIAS spokesperson said: "The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a 999 call at 12:16 on Wednesday following reports of an incident on the Gobbins Road area, Larne. "NIAS dispatched the Charity Air Ambulance and two Rapid Response paramedics to the incident. No one was taken from the scene. A police spokesperson added: Police attended a report of a sudden death of a man in his 20s, in the Gobbins Road area of Islandmagee, shortly before 12.25pm, 15 September. The death is not being treated as suspicious. Police have advised the Health and Safety Executive and will provide assistance with their investigation. Building on clear messaging is important for agri-food exporters to help maintain and grow their EU customer base in future years, according to a new report. The EU remains a key trading partner for the UKs red meat and dairy sectors, but exporters are being told to gain a greater understanding of the European consumer to benefit from future trade. While home to the lions share of red meat and dairy exports, shipments to the EU have been declining for the last 18 months with factors such as Brexit, Covid-19 and the closure of foodservice having a major impact. UK food and drink exports to the bloc have fallen more than a quarter since 2019, figures by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) show. However, according to AHDBs latest report Exploring the EU: Understanding Consumer Needs, opportunities still exist to increase trade and maximise on the good relationship enjoyed for the past 40 years. The report gained insight into the meat-buying habits of more than 11,000 consumers across nine markets in the EU, and 4,000 dairy consumers in two markets. Europe will reach 2,041 billion grocery sales by 2022, according to the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), making it the third-largest regional grocery market, behind Asia and North America. European consumers also have the highest grocery spend per capita in the world and are increasingly looking for their food to meet a wider variety of needs. These include issues such as animal welfare, environmental concerns and the growing economic squeeze. Because of this, exporters of British agri-food products should carefully consider unique selling points, messages and visual cues to land the right messages with consumers in the EU, AHDB's report says. Exporters should also be clear on messaging around British meat and dairy to tell consumers about the products, such as taste and quality, alongside wider reputational topics. Among other recommendations for UK exporters is the need for global messaging around 'Brand Britain', as well as more targeted communication to meet the needs of consumers within the bloc's markets. AHDB international market development director Dr Phil Hadley said the organisation was committed to working with the government to continue the mutually beneficial trade with the UK's neighbours. If we are to continue seeing our products on tables across the EU, it is crucial we have greater insight into what consumers in these important markets seek out when making their purchases. AHDB senior consumer insight manager Steven Evans added: We have been able to produce a hugely important report for exporters in the UK. The research we have undertaken provides a wealth of knowledge about how consumers in the EU are looking for the food they eat to meet a greater number of needs, such as quality and taste, as well as increasingly looking for products which are environmentally friendly. The public want farmers to have access to new precision breeding techniques such as gene-editing to respond better to climate change, a new survey says. It indicates rising concern about the environment following a summer of droughts and heat waves, including the hottest temperatures recorded in Europe since records began. The YouGov survey of over 2,000 adults, carried out on behalf of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, shows public enthusiasm for new approaches to farming in light of these extremes. The majority of those surveyed (81%) agreed that farmers should be able to benefit from innovations that could help them play their role in meeting the UK goal of reaching net-zero by 2050. Three-quarters (75%) of respondents agreed that one of the key advantages of embracing innovations in agriculture is the reduction in the UKs reliance on imports from other countries. In recognition of increasing food security worries, only a fifth backed organic farming, with the public focused on making food production a more sustainable process using innovative farming techniques. Meanwhile, a small minority (15%) of those polled said reducing the amount of landed needed for farming is a priority. The findings come ahead of the governments response to its consultation on the future regulation of gene editing in the UK. The consultation focuses on stopping certain gene editing organisms from being regulated in the same way as genetic modification (GM), as long as they could have been produced naturally or through traditional breeding. Gene editing is different to GM where DNA from one species is introduced to a different one, as gene edited organisms do not contain DNA from different species. Instead, they only produce changes that could be made slowly using traditional breeding methods. But at the moment, due to a legal ruling from the European Court of Justice in 2018, gene editing is regulated in the same way as genetic modification. Advocates of the technology say gene editing would enable farmers to produce higher-yield harvests with a lower environmental impact. But environmental groups warn that the long-term health and environmental impacts of crops engineered with gene editing are as yet untested. The government recently approved a trial in which scientists will genetically engineer wheat to reduce levels of asparagine, which is considered carcinogenic. Mark Buckingham, chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, said it was vital that farmers were equipped to access all the tools available amid climate extremes. "If UK food production is to remain both resilient and sustainable farmers must have access to technologies like gene editing," he said. The role agricultural technology can play in helping reach net zero ambitions and meet the UNs Sustainable Development Goals cannot be understated. "Therefore, it is important that farming and innovation is on the agenda at COP26." The NFU recently said that farmers should be given the choice to access new precision breeding techniques now the UK is out of the EU. The union, in its response to the governments consultation, said techniques such as gene editing could protect crops and animals from pests and disease. It could also help farmers deliver the UK's net zero ambitions and allow the industry to produce more home-grown food. Farmers with dormant small-scale quarries on their land are being advised of an opportunity to bring these back into economic use as the demand for local building stone soars. An increasing number of farmers and landowners across the UK are re-opening dormant quarries to supply stone to housebuilders. This is as a result of local planning authorities favouring stone which matches that used in existing homes in their areas. It is providing landowners with an opportunity to not only bring a dormant site back into use, but to generate a sizable income from a premium product. Property consultancy Fisher German has seen small-scale quarries being re-opened to supply local building stone, particularly in areas where there is a limestone belt, such as the East Midlands. William Gagie, of Fisher German said planners were very keen to see this stone used in new houses, meaning these quarries were having to re-open in order to supply this. It is common for villages in these areas to have small historic quarries which have been closed and are dormant, sometimes for as long as 40 years, but in planning terms its easier to re-open these rather than to open brand new ones. It also ensures as close a match as possible to the original stone used as there can often be subtle changes in colour within a few miles," he explained. Farmers and landowners are working with Fisher German to identify the locations of these dormant quarries. The firm then undertakes the planning work in re-opening them and negotiates the terms with operators to maximise income for landowners. Mr Gagie said the current demand for the stone meant that masonry businesses were actively looking for these quarries, and from a landowner perspective he said that the majority of the sites were currently unused and overgrown. "The stone is a premium product so there is the potential to generate a very good income," Mr Gagie explained. "Re-opening dormant quarries could see landowners earning tens of thousands of pounds every year for something that isnt currently generating any income. "There is also the potential for the sites to be restored in a positive fashion with a view to beneficial post-quarrying uses." He added: We would urge anyone who has a dormant quarry on their land to seek expert advice to find out how they can make the most of this opportunity. Welsh young farmers who helped deliver groceries to vulnerable people during the UK's lockdown periods have been recognised for their efforts. Pontfaen YFC in Brecknock County Federation are the winners of the Community Spirit Award, issued during an online awards ceremony on Tuesday 14 September. It is part of this year's National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (NFYFC) YFC Achiever Awards, which hails Young Farmers Clubs who supported their areas during the pandemic. As well as grocery deliveries to vulnerable people and making scrub bags for NHS staff, Pontfaen YFC created a talking bench as part of a local community project, where residents of Merthyr Cynog could sit and talk to others. Young farmers also decorated their bench with stones that included numbers for organisations that people could contact for support or counselling. TV presenter and Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones announced the award results and praised YFCs for looking after others and offering hope during challenging times. He said: It was really difficult to pick five finalists and even harder to choose the winner. All of the finalists did some fantastic work over the last 12 months in a very difficult situation. "We were all impressed by the achievements of Pontfaen YFC and especially with their talking bench a great way to support local residents wellbeing and much-needed during these challenging times." As well as the talking bench the club also held an illuminated tractor run at Christmas, dressed their president up as Santa and used a tractor to tow his sleigh around the village. The club also produced a virtual carol service, complete with readings, prayers and songs to bring some festive cheer to a community in isolation. They raised more than 800 for their local ICU department through a Christmas raffle and a further 1,600 for charities through an online auction. Club chair Raiff Devlin On behalf of Pontfaen YFC, it is brilliant news to hear that our members have been recognised for their work in supporting the community and raising money for charities. I would like to personally thank all involved for their continued commitment to the community and the wider YFC movement. 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. The small town of Laax in Switzerland is now host to the longest treetop walkway in the world. Time to plan a visit Switzerland, so familiar to Indians through picturisations in Bollywood films, has always been a favourite with desi travellers. Theres plenty to see and do, so many experiences to get under your belt, amazing beauty everywhere you look, and its woman- and solo traveller-friendly (find out more about those initiatives here and here). Now Switzerland adds a new attraction the longest treetop walkway in the world to its list of draws. Senda dil Dragun opened on July 11, 2021. Located in the small town of Laax, it runs for a kilometre and a half through the forest, making it the longest treetop walkway in the world. It also connects two Swiss villages, Laax Murschetg and Laax Dorf. You enter the walkway via one of the two access towers and then take a walk at eye level with the tree canopy above the forest floor. One of the two entry towers, the 240-feet-high Tower Murschetg, also features a spiral slide that children over the age of six travelling with you are sure to enjoy. Platforms For Learning On the walkway, you will find four platforms on which you can halt to learn more about the forest surrounding you. Visitors will be shown the trees and plants in Laax forest on the Uaul Casti Platform, and learn about the birds and animals around on the Ravanasc Platform. The Dimplaun Sura Platform provides fascinating information about the inhabitants of the area in the Bronze Age, while the Uaul Fraissen Platform offers visual pleasure stunning views of the forest and the animals. Open 365 days a year, the website for Senda dil Dragun which translates to the wonderful-sounding Way of the Dragon Treetop Walk promises that even visiting in winter will be beautiful. Ticket prices for the walkway start at Rs 1,350 for a one-way adult ticket, while a day pass is priced at approximately Rs 1,800. Images: PhilippRuggli/Flims Laax Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - September 16, 2021) - Cuda Oil and Gas Inc. (TSXV: CUDA) ("Cuda" or the "Company") announces that it has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement ("Agreement") to sell all of the shares of Cuda Energy Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company that holds its Alberta assets, to an arm's length private company (the "Purchaser"). The Purchaser has agreed to pay total cash consideration of $2.67 million, subject to certain adjustments, and has provided a deposit of $135,000. The completion of the transaction is subject to the Purchaser being satisfied with its due diligence review and other customary closing conditions. There is no certainty that all of the closing conditions will be satisfied. The targeted closing date for completion of the sale is September 30, 2021. Transaction Highlights The sale of Cuda Energy Inc. will result in the disposition of all of the Company's Alberta petroleum and natural gas rights, tangible assets and miscellaneous interests and related liabilities including environmental obligations, but excluding certain defined liabilities such as outstanding loans and employee compensation and claims; Agreement contemplates Cuda Energy Inc. having a neutral working capital position at the closing date of the transaction; and During the second quarter of 2021, the Alberta assets produced 954 mcf/d of natural gas and 15 bbls/d of natural gas liquids. Proceeds from the Alberta sale will be used to advance development and increase oil production of Cuda's major asset at Barron Flats Shannon Secondary Recovery Unit in Wyoming and for corporate working capital purposes. ARCO Capital Partners Inc. acted as financial advisor to Cuda in respect of the transaction. About Cuda Oil and Gas Inc. Cuda Oil and Gas Inc. is engaged in the business of exploring for, developing and producing oil and natural gas, and acquiring oil and natural gas properties across North America. The Cuda management team has worked closely together in both private and public company environments. Cuda will continue to implement its proven strategy of exploring, acquiring, and exploiting with a long-term focus on large, light oil resource- based assets across North America including significant operational experience in the United States. The Cuda management team brings a full spectrum of geotechnical, engineering, negotiating and financial experience to its investment decisions. For further information please contact: Glenn Dawson - President and Chief Executive Officer Cuda Oil and Gas Inc. (403) 454-0862 Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties and are based on forecasts of future operations, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. In particular, this news release includes forward-looking information relating to the sale of Cuda Energy Inc. and the resulting disposition of the Company's Alberta assets, the satisfaction of closing conditions, the timing of closing the sale transaction and the use of proceeds therefrom. These statements are based on certain assumptions of the Company relating to current conditions and expected future developments including assumptions relating to regulatory approvals and business prospects and opportunities. Risk factors that could prevent forward-looking statements relating to Cuda and its operating activities from being realized include ongoing permitting requirements, the actual results of current exploration and development activities, operational risks, risks associated with drilling and completions, uncertainty of geological and technical data, access to capital, market conditions, the availability and nature of alternative sources of energy, conclusions of economic evaluations and changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined as well as future prices of oil and natural gas. Although Cuda has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in 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/96790 New York-style pizzeria and Italian restaurant concept offers franchise opportunities; looking to continue growth in Middle East, Europe and Asia DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Russo's New York Pizzeria, the only authentic New York-style, Italian restaurant and pizzeria franchise concept, is set to open its sixth location in Dubai in October. The restaurant located in Uptown Mirdiff at Corner 47 Algeria St - Mirdiff, Dubai - UAE will feature the restaurant's updated casual dining layout that includes an open-kitchen concept and pizza chef station for guests to watch Russo's chefs prepare their hand-tossed pizzas and homemade meals fresh from scratch. The new design also allows the convenience for guests to choose take-out or delivery. The restaurant in Nakheel Mall at Center of Palm - Al Hilali - The Palm Jumeirah - Dubai - UAE was also opened during a time when the world was seeing a struggling restaurant industry due to covid, showcasing how Russo New York Pizzeria performs with capturing additional sales with promotions for delivery. "We are excited to offer Dubai families, friends and business associates a seventh location for authentic New York-style pizzeria and Italian," said Anthony Russo, Founder and CEO, Russo's New York Pizzeria. "Blending the simplicity of a pizzeria with the freshness of an upscale Italian restaurant, we deliver a chef-driven dining experience in a fast-casual setting that is unlike any other restaurant in the UAE." Following the family mantra "If it isn't fresh, don't serve it!" Russo's delivers an expansive menu that blends generations of family recipes with fresh, seasonal ingredients and authentic Italian imports like Pecorino Romano cheese from Emilia Romagna, Italy; aged-balsamic vinegar from a centuries-old vineyard in Italy; and extra virgin olive oil from Partanna, Italy. Russo's is passionate about menu innovation. The restaurant is proud to introduce new menu items that are perfectly crafted to showcase fresh, high-quality ingredients, highlighting Chef Russo's commitment to imaginative new tastes. New gourmet pizza and pasta menu items include the Truffle Mushroom pizza, Spicy Chicken Alfredo, Homemade Lasagna, and a great selection of gluten free and vegan menu items. Chef Anthony has perfected the Dubai menu to adapt to Middle East favorites and will feature fresh, local seafood, Halal meats, risotto and saffron, truffle mushroom soup, eggplant dishes, gnocchi pasta and Mediterranean-influenced dips and spreads. Russo's New York Pizzeria is looking to increase growth internationally, specifically in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. "There is a huge appetite for our brand and together with our talented franchise partners we are accelerating our global growth," said Russo. "The franchise opportunity is proving to be lucrative for our current international franchisees and we are excited for their continued success." Russo's Restaurants offers a rare franchise opportunity for entrepreneurs interested in proven brands that are entirely chef created, chef inspired, and chef driven. Russo's New York Pizzeria is the only authentic New York-style, Italian restaurant and pizzeria franchise concept. Beyond consumer convenience, Russo's is leading the fast-casual Italian dining category by creating a business model that offers: A smaller footprint (1,200-4,000 sq. ft.) for less overhead A low-cost entry into the restaurant business with an initial investment starting around $395,000 in select markets in select markets Average food costs and labor costs are 21.8% and 25.4% respectively* Average sales volume per unit is $1,020,383 million * About Russo's Restaurants Russo's Restaurants is a national and international franchisor of the casual dining brand Russo's New York Pizzeria. Based in Houston, Russo's Restaurants is composed of a mix of corporate and franchised locations across Texas, Oklahoma, California, and Florida. Russo's has entered international markets as well, with locations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. Chef Anthony Russo created Russo's Restaurants by applying his unique, family recipes featuring New York-style pizza, handcrafted pasta dishes, calzones, salads, sandwiches, soups and desserts. At its heart, Russo's Restaurants reflects Chef Anthony's commitment to his New York roots where food and family come first. To learn more about Russo's franchise development opportunities, visit www.russosfranchise.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1312068/Russo_Logo.jpg Matrix Mortgage Global has a specialized mortgage product for buyers to qualify for a 100% pre-construction financing. TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 16, 2021 / Matrix Mortgage Global is a four-year consecutive winner of Canada's Broker of the Year Award from 2018 to 2021 declared by the Canadian Mortgage Awards (CMA). As a Canadian brokerage it strives to work for the client's best interest and work hard to bring their clients specialized mortgage products that are not commonly available from other brokers or banks. Their mortgage brokers and agents are licensed to qualify buyer needs and facilitate the right mortgage products for approval. One of their premier mortgage brokers is Jermaine Hinds who unpacks the 100% pre-construction financing product available from the brokerage for buyers in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. This product enables buyers to get their mortgage financing up to 100% of the purchase price for their pre-construction properties. This product is hard to find anywhere else in Canada. Q&A Facts About 100% Preconstruction Financing That Most People Don't Know About - Jermaine Hinds Getting a 100% financing requires much more than just access to lenders who are willing to work with you. Matrix Mortgage Global has years of connections built over time, which rewards them with access to what otherwise would be inaccessible to regular buyers. Matrix Mortgage Global developed their mortgage brokers to be proficient in both the regular and specialized mortgage products for home buyers and real estate investors in Canada. According to Jermaine Hinds, at Matrix Mortgage Global, other specialized products available from the brokerage include access to lenders who can account for 100% rental income instead of the 50% that's usually allowed. "At Matrix Mortgage Global, we help clients with mortgages approved across Canada. We've helped dozens of clients across the country get their mortgages to buy a home and build generational wealth in real estate. Whether you are single or have a family, we can help you get a mortgage that suits your goals," said Jermaine Hinds when talking about the mortgage products offered by the brokerage. He added, "Matrix Mortgage Global has been awarded Broker of the Year four years in a row from 2018 to 2021. After all, there is a reason why people choose us over what are probably a few hundred others in Toronto alone." Jermaine Hinds is a Toronto-based mortgage broker with several years of mortgage industry experience. His insight is developed over years of working as a mortgage broker and lender, along with a vast network allowing him to offer clients more choices from over 100 lending partners and various mortgage solutions. Mr. Hinds is reachable at Matrix Mortgage Global - Jermaine Hinds , a premier mortgage broker at Matrix Mortgage Global. About Matrix Mortgage Global Matrix Mortgage Global is a Toronto mortgage brokerage that has been awarded 4X Broker Of The Year in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. The company is led by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Shawn Allen who smashed the $380M mark in mortgage origination amount during the Great Financial Crisis. Mr. Allen is an international speaker and masterclass host for mortgage brokers in Canada and Australia. For The Media & Enquiries: Matrix Mortgage Global - Jermaine Hinds Jermaine Hinds 100 Consilium Pl Suite 200, Scarborough, ON M1H 3E3, Canada (647) 277-9487 jermaine@mmgb.ca https://hindsmortgages.ca/toronto-mortgage-broker/ SOURCE: Matrix Mortgage Global View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664452/Award-Winning-Mortgage-Brokerage-With-a-100-Pre-Construction-Financing Press Release Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo launch 5G network in Indonesia Nokia's latest 5G AirScale portfolio to be deployed across Indonesia's central islands delivering incredible 5G experiences to subscribers Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo together with Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) and the University of Oulu to launch the Nokia 5G Experience Center providing a platform for the development of innovative new use cases by local digital talent 17 September 2021 Espoo, Finland - Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo today announced the launch of commercial 5G services in Surabaya city, Indonesia. Under the deal, Indosat Ooredoo's customers will experience new enterprise and industrial use cases underpinned by the new 5G network. Nokia will supply equipment from its latest ReefShark based AirScale product range, including its AirScale Single RAN portfolio for both indoor and outdoor coverage. These solutions will offer faster speeds and wider mobile coverage for Indosat Ooredoo's customers while cutting costs for the operator to run its network. Nokia will also deploy its dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) solution, which will allow Indosat Ooredoo to use its 4G networks spectrum for 5G services, decreasing the time it takes to get 5G up and running. Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo, as well as partners, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology and the University of Oulu, will also open the Nokia 5G Experience Centre at ITS' facilities in Surabaya. The site includes a Centre of Creativity designed for technology developers and ITS students to explore and develop new 5G use cases to drive innovation and socio-economic development in Indonesia. In addition, the facility includes a Center of Knowledge with 5G millimeter-wave capability to simulate a live 5G environment for testing a range of 5G uses cases. It also includes a Center of Excellence offering professional 5G certifications and other academic programs to support the development of local digital talent. Indosat Ooredoo offers advanced communications services to its customers across Indonesia, including mobile and fixed, video, internet, and business communications services. Nokia has already worked with the operator on several network upgrades in Indonesia, including its IP/MPLS mobile transport network solution, as well as its LTE-Advanced network. Ahmad Al-Neama, President Director and CEO at Indosat Ooredoo, said: "I am deeply humbled and proud to launch Indosat Ooredoo's 5G services in Surabaya aligned with our commitment to being the forefront of the 5G revolution in Indonesia. This technology will help unleash many opportunities for the region's education, people, and economy. As the result of our collaboration with ITS, Nokia, and the University of Oulu Finland, the advanced Nokia 5G Experience Center will complete the innovation and development of local content use cases relevant to the city. With the full supports from Government, Indosat Ooredoo continues to accelerate Indonesia's transformation into a digital and 5G-enabled nation." Prof. Dr. Ir. Mochamad Ashari, Rector of Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, said: "We are thrilled to be partnering with Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo to bring 5G innovation to Indonesia and specifically into Surabaya. Through such industry partnerships, we aim to provide a platform for young minds to collaborate directly with industry and business leaders and develop 5G solutions that will benefit the University and the wider community. The launch of the 5G Experience center is in line with the government's agenda that would enable ITS to spearhead the advance learning and research and provide students and faculty an opportunity to be on the forefront of innovation." Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: "We are excited to launch commercial 5G services in Indonesia with Indosat Ooredoo as its trusted partner. Our AirScale portfolio will deliver best-in-class services to its subscribers and I look forward to working hand in hand with them on this project moving forward. The opening of the Nokia 5G Experience Center will also provide a platform to drive innovation in the country." Resources: Nokia AirScale (https://www.nokia.com/networks/solutions/airscale-radio-access/) (https://www.nokia.com/networks/solutions/airscale-radio-access/) Nokia 5G RAN (https://www.nokia.com/networks/portfolio/5g-ran/) (https://www.nokia.com/networks/portfolio/5g-ran/) Nokia wins Indosat Ooredoo's IP/MPLS network upgrade in Indonesia | Nokia (https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2019/03/05/nokia-wins-indosat-ooredoos-ipmpls-network-upgrade-in-indonesia/) (https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2019/03/05/nokia-wins-indosat-ooredoos-ipmpls-network-upgrade-in-indonesia/) Nokia Networks powers Indosat Ooredoo's LTE-Advanced network in Indonesia | Nokia (https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2015/12/10/nokia-networks-powers-indosat-ooredoos-lte-advanced-network-in-indonesia/) About Nokia At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together. As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs. Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world. Media Inquiries: Nokia Communications Phone: +358 10 448 4900 Email: press.services@nokia.com About Indosat Ooredoo Indosat Ooredoo Website : www.indosatooredoo.com YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChs2x7pZ2D8UgHz9cgrn3sQ Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/IndosatOoredoo/ Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott joined WA Health Minister Roger Cook today to open the Tom Price COVID-19 vaccination clinic aimed at boosting vaccination rates in the Pilbara, Western Australia. The clinic, set up in partnership with Rio Tinto, WA's Department of Health, WA Country Health Service and the Shire of Ashburton, will operate from 9am to 6pm at the Tom Price Community Centre from today through to 21 September. It will return in the coming weeks to enable the community to receive their second dose of the vaccine. Vaccination bookings are available for all people who live or are currently in the region, including local and Aboriginal communities, Rio Tinto employees, contractors and their families. Walk-in appointments will also be welcomed. Vaccine supply is sufficient to vaccinate the entire population of Tom Price over the age of 12, which is estimated to be about 3,000 people. The WA Department of Health is also taking bookings for the Paraburdoo clinic, which is set to open to the community at Ashburton Hall on 23 September. Rio Tinto is working with the WA Government to establish similar clinics in Pannawonica and Dampier, and stands ready to provide logistical support as required to assist with the vaccination rollout in remote Aboriginal communities. The vaccination hubs at Perth Airport (T2 and T3) will open from 11 October, targeting workers returning to Perth, with bookings open from 27 September via rollup.wa.gov.au. Rio Tinto is pleased to announce that the hubs will be available to Rio Tinto's FIFO workforce who regularly travel to and from the Pilbara, as well as Western Australia's wider FIFO mining industry who wish to utilise the facilities. For further information or to make an appointment, visit rollup.wa.gov.au. Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott urged all eligible community members in Tom Price to 'roll up for WA' and play their part in boosting vaccination rates in the Pilbara. "We urge the local community to take advantage of having the clinic on their doorstep, and make an appointment as soon as possible. At the end of this blitz, we would love for Tom Price to be the most vaccinated town in Australia which would be a terrific outcome. "By setting up and running the clinic in Tom Price, it allows the Department of Health to free up resources that can be used to prioritise vaccinations in remote Aboriginal communities, which is a vital part of WA's pathway out of the pandemic. "Rio Tinto is proud to work with the WA Government on this important partnership and will continue to look at ways to help to boost vaccination rates across regional WA." View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210916005961/en/ Contacts: Please direct all enquiries to Media.enquiries@riotinto.com Media Relations, Australia Jonathan Rose M +61 447 028 913 Matt Chambers M +61 433 525 739 Jesse Riseborough M +61 436 653 412 Jamie Macdonald M +61 467 725 517 Kate Barcham M +61 438 990 238 Rio Tinto plc 6 St James's Square London SW1Y 4AD United Kingdom T +44 20 7781 2000 Registered in England No. 719885 Rio Tinto Limited Level 7, 360 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 Australia T +61 3 9283 3333 Registered in Australia ABN 96 004 458 404 riotinto.com Category: Pilbara WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Invesco Ltd. (IVZ) is in talks to merge with State Street Corp.'s (STT ) asset-management business, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter. A deal isn't imminent, and the discussions might not result in an agreement, the Journal reported. According to the Journal, it isn't clear what the terms of a potential deal would look like, but it would likely be one of the industry's biggest in recent memory, given State Street's asset-management unit manages nearly $4 trillion in assets. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto (RTPPF.PK, RIO.L, RIO, RTNTF.PK) and the Government of Western Australia will open the Tom Price COVID-19 vaccination clinic aimed at boosting vaccination rates in the Pilbara, Western Australia, the Anglo-Australian mining giant said in a statement. The clinic, set up in partnership with Rio Tinto, WA's Department of Health, WA Country Health Service and the Shire of Ashburton, will operate from 9am to 6pm at the Tom Price Community Centre from Friday through to 21 September. It will return in the coming weeks to enable the community to receive their second dose of the vaccine. Rio Tinto noted that vaccination bookings are available for all people who live or are currently in the region, including local and Aboriginal communities, Rio Tinto employees, contractors and their families. Walk-in appointments will also be welcomed. Vaccine supply is sufficient to vaccinate the entire population of Tom Price over the age of 12, which is estimated to be about 3,000 people. The WA Department of Health is also taking bookings for the Paraburdoo clinic, which is set to open to the community at Ashburton Hall on 23 September. Rio Tinto is working with the WA Government to establish similar clinics in Pannawonica and Dampier, and stands ready to provide logistical support as required to assist with the vaccination rollout in remote Aboriginal communities. The vaccination hubs at Perth Airport (T2 and T3) will open from 11 October, targeting workers returning to Perth, with bookings open from 27 September via rollup.wa.gov.au. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX RIO TINTO-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de Unifiedpost Group (Euronext: UPG) (Unifiedpost, the Group or the Company) is pleased to announce its second-quarter and half-year results for the period to June 30, 2021. Highlights Group revenue more than doubled to 80.7 million driven by acquisitions in the period Organic digital processing revenue growth of 13% y-o-y in Q2 2021, up from 10% y-o-y in Q1 2021 Post-IPO acquisition strategy completed and integration of six acquisitions during period is at advanced stages Gross margin of digital processing business increased by 0.8%pts y-o-y while adjusted Group EBITDA 1 improved to achieve break-even improved to achieve break-even Cash and equivalents of 25.1 million with a further 28.7 million available in undrawn-financing sufficient to fund future development Company guidance for FY 2021 and years to come confirmed Commenting on the results, Hans Leybaert, CEO and Founder stated: "As we celebrate our first anniversary as a public company, I am proud of what our teams have achieved across Europe. With six acquisitions completed since the IPO, we have welcomed new colleagues, added new geographies, capabilities and customers large and small. This will enable us to enhance our offering and rapidly scale our network. I am confident that we now have in place the platform that will lead the digital transformation of document, identity, payments and related financial services for European SMEs. Our focus is now to raise organic growth. This will be done by further integration of the acquired companies generating additional sales, creating new ecosystems and speeding the network effects of the platform. Our communication and payments network is being rolled out across 30 countries and we are welcoming more new customers than ever before while growing the volume of services we offer to individual customers faster than ever before." Key Q2 figures (EUR million) Q2 2021 Q2 2020 Change (%) Digital processing revenue organic 18.7 16.6 +13% Digital processing revenue acquired business 7.4 Postage parcel optimisation revenue 14.7 Group revenue 40.8 16.6 +146% Key H1 figures (EUR million) H1 2021 H1 2020 Change (%) Group revenue 80.7 33.5 +141% Digital processing revenue 50.4 33.5 +50% Postage parcel optimisation revenue 30.3 Recurring digital revenue (in of digital revenue) 94.5% 91.5% +3.0%pts Gross margin digital processing 42.8% 42.0% +0.8%pts Adjusted EBITDA margin 0.0% -3.1% +3.1%pts R&D costs (expensed and capitalised) 15.3 10.5 +46% Loss for the period -11.1 -16.9 +35% Cash and cash equivalents (as of 30 June) 25.1 8.6 Revenue growth accelerated on the back of organic growth and acquisitions For the first half to June 30, 2021, Unifiedpost more than doubled its consolidated revenue to 80.7 million y-o-y, largely driven by the acquisitions completed in the period. Digital processing revenue, the core business of Unifiedpost, grew to 50.4 million, an increase of 50% y-o-y. Group revenue continued to be affected by COVID-19, notably in the UK, Belgium and Slovakia. However, this is expected to diminish in the coming quarters as economic activity resumes. In H1 2021, 94.5% of the digital processing revenue was recurring. This provides, together with the limited customer churn, a stable base for continued growth. Transaction fees increased by 187% y-o-y to 65.6 million due to the contribution from recent acquisitions, while subscription fees increased 44% y-o-y to 9.3 million fuelled by an increase in SME customers. Gross profit for the first half amounted to 24.9 million compared to 14.1 million in the previous year's period. Excluding contribution from acquisitions, like-for-like gross profit for the period was stable. Approximately 87% of the Group's gross margin was generated by digital processing. The growth margin of this business saw an increase from 42% to 42.8%. Unifiedpost continues to invest in its platform development through upgrades and developments of additional services. During the first half of the year, the Group spent 15.3 million in R&D (of which 57% was capitalised and 43% expensed), equivalent to 30% of total digital processing revenue. G&A expenses for the period increased from 13.1 million to 18.6 million compared to the previous year due to a higher number of employees and the Group's general expansion, including its acquisitions. Sales Marketing expenses were up from 5.0 million to 11.3 million, reflecting the Group's commercial efforts in the first half of the year. Due to the improvement in margins, the Group reported a significant reduction in its loss for the period of 5.8 million compared to the same period in the previous year. During the first six months of the year the Group completed six acquisitions for a total consideration of 146.6 million with 81.9 million in cash and 53.8 million through the issuance of new equity and 6.9 million repayment of loans. At the end of the period, the Group cash position was 25.1 million (cash and cash equivalents) in addition to approved and undrawn facilities totalling 28.7 million. The group has sufficient resources to continue to fund its capital expenditure and debt commitments. Unifiedpost's equity increased from 168.2 million to 211.9 million in the reporting period. 53.8 million of this was attributable to the issue of shares in connection with the acquisitions made by means of a contribution in kind of vendor loans. Management guidance confirmed Following strong growth in the second quarter and further anticipated acceleration into the second half of the year, Unifiedpost reiterates its FY2021 organic revenue growth forecast of at least 15% in its digital processing revenue. For FY2022 and FY2023 Unifiedpost also confirms the guidance provided in April 2021, with organic digital processing revenue growth of 25% for FY2022, stepping up to 30% in FY2023. Management also reaffirms digital processing revenue gross margin guidance of +60% by 2023 and an adjusted EBITDA margin expected to exceed 25% by FY2023. Digitalising the financial supply chain processes Unifiedpost enables members of its business network to interact digitally, exchange documents, execute payments and optimise cashflows all via Unifiedpost's integrated platform. The Company's ambition is to become the leading player in the ongoing digital transformation and to create an unrivalled pan-European business network. The taken path of geographical expansion, additional network effects and increased digitisation gives Unifiedpost an excellent position to achieve this goal. Building a pan-European 'one-stop-shop' The integration of the six acquisitions is advancing well. The teams involved, including the local management from acquired companies, have been successfully retained, preserving high-value knowledge and experience, facilitating the financial and business integration of all the companies to plan. Consequently, the roll-out and migration of customers to the Unifiedpost premium SME platform has already commenced. Unifiedpost's premium SME solution has been rebranded to 'Banqup' to streamline marketing efforts. The management's intention is to gradually phase out legacy brands such as 'Billtobox'. The speed of the roll-out of Banqup has exceeded expectations, from two countries at the end of March, to 13 at present, with plans to roll this out to 30 countries by the end of year four more than originally planned (additional countries include Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal and Austria). Growing the network Unifiedpost has set ambitious targets for new customer onboarding. At the end of the period, the organic new customer growth across the network was 41% y-o-y and 16% compared to the end of December 2020. The consolidated network, including the businesses and customers of the acquired companies, expanded to over 980,000 companies, representing an estimated 4% of SMEs in Europe. In Belgium the number of customers on Billtobox grew by 45% y-o-y at H1 2021. Encouragingly the number of transactions grew even faster than that of the customers, demonstrating the improved adoption of the platform. The number of transactions in the first half of 2021 increased 67% compared to the previous six months, and 170% compared to the same period last year. Unifiedpost has created new business ecosystems through agreements with new partners and wholesalers to offer its SME solution to their customers, the largest representing approximately 80,000 customers. In France the focus was on the integration of JeFacture with the various IT systems. This preparatory work is key to be ready to welcome the flow of enterprises that will have to join the platform before the end of 2022 as the obligation to dematerialise all B2B invoices in France starts to be being enforced as from the 1st of January 2023. The ecosystem of JeFacture is getting enriched by key partnerships with, amongst others, ACD (3rd largest accounting solution), RCA (intranet extranet solution) and Effiz (a middleware between JeFacture and several accounting software's). JeFacture.com will be presented jointly with several new partnerships and new features announcements by ECMA during the yearly CPA congress between the 6th and 8th of October 2021. Growing payment service adoption Unifiedpost invoice payment solutions are adopted more and more by the platform users. In total 292,312 payment transactions were processed between business partners on the platform during the period, an increase of 71% y-o-y, representing a total payment value of 51.5 million, equivalent to 176 on average per payment. During the period the Unifiedpost multiple bank portal for corporates handled 32 million payment transactions for the customers (credit transfers and direct debits together), representing a payment value of 12 billion. Investors, analyst media webcast: Management will host a live video webcast for investors and media today at 2 p.m. CET. A presentation can be followed via live webcast. A recording will be available shortly after the event. To attend, please register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6187452624717239308 A full replay and a copy of the slides will be available after the webcast at: https://www.unifiedpost.com/en/investor-relations Financial Calendar Publication 2021 Q3 business update November 19, 2021 Investor Day December 1, 2021 About Unifiedpost Unifiedpost is a leading cloud-based platform for SME business services built on Documents, Identity, Payments and associated finance services. Unifiedpost operates and develops a comprehensive cloud-based platform for administrative and financial services that allows real-time and seamless connections between Unifiedpost's customers, their suppliers, their customers, and other parties along the financial value chain. With its one-stop-shop solutions, Unifiedpost's mission is to make administrative and financial processes simple and smart for its customers. Since its founding in 2001, Unifiedpost has grown significantly, expanding to offices in 26 countries, with more than 400 million documents processed in 2020, reaching over 980,000 SMEs and more than 2,500 Corporates across its platform today. Noteworthy facts and figures: Established in 2001, with a proven track record Revenue of 146 million (pro-forma 2020) 1,300+ employees 400+ million documents processed in 2020 Diverse portfolio of clients across a wide variety of industries, including banking, leasing, utilities, media, telecommunications, travel, social security service providers, public organisations, ranging from SMEs to large corporates. Unifiedpost Payments, a fully owned subsidiary, is recognised as a payment institution by the National Bank of Belgium Certified SWIFT partner M&A track record of 17 acquisitions in last 9 years Quoted on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels, symbol: UPG (*) Warning about future statements: The statements contained herein may contain forecasts, future expectations, opinions and other future-oriented statements concerning the expected further performance of Unifiedpost on the markets in which it is active. Such future-oriented statements are based on the current insights and assumptions of management concerning future events. They naturally include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which seem justified at the time that the statements are made but may possibly turn out to be inaccurate. The actual results, performance or events may differ essentially from the results, performance or events which are expressed or implied in such future-oriented statements. Except where required by the applicable legislation, Unifiedpost shall assume no obligation to update, elucidate or improve future-oriented statements in this press release in the light of new information, future events or other elements and shall not be held liable on that account. The reader is warned not to rely unduly on future-oriented statements. 1 Adjusted EBITDA for a period, as EBITDA plus share-based payment expense, non-recurring operational expenses, acquisitions expenses, costs in relation with the Company's listing, less other income and expenses. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210916005920/en/ Contacts: Enquiries Hans Leybaert, CEO +32 477 23 94 80 hans.leybaert@unifiedpost.com Laurent Marcelis, CFO +32 477 61 81 37 laurent.marcelis@unifiedpost.com Investor Relations Media Sarah Heuninck +32 491 15 05 09 sarah.heuninck@unifiedpost.com Ghent, BELGIUM , Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Press release - regulated information - inside information Biotalys Board and Executive Changes Luc Basstanie retires from the Board of Directors Hilde Revets leaves the organization Ghent, BELGIUM - 17 September 2021, 07:00 CEST -, Biotalys("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, today announces changes in its Board of Directors and its Executive Committee. Luc Basstanie who has been at the Board of Directors of Biotalys since inception will retire from his Senior Investment role within Agri Investment Fund (AIF), one of the major shareholders of Biotalys, as of 30 September 2021. Luc has informed the Company that he will also retire from his Board position effective 30 September 2021. Luc has been supporting Biotalys over the years with his broad knowledge and experience in agriculture and played an essential role, together with AIF, in the successful IPO of Biotalys in July. Biotalys will continue to work with AIF as a major shareholder of the organization and will initiate a search to identify a new director. "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Luc for his long-term support for Biotalys, which has been instrumental in placing the Company in the strong position it occupies today," said Simon Moroney, Chairman of the Board. After several years of collaboration, Hilde Revets, Biotalys' Chief Scientific Officer, leaves the organization today to pursue new opportunities. Hilde participated in building the AGROBODY Foundry platform, leveraging many years of research and development experience in drug discovery & development, especially focusing on antibody technology development. The Company has initiated a search to identify a suitable replacement to lead the Company's scientific activities. During the transition, Luc Maertens, COO, and Patrice Selles, CEO, will overview the operations, while relying on Biotalys' strong scientific team to implement the current plans. "The Company is grateful to Hilde for all her work, which has helped to establish it as a leader in applying novel technology to crop protection. We wish her the very best for the future," commented Simon Moroney, Chairman of the Board. About Biotalys Biotalys is an Agricultural Technology. For further information, please contact Toon Musschoot, Head of IR & Communication T: +32 (0)9 274 54 00 E: Toon.Musschoot@biotalys.com Consilium Strategic Communications Amber Fennell T: +44 (0)203 709 5700 E: Biotalys@consilium-comms.com Important Notice 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. Attachment COLOGNE, Germany, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Launca Medical, a leading provider of innovative scanning solutions in digital dentistry, today announced its participation at the International Dental Show (IDS) 2021, the largest global trade fair for the dental industry. Launca will showcase its latest innovations, the DL-206 intraoral scanner at booth P-018 in hall 10.2. The event will be held on September 22-25, 2021 in Cologne, Germany. As the latest addition to Launca DL-200 series, Launca DL-206 is a powder-free intraoral scanner with an ergonomic design, light weight, and fast scan speed, which ensures a comfortable scanning experience for both dental practitioners and patients, and delivers superior treatment outcomes. With Launca's proprietary 3D scanning technology, DL-206 can quickly tackle down complex dental cases with enhanced accuracy and real-time visualization. The intraoral scanner is available in both cart and portable versions, providing better flexibility to meet the needs of dental practices. Launca Medical is a fast-growing company in the dental field, winning two awards at the 2021 HCA Medtech Awards - Dentistry Solution Initiative of the Year and Digital Innovation of the Year. With its award-winning DL-206 intraoral scanner, Launca Medical has become a key player in the market and now it is one of the highly anticipated exhibitors in the industry at IDS 2021. "We are delighted to see that the industry is now getting back to in-person events," said Dr. Jian Lu, Founder & CEO of Launca Medical. "IDS is a key platform for us to connect with dental professionals and showcase the latest digital solutions we are making to help dental practices achieve a smooth and efficient digital transition." Launca representatives will be available at Hall 10.2 Stand P-018 for one-on-one meetings and product demos throughout the event. Visitors can also access Launca Medical digitally through IDSconnect. For more information, please visit www.launcadental.com and follow Launca Medical on Facebook and LinkedIn. About Launca Medical Founded in 2013 by Dr. Jian Lu (Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, USA), Launca Medical is headquartered in Songshan Lake, Dongguan(China), with additional operational offices in Shenzhen (China). Launca has been focusing on intraoral scanning system development based on its proprietary 3D imaging technology and has successfully launched a series of intraoral scanners. Currently, Launca has supplied its intraoral scanners to over 80 countries. Contact Karl Chen Head of Marketing +86-13826462094 marketing@launcamedical.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626702/Image1.jpg 17 September 2021 ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC ("Ananda" or the "Company") Research Facility Construction Update Ananda, the AQSE-listed medical cannabis company creating UK-based operations to grow and provide carbon neutral, consistent, pharmaceutical quality medical cannabis for the UK and international markets, provides the following update on the construction of its research facility. Since the Company's update on 6 September 2021, works have continued on schedule at the medical cannabis research growing facility being developed in the UK by DJT Plants Limited ("DJT Plants"), the Company's 50% owned subsidiary. As previously announced the facility footprint has been increased. To provide further detail to shareholders, it now incorporates: a dedicated growing room for female plants (which produce the resin secreting flowers used for medicinal cannabis) a dedicated growing room for male plants (grown to pollinate the female plants) a dedicated plant nursery a dedicated room for mother plants (to guarantee genetic consistency of each generation of plants) laboratory space (for trimming plants, analysing characteristics and test work) enlarged work rooms The facility is also being constructed to allow for thorough cleaning and to accommodate appropriate work flows and movement of plants through the work rooms. These are requirements for Good Manufacturing Practices ("GMP") certification, which will be applied for in due course. The facility construction management team (supplied by Ananda's partner JE Piccaver & Co (Gedney Marsh) Limited ("JEPCO")) is well versed in all aspects of high plant care standards, as they are required in the salad leaf industry where JEPCO operates as a large-scale speciality grower. Salad leaves are not cooked before being consumed, so the team is very familiar with the required levels of hygiene, work-flow management and deep cleaning. JEPCO operates to Red Tractor standards, which were established in 2000 and which have grown to become the UK's biggest farm and food standards scheme, covering all aspects of food safety, traceability and environmental protection. JEPCO is also accredited under Global GAP (the Global Partnership for Safe and Sustainable Agriculture) and is a Selected Grower under the Marks & Spencer Field to Fork programme. DJT Plants holds a licence from the Home Office of the UK Government to grow >0.2% THC cannabis for research purposes. -Ends- The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement. ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC Chief Executive Officer Melissa Sturgess Investor Relations Jeremy Sturgess-Smith +44 (0)7463 686 497 ir@anandadevelopments.com PETERHOUSE CAPITAL LIMITED Corporate Finance Mark Anwyl Corporate Broking Lucy Williams Duncan Vasey YELLOW JERSEY PR Alison Hicks Charles Goodwin +44 (0)20 7469 0930 +44 (0) 7585 953 660 +44 (0) 7747 788 221 Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. About Ananda Developments Ananda is an AQSE-listed medical cannabis company creating UK-based operations to grow and provide carbon neutral, consistent, pharmaceutical quality medical cannabis for the UK and international markets. The UK medical cannabis market is predicted to be worth 450m by 2025 and the European market is predicted to be worth USD4.2bn by 2027. Ananda, through its 50% owned subsidiary, DJT Plants Limited, was granted a Home Office licence in May 2021 to grow >0.2% THC cannabis in a new research facility to breed and stabilise 65 strains. For more information, please visit: https://anandadevelopments.com/ BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT (dpa-AFX) - Renault Group management and representative trade unions launched negotiations with a view to concluding a nationwide multi-year labor agreement for the period 2022-2024. The French carmaker would cut up to 2,000 jobs in France and create new jobs. Renault Group said it plans to produce nine new vehicle models in France by 2025. The project would involve 2,500 new recruitments for a net increase of 500 jobs and provide 10,000 training and professional reorientation initiatives spanning all occupations. The company reaffirmed its commitment to position France at the heart of its industrial and R&D activities by establishing future-oriented and value-creating technologies in the country. The company noted that it will create 2,000 new jobs in its French plants. It would also implement more than 5,000 training and professional reorientation programs to help workers develop skills suited to the automotive industry's new value chain. Renault Group said, to ensure engineering capabilities, it must continue tailoring its workforce, with the possibility of 1,600 departures. At the same time, the Group would create 400 jobs centered on new key skills such as data sciences and battery chemistry, while also implementing 3,000 training and professional reorientation initiatives. Renault Group presented a plan to refocus support functions, with 400 potential departures in France. The goal would be to modernize and digitalize these functions with a renewed emphasis on value-added activities, in accordance with the Group's strategic objectives. 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. BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 2.00 am ET Friday, the Office for National Statistics releases UK retail sales data for August. Ahead of the data, the pound rose against its major rivals. The pound was worth 1.3806 against the greenback, 151.71 against the yen, 1.2795 against the franc and 0.8524 against the euro as of 1:55 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - UK retail sales declined for the fourth straight month in August, data from the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday. Retail sales including auto fuel dropped unexpectedly by 0.9 percent month-on-month after declining 2.8 percent in July. Sales were forecast to climb 0.5 percent. Excluding auto fuel, the retail sales volume decreased at a slower pace of 1.2 percent following a 3.2 percent drop in July. Economists had expected an increase of 0.5 percent. Food store sales decreased 1.2 percent and non-food store sales were down 1 percent in August. On a yearly basis, retail sales remained flat versus July's 1.9 percent increase and the expected growth of 2.5 percent. At the same time, sales excluding auto fuel were down 0.9 percent, offsetting the 0.9 percent increase in July. Sales were expected to advance 2.5 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said Friday that it is considering whether acquisition by Pennon Group of Bristol Water Holdings UK Limited could cause a substantial lessening of competition. The CMA is inviting comments from any interested party by October 1. In June 2021, Pennon Group had announced the acquisition of Bristol Water Group for an enterprise value of 814 million pounds, including assumed debt. Pennon acquired Bristol Water from its indirect shareholders including infrastructure funds advised by iCON Infrastructure LLP, who owns 80% of the shares, and ITOCHU Corporation, owning 20%, for an equity value of 425 million pounds. 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. BRISTOL, England and AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightpearl has acquired Inventory Planner, a market-leading demand planning tool that enables e-commerce retailers to forecast inventory and optimise stock. With this acquisition, Brightpearl expands its technology offering to include advanced forecasting expertise. This pairs with its core operating system for retail, which supports rapid scale, first class automation and out of the box connectivity. It also marks the first milestone in a longer-term strategy to make Brightpearl the top destination for best-in-class products which can streamline backend operations and support rapid scalability. The move will see Inventory Planner running as a separate division of Brightpearl, with the parent company executing a significant programme of investment to evolve and enhance the Inventory Planner brand and expand its business. Brightpearl is a leading Retail Operating System which works with some of the world's largest retail brands. The winning combination of Inventory Planner and Brightpearl will allow merchants to connect historical sales data to Brightpearl's powerful, built-for-retail operating system - delivering hugely improved margins and boosting customer satisfaction. Inventory Planner has 2,060 customers, primarily in English-speaking countries, 60% of which are between $1m and $100m GMV. Many subscribe via direct download from an app store such as Shopify. Merchants can utilize the tool to quickly visualise trends, and configure advanced reporting and notifications to help run their business by exception. Derek O'Carroll, CEO of Brightpearl, said: "We're thrilled to announce the acquisition of Inventory Planner and to be able to offer this best-in-class solution as an extension of the Brightpearl network. We're also excited about the addition of Inventory Planner's experienced and talented team to the wider Brightpearl family. "Our deal with Inventory Planner signals the first step in our mission to give modern merchants the freedom to easily deploy commerce experiences on their own terms, with access to the very best retail technology products - empowering them to break away from jack-of-all-trades legacy systems." "This evolution of our relationship with Brightpearl will allow Inventory Planner to better serve its current and future clients as we tap into the full potential of our integrated solution and offer a cutting edge demand forecasting technology to the fast-growing merchants," said Inventory Planner co-founder, Oleg Smirnov. "We are thrilled to be joining forces with BrightPearl, an ideal partner who shares our values and commitment to building secure and scalable retail operating systems." The deal is expected to open up a new chapter for retail software. O'Carroll explains: "Merchants need alternatives to the current ERP-dominated retail technology landscape. They need real-time scalability and optionality, instead of being tied long-term to 'all in one' solutions which force-feed mediocre products that limit scale and innovation." "We'll be offering exciting opportunities for merchants to leverage Brightpearl's growing family of best-in-class products, like Inventory Planner. These specialist applications come pre-integrated, secure and scalable, so merchants can rely upon them to grow fearlessly. They'll have the choice to use these products as standalone solutions or interconnected to Brightpearl's core operating system. It's a win for our commerce customers, and a win for their consumers." Maurice Helfgott, Brightpearl Chairman, said: "I started my career as a Merchant and know how critical accurate prediction is to getting the right product available in the right place at the right time. Inventory Planner's customers are delighted with the proven simplicity and accuracy of its easy-to-deploy forecasting solution solution and we're confident that Brightpearl's world class team will help ensure success for the product with larger customers too." Brightpearl, which has partnerships with organisations like Shopify, eBay and Amazon, has seen 50% growth YOY, and now manages over $5bn of business a year. Today's announcement comes after Brightpearl raised $33M in a recent series C round. Sage led the round, investing approximately 17 million ($23m) out of a total of 25 million ($33m) raised, with existing shareholders including Cipio Partners, Notion Capital and Verdane investing a further 8 million ($10m). About Brightpearl Brightpearl is a Retail Operations System (ROS) for retailers and wholesalers. With its global headquarters in Bristol, UK and US headquarters in Austin, Texas, Brightpearl helps 1,000 commerce businesses to streamline and automate their retail operations across order management, CRM, fulfilment, accounting inventory, and warehouse management. About Inventory Planner Inventory Planner launched in 2012 to help eCommerce merchants save time and money when purchasing inventory to better meet customer demand. Now integrated with over 30 platforms including marketplaces, accounting platforms, and inventory management systems, Inventory Planner supports merchants as they grow to see information from all of their sales channels. Merchants use Inventory Planner's replenishment recommendations and assist with inventory planning, forecasting, reporting, and purchase order creation. Inventory Planner is a fully-remote team of planners and developers supporting hundreds of merchants around the world. ANYANG, South Korea, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vieworks, a global leader in the X-ray imaging industry, presents its complete dental detector lineups at the International Dental Show (IDS) 2021 (hall 11.2 P/R 28/29) from 22 to 25 September. IDS is the world's biggest trade fair for dentistry and dental technology, which takes place in Cologne, Germany every two years. More than 160,000 visitors from 64 countries visited IDS 2019. At IDS, Vieworks will present its two dental detector series: VIVIX-D series, dynamic flat panel detectors, and VIVIX-C series, CMOS line sensor detectors. VIVIX-D series is a perfect solution for all-in-one dental CBCT and panoramic imaging. It is offered with both a-Si technology and IGZO technology, the latest TFT panel which has been emerging as a core technology in the dental field. VIVIX-C series is Vieworks' latest series which employs CMOS line sensor for high-precision panoramic imaging. In the end, based on the novel technology from Vieworks, dentists can enhance their daily workflow and provide high-quality patient care. In addition, Vieworks' network all around the world offers immediate customer service on time. "Debuting VIVIX-D series based on a-Si TFT technology in IDS 2019 was a huge success. This year, we are excited to introduce our new X-ray detectors employing IGZO technology and launch VIVIX-C series with CMOS line sensor technology." Jinwoo Nam, senior sales manager, explains about Vieworks' complete dental X-ray detector lineups to be presented this year. "We will take this as an opportunity to present Vieworks' unmatched imaging solutions and secure new customers around the world." VIVIX-D series with IGZO TFT For dental CBCT and panoramic imaging Available in 3 sizes (10 * 17 cm, 17 * 17 cm, and 17 * 24 cm) Supreme image quality with high resolution and SNR, and low image lag Enhanced workflow with reliable image acquisition and transfer powered by Safe VIVIX-C series with CMOS line sensor For dental panoramic imaging Available in 2 sizes (15 * 1 cm and 23 * 1 cm) Sharp panoramic image quality even at a lower dose Enhanced user convenience with onboard image correction and simple SDK API About Vieworks Co., Ltd. Vieworks debuted its dental detectors based on its established imaging technology with over 20 years of experience in the X-ray imaging field. Since its debut, Vieworks' dental detectors quickly gained market recognition for their superior image quality and stable operation. As a global leader in digital imaging in various applications from medical X-ray imaging to industrial X-ray inspection, Vieworks offers the most advanced flat panel detectors and software as a solution to the world. For more information, please visit xrayimaging.vieworks.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1627512/1.jpg Partnership accelerates the development of the iVAC 2L mechanical circulatory device in Greater China. Expands Huadong Medicine's medical portfolio for cases of high-risk PCI with innovative percutaneous ventricle assist devices based on innovative pulsatile technology. PulseCath will receive a significant investment in its share capital and in payments for regulatory and development activities and is eligible to royalties on iVAC's commercial sales by Huadong Medicine in their commercial region. ARNHEM, Netherlands and HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PulseCath B.V., a leader in the expanding field of percutaneous ventricular assist devices for high-risk PCI, and Huadong Medicine Co., Ltd., today announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive collaboration to develop and commercialize the iVAC technology in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (Greater China) and selected other Asian Pacific countries. The collaboration agreement between PulseCath and Huadong provides Huadong Medicine with a license to distribute iVAC technology in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (Greater China) and selected other Asian Pacific countries as well as for local manufacturing and development. PulseCath will retain all rights in the rest of the world. "With extensive regional experience, the right development and regulatory capabilities, and access to a deep local network of hospitals and clinics across Greater China, Huadong Medicine is an ideal partner for us," said Oren Malchin, PulseCath's Vice President for Marketing and Sales. "This collaboration reflects iVAC pulsatile technology's potential to deliver meaningful value to high-risk PCI patients as well as our ability to translate our work in cardiac assist devices into long-term relationships that create sustainable value for PulseCath and our partners. We look forward to working closely with Huadong Medicine to develop and commercialize the iVAC technology in Greater China as we continue to advance the iVAC product family, develop new products, conduct further clinical studies and support our application for FDA approval, which we expect for 2022 in the United States. Under the terms of the agreement, PulseCath will receive a significant investment in the company's share capital and is eligible to receive a further investment as a result of potential development and regulatory milestones. In addition, PulseCath will receive a payment for regulatory activities and production in China dedicated to Greater China and selected other Asian Pacific countries. PulseCath is also eligible to royalties on iVAC's commercial sales by Huadong Medicine in their commercial region. Huadong Medicine will be responsible for the development as well as regulatory submissions and commercialization of iVAC in Greater China and selected other Asian Pacific countries. Huadong Medicine will also have the opportunity to participate in global clinical studies of PulseCath conducted by PulseCath. PulseCath will continue to be responsible for the development and commercialization of iVAC in Europe, the United States, and other geographies. ABOUT HUADONG MEDICINE Huadong Medicine Co., Ltd. (SZ.000963) is a leading Chinese medical company based in Hangzhou, China. Founded in 1993, Huadong Medicine has fully integrated R&D, manufacturing, distribution, sales and marketing capabilities. The Company's annual revenue in 2020 exceeded 5 billion USD. Huadong Medicine has approximately 12,000 employees among which more than 1,200 are dedicated to R&D. Huadong Medicine possesses one of the most extensive commercial coverage and marketing capabilities in China. 'Patient Centered, Science Driven' is Huadong's value. For additional information, please visit: www.eastchinapharm.com/en ABOUT PULSECATH AND IVAC PulseCath B.V., founded in 2007, is an innovative company of advanced medical products. The company focuses on the development of advanced treatment products in the field of Cardiology. The iVAC 2L mechanical circulatory device developed by the company is suitable for the acute coronary syndrome, cardiac and non-cardiac surgery, or heart failure complications. For additional information, please visit: www.pulsecath.com Industry leader John Schaub joins the team to focus on creating the Lynx single payment platform infrastructure Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2021) - Lynx Global Digital Finance Corporation (CSE: LYNX) (OTC Pink: CNONF) (FSE: 3CT0) ("Lynx" or the "Company") announced the appointment of John Schaub as its Chief Product Officer. Having an expertise in building financial services solutions while having held senior roles in core banking, payments fraud prevention, insurance, compliance, and analytics, John will be instrumental in building out the Company's single payment platform infrastructure. "As we complement our acquisition strategy with progress towards building our single payment platform, we are delighted to have John Schaub on board to focus on successful implementation and execution. We are confident that with his in-depth knowledge and industry experience, he will expertly steer and lead the Company, thereby contributing significantly towards the development of our platform." - Michael Penner, Chief Executive Officer, Lynx Global Finance John brings with him a wealth of experience backed by his significant experience in the Canadian Credit Union system. Also, during his professional journey, he has led various significant projects including the creation of the largest fraud management services bureau delivery in Canada in partnership with Everlink Payment Services Inc. Most recently Mr. Schaub served as CEO of CUPP Insurance (a Central 1 subsidiary). "I look forward to the opportunity to build solutions that extend digital banking to new underserved markets. Massive potential markets remain untapped, and working with existing and new partners to deliver seamless integration of our payment infrastructure to the new digital economy is an incredible opportunity." - John Schaub, Chief Product Officer, Lynx Global Finance Furthermore, the Company is pleased to announce that it has completed the final tranche of a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering"). In connection with the closing of the Offering, the Company issued an aggregate of 3,923,200 units (the "Units") at a price of CDN$0.25 per Unit for gross proceeds of CDN$980,800.00. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Share") and one whole transferable common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Share at an exercise price of CDN$0.50 per Share until September 17, 2023. Lynx intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for development of the Company's business and general working capital. The securities issued under the Offering, and any Shares that may be issuable on exercise of any such securities, will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring January 18, 2022. ABOUT LYNX DIGITAL GLOBAL FINANCE: Lynx seeks to become a leader in financial technology, solutions, and services for large-scale merchants, financial institutions and other B2B industry partners by way of integration to the Lynx digital payment platform. The Company's payment solutions are powered by a broad suite of payment technologies and services. The Company has targeted banking and fintech relationships in ASEAN and Oceania, a region with a population approaching 700 million, that can provide Lynx a financial network hub location to service and operate a global traditional and digital financial infrastructure. By working with selected banking and/or licensed EMI partners, the Company will be able to offer a digital payment platform with a full suite of payment solutions, which may include merchant acquiring solutions; card issuing; remittance and forex; and custodial digital asset services, including digital wallet services. The Company seeks organic growth while investigating potential strategic acquisitions that may contribute critical technology applications, additional services and revenue streams, and that can complement or enhance existing offerings and potentially increase or expedite the path to future profitability. Investor contact: 888-273-1332 ir@lynxglobal.io www.lynxglobal.io NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation, including the goals and objectives of Lynx. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "will be", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events, or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's estimates and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of Lynx to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including capital expenditures, other costs, or implied future forecasts. The Company further again cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. Lynx will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96837 Belview floorcare, one of the top-rated carpet cleaners in Rochester, NY, has announced a couple of new services in addition to the completion of their rebranding efforts. ROCHESTER, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2021 / Belview Floorcare of Rochester , NY is one of the city's most popular floorcare businesses. However, last year the company decided to go into partial hibernation to rebrand. The company just announced that its rebranding efforts are now complete, and with it, there are a couple of new services too. One of the newer services is a string of carpet cleaning packages manned by a team of professional carpet cleaners who can clean just about any carpet. Belview Floorcare's rebranded image includes an entirely new website with a logo. The company has also produced new wrap for vehicles, which is why the company's vehicles now look a little different. However, the new branding is a lot more recognizable. Belview Floorcare as a top rated carpet cleaners In Rochester NY has been in the industry for decades. The owner has a history of training carpet cleaning and epoxy companies from across the US at his restoration and cleaning store. That's why he is one of the most renowned experts in the industry and continues to consult with other experts when addressing common problems. That's why people who hire the company's carpet cleaning services should be more than satisfied with it. Readers can check out the newly rebranded website and the new services announced by Belview Floorcare by visiting the company's official website at https://belviewfloorcare.com/ "Our service is better simply because we care. Not only about our reputation, but we are passionate about providing a great service to all clients we get the privilege to serve. We enjoy making a positive impact in people's lives by providing them with a cleaner home or business. Our customer service is top-notch, and we stand behind our service. If for some reason a client is unhappy, we happily return to correct the issue as quickly as possible." Said one of the representatives for the company. He added, "Any job worth doing is worth doing well. That's why we've taken the time to ensure that our newly rebranded website reflects the quality of service we provide and our commitment to delivering results." About Belview Floor Care It is a locally owned and operated carpet cleaning company specializing in providing furniture and upholstery cleaning services. In addition, the company also cleans grout, epoxy floor installations, etc. The company serves residential and commercial clients across Rochester, NY, and Monroe County. Furthermore, they have racked up dozens of five-star reviews across a multitude of websites. At present, the company offers guaranteed excellent quality cleaning via its three carpet cleaning packages. # For The Media & Inquiries: Belview Floorcare David Belliveau 19 Bobbie Dr. Rochester, NY 14606 (585) 340-7692 service@belviewfloorcare.com https://belviewfloorcare.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vk8Zf-BTqQ https://www.google.com/maps?cid=288568308013220761 SOURCE: Belview Floorcare View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664467/Belview-Floorcare-Of-Rochester-NY-Announces-A-String-Of-New-Services-After-Rebranding MoneyTV with Donald Baillargeon television program, Copyright MMXXI, all rights reserved. MoneyTV does not provide an analysis of companies' financial positions and is not soliciting to purchase or sell securities of the companies, nor are we offering a recommendation of featured companies or their stocks. Information discussed herein has been provided by the companies and should be verified independently with the companies and a securities analyst. MoneyTV provides companies a 3 to 4 month corporate profile with multiple appearances for a cash fee of $6,950.00 to $11,995.00, does not accept company stock as payment for services, does not hold any positions, options or warrants in featured companies. The information herein is not an endorsement by Donald Baillargeon, the producer, publisher or parent company of MoneyTV. 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. KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global trading brokerage Samtrade FX has inked a 3-year "VCF Back of Shirt" sponsorship deal with Valencia Club de Futbol ("Valencia CF"). This agreement with Valencia CF delivers a strong statement of Samtrade FX's desire and strategic intent to expand into the wider European market. As the VCF Back of Shirt Partner of Valencia CF, Samtrade FX will have its logo, branding, and corporate colours displayed on both the playing and training kit, as well as on the advertising of the Mestalla Stadium - on the giant screen, giant canvas, official bus, the training ground in Paterna, in the Club's institutional events and all its digital assets: website, app and official Valencia CF social networks. Samtrade FX founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Goh, commented on the partnership, "This partnership is an exciting opportunity to bring together two brands who enjoy global recognition for their commitment to excellence. We see tremendous similarities between Samtrade FX's lightning-fast and reliable platform and Valencia CF's swift and accurate play on the pitch." Commenting on the sponsorship, President of Valencia CF - Anil Murthy said: "VCF is very happy to be the first La Liga club to sign a sponsorship agreement with Samtrade FX, an award-winning online trading brokerage. This new agreement is in line with our aim to grow VCF's brand and fan base internationally especially in a market as important as Asia". Samtrade FX's goal of "Making your priority ours" is borne by a team of advisors and customer service staff that are committed towards supporting clients throughout their trading journey. This enduring commitment to the community is yet another shared value between Valencia CF and Samtrade FX. ABOUT SAMTRADE FX Samtrade FX is an online trading brokerage that provides forex trading and other related services, with more than 200,000 clients. It was founded with the objective of providing traders with safe, easy, and low-cost access to foreign exchange markets. Samtrade FX's founders and partners are all traders themselves and have extensive trading experience in forex and contract for differences trading. Its Advisory Board includes knowledgeable and experienced professionals who are able to provide clients with unrivalled professional advice. Samtrade FX is incorporated in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines under registered number 25290 IBC 2019 by the Registrar of International Business Companies. Samtrade FX is also a member of The Financial Commission. Samtrade FX is registered and regulated by FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada) under Money Services Business (MSB) with registration number: M19977589. Its affiliate, S.A.M. Trade (Asia) Pte Ltd is publicly traded on the OTC Markets in the United States of America with the symbol (OTCMKTS: SMFX). Media Contact Heidi Chan Marketing@samtradefx.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1627408/Samtrade_FX___ValenciaCF_Sponsorship_image.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1551562/Samtrade_FX_Logo.jpg Ashtead Group PLC AGM Statement 17thSeptember 2021 ASHTEAD GROUP PLC (the "Company") AGM Statement & Results AGM Statement & Results At the Annual General Meeting of the Company "Ashtead Group plc" held on 16thSeptember 2021 at 2:30pm, all resolutions put to shareholders were duly passed on a poll with the required majorities. The full text of each resolution is contained in the Notice of Annual General Meeting. Resolutions 1 to 16 were passed as ordinary resolutions. Resolutions 17 - 21 were passed as special resolutions. ORDINARY RESOLUTIONS Votes for (including discretionary votes) % Votes for * Votes against % Votes against * Total no. of votes validly cast Total % of voting capital voted (including withheld) ** Votes withheld 1. That the accounts for the year ended 30 April 2021, the directors' report and the auditors' report be adopted. 336,487,579 99.98 58,770 0.02 338,546,349 75.25 2,037,076 2. That the directors' remuneration report for the year ended 30 April 2021 be approved. 214,865,136 63.97 121,031,689 36.03 335,896,825 75.10 2,686,595 3. That the directors' remuneration policy set out in the annual report of the Company for the year ended 30 April 2021 be approved. 184,430,438 60.72 119,284,600 39.28 303,715,038 67.91 34,868,385 4. That the final dividend recommended by the directors of 35p per ordinary share for the year ended 30 April 2021 be declared payable on 21 September 2021 to holders of ordinary shares registered at the close of business on 20 August 2021. 338,551,782 99.99 28,181 0.01 338,579,963 75.70 3,461 5. That Paul Walker be re-elected as a director. 328,266,803 97.09 9,823,099 2.91 338,089,902 75.59 493,523 6. That Brendan Horgan be re-elected as a director. 335,073,154 98.97 3,483,164 1.03 338,556,318 75.70 27,107 7. That Michael Pratt be re-elected as a director. 337,899,182 99.81 656,536 0.19 338,555,718 75.70 27,707 8. That Angus Cockburn re-elected as a director. 329,480,982 97.32 9,075,006 2.68 338,555,988 75.70 27,437 9. That Lucinda Riches be re-elected as a director. 296,991,992 97.41 7,884,918 2.59 304,876,910 68.17% 33,706,515 10. That Tanya Fratto be re-elected as a director. 330,128,591 97.51 8,424,397 2.49 338,552,988 75.69% 30,437 11. That Lindsley Ruth be re-elected as a director. 331,811,670 97.91 7,083,670 2.09 338,895,340 75.77 30,437 12. That Jill Easterbrook re-elected as a director. 333,512,655 98.41 5,382,685 1.59 338,895,340 75.77 30,437 13. That Deloitte LLP be re-appointed as auditor of the Company. 331,318,649 97.76 7,588,785 2.24 338,907,434 75.77 18,352 14. That the directors be authorised to fix the remuneration of the auditor of the Company. 336,076,809 99.16 2,839,462 0.84 338,916,271 75.78 9,515 15. Approval of Long-Term Incentive Plan 251,802,181 74.44 86,440,905 25.56 338,243,086 75.63 682,699 16. That the directors are authorised to allot the shares under section 551 (1) (a) and (b) of the Companies Act 2006. 321,584,625 94.89 17,331,859 5.11 338,916,484 75.78 9,301 SPECIAL RESOLUTIONS Votes for (including discretionary votes) % Votes for * Votes against % Votes against * Total no. of votes validly cast Total % of voting capital voted (including withheld) ** Votes withheld 17. That the directors be empowered to disapply the provisions of section 561 (1) to (6) of the Companies Act 2006. 336,839,971 99.70 1,023,733 0.30 337,863,704 75.54 1,062,083 18. That the directors be empowered to issue shares on a non pre-emptive basis. 330,229,671 97.74 7,638,118 2.26 337,867,789 75.54 1,057,998 19. That the directors be authorised to make market purchases of the Company's shares under section 701 of the Companies Act. 330,078,164 97.78 7,500,959 2.22 337,579,123 75.48 1,346,664 20. That a general meeting other than an annual general meeting may be called on not less than 14 clear days' notice. 324,108,847 95.63 14,799,626 4.37 338,908,473 75.77 17,314 21. Amendments to articles of association 338,734,201 100.00 6,037 0.00 338,740,238 75.74 185,549 * A vote withheld is not a vote in law and is not counted in the calculation of the proportion of votes "for" and "against" a resolution. ** Percentage of issued share capital (excluding 4,093,307 treasury shares) The Ashtead Board is pleased to note that all resolutions were passed with the requisite majority of votes and welcomes the overwhelming support of the Company's shareholders for the majority of the resolutions proposed. During 2020/21, we consulted extensively with our largest shareholders, proxy advisors and shareholder representative organisations on the proposed Directors' Remuneration Report (Resolution 2), the proposed Directors' Remuneration Policy (Resolution 3) and the new Long-Term Incentive Plan (Resolution 15). The Board notes that a majority of shareholders voted in support of the three resolutions. Accordingly, the new Remuneration Policy will take effect for three years from fiscal year 2022 and will be implemented by the Remuneration Committee. The Board acknowledges that some shareholders did not vote in favour of these three resolutions. In making its Executive Director pay decisions and devising the new Directors' Remuneration Policy, the Board was acutely aware of the sensitivities around executive remuneration in the prevailing environment and balanced these concerns with the need to retain and incentivise a strong management team to deliver on our ambitious growth strategy. Importantly, the new policy is aligned with the wider workforce, who have the opportunity to share, in a meaningful and aligned manner, in the value created for shareholders over the next few years. Consequently, the Board firmly believes that the changes approved by shareholders are in the best interests of all of the Group's stakeholders. We value an open and transparent dialogue with our shareholders and we will continue to engage with them to ensure all views are understood and respected and taken into consideration in applying the new Directors' Remuneration Policy going forwards. In accordance with the UK Corporate Governance Code we will publish an update on this engagement within six months of the AGM. Contact: Will Shaw - Investment Manager, 020 7726 9700 Maitland - James McFarlane - 0207 379 5151 BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks rallied on Friday, aided by growth optimism and a rebound in Chinese markets, thanks to liquidity infusion by People's Bank of China. China injected 90 billion yuan ($14 billion) of funds on a net basis via seven-day and 14-day reverse repurchase agreements today, the most since February in a sign the authorities are seeking to soothe market nerves frayed by concern over China Evergrande Group's debt crisis. The benchmark CAC 40 climbed 60 points, or 0.9 percent, to 6,682 after rising 0.6 percent on Thursday. Franco-Dutch airline holding company Air France KLM rose about 1 percent amid expectations that England's COVID-19 rules for international travel will be relaxed later today. Carmaker Renault was down 0.6 percent as group management and representative trade unions launched negotiations with a view to concluding a nationwide multi-year labor agreement for the period 2022-2024. Luxury stocks rebounded, with LVMH rising 1.8 percent, Kering adding 2.8 percent and L'Oreal gaining 1.5 percent. Beverage company Pernod Ricard jumped nearly 3 percent. 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. 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. Casino Group and Meridiam, with their respective subsidiaries GreenYellow and Allego, have announced the commissioning of the first terminals in a major network of fast and ultra-fast charging stations for electric vehicles in France Allego Holding B.V. ("Allego" or the "Company"), a leading pan-European electric vehicle charging network, and GreenYellow, an expert in decentralized solar photovoltaic production, energy efficiency projects and energy services, today announced the commissioning of the first terminals in a major network of fast (DC) and ultra-fast charging stations (HPC) for electric vehicles across France. Allego is a subsidiary of Meridiam, a global investor and asset manager specialized in developing, financing and managing long-term public infrastructure projects, and recently announced a business combination with Spartan Acquisition Corp. III (NYSE:SPAQ). GreenYellow is a subsidiary of Casino Group (OTCMKTS:CGUSY), a leader in the global food retail market. This partnership provides consumers access to infrastructure that will help meet the growing demand for electric mobility. The project will install over 250 charging stations in France, across 36 Casino Group hypermarket sites located on high-density roads, motorways, and in active shopping areas. Currently, 36 charging stations including 16 ultra-fast charging and ten fast charging are already installed and operating at five sites in France (Geant hypermarkets in Toulouse Fenouillet, Saint-Etienne Monthieu, Saint-Louis, Montpellier, Aix en Provence). By the end of 2021, 74 additional charging stations, currently under construction at nine sites, are expected to become operational, including 26 ultra-fast charging stations and 20 fast charging stations. The remaining 140 charging stations are expected to be installed in 2022. Allego is responsible for the installation, operation, marketing and maintenance of the sites. GreenYellow is providing the 100% green electricity for the charging stations and Casino is providing the spaces as part of its asset monetization strategy. The charging stations are expected to be open 24/7 and will provide a variety of charging speeds with different equipment to cater to each customer's needs, including accelerated charging, fast charging, and ultra-fast charging. The new-generation ultra-fast charging stations should enable an electric vehicle to travel 300km on a single charge of as little as 5 to 10 minutes. Strong commitment from partners to promote electric mobility This network is part of GreenYellow's plan to install 1,500 charging stations by the end of 2022, as part of its "100,000 charging stations" pledge last October. These charging stations will equip Casino Group's stores, within the framework of the current partnership, as well as the sites of other retailers, companies, and local authorities, as part of the creation of a large network across France to facilitate electric vehicle charging access to the greatest number of customers. In 2020, GreenYellow installed 130 charging stations for its customers and is expected to roll out more than 100 in 2021. This partnership is part of the overall goal of Meridiam and its subsidiary Allego to install over 2,000 charging stations across France by 2023. This reinforces their position as a European leader in the rollout of charging hubs, with over 25,000 charging stations in operation to date. "I am very proud to announce today the installation of the first charging stations in what will become a network of 1,500 electric charging stations for vehicles by the end of next year. This project, which positions the Group as among the largest network of high-power charging stations in France, is a perfect illustration of Casino Group's commitment to supporting the development of electric vehicles and helping France move towards a more climate-friendly world," says Jean-Charles Naouri, Chairman and CEO of Casino Group. "I am delighted with the operational implementation of this partnership, which aligns with our strategy of investment and large-scale rollout of charging stations for electric vehicles across Europe, and particularly in France. By 2023, we expect to have more than 2,000 charging stations available to all French citizens in every region and departement in the country," saysThierry Deau, CEO and Founder of Meridiam. "Electric mobility has an important place in the unique, decentralised platform model that we are rolling out to serve our customers in their energy transition, with over a hundred charging stations deployed in businesses and commercial areas already and the goal of more than 1,500 charging stations expected to be deployed by the end of 2022. GreenYellow has a major role to play in the acceleration of electric mobility in France, to bring energy closer to the consumer," says Otmane Hajji, President of GreenYellow. "Thanks to these innovative, multi-modal stations designed to offer different charging powers ranging from 22kW to 300kW, Allego is able to meet the current and future needs of the market for a long-term charging solution. Allego's recognised expertise in the operation of charging networks, particularly high-powered ones, throughout Europe will enable us to provide Casino hypermarket customers high quality service for charging their electric vehicles," says Mathieu Bonnet, CEO of Allego. About Casino Group Casino Group is a key, reputable player in the French retail market and a leader in the global food retail market, with nearly 11,000 stores worldwide (France and Latin America). The Group has built a strong, dynamic and complementary portfolio with a workforce of over 200,000 driven by their passion for retail and customer service and which generated a net turnover of 31.9 billion in 2020. In all the countries where it operates, Casino Group is focusing its development on the formats with the highest potential and its ability to adapt in order to meet customers' needs, both today and tomorrow. For more information, go to www.groupe-casino.fr About Meridiam Meridiam was founded in 2005 by Thierry Deau, based on the belief that aligning public and private sector interests can provide solutions to essential community needs. Meridiam is a mission-driven company, as defined by French law, specialising in the development, financing and long-term management of sustainable public infrastructure in three sectors: mobility of goods and people, energy transition and environment, and social infrastructure. Meridiam currently manages $10 billion in assets and has over 90 projects under management to date. Meridiam is ISO 9001:2015 certified, has an Advanced Sustainability rating from VigeoEiris (Moody's) and has developed its own ESG (environmental, social and governance criteria) and impact methodology based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). www.meridiam.com Meridiam MeridiamMeridiam About GreenYellow Over a period of 14 years, GreenYellow has become a major player in the energy transition in France and abroad and a true ally of companies and communities in this field. As an expert in decentralised solar photovoltaic production, energy efficiency projects and energy services, GreenYellow offers its customers a unique, global platform in order to make their energy transition a positive, committed reality. By the end of March 2021, GreenYellow developed 355 MWp of photovoltaic capacity, of which 184 MWp is equity owned, and nearly 2,600 energy performance contracts for a volume of 855 GWh per year, of which 511 GWh is equity owned, and was managing over 2.9 TWh of energy for its customers. Through innovation, GreenYellow is constantly expanding its offering in order to meet the needs of private and public players and support them in reducing their ecological footprint. Operating in 16 countries spread over 4 continents, the company has over 500 employees across the globe. About Allego Founded in 2013 in the Netherlands, Allego is a European leader in charging solutions for electric vehicles, thanks in particular to its network of over 25,000 charging stations operating in urban areas and along major mobility routes. Allego's mission is simple: to provide a charging solution everywhere, for everyone, at any time: at home, on public roads, at the destination and while travelling. With its turnkey and scalable solutions, Allego supports companies and local authorities with its large-scale rollout of electric mobility. Allego has unique expertise in the field of electric mobility and aims to establish the largest high-power fast charging network in Europe. Established in over a dozen European countries, Allego is active in France and is owned by Meridiam. www.allego.eu/fr-fr @Allegocharging @Allego_FR FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release ("Press Release") are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may generally be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan,", "project," "forecast," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook," "target" or other similar expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions) that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of other financial and performance metrics and projections of market opportunity and market share. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this Press Release, and on the current expectations of Allego's management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and may differ from assumptions, and such differences may be material. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Allego. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including (i) changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; (ii) risks related to the rollout of Allego's business strategy and the timing of expected business milestones; (iii) the effects of competition on Allego 's future business and its ability to grow and manage growth profitably, maintain relationships with customers and suppliers and retain its management and key employees; (iii) risks related to political and macroeconomic uncertainty; and (iv) the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on any of the foregoing risks. If any of these risks materialize or Allego's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Allego does not presently know or that Allego currently believes are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Allego's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this Press Release. Allego anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Allego's assessments to change. However, while Allego may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Allego specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, unless required by applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Allego's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this Press Release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005121/en/ Contacts: PRESS For GreenYellow Julie Dorel, Marketing and Communication Director jdorel@greenyellow.fr communication@greenyellow.fr +33 (0)1 53 65 26 86/+33 (0)6 37 52 30 18 Juliette Prost, Press Relations (PLEAD) juliette.prost@plead.fr +33 (0)6 72 47 53 28 Margaux Wacheux, Press Relations (PLEAD) margaux.wacheux@plead.fr +33 (0)6 75 62 26 41 For Casino Group Stephanie Abadie sabadie@groupe-casino.fr directiondelacommunication@groupe-casino.fr +33 (0)6 26 27 37 05/+33 (0)1 53 65 24 78 For Meridiam Antoine Lenoir a.lenoir@meridiam.com +33 (0)6 07 50 75 85 For Allego Amelie Lefebvre amelie.lefebvre@allego.eu GENEVA and PARIS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WeToo, the world's first global organisation to eradicate child abuse, launches today. It will bring together leading businesses and individuals to raise funds and awareness to help tackle the growing abuse of children worldwide. UNICEF and the World Health Organisation estimate that every year 55 million children in Europe - and about a billion worldwide - are the victims of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse or neglect. That is more children than the population of Europe being abused globally. While both governments and NGOs such as UNICEF have done much to tackle child abuse, the problem is still growing, made worse by the COVID pandemic. WeToo aims to bring the private sector's dynamism and resources into the work of ending child abuse. It will do so in three ways: Raise money: the fight against child abuse is under-funded. Individuals and leading businesses can help correct that. Distribute effectively: it is not enough just to raise money; we also need to get it to those who can use it most effectively and quickly. The WeToo expert committee will choose projects to fund worldwide according to impact and quality. All donations will be distributed, monitored and publicly reviewed every 6 months with interim reviews to ensure milestones are achieved on time by use of the latest blockchain technology from Concordium. Campaign for action: we, too, can do our best raise awareness of not just the problem, but also the solution. The further up the public agenda child abuse goes, the more likely that society, including governments, is to act. The movement's first event takes place on October 16, 2021, with a global DJ'ed yoga event hosted by Stewart Gilchrist and Friends, with sessions being held in the Himalayas, London, Paris, Bali, Copenhagen, Shanghai and New York. "Children's voices need to be prioritized and heard, not silenced. It is timely and appropriate that adults unite and commit to stopping child abuse, and I am so delighted that leading figures in the private sector have offered to help us solve this pressing and urgent global child abuse crisis. This is just what is needed to improve the outlook for our children," said Hanna Dam-Stokholm, WeToo's founder. WeToo has already agreed to work alongside one of the world's leading professional service providers Ernst & Young, Live Nation, the world's leading live music promoter, and Concordium, the leading blockchain company. The organisation's campaign plan has been drawn up by the WeToo Expert Committee, comprising some of the world's best child protection experts, such as Dr Pierre Levy-Soussan, an expert at the French Tribunals and international child protection expert, and Dr Rasmus Kjeldahl, Director of the Danish children's NGO "Brns Vilkar." WeToo already has in place an exciting agenda of forthcoming events, campaigns, alliances and concerts, more details of which will be released at a later date. About Hanna Dam-Stokholm Senior expertise from the logistics sector and in launching and building luxury brands globally (A.P.Moller-Maersk, Estee Lauder, KAO...). Activist, determined to stop ignorance of child abuse and conjugal violence. WeToo contact: Maribel Conti Press Officer maribelc@wetoo.info +44 (0)7557 491860 6 Rue de la Rotisserie, 1204 Geneve, Switzerland 15 Rue Danielle Casanova, 75001 Paris, France If approved by the European Commission, 6-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP6M) will be the first long-acting injectable schizophrenia treatment with a twice-yearly dosing regimen The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) Opinion is based on results from the Route 6 Study, which showed that 92.5 percent of patients treated with PP6M were relapse-free at the end of the 12-month double-blind phase1 The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued a Positive Opinion recommending the long-acting atypical antipsychotic therapy BYANNLI (6-monthly paliperidone palmitate; PP6M) for the maintenance treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients who are clinically stable on 1-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP1M)2 or 3-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP3M).3 If approved by the European Commission, PP6M will provide the first twice-yearly treatment for adults living with schizophrenia and longest available dosing interval for an antipsychotic medication in the European Economic Area.1,4 "With only two injections per year, 6-monthly paliperidone palmitate has the potential to reduce the burden of taking medication frequently, giving eligible patients the opportunity to focus on other aspects of their life," said Ludovic de Beaucoudrey, Ph.D., EMEA Therapeutic Area Lead, Janssen-Cilag. "Today's Positive Opinion from the CHMP underscores Janssen's 60-year commitment to transforming the lives of people living with schizophrenia through rigorous scientific research and product development." The marketing authorisation application is based on the Route 6 Study, a randomised, double-blind, non-inferiority Phase 3 global study designed to demonstrate that PP6M is not less effective than PP3M for the prevention of relapse in participants previously stabilised on a shorter-acting formulation of paliperidone palmitate.1,5,6 The study enrolled 702 adultsliving with schizophrenia from 20 countries, including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey.1,5 The results showed non-inferiority of PP6M compared with PP3M on the primary endpoint of time to first relapse at the end of the 12-month period. Results found that 92.5 percent of patients treated with PP6M and 95.1 percent treated with PP3M were relapse-free at 12 months.1 Relapse was defined as psychiatric hospitalisation, increase in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score, increase in individual PANSS item scores, violent behaviour resulting in self-injury or suicidal/homicidal ideation. "When it comes to the treatment of schizophrenia, unmet needs remain, including treatment adherence concerns, despite currently available therapies," said Bill Martin, Ph.D., Global Therapeutic Area Head, Neuroscience, Janssen Research Development, LLC. "The Positive Opinion received from the CHMP today, enables us to rethink how we manage this chronic disease and brings us one step closer to offering patients and caregivers the potential for a life less defined by medication." The safety profile observed for PP6M was consistent with previous studies of PP1M and PP3M with no new safety signals emerging.1 The most common treatment emergent adverse reactions (=5.0 percent) in the study's PP6M group were weight increase (8.4 percent), injection site pain (7.7 percent), headache (6.7 percent) and upper respiratory tract infection (5.0 percent). There were no unexpected serious adverse reactions.1 "Non-adherence to prescribed drug treatments has been recognised as a challenge for treatment continuity that can potentially have a negative impact on treatment outcomes," said Professor Silvana Galderisi, Route 6 Study Investigator and Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Emergency Unit of the Department of Mental Health at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy. "It is therefore essential to provide a variety of treatment options to meet different patient needs. If approved by the European Commission, PP6M's extended dosing interval may help address a key unmet need within this population." Following this Positive CHMP Opinion, the European Commission will now consider approval of a marketing authorisation for PP6M as a long-acting injectable maintenance treatment for adults with schizophrenia who are clinically stable on 1-monthly or 3-monthly paliperidone palmitate injectable products. The European Commission has the authority to grant marketing authorisation for medicines in the European Economic Area. ENDS# About the Route 6 Study (PSY3015) The Route 6 Study was a randomised, double-blind, non-inferiority global Phase 3 study of 702 adults (ages 18-70) with schizophrenia, designed to demonstrate that injection cycles consisting of a single administration of PP6M (700 or 1000 mg) are not less effective than two sequentially administered injections of PP3M (350 or 525 mg) for the prevention of relapse in subjects with schizophrenia previously stabilised on corresponding doses of PP1M (100 or 150 mg) or PP3M (350 or 525 mg).1 The study consisted of four treatment phases: a screening phase (up to 28 days); a transition phase (of 1 to 4 months), applicable to those adult patients who entered the screening phase before being stabilised on PP1M or PP3M; a maintenance phase (of 1 or 3 months), used to stabilise patients on PP1M or PP3M prior to the double-blind phase; and a double-blind phase (of 12 months). In the double-blind phase all stabilised adult patients (N=702) were randomised in a 2:1 ratio to receive PP6M (n=478) or PP3M (n=224).1 Study evaluations included efficacy, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety. The study's duration varied from approximately 13 months to 19 months depending on treatment arm.1 About Long-Acting Injectables Long-acting injectables (LAIs) allow for the slow release of a drug into the blood and have been on the market for more than 50 years.7 LAI antipsychotics have been demonstrated to offer a number of advantages compared with oral medication, including not having to remember to take drugs daily, improved patient outcomes, improved patient and physician satisfaction, and lower relapse rates.8 In 2002, a 1-monthly injectable formulation (PP1M) was approved by the European Commission as a maintenance treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients under the brand name XEPLION.2 In 2016, a 3-monthly LAI formulation (PP3M) was approved under the trade name TREVICTA.3 About Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe brain disorder affecting approximately 20 million people worldwide9 and an estimated 3.7 million people in the EU.10 The disease is characterised by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of self and behaviour leading to neurological impairment, severe disability and increased mortality.8 Antipsychotic medication is recognised as an essential component in the treatment of schizophrenia, and adherence to medication plays a critical role in preventing symptoms and relapses.11 Early intervention in schizophrenia may improve patient outcomes as more than 69 percent of people with schizophrenia do not receive appropriate care.9 About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson At Janssen, we're creating a future where disease is a thing of the past. We're the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson, working tirelessly to make that future a reality for patients everywhere by fighting sickness with science, improving access with ingenuity, and healing hopelessness with heart. We focus on areas of medicine where we can make the biggest difference: Cardiovascular Metabolism, Immunology, Infectious Diseases Vaccines, Neuroscience, Oncology, and Pulmonary Hypertension. Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., Janssen Research Development, LLC. and Janssen-Cilag are part of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson Johnson. Learn more at www.janssen.com/emea. Follow us at https://twitter.com/JanssenEMEA. Cautions Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding 6-monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP6M). The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., Janssen Research Development, LLC., Janssen-Cilag and any of the other Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies and/or Johnson Johnson. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: challenges and uncertainties inherent in product research and development, including the uncertainty of clinical success and of obtaining regulatory approvals; uncertainty of commercial success; manufacturing difficulties and delays; competition, including technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges to patents; product efficacy or safety concerns resulting in product recalls or regulatory action; changes in behaviour and spending patterns of purchasers of health care products and services; changes to applicable laws and regulations, including global health care reforms; and trends toward health care cost containment. A further list and descriptions of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in Johnson Johnson's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2021, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and in the company's most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and the company's subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings are available online at www.sec.gov, www.jnj.com or on request from Johnson Johnson. None of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies nor Johnson Johnson undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments. *Professor Silvana Galderisi has been a paid consultant for Janssen. She has not been compensated for any media work. References Data on file. PP6M. Protocol R092670PSY3015: Phase 3 objectives, methods, primary efficacy results, adverse events. September 2021. Document number: RF-185391. European Medicines Agency. Xeplion Summary of Product Characteristics. Available at https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/xeplion-epar-product-information_en.pdf. Accessed September 2021. European Medicines Agency. Trevicta Summary of Product Characteristics. Available at: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/trevicta-epar-product-information_en.pdf. Accessed September 2021. Johnson Johnson Ltd. Press release on November 2020. Available at: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/janssen-submits-paliperidone-palmitate-6-month-pp6m-supplemental-new-drug-application-to-us-fda-for-treatment-of-schizophrenia-in-adults-301164580.html. Accessed September 2021. Clinicaltrialsregister.eu. A Double-blind, Randomized, Active-controlled, Parallel-group Study of Paliperidone Palmitate 6 Month Formulation. Identifier: 2017-001941-28. Available at https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu/ctr-search/trial/2017-001941-28/ES. Accessed September 2021. Clinicaltrials.gov. A Study of Paliperidone Palmitate 6-Month Formulation. Identifier: NCT03345342. Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03345342. Accessed September 2021. National Alliance on Mental Illness. Long-Acting Injectables. Available at: https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Treatment/Mental-Health-Medications/Long-Acting-Injectables. Accessed September 2021. Brissos S, et al. The role of long-acting injectable antipsychotics in schizophrenia: a critical appraisal. Ther Adv Pyschopharmacol. 2014 Oct; 4(5):198-219. World Health Organization. Schizophrenia. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/schizophrenia. Accessed September 2021. Athanasopoulou C, et al. An analysis of online health information on schizophrenia or related conditions: a cross-sectional survey. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2013; 13:98. Higashi K, et al. Medication adherence in schizophrenia: factors influencing adherence and consequences of nonadherence, a systemic literature review. Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2013 Aug; 3(4):200-18. Weiden PJ, et al. Partial compliance and risk of rehospitalization among California Medicaid patients with schizophrenia. Psychiatr Serv. 2004 Aug; 55(8):886-91. CP-259507 September 2021 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005223/en/ Contacts: Media contact: Kevin Veninga Mobile: +31 6 1526 8214 Investor Relations contact: Jennifer McIntyre Office: +1 (732) 524-3922 BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - ReneSola Ltd (SOL), a solar project developer, said Friday that the European Solar Energy Development JV, a joint venture company of ReneSola Power and Eiffel Investment Group, has completed the acquisition of its first batch of solar projects with a combined capacity of 200MW in multiple European countries, including France, Poland, and Poland. Paris-based Eiffel Investment Group has provided the capital to fund the development of these solar projects. Founded in May, the European Solar Energy Development JV, aims to develop up to 700 MW of solar projects in the next three years across Europe. ReneSola Power has 51 percent ownership stake in the joint venture, while Eiffel has 49 percent. 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. OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO, RY) announced Nadine Ahn, Senior Vice-President, Head of Investor Relations and RBC Capital Markets Finance, will become Chief Financial Officer effective November 1, 2021. Ahn joined the company in 1999 and has held progressively senior Finance roles, including in Corporate Treasury and in RBC Capital Markets Finance. RBC also announced the appointment of Maria Douvas, Executive Vice-President and General Counsel, as Chief Legal Officer, effective immediately. Mike Dobbins, Group Head, RBC Ventures and Corporate Development, has decided to resign on November 1, 2021. Neil McLaughlin, Group Head, Personal & Commercial Banking, will assume responsibility for RBC Ventures. McLaughlin will also assume responsibility for RBC Bank. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX ROYAL BANK OF CANADA-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de Mondi plc Incorporated in England and Wales Registered number: 6209386 Tax registration number: 454 12394 14454 LEI: 213800LOZA69QFDC9N34 LSE share code: MNDI ISIN: GB00B1CRLC47 JSE share code: MNP 17 September 2021 Mondi Group - 2021 Interim Dividend euro/sterling Exchange Rate Mondi plc announced on 5 August 2021 that it will pay an interim dividend of 20.00 euro cents per ordinary share for the year ending 31 December 2021 on Thursday 30 September. The dividend will be paid in euro. However, ordinary shareholders resident in the United Kingdom will receive the dividend in sterling (unless shareholders have elected to receive their dividend in euro). The last date for euro currency elections was 13 September. As stated in the announcement on 5 August 2021, the exchange rate for this payment has been set today. Accordingly, it is confirmed that sterling dividend payments will be converted at a rate of EUR 1 to GBP 0.85371. Therefore, the equivalent interim dividend in pence per ordinary share will be 17.07420. Mondi plc South African branch register shareholders will receive the dividend in South African rand cents, converted at a rate of EUR 1 to ZAR 17.01988. Therefore, the equivalent gross interim dividend in rand cents per ordinary share will be 340.39760. Information relating to the dividend tax applicable to Mondi plc South African branch register shareholders can be found in the ZAR/euro exchange rate announcement released by Mondi on 5 August 2021. About Mondi Mondi is a global leader in packaging and paper, contributing to a better world by making innovative packaging and paper solutions that are sustainable by design. Our business is integrated across the value chain - from managing forests and producing pulp, paper and plastic films, to developing and manufacturing effective industrial and consumer packaging solutions. Sustainability is at the centre of our strategy and intrinsic in the way we do business. We lead the industry with our customer-centric approach, EcoSolutions, where we ask the right questions to find the most sustainable solution. In 2020, Mondi had revenues of 6.66 billion and underlying EBITDA of 1.35 billion. Mondi has a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange (MNDI), and a secondary listing on the JSE Limited (MNP). Mondi is a FTSE 100 constituent, and has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series since 2008 and the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index Series since 2007. Sponsor in South Africa: UBS South Africa Proprietary Limited. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2021) - Vinergy Capital Inc. (CSE: VIN) (OTCQB: VNNYF) (FSE: 1V70) ("Vinergy" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Christopher Cherry will be joining the Company's Board of Directors effective immediately. Management and Directors join Chairman of the Board, Alnoor Nathoo, in welcoming Mr. Cherry. Mr. Nathoo further commented, "We are pleased to be welcoming Christopher Cherry as the newest member of our Board of Directors at Vinergy. I am confident that Mr. Cherry will help the board unlock significant shareholder value while helping us craft the right long-term strategy for our business." The Company also announces that it has granted options to acquire a total of 250,000 common shares of the Company to Mr. Cherry at the exercise price of $0.09 per share for a period of three years, vesting immediately. About Christopher Cherry Mr. Cherry is a licensed CPA having obtained the chartered accountant designation in 2009, and the certified general accountant designation in 2004. He has over 20 years of corporate accounting and audit experience and has acted as director, chief financial officer and secretary for several public companies. In his former experience as an auditor, he held positions with KPMG and Davidson and Co. LLP in Vancouver, where he gained experience as an auditor for junior public companies. The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Vinergy Capital Inc. Alnoor Nathoo, Chairman Email: info@vinergycapitalinc.com Forward Looking Information and Additional Cautionary Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: fluctuations in the trading price of investee companies; economic changes impacting the investments generally or the blockchain industry and other targeted industry areas specifically; availability of capital for continued investment; rates of recovery for investments; prices at which the securities of an investee entity ultimately are sold; and operations of the third party investee entities. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. There can be no guarantee that the Company will be able to sell its investments for a profit or at all. BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Vonovia SE (DAIMF) said the company has successfully concluded talks on the sale of housing stock in Berlin to the municipal housing companies. In total, Vonovia SE and Deutsche Wohnen SE are selling 14,750 apartments as part of the 'Future and Social Housing Pact' for Berlin. Around 4,250 of these residential and commercial units come from Vonovia's portfolio at a price of approximately 811 million euros. Rolf Buch, CEO of Vonovia, stated: 'With this sale of housing stock in Berlin to the municipal housing companies, we are fulfilling a central promise to the Berlin Senate from the Future and Social Pact for Housing. We are selling the apartments at a fair price.' 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. CHANGSHA, China, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. ("Zoomlion"; 1157.HK) exported the ZCC32000 crawler crane to Turkey on September 16, setting a new record for the largest tonnage crane exported from China, fully demonstrating the growing brand influence and market competitiveness of Zoomlion's high-end products in international markets. The 2,000-ton ZCC32000 is an all-conditions product with maximum load moment of 32,000 ton-meters and maximum boom height reaching 168 meters, and has adopted the modular super-wide dual-boom design. It can adapt to a variety of complex hoisting conditions with improved lifting performance of 10-20 percent compared to products of the same class. The model can switch between single-engine or double-engine operation per the user's hoisting needs, selecting either low fuel consumption or strengthened power operation. The system is highly safe and secure, and can achieve efficient disassembly and assembly. "Zoomlion's crawler cranes have performed well in construction with high efficiency, excellent equipment safety, stability and reliability, proving the quality of Chinese manufacturing is reliable and trustworthy," said Zoomlion's Partner in Turkey. The product will be used in a nuclear power plant project before carrying out other wind power and petrochemical project hoisting tasks in Europe. The export of ZCC32000 is the third time Zoomlion has broken the record for largest tonnage crane exported from China. Previous records were set by the ZCC9800W and ZCC12500 crawler cranes exported to Turkey in September 2020 and June 2021, respectively. Breaking record three times within one year showcased the technology strengths, product quality and brand appeal of Zoomlion's cranes, hoisting the new flag of "high-end manufacturing in China" on the global stage. "The key reason behind the Zoomlion's continuous breakthroughs of crane export records is we have achieved persistent breakthroughs in core technology development, which has been recognized in the international market" said Luo Kai, vice president of Zoomlion and general manager of Zoomlion engineering crane branch. In H1 2021, Zoomlion's revenue overseas has increased by more than 52.28 percent, among which crane products grew strongly, with sales from January to August increasing by 60.8 percent year-on-year. Zoomlion's sales volume of truck cranes 30 tons and above, has ranked first in the industry, and it holds the highest market share of crawler cranes in China. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1628549/image1.jpg 100 percent open source with no ICO or investors, the decentralized platform lays the foundations for 'WebFree,' enabling infinitely scalable blockchain solutions TALLINN, Estonia, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Free TON , a community-driven blockchain underpinning a free internet, has officially released the Free TON Whitepaper . The paper lays the foundations for 'WebFree', highlighting the platform's end-to-end decentralized architecture that enables a truly open internet, centred around security, trust, data ownership, censorship resistance and privacy. Mitja Goroshevsky , Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at TON Labs , commented: "What our community is building is extraordinary. Free TON is scalable by design, with near instant finality made possible by a number of major consensus innovations which allows for seamless growth of the multithreaded blockchains. In fact, these breakthroughs make the processing of tens of millions of smart contract executions per second possible. We just reached a groundbreaking 45,000 transactions per second on the open Internet in a community-driven contest, running in dozens of datacenters around the world. We have demonstrated the only scalable blockchain architecture." Free TON is the only end-to-end decentralized framework that renegotiates the implicit tradeoff between privacy and convenience in modern internet applications. Driven by its distributed global community, Free TON is dedicated to empowering communities to explore, build and develop decentralized applications without compromising personal autonomy in favour of usability. With no ICO or investors, Free TON is open source to its core and 100 percent focused on creating value by providing developers with a set of free software tools to build groundbreaking decentralized applications that feel and perform like centralized ones. The network's native cryptocurrency, TON Crystal , is used not only as a store of value by the scarcity of its reserves, but also as a means to participate in all projects created directly as an outcome of the 'Meritocratic Token Distribution' (MTD) mechanism. Free TON has emerged as one of the largest social experiments in blockchain history - adopting automated governance protocols via means of its 'Soft Majority Voting ' (SMV) and 'Byzantine Fault Tolerance Governance' (BFTG) systems. The release of the whitepaper introduces the TON Operating System: A complete and vertically integrated technology stack built on top of a distributed virtual processor with a user-friendly interface. -Consensus Innovations: SMFT (Soft Majority Fault Tolerance) consensus, MSRP (Masterchain Slashing and Recovery Protocol), and DDVS (Distributed Dynamic Validator Set). -Multithreading: To overcome the limitations of traditional IT systems including processing capacity, bandwidth and disk space. -Sharding: Allowing multiple work chains operating in parallel with 1,000 validators each (750 thousand servers) capable of processing up to 20M executions per second (taking into account the current internet backbone and server hardware capabilities). -Security and complete decentralization: Deploys a security method known as 'Formal Verification' to attest every smart contract, while avoiding any residual code in a centralized Git repository, allowing for a completely decentralized experience. Mitja Goroshevsky, concluded: "Our world-class and friendly ecosystem has established a community of over 3,000 developers, tens of thousands of members and dozens of partners - demonstrating that one doesn't need authority to grow a business or a society." To download the Free TON Whitepaper and learn more about how Free TON is ushering in the WebFree era in a secure, decentralized and scalable manner, visit https://bit.ly/3hX7T8r . About Free TON Free TON is a community-driven blockchain cultivating an open and free internet. Enabling true end-to-end decentralization with WebFree, Free TON is a secure and scalable platform modelled on the ideals of decentralization that features a per-merit token distribution model. As a built-for-purpose enterprise public blockchain, Free TON features multi-threading and sharding that enables record shattering transaction speeds and throughput. Free TON's open-contest token distribution model enables the equitable completion of community proposals and initiatives, allowing contributing community members, over 30 open sub-governances or validators to obtain TON Crystal rewards based on meritocratic allocations. Join us in building WebFree: Discover, Build, Use and Unite with Free TON. For more information, visit https://freeton.org/ . About TON Labs TON Labs is a distributed collective of experts in decentralized application development, actively building WebFree: a meritocratic decentralized web, focused on scalable blockchain infrastructure for global adoption. Founded in May 2018, TON Labs is composed of experts in decentralization, including leading developers and creative technologists. As the core developer of Free TON , a blockchain that enables anyone to create and manage decentralized organizations, TON Labs is committed to optimizing the development of applications easily accessible to global communities and enterprises. True end-to-end decentralization is enabled by the TON Operating System (OS), a technology stack that expedites blockchain development, and lives on the community-driven Free TON blockchain. With absolute trust and legitimate data ownership, developers are furnished with the tools to foster mass adoption of liberating and integrous tech. For more information, visit https://tonlabs.io/ . For Media Enquiries SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO (dpa-AFX) - Roche (RHHBY) said the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended the approval of Gavreto (pralsetinib) as a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with rearranged during transfection fusion-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer not previously treated with a RET inhibitor. The CHMP recommendation is based on the results of the phase I/II ARROW study. A final decision regarding the approval of Gavreto is anticipated in the coming months, the company said. Blueprint Medicines and Roche are co-developing Gavreto globally, with the exception of certain territories in Asia, including China. 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. Vior to host a webcast with 6ix on September 30, 2021 at 12:00pm EST to provide a Corporate update with a focus on the exploration program at Belleterre. Register HERE for the webcast. MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2021 / Vior Inc. ("Vior"), (TSXV:VIO)(FRANKFURT:VL51) is pleased to announce field exploration results that demonstrate the high-grade gold potential at its district-scale Belleterre gold project ("Belleterre") in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region of Quebec. Of 1,328 samples completed during the Summer 2021 exploration program at Belleterre and currently being processed at the laboratory, these first gold results consist of a targeted validation sampling process where lab results were expedited in preparation for the upcoming Phase 1 Fall drill program. The Vior technical team's objective is to validate the presence of gold grades and the precise locations of historic gold showings in the Brownfield areas at Belleterre. The results indicate that out of 38 samples recently sent to the laboratory, the three highest grade samples returned respectively 274.9 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold ("Au"), 121.3 g/t Au and 77.4 g/t Au. Another 17 samples contained values between 66.5 g/t Au and 10 g/t Au with all but one of the remaining samples containing gold content (see Table 1 and maps below). In addition, these results validate over 10 historic gold showings and confirm the high exploration potential at Belleterre. Mark Fedosiewich, President & CEO of Vior, stated, "These field results are exciting and confirm the presence of significant gold from the historical showings. We also know that previous drill programs in the Brownfield areas at Belleterre were only undertaken to shallow depths and were non continuous along strike. These results validate the hard work of the exploration and management team through 2021 to consolidate this highly prospective mining camp, and we are encouraged more than ever that Belleterre offers a tremendous exploration opportunity for our shareholders." Vior is also pleased to release the results of its high-resolution magnetic survey (see Figure 1) covering the entire Belleterre Project. This high-resolution magnetic survey is a valuable exploration tool that will help Vior's exploration team focus on the continuities of the main gold bearing structures within the known historical high-grade zones along strike and at depth including past producing Belleterre gold mine with a historic production of 2.18 Mt at 10.7 g/t Au (source DV-89-01 from MRNQ: Ministere de l'Energie et des Ressources naturelles du Quebec) and Aubelle deposit with a non 43-101 compliant current resource of 353.7 Kt at 3.6 g/t Au (source DV-89-01 from MRNQ). This helicopter-borne magnetic survey was carried out by Novatem Inc., of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC for a total of 6,750 linear kilometers with line spacing every 50 meters. Vior's Executive Vice-President, Laurent Eustache, stated, "In conjunction with the new structural interpretation derived from our new high-resolution magnetic survey and the compilation of historical data and geological modeling (with our consultant 3DGeo Solution Inc.), we are now in an excellent position to better define the high-potential drill targets for our upcoming 4,000-metre Fall drill program. By incorporating all of the various technical data sets available from the consolidated area, which has never been attempted due to the previously fragmented ownership positions at Belleterre, we are now able to build a cohesive 3D structural model. We are confident that our new systematic and holistic approach will play a major positive role in our overall exploration strategy to help unlock the full potential of the Belleterre mining camp." Figure 1. Vior's consolidated Belleterre land package with high-resolution magnetic survey and locations of detailed Map 1 and Map 2. Map 1. Detailed map showing the location of highest gold values and draped LIDAR/high-resolution magnetic survey background. Map 2. Detailed map showing the location of highest gold values and draped LIDAR/high-resolution magnetic survey background. Table 1. Belleterre Project - 2021 gold values from summer exploration program QA/QC Controls Vior has implemented a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with industry best practices, including certified reference material (CRM) standards and blank material inserted every 20 samples. The gold analyses were completed by fire-assays with an atomic absorption finish (TMT-G5B). Repeats were carried out by fire-assay followed by gravimetric testing (TMT-G5C) on each sample containing more than 3.0 g/t Au. Metallic Sieve (MS) on 350 grams of material was carried out on samples that presented a great variation in gold content or as per recommendation from the laboratory. All samples from the Belleterre project were analyzed at Activation Laboratories Ltd (Actlabs) in Sainte-Germaine-Boule, QC. About Belleterre The property is located near the town of Belleterre in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue region of Quebec, 95 km south of Rouyn-Noranda, QC. The property consists of 531 claims over 29,129 hectares (291.3 sq km), forming a district-scale exploration land package with strike length of 37 km and including the option to acquire the former high-grade Belleterre Gold Mine that produced 750,000 oz gold and 95,000 oz silver between 1936 and 1959. The property has been under-explored for the past 50 years and has never been the subject of such significant consolidation until now. More on Belleterre can be found HERE. About Vior Inc. Vior is a hybrid junior mining exploration company based in Quebec whose corporate strategy is to generate, explore and develop high-quality projects in proven and favourable mining jurisdictions in North America. Through the years, Vior's management and technical teams have demonstrated their ability to discover several gold deposits and many high-quality mineral prospects. Qualified Persons The technical content disclosed in this press release was reviewed and approved by Laurent Eustache, Executive Vice-President of Vior and Christian Blanchet, Operations Manager of Vior, and Qualified Persons as per National Instrument 43-101. For further information, please contact: Mark Fedosiewich President and CEO 613-898-5052 mfedosiewich@vior.ca Laurent Eustache Executive Vice-President 514-442-7707 leustache@vior.ca www.vior.ca Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that the Corporation believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, the planned exploration program on the Belleterre project, the expected positive exploration results, the timing of the exploration results, the ability of the Corporation to continue with the exploration program, the availability of the required funds to continue with the exploration and the approval from the Ministere de l'energie et des ressources naturelle ("MERN") of the request for abandonment of the two mining concessions filed by 9293-0122 Quebec Inc. are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "to earn", "to have', "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Corporation's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Corporation to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned exploration expenditures, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Corporation's expectations, general business and economic conditions, changes in world gold markets, sufficient labour and equipment being available, changes in laws and permitting requirements, unanticipated weather changes, title disputes and claims, environmental risks, the refusal by the MERN to approve the request for abandonment of the two mining concessions held by 9293-0122 Quebec Inc. as well as those risks identified in the Corporation's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Corporation does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law. SOURCE: Vior, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664457/Vior-Confirms-High-Grade-Gold-Potential-at-Belleterre-QC-with-up-to-2749-gt-Au-in-Surface-Sampling MONTREAL, QUEBEC / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2021 / Critical Elements Lithium Corporation (the "Corporation" or "Critical Elements") (TSX.V:CRE) (OTCQX:CRECF) (FSE:F12) is pleased to announce that at its Annual shareholders meeting (the "Meeting") held on September 16, 2021, shareholders of the Corporation approved all the resolutions, as follows: Election of Eric Zaunscherb, Jean-Sebastien Lavallee, Steffen Haber, Marc Simpson, Matthew Lauriston Starnes, Marcus Brune, Ani Markova as directors; and Appointment of KPMG LLP as auditors. The Board of Directors of the Corporation is pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs. Ani Markova, MBA, CFA, CDI.D as an Independent Director. Mrs. Markova is a senior executive and an award-winning portfolio manager with more than 15 years of experience investing in the mining and metals industry. She is currently a corporate director with Golden Star Resources and SilverCrest Mining. She is the Chair of the Safety, Environmental and Social Sustainability Committee at SilverCrest and a member of the Corporate Responsibility Committee at Golden Star. She also sits on their Audit and Governance and Compensation committees. She is the Founder and CEO of Investor View Advisory, which is engaged with public companies on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting and integration. Mrs. Markova holds an MBA from George Washington University in Washington DC, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Canadian Investment Management (CIM), and Corporate Board International (CDI.D) designations. In connection with this appointment, Mrs. Markova has been awarded 200,000 stock options of the Corporation at an exercise price of $1.35 per share for a term of five years. "We are pleased to appoint Mrs. Ani Markova to the Critical Elements Board of Directors," stated Jean-Sebastien Lavallee, CEO of Critical Elements. "Her governance, advisory, investor, professional and executive experience strengthens and complements the experiences of our incumbent Board of Directors." Mr. Charles B. Main and Mr. Jean-Raymond Lavallee were not standing for re-election at the Meeting held on September 16, 2021. "The Board of Directors thanks both Mr. Main and Mr. Lavallee for their contributions during their tenures, " said Eric Zaunscherb, Chairman of the Corporation. About Critical Elements Lithium Corporation Critical Elements Lithium Corporation aspires to become a large, responsible supplier of lithium to the flourishing electric vehicle and energy storage system industries. To this end, Critical Elements Lithium is advancing the wholly owned, high purity Rose lithium project in Quebec. Rose is the Company's first lithium project to be advanced within a highly prospective land portfolio of over 700 square kilometers. In 2017, the Company completed a robust feasibility study on Rose Phase 1 for the production of high quality spodumene concentrate. The internal rate of return for the Project is estimated at 34.9% after tax, with a net present value estimated at C$726 million at an 8% discount rate. Capital cost parameters were confirmed in 2019 by Primero Group in the context of a Guaranteed Maximum Price under an Early Contractor Involvement agreement, as a prelude to an Engineering, Procurement and Construction process. Detailed engineering for Phase I is expected to conclude this year as the Company plans to deliver technical studies for Phase II; the conversion of spodumene concentrate to high quality lithium hydroxide. In the Company's view, Quebec is strategically well-positioned for US and EU markets and boasts exceptional infrastructure including a low-cost, low-carbon power grid featuring 93% hydroelectricity. The project has received approval from the Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change on the recommendation of the Joint Assessment Committee, comprised of representatives from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and the Cree Nation Government; we await similar approval under the Quebec environmental assessment process near-term. The Company also has a strong, formalized relationship with the Cree Nation. For further information, please contact: Jean-Sebastien Lavallee, P.Geo. Chief Executive Officer 819-354-5146 jslavallee@cecorp.ca www.cecorp.ca Cautionary statement concerning forward-looking statements This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian Securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "scheduled", "anticipates", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "scheduled", "targeted", 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 information contained herein include, without limitation, statements relating to the completion of the Project's approval, the completion of the provincial permitting process, mineral reserve estimates, mineral resource estimates, realization of mineral reserve and resource estimates, capital and operating costs estimates, the timing and amount of future production, costs of production, success of mining operations, the ranking of the project in terms of cash cost and production, permitting, economic return estimates, power and storage facilities, life of mine, social, community and environmental impacts, lithium and tantalum markets and sales prices, off-take agreements and purchasers for the Company's products, environmental assessment and permitting, securing sufficient financing on acceptable terms, opportunities for short and long term optimization of the Project, and continued positive discussions and relationships with local communities and stakeholders. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made. 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 information. Although Critical Elements has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expected results described in forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the completion of the Project's approval, the completion of the provincial permitting process, Critical Elements' ability to secure sufficient financing to advance and complete the Project, uncertainties associated with the Company's resource and reserve estimates, uncertainties regarding global supply and demand for lithium and tantalum and market and sales prices, uncertainties associated with securing off-take agreements and customer contracts, uncertainties with respect to social, community and environmental impacts, uncertainties with respect to optimization opportunities for the Project, as well as those risk factors set out in the Company's year-end Management Discussion and Analysis dated August 31, 2020, the Company's Annual Information Form dated August 3, 2021, and other disclosure documents available under the Company's SEDAR profile. Forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this news release and Critical Elements disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is described in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Critical Elements Lithium Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664483/Critical-Elements-Announces-the-Appointment-of-Mrs-Ani-Markova-as-Director-and-the-Results-from-the-Annual-Shareholders-Meeting Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2021) - I-Minerals Inc. (TSXV: IMA) (OTC Pink: IMAHF) announces that the repayment date for loans from a company controlled by its Chairman Allen Ball amounting to $34,031,289 together with all accrued and unpaid interest thereon, has been extended until October 15, 2021. Interest payable is at the rate of 0.13% per annum. About I-Minerals Inc. I-Minerals is an exploration and development company that is advancing the Bovill kaolin-halloysite property in north central Idaho. A March 2020 Prefeasibility Study on the Bovill Property envisaging annual production of 20,000 tons of kaolin and 10,000 tons of halloysite estimated initial CAPEX at US$48 million with a 20% pre-tax, 18% after tax IRR and a US$ 48 million pre-tax, US$34 million after tax NPV10%. I-Minerals Inc. per: "John Theobald" John Theobald, President & CEO Contact: I-Minerals Inc. Barry Girling 877-303-6573 or 604-303-6573 Email: info@imineralsinc.com Or visit our website at www.imineralsinc.com Paul J. Searle, Investor Relations 877-303-6573 or 604-303-6573 Email: PSearle@imineralsinc.com NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and resources, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks. Actual results could differ materially from those projected as a result of the following factors, among others: changes in the world wide price of mineral market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risk associated with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of future profitability and uncertainty of access to additional capital. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96831 Here are the designations of the executives along with their names- From Left to Right- (L-R) Sir Ralf Speth, Board of Director, TVS Motor Company; Mr. Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company; Mr. Daniel Meyer and Ms. Marie So(Co-Founders, EGO Movement) Singapore, Sept 17, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - TVS Motor Company, a reputed two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer globally, today announced a partnership with EGO Movement as a majority shareholder, in an all-cash deal through its Singapore Subsidiary TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd. The partnership is in line with TVS Motor Company's commitment to building an aspirational product portfolio while nurturing sustainable and scalable brands. It also reiterates the company's strategy to expand its global presence in developed markets, commencing with Europe, which serves as the heart of the e-bike mobility landscape.Led by the co-founders Daniel Meyer and Marie So, EGO Movement is a Swiss technology company providing innovative mobility solutions through a portfolio of e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, and e-scooters. The company combines unique designs with innovative software and hardware to deliver a differentiated customer experience. It has an omnichannel network across Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany with plans to expand across Europe, combining the best of strategically located stores with a seamless online experience.Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company, said, "The partnership with EGO Movement reaffirms TVS Motor Company's commitment towards electrification and the broader sustainability agenda. We are building a strategic personal e-mobility ecosystem by scaling unique brands which share our vision of delivering compelling customer experience benchmarks through cutting-edge, aspirational products. EGO Movement has a strong presence in Europe with customer-centric products, a unique omnichannel network and a visionary team at its helm. Together, we will address global urbanisation by delivering unique e-mobility solutions with e-bicycles and mobility across a diversity of forms."Mr. Venu further added, "It is also an important milestone in our journey to grow our presence in Europe, with the Norton Motorcycles acquisition last year and now the launch of the personal e-mobility platform."Over the past decade, the personal mobility landscape has evolved significantly with the global sustainability agenda, increasing urbanisation and advancement in battery technology. The global pandemic also became a key catalyst in accelerating the adaption to personal mobility. The e-bike market has been at the forefront of personal mobility innovation, with new business models and technologies advancing rapidly with global trends. Various sub-segments have also emerged to cater to customers' evolving needs - ranging from city bikes for daily commute to mountain bikes for adventures or cargo bikes for carrying loads or people.Co-founder and CEO of EGO Movement, Daniel Meyer, commented, "As a Swiss based strongly mission-driven company, we are excited to be teaming up such a highly respected global partner and industry leader. Our team is fully committed to taking the company to the next phase. We are confident that together with TVS Motor Company, we will be able to create more value for all partners and customers of EGO Movement focusing on further growth by following our mission of a greener way of e-mobility."EGO Movement's product portfolio focuses on delivering sustainable products with the latest technology and stylish designs. A powerful battery is blended harmoniously into the frame, whose ergonomic design allows for a comfortable upright sitting position. In addition, with technical refinements such as a powerful mid-motor including a torque sensor, a USB port on the removable lithium-ion battery and an LED light that automatically switches on at dusk. The unique and innovative design philosophy has earned the company multiple awards, including the prestigious Red Dot Award.About TVS Motor CompanyTVS Motor Company is a reputed two and three-wheeler manufacturer and is the flagship company of the USD 8.5 billion TVS Group. We believe in Championing Progress through Mobility. Rooted in our 100-year legacy of Trust, Value, and Passion for Customers and Exactness, we take pride in making internationally aspirational products of the highest quality through innovative and sustainable processes. We endeavour to deliver the most superior customer experience at all our touch points across 70 countries. We are the only two-wheeler company to have received the prestigious Deming Prize. Our products lead in their respective categories in the J.D. Power IQS and APEAL surveys for five years. We have been ranked No. 1 Company in the J.D. Power Customer Service Satisfaction Survey for consecutive four years. For more information, please visit www.tvsmotor.com.About EGO MovementInnovative technology, excellent designs, ten own stores in Switzerland and Germany, as well as extensive service: EGO Movement's mission is the e-volution of mobility. Whether e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, e-scooters or smart networking with its own software platform - as a Swiss technology company and manufacturer of technically mature products for high-quality mobility solutions, EGO Movement ensures more individual freedom and makes a contribution to more Sustainability as well as environmental protection and above all offers a great driving experience. https://egomovement.com/de/de/Media contacts:Namrata Sharma - namrata.sharma@adfactorspr.comNeha Chaturvedi - neha.chaturvedi@adfactorspr.comSource: TVS Motor CompanyCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. BH MACRO LIMITED (the "Company") (a non-cellular company limited by shares incorporated in the Island of Guernsey under the Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008, as amended, with registered number 46235 and registered as an Authorised Closed-ended Collective Investment Scheme with the Guernsey Financial Services Commission) LEI: 549300ZOFF0Z2CM87C29 Directorate Change 17 September 2021 The Company announces the appointment of Julia Chapman as an independent Non-Executive Director of the Company with effect from 1 October 2021. Julia is joining the Board of the Company from BH Global Limited following the combination. Julia resigned from the Board of BH Global Limited on 19 July 2021. Julia Chapman is a solicitor qualified in England & Wales and in Jersey with over 30 years' experience in the investment fund and capital markets sector. After working at Simmons & Simmons in London, she moved to Jersey and became a partner of Mourant du Feu & Jeune (now Mourant) in 1999. She was then appointed general counsel to Mourant International Finance Administration (the firm's fund administration division). Following its acquisition by State Street in April 2010, Julia was appointed European Senior Counsel for State Street's alternative investment business. In July 2012, Julia left State Street to focus on the independent provision of directorship and governance services to a small number of investment fund vehicles (including Sanne Group plc, GCP Infrastructure Investments Limited and Henderson Far East Income Limited). There are no disclosures to be made in respect of LR 9.6.13 (2-6). All of Ms Chapman's current directorships in publicly quoted companies are noted below as required by LR 9.6.13 (1). Directorships Sanne Group plc GCP Infrastructure Investments Henderson Far East Income Limited Enquiries: Company website: www.bhmacro.com Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited Tel: +44 (0) 1481 745001 DGAP-News: Appyea Israeli SleepX to be merged into AppYea Inc. (APYP) 17.09.2021 / 14:47 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. AppYea continues the process of merging SleepX into the company. The merger is expected to be completed by 12/01/2021 in accordance with the model published on 08/02/2021 (Link) In parallel, SleepX continues developing and improving its algorithms and planning to start production during 2022. The SleepX product is being designed to provide a unique answer to approximately 90 million Americans who suffer from the problem of snoring. DreamIT The night wrist band will include several sensors and a vibration motor which will operates with an intensity adapted to the user's reactions in real time in order to accustom the user to sleep in the correct position using biofeedback, thereby reducing or eliminating snoring. SleepX solution is being developed in collaboration with the Biomedical department of Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, and is patent - protected in the US, EU and Israel. https://www.sleepxclear.com/ipportfolio In addition to reducing snoring and improving sleep quality, users will be able to access important statistics relating to their sleep patterns via an app (Apple and Android) to track over time and detect anomalies. Product Clip The sleep apnea market is projected to reach USD 9.9 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period. Major factors driving the growth of this market include the growing awareness regarding the detrimental effects of snoring, availability, and benefits of anti-snoring treatments, growing geriatric and obese population, presence of a large number of cigarette smokers and alcoholics, and a large pool of an untapped snoring population. However, poor efficacy of current anti-snoring treatments available in the market, high cost of some of the anti-snoring treatments, and lack of reimbursement are major factors restraining the growth of this market. 'The SleepX approach should not only solve physiological problems for a great many people, but it may also allow many couples to go back to sleeping together," says Bary Molchadsky, SleepX's entrepreneur and CEO. 'The decision to merge with AppYea was made in order to accelerate the start point of production. Lately, we see major players entering the market - Google presented its new Fitbit watch with the possibility to monitor snoring. Amazon presented at the beginning of the year the new Alexa that is supposed to identify sleep apnea. However, we believe that the patent-protected technology underlying the SleepX approach should be accepted in the marketplace.' 'The SleepX products are being designed to provide, besides monitoring, biofeedback based individual treatment, adjusted to each user in real-time. Following the launch of the first snoring treatment product, the company intends to start clinical trials in order to receive FDA approval for sleep apnea treatment.' 'I'm certain that tens of thousands of academic research hours together with international strong patents, would provide Appyea's investors a significant advantage over time.' Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes forward-looking statements. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth herein. No statement herein should be considered an offer or a solicitation of an offer for the purchase or sale of any securities. Although APYP believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements, which involve assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies, and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to adverse economic conditions, intense competition, entry of new competitors and products, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, inadequate capital, unexpected costs and operating deficits, increases in general and administrative costs, unanticipated losses, financial condition and stock price, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans and other specific risks. APYP does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement. Neither APYP nor SLEEPX are subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Asaf Porat info@appyea.com http://www.appyea.com News Source: News Direct MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2021 / Kisses from Italy Inc. (OTCQB:KITL), a publicly listed U.S. based company, restaurant chain operator, franchisor, and product distributor (the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has entered into a representation agreement with Italy based MediaCom SAS. MediaCom SAS now becomes Kisses From Italy's representative for direct product and raw material sourcing, across the European territory, for products destined for the U.S and Canada. Located in Naples, Italy, the MediaCom SAS head office is strategically located in proximity to the Port of Naples. Having one of the most important ports in Europe, Naples is also the third-largest urban economy in Italy, after Rome and Milan. MediaCom SAS brings over 25 years of product and raw material sourcing experience, throughout Italy, with products such as coffee, wine, olive oil, pasta, sauces, marinated vegetables, etc. MediaCom SAS has a vast network of suppliers and contacts across the country. "The current global environment has shown us, that moving forward into the future with the right mix of global and regional suppliers is critical. This is especially important considering current global supply chain issues and given our ambitious growth plan for our franchise distribution supply line network and consumer packaged goods bearing the Kisses From Italy brand for retail stores across the United States and Canada", commented Claudio Ferri, co-CEO, CIO and co-founder of Kisses from Italy. Michele Di Turi, President, co-CEO and co-founder of Kisses from Italy stated, "There are definitely strong synergies between the two organizations. This agreement brings our company the same opportunity as having a constant presence, directly in Naples. Working with MediaCom SAS as our representative in Europe, now gives us an advantage and the flexibility of continuously working to discover the best-priced products and raw materials and is the next natural step to add value to our physical supply chain." Di Turi added, "the last year and a half has created some challenges but has shown us the necessity to patiently put in place our fundamental growth strategy. We are also excited and proud of the team currently working on the opening of our first Canadian franchise in Montreal, Canada. We have had some delays due to COVID, but from a conservative standpoint the new location should begin its operations within 4 to 6 weeks from now." About Kisses from Italy Inc. Kisses from Italy Inc. is a U.S.-based restaurant chain operator, franchisor and product distributor with locations in North America and Europe. The Company offers a quick-service menu and a unique take on traditional Italian delicacies with an All-American flair. Kisses from Italy offerings include sandwiches, salads, Italian roasted coffee, coffee-related beverage and an array of other products. In November of 2020, Kisses From Italy launched its retail branded products for distribution stores across Canada. Currently, our products are being offered in grocery stores and retail food stores. The Company currently operates three corporate-owned stores. It successfully commenced operations in May 2015 with the opening of its flagship location in Ft. Lauderdale at 3146 NE 9th St. This was followed by three additional sites across the greater Ft. Lauderdale/Pompano Beach area. The Company recently opened its inaugural European location in Ceglie del Campo, Bari, Italy in October of 2019. In September of 2019, Kisses from Italy Inc. was given the approval by FINRA to trade its common stock and was approved for up-listing by the OTC Markets Group to the OTCQB in mid-October 2019 under the ticker symbol KITL. Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain 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 from those anticipated or expected. These risks and uncertainties are further defined in filings and reports by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors detailed from time to time in our filings with the SEC. Reference is hereby made to cautionary statements set forth in the Company's most recent SEC filings which are available at www.sec.gov as well as the Company's website at www.kissesfromitaly.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results. For more information, please visit www.kissesfromitaly.com Contact Information: Kisses from Italy Inc. 305-423-7129 info@kissesfromitaly.com SOURCE: Kisses from Italy Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664440/Kisses-From-Italy-Strengthens-Its-Product-Sourcing-and-International-Distribution-Network-by-Entering-into-Representation-Agreement-with-Italy-Based-MediaCom-SAS VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 17, 2021 / Less than two weeks ago, El Salvador made major headlines in the world of cryptocurrency. With no official currency of its own (instead, the US dollar has been in use since 2001), the small Central American country made history on September 7th by becoming the first nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. This means that Salvadoran businesses and other establishments now accept bitcoin as an official form of payment. This divisive move was spearheaded by the country's president Nayib Bukele as a means of modernizing the economy and in hopes of alleviating issues with economic accessibility, among other reasons. Read more about El Salvador's bitcoin backstory on the Netcoins blog . As was expected, the first few days for El Salvador were not without their hiccups and technical issues, particularly with Chivo, the government's official crypto wallet. But one thing is for sure, this bold "experiment" with bitcoin is a step closer to widespread adoption of the world's first and most well-known cryptocurrency. In fact, other countries like Paraguay and Panama, who have been working the use of bitcoin into their legislation, are keeping a close eye on the events as they continue to unfold in El Salvador. Netcoins is just one of many dedicated members of the global crypto community that celebrates this milestone. Like many others, Netcoins and its growing user base believe in cryptocurrency's potential to reshape the world economy in the most promising ways, by changing the way we transact and utilize modern technology. El Salvador's future success-or failure-in adopting bitcoin will ultimately bring forth many more opportunities and challenges for all things crypto. Even more Canadians can join in on this ongoing financial revolution by buying Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), Litecoin (LTC), and others at Netcoins, Canada's easiest and most trusted platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. ABOUT NETCOINS.CA Founded in 2014, Netcoins started out by providing a Virtual Bitcoin ATM solution to over 170,000+ stores across 3 continents, and also operated a private brokerage service for institutional and larger scale crypto investors. As the crypto industry evolved, we've since pivoted to a cryptocurrency trading platform, which users can access online 24/7 through a web or mobile browser at Netcoins.app . Our leadership team has been strengthened by diverse experience - including that of our president, Mitchell Demeter, who founded the world's first Bitcoin ATM. Now, we've also made significant investments in technology, offering a simple and streamlined onboarding process, tight security and 24/7 instant trades. We understand that what you do with your money matters. We also know that cryptocurrency can seem like a complicated process. That's where we come in. We build trust by taking the guesswork out of crypto and by delivering results. We're excited to be part of your crypto journey. From education, to innovation, to our zealous customer service, we are here to be your trusted resource for all things crypto. We can't wait to bring you onboard! Media Inquiries: media@netcoins.ca SOURCE: Netcoins.ca View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664299/Netcoinsca-Celebrates-Crypto-Milestone-with-El-Salvadors-Use-of-Bitcoin-as-Legal-Tender Supermicro Expands Campuses to Over 5M Sq. Ft. to Support Total IT Solutions for Thousands of Cloud Deployments that Deliver Energy Cost Savings and Carbon Footprint Reduction SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a global leader in enterprise computing, storage, networking solutions, and green computing technology, is adding a new facility to its multi-location U.S. headquarters campus in San Jose, California. Customers can collaborate with Supermicro engineers in this consolidated campus, accessing an onsite data center to develop, test, and create the right balance of on-prem, colocation, and public cloud workload scenarios optimized for tomorrow's corporate challenges. The new construction is over 200,000 sq. ft. in size and the latest addition to Supermicro's Green Computing Park. It will include a Command Center to support new and innovative solutions that address the varied needs of customers worldwide. New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), 5G Edge and On-Prem Cloud software and hardware can quickly be incorporated and tested for the most demanding workloads. Supermicro's Silicon Valley headquarters comprises more than 12 buildings - over 1.5M sq. ft. - supporting engineering, manufacturing, and customer service. "We are excited to add B23 with its Command Center and Autoconfigurator in the heart of Silicon Valley to support our cloud and enterprise partners," said Charles Liang, president, and CEO. "Founded 28 years ago in the US, Supermicro is one of the world's top-tier server and storage companies. We deliver exactly the best products and services to our customers and continue to expand our solution offerings to meet the infrastructure requirements for a wide range of customers. The new site will focus total IT solutions including software, advanced liquid cooling, rack-level plug and play (PnP) systems leveraging our market-proven server and storage solutions." In addition, the new facility will generate its clean fuel-cell-based electricity with two MW supplied entirely from natural gas using Bloom Energy servers, adding to Supermicro's existing use of Bloom Energy servers. The site is designated as a resource-efficient LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) facility that uses less water and energy. "I am thrilled that Supermicro continues to expand its Silicon Valley-based Green Computing park with the addition of a new manufacturing site," said Sam Liccardo, Mayor of the City of San Jose. "For 28 years, Supermicro's jobs, innovation, and advanced technologies have contributed tremendously to our Silicon Valley economy and enabled the success of thousands of global customers." The new facility is dedicated to assembling large numbers of clusters and racks, where water cooling for server systems may be required as part of the solution. With the increased demand for Supermicro products, a new facility was needed to ensure the timely delivery of large orders that contain the most advanced technology. In addition, the new Supermicro Rack Plug and Play program will require fast delivery of defined solutions that need to be tested as an entire unit, requiring an ample staging area. These systems achieve the highest level of server manufacturing integration and testing - L12. With dedicated floor space, the Rack Integration Services team can work on several multi-rack customers' systems simultaneously, increasing delivery throughput. By combining R&D, manufacturing, and solution engineering under one roof, delivery to customers is expedited, giving customers the advanced technology sooner to solve complex IT challenges. About Super Micro Computer, Inc. Supermicro (SMCI), the leading innovator in high-performance, high-efficiency server technology, is a premier provider of advanced Server Building Block Solutions for Enterprise Data Center, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Edge Computing Systems worldwide. Supermicro is committed to protecting the environment through its "We Keep IT Green" initiative and provides customers with the most energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly solutions available on the market. Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc. All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1628375/supermicro1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1628374/supermicro2.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1628373/supermicro3.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1443241/Supermicro_Logo.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2021) - TransCanna Holdings Inc. (CSE: TCAN) (FSE: TH8) ("the Company") today announced that it has officially launched its new cold storage services for 3rd party manufacturers with the onboarding of its first client, Kase Manufacturing ('Kase'). Kase will rent portions of TransCanna's 4,400 square foot, state-of-the-art cold storage cannabis freezer for specialized storage of Kase's fresh-frozen cannabis biomass. The sub-40 degree Fahrenheit cannabis freezer, roughly the size of a five bedroom house, is the largest of its kind in Northern California. "Effective cold storage is a crucial component of the production of live resin concentrate cannabis products, and we are excited to begin servicing this emerging segment of the cannabis industry," said Bob Blink, TransCanna CEO. "A freezer of this size and temperature typically costs about $2M - making the barrier to entry to the resin market challenging for many manufacturers. We are committed to servicing 3rd party resin manufacturers throughout California in many ways such as offering them premium flower for use as a raw material, as well as processing, storage and distribution services." Live resin, considered the 'champagne' of concentrates, can only be produced by instantly flash freezing 'living plants', and it's extremely difficult to do so on a large scale. Cannabis connoisseurs value its rarity, potency and strong flavor profile captured from the essence of the living plant. Live Resin based products, typically sold in cartridges for vape pens, are one of the highest quality forms of concentrate manufacturing, and one of the fastest growing segments in cannabis. "We are committed to delivering the most excellent suite of diversified services and building long-term, win-win relationships with 3rd party growers, processors and manufacturers alike throughout California," said Mr. Blink. "I have had a close personal relationship with the innovators at Kase for years, and I look forward to doing great business with them for many years to come." Kase has signed a 12-month lease agreement with TransCanna subsidiary Lyfted Farms for use of the cold storage freezer, with an automatic option to renew for another 12 months thereafter. About Kase Manufacturing Inc. Kase Manufacturing is a premium cannabis extraction facility serving a diversified portfolio of successful cannabis brands. They utilize industry-leading techniques in a highly advanced and certified extraction laboratory, and strive to deliver the most consistent, high-quality cannabis extracts available today. About TransCanna TransCanna Holdings Inc. is a California-based, Canadian-listed company building cannabis-focused brands for the California lifestyle, through its wholly-owned California subsidiaries. TransCanna's wholly owned subsidiary Lyfted Farms is California's authentic cannabis brand whose pioneering spirit has been continuously providing the finest cannabis flower genetics and cultivation methods since 1984. The Lyfted Farms brand of exclusive cannabis flower is sold at premium retailers throughout the state. With its new cultivation facility in Daly, California, the company is now poised to become one of the largest and most efficient vertically integrated cannabis companies in the California market. Visit the TransCanna website today at transcanna.com. For updated information with respect to our company, please see our filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the CSE at www.thecse.com, or visit the Company's website at www.transcanna.com. To contact the Company, please email info@transcanna.com. On behalf of the Board of Directors Bob Blink, CEO Corporate Communications: info@transcanna.com 604-200-8853 FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: Certain information in this release may contain forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding future expansions and cost savings and plans regarding production increases and financings. This information is based on current expectations and assumptions, including assumptions concerning the completion of the expansion of the Daly Facility, government approval of pro-cannabis policies, greater access to financial services and increased cultivation capacity, that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. Risks that could cause results to differ from those stated in the forward-looking statements in this release include unexpected increases in operating costs, a continued strain on farmers due to fires and the Coronavirus pandemic and competition from other retailers. All forward-looking statements, including any financial outlook or future-oriented financial information, contained in this release are made as of the date of this release and are included for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans relating to the future. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to the Company. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96840 The Chinese inverter company said the dam-hosted 58.5 MW project in northeastern Thailand was connected to the grid this month.Chinese inverter maker Sungrow has announced the grid connection of what it says is Thailand"s largest floating solar plant - a 58.5 MW project in the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani. The installation may be one of two projects tendered by the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in June 2019, to be installed at the Sirindhorn dam at the site of a 12 MW hydropower plant on the Lam Dom Noi river, although a press release issued by Sungrow yesterday ... 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) - Drug major Pfizer has again expanded the earlier two recalls of its anti-smoking Drug Chantix (Varenicline) in the form of tablets, to now include all the lots, for the potential presence of nitrosamine impurity, N-Nitroso-varenicline, at or above the FDA interim acceptable intake limit (ADI), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or FDA said in a statement. In July, Pfizer had initially recalled two lots of Chantix 0.5mg tablets, two lots of Chantix 1 mg tablets, and eight lots of a Chantix kit of 0.5mg/1 mg tablets for the similar nitrosamine impurity issue. Later in August, it expanded the recall to include additional four lots of Chantix kit 0.5mg/1 mg tablets. The current recall involves all (156) lots of Chantix 0.5 mg and 1 mg tablets. Pfizer said it is undertaking this precautionary measure as alternative suppliers have been approved in the U.S. The agency noted that though there is no immediate risk to patients taking this medication, but long-term ingestion of N-nitroso-varenicline may be associated with a theoretical potential increased cancer risk in humans. The health benefits of stopping smoking outweigh the theoretical potential cancer risk from the nitrosamine impurity in varenicline, it added. The company is yet to receive any reports of adverse events assessed to be related to this recall. Chantix is indicated to help patients quit smoking and is intended for short term use. The drug has a safety profile that has been established over 15 years of marketing authorization and through a robust clinical program. The affected products are packed in bottles of 56 tablets and cartons containing 4 blister packs of 14 tablets each as well as cartons containing one blister pack of 11 0.5 mg tablets and one blister pack containing 42 1 mg tablets. T*hey were distributed to wholesalers and distributors across the U.S., US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico from May 2019 to September 2021. The expiration dates range from August 2021 to December 2023. The company has urged patients currently taking Chantix to consult with their healthcare provider about alternative treatment options. It has also asked wholesalers and distributors with an existing inventory of Chantix tablets to stop use and distribution and quarantine the product immediately. Nitrosamine, a known environmental contaminant, is classified as a probable human carcinogen that could cause cancer. This is generally found in water and foods, including cured and grilled meats, dairy products, and vegetables. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX PFIZER-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de Vertical Aerospace ("Vertical"), a leading British eVTOL manufacturer which is pioneering zero emissions aviation, today announces a development and production agreement with world-leading technology supplier GKN Aerospace, who will provide the electrical wiring interconnection system (EWIS) and aerostructures for the VA-X4. GKN Aerospace designs and manufactures advanced aerospace systems and components for all major aircraft and engine manufacturers, supporting a range of platforms spanning the most-efficient passenger planes in the world to advanced 5th generation fighter aircraft. The aerostructures and EWIS systems that GKN Aerospace will provide to Vertical will help improve the performance of the VA-X4 and contribute to lower costs, weight, and emissions. GKN Aerospace's products are manufactured to the highest safety standards and are used in all major commercial airliners and engines produced today, operating at high commercial capacity and frequency. GKN Aerospace's outstanding track record in the development, production and certification of EWIS and aerostructures will de-risk Vertical's path to certification and help make the VA-X4 the world's leading eVTOL. With 41 manufacturing locations in 13 countries, GKN Aerospace's high-volume production capabilities will also help drive global production of the VA-X4, resulting in shorter production lead times and lower unit costs. This important partnership sits within Vertical's carefully constructed ecosystem of top-tier partners, which includes Microsoft, Rolls-Royce, Honeywell and Solvay. By working with such innovative and accomplished technology and aerospace companies, Vertical has not only assembled diverse expertise from world class organisations, but ensured it can accelerate its path to certification, de-risk execution, allow for a lean cost structure, and enable production at scale. Stephen Fitzpatrick, Founder and CEO, said: "We are delighted that they are joining our unrivalled partner ecosystem. Their expertise in producing aerospace systems and structures will help the VA-X4 to meet the stringent safety standards mandated by the CAA and EASA, an essential step forward in our efforts to electrify flight." John Pritchard, President of GKN Aerospace's Civil business, said: "The rapid progress being made towards electric aircraft is a game-changer for the industry. GKN Aerospace has decades of experience as a leader in both aerostructures and EWIS and we are excited to use that expertise to accelerate the transition to more sustainable aviation. Vertical has a great vision and we are proud that our technology can help bring that to reality and shape the future of flight." --ENDS-- About Vertical Aerospace Vertical Aerospace is pioneering electric aviation. The company was founded in 2016 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, an established entrepreneur best known as the founder of the Ovo Group, a leading energy group and Europe's largest independent energy retailer. Over the past five years, Vertical has focused on building the most experienced and senior team in the eVTOL industry, who have over 1,200 combined years of experience, and have certified and supported over 30 different civil and military aircraft and propulsion systems. Vertical's unrivalled top-tier partner ecosystem is expected to de-risk operational execution and its pathway to certification, allow for a lean cost structure and enable production at scale. Vertical has received conditional pre-orders for a total of up to 1,000 aircraft from American Airlines and Avolon, including a pre-order option from Virgin Atlantic, and in doing so is creating multiple near term and actionable routes to market. With speeds up to 200mph, a range over 100miles, near silent when in flight, zero operating emissions and low cost per passenger mile, the VA-X4 is expected to open up advanced air mobility to a whole new range of passengers and transform how we travel. About GKN Aerospace GKN Aerospace is the world's leading multi-technology tier 1 aerospace supplier. As a global company serving the world's leading aircraft and engine manufacturers, GKN Aerospace develops, builds and supplies an extensive range of advanced aerospace systems, components and technologies for use in Defence and Commercial aircraft ranging from helicopters, business jets, passenger planes to the most advanced fighter aircraft. Lightweight composites, additive manufacturing, innovative engine systems and smart transparencies help to reduce emissions and weight on the aircraft and enhance passenger comfort. GKN Aerospace is market leading in aerostructures, engine systems and operates in 13 countries at 41 manufacturing locations employing approximately 15,000 people. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005373/en/ Contacts: Vertical Aerospace Gavin Davis: gdavis@nepean.co.uk +447910 104 660 Samuel Emden: semden@nepean.co.uk +447816 459 904 GKN Aerospace Daniel Kendrick: daniel.kendrick@gknaerospace.com +447979 453 400 Regulatory News: Tikehau Capital (Paris:TKO) today announced the release of the English version of its half-year financial report as at 30 June 2021. This document includes inter alia the business report for the first half year 2021, the pro forma of the legal reorganisation of the Group financial information as at 30 June 2021, the half-year consolidated financial statements as at 30 June 2021, the related Statutory Auditors' Report and the declaration by the person responsible for the half-year financial report. The half-year financial report can be consulted and downloaded on the Company's internet site (www.tikehaucapital.com, under the heading Shareholders/Regulated Information/Half-year Financial Reports). ABOUT TIKEHAU CAPITAL Tikehau Capital is a global alternative asset management group with 30.9 billion of assets under management (as of 30 June 2021). Tikehau Capital has developed a wide range of expertise across four asset classes (private debt, real assets, private equity and capital markets strategies) as well as multi-asset and special opportunities strategies. Tikehau Capital is a founder led team with a differentiated business model, a strong balance sheet, proprietary global deal flow and a track record of backing high quality companies and executives. Deeply rooted in the real economy, Tikehau Capital provides bespoke and innovative alternative financing solutions to companies it invests in and seeks to create long-term value for its investors, while generating positive impacts on society. Leveraging its strong equity base (2.9 billion of shareholders' equity as of 30 June 2021), the firm invests its own capital alongside its investor-clients within each of its strategies. Controlled by its managers alongside leading institutional partners, Tikehau Capital is guided by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and DNA, shared by its 629 employees (as of 30 June 2021) across its 12 offices in Europe, Asia and North America. Tikehau Capital is listed in compartment A of the regulated Euronext Paris market (ISIN code: FR0013230612; Ticker: TKO.FP). For more information, please visit: www.tikehaucapital.com DISCLAIMER: This document does not constitute an offer of securities, fund units or any financial instruments for sale or investment advisory services. It contains general information only and is not intended to provide general or specific investment advice. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future earnings and profit, and targets are not guaranteed. Certain statements and forecasted data are based on current forecasts, prevailing market and economic conditions, estimates, projections and opinions of Tikehau Capital and/or its affiliates. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those reflected or expected in such forward-looking statements or in any of the case studies or forecasts. In particular, an investment in a fund is speculative and presents risks, including a risk of loss of capital. All references to Tikehau Capital's advisory activities in the US or with respect to US persons relate to Tikehau Capital North America. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005419/en/ Contacts: PRESS CONTACTS: Tikehau Capital: Valerie Sueur +33 1 40 06 39 30 UK Prosek Partners: Henrietta Dehn +44 7717 281 665 USA Prosek Partners: Trevor Gibbons +1 646 818 9238 press@tikehaucapital.com SHAREHOLDER AND INVESTOR CONTACT: Louis Igonet +33 1 40 06 11 11 shareholders@tikehaucapital.com LAS VEGAS, NV, Sept 17, 2021 - (ACN Newswire) - Are the next generation of business leaders familiar with the world of Blockchain technology and the many real-world applications it offers? From dAPPs to DeFi to NFTs, unique applications of blockchain technology are growing at an exponential rate.The issue for Higher Education will be the pace at which the DeFi industry moves. Universities and colleges that are able to build flexible curriculums, easily adapted to accommodate new advances in decentralized technology, will win in the minds of the students who need to embrace these skills for the future. Investing in the future of Higher Education by issuing Blockchain certifications is one way to ensure that students are involved and informed when it comes to the future of the industry.There are some obvious topics for study around governance, supply chain and business models that adopt blockchain technology solutions into current processes. Furthermore, there is room to examine and learn from use cases for blockchain, like provenance, traceability and payments. Also, researching the future of blockchain integrations with other technologies is a sure topic for a dissertation.Ryan Williams, Executive Director of the Blockchain Academy explains why adoption of blockchain specific training within higher education is essential: "We are seeing a growing demand for the courses and truly believe that blockchain ed will play an important role in developing the skills of the future workforce.""As with everything in life, the more one knows about a subject matter, the less threatening and more exciting it is. Education is a key tool in driving the future of Blockchain technology," says Ryan.Universities that recognize the potential of blockchain technology and adopt the best approaches to embedding vetted course material will be best positioned to prepare students for the future of work. The Kautz-Uible Economics Institute at the University of Cincinnati teaches students how to successfully navigate this new world of monetary innovation by explaining how incentives, regulation, and market competition influence cryptocurrencies' future trajectory."Student interest in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies has grown leaps and bounds in just the last few years. I am excited to teach cryptocurrencies because they lie at the intersection of economics, computer science, and mathematics. Through a partnership with The Blockchain Academy, students at the University of Cincinnati will learn fundamental and technical analysis of cryptocurrency portfolios," says Michael Jones, Ph.D. Academic Director, MS in Applied Economics, University of Cincinnati.The Blockchain Academy has already partnered with over 16 prestigious Universities and institutions across the world, including the University of Cincinnati, Oklahoma State University, University of Alberta, University of California Santa Barbara and Rutgers University. The training offered covers a wide array of students across multiple disciplines, including: economics, business and technology. Future leaders and business executives will need to be familiar with blockchain and how it applies to different sectors of our economy. From blockchain foundations to enterprise blockchain solutions to crypto trading, the range of courses will provide a thorough understanding of the blockchain landscape.The supply needs to be met to match the current demand. Students are interested, blockchain organisations need a skilled workforce and colleges need a broad range of qualified instructors to guide students in the world of blockchain ecosystems.This is much more than getting a degree in Software Engineering or Business Studies, it is a combination of all of the training necessary to enter into the Blockchain Industry at many different levels. Although decentralization has been a driving force behind blockchain adoption, mainstream users, celebrities and countries are getting involved in the future of how this technology is used.NFTs alone are a thriving source of further study and research projects. Sales volumes recorded on the largest NFT trading platform, OpenSea, hit $1.9 billion so far this month. DappRadar recorded 32 known NFT sales above $1 million in the past 30 days. These transactions are not only enormous but also show that the world of NFTs is expanding and the volume of crypto being exchanged will provide stimulus for further investment.It is well reported that historically Universities have played a vital role in getting new industries off the ground. However, the world of decentralized finance is somewhat skeptical of traditional institutions and vice versa. This means that the eagerly awaiting learner resorts to community led learning or self-education through the many online platforms. With this approach however, the student is often left overwhelmed, without credentials and without the motivation often needed to complete a course.Blockchain startups have already begun to emerge from Universities that are leading the way in terms of education in this arena. Algorand from MIT and Ava Labs from Cornell are just two notable mentions.CoinDesk ranked the top 20 Universities for Blockchain in 2020, it found that 14 of the top 20 schools are private. Not surprisingly, MIT had the most blockchain publications between 2018 - 2020. Harvard has the highest number of student placings in the blockchain industry overall. Cornell offered the most blockchain courses of all the top 20. Interestingly, of all the top 46 schools surveyed, 33 had dedicated blockchain courses and 40 (87%) had a blockchain club. This demonstrates a clear interest in the subject matter as an area of study.Read more about this study here (https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2020/10/06/the-top-universities-for-blockchain/)If we are to better understand the applications of blockchain technology and how it may be aligned with the future of work we must familiarize ourselves with the many types of chains in existence and how they are currently being used.About The Blockchain Academy https://theblockchainacademy.com/The Blockchain Academy partners with universities to prepare participants for high-growth careers in the blockchain industry. To bring structure and growth to the blockchain workforce The Blockchain Academy develops a robust curriculum and provides instructional support services towards achieving micro-credentials and certifications that employers and project managers can trust. Knowledge transfer on EOS, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum, Hashgraph, Algorand, Polkadot, Solana, architecture, security, business Strategy, and industry specific impacts, such as Finance (De-Fi), Accounting and Supply Chain.Source: Plato Data Intelligence: https://platoblockchain.com (bit.ly/3nNPjTX)Source: The Blockchain AcademyCopyright 2021 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. The Earthshot Prize announces today its first-ever shortlist of 15 Finalists, each with a chance of winning 1million to support their innovative environmental solutions to the greatest challenges facing the planet. Prince William said: "Over half a century ago, President Kennedy's 'Moonshot' programme united millions of people around the goal of reaching the moon. Inspired by this, The Earthshot Prize aims to mobilise collective action around our unique ability to innovate, problem solve and repair our planet. "I am honoured to introduce the 15 innovators, leaders, and visionaries who are the first ever Finalists for The Earthshot Prize. They are working with the urgency required in this decisive decade for life on Earth and will inspire all of us with their optimism in our ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history." Launched by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in October 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history. Like President John F. Kennedy's 'Moonshot' did almost 60 years ago, the Prize aims to unleash an unprecedented wave of innovation and leadership to tackle our greatest environmental challenges. The Earthshot Prize will be awarded every year for the next decade, discovering a total of 50 Winners. Five of these 15 Finalists will be awarded The Earthshot Prize and will win 1million in Prize funding for the best solutions of the five Earthshot goals: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate. The Winners will be announced during an awards ceremony on 17th October from London's Alexandra Palace, broadcast in the UK on BBC One and globally on Discovery+. The Earthshot Prize Finalists for 2021 are: Protect and Restore Nature Pole Pole Foundation, Democratic Republic of Congo An inspiring community-led model of conservation that protects gorillas and local livelihoods. The Republic of Costa Rica A pioneering scheme paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems that has led to a revival of the rainforest. Restor, Switzerland A ground-breaking online platform connecting and empowering local conservation projects. Clean our Air: The Blue Map App, China China's first public environmental database enabling citizens to hold polluters to account. Takachar, India A pioneering technology to create profitable products from agricultural waste and put a stop to the burning of crops. Vinisha Umashankar, India A 14-year-old innovator and activist who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart with the potential to improve air quality across India. Revive our Oceans: Coral Vita, Bahamas A truly cutting-edge breakthrough in coral farming that can restore our world's dying coral reefs. Living Seawalls, Australia Innovative and replicable seawall panels bringing marine life back to coastal sea defences. Pristine Seas, USA An unprecedented global conservation programme protecting 6.5 million square km of the world's ocean. Build a Waste-Free World: The City of Milan Food Waste Hubs, Italy A city-wide initiative that has dramatically cut waste while tackling hunger. Sanergy, Kenya A circular sanitation solution that converts human waste into safe products for local farmers. WOTA BOX, Japan A tiny water treatment plant that turns 98% of wastewater into clean water. Fix our Climate: AEM Electrolyser, Thailand/Germany/Italy An ingenious green hydrogen technology developed to transform how we power our homes and buildings. Reeddi Capsules, Nigeria Solar-powered energy capsules making electricity affordable and accessible in energy-poor communities. SOLbazaar, Bangladesh The world's first peer-to-peer energy exchange network in a country on the front-line of climate change. All 15 Finalists will receive support from The Earthshot Prize Global Alliance Members, an unprecedented network of global businesses, who will help scale their solutions for even greater impact. Of these 15 Finalists, the five Winners will be selected by The Earthshot Prize Council, a diverse team of influential individuals which includes: HRH Prince William, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Sir David Attenborough, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Indra Nooyi, Shakira Mebarak, Christiana Figueres, Luisa Neubauer, Cate Blanchett, Yao Ming, Daniel Alves Da Silva, Ernest Gibson, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Jack Ma, and Naoko Yamazaki. In the run-up to the prize-giving ceremony on 17 October, BBC and Discovery will release a 5-part documentary series THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE: REPAIRING OUR PLANET, featuring Earthshot Prize Council Members including Prince William, Shakira Mebarak, Daniel Alves Da Silva and Sir David Attenborough. For more information about the Finalists and The Earthshot Prize, visit: www.earthshotprize.org, email Claire Straw: TEPmedia@freuds.com, download media pack here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005454/en/ Contacts: Claire Straw: TEPmedia@freuds.com OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - The Canadian market, which opened on a weak note Friday morning, continues to languish in negative territory around mid afternoon, due to sustained selling in several stocks from across various sectors. Weak commodity prices and worries about a slowdown in global economic recovery due to continued spikes in coronavirus cases in several countries weigh on the market. Investors are also looking ahead to the Canadian snap poll, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting. The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index is down 117.61 points or 0.58% at 20,484.49. Materials, energy, consumer staples and financial shares are among the major losers. Among energy shares, MEG Energy Corp (MEG.TO), Parex Resources (PXT.TO), Whitecap Resources (WCP.TO), Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) and Crescent Point Energy (CPG.TO) are down 2 to 3.1%. Imperial Oil (IMO.TO), Arc Resources (ARX.TO), Cenovus Energy (CVE.TO) and Enerplus Corp (ERF.TO) are also down sharply. In the materials section, Capstone Mining Corp (CS.TO), Labrador Iron Ore Royalty (LIF.TO) and Stelco Holdings (STLC.TO) are down 5 to 5.8%. Teck Resources (TECK.B.TO), First Quantum Minerals (FM.TO) and Hudbay Minerals (HBM.TO) are down 4.6%, 4.5% and 3.7%, respectively. Consumer staples shares Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.B.TO) and Weston George (WN.TO) are down 2.7% and 1.4%, respectively. Loblaw (L.TO) is down by about 1.25%. Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO), Manulife Financial (MFC.TO), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD.TO), Fairfax Financial Holdings (FFH.TO), Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO) adn Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO) are down 0.8 to 1.25%. Ballard Power Systems (BLDP.TO), Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.TO), Methanex Corp (MX.TO), Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) are gaining 2.7 to 4%. Descartes Systems Group (DSG.TO), Lightspeed Pos (LSPD.TO), BRP Inc. (DOO.TO) and West Fraser Timber (WFG.TO) are also notably higher. 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. DGAP Voting Rights Announcement: QIAGEN N.V. QIAGEN N.V.: Release according to Article 40, Section 1 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] with the objective of Europe-wide distribution 17.09.2021 / 22:03 Dissemination of a Voting Rights Announcement transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The AFM (the Netherlands Authority For the Financial Markets) has informed us on September 15, 2021 that a notification related to our institution has been released by the AFM. The following notification has been disclosed in the relevant register on the AFM website: Date of transaction: 13 sep 2021 Person obliged to notify: BlackRock, Inc. Issuing institution: Qiagen N.V. Registration Chamber of Commerce: 12036979 Place of residence: VENLO Distribution in numbers Type of share Number of shares Number of voting rights Capital interest Voting rights Manner of disposal Settlement Ordinary share 32.909.366,00 35.400.723,00 Real Real Indirectly - BlackRock, Inc. Contract for difference 117.211,00 117.211,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - BlackRock, Inc. In Cash Ordinary share 749.676,00 749.676,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - BlackRock, Inc. Physical Delivery Distribution in percentages Type Total holding Directly real Directly potential Indirectly real Indirectly potential Capital interest 14,63 % 0,00 % 0,00 % 14,26 % 0,38 % Voting rights 15,71 % 0,00 % 0,00 % 15,34 % 0,38 % QIAGEN N.V. is not responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the notification above. The content has been taken from the relevant register of the AFM: https://www.afm.nl/en/professionals/registers/meldingenregisters/substantiele-deelnemingen/details?id=115620 17.09.2021 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted against the approval of COVID-19 booster shots for most people, but recommended the use of a third dose in people over age 65. The independent advisory panel on Friday voted 18-0 in emergency approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at least six months following the second dose among people ages 65 and older and those at high risk. The vote will now go before the FDA for a final decision. However, the panel earlier on Friday voted to reject the recommendation of Pfizer's booster vaccine in people ages 16 and older. The panel voted 2-16 against the recommendation. According to the panel, additional data is required to recommend boosters for people ages 16 and older. It also said that the current two-dose regimen is still highly protective against the spread of the Delta variant for most people. The panel referred to a research published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed people who have received both doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine are still 88 percent protected against the Delta variant. Meanwhile, the FDA is not required to adhere to advice of the independent advisory panel, but it has followed the panel's recommendation so far on COVID-19 vaccinations. The latest development is a setback to the Biden administration as it has been strongly advocating for booster shots for Americans to curb the delta variant, which is ravaging across the country. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2021) - Castlebar Capital Corp. (TSXV: CBAR.P) ("Castlebar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has filed a filing statement dated September 14, 2021 (the "Filing Statement") in connection with its proposed "qualifying transaction," as defined under TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") Policy 2.4 - Capital Pool Companies, respecting the Southern Spectrum mineral property (the "Property") in British Columbia (the "Transaction"). In due course, the Company will issue a further comprehensive press release announcing the closing of the Transaction and the date on which the common shares of the Company will resume trading. Assuming all conditions for closing are satisfied, the Company expects to close the Transaction on or about November 1, 2021, with trading in its common shares resuming shortly thereafter. The Filing Statement includes audited carve-out financial statements respecting the Property for the years ended April 30, 2021 and 2020. The carve-out financial statements indicate the Property consists of $136,500 in exploration and evaluation assets, $Nil liabilities, $Nil revenues, and a net loss of $2,440 for the year ended April 30, 2021. A technical report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Southern Spectrum Property" having an effective date of February 16, 2021, as revised April 16, 2021, prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"), has been prepared respecting the Property (the "Technical Report") and was filed under the Company's SEDAR profile in conjunction with the filing of the Filing Statement. Castlebar previously entered into a sale, assignment, assumption and amending agreement dated January 22, 2021, as amended June 22, 2021 (the "Definitive Agreement") with 1162832 B.C. Ltd. ("1162832") and Christopher R. Paul & Michael A. Blady (collectively, the "Optionor"), pursuant to which Castlebar will assume all of 1162832's right, title and interest, as optionee, in and to a property option agreement (the "Option Agreement") dated January 10, 2019, as amended September 10, 2020, respecting the Property. The parties have further amended the Definitive Agreement pursuant to an amending agreement dated as of August 23, 2021. The amending agreement increases the amount of the non-refundable deposit payable by Castlebar to 1162832 from $5,000 to up to $25,000, which deposit will be used by 1162832 for costs and expenses respecting the Property. To date, Castlebar has advanced $19,153 of the deposit to 1162832. For further information, please refer to the Filing Statement and the Technical Report on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, as well as the press releases of the Company dated December 11, 2020, January 22, 2021, April 20, 2021 and June 28, 2021. The Company will provide further updates respecting the Transaction in due course. About Castlebar Castlebar is a capital pool company in accordance with Exchange Policy 2.4 and its principal business is the identification and evaluation of assets or businesses with a view to completing a Qualifying Transaction. For additional information, please refer to the Company's disclosure record on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or contact the Company as follows: Lucas Birdsall, CEO, at (778) 549-6714 or lucasbirdsall@gmail.com. ### This news release contains "forward-looking information" that is based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, the Company's business, plans, outlook and business strategy. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "will", "likely", "expect," "anticipate," "intend", "estimate", "plan", "forecast", "project" and "believe" or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: changes in economic conditions or financial markets; increases in costs; litigation; legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; and technological or operational difficulties. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect our forward-looking information. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking information. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as 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 news release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96937 CodeSignal, a San Francisco, CA-based technical assessment platform to make data-driven hiring decisions in tech recruiting, raised $50M in Series C funding. The round, which brought total funding to $87.5M, was led by Index Ventures, with additional participation from Menlo Ventures, Headline, and A Capital. Founded in 2015 by Tigran Sloyan, CEO, CodeSignal is an assessment company which has created job simulation technology to enable hiring teams to assess skills and hire talent for roles, at scale. Its assessments provide a measure of a candidates qualifications, enabling recruiters to compare several scores and strengths at once before hiring decisions are made. The platform allows companies to set their own threshold for qualifications and customize assessments with comprehensive testing options for each team and job opening and safeguards against cheating. The platform is used by innovative tech firms including Brex, Databricks, Facebook, Instacart, Robinhood, Upwork, and Zoom. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product and go-to-market functions and launch its new Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that enables relevant assessment experiences. With IDE, candidates will now be able to interact with code, files, a terminal, and a preview of their application in a configurable environment. Employers can now assess all of an applicants skills at the same time through a single coding task. FinSMEs 16/09/2021 Kolide, a Boston, MA-based user-focused endpoint security platform for teams, raised $17M in Series B funding. The round, which brought total funding raised to date to $27m, was led by OpenView Partners, with participation from Matrix Partners, who previously led the Series A. The company intends to use the funds to expand its go-to market strategy, hire additional engineers and product staff to expand the products capabilities. Led by Jason Meller, CEO & Founder, Kolide provides a SaaS based endpoint security platform which enlists the help of employees directly to fix serious issues it detects on Linux, Mac, and Windows devices. All communication happens over a Slack app that messages end-users when their device no longer meets the security standards set by the company. The messages include customized instructions and even a way for end-users to immediately verify they correctly fixed the problem. Since its original launch, Kolide has been operating with a lean team to scale their product to 250+ customers. FinSMEs 16/09/2021 QED Investors, an Alexandria, Va.-based global fintech venture capital firm, closed its seventh fund, with capital commitments of $1.05 billion. Fund VII is comprised of a $550 million early stage fund and a $500 million growth-stage fund. These funds will allow QED Investors to continue to invest in fintech companies primarily in the U.S., the U.K., Latin America and Southeast Asia. Founded in 2007 by Nigel Morris and Frank Rotman, QED is a QED Investors is a global venture capital firm focused on investing in early stage, disruptive financial services companies in the U.S., U.K., Latin America and Southeast Asia. QED works side-by-side with CEOs and founders, applying a hypothesis-driven approach that identifies investment opportunities that are well-positioned in the marketplace. The firm has invested in more than 150 companies including 20 unicorns and has more than $3 billion under management. Notable investments include Avant, AvidXchange, ClearScore, Current, Creditas, Credit Karma, GreenSky, Klarna, Konfio, Loft, Mission Lane, Nubank, QuintoAndar, Remitly and SoFi. FinSMEs 17/09/2021 SafelyYou, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of artificial intelligence-enabled fall detection and prevention for dementia care, closed a $19.5m Series A financing round. The round was led by Eclipse Ventures with participation from Founders Fund, as well as existing investors DCVC and Foundation Capital. TSQ Advisors, Pathbreaker Ventures, The House Fund, Swift Ventures, Pacific Health Ventures, Anorak Ventures, and 7Percent Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to scale up its assisted living and skilled nursing business. Originating in 2015 as the doctoral research of CEO George Netscher at the UC Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab, SafelyYou utilizes artificial intelligence to empower care staff to implement fall prevention. Specifically designed for memory care, or care for residents with Alzheimers disease and related dementias, the companys subsequent fall video review provides support for unwitnessed falls through ER decision making and root cause analysis to support fall prevention. Privacy and liability are protected through cameras that only activate when a fall is detected. SafelyYou is already deployed in numerous communities in North America. FinSMEs 17/09/2021 Recently, Google officially confirmed the launch of Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones later this fall. A lot of rumours about the specification of the devices have been surfacing and on similar lines now, the specifications of the Tensor SoC powering the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have surfaced. According to a report, the Tensor SoC in the Pixel 6 series is said to feature 2x ARM Cortex-X1 cores clocked at 2.802GHz, 2x ARM Cortex-A76 cores clocked at 2.253GHz and 4x ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.80GHz. Further, the GPU information is not known yet, but according to previous rumours, it is said to feature the Mali-G78 GPU clocked at 848MHz and is said to be paired with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128GB / 256GB / 512GB storage. The report also suggests that the Pixel 6 Pro is said to feature Googles AV1 decoder, which means that the Pixel 6 Pro can decode HEVC content at up to 8K 30fps and AV1 content at 4K 60fps. It is also said to support Qualcomm aptX and aptX HD codecs for high-quality Bluetooth audio. Google just said that phones will be introduced sometime in the fall. Recent reports say that the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro will be available for pre-order on October 19th, and ship from October 28th. Source One Aldwych Hotel x Floral Street: Interdisciplinary Collaboration Still on Trend Art Books Events One Aldwych Hotel in London just unveiled their latest interdisciplinary collaboration with scent brand Floral Street, based just two minutes walk from the property. Part of their new Curator programme, which celebrates the best of creativity in the local area, Floral Streets founder Michelle Feeney was invited to work with One Aldwychs master mixologist Pedro Paulo on a menu of seven cocktails and two mocktails inspired by Floral Street scents, and "powered by" flowers. To aid guests in their selection, a scratch-and-sniff menu was designed so the perfumes could be experienced before, and alongside, the drinking experience. The menu includes: In addition, Floral Street extends their ScentSchool programme to One Aldwych guests, offering a private consultation with a glass of fizz and a complimentary Discovery Set. This latest multisensory novelty demonstrates the continued interest in interdisciplinary, cross-industrial thinking in flavour, fragrance and beyond, tapping into the now-established tenets of the experience economy, offering emotion-heightening, memory-generating, high-impact encounter. Given that 46% of consumers under 35 are more likely to order a mocktail (compared to 16% of over-35s), as well as the one-third of bartenders who are interested in using local, fresh ingredients in their drinks, the implementation of fragrance materials in mixology is a shrewd play that satisfies the demands of todays low-alcohol, better-for-you consumers. In corroboration, Paul Matthew, director of bar consultancy Blood and Sand and owner of The Hide Bar and The Arbitrager in London, commented: Familiar perfumes can conjure up all sorts of emotions, so theyre a great way of bringing more to the drink than the sum of its parts. An aroma can draw you into the flavours of the drink, whether through a mist on the surface, on a garnish or even the glass itself, or by using the components of perfume the essential oils and distillates that enable you to capture flavours not traditionally found in mixed drinks. We can certainly expect more of this in the years to come. Main Squeeze Juice Co. Comes to St. Louis, Missouri Juice and smoothie bar franchise to open multiple Missouri locations September 17, 2021 // Franchising.com // ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Main Squeeze Juice Co., a Louisiana-based juice and smoothie bar franchise, is opening at least four new locations in the St. Louis, Missouri area. The first store is set to open in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis later this year. Alex and Madison Kamakas, husband and wife duo, have signed on to open at least four Missouri locations. The duo will be bringing healthy on-the-go options to the Gateway City, an area known for its vibrant restaurant community that is currently undergoing tremendous culinary growth. We are so excited to be bringing Main Squeeze to St. Louis and providing quick, healthy options to the local community, said Madison Kamakas, one of the owners of the Missouri locations. We are looking forward to being the first Main Squeeze location in Missouri and providing fresh and healthy juices, smoothies and bowls to people across the state. Main Squeezes mission is to make healthy easier, and the companys nutritionist-designed, superfood-centric menu does exactly that. Its gluten-free and vegan menu offers a daily source of plant-based nutrition packed with natural and quick energy. The concepts proprietary recipes feature chef-inspired cold-pressed juices and superfood smoothies, along with one-, three- and five-day juice cleanse programs, shots, and acai bowls created from organic and wild-harvested acai berries from the Amazon rainforest in Northeast Brazil. Health begins and ends with how you choose to fuel your body and your lifestyle, said Main Squeeze CEO Thomas Nieto. We strongly believe in providing our customers with the freshest and highest quality ingredients possible, and we are excited to expand to St. Louis and Missouri. Customers of the new store will also be able to use the Main Squeeze Mobile App which is available in the App Store and Google Play Store. Users will be able to find and save their favorite orders of juices, smoothies, and bowls while managing their favorite Main Squeeze location and notification preferences. State of the art geofencing capabilities let the store know when you arrive curbside or in store for your order. Additionally, the app allows users to use Apple Pay or save their credit card information, using encrypted tokenization, for an even faster and easier app experience. SOURCE Main Squeeze Juice Company ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PLAYISM , Japans oldest indie game publisher, renowned for some of the most anticipated upcoming titles and popular recent releases including and announces the second annual PLAYISM Game Show: Premium Edition (PGS). The live event takes place Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021 at 3:00 AM EDT / 9:00 AM CEST / 4:00 PM JST, and will include world premieres and all-new information for both upcoming and previously-released games in both English and Japanese on YouTube PGS is where PLAYISM will showcase titles that will take part in the Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Asias premier video game event. The show will also feature announcements for the upcoming Bright Memory: Infinite, along with updates on Gnosia, Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-, The Sealed Ampoule, and many more. PLAYISM serves as a gateway between the best indie games of the West and the East, handling international releases of titles such as Mighty Goose, TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight, Idol Manager, and the Thursday, Nov. 25 release of DEEEER Simulator. In the decade-plus since its inception, the publisher has also supported Kero Blaster from the creator of Cave Story, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, and Touhou Luna Nights. PLAYISM also works with developers and publishers around the world to localize and release games in Asian territories, such as PlayStation 5 launch title Godfall, Independent Game Festival Grand Prize winner Umurangi Generation, and BAFTA Award winner Night In The Woods. PLAYISMs Asian catalogue also includes Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, Subnautica, VA-11 Hall-A, Necrobarista, and more. We are honored to be able to celebrate our partnerships with some of the most prominent names in indie games and beyond for our second annual showcase, said Shunji Mizutani, Executive Producer of PLAYISM. We cant wait to show the world what we have in store for the upcoming months. PLAYISM Game Show: Premium Edition occurs Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, at 12:00 AM PDT / 3:00 AM EDT / 9:00 AM CEST / 4:00 PM JST with an expected runtime of two hours in English and Japanese on YouTube. For more information on PLAYISM, please visit the PLAYISM Game Show official web page or the PLAYISM official website, and follow @PlayismEN on Twitter. Assets Logo Downloads About PLAYISM Japans oldest indie publisher, PLAYISM is known in the West for supporting popular indie games such as Gnosia, Idol Manager, Tasomachi: Behind the Twilight, Touhou Luna Nights, Fight Crab, Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-, the La-Mulana series, Bright Memory, and DEEEER Simulator among other titles. PLAYISMs motto is Bringing a Different Breed of Indie Game to the World. To learn more, visit the PLAYISM official website and follow @PlayismEN on Twitter. Media Contacts Ryan Tatum / Carter Dotson Stride PR for PLAYISM [email protected] / [email protected] Dallas, TX , Sept. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The complicated nature of sexual assault law makes it difficult for both victims and the accused to navigate the Texas legal system, particularly when a spouse or intimate partner is involved in the alleged assault. Dallas criminal defense lawyers Broden & Mickelsen have published a new resource to help the public understand Texas laws on sexual assault involving a spouse. In some cases, people mistakenly believe that it is impossible to sexually assault a spouse because the couple is married. However, this is an outdated concept and no longer the law in any state in the country. In a handful of states, the law carves out narrow exceptions for sexual assault that takes place in a marriage and an individual may be charged with a less serious offense. However, this is not the law in Texas. Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Mick Mickelsen, partner at Broden & Mickelsen The board certified criminal appeals experts provide detail on the following areas: Sexual assault in a marriage under Texas law The statute of limitations for sexual assault of a spouse in Texas Penalties for sexual assault of a spouse in Texas Potential defenses against allegations of sexual assault of a spouse in Texas Read the resource on sexual assault involving a spouse in Texas here. About Broden & Mickelsen Criminal Defense Attorneys Broden & Mickelsen are a team of criminal defense attorneys defending Texas clients in state and federal courts. With almost 1000 cases and fifty years of experience between the two of them, Broden & Mickelsen have been the recipients of multiple awards and accolades, including Thomas Reuters Super Lawyer award. As Texas Board of Legal Specialization certified experts in criminal law for trials and appeals, Broden & Mickelsen use an aggressive and ethical representation strategy to get the best and most just results for their clients. Media Contact: Mick Mickelsen T: (214) 720-9552 https://www.brodenmickelsen.com/ Check out Broden & Mickelsen on My Huckleberry and TravelFul. Attachment Press Release Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo launch 5G network in Indonesia Nokias latest 5G AirScale portfolio to be deployed across Indonesias central islands delivering incredible 5G experiences to subscribers Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo together with Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) and the University of Oulu to launch the Nokia 5G Experience Center providing a platform for the development of innovative new use cases by local digital talent 17 September 2021 Espoo, Finland Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo today announced the launch of commercial 5G services in Surabaya city, Indonesia. Under the deal, Indosat Ooredoos customers will experience new enterprise and industrial use cases underpinned by the new 5G network. Nokia will supply equipment from its latest ReefShark based AirScale product range, including its AirScale Single RAN portfolio for both indoor and outdoor coverage. These solutions will offer faster speeds and wider mobile coverage for Indosat Ooredoos customers while cutting costs for the operator to run its network. Nokia will also deploy its dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) solution, which will allow Indosat Ooredoo to use its 4G networks spectrum for 5G services, decreasing the time it takes to get 5G up and running. Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo, as well as partners, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology and the University of Oulu, will also open the Nokia 5G Experience Centre at ITS facilities in Surabaya. The site includes a Centre of Creativity designed for technology developers and ITS students to explore and develop new 5G use cases to drive innovation and socio-economic development in Indonesia. In addition, the facility includes a Center of Knowledge with 5G millimeter-wave capability to simulate a live 5G environment for testing a range of 5G uses cases. It also includes a Center of Excellence offering professional 5G certifications and other academic programs to support the development of local digital talent. Indosat Ooredoo offers advanced communications services to its customers across Indonesia, including mobile and fixed, video, internet, and business communications services. Nokia has already worked with the operator on several network upgrades in Indonesia, including its IP/MPLS mobile transport network solution, as well as its LTE-Advanced network. Ahmad Al-Neama, President Director and CEO at Indosat Ooredoo, said: I am deeply humbled and proud to launch Indosat Ooredoos 5G services in Surabaya aligned with our commitment to being the forefront of the 5G revolution in Indonesia. This technology will help unleash many opportunities for the regions education, people, and economy. As the result of our collaboration with ITS, Nokia, and the University of Oulu Finland, the advanced Nokia 5G Experience Center will complete the innovation and development of local content use cases relevant to the city. With the full supports from Government, Indosat Ooredoo continues to accelerate Indonesias transformation into a digital and 5G-enabled nation." Prof. Dr. Ir. Mochamad Ashari, Rector of Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, said: We are thrilled to be partnering with Nokia and Indosat Ooredoo to bring 5G innovation to Indonesia and specifically into Surabaya. Through such industry partnerships, we aim to provide a platform for young minds to collaborate directly with industry and business leaders and develop 5G solutions that will benefit the University and the wider community. The launch of the 5G Experience center is in line with the governments agenda that would enable ITS to spearhead the advance learning and research and provide students and faculty an opportunity to be on the forefront of innovation. Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: We are excited to launch commercial 5G services in Indonesia with Indosat Ooredoo as its trusted partner. Our AirScale portfolio will deliver best-in-class services to its subscribers and I look forward to working hand in hand with them on this project moving forward. The opening of the Nokia 5G Experience Center will also provide a platform to drive innovation in the country. Resources: About Nokia At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together. As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs. Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world. Media Inquiries: Nokia Communications Phone: +358 10 448 4900 Email: press.services@nokia.com About Indosat Ooredoo Indosat Ooredoo (IDX: ISAT), a member of Ooredoo Group, is building Indonesias leading digital telco, enabling access and greater connectivity for everybody and every business. Indosat Ooredoo aspires to enrich the lives of Indonesians in the digital world. The Company reported 60.3 million mobile customers as of H1 2021 and operates 68,759 4G BTS covers nearly 90% of the population. For other information about Indosat Ooredoo, please contact: Steve Saerang, SVP Head of Corporate Communications +62 816 100 930 E-mail : steve.saerang@indosatooredoo.com Website : www.indosatooredoo.com YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChs2x7pZ2D8UgHz9cgrn3sQ Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/IndosatOoredoo/ VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Major Precious Metals Corp. (Major Precious Metals or the Company) (CSE:SIZE | OTC:SIZYF | FRANKFURT:3EZ) is pleased to announce that it has successfully completed its Phase 1 diamond drilling program at its Skaergaard Project (Skaergaard) in Greenland with all planned drill hole depths covering an area of approximately 10 km within the 7.5 km (east-west) by 11 km (north-south) Skaergaard intrusion, including key new target zones in the northern part of the Project. Highlights A total of 32 diamond drill holes (8,195 m) were completed in several key target areas in the northern part of Skaergaard. These target areas were discussed in the Companys August 26, 2021 news release. Approximately 240 m of channel samples were also collected from four separate areas where mineralization outcrops at surface in the northern part of the deposit. The combination of diamond drilling and channel sampling resulted in 8, 435 m being completed and approximately 11,600 core and channel samples being collected for gold, palladium, platinum, and secondary element assay testing. Beneficial erosion since previous drilling campaigns were undertaken has resulted in considerably reduced overburden to the mineralized zones in some areas. being completed and approximately 11,600 core and channel samples being collected for gold, palladium, platinum, and secondary element assay testing. Beneficial erosion since previous drilling campaigns were undertaken has resulted in considerably reduced overburden to the mineralized zones in some areas. The new drilling aimed to uplift and expand the existing mineral resource in the four main mineralized horizons at Skaergaard (H5, H3L1, H3, and H0) and verify the potential for vanadium, titanium, iron, gallium, and other secondary elements in the intermediate mineralized levels. This drilling program was also designed to test the bulk tonnage and open-cut potential in certain areas in the northern part of Skaergaard, where part of the mineralization is laterally exposed by erosion, since the initial discovery of the deposit. All planned drill hole depths were determined in advance by correlating light-coloured marker horizons present within the deposit with historical grades to model the four mineralized horizons in 3D using Leapfrog Geo. The Company is pleased to report that all planned drill hole depths were reached during the Phase 1 drilling program and intercepted mineralized horizons were sampled in full for assay testing. The SLR Consulting Ltd. ( SLR ) Qualified Persons (QPs) also completed their personal inspection (site visit) of the Skaergaard Project the week of August 23rd. The SLR Qualified Persons were of the opinion that drilling, logging, core/channel sampling, and data management were all in accordance with mining industry standards and CIM best practice guidelines. ) Qualified Persons (QPs) also completed their personal inspection (site visit) of the Skaergaard Project the week of August 23rd. The SLR Qualified Persons were of the opinion that drilling, logging, core/channel sampling, and data management were all in accordance with mining industry standards and CIM best practice guidelines. The Skaergaard core and channel samples will shortly be sent to ALS Globals laboratory in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland for assay testing. Initial results are estimated to be released in late October, pending confirmation of exact timing by the laboratory. Tony Williams, Chairman and CEO of Major Precious Metals commented, We are very pleased to have successfully completed this phase of the evaluation at Skaergaard. I believe it is important as we complete this stage of the project to remind investors of the sheer magnitude of the opportunity at Skaergaard. We can already demonstrate a Palladium and Gold resource of global significance, all independently modelled and supported by a NI 43-101 report. We believe that the results from this recent drilling program will continue to demonstrate the uniquely uniform geology and precious metal content of the Skaergaard intrusion, and also confirm it as an advanced project with vast potential, which is now being relaunched by a new experienced team in a safe, mining-friendly jurisdiction. The Greenland minerals sector is gaining increasing geopolitical importance for its critical minerals and is already attracting significant financing from US and European Agencies and the new Government has reaffirmed its support for sustainable mining projects such as Skaergaard. Finally, I would just like to add that in my opinion it all starts and ends in the market. We are reviving Skaergaard at a time when prices for Platinum Group Metals, and Palladium in particular, are robust and market fundamentals appear strong going forward. Palladium is right at the forefront as a Green Energy Metal as the decarbonization of the global economy gathers pace. At Skaergaard not only do we have a large Palladium rich resource, we also have a lot of gold and exposure to other critical metals such as vanadium and titanium in the main and intermediate mineralized horizons, all adding to potential increases in overall Rock Value. We look forward to further updating investors as results are finalized from this summers drilling program at Skaergaard. Qualified Person Statement All scientific and technical information contained in this news release was prepared and approved by Paul Teniere, P.Geo., President of Major Precious Metals Corp, who is a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. On behalf of the Board of Directors MAJOR PRECIOUS METALS CORP. Tony Williams Chairman and CEO Suite 810 - 789 West Pender Street Vancouver, BC V6C 1H2 Ph: 1-877-475-0963 info@majorprecious.com About Major Precious Metals Corp. Major Precious Metals is a Canadian mining company advancing exploration of its flagship Skaergaard Project in Greenland, which contains one of the world's largest palladium and gold deposits outside the major PGM producing areas of Russia and South Africa. The Company is focused on creating shareholder value by accelerating the progress of the Skaergaard Project along the Mine Development Cycle. Additional information relating to Major Precious Metals is available at www.majorprecious.com and SEDAR at www.sedar.com . Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking Information Statement This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. When used in this news release, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, target, plan, forecast, may, schedule and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to the development of a mineral resource estimate for the Skaergaard Project, and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Companys current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. EBENE, Mauritius, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceridian (NYSE: CDAY; TSX: CDAY), a global leader in human capital management (HCM) technology, and PwC Mauritius announced an alliance where PwC Mauritius will provide consultation and implementation services to organisations seeking to optimise their operations through Ceridians award-winning HCM platform, Dayforce. Trusted by more than 5,100 customers globally, Ceridian applies modern technology to help HR and business leaders create value in a fluid, always-on workplace. Organisations benefit from a single solution for HCM that combines HR, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management. PwC is one of the leading providers of consulting services to some of the worlds largest enterprises. Through this strategic partnership, PwC will help organisations seamlessly integrate our modern Dayforce platform into their technology ecosystems, while delivering enhanced choice, scale, and innovation, said Raja Nucho, Senior Vice President and Chief Partner Officer, Ceridian. Were thrilled to partner with PwC to deliver shared knowledge, industry expertise, and best-in-class services to our mutual customers. Ceridians collaboration with PwC Mauritius is part of the Ceridian Partner Network, through which businesses can access holistic services to modernise their HCM processes. System integrator partners combine their Ceridian expertise with deep advisory services to provide expert guidance on organisational, functional, and process development at the industry, regional, or global level. Were excited to work with PwC Mauritius to help organisations transform their human capital management processes for a redefined future of work, said Vidia Mooneegan, Managing Director, Ceridian Mauritius. Our partnership will help businesses to modernise their operations to meet the increasingly borderless, fluid, and on-demand nature of work. The global collaboration between Ceridian and PwC has reached the African continent, and its a privilege that the regional market expansion will be driven from Mauritius. As we help our clients prepare their organisation for the future of work and address challenges of the workforce of the future, we are collaborating with world class solution partners like Ceridian to accelerate our clients business transformation, and build sustainable solutions for them, said Jean-Pierre Young, PwC Mauritius Advisory Leader. Ceridians system integrator network delivers a world-class buying and service experience from beginning to end. With a focus on customers, it provides clear expectations at each stage of engagement alongside tight integration across stakeholders. Learn more about the Ceridian Partner Network here: https://www.ceridian.com/partners. About Ceridian Ceridian. Makes Work Life Better. Ceridian is a global human capital management software company. Dayforce , our flagship cloud HCM platform, provides human resources, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management functionality. Our platform is used to optimise management of the entire employee lifecycle, including attracting, engaging, paying, deploying, and developing people. Ceridian has solutions for organisations of all sizes. Visit Ceridian.com or follow us @Ceridian . Media Contact: Fahd Pasha 647.417.2136 Fahd.pasha@ceridian.com About PwC At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. Were a network of firms in 157 countries with over 276,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. PwC in Mauritius is recognised as a thought leader and a change initiator, where more than 300 professional staff combine the resources of our global network with detailed knowledge of local issues. We favour an industry approach to serve a large number of companies doing business in Mauritius, ranging from multinationals, a cross section of local businesses, to public institutions. Find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.com/mu. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. 2021 PwC. All rights reserved. Media Contact: Ariane Serret +230 57473121 ariane.serret@pwc.com Two photos accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9d44cc48-beec-48fa-a330-d2636a107319 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5b62f277-68ed-4521-8233-d51be9ebd376 English German Progression-free survival (PFS) of derazantinib monotherapy increased to eight months Basel, Switzerland, September 17, 2021 Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today the reporting of the updated efficacy and safety results from cohort 1 of the phase 2 study FIDES-01, which evaluated its fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor, derazantinib, in patients with FGFR2 fusion-positive advanced or metastatic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), a type of bile duct cancer, at the Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), taking place as a virtual meeting from 16 to 21 September 2021. Patients with advanced iCCA have a poor prognosis. With the current chemotherapy standard-of-care, the median overall survival is less than one year.1 Cohort 1 of FIDES-01 enrolled 103 iCCA patients with confirmed FGFR2 fusions.2 Since the reporting of first topline results in early February 2021, more patient follow-up data has been obtained, showing improvements in efficacy outcomes over time. At the cut-off date in early August, for the data presented at the ESMO congress, the disease control rate (DCR) was 75.7%, including 22 patients with a partial response as the best objective response, corresponding to an objective response rate (ORR) of 21.4%. Importantly, the progression-free survival (PFS) further increased to 8.0 months (previously: 7.8 months). The time to progression (TTP) with derazantinib was 8.1 months and thus markedly longer when compared to a TTP of only 4.5 months with the previous anti-cancer treatment the patients had received prior to entering the study. Median overall survival was 15.9 months, with follow-up ongoing. As reported at ESMO, derazantinib had a notably well manageable adverse event profile, with a low incidence of class effects such as nail toxicities, stomatitis, hand-foot syndrome and retinal effects. Dr. Marc Engelhardt, Chief Medical Officer, said: The further improved efficacy data and confirmed good safety and tolerability profile presented at ESMO are very encouraging and further strengthen the evidence for the efficacy of derazantinib and its differentiation in iCCA to other FGFR inhibitors from a safety perspective. Derazantinib ePoster at ESMO Congress 2021, published on September 16 Derazantinib for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring FGFR2 fusions/rearrangements: Primary results from the Phase 2 study FIDES-01 M. Droz dit Busset, W. L. Shaib, K. Mody, N. Personeni, N. Damjanov, W. P. Harris, F. Bergamo, G. Brandi, G. Masi, T. Halfdanarson, V. Tam, L. W. Goff, J. Knox, A. Hollebecque, T. Macarulla Mercade, F. Cantero, M. Saulay, S. Braun, M. Javle, M. Borad; abstract 47P For further information please visit esmo.org/meetings/esmo-congress-2021. About derazantinib Derazantinib is an investigational orally administered small-molecule FGFR inhibitor with strong activity against FGFR1, 2, and 3.3 FGFR kinases are key drivers of cell proliferation, differentiation and migration. FGFR genetic aberrations, e.g. gene fusions, mutations or amplifications, have been identified as potentially important therapeutic targets for various cancers, including intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), urothelial, breast, gastric and lung cancers.4 In these cancers, FGFR genetic aberrations are found in a range of 5% to 30%.5 Derazantinib also inhibits the colony-stimulating-factor-1-receptor kinase (CSF1R).3, 6 CSF1R-mediated signaling is important for the maintenance of tumor-promoting macrophages and therefore has been identified as a potential target for anti-cancer drugs.7 Pre-clinical data has shown that tumor macrophage depletion through CSF1R blockade renders tumors more responsive to T-cell checkpoint immunotherapy, including approaches targeting PD-L1/PD-1.8, 9 Derazantinib has demonstrated antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in a previous biomarker-driven phase 1/2 study in iCCA patients,10 and has received U.S. and EU orphan drug designation for iCCA. Basilea is currently conducting three clinical studies with derazantinib. The first study, FIDES-01, is a phase 2 study in patients with inoperable or advanced iCCA. It comprises one cohort of patients with FGFR2 gene fusions and another cohort of patients with mutations or amplifications.2 The second study, FIDES-02, is a phase 1/2 study evaluating derazantinib alone and in combination with Roche's PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, atezolizumab, in patients with advanced urothelial cancer, including metastatic, or recurrent surgically unresectable disease, expressing FGFR genetic aberrations.11 The third study, FIDES-03, is a phase 1/2 study evaluating derazantinib alone and in combination with Lillys anti-VEGFR2 antibody ramucirumab and paclitaxel, or with Roches PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab, in patients with advanced gastric cancer with FGFR genetic aberrations.12 Basilea has in-licensed derazantinib from ArQule Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A. About intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is a cancer originating from the biliary system. The age-adjusted incidence rate of iCCA in the United States has been increasing over the past decade and is currently estimated to be approximately 1.2 per 100,000.13 Patients are often diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease that cannot be surgically removed. Current first-line standard of care is the chemotherapy combination of gemcitabine and platinum-derived agents. The prognosis for patients with advanced disease is poor, with a median survival of less than one year.14 About Basilea Basilea is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Switzerland. We are committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative drugs to meet the medical needs of patients with cancer and infectious diseases. We have successfully launched two hospital brands, Cresemba for the treatment of invasive fungal infections and Zevtera for the treatment of severe bacterial infections. We are conducting clinical studies with two targeted drug candidates for the treatment of a range of cancers and have a number of preclinical assets in both cancer and infectious diseases in our portfolio. Basilea is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Please visit basilea.com. Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Derazantinib and its use is investigational and has not been approved by a regulatory authority for any use. Efficacy and safety have not been established. The information presented should not be construed as a recommendation for use. The relevance of findings in nonclinical/preclinical studies to humans is currently being evaluated. For further information, please contact: Peer Nils Schroder, PhD Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone +41 61 606 1102 E-mail media_relations@basilea.com investor_relations@basilea.com This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com. References S. Rizvi, S. A. Khan, C. L. Hallemeier et al. Cholangiocarcinoma evolving concepts and therapeutic strategies. Nature reviews Clinical oncology. 2018 (15), 95-111 FIDES-01: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03230318. T. G. Hall, Y. Yu, S. Eathiraj et al. Preclinical activity of ARQ 087, a novel inhibitor targeting FGFR dysregulation. PLoS ONE 2016, 11 (9), e0162594 R. Porta, R. Borea, A. Coelho et al. FGFR a promising druggable target in cancer: Molecular biology and new drugs. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology 2017 (113), 256-267 T. Helsten, S. Elkin, E. Arthur et al. The FGFR landscape in cancer: Analysis of 4,853 tumors by next-generation sequencing. Clinical Cancer Research 2016 (22), 259-267 P. McSheehy, F. Bachmann, N. Forster-Gross et al. Derazantinib (DZB): A dual FGFR/CSF1R-inhibitor active in PDX-models of urothelial cancer. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2019 (18), 12 supplement, pp. LB-C12 M. A. Cannarile, M. Weisser, W. Jacob et al. Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitors in cancer therapy. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2017, 5:53 Y. Zhu, B. L. Knolhoff, M. A. Meyer et al. CSF1/CSF1R Blockade reprograms tumor-infiltrating macrophages and improves response to T cell checkpoint immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer models. Cancer Research 2014 (74), 5057-5069 E. Peranzoni, J. Lemoine, L. Vimeux et al. Macrophages impede CD8 T cells from reaching tumor cells and limit the efficacy of antiPD-1 treatment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 2018 (115), E4041-E4050 V. Mazzaferro, B. F. El-Rayes, M. Droz dit Busset et al. Derazantinib (ARQ 087) in advanced or inoperable FGFR2 gene fusion-positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. British Journal of Cancer 2019 (120), 165-171. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01752920 FIDES-02: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04045613 FIDES-03: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04604132 S. K. Saha, A. X. Zhu, C. S. Fuchs et al. Forty-year trends in cholangiocarcinoma incidence in the U.S.: intrahepatic disease on the rise. The Oncologist 2016 (21), 594-599 A. Lamarca, D. H. Palmer, H. S. Wasa et al. Second-line FOLFOX chemotherapy versus active symptom control for advanced biliary tract cancer (ABC-06): a phase 3, open-label, randomised, controlled trial. Lancet Oncology 2021 (22):690-701 Attachment Bank Norwegian ASA has on 16 September 2021 received a notice from the Norwegian FSA announcing that the updated MREL requirement to be received in 2021 will include a cap with respect to the subordination requirement calculated in accordance with BRRD2, equalling the sum of Pillar 1 x 2 + Pillar 2 x 2 + Combined Buffer requirements x 1. The linear subordination phase-in requirement will be continued. However, the starting point of the linear phase-in will be set at a minimum subordination requirement of 13.5% (on top of the minimum Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 requirements) as of 1 January 2022, which is in in accordance with BRRD article 45c (5). CET1 capital used to cover the Combined Buffer requirements is explicitly expressed to be eligible to cover the subordination requirement. Bank Norwegian ASA is expected by the Norwegian FSA to update its phase-in plan accordingly. Contact persons: Interim CEO and CFO Klara Lise Aasen; phone +47 47635583; kaa@banknorwegian.no Head of Treasury Mats Benserud; phone +47 95891539; mbe@banknorwegian.no This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. TORONTO, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. (CSE: RWB and OTCQX: RWBYF) (RWB or the Company), a multi-state cannabis operator and house of premium brands, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Ryan Costello to its Board of Directors to become effective upon completion of any regulatory and/ or other requirements, as applicable. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/15367fcc-b9fd-4361-a03c-f6bf364416f8 Mr. Costello brings a wealth of US government regulatory experience, including areas overseeing cannabis policy. Mr. Costello is a former U.S. Congressman (2015-2019, R-PA), and now public policy consultant. Mr. Costello advises companies and investors on public policy and strategic objectives on matters before legislative and administrative agencies, primarily involving healthcare, energy, environmental, technology and transportation matters. In Congress, he served on the Committee on Energy & Commerce, which has jurisdiction over a broad range of industries and policy areas, including healthcare and cannabis policy, as well as the Veterans Affairs Committee. Prior to Congress, Mr. Costello was an attorney in private practice, representing clients on regulatory compliance and permit approvals involving governmental agencies, real estate acquisitions, financing, and project approvals; he also served as counsel for various governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. Mr. Costello is a graduate of Ursinus College, B.A., with Honors, and received his law degree from the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. Brad Rogers, Chairman & CEO commented, Mr. Costello will be a very welcome addition to the RWB Board as he brings a wealth of experience with solid acumen and a complimentary skill set. He will also deepen the Companys US-based representation which is key, as federal policy on cannabis shifts through many of the bills scheduled to reach the House of Representatives and Senate over the near future. Mr. Costello remarked, Im looking forward to utilizing my 15+ years of service in government, the legal profession, and my familiarity with cannabis policy to be a strategic resource for RWB as it positions itself as a true market leading house of brands in the permitted U.S. marketplace. About Red White & Bloom Brands Inc. The Company is positioning itself to be one of the top three multi-state cannabis operators active in the U.S. legal cannabis and hemp sector. RWB is predominantly focusing its investments on the major US markets, including Michigan, Illinois, Florida, California, Oklahoma, Arizona and Massachusetts, with respect to cannabis, and the US and internationally for hemp-based CBD products. For more information about Red White & Bloom Brands Inc., please contact: Brad Rogers, CEO and Chairman 604-687-2038 Tyler Troup, Managing Director Circadian Group IR IR@RedWhiteBloom.com Visit us on the web: www.RedWhiteBloom.com Follow us on social media: Twitter: @rwbbrands Facebook: @redwhitebloombrands Instagram: @redwhitebloombrands Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Companys current expectations. When used in this press release, the words estimate, project, belief, anticipate, intend, expect, plan, predict, may or should and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. There is no assurance that these transactions will yield results in line with management expectations. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with the implementation of the Companys business plan and matters relating thereto, risks associated with the cannabis industry, competition, regulatory change, the need for additional financing, reliance on key personnel, market size, and the volatility of the Companys common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on managements beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the Companys actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to the Companys proposed business, such as failure of the business strategy and government regulation; risks related to the Companys operations, such as additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key and qualified personnel, insurance, competition, intellectual property and reliable supply chains; risks related to the Company and its business generally; risks related to regulatory approvals. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on the Companys forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS. Dublin, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Device - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Device Market studied is expected to grow with an estimated CAGR of 6.70% over the forecast period. With the emergence of COVID-19, the focus has shifted more towards patient care and comfort. With the rise in demand and compelling with the situation, regulatory authorities like USFDA have provided some relaxation in the regulations for the launch of medical devices to provide uninterrupted support and care to the mother and fetus during the tough situation of the pandemic. As soon as ease was provided in April 2020 by the USFDA, Philips had launched its wireless fetal heart rate monitoring device in June 2020 in the United States. Thus, COVID-19 is expected to positively impact the fetal heart rate monitoring device market. The studied market growth is largely attributed to technological advancement in fetal monitoring devices, increasing birth rate and preterm births, and rising government and non-government initiatives to provide better maternal and fetal care. The technological advancement in monitoring devices is likely to drive the market growth as it has a prime focus on patient care and comfort. The wireless and in-home monitoring devices introduced in the market enabling data sharing with healthcare workers. Preterm birth means a baby is born before the completion of 37 weeks of pregnancy and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are the common cause of it. Further, the rate of preterm births has been increasing in the United States over the years. In 2019, there were 10.2% of live births were preterm i.e., 1 out of 10 babies born in the US. Preterm birth could lead to complications and even death, so vigorous heart rate monitoring helps determine the fetus's safety. Hence, owing to the rising number of preterm births and rising usages of these devices in fetal health monitoring, market is likely to grow with notable growth rate over upcoming period. To ensure better facilities, various government and nongovernment agencies also participate. For instance, in September 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) was collaborated with ministries of health to strengthen and invest in care, particularly around the time of birth and the first week of life. These will encourage the participation of the organization and boost market growth. Given all the mentioned facts, the Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Device Market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. However, stringent regulatory norms for medical devices and the high cost associated with fetal heart rate monitoring devices may act as restraining factors for the market studied. Key Market Trends Wireless Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Devices Segment is Expected to Dominate the Market Over the Forecast Period Wireless fetal heart rate monitoring devices are advanced diagnostic technology used to monitor the fetal heart rate to assure the fetus's health during high-risk pregnancies. The wireless fetal monitors come with either adhesive pads or patches or with the belt to ensure proper holding across the stomach of the mother. This new technology could be used for any method invasive or noninvasive without compromising the result in inpatient or outpatient settings. Many technologically advanced medical device organizations are planning to launch such devices or be on the verge of launching them. These wireless or cableless monitoring devices have made prenatal care a better experience especially in developing countries where there is a shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists. Also, the use of a wireless fetal monitor that can transmit fetal heart rate data via Bluetooth, was piloted amongst healthy patients undergoing labor induction at term and allowed home monitoring for 24 hours. The use of wireless fetal monitoring technology in the home could be found feasible and acceptable to pregnant women. The instrument like HeraBEAT (smart fetal doppler with data sharing) by H-cube (Her Healthcare at home) enables the expected mother to hear and monitor the fetus's heart rate and share it with health practitioners. Thus, with the support of technologically advanced solutions for providing better prenatal care, the demand for wireless fetal heart rate monitoring devices is expected to grow in the future. North America Dominates the Market and Expected to do Same in the Forecast Period North America along with the United States and Canada, is found to have one of the very well-structured, developed, and advanced healthcare systems across the globe. With high research and development expenditure for fetal and neonatal care devices, the governments of the North American region are also promoting small setups for healthcare research. Therefore, many companies are encouraged to operate in this region, making North America dominating the market across the globe. Moreover, According to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) report, the spending on Research and Development in the United States in healthcare has increased to 5.7% from 2018 to 2019. Also, the Canadian Government has launched about 73 projects under the Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) initiative aiming to improve the health of women and children. Further, high-risk pregnancies occur in around 6-8% of pregnancies in the United States. Monitoring of heart rate and vital during such conditions become extremely important for practitioners to prevent deaths. Thus, to overcome such scenarios and provide better health facilities to mother and fetus, the government is encouraging the participation by the various organization of industry and making the North American Market preferable choice by the industry players. Competitive Landscape The Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring market is moderately competitive with several global and regional players. In terms of market share, the major players currently dominate the market. With the rising patient awareness levels and high preterm birth rates, many regional players are expected to be part of the fetal heart rate monitoring devices market over the forecast period. The market's major players are GE Healthcare, Fujifilm Sonosite Inc, MedGyn Products Inc, Siemens Healthineers, Cooper Surgicals, Edan instruments, and Trismed Co Ltd. Reasons to Purchase this report: The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format 3 months of analyst support Key Topics Covered: 1 INTRODUCTION 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 MARKET DYNAMICS 4.1 Market Overview 4.2 Market Drivers 4.2.1 Technological Advancement in Fetal Monitoring Devices 4.2.2 Rising Number of Birth Rate and Preterm Births 4.2.3 Rising Government and Non Government Initiaves to Provide Better Maternal and Fetal Care 4.3 Market Restraints 4.3.1 Strigent Regulatory Norms for Medical Devices 4.3.2 High Cost Associated with Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring Devices 4.4 Porter's Five Force Analysis 4.4.1 Threat of New Entrants 4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers 4.4.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.4.4 Threat of Substitute Products 4.4.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry 5 MARKET SEGMENTATION 5.1 By Product Class 5.1.1 Internal Heart Rate Monitoring Device 5.1.2 External Heart Rate Monitoring Device 5.2 By Technology Type 5.2.1 Doppler Ultrasound Device 5.2.2 Electronic Fetal Monitoring Device 5.3 By Portablity of Device 5.3.1 Portable 5.3.2 Non Portable 5.4 By Geography 5.4.1 North America 5.4.1.1 United States 5.4.1.2 Canada 5.4.1.3 Mexico 5.4.2 Europe 5.4.2.1 Germany 5.4.2.2 United Kingdom 5.4.2.3 France 5.4.2.4 Italy 5.4.2.5 Spain 5.4.2.6 Rest of Europe 5.4.3 Asia-Pacific 5.4.3.1 China 5.4.3.2 Japan 5.4.3.3 India 5.4.3.4 Australia 5.4.3.5 South Korea 5.4.3.6 Rest of Asia-Pacific 5.4.4 Rest of the World 6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE 6.1 Company Profiles 6.1.1 Philips Healthcare 6.1.2 GE Healthcare 6.1.3 Siemens Healthineers 6.1.4 Cooper Surgicals Inc 6.1.5 MedGyn Products, Inc 6.1.6 Edan Instruments 6.1.7 Sunray Medical Appratus Co. 6.1.8 Bionet America 6.1.9 Trismed CO, Ltd 6.1.10 Mindray Medicals 6.1.11 Fujifilm Sonosite, Inc 6.1.12 Natus Medical, Inc 7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6ovek6 Atlanta, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATLANTA September 17, 2021 Today, Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) (Acuity) announced the upcoming retirement of Richard (Ricky) K. Reece, Executive Vice President of Acuity Brands and Vice Chairman, Acuity Brands Lighting. Reece will continue in his role until November 30, 2021. On behalf of the Board of Directors, the leadership team, and our associates, we thank Ricky for his dedication and many contributions to Acuity, said Neil Ashe, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). We appreciate his leadership over the past 16 years and wish him the best in his next chapter. Prior to his current role, Reece served as the Companys President from September 2019 to February 2021 and previously as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for 14 years. During his tenure as CFO, Reece partnered closely with former Acuity Chairman and CEO, Vernon Nagel, evolving the Acuity portfolio to include smart lighting, controls, and electronics through numerous acquisitions including SensorSwitch, eldoLED, and ams OSRAMs North American Digital Systems business and Acuitys entry into the intelligent spaces market through the acquisition of Distech. It has been an honor to be part of Acuitys transformation and growth, said Richard Reece. I am privileged to have played a role in growing our business and working with the most incredible talent in the industry. On March 1, 2021, the Company announced that Trevor S. Palmer succeeded Reece as President of the Acuity Brands lighting and lighting controls business. About Acuity Brands Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. Through its two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL) and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG) the Company designs, manufactures, and brings to market products and services that make the world more brilliant, productive, and connected. Acuity Brands achieves growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including building management systems, lighting, lighting controls, and location-aware applications. Acuity Brands achieves customer-focused efficiencies that allow the Company to increase market share and deliver superior returns. The Company looks to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals. Acuity Brands is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 12,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuitybrands.com. Investor Contact: Charlotte McLaughlin investorrelations@acuitybrands.com Media Contact: Chrystal Neely chrystal.neely@acuitybrands.com Attachment Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ALBUQUERQUE, NM September 16, 2021 REDW LLC, a top 200 accounting and advisory firm, also recognized as the premier firm serving Indian Country, is excited to welcome back Native American finance and business professionals to its Tribal Finance & Leadership Conference on November 3-4, 2021 at River Spirit Casino Resort, a tribally-owned property of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The annual Conference, now in its 12th year, will celebrate A Time for Gathering Together and feature the resilience and power of Native American communities in battling the pandemic, all while keeping the health and safety of everyone involved a top priority. Our communities serve as a role model for what can be accomplished when people come together for the greater good, said Wesley Benally, REDWs National Tribal Practice Co-Leader and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. It is traditional for Tribes to gather together to celebrate our cultures and renew the strength of our ties and interdependence. The Conference builds on that tradition. The Conference agenda has been carefully designed to address the most pressing issues tribes are currently facing, including timely presentations and interactive sessions on American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) project planning, taxation, effective cash and wealth management, the future of our workforce, remote workplace policies and effective management, cybersecurity, and many other top priority topics, over two days. Tribal leaders, experts and professionals will provide guidance during a number of educational breakout sessions. Keynote speaker and consultant Priya Parker, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering, will open the Conference and speak to its main theme. Founder and executive director of IllumiNative and an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Crystal Echo Hawk, will end with a dynamic and inspirational session on how to create new strategies and investment to catalyze transformational change for and by Native Americans. Chris Tyhurst, REDW Principal and Conference Co-Chair, said: We are grateful that our clients and other Native professionals came through the worst of pandemic challenges with grace and dignity. While keeping attendee health and safety a top priority, we offer the Conference as way to counteract the isolation of 2020, as we reconnect and rebuild in 2021 and beyond. Victor Flores, REDWs new Director of Oklahoma Tribal Services, added: Following the highly successful opening of our Oklahoma office in late 2020, it is especially gratifying to be able to bring the REDW Tribal Conference to the state for the first time in 11 years. Were working diligently to ensure we deliver a memorable conference experience, so I cant wait to welcome and connect with many of my long-time colleagues and respected tribal leaders. Tribal council members, tribal finance and HR leaders, compliance and investment officers, tribal attorneys and other professionals in tribal leadership roles are encouraged to attend. Attendees are eligible to earn CPE credit. Those interested in attending the conference can register now at Registration - REDW 2021 Tribal Finance and Leadership Conference (cvent.com). For questions or for more information about the Conference, please contact Carla Salizzoni at 505-998-3248 or marketing@redw.com. For additional educational opportunities, please visit REDW Events. #### About REDWLLC: Founded in 1953, REDW is a Top 200 Accounting Firm and one of the Southwests 10 largest certified public accounting and advisory firms. With offices in Albuquerque, NM, Phoenix, AZ, and Edmond, OK, REDW has more than 220 employees who serve the tax, audit, accounting, business, and financial needs of a wide range of clients at both the regional and national level, including privately held businesses; tribes and tribal enterprises; state and local government agencies; healthcare facilities; nonprofit organizations; and individuals. REDW also offers expanded services and expertise as an independent member of the BDO Alliance USA. We take pride in attracting top talent from across the country who see our firm and the Southwest as a place where they can grow both personally and professionally. For more information, visit redw.com, linkedin.com/company/redw, or twitter.com/redwllc. Attachment LONDON, England, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Major health and technology companies across the world have committed upwards of $130 million to Huma Therapeutics, the health-tech company backed by Dale Ventures. The investment is being used to advance proactive, predictive care and research to help people live longer, fuller lives. Huma's highly configurable data platform supports clinicians and patients through digital 'hospitals at home' and can power virtual clinical trials for research. "I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the entire Huma team and all its members who have worked tirelessly from the very beginning to make these cutting edge ideas a reality," Dale W. Wood, CEO of Dale Ventures, said. "The amazing turnout in this latest investment round only proves that the sky's the limit, and I'm thrilled to be among those backing these exciting possibilities." Global investment firm Dale Ventures, led by CEO Dale W. Wood, was an early leading investor in British healthcare-tech company Medopad, which later acquired prominent British healthcare companies BioBeats and Tarilian and rebranded itself as Huma. Impressed by Founder and CEO Dan Vahdat's noble aim of enhancing healthcare quality through simple, low-cost devices, Dale made a $1 million USD seed investment in the company. Huma has built a modular platform that supports digital 'hospital at home' for a range of use cases across different disease areas and, in life sciences, it powers some of the world's largest decentralized clinical trials and studies. Huma uses digital biomarkers, predictive algorithms, and real-world data from continuous patient monitoring to advance proactive, predictive care. Evidence shows that Huma's platform can double clinical capacity, reduce readmission rates by a third and reduce costs. Their award-winning Covid-19 'hospital at home' has been helping care for patients nationally and was offered to governments not-for-profit in support of the fight against the pandemic. The latest funding round for Huma pulled in investors from leading technology and health companies, including Bayer, Samsung Next, Hitachi Ventures, and others. In addition to the initial $130 million, new investors have committed to an additional $70 million that can be used at a later date. In March 2021, the Financial Times ranked Huma 20th on a list of Europe's fastest-growing companies and ranked it the UK's fastest-growing healthcare company. Dale Ventures has continued to support its impressive growth, and Dale Wood has repeatedly expressed his faith in the company "to transform healthcare in an exceptional way." About Dale Ventures Dale Ventures is a personal investment holding group founded by serial investor Dale W. Wood. The company partners with management teams to provide significant strategic and analytic resources needed to build and grow remarkable companies. Dale Ventures has adopted a consultative approach that harnesses the power of innovative teams to generate groundbreaking ideas, tactics, and strategies that drive growth and build long-term value. For more information about Dale Wood and his projects, please visit www.Dale.com and Facebook.com/DaleVentures. Media Contact Dale Ventures info@dale.com Devonshire House Level One 1 Mayfair Place Mayfair, London W1J 8AJ United Kingdom +44 (0) 207 268 4814 Related Images Image 1: Huma Team Raised $130 Million Dale W Wood Congratulates the Huma Team on Raising $130 Million This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment HAMILTON, Ontario, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading Canadian insurance brokerage, Lawrie Insurance Group, is a proud Mohawk College Future Ready Premium Employer, actively supporting the schools future-ready, job-ready graduates who will be the insurance industry leaders of tomorrow. The long-standing partnership between Lawrie Insurance Group and Mohawk College supports student success, providing the opportunity to actively engage industry and community partners in the training of job-ready college graduates. From the moment Mohawk College Insurance students enter the McKeil School of Business | School of Creative Industries, Liberal Studies & Communication, Lawrie Insurance Group supports their academic journey. Students learn in classrooms and meet in a lounge that bears the name of Dan Lawrie, founder of Lawrie Insurance Group. They receive scholarships and bursaries funded by the company, and they often receive job offers, too. This college-company relationship goes back more than 20 years. Notably, in 2007, Dan Lawrie made a large donation to help fund the new Mohawk College Centre of Excellence in Insurance and Financial Services. A few years later, Dan Lawrie and other insurance industry leaders contributed $600,000 to outfit the Bert Hares Boardroom and two classrooms, where insurance students learn, collaborate and make presentations as they prepare for promising careers in Canadas insurance industry. At that time, the Insurance Founders Lounge was also created, providing a space where students can gather and study. The relationship between Lawrie Insurance Group and Mohawk College extends beyond the classroom. Lawrie Insurance Group has been a generous funder of student scholarships and bursaries for students in the Insurance program, supporting them as they pursue their studies. A Lawrie Insurance Group representative also sits on Mohawk Colleges Program Advisory Committee, offering guidance and feedback to keep the courses current in a fast-changing field. Meet the Mohawk College graduates who work for Lawrie Insurance Group here: https://youtu.be/XBw2Pux8F1Q Lawrie Insurance Group and Mohawk College fast facts: 50 Mohawk College graduates employed Academic partner with participation in Program Advisory Committees Funder of an annual scholarship and a bursary A benefactor of Mohawk Colleges the Mohawk College Centre of Excellence in Insurance and Financial Services and Insurance Founders Lounge About Lawrie Insurance Group Lawrie Insurance Group Inc. is a leading privately-owned, independent Canadian insurance brokerage, specializing in commercial and personal insurance, employee benefits, life and living benefits and group retirement solutions. With a staff of over 100 dedicated professionals, it has become one of the largest and most trusted independent insurance organizations in Canada. Lawrie Insurance Group is a member of the Canadian Broker Network (CBN), Intersure and Globex International with affiliated offices across Canada, United States, and the world. In 2021, Lawrie Insurance Group was recognized as a Great Place to Work by the Great Place to Work Institute Canada. Visit us online at www.lawriegroup.com. Media contact: Lawrie Insurance Group Alise Higginbottom Senior Communications Coordinator ahigginbottom@lawriegroup.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/92e23be1-57d3-4665-9b1a-507252a7bb76 SAN DIEGO, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TOOTRiS, the first on-demand Child Care platform, has announced that its CTO Jerome Fodor has been named a "Disruption" Honoree for the Top Tech Awards. Fodor is one of 11 local technology innovators selected among hundreds of nominees who were recognized on September 16 during the virtual 14th annual Top Tech Awards, which honors the region's "unsung heroes" of information technology in the areas of business, education, government and nonprofit organizations. The Tech Disruption award celebrates the most disruptive innovations with traditional or non-traditional uses of technology. Honorees in his category are considered creative thinkers unafraid to depart from routine and can find unexpected ways to improve the world with innovative uses of technology. "Now more than ever as we face new ways of working, learning and living, IT departments are critical to an organization's ability to be innovative and agile, and the Top Tech awards recognize those exceptional IT leaders who bring modernization to their teams and our San Diego region," said Duane Cameron, Vice President of Cox Business, which has recognized local technology leaders with the awards since 2008. Fodor - a two-time Top Tech Awards honoree - received accolades for his tech prowess at TOOTRiS, where he leads product development and technology operations of the company's first-of-its-kind on-demand Child Care SaaS platform. While some current technology in this industry exists, it is extremely fragmented and outdated. Fodor and his team at TOOTRiS have developed an innovative and interactive platform that supports the entire Child Care lifecycle, thus pioneering a new way to connect parents, providers, employers, and service organizations. "I am honored to be recognized amongst my peers who are pushing the envelope on innovation to enhance their companies and society," Fodor said. "At TOOTRiS, I'm excited to be leveraging the power of technology to help transform the Child Care industry, which has been antiquated for too long and ripe for disruption." Prior to joining TOOTRiS, Fodor held various technology leadership positions, including six years as Chief Technology Officer for AbacusNext, which also garnered him a Top Tech Award for leading the company's strategic product development of Abacus Private Cloud from concept to commercialization. Media press@tootris.com About TOOTRiS TOOTRiS is reinventing Child Care, making it convenient, affordable and on-demand. As the world shifts to digitalized services, TOOTRiS helps parents and providers connect and transact in real-time, empowering working parents - especially women - to secure quality Child Care, while allowing providers to unlock their potential & monetize their program. TOOTRiS is creating a new digital economy that promotes entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals with passion and talent to become Child Care providers, improving their quality of life while increasing the much-needed supply of Child Care across the state. TOOTRiS' unique technology enables employers to provide fully managed Child Care Benefits, giving their workforce the flexibility and family support paramount to regaining employee productivity and increasing their ROI. Related Images Image 1 This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment London, England, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Net Savings Link, Inc. (OTC Pink: NSAV), a cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital asset technology company, today announced the launch of its Premium OTC Crypto Trading Desk ( https://nsavholdinginc.com/otc-desk/ ). NSAVs OTC Desk offers private and personalized service to institutions and high net-worth individuals that trade large blocks of cryptocurrency. OTC Crypto Trading Desks offer increased liquidity (without slippage), price protection, anonymity, Fiat support, unlimited purchases and the purchase of rare tokens, which are not available on exchanges. NSAVs OTC Desk provides its clients with execution and settlement services that are secure, competitive and discreet. Today, nearly all major crypto exchanges have their own OTC Desk. Kraken https://www.kraken.com/ , in 2019, acquired major OTC Crypto Trading Desk, Circle Trade, and is now one of the worlds leading OTC Crypto Trading Desks. The Companys management believes that having its own OTC Crypto Trading Desk will be a huge benefit to NSAV and all of its shareholders, as it ascends to the next level. On Wednesday, NSAV Director, Mr. Yuen Wong, gave a presentation at the Emerging Growth Conference. Please see the link below to view Mr. Wongs presentation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ephog44Hg Joining Mr. Wong at the conference was Ms. Aidaa Wong, founder and CEO of LuxFi, a real-world luxury asset-backed NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace ( https://luxfi.io/ ). In August, NSAV announced a collaboration with LuxFi. In addition to his position with NSAV, Mr. Wong is also a Managing Partner at Bitmart Cryptocurrency Exchange https://www.bitmart.com . BitMart is a premier global digital asset trading platform with over 2 million users worldwide and ranked among the top crypto exchanges on CoinMarketCap. Bitmarts platform supports over 220 cryptocurrencies and has a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $2 Billion. Mr. Wong is also the CEO of LABS Group Limited https://labsgroup.io , the worlds first end to end Blockchain powered real estate investment ecosystem and powered by the LABS ecosystem token through decentralized finance (DeFi) and governance, as well as a partner at leading investment banking firm, Silverbear Capital Inc. Silverbear Capital Inc. https://www.sbcfinancialgroup.com.hk/ , a leading, global investment banking firm, will be advising NSAV on strategic matters relating to the Companys cryptocurrency exchanges and OTC Crypto Trading Desk. Silverbear will also help guide NSAV in ensuring that its exchanges and OTC Desk are continually in compliance, given the rapidly increasing regulatory environment in the cryptocurrency industry. Silverbear Capital Inc. (SBC) has a dynamic of disciplines on a broad commercial level and practice. SBC has a strong group of Partners in a wide range of disciplines with seasoned experience in finance, management, and professional practice. https://www.sbcfinancialgroup.com.hk/meet-our-team/ . Disclaimer: Silverbear Capital Inc. does not constitute investment advice, or an offer or solicitation to sell, or a solicitation to buy, or any other investment product (nor shall any such shares or product be offered or sold to any person) in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities law of that jurisdiction. Mr. Dato Sri Desmond Lim, Interim CEO and Senior Vice President of Cryptocurrency Operations for NSAV and Silverbear Capital partner stated, We are thrilled to have our OTC Desk in operation and this will allow us to enter this lucrative industry from a high volume trader's perspective. With major crypto exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase opening their own OTC Desks, this indicates a significate demand among institutional for these type of transactions. I want to thank all of our shareholders for their support and our OTC Desk team for getting the job done." NSAV's vision is the establishment of a fully integrated technology company that provides turnkey technological solutions to the cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital asset industries. Over time, the Company plans to provide a wide range of services such as software solutions, e-commerce, advisory services, financial services and information technology. For further information, please contact NSAV at info@nsavholdinginc.com The NSAV Twitter account can be accessed at https://twitter.com/nsavtech The NSAV corporate website can be accessed at http://nsavholdinginc.com This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Investors are cautioned that, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the ability of Net Savings Link, Inc. to accomplish its stated plan of business. Net Savings Link, Inc. believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward- looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Net Savings Link, Inc. or any other person. Contact Net Savings Link, Inc. info@nsavholdinginc.com Attachments DUNHUANG, China, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Two cultural events will be jointly held from September 24 to 26 in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu province, to promote Chinese culture to the world. Both events were organized by the People's Government of Gansu Province, with an English website launched alongside. The 10th Dunhuang Tour - Silk Road International Tourism Festival and the Fifth Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo (SRDICE) with "Symphony Silk Road, Cultural Expo for All" as its theme, aim to showcase Silk Road civilization and promote cultural tourism exchanges through a series of forums, exhibitions, and theatrical performances. The SRDICE is the only comprehensive international exposition in China with the theme of "One Belt, One Road" cultural exchange. The Dunhuang Tour - Silk Road International Tourism Festival is the only permanent international tourism festival named after the Silk Road. The Expo and Festival, with the Republic of Korea as the guest of honor, will expect hundreds of domestic and international participants. The jointly hosted opening ceremony and summit of the Expo and Festival will focus on "carrying forward the silk road spirit and promoting cultural prosperity". The Expo and Festival will hold three forums, including the Dunhuang Forum, the Belt and Road Cultural Forum for Exchange and Cooperation, and the Five Liang Cultural Forum. Additional activities include the Korean Cultural Tourism and Cultural Products Exhibition and the Chang Sana Design Awards exhibition, among others. "Xuanzang's Pilgrimage to the West," a large-scale folk instrumental musical drama, will also be staged. The Expo and Festival will be in hybrid onsite and virtual form due to Covid-19 prevention concerns. A provincial health commission leading COVID-19 prevention team has issued guidelines and emergency plans accordingly. Contact person: Sasa Guan Email: tongguan@xinhuanetus.com Tel:1-330-780-6068 Related Images Image 1: Gansu 2021 Cultural Expo and tourism festival to promote Chinese culture to the World This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment BP Exploration Operating Company Limited ('bp') has chartered the Safe Zephyrus to provide gangway connected operations to support the Seagull project at the ETAP central processing facility in the UK North Sea. The firm duration of the contract, starting Q1 2022, is 10 months with up to four months of options. The Safe Zephyrus is one of the world's most advanced and versatile accommodation vessels, complying with stringent rules in both UK and Norway and with a strong focus on reducing emissions by optimising the engine load. The value of the contract firm duration is USD 35.5 million, and the firm duration including options value is USD 49.3 million. Prosafe is a leading owner and operator of semi-submersible accommodation vessels. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with ticker code PRS. For more information, please refer to www.prosafe.com 17 September 2021 Prosafe SE For further information, please contact: Jesper K. Andresen, CEO Phone: +47 51 65 24 30 / +47 907 65 155 Stig Harry Christiansen, Deputy CEO and CFO Phone: +47 51 64 25 17 / +47 478 07 813 This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Chicago, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, contact: Kevin Williams (DBSA), kwilliams@dbsalliance.org c: 312.342.7693 Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance to honor three outstanding achievers in mental health research at 2021 Klerman Awards ceremony Sept. 22 CHICAGO (Sept. 17, 2021) The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), and its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) will honor three clinicians for their contributions to mental health research at the 2020/21 Klerman Awards ceremony. The event will be held virtually at 5:30 p.m. EST, Wednesday, September 22. Tickets for the Gerald L. Klerman Awards can be secured online until Sept. 19. The Gerald L. Klerman Awards is the highest honor DBSA gives to members of the scientific community. Presented each year with winners selected by the SAB, this award recognizes researchers whose work expands knowledge of the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. Gerald L. Klerman was an educator, researcher, clinician, author, and administrator who specialized in depression, schizophrenia, panic, and other anxiety disorders. Klerman conducted the first clinical trial showing the efficacy of medication and psychotherapy in preventing recurrent depression and led the first large-scale, multi-site study to understand the diagnosis, course, and genetics of major depression. Jimmy Carter appointed him head of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration from 19771980. The Scientific Advisory Board is proud to recognize the breakthrough work being achieved by this years Klerman Awardees, said Dr. Roger McIntyre, SAB Chair. Their relentless pursuit of progress in mental health research ensures a brighter future of improved diagnosis and treatments for those living with depression and bipolar disorder. This year, the Klerman Awards ceremony celebrates these outstanding achievers in mental health research: Daisy Radha Singla, PhD, C. Psych (Young Investigator Award) Dr. Singlas research focuses on improving access to evidence-based psychological treatments for depression. In collaboration with local NGOs worldwide, Dr. Singla has led or contributed to pragmatic randomized controlled trials to prevent and treat maternal depression in real-world settings in rural Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and now across North America. With the help of a $13.1 million award from the Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI) Dr. Singla currently oversees the largest psychotherapy trial in the world for perinatal women with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Tamsyn Van Rheenen, PhD (Young Investigator Award) Dr. Van Rheenen is a Senior Research Fellow, National Health and Medical Research Council Peter Doherty Fellow, and Head of the Mood-Psychosis Spectrum lab at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her program of research aims to understand the nature and mechanisms of severe psychiatric disorders, with a particular focus on bipolar disorder. This research is contributing new knowledge that will facilitate the development of intervention strategies targeted at cognition in bipolar disorder specifically. Maria Oquendo, MD, PhD (Senior Investigator Award) Dr. Oquendo is the Ruth Meltzer Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry at University of Pennsylvania and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2017, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in medicine. Dr. Oquendo has used Positron Emission Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging to map brain abnormalities in mood disorders and suicidal behavior. The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance is a leading national organization focusing on mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder, which affect over 21 million Americans, account for over 50% of the nations suicides every year, and cost $23 billion in lost workdays and other workplace losses. Through its extensive online and print resources and nearly 500 support groups, DBSA reaches millions of people each year with in-person and online peer support. # # # Attachment English French TORONTO, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rogers and Fido will offer the best-ever iPhone lineup including the innovative and elegant iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13, and iPhone 13 mini and the highly capable and affordable iPad (9th generation). Redesigned inside and out, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max introduce the most advanced pro camera system ever on iPhone, Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion, improved battery life, the Apple-designed A15 Bionic chip with 5-core GPU, and an advanced 5G experience. iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini feature the most advanced dual camera system ever in iPhone and the powerhouse A15 Bionic chip in a sleek and durable design. Customers will be able to pre-order the iPhone 13 lineup on September 17, with availability on September 24 and iPad (9th generation) available starting, September 24. For complete pricing and availability details, please visit, Rogers.com/iPhone and Fido.ca/iPhone. Were thrilled to offer the all-new iPhone 13 lineup with powerful new features, and this year there are even more reasons for Canadians to choose Rogers, says Dave Fuller, Wireless President, Rogers Communications. Rogers customers get access to Canadas largest and most reliable 5G network1, great financing options, and exclusive offerings such as Apple Music, and premium product delivery, like Pro On-the-Go. Featuring an advanced 5G experience with more 5G bands, the iPhone 13 lineup works in more places on 5G for greater coverage and performance.2 Available in four stunning finishes graphite, gold, silver, and the all-new sierra blue iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, introduce an all-new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion featuring an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz, making the touch experience even faster and more responsive. They also introduce the best battery life ever on iPhone with iPhone 13 Pro Max, lasting up to two and a half hours longer in a day than iPhone 12 Pro Max, a new storage capacity of 1TB, and are protected by the Ceramic Shield front cover, tougher than any smartphone glass. With new Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras, the pro camera system gets its biggest advancement ever capturing stunning photos and video, powered by the Apple-designed A15 Bionic. These technologies enable impressive new photo capabilities like macro photography on the new Ultra Wide camera and up to 2.2x improved low-light performance on the new Wide camera, and new computational photography features like Photographic Styles to personalize the look of images in the Camera app, and Night mode on all cameras. Video takes a huge leap forward offering Cinematic mode for beautiful depth-of-field transitions, macro video, Time-lapse and Slo-mo, and even better low-light performance. Both models also offer end-to-end pro workflows in Dolby Vision, and for the first time, ProRes, only available on iPhone. The next generation iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini feature a beautiful design with sleek flat edges in five gorgeous new colors pink, blue, midnight, and starlight.3 Both models feature major innovations including the most advanced dual-camera system ever on iPhone with a new Wide camera with bigger pixels and sensor-shift optical image stabilization offering improvements in low light photos and videos, a new way to personalize the camera with Photographic Styles, and Cinematic mode, which brings a new dimension to video storytelling. Equipped with the Apple designed A15 Bionic, iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini also boast super-fast performance and power efficiency, longer battery life, a brighter Super Retina XDR display that brings content to life, incredible durability with the Ceramic Shield front cover, double the entry-level storage at 128GB, an industry-leading IP68 rating for water resistance, and an advanced 5G experience. iPad comes equipped with the powerful Apple-designed A13 Bionic chip, delivering a 20 percent performance boost over the previous generation, all while retaining its all-day battery life4 and incredible value. For the first time, True Tone comes to the beautiful 10.2-inch Retina display on iPad, which adjusts screen content to the color temperature of a room. iPad also features a new 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage, support for Apple Pencil (1st generation) and Smart Keyboard, the intuitive iPadOS 15, and starts with 64GB of storage twice the storage from the previous generation. Recently, the Rogers 5G network was ranked number one by Opensignal5 in five categories including 5G Reach, 5G Availability and 5G Upload Speed. As Canadas largest and most reliable 5G network, Rogers will provide 1,000 communities across Canada (70% of the population) with 5G connectivity. In addition, to getting the latest devices on Canadas largest and most reliable 5G network, Rogers offers unlimited data from 15GB of high speed data with reduced speeds thereafter and zero overage fees with Rogers Infinite plans, allowing customers to take advantage of all the benefits of their new 5G devices, with peace of mind about their data usage and monthly bill. Rogers Infinite is the only wireless plan that lets customers enjoy six months of Disney+ and Apple Music at no extra charge. On Fido, youll never miss a beat with wireless plans that offer Data Overage Protection and a no-cost Data Boost, so customers can use their new phones with less hassle around data consumption. Fido customers on select plans can also get access to exclusive weekly perks and exciting giveaways with the Fido XTRA program. And earlier this year, Fido became the first flanker brand to offer 0% interest financing options for accessories, which means customers can outfit their new iPhone with the accessories they love. On September 17, details on pricing and data plans will be available at Rogers.com/iPhone and Fido.ca/iPhone. For more details on Apple products, please visit www.apple.com. About Rogers Rogers is a proud Canadian company dedicated to making more possible for Canadians each and every day. We have grown to become a leading technology and media company focused on building and expanding world-class networks to deliver the next generation of connectivity to consumers and businesses and to support Canadas future. Our founder, Ted Rogers, purchased his first radio station, CHFI, in 1960. Today, we provide the very best in wireless, residential, sports, and media to Canadians and Canadian businesses. Our shares are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). For more information media@rci.rogers.com 1-844-226-1338 _____ 1 Rogers was ranked first in the umlaut Mobile Data Performance audit in Q2, 2021. Visit www.umlaut.com/en/benchmarking/canada. Largest based on total square kilometers of Rogers 5G coverage compared to published coverage of other national networks. 2 Data plan is required. 5G, Gigabit LTE, VoLTE, and Wi-Fi calling are available in select markets and through select carriers. Speeds are based on theoretical throughput and vary based on site conditions and carrier. For details on 5G and LTE support, customers can contact their carrier or visit apple.com/iphone/cellular. 3 Every iPhone 13 purchase now contributes directly to the Global Fund to combat pandemics like COVID-19 and AIDS. 4 Limited Battery life varies by use and configuration. 5 Opensignal Awards Canada: 5G Experience Report August 2021, based on independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period [April 1, 2021 June 29, 2021] 2021 Opensignal CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity announced today that they have chosen FCB Chicago as the top creative agency in North America, ranking it third in the world overall. This is an extremely gratifying moment for us all, said FCB Chicago Chief Creative Officer Andres Ordonez. This achievement is only possible because of our brave clients and our amazing teams that showed up every day with their Never Finished drive. Together, we can accomplish anything. This is just the beginning for FCB Chicago. The agency notched 24 total wins, including wins for Boards of Change on behalf of the City of Chicago and Contract for Change, created in partnership with FCB New York, for AB InBev. Both campaigns achieved Titanium glory a prestigious honor given to game-changing work that breaks new ground. Boards of Change won an astounding 14 Lions total, including a Grand Prix. Contract for Change garnered nine significant wins during the Festival, including a Grand Prix. FCB Chicago also won a Silver Lion for Bedtime Stories its first Lion for Walmart since becoming the companys lead creative agency for Reputation and shortlisted for Canons Long Live Love CES activation and Chicago Public Librarys Live From the Library campaign. It is a tremendous honor to be recognized as the number one creative agency in North America and third in the world, said FCB Chicago President Kelly Graves. We have spent the last 18 months laser focused on the work across all of our brands, ensuring our creative end product has the power to grow businesses and build brands. We are proud to say that our 2020/2021 Cannes Lions performance was our best ever and we look forward to building on this momentum in the years to come. This incredible showing at Cannes Lions comes on the heels of an impressive year for FCB Chicago, including the launch of its new Upstream Inclusion practice, which aims to help businesses reframe how they should be addressing their respective consumer audiences through an enhanced inclusivity lens. Earlier this year, the agency was also selected as Groupons global creative partner and as Safelites creative agency of record. All of this effort has contributed to the FCB networks best year yet including being named Network of the Year at Cannes Lions 2020/2021 and Global Agency of the Year by Adweek. About FCB FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding) is a global, award-winning and integrated marketing communications company with a heritage of creativity and success dating from 1873. Named Cannes Lions 2020/2021 Network of the Year, Adweek 2020 Global Agency of the Year, 2020 Ad Age A-List Agency Standout and the #1 Global Network on The Good Report 2020, FCB focuses on creating Never Finished campaign ideas that have the power to transform brands, businesses and communities. With more than 8,000 people in 109 operations in 80 countries, the company is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG). Visit fcb.com or follow @FCBglobal on Instagram and Twitter and FCB Global on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media Contact: Shelly Yusko shelly.yusko@fcb.com LAS VEGAS, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Swissloop Tunneling" research team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich was one of only two teams from the final 12 teams to qualify to complete the "Not-A-Boring Competition" in Las Vegas on Sunday, September 12. Sponsored by global logistics leader Gebruder Weiss, the group of more than 40 students was awarded the highest honors from The Boring Company for Innovation. As an official logistics partner, Gebruder Weiss was responsible for the safe and timely land and sea transport of the Swissloop team's critical drilling technology from Dubendorf, Switzerland, to Las Vegas for the competition. Teams faced immense logistical challenges to compete in the "Not-A-Boring Competition" amid a global pandemic and labor shortages. "Innovation and investment in the future of mobility are so critical. The Hyperloop competition was an ideal opportunity for Gebruder Weiss to put our company values into action. This includes ensuring the mobility of tomorrow. We have a group of extraordinary students on our team, and we are exceedingly proud of their success in the category of innovation," said Lothar Thoma, Managing Director Air & Sea at Gebruder Weiss. "We remain committed to improving not only the logistics industry through our use of sustainable energy and materials but also by pursuing ways to reinvent the future of mobility, no matter if in the air, on the water, above or under the earth's surface," he added. The idea behind the Hyperloop project, based on a concept developed by Elon Musk, is to transport people and goods over longer distances through tunnels under or above the earth's surface to their destination at high speed. The drilling robots must be as fast, compact, and automated as possible to make tunneling financially viable. "Gebruder Weiss has been an essential partner for our team. Our success as an award winner in the 'Not-a-Boring Competition' would not have been possible without the support of their organization," said Stefan Kaspar, founder and co-president of Swissloop Tunneling. About Swissloop Tunneling Behind Swissloop Tunneling is a team of students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich researching and developing tunneling solutions for Hyperloop technology. The team unites more than 40 students from several technical disciplines. Swissloop Tunneling and eleven other teams qualified from among 400 applicant teams to participate in the competition. They had to complete a 30-meter-long tunnel with a diameter of 0.5 meters, including a passable tunnel surface and a precise control system, using a self-constructed drill. About Gebruder Weiss Gebruder Weiss, a global freight forwarder with a core business of overland transport, air, and sea freight and logistics, is the world's oldest transport company with a history that dates back more than 500 years. The family-owned company employs more than 7,400 people worldwide and boasts 170 company-owned locations. The business presence in North America includes headquarters in Chicago and offices in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Developing and changing with its customers' needs during its long history, Gebruder Weiss is also a pioneer in sustainable business practices having implemented myriad ecological, economic, and social initiatives. The company's continuous growth illustrates the need for highly experienced providers of global solutions through an international network of supply chain experts. Customized solutions with a single point of contact provide customers with an exceptional service experience focused on reliable and economical solutions. www.gw-world.com Media Contact: Visit the Gebruder Weiss Brand Newsroom for more videos and images. Karolyn Raphael, Winger Marketing karolyn@wingermarketing.com T 312-494-0422 Gebruder Weiss 251 Wille Road, Suite C Des Plaines, IL 60018 T 847.795.4300 usa@gw-world.com www.gw-world.com Related Images Image 1: Gebruder Weiss Invests in Future of Mobility with Swissloop Tunneling Team Groundhog Alpha, the Innovation Award-winning tunnel boring machine from Swissloop Tunneling, is sponsored by logistics partner, Gebruder Weiss. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MY BOXI has revealed exciting news of plans to officially launch 10,000 unique NFTs called Boxis on Friday, September 24. The Boxi NFTs (Non-fungible Tokens), which will be available for pre-sale from 3pm EST on Thursday September 23, have a playful and wonderful boxful theme. Boxi's are completely different from any other NFT out at the moment. All other NFTs are based on creatures, especially apes, while these Boxis are in a different league thanks to their design. Boxis are for everyone and relatable, ranging from recognizable cities to beards and haircuts. One major aspect of Boxis is that they have no eyes and give a distinctive look, allowing the owners imagination to run wild. Each Boxi has its own distinctive characteristics and rarity. There are over 115 different characteristics to make sure each Boxi is unique. They are not only a great investment because they are not just pictures, but My Boxi is a community of Boxi's that share their Boxi's, follow each other on social media, trade, and interact in so many ways. My Boxi plans to create a one-of-a-kind game world for all Boxi's. Boxi holders will be able to buy attributes, roam the world together and interact. Your Boxi is your character in Boxiworld and can gain territory, build a Boxi kingdom, and have fun with all your Boxi friends. My Boxi will be giving away 20 limited edition NFTs on their discord to prepare for the launch. People must follow their Twitter and Instagram accounts and come into the discord to participate in the giveaway. They are also giving away 10 ETH to their holders. Ten different Boxi holders will receive 1 ETH if they win the giveaway. No other NFT community is doing this kind of giveaway at the moment! Boxis are incredibly customizable, and shortly they will allow holders to create their own Boxi's of themselves. They already have high value limited edition Boxi's on their Open Sea account and include athletes, a chef, an astronaut, and more. These can be purchased now and are sure to rise in value after release. For more information: Website: myboxinft.com Discord: https://discord.gg/BweNMQpN Twitter: https://twitter.com/myboxi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myboxinft/ Opensea (for limited edition boxis): https://opensea.io/collection/boxi-collection ENDS For the original news story, please visit https://prdistribution.com/news/my-boxi-announces-major-launch-of-unique-and-first-of-its-kind-boxful-themed-nfts-2.html# Attachments TORONTO, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brookfield Global Infrastructure Securities Income Fund (the Fund) (TSX: BGI.UN) today announced a distribution of C$0.15 per unit for the quarter ending September 30, 2021. The distribution will be paid on or before October 15, 2021 to holders of record on September 30, 2021. Eligible holders of the Units (Unitholders) may participate in the Funds Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP), where they may elect to automatically reinvest their dividends in additional Units. Details of the DRIP are available on the Funds website at https://publicsecurities.brookfield.com/. Unitholders who wish to participate in the DRIP should contact their investment advisor for further information and to enroll. Brookfield Public Securities Group LLC (PSG) is registered as an investment fund manager in Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and as portfolio manager in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, is an SEC-registered investment adviser and represents the Public Securities platform of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., providing global listed real assets strategies including real estate equities, infrastructure equities, multi-strategy real asset solutions and real asset debt. With over US$20 billion of assets under management as of July 31, 2021, PSG manages separate accounts, registered funds and opportunistic strategies for institutional and individual clients, including financial institutions, public and private pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, sovereign wealth funds and high net worth investors. PSG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., a leading global alternative asset manager with over US$625 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2021. For more information, go to https://publicsecurities.brookfield.com/. The Fund uses its website as a channel of distribution of company information. Financial and other material information regarding the Fund is routinely posted on and accessible at https://publicsecurities.brookfield.com/. For more information, please visit https://publicsecurities.brookfield.com/ or contact: Investor Relations Tel: (855) 777-8001 Email: publicsecurities.enquiries@brookfield.com NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global X ETFs, the New York-based provider of exchange-traded funds, today announced the scheduled liquidation of three ETFs (the Funds), based on an ongoing review process of its product lineup to ensure it meets the evolving needs of its clients. The Funds scheduled for liquidation include: Fund Ticker CUSIP Global X TargetIncome 5 ETF TFIV 37954Y582 Global X TargetIncome Plus 2 ETF TFLT 37954Y590 Global X MSCI China Large-Cap 50 ETF CHIL 37954Y566 Based upon the recommendation of Global X Management Company LLC, the Trust's adviser, the Board of Trustees determined on September 17, 2021 that it was in the best interests of the Funds and their shareholders to liquidate each of the Funds. The Funds represent less than 1% of the assets of Global X ETFs. Shareholders may sell their holdings in the Funds prior to the end of the trading day on [Friday, October 15, 2021], and customary brokerage charges may apply to these transactions. The Funds will cease trading at the end of the trading day on Friday, October 15, 2021. The Funds will liquidate on or around Friday, October 22, 2021. Any person holding shares in the Funds as of the liquidation date will receive a cash distribution equal to the net asset value of their shares as of that date. Global X Management Company LLC, the adviser to the Funds, will bear all fees and expenses that may be incurred in connection with the liquidation of the Funds and the distribution of cash proceeds to investors, other than brokerage fees and other related expenses. About Global X ETFs Global X ETFs was founded in 2008. For more than a decade, our mission has been empowering investors with unexplored and intelligent solutions. Our product lineup features more than 90 ETF strategies and over $35 billion in assets under management.i While we are distinguished for our Thematic Growth, Income and International Access ETFs, we also offer Core, Commodity, and Alpha funds to suit a wide range of investment objectives. Explore our ETFs, research and insights, and more at www.globalxetfs.com. Global X is a member of Mirae Asset Financial Group, a global leader in financial services, with more than $550 billion in assets under management worldwide. Mirae Asset has an extensive global ETF platform ranging across the US, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam with over $60bn in assets under management.ii Important Information Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. The investable universe of companies in which the Funds invest may be limited. Narrowly focused investments will be more susceptible to factors affecting that sector and subject to more volatility. International investments may involve risk of capital loss from unfavorable fluctuation in currency values, from differences in generally accepted accounting principles or from social, economic or political instability in other nations. Emerging markets involve heightened risks related to the same factors as well as increased volatility and lower trading volume. The Funds are non-diversified. Shares of ETFs are bought and sold at market price (not NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. Carefully consider the funds investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses. This and other information can be found in the funds full or summary prospectuses, which may be obtained at globalxetfs.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. Global X Management Company LLC serves as an advisor to Global X Funds. The Funds are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co. (SIDCO), which is not affiliated with Global X Management Company LLC or Mirae Asset Global Investments. i Source: Global X, as of 9/10/21. ii Source: Mirae Asset, as of March 2021. CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Questor Technology Inc. ("Questor", the Company), (TSX Venture Exchange: QST) announced that Darko Ulakovic, Chief Operating Officer, has left the company effective September 17, 2021. The Company thanks Mr. Ulakovic for his contributions, including his efforts over the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Audrey Mascarenhas, Chief Executive Officer, will directly oversee the Companys business operations while a search is conducted to find a replacement to continue accelerating its strategic transformation. About Questor Technology Inc. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, with operations across North America, the Company provides specialized waste gas clean combustion technology and services that destroy harmful pollutants in any waste gas stream at 99.99 percent efficiency enabling its clients to meet emission regulations, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, address community concerns and improve safety at industrial sites. The Company also has proprietary heat to power generation technology and data solutions to deliver an integrated system that amalgamates all of the emission detection data available and demonstrates how Questors combustion and power generation technologies can be used to help clients achieve net zero emission targets at their sites. Questor trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol QST. Audrey Mascarenhas Ann-Marie Osinski Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Phone: (403) 571-1530 Phone: (403) 539-4371 Facsimile: (403) 571-1539 Facsimile: (403) 571-1539 Email: amascarenhas@questortech.com Email: aosinski@questortech.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. This document is not intended for dissemination or distribution in the United States. SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Extreme wealth seems to always have a dark side, such as the victims of jaw-dropping inequality. There is much debate if billionaires should even exist because politicians and policies are up for sale at prices that only the one percent can actually afford to pay. Rarely do we hear stories of justice concerning the richest people of all time. In this unique memoir, American business tycoon, movie director and aviator Howard R. Hughes Jr. and his pugnacious attorney, Chester Davis, were taken down by a brilliant and passionate attorney, John Bales Clark, and a diligent and talented young CPA, Paul Regan. Clark and Regan were dedicated to restoring what was wrongfully taken from their clients by Hughes and Davis. This story evolves into a contest fought by Clark and Regan as they unraveled an injustice perpetrated by Hughes and Davis on the shareholders of Air West, Inc. Along this journey, there was a parallel track involving the CIA, the Department of Justice and a Soviet submarine carrying nuclear missiles. The connection between Clark and Regan's journey, the CIA, and the Soviet submarine was coincidental; however, without that connection, their careers may not have been as golden as they became. This secret connection, and Clark and Regan's efforts to use it to bring down Howard Hughes, have been told to only a very few, until The Forensic. For interviews and appearances, contact dpr9808@gmail.com. Available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and numerous independent bookstores. Paul Regan worked as an expert in forensic accounting-related litigation with John Clark, until John's death, over a span of 40 years. Their work together took them to many states and federal jurisdictions throughout the United States. Paul has also worked with hundreds of other attorneys in the world's largest law firms, as well as the SEC, the US Department of Justice, and attorney generals for many states. His expert testimony in the largest corporate frauds in the past 40 years has not only been presented in the United States, but in England, the World Court in the Hague (against the Islamic Republic of Iran), Canada, Australia, and Guam. Related Images Image 1 This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment Washington, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration and a member of President Bidens cabinet, completed her first official visit to Puerto Rico this week, engaging with government officials, small business owners, community organizations and business development centers. Administrator Guzman spent time on the island spotlighting the United States economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and encouraged vaccinations to help Americans get back to work safely. The Administrator met with Puerto Rico Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi, Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce Manuel Cidre-Miranda at La Fortaleza as well San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo and members of the Puerto Rico Economic Cabinet during her visit. I am energized after meeting with Governor Pierluisi and his Cabinet, business leaders and entrepreneurs to see firsthand how our businesses are doing and to highlight the measures the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to help Puerto Ricos small businesses get back on track to power our economy, said Administrator Guzman. I was inspired to learn from small business owners in Puerto Rico how they tapped into SBA programs to pivot, continue operations and survive during the COVID pandemic. As entrepreneurs faced COVID-19 induced uncertainty, public health restrictions and hardship, our federal agency has delivered over $4.5 billion to Puerto Rico small businesses so far, with more on the way, Guzman added. I thank Administrator Guzman for her visit to Puerto Rico at a time when our nation faces unprecedented challenges as a result of the effects of COVID-19 on the economy. SBA has supported our government and has played a fundamental role during the recovery of small businesses that have been affected by the pandemic, said Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi. Administrator Guzman also addressed the San Juan Economic Development Forum; participated in an Equity Roundtable and announced the launch of two new Womens Business Centers (WBCs) in Puerto Rico to ensure female entrepreneurs have equitable access to resources for supporting, scaling and growing much-needed small businesses. The historic investment in two new Puerto Rico-based WBCs, hosted by Ana G. Mendez University, Gurabo Campus (UAGM-Gurabo) and Friends of Puerto Rico, will assist the SBA fulfill its mission to assist female entrepreneurs and women-owned small businesses on the island start, grow, and expand. It reflects the SBA and Biden-Harris Administrations shared priority to increase access to resources for women entrepreneurs in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. After visiting a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant awardee, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, the Administrator met with natural disaster-impacted small business owners; toured Parallel 18, an NGO that assist small businesses start and grow on the island; and discussed government contracting opportunities with government contractors and 8(a) small disadvantaged businesses. Administrator Guzman was the first SBA Administrator to visit Puerto Rico since early 2017. ### About the U.S. Small Business Administration LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Friday, October 1 at 11:00 am. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Parks & Weisberg Realtors will host a press conference and open house tour of their new headquarters located at 1701 Herr Lane. Dave Parks, co-owner/partner along with his sister, Judie Parks, co-owner/partner and president of the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors, City of Greymoor-Devondale Council member, Yvette Winnette and Ryan Miranda, president/CEO of Miranda Construction will give remarks at the press conference. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will follow with open house tours available until 1:00 p.m. As one of Louisvilles largest real estate brokers, Parks & Weisberg Realtors invested $3M to purchase the land and build the 12,000 square feet facility which will occupy 23 staff and 85 agents. The new building has 30 private offices and multi-use spaces for their elite team of agents, space to meet with clients, and boasts a large training room, which will be dedicated to Pat Parks, past national president of the Women's Council of Realtors. Extra insulation and added white noise provide sound proofing spaces to make private calls and outdoor collaboration space offers agents high-tech working areas. Under Berkshire Hathaway, Parks & Weisberg Realtors has three divisions; Residential, Commercial and Property Management. Judie Parks, director of Relocation and Business Development, stated, Our business has always been to serve the community. We believe in offering the total realty experience whether the client is relocating, downsizing or building a new home. To assist clients with financing, the building will also house offices for Multiple Option Mortgage Services. Committed to serving the Louisville area, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Parks & Weisberg Realtors believes real estate is more than a transaction; its a relationship. For almost 70 years, the family-owned business has grown to one of the largest real estate brokers in Louisville. Parks & Weisberg Realtors is a franchise of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices providing Property Management, Commercial and Residential real estate. https://www.bhhs.com/parks-and-weisberg-realtors-ky302 Contact: Kimberlee Turner 502-554-4383 Kturner@5starpublicrelations.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/605baac2-479f-4e6a-92d8-f72307d2b4e4 The first Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck pre-production units have begun leaving the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center; the all-electric F-150 Lightning goes on sale next spring. With 150,000 reservations for F-150 Lightning to date, Ford said it is investing an additional $250 million in the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center and Rawsonville Components Plant. The investment and 450 added jobs will help increase production capacity to 80,000 trucks a year. Ford has invested $7.7 billion in Michigan since 2016 and created and retained 7,000 jobs in the state. We knew the F-150 Lightning was special, but the interest from the public has surpassed our highest expectations and changed the conversation around electric vehicles. So we are doubling down, adding jobs and investment to increase production. This truck and the Ford-UAW workers who are assembling it in Michigan have a chance to make history and lead the electric vehicle movement in America. Bill Ford, executive chair, Ford Motor Company F-150 Lightning, with a starting MSRP of $40,000 and targeted EPA-estimated driving range of 300 miles with the extended range battery, is aimed at the heart of the US auto market. Ford confirmed construction of the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center a year ago as part of an initial $700-million investment in the historic Ford Rouge Center, creating a manufacturing home for the F-150 Lightning. Now Fords pre-production F-150 Lightning trucks are leaving the factory for real-world testing, with the truck available to customers next spring. Fords $250-million additional investment will create 450 additional hourly direct jobs, with most of those workers assembling the F-150 Lightning at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. Workers at Rawsonville Components Plant will assemble the batteries and Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center will increase its capacity to supply electric motors and electric transaxles for the F-150 Lightning. The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is in the Ford Rouge Center, which sets the benchmark for sustainable automotive assembly. This new center supports Fords vision of sustainable production as a zero waste-to-landfill site. The center uses natural lighting, as well as LED lighting and the primary forklift fleet will use hydrogen fuel cells with a zero-emission profile. The Rouge Electric Vehicle Center is built on the site of the old Dearborn Assembly Plant, using its recycled foundation and construction materials. Royal Dutch Shell will build an 820,000-tonnes-a-year biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, the Netherlands, formerly known as the Pernis refinery. Once built, the facility will be among the largest in Europe to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel made from waste. Shell expects the Rotterdam biofuels facility to start production in 2024. It will produce low-carbon fuels such as renewable diesel from waste in the form of used cooking oil, waste animal fat and other industrial and agricultural residual products, using technology developed by Shell. Shell will use bio-naphtha and light hydrocarbon gasses created during the formation process to create hydrogen. Hydrogen and high-pressure steam are then used in the production process to convert oils into fuels (hydroprocessing), helping to reduce the fuels carbon intensity. A range of certified sustainable vegetable oils, such as rapeseed, will supplement the waste feedstocks until even more sustainable advanced feedstocks are widely available. The facility will not use virgin palm oil as feedstock. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) could make up more than half of the 820,000-tonnes-a-year capacity, with the rest being renewable diesel. Shell can adjust this mix to meet customer demand. A facility of this size could produce enough renewable diesel to avoid 2,800,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions a yearthe equivalent of taking more than 1 million European cars off the roads (based on the annual driving distance of a UK/EU driver, assuming a medium-sized diesel car). Shell expects to capture carbon emissions from the manufacturing process and store them in an empty gas field beneath the North Sea through the Porthos (Port of Rotterdam CO Transport Hub and Offshore Storage) project. A final investment decision for Porthos is expected next year. When built, Porthos will transport and store CO 2 that is captured by various companies, including Shell. The project aims to capture up to 2.5 million tonnes of CO 2 a year from 2024. As part of its Powering Progress strategy, Shell is transforming its refineries (14 as of October 2020) into five energy and chemicals parks. Shell aims to reduce the production of traditional fuels by 55% by 2030 and provide more low-carbon fuels such as biofuels for road transport and aviation, and hydrogen. The Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam is the second park to be announced, following the launch in July of the Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland, in Germany. The biofuels project complements Shells plans to build a 200-megawatt hydrogen electrolyzer in the Port of Rotterdam. Shell is working with partners to create a green hydrogen hub in the Port of Rotterdam. In July 2020, Shell and Eneco were awarded a tender for the 759-megawatt (MW) Hollandse Kust Noord offshore wind project in the North Sea. This renewable power can be used to produce green hydrogen at the planned 200 MW electrolyzer, which is intended to start operations by 2023 to produce about 50,000 60,000 kg of hydrogen a day. Solvay announced the installation completion of its new thermoplastic composites (TPC) manufacturing facility at its Greenville, South Carolina site. At full production capacity, the new line will add more than 30 positions at the 27,000-square-foot facility. The project represents a major milestone in Solvays efforts to industrialize its TPC capacity. A key driver for the world-class facility is growing demand from energy companies, supported by increasing aerospace and automotive demand. The new product line will have the ability to manufacture unidirectional composite tape from a range of high-performance polymers including PVDF, PPS and PEEK. The TPC solutions that will be manufactured in our Greenville facility will help our energy, aerospace and automotive customers achieve better environmental responsibility by making cars and planes lighter, thereby reducing emissions. Our new capacity and differentiated technologies will allow us to expand with our customers as TPCs gain momentum in a growing number of applications and play an important role in the energy transition. Mike Finelli, president of Solvays growth platforms The Greenville facility is part of a series of recent strategic investments in line with the Groups commitment to build the infrastructure required for the growing TPC market. Other recent commitments to the industry include Solvays addition of capacity for TPC tape in Anaheim (CA), two new R&I centers in Brussels (BE) and Alpharetta (GA), and Solvays membership in the TPRC consortium. Upon commercialization of the Greenville facility, Solvay will be positioned with proprietary technologies enabling the company to position the right product for the right application. Solvays TPC portfolio includes Evolite, which offers reliability and lower total cost of ownership in markets such as energy and automotive, and APC tapes, which offer significant weight and cost advantages in aerospace and urban air mobility applications. GREENWICH Barbara and Ray Dalio of Greenwich will be feted at the Greenwich Historical Societys eighth annual History in the Making Award benefit for their philanthropic efforts to make the world a better place. The award will be presented at a dinner Oct. 13 at the Belle Haven Club. Businessman, investor, philanthropist and historian David Rubenstein will interview the Dalios in a fireside chat. Indra Nooyi, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo as well as a previous honoree, will present the award to the Dalios. In recognizing the Dalios leadership and commitment to community and education, the Greenwich Historical Society acknowledges their important place in a long history of Greenwich philanthropists who have made a positive impact on the world. In addition to Indra Nooyi, former awardees include Derek Boothby, Thomas Foley, Curt Welling, Marie and Charlene Von Saher and Lewis Lehrman. What we do is a necessity and a pleasure, said Barbara Dalio. We look forward to our discussion. The Dalio Philanthropies supports the Dalio familys social impact endeavors, with particular interest in public education in Connecticut and initiatives that enable students and educators to achieve their full potential, according to its website. The Dalios signed The Giving Pledge, vowing to donate more than half of their fortune to charitable causes within their lifetime. The Dalios generosity in contributing millions of dollars to public education initiatives has been a lifeline in Connecticut, especially today when so many educators and students have been adversely impacted by the pandemic, said Debra Mecky, the historical societys executive director and CEO. It is an honor to present this years award to them. Dalio is the founder of Westport-based Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund. According to Forbes, Dalio is the richest person in Connecticut with a net work of about $20 billion. From inception to date, the Dalio family has given over $5 billion in funding to Dalio Philanthropies to support philanthropic efforts, according to its website. We also are extremely excited to have David Rubenstein interview the Dalios, added Mecky. He is a modern-day Renaissance man, considering his accomplishments in business, the arts and law, coupled with his leadership in Patriotic Philanthropy that has included contributions to the Library of Congress, National Archives and restoration of the Washington Monument. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge and a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and the Museum of Modern Arts David Rockefeller Award, among other philanthropic awards from his support for the arts. He is the author of The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians; How to Lead: Wisdom from the Worlds Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers and the newly published The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream. The History in the Making Award was established in 2003 to recognize individuals from the community who are the history makers of our own time, according to the Greenwich Historical Society. Proceeds from this years event will support the Greenwich Historical Societys commitment to education, with a particular focus on expanding its partnership with Title 1 school programs. To ensure the health and safety of all participants, proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative PCR test will be required for attendance. The cocktail reception will be held outdoors on the Belle Haven Club lawn, and dinner will be held under a tent on the patio. The Belle Haven Club requests that face masks are worn in all public areas. For more information on the event and to purchase tickets, visit greenwichhistory.org/event/history-in-the-making-honoring-barbara-and-ray-dalio/. BOISE, Idaho (AP) As the spread of the delta variant continues unabated in much of the U.S., public health leaders have approved health care rationing in Idaho and parts of Alaska and Montana. At least five more states Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas are nearing capacity with more than 90% of their intensive care unit beds full, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The move to ration healthcare comes amid a spike in the number of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. Crisis standards of care allow health care providers to give scarce resources, like ventilators, to the patients most likely to survive. But determining who gets what is no easy feat. WHAT ARE CRISIS STANDARDS OF CARE? Crisis standards of care give legal and ethical guidelines to health care providers when they have too many patients and not enough resources to care for them all. Essentially, they spell out exactly how health care should be rationed in order to save the most lives possible during a disaster. Some health care rationing steps have become commonplace during the pandemic, with hospitals postponing elective surgeries and some physicians switching to online visits rather than seeing patients in person. But more serious steps such as deciding which patients must be treated in a normal hospital room or intensive care unit bed, and which patients can be cared for in a hospital lobby or classroom have been rare. At the extreme end of the spectrum, crisis standards of care generally use scoring systems to determine which patients get ventilators or other life-saving medical interventions and which ones are treated with pain medicine and other palliative care until they recover or die. WHAT'S THE SCORING SYSTEM, AND WHAT ARE TIE-BREAKERS? States may use a combination of factors to come up with patient priority scores. Idaho's and Montana 's system both consider how well a patient's major organ systems are functioning. Patients with indications of liver or kidney damage, poor oxygen and blood clotting levels and an inability to respond to pain because they are in a coma have higher scores. Both states also score people based on saving the highest number of life-years, so if a person has cancer or another illness that is likely to impact their future survival, they get a higher score. The lower a patient's score, the more likely they are to survive, moving them toward the front of the line for ventilators or other resources. The plans also have tie-breakers that come into play if there aren't enough resources for all of the folks at the front of the line. Youth is the biggest tie-breaker, with children getting top priority. In Idaho, pregnant women who are at least 28 weeks along with viable pregnancies come next. Both states also give consideration to younger adults ahead of older adults, and Idaho's fourth tie-breaker is if the patient performs a task that is vital to the public health crisis response. The final tie-breaker is a lottery system. If someone at the front of the line is given a ventilator and doesn't show improvement within a set period of time, Idaho says they should be taken off so someone else can have a chance. On Thursday, shortly after Idaho enacted crisis standards of care statewide, Dr. Steven Nemerson with Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise said that to his knowledge, no patient in the state had been removed from life support in order to provide the equipment to someone else. But he warned it would happen. Its bad today. Its going to get much worse, Nemerson said. Im scared for all of us. DOES VACCINATION STATUS MATTER? No. In both Idaho and Montana, the crisis standards of care don't consider whether a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19. Likewise, patients aren't denied care if they are injured in a car accident because they failed to wear a seatbelt or drove while intoxicated. Vaccination status is not relevant to us when it comes to taking care of patients. We simply do what they need us to do within the constraints and the resources that we have, said Dr. Shelly Harkins, chief medical officer at St. Peters hospitals in Helena. WHAT ELSE CHANGES WHEN A HOSPITAL IS OPERATING UNDER CRISIS STANDARDS OF CARE? Nearly everything. People will likely wait longer for care, not just in hospitals but at urgent care centers that will likely be dealing with more patients as well. Nurses will care for more patients than they normally would. Instead of hospital beds, some people might be placed on stretchers and cots. Patients will likely be sent home from the hospital as soon as possible, relying on friends, family and prescriptions for in-home medical equipment during their recovery. And in some cases, physicians may not attempt to save a patient's life at all. Idaho's crisis standards of care plan calls for a Universal Do Not Resuscitate Order for all adults once the state has reached the point where there aren't enough ventilators to go around. That means if a patient experiences cardiac arrest where the heart stops suddenly there will be no chest compressions, no attempts to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm, no chance at hooking them up to life support. That's partly because resuscitation requires a bunch of hospital staffers, a lot of time, and is frequently unsuccessful. It's also because if the patient has COVID-19, the process of attempting to revive sends aerosolized virus particles into the air, putting staffers at risk. Montana's plan is a bit different, in that it allows individual doctors to decide whether or not to resuscitate patients on a case-by-case basis. HOW DOES THIS IMPACT HEALTH CARE WORKERS? Talk to a health care provider in Idaho, and you're likely to hear the phrase moral injury, a term that means the emotional trauma that health care providers experience when they lose a patient or are faced with being unable to provide life-saving treatment. Ideally, crisis standard of care plans reduce moral injury, but they are far from perfect. Dr. Matthew Wynia, a University of Colorado professor of medicine and health ethics expert, said state authorities should be responsible for establishing strategies needed to make triage decision fairly, so doctors and nurses aren't left making those calls on their own at a patient's bedside. That means making sure that transfer systems are in place and working well so that one hospital isn't making tragic decisions because they are out of a resource that is available at another facility, he said. When facing critical shortages of staff or equipment, You really cant say (to patients or their families), Would you like to go to the ER? You have to go to the patient and say, We cant do it, which is an incredibly hard situation, Wynia said. Theres no way to look at this and say this is OK. Its not OK, he said. But its necessary if hospitals are running out of resources, which is happening right now, Wynia said. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO GET BACK TO NORMAL? Health experts say getting vaccinated is the best way to protect against needing hospitalization because of coronavirus. Idaho's hospital crisis is caused primarily by a massive increase in the number of coronavirus patients needing hospital care, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said Thursday. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is also advising people to be extra careful in every aspect of daily life, by wearing seatbelts, taking medications as prescribed and avoiding high-risk activities like mountain biking until the crisis has passed. ___ Lindsey Tanner contributed to this report from Chicago. Iris Samuels contributed to this report from Helena, Montana. Samuels 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. WASHINGTON (AP) Former officials of the World Bank are under pressure after an investigation found that they pressured staff members of the bank to alter data on global business conditions in order to favor China and some other governments. The World Bank said it would discontinue its Doing Business" report in the wake of the investigation, which was conducted by the law firm WilmerHale after internal questions involving data irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 editions of the report and possible ethical matters involving bank staff. WilmerHale's report concluded that Kristalina Georgieva, then the chief executive of the World Bank, and the office of Jim Yong Kim, then the bank's president, pressured staff members to change data on China to support Beijing's ranking in the Doing Business report. These rankings are important to China and other developing nations because they can affect their ability to attract investment from overseas. In a statement, Georgieva, who now leads the International Monetary Fund, disputed the report's conclusion that she was involved in pressuring World Bank staff members to appease China. I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Banks Doing Business report of 2018, her statement said. The World Bank, based in Washington, is among the worlds largest sources of development funding. Doing Business, which evaluates a country's tax burdens, bureaucratic obstacles, regulatory system and other business conditions, is used by some governments to try to attract investment. The report ranks countries on such factors as how straightforward or burdensome it is to register a business, legally enforce a contract, resolve a bankruptcy, obtain an electrical connection or acquire construction permits. Timothy Ash, a strategist at the fixed income manager BlueBay Asset Management, said he cannot overestimate" the importance of the Doing Business report for banks and businesses trying to assess risk in a particular country. Any quantitative model of country risk has built this in to ratings," Ash said. Money and investments are allocated on the back of this series. He added that if an analyst at a bank or rating agency had done what is alleged, "I wager they would be fired and would be subject to regulatory investigation. China has tried over the past two decades to increase its influence over international institutions, including the IMF and the World Health Organization, and their policies. The changes made to the 2018 Doing Business" report followed lobbying by Beijing for a better ranking and came ahead of a campaign by the World Bank to raise capital in which Beijing was expected to play a key role, the report said. China is the banks third-largest shareholder after the United States and Japan. Changes made by analysts who prepared the 2018 report raised Chinas ranking by seven places to No. 78, according to the report. Other changes affected rankings of Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. According to WilmerHale's investigative report, a World Bank senior director acknowledged that the Doing Business leadership made changes to push the data in a certain direction to accommodate geopolitical considerations." It said Georgieva thanked the senior director for doing his bit for multilateralism." The senior director interpreted that to mean not angering China during the capital increase negotiations, the report said. The World Bank researchers knew that the changes were inappropriate, but they expressed a fear of retaliation by Georgievas aide, Simeon Djankov, according to the report. The Chinese foreign ministry expressed hope the World Bank would conduct a comprehensive investigation to better maintain the professionalism and credibility of Doing Business. The Chinese government attaches great importance to optimizing the business environment, said a ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian. ___ World Bank investigation: thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/84a922cc9273b7b120d49ad3b9e9d3f9-0090012021/original/DB-Investigation-Findings-and-Report-to-the-Board-of-Executive-Directors-September-15-2021.pdf HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) Zimbabwe's government has ordered all its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or they won't be allowed to come to work. The Public Service Commission, which is in charge of employment conditions for government workers, issued an internal notice Wednesday ordering employees to get vaccinated. All civil servants should be vaccinated without delay, and unvaccinated members shall not be allowed to report for duty, said the notice, which has been seen by The Associated Press. The commission urged heads of government departments to make arrangements for their employees to be vaccinated "and to explain to any who elect not to be vaccinated that they will not be deemed to be working. It wasn't made clear what would happen to employees who refused to be vaccinated, although state-owned newspaper The Herald reported that the government would adopt a policy where unvaccinated workers wouldn't be paid. Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced the mandatory vaccination program for government workers earlier this week. She didn't give any timeframe for workers to receive vaccinations and also didn't clarify what the repercussions would be for any who refused. The government is Zimbabwe's biggest employer and has about 500,000 workers. Zimbabwe is one of the leading countries in Africa in terms of vaccinations, with more than 12% of the countrys 15 million people fully vaccinated. That compares to just 3.6% of people across Africa who have been fully vaccinated, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Zimbabwe has received more than 11 million doses, mainly Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines. The southern African nation announced last month that it was opening COVID-19 vaccinations to children between the ages of 14 and 17, one of the first countries in Africa to do that. It was already offering jabs to anyone 18 or older. ___ Follow APs pandemic coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak GREENWICH For the first time this school year, teachers numbered among the COVID-19 cases reported this week at the Greenwich Public Schools, according to the Friday update on the districts online tracker. A total of 14 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the latest update from the school district, impacting 12 students and two teachers. Since classes began on Sept. 1, a total of 32 cases have been reported, according to the district, with 10 cases classified as resolved. Of the 22 active cases, eight schools are currently affected, with one case each at Central Middle, Greenwich High, International School at Dundee and Old Greenwich; two cases at Riverside; five cases each at Glenville and North Mianus; and six cases at Hamilton Avenue. Children age 11 and younger are not eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine is available to children ages 12 to 17. Of the 22 active cases in Greenwcih schools, there is one case each at the middle school and high school level. The remaining 20 cases are in elementary schools. The 10 resolved cases were attributed to family or outside activity transmission, the tracker said. Of the 22 active cases, 18 were attributed to family or outside activity exposure; 12 cases to unknown exposure; and two cases to in-school transmission. Three families have multiple COVID-19 cases, with six people impacted, according to the tracker Under an executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont, masks are required for everyone, regardless of immunization status, in schools statewide until at least Sept. 30. The Greenwich Board of Education also voted to approve a mask mandate through at least Sept. 30 and require social distancing in school buildings. Lamonts administration said it was considering an extension of the mask mandate, which is set to expire on Sept. 30 for students and staff in schools. I just think it should continue a little bit longer. Weve got not just delta, but mu (variants). Weve got flu season. ... I think well know a lot more in six weeks, Lamont said this week. As officials weigh the future of the mask mandate in schools, Connecticut reported Thursday that there have been 877 cases of COVID-19 among students and staff statewide during the first weeks of school. While 751 students in grades K-12 have tested positive for COVID since the start of the school year, 87 percent of the cases have been found in students who are not vaccinated many of whom are still ineligible. The state has also reported 126 cases among teachers and staff, about 22 percent of whom were not vaccinated. In Greenwich, efforts to encourage vaccinations and require masks in indoor settings are helping to mitigate the spread of COVID, First Selectman Fred Camillo said Thursday. Here in town we seem to be flattening out (over) the past three or four weeks, Camillo said of infection rates. Were definitely encouraged by that. The Greenwich Public Schools will continue to update the online COVID-19 on Tuesday and Fridays, according to Jonathan Supranowitz, director of communications for the school district. The school district will also send letters to staff and families if they are impacted directly, he said. A year ago, the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Greenwich Public Schools came in mid-September and, until late October, cases remained in the single digits district-wide. A total of 697 cases of COVID-19 were reported for the entirety of the 2020-21 school year. Staff Writers Nicholas Rondinone and Ken Borsuk contributed to this story. The Oppo K9 Pro appeared on TENAA last month, and today the phone was listed on the Chinese retailer JD's website. So far we have only images, but they confirm what we already saw at the regulatory - triple camera on a big rectangle, occupying the top third of the phone. Later the phone also popped up on Suning's site, another big name in the online retail business in China, where the date September 26 was casually dropped, suggesting a launch has been scheduled. The phone is officially listed with 64MP, 8MP and 2MP cameras, and we can clearly see the 64MP text on the back. The second one will be an ultrawide snapper, while the third looks like a depth cam. Oppo K9 Pro The phone is said to have Super Performance, which likely references the Dimensity 1200 chipset that comes with a 3.0GHz CPU and will have up to 12GB RAM to keep it company. The images also reveal physical buttons on both sides, meaning the fingerprint made its way under the OLED panel. Source 1 Source 2 (both in Chinese) | Via 1 Via 2 Published on 2021/09/16 | Source Actor Ha Jung-woo (real name Kim Sung-hoon), who was handed over to trial for illegally administering Propofol, was fined 30 million won. Advertisement Judge Park Sul-ah of the Seoul Central District Court held a sentence trial for Ha Jung-woo who was indicted on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act, sentenced him to a fine of 30 million won higher than the prosecution's sentence and ordered an additional fine of 88,700 won. Judge Park pointed out, "Each crime is not light, and the guilt is heavy because he committed the crime as an actor loved by the public". In the first trial held last month, the prosecution asked the actor to seek a fine of 10 million won and order an additional fine of 88,749 won, saying, "He has no history of similar crimes and admitted to all charges". Ha Jung-woo is accused of illegally administering Propofol 19 times while undergoing skin beauty procedures that do not require sleep anesthesia at a plastic surgery clinic in Gangnam, Seoul from January to September 2019. He is also accused of conspiring to faking an acquaintance's medical record 9 times, handing over the personal information to the head of the plastic surgery clinic. Initially, the prosecution summarily prosecuted a fine of 10 million won, but the court referred the case to a formal trial. Published on 2021/09/16 | Source Lee Hanee, Song Hye-kyo and Kim Nam-gil make up drama lineups that won't fail. Advertisement The new SBS Friday-Saturday drama "One the Woman" begins on the 17th of September at 10 PM. "One the Woman" is a comic buster that depicts the story a chaebol daughter-in-law and a corrupt female prosecutor who look the same, switching lives due to memory loss. Lee Hanee the leading actress plays Jo Yeon-joo, the corrupt female prosecutor with a bad temper. At the same time, she plays two roles as Kang Mi-na, the daughter-in-law of a chaebol family who lives like Cinderella amidst ill-treatment. Lee Hanee who played a detective in "Extreme Job" and a prosecutor in "The Fiery Priest", is expected to reach the peak with "One the Woman". At the press premiere, Lee Hanee said, "I've put all the comedy I have in this. It's like the past works were likes puzzles that led to this. Song Hye-kyo will fill in the space after Lee Hanee. She's coming back with "Now, We Are Breaking Up", is a sweet, salty, spicy, and sour breakup version of "Love Actually". Song Hye-kyo takes on the role of Ha Yeong-eun, a fashion company design team leader. She's a cold realist and Song Hye-kyo expresses the subtle psychology of a woman who is shaken by love that has come without notice. Jang Ki-yong, the male lead of "Now, We Are Breaking Up" has left for military even before the beginning of the drama. However, before he left he completed the press premiere and production of the drama so there shouldn't be a problem for the viewers watching the drama. After Song Hye-kyo comes Kim Nam-gil with "Those Who Read the Mind of Evil" as a profiler. The drama is based on an original non-fiction novel about the country's first profiler who struggles to read the minds of serial killers. It's Kim Nam-gil's first drama in two years since the 2019 drama "The Fiery Priest". From comedy to mellow to genre, Lee Hanee, Song Hye-kyo and Kim Nam-gil will fill-up the rest of the year with SBS dramas. Published on 2021/09/16 | Source First still added for the upcoming Korean movie "A Man of Reason" (2020) Advertisement Directed by Jung Woo-sung With Jung Woo-sung, Kim Nam-gil, Park Sung-woong, Kim Jun-han,... Formerly known as "The Protector" on HanCinema Synopsis After 10 years in the prison on behalf of his boss, Soo-hyeok is released, but the boss doubts his loyalty. When Soo-hyeok visits his long-abandoned girlfriend, he finds out that he, now, is a father of young girl. He wants to cut ties with the gang, but the boss is not ready to release him, and hires a notorious killer. The killer takes the daughter as hostage, and Soo-hyeok decides to take revenge in a way that he`s best at; a violence. Release date in Korea : 2021 Page Content The Hawaii State Board of Education (BOE) approved the restoration of Central Middle School to its former name honoring Princess Ruth Keanolani Kanahoahoa Keelikolani. The change is effective immediately. The late Princess Keelikolani, a high-ranking alii and a descendant of royal bloodlines on both sides of her family, played a major role in expanding access to education in Hawaii. The historic school near downtown Honolulu was constructed in 1926 on the site of Keoua Hale, Keelikolanis grand royal palace, and renamed soon after in 1927 as Central Intermediate School. For our students, it's a great opportunity to show our love, admiration and respect in restoring the name of Princess Ruth Keelikolani to our school, said Principal Joe Passantino. This ties into the Na Hopena Ao foundation of creating a sense of belonging for our students, an identity that can give them the strength and confidence to carry forth Princess Ruths legacy. The renaming process was launched in 2019 and steered by an inclusive committee of teachers, librarians, alumni, students, historians and community members. Progress was briefly paused in 2020 by COVID-19, but work resumed virtually, culminating with the Board approval. There was a lot of work, time and dedication involved and the entire committee was very excited for this day, said Noelani Takayesu, the schools student services coordinator. It really acknowledges and perpetuates the Hawaiian culture, which is vitally important to our students and our community. The wealthiest woman across Hawaii of her time (1826-1883), Princess Keelikolani willed the majority of her vast estates to her cousin, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. These lands would later establish the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate and be dedicated to the development of Kamehameha Schools. Moving forward, work will be scheduled to replace campus signage and update school materials, including its website and uniforms. A future outdoor mural is planned on the campus to honor Princess Keelikolani. Princess Ruth Keelikolani Middle School currently serves 336 students in grades six through eight. For more information about the school and its history, see http://bit.ly/PrincessRuth and its website at https://www.cmshnl.org. CAWTHWATCH: Cawthorn takes anti-mask road show across the state U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn speaks to the School Board to oppose a mask mandate. U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn tonight is expanding his tour of school boards to oppose masks, quarantine and critical race theory, traveling to the Piedmont to appear at the Johnston County School Board meeting. More on the trip across the state in a minute. When Cawthorn appeared on Monday evening at a meeting of the Henderson County School Board he said what everyone who follows politics even superficially would expect. He's against mask mandates, quarantines and critical race theory and blames the prevalence of those evils on the state's Democratic governor. "Tyrants thrive when freedom is sacrificed on the altar of safety," he said. "I believe that King George III would be immensely proud of Gov. Roy Cooper. He's running the state with an iron fist, liberty be dammed. He has ripped away your power and your will." Not satisfied with that declaration, Cawthorn took off into a flight of fancy. "This School Board did the right thing by voting to stop Roy Cooper's mask mandate," he said. "But our tyrant governor decided he was going to trample on this board's decision, flex his political muscle and run roughshod over the will of our local government all of you sitting here." No trample. The School Board "all of [them] sitting here" voted on Aug. 2 to make masks optional then voted a week later to reverse the decision. Under current state law, all School Boards have the authority to make masks optional or require them. And it was the School Board, not Cooper, that reversed course in the face of rising cases of the more transmissible delta variant on the mask mandate. He made virtually no news for his comments even the false one about Gov. Cooper but plenty of news for apparently packing a knife. Jay Carey, a Democrat who wants to replace Cawthorn busted him for carrying the hunting knife into the meeting, a violation of state law. A combat veteran, Carey made a photo of the sheathed weapon and sent it out in a tweet. "Im 100% certain it was a knife," Carey told the Citizen Times. "I was 20 years in the military. Attention to detail is my bread and butter and what kept me alive." This is just another example of a long list of behavior that makes Madison Cawthorn unfit for office," Carey said in a news release. "There were children at this meeting, and any one of them could have accessed Cawthorns weapon without his knowledge. This was a blatant violation of the law, and when I informed local law enforcement that the Congressman was armed, I was shrugged off. " (The Henderson County Sheriff's Office issued a statement Thursday saying it won't charge Cawthorn, citing law enforcement discretion to consider the totality of the circumstances.") Cawthorn's anti-mask, anti-quarantine tour continues today, as we mentioned above, when he travels to Smithfield. Chris Cooper, the politics professor at Western Carolina University and frequent expert commentator on WLOS-TV, has an interesting analysis of the congressman's trip on ncspin.com. Cooper reports on Cawthorn's was scheduled to join a "PARENTS' CHOICE" rally along with Robby Starbuck, a congressional candidate from Tennessee "who once produced the official video for the Spongebob Movie," before imploring the Johnston County School Board to reverse its mask mandate. "To get from Smithfield to Cawthorn's home in Henderson County, head west and in about four and a half hours (assuming you dont need to stop for gas or a bite to eat), youd finally enter the friendly confines of Hendersonville, NC. Along the way, youll pass through 6 other congressional districts," Cooper writes. "So, why would a member of Congress drive hundreds of miles out of his district to join a political novice from Tennessee and a few hundred other protestors to weigh in on a school board decision that doesnt fall under even the most generous view of congressional power?" Cooper devotes the next four paragraphs to answering the question, making a strong case that local School Board politics is secondary to the freshman congressman's larger aspirations, which the professor asserts might logically include a run for the U.S. Senate in 2026. Here's Cooper's kicker: "In the end, Madison Cawthorns visit to a school board meeting hours away from his home will not further his legislative goals or move the policy needle for constituents in his district, but it will further his brand as a national political figure who is, in his own words, 'probably the furthest, most conservative person in Congress.' And that, is precisely the point." Sheriff's office won't charge Cawthorn for having knife at School Board meeting The Henderson County Sheriff's Office issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying it was made aware of allegations that U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn had taken a knife into a Henderson County School Board meeting and that at its discretion had declined to bring a criminal misdemeanor charge. Here's the statement: "On Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2021, at approximately 14:10 hrs the Henderson County Sheriffs Office was made aware of photos and allegations concerning Congressman Cawthorns alleged possession of a knife at a Henderson County School Board meeting on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. The Henderson County Sheriffs Office, as well as N.C. General Statutes, allow for officer discretion concerning most misdemeanor offenses. This discretion considers the totality of the circumstances to include the intent of a person. "Although unacceptable, occasionally a person inadvertently possesses a knife on educational property or other property where such possession is prohibited. During such an encounter, such as a sporting event, it is not uncommon for a HCSO Deputy Sheriff to issue a verbal warning and have the knife and or person removed from the premises. "The Henderson County Public Schools Administrative Office building, located on Fourth Avenue West in Hendersonville, has now been clearly marked as an educational facility which prohibits weapons on or in the property at all times. Congressman Cawthorn is now aware that the administrative offices of the school system is considered educational property and NO WEAPONS are allowed. "Please let this serve as a reminder to all citizens that weapons are prohibited on ALL school campuses, as well as ALL properties owned and or operated by the school system. This prohibition applies at all times in the state of North Carolina. We appreciate members of the public working together to keep our schools and community safe. "The Henderson County Sheriffs Office will have no further comment regarding this incident." When asked about the quality I most admire in a leader, the answer is always vision. Perhaps it was the years of working with the former CEO of Central Florida Hillel, the irreplaceable Aaron Weil. Or the general lack of vision I see in so many organizations (Jewish and not), but an inspiring leader who knows the potential of their organization makes me want to sign up, donate and get involved. That is why at our recent board retreat, the Stetson University Hillel student board started with vision. Vision is what has driven Judaism since Abraham. In Hatikvah (literally 'the Hope'), the Israeli national anthem, we sing about our vision for a return to the Jewish homeland "...The hope that is two-thousand years old, to be a free nation in our land, The Land of Zion and Jerusalem." As I shared with my students, it took vision for Stetson President Emerita, Wendy Libby to see a thriving Jewish community on campus in DeLand. It was vision that inspired the Ginsburg Family Foundation to support Stetson Hillel by endowing the Jeffrey & Diane Ginsburg Hillel House at Stetson University. And it took vision for the Wolfson Family Foundation to fund the expansion of our Hillel staff to engage more students. When I do visioning exercises, I like to reference the iconic 1939 film, The Wizard of OZ. I do this because I find that often when people talk about vision they talk about planning. Please don't get me wrong, planning is crucial, but planning is the yellow brick road, vision is the Emerald City. When Hillel restarted in earnest at Stetson University, we went from black and white to color it really was that stark of a change. In a few short years we grew from a rag tag bunch of Jewish students meeting in a dorm with a bottle of Manischewitz, to weekly Glatt Kosher Shabbat meals with a growing attendance. Hillel has so greatly impacted the campus culture that there is now Kosher grab-and-go food on campus. Students can earn a Jewish studies minor. Hatters can study at Hebrew University through a full exchange program. And Hillel is consistently recognized as one of the best student organizations on campus. Still, all of that growth just brought us to Oz. So I asked, what does the Emerald City look like, and the leaders of Stetson Hillel, the future leaders of our and many other Jewish communities, responded with a depth of understanding, creativity and passion that should make us all sleep better at night. The Hillel Student Board shared with me a future Hillel with many points of entry for Jewish hatters to engage from the most observant to the 'Just Jewish.' They shared with me the need to continue developing leaders and that Hillel should continue serving as a springboard for broader campus leadership positions (for two years in a row the Stetson SGA President and head of student media have been Hillel Board members). They talked about the house continuing to be used for meetings, debates, snacks, parties, holidays and study. They shared a Jewish community that embraces the purist form of pluralism and recognizes that we are better when we do not have to check our identity at the door be it political ideology, religious observance, sexuality, or even your mood after a rough class. They talked about the need for good leaders to work themselves out of a job by inspiring those who do not yet recognize their own gifts and potential. And they talked about how a well-funded, connected and fully engaged Jewish community leads to a better Stetson for everyone. I am inspired by these leaders, and I can't wait to watch them build that Emerald City brick by yellow brick. VACAVILLE, Calif. (JTA) Soon after Jon Grobman was released from prison, where he had once thought he would die, he headed back inside voluntarily - this time with canine sidekicks. Grobman was returning as the newest hire of a nonprofit group, Paws for Life K9 Rescue, that had been instrumental in his own long and difficult road to redemption. He won't easily forget the words of the judge who sentenced him to life without parole. "If I felt that you had any promise to ever amount to anything in your life, I wouldn't give you this sentence," Grobman recalled the judge saying. The takeaway, Grobman said, was that "he determined I had no value to anyone or anything in this world." Sixteen years later, his voice still shakes from the memory. Raised in a nonobservant Jewish family in the affluent Bay Area town of Hillsborough, California, Grobman had been in trouble for years. He'd begun experimenting with drugs at a young age, continuing as he struggled with emotional issues. When his parents sent him to a child psychologist as a teen, the doctor molested him (along with many other young boys, including several Jewish victims, over the span of decades). Stealing to fund his drug habit into adulthood, Grobman continued to get in trouble with the law. In 2005 he ran afoul of California's "three strikes" law, which suggests a 25-years-to-life sentence for anyone convicted of three felonies. But in prison, Grobman found a new lease on life. With the help of a local Chabad rabbi, he rediscovered his Judaism; and, with the help of some four-legged friends, he found an opportunity to practice teshuvah, or repentance. "Of all the classes I took in prison, nothing impacted me more than one on victim sensitivity awareness," he said. "It connected to me to what people go through when they're victimized. I started connecting the trauma that I went through to the trauma of those around me, and the trauma I caused others. I began thinking about what I can do with my life to make a difference in the lives of those around me, and began mentoring younger guys. "I knew I was never getting out, but I could help them for when they did." In 2018, the extraordinary happened: After 13 years in prison, Grobman became the state's first-ever beneficiary of a "Recall of Commitment" from the California Department of Corrections. Citing his exceptional behavior in prison and evidence that he would be a positive asset on the outside, the state recommended that he go free. Today, at 54, he is. Since getting a second chance, Grobman feels he has been proving that judge wrong every single day - something that he says kicked into high gear when he became involved with Paws for Life. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit gives incarcerated men the chance to train rescued shelter dogs with behavioral problems who otherwise would be euthanized. The group began in 2014 as an idea from prison leadership, which partnered with a local shelter. For the pilot program, the shelter's operator, Alex Tonner, brought dogs into the maximum-security California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster, California, at the behest of the prison's warden. That pilot program worked with men who were a part of the prison's so-called "Honor Yard," reserved for lifers who have demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation. Grobman was among them. The story of that group, including Grobman, was recently featured in the short documentary "Shelter Me: Soul Awakened," hosted by musician John Legend and broadcast on public television. Grobman was also in the 2015 HBO documentary "Toe Tag Parole: To Live and Die on Yard A." In prison, Grobman hid the fact that he was Jewish at first, but over time he befriended the only other Jewish man at Lancaster. Rabbi Joseph Lazar, the Jewish chaplain at the prison in Lancaster and director of the nearby Chabad of the High Desert, came once a week to wrap tefillin with him and teach him about Jewish history for most of his time there. "In prison, he found his better side that was buried deep beneath all those layers that led him to be incarcerated in the first place," Lazar said about Grobman. "Over time, he made his life about helping others. He really learned how to have compassion and empathy for others inside, and could really be a poster child for teshuvah." Grobman said learning with Lazar was inspirational. "We're a resilient people, and learning about our history, I saw the connection to my own story," he said. His job in the prison captain's office, running many of the prison's rehabilitation programs, gave him a certain amount of power and protection, which allowed him to feel safe being "out" as a Jew, even among skinheads; he even became close friends with one of them, he said. When he was approached to help start Paws for Life at the prison, he agreed. At first, it was hard to find 15 men willing to sign up, partially because they couldn't believe dogs would be allowed into prison. Grobman ended up taking part, too; he was a natural at dog training, and eventually became the program's leader. "Every person I was able to have an impact on erased more of what the judge said," he said. "I realized how good it feels to help change someone's life, and to play a role in guiding people in the right direction." It was clear from the outset that it wasn't only the dogs who were benefitting. Outside of the human-canine bond, "there is trust," said Tonner, who today runs the program. "These animals come in with no judgment. The dog was caged, in a shelter, and wasn't given opportunities, and the guys relate to them in that way. The dogs also make them vulnerable; they open up their emotions." Prison is "not an enriching environment," Tonner said, "but they're able to take this dog and enrich it in the ways they would like to be enriched and they take pride in that." The graduating dogs hundreds have been trained by now - are then adopted into "forever" homes, with their trainers receiving regular updates about them. As men advance, some have learned how to train service dogs, particularly those that can be companions for veterans with PTSD. As soon as it became known that Grobman was getting out, he was offered full-time employment by Paws for Life; he calls it his dream job. As the group's director of programs, he is in charge of bringing the therapeutic benefits he had once experienced to other men. So far, he has helped start the program in two prisons in Northern California: Mule Creek State Prison and the California Medical Facility. Grobman still sees Lazar on his frequent visits to Lancaster. "He's obviously intelligent with excellent people skills," said Lazar. "I'm quite impressed with how much he continues to give back. At every opportunity, he really goes out of his way to help others." During Grobman's recent visit to the CMF in Vacaville, a group of men in prison blues showed off their charges: Tank, Panda, Hearts, Roger and Farrah Fawcett. Three trainers share a single dog, and they are always paired with trainers of different races so as to encourage interracial harmony. "Working with the dogs can make me forget I'm in prison," said Andrey Bernik, who identified himself as a Ukrainian Jew on his mother's side. "We are warehoused here, and for the most part, don't have any way to give back to society," said Chris Mann, who's been incarcerated for nearly 30 years. "Most see us only as the last crime we committed, and not who we've turned into. Knowing that the dogs we trained will go to good homes allows us a chance to give back." Paws for Life says that, to date, 39 of its participants have had their sentences commuted. Many of them are now working with dogs on the outside. Not one has returned to prison. "All this good that came from freeing Jon, helps free us," said Eddie Davis, another incarcerated man at CMF. "In an odd sort of way, Jon found his passion and his purpose in prison. He could now probably be a corporate type, but he wouldn't be anywhere as happy as he is now." How many of these men will be given a second chance to follow in Grobman's footsteps is ultimately up to the governor and the parole board. But the numbers continue to grow, and his regular visits remind them that it's possible. "This is my community," Grobman said. "I don't want people to forget about them." (JTA) If theres one thing Rabbi Sholom Lipskar wants to remember from the aftermath of the Surfside condo collapse in June, its the small cards that he distributed to the first responders and search-and-rescue teams working at the site. Inscribed with Psalm 23, a psalm often recited in times of trouble that begins with the words The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, the cards were meant to protect and inspire those charged with extracting survivors and, later, recovering bodies. Lipskar estimated that he gave out as many as 800 of the cards and recalled meeting a firefighter who kept his tucked into his hat. This card became something that everybody wanted, said the rabbi, speaking from his office in the Chabad synagogue he runs just a few blocks away from what was once Champlain Towers South. For Lipskar, the cards epitomize his efforts, sometimes onerous, to keep sight of the positivity that came out of the Surfside collapse, in which 97 people were killed. Sometimes from tragedy, from darkness, you can bring out a sense of humanness and decency, he said. The nations of the world, their objective is to create a civilization, a moral, ethical civilization. Its the objective of the Jew to infuse that civilization with holiness, with divinity, with purpose, meaning. The cards also reflect the significant role that Lipskar and his synagogue, The Shul, played in the community both before and after the collapse. Days before the collapse, the synagogue hosted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he signed two bills that Lipskar and his community had backed. In the moments and days after the building fell, the synagogue emerged as a hub for first responders and families of the missing while they waited for news about their loved ones. And in the weeks that followed, as the community continued to process its grief while the rest of the country moved on, Lipskar worked to come up with High Holiday sermons that would help them wrest meaning from the disaster without trying to offer a theological explanation for it. If anybody gives me a reason except for God Almighty himself, theyre idiots. Theyre making up stories. They have no idea, he said. Theres no question [that] only He can give me the answer. But Im not going to continue to base my life on a question. Instead, Lipskar planned to use his Rosh Hashanah sermon to share a message advanced by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the leader of the Chabad movement who died in 1994. The Rebbe said no, you dont talk about the past as negative, Lipskar said. Theres a Rosh Hashanah prayer that you begin the prayer with, you know, Goodbye to the past year that was filled with difficulty and challenges, and hello to the new year, that it should be with blessing, he added. We say thank you Hashem [God] for allowing us to live through that challenge and for giving us the strength to be where we are today so we can face the next year. For Lipskar, the challenge began in 1982 when Schneerson tasked him with starting a community in Bal Harbour. At the time, the wealthy beachside resort town was known for being inhospitable to Jews. Housing deeds in the town specifically barred homes from being sold to Jews, and prior to a discrimination lawsuit brought in 1982, the Bal Harbour Club did not allow Jews or Black people to join. But the town was a magnet for wealthy and influential people from around the world, and Schneerson hoped that a successful synagogue there could pave the way for others in similar locations. I was not excited about it, Chani Lipskar, Lipskars wife, told Chabad.org about the move. The thought of leaving everything we knew behind and moving to this place that is so not welcoming to Jewish people was not something that I was looking forward to. But we wrote to the rebbe and the rebbe wrote back, nachon hadavar, its the right thing to do. Putting up the towns first public menorah for Hanukkah a hallmark of Chabad outreach in any community was an ordeal, Lipskar recalled. They made me give them drawings for the menorah that had to be hurricane-proof, Lipskar said, even though he was only planning to display the menorah on a seasonal basis and hurricane season ended before the holiday began. Forty years later, a visitor to Surfside and Bal Harbour might find it hard to believe that the area once had no public menorah or was unable to support a single kosher deli. Today, vacationing Orthodox Jews from across the country flock to the towns for their numerous upscale kosher restaurants just a few minutes from the beach, and the multitude of prayer services available nearby on Shabbat and throughout the week. And The Shul has grown by leaps and bounds, having announced a major expansion in 2016 that would double its size and add a glass-walled social hall for seating an additional 600 to 700 people. Construction on the expansion is still in progress. The Shul has approximately 700 member families, but counts several hundred non-member families among its community. He doesnt do anything unless, like he says, its over the top, Gabe Groisman, mayor of Bal Harbour, said about Lipskar. Really what it means is, hes always 100% invested in the person thats in front of him. Dovid Duchman, a relative of Lipskar and a member of the synagogues board, described Lipskars slogan as a way of approaching challenges and one that characterized his response in the hours and days after the Champlain Towers South collapse. The idea is that many people come to a roadblock in life, they try and go around it, Duchman said. Our approach straight from the beginning is over the top. We do things in the grandest way possible. In the days after the collapse, the synagogues large and still unfinished social hall expansion was turned into a distribution center for getting essential goods to those who had lost their homes. Everything from underwear to computers to toothbrushes were stored at The Shul. To feed the families of the missing people and the search-and-rescue teams that descended on the building site, The Shul worked with local chefs to organize thousands of kosher meals each day. Even though many of the people in need of food were not Jewish or observant, all of the food was made to strict kosher standards. We made a conscious decision. First, we had to feed them well, because were not getting the cheapest food, it wasnt just pizza and hot dogs. We want to give them fish and steak and chicken, whatever they needed, Lipskar said. Those meals went on for weeks as the search-and-rescue teams continued to scour the site for signs of survivors. Volunteers from The Shul and other parts of the community worked with snowbirds to move families who had lost their homes into empty apartments while they searched for more permanent housing. As the rescue teams and first responders worked, Lipskar spoke regularly with them, offering words of encouragement and inspiration. Through it all, Lipskar was thinking about the dozens of members of his community who died in the collapse, like Frank Kleiman, whod recently gotten married and started a new company, and Harry Rosenberg, whod moved to Surfside just a month before the collapse to start over after his wife died of cancer. That individual attention was nothing new. According to one account, when Lipskar visits the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Queens, he brings the entire list of his synagogue members with him, reading through the list and picturing each member as he prays for them. Even as The Shul has grown, Lipskar has remained closely involved with the Aleph Institute, an organization to support Jewish incarcerated people that he founded shortly before moving to Bal Harbour and which has an office in The Shuls building. The bulk of the groups work involves chaplaincy, helping inmates and members of the military access religious services and advocating for alternative sentencing policies and criminal justice reform. Earlier this year, the group landed in the public spotlight after then-President Donald Trump gave pardons to several people it had advocated for, in moves that critics said bypassed the typical Justice Department process in favor of advocacy by those close to influential members of the administration. In allowing DeSantis to sign the recent bills in The Shul, Lipskar again drew attention to ties to a polarizing political figure. The Republican governor has barred mask and vaccine mandates in his state and was early to lift pandemic precautions, decisions that drew criticism from across the country and may have driven Floridas recent deadly surge in COVID-19 cases. Motti Seligson, director of public relations for Chabad.org, said emissaries of Chabad always work with elected officials, whoever they are, on the issues they care about. The two bills DeSantis signed at The Shul fell squarely into that category: One authorized Hatzalah, the Jewish ambulance service, as a state-recognized ambulance. The other tasked all Florida public schools with setting aside a daily moment of silence, something that Schneerson had supported as a way of involving parents in the school day. Similar bills have been passed in other states, but advocates for separation of church and state have criticized the bills as religious intrusions into public education. As a matter of principle, we steer clear of partisan politics, Seligson said. We do engage with public officials from both parties on matters of public interest, respecting the office to which they were elected or appointed and the democratic process generally. Lipskar said some in his community disapproved of his work with Aleph in its early days, not understanding why he would spend his time working with criminals. But he said his community has since come to support his work as criminal justice reform has gained more public support. As for him, he said he considers the two aspects of his work equally necessary but understands why that might be hard for others to see. My father said you always look at it like a wife and a concubine. One of thems always going to be jealous of the other unless they recognize that theres real equality, that each one has their role, Lipskar said. To Lipskar, mourning and joy, too, each have equal roles to play, even in a community like his that has been so consumed by grief. Each day starts again, Lipskar said, launching into a summary of his Rosh Hashanah sermon comparing the sun, which does not change, to the moon, which appears to change throughout the month. To Lipskar, the sun represents continuity and the moon represents change. Theres the benefits of continuity, we are standing on the shoulders of giants. But theres also the recognition of renewal of new. Thats why the day consists of sun and moon, of continuity and renewal, Lipskar said. Thats our opportunity after this. NEW YORK (JTA) - The holiday of Sukkot isn't complete without a lulav and an etrog, the four species that Jews are commanded to wave on the harvest holiday. But according to a new book, it wasn't until the Second Temple period that Jews started using the lemon-like etrog as part of their Sukkot celebrations. In ancient times, people would simply use whichever fruits they had harvested in that season, such as pomegranates, grapes, dates and figs, says Rabbi David Moster, who has been researching the etrog for a decade and published a book on its history in April. That's because the Bible isn't quite clear about which fruit God wants the Jews to use to celebrate Sukkot. In Leviticus 23:40, God commands that Jews on the first day of the holiday "take the product of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook." The branches, boughs and willows refer to palm, myrtle and willow. But the meaning of "the product of goodly trees" is less clear -- the term itself has also been translated in a variety of ways. Therefore, Jews would use whichever fruits they had available to celebrate Sukkot, according to Moster, the founder and director of the Institute of Biblical Culture, which offers online courses on the Bible. Things changed during the Second Temple period, however, when a new fruit was introduced to the Land of Israel: the etrog, or citron. Why did it become widely accepted that Leviticus was referring to an etrog? Moster says the answer lies in the fruit's journey to Israel. The fruit originated in China, where it does not appear to have been very popular, he told JTA. Eventually, the fruit made its way from East Asia to India, where it was used as a remedy for gastrointestinal issues (hence its Latin name, Citrus medica) and appeared in iconography as a fertility symbol. From there it traveled to the Iran, when the Persian Empire conquered northwestern India around 518 BCE. As the Land of Israel came under Persian control in 539 BCE, the etrog spread to there as well. It was one of the first foreign fruits to enter the land, Moster says, and it quickly became popular. Moster says it is impossible to pinpoint an exact date, but at some point during the Second Temple period, "the product of the goodly trees" became widely seen to refer to the etrog. From there, the etrog gained an even larger significance as a Jewish symbol, and it was used to decorate everything from burial tombs and synagogue mosaics to pendants and lamps. The idea was an exclusively rabbinic one. For example, the Samaritans, who claim to be descendants of the Israelites, did not share the interpretation. To this day, Samaritans use an array of colorful fruits in crafting their sukkahs, which look quite different than the leafy ones that Jews tend to build, and the etrog does not play a central role. As for Moster, he is a big fan of the etrog, and makes an annual trek from his Yonkers, New York, home to Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood, where dozens of vendors sell the fruit ahead of Sukkot. "My sukkah actually has instead of regular decorations of different types of fruit, we just have etrogim hanging the whole way around," he said. Asked how he affords it - etrogim typically aren't cheap, ranging from $30 to $500 - Moster explains that he buys the real thing for ritual purposes and decorates his sukkah with plastic fruit. Qian Julie Wang grew up in libraries. Coming to America at age 7, she was thrown into the brand new world of New York City. Soon, she was spending all her free time in her local Chinatown library, soaking up as much English as possible. It became her second home, a place of safety. Now, she's telling her story for the first time - buoyed by the hope of reaching those in libraries who were just like her. Wang and her parents were undocumented, and the 2016 election - which occurred just after she became a naturalized American citizen - spurred her to begin writing her memoir on her phone on the subway. Those subway snippets would become "Beautiful Country," a gorgeous and heartfelt tale of Wang's childhood as an undocumented New Yorker, published Tuesday. Wang is also an active member of a synagogue and its Jews of Color community. When she's not writing incredible memoirs, Wang is a litigator working as the managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP - a firm dedicated to advocating for education and disability rights. Her story is a modern day Jewish American immigrant tale, and over e-mail we spoke about what it means to have this book out in the world, her work with Jews of Color and the meaningful publication of "Beautiful Country" on Rosh Hashanah. In many ways, "Beautiful Country" is such an American story. What inspired you to share your tale of being an undocumented child? I'd always dreamed about writing this book. While I grew up learning English on library books, I never found a book that depicted characters who looked like me and lived in the way my parents and I did. It was my biggest and wildest ambition to write a book that might allow others out there to see themselves reflected in literature, and have them know that it is possible to survive similar circumstances. Even so, I figured I would never make it happen, because I lived under messaging from all directions, my parents included, that my past was shameful and had to be kept hidden. It wasn't until the discourse of the 2016 election, which took place just six months after I became a naturalized U.S. citizen, that I discovered that I had a newfound power and thus responsibility to share my story, that at that juncture of my life, I was making an actual decision to stay quiet - a privilege that millions of undocumented immigrants do not have. It was then that I realized that what I had long thought of as singularly mine was no longer my secret to keep. What does it mean to you to be Jewish? For me, being Jewish cannot be separated from tikkun olam, the concept that calls upon us to repair the world. For many years of my life, I operated by a set of clear and abiding principles, and asked inconvenient, challenging questions, but I had no formal spiritual framework. When I discovered Judaism, I finally felt complete. I realized that I had been Jewish all along; I simply hadn't known it. Central to tikkun olam is hearing the call of the voiceless and fighting for justice in every available avenue. It also means standing up and speaking out even when it might be uncomfortable to do so - to be rooted first and foremost in our faith in equality. What's your favorite part about being Jewish? Without a doubt, it has been the Jews of Color community. After immigrating to America, I was never able to feel fully at home in a public space. That changed when I started gathering with my fellow Jews of Color. In that sphere, I have been so fortunate to find lifelong friends - my sisters and family in spirit. We are not a monolith by any means, but the unity of intersectionality is a beautiful thing. There was probably no better way to discover kindred spirits with whom I share my passion for activism, racial justice, immigrants' rights and spirituality. How did you balance working as a litigator and writing your memoir? Balance is a concept that I think few litigators know (I certainly don't!). We are in overdrive pretty much all the time. I wrote the first draft of "Beautiful Country" while making partner at a national firm. The only way to balance it with working 60-80 hours a week was a concrete rule: As long as I was on the subway platform or on the subway on my way to or from work, I was writing on my phone. Even with this rule though, there were months (and up to nearly a year) when I just had to take time off writing entirely. This was particularly the case in early 2019, because I was also planning my wedding at the time. I gave myself permission then to stop working on the book, not knowing if I would ever find my way back. But in late September 2019, on our flight to our honeymoon, I realized that the break had allowed me to subconsciously process everything else that needed to go into my book. I pulled my phone out and started typing on that flight, and gave myself until December 31, 2019 to finish the first draft or forget about it for good. At that point, I had maybe one third to half of the book finished. But two months later, on December 30, I was done with the entire draft. Something I was really struck by was how much reading, and your local library, was a safe space for you as a child (as a fellow kid who loved going to the library!). Can you talk a little bit more about this? The public library is a cornerstone of our society and provides vital access to resources and knowledge to those who might not otherwise be able to afford it. Librarians are our unsung, modern-day heroes. For me growing up, the library was my second home. It was safe and I could always count on it to supply my old and new family and friends in the form of beloved characters - and all for free. As a child who felt lonely and lost most of the time, the Chatham Square public library branch in Chinatown was my anchor in my American life. It was where I learned English, discovered my favorite books and learned what it meant to feel comfortable in my new land. It was there that I never had to question whether or not I belonged. What were some influential books for you growing up? In my book, I share my story about receiving my copy of "Charlotte's Web" (which I still have!) as a gift from my beloved third grade teacher. The book will forever represent to me the first time I felt accepted in the United States. But there are so many other titles that brought vibrancy to my childhood years: every single installment of "The Baby-Sitter's Club," the "Sweet Valley Twins" series, "The Diary of Anne Frank," "Where the Red Fern Grows," "Number the Stars," "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH," "The Giver." What does it mean to you that other young Chinese kids will be able to read your story now? To check it out at their local library? This is the very reason I wrote the book: this dream that another Chinese, Asian American, immigrant, poor or hungry kid might come upon it at their public library and might find in it something that gives them hope or solace to keep going. I think it is easy to forget as adults how very difficult and terrifying it is to be a child navigating the world. There have been many times in the publication process when I have wondered whether I was crazy to go through with putting this book out into the world. But each time I returned to that vision of a preteen discovering my book at the library when she needs it most, all of my fears fall by the wayside. Has your family read "Beautiful Country"? How did they react? My parents have read parts of it, and I have fact-checked certain memories with them, but they have not read the whole thing! My parents remain deeply ashamed and regretful of the past, and I don't think they've ever forgiven themselves for my childhood years. It took me six months after the book deal to work up the courage to tell my parents. And when I did, they expressed profound anxiety about the government coming after us, even though we are all on legal status now. I suspect that in many ways, my book feels to my father like history repeating itself: His childhood was marked by his brother writing a daring, honest and critical essay that had his entire family persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. I regret that the publication of my book might have awakened that sense of trauma in him, and I badly want to shield him from it. My small hope is that if my parents don't read the full book until it's available to the public, they won't know the full scale of details shared, so they won't be sitting there, counting down the days to when ICE might be banging down their doors. And my dream is that the book's publication might help them finally find some forgiveness and healing over the past. What memoirs, or other books, inspired you in your writing process? I love memoirs that read like novels - the ones that are not just factual but also artistic. On this front, Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" were my north stars in crafting my own book. Shifting focus, can you tell us about your work with your Jews of Color group? American Judaism is Ashkenazi-centric, even though, historically and globally, Judaism is far more diverse. That myopic focus in the U.S. tends to result in Jewish spaces that feel deeply unwelcoming, and often even overtly hostile, to Jews of Color. There have been more than one report of, for instance, Black Jews being followed by synagogue security guards and Asian Jews being subjected to fetishized comments during services (if I had a nickel every time a man came up to me during prayer and told me about an Asian woman he once dated...). All of us are stared at and assumed to be new converts or gentile. Rarely are we able able to attend services without receiving at least some inappropriate, offensive remark. As such, our group's mission is first and foremost to build a safe space for Jews of Color to connect and engage in their religion - shelter for when we feel utterly unwanted in all other Jewish spaces. Beyond that, we also work to create platforms for Jews of Color within our synagogue and in the Jewish community and to engage racial justice work and activism outside the temple and outside the Jewish world. Judaism is the religion of the enslaved, the uprooted, the marginalized, and the other, and we are dedicated to making sure that its American community lives up to its roots. As we approach the Jewish New Year, any Rosh Hashanah plans you are looking forward to? This year's Rosh Hashanah is major for me for many reasons. First, it is the day my book comes out. Second, I am delighted to be giving a speech that morning at Central Synagogue (live-streamed worldwide here) and in Radio City Music Hall. Most of all, though, I am really looking forward to getting together with family at the seder. We had to forgo one last year, so I know we will be more than making up for it this year around. What do you hope readers take away from "Beautiful Country"? My book is a celebration of childhood, that wondrous time when we were all still so tender and open. It's a voyage into the love, pain and secrets of family, a train ride through the confusion, resilience and delight of coming of age. If readers can take away anything from the experience, I hope it is that, beyond the external labels and divides, we are all not that different from each other. There is universality in humanity and in the childhood experience in particular. If my book might inspire readers to revisit their own childhood, to recognize and honor the resilience of the child self that still dwells in all of us, then it would be a dream come true. Published by Alma, a 70 Faces Media brand Surprise! Surprise!... Did you know that Golden Globe, Prime Time Emmy and an Academy Award... all for best actress, were earned by fabulous actress HELEN HUNT? Did you also know that her paternal grandparents were from German-Jewish folks. Like me, Helen grew up in New York City from the age of three. I recently saw her on television discussing her career. (You may have also.) And you probably have heard of actress, Milena Markovna Kunis. NO? (How about MILA KUNIS?) Mila, born in Soviet Ukraine (like my ancesters on my mom's side), and fled with her Jewish family to the United States when she was only 7 years old. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Mila comes from a Jewish family and has cited anti-Semitism as one of the reasons for her family's move to the U.S. Her parents raised her Jewish, even though religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union. She spoke only Russian when she arrived. Another surprise to me was actor JAKE GYLLENHAAL, who happens to be the younger brother of actress MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL. Jake's mother was Jewish. She was born in New York City to a Jewish family from Russia and Poland. Jake says that he considers himself Jewish and was even given a bar mitzvah at age 13. Again, I repeat... Surprise! Surprise! Over 3,000 years ago... I recently received this in the mail from "Stand With Us": "An indigenous people developed a thriving civilization and culture in their ancestral homeland. Over time they were conquered by a series of aggressive foreign empires, and while some remained in their cities and communities, most of them scattered across Europe and the Middle East. Although they flourished at times, for 1.900 years the Jews lived as an oppressed minority, suffering expulsions, massacres, and ultimately genocide. They barely surprised but never lost hope. They overcame. Over time and much suffering, they started a liberation movement, returned home to join those already there, and built one of the most vibrant, diverse nations the world has ever seen. That nation is Israel, the Jewish homeland! (I've been to Israel and of course, I intend to go again! How proud I am!) Jews of Ukraine... Recently, the Jewish community of Ukraine was shaken by a Synagogue attack. (I read about it in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and pass it along to you: "The Jewish confederation of Ukraine voiced outrage following an attack on the Mariupol Synagogue by an axe-wielding vandal on the eve of Tisha B'Av,one of the calendar's holiest days which marks the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue's security guard successfully fought off the armed attacker. A wish from the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando... "We want to wish you and your family a healthy and happy New Year. May this upcoming year bring joy, togetherness, and lots of laughter. Warmest wishes, your JFGO family. The Roth Family JCC... The exact same wishes came from the Roth Family JCC to all of us! (After more than a year and a half of pandemic we just suffered, we sure do need such wishes! Thank you, thank you.) The Winter Park Playhouse... And speaking of fun and laughter, a reminder that "The Book of Merman" will still be presented through October 17th. Don't miss it! The Winter Park Playhouse is located at 711 N. Orange Avenue Suite B in Winter Park. For phone information, call 407-645-0145. I got in trouble... I got in trouble for saying publicly that "I love dogs better than people." (But I do!) Anyway, I received this in the mail recently and want to pass it along to you. It is from the Animal League of America: "From death row to a responsible, loving home... their journey begins with you. Over 8 million dogs and cats will end up in U.S. shelters this year. An estimated 2 million will meet a tragic end if they're not rescued in time." (Reminds me of the Holocaust!) Please contact them to see how you can help. One for the road... My son ate my dinner! (Oh wait. That's NOT funny!) Here's the joke: "Two men sitting on a train are talking. One guy says, 'Did you hear the one about the two Jews who are walking down the street...' The other guys says, 'Hold it! Why are you always telling jokes about Jews? I find it offensive. Why must they always be about Jews?' 'You're right,' his friend replies, and starts the joke again. 'So these two Chinamen are walking down the street on the way to their nephew's bar mitzvah...'" Great works of art often become so present in our everyday lives - the "Mona Lisa" on a mug, "The Starry Night" on a sweater, Basquiat in Beyonce and Jay-Z's Tiffany campaign - that it's easy to forget how fragile the originals are. These images that populate our collective consciousness all started as a single destructible canvas. But most museums don't highlight the life these artworks have had as physical objects - often because that history is wrapped up in colonialism and theft. At the new Jewish Museum exhibition "Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art," which opened last month in New York, this overlooked aspect of a painting's history becomes the focus. "It is often difficult to understand the 'biography' of an artwork simply by looking at it, and even more difficult to uncover the lives and experiences of the people behind it," reads the text on the first wall visitors encounter, displayed beside Franz Marc's "The Large Blue Horses." The gallery is organized around how the artwork it features - including works by Chagall and Pissarro (both Jewish), Matisse, Picasso, Bonnard, Klee and more - came to hang there. All the pieces displayed have one quality in common: They were either directly affected or inspired by the looting and destruction of the Nazis. "The vast and systemic pillaging of artworks during World War II, and the eventual rescue and return of many, is one of the most dramatic stories of twentieth-century art... Artworks that withstood the immense tragedy of the war survived against extraordinary odds," the text continues. "Many exist today as a result of great personal risk and ingenuity." One of the most striking instances of bravery the exhibit recounts is that of Rose Valland, a curator at the Jeu de Paume, which housed the work of the Impressionists. During the collaborationist Vichy regime, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, or ERR, took over the museum building. The ERR, "one of the largest Nazi art-looting task forces operating throughout occupied Europe," used the space to store masterpieces it had taken. Valland, who had worked at the Jeu de Paume before the war, stayed on during the Occupation and collaborated with the French Resistance to track what the Nazis did with the stolen paintings. "At great personal risk," including sneaking into the Nazi office at night to photograph important documents, "she recorded incoming and outgoing shipments and made detailed maps of the extensive network of Nazi transportation and storage facilities." Pieces by Jewish or modernist artists were often labeled "degenerate" and slated for destruction. Valland was unable to save many of them, and referred to the room where they were housed as the "Room of the Martyrs." In the exhibit, Valland's story is overlaid on a 1942 photograph of this room. Some of the works in it - by Andre Derain and Claude Monet, among others - are believed to have been destroyed. But three of the paintings that survived are on the adjacent wall: "Bather and Rocks" by Paul Cezanne, "Group of Characters" by Pablo Picasso, and "Composition" by Fedor Lowenstein. They last hung together in the Room of the Martyrs, awaiting their fate like many of the Jews of Europe. Some Impressionist paintings on display at the Jewish Museum, like Matisse's "Girl in Yellow and Blue with Guitar," spent the Holocaust in the personal collections of high-ranking Nazi officials - Hermann Goering in this case. Others - like Marc Chagall's "Purim," a study for a commissioned St. Petersburg mural he never painted - were confiscated, labeled "degenerate" for their Jewish authors and content. But that didn't stop the Nazis from selling them to fund the war effort. The exhibit calls out these financial incentives that spurred the Nazis to steal from Jewish collectors: It was as much about seizing Jewish wealth as about any ideological beliefs. Germany was in debt when the Nazis came to power, and even "degenerate" art was often sold on the international market "to raise funds for the Nazi war machine" if they thought it would fetch a good price. So the Nazis weren't even principled in their anti-Jewishness; they were happy to profit off of works by Jewish artists and were often motivated by simple greed. "Purim," painted in 1916-17, contains "folkloric imagery and vivid colors draw from Chagall's memories of his childhood in a Jewish enclave in the Russian empire." Seeing a depiction of a holiday that celebrates Jews surviving persecution in this World War II context is poignant. The exhibit includes documents from the collection points, in Munich and Offenbach, where the Allies traced the paths of stolen work, stored them when recovered, and eventually tried to "reverse the flow" by sending them back where they belonged. Staring at a map of how far some confiscated Jewish literature had traveled is intimidating in the sheer scope of this staggering pre-internet task. "Afterlives" also features art by Jews who faced persecution directly - pieces made at the camps themselves or while in hiding. The haunting, delicate drawings of Jacob Barosin, who made them while fleeing to France and ultimately to the U.S., were moving. And the presence of "Battle on a Bridge," a looted painting so revered by the Nazis that Hitler had earmarked it for his future personal Fuhrermuseum in Austria, was chilling. Its inventory number, 2207, is still visible on the back of the canvas. But what was most captivating about the exhibit was how it helps the visitor imagine what Jewish cultural life was like before the Nazis came to power. I often have the impression that accounts of the Holocaust concentrate more on the horrors of the camps and less and on the individual lives and communities they destroyed. Here, I learned about Jewish gallerist Paul Rosenberg, whose impressive gallery the Nazis co-opted - after seizing his valuable art, of course - for the "Institute of the Study on the Jewish Question," an antisemitic propaganda machine. I learned about his son Alexander, who, while liberating a train with the Free French Forces thought to be full of passengers, recovered some of his father's art against all odds. I saw August Sander's "Persecuted Jews" portrait series from late-'30s Germany, and looked into the faces of people forced to leave their homes. And I saw a huge collection of orphaned Judaica and ritual objects from Danzig (now Gdansk), Poland, where the Jewish community shipped two tons of their treasures to New York for safekeeping in 1939. If no safe free Jews remained in Danzig 15 years later, these items would be entrusted to the museum. None did. The exhibit also includes the work of four contemporary artists grappling with the contents of "Afterlives" and the era it evokes. Maria Eichhorn pulls from the art restitution work of Hannah Arendt. Hadar Gad uses her painstaking process to paint the disassembly of Danzig's Great Synagogue. Lisa Oppenheim collages the only existing archival photograph of a lost still-life painting with Google Maps images of the clouds above the house where its Jewish owners lived. And Dor Guez, a Palestinian North African artist from Israel, created an installation from objects belonging to his paternal grandparents, who escaped concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Tunisia. They previously ran a theater company, and a manuscript written by his grandfather in his Tunisian Judeo-Arabic dialect was damaged in transit. Guez blew up the unfamiliar handwriting and ink blots into abstracted prints that hang on the wall. In Guez's words, "the words are engulfed in abstract spots, and these become a metaphor for the harmonious conjunction between two Semitic languages, between one mother tongue and another, and between homeland and a new country." I'll let the exhibit's curators sum up how I felt as I left: "Many of the artists, collectors, and descendants who owned these items are gone, and as the war recedes in time it can become even harder to grasp the traumatic events they endured. Yet through these works, and the histories that attend them, new connections to the past can be forged." "Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art" is on view at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan through Jan. 9, 2022. Published by Alma, a 70 Faces Media brand. (JNS) Arizona moved to divest from Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerrys, over the ice-cream makers decision to stop selling its products in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem, becoming the first state to take such action. Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced last Tuesday that the state will pull some $143 million of investments from the multinational firm by Sept. 21. As Arizona Treasurer, Ive divested all state funds from Ben & Jerrys for boycotting Israel, Yee announced on Twitter. Israel is and will continue to be a major trade partner of AZ. I will not allow taxpayer dollars to go towards anti-Semitic, discriminatory efforts against Israel. According to a statement from her office, Yee said, I gave Unilever PLC, the parent company of Ben & Jerrys, an ultimatum: Reverse the action of Ben & Jerrys or divest itself of Ben & Jerrys to come into compliance with Arizona law or face the consequences. They chose the latter. Under Arizona law, the state cannot conduct business with any person or company that boycotts Israel, including limiting commercial operations in Israel or territory controlled by Israel. Some 34 states have passed or enacted anti-BDS laws in recent years, and 21 of those states also include Israeli settlement boycotts in their definitions. Several other states have also announced reviews that could lead to divesting from Unilever and Ben & Jerrys, including New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Maryland and Rhode Island. Israels Consul General to the Southwest Hillel Newman, who met with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in late July on the issue, told JNS that he welcomed the decision. We are delighted that the state of Arizona, under the leadership of a true friend of Israel, Governor Ducey, the attorney general and the team see boycotts against Israel for what they area form of anti-Semitism, said Newman. (JNS) The dramatic escape of six Palestinian terrorists from Gilboa Prison in northern Israel last Monday carries the potential of a broader security escalation, a former defense official has cautioned. Col. (res.) David Hacham, a former Arab-affairs adviser to seven Israeli defense ministers and a senior research associate at the Miryam Institute, told JNS that the breakout could lead to a chain of incidents and an escalation dynamic, although this is not a certainty. He recalled a highly relevant precedent from the 1980s. In May 1987, six senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) security prisoners escaped from an Israeli prison in the Gaza Strip. In October of that year, a gun battle between Israeli security forces and five of the escaped prisoners erupted in Gazas Shejaiya neighborhood district. The cells members were killed, and an Israeli Shin Bet member, Victor Arajwan, was also killed in the firefight. The PIJ to this day considers the incident to be a catalyst for the start of the First Intifada, said Hacham. In Mondays escape, five out of the six prisoners are PIJ terrorists convicted of taking part in deadly attacks on Israelis, while the sixth is the former commander of the Fatah-aligned Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin, Zakaria Zubeidi. All six are from the West Bank city of Jenin, which lies just across the Green Line from Gilboa Prison. The 1987 escape was a catalyst event ahead of the First Intifada, and today, this event also has the potential to be that type of event, said Hacham. Should the prisoners be killed in a firefight, this could boost the already high levels of motivation among PIJ, Hamas and Fatah-affiliated organizations in Judea and Samaria, said Hacham, noting that this does not include the Palestinian Authoritys security forces, which maintain daily coordination with the Israel Defense Forces. Hacham assessed that it was unlikely that the P.A. would play a role in helping Israel capture the escaped prisoners, due to the fact that security prisoners are considered to be a consensus issue of paramount importance in Palestinian society. The word intifada is in the air, said Hacham. The escape is being perceived by Palestinians as a humiliation to Israel, just as it was in May 1987. As an event that underlines Israeli vulnerability. The event joins the incident in which 21-year-old Border Police Sgt. Bar-El Hadaria Shmueli was shot dead on the Gaza border. The escape also strengthens the status of PIJ as an armed faction that is at the forefront of conflict with Israel. In Gaza, Hamas runs the Strip, but PIJ is even more virulent and ideological than Hamas is. It has no real political component. It is exclusively a terrorist-military force, explained Hacham. The scenario of a violent apprehension of the escaped terrorists might not only trigger violence in the West Bank, but is likely to do so in Gaza, said Hacham, leading to new arson balloon attacks on Israeli communities and possibly rocket attacks as well. Such a sequence of events could cause regional escalation, he added. While Hamas and PIJ share a command center in Gaza, sometimes PIJ acts independently without coordinating with Hamas, said Hacham. One of many prominent failures When I heard of the escape, it immediately took me more than 30 years back to 1987, in the months before the First Intifada, said Hacham. The only escaped security prisoner not killed in the October 1987 firefight was a terrorist named Imad Saftawi, the son of a senior Fatah member (himself later slain in 1993 in an internal Fatah power dispute). Saftawi, who was convicted of killing an Israeli Military Police officer, escaped to Egypt and from there made his way to Yasser Arafats PLO headquarters in Tunis. At that time, prisoners were able to dislodge bars on their cell, climb over the barbed wires and perimeter wall, and escape the facility under the cover of darkness. The Shin Bet intelligence agency led the manhunt. Its intelligence enabled the IDF to plant an ambush for the cell in Gazas Shejaiya neighborhood. One central difference between the 1987 escape and Mondays incident is the fact that in 1987, the cell escaped into Gaza immediately, which was a familiar, supporting environment, into which they could vanish instantly, noted Hacham. Hacham is in little doubt that the six escaped terrorists from Gilboa Prison received outside assistance, and that they likely walked a few kilometers before a getaway vehicle awaited them. I assume some of them are still in the area, he said, assessing that some could try to cross the Green Line into the West Bank or the international border towards Jordan. Some reports speculated that they would seek to reach Lebanon. It will be hard for them to get into Gaza. For now, they will probably look for a hideout and seek to vanish from the radar, to evade the Shin Bet, said Hacham, who also advised commanders of the IDFs Southern Command. The terrorists could potentially be hiding in Jenins refugee camp, which in recent days has seen PIJ gunmen hold marches and displaying their firearms in a warning to Israel against conducting raids in the area. Hacham noted with concern the massive outpouring of euphoria in the territories. He noted that the failure by the Israel Prisons Service to block cell-phone signals in the prison compound is one of many prominent failures. That failure likely allowed the plotters to coordinate their plans without outside helpers. A morale boost for Palestinian resistance organizations This is a serious failure on the part of the IPS. But it projects onto the full Israeli defense establishment, said Hacham. This is the reoccurring theme in how Palestinians are describing the event, he continued. People I speak into Ramallah are calling it a heroic Palestinian operation, which has exposed Israeli security forces. Three of the terrorists were designated high-risk escape candidates. Zubeidi was a central figure from the Second Intifada. The group includes two PIJ members who are brothers. All of these were in a single cell. This looks problematic. The escape operation likely involved many months of detailed planning and preparation, said Hacham, including the tunnel digging and preparing the escape opening beyond the prison wall. Someone had to wait for them on the outside and help them find a hiding place. The multiple failures by the IPS in gaining intelligence about the tunnel and in adequately monitoring the activities of high-risk security prisoners were joined by negligent search activities, likely due to prison guards who did not wish to stir the pot and risk too much violence, he said. The decision to incarcerate the terrorists so close to their home city of Jenin also needs to be scrutinized, he added. This is seen as an operational achievement and a morale boost for Palestinian resistance organizations. They dont only view it through the narrow lens of an escape from prison, stated Hacham. For Palestinians, it is a source of pride. There is now a sense of victory over the Israeli war machine, and all Palestinian factions are issuing their congratulations, not only the Islamists. According to Hacham, the Israeli pursuit will take two main forms. The first is at the field level, involving significant numbers of police, Border Police and IDF personnel scanning the ground and searching for escape routes, as well as clues to their location. The second part is the intelligence front, he said. The Shin Bet will focus this effort, which will be aimed at locating, surveillance and utilizing all means to get hold of reliable, precise intelligence on the circumstances of the escape and hideout locations where they could have ended up. (JNS) "Israel is your home away from home," Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a message on Sept. 2, ahead of the Jewish New Year. His address was aimed at "the people of Israel and the Jewish people at large," which he referred to as his "extended family." Herzog was previously head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, where, as one of his stated objectives, he worked to provide a platform for all Jewish communities around the world. Today, the Jewish Agency's top position has yet to be filled, and the successful candidate will need to bridge the broad and ever-growing divide that exists between Israeli and Diaspora Jewry. The challenge will likely lie in the ability to focus on the few shared common denominators and not on the myriad differences. Elazar Stern, currently Israel's Minister of Intelligence, is the frontrunner for the prestigious position. His main challenger, Dani Dayan, Israel's former consul general in New York, has recently been appointed director of Israel's Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center. Former Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon is also a candidate for the position, though Stern has the backing of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and is the government's preferred choice. This is significant because the selection committee has rarely rejected the prime minister's choice. The final decision, however, will be made in October by a 10-member committee comprised of representatives of the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Federations of North America and Keren Hayesod-United Jewish Appeal. Stern will need the support of at least nine members of the committee to be chosen for the role. Given his more centrist political and religious leanings, Stern could be a palatable fit from the perspective of more liberal and progressive Jewish community members. The more centrist Orthodox stream of Jews could also likely see in him a person who could represent them on the world stage. If elected to the position, Stern will need to guide the Jewish Agency in an era that is witnessing a trend among young Jews who have been swept up in the strong wave of progressivism, the rejection of historical realities and an emotional connection with perceived "underdogs" around the world, including the Palestinians. Many of the followers of this worldview are Jewish, and many of them are assimilated or in the midst of doing so. At the same time, there are many Jews in the Diaspora who feel they have a strong connection to Judaism, yet are becoming more disenfranchised with the Jewish state. "I want every Jew in the world to be able to say, 'I am proud to be a Jew,' " he told JNS in a sit-down interview at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. "It doesn't matter to me from which direction, or over which issue they are proud. Give people multiple options, and they can take what they feel connected to." He continued, saying "we need to stress and reorient towards greater Jewish solidarity, unity and peoplehood because these are the foundational pillars for a strong and vibrant Jewish people with a strong connection between the homeland and the Diaspora. I once asked Shlomo Avineri, an avowed secular professor from Hebrew University, why he fasted on Yom Kippur. He replied that he was fasting as a sign of solidarity with our people. Since then, the word solidarity has become of utmost importance to me, and I invest in cultivating it in every role I embark on. It obliges us to allow every Jew to show solidarity with the Jewish people, wherever they are, whether in Israel, the United States, Australia, Canada, Russia or elsewhere. We need to work extra hard in order to build solidarity between Jews and Jewish communities." 'I believe it is possible to make an impact' Many Jewish groups and individuals worldwide have sided with Israel's detractors, even adopting anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic narratives as their own. "I don't think it is possible to convince everyone," acknowledged Stern, "but I do believe it is possible to make an impact on many." He suggested promoting advocacy for identity, and not just aliyah, because millions of Jews have no interest in moving to Israel but would be receptive to connecting more strongly with their identity as a Jew. Stern pointed to the thousands of Birthright Israel alumni who return home after completing a 10-day trip to Israel. In his view, these are qualified young people who could serve as activists for the cause of Jewish identity. Stern said he also feels he has a "clear advantage" in promoting a Jewish identity because he grew up in the religious-Zionist movement, worked professionally with people from all walks of life, and his parents were Holocaust survivors. These experiences, he emphasized, shaped him and his outlook, and provided him with the tools he needed to connect with all types of people and to succeed throughout his career. He said he was raised with two ideological pillars. The first is that the Jewish people will never again be at risk of annihilation. "For this, we need a strong Israel," he said. "Where did I get this idea? From Auschwitz-Birkenau." The second was not differentiating between people, regardless of their race, religion or skin color. "Where did I get this from? Also, Auschwitz-Birkenau." 'Maintain and stimulate the growth of Jewish identity' Stern is a major general (res.) in the Israel Defense Forces, and he served as Head of the Human Resources Directorate, commander of the IDF Officers Training School and Chief Education Officer, as well as a combat soldier and commander in the Paratroopers Brigade. He was born in 1956 in Tel Aviv, a second-generation Israeli born to Holocaust survivors. The father of five adult children, he lives with his wife, Dorit, in Hoshaya, a community village in the Galilee they helped found. He holds a master's degree from Kellogg RecanatiNorthwestern, as well as from Tel Aviv University and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. In his senior positions, Stern led the IDF's efforts to increase engagement in Jewish and democratic education. He initiated and established the "Nativ" conversion project, through which more than 12,000 people from the former Soviet Union have converted. "Had I not grown up in a religious environment, I don't believe I would have had the knowledge or motivation to bring the conversion program to the army," said Stern, adding that everyone was against the idea. "The only people who supported me were then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and [former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. They understood the issue." He promoted and fostered the absorption of immigrants in the IDF, in addition to the increase of haredim in the military, and ensuring their needs and integration in the army. If he succeeds in landing the role of Jewish Agency head, Stern will be faced with the daunting task of uniting world Jewry, but he has a number of successes under his belt already that suggest he could be capable of achieving his objectives. During his time in the IDF, Stern worked to strengthen the military's ties with Diaspora Jewry. To that end, he set up the "Machtzavim" program for the development of Jewish and democratic educational leadership skills among senior IDF officers and members of the various security services. He also spearheaded the project to introduce bone-marrow transplant match testing to the IDF enlistment procedure-an initiative that has reportedly saved more than 2,400 lives to date, almost two-thirds of whom are Diaspora Jews. Stern conceived of and led the "Edim b'Madim" ("Witnesses in Uniform") project, which sends IDF soldiers to visit the concentration camps in Poland, and he headed a special committee that reformulated the IDF Code of Ethics. He also was awarded the Charles Bronfman Prize on the founding of "Mifgashim"Taglit Birthright, which brings together young Jews from around the world with Israeli soldiers. Stern became a Knesset member in 2013 with the Hatnuah Party and became a member of the Yesh Atid Party in 2015. During his tenure in the Knesset, among other activities, Stern spearheaded parliamentary efforts to address issues of religion and state, and the Jewish and democratic discourse in the Knesset. He was also centrally involved in issues such as conversion, kashrut and the "The Western Wall Outline," a compromise reached between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jewish denominations on an area of prayer for the latter. Stern believes that his ability to understand people from other backgrounds, including the ultra-Orthodox, due to his many and varied experiences over the years gives him an edge over other candidates. "I have served in many of my positions as a bridge between communities," he said. "To introduce and develop initiatives which create better understanding between people from multiple backgrounds." Stern said he also believes that the continuation of the Jewish people after the Holocaust requires the ability and necessity to maintain a strong Jewish state that can defend the Jewish people and provide a safe haven. But it's not enough. According to Stern, there needs to be a constant effort to advance and promote Jewish identity among Jews around the world. "Our challenge today is to maintain and stimulate the growth of Jewish identity," he said, adding that "the stronger one's identity is with his or her community, the stronger it can be with Israel." (JNS) Algerias decision last week to sever diplomatic ties with its neighbor, Morocco, put the spotlight on the strengthening Israeli-Moroccan relations that were born out of the Abraham Accords. Prof. Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, an expert on North Africa and senior fellow at Tel Aviv Universitys Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, told JNS that Algeria and Morocco have been geopolitical and ideological rivals for more than a half-century on the morrow of attaining independence. The future of Spains ex-colony, Western Sahara, has been the center of their rivalry since 1975, with Algeria supporting the Polisario independence movement and Morocco acting to incorporate the territory into the kingdom, he explained. In December 2020, the U.S. recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in return for Rabat normalizing relations with Jerusalem, as part of the series of normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states that were brokered by the Trump administration. Last month, Israels Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited Morocco to inaugurate the Israeli liaison office there, while revealing plans to open mutual embassies within months. But last years quid pro quo in the Abraham Accords process unilateral U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the contested territory in return for Moroccos restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel was highly upsetting to Algeria, Weitzman noted. Moroccan expressions of support for the radical Kabylian Amazigh independence movement in Algeria, done mostly to irritate the Algerians, are also part of the background to the Algerian decision to sever relations, he said. Weitzman added, Algeria has blamed the movement for the recent large-scale forest fires in Kabylia, in a transparent effort to divert criticism of the regimes failure to contain the fires. At the same time, Sarah Feuer, an expert on Arab politics and fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Israels Institute for National Security Studies, believes that Israels role in the North African dispute is minor. Algeria was indeed dismayed at Moroccos decision to resume diplomatic relations with Israel, and more recently, Algeria criticized Morocco for advocating on Israels behalf in gaining observer status in the African Union, she told JNS. But ultimately the rupture of ties between Algeria and Morocco reflects a longstanding, locally driven hostility between these two states, principally over the Western Sahara, and an effort on the part of the Algerian regime to deflect attention away from a domestic political and economic crisis the state seems unable to resolve. Lapids statement in Morocco that Iran is working with Algeria to block Israeli observer status in the African Union upset the Algerians, and Israel replied in kind. Underpinning Algerias militant stance are the regimes difficulties in renewing its legitimacy in the eyes of an angry and disillusioned public, which is showing signs of renewing the mass peaceful Hirak protest movement that shook the regime to its core in 2019, Weitzman said. An Israeli diplomatic source told AFP last week that Algeria should focus on its own problems, serious economic problems especially, so its citizens can live the life they deserve, rather than trying to harm their neighbor and involve Israel in its disputes. Algeria said August 24 that it cut ties with Morocco due to hostile actions. Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra also accused Lapid of senseless accusations and veiled threats. Lapid had expressed worries about the role played by Algeria in the region. The Israeli source told AFPthat Lamamras allegations are unfounded and without interest they bring nothing new. During Lapids visit to Morocco, he raised concerns that Algeria was getting close to Iran and that it worked to prevent Israel from admission as an observer member of the African Union. Yet Feuer said, We should be careful not to overstate the Iranian issue here. It is true that Algeria in contrast to Morocco maintains relations with Iran. Still, neither Algiers ties to Tehran nor Rabats firm placement within the pro-West camp are new. Jewish Academy of Orlando (JAO) announces Theresa Evans as executive director. Evans completes the leadership team of Amy Polacek, principal and Emily Watson, director of Jewish Life. As executive director, Theresa will have primary responsibility for the business operations of the school. This will include, financial and operations management, marketing, special events, fundraising and development efforts, and maintaining public and community relations. She will work side-by-side with JAO principal, Amy Polacek to fulfill the mission of Jewish Academy of Orlando and strive for a successful future. Evans brings more than 25 years of education experience including 18 years in administrative roles. Evans' career spans the management of early education centers and operational oversight of k-5 private elementary schools. Most recently, she was the Regional Manager of Operations for StarChild Academy. Evans holds a B.A. in Psychology from Alaska Pacific University. "I am thrilled to join Jewish Academy of Orlando, with its strong foundation of academic excellence and Jewish values, top-notch faculty, and supportive community," Evans stated. "I look forward to building off that base and to help build continued growth and success of the school for the future." Evans joins Amy Polacek, principal and Emily Watson, JAO's newly named director of Jewish Life and Curriculum coordinator. As director of Jewish Life, she will be working in concert with Fanny Sernik, Hebrew and Judaic Studies Curriculum coordinator to support the Hebrew and Judaic studies team. Watson also will lead the weekly minyan for grades Kindergarten-2nd grade. In addition, she will be charged with planning weekly Shabbat gatherings and holiday celebrations and observances. Previously, Watson was the school's remote learning coordinator. Her experience in Jewish education spans teaching and leading students from elementary age through middle school. After studying in Israel, Watson graduated from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Minor in Judaic Studies. She also has an M. S. Ed in Childhood General and Special Education from Bank Street College of Education. "I am delighted to welcome Teresa Evans to the JAO team. She rounds out our dynamic group of leaders that include Amy Polacek and Emily Watson," said Rob Gebaide, president of the board of directors. "With these changes, I am confident that our school is poised to continue our tradition of excellence for our students now and for generations to come." Jewish Academy of Orlando serves Central Florida students of all faiths from kindergarten through fifth grade. The school delivers a whole-child education fostering academic excellence and character education rooted in Jewish values. Jewish Academy of Orlando is accredited by the Florida Council of Independent Schools. To learn more about Jewish Academy of Orlando, please visit: jewishacademyorlando.org or follow the school on Facebook https://facebook.com/JewishAcademyOrlando. (JTA) The latest politician to compare government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany is Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio. In a video last Thursday protesting President Joe Bidens upcoming requirement that a large portion of private sector employees either get vaccinated against COVID or get tested weekly, Mandel instructed his social media viewers not to comply with the requirement. In doing so, he compared Biden to the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police force that played a major role in carrying out the Holocaust. I call on my fellow Americans: Do not comply, he said. Do not comply with the tyranny, and when the Gestapo show up at your front door, you know what to do. Mandel is among the latest in a lengthening list of public figures, including Republican lawmakers, who have compared vaccine mandates and other public health regulations to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. Holocaust scholars are united in categorically opposing such statements, explaining that theres no comparison between public health measures and the genocide of six million Jews. Mandel, Ohios former state treasurer and an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, has crafted an inflammatory presence on Twitter during his Senate campaign. His video drew outrage from other Jewish activists and organizations. The American Jewish Committee tweeted that Mandels statement was disgraceful and hateful. This statement is deeply offensive and trivializes the horrors of the Holocaust, the group said. Mandel should know better. Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a former pro-Israel activist who later founded the disability advocacy group RespectAbility, also tweeted that she had once seen Mandel as a thoughtful young leader and urged him to delete the video. Seriously @JoshMandelOhio the Nazis DID show up at my fathers house, and they also killed most of his family, she wrote. This analogy is deeply offensive and I hope you take it down. Mandel also raised eyebrows on Twitter last week, when he began sparring with Alexander Vindman, the former national security official who testified against Trump during his first impeachment hearings in 2019. Mandel called Vindman, a Soviet Jewish refugee and retired U.S. Army officer, a commie in addition to a liar and traitor. Vindman had criticized Mandel for opposing Afghan refugee resettlement. Local and state police secure the area around the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh after a mass shooting on Oct. 27, 2018. (JNS) As Americans gathered this year to remember the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, they did so amid a landscape that is increasingly divided domestically, where hate crimes are at a record high, the Taliban has become the official government of Afghanistan, and experts say that homegrown terror threats continue to be a major security concern. "The issues facing the United States and how we have dealt with them have changed dramatically over the last 20 years," according to Michael Masters, director of the Secure Community Network, which serves as the liaison between the Jewish community and federal law enforcement. "On the eve of Sept. 11 [2001], Osama Bin Laden had several hundred fighters who had pledged their loyalty to him. Today, while there are several notable exceptions, almost all of Al-Qaeda's senior leadership from 20 years ago, including bin Laden, are dead or in jail. In almost every tactical situation, the United States has had success, but there has been, in a real sense, a broader strategic failure," he told JNS this week in an online interview. "The dynamic that allowed Al-Qaeda to exist and expand-and its breakaway rival, the so-called Islamic State-continues to exist," he continued. "There are now four times as many Islamist terrorist groups designated by the United States as Foreign Terrorist Organizations as there were on 9/11." Masters went on to say that "there are now tens of thousands of fighters loyal to these organizations and the ideologies that support them, spanning from Southeast Asia to Western Africa and beyond. At the same time, we have seen the growth of domestic violent extremists and individuals radicalized to violence through social media; terrorism of today operates in a broader context that individual groups. This fluid and complex dynamic is significantly different than the conditions faced two decades ago." In a threat assessment issued last month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the aftermath of the terror attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, stated: "The [h]omeland continues to face a diverse and challenging threat environment leading up to and following the 20th [a]nniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as well [as] religious holidays [that] we assess could serve as a catalyst for acts of targeted violence. "These threats include those posed by domestic terrorists, individuals and groups engaged in grievance-based violence, and those inspired or motivated by foreign terrorists and other malign foreign influences," the Aug. 13 National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin. "These actors are increasingly exploiting online forums to influence and spread violent extremist narratives and promote violent activity. Such threats are also exacerbated by impacts of the ongoing global pandemic, including grievances over public-health safety measures and perceived government restrictions." Adding to the concern, a report by CNN last week noted that some far-right extremist groups in the United States expressed public admiration for the Taliban and their disdain for Jews with comments like "If white men in the West had the same courage as the Taliban, we would not be ruled by Jews currently," a comment that was discovered by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks hate groups online, and appeared on a page at the social-media site Telegram. All of which begs the question, especially as many congregations are once again holding outdoor services due to the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19, what, if any, threat is there to the Jewish community. Especially given the timing of 9/11, which this year falls out on Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 'We can't sit idly by waiting for the next attack' Noting that Americans reside in a "complex and dynamic threat environment," Masters believes that the challenge for both the United States and the Jewish community "will be to ensure we are taking a comprehensive, strategic approach to security and safety that covers the whole of our community, and is sufficiently agile and flexible to address the full array of threats and issues we encounter from manmade threats to natural disasters-balancing the need for security while ensuring that the community remains open and welcoming." To that end, groups like Community Security Service and Magen Am are encouraging people to step up and help protect their communities while working behind the scenes to ensure that Jewish institutions are as prepared as possible. For instance, both SCN and CSS have hosted security and informational webinars in recent weeks. "The events of the last year have opened the eyes of many and helped them understand that we can no longer ignore the reality when it comes to the safety and security of our community," said Leibel Mangel, a spokesman for Magen Am, a Los Angeles-based Jewish organization that promotes the use of armed security teams comprised of trained community members. "It is an unfortunate reality, but we can't sit idly by waiting for the next attack. Though we don't have any specific intel about threats related to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we are well aware of the significance and are taking every precaution." Among those precautions are coordinating with local police branches, increasing patrol hours of the Magen Am armed patrol car and ensuring that "team members"-community volunteers and veterans of both the U.S. military and Israel Defense Forces who have stepped up to secure communal institutions-"are stationed as a first line of defense." According to Evan Bernstein, the CEO of CSS, which trains volunteers to protect local Jewish institutions, the High Holidays were always a time when Jewish leaders would reassess their security as federal and local law enforcement issued reports on threat levels of concern to the Jewish community. "The fact that 9/11 is put into the mix, sometimes, makes that more complicated," he said. "In the last four or five years, we've seen trends that make the community take security even more seriously than before," as acts of Jew-hatred "are not coming from one particular group in this country, but from all sides." Those trends include the increasing levels of anti-Semitism nationwide. According to a recently released report by the FBI, attacks against Jews account for 57 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes nationwide. According to Bernstein, his organization has seen a 30 percent uptick in synagogues interested in creating their own volunteer security base, with some 1,000 new volunteers being trained to keep their local institutions safe. Yet he believes more can and must be done. "Every venue has different needs and faces different threats," stated Bernstein, who previously worked at the Anti-Defamation League. "Every synagogue has unique DNA, unique size, a unique congregation base, and every single synagogue needs its own threat assessment." Whether that means going through local law enforcement or Jewish communal organizations like SCN or the Jewish Community Security Initiative in the New York area, the goal is to ensure it's done properly and thoroughly. "You've seen a lot of the Jewish community take security seriously," he continues, "but it's not across the board, and it needs to be." Experts say doing that requires people within the Jewish institutions themselves to step up and become knowledgeable about the manifold risks and how to minimize them since they are the ones who know their community best. JERUSALEM (JTA) - Amit Zakoon's flower business started with a seed - literally - but it quickly grew into one of Jerusalem's premier purveyors of luxury sukkahs. "We work for all the rich and famous," Zakoon, the owner and CEO of Yarok Yarok Events Design, told JTA. Studio Ya Ya, as Zakoon's clients call the business, is known for executing weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs and parties for Jerusalem's A-list, including visiting U.S. presidents (from Bush to Obama) to big-time philanthropists like the Bronfmans. These kinds of upscale events may keep Zakoon and team busy year-round, but Sukkot (which is Sept 22 29 this year) is Studio Ya Ya's time to shine. The joyous festival, which commemorates both the harvest and the Exodus from Egypt, transforms Jerusalem: Thousands of pilgrims make their way to the Western Wall, sukkahs sprout on seemingly every balcony and celebrations are widespread throughout the city. Studio Ya Ya designs many of Jerusalem's largest and finest sukkahs, including those at the Waldorf Astoria, King David and Inbal hotels, as well as the president's residence and the Bible Lands Museum. Over the years, its sukkahs have ranged from "biblical" - incorporating natural woods and fresh Jerusalem herbs into a design - to elegant, with a decor featuring plastic pomegranates painted in metallic shades. Such luxury doesn't come cheap: Hotels pay $35,000 to $75,000 for their Ya Ya sukkahs, Zakoon said, while design services for private clients range from $3,000 to $25,000. "The sukkahs must be the most magnificent," he said. "All the rich and famous come to the hotels, they come to their private second homes in Jerusalem and this holiday is one of the most important to them." For Zakoon and his team, that means the pressure is on. In addition to creating a visually stunning sukkah, the designers need to understand both the philosophical background of the holiday, as well as the legal requirements of building a kosher sukkah that will work for even the most religious guests. "We can make an amazing design, but if it's not kosher, it's not worth one shekel," Zakoon said. For example, the sukkah's "roof," or "schach," must be made of predominantly natural ingredients, said Rabbi Morey Schwartz, director of education for the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. The schach should provide more shade than sun, be open enough to see the stars - or at least that you'd get wet if it started to rain. While his clients may see rain as a blessing, for Zakoon it presents a challenge: He can't use paper displays, paintings or any material that could be destroyed by the elements. The length of the decorations is also a consideration. Those up to 12 1/2 inches can be considered part of the schach, but anything longer is considered something separate, which could present a problem - those in the sukkah must be sitting under the schach. Thus longer decorations need to be very narrow. Ya Ya uses thin ribbons, for example, to add length but avoid conflict with Jewish law, and hangs larger decorations or lights directly above the tables, so visitors don't risk sitting under them. It's not enough to get the details mostly right - Ya Ya's design manager, Noa Kirshberg, said at some hotels, a rabbi gets on a ladder and takes exact measurements. Fortunately, Jewish law doesn't preclude stunning sukkahs - Kirshberg shows a reporter an album filled with photos of scrambling grape vines that were used to accent the Waldorf's sukkah one year, to tables strewn with vases full of corn poppies and daffodils leveraged in a private home. Studio Ya Ya starts planning for Sukkot as early as a year in advance. But when the holiday actually arrives, so does another challenge: While the structures can be erected ahead of time, the sukkahs cannot be decorated far in advance because the flowers will wilt. Since Studio Ya Ya designs and maintains as many as 20 sukkahs - ranging in size from nine to 4,900 square feet - Zakoon hires up to 40 freelancers, who work round the clock in the days leading up to the holiday. Because flowers cannot be maintained on yom tov the Ya Ya team rotates among its sukkahs on the interim days to change out arrangements and freshen up anything that has shifted. Another consideration? Repeat customers. Kirshberg noted that because hotels tend to get the same visitors year after year, Ya Ya aims for a fresh design annually. Also, each of the hotel's sukkahs must be unique and match the hotel's existing ambiance. "The Waldorf is luxurious and the King David is traditional," she said. Studio Ya Ya's hard work doesn't just enhance the experience for hotel and museum guests, said Schwartz - the company is doing a mitzvah, too. "Beautification is considered greater sanctification of God's name," he said. (JTA) - In a significant move, Israel and the United States have set up a joint team at the national security adviser level to contain Iran, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told U.S. Jewish leaders in a Rosh Hashanah call. Bennett and his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu have vehemently opposed negotiating a deal with Iran to contain its nuclear program. But in his first meeting with Bennett last week, President Joe Biden looked to appease Israel's fears by signaling an openness to using a military option to contain Iran. Bennett in the call Friday morning with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said the joint team arose out of those talks he had last week at the White House with Biden and other senior officials. "The immediate follow-up was to form a joint team based on the joint objectives of rolling Iran back into their box and preventing Iran from ever being able to break out a nuclear weapon," Bennett said. "We set up a joint team with our national security advisor and America's, and we're working very hard, and the cooperation is great." Bennett reiterated that he opposes the United States' reentry into the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but added that he was not going to allow Biden's plans for reentry define his relationship with the president. "Instead of fighting all day on the JCPOA - and I want to make clear, I oppose the JCPOA ... but I understand where America stands," he said. "Our strategy does not depend on 'Yes or no JCPOA.' And in any case, the president was very clear about he won't accept Iran going nuclear now or in the future." Netanyahu aggressively opposed the Iran policies of the Obama administration and its entry into the Iran deal in 2015, when Biden was vice president, creating distrust between the two governments. Netanyahu was also instrumental in persuading former President Donald Trump to quit the Iran deal in 2018. Biden wants back in because he sees it as the best means of keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. A key strategy of the new Israeli government, Bennett said, was reestablishing relations with Democrats after years of tensions under Netanyahu. "We got such a warm reception," he said of his meeting last week. The governments will disagree in areas, he said, but "the good spirit means we're going to be mensches with each other." Biden sounded a similar note in a Rosh Hashanah call Thursday with rabbis, calling Bennett a "gentleman." Bennett said he presented a strategy to Biden of confronting Iran by building a regional alliance to keep Iran from going nuclear and to roll back its influence in the area, which Israel and Sunni Arab states see as malign. He said his was a long-term strategy, and he appeared to discount the prospect of a strike on Iran, as Netanyahu had contemplated in 2010. He likened Israel and the United States' posture with Iran to the Cold War. Bennett said he did not expect any military intervention in Iran from the United States, but he did expect its backing in helping Israel build a regional coalition to contain Iran. Bennett also on the call reiterated his position on advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, saying that he would not annex territory but would also not freeze building in the West Bank settlements. His tenuous government, made up of parties across the political spectrum, would not sustain drastic moves in either direction, he said. Bennett's defense minister, Benny Gantz, recently met with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, a stark change from the absence of interactions in recent years under Netanyahu. (JTA) Two nights after the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, we were instructed to evacuate our building. There was talk of a potential attack on the nearby Empire State Building. My roommates and I covered our mouths and noses with towels to protect against the still fetid air and walked east from our midtown Manhattan Stern College apartment to get out of the danger zone. Every telephone pole was plastered with hastily printed MISSING signs, each with a different smiling face and a phone number to call. When we reached the barricades, staffed by state troopers and police, wed gone as far as we could go. And at the corner, right where the barricades met the Bellevue Hospital Center, two lines formed behind folding tables on the sidewalk. What are these lines? I asked a state trooper from behind my towel. The air was thick and I could see motes of debris floating in the light of the street lamps. One to give the name of the missing person and check to see if theyre in the hospital. The other to provide DNA, he said. Indeed, when I looked closely, there were people in the lines clutching Ziploc bags of hair brushes and toothbrushes. As the days passed, the line for the hospital names grew shorter and the DNA line grew longer. Survivors in the hospital were rare. The missing were presumed dead. So when I traveled from the eerily empty Grand Central Terminal on Friday to spend Shabbos at the University of Pennsylvania wracked with guilt for leaving the city a few days after the attack, but doing as my worried mother requested I was mortified to hear someone at Hillel joke: Some guy trying to leave his wife is for sure faking his death right now. One train ride. Thats how far this person was from an actual terrorist attack with thousands presumed dead. One train ride was enough for him to feel detached. To feel that this tragedy wasnt relevant to him. I said nothing. I was still in shock from the attacks, but this tragedy was not mine, either. I was a witness, not a victim. I knew no one who had been killed. Any attempt at how dare you felt like centering myself. Yet watching an airplane hit a nearby occupied building from my apartment balcony is something I could never unsee, never unfeel. Every passing airplane for the next 20 years would bring me back to that moment. I could not detach. One month later I was asked to help organize Stern students to sit shmira at the New York City Medical Examiners temporary morgue outside Bellevue every Shabbos keeping the Jewish custom of watching over the dead, and in too many cases the unidentified remains of those lost in the attack until they could be buried. I found myself, an idealistic 20-year-old student, sitting across from Dr. Charles Hirsch, the chief medical examiner, to arrange for a badge that would let us Stern girls in and out of the morgue site. Every Friday night I took the midnight shift and arrived at the very spot where the two lines had formed. Fate brought me there the week of the attacks. A mitzvah brought me there again and again. A state trooper would welcome me with a smile and move the barricade to let me in, and every single time it felt like I was walking onto holy ground. I recited Psalms in a large tent alongside freezer trucks that were parked across from the entry to the morgue where medical examiners worked night and day to identify victims. We were a constant flow of young Jews; the same few volumes of Psalms passed from hand to hand for months on end. Sometimes, when I took the first shift that brought in Shabbos, I would be overwhelmed with the massive effort and organization of this operation. After a New York Times piece came out about our vigil, my face became the face of the 9/11 Shmira, and my guilt in placing myself at the center of the tragedy deepened. A mitzvah for the dead is meant to be selfless, ideally anonymous. It was too late to be anonymous. What started off as a catastrophe that I happened to witness became something different. During my once-a-week midnight Shabbos shift, my job was to offer comfort to the souls that lingered there in that makeshift outdoor morgue. I felt connected to them. They filled that space. I lived inside that space for nearly nine months, and when it ended, I emerged to a world that had been using those nine months to recover. It was my turn to recover. Twenty years later, I can honestly say that I havent. It is raw. I still think about that Penn student who joked about the missing, and perhaps it has made me stronger in teaching my own children about empathy and the right words to say. Every year there are new documentaries, new footage released, new phone recordings and last words. My children learn about it in school and ask me questions. As a writer Ive attempted to process my grief in essays and fiction, but none of it ever feels like enough. Theres a feeling, a shared experience, that I could never capture in words. Instead I seek closure, frequently searching how many of the bodies are still unidentified as recently as 2019, the remains of 40% of the victims are too damaged to identify. I visit the memorial and see the waterfalls flowing into the memorial pools, imagining the towers inverted into the depths below ground. I run my fingers over the names engraved on the edges of the pools, wondering if they remember me. If they remember all of us who sat our vigil. I remember them. In the depths, in their company, inverted into the ground below memorial waterfalls, I go back to one of the Psalms in particular when I want to honor the victims. To the one Id memorized and could recite over and over when I was too tired at 4 in the morning to read from the book. Tehillim 130, which begins: A song of ascents. Out of the depths I call You, O Lord. Every year around this time I am brought into the depths. Out of the depths I continue to call. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. (JTA) Deborah Lipstadt, recently named by President Joe Biden as the U.S. Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, wont just combat anti-Semitism but may well eliminate it. And that would be a mistake. To be clear, the Emory University historian is a fierce opponent of Jew-hatred and Holocaust denial, having vanquished the Holocaust denier David Irving in a British court, among other triumphs over bigotry. But over the past few years, Lipstadt has led a campaign to eliminate the hyphen in the word anti-Semitism, preferring antisemitism. Why do hyphens matter? Lipstadt argues that anti-Semitism is misleading because it denotes hatred of Semites, not Jews. She notes that the German historian who coined the term anti-Semitism was a far-right polemicist who sought to blame Jews for the Semitic characteristics that allegedly incited anti-Jewish bigotry. She joins several authorities who have eliminated the hyphen in response to those who, either for political reasons or in error, misuse the term to minimize its anti-Jewish character. [The Associated Press and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency are among the news organizations that have recently agreed to the change.] The issue generates surprising controversy. In Palgraves new collection of essays, Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism, some authors eschew the hyphen, arguing that it lends credence to offensive arguments about Jews racial otherness. Others, however, prefer the hyphen either because of common usage or to emphasize that the term originates in a tradition that viewed Jews and Arabs as sharing a common Oriental heritage. This caused the editors to throw up their hands in frustration. Unable to choose, they permit both spellings, skittering back and forth in a way they acknowledge may be disconcerting. Lipstadt is right that anti-Semitism has misleadingly conflated Jews and Semites since it was first coined in the 19th century. But she is wrong to think eliminating the hyphen will solve anything. In German, Antisemitismus has been hyphen-less for over a century. This has not averted the confusion that worries Lipstadt. Nor did it eliminate Jew-hatred in that country. The problem lies not in the hyphen but in the term itself, which was invented by Jew-haters who thought its pseudo-scientific sound would give social acceptability to their prejudice. Scholars and linguists, however, have yet to devise a suitable alternative. Jew-hatred, anti-Judaism and Judaeophobia have their partisans, but each term has problems. Until a better term arrives, we are stuck with anti-Semitism. Hyphen removal is no panacea. The dilemma worsens when the hyphen is removed from anti-Semitism but not its handmaiden, anti-Zionism. Much commentary surrounds the contested relationship between these concepts. Some say that anti-Semitism refers to discrimination against Jews as Jews, while anti-Zionism means opposition to Zionists as Zionists. They are wrong about both. Anti-Semitism opposes Jews based on false stereotypes and gross fantasies. It hates Jews not as Jews but as monsters whose villainy is concocted by the haters. In the same way, anti-Zionism hates Zionists not as Zionists but as figments of the haters imaginations. Zionism can be many things: a political ideology, the yearning of a people for return to a land, the Diasporas support for Israels security. But it never means the murderous, world-dominating conspiracy that its opponents fantasize about. The hyphen in anti-Zionists wrongly suggests that such people oppose what Zionism really is, as opposed to what they imagine it to be. Historian James Loeffler argues that anti-Zionism, as a concept and a construct, deserves the same historical analysis as anti-Semitism. Anti-Zionism, as opposition to Jewish national aspirations, arises from many strands within the Jewish and Arab worlds. As a distinct ideology, however, antizionism (the spelling is mine) was forged in Soviet propaganda, in the context of the Cold War and the rise of post-colonialism, as a reaction to Israels orientation toward the United States and the West. This ideology of hate fuses age-old anti-Semitic stereotypes, European conspiracy theories, left-wing anti-nationalism and post-Cold War geopolitics. This new ideology, which has gained considerable steam since the Second Intifada and the United Nations 2001 Durban anti-racism conference, should not be conflated with the political movements including the opposition to Zionism that arose among Jews themselves that preceded it. If ever there is a place to remove the hyphen, it is here: Antizionism today is no mere opposition to Zionism. It reflects instead an independent form of hate with its own history and logic. At the Louis D. Brandeis Center, we frequently defend Jewish students and professors who are stigmatized, excluded or attacked for their sympathies toward the State of Israel. If their antagonists were merely critics of Zionism as a political movement, then this might be a mere political dispute, albeit one conducted with unusually nasty tactics. In fact, students are targeted because Zionism is an overt element of their identity as Jews. This Zionophobia, as some prefer to call it, can only be understood on its own terms as a distinctive form of prejudice. This notion is lost when anti-Zionism is hyphenated but antisemitism is not. Thus between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, there should be two hyphens or none. Most commentators have praised Lipstadts nomination, given her international reputation. A few critics oppose based on her perceived partisanship. As a former Republican appointee, I am willing to go out on a limb: Confirm Lipstadt, but let her fight anti-Semitism. If she wants to go hyphenless, she must fight antizionism, too. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. (JTA) On the second night of Rosh Hashanah, in my second year of rabbinical school, while working at my first-ever High Holiday pulpit, I accidentally conceived. I had my first bout of morning sickness in our introductory Talmud course, and my first pregnancy craving during Hebrew Literature and Grammar (I still swear that pickles on pizza is a million-dollar idea). I took my pregnancy test on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, and whispered the blessing asher yatzar et haadam bchochmah, who created human beings with wisdom, when it read positive. That night, I attended a required class Shabbat program at Kehilat Romemu on the Upper West Side, where I discovered that morning sickness could indeed happen at night in a shul bathroom. I prayed. I read every piece of Jewish literature on abortion that I could find. I read every opinion article on the internet about why Im happy I had an abortion or how I came to regret my abortion. I made a pros and cons list. I consulted the would-be father and my rabbinic mentor, Rabbi Jen Gubitz. I cried on the phone with my mom. Ultimately, I made the choice using the instinctual wisdom inside myself, heeding nobodys opinion but my own. And perhaps Gods. We Jews are commanded, in lines that appear in this weeks Torah portion: I have put before you today blessing and curse, life and death. Uvacharta vchayyim, Choose life. That commandment has been coopted as a rallying cry for those who support restrictions on abortion, such as the Texas ban on abortions after six weeks that went into effect this week when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block it. But for me and so many others, this verse is a clear rebuttal to that law, the most significant infringement on abortion rights in America since the Roe v. Wade protected a womens right to choose 48 years ago. I chose life when I left Literary Artistry of the Bible early on a Thursday afternoon to walk the few short blocks from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religions New York campus to the Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood on Bleecker Street. I took the first pill in a quiet office, sitting across from a doctor who looked just like me. The next morning, my Medieval Jewish History class took a field trip to the Met Cloisters. Our professor was late because she had to prepare her brisket for Shabbat dinner. I felt so sick I could hardly stand. That night, I livestreamed Shabbat services while holding the four Misoprostol pills in the four corners of my mouth, waiting for them to disintegrate. I bled all night. A week after the bleeding stopped I went to the mikveh, the Jewish ritual bath, with ImmerseNYC, a liberal mikveh project founded by Rabbi Sara Luria. I did an adapted version of a post-abortion ritual written by Rabbi Tamar Duvdevani. I listened to Debbie Friedmans Sow In Tears, Reap In Joy on repeat the entire way there and the entire way home. I looked at my naked body in the giant mirror in the preparation room and saw every change that that short pregnancy had wrought. I felt weak and I felt strong. I sang to myself because I was still scared, as I dipped under the water and came back up: Elohai nshamah shenatata bi thora hi, My God the soul you have given me is pure. The next morning, our class took a field trip to that same mikveh. I asked five of my classmates, now colleagues, to come early. They were pretty much my only friends in New York at the time and some of the only people that I had told about my abortion. We stood on the corner of 74th and West End Avenue on a windy morning with a challah that I had baked and a little bit of honey and finished the ritual together. We dipped the challah in the honey, a symbol of sweeter times ahead. I cried. We stood in a circle and they wrapped their arms around me. Hazorim bdimah brinah yiktzoru, I repeated, those who sow in tears will reap in joy. You may have noticed that my abortion story is very Jewish. Everything from the timing of the accidental conception to the decision and procedure itself was brimming with my Jewish practice, learning and living. It is impossible to extricate my Judaism from my abortion. And yet you might also assume that my abortion would not have been Jewishly okay, permissible under halacha, or Jewish law, because I simply did not want to be pregnant because mine is the kind of abortion that anti-choicers most disdain. The standard Jewish line on abortion is that Judaism traditionally permits abortion when the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. This derives from Mishnah Ohalot 7:6, which states that [for] a woman who is having a hard labor makshah leiled they cut up the fetus in her womb and remove it limb by limb, mipnei shechayeiha kodmin lchayyav, because her life comes before its life. Chayeiha kodmin lchayyav, her life comes before that of the fetus. What does it mean that the life of the pregnant person comes before that of the fetus? Over the centuries, various rabbinic authorities have offered their answers. It means that her physical needs and pain levels are prioritized over the birthing of the child (Rabbis Josef Trani and Jacob Emden). It means that her mental health is prioritized over the birthing of the child (Rabbi Mordecai Winkler). It means that her dignity and her honor are prioritized over the birthing of the child (Rabbi Ben-Zion Ouziel). It means that the primary consideration in the Jewish question of abortion is the needs of the person giving birth, their life, their health and their dignity. The Texas abortion ban, SB8, denies human dignity. This ban not only removes the option of safe choice for individuals seeking abortion care in Texas, but it also empowers and incentivizes individual citizens to report and pursue legal action against those who aid people seeking abortion, from doctors to family members to cab drivers. As a result, it criminalizes care something that in itself violates Jewish law. As Jews we are commanded over and over again to care for those on the margins of society; the poor, the widowed and orphaned, the queer, the people of color, people with disabilities, the systemically oppressed. These are the people who are already and will continue to be most devastated by this abortion ban and by the abortion bans that anti-abortion activists hope will follow all over the country. The lack of care for those in our society who need it most is a prophetic call to us as Jews. Americans who want to fight back against SB8 can do many things. We can donate to organizations such as the Lilith Fund and the Buckle Bunnies Fund, which provide financial assistance to those in Texas seeking abortion, or to Janes Due Process which provides teens with abortion care and birth control, or Fund Texas Choice which provides out-of-state transportation and accommodations. We can share websites like abortionfinder.org or needabortion.org, which direct people to safe clinics. We can call our legislators and lobby for the federal Womens Health Protection Act, which would protect women and people of all genders against state-level legislation such as SB8. As Jews, another strategy is available to us. If anyone, ever again, tries to argue that abortion restrictions are justified under the prerogative of religious freedom, we can explain that our religious freedom demands that we have access to abortion care when it is needed and wanted. There is nothing more sacred than the right to live ones life as one chooses and to choose life, and to choose blessing. In having an abortion, I chose my life. Now I will do what I can to ensure that others including the countless women, nonbinary individuals and trans men affected by SB8 in Texas can retain the sacred choice to make their own choices and their own blessings. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media. (JNS) The humiliating Gilboa Prison escape is nothing but a symptom. The flaws that led to it will be investigated, found and corrected, but to rectify the broader structural failure will require Israel to shake up the current law-enforcement system and its security policies. What constitutes this structural failure is the systems addiction to maintaining peace and quietat the expense of the appropriate response exhibited by a society that cherishes lifein the face of reckless and violent citizens, criminals, terrorists and enemies abroad. Israel is failing on multiple fronts: from anti-vaxxers and pedophiles, to the extreme right-wing hilltop youth, to the staggering crime rate in the Arab sector, to the violent haredim, to the pogroms in Akko and Lod and the Knesset members who justify their violence, to the pampering of terrorists in prison and attempts to appease Hamas. In each and every case, a much more resolute and uncompromising response is required from the judiciary and security forces. Instead, the police specialize in helplessness, misery and cowardice; the judicial system treats the cruel compassionately, which is cruel to the Israeli public; the prison service indulges terrorists as part of their quiet at all costs deal, instead of quelling them; the Israel Defense Forces is too restrained in its treatments of the Jewish rioters in Judea and Samaria; and the defense establishment is chasing fantasies about long-term agreements and rehabilitating the Gaza Strip, instead of making sure that Hamas doesnt regain its military prowess. The roots of this structural failurewhich has recently come to characterize much of democracylies in diverting public discourse from the common good to appearances: from that which is beneficial for the public to that which sounds good in front of the cameras. And violence doesnt look good. Therefore, the police avoid confrontations and are easy on criminals, Arab lawbreakers and extremist haredim. The Israel Prison Service prefers autonomy and supervises terrorists loosely, instead of breaking their will. Construction materials sent to rehabilitate Gaza look better in the media than wounded Palestinian rioters and dead terrorists. That is how quiet will supposedly be maintained. This fake quiet comes at a price. It encourages terrorism, crime and lawlessness, and causes even greater violence. Law-abiding citizens have already lost their faith in the police and the judiciary. Unless Israel steps up its game, they will soon lose faith in the state, as well. The rioters and terrorists in prisons, Jenin and Gaza, and threats by Arab Israelis, are an opportunity for Israel to wean off its addiction to fake quiet. Prisons can finally have proper security, not just the bare minimum, and Islamic Jihad members can be brought back to the cells that they burned down. The dissolution of the terrorist organizations from inside the prisons will return control to the IPS, instead of the autonomy that brought about the quiet at too high a price. In Jenin, Israel must take advantage of the concentration of armed terrorists in order to eliminate as many of them as possible. And in Gaza, taking out Hamas targets will severely damage the terrorist organizations ability to recover and help Israel get rid of the permanent agreement illusion. If violent riots erupt among Arab Israelis, an escalation can be prevented by accusing the protesters of aiding terrorism and hoping that Israels courts will not rule in their favor. This article first appeared in Israel Hayom. Appointment 17 September 2021 Outrigger Hospitality Group announced today the promotion of Avery Aoki from vice president of finance to chief financial officer (CFO). He succeeds David Nadeau, who will help to ensure a smooth transition for Outrigger's financial team before retiring at the end of this year. As CFO, Aoki will serve as a key member of Outrigger's executive team, furthering the company as a best-in-class revenue operator and partner while assisting with its mission to be The Premier Beach Resort Brand in the World through fiscal support of new acquisitions and property elevations. For more than three decades, Aoki has had a notable career with Outrigger - joining the company in 1986 as controller. In 1990, he was promoted to director of finance, followed by vice president of finance and accounting in 1996. Aoki was pivotal in helping to navigate global accounting and financial operations as the Outrigger portfolio grew worldwide, including working in the company's Phuket office for nearly five years. He continues to provide invaluable leadership in creating and implementing greater efficiency across the company's operations in Hawai'i and Asia Pacific as well as financial reporting, audits, transitions, contract negotiations, financial modeling and analysis. Born and raised in Hawai'i, he earned his CPA in 1985 and also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in accounting and an Executive Masters in Business Administration, both from University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Supplier News 17 September 2021 The Netherlands Hospitality Net, the global hospitality industrys #1 ranked website, today launches an exciting new video initiative, the HITEC Video Express Product Update, at no charge, for HITEC 2021 exhibitors. The HITEC Video Express Product Update is a quick and effective way to let HITEC attendees and the viewership of Hospitality Net hear about your presence at HITEC, delivered via HITEC TV before, after, and during the highly anticipated annual event. The HITEC TV video platform allows participating exhibitors to use their smartphones to record a video clip following a pre-set list of questions. HITEC Video Express Product pitches will be published on HITEC's official news channel - HITEC Bytes, as well as on Hospitality Net. This is an incredible opportunity for exhibitors to showcase their technology and innovations to hoteliers and industry leaders worldwide who may not be attending HITEC 2021 in person. "The HITEC Video Express Product Update lets exhibitors share their story tell the audience about any new products, features, or anything else that they want to highlight during this years event, says Henri Roelings, the founder of Hospitality Net. This offering is positioned primarily at people who will not be attending due to unforeseen circumstances. Hospitality Net will be syndicating each update online and to our subscribers list." Fortunately, Hospitality Net is offering the HITEC Video Express Product Update as a free gift to exhibitors. As the hospitality industry enters a period of post-pandemic recovery, Hospitality Net is committed to providing hospitality technology leaders with ample opportunity to reach a wider audience. With the HITEC Video Express Product Update, exhibitors can gain critical visibility and targeted reach while maximizing their presence at HITEC 2021 and setting a precedent for what innovation this next year has in store for hospitality professionals and guests alike. Since its inception in 1999, Hospitality Net has been regarded as the most trusted source for industry leaders and experts to connect, share, and learn. Content is distributed to a network of partner sites and associations including HFTP, HSMAI, and HITEC and supports all facets of the business, including opinion articles, press releases, appointments, events, job openings, webinars, reports, sponsored content, and digital advertising. For more information regarding the HITEC Video Express Product Update, please click the button below or email us at [email protected]. More Information External Article 17 September 2021 In July, President Biden issued an executive order that included a call to make consumer-friendly changes in the travel industry. We asked experts to weigh in on the prospects for change. Press Release 17 September 2021 Online upselling is an ever more popular way for hotel companies to bring in revenue. However, it remains unclear whether online upselling complements or replaces in-person strategies such as front-desk upselling. In an important exploratory study, Professor Basak Denizci Guillet of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University sought to answer this question. Her findings generate crucial insights for hotels in volatile and challenging times, while also providing an upselling model for the industry that considers the complexities of todays multifaceted ecommerce environment. Advertisements Hotels can increase their revenue in various ways most obviously by attracting new customers. However, this can be costly and time-consuming. An increasingly popular alternative is upselling, whereby existing customers are persuaded to spend more on an already agreed transaction, such as by upgrading to a superior hotel room. Upselling helps hotels to sell higher room categories, such as club and suite rooms, which would otherwise be empty or used for free upgrades, says the researcher. The customer also benefits from upselling by getting a superior room at a reduced price. Upselling can take place at any point during the customer cycle, such as during the booking process, between booking and arrival, during check-in, or even at check-out with an offer for the next stay. Traditionally, a hotels front desk staff would upsell to guests during check-in. In todays digital era, however, more and more hotels are introducing online upselling systems. These systems send personalised upselling messages at various points in the booking cycle, give guests the opportunity to bid for a better room, and allow customers to select upselling options through the online portal. However, as little research has been done on this topic, it is unclear whether online and offline upselling channels are complementary, offering customers a choice of the most convenient channel, or whether online upselling has had a negative effect on offline upselling. Dr Guillet aimed to explore this issue and also to investigate whether hotel customers profiles and sociodemographic backgrounds influence their likelihood of bidding for superior rooms in the upselling process. A mixed methods approach, involving the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, was chosen for the study, which the researcher described as exploratory. The qualitative data were collected in 2018 during 16 in-depth interviews with hotel industry professionals familiar with online upselling. The interviewees included revenue directors, consultants, front office managers and marketing directors working in hotels in the US, Europe and Asia. During the interviews, the hotel professionals were asked about their online upselling systems, why and how they used them, and how the hotels benefited from them. In the second part of the study, conducted in the same year, the researcher partnered with an independent hotel company in Hong Kong to compare online and front-desk upselling. The hotel has 262 rooms, ranging from standard rooms to suites. For online upselling, the hotel uses a system called UpsellGuru, which offers customers with a reservation a chance to bid for one or several different room types by moving a slider to indicate the price they are willing to pay. The hotel can then decide whether to accept or deny the upgrade offer within 24h. The industry professionals who participated in the interviews identified a number of customer and hotel-related factors that influence upselling. They all agreed that only customers who book directly or through an online travel agency are contacted for upselling offers, because an email address is essential. Otherwise, the professionals did not differentiate between customer characteristics for online and offline selling. They did, however, identify a few customer characteristics that influence whether they might be contacted for upselling. For example, it seems easiest to upsell to customers who are staying for leisure rather than business, celebrating a special occasion, or travelling from abroad. However, as one respondent mentioned, sometimes the hotel receives more than 50 upselling bids a day. Therefore, when deciding whom to choose for upselling, it is difficult to take other factors into account apart from the potential increase in revenue. The professionals also tended to focus on customers who booked the most basic rooms, because this makes it easier to find options for upselling, such as a larger room, a sea or harbour view, or club access with free breakfast, tea, and cocktails. Indeed, data from the second study showed that the most popular upsells were from a standard city view room to a standard harbour view room, and from standard city and harbour view rooms to club city and harbour view rooms. There was a general consensus among the industry professionals that online and offline upselling go hand in hand, as there are advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. Front-desk upselling has the advantage of offering a larger customer base, but it is only possible to sell un-booked rooms on a single day, whereas online upselling can take place a few days before arrival. Online upselling offers greater involvement for customers because they select the price they are willing to pay rather than the hotel setting the price, as is the case with offline upselling. The industry professionals were divided in their opinions on whether online upselling affects front-desk upselling. However, as one respondent pointed out, overall, only 30-40% of customers book directly or through an online travel agency, leaving many customers whom front office staff can approach for upselling during check-in. This suggests that online upselling will not replace front-desk upselling in the near future. The findings of the second study, in which data were collected from UpsellGuru, confirmed that online upselling was not a substitute for front-desk upselling. In terms of the revenue brought in by the two channels, revenue from online upselling was greater overall than from offline upselling, yet during several months of the study this trend was reversed. In general, upselling revenue increased considerably after the introduction of UpsellGuru, partly because the change prompted the hotel to make its front-desk offers more attractive to customers by making the room prices more comparable with those offered online. Hence, online upselling has certainly not had a negative effect and both channels help to increase revenue. As the researcher explains, it is likely that the type of customers that choose to bid for upselling differ from those who respond positively to front-desk upselling offers. Of all the practical implications of the study, writes the researcher, perhaps the most important one is the need to move away from treating each upselling channel as independent. The two channels are complementary rather than substitutive, yet currently they are not streamlined and aligned. By taking a more unified view of customers, hotels can align their marketing efforts to maximise upselling across both online and front-desk channels. The key to achieving this omni-channel approach to upselling is to understand customers preferences better by collecting data that go beyond the strategies hotels implement now. An omni-channel approach also enables an integrated, seamless experience across multiple devices and touchpoints. Overall, the researcher advises hotels to continue to invest in front-desk upselling. To ensure its success she suggests that employees such as front-desk staff should be trained on the methods and importance of data collection, and should receive specialised, regular training in upselling. This exploratory study provides an interesting overview of current upselling approaches in the hotel industry. It clearly shows that there is room for both online and offline upselling channels, as long as they are aligned and streamlined. Nevertheless, as the researcher concludes, the study opens up more questions than it actually answers about upselling in the hospitality industry and further research is needed to better understand how to achieve the omni-channel approach and improve data collection to generate a single view of the customer from all distribution channels. Basak Denizci Guillet (2020). Online Upselling: Moving Beyond Offline Upselling in the Hotel Industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 84, 102322. Opinion Article 17 September 2021 While some countries are already discussing the rollout of COVID-19 booster shots, most people in developing countries still havent received their first shots. It should come as no surprise that affluent countries have greater access to vaccines than poorer countries, leaving the vast majorityeven frontline healthcare workersvulnerable to the virus. In addition, when travelers are ready to venture out again, they want to be sure theyre traveling responsibly. Here we talk about how Expedia Group is proactively helping to bring us all one step closer to traveling and welcoming the world again. Keeping Local Communities Safe Travelers around the world are grappling with a tough decision as COVID-19 continues to circulate and vaccine inequity remains a major problem. According to Our World in Data, as of early September 2021, only 41% of the worlds population has received a single dose; in low-income countries that figure is shockingly lower, at under 2%. This has caused many to carefully consider their travel plans, both out of fear that they may still be at risk as well as out of concern for the unprotected. Responsible travel is nothing newin fact, sustainable travel is one of the industrys growing trendsbut the vaccine inequity issue has highlighted the value travelers place on ensuring local communities remain safe and unexploited. Peter Kern, CEO of Expedia Group, explains the problem this way: Lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines is a significant barrier to the return of global travel, economic recovery, and the restoration of our way of life. Until we make significant progress in vaccinating the worlds population, none of us will be truly free to travel the world. He goes on to say that the responsibility should not solely sit with governments and health authoritiesthe private sector must help, too. Thats why Expedia Group partnered with UNICEF in August 2021 to get more people vaccinated, with its Give the World a Shot initiative. In this campaign, each booking made on the mobile apps of Expedia Group brandsHotels.com, Vrbo, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, ebookers, and CheapTicketsbetween August 5th and September 5th resulted in a donation to UNICEFs global COVID-19 response fund. At the end of the period, over $10 million was raised to help deliver vaccines to over 180 countries. One of the hopes is that as global vaccination rates increase, so will the confidence of the travel community. Expedia Groups ad promoting the Give the World a Shot campaign Actively Helping Brands and Destinations Recover For example, the Dominican Republic partnered with Media Solutions to build a campaign promoting tourism to the Caribbean country after the twin impacts of Hurricane Laura and COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Discover Iberostar campaign with Iberostar Group is aimed at ecological recoveryspecifically that of the Mesoamerican Reefas well as fostering a more sustainable form of tourism as the pandemic subsides. In both cases, the travel brands worked with Media Solutions Creative Partnerships team to build bespoke campaigns to engage travelers and deliver an important message in impactful ways. To find out more about resources and solutions available to help your business rebuild check out our Recovery Marketing Resource Center. Alternatively, you can learn more about out how Media Solutions can partner with your brand to deliver creative and bespoke marketing campaigns to aid recovery by checking out the Creative Partnerships page. The latest edition of the Travel Recovery Trend Report, covering Q2, is available to download here. In addition to helping UNICEF provide vaccines to low-income countries, Expedia Group Media Solutions actively supports recovery effortseconomic, environmental, and socialby partnering with destinations and other travel brands as they rebuild from the pandemic and other challenges. Speaking from the point of view of wellness first destinations, resorts and residences, we are seeing a shift in and perusing a shift in attitude into what luxury means. This is being driven from the outside, by the consumer as well as from within the business through procurement policies, leaving little room for the old attitudes of cheap materials at the lowest cost. Wellness may be viewed as a niche area of the overall and larger hospitality industry, but it is also becoming one of the foremost reasons for travel. Objectives steering procurement must meet and satisfy both the consumer and the values of a brand. This invites the question, what are your brand values and who do you want to attract? The interpretation of luxury has also shifted. Seasoned wellness travellers are seeing less value in the linear make, take and waste approach. Opulence and waste are widely recognised by guests, which is bringing procurement and measurement of waste into sharp focus. This leads to a quality rather quantity approach. Lean procurement is then allowed to take place and can be communicated back as a 'well meant' policy of the destination that is respected and even admired by the guest. One of the most simple but effective measures that has been employed by wellness resorts is embedding local culture and community offerings into the guest experience rather than uniform and expected corporate values. This means that it has been seen more valuable to support local trade, even if it means a transference of the cost of this to the guest. Part of the wellness experience is authenticity, so this blends seamlessly and effortlessly into the business values. In some cases, meeting the guest needs and desire for unique experiences, even at extra cost to the business initially, brings profitable rewards in the way that a guest feels trust for the brand, relaxes and spends more time invested in the brand during their stay and will certainly return and refer due to aligned values. When an organisation reconciles the guest experience with the supply chain it simply becomes best practice. In any situation if a person understands the 'why' behind a decision it brings meaning and value to their experience, nothing is lost, everything is gained. Thanks to the acceptance and wider understanding wasteful business, sustainable values are inviting innovative business models into the hospitality space. We are soon to launch two pilot examples of circularity into the spa and wellness sector. Working with two Dutch companies on a circular model for hospitality furniture and linen. In both cases the items are made from re-blended and reused textiles such as cotton and mixed blends, ocean clean-ups, reclaimed wood and metal. Virgin materials are not used in any of the manufacture. Furniture and towels are not bought, used and discarded, but instead, reclaimed materials are used to make designer furniture and re-blended textiles and are then leased for an amount of time until they can be or need to be returned and reused again, replacing that which has been returned. This continues and is a great circular model which is cost effective and brings a story as well as upholding a genuine circular and sustainable economy model for hospitality. Bob Levey/Getty Images Celebrity rapper Travis Scott may be from Houston but Houstonians will have to travel to Arizona or California to sample his new cannabis line. Scott partnered with California-based Connected Cannabis on the product line, called Cactus Farms, a spokeswoman told the Chronicle. It marks Scotts entry into the growing cannabis industry. Harvard University will make no new investments in fossil fuel companies and soon cash out of existing stock funds with oil and gas holdings, handing a victory to climate activists who have long campaigned for divestment. Whether the move will mitigate climate change, though, is a different question. Harvard President Lawrence Bacow said the university had not held direct investments in fossil fuels since June. Only 2 percent of the $41.9 billion endowment is indirectly invested in coal, oil or natural gas through stock funds. He called climate change the most consequential threat facing humanity. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Exxon Mobil lobbyist's revelations demand congressional probe Given the need to decarbonize the economy and our responsibility as fiduciaries to make long-term investment decisions that support our teaching and research mission, we do not believe such investments are prudent, Bacow wrote in a message on Sept. 9. Bacows statement is curious for its citation of fiduciary responsibility, which requires the investment committee to grow the endowment as quickly as possible. For generations, universities and other institutions have invoked their responsibility to make money to reject activists demands for divestment, whether from mining firms in Apartheid-era South Africa or tobacco companies. Corporations engaged in morally ambiguous activities frequently offer higher-than-average returns to soothe investors consciences. Until recently, oil and gas companies offered some of the most consistent and generous returns. Financial advisers frequently counseled that energy stocks were an essential part of a balanced portfolio. The climate crisis, though, has put fossil fuel stocks on par with tobacco in the minds of many. A growing number of investors want more than a return; they want to know their money is with executive teams who care about ESG, or environmental, social and governance issues. Investing to promote a better world is often called sustainable investing, and one of the biggest proponents is also one of the biggest investment firms in the world, BlackRock. So, I was surprised to hear on one of my favorite podcasts, the University of Chicagos Capitalisnt, that BlackRocks former chief investment officer has profound questions about ESG investing. Tariq Fancy does not deny the social and financial dangers of climate change, wealth inequality, systemic racism, or corrupt corporate leadership. Instead, he argues we need more direct action. Divesting from fossil fuel stocks is not the panacea activists believe, he insists. When enough people sell a companys stock, the price falls. A lower stock price makes the ratio to earnings more attractive, and investors focused only on return will buy more of it. Since the investors left behind have no social agenda, the management team feels no pressure to change their behavior. Theres a difference between excusing yourself of something you do not wish to partake in and actively fighting against something you think needs to stop for everyones sake, Fancy wrote on the website Medium. Divestment, which often seems to get confused with boycotts, has no clear real-world impact since 10 percent of the market not buying your stock is not the same as 10 percent of your customers not buying your product. In other words, if you want the world to consume less fossil fuel and emit less carbon dioxide, then buy an electric vehicle and use renewable energy. Hold on to your stocks and vote them. The private equity group Engine One scored an enormous victory against Exxon Mobils management team by rallying other shareholders to put three directors on the board who want the Irving-based company to take climate change more seriously. Engine Ones founder Chris James convinced large institutional investors such as California and New York pension funds and some of the worlds largest investment fundsincluding BlackRockthat changing the companys direction was smarter than abandoning it. CEO Darren Woods has promised to focus more on transitioning away from oil and gas. Chevrons management team, terrified of meeting a similar fate, recently promised to spend $10 billion on low-carbon technologies over the next seven years. The company met with James and signed eight clean energy deals in two weeks. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Carbon capture offers promise for Texas oil and gas companies' future Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth fleshed out his higher returns, lower carbon strategy at Chevrons first-ever ESG-focused investor day. Folks in the fossil fuel business get righteously indignant when people compare their industry to costly vices like tobacco, alcohol and gambling. None of us can quit oil and gas cold turkey and still participate in society. Some of us may hate fossil fuels, but we all use them. Ramping down our personal consumption of coal, oil and natural gas is the most effective way of helping the climate. Divestment may make you feel good, but thats about it. Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com House Democrats are investigating the role major oil companies and their trade groups may have played in misleading the public on the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming. Letters sent Thursday to the heads of Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce seek information on any role they may have played in what the Democrats call a long-running, industrywide campaign of climate disinformation, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The panel is planning an Oct. 28 hearing on the effort and is seeking the testimony of top executives from those companies. We are deeply concerned that the fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits for decades while contributing to climate change that is devastating American communities, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and ravaging the natural world, said the letters. We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change. The letters were sent by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the committees chairwoman and Rep. Ro Khanna, who leads the subcommittee on the environment. API welcomes the opportunity to testify again before the House Oversight Committee and advance our priorities of pricing carbon, regulating methane and reliably producing American energy, said Bethany Aronhalt, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based trade group. The Chamber of Commerce said it was reviewing the committees request. The leadership of the Committee has a fundamental misunderstanding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerces positions on climate change and our work to forge climate solutions, a spokesman for the trade group said. The Chamber believes that the climate is changing, that humans are contributing to those changes, and that inaction on climate is not an option. We know that durable policy is made through bipartisan action, so weve been working hard with Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle to enact climate solutions, most notably the bipartisan infrastructure bill that includes historic investments in sustainable infrastructure. In a statement BP said it had received the letter and that the companys ambition is to reach net zero by 2050 or sooner and to help the world get there. We are actively advocating for policies such as carbon pricing and regulating methane, that will support the energy transition, the Paris climate agreement and a net zero world, according to the statement. An ExxonMobil spokesman said the company had received the letter and would respond to staff. Shell said it was reviewing the request and would address the committees questions. Shell strongly supports the Paris Agreement and the need for society to transition to a lower carbon future, while extending the economic and social benefits of energy access to everyone, the company said in a statement. Chevron didnt respond to requests for comment. Among the documents being sought are communications from company executives on climate science, climate change, clean energy and the role of fossil fuel in causing climate change. The are also seeking documents regarding the influencing of public opinion and communications with the government and the White House. The committee is also seeking documents and communications related to how much funding the companies have provided to Washington trade groups and how that money was used. In addition, the letters seeks details on any projects the companies have undertaken to protect their facilities from climate change. The investigation comes as reports raise questions about the role of the oil industry, and its allies, in preventing action on global warming by sowing doubt about the dangers of fossil fuels, according to the committee. Exxon CEO Apologizes for Lobbyists Comments in Leaked Video An Exxon lobbyist was secretly recorded earlier this year by Greenpeace indicating the company had fought early efforts to fight climate change by joining shadow groups and that the oil giant only voiced support for a carbon tax because it knew such a policy would be almost impossible to implement. The companys chief executive officer, Darren Woods, later apologized. As worsening natural disasters linked to global warming devastate communities in the United States and globally, one of Congresss top legislative priorities is combating the increasingly urgent crisis of a changing climate, the committee wrote. To do this, Congress must address pollution caused by the fossil fuel industry and curb troubling business practices that lead to disinformation on these issues. Houston's Wilde Collection, an oddities shop that on Yale Street, has been missed by those who love obscure artifacts, exotic taxidermy and unique artwork since the store was destroyed by an arson fire in 2019. But now, an interesting opportunity is rising from the ashes. An auction selling some of the items burned in the fire will go live Friday at 7 p.m. "During the arduous cleanup process, we discovered many items, that, like ourselves; have been forever changed by the fire," the post reads. "It is hard for us to simply throw away items that recall so many memories of decades of travels and of the wonderous place we created. I have always said that we who love morbid things, have the unique ability to find beauty where others see none: we must adjust our view and learn to see through different eyes." The post from Friday morning has already received a warm reception from some of the Wilde Collection's more than 14,000 followers. Co-owner Lawyer Douglas said the auction will include close to 100 offerings, including some religious items, voodoo dolls, home decor and animal bones. Some of the burned items have been put into new shadowboxes, he said. Since the shop closed after the fire, online commenters have popped up now and then, asking when the Wilde Collection will return. Douglas said he and his business partner, Tyler Zottarelle, still plan to rebuild. But they don't want to reopen as just any store. "We created an experience for people," he said. To bring back that experience, the existing building must be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up. After immediately getting to work and spending several months on cleanup, salvage and assessing damage after the fire, Douglas said the pandemic gave him an opportunity to slow down. DISCOVER MORE: Here are 17 hidden gems in Houston suburbs "Depression just really got me," he said. "I didn't realize that I hadn't taken time for myself." He said he felt "incredibly grateful" for the support of the community through benefits or even kind words from people he met in public, experiences that were "very beautiful, but also triggering at the same time." "Being in lockdown really helped me work on myself and made me have time away from being physically present." Douglas has also been working on artwork for the new store when it opens, the timing of which is dependent on the ongoing insurance process. In the meantime, the link for Friday's auction will post at 7 p.m. on the Wilde Collection's Facebook page. Items will be available for local pickup or shipment outside of the Houston area, according to the Facebook post. The online auction will run through Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Bidens decision to form a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain to counter China is angering France and the European Union. Theyre feeling left out and seeing it as a return to the Trump era. The security initiative, unveiled this week, appears to have brought Bidens summer of love with Europe to an abrupt end. AUKUS, which notably excludes France and the European Union, is just the latest in a series of steps, from Afghanistan to east Asia, that have taken Europe aback. After promising European leaders that America is back and that multilateral diplomacy would guide U.S. foreign policy, Biden has alienated numerous allies with a go-it-alone approach on key issues. Frances foreign minister expressed total incomprehension at the recent move, which he called a stab in the back, and the EUs foreign policy chief complained that Europe had not been consulted. France will lose a nearly $100 billion deal to build diesel submarines for Australia under the terms of the initiative, which will see the U.S. and Britain help Canberra construct nuclear-powered ones. As such, French anger on a purely a commercial level would be understandable, particularly because France, since Britains handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, is the only European nation to have significant territorial possessions or a permanent military presence in the Pacific. But French and European Union officials went further, saying the agreement calls into question the entire cooperative effort to blunt Chinas growing influence and underscores the importance of languishing plans to boost Europes own defense and security capabilities. Some have compared Biden's recent actions to those of his predecessor, Donald Trump, under Trump's America First doctrine. That's surprising for a president steeped in international affairs who ran for the White House vowing to mend shaken ties with allies and restore U.S. credibility on the world stage. Although it's impossible to predict if any damage will be lasting, the short-term impact seems to have rekindled European suspicions of American intentions with potential implications for Biden's broader aim to unite democracies against authoritarianism, focused primarily on China and Russia. Just three months ago, on his first visit to the continent as president, Biden was hailed as a hero by European counterparts eager to move beyond the trans-Atlantic tensions of the Trump years. But that palpable sense of relief has now faded for many, and its one clear winner, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is on her way out. Since June, Biden has infuriated America's oldest ally, France, left Poland and Ukraine questioning the U.S. commitment to their security and upset the European Union more broadly with unilateral decisions ranging from Afghanistan to east Asia. And, while Europe cheered when Biden pledged to return to nuclear negotiations with Iran and revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, both efforts remain stalled nine months into his administration. The seeds of discontent may have been sown in the spring but they began to bloom in July over Biden's acquiescence to a Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline that will bypass Poland and Ukraine, and a month later in August with the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that left Europe scrambling to keep up after it had expressed reservations about the pullout. Then just this week, Biden enraged France and the European Union with his announcement that the U.S. would join post-Brexit Britain and Australia in a new Indo-Pacific security initiative aimed at countering China's increasing aggressiveness in the region. Unsurprisingly, China reacted angrily, accusing the U.S. and its English-speaking partners of embarking on a project that will destabilize the Pacific to the detriment of global security. But, the reactions from Paris and Brussels were equally severe. Both complained they were not only excluded from the deal but not consulted on it. The White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken say France had been informed of the decision before it was announced on Wednesday, although it was not exactly clear when. Blinken said Thursday there had been conversations with the French about it within the past 24 to 48 hours, suggesting there had not been an in-depth consultation. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who in June extolled the excellent news for all of us that America is back, expressed total incomprehension at the announcement of the initiative. It was really a stab in the back," he said. It looks a lot like what Trump did. White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed the comparison. I would say the president doesnt think about it much, she told reporters. The presidents focus is on maintaining and continuing our close relationships with leaders in France, with the United Kingdom, with Australia and to achieving our global objectives, which include security in the Indo-Pacific. In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed the French minister's complaints. I suppose that an agreement of this nature was not cooked up the day before yesterday. It takes a certain amount of time, and despite that, no, we were not consulted, he said. "That obliges us, once again to reflect on the need to put European strategic autonomy high on the agenda. Indeed, the 27-member European Union on Thursday unveiled a new strategy for boosting economic, political and defense ties in the Indo-Pacific, just hours after the announcement by the U.S., Britain and Australia. The EU said the aim is to strengthen and expand economic relations while reinforcing respect of international trade rules and improving maritime security. It said it hopes the strategy will result in more European naval deployments to the region. U.S. officials brushed aside the French and EU complaints on Thursday. There are a range of partnerships that include the French and some partnerships that dont, and they have partnerships with other countries that dont include us, Psaki said. "That is part of how global diplomacy works. Speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Australian defense and foreign ministers, Blinken said there is no regional divide with Europe over Indo-Pacific strategy. We welcome European countries playing an important role in the Indo-Pacific, he said, calling France a vital partner." But how closely they will work together remains to be seen. - AP writers Darlene Superville, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report. WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) The first Black police chief in Waterloo, Iowa, is facing intense opposition from some current and former officers as he works with city leaders to reform the department, including the removal of its longtime insignia that resembles a Ku Klux Klan dragon. Joel Fitzgerald says his 16-month tenure in Waterloo, a city of 67,000 with a history of racial divisions, is a case study for what Black police chiefs face as they seek to build community trust and hold officers to higher standards. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the attacks were driven by misinformation and racism toward him and his boss, the city's first Black mayor. I dont think theres been any police chief in America in a small- or medium-sized department that have endured this for the reasons I have endured it and I think the reasons have to do with race, said Fitzgerald, who previously served as the chief of larger departments in Fort Worth, Texas and Allentown, Pennsylvania. This is my fourth job being the first Black police chief. Ive dealt with pushback in other places but never so overt. Never so nonfactual. Jacinta Gau, a University of Central Florida professor and expert on race and policing, said new, reform-minded chiefs always face backlash, and that is intensified when they are Black leaders of historically white forces. The power dynamic in America has always been that Black people are subordinate to white people. When Black people acquire leadership positions, that power dynamic is flipped on its head and white people who were comfortable with the status quo are now feeling very threatened, she said. The backlash against Fitzgerald has intensified since last fall when the City Council began pushing to remove the departments emblem a green-eyed, red-bodied, winged creature known as a griffin that had adorned patches on officers' uniforms since the 1960s. After a messy process, the council voted 5-2 last week to order the department to remove the symbol from its uniforms by the end of September. It was the latest among several changes the department has made under Fitzgerald that have won praise from Mayor Quentin Hart, most City Council members and some community leaders while angering the police union, retired officers and conservatives. A white City Council member running to unseat Hart in November has portrayed herself as a champion of police while vowing to oust Fitzgerald if elected. A political action committee supporting her and other pro-law enforcement candidates called Cedar Valley Backs the Blue has attacked Fitzgerald and Hart on Facebook, claiming they are mismanaging the department. Three of Fitzgeralds predecessors as chief released a letter saying they were outraged at what the department had become under his leadership, claiming it was imploding and that morale had hit an all-time low. Adding to the backlash is that Fitzgerald is an outsider to Waterloo with academic degrees some critics mock as elitist. He acknowledges it didn't look good when news emerged that he was a finalist for chief openings in bigger cities during his first year. Opponents have attacked everything from Fitzgeralds salary which is in line with similar chiefs in Iowa to his off-duty trips to visit family in Texas, where his teenage son continues treatment for a brain tumor that was removed in 2019. Last year, he took over a department that has long experienced tension with the citys Black community, which comprises 17% of the city population. Hart said Waterloo could have been a hotbed of racial unrest after George Floyds death given its history, but Fitzgerald helped ease tensions the day before he was sworn on June 1, 2020, in by meeting with protesters for hours to hear their concerns. It was a resetting of the clock moment, Fitzgerald said. Numerous changes soon followed: banning chokeholds, outlawing racial profiling, requiring officers to intervene if they see excessive force, and investigating all complaints of misconduct. The Waterloo Commission on Human Rights called for the removal of the griffin emblem, saying it evoked fear and distrust among some given its resemblance to the KKK symbol. But generations of Waterloo officers had seen it as a symbol of their vigilance. The Waterloo Police Protective Association, which represents officers, denied it had racist intent and mobilized against its removal. Fitzgerald, one of a handful of officers of color in the 123-member department, said he was met with fierce pushback when he suggested the department rebrand itself voluntarily before the council acted. Supporters of the griffin, including the Back the Blue group, framed its removal as an affront to officers. The beatdown of our police officers continues, City Council member Margaret Klein, who is running for mayor, wrote on Facebook, citing the devastating impact of removing the beloved 50-year patch design. She has called for Fitzgerald's resignation. Hart said the debate over the griffin missed the bigger picture. He said the department has undergone a complete paradigm shift, adopting a community policing model that has been popular. Decency and respect, thats what I want. But Im pro-law enforcement, said Hart, who was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2017 and 2019. The Back the Blue group has labeled Hart a radical mayor and released an anonymous survey taken by half the current officers and dozens of retirees showing all 98 believed Fitzgerald was the wrong man for the job. Officers complained that they didn't feel supported by the community or the administration. Its sad and its pathetic but this is whats going on at the Waterloo Police Department, said group chairman Lynn Moller, a retired investigator. Fitzgerald said officer morale is a national problem and Waterloo has eight vacancies after some officers retired or left for other jobs. He proposed a strategic plan to improve morale and hire more officers in coming years. City Council member Jonathan Grieder said Fitzgerald had been slandered by people claiming to love the police. We are grappling with the very real issues that have long been embedded of race and force and policing, he said. I get that some people have never had to reckon with that until now. I get that it's uncomfortable." BOSTON (AP) A Massachusetts storage company that federal prosecutors said illegally auctioned the personal possessions of an Air Force sergeant while he was deployed has agreed to pay the service member $60,000 in compensation, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston announced Thursday. Father & Son Moving & Storage also agreed to pay a $5,000 civil penalty and implement new policies to prevent future violations of the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, according to a statement. It is wrong to auction off the possessions of a servicemember who is serving our country overseas, acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell said. The law protects service members from this kind of mistreatment they have more important things to worry about when they are overseas risking their lives to protect our nation." A voicemail requesting comment was left with an attorney for the storage company. The company broke the law by failing to obtain a court order before auctioning everything in the technical sergeant's storage units while he was serving in Qatar, prosecutors said. Father & Son had sent mail indicating that the man owed money to his previous address at Hanscom Air Force Base outside Boston, but he didn't get it in Qatar until almost a month after his possessions had been sold, according to the lawsuit filed in August 2020. The possessions sold included items that belonged to a cousin who was killed while serving in the military in Afghanistan, his grandfathers medals, all his furniture including a dresser handmade by his great-grandfather and personal photographs, according to the suit. The case was referred to the U.S. Justice Department by the Air Force. INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst on Friday of murdering his best friend 20 years ago, a case that took on new life after the New York real estate heir participated in a documentary that connected him to the slaying that was linked to his wifes 1982 disappearance. Durst, 78, was not in court for the verdict from the jury that deliberated about seven hours over three days. He was in isolation at a jail because he was exposed to someone with coronavirus. Durst, who faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole when sentenced Oct. 18, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Susan Berman. She was shot at point-blank range in the back of the head in her Los Angeles home in December 2000 as she was prepared to tell police how she helped cover up his wifes killing. Berman, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, was Dursts longtime confidante who told friends she provided a phony alibi for him after his wife vanished. Prosecutors painted a portrait of a rich narcissist who didnt think the laws applied to him and ruthlessly disposed of people who stood in his way. They interlaced evidence of Bermans killing with Kathie Dursts suspected death and the 2001 killing of a tenant in a Texas flophouse where Robert Durst holed up while on the run from New York authorities. Now Playing: A Los Angeles jury convicted Robert Durst on Friday of murdering his best friend 20 years ago. Durst, 78, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Susan Berman. (Sept. 17) Video: Associated Press Bob Durst has been around a lot of years, and hes been able to commit a lot of horrific crimes. We just feel really gratified that hes been held accountable, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said. Lewin met with jurors after the verdict and said they thought prosecutors had proven Durst had killed his wife and had murdered both Berman and his Texas neighbor in an effort to escape justice. He said jurors did not find Durst credible as a witness. Hes a narcissistic psychopath. He killed his wife and then he had to keep killing to cover it up, Lewin said. Lewin said he hoped Durst understands what its like to be held accountable even if it took 40 years. Considering what hes done, he got a lot more of a life than he was entitled to," the prosecutor said. Durst was arrested in 2015 while hiding out in a New Orleans hotel on the eve of the airing of the final episode of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, in which he was confronted with incriminating evidence and made what prosecutors said was a confession. Durst could be heard muttering to himself on a live microphone in a bathroom: There it is. Youre caught. Dursts decision to testify in his own defense hoping for a repeat of his acquittal in the Texas killing backfired as he was forced to admit lying under oath, made damning admissions and had his credibility destroyed when questioned by the prosecutor. Defense lawyer David Chesnoff said Friday they believed there was substantial reasonable doubt and were disappointed in the verdict. He said Durst would pursue all avenues of appeal. The conviction marks a victory for authorities who have sought to put Durst behind bars for murder in three states. Durst was never charged in the disappearance of his wife, who has never been found, and he was acquitted of murder in Galveston, Texas, where he admitted dismembering the victims body and tossing it out to sea. The story of Durst, the estranged scion of a New York real estate developer, has been fodder for New York tabloids since his wife vanished. He provided plot twists so numerous that Hollywood couldnt resist making a feature film about his life that eventually led to the documentary and discovery of new evidence in Bermans slaying. Durst ran from the law multiple times, disguised as a mute woman in Texas and staying under an alias at a New Orleans hotel with a shoulders-to-head latex mask for a presumed getaway. He jumped bail in Texas and was arrested after shoplifting a chicken sandwich in Pennsylvania, despite having $37,000 in cash along with two handguns in his rental car. He later quipped that he was the worst fugitive the world has ever met. Durst escaped close scrutiny from investigators when his wife disappeared. But his troubles resurfaced in late 2000 when New York authorities reopened the case. His lawyer told him to be prepared to be charged in the case, and he fled a life of luxury to Galveston, Texas, where he rented a cheap apartment as Dorothy Ciner, a woman he pretended couldnt speak. He eventually dropped the disguise after mishaps that included walking into a mens restroom and igniting his wig at a bar while lighting a cigarette. Just before Christmas, he testified that he traveled to LA to visit Berman for a staycation with plans to see some of the tourist sites. Durst, who had long denied ever being in LA at the time of Bermans death, testified at trial that he found her dead on a bedroom floor when he arrived. Berman, a writer who had been friends with Durst since they were students at the University of California, Los Angeles, had serious financial problems at the time. Durst had given her $50,000, and prosecutors suggested she was trying to leverage more money from him by telling him she was going to speak with the cops. Nine months after her death, Durst killed his Galveston neighbor Morris Black, in what he said was either an accident or self-defense. Durst said he found Black, who he had become friends with, in his apartment holding Dursts .22-caliber pistol. Durst was acquitted after testifying the 71-year-old was killed in a struggle for the gun. Durst then chopped up Blacks body and tossed it out to sea. He was convicted of destroying evidence for discarding the body parts. After the trial and the ghastly evidence of the dismemberment, Durst found he was a pariah, he said. Despite an estimated $100 million fortune, he was turned away by multiple condominium associations and said the Los Angeles County Museum of Art wouldnt take his money unless he donated anonymously. Durst thought a 2010 feature film based on his life, All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling as him and Kirsten Dunst as Kathie, had been largely accurate and painted a sympathetic portrait, despite implicating him in three killings. He only objected that he was depicted killing his dog something he would never do. He reached out to the filmmaker and agreed to sit for lengthy interviews for a documentary. He encouraged his friends to do the same and gave the filmmakers access to boxes of his records. He came to deeply regret his decision after The Jinx aired on HBO in 2015, calling it a very, very, very big mistake. The documentary filmmakers discovered a crucial piece of evidence that connected him to an anonymous note sent to police directing them to Bermans lifeless body. Durst, who was so confident he couldnt be connected to the note, told filmmakers only the killer could have written the note. Filmmakers confronted him with a letter he sent Berman a year earlier. The handwriting was identical and Beverly Hills was misspelled as Beverley on both. He couldnt tell the two apart. The gotcha moment provided the climax of the movie as Durst stepped off camera and muttered to himself on a live microphone in the bathroom: Killed them all, of course. During 14 days of testimony that was so punishing Judge Mark Windham called it devastating, Durst denied killing his wife and Berman, though he said he would lie if he did. He tried to explain away the note and what prosecutors said was a confession during an unguarded moment. For the first time, Durst admitted on the witness stand that he sent the note and had been in Los Angeles at the time of Bermans death. Durst said he sent the note because he wanted Berman to be found but didnt want anyone to know he had been there because it would look suspicious. He acknowledged that even he had difficulty imagining he could have written the note without killing Berman. Its very difficult to believe, to accept, that I wrote the letter and did not kill Susan Berman, Durst testified. A prosecutor said it was one of the truest things Durst said amid a ton of lies. WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) A former firefighter and union leader was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for possessing child pornography, federal prosecutors in Delaware said. Joseph Leonetti Jr., a former Wilmington firefighter and union president, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography in April, U.S. Attorney David Weiss announced. Andrew Harnik, STF / Associated Press A federal judge on Thursday denied an emergency request by the Department of Justice for a temporary restraining order against Senate Bill 8, the Texas law prohibiting abortions once medical professionals can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically six weeks after the last normal menstrual cycle. The measure effectively bans most abortions, as many women are unaware they are pregnant for most of the six week period. The law, which went into effect Sept. 1, allows private individuals to file lawsuits against anyone accused of performing or helping people obtain abortions after cardiac activity is detected. Those who sue can receive rewards of up to $10,000 from those found to have violated the law. Nonprofit groups opposed to abortion have set up websites soliciting allegations against hospitals, abortion clinics, caregivers and other people and organizations. Several Texas schools have fallen victim to the latest viral TikTok challenge, including at least one Houston-area school. Dubbed "devious lick," the trend has become notoriously popular among middle and high schoolers, and involves students recording themselves stealing school property and destroying or vandalizing school bathrooms, all for likes, follows and the slim chance of becoming TikTok famous. TIKTOK FAMOUS: This Houston-area grandmother danced her way to TikTok celebrity stardom Participants have destroyed and stolen everything from doors to soap dispensers, sinks, faucets, and even classroom equipment like projectors, supplies and teacher's personal belongings. ODonnell Middle School in the Alief Independent School District said that over the past two days, some students vandalized their seventh grade boys restrooms and main hallway boys restrooms, destroying or removing soap dispensers, and taking hardware to the doors. School Principal Amador Velasquez, said in a Facebook post that the school had a "direct talk" with its seventh grade boys, but put the charge on parents to talk to their children about the consequences. "I know that it is not all of our Mustangs, but we had to come together as a group and discuss this matter," she said. "I ask that you please take a moment to talk with your child of the consequences of following and being influenced by social media and the negative effects of being a follower as opposed to leader. We must take pride in our school and our facilities as we respect and appreciate each other and our surroundings." Restrooms at ODonnell will now be closed during transition times and students must sign in and out to use the restroom during class time, an Alief ISD spokesperson confirmed in an email to the Chronicle. The trend got so out of hand that TikTok removed the hashtag "devious lick" from its app. Now when you try to search for the phrase, a message appears explaining that the content has been removed because it violates the app's guidelines. The message comes with a link to TikTok's community guidelines. SELENA CHALLENGE: Selena is officially on TikTok, and a special broadcast is planned "We expect our community to create responsibly - online and IRL. We're removing content and redirecting hashtags & search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior. Please be kind to your schools & teachers," the social media platform wrote on Twitter. In some Texas cities, schools and law enforcement officers are taking more drastic measures to combat the challenge. CRATE CHALLENGE: Viral 'milk crate challenge' can lead to ugly injuries amid overburdened ERs, Houston doctor warns Midland ISD in west Texas said it plans to take serious actions against students who are found guilty, including potential criminal charges and disciplinary consequences like suspension and removal from their campus to an alternative campus. The warning comes after students took the challenge a step further than stealing the usual sinks, soap and hand sanitizers, and removed items like fire extinguishers, fire flashers and emergency exit signs things that "are a visual indication for the hearing impaired," spokesperson Elana Ladd told ABC13. The Waco ISD police department also took to its Facebook page to warn students that if they are caught, they will be held accountable. The new social media craze is draining parents and especially many educators across the U.S., who already have a full plate combating the rampant spread of COVID-19 in schools. "I wish they would start a trend to do something good, like actually listen in class or do work, try to see how few times you make the teacher stop to ask the class to quiet down," wrote Heather Shaw on Facebook. Some teachers who have been fortunate so far are remaining vigilant and having conversations with their students about it. "I spoke to all my students today and flat out told them that if they steal any of my classroom or personal belongings, I will be pressing charges," wrote Facebook user Nadia Sawa. "Theft is a crime and I wont stand for it. The juvenile court will have to settle the situation. I respect all my students and made it clear that I deserve the same respect in return." Even maintenance and facility workers tasked with the cleanup are sharing in the angst. "I'm a custodian and it really is time consuming having to replace everything," wrote Nina Jamison on Facebook. It's almost time for pumpkin spice lattes and spooky season. With fall set to begin next week, many Houston area families are looking for local pumpkin patches and fall festivals that bring family-friendly joy. MORE FUN: Woodlands family festival and other events happening this weekend Here are 10 of the pumpkin patches and fall festivals getting ready to open in the area this season. Courtesy Ashleigh M./Yelp Where: 7112 Newcastle Street, Bellaire When: Oct. 16-17 The Nature Discovery Center in Bellaire is planning its annual Pumpkin Patch Fall Festival for next month. The event will have a large collection of pumpkins in addition to games, crafts and a petting zoo. Admission is free. Courtesy Jackie D./YelpP Where: 9963 Pooles Road, MontgomeryF When: Sept. 25 through Nov. 7 The fall festival at P-6 Farms features a pumpkin house, corn maze and flower patch in addition to amusement rides, games and a glass funhouse. Tickets start at $16 and must be purchased online. Dana Burke/Staff photo Where: 2535 E. Broadway, Pearland When: Daily beginning Sept. 25 St. Andrew's pumpkin patch is an annual must-visit for many residents of Pearland and surrounding cities. The church will also host Trick or Treat in the Patch on Oct. 24. Savannah Mehrtens/Staff Photo Where: 3203 FM 1960 E., Humble When: Sept. 11-Nov. 1 Residents who attend the pumpkin patch can take train rides, pony rides and visit the petting zoo. Tickets are $15. Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer Where: 5927 Louetta Road, Spring When: Oct. 3-31 Spring church Plymouth United is hosting a pumpkin patch from Oct. 3-31. Additionally, it will put on a fall festival and garage sale with more pumpkins, pet adoptions and local vendors on Oct. 23. Courtesy Hali L./Yelp Where: 17410 Clay Road, Houston When: Saturday and Sunday throughout the month of October The Halter pumpkin patch offers children's activities such as pony rides, duck races and a petting zoo. Admission is $10 for people older than 2 years old. Robert Avery/Staff photo Where: 5354 Space Center Blvd., Pasadena When: Sept. 26-Oct. 31 Asbury United Methodist Church has hosted and annual pumpkin patch in the Pasadena community for over 15 years. Courtesy Ashley S./Yelp Where: 7632 Spring Cypress Road, Spring When: Friday through Sunday throughout the month of October Pumpkins of all shapes, sizes and variations can be found at the pumpkin patch at the Old Time Christmas Tree Farm. Other attractions at the farm include trains, hayrides, petting zoo, an inflatable corn maze and bounce houses. File photo Where: 2929 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood When: Oct. 19-31 The Kingwood church plans to kick off its annual pumpkin patch on Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. Then on Oct. 23, Good Shepherd will host its Fall Festival from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. It will feature obstacle courses, moonwalks, face painting, a bake sale in addition to a petting zoo and food trucks. Courtesy Lauren G./Yelp Where: 4401 N Frazier Street, Conroe When: Oct. 30 This annual event features pumpkins for sale, pony, train and hay rides, a petting zoo, paintball and more. chris.shelton@chron.com Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer A Galveston County judge Thursday denied an attempt by Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop Galveston ISD from requiring masks, according to a court document. Judge Kerry Neves ruled against Texas request for a temporary restraining order on mask mandates in the district. A visiting misdemeanor judge this week reproached Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg for practices he believes contributed to a crisis-level backlog of pending criminal cases. Judge Mike Fields, sitting on Darrell Jordan's bench, is the latest person to redirect blame over a clogged docket that threatens to cripple justice for people accused of crimes. More from Samantha Ketterer: DA Kim Ogg challenges monitors over bail reform reports In a bluntly worded letter to Ogg on Wednesday, he contended that the DAs offices own policies delay evidence and automatically place County Criminal Court at Law No. 16 out of compliance with standards that misdemeanor cases be disposed within six months. These rules are causing our docket to grind to a near halt, Fields wrote in the letter. The number of pending cases has grown to 94,000 in Harris County, including 41,000 misdemeanors and 53,000 felonies, according to county data. Closures from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 spurred the backlog and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 worsened it, overloading judges and attorneys with cases they cant clear fast enough. Judges are often at the receiving end of blame for the backlog and problems associated with it such as increased numbers of people on bond for longer periods. Any criticism at Oggs office has largely been deflected, and her spokesman on Thursday denied that Fields courtroom is stalled. Since Aug. 1, 439 cases have been resolved with guilty pleas, diversions and dismissals in the court, he said. We will be sending an official reply to the judge, but there are so many misstatements of fact and inaccuracies in his letter, that we intend to respond to him in person, said Dane Schiller, spokesman for the DAs office. According to Fields, the delays in receiving discovery fall on Oggs insistence on completing unnecessary alcohol tests in certain DWI cases, as well as refusals to expedite requests for body-worn camera and other police footage. Fields, a formerly elected Republican judge, has presided for Jordan for about a year while he is on a military deployment. Even if the DAs office agrees no alcohol is smelled or alleged, prosecutors will order alcohol tests anyway taking up to six months to complete and another half-year to test for the drugs which were actually suspected, Fields said. Body-worn camera evidence has taken roughly eight months or more for defense attorneys to receive, and the DAs office wont expedite the request until six months have passed, the judge said. The same goes for 911 calls in domestic violence cases. The 11th Administrative Judicial Region of Texas, overseeing Harris County and five others, places standards at six months to dispose misdemeanor cases and a year to dispose felonies, partly because the strength of cases and likelihood of conviction diminishes after that period of time. In a perfect world, cases would not be filed by your office until the evidence the defense needs to zealously represent their clients is available. Fields wrote. Schiller denied there ever was a policy official or unofficial that kept prosecutors from expediting requests for body camera footage. There are more than 1 million hours of body worn video camera footage uploaded and available to defense lawyers across all courts at this very moment, Schiller said. Moreover, in accordance with SB 111, which recently took effect, the District Attorneys Office now requires that law-enforcement agencies, in most instances, to provide video camera evidence and lab test results at the time charges are filed. Schiller added that his office is working to comply with a Texas Supreme Court order to do all that is reasonably possible to handle cases, including encouraging courts to embrace technology and use other means to hold trials and reduce the backlog. Judges set trials and this judge has overseen just three trials since May, Schiller said. Trials have been occurring at limited numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic. Fields candidness at first shocked Joe Vinas, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. But he added he was glad the criticism occurred, especially since he has his own complaints about the length of time it takes defense attorneys to receive evidence. The DAs office has tried to point the finger on delays in other directions, Vinas said. But to me, the single biggest reason for case backlogs is delay in case discovery. Fields has asked prosecutors to review pending cases in Jordans court and determine which ones have not produced evidence, he said in the letter. County Criminal Court at Law No. 16 has the largest docket of any misdemeanor court, with 2,943 active cases pending (the courts average 2,560 cases each, according to county data). About 55 percent of Fields cases have been on the docket longer than six months, exceeding standards and classifying as backlogged. Overall misdemeanor court averages are similarly high, at 50 percent. samantha.ketterer@chron.com Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed a $1.8 billion border security package into law, funding his plan to deter migrants from crossing the border by building a wall and jailing them on state trespassing charges and again saying Texas is stepping up to do what the Biden administration wont as thousands of migrants have crossed the border in recent days. It is the federal governments job to secure our border. But the Biden administration has failed to do its job, Abbott said during an event in Fort Worth. These funds are needed because the Biden administrations open border policies have opened the floodgates to illegal immigration, to crime, to human trafficking, to drug smuggling. The signing comes as the Biden administration boosts the Border Patrol in Del Rio, where as many as 12,000 migrants, mostly Haitian asylum seekers, are camped out under an international bridge. U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday also moved to reroute cross-border traffic from Del Rio to Eagle Pass, saying the shift was necessary to respond to urgent safety and security needs. Despite Abbotts assertion, the Biden administration reportedly plans to step up deportation of Haitians, contrary to pleas from Democrats and advocates to end the practice. Also on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security appealed a court decision ordering it to stop immediately expelling families seeking refuge in the U.S. by using a public health order enacted due to the coronavirus. The order was issued by former President Donald Trump and has been used by Border Patrol to immediately turn away most of the migrants encountered crossing the border this year. The spending bill, which brings Texas two-year border security budget to nearly $3 billion, sets aside $1 billion for the construction of a barrier along parts of the border and more than $450 million to continue deploying a surge of National Guard members and Department of Public Safety troopers to the region. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox It also aims to provide relief for the network of courts and detention facilities that are tasked with processing and detaining migrants arrested on state charges, setting aside $32 million for the Office of Court Administration to hire new visiting judges, public defenders, court interpreters and other court staff. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which currently sends migrants to detention facilities in Frio and Hidalgo counties, will also receive funds to convert additional facilities for the same use. And $170 million is allocated to establish and staff three county-level processing and intake centers along the border, according to Abbotts office. Uncertainty and indecision The new funding comes as local officials scramble to get control of the situation in Del Rio, where Mayor Bruno Lozano declared a state of disaster and said he would move to close the bridge, though the migrants are not using it to cross the Rio Grande. Lozano was tweeting at the president, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security about the rapidly growing migrant camp this week. President Biden, have you been briefed on the ongoing crisis yet? Lozano, a Democrat, tweeted on Thursday evening. Abbott said during the bill signing on Friday that officials with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security had told him they plan to transport migrants from Del Rio to Arizona, California and possibly Laredo. The agencies did not respond to a request for comment about the plan on Friday. Theres nothing but uncertainty and indecision by the Biden administration about what exactly theyre going to do, Abbott said. Biden has not spoken publicly about the situation in Del Rio. For weeks, the president has said his administration is working to build a more humane immigration system after Trump. Biden has been especially focused on beefing up the asylum system to more swiftly process the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived at the border seeking shelter this year. On Friday, the president tweeted out a pre-taped video with a statement celebrating Citizenship Day. Immigrants come to America from different circumstances, but every generation has made us stronger, he said. This Citizenship Day serves as a reminder that its up to us to ensure we remain a country worthy of the dreams and aspirations of immigrants from around the world. Flights will take Haitians back Democrats and immigration advocates have stressed that the situation in Del Rio is a humanitarian crisis. Most of those who have arrived in recent days are from Haiti, which has been wracked by political upheaval and was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake Aug. 14 that killed more than 2,000. A group of 50 House Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green of Houston, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday urging the administration to stop deporting Haitians and offer those at the border humanitarian parole, writing that the conditions in Haiti make safe return to the country completely impossible. Nevertheless, the White House plans to ramp up deportations, NBC News reported Friday, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement set to fly eight deportation flights to Haiti next week. The plan calls to increase that number to 10 per week, NBC News reported. The flights, which had been paused after the earthquake, had just restarted in recent days as Haitians began to arrive in Del Rio. Texas Democrats accused Abbott of using the border to deflect from his own problems as the state hits 60,000 coronavirus deaths. Abbotts failures are catching up with him, and hes terrified that we will vote him out of office in just over a year, said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa. So hes doing what he always does: trying to distract from his massive failures by pointing the finger at immigrants and drumming up fear around our borders. Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized Biden for months over his handling of the border. It is the most horrific thing Ive ever seen, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said during a Fox News interview after visiting the Del Rio bridge. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a San Antonio Republican, appeared on Fox News urging Abbott to act on his own to secure the border and accusing Biden of willfully disregarding his duty to enforce the laws of the United States. Not only is it impeachable, but I believe the governor of Texas ought to start disregarding this president and start taking into our own hands in Texas the need to secure the border of the United States for the welfare of the people, Roy said. The new border security funding in Texas comes out of an extra $8 billion lawmakers have to spend after Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar issued a revised revenue estimate in July. The state has now more than tripled its most recent $800 million, two-year border security budget. ben.wermund@chron.com jasper.scherer@chron.com Gen. George Washington was a lucky man during the American Revolution. Granted, he had his battlefield challenges. He had to cope with losing Manhattan to the Redcoats, had to get across the Delaware and take the war to the British, had to assess the damage done to the American cause by the traitor Benedict Arnold. And in 1777, he had to guard against a deadly outbreak of smallpox that, if allowed to spread, would devastate his army and, arguably, result in total defeat for the new American nation. The Continental Armys commander in chief had survived smallpox as a young man and was acutely aware of its mortal threat. In a July 1776 letter to John Hancock, he had labeled the disease the most dangerous enemy. He knew if it got loose among his soldiers, it would not only destroy his army but also inevitably spread to the populace. He ordered a mass inoculation among the troops, even though that early method of immunization could be dangerous as well. I have determined that the troops shall get inoculated, Washington wrote in 1777. Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army in the natural way and rage with its usual virulence we should have more to dread from it than from the Sword of the Enemy. Washington, as we said, was lucky lucky that his soldiers obeyed orders and the disease didnt spread, but lucky also that Kevin McCarthy wasnt standing outside his field tent carping about the generals vaccine mandate for his soldiers, lucky that he didnt have to read the California Republicans all-caps social media broadside, NO VACCINE MANDATES. McCarthy, the U.S. House minority leader who longs to be speaker, trumpeted his opposition to mandates in response to President Joe Bidens decision last week to force companies to require their employees to get a coronavirus vaccine or be subjected to weekly testing. The requirement, still being developed by the Labor Department, would apply to businesses with 100 or more workers. McCarthy has been uncharacteristically mum about mandates since his all-caps tweet he deflected some reporters questions but defended his stance on CNBC, arguing that although he is vaccinated and believes in the vaccines effectiveness, federal mandates would only worsen the labor shortage and increase vaccine avoidance in people who clearly have serious questions about the shot. Other Republicans have couched their opposition in terms George Washington would have understood. Its un-American, they shout. Its about freedom! U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, labeled Bidens proposal authoritarian and the work of a power-hungry government. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., declared in a tweet that vaccine mandates are unAmerican! South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster offered the most ridiculous response, pledging to fight Biden and Democrats to the gates of hell. McMaster is among several Republican governors including Ron DeSantis of Florida, Tate Reeves in Mississippi and Greg Abbott of Texas who oppose the Biden plan, even though they govern states that mandate student vaccinations against numerous other diseases. Our own Ted Cruz, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opposed Bidens proposal but was a bit more measured than usual. While I support the vaccine and have received it, Americans have the right to exercise personal choice when it comes to their health, he said in a written statement from his office. Cruz and his fellow carpers conveniently ignore the fact that COVID-19 has claimed the lives of more than 669,000 people or 1 in 500 Americans that ERs and ICUs in areas of the country where the unvaccinated predominate are approaching collapse and that the nations economy can never get back on track until we get the pandemic under control. They also ignore polls showing that most Americans, including business owners, favor a mandate. If George Washington were among us today, and if he had any patience with McCarthy and his fellow Republicans still quailing, by the way, under the looming shadow of a bullying former president he might have instructed his brash and articulate young aide, Alexander Hamilton, to correct a few errors of fact: First, Biden did not issue an absolute vaccine mandate. Those opposed to vaccination can opt out by agreeing to be tested. And second, we have had, and continue to have, vaccine mandates in schools, the military and in the workforce. Do McCarthy and friends oppose those mandates? Do they want their school-age children exposed to measles, mumps and other childhood diseases? Dr. Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and molecular biology at Baylor College of Medicine, worries that Republican obstinance regarding COVID-19 vaccines will feed public resistance to other vaccines in this country, particularly among children. The problem, he told the Washington Post earlier this week, is that, with COVID-19, with the social disruptions, there was a steep decline in childhood vaccinations, including things like (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccines and especially teenagers getting the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer and other cancers. Its starting to rebound, but my worry is that there will be a spillover effect from all of this anti-vaccine aggression that were seeing and that were not going to get back to baseline. When George Washington imposed his vaccination mandate nearly 250 years ago, he was desperately trying to win a war, but Washington was more than a military tactician. As Thomas E. Ricks points out in his book First Principles, the people who made the Revolution and wrote the Constitution were political philosophers of a sort; they were deeply influenced by the Greeks and Romans. Washington and the Founders aspired to virtue, a word that makes little sense today unless we read it, as Ricks points out, in the 18th century sense of the word, meaning public-spiritedness, or putting the common good above ones own interest. In a 1905 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a Cambridge, Mass., vaccine mandate, Justice John Marshall Harlan alluded to a similar sense of public-spiritedness. The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly free from restraint, Harlan wrote. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good. Real liberty, he wrote, simply cant exist if each person is allowed to assert his or her own regardless of the injury that may be done to others. Like Washington long before, we are waging a war against a common enemy. We require virtue, in the older sense of the word, virtue that would prompt Minority Leader McCarthy and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to stand shoulder to shoulder against COVID-19. The fact that such an image seems almost unimaginable suggests how far we have strayed from our founding ideals. The Founders would remind us that we can fight each other tomorrow (just as they did). Virtue requires that today we wage war against the enemy at hand. For the common good. Regarding Foreign terrorists never our biggest threat, (Sept. 10): The Republicans giveth and the Republicans taketh away, to borrow and amend a biblical quote. The Abraham Lincoln Republicans of the 1860s were willing to embark upon a civil war that resulted in some 750,000 deaths and ended the crime against humanity: Black slavery. Now, 155 years after the war, the Republicans have another goal: limiting minority voting rights. And, that attempt is cloaked in other words protection of our elections being foremost. Inflamed by the likes of the most unqualified, unprincipled man in our political history to be our president, people are putting our democracy in danger. Witness Jan. 6, 2021. Treason, pure and simple, with most of the perpetrators still walking the streets. Paul Krugman is a first-rate reporter and intellect. Take the time to read his column. Our country's democratic political system is truly endangered. Edward B. Williams, Pearland Regarding Texas voting law builds on long legacy of racism from GOP leaders, (Sept. 15): I am so tired of all the whining by Democrats over the new Texas voting laws. The laws were enacted primarily to replace temporary voting procedures put in place due to COVID-19. Those procedures, including mail-in ballots, 24-hour, drive-thru voting were never promised to be permanent. But Democrats have long recognized that a substantial number of voters will not vote if voting is the least bit inconvenient. Thus Democrats feel they must hand-feed them. Imagine the whining volume if the Texas Legislature had instead adopted the New Hampshire voting procedures, which permit absentee voting, but not early voting. Rob Higgins, Richmond COVIDs economic impact Regarding Editorial: Another Texas casualty of Abbott's lax COVID response? It's the economy, stupid, (Sept. 13): Thank you for putting a dollar figure on the economic cost of unemployment. Let me go a bit further. Although Im not unemployed, heres a short list of purchases and activities that I have forgone and will continue to forgo until the anti-vaccination cohort gets vaccinated, or the pandemic dies down. Since March 2020: No restaurant dining, carryout only. No visits to museums, events at such places as Discovery Green, farmers markets or movie theaters. No shopping other than necessary grocery items. (I have purchased a sweater, a T-shirt and a pair of sneakers.) No medical appointments with the optometrist (therefore, no purchase of new glasses), the dentist or physical therapist. Well Woman yearly check-up only. No group exercise; streaming exercise only. No flights to North Carolina to visit relatives. (There would have normally been four visits in this time frame,) No volunteer work with others; checks only to charity. And, worst of all, no end in sight. I dont know what all this isolation costs, but its made me pretty angry at politicians and individuals who refuse science and have no concern for others lives. Doris Murdock, Houston With the country shut down from COVID 19, one bright spot during summer 2020 was the Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from workplace discrimination. This past spring, a Texas appellate court followed suit in interpreting Texas state law. But neither these decisions nor workplaces rallying together to face the pandemic slowed the pace of discrimination against LGBT workers. For this, all Americans, and especially Texans, need the Equality Act to pass the U.S. Senate. The Equality Act would amend existing federal civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in all areas of public life including employment, housing, education, government services, public accommodations and credit . A national survey by the Williams Institute conducted in May 2021 found that nearly one in ten LGBT employees of the 935 participants in the study report experiencing discrimination because of their LGBT status during the past year. Things appear worse for LGBT employees in Texas: respondents were nearly twice as likely (18.5 percent) to report discrimination in the past year. Discrimination at work is nothing new. Nationally, nearly half of all LGBT people in the study reported experiencing employment discrimination or harassment at some point in their lives. And both LGBT people of color and transgender employees were significantly more likely to report not being hired for a job because of their status and being verbally harassed in the workplace. When compared with LGBT people in the rest of the country, more LGBT workers in Texas reported not being hired due to their sexual orientation or gender identity (36.5 percent as compared to 21.5 percent). More than half (54.1 percent) of LGBT employees in Texas reported workplace harassment, including verbal, physical, and sexual harassment, compared to a third (36.6 percent) of LGBT employees in the rest of the country. When asked to report their worst experience in the workplace, a number of low-income workers, some employed at national fast-food chains and big-box stores, described managers who cut their hours and stacked their work schedules against them, customers who verbally harassed them and co-workers who sexually harassed them. One Texas woman said she was told she was going to hell during a job interview for liking women, while a Texas man reported his co-worker would constantly use every hateful word he could think of against him and would out him to customers. One in four LGBT employees in Texas (25.7 percent) in the survey reported being physically harassed because of their LGBT status at some point in their careers and one in three (33.8 percent) reported being sexually harassed. Why does discrimination persist in 2021 when a vast majority of Americans support workplace protections for LGBT people? While some studies suggest that discrimination in general increases during times of economic scarcity, such as during the early months of the pandemic, our study revealed that religious beliefs of a minority of Americans also may explain much of the persistence of LGBT discrimination through the past year. Most of the respondents to our survey felt that the discrimination they experienced was motivated by religion: 64 percent of LGBT employees of color said that religion was a motivating factor compared to 49 percent of white LGBT employees. For example, a man from Texas shared that his coworkers would quote the Bible and tell him how much God would despise him. If coming together around a national crisis such as the COVID pandemic and a landmark Supreme Court opinion cant stem discrimination against LGBT people, what can? Although it wont solve all the challenges facing LGBT people, the Equality Act is a critical next step. The Equality Act will provide national protections for LGBT people in the workplace that are clear, consistent and cover all the forms of discrimination reported in our study. Passage of a federal law will send a clear message that will help prevent discrimination before it happens. Almost all workers prefer a paycheck to a lawsuit. That message will carry even further in Texas, where state law currently lacks explicit protections for LGBT people. The House has passed the Equality Act and the president will sign it. According to the American Values Atlas, approximately three-quarters of Texans, including a majority of Republicans and people of faith, support non-discrimination protections for LGBT people. It is time for the Senate, and Texas senators, to finally act. Equality should not be partisan. The Equality Act will fill in the blanks left by last years Supreme Court decision and send a clear message to all employers: LGBT Texans deserve a fair shake in this recovery. Brad Sears is the Founding Executive Director at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Accessing a critical COVID-19 therapy could soon be tougher in Texas as the federal government moves to ration the treatment amid the spread of new variants. The Biden administration is taking over distribution of monoclonal antibodies, returning to the system that had been in place until vaccines became readily available and infections began to plummet this year. It also purchased 1.4 million additional doses. Under the old system, the federal government had been doling out doses to states based on need, and states were then responsible for distributing them. The administration had until recently been allowing hospitals and other health care centers to order directly from manufacturers, and the U.S. Health and Human Services Department would initiate a review of any individual site that ordered more than 50 doses to make sure none were hoarding. But with the highly contagious delta variant continuing to spread nationally, demand for the treatment has soared, with concerns that it could soon outstrip supply. By last week, the vast majority of doses 70 percent were going to just seven Southern states where COVID cases are still high and vaccination rates are low, including Texas. The recent increase in the prevalence of the delta variant coupled with low vaccination rates in certain areas of the country resulted in a substantial (20-fold) increase in the ordering and utilization of (monoclonal antibodies) since mid-July, the federal health services agency said in a statement. Just seven states accounted for about 70 percent of our monoclonal antibody ordering. Given this reality, we must work to ensure our supply of these lifesaving therapies remains available for all states and territories, not just some. Under the new model and a 50 percent bump in allocations that President Joe Biden ordered this month Texas and Florida are still getting far more doses than other states. Texas received 23,640 doses this week, behind only Florida, which received 30,950. Georgia received the third most, 9,920. IN-DEPTH: Despite surge, Gov. Abbotts COVID policy remains unchanged since March The Biden administration has been working to increase the total number of available doses by 50 percent this month, from 100,000 per week in early August to 150,000 per week currently. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, a critic of the administrations pandemic response, said he sent a letter to the health agency demanding more information and was expecting to be briefed on the rationing Friday afternoon. I will report back whatever bull crap they are shoveling, Roy tweeted. In Texas, emergency officials have erected temporary infusion centers outside hospitals around the state, where patients can receive the antibody treatment intravenously. The treatment can prevent severe disease if taken within seven to 10 days after symptoms begin. At the same time, Gov. Greg Abbott has devoted relatively few resources to boosting the states vaccine rates, emphasizing that the vaccine is voluntary and offering no public incentives for getting it. The move by the Biden administration could be seen as an attempt to pressure Texas and similar states into vaccinating more people to prevent infections from resulting in costly hospitalizations. Most people who are becoming severely ill from the virus are unvaccinated. Biden also unveiled a new vaccine mandate last week, requiring all businesses with more than 100 employees to require vaccination or weekly COVID testing. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has criticized the decision, and several Republican-led states are threatening to sue, claiming the Democratic president does not have the authority. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Mark Keough, a Republican county judge in Montgomery County, blasted Biden over the mandate and the antibody treatment distribution. Less than a week after the president tells us his patience is wearing thin and he is mandating vaccines to millions of Americans his administration limits and all but removes a non-controversial and highly successful treatment from our war chest of combating this virus, he posted on Facebook. Keough and Abbott did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. About 70 percent of Texans over age 12 have received at least one dose of the vaccines, compared with 74 percent for the country at large, according to data from the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children under 12 arent currently eligible for the vaccines. Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said the agency does not yet know what the long-term impacts of the change will be. The treatment method is much more expensive than the available vaccines, around $2,100 per dose, compared with about $20 for the Pfizer vaccine. Both are free to the public, and Abbott and other Republican governors have focused on promoting the antibody treatments in response to the states latest COVID surge. jeremy.blackman@chron.com As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. 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Update: Cheshire's single tax rate of $12.76 per $1,000 valuation was approved by the state. This is a .62 cent decrease from fiscal year 2021. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ CHESHIRE, Mass. The Board of Selectmen approved a single tax rate on Tuesday night for fiscal 2022. After a short presentation by the town assessors, the board approved a single, rather than split rate, but withheld the actual estimated tax rate that property owners can expect. "We are here to just get a vote from you guys so we can move forward with the tax rate, which we will submit when we go back to the office," Assessors Administrator Robin Wadsworth said. "Everything is ready to roll." Town Administrator Jennifer Morse said she preferred to wait until the town has a certified number by the state to avoid confusion. Typically towns do provide as public information an estimate of the new tax rate, which can change once the numbers are certified by the state. The Selectmen agreed with Morse and opted to withhold the information. Last year's calculated rate estimate was $13.38 per $1,000 valuation; the actual rate was $13.37, down 7 cents from fiscal 2020. The Selectmen only indicated that the rate is decreasing. Wadsworth said homes have been selling higher than valued, which has impacted the proposed tax rate. "Values have increased which means the tax rate comes down," Wadsworth Wadsworth said she is excited to see how these numbers will trend going into the next year. "It is definitely going to be interesting over the next few years how COVID affects things. People want to move here," she said. "As for building, I don't think people have built as much as they wanted to with supply issues." Wadsworth said this unknown rate could still change once it gets state approval, but she didn't think it would be altered. "The enterprise fund has tripped us up in the past, but we should be good," she said. "I don't think there is anything that will be a problem. I don't see this number passing, but it has in the past." The assessors also thanked new Morse for her help in the process. "It has been an absolute thrill working with Jen, and she has really gotten everything together," she said. "We have really worked well she knows what this is all about and has made it go smoother." In other businesses, Chairwoman Michelle Francesconi said Morgan Management has sold Pine Valley trailer park to a new company, Kodiak Property Management out of California Tenants have battled for years with Morgan Management, which they called an absentee landlord that neglected park maintenance and other park needs. Specifically, a road project was left unfinished. Francesconi said she already has questions about Kodiak, which has yet to reach out to the town. "They have done an abysmal job of reaching out to the tenants of Pine Valley. They renamed the property Berkshire Village," she said. "... They fired the property manager and rehired him all within the same week and the residents are really stressed about what is coming because they don't have contact information." Not all residents received a handout with tenant information, new late fees and new policies, she said. "I think we need to hold a rent control board meeting and see if we can really dig into this," Francesconi said. "This is a bad way to start out this transition." Clarksburg School Committee members Eric Denette, left, Chairwoman Laura Wood and Cynthia Brule meet under the portico outside the elementary school entrance on Thursday evening. Clarksburg School Committee Sounds Alarm on Town's Management North Berkshire School Union Superintendent John Franzoni, left, and School Committee Secretary Ronna Brandt follow Thursday's meeting. Franzoni raised the alarm about the management of the town of Clarksburg and how it is affecting the town school. CLARKSBURG, Mass. The School Committee on Thursday decided to ask the Select Board to hold a joint meeting to discuss recent turmoil at Town Hall, its impact on the elementary school and what is being done to bring stability back to town government. North Berkshire School Union Superintendent John Franzoni gave the committee an update on the situation in light of recent revelations of problems maintaining the town's books. "I'm an employee of Clarksburg, and I'm concerned about my position, to be truthful," Franzoni said. "It's definitely a tenuous situation, and it needs to be discussed more openly. We appreciate that they're trying, but we need more." Franzoni said the people in town government who have had the most interaction with the district office the last couple of years have not been reachable over the last month. "The more important person is the town administrator," Franzoni said. "That's the person in charge of the day-to-day duties in Town Hall. That person's not there and hasn't been there for over three weeks. What is the town going to do?" Town Administrator Rebecca Stone was berated by the chair of the Select Board over inefficiency at Town Hall at an August meeting and left the room mid-meeting. That chair, Ronald Boucher, resigned from the board on Sept. 2. On Wednesday, the remaining two Select Board members held an executive session to discuss negotiations with the town administrator. Meanwhile, the town has engaged an outside consultant to try to put the town's books in order. On Thursday, Franzoni told the School Committee that he consulted the school district's counsel about what steps, if any, the School Committee could take to get answers from the Select Board about the state of town governance. "Adam Dupere said there can be a request for information from residents, the School Committee, the library, whoever," Franzoni said. "You can say, as town residents, we're requesting a meeting to discuss the situation." School Committee Chair Laura Wood said she would reach out to Select Board Chair Danielle Luchi about arranging a meeting. Residents speaking from the floor of Thursday's meeting and members of the School Committee agreed that such a meeting needs to be held in the evening to allow more participation from the community. The Select Board has held its last few meetings with posted times ranging from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. "I think there needs to be meetings at night that are being held in the morning all the time so that the town can go there and ask what's going on," Franzoni said. "They have consultants in there working, I think, up to three days a week. [The consultants] have said the problems were a lot bigger than they were led to believe, and they're worried about what the plan is going forward." The problems are having a direct impact on the town's preK-through-8 school. Franzoni said he first became aware in late spring of this year that incorrect payroll deductions were being made from employees' paychecks. In July, he said, "One [employee] said, 'It's a joke. Every week, my paycheck is wrong,'" Franzoni said. In early June, anyone with a life insurance policy through the town received a letter on a Friday afternoon saying their life insurance was being canceled because bills were not being paid. Recently, the school ran into trouble because the town's Amazon account was delinquent. The school was attempting to make purchases against a grant that had to be used by Sept. 1, but, "We were told at the end of August that our Amazon account was not available because the town was not paying the bill." Franzoni said the town appears to have no plan to close out the books on fiscal year 2021, which ended on June 30. The school needs that report in order to meet an Oct. 1 deadline to file its financial report with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The school building itself needs renovations to make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and to remove asbestos and address its roof, Franzoni reminded the School Committee. "The town still didn't have a bond rating a year ago, and we're further away from that than ever." Franzoni said deficiencies with the Clarksburg building are one reason that talk of a merger with the Stamford, Vt., school district stalled, but Clarksburg cannot address the problems in the building if it can't borrow money for needed infrastructure fixes. "This is really a concern about what's going to happen going into the future with all aspects of the town," Franzoni said. "It doesn't just impact the school. It impacts all residents here. "I'm just worried about what's going to happen next with the town because [the Select Board doesn't] have a plan about who is in charge of the Town of Clarksburg." The School Committee chair agreed. "They need to get an interim person as soon as possible," Wood said. "I feel like the message isn't reaching the town. The town should have a meeting like this for people to ask questions." Residents at Thursday's meeting wondered aloud whether the town needs to be placed into receivership by the commonwealth, an idea that Franzoni did not dismiss out of hand. "[NBSU Business Administrator Jennifer Macksey] has shared with me that when she worked for North Adams 20 years ago, she was involved with an audit in Clarksburg where there was a reference to the state taking over, and she said the condition is worse now," Franzoni said. "You can't function without a town administrator." The apartment buildings at White Terrace were the scene of two fires in the past week. A city man has been arrested in relation to the latest one on Thursday. Pittsfield Man Charged in Second Fire at White Terrace Building PITTSFIELD, Mass. A Pittsfield man is being charged with arson after firefighters responded Thursday to a second blaze at the large apartment building on White Terrace and North Street. Police say Joseph Stone, 43 was taken into custody on Thursday and will be arraigned on Friday in District Court on a single charge of arson. The fire was called in at about 2:17 p.m. on Thursday at 8 White Terrace. Firefighters were quickly able to extinguish the fire, though the building did suffer damage. No injuries were reported and the investigation led to Stone, said police. The investigation into both fires this September is being conducted by members of the Police Department, Fire Department, and fire marshals assigned to the Massachusetts State Police. Anyone who witnessed these incidents or wishes to provide additional information is asked to contact the lead investigator, Detective James Losaw, at 413-448-9700, Ext. 572. This is a contributed article by Toby Alcock, Chief Technology Officer, at Logicalis. Digital transformation has become the buzzword of the decade. Despite the exponential increase in interest, however, over 79% of executives admitted they do not review internal processes or set objectives before a transformation process begins. This has led to over 80% of digital transformation strategies failing for a range of reasons including lack of leadership, shared vision, and clarity of purpose. If executives cant identify why they should embark on a digital transformation journey whats the point of anyone else going on the journey with them? In truth, digital transformation means nothing for an organisation without considering employees. The employee experience, and employee productivity, should be at the heart of a companys business transformation and digitalisation. Involve your employees One of the most overlooked elements in digital transformation is the role of training new employees, as well as providing ongoing professional support to existing ones - digitisation and digital transformation impact not just customers but employees too. By centring digital transformation on employee experience and engagement, organisations will create advocates for the business, creating positive experience for customers that will be much further reaching than just an updated IT infrastructure. From ways of working, to evolving software, and new working practices, weve all experienced change during the pandemic. As some of the changes put in place become permanent rather than temporary, its critical to keep people focused on how we can all operate more effectively in the future, rather than looking back to the past. The impact of optimising employees Increasing workforce engagement by reimagining the employee journey, empowering employees, and automating operations contributes positively to not only employee quality of life but also their performance and the overall customer experience. In a Zensar survey, 53% of professionals believe their companys digital transformation priorities are focused on how to increase profits instead of empowering employees. Additionally, most said their companies would benefit from employee empowerment via investments in IT. Employee empowerment is a key point. Lack of proper technology tools can hinder productivity and kill morale. For example, the same survey found that 53% of surveyed employees said they would be more empowered to better manage workflow if they were provided with the necessary tools, and 42% said these tools would not only speed up boring tasks but also result in better worker morale. The turning point for effective digital transformation Nearly 80% of organisations implemented quick-fix solutions as a result of the pandemic, many of which have failed to stay on target or achieve their loosely defined goals. These changes may have provided the quick-fix needed at the time but are mostly no longer fit for purpose. They are unlikely to truly consider employee experience, a holistic security approach or encourage innovation to name but a few issues. All these challenges can be avoided, and proper, employee-first digital transformation journey adopted with the support and guidance of an expert partner. Just because short-term attempts at digital transformation failed, doesn't mean it will fail again, especially not with the correct approach. Taking a human-centric approach Digital transformation led by a human-centric approach emphasises the employee experience, enables optimisation, which drives productivity and business growth. Furthermore, employees gain access to the right tools and training which help them buy into the wider purpose/business objectives, and, from that, organisational efficiency follows. A holistic human-centric approach to digital transformation should be based on the following principles: Balance business productivity with employee wellbeing to get the best out of everyone Provide a holistic view of the physical as well as the digital workplace and allow for the differences in environment Break down geographical and hierarchical barriers to align business and employee vision and values through communication and collaboration Foster creativity and encourage employee contribution by providing insights into activities and offering an open forum for innovation By taking a human-centric approach to empowering employees through digital transformation businesses can empower employees and offer a range of benefits that work for both parties: Employees are more likely to exhibit increased productivity with data-driven insights and digital tools to automate basic activities, so they can work in the way that best works for them Businesses are likely to attract more top talent with younger generations more focused on careers in organisations which offer them a purpose and freedom to use the latest tools and tech Reduction in turnover with more engaged, empowered employees who are more invested in the long-term success of the business Improved customer experience with employees that are happy with their working environment and willing to provide above-and-beyond customer service Its important to note though that technology is only as efficient as you make it. Involve employees in the technology about to be adopted; is it right for them? Easy to use? Are there better options with a consumer-grade experience? When employees see tech as an asset that enables them and frees up their time, they become advocates and proactively contribute to business success and a better bottom-line. Ultimately, businesses need to ensure they adopt a planned, strategic, and people-first approach to digital transformation, rather than just embarking on a course with no clear outcome and simply hoping for a positive outcome. The failure rate of transformations is incredibly high because the route to transformation is a surprisingly hard one to navigate. By auditing where the challenges lie, and involving employees in the process, organisations can create clear roadmaps that advance digital transformation with employee needs, and business goals, in mind. Its all about developing a plan that maximises connection and collaboration while mitigating risks. Its not an easy adventure, but it is worth it in the end. Toby Alcock is the Chief Technology Officer for Logicalis. He has over 25 years experience in the technology industry. Alcock is obsessed about customer problems and how technology can help to build a solid foundation for your business digital transformation but only when empowering employees to harness that technology to drive results for customers. Rising payment solutions provider, SquidPay, taps Bayad, the countrys trusted brand and authority in payments, to boost its bills payment capability and enhance the experience of SquidPay mobile app users. Photo shows (from upper left to right) Marvin Dela Cruz, CEO of SquidPay; Lawrence Y. Ferrer, Pesident & CEO of Bayad; (from lower left to right) Elisa May Arboleda-Cuevas, President of SquidPay and Dennis S. Gatuslao, Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer of Bayad Launched in May 2020, SquidPay is known for offering advanced end-to-end instantaneous electronic payments and collections with stored value cards, QR codes, and mobile applications for the mass market. SquidPay has partnered with national agencies, local government units, banks, private entities, public utility vehicle operators, and other transport systems to offer a suite of fintech services. Both duly licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as electronic money issuers, SquidPay and Bayad are both pushing for the transformation of the Philippines into a cash-lite society. With Bayad powering SquidPays bills payment service, customers can better maximize the benefits of contactless, digital payments as they can settle more bills such as electricity, water, internet, cable, telephone, government fees and contributions, loan payments, and more. This partnership of Bayad and SquidPay is strengthened by their kindred mission of giving the Filipinos greater access to easy, accessible, and advanced payment solutions. This collaboration also aims to provide the mass market a more convenient, faster, and more secure way to pay their utility bills via SquidPay mobile platform. In addition, SquidPay will soon activate cash in and withdraw money from SquidPay App wallet at Bayad Centers. According to SquidPay's CEO, Mr. Marvin Dela Cruz, We will continue to develop and improve innovations that help make Filipinos lives less difficult, especially in the means of providing convenient and reliable financial and payment services. SquidPay and Bayad are alike in many ways, making the collaboration inevitable. As we make e-payments more accessible and convenient, we hope that unbanked Filipinos will be encouraged to try more fintech products. said Bayad President and CEO, Mr. Lawrence Y. Ferrer. To be part of Bayads extensive channel network, contact partnerships@bayad.com. Meanwhile, businesses interested in leveraging Bayad's network and seamless bills payment solutions may reach out to billeronboarding@bayad.com, call +63 998 963 7880 or fill out Bayads biller onboarding form to get started: link.bayad.com/BeABayadBiller IBM recently announced the launch of new AI and automation capabilities in IBM Watson Assistant designed to make it easier for businesses to create enhanced customer service experiences across any channel phone, web, SMS and any messaging platform. This includes a new collaboration with IntelePeer, a leading Communications Platform-as-a-Service provider, to set up and test a voice agent, and a new agent app designed to enable a seamless hand-off to a live agent while maintaining the conversation's context. New IBM Watson Assistant features are designed to help businesses more quickly set up a voice agent with IntelePeer and enable more seamless hand-offs to live agents Virtual assistants are gaining popularity due to ongoing improvements in natural language processing (NLP) and automation. According to IBMs 2021 Global AI Adoption Index, 52 percent of global IT professionals surveyed report that their company is using or considering NLP solutions to improve customer experiences. IBM is adding new features in Watson Assistant, the companys intelligent virtual agent, to help businesses leverage AI and NLP to address customer issues on first contact. Watson Assistant is designed to more quickly provide customers with relevant answers over the phone, SMS, web, or any messaging platform, and seamlessly hand-off to a live agent when additional support is needed. The new features include: Add voice capabilities to Watson Assistant: The IntelePeer Atmosphere Communications Platform-as-a-Service is now available as an add-on in Watson Assistant so that users with a Plus and Enterprise plan can set up voice capabilities and a new phone number for a virtual agent quickly. If businesses already have an existing contact center phone system, IntelePeer can also provide the connection between Watson Assistant and the existing phone system using industry standards. Using IntelePeer, Watson Assistant is now designed to connect to nearly every major contact center platform that uses the SIP protocol in as little as half an hour with no coding. The IntelePeer Atmosphere Communications Platform-as-a-Service is now available as an add-on in Watson Assistant so that users with a Plus and Enterprise plan can set up voice capabilities and a new phone number for a virtual agent quickly. If businesses already have an existing contact center phone system, IntelePeer can also provide the connection between Watson Assistant and the existing phone system using industry standards. Using IntelePeer, Watson Assistant is now designed to connect to nearly every major contact center platform that uses the SIP protocol in as little as half an hour with no coding. Help customers resolve issues on first contact with Watson Assistant Search Skill: Watson Assistants Search Skill feature now includes short-answer retrieval, which is based on an innovative question-answering (QA) system from IBM Research. This enables the virtual agent to return an answer in a few words from longer sentences or passages and provide the context on where the answer came from. FAQ extraction is also now generally available in Search Skill. FAQ extraction is designed to help administrators keep the virtual agent up to date with broader sources of information, without having to constantly make manual updates. Watson Assistants Search Skill feature now includes short-answer retrieval, which is based on an innovative question-answering (QA) system from IBM Research. This enables the virtual agent to return an answer in a few words from longer sentences or passages and provide the context on where the answer came from. FAQ extraction is also now generally available in Search Skill. FAQ extraction is designed to help administrators keep the virtual agent up to date with broader sources of information, without having to constantly make manual updates. Facilitate a seamless hand-off with the new agent app: Watson Assistants new agent app feature is designed to help customer service agents pick up with a customer right where the virtual agent left off. When a customer calls in, IBMs speech detection models, which are designed to provide more accurate transcriptions out-of-the-box, deliver a near real-time transcription of the conversation. When the hand-off occurs, the new agent app provides the customer service agent with the latest transcript right on their screen. This means customers dont have to repeat their questions and agents are empowered to resolve issues even more quickly. One critical challenge facing nearly every business today is the need to better communicate with their customers and employees across all channels, said Daniel Hernandez, General Manager of Data and AI, IBM. Were continuously delivering new innovations in natural language processing, automation and advancing responsible AI, and building a strong, open ecosystem with partners like IntelePeer to help businesses transform customer care with Watson Assistant. State of Rhode Island in the U.S. Adopted IBM Watson Assistant to Transform its Contact Center In addition to the new features announced today, IBM also announced that organizations of all sizes have turned to Watson Assistant to help them address customer problems in the face of rising call volumes. For example, when new COVID-19 cases began to surge last year, the State of Rhode Island realized fielding hundreds of thousands of calls from concerned residents was unsustainable. The State needed to improve its engagement with residents with more efficient processes and timely updates to rapidly changing COVID information. To address untenable workloads, the State turned to Watson Assistant to address the engagement processes with residents and to improve the support with the contact center. IBM Global Business Services (GBS) and the State of Rhode Island launched a virtual agent, RHODA, that uses Watson Assistant to answer questions about COVID-19 in both English and Spanish. Since October 2020, RHODA has had more than 100,000 conversations on topics related to test scheduling, test results, travel restrictions, and vaccine eligibility. In addition, IBM GBS integrated Watson Assistant into the IVR for Vaccine Appointment Scheduling to help enable an improved experience for individuals that needed assistance with appointment scheduling. The pandemic slammed my team at the State of Rhode Island Department of Health and we quickly realized that our outdated systems and smaller call centers were completely unequipped to handle the influx of phone calls from concerned citizens, forcing us to pull staff from all directions within the department, said Kristine Campagna, COO of COVID Operations, Rhode Island Department of Health. With IBMs wealth of experience in AI, we were able to work together to seamlessly integrate Watson Assistant into our call centers, helping us provide thousands of citizens in a matter of days with information about COVID-19. Pre-orders of Samsungs newest foldable devices Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Z Flip3 5G continue to pour in with one week left before the market launch, breaking records of its predecessors. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G The pre-order demand for the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Z Flip3 5G are seven times higher than Z Fold2 5G and Z Flip combined. The new foldables have recorded more sales on its first day than the previous models had in their entire pre-order duration. The devices even outperformed the Galaxy Note20 Series. This makes the Philippines one of the best-performing countries in terms of pre-launch sales. In South Korea, advanced orders for both devices are expected to hit at least 600,000 units. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G We are grateful for the overwhelming support of our customers. This unprecedented demand just shows that the market is ready to embrace the foldable category, says James Jung, president of Samsung Philippines. We believe that the versatility and flexibility that come with this new form factor play a big role in driving market demand. The Galaxy Z Flip3 5G accounts for more than half of the local pre-orders. Customers favorite 256GB variants are Phantom black and the flagship colorway Cream. Due to high demand, the company found itself keeping stocks in check to ensure availability until the end of pre-order on September 21. Apart from its stylish design, the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G also received positive reviews from customers and tech media and bloggers for its signature Flex Mode, Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, and a larger and more functional Cover Screen. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G gives users new ways to watch and work with its massive 7.6-inch Infinity Flex Display, Multi-Active Window, and the new Taskbar. Plus, it is S Pen-capable to power creativity and to ensure note-taking is seamless and intuitive. Dont get left behind! Visit any Samsung Experience Stores, authorized Samsung stores, and Samsungs online partners to get freebies and discounts worth up to Php27,400. Apart from receiving a 1-year FREE protection from Samsung Care+, customers can choose from either an e-voucher worth up to Php5,000, 50% off on a Flip Cover with S Pen or a Silicone Cover with Ring, a FREE Galaxy Buds Pro, and a 25W Travel Adapter, or a token worth up to Php10,000, and a 25W Travel Adapter. Pre-order through Samsung.com to get as much as Php20,400 worth of freebies including an e-voucher worth up to Php10,000, a 25W Travel Adapter, and one-year FREE protection from Samsung Care+. The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G retails for Php87,990 SRP for 256GB (Phantom Black, Phantom Silver and online-exclusive Phantom Green) and Php95,990 for the 512GB variant (Phantom Black, Phantom Green and online-exclusive Phantom Silver). The Galaxy Z Flip3 5G, on the other hand, retails for Php52,990 SRP for the 128GB variant and Php56,990 SRP for the 256GB variant, all available in Cream, Green, Lavender, and Phantom Black colorways. Pre-order the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Z Flip3 5G today until September 21, 2021 only. For more information, visit spr.ly/Z3SeriesPO. He has anthracite eyes, a road drillers biceps, the brooding power of Marlon Brando, and the faintly arrogant charm that was the lethal chemistry of the late Errol Flynn. This was how a very shaken and stirred Daily Mirror journalist reacted to the casting of Sean Connery as James Bond. Its 60 years now since the then 31-year-old Scottish actor signed on to play the main role in the new series of James Bond films in November 1961. He was to be paid a modest fee of 6,000 for Dr No, which was to start shooting in Jamaica early the following year. From the outset, Connerys Bond was incorrigible, chatting up Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and then refusing to take her to dinner (M would have me court-martialled for misuse of government property), flirting outrageously, firing off double entendres and insisting throughout that his intentions were strictly honourable when they were so obviously quite the reverse. At moments of maximum danger, he always had that glint in his eye and he was still an inveterate snob. When the henchmen of Dr No (Joseph Wiseman) apprehend him, he famously grabs a bottle from the table to protect himself. Thats a Dom Perignon 55. It would be a pity to break it, Dr No chides him. I prefer the 53 myself, Bond engages in his usual one-upmanship. The story of Connerys casting as Bond has long since passed into movie myth. This was a Cinderella-like process in which lots of ugly sisters were also vying for the role before producer Cubby Broccoli decided that Connery was the perfect fit. The dapper David Niven, who was later to star in the 1967 Bond spoof Casino Royale, swarthy Trevor Howard, cerebral Michael Redgrave, and debonair Cary Grant were other prime candidates. Broccoli and his fellow producer Harry Saltzman refused to countenance the idea of an American in the role. Bond author Ian Fleming was keen on Roger Moore soon to star in TVs The Saint. But Broccoli felt he was slightly too young and a shade too pretty. Hed change his mind a decade later when Moore played Bond in 1973s Live and Let Die. Patrick McGoohan and James Fox pulled out of the race to play Bond because of religious scruples and an aversion to the sex and violence. The saturnine Welsh actor Stanley Baker didnt want to commit to three films. To be candid, all the British actors I had interviewed lacked the degree of masculinity Bond demanded, the producer later stated, claiming that only Sean had the balls for the part. Broccoli had first noticed Connery opposite Lana Turner, projecting a kind of animal virility in Lewis Allens 1958 romantic drama, Another Time, Another Place, in which Connery played a BBC correspondent who had an affair with an American journalist. As the producer noted in his autobiography, Connery was tall, with a commanding physical presence and just the right hint of threat behind that hard smile and faint Scottish burr. Broccoli later saw Connery in Disney movie Darby OGill and the Little People (1959) and, by then, not even the leprechauns could put him off. Broccolis wife Dana confirmed his hunch that Connery was indeed an uncut diamond with proper sex appeal. Thats our Bond! she told him definitively. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Now, the Bond producers will be looking for another uncut diamond to take over the role in one of the most lucrative franchises in film history. Daniel Craig has already long since announced he is stepping down as 007 with No Time to Die which is released on 30 September as his swansong. The first Bond: Sean Connery and Zena Marshall in Dr No in 1962 (George Konig/Shutterstock) If it was tough finding a Bond in 1961, it will be near impossible to cast the role satisfactorily in 2021. On the one hand, current Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson will be trying to stay true to the spy hero created by Fleming. On the other, they will surely want to reflect the immense cultural changes since Connery first starred as 007. The challenge lies in modernising 007 for a post-MeToo, post-Covid world without straining away the qualities that define the character. You need only look at the bookmakers odds for the next Bond to realise how confused weve all become about what Bond should represent in 2021 and beyond. Everyone seems to be in the mix. Tom Hardy, better known for playing villains and gangsters than heroes, is among the favourites. So is Rege-Jean Page from stylised costume drama Bridgeton. Luke Evans, James Norton, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba and Richard Madden are in the chasing pack. You can get long shots such as Robbie Williams and Prince Harry at 500-1. With Bond, it could be a man or woman. They could be white, black, Asian, mixed race. They could be young or old, Lashana Lynch, co-star of No Time to Die and herself among the favourites to be the first female 007, told The Guardian last week. Some are anticipating that the Bond producers will take a very radical leap with the character who has been nurtured through 25 features already. After all, Amazon Studios recently bought MGM, the studio behind the Bond franchise. Is it time to customise the UKs best known spy for Amazon Prime, to take him out of the cinemas and re-package the franchise for the video on demand era? No Time to Die could have reached audiences almost two years ago if it hadnt been for Covid. Apple reportedly considered an offer of around $400m for the streaming rights and Netflix was also strongly interested but the producers insisted on a full theatrical release. The result has been an unprecedented five year wait for the new Bond, a delay which has cost a fortune at a time when other blockbusters have been made available on VOD. With Covid still eating away at cinema receipts, No Time to Die will struggle to emulate the box office performance of Spectre let alone the billion dollar haul achieved by Skyfall. No Time to Dies Lashana Lynch is among the favourites to be the first female 007 (MGM/Eon/Danjaq/UPI/Kobal/Shutterstock) But doesnt this upheaval in the global film business provide the perfect opportunity to rethink everything about Bond from his gender to his ethnic background, from his drinking habits to his sexual preferences and his carbon footprint? Is it an opportunity to give him a testosterone bypass? Bond as described by Fleming was a public school boy who came from a world of privilege. He was expelled from Eton after having an affair with a maid. He had dark, cruel good looks which made women tremble. He wore silk shirts and cotton pyjamas. [Bond] is quiet, hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic he likes gambling, golf and fast motor cars, Fleming wrote in a memorandum about the character he sent Broccoli. Flemings Bond was also tough and modern, with a healthy disrespect for authority. On screen, he was a departure from the patrician world of British cinema of the time in which everyone slapped each other on the back the old boy mentality. He may have been from a privileged, upper-class background but he had something in common with the insubordinate and rebellious heroes from other films of the era like Room at the Top and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. In casting a working-class Scot like Connery, Broccoli talked of giving a coarser shading to the public school boy character that Fleming had created while remaining true to his essence. There is a sense, though, that Bond changed Connery far more than Connery changed Bond. He was the Eliza Doolittle figure and the first Bond director Terence Young was his Henry Higgins-like mentor. Collaborators recall how patiently Young groomed Connery. He took the Scottish actor both to his Savile Row tailors and to his favourite restaurants. Young taught Connery that you dont drink red wine with the fish. Young gave him the taste for caviar and helped him distinguish between different champagne vintages. Sam Mendes directing Daniel Craig in Skyfall in 2012. He believed the enemy was repetition and laziness in the Bond franchise (Danjaq/Eon Productions/Kobal/Shutterstock) The director had worked with Connery before on the 1957 thriller Action of the Tiger, and initially felt casting him as Bond was a disastrous move. However, Young took him in hand. Sean was a pretty rough diamond at that time. And Terence taught him everything he knew, legendary Bond production designer Ken Adam later claimed. Connerys swagger and style in the role came from his director. The casting process for actors in Bond movies today seemingly remains much the same as it always has been. Aspiring 007s have to prove that they cut it both as lovers and killers. When George Lazenby was auditioning to replace Connery in On Her Majestys Secret Service, 1969, the producers filmed a series of test fight sequences to see how he coped as an action man. Actor Lynch said she was put through very similar stunt tests in her audition for No Time to Die, in which she plays Nomi, an MI6 agent. They hand you a bunch of weapons and they teach you a routine for a few seconds or a minute and then you basically have to copy the routine. With Lazenby, the infallible litmus test was to parade him in front of the office secretaries. When their eyes all lit up, Broccoli knew they had their man. In 2021, one guesses that the Bond producers will be looking at social media reactions rather than swooning secretaries before they anoint the next 007. However, they have a history of going against the grain. They chose Craig as Bond in Casino Royale, in 2006, one of the darkest, most intense films in the series, at a time when their own research suggested audiences still wanted gadgets, Bond girls, one-liners, Q and Moneypenny. The enemy is repetition and laziness, and the great danger is not challenging the pre-existing format, director Sam Mendes told film trade publication Deadline after making Skyfall , 2012, and Spectre, 2015. You have to be as brave as when they cast Daniel [Craig], and when they let M die. They have to go off in a completely different direction, into regenerating mythology. You cast a new actor and find a new director, and make something totally new. These were stirring words but they were also fanciful. You cant simply ditch the pre-existing format because that is the basis of the franchise. The search for the perfect Bond, therefore, remains a never-ending quest that always ultimately ends in anticlimax. Either the audiences will tire of the actor or the actor will tire of the role. Connery wearied of it and so has Craig. Roger Moore and Gloria Hendry in Live and Let Die in 1973 (Danjaq/Eon/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock) Actors who long to play Bond know deep down that it is a dead end. It brings immense riches and global celebrity but allows little space in which to develop a character. They can swing a little darker and more morose (007 as portrayed by Craig or Timothy Dalton) or show off their suave and comic side (as Moore and Pierce Brosnan did so effectively). Ultimately, it makes little difference. Bond remains an enigma. You cant sketch in too much of his backstory or private life because that risks reducing him to just another screen character. His inscrutability enables audiences to regard him in whichever way they want. He is fascinatingly one-dimensional. Regardless of who plays him now if it remains a him he will still be the same blunt instrument wielded by a government department as Fleming once described him. The world is waiting to see what the producers will do with the character after No Time to Die. They are likely to be bold and the media will doubtless applaud them for their new thinking about one of cinemas most revered secret agents. Nonetheless, when Bond 26 rolls around in a year or two, it will almost certainly be more of the same. Whichever actor is chosen, he or she be will be taken in hand and taught how to be Bond, just as Connery was by director Young six decades ago. 007 may have a licence to kill but he doesnt have a licence to change. No Time to Die is released on 30 September The landmark first legal challenge in China against a law that limits fertility treatments to married couples only was heard in court on Friday. Teresa Xu, 33, filed a lawsuit against a hospital in Beijing in 2019 after the doctors refused to freeze her eggs citing a national law. Mr Teresa, who has a history of womens rights activism, said that she had been waiting for a second hearing in the case where the deadline of decision is important. "From 2018 until now, its been three years, and my eggs are getting older with me, and the deadline is more and more pressing," Ms Teresa said The case would be heard for a second time at the Chaoyang Peoples Court in Beijing after getting continually delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. "I hope that the signal it sends about needing population growth will allow single women the opportunity to be able to make their own choice," Xu told reporters in front of the court. The judgement in the case is seen as a defining moment for reproductive rights of unmarried women in China demanding. For decades, China has been known to impose strict birth control policies to control the population. China had imposed a "one-child" policy. It eased the restrictions slightly in 2015 to replace it with a universal two-child policy, although that did not change the overall slowing of population growth. In 2021 again, Beijing announced three-child policy allowing couples to have three children after a steep decline in birth rates. Her case is getting heard at a time when latest census data showed declining population growth and increasing in the proportion of elderly people. There has been a constant decline in the number of babies born every year since 2016. According to national level statistics, 12 million babies were born in 2020, in a 18 per cent decline from 14.6 million in 2019. Ms Teresa decided to mount a legal challenge after visited Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital in 2018 where she asked the doctors to freeze her eggs. She was instead asked by a doctor to put aside her work and have a child first. The hospital also asked to see her marriage license. The hospital in a statement said that they were complying with a government regulation. She had briefly considered going abroad like popular Chinese actress Xu Jinglei, who visited to the US to freeze her eggs. But Ms Teresa said expenses are upto $31,000 (22,467), too high for her to pursue. India administered a record 22 million coronavirus vaccines on Friday, surpassing its earlier record of 13.3 million doses in a single day. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party claimed the feat was a birthday present for prime minister Narendra Modi. By 1.30 pm, more than 10 million people had received a vaccine shot. I believe that today we will all make a new record of vaccination and give it as a gift to the prime minister, federal health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, claiming that this was the fastest so far. This is the fourth time in less than a month that India has administered more than 10 million vaccines in a day. By 7 pm, 22.1 million had received a jab. According to local media reports, the health ministry is expecting to cross the 25 million-mark on Friday. The vaccination campaign is one of many events in the Bharatiya Janata Partys three-week outreach campaign. It will end on 7 October, the day Mr Modi was first sworn-in as the chief minister of the northwestern state of Gujarat 20 years ago. Governments in BJP-ruled states have also pledged to contribute to the target with the northeastern state of Assam government declaring that it will vaccinate at least 800,000 people on Friday alone. Madhya Pradesh set itself a target of 3.2 million, while Mr Modis home state Gujarat planned to administer 3.5 million doses on the birthday of its three-time chief minister. But opposition parties as well as social media users criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for politicising the vaccine drive. The mass vaccination programme on PM Modis birthday is nothing but headline management, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said. In the northern state of Bihar, main opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal accused BJPs ally and ruling Janata Dal United of deliberately slowing down the pace of vaccination in the past few days to make the 17 September drive a massive success, reported India Today. The state government had set itself a target of 3 million vaccinations for the day, said Rashtriya Janata Dal spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari. In the last few days, the state government has deliberately slowed the pace of vaccination in the state so that a record number of people get vaccinated on September 17. We fail to understand why the state government is playing with the lives of people, Mr Tiwari said. India, which aims to inoculate all of its eligible population by the end of the year, has so far inoculated 787 million people. However, this is only 20 per cent of the eligible adult population. India has so far recorded more than 33 million coronavirus cases and 444,248 deaths, and is second in terms of infections and deaths only to the US. Afghanistan is at serious risk of imploding as a state and once again becoming a haven for lethal Islamist terrorism if the international community turns its back on the Taliban, a senior Pakistani security official has warned. The Taliban, having seized power after a swift and successful military offensive, need engagement and assistance, said Moeed Yusuf, Pakistans national security adviser. The alternative, he stressed, is to allow the country to become ungoverned space, which would be filled by Isis and al-Qaeda plotting and carrying out attacks in Afghanistan, the region and beyond. Pakistan has been widely accused of feeding and watering the Taliban, as well as other violent Islamist groups such as the Haqqani network, in sanctuaries across the border. The first foreign public figure to visit Kabul after the Taliban takeover was Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, the head of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) which, it has been claimed, has been the chief sponsor of jihadi groups. Mr Yusuf, writing in The Independent, maintained that the claims Pakistan played a double game were unfounded. He continued: The reality is that since 2001, Pakistan has been the principal victim of the war in Afghanistan. We have suffered over 80,000 casualties and more than $150bn in economic losses, with over 3.5 million of our own people internally displaced at the height of the terrorist onslaught inside Pakistan. The fall of the Ashraf Ghani government proved how disconnected the Afghan political hierarchy was from the public, said Mr Yusuf. Ashraf Ghani, and regional spoilers like India, created false narratives aimed at masking the reality that international efforts in Afghanistan lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the Afghans, he said. The government announced by the Taliban, a few days after Lt Gen Hameeds visit, is composed overwhelmingly of those associated with Mullah Omars regime of 20 years ago or their families. It is all male and all Pashtun, with other Afghan communities, such as the Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, excluded. Those closest to the Pakistani security establishment, like the Haqqani network, are said to have benefitted the most in the new power structure. Pakistans expectations of the new government are identical to those of the west, said Mr Yusuf. We have repeatedly called for a government that caters to and protects the rights of all Afghans while ensuring that Afghanistans territory is not used for terrorism against any country. President Joe Bidens hasty withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, followed by the collapse of Afghan forces and the chaotic exodus of thousands trying to escape the Taliban, has drawn severe criticism, both from within the US and from among its allies. US president Bidens decision to withdraw troops and end the international military presence in Afghanistan marks the logical conclusion of a war that never had a military solution, Mr Yusuf added. A number of countries have pledged a total of more than $1.1 bn in food aid at a UN conference to address the pressing problems facing Afghanistan. A number of others say they will wait and see whether the Taliban honour pledges they have made on human rights and curbing terrorism before deciding on aid, and around $10bn of Afghan money remains frozen at banks abroad, mainly with the US Federal Reserve. But if the international community walked away from Afghanistan now, said Mr Yusuf, it would inevitably lead to a security vacuum that would allow Isis, al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups to thrive once again. Neither of these groups remained confined to Afghanistan or the region last time around. It would be foolish to think that the entire world would not be affected again. The Taliban should be incentivised to push them in the right direction on issues related to womens rights and forming an inclusive government, instead of trying to control them from the outside, according to Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan. Mr Khan, in an interview with CNN on Wednesday, also said women should be given time for them to get their rights. Afghanistan is on a historic crossroads, Mr Khan was quoted as saying in the interview. The Taliban hold all of Afghanistan, and if they can sort of now work towards an inclusive government, get all the factions together, Afghanistan could have peace after 40 years. But his biggest worry is that if things go wrong now after the Taliban takeover, then it could go to chaos and would lead to the biggest humanitarian crisis, a huge refugee problem, an unstable Afghanistan and the possibility of terrorism on the countrys soil. Mr Khan said the Taliban clearly want international acceptability given the promises they have made of an inclusive government, women rights and giving amnesty, but they should be given more incentives instead of external pressure. So rather than sitting here and thinking that we can control them, we should incentivise them. Because Afghanistan, this current government, clearly feels that without international aid and help, they will not be able to stop this crisis. So we should push them in the right direction, he said. Protests have been flaring in Afghanistan as hundreds of women take to the streets to protest against the Taliban-ruled government to demand rights for themselves. While the Taliban has repeatedly promised an inclusive government and rights to women since capturing power, these promises have been seen to be in stark contrast from the situation on the ground. The unveiling of an all-male interim government also stands contrary to the Talibans promises. Mr Khan was of the opinion that the countrys women were strong and that they should be given time to get back their freedoms. Its a mistake to think that someone from outside will give Afghan women rights. Afghan women are strong. Give them time. They will get their rights, said Mr Khan. Women should have the ability in a society to fulfil their potential in life, he added. Speaking about Pakistans terrible relationship with the US, he said Islamabad was treated like a hired gun by Washington during the entire duration of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. We were supposed to make them [the US] win the war in Afghanistan, which we never could, he said. Mr Khan said he would now like ties between the two countries to be like the US has a relationship with India and not a one-dimensional relationship where they are paying us to fight. We want a normal relationship. On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Pakistan of hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan by harbouring Taliban terrorists during their war in Afghanistan while supporting the US in counterterror operations. He said Washington would reassess its ties with Islamabad going forward and told Congress that Pakistan had a multiplicity of interests some that are in conflict with ours. Mr Khan dubbed the comments by Mr Blinken to be ignorant. I have never heard such ignorance, he said. The prime minister also pointed out that US president Joe Biden had not spoken to him since the Taliban took control of Kabul. When asked if he thinks he was being punished for supporting the Taliban, Mr Khan felt Mr Biden should be asked this question. I would imagine hes very busy, but our relationship with the US is not just dependent on a phone call, it needs to be a multidimensional relationship, he said. Mr Khans government has consistently rubbished allegations of supporting the Taliban in the USs war on terror and has instead sought to portray itself as a victim of the war. Just because we sided with the US, we became an ally of the US after 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. The suffering this country went through with at one point there were 50 militant groups attacking our government (sic)... on top of it, they must also know there were 480 drone attacks by the US in Pakistan, he added. The Taliban have replaced the countrys ministry for women with an office for what is known as the groups moral police, residents of Kabul have said, as videos showed female former employees of the department apparently locked out of the building. Workers in Kabul were photographed on Friday replacing the sign on the womens ministry building with a new one, which read, in a mixture of Dari and Arabic, Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Residents of the Afghan capital confirmed to The Independent that the building had been renamed, while videos filmed outside the ministry showed female employees saying they had been trying to come to work for several weeks only to be told to return to their homes. The Taliban, who swept to power in Afghanistan last month, announced their cabinet 10 days ago, including in it an acting minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice. They made no mention of a womens minister in the all-male cabinet, but the group did not confirm that the department had been disbanded. The Independent reached out to the Taliban spokesperson for comment, but did not receive a reply. In the videos shared online, the women at the gates of what was the womens ministry said they had been locked out on Thursday. I am the only breadwinner in my family, said one of the women, according to reports. When there is no ministry, what should an Afghan woman do? The Taliban stormed to power last month in a lightning advance across the war-ravaged country, as the former administration crumbled amid a chaotic withdrawal of US and other foreign troops. The Taliban were last in power from 1996-2001, and barred girls from attending school and women from working or taking up higher education. During that period, the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice became known as the groups moral police, enforcing its brutal interpretation of Sharia, which included a strict dress code and the public execution and flogging of those considered to be in breach of the law. A senior Taliban leader said earlier this week that women would not be allowed to work in government ministries with men. The Talibans education ministry then prompted concerns that women would also be barred from going to school, after it released a statement on Facebook ordering all male students in grades six to 12 (ages 11 to 18) and male teachers to resume classes across Afghanistan. The missive, posted on Friday, did not mention girls of that age, and the lack of guidance has ratcheted up concerns that the Taliban might once again impose restrictions on girls and women. Since taking control of the country last month, the Taliban have allowed girls in grades one to six (ages 6 to 12) to resume classes. When they ruled Afghanistan previously in the 1990s, the Taliban forbade girls and women from attending school and work. In some of the provinces, women still are not allowed to continue their work, with exceptions for those who work in health departments, hospitals and education. Estate agency Foxtons Group has announced the appointment of Nigel Rich as its new chairman. The move comes after the groups previous chairman, Ian Barlow, confirmed his departure after eight years at the firm following a shareholder backlash. Mr Barlow had come under heavy fire from investors over company salaries and dividend payments. His predecessor is an experienced leader in the sector who has previously been chairman at rival Hamptons International and real estate investor Segro. Foxtons is well placed to take advantage of the resurgent activity in the residential market Nigel Rich Mr Rich said: I am delighted to take on the chairmanship of Foxtons, a leading and well-known London estate agency. As the UK, including London, recovers from the economic effects of the pandemic, Foxtons is well placed to take advantage of the resurgent activity in the residential market. I look forward to working with the management team to accelerate Foxtons recovery and returns to shareholders. In June, Hosking Partners, which holds an 11% stake in the company, called for radical board-level change after almost 40% of shareholders voted against the groups payment plan for bosses in May. Mr Barlow said: Nigel is an excellent appointment and I am delighted we have secured someone with his capability and experience. It has, over the past eight years, been a great privilege to serve on the board of Foxtons, a prominent London business with a great future. Nigel has much to offer the board and the broader group and I wish him every success. Wildfires in northern California are encroaching upon Sequoia National Park - and putting at risk the worlds largest tree, known as General Sherman. The Colony and Paradise Fires, collectively known as the KNP Complex Fire, started with a lightning strike on 10 September. The towns of Three Rivers, Silver City, and Cabin Cove, on the edge of the national park have been placed under evacuation orders. Mark Ruggiero, fire information officer for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, said on Tuesday that while there is no impending threat, that is a potential. By Wednesday morning, the KNP Complex had burned 5,000 acres of land and hundreds of homes, leading to the National Park Service (NPS) to close Sequoia. The fires were still growing and have the potential to affect Sequoia National Park infrastructure and resources, NPS reported. The Giant Forest is located within Sequoia National Park and boasts more than 2,000 giant sequoia trees, some of which are the tallest and oldest in the world. General Sherman stands at 275 feet tall and is the largest tree in the world by volume. It is estimated to be around 2,700 to 2,300 years old, and is the crown jewel of the park. Giant sequoias typically flourish from controlled fires as the flame release seeds from cones, and continue the species growth cycle. But in recent years, the growing trend of huge, volatile wildfires, driven by the climate crisis, pose grave risk to sequoias. The 2020 Castle Fire killed 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoia trees, according to the NPS. Along with the fire threat, Mr Ruggiero said the trees were difficult to access. The Colony Fire specifically is burning in a really bad spot ... where these trees are like jackstraws and its difficult to put fire personnel into some of these areas because of that, the park officer said. More than 300 firefighters have been deployed to the complex and air crews are dropping retardant onto the blaze. Clay Jordan, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, said the firefighters literally started painting the mountains red with retardant. The climate crisis is fuelling a severe drought and higher temperatures in California, spurring more intense and frequent wildfires. The Dixie Fire, which has been burning for more than two months, has become the Californias second-largest wildfire on record. Democratic lawmakers are demanding that oil executives testify over a reported long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming. Chairs of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Subcommittee on the Environment, sent letters on Thursday to the top executives at ExxonMobil, BP America, Chevron, Shell Oil along with the industrys powerful lobby group, American Petroleum Institute, and the US Chamber of Commerce. The move comes after a senior ExxonMobil lobbyist was caught on tape earlier this year explaining the companys tactics to undermine and obstruct legislation to address the climate crisis. The Committee Chairs requested that the oil companies produce documents and communications by 30 September related to their organizations role in misleading the public to prevent action on the climate crisis. They also want executives to appear before a committee hearing on 28 October, days before the consequential UN climate summit, Cop26, begins in the UK. The letter was sent by New York Representative Carolyn B Maloney, chairwoman of Oversight Committee, and Representative Ro Khanna, of California, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment. We are deeply concerned that the fossil fuel industry has reaped massive profits for decades while contributing to climate change that is devastating American communities, costing taxpayers billions of dollars, and ravaging the natural world, the lawmakers wrote. We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change. Exxon toldThe Independent that the letter had been received. We will continue to communicate with committee staff, a spokesperson said. Climate activists celebrated the announcement on Thursday. This is a landmark day in the climate fight, said Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media. For decades, the fossil fuel industry has polluted our political process along with polluting our atmosphere. Exposing the industrys disinformation is a critical step in holding it accountable for the damage it has done and clearing the way for meaningful change. Congressional hearings like these helped end the stranglehold Big Tobacco once had over our political process. They now must do the same for Big Oil. In June, Greenpeace aired Zoom calls between Keith McCoy, a senior director in Exxons DC government affairs team, and an undercover reporter from the environmental group. On the video, Mr McCoy described President Bidens plans to slash greenhouse gas emissions as insane and admitted that the company had aggressively fought early climate science through shadow groups to protect its business. Greenpeace said that no serving Exxon executive has ever before admitted that the company fought climate science to protect its financial interests. Mr McCoy also suggested that Exxons public pledge in support of a carbon tax to reduce emissions is just an advocacy tool and great talking point but wont happen. The letter from Rep Maloney and Rep. Khanna said that the fossil fuel industry was using similar tactics deployed by the tobacco industry to resist regulation while selling products that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. Since the Paris Agreement to curb global emissions was signed in 2015, the five largest publicly-traded oil and gas majors ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total have invested more than $1billion of shareholder funds on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying, according to InfluenceMap. Priti Patel has criticised M25 climate protesters as "selfish" as police are appealing for more footage of the demonstration amid a series of arrests. Protesters from Insulate Britain stopped thousands of motoristson Britain's busiest motorway shortly after 8am on Wednesday for the second time in three days. The demonstrators, including some who had glued themselves to the road, were demanding Government action on home insulation. Scores of protesters were held on Wednesday by officers deployed from four forces - Surrey Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary, Kent Police and the Met - and totals given by each force suggest 86 were arrested overall. The home secretary hasn ow spoken out against the "guerrilla tactics" used by protesters which she said "detract from their cause". She said: "Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and there will always be space for legitimate groups to make their voices heard. "But this Government will not stand by and allow a small minority of selfish protesters to cause significant disruption to the lives and livelihoods of the hard-working majority. "The guerrilla tactics used by Insulate Britain detract from their cause and I know the public will agree that the scenes on the M25 this week were completely unacceptable." Surrey Police has appealed for witnesses who may have dashcam footage. The force said made 33 arrests at Junctions 8 and 10 for offences including public nuisance, obstructing the highway and conspiracy to cause danger to road users. Of these arrests, 12 were released under investigation, while 21 were released on conditional bail. The Met said officers arrested 14 people at Junction 25 for obstructing the public highway, following another 17 who were involved in the previous protest on Monday at Junction 14. The force identified three people they suspect were the organisers as a 55-year-old man at an address in Walworth, a 45-year-old woman at an address in Milton Keynes, and a 49-year-old man at a location in Torquay. They were arrested for conspiracy to cause public nuisance over the first protest. Insulate Britain said 89 of its members took part in the demonstration on Wednesday. It said in a statement: "We demand credible action now. "Proper jobs for hundreds of thousands of people to start the first real step - to insulate all the homes of this country - which, pound for pound, gives us the biggest reduction in carbon emissions. "It is a total no-brainer and yet this Government refuses to get on with the job. This is criminal negligence." The latest climate pledges put forward by governments would put the world on course for 2.7C of global heating by the end of the century far above the goals set by the Paris Agreement, a UN analysis finds. The review finds that countries current climate commitments would see global greenhouse gas emissions increase by 16 per cent by 2030, when compared to 2010 levels. For the world to be on track to meeting the Paris Agreements aspiration of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, emissions would need to fall by 45 per cent by 2030, according to a recent landmark climate assessment. The 16 per cent increase is a huge cause of concern, said Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of UN Climate Change. It is in sharp contrast with the calls by science for rapid, sustained and large-scale emission reductions to prevent the most severe climate consequences and suffering, especially of the most vulnerable, throughout the world. The findings come just weeks before countries are due to meet in Glasgow for Cop26, which is widely viewed as the most important UN climate summit since the Paris meeting in 2015. Alok Sharma, the UK minister who is incoming president of the summit, urged the worlds largest emitters to come forward with tougher climate plans. Those nations which have submitted new and ambitious climate plans are already bending the curve of emissions downwards. But without action from all countries, especially the biggest economies, these efforts risk being in vain, he said. We can change the course of history for the better. We can and must act, for ourselves, for vulnerable communities and future generations. Boris Johnson is hoping to break the global impasse on climate action in a high-level meeting on the fringe of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday. Co-hosted with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the hybrid mix of in-person attendees and remote meeting participants is expected to bring together leaders of around 30 countries, including China, which has been the focus of concern ahead of Cop26 because of worries that its emission reduction plans are too weak. The UN analysis considers the climate plans formally known as nationally determined contributions put forward by the 191 countries and states signed up to the Paris Agreement by the end of July. All countries were expected to submit updated climate plans by this date, but many of the worlds largest emitters missed the deadline. The new analysis finds that, when just the 113 countries that did meet the deadline are considered, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to fall by 12 per cent in 2030, compared to 2010. However, when all countries are considered, emissions are expected to rise by 16 per cent. Lack of climate progress should be a wake-up call for Boris Johnson, says analyst (AP) Many of the climate plans put forward by developing countries are based on the condition of receiving financial aid highlighting the importance of leaders meeting their long-held promise of providing $100bn a year to help poorer nations, Ms Espinosa added. The pledge to mobilise $100bn annually by 2020 was key for enhancing climate action by developing countries, she said. That commitment that was made in the UN [Climate Change] process more than 10 years ago has not yet been fulfilled. Its time to deliver Cop26 is the place to do so. In New York, Mr Johnson is expected to seek breakthroughs on the $100bn pledge. But campaigners warn that the PMs ability to persuade fellow leaders has been undermined by his decision to slash the UKs international development aid. Ms Espinosa added that countries could come forward with new or updated climate plans any time before Cop26 and that a second NDC synthesis report would be published in October. Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said the UK had a unique responsibility to ensure the summit is a success. This sobering report cuts through the greenwash and exposes the awful truth: the world is not remotely on track to limit global warming to 1.5C, he said. Cop26 provides the world with a chance to secure the progress needed to avert catastrophic climate breakdown. As hosts, the UK has a unique responsibility to make the summit a success. We can have no more climate delay. The government must act now before the window closes. Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a key architect of the Paris Agreement, said the findings should spur leaders to take action at a UN General Assembly meeting taking place next week. The brutal impacts of climate change are hitting every corner of the world, she said. This report underlines the self-harm big emitters inflict on the planet by failing to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement. We now need all G20 countries to deliver tougher plans by Cop26 in line with 1.5C. The findings come amid concerns the UKs new defence deal with Australia and the US could stymie climate progress by alienating China, the worlds largest emitter. Mohamed Adow, director of think tank Power Shift Africa, said the analysis was a damning indictment of progress to tackle emissions. The UK government can sign a new security relationship with Australia but wont push them to provide upgraded climate pledges ahead of the most important summit held on British soil since the Second World War, he said. Australias plan for tackling its emissions is rated highly insufficient by Climate Action Tracker, an independent research group and last week it was revealed that the government secretly agreed to drop climate commitments from a UK-Australia trade agreement. This needs to be a wake-up call for Boris Johnson to use every diplomatic sinew to ensure Glasgow doesnt fail, said Mr Adow. The bond between twins is one well documented in popular culture, from Twelfth Night to The Parent Trap. Now receiving its UK premiere at the Royal Court, Aleshea Harriss Is God Is explores the topic once more, telling the story of two sisters forged in violence. First staged in the US in 2018, it earned rave reviews and multiple awards; under Ola Inces direction, it is easy to see why. A show of contrasts, Is God Is rolls farce, revenge thriller and western drama into one. A theatre production that has the audience gasping aloud in genuine shock is a rare thing, but Is God Is achieves it (and then some). As the lights go down, flames burst from the stage, with two figures writhing on the floor. Theyre (non-identical) 21-year-old twins Racine (Tamara Lawrance) and Anaia (Adelayo Adedayo), living together in the southern US. Racine is the louder sister, while Anaia is chastised for being emotional like a lil bish, something she denies with a scowl. But for their differences, they share mannerisms, a southern drawl and the same scars on their bodies. Lawrance and Adedayo are phenomenally strong actors, unafraid to let the other shine, while also knowing that, as bickering siblings, that spotlight has to be snatched back. The girls scars come from a fire when they were young that killed their mother, a figure they call God (Well she made us, didnt she? Racine says). Theyve defiantly lived their lives as orphaned outlaws, until, almost 20 years later, Racine receives a letter from God herself, asking to see them. She (Cecilia Noble) is wheeled in to prophesy from her hospital bed, her scar-covered body like uh alligator, imaginatively executed by the stellar make-up team. God calls on the girls in a sonorous voice to make the man who did this to her real dead although she adds that lotsa blood is fine. TikTok stars come from all walks of life, but when Coinneach MacLeod started posting traditional Hebridean recipes and lifestyle videos from a small village on the Isle of Lewis, no one could have predicted that hed soon have almost a quarter of a million followers. Not to mention 14 million views of his videos. His marmalade pasties, Highland cow cupcakes and haggis bon bons as well as his thick accent and adorable terrier Seoras have proved such a hit, in fact, that hes just published a cookbook packed with the best bits of his channel that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Ahead of its launch, we sent over some questions for the busy baker about life on the Outer Hebrides, what inspired him to start baking as well as join TikTok and the Gaelic phrases everyone should know. How and why did you decide to start a TikTok? My love of baking is only equalled by the love I have for the island I was born the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. So I wanted to share the recipes, stories and landscapes of our Hebridean islands to folk around the world and TikTok was the perfect place to do it! From your first video to the latest one: whats the biggest lesson youve learnt? Whatever your passion is, doesnt matter how niche on TikTok you will find your tribe! I never expected a beardy baker from a small Hebridean island to be of interest to folk, but 14 million video views later (and counting), I definitely have found my place. Be authentic and share the love of what you do. Oh, and having a cute wee dog definitely helps. Seoras our West Highland Terrier is the star! Where does your passion for baking and cooking come from? My Aunt Bellag who is 93 and still the best baker on the island. I grew up in the wee village of Cromore on the Isle of Lewis, you couldnt just pop down the road to buy a biscuit the nearest shop was 30 miles away! So from an early age I learned that homemade is always best. Tell me about life on the Outer Hebrides: whats your favourite part and why should people visit (if and when they can)? Maybe I am biased, but for me, it is the most beautiful place on Earth! Not only our rugged landscapes, but our own unique culture, language, traditions and legends. For all of you who travel to the islands, you will go home with a memory you will never forget. Be it standing in the centre of the 5,000-year-old Callanish Stones, hearing the Gaelic language being spoken for the first time, finding that perfect yard of Harris Tweed, taking your dog for a walk on the white sands of Luskentyre Beach (even on a stormy day!) or being spun around by a burly man in a kilt at your first ceilidh dance. The book also includes stories from island life (Euan Anderson) Did island life prepare you for the pandemic in any way? When the late first minister of Scotland Donald Dewar visited Lewis, he met an elderly woman working on her croft in Uig on the west coast of the island. He asked her if she felt remote, she lifted her head and said to him: Remote from where? Yes, we might be far away, but we do not feel remote we are part of a community. So though parts of our lives did not change through the pandemic, there has been a huge loss to the community feel of the island and I know that is something we look forward to returning. What can we expect from the cookbook? The Hebridean Baker cookbook is full of warm, comforting traditional recipes I love using Scottish flavours on classic recipes, so watch out for hot toddy choux buns, heather biscotti, Isle of Harris gin and raspberry pavlova and a Hebridean Hogmanay cocktail. The recipes are intertwined with beautiful imagery of the islands and lots of stories, even one about the day my father gave the Queen crabs! What does it feel like ranking between Mary Berry and Nadiya Hussain on Amazon? Do you remember that Ready Brek advert when the wee kid gets a warm glow after eating his porridge? Thats how I felt when I saw my book alongside my heroes Mary and Nadiya. I feel like the jam in their most wonderful Victoria sandwich. What is a classic Hebridean recipe you would recommend? My Aunt Bellags duff recipe will always be my favourite. Its the Hebridean version of a Scottish clootie dumpling and I finally managed to persuade her to give me her secret ingredient to put in the book. Out now (Black and White Publishing) Teach me some Gaelic! I was once asked: was there a Gaelic translation for the Danish word hygge, that feeling of warmth and contentment. Well, maybe its not a direct translation, but the word I would use in Gaelic is blaths. It means warmth, kindliness and contentment. There is a saying in Gaelic: Beiridh blaths air luaths. It means there is a time for everything. I think thats a good life lesson for us all! I always ask people this though it perhaps seems a bit silly since you do live on an island! But: youre stuck on a deserted island (with, for the sake of the question, a fully kitted out kitchen and pantry), what cookbook are you taking with you? Im imagining the island would be even further north than the Hebrides, so I would choose The Nordic Baking Book by Magnus Nilsson. Its 500 pages of amazing Scandinavian recipes like the Faroese chocolate cake mokkabitar i skuffu, a Swedish Christmas toffee called knck and the Finnish rye pudding mmmi. The Hebridean Baker: Recipes and Wee Stories from the Scottish Islands by Coinneach MacLeod (Black and White Publishing, 20; photography by Euan Anderson) is out now One bitcoin transaction generates 272 grams of e-waste, according to new research. Alex de Vries, the founder of financial analysis platform Digiconomist, and researcher at MITs Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research Christian Stoll, say that the waste from crypto transactions is comparable to the small IT equipment waste produced by countries such as the Netherlands. Over the course of 2019, the bitcoin network processed 120 million transactions, while traditional payment service providers processed about 539 billion transactions. Bitcoins annual e-waste generation adds up to 30.7 metric kilotons as of May 2021 the researchers claim, which could increase to 64.4 metric kilotons of waste at the peak price levels seen earlier this year. They go on to say that the demand for mining hardware has been disrupting the semiconductor supply chain, which is currently suffering a global shortage due to increased need in the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a US-China trade war and a drought in Taiwan. Another issue is the use of ASIC chips, which are specifically designed to mine crypto transactions and have made CPUs and GPUs obsolete; however, as technology develops, these single-purpose ASIC chips quickly become waste themselves as miners demand increasingly faster machines. The lifespan of Bitcoin mining devices remains limited to just 1.29 years, the research estimates. These issues are likely to only increase as time goes on, unless the bitcoin mining process is replaced its entirety with a more sustainable alternative. One of those alternatives is proof of stake instead of proof of work, a process used to validate transactions. The first miner who finds a PoW [proof of work] that satisfies predetermined conditions broadcasts the block to all nodes in the network. The receiving nodes express their acceptance of the new block by building on top of it, the paper explains. Miners proof of work calculations requires huge amounts of energy to collect crypto currency, but proof of stake requires significantly less. The Ethereum blockchain, which powers the ether currency as well as other technologies like non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is making a transition to proof of stake technology although the change has not yet happened. Such a transition is inherently necessary, de Vries told The Independent. You can power this network with 100 per cent renewables (which I dont think is realistic, but lets assume so purely theoretically), but youd still be left with this pile of electronic waste leaving an unsustainable situation. Theres just no real fix for that. He continued that it would be technically possible to replace the proof-of-work mining in Bitcoin with a more sustainable alternative like Ethereum is planning to do (and many others have already done). If that ever happens in Bitcoin then even this currency could actually become sustainable, but currently nobody in Bitcoin is working on this. Ethereum currently consumes as much energy as a mid-sized country, a requirement to keep the network safe from malicious users. Unfortunately, that blockchain is powered by fossil fuels, contributing to climate change. Analysis by the University of Cambridge suggests the bitcoin network uses more than 121 terawatt-hours (TWh) annually, which would rank it in the top 30 electricity consumers worldwide if it were a country. "Bitcoins energy consumption has more than quadrupled since the beginning of its last peak in 2017 and it is set to get worse because energy inefficiency is built into bitcoins DNA," Charles Hoskinson, CEO of leading cryptography firm IOHK, told The Independent. The Duke of Cambridge has announced the inaugural 15 finalists of his ambitious Earthshot Prize. Prince William revealed the finalists names on his projects YouTube channel on Friday. Among the finalists are a teenager from India who has designed a solar-powered ironing cart, the nation of Costa Rica, which has pioneered a project paying local citizens to restore natural ecosystems, and a Chinese app that allows its citizens to hold polluters to account. There are no UK finalists but organisers believe homegrown talent will feature in the environmental award in future years. In the video, William said: The ambition, quality and range of submissions has been amazing, and should fill us all with optimism and hope that our goals for this decisive decade are achievable. The Earthshot prizes have been separated into five different categories. The nation of Costa Rica has been nominated under the category to protect and restore nature. Vinisha Umashankar, the 14-year-old from behind the solar-powered ironing cart, is a finalist for the prize to clean our air. Coral Vita, a project in the Bahamas aiming to restore the worlds coral reefs, has been nominated under the revive our oceans category. An Italy-based project which aims to cut food waste and tackle hunger, The City of Milan Food Waste Hub, has been nominated for the build a waste-free world prize. The final category is fix our climate. Solbazaar, an initiative in Bangladesh that has created a system that allows people to trade excess solar energy is one of the finalists. Five winners, one from each category, will be announced at a ceremony on 17 October. Each of them will receive a grant worth 1 million. Additionally, 14 global companies including Microsoft, Unilever, Ikea and Walmart have agreed to support the winners with their ideas. When we launched the prize last year, our ambition was to find the most innovative solutions to the worlds greatest environmental challenges, William said the video. In the introduction for the official book, Earthshot: How To Save Our Planet, William said the prize was inspired by the Apollo moon landings. I wanted to recapture Kennedys Moonshot spirit of human ingenuity, purpose and optimism, and turn it with laser-sharp focus and urgency on to the most pressing challenge of our time repairing our planet, he writes. Angelina Jolie has said she was honoured to meet the brave gymnasts who testified against a former USA Gymnastics team doctor who was convicted of sexual abuse. Olympic gold medallists Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman were among the gymnasts who told Congress that the FBI and gymnastics officials turned a blind eye to misconduct. Larry Nassar, who sexually abused and raped hundreds of girls and young women during his 18-year stint as the team doctor, was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 2017. Jolie met the women during a trip to Washington DC this week, where she visited the White House to discuss legislation to combat violence against women. The Oscar-winning actor shared a picture on Instagram alongside Maroney, Raisman, Maggie Nichols, Kaylee Lorincz, and Jessica Howard. Jolie wrote in the caption: I was honoured to meet with some of the brave US gymnasts who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. Im in awe of their courage and commitment to preventing future failures to investigate abuse. As Aly Raisman said in her testimony, Over 100 victims could have been spared the abuse. All we needed was one adult to do the right thing. Sending support and respect to them, and to all who are reliving this trauma so that system reforms can occur. She also added the hashtag #StopViolenceAgainstWomen to her caption. Jolie joined Instagram in August, using her first post to highlight the plight of young women in Afghanistan and quickly gaining more than 10 million followers. She visited the White House this week to discuss the Violence Against Women Act, a landmark piece of legislation that has been championed by US president Joe Biden. On Thursday, the gymnasts appeared before a committee that is examining the shortcomings in the FBIs investigation into Nassar. Biles, the most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time, told the committee: I blame Larry Nassar, and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse. If you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be swift and severe. Three Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after a 90-day stay aboard the nations space station, Chinas longest mission yet. Astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo spent 90 days aboard Chinas Tianhe space station module since arriving aboard Shenzhou 12 on 17 June. Chinas airspace had issued closure notices on Wednesday indicating that the three-member crew would be returning between 1.14 and 1.44pm local time on Friday. The Global Times reported that the crew having lived and worked in orbit for 90 days has set a new record of longest space stay in a single flight for Chinese astronauts. Referring to the crew as Chinas space heroes, the local reports celebrated their arrival just in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival one of the most important occasions for family reunions in the Chinese calendar. China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Thursday that the crew, before separation, completed a range of tasks including transmitting experiment data back to Earth in addition to sorting and transferring of goods which are to remain in orbit, with the help of technicians on the ground. The landing took place for the first time near Dongfeng in the Gobi Desert, in Inner Mongolia. The landing area is close to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center from which Chinas human spaceflight missions launch, Space.com reported. The astronauts on Shenzhou 12 have completed two extravehicular activities (EVA), or spacewalks, carried out a range of experiments and sent back some images of the Earth. Meanwhile, the Tianhe space station will receive a new visitor very soon. The Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft is expected to launch from Wenchang, south China, around 20 September, reports said. Tianzhou 3 will deliver supplies for the next crewed mission to the station, Shenzhou 13 which is set to launch from Jiuquan in October. In June, the Global Times had reported that the space mission period was of significance as it coincided with the national celebration of the Chinese Communist Partys centenary celebration. It said that all participants of the mission have drawn experience and strength from the Party history, especially from the development of the space industry under the leadership of the Party. It added that all three crew members are Party members. Shenzhou-12 has demonstrated Chinas capability to perform prolonged human spaceflight missions, including lengthy and challenging operations like extravehicular activities and providing necessary ground support, Andrew Jones, a journalist for SpaceNews who closely follows Chinas space industry, was quoted by the Global Times as saying. Local reports also noted that China will carry out two more space launches for the building of its own space station this year the Tianzhou-3 cargo spacecraft via a Long March-7 carrier rocket from Wenchang spaceport in Hainan and another manned flight on a Shenzhou-13 spacecraft via a Long March-2F rocket from Jiuquan centre. The crew were in good condition after they touched down at the Dongfeng landing site. The mission commander Nie Haisheng joked with his fellow crew members saying that real gold fears no fire, citing a Chinese proverb, as they re-entered the Earths atmosphere. A drunk driver who smashed his car into a speeding train near Doncaster has been jailed for 10 months. Michael Rochford, 27, admitted perverting the course of justice, failing to stop following a road collision and dangerous driving at Sheffield Crown Court. He has also been banned from driving for four years. CCTV footage from 13 June captured the moment Rochford, a railway worker, drove his 4x4 Range Rover into an LNER Azuma train at the Rossington level crossing on the East Coast Main Line. The high speed collision caused 345,000 worth of damage and delays to the rail network. Several passengers suffered whiplash injuries as a result of the crash and a man in a nearby garden narrowly missed being struck by flying debris. Rochford, who worked for Network Rail as a signalling technician, had been drinking with friends at Rossington Main Football Club before the crash, a court heard. Witnesses waiting at the crossing described seeing Rochford's Range Rover Sport approaching the barriers at speed, mounting the pavement before striking the train. He then crawled out of the vehicle and ran away, appearing unsteady and drunk, the court heard. He called his mother for a lift, and then reported to police the car keys had been taken from the football club bar and his car had been stolen. The court heard he then claimed to have been told by his brother that it had been involved in an accident. A neighbour of Rochford's mother overheard him asking family members to "not tell anyone where I was". He changed his clothes at the property before being collected by his girlfriend. Police who interviewed him at his own home said he "seemed nervous" and a check of the football club's CCTV established he had driven the Range Rover from the premises. After being arrested, he admitted that the car had not been stolen and that he had lied. The court was told the collision led to over 15 hours of delays on the main route from London to Edinburgh and cost the railway industry 345,000. One passenger on the Azuma gave a victim impact statement in which he said he still suffered serious pain from his injuries and was reluctant to travel by train again. And Geoffrey Shaw, who had lived in his trackside property for over 40 years, said he had been "severely shaken" after the falling pole missed him by just 1ft. The court heard Rochford's "highly paid" job gave him a "significant position of responsibility". Rochford became the main provider for his mother following his parents' separation, his legal team said. The court heard Rochford reacted as he did because of "sheer panic" as he had never been in trouble with the police before. Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, the Recorder of Sheffield, said: "You drank heavily and took leave of your senses. "You could have caused a major catastrophe where many people would have lost their lives. It is a very serious case. "I accept that you are filled with remorse and I have been invited by your solicitor not to 'crush' you. "Prison will fall very hard upon you. It is a great tragedy that you find yourself in the position that you are in." Rochford joined Network Rail on a signalling apprenticeship in York in 2013 before moving across to the signalling fault department in Sheffield in 2016. He had worked in the rail industry since leaving Hayfield School in Doncaster in 2011, when he was an apprentice at a private sector engineering firm. Paul Rutter, route director for Network Rails East Coast route, said: This was a shocking incident which could have caused serious injury to passengers and rail workers. Thankfully, this wasnt the case, but this incident acts as a stark reminder of just how important it is to respect the railway and use level crossings safely. Rochford was also banned from driving for four years by Sheffield Crown Court. Traffic cop Martyn Micklethwaite, from South Yorkshire Police, said: This case highlights the consequences of driving at excess speed. "This collision could have ended with catastrophic results. The sentence handed down by Sheffield Crown Court shows how serious these offences have been taken, resulting in a significant prison sentence and a driving ban that will see him off the road for four years. Our investigation showed the extent Rochford went to in the lies he told on the night to police which resulted in him being charged with perverting the course of justice. SWNS Two men have been charged with the murder of Belfast journalist Lyra McKee. The men, aged 21 and 33 years, have also been charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, riot, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs and arson, according to PSNI. McKee, 29, was shot dead by dissident republicans as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of Derry in April 2019. Paul McIntyre, 53, from Kinnego Park in Derry, has already been charged with Ms McKees murder. Another man has been charged with rioting and other offences related to the events of the night in Creggan. McKee, a rising star in the world of journalism, covered sectarianism extensively throughout her short career. Her work appeared in a number of publications, including The Independent. She was also a prominent gay rights activist and campaigned for greater equality for same-sex couples in Northern Ireland Imminent cuts to Universal Credit are set to worsen a 360m rental debt crisis across the UK that has emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, a charity has warned. Calculations by StepChange Debt Charity, which offers free debt advice, showed that about half a million private tenants are now trying to stay on top of 360m in rent arrears across the country, with private renters in arrears of just under 800 on average. The charity warned on Friday that the governments planned 20-per-week cut to Universal Credit would make the crisis worse by escalating entrenched difficulties. Covid support schemes, while a lifeline for many, haven't been able to help renters address their arrears and with cuts to Universal Credit and the end of furlough imminent, there is a real danger of thousands losing their homes, Phil Andrew, chief executive of StepChange, said. Mr Andrew added that his charity was calling for dedicated financial support to help renters safely bring down their rent debts and keep their homes. By establishing a dedicated rent debt fund, and by scrapping the planned Universal Credit cut, the government can avert the threat of a rise in evictions, problem debt and homelessness that will compound financial and social problems and hamper economic recovery, he said. StepChange's research, which included responses from more than 8,600 people, also suggested that around one in 10 renters who were in work expected to be evicted from their homes as a result of their debts within the next 12 months. The charity highlighted the case of one woman who works for a travel company and has found herself in 2,000 of rent arrears during the pandemic. My husband is suffering with long Covid and although he is at work, the stress of not hitting his targets is really affecting his mental health, she said. He is just about earning enough to pay the rent, but not enough to be able to contribute towards the arrears. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that internal government modelling showed that the Universal Credit cut would lead to soaring homelessness and food bank use, with a Whitehall official telling the newspaper that the impact could be catastrophic. However, a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions insisted last week that no formal impact assessment had been carried out for the decision. On Monday, work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey sparked anger by suggesting that Universal Credit claimants should simply work more hours to make up the 20-a-week cut. We will be seeing what we can do to help people perhaps secure those extra hours, but ideally also to make sure theyre also in a place to get better paid jobs as well, Ms Coffey told BBC Breakfast. This suggestion was later challenged as Universal Credit payments are designed in order to adjust automatically to reflect someones level of earnings, meaning someone earning an extra 20-a-week would also lose part of their benefit. Additional reporting by PA Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are more likely to face unaffordable housing costs because of poverty, the benefit cap, immigration policies such as No Recourse To Public Funds (NRPF) and racism in the labour market, new research has revealed. One quarter of these groups, excluding Indian employees who are overrepresented as homeowners, are paying housing costs that are unaffordable (25 per cent), compared with 10 per cent of white workers, the study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown. Minority ethnic households across the UK are twice as likely to live in unaffordable housing than their white counterparts, while local authorities with more Black residents have higher rates of rental evictions than average. Khem Rogaly, one of the reports authors, said: Our research lays bare the shameful reality that people from ethnic minority communities are much more likely to be living in unaffordable housing that has a detrimental impact on their living standards. UK welfare and immigration policies are disproportionately limiting the incomes of BAME people, restricting their access to affordable housing, while Right to Rent policy is in some cases driving direct discrimination against certain groups. This paints a bleak picture of the already-stark racial disparities in housing across England and Wales. Just under half (4 in 10) of ethnic minority workers whose characteristics mean they are likely to be subject to No Recourse to Public Funds are paying unaffordable housing costs compared to 1 in 10 white employees. Racial inequality is baked into our housing system, Shelter (PA) Darren Baxter, JRFs Policy & Partnerships Manager, described the inequalities set out in the foundations report as shocking. We know that people of colour are more likely to face inequalities in our labour market, and to face obstacles to getting support because of welfare and immigration policies. These factors, combined with the appalling direct discrimination people of colour sometimes suffer when accessing housing, explain some of the reasons for this disparity, he told The Independent. To tackle this injustice, the Government must look closely at the systems which are holding people back. People of colour are more likely to be trapped in low paid, insecure work. Our social security system disproportionately limits the incomes of households from ethnic minority communities through policies like the benefit cap. Our immigration policies exclude certain groups from getting the support they need to avoid destitution and homelessness. If we do not revisit these policies, we are likely to continue to see evidence of shocking racial inequalities in our society. The most devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are being borne disproportionately by the least wealthy and most marginalised groups in society affecting all sectors including housing. Polling by the JRF conducted in September 2020 showed that ethnic minority renters were disproportionately worried about paying their rent between November and January, when compared to white people. For people subject to NRPF, lacking access to either social housing or social security, arrears can quickly lead to homelessness and destitution. Moreover, some ethnic minority communities have faced disproportionate death rates in part due to overcrowded housing conditions which is, more often than not, due to poverty. Now, organisations are urging the Government to address this disparity as a matter of priority. These figures are shameful but unsurprising. They are further evidence of not only the broken housing market in Britain, but of the direct and damaging impact that racial inequality has on Black and other minority ethnic communities, Race Equality Foundation CEO Jabeer Butt told The Independent. Our work shows this is only likely to worsen, with more people from these communities in housing arrears due to the pandemics impact on income. Sadly, expensive Government schemes such as Help to Buy and stamp duty holidays will not help. We urgently need a scheme to eliminate rent arrears and for the moratorium on evictions to be re-established. Beyond this, large-scale investment in social housing, major housing improvement programmes in inner cities, rent control and proper regulation of private renting are the only ways we will properly tackle racial inequality. Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, told The Independent that racial inequality is baked into our housing system. Shelters own research has also shown that Black and Asian adults are far less likely to have a safe and secure home. These shocking figures are proof of the racial inequity baked into our housing system, she said. Access to a decent home should never depend on a persons race or ethnicity. The structures and policies that drive systemic racism and discrimination must be challenged and dismantled. The government has the capacity to provide the sanctuary of a safe home to everyone, but to do that it must increase the number of decent, genuinely affordable, social homes. Indeed, present inequality in housing is built on a long history of structural discrimination, JRF has concluded in its report. Source: Office for National Statistics, April 2016 - March 2018 (Black people have zero household wealth.) Black households have some of the lowest rates of home ownership in England and the median accumulation of wealth through homeownership for a Black family over the last 10 years is zero, according to Office for National Statistics data analysis published in May via Bloomberg. On the other hand, 68 per cent of white British households and 74 per of Indian households own their own homes. The JRF study follows recent statistics from the the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) showed that Black households are three times as likely to experience homelessness. Some 288,470 households were assessed as being owed help from their local council in England during 2019-20. Of the lead applicants from these households, 10.7 per cent were Black, while black people are only estimated to make up 3.6 per cent of Englands population. An MHCLG spokesperson said: "We want to support more tenants into taking the first step into home ownership and building more affordable homes is key to that- thats why we announced that were investing 8.6 billion for affordable homes. "Part of the largest single investment in affordable housing in a decade, the Affordable Homes Programme funding will deliver around 119,000 homes, including 57,000 for ownership, 29,600 for social rent and 6,250 affordable rural homes." An incident in which an elderly Black man needed hospital treatment for serious facial injuries after being stopped by officers over a faulty brake light has been referred to the police watchdog. A struggle took place after the 70-year-old was pulled over in Bromley, south London, the Metropolitan Police said. However, a woman identifying herself as the mans daughter posted photos of his injuries in Instagram, saying he suffered a broken nose, fractures to the upper cheek and cuts. She says officers assaulted her father. The matter has now been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). We are aware of a post on Instagram relating to the arrest of a man following a vehicle stop on Blyth Road in Bromley, said a Met Police spokesperson. After exiting the vehicle, the driver became involved in a struggle with an officer during which the officer sustained an injury to his eye. The woman said: My dad is born and bred Jamaican whose accent is very strong and isnt afraid to say what he feels about the Met Police and their corrupt racist system, as my dad made hand gestures telling them to leave him alone they felt it was now their duty to physically abuse him. My dad is 70 years old, no more than 8 stone, 5ft 6 who has had multiple strokes, heart problems and is also on blood thinning tablets. Multiple witnesses have stepped forward to describe the absolute torture they put my dad through until my brother turned up. When questioned as to why theyve assaulted him the police then lied to say my dad hit them. Encouraging people to share the post, she added: Im absolutely heartbroken at this time. The Met said the man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker. He was then given first aid by officers before being transported to a south London hospital. He was later discharged and taken to a police station from where he was released under investigation. The Independent has approached the IOPC for comment. Prince Andrew has been given seven days to appeal a High Court ruling which could pave the way for the start of his civil trial in the United States on allegations he sexually assaulted a teenage victim of Jeffrey Epstein. The Duke of Yorks lawyers must tell the High Court in the next week if they wish to challenge the decision to formally notify Prince Andrew of the case against him. This follows weeks of legal squabbling over whether lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who claims the royal abused her when she was 17, had adequately served legal papers to Prince Andrew. Civil cases can only begin when the claimant has notified the defendant that legal proceedings have begun against them. Ms Giuffres lawyers have said they have served the relevant documents notifying the Queens second son of the case against him in multiple ways, including through the post and by handing them to a police officer guarding his Windsor home. On Wednesday, the High Court agreed it would itself serve the papers on the Duke of York, but it is understood Prince Andrews legal team will contest this decision. The High Court said in a statement: Lawyers for Prince Andrew have indicated that they may seek to challenge the decision of the High Court to recognise the validity of the Hague Convention request for service made by Ms Giuffres lawyers. The High Court has directed that any challenge must be made by close of business on September 24. The Hague Service Convention is an international treaty which governs requests between countries for evidence in civil or commercial matters. Across the Atlantic, Ms Giuffres legal representatives have accused the prince of actively evading efforts to serve him with the lawsuit and a US judge has ruled the paper could alternatively be simply sent to his Los Angeles-based lawyers instead. But Prince Andrews US lawyer reportedly told a pre-trial hearing in the US Ms Giuffre had previously entered into a settlement agreement that would nullify her case, and on Thursday Manhattan Judge Loretta Preska said the prince could request the unsealing of this 2009 document. In a written order the judge said the duke could seek the information to support the argument that an agreement made between Ms Giuffre and Mr Epstein would bar her from pursuing her lawsuit against the royal. Ms Giuffre initially filed her lawsuit against Prince Andrew in August, which accuses him of sexually assaulting her at the London home of Mr Epsteins British socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The prince has always denied the allegations against him, which resurfaced following the rearrest and death in custody of Mr Epstein in 2019. Mr Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution and is thought to have spent decades trafficking girls around the world to sexually abuse them. Prince Philips will is to remain secret to protect the dignity of the Queen due to her constitutional role, the High Court has ruled. A ruling published on Thursday said that the Duke of Edinburghs will would remain sealed for 90 years from the grant of probate - the process confirming the authority of an executor to administer a deceased person's estate - and may only be opened in private after that date. I have held that, because of the constitutional position of the Sovereign, it is appropriate to have a special practice in relation to royal wills, Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane said. There is a need to enhance the protection afforded to truly private aspects of the lives of this limited group of individuals in order to maintain the dignity of the Sovereign and close members of her family. When a senior member of the royal family dies, it is convention that an application to seal their will is made to the President of the Family Division of the High Court to prevent it from being open to public inspection in the way other wills would usually be. Sir Andrew, who is the current president, heard legal arguments from lawyers representing Philip's estate and the Attorney General - who represents the public interest in such matters - at a private hearing in July. The judge added on Thursday that he had neither seen, nor been told anything of the contents of the will, other than the date of its execution and the identity of the appointed executor. Philip, who died aged 99 in April, two months before he would have turned 100, was the UKs longest-serving consort. The decision to hold the earlier hearing in private was designed to prevent a series of announcements about the case that would generate very significant publicity and conjecture, Sir Andrew said. He added: I accepted the submission that, whilst there may be public curiosity as to the private arrangements that a member of the royal family may choose to make in their will, there is no true public interest in the public knowing this wholly private information. The media interest in this respect is commercial. The degree of publicity that publication would be likely to attract would be very extensive and wholly contrary to the aim of maintaining the dignity of the Sovereign. Lawyers representing Philip's estate had argued that news of the hearing and application could generate wholly unfounded conjecture which would be deeply intrusive to the Queen and royal family. As President of the Family Division of the High Court, Sir Andrew is the guardian of a safe which holds 30 envelopes - each containing the sealed will of a deceased member of the royal family. The earliest envelope is labelled as containing the will of Prince Francis of Teck, with the most recent additions being the wills of the late Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister. Additional reporting by PA Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Parliament on Thursday to protest over issues faced by the nations leaseholders as the Mayor of London warned the system is broken. Building owners and landlords must share important building safety information with their residents, Sadiq Khan said, as he called for action to address safety concerns and rebuild trust with leaseholders. More than four years after the Grenfell Tower fire, some leaseholders in the capital still fear for their safety, are unable to sell their homes or been left facing hefty bills to fix cladding issues, he said. The mayors comments came as leaseholders, politicians and campaigners met in central London for the Leaseholders Together rally, which aimed to draw attention to issues faced by Englands 4.6 million leaseholders including building safety, cladding, ground rents, service charges and insurance hikes. Mr Khan addressed demonstrators at the rally, calling for new Housing Secretary Michael Gove to meet leaseholders and hear their stories. He said: Ive met leaseholders who are at the end of their tether contemplating suicide. Ive met leaseholders not able to pay the service charges that theyre required to pay. Ive met leaseholders being forced to pay for Waking Watch because the Government has delayed making their homes safe. What I fail to understand is how anybody who spent time with the Grenfell Tower community doesnt feel a sense of urgency to make all our homes safe. The mayor added the leaseholder system is broken. This isnt just an issue about cladding, he said. This is an issue about the leaseholder system being broken. And thats at the core of this. Speaking ahead of the event, the mayor said: The current building safety situation is a scandal and a crisis - and it appears that the Government are still not willing to properly address it. We cannot go on like this. Building owners must act now to rebuild trust with leaseholders. This can only be achieved through communication and transparency, accompanied by robust changes to the building safety regulatory system. Leaseholder Danielle Harper, 28, came to the rally, organised by the End Our Cladding Scandal with the National Leasehold Campaign and charity Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, to urge the Government to provide support. Ms Harper bought her leasehold in London three years ago, and found out that the cladding in the building is unsafe nine months later. Leaseholders in the building initially had to pay for a Waking Watch, a system where a building is patrolled to ensure warning is given in the event of a fire. A fire alarm, which leaseholders also had to pay for, was later installed. Ms Harper told the PA news agency: Our management company applied for the Building Safety Fund, the money from the Government, in order to remediate the building. Luckily our building was successful in this but were still waiting on the payment from the Government in order to start the remediation. Alison Smith, 32, bought a flat in Leeds city centre and found out that the building is not safe a few years ago due to an issue with the cladding system which will cost over 21 million to fix. She said she may have to contribute to this, telling PA: For me thats a possible bill of anything up 60,000 or beyond so its just been a nightmare the past couple years, waiting to hear whats going to happen. She is hoping to receive money from the Building Safety Fund but has yet to hear if she has been successful. Geeta Nanda, chair of G15, the group of Londons largest housing associations, and chief executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH), said: We fully agree that accurate, timely, and transparent communications with residents are critical in responding to the building safety challenges that have emerged in recent years. G15 members are investing over 2.9bn in the next 10 years in vital building safety works and have created dedicated teams from within existing resources to ensure that important fire safety information is shared with residents in an accessible way. Boris Johnson joked about the number for children he has, at the first meeting of his new cabinet suggesting he has as many as Jacob Rees-Mogg. The prime minister has consistently refused to confirm he has a second child out of wedlock, which would mean he has 7 and will reach 8 when his pregnant wife Carrie gives birth. But, briefing his new-look cabinet with what he called a half-time pep talk, Mr Johnson turned to the subject, saying: Im just thinking about delivery. Ive seen a few delivery rooms, probably seen as many delivery rooms as anybody in this ... with the possible exception of Jacob. I know that delivery normally involves a superhuman effort by at least one person in the room. But there are plenty of other people in that room who are absolutely indispensable to that successful outcome. Mr Rees-Mogg, the Commons Leader, has six children, all of them boys provoking mirth in 2017 when he named the sixth one Sixtus. Mr Johnson has four children with his ex-wife Marina Wheeler and a boy, Wilfred, with Carrie Johnson, who is pregnant with their second child, it was announced in July He has a daughter from an affair while Mayor of London, but he is also believed to have fathered another child outside of marriage. It prompted criticism when an old magazine column emerged where he branded the children of single mothers ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate. But, during the 2019 general election campaign, he refused to discuss the issue, telling LBC Radio: I love my children very much but they are not standing at this election. Im not therefore going to comment on them. In the power struggle for the best seats around the cabinet table, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak sat to the prime ministers left. Dominic Raab, demoted to justice secretary but handed the consolation title of deputy prime minister sat opposite Mr Johnson, alongside Liz Truss, his replacement as foreign secretary, and Michael Gove, the new housing secretary. The prime minister told them: To mix my metaphors, this is, if you like, the half-time pep talk. This is the moment when we spit out the orange peel, we adjust our gum shields and our scrum caps. We get out on to the pitch in the knowledge that were going to have to do it together and were going to have to do it as a team. They key absentees were Gavin Williamson, sacked as education secretary, and Robert Jenrick and Robert Buckland, who were also dispatched to the backbenches having served as housing secretary and justice secretary. Close US, UK Attempt Damage Control With France Following Nuclear Sub 'Crisis' The UK may bid to join the trade partnership between the US, Canada and Mexico, The Independent understands, after Boris Johnson conceded that a bilateral deal with Washington was not in prospect for the foreseeable future. Speaking ahead of a meeting in the White House with Joe Biden, the prime minister had suggested the reality is that Joe has a lot of fish to fry, adding: They are pretty ruthless, the American negotiators, and I would much rather get a deal that really works for the UK than get a quick deal. But a senior UK government figure said the unexpected move to join the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was an option London was interested in pursuing, adding: There are a variety of different ways to do this. The question is whether the US administration is ready. The ball is in the USs court. It takes two to tango. The climate crisis set to top the pairs agenda in Washington DC on Tuesday, with Mr Johnson having travelled by train from New York, where he addressed the UN General Assembly. The PM welcomed a new pledge from Mr Biden ahead of the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow to double US financial aid to help developing nations tackle the climate crisis, describing Washingtons massive contribution of $11.4 billion annually by 2024 was a very, very good start towards his target of securing $100bn from world leaders, while warning theres still a long way to go. The prime minister had earlier appeared on NBCs Today show, where he attempted to end the mystery about how many children he has, describing himself as a father-of-six. He is expecting his seventh child with his wife Carrie, the mother of his son Wilfred. A row has broken out at the top of Boris Johnsons reshuffled cabinet over who should have access to the elegant Chevening country house in Kent. The 17th-century manor is traditionally used as the country retreat for the foreign secretary, in a similar way to the prime ministers Chequers getaway in Buckinghamshire. But reports suggest that outgoing foreign secretary Dominic Raab is refusing to hand it over to his successor Liz Truss, arguing that his new title of deputy prime minister entitles him to hold on to it. The final decision rests with Mr Johnson, and the prime ministers official spokesperson today confirmed that he has not yet decided who will get to use the 15-bedroom property, which sits in extensive parkland near Sevenoaks. Asked if Raab or Truss would get the house, or whether they would be asked to share it, the spokesperson said: There is a long-standing process in place for nominating occupants of Chevening House and we will update in due course. We will conclude the reshuffle, then we will get into the long-standing processes around residences. The home of the earls of Stanhope for generations, the property was passed on to a trust in 1959 to serve as a country residence for a royal or a cabinet member nominated by the PM. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA Since the 1970s, the house has almost always been occupied by the foreign secretary, though Nick Clegg shared it with William Hague, the then foreign secretary, during his time as deputy prime minister from 2010-15. During his own stint as foreign secretary, Mr Johnson was required by the then prime minister Theresa May to share occupancy with international trade secretary Liam Fox and Brexit secretary David Davis, on the premise that each may have to host foreign visitors and leaders. Ms Truss replaced Mr Raab as foreign secretary in Wednesdays reshuffle, but Mr Raab was granted the rank of deputy prime minister as a consolation, alongside his other titles of justice secretary and lord chancellor. Shops are to be allowed to sell products in pounds and ounces again after the government pledged to review a ban on marking and selling products in imperial units as part of post-Brexit changes to EU laws. Brexit minister Lord Frost set out plans on Thursday to ditch EU rules that no longer suit the UK following its depature from the bloc last year. The government intends to review the content of retained EU law - which was preserved in UK law for continuity after the transition period ended in December 2020. A document titled Brexit opportunities: regulatory reforms includes plans to permit the voluntary printing of the crown stamp on pint glasses and review the EU ban on markings and sales in pounds and ounces, with legislation set to come in due course. Other reforms include introducing digital driving licences, test certificates and MOT processes. Boris Johnson said that he would bring imperial units back to shops as part of his pitch to voters in the 2019 general election, promising an era of generosity and tolerance towards traditional measurements. On Thursday, Lord Frost also claimed that gloom-mongers had been proved wrong following the UKs exit from the EU. A lot of things haven't happened that the gloom-mongers said would happen and I don't think are going to happen, the minister told peers. However, critics have argued that Brexit has exacerbated the issue of shortages in shops across the UK in recent weeks, as well as causing ongoing uncertainty over Northern Irelands trading arrangements. Earlier this month, the head of the Food and Drink Federation warned Britons that staff shortages, triggered by Covid and Brexit, had damaged the just-in-time delivery model, meaning food shortages in supermarkets and restaurants were now permanent. Despite this, Lord Frost claimed that the UKs economy was prospering vastly under the arrangements put in place by the government. He added that the purpose of the reforms was to improve the productivity of the UK by putting in place regulations that are tailored to our conditions. Other plans put forward by the government include allowing shareholders to use digital certificates instead of paper and changing regulations governing clinical trials and medical devices. We are a high standards country. That doesn't mean we don't intend to change them. The world moves on, Lord Frost insisted. High standards need to reflect the context we are operating in. I am sure there will be change, but don't believe those changes will result in regression of standards. On Thursday, Labours shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry dismissed the governments plans, arguing that the title Brexit opportunities had been badly chosen due to current supply shortages on supermarket shelves. Ms Thornberry told the Commons that the country was facing continuing shortages of staff and supplies exacerbated by the government's Brexit deal, while businesses across the country face mounting losses in trade with Europe. She also warned that people in Northern Ireland remained stuck in limbo as the government refuses to implement the Brexit deal that they negotiated. Additional reporting by PA Michael Goves decision to review controversial planning reforms has been greeted with horror by campaigners for affordable housing, who warn that delays in removing obstacles to home-building will consign ever more young people to overpriced rented homes. But the pause was welcomed by countryside campaigners as a chance to make a fresh start after the fury sparked by the deeply unpopular proposals drawn up by Mr Goves predecessor as housing secretary. Robert Jenrick was sacked in Wednesdays reshuffle just a day after telling cabinet that he was stepping back from plans to impose mandatory house-building targets on local councils and restrict residents rights to object to new homes. Within hours of his arrival at his new department, Mr Gove ordered a pause on legislation which had been due to be published next week and had been billed as the biggest shake-up of the planning system for 70 years. He told officials he wanted to review the proposals which included a new zonal system designating each area as slated for growth, development or protection and engage constructively with colleagues and key stakeholders. The move sparked concern that Mr Goves arrival may signal waning determination on the part of the prime minister to overturn the bureaucratic obstacles standing in the way of his target of 300,000 new homes a year in England. Anya Martin, director of the Priced Out campaign for affordable house prices, said: We are horrified that government is U-turning on planning reforms. Renters have faced decades of rising costs because of our failure to build enough homes, and our planning system is at the heart of this failure. Every month that reforms are delayed is another month that renters are paying hundreds of pounds more than they should be. Every month that we fail to build enough homes, more people are forced to live with their parents into their 30s, or to delay their dreams of homeownership. But Mr Goves stance was welcomed by Tory MPs who saw the shock by-election defeat in leafy Chesham and Amersham in June as a warning of the potential for revolt in the True Blue shires by voters worried that green spaces would be concreted over. Countryside charity CPRE said the pause would allow ministers to give more say to local voices in the way in which their areas are developed. UK news in pictures Show all 49 1 /49 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA Deputy chief executive Tom Fyans said: This reported pause to the governments deeply unpopular changes to planning says one thing you simply cant cut out local voices when trying to decide what gets built where. Today could be a key turning point for the future of our countryside and rural communities in desperate need of genuine affordable housing. He added: While we wait for the formal announcement, we will continue to work with concerned MPs on positive changes to the planning system that are long overdue. Nothing could be more urgent than empowering local communities to protect their precious green spaces, while delivering the affordable homes they desperately need and, at the same time, responding to the climate emergency by regenerating the countryside. As Michael Gove grapples with his new in-tray, we urge the government to take a fresh look at how to grasp this golden opportunity of creating a planning system fit for the 21st century that has people and nature at its heart. Labours shadow communities secretary Steve Reed said the reforms should be scrapped altogether. Michael Gove needs to confirm that the Conservatives hated Developers Charter is dead and buried and set out how this government intends to meet its housing targets, he added. These hated reforms wont fix the housing crisis or give local people a stake in their areas. Thats why Labour introduced a Use it or Lose it Bill to protect local residents voice while speeding up housebuilding across the country. Polly Neate, chief executive of homelessness charity Shelter said: With over a million households stuck on the social housing waiting list, we need to get building. But its important that we get planning reform right, and dont create a system that is set up to fail. We need a planning system that delivers many more social homes, and if there needs to be a pause while the government figures out a new one which will do this, then so be it. News of the review emerged as the housing secretary faced calls to return 100,000 of donations he recently received from a property developer. The MPs register of financial interests shows Mr Gove accepted two donations of 50,000 on August 6 from Zachariasz Gertler. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: Conservative planning reforms are already handing more powers to developers, and now it seems the new housing secretary is accepting donations from them, too. To avoid any conflict of interest, Michael Gove must return this money. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has defended the donations. A spokesman said: All donations made to the Secretary of State have been declared publicly and the proper process followed. The department has robust processes in place to ensure any potential conflicts of interest are managed appropriately. Scotlands government has called for support from the military to help deal with long delays for people waiting for ambulances. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised unreservedly today to people affected by extended waits, adding that the health service was dealing with its most challenging combination of circumstances amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Those affected include the family of Gerald Brown, from Glasgow, who died aged 65 while waiting 40 hours for treatment. The Scottish governments request to the military relates to the support of mobile testing units currently deployed by the Scottish Ambulance Service, which would then free up resources within the service, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. A spokeswoman for the MoD said: The Ministry of Defence has received a request from Scottish Government under the Military Aid to Civilian Authority process. We are working hard to identify where we can most effectively assist other government departments and civil authorities. The requests confirmation by the MoD had come hours after Ms Sturgeon told MSPs during First Ministers Questions that the possibility of the government asking for help was under active consideration. She had said that the government was considering seeking targeted military assistance to help deal with short-term pressure points in the ambulance service, as well as providing additional funding to support new recruitment. Ms Sturgeon added: Such military assistance is already being provided to ambulance services in England and of course we have had military assistance for other aspects of the pandemic over the past 18 months. Health Secretary Humza Yousaf will make a statement in Holyrood next week to set out measures being taken by the Scottish Government to ease the health care crisis. It comes after he said on Wednesday (15 September) that people should think twice before calling for an ambulance. The Tory leader Douglas Ross criticised his comments, calling them dangerous and reckless. He had urged Ms Sturgeon to apologise on his behalf which she did not. Instead, she said people should never hesitate in calling an ambulance if that is the intervention they think is required. Meanwhile, the Scottish Ambulance Service would be contacting Mr Browns family to apologise for the delay in response and to pass on [their] sincerest condolences, a spokeswoman said. All findings and lessons learned will be shared with Mr Browns family as part of the investigation process, she added. His death has been reported to the Procurator Fiscal, who said an investigation was ongoing. Mr Browns bereaved relatives were told that he could have survived if help arrived sooner, The Herald newspaper reported. South Africas top court has dismissed a bid by former president Jacob Zuma to overturn his 15-month jail sentence for failing to attend a corruption inquiry. Mr Zuma, who is currently recuperating in hospital after undergoing surgery for an unknown illness, had asked the court in July to revoke a sentence for contempt of court, arguing that imprisonment would endanger his health and life. The former president received the sentence in June after failing to testify at an inquiry investigating corruption during his 9-year rule - seen as a key test of the strength of post-apartheid South Africas democratic institutions and its ability to enforce the rule of law. In a majority decision of 7-2 judges on Friday, the Constitutional Court rejected his arguments that a jail sentence was excessive and would put his health at risk. The application for rescission is dismissed, Justice Sisi Khampepe said as she read the majority decision, which included an order for Zuma to pay costs. To his peril, Mr. Zuma declined to participate in the contempt proceedings and disdainfully dismissed further opportunity when invited to do so. The hands of the Constitutional Court are bound and Mr Zuma himself bound them. Mr Zuma, 79, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He was imprisoned in July but granted medical parole for an undisclosed illness on September 6, despite claims from opposition parties that procedure wasnt followed in the run-up to his release. His jailing on July 7 triggered some of the worst rioting and looting in South Africa in decades. More than 300 people were killed and thousands of businesses and factories pillaged and razed. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who replaced Mr Zuma as President in 2018, branded the rioting a failed insurrection. The chaotic scenes raised concerns that Mr Zuma might be spared jail to appease his supporters. Mr Zuma, who resigned four years ago amid corruption allegations, still has considerable support in parts of South Africa and within the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) party. His time in office, from 2009 to 2018, was marred by a string of scandals and mismanagement. Obviously the foundation is disappointed with this judgement, Mzwanele Manyi, spokesman for the JG Zuma Foundation, said in response to the ruling on Friday. Mr Zuma also faces corruption charges in a separate case, where he is accused of taking bribes in connection with South Africas 2.9 million arms deal in 1999 with French manufacturer Thales. The trial, which began in May, is due to resume next week. Sharon Premoli never stopped thinking about the man who came to her aid when she somehow survived the collapse of the World Trade Centers North Tower. And that good samaritan, New Yorker Fred Hill, never stopped thinking about her. On the first anniversary of the Al-Qaeda attacks that killed almost 3,000 people, she sent him a small silver tray from Tiffany and Co, on which were engraved some words from the Talmud. To save a life is to save the world. After that, they lost touch, each of them getting on with their lives, and trying like so many to move on, or at least to better handle, those shuddering events. This anniversary, the 20th, Mr Hill, aided by his partner, Simone Della Valle, made a special effort to track down Ms Premoli. Doing some research online, Ms Della Valle spotted an article Ms Premoli had published about her remarkable story in The Independent. At around 8pm on Saturday [September 11 2021] the phone rang, Ms Premoli said this week. I asked who it was, and the person said Fred Hill. She added: He said Ive been looking for you. My girlfriend found you. I said to him I cannot remember 9/11 without thinking of you, and he said he felt the same. It was extraordinary. 9/11: What bystanders saw In the account Ms Premoli published of her survival, she recounted clambering down the stairwell of the North Tower from her offices on the 80th floor, as people sang hymns and firefighters climbed up. Then the tower collapsed. When I regained consciousness, I was aware, but in total blackness, the kind of complete black that one might imagine being buried alive, and I was, she wrote. Her account, part of a memoir she expects to publish once litigation over 9/11 is completed, ended with her limping in a street in Lower Manhattan, bleeding and dazed, her ankle broken, and her lungs scorched. Her body was riddled with fragments of debris. But her story did not end there. As Ms Premoli limped up Hudson Street, Mr Hill, whose apartment was on that block and who was out on the street, saw her as she tried to hobble north. He did not know her. But he knew she needed help. Fred Hill and his wife were my rescuers. They let me take a shower, they gave me some clothes, they let me wait in their apartment for 12 hours while a friend from Boston came to get me, she said. Total strangers. They just took me off the street. Sharon Premoli published an account of her dramatic escape in The Independent' (Sharon Premoli ) Crucially, Mr Hill was able to get word to Ms Premolis anxious daughter that her mother, who has been on the 80th floor of the North Tower where she worked for Beast Financial Systems, was alive. While most phone lines out of New York were not working, it was possible to call in. As it was, Mr Hills daughter, who lived in Washington DC, was equally worried about him, given how close his apartment was to the Twin Towers. During one of those calls, Mr Hill gave his daughter the phone number for Ms Premolis daughter, Sasha, who at the time lived in Los Angeles, and asked her to let her know what had happened. Mr Hill, 71, who now lives in Arizona, said the call between the two daughters had been deeply emotional. He said: Their conversation went something like Hi, you dont know me, my name is Adrienne Hill, but your mom is okay. And Sharons daughter started screaming How do you know that? How do you know that? My daughter said, Its okay. Its okay. Shes with my dad. My dad has an apartment in New York. And then they both just started crying and sobbing. Sharon Premoli was on 80th floor of North Tower when it was struck (Getty Images) Mr Hill, 71, a former police officer, who also has a son, and who now works in personal finance for Coastline Wealth Management, said he did not think he and his ex-wife did anything extraordinary, certainly nothing to warrant being termed a rescuer by Ms Premoli. It wasnt a rescue, he said. It was one person seeing someone in distress at a time when it looked like the world was turning upside down. Yet, both agreed, though they only spent 12 hours in each others company, the intensity of the circumstance had left a deep connection. When you go through something like that, I believe it sort of puts memory markers on your soul, he said. And [after] experiencing that with her.I feel closer to her than some people I have known all my life. Because we have something that few people can talk about. We went through a horrendous experience, and part of it was together. And we both came out the other end. Mr Hill and his partner Simone Della Valle tracked down Ms Premoli after two decades (Fred Hill) When he read Ms Premolis account and then spoke with her on the 20th anniversary, Mr Hill learned that the woman he helped has spent much of the last 20 years seeking justice for what happened. She is one of the plaintiffs in a law suit that alleges officials from Saudi Arabia helped the hijackers, 15 of whom were citizens of the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied that claim, and did so again on the 20th anniversary of the attacks. Both Mr Hill and Ms Premoli, who now lives in Vermont, are also adamant they will not allow themselves to lose touch once again. I have a good friend in Vermont, well, actually now I have two, said Mr Hill, who said he hoped they could meet next year. Like I said, it was an amazing experience. People say, Well theres always something good that comes out of evil. I guess one good thing was that I got to meet Sharon. Mr Hill pictured walking his dog outside his apartment the day after 9/11 (Fred Hill) He said another positive thing he took from the episode, happened later that day itself. On the evening of 9/11, Mr Hill walked south towards the site of the downed towers, an area that would rapidly become known as ground zero. He said emergency workers had set up a command post and were seeking volunteers to go and try to find any survivors. This street was packed, I mean shoulder to shoulder, 10 people across. There were literally hundreds of people, maybe thousands, quietly waiting to sign up, to do whatever they could do to help he said. I thought to myself, okay, its going to be hard, but were going to make it through this. Because, if you think about it, those people were trying to do, in a bigger way, perhaps, what I had done for Sharon. A bear was euthanised in Colorado after it entered a home searching for food, trapping a family inside for about 45 minutes, said the states wildlife officials. The black bear entered a home in the Steamboat Springs area on 7 September to find a human food source as its jaws were misaligned due to an injury, according to a press release issued by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) on Wednesday. The bear managed to enter the home through an open garage and was trapped inside, forcing family members inside the house to lock themselves in an upstairs room, the release said. Officers spent around 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to coax the bear out of the home. The bear became more aggressive towards the officers because of which the bear had to be put down for reasons of health and human safety, the CPW said. The bear had a broken lower jaw that was split in the middle, CPW district wildlife manager Adam Gerstenberger was quoted as saying in the release. "It had healed up wrong and one of its canines was hanging out from its upper lip. The other lower canine was shattered, so its teeth werent meeting up, Mr Gerstenberger said. The injury is likely the reason why the bear had turned to human food sources, he added. This was not the first time the bear had entered a home in the area. Residents told Mr Gerstenberger that the bear had previously found food in their garages as well. The CPW, on its website, has provided a set of guidelines that can help avoid contact with bears. The guidelines urge residents to avoid leaving rubbish or recyclables outside overnight to avoid luring wild bears into residential areas. Empty cans and boxes still smell like food, the guidelines said, adding that bear-proof containers must be used if necessary and residents must pick any and all fruit before it ripens. Once a bear finds a human food source, it usually returns for more, according to the CPW. A bear can become a threat if it becomes comfortable around humans. According to the guidelines, such bears must then be euthanised as they can become a threat to humans. The wildlife department pointed out that at this time of the year bears enter the hyperphagia phase, a time when their appetite increases abnormally, giving them the urge to consume at least 20,000 calories a day. This is so they can prepare themselves for hibernation. As bears start to prepare for hibernation and hunt for food, Coloradans may see more bear activity in urban areas, the release stated. It is therefore necessary for Colorado residents to store their food adequately and manage their trash properly, it said. A 28-year-old man has been arrested for a 2012 murder at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on Thursday after his DNA matched some collected at the scene where 19-year-old Faith Hedgepeth, a UNC sophomore, was found. Ms Hedgepeth was last seen alive at 4am on 7 September 2012 when her roommate left their apartment on Old Durham Road in Chapel Hill. The roommate returned around seven hours later and found Ms Hedgepeth covered by a blanket on top of her slightly askew mattress with large amounts of blood, according to the autopsy report. In 2016, police said Ms Hedgepeth was found in the off-campus apartment undressed from the waist down with her shirt pulled up and her body propped up against her bed. She had been beaten to death and possibly raped. A note written on a fast-food takeout bag found near her body said Im not stupid and also included the words b**ch and jealous. Assistant Chapel Hill Chief of Police Celisa Lehew said during a press conference on Thursday that Mr Salguero-Olivares wasnt a suspect at the beginning of the investigation. Mr Salguero-Olivares has been booked into Durham County jail without bond and will appear in court for the first on Friday during a virtual proceeding. Law enforcement officials have not yet provided a motive for the murder. I didnt do anything but cry and thank God and praise God, Ms Hedgepeths mother Connie said following the arrest. When I cried, it was tears of joy, tears of relief knowing that someone had been arrested in the case. Salguero-Olivares mother told WRAL that her son didnt attend UNC-Chapel Hill and that he didnt have many friends at the university. My son is not a murderer. I believe in my son. I believe it, she told the local TV station. He said he don't know the girl. Investigators found semen on Ms Hedgepath, but have not said if she was sexually assaulted before she was killed. Male DNA found elsewhere in the apartment matched the DNA from the semen. A composite description of a man was made in 2016 based on the DNA. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, said during a news conference that DNA from Mr Salguero-Olivares matched samples taken at the crime scene. Chief Lehew said the suspect also matched the description made from the DNA. This investigation is not complete. Our work is not done, she said. We will continue to work this case until every lead has been extinguished and any parties that have a role in or knowledge of this tragedy are brought to justice. When Celisa [Lehew] called me today and told me they made an arrest, my mind ... I went right back to September 2012, Roland Hedgepeth, Faith Hedgepeths father, said during the press conference on Thursday. Its been a long nine years and nine days. I want to thank God for allowing me to stay alive to see this day. A family friend of Mr Salguero-Olivares told WRAL that the violent act doesnt fit the person she knows him to be, noting principles he learned from his parents and grandparents. Mr Salguero-Olivares was charged last month in Wake County, North Carolina with impaired driving, having an open alcohol container, a fictitious vehicle tag, no drivers license, and no insurance. At the time of the murder in 2012, several people were questioned and police investigated multiple men as possible suspects. One of them was the ex-boyfriend of Ms Hedgepeths roommate, who was frustrated with the influence Ms Hedgepeth reportedly had over her friend. According to a warrant, the ex-boyfriend told Ms Hedgepeth that he was going to kill her if his girlfriend didnt get back together with him, WRAL reported. Mr Stein said during the press conference that the arrest sent powerful messages about the power of DNA evidence. To the murders and rapists no matter how long ago you committed your crime, we will never stop coming four you, he said. Gabby Petito used a popular camping app to document her van-life road trip with boyfriend Brian Laundrie, offering new leads for investigators trying to locate the missing YouTuber. The locations listed on her public account on The Dyrt show locations where the couple visited across several states on their cross-country trip, and indicate where they may have been heading next. It also sheds new light where they may have stayed in and around Moab, Utah, on 12 August, where police were called to a violent argument between the couple. Ms Petitos profile on the camping app shows she was interested in staying at several campsites in that area, including one in the Porcupine Rim area of the Manti-La Sal National Forest. Gabby Petito and boyfriend Brian Laundrie documented their trip on camping app The Dyrt (The Dyrt/Gabby Petito) This campsite was just five miles from where Moab residents and newlyweds Crystal Turner and Kylen Schulte were found shot dead on August 18. The Grandy County Sheriffs Office investigating the couples murder say they are looking at a potential connection between Ms Petitos disappearance and the double homicide. Ms Petito, 22, left several reviews of campsites she and Mr Laundrie, as well as posting pictures of the couple and their van. Ms Petito has not been seen since 24 August, and her boyfriend has been named a person of interest in her disappearance. An analysis of the Ms Petitos entries on the site by KSLs Cold podcast shows Ms Petito referenced campsites in several states including Utah and Wyoming, where investigators are focusing their search for Ms Petito. In her final review posted to the site on 29 July, Ms Petito wrote about spending the night on Willow Springs Rd in Utahs Arches National Park, not far from the Double Arch monument where she posted pictures to Instagram of on August 12. Highly recommend taking a walk to watch the stars very late at night, she wrote. There is a spot past the tress if where the sky completely opens up, really nice spot in the shade to put tent! Got to watch a crazy thunderstorm in our newly converted van! Follow our journey Nomadicstatik.com & YouTube!! She also left a review for Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah on 22 July. Gabby Petitos van was seen in Grand Teton National Park on the day she disappeared (Instagram/GabsPetito) Stopped here to enjoy some more of the storm out in a more private and secluded spot, but not too secluded, there are plenty of spots but theres also lots of trees, Petito wrote about one site near Bryce Canyon National Park. Bumpy gravel road to get in but its not bad if you make it in the daylight. Also good service so I was able to work from my computer. Ms Petito refers to Mr Laundrie as her fiance in one of the posts, and describes them both as experienced hikers who often take on challenging hikes. We are both young and fit, with our big backpacks on it probably took us about two hours to make it to the tip of dragons tooth, she wrote on 26 July, referring to a popular hiking trail in the George Washington National Park in Virginia. The search for Ms Petito is currently focusing on the Grand Teton National Park in Utah, where witnesses saw the couples Ford Transit van on 25 August. A former Catholic priest accused of performing sexual acts on an altar in Pearl River, Louisiana, has been charged with a higher offence of obscenity for the September 2020 encounter, according to a report. Travis John Clark, aged 38, was a pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church when he allegedly had a threesome on the altar with Mindy Lynn Dixon, 42, and Melissa Kamon Cheng, 29, who were wearing corsets and high heels. Mr Clark, Ms Dixon and Ms Cheng were charged with obscenity by St Tammy Parish Sheriffs Office in Pearl River, before a district attorney dropped the charges in favour of institutional vandalism, a lesser charge, in March 2021. All three pleaded not guilty to charges of "knowingly vandalising, defacing, or otherwise damaging property and causing damage valued at over $500 and under $50,000 in court. The scandal, at the same time, led to calls for an investigation at the Vatican. As The New Orleans Advocate reported on Thursday, a district attorney filed a superseding bill of information against the former priest, Ms Dixon and Ms Cheng for obscenity the charged originally filed by Pearl River police on 27 August. A re-arraignment is scheduled for 13 October in front of 22nd Judicial District Judge Ellen Creel, according to The Advocate, with the trio facing a three-year jail sentence if found guilty. All three were allegedly witnessed by a passerby who recorded the sexual encounter and police later found stage lights, sex toys and a phone mounted on a tripod at the altar. All the items were removed as evidence. Police also claimed in court filings that the altar was visible through the churchs windows and glass doors which has been been disputed by an attorney for Mr Clark. In Louisiana, a charge of obscenity refers to a sexual act in any place open to the public view. Attorney Bradley Phillips told The Advocate after arrests were made last year a vandalism charge was a "thinly-veiled attempt to regulate the morality of private individuals, and that the sexual encounter was legal because it was private, and not in public. The Independent has approached Mr Philips for comment. The district attorney, meanwhile, refused to comment. One of the suspects connected to the discovery of four bodies in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield was arrested Thursday by the St. Paul Police Department. The second suspect remains at large, officials said. Darren Lee McWright, 56, of St. Paul was arrested by the St. Paul Police Department and is being held in the Ramsey County Jail, according to a Dunn County Sheriffs Office news release. The sheriffs office said they are still looking for the second suspect, Antoine Darnique Suggs, who is believed to be in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area and is considered armed and dangerous. The arrest is the latest development in the mysterious case of four young adults from Minnesota who were found dead in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield on Sunday, police said, in a quadruple homicide case that has more questions than answers now and has left families shattered. The victims, friends all from the Twin Cities area, were probably driven to the small town of Sheridan, Wis., where their bodies were found on Sunday, Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said at a Tuesday news conference. Autopsies performed Monday found that all died of gunshot wounds, police said. Obviously weve had homicides in the last several years, Bygd told reporters, but something of this magnitude ... this is a first. The victims were identified as Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater, Minn.; Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, of St. Paul; Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul; and Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, of St. Paul. Pettus and Sturm were half-siblings. Foreman and Sturm were in a relationship, while Flug-Presley was a close friend of Sturm. Days later, police are still grappling with a case in which few details are known. This is a coldblooded tragedy, Damone Presley, the father of Flug-Presley, told The Washington Post. They killed my daughter. The sheriffs office said there was a high degree of certainty that the suspect or suspects were no longer in the area, about 70 miles outside St. Paul. Police believe those involved had no connection to the Sheridan area other than perhaps randomly driving out of the Twin Cities, Bygd said. We do not know a motive yet, he said, calling it a mystery. Everybodys a suspect at this point. Jessica Foreman, the mother of Loyace Foreman III, told The Post she last spoke to her son on Sept. 9 about the annual family trip to an apple orchard. Foreman said her only son was a devoted father to his two children, ages 7 and 13, as well as a protective big brother and the best uncle ever. He was also an immensely talented artist who loved Sturm. He was in love and looking forward to a future with Jasmine Sturm, she said in a text message. Presley described Flug-Presley as a doting mother of two children, ages 4 and 10. She asked her father if he could watch one of her children while she went out Saturday night with her friends, he said. Presley last spoke to Flug-Presley around 8:30 or 9 p.m. Saturday, when she called to ask if he was on his way. She left before he arrived, he said. He said she and her friends had planned to go to Shamrocks, a bar and restaurant in St. Paul where Sturm and Pettus worked, and at least one other bar that night. But she never came home that night, he said. Text messages went unread and calls were going straight to voice mail. He grew worried when he couldnt get in touch with his daughter the next day, and the family reached out to authorities. Relatives of the other victims also became concerned, noting it wasnt like them not to return messages. At 2:18 p.m. Sunday, the Dunn County Sheriffs Office received a 911 call from a farmer in the area about people in a vehicle that were not moving, Bygd said. About 12 minutes later, authorities found a black SUV with Minnesota license plates that was parked in a field of tall cornstalks. Presley said he was notified early Monday that four bodies had been found in an abandoned vehicle in Wisconsin. I was bewildered because she doesnt know anybody in Wisconsin. The first thing I said was, Wisconsin? Are you sure? he told The Post. Thats when we started assuming that something tragic had happened to her. Bygd said the four people were probably killed less than 24 hours before the vehicle was found, but authorities remain uncertain of exactly when. A second dark-colored SUV might have been traveling with the black SUV that was found with the victims inside, but that remains unclear, police said in a news release. The abandoned SUV was captured on surveillance video at a gas station around noon on Sunday, two hours before it was discovered in the cornfield, according to the Star Tribune. The sheriffs office is being assisted in the investigation by several state agencies, including the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Wisconsin Department of Justices crime lab. Investigators are reviewing security footage and traffic cameras for information to help piece together the quadruple homicide case. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of these victims, Bygd said. I wish we could release more details of our investigation, but we have to balance the publics desire to know the details with running the risk of harming our investigation. At Shamrocks, friends are mourning the loss of the group, including their co-workers, Sturm and Pettus. Mike Runyon, co-owner of the bar and restaurant, told The Post that the business was processing the loss of these two people we dealt with on a daily basis. He said Sturm, who was also an office assistant at a law firm, was an adoring mother. We are at a loss for words and are still in a state of shock over whats happened, he said. Its just a very somber moment. Were grieving with the families. Presley is pleading for anyone who knows anything about the death of his daughter and her three friends in the heinous, deliberate crime to come forward. Sometimes innocent people pay a penalty, but the innocence of my daughter and the other three individuals who were killed should not be overlooked, he said. There was no need to take my daughters life - no reason at all. Washington Post A 15-year-old Texas teenager shot dead his whole family, posted pictures of the bodies online and then killed himself after the police found him, officials said on Thursday. The teen was identified as William Quince Colburn III, police officials in Aransas Pass and the San Patricio County sheriffs office said. After killing his sister and parents, the teen posted graphic pictures of their dead bodies on social media and threatened to continue the violence at a school. The police tracked the teen to a recreational vehicle park in Aransas County of South Texas on Wednesday night after they were alerted to the images on social media. They asked him to come outside of his motor home but he refused. They then heard a gunshot, the police said. Entry was made into the RV and immediately discovered the graphic scene shared over social media, the Aransas Pass Police Department said in a statement. The male juvenile was likewise found deceased from a gunshot wound. In total, investigators found 4 deceased bodies and 2 deceased dogs. Oscar Rivera, the San Patricio County sheriff, said the three people were also shot to death. The deceased were identified as the teens father William Colburn Jr, mother Jana Colburn and sister Emma Colburn, 13. The police said they might well have been working on an even more tragic event later this morning if they had not been alerted by social media users to the teens threat. Mahria Batts, who identified herself as the teens sister and the eldest of 11 Colburn children, is raising funds for the funeral of her dead family members. We are deeply saddened by the events that have unfolded today. Like many in the community, we are hurt, outraged, sad, and most of all, [there is] a sense of emptiness, she told The Independent. We should be celebrating our Mothers 53rd Birthday today. Instead, we are having to run around and try to figure out how we are going to lay them all to rest. Ms Batts added: While we appreciate and understand so many emotions being shared with us, on behalf of all of my siblings, I ask that you take into consideration that even with the way this all played out, we are still mourning 4 individuals. We ask that you find it in your hearts to please donate, share and to also understand that we are grieving. She said her brother got a call from a judge in Aransas Pass who told them about the triple murder and suicide. If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offers support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. France has recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia in protest at being pushed out of a multibillion-dollar submarine deal. French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the diplomatic move on Friday night, saying it came in a request from the French president Emmanuel Macron. This is believed to be the first time France has recalled its US envoy. Diplomatic relations between the long-standing allies, the United States and France, are in tatters after the announcement earlier this week that Australia would pull out of a contract to have France supply its defence submarines. US president Joe Biden announced a new pact between the US, the UK, and Australia on Wednesday that included a long-term agreement to build nuclear-powered submarines for Australia a deal Mr Le Drian called a stab in the back for France. Explaining Frances decision over the recall of their ambassador Philippe Etienne to the US, Mr Le Drian referenced the exceptional gravity of the announcements. He also said France would be recalling its ambassador to Canberra, Jean-Pierre Thebault. France said it was not given sufficient warning of the cancellation of the $90bn submarine contract, which Mr Le Drian called unacceptable behaviour. However, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison claimed he had warned Mr Macron in June that the deal was at risk of collapse because of delays and budgeting problems. The bitter diplomatic row has escalated dramatically since the announcement of the pact, with France cancelling a gala at its Washington embassy that was planned to celebrate the US-French relationship. In comments seemingly designed to ease tensions, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Thursday: We cooperate incredibly closely with France on many shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific but also around the world. Were going to continue to do so. We place fundamental value on that relationship, on that partnership. France in particular is a vital partner on this, and so many other issues, he added. Australia said it regrets Frances decision to recall its ambassador. We note with regret Frances decision to recall its ambassador to Australia, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said in a statement. Australia values its relationship with France ... We look forward to engaging with France again on our many issues of shared interest, based on shared values. Within hours of Gabby Petitos family issuing a statement begging the family of Brian Laundrie to help them find the 22-year-old YouTuber, a member of the Laundrie family has spoken out. For the first time, Brian Laundries sister Cassie Laundrie opened up over Ms Petitos disappearance and called her like a sister. In an interview on Thursday, Ms Laundrie said: Obviously me and my family want Gabby to be found safe. She is like a sister and my children love her, and all I want is for her to come home safe and found and this to be just a big misunderstanding. Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Ms Petito, has refused to speak with the police since returning home from their road trip alone. Police have named him as a person of interest in the missing case but not accused him of any wrongdoing. The full interview with Ms Laundrie is due to be broadcast on Friday morning on Good Morning America. Ms Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie were on a cross-country trip visiting national parks in an RV. When Mr Laundrie returned home without Ms Petito, her family alerted the Suffolk County police. According to officials investigating the case, the couple had a scuffle on 12 August. The police on Thursday released the bodycam footage of the incident between the couple. The almost-hour-long video shows officers from Moab City Police Department separating Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie. It was also alleged that she slapped her fiance because she feared he was going to drive off without her following an argument. A witness had called 911 with concerns for the pair, though no charges were filed. The incident was classed as a mental/emotional health break and not a domestic assault, according to police. Mr Laundrie drove the van back to Florida on 1 September without Ms Petito. The boyfriends lawyer, Steven Bertolino, also said that the Laundrie family was hoping for Ms Petitos safe return, while reiterating that Mr Laundrie has the right to remain silent. A three-alarm fire blazed through and completely gutted a mansion believed to be owned either by Google co-founder Larry Page or the company itself in Californias Palo Alto city this week. Firefighters responded on Tuesday night at around 8pm and subsequently managed to put out the flame. No one was reported injured and the house was empty when the incident occurred, according to a report by local news website Palo Alto Online. The fire was spotted on a security camera by a neighbour, who alerted fire officials, according to the citys fire department. Smoke had emerged from the second floor of the two-storey home, city fire official Shane Yarbrough, a city fire official, was quoted as saying. The fire was triggered at the rear of the home, which has a long driveway, an attached unit at the back and a basement, according to Mr Yarbrough. The cause of the fire, however, has not yet been ascertained. Crews arrived to find heavy fire on three sides of the structure and on both stories, a Facebook post from Palo Altos fire department said. Additionally, flames from the fire threatened tall trees on one side of the structure. The property, situated at the neighbourhoods Bryant Street, is a six-bedroom house estimated to be worth $11m (7.9m). It is either owned by Mr Page or Google itself, according to Palo Alto Online, who quoted a neighbour who requested anonymity. The property could have possibly been used as an office during the day for a small team of workers, who parked their vehicles outside and left by evening, according to the neighbour. Public records of the property reportedly showed it was owned by a Limited Liability Company (LLC) which shares the same address as Mr Pages Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation. During the worst days of the coronavirus pandemic in New York, in the early spring of 2020, Dr Lorna Breen described the scenes at the Manhattan hospital where she worked as being like Armageddon. The emergency department at the New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital was operating at three times its capacity due to the influx of Covid patients. When she wasnt at the hospital, she was often directing her staff over the phone. When she contracted Covid herself, and could barely move, she continued to help from afar. But even as the pandemic took a significant personal toll on her own health, her primary focus was on her patients. As a caregiver, one of the hardest parts about COVID is that youre used to helping people, and when you cant do that, it is really hard on the psyche. She was absolutely experiencing all of that very clearly, said J Corey Feist, Dr Breens brother-in-law. Dr Breen died by suicide on April 26, 2020, following an 11-day stay at a psychiatric hospital. She left no note, and experts say suicide is rarely attributable to one factor alone. But since her death, her family has been determined to help other health professionals who are at risk of suffering from burnout and stress. Mr Feist co-founded the Dr Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation along with his wife, Lornas sister, Jennifer Breen Feist. The organisation is behind a new law that aims to fill the institutional gaps which make it difficult for healthcare workers to receive mental health support, and it has bipartisan support. People are shocked that there are all these barriers to getting mental health help. For you and I, we can go and go to a therapist without any recourse to our livelihoods, Mr Feist told The Independent. The same is not true for medical professionals, he added. The profession throws up barriers, some very real and some imagined, according to Mr Feist. Things such as medical licence applications asking questions about an applicants mental health history, which could, in theory, impact their chances of employment, encourage a culture of silence in the medical profession. It defies logic, he added. Even if you dont know a healthcare worker, everyones going to be a patient. And so you want your healthcare workforce to be of sound mind and body so they can take care of you when you become a patient. So not only do they deserve it just individually, but everyone should care about this issue because someday a loved one is going to be a patient. Even before the pandemic, research suggested that physicians had one of the highest rates of death by suicide of any profession in America, and women faced a greater risk. More recent studies have found evidence to suggest that the pandemic has contributed to an increase in mental health issues for medical professionals. Dr Breens family is sharing her story in an effort to bring awareness to the risks of burnout and stress on medical professionals. Before the pandemic hit, there was nothing to suggest that she was struggling. She loved the outdoors and would go on annual snowboarding trips with family. She was a latecomer to the cello and joined an orchestra in New York city, where she had dreamed of living and working as a doctor when she was young. She was in the process of studying for an MBA. She was very much larger than life, said Mr Feist. And before she contracted Covid in March of 2020 she had no known or suspected mental health challenges, she had no substance abuse history, he added. Her family first realised that something was wrong during their annual trip. Dr Breen joined her sister and Mr Feist, along with their children, on a vacation to Big Sky, Montana. And even though she was on vacation, she was spending a lot of time helping to manage the emergency room operations from a distance, Mr Feist said. She was sharing with us a lot of the operational chaos of the situation. Dr Breen left on a Thursday morning, two days before she was due back at work. She always made sure she had an extra day after vacation and before work so she would never miss a shift. She returned to work on Saturday and early the next week she contracted Covid. What she described to us was very chaotic and overwhelming in the way that they were taking care of patients and just taking care of themselves in the process. They did not know the appropriate precautions to take. And they also did not know what to even always look for in the symptoms of patients, said Mr Feist. Dr Breen stayed at home by herself for a week while she recovered from Covid. She lost a lot of weight and was exhausted from the experience. When she wasnt sleeping, she was on the phone to her staff members trying to manage from afar. Then, when she passed 24 hours without a fever, she went straight back to 10 and 12-hour shifts. By that point, she told her family that the situation had spiralled out of control. Her words were: Its Armageddon. The volume of death and dying that she was observing was completely overwhelming, said Mr Feist. Dr Lorna Breen (Image provided by family ) It was at this point that, according to Mr Feist, these institutional barriers prevented Dr Breen from seeking the help she needed. When it comes to mental health, it is very much a culture where you dont ask for help. And in fact, if you do, thats a sign of weakness, he said. From the very first day she was back, she clearly stated to us that she was concerned about her inability to have a job after this because she thought that her colleagues were able to tell that she couldnt keep up. I cant speak to whether or not there were resources that were being made available for them at that time, but what I can say is that her own thoughts about the impact on her professional reputation, or taking a break for saying she couldnt handle it, is what caused her to stay in the workforce, working beyond her 12-hour shifts with no sleep. And it just spiralled, just absolutely spiralled out of control, he said. The legislation being championed by the Dr Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation has already passed in the Senate and is awaiting final passage in the House. Senator Tim Kaine spoke in support of the bill this week, and urged lawmakers to pass it. Many in the medical profession and surveys have shown this again and again are reluctant to seek help or reluctant to tell others they need help, because theyre worried, not about their patients, not about their health, but their job, Mr Kaine said. The bill would give funding to medical and nursing schools, and local governments, to train medical professionals and students in burnout and suicide-prevention strategies. It would provide funding for programmes to help healthcare workers already in the workforce with mental health treatment. It would fund an awareness campaign targeted at healthcare workers to reduce the stigma around seeking mental health support, and it would allow for further studies into the impact of Covid-19 on the health of medical workers. Mr Feist said he hoped the attention on the bill, and on Dr Breens story, would help others seek help. To healthcare workers struggling, I would say a couple of things, first of all, self-care is not selfish. Look for yourself first, and then your colleagues. And if you see someone whos in trouble or you think youre in trouble, dont wait for it to get worse. Take action now. If you wait, it could be too late. That was what happened to us with Dr Breen. For help dealing with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. If you are in the UK and would like to talk to someone about mental health, call Samaritans at 116 123. The father of a mixed race schoolgirl in Michigan whose hair was cut by a teacher without her parents permission has filed a $1m lawsuit against the school district, librarian and a teachers assistant. Jimmy Hoffmeyer, the father of the girl Jurnee, filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Grand Rapids against Mount Pleasant Public Schools. Mr Hoffmeyer said his daughter was a victim of racial discrimination. The lawsuit, filed on 14 September, also alleged that the girls constitutional rights were violated. In March this year, a classmate of seven-year-old Jurnee cut her hair while they were on a school bus. Mr Hoffmeyer complained to the principal of Ganiard Elementary and later took his daughter to a hair salon to fix Jurnees hair. Two days later, Jurnees library teacher cut off her remaining hair with the help of another teachers assistant, the lawsuit states. At that time, the father said: She was crying. She was afraid of getting in trouble for getting her hair cut. I asked what happened and said I thought I told you no child should ever cut your hair. She said: But dad, it was the teacher. The teacher cut her hair to even it out. Recommended Father takes his biracial daughter out of school after teacher cut her hair without permission The lawsuit has named the Mount Pleasant Public Schools, librarian Kelly Mogg, and teacher assistant Kristen Jacobs as defendants, MLive reported. The lawsuit said the childs hair was cut without permission from Jurnee or her parents. It noted that the defendants failed to properly train, monitor, direct, discipline, and supervise their employees, and knew or should have known that the employees would engage in the complained-of behaviour given the improper training, customs, procedures, and policies, and the lack of discipline that existed for employees. The lawsuit added that the defendants conduct amounted to deliberate indifference and was obdurate or wanton. Meanwhile, on 2 July, the Mount Pleasant Public Schools Board of Education announced a third-party investigation into the incident and concluded that the librarian, Ms Mogg, did not act with racial bias and thus could keep her job. The board said the third-party independent investigation included interviews with and feedback from district personnel, students, families as well as a review of video and photographic evidence including social media posts. It also noted that their decisions and actions were unacceptable and showed a major lack of judgement. The employees involved have acknowledged their wrong actions and apologised, it said. Mr Hoffmeyer said that the school district never spoke to him or Jurnee. Earlier in the year, Bernita Bradley, the National Parents Unions midwest delegate, had said that the incident was a modern-day scalping and that it was motivated by race. She had said at the time: It equates to the fact that you dont like something that naturally grows out of my body and to ostracise me, you scalp me. Jurnee was taken out of the school by her father and now attends a different school. The school district has not yet responded to the lawsuit. According to the US Census, about four per cent of Mount Pleasants 25,000 residents are Black. Meanwhile, Ingham County in the state passed a resolution to become the first in Michigan to ban hair discrimination against public employees. The US military has admitted that a drone strike meant to foil a suspected Isis-K threat in Afghanistan mistakenly killed as many as 10 people, all of them civilians. It was a mistake, a senior US official told reporters of the 29 August drone attack. Military leaders initially defended the strike. The US praised the attack, the final drone strike of the 20-year US war in Afghanistan, for eliminating an imminent Isis-K threat to the Kabul airport, adding that it didnt have indications of any apparent civilian deaths in the residential neighbourhood it just hit with a missile. Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later called the strike righteous. Upon further investigation, however, it was revealed that both the information leading up to the strike and the official version of events that initially followed were both incorrect. I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed, said Kenneth McKenzie of the US Central Command. The military initially believed that the driver of the Toyota saloon they struck with a Hellfire missile was involved in a plot because he had a brief, innocuous interaction outside of what is believed to be an Isis safehouse in Kabul, and loaded something into the back of his trunk, believed to be explosives. The driver, whose identity was unknown as drone pilots pulled the trigger, according to The New York Times, was actually Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for a US aid group delivering food and educational assistance to refugees. His trunk was almost certainly full of water bottles. Another victim was Ahmad Naser, who came to Kabul to escape the Taliban after having served as a guard at the US militarys Camp Lawton, in Herat. He was applying for a US special immigrant visa to leave the country, given the risk of reprisals against him for aiding the Americans. US officials also claimed that secondary explosions after the strike strengthened the case that they had hit a terrorist, though they now believe the blasts were probably from a home gas or propane tank. The strike, one of the final major military actions in the country as US forces hastily pulled out of Afghanistan, was hardly unique. The US has been roundly criticised for using so-called signature strikes, where individuals are targeted not because their identities and intentions are known based on concrete intelligence, but because they fit a pattern of likely threat to US forces. Such strikes, as well as the US war effort in the Middle East at large since 9/11, has killed more than 363,000 civilians since 2001, according to a recent Independent analysis of the last 20 years of the war on terror. Its a manifestation of the project of elite impunity that has always run through this entire enterprise and a manifestation of American exceptionalism, whereby the people that America kills are not somehow as real human beings as Americans are, said Pulitzer Prize-winning national security reporter Spencer Ackerman, author of Reign of Terror, a recent history of the war on terror. Prince Andrew has been accused of hiding from a sexual assault lawsuit as a US judge ruled legal papers could be served through his LA-based lawyers. Legal representatives for American Virginia Giuffre claimed the Duke of York had been actively evading formal efforts to serve him with a lawsuit alleging he abused her when she was a teenager. Ms Giuffres legal team said it had served papers on the Queens son by handing them to a Metropolitan Police officer on duty in Windsor last month. However, Prince Andrews lawyers argued the royal had not been properly served documents relating to the lawsuit. US district judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday ruled Ms Giuffres plan to deliver her lawsuit to the royals LA-based lawyer was reasonably calculated to bring the papers served to the defendant's attention. He ruled barely six hours after Ms Giuffre, 38, formally requested his intervention, saying service is not intended to be a game of hide and seek behind palace walls. The judges decision also came just a day after Londons High Court said it would arrange for the duke to be served if the parties failed to work out their own arrangement. The 61-year-old royal was sued for unspecified damages by Ms Giuffre last month, who accused him of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress over alleged misconduct from about two decades ago. Ms Giuffre would have been 17, and therefore still a minor under US law, at the time of Andrews alleged abuse, which she said occurred around the time his friend, the financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was sexually abusing her. Prince Andrew has denied all allegations, while his lawyer Andrew Brettler branded Ms Giuffres case a baseless, nonviable, potentially unlawful lawsuit during a court hearing on Monday. Virginia Giuffres lawyers have accused the Duke of York of actively evading formal efforts to serve him legal papers (Crime+Investigation/PA) The duke, who has been staying at the Queens Balmoral estate in Scotland for the past month, stepped down from royal duties after details emerged about his relationship with Epstein, a registered sex offender who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. A separate judge on Thursday said Prince Andrew could request the unsealing of a 2009 settlement agreement that his lawyer claims protects him from Ms Giuffres lawsuit. Judge Loretta Preska said in a written order that the duke could seek the information to support arguments the agreement between Ms Giuffre and Epstein disallow her lawsuit against the royal. Mr Brettler, representing the duke, told a Manhattan federal judge he believed the settlement agreement absolves our client from any and all liability. In her lawsuit, Ms Giuffre accused Andrew of forcing her to have sexual intercourse at the London home of Epsteins long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Ms Giuffre alleged Andrew abused her at Epsteins mansion in Manhattan and on Epsteins private island in the US Virgin Islands. Ms Maxwell faces a November 29 trial on charges she helped recruit and groom underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. She has pleaded not guilty. Andrew has not been charged with any crime. Additional reporting by agencies Satellite images have shown the B-2 bomber that crash-landed at the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Tuesday. At $2bn, the plane is one of the US militarys most expensive and dangerous weapons. The crash landing occurred at around 12.30am on Tuesday when the plane was out on a routine training mission and experienced an in-flight malfunction, according to Air Force spokesperson Jennifer Greene, KMBC 9 News reported. (Planet Labs, Inc.) The Daily Mail reported that the plane had a hydraulic failure and that its port main landing gear collapsed as the plane was about to come in for landing leading to the B-2 going off the runway and its wing going into the ground. This version of events hasnt been confirmed by the Air Force, but satellite images from Planet Labs Inc show the plane on the ground just off to the side of the runway with its wing in the ground. (Planet Labs, Inc.) No injuries or fires have been reported. The Federal Aviation Administration set up a temporary flight restriction area with a six-mile radius and 8,000 feet [2,438 metres] into the sky to provide a safe environment for an accident investigation. The restriction will end at 8pm on Friday. Out of the 21 B-2 bombers ever made, 20 remain following a crash in Guam in 2008. KMBC reported that the Missouri B-2 has been stationed at the base since 1993. Its unclear how damaged the plane was in the crash landing. A B-2 Stealth Bomber pulls up on the runway after landing at the Palmdale Aircraft Integration Center of Excellence in California in July 2014 (AFP via Getty Images) A number of B-2 planes from the Whiteman base joined up with the Norwegian government for a successful operation and were deployed on a mission to Iceland and the UK earlier this year. The commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, General Jeffrey Harrigian, said that the August deployment demonstrates the value of our continued presence and relationships, added that what our collective Airmen accomplish on these missions is vital to our alliance and maintaining agility as we move into the future. The Drive reported that materials used to make the B-2 could become toxic during an accident. The stealth bomber can carry both nuclear and conventional weapons. In the 2008 Guam crash, the two pilots survived and the plane wasnt carrying any ammunition. Until the end of an investigation, the remaining 20 B-2 bombers were grounded for two months following the failed take-off. The investigation discovered that heavy rains had damaged the sensors that calculate speed and altitude. The model was developed during the presidency of Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. The Independent has reached out to the Air Force for comment. The chief of the US Capitol Police said that his department would be ready to handle whatever happens during a rally on Saturday in support of people who were arrested in connection to their actions at the 6 January insurrection. US Capitol Police chief Tom Manger said during a press conference on Friday that the department was working with 25 partner agencies, including Washington DCs Metropolitan Police Department. We will be ready to handle anything that occurs, Mr Manger told reporters. The group Look Ahead America plans to hold an event on the Capitol to protest against the treatment of people who were arrested for actions during the riot that occurred on the Hill when supporters of President Donald Trump attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The press conference comes after The Washington Post reported that Mr Manger withdrew his request to have 100 armed National Guard members on standby for the rally. Mr Manger said it is difficult to know which threats of violence are credible. The chatter we heard prior to January 6 obviously, many of those threats turned out to be credible and were not taking any chances, he said. If they decide they want to breach the fence, if they want to attack law enforcement, well be ready, he said. Mr Manger said that the USCP has been working since January to make sure what happened on the day of the insurrection will not happen again. Theyve been working on making sure we have adequate resources for our police officers, training, equipment, staffing to ensure that, again, we can accomplish our mission, he said. Our mission tomorrow is as it is every day and that is to protect everyones right to free speech and to lawfully demonstrate. Former President Donald Trump told associates that his Jewish son-in-law and senior adviser was more loyal to Israel than the United States, Washington Post writers Bob Woodward and Robert Costa reveal in their forthcoming book, Peril. You know, Trump joked in another meeting, mocking his son-in-law, Mr Kushner, who was raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family and was working on Middle East peace, Jareds more loyal to Israel than the United States, according to a copy of the book The Independent obtained ahead of its 21 September release. Mr Trumps use of what the Anti-Defamation League characterises as an anti-semitic trope was nothing new for the now-former president. In August 2019, he repeatedly accused Jewish-Americans who vote for Democrats of being disloyal to Israel or implied that Jewish-Americans should vote based on the interests of a country that is not their own. I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty, he said. Just over a year later in September 2020, he told a group of Jewish-American leaders on a White House conference call marking the Jewish new year that Jews should vote for him because Democrats would be bad for Israel, adding we love your country. Trump often denied that he harboured anti-semitic feelings during his presidency. When a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish weekly publication asked him about a rise in anti-semitic attacks during a February 2017 press conference, he angrily told the reporter that he was the least anti-Semitic person that youve ever seen in your entire life. Nonetheless, his presidency was marked by a significant rise in anti-semitic activity, including the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which marchers chanted Jews will not replace us and the October 2018 mass shooting at Pittsburghs Tree of Life synagogue. Some of the Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on 6 January in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying his defeat by President Joe Biden wore clothing emblazoned with anti-semitic slogans, such as Camp Auschwitz a reference to the infamous Nazi death camp and 6MWE, which stands for 6 Million [Jews murdered by Nazis during the Holocaust] Wasnt Enough. A drone operated by Fox News has been banned from flying over the International Bridge in Texas after thousands of migrants, mostly Haitian, assembled underneath the structure in recent days. Fox News reporter Bill Melugin broke the news to Tucker Carlson on Thursday night, hours after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) brought in a two-week flight restriction over Del Rio, Texas. It means that the network can no longer show viewers footage from a drone that it has flown over the International Bridge between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, for nearly seven months. Weve been using our drone to show everybody these remarkable pictures, Melugin told Carlson, [but] we just learned that the FAA has put out a temporary flight restriction, a TFR, in the area immediately around the port of entry where that bridge is. All of a sudden, in the last 24 hours, we start showing these images at this bridge and a TFR goes up, we can no longer fly. Carlson responded by saying it was news to him, and that he sincerely hope[s] our company will ignore the FAA. They have no right to shut down news gathering. They dont own the news. According to the FAA, the restriction on flying was because of special security reasons, and no further information has been released on the matter. It follows rising numbers of migrants at the border in recent days, where temperatures are around 99 Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) during the day. Food and water is also thought to be in limited supply, and border holding facilities are full. Among those assembling underneath the International Bridge are Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, although most are from Haiti a country that has suffered from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and political uncertainty following the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, since July. Damage in Marceline, Haiti, near to the epicentre of Augusts earthquake. (Tom Cotter for Project HOPE, 2021.) More than 130,000 are currently homeless in Haiti, and 119,000 people are without clean drinking water, causing charities to warn that many are at risk from of infectious diseases like cholera, acute respiratory infection, diarrhoea and malaria as well as Covid-19. Tom Cotter, the director of emergency and disaster response for Project HOPE, a charity that has worked in Haiti for over 40 years, said that "when people do get to a clinic, they hope that it is not one of the 32 health facilities that were completely damaged or destroyed. If the clinic is operational, they still may have to face shortages of medical supplies and personnel to treat them. If it isnt, they are being tended to outside amidst challenging weather, heat, mosquitoes and potential violence from crowds. According to The Washington Post, many of the Haitians who have arrived at the International Bridge are also migrants from the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, which was 10 times more deadly than Augusts tremor, and handicapped Haiti for a decade. It is believed that they are part of a larger wave that had temporarily settled across South America, and are now headed north. Asylum-seeking migrants reach the Rio Grande river, not far from The International Bridge. (REUTERS) A federal judge on Thursday ruled on that the Biden administration could not block migrants under a public health rule known as Title 42, which was invoked under Donald Trump and has stopped thousands of people from entering the US during the Covid-19 pandemic, on humanitarian grounds. Many more people are expected to arrive at the border in the following days, as those already there await processing by the overstretched US Customs and Border Protection agency. It said in a statement that it has increased staffing in Del Rio to facilitate a "safe, humane and orderly process, as well as providing food and water. Those at the border will eventually be moved to a more permanent facility. Fox Newss Sean Hannity accused the FAA of trying to prevent Foxs drone from showing the American people the truth and capturing images just like this, again showing viewers images of the 10,000 migrants at the border. The FAA is being used to cover up for Bidens failures. And we are going to let that stand? I dont think so. The network referred The Independent to an update from Melugin, its reporter in Del Rio, who said on Friday morning that Fox News was now flying its drone away from the FAAs restriction zone. You can see we have our drone live up in the air right now, but it is now well outside of that TFR respecting that rule, Melugin told Americas Newsroom. And we're being kept so far away with our drone, we can no longer even see where the bridge is. So we're not going to be able to show you those images anymore for the time being. While Fox News has been critical of the federal government and US president Joe Biden for rolling back many of the tougher measures introduced by Mr Trump at the border, Fox News anchors such as Carlson have used the border issue as a scapegoat for anti-migrant and occasionally racist rhetoric. It includes Carlson last month facing criticism for telling viewers that millions of asylum applicants will invade American neighbourhoods following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has also recently been forced to defend saying that Democrats wanted to change the demographics of the country through immigration. The claim is a well known dog whistle for so-called replacement theory. Additional reporting by Reuters House Democrats began the serious work of trying to implement President Joe Bidens expansive spending plan, but getting there will require remarkable legislative nimbleness, since Biden has said the revenue to pay for it must come only from Americans who earn more than $400,000 a year. Republicans who have vowed lockstep opposition to the plan, turned their anger against proposed tax breaks they portrayed as subsidies for wealthy elites rather than help for the poor and middle class. Electric vehicles became a rallying symbol as class-warfare overtones echoed through a committee session. The Democrats are proposing that the top tax rate rise back to 39.6% on individuals earning more than $400,000 or $450,000 for couples in addition to a 3% surtax on wealthier Americans with adjusted income beyond $5 million a year. For big business, the proposal would lift the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% on companies annual income over $5 million. Look, I dont want to punish anyones success, but the wealthy have been getting a free ride at the expense of the middle class for too long, Biden tweeted Tuesday. I intend to pass one of the biggest middle class tax cuts ever paid for by making those at the top pay their fair share. The reach for revenue from the wealthy was even billboarded at the ultra-chic Met Gala in Manhattan Monday night. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a leading House progressive, wore a white gown with Tax the Rich" in giant red letters emblazoned on the back (designer Aurora James). For middle- and low-income people, tax help, not increase, is on offer as the House Ways and Means Committee digs into debate and drafting of tax proposals to both fund and buttress Bidens ambitious $3.5 trillion rebuilding plan that includes spending for child care, health care, education and tackling climate change. Its an opening bid at a daunting moment for Biden and his allies in Congress as they assemble the Build Back Better package considered by some on par with the Great Society of the 1960s or even the New Deal of the 1930s Depression. The proposals call for $273 billion in tax breaks for renewable energy and clean electricity, including $42 billion for electric vehicles and $15 billion for a green workforce and environmental items. Increases in the child tax credit to $300 a month per child under 6 and $250 monthly per child 6-17, which came in coronavirus relief legislation earlier this year, would be extended through 2025. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, meanwhile, advanced proposals promoting clean electricity, investments in electric vehicles and other climate provisions. The 30-27 vote along party lines sends the energy measure forward as part of House Speaker Nancy Pelosis goal to approve the huge overall package. The energy panels $456 billion slice is the most consequential for dealing with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, along with the tax breaks debated by the Ways and Means Committee. The Democratic proposals would invest $150 billion in grants to encourage power companies to provide clean electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Electricity suppliers would receive grants based on how much clean electricity they provide, as part of Bidens plan to stop climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035. All GOP lawmakers are expected to vote against the overall legislation. But Republicans are largely sidelined as Democrats rely on a budget process that will allow them to approve the proposals on their own if they can muster their slight majority in Congress. Democrats have no votes to spare to enact Bidens agenda, with their slim hold on the House and with the Senate split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker, if there is no Republican support. But one Democratic senator vital to the bills fate, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, says the cost will need to be slashed to $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion to win his support. Manchin also has said he will not support a number of clean energy and climate provisions pushed by Democrats. A day earlier, Biden appeared to respond to concerns about the plans size, saying the cost may be as much as $3.5 trillion and would be spread out over 10 years as the economy grew. Republican lawmakers, who have denounced the Democratic spending plan as socialist and job-killing, also went after proposed tax breaks on Tuesday. The Democrats propose to extend to five years the current $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, with another $4,500 if a car is made by union workers, and $500 more for a U.S.-made battery. But Republicans painted electric vehicles as a bourgeois-bohemian accessory to be subsidized by taxpayers, the latest symbol of excess. Speaking of outrageous green welfare, this bill allows a near-millionaire family to buy a $75,000 Beamer, Jaguar or Benz luxury electric vehicle and their maid is forced to send them a $12,500 subsidy from her taxes, said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the panels senior Republican. Why are blue-collar workers, nurses, teachers and firefighters subsidizing the wealthy and big business with a quarter of a trillion dollars in green welfare checks? Hold on, said Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich. Were not going to subsidize the wealthiest buying luxury vehicles. The legislation does impose caps on the sale price of the vehicle ($55,000 for a sedan) and the income of the buyer ($600,000 adjusted gross income for a head of household.) The proposal hits another nerve for Republicans Democrats support of labor unions by adding incentives for vehicles and batteries manufactured by union workers. As they slogged through the legislation, members of the majority Democratic committee voted down a series of Republican amendments seeking to tighten the limitations on electric vehicle credits and to eliminate other tax breaks denounced as smacking of progressive Democrats proposed Green New Deal. The House tax proposal is pitched as potentially raising some $2.9 trillion a preliminary estimate which would go a long way toward paying for the $3.5 trillion legislation. The White House is counting on long-term economic growth from the spending plan to generate an additional $600 billion to make up the difference. To reach the Democrats' goal, much of the revenue raised would come from the higher taxes on corporations and the highest earners, increasing the individual tax rate to 39.6% from the current 37%. Targeting wealthy individuals, the Democrats propose an increase in the top tax rate on capital gains for those earning $400,000 a year or more, to 25% from the current 20%. Exemptions for estate taxes, which were doubled under a 2017 Republican tax law to $11.7 million for individuals, would revert to $5 million. ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report. A special prosecutor appointed more than two years ago to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion scandal has filed criminal charges against a prominent cyber security lawyer. Michael E. Sussman has been indicted on a charge of making a false statement about a client during a meeting with the FBI during a meeting in 2016, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday. The charges, which had been anticipated, have been denied by Mr Sussmans lawyers, who say the DoJs evidence is weak and they will take the case to trial. It marks just the second case brought by special prosecutor John Durham since his appointment by Donald Trumps Attorney General Bill Barr in May 2019. The New York Times reported the charges relate to a 19 September 2016 meeting between Mr Sussman and the FBI about Donald Trumps ties to Russia. The indictment accuses Mr Sussmann of hiding that he was working with Hillary Clintons presidential campaign during a conversation he had with the FBIs general counsel, when he relayed concerns from cybersecurity researchers about potentially suspicious contacts between Russia-based Alfa Bank and a Trump organization server. The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections. Mr Sussmann is a former federal prosecutor who specialises in cybersecurity. His lawyers, Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth, said their client is a highly-respected national security lawyer who had previously worked in the Justice Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations and said they were confident he would prevail at trial and vindicate his good name. Mr Sussmann has committed no crime, they said in a statement. Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented, and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work. The Alfa Bank matter was not a pivotal element of the Russia probe and was not even mentioned in Muellers 448-page report in 2019. Still, the indictment may give fodder to Russia investigation critics who regard it as politically tainted and engineered by Democrats. Mr Sussmanns firm, Perkins Coie, has deep Democratic connections. A then-partner at the firm, Marc Elias, brokered a deal with the Fusion GPS research firm to study Trumps business ties to Russia. That work, by former British spy Christopher Steele, produced a dossier of research that helped form the basis of flawed surveillance applications targeting a former Trump campaign official, Carter Page. Attorney General William Barr testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing in the Congressional Auditorium at the US Capitol Visitors Center July 28, 2020 (POOL/AFP via Getty Images) The Durham investigation has already spanned months longer than the earlier special counsel probe into Russian election interference conducted by Mueller, the former FBI director, and his team. The investigation was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and experienced leadership tumult following the abrupt departure last fall of a top deputy on Mr Durhams team. Though Trump had eagerly anticipated Mr Durhams findings in hopes that theyd be a boon to his reelection campaign, any political impact the conclusion may have once had has been dimmed by the fact that Trump is no longer in office. The Durham appointment by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 was designed to examine potential errors or misconduct in the U.S. governments investigation into whether Trumps 2016 presidential campaign was conspiring with Russia to sway the outcome of the election. A two-year investigation by Mr Mueller established that the Trump campaign was eager to receive and benefit from Kremlin aid, and documented multiple interactions between Russians and Trump associates. Investigators said they did not find enough evidence to charge any campaign official with having conspired with Russia, though a half-dozen Trump aides were charged with various offenses, including false statements. Until now, Mr Durham had brought only one criminal case a false statement charge against an FBI lawyer who altered an email related to the surveillance of Mr Page to obscure the nature of Mr Pages preexisting relationship with the CIA. That lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. Associated Press contributed to this story Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has called for the US government to be shut down, in bizarre comments made during an interview with Steve Bannon. The former political strategist to Donald Trump asked Ms Greene about the Democrats $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill during an interview for his War Room podcast on Thursday. Mr Bannon asked whether House Republicans had a plan to stop Democrats from passing the bill in the forthcoming weeks, to which Ms Greene replied that she hadnt heard of any such plan yet. She then continued: "But Ill tell you what I have to say, Steve: Shut it down!" she said. "Shut the government down. Who cares?" Ms Greene went on to say that Americans shouldnt trust the government to spend money on infrastructure. You cant trust these people with your money, she said, going on to imply that that the nations infrastructure could be maintained and developed by private citizens instead. Guess what? The American people can get it done at home without the government! she said. I say, put up a fight, shut it down! We shouldnt be spending this! Ms Greene is well-known for making outlandish statements, and has hit headlines on many occasions for peddling conspiracy theories and spreading disinformation about Covid and vaccinations. Last month the congresswoman was suspended from Twitter for a week after tweeting that the Food and Drug Administration should not approve the covid vaccines because they were failing. A spokesperson for the social media platform said the tweet was labelled in line with our Covid-19 misleading information policy. The account will be in read-only mode for a week due to repeated violations of the Twitter Rules. Twitter imposes a seven-day account lock if a user posts misinformation about Covid four times. If theres a fifth strike, the user is banned. Melania Trump has attacked a former White HOuse press secretary who is set to reveal damaging details about the former first lady in a forthcoming tell-all book. Stephanie Grishams Ill Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House is one of the most highly anticipated book releases by a former Trump administration official. Among the allegations that have leaked out prior to the books publication next month are that Ms Trump, 51, refused to condemn the January 6 riots, and spent that day overseeing a photo shoot of a carpet she had installed. Ms Grisham resigned soon after the assault on the US Capitol and writes that Ms Trump is like the doomed French queen Marie Antoinette: Dismissive. Defeated. Detached. The former First Lady has criticised several former aides for writing revealing tell-all books (Getty) In a statement to Politico Playbook , a representative for Ms Trump said: The intent behind this book is obvious. It is an attempt to redeem herself after a poor performance as press secretary, failed personal relationships, and unprofessional behavior in the White House. Through mistruth and betrayal, she seeks to gain relevance and money at the expense of Mrs Trump. Ms Grisham held a variety of senior roles in the White House including press secretary and communications director as well as several stints as Ms Trumps spokeswoman. She joined the Trump campaign in 2015 and was later named White House press secretary, a role she held for eight months before stepping down in April 2020. She didnt hold a single press briefing during her time in the role. As the mob stormed the US Capitol building on 6 January, Ms Grisham wrote to her boss asking: Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence? Ms Trump reportedly replied a one word answer a minute later: No. A publishing source told Playbook that the book would contain unflattering nuggets about Trump officials that Ms Grisham clashed with, including Jared Kushner and former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Stephanie Grisham didnt hold a single press briefing during her eight months as White House press secretary Stephanie knows shes stirred up a hornets nest with this book, the source said. Its hard to articulate how much anxiety this is going to cause, another source recently told Axios. Ill Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House is to be published on 5 October by Harper Collins. Last year Mrs Trumps former friend and senior adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff released Melania and Me which also contained embarrassing revelations about the Slovenian-born former model. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff told Donald Trump that demonstrations over the death of George Floyd were "penny packet protests" and that those taking part were not burning America down, a new book claims. According to an upcoming book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Mark Milley sought to assure Mr Trump that Black Lives Matter demonstrators were not dangerous, and were not burning America down. The conversation, which according to Fox News occurred in May 2020, was an apparent bid to ward Mr Trump off military action towards demonstrators after Floyds murder by police on 25 May in Minneapolis. Rioting occurred in a number of US cities following Floyds death, causing Mr Trump to write on Twitter that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" in remarks that were condemned as an apparent incitement to violence. They used spray paint, Mr President, thats not an insurrection," Gen Milley reportedly said of the demonstrators, who first assembled in Minneapolis. They are not burning [America] down. Gen Milley also pointed to a portrait of former US president Abraham Lincoln and argued that demonstrations over the death of Floyd were not as threatening as the militia bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861 that sparked the Civil War, nor the riots seen in Washington DC in 1968, according to Fox. Woodward and Costa reportedly write that the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Mr Trump that demonstrations were largely penny packet protests and that it was not an issue for the US military, because we are country of 330 million people. Gen Milley also allegedly addressed systemic racism with Mr Trump, and referred to those taking part as belonging to "communities that have been experiencing what they perceive to be police brutality. As demonstrations took place throughout the US in 2020, Mr Trump referred to demonstrators as thugs who had harass[ed] elderly Pittsburgh diners, scaring them with loud taunts while taking their food right off their plate. He was meanwhile blamed for using tear gas to brutally disperse crowds from Lafayette Park in Washington DC for the purposes of a photo op, and of allowing the violence to go on for weeks following the deployment of the National Guard in many cities. According to Woodward and Costa, Gen Milley believed that the former president took a different approach toward the assault on the Capitol, which the Joint Chiefs of Staff thought "was indeed a coup attempt and nothing less than treason." He also feared that Mr Trump was looking for a "Reichstag moment" following the riot on 6 January, as he continued to believe that the election was rigged against him, according to Fox, who obtained a copy of Peril ahead of its release on 21 September. The Independent has approached Mr Milleys office for comment. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina wrote an unconstitutional voter ID law that discriminates against the states Black voters, according to two judges on a three-judge panel agreeing to strike down the measure. The law, which was enacted in 2018 and has faced a flurry of legal challenges, was motivated at least in part by an unconstitutional intent to target African American voters, according to state Superior Court Judges Michael OFoghludha and Vince Rozier. Other, less restrictive voter ID laws would have sufficed to achieve the legitimate nonracial purposes of implementing the constitutional amendment requiring voter ID, deterring fraud, or enhancing voter confidence, they said in the 100-page opinion issued on 17 September, which followed a trial in April. The judges said that they did not necessarily believe Republicans who supported the measure were intentionally racist, but agreed that the GOP targeted voters who, based on race, were unlikely to vote for the majority party. Even if done for partisan ends, that constitute[s] racial discrimination, according to the opinion. The ruling follows a 2013 attempt among Republican lawmakers to install another voter ID law that was also struck down as unconstitutional three years later. A 2016 court ruling found that GOP lawmakers targeted Black voters with almost surgical precision with their legislation. North Carolina voters supported a constitutional amendment to require ID at the polls, and the law was enacted by a Republican supermajority in the state legislature following a veto override by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. The law defines valid voter ID as a state drivers licence or state-issued ID or US passport. But thousands of voters in the state lacked ID that would allow them to legally cast a ballot, according to a 2015 analysis cited by the judges. That report found that nearly 10 per cent of Black voters lacked eligible ID, compared to 4.5 per cent of white voters. Judges determined that because the states Black voters are more likely to live in poverty than white voters, they are also more likely to face greater hurdles in obtaining an eligible form of ID to vote. Similar arguments have been made across the US as GOP lawmakers who have tried for decades to implement strict voter ID requirements revived restrictive voting legislation in 2021 in the wake of 2020 elections and baseless narratives about voter fraud, which is rare to nonexistent. The Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law estimates as many as 11 per cent of eligible voters do not have ID as required by their respective states to cast a ballot. In their latest attempt to expand voting rights in the face of state-level GOP legislation undermining access to the polls, congressional Democrats in an effort to appease skeptical centrists and Republican Senators have introduced a proposal with nationwide voter ID standards, allowing voters to present a broad set of identification cards and documents in hard copy and digital form. The North Carolina law is also the subject of a federal lawsuit, set for a trial in 2022. A new political map proposed by Nebraska Republicans wouldn't just make it harder for Democrats to win one of the state's three House seats it would make it a little bit harder for Democrats to win the White House Nebraska is one of only two states that divides its Electoral College votes by congressional district, rather than a winner-take-all system. That allowed President Joe Biden to claim one of the state's five electoral votes last year, even as he lost Nebraska by 20 percentage points. Now Republicans in Nebraska's legislature are proposing splitting up the 2nd Congressional District, the one Biden won, in their new map. The change would make the swingy district surrounding Omaha the state's largest city, more Republican. It would also make it harder for a Democratic presidential candidate to win. Winning the presidency has not come down to a single electoral vote since the earliest years of the United States. Still, every one of the nations 538 electoral votes is precious. That single Electoral College vote sometimes dubbed the blue dot in the state's sea of red has been enough to make Omaha a regular stop on the Democratic presidential campaign circuit. The GOP map was approved in a party-line committee vote in Nebraska's legislature Thursday and will advance to the floor of the one-chamber legislature, which is officially nonpartisan, though controlled by Republicans. Democrats oppose the maps and the GOP does not have enough legislators to overcome a filibuster, making it likely the final maps will be some sort of compromise. Critics say the current proposal could effectively undo the 1991 legislation backed by Democrats that split the state's Electoral College votes. Under the current system, the winner of each of the three districts gets one electoral vote. The two additional Electoral College votes the state gets, one for each of its senators, go to the overall winner of the state. There's no question that the Republicans would like to win there, and they're doing what they think is needed to do that," said former state Sen. Bob Krist, a Republican-turned-Democrat who worked with GOP lawmakers during the state's last redistricting a decade ago. Republicans say they aren't trying to fiddle with the Electoral College. But they've made no secret of their displeasure at Nebraska's arrangement. The Democrats knew exactly what they were doing, said Ryan Hamilton, executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party. They hid behind this noble, populist rhetoric, and it benefited them. The reality is, they want that electoral vote, and we want it too. Barack Obama visited and won the 2nd District in 2008. Hillary Clinton touched down in 2016 but didn't win. Joe Biden put staff in Omaha, visited and won the district last year, and the extra vote gave him another path to the 270 votes he needed to become president if he hadn't been able to win the right number of other battleground states. It remains a politically competitive area, fairly evenly balanced between the two parties and represented in Congress by a Republican, Don Bacon. The new map would slice off the western edge of Omaha and put it in the 1st Congressional District, which leans solidly Republican because most of it is rural farmland with several more conservative towns. Those voters would be replaced by the suburban and rural areas to the west that are starkly more Republican. If Democrats lose their shot at the blue dot" in Nebraska, it is possible they'll improve their chances of picking up another. The only other state that divides its electoral votes by congressional district is reliably Democratic Maine, whose vast, rural 2nd Congressional District was won by Trump last year. On Thursday evening, Maine Democrats, who control the state legislature, released a proposal that would move the state capital of Augusta and a strongly Democratic town of Hallowell into the 2nd Congressional District. It could make the district slightly more Democratic, although both parties were still analyzing the plan. Despite the partisan overtones, the biggest objections to the Republican Nebraska plans have come from Omaha residents and advocates who say the GOP should not be splitting up a city. When you see these proposals that divide communities, that divide counties, thats going to raise a lot of red flags, said Danielle Conrad of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska. Notably, the Republican proposal leaves intact the African-American neighborhood of north Omaha, and a heavily Latino stretch of south Omaha. But Preston Love, president of Black Votes Matter, a group based in north Omaha, compared the Republican plan dividing the city to a concrete legacy of the disempowerment of African-Americans the freeway running through north Omaha. This, Love said of the proposal to split his city, is a voter freeway. State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, the sponsor of the Republican proposal, said it wasn't trying to change the presidential election. The growth in Omaha and its suburbs simply requires the area to be spread over multiple congressional districts. The GOP map does not eliminate a blue dot, nor does it guarantee it, Linehan said. The blue dot depends more on the presidential candidates than the congressional map. At a legislative hearing on Thursday, Omaha residents complained about their city getting split up. Carmen Bunde, a west Omaha realtor whose home would move to the 1st Congressional District under the GOP plan, said she considers herself a proud Omahan who wants to remain in the 2nd District. Bunde said her sister lives in Wahoo, a small farming town in the 1st District about 30 miles from where she lives, and their lives are very different. We dont have the same school district or legislative concerns, Bunde said. It doesnt make sense for us to be lumped together. Im a proud Omahan, and Omaha is where I live, play, worship and work. __ Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Patrick Whittle contributed from Portland, Maine. Nearly eight months after Donald Trumps presidency ended, a succession of new books have revealed dramatic details about the end of his tumultuous four years in the White House. Towards the end of his term, Mr Trumps behaviour became so concerning to top US officials that they began to question whether Mr Trumps mental stability would be so compromised after losing the 2020 election that he would take the country into war. House speaker Nancy Pelosi was so incensed by Trump supporters invasion of the Capitol that she told chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley that she called the president a dictator who should have been arrested for attempting a coup detat. And Gen Milley himself was so troubled by how Mr Trumps antics looked to foreign adversaries that he began a series of back-channel calls with his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the US government was stable and that Mr Trump would not launch an attack against Beijing. These are just some of the new details revealed in Peril, a forthcoming book by Washington Post writers Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The Independent obtained a copy of the book ahead of its 21 September publication date. Here are some of the books most explosive revelations. Trumps top military adviser was afraid he would launch a nuclear strike at China After a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens electoral college victory on 6 January, Mr Woodward and Mr Costa wrote that Gen Milley became concerned that Mr Trump would go rogue and order a nuclear strike on China at some point before he left office on 20 January. Two days after the attack on the Capitol, Gen Milley convened a meeting of senior officers in charge of the National Military Command Center to review the formal process for initiating military actions, including the release of nuclear weapons. Gen Milley told the officers that they were to disregard any orders that did not involve him. No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And Im part of that procedure, Mr Milley reportedly said before looking each one in the eye and asking them to verbally confirm that they had understood him. Milley told a Democratic House member that he thought Trump wanted his supporters to storm the Capitol When a pro-Trump horde was rampaging through the US Capitol, Michigan Representative Elissa Slotkin contacted Gen Milley by phone from where she and many of her colleagues took shelter from the mob. Gen Mark Milley at a Pentagon press briefing in July (AP) When Ms Slotkin told the general that he needed to get National Guard to the building, Gen Milley replied that help was on the way, and added that hed informed vice president Mike Pence not the president. He told Ms Slotkin that he believed Mr Trump had wanted the riot to occur and was enjoying it, according to the book. I think he wanted this. I think that he likes this. I think that he wants that chaos. He wants his supporters to be fighting to the bitter end, Gen Milley told the congresswoman, according to the book, before adding: I dont know. McCarthy had to convince Trump to leave a note for Biden Ever since President Ronald Reagan left a handwritten note for incoming President George HW Bush in January 1989, the practice of one American leader passing on a message for their successor has become a tradition that personalises the peaceful transfer of power in the American system. But that tradition almost came to a halt when Mr Trump lost his bid for re-election. According to the book, Mr Trump only decided to pen a handwritten message for Mr Biden after weeks of urging from House minority leader Kevin McCarthy. When Mr McCarthy and Mr Trump spoke at 10pm the night before Inauguration Day, Mr Trump told him that hed finished the note, but refused the California Republicans entreaties to place a call to Mr Biden. Mr McCarthy reportedly told him it would be important for the country for the incoming and outgoing presidents to speak to make the transition real, since Mr Trump prevented administration officials from cooperating with Mr Bidens transition team until long after it was clear that the election was over and he had lost. Do it for me, he implored him. Youve got to call him. Call Joe Biden. Mr Trump replied: No. Mr McCarthy would ask two more times, and twice more would Mr Trump refuse. Trump hung up on Lindsey Graham for telling him he had f***** his presidency Senator Lindsey Graham once called the former president a race baiting, xenophobic religious bigot, but the South Carolina Republican would become one of Mr Trumps closest allies on Capitol Hill. According to Mr Woodward and Mr Costa, Mr Graham has continued to speak with Mr Trump regularly during his post-presidency and counts him as an ally, but their alliance has had some rocky moments. Lindsey Graham has donated $500,000 to overturning the election result (Getty) During one midsummer phone call between the two men, Mr Graham reportedly criticised his close ally for perpetuating lies about the 2020 election. You keep saying the election was rigged and you were cheated you lost a close election, the senator continued, according to the book. After he told Mr Trump You f***** your presidency up, the twice-impeached former president reportedly hung up the phone. The president said his Jewish son-in-law was more loyal to Israel than the US During one White House meeting, Mr Trump reportedly said that Jared Kushner, the White House senior advisor who is married to his daughter Ivanka, is more loyal to Israel than the United States. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump earlier this month (Getty Images) Mr Kushner, an observant Jew whose family owns and operates a large real estate business, was tasked with handling the Trump administrations Middle East peace strategy early on in his father-in-laws presidency. And while his family does have deep personal and financial ties to the Jewish state, Mr Kushner is an American citizen and does not hold dual nationality with Israel. Mr Trumps use of what the Anti-Defamation League characterises as an antisemitic trope was nothing new for the now-former president, who on multiple occasions accused Jewish-Americans who vote for Democrats of being disloyal to Israel and implied that Jewish-Americans should vote based on the interests of a country that is not their own. A few months before he would lose the 2020 election, Mr Trump told a group of Jewish-American leaders on a White House conference call marking the Jewish new year that Jews should vote for him because Democrats would be bad for Israel, adding we love your country. While he angrily told a reporter for an Orthodox Jewish weekly magazine that he was the least antisemitic person that youve ever seen in your entire life, Mr Trumps presidency was marked by a significant rise in antisemitic activity, including the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which marchers chanted Jews will not replace us and the October 2018 mass shooting at Pittsburghs Tree of Life synagogue. Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin clashed over abortion and vaccination policies Thursday in Virginias first gubernatorial debate of the general election season, as each sought to cast the other as extreme. The candidates in the closely watched race met at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy a small town in southwest Virginia, where the debate got off to a relatively heated start, with cross-talk and occasional snide remarks. The first questions of the night dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left more than 12,000 Virginians dead and hospitalized tens of thousands more. The candidates' answers highlighted the already clear differences about how they would approach attempting to manage the virus. Asked his position on President Joe Biden s sweeping new vaccine mandates issued earlier this month, Youngkin called himself a strong advocate for the COVID-19 vaccines but said he thought the president lacked the authority to dictate that workers receive one. I have been a strong, strong advocate for everyone to get the vaccine. I do believe that individuals should be allowed to make that decision on their own, said Youngkin, a former business executive and political newcomer. McAuliffe criticized Youngkin as failing to show leadership, saying later in the debate: His Day One plan would be to unleash COVID because he doesnt believe we should mandate vaccinations. He also accused Youngkin of urging college students to use loopholes to get past universities vaccine mandates, with the Democrats campaign promptly highlighting a tape of Youngkin saying, I encourage people to ... stand up for your exception. The candidates stark differences on abortion were also on display during the hourlong debate. Each sought to make the case that the other was out of line with the mainstream. McAuliffe said Youngkin wants to ban abortion, while Youngkin called McAuliffe the most extreme pro-abortion candidate in America today. McAuliffe, who often promises to be a brick wall against legislation that would curtail abortion access, was asked a question about third-trimester abortions and indicated he would support loosening a requirement that three doctors sign off on the procedure. He called it an issue of fairness for women in rural communities. Youngkin, who describes himself as pro-life but says he supports exceptions for rape, incest or to save a mother's life, said he would not have signed Texas new law banning most abortions but indicated he would support a pain threshold bill. Apart from this weeks recall election in California, only Virginia and New Jersey are electing governors this year, and the Virginia race is by far the most competitive. Thats meant the contest has drawn outsized national attention as a possible indicator of voter sentiment heading into the 2022 national midterm elections. Polls have generally shown McAuliffe, who previously served as governor from 2014-2018, with a slight edge over Youngkin. While Virginia has been trending blue for over a decade, Republicans are optimistic about their chances this year, hoping that a diverse statewide ticket and a historical trend of opposition in Virginia to the party in control of the White House will boost their odds. Youngkin, a former co-CEO of the investment firm The Carlyle Group, also has the vast personal wealth to help bankroll his campaign. Campaign finance records filed Wednesday that covered the past two months showed Youngkin with a significant fundraising advantage over McAuliffe, thanks to $4.5 million Youngkin loaned his campaign. But McAuliffe, a prodigious fundraiser, will enter the final two months of the campaign with an advantage in cash on hand, with $12.6 million in the bank compared to $6 million for Youngkin, the records show. Once best known as a top Democratic Party fundraiser, McAuliffe jumped into the race in December with something close to incumbent status, having preceded current Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in office. Virginia law does not allow governor to serve consecutive terms. McAuliffe went on to win a resounding victory in Junes five-way Democratic primary. Youngkin captured the GOP nomination in a seven-way convention in May. During their closing remarks, McAuliffe told voters Youngkin was too extreme and a Trump wannabe. He said that he had the on-the-job experience needed to provide a steady hand and guide Virginia out of the pandemic. Youngkin made the case that it's time for a fresh perspective. Do you want tired, old recycled policies from a tired politician? Or do you want to embrace someone new, a business leader who knows how to create jobs and get things done? he said. Thursdays debate was moderated by Susan Page the Washington bureau chief of USA Today, who assertively pressed both candidates when they avoided giving direct answers. Page was joined by panelists Bob Holsworth, a veteran Virginia political analyst, and Candace Burns, an anchor for TV station WTVR in Richmond. Princess Blanding, an activist and educator making a long-shot third-party bid, was not part of the event. The debate was held a day before early in-person voting was to begin at local voter registration offices and was the first of two debates the candidates have agreed to before the Nov. 2 election. The second is planned for Sept. 28 at a community college in northern Virginia. Also on the ballot this fall are races for attorney general and lieutenant governor, positions currently held by Democrats. Democrats will also be defending their majority in the House of Delegates, with all 100 seats on the ballot. ___ Rankin reported from Nellysford, Virginia. Nearly 10,000 migrants are camped out under a bridge dividing Texas and Mexico near Del Rio, Texas, as a stretched-thin US Customs and Border Protection struggles to process the thousands of asylum claims. The migrants, the vast majority of whom are from Haiti, are living in squalid conditions according to multiple local media reports and swelled overnight to reach at least 8,300 on Thursday; thousands more are expected in the coming days. Haiti remains in political turmoil following the shocking assassination of its president earlier this year, and widespread devastation to homes and businesses that occurred after the island was beset by an earthquake as well as a tropical storm within just a few days of each other in August. The growing migrant camp has become a particular issue of contention between Gov Greg Abbott of Texas and the Biden administration, the former of whom vowed to work with the federal government to close the border points of entry to address the situation only for US Customs and Border Protection to say they had no plans to do so. BORDER NOW: Heard from sources last night that theres 6,000 illegal immigrants under this international bridge in Del Rio now. Chatter about another 20k on the way, unconfirmed. Mostly Haitians, some Cubans, Venezuelans. Most transported to BP station, processed, released. pic.twitter.com/mK3e1d07Ov Charlotte Cuthbertson (@charlottecuthbo) September 16, 2021 US Customs and Border Protection released a statement about the situation late last month as the camp was first developing, explaining that the outdoor nature of the camp was an effort to protect both migrants and CBP staff from Covid-19. [It] serves as a short-term, open-air intake and processing area that enables CBP to intake, screen, and process certain migrant populations, all while minimizing employee and migrant exposure to COVID-19 to the greatest extent possible. (Temporary Outdoor Processing Site) currently focuses on expeditiously processing those apprehended as family units in RGV Sector, the agency told local news station KENS5. Migrants at TOPS are provided with food to include three hot meals per day, added a spokesperson for the agency, unlimited supply of snacks, water, juice, and rehydration drinks. Migrants have access to medical care in the form of on-site contracted medical personnel and Border Patrol Emergency Medical Technicians. In an updated statement to The Washington Post this week, a CBP spokesperson said that the agency was increasing its manpower in the Del Rio Sector in an effort to deal with the growing numbers at the camp. The Independent has reached out to the agency with questions regarding when the size of the camp will become too large for CBP personnel to safely oversee, and whether the agency has the manpower to address the current rate of asylum claims. Mr Abott said in a statement on Thursday that the situation was evidence of the Biden administration being in disarray. The Biden Administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan. I have directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings, he said in a statement. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, has said that the calls he made to his counterpart in China during the last months of the Trump presidency were perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of his job. Gen Milley made his first public comments about the calls on Friday. In October and January, Gen Milley spoke to the head of the Chinese army to reassure him that the US was not about to attack China, and said he would give the general a warning if any military action was about to be taken. Gen Milley said calls like those he made to General Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army are routine and were intended to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability, he told The Associated Press. The calls were first reported in Peril, an upcoming book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Robert Costa, and have prompted harsh criticism from some who believe Gen Milley overstepped his authority. The top US military leader said he would expand his comments on the call during a congressional hearing later this month. I think its best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the US military, he told the AP. Ill go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks. Gen Milley is set to testify in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee alongside Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on 28 September. The hearing was supposed to be about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, but Gen Milley is now set to face questions about the calls he made to Gen Li Zuocheng. The calls were made in the final months of the Trump administration as former President Donald Trump was spreading the baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged. The second call was made on 8 January, just two days after the Capitol riot when a pro-Trump mob laid siege to the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens election victory. The House committee investigating the insurrection on 6 January has requested details about Gen Milleys calls. Committee leaders Bennie Thompson, a MississippiDemocrat, and Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, have also requested information about the 2020 election, the transition between the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the Capitol riot. Gen Milley previously headed the US Army and was appointed by Mr Trump as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2019. Both Mr Biden and Mr Austin have expressed support for Gen Milley following the report on the calls. Woodward and Costa write in Peril that the calls occurred on 30 October 2020, four days before the election, and on 8 January 2021, two days after the insurrection and less than two weeks before Mr Biden ascended to the presidency. Some lawmakers have called for Mr Biden to fire Gen Milley, arguing that he crossed a line. Mr Trump called Gen Milley a complete nutjob and said that he never told me about calls being made to China. I have great confidence in Gen Milley, Mr Biden told reporters after the calls were revealed. Gen Milleys office said in a statement this week that the purpose of the calls was to relay reassurance to the Chinese military and were part of Gen Milleys job responsibilities. Col Dave Butler, a spokesman for Gen Milley, said the calls were staffed, coordinated and communicated within the Pentagon and with other federal agencies. The American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Gen Milley told Gen Li, according to Peril. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise, Gen Milley reportedly said, emphasising his years-long relationship with Gen Li. Following the riot on 6 January, Gen Milley spoke to a number of military leaders around the world, such as top brass from the United Kingdom, Russia, and Pakistan. A description of the January calls said Gen Milley spoke to several other counterparts, expressing reassurance after the riot and that the US government was in control. The call to Gen Li on 8 January was meant to calm Chinese worries about the events of 6 January, but the Chinese military leader was reportedly not easily convinced, even after Gen Milley told him: We are 100 per cent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes. Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio has told Mr Biden to fire Gen Milley because he worked to actively undermine Mr Trump, the commander in chief at the time. After a few weeks of desultory campaigning but months of relentless official moves to shut down significant opposition, Russia is holding three days of voting this weekend in a parliamentary election that is unlikely to change the countrys political complexion. Theres no expectation that United Russia the party devoted to President Vladimir Putin will lose its dominance of the State Duma, the elected lower house of parliament. The main questions to be answered are whether the party will retain its current two-thirds majority that allows it to amend the constitution; whether anemic turnout will dull the partys prestige; and whether imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalnys Smart Voting initiative proves to be a viable strategy against it. There is very little intrigue in these elections and in fact they will not leave a special trace in political history, Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told The Associated Press. With 14 parties fielding candidates for half of the Duma's 450 seats that are chosen by party list, the election has a veneer of being genuinely competitive. But the three parties aside from United Russia that are expected to clear the 5% support necessary to get a seat rarely challenge the Kremlin The Kremlin wants control over the new parliament, which will still be in place in 2024, when Putins current term expires and he must decide on running for reelection or choosing some other strategy to stay in power. The other half of the seats are chosen in individual constituencies, where independent candidates or those from small parties such as the liberal Yabloko may have stronger chances. These seats are also where the Navalny teams Smart Voting strategy could make inroads. The program sidesteps ideology in order to undermine United Russia, simply advising voters which candidate other than the ruling partys is the strongest in a single-mandate race. It's essentially a defensive strategy. Voting to harm United Russia is not a meaningful goal, not a goal to choose another candidate whom you ideologically support, Kolesnikov said. But it showed potency in its inaugural use in 2018 when opposition candidates won 20 of 45 seats in the Moscow city council, and a year later when United Russia lost its majorities in the councils of three large cities. However, its unclear how widely it will be used this year after authorities blocked access to its website. The service remains available through apps, but Russia has threatened fines against Apple and Google to remove the apps from their online stores. The Foreign Ministry last week summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan to protest election interference by American digital giants. Blocking the website was the latest move to neutralize the Navalny operation, which was Russias most visible and determined opposition organization, capable of calling sizable protests throughout the country. Navalny himself was jailed in January upon returning to Russia from Germany where he had been recuperating from nerve-agent poisoning; he was subsequently sentenced to 2 years in prison. A court later outlawed Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of his regional offices as extremist organizations, a verdict that barred people associated with the groups from seeking public office and exposed them to lengthy prison terms. Russian authorities also blocked some 50 websites run by his team or supporters for allegedly disseminating extremist propaganda. In August, Russia added the independent vote-monitoring group Golos to its list of foreign agents, a move that does not block its work but strongly suggests it should be regarded with suspicion. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose election-monitoring missions are widely regarded as authoritative, will not send observers for the parliament vote, saying that Russia imposed excessive restrictions. In addition to the Duma election, nine Russian regions will be choosing governors, 39 regions will be choosing legislatures and voters in 11 cities will be choosing city councils. The Elections Commission ordered voting expanded to three days, concluding on Sunday, to reduce crowding at the polls amid the coronavirus pandemic. Critics say the decision raises the chance of ballot manipulation. Commission head Ella Pamfilova rejects the accusation, saying there will be total video surveillance of polling places and that ballots will be in secure containers. Other ethical concerns also hover over the election. According to the state-funded pollster VTsIOM, more than one in 10 workers say they have been given directives by their bosses to vote. In St. Petersburg, a candidate from the Yabloko party named Boris Vishnevsky, who is running simultaneously for the Duma and a regional legislature, discovered that there are two other men using that name opposing him in each race one of whom is a member of United Russia, according to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Although polls indicate that general approval for United Russia is low, the party is expected to ride to an overwhelming first place in the new parliament. The independent Center for Current Politics predicts it will score 299-306 seats down from the 343 it currently holds but within the range of the 303 seats needed to change the constitution. The centers prognosis suggests that most of the seats lost by United Russia would be picked up by the Communist Party, the second-largest parliamentary faction. But the party largely conforms to the Kremlin line, as do the two other parties likely to get double-digit seats. The Communists themselves are not very dangerous, said commentator Sergei Parkhomenko on Ekho Moskvy radio. The party is a tool for imitating an opposition movement. Allegations of widespread voting fraud sparked large protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg after the 2011 Duma elections. But with opposition groups neutered, the prospect of unrest this time appears remote. Protests will not take place where we expect them, not at the time when we expect them and not from those from whom we expect them, Parkhomenko said. ___ Olga Tregubova in Moscow contributed. A woman was charged on Friday with killing her three girls in their South Island house in Timaru, days after relocating to New Zealand from South Africa. The childrens father reportedly returned home on Thursday night to find the bodies of his daughters. The children were identified as 2-year-old twins and a 6-year-old. The mother is expected to appear in the Timaru District Court on Saturday. Police did not immediately identify her. Police would like to reassure the community that this was a tragic isolated incident and we are not seeking anyone else, detective inspector Scott Anderson said in a statement to local media. The family moved to New Zealand in late August from South Africa. They took up residence in their new house last week after completing their mandatory quarantine at a facility upon arrival. Emergency services discovered the crime scene after they were tipped off by neighbours. A fourth person present at the scene was taken to the Timaru hospital in a stable condition. Police were alerted by the victims' neighbours when they heard a man wailing and crying, The Stuff News reported. When the neighbour asked the man if he was alright, he allegedly did not respond other than saying: "is this really happening? Timaru mayor Nigel Bowen said: "it seems that the community has had layers of tragedy with the five young lads that passed away so it's really tough" "I think the community will be thinking, why is it happening to a place like ours? There's a lot of pressure on society at the moment, you have to question the support around mental health, are we doing things right in this country? I question that we're probably not," he was quoted by New Zealand Herald as saying. The dead bodies of the children were removed from the house late on Friday afternoon. Aoraki area commander Inspector Dave Gaskin said the deaths would be incredibly distressing for residents of Timaru as five teenagers from the town were killed in a car crash last month. Recently, a 23-year-old man was arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who was found dead in South Auckland's Manurewa on 11 September. So far in 2021, at least 43 people have died in suspicious or homicidal circumstances in New Zealand. Dutch foreign minister Sigrid Kaag has become the first Western government official to step down over the handling of the evacuation process from Afghanistan last month. Her resignation came after the lower house of the Dutch parliament passed a motion of censure against the government claiming that they had mishandled the evacuation of refugees from Kabul as the Taliban swept to power. Dutch military planes evacuated around 2,100 people from Afghanistan to neighbouring countries in the last two weeks of August, and almost 1,700 of them had the Netherlands as their final destination, according to the Reuters news agency. But hundreds of Dutch citizens, many of Afghan origin, were not able to reach the airport. Ms Kaag acknowledged that the governments slow response meant that some Afghans who had worked as translators for Dutch troops had also not been evacuated. I can only accept the consequences of this judgment as the minister with ultimate responsibility, she said during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday night. Ms Kaag, a former diplomat and the leader of the centrist D66 party, said the cabinet had acted on the basis of wrong assumptions, but stressed that the speed of the Talibans advance had surprised everyone, including the Taliban itself. Despite this, Ms Kaag said she would tender her resignation after the motion was passed as parliament had decided that the cabinet acted irresponsibly. In my view on democracy and the culture of our administration, a minister should go if the policy is disapproved. I will therefore submit my resignation as minister of foreign affairs to his majesty the king, she told parliament. D66 is currently in coalition talks with prime minister Mark Rutte after winning the second-highest number of seats in elections last March. Ms Kaag vowed to stay on as leader of the party despite her resignation. Ms Kaag served as U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon in 2015-2017, and before that headed a U.N. team overseeing the destruction of Syrias chemical weapons. Countries across the world scrambled to evacuate their citizens and Afghans after Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15. Ms Kaag is the first Western government official to resign over the handling of the process. It came just a day after British prime minister Boris Johnson demoted his foreign secretary Dominic Raab as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Mr Raab had faced criticism for his departments handling of the evacuation process, with reports claiming he failed to return from his holiday in Greece as the jihadist group gained control of Afghanistan. The Dutch foreign minister resigned on Thursday after she was censured over the governments handling of evacuations from Afghanistan. In a parliamentary debate Wednesday night, Sigrid Kaag acknowledged that the governments slow or muddled response to warnings about the situation in Afghanistan meant some local staff and people who had worked as translators for Dutch troops in the country had not been evacuated. After the motion was passed Thursday, Kaag immediately said she would tender her resignation, saying that parliament had decided that the Cabinet has acted irresponsibly. I can only accept the consequences of this judgment as the minister with ultimate responsibility, she added. It comes after former British foreign secretary Dominic Raab refused to resign over his handling of the Afghanistan crisis. On Wednesday Boris Johnson demoted Raab, who was widely condemned across the political spectrum for delaying his return from a holiday in Greece as the Taliban took over Afghanistan and amid claims he failed to personally intervene to help get Afghan interpreters out of the country. Don Ceder, a member of the Dutch faith-based Christian Union, said in a statement earlier Thursday that the party supported the motion against Kaag and a similar one against Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld a move that secured majority backing for the censures. Ceder said the government failed to show decisiveness, to show compassion, to pick up on signals and ultimately to take responsibility for people for whom we bear responsibility. Kaag was a minister in a caretaker Dutch government that is in power amid drawn-out negotiations to form a new ruling coalition following a general election in March. Kaag, who leads the centrist D66 party, has been closely involved in those talks along with caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose conservative Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy won the most seats in the election. It was not immediately clear what effect her resignation would have on those negotiations. The government of the Faroe Islands is to review dolphin hunting rules after the mass killing of nearly 1,500 of the sea mammals on one day. The decision by the government of the 18 rocky islands, located halfway between Scotland and Iceland, will result in a review of the way hunts of Atlantic white-sided dolphins are carried out. It comes after footage shows the mass slaughter of 1,428 dolphins on Sunday (12 September), on the central Faeroese island of Eysturoy. The hunt was so large compared to previous years that it is feared that hunters may not have been able to follow regulations in place to minimise suffering of the animals. The footage of the hunt sparked criticism from animal rights activists as well as residents of the Faroe Islands. Captain Alex Cornelissen, the global chief executive of Sea Shepherd, which campaigns against whaling, said that it was absolutely appalling to see an attack on nature of this scale in the Faroe Islands. I get nauseous seeing this kind of thing, said one commentator on the Facebook page of the local broadcaster Kringvarp Froya. Another commentator said: Im embarrassed to be Faroese. Faeroese Premier Bardur a Steig Nielsen said in a statement: We take this matter very seriously. Although these hunts are considered sustainable, we will be looking closely at the dolphin hunts, and what part they should play in Faeroese society. Each year, islanders drive herds of the mammals mainly pilot whales into shallow waters, where they are stabbed to death. The hunts are regulated by law and the meat and blubber are shared on a community basis. White-side dolphins and pilot whales, which are also killed on the islands, are not endangered species. The Faeroese government said the whale drives are a dramatic sight to people unfamiliar with the slaughter of mammals. The hunts are, nevertheless, well organized, and fully regulated. Faroese animal welfare legislation, which also applies to whaling, stipulates that animals shall be killed as quickly and with as little suffering as possible. The former chairman of the Faeroese association behind the drives, Hans Jacob Hermansen, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it was no different from killing cattle or anything else. Its just that we have an open abattoir. Additional reporting by Associated Press A Covid green pass will soon become mandatory for millions of workers in Italys public and private sectors in what are seen as some of the strictest domestic anti-Covid measures to be implemented in the world. Workers will have to show passes to access their workplaces starting from 15 October, according to a new decree adopted on Thursday by Italian prime minister Mario Draghis government. The pass will be proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from a coronavirus infection in the last six months, and will be required for all categories of workers. Failure to comply with the new rules will attract severe penalties, including suspension without pay and fines. But workers cannot be sacked, said ministers after the government approved the decree. Businesses and employees will invite a fine of 600-1,500 euros (512-1,280) if they are found to ignore the rules and allow employees without the passes to work. The pass has for some weeks already been mandatory to access train stations, cinemas, gyms and other public places in Italy. While Slovenia and Greece adopted similar measures this week, Italys 2-trillion-euro (1.7 trillion) economy encompasses a greater number of people who will have to follow the strict rules. The mandate will cover 14 million private sector workers and 3.4 million in public jobs across the country, in an effort to boost vaccinations in one of the countries that was worst hit by Covid. Nothing like this has been done in Europe... we are putting ourselves in the forefront internationally, said public administration minister Renato Brunetta. The government expected an enormous acceleration of its vaccination programme as a result of the decree, said Mr Brunetta, who believes that more people will get inoculated before the rules come into effect in a months time. The country has fully vaccinated nearly 68 per cent of its 60 million population and 74 per cent with at least one Covid vaccine shot after suffering one of the most devastating outbreaks early on in the pandemic, though it also has a vocal anti-vaxxer movement which predates the pandemic. Italy has the second-highest Covid death toll in Europe, trailing Britain, with more than 130,000 people dying from Covid since the beginning of the pandemic. The country was one of the first in the western world to face the Covid crisis and became the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe in November last year, when it reported a peak of more than 40,000 infections in a single day. The government says it is imposing some of the worlds strictest anti-Covid measures so that the country does not have to face another national lockdown. But there have been sporadic protests against the strict measures in recent weeks. Underscoring the importance of vaccines, Italys health foundation Gimbe said in a report on Thursday that almost all Covid hospitalisations currently are of unvaccinated individuals. The report said vaccinations have reduced death rates in Italy by 96 per cent, hospitalisations by 93 per cent and intensive care unit admissions by 95 per cent. The measures, ministers said, were to bring Italys economic recovery back on track. The countrys gross domestic product is expected to grow about 6 per cent this year. The ministers also underscored the importance of getting vaccinated by pointing to new possible virus variants. The green pass has been supported across the political spectrum in the country, but critics have raised concerns about a gradual and ongoing erosion of civil liberties during the pandemic. Meanwhile, The Netherlands has said it will require proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative coronavirus test for entry to bars, restaurants, museums, theatres and other cultural events from Sept. 25, as almost all social distancing measures are dropped. A narrow majority of Dutch parliament late on Thursday rejected a motion calling on the government to change its mind about the corona pass, as Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was needed to prevent a new wave of infections. We are still in a dangerous situation. Not doing this would bring great risks, Rutte said during a heated debate in parliament. Opponents from across the political spectrum questioned the need for the corona pass, which many said was a ploy to stimulate vaccinations, despite repeated promises by the government that injections would never be mandatory. Additional reporting from wires The travel industry has responded with relief to the easing of the UKs government rules on international journeys. But there is fury about the delay in the announcement by the the transport secretary, Grant Shapps partly because many feel travel abroad should have been liberalised months ago, and partly due to the manner of communicating the governments decision. In a tweet just before 5pm on Friday, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that the testing regime for returning British travellers would be eased with the test to fly ditched for people who are fully vaccinated. In addition, the key eastern Mediterranean nations of Egypt and Turkey have finally been taken off the red list, along with winter favourites Kenya, the Maldives, Oman and Sri Lanka. With mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals set to end, travel firms will once again be able to sell trips to those destinations. In addition, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been moved off the red list which will enable many families to reconnect. But South African tourism officials are incandescent about being overlooked in the easing of the red list. The nation has been on the high-risk register for almost all of 2021. David Frost, chief executive of Satsa, representing Southern Africas inbound tourism industry, said: This is a kick in the teeth for 1.5 million South African tourism workers who were relying on UK visitors this spring. There isnt a shred of scientific evidence to support keeping South Africa on the red list and the only conclusion left is that the UK government has an irrational fear of South Africa which is prejudicing decision-making. Turkeys case rate is triple South Africas and rising fast, while Pakistans testing and sequencing rates are a fraction of ours, there is no consistency. The UK government needs to urgently reconsider this classification to avoid irreparable harm to a relationship with a key ally and trading partner. Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said: The red list should focus purely on variants of concern, in order to protect public health, therefore its imperative to rapidly and continuously remove countries that dont pose a threat, in order to open travel back up to countries like South Africa. Paul Goldstein, co-owner of Kicheche Safari Camps in Kenya, said: Finally it seems Kenya can be taken off the breadline. Mr Shapps policy of traffic lights has been wantonly destructive all over the world, but in Kenya I fail to see why it is any different now to when the ludicrous red light was imposed in March. Travel cannot just be turned on and off like a gas tap and I am astonished his appalling decisions were not recognised and prosecuted in the recent reshuffle. Andrew Flintham, managing director of Tui, said: We still believe the red list could be reduced further given no variants of concern have been identified and it remains significantly more restrictive than other countries in Europe. The boss of Britain's biggest budget airline called the changes a welcome step forward for our customers and a move that will make it significantly easier for the fully vaccinated to travel to Europe. But Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, added: Vaccinated travellers and those from low risk countries will still have to do an unnecessary test after arriving in the UK, making travel less affordable for all. Since 1 July there has been no testing at all for vaccinated travellers within the rest of Europe, and this is why the UK will continue to fall further behind the rest of Europe if this remains. The chief executive of Britains biggest airport, Heathrow, said the UK was out of step with the European Union. John Holland-Kaye said: The decision to require fully vaccinated passengers to take more costly private lateral flow tests is an unnecessary barrier to travel, which. Ministers must continue to work towards friction-free travel for vaccinated passengers. His counterpart at Gatwick, Stewart Wingate, said: Fully vaccinated passengers now have a larger choice of destinations and can book with more confidence in the months before Christmas and beyond free from the need to arrange pre-departure tests before coming back into the UK. We know there is significant pent-up demand for travel and our staff, restaurants, cafes and bars are ready to welcome back passengers over the coming months. But Wille Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), said the package of measures was too little too late: Across the entire pandemic, the UKs travel rules have been two steps behind the rest of Europe. This has devastated the UKs travel industry with countless job losses. As Friday progressed, airlines, holiday companies and travel agents were increasingly desperate to know for example whether and when they could reinstate sales of trips to Turkey. With rumours that two Caribbean islands, Grenada and Jamaica, could be placed on the red list, there is astonishment at the vacuum of information that ministers have created. A 1pm tweet from the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, that he would be bringing news later was ridiculed by Derek Jones one of the most senior figures in the travel industry. The chief executive of Der Touristik, parent company of Kuoni, Carrier, Kirker and Journey Latin America, tweeted an image purporting to be from the transport secretary. It read: This is an announcement to announce that later today I will be making an announcement. Indias drone industry will benefit from the latest Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, announced on September 15 for drones and drone components. Under the PLI Scheme, the government has liberalized the minimum value addition criteria to 40 percent of net sales for drones and drone components. The Scheme will also cover developers of drone-related IT products. The announcement of the PLI Scheme comes on the heels of the Drone Rules, 2021 that was released on August 25, 2021, and relaxed approvals and other requirements for unmanned aircraft systems. The new rules basically make it easier to do business for civilian drone operators. Together, the liberalized regulatory framework and manufacturing incentives scheme aim to promote the indigenization of drone technology in India, whose applications and use are expected to cater to a cross-section of industries. Indias drone industry at an interesting juncture Drones are used for aerial photography and cinematography, land surveys, monitoring infrastructure like roads and highways as well as by the construction industry, defense, mining, telecom, disaster management, oil and gas exploration and monitoring sites etc. More widespread consumer market applications will soon become less futuristic, keeping pace with progress in tech innovation and higher cost efficiencies, which has developed solutions like drone-facilitated last mile delivery and other support for the retail, healthcare, logistics sectors etc. For this to be a reality in India, its drone industry capacity needs to scale up. That means increased local production serving demand, investments in R&D, and solutions for both broad use and hyperlocal requirements. Only then will the industry experience significant cost reductions. The PLI Scheme thus comes at a really opportune time for stakeholders in the drone industry as it intends to distribute incentives across the value chain. This industry-ecosystem based approach spins off business opportunities for a wide range of companies upstream and downstream, from bigger firms in allied industries to high-tech startups as well as micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for component manufacturing; developing software applications, enterprise solutions, and counter drone technology; and the design and assembly of final products. The end outcome will be diversified product lines, finally reaching the level of consumer market appeal. Market and industry growth projections When the Drone Rules were announced this August, industry players projected that Indias drone market could grow to INR 500 billion (US$6.8 billion) in the next five years. This is because Indias regulatory norms were finally aligning with global trends, and opening prospects for commercial use and participation of foreign investors. On its part, the Civil Aviation Ministry projects that Indias drone industry could see total turnover worth INR 120 billion to 150 billion (US$1.63 billion to US$2.04 billion) by 2026 assisted by the PLI Scheme, which has a budget allocation of INR 1.2 billion (US$16.32 million) spread over three years (information on how the scheme works is covered in a later section below). Drone makers in India currently have a turnover of about INR 800 million (US$10.88 million). At a press briefing on Thursday, September 16, the Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, With Drone Policy (Rules) and Drone PLI scheme, we have an aim that drone manufacturing companies in India should reach a turnover of 900 crore [INR 9 billion (US$122.44 million)] in the coming three years. This will be a cumulative result of the development of a value chain in the drone industry, covering hardware (drone manufacturing), software, and service delivery. Prior to the Drone Rules 2021, the sector saw limited funding opportunities, with B2B startups attracting the bulk of any venture capital interest and overall limited scope for innovation in the industry. In fact, compared to investment in Indias drone startups (US$16.56 million), Chinas drone startups had attracted 14x more investment between 2014-18, at about US$239 million. Drone Rules, 2021: What are the key changes and market implications? In March 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) published the UAS Rules, 2021. They received quite the backlash from academia, startups, end-users, and industry stakeholders for fostering a licenses-oriented regime and highly restrictive. The government responded to the feedback by repealing the UAS Rules, 2021 and replacing it with the liberalized Drone Rules, 2021. In its formal notification of the new rules, the Civil Aviation Ministry noted that: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones, offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy like agriculture, mining, infrastructure, surveillance, emergency response, transportation, geo-spatial mapping, defense, and law enforcement etc. Drones can be significant creators of employment and economic growth due to their reach, versatility, and ease of use, especially in Indias remote and inaccessible areas. In view of its traditional strengths in innovation, information technology, frugal engineering and huge domestic demand, India has the potential to be global drone hub by 2030. Key regulatory relaxations for Indias drone industry Rollback of a license regime Under the Drone Rules, 2021, the total number of forms to be filled has come down to five from the previous 25 forms. The approvals that are now abolished include: unique authorization number, unique prototype identification number, certificate of manufacturing and airworthiness, certificate of conformance, certificate of maintenance, import clearance, acceptance of existing drones, operator permit, authorization of R&D organization, student remote pilot license, remote pilot instructor authorization, and drone port authorization, among others. Reduction in fees Total fee payments to qualify as a drone operator has been reduced from 72 to four. Delinking payments from drone size Fee payments are now also delinked from the size of the drone. For example, it is reported that the remote pilot license fee, which was INR 3,000 for a large size drone, is reduced to INR 100 this is also the fee for all drone categories. Moreover, drones up to a weight of 500 kg has come under the ambit of the Drone Rules. Previously, the regulations covered drones up to 300 kg. This means drone taxis will become a possibility in India. No security clearance required Security clearance prior to issuing a drone license is now abandoned. Foreign participation allowed Foreign companies can also invest or own companies operating drones in India. Import regulation The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will continue to regulate import of drones but requirement of import clearance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is abolished. Developing the Digital Sky platform A single-window platform is being developed for the required clearances that will further streamline the process. The government also intends to publish an interactive airspace map on this platform, showing yellow, green, and red zones, based on where drones can operate. Zonal demarcation categories relaxed The demarcation and mobility of drones in the yellow, green, and red zones have also been reformed. Previously, the yellow zone was a zone at a distance of 45 km from the airport perimeter; this is now reduced to a 12 km radius. Consequently, the green zone is an area beyond the 12 km radius of the airport perimeter. PLI Scheme for drones and drone components The PLI Scheme budget of INR 1.2 billion is nearly double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21. How the PLI Scheme works Eligibility The government has kept the eligibility norm for MSMEs and startups in terms of annual sales turnover at a nominal level INR 20 million (for drones) and INR 5 million (for drone components). This both widens and makes flexible the number of beneficiaries. Eligibility norms for non-MSMEs, in terms of annual sales turnover, is INR 40 million (for drones) and INR 10 million (for drone components). Incentives The incentive payable to a manufacturer of drones and drone components shall be simply one-fifth of the value addition. The below example was shared to illustrate the PLI calculation for a manufacturer. Example: PLI Calculation for a Drone Manufacturer (Sample Year FY 2021-22) Claim year Sales net of GST (INR crore) Purchase net of GST (INR crore) Value addition (INR crore) PLI rate (%) PLI due (INR crore) FY 2021-22 100 60 10060 = 40 20% 40 x 20% = 8 The PLI for a manufacturer will be capped at 25 percent of the total annual outlay. In case a manufacturer fails to meet the threshold for the eligible value addition for a particular financial year, they will be allowed to claim the lost incentive in the subsequent year if they make up the shortfall in the subsequent year. Key features The incentive for a manufacturer of drones and drone components shall be as high as 20 percent of the value addition made by the firm. The value addition shall be calculated as the annual sales revenue from drones and drone components (net of GST) minus the purchase cost (net of GST) of drone and drone components. The government has agreed to keep the PLI rate constant at 20 percent for all three years, an exceptional treatment given only to the drone industry. In PLI Schemes for other sectors, the PLI rate reduces every year. The proposed tenure of the PLI Scheme is three years, starting in FY 2021-22. The government has agreed to fix the minimum value addition norm at 40 percent of net sales for drones and drone components instead of 50 percent, another exceptional treatment given to the drone industry. Estimated payout schedule Estimated Payout Schedule of PLI for Drones and Drone Components Claim year Sales net of GST (INR crore) Purchase net of GST (INR crore) Eligible value addition (INR crore) PLI rate for value addition (%) Applicable PLI (INR crore) Disbursement year FY 2021-22 200 120 80 20% 16 FY 2022-23 FY 2022-23 400 240 160 20% 32 FY 2023-24 FY 2023-24 900 540 360 20% 72 FY 2024-25 TOTAL 1500 900 600 20% 120 Which drone components are eligible PLI target beneficiaries? The PLI Scheme will cover a wide variety of drone components, including the following: Airframe, propulsion systems (engine and electric), power systems, batteries and associated components, launch and recovery systems Inertial Measurement Unit, Inertial Navigation System, flight control module, ground control station and associated components Communications systems (radio frequency, transponders, satellite-based etc.) Cameras, sensors, spraying systems, and related payload etc. Detect and Avoid system, emergency recovery system, trackers etc. and other components critical for safety and security The list of eligible components may be expanded by the government from time to time, as drone technology evolves. The government has agreed to widen the coverage of the incentive scheme to include developers of drone-related IT products. Clear objectives behind flexible drone policy The government estimates that the drones and drone components manufacturing industry will attract investments over INR 50 billion over the next three years. The annual sales turnover of the drone manufacturing industry is expected to grow multifold from INR 600 million in 2020-21 to over INR 9 billion in FY 2023-24. During this period, the drone manufacturing industry is expected to generate over 10,000 direct jobs. The Production-Linked Incentives Scheme will also impact the breadth of the drone services industry (operations, logistics, data processing, traffic management, etc.). Cumulatively, the drone services industry is expected to grow to over INR 300 billion in the next three years and generate over 500,000 jobs. Finally, besides the flexible criteria in identifying target beneficiaries, the PLI Scheme could be extended or redrafted after studying its impact in consultation with the industry. 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No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account." www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others. 60 hours of absolute horror - Its been 13 years since the dastardly Mumbai terror attacks but a mere mention is enough to make the hair on the back of our necks stand up. Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani has managed to recreate the first night of the three-day attack followed by a rescue operation with his web series Mumbai Diaries 26/11. Taking us back in time on 26th September 2008, the heart of the show lies in the Bombay General Hospital which is already reeling under lack of proper resources and infrastructure to accommodate patients. official poster To call this 8-part series - nail-biting and edge-of-the-seat thriller would be an understatement. From the very first minute it takes you under its grip and compels you to not blink until the end. Initially, Mumbai Diaries comes across as a medical drama but a couple of episodes on, it turns out to be more than that. It is a saga of battling fear with courage and unity. Many people drew parallels between this show and Greys Anatomy but as the show progressed, it became much more than that. Mumbai Diaries draws heavy inspiration from the real life events but it is also fictionalised to some extent for effect. amazon prime We see the star surgeon of Bombay General Hospital, Dr Kaushik Oberoi, played by Mohit Raina as a rebel who is best at what he does and seldom follows rules and regulations. He is soon joined by three new residents on the same day as the attacks and everything goes downhill from there on. Trainee doctors Ahaan Mirza, Sujata Ajawale and Disha Parekh find themselves dealing with the most complex cases on their very first day. amazon prime Once the attacks take place, the hospital crumbles under pressure of multiple traumas coming in. Paramedics, doctors, nurses, hospital staff and others join hands to perform their duty while parallelly struggling with their personal problems. The USP of this show lies in its unconventional cast and striking direction. The nitty gritties and depiction of the terror attacks from the medical standpoint is something that hasnt been seen before. Many movies have been made in the past decade which recreated the attacks at The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, CST, Leopold Cafe, The Oberoi Trident, Nariman House and Metro Cinema. However, to see it from this new angle was yet another reminder of how courageous the first responders are in any crisis situations - be it the police personnel or the medical staff. Amazon prime video The cast includes the likes of Konkona Sen Sharma, Mohit Raina, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Prakash Belawadi, Tina Desai and Mishal Raheja among others. Each actor got into the skin of their character and provided a sense of realism and authenticity. imdb The portrayal of the whole media fiasco, the role of hotel staff in evacuating hotel guests and the Cama Hospital attack is pretty on point with a tad bit of exaggeration here and there. The sequence where one terrorist (Ajmal Kasab) was caught is also included along with the handlers interception and promise of eternal salvation to the terrorists. Truth be told, the maker has managed to somewhat retain a sense of unpredictability by including personal angles of many of the key characters. Even though you know whats going to happen next, the connection that you form with most characters will help in retaining the intrigue throughout. amazon prime In reality, media exposure of the whole operation led to its downfall. Similarly, even in the show that bit is portrayed in a smart manner with Shreya Dhanwanthry leading the pack. She previously played the role of a journalist in the much popular series Scam 1992. screengrab Mumbai Diaries: 26/11 has it all. The reason why it stands out is that it has a very high emotional quotient which beautifully depicts the courage, valor and fearlessness that people who were at the center of it exuded and which helped immensely in dealing with such a major crisis. This series can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video. It was a moment that can be described very well as striking gold, but the only difference is instead of the yellow metal, it was diamond. Four labourers found an 8.22 carat diamond in a mine in Madhya Pradesh's Panna district, after searching for 15 years. Representational image/ Unsplash The worth of the precious stone is said to be worth around Rs 40 lakhs, which is a fortune for the labourers who had been toiling for years in search of it. Diamond mining in Panna Panna in Madhya Pradesh is the hub of diamond mining in India, and for a long time fortune-seekers have been examining the lengths and breaths of the district in search of the gem stones. Unsplash/Representational image Panna district is estimated to have diamond reserves of 12 lakh carats. While there are some large-scale mining projects in Panna, there are also others, individuals or small groups who also search for diamonds. These are mostly done on land leased from the government for mining. The Madhya Pradesh government leases 88 m plots to individuals, who wash the gravel for diamonds. These are called artisanal mines. They use simple tools like pick axe or a hand-held tool to break up gravel and rocks in order to look for diamonds. The recently discovery of the 8.22 carat diamond by Ratanlal Prajapati and his friends was from one such plot. In fact Prajapati said he had been searching for diamonds for nearly 15 years now, without any success. News18 We leased small mines in different areas for the past 15 years, but did not find any diamond. This year, we have been mining on a leased land at Hirapur Tapariyan for the past six months and were pleasantly surprised to find a diamond weighing 8.22 carat, he said. Last month, another small-scale miner Prakash Majumdar, a farmer in Panna had mined a high quality diamond weighing 6.47 carat from such a mine. This was Majumdar's sixth diamond discovery and the second-most valuable he has found so far. He had found a 7.44 carat diamond last year. Besides, he had also mined four other precious stones weighing 2 to 2.5 carat in the past two years. According to the government data, in 2016, there were officially 952 artisanal mines, which yielded 835 carats of diamonds. But the number of illegal mines are much higher. What happens after the discovery? Since the diamond was found from a government-leased mine, it has to be deposited with the authorities itself. In the case of Panna, the government diamond office in Panna, is the concerned authority. The recently found 8.22 carat diamond along with other stones will go under the hammer. The The diamond will be put up for auction on September 21. Unsplash/Representational image The proceeds from the auction of the raw diamonds would be given to the respective miners after deduction of government royalty of 11.5 % and taxes. Processing The auctioned diamonds then go to polishers who will decide the final size of the gem. This include cutting, shaping and polishing of the diamond before it is transformed into the desired shape, which we have all come to identify them in. Unsplash/Representational image From the time the diamond is transformed from a rough stone into a gem set in an item of jewellery, it has lost half of its weight. India is the world's largest cutting and polishing centre of rough diamonds, and 14 out of every 15 rough diamonds in the world are polished in the county. In India, Surat is the hub for such activities and 85 percent of the diamonds from here are exported. Mining, not so glittery as the diamonds Artisanal mining in Panna has its own fair share of controversies. The illegal mines that operate into the forests have become a threat to the ecology. There have also been cases in which tribals were attacked by illegal miners in the forest. Gem Diamonds The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) diamond mine in Panna too had faced its set of controversies. In January the NMDC had temporally halted operations after its environmental clearance lease ended on December 31. It has always been a flashpoint as the more than 74 hectares of mechanised mining inside the protected areas of Gangau Wildlife Sanctuary of the Panna Tiger Reserve. 1) India Records 30,570 COVID-19 Cases In A Day ShutterStock With 30,570 more people testing positive for COVID-19, India's overall infection tally has risen to 3,33,47,325, while the count of active cases has dipped to 3,42,923, according to the Union Health Ministry on Thursday. The death count due to the disease has climbed to 4,43,928 with 431 daily fatalities being recorded, according to data updated by the ministry. 2) "Delhi Borders Sealed": Akali Dal Ahead Of 'Black Friday' Protest March BCCL Ahead of the 'black Friday' protest march which was announced by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on completion of one year of enactment of the three farms laws, the party said that Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib is being cordoned off and Delhi borders are being sealed. "Looking at the number of farmers and Akali Dal cadre coming for the protest today, Rakab Ganj Sahib is being cordoned off to stop Punjabis from entering. This is a reminder of dark dictatorial times," the party tweeted. 3) Taliban Bans Women Employees From Entering Ministry In Kabul Washington Post The Taliban have barred female employees from entering the Ministry of Women Affairs in Kabul, allowing only males into the building, an employee of the ministry said. "Four women were not allowed to enter the building", Sputnik news agency quoted the employee as saying. The women intend to protest the move near the ministry. 4) Former Pennsylvania senator behind Biden 'Making the Taliban Great Again' billboards AP Billboards showing President Joe Biden "Making the Taliban Great Again" recently popped up in Pennsylvania and a former senator is staking claim for them. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Scott Wagner watched the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the chaos it wrought, he wondered, What do you say to (those veterans)? He said he wanted to do something to speak out. Those who are acquainted with Wagner, a one-term Republican state senator and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, know that he is not shy about expressing his views in a provocative manner. A 19-year-old student, who turned up in shorts for an entrance test, was made to wrap a curtain around her legs after she was not allowed to sit for the exam in Assams Tezpur town. Jublee Tamuli described it as the "most humiliating experience". The incident reportedly took place on Wednesday (September 15, 2021) in Assam's Tezpur town when she had appeared for an entrance exam of the Assam Agricultural University (AAU). Mojo Had travelled 70 km away to the test centre She along with her father travelled from their hometown Biswanath Chariali to Tezpur, 70 km away, in the morning to be on time for the test. According to Jublee, there was no hitch as she entered the exam venue Girijananda Chowdhury Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (GIPS). Trouble started only after she entered the exam hall, she explained. "While the security guards let me enter the premises, I was stopped by the invigilator at the exam hall. He said I would not be allowed to enter wearing shorts," Jublee told The Indian Express. IANS Told to wear pants to appear for the test Jublee added that the Controller of Exams told her that she can take the test if a pair of pants could be arranged for her, following which, her father, who was waiting outside the examination centre, rushed to a market. While her father was away and the clock was ticking, Jublee was given a curtain to cover her legs and take the exam. She also expressed her displeasure over everyone having their own "comfort zone" and said that if a boy wears a vest, no one says anything. "Some men go around bare-bodied in public, and no one says a thing. But if a girl wears a pair of shorts, then people point fingers," she added. 'No dress code mentioned on admit card' According to Jublee, the admit card did not mention any dress code. A few days ago, I appeared for the NEET exam in the same town, wearing the exact same attire nothing happened. Neither does the AAU have any rules about shorts, nor was there anything mentioned in the admit card. How was I to know? Representational Image Jublee also said that she plans to write to Assam Education Minister and apprise him of the details of the incident. A missing teenager from Florida was reunited with her mother at the US-Mexico border after she was abducted 14 years ago. Their official reunion took place on Monday in Texas, though the two had first met at the border last week. Daughter got kidnapped when she was 6 Angelica Vences-Salgado called authorities on Sep 2 after receiving a message on social media from someone claiming to be her daughter, Jacqueline Hernandez, who she hadnt seen or heard from since 2007, according to the Clermont Police Department. Police dept Hernandez who was 6-years-old at the time was allegedly abducted by her father on Dec 22, 2007, and a warrant for kidnapping was issued five days later, the original report says. Hernandez told her mother Salgado that she was in Mexico and requested to meet her at the point of entry in Laredo, Texas, police said. On Sep 10, federal agents intercepted Salgado and Hernandez and were able to confirm the young woman, now 19, as Salgado's missing daughter. Netizens shower love, blessings The press release on Facebook has users expressing their love and concern to the mother and the daughter. A user wrote, "Incredible and such an emotional story. So happy for a happy ending but can't imagine the agony all those years. Prayers for the missing." Another said, "Congratulations CPD. You are awesome the way you take credit after this girl found her mother and made their reunion possible. But you do get to close the case, so there's that." "Thank you for going the extra mile to make sure nothing goes wrong and they are both safe," read one of the comments. World-renowned physicist Professor Thanu Padmanabhan -- a distinguished professor at Punes Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics -- passed away today, due to a heart attack. Wikipedia Also Read: Indian Scientists Find Three Supermassive Black Holes Merging In Far-Off Cosmos His field of interest was quantum theory, gravitation cosmology and structure formation in the universe. Early life and career He was born on March 10, 1957, in Thiruvananthapuram. After completing his early schooling in Thiruvananthapuram, he completed his bachelors degree in science and masters degree in science from the University College, Kerala University in the year 1977 and 1979 respectively. At the age of just 20 years, he published his first paper on General Relativity being just a B.Sc. student. Soon after, he joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai for his PhD and later became a faculty at the research institute. Faculty at several institutions Apart from holding a faculty role at TIFR, he also served the role of a faculty member at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. Later he moved to Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics where he served as its Dean, Core Academic Programs for a tenure of 18 years from 1997 to 2015. Hes also served as an Adjunct faculty with institutions like Harish-Chandra Research Institute (Allahabad), the Raman Research Institute (Bangalore) and the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research -- both Pune and Mohali --throughout his career. Also Read: Indian Scientist Finds Way To Detect Colon Cancer Early And Save Lives Matrubhumi Published over 300 research papers Throughout his career, he has been the author of over 300 research papers and several books in the field of gravitation, quantum gravity, structure, formation of the universe etc. He held the 24th rank among the top scientists in the world, as per a list maintained by Stanford University, for his research in Theoretical Physics. Also Read: Indian-Origin Scientist Finds New Clues On How Life Began On Earth, Against All Odds Awards and accolades Hes the recipient of Padma Shri in the year 2007 for his contributions in the field of theoretical physics. Hes also been awarded the TWAS Prize in Physics in 2011, Infosys Science Foundation Prize for Physical Sciences in 2009, The Millennium Medal, Homi Bhabha Fellowship, J.C. Bose National Fellowship to name a few. Just last month, he was also the recipient of Kerala Shastra Puraskaram. He is survived by his wife Dr Vasanthi Padmanabhan and daughter Hamsa. Anne-Sophie Castelnau has been global head of Sustainability at ING since 1 April 2021. Here, she talks about our integrated approach to climate and what she thinks of the job so far. Whats so special about this report? It shows INGs really holistic approach to climate action. As a bank, our biggest impact is with our financing, so weve been steering that for several years. But we also have to look at the impact of the climate on our business. What kind of risks there are, whether were resilient enough to those risks. Also importantly, our clients are also all at risk from climate change, so we engage with them around that topic, advising them on financing. In this report, that all comes together. If we only remember a few things from this report, what would they be? One, that INGs taking action on climate financing and climate risk, and really adding value for our clients in both areas; two, that were using science-based methodologies to steer our portfolio towards climate goals and continued our good work last year, with most sectors in scope on track to meet them; and three, we aim to decrease funding to upstream oil and gas by 12% by 2025, which is a new, intermediate target that can help us steer and be held accountable. Why do we only have an updated target on net zero by 2050 for oil and gas, and not any of the other sectors? Our approach is to define targets based on reliable data and scenarios. Last year we announced a target to reduce funding to upstream oil and gas by 19% by 2040. At the time, we said wed update that target whenever the International Energy Agency updated its scenarios. They did that this past May for oil and gas, so we went for that update. How will we achieve this 12% reduction? Well work towards the target by reducing our exposure to energy types that are carbon-intensive and steering towards cleaner energy types. In general, we believe in facilitating change by engaging with our clients. And as our portfolio of loans has a duration of four to five years, we have multiple occasions to engage with them on their direction. Actually talking to them, seeing what their struggles are, and advising them on how to help contribute towards the energy transition. Then we help them fund those changes. Things like developing new products and services, decarbonising their operations, and especially investing in new energy technologies. Only saying no would be the easy way. They would just go to another bank, who might not be as interested as we are in helping to fight climate change. How does climate risk play into our approach? Risk is a part of every banks business model. Every time we give a loan, were calculating the risk of not being repaid. And were required to keep a certain amount of money on our books to ensure we stay in business if they arent. This is guided by regulation. Climate risk is becoming more and more important as climate change could have an impact on our clients and the assets we finance. Which means that there are new regulations being worked on and new risk models needed. You cant look at financing anymore without also looking at climate risk. What kind of risks are we talking about? There are the obvious physical risks, like what happens to our Dutch mortgage portfolio if parts of the country would flood. But theres also transition risks, the risk of things like stranded assets. For example, what will happen to companies if they dont adjust their business models enough to deal with climate change. Take carmakers. If they dont start making any electric vehicles, what will happen to them once the law says that only electric vehicles can be sold. They will have stranded assets. Thats an over-simplified example but it gives an idea of what I mean. So what are we doing? Well, were trying to become more resilient to those risks. We have to identify them, assess them, understand the impact they could have on our business and try to look for ways to mitigate that. We use scenarios for that, and stress-testing. What we learn helps us make our business decisions. We do this as part of our risk management framework. And how we do this continues to evolve in line with developing regulations and methodologies. This is exactly why our inclusive approach around climate change is so important. Only through engagement with our clients are we able to detect the right risks and with that, also support them in becoming more resilient. Were just one bank. How can we make a difference? We can definitely make a difference, but we cant make a difference alone. First, our clients are our partners in this, they have to be willing to evolve with us to a low-carbon world. To look at their business, see what they can improve on, and actually make those changes. And second, all of us rely on governments to play their part too. We need stronger, bolder regulations that require and support the necessary changes. As we like to say, it takes three to tango when it comes to climate action. It has to be a united global effort. Youre relatively new to the role what stands out for you? I joined from Wholesale Banking, so Ive seen first-hand over the years how clients have been shifting towards prioritising sustainability. What stands out for me is the passion I see throughout ING for the topic, and the leadership role ING has in measuring and steering our portfolio. Thats something Im really proud of. Related stories Vermont Governor Phil Scott asked the federal government to help Bennington and Windham counties recover from summer flooding. Scott said communities in the two southern Vermont counties suffered an estimated $4 million in damage from flooding that occurred on July 29 and 30. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state and local communities assessed the damage and determined it met the minimum damage threshold needed to apply for the assistance. If the federal disaster status is granted, communities would be eligible to receive 75% reimbursement for storm response and recovery. Those costs include repairs to public roads, bridges, and other infrastructure that was damaged during the storm. Many communities impacted by these storms were left with repair costs that far exceed their annual road maintenance budgets, Scott said in a statement. This is an area of our state that has felt the impacts of storms of all sizes over the past year, and without federal assistance, they will be left with another bill that will impact its residents for some time. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Flood A former executive at a nearly 140-year-old shoe manufacturer in Massachusetts has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for embezzling $30 million from the company and spending it on luxury items and travel for himself and another person, federal prosecutors in Boston said. Richard Hajjar, 64, the former chief financial officer of Alden Shoe Co., was also sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $60 million in restitution and penalties. Hajjar, of Duxbury, embezzled the money from 2011 until he was fired in 2019, by writing checks to himself from company bank accounts and transferring funds from company accounts to his personal accounts and to another person, prosecutors said. He used some of the money to buy jewelry, including a $158,000 diamond ring, a New York City condominium, and private flights to the Caribbean, according to court documents. He then failed to report the proceeds of his embezzlement as income on his tax returns. Hajjar pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions and filing a false tax return. The Middleborough-based Alden Shoe Co., which makes high-end dress shoes and other footwear, was founded in 1884, according to its website. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Massachusetts The former owner of a Richmond, Virginia, assisted living facility pleaded guilty to health care fraud after spending more than $800,000 meant for residents care on travel, gambling expenses and personal debts, federal prosecutors said. Mable Jones owned and operated Jones & Jones, an assisted living facility for elderly and incapacitated adults, according to court documents. As a representative payee for residents who were legally incapable of managing their own funds, she regularly received state and federal benefit payments on their behalf. Between December 2015 and the spring of 2019, when the facility closed, Jones spent more than $800,000 of residents benefits on herself, leading to deficiencies that endangered residents health and safety, court documents state. These conditions prompted state and federal audits and during those audits Jones made false statements, prosecutors said. While the vulnerable residents of her facility suffered through dreadful living conditions, the defendant selfishly used their benefits to pay for her own debts, travel, and gambling expenses in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Raj Parekh said in a statement. Jones faces a maximum of 10 years in prison at sentencing, which is set for Jan. 11. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Fraud Virginia Senior Care Zurich Insurance Group AG is considering a sale of some of its general insurance assets in Australia as the Swiss firm seeks to streamline its portfolio, according to people familiar with the matter. The insurer is working with an adviser on the potential divestment of non-core commercial assets in the country, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. A sale could fetch a few hundred million dollars, and may draw interest from other insurers and investment funds, the people said. Sale considerations are still preliminary and no final decision has been made, the people said. A representative for Zurich declined to comment. The Swiss firm has grown its Australia business through acquisitions. It bought Sydney-based travel insurer Cover-More Group Ltd. for about A$741 million ($542 million) in 2017. That year, Zurich also agreed to acquire Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.s life-insurance businesses for A$2.85 billion. The deal completed in 2019. Zurich is not looking at big M&A transactions as they could be a distraction amid the need for change in the industry, Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco said in Bloomberg Television interview earlier this month. With assistance from Harry Brumpton. Copyright 2021 Bloomberg. Topics Australia This edition of International People Moves covers London-based appointments at Beazley, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) and Marsh. A summary of these promotions and new hires follows here. Insurer Beazley Names Sanchez for Newly Created Global Head of Cyber Services Specialist insurer Beazley has promoted Raf Sanchez as global head of Cyber Services, a newly created role. Sanchez, currently international manager of Beazley Breach Response Services, will assume his new role on Oct. 1, and he will join the Global Cyber & Tech Management Team. He will continue to be based in London. Beazley is a market leader in cyber insurance, and Sanchez has been integral to the development of Beazleys breach response services, which are a key element of the Beazley Breach Response (BBR) product that was launched in 2009, said the London-based company in a statement. We have created the new role of global head of Cyber Services to further enhance our commitment to underwriting cyber exposure, and harnessing data and technology to equip clients with the best possible risk management tools, commented Paul Bantick, global head of Cyber & Technology at Beazley. In his new role, Raf will direct global risk management and incident response functions, Bantick continued. *** AGCS Promotes Vassallo as Regional Head of Energy & Construction, London and Nordics Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) announced the appointment of Anthony Vassallo as the new regional head of Energy & Construction for Regional Unit London and Nordics, effective immediately. In this role, Vassallo will lead AGCS Energy & Construction business across the UK, Ireland, and Nordics, with responsibility for the profitability of the portfolio and driving established and future solutions in these important areas of risk. He will report to Alfredo Alonso, managing director Regional Unit London and Nordics with an additional reporting line to AGCS global head of Energy & Construction. Vassallo remains based in the London office of AGCS, Allianzs entity for large-scale corporate and specialty risks. He succeeds Tracey Hunt who is leaving for an external opportunity outside the Allianz Group. Since joining Allianz in 2003, Anthony has worked in specialty lines across the London Market, Europe, Asia and South America on both underwriting and distribution sides of the business. Prior to his most recent role as regional lead Onshore Energy for RUL & Nordics, he was responsible for strategy within the Marine and Energy, CUO team, based in London. Before this, Vassallo led AGCS Marine and Energy team in South America, based in Rio de Janeiro. Anthony is well known and respected in our markets and under his leadership, our Energy & Construction teams expertise and knowledge is perfectly placed to respond to the fast-growing exposures of modern businesses, commented Alonso. *** Dyer and Adams Join Marsh Specialtys UK Marine & Cargo Practice Marsh, the worlds leading insurance broker and risk adviser, announced the appointments of Sarah Dyer as head of Logistics and Nick Adams as Business Development leader within Marsh Specialtys UK Marine & Cargo Practice. Dyer reports to Louise Nevill, CEO, UK Marine & Cargo Practice, and Adams reports to Mark Cracknell, head of Protection & Indemnity (P&I). They are both based in London, Marsh Specialtys UK Marine & Cargo advisers work with marine, shipping, and logistics organizations around the world to help them reduce their risk exposures and navigate business-related challenges, through the application of industry-leading data, analytics, and benchmarking. Dyer returns to Marsh from AIG, where she was UK Head of Marine. With over 30 years experience as a broker and underwriter, she previously worked for Marsh as a freight liability broker. Dyer also spent 10 years at Aon, as a client director, engaged in supply chain and freight forwarding risks and 12 years working for a logistics company. In her new role, she will support wholesale and retail logistics businesses globally in managing their insurance and risk portfolios. In his role, Adams will focus on supporting Greek marine clients with their insurance and risk management programs and will work closely with Nikos Rekantzis, head of Marine, Marsh Specialty, Greece. Prior to joining Marsh, Adams had spent more than 12 years with the Onassis Group as a Director of Olympic Agencies (UK) in London. A qualified solicitor, he previously worked as a claims manager in the Swedish P&I Clubs Greek Office. Topics Cyber Construction Trucking TOKYO Officials at Japans wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant have acknowledged they neglected to investigate the cause of faulty exhaust filters that are key to preventing radioactive pollution, after being forced to replace them twice. Representatives of the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, made the revelation Monday during a regular review of the Fukushima Daiichi plant at a meeting with Japanese regulatory authorities. Three reactors at the plant melted following a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The filters are designed to prevent particles from escaping into the air from a contaminated water treatment system called Advanced Liquid Processing System that removes selected radioactive isotopes in the water to below legal limits. At the core of this problem is TEPCOs attitude, a Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner, Nobuhiko Ban, said at the meeting. TEPCO has been repeatedly criticized for coverups and delayed disclosures of problems at the plant. In February, it said two seismometers at one reactor had remained broken since last year and failed to collect data during a powerful earthquake. Company officials said that 24 out of 25 filters attached to the water treatment equipment had been found damaged last month, after an alarm went off as workers were moving sludge from the unit to a container, temporarily suspending the water treatment. The operation partially resumed last week after the filters were replaced. TEPCO said it had detected similar damage in all of the filters two years ago, but never investigated the cause of the problem and did not take any preventive steps after replacing the filters. Another regulatory commissioner, Satoru Tanaka, said at the meeting that the utility company should have responded to the problem more quickly to minimize the risk of possible radiation leakage into the environment. TEPCO officials said dust monitors indicated no radiation leaks to the outside or exposure to plant workers inside the water treatment facility. Akira Ono, head of TEPCOs decommissioning unit, said he regretted the utilitys failure to address the problem earlier. He promised to improve safety management. Japanese officials are working with the International Atomic Energy Agency to prepare to discharge into the ocean the wrecked plants cooling water, treated so its radioactivity levels are below legal limits. Slated to start in spring 2023, the controversial plan is fiercely opposed by Fukushimas fishing community, as well as local residents and nearby countries. Fully decommissioning the nuclear plant is expected to take decades, experts say. Photo: In this Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021, nuclear reactors of No. 5, center left, and 6 look over tanks storing water that was treated but still radioactive, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, file) Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Ford Motor Co. will send $500 checks to every household that was evacuated from a southeastern Michigan city because of a gasoline leak from the automakers plant into the communitys sewer system, representatives said. The checks would total $600,000 for 1,200 displaced households, The Detroit News reported. The leak from the Ford assembly plant in Flat Rock was first detected on Aug. 30 and appeared to have started no earlier than Aug. 26, Bob Holycross, Fords vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering, said at a news conference. Ford believes the 1,400 gallons of gasoline leaked during that time, he said. The automaker on Sept. 13 extended the Mustang assembly plants closure through Sept. 20. Mayor Mark Hammond said residents may remain out of their homes for weeks yet while testing of the citys sewer system and indoor air quality continues. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Michigan Employee benefits firm Unum said it will soon launch a product to help employers determine employees COVID-19 vaccination status and manage vaccine exemptions and testing results. In anticipation of recent federal vaccination and testing mandates, the product promises to ease the burden of vaccine management for human resource departments, protect sensitive documents, and provide increased peace of mind for everyone. This new digital product Unum Vaccine Verifier will verify employee vaccination status using a self-service portal for employees to report vaccination status and upload documentation. It will help manage employee vaccine exemptions by handling intake of all medical and non-medical exemption requests and private documents. Third it will manage COVID-19 test result documentation for employees who are not vaccinated, sending weekly reminders and employer notifications. The Unum Vaccine Verifier goes beyond a survey, helping human resource teams manage these requirements and allowing them to focus on their employees. said Polly Nicholas, senior vice president of Unum Solutions. Last week, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. Department of Labor will issue a rule requiring that businesses with more than 100 employees have their workers vaccinated or tested weekly. Tennessee-based Unum said it has expertise handling sensitive medical records and navigating regulatory details. Unum said its subsidiary Colonial Life, will also offer a vaccine verifier option with similar functionality. Through its Unum US, Unum International, and Colonial Life businesses, the company offers disability, life, accident, critical illness, dental, vision and stop-loss insurance; leave and absence management support and behavioral health services. In 2020, Unum reported revenues of $13.2 billion and paid $7.6 billion in benefits. PolicySweet, which allows small business owners to research, shop, quote and purchase insurance online, is expanding its coverage to include HomeHQSM, a policy designed for home-based businesses to provide coverage for business liabilities that a homeowners or renters policy does not typically include. HomeHQ coverage from PolicySweet is designed for home-based businesses with four or fewer employees, and includes the following coverage: HomeHQ policies are underwritten by Great American Insurance Company, Great American Assurance Company, Great American Alliance Insurance Company, and Great American Insurance Company of New York, authorized insurers in all 50 states and the D.C. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the operations of Great American Insurance Group are engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance, focusing on specialty commercial products for businesses. Great American Insurance Company has received an A (Excellent) or higher rating from the A.M. Best Company for more than 110 years, with its most recent rating evaluation of A+ (Superior) affirmed January 28, 2021. The members of Great American Insurance Group are subsidiaries of American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG), also based in Cincinnati, Ohio. AFGs common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFG. Source: Great American For the second time in a week, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has said he is considering levying fines against insurance companies that continue to refuse to comply with his emergency directive to cover the temporary living expenses of policyholders who evacuated during Hurricane Ida. What I would do is find that they are not in compliance with a lawful order that I have issued and take action to suspend their license, which is unlikely, or fine them, which is more likely, for their failure to comply, Donelon said, referring by name to the company at the center of the dispute: State Farm. Donelon made the remarks during a virtual town hall discussion hosted by the Advocate, just days after delivering similar remarks as the featured guest at the Baton Rouge Press Club luncheon. The issue stems from a provision contained in most homeowners insurance policies that covers living expenses only if the policyholder is under a mandatory evacuation order. Ahead of Hurricane Ida, only some Southeast Louisiana parishes were put under a mandatory evacuation order. Most of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish were not, despite not having running water or power for several days after the storm. Many parishes and municipalities did not issue mandatory evacuations ahead of Hurricane Ida because there was not enough time for such evacuations to be safely carried out. The fast-moving storm took many by surprise and officials were worried that mandatory evacuations would create situations reminiscent of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. It was a horrible experience for those folks, in particularly the elderly who were caught up in it, Donelon said in his earlier speech to the Press Club. During mandatory evacuations for Ivan, many Southeast Louisiana residents were trapped in gridlock traffic for periods as long as 8 hours, running out of fuel, food and water, Donelon said. That was part of the decision making process for those public officials trying to decide whether to order an evacuation or not, he said. After Ida made landfall Aug. 29, Donelon urged insurance companies to voluntarily waive that provision after he received an email from Allstate saying the company was already planning to do so. USAA and other companies joined with Allstate in meeting Donelons request, but State Farm did not, prompting Donelon to turn his request into a mandate. He said he is waiting on State Farm to respond to the consumer complaints his office has received regarding the companys refusal to cover food, hotel and other evacuation expenses claimed by homeowners from parishes that were not under a mandatory evacuation order. Under state statute, insurance companies have 30 days to comply with the commissioners emergency directives before the commissioner can take further regulatory action such as levying a fine or suspending the companys license. Such action can be delayed even further if the company challenges the directive in court or appeals the fine to the Division of Administrative Law, in which case the fine would be suspended pending a judges ruling. Donelons emergency directive took effect on Sept. 7. State Farm had not filed any challenges or appeals as of Sept. 16, he said. That remains to be seen, and its frankly, at this point, in State Farms court, he said. Once we have a response from them relative to complaints weve received, we will take our action and that may precipitate a response in the court system by State Farm. In response to a request for comment, a State Farm spokesperson emailed the following statement: State Farm stands with our customers to help them recover in those states impacted by Hurricane Ida. Our hearts go out to all those impacted. We are working with our customers one-on-one to determine their individual circumstances and provide assistance in their recovery process. We are committed to pay what we owe and encourage our policyholders who have suffered a loss to submit a claim. This story originally appeared in The Louisiana Illuminator. Topics Trends New litigated claims for Floridas largest property and casualty insurers dropped to 4,313 in August, a 35% decrease from July, according to data compiled by litigation management software provider CaseGlide. The month-over-month drop is the largest percentage decline since September 2017, when a 51% m-o-m drop coincided with Hurricane Irmas landfall in Florida. Miami-Dade County accounted for 27% of new litigated claims, followed by Broward at 18% and Palm Beach at 7%. CaseGlide monitors 17 of Floridas largest insurers, seven of which experienced a greater than 40% drop, and an addition seven reported between a 20% and 39% drop. AOB cases as a percentage of total new litigated cases in the month were at 24%. CaseGlide CEO Wesley Todd called the August figures a shift back to the more normal pattern of declining litigated claims during the early autumn months and said its too early to judge the impact of Senate Bill 76 on new litigated claims. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation in June and it went into effect July 1. The bill includes changes to the states one-way attorney fee statue and adds new requirements and restrictions on roofing contractors. A section of the law restricting advertisements and solicitations of roofing contractors was halted by a federal judge in July. Florida Senate Bill 76 has undoubtedly contributed to some confusion in the marketplace and going forward we will be tracking Intent to Initiate Litigation Notices to better understand their effect on litigated cases in Florida, Todd said. According to CaseGlide, the top 10 AOB contractors in Florida represent 25% of all AOB-related new litigated claims. Topics Claims Florida A prominent South Carolina lawyer who found the bodies of his wife and son three months ago plans to turn himself in to face charges in a plot to arrange his own death that ended with the shooter only grazing him in the head, his defense attorneys said. Alex Murdaugh plans to be in Hampton County to surrender to police Thursday and have a bond hearing, lawyer Jim Griffin told news outlets. The charges are connected to insurance fraud, Griffin said. Murdaugh asked a previous client whom he was buying drugs from to kill him with a shot to the head on Sept. 4 so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy, authorities said. The State Law Enforcement Division did not confirm any arrest warrants against Murdaugh late Wednesday. Prosecutors did not return a message asking about a possible bond hearing. Murdaughs lawyers said he has been in drug rehab for about 10 days after his law firm fired him over missing money that could total millions of dollars. If Murdaugh is arrested, it would culminate a tumultuous 36 hours which saw someone arrested on assisted suicide, insurance fraud and other charges for shooting him in the head, then state police open a sixth investigation into him and his family _ this time over the death of a housekeeper and nanny who died in his home. The womans death certificate said she died from natural causes and it wasnt reported to the Hampton County coroner. But a wrongful death settlement for $500,000 said she was killed in a slip-and-fall at Murdaughs home. Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather all held the office of solicitor in the area for more than 80 years and other family members were prominent civil attorneys in the region. Murdaugh himself was an authorized volunteer prosecutor supporting his fathers cases, a relationship the office severed this month as Murdaugh said he was seeking rehabilitation for an oxycodone addiction. It all started June 7, when Murdaugh found the bodies of his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son Paul shot multiple times after returning to their Colleton County home after visiting his sick father. Those killings remain unsolved, and Murdaughs lawyers have said he is adamant he had nothing to do with their deaths. On Sept. 3, Murdaugh was fired by the PMPED law firm founded by his grandfather after the firm determined he took money. Murdaughs lawyers said he decided to kill himself the next day, but have someone else shoot him. Murdaugh gave Curtis Edward Smith a gun and they headed to lonely Old Salkehatchie Road. Smith fired one shot that only grazed Murdaughs head, a State Law Enforcement Division agent said in a sworn statement. Murdaugh was able to call 911 and his initial story was someone passing in a pickup truck shot at him as he checked a tire that was low on pressure. His lawyers said a week later he told them about the insurance scheme and they told state police. Smith, 61, was arrested late Tuesday and charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, distribution of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana. He remains in jail and it wasnt known if he had a lawyer to speak on his behalf. Along with the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and the shooting of Alex Murdaugh, the State Law Enforcement Division is also investigating the missing money, whether anyone tried to obstruct an investigation into a 2019 boat crash for which Paul Murdaugh was eventually charged and a July 2015 hit-and-run death in Hampton County. The agency also announced Wednesday that they are now investigating Gloria Satterfields death. Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper asked for the state investigation, saying Satterfields death certificate lists she died of natural causes, which is inconsistent with a trip-and-fall accidental death. She said her office was not informed so it could perform an autopsy. Satterfields two sons filed a lawsuit Wednesday saying they havent seen any of the $500,000 wrongful death settlement that Murdaugh had friends arrange. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Fraud South Carolina A California county has paid $11 million to a man who spent two decades in prison after being wrongly convicted of killing his girlfriend in 1998. The payment settles a federal lawsuit filed by Horace Roberts accusing Riverside County and its sheriffs department of manufacturing the murder case against him, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Tuesday. Attorneys for Roberts declined to comment, and Roberts could not be reached, the newspaper said. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco did not respond to requests for comment. Roberts, now 63 and living in South Carolina, sued in 2019, alleging investigators failed to turn over key evidence to prosecutors. Roberts was exonerated and freed after DNA testing of crime scene evidence led to the arrests of Googie Harris and Joaquin Leal in the 1998 strangling of Terry Cheek. No evidence at the scene tied Roberts to the killing, the lawsuit said. Harris was Cheeks estranged husband, and Leal is the nephew of Harris. Both have pleaded not guilty. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Estimates reflect insured wind, storm surge, and inland flooding impacts in the U.S., including losses to the National Flood Insurance Program and the private flood market. Newark, CA September 17, 2021 RMS, the worlds leading catastrophe risk solutions company, estimates total onshore and offshore U.S. insured losses from Hurricane Ida to be between US$31 and US$44 billion. The estimate builds upon the earlier industry loss estimate of US$25-$35 billion for the Gulf of Mexico region, to include inland flooding impacts in the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast U.S. regions. RMS estimates US$6$9 billion in insured losses from precipitation-induced flooding in the Atlantic states in this event. The majority of the insured flood losses in the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast U.S. between US$4.5 and US$7.0 billion, will be to the private market, with an additional US$1.5$2.0 billion to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Total U.S. onshore and offshore insured loss estimates for Hurricane Ida (US$ billions): The overall industry loss estimate for this event includes wind and storm surge losses in the Gulf of Mexico based on analysis of ensemble footprints in Version 21 of the RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models. RMS ensemble footprints are reconstructions of Idas hazard that capture the uncertainties surrounding observed winds and storm surge. The industry estimate also includes impacts from precipitation-induced inland flooding in the Gulf Coast states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi), Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast regions, using footprints from the RMS U.S. Inland Flood HD Model. Ida will be remembered as a wind and storm surge event in the Gulf of Mexico, and a flood event in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. The storms remnants brought historic amounts of rainfall over just a few hours to some of the most exposure-dense areas in that part of the country. Many locations from Philadelphia to New York City experienced six-hourly rainfall totals in excess of 100-year return period levels, which is beyond building design standards in that region, causing widespread fluvial and pluvial flooding. The fact that this region also experienced heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Henri a few weeks prior created saturated antecedent conditions that exacerbated the extent and severity of flooding in Ida, said Jeff Waters, Senior Product Manager, RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models. Losses for the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast regions reflect property damage and business interruption to residential, commercial, industrial, and automobile lines of business, as well as sources of post-event loss amplification and leakage of flood losses onto windstorm policies. RMS expects insured losses associated with precipitation-induced inland flooding to be material in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, even though a sizable flood protection gap remains. RMS estimates total economic losses from flooding in this region to be over US$15 billion, meaning that the majority of flood damages for this event will be uninsured. Many properties in New York and New Jersey had inundated basements in areas outside the designated FEMA special flood hazard areas (SFHAs), which drive the requirement for homeowners to obtain a flood insurance policy. While such losses will unlikely be covered unless they have a flood insurance policy, the pressure to expedite claims processing in this region is likely to cause coverage leakage as frequently seen with storm surge. We expect a portion of the uncovered flood-related losses in Ida to be paid out on wind policies, especially for residential lines without NFIP coverage, said Firas Saleh, Director, RMS U.S. Inland Flood HD Model. Total insured losses from Ida reflect property damage and business interruption to residential, commercial, automobile, industrial, infrastructure, marine cargo and specie, watercraft, and other specialty lines of business, along with post-event loss amplification (PLA) and non-modeled sources of loss. We expect a sizable portion of the overall insured losses from Ida to be associated with post-event loss amplification. A combination of COVID-19 related impacts, including rising construction costs, labor shortages, and fewer loss inspections could contribute to economic demand surge as repairs are undertaken in the coming months. That, along with prolonged power outages will only lengthen recovery and repair times, all of which may lead to increased overall claim costs in this event, said Rajkiran Vojjala, Vice President, Model Development, RMS. The total U.S. insured loss estimate includes US$3.8US$6 billion losses to the NFIP, with US$1.5US$2 billion expected to come from the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast states. NFIP losses were derived using RMS view of NFIP exposure based on 2019 policy-in-force data published by FEMA, the Version 21 North Atlantic Hurricane Models, and the U.S. Inland Flood HD Model. While flood policy take-up is significant in coastal areas in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, some of the areas worst affected by floods during Ida have minimal (<10%) NFIP participation. RMS expects the majority of onshore insured losses from Ida to be driven by wind, followed by inland flooding, and then storm surge. Additionally, insured wind losses will be driven by residential lines, and insured water losses will be dominated by commercial and industrial lines. Insured losses to infrastructure, watercraft, and marine cargo and specie lines in Ida will be less than US$1 billion. Based on the August 2021 vintage of the RMS Offshore Platform Industry Exposure Database, and modeled ensemble footprints, RMS estimates insured losses to offshore platforms, rigs, and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico from wind and wave damages to be between US$0.7US$1.5 billion. Outside of the U.S., Ida impacted parts of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands, with strong winds, heavy rain, and flash flooding. RMS estimates less than US$100 million in insured losses from the event in the Caribbean. Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana on Sunday, August 29 as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. At landfall, Ida produced sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (241 km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center. As Ida moved northward toward the Tennessee River Valley, it weakened and eventually transitioned to a post-tropical cyclone before impacting the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions with torrential rain and flash flooding. Hurricane Ida was the ninth named storm of the 2021 North Atlantic hurricane season, the fourth hurricane, and the fifth named storm to make landfall in the U.S. this season. Ida was also the fourth hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana since 2020, following Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta. Over two months remain in the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends on November 30. RMS industry loss estimates for landfalling U.S. hurricanes are comprehensive, reflecting modeled and non-modeled impacts from all major drivers of damage, including wind, storm surge, and inland flooding. END The technology and data used in providing this Information is based on the scientific data, mathematical and empirical models, and encoded experience of scientists and specialists. As with any model of physical systems, particularly those with low frequencies of occurrence and potentially high severity outcomes, the actual losses from catastrophic events may differ from the results of simulation analyses. RMS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITIES, OBLIGATIONS AND LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO ANY DECISIONS OR ADVICE MADE OR GIVEN AS A RESULT OF THE INFORMATION OR USE THEREOF, INCLUDING ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL RMS (OR ITS PARENT, SUBSIDIARY, OR OTHER AFFILIATED COMPANIES) BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WITH RESPECT TO ANY DECISIONS OR ADVICE MADE OR GIVEN AS A RESULT OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS INFORMATION OR USE THEREOF. About RMS Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS) helps insurers, financial markets, corporations, and public agencies evaluate and manage global risk from natural and man-made catastrophes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, climate change, cyber, and pandemics. 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For More Information Contact: Devonne Cusi (U.S.) +1 551 226 1604 PRTeam@rms.com Matthew Longbottom (U.K.) +44 7584 333485 PRTeam@rms.com Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Profit Loss Hurricane The Ames Main Street Farmers Market is a local market that has been a staple of downtown Ames for the past eight years. The market A Costa Coffee manager sexually harassed a 19-year-old female co-worker when circulating a video of a male barista drawing male genitalia on a flat white coffee. In the post on a staff Facebook messenger group, the Costa Coffee manager told his colleagues "who does this, Ill promote him to Barista Maestro straight away with no project". This was two days after the manager posted a photo of himself on December 7, 2019, to the same staff group in his boxer shorts or "Santa Panties" before the staff Christmas party. On Friday, the Labour Court has ordered the Irish operator of Costa Coffee, MBCC Foods Ireland Ltd, to pay the worker, Shauna Quilty, 20,000 compensation for the sexual harassment endured. Ms Quiltys solicitor Richard Grogan described the Labour Court ruling as "ground-breaking. The award is more than a five-fold increase of the 3,500 Ms Quilty was awarded by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the case came before the Labour Court after Ms Quilty appealed the quantum of the award. Mr Grogan told the court that concerning the first incident, the Costa Coffee manager posted the photo of himself in his boxer shorts and asked "what about Shauna?" after she earlier didnt reply when the manager asked where she was. When asked by a colleague what his "Santa panties" were for, he replied, "who takes them wins the prize". Labour Court findings In its findings, Labour Court chairman Tom Geraghty said Ms Quilty has a right to go to work without being subjected to unwanted pictures of her manager in his underwear or childish and offensive representations of male genitalia. He said: While the nature of such offensive behaviour may not be in the same category as physical assault, it is considerably more than harmless banter and the court does not concur with the view of the adjudication officer [at the WRC] that the acts fall into the lowest category of misbehaviour. Mr Geraghty noted the relevant manager was suspended from work at an early stage, his behaviour was investigated and, as a result, a penalty was imposed on him. Mr Geraghty said a defence to alleged sexual harassment under the Employment Equality Act is not available to Costa Coffee because of their failure to take any real steps in advance to protect the complainant from the harassment that she suffered. The chairman said the court was left to consider a situation that is more than just poor behaviour by an individual. He later added the court could not ignore the fact that Costa Coffees failures offered inadequate protections to Ms Quilty. He said there was "almost inexplicable inadequacies" in Costa Coffees protective procedures. As part of its order, the Labour Court has ordered that Costa develop a workplace anti-harassment and sexual harassment policy and develop an appropriate social media policy. Mr Geraghty said the court noted with approval that the coffee retailer had taken some steps to address its deficiencies in this regard. He also said it was extraordinarily unsatisfactory that a social media platform used by employees of Costa Coffee for work purposes was not covered by a social media policy that expressly set out a prohibition on the type of sexual harassment to which Ms Quilty was subjected. He said: This failure, again, heightens the sense that while the behaviour of an individual employee gave rise to the complaint, the respondent bears significant responsibility for what occurred. Mr Grogan said sexual harassment in the workplace is an egregious breach of employment rights. He said Ms Quilty was delighted that the decision has gone beyond the compensation but contains a direction for the employer to put in place the appropriate policies and training". She doesn't want it happening to anyone else. The issue of the money was relevant but only for the purposes of sending out a message that this type of activity is not acceptable. Mr Grogan described the Costa manager sending the photo of himself in his boxer shorts and the video as highly offensive. He said the Labour Court had effectively for the first time set out the methodology for the valuation of these type of cases. Mr Grogan said this would have an impact on how Workplace Relations Commission adjudicators decide on the level of awards. 'A huge move and a game-changer' He said: It is a huge move and a game-changer. Mr Grogan described this approach by the Labour Court as an extremely progressive approach by the Labour Court. He said: Hopefully, this will mean that sexual harassment claims are less likely to be fought. Mr Grogan said the decision represents a significant statement by the Labour Court as to what they want to see done in the eradication of sexual harassment in the workplace. It is telling employers this is what you need to do to eradicate it. MBCC Foods Ireland Ltd trading as Costa Coffee has been contacted for comment. With regard to the article We are just so tired: Parents reveal endless struggle to find and pay for childcare ( Irish Examiner, September 13). Is anything ever going to change here? It is increasingly difficult or near impossible for working people to just survive, let alone have any quality of life/standard of living here. Housing mortgage or rents and childcare costs in order to have the two jobs needed to afford rent/mortgage are crippling people. Costs have gone up and up, while salaries are almost stagnant. Having a family and a roof over your head are the basic needs of human life that are now denied to so many people. Successive governments have failed to serve the people, and are just lining the pockets of developers which has knock-on effects on peoples lives. We pay huge amounts in tax. But nothing is working any more. Judy Harmey Kilmainham State must invest in early years learning It needs to be recognised that Ireland has never had a history of state-funded quality early years education (EYE) and care. It is a fundamental problem, leading to an ad hoc mushrooming of mostly privately run creche (babies/toddlers) and nursery schools that are able to charge prohibitive fees. With no choices for parents its a seller's market. Take that out of the equation and have state-funded and inspected EYE with well-trained and properly paid staff. Decades of research shows EYE makes a difference for every child, particularly those who are vulnerable. No society which genuinely invests in education for all would allow this mess of a system to continue. As usual, it is the women and children who suffer most. Anne Ni Leachnain Clonee Dublin 15 Constitutional property rights I am writing in reference to the article, Report highlights how vulnerable suffer in growing housing divide (Irish Examiner, online September 14). Nothing in this report is likely to change. Ireland will still be talking about these problems in 10 years' time as was the case 10 years ago. As long as those who continue to squeeze as much as they can from those who have not all with explicit government approval nothing will change. Might I suggest that the have nots take to the streets and demand constitutional remedies to property rights. Wake up before property destroys our economy (again) and does even more damage to our society. Adam Bolger Oceanic Avenue Belfast Seasick to think of Americas Cup bid While I have no doubt the hundreds of millions necessary to secure the bid for the 2024 Americas Cup in Cork will be very palatable indeed to the well-heeled supporters and constituents of Messrs Coveney and Martin in their Cork South Central stronghold, it is likely to go down like a cup of seasick with the rest of the electorate who are struggling to make ends meet under this Governments watch. On the gag reflex index, I would rate it a strong nine. Liam Power Dundalk Co Louth Unfair Leaving Cert never had integrity Why Billy Ryle puts his hand out again to be slapped beats me Its time to restore integrity of Leaving Cert (Irish Examiner, Letters, September 13). He states: Its time to restore the integrity and international reputation of an exam that has served Ireland well since 1925. But has the Leaving Cert served Ireland well or has it served a minority well Ivy League secondary students, those having the best teachers and facilities, those who can afford grinds to supplement their education? Is the Leaving Cert points system a perfectly oiled machine? Does the privileged exam-taker who gets the highest number of points make the best doctor or teacher? Fair-minded evidence shows the Leaving Cert is not a valid, reliable, impartial, and fair psychometric instrument. Joe Terry Tower Blarney Northern Ireland is out for the count Recent headlines stated that Irelands population had increased to an estimated 5.01m from a report issued in April by the Central Statistics Office. You can imagine my shock on reading this to discover we had lost approximately 1.9m people (our population is around 6.9m). No, they havent been kidnapped by aliens but the name of our country has, which leads to this continuing fake narrative that the 26 counties of the Republic is what constitutes the country they call Ireland. Michael Hagan Belfast Co Antrim Common sense its simple, Simon Unfortunately the Katherine Zappone matter does not seem to be going away despite apologies, etc. In my opinion, these problems could have been avoided if in the early stages Simon Coveney sat down with Leo Varadkar and Micheal Martin and discussed considering the appointment of a UN special envoy as proposed for Katherine Zappone. Simon Coveney is a very experienced politician and government minister but he appeared to be lacking in basic common sense in this case. Michael A Moriarty Rochestown Cork Norway could teach us a lesson Recent controversy surrounding multiple data centres and Irelands creaking national grid highlights our appalling record over the last 50 years, resulting in the dysfunctional and uncertain energy situation we are exposed to today. All one has to do is compare our national situation today with our neighbour Norway to put things in perspective. Norway, then a poor country with a population of 5.3m, but with similar geological, maritime and weather conditions, invested heavily and intelligently in developing its oil and gas resources and today has the worlds largest national wealth fund of $1.3 trillion, equivalent to $160,000 for every Norwegian citizen. Significantly as a result, it is now investing billions in radically and successfully shifting its economy and industry to low carbon and to renewables, supplemented with its own oil and natural gas. We could have done the same, but through a mix of gross political incompetence and short-term expediency, we mismanaged our natural resources to the extent that today, we are the proud owners of a national debt of some 250bn, equivalent to a debt of 35,000 for every citizen and will be forced for decades to come, to import our oil and gas needs. Our current gas suppliers, Corrib and Scottish Gas, will cease production sometime well before 2030. We will then face the appalling vista of being totally reliant on Putins Russia and his oligarchs, or some other equally volatile undemocratic country for supplies, with unknown quality, price, source, and a huge carbon footprint. John Leahy Wilton Rd Cork. Burma Boy, 13, Among Three Villagers Killed by Myanmar Junta Troops in Raid in Magwe Caption: Smoke from burning houses and burnt motorbikes are seen after a junta raid in Sanpya Village. / CJ Three civilians including a teenager were killed during junta raids on villages in Myaing Township, Magwe Region, according to local sources. Maung Nay Htet Oo, 13, and Ko Tun Myint, 18, were gunned down by junta soldiers as they fled a raid in Sanpya Village in Myaing Township on Tuesday. They fled out of fear when they heard gunshots. The younger [boy] fled to the dam and was shot dead there. The older one was shot dead while fleeing in the village, said a local resident. Ko Tun Myints body showed signs that he was beaten before his death, he added. The third victim, 26, was burned alive along with a house, the villager said. Junta troops looted houses, and torched motorbikes and an ambulance in the village. The juntas military columns marched to the area on Monday, clashing with members of the Peoples Defense Force along the way. Locals from several villages on the border of Myaing and Sagaing Regions Pale Township have fled their homes following the junta raids. We ambush junta troops as they march from village to village. They arrive in villages and torch houses. As we cant hold them in a place, we can only ambush and withdraw. As they have powerful weapons, they eventually reach their destination, said the leader of the Pale Township Peoples Defense Force. The ongoing junta attack is the second in September. Three civilians died in fighting on Sept. 11. Shame on those wicked enough to call themselves the government while bullying the people. Their unscrupulous acts are quite rare in this world. Even terrorists are not as despicable as they are. It is a shame for our country that such an organization wants to rule the country, said the Pale PDF leader. A total of 1,093 people have been killed by the junta since Feb. 1 with 6,533 people under detention and 1,984 people fleeing arrest warrants, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. You may also like these stories: Burma Dozens of Junta Troops Killed in Attacks by Civilian PDF Units Civilian resistance fighters of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force in Kayah State. / KNDF At least 26 junta soldiers were reportedly killed in ambushes by Peoples Defense Force units in Magwe and Sagaing regions and Chin and Kayah states on Thursday and early Friday. Myanmar has seen increasingly intense violence between junta forces and Peoples Defense Force units across the country since the declaration of a Peoples Defensive War by the parallel National Unity Government (NUG) on Sept. 7. At 5 a.m. on Friday, a combined force of civilian resistance fighters from Sagaing and Magwe regions and Chin State attacked a police station located at Mile 9 (Km 14.5) of the Tedim-Kale Highway in Chin States Tedim Township, according to a statement issued by the Chinland Defense Force-Kalay, Kabaw, Gangaw (CDF-KKG), one of the participating groups. A video shows the police station being attacked by the civilian resistance fighters. During the raid, five policemen were killed, the group said. The CDF-KKG also said the raid was their final warning attack on the police station, and urged all police personnel to join the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Junta soldiers had arrived at the police station early in the morning and started inspecting all vehicles traveling on the Tedim-Kale Highway, a local resident told The Irrawaddy. On Thursday evening, there were at least 10 military casualties in Saw Township, Magwe Region, when the Peoples Defense Force-Saw (PDF-S) used landmines to ambush 100 junta troops traveling on the Saw-Kangyi Highway. The PDF-S said its members managed to retreat from the area without any casualties. On the same day, the Chinland Defense Force-Kanpetlet (CDF-K) also ambushed military reinforcements near the border between Chin State and Magwe Region. The junta troops were traveling to Kyindwe town in Chin State from Magwe Region. As a result of the ambush, the military reinforcements halted their journey after seeing the deaths of seven junta soldiers and many injured, CDF-K said. Around 14 junta soldiers were also killed during ambushes by the CDF-K in Kanpetlet Township on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday morning, civilian fighters of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force-KNDF and troops from the Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), conducted a combined attack on junta troops deployed on a hill near Mile 6 Village in Kayah States Demoso Township. During the firefight, six junta soldiers were killed by the Karenni armed forces. On Thursday evening, three military vehicles reportedly triggered landmines planted by a local Peoples Defense Force unit in Sagaing Regions Kanbalu Township. However, military casualties remain unknown. Since the declaration of the Peoples Defensive War by the NUG, the military regime has escalated not only its inspections and arrests, but also its raids and use of violence including torturing detainees and burning down villages across the country, especially in Sagaing and Magawe regions and Kayah State, which are strongholds of civilian armed resistance. Meanwhile, civilian resistance forces across the country have stepped up their operations including ambushes, assassinations targeting junta forces and destruction of junta-owned Mytels telecom masts. After the NUGs announcement on Sept. 7, within a week, civilian resistance forces conducted a total of 139 attacks including ambushes, bombings and assassinations targeting junta forces across the country, while the junta committed 31 acts of violence against the people, according to a statement from the NUGs Ministry of Defense. Most of the defensive attacks by PDFs were reported in Sagaing, Yangon, Mandalay and Magwe regions. In the attacks, 192 junta forces were killed and 68 wounded, the NUG said. As of Thursday, more than 1,100 people had been slain by the junta during their raids, crackdowns, arrests, interrogations and random shootings, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said. Another 8,223 people including elected government leaders have been arrested by the junta or face arrest warrants. You may also like these stories: Burma Military-Backed Myanmar Beer Warehouse Bombed in Monywa Myanmar Beer boycott campaign image shared on social media. A warehouse of the military-backed Myanmar Beer was bombed on Thursday night in Monywa, Sagaing Region. The Monywa office of Mytel, the military-owned telecom operator, was bombed the previous day. The explosions come as civilian resistance fighters step up their attacks on the military regime and its assets, following the parallel National Unity Governments September 7 declaration of a nationwide defensive war against the junta. Civilian resistance forces in Sagaing Region said that they planted the bomb in a Myanmar Beer warehouse in the Monywa Industrial Zone as a warning. Myanmar Beer has been widely-boycotted by the public since the juntas February 1 coup. The company operates seven warehouses nationwide. No one was injured in the explosion. On Wednesday morning, the same resistance group also bombed the Monywa office of Mytel, the military-owned telecom operator. One of two Mytel telecom masts in Monywa was also reportedly burned down on Tuesday. Over 80 Mytel telecom masts had been destroyed across the country by September 9. Myanmar people have been boycotting military-linked products and services since the juntas coup and subsequent lethal crackdowns on peaceful anti-regime protesters. The boycott is especially targeting Mytel, the countrys fourth-largest telecom operator, and the formerly popular drinks, Myanmar Beer and Black Shield. Cigarette brands Red Ruby and Premium Gold are also being boycotted. Other brands on the boycott list include Gandamar Wholesale, Ruby Mart and Myawaddy Petrol. You may also like these stories: Burma Myanmar Junta Arrests Two More Journalists Ko Myo Thant (left) and Ko Win Naing Oo (right), two of the 53 journalists currently being detained in Myanmar. Two more Myanmar journalists have been arrested by junta forces, raising the number of journalists being held by the military regime to 53 as of September 16, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Since the militarys February 1 coup, Myanmar has become the worlds second-biggest jailer of journalists, after China, said RSF. On Wednesday night, the former editor-in-chief of Mizzima News, Ko Myo Thant, was arrested in Kangyidaunt Township, Ayeyarwady Region. Junta forces went to Kangyidaunt after being told that Ko Myo Thant was there, and threatened to detain his aunt if he did not surrender, RSF stated in a report released on Thursday. Channel Mandalay news agency journalist Ko Win Naing Oo was arrested on August 31 with his wife. News of his arrest only emerged on Thursday, following a report that he has been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, which criminalizes the spreading of false comments or fake news targeting government officials. Ko Win Naing Oo faces a potential prison sentence of three years. Since seizing power, the junta has targeted journalists with arrests, lawsuits, raids on newsrooms and violence in an effort to silence independent coverage of its daily atrocities. Over 100 journalists and media workers have been detained. In some cases, relatives of journalists have been held as hostages to force the journalists to turn themselves in. The arrests of [Ko] Win Naing Oo and [Ko] Myo Thant sadly illustrates the extreme brutality with which Myanmars military treats journalists, pursuing them, pressuring their relatives and holding them incommunicado, said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSFs Asia-Pacific desk. Ma Thuzar, a freelance reporter and former member of the Press Council has also been arrested. She was snatched by police as she left her home on the morning of September 1. Her arrest was only confirmed by the police on September 5. Her family were unable to confirm her whereabouts, although there are rumors that she was taken to a military interrogation center in Yangon. The reason for her detention is unknown. RSF has called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions against those responsible for the media crackdown. You may also like these stories: Burma Myanmar Junta Violating Daw Aung San Suu Kyis Rights by Holding Her in Secret Location: Legal Experts Myanmars currently detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addresses her supporters in Rangoons Thanlyin Township in August 2015 during an electoral campaign. / The Irrawaddy Even she herself has no idea where she is being detained. It has been more than seven months since the regime placed Myanmars popular leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest following Februarys coup against the countrys democratically elected National League for Democracy government, which she led. Her captors havent disclosed where the 76-year-old is being detained. The ousted leader even confessed to her lawyers that she doesnt know where she is now staying. She could not tell where she is and neither can we, said U Khin Maung Zaw, one of her lawyers. Campaigners and lawyers said Myanmars military regime is breaching the human rights of the countrys popular leader by keeping her in an unknown location. Furthermore, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been Myanmars most popular political leader since she became involved in the countrys democracy movement in 1988, has left the public concerned for her welfare, especially her health and, most importantly, her physical safety, as she is now in the hands of the military rulers who have long disliked her for her popularity at home and abroadwhich they could never hope to achieve and her attempts to push them out of the countrys politics. U Aung Myo Min, a human rights campaigner and the minister for human rights in Myanmars shadow National Unity Government (NUG), said detainees have a right to know where they are being kept. So do their families and lawyers. Its crucial because only when you know where they are detained are you able to determine whether they are under just or unjust custody, he said. If they have no idea where they are being kept, their right to know [the details of] their custody is breached. Thats exactly what has happened to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, he added. Under house arrest again Soldiers appeared at Daw Aung San Suu Kyis residence at No. 33 (A) Myananbonthar Street in Zeyatheikdi Ward in Naypyitaw early on the morning of Feb. 1. Soon after, she found herself along with some of her aides under house arrest there. It had been 11 years since she walked free from her previous house arrest. Later she was moved to an unknown place. This is believed to have happened on May 23, as she told her lawyers about it the next day when she made her first in-person appearance at a special court in Naypyitaw and held her first meeting with her legal team. The regime has filed 10 cases against her. Her lawyers have become go-betweens for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the public, as they are the only outsiders she is allowed to see, meeting with them for a few minutes shortly before her weekly trial hearings. During her previous 15 years of intermittent house arrest from July 1989 to her most recent release in November 2010, the world knew exactly where Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was; she was detained at her home on Yangons University Avenue Road in Bahan Township. Her captors at the time were the predecessors of her current jailer, coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. This time things are very different, as even Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself has no idea where she is being detained, let alone the public. In August a junta official in Naypyitaw told The Irrawaddy that the former State Counselors residence had been vacated, with all state-owned furnishings removed and along with her personal belongings. Its not known where her things are being stored now. However, rumors have circulated that she is now being kept at the residence of the deputy chief of the Naypyitaw Regional Command, which is inside the commands compound. U Khin Maung Zaw, one of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis lawyers who is also a former political prisoner, said keeping political detainees whereabouts is not uncommon in Myanmar, which was controlled by military regimes from the 1960s to early 2010 and again starting this year. He said it is not strange in Myanmar as it happens to other political detainees, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi this time. President U Win Myint, cabinet members and other senior figures of the NLD were also detained on the day of the coup. It is not in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said. Legal adviser U Khin Maung Myint said the accused have the right to know their whereabouts as well as to contact their families. Their families also have the right to ask where he or she is being detained. If thats not the case, the accuseds rights are simply being violated, he said. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis unknown location also has implications for her health and safety. The legal advisor pointed out that the secrecy the regime is exercising in Daw Aung San Suu Kyis case would be a cause for concern for anyone. What if her health deteriorates in their secret custody? What if she faces something dangerous that could threaten her life? If it happens, there will be very serious consequences, he warned. Early this week, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had to skip a trial hearing as she was sick. When the news went viral, there was a public frenzy about her well-being. People asked what if something bad happened to her in a place no one knew. (The next day she felt well enough to appear in court.) U Aung Myo Min, the NUG human rights minister, said isolating the former state counselor from people and the world could give her captors, the regime, an upper hand. There is a possible scenario that if you do something bad to me, we can do the same to her, because she is now in their hands, totally out of public sight, he said. Currently, the junta is facing a growing and deadly civilian armed resistance while the countrys shadow government, formed largely by elected lawmakers from Daw Aung San Suu Kyis party, has declared war against the junta. At the UN, the regimes nomination for the countrys representative has been put on hold and the current ambassador, who is loyal to Daw Aung San Suu Kyis government, is still in place. We are worried the regime has such bad intentions in placing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in an unknown location, he said. The NUG human rights minister has a right to be concerned, given the previous military regimes attempts to attack Daw Aung San Suu Kyi physically in 1996 and 2003. She narrowly escaped in both bloody incidents. U Nay Phone Latt, a former NLD lawmaker, still remembers what the now junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said prior to the 2020 election. During his meeting with political parties who sought his assurance that they could count on his help if the voting turned unfair, the military chief said theres nothing I dont dare to do. We are really concerned about everyone who is now in the hands of the regime, whose leader speaks like a thug, he said. As of Thursday, a total of 6,572 people, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had been detained by the junta, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma). You may also like these stories: Burma Myanmar Military Launches Artillery Strike Near Kachin Armed Groups HQ KIA fighters in Laiza in 2013. / The Irrawaddy Myanmars military fired artillery on Wednesday night near Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State, for no reason, said KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu. We heard loud firing. There were about five rounds, a resident of Laiza told The Irrawaddy. The firing took place around 10pm, he added. Col. Naw Bu said that the junta launched the artillery strike even though there were no KIA attacks on regime troops on Wednesday night. Some of the shells landed near a COVID-19 quarantine center in Mai Sak Pa village, he added. Why did they fire when they know it is a civilian residential area? There is no KIA outpost there. It is a village, said Col. Naw Bu. Myanmars military has expanded its presence and weaponry in every township across Kachin State, including near Laiza, said the KIA. On August 3, junta soldiers fired at least six artillery shells near Mai Sak Pa village for no reason. Some rounds landed near the villages COVID-19 center, throwing patients into a panic. Military tensions are also running high in Tanai Township in Kachin, with junta troops taking control of Tarong Village on the strategic Tanai-Shingbwiyang Road after days of fighting. There have been frequent clashes between the KIA and the Myanmar military since a bilateral ceasefire broke down in 2011, although fighting stopped for two years before the February 1 coup. Since March 11, the KIA has attacked regime troops and police stations in Kachin and northern Shan State, inflicting heavy casualties on junta forces. The military regime has responded by bringing in thousands of reinforcements, while also targeting the KIA and innocent civilians with air and artillery strikes. You may also like these stories: Cloud-based subscription management Zuora will integrate Microsoft products to its platform as part of a multi-tiered agreement with the tech giant. Zuora says these new integrated solutions from Microsoft will deliver finance teams more agility, power enhanced subscription analytics, and make it easier to deploy and adopt technology. Zuora is collaborating with Microsoft to: Run applications on Microsoft Azure for enterprise flexibility and scale. By deploying new customer workloads on to Azure, Zuora will be able to quickly and securely adapt its workflows to the changing business landscape and enterprise customer needs. Connect Zuora Revenue with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance for agile, enterprise revenue recognition. Integrating Zuora Revenue with a bi-directional connection to Dynamics 365 Finance will allow joint customers to easily close deals for even the most complex business models, and enhance overall customer experience. Embed Microsoft Power BI Reports into Zuora applications to generate new insights into the subscriber experience. Zuora Billing, Revenue and Collect will embed Power BIs interactive reports and visualisations to give customers a single view of their subscription, collections, and revenue recognition processes. With this insight from Power BI, Zuora customers will be able to optimise the subscriber experiences theyre delivering to drive recurring revenue growth in the Subscription Economy. Zuora customers work on a massive scale but need to deliver top-quality customized experiences to each individual subscriber, comments Zuora chief product and engineering officer Sri Srinivasan. These new integrations between Zuora Revenue and Microsoft will deliver incredible agility into the tools that finance professionals use globally, offer new insights into subscription and revenue recognition analytics, and provide cloud infrastructure that scales to support the world's largest companies, he adds. Zuora Revenue streamlines the revenue recognition process and enables businesses to customise the software to their individual business and reporting requirements. Integrating Zuora Revenue with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance will give Microsoft customers access to the enterprise revenue recognition applicationfully integrated with the Microsoft tools they use every day. Zuora supports the ever-increasing demands on automating revenue recognition and adhering to standards such as ASC 606, explains Microsoft general manager business applications group Toby Bowers. This integration will rely on the flexibility of the cloud and our solutions like Microsoft Azure, Power BI, and Dynamics 365 provide the intelligence and agility for our customers looking to solve these complex revenue challenges. Zuora will continue to evolve its offerings and expand its technical and business relationship with Microsoft into subscription management. Zuora Billing, Revenue and Collect will embed Power BIs interactive reports and visualizations in the next few months. The additional integrations of Zuora with Microsoft are planned to be available for Zuoras early adopter program in early 2022. Delivering fresh insights into Australian enterprises ability to create business value from data analytics, Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE: AYX), the Analytics Automation company, today released findings from its research report titled, Toward Analytics Automation in Asia Pacific. The research, conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC) and commissioned by Alteryx, reveals a significant gap between enterprises business priorities and performance, one that can be bridged by overcoming the lack of workforce- and process-related analytics capabilities. The study surveyed 100 organizations in Australia across a range of industries. According to the research, Australian enterprises top business priorities include customer experience, productivity enhancement, business model innovation, new product development and cost reduction. However, major gaps exist between business priorities and business performance in areas such as productivity enhancement, cost reduction and risk mitigation. Currently, while more than 90 percent of business executives believe that data analytics are important for their organizations to remain performant, one in five enterprises have achieved high analytics maturity. APAC enterprises that are Analytics Experts tend to outperform their peers across all major business priorities, especially in areas like cost reduction (56 percent), business model innovation (28 percent), new product development (17 percent) and market expansion (12 percent). Australia has the third-highest number of organizations who are Analytics Experts among the countries surveyed. To help enterprises to determine their analytics maturity level, IDC designed a framework that assesses their standing across four key dimensions strategy[1], data[2], workforce[3] and process[4], before providing an aggregated score that identifies Beginners, Practitioners, or Experts. In addition, the framework describes the journey to becoming an Analytics Expert by achieving maturity in strategy, data, workforce, and process. The research found that enterprises are more mature in strategy and data dimensions, with 42 percent having achieved buy-in and alignment amongst key stakeholders regarding analytics initiatives, and interestingly, 53 percent have established policies and practices to ensure data integrity. Nine in ten enterprises, however, lack the necessary workforce and process capabilities, which are the most crucial for driving data-driven transformation at scale and deriving long-term business value. It also suggests that enterprises need to build workforce or process-related capabilities to derive business value from data analytics. In their daily roles, executives across the region currently struggle with hard to use tools (55 percent), scattered and unmanaged tools (49 percent), lack of timely access to data (44 percent), data lineage and integrity (44 percent) and lack of data literacy (43 percent). These challenges are exacerbated by increased complexity and organizational demands for data analytics to be delivered at greater speed and scale, with the average enterprise currently facing internal requests to include 26 new data sources and 30 new data types per month. In todays volatile, uncertain and challenging business environment, enterprises in Australia want to invest in mission-critical business areas. In addition, with the evolving needs of customers, enterprises must innovate their business models to meet new needs, said Jody-John Phillips, Country Manager, ANZ, Alteryx. The findings show a consensus towards the critical role that analytics plays in driving business performance. Yet, organizations are grappling with multiple challenges in using data analytics, uncovering the need to improve workforce and process analytics capabilities. To deliver breakthrough outcomes, organizations need to automate processes and democratize data analytics, elevating workforces ability to gain on-demand insights for thriving in their roles. Despite the rapid rate of digital transformation and data generation, many organizations in Australia are not yet experts in data analytics. They are at the Beginners stage in their workforce and process dimensions which are critical for empowering employees to do their jobs better, faster and with greater impact, said Dr. Chris Marshall, Associate Vice President, APAC, IDC. In the face of workforce and process challenges, organizations today can close the gaps with advanced analytics tools. Analytic process automation, in particular, is a low-code solution that has emerged as a way forward to remove friction, enabling analytics capabilities to scale quickly across the entire organization. The research findings also highlight the potential of a self-service, human-centric analytics automation platform to bridge existing workforce and process capability gaps, address analytics challenges faced by executives, and put organizations on a path to become Analytics Experts. The Alteryx Analytic Process Automation (APA) Platform delivers end-to-end automation of analytics, machine learning and data science processes. As a result, organizations can automate analytics and data science, embed intelligent decisioning, empower its employees to deliver faster, better business outcomes and ultimately, enable the agility needed to accelerate digital transformation. Data should no longer sit idly in an organization. With the help of analytics automation, an organization can leverage its best assets people, processes and data to empower their workforce to increase overall organizational performance and efficiency so that decision-making is faster and more reliable, said Quinn. To access the full IDC Infobrief: Toward Analytics Automation in Asia Pacific Report, please click here. To assess your organizations analytics maturity with IDCs APA Assessment Tool, please click here. [1] The strategy dimension assesses the presence of a carefully planned data and analytics strategy. Without a strategy in place, the interdependencies amongst stakeholders responsible for different initiatives will become a stumbling block to generating consistent returns from analytics investment. [1] The data dimension assesses how data, the raw material, is systematically governed across the organization. [1] The workforce dimension assesses whether productivity tools and automation has enabled and empowered people to do their jobs better, faster and with less effort. [1] The process dimension assesses whether definition, standardization, and automation of process management are in place. Singaore-based AI and behavioural science powered platform OnLoop has announced that the product is now available to all users, after being in private beta since January this year. Claimed as the worlds first mobile native team development product, OnLoop is headed by Projjal Ghatak, Co-Founder and CEO. Weve all gone through the outdated, largely annoying process of performance review cycles. Its time consuming, inefficient, and teams arent getting better at the end of them, said Ghatak. OnLoop is on a mission to create less biased, less anxious, and more productive workplace cultures through day-to-day, data-driven team development. The team has worked tirelessly with our early adopters and Product Advisory Board to build a tool that changes how people improve in the workplace by making day-to-day reflection and feedback easy and approachable -- almost fun. OnLoop was fully built and launched during the pandemic by Ghatak and his team of product and management leaders from top companies like Uber and Google, who over the years as managers, consistently saw what he says were a deep personal need to have a better tool to encourage more equitable, collaborative, positive growth in the workplace. According to OnLoop, workplace surveys show that 83 percent of millennials reported receiving no meaningful feedback at work, and 86 percent of employees do not receive performance reviews that inspire them to improve - meanwhile, regular self-reflection and micro-feedback has proven to increase productivity by at least 20 percent. Ghatak says that more than 25 companies and 650 plus users, including employees at BCG, Github, Gorillas, H&M, Uber, and Snap, have used OnLoop to accelerate their career development while saving time in the companys private beta. OnLoop says its early successes can also be attributed to the companys Product Advisory Board, which consists of Director to VP level leaders across product, engineering, business development, marketing and operations at leading global tech, management consulting, and consumer organisations to ensure the product is helping optimize teams to their fullest. OnLoop has also raised a US$5.5 million initial investment, which the company says will accelerate its vision in building the best product for hybrid teams fueled by its unique AI-written performance summaries in partnership with OpenAIs GPT-3, hiring the best talent across all functions, and allowing the company to scale with more customers through deeper product adoption and strategic partnerships. Lead investors in the company are MMV (MassMutual Ventures) and Square Peg Capital, with additional participation from Hustle Fund and angel investors including XA Network, Aliza Knox (Senior Advisor, BCG), Andrew Macdonald (SVP, Uber), Allen Penn (COO, Ready), Bambos Kaisharis (Director, Strategy & Ops, Google), Brooks Entwistle (MD, APAC and MENA, Ripple), Robert Hoyt, Eddie Lee (Venture Partner, Nordstar), Alex Dwek (CBO, Nas Academy), hedge fund managers John Candeto and Keshav Lall. The switch to global remote work made better communication even more critical for success. And in the hybrid working model even after the pandemic, reinventing the way teams develop and give feedback is a must-have. This is a $400 billion industry ripe for disruption and OnLoop is very well positioned to lead the charge, said Piruze Sabuncu, Partner at Square Peg Capital, Australias largest venture capital fund. Existing tools are designed for compliance processes and largely fail to meet the needs of the next-gen workforce, especially in the post-pandemic hybrid future. OnLoop solves a key market pain point by encouraging and facilitating on-the-go goals, reflection, feedback and development in teams through an engaging, interactive and habit-forming user experience," said Ryan Collins, Managing Director at MMV, a multi-stage global venture capital firm. Early adopter Neha Batra, Director of Engineering at GitHub said, Performance reviews not only eat up a ton of time for me and my team, but also becomes the default development process which isnt enough to develop our engineers; providing feedback needs to be a regular habit. This forces me to invent my own processes to accelerate team growth that dont compound or scale. OnLoop has the potential to save me and my team massive amounts of time. Australian organisations are struggling with network breaches, ransomware attacks, remote work, and more, according to the latest network security report from cloud security and data protection solutions vendor Barracuda. The findings from The state of network security in 2021 report from Barracuda show that globally and in Australia, organisations are currently experiencing a high level of network breaches, and ever-increasing ransomware attacks are contributing to the security risks. The report reveals that 86% of Australian respondents said their organisation has been the victim of a security breach once in the last year. And Australian companies with staff working predominantly from home had a significantly higher network security breach rate (93%), compared to companies with staff working predominantly in the office (67%). Key findings on Australia also included: A full 72% of those surveyed said their organisation has been the victim of at least one ransomware attack in the last year. On average, only 12% of employees at the businesses surveyed currently work in the office all the time. A full 96% of respondents with company-issued devices share their home internet connection with other members of their household, so the risk of breach remains. 33% of companies with all apps in the public cloud have already deployed SD-WAN, less than companies with only a few apps in the public cloud (40%). 67% of companies with all apps in the public cloud have deployed Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), while just 40% of companies with only a few apps in the public cloud have deployed it. On average, organisations have 30 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps deployed. On average, respondents said 62% of their traffic is directed to public cloud providers . 86% of respondents said their organisation has been the victim of a security breach once in the last year. Companies with staff working predominantly from home had a significantly higher network security breach rate (93%), compared to companies with staff working predominantly in the office (67%). According to Tim Jefferson, SVP, Engineering for Data, Networks and Application Security, Barracuda, the challenging situation on network security is not surprising, given the pandemic-induced remote work environment and rapid technology transformation. Indeed, work-from-home is here to stay, and IT departments will need to support a hybrid environment that enables work from home and from the office, says Jefferson. Despite broadband connections and company-issued devices, remote workers continue to experience IT pains, such as slow applications, dropped calls, and poor video. User-experience issues and security challenges are related. Companies that work to resolve security issues tend to also improve their user experience. Organisations are also realising that moving SaaS applications to the public cloud improves the user experience, and new technologies are available to support cloud presence and improve security. These Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) technologies include networking and security components. Companies are also investing in and plan to continue to aggressively invest in SD-WAN and Zero Trust Network Access. To take full advantage of SASE deployments, organisations are choosing cloud-native SASE solutions. There is growing evidence that these investments are going to help organisations better adapt to the new work environment, Jefferson added. To download the full Barracuda report - The state of network security in 2021 - click here. The chief of Australias competition watchdog, Rod Sims, has been confirmed as the new vice chair digital co-ordination and Asia-Pacific liaison of the International Competition Network (ICN). Sims - chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) - has been confirmed in the role by the steering group of the ICN. In the role Sims will focus on co-ordinating ICN projects and discussions about competition in the digital economy and will also act as a liaison between the ICN Steering Group and ICN members in the Asia-Pacific region. I am very pleased to take on this role. Competition regulators are increasingly dealing with global issues that require global responses, underscoring the importance of the ICNs work, Sims said. Competition authorities around the world have much to discuss and learn from each other as we continue to face the challenges posed by the need to promote competition and good consumer outcomes in many areas of the digital economy. The ACCC says Sims will work closely with ICN Chair Andreas Mundt, the President of the German Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt), together with the ICNs other Vice Chair, Tembinkosi Bonakele, Commissioner of the South African Competition Commission. The ICN which now has over 120 member agencies is a consensus-based organisation of national and multinational competition law enforcement authorities, and Australia was a founding member in 2001 together with 13 other jurisdictions Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, and Zambia. Kim Gentry Meyer Releases Her New Christian Worship Single, "We Surrender to Love (Remix)" September 17, 2021 Los Angeles, CA (September, 2021) Today, -- Oba Reengy releases the remix version of his single Dont Leave featuring hip hop artist Royce Lovett (Paravel / DREAM) available at all digital retail outlets. The Afrobeat track was co-written by Oba Reengy, TBabz and Royce Lovett and was produced by TBabz. Oba shares more of what the track means to him. "Don't Leave" is about me needing God in everything that I do and going through. It is so easy to forget God when things are going great, so I wrote Don't Leave to remind not just myself, but also fellow Christians that in our ups and downs whether it be in the music industry (as in my case), or just in our spiritual journey, always remember that we need God by our side always. Listen or buy Dont Leave (Remix) (feat. Royce Lovett) here. Listen Here Connect with Oba Reengy: Facebook | YouTube | Instagram ABOUT OBA REENGY: Jesusomidotun Peters better known as Oba Reengy is a Christian Afrobeat artist from Lagos Nigeria whose main goal is to create music that reflects Christ to this generation and beyond. ABOUT PARAVEL RECORDS: Paravel Records was created to amplify and support the artist's unique vision and true creative voice. We strive to serve each project driven by each artist's needs and audience they serve. Through multi-faceted promotional and marketing efforts, our goal is to engage the audience, inspire the listener and influence the overall culture through compelling, thought-provoking content. ABOUT DREAM RECORDS: DREAM provides artists with a genuine approach to how real artist development should be done. By allowing for a partnership as a business model, DREAM artists empower themselves to develop and carry out a real vision for their lives as they affect other peoples lives with their music and message. Incorporating social media, press, radio and touring, DREAM is helping its artists grow together as a family. DREAM was founded in 2008 and has grown to 17 different divisions comprised of multiple labels, merchandise, apparel, mobile, publishing and film. ### Today Cloudy skies with periods of light rain late. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Tonight Cloudy skies with periods of light rain late. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Tomorrow Showers and thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. High 76F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Former KLA commander Salih Mustafa, 50, made his disdain for the court clear when he was asked if he wanted to change his earlier not guilty plea. I am not guilty of any of the counts brought here before me by this Gestapo office, he told judges. Mustafa, dressed in a red and black tracksuit, occasionally glared at prosecutors and fidgeted with a pen. He faces four charges of war crimes for arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and murder in the first Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) case to go to trial, opened on September 15 in The Hague, Netherlands. In the spring of 1999, Mustafa ran a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) prison facility where, according to the prosecution, inmates were tortured and beaten. KSCs difficult beginnings The KSC was established in 2015. Its creation was a direct result of a 2011 report by Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty which tied top former KLA officials, including the former president of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, to atrocities committed against Serbs and others during and in the aftermath of the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo. While such crimes fell under the remit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), that institution was winding down and was no longer opening new cases. Under pressure from the U.S. and the European Union, Pristina grudgingly agreed to set up a new court, embedded in Kosovo law but entirely staffed by international judges and prosecutors and seated in The Hague. The court is regarded with suspicion by many Kosovo Albanians who praise the KLA fighters for getting independence from Serbia. The courts most high-profile suspect is former president Thaci, who turned himself in last year to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. War crimes do not justify war crimes In his first opening statement, the Specialist Prosecutor, Jack Smith, specifically called out people who accuse the Kosovo tribunal of being anti-KLA. Nothing is further from the truth, the US prosecutor said, adding that the court was looking to individual criminal responsibility of suspects. The charges against the accused in [Mustafas] case concerns his individual involvement in the detention, mistreatment and torture of Kosovar people. The trial of this case concerns the personal responsibility of the accused, mister Mustafa, whose acts have caused suffering that left indelible wounds in the bodies and the minds of victims who suffered through it, Smith said. He dismissed the often-used tactic of pointing to crimes committed by the Serbs, that continue to go unpunished. As a prosecutor, it is beyond my remit to argue to you or decide what war is just or what war was not, but I can say with conviction that war crimes on one side do not justify war crimes on the other sides, Smith said. He added that the work of the prosecutor was especially difficult because of the continuing climate of intimidation of witnesses who speak out against the KLA. Victims of the KLA live in fear The prosecution tried to make clear that this trial would focus on Mustafa and would not seek to condemn all of the KLA members or their fight for freedom. According to the indictment, Mustafa personally took part in some of the beatings and torture of at least six prisoners and was present when another detainee was abused, and later died. He slept in same house where the prisoners were kept. Screams of pain during the interrogation and beatings which generally took place on the upper floor where the accused normally stayed were so loud that they could be heard from the other prisoners one floor below, prosecutor Cezary Michalczuk said. Mustafa, after a break in the hearing, did not return to court to hear the opening statement of lawyers for the victims, telling his lawyer he no longer wanted to attend. The judges allowed his temporary absence as he was represented by a lawyer. However, they warned Mustafa through his lawyer that they could compel him to attend his trial. So far nine persons have been allowed to participate in the case as victims but other can still apply to join. Victims representative Anni Pues, slammed Mustafa saying his departure showed a clear disregard for the victims. She added that she hoped this case could help change the narrative about the war in Kosovo and the KLAs role. Victims of the KLA have to live in fear and face apathy against them, she told the court. While victims of war crimes by the forces of former president Slobodan Milosevic are encouraged to come forward and seek justice, victims of KLA fighters are gaslighted and accused of harming the reputation of the KLA, she said. According to Pues, victims of the KLA cannot even get an official recognition as war victims and receive any government aid as the Kosovo law on war martyrs, invalids and heroes identifies victims only as former KLA members or civilians who were detained, tortured, killed or wounded by enemy forces. Political statements On Kosovos Kohavision TV, commentator Ehat Miftaraj of the Kosovo Law Institute slammed Pues for what he called veering into political statements and said she seemed unaware of the political context of the 98-99 conflict. More than 13,000 people are estimated to have died during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, when the southern province was still part of Serbia under the Milosevics rule. Fighting ended after NATO air strikes against Milosevics forces. Mustafas defence chose not to give an opening statement on the first day of trial. They will do so, they said, at the beginning of the defence case, after the prosecution has presented the entirety of its case. Prosecutors have been given almost 90 hours to present their case and call 16 witnesses. The trial continues with the first witness testimony next week. The start of the trials of the other 7 suspects in the custody of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, including former president Thaci, have not been set yet. The International Criminal Courts new prosecutor on Friday named prominent rights lawyer Amal Clooney as a special adviser on Sudans Darfur conflict. Clooney has previously been involved in a number of cases at the Hague-based ICC, the worlds only permanent war crimes tribunal. Her post focusing on Darfur is one of several new special portfolios created by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, a Briton who took office in July. I am delighted to welcome such an outstanding group of experts and I am grateful for their willingness to serve as my special advisers, Khan said in a statement. Clooneys husband, the Hollywood actor George Clooney, is a longtime campaigner for human rights in the Darfur region. The United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million people were displaced in the 2003-4 Darfur conflict. Fighting broke out when black African rebels, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against deposed dictator Omar al-Bashirs Arab-dominated regime. London-based Amal Clooney represented Darfur victims in a case at the ICC against Ali Kushayb, a leader of the Janjaweed militia a notorious armed group created by the government. She has also been involved in a string of human rights cases involving countries including Iraq, Myanmar and the Philippines, and criminal cases covering Lebanon and the former Yugoslavia. Last year she garnered headlines after resigning her post as a British envoy for media freedom, in protest at the governments lamentable decision to breach its EU divorce treaty. ICC prosecutor Khan said the 17-member team of special advisers was drawn from different regions of the world with cultural, linguistic and gender diversity. MBC Kdrama The Veil, a forthcoming spy action drama that stars Namgoong Min, Kim Ji Eun, and Park Ha Sun, is MBC's 60th Anniversary Special Drama Project. It is one of the most awaited works in the second half of the year. On September 16, Kdrama The Veil released its three main points to watch out for. Check them out below! Namgoong Min's Return as an Elite Spy Agent in MBC Kdrama The Veil Namgoong Min returns to the small screen with Kdrama The Veil as an elite National Intelligence Service (NIS) spy agent Han Ji Hyuk, who is discovered by the coast guards after disappearing for a year. The return of the top spy agent has shaken the heads and the traitor who dropped him into hell. The contrast between the characters and the indifferent attitude of the director of the NIS Bang Young Chan (Kim Byung Ki), which shows suspicious movements as well as the second deputy director who handles the overseas part Do Jin Suk (Jang Young Nam) who wants to use this situation as an opportunity adds curiosity and excitement. Relevance of the Missing Memories of Han Ji Hyuk When the top spy agent returns after his sudden disappearance for a year, he suffers from a severe memory loss due to an unprecedented accident which killed his colleagues. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Namgoong Min Shares Thoughts on Role as Elite NIS Agent in K-Drama 'The Veil' Although it wasn't revealed as to how he was doing during the time he disappeared and where he has been, curiosity and anticipation are getting hotter and hotter as to what kind of methods the NIS will perform to recover Han Ji Hyuk's memories. Seo Su Yeon's Antiheroine Appearance Also in MBC Kdrama The Veil, Birthcare Center actress Park Ha Sun takes on the role of Seo Su Yeon, the head of the criminal investigation unit in NIS and a colleague to Han Ji Hyuk. Although the two spy agents have different values, perceptions, and ways of doing things, Han Ji Hyuk and Seo Su Yeon maintained a smooth relationship as co-workers. However, because of Han Ji Hyuk's disappearance, a big conflict surfaces between the two which causes extreme hatred and misunderstandings. Focus is given to why Seo Su Yeon treats Han Ji Hyuk differently with rash and coldness, who returns to NIS with no memories. KDrama The Veil Production and Premiere MBC's 60th Anniversary Special Drama Project The Veil is expected to capture the attention of the viewers with its unconventionally unique genre, rich plotline, and amazing cast. Kim Jong Tae, Kim Do Hyun, Kwon So Hyun, Hwang Hee, and Lee Geung Young will also join the cast. Kdrama The Veil is scheduled to air for the first time September 17, 10:00 p.m. KST on MBC. It will air every Friday and Saturday, and it will also be available for international streaming on wavve. Follow KDramastars for more Kdrama, KMovie, and celebrity news updates! KDramastars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. Here's a glimpse of Kim Soo Hyun and Cha Seung Won's new drama "One Ordinary Day"! In this upcoming crime-mystery drama, Kim Soo Hyun who will be Kim Hyun Soo, who's shaking his hand with Shin Jong Han, to be played by Cha Seung Won. The story revolves around Hyun Soo, who has been dragged into a crime that he didn't commit, and finds hope when he meets the lawyer Jong Han. Read on to know more details! Cha Seung Won Offers Help to Kim Soo Hyun On September 16, Coupang Play's first original series One Ordinary Day unveiled its first photo teaser, showing the situation of the two main characters. In the image, Cha Seung Won and Kim Soo Hyun are inside the cell. This crime series is set to have eight episodes in total and is based from the UK television series "Criminal Justice." It will tell the story of college student whose life turned upside down after being wrongly accused of murder. To prove he is not guilty of the crime, he accidentally encountered a not so perfect lawyer to help him get out of prison. Their journey will not be that easy as they will face the cruel reality of the legal system in their country. "One Ordinary Day" will introduce the viewers to the selfish yet diverse psychology of humans who are trapped within the boundaries of the law. Mystery-Crime KDrama One Ordinary Day to Premiere in November An official representative from the production team shared that the Kdrama One Ordinary Day is a highly-anticipated work this year. Aside from the two big actors to lead the project, the concept itself challenges the contrasting environment between judicial and criminal system. The official added that it is a must-watch drama for 2021. Kdrama One Ordinary Day is the first for Cha Seung Won and Kim Soo Hyun to work together, along with "The Fiery Priest" director Lee Myung Woo. The crime-mystery drama is scheduled to premiere in November. Kim Soo Hyun and Cha Seung Won Update Before the drama meets the viewers this coming November, Kim Soo Hyun and Cha Seung Won are already booked and busy with their separate activities. In a recent interview with Cha Seung Won last August, during the promotion of his disaster-comedy film "Sinkhole," the actor praised Kim Soo Hyun for his discipline and professionalism at work. The Korean Odyssey star also mentioned that he had fun filming the series One Ordinary Day. Meanwhile, the It's Okay Not to Be Okay actor Kim Soo Hyun recently became Tommy Hilfiger's newest global brand ambassador. The award-winning actor also partnered with the famous Philippine clothing brand, Bench. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Kim Soo Hyun Receives Praises From 'Sinkhole' Actor Cha Seung Won for Being a Good Actor What are you excited about Kim Soo Hyun and Cha Seung Won's upcoming Kdrama One Ordinary Day? Share it with us in the comments! For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars. Kdramastars owns this article. Written by Shai Collins. Kim Go Eun greets her 4.3 million followers with a sneak peek of her character in the upcoming Kdrama Yumi's Cells opposite Ahn Bo Hyun. The 30-year-old South Korean beauty took to social media as she teased fans with a glimpse of her titular role as Kim Yumi. Kim Go Eun Instagram Invites Fans for Kdrama Yumi's Cells Premiere In the photo, the actress can be seen sleeping as she lay on her bed, hinting about a special moment for the soon to premiere series. Moreover, the "Goblin" star also invited the viewers to watch the debut of her comeback drama. "Finally, today! #YumiSCells TVN 10:50 pm! See you soon," Kim Go Eun's Instagram caption reads alongside a heart emoji. Over the comment sections, fans expressed their excitement for her new drama as netizens filled it with a lot of heart and smiley emojis, expressing their support for the Hallyu star. Ahn Bo Hyun and Kim Go Eun Flaunts Unique Chemistry in 'Yumi's Cells' Kim Go Eun's Instagram post comes ahead of the tvN premiere of "Yumi's Cells." Scheduled to be released on September 17, airing every Friday and Saturday at 10:50 pm KST, viewers will witness the onscreen chemistry as the actors portray Yumi and Goo Woong. In the latest update, the broadcast network shared a photo of the actress alongside her male lead, Ahn Bo Hyun, welcoming fans to see the first episode of the rom-com drama. What to Expect in Kim Go Eun's New Drama 'Yumi's Cells' Based on the popular webtoon of the same name penned by Donggun Lee, the upcoming series is directed by Lee Sang Yeob, the genius behind "A Piece of Your Mind" and Seo In Guk's K-drama "Shopping King Louie." "Yumi's Cells" follows the story of the ordinary office girl Kim Yumi and her struggles with her inner thoughts after falling into a deep coma. It came after she experienced a traumatic heartbreak due to a toxic relationship. Despite her current state, she gets overwhelming support from her adorable little friends known as her cells. Her primary cell acts as the leader of all the other cells, including her rational, emotional, anxiety, fashion, and even her anxiety cells. Interestingly, the drama will also showcase how her love cells will be awakened by the skilled game developer named Goo Woong, played by the "Itaewon Class" actor. With his timid and yes or no personality stimulates how Yumi will react towards her new friend. Viewers can also expect a series of heart fluttering and intriguing moments from "Yumi's Cells" cast, including Lee Yoo Bi as Ruby, Park Ji Hyun as Goo Woong's colleague Seo Sae Yi as well as GOT 7's Jinyoung, who took on the role of Yoo Babi. At the same time, fans could also see special cameos from "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" star Lee Sang Yi and SHINee's Minho as Wook, Yumi's longtime office crush. KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills SALEM, Ore. This week, lawmakers from the Oregon House and Senate committees tasked with redrawing the state's legislative and Congressional maps released the final draft of their proposals as both chambers prepare to meet Monday to discuss their approval. Governor Kate Brown called for a special legislative session to convene September 20 in order to finish the redistricting process. The Oregon constitution tasks the legislature with reapportioning legislative districts every ten years after the new US Census. Though delayed by the pandemic, the 2020 Census successfully wrapped up in October, and Oregon officials learned in April that the state would be one of a handful in the nation to gain a new Congressional seat due to its population growth over the past decade. One committee each from the Oregon House and Senate, both composed of equal parts Democrats and Republicans, started working earlier this year on the redistricting process. At the beginning of this month, the committees released two drafts of each map before heading into a public comment period. Now on the other side of those hearings, there is just one map each for Oregon's House, Senate, and Congressional districts. RELATED: Rep. Pam Marsh prepares for redistricting in Oregon On Friday, Sen. Kathleen Taylor, Chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, and Rep. Andrea Salinas, Co-chair of the House Redistricting Committee, issued a statement following the release of legislative and congressional maps: As legislators we are public servants. Our commitment is to Oregonians and our job is to produce fair and representative maps that reflect Oregons population growth, align with statutory and constitutional criteria, and ensure public participation. The maps drawn meet these requirements and the highest of legal standards. The maps are contiguous, of equal population, utilize existing geographic or political boundaries, are connected by transportation links, and reflect the diversity of communities of interest in our state. Despite the delayed Census data and the COVID-19 pandemic, we have prioritized an inclusive and accessible process, open to all Oregonians. As a result, we saw nearly 2,000 pieces of testimony submitted from across the state during 22 public hearings held this year. Oregonians showed up and made their voices heard. We look forward to sending these maps to the Legislature for consideration during next weeks Special Session. Under the new maps, many people in southern Oregon will see some changes in how they are represented, assuming the legislature decides to approve these drafts during the special session that begins Monday. Perhaps the most consequential change is to the Congressional map, which now includes a new seat in the US House of Representatives. Under the proposal, Oregon's 2nd Congressional District which covers all of eastern and most of southern and central Oregon will see new borders. The 2nd District is currently Oregon's only Congressional seat held by a Republican, US Rep. Cliff Bentz, and has been the only reliably red district at the federal level for years. The 2nd District would actually expand in southern Oregon, moving its border west to encompass all of Josephine County and much of Douglas County. However, the district would lose areas of north-central Oregon including Hood River, Wasco, Jefferson, and part of Deschutes counties. Those areas would join an expanded 3rd District. You can view an interactive map with all of the proposed districts here, or access each individual map below: ASHLAND, Ore. The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has identified the victim in a fatal stabbing that happened at a house on Eagle Mill Road near Ashland in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The victim was 38-year-old Meghan Nicole Rodriguez of Portland. A forensic pathologist from Oregon State Police completed an autopsy on Rodriguez' body, determining that her cause of death was homicide. JCSO said that her next of kin has been notified. Dispatch received a call to report the stabbing at 2:14 a.m. at an address in the 300-block of Eagle Mill Road. Deputies and police officers from the Ashland, Phoenix, and Talent police departments all responded, quickly arresting a suspect. The suspect was identified Wednesday afternoon as 30-year-old Auriel Zipher Scattergood. He was arraigned Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court on charges for second-degree murder, second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, and first-degree aggravated animal abuse. Beyond some traffic violations in 2018, Oregon court records do not show any previous offenses for Scattergood. According to court documents, Rodriguez and Scattergood were not the only people involved in the deadly incident. Scattergood is also accused of assaulting a man named Jon David with a knife, in addition to a dog belonging to one of the victims. The dog was injured in the attack and is receiving emergency care at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center. JCSO was assisted at the scene by detectives from Oregon State Police, and the Major Assault and Death Investigative Unit (MADIU) responded to investigate. The Enbridge logo is shown at the company's annual meeting in Calgary, Alta., May 9, 2018. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has ordered Enbridge to pay $3.32 million for breaching an aquifer containing groundwater during construction of a trench near Enbridges Clearbrook Terminal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh 24 Shares Share Effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines appeared in record time, with 68% of Italians, 60% of Americans, and 32% of all human beings already having at least one dose. Most of the 138 candidates quit by Phase 2; the German mRNA vaccine CureVac went through an entire Phase 3 trial before flaming out with only 48% efficacy. WHO-approved Pfizer-BioNTech: Its messenger RNA instructs our cells to fabricate spike protein, which stimulates the immune system. Overall efficacy against the wild strain was an astonishing 95% in Phase 3 trials, with Phase 4 effectiveness at least as good. Protection is 95% against Alpha-variant COVID-19, 75% against Beta and probably Gamma. But its lower against Delta, especially long after vaccination, with reported effectiveness varying from 88% in England to 56% in Qatar and 42% from the Mayo Clinic. The Israeli government supposedly estimated Pfizers protection against Delta at 41% to 64% overall, falling to a scary 16% six months after vaccination, and just 55% against severe disease in people over 65. But when an actual manuscript (click on preliminary report in this article) was prepublished, the numbers were less dire: people vaccinated in January were still 55% protected overall during Julys Delta surge, 86% against severe COVID-19. Moderna: This mRNA vaccine was 94% effective in Phase 3 trials, 100% against severe disease. Similar to Pfizer except, crucially, performing better against the Delta variant, with 86% effectiveness in Qatar and 76% in the Mayo Clinic. The chief downside of both is the low storage temperatures, an absurd -70 C. for Pfizer. Though thats sometimes now considered -20 the cold chain is still a barrier, especially in the developing world, as is high cost. Rare complications include anaphylaxis (10 per million doses), possibly Bells palsy, and, unfortunately, cardiac reactions: myocarditis, usually in young men after dose two, pericarditis in older men (10 and 18 cases per million). Almost none have been fatal, and the risk to the heart from COVID-19 itself is far greater. AstraZeneca: Uses a harmless adenovirus to deliver the spike protein to the immune system. AstraZeneca is cheap and easy to handle. But the methodology behind its chief Phase 3 report was embarrassingly poor, overall efficacy was only 59% in young volunteers, and it is uniquely ineffective against asymptomatic infection. A better U.S. trial reportedly shows (from press releases) that AstraZeneca works reasonably well, at all ages, if the second dose is given after 4 weeks. Astonishingly, the investigators tried to fudge these results, despite knowing they would be scrutinized with a fine-tooth comb, and had to adjust their top-line efficacy from 79% to 76%. I emphasize dose timing because a U.K. study claiming AstraZeneca worked better with 12 weeks between doses convinced many countries to institute that gap. Real-world research has shown, though, that one dose protected elderly Scots only 70% against severe COVID-19, and older English only 80% even with two doses the mRNA vaccines are 90-100%. Unfortunately, European countries didnt take the hint from the U.S. trial, maintaining 10-12-week gaps between doses. (The U.K. kept Pfizer at 12 weeks as well, even after demonstrating lower effectiveness.) AstraZeneca works against Alpha and Gamma but so miserably against Beta (10% efficacy) that South Africa canceled its orders. Against Delta, the estimated effectiveness is 60%. Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, especially dangerous cerebral bleeds, first emerged in early March, perhaps as frequently as one in 26,000 doses. U.K. officials steadfastly denied seeing such complications until they fessed up a month later eventually admitting there had been 242 cases, 49 fatal. Most occur under age 50, so Europe began giving AstraZeneca (and J&J) only to older people. Particularly wrong-headed because, as I just pointed out, AstraZeneca performs less well in the elderly using the European 10-12-week schedule. Johnson & Johnson/Janssen: A viral vector vaccine marketed as a single dose, with overall efficacy peaking at 66% after four weeks. J&J shares AstraZenecas clotting problems, association with Guillain-Barre syndrome, and likely low effectiveness against Delta. But its better against Beta (64% vs. 10%) and asymptomatic infection (74% vs. 2% [stet]). SinoPharm and Sinovac: Chinese attenuated virus vaccines. Sinopharms Phase 3 trial claimed 78% efficacy, and it is being used widely. The low efficacy of Sinovacs CoronaVac, 51% in one Phase 3 trial, 42% against Gamma, and low antibodies against Delta, may have contributed to many countries surges. Phase 3 trials, no WHO approval Novavax: A protein subunit vaccine. Results of Phase 3 trials in the U.K. (published) and North America (announced) showed 90% efficacy. Only 50% against Beta, though, and we know nothing about Delta. Sputnik V: A viral vector vaccine. Its interim Phase 3 report claimed 91% efficacy, but odd discrepancies justify skepticism; Russia has denied access to raw data. Sputnik also has a quality control issue, with Brazil and Slovakia rejecting bad batches. No detailed Phase 3 reports CanSino: A viral vector vaccine used in China, Pakistan, and Mexico, supposedly 66% effective. Covaxin: An Indian killed coronavirus vaccine, used by a dozen countries after claims of 78% efficacy. Abdala: Cuba says its protein subunit vaccine is 92.8% effective. Issues Holy Grail: mRNA vaccines can be engineered to target a specific variant. Some think it might be feasible to create a universal vaccine effective against all SARS-CoV-2 strains past or future. Hesitancy: In the highly politicized U.S., giant surges in undervaccinated red states have barely budged no-vax sentiment, though its falling abroad. Except in Russia, where vaccine refusal long predates COVID-19, and the skepticism rate is 47%. Germany has the highest rate in Western Europe (19%), Spain the lowest (9%). Novaxxers most often say the vaccines are experimental; others fear side effects, think theyre invulnerable, or believe bizarre conspiracy theories. So the most urgent move is in the hands of the FDA (for Pfizer, mission accomplished) and the EMA: give full rather than emergency approval. Green Passes and mandates are also persuasive. Access issues must be overcome, including by ensuring truly cost-free vaccination in the U.S., where one in four workers have no paid sick leave. Mix-n-match: Most European countries now give Pfizer or Moderna second doses to people who first received AstraZeneca mainly to avoid clotting complications, but likely enhancing efficacy, including against Delta. Boosters: Antibody levels fall, and breakthrough infections rise by six months after vaccination, so most experts think we will eventually all need boosters, ideally universal or variant-engineered. (Beware the word booster is sometimes erroneously used for the 3rd dose the immunosuppressed need to jump-start their immune system.) Should we be giving another dose to people vaccinated in early 2021? Israel already is, claiming rapidly enhanced effectiveness; the U.S. and Europe will follow suit. A post-Johnson & Johnson booster also makes sense, either with J&J or an mRNA vaccine. The more SARS-CoV-2 around, the more likely new variants will arise, making it especially imperative to vaccinate developing countries. But I cant fully agree boosters are unethical when fewer than 5% of Africans have had even one dose. Given the falloff in protection over time, boosters for the elderly and chronically ill who were first to be vaccinated are appropriate and timely. This article was originally published, in English and Italian, in the journal Epidemiologia & Prevenzione. Susan Levenstein is an internal medicine physician and author of Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome. Image credit: Shutterstock.com For more than 20 years, Australia tried to maintain good relations with both the United States and China. It was good for trade and peaceful regional relations. But on Thursday, with the announcement of a new security deal with the United States and the United Kingdom, which will see Australia eventually field nuclear-powered submarines, Canberra made its position clear -- it has chosen Washington over Beijing. By choosing sides, some experts say Australia has unnecessarily antagonized China, the country's largest trading partner, while at the same time making itself overly reliant on the US for protection should tensions escalate in the Indo-Pacific. In recent years, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has moved to embrace the US more closely as a security partner, building a personal relationship with former President Donald Trump and attempting to do the same with his successor. At the same time, relations between Canberra and Beijing have been slowly unraveling, a spiral which only worsened after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic amid questions over the virus's origins. On Thursday, China reacted angrily to the new security deal with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijan saying the blame for deteriorating relations "rests entirely with the Australian side." Yun Jiang, editor of the China Neican newsletter and researcher at the Australian National University, said the deal was the "final nail in the coffin" of Australia's relationship with China, effectively eliminating any chance for rapprochement, at least in the short term. "Until there is a new equilibrium in the international balance of power, I think the relationship is going to be tense," she said. Going nuclear Morrison joined US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday morning, Australia time, to announce the new policy. The plan, which Biden called "historic," doesn't explicitly mention China but is clearly directed at Beijing. Under the agreement, named AUKUS, the three countries will hold meetings to coordinate on cyber issues, advanced technologies and defense to help them better meet modern-day security challenges. And the US and UK will help Australia build and maintain nuclear-powered submarines, a major boost for Canberra's military arsenal, although Morrison said the ships may not join the fleet until 2040. In a press conference following the announcement, the Australian leader described the deal as a "forever partnership." "A forever partnership for a new time between the oldest and most trusted of friends. A forever partnership that will enable Australia to protect our national security interests, to keep Australians safe," he said. The same day Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lijan said Australia should "seriously consider whether to view China as a partner or a threat." Australia's past success in balancing its relationships with the US and China guaranteed the country's security and economic prosperity under successive governments. In October 2003, then US and China leaders George Bush and Hu Jintao addressed Australia's parliament on consecutive days. In November 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a visit to Australia, where he praised the relationship between the two countries and was photographed with a koala. Australia's economy greatly benefited from its strong relationship with Beijing. Exports to China jumped from about $3.6 billion in 2000 to more than $74 billion by 2015. Some economists claim it was China's lucrative market for resources which helped shield Australia from recession during the global financial crisis. But in 2017, the Chinese government was outraged when then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced plans to crack down on foreign interference in Australia's domestic politics. The ruling Communist Party saw the move as targeted squarely at them and the relationship never recovered. Calls by Prime Minister Morrison in April 2020 for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, a politically sensitive topic for the Chinese government, further aggravated Beijing. Australian exports to China began to encounter difficulties entering the country, including long customs delays and temporary tariffs. As of September 2021, Australian coal, wine, barley and beef have all been affected by the trade tensions with China. No way back Some say the AUKUS deal has taken Australia to the point of no return. Rory Medcalf, head of the Australian National University's National Security College, called it a "rubicon moment" for Australian foreign policy. "It is Australia signaling that we don't see a way back in the China relationship, that the best we can hope for is competitive coexistence, a situation where there is a stable determent balance in the region," he said. Under the AUKUS agreement, Australia will become the seventh country in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines, after the US, the UK, China, Russia, France and India. But experts said it will also leave Australia much more beholden to the US for its military capabilities. Without a domestic nuclear industry, Australia will be forced to get its fuel from America, in addition to any training and technical knowledge in how to operate the submarines. "In Australia there's a lot of talk about sovereign capabilities and this basically goes against that," ANU's Jiang said. 'We're pretty much more dependent on the US for our defense." Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said in a statement that the AUKUS agreement was a "further dramatic loss of Australian sovereignty" and could force the country into a conflict between the US and China. 'Big and powerful friends' Australia is far from alone in moving closer to the US. Lowy Institute senior fellow Richard McGregor said other members of the security alliance known as "the Quad," India and Japan, are also working with the Biden administration to balance the rise of China. "This is just one of many different kinds of deals and partnerships that are being forged throughout the region in response to China," he said. Medcalf said even Britain's agreement to help furnish Australia with military hardware was a dramatic shift in its own foreign policy. For the near future at least, Australia and China will likely settle into a period of chilly relations, with McGregor saying it was possible Beijing would look to punish Canberra over the AUKUS agreement, perhaps even attempt to reduce international student numbers in Australian universities. On Thursday, Prime Minister Morrison said Chinese leader Xi had an "open invitation" to discuss the new agreement. While the Chinese government's reaction to the AUKUS deal was strongly disapproving, it was nothing compared to a blisteringly aggressive editorial published by state-run tabloid the Global Times Thursday. The nationalistic tabloid warned if war broke out in Taiwan or the South China Sea "military targets in Australia will inevitably become a target hit by Chinese missiles." "Australians troops are also most likely to be the first batch of Western soldiers to waste their lives in the South China Sea," the paper said. On Friday Australia Defense Minister Peter Dutton told Sky News such statements "make the case for us." "I think their comments are counterproductive and immature and frankly embarrassing. What does Australia want? We want sustained peace in our region. We want that stability." However, some question the wisdom of Australia's decision to tie the country's security so closely to the US. Jiang said she believes it is still important for Australia to balance its relationship between Washington and Beijing, in the same way as other regional nations such as Singapore and Indonesia have been forced to do. She said Australia's turn towards the US is tied more to culture rather than to sensible foreign policy, aimed at ensuring the country's "big and powerful friends stay in Asia." But Medcalf said the rift between Australia and China was inevitable, as the two systems of government are simply incompatible. He claimed the idea in the 2000s that Australia could have a positive relationship with China had been an "illusion." "Once China really took that totalitarian turn over the last eight or nine years, a lot of minds in the Australian policy establishment really woke up to the fact that our old relationship was not sustainable," he said. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. China has applied to join a major Asia-Pacific trade partnership that the United States ditched several years ago, as the world's second largest economy tries to bolster its relationships in the region. Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao applied for membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), according to a statement published by the ministry late Thursday. The CPTPP is an 11-country free trade pact that came into force in December 2018 and includes Mexico, Australia, Canada and Singapore. It succeeded the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after the United States withdrew under former President Donald Trump in 2017. The TPP was negotiated under former US President Barack Obama, who wanted to counterbalance China's growing clout in the region by imposing US-backed labor, environmental and patent protections. Obama wanted the deal to be a major part of his legacy, but his successor, Trump, withdrew the United States from the partnership in 2017. Chinese leaders began angling to take its place almost immediately. US President Joe Biden backed the TPP during his time serving as Obama's vice president. But his stance has shifted over the years: While running for president in 2019, Biden said he would "not rejoin the TPP as it was initially put forward." "I would insist that we renegotiate pieces of that," Biden said at a presidential debate during the Democratic primary. Chinese officials on Friday boosted the idea of involvement with the CPTPP. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called it "conducive to promoting regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the economic recovery, trade development and investment growth after the pandemic," at a press conference. The agreement cuts tariffs among participants, standardizes regulations in areas such as food safety and determines levels of market access for goods and services, such as visa rules for business travelers, which can vary between members. But the path forward may not be easy for China, particularly since relations between the country and CPTPP member nation Australia have been worsening. In recent years, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has moved to embrace the United States more closely as a security partner, building a personal relationship with Trump and attempting to do with same with his successor, Biden. China's official application comes just a day after Canberra signed a security deal with the United States and the United Kingdom called AUKUS. Australian coal, wine, barley and beef have all already been affected by trade tensions with China, and experts say that defense deal has antagonized Beijing further. "China probably won't get into CPTPP anytime soon, but news of its formal application coming a day after the AUKUS announcement neatly underscores the continuing rift in how Washington and Beijing conceive of 'competition' in Asia," tweeted Ankit Panda, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Still, the Chinese and Australian economies are highly dependent on each other. In 2020, tensions between Australia and China did not stop the two countries from pressing ahead with a free trade deal in Asia-Pacific called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as both nations saw benefits from their deeper economic integration with other Asian countries. The RCEP spans 15 countries including Japan, Indonesia and Thailand and 2.2 billion people, or nearly 30% of the world's population. At Friday's press conference, Zhao, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said that China's efforts to join the CPTPP have "nothing to do with the US, UK and Australia trilateral agreements." "[China] is pushing for economic cooperation and regional integration while the US, the UK and Australia are pushing for war and destruction," he added. Even if China were allowed to join the CPTPP, the country may find some aspects of the agreement challenging, said Alex Capri, a research fellow at Hinrich Foundation. He singled out "e-commerce and data standards," though said China may be able to find loopholes. "Keep in mind that when the US pulled out, some 20 provisions dealing with data privacy, IP protection and other digital standards were essentially put on hold," Capri added. Meanwhile, China isn't the only country attempting to join the CPTPP. Earlier this year, the United Kingdom began talks on entering the partnership, which it sees as one of its biggest opportunities to forge economic alliances beyond Europe after Brexit. Hanna Ziady, Ben Westcott and CNN's Beijing bureau contributed to this report. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted Friday to recommend emergency use authorization of a booster dose of Pfizer's vaccine to people 65 and older and those at high risk of severe Covid-19 six months after they get their first two shots. But the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee rejected a broader application to approve booster doses of Pfizer's vaccines for everyone 16 and older six months after they are fully vaccinated. Members of the committee expressed doubts about the safety of a booster dose in younger adults and teens, and complained about the lack of data about the safety and long term efficacy of a booster dose. Biden administration officials had previously announced a plan to begin administering booster doses to the general population during the week of September 20, irritating some members of the committee. They later noted that any action would be pending signoff from the FDA and US Centers for Disease Control. Some of the advisers -- a group of vaccine experts, immunologists, pediatricians, infectious disease specialists and public health experts -- have said the process was rushed, and several members said during the meeting they wanted to see more data. The group unanimously supported authorization for the more limited higher-risk group, and they informally advised the FDA to include health care workers or others at high risk of Covid-19 exposure in the EUA, too. The FDA will now craft its decision on Pfizer's request, taking into account the committee's guidance. Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University, noted the lively discussion and adjustments during the meeting proved they are truly independent advisers. "I think this should demonstrate to the public that the members of this committee are independent of the FDA, and that in fact we do bring our voices to the table when we are asked to serve on this committee," she said. Pfizer's case for boosters During the meeting, Dr. William Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer, said several studies indicate that people's immunity can and does wane and that giving booster doses restores that immunity -- sometimes to levels higher than seen at initial vaccination. He said people who got the boosters did not have any more side effects than seen after the first two doses. And Gruber said while the two-dose Pfizer vaccine continues to protect well against severe infection, hospitalizations and deaths, there are hints that could change. The company relied heavily on data from Israel, where vaccinated people started to get breakthrough infections. Israeli researchers earlier told the meeting that adding booster shots in Israel helped keep many people out of the hospital. "The Israeli experience could portend the US Covid-19 future," Gruber said. "Israel and the United States real world evidence suggests that vaccine efficacy against Covid-19 infection wanes approximately six to eight months following the second dose," he added. "In addition, recent US CDC data hint at reduced Covid-19 vaccine effectiveness over time against severe disease and hospitalization in the US," he said. "This reduced vaccine effectiveness tracks with longer spans of time between two doses of vaccine and SARS coronavirus exposure." But FDA staff and advisers pushed back on the data available so far. Dr. Phil Krause, deputy director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review, noted that Pfizer was using data that had not been reviewed by experts. "One of the issues in this is that much of the data that's been presented and being discussed today is not peer-reviewed and has not been reviewed by FDA," Krause told the meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. Krause, along with another FDA vaccine official, Marion Gruber, signed a Lancet paper published earlier this week that argued it's too soon to start giving people boosters. Dr. Michael Kurilla, an infectious disease specialist at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, noted that Pfizer's studies relied heavily on measurements of antibodies, without looking at other important aspects of immune response. "It's a little disappointing that there's been very little reporting of the cellular immune responses and an entire focus on the neutralizing antisera," Kurilla said. "Which clearly for that population at high risk is absolutely essential, but for the broad population in terms of their protection, which seems to be holding up well over time -- (that) should be because of adequate cellular immune responses but we have no indication of that. "So it's unclear that everyone needs to be boosted, other than a subset of the population that clearly would be at high risk for serious disease." Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine, said during the meeting he didn't think boosters would significantly contribute to controlling the pandemic. "It is very important that the main message that we still transmit is that we have got to get everyone two doses. Everyone has got the get the primary series," he said. "This booster dose is not likely to make a big difference in the behavior of this pandemic." Pfizer received full approval for its vaccine from the FDA, so the request to add a booster dose is a supplement to that approval. Pfizer -- and other researchers -- say their studies show people develop strong immunity after two doses of vaccine, but that levels of antibodies start to drop after a few months. The FDA noted in its briefing documents that Pfizer's vaccine -- as well as vaccines made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson -- still provide strong protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death, even if antibodies do wane over time. After the FDA advisory committee makes its recommendation, the FDA makes the decision about whether to approve the booster dose. "Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19. We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week," White House spokesman Kevin Munoz told CNN. The CDC has scheduled a meeting of its vaccine advisers for September 22 and 23 -- and CDC must give its stamp of approval for any booster doses to be officially given. In a letter sent Thursday and obtained by CNN, the CDC urged local and state health officials to wait to administer boosters until both agencies had signed off. Third doses are already approved for certain immunocompromised people, but not for the general public. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. EUGENE, Ore. -- A series of bar crawls are scheduled in Eugene for Saturday, Sept. 25, but the company behind them has a questionable history. All three are hosted by Bar Crawl Unlimited, an Arizona-based company which has an F rating from the Better Business Bureau. The companys owner, listed in business filings as Adam Dobres, also owns A-Z Food Festivals. The companies' taco and margarita crawls have earned a bad reputation in other states by failing to deliver on their promises. Attendees complain of long wait times and few food options, and many complaints say the events are often canceled without refunds. I bought tickets in early March for an event [Bar Crawl Unlimited] was hosting in late August. Due to COVID the event was canceled and [Bar Crawl Unlimited] refuses to issue a refund, one user wrote in a complaint to the BBB last August. Bar Crawl Unlimited planned a Margarita Crawl in Manchester, NH. I bought tickets for 4/25/2020, it was postponed to 9/19/2020, and then to 2/20/2021, and then as of this morning (2/11) it has been postponed yet again to 10/23/2021. Bar Crawl Unlimited is not offering refunds, and after doing some research about them it seems that many people have had this issue, another user wrote. Attempts to reach the company were unsuccessful, and a phone number listed for the business was not accepting calls. A taco and margarita festival by A-Z Food Festivals was canceled in Deschutes County this month after the venue backed out, Central Oregon Daily reported. Patrice Mackey, who organizes the Eugene Santa Claus Pub Crawl each year, looked into the company and its history and said buyers should think twice. It seems like the people who did the organizing didn't really contact the venues, and also seems like the discounts that they promoted on their webpage was just like the standard, maybe happy hour that those venues had. So again, it didn't really seem like they worked with the venues, Mackey said. The online website hosted through Eventbrite shows tickets still available for next weekends events, but no locations are listed. I'd really look and try and figure out what are you really getting for your money? Mackey said. I mean, 20 or 30 bucks may not seem like much, but if you could just go with friends to the same bar, or you know, a tavern and have a good time, you don't need a ticket to go out and have some fun. Sinn Fein spokesperson on Children and TD for Carlow Kilkenny Kathleen Funchion has welcomed Dr Laura Bambrick of the Irish Congress Trade Union (ICTU) call for childcare to be an essential public service. Sinn Fein have long advocated for a publicly funded childcare sector. My position has always been to take a three pronged approach to address low wages, high fees and access to childcare places. The issues Dr Bambricks raised in her interview this morning on Morning Ireland, unfortunately for those, either working or using an early years service are not new. The Minister cannot continue to ignore calls by academics, unions, those working in the sector, who are underpaid and underappreciated and parents who are face outrageous childcare fees any more. I have consistently called for a complete overhaul of the sector, yet what we get is again and again is reviews, which I believe are an attempt to kick the can down the road. Successive governments, by their inability or unwillingness to seriously fund this sector have done the greatest disservice to women in this State. Dr Bambrick makes the direct correlation between Ireland having the lowest number of women in the workforce, as a direct result of underinvestment in early years. A staggering one-third of women with children are not working outside the home. I strongly believe it is completely disingenuous for the State to continue to encourage women into the workforce, yet the apparatus that should be there to support this transition is wholly inadequate. In 2020 I proposed a fully costed alternative budget that prioritised childrens right to an early years education, enshrined lower fees for parents reducing by one-third in the first year and two-thirds in the second year, take on the wages, increasing them immediately to at least the Living Wage and ensured a viable future for service providers with a sustainability fund of approximately 125million. There is a moral obligation on the Minister to ensure this sector is supportive and seen by his cabinet colleagues as vital for the economy," she added. Kilkenny Arts Office launched its community art project Knitted Together 2 in June to foster community spirit and mitigate against the effects of social isolation through a shared experience. Hundreds of knitters and crocheters across the county took part in the project, completing eight-inch squares which have been made into beautiful blankets and donated to local charities. For Culture Night 2021, taking place today, members of the public are invited to view some of the completed blankets in an exhibition trail in each of the participating charity shops. In the stunning setting of Kilkennys Castle Yard where Bernadette Roberts, Maria OShea and Annette Sinnott will demonstrate their skills inspiring crochet ideas and techniques. Booking essential through the DCCI via https://culturenight.ie/event/ national-design-and-craft- gallery-culture-night-hub- national-design-craft-gallery/ Over 180 people took part in the Knitted Together 2 project and created over 3,500 beautiful, intricate and carefully crafted squares. Now, 70 completed blankets have been donated to local charity shops and will go on display from today to celebrate Culture Night 2021. Gifted Craftsmanship To support Kilkennys charitable organisations, the blankets will be available for purchase from Saturday 18th of September from seven local charity shops. The exquisite handmade blankets will be available for purchase for 49.95 with all of the profits going towards each charity. Kilkenny Arts Office has carefully considered the gift-wrapping of each stunning woollen blanket which will be presented in a gorgeous eco friendly bag and includes a colourful postcard inside explaining the meaning behind of the Knitted Together project. As autumn sets in and looking to the gifting season ahead the Arts Office hopes that people will consider these unique, handmade treasures as a present for a loved one or a gorgeous new adornment for their home. Blanket Tour of Kilkenny Those who wish to visit the charities and view the Knitted Together 2 blankets or make a purchase and help support fundraising, in light of a challenging year in lockdown, can do so from Saturday (September 18) at: -The Jack and Jill Foundation, Friary Street -National Council for the Blind Ireland (NCBI), High Street and Castlecomer - The Samaritans, Kieran Street - Irish Cancer Society, Parliament Street - Enable Ireland, Kieran Street - St. Vincent de Paul (SVP), Butts Green Mary Butler, Kilkenny Arts Officer said, As an enthusiastic charity shop visitor myself, I hope lots of people will take this opportunity to discover the joy of charity shopping and the array of fabulous products they have available. People are in for a treat when they see the amazing blankets available for purchase, and of course a huge thank you to the individuals who joined us to knit and crochet throughout the summer to help such an array of worthy causes.'' The Knitted Together 2 project is funded by Creative Ireland as part of its Age-Friendly Initiatives, the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI) as part of the Governments Keep Well campaign and is supported by Age-Friendly and Healthy Ireland Kilkenny programmes. For more visit www.kilkennyartsoffice.ie The guests have been revealed for tonight's Late Late Show on RTE One. Ciaran Hinds & Clare Dunne, Miriam Mullins, Jack Woolley, Catherine & Aidan Corless, Wallis Bird and The Three Amigos are among guests for The Late Late Show. Stars of the new hit TV drama KIN, Ciaran Hinds and Clare Dunne will join Ryan on the show where Ciaran will share about the joy of filming in Dublin again and his childhood spent dancing in Belfast. Clare will chat about why she could never be a crime boss and the real stories that inspire her. Irish TikTok sensation with over 1.6 million followers, Miriam Mullins will be speaking to Ryan about living her life online, her now famous Irish mammy and will be giving Ryan tips on how to make it on TikTok! Coming up this week on the #LateLate...#RTEKin's Ciaran Hinds and @ClareEmmadunne TikTok star Miriam Mullins@jackwoolley_tkd Catherine and Aidan Corless@irelandincolour with music from @wallisbird and The 3 Amigos pic.twitter.com/EOmsZJ7aPJ The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) September 16, 2021 After his assault in Dublin City last month attracted global media attention, Ireland's Olympic Taekwondo star Jack Woolley will join Ryan to discuss how he's coped with being thrust into the spotlight over the last six weeks. Hell talk about his road to recovery, why he wants to inspire Ireland's next generation of athletes and why he can't wait to get back into the ring as Tokyo slips away from view. Tuam historian Catherine Corless and her supportive husband, Aidan will join Ryan in a special in-depth interview like no other to discuss Catherines new book Belonging: A Memoir, her quest for the truth about Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway and how her early childhood life events shaped her to the person we know today. The show will also look at some incredible photographs from Old Ireland in Colour 2, the much-anticipated sequel to last years bestselling book. One of its authors, Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley will talk us through some of the superb images brought to life through cutting-edge technology, historical research and expert colourisation. Plus, Wallis Bird will be performing her classic song To My Bones while The Three Amigos be giving the nation a Garth treat with a special medley of his hits. Catch The Late Late Show on RTE One, Friday, September 17th at 9.35pm. President Michael D Higgins has defended his decision to decline an invitation to a religious service in Northern Ireland next month. Speaking in Rome during a four-day official visit to the Italian capital, President Higgins said his problem was with the title of the event, which it was stated would mark the centenaries of the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland. President Higgins strongly denied any suggestion of a snub on Queen Elizabeth and that he declined on the grounds that it is political in nature and commemorates the "centenary of the partition in Ireland", making it inappropriate for him as head of State to attend the event. What [had started out as] an invitation to a religious service had in fact become a political statement, he said. I was also referred to as the President of the Republic of Ireland. I am the President of Ireland. In a reference to Queen Elizabeth, he said: There is no question of any snub intended to anybody. I am not snubbing anyone and I am not part of anyones boycott of any other events in Northern Ireland. I wish their service well but they understand that I have the right to exercise a discretion as to what I think is appropriate for my attendance. The president also called DUP criticism of his decision not to attend 'a bit much' Its a bit much, to be frank with you. I have gone up to Northern Ireland to take part in events. There often has not been a great deal of traffic down from the DUP people who are criticising me now, he added. The controversy has threatened to overshadow President Higginss audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Friday morning as he said he would not be revisiting the decision despite further calls for the President to reconsider. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he had written to Mr Higgins seeking an explanation and had encouraged President Higgins to change his mind. He also said it was difficult not to conclude that there is politics at play here. However, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood defended Mr Higgins and his record on reconciliation, saying that people should not read too much into this and should take him at his word when he says he cant be there. Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney is due to attend an event marking the centenary of the creation of Northern Ireland later on Friday. Clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines should include examination of any possible effects on women's menstrual cycles -- if only because so many women are worried about possible problems, a British expert argued Wednesday. But there's also evidence the immune response prompted by both vaccines and viral infections can temporarily affect menstrual cycles, so studying these effects is important, Dr. Victoria Male, a reproductive specialist at Imperial College London, wrote in the BMJ. "Vaccine hesitancy among young women is largely driven by false claims that Covid-19 vaccines could harm their chances of future pregnancy," Male wrote. "Failing to thoroughly investigate reports of menstrual changes after vaccination is likely to fuel these fears," she added. "If a link between vaccination and menstrual changes is confirmed, this information will allow people to plan for potentially altered cycles. Clear and trusted information is particularly important for those who rely on being able to predict their menstrual cycles to either achieve or avoid pregnancy." The US National Institutes of Health said last month it was spending $1.67 million to help five research teams study the potential effects of Covid-19 vaccines on menstruation. "Numerous factors can cause temporary changes in the menstrual cycle, which is regulated by complex interactions between the body's tissues, cells and hormones," the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said in a statement issued August 30. "Immune responses to a COVID-19 vaccine could affect the interplay between immune cells and signals in the uterus, leading to temporary changes in the menstrual cycle. Other factors that may cause menstrual changes include pandemic-related stress, lifestyle changes related to the pandemic, and infection with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19)." Male said the indications were that these changes, if they occur, are temporary and harmless. "Most people who report a change to their period after vaccination find that it returns to normal the following cycle and, importantly, there is no evidence that Covid-19 vaccination adversely affects fertility," she wrote. "Menstrual changes have been reported after both mRNA and adenovirus vectored covid-19 vaccines, suggesting that, if there is a connection, it is likely to be a result of the immune response to vaccination rather than a specific vaccine component," she added. "Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) has also been associated with menstrual changes. Indeed, the menstrual cycle can be affected by immune activation in response to various stimuli, including viral infection: in one study of menstruating women, around a quarter of those infected with SARS-CoV-2 experienced menstrual disruption." But studying these effects should not be an afterthought, Male said. Dr. Jo Mountfield, vice president of the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said it's understandable women would be concerned about such changes. "There is no evidence to suggest that these temporary changes will have any impact on a person's future fertility, or their ability to have children. It is important to get vaccinated as the best protection against coronavirus. This is especially important if you are planning a pregnancy, as we know unvaccinated pregnant women are more at risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19," Mountfield said in a statement. "We support calls for more research to understand why women may be experiencing changes to their menstrual cycle after having the vaccine." The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. The surprise announcement that the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have agreed a defense pact that will go some way toward countering China in the Indo-Pacific region sparked an array of emotions. In Europe, it left the French government furious and European Union officials somewhat confused as to what the bloc should do about China. The deal, which was unveiled on Wednesday, will see the US and UK send strategic and technical teams to Australia to help the country procure nuclear-powered submarines. It also meant that the Australian government cancelled a multi-billion contract for non-nuclear submarines with a French manufacturer. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described this as a "real stab in the back" from Australia. He also fired a shot at US President Joe Biden, saying that the sudden announcement of this deal without consulting other allies was a "brutal and unilateral decision" that "resembles a lot of what Mr. Trump was doing." Leaving aside France's wounded pride, the new geopolitical pact between English-speaking maritime powers (known as AUKUS and pronounced "aw-kiss") presents a strategic headscratcher for the EU. Officials in Brussels told CNN that the timing of the AUKUS announcement was viewed dimly, as the EU's high representative on foreign affairs was set to deliver his own strategy for the Indo-Pacific on Thursday afternoon. At best, it was considered a bit rude; at worst, it confirmed that, despite Brussels' global ambitions, it is not taken seriously as a geopolitical player. Either way, Brussels is feeling scarred. A senior EU official told CNN that this was "English-speaking countries" who are "very belligerent" forming an alliance "against China." The official noted that these were the same nations who took the lead in invading Afghanistan and Iraq. "And we all know the results," they added. The EU's strategy for handling China differs from the US in one major way: the EU actively seeks cooperation with China, and sees it as an economic and strategic partner. Brussels officials believe that by trading and working with China, not only can they lean on Beijing to reform their human rights and energy policies, but also use a good relationship with China to act as a buffer between Beijing and Washington, thus giving the EU a clear and important geopolitical role. The AUKUS deal has, in the eyes of some, undermined any real claim that Brussels had as an influential presence on the world stage. "The fact that the US is willing to spend more political capital and invest in security and defense ties with the UK and Australia before reaching out to EU powers is quite revealing," said Velina Tchakarova, director of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy. She added that despite many positive developments in understanding the importance of this region, "it is obvious that the EU must first become a security actor in the Indo-Pacific in order to be taken seriously by the partners in the Anglosphere." So how can the EU do this? This is the million-dollar question and the source of a lot of disagreement between member states. There is no consensus on what European defense means or should look like. France, the only major military power in the bloc, has been pushing for a coordinated defense policy that provides the bloc with real capabilities. One EU official familiar with the matter told CNN that the recent developments in Afghanistan and the AUKUS announcement has only solidified France's view that the EU needs the capacity to defend its interests and build a presence in the Indo-Pacific region. However, France really is an outlier on this matter. "When I see [French President Emmanuel] Macron and his team talk about standing troops, I just can't see it ever happening," said one EU diplomat. "National leaders have to send troops into battle. It won't be the EU blamed when people come back in body bags." Other diplomats and officials see potential for member states working together on more efficient procurement, meaning each country buys specific things that play to their military strengths. However, they still draw the line at the idea of deploying troops. "Neutral countries like Austria, Ireland, Finland and Sweden will never be comfortable with deploying troops to conflict zones," said one diplomat. "What we could work with EU partners on, however, are things like training troops in third countries and peacekeeping on borders." Beneficial as this would be for Europe, it's a far cry from asserting serious military heft in a world where that seems to matter enormously. Steven Blockmans, director of research at the Centre for European Policy studies, explained that as Europe's defensestrategy develops, it will probably lean further toward these smaller acts of cooperation than the French ideal. "The other big member state, Germany, has always been very clear that any such integration policy, especially in the field of defense and security, needs to be as inclusive as possible and bring as many of the 27 member states along with it," Blockmans said. "The AUKUS announcement therefore forces France to rethink its defense relationship with the Anglosphere and work harder with fellow member states to raise the level of ambition in European defense cooperation," he added. That rethink could be instructive for those wondering where Europe's foreign policy goes next. Tchakarova said that hard decisions will need to be made by the major European powers on how much they want to isolate themselves from "their most significant transatlantic partner in their approach to the region and to China in particular." She added that as the US-China battle for soft power escalates, Brussels' plan of "oscillating between Washington and Beijing will not work for the EU in the long run," if countries like France and Germany decide they want a closer relationship with their Anglosphere allies. The EU has spent years devising a complicated plan to sit somewhere between the US and China, and in doing so hold huge amounts of soft power. Instead, the AUKUS plan, which rests on traditional hard power, was agreed with Brussels left in the dark and France hung out to dry. No matter how much EU officials try to spin this as being somehow separate from its lofty ambitions for the next few years, Biden's decision to work with his traditional allies using traditional hard power on the biggest issue facing the democratic world gives a clear story of where serious geopolitical power will lie over the next few years. While the EU holds huge economic power, the events of the past 24 hours have been a nasty reminder that, in certain areas, Brussels still has a long way to go if it wants to sit between China and the US without getting squashed. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) A suspect in the shooting deaths of four Minnesotans who were found in an abandoned SUV in Wisconsin surrendered to authorities in Arizona on Friday. Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said in a statement that Antoine Darnique Suggs, 38, turned himself in to police in Gilbert, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb. He said Suggs had been living in the Phoenix area recently before traveling to Minnesota in the last couple of weeks. Bygd said investigators don't know how Suggs traveled back to Arizona. He said they have not interviewed Suggs, so they had no new information to release on a potential motive. The sheriff said Suggs will be held in the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix while awaiting extradition to Wisconsin. Authorities said Thursday that Suggs was spotted meeting with one of the victims at a Minnesota bar the night before their bodies were found. The other suspect, Darren Lee McWright, 56, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was being held in the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul. A complaint filed Thursday against McWright, whos charged in Dunn County with four counts of hiding a corpse, said witnesses told police they saw Suggs late Saturday evening in the White Squirrel Bar in St. Paul with one of the victims, Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater, Minnesota. A farmer discovered the bodies of Flug-Presley and three St. Paul residents with connections to her on Sunday in his Dunn County cornfield, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the east. All four had suffered gunshot wounds, authorities said. McWright is the biological father of Suggs' brother, according to the complaint. CRESCO, Iowa A Howard County man has been arrested for child sex crimes. Steven James Shipman, 48 of Cresco, is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, third-degree sexual abuse, and exhibition of obscene material to minors. Court documents state that Shipman displayed obscene material to an underage victim, engaged in multiple sex acts with the victim, and was found in possession of videos of the victim performing sex acts. The Sheriffs Office says Shipman was arrested Thursday and booked into the Howard County Jail on $10,000 bond. ROCHESTER, Minn. - A man who went to his car to grab some items Thursday night was assaulted by a pair of white males and was hospitalized. Police said the assault occurred in the 800 block of 4th St. SE., and a 37-year-old man was taken to Olmsted Medical Center by a neighbor. The man turned around after grabbing something from his car and was assaulted by two white males who punched and kicked him numerous times, police said The two men left walking eastbound on 4th St. SE. but were not located. The man, who said he didnt know the men, suffered injuries to his face and stomach. FOREST CITY, Iowa A Mason City man accused of burglarizing a Winnebago County bar and grill is pleading not guilty. Brandon Wayne Hufstedler, 36, is charged with third-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit a felony as a habitual offender, second-degree theft, second-degree criminal mischief, and possession of burglar tools. Authorities say Hufstedler broke into the Rake Pub & Grub on March 25, stealing about $3,072 in cash and causing about $9,078 in damage. Investigators say Huftsedler was captured on video robbing the bar and his cell phone was tracked to the area of the bar at the time of the burglary. A trial is now set to begin on November 3. ROCHESTER, Minn. One of the Twin Cities-area men charged for a fatal Rochester shooting is pleading not guilty. Nautica Deishaun Cox, 22 of Minneapolis, entered a not guilty plea Thursday to aiding and abetting second-degree murder, aiding and abetting attempted second-degree murder, and possession of a firearm after being convicted of a crime of violence. Authorities say Cox and Derrick Timothy Days, 28 of South St. Paul, shot two men on June 6 in the vicinity of First Avenue and 3rd Street SW. One of the men, Todd Lorne Banks Jr., was killed and the other suffered what are described as critical injuries. Investigators say the shooting happened after a fight over a dice game. No trial date has been scheduled for Cox. Day has not yet entered a plea to charges of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and possession of a firearm after being convicted of a crime of violence. University of Illinois researcher Fred Below says the huge gap between record-breaking corn and soybean yields and average yields is an opportunity for farmers. Some of the record-breaking ideas can be adapted to all farm operations. A major North Korean women's union called on its members to wage a battle against anti-socialist practices as it convened a workshop for local leaders, state media reported Friday. The Socialist Women's Union of Korea (SWUK) held a workshop for its local committee heads from Tuesday to Thursday and discussed the issue of "wiping out anti-socialist and non-socialistic practices," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said. Kim Jong-sun, the new chairwoman of the Central Committee of the union, and other officials "critically analyzed anti-socialist and non-socialist practices in the past," the paper said. The committee leaders also called on union members to wage an "uncompromising struggle for socialism, putting the fate of socialism, as well as their lives and their children at stake." The North's largest youth organization, the Socialist Patriotic Youth League (SPYL), also held an enlarged meeting Thursday and urged members to devote themselves to socialism. The North has recently stressed socialism and ideological education for women and the youth. In December, the North reenacted a law that toughens the punishment for the possession of videos made in South Korea as part of efforts to prevent the inflow of outside culture that could influence its people's ideology. (Yonhap) Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.. Tonight Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Angola, IN (46703) Today Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.. Tonight Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Auburn, IN (46706) Today Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.. Tonight Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Weeks of deliberation are coming to a head Friday when the US Food and Drug Administration meets to discuss Covid-19 boosters. But the science of the vaccine's effectiveness will not be up for debate, one expert said. There is widespread agreement that the vaccines are primarily intended to reduce hospitalizations and deaths -- which data shows they do well, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said. "What not everybody would agree to is the second thing, which I believe, that the point of vaccination is to also reduce the level of infection," Wen said. That is the issue now being debated by officials and health experts, just as the average of new daily cases has shot up over the past two months. President Joe Biden and many experts say there's a good reason for a third dose. And three reports published Wednesday support the argument that people may need a booster dose of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine over time, and suggest such boosters would be safe. The reports are part of a batch of data that will be discussed by the FDA's vaccine advisers as it considers a request by Pfizer to approve a third, booster dose for most people six months after they get their first two doses of vaccine. But there isn't unanimity right now. On Monday, a group of international vaccine experts, including some from the FDA and the World Health Organization, wrote in the Lancet that current evidence does not appear to support a need for booster shots in the general public right now. There also is fear that a focus on boosters will distract from the mission of getting a greater proportion of the public to get their initial doses. Only around 54% of the US population is fully vaccinated, which experts agree is the best form of protection against the virus. There is no clear answer yet on whether vaccine boosters are necessary, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Wednesday, but there is "a mountain" of data for experts to consider before making a decision. Friday's discussion will be public, he added, so people can see the data that goes into the decision. Local health departments are planning on being ready to roll out booster doses next week if given the green light from the FDA, but many still have questions, Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN on Wednesday. "What is the interval for boosters? Is it any shorter than eight months at this point? What is the age cut-off? Will there be priority groupings?" Freeman said. "We don't want to be unprepared. We don't want to appear uncoordinated on boosters." More Idaho hospitals to ration care The number of Covid-19 patients in Idaho hospitals has prompted the state's health department to expand its "Crisis Standards of Care," allowing more hospitals to ration care. "CSC is activated statewide because the massive increase of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization in all areas of the state has exhausted existing resources," department officials said in a news release. St. Luke's Health System, a non-profit health system with 15 hospitals and medical centers, requested that the standard be broadened to include the entire state, after northern regions were covered by a previous directive. "We are being overwhelmed with patient volumes today," said Chris Roth, CEO of St. Luke's, according to CNN affiliate KIVI said. "If we continue this course over the next several weeks, St. Luke's Health System will become a COVID health system." Critical standards of care prioritize some patients, over others and "someone who is otherwise healthy and would recover more rapidly may get treated or have access to a ventilator before someone who is not likely to recover," the health department said. Idaho reported 8,718 new Covid-19 cases and 134 new deaths in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University. As of Monday, there were a record 678 people hospitalized with Covid-19, of which a pandemic high 173 were in intensive care, according to state health data. "We are out of actual hospital beds," said Sandee Gehrke, St. Luke's chief operating officer, according to CNN affiliate KBOI. "So every additional overflow area that we start to open now means that our patients are being taken care of on stretchers." Numb to tragedy As the pandemic continues to take a toll -- Covid-19 has killed more than 666,000 people and infected 41.5 million in the US since January 2020 -- the public is becoming numb to the tragedy, the former commissioner of the FDA Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Wednesday. "We are somewhat complacent with a very excessive amount of death and disease," he said during an appearance at the SALT hedge fund conference in Manhattan. The US marked another grim milestone Wednesday: 1 in 500 Americans has died of Covid-19. It's a number that can be hard to process, Wen said. "Imagine if 1 in 500 Americans had died in a war due to a foreign adversary in the last year and a half. How would we be processing that information now? What would we be doing differently?" she asked. "Wouldn't we be doing everything we can to end the war, end the suffering and deaths? "For us to not do everything we can with vaccines and masks in the meantime, it's really unconscionable." The increasing number of cases among young people is also alarming experts. In the first nine months of 2021, Covid-19 infections among children and adolescents in the Americas (including the US and Canada) reached over 1.9 million, according to Dr. Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization on Wednesday. That is more than 400,000 more than there were all of last year -- before Covid-19 vaccines were available to young people over the age of 12. In the US, cases are likely to rise now that schools have reopened in the Northeast, Gottlieb said. "That's going to build," Gottlieb said, pointing to school outbreaks in other regions hit by the Delta variant. "The schools will become sources of spread in the Northeast as well." However, Gottlieb, who sits on the board of Pfizer, doesn't expect the Northeast to get hit nearly as hard as the South, mostly because of prior infections and high vaccination rates. FDA gives the green light to Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody treatment The FDA expanded its emergency authorization of Eli Lilly's combination monoclonal antibody treatment Thursday so that it now can be used to prevent people from getting severely sick with Covid-19. Etesevimab and bamlanivimab are two lab-made antibodies that can boost the body's immune system to fight off the novel coronavirus. Doctors already use it to treat some patients with mild cases of Covid-19 who are at risk of getting worse. Dr. Myron Cohen, director of University of North Carolina's Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and a leader on the trial for Eli Lilly, said in a news release from the company that the FDA approval "offers a significant achievement in the fight against this pandemic." The FDA's expanded authorization will allow doctors to prescribe the treatment for people who are not fully vaccinated, or who might not have had a full response to vaccines. It can only be prescribed for those at high risk for having severe Covid, such as people who have certain underlying health conditions or the elderly. The government had paused the distribution of the dual Covid-19 treatment because it didn't work well against some coronavirus variants, but it resumed distribution in August after the FDA determined it worked well against the Delta variant. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. (JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.) Two months after governor parson named a new Director of Missouri's Health Department, he's speaking to reporters about how he plans to lead the state out of the pandemic. The new head of Missouri's Health Department speaking to reporters virtually for the first time since taking office. Touching on everything from the state's poor public health rankings, combating misinformation and his view on masks. "Everything I have read, everything I have seen, masks work, Donald Kauerauf, Missouri Department of Health Director said. One of director Kauerauf's main focuses right now is kids and schools. It's too bad that this outbreak has gotten to a point where it has landed on the children. They have nothing to do with this," Kauerauf said. "They need to be in the classroom. They need to be in-person learning that really needs to take place." Kauerauf says he was sad to see news this week that preliminary results from map testing last spring showed scores down across nearly every grade and all subjects. With the greatest drop in math. "My son is a mechanical engineer and I could only have imagined if he was set behind in basic algebra and how that would have stunted his development all the way through school and even college," Kauerauf said. He says to help school districts keep kids in the classroom and navigate confusing quarantine rules, his department is preparing a new set of guidelines. "We have some documentation we are working on now for schools that can provide some clearer ideas that keep kids in school but allowing the locals to customize," Kauerauf said. He says when school officials tailor their plans -- they should consider the county's adult vaccination rate and the vaccination rate of 12-17-year-olds in the district. "I saw a tragic story in the eastern part of the state of an individual a student that wasn't vaccinated that is now in critical condition," Kauerauf said. With the biggest increases in positivity rates seen in 0 to 17 year-olds, he says the health department has its work cut out for them. And part of that work will be convincing parents and students to get their shots. "We didn't hesitate a second. I have a special needs daughter with some cardiac conditions and the day, we got her vaccinated. I didn't even think twice about it and for our sons. I have a son that was running at the time college track, we made sure he got vaccinated," Kauerauf said. The director says he is also very concerned about the level of miscommunication and distrust of medical experts during the pandemic. He says this phenomenon won't go away with covid and will likely complicate health initiatives beyond the virus's lifespan. ROME, SEP 17 - Excitement is building up for Expo 2020 ahead of its opening in Dubai next month. The Universal Exposition in the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to attract around 25 million visitors between then and its closure at the end of March. The event , whose motto is Connecting Minds, Creating the Future, was originally scheduled to take place between 20 October 2020 and 10 April 2021 but it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (ANSA). ROME, SEP 17 - Italy's workers, both in the private and public sectors, will need to have the Green Pass from October 15 after the government decided on Thursday to extend the scope of the vaccine passport to all workplaces. Employees who do not have the Green Pass face being suspended without pay from day one and fines for failing to comply with the obligation go up to 1,500 euros. However, employers will not be allowed to fire workers for not having the Green Pass. The obligation will remain in force until the end of the year. People will be able to get COVID tests in pharmacies at a reduced price - 15 euros for adults, eight euros for children and free for people who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. The government is also asking for the Green Pass obligation to be extended to parliament, the presidential palace and the Constitutional Court as the new rules do not automatically apply to Constitutional bodies. The green certificate shows that someone is vaccinated for the coronavirus, has recovered from it or has recently tested negative. So it is possible for unvaccinated people to get a short-term Green Pass but they need to keep having COVID tests to renew it. A measure approved in parliament on Thursday will extend the validity of a Green Pass obtained via a molecular COVID test from 48 hours to 72. The vaccine passport is already necessary to do many things in Italy, such travel abroad or on high-speed trains and on domestic flights, attend certain events and to be able to sit at a table inside bars and restaurants. Any adult that enters a school, including a parent, must have it and so must all higher education staff and students. (ANSA). ROME, SEP 17 - Italy's COVID-19 Rt transmission number and its case incidence have fallen again, according to a draft of the weekly coronavirus monitoring report of the health ministry and the Higher Health Institute (ISS). It said the Rt number for the period between August 25 and September 7 was 0.85, down from 0.92 in last week's report. An Rt number over 1 indicates that the epidemic is in a phase of expansion. The draft of the report said that the incidence went down from 64 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants to 54. It said the proportion of intensive-care places taken up by COVID patients was down slightly at 6.1%. The report said the proportion for ordinary hospital-ward places was also down slightly at 7.2%. However, four Italian regions/autonomous provinces are now considered moderate COVID-19 risk, rather than low risk, up from three last week. They are Abruzzo, Molise and the autonomous provinces of Bolzano and Trento. Sicily, Calabria and the province of Bolzano, meanwhile, are the areas with the highest incidence. (ANSA). ROME, SEP 17 - Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has said the extraordinary G20 summit that Italy, the duty president of the group of the world's most advanced economies, is proposing on the crisis caused the the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan will happen. He said in an interview in Friday's edition of La Repubblica that the summit would take place after the United Nations General Assembly. He added that the US's withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan showed "the urgent need for a real EU defence (capability) supported by foreign policy decisions that get away from the right of veto of individual governments". (ANSA). ROME, SEP 17 - (see related story on the Green Pass) Italy's top administrative court, the Council of State, on Friday dismissed a challenge presented by four unvaccinated individuals against the government's Green Pass COVID-19 vaccine passport. The Council of State upheld the decision of a lower court, the Lazio TAR, that rejected the petition arguing that the Green Pass system violated privacy laws. (ANSA). ROME, SEP 17 - The Italian consul in Tel Aviv had meeting on Friday with Eitan Biran, the six-year-old Israeli boy who was the sole survivor of the Mottarone mountain cable-car disaster in Piedmont in May and was taken to Israel by his maternal grandfather last weekend, sources said. The consul said the orphaned child appeared to be in good health, the sources said. The meeting, at which the grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, was present, was organized by the Italian foreign ministry in cooperation with the Israeli authorities. Peleg and his ex-wife Etty Peleg, the boy's grandmother, are being probed in Italy for alleged aggravated kidnapping. Eitan was reportedly driven across the border to Switzerland and flown to Tel Aviv with a private jet after being taken out by his maternal grandfather on Saturday. Eitan's parents, great grandparents and two-year-old brother were among the 14 victims of the disaster. Eitan, who moved to Italy with his parents in 2018, had been put into the care of his Italian-based paternal aunt, Aya Biran, after the disaster by the Italian authorities. The boy's maternal family had said last month they would mount a legal challenge against this decision. Aya Biran, on the other hand, has presented a petition for the boy to be returned to Italy on the basis of the 1980 Hague Abduction Convention. Photo: Eitan with his grandfather. (ANSA). Ruvuma [Tanzania], September 17 (ANI/Xinhua): At least six people were killed on Thursday evening and nine others were injured when their mini-bus veered off-road and overturned in Tanzania's southern region of Ruvuma, police said on Friday. Joseph Konyo, the Ruvuma regional police commander, said the mini-bus heading to Nyasa district from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam overturned on a steep slope at Kipololo village in Mbinga district. Also Read | China Says It Agrees with EAM S Jaishankar; Says Sino-India Ties Have Their Own Intrinsic Logic. He told a news conference in Songea, Ruvuma region's headquarters, that the driver of the mini-bus failed to control the speeding vehicle on the steep slope. "Police suspect that the driver who was over speeding failed to control the vehicle on the steep slope covering about one kilometer," said the police official, adding that the driver was among the dead. Also Read | SCO Summit 2021: Afghanistan Cant Be 'Controlled From Outside, Says Pakistan PM Imran Khan. According to Konyo, the driver of the mini-bus was travelling on the country's southern road for the first time. (ANI/Xinhua) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Harare, Sep 16 (AP) Zimbabwe's government has ordered all its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or they won't be allowed to come to work. The Public Service Commission, which is in charge of employment conditions for government workers, issued an internal notice Wednesday ordering employees to get vaccinated. Also Read | Maharashtra Horror: Toddler Falls into Bucket of Water in Palghar; Dies. All civil servants should be vaccinated without delay, and unvaccinated members shall not be allowed to report for duty, said the notice, which has been seen by The Associated Press. The commission urged heads of government departments to make arrangements for their employees to be vaccinated "and to explain to any who elect not to be vaccinated that they will not be deemed to be working. Also Read | Afghanistan Crisis: 6,34,000 Afghans Internally Displaced by Conflicts in 2021, Says UN. It wasn't made clear what would happen to employees who refused to be vaccinated, although state-owned newspaper The Herald reported that the government would adopt a policy where unvaccinated workers wouldn't be paid. Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced the mandatory vaccination program for government workers earlier this week. She didn't give any timeframe for workers to receive vaccinations and also didn't clarify what the repercussions would be for any who refused. The government is Zimbabwe's biggest employer and has about 500,000 workers. Zimbabwe is one of the leading countries in Africa in terms of vaccinations, with more than 12 per cent of the country's 15 million people fully vaccinated. That compares to just 3.6 per cent of people across Africa who have been fully vaccinated, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Zimbabwe has received more than 11 million doses, mainly Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines. The southern African nation announced last month that it was opening COVID-19 vaccinations to children between the ages of 14 and 17, one of the first countries in Africa to do that. It was already offering jabs to anyone 18 or older. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) GST e-invoicing compulsory from January 1 for firms with more than Rs 100 Cr turnover Representational Image | (Photo Credits: PTI) New Delhi, September 17: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday chaired the 45th meeting of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council in Lucknow. Sitharaman announced several key decisions and GST rate cuts including that on locomotives and certain railway parts, medicines used in the treatment of cancer and COVID-19, and also announced a decision on rationalising the inverted duty structure. After the 45th GST Council meeting in Lucknow, Sitharaman said that concessional GST rates on COVID-19 related drugs, which were till September 30, has now been extended till December 31. The Finance Minister added that the GST Council felt it isn't time to bring petroleum products under the GST regime. Adding further, she said that the GST rate on biodiesel which is supplied to oil marketing companies for blending with diesel has also been reduced from 12% to 5%. Sitharaman said that GST rate on biodiesel which is supplied to oil marketing companies for blending with diesel have also been reduced from 12% to 5%. "Amphotericin B - nil rate, Tocilizumab -nil rate, Remdesivir-5% , anticoagulants like Heparin - 5%. These concessional rates which were valid till September 30th are now being extended till 31st December 2021", Sitharaman said during the press meet. "Similarly, cancer-related drugs - Keytruda - along with similar other medicines used in the treatment of cancer as per Health Ministry or Dept of Pharmaceuticals are being recommended that they should come down from 12% to 5%", Sitharaman added. Check Key Decisions and Revised GST Rates Here: GST Council felt it isn't time to bring petroleum products under GST regime: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 17, 2021 E-commerce operators Swiggy, Zomato to pay GST on restaurant service supplied through them; tax to be charged at point of delivery: FM Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 17, 2021 GST rates on Retro Fitment Kits for vehicles, used by persons with special disabilities, have also been reduced to 5%: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after 45th GST Council meeting, in Lucknow pic.twitter.com/wmLgAQ3a3D ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 GST Council agrees to correct inverted duty structure on footwear and textiles from Jan 1, 2022: FM Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 17, 2021 GST rate on fortified rice kernels for schemes like integrated child development schemes have been recommended to be reduced from 18% to 5%: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after 45th GST Council meeting, in Lucknow pic.twitter.com/v1jXkKPl1t ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 GST rate on biodiesel which is supplied to oil marketing companies for blending with diesel have also been reduced from 12% to 5%: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after 45th GST Council meeting, in Lucknow pic.twitter.com/3plYkBdWte ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 GST rate on seven other medicines, which are recommended by Dept of Pharmaceuticals, have also been recommended for reduction from 12% to 5%. That is also extended till 31st Dec 2021: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after 45th GST Council meeting, in Lucknow pic.twitter.com/8JurH1dnxf ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 Amphotericin B - nil rate, Tocilizumab - nil rate, Remdesivir - 5% , anticoagulants like Heparin - 5%. These concessional rates which were valid till September 30th are now being extended till 31st December 2021: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after 45th GST Council meeting pic.twitter.com/maJCZwwxnI ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 17, 2021 09:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, September 17: The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have kept the rates of petrol and diesel unchanged on September 17, Friday. This marks the 12th consecutive day when the fuel prices have remained unchanged in the metro cities. The prices of fuel have reached sky-rocketing heights in the recent past with the prices of petrol crossing the Rs 100-mark in several cities across the country. Reports inform that the GST council may consider taxing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products under single GST regime. In Delhi, the petrol price stands at Rs 101.19 per litre and the diesel price at Rs 88.62 per litre on Friday.World May See Peak of Petrol, Diesel Demand by 2035 but Not in India, Says Oil Ministry Official. As the prices of petrol and diesel remain constant for the twelfth day in a row in Mumbai, the petrol is being sold at Rs 107.26 per litre in the city on Friday. While the price of diesel stands at Rs 96.19 per litre on Friday, September 17. The price of petrol in Mumbai breached the Rs 100-mark on May 29 this year and has remained above it since then. Fuel Under GST? Council May Consider Bringing Petrol, Diesel Under Goods And Services Tax. Check Prices Of Petrol & Diesel In Metro Cities On September 17, 2021 Here: City Petrol Price Diesel Price Delhi Rs 101.19 Rs 88.62 Mumbai Rs 107.26 Rs 96.19 Kolkata Rs 101.62 Rs 91.71 Chennai Rs 98.96 Rs 93.26 On Friday, the price of petrol in Kolkata stands at Rs 101.62 per litre. Diesel is being sold at Rs 91.71 per litre in the capital city on West Bengal on Friday, September 17. The prices of diesel and petrol have remained static for twelfth day in a row across the metros. In Chennai, the prices of petrol and diesel stand at Rs 98.96 per litre and Rs 93.26 per litre on Friday, September 17. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 17, 2021 09:26 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Texas Governor Greg Abbott walked back on his decision to shut down border crossings on Thursday, nearly six hours after announcing the movement, blaming President Joe Biden and his administration. The Texas governor's actions came as thousands of migrants from Haiti await their entry into the United States. READ NEXT: Mexico Blocks Migrant Caravan Headed to U.S. Border On Thursday, Abbott issued a statement blaming President Biden and his administration for the confusion that occurred. The governor explained that the Biden administration has turned to a different border strategy, at least six hours after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sought the help of Texas in closing the ports of entry into the United States. UPDATE: Governor Abbott has released a new statement saying the federal government initially reached out to Texas to help with closing points of entry at the border, but reversed their decision six hours later, and flip flopped to a strategy that abandons border security. pic.twitter.com/IZHe1fbu8x Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 16, 2021 Abbott then blasted the administration, saying that the move was abandoning the "border security" and permit illegal crossers and cartels to exploit the U.S. borders. "The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan," Abbott underscored in the statement. Despite walking back on closing the border crossing, Abbott highlighted that he designated the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard around the port of entries to control the crossings. Texas Governor Closes Border Point of Entries Abbott's designation of personnel from the state's Department of Public Safety and National Guard came after he issued the closure of six ports of entry from Mexico into the United States earlier on Thursday. In a separate statement, Abbott mentioned that he directed the lone star state's Department of Public Safety and National Guard to close the six ports of entry along the southern border to stop the migrant caravan that is overrunning Texas. Abbott also called the border crisis "dire" because the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sought their help as their agents were overwhelmed by the chaos. "The sheer negligence of the Biden administration to do their job and secure the border is appalling," Abbott stressed in a statement, pointing out that Texas remains committed to securing the border and protecting Americans. It was not the first time Governor Abbott issued a border measure to curb the illegal migration within the U.S. It can be recalled that the Texas governor authorized the National Guard to arrest individuals who illegally cross the borders. He also raised funds to complete the construction of the border wall. Number of Migrants Under Texas Bridge Grew to 8,0000 The closure of the six points of entry stemmed out as the number of migrants under the international bridge located in Del Rio, Texas grew to more than 8,200 from 4,200 overnight. It can be recalled that the said migrants were reported to wait for the apprehensions after crossing illegally into the United States. NEW: Another stunning image from our @FoxNews drone team showing the situation at the international bridge in Del Rio, TX, where a law enforcement source tells me there are more than 8,000 migrants waiting to be processed by Border Patrol after crossing illegally into the U.S. pic.twitter.com/opey70NBNt Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 16, 2021 Law enforcement officials confirmed that the crowd of migrants under the bridge was mostly from Haiti and more people are joining the group every minute. READ NEXT: President Joe Biden Slams Florida and Texas Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott Over Pandemic Response This article is owned by Latin Post Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Gov. Greg Abbott Discusses Border Situation - From KPRC 2 Click2Houston Former U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed his support to the arrested Capitol rioters, who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to stop the certification of the win of U.S. President Joe Biden in the 2020 elections. Trump has released a statement before a rally planned on Saturday in Washington, protesting their treatment, according to a Washington Post report. The former president said in a statement that their hearts and minds are with the people being "persecuted so unfairly" in light of the January 6 protest about his so claimed "rigged presidential election." Trump added that justice will prevail in the end. Capitol rioters had committed more than 1,000 assaults against police officers during the insurrection, as prosecutors noted. Trump earlier noted before the Capitol riot that he would join them on their march to Congress to "show strength," according to an Axios report. He also appeared in a video message, claiming that that the election was stolen from them before telling his supporters to go home. READ NEXT: Donald Trump Campaign Paid Over $4.3 Million to Capitol Riot Organizers Before the Jan. 6 Event: Report Justice for J6 Rally The Department of Homeland Security had informed law enforcement agencies that they are aware of a "small number of recent online threats of violence" in light of the upcoming Justice for J6 rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday. There were also online discussions encouraging violence on the day before the rally, according to a CBS News report. Temporary fencing has been put up around the U.S. Capitol as a precautionary measure, with the Capitol Police requesting the National Guard Quick Reaction Force to be on standby near the Capitol. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger urged people seeking trouble to just stay at home. Manger noted that they will enforce the law and not tolerate violence. Meanwhile, rally organizer Matt Braynard said in an email that there is no possibility of violence from their peaceful protest. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he thinks the law enforcement partners are much better prepared than things were before. Capitol Rioters Arrested Federal prosecutors have charged more than 500 Capitol rioters who participated in the January 6 insurrection. The arrests were made in more than 40 states, with apprehensions continuing almost daily, according to a USA Today report. However, many rioters were allowed to walk free on January 6, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation asking the public's help to identify people who took part in one of the most documented crimes in the country. Out of the arrested, only 58 federally charged rioters have entered guilty pleas so far, according to an Insider report. FBI agents are going through video footage, social media posts, and phone location data. Authorities are seeing an increase in the number of people charged for the insurrection. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has created a committee to probe the Capitol riot, with Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger being the only Republicans in the panel. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that GOP would create its own investigation panel. READ MORE: Pres. Joe Biden Says He Does Not Care if People Think He's 'Satan Reincarnate' After Expressing Support On Bipartisan Probe of Capitol Riot This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Police Bring Fencing Back To Capitol Hill Ahead Of 'Justice For J6' Rally - from NBC News Officials from France on Thursday canceled a gala celebrating the French and U.S. relations over President Joe Biden's submarine deal with Australia. The cancellation was confirmed by an official from France. The gala, "240th Anniversary of the Battle of the Capes," was scheduled on Friday at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. and a French Frigate in Baltimore. The said gathering was meant to celebrate the French navy's aid to America's fight for independence in 1781, The Hill reported. Following the snub, France's top naval officer who went to the United States to celebrate the French-U.S. relations will travel back to Paris early. READ NEXT: "Persecuted Unfairly": Former Pres. Donald Trump Expresses Support for Arrested Capitol Rioters French Officials Called Pres. Joe Biden's Submarine Deal With Australia a "Stab in the Back" The cancellation of the celebration for the French-U.S. relations happened after a new tri-lateral security partnership between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia was announced on Wednesday, to help Australia combat the Chinese aggression in the region. The alliance also plans to launch an 18-month review on how Australia can best obtain nuclear-powered submarines, ending the country's $90 billion deal with France to replace their aging submarines. Apart from the nuclear-powered submarines, the three countries who forged alliances would also discuss and trade information on technological advancements in certain areas, including artificial intelligence and long-range strike capabilities. "It's really a stab in the back. We had established a relationship of Trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed," French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian said in a radio interview on Thursday. Le Drian added that he was "very angry and bitter" about the alliance of the three countries, contending that the movement was not supposed to be done by allies with each other. The French foreign minister also said that the move also reflects the "sudden and unforeseeable decision" that former President Trump did when he was exasperated with Europe. Meanwhile, E.U.'s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell expressed his disappointment on Biden's alliance between the U.K. and Australia, contending that he was not made aware of the alliance, and he was only informed through the media. "This alliance we have only just been made aware and we weren't even consulted," Borrell said, adding that he assumed that the alliance was not brought together overnight and was worked for quite a while. Jen Psaki Says Pres. Joe Biden to Speak with French President Emmanuel Macron Despite the anger and snub French officials expresses, White House press secretary Jen Psaki underscored on Thursday that the United States still values its relationship with France. Psaki went on saying that President Biden was scheduled to talk with French President Emmanuel Macron "soon." However, the press secretary did further on the details of the said meeting. When asked about how French officials compared President Joe Biden to former President Donald Trump, the White House Press Secretary underscored that the chief executive "doesn't think about it much," adding that Biden is focused to maintain the nation's relationship with France, U.K., and Australia. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also assured France on Thursday, saying in his remarks after he met with Australian foreign and defense ministries, that France is U.S.' vital partner. READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Backs Gen. Mark Milley Amid China Secret Phone Calls Allegations This article is owned by Latin Post Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Jen Psaki Defends Australia Sub Deal and Says US Values France - From Daily Mail Republican Sen. James Risch has questioned State Secretary Antony Blinken about a rumor that someone on the White House staff has the "mute button" and cuts President Joe Biden off mid-sentence during speeches. Risch claimed that somebody in the White House has authority to press the mute button and stop Biden mid-sentence, asking "who is that person," according to The Guardian report. Blinken had tried to restrain his laughter over the senator's question during a hearing that was meant to probe on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The state secretary noted that the president speaks very clearly and very deliberately for himself, adding that no one does. The senator replied by saying that it has been widely reported that there is someone who has the ability to push the mute button and cut off the president from speaking. Blinken answered and said that there is no such person. READ NEXT: State Secretary Antony Blinken Confirms Some Evacuated From Afghanistan As Child Brides Mute Button Over President Joe Biden In March, the Republican National Committee had tweeted that a White House feed was cut off to avoid Biden from answering questions, according to a Washington Post report. The right-wing Twitter part was enraged. However, Biden answered questions from House members, with it not being intended to be in public. The said Q&A session was planned to be "closed press." Fox News anchor also took a jab on the "mute button" issue, asking if they are now to the point that they are controlling when the president ends his speaking. Meanwhile, CNN's Chris Cuomo had shed light on the issue and noted that it was "the mic falling off," adding that it was planned. Live feeds end before the event does, as usual when it comes to covering the president's speeches, according to a KTVB report. Afghanistan Senate Probe Meanwhile, Blinken is facing bipartisan anger and criticism over the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sen. Bob Mendez noted that the execution of the evacuation was clearly and fatally flawed, according to an Aljazeera report. Mendez added that the committee would pursue a "full explanation" of the administration's decision on Afghanistan. The Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee also said that the administration fell short of its stated goal of leaving a "durable political arrangement" in the war-beaten country. The Taliban took control of the country's capital before the U.S. could fully evacuate the country. The city's airport had seen a crowd of people wanting to leave Afghanistan. In addition, a suicide bombing attack occurred which left at least 175 people killed, including 13 U.S. service personnel. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. Risch also called the withdrawal a "dismal failure" further accusing the Biden administration of "ineptitude." The Senate probe also highlighted the possible challenges for Biden in negotiating with the Taliban. Mendez said that he plans to call U.S. military officials to testify on the probe of the Senate committee. READ MORE: Sen. Mitch McConnell Says Pres. Joe Biden Won't Be Impeached Over Afghanistan, Says Hold Him Accountable at 'Ballot Box' This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Antony Blinken chuckles as Republican senator makes Joe Biden mute button claims - from Guardian News A federal judge on Thursday barred the Biden administration from utilizing the Trump-era policy Title 42, to expel migrant families outside the United States. The said order was ruled by District Judge Emmet Sullivan from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The ruling that will take effect 14 days after the ruling will prevent the Biden administration to rapidly expel migrant families who crossed the U.S. borders with minors and children. Although the said ruling prevented the administration from using Title 42 against migrant families, New York Post reported that the order does not prohibit the current administration from utilizing the Trump-era policy to expel single adult migrants. Under Title 42, the U.S. is allowed to expel migrants over COVID-19 concerns. Furthermore, the said policy also allowed U.S. officials to send migrants back to Mexico, without having the chance of seeking asylum or other protection in the United States. READ NEXT: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Backpedals on Order to Shut Down Border Crossing; Says Pres. Joe Biden Abandoning Border Security Judge Blocks Biden Admin From Using the Trump-era Policy on Migrant Families In the ruling, Judge Sullivan emphasized the reason why the court banned the Biden administration from using the Title 42 policy on the borders against migrant families. Sullivan explained that COVID-19 transmission during border processing cannot be mitigated amid the wide availability of vaccines, testing, and other minimization processes. Sullivan also argued that the said "decade-old public health law" does not give rights to the current administration to expel migrant families or people from other countries. Moreover, the federal judge also contended that rapid expulsions can be endangering the lives of some of the migrant families by denying them the right to seek asylum and sending them back to their countries where they fear persecution. Sullivan's ruling came as the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant rights organizations resumed a lawsuit in August, challenging the Title 42 policy. The said lawsuit was filed under the Trump administration. It can be recalled that immigrant rights experts contended that Title 42 does prohibits the rights of people to apply for asylum, even though international and federal law permits individuals coming into the U.S. to seek asylum. It was not the first time Sullivan attempted to combat the rapid expulsion. In November, the federal judge prevented the federal government from expelling unaccompanied minors. However, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed his ruling in January. Expelled Migrant Families Under the Trump-Era Policy On August 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended Title 42. It can be recalled that the agency first issued the policy under the Trump administration in October. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that the policy would be in effect until their agency determined that the danger against COVID-19 is will no longer put endanger public health. Since August, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 16,000 migrant families expelled by the U.S. Meanwhile, more than 70,000 migrant families were permitted by the Biden administration to enter the United States. However, the number of migrant families expelled fell since July, as the Mexican government allegedly stopped the U.S. to expel families from Central America into their country. READ NEXT: USCIS New Rule: Migrants Applying for U.S. Citizenship Must Show Proof of COVID Vaccines This article is owned by Latin Post Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: 'Anyone Who's Saying That Title 42 Is About Public Health Is Absolutely Wrong.' - From MSNBC House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a jab at the GOP and former President Donald Trump during an event with British university students in the Cambridge Union. Pelosi urged the Republican Party members to "take back" their party from the Trump supporters, who hijacked GOP, according to a Daily Mail report. The house speaker also claimed that the party is being held hostage by a "cult." She also continued to talk about the former president when she was asked about the two impeachment proceedings that she started against Trump in 2019 and 2021. Pelosi added that if Trump wants to run again for the presidency, he would be the first president who was impeached twice and defeated twice. The Democratic House speaker explained that the lawmakers had no choice when it came to impeaching the former Republican president. Pelosi said that Trump had acted in a way that was in violation of the Constitution while undermining national security and causing questions on the integrity of the elections. Pelosi added the GOP had done wonderful things for the country and have to take back their political party, according to an Insider report. She then went on and said it was the Senate's "cowardice" for not voting to remove him. READ NEXT: Donald Trump Eyes Presidential Race 2024, Says He Doesn't Have a Choice "Trump Should Be Arrested" Pelosi had recently told Gen. Mike Milley that Trump was a "dictator" and "should have been arrested on the spot" after the Capitol riot on January 6. Pelosi went on to say to the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman that Republicans "have blood on their hands" for allowing the former president's claims about his ability to stay in office, according to a book, as reported by the CNBC. The book mentioned was entitled "Peril", which was written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book claimed that Milley had believed that the Capitol riot was planned and a coordinated attack that was created to overthrow the U.S. government. "Peril" also noted that Milley feared that even after the insurrection, Trump might still conduct a "Reichstag moment." It was a reference to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler having absolute power in Germany after burning the country's Parliament building in 1933. The book further claimed that Milley told Pelosi that there was no chance that the president or any other president can launch nuclear weapons illegally without proper certification. He then held a meeting with senior officers of the National Military Command Center to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons. The book wrote that Milley told the officers that the president is the only one that could order such use; however, he reminded them that he must be involved in those decisions being the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Former Vice President Mike Pence was also cited in the book, with the authors having written that Pence had contacted then-Vice President Dan Quayle to talk about the pressure he was feeling from Trump to block now-President Joe Biden's victory. READ MORE: Sen. Mitch McConnell Says Pres. Joe Biden Won't Be Impeached Over Afghanistan, Says Hold Him Accountable at 'Ballot Box' This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Pelosi: 'Cowardly Group of Republicans' Allowed Trump's Acquittal - from MSNBC Academy Award winning actress Angelina Jolie went to the White House on Wednesday to discuss with officials the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. According to Socialite Life, Jolie, who also visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday, briefly made an appearance at the White House press briefing room. Angelina Jolie Visits the White House Angelina Jolie spoke with reporters and emphasized the need to reauthorize the Clinton-era Violence Against Women Act. "I feel like I walked into a press conference. I've had good bipartisan meetings, so that's encouraging. It feels just like it should feel, feels very serious," the actress told the reporters. Angelina Jolie also told reporters of the need for reforms in domestic violence cases and how judicial and law enforcement officials treat women and children. "It is a health crisis... And it is going to be solved if we look at it as helping families," the actress noted. In a statement, Jolie's representative said the actress would be discussing the rights of women and children and families health with the White House, Senate, and Department of Justice officials. In her meetings, the spokesperson noted that Angelina Jolie will talk about the importance of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization, "FBI reforms, judicial training, and health equity including non-biased forensic evidence collection." READ NEXT: STRUUM Honors the Victims and Heroes of 9/11 With Specially-Curated Titles Angelina Jolie Supports Reauthorizing Violence Against Women Act Jolie's spokesperson noted that Angelina Jolie, a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy, visited Washington D.C. for a two-day meeting with the White House, Senate, and Department of Justice officials. The 46-year-old actress also met with White House press secretary Jen Psaki, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield and Jen Klein, the co-chair of the Gender Policy Council, CBS News reported. Psaki offered no further details about her visit other than her tweet confirming they had met. Psaki tweeted about the meeting with the actress, whom she said was "tireless and committed" when it comes to advocating for the rights of women and children. Psaki added that Angelina Jolie discussed the importance of the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act during their brief meet. The Violence Against Women Act, which created programs and support in response to the experienced domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking of women, expired more than two years ago. Despite the House's vote to reauthorize it in March, the Senate has not taken any action about it. The Oscar award-winning actress was again spotted at Capitol on Wednesday. She met the U.S. gymnasts testifying to tackle the improper investigation in the Larry Nassar case. On Tuesday, Angelina Jolie thanked officers who defended the Capitol from protesters who stormed their way during the January 6 assault. READ MORE: Social Media Users Mock Prince Harry, Meghan Markle's Time Magazine Cover for 100 Most Influential People of 2021 This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: Angelina Jolie Met with White House Officials - From Latest News An alleged "drug kingpin" associated with the Sinaloa cartel has been arrested for leading a network that trafficked cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin from Mexico to Alaska, authorities said on Wednesday. Miguel Baez Guevara, 38, a U.S. citizen living in Mexico, was arrested by Mexican immigration authorities in Sonora, Mexico on September 10 and deported to the U.S. Drug Trafficking from Mexico to Alaska The U.S. Attorney's Office for Alaska said Guevara faces 17 criminal counts related to his leadership role in trafficking drugs from Mexico to Alaska. The alleged drug kingpin pleaded not guilty in federal court in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday. Prosecutors said he would remain detained in Arizona pending his transfer to Alaska. An indictment against Miguel Baez Guevara said his organization started importing heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine directly from Mexico to Alaska in 2016. The indictment noted that Guevara's group specifically targeted Alaska because they could sell the drugs at a higher rate due to the state's distance from the supply in Mexico. The indictment was handed down in February and unsealed Wednesday. Guevara's charges include engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, also referred to as the "kingpin statute," drug conspiracy, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine, and three firearms counts. READ NEXT: Gunmen Stormed a Hotel in Mexico and Kidnapped 38 Guests, Including 22 Foreigners The Mexican Drug Kingpin Guevara's indictment and arrest were part of an "ongoing, largescale drug trafficking investigation," which resulted in the indictment of 23 people who have already pleaded guilty to charges. Acting U.S. Attorney for Alaska Bryan Wilson said the "kingpin statute" was enacted to reach the top brass in drug trafficking organizations. Wilson noted that it specifically targets large-scale profit-making enterprises involved in the illegal importation, manufacture, and distribution of controlled substances. "A conviction carries a mandatory life sentence," he said. Sinaloa Cartel Connection Miguel Baez Guevara has claimed membership and association with the Sinaloa Cartel operating in Sonora, Mexico. According to the indictment, Guevara's group recruited drug couriers who lived in Alaska via social media and encrypted messaging applications. The couriers were promised money or drugs in exchange for traveling to Mexico to get the drugs. Each courier would carry about 250 grams of narcotics back to the U.S. After several days of waiting in Arizona, the couriers were flown to Alaska. Street-level dealers in Alaska then contacted Guevara, who coordinated the sale between his Alaska workers and the local dealer. The Sinaloa cartel is among the most powerful drug-trafficking syndicates in the world. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is the most well-known Sinaloa cartel leader. In 2019, El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment in the U.S. But even with El Chapo in jail, the notorious drug cartel shows no signs of slowing down. READ MORE: Border Agents Save Abandoned Migrant Children on the Banks of the Rio Grande This article is owned by Latin Post Written by: Jess Smith WATCH: Inside the Sinaloa Cartel's Fentanyl Pipeline - From ABC News The status of key building projects that could create valuable jobs in Laois through multi-million investment involved has been raised with Government departments, the Gardai and Irish Prison Service. Sean Fleming TD, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, says he has has had detailed discussions with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to advancing two of projects in Portlaoise as part of the update of the new National Development Plan (NDP). At least one, the overhaul and expansion of Portlaoise's Garda HQ, was promised to be delivered in the existing NDP but it expires in 2021. The new NDP is expected to be published in October. Details plans have been drawn up for the project but money has never been released. The old building would be refurbished with and a new linked building constructed. A Defence Forces construction project at town's prison complex is linked to the redevelopment. Two sets of plans had to be drawn up - the most recent of which were published in late 2020 by the local gardai and the Office of Public Works. Minister Fleming says he has taken the matter up with Garda HQ in Dublin. "I have spoken directly with all concerned to ensure that the new Garda Siochana Divisional Headquarters in Portlaoise is fully supported and funding made available in the new National Development Plan. This new Divisional Headquarters will be for counties Laois, Offaly and Kildare. This project is essential to ensure we have adequate modern policing facilities available throughout the region," he said. Minister Fleming did not say in his statement what responses he received but he did publish the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in respect to Garda HQ. It said spending under the new 2021-25 National Development Plan will be a matter for the specific government dpeartments. It added that improvement works are a matter for Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in the first instance as to how the work will be prioritised within a capital budget. Minister Fleming was also told that the Department of Justice has advised that the Gardai are reviewing their investment programme from 2022-2030 based on money allocated up to 2025. It added that the redevelopment of Portlaoise station remains 'a top priority' for the gardai. Another long promised project is a new Courthouse for Portlaoise. A site has been purchased near County Hall but no work has taken place. The Fianna Fail TD says he has also raised the matter. "I have also specifically had discussions to prioritise a new Courthouse in Portlaoise. A site has been acquired and I have requested priority be assigned to this in the new National Development Plan. This is an important new facility for Portlaoise, as through the years many people have complained about the inadequate space and the location of the existing Courthouse on the Main Street in Portlaoise," he said. Another project on the backburner is the upgrade of Ireland's high security jail which houses gangsters and paramilitaries. Minster Fleming claims he has also tried to push this along. "I have also been in touch with the Department about completing upgrade works in Portlaoise Prison. This is the only high security prison in the State and many of the facilities are over 100yrs old and need to be upgraded at this time," he said. Comment has been sought from the Department of Justice, the Gardai, the OPW and the Irish Prison Service. Abbeyleix will be the hub of an initiative which will see conservation experts from across Europe be based in Laois. The Natural Climate Buffer study tour takes place during the last week of this month. It will seen up to 20 wetland conservation and restoration practitioners from across Europe staying in Abbeyleix from Sunday, 26 September until Wednesday, 29 September 2021. The Abbeyleix Bog Project says they will be joined by Irish wetland and peatlands experts, representing non governmental organisations, community groups, government agencies, consultants, and academic institutions. The study tour includes a visit to active wetland and peatland restoration sites during the first two days. These sites are Cabragh Wetlands (Thurles, Co Tipperary), Scohaboy Bog (Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary), Clara Bog (Co Offaly) and Abbeyleix Bog (Co Laois). On Wednesday morning the participants will take part in a facilitated workshop to reflect on lessons learnt from the site visits. They will also discuss how wetlands, as nature-based solutions for climate action, can be promoted and actively acted upon. Green Party Ministers of State Pippa Hackett and Malcolm Noonan will attend the Wednesday workshop in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel. Garry Luttrell, Acting Chair, Abbeyleix Bog Project, is looking forward to the event. "Abbeyleix Bog Project are delighted to host such an international event. Its a great endorsement of all the rehabilitation work going on at Abbeyleix bog and the amenity it provides. Further supported by the expected attendance of Minister Noonan and Junior Minister Hackett," he said. The study tour is an initiative of the Eurosite Wetlands and Climate Change working group. It is hosted by the Community Wetland Forum in Ireland with support from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the EPA. Eurosite - The European Land Conservation Network - provide networking, capacity building, training, information, advocacy, and awareness raising services for conservation practitioners all over Europe. The study tour is supported by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage of the Government of Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency, and made possible with the financial support of the European Union. Hosting the event is just reward for the Abbeyleix Bog Project which saved the Killnamuck bog more than 20 years ago. Since then countless hours of restoration work has been carried out by volunteers. They have also made the bog accessible to visitors making it an popular amenity for Laois people as well as visitors and tourists. Natural Climate Buffers are areas where natural processes are given space. As a result, they evolve with climate change, adapt to it and can play a vital role in retaining and collecting water (preventing floods or water shortages), tempering heat and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Healthy peatlands can function as Natural Climate Buffers, and are one of the most important habitats in Ireland, for carbon, climate and people; a fact which is increasingly recognised through investment, community action and political support. Ireland now hosts a vibrant peatland restoration network, across LIFE funding streams, the investment of carbon tax revenues and direct government support. Aside from the unique biodiversity this protects, these efforts are promoting a Just Transition from peat harvesting, whilst ensuring that community dividends accrue, whether in the form of boardwalks, diversified employment, or mitigation of the long-term effects of climate change. Previous tours took place in Scotland and the Netherlands. More here A Kildare politician has criticised an Independent TD who voted in favour of Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney during a no-confidence motion. Cllr Fiona McLoughlin-Healy, who is also an Independent politician, shared an image on Twitter which appears to imply that Cllr Cathal Berry was hypocritical for supporting Minister Coveney: How it started vs How its going https://t.co/02cTjibqdY pic.twitter.com/GPgQpD9kpr Fiona McLoughlin Healy (@fionamacky) September 16, 2021 When asked for a comment on this tweet, Cathal Berry informed The Leinster Leader that he was unable to see the tweet as he has been blocked by Cllr McLoughlin-Healy on Twitter. Despite this, he said: "(I have)no idea what the tweet says and no interest in finding out either." "Sounds like just an internal spat between a former and current member of FG (Fine Gael)." He added: "Whatever the history between herself and Minister Coveney, its none of my business." Cllr Berry was among a number of TDs who voted in favour of Simon Coveney, including Richard O' Donoghue, Marian Harkin and Michael and Danny Healy Rae. Mr Berry previously told the Dail that he has "no hesitation" in voting in confidence for Minister Coveney. He said: "I do it for one reason and one reason only: earlier this year, Minister Coveney committed to implementing the findings of Commission of Defence, which is scheduled for submission in a few weeks time." "I very much am looking forward to seeing Minister Coveney still being in office so I can hold him personally to account in that regard." Cllr Berry added that the people he represents do not want another Minister of Defence, as they "need action and they need it now, because our armed forces are in crisis." He pointed to Minister Coveney's response to the recent crisis in Afghanistan following the takeover of the Taliban: "Minister Coveney has proven that he can act decisively when required; he deployed Irish troops to Afghanistan only a few weeks ago to save dozens of Irish lives." He concluded: "That is precisely the metal and resolve we need to see from the Minister, or from any Minister, when taking the structural issues in our military from December and beyond." Cllr Berry admitted that he did have one reservation about Minister Coveney, saying that he believes that the Minister is spending more time on foreign affairs than defence, as a result of holding two Ministerial positions. "Your troops don't need to see you in New York: they need to see you in Newbridge." However, he stressed once more that he has confidence in Minister Coveney and asked him to take his advice on board. Research from Maynooth University (MU) appears to show that many low income farmers may be exempt from receiving a state pension. The findings are the result of a study titled "Exploring state pension provision policy for the farming community", which was jointly conducted by both MU and Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority. The study used hypothetical case farms to explore the issue. Dr Michael Hayden, a lead researchers on the study alongside Dr Bridget McNally, told The Leinster Leader: "In our paper, we examined the state pension policy for farmers using some hypothetical case farmers which reflect the make-up of typical farm household arrangements in Ireland." "We found that many Irish farmers find themselves in a situation at retirement age where they fail to qualify for the full State Pension Contributory or the State Pension Non-Contributory, and therefore remain financially dependent on farming income in retirement." Dr Hayden pointed to arguably the most concerning point of the study: that many young farmers appear to be experiencing issues concerning their PRSI contributions. He explained: "This is because many farmers fail to meet the necessary PRSI contributions to qualify for the State Pension Contributory and based on means testing rules many farmers fail to qualify for the State Pension Non-Contributory if they have farm assets (land) in their ownership, which is best described as an asset rich cash poor conundrum." Although the study used hypothetical case farms, Dr. Hayden maintains that it delivered accurate results: "We do consider this issue to affect tens of thousands of farmers." "For instance, there are approximately 137,500 farmers in Ireland, with one third of them aged over 65 and one third of them considered to be small farms with low incomes." He continued: "Without a viable retirement income provision, older farmers are not in a position to transfer farms to the next generation; this has huge consequences for Generational renewal in the agricultural industry and the sustainability of rural Ireland." "We argue that agricultural policy makers need to have a dual focus, whereby they create initiatives and mechanisms to support younger farmers to enter the industry but also create mechanisms to support and encourage older farmers to retire." "This pension rules can also pose major challenges for farmers spouses, partners and children (potential successors) who work on the farm but cannot make PRSI contributions for pension entitlement unless a formal legal partnership arrangement exists. Therefore, quite often when they come to retirement, they also fail to qualify for the State Pension Contributory." "The Pension System needs to be updated to overcome this scenario by bringing younger farmers within the PRSI fold from the earliest possible date so that they build up their pension entitlement and are not forced to work into their old age. Likewise, spouses and partners who work fulltime on the farm should be facilitated in building up their PRSI entitlement." He said that his overall recommendation from the study is for farmers to pay their way by making PRSI contributions, and for mechanisms to be put in place by the State Pension System which would allow farmers to qualify for the State Pension Contributory. Dr Hayden concluded that despite his concerns, he ultimately believes that the future for younger farmers does look bright, while acknowledging that there are some challenges for the industry, such as the uncertainty of CAP reform and export markets, and climate change: "There are lots of opportunities for younger farms to explore in farming at present and I believe that there is a generation of younger farmers coming through that are well equipped to grasp those opportunities, provided that policymakers put in place appropriate measures to support them." A Kildare Senator has revealed that Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told her that the drug Patisiran will now be available for use in Ireland. Senator Fiona OLoughlin has revealed that she was delighted to learn that her campaign to support Newbridge local Pat Tinsley and others with hATTR (Amyloidosis) has been successful with the announcement that Patisiran will be available for use in Ireland from the 1st of October. The Fianna Fail Senator said: "I have long advocated for our local friend Pat Tinsley to gain access to this rare drug to treat his Amyloidosis." "I was thrilled when in July, after much negotiation with Minister Stephen Donnelly, he contacted me to say that he and the HSE had approved Patisiran for use and the rollout of this vital drug was imminent in Ireland." She added: "I fundamentally believe, and I always have that everyone has an equal right to healthcare, and that the rarity of your condition should not be a determining factor in your treatment." "Therefore, todays announcement that Patisiran will be available to patients in Ireland from the 1st of October is most welcome." Senator O' Loughlin continued: "I am delighted to see that Minister Donnelly, his officials and the HSE fulfilled on their commitment to me to expedite its availability in Ireland." "This is great news for Pat and for others who suffer with Amyloidosis. I am delighted with this announcement, and I wish all those who suffer with Amyloidosis, including Pat the very best of luck." Pat Tinsley previously gained media attention last year when he campaigned for Patisiran to be given the green light from the HSE. A petition signed by over 4,000 people, including Senator OLoughlin and Minister of State Martin Heydon TD, made the rounds last year in aid of Mr Tinsley's cause. According to hattrguide.com, Amyloidosis (hATTR) is a systemic disorder characterized by the extracellular deposition of misfolded transthyretin (TTR) protein. Normally, this protein is a tetramer made up of 4 single-chain monomers. TTR gene mutations are thought to destabilize the protein and cause tetramer dissociation into monomers, which aggregate into amyloid fibrils. These amyloid fibrils then accumulate in multiple organs throughout the body. It is estimated that only 30-35 sufferers from this rare but deadly and debilitating disease in Ireland. A systems failure at the Ballymore Eustace water treatment plant in Kildare 'potentially put public health at risk', Irish Water said in a statement Friday evening. The Ballymore Eustace plant treats a major portion of Dublin's drinking water, as well that of as north County Kildare, which is supplied from the Poulaphouca reservoir. The incident happened on Friday, August 20. According to Irish Water, "the coagulation dosing system in Ballymore Eustace water treatment plant partially failed. The event occurred out of normal business hours. The Cryptosporidium barrier, and to a lesser degree the disinfection barrier, were temporarily compromised. The resultant incident was not initially reported to Irish Water but came to light on investigation of consequential issues at the sludge facility, 12 days after it occurred." Irish Water says it immediately consulted with the HSE once the incident came to light, but as it had passed "immediate public notification was not required". The Environmental Protection Agency was also notified of the incident. The Ballymore Eustace plant was audited on September 9 with the EPA, HSE, Irish Water and Dublin City Council, which runs the site, in attendance. Irish Water said it is carrying out a review of the incident. It has also increased its presence at Ballymore Eustace "to review the escalation and response protocols". It also said that refresher training is being provided by the Irish Water compliance team to plant engineers and supervisors on how and what water quality incidents should be notified to Irish Water. The Kildare incident is one of two recent water treatment plant failures revealed by Irish Water this evening. An issue at the Creagh plant serving Gorey in mid-August left several members of the local community ill. Eamon Gallen, general manager, Irish Water, said: Irish Waters priority is to protect public health. In both these incidents Irish Water and our partners in the Local Authorities fell short of the standards we set ourselves. We operate a service level agreement where both Irish Water and our partners in the Local Authorities are required to follow all guidelines to ensure drinking water incidents are immediately reported to the EPA and HSE. In both instances, late notification to Irish Water of issues relating to the disinfection process at the plants, potentially put public health at risk. "Irish Water has engaged again with all Local Authorities on the need to report incidents to allow for timely risk assessments to protect public health. In Gorey and Ballymore Eustace, working with the Local Authorities, additional measures have been put in place to ensure public water supplies are safe to drink. Irish Water is currently engaging via the Workplace Relations Commission with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Local Authorities and Trade Unions as part of talks to create a Single Public Utility (SPU). This incident underlines the importance of creating a SPU where service delivery is controlled and managed by one organisation. "It is critical that the SPU be progressed as a matter of urgency to transform how water services are structured and delivered. This is the necessary step required to build a world class public water utility and Irish Water is committed to continuing our engagement with all stakeholders through agreed mechanisms and forums in the coming months. A judge has criticised the delay identifying illegal drugs so that prosecutions can take place. At a Naas District Court sitting on September 15 Judge Desmond Zaidan referred to a seven month delay in analysing the substance at the heart of one case. He said a grada sniffer dog could immediately identify the presence of a drug yet Forensic Science Ireland is, in many cases, taking lengthy periods to confirm the identities of drugs found. Read more Kildare news He was speaking as Sgt Jim Kelly sought an adjournment of a case because a certificate from FSI was not before the court. While FSI analyses the actual drug, the gardai use a system of assessing the street value of individual drug finds. My court cannot be used to protect the State, said the judge, noting that in this case it has taken seven months for a cert tobe issued. The garda sniffer dog would do it in seconds, he added. He also said that representations should be made to the Department of Justice about the hold-up. St Kelly replied that the issue is out of my hands and he cannot proceed with the case without the cert. Judge Zaidan conceded to an adjournment but indicated he will consider striking the matter out if the State is unable to proceed next time. A Senator from Kildare has defended President Michael D Higgins' decision to turn down an invitation to an event in Northern Ireland. President Michael D Higgins has attracted controversy from Unionists for declining an invitation to a religious service in Northern Ireland next month, on the grounds that it is political in nature and commemorates the "centenary of the partition of Ireland." In a post on her official Twitter account, Senator Fiona O' Loughlin said: "Listening to John Bruton on Claire Byrne Live. I was never clearer as to why Im in Fianna Fail and not FG (Fine Gael)." She added: "President Higgins is absolutely correct in not accepting invitation to commemorate partition on the island of Ireland," including the hashtag #truerepublicanvalues at the end of her post. Listening to John Bruton on @ClaireByrneLive I was never clearer as to why Im in @fiannafailparty and not FG. @PresidentIRL is absolutely correct in not accepting invitation to commemorate partition on the island of Ireland. #truerepublicanvalues Senator Fiona OLoughlin (@Fiona_Kildare) September 17, 2021 John Bruton, who is a former FG Taoiseach, also echoed similar comments on air that the President should reverse his decision to BBC Radio Ulster, and claimed that the President appeared not to have sought the advice of the Government "as he is obliged to do under the Constitution." Earlier this week, Fiona O' Loughlin notably made headlines when she hit out at a controversial Irish Mail on Sunday article criticising her dress sense, as well as the dress sense of other members of Fianna Fail at last week's party outing in Cavan. Another prominent politician, Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney, has also recently claimed that his Department "didnt give any clear advice" to President Higgins about an invitation to the event. Families and childcare providers in Leitrim need to see leadership from their elected representatives, they need to see that politicians are taking the childcare investment crisis seriously. Thats the message Early Childhood Ireland, the leading organisation in the early years sector, is sending to Leitrim TDs as they return to Dail Eireann following the summer recess. The organisation is calling on the Government to meet the commitment in the national early years strategy, First 5, to double investment in childcare by 2028 and to publish a plan showing how this will be achieved as part of Budget 2022. Early Childhood Ireland supports 36 childcare members in Leitrim and 3,900 nationwide, who in turn support more than 120,000 children and their families. The organisations members have contacted their local representatives in recents weeks to raise serious concerns about staffing and sustainability as employees leave this sector for better pay and working conditions in other sectors. And today as the Dail reopens, the organisation has written to every TD, seeking their support for a clear plan to reform the early years and after-school care system. Commenting today, Frances Byrne, Director of Policy with Early Childhood Ireland, said: Childcare providers in Leitrim have lived with uncertainty and insecurity for too long, as have the sectors 30,000 staff and the families they serve. In recent months, weve seen that insecurity grow as the country emerges from the pandemic. This simply cannot go on. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the Government recognised the unique challenges faced by the childcare sector because of historic under-funding by introducing specific supports such as a bespoke Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme which, even as the rest of society is showing signs of recovery, continues to support more salaries in childcare settings than in any other sector. By providing additional funding, the government has recognised childcare as an essential public service and we sincerely hope that will not be forgotten about in the upcoming budget. Budget 2022, which will be announced in the Dail in just four weeks, must build on this and establish a multi-annual funding and reform plan, which values early years and after-school care as much as primary and secondary education. Ms. Byrne said that Ireland currently spends just 0.1% of GDP in early years, the lowest investment of any developed country, according to the OECD. The Government has committed to reforming the childcare sector and introducing a more sustainable funding model, but the last Budget offered no progress. Budget 2022 must deliver a roadmap to this promised reform of the sector. Providers, staff and families cannot face into another year with this uncertainty hanging over them. The government and every member of the Oireachtas need to prioritise the delivery of a quality care and education system to young children and their families. A BLUE-CHIP Limerick company has announced an extension to its premises at the National Technology Park in Plassey. Johnson and Johnson, which employs more than 1,300 people locally, is seeking planning permission from the local authority to extend its vision-care factory in Limerick. According to an application just lodged with the local planning authority, the firm is seeking one two-storey and three single-storey extensions to the existing building, where contact lenses are produced. Alongside this, a waste storage yard will be constructed, with a covered enclosure to one side. Storage containers will also be erected should Johnson and Johnson get the planning green light. It's been a busy year for the company, which back in March secured approval from the European Medicines Agency to market its single-shot vaccine against Covid-19 across thr 27-member bloc. If the expansion in Limerick goes ahead, the development will take place at the firm's combined products building. Local planners are expected to make a decision by November 4 next. THE scenes in Croke Park on Saturday when Tyrone players went over to their supporters was like deja vu for Limerick fans apart from the white jerseys and red shorts. Three weeks earlier the All-Ireland hurling champions did a lap of honour too. It is not unusual for Limerick players to stay on the field long after the final whistle to sign autographs and pose for photos. This wasnt possible in Croke Park due to Covid and the strange meshing stewards put up. But after giving their all on the pitch they still wanted to give more back to fans lucky enough to be in Croker. This photo captures Kyle Hayes throwing sliotars into the crowd. He was one of many players to give a priceless memento from the day. Ger OConnell, kitman, left Limerick with two holdall bags full of sliotars that morning. He arrived back in Pallasgreen with a lot less. I had between 300 and 400 sliotars going up. When they run onto the field for the warm-up you lose between 30 to 40 straight away. They go into the crowd and wont come back. After the warm up finishes they are picked up and collected and taken back to the sideline, explained Ger. Those sliotars cant be bought in shops. They are ordered through the respective county boards. And a new order will have to be put in by Limerick. When the final whistle blew it was just an outpouring of emotion. All ages came down to the side of the pitch. They wanted something to take home as a memento. The bag of sliotars was there. Young fellows are always looking for sliotars. It took off from that and the lads started throwing them into the crowd. You hate to say no to them. Socks were even thrown in! smiled Ger. Once a holdall was empty, county secretary Mike ORiordan gave the order to get the second bag which was in the dressing room. Kyle Hayes, William ODonoghue, Dan and Tom Morrissey, and more werent long emptying it. It just took off. It was nice to see it, said Ger. One man who might not be too happy is Nickie Quaid. In a piece in the Irish Examiner he revealed that he is so paranoid about sliotars that he spends a couple of weeks before a big game storing good sliotars away like a squirrel would set aside their best nuts. And the man tasked with minding those nuts is Ger. The first bag I sort out and put on the van is Nickies. He likes ones with narrow rims. Nickies sliotars are precious. A good few of them were saved so Ill have them when we start back again, said Ger. Few witness Ger arriving in his van first to get ready for the players training on a winters night in Rathkeale or LIT Gaelic Grounds. But the glory days like August 22 in Croke Park dont happen without him or his kind. Two men have been granted bail after they appeared in court charged with the murder of Lyra McKee. Gearoid Peter Cavanagh and Jordan Devine both appeared via video link at Derry Magistrates Court charged with the murder of the 29-year-old journalist. The incident occurred during clashes between police and rioters following searches in the Creggan area of the city on April 18 2019. Both defendants were charged with murder, possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger life, riot, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs and arson. When asked if he understood the charges, Cavanagh responded that they were 'ridiculous'. The prosecution said that Cavanagh had been observed at the Saoradh office earlier in the day and alleged he had thrown three petrol bombs during the course of rioting. They said he had acted as a steward for the gunman on the night in question and had been involved in the hijacking of a van which was later found burnt out. Defence for Cavanagh said identification of the defendant from CCTV images and other footage from the incident was impossible and questioned the competence of a firm used by police to help identify suspects. The court heard how the defendant had denied on 32 occasions during police interview that he was the individual shown on the footage to escort the gunman. Bail of 750 was granted to Cavanagh, with a cash surety of 25,000 offered by the defendant's parents. A 9.00pm curfew was also imposed and he is to be monitored by electronic tag. 21-year-old Jordan Devine, of Synge Court, Derry, spoke only to confirm he understood the charges put to him. The prosecution said Devine had been observed outside the Saoradh offices on Chamberlain Street in the city earlier in the afternoon on the day of Lyra McKee's murder. They alleged Devine was an individual captured on footage encouraging the gunman by punching the air, throwing a missile, and then tidying up items on the ground around the scene. Prosecution also claimed the defendant had thrown around 12 petrol bombs during the course of the rioting, and that he had also been involved in hijacking and burning a van. Defence for Devine said they also had concerns about the company used to carry out identification on suspects in the case, and said there was 'zero sustainable evidence'. The court heard police had been in possession of the evidence for almost two and a half years and described the quality of the evidence as 'poor'. The court granted Devine his own bail of 750 with a surety of 750. He will also be subject to a 9.00pm curfew and be monitored via electronic tag. A further 20-year-old defendant, Joe Campbell, of Goshaden Cottages, Derry, was charged with riot, possession of petrol bombs and throwing petrol bombs. He spoke only to confirm he understood the charge and police opposed bail due to a likelihood of re-offending. However, the judge said he had been 'at liberty' for over two years without leaving the country, and said the risk of further offending was 'existential'. He granted bail at 750 with a cash surety of 2,500 to reside at Goshaden Cottages. He was forbidden from entering the city and a 9.00pm curfew was imposed. Campbell is to have no contact with his co-accused throughout the bail period. The prosecution indicated they would appeal the granting of bail for all defendants, who will appear in court again on October 7. IRISH Water has failed miserably and should be disbanded, Fine Gael councillor John Sheahan declared this week. There was a shambles made setting it up, he argued, and politicians buckled. The Glin-based councillor also called for a review of the service agreement made between Irish Water and Limerick City and County Council. We would be better off on our own, he said. At least, Limerick council staff answered phone calls from councillors when issues arose. If you ring or email Irish Water you might as well be ringing the North Pole. Some responses come back a week after but water is something you need every day. And he called for a better system of communication. Once the people know the water was going off." Cllr Sheahans comments came after he was informed that a new borehole is to be drilled for the Glin water supply but the residents there will have to wait until 2025 before a sewerage treatment plant is in place. The commitment was welcomed by Cllr Sheahan who said he was heartened to hear it but noted that Irish Water had not put in for planning permission as yet. Glin, he pointed out, was one of 43 towns and villages in the country where effluent was going into watercourses. The Shannon, he said, was at risk of becoming one of the biggest septic tanks in the world. The existing borehole in Glin has been failing for some time, Cllr John Sheahan said this week, and the reservoir has been under pressure. I hope that will be done sooner rather than later. The problems with interrupted supply to a number of areas in Glin would also be addressed, he was told at this months meeting of the Newcastle West Cllr Liam Galvin agreed Irish Water should be disbanded but argued that Irish Water was underfunded and councillors were getting the blame. The underinvestment has to lie fair and square with the government, he said and he wanted that message to go to Irish Water, to the government and to Limericks TDs. Councillors phones never stopped ringing during the summer heatwave as householders across West Limerick were left without water or had their water supply constantly interrupted, he said. It has been nothing short of shambolic. It is simply not good enough that you can go and turn off a water supply, declared Cllr Liam Galvin at this months meeting of the Newcastle West Municipal District. But, he added: Bad and all as the drought was, the after-effects with burst pipes and burst mains was unbelievable. Something has to be done. The buck has to stop somewhere. I am not prepared to take responsibility for the shambles. There should be a system, similar to the ESB where people are notified if supply is being cut, he argued. Cllr Francis Foley agreed that the technology exists to be able to do that. I cant understand why there is such a problem with water, we have so much rain in this country, commented Cllr Tom Ruddle. Irish Water dont have to take any of the flak. Work is taking place this week boost water pressure which is expected to improve the supply in Old Mill and Ballyine, he was told. TVS Motor Company announced a partnership with EGO Movement as a majority shareholder, in an all-cash deal through its Singapore Subsidiary TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd. EGO Movement is a Swiss technology company providing mobility solutions through a portfolio of e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, and e-scooters. It has an omnichannel network across Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany with plans to expand across Europe. Speaking on the occasion, Sudarshan Venu, Joint Managing Director, TVS Motor Company, said, The partnership with EGO Movement reaffirms TVS Motor Companys commitment towards electrification and the broader sustainability agenda. We are building a strategic personal e-mobility ecosystem by scaling unique brands which share our vision of delivering compelling customer experience benchmarks through cutting-edge, aspirational products. EGO Movement has a strong presence in Europe with customer-centric products, a unique omnichannel network and a visionary team at its helm. Together, we will address global urbanisation by delivering unique e-mobility solutions with e-bicycles and mobility across a diversity of forms." Venu further added, It is also an important milestone in our journey to grow our presence in Europe, with the Norton Motorcycles acquisition last year and now the launch of the personal e-mobility platform." Co-founder and CEO of EGO Movement, Daniel Meyer, commented As a Swiss based strongly mission-driven company, we are excited to be teaming up such a highly respected global partner and industry leader. Our team is fully committed to taking the company to the next phase. We are confident that together with TVS Motor Company, we will be able to create more value for all partners and customers of EGO Movement focusing on further growth by following our mission of a greener way of e-mobility." EGO Movements products provide an ergonomic design that allows for an upright sitting position. In addition it gets features such as a USB port on the removable lithium-ion battery and an LED light that automatically switches on at dusk. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. are among technology giants lining up to harness data from Indias farmers in an ambitious government-led productivity drive aimed at transforming an outmoded agricultural industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration, which is seeking to ensure food security in the worlds second-most populous nation, has signed preliminary agreements with the three U.S. titans and a slew of local businesses starting April to share farm statistics its been gathering since coming to power in 2014. Modi is betting the private sector can help farmers boost yields with apps and tools built from information such as crop output, soil quality and land holdings. Jio Platforms Ltd., the venture controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries Ltd., and tobacco giant ITC Ltd. are among local powerhouses that have signed up for the program, the government said this week. With the project, Modi is seeking to usher in long-due reforms to make over a farm sector that employs almost half of the nations 1.3 billion people and contributes about a fifth of Asias third-biggest economy. The government is counting on the projects success to boost rural incomes, cut imports, reduce some of the worlds worst food wastages with better infrastructure, and eventually compete with exporters such as Brazil, the U.S. and the European Union. For global firms, its a stab at Indias agritech industry, which Ernst & Young estimates to have the potential to reach about $24 billion in revenue by 2025, with the current penetration being only 1%. Its also a chance to deploy networks, artificial intelligence and machine learning in a developing country, while for e-commerce firms such as Amazon and Reliance, securing a steady stream of farm produce could help crack a groceries market that accounts for more than half of the $1 trillion in annual retail spending by Indians. This is a high impact industry and private players are sensing the opportunity and want to be a large part of it," said Ankur Pahwa, a partner at consultancy EY India. India has a very high amount of food wastage because of lack of technology and infrastructure. So theres a huge upside to the program." The idea is simple: Seed all the information such as crop pattern, soil health, insurance, credit, and weather patterns into a single database and then analyze it through AI and data analytics. Then the goal is to develop personalized services for a sector replete with challenges such as peaking yields, water stress, degrading soil and lack of infrastructure including temperature-controlled warehouses and refrigerated trucks.Under the agreement, the big tech companies help the government in developing proof of concepts to offer tech solutions for farm-to-fork services, which farmers will be able to access at their doorstep. If beneficial, firms would be able to sell the final product to the government and also directly to growers and the solutions would be scaled up at the national level. So far, the government has seeded publicly available data for more than 50 million farmers of the 120 million identified land-holding growers. Some of the local companies that have signed up include Star Agribazaar Technology, ESRI India Technologies, yoga guru Baba Ramdevs Patanjali Organic Research Institute and Ninjacart. But success is far from guaranteed. The plan to rope in big corporations is already drawing fire from critics, who say the move is yet another attempt by the government to give the private sector a greater sway, a development that could hurt small and vulnerable farmers. The program may even add fuel to the protracted protests Modis government has been struggling to tackle for more than nine months after controversial new agricultural laws riled up some farmers. With crucial state elections due in 2022, it may get tougher to sell the technology-to-help-agriculture plan to a farming community already suspicious of the governments intentions. With this data they will know where the produce wasnt good, and will buy cheap from farmers there and sell it at exorbitant prices elsewhere," said Sukhwinder Singh Sabhra, a farmer from the northern state of Punjab, who has been protesting since November against the new farm laws. More than the farmers it is the consumers who will suffer." Technology adoption is still at a nascent stage in India, said Apeksha Kaushik, principal analyst at Gartner. Limited availability of technology infrastructure and recurring natural phenomena like floods, droughts have also worked against the deployment of digital solutions," she said. Anxiety over data privacy could be another challenge. Abhimanyu Kohar, a 27-year-old farmers leader, who has been supporting the protesting farmers, said its a serious issue." We all know the record of the government in keeping the data safe," he said. Despite the hurdles, a few one-year pro bono pilot programs are already underway. Microsoft has selected 100 villages to deploy AI and machine learning and build a platform. Amazon, which has already started offering real-time advice and information to farmers through a mobile app, is offering cloud services to solution providers. Representatives at the India offices of Microsoft and Amazon didnt respond to emails seeking comment. Star Agribazaar, whose co-founder Amit Mundawala calls the project a game changer," will collect data on agri land profiling, crop estimation, soil degradation and weather patterns. ESRI India is using geographic information system to generate data and create applications, according to Managing Director Agendra Kumar. Once you have the data, you can correlate with on-ground reality and improve your projections, take informed decisions and see which regions need policy intervention," said P.K. Joshi, former director for South Asia at Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute. A similar data-driven system implemented in the southern state of Karnataka last year helped increase efficiency in delivery of government benefits, said Rajeev Chawla, the states additional chief secretary. Some bank loans have even been made to farmers using the centralized data, and all government programs, verification for insurance and loans and minimum support price are being routed through the mechanism, plugging leakages and eliminating frauds, he said. Besides the tech giants, many smaller companies and startups are likely to join the program. When completed the project will form the core of a national digital agriculture ecosystem to help farmers realize better profitability with access to right information at the right time, and to facilitate better planning and execution of policies, according to the governments consultation paper on digital agriculture. How this exercise will translate into action or lead to higher production and farm income, that remains to be seen," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Care Ratings Ltd. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. NEW DELHI : The central government is sympathetic to states fiscal woes but a decision on extending the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation beyond 2022 is unlikely soon given the fiscal constraints, several people said. At Fridays GST Council meeting in Lucknow, states and the central government will review their revenue position as well as demands from states for GST compensation beyond 2022 but there is no clarity on how this will be financed. We are sympathetic to states fiscal concerns and are exploring ways to augment their revenue by administrative means including by correcting tax anomalies so that thenala financial position of states improve. We will decide on GST compensation as things pan out," said a person privy to the Centres views on the subject without committing anything on extension of GST compensation for an extended period. Kerala finance minister K.N. Balagopal told Mint that several state governments have sought a full five-year extension of GST compensation beyond 2022. We are seeking continuation of GST compensation in its present form for another five years. We are looking forward to a positive outcome," said Balagopal. A state government official, who is privy to Centre-state discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that a decision on extending GST compensation beyond 2022 was unlikely on Friday. The Constitutional and legal requirement for compensating states for GST revenue shortfall for five years ends in 2022. The GST cess is already committed for several years beyond 2022 (to finance the debt raised to pay part of the GST compensation requirement in FY21 and FY22). To finance GST compensation beyond 2022, there has to be a source of revenue and there is no clarity on that," explained the official. The focus would be on augmenting revenue collections to improve state finances, the person said. Extending GST compensation in its current form means states protected revenue for computing the compensation amount goes up by 14% annually from the FY16 base year. Any gap between this protected revenue and what is actually collected by the states has to be compensated by the Centre. Finding resources for this would be a big task. The Kerala FM also did not find any merit in bringing petrol and diesel within the ambit of GST at this juncture. We prefer the taxation of petrol and diesel to continue in the present form," Balagopal said. A Kerala high court order in June on a public interest litigation seeking inclusion of petrol and diesel in GST had given rise to expectations that the autofuels could be included in the new indirect tax regime. However, this could mean central and state governments sacrificing their revenue receipts from these products at a time both are facing fiscal pressures. Judicial pronouncements are placed before the Council but a change in taxation of petroleum products is unlikely soon. The Council is expected to extend tax relief granted to certain covid-19 related medical supplies till December-end. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Maharashtra, the country's second-most worst affected state from coronavirus, has 5 districts that contributed 70% of Covid cases in the state in the past week. The five districts include--Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Sangli, and Satara. Yesterday, the state registered 3,595 cases, of which 2,668 (74,21%) cases came from the aforementioned five states. Mumbai added 446 new cases, Solapur logged 241 new cases, Ahmednagar reported 618 new cases, Pune added 898 fresh infections, Satara added 236 cases and Sangli district added 229 fresh cases. On the other hand, eight districts - Dhule, Nandurbar, Amravati, Washim, Yavatmal, Wardha, Gondia and Chandrapur (rural areas) and four municipal corporations - Malegaon, Dhule, Jalagaon, and Amravati (urban centres) did not report any fresh Covid-19 cases Maharashtra has 49,342 active cases in the state. Out of the total active cases, Ahmednagar accounts for the highest active cases at 6,575, followed by Pune (13,507), Thane (7,226), and Mumbai (5,589). Maharashtra's Covid-19 recovery rate stands at 97.06% while the fatality rate is 2.12%. The cumulative number of coronavirus tests conducted in the state climbed to 5,65,29,882 after 1,68,793 samples were examined in the last 24 hours. There are 2,89,425 people in-home quarantine and 1,908 in institutional quarantine in the state. The state also saw 3,240 discharges in the last 24 hours. . Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! A British study will look into the immune responses of children to mixed schedules of different Covid-19 vaccines as officials try to determine the best approach to second doses in adolescents given a small risk of heart inflammation. Children aged 12-15 in Britain will be vaccinated from next week, while those aged 16-17 have been eligible for shots since August. However, while the children will be offered a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, officials have said that advice about second doses will be given at a later date, while more data is gathered. Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) initially declined to recommend shots for all 12- to 15-year-olds, citing uncertainty over the long-term impact of myocarditis, a rare side effect of mRNA-based vaccines such as Pfizer's. The heart condition typically resolves itself with mild short-term consequences, health experts have said. Hong Kong has advised children only get one shot, owing to similar concerns over heart inflammation. The study, called Com-COV3, will test different vaccine schedules in 12- to 16-year-olds, looking at the immune responses and milder side-effects. "The concern here is about the risks of myocarditis, particularly with the second dose with Pfizer vaccine in young men," the trial's lead researcher, Matthew Snape of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told reporters. "This will provide the JCVI with information crucial to informing their advice about immunising teenagers in the UK," he said. The trial will give all participants a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. That will be followed eight weeks later by either a second full dose or a half dose of the Pfizer shot, a full dose of Novavax's vaccine or a half dose of Moderna's shot. The trial is recruiting 360 volunteers, not large enough to directly assess the myocarditis risk of the different combinations, which Snape said was 1 in 15,000 after two doses of the Pfizer shot in young men. But, he added, it "would be reassuring to see if there was a lower inflammatory response after one of these changes compared to Pfizer (followed by) Pfizer," and that it might be "reasonable to infer that the risks of myocarditis might be lower" in such an instance. Snape is running another arm of the trial in adults, giving mixed vaccine schedules both four and 12 weeks apart, and comparing the responses. He said the results of that would be coming "very shortly". (Reporting by Alistair Smout Editing by Bill Berkrot) This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!! Click here to read the full article. Clara Rugaard, a Sundance sensation for her performance I Am Mother, and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, star of Coda and Sing Street, headline Love Gets a Room, a Warsaw Ghetto-set romantic musical drama directed by Rodrigo Cortes (Buried, Red Lights). Shot under the radar in order to magnify impact nearer to release when theaters return, said its producer Adrian Guerra, Love Gets a Room is produced and financed by Guerras Nostromo Pictures, with Lionsgate International handling international rights and CAA representing U.S. rights. Top Spanish independent A Contracorriente Films will release the film in Spain theatrically at the end of the year. Written by German bestseller writer David Safier (Bad Karma, 28 Days) and Cortes, the film captures a group of actors as they perform in the heart of the Warsaw Ghetto, in a life or death context on a run-down stage, Love Gets a Room, a real-life musical comedy that was written by playwright Jerzy Jurandot, a Polish Jew, and performed by a group of actors in the winter of 1942 at the Femina Theater in Warsaw. Safier discovered the existence of the original work and wanted to honor that beautiful achievement made by a group of actors now forgotten in the middle of the blackness, Guerra told Variety. The text of the play that is represented in the film is the original, as it was performed in 1942. The lyrics of the songs have survived, with the music for the film being composed in the tradition of the musical theater of that time. All the songs have been shot live and the sound of the original takes has been used, without playback. Told in real time as Rodrigo Cortes acclaimed Buried Love Gets a Room engulfs the audience in an emotional adventure to discover a side of history never before told on film, Guerra said. This pictures all kinds of artists (actors, musicians, writers) still performing, under the most unlikable circumstances, only to save their sanity, to stoke the art they deeply love, to engage in a civilizing, humanity-affirming exchange, he added. Love Gets a Room captures Cortes on a roll, after the publication of his second novel, The Extraordinary Years, written in the great Spanish tradition of the absurd which became one of the unexpected literary hits this summer in Spain. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. WASHINGTON A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who worked for Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign, for allegedly making false statements to the FBI about research he shared regarding a supposed connection between Donald Trump and a Russian bank. The indictment comes out of the years-long investigation by John Durham, a federal prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department during Trumps presidency to probe the FBIs own investigation into connections between Donald Trump and Russia. Sussmann worked as a partner at Perkins Coie, a prominent law firm that has represented many Democratic campaigns as well as the Democratic National Committee. According to the indictment, Sussmann met with the FBIs top lawyer in the fall of 2016 and presented the bureau with research about a possible trail of digital evidence showing communications between a company once owned by Trump and the financial institution Alfa Bank. During that meeting, the indictment alleges, Sussmann lied about the capacity in which he was providingallegations to the FBI. The indictment says Sussmann came to the FBI seemingly as a concerned citizen and not on behalf of a client. But later, Sussmann would testify under oath before a House committee that he was in fact representing a client when he provided his Trump-Alfa Bank research to the FBI. Sussmanns lawyers told the New York Times this week that Sussmann had committed no crime and that any prosecution based on a false-statement charge would be baseless, unprecedented and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work. Sussmanns bio page is no longer accessible on the Perkins Coie law firms website. In the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign, the Trump-Alfa Bank story was one of the more mysterious dramas to play out in the media. National news outlets published stories with headlines like Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia? and detailed explanations of DNS traffic, all of it straining to answer whether a Trump business had maintained a digital backchannel with Alfa Bank. But none of the stories conclusively established a direct connection, and the Alfa Bank saga faded from view. Durhams new indictment, however, adds a new dimension to the Trump-Alfa Bank story. The indictment reveals in great detail how in the final months of the 2016 campaign Sussmann, an unnamed tech executive, and a group of unnamed cyber-researchers pursued the Trump-Alfa Bank story, took their research to the FBI, and distributed that research to the media. The critical meeting between Sussmann and FBI General Counsel James Baker took place on September 19, 2016. The indictment says that Sussmann stated falsely that he was not acting on behalf of any client, which led Baker to believe that Sussmann was conveying the allegations about Alfa Bank as a good citizen and not as an advocate for any client. Sussmann did not mention the Clinton campaign, whom he later billed for the FBI meeting, or the unnamed tech executive who had helped him compile the research on Alfa Bank, the indictment says. The FBI went on to open an investigation into Alfa Bank. But it did so without the knowledge that Sussmann was in fact acting on behalf of his clients, which included Hillary Clintons campaign. Had Sussmann been more forthcoming, the indictment says, it might have prompted the FBI General Counsel to ask Sussmann for the identity of such clients and might have caused the bureau to take additional or more incremental steps before opening and/or closing an investigation. The indictment is the most high-profile action by the Durham investigation since then-Attorney General Bill Barr named Durham a special counsel (the same role Robert Mueller had in his Trump-Russia investigation) in October 2020. Durhams only other criminal referral was for an FBI lawyer who later pleaded guilty to doctoring evidence in a surveillance application targeting Carter Page, a 2016 Trump campaign adviser. It is unclear how long Durhams investigation will continue. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Durhams final report expected to be long and detailed, with few sweeping conclusions, according to sources familiar with Durhams work. Click here to read the full article. In one of the more effective scenes in Copshop, a hitman, played with psychotic geek gusto by Toby Huss (rocking a Ben Davidson mustache), strolls into a desert police station in Nevada carrying a bouquet of birthday balloons. He kills several cops, and he ends up walking down a hall blasting away with a snub-barreled submachine gun that spits out bullets with raw fire at a door made of bullet-proof glass. (He figures if he fires enough shots, he can crack it open. And he does.) Behind the door stands Officer Valerie Young (Alexis Louder), flecked with beads of grace-under-pressure sweat as she tries, like someone in a countdown-to-the-apocalypse thriller, to reset the password that will allow her to enter the adjacent room. The director, Joe Carnahan, cuts between the bullets blazing and the password resetting, and the gonzo ballistic relentlessness of it all isentertaining. Copshop, in its down-and-dirty way, doesnt always make up its mind about what it wants to be: underworld character study, cat-and-mouse thriller, screw-it-all action fantasy. The film takes its title from the Gun Creek police station, where just about the entire thing takes place. Its the rare movie police station that looks like a corporate office two-tiered and cushy, with the cops seated at spacious desks under high concrete ceilings, and some color and design beneath the fluorescent lights. But the heart of the action unfolds in the station jail, where there are two big cells right across from each other. The two men in those cells Teddy Murretto (Frank Grillo), a criminal fixer who just struck a deal with the Feds, and Bob Viddick (Gerard Butler), the Mob hitman who has been assigned to kill him both got themselves locked up on purpose. Facing off, they rag on each other, exchanging occasional acrid bits of philosophy, almost like characters in an old Western. After making her escape, Officer Young joins them, having accidentally shot herself in the abdomen. I like the idea of a prison hang-out movie (Rio Bravo is one of my favorite films), but the defining quality here is that the characters honestly hate each other. Copshop is a scuzzbag Rio Bravo that turns into a hyper-violent video game. Husss jabbering psycho, who also has the worst scene in the movie (his falsetto rendition of Teddys Dead, sung to the tune of Freddys Dead), has teamed up with Huber (Ryan ONan), a lumbering, bearded dirty cop, and the movie is kind of about these two trying to bust into the jail so that they can kill everyone else. But its really about how the other three take their place in the hierarchy of good and evil. Butler is, of course, playing a hitman with a heart of gold. He establishes that by the icy accuracy with which he sizes up the sleaziness of Grillos character, and also by the definitiveness of his physical force. Butler has gone beyond bruiserhood in Copshop, hes like the human version of a Mack truck. Grillo makes his duplicity double-edged (Teddy will sell you out, but has a way of finding good reasons to do it), and Alexis Louder, who starts out very by-the-book, turns out to be holding her power under wraps. As an actor, she has a concentrated mindfulness and daredevil flair you could imagine her playing Angela Davis, or maybe Grace Jones. Carnahan, who did good work earlier this year directing Boss Level, has always had a true talent. But as he demonstrated all the way back when he made Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane for about 75 cents, he thrives on a certain level of artful convolution. In Copshop, hes working too hard to create convolution where there is none. What you may enjoy along the way are the little touches: the deranged fillips of Husss performance, the way that Carnahan hones in for a small eternity on Louder spinning the chamber of her gun just before she delivers the coup de grace. Reviewed online, Sept. 16, 2021. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 108 MIN. Production An Open Road Films release of a Sculptor Media, Zero Gravity Management, G-Base, WarParty, Raven production. Producers: James Masciello, Joe Carnahan, Frank Grillo, Mark Williams. Tai Duncan. Executive producers: Robert Simonds, Adam Fogelson, John Friedberg. Crew Director: Joe Carnahan. Screenplay: Kurt McLeod, Joe Carnahan. Camera: Jon Billington, Juanmi Azpiroz. Editor: Kevin Hale. Music: Clinton Shorter. With Gerard Butler, Frank Grillo, Alexis Louder, Toby Huss, Chad Coleman, Ryan ONan, Jose Cantillo, Kaiwi Lyman, Robert Walker-Branchaud. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Over four decades of acting, Richard E. Grant had never done drag until he was cast in the new feature Everybodys Talking About Jamie, premiering Sept. 17 on Amazon. Grant plays Loco Chanelle, a mentor to young Jamie (Max Harwood), a 16-year-old who dreams of becoming a drag queen. But what exactly is Richard E. Grants drag look? It was hard hitting the right note, says the films hair and makeup designer, Nadia Stacey. His drag needed to be old-school British working mens club drag, and not as seen on RuPauls Drag Race and modern. Once she nailed it, the transformation took 90 minutes, including the application of leopard-print nails and gluing down eyebrows. His wig was sprayed with starch so it wouldnt move, she notes. The first time Stacey and makeup artist Guy Common put Grants look together, the actor was facing away from the mirror. We didnt let him see it, and when he saw himself for the first time, [the reaction] was brilliant, Stacey says. For Harwoods transformation, Stacey turned to MAC Cosmetics, which she had used for another recent makeup-heavy film, Disneys Cruella. MAC is such an accessible product. I believed a boy in Sheffield could get hold of it, she says of her decision to rely on its bold and vibrant colors. Glitter, shimmers and high sheen were key to Harwoods drag transformation. He represented a younger drag style, Stacey explains someone who watched Instagram videos and RuPauls Drag Race. Based on a true story, Everybodys Talking About Jamie was a West End musical before being adapted to film. Jamie had platinum blond hair onstage, and Stacey wanted to keep it that way since audiences were familiar with the look. But that meant bleaching Harwoods brunet locks throughout the shoot. The biggest challenge was to not break his hair, she says. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Whether hes posting fake pregnancy photos or courting controversy with eye-popping visuals, Lil Nas Xs mastery of viral marketing is peerless. In some ways, however, the music has felt like an afterthought. On his debut album, Montero, Nas corrects that oversight. He digs deeper lyrically, opening up about the loneliness of growing up gay and his struggle for self-acceptance, and spreads his wings musically. The 22-year-old deftly pivots from hip-hop to pop, even sprinkling in some jangly guitars, with a little help from famous friends including Elton John, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and Miley Cyrus. Montero, which also happens to be Nas birth name, is at its best when he gives us a glimpse of the man behind the memes. Dead Right Now, a raised middle finger to doubters and fair-weather friends, documents the dizzying leap of faith he made to drop out of college and pursue a music career. Instead of gloating or bragging, common themes in hip-hop, Nas expresses genuine hurt at the people who did him wrong. The moody Tales Of Dominica, which boasts some of Take a Daytrips nimblest production, finds the Grammy winner in full Sad Boy mode. Finally grown, aint nothing like I hoped it would be, he sing-raps dejectedly. Out on my own, Im floating in an oceanless sea. Nas is even more vulnerable on Sun Goes Down, one of the albums pre-release buzz singles. These gay thoughts would always haunt me, I prayed God would take it from me, he declares over deceptively upbeat, pop-leaning beats. Dont wanna lie, I dont want a life. The hitmaker reveals that money and fame havent taken the edge off those dark thoughts on Void. Falling somewhere between Coldplay and Frank Ocean, this ranks as one of the records most experimental and achingly honest tracks. Its too many ups and downs on the ride, Nas laments. Im spendin all them dark months of time trapped in the lonely, loner life. For an artist that has conquered the rap world, Nas proves to be surprisingly adept at pop. Heartache and hooks rule supreme on Thats What I Want, a toe-tapper with massive radio appeal. Need a boy who can cuddle with me all night, he begins, before declaring that hes ready for love on the chorus. It dont feel right when its late at night and its just me in my dreams, he chants over jangly guitar and zippy synths, so I want someone to love. Equally effective is the 80s-influenced Lost In The Citadel. Essentially a breakup anthem, the song shows his softer side. I need time to get up and get off the floor, I need time to realize that I cant be yours, he sings to an ex. I need time to give up just like before. Loneliness is also the central theme of Dont Want It and Life After Salem. Not that Montero is necessarily all heavy going. While Nas tackles meaningful issues, sharing his inner turmoil, hes equally focused on streaming-friendly bangers. Lead single Montero (Call Me By Your Name), which ranks as one of the most defiantly queer chart-toppers of all time, is the ultimate earworm on the album, but a couple of collaborations give it a run for its money. Co-produced by Kanye West and featuring Jack Harlow, Industry Baby holds its own, as does the Doja Cat-assisted Scoop. With its immediate chorus and litany of hooks, this is a safe bet for a future single. Dollar Sign Slime, a collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, isnt quite as catchy, but the explicit, sex-positive lyrics make it a prime candidate for one of the breakout stars all-conquering viral videos. Significantly tamer is One Of Me, which boasts a cameo from Elton John albeit as a pianist. Previewed on his Instagram page way back in 2019, the melodic banger hasnt lost any of its crossover appeal as its picked up its instrumental Elton assist. And given that Nas broke big with the Old Town Road remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, theres a pleasing symmetry to him closing Montero with Miley Cyrus featured appearance on Am I Dreaming. Their voices combine admirably on the folk-leaning ditty, but this feels like more of a diary entry than a potential single. With its genre-stretching approach and refreshingly honest exploration of love and loneliness, Nas reminds us that hes a musical force to be reckoned with. Perhaps more importantly, Montero hints that the rapper is ready to give voice to the fears and longings of a generation of queer kids. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Rihanna and Patti Smith are the two newest ambassadors for Germany-owned luggage brand Rimowa. They join other bold-faced names such as LeBron James and Roger Federer in the companys Never Still campaign, which debuted today. The campaign, which dropped alongside the Never Still Bag Collection, consists of four individual films designed as a creative exploration of how travel has changed amidst the pandemic. Each video follows the personal travel perspectives of the four creative powerhouses. Rihannas film, shot by Gary Sorrenti and directed by Rihanna herself, showcases the artist and business moguls solitary and still lifestyle since the pandemic hit. When everything is minimized, you see whats important, she reflects at one point during the video. Smiths video, on the other hand, is an ode to New York Citys resilience throughout the last year, with shots of Fifth Avenue where she posed for her album cover of Horses, and Jimi Hendrixs Electric Lady Studios, where she recorded Rimowas voice-overs. Smiths own poem Never Still, which she wrote for the campaign, voices over a score by Jamie xx. When we could not travel physically, I was grateful for the imagination, allowing me to travel where I wished, Smith says in her film. I was able to write, study and rethink my priorities but I continually longed for action, to be on the move and now I am grateful to step back into the world. Of course, Rimowas luxury bags are front and center of the campaign, which is the first drop from Rimowa to feature pieces that arent strictly travel luggage. The Crossbody Flap Bag, large Tote Bag and line of backpacks represent the campaigns always-on-the-go messaging, and is part of the LVMH-owned companys overall move towards other product categories. Here are the best pieces from the drop: Crossbody Flap Bag Crafted out of durable canvas and full-grain leather, this crossbody bag serves as a stylish companion for anyone with a fast-paced lifestyle. It features adjustable straps, a main compartment secured with Rimowas signature lock and an outside zip pocket for easy access to daily essentials. Plus, it comes in three gorgeous colorways to choose from based on what goes best with your own closet. BUY NOW: $940 Buy It Tote Bag With a roomy main compartment and removable zipped pocket, Rimowas tote bag is a necessity fo anyone whos constantly on the go for work. Not only does it feature a sleek, boxy design perfect for any setting, but its engineered with an innovative double handle system that allows you to switch back and forth from using it as a shoulder, tote or handbag. BUY NOW: $1,260 Buy It Messenger The Messenger bag, which Rihanna styles in her campaign shots, is the most fashion-forward piece in the collection. A large two-way zip compartment and an outside pocket makes it easier than ever to keep all your essentials close by without sacrificing style. Plus, the Messenger is emblazoned with the coordinates of Rimowas historic home in Cologne, making it one of the more special pieces in the collection. BUY NOW: $770 Buy It Trunk Plus The Trunk Plus isnt part of Rimowas Never Still Collection but its one of the most popular pieces in the luggage brands inventory. The red suitcase, which Rihanna poses with throughout the campaign, features Rimowas distinct trunk-like shape, finished with a bright red gloss. Aside from an elegant design, the trunk offers travelers optimum capacity while remaining ultra-lightweight. BUY NOW: $1,120 Buy It Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Sovereign Film Distribution has acquired U.K. and Ireland rights to El Gran Movimiento, which won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival Horizons strand. Sovereign is planning a theatrical release in 2022. Following its world premiere at Venice, the film will be screening at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it is nominated for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize, and also at the New York Film Festival in late September. Bolivian writer-director Kiro Russos El Gran Movimiento (The Great Movement) follows a young man who arrives in the big city after a seven-day walk, where his persistent ill health sees him seek alternative methods of rejuvenation. The film explores the collision of nature and urbanization. Russo said: I wanted to make a film about La Paz, with characters who could provide a singular point of view upon the city. I found these characters in Elder, a young miner, and in Max, a tramp whose peculiar positions in the society allowed me to observe the city as a whole, to see its systems, architecture and changes. Freely inspired by their lives, I imagined this story of illness and healing to take us into the heart of the social fabric of this city and reveal the lives of its invisibles. The cast includes Julio Cezar Ticona, Max Bautista Uchasara, Francisca Arce de Aro, Israel Hurtado and Gustavo Milan. Russos debut feature Dark Skull (2016) played 80 festivals and won numerous awards including at Locarno and Cartagena. Sovereign CEO Andreas Roald said: El Gran Movimiento is a striking film, atmospheric and profound, from a truly unique and original artist. Sovereign is thrilled to support writer/director Kiro Russos talent and bring his film to U.K. and Irish audiences. El Gran Movimiento is produced by Kiro Russo and Pablo Paniagua at Socavon Cine, Alexa Rivero at Altamar Films, in association with Dan Wechsler at Bord Cadre films, Andreas Roald at Sovereign Films, Jamal Zeinal-Zade, Miguel Angel Penaloza, and the Doha Film Institute. World Sales are handled by Belgian outfit Best Friend Forever. Sovereign, which specializes in distributing auteur-driven feature films, recently acquired Radu Judes Berlin Golden Bear winner Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Kirill Serebrennikovs Cannes competition title Petrovs Flu and Apichatpong Weerasethakuls Memoria, which won the Cannes jury prize. Sovereign will release the three films after they receive their U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Mexico turns 211 years old on Sept. 16, 2021, but the Consul General of Mexico in Laredo celebrated the occasion one day earlier per its tradition as the Mexican President gives the famous Grito at the Zocalo in Mexico City at night to commemorate the 16th. Just like last year, as the pandemic continued to cause lockdowns and lead to many people remaining at home, the ceremony was done again this year in a small and virtual setting. The majority of the ceremony focused on a nine-minute video that showcased how Laredoans feel about Mexican Independence and what it means to be a Mexican or Mexican-American. We commemorate the 211th anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Independence Movement, said Juan Carlos Mendoza Sanchez, Consul General of Mexico in Laredo. I congratulate all Mexicans and Mexican-Americans on this very special day in their lives. The Consul General made it clear that the event had to be done virtually as the pandemic continues to be something that is affecting the local population and elsewhere, with cases continuing to climb and hospitalizations and deaths on the rise as vaccination efforts continue to be pushed both in the U.S. and Mexico. Due to the pandemic, we canceled the popular celebration that we had planned on the banks of the Rio Grande, so we held a civic ceremony of El Grito, which we broadcasted live, Mendoza Sanchez said. Those who have not seen it can enjoy it on our social networks where you can find the link to the nine-minute video. The video was showcased Wednesday morning as several members of the military also hosted a flag ceremony in honor of Mexican Independence Day. The video was then played for those watching along live on social media. During the morning ceremony, the Mexican Consulate in Laredo showcased a video of various Laredoans stating what the famous Grito, or the scream of Viva Mexico, means for them, as they are Mexican citizens or those with a Mexican background. One of these individuals who spoke was former Laredo Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Miguel A. Conchas. It brings us memories of what our parents taught us about our culture, our traditions and about the beauty of what is Mexico, he said. Other people in the video presentation voiced that the Grito and Mexican Independence Day meant for them what it is like being Mexican, to recall the rich food and tradition of the country, while others stated the Grito is simply a sign of their identity. With the Grito of Independence in Dolores Hidalgo, it marked the beginning of the independence of all Mexicans. And with it also was the beginning of the mix of cultures of Spanish and the new Mexico, and today we have our own identity, said Uni-Trade Group owner Eduardo Garza. The Consul General stated that the expressions of Mexicans living in Laredo reaffirms the fact that the Mexican Independence is not just a holiday but one of expressing the Mexican culture for those that live all over the world. Mexico is not only a country, it is also a feeling, Mendoza Sanchez said. From that feeling of Mexicanness, we find that the Mexican Nation extends beyond its geographical borders. To celebrate The Cry of Independence anywhere in the world is to reaffirm that Mexicanness, that sense of belonging to the Mexican Nation. The Consul General also stated that the celebration of Mexican Independence is essential to showcase how Mexico is not all about just one country or one identity but rather the collective call of people who want to seek freedoms after being under colonial rule for so long. We remember that we are a people that, unlike others, did not have a beginning but an origin, the indigenous people who are a symbol of Mexican greatness and of our culture, Mendoza Sanchez said. This indigenous origin is embodied in the national shield that adorns the white color of our flag and represents the founding of Greater Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire. Remembering the call of Priest Miguel Hidalgo to rebellion against the bad viceregal government after 300 years of colonial rule, it is the reaffirmation of our independence, our democracy and our freedom values that we share with the people of the United States. As the pandemic was the main reason why the ceremony was virtual and smaller this year as opposed to previous ones, Mendoza Sanchez stated that the celebration should also honor those Mexicans who have lost their lives because of the COVID-19 virus, which has shaken Mexico and the world entirely. We very much regret the thousands and thousands of deaths of Mexicans due to COVID-19, but at the same time, the celebration of our Mexicanness and our independence ensure that our traditions do not also die due to the pandemic, he said. In Nuevo Laredo, the municipal government hosted their Grito ceremony online with some live music acts but no audience in efforts to control COVID-19 infections in the city. jorge.vela@lmtonline.com CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday rejected Chinese criticism of Australia's new nuclear submarine alliance with the United States and said he doesnt mind that President Joe Biden might have forgotten his name. China reacted angrily when Biden, Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a virtual news conference this week to announce a trilateral defense alliance that will provide Australia with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said it was highly irresponsible for the U.S. and Britain to export the nuclear technology. Morrison said Australia wanted to boost peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Everything weve done with the United States is consistent with the partnerships and relationships and alliances weve already had with the United States, Morrison said. Australia's nearest neighbor after Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, was deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. News of the alliance received a positive response in Singapore. The city states Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Morrison in a phone call he hoped the nuclear deal would contribute constructively to the peace and stability of the region and complement the regional architecture, Singapores Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. French leaders and the European Union are angered at being excluded from the alliance that scuppers a contract with France to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines for Australia. Observers say Biden appeared to have forgotten Morrisons name during Thursdays news conference, which was televised from three countries. The president referred to the Australian as pal" and that fellow Down Under. Biden didn't use Morrison's name, while he referred to Johnson as Boris. It reminded Australians of when then-President Donald Trumps spokesman Sean Spicer repeatedly referred to Morrisons predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, in 2017 as Mr. Trumble. Morrison laughed off what some have described as an awkward exchange with Biden that undermined Australias significance to the United States. Usually when we speak privately, he refers to me as pal, Morrison said. Morrison said he and the president enjoyed a great working relationship. Oh, I didnt pay much attention to it. I mean, these things happen. They happen frequently, Morrison said. From time to time, you know, Ive been known to let the odd name slip from my memory thats pretty normal in our line of work, Ive got to be honest." Morrison said he referred to Biden as Mr. President or mate in private conversations. Morrison will visit the United States next week for the first time since Biden became president. They will be joined by the leaders of India and Japan for a meeting of the Quad security dialogue. WASHINGTON (AP) Dealing the White House a stinging setback, a government advisory panel overwhelmingly rejected a plan Friday to give Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots across the board, and instead endorsed the extra vaccine dose only for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease. The twin votes represented a heavy blow to the Biden administration's sweeping effort, announced a month ago, to shore up nearly all Americans' protection amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The nonbinding recommendation from an influential committee of outside experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration is not the last word. The FDA will consider the groups advice and make its own decision, probably within days. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to weigh in next week. In a surprising turn, the advisory panel rejected, 16-2, boosters for almost everyone. Members cited a lack of safety data on extra doses and also raised doubts about the value of mass boosters, rather than ones targeted to specific groups. Then, in an 18-0 vote, it endorsed extra shots for people 65 and older and those at risk of serious disease. Panel members also agreed that health workers and others who run a high risk of being exposed to the virus on the job should get boosters, too. That would help salvage part of the White House's campaign but would still be a huge step back from the far-reaching proposal to offer third shots of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Americans eight months after they get their second dose. The White House sought to frame the action as progress. Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19," said White House spokesman Kevin Munoz. "We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week. The CDC has said it is considering boosters for older people, nursing home residents and front-line health care workers, rather than all adults. The FDA and CDC will most likely decide at some later point whether people who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots should get boosters. During several hours of vigorous debate Friday, members of the panel questioned the value of offering boosters to almost everybody 16 and over. I dont think a booster dose is going to significantly contribute to controlling the pandemic, said Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University. And I think its important that the main message we transmit is that weve got to get everyone two doses. Dr. Amanda Cohn of the CDC said, "At this moment it is clear that the unvaccinated are driving transmission in the United States. In a statement, Kathrin U. Jansen, Pfizer head of vaccine research and development, said the company continues to believe that boosters will be a "critical tool in the ongoing effort to control the spread of this virus. Scientists inside and outside the government have been divided recently over the need for boosters and who should get them, and the World Health Organization has strongly objected to rich nations giving a third round of shots when poor countries dont have enough vaccine for their first. While research suggests immunity levels in those who have been vaccinated wane over time and boosters can reverse that, the Pfizer vaccine is still highly protective against severe illness and death, even amid the delta variant. The unexpected turn of events could reinforce criticism that the Biden administration got out ahead of the science in its push for boosters. President Joe Biden promised early on that his administration would follow the science, in the wake of disclosures of political meddling in the Trump administrations coronavirus response. The FDA panel's overwhelming initial rejection came despite full-throated arguments about the need for boosters from both Pfizer and health officials from Israel, which began offering boosters to its citizens in July. Sharon Alroy-Preis of Israels Ministry of Health said the booster dose improves protection tenfold against infection in people 60 and older. Its like a fresh vaccine, bringing protection back to original levels and helping Israel dampen severe cases in the fourth wave, she said. Representatives for Pfizer argued that it is important to start shoring up immunity before protection begins to erode. A company study of 44,000 people showed effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 was 96% two months after the second dose, but had dropped to 84% by around six months. Both Pfizer and the Israeli representatives faced pushback from panelists. Several were skeptical about the relevance of Israels experience to the U.S. Another concern was whether third doses would exacerbate serious side effects, including rare instances of heart inflammation in younger men. Pfizer pointed to Israeli data from nearly 3 million boosters to suggest side effect rates would be similar to those already reported. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said he was supportive of a third dose for adults over 60 or 65, but I really have trouble supporting it for anyone down to age 16. While an extra shot would probably at least temporarily reduce cases with mild or no symptoms, the question becomes what will be the impact of that on the arc of the pandemic, which may not be all that much, Offit said. Bidens top health advisers, including the heads of the FDA and CDC, first announced plans for widespread booster shots in mid-August, setting the week of Sept. 20 as an all-but-certain start date. But that was before FDA staff scientists had completed their own assessments of the data. Earlier this week, two top FDA vaccine reviewers joined a group of international scientists in publishing an editorial rejecting the need for boosters in healthy people. The scientists said studies show the shots are working well. On Friday, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said the Biden administration announcement was not aimed at pressuring regulators to act but was instead an attempt to be transparent with the public and be prepared in the event that boosters won approval. We have always said that this initial plan would be contingent on the FDA and the CDCs independent evaluation, Murthy said. The Biden plan has also raised major ethical concerns about impoverished parts of the world still clamoring for vaccine. But the administration argued that the plan was not an us-or-them choice, noting that the U.S. is supplying large quantities of vaccine to the rest of the globe. The U.S. has already approved Pfizer and Moderna boosters for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Some Americans, healthy or not, have managed to get boosters, in some cases simply by showing up and asking for a shot. And some health systems already are offering extra doses to high-risk people. ___ 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. One of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol announced he will not seek reelection in Ohio next year. U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, a former NFL player with a once-bright political future, cited his two young children for his decision and noted the chaotic political environment that currently infects our country. He is the first Latino to represent Ohio in Congress. While my desire to build a fuller family life is at the heart of my decision, it is also true that the current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decisions, Gonzalez said in his statement Thursday night. Gonzalez, 36, would have faced Max Miller in the 2022 primary. Trump has endorsed Miller, his former White House and campaign aide, as part of his bid to punish those who voted for his impeachment or blocked his efforts to overturn the results of the election. Trump rallied for Miller this summer. In a statement, Miller's campaign called Gonzalez's announcement good news for the voters of our district, said Gonzalez had dishonored the office by betraying his constituents with his impeachment vote. Gonzalez represents northeast Ohio's 16th Congressional District, in the northeastern part of the state. The Ohio Republican Party censured Gonzalez in May for voting in February to impeach Trump. Gonzalez has stood by his impeachment vote in the face of fierce pushback from his partys conservative wing. It remains unclear whether any of the other House Republicans who joined Gonzalez in voting for impeachment will follow in his footsteps. In an interview with The New York Times announcing his decision, Gonzalez called Trump a cancer for the country who represents a threat to democracy and said that Jan. 6 had been a line-in-the-sand moment for him. While he said there seemed to have been a moment then when the party might break with the former president, he has been dismayed by its decision to instead embrace Trump. This is the direction that were going to go in for the next two years and potentially four, and its going to make Trump the center of fund-raising efforts and political outreach, Gonzalez told the newspaper. Thats not something Im going to be part of. He said he plans to spend his time now working to prevent Trump from being elected to the White House again. Most of my political energy will be spent working on that exact goal, he said. Trump called Gonzalez's decision not to seek reelection no loss for Ohio or our Country. In a statement Friday that also praised Miller, the former president said Gonzalez quit after losing popularity following his vote for impeachment. NEW YORK (AP) Hundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city's glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer's tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses. This week's avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the groups associate director of conservation and science. Stormy weather Monday night into Tuesday contributed to the deaths, she said. We had a big storm and sort of weird weather and lots of birds, and thats sort of the perfect combination that can lead to bird-window collisions, Parkins said. It seems that the storm might have brought the birds in lower than they would have otherwise have been, or just disoriented them, Parkins added. The effects of nocturnal light on birds is also quite strong, especially when its a cloudy night. Volunteers with NYC Audubon document bird deaths at high-risk spots during the spring and fall migrations. Melissa Breyer, the volunteer who tweeted about finding nearly 300 birds on sidewalks surrounding the new World Trade Center towers, said the experience was overwhelming. As soon as I got to the buildings, the birds were everywhere on the sidewalk, Breyer said. Looking north, covered, south, covered, west, covered, the sidewalks were literally covered with birds. NYC Audubon wants the owners of the World Trade Center towers and other buildings to help reduce the number of bird strikes by dimming the lights at night and by treating glass to make it more visible to birds. Make it so that they can see it and recognize that its a solid barrier that they cannot fly through, Parkins said. Jordan Barowitz, a spokesperson for the Durst Organization, co-developer of One World Trade Center, said in an email, The first 200 feet of One WTC are encased in glass fins that are non-reflective. This design was chosen because it greatly reduces bird strikes which mostly occur below 200 feet and are frequently caused by reflective glass." Dara McQuillan, a spokesperson for Silverstein Properties, the developer of three other trade center skyscrapers, said, "We care deeply for wild birds and protecting their habitat in the five boroughs. Understanding that artificial night-time lighting in general can attract and disorient migrating birds, we are actively encouraging our office tenants to turn off their lights at night and lower their blinds wherever possible, especially during the migratory season. It wasn't the last flight for all the birds that crashed. Some survived. A total of 77 birds were taken to the Wild Bird Fund's rehab facility on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, the majority of them from the trade center area, director Ritamary McMahon said. We knew it was going to be a large migration coming in. They could tell from the radar, said McMahon, who scheduled extra staff to care for an expected influx of injured birds. The Wild Bird Fund staff members gave the birds food, fluids and anti-inflammatory medications to reduce swelling. Thirty birds recovered and were released in Brooklyn's Prospect Park on Wednesday, McMahon said. One of our staff took an Uber down to Prospect Park to release them so they wouldnt face any more tall buildings on their travels, she said. ___ This story has been corrected to attribute the quote Make it so that they can see it and recognize that its a solid barrier that they cannot fly through" to Parkins, not Collins. NEW YORK (AP) Prince Andrew can request the unsealing of a 2009 settlement agreement that his lawyer claims protects him from a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a girl two decades ago, a U.S. judge said Thursday. Judge Loretta A. Preska in Manhattan said in a written order that the prince can seek the information to support arguments that the agreement between Virginia Giuffre and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein disallow her lawsuit against the prince. Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 while he awaited a sex trafficking trial. The death was ruled a suicide. On Monday, attorney Andrew Brettler, representing the prince, told a Manhattan federal judge that he believes the settlement agreement absolves our client from any and all liability. Brettler spoke at the first court hearing to result from the August lawsuit, in which Giuffre alleged that Andrew abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was under 18. Andrew has said the abuse never happened. Brettler had no immediate comment in response to an email Thursday. Brettler's comment Monday was referenced in court papers submitted Thursday by lawyers for Giuffre as they asked a judge to rule that the prince was properly notified of Giuffre's lawsuit. They said the prince was actively evading formal efforts to serve him with Giuffre's lawsuit. The lawyers noted that Brettler planned to raise a defense based on the 2009 settlement between Giuffre and Epstein of a Florida state case to which Andrew was not a party. Preska has presided over requests to unseal large portions of court filings related to a lawsuit Giuffre brought against Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015. The defamation lawsuit, which alleged Maxwell subjected Giuffre to public ridicule, contempt and disgrace by calling her a liar, was settled and the case dismissed in May 2017. The judge referenced the prince in an order rejecting attorney Alan Dershowitz's attempt to unseal a settlement agreement that was designated confidential and sealed as part of records in the lawsuit Giuffre brought against Maxwell. The judge said Dershowitz, who claimed he was seeking the unsealing as a matter of professional ethics because he believes Giuffre's claims in the lawsuit against the prince are barred by the settlement, cannot seek the records because he is not a party to the lawsuit against Andrew. To the Courts knowledge, Mr. Dershowitz has not been commissioned as a roving ethics monitor, Preska wrote. The Court notes, however, that parties who have standing ... and perhaps Prince Andrew, who has not been heard from ... may seek to lift the protective order for valid reasons, she added. A lawyer for Dershowitz did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday. Giuffre's lawyers said the prince was working with Dershowitz to get a copy of the settlement papers unsealed so he can share it with Prince Andrew. Maxwell, 59, is awaiting a November trial on sex trafficking charges that allege she procured girls for Epstein to sexually abuse for at least a decade beginning in 1994. She has pleaded not guilty. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Giuffre has. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Instead of a suit and tie, lawyer Alex Murdaugh found himself in a jail jumpsuit Thursday in a cramped South Carolina courtroom, struggling to wipe tears from his eyes with handcuffed wrists as his lawyer detailed how his life crumbled over the past three months. Murdaugh discovered the bodies of his wife and son, shot multiple times at their Colleton County home June 7. His drug addiction got worse and in a deep depression on Sept. 4, he decided he should die, but instead of killing himself, he hired someone to do it, defense attorney Dick Harpootlian said. The goal was to get his surviving son a $10 million life insurance benefit, state police said. But the shot only grazed his head and Murdaugh, 53, was charged Thursday with insurance fraud, conspiracy and filing a false police report. all felonies that could bring up to 20 years in prison if convicted of all three charges. There is no minimum sentence. The killings of Murdaughs wife, Maggie, and son Paul in June remain unsolved. Harpootlian said Murdaugh is adamant he had nothing to do with their deaths Murdaugh spent about five hours in the Hampton County jail before being issued a $20,000 bond and being released on his own recognizance. Prosecutors had asked for a higher bond and GPS monitoring. Sometimes those who have everything and who are suffering a possible fall from grace are actually more of a concern than a hardened criminal, said Creighton Waters with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office. But Magistrate Tonja Alexander noted Murdaugh had no prior criminal record and she didn't think he would be a risk to the community. Murdaugh's surrender culminated a tumultuous 36 hours for a man whose father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all elected prosecutors in the area. A giant law firm in town was founded by his family more than a century ago. Murdaugh said almost nothing during the brief bond hearing. At times he bowed his head low, or appeared to struggle to wipe tears from his eyes. Murdaugh's former client was arrested late Tuesday on an assisted suicide charge, and then state police opened a sixth investigation into him and his family this time involving a housekeeper and nanny who died in his home in 2018. Murdaugh told his lawyers on Monday that he had arranged his own shooting, and they then spoke to police. The only violence he has ever been involved in is this, which was to have himself executed, Harpootlian said. He's not a danger to the community. He's only a danger to himself. Murdaugh agreed to give up his passport even as Harpootlian said his client's financial condition is ruinous and he couldn't leave the country if he wanted to. Murdaugh needed to return to his out-of-state rehab center before the end of Thursday to keep his bed, Harpootlian said. His attorney promised to contact prosecutors and investigators when Murdaugh's rehab stint is finished so they can figure out what to do next. Authorities said Murdaugh asked Curtis Edward Smith to kill him with a shot to the head on Sept. 4 so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy, authorities said. Murdaugh bought drugs from the former client, Harpootlian has said. Murdaugh's lawyers said he has spent the past 10 days or so in drug rehab after his law firm fired him over missing money that could total millions of dollars. Harpootlian said Murdaugh is fighting a 20-year addiction to painkillers. If anyone wants to see the face of what opioid addiction does, you're looking at it, Harpootlian said. The investigations into the the Murdaughs started June 7, when Alex Murdaugh found the bodies of his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, and their 22-year-old son Paul shot multiple times after returning to their Colleton County home after visiting his sick father, who would die days later from cancer. Those killings remain unsolved, and Murdaugh's lawyers have said he is adamant he had nothing to do with their deaths. On Sept. 3, Murdaugh was fired by the PMPED law firm founded by his family after the firm determined he took money. Murdaugh's lawyers said he decided to kill himself the next day, but have someone else shoot him. Murdaugh gave Curtis Edward Smith a gun and they headed to lonely Old Salkehatchie Road. Smith fired one shot that only grazed Murdaugh's head, a State Law Enforcement Division agent said in a sworn statement. Murdaugh was able to call 911 and his initial story was someone in a passing pickup truck shot at him as he checked a tire that was low on pressure. Smith, 61, remained jailed Thursday on numerous charges, including assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature and distribution of methamphetamine. He didn't have a lawyer or speak about the charges at a hearing where his bond was set at $55,000. Smith left jail hours later. Along with the killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh and the shooting of Alex Murdaugh, the State Law Enforcement Division is also investigating the missing money, whether anyone tried to obstruct an investigation into a 2019 boat crash for which Paul Murdaugh was eventually charged and a July 2015 hit-and-run death in Hampton County. The agency also announced Wednesday that they are now investigating Gloria Satterfield's death at the request of Hampton County Coroner Angela Topper, who said her death certificate lists describes natural causes, which is inconsistent with a trip-and-fall accidental death. She said her office did not perform an autopsy because it was not informed. Satterfield's two sons filed a lawsuit Wednesday saying they haven't seen any of the $505,000 wrongful death settlement that Murdaugh had friends arrange. __ Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP. MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) One of two men suspected in the shooting deaths of four people found in an abandoned SUV in Wisconsin was spotted meeting with one of the victims the night before at a Minnesota bar, authorities said Thursday. Darren Lee McWright, 56, from St. Paul, Minnesota, who also uses the alias last name of Osborne, was arrested on a warrant from Dunn County, Wisconsin and is being held in the Ramsey County Jail. A warrant is out for the other suspect, Antoine Darnique Suggs, 38, who is believed to be in the Twin Cities area. A complaint filed Thursday against McWright, who's charged in Dunn County with four counts of hiding a corpse, said witnesses told police they saw Suggs late Saturday evening in the White Squirrel Bar in St. Paul with Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater. One witness noticed the pair at the bar, the complaint said, while a second witness saw Flug-Presley buy a shot of tequila and hand it to Suggs. The complaint said Flug-Presleys aunt stated that her niece had a thing with Suggs and he would fly in from Arizona to see her. Public records show that Suggs had been living recently in Scottsdale, Arizona, where hes listed as the manager and owner of Darnque Apparel. A farmer discovered the bodies of Flug-Presley and three others Sunday in his Dunn County cornfield, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the east. All four had suffered gunshot wounds, authorities said. The other victims were Flug-Presleys longtime friend, Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, of St. Paul; Sturms brother, Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26, of St. Paul; and Sturms boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35, of St. Paul. Police have not stated a motive for the killings. Authorities were able to connect the suspects and victims through surveillance videos and witnesses. Investigators said street camera footage outside the White Squirrel showed a dark SUV at about 2:08 a.m. Sunday. The passenger side is open and the footage shows Sturm run into the vehicle. Another witness said she saw Flug-Presley, Sturm and Pettus get into a black SUV in the early morning hours, according to the complaint. All four victims were shot once in the head, according to the complaint. Flug-Presley was found in the front passenger seat of the 2008 Mercedes Benz GL and the other three victims were in the backseat. Surveillance video at the Bridgestop convenience store near Sheridan Town Hall in Wheeler, Wisconsin showed the Mercedes pulling up to a gas pump just after noon on Sunday. A minute later, a black Nissan Rogue is seen pulling up to another pump. Police traced the Nissan Rogue to the mother of Darren Suggs, who told authorities that his brother, Antoine Suggs, uses the vehicle when hes in town. Darren Suggs told police that McWright is his biological father and confirmed through a still photo that he was one of the suspects at the Bridgestop. A man is wanted for breaking into a vehicle, according to Laredo police. Jose de Jesus Ferdin, 39, has a warrant for burglary of a vehicle. The case dates back to Aug. 15, when police officers responded at about 12:04 a.m. to the 9600 block of Atlanta Drive for a burglary of a vehicle report. A man attempted to break into a black Volkswagen Passat. A witness stated to police that he observed a man inside the car and confronted him. The man then ran away from the area. The LPD Auto-Theft Task Force took over the case. Ferdin was identified as the suspect through the course of the investigation. An assistant district attorney approved the issuance of an arrest warrant for Ferdin. He remains at large. Ferdin is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs about 110 pounds. His hair and eyes are brown. To report his whereabouts, call Laredo Crime Stoppers at 727-TIPS (8477). Information leading to an arrest may be rewarded with up to $1,000. Callers will remain anonymous. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) A Qatar Airways flight on Friday took more Americans out of Afghanistan, according to Washington's peace envoy, the third such airlift by the Mideast carrier since the Taliban takeover and the frantic U.S. troop pullout from the country. The development came amid rising concerns over the future of Afghanistan under the Taliban. The country's new Islamic rulers on Friday ordered that boys but not girls from grades six to 12, and male teachers but no women teachers return to school and resume classes, starting Saturday. The statement, posted on the Facebook page of the now Taliban-run education ministry, underscored fears that the Taliban might again impose restrictions on girls and women. Since taking power, the Taliban had allowed girls in grades one to six to resume classes. When they ruled Afghanistan previously in the late 1990s, the Taliban banned girls and women from attending school and work. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted he was grateful that more Americans were able to leave on a Qatar Airways flight. There was no immediate information how many Americans were on the flight. An Afghan official said more than 150 passengers were on the flight, though it was not immediately clear how many were Americans. In the past one week, more than 300 foreign nationals as well as U.S. green card holders and Afghans with special visas have left Afghanistan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said more flights were expected on Saturday, including another Qatar Airways flight. Its unclear how many American nationals are still in Afghanistan, but Khalilzad tweeted we remain committed to get them out if they want to come home. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter confirmed that the plane departed Kabul on Friday and told reporters that officials were still trying to determine how many Americans, green card holders or holders of special immigrant visas for Afghans were on the flight heading to Doha, the Qatari capital. Qatar Airways' first flight out of Kabul with the cooperation of the Taliban was on Sept. 9, the first such large-scale departure since the U.S. forces withdrew on Aug. 30. There have been several chartered flights since, including by Pakistan International Airlines, to airlift foreigners and Afghans desperate to leave and fearing the Taliban, and a few commercial flights out of Kabul International Airport. Porter said that in all, between the charter flights and overland crossings, a total of 36 U.S. citizens" have left Afghanistan since the U.S. troop pullout. The Taliban order for the boys and male teachers to return to junior high and high schools went against earlier promises by Afghanistan's new rulers to guarantee girls equal access to education and harkened back to their past harsh rule. Since taking over, the Taliban have only allowed women back to work in the health sector and as teachers in grades one through five. At a news conference last week, the Taliban minister for higher education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, had said classes would be gender segregated but that girls would have the same access to education as boys. Earlier this month, the Taliban declared their interim, all-male government devoid of any women or members of the country's minorities. The 33-member Cabinet is stacked with veterans of the Taliban's hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition. This is unlikely to win the Taliban the international support they desperately need to avoid an economic meltdown. ___ Associated Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Istanbul and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks! Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics. The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc. The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics. The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates. Access to college recruiters and advisors its harder to line up higher education. Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family. Vote View Results A new chapter in Granard's cultural and socio-economic development was rubber-stamped this afternoon as the north Longford town set the seal on an historic twinning accord with a town in the French region of Normandy. As first revealed in the Leader's print edition on Wednesday, a delegation from East Rouen in Normandy flew into Ireland yesterday before shaking hands on a town twinning agreement at French Ambassador to Ireland, Vincent Guerend's residence in Dublin. ALSO READ: Granard to shake hands on new Normandy twinning deal That was followed by a reception at Granard Library this afternoon in front of a number of local politicians and invited guests. Opening his address with a simple 'Bonjour', Granard Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr Paraic Brady said the importance of the occasion was one which could not be understated. "Today is one of those days which will see the start of something major, not only for Longford and Granard but it is something that will last into several generations," he said. In a more light hearted tone, Cllr Brady quipped over how his French counterparts were afforded to savour some of the fruits of Irish hospitality by visiting the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. "I find wine a bit stronger than Guinness, but I am looking forward to our trip to France," he joked, to much amusement following a light lunch held in the top floor of Granard Library. Daniel Dominique, head of a four strong East Rouen delegation, told of how his home town had managed to establish ties with the likes of Germany, Italy, Poland and Burkina Faso in Africa. A long held twinning agreement with Britain, he said, collapsed three years ago due to the fallout from Brexit, but added Granard's deep rooted historial ties and association with the Normans 12th century arrival into Longford more than made up for that loss. "That's why we wanted to continue to have a relationship with an English speaking country and Ireland is a country French people like a lot, except when rugby is mentioned, and was an obvious choice for us. "Those strong common points can be the beginning of a fruitful co-operation between us that should enable us to know each other better and promote brotherhood across borders," he said. Mr Dominque paid testimony to the work of the French Consul in making contact with chairperson of Granard's Town Twinning Commitee Moira Mahon in setting in train moves towards establishing a possible international agreement. A series of presentations also took place over the course of the afternoon, one of which included a Medal of Honour which was handed to Cllr Brady by Jean Luc Duflou in his role as Deputy Mayor of Le Mesnil-Esnard It's expected the group, together with committee members from Granard will take in this evening's aptly dubbed 'Culture Night' before their return to France over the weekend. For full coverage of this story, see next week's Longford Leader. (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on AIM in London on Friday. AIM - WINNERS Hurricane Energy PLC, up 12% at 3.48 pence, 12-month range 0.59p-5.43p. The Surrey, England-based oil producer says its flagship Lancaster oil field - located west of Shetland - produces 11,467 barrels of oil per day in August. Prior to shutdown in early July, the P6 well was producing 10,900 bopd. Safestay PLC, up 11% at 22.10 pence, 12-month range 10.00p-26.50p. The London-based company, which operates city centre hostels across Europe, says it will review its strategic options including a possible sale. Safestay says it has received an early approach over a possible takeover. Shares opened at 26.50p, its 12-month high. AIM - LOSERS Goldstone Resources Ltd, down 12% at 10.00p, 12-month range 6.10p-15.50p. The exploration firm says progress it is yet to begin production at the Akrokeri-Homase gold project in Ghana. Goldstone says the Minerals Commission of Ghana has not approved the company to use a loaded carbon facility where it plans to elute gold. Goldstone is accelerating plans to complete its own elution facility as a result. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a first meeting of his new-look Cabinet after a dramatic shake-up of his ministerial team. The bloodletting which saw three Cabinet ministers sacked from the government on Wednesday continued in the lower ranks of the administration, with some lengthy frontbench careers ended at a stroke. Former Cabinet minister John Whittingdale a who had been serving as media minister a was the highest-profile casualty, while Nick Gibb's lengthy tenure in the Department for Education was also brought to an end. Jesse Norman, Caroline Dinenage, Luke Hall, Justin Tomlinson, Graham Stuart, James Duddridge and Matt Warman also lost their ministerial jobs. Penny Mordaunt was replaced as Paymaster General by former solicitor general Michael Ellis, but picked up a role at the Department for International Trade. Conor Burns, who resigned from government in May 2020 after an investigation found he threatened a company chairman over a financial dispute with his father, returns to the front benches. Burns, who was suspended from Parliament for seven days following an investigation into his conduct, has been made minister of state in the Northern Ireland Office. Alex Chalk has been appointed Solicitor General while Chloe Smith has been made a minister of state at the Department for Work and Pension and Robin Walker goes to the Department for Education. A shake-up of Treasury ministers saw Lucy Frazer become Financial Secretary and Helen Whately become Exchequer Secretary. At the Department of Health and Social Care, Gillian Keegan is a minister of state while Maggie Throup is a junior minister. Victoria Atkins moves from the Home Office to become minister of state at the Ministry of Justice but will remain responsible for the Afghan resettlement scheme and Operation Warm Welcome. Lee Rowley has been made a junior minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and a Government whip, while Amanda Solloway also heads to the whips' office. Neil O'Brien a who was Johnson's "levelling up" adviser a has been made a junior minister at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Among the other appointments, Johnson's former ministerial aide Trudy Harrison is now a junior minister in the Department for Transport. Friday's meeting of the Cabinet will see Dominic Raab in his new role as deputy prime minister. Downing Street said he would continue to play an "important senior role" in government despite his demotion from foreign secretary. Raab, who was moved to Justice Secretary, was seen as one of the big losers in the reshuffle. The announcement that he was to be given the title deputy prime minister was seen as little more than a consolation after losing one of the "great offices of state". Downing Street refused to be drawn on reports that Raab had resisted the change during a tense conversation with the prime minister on Wednesday. However, Johnson's official spokesman insisted it had been a "planned move" and that the Esher and Walton MP's new title reflected the prime minister's continuing trust in him. "This formalises Dominic Raab's position as the prime minister's deputy a he will stand in for him at PMQs; it demonstrates his seniority within government and the trust the prime minister places with him," the spokesman said. "You can expect him to be involved in cross-governmental work when that is necessitated. It is clear he will play an important senior role in government." Raab's replacement by Liz Truss followed criticism of his handling of the Afghanistan crisis and his delay in returning from his holiday in Crete after Kabul fell to the Taliban. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Truss's replacement as International Trade Secretary, was criticised by Labour over past tweets denying climate change. "We aren't getting hotter, global warming isn't actually happening," one message from 2012 said. Shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry said "at least the last Trade Secretary only hired climate change deniers", in an apparent reference to former Australian premier Tony Abbott, who is a trade adviser. In a letter to Trevelyan, she added: "Whatever your past statements on this issue, you have an opportunity to make a difference in a key area before Cop26." In Wednesday's Cabinet changes, Gavin Williamson was fired as education secretary following his handling of the exams fiasco during the coronavirus crisis, while Robert Buckland lost his job as justice secretary and Robert Jenrick was sacked as communities secretary. Ben Wallace, who survived as Defence Secretary, insisted the prime minister did not sack any of his top team due to incompetence, and said the criticism of Williamson in the media had been "unfair". By David Hughes source: PA Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - GlaxoSmithKline PLC on Friday said the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has given positive opinions for Nucala, or mepolizumab, being used in three eosinophil-driven diseases. The three diseases were hypereosinophilic syndrome, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. The positive opinion is one of the final steps in the marketing authorisation procedure before approval by the European Commission. The opinions were based on data from pivotal studies investigating the role of targeting IL-5 inhibition with Nucala in these diseases. Eosinophil-driven diseases are inflammatory conditions associated with elevated levels of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell. "We are pleased with the CHMP's positive opinions as there are currently limited targeted treatment options available for patients in Europe with eosinophil-driven disease. If approved, mepolizumab would be the first targeted treatment available for use in four of these diseases and would further reinforce its role in targeting the underlying cause of inflammation," said Senior Vice President of Development Christopher Corsico. Shares in GlaxoSmithKline were marginally higher at 1,395.20 pence on Friday in London. By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. British Honey Co PLC - Buckinghamshire-based spirits and honey maker - Receives a requisition notice from 17% shareholder Mark Gamble requiring that the board convene a general meeting. Resolutions include Michael Williams be removed as chair, any appointee to the board between the date of the request for the requisitioned general meeting and the general meeting be removed from as a director and Gamble also be appointed as a director with immediate effect. "The board is considering the content of the requisition notice, to which it intends to respond in accordance with the requirements of the act. In the meantime, the board urges shareholders to take no further action until the board has shared its views on these proposals," company says. Current stock price: 115.50 pence Year-to-date: down 0.4% By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Panthera Resources PLC - West Africa and India-focused gold miner - Posts assay results for the exploration drilling programme at the Labola project in Burkina Faso. The highlights were four metres grading 19.7 grams per tonne gold and three metres grading 3.46 grams per tonne. Mark Bolton, managing director of Panthera says: "The high-grade intercepts being returned from exploration targets defined by artisanal workings, geophysical anomalies and previous drilling are very encouraging. The results reaffirm our confidence in the potential to materially expand the mineralisation already identified by the historical drilling." Current stock price: 13.25 pence Year-to-date change: down 60% By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Sharecast News) - Stocks surrendered early gains to finish another week firmly in the red ahead of the quarterly expiry of financial derivatives contracts for individual stocks and indices in the States. The event, known in financial circles as 'quadruple witching', was often preceded by market volatility in the days running up to it, and this time around was taking place amid a more uncertain backdrop. London's top-flight index fell 0.91% or 63.84 points to 6,963.64, although the second-tier index managed to eke out a gain of 0.11% or 26.10 points to 23,658.94. "By and large the buyers have had it all their own way this year, and in a calm fashion, so a bit of volatility would not go amiss from a price discovery perspective; the bounce in the Vix today suggests next week could see additional volatility, and one with more of a unidirectional feel to it too," said IG chief market analyst Chris Bueachamp. "Profit-taking in crude oil is adding to the gloomy atmosphere, an indication that the extensive wave of selling in risk assets probably has further to go." Dampening the mood from the start of the session, the Office for National Statistics released data revealing a fourth consecutive monthly drop in UK retail sales - their worst stretch since at least 1996. Combined with a host of other expected headwinds for the UK consumer, those numbers "should" make investors doubt the Monetary Policy Committee's ability to hike Bank Rate as soon as February, said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Nevertheless, across the Pond, a preliminary reading on the University of Michigan's consumer confidence index revealed that it stabilised at the beginning of September. On the broker front, analysts at Berenberg upgraded their recommendation for shares of InterContinental Hotels from 'hold' to 'buy' and Barclays' theirs for StanChart from 'underweight' to 'equalweight'. Hurricane Energy finds a bid Shares of Hurricane Energy jumped after the oil exploration said in an operational update that, as of 15 September, the Lancaster field was producing at a rate of nearly 10,800 barrels per day from the P6 well alone. It also reported a jump in its net free cash position from $122m as of 31 July to $144m by 31 August. Martin Sorrell's digital-only advertising group S4 Capital said it was buying technology services company Zemoga for an undisclosed sum. Sorrell, who founded ad giant WPP, said the move was a "significant first step towards building a third practice area around technology services". Zemoga provides product design, engineering and delivery services to clients including Bridgestone, Sony, Roku and Morningstar, he added. Virgin Wines UK entered into a marketing partnership with Moonpig Group to launch a range of products with the UK's leading online greeting card and gifting platform. The UK's largest direct-to-consumer online wine retailer said it woud launch a range of 32 different wines as part of the first of a kind partnership with Moonpig. Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,963.64 -0.91% FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,658.94 0.11% techMARK (TASX) 4,669.94 0.17% FTSE 100 - Risers International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 149.50p 4.94% InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,626.00p 1.97% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 376.05p 1.94% Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 15,315.00p 1.93% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 111.00p 1.78% Next (NXT) 8,122.00p 1.50% Entain (ENT) 1,956.00p 1.43% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,625.00p 1.16% BAE Systems (BA.) 560.20p 1.08% BT Group (BT.A) 156.15p 0.94% FTSE 100 - Fallers Anglo American (AAL) 2,591.00p -8.07% BHP Group (BHP) 1,873.80p -4.80% Weir Group (WEIR) 1,703.00p -4.59% Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,700.00p -3.90% Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,829.50p -3.60% Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,371.50p -3.52% Mondi (MNDI) 1,903.50p -3.42% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,642.00p -2.83% Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,988.00p -2.82% Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 2,176.00p -2.77% FTSE 250 - Risers Restaurant Group (RTN) 112.20p 9.11% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 301.80p 5.99% Indivior (INDV) 207.60p 5.33% Cineworld Group (CINE) 63.62p 5.02% Energean (ENOG) 790.50p 4.90% SSP Group (SSPG) 266.40p 4.47% easyJet (EZJ) 630.40p 3.92% Playtech (PTEC) 436.40p 3.66% Coats Group (COA) 76.30p 3.53% Civitas Social Housing (CSH) 100.00p 3.41% FTSE 250 - Fallers Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1,448.00p -7.14% Harbour Energy (HBR) 361.60p -3.62% Games Workshop Group (GAW) 11,120.00p -3.45% Wood Group (John) (WG.) 206.30p -3.24% Workspace Group (WKP) 872.50p -3.00% Currys (CURY) 131.30p -2.96% Grainger (GRI) 309.80p -2.88% Rank Group (RNK) 169.00p -2.87% Tate & Lyle (TATE) 672.80p -2.80% Electrocomponents (ECM) 1,088.00p -2.77% (Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News: Oilex Ltd - Australian oil and gas exploration and production company - Expects to boost production with plans to restart production at two wells - C-73 and C-77H - within the Cambay field area in India. If the required funding is secured, the company anticipates execution of both wells by the second half of 2022. Says this follows its acquisition of Gujarat State Petroleum Co's 55% interest in the Cambay area. Anticipates the Indian government's approval for this acquisition shortly. Aims to achieve full field development of the Cambay site. Relinquishes its P2446 exploration licence located in the UK's East Irish Sea. eEnergy Group PLC - London-based energy efficiency-as-a-service provider - Completes its acquisition of UtilityTeam TopCo Ltd. The company says it also now holds a 5% stake UtilityTeam Trading Ltd, which is not currently owned by UtilityTeam Topco. Says company shares total 344.3 million following the addition of 18.0 million consideration shares and 80.0 million placing shares. Virgin Wines UK PLC - online wine retailer based in Preston, England - Launches a range of products in partnership with personalised greeting card retailer Moonpig Group PLC. The launch includes 32 wines, some of which are exclusive to Moonpig's website, to offer as a gift or buy alongside any card purchase. Says the partnership is part of Moonpig's expanding gifting proposition. Vela Technologies PLC - technology-focused investment firm based in Bingley, England - Notes a collaboration between Aeristech Ltd and Sprintex Ltd focused on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Aeristech produces and supplies compressor to maximise the power output and efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells, the company notes. Says the partnership will facilitate Sprintex's presence in the hydrogen energy market using Aeristech's proprietary designs will form a key component of these platforms for use in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In late February, the company noted an investment of GBP350,000 in Aeristech, as part of a larger GBP5.1 million pre-IPO funding round. Ananda Developments PLC - medicinal cannabis firm - Says development works are on-schedule at its cannabis growing facility in the UK. The development works have been undertaken by its subsidiary UK DJT Plant, the company says. Ananda holds a 50% stake UK DJT Plant, it adds. Notes that the facilities expanded footprint includes dedicated growing room for male and female plants as well as a nursery, a room for mother plants and a laboratory for trimming and analysing the cannabis plants. Kavango Resources PLC - mineral exploration company with operations in Botswana - Requests the assistance of Mindea Exploration and Drilling Services Ltd to extend the Hole TA2DD002 at the Kalahari Suture Zone in Botswana. Plans to extend the hole to a depth of 1 kilometre, which is the technical limit of the drill rig currently on site. Says the hole is currently 821 metres deep. Undertakes further exploration drilling to develop and refine its model of the KSZ area. Also announced the renewal of prospecting licences PL082/2018 and PL083/2018 - collectively the LVR project - in the Kalahari Copper Belt. Draper Esprit VCT PLC - London-based venture capital fund - Sees portfolio company Form3 complete USD160 million Series C funding round. Form3 is a leading platform payment technology provider, the company adds. Says the funding round included Draper Esprit PLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Lloyds Banking Group PLC, and Barclays PLC among others. The recent funding round values the fund's existing stake in Form3 at GBP8.0 million, indicating a GBP5.6 million uplift in its investment's value. Says the uplift pushes its unaudited net asset value to 53.8 pence per share, up from 50.0p per share on March 31. Cizzle Biotechnology Holdings PLC - London-based biotechnology firm - Reaches new research agreement with the University of York to develop and validate molecular tools for possible use in cancer diagnosis and therapy. Says the agreement extends its close relationship with the University of York, given that its subsidiary Cizzle Biotechnology Ltd was a spin-out of the university based on the institutions original research. Executive Chair Allan Syms says: "We are thrilled to be able to cement our long-standing relationship with the University of York...This new agreement will provide valuable additional resource and capability for developing our blood test for the early detection of lung cancer, and potentially other forms of cancer." By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Adds detail, context) LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) said on Friday it had suspended its accreditation of a gold refinery in Kyrgyzstan for failing to meet its responsible sourcing standards. The LBMA said in June it had begun a review of the refiner, Kyrgyzaltyn JSC, "in response to issues concerning delivery and the potential for fraud." It gave no further details in that statement or on Friday. Kyrgyzaltyn is embroiled in a dispute with Canadian miner Centerra Gold, whose Kumtor gold mine was seized by the Kyrgyz government in May. Centerra has accused Kyrgyzaltyn, which is state-owned and is Centerra's largest shareholder, of involvement in the seizure and said it tried to make fraudulent payments. Kyrgyzaltyn has denied wrongdoing. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours. The loss of accreditation will restrict Kyrgyzaltyn's access to the mainstream market because major banks that dominate precious metals trading tend to handle only metal from refineries on the LBMA's "good delivery" list. "With effect from today, 17 September 2021, Kyrgyzaltyn JSC has been suspended from the LBMA Good Delivery List for failing to meet the requirements of the Responsible Sourcing Programme," the LBMA said in a statement. "All production from the refinery will no longer be accepted as Good Delivery from this date," it said. (Reporting by Peter Hobson, Editing by Louise Heavens and David Evans) The star-studded release, which explored Mac's struggle with drug addiction, features 24 songs with guest appearances from the likes of Rick Ross, Thundercat, Vince Staples, Schoolboy Q and Earl Sweatshirt. It was originally released as a free download on Mother's Day 2014. What's more, Sam Mason has directed a new music video for the track 'Colors And Shapes', which is inspired by Mac's beloved dog Ralph and focuses on the artist's childhood and the "highs and lows" of growing up in the spotlight. Sam said: The track felt very visual to me like it had its own world. This atmospheric nighttime place that was sometimes dangerous, sometimes comforting, then I saw a picture of [Mac Millers dog] Ralph and a story emerged. Sam continues. To build it out I asked Malcolms family to send me bits and pieces from his childhood, scenes from the town where he grew up, objects, toys from his room little pieces of his life that I extrapolated outwards and used to inspire the story. In the abstract, its meant to be a video about childhood growing up as an artist and the highs and lows of that experience. Its sort of a look at the emotional and difficult and perilous but noble path of an artist. The track-listing for 'Faces' is: - Inside Outside - Here We Go - Friends (featuring Schoolboy Q) - Angel Dust (featuring King Ralph of Malibu) - Malibu - What Do You Do (featuring Sir Michael Rocks) - It Just Doesnt Matter - Therapy - Polo Jeans (featuring Earl Sweatshirt and Ab-Soul) - Happy Birthday - Wedding - Funeral - Diablo - Ave Maria - 55 (featuring Thundercat) - San Francisco - Colors And Shapes - Insomniak (featuring Rick Ross) - Uber (featuring Mike Jones) - Rain (featuring Vince Staples) - Apparition - Thumbalina - New Faces v2 (featuring Earl Sweatshirt and Dash) - Grand Finale Source: BANG Showbiz Real Estate investor, George Lombardi, who served as Donald Trumps Adviser during his first Presidential campaign, refuses to reveal exactly where he was born, but admits it was sometime between 1950 and 1960 and claims he grew up in Rome. "I left Rome at the age of 21, with a one-way ticket to the United States, because there were Communist Red Brigades in Italy, he explains during an interview at the Carrossa Hotel & Spa in Arta. Did you emigrate to America for economic reasons? No. My father had money, but I didn't want it. I went to America with a suitcase and $50 in my pocket. I travelled in several states for nine years and got married, he says. Now I have a house in New York and another one in Florida. "It was often said that Trump was crazy and sometimes it seemed like he was? "People thought much of what Trump was saying was spontaneous, but it was actually calculated and premeditated. Lombardi is also friends with the French, far right politician Marine Le Pen. "We've been friends for 20 years and let me emphasis that im friends with Marine, not with her father, he clarifies. I helped her during the last election and I still remember when her father was on television three weeks before the election. I told her she was crazy and she lost 10 percent of the vote because of his TV appearance. You should have locked him in the bathroom, I told her. Are Le Pen and President Trump a threat to democracy? "On the contrary, both the US and Europe are moving towards a Communist dictatorship, like Cuba, Venezuela and China. If we continue in this direction our children will not have freedom. There is already less freedom now than there was 20 years ago. Where is there less freedom? There is no longer freedom of expression in the media where some messages are censored, or in the economy which creates slaves. In Italy there are thousands of parents with two children who work for 1,200 euros a month. It makes me want to cry. But Italy is part of the EU and its economic regime is Liberal, not Communist? "But the laws don't allow you to work freely. In America there are fewer laws and it is easier to open a restaurant, for example. Why should we fear Communism in Europe when the Wall fell 30 years ago? "China is on the verge of economic collapse and claims that it has bought US debt are a lie. They have to buy cereal or chicken with a strong currency: such as euros or dollars. The Director of the Central Bank of China recently said they would increase their euro and dollar reserves from 900 billion to a trillion. I don't believe it, but even so, US debt is currently 36 trillion and the Chinese only have a trillion at most. For years, the American and European press have been presenting China as an emerging power that will surpass us in GDP: "It's propaganda, the same as with Lenin or Mao Tse Tung." You cant compare the New York Times with Mao Tse Tung: They have infiltrated the media. Jane Fonda, wife of CNNs Ted Turner was called Hanoi Jane during the Vietnam War and she put her Communist friends on CNN. The second wife of communications mogul Rupert Murdoch is Chinese. I met her. It turned out she was a spy. I could give you more examples. Everyone knows that there is a conspiracy to establish Communism, I already told you: it's a war. So how much time is left for US and European hegemony? "200 years. From now on everything will be fine. People are starting to see it. Under Obama, people lived well but they did not see the Communist and fundamentalist threats. Then Trump put an embassy in Jerusalem to support Christians and now Christians are being attacked in the United States and in Europe. The victories of the PP in Spain and the Conservatives in Poland and the United Kingdom, also help. Conservatism is not what it used to be. George Guido Lombardi says he met Donald Trump long before he ran for the US Presidency: "We never did business, we had a friendship. From time to time we talked and neither of us liked the Chinese, admits Lombari who was Donald Trumps Adviser during his first Presidential campaign, but only lasted two weeks. Spain will give a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to nursing home residents and other vulnerable groups, the Health Ministry said on Thursday, and released data that showed the infection rate fell to its lowest level since June. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy and people with health conditions that require immunosuppressive treatment would also be eligible for a booster dose, the ministry said. Several countries, including the United States, Britain and France, have decided to offer boosters to the elderly and people with weak immune systems, although there is no scientific consensus as to whether they are necessary. Spain's Health Ministry said nursing-home residents should receive an extra dose because they are more frail, suffer from multiple pathologies and live in an enclosed environment. The national infection rate as measured over the past 14 days fell to 96 cases per 100,000 people on Thursday, dropping below the 100-case threshold for the first time since June 25. The ministry reported 4,075 new cases since Wednesday, bringing the total to 4.9 million, while the death toll climbed by 101 to 85,739. Just over three quarters of the Spanish population has been fully vaccinated, data showed on Thursday. World-renowned physicist Professor Thanu Padmanabhan passed away on Friday. He was 64. He suffered a heart attack and collapsed at his residence in Pune. Though he was rushed to the hospital, he could not be saved. A distinguished professor at Pune's Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics and a cosmologist, Professor Padmanabhan was selected for Kerala Shastra Puraskaram 2021 last month. The award is institutionalised by the Kerala government to honour scientists from the state. Shilpa Shetty Kundra has been in the news for all the wrong reasons as her husband businessman Raj Kundra had been arrested in connection to producing porn content. Raj Kundra and the 10 other people who have been taken into custody used to publish pornographic content through mobile applications. There was a case registered with Crime Branch Mumbai in February 2021 about the creation of pornographic films and publishing them through some apps. Weve arrested Mr. Raj Kundra in this case on 19/7/21 as he appears to be the key conspirator of this. We have sufficient evidence regarding this. The investigation is in progress," said Hemant Nagrale, Commissioner of Mumbai Police. As per a report in India Today, the Mumbai crime branch, on Wednesday, filed a charge sheet in the porn racket case naming Raj Kundra, the IT head of his firm Ryan Thorpe, two other accused, Yash Thakur alias Arvind Shrivastava, a resident of Singapore, and Kundras brother-in-law, identified as Pardeep Bakshi, a resident of London. Shilpa Shettys remark on the fiasco is a part of the charge sheet and it hasnt gone down too well with social media users. According to India Today, Shilpa had asked Raj Kundra about it. In response, he'd said that the OTT platform was doing well and he was making good profits. "I have come to know today that the HotShots app was created through Viaan industries and porn videos made through it were sold by Pardeep Bakshi to his firm Kenrin. I am busy with my own work and I don't ask my husband what he does and he doesn't tell me anything about his work. I don't know anything about all this," Shilpa Shetty told the Mumbai Crime Branch officials. Now, people are bashing her since the remark hasn't gone down too well with people. Heres how people reacted to her statements: Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Recently, Shilpa had visited the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu's Katra, amid the ongoing pornography scandal of her husband. She took to Instagram to share glimpses of her trip and people didn't spare the opportunity to troll her in this regard too. Image 9 (Shilpa Shetty Instagram) We wonder if this hate directed towards her is really called for and how she would tackle it. Abhay Deol has often spoken about several matters in Bollywood explicitly. The actor seems calm in real life and portrays the same sense even in his movies. The storylines he chooses are pretty underrated and he often takes up projects that don't have too much melodrama. Even though the actor belongs to the Deol family, he still stands out amongst all his siblings. He ventured into Bollywood with Socha Na Tha, and the sweet coming-of-age movie amassed a lot of appreciation as well. Instagram/Abhay Deol Instagram/Abhay Deol Abhay Deol gave several movies in Bollywood post the success of his first project. He also ventured into OTT platforms in recent years. He was recently seen in Disney Channel's very first movie with a South Asian protagonist. The 45-year-old talented star gave his honest view on the film industry and said that he gained recognition over time and does not follow every Bollywood celebrities' typical route. Instagram/Abhay Deol Speaking to a leading daily, he said that he does not think he is known as an actor. He further added "People recognise me, they tell me they love my work. I dont feel the lack of recognition at all. Instagram/Abhay Deol He also spoke about what differentiates him from the other actors and said that it's the 'lack of investing in PR machinery.' Abhay also said that he was never interested in being in the news and projecting a star image. He also added that since he does not have PR machinery, he lacks the star image. Therefore, not having a PR team is a choice he made. "People want to interview me, I get interviewed. People recognise me, they tell me they love my work. I don't feel the lack of recognition at all. If there is any lack of, it's the lack of investing in a PR machinery to keep me in the news all the time, and project a star image, which I was never interested in. So I do lack that star image, which I myself have to feed. Because all the stars have a PR machinery behind them that feeds into that narrative. I don't have that, and that's by choice." Instagram/Abhay Deol He also spoke about the difference between actors in the US and India. He said, "Its sad that in India particularly, more so than in America, you just have to constantly feed the beast and stay in the news. He still continues to take up projects and scripts that strike a chord with him and does deny roles that do not match his tastes. Hence, he added, 'if that's not success I don't know what is.' Abhay also said that an actor earns recognition only after he is endorsing brands every other day in India. But I cannot sit here and say that I am not recognised People love my work and they tell me that all the time. It's sad that in India particularly, more so than in America, you just have to constantly feed the beast and stay in the news. We've created a system where, unless I see you every other day endorsing 10 brands, you're not recognised. What happened to just the fact that people love you and say that they do, and that journalists want to speak to you and papers are interested in what you have to say? Instagram/Abhay Deol In the recent movie Spin, Abhay has essayed the character of a father to a 16-year-old teenage girl, an Indian-American actor, Avantika Vandanapu. Telugu movie actor Naga Chaitanya is set to make his Bollywood debut with Aamir Khans Laal Singh Chaddha. The actor had shared a picture with Aamir and his ex-wife Kiran Rao from their shoot in Ladakh. Chaitanya has now opened up about how he bagged the role. Laal Singh Chaddha is the Hindi adaptation of the Hollywood film Forrest Gump. In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, Naga Chaitanya revealed that he got a call from Aamir himself. He said, I got a call from Aamir Khan. After discussing the initial modalities of the script, I went to Mumbai for final discussions and was quickly on board. It was like magic! Aamir said hed watched some of my performances and trailers of my film and was very impressed and that he felt Id be apt for the role. Chaitanya said, I was amazed by Aamir's excitement and energy levels on the sets, Aamir sir was up-to-date with the developments taking place in the Telugu film industry. Hes a music lover and wanted me to play my ANR and NTRs old classics, apart from current film songs. It was previously said that Chaitanya would play the role of Aamir's best friend in the film. Laal Singh Chaddha had roped in Vijay Sethupathi as well. However, that couldnt work out. Talking to News Minute, Vijay said, Covid happened. It ransacked all our plans. After the lockdown, I had five Telugu projects in various stages of production to complete. I just couldnt accommodate Laal Singh Chaddha in my schedule. The US silicon price - which was already at a 10-year high on short supply - jumped by 13.35% in a week, hitting its second-highest ever level on Thursday September 16.Mississippi Silicon did not comment, but several sources close to the Burnsville, Mississippi-based supplier confirmed the situation. Fastmarkets assessed the price of silicon, ddp US, at $1.70-1.95 per lb on Thursday, up from $1.57-1.65 per lb a week earlier, its highest level since April 2008. The range was $1.80-2.00 per... Several hundred thousand tonnes of imported billet were heard sold to China through the weekend and into the beginning of the week before activity paused on Tuesday , sources said.By my count, it looks like China has booked 600,000 tonnes of steel billet since the start of September at least, a major Singaporean trading source told Fastmarkets.Deals for Indonesia-origin 3sp 150mm blast furnace (BF) billet were heard at $715 per tonne cfr China in the week, while Qatar-origin billet was sold at $715 per tonne cfr in the week, sources said.That is in addition to deals at $716 per tonne cfr China for billet from the United Arab Emirates and $720 per tonne cfr from India, as reported by Fastmarkets on Tuesday. A deal for Turkey-origin electric arc furnace (EAF) billet was rumored to have been done at $620 per tonne fob Turkey or $710-715 per tonne... Zaneta Adams Zaneta Adams was appointed Director of the MVAA by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in June 2019, becoming the first woman and person of color to hold the position. She served for eight years in the U.S. Army, National Guard and Reserves before being medically discharged with honor in 2006. During her time in the military, she served as a Joint Counter Narcotics Task Force Agent for the National Guard. Prior to her appointment, she was an attorney at Williams Hughes PLLC, assisting veterans with compensation and pension appeals. Director Adams has consistently demonstrated leadership through service and board membership, previously serving as a veterans state contact for U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow; an advocate and spokesperson for Challenge America, a national veteran resource nonprofit; and former President and Founder of WINC: For All Women Veterans (Women Injured in Combat), an advocacy group for women veterans. In March 2021, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs named Director Adams a Women Veterans Trailblazer for her tireless work to advocate for her fellow veterans' rights. Director Adams holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia College and Juris Doctor degree from Western Michigan Cooley Law School. She lives in west Michigan with her husband, disabled Army veteran Joseph Adams, and together they have six children, including two sets of twins. Rob was named to his current role in February 2020, previously serving in Targeted Outreach and Performance Management for five years and as Veterans Outreach Manager for four years. He was instrumental in Michigan becoming a recognized State Department of Veterans Affairs on Sept. 17, 2012 and was the first-ever accredited veterans service officer for the State of Michigan. Rob is a retired Gulf War veteran with more than 28 years of service as an Army Armor Crewman, Combat Engineer and Senior Logistics Specialist. During his deployment to Iraq in 2005, he logged more than 10,000 miles of convoy operations while serving as the principal non-commissioned officer managing material support functions for the 1225th Corp Support Battalion at Forward Operating Base Endurance. His awards and decorations include National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Michigan Legion of Merit Medal and Iraq Campaign medal. Rob previously worked as a certified veterans service representative with the VA. During his six-year tenure at the VA Regional Office in Detroit, he served as homeless veteran coordinator, veteran treatment court representative and liaison to the Michigan National Guard. Rob earned a bachelor's degree from Saginaw Valley State University and a master's from Ashford University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Professional Development Academy. He is married to Carol Scheel-Price, retired Director of Clinical Operations at Wayne State University Physician Group. EGLE names Kris Donaldson as Clean Water Public Advocate EGLE names Kris Donaldson as Clean Water Public Advocate FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept. 17, 2021 EGLE Media Office, EGLE-Assist@Michigan.gov, 517-284-9278 17-year veteran of EGLE safe drinking water unit succeeds former public advocate Ninah Sasy The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) today announced the appointment of Kris Donaldson as the department's Clean Water Public Advocate. A 17-year veteran of EGLE's division responsible for compliance with the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act, Donaldson will replace prior Public Advocate Ninah Sasy, who recently transferred to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. "EGLE remains committed to finding real and permanent solutions that ensure every Michigander has access to clean, safe water," said EGLE director Liesl Clark. "Kris has a proven track record of helping underserved communities in Michigan maintain and operate safe and reliable drinking water systems and as Clean Water Public Advocate she will provide a critical link to citizens as we respond to the challenges facing communities in Michigan that have suffered from decades of underinvestment in their drinking water infrastructure." A licensed professional engineer, Donaldson most recently served as district supervisor for EGLE's Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division in southeast Michigan, where she was responsible for regulatory oversight of more than 200 public drinking water systems in four counties. Donaldson will continue the state's focus on lead service line removal as outlined in the Clean Water Public Advocate's 2020 Annual Accountability Report. "During my 17 years at EGLE working on public drinking water issues, I've developed a large network of relationships with both local water system operators and the diverse communities they serve," Donaldson said. "I understand the importance of meeting with people where they are, listening to their drinking water concerns, and taking action to address their concerns." Donaldson will work closely with EGLE's Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division, which oversees public water supplies, runs operator certification and training programs, assists local health departments in drinking water quality investigations, and certifies well construction, domestic septage, and on-site wastewater programs. "My office looks forward to working with Kris in her new role as the Clean Water Public Advocate," said Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash. "We've worked with her for several years to improve drinking water systems and know her to be an excellent partner in protecting public health and improving water system reliability. Her focus on addressing residents' concerns will serve her well as she advocates for them across the state." The Clean Water Public Advocate was established by Gov. Whitmer in Executive Order 2019-06, which created EGLE and the Office of the Clean Water Public Advocate. The Office's duties include investigating complaints and concerns regarding drinking water quality in Michigan, establishing a statewide uniform reporting system to collect and analyze complaints, assisting in the development and implementation of state and federal laws, rules, and regulations related to drinking water quality, and working with public and private stakeholders on outreach efforts to improve the state's drinking water. Donaldson has a bachelor's degree in geoenvironmental engineering from Michigan Technological University. # # # AG Nessel, Education Leaders Visit Lincoln Park Elementary School Showcasing Resilient Schools Project AG Nessel, Education Leaders Visit Lincoln Park Elementary School Showcasing Resilient Schools Project September 17, 2021 LINCOLN PARK, Mich. - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel spent part of the afternoon with Michigan Education Association (MEA) President Paula Herbart and National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle at Raupp Elementary School to learn about Lincoln Park Public Schools' (LPPS) Resilient Schools Project. The program is a shining example of restorative justice programs that reinforce equitable learning opportunities for students, which remains a focus for Nessel. In May, she led a coalition of 23 attorneys general in a letter urging the federal government to issue guidance addressing inequities in student discipline that contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. Following that letter, the Department of Education (DOE) opened a public comment period requesting information regarding the nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline. Nessel again led a coalition of attorneys general in advocating for DOE to issue guidance addressing inequities in student discipline in July. The states are waiting on additional guidance and response from DOE. "Current statistics prove more must be done to ensure every student has an equitable experience in our public school system," Nessel said. "I appreciate the hard work Lincoln Park educators are putting in to support that effort while also managing unprecedented times in the classroom. The Resilient Schools Project provides the tools and resources students need to thrive, and it's my hope other educators take note of its ability to address students' social and emotional needs." Friday afternoon, Nessel, Herbart and Pringle heard directly from school officials about the effectiveness of the program and the opportunity to expand it, thanks to additional federal funding through the American Rescue Plan. "The Resilient Schools Project has provided educators with the tools to successfully prioritize students' social and emotional needs and better equip them for success in the classroom and beyond," Herbart said. "I am proud of our members' dedication to student well-being and trauma-informed education and very pleased to help highlight an innovative program being offered in Michigan public schools." As highlighted recently in the MEA Voice magazine, the Resilient Schools Project supports student recovery in the wake of trauma and adversity. Childhood trauma has been proven to have negative effects on the brain, which can impact the way students learn. Through LPPS' initiative, students learn resiliency and tools to counteract the negative effects of traumatic experiences. "Every student deserves a quality education that harnesses their unique experiences and instills them with the confidence that their trauma does not define them or their potential for a bright future," Pringle said. "The needs for this kind of program have never been greater, which is why we're so appreciative to President Biden, Governor Whitmer and other policymakers who've shown the leadership necessary to get vital resources for programs like this - especially through passage of the American Rescue Plan." You can learn more about the Resilient Schools Project on the district's YouTube. ### Lynsey Mukomel agpress@michigan.gov Attorney General Gov. Whitmer Calls on Legislature to Protect the Constitutional Right to Choice Gov. Whitmer Calls on Legislature to Protect the Constitutional Right to Choice FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 7, 2021 Contact: Press@Michigan.gov Gov. Whitmer Calls on Legislature to Protect the Constitutional Right to Choice Governor urges legislature to send legislation repealing Michigan's 1930s law criminalizing abortion LANSING, Mich. - Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called on the state legislature to pass legislation repealing Michigan's 1930s law criminalizing abortion, which is currently not in effect because of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Repealing the law would ensure that the right to choose, which is supported by a significant majority of Michiganders, remains a right in Michigan, even in the face of continued, relentless attacks on Roe v. Wade. "Recently, Texas passed a new, extreme anti-choice law that puts people's lives at risk, and threatens healthcare workers. The insidious law essentially bans abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, and allows strangers to sue medical professionals or anyone who helps women get the comprehensive healthcare they need. It is a gross violation of the constitutional right to choose, and the Court's decision to allow it to stay in place sets the United States on a dangerous path towards overturning Roe v. Wade. "Unfortunately, there are more cases based on equally extreme state laws awaiting action in the Supreme Court that would completely overturn Roe v. Wade. If the court's decision in the Texas case is any indication, a majority of justices are willing to throw out the constitutional right to choose that has been in place for 48 years and repeatedly upheld for decades. "In Michigan today, abortion is safe and legal, but we have an arcane law on the books from the 1930s banning abortion and criminalizing healthcare providers who offer comprehensive care and essential reproductive services. Thankfully, that dangerous, outdated law is superseded by Roe v. Wade, but, if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe, that Michigan law and others like it may go back into effect in dozens of states, disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities. "I call on the legislature to send Senator Erika Geiss' bill that repeals our nearly-century-old ban on abortion to my desk. I have always stood with those fighting for their right to choose, and I will not stop now. I will stand in the way of any bills that seek to strip away fundamental rights from women or get in the way of doctors' ability to do their jobs." ### Governor Whitmer on Dangerous, Anti-Choice Texas Law Governor Whitmer on Dangerous, Anti-Choice Texas Law FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 2, 2021 Contact: Press@michigan.gov Governor Whitmer on Dangerous, Anti-Choice Texas Law LANSING, Mich.-Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued the following statement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow a draconian Texas law that implements a near total ban on abortion to stay in place. "Texas' new, extreme anti-choice law hurts women and threatens healthcare workers. It is a gross infringement on reproductive rights and freedoms, and the Supreme Court's decision to allow it to stay in place functionally overturns Roe v. Wade. The insidious law essentially bans abortions, even in cases of rape or incest, and allows strangers to sue medical professionals or anyone who helps women get the healthcare they need. The impacts of this decision are potentially catastrophic for the right to choose. "In Michigan today, abortion is safe and legal, but we have an arcane law on the books from the 1930s banning abortion and criminalizing healthcare providers who offer essential reproductive services. Thankfully, that law is superseded by Roe v. Wade, which affirms the constitutional right to reproductive choice. But, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, a ban on abortion will go back into effect in dozens of states, including Michigan. "I have always stood with those fighting for their right to choose, and I will not stop now. I will stand in the way of any bills that seek to strip away fundamental rights from women or get in the way of doctors' ability to do their jobs." ### Gov. Whitmer Announces Federal Historic Preservation Funds to Support Communities along the Great Lakes Gov. Whitmer Announces Federal Historic Preservation Funds to Support Communities along the Great Lakes FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 7, 2021 Contact: Kathleen Achtenberg, achtenbergk@michigan.org Gov. Whitmer Announces Federal Historic Preservation Funds to Support Communities along the Great Lakes $750,000 historic revitalization grant will be used to support projects in Michigan's rural communities along the Great Lakes coastline LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer today announced that the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has been awarded a $750,000 Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant from the National Park Service to support the preservation of historic buildings in rural communities located along the Great Lakes statewide. "Michigan's shoreline communities are travel destinations that that serve as economic, social, and cultural hubs and play a vital role in the state's economy," said Gov. Whitmer. "This funding will help property owners in these critical communities continue to invest in their historic properties, which contribute to the identity and economic vitality that make our Great Lakes communities such an important part of Michigan's identity." The federal grant will be used to fund the SHPO's Resilient Lakeshore Heritage Program, aimed at addressing immediate needs in the state's rural communities along all four Great Lakes coastlines in Michigan and promoting long-term strategies that convey the role of historic preservation in supporting vibrant, culturally-rich places. Through the program, SHPO and its partners at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) will support applicants with rehabilitation projects in communities that participate in SHPO's Certified Local Government (CLG) program, MEDC's Michigan Main Street program, or MEDC's Redevelopment Ready Communities program - three community-focused programs that recognize historic preservation as a meaningful component of economic development and community identity. "Historic downtowns and corridors are a key element in the success of Michigan's lakeshore communities serving as economic engines, conveying important stories about the development of areas along the Great Lakes, and providing the foundation that draws residents, businesses, and visitors," said Michigan's State Historic Preservation Officer Mark A. Rodman. "This program will directly support preservation projects that have an immediate impact and provide the catalyst for long-term preservation strategies that direct the future of these communities." The SHPO application received bipartisan Congressional support from members including U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, U.S. Senator Gary Peters, U.S. Representative Jack Bergman and U.S. Representative Fred Upton. "Grant funding for historic rehabilitation can be difficult for property owners and developers to obtain," said Michigan Historic Preservation Network President David Jackson. "Through this grant award, the SHPO will be able to provide such an opportunity to Michigan's rural coastal communities. MHPN commends the SHPO for securing this funding for Michigan." Eligible properties will include commercial, industrial, civic, mixed-use and community-oriented properties in downtown cores and along prominent community corridors. Properties must be listed in the National Register of Historic Places or be determined eligible for listing prior to the start of the project. Emphasis will be placed on "shovel ready" stabilization and rehabilitation projects and those that revitalize or activate underutilized or vacant properties. Additional information on the program and the application process is anticipated to be released in early 2022. "This opportunity to support historic rehabilitation projects is crucial in preserving the character and memorable aspects of our communities, especially for commercial property owners who face high construction costs in today's economy. With a lack of skilled tradespeople in our region, historic character is often sacrificed because a skillset is not present in the workforce," said city of Charlevoix Main Street Downtown Development Authority Director Lindsey Dotson. "These funds not only provide the opportunity to help offset the costs associated with the important work of retaining the character-defining elements of our built environment but will also help educate our local tradespeople in historic preservation." SHPO's grant is one of 11 that was awarded this year to recipients in 10 states to support the preservation of historic buildings in rural communities across the country. Created in 2018, the Paul Bruhn Historic Preservation Grant Program supports subgrant programs of state and Tribal historic preservation offices, CLGs, and nonprofits that enable the rehabilitation of historic properties and rehabilitate, protect, and foster economic development of rural communities. The program honors the late Paul Bruhn, executive director of the Preservation Trust of Vermont for nearly 40 years. "This National Park Service program not only supports historic preservation, but also fosters economic development in rural communities," said NPS Deputy Director Shawn Benge. "By funding the rehabilitation of historic properties, rural areas across the country will be improved and strengthened." "I was thrilled to lean that Michigan has been selected to receive $750K through the Resilient Lakeshore Heritage Subgrant Program. This program is a wonderful opportunity for beautiful shoreline communities such as Cheboygan to preserve the historic places and natural spaces that are so important not only to our heritage, but our positive growth and momentum," said Cheboygan Main Street Downtown Development Authority Interim Director Katie Duczkowski. "In places where coastline meets community, you'll find that special glow that makes you proud to call Michigan home." Focused on the historic preservation of culturally or archaeologically significant sites throughout the state, Michigan's State Historic Preservation Office's main function is to provide technical assistance to local communities in their efforts to identify, evaluate, designate, interpret and protect Michigan's historic above- and below-ground resources. SHPO also administers an incentives program that includes federal tax credits and pass-through grants available to certified local governments. To learn more about the State Historic Preservation Office, visit https://www.miplace.org/historic-preservation/. NOTE: This material was produced with assistance from the Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior. 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. ### Governor Whitmer Proposes $200 Million Investment to Replace Lead Service Lines Statewide Governor Whitmer Proposes $200 Million Investment to Replace Lead Service Lines Statewide FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 8, 2021 Contact: Press@michigan.gov Governor Whitmer Proposes $200 Million Investment to Replace Lead Service Lines Statewide Governor committed to using every federal, state, and local resource, including $20 million under today's proposal, to replace 100% of lead service lines in Benton Harbor in five years LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) today announced a $200 million proposed expansion of the MI Clean Water Plan to remove lead service lines across the state and called on the legislature to use federal funds from the American Rescue Plan to improve access to safe drinking water. The governor also announced a commitment to use every federal, state and local resource available-including $20 million under today's proposal-to replace 100% of the lead service lines in Benton Harbor in five years. The state will also ensure that all families in Benton Harbor have access to free installation of in-home drinking water filters and lead awareness training during the accelerated water infrastructure upgrade work. Benton Harbor recently reported a lead exceedance under Michigan's strict Lead and Copper Rule and stands as a clear example of decades of disinvestment in water infrastructure and the need for further investment across the state to keep Michigan families safe. "Every Michigander deserves access to safe drinking water and every community deserves lead-free pipes," said Governor Whitmer. "We must make long-overdue upgrades to our water infrastructure and build on the progress we have made under the MI Clean Water Plan to replace lead pipes, fix sewer systems, and tackle PFAS in our water supply. I will work to get people the help they need right now and make lasting, structural investments in infrastructure to protect public health. I urge leaders in Washington to come together to pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act so we can replace lead service lines nationwide, and ensure every parent can give their kid a glass of water at the dinner table with confidence that it's safe." The city of Benton Harbor has approximately 6,000 water service lines, with most consisting of lead or unknown materials. Replacing Benton Harbor's water service lines is estimated to cost nearly $30 million. Under the existing $500 million MI Clean Water Plan, which sets aside $102 million specifically for lead service line replacement, EGLE will award a $3 million allocation through the State Revolving Fund next month to Benton Harbor. In addition to this investment, earlier this year the State supported the City of Benton Harbor's efforts to secure a $5.6 million grant from the EPA to start replacing their lead pipes. With today's $200 million proposed expansion, the city would receive an additional $20 million to replace their lead service lines. Today's proposed expansion is comprised of the following two parts: REPLACING MICHIGAN'S LEAD SERVICE LINES: Invest $200 million sent to Michigan under the American Rescue Plan to expand MI Clean Water's Lead Service Line (LSL) Replacement Program to remove lead pipes across the state, because there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. BENTON HARBOR SUPPORT: Bring together a $20 million investment, technical assistance, and filter distribution to create a support program for Benton Harbor to ensure families can access safe drinking water. REPLACE LEAD SERVICE LINES: A $20 million investment in Benton Harbor to remove 100% of their lead service lines within 5 years. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: Support the community's needs to manage resources and infrastructure projects. FILTERS: Enhance partnerships between DHHS, the local health department, and the community to continue providing filters to families . Help families learn more about safe, effective water filters and assist with installation and use. QUOTES FROM STATE, LOCAL, COMMUNITY, AND LABOR LEADERS: "The health of every Michigander is intimately tied to the quality of their drinking water," said EGLE Director, Liesl Clark. "This $200 million proposal to modernize our aging, inadequate water infrastructure in communities across Michigan and expedite relief efforts to Benton Harbor is an important step towards protecting public health. Water infrastructure is a priority, and we will continue working together to ensure every Michiganders has access to safe drinking water." "Safe drinking water in Benton Harbor and other communities is vitally important for DHHS to meet its mission of improving the health, safety, and prosperity of all residents in the State of Michigan," said MDHHS Director, Elizabeth Hertel. "When we remove lead service lines, we can deliver health and opportunity to all Michiganders and promote health equity." "I am grateful for this investment in our community and committed to working with our partners at the state level to help families have access to safe drinking water," said Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad. "My office, the Berrien County Health Department, and the state health department are committed to providing filters to families and using the $20 million investment to replace 100% of our lead service lines in five years. Together, I know we can get this done." "Our department will continue working closely with our state and local partners to help families access safe drinking water," said Courtney Davis, Acting Health Officer and Interim Director of the Berrien County Health Department. "The $20 million investment to replace lead service lines, expanded technical assistance, and greater filter distribution capabilities builds on our ongoing efforts to protect local public health." "The Governor's $200 million proposal to replace lead service lines will protect public health and help families and communities thrive," said Senator Marshall Bullock, Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus. "This essential expansion of the MI Clean Water Plan will help our neighbors in Benton Harbor replace their lead service lines fast and put filters in their homes right now, as we continue working to provide safe drinking water to every community and make lasting investments in our water infrastructure." "Governor Whitmer is proactively moving to protect public health and put Michigan families first, especially African-American families in Benton Harbor who have grappled repeatedly with dangerous spikes of this neurotoxin in their drinking water," said Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. "Toxic contamination in Michigan's drinking water is an issue that affects us all-whether it's lead in our pipes, toxic PFAS chemicals in our groundwater, or millions of gallons of raw sewage that continually overflows into our rivers and lakes. Both sides in the Legislature have proposed ambitious plans when it comes to investment in our water infrastructure and we anticipate much-needed and unprecedented unification at this critical moment to protect our health and our economy." "Governor Whitmer's $200 million proposal to build on the MI Clean Water Plan will protect public health and create thousands more good-paying jobs," said Price Dobernick, President of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 333. "This investment to replace lead pipes in every community in Michigan will be boosted by the $15 billion in President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and create millions of jobs across the country while safeguarding every community's right to safe drinking water." "We applaud Governor Whitmer for her leadership in recognizing the critical need to replace the state's toxic and poisonous lead lines. Specifically in Benton Harbor, a majority-Black city, where the residents have been living with dangerously high levels of lead and advocating for clean water for over three years. As water infrastructure is restored throughout the municipality, it must extend to the residential homes to ensure complete safety," said Monica Lewis-Patrick, President & CEO, We The People of Detroit. "The impact of this investment has the opportunity to expand beyond water. Truly investing in the communities most impacted by toxic water, employing the residents who live in those communities enables increased water affordability and long-term economic sustainability. Water rates are continually rising across the nation. While we commend the effort to fix the failing infrastructure, we must also ensure that all Michiganders have the means to access clean, safe, and affordable water in perpetuity." ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON TODAY'S ANNOUNCEMENT: Taken together, today's $200 million proposed expansion and the $102 million dollars included in the existing MI Clean Water Plan will put $302 million towards replacing lead service lines statewide and help ensure that every Michigander, no matter where they live, can have access to safe drinking water. Replacing lead service lines is a bipartisan priority, and Michigan Senate Republicans have already proposed spending hundreds of millions to address this issue. Although today's plan represents a significant investment that will replace thousands of pipes in hundreds of communities, further investments are needed to completely replace every lead service line in Michigan. Fortunately, the state is expected to receive billions of dollars under President Biden's soon-to-be-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which specifically includes $15 billion for lead service line replacement nationwide. The governor looks forward to utilizing these funds to replace lead service lines, protect public health, and create thousands of good-paying jobs in the process. Michigan has the nation's strongest regulations to protect communities from lead exposure in drinking water under the 2018 Lead and Copper Rule. The rule requires communities to replace all their lead service lines in 20 years-by 2041-unless otherwise approved by EGLE. The Michigan rule also has the most comprehensive service line inventory requirements in the country, requiring water systems to identify lead service lines and notify residents that receive their drinking water through lead pipes. The state has been going above and beyond to collect more water samples than required under statute to better understand where pipes need to be replaced. While pipes are being replaced, there are ongoing efforts to ensure corrosion control for lines that are known or suspected to have lead exposure. In 2019, Governor Whitmer, in partnership with EGLE and DHHS, also launched MI Lead Safe, a new website providing lead data results for communities and up-to-date information on how Michiganders can protect themselves from lead exposure. The governor also created the Office of the Clean Water Public Advocate to investigate drinking water concerns, make recommendations to EGLE and the governor's office to partner with communities like Benton Harbor and ensure that their concerns are addressed and connect them to resources. ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON BENTON HARBOR DRINKING WATER: Today's actions to support Benton Harbor are necessary because, in spite of efforts taken by the city, EGLE, and MDHHS, the Benton Harbor water system has failed to meet the regulatory standard for lead for six consecutive sampling periods over the last three years. While work to enhance treatment of Benton Harbor's water and reduce lead concentrations in the system will go on, today's $20 million proposed investment will help Benton Harbor speed up the removal of their lead service lines and mitigate ongoing threats to public health. To protect families in Benton Harbor, DHHS, other state agencies, and local officials have been providing filters free of charge to Benton Harbor residents at a variety of pick-up points or by mail. Today's proposal builds on these ongoing efforts by increasing access to filters and providing in-home installation support to ensure families have safe drinking water until all lead service lines are replaced. Since the passage of our Lead and Copper Rule, the strongest in the nation, the Berrien County Health Department (BCHD) has hosted a number of point of distribution events and drive-thru filter pick-up opportunities in partnership with education, public library, and faith-based partners. Filters can be picked up during business hours on a walk-in basis from the BCHD's Benton Harbor Office, during business hours from the Center for Better Health located centrally in the City of Benton Harbor, and are available at "Pop-up Distribution Events." Residents can also call the public health hotline at 1-800-815-5485 for a mail delivery. These efforts target family events within Benton Harbor city limits for highest impact. Benton Harbor Clean Water Fact Sheet.pdf ### Gov. Whitmer Leads Roundtable Discussion with Local Educators, Administrators & Students at Wyoming Public Schools Gov. Whitmer Leads Roundtable Discussion with Local Educators, Administrators & Students at Wyoming Public Schools FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 9, 2021 Press@Michigan.gov Gov. Whitmer Leads Roundtable Discussion with Local Educators, Administrators & Students at Wyoming Public Schools WYOMING, Mich. - Following the largest education investment in Michigan's history of $17 billion without raising taxes, which closed the funding gap between the highest- and lowest-funded school districts, Governor Whitmer met with educators, school administrations, and students from Wyoming Public Schools in Kent County to ensure a smooth transition as districts across the state move back to in-person learning. "It has been an incredibly difficult year and a half for so many Michiganders, but especially for our students and educators, who have had to adjust quickly to constantly changing circumstances," said Governor Whitmer. "I'm inspired by how school districts across our state have stepped up to put students first, and I will continue working hard to get them the resources they need to thrive. Our classrooms and communities show so much promise for what's ahead as they return to in-person learning safely. I will be there every step of the way to support teachers, students and parents as we return to in-person learning and tackle ongoing mental health challenges." Governor Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II will meet with school districts across Michigan to discuss best practices for transitioning from virtual to in-person learning and hearing directly from students on the supports they need. During these unprecedented times, students need a comprehensive recovery-social-emotional, mental, physical, and academic support. In February of 2021, Governor Whitmer created the Student Recovery Advisory Council of Michigan. The Council has released a Blueprint that districts can use to create their own comprehensive student recovery plans. The Blueprint is designed to support local education leaders in developing and implementing a comprehensive recovery plan that is multi-year, evidence-based, and equity-driven. The Blueprint provides data-informed recommendations to address challenges across wellness, academics, school culture and climate, family and community engagement and post-secondary education. MI Blueprint for Comprehensive Student Recovery also provides specific recommendations for state-level policymakers to accelerate student recovery now and lay the foundation for significant systems change in the future. "As a District, the physical, social, and emotional health and safety of our students, staff, and families is of the utmost importance," said Craig Hoekstra, superintendent of Wyoming Public Schools. "Our families have faced many difficulties due to the pandemic. From the passing of loved ones to job loss to food insecurity, our District has worked tirelessly to put resources and supports in place to assist in alleviating some of the stresses our families have faced during these challenging times. We appreciate Governor Whitmer taking the time out of her busy schedule to hear our story and ensure we continue to receive the resources we need to take care of each other." "Each and every day our educators are working to meet the needs of students," said Ron Koehler, superintendent of Kent ISD. "We greatly appreciate the Governor and the legislature coming together to provide a historic investment in our schools. These resources will go a long way in meeting the needs of our students and keeping them in the classroom." In July of this year, Governor Whitmer signed the School Aid budget. A budget which includes $723 million to eliminate the gap between the minimum and maximum foundation allowance by setting both at $8,700 per pupil, an increase of $589 per pupil from the current year minimum amount and an increase of $171 per pupil from the current year target amount. In addition, intermediate school districts receive a 4% operational funding increase. ### Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announces $2 million in export assistance funds available for Michigan's small businesses Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announces $2 million in export assistance funds available for Michigan's small businesses FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Press@Michigan.gov September 9, 2021 Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announces $2 million in export assistance funds available for Michigan's small businesses Michigan Strategic Fund awarded largest federal STEP award in the nation for fifth consecutive year Funds expected to assist more than 350 Michigan companies in increasing international sales LANSING, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer joined the Michigan Economic Development Corporation today to announce Michigan has received the top award in the nation from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) State Trade Expansion Program for the upcoming fiscal year. Michigan received $2 million in federal grant funds - the maximum amount awarded by the SBA and a $650,000 increase from 2021 - to help Michigan small businesses grow in the state through increased access to global markets. "These federal STEP grants are vital to helping businesses across Michigan create and gain access to new revenue streams as they compete in today's global economy," said Governor Whitmer. "As we continue making investments at the state level to grow our middle class and support small businesses, we welcome this infusion of federal funding from the Small Business Administration to help even more Michigan businesses grow, fostering increasing international collaboration and prosperity for all." Administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation's International Trade program, this year's SBA award supports export development for small- and medium-sized businesses through financial assistance grants for virtual and in-person trade missions, international sales trips, and trade shows along with website translation, localization, and search engine optimization and more. MI-STEP is designed to spur job creation by empowering Michigan small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to export their products, providing financial assistance awards for eligible export development-related expenses. The Michigan Strategic Fund is providing an additional $667,000 as the state match to support the Michigan STEP grant initiative (MI-STEP), now in its 10th year of supporting financial assistance for exporting activities of eligible Michigan businesses. To date, MEDC's International Trade program has facilitated more than $4.1 billion in export sales through federal and non-federally funded programs. In fiscal year 2020, export sales generated a total of $592 million for Michigan businesses. "Export sales help to diversify customer bases, provide longer term stability and support higher paying jobs that are critical to our long-term economic growth as a state," said Quentin L. Messer, Jr., CEO of MEDC and President and Chair of the MSF Board. "These funds will allow for our International Trade program to support more businesses, especially growing small businesses, and accelerate our efforts to create a more equitable, inclusive and resilient economy for all Michiganders." The International Trade Program recently added international certifications and export credit insurance premiums as expenses eligible for MI-STEP grant funding. Certifications for ISO, AS9100, CE Mark for Europe, CCC for China, and many more, can be expensive hurdles for Michigan small businesses to face when trying to expand their capacity to sell to global markets and credit insurance extends credit to international buyers and provides businesses with access to working capital. By allowing these new MI-STEP-eligible activities, Michigan companies with an export strategy can now bolster their brand and create a competitive advantage by obtaining certifications and insuring their export sales with less out of pocket premium costs through reimbursements of up to 75 percent through MI-STEP grants. In September 2020, the Michigan Strategic Fund also approved an increase in the maximum MI-STEP grant reimbursement from 50 percent to 75 percent, maintaining the annual cap of $15,000 per company. Eligible activities allowed initially under the CARES Act, including e-commerce and compliance testing, as well as increased website expenses will continue to be eligible going forward. These additions were designed to assist companies grow their visibility in target markets through today's evolving business environment. "Automation Alley is committed to providing export assistance to businesses across Michigan, especially those looking to expand their Industry 4.0 capabilities, through our award-winning trade mission program with the ongoing support of the MEDC," said Tom Kelly, Executive Director and CEO of Automation Alley. "These STEP funds are crucial to ensuring companies have access to international growth opportunities and we look forward to continuing to partner with MEDC to help companies expand their reach globally." "The Michigan SBDC has found the STEP grant to be an invaluable resource for small business owners to grow their export sales and international footprint," said Ronald Stevens, Associate Regional Director, Michigan Small Business Development Center (SBDC). "It's one of the easier grant programs to access that helps small businesses build their international website presence, develop relationships with potential buyers and identify key partners to expand their business abroad. We're very excited that the MEDC continues to be a national leader in supporting export growth in Michigan, which allows our work to continue to help small businesses grow into new markets." The MEDC's export plan was developed and executed through collaboration with strategic Michigan export service providers including: U.S. Department of Commerce, Michigan Small Business Administration, Michigan Small Business Development Center, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, MSU International Business Center, Automation Alley, Van Andel Global Trade Center, Networks Northwest, East & West Michigan District Export Councils along with other state & local service providers. The MEDC coordinates a statewide export assistance delivery system with public and private resources to ensure company access regardless of geographic location. Applications are accepted on an on-going basis for MI-STEP grants to small- and medium- sized businesses. For complete details on how companies can apply for assistance, including eligibility requirements and the application process, please visit www.michiganbusiness.org/export or contact an International Trade Manager. 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. # # # Governor Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist Statement on Swearing in of Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bryan Newland Governor Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist Statement on Swearing in of Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bryan Newland FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 9, 2021 Contact: Press@michigan.gov Governor Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist Statement on Swearing in of Assistant Secretary of the Interior Bryan Newland LANSING, Mich.-Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist issued the following statement after Bryan Newland, a citizen and former President of the Bay Mills Indian Community and a proud Michigander, was formally sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. "Michiganders are so proud of Bryan Newland for being formally sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs," said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. "Assistant Secretary Newland is exceptionally prepared to serve the American people and will work tirelessly to give indigenous communities an empowered seat and voice at the decision-making table. His decades of legal experience, deep policy expertise, long record of public service, and lived experience will help him deliver real change that makes a difference in local tribal communities right now. I am grateful to President Biden for nominating Mr. Newland and excited to watch him and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland work together to get things done." "Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland will serve tribal communities across the United States honorably at the Department of the Interior, building on his long record of getting things done," said Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist. "Mr. Newland's perspective is his power, his experience is incomparable, and his passion for indigenous communities is undeniable. President Biden made an excellent choice in nominating a proud member of the Bay Mills Indian Community in northern Michigan. Together, he and Secretary Haaland will help tribal communities in Michigan and across the country thrive." Bryan Newland is a citizen of the Bay Mills Indian Community (Ojibwe) in northern Michigan where he most recently served his community by leading them as President of the tribe's executive council. Before joining the Department of the Interior, Mr. Newland was an attorney with Fletcher Law, a Lansing-based, national firm specializing in Indian law. He also served on the Michigan State University School of Law's Board of Trustees. In his private sector career, Mr. Newland has represented tribes and commercial gaming companies on gaming matters arising under both state and federal law. He has also worked with tribal colleges on unique intergovernmental issues, including chartering public schools under state law. In 2008, Newland worked on Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Michigan, and was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. He went to serve as counselor and then senior policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, the role he holds today. At the department, he helped develop the administration's policies on Indian gaming and lands and reformed the Department of the Interior's policy on reviewing tribal-state gaming compacts. He also led a team that reformed the BIA's Indian leasing regulations and worked with key officials to help enact the HEARTH Act of 2012. Mr. Newland graduated magna cum laude from Michigan State University College of Law and received his undergraduate degree from James Madison College at Michigan State University. ### Governor Whitmer Announces Grants to Accelerate Mobility and EV Investments in the State Governor Whitmer Announces Grants to Accelerate Mobility and EV Investments in the State FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 15, 2021 Contact: Press@Michigan.gov Governor Whitmer Announces Grants to Accelerate Mobility and EV Investments in the State More than $444,000 in grant funding awarded to test mobility and EV solutions in Flint, East Lansing, Detroit and Southeast Michigan and Washtenaw County Flint, Michigan - Governor Gretchen Whitmer was joined by state, local and university officials at Kettering University's GM Mobility Research Center in Flint today to announce the first round of Michigan Mobility Funding Platform grants. Five mobility companies - MUVE, Airspace Link, KUHMUTE, GreenRoute and Michigan Flyer - received more than $444,000 in funding to deploy mobility pilots in Michigan that alleviate mobility barriers and help accelerate electric vehicle adoption. "These grants are securing a foundation for mobility companies across the state that builds on our reputation as a global leader in testing and deployment of future mobility solutions, but also create a runway to future growth and jobs right here in Michigan," said Governor Whitmer. "These five companies will help bring Michigan closer to our goal of providing sustainable, equitable and accessible transportation options for all residents, and I'm confident this technology will have a lasting positive impact on our communities." The Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Michigan Department of Transportation, launched the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform to provide grants to mobility and electrification companies looking to deploy their technology solutions in the state of Michigan. This first round of grants is awarding $440,000 to five deployments that will help to accelerate investment in mobility and electrification and support high potential mobility and electrification companies who anticipate long-term growth in Michigan. "Michigan entrepreneurs and innovators are leading the way in mobility and electrification transportation solutions that will have an impact around the globe, while creating economic opportunity here in the state," said Trevor Pawl, Chief Mobility Officer with the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. "We are excited to be able to support these deployments through a commitment to public/private partnerships as we continue to make Michigan a state where mobility solutions are born." Today's announcement of the first round of grants through the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform builds on the success of an earlier mobility initiative of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The Michigan Mobility Funding Platform grants focus on catalyzing and scaling mobility solutions that improve environmental sustainability by encouraging electric vehicle (EV) adoption and the buildout of EV charging infrastructure, alleviate mobility barriers and increase access to affordable and reliable transportation options and modernize existing transportation systems. OFME has partnered with NextEnergy and Newlab to help review and administer grant applications, which are accepted on a rolling basis at michiganbusiness.org/mobility-funding. KUHMUTE, which received an $89,005 grant has partnered with the city of Flint, the Flint DDA and Helbiz to support the installation of multimodal charging hubs throughout the city of Flint and encourage the adoption of sustainable first-last mile transit and increase accessibility to public transit and local businesses. Micro-transit such as electric scooters and electric bikes will be able to park and charge at KUHMUTE charging hubs located near key destinations, including bus stops, apartments, restaurants and hotels. "In 2018, we started KUHMUTE to increase accessibility and sustainability for how people move in the 'first and last mile' with a charging network for anything smaller than a car. Our team is extremely pleased to be partnering with the community where we started," said Peter Deppe, Co-Founder and CEO of KUHMUTE and alumni of Kettering University. "A charging network that is agnostic to electric scooters, electric bikes, wheelchairs, delivery robots and more enables communities to choose the mode of transportation that is most convenient for their trip and abilities. Providing choices is a powerful way to increase the adoption of the most sustainable forms of mobility, and our team is excited to play a role in this." Kettering University has continued to be a leader in both mobility and technology research at the GM Mobility Research Center, as well as training the next generation workforce with programs like the Master of Science in Engineering with a focus on Mobility Systems now being offered by the University. Earlier this year, University President Dr. Robert K. McMahan announced a "Bright Future" initiative that evolves curricula and hands-on cooperative experiences for students that focus on the emerging industry needs of engineering, human factors, computing, software, AI and more. "For more than a century, Kettering University has exemplified innovation and education within the automotive and engineering industry here in Michigan and around the world," said McMahan. "As an institution, we are committed to embracing every facet of mobility to prepare the most highly qualified, forward-thinking leaders in this vital industry." Further demonstrating the state's leadership in workforce training around mobility and electrification-related careers, Michigan's University Research Corridor today released a report showing the alliance of Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University leads the nation's top university innovation clusters in preparing the greatest number of graduates for careers in the mobility industry - 14,824 total, more than university clusters in California, Texas and Massachusetts. It also prepares more than 46% of Michigan graduates who hold degrees in high demand by the mobility industry, such as business, computer science and engineering degrees. Additional Michigan Mobility Funding Platform Grant recipients are as follows: MUVE ($125,000) Together with W.A.V.E (Western-Washtenaw Area Value Express), MUVE will help bring more accessibility options to riders, dispatchers and drivers and enhance operational efficiency through technology that allows transit and on-demand ride-hailing to be fully integrated to help users of all abilities, including seniors, veterans, and others living with mobility challenges, get to their destination safely. "MUVE is grateful for the continued support from OFME and MDOT in furthering our mission of putting inclusive mobility and community building at the forefront in Michigan," said Anthony Shannon, Co-Founder of MUVE. "We see the State of Michigan as the leading market for mobility innovation globally and we are looking forward to deploying our solution with WAVE as well as with the community partners in surrounding areas. We look forward to continuing the important work MUVE is doing in mobility, community development and inclusion while working to scale this innovation throughout the State of Michigan and beyond." Airspace Link ($125,000) Airspace Link will be collaborating with a select group of drone operator partners, health care systems and other enterprises to establish an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) delivery network in the Southeast Michigan/Detroit region, to transport urgent medical items for improving the timeliness of patient care. The project will entail a phased approach, starting with simple point-to-point deliveries that will later be expanded to include multi-point and longer-range deliveries that can be scaled over time. "We knew Michigan would be a great place to start our business with its deep roots in mobility and have continued to see extraordinary growth for our business in this state," said Michael Healander, CEO of Airspace Link. "The willingness to embrace new technology and advancements from both the public and private sectors has been critical in fueling our success and placing Michigan as a top choice for these types of technology pilots and new infrastructure. The awarding of this grant helps move us closer to our vision of a world where the safe integration of drones fuels human progress, advancing social equity, the environment and the economy. We're proud to provide solutions that can increase the safety and speed at which these solutions can scale and can't thank MEDC enough for their support in advancing this mission." GreenRoute ($40,000) GreenRoute has teamed up with DTE to provide customers within DTE's EV Connections Community complimentary access to GreenRoute's energy-efficient EV routing via an iOS app. The routes are customized to the exact year, make and model of the vehicle and are expected to save drivers 15-20% in battery consumption, which will help alleviate range anxiety and accelerate adoption of electric vehicles in Michigan. "GreenRoute technology is an inexpensive way to improve fuel economy and extend EV range without paying for a larger battery,'' said Sudhindra Uppuluri, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of GreenRoute. "The driving directions we use today were created two decades ago considering the speed of travel and not the energy consumption in the route. GreenRoute leverages 20 years of advanced automotive vehicle math models along with traffic, predictive driving behavior, and your exact vehicle to offer a fast and energy-efficient route to the destination. We are excited to be partnered with DTE Energy to pilot this technology in Southeast Michigan." Michigan Flyer ($65,000) With frequent daily round trips each between East Lansing, Brighton, Ann Arbor, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport and more than 200,000 passengers a year, Michigan Flyer-along with its parent company Indian Trails, Inc., and technology partners VIA RIDE and Turnit Reservations-will develop an API (application programing interface) that enables the reservation systems of different transportation providers to exchange data and coordinate with one another. This API will allow passengers will be able to reserve and pay for end-to-end trips using multiple providers on a single e-ticket. Phase I will focus on providing cross-regional connections for people who live and work in the Greater Lansing and Ann Arbor metropolitan areas. "Michigan Flyer is uniquely positioned to lead the development of an integrated, multi-modal system that finally goes the full distance for passengers," said Chad Cushman, president of Indian Trails. "It has longstanding public-private partnerships with the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority and Livingston Essential Transportation Services to operate daily service between their regions and Detroit Metro Airport. Since 2016, it has been testing multi-provider arrangements through which door-to-door transport services can be offered. And it has the support of folks representing several organizations of people with disabilities, including veterans, who will serve as a user testing group for the integrated system." Learn more about how Michigan is leading in transportation mobility and electrification visit www.michiganbusiness.org/mobility. ### Governor Whitmer Statement on Eight Straight Months of Declining Unemployment Governor Whitmer Statement on Eight Straight Months of Declining Unemployment FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 15, 2021 Contact: Press@michigan.gov Governor Whitmer Statement on Eight Straight Months of Declining Unemployment Governor highlights August jobs report showing lowest unemployment level since March 2020, touches on proposed investments in small business, childcare, health, housing, and more LANSING, Mich.-Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued the following statement after the release of Michigan's August unemployment numbers. The state's unemployment last month was down to 4.7%, below the national average and the lowest level since March 2020. "Michigan's economy is headed in the right direction, but we know we still have more to do to get Michiganders back to work. Our unemployment rate is below the national average, businesses are staffing up, and personal income is up 19.1%, year over year, the fourth-highest nationwide. There is plenty to be optimistic about, but despite eight straight months of declining unemployment, we have more to do to ensure every family, community, and small business can thrive as we usher in a new era of prosperity for our state. "I have laid out a range of plans that utilize the massive influx of federal funds we have received to make game-changing investments in the kitchen-table, fundamental issues that matter most to Michiganders. This includes a plan to expand access to childcare, invest in small businesses and entrepreneurship, upgrade our state and local parks, build affordable housing units, bolster public health departments and mental health resources, and more. "I look forward to working with anyone who wants to put Michiganders first. Together, we can power our economy to new highs, build on the progress we have made, and get things done for our families, communities, and small businesses." Michigan's economy grew 7.6% in the first quarter of 2021, the best in the Midwest. The state also went from a projected $3 billion deficit to a $3.5 billion surplus and continues to lead the nation in automotive manufacturing. Personal income was up 19.1% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2020, the fourth-largest increase in the nation. To read the full report, click here: ### Gov. Whitmer Lowers Flags to Honor Former Staff Sergeant Natalie Barajas Gov. Whitmer Lowers Flags to Honor Former Staff Sergeant Natalie Barajas FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 16, 2021 Contact: Press@Michigan.gov Gov. Whitmer Lowers Flags to Honor Former Staff Sergeant Natalie Barajas LANSING, Mich. -- Governor Whitmer has ordered U.S. and Michigan flags throughout the state of Michigan to be lowered to half-staff on Sunday, September 19 to honor the life and service of former Staff Sergeant Natalie Barajas. "Our state mourns the passing of former Staff Sergeant Natalie Barajas," Governor Whitmer said. "Staff Sergeant Barajas served her country honorably and inspired many with her dedication to helping others. I extend my deepest condolences to her family and loved ones as they lay her to rest." Barajas was born April 26, 1990 and graduated from Gaylord High School in 2008. She then joined the U.S. Army, where she served as a combat medic, orthopedic technician, clinic supervisor and staff sergeant. Her military career included deployments to Iraq and Germany. During her service she earned the Army Commendation Medal seven times, the Army Achievement Medal five times, the Army Good Conduct Medal three times, and the Iraq Campaign Medal. Barajas passed away on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 at the age of 30 years old. The State of Michigan recognizes the selfless leadership, determination and honor of Staff Sergeant Natalie Barajas. Michigan residents, businesses, schools, local governments and other organizations also are encouraged to display the flag at half-staff. To lower flags to half-staff, flags should be hoisted first to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The process is reversed before the flag is lowered for the day. Flags should be returned to full-staff on Monday, September 20 unless otherwise notified. ### Governor Whitmer Joined Ford to Announce 450 Jobs and $250 Million Investment in Michigan to Support F-150 Lightning Production Governor Whitmer Joined Ford to Announce 450 Jobs and $250 Million Investment in Michigan to Support F-150 Lightning Production FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 16, 2021 Contact: Press@Michigan.gov PHOTOS: Governor Whitmer Joined Ford to Announce 450 Jobs and $250 Million Investment in Michigan to Support F-150 Lightning Production DEARBORN, Mich. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer today joined Ford leadership, Director of UAW Region 1A Laura Dickerson, and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and Congressman Dan Kildee at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, to announce that Ford's electric vehicle facility is complete, and the first F-150 Lightning pre-production trucks are leaving the factory for real-world testing. Ford also announced plans to invest an additional $250 million to create 450 jobs in Dearborn, Ypsilanti, and Sterling Heights to support the production of the new F-150 Lightning. "We're standing on the edge of an era of electrification that will be built in factories like this one by hardworking UAW members and the innovative minds at Ford," said Governor Whitmer. "I am proud of Ford for committing to invest $250 million today to create 450 jobs in Dearborn, Ypsilanti, and Sterling Heights that will support production of the new, all-electric F-150 Lightning. Their efforts will help us reach my statewide goal to be carbon-neutral by 2050 and create good-paying jobs along the way. I will stay laser-focused at the state-level on making investments in the future of mobility and electrification, and together, we can create good-paying, high-skill union jobs and lead the world in electric vehicle development and manufacturing." "Electrifying the F-Series - America's best-selling truck for 44 years - and assembling it at this high-tech facility in Michigan - represents a significant step toward mass adoption of electric vehicles in America," said Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of The Americas and International Markets Group. "F-150 Lightning is intended to be more than a no-compromise zero tailpipe-emissions truck. It's packed with ingenious features and technology that will improve over time, it's exhilarating to drive and it can power your home and worksite." "Today's announcement is a great example of the right way to navigate the transition to tomorrow's vehicles by ensuring good-paying jobs of the future - investing in building vehicles in the United States, with the hard-working men and women of the UAW," said Laura Dickerson, UAW Region 1A Director. "Investments like this can pave the way to a future that protects our families, our communities and our middle class. Ford is doing this the right way with the F-150 Lightning - creating 450 additional UAW-represented jobs. Ford is investing in this all-electric F-150 Lightning, as well as hybrid and gas F-150 versions, as consumer demands shift. It's not a one-size-fits-all approach." Since Governor Whitmer took office, a record 15,000 good-paying auto jobs have been created in the state of Michigan, including the first Detroit auto plant in 30 years, cementing Michigan's status as a global manufacturing leader. Michigan continues to lead the world in the automotive space, receiving multiple awards for our manufacturing capabilities and potential. Last year, Governor Whitmer created the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification to coordinate all auto and mobility-related initiatives across state government, including economic development, workforce development, and infrastructure, to secure Michigan's status as a global leader in autonomous, connected, electric, and shared future mobility. In September of 2020, Governor Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-182 and Executive Directive 2020-10 to create the MI Healthy Climate Plan. The governor's comprehensive plan protects Michiganders' public health and the environment and help develop new clean energy jobs by putting Michigan on a path towards becoming fully carbon-neutral by 2050. The MI Healthy Climate Plan, a plan to move all sectors of our economy to carbon neutral by 2050 and ensures marginalized communities impacted by climate change will benefit from our energy transition. Earlier this year, Gov. Whitmer announced grants for 88 electric vehicle charging sites across Michigan, to expand the statewide charging network and support electric vehicles and yesterday announced the first round of Michigan Mobility Funding Platform grants to accelerate mobility and EV investments in the state. ### MANISTEE COUNTY The Manistee County Board of Commissioners could adopt its budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year after a public hearing scheduled for Sept. 21. Public comment on the proposed budget and tax millage rate is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesdays meeting will take place in the board of commissioners meeting room in the Manistee County Courthouse and Government Center, located at 415 Third St. in Manistee. To attend the meeting virtually, visit zoom.us/j/95404849166 with the passcode 4153. The board of commissioners adopted a tentative general fund budget totaling $12,322,881, and tentative supplemental fund budgets totaling $11,569,484 on Aug. 24. Since that time, the tentative budget and maximum property tax millage rate of 8.8319 mills has been available for public inspection in the county clerks office and on the countys website, manisteecountymi.gov. The board has reviewed the financial statements of all county entities receiving a millage to determine whether millage reductions should occur. During its budget study sessions the commissioners have reached a consensus that the Manistee County millage should be levied in accordance with the General Property Tax Act at 8.8319 mills ($8.8319 per $1,000 of taxable value). The maximum millage levy allowable under the act is 9.0266. The board levied a millage of 8.53 in 2020. In addition to public input, county officials will provide an overview of recommended changes to the tentative budget, and answer questions from the board and members of the public. After the hearing, the board will consider adoption of the 2020 General Fund Appropriations Act resolution. This resolution adopts the 2020-21 general fund and supplemental budgets. The resolution also levies a total millage of 8.53 mills for 2020 operations and lays out specific policies and procedures regarding the 2020-21 budget, according to county documents. Also on Tuesdays agenda is a public hearing on amendments to the Manistee County Planning Commission ordinance of December 2008. The board may consider approval of amendments after the hearing which is set to begin at 5 p.m. The board will also consider a number of applicants to the county board of canvassers. Two individuals, one Democrat and one Republican, will be considered for a four year term starting Nov. 1 and expiring in October 2025. Michigan election law provides that the expired terms must be filled as follows: The county committee of each political party is required to provide the county clerk with the names of three nominees for the partys expiring seat on the board no later than Sept. 1; The Manistee County Board of Commissioners is required to fill the two vacancies on the board by electing a Republican member and a Democratic member from the submitted names. Michigan election law specifies that commissioners use ballots when filling the seats; and The county clerk is required to notify the appointees within five days. The council could consider a number of other items at the Sept. 21 meeting which include the following: Jennifer Berkey, district director for Michigan State University Extension, will appear before the board at 5:30 p.m. to give an annual report; Approval of a Veterans Services Fund contract; Local revenue sharing grant application approval for the Manistee County Sheriffs Office; and An update on a strategic plan for Manistee County. Related: What to know from this month's Manistee County commissioners meeting Looking for something to do? Heres a list of local community and nonprofit events. Please check with your club or organization to be certain of meetings, outings and classes, as they may be canceled because of bad weather or other reason. If any listing is inaccurate or to submit an event, contact Julie Norwood at 231-592-8358 or julie.norwood@pioneergroup.com. Shred Event: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 18, at Lerner Csernai Fath Financial, 15505 Waldron Way, Big Rapids. Bring your shred in non-returnable bags/boxes. Donations to benefit Manna Pantry of Big Rapids. For more information, visit mannapantry.org/programs-2. Basket Weaving Scarecrow Basket: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at Artworks 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $55. Contact: 231-796-2420 Glass Fusion Glass Heart: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at Artworks, 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $75. Contact: 231-796-2420. Animal Tales Australian Kangaroo: 10-11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at Card/Riley Conservation & Wildlife Education Center, 820 Campus Drive, Big Rapids. Learn about Australian Kangaroo with a story and a craft. Cost: Free. Contact: Carrie Weis at weisc@ferris.edu, 231-591-2536. Tuba Bach Festival: 4 p.m. Saturdays, Sept. 11-Oct. 17, outside at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 726 Fuller Ave., Big Rapids. A separate concert will be livestreamed online only, as well as on Sunny 97.3 FM at 4 p.m. Sundays. Visit www.tubabach.org. for links. Cub Scout Pack 174 Registration Night: 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, 223 E. 5th Ave., Reed City. Reed City Cub Scout Pack 174 will kick off its 2021-22 season with a Pack Meeting. All new and returning Scouts are invited to attend, and new Scouts can register to join the Pack during the meeting. Open to boys in grades 1-5. Wolfy Memorial Tournament: Friday, Sept. 24, and Saturday, Sept. 25. Contact: Cody Wyman at cwyman@cityofbr.org, 231-349-2060. For more information or to register a team, visit wolfymemorialtournament.com. Mosaic Mirror: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, at Artworks 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $80 for Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 sessions; $60 for Sept. 25 session only. Contact: 231-796-2420 Little Women: 7 p.m. Sept. 24, Sept. 25, Oct. 8, Oct. 9; and 2 p.m. Sept. 26, Oct. 2, Oct. 3 and Oct. 10; at CrossRoads Theatre, 249 W. Upton Ave., Reed City. Tickets are $10 each and can be reserved by calling 231-465-4044. Swiss Steak Dinner: 4-6:30 p.m. the last Friday of every month, April-October, at the Barryton Senior Center, 71 Northern Ave., Barryton. Includes dinner and dessert. Everyones welcome. Tai Chi: Noon on Wednesdays at Hemlock Park. Improve muscle tone, flexibility, balance and coordination. Newcomers welcome. brpr.org. Mecosta Co. Genealogical Society: Open 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every second Saturday, at 424 N. Fourth Ave., Big Rapids, next to Recycle. Thousands of obits and hundreds of books with history and genealogy for the Mecosta Co. area. Stop by or call Maureen Nelson at 231-250-5555 to set up an appointment. Mecosta County Sheriff Posse: 7 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Mecosta County Jail basement training room, 225 S. Stewart Ave., Big Rapids. This volunteer group is always looking for more members. For more info call 231-250-9241 Lords Table Food Pantry: 3-5 p.m. Wednesdays at Faith Community Church, 610 Green St., Big Rapids. Everyone is welcome. Reed City Food Pantry: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 7, at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 831 S. Chestnut St., Reed City. Morley Community Center: The center, at 151 7th St., Morley, hosts weekly pickleball, open gym, indoor garage sales and outdoor market, in addition to monthly ancestry class, craft night and blood drive. For a list of activities, visit morleycenter.org/events or call 231-856-4496. ARTWORKS ONGOING CLASSES, EXHIBITS 106 N. Michigan Ave. in Big Rapids / 231-796-2420 / artworksinbigrapids.org After School Arts: 3:45-5:15 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 1-29. Drop-ins welcome on a first come, first serve basis, but registration recommended. Register at Artworks gift shop or by calling 231-796-2420 the Monday before each session. Open Pottery: 5-8 p.m. Tuesdays. Cost: $10 per session, $60 for an eight-session punch card. (Additional firing fees apply. Clay may be purchased in bulk for $20 per 25 lbs.) Call 231-796-2420 to schedule your session. Hand Built Pottery Fall Session: 6-8 p.m. Mondays, Sept. 13, 20, 27, and Oct. 4, 18, 25. Cost: $150. Register by calling 231-796-2420 or online at www.artworksinbigrapids.org/pottery. Beginning Wheel Fall Session: 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 15, 22, 29, and Oct. 5, 12, 26. Cost: $150. Register by calling 231-796-2420 or online at www.artworksinbigrapids.org/pottery. Fundamentals of Photography Beginner Course: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 15-Oct. 19. Cost: $75. Register by calling 231-796-2420 or online at www.artworksinbigrapids.org/photography. Exhibit Joyful Journey: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Aug. 30-Oct. 3. Exhibit features artwork Hope Network and MOISD students. One day of trick-or-treating just doesnt do Halloween justice. At least, thats what the Caseville Chamber of Commerce states on its website announcing the annual Pumpkin Festival. The 2021 Pumpkin Festival will return for this weekend one week earlier than in previous years. Event coordinator and co-owner of Keepsakes Jennifer Ruth said the family-oriented festival is meant to be something kids and parents can enjoy together. Festival highlights include the lighted parade, in which attendees can adorn themselves, their cars, tractors, bikes or floats in lights and pumpkin-themed decorations. The parade will start Saturday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. on the corner of Michigan Street and M-25. Another coveted event is the annual pumpkin roll at the Caseville County Park Sept. 18 at 11 a.m. This event is sponsored by the Caseville Fire Department and Independent Bank, which will give away two bicycles to participants. Scarecrow building in the Caseville City Park will go from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Straw, accessories and clothes will be provided by the Caseville Chamber of Commerce for $15 for a large scarecrow and $10 for a small. New events this year include a hotdog eating contest, cornhole tournament and fundraiser, various kids games and a farmers market. Other favorites like music in the park, the candy treasure hunt, bale rolling, face-painting, pumpkin decorating and the kids pumpkin parade are all set to return to Caseville. Were hoping for a good year because the festivals a week early and hopefully people realize that, Ruth said. Im hoping the weather will be nice and sunny, and there will be a lot of people in town who will stick around and come back from the Pumpkin Fest for two full days of fun and family activities that the kids can participate in. Ruth said shes always looking for volunteers to help the festival go smoothly. People who are interested in volunteering can contact Keepsakes at 989-856-3006, reach out the Chamber of Commerce or show up day-of at the Village Memorial Park for volunteer opportunities. The Pumpkin Festival is put on every year by Keepsakes in Caseville in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce. To stay up-to-date on the latest event changes, visit the Caseville Chamber of Commerce website or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/casevillechamber. CHICAGO (AP) A Chicago woman has been charged with obtaining dozens of young homicide victims' death certificates and using them to defraud the government out of thousands of dollars in tax refunds and coronavirus stimulus payments. Katrina Pierce faces federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a criminal complaint made public Thursday. A judge ordered Pierce, who was sent to prison for a similar scheme nine years ago, to remain locked up pending trial. Her next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. According to prosecutors, Pierce obtained the death certificates for dozens of young homicide victims and used them to collect thousands of dollars in payments, the Chicago Tribune reported. An investigation into Pierce began in late 2019 when a Cook County Vital Records Bureau employee noticed that on the same day, Pierce requested death certificates for four people who had different last names, claiming to be a sister of all of them. A check of the bureau's database revealed that she had requested 37 death certificates that year and succeeded in getting 26 of them, prosecutors allege. Among the ones she got was that of 7-year-old Amari Brown, who was fatally shot in 2015. According to the criminal complaint, Pierce was able to collect a $4,400 federal tax refund claiming to be the boy's aunt. Prosecutors also allege that Pierce filed a tax return for a St. Louis man declaring an income of $1 despite the fact that the man had been shot to death more than a year earlier. That netted her about $4,400 in coronavirus stimulus payments from the Internal Revenue Service. According to the complaint, the IRS received a tax return for Rajona Pierce. That was an alias that Pierce had used in the criminal case that ended with her convicted of stealing more than $200,000 in federal tax and state child care benefits and being sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in 2012. According to the complaint, in that return, Rajona Pierce reported $1 in income for a beauty salon that didn't exist at an address that turned out to be a long-demolished public housing project on the city's South Side. Investigators also found that Rajona Pierce received a total of $3,200 in stimulus payments, according to the complaint and they suspect that Pierce used multiple banks and accounts in an effort to hide or to launder the proceeds of her various schemes," according to the complaint. The complaint does not include an exact amount of money that Pierce allegedly made off with, but it makes clear that the total was in the tens of thousands of dollars. For example, it points out that Pierce deposited nearly $84,000 into a bank account during the last six months of 2020 even though she declared that she earned less than half of that amount on her income tax return for that entire year. This, the complaint contends, suggests that Pierce may have an illicit source or sources of income that she wishes to conceal. TOKYO (AP) Official election campaigning started Friday for the next head of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party. The winner will almost certainly become leader of the worlds No. 3 economy, shaping key political, military and security roles in the region. Two men and, unusually for Japan, two women are competing in the Sept. 29 vote to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Their policies focus on anti-coronavirus measures, an economy hobbled by the pandemic and how to deal with, from Tokyos perspective, Chinas increasingly menacing role in regional affairs. The Associated Press explains who these politicians are, their policies and the importance of the election for both Japan and Asia. ___ THE CANDIDATES TARO KONO: Considered something of a maverick in Japan's largely conservative political culture, he is the minister in charge of vaccinations and a front runner in the election. Kono, 58, is a fluent English speaker who graduated from Georgetown University. He is an avid Twitter user, with many young fans, a rarity in a Japanese political world dominated by elderly men. A liberal on social issues, Kono supports same sex marriage and advancing the role of women. Having served as foreign and defense minister, Kono says he will work with countries that share democratic values to counter Chinas growing assertiveness in regional seas. He stressed his achievements in speeding up Japan's delayed vaccinations, portraying himself as a leader who gets things done by tearing down bureaucratic barriers if necessary. Suga announced his support for Kono, praising his achievement in speeding up vaccinations. He is backed by other popular reformists and is seen as a rival to supporters of former arch-conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. FUMIO KISHIDA: The 64-year old former foreign minister was once seen as an indecisive moderate. Of late, however, he has shifted to a security and diplomatic hawk as he seeks support from influential conservatives like Abe. Kishida calls for a further increase of Japans defense capability and budget and vows to stand up to China in tensions in the Taiwan Strait and Beijings crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong. On the economy, Kishida calls for a new capitalism of growth and distribution to narrow income gaps between the rich and the poor that have been worsened by the pandemic. He pledges to promote clean energy technology to turn climate change measures into growth and proposes a hefty economic recovery package. SEIKO NODA: A longtime hopeful to become Japan's first female leader, she is entering the race for the first time at age 61. She has served as postal, internal affairs and gender equality ministers. Noda, who has long sought to address the country's declining birth rates, had her first child at age 50 after fertility treatment. Japan's rapidly shrinking population is a serious national security risk because Japan won't have enough troops or police in coming decades, she said. She supports same-sex marriage and acceptance of sexual diversity, as well as a legal change to allow separate surnames for married couples, and has campaigned for a quota system to increase the number of female lawmakers. Noda, a late entry in the race, said she is running for the weak and to achieve diversity a goal that other candidates did not highlight. SANAE TAKAICHI: An ultra-conservative former internal affairs minister, Takaichi, 60, shares Abes revisionist views on Japans wartime atrocities and hawkish stance on security. She regularly visits the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines war criminals among the war dead and is viewed by China and the Koreas as proof of Japans lack of remorse. Her security policies include developing a preemptive strike capability to counter threats from China and North Korea. Takaichi introduced a Sanaenomics policy of big government spending similar to Abe's signature economics policy. A drummer in a heavy-metal band and a motorbike rider as a student, she favors traditional gender roles and a paternalistic family system and staunchly supports the imperial familys male-only succession. ___ WHAT THE ELECTION MEANS FOR JAPAN The sudden resignation of Suga, who was chief cabinet secretary for Abe for nearly eight years before rising to prime minister last year, means a possible end to an era that saw unusual political stability even amid corruption scandals and strained ties with China and the Koreas. The upcoming election will determine whether Japans governing party can move out of Abes shadow, said Masato Kamikubo, professor of policy science at Ritsumeikan University. Little change, however, is expected in Japans diplomatic and security policies whoever becomes prime minister, he said. Support ratings for Suga and his government nosedived because of his handling of the virus and insistence on hosting the Olympics during the pandemic. The ruling LDP is hoping that a new face in leadership can rally public support ahead of lower house elections that must be held by late November, says Tetsuo Suzuki, a political journalist and commentator. But, with Sugas term ending after only one year, there are fears of a return to Japans revolving door of short-lived prime ministers. ___ HOW THE ELECTION WORKS The campaign is only for Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers in the parliament and grassroots members, not the general public. Whoever wins will likely become the next prime minister in a parliamentary vote, expected in early October, because the LDP and its coalition partner hold the majority in both houses. If no one gets a majority in the Sept. 29 ballot, a winner will be determined in a runoff, which will likely be influenced by a power struggle among party heavyweights that political watchers say could work in favor of Kishida. MOSCOW (AP) Facing Kremlin pressure, Apple and Google on Friday removed an opposition-created smartphone app that tells voters which candidates are likely to defeat those backed by Russian authorities, as polls opened for three days of balloting in Russia's parliamentary election. Unexpectedly long lines formed at some polling places, and independent media suggested this could show that state institutions and companies were forcing employees to vote. The election is widely seen as an important part of President Vladimir Putins efforts to cement his grip on power ahead of the 2024 presidential polls, in which control of the State Duma, or parliament, will be key. Russian authorities have sought to suppress the use of Smart Voting, a strategy designed by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, to curb the dominance of the Kremlin-backed United Russia party. Apple and Google have come under pressure in recent weeks, with Russian officials telling them to remove the Smart Voting app from their online stores. Failure to do so will be interpreted as interference in the election and make them subject to fines, the officials said. Last week, Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan over the issue. On Thursday, representatives of Apple and Google were invited to a meeting in the upper house of Russia's parliament, the Federation Council. The Council's commission on protecting state sovereignty said in a statement afterward that Apple agreed to cooperate with Russian authorities. Apple and Google did not respond Friday to a request from The Associated Press for comment. Google was forced to remove the app because it faced legal demands by regulators and threats of criminal prosecution in Russia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who also said Russian police visited Googles Moscow offices Monday to enforce a court order to block the app. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday the presidential administration definitely, of course welcomes the companies decision, because the app was outside the law in Russia. In recent months, authorities have unleashed a sweeping crackdown against Navalnys allies and engaged in a massive effort to suppress Smart Voting. Navalny is serving 2-year prison sentence for violating parole over a previous conviction he says is politically motivated. His top allies were slapped with criminal charges and many have left the country. Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, as well as a network of regional offices, have been outlawed as extremist organizations in a ruling that exposes hundreds of people associated with them to prosecution. About 50 websites run by his team have been blocked, and dozens of regional offices have been closed. The authorities have moved to block the Smart Voting website as well, but some users can still access it. Navalny's team also created a Smart Voting chat bot on the messaging app Telegram and published a list of candidates Smart Voting endorses in Google Docs and on YouTube. Close Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov on Friday tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be an email from Apple, explaining why the app should be removed from the store. The screenshot cites the extremism designation for the Foundation for Fighting Corruption and allegations of election interference. Google, Apple are making a big mistake, Zhdanov wrote. Leonid Volkov, Navalny's top strategist, wrote on Facebook that the companies bent to the Kremlin's blackmail. He noted that the move doesn't affect users who have already downloaded the app, and that it should be functioning correctly. Volkov told the AP last month that at some point in August, the app ranked third on Google Play in Russia among social networking apps and fourth on the App Store in the same category. Peskov on Friday called Smart Voting another attempt at provocations that are harmful for the voters. The long lines at some polling stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and some other cities raised concerns of forced voting. David Kankiya from the Golos independent election monitoring group told AP that it was easier for state institutions and companies to force people to vote on Friday because there was less attention from observers. Some observers are busy with work, some with university studies, as it's a work day and not a weekend," he said. "Monitoring is harder to organize, ergo, there are fewer risks for the administrative machine. Peskov dismissed the allegations and suggested that those at polling stations were there voluntarily because they had to work on the weekend or wanted to free up Saturday and Sunday. Putin, who has been self-isolating since Tuesday after dozens of people in his inner circle got infected with COVID-19, voted online Friday an option that is available in seven Russian regions this year. Kremlin critics have said that leaves room for manipulation. Dr. Anna Trushina, a radiologist at a Moscow hospital, told AP she went to a polling station to be honest, because we were forced (to vote) by my work. Frankly speaking. She added: And I also want to know who leads us." Media in St. Petersburg reported on suspected cases of carousel voting, in which voters cast ballots at several different polling stations. An AP video journalist saw the same voters, believed to be military school students, at two different polling stations; one of them said the group had first gone to the wrong polling station. A local elections commission member posted video in which a man appeared to have tried to cast several ballots and then was confronted by a poll worker. The man in the video said he had obtained his ballots at a subway station. Although Google and Apple do not report their revenue in Russia, they have a lot at stake there, said Ruben Enikolopov, a political economy professor at the New Economic School in Moscow. Its a very sizable market, 140 million people, he said. Losing such a market for them, thats not negligible at all. It will not really dent their financial performance, but its a big blow so they will put a lot of effort not to lose. Both companies also might be trying to avoid difficulties for their Russia-based employees, Enikolopov said. Western tech giants such as Twitter, Facebook and Google have come under pressure this year from the Russian government over their role in amplifying dissent. Authorities accused the platforms of allegedly failing to remove calls for protests and levied hefty fines against them. The companies face similar challenges elsewhere. In India, the government is in a standoff with Twitter, which it accuses of failing to comply with new internet regulations that digital activists say could curtail online speech and privacy. Turkey passed a law last year that raised fears of censorship, giving authorities greater power to regulate social media companies that also were required to establish local legal entities a demand that Facebook and Twitter have met. Twitter has been banned in Nigeria since June, when the company took down a controversial tweet by the countrys president, although the government has promised to lift it soon. - Chan reported from London. Matt O(backslash)Brien in Providence, R.I. and Vladimir Kondrashov and Anna Frants in Moscow contributed. AP GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) A federal judge on Friday said he would postpone the Oct. 12 trial of five men accused of planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A new date wasn't immediately set, but U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker suggested the trial might get pushed to February or March. Defense lawyers said they needed more time to pore over evidence shared by federal prosecutors, especially the undercover work of FBI agents and informants. WARSAW, Poland (AP) The prime ministers of Poland and Lithuania said Friday that tighter security at their borders with Belarus was the best way to ease pressure from migrant inflows there, as they expect what they called a hybrid attack from Belarus to continue. Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki and Lithuania's Ingrida Simonyte also said stronger bilateral cooperation, including in business, and infrastructure, would help against hostile pressure on the European Union's eastern border. Morawiecki and Simonyte, as well as their government members, discussed ways of preventing illegal migration and enhancing border security. We are preparing for a scenario of a long-term dispute around our borders," Morawiecki said following the talks. He added that the two countries would implement "a stronger physical protection against the illegal migration, which (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenko's regime has turned into a weapon. Both countries have introduced local emergency states blocking access to their borders with Belarus. They are also building razor wire fences there and have increased border guard patrols and vehicles. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have seen a sharp rise in crossings by Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians and Africans through Belarus in recent months. The three EU countries accuse Belarus of pushing the migrants across their borders. The issue arose after Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus for its repression of opposition members after Lukashenko won a sixth term last year in elections that the West and the opposition say were rigged. Germanys Der Spiegel magazine said Friday that Germany is stepping up patrolling of its 460-kilometer (280-mile) border with Poland because of the increased number of illegal crossings and smuggling attempts into Germany, mainly of migrants from Iraq who had entered the EU from Belarus. Simonyte said Friday that Lithuania was looking for best technical and personnel solutions to protect its long border of over 500 kilometers (300 miles) with Belarus. We must put a physical barrier on our borders because one can clearly see that electronic devices alone are not enough to meet such a hybrid attack, she said. Morawiecki said Poland estimated some 10,000 people were brought to Belarus from the Middle East, chiefly from Iraq and Syria, to exert pressure on the EUs eastern border. On Wednesday, EU president Ursula von der Leyen said that by pushing migrants to the EU eastern border the regime in Minsk has instrumentalized human beings," in what she called a hybrid attack to destabilize Europe. Poland's Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he and his Lithuanian counterpart, Arvydas Anusauskas discussed holding joint military drills. A Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian military brigade is based in Lublin, in eastern Poland. ___ Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed. MIDDLETOWN The girlfriend of a city man charged in a May homicide said she received a disrespectful phone call in the moments leading up to the fatal confrontation, according to a newly unsealed arrest warrant in the case. Matthew O'Banner, 20, is facing charges of murder and first-degree assault in the May 16 shooting that killed 25-year-old Tylon Hardy and injured a 17-year-old, police said. After the shooting, O'Banner originally agreed to turn himself in to Middletown police, but then vanished for two months before being apprehended in New Jersey, court documents show. Michelle Sanders, O'Banners 54-year-old mother, and his girlfriend, Alexandra Vazquez, 21, have also been charged with interfering with the police investigation. Sanders is also charged with second-degree hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and drug possession, records show. According to OBanners arrest warrant, which was unsealed this week, his girlfriend was on the phone with another woman the day of the shooting when a man interjected, making disrespectful and threatening comments. (The man) was so disrespectful toward Vazquez that she began crying, the warrant said. OBanner was intermittently present during the telephone call, and was able to hear portions of what was being said to her by (him). The warrant said Vazquez told police the man warned, they were all pulling up and dont even trip, Im coming. The warrant said Vazquez told investigators she was afraid because she knew of (his) violent reputation. Police said they obtained security video footage from inside OBanners home that revealed Vazquez and Sanders feared the confrontation would turn violent, according to the warrant. The warrant stated the video showed the women begging OBanner not to engage with the man. Shortly thereafter, Vazquez said she heard a commotion outside of her residence, and saw that (the man) had arrived with Hardy, the warrant stated. Vazquez said she went outside and saw the woman she had been on the phone with as well as the man who made the comments along with other people she did not recognize, the warrant stated. Video from a neighbors security camera showed Vazquez arguing with the man, who said he wanted to fight OBanner, the warrant stated. After a loud argument, Vazquez said another car pulled up and the man who got out was attacked by the original group, which was confirmed by video footage, the warrant stated. As people, including Hardy, began to circle around the physical altercation, the video showed OBanner exiting the front door of a Stirling Court home with a gun in his hand, the warrant stated. The video showed Vazquez running toward OBanner, yelling for him to put it away, the warrant stated. While the previously mentioned parties were fighting, a shooter began opening fire, the warrant said, adding Vazquez could not provide descriptions about the shooter, the persons location or clothing. The video showed Hardy dropping to the ground after the shooter fired four shots in the direction of the crowd, the warrant stated. The warrant stated OBanner jumped off the porch and began chasing the fleeing men firing another two shots. Another three fainter gunshot sounds were heard, of unknown origin, as they were not captured by video, the warrant stated. As police arrived, officers found Hardy unresponsive and bleeding from his mouth and ears, the warrant stated. He died a short time later. Police were also notified of a second gunshot victim arriving at Middlesex Hospital, the warrant stated. The teen was then flown to Hartford Hospital where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the right side of his back and two in his right forearm, the warrant stated. OBanner, who is being held on $1 million bond, is expected to return Oct. 5 to state Superior Court in Middletown. joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) Officials in Washington state are upset the Biden administration is challenging a law making it easier for workers who become ill at a former nuclear weapons production site to be compensated. The Supreme Court will likely decide in the next few weeks whether to accept the U.S. Department of Justice's appeal. If the high court rejects the case, the state law will stand. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Thursday called on the Biden administration to stop this assault on Hanford workers. It's time to bring this fight to an end, Ferguson said at a news conference at a Hanford union office in Pasco, Washington. We want them to drop the appeal to the Supreme Court. This is a matter of life and death for Hanford workers," said Nick Bumpaous, a Hanford union leader, who called the appeal an "amoral endeavor." The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A law passed in 2018 by the Washington state Legislature made it easier for sick Hanford Nuclear Reservation workers to qualify for state worker compensation benefits. The law required the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries to presume that radiological or chemical exposures at Hanford were the cause of any neurological diseases or respiratory illnesses claimed by past or current Hanford employees. The U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump challenged its constitutionality in 2019, on the grounds that federal jurisdiction over such matters supersedes state law. But they lost in federal court in Eastern Washington and on appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now the Biden administration has picked up the fight. "This lawsuit angered me when the Trump administration filed it and it continues to anger me now that the Biden administration is continuing it, Ferguson said. Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Seattle-based watchdog group, said many of the chemicals workers are exposed to are known carcinogens. Under the state law, many types of cancer are presumed to be caused by working at Hanford. Workers no longer have to prove that their illness was not caused by something else in their lives, or that exposure to a specific chemical caused their illness. About 1,500 different volatile gases have been found in waste in Hanfords underground storage tanks. Most other workers in Washington state must prove their illness was a direct result of a specific workplace incident in order to be paid workers compensation Hanford, located near Richland, Washington, was created by the Manhattan Project during World War II to make the plutonium used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The site went on to produce most of the plutonium for the nations nuclear weapons arsenal during the Cold War. Currently, about 11,000 workers are cleaning up the radioactive and other hazardous chemical wastes left over from plutonium production. Hanford contains the nation's largest quantity of radioactive waste, and cleaning it up will take decades and cost billions of dollars. HAVANA (AP) Sitting on her mothers lap, 2-year-old Lucia looked at the illustrations in her book while around her several children watched the doctors in white coats and nurses with thermometers in amazement. In an adjoining room, Danielito, also 2, sniffled while getting a shot as a clown tried to distract him. Cuba on Thursday began a massive vaccination campaign for children between the ages of 2 and 10, becoming one of the first nations to do so. Health officials here say Cubas homegrown vaccines have been found safe to give to young children. Our country would not put (infants) even at a minimal risk if the vaccines were not proven save and highly effective when put into children, Aurolis Otano, director of the Vedado Polyclinic University, told The Associated Press in a vaccination room. Otano said the circulation of the Delta variant produced an increase in infections among the youngest, so Cubas scientific community decided to take the vaccine to clinical trial and it was approved for children. The Polyclinic expects to vaccinate about 300 children between 2 and 5. Those between 5 and 10 are receiving their first shot at their schools. Lucias mother, Denisse Gonzalez, watched the children in the vaccination room while waiting the hour that her daughter had to be under observation after being vaccinated. I was very doubtful and worried at first, really, but I informed myself, she said. Our childrens health is first and foremost, which is the main thing and (contagion) is a risk because young children are always playing on the floor, added Gonzalez, a 36-year-old engineer. In previous weeks, the vaccination of Cubans between 11 and 18 began. The plan includes two doses of Soberana 02 vaccine and one of Soberana Plus, as was done with adults. Cuba faces a persistent COVID-19 outbreak that almost collapsed its health-care system. Provinces such as Matanzas, Ciego de Avila and Cienfuegos received support from doctors from other parts of the country and even from international donors. In addition to the Soberanas, Cuba has developed another national vaccine, Abdala. According to Cubas Ministry of Health, 776,125 positive cases of COVID-19 have been registered with 6,601 deaths. In June, Chinese regulators approved the use of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for children ages 3 to 17. The United States and many European countries currently allow COVID-19 vaccinations for children 12 and older. Children have largely escaped the worst of the pandemic and show less severe symptoms when they contract the virus. But experts say children can pass the virus on to others and suffer negative consequences. As more adults receive their COVID-19 vaccines, children, who are not yet eligible for vaccines in most countries, account for a higher percentage of hospitalizations and even deaths, said Carissa F. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization. We must be clear: children and young people also face significant risks. DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) The city of Davenport will pay its insurance carrier about $260,000 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit filed by a former fire chief who alleged she was discriminated against because of her age and gender. Former Fire Chief Lynn Washburn-Livingston, 63, contended in her lawsuit that City Administrator Corri Spiegel fired her in 2017 after she complained about how she was treated, The Quad-City Times reported. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) A Lafayette man convicted in his twin 3-year-old sons deaths in a 2014 house fire has been sentenced to 46 years in prison. Brandon Abbott, 38, was sentenced this week after a Tippecanoe County jury convicted him in June on 13 counts, including two counts of neglect resulting in death, in the April 2014 fire that killed twins Landon and Liam Abbott. BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) A tenant charged with killing his landlord shot the man several time in the chest before returning to shoot him a final time in the head, leaving him to die on a porch, according to police. Randal J. Hennessey, 30, of Biddeford, did not enter a plea during his initial court appearance on Thursday in Maine, following his return from New Hampshire, where he was arrested, the Portland Press Herald reported. WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) The Navajo Nation on Thursday reported 54 more COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths. The latest numbers pushed the tribes totals to 33,394 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,428 known deaths from the virus since the pandemic began more than a year ago. Navajo officials are urging people to get vaccinated, wear masks while in public and minimize their travel. Officials said all Navajo Nation executive branch employees will need to be fully vaccinated against the virus by the end of September or submit to regular testing. The new rules apply to full, part-time and temporary employees, including those working for tribal enterprises like utilities, shopping centers and casinos. Any worker who does not show proof of vaccination by Sept. 29 must be tested every two weeks or face discipline. The tribes reservation is the countrys largest at 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) and it covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. NEW HAVEN A New Haven police officer was killed and another has been charged with DUI in the fatal three-car crash that occurred early Friday morning in Las Vegas, Nev. New Haven police identified the officer who died as Joshua Castellano, a seven-year member of the department, who was assigned to the Shooting Task Force. At this time, we ask for support as our entire department is in shock and grieving, said Officer Scott Shumway, a spokesperson for the department. The driver of the car, New Haven police officer Robert Ferraro, has been charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving, according to court records. The officers were on vacation in Las Vegas when the accident occurred around 4 a.m. Friday. Ferraro was driving a white 2020 Rolls Royce Cullinan at a high speed when he entered an intersection, according to a press release from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Castellano was sitting in the front seat and four others were also in the car, police said. Ferraro began to lose control and drove off the side of the road, colliding with a 2021 Ford Mustang, police said. Ferraro continued down the road and ran into utility poles, landscaping and a fire hydrant, police said. The car overturned on its roof, throwing Castellano from the vehicle, police said. Debris from the collision also hit a parked and unoccupied 2014 Scion XB, police said. Castellano was transported to the University Medical Centers Trauma Unit where he died, police said. Police said Ferraro appeared to be impaired and was arrested. The accident is part of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Shumway said. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said in a statement that his thoughts and condolences are with the family of Officer Castellano as well as his friends and colleagues at the New Haven Police Department. Officer Castellano served our community for seven years, Elicker said. Were thankful for Officer Castellanos service; he will be greatly missed. MADISON, Wis. (AP) A judge ruled Friday that prosecutors can't argue that a man who shot three people during a protest against police brutality in Wisconsin is affiliated with the Proud Boys or that he attacked a woman months before the shootings, bolstering his position as he prepares for a politically charged trial. Kyle Rittenhouse is set to stand trial beginning Nov. 1 on multiple counts, including homicide. The 18-year-old argues he opened fire in self-defense after the men attacked him. Prosecutors say they have infrared video from an FBI surveillance plane that shows Rittenhouse followed and confronted the first man he shot. Kenosha was in the throes of several nights of chaotic demonstrations after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man who was paralyzed from the waist down. Rittenhouse traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, in response to a call on social media to protect businesses there. Rittenhouse shot Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle, killing Rosenbaum and Huber and wounding Grosskreutz. Conservatives across the country have rallied around Rittenhouse, raising $2 million to cover his bail. Black Lives Matter supporters have painted him as a trigger-happy racist. During a hearing Friday on several motions, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked to argue at trial that Rittenhouse subscribes to the Proud Boys' white supremacist philosophies and violent tactics. Binger pointed out that Rittenhouse was seen at a bar with members of the white nationalist group's Wisconsin chapter in January and traveled to Miami days later to meet the group's national president. Binger also asked the judge to allow evidence that Rittenhouse attacked a woman in June 2020 as she was fighting his sister. He also wants to show jurors video from 15 days before the shootings in which Rittenhouse said he would like to shoot some men he thought were shoplifting from a pharmacy. Binger said Rittenhouse's affiliation with the Proud Boys, the fight and the video show Rittenhouse's propensity toward violence. He described Rittenhouse as a chaos tourist and teenage vigilante who came to Kenosha looking for trouble. Rittenhouse attorney Corey Chirafisi countered that none of the events are relevant to the shootings. Nothing shows Rittenhouse was connected to the Proud Boys on the night of the protest or that the shootings were racially motivated, Chirafisi said, pointing out that Rittenhouse and the men he shot were white. Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder agreed with the defense about the June fight and interactions Rittenhouse has had with the Proud Boys. He deferred a decision on the pharmacy video but said he was inclined to exclude it. It was during discussion about that video that Binger said prosecutors have infrared surveillance footage that he said shows Rittenhouse chasing Rosenbaum, who was the first person Rittenhouse shot. Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richards maintained it was Rosenbaum who started chasing Rittenhouse, yelling out, Kill him! He said Rosenbaum cornered Rittenhouse in front of a row of cars in a parking lot and threw a bag at him before trying to grab Rittenhouses gun. Binger said the surveillance footage shows Rittenhouse chasing Rosenbaum with a fire extinguisher before Rosenbaum turned to confront him. Binger said Rosenbaum was probably trying to push the barrel of Rittenhouses rifle away. After Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum, people in the streets began chasing him. Video from the night of the protests shows Rittenhouse shot Huber after Huber hit him with a skateboard and tried to grab his gun. Grosskreutz then approached Rittenhouse with a gun and Rittenhouse shot him. Schroeder denied a defense request to argue that Rosenbaum was trying to steal Rittenhouses rifle because Rosenbaum was a sex offender and couldnt legally possess a firearm. He delayed ruling on defense requests to dismiss a charge that Rittenhouse possessed his gun illegally because he was a minor and to allow testimony from an expert on police use-of-force. He set another hearing for Oct. 5. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Tarm in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report. ACCRA, Ghana (AP) West African leaders have decided to impose travel bans and freeze financial assets of members of Guineas ruling junta and their families after a coup more than a week ago, according to the bloc known as ECOWAS. The decisions were announced Thursday after an Extraordinary Summit on Guinea in Ghanas capital, Accra. Mediators with the regional group had traveled to Guinea to meet with junta leaders and check on the condition of deposed President Alpha Conde. ECOWAS president Jean Claude Brou said the West African leaders have also insisted that there should be no need for very long transition for the country to return to democratic order. The targeted sanctions come after Guineas coup leaders set a number of conditions for releasing Conde, according to the foreign minister of Ghana. ECOWAS had already warned it will impose penalties on the junta in Guinea unless it immediately releases Conde, who has been held at an undisclosed location since being detained during the Sept. 5 coup in Conakry. We are coming to address a burning issue in the region, said Ghanas President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the current chair of the regional bloc, ahead of the summit. He was joined by presidents or high-ranking officials from eight of the other 15 ECOWAS countries. Members of the ECOWAS delegation that visited Conakry after the coup presented their reports at Thursdays meeting, said Ghanaian Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway. The junta has set a number of conditions for complying with the demands of regional mediators, she said, but declined to disclose what they are. The delegation has spoken with Condes doctor who ascertained that indeed physically, hes very well, she said. However, she said, the ex-president is still coming to terms with the fact that his government has been toppled after more than a decade in power. For anybody who has gone through such a traumatic experience like he did, mentally, its not the best, not to say that mentally we found anything wrong, but he was quite shocked; hes still in a state of shock, she added. Meanwhile in Conakry, junta leaders were also set to meet with mining company representatives on the third day of a special summit to chart Guineas political future. Junta leader Col. Mamady Doumbouya has sought to reassure the countrys most vital economic sector that the political changes will not impact existing mining projects in the country, which has the worlds largest reserves of bauxite. Guineas coup leaders have yet to make public their proposed timeframe for handing over power to a civilian transitional government, nor have they outlined how quickly new elections can be organized. Conde had sparked violent street demonstrations last year after he pushed for a constitutional referendum that he used to justify running for a third term, saying term limits no longer applied to him. He ultimately won another five years in office last October, only to be toppled by the coup 10 months later. At the time he came to power in 2010, he was Guineas first democratically elected leader since independence from France in 1958. The regional bloc also planned to tackle concerns over whether a second member state, Mali, is making enough progress toward a return to democracy more than a year after a military takeover there. In Mali, the ruling junta led by Col. Assimi Goita has committed to holding new elections by February 2022, though mediators who recently visited have expressed concern about whether that deadline now can be met. Goita overthrew Malis president in August 2020 and then agreed to a civilian transitional government and an 18-month timeframe for holding a vote. However, only nine months after the first coup he effectively staged a second one, firing the civilian interim leaders and ultimately naming himself as president of the transition. ECOWAS has not reinstated Malis membership in the bloc, marking the first time since 2012 that two of the 15 member states are suspended concurrently. ECOWAS president Brou said there was the need to revisit the organizations 2001 protocol on good governance because a lot of things have changed or improved. ___ Associated Press writers Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal and Boubacar Diallo in Conakry, Guinea contributed. Hearst Connecticut Media file photo ESSEX First Selectmen and state Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, scored 100 percent on the Connecticut Business and Industry Association 2021 legislative scorecards, which ranks key decisions on important bills proposed and voted on during the January to June 2021 legislative session. The scorecard in question centered on nine key pieces of legislation considered by lawmakers during the session, according to a press release. Of the seven bills Needleman had a chance to vote on, he did so in line with what the CBIA reported would benefit job growth and the states post-pandemic recovery, it added. The Army took a first step Friday in transforming its Criminal Investigation Division into a mostly civilian agency when it handed the reins to former Navy investigator Greg Ford, about eight months after a damning review looking at Spc. Vanessa Guillen's murder at Fort Hood, Texas. Ford, who officially became director in a Pentagon ceremony, has been handed the task of restructuring the 50-year-old agency from the top down as the Army rethinks how it investigates murders and sexual assault and misconduct. "I would encourage every member of CID to be a part of the change and actively contribute ideas to the discussion," Ford said in his first address to agency personnel. An independent review of Guillen's murder in April 2020 and the subsequent investigation released in December found deep systemic problems with Fort Hood's CID that affect the wider global agency. It said uniformed military agents were inexperienced and over assigned, and investigations were too long and under-resourced. Read Next: Air Force Leaders: Time to 'Wake Up' About Racial Disparities in Service Most of the enlisted and nearly half of officer agents at Fort Hood were fresh from training school at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and not fully accredited to handle investigations on their own, a five-member independent commission wrote in the review. Former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy ordered the review amid public outcry over Guillen's disappearance and murder by another soldier. The military agents typically were reassigned after 26 months, which led to a "rolling cascade" of new, inexperienced personnel, according to the report. The Army has had to address "tough questions" over the past nine months about its criminal division and its structure, composition, size and leadership, Christopher Lowman, who is performing the duties of Army undersecretary, said at a swearing in ceremony for Ford. "The CID of the future is designed to be mostly civilian in composition," said Lowman, who called it a historic transition. Ford spent 16 years at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and was the deputy director of operations before being tapped to lead the Army agency in August. He also investigated tax crimes for the Internal Revenue Service and worked for the FBI on a terrorism task force. The Army announced the overhaul in May based on the Fort Hood review, which also resulted in more than a dozen current or former military leaders being disciplined. A single uniformed military officer had served as both the CID commander and the Army provost marshal general. Brig. Gen. Duane Miller, who filled the dual-hatted role, was to be promoted Friday and to serve solely as provost marshal general. -- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten. Related: Army Picks First Civilian Head of Investigations Division The Pentagon admitted Friday an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29 killed 10 civilians, including seven children, but not any terrorist planners as officials first claimed. The strike was retaliation for a deadly suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and Afghan civilians outside the Kabul airport days earlier during a massive military-led evacuation. Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, had initially called it a "righteous" strike. "It was a mistake, and I offer my sincere apology," said Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, who oversaw the airstrike. Read Next: Pentagon OKs National Guard Troops for Pro-Trump Rally The U.S. Hellfire missile hit what the military said at the time was a suspected planner for the ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, terror group driving a white Toyota car that had been tracked by a U.S. military strike cell and up to six MQ-9 Reaper drones throughout the day, McKenzie said in a briefing to reporters Friday. The driver had parked in a compound near the Kabul airport, where the Aug. 26 suicide bombing had caused the worst day of military casualties in a decade. Operations were still underway to get Americans and Afghans out of the country at the time of the drone strike. But the man was actually an innocent civilian, and had been publicly identified in the weeks following the strike as an employee of a California-based aid group. The Pentagon had declined since the strike to provide the names of the alleged terrorists targeted. The strike team was "clearly wrong on this vehicle" despite intelligence received two days before specifically about that type of vehicle being used in a planned attack, according to McKenzie. Every indication was that ISIS-K, the Afghanistan affiliate of the Islamic State group, was planning another attack around the airport, he said. But the military had pulled back all troops into the airport and was relying almost completely on drone surveillance to counter the group. "There were over 60 clear threat vectors that we were dealing with at this period of time," he added. McKenzie said he called for an investigation within 24 hours of the strike because the military re-examined drone footage and found images that indicated in hindsight that other people were inside the compound where the vehicle was parked. The military's initial claims that a secondary explosion was proof that the Toyota was carrying explosives was also a mistake, he said. It was likely a propane tank inside the vehicle. The Pentagon wants to provide reparations payments to the families of strike victims, McKenzie said. But he admitted that could be a difficult process because the Defense Department has no presence in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken control of Kabul and the rest of the country. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is still reviewing whether anyone will be disciplined for the mistaken strike, one of the most high-profile instances of civilian casualties during the 20-year Afghanistan war, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday. "One of the things he wants the review to do is take a look at accountability and the degree to which accountability measures need to be considered and, if so, at which level," Kirby said. -- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten. Related: US Defends Strike that Afghan Family Says Killed Innocents Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, who was confirmed by the Senate in early August, says all victims of the coronavirus pandemic in his department during his watch so far, including civilians, have not gotten the inoculation shot. "One of the duties that I hate most about my job is that every time somebody dies in the service, I get a message that tells me exactly what happened to them and why they died," Del Toro said during a round table with reporters Friday. "In every case that has crossed my desk since I've been secretary of the Navy, it's been unvaccinated people who've died." Each of those deaths is painful, he said. President Joe Biden's new Navy secretary underscored how seriously he takes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's order that every sailor and Marine be vaccinated. Del Toro has given troops 90 days from Aug. 31 to be vaccinated or get an exemption, and those who refuse could face punishment or even eventual discharge. Read Next: Pentagon OKs National Guard Troops for Pro-Trump Rally More than a dozen sailors and Marines across the active duty and reserve have died from COVID-19, including six after vaccines became more readily available in late spring and at least three in early August. Three Navy Department civilians have died so far in September. Del Toro's remarks also echo those of Navy commanders who told Military.com last month that COVID-19 is their biggest concern at the moment. "I have a solemn responsibility to work with these folks to get them to understand that they need to get vaccinated because their lives are important to me in every possible way," Del Toro said. "I don't want to lose any more sailors, I don't want to lose any more Marines, I don't want to lose any more civilians to COVID, for God's sakes -- we're losing too many of them already!" The secretary's remarks come only weeks after news that sailors and Marines have 90 days to get vaccinated. The order, issued by Del Toro, noted that sailors who refuse will face "the full range of administrative and disciplinary actions." But it added that, "until further notice," the Navy will not start "non-judicial punishment, courts-martial, or administrative separation" in cases of troops refusing to take the vaccine. Asked whether the policy left ambiguity or an opportunity to hold out, Del Toro pushed back and said the service's policy is "extremely" clear. "I don't think our policy is nebulous at all," he added. "We're gonna handle this on a case-by-case basis, but I will tell you, basically, I expect all sailors and Marines to get vaccinated. "If you can't come to terms with this, well, then you might have to move on," he added. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. -- Patricia Kime contributed to this report. Related: Can Service Members Fight Taking a Mandatory COVID Vaccine? The National Guard will deploy 100 troops near the U.S. Capitol on Saturday during a planned pro-Trump rally in support of rioters who stormed Congress in January. The soldiers will form a physical security task force and be stationed at the D.C. Armory, less than two miles east of the rally site on the National Mall. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed off on the request for assistance by the U.S. Capitol Police on Friday. Capitol Police said it wanted backup "should the need arise" during the Justice for J6 event. Its security force was badly overwhelmed Jan. 6 by hundreds of protesters who marched from a speech by then-President Donald Trump to Capitol Hill, where they broke into the building and congressional chambers in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. More than 600 have been criminally charged, and four police officers on duty that day have since committed suicide. "Should the Capitol Police require assistance, they will first utilize local, state, and federal law enforcement capabilities before requesting the deployment of the physical security task force," according to the Pentagon statement released Friday. Read Next: Storage Company Must Pay Airman $60,000 After Selling His Property While He Was Deployed The task force may be used only to protect the Capitol building and the surrounding congressional office buildings by securing entry points and verifying credentials required to enter the buildings, the Pentagon said. The Saturday rally is billed as an opportunity for attendees to show solidarity with the people arrested by federal officials for their actions during the Jan. 6 riot. The event is being organized by "Look Ahead America," a group run by onetime Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard. Although the group was started as a tax-exempt organization, it lost its 501(c)(3) status last year after failing to file required tax forms. The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning of potential violence ahead of the rally, according to CNN. However, experts said attendance may lag based on early data. Kristofer Goldsmith, who runs a company that tracks online disinformation and extremist groups, said it will not come anywhere close to matching Jan. 6, although there's always a threat of a lone actor creating disruption or violence. In online chat groups, many organizations involved in the earlier riot see the planned rally as a likely "honeypot," meaning an event designed by law enforcement to draw them out for identification or arrest. Trump told the conservative publication The Federalist that he thinks the event is "a setup." "If people don't show up, they'll say, 'Oh, it's a lack of spirit.' And if people do show up, they'll be harassed," he told Federalist writer and co-founder Sean Davis. -- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. Related: Internal Probe Clears Officer in Capitol Riot Shooting of Air Force Veteran [September 16, 2021] Governor Northam provides keynote at M.C. Dean Facility ribbon cutting RUTHER GLEN, Va., Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Governor Ralph Northam today delivered the keynote speech at a ribbon cutting event for M.C. Dean, Inc.'s $25.1M manufacturing center expansion. The center serves as the home to ModularMEP, M.C. Dean's line of customizable, fully integrated, tested, and secure modular electrical buildings, rooms, and assemblies shipped to project and construction sites across the United States and select international locations. The expansion project doubles M.C. Dean's manufacturing capacity to support high growth, mission-critical customers, including data centers, airports, and healthcare facilities. "M.C. Dean has been a valued partner in Virginia for over 70 years, and has played a critical role in the growth of the Commonwealth's advanced manufacturing sector," said Governor Northam. "Virginia's extensive infrastructure networks and world-class workforce, two of the reasons why the Commonwealth was named top state for business two years in a row, allow companies to expand and thrive like M.C. Dean. We are excited to have them in Caroline County, and we look forward to supporting all of their future succeses." M.C. Dean, headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, employs more than 4,500 professionals who engineer and deploy automated, secure, and resilient power and technology systems; and deliver management platforms essential for long-term system sustainability. M.C. Dean began development of the manufacturing center in 2003 and opened in 2006. The company has made three rounds of investment at the site over the past 15 years with the support of Caroline County and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Today the campus, known as the Caroline County Center for Innovation and Industry, includes more than 300,000 square feet of ModularMEP manufacturing capacity on 585-acres. The campus also includes 220 new acres of ready-to-develop land to support future expansion. "Our ModularMEP expansion allows us to scale with our mission-critical customers' demand for modular power and technology systems that deliver enhanced quality, safety, and speed to market," said Bill Dean, M.C. Dean chief executive officer. "By investing in our home state of Virginia, we're able to serve major hubs for technology and federal clients with easy access to several large ports and I-95 for distribution. We also have access to great technology and manufacturing talent between Richmond and the D.C. corridor." The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Caroline County to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Northam approved a $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth's Opportunity Fund to assist Caroline County with the project. The governor also approved a $250,000 performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment (VIP) program, an incentive that encourages capital investment by existing Virginia companies. Funding and services to support the company's employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP). "M.C. Dean has helped Caroline County become a technology employment center in the region, stimulating growth, while adding capital improvements that allow further development on the site," said Reginald Underwood, Chairman, Caroline County Board of Supervisors from the Reedy Church District. "Strategically located along the I-95 corridor between Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Caroline County is ideal for manufacturing, distribution, and data centers. Caroline County welcomes additional growth and development through technology investment." M.C. Dean is hiring: For more information on current job opportunities, visit mcdean.com/careers. About M.C. Dean M.C. Dean is Building Intelligence. We design, build, operate, and maintain cyber-physical solutions for the nation's most recognizable mission-critical facilities, secure environments, complex infrastructure, and global enterprises. The company's capabilities include electrical, electronic security, telecommunications, life-safety, instrumentation and control, and command and control systems. M.C. Dean is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia and employs more than 4,500 professionals who engineer and deploy automated, secure, and resilient power and technology systems; and deliver the management platforms essential for long-term system sustainability. M.C. Dean Media Contacts: Regine de la Cruz, regine.delacruz@mcdean.com Mobile: 202-430-1389 Ramneek Kaur, ramneek.kaur@mcdean.com Mobile: 202-446-6116 B-Roll: M.C. Dean Facility Ribbon Cutting - https://vimeo.com/606777053/d357ee177d View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/governor-northam-provides-keynote-at-mc-dean-facility-ribbon-cutting-301379165.html SOURCE M.C. Dean, Inc. [ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\LTE's Homepage ] The High Courts have a poor record of proactive disclosures under section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in terms of implementation and quality of dissemination of such information on their respective websites. This can be gauged from the fact that only 15 of the 24 High Courts have made disclosures with varying degrees of content, while the remaining nine of them have not even bothered to publish these mandatory suo motu disclosures. It is, indeed, distressing to note that while all the High Courts are efficiently and promptly putting up their orders and judgements on their websites, free of cost, they are found wanting when it comes to compliance under Section 4 of the RTI Act on their websites. The comprehensive research on Ranking the High Courts on their Compliance with the RTI Act by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, an independent think tank engaged in legal research to make better laws and improve governance for the public good, observes that even though 15 of the 24 High Courts have complied, the quality of disclosures made by these 15 under section 4 demonstrates a 'great degree of variance'. Of all the 24 High Courts, it was found that those of Kerala and Punjab & Haryana had made the best quality disclosures under the RTI Act. In contrast, those of Orissa, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh were of the poorest quality. The High Courts of Bombay, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand had the best disclosures regarding the budget statements. They provided the updated budget and surrender statements for the High Court and the district courts that fall under them. As for updating information from time to time, the High Courts of Delhi, Kerala and Punjab & Haryana made available updated disclosures with the latest information, while the High Courts of Gauhati and Jharkhand displayed entirely outdated disclosures. The Allahabad High Court provided a hyperlink to the body of the rules and the Delhi High Court reproduced the text of the rules within its disclosure, which is easily accessible to people. In the category of lack of information on rules that the High Courts must mandatorily put up for the convenience of lawyers, litigants, and interested citizens, the High Courts of Bombay and Punjab & Haryana provide a comprehensive list of rules. These include rules on (1) High Court procedures (2) recruitment, conditions of service of the state judiciary and its employees (3) financial management and the financial powers of the High Court (4) RTI (5) administration of district judiciary and subordinate judiciary under the jurisdiction of the High Court and (6) other rules. The report additionally observes: We found that High Courts of Bombay and Punjab & Haryana provide a comprehensive list of rules and hence they received the highest score under this head. These are good practices which improve the ease of access to this information. Bombay High Court had the best disclosure of information regarding categories of documents held by the High Court under Section 4(1)(b)(vi). Public authorities are required to disclose a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control. For disclosures under this head, the Courts were examined for disclosing the type of documents they maintain regarding personnel, recruitment, financial and other administrative functions. Regarding lack of information on the respective district courts that fall under each High Court, the Allahabad, Bombay, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala High Courts have disclosed information regarding subordinate courts. On the other hand, the High Courts of Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka and Orissa do not make disclosures at all. This category was measured by the heads of disclosure under Section 4(1)(b), that is, rules and regulations under its control (Section 4(1)(v)), budget statements of its agencies (Section 4(1)(b)(xi)) and details of PIO (Section 4(1)(b)(xvi)) which require the High Court to provide details of the subordinate courts within its administrative control. As for the ease of accessing the disclosure, of all the High Courts, only those at Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh publish their disclosures in Hindi exclusively, which is the states official language. All other High Courts have the disclosures available only in English. Ideally, disclosures should be published in both English and the states local language, which is spoken by citizens residing in the jurisdiction of the High Court. The survey evaluated the High Courts on the following six criteria: 1. the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions; 2. a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control; 3. a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public; 4. a directory of its officers and employees; 5. the budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made and ; 6. the names, designations and other particulars of the public information officers. The report observes that compliance under Section 4 of the RTI Act is usually fulfilled by publishing the information on the website of the public authority. The intention behind this provision, as explained by the CIC in one of its orders, is to minimise the need for citizens to use the RTI Act to request information. In the pertinent part, the CIC held the following, The importance of suo-moto disclosures under Section 4(1)(b) can hardly be over-emphasised as maximisation of such disclosures would result in minimisation of recourse to the provisions of section 6(1) of the Act and thereby save valuable time, energy and resources of the stakeholders viz, the public authorities and the information seekers. Over the years, there have been several judicial pronouncements and administrative orders, reminding public authorities of the importance of proactive disclosure under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act. In one such judgment from 201158, the Supreme Court stated the following: The provisions of RTI Act should be enforced strictly and all efforts should be made to bring to light the necessary information under clause (b) of Section 4(1) of the Act. The standard narrative of most talk shows, media articles and investor presentations suggests consolidation in the real estate market. The general perception is that the demonetisation and introduction of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority Act (RERA) and goods and service tax (GST) compliances have made real estate a business of deep pockets. Smaller developers have been, or are being, acquired by the large developers. Thus, there is massive consolidation happening in the market. However, the data from Liases Foras shows an entirely different story. In a research note, Pankaj Kapoor, founder and managing director (MD) of Liases Foras, says, Rather than consolidation, the landscape of housing is expanding and will continue growing. Smaller developers of tier 2 and tier 3 cities will play a significant role in broadening housing and housing finance in India. Liases Foras, an independent, non-broking real estate research and analytics company, analysed the consolidation theory from three angles. Is the real estate market witnessing a reduction in the number of developers? Is the contribution of revenue and sales skewed towards the top-50, 100 and 200 developers and are supply-side consolidation, joint ventures and takeovers increasing the supply magnitude of large developers? And has this increased their revenue? Most of the interventions were introduced post-2015-- demonetisation in 2016. RERA, and GST came into force in 2017. Liases Foras says it decided to look at the data trends from 2015 with the above three questions in mind. As of December 2020, there were 11,620 developers with 17,022 active projects. The definition of marketable supply is that the developers should have unsold inventory for those projects they are offering them for sale in the market. Thus, this consists of only primary supply and does not include re-sales or proposed supply. Liases Foras says far from consolidation; the supplier ecosystem is broadening. * CY: calendar year Data shows a steady increase in developers number from 7,876 developers in 2015, growing over 50% to 12,249 by 2019. The number of builders has been increasing every year, except during the calendar year (CY) 2020, which has reduced the number of developers with active supply mainly because of the COVID-19 impact. Instead of consolidation, the trend suggests that the real estate market has been broad basing all these years, Liases Foras says. According to the analysis, while total sales in value have increased, top builders share in value terms fell. The value of the stock sold also shows similar trends. The annual value of sales contributed by all the builders shows an upward trend, Liases Foras says, adding, In contrast, the percentage share of top builders witnessed a decrease, especially from CY2018, which offers a broad-based market when smaller developers increase market share. From 2015 to 2019, the sales value increased by 20%, except during 2020 when the sales dropped by 31% due to the COVID-19 impact. The share of the top-50 builders (in aggregated revenues) oscillated between 27% and 24% from 2015 till 2019 and then dropped to 23% during the COVID times in 2020. Similarly, top builders up to 1,000 lost their market share by at least 4% since CY2018. Growth in numbers of smaller developers was maximum except during the pandemic. Liases Foras says, The third perspective also stands true; the data show growth in super large and large developers. The total number of developers has shown a growth of 48% since 2015. Smaller developers constitute approximately 80% of the total number of active developers in these cities. Interesting to see that despite higher numbers, smaller developers grew 45% since 2015. The increase in the number of super-large and large developers during pandemic times suggests amalgamation and joint ventures. Mr Kapoor says this reflects growth on the supply side, which does not infer demand or market consolidation. During CY2020, the number of super-large and large developers has increased. The number of medium and small developers has decreased during CY2020, while the total number of builders also decreased. Mr Kapoor says, The question that raises confusion is that when there are amalgamations, why is the number of developers not decreasing? According to Liases Foras analysis, joint ventures or amalgamations are happening at the project-level and not developer-level. For example, it says Nirmal group, a Mumbai-based developer, who had nine marketable projects, gave three of its projects for development and sales to three different developers, L&T Realty, Shapoorji Pallonji and Godrej Properties. These projects have shifted from the books of Nirmal to these three developers books, while all four developers existed despite the amalgamation. The Nirmal group is still managing six of its projects. Most of the amalgamations are such, it pointed out. The analysis also shows an increase in sales in value terms for small developers. Liases Foras says, when CY2018 and CY2019 are compared, the reduction in the value of sales within the super large developers and increase for smaller developers indicates that the dominance of super large developers in the market share is getting distributed to smaller developers. The average business done by a super large builder has seen the maximum decline of 39% during COVID times, although the decrease of revenue of smaller developers was the lowest, at just 19%, it added. According to Liases Foras , RERA has acted as an enabler and helped the market become broad-based. It has enabled smaller performing developers to access credit facilities from the financial institution. Our experience working with lenders also suggests similar trends. The incentives to boost affordable housing under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) have also helped smaller developers. While large developers launched mega townships, mostly far away in the peripheral locations, smaller developers offered affordable housing in interactive and end usable areas. Their pricing, product mix, and location cater to local needs more efficiently, it added. Indias real estate landscape has been expanding and broad-basing, Liases Foras says, adding, The housing production in tier 2 and tier 3 cities are growing much faster than in tier 1 cities. The smaller cities contribution to the Indian real estate landscape has been steadily increasing over the year. As per the data, sales in tier-1 cities grew 22% between 2015 and 2019; during the same period, sales in tier 2 cities grew 73%, from 59,390 in 2015 to 76,466 units in 2020. According to Liases Foras, while COVID-19 has impacted the demand for tier 1 cities, it has benefited the smaller towns. Work from home or hometown has triggered the phenomenon of spatial diffusion of jobs. The high cost of living, densities, and experience of remote working abilities coupled with cost benefits suggest that the jobs move to places where people live. Tier 2 cities are slated to grow faster with the governments boost for the manufacturing sector. The finance minister committed an infusion of Rs1.97 lakh crore for the manufacturing industry. With the land cost and labour cost being cheaper in tier 2 cities, the manufacturing units are more likely to operate from smaller towns, driving smaller towns economic growth. The economic growth in the smaller towns will further boost housing production and credit growth to the broader region of the Indian economy, Liases Foras concluded. LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) Slovenias government said on Friday that it would immediately start with compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for all government employees, stepping up anti-virus measures that had already sparked a major riot in the small Alpine state. All government workers will need to receive one shot by Oct. 1 and a second a month later, unless they get the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution stressing that Afghanistans new Taliban rulers need to establish an inclusive government with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and upholding human rights. The resolution adopted by the U.N.s most powerful body on Friday extends the current mandate of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan for six months. It also stresses the important role that the United Nations will continue to play in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan. The resolution, drafted by Norway and Estonia, essentially delays a decision by the Security Council on a new mandate for the U.N. mission, known as UNAMA, until March 17, 2022, giving members time to assess the actions of the Taliban government in the coming months. In a joint statement to the council, Norway and Estonia said the resolution sends a unified message that we stand behind the U.N.s efforts in Afghanistan going forward. The resolution ensures that the U.N. mission can continue to monitor and report on human rights, protecting civilians, violations and abuses against children, and to support the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all levels of decision-making. ___ MORE ON AFGHANISTAN: Friction among Taliban pragmatists, hard-liners intensifies Indiana Marine killed in Afghanistan remembered as hero Afghan killed by drone praised by co-workers in US aid group Iran resumes commercial flights to Afghanistan AP Interview: UN refugee chief says Afghan stability needed ___ HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING: ___ ISLAMABAD The U.N. refugee agency says Afghans displaced by war and the Taliban takeover of the country are in urgent need of medicine, shelter and other essentials ahead of winter. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, urged the international community not only to give money but also to accept Afghan refugees. He spoke at a press conference in Islamabad on Friday Giving money is one thing, but also taking some of the refugees is important," Grandi said and appealed on all countries that have the possibility to do that continue to resettle refugees. He stressed that said shelter, food, medicines and other necessities should be arranged for displaced Afghans because winter is coming. He thanked Pakistan for hosting Afghan refugees over the past four decades of conflict and for facilitating recent humanitarian operations in Afghanistan. The U.N. refugee agency says over 3.5 million Afghans have been displaced from their homes by the conflict and remain inside the country. ___ ISTANBUL The Talibans education ministry says all male students grades six to 12 and male teachers should resume classes across Afghanistan, starting on Saturday. The statement published on Facebook on Friday did not include girls of that age, and the lack of guidance highlighted ongoing concerns that the Taliban might impose restrictions on girls and women. Since taking over power last month, the Taliban had allowed girls in grades one to six to resume classes. When they ruled Afghanistan previously in the 1990s, the Taliban had forbidden girls and women from attending school and work. In some of the provinces, women still are not allowed to continue their work, with exceptions for women who have worked in health departments, hospitals and education. ___ NEW DELHI Indias prime minister says it's essential that the global community collectively decides on whether to recognize the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. India supports the central role of the United Nations on this issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a video statement on Friday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The economic and security group is made up of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. Modi also said the recent developments in Afghanistan, where the Taliban swept into power in a blitz that stunned the world last month, will have the greatest impact on neighboring countries such as India. Instability and fundamentalism in Afghanistan will lead to terrorist and extremist ideologies all over the world, he said. Other extremist groups may also be encouraged to seek power through violence. We all countries have been victims of terrorism in the past. Together we must ensure that the soil of Afghanistan is not used to spread terrorism in any country, Modi added. India's leader said he sees many other risks from the instability, such as an uncontrolled flow of drugs, illegal weapons and human trafficking. A large amount of advanced weapons remain in Afghanistan, he warned and urged the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to play a positive role in monitoring these flows and enhancing information sharing. ___ BERLIN Germanys president has bestowed one of the countrys highest awards to the commander who led the evacuation of Germans and some Afghans from Kabul last month. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised Brig. Gen. Jens Arlts leadership of an operation that he said was unprecedented in Germanys post-World War II history. The German military evacuated more than 5,300 citizens of 45 countries from the Afghan capital, as part of a wider international effort to airlift 120,000 people after the Taliban takeover last month. Steinmeier noted that Arlt had managed to bring home all of his 500 troops unharmed, despite the risks they faced on the ground. He added that we bear some of the responsibility for human tragedy in Afghanistan. ___ ISLAMABAD --- Pakistans prime minister has met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Afghanistan. The Foreign Ministry's statement on Friday said the two leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's meeting in Tajikistans city of Dushanbe. The discussion centered on Afghanistan and other bilateral issues, with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan underscoring his country's vital interest in a peaceful, stable and prosperous Afghanistan. Khan is visiting Tajikistan to participate in the meeting of members of the China and Russia-dominated organization. Afghanistan's future has dominated the summit. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month. So far Pakistan, like other countries, has not recognized the new government next door. Pakistan says any such decision will be announced after consultation with the world community. According to the statement, Khan said it was essential to take urgent steps to stabilize Afghanistan's security, humanitarian and economic situation. GOLSSEN, Germany (AP) A mill owner in eastern Germany hopes the next government will restore supply chains disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. A brewer in the countrys south wants a more predictable strategy for responding to the virus and a better cellphone network. A hotel owner in the west wants money, fast, to clean up after devastating floods. A crowded race to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel after she decided not to extend her 16 years in office has left many Germans uninspired and undecided ahead of the Sept. 26 parliamentary election. While some of the issues that voters say are most important to them including climate change and the economy are global or national in scope, many have local and personal priorities. Looming over the election in Europes biggest economy, as elsewhere, is uncertainty over how much more disruption the pandemic will cause and small business owners are especially hoping a new leader might help them avoid a repeat of the pain of the last 18 months. But they are also interested in how the next chancellor will guide efforts to rebuild areas hit by flash floods in July and address unfinished business from the Merkel era such as improving Germany's internet and cellphone service or reducing its onerous bureaucracy. At the Kanow Mill in Golssen, in the rural, eastern state of Brandenburg, owner Christian Berendt is grateful for the financial support his seventh-generation family vegetable oil business has received as part of efforts by authorities to strengthen local business. But, while he said that parts of the formerly communist east have developed well, many rural areas there and across the country still need help. Rural structures have to be strengthened in a coordinated, long-term way, he said. In the shorter term, Berendt, 37, hopes the next government can ease the problems still being caused by the pandemic. His mill suffered because it missed out on business at local markets and trade fairs, but it has stepped up direct shipments to customers. Still, disruption to supply chains, for packaging and some seeds, continue to plague him. At the moment, you either have very, very long delivery times or you have to pay a horrendous price, he said. A few hundred kilometers (miles) southwest in Salz, in the Rhoen hills in Bavaria, brewer Florian Rehbock is also worried about the pandemic and hopes the next administration can soften its blows. When restaurants and bars, which make up 85% of Rehbock's business were shuttered during lockdowns, the brewer was forced to throw out large quantities of beer that takes weeks to prepare. There was no support for the beer that was destroyed it was just gone. That's serious for a small company like me and can even endanger livelihoods, he said. I would like ... the new government to set itself up better strategically, that we don't just get day-to-day policies that go one way one week, another the next. Rehbock, who brews his beer in several small breweries, said some of his customers fear another lockdown after the election. Average daily deaths from the virus have more than doubled over the past two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and the vaccination campaign has slowed to a crawl. Still, Germany has generally managed the pandemic better than many of its peers and its daily death toll remains below that of neighboring France, which has a smaller population, for instance. All three candidates for chancellor say no new lockdown will be needed, at least as things stand. But the 41-year-old Rehbock, who has been self-employed since 2016, said his concerns go beyond the pandemic. Germany is not the optimal location for entrepreneurs, he said, citing problems that include complications in registering with tax authorities and getting construction permits. He also bemoaned that in rural areas like his, a good internet connection is hard to come by and so is reliable cellphone coverage. "If you're on the phone with clients, you can expect that on at least a third of calls, the call drops out from time to time, he said. Rather than talking about grandiose plans for a state-of-the-art 5G network, I'd say start with a normal cellphone network that would be enough for me for the time being, he said. Across the country in Gemuend, near the Belgian border, Manfred Pesch has no time to focus on national issues. He is still cleaning up at his waterside Hotel Friedrichs after the small Urft river swelled to a raging torrent in mid-July. Germany's parliament last week approved a 30 billion-euro ($35 billion) rebuilding fund for the swath of the country's west affected by the flooding. Overseeing that long-term effort will fall to the next administration. The help must really come quickly, said Pesch, 55. At the moment, to be honest, what's really important is that we get our problems here solved. I don't have any time really to see the other problems, because I'm in such difficulty. The flood compounded the struggles he and others in the tourism business already faced because travel dried up during the pandemic and many staff left. We have to hope that tourism will return and a lot of young people will again find their way into catering, he said. If we overcome the pandemic, and we can look to a positive future, that would be super. ___ Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press journalists Christoph Noelting in Salz, Germany, and Daniel Niemann in Gemuend, Germany, contributed to this report. ___ Follow APs coverage of Germanys election at https://apnews.com/hub/germany-election An Odessa High sophomore student was arrested Monday for having a gun on school grounds, according to a press release from Ector County ISD. District police arrested the student following a student CrimeStoppers tip. The student is charged with places weapons prohibited, a third-degree felony. Brittany Sowacke/Bloomberg Unemployment in the Midland metropolitan statistical area continues to fall as the economy recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Texas Workforce Commission said Friday unemployment in its Midland MSA which includes Midland and Martin counties fell to 5.3 percent in August from 5.9 percent in July and is well below the 8.5 percent recorded last August. Cate McCurry/AP LONDON (AP) Two men appeared in court Friday in connection with the murder of Lyra McKee, a Northern Irish journalist shot dead as she covered rioting in Londonderry in 2019. Gearoid Cavanagh, 33, and Jordan Devine, 21, were charged with murder, possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs, arson and riot A familiar face at Jacksonville Public Library has turned the page, accepting a position with Prairie Skies Public Library District. Cindy Boehlke will take with her volumes of memories from her tenure at the Jacksonville library, she said. The kids and the families made it really enjoyable, Boehlke said. Boehlke joined the Jacksonville library 15 years ago after moving home from Nebraska with her husband so their children could be around other family members. She was welcomed by the library. I started out as a clerk supervisor, she said. She later was promoted youth services director, a position she held for 12 years. More than the job, seeing kids grow is something that she keeps with her, she said. Seeing them at two and three in the library and seeing them now as teenagers just makes me so happy that theyre still reading, she said. Boehlke, who holds a bachelors degree in biology and a masters degree in history and historical preservation from Southeast Missouri State, now is director of the Prairie Skies district, which has libraries in Pleasant Plains and Ashland. I go back and forth a lot, she said of the two locations. Her new job wont involve as much work with children, which she said she will miss. But, as director, she will have a hand in several duties. Ill be buying the books, to scheduling to working the desk, she said. Its a whole new world. Boehlke will continue to live in Jacksonville and commute, because her family wouldnt let me move, she said. Shes just happy she got to work at Jacksonvilles library and can continue working in a library, she said. A library is such a unique place, she said, adding that its one of the few places you go just to enjoy the space, without having to buy anything. While she expects to make new memories at her new job, Boehlke will take with her a piece of Jacksonvilles library, she said. Jacksonville is just a really good place, a really supportive place, she said. Everybody that has worked there has been really gung-ho. Now, Boehlke is focusing on the future. Its great in Jacksonville and Im sad to leave but now Im looking forward to adventures here, Boehlke said. A public reception for Boehlke will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m. today at the Jacksonville library, 201 W. College Ave. VIENNA (AP) A civil trial opened Friday in Austria over the government's handling of a coronavirus outbreak at an Alpine ski resort during the early stages of the pandemic that relatives say resulted in unnecessary infections and deaths. Sieglinde and Ullrich Schopf, the widow and son of a 72-year-old Austrian man who died of COVID-19 after becoming infected in Ischgl, are seeking about 100,000 euros ($117,000) compensation from the government. Their is seen as a test case for a larger class action suit involving hundreds of people who fell ill with COVID-19 following a trip to the Paznaun valley in February and March 2020. LONDON (AP) The British government announced a major simplification of its rules for international travel on Friday, heeding complaints from travelers and businesses that its regulations aimed at staving off the spread of COVID-19 were cumbersome and ineffective. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the simpler, more straightforward system would allow more people to travel, see loved ones or conduct business around the world while providing a boost for the travel industry. He said the changes were possible because of Britain's high vaccination rate. Almost 82% of people 16 and up in the U.K. are fully vaccinated. Shapps said the U.K. is scrapping its "traffic light system that ranks countries as red, amber or green high, medium or low risk from the coronavirus. The categories have been criticized as unfair, and sudden changes to countries status have caused headaches for thousands of travelers. From Oct. 4, there will be a two-tier system, with several dozen countries where COVID-19 is widespread classed as red, and the remainder as open. Eight countries will be removed from the red list on Wednesday: Turkey, Pakistan, the Maldives, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh and Kenya. Testing requirements will be eased for fully vaccinated arrivals to England from open countries, who will no longer have to take a COVID-19 test before traveling. Travelers will still need a test after landing, but from the end October an inexpensive lateral flow test will suffice, rather than a more sensitive - but pricier - PCR test. Unvaccinated travelers will still have to self-isolate for 10 days, as well as taking coronavirus tests before and after their trips. In a boost to tourism, Britain said it will recognize vaccinations given in 17 more countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea. It previously had recognized only shots given in the U.K., the U.S. and the European Union. The changes apply to England. The other parts of the U.K. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own public health policies. The Scottish government said it would adopt the same travel-list rules as England, but retain the requirement for pre-departure tests due to significant concerns about public health. Airlines and travel businesses have complained that Britain's complicated and expensive requirements are keeping people away and hampering recovery from the pandemic. Heathrow Airport said this week that it had fallen from Europes busiest airport in 2019 to 10th-busiest now, behind rivals in cities such as Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt. Dale Keller, chief executive of the Board of Airline Representatives in the U.K. welcomed the changes. He said they would help restore traveler confidence and set the aviation, travel and tourism sectors on what is still a long road to recovery. British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle urged the government to go further and remove all testing requirements for fully vaccinated travelers. Based on the scientific evidence, with fewer than 1% of people returning from low-risk countries testing positive for COVID lower than the UKs rate we urge ministers to keep this policy under review, eliminating all testing for fully vaccinated travelers as soon as possible in the future, in line with most other European countries, he said. Follow all of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic Weve got to listen to the scientists and the economists and the national security experts. They all tell us this is code red, President Joe Biden said while visiting neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey hit hard by Hurricane Ida. The nation and the world are in peril. Thats not hyperbole. That is a fact, he added. But is it? While the president is well known for his empathy, his climate science is a bit weak. Almost everything he said was factually incorrect. Bidens not alone. Media coverage of Hurricane Ida as with every other major weather event was full of reports that the latest storm or flood or fire is proof that a climate disaster is impending. Not claims average temperatures are rising a conclusion nearly all climate scientists concede but that the weather is getting worse and a world-killing climate crisis is right around the corner. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it in the wake of Hurricane Ida, The fossil fuel industry and humanity are incompatible there is no sustainable future where fossil fuels continue to be burned. Not a political opinion, she added. Thats just science. In scientific circles, this is called an unsupported hypothesis. Average Americans would call it, well, fertilizer is close. Contrary to common knowledge, the frequency of hurricanes hitting the continental U.S. has not increased over the period 1900-2020, climate expert Bjorn Lomborg told InsideSources. The frequency of the much more damaging major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher) is not increasing, either. When the president says, These disasters arent going to stop. Theyre only going to come with more frequency and ferocity, its certainly frightening. Its just not factual. Many media reports have focused on the financial costs of hurricanes, storms, and floods, arguing theyre doing more dollars of damage today than in the past. This is also untrue, based on the numbers. Despite the fact that far more people are wealthy enough to live along the worlds coastlines in beachfront homes and condos than a century ago, the comparative costs of weather events have declined. Today, hurricanes around the world cause damage worth 0.04% of global gross domestic product, Lomborg notes. And the destruction dealt by these storms is projected by a study in Nature to drop to 0.02% of global GDP in 2100 as the world economy gets richer, making infrastructure more resilient. And the news regarding the human toll of weather events in this code red moment is even better. Over the past hundred years, annual climate-related deaths have declined by more than 96%. In the 1920s, the death count from climate-related disasters was 485,000 on average every year. In the last full decade, 2010-2019, the average was 18,362 dead per year, or 96.2% lower, Lomborg wrote. Biden is also wrong on the more complicated question of the overall climate. His code red comment is a reference to the U.N.s new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, considered by many to be the definitive analysis of climate data. But the phrase code red for humanity doesnt appear anywhere in the report. Its from a press release put out by a U.N. politician, not a climate scientist. Instead, the new report actually has good news in its climate projections. It finds the worst-case scenario temperature increase is lower than previous projections and its previous predictions for carbon outputs were too high. The risk of some nightmare scenario of a world aflame is actually lower than the climate panelists once thought. Once again, this isnt from a petroleum-industry think tank. This is the same U.N. report advocates for expensive Green New Deal policies point to when pressing for, say, net zero emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050, or a 50 percent reduction in carbon output by 2030. Those goals arent considered realistic by most energy industry experts. Not because of politics, but because of physics. According to the Energy Information Administration, solar, wind, hydro, and thermal power generate about 20 percent of Americas electricity combined. Not to mention the billions of gallons of gas and diesel burned by vehicles on Americas highways each year. Could electric vehicles cut that in half by 2030? Not likely, given that EVs account for just two percent of the cars on Americas roads. Even Bidens $7.5 billion proposal to build charging stations is unlikely to get America to 50% EV use. Thats the bad news for Biden, anyway. For the rest of us, who want the economy to continue to grow while we take reasonable actions to lower carbon emissions, the future is blue skies, not code red. Michael Graham is managing editor of InsideSources.com. 2 charged with murder of N Ireland journalist Lyra McKee View Photo LONDON (AP) Two men appeared in court Friday in connection with the murder of Lyra McKee, a Northern Irish journalist shot dead as she covered rioting in Londonderry in 2019. Gearoid Cavanagh, 33, and Jordan Devine, 21, were charged with murder, possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of petrol bombs, throwing petrol bombs, arson and riot McKee, 29, was observing anti-police rioting in the city, also known as Derry, when she was hit by gunfire in April 2019. The New IRA, a small paramilitary group that opposes Northern Irelands peace process, said its members shot McKee by accident while firing at police. Prosecutors said the two defendants are alleged to have been with the gunman who fired the fatal shot. A judge released the two men on bail until their next hearing on Oct. 7. McKee was an increasingly influential journalist who had written powerfully about growing up gay in Northern Ireland and the struggles of the generation of cease-fire babies raised after the 1998 Good Friday peace accord that ended three decades of sectarian violence. Hundreds of people attended McKees funeral, including the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland and political leaders from Northern Irelands Protestant and Catholic communities. Her death helped spur a successful effort to get feuding politicians to revive Northern Irelands power-sharing government, which had collapsed in 2017. Polands, Lithuanias PMs discuss higher security, migration View Photo WARSAW, Poland (AP) The prime ministers of Poland and Lithuania said Friday that tighter security at their borders with Belarus was the best way to ease pressure from migrant inflows there, as they expect what they called a hybrid attack from Belarus to continue. Polands Mateusz Morawiecki and Lithuanias Ingrida Simonyte also said stronger bilateral cooperation, including in business, and infrastructure, would help against hostile pressure on the European Unions eastern border. Morawiecki and Simonyte, as well as their government members, discussed ways of preventing illegal migration and enhancing border security. We are preparing for a scenario of a long-term dispute around our borders, Morawiecki said following the talks. He added that the two countries would implement a stronger physical protection against the illegal migration, which (Belarusian President Alexander) Lukashenkos regime has turned into a weapon. Both countries have introduced local emergency states blocking access to their borders with Belarus. They are also building razor wire fences there and have increased border guard patrols and vehicles. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have seen a sharp rise in crossings by Iraqis, Afghans, Syrians and Africans through Belarus in recent months. The three EU countries accuse Belarus of pushing the migrants across their borders. The issue arose after Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus for its repression of opposition members after Lukashenko won a sixth term last year in elections that the West and the opposition say were rigged. Germanys Der Spiegel magazine said Friday that Germany is stepping up patrolling of its 460-kilometer (280-mile) border with Poland because of the increased number of illegal crossings and smuggling attempts into Germany, mainly of migrants from Iraq who had entered the EU from Belarus. Simonyte said Friday that Lithuania was looking for best technical and personnel solutions to protect its long border of over 500 kilometers (300 miles) with Belarus. We must put a physical barrier on our borders because one can clearly see that electronic devices alone are not enough to meet such a hybrid attack, she said. Morawiecki said Poland estimated some 10,000 people were brought to Belarus from the Middle East, chiefly from Iraq and Syria, to exert pressure on the EUs eastern border. On Wednesday, EU president Ursula von der Leyen said that by pushing migrants to the EU eastern border the regime in Minsk has instrumentalized human beings, in what she called a hybrid attack to destabilize Europe. Polands Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he and his Lithuanian counterpart, Arvydas Anusauskas discussed holding joint military drills. A Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian military brigade is based in Lublin, in eastern Poland. ___ Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed. By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press Pelosi warns UK not to imperil N Ireland peace with Brexit View Photo LONDON (AP) House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Britain on Friday that there will be no U.S.-U.K. trade deal unless the British government solves post-Brexit disagreements with the European Union that risk destabilizing Northern Irelands peace. Britain and the EU are at odds over trade arrangements that have imposed checks on goods coming to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. They were agreed by both sides in their divorce deal, to keep an open land border between the north and EU member Ireland a key pillar of Northern Irelands peace process. Britain says the new checks are onerous and wants to rewrite the agreement, but the EU says it will not renegotiate. The United States, which played a key role in securing Northern Irelands 1998 Good Friday peace accord, has cautioned Britain against doing anything to undermine the peace settlement. Pelosi, who is visiting the U.K., met Prime Minister Boris Johnson at his 10 Downing St. residence on Thursday. Johnsons office said the prime minister outlined the U.K.s concerns with the way the (Northern Ireland) Protocol is being implemented and the impact it is having on the people of Northern Ireland. Pelosi told an audience at the Chatham House think-tank that a trans-Atlantic trade deal was very unlikely if the Good Friday Accord was destroyed. She said this is not a threat, its a prediction. Pelosi welcomed the fact that Britain and the EU have agreed to keep talking in an attempt to resolve their differences. Im so glad that more time has been given for the negotiations and the discussion, because they have to reach an agreement, she said. Tuolumne Public Health reports 39 new COVID-19 cases since yesterday report and 248 active cases including 13 who are hospitalized. The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County is up to 51.4 per 100,000 population from 50.9 yesterday. A total of 4,236 have been released from isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, 248 cases are currently active, there have been 99 deaths and 1,619 inmate cases for a total of 6,202 total cases. Todays newly reported cases include 5 cases age 15 or under and 2 cases are age 60 and older. The gender and age breakdown is; 3 girls and 5 boy age 0-11, 2 girls and 5 boy age 12-17, 3 women and 6 men age 18-29, 4 women age 30-39, 1 woman and 3 men age 40 to 49, 3 women and 2 man age 50-59, 1 women age 60 -69, and 1 men age 70 to 79. Of the 39 new community cases, 37 were unvaccinated and 2 were vaccinated. There are no new Sierra Conservation Center (SCC) inmate cases, the California Department of Corrections reports 9 active inmate cases, there are three correctional facilities in the state with more active Covid cases. Calaveras County Public Health reports 31 new Covid cases since yesterdays report and 119 active cases the most the county has had since the beginning of the pandemic. The active cases include 3 current Covid hospitalizations. There are 7 new cases age 0-17 and 6 new cases in individuals age 65 years old or older. Since the pandemic began Calaveras has had 477 Covid-19 positive people who are 17 and under and 579 Covid-19 positive people 65 and over. Mariposa County Public Health There are 18 new Covid cases since yesterday, 78 active cases and 11 hospitalizations. The public health team took the time to review some case information from their Delta Wave, from July 15th September 15th which brought 470 new COVID-19 cases. They state Thats half of all cases weve had during the entire pandemic. We are also saddened to share that we have seen 5 deaths during this time. We continue to see that the vast majority of cases are in unvaccinated individuals and of the 23 total cases that were hospitalized during this wave, only 3 were fully vaccinated. Another trend we are seeing from this latest wave is an increase in youth cases. Compared to the previous 13.5 months, we are seeing 2x as many cases in youth under 12 and about 3.5x as many cases in youth age 12 17. COVID-19 Testing Beginning on Sunday, September 19, 2021 the Tuolumne County state testing site located at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds will add an additional testing lane which will increase the number of appointments available each day. If you believe you have been exposed to COVID, schedule an appointment to get tested 5 days after exposure. If you are having any symptoms, please get tested right away. The State testing site is open 7 days a week beginning from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Appointments should be made rather than walking in. Appointments can be scheduled at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123. Testing is also available through, some pharmacies, at Rapid Care or the hospital emergency department if you are experiencing any symptoms, or contact your healthcare provider. COVID-19 Vaccines Vaccine appointments can be made at local pharmacies and through myturn.ca.gov or by calling 833-422-4255. Anyone 12 and older is eligible for a COVID vaccine, Pfizer is approved for anyone age 12 or over. As detailed here healthcare workers are required to be vaccinated by September 30. The Pfizer vaccine requires 3 weeks between doses and the Moderna requires 4 weeks. The J&J vaccine requires only one dose. Call or email with any questions you may have Tuolumne is available at (209) 533-7440 Health@tuolumnecounty.ca.gov, Mariposa at (209) 259-1332 or mariposacovid19@gmail.com more numbers are available on our COVID-19 vaccine page here. Public Health continues to strongly encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated, as the most important step to reduce the spread of disease and prevent serious illness and death, as well as to reduce the impact on the healthcare system. In addition, the continued practice of other preventive actions like wearing a mask in public, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds, washing hands, and staying home when sick will help slow the spread of the virus. The vaccination rate for Tuolumne county is 54% of eligible people. Health Officials detail, Choosing to help the Public Health Department slow the spread of COVID-19 helps protect you, your family, and your community. We all need to work together to slow the spread of COVID-19. We strongly encourage everyone to be part of the solution and answer the phoneit may be the health department calling to let you know your test result came back positive for COVID-19, or that you have been in close contact with someone who has it. For more information on contact tracing click here, for isolation and quarantine information go here. Mariposa County Public Health says We have had a lot of questions around Vaccine Immunity vs. Natural Immunity, here are some quick facts Both can provide some protection from infection (or reinfection with natural immunity), but the risks of relying on a natural infection for immunity are significant. Learn more about long-term risk of infections here. Also regarding Long COVID they state, this resource helps to address all post-COVID conditions, including long COVID. Its important to know that each person will experience and cope with long-term illness differently, so its a good idea to follow up with your primary care provider. There is a common misunderstanding that recovered means someone is completely well. This is not the case. In fact, in some medical sense, being deceased could qualify as recovered. The CDC definition of recovered for COVID-19 means 24 hours have passed since the fever break without fever-reducing medications, and symptoms have improved, and at least 10 days have passed since the onset of symptoms. Freedom Rally at Courthouse Park View Photo This Saturday Sept 18th, citizens of Tuolumne County will participate in their second Worldwide Rally for Freedom, joining over 400 other locations around the world taking a stand for medical freedom. Heather Nordstrom, Worldwide Rally For Freedom organizer, was Fridays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Everyone is invited to join as we stand in unison for a family-friendly, peaceful gathering to have our voices heard and demonstrate our right to peacefully assemble, said Nordstrom. The rally will kick off at Courthouse Park in downtown Sonora at 1 PM with a non denominational prayer, live music, guest speakers, food vendors and more. The event will conclude around 3 PM. According to Nordstrom, this rally is organized by numerous Tuolumne County residents, who are non-partisan, concerned citizens, who have galvanized around pandemic issues such as mandated vaccines, vaccine passports, informed consent, medical choice, and health freedom. Nordstrom said, The rally is specifically protesting items that are being implemented in California and/or are being considered including mandated experimental vaccines, vaccination passports, mask requirements (including children in schools), vaccinating children for the fall semester and future lockdowns. Worldwide Rallies for Freedom are planned in the USA as well as in over 400 locations including: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Israel, Lebanon, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, Uruguay. Please join us with a sign, give us a honk, wave, or stop and stand with us as we continue to push back against legislation that trespasses against every global citizens right to decide for themselves, said Nordstrom. Freedom of choice includes freedom of expression, religious practice, bodily autonomy, and movement. The time to stand is now and it begins here at home. For more information, email freedomsonora@usa.com or find FreedomSonora on facebook. The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML. Jury selected for Georgia prisoner accused of killing guards View Photo CAIRO, Ga. (AP) Jury selection wrapped up Friday in the trial of one of two Georgia prisoners accused of killing two guards more than four years ago, and opening statements are set to begin Monday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Donnie Rowe in the killings of Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue in June 2017. Rowe and Ricky Dubose are accused of using the guards guns to shoot them while escaping from a prison transfer bus southeast of Atlanta. They were arrested in Tennessee a few days later. Dubose also faces the death penalty and will be tried separately. Jury selection took about three weeks, and was delayed briefly in the middle to wait for the results of a defense attorneys COVID-19 test. Defense attorneys and prosecutors on Friday selected eight men and nine women for a total of 12 jurors and five alternates, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. Because of pretrial publicity, jury selection was held in rural Grady County, in south Georgia. But the selected jurors will be bused about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north to Putnam County, where theyll stay in a hotel for the duration of the trial. Before jury selection began, Rowes lawyers had asked for the trial to be delayed, saying a surge in COVID-19 infections in Georgia could force a mistrial in the case. Putnam County Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Trammell denied the request. France recalls ambassadors to US, Australia over sub deal View Photo PARIS (AP) Americas oldest ally, France, recalled its ambassador to the United States on Friday in an unprecedented show of anger that dwarfed decades of previous rifts. The relationship conceived in 18th century revolutions appeared at a tipping point after the U.S., Australia and Britain shunned France in creating a new Indo-Pacific security arrangement. It was the first time ever France has recalled its ambassador to the U.S., according to the French foreign ministry. Paris also recalled its envoy to Australia. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a written statement that the French decision, on request from President Emmanuel Macron, is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made by Australia and the United States. He said Australias decision to scrap a big French conventional submarine purchase in favor of nuclear subs built with U.S. technology is unacceptable behavior between allies and partners. Ambassador Philippe Etienne tweeted the announcements are directly affecting the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. The Biden administration has been in close contact with French officials about the decision to recall Etienne to Paris, National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said. We understand their position and will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points over the course of our long alliance, she said in a statement. France is our oldest ally and one of our strongest partners, and we share a long history of shared democratic values and a commitment to working together to address global challenges. State Department spokesman Ned Price also stressed the value the U.S. places on its relationship with France and expressed hope that talks between the two sides will continue in the coming days, including at the United Nations General Assembly next week. Macron, however, for the first time since he came into office in 2017, wont be making a speech to the annual meeting of world leaders. Le Drian will instead deliver the French address. The Australian government said it regretted Frances decision to recall its ambassador to that nation. Australia understands Frances deep disappointment with our decision, which was taken in accordance with our clear and communicated national security interests, Foreign Minister Marise Paynes office said in a statement. It added that Australia valued its relationship with France and looked forward to future engagements together. The decision to recall the ambassador represents a shocking turnaround for France under Macron, who after an increasingly bitter relationship with former President Donald Trump warmly clasped hands with Biden at a G-7 summit in June and confirmed that America is back. Macron has not yet commented on the issue. The recall is his boldest foreign policy move yet in a four-year presidency in which he has sought to strengthen Frances diplomatic footprint and role in European policy-making, and to rally Frances neighbors around his vision for a Europe less dependent on the U.S. military umbrella. France has pushed for several years for a European strategy for boosting economic, political and defense ties in the region stretching from India and China to Japan and New Zealand. The EU this week unveiled its plan for the Indo-Pacific. Earlier Friday, a top French diplomat, who spoke anonymously in line with customary government practice, said that Macron received a letter from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday morning announcing the decision to cancel the submarine deal. French officials then decided to reach out to the U.S. administration to ask what was going on, he said. He added that discussions with Washington took place just two to three hours before Bidens public announcement. Le Drian on Thursday expressed total incomprehension at the move and criticized both Australia and the U.S. It was really a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed, he said. This is not done between allies. He also compared Bidens move to those of Trump under his America First doctrine. Paris had raised the issue of the Indo-Pacific strategy during the June 25 visit to Paris of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, expressing the importance of its submarine program with Australia, the French diplomat said. We said that it was for us a very important and critical component in our Indo-Pacific strategy, he said. Blinken met with Macron during the visit. The French diplomat said Australia never mentioned to France its will to shift to nuclear-powered submarines, including during a meeting between Macron and Morrison in Paris on June 15. A recall of ambassadors is highly unusual between allied countries. In 2019, Paris recalled its envoy to neighboring Italy after the countrys leaders made critical public comments about the French government. Last year, France recalled its ambassador to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Macron needed mental health treatment. ___ Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington, Edith Lederer at the United Nations, Rod McGruk in Canberra, Australia, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to the story. By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press TORONTO (AP) The man who could oust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power advertised himself a year ago as a true-blue conservative. He became Conservative Party leader with a pledge to take back Canada - and almost immediately started working to modernize the party by pushing it toward the political center. Erin O'Toole, a military veteran and a member of Parliament for nine years, has only quickened his pace while campaigning for Canada's snap federal election. Despite criticism that the former lawyer would say and do anything to get elected, polls show OTooles Conservatives could defeat Trudeaus Liberal Party on Monday. O'Toole's strategy, which has included disavowing positions held dear by his party's base on issues such as climate change, guns and balanced budgets, is designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbor. Whether moderate Canadians believe OToole is the progressive conservative he claims and whether it has alienated conservatives have become central questions of the election campaign. He has distanced himself from being Conservative, said Jenni Byrne, who served as campaign manager and deputy chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He distanced himself not just from the Harper years but from the leadership campaign that he ran less than two years ago. Byrne calls it a gamble and a mistake. There seems to be a lack enthusiasm everywhere, Byrne said. Hes basically mirroring Liberal policies instead of past conservatives policies. There is no evidence that that has actually worked and gotten Conservatives elected. And theres no evidence that it has been helping Erin. John Baird, a former Conservative foreign minister, said he didn't want to opine on whether he thinks OToole is taking the party in the right direction. But Baird said O'Toole is the opposite of Trudeau, who has made the cover of Rolling Stone and been featured in Vogue magazine. Hes not the sizzle, hes the steak, Baird said of the Conservative Party chief. A Conservative win would represent a rebuke of Trudeau, 49, who called the election despite the pandemic in hopes of shoring up his minority government but now is at risk of losing office to the head of the opposition, a politician with a fraction of the name recognition. Trudeau said O'Toole can't be trusted. OToole tells Conservative friends what hes really going to do and pretending to Canadians something completely different, Trudeau said during a campaign stop in Montreal on Thursday. Whether its been on guns, on the environment or whether its been on vaccines, Mr. OToole has been misleading Canadians, not leading. OToole calls himself a Conservative leader with a new style and says he rejects the politics of celebrity and division. He describes his views as pro-abortion rights and pro-LGBTQ rights. He told the crowd at a Quebec campaign event: Youve been let down by all parties of all stripes, mine included, at times." From the first day of my leadership, my priority has been to a build a Conservative movement where every Canadian can feel at home: inclusive, diverse, forward-looking, progressive, worker-friendly," O'Toole said Wednesday. "Were not your dads Conservative Party anymore. Thats dramatically different language from what O'Toole used during his bid to become Conservative Party leader last year. OToole won the post with the support of social conservatives and gun enthusiasts, and by disparaging a centrist opponents Conservative credentials. Since then, many of his actions more closely resemble those of the leadership candidate he beat than of a right-wing standard-bearer. For example, he reversed the partys position on guns at the beginning of the month, contradicting the Conservative platform he put out in August by pledging to maintain Trudeaus list of prohibited firearms. OToole also now favors a carbon tax to fight climate change, a policy of Trudeaus which his party vehemently opposed for years and OToole had promised to overturn. He also tempered his support for allowing health care workers to exercise so-called conscience rights by refusing to participate in abortions, assisted suicide or other procedures on moral or religious grounds. Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said an O'Toole victory would give moderate Republicans in the United States evidence to argue that a more centrist, big tent party can win elections. "This is an indication that if you run to the center, which the Republicans always used to do, it works," Bothwell said. If I were a moderate conservative, Id be pleased, and I would point to it as much as I could." Ian Brodie, a University of Calgary professor who served as chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said he thinks hatred of Trudeau will prevent the most conservative voters from abandoning O'Toole on Monday. Brodie said many Conservatives in Western Canada think Trudeau, who has talked about a day when oil is not needed, has a condescending view of the oil industry that is central to Albertas economic vitality. I cant overstate how much people want to get rid of Trudeau here, so its all hands on deck, he said. Political observers have been quick to note O'Toole's new stripes. Robyn Urback, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, Canadas national newspaper, wrote, If there are still those who dont like Mr. OTooles position on something, well, all they have to do is wait a few minutes. University of Toronto political science professor Nelson Wiseman described O'Toole as two faced but said the party leader's policy reversals do not seem to have registered with voters even though everyone is calling him out on it. But Wiseman thinks that OToole not requiring Conservative candidates to get vaccinated against the coronavirus and refusing to say how many of them are not could cost him Monday, especially after a provincial Conservative government in Alberta apologized this week for mishandling the pandemic. The Conservative position on vaccinations is hurting the party and OToole because growing numbers of the vaccinated are becoming increasingly upset with those who refuse to get vaccinated, the political scientist said. Like Trudeau, the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, OToole was born in Montreal and is the son of a longtime politician. His father served as a Conservative member of Ontarios provincial legislature for almost 20 years. OTooles mother died of breast cancer when he was 9. After his father remarried, he grew up the oldest in a blended family with five children. Influenced by his fathers public service, he entered the military at 18 and went on to attend the Royal Military College of Canada. One of his professors there, Lubomyr Luciuk, said OToole impressed him. Was he my most intelligent student? No," Luciuk said. But he was one who asked good questions and listened and learned. He wasnt afraid to put himself forward and say, What should I read about this? After graduating in 1995, OToole was commissioned as a Canadian Air Force officer. He flew on a Sea King helicopter as a navigator for naval search and rescues, and eventually left military service for law school. After earning his degree, OToole worked on Canadas version of Wall Street in Toronto. He first was elected to Parliament in 2012, representing a suburban district outside Toronto, and three years later joined Harpers Cabinet as minister of veteran affairs. He lost a bid to become party leader in 2017 but won last year with help from the ranked-choice voting system the Conservative Party uses. Longtime friends say the married father of two is neither an ideologue nor a Trump-style populist. Luciuk said he thinks his former student's lack of celebrity appeals to Canadians after more than five years of Trudeau's leadership. Hes not debonair. You dont say, Oh wow, what a handsome man. Hes not, the professor said. I see a pretty ordinary guy, but most of us are. Hes resonating with people because hes got commonsense, hes pragmatic. Hes not doctrinaire. Hes not beholden to some of the wingnuts, frankly, who are in the Conservative Party. The Plainview city council is looking to bump up property tax rates a tad. During Tuesdays regular scheduled meeting, the council approved the first reading of the citys budget and proposed property tax rate. A second reading is scheduled for the Sept. 28 meeting. The tax rate and budget will be adopted if the second reading is approved. After some back-and-forth discussion, council voted 6-1 for a property tax rate of 0.8518/$100 valuation, a slight increase from the 0.8418 rate taxpayers paid during the fiscal year of 2020. The new tax rate would result in a $851.80 tax fee for homes valued at $100,000. In the public notice on the tax issued by the city and discussed by the council, three potential rates were laid out. The proposed rate was 0.8844. The No New Revenue rate was 0.8275 and the highest potential rate which wouldve needed to be voted on by citizens was 0.9366. City manager Jeffrey Snyder laid out the options on the property tax rate. District 4 Representative Teresa King motioned to pass keep the rate at .8418. Larry Williams, District 2, amended the motion, asking that the rate be increased to 0.8518. Williams noted the citys budget deficit $796,417 which was presented during the budget portion of the meeting and said that without a higher rate, that deficit will likely increase. That would then put future councils in the unenviable position of needing to ask for a much higher rate. Williams said that he does not like taxing anyone, but stated the need to do so now because of the councils avoidance on raising taxes over the last several years. King countered, mentioning the citys current sales tax revenues which have exceeded $4.5 million in 2021 are at a promising position. Because of that, King said, the city should focus on getting more tenants to the new business park before higher taxes are introduced. She was the lone member of the council to argue against Williams. Though each of the other five members of the council echoed Williams reluctance to raise taxes, they agreed that they needed to act now before the deficit becomes even greater. During the budget discussion of the meeting, Snyder noted that the citys current deficit can be attributed to a couple different factors. First, the city took a $385,000 budget into this year from the last fiscal year, which was approved last September. Second, part of the expanded deficit is due to the 2% pay increase being given to police and fire department employees. That amounts to about $100,000. Third, $250,000 of the added deficit is due to a payment to the fire pension fund. Plainview is required by the Funding Soundness Restoration Plan. The total funds owed to the pension is $1.25 million, $500,000 of which was paid by the city earlier this year. Originally, the city planned to make another $250,000 payment on the fund by the end of this year. However, because of the citys current funds coming from the sales tax revenue, Snyder recommended doubling this payment to $500,000. This was approved by council and leaves the city with one more $250,000 payment, which is due next year. The $250,000 pension payment is part of the current deficit of $796,417 but, Snyder said, wont play a factor in the deficit moving forward. The city felt fine moving forward with the $385,000 deficit from the previous year. However, Snyder did mention that the city does not make enough on property taxes to fund police and fire departments. He also said that though the citys sales tax rate is at a good spot right now, that is largely due to the number of people in town working on the various construction projects. Mayor Charles Starnes agreed with that sentiment, saying that having that bump right now is great, but theres no telling what will come of those funds when the construction projects start to be completed. Many of the council members, outside of King, used similar get-ahead-of-the-game jargon on their position for a higher tax rate. The vote on Williams amended motion passed 5-1, with Starnes abstaining and King dissenting. On the official roll call vote, the rate of 0.8518 passed 6-1, King being the nay vote. During the budget discussion, Snyders presentation showed the 3% increased cost of living pay for city employees across the board. Police and fire department employees will receive a total of a 5% bump thanks to the additional 2% passed by council. The proposed budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year includes $24,008,498 in available revenue and $24,804,915 in total expenditures, resulting in the new deficit council voted to higher tax rates to improve. Council also voted 7-0 for a 3% increase on water and sewage services and unanimously approved Atmos Energys seven-cent increase on energy bills. The increase to water and sewage is directed to the rates on monthly water usage as part of the citys water conservation planning process. Novembers scheduled special election to fill the vacant District 7 seat on the council was officially canceled. Nobody applied for the position, forcing the cancelation. A new special election is scheduled for Jan. 22. The council unanimously voted to extend the citys COVID-19 disaster declaration another 30 days. The current declaration was scheduled to expire on Sept. 16. When discussing the latest virus numbers in Hale County, Mayor Charles Starnes noted the increase of 144 people that have received their first dose of the vaccine since last Thursdays report. Starnes said the vaccination rate is moving a glacial pace, but is encouraged that the number does continue to grow. Snyder also noted that the council will have a report on the Aquatic Centers first full year of operation available in October. The Southington Fire Department has secured the funds needed to hire three additional firefighters. This will bring improved response times to the southern end of town, a much needed move. As the Record-Journal recently reported, concerns with coverage in Milldale and other more southern areas of town center around two issues. Engine Co. 3 on Clark Street is an all-volunteer unit and volunteers are in short supply, especially during regular daytime work hours. That means emergency calls may require help from headquarters on Main Street and Station 5. Those staff firefighters have to drive across town while volunteer crews assemble and no one likes to lose time in transit when an emergency is unfolding. Additionally, the south end of town has grown in recent years. More people and buildings require more emergency services. Everybody has recognized that our daytime response is struggling, so we have to do something to improve our response times especially on the southern side of town, Fire Chief James Paul told the R-J. The new positions will be funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant. Nathan Wilson, chairperson of the fire commission, said the fire department needed to add at least three new firefighters to its roster, which includes 28 career firefighters along with six administrative and fire marshal staff. The $1.1 million grant will cover salary and benefits for the three new firefighters. Assistant Fire Chief Eric Heath said the plan is to make the hires by January 2022 to allow for training with the Connecticut Fire Academy. The many emergency services the fire department provides are critical and residents depend on a swift response to calls for help. The work that went into obtaining this FEMA funding will go a long way towards making sure that happens. (Bloomberg) -- The Covid-19 vaccine booster shot proposed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE should be given to older Americans and those at high risk, a panel of expert advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said, rejecting a request for broader distribution. While the recommendation isnt binding, its a blow to the Biden administrations plan to deliver third doses to all American adults in the coming weeks to stave off the viruss spread. The FDA will have to decide in the coming days whether to follow suit or overrule its trusted scientific advisers and proceed with a broader booster authorization. Pfizer had originally proposed approving a booster shot for everyone 16 and older. But the advisers rejected that idea out of concern that the data to support such a broad application was thin and there could be risks, especially for younger people. Its not clear to me that the data were seeing right now is applicable or necessary for the general population, said National Institutes of Health scientist Michael Kurilla. Another panelist, Paul Offit of the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said he wanted to see more data on the risk of heart inflammation in younger men. Instead, the panel voted 18-0 in favor of an emergency-use authorization -- a more limited clearance than a full approval -- for people 65 and older or individuals at high risk of severe Covid-19. The vote didnt specify what was meant by high risk, though panelists later agreed the authorization could include people who may be exposed to Covid-19 because of their jobs, such as health-care workers. We Can Tweak The move is a setback to a sweeping plan from the Biden administration to roll out booster shots to a broad population next week. In August, the president had said everyone whod been vaccinated would be able to receive a third dose at least eight months after their most recent dose. Still, the administration called it an important step toward its fight against the pandemic. We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week, White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said. Peter Marks, head of the FDAs vaccine program, made clear to panelists Friday that the agency will make its own decision. We are not bound at FDA by your vote, just so you understand that, he said. We can tweak this as need be. Pfizer said it will work with the FDA following todays meeting to address the committees questions, as we continue to believe in the benefits of a booster dose for a broader population. If the FDA follows the advisers recommendation, U.S. health officials would still be able to target third doses at people at highest risk of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19 -- at least those who took Pfizers vaccine. Moderna has also applied to the FDA for emergency authorization of a third dose booster, while the agency is still waiting for data backing an additional dose from Johnson & Johnson. The FDA may make its decision on Pfizer in the coming days. An outside advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also make detailed recommendations for the use of the booster shot at a meeting next week. Shares of Pfizer declined 1.3% at the close in New York, and BioNTech shares were down 3.6%. Shares of Moderna Inc., maker of a similar Covid vaccine, were down 2.4%. Changing Data Arnold Monto, acting chair of the advisory committee, also left the door open for the group to recommend emergency use authorization for boosters in younger people later, when more information becomes available about potential side effects and effectiveness. Thats the beauty of an EUA, he said. It can be changed based on changing data. 2021 Bloomberg L.P. For more than a decade, the 13th Floor Haunted House has been appropriately operating out of a creaky, multi-level building in San Antonios downtown, just across the way from the dusty train tracks that splinter out of Sunset Station. Previously, the dark hallways of the 108-year-old haunt were grounds for the citys first cold storage facility. Now, come every fall, they are stalked by at least 62 professional scare actors. I dont frequent haunted houses, and I generally avoid being scared. Yet, on a recent Thursday afternoon, I found myself anchored outside of the attraction, catching the first wisps of fall in my best brown leather jacket, confronted by a posse of silent and sinewy gargoyles. I stared them down while waiting for general manager Albert Bafford, to green-light my entry through their ominous padlocked keep. Camille Sauers/MySA While the 13th Floor doesnt officially open its doors until September 17, I wanted to take a look around, and more importantly, get to know some of the frightening characters that creep behind its corners. I followed Albert up a set of shadowy stairs. He told me to watch my step. I fully expected a handsy Pennywise-type to lurch out of the floorboards and drag me down to hell. Instead, I was led into a shockingly regular room with a microwave and a humming AC unit, flanked by a pair of comfy couches, where two unmasked scare actors lay in wait. Katie Fincher and Donovan Guzman have been seasonal employees at the 13th Floor for several years. Both in their 20s, Fincher comes from the type of tiny Texas town that boasts fewer than 500 people. When shes not embodying La Llorona and other prickling figures, she assumes the role of costume manager, distressing and altering clothes from the thrift to suit up your worst nightmare. Guzman, a former varsity theater nerd, moonlights as an attraction lead and floor manager. Taking in my surroundings cautiously, my eyes darted toward a bulbous sinister clown mask resting on top of the round table, one we ultimately decided to gather around. There he is, I thought to myself, succumbing to a strange sense of relief. Interestingly, the group shares that clowns are one of the creatures people tend to be most terrified of. My own uneasiness dates back to stumbling into a birthday party as a child and hiding under the table when an uncanny Valley Bozo stumbled in. I was happy to hear I was not alone. I asked the actors what it feels like to frighten people. Guzman was quick to answer. Fear is such a primal emotion that people love to seek out, and to be able to give them that excitement, that rush of adrenaline and see the look on their facesits exhilarating and it makes you feel alive. Fincher agreed, adding, Its a lot of fun, I love when you get to some younger people and they try to run away and theres nowhere to run. Later on, she assures me, while wearing twin blonde braids and overalls, I dont like to make children cry, I like how happy they get, when they realize that, 'Oh this is a lot of fun, they're not actually monsters, they're characters.' Camille Sauers/MySA Beginning in September, and in the days leading up to Halloween, the actors at the 13th Floor in San Antonio must transform themselves almost nightly. Come the witching hour, the metamorphosis process at both ends of the haunt looks different for everyone, though all staff must report to the building by 4:30 p.m. Guzman, donning glasses and sporting a strip of bleach through his black curly hair, tells me he usually approaches a night of scaring by hydrating and eating light, snacking on something like a granola bar. During the drive over, you might find him listening to some heavier pop-punk to transfigure into the right head space. My Chemical Romance, Black Veil Bridesthey really get the mojo pumping, shares Guzman. Upon arrival, hell start pulling on his rags and applying makeup while catching up with friends. Together they might do some vocal warm-ups to prepare the voice for anything that might come its way. Since the haunted house is interactive, the show changes night after night. One has to be prepared. Camille Sauers/MySA Once dressed, hell start to stretch. Guzman is a slider, meaning that under his costume, hell wear protective knee pads and steel-toe boots to nimbly glide across the floor. Its a popular type of scare at the 13th Floor, usually carried out by someone in a zombie suit. Fincher, due to her costume duties, usually arrives early, around 3 p.m, to socialize and prepare the scary skins to be seen and feared on the floor. In the morning, after waking up late, shell snack and energize herself up with a few rousing Disney songs. Once the festivities begin, she has clearance to roam the building, interacting with the crowds, striking up conversation, and spooking those looking for a scare. Guzman's main ritual, one he performs right before setting out, is a practice taken from his varsity theater days. Without fail, he recites a poem. Old friend, catch your breath, take your time, I want the whole tale, every gesture and cry, I have labored for this. With scare sessions lasting about six hours, the wind down process, depersonalizing from the character, takes time. After she clocks out, Fincher usually hits the McDonalds drive-thru line by her house. Nothing is better than a Powerade after working at a haunted house, she explains. Guzman also goes the fast-food route before wiping off his makeup. It always starts with you know, you leave here with your makeup still on and you end up scaring some poor person at Whataburger, covered in blood and clown makeup, saying Ill have a number 5. Camille Sauers/MySA Employees at 13th Floor use air-brushed, alcohol-based makeup for all performances, applied by makeup artists with sparkling silver handled spray guns. Its tough to get off. However, Ponds, the white greasy cold cream beloved by grandmothers, is the unanimous weapon used to fight against it. The scare actors would appear, in their personal lives, not so typically frightening after all. Most are regular folks with day jobs, working in hospitality or at other performance-based attractions. Some people like Christmas, we like Halloween, jokes Bafford, sipping an energy drink. Were not all satanists. A typical pre-COVID weekend night at the 13th Floor trafficked 7,000 people. Last year, when heightened precautions were taken, the company could still rely on about 3,000 or so people, those who decided their pandemic-era agoraphobia simply wasnt enough of an adrenaline hit. More extensive cleaning procedures are still being taken this season, and the house is still excluding gimmicks like the sweaty clutches of the claustrophobia bag from this year's lineup. However, masks are no longer required for patrons. Thematically, crowds can expect two different themes to stimulate the senses. Dollmaker channels a creepy Pinocchio gone wrong, Island of the Dolls aesthetic, while Bad Blood nods to movies like Lost Boys, Underworld, and Twilight. Altogether, it's a bloody vampiric mess. Camille Sauers/MySA At the close of my conversation, I was able to preview the nearly empty building, safely battling my fear of haunted houses with no jump scares on the table, observing all the thrift store curios repurposed into a horror film scene. I was told that the 108-year-old building is professed to be haunted in its own right, usually by the spirit of a young girl. Slightly sweaty, I still kept my guard up. I did side-eye Pennywise in the break room earlier, after all. After shaking Alberts hand, I was on my way, a little more ready for fall a little less afraid of the dark. Traveling is transporting, both literally and figuratively. So why not really embrace the metaphor and spend your vacation in a shipping container hotel? These quirky lodgings offer a unique getaway experience (think of the Instagrams) and can also be less expensive options than big-name hotels. Over the past few years, as the tiny living movement has gained momentum, these nontraditional hotels have popped up across the globe. Today, visitors can hunker down in a Georgian (the country) ski lodge or even book a container cabin in the Catskills. Texas has also recently welcomed a few shipping container stays, offering a memorable vacation closer to home. Courtesy, Odonata Escape Flophouze became Texas' first-ever shipping container hotel when it opened in Round Top in 2018. From the outside, the lodgings are unmistakably shipping containers, mainly because they still have their original branding. Inside, however, is like a tiny house fever dream: Shiplap! Thrift store vibes! Hip amenities! The hotel's vintage vibe is on brand with its hometown, which hosts the massive, can't-miss Round Top Antiques Fair twice a year. And though each space is designed for all-inclusive privacy, the property also offers communal spots, such as fire pits. Into a bigger space? Flophouze also has the Beachouze and the Farmhouze, which sleep eight and 10, respectively. 1132 W. FM 1291, Round Top, Texas, 979-353-2627 Courtesy, Odonata Escape Shipping containers, but make it fashion. This darling escape, located four miles outside of Fredericksburg, offers eight perfectly appointed shipping containers accented with limestone, hardwood, and modern fixtures. The spot is a literal dream come true for owners JD and Mary Susan Gilmer. Though Mary Susan grew up in Austin, she says that as a child spending time in the Hill Country, she always dreamed of having a place there one day, when she was old. The result is a little less cargo ship and a little more Hill Country chic. Containers have a distinct theme, ranging from the midcentury modern Groovy to the Western-inspired Lone Star, and each with a deeply personal connection to the couple. (Shangri-la, for example, honors JD's mom, who loved traveling to Asia.) Each room is outfitted with a front porch, a kitchenette, a book nook/extra bed, and a firepit available to guests. Publish 186 Grasshopper Lane, Fredericksburg, Texas Courtesy, Blue Beetle Truly escape from it all at this rural Marble Falls retreat. Known as the Blue Beetle, this Airbnb offers a tiny home with big views. Enjoy coffee on the second-story deck or fire up the grill for tacos and margaritas. The property itself is home to other tiny homes, giving visitors the chance to get a glimpse into what it would be like to actually live within a smaller footprint, something owner Aaron says it part of this Airbnb's attraction. A firepit and creekside access or among the amenities, though the listing notes that guests have their own private areas away from the residents. Address available upon booking, Marble Falls, Texas. PRAGUE (AP) Two firefighters were killed in a gas explosion that leveled a family house in southeast Czech Republic, officials said on Wednesday. The head of the regional government, Radim Holis, also said two other firefighters were injured. The regional rescue service said a total of four people were injured in the explosion that occurred in the town of Korycany shortly after noon. JOHANNESBURG (AP) After uncertainty if COVID-19 would force South Africa to postpone local government elections, the courts have ruled that the crucial polls should move ahead. Despite concerns about political rallies spreading the disease, South Africa's courts ruled earlier this month that the Independent Electoral Commission should hold the polls on November 1. The elections may see erosion of support for the ruling party, the African National Congress party, which failed to register candidates in about 90 municipalities across the country before the deadline. However, the electoral commission threw the ANC a lifeline by reopening registration for candidates to be councilors in the nation's cities. The local government elections, which take place every five years, determine who will be on the councils that run cities, including responsibility for delivering basic services like water, sanitation and housing. The elections also determine who will be mayors of major cities. The previous local government elections held in 2016 resulted in major political shifts across the country with the ANC losing control of the major economic hub of Johannesburg, the Tshwane metropolitan area which includes the capital city Pretoria, and Nelson Mandela Bay. Cape Town continued to be governed by the opposition Democratic Alliance. Voters are going to be looking at how political parties are performing nationally and provincially ... this is not going to serve the ANC particularly well," said Collette Herzenberg, senior lecturer of politics at Stellenbosch University. She said the ANC had been confronted by many challenges in the past five years. The elections will be an assessment of President Cyril Ramaphosas leadership since he was elected in 2019, including his handling of the pandemic and corruption. Several municipalities governed by the ANC have been found to be mismanaged by state auditors and some others have been placed under the administration of provincial governments. The upcoming elections come at a difficult time for the ANC, which has been struggling with internal divisions, recent violent riots across the country over the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma and the suspension of the party's secretary-general Ace Magashule over corruption charges. South Africa's unemployment rate of 34% will also be a major issue. COVID-19 should not be a big factor in voter turnout, according to Lesiba Teffor, vice chancellor for research at North West University. The (pandemic's) threat is actually during the campaigning, where some parties will want to do door-to-door campaigning and others will want to hold massive political rallies. That is where the threat of the spread of the virus is," said Teffo. "The actual voting day is usually very orderly and people can social distance while queuing to vote. But voter apathy may result in a low turnout. Winston Mahlangu, who sells phone chargers and pouches on the streets in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg, is among voters who are unenthusiastic about voting. To be honest with you, I have not seen any obvious changes since I voted in the last elections. There is a lot that has been happening, with the coronavirus and people struggling," he said. "I am not sure how things will change after we vote. CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) Guinea's junta leaders vowed Friday that deposed President Alpha Conde would not be allowed to seek exile, saying they would not cave to mounting pressure from regional mediators who have imposed targeted sanctions after this month's coup. The statement came just hours after leaders from the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS met with junta president Col. Mamady Doumbouya in Guinea's capital. The military rulers dismissed rumors that the West African neighbors were negotiating a way for Conde to leave the country. Conde is and will remain in Guinea," the junta said following the conclusion of the talks. We will not yield to any pressure." ECOWAS and other members of the international community have called for Conde's immediate release ever since he was detained in the Sept. 5 coup that overthrew him after more than a decade in power. By Thursday, the bloc pressed ahead with targeted sanctions after the junta failed to meet the demand. The regional bloc put travel bans into effect for the leaders of the Sept. 5 coup and their families, and also froze their financial assets. Friday's delegation to Guinea was led by Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the current chair of ECOWAS, along with Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara. Conde came to power in 2010 during the country's first democratic elections since independence from France in 1958. At the time, there were hopes that his presidency would turn the page after decades of dictatorship and corrupt rule in Guinea, home to mineral riches including the world's largest reserves of bauxite. However, Conde pressed for a constitutional referendum last year that paved the way for him to seek a third term in office. His bid to extend his rule sparked violent demonstrations by those who said he had bended the rule on term limits to his benefit. He ultimately won another five-year term in October, only to be toppled by the coup 10 months later. ___ Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Toussaint N'Gotta in Abidjan, Ivory Coast contributed. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Tom Cruise got a sneak preview of what its like to circle Earth in a SpaceX capsule. Representatives for SpaceXs first privately chartered flight revealed Friday that the actor took part in a call with the four space tourists orbiting more than 360 miles up. Thursdays conversation, like the entire three-day flight, was private and so no details were released. Maverick, you can be our wingman anytime, came the announcement from the flight's Twitter feed. Cruise starred as Navy pilot Pete Maverick Mitchell in the 1986 film Top Gun. A sequel comes out next year. Last year, NASA confirmed it was in talks with Cruise about visiting the International Space Station for filming. SpaceX would provide the lift, as it does for NASA astronauts, and like it did Wednesday night for the billionaire up there now with his two contest winners and a hospital worker. Their flight is due to end Saturday night with a splashdown in the Atlantic off the Florida coast. The four showed off their capsule in a live broadcast Friday. They're flying exceedingly high in the automated capsule, even by NASA standards. SpaceX got them into a 363-mile (585-kilometer) orbit following Wednesday nights launch from NASAs Kennedy Space Center. Thats 100 miles (160 kilometers) higher than the International Space Station. Its so high that theyre completing 15 orbits of Earth daily, compared with 16 for station astronauts. Until this all-amateur crew, relatively few NASA astronauts had soared that high. The most recent were the shuttle astronauts who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope over multiple flights in the 1990s and 2000s. To enhance the views, SpaceX outfitted the Dragon capsule with a custom, bubble-shaped dome. Photos of them looking out this large window were posted online, otherwise little else had been publicly released of their first day in space. Besides talking space with Cruise, the four capsule passengers chatted Thursday with young cancer patients. Hayley Arceneaux, a childhood cancer survivor, led the conversation from orbit with patients from the hospital that saved her life almost 20 years ago: St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. A 6-year-old-boy wanted to know if there are cows on the moon like in the nursery rhyme. I hope there will be one day. Right now, no, there arent, replied another passenger, Sian Proctor. Were going to go back to the moon soon and were going to investigate all kinds of things about it. The video linkup was not broadcast live, but shared by St. Jude on Friday. Seeing the Earth from so high is so beautiful," Arceneaux told them. Now a physician assistant at St. Jude, Arceneaux is the youngest American in space at age 29. Pennsylvania entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, 38, purchased the entire flight for an undisclosed amount. Hes seeking to raise $200 million for St. Jude through the flight hes named Inspiration4, half of that coming from his own pocket. The two other Dragon riders won their seats through a pair of contests sponsored by Isaacman: Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer, and Proctor, 51, a community college educator. During the broadcast Friday afternoon, Sembroski played a ukulele that will be auctioned off for St. Jude. You can turn your volume down if you wish, but I'll give it a shot, he said. Proctor, who is an artist, showed off a drawing in her sketchbook of a Dragon capsule being carried by a mythological dragon away from Earth. All four share SpaceX founder Elon Musks quest to open space to everyone. Missions like Inspiration4 help advance spaceflight to enable ultimately anyone to go to orbit & beyond, Musk tweeted Thursday after chatting with his orbiting pioneers. ___ 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. March 31 is officially designated to celebrate Cesar Chavez locally with unanimous San Antonio City Council vote. The Cesar E. Chavez Legacy & Educational Foundation shared the news via social media on Thursday. The group, led by Ernest Martinez, says online that the milestone that "celebrates an American hero and underscores the importance of recognizing his long lasting impact." The official day joins other local observances of the historic figure including annual marches and a street bearing his name. In 2011, Durango Boulevard, a downtown street, was renamed for Chavez. March 31, the labor leader's birthday, became a federal commemorative holiday under the Obama administration in 2014. While Chavez is recognized as a civil rights leader, and his bust sits directly behind President Biden's desk in the Oval Office, he is not without criticism. His comments and views have been reexamined in recent years, especially his stance on immigration. United Farm Workers, the group Chavez cofounded with Dolores Huerta and Gilbert Padilla, responded to criticism in March. The group recognized that Chavez's use of words such as illegal and "wetback," but the organization called the issue "nuanced" and said Chavez opposed anyone who broke a strike, not just immigrants. According to UFW, Chavez supported groups that were largely undocumented in his later years of life. Morning, y'all. And what a morning it is as San Antonio has approved a $3.1 billion budget. Here's what you need to know to start your day. The city council passed the city's 2022 budget at meeting Thursday afternoon. The budget itself included amendments from council members, most which were not approved. So much so for new District 1 Councilman Mario Bravo that he abstained from the vote, passing the budget 10-1. One of the more talked about amendments that council members turned down included the proposed $5.7 million cut from the San Antonio Police Department budget. The motion failed 3-8 with only council members Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, Teri Castillo and Bravo voting in favor. City Manager Erik Walsh said the proposed cut would have removed officers from the city's community policing effort, San Antonio Fear Free Environment. District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry proposed reducing the city's contribution to VIA Metropolitan Transit by $5.7, but that motion also failed. With the budget in the books, we're in for another hot one. The National Weather Service says Friday should be clear and sunny with a high of 97 degrees and low of 75. Here five other pieces of Alamo City chisme you may have missed. Texas angler reels in quite the catch from San Marcos River This 19-year-old was just fishing with his friend in the San Marcos River when he reeled in what could be a record-breaking catch. That title is still pending, but find out just how big this catch is that could lure in the new record. Read more here. SAISD teachers give outgoing superintendent a chilly send off Just a few hours after San Antonio ISD's Superintendent officially accepted his new role as CEO of Chicago Public Schools, the district's teacher and staff union released a scathing letter hopeful for a new leader. The union says he leaves behind a legacy of "authoritarianism" and a hollowed out district. Read more here. A day in the life of San Antonio's Furniture Finder Ever wonder what goes into finding those antique pieces sitting pretty in those small furniture stores in San Antonio? Us too, so our very own Camille Sauers spent the day with a furniture finder to see what it's like. It doesn't involve a lot of sleep apparently. Read more here. San Antonio's West Side will soon have a Latino bookstore The inner Westside is on its way to opening up a new chapter in the story of the neighborhoods rich culture. Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is in the process of turning an old space into a bookstore that will feature books from Texas Latino authors focusing on Mexican-American studies and Chicano scholars. Read more about the new bookstore here. Spurs newest ballers get to know San Antonio a little more We can't get enough the Spurs here at MySA. As always, most of San Antonio was excited to welcome the Spurs newest members to the family with some Alamo City hospitality. In turn, its newest members took a little field trip to learn about the history of San Antonio's indigenous people that created the culture we know today. Read more here. Have a great weekend, San Antonio. Have any news, tips, comments (or memes) worth sharing? Send them along to us at mysa@mysa.com. San Antonio's West Side is a few weeks out from starting a new chapter that will bind Latino literature with community when the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) bookstore opens. The 3,000-square-foot Latino bookstore opens in the former Progreso Pharmacy on October 1 with $20,000 worth of inventory on its shelves. Customers will be able to browse and buy literature written by Texas Latino authors focusing on Mexican-American studies and Chicano scholars and icons. Works for the kiddos are also included. GCAC Executive Director Cristina Balli says the store will quench the book desert that has plagued the area for generations. Mapping San Antonio bookstores shows the West and South Sides barren of books. The future of the South Side's only store, Dead Tree Books, remains in limbo after owners Kenny and Melissa Johnson revealed in July that the business was struggling to survive at the current location. "It's economics. The 78207 zip code is one of the poorest zip codes in San Antonio, with a long history of segregation, and economic segregation, that has shaped the forces to be what they are now," Balli says. "The area is underserved in all aspects food, transportation, infrastructure not too long ago, there was a big flooding zone. Historically, there's been a lot of neglect of the area. That's the environment that we've been operating in." Courtesy, Tony Diaz The bookstore is funded with the $839,000 the campus received as part of the 2012 city bond to renovate the Progreso Pharmacy building and add a community art gallery and gift shop. Balli says she added the bookstore concept when she joined in 2016, making it a five-year effort. While Balli oversees the larger vision, she tapped Tony Diaz as literary curator of the bookstore. His responsibilities include picking the books and developing programming to bridge the city's literary ecosystem, involving fellow stores, the San Antonio Public Library and schools. Balli says Diaz has an extensive history in literary arts, working with authors, retail and a history in activism through his Librotraficante movement, which tackles censorship in Arizona. "There's nobody better in the state to do this," Bali adds. Diaz says his plans do not fall in line with a corporate agenda. He says it's the industry's sales-driven methods that fostered a literary desert to start with. "If we follow those rules, we wouldn't even open a bookstore," he says. "Corporate English sentences our communities to investors. So we're curating books based on community cultural capital, which is the legacy of the cultural center." Courtesy, Tony Diaz While Diaz isn't working to please corporate models, he says the business world will witness the benefit of investing in San Antonio's culturally rich communities. He points to the state's recent designation of the West Side as a cultural district of the city. "I have no doubt that this will be a destination and that we'll be getting millions of dollars in sales in the next few years," he says. For now, he's working on developing bookstore offerings, from the shelves to experiences. Inaugural books include Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez's Writing 50 Years mas o menos Amongst the Gringos, Max Baca's Crossing Borders: My Journey in Music, and Diana Lopez's picture book, Sing with Me: The Story of Selena Quintanilla. The 2022 author series will bring in "Chicano cornerstones," Balli says. Names Diaz has on deck include 2022 Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez, Baca, and more. Diaz's vision for connecting schools include author visits to J.T. Brackenridge Academy, Tafolla Middle School and Lanier Middle School. He sees coordinating lesson plans and donations of books that reflect the culture and experiences of the students reading them. Courtesy, Tony Diaz "I'm hoping that in a few years, there's a whole generation of students that are just used to thinking that this is the way their literature courses work," he says. "I would love to see high school students arguing that they should get their masters in prose or poetry." Balli and Diaz's goal is for the bookstore to be a go-to destination on the GCAC campus, a place where visitors can immerse themselves in culture by browsing books, even when the plazas and theater aren't active with performances or showings. "We want people to be accustomed to thinking, 'Okay, when they go to the teatro, don't forget to go to the Progreso (building) to pick up a book," Diaz adds. The store is launching with a celebration steeped in Latino culture. Carmen Tafolla and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto will help christen the opening as what Balli calls "literary padrinos," or godparents. The October 1 opening will also mark the national launch of Rodriguez's aforementioned book. Courtesy, Tony Diaz The team says the opening "book bash" is symbolic of the "mish-mash of cultura" and community that San Antonio, and the rest of Texas, should expect of the store. "We have to work together to create a whole generation of family libraries," Diaz adds. "When we do that, we all win. On that note, this is also built on the legacy of San Antonio, but it's going to be a cornerstone for every city. This is not just going to be a center for San Antonio, this is where we'll be showcasing writers from around the state." The Guadalupe Cultural Art Center's bookstore is located at 1300 Guadalupe Street. Once open, business hours will be noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. At 101, shes still hauling lobsters with no plans to stop ABC Why the Bezzle Matters to the Economy Michael Pettis, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. From August, still germane. World Bank Ends Doing Business Report in a Landmark Victory for People and Planet Oakland Institute. Wilmer Hales report to the Board of Executive Directors. The U.N.s Own Humanitarian Crisis New York Magazine The ozone hole over the South Pole is now bigger than Antarctica New Scientist A Just Transition Needs a Job Guarantee Pavlina R. Tcherneva, Project Syndicate #COVID19 China? Nuclear submarines give Australian military an edge and could deter China further South China Morning Press. For reference: US stands in unshakeable alliance with Australia as China says AUKUS deal intensifies arms race Sky News Australian PM says he made clear to France possibility of scrapping submarine deal Reuters Myanmar Coronavirus concerns see China halt Vietnams US$1 billion dragon fruit trade South China Morning Post. Traces on packaging (i.e., fomites). So, interesting. Malaysias Bodek Culture Asia Sentinel India The Koreas Top court confirms one-year prison term for ex-presidential aide in illegal surveillance case Yonhap News Agency. Wow, I wonder what its like to live in a country where the rule of law applies to high officials. Court rules against officials in landmark Jakarta pollution case Al Jazeera. Ditto. Syraqistan Lebanon judge seeks arrest of ex-minister charged in Beirut blast Al Jazeera. And ditto. Afghanistan UK/EU Biden Adminstration Health Care The next step in immorality: charging to create and cure disease British Medical Journal. The next step in immorality is to charge patients to become sick and be paid to help with treatment. Its a step that Philip Morris International, one of the worlds richest tobacco companies, is seeking to take with its proposed 1bn purchase of Vectura, a pharmaceutical company that makes inhalers for respiratory diseases. Cf. Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth The Space Merchants (Galaxy, 1952): I came off shift dehydrated, as they wanted me to be. I got a squirt of Popsie from the fountain by punching my combination twenty-five cents checked off my payroll. The squirt wasnt quite enough so I had another fifty cents. Dinner was drab as usual; I couldnt face more than a bite or two of Chicken Little. Later I was hungry and there was the canteen where I got Crunchies on easy credit. The Crunchies kicked off withdrawal symptoms that could be quelled only by another two squirts of Popsie from the fountain. And Popsie kicked off withdrawal symptoms that could only be quelled by smoking Starr cigarettes, which made you hungry for Crunchies . . . Had Fowler Schocken thought of it in these terms when he organized Starrzelius Verily, the first spherical trust? Popsie to Crunchies to Starrs to Popsie? Our Famously Free Press New Cold War Imperial Collapse Watch The Romans and Intellectual Disciplines Yale University Press Blog Class Warfare Glen Ford Memorial Gathering YouTube (live stream scheduled for Saturday, September 18 at 2pm ET). One of the greats, sadly lost. Antidote du Jour (via): Bonus antidote (EJ): See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here: (Natural News) Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said that President Joe Bidens vaccine mandates are divisive and harden the resistance of some people to get vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). The Republican governor on Sunday, Sept, 12, told NBCs Meet the Press that he believes the presidents vaccination mandates will hurt nationwide efforts to vaccinate Americans instead of supporting them. On Thursday, Sept. 9, Biden issued several executive orders requiring all federal employees and the majority of health care workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine. A White House plan also stated that Biden would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to mandate that businesses with 100 or more employees either mandate COVID-19 vaccines, require weekly COVID-19 testing or be fined. According to Hutchinson, the federal requirements are counterproductive. We talked about the fact that weve historically had vaccination requirements in schools. But those have always come at the state level, never at the national level, Hutchinson said. And so this is an unprecedented assumption of federal mandate authority that really disrupts and divides the country. It divides our partnership between the federal government and the states. And it increases the division in terms of vaccination when we should all be together trying to increase the vaccination uptake. Bidens vaccine mandates to affect 80 million Americans The mandates are expected to impact approximately 80 million Americans. (Related: King Biden blames unvaccinated Americans for COVID vaccine mandate as red states line up around the block to sue.) Hutchinson said he believes the decision to mandate vaccines for employees should be decided by individual businesses. Im not aware of any governor from any state that said we want to mandate businesses to require vaccination, he said. I support businesses being able to require vaccination, but its their own independent choice for their workplace. COVID-19 vaccines have already been mandated by several federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon. Governors disagree with Bidens vaccine mandates Hutchinson was among the 19 governors who issued statements on Friday, Sept. 10, disagreeing with the Biden administrations move. Several of them vowed to defy it. I fully support continued efforts to increase vaccination rates across our nation, but the federal government mandates on private businesses are not the right answer, Hutchinson, chair of the National Governors Association, said in a statement. I have been consistent in freedom of businesses to require their employees to be vaccinated, and I have opposed the government from saying businesses cannot exercise that freedom. The same principle should protect the private sector from government overreach that requires them to vaccinate all employees. Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, a staunch conservative, took to Twitter to decry Bidens move. Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian, he wrote. Before Biden was even finished with his Thursdays address, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp already tweeted his response. I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration, he wrote. Biden administration hurts private businesses One of Bidens mandates negated the executive order signed by Kemp on Aug. 19, which prohibits local governments from ordering businesses to adopt vaccine mandates. The executive order bars local officials from mandating the order, but allows private businesses to require vaccines if they want to. Local governments will not be able to force businesses to be the citys vaccine police, Kemp said at the time. He then tweeted that his executive order will ensure that businesses in Georgia cant be punished by local governments for trying to make a living, pay their employees and save their livelihoods. Unfortunately, the Biden administration can. Biden may be breaking several laws with vaccine mandates Biden might be breaking several laws with his vaccine mandates. Most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines available are under emergency use authorization (EUA). In other words, they are experimental. Both the Nuremberg Code and federal regulations state that no one can force a human being to participate in the experiment. Under U.S. laws, it is unlawful to deny someone a job or an education because they refuse to be an experimental subject. Potential recipients have an absolute right to refuse experimental vaccines. That point isnt lost on some companies. (Related: Employers are uniting and preparing lawsuits against Bidens seditious vaccine and testing mandates.) The Consumer Brands Association wrote a letter to Biden on Monday that included a small sampling of the questions that its members have asked the organization. The trade group represents consumer packaged goods companies, including industry giants like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and General Mills, as well as retailers Amazon, Albertsons and Target. The trade groups questions for Biden include: Will the requirements only apply to vaccines that are fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration [FDA]? Pfizers Comirnaty is the only COVID-19 vaccine granted full approval by the FDA. However, Dr. David Martin warned the public that the the agency has approved a vaccine that does not exist. The approval is for future production of COVID vaccine, he said during his appearance on Brighteon Conversations with Health Ranger Mike Adams. When members of the mainstream suggest that this approval has suddenly put what is sitting in freezers around the world into an approved status, thats actually not true. There are still manufacturing guidelines that were not required for the EUA that would be required for a full-approved product. Martin also related that some vital information had been redacted in the approval letter that Pfizer had, as well as in its official publication from the FDA. The section of where it can be manufactured and when it can be manufactured is redacted, which is unusual given the fact that an approval letter is supposed to be a public announcement that makes these things visible, Martin said. Follow Immunization.news for more news and information related to vaccine mandates and coronavirus vaccines. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com 1 BusinessInsider.com 11Alive.com TheEpochTimes.com 2 CNBC.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) A 20-year-old self-employed nail technician realizes her life is going to be very different for the foreseeable future. Now she is warning others to please just do your research. (Article republished from TheCOVIDBlog.com) Ms. Eve Dale received her first Pfizer mRNA injection on June 26, according to her Facebook page. She reported general malaise and fatigue, but said she expected that to happen. The second mRNA injection came on August 21. Ms. Dale said August 22 was, the day my life became a nightmare. She posted a video of herself, from her home surveillance cameras, walking out of the front door at 11:01 a.m. that morning. Ms. Dale posted another video four hours later from the surveillance cameras. It shows her crying with two people helping her get out of a car and walk into the house. Ms. Dale said she felt excruciating pain in her back and could not walk on her own. So she called her friends for help. Ms. Dale posted two videos later that evening. She went to the emergency room when she realized something was very wrong. By then the stabbing and shooting pains spread from her ankles all the way up to her neck. Doctors said she was suffering from full-body muscle spasms caused by the Pfizer injections. Reality sinks in with grim prognosis Ms. Dale said she went for an MRI this past Tuesday. But she has not updated her status as of publishing. Unfortunately no medication has worked to provide pain relief. As Ms. Dale said: I cant move a centimetre without crying in pain & need assistance constantly to even pass me a drink, take me to the toilet everything a 20 year old shouldnt even have to think about doing. Due to the amount of pain I am in now has resulted in me not even knowing when my bladder is full. But the worst news was yet to come. Medical personnel told Ms. Dale that for months and perhaps years, shell need a Zimmer frame (walker) or cane just to move around on her own. Ms. Dale made clear, by saying it twice in the same post, that she is not an anti-vaxxer. But she conceded, I wish I just did a bit more research. Ms. Dale said it was only right for her to get the injections because she is a nail technician who comes in contact with other people daily. Her final message to everyone: PLEASE PLEASE do your research as [this] is unfortunately my life. I dont have a choice anymore yet you do. Read more at: TheCOVIDBlog.com and VaccineInjuryNews.com. (Natural News) French Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier has recently warned that those who get Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines could experience devastating long-term consequences. Montagnier, an expert virologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 with a colleague for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. Now, Montagnier has trained his expertise on the coronavirus and on the experimental and deadly vaccines developed to supposedly counteract it. He has spoken on multiple occasions regarding how the COVID-19 vaccines spur on the development of even deadlier vaccine-borne variants. (Related: COVID-19 vaccines ENABLE the development of deadlier coronavirus variants, warns Nobel Prize winner.) Its very simple, they [coronavirus variants] arise from vaccination, said Montagnier in an interview. The virologist noted that the coronavirus already has a great ability to mutate, like influenza, and many of its later mutations such as the delta variant are empowered by the vaccines. It is vaccination that spurs the creation of new strains of the virus, said Montagnier. The Chinese virus collides with the antibodies created by the vaccine, and it has two paths: Either to die or to look for a way to bypass the vaccine. The new strains are the viruss response to vaccination. Antibody-dependent enhancement of COVID-19 likely with continued vaccinations One of Montagniers latest statements warned of the possibility of the vaccines causing antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE.) ADE occurs when the antibodies generated during an immune response do not destroy the virus, but instead bind with them harmlessly. Instead of acting as a defensive measure against pathogens, the antibodies instead allow the foreign particles to enter the body and make the bodys immune response significantly weaker. There have been multiple recorded instances of vaccines causing ADE, including the vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, measles and more recently the vaccine developed for dengue. There have been multiple recorded instances of defective vaccines causing ADE. These include the vaccines developed for HIV, Zika virus, dengue and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). More notably, a vaccine developed for SARS-CoV-1 (or the SARS virus) also caused ADE. Data from around the world has already confirmed that ADE is occurring in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. You see it in each country, said Montagnier. Its the same. The curve of vaccination is followed by the curve of deaths. Im following this closely and I am doing experiments with patients who became sick with corona after being vaccinated. Montagniers assessment is supported by many European doctors who have attested to reviewing data showing that nursing homes and other assisted living facilities experience a surge in COVID-19 cases within days after their residents get vaccinated. Because his views stand in direct opposition to those held by mainstream public health scientists, Montagniers credibility has been systematically shaterred. Many of his colleagues have disavowed their connections with him. One news network in France claimed that the expert virologist has been lost in the desert, even though he has received a lot of acclaim for his earlier work. Many scientists argue that the science regarding ADEs related to the COVID-19 vaccines is settled. But reality shows that this is not the case. Many scientific journals point to the fact that ADE has been observed in multiple vaccines developed for other viruses. One paper published in Nature pointed out that the possibility of ADE in other viruses suggests a real risk of ADE for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and antibody-based interventions. Finally, one preprint article from The Lancet from March 2020 pointed out that prior studies involving vaccine candidates for [feline infectious coronavirus] and [MERS] coronavirus demonstrate vaccination-induced antibody-dependent enhancement of disease. The article added that SARS and MERS vaccine ADE risks may foreshadow SARS-CoV-2 vaccine risks. This goes to show that the science is not settled and Motagniers fears are likely to come true if the COVID-19 vaccines continue to be pushed onto the populace. This is a medical product still undergoing clinical trials and absent of any long-term safety data. Safety has not been guaranteed, and drug side effects are unavoidable, wrote Sara Middleton, journalist for Natural Health 365. With these unknowns in mind, do you think people should be coerced into getting the injection and complying with a federal jab mandate? Learn more about the dangers that come with taking the COVID-19 vaccines by reading the latest articles at Vaccines.news. Sources include: NaturalHealth365.com SoulAsk.com CHOP.edu HumansAreFree.com RAIRFoundation.com Science.TheWire.in (Natural News) In a new video on The Hills Rising, political commentator Kim Iversen analyzes Dr. Anthony Faucis support for azidothymidine (AZT) to treat HIV/AIDS and compares it to his current support for COVID mRNA vaccines. (Article republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org) Fauci, named head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, sparked panic among Americans in the 1980s when he wrote in a medical journal that AIDS could be transmitted not only through sexual contact and sharing needles, but also through ordinary close contact with the infected. Iversen says Faucis remarks followed the discovery of an infant diagnosed with AIDS a case we would later learn was caused when the child passed through the womb of an infected mother. But the damage was already done, said Iversen: Public panic had intensified and people were fearing they could get aids from sharing a toilet seat or even from shaking hands. People living with AIDS were being alienated and ostracized from their jobs, homes, communities, and gay men, in particular, were heavily stigmatized. Meanwhile, Fauci and his team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) went full speed ahead on developing a vaccine for AIDS. However, despite promises from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that it would roll out an AIDS/HIV vaccine, Iversen says that never happened. Realizing the potential to earn big profits, Iversen says pharmaceutical companies soon began developing treatments for AIDS. The British drug company, Burroughs Wellcome & Co., said its failed cancer drug AZT could be used to treat AIDS. Few studies were done, said Iversen, and the long-term side effects were unknown. But in March 1987, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT, claiming the benefits outweighed the risks. Celia Farber, who in 1989 reported on the approval of AZT and its potential health risks, wrote at the time: The majority of those in the AIDS-afflicted and medical communities held the drug up as the first breakthrough on AIDS. For better or worse, AZT had been approved faster than any drug in FDA history, and activists considered it a victory. The price paid for the victory, however, was that almost all government drug trials, from then on, focused on AZT while over 100 other promising drugs were left uninvestigated. The drug was one of the most toxic, expensive and controversial drugs in the history of medicine, Farber wrote. In 1989, Iversen said Fauci started promoting the drug not only for critically ill AIDS patients, but for anyone who tested positive for HIV, including those who were asymptomatic and showed no sign of the disease. Those patients included hospital workers, pregnant women and even children, said Iversen. Doctors were stunned. Despite limited data, the NIH went all in on AZT, ignoring evidence that the drug was toxic, caused liver damage and destroyed white blood cells, Iversen said. The drug continued to be used for years, she explained. As Childrens Health Defense Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. notes in his upcoming book, The Real Anthony Fauci, Fauci sabotaged safe and effective off-patent therapeutic treatments for AIDS while promoting deadly chemotherapy drugs that almost certainly caused more deaths than HIV. Pre-order my book today The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Healthhttps://t.co/YjDHH5v84q Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 31, 2021 Iversen made the same observation: As Fauci and the NIH focused on vaccines and AZT for the treatment of aids, hundreds of drugs went unstudied. Iversen said: Many doctors advocated that the best way to treat patients was to focus on mitigating the severity of the ailments that would ultimately kill them rather than trying to eradicate AIDS altogether, that the virus mutates too quickly to waste all resources and time on a vaccine or other preventatives that everything should be studied, all avenues explored and all options should remain on the table. But unfortunately, thats not exactly how the AIDS epidemic was handled. Big pharma got their payday. Millions of dollars were allocated by Congress to vaccine research, which never produced anything effective. And meanwhile, along the way, hundreds of drugs and treatment options went unexplored. And we still dont have a cure for HIV. The epidemic never went away like people hoped. We do, however, have effective treatments that help people live a good long life with the virus. There were a lot of mistakes made along the way. A lot of lessons that could have been learned, but after looking into the history of the AIDS epidemic, its curious if weve actually learned any. Here we are today, with a pandemic that is causing mass hysteria. Like the days of people demonizing gay men as the culprits behind the epidemic, we have the media demonizing the unvaccinated as the root cause for why this virus just wont go away. Iversen said that while many hoped the vaccine would eliminate COVID, like AIDS, the virus appears to mutate too rapidly. The same way Fauci discouraged and prevented inexpensive treatments from being talked about, researched and prescribed in the 1980s is the same thing thats happening today, said Iversen. Governments should be exploring every possible option to treat COVID, Iversen said, including inexpensive treatments, and treatments that arent so profitable for the pharmaceutical industry. Everything should be studied, Iversen said, but just like what happened during the AIDS epidemic that just doesnt seem to be happening. Watch the Rising segment here: Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org and Traitors.news. (Natural News) Chief Medical Advisor to the White House Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said he would support a Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate for all air travel in the United States. I would support that if you want to get on a plane and travel with other people that you should be vaccinated, said the countrys so-called top infectious disease expert. The White House has also declined to rule out the possibility that it will institute a vaccine mandate for everybody traveling by air in the near future. On Friday, Jeff Zients, the White Houses coronavirus response coordinator, said: I think we have a very strong track record that shows were pulling available levers to acquire vaccinations and were not taking any measures off the table. Later in the day, White House Press Secretary added: We are always looking at more we can do to protect and save lives Well continue to look for ways to save more lives. Fauci has also recently doubled down on his support for COVID-19 vaccine mandates on students. He claimed that such a mandate is justifiable because schools already force students to get vaccinated against other diseases He also said that it is not something new, and that forcing children to take deadly, experimental COVID-19 vaccines is the solution that we have at our hands. (Related: VACCINE PREDATORS: Fauci thinks it is a good idea for schools to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for children.) When you hear us say should you mandate vaccination for children to be able to attend school, some people say, Oh, my goodness. That would be terrible to do that,' said Fauci, mocking parents who are concerned about their children. But we already do that and we have been doing that for decades and decades. I dont know what school you went to, but the school that I went to, you had to be vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, polio or otherwise you couldnt go to school, he added. Congressmen introduce vaccine mandate legislation for air travel Faucis latest comments on vaccine mandates for students and air travel comes as two Democratic lawmakers continue to push for Congress and the White House to pass a vaccine mandate for air travel. In Congress, Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia introduced legislation on Friday that, if it passed, would require airline employees and domestic air travelers to present either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before they board their domestic flight. Beyers proposed vaccine mandate would place similar requirements on people traveling by Amtrak trains. Requiring airport and Amtrak travelers and employees to provide a proof of COVId vaccine or negative test is just common sense, claimed Beyer without evidence. These are easy steps we can take to make travel safer, as companies like [United Airlines] have already demonstrated with responsible policy changes. Americans want a return to normal that includes traveling for business or pleasure, and Congress can help make people comfortable traveling again by putting basic requirements in place that prevent the spread of COVID, he added. Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, another Democrat, wants this to go a step further. He sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security back in August telling the department that issuing a vaccine mandate for both domestic and international air travel was a common-sense step. Public health and elected officials like Fauci, Beyer and Torres are under the mistaken notion that mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for travelers will prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This fails to take into account the fact that fully vaccinated individuals are significantly more likely to spread the coronavirus to others. Travel association opposed to vaccine mandate The U.S. Travel Association, one of the countrys largest organizations that represents and advocates for the travel industry, has declared its opposition to a vaccine mandate for domestic air travel. On Monday, the organization responded to Fauci by saying that the science is clear that vaccines are not necessary, especially not for air travel. U.S. Travel has long maintained that there should be no mandatory vaccination requirement for domestic travel, said Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Policy Tori Emerson Barnes, in a statement. Such a policy would have an unfair, negative impact on families with young children who are not yet eligible to get the vaccine. The Travel Association unfortunately believes in mask mandates, and the federal mask requirement for air travel, which has been extended through Jan. 2022, is enough to protect air travelers. With the federal mask mandate for all forms of public transportation and U.S. airports extended through Jan. 2022, proper tools are already in place to enable safe air travel for Americans. The Travel Association has not presented any evidence to back up its claim regarding masks. Learn more about the expansion of the unconstitutional COVID-19 vaccine mandates by reading the latest articles at Vaccines.news. Sources include: NYPost.com Newsweek.com TheHill.com HuffPost.com NBCNews.com USTravel.org (Natural News) A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case filed by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch has revealed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under Barack Hussein Obama purchased the heads and other body parts of murdered (aborted) unborn human babies in order to conduct research. The FDA claimed that the aborted baby body parts were for a humanized mice project that involved experimenting with human fetal heads, organs and tissues, according to 198 pages of now-extracted FDA records. These supplies came from a biotechnology company called Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR). ABR employee Perrin Lawton reportedly conducted the business deals with the help of FDA officer Kristina Howard, according to unearthed documents. A lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch sought the records for all contracts and related documentation on disbursement of funds, procedural documents and communications between FDA and ABR for the provision of human fetal tissue to be used in humanized mice research. A federal court responded by ordering that the government provide even more details about the purchase of these human body parts, including line item prices, or the price per organ the government paid to ABR, Judicial Watch announced about the ongoing case. The court also found there is reason to question whether the transactions violate federal law barring the sale of fetal organs. Documents previously uncovered in this lawsuit show that the federal government demanded the purchased fetal organs be fresh and never frozen,' Judicial Watch added in a statement. Baby murder is big money in America In 2012, right after Obama had been reelected for his second term, an agreement was made between the FDA and ABR to transact $12,000 worth of tissue procurement for humanized mice.' That transaction ended up costing some $60,000 when all was said and done. In some cases, aborted baby body parts came at a rate of $230 per tissue, with two per box plus shipping. The delivery of fetal livers and thymuses, meanwhile, cost a bit more at $580 a set, with some of the more premium organs costing $685 a pop. To obtain an intact calvarium, which is just a fancy word for an uncrushed babys skull, the FDA was billed $515 each by ABR. The HM [humanized mice] are created by surgical implantations of human tissue into mice that have multiple genetic mutations that block the development of the mouse immune system at a very early stage, a government researcher reportedly told ABR at the time. The absence of the mouse immune system allows the human tissues to grow and develop into functional human tissues In order for the humanization to proceed correctly we need to obtain fetal tissue with a specific set of specialized characteristics. Obtusely, Obama actually had the gall to get up in front of the world and condemn this type of medical experimentation with aborted baby body parts in Africa, anyway. You read that right: Obama expressed opposition to the chopping up of human babies for the purpose of doing Frankenstein experiments on them, but only in Africa. Here in the United States, he oversaw this very same wickedness, which was funded with American taxpayer dollars. Chopping up aborted human beings for their organs and tissue is a moral and legal outrage, says Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. This issue should be front and center in any debate about Americas barbaric abortion industry. Last year, Judicial Watch reported on how the National Institute of Health (NIH), where Tony Fauci works, has been doing much the same thing via the University of Pittsburgh, which has since been outed as one of the major tissue hubs where aborted baby body parts are processed and sold for profit. The latest news about the abortion racket can be found at Abortions.news. Sources for this article include: WND.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) New research out of Japan suggests that the dreaded Delta variant may soon become completely resistant to Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines. Experts found that the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is already poised to acquire complete resistance to all existing jabs for the Chinese Virus. Truth be told, the jabs are responsible for spreading the Delta variant in the first place. Even so, it sometimes takes science a bit of time to realize truths like this, and the Japanese study helps to advance the publics understanding of the deception in a small increment. At the very least, it is now undeniably apparent that the injections made available to us by Donald father of the vaccine Trump through his Operation Warp Speed scheme are not helping to stop the Fauci Flu from spreading. For their research, Japanese scientists exposed four different mutations to the Delta variant alongside Pfizers mRNA jab. They found that the jab actually enhanced the infectivity of the mutated covid strains, making the problem worse. A Delta variant with three mutations has already emerged, which suggests its only a matter of time before a fourth mutation develops, at which point complete resistance to Pfizers jab may be imminent, reports GreatGameIndia. A number of experts have raised concerns that COVID-19 jabs and the mass vaccination program could worsen the pandemic by triggering the development of new variants, via a concept known as antigenic, or immune, escape. Mass vaccinating the world is making covid worse and keeping the plandemic going Another study found that the injections are, in fact, driving the continued spread of Chinese Germs, keeping the plandemic alive and well when it otherwise would have been long over by now. Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is taking place inside the bodies of the fully vaccinated, causing them to become walking mutators and spike protein factories that put everyone around them at risk of infection. Fully vaccinated people are dangerous, in other words, and are directly responsible for the latest wave of the virus that is said to be spreading like wildfire. What were supposed to be rare breakthrough infections have become the norm, thanks to the injections. The government is also to blame for continuing to push vaccines, telling people thats how to stay safe, which is not an idea supported by science. The receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein binds to the host cell receptor ACE2, and the interaction mediates membrane fusion during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are mainly directed to the RBD and block the interaction between the RBD and ACE2, researchers warn. Most SARS-CoV-2 variants have acquired mutations in the neutralizing antibody epitopes of the RBD, resulting in escape from neutralizing antibodies. While single-mutated Delta spikes appeared to get tackled by the antibodies, a fourth mutation, which the researchers called Delta 4+, was not able to be eradicated. we analyzed the Delta 4+ pseudovirus with four additional RBD mutations, the paper explains. Surprisingly, most BNT162b2-immune sera enhanced infectivity of the Delta 4+ pseudovirus in a dose-dependent manner at relatively low concentrations of BNT162b2-immune sera, but showed weak neutralization only at the highest concentration of the sera. Especially, PFZ7 greatly enhanced the infectivity at relatively low serum concentration. Some sera, such as PFZ13 and PFZ14, did not show neutralizing activity even at the highest concentration of the sera. The governments solution is to just keep jabbing people with more experimental mRNA chemicals, but this approach will only continue to fuel the creation of more vaccine-induced variants, which will continue to overwhelm health systems with sick and dying patients. The latest news about the Chinese Virus injection scam can be found at ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: GreatGameIndia.com NaturalNews.com Independent.co.uk (Natural News) In May, the Treasury Department released the Biden administrations revenue proposals for fiscal year 2022. One aspect of this document that has gone under-reported is the administrations new plan for reporting requirements for financial institutions. (Article by Peter Jacobsen republished from Fee.org) The document is unequivocal about the administrations goal for financial reporting, stating, this proposal would create a comprehensive financial account information reporting regime. The Biden administrations goal here is to increase tax revenue by making sure no income avoids detection. How will the administration do this? It plans to leverage financial institutions like banks. [T]his requirement would apply to all business and personal accounts from financial institutions, the proposal reads, including bank, loan, and investment accounts, with the exception of accounts below a low de minimis gross flow threshold of $600 or fair market value of $600. In other words, financial institutions will report any flows in and out of business and personal accounts of more than $600. This reporting requirement is far above any current requirements on financial institutions. As the document itself states, currently only information for certain types of revenue (including 1099 forms MISC, NEC, and K) require reporting. Some may view this proposal by the Biden administration positively. After all, this isnt an attempt at raising taxes. The goal of this policy is to ensure individuals pay what is legally required, isnt it? There are two issues with this way of thinking. Cutting off Air to the Market The first issue is highlighted by economist Ludwig von Misess insight that capitalism breathes through [the] loopholes. The great innovations and improvements in well-being made available through capitalism were not generated in a loophole-free system. Oftentimes, the most important innovations begin as small start-ups with razor thin margins. As loopholes close, the chance of these risky start-ups succeeding declines. Entrepreneurs are not ignorant to the barriers of regulations and taxation. When something is taxed, you get less of it. If any entrepreneurs are right on the fence of whether a new business venture is likely to be worth it, increasing costs even a little bit may be enough to persuade them otherwise. Economists call this being on the margin. Avoiding taxes and reporting on small dollar transactions (either intentionally or unintentionally) is another form of loophole. De jure businesses are required to follow strict tax reporting rules, but, much like driving the speed limit, the de facto reporting often departs from the official rule. To understand the danger of making businesses comply with tax law to the letter, consider how difficult it would be for businesses to do so. The tax code is now so long that nobody, including government officials, are sure of its length. How can business-owners be sure theyre complying with a document of unknown length? Put simply, they cant. Therefore, not only will these increased financial reporting requirements raise taxes on entrepreneurs on the margin, they will also force businesses to expend more time and resources ensuring they pay the proper amount of taxes. Any tax audit with access to every account transfer over $600 will crush businesses without a team of accountants or lawyers able to justify every transfer. The burden of this policy, then, will fall primarily on small businesses without access to a massive internal legal team. A policy that punishes small businesses like this may be good for large corporations, but its bad for market competition. As Mises noted, capitalism suffocates without loopholes. The End of Financial Privacy The second issue associated with Bidens proposal is its effect on financial privacy. The administrations focus on increasing financial reporting is becoming a consistent theme. For example, the information reporting regime document also includes proposals for cryptocurrency reporting which can be seen as a precursor to the crypto reporting requirements shoehorned into the infrastructure bill. The increase in financial scrutiny provided by access to every transaction greater than $600 associated with personal accounts would provide an unprecedented look into the finances of many Americans. Even the powerful political will behind the 2002 Patriot Act only led to requirements that banks report suspicious transactions of $5,000 or more. Much like small businesses, most individuals dont have access to a team of lawyers and accountants the same way DC politicians and bureaucrats do. As such, these new requirements are likely to hurt poor and middle income Americans whose primary source of income is non-traditional. This is unsurprising given the Biden administrations record of threatening gig work, for instance. Some may argue that privacy is unnecessary because you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide. But, again, individuals cannot be expected to perfectly comply with a document of unspecified length. Unfortunately, as the government approaches perfect information, perfect compliance becomes the standard. At one time, perhaps community banks or other small financial institutions interested in keeping customers around couldve provided resistance to this by generating political pushback or work-arounds for customers. However, government policies have effectively destroyed a more decentralized network of financial institutions. Since the early 1990s the number of small banks has fallen from over 10,000 to below 5,000. Now politicians are proposing to leverage their relationships with the few big players who are too big to fail to examine every aspect of Americans finances. Especially with the lockdowns, the federal government already has small businesses, independent contractors, and the economy in general in a stranglehold. This new Information Reporting Regime will only tighten its economically lethal grip. Read more at: Fee.org and BigGovernment.news. (Natural News) Pfizer has offered a glimpse of its intended timeline for authorization of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine in children as young as six months old. Frank DAmelio, Pfizers chief financial officer, says the company hoped to go file for that particular age group in November. The timeline will depend on the findings of in-house trials looking into whether the vaccines are safe and effective in children aged six months to five years. We would expect to have data for children between the ages of six months and five years old that we would file with the FDA [Food and Drug Administration], says DAmelio at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. Ill call it in the weeks shortly after the filing of the data for the six- to 11-year-olds. Pfizer is currently pushing to get emergency use authorization from the FDA for the COVID-19 vaccine to be given in children aged six to 11 by October. Big Pharma companies continue to insist that children need to get vaccinated despite the fact that they have accounted for less than 0.25 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in states that report pediatric cases. Seven states have reported no child deaths, while other states have reported that children made up as low as 0.03 percent of all fatalities. The Pfizer vaccine for the youngest age group is less potent than the others. Children aged between six months and five years old are given a 3 microgram vaccine during clinical trials, compared with 10 micrograms for those aged five to 11 and 30 micrograms for adults. The plan to vaccinate children as young as six months old is expected to cause international controversy. Surprisingly, some parents are already seeking out COVID-19 vaccine trials for their children. Rachael DiFransico has enrolled her 14-month-old daughter Sybil in a study testing whether a COVID-19 vaccine works safely in children. This trial is our best shot at getting the vaccine as quickly as possible, said Ms. DiFransico, who said she wanted Sybil to be able to spend more time with other children and extended family. We want some semblance of normalcy for her. (Related: SACRIFICE THE CHILDREN: Oxford Vaccine Group recruits children for coronavirus vaccine trials.) More than 3,000 families have contacted Vanderbilt University Medical Center to volunteer for about 150 slots in Modernas pediatric trial. Children are more likely to get myocarditis from vaccine than getting hospitalized with COVID-19 Those parents and families probably dont know that children are more likely to get a lifelong disease from COVID-19 vaccine than falling seriously ill with the disease. Preliminary trials of the Pfizer vaccine for teenage children and young adults have shown that there is less than 1 in 10,000 risk of having heart inflammation known as myocarditis. Meanwhile, the latest official data from the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) shows that COVID-19 hospitalization rate among children between 5 and 17 years old is just 0.9 per 100,000 (0.09 per 10,000). Data also shows that their hospitalization rate is way below the 14.8 per 100,000 (1.48 per 10,000) among the highly-vaccinated over-65 age group. While the age groups are not exactly identical, it is clear that children are much safer without the vaccine. And contrary to what members of the mainstream media say, myocarditis does not go away easily. No case of myocarditis is mild A cardiologist who treated a child suffering from myocarditis after getting vaccinated against COVID-19 has said that no case of myocarditis is mild. Fourteen-year-old Aiden Jo received his first dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine on May 12. On June 10, he woke up in the middle of the night complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing. The boys mother, Emily, rushed him to the hospital where he was ultimately treated for myocarditis. Emily said she had been under the impression that the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines are rare and mild. What they didnt explain is that mild means hospital care and follow-up care indefinitely, she told activist group Childrens Health Defense. Theyre not explaining what mild myocarditis means. Aidens cardiologist told us no case of myocarditis is mild. Thats like saying a heart attack is mild. Aiden is now forced to sit out gym activities, skip recess and avoid running around and playing outside with his friends due to how easily he gets tired and how poorly his heart can handle the stress of activity. His mother also faces thousands of dollars in medical care. (Related: Exclusive: Athlete who recovered from COVID facing very different future after second dose of Pfizer vaccine triggers myocarditis.) Myocarditis reduces your hearts ability to pump and can cause rapid or abnormal heartbeats. Severe cases of myocarditis can lead to heart attack, stroke, heart failure and sudden cardiac arrest. Signs of myocarditis in children include chest pain, breathing problems, abnormal heartbeats, rapid breathing, fever and fainting. Children can get better immunity from catching COVID-19 Experts say children can get better immunity from catching the virus naturally instead of getting one dose of a vaccine. Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, claims that it is pretty pointless to vaccinate children who face such a small risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19. According to Livermore, children are likely to develop more protection from catching the virus in a similar way as to how they build up immunity against other seasonal illnesses. COVID-19 vaccines work by teaching the immune system to recognize the virus and give it the power to fight it off in the future. But some studies have suggested vaccine-triggered immunity starts to wane within six months, while some studies have shown that people who have recovered from the virus may be protected for a longer period. Researchers in a study conducted in Israel have found that people who get the vaccine are more likely to catch COVID-19 than those who have recovered from a previous infection. People given two doses of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine are almost six times more likely to contract a delta infection and seven times more likely to have symptomatic disease than those who recovered. This analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer-lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the delta variant, the researchers say. The analysis has also shown that protection from an earlier infection wanes with time. The risk of a vaccine-breakthrough delta case is 13 times higher than the risk of developing a second infection when the original illness occurred during January or February 2021. Follow Immunization.news for more news and information related to coronavirus vaccines. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk WSJ.com GIS.CDC.gov StillnessInTheStorm.com Bloomberg.com (Natural News) We continue to be told that extra-authoritarian measures need to be forcibly imposed on the nations public school children in order to keep the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) at bay. But one of them, Fauci Flu shots, is making students sicker than ever before. According to the latest data out of Illinois, an overwhelming majority of new Chinese Virus cases are occurring in fully vaccinated students who rolled up their sleeves in obedience to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Biden White House. Only a tiny fraction of new cases is occurring in the unvaccinated. A whopping 82 percent of new Wuhan Flu cases are fully vaccinated children who were told by their superiors and the government that getting injected would keep them safe against the threat of Chinese Germs. It turns out that this claim was a lie. Gov. Pritzker had previously ordered through a mandate, which is not law, that all public school students and staff members in Illinois receive all doses of the Chinese Flu jab as a condition of getting an education and remaining employed. Many of them obeyed, but some did not. Those who defied the governments fascist orders are now doing just fine, while their obedient counterparts have destroyed immune systems that make them prone to infection, as is now being seen. Illinois schools now calling for 90 percent or higher vaccine compliance in order to attain herd immunity Now that it is undeniably obvious that the vaccines have failed to do what we were told they would do, Illinois public schools are doubling down by claiming that the Delta variant is to blame. Earlier in the pandemic, the overall target for approaching herd immunity was 70 percent of our population fully vaccinated, one school announced. However, the Delta variant has changed the equation. According to our most recent guidance, we should aim for a fully vaccinated rate of closer to 90 percent or higher. So, to fix the problems caused by the jabs, more people need to get said jabs, according to Illinois public schools. This is public school logic, folks. The more people get vaccinated, the more sickness is spreading. And yet, Illinois public schools want to just keep the nightmare going by pushing the shots on all remaining healthy people who have not succumbed to getting injected. Childrens Health Defense (CHD) is trying to set the record straight by warning anyone who will listen that the worst outbreaks are occurring in areas of the world like Illinois where the jabs are being pushed most aggressively. The U.K. is among the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, but it is experiencing a third wave of coronavirus infections reportedly largely due to the spread of the Delta variant of the virus, CHD announced. Other highly vaccinated countries like Israel are also experiencing a new wave of coronavirus infections due to the Delta variant. Speaking of Israel, the vast majority of new cases there are also in the fully vaccinated, just as is the case at Illinois public schools. When will people finally wake up to the truth that the jabs are the disease? Isnt it funny how few youngsters were getting sick before the jab, and now that theyre forcing people to take it, WuFlu is running rampant through the schools along with ever-mounting numbers of vaccine injuries and deaths, asked one commenter at LifeSiteNews. How many more have to die before the world wakes up? Surprise, surprise, surprise: They really are trying to kill us all, another wrote. Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) mania has become a pandemic in and of itself. To keep up with the latest, visit Libtards.news. Sources for this article include: LifeSiteNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Duke University boasts a 98 percent vaccination rate among its students and 92 percent among its staff. Despite this, the university is currently dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak. Unvaccinated students are required to participate in surveillance testing two times per week, while vaccinated students have to get tested at least once per week. The university tested more than 15,000 individuals are reported 364 cases a positivity rate of 1.59 percent, according to its COVID-19 testing tracker dashboard. The university also reported a total of 610 cases in one month, mostly among students. Of the reported cases, 304 undergraduates, 45 graduate students and 15 employees tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. All but eight of the affected individuals were vaccinated, and the vast majority of them are asymptomatic. A small number, however, were found to have minor cold- and flu-like symptoms and none have been hospitalized so far. New guidelines following outbreak Duke administrators announced new guidelines for the school year in an email to protect the health, safety, and the ability of Duke to fulfill its educational mission. The new guidelines include the use of masks in all indoor and outdoor locations unless individuals are exercising alone, eating, drinking or not around other people. Indoor group seating at campus dining facilities will also be temporarily suspended, and students and staff have been advised to eat outdoors as much as possible. Due to absences from students in isolation, professors are also encouraged to teach their undergraduate classes remotely and student activities are limited. University leaders said that the rise in cases among the vaccinated population is in line with the rapid surge of COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant. However, many called on administrators to reverse the unreasonable and illogical policies. The petition stated that recent guidance goes against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for vaccinated individuals and demonstrates lack of trust in the developed vaccines. It also criticized the universitys dismissive attitude toward the severe physical and mental effects of their continued restrictions. Recent data also suggested that vaccinated people are likely to transmit the virus, even if they are asymptomatic. COVID cases have been surging and children are also getting sick. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with patients, resulting in mobile morgues and postponement of elective procedures. Dr. Zack Moore, North Carolinas state epidemiologist said that fully vaccinated people can still get infected, and can still transmit the disease to others. It is very important that they continue to take precautions, particularly masking when theyre indoors, but also if theyre going to be outdoors in places where theyre in crowds or in close proximity to others, he said. Besides, college students are still part of their communities as they frequent the same grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants as the rest of the population, and the risk of them infecting others is not worth taking. College campuses across the country have struggled to find ways to balance safety and college experiences. This is particularly tricky due to the back-and-forth of restrictions, which are likely to frustrate students and parents alike. (Related: Tucker Carlson: University vaccine mandates forbid kids from getting an education.) Christopher R. Marsicano, a founding director of the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College said that students want to experience what they were promised on TV and movies. However, after more than a year of going back and forth, they are exhausted. Nobody wants another year of virtual learning; however, as Duke University has shown, there is a point where its better to keep the safety of the students and employees than be sorry about it later on. Until the virus is under control, there is a need to redefine what normal college experience is for students. Get more COVID-related news and updates at Pandemic.news. Sources include: SHTFPlan.com NewsObserver.com CharlotteObserver.com (Natural News) In March 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new privacy-focused vision, citing its global messaging service, WhatsApp as a model. He said that he hoped to bring about a future that allows people to be confident that what they say to others stays secure. Zuckerbergs vision centered on WhatsApps signature feature: End-to-end encryption that converts all messages into an unreadable format, unlocked only when they reach their intended recipients. He said that WhatsApp messages are so secure that nobody else can read them, not even the company itself. However, these assurances are not necessarily true. WhatsApp has over 1,000 contract workers filling its office buildings in Texas, Dublin and Singapore where they examine millions of users content. These workers use Facebook software to sift through private messages, images and videos that have been reported by users as improper. Then, these messages are screened by the companys own artificial intelligence systems. The contractors then pass judgment on whatever it is that passes through their screen in less than a minute. These claims can be anything from fraud or spam to child pornography or terrorist plotting. Policing users while assuring them of their privacy seems contradictory and it makes for an awkward mission at the company. Director of Communications Carl Woog acknowledged the teams of contractors in various locations who review WhatsApp messages to remove the worst abusers. He also said that he does not consider this work to be content moderation. (Related: Millions of WhatsApp users moving to rival services over data privacy concerns.) WhatsApp compromising privacy to prevent online abuses The company said that WhatsApp is a lifeline for millions around the world, and the decisions made around how it is built are focused on the privacy of its users while keeping a high degree of reliability to prevent abuse. In a statement, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, WhatsApp provides a way for people to report spam or abuse, which includes sharing the most recent messages in a chat. This feature is important for preventing the worst abuse on the internet. We strongly disagree with the notion that accepting reports a user chooses to send us is incompatible with end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp says that how it moderates content is noticeably different from Facebook or Instagram, neither of which is encrypted. The social media networks release quarterly transparency reports that detail how many actions it has taken for various categories of abusive content. An army of content reviewers, however, compromise the privacy of WhatsApp users. This means that the app is far less private than its two billion users are likely to expect or understand. An investigation drawing on data from interviews with former and current employees and contractors of WhatsApp revealed that since purchasing WhatsApp in 2014, Facebook has undermined its security assurances. A complaint details WhatsApps extensive use of outside contractors, artificial intelligence systems and account information to examine user messages, images and videos. Facebook Inc. also downplayed the sheer amount of data it collects from users, what it does with it and how much it shares with authorities. WhatsApp shares metadata or unencrypted records that can reveal a lot about a users activity. Rival companies such as Signal intentionally gather less metadata to avoid invasion of their users privacy. Thus, they share far less information with law enforcement. Like other social media and communications platforms, WhatsApp is torn between users who expect privacy and law enforcement entities that ask them to turn over information that could help combat crime and online abuses. However, the company asserted that this is not a dilemma at all. Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp said in an interview, I think we absolutely can have security and safety for people through end-to-end encryption and work with law enforcement to solve crimes. WhatsApps aggressive business plan is also focusing on charging companies for an array of services, such as letting users make payments through the app and managing customer service chats. These offer convenience, but allow fewer privacy protections, leading to a confusing two-tiered privacy system within the app where protections of end-to-end encryptions are compromised when users employ the service to communicate with these businesses. Sources include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org BusinessInsider.com (Natural News) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is laying low by refusing to take a stance on the upcoming Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine booster shots that Dementia Joe is planning to unveil. Citing a lack of verified data, the FDA says that it cannot go along with the White House push to mass inject Americans with a third syringe. Doing so would make the public health agency look even more foolish than it already does. There are many potentially relevant studies, but FDA has not independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions, the FDA wrote in a 23-page report. Some of these studies, including data from the vaccination program in Israel, will be summarized during the September 17, 2021 VRBPAC meeting. While it is true that Donald father of the vaccine Trumps Operation Warp Speed injections only provide temporary fake immunity, there is no evidence to suggest that jabbing people with more of them will somehow make it last any longer. The FDA knows this which is why the agency is treading very lightly. The FDA seems to understand that it is on thin ice right now and cannot afford to make one more pseudoscientific decision just because Hunters deranged dad wants the agency to. Overall, data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States, the FDA further wrote. Pfizer says its high-profit booster injections restore protection against covid The FDA is still trying to recover from lying about approval for the Pfizer jab, which was never actually approved in the way people think it was. The mainstream media spread plenty of fake news about how Pfizer injections can be forced on people against their will now that it is FDA-approved. The truth is that the FDA played word games with that situation as well. What appears to be the case right now is that the FDA does not want to take a side anymore because it knows that people are watching. Another wrong move could be the straw that breaks the camels back, forever destroying the FDAs perceived credibility among some. Many of us have known for years that the FDA is a farce. Now, those who previously trusted the agency are figuring this out as well, which is why the FDA is trying to play it cool for the time being. It should be recognized that while observational studies can enable understanding of real-world effectiveness, there are known and unknown biases that can affect their reliability, FDA staff admitted. Furthermore, US-based studies of post-authorization effectiveness of BNT162b2 may most accurately represent vaccine effectiveness in the US population. Beijing Biden, meanwhile, is rushing as fast as an Alzheimers patient can rush to get the booster jabs rolled out at warp speed, possibly as early as next week. This will all depend on the final decision offered by the FDA concerning their safety and effectiveness. There are senior experts who fall on different sides of the debate, says Dan Barouch, an immunologist from Harvard Medical School. Right now, itll be interesting to see where the debate goes, but obviously it is known that the Biden administration has suggested that boosters are needed. The World Health Organization (WHO) also does not support Bidens plan, though for different reasons. The United Nations arm insists that poorer countries need the injections more than Western ones do. There are countries with less than two percent vaccination coverage, most of them in Africa, who are not even getting their first and second dose, complained WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. More related news about the mass mind control plandemic agenda can be found at Propaganda.news. Sources for this article include: CNBC.com Independent.co.uk NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Big Pharma and mainstream media continue to insist that vaccines are the only way to beat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. But according to a health expert in the U.K., letting children catch the COVID-19 virus can help them develop immunity to the disease. UK decides to vaccinate 12-year-olds Despite the recent decision to vaccinate 12-year-olds in the U.K., one researcher has advised that children may develop better immunity from getting the coronavirus naturally instead of getting one dose of any vaccine. According to Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, its useless to inoculate young children since they are at very low risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus. He explained that 12-year-olds will probably develop more protection from catching the virus, just like how kids build up immunity against other seasonal illnesses. Some diseases, like measles, infects you once and this usually grants you immunity for life. But how do people develop lifelong immunity to some diseases? Whether or not you develop immunity to a disease usually depends on your antibodies or the proteins your body produces to fight infection. Antibodies are one of the bodys most well-known defenses and they work by coating invading cells. Ideally, antibodies should prevent invading cells from hijacking your cells and replicating them. But once you clear an infection, your antibody levels often wane. Fortunately, some antibodies stick around and are ready to ramp up production again if you get the same disease again. This explains how an antibody test can tell you if you were infected in the past and its often what keeps you from getting sick again. Your body doesnt forget. If youre reinfected with a disease, its not because you lost immunity. Reinfection usually occurs if the pathogen mutated and your immune system cant recognize it, or because your body tends to mount a much lower immune response. For example, the flu is a virus that can change its genes easily. Once your immune system gets rid of one version of the virus, another emerges that your immune system doesnt recognize. Vaccines arent a permanent solution to the coronavirus Coronavirus vaccines work by teaching your immune system to recognize the virus and make it strong enough to fight it off if you ever get infected. However, some studies have found that vaccine-triggered immunity may diminish within six months. Research has also suggested that those who have recovered from the disease may be protected for at least one year. According to an Israeli study, people who are vaccinated are 13 times more likely to catch coronavirus than those who have recovered from a previous infection. Professor Chris Whitty and the other chief medical officers in the UK said that children aged 12 to 15 should be offered a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine. They added that kids considered competent enough can overrule their parents wishes to get vaccinated, if they dont want to be inoculated. Furor over decision to let children decide if they want to get vaccinated In the U.K., both health experts and parents expressed their concerns over the decision as it could result in the bullying of unvaccinated children and discord among families. Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi explained that all families must be supported whatever they decide to do and that no one should be stigmatized for choosing not to get vaccinated, a far cry from the sentiments of people who believe vaccines are the key to curing coronavirus in the U.S. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) also recently recommended that citizens older than 50 need to get a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine six months after getting their second shot. Scientists are also divided over whether children and teens aged 12 to 15 need to get vaccinated. Some Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) members previously supported the move since it is believed that vaccination can help prevent a surge in infections later this winter. SAGE provides scientific and technical advice to support government decision-makers during emergencies, such as the coronavirus pandemic. However, others say that it is ethically dubious to vaccinate the age group, especially since millions of people in poorer countries are still waiting for vaccines. Children are being vaccinated for the wrong reasons Livermore said that vaccinating children doesnt protect them from severe infection and that its mostly being done to keep schools open. He added that the decision to close schools was based on a false premise and that schools in the U.K. shouldnt have been closed in the first place. Livermore, who is also a member of the anti-lockdown Health Advisory and Recovery Team (HART) also talked about Sweden, which kept its schools open during the first wave last winter even if there was no vaccine available at the time. Official data revealed that coronavirus hospitalizations in the U.K. started increasing back in August, or around six months after a inoculation program had finished vaccinating older adults in the country. Additionally, admissions started to decline again at least two weeks after the boosters were first rolled out, or roughly how long it takes for a vaccine to spark immunity. The fall in immunity triggered the decision to roll out booster vaccines in Britain, which was announced by the Governments vaccine advisers. (Related: Coronavirus booster shots: Boosting immunity or profits?) A study in America published in April showed that most of the people who were infected with coronavirus didnt get infected up to one year later. Out of 9,000 patients who recovered from the virus after being hospitalized, only 63 patients (0.7 per cent) tested positive for it up to a year since. In a previous interview, Livermore said that it is clear the vaccine-mediated protection wanes significantly within four to six months. Even government advertising acknowledges this. At the same time, he explained that reinfection was rare among people who got infected in the first wave more than one year ago. Visit Vaccines.news for the truth about coronavirus vaccines. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk LiveScience.com GOV.uk (Natural News) In the most recent episode of Health with Dr. Stella Immanuel on Brighteon.TV, Dr. Stella Immanuel discusses how the coronavirus is affecting the nation because of hospitals withholding treatment for their patients. According to Dr. Immanuel, hospitals are withholding treatment and not giving patients the medicine they need to get better from COVID-19. She says that hospitals are pushing for vaccination, that they are ignoring other life-saving medications such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. What is hydroxychloroquine? Hydroxychloroquine, an analog of antimalarial drug chloroquine, was developed in 1946 to treat autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, along with malaria. It is found that it inhibits fusion between SARS-CoV-2 and its host cell membrane, and thus it can block the transport of the virus and possibly prevent the release of the viral genome. Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have immunomodulatory effects that are believed to be another potential treatment for COVID-19. Immanuel says that he previously successfully treated hundreds of patients with hydroxychloroquine a treatment that former President Donal Trump also said he has taken himself. Nobody needs to get sick, Immanuel says. This virus has a cure. The pediatrician and religious minister also said that the potency of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment means that protective masks are no longer necessary, claiming that she and her staff have so far avoided contracting the disease despite wearing ordinary medical masks instead of more secure N95 models. Ivermectin as COVID-19 cure Ivermectin, a drug that is primarily used to deworm animals, also proved useful in combating human diseases caused by parasites. Called a wonder drug because of its use in treating parasitic diseases, some doctors are also prescribing it to treat COVID-19, which is a viral disease. In recent weeks, conservative figures and activists have embraced ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19. Ivermectin is generally safe in low doses, but high doses can be toxic for humans. In large doses, it can cause side effects, including skin rash, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain, to name a few. Multi-drug approach to treating COVID Immanuel also speaks about using hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for COVID-19 prevention. Further, she notes that doctors using one drug alone to treat COVID-19 are not doing enough, and are in fact, doing them a disservice. She also encourages everyone to get their vitamins such as vitamins C, D and zinc and to get plenty of sunshine and exercise to keep themselves healthy. The U.S. systems health protocols have consistently failed Americans when doctors ignore other medications like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. (Related: Dr. Stella Immanuel reveals the stunning truth about COVID cures and how hospitals are KILLING patients Brighteon.TV.) There are several advocacy organizations that have been on a campaign to mainstream ivermectin. Immanuel, a member of Americans Frontline Doctors said that they went from 100 to more than 700 people a day signing up for telehealth with patients seeking ivermectin. Immanuel also describes the pandemic situation as a grand design by vested interests to promote vaccines and denounce treatments. She also cites media as co-conspirators. She notes that the greatest fear of humans is the fear of death and the government and media are using this fear to terrify Americans of a disease that does not even have a high mortality rate. In an earlier report, she mentioned that she has treated over 6,000 people and put over 15,000 on preventative medication for COVID, and so far, she lost only about seven patients. People are running away from the hospitals and coming to our clinic, she said. A pastor herself, she also mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic is not just a medical battle, but a spiritual one between good and evil. Health with Dr. Stella Immanuel airs on Brighteon.TV on Wednesdays at 5:00 p.m. Learn more about alternative medication for COVID-19 on Pandemic.news. Sources include: TheLancet.com TheDailyBeast.com FBIndependent.com (Natural News) Uttar Pradesh, one of Indias most densely populated regions, is doing exceptionally well with the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) cases. The reason why? Ivermectin is widely used there. With a population of 240 million people, which is about 75 percent of the total United States population, Uttar Pradesh has had only about 24 cases of the Chinese Virus and no deaths over the past several months. This is astounding compared to what is happening throughout the West. Among Indias 36 states, Uttar Pradesh boasts being dead last on the list of infected states. Once again, the reason for this is simple: ivermectin is not a dirty word there like it is in the U.S. Evidently, the global medical junta doesnt like the over 60 studies vouching for the efficacy of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2, especially when used early, but there is something better than a study: pure reality of lived experience, writes Daniel Horowitz for Blaze Media. Beginning in late 2020, authorities in Uttar Pradesh began liberally dispensing ivermectin to people, urging them to take it early on at the first signs of a possible infection and even preventatively. This advice turned out to be solid. By the end of 2020, Uttar Pradesh which distributed free ivermectin for home care had the second-lowest fatality rate in India at 0.26 per 100,000 residents in December. Only the state of Bihar, with 128 million residents, was lower, and it, too, recommends ivermectin, reported Trial Site News. Covid is gone from Uttar Pradesh, thanks to ivermectin For a horse de-wormer, ivermectin sure did help Uttar Pradesh avoid a major crisis. Ever since the drug was introduced there, the Fauci Flu has pretty much been eradicated. Nobody is dying from Chinese Germs there because they are gaining protection from the use of ivermectin, which has repeatedly been shown as effective against the Wuhan Flu. Uttar Pradesh likely would have been the first world experiment of what a given area would have looked like had they been taking ivermectin from day one before a wave hit, Horowitz explains. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of seasonal migrants fled Mumbai and other big cities when the Delta wave hit and all settled back in their villages in Uttar Pradesh, giving them the same spike that every other state got because those people were not on ivermectin. As of now, there has still not been a proper case study using an actual population like this to demonstrate the power of ivermectin to put an end to the plandemic. This is unfortunate because we could have been long done with this nonsense ages ago, were it not for the corrupt political influence that is keeping ivermectin out of the hands of the people, particularly in the West. There would be no need for panic, masks, vaccines, or any other mindless hysteria if the authorities would just give up their crusade against ivermectin and let people try it. Many deaths and hospitalization could be prevented this way. Tony Fauci and his cronies continue to try to strongarm India into accepting snake oil remedies like remdesivir and Donald father of the vaccine Trumps Operation Warp Speed injections, but the country, or at least parts of it, have been resisting rather formidably. All trials are saying that this drug is not effective in the treatment of COVID-19, rather it is complicating and resulting in mortality of patients, says Dr. Surya Kant Tripathi about the failure of remdesivir. At so many centers, remdesivir trials were stopped. Also, remdesivir is costing minimum of Rs 5,000 per vial. The latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic can be found at Pandemic.news. Sources for this article include: TheBlaze.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Paul Cottrell warns the public that booster doses of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines will destroy your immune response over time. The more booster doses you get, the less your body respond to them, Cottrell tells Health Ranger Mike Adams during the program Health Ranger Report on Brighteon.TV. Cottrell demonstrates on a white board the decreasing number of antibodies induced by booster doses. He shows that the immunoglobulin G (IgG) will initially shot up following a second dose, but the succeeding booster doses will produce lower and lower peaks. The immunoglobulin M (IgM) will have moderate spike after the second dose, but will similarly trend downward in succeeding booster doses. Your immune system slowly becomes less reactive to the vaccines. The more booster shots you take will guarantee that your IgM and IgG are going to be less responsive, and it will lead to more escaped variants. IgG is the most common type of antibody in your blood and other body fluids. When you have natural immunity, these antibodies protect you against infection by remembering the germs youve been exposed to before. Meanwhile, your body makes IgM antibodies when you are first infected with new bacteria or other germs. They are your bodys first line of defense against infections. When your body senses an invader, your IgM level will increase for a short time. It will then begin to drop as your IgG level kicks in and increases to protect you long-term. Israel provides proof that COVID-19 vaccine is a complete failure Adams points out that whats happening in Israel right now is a perfect example of the waning effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. [More than] 80 percent vaccine uptake rate among adults there, but now record high cases, hospitalizations and so on among the fully vaccinated for the most part, says Adams. (Related: VACCINE FAIL: One in three new covid cases in Los Angeles are breakthroughs among fully vaccinated.) Approximately 2.35 million Israelis have also received booster doses, and Adams says Israeli officials recently announced that they will roll out a fourth booster shot and will probably have more for every five to six months going forward. The record high cases that Adams talks about pertain to the new data from the University of Oxford, which shows that Israel has the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita. Israels rolling seven-day average of 1,143 COVID-19 cases per million people on Sept. 3 more than doubled the 501 per million reported in the U.S. on the same period. The Jerusalem Post recently reported that since the beginning of August, nearly 200,000 Israelis have tested positive for COVID-19 and 564 people have died with a COVID-19 diagnosis. In early August, Israels Ministry of Health reported that 64 percent of the countrys 400 COVID-19 patients in serious condition were fully vaccinated. Israel ignoring data from own studies Apparently, the Israelis are ignoring the data from their own studies. Israels preliminary vaccine data published in July found that Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine was just 40.5 percent effective on average at preventing symptomatic infections. The analysis, which was carried out as the delta variant became the dominant strain in the country, appeared to show a waning effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine. It was only 16 percent effective against symptomatic infections for those who had two doses back in January. For people that had received two doses by April, the efficacy rate against symptomatic infection stood at 79 percent. Researchers from another Israeli study have found that people who get COVID-19 vaccine are more likely to catch the disease than those who have recovered from a previous infection. People given two doses of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine are almost six times more likely to contract a delta infection and seven times more likely to have symptomatic disease than those who recovered. This analysis demonstrated that natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the delta variant, the researchers say. The analysis has also shown that protection from an earlier infection wanes with time. The risk of a vaccine-breakthrough delta case is 13 times higher than the risk of developing a second infection when the original illness occurred during January or February this year. Natural immunity is better than vaccine-induced immunity Dr. Michael Segal, a neurologist and neuroscientist, has explained why people vaccinated against COVID-19 are still contracting and spreading the disease at a high rate. Segal says the vaccines only stimulate internal immunity but do nothing to address mucosal immunity. Internal immunity protects the inside of the body while mucosal immunity provides the first line of defense by protecting the nose and mouth, and by doing so also reduces spread to others. He said that all COVID-19 vaccines are largely ineffective at stimulating the secretion of a particular form of antibodies called Immunoglobulin A (IgA) into our noses that occurs after actual infection with a virus. Meanwhile, those who have contracted and recovered from the disease have both mucosal and internal immunity. (Related: COVID-19 natural immunity vs vaccine-induced immunity guide.) Thats the reason why some experts are now recommending that the virus be allowed to circulate throughout the population, with precautions taken for vulnerable individuals. We really cannot do anything else but allow the virus to take its course in order for the population to achieve herd immunity, says Porolfur Gudnason, chief epidemiologist of Icelands Directorate of Health. We need to try to vaccinate and better protect those who are vulnerable but let us tolerate the infection. It is not a priority now to vaccinate everyone with the third dose. Eleanor Riley, an immunologist from the University of Edinburgh, also bats against booster shots. If you had a real humdinger of an infection, you may have better immunity to any new variants that pop up as you have immunity to more than just spike [protein], says Riley. We could be digging ourselves into a hole, for a very long time, where we think we can only keep COVID away by boosting every year. Watch the Sept. 15 episode of the Health Ranger Report with Health Ranger Mike Adams here: You can catch the Health Ranger Report live from Monday to Friday at 3-3:30 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. Follow Immunization.news for more news and information related to coronavirus vaccines. Sources include: Brighteon.com MerckManuals.com NaturalHealth365.com CNBC.com Bloomberg.com WSJ.com BBC.com (Natural News) Tom Renz accuses hospitals of taking advantage of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to make more money while ignoring the actual needs and requests of their patients. He says hospitals across the U.S. are now becoming killing fields. When you go to a hospital, even if you dont have COVID-19, youd be construed that way, says Renz during his program Lawfare with Tom Renz on Brighteon.TV. They get hundreds of thousands of dollars for putting you on remdesivir, putting you on ventilator and letting you die. And if you dont follow, theyll just intimidate you and coerce you. His guest on the program, Nancy Ross, has experienced that firsthand. Ross has been given the power of attorney to act on behalf of Veronica Wolski, a known patriot from Chicago who recently died from COVID-19 at AMITA Health Resurrection Medical Center. The Cook County Medical Examiners Office has confirmed Wolskis death was due to pneumonia caused by a COVID-19 infection, with hypothyroidism as a contributing factor. Hospital wants to put patient on ventilator Ross says the hospital wanted to intubate Wolski and put her on ventilator, and the doctors kept telling that every time they see the patient. They kept reminding her of that instead of talking about other possible treatment, says Ross, referring to the ventilator. I just couldnt get it. (Related: Overreliance on ventilators led to coronavirus deaths, study shows.) According to Ross, Wolski had been asking the hospital to give her ivermectin but her requests had been repeatedly denied. For the uninitiated, the only treatment for the disease approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) involves remdesivir. It is approved for use in adults and children at least 12 years old who weigh at least 88 pounds (40 kilograms). Remdesivir is an antiviral medication that targets a range of viruses. It was originally developed over a decade ago to treat hepatitis C and a cold-like virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Remdesivir is not an effective treatment for either disease, but it has shown promise against other viruses. It works by interrupting the production of the virus. Coronaviruses have genomes made up of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Remdesivir interferes with one of the key enzymes the virus needs to replicate RNA, preventing the virus from multiplying. However, up to 31 percent of patients who received remdesivir have developed multiple organ failure and/or acute kidney failure. Remdesivir was pulled from clinical trials because its too dangerous. Its just a disastrous drug, says Renz. Doctor admits 99 percent of intubated patients die Renz also shares a message he has just received about a recording from a doctor admitting that 99 percent of the patients they intubate have ended up dying. These are just bad treatments. They just kill people, he says. Many hospitals are also giving COVID-19 patients with midazolam, which is questionable at best as it depresses a persons ability to breathe. It is most frequently used before surgeries or procedures to decrease anxiety, cause drowsiness, and help with anesthesia in patients who need tubes or machines to help them breathe. Midazolam has an FDA black box warning, which notes that the medication has been associated with respiratory depression and arrest because it can slow or stop breathing. Ross says they also requested to give Wolski the budesonide treatment, but the hospital instead gave the patient a generic brand, which is not the best thing to have under that circumstance. Wife dodges ventilator, survives COVID-19 with budesonide treatment A husband from Georgia has had a better success in forcing a hospital to give his wife the budesonide treatment. The husband named Mick tells Clay Clark during Thrive Time Show on Brighteon.TV that his wife has made it out of the intensive care unit two days after getting the budesonide treatment and has been able to go home in a week. Mick says his wife is in really bad shape after a week of battling symptoms of COVID-19. Shes 57, has a partially collapsed lung and has preexisting conditions. Her blood oxygen was 50 and her blood pressure was 100/50, said Mick. The normal blood oxygen level is between 94 to 99 percent. Anything below 90 is considered to be low blood oxygen. I went on battle mode immediately. I thought this is it,' said Mick, fearing that his wife would be put on a ventilator in which very few patients had survived. He reaches out to Dr. Richard Bartlett personally to seek advice about the budesonide protocol that the latter has been promoting since the early days of the pandemic. (Related: Pastor David Scarlett talks to Dr. Richard Bartlett about how COVID-19 is 100% treatable Brighteon.TV.) After talking with Bartlett, Mick sends the hospital a fax message asking to put his wife under the budesonide protocol which is 1 milligram of budesonide every eight hours. He also sends a copy to the doctor treating his wife, as well as a lawyer. Mick cites several studies and a magazine article about the budesonide protocol, but he thinks that what catches the hospital and the doctors attention is his threat of escalating the matter to the ethics committee if they dont grant his request. Budesonide reduces COVID-19 hospitalization Researchers at the University of Oxford has found that early treatment of inhaled budesonide reduced the need for urgent care and hospitalization in people with COVID-19 by as much as 90 percent. The study has also found that inhaled budesonide given to patients with COVID-19 within seven days of symptoms reduces recovery time. Participants allocated the budesonide inhaler has had a quicker resolution of fever, symptoms and fewer persistent symptoms after 28 days. The study has also demonstrated that theres a reduction in persistent symptoms in those who received budesonide. Doctors have prescribed budesonide for more than 20 years as preventive medicine for asthmatics. Bartlett has written a paper with case reports describing favorable outcomes for two of his patients with the regimen. A lab study in the U.S. has also shown that budesonide inhibited the ability of a coronavirus to replicate and inflame the airways. Watch the Sept. 14 episode of Lawfare with Tom Renz here: You can catch Lawfare with Tom Renz live every Tuesday from 11:30-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. Follow Pandemic.news for more news and information related to the coronavirus pandemic. Sources include: Brighteon.com 1 WGNTV.com NIH.gov Health-Desk.org Brighteon.com 2 Fortune.com (Natural News) By December 2021, all active-duty soldiers should be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19), according to the U.S. Army. The mandate was announced last Tuesday, Sept. 14, as the Army attempts to meet the Pentagons order that all servicemembers be vaccinated against coronavirus by mid-September. National Guard must also be fully vaccinated by June 2022 According to a press release released on Tuesday, soldiers will be mandated by the Army to be fully inoculated by Dec. 15. This means they need to get all required doses of the vaccine and reach the two-week waiting period after getting their last dose. Aside from soldiers in the U.S. Army, National Guard troops must also be fully vaccinated by June 30, 2022. According to Lieutenant General R. Scott Dingle, the U.S. Army Surgeon General, the vaccine mandate might save many lives. He added that the move is an essential one since case counts and deaths are alarming as the Delta variant continues to spread. Despite the negative side effects of the vaccines, Dingle said that protecting the force through mandatory vaccination is a health and readiness priority for the total Army. Early in August the Pentagon announced that all U.S. troops need to get a coronavirus vaccine by Sept. 15. (Related: US soldiers sue federal agencies over militarys COVID-19 vaccine requirements.) When the order was announced on Aug. 9, 73 percent of active duty servicemembers had already received at least one shot while 62 percent were fully vaccinated. The number has risen since then. Early in September, President Joe Biden announced that most workers in the country must get vaccinated. Now, employers with 100 or more employees need proof of vaccination from their workers. Otherwise, employers are required to have at least weekly coronavirus testing. This unnecessary and costly order affects at least two-thirds of the U.S. workforce. Back in July, the Pentagon released a memo requiring all personnel working in or visiting the building to wear a mask. But compared to a facemask, requiring a vaccine at all may face legal challenges. In a statement to reporters, Washington, D.C., employment law firm Tully Rinckey explained that while federal law doesnt prohibit public agencies and private businesses from requiring coronavirus vaccines, even if the vaccines were only authorized for emergency use, Bidens vaccine mandate will be challenged and face intense opposition. U.S. Army suffers for Bidens shortcomings When military members enlist, they sign a contract with the government. Staff members are also facing orders to get inoculated as Biden faces criticism for declining rates and reimplementation of mask mandates in high case rate areas. According to the Armys press release, soldiers who refuse the vaccine may even be discharged or relieved from service. Soldiers can request an exemption from receiving the vaccine, if they have a legitimate medical, religious or administrative reason. Otherwise, soldiers who have pending exemption requests wont be facing adverse actions until the exemption is fully processed. The Army started implementing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins order on Aug. 24 to ensure that soldiers receive their first vaccine doses before Sept. 15. Before then, vaccines were optional for active-duty Army troops, as they should be for citizens of a free country like America. Possible consequences for not complying in the Army vary depending on your role: Army commanders, command sergeants major, first sergeants and officers about to receive future command assignments who dont want to be vaccinated and are not given an exemption will be suspended and relieved from duty. Soldiers of all ranks who are not in command positions may receive a general order of reprimand that can be removed from their file the next time they are transferred. The reprimand may also be placed into their permanent file, which can negatively affect all future assignments and promotions. The Army is the last branch of the military to issue guidelines after the Pentagon announced last August that all active-duty military personnel must be inoculated. The Navy and Marines have already told their rank and file that they are also required to get vaccinated: All active-duty Air Force troops must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 2. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve members must be inoculated by Dec. 2. Active-duty sailors and Marines must be fully vaccinated within 90 days of Aug. 30. On the other hand, reserve Navy service members have 120 days to comply. According to the Navy plan, refusal without an approved exemption may result in administrative action. Vaccination rates in the military have already surpassed most of the country but commanders are aiming for nearly total compliance due to fears that failure to get everyone vaccinated could affect readiness. But is military readiness worth a Marines, soldiers or airmans freedom to choose whether they get vaccinated or not? Visit VaccineWars.com to learn more about oppressive vaccine mandates in America and other countries. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk NYTimes.com DefenseOne.com (Natural News) (The Center Square) Twenty-seven Republican governors or attorneys general have vowed to fight the latest executive order issued by President Joe Biden mandating that over 80 million private employees receive COVID vaccinations or undergo weekly testing, or their employer will be fined. (Article by Bethany Blankley republished from TheCenterSquare.com) The executive order directs the U.S. Department of Labors Office of Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require private businesses with more than 100 employees mandate that their workers receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or undergo weekly testing. Noncompliance would result in fines of $14,000 per violation. The governors whove expressed opposition include those from Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Republican attorneys general from states with Democratic governors who also vowed to fight include Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Louisiana AG Jeff Landry. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with whom Biden has sparred over mask mandates and vaccine passports, said Florida would fight back. When you have a president like Biden issuing unconstitutional edicts against the American people, we have a responsibility to stand up for the Constitution and to fight back, and we are doing that in the state of Florida, he said. This is a president who has acknowledged in the past he does not have the authority to force this on anybody, and this order would result potentially in millions of Americans losing their jobs. Texas, which is already embroiled in several lawsuits with the Biden administration, vowed to sue. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said after hearing Bidens announcement that Texas is already working to halt this power grab and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Texas would be suing the Biden administration very soon. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said, OSHA cannot dictate personal health care decisions for Missourians. Missouri is not under an OSHA state plan, and Parson will not allow state employees to be used to enforce this unconstitutional action. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster vowed to fight Biden, saying, The American Dream has turned into a nightmare under President Biden and the radical Democrats. They have declared war against capitalism, thumbed their noses at the Constitution, and empowered our enemies abroad. Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said, Governors dont report to Joe Biden. Governors dont report to the federal government, the states created the federal government, and Joe Biden has stepped out of his reach, Ducey said. These mandates are outrageous. They will never stand up in court. We must and will push back. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita indicated he was working with a group of AGs to file a lawsuit. My team and I, along with other like-minded attorneys general, are reviewing all legal action on how to stand against these authoritarian actions by the Biden administration, he said in a statement. The Republican National Committee also announced it was suing to protect Americans and their liberties if the proposed rule change were to go into effect. In response to Republican pushback, White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond, a former Democratic congressman from Louisiana, told CNN the White House expected the opposition. He said, those governors that stand in the way, I think, it was very clear from the presidents tone today that he will run over them. And it is important. Its not for political purposes. Its to save the lives of American people. And so, we wont let one or two individuals stand in the way. We will always err on the side of protecting the American people. Read more at: TheCenterSquare.com and Resist.news. Latest job opportunities Use this website to help find the best person to fill your role. This is a paid-for service aiming at advertising jobs which are of interest to the Norwich and Norfolk Christian community and its many churches, groups and organisations. To advertise a vacancy, simply e-mail the details such as job and person specifications, approx salary, contact details and a closing date to us here . For full details of the service, and our cost-effective fee, please click here. Word of thanks Stewart Barber, Eckling Grange Care We had a great advert on Network Norwich for many weeks with great layout, unlimited words, colour logo and a direct link from the weekly newsletter! We also found our new manager through the website. Tom Howell, Halls of Residence Thank you for all your help with our recruiting process during 2019. We have some great new staff at the Matthew Project as a result. God bless."We had a good response to our advert on Network Norwich for a Project Worker. We were able to short-list some very possible applicants and have now made an appointment of a lady whom we expect to fit well into our existing team and who brings to us some useful past experience.Thank you for your help, what a useful medium this is.""We see the Network Norfolk website as a good place to advertise the organisation and Im very pleased to say that the recent advert for an account assistant led to an appointment." THREE RIVERS, Calif. (AP) California wildfires have burned into at least four groves of gigantic ancient sequoias in national parks and forests, though cooler weather on Friday helped crews trying to keep the flames away from a famous cluster containing the worlds largest tree. The fires lapped into the groves with trees that can be up to 200 feet (61 meters) tall and 2,000 years old, including Oriole Lake Grove in Sequoia National Park and Peyrone North and South groves in the neighboring Sequoia National Forest. The fire also had reached the forest's Long Meadow Grove, where then-President Bill Clinton signed a proclamation two decades ago establishing a national monument. Fire officials havent yet been able to determine how much damage was done to the groves, which are in remote, hard-to-reach areas. These groves are just as impressive and just as ecologically important to the forest. They just arent as well-known, Tim Borden, sequoia restoration and stewardship manager for the Save the Redwoods League, told the Bay Area News Group. My heart sinks when I think about it. Flames were still about a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the famed Giant Forest, where some 2,000 massive sequoias grow on a plateau high in the mountains of the national park. Firefighters have placed special aluminum wrapping around the base of the General Sherman Tree, the worlds largest by volume at 52,508 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters), as well as some other sequoias and buildings. The material can withstand intensive heat for short periods and has been used in national parks and forests for several years throughout the West to protect sensitive structures from flames. Lower temperatures and a layer of smoke blanketing the area have been a benefit by helping suppress the flames. Its been slow growth, fire information officer Katy Hooper said. A major element of the groves' defense is decades of prescribed burns fires intentionally set to clear the forest floor of vegetation that could feed bigger blazes and thinning projects to remove small trees that could become ladders carrying fire up to the crowns of the giants. The tactic was no match for a fire in the region last year that killed thousands of sequoias, which grow as tall as high-rises at certain elevations on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. A historic drought tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. Lightning ignited two fires in the park on Sept. 9, officials said. The Colony Fire, closest to the Giant Forest, has grown to just under 5 square miles (13 square kilometers). The Paradise Fire has scorched nearly 13 square miles (34 square kilometers). More than 400 firefighters were assigned to the blazes, which are being collectively managed as the KNP Complex. More resources have been requested, Hooper said. To the south, the Windy Fire grew to nearly 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Giant Sequoia National Monument, where it has burned into one grove of sequoias and threatens others. Difficult terrain has prevented officials from assessing damage to the big trees. Sequoia National Park is the second natural jewel to be threatened by wildfires in less than a month. Lake Tahoe, the blue alpine lake perched high in the mountains on the California-Nevada line, was threatened by the explosive Caldor Fire until firefighters stopped its destructive march. Containment there has reached 71%. Meanwhile, a big change in weather was taking shape in parts of the drought-stricken, fire-scarred West. Forecasters said a storm heading in from the Pacific would bring rain to the Pacific Northwest and parts of Northern California through the weekend. The rain was not expected to come as far south as Sequoia National Park. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The head of New Hampshires health department on Friday accused a Republican lawmaker of spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette was telling the Legislatures fiscal committee that 90% of those hospitalized in New Hampshire due to the coronavirus are unvaccinated when she was interrupted by Rep. Ken Weyler of Kingston. That is in doubt, he said, adding that he has heard from emergency room workers who say 90% of those admitted have been vaccinated. That is incorrect and that is misinformation, Shibinette told him, according to video of the exchange shared by WMUR-TV. I have no idea why someone would say that but that is incorrect, and that is the problem that we are having in increasing our vaccination rate: spreading misinformation about the Covid vaccine. Republican members of the committee voted to table $27 million in federal virus relief funds that would have gone to the state's immunization program. In other coronavirus developments: THE NUMBERS More than 114,000 people have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, including 388 cases announced Friday. Five new deaths were announced, bringing the total to 1,457. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has risen over the past two weeks from 302 new cases per day on Sept. 1 to 446 new cases per day on Sept. 15. Reporter 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). Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). Wrapping up a five-part N-G series: For her work at the New American Welcome Center, helping locals navigate the legal work of the immigration process, Daniella Di Stefano will be honored with the Student Leadership Award from the C-U Immigration Forum on Saturday. Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Submit Champaign, IL (61820) Today A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 54F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Low 54F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Hundreds of cancer-linked genes play a different role in causing disease than scientists had expected. So-called tumor suppressor genes have long been known to block cell growth, preventing cancerous cells from spreading. Mutations in these genes, scientists believed, thus allow tumors to flourish unchecked. Now, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Stephen Elledge's team has uncovered a surprising new action for many of these defective genes. More than 100 mutated tumor suppressor genes can prevent the immune system from spotting and destroying malignant cells in mice , Elledge, a geneticist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, reports September 16, 2021, in the journal Science. The shock was that these genes are all about getting around the immune system, as opposed to simply saying 'grow, grow, grow!'" Stephen Elledge, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Conventional wisdom had suggested that, for the vast major of tumor suppressor genes, mutations allow cells to run amok, growing and dividing uncontrollably. But that explanation had some gaps. For example, mutated versions of many of these genes don't actually cause rampant growth when put into cells in a petri dish. And scientists couldn't explain why the immune system, which is normally highly proficient at attacking abnormal cells, doesn't do more to nip new tumors in the bud. Elledge's new paper offers some answers. His team probed the effects of 7,500 genes, including genes known to be involved in human cancer. A third or more of those cancer-linked genes, when mutated, trigger mechanisms that prevent the immune system from rooting out tumors, often in a tissue-specific manner. "These results reveal a fascinating and unexpected relationship between tumor suppressor genes and the immune system," says HHMI Investigator Bert Vogelstein, a cancer geneticist at the Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the research. Wiping out melanoma The idea that tumors can evade the body's defenses is not new, of course. In one major advance in cancer treatment over the last few decades, scientists figured out that some tumors churn out proteins that switch off immune cells known to attack cancerous cells. Pharmaceutical companies developed drugs, dubbed checkpoint inhibitors, that block those proteins and hyper-activate the immune system. The first checkpoint inhibitor, based on Nobel Prize-winning work by HHMI Alumnus James Allison at the University of California, Berkeley, was approved in 2011. Since then, the drugs have racked up some spectacular successes. In a high-profile case in 2015, a checkpoint inhibitor unleashed former President Jimmy Carter's immune system, letting it wipe out the melanoma that had spread to his brain. Checkpoint inhibitors are now big sellers. But they aren't the overwhelming and universal therapy that some scientists had hoped for. In addition to having serious side effects, the drugs work only in a minority of patients and cancer types. Elledge's work helps explains why: in short, tumors have far more genetic tricks for fighting off the immune system than anyone had previously thought. CRISPR engineering Elledge had a hunch that defective tumor suppressor genes were doing something more than ramping up cell growth. Starting with a list of 7,500 genes, his team used CRISPR to engineer thousands of tumor cells. Each lacked a functioning version of one of those genes. The researchers put the cells into two types of mice: those with an immune system, and those without. Then, the team studied the tumors that grew. Genetic analyses revealed which mutated genes were abundant in the tumors and likely playing a role in tumor formation. In mice with immune systems, defective tumor suppressor genes showed up frequently. This shows that those genes about 30 percent of all tumor suppressor genes tested work by enabling tumors to evade the immune system, Elledge says. Elledge's method revealed the many different genes that tumors can mutate to escape the body's defenses. To explore possible mechanisms triggered by the mutations, the researchers zeroed in on a gene called GNA13. Mutating the gene protects cancer cells from the immune system's T-cells, creating a safe space for the tumor to thrive, the team found. Their research paints a sobering picture of a quick and fierce evolutionary arms race between cancer cells and the immune system, Elledge says, with tumors having hundreds of potential ways to foil the body's attack. But he suspects that many of these mutated genes act via similar strategies, a possibility his team can now examine in detail. If this proves to be the case, an intervention to block one evasion technique could potentially thwart others as well. Overall, Elledge hopes his findings open new doors to treating cancer by making it possible to uncover and stymie tumors' new and different tricks. "There are a lot of genes that people can now study," he says. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to pose a major threat to global health, particularly due to the continuous emergence of new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants. This lends urgency to the need for a safe and effective vaccine that can protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Janssen vaccine is an adenovirus-vector vaccine that is designed to provide single-dose immunity against COVID-19. Earlier trials have shown its efficacy under randomized controlled trial conditions. Recently, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* demonstrates the real-world efficacy of this vaccine, its stability over time, as well as its efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. Study: Effectiveness of the Single-Dose Ad26.COV2.S COVID Vaccine. Image Credit: Lutsenko_Oleksandr / Shutterstock.com Background Vaccine efficacy (VE) depends on the virus variant in current circulation. The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is known to be highly transmissible and resistant to neutralization by wild-type spike-elicited antibodies. The durability of protection over time may change, as may the phenotype of the disease itself. Large health databases, such as those of healthcare insurance providers, may be mined to provide a wealth of information on VE, long-term protection, and clinical features of COVID-19, much faster than a trial set up de novo. The current study used national medical claims data in the United States to determine the VE of the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine against breakthrough infections and hospitalizations related to SARS-CoV-2 between March and July 2021. The researchers were particularly interested in four American states where the Delta variant was circulating at high levels, which included Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. The researchers point out that a large proportion of COVID-19 vaccinations came via routes other than that of the healthcare providers, such as employers, pharmacies, and mass vaccination sites, where insurance claims were not filed routinely. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevalence estimate that 57% of Americans older than 12 years were vaccinated by July 12, 2021. However, only 34% of these names showed up on healthcare claims, thus indicating that many vaccinations are going unrecorded in insurance claims. This affects the final estimates of VE based on vaccinated as compared to unvaccinated cohorts as per insurance claims, as the control or unvaccinated group is comprised of both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. Taken together, this gap in data will cause the VE to be falsely low. The researchers corrected for this by adding a correction factor of 40% to compensate for this under-recording. Study findings The investigators included approximately 390,000 vaccinated individuals and over 1.5 million matched controls in the study. In the high-Delta states, over 29,000 vaccinated individuals were matched against about 110,000 controls. Follow-up was completed in almost all the vaccinated and 82% of controls, with the missing 18% in the unvaccinated group being removed because they took the vaccine during the study period. Nationally, the incidence of COVID-19 in the vaccinated group was 12/1,000 person-years (PY), which was comparable to 39.5 for every 1,000 individuals in the unvaccinated cohort. Taken together, this provides a VE of 79% against detected COVID-19. Hospitalizations were estimated at 2.4/1,000 PY and 9.1/1,000 PY in the vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts, respectively, with the VE being 81%. Among those aged 50 or older, VE was 75% as compared to 83% in those younger than 50. VE was lowest at 64% in the immunocompromised. In the high-Delta states, COVID-19 incidences were 19.4/1,000 PY and 61.4/1,000 PY in the vaccinated versus unvaccinated groups, respectively. This led the VE in these states to be 79% in June and 78% in July, both of which were the peak Delta incidence months in these states. The VE for hospitalizations was 83% overall but rose to 85% in June and July. The VE among those over and below 50 years were 84% and 81%, respectively. Duration of VE The VE remained stable for 14 days post-vaccination to up to 152 days, from 81% in May to 77% in July, when the Delta variant was rising rapidly to dominance. No significant reduction was observed in the high-Delta states. Implications The single-dose Ad26.COV2.S vaccine showed a high degree of protection against COVID-19 incidence and hospitalization, which remained stable over the study period, including the peak of the delta wave in high-prevalence states. These results provide evidence that the VE observed in the ENSEMBLE trial translates into clinical practice, lasts over at least 152 days post-vaccination, and remains effective amid high Delta variant incidence. The VE specific to each variant was not calculated, as the Data did not provide details on viral sequences. As expected, there was a slight decline in VE with age, though it remained high. Even without the correction made for under-recording, the falsely low VE would remain high at 69% against infection and 73% for hospitalizations. Importantly, since many infections go unrecorded, this would not affect the VE for COVID-19-related hospitalizations. However, these unreported infectious would underestimate the VE for infections. The study thus demonstrates the high and stable VE of a single dose of Ad26.COV2.S in high-risk patients and high-Delta-incidence areas. It also indicates the utility of using claims databases to provide timely information to shape policies and healthcare guidelines. *Important notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Heart abnormalities are common complications of sickle cell anemia (SCA) that can contribute to severe disease symptoms and even death. A study published today in the journal Blood Advances is the first to find that hydroxyurea therapy can improve or even reverse cardiac complications in individuals living with SCA. Researchers say the findings underscore the need for early screening for sickle cell-related cardiac abnormalities, even among individuals not currently showing any symptoms. Sickle cell anemia is a form of sickle cell disease (SCD) which includes the HbSS and HbS- thalassemia genotypes. 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. In individuals living with SCD, the red blood cells, which are normally round, become crescent or sickle-shaped, and then break apart, clump together, and stick to the walls of blood vessels. This blocks the flow of blood, which can cause not only cardiac complications but also severe pain, joint and organ damage, and stroke. Hydroxyurea, one of the four drugs currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat SCD, is believed to mitigate SCD symptoms by preventing the formation of sickled cells, but its precise mechanism of action is still not fully understood. The researchers evaluated data from 100 children and young adults (aged 3-22) receiving care for SCA at Cohen Children's Medical Center's Pediatric Sickle Cell Program in New York. Half of the study participants were found to have enlargement or thickening of the left ventricle (LV) of the heart. Pulmonary hypertension, a type of high blood pressure affecting the lungs and the right side of the heart, was also reported. Our study shows once again that cardiac abnormalities are extremely common in children and young adults living with sickle cell anemia. Anemia reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood in the body. As a result, in people living with SCA, the heart enlarges, thickens, and works harder at rest." Arushi Dhar, MD, of Cohen Children's Heart Center, member of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, study author The enlargement of the heart and the impaired ability to relax the muscles of the heart, a condition known as diastolic dysfunction, can cause heart disease and heart failure if left unchecked. Yet the study also offers promising new evidence that treatment with hydroxyurea could lead to improvement and even reversal of cardiac abnormalities in individuals with SCA. Sixty of the study participants were taking hydroxyurea, and the researchers noted that there was no difference in the level of LV enlargement for that group of patients as compared to the group not taking the drug. However, they found that cardiac outcomes were better among individuals taking hydroxyurea for a longer time. "When we compared the group that had been on hydroxyurea treatment for less than one year to the group that had been on treatment for more than one year, we found that the people who had been treated for longer were less likely to have an enlarged heart or a thickened heart," said Dr. Dhar. "This finding set the stage for the next phase of our research, where we discovered that cardiac measures were actually improving over time on hydroxyurea." The next phase of the study was a longitudinal analysis in which Dr. Dhar and her team assessed echocardiograms (ultrasound tests of the function of the heart's muscles and valves) performed over time on the patients receiving treatment with hydroxyurea. They found that the longer the patient had been taking hydroxyurea, the less likely they were to show LV enlargement or thickening. In fact, there were 34 patients who had an abnormal LV mass when first tested, and of these, 18 had a normal LV at their most recent visit. The researchers say the study highlights the need for early screening and treatment initiation for this patient population. "We need very close cardiac monitoring of children and young adults with SCA," said Dr. Dhar. "Even for asymptomatic individuals, screening should start at a young age so we can catch any abnormalities early and start treatment with hydroxyurea as soon as possible." The study is limited by its retrospective nature, and by the fact that the echocardiograms assessed in the study did not measure additional parameters of heart function such as diastolic function. "We would like to see a future prospective study that follows the patients on hydroxyurea for a longer time, even into adulthood when cardiac complications worsen," said Dr. Dhar. Peter Lee, who has steered California's Affordable Care Act marketplace since late 2011 and helped mold it into a model of what the federal health care law could achieve, announced Thursday he will leave his post in March. As executive director of Covered California, Lee has worked closely with the administrations of Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden to expand health coverage to millions of people who don't get it through an employer or government program, most of them aided by income-based financial assistance from the state or federal government. Over 1.6 million people are now enrolled in plans through the exchange, which has covered 5.3 million Californians since it started selling health plans. Lee lobbied fiercely to fight efforts by the Trump administration and Republicans to repeal the ACA, known popularly as Obamacare. Those efforts appear dead following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June to uphold the law for the third time. "The really terrific thing, and you can't say this of every leader, is that Peter is leaving the organization in a position where it is still poised to have the success it has had recently," said Dr. Mark Ghaly, who chairs the Covered California board and is secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. The board will launch a national search for Lee's successor. The long runway to his departure "gives us time to cast a wide net and find a leader who understands the history of this organization but also has the vision of where we can go," Ghaly said. Lee said he was leaving largely for personal reasons, including the deaths of his mother, Sharon Girdner, and his uncle, Dr. Philip R. Lee. The latter was part of the original Medicare brain trust under President Lyndon Johnson, and the younger Lee described him as a health policy mentor. Lee's father and grandfather were also deeply involved in health care policy. The past two years have prodded him to reflect, he said. "Covid reminds you that life's too short. It's a good time to say, 'What else do I want to do?'" But, at 62, he has no intention of retiring. In his next job, Lee said, he wants to tackle what he believes are flaws in employer-based health insurance that leave many workers, especially low-wage earners, at financial risk if they get sick. He said he has no idea whether he'll land in the private sector, a nonprofit or government. First, he plans to take time off to travel and think about his next move. Covered California's enrollment is at its highest level since the exchange opened for business credited partly to longer enrollment periods due to covid and the expansion of federal premium assistance, at least through 2022, under the American Rescue Plan Act. The expanded federal subsidies were based on California's first-in-the-nation state-funded financial aid, which with Lee's ardent support and implementation extended subsidized coverage well into the middle class. The percentage of Californians who don't have insurance has dropped sharply, from 17% before the ACA began expanding coverage in 2014 to 7% now mostly due to the expansion of Medicaid rather than the Covered California marketplace. Those who have worked with Lee credit him for innovations that transcend the provisions of Obamacare and have either set California apart or served as templates for other states. Covered California, unlike many state exchanges, has standardized health plan designs, so that plans within each coverage level offer the same services with the same deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs. "Instead of insurers submitting and selling dozens and dozens of plans with differences that just cause consumer confusion, he established standardized benefit packages so you could make apples-to-apples comparisons," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group. Consumers need only compare provider networks and price, Wright said, "but you don't have to worry that, 'Oh, in this plan the deductible is $50 less but the copays are $30 more.' That stuff is crazy-making." Paul Markovich, CEO of Blue Shield of California, Covered California's second-largest insurer, said the health plans didn't want to standardize benefits at first, but "Peter stuck to his guns." As a result, Markovich said, "there was no way to game the system. The only way to compete was to work on your costs and your quality and the access that the members had." Another Covered California initiative that was unpopular at first with health plans "but very effective," Markovich said, is its ambitious advertising and marketing strategy across racial, ethnic and linguistic communities which is financed by a surcharge on plans. Because many people don't know they are eligible for subsidies, Lee believed no amount of outreach was too much, Markovich said. "And again, he was right." Lee has frequently expressed pride in his ability to negotiate relatively low premium increases, noting that over the past three years rate hikes for exchange-based health plans have averaged only about 1%. Some analysts believe premiums could have been even lower, and that Lee hasn't pushed the health plans hard enough. "I think that Covered California has been too eager to see health plans as partners," said Michael Johnson, a former Blue Shield of California executive turned industry critic. Lee said he and his team strive to ensure that insurers don't make excessive profits in the exchange. "Every year we sit down with health plans and look at their books to ask, 'What profit are you making this year? And what profit are you making next year?'" he said. Lee has seen health care from the business, consumer and regulatory sides. He held two health care-related jobs in the Obama administration and previously served as CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health (since renamed the Purchaser Business Group on Health), which represents large employers, and as executive director of the Center for Health Care Rights, a consumer advocacy group. This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. Regulators are clearing the runway for drones to transport vaccines and other live-saving drugs, in a ground-breaking venture funded by government. The project, to be run by the Civil Aviation Authority ( CAA ), is one of 21 bold new initiatives backed by the government's Regulators' Pioneer Fund to propel cutting-edge innovation across the UK. The Fund supports projects led by regulators and local authorities that help support the country's regulatory environment to keep pace with technological advances of the future - benefiting both entrepreneurs and consumers. Using its grant, the CAA will develop world-first standards for special containers that will allow drones to safely carry sensitive goods like medical products, so that remote communities can access critical supplies without delay. At present, there is no regime anywhere in the world for testing and approving these containers to make sure that they do not leak even in the event of a crash. The aviation regulator has also received money to create a service for the public to report safety concerns about drones, while Oxfordshire County Council has won funding to help innovators understand their legal requirements when setting up new trials in the drone industry. Business Minister Lord Callanan said: Good regulation should spur entrepreneurship, not stand in its way, and this Fund will keep the UK at the cutting-edge of innovation. The projects we are supporting could pave the way for exciting developments across a range of sectors, from drone technology to healthcare, all of which will bring benefits to British businesses and consumers alike." In total, 21 projects received a share of 3.7 million of funding, and winning projects include: Oxfordshire County Council - in collaboration with the Met Office, Ordnance Survey, and others - received 198,000 to develop a tool to help self-driving car developers know when they can conduct trials The Health and Safety Executive received 198,000 for a project to support construction companies to share information about dangerous incidents to help prevent injuries Cornwall Council received 200,000 to improve the monitoring of harmful algal blooms that can enter the food chain through shellfish, leading to sickness and product recalls The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency received 200,000 for a hub bringing together businesses and regulators in the Grangemouth Industrial cluster to move towards a net zero economy This investment comes on top of the 10 million awarded by the Fund from 2018 to 2020, which saw approximately 700,000 provided to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to develop synthetic datasets, supporting the development of cutting-edge medical technologies to fight coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) and cardiovascular disease. The Fund is part of wider government work on regulation. This includes the recent Reforming the Framework for Better Regulation consultation and the Better Regulation Committee, chaired by the Chancellor, which is driving an ambitious reform agenda to ensure the UK's regulatory framework is fit for purpose and delivers the government's strategic objectives. The funding was awarded following an assessment process conducted earlier this year. The full list of winning applicants in this round of funding, subject to agreement of contracts, are: Male infertility is on the rise, with significant declines in sperm quantity and quality occurring across the human population worldwide in the past two decades. The reason for this is poorly understood, but scientists suspect spermatogenesis the process by which sperm develops is a crucial piece in this puzzle. Paula Cohen, professor of genetics at the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and associate vice provost for life sciences at Cornell, is leading one effort to solve this puzzle. Thanks to an eight-year, $8 million, multi-institution grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Cohen and her collaborators will untangle the complex genetic rulebook for making sperm, while also looking for hidden causes of infertility related to spermatogenesis. As director of the Center for Reproductive Genomics, Cohen unites Cornell's scientific experts on reproductive health and fertility, and emphasizes the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that lead to healthy egg and sperm cell production. This grant will tackle the questions of spermatogenesis in three phases: RNA regulation; investigating "junk" RNA; and monitoring RNA modifications. The project also has an K-12 educational outreach element. The newly funded research builds on decades of cutting-edge reproductive science at Cornell, as well as Dr. Cohen's leadership of the highly successful Center for Reproductive Genomics on campus. The new award from the NIH will support several exciting basic and clinical research projects that hold tremendous promise for advancing human reproductive health." Robert Weiss, associate dean for research and graduate education at CVM RNA regulation Cohen and Charles Danko, the Robert N. Noyce Associate Professor in Life Science and Technology and a member of the Baker Institute for Animal Health, head up the first portion of the grant, aimed at understanding how RNA is regulated during spermatogenesis. That includes how certain RNAs are made at certain times, and what might happen if they aren't created in the right order or at all. "Spermatogenesis is an amazing process," Cohen said. "There are so many steps the cell needs to go through, and each step has a very different genetic program." Because sperm cells have so much genetic action happening in such a short period of time, they make the perfect test subject to better understand how RNA is regulated in general. "In terms of regulation, what a sperm cell goes through is phenomenal," says Cohen. "If we want to understand these processes better, the sperm is a really fascinating system to use." Investigating "junk" RNA Once RNAs are made in the sperm cell, there's still the matter of how they behave and where they go. For this part of the mystery, John Schimenti, professor of genetics, and Andrew Grimson, associate professor of molecular biology and genetics (both in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences), will be collaborating to unravel these questions. They'll work with Dr. Kathleen Hwang, a urologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Specifically, they'll be looking at a mysterious portion of messenger RNA (mRNA) known as the three-prime untranslated region (3'-UTR) a "tail" at the end of the mRNA strand that was long considered to be "junk" RNA. Studies have shown that, in fact, 3'-UTR is suspected to be the mRNA's instruction manual. Scientists have already found that sperm cells have a lot of variation in the length of their 3'-UTR tails, but no one knows exactly why this variation exists. "There is some evidence that 3'-UTR length can affect infertility," Cohen said. Monitoring RNA modifications With Schimenti, Grimson, and Hwang helping to identify possible 3'-UTR defects, an additional branch of the grant will look at what might be cause of those defects. This project is headed up by Dr. Samie Jaffrey, the Greenberg-Starr Professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Jaffrey is an expert in epitranscriptomics, a new branch of epigenetics that looks at the modifications that can impact RNA and how it functions. Different proteins monitor these modifications "readers, writers and erasers," Cohen calls them. "This opens up a massive can of worms," she said. "If you alter these reader, writer and eraser proteins in the RNA, they can all result in infertility in mice and are really important for spermatogenesis. In the future, if we knew there were certain RNA modifications that caused infertility in men, we could screen for them." Ultimately, when the grant concludes, Cohen and her colleagues will have uncovered new insights to sperm development which will in turn shed light on many crucial problems, including infertility and IVF. "Everything we do here," she said, "adds to our arsenal to help patients trying to have a baby." The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 2019 and has since rapidly spread around the world, causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in its wake. The most affected population during the first wave of the pandemic were the elderly and frail who, as a result, were prioritized to receive COVID-19 vaccines when they became available to the public at the beginning of 2021. A new study published on the medRxiv* preprint server discusses the vaccination response in elderly individuals who were vaccinated with one dose of the Pfizer vaccine 15 months after contracting COVID-19. Study: Robust Immune Response to The BNT162b mRNA Vaccine in An Elderly Population Vaccinated 15 Months After Recovery From COVID-19. Image Credit: Olena Yakobchuk / Shutterstock.com Background The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was one of the first COVID-19 vaccines to receive emergency authorization (EUA) in the United States, as well as in several other nations around the world. Developed on a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) platform, this vaccine showed high vaccine efficacy (VE) in Phase III clinical trials and has since been found to retain its efficacy in real-world circumstances. The waning of vaccine-induced immunity has been a concern. Conversely, prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 before getting the vaccine has been reported to boost antibody responses very effectively. In the elderly person, the weakening of the immune system with age is linked to a poor immune response to the vaccine after one dose. Two doses, however, elicit a high level of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies and neutralizing antibodies in uninfected individuals. The focus of the current study was the effect of one dose on an elderly individual with a history of natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 since it is biologically plausible that the vaccine dose will boost the antibody titer. There is also little knowledge of how immune molecules react to vaccination after prior infection, as well as in SARS-CoV-2-naive individuals. About the study The researchers used an outbreak in a convent where 16 elderly nuns, with a mean age of 81, developed and recovered from mild COVID-19. All study participants had other comorbidities and received one dose of the Pfizer vaccine 15 months after recovery. The immune responses in this group were compared to those of another younger healthy cohort without a history of prior infection. In this other group, the mean age of the participants was 59 years, and all of these individuals had received two doses of the same vaccine at a five-week interval. The researchers measured ten cytokines, finding that gamma-interferon (IFN) and CXCL10 rose in both groups within a day of vaccination. Whereas IFN remained high for a week in both groups, CXCL10 levels remained high only in the recovered group, thus indicating that the immune response was continuing over the long term. In the naive group, interleukin 16 (IL-16) levels fell after vaccination, while IL-8 levels were higher from the seventh post-vaccine day. a-c. Schematic presentation of the experimental workflow. (a) elderly population recovered from COVID-19; (b) SARS-CoV-2 antigen-naive population; the syringes indicate vaccinations; the test tubes indicate the blood drawing and the triangles the antibody testing. The asterisks indicate the days at which samples for RNA-seq was collected. (c) Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were purified from blood drawn prior to and after the vaccination and RNA-seq was performed at a depth of 240 million reads per sample. d. Age distribution of participants in each cohort. Antibody response after vaccination The elderly cohort showed anti-spike IgG with a mean level of about 700 U/mL at 10 and 15 months from the time of infection when they received one dose of the vaccine. Ten weeks from the single vaccine dose, anti-spike antibody titers ranged from 17,000 to 121,000 U/mL in the previously exposed cohort. This was comparable to a rise from 500 to 3,700 U/mL after two vaccine doses in the naive cohort. Antibody titers in the elderly with prior infection were thus 20 times higher than that which was detected in the younger naive cohort. Transcriptomics response The immune molecules found in the Pfizer vaccine response in the recovered cohort as compared to the naive cohort were most different at the seventh day post-vaccination. In the former group, over 160 genes were upregulated two-fold within a day from the single dose of vaccine, with 108 remaining activated at day 7. By one week following transcription, almost 900 genes had been induced, with the first activated genes related to the interferon and JAK-STAT pathways. In the naive group, about 170 genes were activated within a day of the second dose, and only 5 remained elevated at day 7. The genes induced by vaccination were mostly related to chemokine and cytokine signaling pathways. The differences seen here indicate that the vaccine induced a long period of transcriptional changes in individuals who had a prior history of COVID-19. In fact, these individuals exhibited almost 550 genes that were induced two-fold or more in the first week following their single dose of the vaccine. Interestingly, the immediate response in both groups was similar to that occurring after vaccination with the inactivated flu virus. Principal-component analysis (PCA) of transcriptomes generated prior to (day 0) and after the vaccination (days 1 and 7) from COVID-19 recovered individuals. The variation in the global gene expression profiles across the three time points is shown. Principal components 1 (PC1) and 2 (PC2), which represent the greatest variation in gene expression, are shown. b. Volcano plots of DEGs comparing Day1 versus Day0, Day7 vs Day0 and Day7 vs Day1 in the COVID-19 recovered cohort. DEGs (adjusted p-value, P.adj < 0.05) with a log2 fold change (FC) of more than 1 or less than -1 are indicated in red and blue, respectively. Non-significant DEGs are indicated in gray. The numbers of upregulated and downregulated genes are listed in Supplementary Tables 4-6. c. PCA of transcriptomes from the SARS-CoV-2 antigen-naive cohort prior to (day0) and day1 and day7 after the second (booster) vaccination. d. Volcano plot of DEGs comparing Day1 versus Day0, Day7 vs Day0 and Day7 vs Day1 in SARS-CoV-2 naive cohort. The numbers of upregulated and downregulated genes are listed in Supplementary Tables 7-9. Volcano plots depict differentially expressed cytokines and chemokine at day 0, 1 and 7 of 1st vaccination of COVID-19 recovered cohort (a) and 2nd vaccination of SARS-CoV-2 naive cohort (b). Red dots indicate significant upregulation; blue dots indicate significant downregulation (p-value < 0.05). See also Supplementary Figure 1 and Supplementary Tables 2. Implications The current study indicates that with one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, elderly people who had recovered from mild COVID-19 15 months before responded with a robust antibody response. This belies the common perception of immunosenescence with aging, coupled with chronic systemic inflammation at a low level (inflammaging), both of which are linked to suboptimal vaccine response. The immune response in this group was even superior to that of a younger group of naive individuals, despite the fact that this latter group received both doses of the vaccine. The question remains as to which time interval is best to boost the antibody response in a cohort of people previously exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Earlier studies have shown that the immune response in people younger than 50 years who receive one dose of the vaccine within six months of infection is comparable to that of the full-fledged two-dose regimen in an age-matched cohort. Other researchers demonstrated the superior protection provided by an infection-plus-single booster dose against the Delta variant compared to two doses of the vaccine. There is still no consensus on whether one or two vaccine doses are necessary for this pre-exposed cohort. Currently, a third booster dose of the vaccine is being released and is being shown to increase antibody levels markedly. These findings are particularly true when comparing the two-dose regimen in adults 60 years or older, with the second dose having been taken five or more months before. This booster is very effective in reducing both viral transmission and severe disease. Our study, utilizing a minimum of 240 million reads for each sample, was able to identify the specific gene signatures that underlie viral and interferon response. This enabled us to characterize a temporally extended and expanded genetic responses induced by a single BNT162b vaccine in the elderly with prior COVID 19 infection. *Important notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Over the past decade, scientists have been exploring vaccination as a way to help fight cancer. These experimental cancer vaccines are designed to stimulate the body's own immune system to destroy a tumor, by injecting fragments of cancer proteins found on the tumor. So far, none of these vaccines have been approved by the FDA, but some have shown promise in clinical trials to treat melanoma and some types of lung cancer. In a new finding that may help researchers decide what proteins to include in cancer vaccines, MIT researchers have found that vaccinating against certain cancer proteins can boost the overall T cell response and help to shrink tumors in mice. The research team found that vaccinating against the types of proteins they identified can help to reawaken dormant T cell populations that target those proteins, strengthening the overall immune response. This study highlights the importance of exploring the details of immune responses against cancer deeply. We can now see that not all anticancer immune responses are created equal, and that vaccination can unleash a potent response against a target that was otherwise effectively ignored." Tyler Jacks, the David H. Koch Professor of Biology, member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and senior author of the study MIT postdoc Megan Burger is the lead author of the new study, which appears today in Cell. T cell competition When cells begin to turn cancerous, they start producing mutated proteins not seen in healthy cells. These cancerous proteins, also called neoantigens, can alert the body's immune system that something has gone wrong, and T cells that recognize those neoantigens start destroying the cancerous cells. Eventually, these T cells experience a phenomenon known as "T cell exhaustion," which occurs when the tumor creates an immunosuppressive environment that disables the T cells, allowing the tumor to grow unchecked. Scientists hope that cancer vaccines could help to rejuvenate those T cells and help them to attack tumors. In recent years, they have worked to develop methods for identifying neoantigens in patient tumors to incorporate into personalized cancer vaccines. Some of these vaccines have shown promise in clinical trials to treat melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. "These therapies work amazingly in a subset of patients, but the vast majority still don't respond very well," Burger says. "A lot of the research in our lab is aimed at trying to understand why that is and what we can do therapeutically to get more of those patients responding." Previous studies have shown that of the hundreds of neoantigens found in most tumors, only a small number generate a T cell response. The new MIT study helps to shed light on why that is. In studies of mice with lung tumors, the researchers found that as tumor-targeting T cells arise, subsets of T cells that target different cancerous proteins compete with each other, eventually leading to the emergence of one dominant population of T cells. After these T cells become exhausted, they still remain in the environment and suppress any competing T cell populations that target different proteins found on the tumor. However, Burger found that if she vaccinated these mice with one of the neoantigens targeted by the suppressed T cells, she could rejuvenate those T cell populations. "If you vaccinate against antigens that have suppressed responses, you can unleash those T cell responses," she says. "Trying to identify these suppressed responses and specifically targeting them might improve patient responses to vaccine therapies." Shrinking tumors In this study, the researchers found that they had the most success when vaccinating with neoantigens that bind weakly to immune cells that are responsible for presenting the antigen to T cells. When they used one of those neoantigens to vaccinate mice with lung tumors, they found the tumors shrank by an average of 27 percent. "The T cells proliferate more, they target the tumors better, and we see an overall decrease in lung tumor burden in our mouse model as a result of the therapy," Burger says. After vaccination, the T cell population included a type of cells that have the potential to continuously refuel the response, which could allow for long-term control of a tumor. In future work, the researchers hope to test therapeutic approaches that would combine this vaccination strategy with cancer drugs called checkpoint inhibitors, which can take the brakes off exhausted T cells, stimulating them to attack tumors. Supporting that approach, the results published today also indicate that vaccination boosts the number of a specific type of T cells that have been shown to respond well to checkpoint therapies. While many parents and caregivers involved in the child welfare system suffered trauma as children, new research suggests that those with substance misuse issues as adults may have had particularly difficult childhoods. The study found that scores assessing childhood trauma exposure among adults with substance misuse issues were 24% higher than previous estimates for other adults in the child welfare system, and 108% higher than the general population. Not surprisingly, children in these families also have suffered more trauma. The study found that trauma scores of children aged 6-18 in families with substance misuse issues were 27% higher than scores for children involved in the juvenile justice system. Trauma could include emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, neglect, mental illness, divorce and separation, substance misuse, and other issues. There is a difference in risk profiles between families involved in child welfare due primarily to substance misuse and those where substance misuse was not the main issue." Elinam Dellor, Study Lead Author and Senior Researcher, College of Social Work. The Ohio State University "When you add substance use to an already vulnerable sample of adults, that may help explain why these adults report higher levels of trauma exposure." The study was published online recently in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Data for the study came from two Ohio-based child welfare interventions that target families that have had issues with both mistreatments of children and substance misuse. The treatment programs are Ohio START and EPIC. The study included 402 adults, 271 children up to 5 years of age, and 177 children aged 6-18 who participated in the two intervention programs. Both interventions require trauma screening for adults and children within 30 days of enrollment. Adults completed the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire, which asks if participants experienced any of 10 traumatic experiences before they were 18 years old, including abuse and neglect and household dysfunction. The parents and caregivers in this study had an average score of 4.2. Research suggests that adults with scores over 4.0 are at a much greater risk for a variety of health and mental health problems later in life, including heart disease and suicide. "In the U.S., only about 16% of people have a score over 4 on this test, so you can see that adults with substance misuse issues in the child welfare system have a high burden of trauma," Dellor said. The children in the study were screened using a standard test similar to the one used by adults, called the CTAC Trauma Screening Checklist. In children up to 5 years old, 90% had experienced two or more traumatic experiences, while more than half (56%) had already experienced four or more. Older children in the study had an average score of 5.6 on the trauma screening test, 27% higher than scores for kids in the juvenile justice system. "Children who live with parents who are abusing substances tend to come in with trauma issues beyond just the initial abuse or neglect issues that brought them into the system," Dellor said. "They often have already been exposed to multiple traumatic events." The two intervention programs that provided the samples for this study started in mostly rural southern Ohio, which means most participants are white, she said. The Ohio START program has expanded into more metro areas of the state, so future research will examine racial differences in trauma. Dellor said one important implication of this study is the need to screen all adults and children who enter the child welfare system for trauma. That hasn't been done in most systems around the country. "We've learned in the past 20 years or so how harmful trauma exposure is, across physical, mental and behavioral health," Dellor said. "With so many parents scoring high for trauma, their risks for all kinds of conditions skyrocket. It is important to talk about it, to address it within the child welfare system, but also give families the tools to cope when they leave." The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in many frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) being infected with the causative agent of this disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In a study available on the preprint server medRxiv*, a team of researchers in Victoria, Australia, performed state-wide SARS-CoV-2 genomic epidemiological investigations to recognize health care worker transmission dynamics and support optimizing healthcare system readiness for similar future outbreaks. Study: State-wide Genomic Epidemiology Investigations of COVID-19 Infections in Healthcare Workers Insights for Future Pandemic Preparedness. Image Credit: Halfpoint/ Shutterstock Genomic sequencing was performed on all COVID-19 cases in Victoria, Australia. The team combined genomic and epidemiologic data to investigate the source of HCW infections across multiple healthcare facilities (HCFs) in the state. Phylogenetic analysis and fine-scale hierarchical clustering were performed for the entire Victorian dataset, including community and healthcare cases. Facilities provided standardized epidemiological data and putative transmission links. A preprint version of the study is available on the medRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review. The study The study was conducted between March and October 2020. It was identified that approximately thousand two hundred and forty healthcare workers were infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, only seven hundred and sixty-five were included in this study. The genomic sequencing was successful for six hundred and twelve cases from this genetic pool, around 80% of the cases. Thirty-six investigations were initiated across twelve healthcare facilities. Moreover, the genomic analysis showed that the multiple source introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into facilities was more common than the single-source introduction. Nonetheless, the major contributors to healthcare worker's acquisitions included the movement of staff and patients between wards and facilities. Also, the characteristics and behaviors of individual patients included the super-spreading events. There were key limitations at the healthcare facility level that were identified. Firstly, a common finding from the healthcare facilities was that many infections emerged from the movement of staff or patients. These included individuals while pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic. At one particular facility, a single patient was discovered to have spread infections in two wards due to movement while asymptomatic. The identification of such cases allows the facility to make better screen tests available and limit individuals' movement from one ward to another. Secondly, during this study, it was found that the elderly patients with degraded mental states were exhibiting behaviors that increased the spread of COVID-19 infections. The patients who had delirium or dementia were often found wandering with the infections and coughing, sneezing, shouting, or singing around the facilities. Because of these behaviors and the additional need for medical care, they were found to be spreading the infection rampantly. Thirdly, only the inputs from various settings will lead to a proper conclusion of transmission of the infection. When the investigations were limited to a single ward, it was found to have a limited utility compared to when performed at large facilities with high numbers of positive cases. It is thus important to conduct further such studies in various settings to conclude transmission. Finally, the study showed that multiple collaborative meetings with healthcare facilities provided a chance to educate clinicians about the efficacy and barriers of genomic analyses. This was enabled by sharing initial findings from the genomic analysis and adding additional important epidemiological data to aid with interpretation. Another data set missing in this study was the spread of infection amongst the healthcare workers when they are in a gathering or when they share housing. This brings scope for further studies in this area. Fig 3. Comparison of genomic epidemiological analyses analysed with and without genomic data for community cases. Filled circles indicate HCWs, unfilled circles indicate non HCWs, colour indicates genomic cluster. Panel A shows analysis of cases from facility C (mostly linked by epidemiology and genomics with dominant genomic cluster GC A (green), and three additional HCW cases from different genomic clusters (genomic clusters GC B, GC C and GC D), plus three cases at facility D (related to each other) from genomic cluster GC D. In isolation, this suggests possible cryptic transmission between the two healthcare facilities. Addition of community sequences into the analysis (Panel B) demonstrated that the HCWs at both facility C and facility D likely acquired infection from a social event in the community that was attended by these cases. Conclusion Ultimately, the scientists concluded that this study improved the understanding of HCW infections, revealing unsuspected clusters and transmission networks. In addition, they recommended the combined analysis of all HCWs and patients in an HCF and for that to be supported by high rates of sequencing coverage for all cases in the population. They further suggested that having multiple established systems for integrated genomic epidemiological studies in healthcare environments will improve healthcare worker's safety in any future pandemic. *Important notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. It's a bad time to get sick in Oregon. That's the message from some doctors, as hospitals fill up with covid-19 patients and other medical conditions go untreated. Charlie Callagan looked perfectly healthy sitting outside recently on his deck in the smoky summer air in the small Rogue Valley town of Merlin, in southern Oregon. But Callagan, 72, has a condition called multiple myeloma, a blood cancer of the bone marrow. "It affects the immune system; it affects the bones," he said. "I had a PET scan that described my bones as looking 'kind of Swiss cheese-like.'" Callagan is a retired National Park Service ranger. Fifty years ago, he served in Vietnam. This spring, doctors identified his cancer as one of those linked to exposure to Agent Orange, the defoliant used during the war. In recent years, Callagan has consulted maps showing hot spots where Agent Orange was sprayed in Vietnam. "It turns out the airbase I was in was surrounded," he said. "They sprayed all over." A few weeks ago, Callagan was driving the nearly four-hour trek to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland for a bone marrow transplant, a major procedure that would have required him to stay in the hospital for a week and remain in the Portland area for tests for an additional two weeks. On the way, he got a call from his doctor. "They're like, 'We were told this morning that we have to cancel the surgeries we had planned,'" he said. Callagan's surgery was canceled because the hospital was full. That's the story at many hospitals in Oregon and in other states where they've been flooded with covid patients. OHSU spokesperson Erik Robinson said the hospital, which is the state's only public academic medical center and serves patients from across the region, has had to postpone numerous surgeries and procedures in the wake of the delta surge of the pandemic. "Surgical postponements initially impacted patients who needed an overnight hospital stay, but more recently has impacted all outpatient surgeries and procedures," Robinson wrote. Callagan said his bone marrow transplant has not yet been rescheduled. Such delays can have consequences, according to Dr. Mujahid Rizvi, who leads the oncology clinic handling Callagan's care. "With cancer treatment, sometimes there's a window of opportunity where you can go in and potentially cure the patient," Rizvi said. "If you wait too long, the cancer can spread. And that can affect prognosis and can make a potentially curable disease incurable." Such high stakes for delaying treatment at hospitals right now extends beyond cancer care. "I've seen patients get ready to have their open-heart surgery that day. I've seen patients have brain tumor with visual changes, or someone with lung cancer, and their procedures are canceled that day and they have to come back another day," said Dr. Kent Dauterman, a cardiologist and co-director of the regional cardiac center in Medford, Oregon. "You always hope they come back." In early September, Dauterman said, the local hospital had 28 patients who were waiting for open-heart surgery, 24 who needed pacemakers, and 22 who were awaiting lung surgeries. During normal times, he said, there is no wait. "I don't want to be dramatic it's just there's plenty of other things killing Oregonians before this," Dauterman said. Right now, the vast majority of patients in Oregon hospitals with covid are unvaccinated, about five times as many as those who got the vaccine, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Covid infections are starting to decline from the peak of the delta wave. But even in non-pandemic times, there's not a lot of extra room in Oregon's health care system. "If you look at the number of hospital beds per capita, Oregon has 1.7 hospital beds per thousand population. That's the lowest in the country," said Becky Hultberg, CEO of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. A new study focused on curtailing nonemergency procedures looked back at how Veterans Health Administration hospitals did during the first pandemic wave. It found that the VA health system was able to reduce elective treatments by 91%. It showed that stopping elective procedures was an effective tool to free up beds in intensive care units to care for covid patients. But the study didn't look at the consequences for those patients who had to wait. "We clearly, even in hindsight, made the right decision of curtailing elective surgery," said Dr. Brajesh Lal, a professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the study's lead author. "But we as a society have not really emphatically asked the question 'At what price in the long term?'" He said they won't know that without more long-term research. At his home in southern Oregon, Charlie Callagan said he doesn't consider his bone-marrow transplant as urgent as what some people are facing right now. "There's so many other people who are being affected," he said. "People are dying waiting for a hospital bed. That just angers me. It's hard to stay quiet now." He said it's hard to be sympathetic for the covid patients filling up hospitals, when a simple vaccine could have prevented most of those hospitalizations. This story is from a reporting partnership that includes Jefferson Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News. Researchers have found that adherence to taking medications improved in people with bipolar disorder with the use of long-term injectable meds combined with psychosocial intervention. The research results from University Hospitals (UH) Cleveland Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine appear in the September 16, 2021 issue of the journal the Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. Poor medication adherence is widely prevalent in people with bipolar disorder and is often associated with negative outcomes. A growing body of literature focuses on clinical approaches to address poor adherence that may lead to substantial outcome improvements for this group of people." Martha Sajatovic MD, Study Lead Author and Director, Neurological and Behavioral Outcomes Center, CWRU School of Medicine Martha Sajatovic is also the director at UH Cleveland Medical Center. Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression). The study enrolled 30 people with bipolar disorder who had adherence problems. More than 20 percent of them reported missing their bipolar medication in the past week or month when initially screened. For the study, the participants were given the long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic medication aripiprazole, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of bipolar disorder. "However, in spite of the adherence advantages for long-acting injectable meds, simply switching individuals to them may not be enough to sustain long-term behavioral change," said Dr. Sajatovic. "Our pilot trial combined the LAI with a brief behavioral approach called customized adherence enhancement (CAE). Together we called them CAE-L to assess the effects on adherence, bipolar disorder symptoms, and functional status," she said. CAE was delivered by a trained social worker following a detailed curriculum and delivered in the same clinical visit when the patients came in for their medication. According to Dr. Sajatovic, barriers to adherence could consist of multiple components, including a lack of education about the medications; communication issues with providers; strategies to enhance medication routines, and substance abuse issues. The CAE is a brief, practical intervention program designed to address an individual's specific adherence barriers. Each module could be combined with other modules as determined by a screening assessment. For this study, CAE was delivered in seven sessions (an initial baseline session, followed by one each month for the six months of the study). The medication was also administered once a month for six months. Participants also continued other maintenance treatments such as mood-stabilizing drugs (lithium, valproate, or lamotrigine), or antidepressants, and hypnotic drugs for sleep prescribed for at least one month prior to enrollment. "Overall, our findings suggest that a personalized intervention to address adherence barriers combined with LAI can significantly improve outcomes in high-risk individuals with bipolar disorder," said Dr. Sajatovic. At the end of the six months, self-reported adherence behaviors improved. Adherence remained steady and bipolar symptoms improved. CAE-L was associated with excellent adherence to LAI (100 percent of individuals received injection within one week of the scheduled time), compared with initial screening where individuals missed a mean of 50.1 percent of prescribed oral medication in the past week and 40.6 percent of medication in the past month. The proportion of missed medications in the past week from screen to 24 weeks significantly improved from 50.1 percent to 16.9 percent, and past month improved from 40.6 percent to 19.2 percent. From baseline to week 24, there were significant decreases in bipolar disorder symptoms and global psychopathology. Functioning was significantly improved from baseline to week 24. Participants also found CAE intervention was highly acceptable. The study's limitations include small sample size, no control group for comparison, and all patients coming from a single hospital site. An additional limitation is that adherence was based on self-report, which has potential to undercount missed medication. Twenty-one completed the trial out of the initial 30 who started (nine participants dropped out of the study early for various reasons). Six stages of engagement in treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been reported by researchers at Boston Medical Center based on a diverse study, inclusive of parents of predominantly racial and ethnic minority children with ADHD. Published in Pediatrics, this new framework has been informed by the experiences of parents throughout the various stages that families navigate from diagnosis to the treatment process, and the interplay between themselves, their families, communities, and the systems serving their child, including healthcare and education. ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood, a chronic pediatric condition that can persist into adulthood. The condition is treatable, but racial and/or ethnic minority families experience disproportionate barriers to treatment engagement. This study is the first to provide a comprehensive framework with a developmental trajectory navigated by parents and providers together. Researchers suggest that typical measures of treatment engagement, such as missed appointments or prescriptions filled, do not capture the full extent of family engagement in care. This framework is family-centered, focused on breaking down the barriers that families face from before diagnosis to preparing children with ADHD for the future. This framework can help serve as a model to develop engagement interventions that will be more beneficial to families." Andrea Spencer, MD, director of the Reach for ADHD Research Program, director of Pediatric Integrated Behavioral Health, and a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at Boston Medical Center The six stages of engagement that the research team identified are: Normalization & Hesitation Stigmatization & Fear Action & Advocacy Communications & Navigation Care & Validation Preparation & Transition These stages of engagement unfold in families in a similar way to a typical developmental process, hampered by providers and parents being at different stages in the process. Known as stage mismatch, this can cause difficulty and conflict, interfering with the engagement in treatment. Researchers found that any difficulty patients feel in resolving earlier stages in the engagement process could interfere with successfully navigating later stages of the process. Within each stage, interventions could be offered to support families in that phase and help them journey successfully to the next. During Stage Two, parents explained that discrimination based on race or ethnicity intersected with ADHD stigma in their community, which led to delays in care. Interventions would target discrimination and bias among healthcare providers, as well as address misconceptions about ADHD within families and communities. "Parents were successful when support was provided in a way that matches their own stage of engagement," says Spencer, also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. "Using the Six Stages framework could allow the health system to better match the needs of children with ADHD whose families are at different stages of their engagement process." This study included 41 diverse, urban, low-income families with racial and ethnic minority youth, who are most likely to experience difficulty engaging in care. Families who speak English, Spanish and Haitian Creole who engaged in a pediatric setting at a safety-net hospital answered questions to help researchers understand how families came to engage in treatment for their children. In-depth interviews were conducted with families whose children aged three to 17 years old were in treatment for ADHD between June 2018 and October 2019. Open-ended questions were also asked to explore the journey of ADHD diagnosis and treatment, community attitudes about ADHD, and other factors influencing treatment access and decision-making. Future research should include the perspectives from families with undiagnosed and untreated children, with the inclusion of the years of treatment and age of diagnosis, and study how families of specific racial or ethnic groups may progress differently through the stages, which could be used to further inform this model. This study was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, grant 5300, and the National Institute of Mental Health, grant K23MH118478. A UCLA-led team of engineers and chemists has taken a major step forward in the development of microbial fuel cells -; a technology that utilizes natural bacteria to extract electrons from organic matter in wastewater to generate electrical currents. A study detailing the breakthrough was recently published in Science. "Living energy-recovery systems utilizing bacteria found in wastewater offer a one-two punch for environmental sustainability efforts," said co-corresponding author Yu Huang, a professor and chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. "The natural populations of bacteria can help decontaminate groundwater by breaking down harmful chemical compounds. Now, our research also shows a practical way to harness renewable energy from this process." The team focused on the bacteria genus Shewanella, which have been widely studied for their energy-generation capabilities. They can grow and thrive in all types of environments -; including soil, wastewater, and seawater -; regardless of oxygen levels. Shewanella species naturally break down organic waste matter into smaller molecules, with electrons being a byproduct of the metabolic process. When the bacteria grow as films on electrodes, some of the electrons can be captured, forming a microbial fuel cell that produces electricity. However, microbial fuel cells powered by Shewanella oneidensis have previously not captured enough currents from the bacteria to make the technology practical for industrial use. Few electrons could move quickly enough to escape the bacteria's membranes and enter the electrodes to provide sufficient electrical currents and power. To address this issue, the researchers added nanoparticles of silver to electrodes that are composed of a type of graphene oxide. The nanoparticles release silver ions, which bacteria reduce to silver nanoparticles using electrons generated from their metabolic process and then incorporate into their cells. Once inside the bacteria, the silver particles act as microscopic transmission wires, capturing more electrons produced by the bacteria. Adding the silver nanoparticles into the bacteria is like creating a dedicated express lane for electrons, which enabled us to extract more electrons and at faster speeds." Xiangfeng Duan, Study Corresponding Author and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California-Los Angeles With greatly improved electron transport efficiency, the resulting silver-infused Shewanella film outputs more than 80% of the metabolic electrons to an external circuit, generating power of 0.66 milliwatts per square centimeter -; more than double the previous best for microbial-based fuel cells. With the increased current and improved efficiencies, the study, which was supported by the Office of Naval Research, showed that fuel cells powered by silver-Shewanella hybrid bacteria may pave the way for sufficient power output in practical settings. Bocheng Cao, a UCLA doctoral student advised by both Huang and Duan, is the first author of the paper. Other UCLA senior authors are Gerard Wong, a professor of bioengineering; Paul Weiss, a UC Presidential Chair and distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, bioengineering, and materials science and engineering; and Chong Liu, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Kenneth Nealson, a professor emeritus of earth sciences at USC, is also a senior author. Duan, Huang, and Weiss are all members of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. A team of international scientists and clinical experts have unraveled a new cell type in human skin that contributes to inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis (PSO). Their study findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in September 2021. The team hails from A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), in collaboration with the Skin Research Institute of Singapore (SRIS), Singapore's National Skin Centre, Department of Dermatology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, and industry partner Galderma. Chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as AD and PSO are characterized by the presence of an activated T cell subtypes secreting pro-inflammatory cytokines in the skin. This T cell-mediated immune dysregulation is central to the pathogenesis of a wide range of inflammatory skin diseases. Thus, understanding the factors modulating T cell priming and activation in healthy and diseased skin is key to developing effective treatments for these diseases. Recently, the single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach has been used to analyze immune cells in human skin including dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages, which are cell populations controlling T cell activation. To address the role of DCs and macrophages in chronic inflammatory skin diseases, the team used a combination of complex approaches (single-cell flow cytometry and RNA-seq of index-sorted cells from healthy and diseased human skin) to generate an unbiased profile/ landscape of DCs and macrophages and to describe their distinct molecular signatures and proportions in skin lesions of AD and PSO patients. This uncovered a significant enrichment in the proportion of CD14+ DC3s in PSO lesional skin, where they were one of the major cell types co-expressing IL1B and IL23A, two cytokines essential for PSO pathogenesis. This finding suggests that targeting CD14+ DC3 might represent a novel therapeutic option in the treatment of PSO, and demonstrates the potential for the single-cell myeloid cell landscape database to provide important insights into skin biology in health and disease. The findings from this study are significant as it will allow the design of new strategies to target or modulate myeloid cell populations for better health outcomes for patients of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis." Dr Florent Ginhoux, Study Lead Author and Senior Principal Investigator, SIgN "The roles of antigen-presenting cells in the development of inflammatory skin diseases remain unclear. This study clearly revealed the functions of each antigen-presenting cell subset, which is very informative and valuable to understand the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. We expect that this study will lead to the design of new treatment for refractory inflammatory skin diseases." said Prof Kenji Kabashima, Adjunct Principal Investigator from SIgN and SRIS. Eighteen months into the covid-19 pandemic, with the delta variant fueling a massive resurgence of disease, many hospitals are hitting a heartbreaking new low. They're now losing babies to the coronavirus. The first reported covid-related death of a newborn occurred in Orange County, Florida, and an infant has died in Mississippi. Merced County in California lost a child under a year old in late August. "It's so hard to see kids suffer," said Dr. Paul Offit, an expert on infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which like other pediatric hospitals around the country has been inundated with covid patients. Until the delta variant laid siege this summer, nearly all children seemed to be spared from the worst ravages of covid, for reasons scientists didn't totally understand. Although there's no evidence the delta variant causes more severe disease, the virus is so infectious that children are being hospitalized in large numbers mostly in states with low vaccination rates. Nearly 30% of covid infections reported for the week that ended Sept. 9 were in children, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Doctors diagnosed more than 243,000 cases in children in the same week, bringing the total number of covid infections in kids under 18 since the onset of the pandemic to 5.3 million, with at least 534 deaths. Experts say it's a question of basic math. "If 10 times as many kids are infected with delta than previous variants, then, of course, we're going to see 10 times as many kids hospitalized," said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at the Seattle Children's Research Institute. But the latest surge gives new urgency to a question that has mystified scientists throughout the pandemic: What protects most children from becoming seriously ill? And why does that protection sometimes fail? "This is an urgent and complex question," said Dr. Bill Kapogiannis, senior medical officer and infectious-disease expert at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. "We are doing everything we can to address it, using all the tools we have available," Kapogiannis said. "Answers can't come soon enough." Investigating immune systems For much of the pandemic, doctors could only guess why children's immune systems were so much more successful at rebuffing the coronavirus. Despite the alarming number of hospitalized children in the recent surge, young people are much less likely to become critically ill. Fewer than 1% of children diagnosed with covid are hospitalized and about 0.01% die rates that haven't changed in recent months, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Most children shrug off the virus with little more than a sniffle. A growing body of evidence suggests that kids' innate immune systems usually nip the infection early on, preventing the virus from gaining a foothold and multiplying unchecked, said Dr. Lael Yonker, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital. In a series of studies published in the past year, the husband-and-wife team of Drs. Betsy and Kevan Herold found that children have particularly strong mucosal immunity, so called because the key players in this system are not in the blood but in the mucous membranes that line the nose, throat and other parts of the body that frequently encounter germs. These membranes act like the layered stone walls that protected medieval cities from invaders. They're made of epithelial cells these also line many internal organs which sit side by side with key soldiers in the immune system called dendritic cells and macrophages, said Betsy Herold, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Significantly, these cells are covered in proteins called pattern recognition receptors that act like sentries, continuously scanning the landscape for anything unusual. When the sentries notice something foreign like a new virus they alert cells to begin releasing proteins called interferons, which help coordinate the body's immune response. In an August study in Nature Biotechnology, Roland Eils and his colleagues at Germany's Berlin Institute of Health found that kids' upper airways are "pre-activated" to fight the novel coronavirus. Their airways are teaming with these sentries, including ones that excel at recognizing the coronavirus. That allows kids to immediately activate their innate immune system, releasing interferons that help shut down the virus before it can establish a foothold, Eils said. In comparison, adults have far fewer sentinels on the lookout and take about two days to respond to the virus, Eils said. By that time, the virus may have multiplied exponentially, and the battle becomes much more difficult. When innate immunity fails to control a virus, the body can fall back on the adaptive immune system, a second line of defense that adapts to each unique threat. The adaptive system creates antibodies, for example, tailored to each virus or bacterium the body encounters. While antibodies are some of the easiest pieces of the immune response to measure, and therefore often cited as proxies for protection, kids don't seem to need as many to fight covid, Betsy Herold said. In fact, the Herolds' research shows that children with covid have fewer neutralizing antibodies than adults. (Both kids and adults usually make enough antibodies to thwart future coronavirus infections after natural infection or vaccination.) While the adaptive immune system can be effective, it can sometimes cause more harm than good. Like soldiers who kill their comrades with friendly fire, a hyperactive immune system can cause collateral damage, triggering an inflammatory cascade that tramples not just viruses, but also healthy cells throughout the body. In some covid patients, uncontrolled inflammation can lead to life-threatening blood clots and acute respiratory distress syndrome, which occurs when fluid builds up in the air sacs of the lung and makes it difficult to breathe, Betsy Herold said. Both are common causes of death in adult covid patients. Because kids typically clear the coronavirus so quickly, they usually avoid this sort of dangerous inflammation, she said. Research shows that healthy children have large supplies of a type of peacekeeper cell, called innate lymphoid cells, that help calm an overactive immune system and repair damage to the lungs, said Dr. Jeremy Luban, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kids are born with lots of these cells, but their numbers decline with age. And both children and adults who are sick with covid tend to have fewer of these repair cells, Luban said. Men also have fewer repair cells than women, which could help explain why males have a higher risk of dying from covid than females. Both children and adults can develop "long covid," the lingering health issues experienced by about 10% of younger adults and up to 22% of those 70 and older. Studies suggest that 4% to 11% of kids have persistent symptoms. Unanswered questions Scientists have fewer clues about what goes wrong in certain children with covid, said Kevan Herold, who teaches immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Research suggests that children have more robust innate immune systems than adults because they have experienced so many recent respiratory infections, within their first few years, which may prime their immune systems for subsequent attacks. But not all children shrug off covid so easily, Eils said. Newborns haven't been alive long enough to prime their immune systems for battle. Even toddlers may fail to mount a strong response, he said. At Children's Hospital New Orleans, half of covid patients are under 4, said Dr. Mark Kline, a specialist in infectious diseases and physician-in-chief. "We've had babies as young as 7 weeks, 9 weeks old in the ICU on ventilators," Kline said. "We had a 3-month-old who required ECMO," or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a machine similar to the heart-lung bypass machine used in open-heart surgery. Even previously healthy children sometimes die from respiratory infections, from covid to influenza or respiratory syncytial virus. But studies have found that 30% to 70% of children hospitalized with covid had underlying conditions that increase their risk, such as Down syndrome, obesity, lung disease, diabetes or immune deficiencies. Premature babies are also at higher risk, as are children who've undergone cancer treatment. One thing hospitalized kids have in common is that almost none are vaccinated, said Dr. Mary Taylor, chair of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "There's really no way to know which child with covid will get a cold and be just fine and which child will be critically ill," Taylor said. "It's just a very helpless sensation for families to feel like there is nothing they can do for their child." Although scientists have identified genetic mutations associated with severe covid, these variants are extremely rare. Scientists have had more success illuminating why certain adults succumb to covid. Some cases of severe covid in adults, for example, have been tied to misguided antibodies that target interferons, rather than the coronavirus. An August study in ScienceImmunology reported that such "autoantibodies" contribute to 20% of covid deaths. Autoantibodies are very rare in children and young adults, however, and unlikely to explain why some youngsters succumb to the disease, said study co-author Dr. Isabelle Meyts, a pediatric immunologist at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Although hospitalizations are declining nationwide, some of the most serious consequences of infection are only now emerging. Two months into the delta surge, hospitals throughout the South are seeing a second wave of children with a rare but life-threatening condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. Unlike kids who develop covid pneumonia the major cause of hospitalizations among children those with MIS-C typically have mild or asymptomatic infections but become very ill about a month later, developing symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, a rash, fever and diarrhea. Some develop blood clots and dangerously low blood pressure. More than 4,661 children have been diagnosed with MIS-C and 41 have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although scientists still don't know the exact cause of MIS-C, research by Yonker of Massachusetts General and others suggests that viral particles may leak from the gut into the bloodstream, causing a system reaction throughout the body. It's too soon to tell whether children who survive MIS-C will suffer lasting health problems, said Dr. Leigh Howard, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Although an August study in The Lancet shows that delta doubles the risk of hospitalization in adults, scientists don't know whether that's true for kids, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious-disease official. "We certainly don't know at this point whether children have more severe disease, but we're keeping our eye on it," he said. To protect children, Fauci urged parents to vaccinate themselves and children age 12 and up. As for children too young for covid shots, "the best way to keep them safe is to surround them by people who are vaccinated." The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to afflict human communities across the globe. The best strategy to prevent severe symptoms of COVID-19 appears to be through establishing herd immunity with effective and sustainable vaccines. Unfortunately, despite remarkable efficacy in trials, the knowledge of durability of immune memory post-vaccination with inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains obscure. Moreover, the rapid emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) has diminished the efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The presence of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2indicative of the protective immunity after two doses of vaccination or an infectionhas shown a rapid decline with time. Some patients with B cell deficiency (inherited or treatment-induced) were able to recover from COVID-19, which was suggestive of a potential role of cellular responses against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, inactivated vaccines triggered the generation of SARS-CoV-2 specific memory B cells, which is essential for a rapid and robust recall of protective responses against viral infection. T cells also play a crucial role in coordinating the adaptive immune responses and as effectors against viral infection. But there is very little information available as to how long can these immune responses sustain. To investigate the immune memory sustainability of SARS-CoV-2-specific B cells and T cells, stimulated by the inactivated vaccine, and the potential need for a third booster dose in healthcare workers (HCWs), a non-randomized trial was undertaken by researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. the research is posted online on the medRxiv* preprint server. This non-randomized trial included 63 HCWs who were selected from a prospective cohort at FAH-SYSU. Among these, 50 HCWs workers volunteered to receive a third booster shot of the inactivated vaccine after six months (d180) of the prime vaccination. These HCWs had previously received the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine BBIBP-CorV (BBIBP-CorV, Sinopharm, Beijing) in the morning (9 am-11 am) or afternoon (15 pm-17 pm) on days (d) 0 and 28, respectively. An equal number of members (25 each) were assigned to morning or afternoon groups, and the vaccinating slots were maintained through all three doses. Blood samples were collected into the heparinized tubes and processed immediately after sample collection, at different time-points d0 (T1), d14 (T2), d21 (T3), d28 (T4), d56 (T5), d180 (T6), d187 (T7), d194 (T8) and d208 (T9). The positive control comprised convalescent patients who had recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2 in the serum of each volunteer was measured by Chemifluorescence immunoassay longitudinally. SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B cells and CD4+ T cells and their responses were measured by flow cytometry of spike- and receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific B cells. The cellular response was measured by IFN- ELISpot. Findings Even though the standard two-dose vaccinations elicited Nabsthat dropped from a peak of 31.2 AU/ml to 9.2 AU/ml, five months after the second vaccination dosespike-specific memory B and T cells were still detectable, which formed the basis for a quick recall response. The faded humoral immune response was robustly elevated to 66.8 AU/ml by 7.2 folds, one week after the third dose, along with abundant spike-specific circulating follicular helper T cells in parallel. In addition, spike-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were magnanimously elevated by 5.9 and 2.7 folds, respectively. Another noteworthy finding in this trial was that the HCWs with low serological response to two doses were not truly no responders. In fact, they harbored a complete immune memory that could be promptly recalled by a third dose, even five months after the second vaccination dose. Humoral response to the third dose of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine BBIBP-CorV. (A) Protocol of the prospective cohort and the non-randomized trial. Healthcare workers (HCWs) were recruited from a perspective cohort who received two doses of an inactivated vaccine either in the morning (n=25) or afternoon (n=25) on day d 0 and d28 . They were assigned to morning or afternoon vaccination to receive a third dose of the inactivated vaccine on day 180 according to their previous vaccinating time. Blood samples were collected on different time points d0 (T1), d14 (T2), d21 (T3), d28 (T4), d56 (T5), d180 (T6), d187 (T7), d194 (T8) and d208 (T9). (B-E) Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2 in the serum of each volunteer was measured by Chemifluorescence Assay longitudinally. The concentration of NAbs in the sera at different time points was summarized and shown in the box plot (B). The longitudinal changes of NAbs in the sera before and after the third dose of vaccination (C). NAbs concentrations in the sera from the morning or afternoon group at different time points before and after the third dose of vaccine. Data were summarized and shown as dot plot (D). NAbs concentrations in the sera of female or male at different time points before and after the third dose of vaccination were summarized and shown as dot plot (E). Medians of the data were shown. **p<0.01, ****p<0.0001. Comparisons were done by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Ns: not significant. Significance Data from this study validate the generation of long-term immunological memory by inactivated vaccine. This has bearing for future strategies for frontline HCWs who face high exposure rates and dangers from SARS-CoV-2; individuals with low serological response to the second dose of vaccine; and immuno-compromised patients who would benefit with a third booster dose. The induction of SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B cells and T cells could represent key factors in the development of long-term protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection, even with predictions of decayed humoral immunity as time elapses after vaccination and the emergence of variants of concern (VOCs). Limitations of the study These findings need to be confirmed through other independent studies to demonstrate the clinical relevance of the above-mentioned immunological responses by inactivated vaccination. Conclusions Five months after the second vaccination dose, while the Nabs declined substantially, SARS-CoV-2-specific memory B, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells persisted in the peripheral blood. These results extended even to the participants who were seronegative after two doses of the inactivated vaccine. Besides, the third vaccination dose caused an intensive recall of humoral and cellular immune responses in all participants and promised long-lasting preventive benefits. *Important Notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Scientists have recently tried to explain the factors that could be responsible for the recent outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Israel. Their observations reveal that the prevalence of the more infectious delta variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and waning vaccine efficacy results in the outbreaks. As preventive interventions, they suggest the strict implementation of non-pharmaceutical control measures and administering a third booster dose of the vaccine. Study: What pushed Israel out of herd immunity? Modeling COVID-19 spread of Delta and Waning immunity. Image Credit: next143/ Shutterstock A preprint version of the study is available on the medRxiv* server while the article undergoes peer review. Background Soon after its first detection in India in October 2020, the delta variant (B.1.617.2) became dominant in many countries, including Israel. The variant is known to have significantly higher infectivity and virulence compared to previously circulating variants of SARS-CoV-2. Israel had vaccinated more than 60% of the population with Pfizer/BioNTech-developed COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 by the end of February 2021. With this high vaccine coverage, the country had initially experienced a significant reduction in infection and mortality rates. Assuming that the country had reached the herd immunity threshold, the health authorities decided to remove non-pharmaceutical control measures, including mandatory mask-wearing. Despite this initial success, a sharp rise in new infections and related mortality was observed in Israel by August 2021, when the delta variant was predominantly circulating across the country. In the current study, the scientists have investigated whether the predominance of the delta variant is solely responsible for the recent outbreaks in Israel. Study design The scientists used a spatial-dynamic model of disease spread to examine the impact of vaccination on both confirmed COVID-19 cases and severe cases that required hospitalization. Moreover, they estimated the current effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine. They calculated the theoretical reproduction number for the alpha and delta variants of SARS-CoV-2, which defines the contact frequency between infected and healthy individuals that would have resulted in an infection in the absence of vaccines. Unlike the basic reproduction rate of a virus, the theoretical reproduction number considers the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical control measures. Important observations The scientists tested two different scenarios using the spatial-dynamic models. In one model, they considered the predominance of delta variant and no decline in vaccine efficacy with time (delta model). In another model, they considered the predominance of alpha variant and a time-dependent reduction in vaccine efficacy (waning model). The findings obtained from these models revealed that both waning vaccine efficacy and infectiousness of the delta could independently push Israel above the herd immunity threshold. Both models indicated that a declining vaccine efficacy could result in 2000 confirmed COVID-19 cases a day. Similarly, a predominant circulation of the delta variant could lead to the detection of 3500 daily cases. Since older adults were prioritized in all vaccination campaigns, they are expected to experience a waning vaccine immunity. Consistent with this hypothesis, the waning model predicted a higher number of daily cases (250 cases) in individuals aged 60 years or above than the delta model (150 cases). When these models were combined, this number increased to 700 cases, equivalent to that observed in the real-world setup (716 cases). With further analysis, it was observed that the percentage of cases in older adults is significantly lower than that in the total population during the winter outbreaks. This could be because of higher vaccination rates among older adults. In contrast, a relatively increased percentage of cases were observed among older adults in the recent outbreaks, further justifying the effect of waning vaccine efficacy. Based on these observations, the scientists suggested that countries that have vaccinated a large proportion of their population only recently might effectively control delta outbreaks. Moreover, by analyzing the percentage of recent vaccine recipients and the number of COVID-19 related deaths in 50 countries, they revealed that a higher rate of recent vaccination is associated with a lower rate of COVID-19 related mortality. Study significance The study identifies two factors responsible for recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in Israel higher infectiousness of the delta variant and waning vaccine efficacy. As mentioned by the scientists, future outbreaks can be prevented by administering a third booster dose of the vaccine and implementing non-pharmaceutical control measures (mask-wearing, physical distancing, etc.). *Important notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating three additional imported COVID-19 cases involving patients who arrived from Qatar, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. One case, a 53-year-old man who arrived from the United Arab Emirates, lives at Aigburth, Mid-Levels. He received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in April in Hong Kong. The patient tested negative in Hong Kong on August 30 and travelled to India on August 31 via Emirates flight EK385. He returned to Hong Kong on September 13 on flight EK384 and his specimen collected upon arrival at the airport that same day tested negative. His sample collected on September 15 tested positive for COVID-19 with the L452R mutant strain but not the N501Y or E484K mutant genes. The patient remains asymptomatic. He works at Unit 1506A, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui and last went to work on August 27. The buildings where he stayed and worked in Hong Kong during the incubation period will be included in a compulsory testing notice. The centre is also investigating two overseas COVID-19 cases. The first case involves a 36-year-old man who lives at 7 Lyttelton Road, Mid-Levels. He received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in March and April in Hong Kong. He tested negative in Hong Kong on August 19 and travelled to the US on Cathay Pacific flight CX892 on the same day. The man developed symptoms in the US on August 29 and his specimen collected the same day tested positive. The patient obtained a COVID-19 negative test result proof on September 7. He returned to Hong Kong on September 11 via flight CX851 and his specimen collected upon arrival at the airport on the same day tested negative for COVID-19. His sample collected on September 14 tested positive for COVID-19 with the L452R mutant strain but not the N501Y or E484K mutant genes. The patient works at 18/F, Kinwick Centre, 32 Hollywood Road, Central and he last went to work on August 19. The centre has classified him as a re-positive overseas case. The buildings where he stayed and worked in Hong Kong during the incubation period will be included in a compulsory testing notice. The second case involves a 16-year-old female who lives at Block 9, Villa Esplanada, 8 Nga Ying Chau Street, Tsing Yi. She received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in July and August in Hong Kong. The patient tested negative in Hong Kong on September 4 and travelled to the UK on September 6 on flight CX251. Her specimen collected in the UK on September 9 tested positive and she remains asymptomatic. The centre is following up on the case with the UK health authority. The building where she stayed in Hong Kong has been included in a compulsory testing notice. Specified people linked to Tower 2, Le Prestige, LOHAS Park, Tseung Kwan O and Tung Shun Hing Building, 22 Chi Kiang Street, To Kwa Wan are reminded to undergo compulsory testing tomorrow in accordance with the notice. Twelve schools are subject to compulsory testing after reporting outbreaks of upper respiratory tract infection or influenza-like illness. The Government will set up a mobile specimen collection station at the podium near Tower 2, Level 6, Le Prestige, LOHAS Park in Tseung Kwan O tomorrow for residents and workers subject to compulsory testing for free. A total of 41 cases were reported in Hong Kong in the past 14 days, and all of which are imported. For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage. (Newser) A Michigan lawmaker ordered to jail in a drunken driving case is accused of taping a handcuff key to his foot. The key was discovered when state Rep. Jewell Jones, a Detroit-area Democrat, was placed in jail Tuesday for violating bond conditions, authorities said. "He truly believes that he doesn't have to follow the judge's orders, doesn't have to follow rules," said Livingston County Sheriff Michael Murphy, who runs the jail in Howell. "He's the reason that politicians and elected officials get the bad rap." Jones, 26, returned to court Wednesday to face new charges over the key, the AP reports. story continues below Jones is accused of "taping a handcuff key to the bottom of his foot with clear tape" that later was found by corrections officers, an assistant prosecutor said in a court filing. Defense attorney Byron Nolan said Jones "realizes the seriousness of the allegations." The sheriff said he doesn't know why Jones had a handcuff key. "At the end of the day, folks are handcuffed to and from a facility. If someone has a handcuff key, that's a bad day for us," Murphy said. Jones has been in and out of court since April, when he was charged with drunken driving, resisting police, and other offenses. That case is pending. On Thursday, the speaker of the Michigan House stripped Jones of his committee assignments, per the Detroit Free Press. "Rep. Jewell Jones's increasingly disruptive and distracting behavior in the months following his April arrest has eroded my confidence in his ability to conduct the people's work," said Speaker Jason Wentworth, a Republican. "That behavior hit a new low yesterday when he appears to have made a bizarre attempt to escape from jail." Wentworth said he was taking the action "to protect the public's interest." (Read more jailbreaking stories.) (Newser) Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the city is going to fight the gangs "wreaking havoc" in the city by seizing their assets. Under a new ordinance introduced this week, the city's law department would be able to sue gang members and fine them up to $10,000 per offense, the Guardian reports. Under the "Victims' Justice Ordinance," judges could also order gang members to forfeit property bought with the proceeds of crime. Lightfoot says the ordinance is a tool that would "take away the profit motive from them by seizing assets that they have been able to purchase because of their violent activity in our neighborhoods." story continues below "We have to push back against these violent criminal gangs and we have to take their blood money that they are profiting from, killing our children, our elders, and others," Lightfoot said, per ABC7. Under the proposal, at least half of the assets seized would go to the victims of gang violence. The measure is being reviewed by the city's Rules Committee and the city council is expected to vote on it next month. Lightfoot has, however, faced a lot of pushback from critics who call it a PR move and argue it would disproportionately target Black and Latino residents. Critics say the city's database of gang members is full of errors and similar measures have failed to reduce violence elsewhere. "My prediction: Well take a lot of Camrys and Civics from unsuspecting grandmas, theyll sue a bunch of poor people ... and itll do nothing to actually stop shootings, Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell said, per WTTW. (Read more Chicago stories.) (Newser) Wyoming is taking another shot at bringing back the grizzly bear hunt. Gov. Mark Gordon, calling it a "wonderful day of celebration, not only for the grizzly bear but for Wyoming," announced Thursday that the state will seek the lifting of federal protections for the bears in the Yellowstone region, which also includes Idaho and Montana, the Billings Gazette reports. Grizzly bear numbers in the region have rebounded from around 100 when they were listed as a threatened species in 1975 to more than 1,000 today. "We have proved time and time again that we are experts in wildlife conservation," Gordon said. story continues below Gordon said the request will be filed with the US Fish and Wildlife Service within weeks, the AP reports. The agency will have 90 days to determine whether delisting could be warranted, and a year after that to make a final decision. Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian Nesvik promised that any hunt would be strictly regulated. He said his department has to kill around 35 grizzly bears a year for killing livestock or causing other problems with humans, which "seems like a waste of a resource." Grizzly bear protections were lifted in 2017, but they were restored by a federal judge in 2018 before the state's first grizzly bear hunt in decades could take place. The ruling was upheld by a federal appeals court in July. Center for Biological Diversity attorney Andrea Zaccardi slammed the "outrageous" request to turn the bears into "trophy hunting targets," saying Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana can't be trusted to manage grizzly bear populations responsibly. (Read more grizzly bear stories.) (Newser) If you've been dying to know who's going to get Prince Philip's hunting apparel, 13,000 books, and autographed pictures of himself, you'll be waiting till around the year 2111. Andrew McFarlane, a judge at London's High Court, has ruled that the will of the late royal, who died in April at the age of 99, should be sealed from public view for at least 90 years, an amount of time McFarlane deemed "proportionate and sufficient," reports CNN. story continues below "There is a need to enhance the protection ... in order to maintain the dignity of the sovereign and close members of her family," McFarlane wrote in his ruling, referencing Queen Elizabeth, per the Guardian. The judge added that he himself had no clue what was in the will, other than who the executor is and the date of said execution. This British convention of will-sealing kicked off in 1910, when Prince Francis of Teck, Queen Mary's brother, died and his will was cloaked. The clock in this case starts ticking upon the granting of probate, the first legal step in administering Philip's estate. After the 90 years has passed, an "initial and private process" involving legal representatives for the monarch, the attorney general, the keeper of the royal archives, and any other personal reps who might be around "will be undertaken to consider whether at that stage the will may be unsealed and made public." If it is unsealed, a professional archivist will need to participate in that undertaking. McFarlane says he's the custodian of a safe filled with 30 envelopes, each containing the will of a dead royal. The two most recent additions to that safe: The wills of Queen Elizabeth's mother and her sister, Princess Margaret, who both died in 2002. This is the first time a process has been detailed on how such wills might one day be made public, per the BBC. One royal whose will wasn't locked down but instead was made public after her 1997 death: that of Princess Diana, who left most of her fortune in a trust to Prince William and Prince Harry. (Read more Prince Philip stories.) (Newser) While they haven't asked for the Statue of Liberty back, the French have made it very clear that they're not happy about being excluded from the new US-UK-Australia security pact. A Friday gala at France's Washington embassy to celebrate the 240th anniversary of the Battle of the Capes, a Revolutionary War battle in which a French fleet defeated a British one, has been called off, reports NBC. A French official tells CNN that other celebrations, including a reception on a frigate in Baltimore, have been toned down. We "don't want to have people to be obliged to be together," the official says. story continues below France considers the deal a major betrayal, reports the New York Times. "Interestingly, exactly 240 years ago the French Navy defeated the British Navy in Chesapeake Bay, paving the way for the victory at Yorktown and the independence of the United States," French Ambassador to the US Philippe Etienne tweeted after the deal was announced Wednesday. US officials admitted Thursday that France had been given only a few hours' notice of the deal. Under the "AUKUS" pact, the US will help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines, scuppering a $66 billion submarine deal Australia had made with France. The deal has led to some of the angriest rhetoric from France since disagreements over the invasion of Iraq in 2003, with French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calling it a "knife in the back" and a "unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision" that reminds of him of Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy, the Times reports. "This is not done between allies," he said. White House press secretary Jen Psaki downplayed talk of a rift Thursday. "We have a range of shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific, and that will certainly continue," she said. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, meanwhile, has rejected Chinese criticism of the deal. He has also laughed off the fact that Biden apparently forgot his name during the joint announcement of the deal, with the US president referring to him as "that fella down under," the AP reports. "From time to time, you know, Ive been known to let the odd name slip from my memorythats pretty normal in our line of work, Ive got to be honest," Morrison said Friday, adding that in private conversations, he usually calls Biden "Mr. President" or "mate." (Read more France stories.) (Newser) A surge in migrants across the southern border has created a potential humanitarian crisis in Texasand more headaches for the Biden administration. More than 10,000 migrants, most of them Haitian, are camped under a Texas bridge in conditions that local officials liken to a shantytown, the New York Times reports. They are waiting to be processed by federal authorities, but there is a massive backlog and more migrants are arriving every day. There were around 5,000 people under the Del Rio International Bridge Wednesday and the number is expected to exceed 11,000 Friday, officials say. story continues below Customs and Border Protection says extra agents are being sent to the area. "To prevent injuries from heat-related illness, the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into USBP custody," the agency said in a statement to ABC. Migrants tell Reuters that they are low on food and water. Some have been slipping back into Mexico to buy supplies. They say they have been told they could be stuck under the bridge for five days or more. Homeland Security sources tell NBC that many of the Haitian migrants had been living in South America and were brought to the border along a smuggling route used by cartels. In May, the administration granted Temporary Protected Status to Haitians living in the US but the order does not protect new arrivals from deportation. The administration resumed deportation flights to Haiti Wednesday despite political upheaval and natural disasters in the country, per the Hill. Republicans including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are accusing the administration of abandoning border security. "The Biden Administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan," Abbott said in a statement. He said he had directed the Texas National Guard "to maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings." Sen. Ted Cruz sent a tweet from the bridge Thursday, calling the scene a "manmade disaster" caused by Biden. (Read more US-Mexico border stories.) (Newser) Brian Laundrie is now considered a person of interest in the disappearance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who didn't come home with him after their cross-country trip this summer, but he's still not talkingto authorities, to Petito's family, or to the public. His parents, whom he shares his Florida residence with, are mostly staying mum as well, but his sister has emerged to speak publicly on the matter, though she says she hasn't personally spoken with him since he returned home to North Port on Sept. 1, reports the New York Times. "I wish I could talk to him," Cassie Laundrie told Good Morning America in an interview that aired Friday. "I've cooperated every way that I can. I wish I had information or I would give more." story continues below Cassie Laundrie called her brother, 23, a "wonderful uncle," adding that "he's always been there when I need him. He's been there every time Gabby has needed him." She also noted to ABC News on Thursday that Petito is "like a sister" and that her own kids adore Petito. "Obviously me and my family want Gabby to be found safe," she said. "All I want is for her to come home safe and sound, and this to be just a big misunderstanding." Laundrie hasn't been named a suspect in the case since Petito was reported missing by her family on Sept. 11, 10 days after he arrived back home. Petito's mother says the last text she received from her daughterand she isn't convinced it was actually from herwas on Aug. 30. "No service in Yosemite," the text read. Brian Laundrie rolled into North Port two days later. Petito was last seen leaving a hotel with Laundrie in Utah on Aug. 24. Meanwhile, police in Moab, Utah, released bodycam video this week showing footage of a distressed Petito and Laundrie after they were pulled over by police on Aug. 12. Cops determined the couple had just had an emotional squabble and temporarily separated them, sending Laundrie to a hotel. No one pressed charges. A protest is set to take place Friday afternoon outside of Brian Laundrie's home, as Petito's family continues to plead with him and his family to fill them in on what he knows, reports Fox News. "We're all trying to find the answer and the only person who knows it is sitting over in their house," Petito's father, Joe Petito, told the network Thursday. "The only one who doesn't care is the one who's supposed to care about her the most." He's also responding to Cassie Laundrie's remarks on that hoped-for "misunderstanding." "If that's that family's version of love, to just ignore and not care that someone's gone ... I mean, that explains how we got to where we are today. Because I mean, look at their version of what they call love," he told NewsNation's Ashleigh Banfield on Thursday. (Read more Gabby Petito stories.) (Newser) Colin Huang is still a very rich man, estimated to be worth $35 billion by Bloomberg. But the founder of Chinese e-commerce business Pinduoduo also has the distinction of having lost more money this year than anyone else in the worldmore than $27 billion. That is by far the biggest decline on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for 2021. Huang stepped down as chairman of the company in March, but that doesn't explain the steep plunge in his bank account. Instead, a big part appears to be the new push by Chinese leader Xi Jinping for "common prosperity"that is, he wants China's uber-rich to spread their wealth around. story continues below Huang, for example, has transferred blocks of shares in his company worth billions to philanthropic groups, reports Forbes. Other Chinese execs and their companies (including Tencent and Alibaba) having been making similar donations in a bid to stave off government penalties and deeper interference with their businesses. One result is that six of the 10 billionaires with the biggest annual declines in wealth in 2021 come from China. All of which raises a sticky question for anyone who considers investing in the country, writes Yue Wang of Forbes: "Who now has the ultimate control of these companies profits and assets?" (Read more billionaires stories.) (Newser) Federal investigators are close to charging a former pilot for Boeing with misleading the FAA about problems tied to two fatal crashes of the 737 Max. Mark Forkner, who was the company's chief technical pilot when the plane was developed, would be the first Boeing employee prosecuted over the 737 Max's failures, the Wall Street Journal reports. Forkner, who no longer works for Boeing, was the company's contact person for federal regulators on training pilots to fly the new aircraft. Lawyers for Forkner, Boeing, and the Justice Department had no comment. Forkner's lawyer has said in the past that his client would never do anything to endanger anyone on the plane. story continues below The possible charges weren't clear. A US House investigation found that Forkner persuaded the FAA to keep details of a new flight-control system out of pilot manuals for the 737 Max. Investigators have said the automated system, MCAS, sent the two Max airliners that crashed into nosedives. The system was designed to not kick in often, but that changed during development, when Boeing gave it more control and increased the scenarios in which it would be used. A settlement between Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration said the company and its employees "intentionally withheld and concealed" information about the change. Another former Boeing pilot who worked with regulators also is under investigation. The settlement agreement said employees had said in chat messages to each other that they felt pressure to win FAA approval for pilot training that could be completed in just hours on a tablet or computer. The model was formally certified in 2017, per CBS. Boeing agreed to pay nearly $255 million in the settlement, plus compensation to airlines and the families of those killed in the two crashes. (Read more Boeing 737 stories.) (Newser) "Just guess which politician hasnt been vaccinated and is going to expose his country and citizens to yet another international embarrassment?" tweeted Brazilian lawmaker Erika Kokay Thursday. The answer is President Jair Bolsonaro, who is apparently planning to flout New York City's indoor vaccine mandate when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, the Guardian reports. Diplomatic immunity apparently trumps COVID immunity: City officials say the General Assembly Hall is classed as a convention center and is covered by the mandate, but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says a head of state can't be refused entry based on their vaccination status, reports Reuters. story continues below The UN has an honor system in place, in which swiping their UN identification card on entry to the hall is considered a declaration that they are fully immunized. Bolsonaro, however, said in a broadcast Thursday night that he isn't vaccinated. "Why would I get vaccinated?" asked the president, who was infected last year and claims that his antibody levels are still so high that vaccination is unnecessary. While UN headquarters is considered international territory and American laws don't apply there, UN officials have promised to abide by local COVID rules. Last year, Bolsonaro said he would be the "last Brazilian" to be vaccinated, per AFP. Some Brazilians, however, suspect the president isn't being honest about his vaccination status, reports the Guardian. A 100-year secrecy order has been placed on his vaccination records. Bolsonaro insists there is nothing "weird" or "unusual" about the order, per Correio Braziliense. "My vaccination booklet is personal," he says. (In June, Bolsonaro was fined for not wearing a mask at a public gathering.) (Newser) Police in Washington say they're much better prepared for the rally scheduled for Saturday than they were for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but DC's congressional representative doesn't find that comforting. The tall security fence is back up around the complex, and security officials have held briefings and issued warnings about potential violence, starting Friday, CNN reports. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's congressional representative, thinks it might be about police as much as it is about demonstrators, calling the preparation "an overcompensation for the failures of Jan. 6." story continues below Organizers of the "Justice for J6" rally supporting the January rioters said they don't want violence. Matt Braynard, who worked for former President Trump's campaign, has asked attendees to be peaceful and "respectful and kind to all law enforcement officers," per the Hill. He's also asked them not to bring weapons or wear pro-Trump clothes. Police don't know how many people will show up, though the group's permit is for 700. About 500 have confirmed they'll attend, but a Capitol Police memo notes that attendance has fallen short of expectations at previous rallies held by the group, per CNN. Congress won't be in session this time, and no members have said they're going to the rally. Still, the Capitol is on high alert. Online chatter about the rally has become increasingly violent, and the memo notes that the crowd could turn the event into a "Justice for Ashli Babbitt" rally. But the lawyer for the family of Babbitt, who was killed during the riot, hasn't accepted an invitation to speak. Still, police are under great pressure to keep the crowd under control, per the Hill. "I can understand that the authorities want to make a show of force," said Norton, who dislikes the fence. She said she hopes the message doesn't become "every time there's a demonstration at the Capitol, we're going to call out the troops as if this were a war." (Read more Capitol attack stories.) (Newser) School will resume Saturday in Afghanistan for grades seven through 12, the Taliban announced Friday in a statement. The message of the next sentence was clear: "All male teachers and students should attend their educational institutions." Girls and the women who teach them apparently are left out, making Afghanistan the only nation in the world to prohibit female students from achieving a secondary education, the Guardian reports. Education for primary students has resumed, but older students have had to stay home for a month, during the Taliban's takeover of the country. story continues below The Taliban's commitment to allowing girls and women to resume their educations, albeit with restrictions, lasted less than a week. A similar strategy was used in the 1990s, when the Taliban barred girls from school without issuing a formal prohibition. "Education and literacy are so strongly valued in Islam that the Taliban could not ban girls schools on Islamic grounds, so they always said they would open them when security improved," said Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. "It never did." That essentially drove female education underground, to small classes in homes and schools in provinces that were run by charities. And it added an element of danger to schools. "There was always the fear that they could be closed in a moment. Or that teachers would be beaten or detained," Clark said. "This happened." The Taliban has reinforced its point by turning the Kabul building that used to house the ministry of womens affairs over to the revived ministry for the prevention of vice and promotion of virtue, per the Guardian. In the Taliban's previous reign, that ministry was an enforcer that was charged with beating women who broke the rules by being seen in public without a male guardian or wearing high heels. A resolution unanimously passed the UN Security Council on Friday calling on the Taliban to ensure "the full, equal and meaningful participation of women" in Afghanistan's government. The interim government just announced excludes women and minorities, raising fears that the Talibanthough they've said otherwisewill revert to the uncompromising practices of their rule that ended 20 years ago. The resolution also keeps the UN political mission in Afghanistan for another six months, per the AP. (Read more Afghanistan stories.) (Newser) The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that an internal review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. The strike was a tragic mistake," Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, told a Pentagon news conference, per the AP. McKenzie said the vehicle was struck in the earnest belief that the targeted vehicle posed an imminent threat. I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike," he said. story continues below Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K, or a direct threat to US forces," he added, referring to the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate. For days after the Aug. 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly, despite numerous civilians being killed, including children. News organizations later raised doubts about that version of events, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization and citing an absence of evidence to support the Pentagon's assertion that the vehicle contained explosives. (Read more drone strike stories.) (Newser) France escalated its protest of the new security alliance that excludes it on Friday by recalling its ambassadors to the US and Australia. "This extraordinary decision reflects the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on September 15 by Australia and the United States," Jean-Yves Le Drian, France's foreign affairs minister, said in a statement, USA Today reports. President Emmanuel Macron has made no public comment on the dispute, but he made the decision to recall the diplomats, Le Drian said. The deals among the US, the UK, and Australia "constitute unacceptable behavior among allies and partners," the statement said. story continues below A French official said leaders believe it to be the first time the government has made such a move in modern times. France has said it was blindsided by the agreement, which was cut in secret and included scrapping Australia's contract for a dozen submarines from a France company. That deal was said to be worth $50 billion and $90 billion. The US says Australia gave France notice about the contract, per CNN. Biden administration officials made no comment of significance, saying only that the US will keep working to settle the differences with "our oldest ally and one of our strongest partners," per the Washington Post. French officials had suggested Thursday, a day after the alliance was announced by President Biden and the prime ministers of the UK and Australia, that their anger will not quickly pass, per the New York Times. And the recall of an ambassadorin this case, Philippe Etienneis the sort of action usually taken by countries that are not close allies, to punish the other. For example, Russia pulled its ambassador from Washington earlier this year after an intelligence finding that it interfered in the 2020 US presidential election. (France also canceled a gala planned for its embassy in Washington.) Lashana Lynch redefines what it means to be 007 in 'No Time to Die' Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here Two Rivers musher Richie Beattie is the first through the chute at the 2020 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race on Feb. 1, 2020, in Fairbanks. Laura Stickells/News-Miner TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrains top ranking on the Basel AML Index reflects the Kingdoms commitment to battling money laundering and terrorist financing, said General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the Interior Minister. The Basel AML Index is an independent annual ranking that assesses the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) worldwide. The risk scores cover five domains: Quality of AML/CFT Framework. Bribery and Corruption. Financial Transparency and Standards. Bahrain is ranked first in the Arab region and second in the Middle East for the second year in a row on the index. The milestone, Shaikh Rashid said, reflects procedures of the government led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to reinforce the sovereignty of the law. It further reflects the transparency and commitment to the human rights values and principles of the reform approach of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the minister said. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Works Minister yesterday stressed the importance of developing sustainable agricultural policies that enhance food security in the Gulf Cooperation Council members states. Developing cooperation between GCC nations in agricultural, animal and fisheries sectors are crucial for food security, Essam Khalaf, the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, said. He also urged the need for strengthening joint Gulf action for the post-Coronavirus pandemic. The minister was chairing the 31st Agricultural Cooperation committee of the ministers of the GCC member states. The GCC Agricultural Cooperation Committee, the minister said, is completing the steps towards achieving sustainable agricultural policies and developing cooperation in agriculture, animal husbandry, and fisheries among GCC nations. The meeting discussed various issues facing the agricultural sectors, policies and mechanisms for achieving food security in partnership with the private sector, a unified quarantine law, establishing a genetic asset bank and usage of fertilisers. The minister told the meeting that Bahrains project to develop sustainable systems for date palms in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries had received UAEs Khalifa International Award for Date Palms. On the livestock sector, the meeting approved an updated guide for veterinary facilities in the private sector, which will serve as a guideline for the next two years. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Bahrains Minister of Foreign Affairs, chaired the 149th GCC Ministerial Council Session yesterday, calling the current regional situation bothersome and worrying. The meeting, Dr Al Zayani said, comes amid a bothersome regional situation, as well as worrying political, security, economic and health challenges. Confronting them, the minister said, requires the member states to continue strengthening cooperation and joint coordination at all levels. The meeting was at Prince Saud Al-Faisal Convention Centre at the GCC headquarters in Riyadh. The leaders of the GCC states were aware of the dangers posed by the COVID-19 crisis to human health and GCC states, and their responses were up to the level, said the minister. The GCC Health ministries, he said, are also continuing their constructive cooperation in dealing with the repercussion of the pandemic. The minister told the conference that continuing joint Gulf action is the key to confronting regional challenges, which now is also calling for further consolidation, cooperation and coordination. Calling the Al Ula summit in Saudi Arabia a milestone in the GCC march, he urged member states to continue joint efforts to complete the requirements of the customs union, the Gulf Common Market and achieve economic unity by 2025. The minister also drew the attention of the GCC states on the need for reaching free trade agreements with countries and international groups. Afghan in dire need of aid On the situation in Afghanistan, he said the world nations are closely monitoring the developments. The people there, he said, are in dire need of urgent humanitarian aid. What happening in Afghanistan underscores the importance of concerted efforts to stabilise the situation at home and protect civilians, he said. He called world nations to ensure that no terrorist groups harbour Afghanistan for their illegal activities and accelerate urgent humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. Meetings with Yemen, Iraq Dr Al Zayani also held joint ministerial sessions between GCC foreign ministers and Foreign ministers of Yemen, Iraq and Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the 149th session. Dr Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf, the GCC Secretary-General, was also present during the meetings. During a meeting with Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Yemen, Dr Al Zayani expressed the firm support of GCC nations to the leadership of Yemen and took great pride in the efforts of the coalition supporting legitimacy of Yemen. He stressed the importance of reaching a political solution to the Yemeni crisis, which the Houthi terrorist group are worsening. Dr Al Zayani commended the ceasefire announced by Saudi Arabia, the last march in Yemen and said defeating Houthis is the national duty of the Yemeni people for which requires a unified effort. During the meeting with Dr Fouad Mohammed Hossein, the Foreign Minister of Iraq, Dr Al Zayani emphasised the need for strengthening the strategic partnership between the GCC and Iraq. He also expressed pride in the Gulf Electricity Grid Interlinkage project and efforts made to complete the project. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com From now onwards, companies in the Kingdom, except for joint venture companies, should have their articles of incorporation and all amendments both in English and Arabic and documented by a notary, without which their contracts will become void. The move is according to a new set of amendments approved by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday in the Commercial Companies Law. Articles of incorporation are a set of formal documents that establish the creation of a corporation. It generally contains pertinent information, such as the firms name, street address, agent for service of process, and the amount and type of stock to be issued. One of the amendments also focuses on the remuneration of the chairman and board members of a company. Remuneration not above 10% of profit According to Article 188, starting now, the total remunerations for chairman and board members cannot exceed 10% of the net profit after excluding legal reserves and distributing a profit of not less than 5% of paid-up capital. The changes also allow the general assembly to distribute an annual remuneration to the head of the company and board of directors in years when a company is not making a profit or distribute profit to shareholders. Such a decision, however, will need the consent of the concerned minister of trade affairs. Declare all rewards, profits The board of directors should declare all rewards received by the chairman and other members separately in a comprehensive report to the General Assembly during the fiscal year. The report should furnish benefits, privileges, share in profits, attendance allowance, representation allowance, expenses, etc. The board should also submit a statement on what they receive as employees or administrators in return for technical, administrative, consulting or any other work. The new decision also states that the report thus filed should include all statements of all remunerations obtained by the executive management during a fiscal year, including salaries, benefits, shares, and profits following the controls determined by the executive legislation. For ensuring compliance The board of directors should also, within six months from the end of the fiscal year, send the ministry a copy of its budget, profit and loss accounts, annual and audited reports or any other data required. The move, Article 244 says, is to verify the compliance of a company with the provisions of the law, the soundness of its financial position, and tax compliance at the national and international level. The article also authorises the ministry to request any financial data, documents, reports or additional information it deems necessary. According to Article (286) (c), managers much provide the concerned ministry, within six months from the end of the fiscal year, a copy of the balance sheet, profit and loss account, annual report, and an audited report duly signed and stamped. The amendment also replaces several phrases in the law. The changes take effect upon its publication in the Official Gazette. STAMFORD Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the state would appeal a bankruptcy judges approval of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharmas settlement plan, reiterating his objection to sweeping legal protections that the proposal grants to the Sackler family members who own the company. The states filing of a notice of appeal in federal bankruptcy court was expected as Tong has repeatedly said in the past two weeks that Connecticut would not accept Judge Robert Drains Sept. 1 confirmation of Stamford-based Purdues plan, which would settle several thousand lawsuits alleging the firm fueled the opioid crisis with deceptive OxyContin marketing and ultimately dissolve the company. The Sacklers are not bankrupt. We cannot allow our bankruptcy laws to be abused and misused as a loophole for the rich and powerful to avoid justice and accountability, Tong said in a statement Friday. This decision was an unprecedented and unacceptable overreach by the bankruptcy court. Connecticuts filing Friday indicated that it wanted the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel to hear its appeal. The BAP comprises a group of judges of U. S. bankruptcy courts who are appointed to hear appeals from certain bankruptcy cases under the supervision of the U.S. courts of appeals. While we understand the objectors views are deeply held, 95 percent of Purdues creditors, including 43 states and territories, continue to believe the plan is the best option for people and communities suffering from the opioid crisis, the most fair and expeditious way to resolve the Purdue litigation, and the only way to deliver billions of dollars in value to fund programs specifically for abatement of the crisis, Purdue said in a statement. The bankruptcy courts ruling confirms this belief, and appeals will only further hurt the states, victims and creditors by delaying and eroding their recoveries. Through a spokesman, the family of late Purdue co-founder Mortimer Sackler declined to comment on the notice of appeal. A message left for the family of late Purdue co-founder Raymond Sackler was not immediately returned. The two families previously issued statements supporting Drains ruling. Tongs opposition to the settlement plan focuses largely on a stipulation for the Sacklers who own the company to be released from the pending lawsuits, as well as potential opioid-related claims. The plan also provides releases for many other parties, including Sackler family members not directly involved in the company. The Sacklers did not personally file for bankruptcy. Those liability shields are a condition of the Sacklers agreement to contribute $4.325 billion in cash to the settlement, which Purdue values at a total of more than $10 billion. Tongs announcement said that by the time they are finished paying this settlement (over a nine-year period), the Sacklers will be wealthier than they were when they started. The Sacklers family net worth was estimated last year by Forbes to be nearly $11 billion. While Tong and a number of his counterparts have condemned the releases, their scope would not be unlimited. They would not prohibit potential criminal prosecution. Last November, Purdue as a company pleaded guilty to three criminal charges of conspiring to defraud the government and violate anti-kickback law. No individuals, however, were charged in connection with that plea. Concurrent with Purdues settlement last year with the Department of Justice, the Sacklers involved in Purdue agreed to a separate $225 million settlement with DOJ to resolve allegations of marketing and financial misconduct. They did not admit any wrongdoing as part of that agreement. With an appeal, Connecticut would continue the legal battle it has waged against Purdue since it filed in December 2018 a lawsuit against the company and a number of individual defendants, including eight of the Sacklers. The complaint was consolidated with the other pending complaints when Purdue filed for bankruptcy in September 2019 and halted through subsequent court orders. In addition to Connecticut, several other parties have also filed notices of appeal including the U.S. Trustee, which has represented the Department of Justice in the bankruptcy proceedings; Maryland; Washington state; and the District of Columbia. The objections note that the Sackler family made at least $11 billion in profits from producing and deceptively marketing OxyContin, a major driver in the rise of the opioid crisis, Tongs announcement said. Representatives of the Sacklers have denied Tongs accusations. Dissatisfaction with the outcome of Purdues bankruptcy has also sparked efforts to reform bankruptcy law. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is advancing legislation in Congress that seeks to prohibit the types of legal protections that the settlement plan provides to the Sacklers whom he said earlier this month had embarked on a shameful quest to avoid responsibility for their deliberate, reckless disregard of human life. In July, Tong testified in support of bankruptcy reform, before a House Judiciary subcommittee. Meanwhile, the state and the rest of the country are still grappling with an unrelenting opioid epidemic. It resulted in nearly 500,000 people dying from overdoses involving prescription or illicit opioids between 1999 and 2019. Last year in Connecticut, 1,273 people died from opioid-related overdoses, up 13 percent from 2019. Connecticut has filed notice that we will appeal and will continue to fight on behalf of the victims and families of the opioid epidemic until we see justice, Tong said. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott LOS ANGELES (AP) Jane Powell, the bright-eyed, operatic-voiced star of Hollywood's golden age musicals who sang with Howard Keel in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and danced with Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding, has died. She was 92. Powell died Thursday at her Wilton, Connecticut, home, longtime friend Susan Granger said. Granger said Powell died of natural causes. Jane was the most wonderful friend," Granger said. She was candid, she was honest. You never asked Jane a question you didnt want an absolutely honest answer to." Granger was a youngster when she met the then-teenaged Powell, who was making her film debut in 1944's Song of the Open Road, directed by Granger's father, S. Sylvan Simon. She performed virtually her whole life, starting about age 5 as a singing prodigy on radio in Portland, Oregon. On screen, she quickly graduated from teen roles to the lavish musical productions that were a 20th-century Hollywood staple. Her 1950 casting in Royal Wedding came by default. June Allyson was first announced as Astaires co-star but withdrew when she became pregnant. Judy Garland was cast, but was withdrawn because of personal problems. Jane Powell was next in line. They had to give it to me, she quipped at the time. Everybody else is pregnant. Also among the expectant MGM stars: Lana Turner, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse and Jean Hagen. Powell had just turned 21 when she got the role; Astaire was 50. She was nervous because she lacked dancing experience, but she found him very patient and understanding. We got along fine from the start. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers proved to be a 1954 sleeper hit. The studio didnt think it was going to do anything, she recalled in 2000. MGM thought that `Brigadoon was going to be the big moneymaker that year. It didnt turn out that way. We were the ones that went to the Radio City Music Hall, which was always such a coup. The famed New York venue was a movie theater then. Audiences were overwhelmed by the lusty singing of Keel and Powell and especially by the gymnastic choreography of Michael Kidd. Seven Brides achieved classic status and resulted in a TV series and a Broadway musical. Blonde and small and pretty, Jane Powell had the required amount of grit and spunk that was needed to play the woman who could tame seven backwoodsmen, John Kobal wrote in his book Gotta Sing Gotta Dance: A Pictorial History of Film Musicals. After 13 years at MGM, though, Powell quit the studio, reasoning that she was going to be fired because they werent going to be doing musicals anymore. I thought Id have a lot of studios to go to, she said in 2000, but I didnt have any, because no one wanted to make musicals. It was very difficult, and quite a shock to me. Theres nothing worse than not being wanted. She found one musical at RKO, The Girl Most Likely, a 1958 remake of Tom, Dick and Harry. Aside from a couple of minor films, her movie career was over. She was born Suzanne Lorraine Burce in Portland, Oregon, in 1928. She began singing on local radio as a small child, and as she grew, her voice developed into a clear, high-pitched soprano. When the Burce family planned a trip to Los Angeles, the radio station asked if Suzanne would appear on a network talent show there. The tiny girl with a 2-octave voice drew thunderous applause with an aria from Carmen and was quickly put under contract to MGM. Her first movie was a loanout to an independent producer for Song of the Open Road, a 1944 mishmash with W.C. Fields (at the end of his career) and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. The characters name in Song of the Open Road was Jane Powell, and MGM decided that that would be her movie name. She played teens in such films as Holiday in Mexico, Three Daring Daughters and A Date With Judy. But she pleaded with the studio bosses to be given grown-up roles and finally succeeded in Royal Wedding. Frothy romances and musicals continued to dominate her career, including Young, Rich and Pretty, Small Town Girl and Three Sailors and a Girl. After her movie career ended, musical theater offered plenty of work for a star of her prominence and talent. She sang in supper clubs, toured in such shows as The Unsinkable Molly Brown and I Do! I Do! and replaced Debbie Reynolds in the Broadway run of Irene. She frequently appeared on television, notably in the Judy Garland role in a new version of Meet Me in St. Louis. As she approached her 70s, Powell abandoned her singing career. I cant hit the high notes, and I wont be second-rate, she explained in 2000. She switched to drama, appearing in New York theater in such plays as Avow, portraying mother of an unmarried, pregnant daughter and a son who wanted to marry his male partner. Powells first four marriages ended in divorce: to Geary Steffen (son Geary, daughter Suzanne), Patrick Nerney (daughter Lindsay), James Fitzgerald and David Parlour. Powell met fifth husband Dick Moore when he interviewed her for his book about child actors. As Dickie Moore, he had been a well-known child actor in the 1930s and 40s and gave Shirley Temple her first screen kiss in Miss Annie Rooney (1942). Moore, head of a New York public relations office, and Powell married in 1988. He died in 2015. Jane Powell's survivors include her daughter, Lindsey Nerney, Granger said. ___ Biographical material in this report was compiled by late AP Entertainment Writer Bob Thomas. COVID-19 vaccine refusal rates may be high among white evangelical Christians, but the International Mission Board which deploys thousands of missionaries is not hesitant about the shot. The global agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest evangelical Protestant denomination in the U.S., announced this month it is requiring vaccinations for missionaries they're sending into the field amid the pandemic. The IMB may be the first U.S. missionary agency known to have such a mandate, according to leaders in the field, as other faith groups approach the issue in a variety of ways including limiting where people can serve and making considerations for uneven global access to the vaccines. This is a very common-sense decision, said Ed Stetzer, a Southern Baptist who is dean of Mission, Ministry and Leadership at Wheaton College. Mission-sending agencies from the United States have the real opportunity to be vaccinated, and theyre going to places around the world that dont. The IMB policy applies to both current and future missionaries as well as some staff members. Among the reasons it cited for the measure are health concerns and the fact that increasing numbers of countries are implementing their own vaccine requirements some field personnel have reported needing to show proof to board airplanes and subways or enter restaurants and malls. In a statement announcing the policy, IMB leaders acknowledged that it could be a deal-breaker for some people considering missionary work or currently serving with the organization. The Rev. Allen Nelson IV, a pastor who leads a Southern Baptist congregation in Arkansas, said he is not against vaccines but is completely opposed to mandates for missionaries. This is something that must be left up to a persons own conscience, research and discussions with a doctor, as well as their particular ministry context, Nelson told The Associated Press. Among religious groups that have stopped short of issuing vaccine mandates is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, which is giving unvaccinated missionaries assignments in their home countries. The United Methodist Church, for its part, strongly encourages missionaries to get vaccinated but does not require it. That is partly because availability is not consistent around the world, according to Judy Chung, executive director of missionary services for the denominations Global Ministries. We have discussed how to promote vaccination without making a mandatory requirement," Chung said, "because some may not have access to that yet. The denomination currently has about 240 full-time missionaries serving in 70 countries, and the most recently deployed cohort of about 40 has a vaccination rate around 80%. We want to make sure that our missionary population are safe so that they can focus on the mission work that has been assigned to them, Chung said. We want to make sure that we are not causing harm as we engage in mission. A key question for U.S.-based mission groups is whether they will fall under the Biden administration's recently announced rule that companies with more than 100 employees must require workers be vaccinated for the coronavirus or undergo weekly testing. If they do, Ted Esler, the president of Missio Nexus, an association that includes hundreds of missionary agencies in the U.S. and Canada, said about 30% of those agencies could be affected. He thinks they would comply with the federal mandate but said the issue is not currently stirring much discussion. Ultimately, he noted, organizations' internal rules may be rendered moot by vaccine entry requirements that many countries have instituted for visitors. Whether you have a policy or not," Esler said, "if youre going to serve cross-culturally in another country, youre going to be faced with the government regulation. A June survey by the Public Religion Research Institute showed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy decreasing and acceptance growing, but refusal rates holding steady. It also found significant variance of opinion between people from different faith traditions. White evangelical Protestants had the highest vaccine refusal rate at 24% and among the lowest acceptance rates at 56%. By comparison, acceptance rates stood at 56% for Hispanic Protestants, 65% for Latter-day Saints, 66% for Black Protestants, 69% for other Protestants of color and 74% for white mainline Protestants. The IMB has had vaccine requirements for other diseases in place since the 1980s, and it says some have chosen to skip international service because of it. Esler, who served as a missionary in Bosnia in the 1990s with the Pioneers organization, said he had to be inoculated against diseases like diphtheria, polio, tetanus and typhoid before he could go. Esler wasnt eager to get a COVID-19 vaccine and is hesitant to advise others to roll up their sleeves. But he got vaccinated because he is continuing to travel. From my perspective, this is an issue more because of the fact that its COVID-related than it is vaccine-related, Esler said. Its unfortunate that the COVID vaccine here is controversial and rejected by some," he added, "when in other places it would be coveted and highly sought-after and they cannot get it. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Police video shows a Florida woman who disappeared during a cross-country journey in a converted camper van had an emotional fight with her boyfriend in a Utah tourist town before she vanished. The video released by the Moab Police Department shows that an officer pulled over the van on Aug. 12 after it was seen speeding and hit a curb near the entrance to Arches National Park. Inside was Brian Laundrie, 23, and his 22-year-old girlfriend, Gabrielle Gabby Petito, who was reported missing by her family a month later and is now the subject of a nationwide search joined by the FBI. Police in North Port, Florida, where the couple lived, say Laundrie is a person of interest" in her case. He's not been charged, but he's also not cooperating. North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison publicly vented his frustration over his lack of help on Wednesday, pleading for Laundrie's lawyer to arrange a conversation. Two people left on a trip and one person returned! the chief's tweet said. The body camera video shows Petito visibly upset when an officer approached them. Weve just been fighting this morning. Some personal issues, she tells him, adding that she suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder that affects her behavior. Some days, I have really bad OCD, and I was just cleaning and straightening up and I was apologizing to him saying that Im so mean because sometimes I have OCD and get frustrated, she said. Laundrie says on the video the couple got into a minor scuffle that began when he climbed into the van with dirty feet, and said he didn't want to pursue a domestic violence charge against Petito, who officers decided was the aggressor. Im not going to pursue anything because she is my fiancee and I love her. It was just a squabble. Sorry it had to get so public, Laundrie says. Ultimately Moab police decided not file any charges and instead separated the couple for the night, with Laundrie checking into a motel and Petito remaining with the converted sleeper van. Petito and Laundrie started their drive across the U.S. in July from New York's Long Island, where both grew up. They intended to reach Oregon by Halloween according to their social media accounts, but Petito vanished after her last known contact with family in late August from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said. Laundrie drove the Ford Transit van back to Florida on Sept. 1 alone, police said. Petito's family filed a missing persons report last Saturday with police in Suffolk County, New York. Petito's parents released a letter through their attorney on Thursday to Laundrie's parents, asking them to help investigators locate Petito, despite their instinct to protect their son. We believe you know the location of where Brian left Gabby, the letter said. We beg you to tell us. As a parent, how could you let us go through this pain and not help us? As a parent, how could you put Gabbys younger brothers and sisters through this? Laundrie's attorney, Steven Bertolino, said the Laundrie family is hoping for Petito's safe return, but he's asked them not to speak with investigators. "I cant speculate as to why hes not talking, but he has the pieces to the puzzle that we need to find Gabby, Garrison said Thursday on ABCs Good Morning America. Laundries sister, Cassie Laundrie, told Good Morning America in an excerpt of an interview released in advance of its airing on Friday's program that she was concerned. Obviously me and my family want Gabby to be found safe, Laundrie said. Shes like a sister and my children love her, and all I want is for her to come home safe and found and this to be just a big misunderstanding. Garrison said at a news conference Thursday that the investigation remains a missing persons case, not a murder probe, and that no intensive searches have begun because it's unclear exactly where authorities might look. We're still trying to nail down geographic areas, the chief said. There's a lot of information we are going through. Our focus is to find Gabby. The missing woman's father, Joe Petito, also appeared at the news conference to urge anyone with knowledge about his daughter to come forward. What I want from everybody here is help. Whatever you can do to make sure my daughter comes home, Im asking you to help. Nothing else matters right now, Joe Petito said. Authorities are also looking for any possible connection between Petito's disappearance and the still-unsolved slaying of two women who were fatally shot at a campsite near Moab. Their bodies were found Aug. 18, six days after the incident between Laundrie and Petito. The two women, Kylen Schulte, 24, and Crystal Turner, 38, had told friends they feared a creepy man they had seen nearby might harm them. They're looking into that potential connection, said Joshua Taylor, public information officer for North Port police. I have not heard of any information that links these two cases together. I understand the timing is suspicious. You never know. I'm not going to say we've ruled it out. Petito and Laundrie were childhood sweethearts on Long Island before moving in 2019 to live with his parents in North Port, about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Sarasota. An eight-minute YouTube video titled Van Life: Beginning our Van Life Journey features happy and romantic scenes from the couples trip. Petito is white, 5-foot-5 (1.6 meters) and about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), with blonde hair and blue eyes, police said. She has several tattoos including one on a forearm that reads, let it be. _____ Associated Press writer Sophia Eppolito in Salt Lake City contributed to this story. A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts: ___ Biden is not withholding benefits from unvaccinated veterans CLAIM: President Joe Biden has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to withhold health care benefits from unvaccinated veterans. THE FACTS: Social media posts falsely suggested that a supposed order from Biden would keep veterans who receive assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs from accessing health care benefits unless they received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 1. But the worries proved to be unfounded as no such directive or executive order exists. In a statement to The Associated Press, the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed the claims were untrue. The President has not and will not withhold benefits to Veterans who choose not to be vaccinated, Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Terrence L. Hayes wrote in a statement. The spread of this misinformation is extremely detrimental to our Veterans and their families and should cease immediately. The claims were spread through an article on a website that describes its stories as parodies, satire, fiction, fake, not real. The blog includes a disclaimer explaining that everything on this website is made up and warning readers not to rely on anything said here. But many social media users who shared the story seemed to think it was a real news report. U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa, was among those who tweeted a link to the satirical article, writing in her tweet: If true, this is insane! While Biden did issue an executive order Sept. 9 introducing sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans in an effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant, that order makes no specific mention of veterans and does not extend to their government health care benefits or to people who receive assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover medical expenses. The rules apply to private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors. The order mandates that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in July that all its health care personnel who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit those facilities or provide direct care to those the VA serves would need to get vaccinated. However, that rule does not extend to non-employees who may utilize the departments services. Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report. ___ Nicki Minaj tweet shares unfounded claims about vaccine side effects CLAIM: COVID-19 vaccines cause impotency and swollen testicles. THE FACTS: There is no evidence from available research to suggest COVID-19 vaccines cause erectile dysfunction, swelling of the testicles or male infertility. The unfounded claims received considerable attention Monday after Trinidadian-born rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted to her more than 22.6 million followers an unverified story about a cousins friend in Trinidad. Minaj asserted the unidentified individual became impotent and his testicles became swollen after receiving the shot. The specifics of the claim arent clear. A representative for Minaj did not return requests for more information. But experts say there is no data to support the idea that the vaccines cause erectile dysfunction or swollen testicles. We have never seen that, said Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at the University of Miamis health system. Orchitis, a condition that can result in swollen testicles, can follow a bacterial infection, such as a sexually transmitted infection. Ramasamy said that while orchitis and erectile dysfunction have not been linked to coronavirus vaccines, there is someevidence suggesting they could be associated with a COVID-19 infection. Dr. Ashley Winter, a urologist specializing in sexual dysfunction at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon, agreed there is no indication that the vaccine negatively impacts male sexual function or the testicles overall. On a population level, hundreds of millions of men have gotten this vaccine and theres no study showing reduced erectile function in men who have been vaccinated, she said. Fundamentally, we just have no study linking the vaccine to either swollen testicles or erectile dysfunction. Furthermore, experts say there is no established link between COVID-19 vaccines and male infertility or lower sperm counts. In the days since Minajs tweet, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, and Trinidad's health minister have both publicly dismissed the claim. The White House also offered to connect Minaj with one of the Biden administrations doctors to address her questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, the AP reported. Associated Press writers Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia and Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report. ___ False claims about Sharpie pens bubble up again around California recall CLAIM: There was fraud in Californias recall election because voters were given Sharpie pens or other permanent markers, which is illegal and will invalidate ballots. THE FACTS: As voters cast their ballots across California on Tuesday and rejected an effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, social media users revived a months-old falsehood that marking your vote in Sharpie or marker was illegal, would render the ballot unreadable or would force an invalid ballot. One widely viewed post expressed horror that Bay Area voters were given a black magic marker at the polls. Similar claims about Sharpie pens invalidating ballots also emerged after the 2020 election and were swiftly debunked then by both election officials and election technology firms. Sharpie pens are safe and reliable to use on ballots, and recommended due to their quick-drying ink, reads a Nov. 5 statement from Dominion Voting Systems. Regarding potential ink bleed-through, Dominions systems never allow for the creation of ballots with overlapping vote bubbles between the front and back pages of a ballot. Many California counties used Dominion Voting Systems technology to tabulate ballots cast in Tuesdays recall election. The company confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that its earlier statements still applied. Jenna Dresner, spokesperson for Californias Office of Election Cybersecurity, told the AP that using a Sharpie will not invalidate a ballot. While the Secretary of States office recommends using blue or black ink, Dresner said there is no law that states what kind of writing utensil must be used to fill out a ballot. In the event the voting tabulation system is unable to determine the voters selections, the tabulator is designed to sort the ballots into a separate pile to be reviewed manually to determine voter intent, Dresner said. John Arntz, the director of elections in San Francisco, said the Dominion scanners his office uses are programmed to identify where the voting targets are on each ballot and can determine which bubbles are filled in by detecting pixels. The system is very sensitive. You could use a Sharpie, you could use a felt-tip pen, a ballpoint pen, a pencil, just about any color except red will get picked up well by this system, Arntz said. He said it has long been considered a best practice to have voting targets staggered on the two sides of a ballot so that ink bleed-through will not be a factor, and Dominion scanners only work with ballots designed that way. If someone were to, lets say, use a Sharpie and just lay that Sharpie on that voting target and let it bleed for a minute, there is no overlap with the target on the other side, Arntz said. Associated Press writers Ali Swenson in New York and Jude Joffe-Block in Phoenix contributed this report. ___ Video clip misrepresents Bidens comments on hurricane preparedness CLAIM: A video clip shows Biden stating that individuals should get vaccinated to protect themselves against hurricanes. THE FACTS: Biden didnt say getting vaccinated would protect against hurricanes. The video clip, first posted on TikTok, was edited to remove key portions of his comments. A review of his full statement shows he said getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is a vital step in hurricane preparedness, necessary to protect people should they have to evacuate or stay in shelters. Biden spoke on Aug. 10 before a White House briefing by FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell, representatives from the Department of Homeland Security and COVID-19 response teams. The briefing was in anticipation of what Biden called the peak of hurricane season in the Atlantic region. On Tuesday, an Instagram user shared a clip of Biden's comments in which he says, Let me be clear: If youre in a state where hurricanes often strike like Florida or the Gulf Coast or into Texas a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now. The video then cuts to insulting comments from the movie Billy Madison. Underneath the video, text was also added. Get vaccinated to protect yourselves from hurricanes yall, the post said, adding a laughing emoji. But the caption mischaracterizes Bidens comments, which looked at the importance of vaccines in reducing risks in the event of a natural disaster. He highlighted how crises can compound one another as the Delta variant spreads, with wildfires in the West and peak Atlantic hurricane season approaching. Everything is more complicated if youre not vaccinated and a hurricane or a natural disaster hits, Biden said after encouraging individuals to get vaccinated. If you wind up having to evacuate, if you wind up having to stay in a shelter, you dont want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers that youre going to be confronting. Associated Press writer Terrence Fraser in New York contributed this report. ___ Fake news report makes false claim about Taliban edict CLAIM: A CNN article reports that the Taliban banned menstrual hygiene products in Afghanistan, saying it goes against Sharia law. THE FACTS: The article, which was made to look like it was published by CNN, is fabricated. CNN did not publish such a story and no credible reports can be found to support any such action by the Taliban. Taliban bans sanitory napkins in Afghanistan, says its not a Sharia complaint practice, says the falsified post, which has multiple spelling errors. A closer look at the post shows that the CNN logo was flipped and the font does not match the cable news networks logo. The post also features a photo that has been circulating online since at least 2015, showing a person standing in front of a shelf full of menstrual hygiene products. A spokesperson for CNN confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the post was bogus. AP reporters in Afghanistan found no evidence of any such Taliban edict. Associated Press writer Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed this report. ___ Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck ___ Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck It is the first time in 20 months that the GST council is taking place as an in-person meeting. To recall, GST was reduced for Covid-19 drugs on June 12 in the previous meeting. All eyes are set on the 45th Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting to be held in Lucknow today. The key agenda of the meeting is how to bring diesel, petrol and other petroleum products in the ambit of GST. This is the first time in 20 months that the GST council will be doing any physical meeting. After December 18, 2019, all the GST Council meeting was done in virtual mode. Sources told ANI that a discussion to bring petrol and diesel and other petroleum products in the ambit of GST will be the core focus of the meeting today. To correct the inverted duty structure and plug-in the administrative leakages and to extend the duty relief available on Covid-19 essentials are some of the other agenda of tomorrows meeting, said sources. In the previous meeting held on June 12 tax rates on various Covid-19 drugs and essentials were reduced till September 30. Tax experts said that seeing the current situation with respect to the Covid-19 situation, bringing petro products under GST will be a very tough call for both the Centre and states as both will stand to lose. Rajat Bose, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Co said, Bringing petrol and diesel in the ambit of GST will help the industry as it will reduce the cost. Right now consumers are bearing both value-added tax (VAT) and excise duty but once it is brought under GST it will bring the prices down. It is a difficult task for Council as many states may not agree to this proposal as this is the major source of revenue for the states. If it is brought in GST ambit then they will have to share this with the centre, he said. Bose said that currently, some sectors like textile, footwear, solar and pesticides are suffering from inverted duty structure as their output tax is less but they are paying more GST for raw materials. Anil Gupta, Managing Director of Okaya Power Group said GST has been 5 per cent on electric vehicles, but for items like batteries, electronics charges we have to pay a GST of 18 per cent. It would be great if the GST Council may rectify this inverted duty structure. We welcome whatever decisions are going to come in favour of the entire electric vehicle industry, Gupta added. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is calling lawmakers into special session later this month to vote on a prison construction plan that would use part of the state's virus relief funds to jumpstart the building of three new lock-ups. In a letter to lawmakers announcing the special session, Ivey painted the construction project as a partial solution to the state's longstanding prison woes that have included a Department of Justice lawsuit over violence and a separate federal court order to improve mental health treatment behind bars. We face an urgent need to address Alabamas long-standing prison infrastructure challenges, Ivey wrote to lawmakers. Failure to timely resolve these issues outlined in federal lawsuits could result in detrimental consequences for our state. Achieving an Alabama solution to these problems rather than a federal court-ordered solution is paramount. While proponents said the construction would be a partial solution to the states long-standing prison problems, one lawmaker said it would put old problems in new buildings unless the state made additional reforms. "Just building prisons without engaging in some sort of comprehensive criminal justice reform is the definition of kicking the can down the road," Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said. On the use of federal virus funds on the project, England said there are obviously better uses of the money. Ivey said the special session would begin Sept. 27 The proposal calls for three new prisons at least a 4,000-bed prison in Elmore County with enhanced space for medical and mental health care needs; another at least 4,000-bed prison in Escambia County; and a womens prison as well as renovations to existing facilities. The projects would be done in phases and partly funded with $400 million from the states $2.2 billion share of American Rescue Plan funds, a key lawmaker who drafted the proposal said. Right now, it looks like weve got the votes, but you never know until you get into session, said Republican Rep. Steve Clouse, who is sponsoring the legislation. Clouse said construction is a piece of the puzzle in fixing the prison system and said this could be a defining moment for lawmakers. Tapping some of the state's virus relief funds will enable the state to get started immediately with cash instead of waiting for a bond issue, Clouse said. The stakes are high without taking action on this issue, the federal government could take control of our prison system at a high cost to Alabama taxpayers, and could even result in the forced release of prisoners. Its time to finally resolve this issue for the people of Alabama," Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed said in a statement. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Alabama over conditions in the states prisons, saying it is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama said the Justice Department is concerned about more than just buildings. Buildings alone will NOT address the DOJ concerns. We need real leaders who will, the ACLU of Alabama wrote in a tweet. Three sex abuse lawsuits filed against a New Jersey diocese and announced Thursday include claims that defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused a young man in the 1980s. The lawsuit accuses McCarrick of sexual battery against the man, who was in his late teens and early 20s when McCarrick was Bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, in central New Jersey. McCarrick went on to become archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark in the mid-1980s and then Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2001. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. McCarrick was defrocked in 2019 after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually abused minors, as well as adults. He faces other lawsuits in New Jersey, including one that alleged he sexually abused a teenage boy at a beach house in the 1980s. In a separate case in Massachusetts, the now-91-year-old McCarrick recently became the only U.S. Catholic cardinal ever to be charged with child sex crimes, and he pleaded not guilty in a court appearance in early September. The claims announced Thursday were filed as the clock winds down on a two-year window for people to file sex abuse lawsuits regardless of how far back the alleged abuse occurred. New Jersey opened the window in December 2019, in the wake of a landmark grand jury report in neighboring Pennsylvania that detailed abuse by hundreds of clerics against more than a thousand child victims. An attorney representing McCarrick, who now lives in Missouri, declined comment on the lawsuit Thursday. Through a spokesperson, the Metuchen diocese said in an email Thursday that it has taken aggressive steps to protect children, including requiring background checks for all clergy, employees and volunteers; training for all who work or volunteer with children; enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, and relying on a review board to determine the credibility of every allegation against clergy. We will continue to take steps forward to ensure the shameful actions of the past cannot be repeated in the future, the diocese said. The two other lawsuits announced Thursday name the Metuchen diocese and two other clerics, Father John Butler and Brother Regis Moccia. Both Butler and Moccia worked at high schools the lawsuits say were under the direct control of the diocese and are now deceased, according to Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. Neither man's name appears on a list of credibly accused clerics released in 2019 by the diocese. The Metuchen diocese's spokesperson said Thursday that Butler's name appears on a list released by the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, where he was ordained a priest. Moccia was not a priest of the Diocese of Metuchen, the spokesperson said, and the diocese would not have access to personnel records or outcomes of investigations that would have resulted from allegations against him. The lawsuit against Butler alleges he abused a boy in the late 1990s while Butler was working at St. John Vianney School in Colonia, beginning when the boy was 9. The suit against Moccia, who worked at St. Joseph's High School in Metuchen, claims he abused the boy starting when he was 14, in the early 1980s. ___ This story has been corrected to show that both Butler and Moccia, not just Butler, don't appear on a list of credibly accused clergy released by the Diocese of Metuchen. NEW HAVEN Mario Gaboury, interim provost of the University of New Haven, has stories of students who made a seamless transition from Gateway Community College to a four-year degree at the university. Theres the student who earned her associate degree in environmental science and toxicology at the Church Street community college before enrolling at the West Haven-based UNH last spring for a dual-degree program to expedite a masters degree in environmental engineering with a goal to prevent climate catastrophe. And theres the student who, seeking a second career after years working in law enforcement, earned a bachelors degree in paramedicine from UNH after receiving his two-year degree from Gateway and now serves in a director role for a statewide paramedic organization. There also is the adjunct professor in UNHs department of dental hygiene, who first completed the pre-dental hygiene program at Gateway before receiving bachelors and masters degrees at UNH. Its been gratifying to see the success, Gaboury said. Officials with both schools this week signed an agreement to reinforce the pipeline between them, eliminating barriers for enrollment between the two. We are in the business of dreams and hopes and aspirations, Gateway CEO William Terry Brown said before signing the agreement. The agreement stipulates that Gateway graduates with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher can conduct a seamless transfer of 90 credits to UNH, provided they meet certain degree requirements. Those students also are eligible for up to $24,000 in merit-based transfer scholarships per year. Although most students seeking a bachelors degree would follow a path from the two-year institution to a four-year institution, the agreement also creates a respite program that allows for UNH students to enroll at Gateway for one semester with a lighter academic load and lower tuition. Brown said that offer would extend to a student admitted to UNH out of high school who wants to ease into studying for a four-year degree, or a student who wants to slow down to receive more academic support. We are the communitys college, he said. Prior to the agreement, the institutions had an agreement that Gateway students could enroll in one course at UNH per year free of charge. Gateway students also are granted full access to the UNH library and the universitys programming, including sporting events, with a student ID card. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. The strike was a tragic mistake," Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told a Pentagon news conference. McKenzie apologized for the error and said the United States is considering making reparation payments to the family of the victims. He said the decision to strike a white Toyota Corolla sedan, after having tracked it for about eight hours, was made in an earnest belief" based on a standard of reasonable certainty" that it posed an imminent threat to American forces at Kabul airport. The car was believed to have been carrying explosives in its trunk, he said. For days after the Aug. 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly, despite 10 civilians being killed, including seven children. News organizations later raised doubts about that version of events, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization and citing an absence of evidence to support the Pentagon's assertion that the vehicle contained explosives. The airstrike was the last of a U.S. war that ended as it had begun in 2001 with the Taliban in power in Kabul. The speed with which the Taliban overran the country took the U.S. government by surprise and forced it to send several thousand troops to the Kabul airport for a hurried evacuation of Americans, Afghans and others. The evacuation, which began Aug. 14, unfolded under a near-constant threat of attack by the Islamic State groups Afghanistan affiliate. McKenzie, who oversaw U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, including a final evacuation of U.S. forces and more than 120,000 civilians from Kabul airport, expressed his condolences to the family and friends of those killed. I am now convinced that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike," McKenzie said. Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K or were a direct threat to U.S. forces," he added, referring to the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate. Prior to the strike, U.S. intelligence had indicated a likelihood that a white Toyota Corolla would be used in an attack against U.S. forces, McKenzie said. On the morning of Aug. 29, such a vehicle was detected at a compound in Kabul that U.S. intelligence in the preceding 48 hours had determined was used by the Islamic State group to plan and facilitate attacks. The vehicle was tracked by U.S. drone aircraft from that compound to numerous other locations in the city before the decision was made to attack it at a point just a couple of miles from Kabul airport, McKenzie said. Clearly our intelligence was wrong on this particular white Toyota Corolla," he said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a written statement, apologized for what he called a horrible mistake. We now know that there was no connection" between the driver of the vehicle and the Islamic State group, and that the driver's activities that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced," Austin said. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters two days after the attack that it appeared to have been a righteous strike and that at least one of the people killed was a facilitator for the Islamic State groups Afghanistan affiliate, which had killed 169 Afghan civilians and 13 American service members in a suicide bombing on Aug. 26 at the Kabul airport. After McKenzie's remarks on Friday, Milley expressed regret. This is a horrible tragedy of war and its heart wrenching," Milley told reporters traveling with him in Europe. We are committed to being fully transparent about this incident. In a dynamic high-threat environment, the commanders on the ground had appropriate authority and had reasonable certainty that the target was valid, but after deeper post-strike analysis our conclusion is that innocent civilians were killed," Milley added. Accounts from the family of the victims, documents from colleagues seen by The Associated Press, and the scene at the family home where Zemerai Ahmadis car was struck by a Hellfire missile just as he pulled into the driveway all painted a picture of a family that had worked for Americans and were trying to gain visas to the United States, fearing for their lives under the Taliban. The family said that when the 37-year-old Zemerai, alone in his car, pulled up to the house, he honked his horn. His 11-year-old son ran out and Zemerai let the boy get in and drive the car into the driveway. The other kids ran out to watch, and the Hellfire missile incinerated the car, killing seven children and an adult son and nephew of Zemerai. Amnesty International, the humanitarian aid group, called the U.S. military's admission of a mistake a good first step. The U.S. must now commit to a full, transparent, and impartial investigation into this incident," said Brian Castner, a senior crisis adviser with Amnesty International. Anyone suspected of criminal responsibility should be prosecuted in a fair trial. Survivors and families of the victims should be kept informed of the progress of the investigation and be given full reparation." Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said a fuller explanation must be provided. We need to know what went wrong in the hours and minutes leading up to the strike to prevent similar tragedies in the future, he said. I am also concerned about the accuracy and completeness of public statements made in the immediate aftermath of the strike, and whether those accounted for all of the information possessed by the government at the time." Big Brother Naija, BBNaija season 6 housemate, Pere has reacted to Saga betraying him. Recall that Biggie on Thursday gathered the h... Big Brother Naija, BBNaija season 6 housemate, Pere has reacted to Saga betraying him. Recall that Biggie on Thursday gathered the housemates in the lounge and played a video clip of Saga and Nini gossiping about Pere in the bedroom. Saga in the video said Pere is fond of triggering housemates. He said thats why Maria didnt trust him before she got evicted. He also mentioned that Pere is suicidal and lonely. This got Saga and Nini a strike as they were found guilty of whispering which is against the rules of the house. Pere who was shocked after the video was played, went into a sober mood. Angel, consoling Pere, asked how he feels about what Saga said. Pere said he is in a low state but would keep acting for Nini and Saga. He noted that Saga will not see what hes planning. Pere said: Im an actor, Saga will never see me coming. Trust me, he wouldnt see what Ive planned. Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, on Friday, knocked his colleagues on the platform of the Southern Governors Forum over their resolutio... Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, on Friday, knocked his colleagues on the platform of the Southern Governors Forum over their resolution supporting the collection of the Value Added Tax by states. Umahi, who is the Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum, made it clear that Ebonyi wont pursue VAT collection or implement the decision of the Forum made at a meeting in Enugu on Thursday. He spoke on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily breakfast programme. VAT is a consumption tax paid when goods are purchased and services are rendered. It is charged at a rate of 7.5 per cent. Although Rivers and Lagos states have started the process of collecting VAT within their territories, the Court of Appeal in a ruling on September 10 stopped the collection pending the determination of an appeal filed by the Federal Inland Revenue Service against the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt. Apart from Lagos and Rivers states, Ogun State has also started the process of passing a bill on VAT in its House of Assembly. The Southern Governors Forum led by Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), reading a communique at the end of a meeting on Thursday had said, The meeting resolved to support the position that the collection of VAT falls within the powers of the states. I believe in administrative restructuring But speaking on the television programme on Friday, Umahi, who was represented at the meeting in Enugu by his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, said the resolution of the Forum does not reflect his stand on the issue. He said, In any gathering, the minority will have their say and the majority will have their way. For example, there was an issue that came up. Im not sure it is clear to some of our colleagues on the issue of VAT but it is very clear to me. We (Ebonyi) took a stand as a state with our leaders on the issue of the VAT war that is going and so my deputy carried it on to say that this is what my governor is saying and this is what the state is saying and he went ahead to explain with some other deputies that represented their governors. But together they were in the minority and it didnt stop the majority from coming up with their communique. When it comes up to implementation and voicing out, I will continue to say: this is where is I stand; if it is a choice, I will choose what would benefit my state. Umahi also said there is no state in the country that is not enjoying the help of other states. When they (Southern governors) say that this VAT collection is part of true restructuring, I said I never believe in total restructuring; I believe in administrative restructuring, he said. Be your brothers keeper, Ebonyi gov tells Southern colleagues Umahi said a number of states would collapse should VAT collection move from the federal to the subnationals. He said it was not right that some states would eat and have so much surplus and then some other states dont have much to eat. We have to be our brothers keeper; we have to see how we can grow the economies of the weakest states, otherwise, we will breed insecurity in those states. There is no way in a relationship that you will get 100 per cent of what you put in, it doesnt work that way, he added. Ebonyi, 30 other states not viable for VAT collection When asked whether Ebonyi State would be viable for VAT collection should the court rule that subnationals have the power to collect VAT within their domains, Umahi said, I have said that my state would not be viable and I will continue to say that more than 30 other states would not be viable; we should not break the states. Whatever thing we are doing, we have to think about the nation first. Lets tarry a while and see how we can pass this river and then we can come to the fact of who is right and who is wrong. True federalism is not done in a day. If we want to do a restructuring, we have to have a gradual process to do that. 2023: PDP Govs dishonest, wont zone presidency to South Commenting on some of the resolutions of the Southern Governors Forum on Thursday in Enugu, Umahi said People Democratic Party governors at the Thursday meeting in Enugu were being dishonest with their claim that they would zone the 2023 presidency to the South. The truth remains that a number of us the Southern Governors that were in that meeting that did say that Presidency must come to South, especially PDP are not being honest. Why I said they are not being honest is that: lets see what they come up with in their zoning in the next few weeks, he said. He warned that the alleged dishonesty of the PDP governors in the Forum might threaten the unity of the Southern governors. The Ebonyi State governor further stated that the body language of some of his Southern colleagues from the PDP showed that they wont zone the 2023 Presidency to the South. One or two governors that own PDP, their body language suggests that and I can tell you from reliable source that they are not thinking that way just for their own interest, he said. There are a couple of decisions taken at the Southern Governors meeting that I know that together, there is sincerity of purpose in that but when it comes to politics, I see the hands of Esau and the voice of Jacob, the governor added. Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel is disappointed by the clubs decision to sell Antonio Rudiger, Daily Express reports. The Blues director Ma... Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel is disappointed by the clubs decision to sell Antonio Rudiger, Daily Express reports. The Blues director Marina Granovskaia is ready to sell Rudiger, who has emerged as one of Tuchels most trusted stars in January The German centre-back along with Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen have become the pillar of Chelseas defence. All three players are, however, out of contract next summer. But while Azpilicueta and Christensen will soon commit to new deals, there is less certainty over Rudiger. Rudiger is attracting interest from Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus. If the 28-year-old does not sign a new deal by June 2022, he will leave the club as a free agent, a situation Chelsea do not want. There is also a feeling at Stamford Bridge that Rudiger is unwilling to extend his contract. And if there is no resolution by January 1, Granovskaia will put Rudiger up for sale. As a result, Chelsea will look to rekindle their efforts to bring in Jules Kounde from Sevilla. The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has directed its members to withdraw their services from the Nigeria Nati... The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has directed its members to withdraw their services from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) loading depot in Enugu. The National President of IPMAN, Alhaji Sanusi Fari, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, in Enugu, added that the directive was in response to an alleged attack and invasion of the IPMAN secretariat in the Enugu depot, on Thursday, by men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The President said that the invasion and attack were carried out with impunity and against a subsisting court order. Sequel to this ugly development, the National Executive Committee of IPMAN has resolved and directed the withdrawal of our services at Enugu loading depot with immediate effect. This will stop our services to members of the public in Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi from Sept. 17 until the police illegality is reversed, Fari said. When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Enugu Command, ASP Daniel Ndukwe, denied that operatives of the command blockaded or attacked the IPMAN secretariat in Enugu. Rather, Ndukwe said that detectives from the Force Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Abuja, were on an investigation trip to the IPMAN office to serve the associations members invitation over a court matter. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the South-East had been grappling with an acute shortage of petroleum products, following a strike by petroleum tanker drivers in the area. The situation had increased the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the area as a litre currently sells between N250 and N300 in most petrol stations. Precious Chikwendu, the estranged wife of Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister, has taken to social media to spare some words on reput... Precious Chikwendu, the estranged wife of Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister, has taken to social media to spare some words on reputation. The ex-beauty queen and actress took to Instastory on Friday to share the admonitions her father once gave her. Writing in both her native Igbo language and English, she said: My father always told me, Chi nwam, ezigbo afa ka ego. A good name is better than riches. Truly, it is. Ifele adighi eme onye ori. Obu umu nna ya ka o na me. The first part of her statement is an Igbo proverb that roughly translates a good name is better than money. For the second part, Chikwendu said, looters are shameless. She then added, it is their relatives that feel the shame of their actions Chikwendus words come a few hours after Fani-Kayode defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a new party member. In 2016, when he was the spokesperson of the presidential campaign for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Fani-Kayode had said he would never join the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC party. In 2019, he also vowed that he would rather die than join APC which he added was run by corrupt treasury looters. But while explaining why he backtracked, Fani-Kayode recently said: Let me put this to you; a lot has happened in the APC itself over the last few years. The APC I was speaking about at that time is not the APC of today. The APC of that time, I will say any day, anywhere, did not have the leadership that they have today. Fani-Kayode and Chikwendus marriage hit the rock in 2020 over her domestic violence claim and the ex-ministers counter-claim of infidelity. They have been in a heated tussle for the custody of their children Aragorn, Ragnar, Aiden, and Liam since the marriage crashed. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has advised preachers in Nigeria to pay Pentecost Tax. He spoke in Lagos on Friday during the public presentati... Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has advised preachers in Nigeria to pay Pentecost Tax. He spoke in Lagos on Friday during the public presentation of Kumuyi, Defender of the Faith. The book is a biography of Pastor Folorunsho Kumuyi, Founder and General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry. Osinbajo said persons who succeed in their endeavours owe the society three forms of taxes. The VP explained that the first is income taxes (personal income tax), and corporation tax for company owners. The second, he noted, is a social tax or philanthropy, which is the obligation of the wealthy to give back to society. The third tax is a civic tax; the obligation of the successful to write their stories, to share the histories of the phenomena they have become. But for the successful preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there is the fourth tax, this is the Pentecost Tax, he said. Osinbajo further urged clergymen to tell the story of their missionary journeys, miracles, signs, wonders, deprivations, fastings, and persecutions. The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, has described the national and state... The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, has described the national and state legislatures from 1999 to date in Akwa Ibom State as rubber stamps for acceding to all the demands of the executive without asking questions that would be beneficial to the people. Enang, who has been a lawmaker at both state and national levels, said he is disappointed with the quality of representation from the legislators in the state. Enang stated this in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, while delivering a lecture entitled, Assessing the performance of Akwa Ibom State Legislators at the State and national levels, during the 2021 Press week organised by the Correspondents Chapel of NUJ with the theme Post COVID-19 Economy and the Challenges to Ethical Journalism Ahead of 2023 Elections Enang, while recalling the activities of the lawmakers over two decades said, There is what is called Demon of Office which afflicts people in executive offices and that is why the Legislators are there to make laws which will call the executive to order when they err. In the whole of Akwa Ibom state, it is only the 1993 Assembly in Akwa Ibom State that was able to override an executive bill during the brief interlude of Obong Akpan Isemin s administration as Governor of the state. He (Isemin) brought a bill for a supplementary budget of N200m and could not give a breakdown of how the main budget was spent. We rejected it. Which House of Assembly will do that today? There was a time a nominee in this State was sent to the house of Assembly for screening we had to turn down the person because he was too old, we told him to go bring his son because we needed younger persons to occupy the positions, how many houses of assembly can do that? rather any person from the governor now, the house approves. We stopped the governor from selling a soundproof giant size generator that belonged to the state-owned Brewery company Champion Breweries by mobilizing all members of the Assembly and intercepted the generator along Calabar Itu road and the plot failed. Our kind of Assembly was the type that as a governor you cannot stampede us, we ask questions of what will be of benefit to our people and I encourage other Assemblies to do the same. He added that the National Assembly, through the leadership of late Chuba Okadigbo, passed the bill to establish Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) into law when President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to sign it into law. He said, As the Chairman of Rules and Ethics in the National Assembly, I canvassed for members to sign the NDDC bill into law when former President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to accent to the bill. Enang, therefore, charged lawmakers to be courageous in their responsibilities as the present crop of lawmakers is not representing the people but their personal interest. However, the House Committee Chairman on Information, Hon Aniefiok Akpan when contacted said the Assembly cannot join issues with the presidential aide, adding that the legislators have constitutional duties to follow and they have discharged those duties well. He wondered why Enang would think and describe the lawmakers as rubber stamp, simply because they didnt impeach the governor. According to the lawmaker I refuse to join issues with Ita Enang because it does not mean that when you are not impeaching the governor, you are rubber stamping. We have our constitutional duties that the laws provide for us to follow. We know our bounds, we know what to do and when to do it. It does not mean when you dont impeach a governor you are rubber stamping. We owe our people, Akwa Ibom people a responsibility, we are not looking at Ita Enang as a person but Akwa Ibom people who voted us in office. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday secured the conviction of three fraudsters charged for cheating, attempted c... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday secured the conviction of three fraudsters charged for cheating, attempted cheating and internet fraud. The convicts are Ayinde Qudus Olayemi, Ademola Samuel and Abdulazeez Faruk. Justice Sikiru Oyinloye of the Kwara State High Court in Ilorin convicted and sentenced the defendants to various jail terms. Ayinde, Ademola and Abdulazeez, arraigned on separate charges, pleaded guilty to their charges. Sesan Ola, Innocent Mbachie and Rasheedat Alao prosecuted the case for the EFCC. They drew the attention of the court to the plea bargain agreements entered by the defendants and tendered their confessional statements and other incriminating items. Justice Oyinloye held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. Ayinde was sentenced to one year imprisonment on count one with option of fine of N100,000; one year imprisonment on count two with option of fine N300,000, and one year imprisonment on count three with option of fine of N300,000. Ayindes IPhone 12 pro max used in perpetrating the crime and the managers cheque (bank draft) of N450,000, which he raised as restitution to his victims, will be forfeited to the Federal Government. Ademola got one year imprisonment on count one with option of fine of N200,000, and one year imprisonment on count two with option of fine of N300,000. His iPhone 11 pro, a black laptop used to perpetrate the crime and a bank draft of N215,000, raised as restitution to his victims, will be forfeited to the Federal Government. Abdulazeez was sentenced to one year imprisonment with an option of fine of N350,000. The judge ordered that the convicts gold iPhone used to perpetrate the crime and $326 he benefited from the crime be forfeited to the Federal Government. Watertown, NY (13601) Today Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low near 65F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%. They are going door to door, though often those doors are off their hinges and the roofs that once covered them are gone. Raegan Duplantis Creppell and her colleagues are bringing cash, ice, cleaning supplies and a thin line of reassurance to people in towns like Chauvin, Dulac, Dularge and Pointe-aux-Chenes, communities in Louisianas bayou country that were hardest hit by Hurricane Ida. This is our community, these are our people. We're trying to bring help to the people who need it most and get it right into their hands now, said Creppell. It is grassroots, directly delivered disaster relief, funded in large measure through close community connections marshaled by a New Orleans chef with deep roots in the bayou region. Creppell is executive director of the Helio Foundation, a Houma-based charitable group. After Ida, it quickly turned into a first line of disaster relief, finding people in shattered homes and often bringing them their first support of any kind. Their efforts got a swift and sustained boost through an initiative called bayoufund.org. This is a crowdfunding campaign created by Melissa Martin. She is best known for her New Orleans restaurant, Mosquito Supper Club, which serves homestyle dishes drawn from her family heritage in Chauvin, the Terrebonne Parish town. In the span of two weeks, bayoufund.org has collected more than $460,000. It has drawn some foundation and corporate contributions, but Martin said among the biggest factors spurring its growth are local restaurants, cafes, artists, musicians and other makers who share a connection through Louisiana culture. Theyve been holding fundraisers, donating portions of their own proceeds and beating the drum for their regional neighbors with their own marketing and social media reach. Its the small restaurants, the independent places, the people who have been under hellfire for the last 18 months of the pandemic, said Martin. It is really impressive how they are stepping up now to help in any way they possibly can. This support has taken many different forms. In New Orleans, for instance, the Marigny coffee shop the Orange Couch donated all sales from its first day back after Ida; just down the street, another cafe, Pond Coffee, pledged half of its sales from its first week back after Ida to the cause. Chef Nina Comptons Bywater American Bistro is devoting one night, Sept. 22, to the group, with a family-style menu of bayou-inspired seafood dishes. Even the seafood pop-up Fish Hawk pledged its Friday night sales to the cause. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Martin herself has certainly been under the same hardships hospitality people face from the pandemics economic turmoil. Mosquito Supper Club had to revamp its model through the crisis, and it had more recently been on hiatus until a planned September reopening. Now that reopening is on hold while Martin focuses on fundraising for her home region. Theres a moment when you have to pick up the baton and go, said Martin. At first I was embarrassed when I put up that fundraiser. I wanted to take it down right away, but then I thought about it and decided Louisiana has paid it forward so much, people need to help now. In a way, the campaign for bayou country is a continuation of her work through the restaurant, which brings homestyle dishes of the region to the diners in the city, and also her 2020 book, Mosquito Supper Club Cajun Recipes From a Disappearing Bayou. I am a bayou girl, Im a swamp rat; I just live in the city," she said. "I always try to tell the stories of where Im from. Its never been about food and recipes; its always about the stories. One dish can represent a whole community. Many restaurants have been undertaking their own independent relief and community support efforts for the bayou region. Chef Sue Zemanicks restaurant Zasu packed up 600 lunches for people in Lockport, and Courtyard Brewery has been collecting supplies to distribute in Houma. Galatoires Restaurant cooked up 1,000 plates of shrimp Creole for residents in Raceland this weekend, and the French Quarter restaurant GW Fins organized its own free community lunches this week in Dulac and Dularge, bringing 2,500 meals to two fishing communities that help supply its menu. The Helio Foundation, with its bayoufund.org revenue stream, was able to snap into action quickly because of informal but intimate networks already running through the economic and cultural life of the region. Now, as New Orleans moves on from the disaster, Martin is focused on keeping attention on the plight of bayou country for the long haul ahead. On the ground, and between the waterways, the work continues at a frantic pace, with no let-up in sight. Creppell and her volunteers crisscross the region, going from one of the long, linear bayou villages to the next, sharing streets with convoys of construction vehicles and utility trucks. With tips from community leaders, they find the people with the least outside resources, from elders with nowhere beyond their damaged homes to stay to a young fishing boat deckhand suddenly out of work. Were trying to get as much to the people in the moment, Creppell said. As the needs change, were going to change with it. Its not just a community we want to help, its our community. This is home, so well be here for every phase of it. See bayoufund.org for updates. +9 In this bayou town, Louisiana fishers team up to feed neighbors in need after Ida Milton Naquin would otherwise be running his shrimp boat out of Delcambre with white shrimp season in full swing. But instead, last Thursday h +13 With catfish, bloody marys, two landmarks of hard-hit Des Allemands vow return after Ida Franks Lounge was dark and hot as Reva Kramer worked inside, mucking out mud that Hurricane Ida had pushed across the bar's floor. And yet, m Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has unique qualifications to oversee a collection of short films about life during the coronavirus pandemic. He created his 2011 protest project This is Not a Film while under house arrest, allegedly for making a film about Iranian election results. He shot the film with an iPhone from inside his house to comment on the absurdity of his situation. The movie was smuggled out of the country, reportedly in a cake, and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. For The Year of the Everlasting Storm, he contributed a short film and included six from directors across the globe. Films were made in the U.S., Chile, China and Thailand, and filmmakers were challenged to make their movies in accordance with CDC guidelines at the time of production. Filming was confined to the location of the filmmaker in quarantine and shooting in public spaces was not allowed. The result is a diverse collection of films, ranging from Panahis family story to the nonfiction piece about surveillance, Terror Contagion, to David Lowerys gritty and ominous Dig Up My Darling. Singaporean director Anthony Chens The Break Away has many elements one might expect of a story about life during the COVID-19 pandemic. It takes place in the early days of lockdown in China. A couple played by Yu Zhang and Dongyu Zhou find that theyre not just shut in, but the walls are also closing in. Their toddler has too much energy to be contained inside, and the dad suddenly finds himself on the hook to parent, which his wife notices is an exercise in chaos. She begins working from home, selling internet service to people who now need home hookups. He cant sell cars during the lockdown, and then that situation deteriorates, as expected income disappears when people cancel previous orders for cars. Fears about the virus are forcing the young family into isolation and obsessive cleaning. With all the changes forced by Covid, much is revealed about the health of their relationship and whether it will survive the pandemic. Panahi again made a movie in his apartment, a luxe space in Tehran that he shares with his wife and a giant iguana named Iggy. His 90-year-old mother arrives in a hazmat suit and helmet. Shes being extremely careful about the virus and is concerned about everybodys health. But for all her understanding of safety protocols, shes afraid of Iggy, convinced that hes dangerous, a very gentle metaphor for mistrust of the unfamiliar. Director Laura Poitras documentary Terror Contagion is the most surprising inclusion. Its about surveillance and the use of Pegasus, an Israeli cyber weapons companys software, to spy on journalists, activists, business people and others who fall outside the supposed targets: terrorists and criminals. Members of the investigative group Forensic Architecture discuss digital violence, and the way surveillance sometimes quickly leads to physical violence, as in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by an assassination team from Saudi Arabia. The group also is concerned about the use of surveillance software related to tracking the pandemic. New Orleans venue reopenings and events and benefits Sept. 16-19 More New Orleans music venues, museums and attractions are reopening, and some are offering discounts and holding benefits for storm relief. H Malik Vitthals Little Measures uses animation and selfie videos to tell a story about a man trying to reconnect and regain custody of his children from foster care while California courts perpetually postpone hearings due to the pandemic. Dominga Sotomayors Sin Titulo, 2020 works to a poignant moment, but in such a slow and distracted way that it doesnt pack much of a punch. The title Everlasting Storm comes from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakuls Night Colonies, which is the most abstract film. It also is plodding, but its central idea is solid. The filmmakers were asked to make films in the present. Several of them effectively illustrate the way the virus bridges personal health and governmental roles and how that was viewed at a strange moment in time. The Year of the Everlasting Storm runs at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge. What the fourth wave of the pandemic threatened, a Category 4 hurricane accomplished: Tardi Gras, the Metairie parade some hoped would provide some levity after Mardi Gras processions were canceled earlier this year, won't happen. Hurricane Ida, Jefferson Parish Council member Jennifer Van Vrancken said, "shifted our focus." The parish must now put its resources toward storm restoration, not overseeing a parade that had tentatively been set to roll on a Metairie route on Sept. 25, she said. A council resolution canceling the event was unanimously approved Wednesday and prompted no public discussion. Tardi Gras was the creation of Jefferson Parish krewe leaders who wanted to salvage at least one Mardi Gras-styled parade this year, given that Jefferson and other area parishes had canceled the 2021 Carnival schedule as COVID cases ramped up last winter. The Sept. 25 parade would have featured units from multiple parading krewes. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up But Tardi Gras was apparently on the rocks even before Ida. As Louisiana grappled with a fourth surge in coronavirus cases amid paltry vaccination rates, Van Vrancken said the parish had spoken to the krewes about the possibility that it might not be possible. The hurricane, which tore through the region Aug. 29-30, put an end to any fence-sitting. Now, Van Vrancken said, it's time to focus on hurricane recovery, and slowing the pandemic so parades can resume next year. "It's an absolute must that we have that (Mardi Gras 2022) to look forward to," she said. When Hurricane Ida caused water to leak into the St. Therese Academy classroom buildings in Metairie, head of school Shannon Bland was beside herself. She thought of her students whose last two years had been disrupted by the pandemic and now a major storm. So she got to work to quickly find a space where her students, who have a range of learning disabilities, could regain some sense of normalcy. Our kids and their needs, they cant do virtual, Bland said. They need that multisensory environment, they need the support staff, they need the consistency. Fortunately her sister-in-law, Julia Bland, knew a spot. Last week, St. Therese Academys pre-kindergarten through 4th grade students resumed the school year at the Louisiana Childrens Museum in City Park, turning what could have been a detrimental break in learning into an opportunity to explore a new environment. Other than the museums summer camp which was operating for kids whose schools had not resumed after the storm they had full run of the museum, where they will utilize exhibits as part of their classroom learning and therapies for the next month. St. Therese Academy, opened in 2019, serves 184 students with exceptionalities in learning, including autism spectrum disorder. It usually operates on the campus of Our Lady of Divine Providence in Metairie and attracts students from as far away as Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Shannon Bland said. On their first day of school at the museum, a group of students left their classroom to tour some of the museum exhibits. They paused to examine the overlapping circular pattern indented in the concrete floor. You can put your finger in and go around the circle, Shannon Bland told them, and the students traced their fingers along the pattern. Look, theres a little circle, bigger and smaller. The museum is filled with minute details from the textures of the walls and floor to the license plates along the 125-foot Mississippi River model that correspond with the river's geographic location that help students learn, Bland said. They can use big foam blocks to do physical therapy, pull on a rope to create a giant bubble to practice motor skills and sort food in the miniature grocery store model to reinforce pre-reading skills. St Therese Academy is not as structured as a typical school, Bland said. So if they all need to get the wiggles out they can go outside or they can take the skills theyre trying to reinforce and go into one of these exhibits because every exhibit has a purpose. This is such a multi-learning environment. Their synapses are going to be firing like crazy. St. Therese Academy's middle school is renting space at St. Mary Magdalen in Metairie for this month, and high school students will attend classes virtually, said Sarah McDonald, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The museum, too, will learn from the students, Julia Bland said, observing their interactions with exhibits to be able to make it a better experience for visitors with learning exceptionalities. The Childrens Museum opened its new location in City Park in 2019 after having been on Julia Street in New Orleans' Warehouse District for more than 30 years. This isn't the first time the museum has become a temporary school: Last year, pre-Kindergarten and kindergarten students from Langston Hughes Academy, a public charter school, used the museum as their classroom. "Its a living, breathing environment that can educate all of these children, Shannon Bland said. I think were all going to see something weve never seen before because weve ever had something like this happen. It took a pandemic and a hurricane to force a situation that we can all learn from." ----- Damage to area Catholic Schools: The Archdiocese of New Orleans provided these preliminary and partial descriptions of Hurricane Ida-related damages that were self-reported by schools, parishes and offices. The listing below, reported by the Clarion Herald, is the latest information available as of Sept. 13: AMA ST. MARK: rectory: roof damage and damage to interior, garage, fence and HVAC; church: roof damage, bell speakers fell, ceiling damage, choir loft flooded, trees down; Fr. Cote Center lost roof and has extensive interior water damage and damage to overhangs; rental house had electrical pole pulled from house, porch damage AVONDALE ASSUMPTION OF MARY: substantial roof damage, ceiling damage, exterior wall damage, soffit/fascia damage, carpet damage, tree down on fence, other fence damage on campus, awning damage, overhang supports damaged ST. BONAVENTURE: roof came off of PSR building, causing interior water damage; possible roof damage at church, interior water damage in church; loss of shingles on rectory roof; parish hall/office building has possible roof damage and interior water damage BELLE CHASSE OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP: roof damage, wires down, ceiling damage, walkways damaged, flooded interior rooms BRAITHWAITE ASSUMPTION (MISSION OF ST. THOMAS, POINT A LA HACHE): major damage; not specified BRIDGE CITY HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS: roof damage to church and rectory; water intrusion CHALMETTE OUR LADY OF PROMPT SUCCOR: shingle damage on roof of church and parish center; school: Building 1: debris, fence damage; Building 3: window and roof damage, drainage issues; middle school building: debris, fence damage, drainage issues; Early Learning Center: debris, fence damage, drainage issues; walkway: HVAC damage; Gym: HVAC damage COVINGTON ARCHBISHOP HANNAN HIGH SCHOOL: wind-driven rainwater damage, damage to concession stand, fence and doors, flood damage to trailer and storage shed, campus debris, tree damage, debris CAMP ABBEY: maintenance building: circuit breaker box damaged; some power lines and power poles down; several buildings with circuit breaker box damage; tree fell into pool, damaging fence and possibly pool decking; sewerage treatment plant: roof damage and debris; extensive damage to cabin 4; administration building: roof damage and possible circuit breaker damage NORTHSHORE PASTORAL CENTER: debris, water damage to wall, mildew, ceiling damage, fence damage NORTHSHORE PRIESTS VILLA: bulkhead damaged; possible A/C damage; cannot access roof ST. SCHOLASTICA ACADEMY: roof damage, missing shingles, HVAC damage, fence, ceiling and floor damages, exterior contents damage, debris DES ALLEMANDS ST. GERTRUDE: loss of church roof, rectory roof damage and interior water damage in rectory; all other parish buildings sustained extensive roof and interior damage; electrical torn away from building; extensive damage throughout campus EDGARD ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST: church: roof damage (needs tarp), two broken stained-glass windows, two other windows blown out, extensive water damage, debris; rectory: roof damage (needs tarp), debris; garage: roof blown off (needs tarp); Catholic Center: roof damage (needs tarp), patio blown away EMPIRE ST. ANN (MISSION OF ST. PATRICK, PORT SULPHUR): water leak from bell tower GRETNA ST. ANTHONY SCHOOL: Annex Building: roof damage (needs to be tarped), ceiling damage; kindergarten portables: damage to gutters; PK Building: roof damage (needs to be tarped), soffit/fascia damage, HVAC damaged, debris, ceiling damage, interior wall damage, floor damage, mold; main school building: roof damage, window damage, HVAC damage, debris, ceiling damage, floor damage ST. CLETUS: five trees down HAHNVILLE HOLY ROSARY: roof damage to church (interior water in church), parish office and rectory; water damage to community center HARAHAN ST. RITA: church: extensive roof damage and leaks, interior damage, gutter damage; rectory: gutter damage, some shingles missing, downed trees; school: gym roof damage, play area canopy and fence damaged, door blown open, extensive fence damage, speaker ripped off building, metal gate damaged, A/C unit displaced and blown over, garage door on fair storage bent and pulled away from frame, tree down; offices: tree down in courtyard, moisture on inside of skylights, mold, parking signs blown down HARVEY CATHOLIC CHARITIES WAREHOUSE (1245 1st ST.): door of main loading dock blown in ST. ROSALIE SCHOOL: Hawks Haven: roof damage, ceiling damage; counselors office: awning damaged; fifth-grade building: roof damage, ceiling damage; cafeteria: roof damage, ceiling damage; PTA: roof damage; white house: roof damage; pre-K: ceiling and insulation damage from rainwater; resource building: roof damage JEFFERSON ST. AGNES: school building had 35 windows blown out and wind-driven rain throughout the building KENNER DIVINE MERCY: damage to church and parish center roofs OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP: office-rectory: loss of roof shingles, wind-driven water intrusion and blown-out windows; church sustained loss of roof shingles, major roof damage in spots and major water intrusion from wind-driven rain; parish hall has loss of roof shingles and wind-driven water intrusion; school received water in every classroom from both wind-driven water and major roof damage (will require tarping) ST. JEROME: all buildings damaged; roofs tarped LAFITTE ST. ANTHONY: church and parish hall sustained four feet of water and a layer of marsh mud; removal of mud inside the church and the affected stretches of Sheetrocking has been completed; Sunday Mass will be celebrated at 9 a.m. in the parish hall parking lot until further notice, said Father Luke Nguyen, pastor. LAPLACE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD: rectory wall partially gave way, chimney compromised, collapse of ceiling due to water damage, carport ripped apart, fence down and interior property damage; church: four cupola windows shattered and interior water damage; in Piovan Hall, loss of shingles, collapsed ceiling and wall damage; damage to workshop roof; loss of shingles and interior water damage in administration building; school: roof damage, exterior wall damage, debris, fence damage, ceiling damage, interior wall damage, floor damage, wind-driven rainwater, canopy severely damaged ST. CHARLES CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: roof damage, HVAC damage, debris, fence damage, ceiling damage, door damage, floor damage, contents damage, exterior wall damage, window damage, light poles down (one light pole fell on concession stand), scoreboards damaged, rainwater intrusion, baseball dugout extensively damaged ST. JOAN OF ARC: flooding in all school buildings; damage to church roof; fences, covered walkways and outdoor sheds; concern about structural damage and possible roof damage to school buildings LULING ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA: leaks in church roof and interior water damage; loss of rectory shingles; interior water damage to church; Community Activities (CA) building had water enter under the door MADISONVILLE ST. ANSELM: general damage to parish campus MANDEVILLE MARY QUEEN OF PEACE: church roof leak, a tree knocked down school fence, water intrusion in school cafeteria closet, damaged light pole, rectory gutter blown off, debris OUR LADY OF THE LAKE: general damage to parish/school campus ROUQUETTE LODGE (CHRISTOPHER HOMES): roof damage impacting 30 apartments MARRERO ACADEMY OF OUR LADY: damaged contents, leak in equipment room, lost items in concession area, HVAC damaged, debris, fencing damage, ceiling and wall damage ARCHBISHOP SHAW HIGH SCHOOL: main building: window damage, debris, contents damage; cafeteria: window damage, debris, floor damage, contents damage; Don Bosco Hall: window damage, walkway coverings damaged; East Annex Building: HVAC system damaged; batting cage: lockers damaged Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SCHOOL: Guardian Angel side: water by AC unit on floor in Room 25; Building 2: roof damage, ceiling damage and water on floor in Rooms 11 and 12; Building 3: roof damage; Building 4: (two-story building next to cafeteria: roof damage, water on floor by window units in Rooms 19 and 21; walkway: canopy leaking water; gym: water damage on east wall by water fountain; Father Palughi Hall: Rooms 303, 304, 305, 306, 307 and 308, library, hallways and computer lab all have water intrusion; middle school gym: east side ceiling and floor have water; Gaudin Complex/courtyard: all roofs damaged, Rooms 116, 113, 114 and 119 have water coming from ceiling lights; Notre Dame: water throughout first floor, satellite blown off roof ST. AGNES LE THI THANH: awning severely damaged, tree down on top of rectory (will probably need tarping), debris, ceiling damage, trees down on campus, damage to church roof ST. JOACHIM: rectory: damage to soffits, fascia, siding; gazebo: damage to soffit and fascia; also, damage to fences and stations of the cross; broken bench; church signs damaged; downspouts on pavilion damaged; patio panels blown off; debris VISITATION OF OUR LADY: damage to vinyl siding off of parish office, loss of rectory shingles, missing fencing, water intrusion through windows; school: water in classrooms, possible roof damage on gym, sign in front of property damaged, cafeteria roof damage; school library: roof damage, fascia/siding damage, debris, ceiling damage, flooring damage, contents damage; cafeteria: roof, ceiling and contents damage, mold; main building: water intrusion, windows leaking, debris, tiled buckling, roof damage, HVAC damage, ceiling damage, contents damage; outdoor restroom: fascia/siding damage; Padre Hall II: possible roof and window damage, debris METAIRIE ARCHBISHOP CHAPELLE HIGH SCHOOL: roof damage; wind-blown water damage; downed trees ARCHBISHOP RUMMEL HIGH SCHOOL: roof damage, canopy damage, cafeterias exterior damaged, window damage, HVAC damage, debris, fencing damaged, rainwater intrusion HISPANIC APOSTOLATE (ST. LAWRENCE THE MARTYR): loss of roof shingles; fence, pergola and image of Virgin Mary destroyed; debris; water infiltration; ceiling damage; awning above back door damaged OUR LADY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE (INCLUDES ST. THERESE ACADEMY): water in main building; damage to ceiling in Bahan Center; not sure about roof ST. ANGELA MERICI: gym: roof damage, ceiling damage, floor damage, contents damage, wind-driven rainwater (2 inches in rear entrance); priests residence: roof damage; 824 Melody Drive: roof damage; school annex: wind-driven rainwater, floor damage; 3404 Tolmas Drive: siding off; parish office: roof damage, wire down, tree down; church/school: roof damage, debris, ceiling damage, wind-driven rainwater, fence damage ST. ANN: school: roof damage, trees down, ceiling damage, floor damage, wind-driven rainwater, debris, damage to exterior lights, gutters and loudspeaker box: church: roof damage, debris, ceiling, wall, floor and contents damage; rectory: roof damage; parish ministry center: roof damage, fascia and soffit missing, ceiling, wall and floor damage, debris; parish office: fence and floor damage, debris ST. BENILDE: school: roof damage, wind driven rain water intrusion, tree damage, fence damage, light pole down, ceiling damage, contents damage; church/parish: backyard fence came down; new electronic carport gate damaged and unusable ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA SCHOOL: gutter missing on second floor of cafeteria building; fascia damage and missing gutter at Msgr. Barrett Complex; a few tiles missing from the Senior Building ST. CHRISTOPHER THE MARTYR: rectory: fallen tree damaged generator, fallen tree damaged carport, fence damage, window damage, water intrusion, outside wall damage; church: roof damage, water intrusion; Early Education Center annex: water intrusion, ceiling damage, puddled water in rooms, fence damage; Early Education Center: water intrusion from roof, ceiling and floor damage, fence damage; main school building: water intrusion from roof, ceiling and floor damage, fence destroyed; gym: water intrusion from roof ST. CLEMENT OF ROME: parish/church: all roofs lost shingles (tarped by roofing company); gutter damage at the parish center; fences damaged throughout property; wires down in front of parish center; side rectory door damaged, soffit and fascia damage to the church and parish center; 4408 Cleary Ave.: pole fell on the roof of the house, awning damage, window screen and soffit/fascia damage; school: debris throughout campus, metal gate down on Cleary Avenue side of campus, damage to fence and gate, multiple downed electrical poles, standing water in hallway of main school building; Presentation Hall has water damage to ceiling tiles, standing water and damage to contents ST. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR: school administration building: doors damaged, ceilings damaged, flooring damaged from wind-blown rainwater; main classroom building: roof damaged, doors damaged, ceilings damaged, flooring damaged from wind-blown rainwater; rectory: roof damage, trees down ST. FRANCIS XAVIER: damage to school windows, church roof and fence; downed trees ST. MARY MAGDALEN: school: doors and windows damaged, allowing rainwater intrusion, trees down, school sign damaged, floor damage, roof damage to shed, roof damage to B-building, fence damage; church/parish: damage to windows, trees down, floor damage and roof damage to Discipleship Center ST. PHILIP NERI SCHOOL: roof damage, water infiltration, window damage, debris, fence damage, ceiling damage, contents damage, floor damage NEW ORLEANS CATHOLIC BOOKSTORE: tree on roof; damage to gutters and A/C compressors CATHOLIC COUNSELING SERVICE: roof missing some shingles (needs small tarp); debris CHATEAU DE NOTRE DAME: part of one building was peeled off by hurricane; entrance canopy ripped off CORPUS CHRISTI-EPIPHANY: mold on cafeteria ceiling (first floor), evidence of minor roof damage, water infiltration on the third floor GOOD SHEPHERD (INCLUDES ST. STEPHEN CHURCH AND SCHOOL): significant damage to roof of school gym and water damage to gym floor; loss of some copper sheathing on church steeple HOLY NAME OF JESUS SCHOOL: roof damage, window damage, HVAC damage, debris, ceiling damage, wall/floor damage, standing water on all three floors, fence damage HOLY NAME OF MARY: multiple roof leaks INCARNATE WORD RECTORY: roof damage to back area; water on first floor from wind-driven rain NEW ORLEANS CATHOLIC CEMETERIES: metal warehouse collapsed at St. Patrick No. 3; wrought-iron sign fell down at St. Louis No. 3; trees down at various cemetery sites NOTRE DAME SEMINARY: slate tiles missing from roof; cupola cross damaged; access hatches blown away and missing; water intrusion; rainwater and sewage back-up in gym; sewage backup in elevator pit; elevator doors stuck (possible water damage); light pole collapsed, damaging lights and speakers); backflow preventer housings broke off their foundations and damaged fence; partial ceiling collapse in Shaw Hall; miscellaneous interior damage OLD URSULINE CONVENT: damage to tent, gates, roof, shutters and exterior walls, lanterns broken, interior water and wall damage, ceiling damage; convent residences: roof damage, garage door and shutter damage; exterior water damage; broken lantern; storeroom door blown in; exterior wall damage OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY: Vincent Hall: loss of shingles and paint damage; parish office: water intrusion through walls and windows and loss of shingles; rectory: ceiling damage, loss of shingles and two blown-out windows; church: window damage and water intrusion; school building: roof damage and blown-open windows OUR LADY STAR OF THE SEA: church: broken windows; fence damage, AC unit in schoolyard blown over, roof and gutter damage; broken windows and water intrusion at school PROJECT LAZARUS: 2824 Dauphine St.: water intrusion, partial ceiling collapse, moisture in walls producing mildew, a few blown-out window panes; 725 St. Ferdinand St.: loss of siding, water intrusion, two trees down, roofs need to be inspected RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD: roof damage to rectory and pastoral center, ceiling damage, fence damage, water on floor; school: debris, ceiling damage, floor damage, wind-driven water intrusion, roof damage, interior wall damage, window damage, soffit and fascia damage ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE: one large tree down that has already been removed; school inspections completed and school and set to reopen Sept. 13 ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA: roof damage, broken clay tiles, downspout hanging from wall, leak in sacristy, plaster damage in sanctuary, leak in kitchen, broken commercial refrigerator ST. AUGUSTINE CHURCH: cross on top of steeple bent, damaged louver in steeple, general roof damage and water intrusion on church ceiling and walls, siding came off one wall ST. DOMINIC: general damage to school building ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI: church: debris, fencing damage and water dripping down from bell tower into interior of church; rectory: weather boards knocked loose, windows broken/damaged, debris, fencing damage, awning damage; parish center: broken windows, fencing damage; school building: debris ST. JAMES MAJOR: roof damage to church and cottage; water in church ST. JOAN OF ARC SCHOOL: missing shingles, window damage, ceiling damage, floor damage, contents damage, wind-driven rainwater, mold ST. JOSEPH (ON TULANE AVENUE): possible roof damage on two flat roofs, slow drip in the attic of the church from the tower area on one side (appears to be minor damage, but cannot access roofs to evaluate) ST. LEO THE GREAT SCHOOL: roof damage (tarping needed), damage to ceilings and floors; contents damage; window damage; water intrusion; HVAC damage; debris ST. LOUIS CATHEDRAL-BASILICA: church spires damaged; roof issues; fallen slates; broken lanterns; doors damaged, wind/water damage to columns, turrets damaged, stained glass windows damaged, interior water damage, wall damage, ceiling damage; rectory: broken windows, possible roof damage, ceiling and wall damage ST. MARIA GORETTI: church: flashing damage on roof in front of church, mold on floor in main church and chapel, roof damage above church meeting room and chapel, ceiling damage; rectory: roof damage in sitting room area, ceiling and wall damage, mold on ceiling and wall; Msgr. Gauthreaux Center: access panels for A/C unit blew open, causing water damage to floor; trees down throughout campus ST. MARY OF THE ANGELS: friary: roof damage; church: roof missing many shingles (needs tarp), HVAC damage; school: roof missing many shingles (needs tarp), window damage, water damage to floor, HVAC damage; interior water damage to all three buildings ST. MARYS CHURCH (1116 CHARTRES ST.): Plexiglass broken off exterior window, damage to molding/window sills, cracking on facade, floor damage, wall damage, possible mold/mildew ST. MICHAEL SPECIAL SCHOOL: roof leak in the gym, contents lost, window damage, water intrusion, ceiling damage, standing water on floor, floor damage, fence screen damaged ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE: church had water intrusion from wind-driven rain and possible roof damage; loss of rectory shingles; have not been to assess the school (under CCANO) ST. PETER CLAVER: rectory: upper portion of front porch ripped off, roof window blown out, hole in rear of roof, siding ripped off, ceiling damaged, carport damaged; school: chiller plant damaged (water is flowing out), water infiltration through roof/walls; church: shingle damage, protective window glazing destroyed, water on floor at entrance; Sankofa Building: siding off, holes in roof, interior damage ST. RITA: school: water intrusion, spoiled food; 2801 Pine St.: loss of roof shingles (no visible leaks); Emmaus House: leaks and window damage throughout, causing numerous leaks ST. THERESA OF AVILA: rectory roof damage; no visible church damage NORCO SACRED HEART: roof damage (needs tarp), stained glass at peak of roof destroyed, allowing water into church PARADIS ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST: major damage to the church, rectory, education building and storage building; large trees down PEARL RIVER STS. PETER & PAUL: aluminum awning damaged near roofline; roof needs inspection POINT A LA HACHE ST. THOMAS: major damage; not specified PORT SULPHUR ST. PATRICK: church doors damaged; bell tower leaking badly RESERVE ST. PETER: roof damage, HVAC damage, debris, ceiling damage, wall damage, floor damage, asbestos (similar damage elements for both church and school) RIVER RIDGE ST. MATTHEW THE APOSTLE: roof damage throughout the campus, downed trees, downed power pole on school playground, fence damage, wind-driven water intrusion in school buildings SLIDELL OUR LADY OF LOURDES: school: four trees down on campus, two leaning on walkway overheads; three cracked windows on south side of main school building; multiple shingles off of Early Childhood Development Center; air handler drive in cafeteria has mold; church: several trees down, one against church possibly causing gutter and/or brick damage; separate section of downspout damaged; gate and fence damage, HVAC damage, stucco damage on porch, light poles damaged, protective screens on bell tower blown in, chillers damaged; rectory: wind-driven rain, causing floor damage, window damage, gutter damage, fence damage, debris POPE JOHN PAUL II HIGH SCHOOL: roof damage, HVAC damage, campus debris, windows broken, damage to exterior lights, doors, awning, bleachers and baseball dugout; ticket booth destroyed TERRYTOWN CHRIST THE KING: church: no external damage seen, but water damage inside on one side of church; appears to be from rising water coming under doors and inside sacristy; mold has formed; wind-driven rain in school building VIOLET OUR LADY OF LOURDES: church has a leak, probably from stained-glass window over altar; fence around AC condensers blown apart; wet ceiling in parish community center; lost shingles on rectory roof; sheet metal roof over rectory porch partially ripped; dumpster paddock gate and latch damaged; sliding gates at entrance to property forced off of tracks WAGGAMAN OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS: ceiling damage, exterior wall and roof damage WESTWEGO OUR LADY OF PROMPT SUCCOR SCHOOL: damage to roof, exterior walls, windows, fence, roof vents, gutters, ceilings, floors, walls and awnings; entrance doors blew open, allowing rainwater in; debris An Abita Springs woman and an inmate in the St. Tammany Parish Jail were arrested after officials said they tried to smuggle drugs into the jail, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said. Kayla Anne Leary, 33, and Kevin Corr, 26, were charged with introducing contraband into a penal institution and criminal conspiracy, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release on Thursday. The arrest was a result of a month-long investigation that began after investigators at the jail intercepted "suspicious packages" addressed to an unnamed inmate on Aug. 11. After listening to phone calls made at the jail, investigators found that Leary had planned to send multiple packages to an unnamed inmate housed in the same dorm as Corr. Corr was supposed to intercept one of the packages that contained illegal narcotics. One of the packages contained a copy of a book titled "10,000 Dreams Interpreted" that was used to conceal Suboxone and Methamphetamine, said Capt. Lance Vitter, a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office. Every piece of mail sent to the jail is searched by deputies, Vitter said. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Corr was booked into the jail in February and was awaiting trial on charges that include possession of Schedule I and Schedule II narcotics and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond for those charges was set at $25,000. Information was not available about bond for the new charge. Deputies issued a warrant for Leary, but were unable to locate her until she arrived at the Sheriff's Office Monday for questioning in an unrelated property crime investigation. When she arrived, deputies informed her of the warrant for her arrest in the narcotics smuggling case. Leary asked to get something from her car and attempted to drive away. As deputies tried to remove her from the car, she burned one of them with her lit cigarette, the Sheriff's Office said. Deputies searched her car and found more than 300 syringes, some of which contained "suspected unknown controlled dangerous substances, suspected marijuana, and numerous other items of drug paraphernalia," the Sheriff's Office said. Additional charges of resisting an officer with force or violence, attempted aggravated escape, battery of a police officer and possession of drug paraphernalia were added. Leary was being held on bond of $125,00. An unexpected tornado-like weather event caused a container ship to crash as it was unloading at the Port of New Orleans in August 2020, causing a massive spill of plastic pellets known as "nurdles" into the Mississippi River, the National Transport Safety Board said in a report Thursday. Crane operators at the port's Napoleon Avenue wharf and crew from the ship, the Maltese-flagged Bianca, reported extreme high winds "that came on 'in seconds' during heavy rains," the report said. +8 A new crop of nurdles is washing up in New Orleans, renewing calls for cleanup, penalties Almost six months after a cargo ship spilled millions of plastic pellets into the Mississippi River, large numbers of the pellets, known as "n "Rains were heavy enough to completely obscure the visibility of security cameras at the terminal," the report continued. "Although the closest official weather station recorded winds peaking at 31 mph, a vessel located very close to the accident reported a wind gust at 73 mph. The Biancas master said that the storm was, 'in the form of a tornado'." Most of the ship's 16 mooring lines detached and containers being lifted by the port's gantry cranes crashed into the vessel. The port's cranes sustained about $15 million worth of damage, while damage to the ship was put at about $60,000. There was one minor injury, to a crane operator. But the more lasting effect of the accident was the spill into the river of hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets also known as nurdles from a 40-foot container that dropped from the Bianca to the bottom of the river. +10 With cleanup stalled for weeks, group of volunteers tackles New Orleans nurdle spill on their own When millions of plastic pellets spilled into the Mississippi River and began washing up along the banks in New Orleans, it wasnt a governmen The nurdles washed up on both banks of the river soon after the spill and new waves of pellets were turning up at the mouth of the Mississippi months later. The vessel was operated by French shipping conglomerate CMA CGM and managed by Danos Shipping Co. The French owner arranged several weeks after the spill for a small clean-up crew, which used brooms and nets to corral some of the nurdles. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up However, as the spill was deemed to be of non-hazardous material, it fell through the cracks of various regulatory agencies. +5 No cleanup planned as millions of plastic pellets wash up along Mississippi River and flow to the Gulf Its been more than two weeks since a cargo ship in New Orleans spilled millions possibly billions of tiny plastic pellets into the Missis Plastic pollution has been found to be a major source of harm to the marine environment and to sea life. An estimated 250,000 tons of nurdles and other microplastics enter the rivers and oceans each year, absorb toxins and are responsible for the deaths of millions of sea creatures, environmental studies have shown. In the event, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Louisiana Department of Environment Quality, and the Environmental Protection Agency, all said it was outside their purview. The NTSB in its investigative role determines the probable cause of the accident but does not assign blame. +4 Plastic pellets litter batture near Chalmette Battlefield after cargo container accident Thousands of tiny white plastic pellets from a container aboard a cargo ship being unloaded at at the Napoleon Avenue Wharf in New Orleans end In its report, the agency said that probable cause was "the sudden onset of unforecasted severe winds, likely originating from the outflow of a thunderstorm-generated downburst." The report added that "these winds can easily cause damage similar to that of a EF0 (6585-mph winds) or even EF1 (86110-mph winds) tornado and are sometimes misinterpreted as tornadoes." NTSB determined that all the crane operators and the vessel's crew were properly trained and had been following procedure. The wind came on suddenly and couldn't have been foreseen, the agency report concluded. The chairman of New Orleans' Downtown Development District resigned Friday in protest of Mayor LaToya Cantrells chief of staff being installed as interim president and CEO of the state-authorized taxing agency. Leo Marsh read a terse resignation statement at the district board meeting three days after a contentious special meeting during which six of 11 board members voted to hire Cantrell aide John Pourciau as the agency's interim leader. We have likely behaved unethically, Marsh said, alluding to Pourciau's representation of City Hall in its attempts to take control of taxes that the Downtown Development District collects from businesses and residents. This boards concern is not its constituents. I have decided to change my role here and channel my energy into being a constituent. I will be resigning my position as chair of this board effective at the end of the day. On Aug. 2, the board voted 8-0 to promote its longtime finance director, Anthony Carter, to interim CEO. Marsh was about to sign a contract with Carter on Aug. 10 when he received calls from Cantrell urging him to hire Pourciau instead. On Aug. 24, the board rescinded its offer to Carter, who remained as finance director. The district's general counsel, Bill Aaron, warned that hiring Pourciau could be an ethics violation because of Pourciaus role in City Hall dealings with the district, an independent agency that is suing New Orleans for allegedly skimming half a million dollars in tax revenue over the years. But Cantrell continued to pressure board members. She sent Marsh a text calling Aaron an obstructionist and unethical because he is the registered agent for an anti-Cantrell political committee called Lets Save NOLA. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Thank you for your leadership, and we need John as interim. Please. This is LaToya, the text read. After Tuesday's meeting, Aaron stepped down as general counsel. The district board ignored his advice to wait for an Ethics Board opinion before hiring Pourciau. The Downtown Development District has spent about $60,000 on a national search for a permanent CEO to succeed Kurt Weigle, who resigned in November. The search firm, Winner Partners, presented four finalists for the position. +4 LaToya Cantrell has sparred with this downtown agency. Her top aide was just hired as CEO. Following weeks of political pressure and questions about the legality of the move, the Downtown Development District voted Tuesday to hire Ma But the district's vice chairman, Gregory Curtis, who led the effort to hire Pourciau and took over Fridays meeting when Marsh resigned, complained about a lack of diversity among the candidates, especially that they are all men. One of the four finalists is Black. The plan had been to hire one of them as permanent CEO in the next six weeks. But Marsh said Friday he suspects Curtis complaints are an effort to slow the search and keep Pourciau in place longer. Many of the states biggest hospitals are back to full operations after Hurricane Ida, but surgeries and appointments remain bottlenecked, smaller hospitals in coastal areas are still partially shuttered and many employees are still living out of hotel rooms, Louisiana hospital officials said Thursday. Ochsner Health, the state's largest health care provider with 40 hospitals across the state, delayed 80,000 appointments due to the storm alone, according to Mike Hulefeld, chief operating officer. The hospital system has rescheduled about half of those missed appointments and is in the process of rescheduling as many as 6,000 surgeries. A complete return to normal will take weeks to months, said Hulefeld. Our usual volume is ramping back up, so we are bringing a lot of people back in, but that is not a quick process given the usual care we provide as well." Other hospital systems in the region are also largely up and running even as they continue to play catch up. And overall, interviews with hospital leaders indicate that despite being battered by Ida and the most recent COVID surge, the state's health system is now in recovery mode following the twin crises. Hospital intensive-care units are no longer overwhelmed by coronavirus patients suffering from the highly contagious delta variant. Nor are major health care providers surviving on generator power or dealing with significant damage across their hospitals. Instead, they are working to re-open hospitals directly in Ida's path, and are focused on the long slog back to normal after the fourth wave of COVID. LCMC Health's six New Orleans area hospitals are all operational, though some clinics remain closed in hard-hit areas. Also open are two of Tulane Medical Center's campuses, in downtown New Orleans and Covington. But Tulane Lakeside Hospital in Metairie, which moved all of its patients after losing water shortly after the storm, remains closed, including its emergency room. A spokesperson said there are plans to reopen the 119-bed facility next week. In Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the recovery has been easier. Facilities run by Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System were back on the power grid within 72 hours, according to a representative. One outpatient surgery center run by Franciscan took on water after losing the roof and has been gutted, but operations are normal elsewhere. Ochsner Lafayette General never had to rely on generator power. But while hospitals in New Orleans and Baton Rouge that relied on generator power after the storm are back up and running, many along the coast are still undergoing repairs. Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland and Chabert Medical Center in Houma will not be fully operational for another three weeks. Half of the ICU beds in the region 3 health department have been closed since Ida, according to the Louisiana Department of Healths daily coronavirus report, which tracks ICU capacity. That includes Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Mary and Terrebonne parishes. Terrebonne General Health System, which evacuated all patients in the days after the storm, is operating out of tents in a parking lot. Hospital employees also remain weary from the fourth COVID surge, health care executives said. Around 1,300 Ochsner employees are in hotel rooms and 4,000 have applied for employee assistance, said CEO Warner Thomas. The hospital has given out about $1.6 million to 3,300 applicants, or an average of about $485 per person. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up One bright spot is that COVID hospitalizations continue to decline across the state after a fast-paced climb to an all-time high in mid-August. In Ochsner hospitals, there are now 396 COVID patients, down from 1,009 a month ago. LCMC Health has dropped to 78 COVID patients from a peak of 210. Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge is down to 105 from a high of 211. Statewide, hospitalizations are down to 1,431 from a high of 3,022 on August 17. Hospital officials attribute the rapid decline to a mask mandate and renewed interest in the vaccine as hospitals were overrun with coronavirus patients earlier this summer. The timing of the beginning of the decline matches up a couple of weeks between two and three weeks after the mask mandate went into place, said Dr. Robert Hart, Ochsners chief medical officer. Hopefully, we can stay on top of this one and not get that fifth surge, but it is going to take everyone going out and getting vaccinated and continuing to be cautious. Ochsner employee vaccinations are at 81%, according to Thomas, who set a vaccine mandate deadline of Oct. 29 for the hospitals 32,000 employees. About 150 to 200 staff members have applied for medical or religious exemptions, said Thomas. Few hospitals in Louisiana have implemented a mandate, with the exception of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, but they may soon have to fall in line. The Biden administration last week announced a requirement for vaccinations for all employees of facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid. I dont think this is something health care organizations are going to be able to avoid, said Thomas. Its going to have to be done, and frankly, it should be done in order to keep folks safe. LCMC officials are also preparing to comply with federal guidelines for employee vaccinations. Were in the middle of that discussion right now, said Dr. Jeffrey Elder, LCMC medical director for emergency management. The hospital system is also readying to provide more vaccines if the Food and Drug Administration approves a booster shot for widespread use. The federal agency is meeting to discuss booster shots on Friday. The dramatic decrease in COVID patients has given hospitals some "breathing room," said Elder, but they're bracing for a potential bump in COVID hospitalizations due to evacuation conditions. At the same time, the hospitals are trying to catch up on surgeries and prepare for the mental health issues that typically emerge as the scope of the disaster sets in for many people in the region. "People have been stressed for any number of reasons, and now, throwing an evacuation and storm damage on top of it, we'll see more of a long-term thing with that," said Elder. An influential federal advisory panel overwhelmingly rejected a plan Friday to offer Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans, dealing a heavy blow to the Biden administrations effort to shore up peoples protection amid the highly contagious delta variant. The surprising vote by the committee of outside experts assembled by the Food and Drug Administration was 16-2, with members expressing frustration that Pfizer had provided little data on the safety of extra doses. Many also raised doubts about the value of mass boosters, rather than ones targeted to specific groups. In an extraordinary move, both FDA leaders and the panel indicated they were likely to take a second vote Friday afternoon on recommending the booster shots for older Americans and other high-risk groups. That would help salvage part of the White House's campaign but would still be a huge step back from the sweeping plan proposed by administration a month ago to offer booster shots of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to nearly all Americans eight months after they get their second dose. During several hours of vigorous debate Friday, members of the panel questioned the value of offering boosters to nearly everyone. I dont think a booster dose is going to significantly contribute to controlling the pandemic, said Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University. And I think its important that the main message we transmit is that weve got to get everyone two doses. Dr. Amanda Cohn of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: "At this moment it is clear that the unvaccinated are driving transmission in the United States. Panel members also complained that data provided by Israeli researchers about their booster campaign might not be suitable for predicting the U.S. experience. President Biden announces sweeping new vaccine mandates for 100 million Americans WASHINGTON In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements Scientists inside and outside the government have been divided in recent days over the need for boosters and who should get them, and the World Health Organization has strongly objected to rich nations giving a third round of shots when poor countries dont have enough vaccine for their first. While research suggests immunity levels in those who have been vaccinated wane over time and boosters can reverse that, the Pfizer vaccine is still highly protective against severe illness and death, even amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The surprise turn of events could reinforce recent criticism that the Biden administration got out ahead of the science in its push for boosters. President Joe Biden promised early on that his administration would follow the science, following disclosures of political meddling in the Trump administrations coronavirus response. The FDA advisory panel was the first major hurdle that the Biden administration plan faced. The FDA itself has yet to make its own determination but typically follows the recommendations of its expert panel. COVID-19 boosters are coming but who will get them and when? COVID-19 booster shots may be coming for at least some Americans but already the Biden administration is being forced to scale back expectatio In yet another step to the process, a CDC advisory committee that sets policy for U.S. vaccinations campaigns is set to meet on Wednesday to debate who, exactly, should get boosters and how many months after their second dose should them receive the extra shot. The CDC has said it is considering boosters for older people, nursing home residents and front-line health care workers, rather than all adults. Separate FDA and CDC decisions will be needed in order for people who received the Moderna or J&J shots to get boosters. The FDA panel's overwhelming rejection came despite full-throated arguments about the need for boosters from both Pfizer and health officials from Israel, which began offering boosters to its citizens in July. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Sharon Alroy-Preis of Israels Ministry of Health said the booster dose improves protection tenfold against infection in people 60 and older. Its like a fresh vaccine, bringing protection back to original levels and helping Israel dampen severe cases in the fourth wave, she said. Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine booster shot increases antibodies, researchers say Johnson & Johnson says a booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine appears to produce a rapid and robust increase in antibodies needed to fig And representatives for Pfizer argued that it is important to shore up immunity before protection against severe disease starts to erode. A company study of 44,000 people showed effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 was 96% two months after the second dose, but had dropped to 84% by around six months. Both Pfizer and the Israeli representatives faced pushback from panelists. Several expressed skepticism about the relevance of Israels experience to the U.S. Another concern was whether third doses would exacerbate serious side effects. Meissner said he is worried about extra doses for younger age groups given the risk of heart inflammation that has been seen in mostly younger men after a second dose. While the condition is very rare, he said, it is not clear if that risk would increase with another dose. Pfizer pointed to Israeli data from nearly 3 million boosters to suggest side effect rates would be similar to that seen after second doses. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said he was more likely to support approving a third dose for adults over 60 or 65 but I really have trouble supporting it for anyone down to age 16. While an extra shot likely will at least temporarily decrease cases with mild or no symptoms, the question becomes what will be the impact of that on the arc of the pandemic, which may not be all that much, Offit said. Bidens top health advisers, including the heads of the FDA and CDC, first announced plans for widespread booster shots a month ago, targeting the week of Sept. 20 as an all-but-certain start date. But that was before FDA staff scientists had completed their own assessments of the data. Earlier this week, two top FDA vaccine reviewers joined a group of international scientists in publishing an editorial rejecting the need for boosters in healthy people. The scientists said continuing studies show the shots are working well despite the delta variant. On Friday, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said that in announcing its booster plan, the Biden administration was not trying to pressure regulators to act but was instead trying to be transparent with the public and be prepared in the event that extra shots won approval. We have always said that this initial plan would be contingent on the FDA and the CDCs independent evaluation, Murthy said. The Biden plan has also raised major ethical concerns about impoverished parts of the world still clamoring for vaccine. But the administration has argued that the plan is not an us-or-them choice, noting that the U.S. is supplying large quantities of vaccine to the rest of the globe. The U.S. has already approved Pfizer and Moderna boosters for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Some Americans, healthy or not, have managed to get boosters, in some cases simply by showing up and asking for a shot. And some health systems already are offering extra doses to high-risk people. ___ 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. A New Orleans man has been sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for robbing eight gasoline stations and convenience stores on the west bank and in the 7th Ward. A jury convicted Eriston Wilson, 28, in 2019 of conspiracy and using a gun in a violent crime. U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, whom President George W. Bush nominated to the bench, on Wednesday sent him away for 272 months. Wilson's accomplice, John Weldon, 26, was sentenced Aug. 2 to 34 years in prison. He had been found guilty of the same charges as Wilson plus an Algiers bank robbery. The FBI led the investigation of the crimes. The prosecutors were assistant U.S. attorneys Kathryn McHugh and Greg Kennedy. A woman left a restaurant Thursday night in the Central Business District without paying and threatened to shoot an employee on her way out, New Orleans police said. Authorities released a photo of the woman Friday morning and asked for help identifying her. The interaction happened around 10 p.m. at the Fiery Crab, which is at 925 Common Street (map), police said. The woman left with three other women, who also did not pay their bill, police said. Anyone with information is asked to call NOPD detectives at 504-658-6080 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111. The owner of seven Louisiana nursing homes who sent more than 800 fragile residents to ride out Hurricane Ida in an unsanitary warehouse will fight back against the Louisiana Department of Healths recent decision to revoke all of his nursing home licenses, terminate his Medicaid provider agreements and shut down his nursing homes. Bob Dean is facing a growing number of lawsuits and at least two government investigations. The Louisiana Attorney Generals Office has opened a criminal probe into what happened at the warehouse, while LDH officials have said theyre pursuing federal regulatory action against Dean. But Dean's lawyer said he does not expect him to face criminal charges. Nothing rises to the level of criminal activity, said Baton Rouge attorney John McLindon, who represents Dean in the criminal investigation as well as in his licensing battle with LDH. I understand the attorney general has to do an investigation, but I dont think anything will rise to the level of criminal conduct. McLindon said that Dean is also absolutely appealing the revocation of his seven nursing home licenses and the termination of his Medicaid provider agreements. He noted that Dean's nursing homes only take residents who are paying through programs like Medicaid and Medicare, rather than those who can pay out-of-pocket. He serves a very valuable service to this community because the wealthy, rich nursing homes are not going to house these people," McLindon said. But running nursing homes for those on Medicaid and Medicare can still be lucrative. Owners routinely enjoy Medicaid rate increases and a strong nursing home lobby in the Louisiana Legislature has led the state to steer residents to nursing homes despite polls showing many older people would prefer to receive home-and-community-based services. One New Orleans commercial real estate broker estimated that the licenses alone could be worth $1 million apiece. Dean has until Oct. 6 to file an appeal; McLindon said he will do so by the end of September. McLindon said he expects everyone to eventually learn that Dean "did a very good job on this evacuation," echoing Dean's words in an interview with WVUE-TV. McLindon is a well-known criminal defense lawyer in south Louisiana. He represented Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal when the U.S. Justice Department leveled allegations of civil rights abuses against him, including routine beatings of prisoners. While 10 of Ackals deputies pleaded guilty in the case, many of them cutting deals to testify against Ackal, a federal jury cleared Ackal of all charges in 2016. +11 Families never knew nursing home loved ones were suffering in warehouse; it breaks my heart Terry Hicks spent a week trying to contact her husband of 33 years after he told her his nursing home was evacuating ahead of Hurricane Ida. McLindon also represented Nate Cain, the son of the storied former Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola warden Burl Cain. In that case, Nate Cain pleaded guilty mid-trial in 2019 to corruption charges from his work as warden of Avoyelles Correctional Center. And McLindon represented LSU fraternity member Matthew Naquin, who was convicted by a Baton Rouge jury on a charge of negligent homicide in a 2019 case after Naquins fraternity brother died from a night of forced drinking and hazing. While McLindon is primarily known for his work on criminal cases, he said he will also help represent Dean in his regulatory fight with LDH. The department revoked Deans nursing home licenses on Sept. 7, alleging that Dean failed to ask for help and even kicked LDH inspectors off the site of the warehouse while conditions went downhill after the storm. The seven nursing homes that evacuated to the warehouse were: Maison DeVille Nursing Home in Terrebonne Parish; South Lafourche Nursing and Rehab in Lafourche Parish; Maison Orleans Healthcare Center and River Palms Nursing and Rehab in Orleans Parish; and Park Place Healthcare Nursing Home, West Jefferson Health Care Center and Maison DeVille Nursing Home of Harvey in Jefferson Parish. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Inspectors wrote that the warehouse partially flooded, while they witnessed nursing home residents crying out for help from mattresses where they lay in filth, while staff ignored their pleas. Toilets overflowed, sending noxious fumes through the facility where more than 800 medically vulnerable people were staying. Trash piled up, and food was in short supply. +4 Nurses horrified by nursing home's treatment of evacuees at Louisiana warehouse; 'We tried' Two nurses who worked inside the Tangipahoa Parish warehouse where more than 800 nursing home residents have now been rescued from squalid con At least seven residents who were evacuated to the warehouse died, while at least 50 others were hospitalized. But the effects are ongoing: attorney Don Massey, who has filed a lawsuit against Dean over the ordeal said one of his clients died this week after being evacuated to the warehouse. Other attorneys who have sued Dean say their clients are still in the hospital, fighting off the aftereffects of the warehouse. LDH officials cited eight separate failures from nursing home administrators who oversaw the Ida evacuation. They include cruelty or indifference to the welfare of residents, failure to comply with rules for nursing homes, failure to protect residents from harmful acts of employees, failure to notify the proper authorities of suspected cases of neglect, knowingly making false statements while under investigation, failure to comply with reporting requirements, failure to allow the department to investigate and failure to allow access to records. Dean has defended himself in interviews, while seeking to portray himself as the victim of overzealous government officials. I usually lose two or three people a day, that pass on, he said in an interview last week with The Advocate | The Times-Picayune. So, four of the five thats passed were hospice patients, which, you know those are people that are on their way out. +14 At remote Louisiana warehouse, nursing home evacuees lay in waste, calling out for help After spending six days in a fetid warehouse with overflowing toilets and piled-up trash, four nursing home residents died and nearly 800 more LDH officials approved Deans evacuation plans in advance, which said that he would house 700 people at an alternate care facility in Tangipahoa Parish. When they first inspected the warehouse before Hurricane Ida hit, health officials found that it met the "minimum standards" as a short-term shelter. LDH has argued that though Dean's evacuation plans met the basics, he failed to execute them properly. They also say Dean had an obligation to communicate the problems to LDH once conditions worsened inside the warehouse after the storm. Some lawyers have blamed LDH in addition to Dean. The fact that Bob Deans hurricane evacuation plan even included dumping 843 senior citizens into a warehouse how that plan got even approved by the state of Louisiana is ridiculous to me, said attorney Ron Haley, who filed a lawsuit this week in East Baton Rouge district court. His suit named Dean, his companies and LDH as defendants. +6 State revokes nursing home licenses for owner who sent 800 residents to warehouse for Ida Louisiana health officials announced Tuesday that they are revoking Bob Dean's seven nursing-home licenses after he evacuated more than 800 nu Haley filed the lawsuit on behalf of Darlene Franklin, a hospice care resident of Park Place in Gretna. Franklin has COPD and congestive heart failure and drifted in and out of consciousness while being evacuated to the warehouse because of a lack of oxygen, according to the lawsuit. She was forced to helplessly sit in her wheelchair for two days without being moved or changed, she was not fed for two days and she was forced to urinate on herself, the lawsuit says. Yes, we understand that the state did the right thing by revoking the licenses after but it was a little bit too late, Haley said. Its a little bit too late for the seven individuals that died, its a little bit too late for the other 836 people that were left there in inhumane conditions. We need to do better. Shame on you, Bob Dean, shame on you state of Louisiana, for leaving those vulnerable behind. Dean is already facing at least five lawsuits from nursing home residents who were evacuated to the warehouse and their families. McLindon said that attorneys for Dean's insurers will represent him in those suits. A boil water advisory for St. Charles Parish in effect since Aug. 29 has been lifted, officials say. It's now safe to drink the water parish-wide. However, 45% of St. Charles Parish remained without power as of Thursday, and officials ask residents to limit their sewer use while power is being restored. It's OK to flush toilets, but residents should conserve water when washing dishes, doing laundry and showering. Entergy's latest timetable for power restoration in St. Charles Parish estimates that by Sept. 29, 90% of residents will have power. When Hurricane Ida made landfall Aug. 29 as a Category 4 hurricane, the St. Charles Parish Waterworks Department lost power to both treatment plants, reported multiple leaks in the system and issued the boil water advisory. Additionally, a loose barge smashed into a pumping station that draws water from the Mississippi River. Get hurricane updates in your inbox Sign up for updates on storm forecasts, tracks and more. e-mail address * Sign Up As a result, east bank residents were left with no water and west bank residents had little to no water pressure, said Samantha de Castro, spokesperson for the local government administration. Louisiana Department of Health deemed water safe to drink based on samples, and officials lifted the boil water advisory Friday morning. For St. Charles Parish Hurricane Ida information, visit www.stcharlesparish.gov. Michelle Hunter contributed to this report. John Heald used a personal anecdote to sum up the risks to area homeowners desperate for repairs post-Hurricane Ida. Heald, president of the Greater New Orleans Homebuilders Association, recounted being at a site where his company was doing roofing work. A carpetbagger from Tennessee drove up in his Taurus and said, Ill put a whole new roof on it for you, and Ill do it for this. The man held out a torn-edged slip of paper with 7000 written on it not even a dollar sign. I asked him, is this your contract? Heard said. And people will end up hiring him. But knowledge is power. A contract should spell out specifically what work is to be done, including materials. If youre filing with an insurance company, let them approve it first, Heald advised. There also should also be a timeline for payments and for completion of the work. (See the list of other specific advice below.) 'Don't be intimidated': You can't lose insurance coverage for filing Ida claims, official says Filing an insurance claim in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida or Tropical Storm Nicholas will not increase your premium or cause you to lose cov Also, read everything carefully. While licensed contractors are required to use standard contracts, others "have honed the profession of conning people" and might slip in notations such as stipulating that the consumer has to pay them even if the job isnt finished, Heald said. Heald also had a potentially important addition to the typical admonitions that consumers check for liability and workers compensation insurance. (Liability insurance gives the consumer recourse if problems arise. And without workmens comp, the homeowner could end up being sued over workmen's injuries.) He suggested that for about $100, a homeowner can have his name added to the contractors liability insurance as additionally insured, allowing the homeowner to file claims on the insurance himself. Otherwise, the policy belongs to contractors, Heald said. The contractor would have to request the change. You pay (the fee) and they add (your name). The company will send the consumer a copy of the certificate of insurance with their name on it as additionally insured. Heald advises never giving any workmen money upfront. They should be able to carry costs of materials upfront. They should have credit or the money for materials. If remodeling for $75,000 or up, you do a detailed contract with a pay schedule. +9 Need a new roof after Ida? Here's what to know before you sign the contract If your home is one of the estimated 80,000 across the state whose roofs were shredded by Hurricane Ida, Claudette Reichel has some advice on With a handyman whos qualified but might not have the capital, go get the materials yourself and have them delivered. Dont just hand someone a check, he said. A last note: Although its a trying time, be sensitive to pressure tactics to rush approval of an agreement. A worker's statement that I could start today, isnt a reason for shortcuts on doing due diligence. Prerequisites Get hurricane updates in your inbox Sign up for updates on storm forecasts, tracks and more. e-mail address * Sign Up Use local contractors when possible. Get the contractors full name and business address. Check the business name via the Louisiana Secretary of State website, www.sos.la.gov. Ask to see the contractors license. There are three ways to check licensure through the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors: Download the free La Contractor mobile app by visiting the LSLBC website at lacontractor.org. Use the contractor search function on the LSLBC website. Call LSLBC at (800) 256-1392. Complaints of unlicensed activity should be reported to the LSLBC Compliance Section by emailing complaints@lslbc.louisiana.gov or calling (800) 256-1392. Ask for proof of liability and workers' compensation insurance. Call the company to make sure the insurance is still valid. Get references from previous clients; check their reviews via internet and social media. Always get at least three estimates for the repairs, as this may be required by your insurance provider. Keep a detailed log of all conversations. Use email communication as much as possible so you have a record. The contract Be sure you are supplied a detailed estimate and contract, signed by the contractor in your presence; be sure the contract has estimated dates of start and completion. Ask that each task be itemized with a cost and a total sum. Be sure all necessary permits are filed by the contractor, and the permits are present and posted on the property prior to the start of the project. Never pay for projects not yet completed +7 Demand for roofers, repair work soars after Hurricane Ida strikes Louisiana: 'Its sunup to sundown' Yusuf Hasan leaned against his truck and wrung the sweat out of a red handkerchief on Monday during a break from nailing shingles into a damag General safety Several local law enforcement agencies added these notes from a personal safety perspective. Take note of the vehicle the person is driving; record the license plate number. Take note of a physical description. Get the persons phone number and call it in their presence to ensure they are the phone account holder. Never allow anyone that you do not know or trust to walk freely inside your home out of your sight; do not allow multiple individuals to distract you while others roam freely. Use your smartphones camera to photograph or video your interaction with the contractor. TO REPORT FRAUD: (800) 256-1392. CHECK BUSINESS LICENSES: www.bbb.org As New Orleans city workers were set to hit the streets Friday morning to collect rotting residential waste, City Council members prepared to question Mayor LaToya Cantrells administration about the sanitation crisis and their long-term solutions to it. The joint meeting of the councils budget and public works committees is set for 10:00 a.m. Friday morning; you can watch it on the city's website. The Times-Picayune will be covering live, and if you plan to follow along, here's a primer: What to expect from the meeting Council members expected to dig into the reasons that trash collection has failed, largely in Service Area 2. That area includes more than 70,000 customers in Lakeview, Gentilly, New Orleans East and neighborhoods downriver of the French Quarter. The regular garbage hauler for this service area, Metro Service Group, owned by Jimmie Woods, had fallen behind on its contractually required twice-weekly pickups over the summer, and some bins had already sat uncollected for a week or longer before Hurricane Ida hit on Aug. 29. Post-storm pickups have been slow across the city, however, including in Service Area 1, which covers Uptown, Central City and Algiers, and is handled by Richard's Disposal. Possible sanctions? District A Councilmember Joe Giarrusso, who chairs the public works committee, said he wants to dissect the failures, along with the labor shortage that Metro and the administration have blamed it on. He said he is not sure if the discussion will include sanctions for Metro, whose contract includes a city option to terminate at any time and a process for collecting damages for unsatisfactory performance. Cantrell said on Thursday she eventually wants to rebid the contract, and would most likely restructure the seven-year deal signed under her predecessor, former mayor Mitch Landrieu. New Orleans nears deal for emergency trash hauler as City Council calls for answers on garbage woes New Orleans moved closer Tuesday to bringing in outside help to aid its overwhelmed trash haulers, as complaints about rotting garbage soared Where Im at, is a rebid. We will get to that, but that is absolutely on the table. I think we have to put it out, Cantrell said, warning that there may be little interest in the job, given the industrys constraints. Before the storm, District D Councilmember Jared Brossett had proposed a one-month refund on trash fees for residents. That plan may get more support this time around. Cantrell voiced support for a version of it Friday, after her administration was against the original Brossett plan prior to the storm. Operation Mardi Gras Cantrell and her staff said their effort to find an emergency solid waste contractor to help out on Metros routes had failed, at least for the moment. One out-of-state contractor responded to the bid invitation, offering 20 trucks; but they didn't have enough drivers to get them on the streets. While the administration remains in contact with the unidentified company, Cantrell said she is dedicating employees from an array of city departments, separate government agencies and hired hands to scoop up bags that have been dropped on curbs because they do not fit into overstuffed bins in Service Area 2. Get hurricane updates in your inbox Sign up for updates on storm forecasts, tracks and more. e-mail address * Sign Up The city is calling the plan "Operation Mardi Gras" in a reference to the trash sweeps that take place after Carnival parades. After first generating a revolting stench enveloping neighborhoods in Lakeview, Gentilly, New Orleans East and neighborhoods downriver of the French Quarter, the idle bags are quickly becoming a public health hazard, attracting rodents and maggots as they pile up. Metro will continue to be responsible for dumping the carts. The city crews will not collect unbagged debris, which is handled by a separate contractor, but officials said they hope to clear all curbside bags, regardless of what is in them, by the end of next week. We will go down every street in the city, and we will remove every single bag on the street, whether its vegetative debris in the bag or household garbage, said Sanitation Director Matt Torri. Employees from the citys Mardi Gras cleanup contractor, Houston-based MDL Enterprise, will join with city personnel in 10 crews of about five people each. Police escorts The crews will be accompanied by police escorts. Cantrell said the police escorts were necessary because some crews had been verbally and physically violated when leaving in the middle of certain routes to make landfill runs. Those statements struck a chord on social media Friday, as many residents said they've been cheering on the garbage haulers as they arrive, giving them cold drinks and snacks and generally supporting their smelly and often thankless work. 'No taxation without sanitation' Meanwhile, on Saturday New Orleans residents are going to raise a stink about the trash troubles the same way they deal with most things: by holding a parade. Local music-industry professional Aaron "Louisiana" Grant organized a protest parade that will start at 11:00 a.m. on St. Claude Avenue and head to City Hall on Perdido Street. +5 Trash Parade meant to protest New Orleans sad sanitation situation pops up Saturday Aaron Louisiana Grant said it started as a bitter joke. After two weeks without trash pickup at his Marigny home, Grant said hed had enough. The parade has been branded as The Funkiest Parade Ever. Grant said a battle cry has been proposed as well: No taxation without sanitation. The organizers are seeking city permits. After failing to find another contractor to haul off garbage uncollected for 18 days in much of New Orleans, city officials said Thursday night they are assigning municipal, Sewerage & Water Board and Regional Transit Authority personnel to pick up the putrid bags. Likening the process to the post-Mardi Gras cleanup, Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced that 10 new crews of trucks, front-end loaders and workers will hit the streets up starting Friday. The crews will work in areas served by Metro Service Group, which is supposed to collect garbage in Lakeview, Gentilly, New Orleans East and areas downriver of the French Quarter. The crews will not be emptying the garbage bins, however; those must wait until Metro or one of its subcontractors gets to them. The emergency crews will pick up only bags outside of bins because they are creating health hazards as they pile up. All of the assets we are putting out there is to go deal with the emergency stuff on the street that is not the cans, said Ramsey Green, the Cantrell administration's infrastructure director. He said he expected all loose bags to be cleared by the end of next week. The administration sought emergency contractors to help Metro after Hurricane Ida struck Aug. 29, but the only company that responded did not have enough drivers, Green said. The out-of-state company could provide 20 trucks but not enough people to drive them. City Hall remains in contact with the company, in hopes it will find more drivers to allow city workers to return to their regular jobs. A similar emergency request to assist Richard's Disposal, which covers most of the rest of the city, resulted in a contract announced Wednesday for Ramelli Waste. +5 City inks emergency trash contract as residents told they can haul waste themselves New Orleans officials said Wednesday they selected a winning bidder for one of two emergency trash-hauling contracts to deal with the citys s The new crews will include workers and equipment from the Sanitation Department, the Parks and Parkways Department and outside agencies such as the S&WB, the RTA and Louis Armstrong International Airport. Sanitation Director Matt Torri said the crews will "go down every street in the city and remove every single bag on the street, whether it's vegetative debris or household garbage." Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up He also promised that City Hall will set up an online map for residents to track the progress of the effort. "We'll continue to make passes until the bags are gone," he added. The crews also will include employees of MDL Enterprise Inc., a Houston company that contracts with New Orleans to clean up after Carnival parades. The new crews will use municipal dump trucks and other heavy equipment to move the garbage to a landfill. On their rounds, they'll be accompanied by police officers, something Cantrell said was necessary because current garbage haulers have been subjected to physical and verbal harassment as the garbage crisis has dragged on. Garbage has been piling up across New Orleans since the Category 4 Hurricane Ida storm struck southeast Louisiana 2 weeks ago. The problem has been particularly acute in the areas served by Metro, which was struggling to make its rounds for months before the storm. The company blamed its inability to hire drivers for the delays and has brought in additional help from IV Waste in the Lakeview area. Richard's appears to have done a better job of handling garbage in its territory, with people in many of its neighborhoods reporting their bins had, in fact, been emptied. +5 Trash Parade meant to protest New Orleans sad sanitation situation pops up Saturday Aaron Louisiana Grant said it started as a bitter joke. After two weeks without trash pickup at his Marigny home, Grant said hed had enough. Cantrell said opening up New Orleans' garbage collection contracts to competition, something last done in 2016, is "absolutely on the table." But she said that does not necessarily guarantee City Hall would receive proposals from other companies capable to doing the work. She also said the administration is looking into refunding the $24 per household fee for garbage collection, which appears on residents' S&WB bills. A video shows a pickup truck covered in flames after it crashed into a building in the Central Business District of New Orleans some time around 2:53 p.m. on Thursday, according to a report from WWL-TV. As of 3:40 p.m., EMS reported no transport called to the scene in the 700 block of Camp Street. But NOPD is now investigating the whereabouts of the occupants of the truck. They allegedly fled the scene after the incident, police said. Here's footage of the incident, courtesy of WWL-TV: With Their Waverider Buoys, Researchers Collect Data on the Powerful Clean Energy Available in Our Oceans Sept. 17, 2021 Mike Muglia hates to miss a wave. A self-described surf junkie, Muglia catches waves on his surfboard off the coast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Further into those waters15 nautical miles to be exactsits another surfer. Aptly named Waverider, this surfer is a 440-pound, half banana-yellow, half beet-purple buoy that Muglia uses to study the energy that flows in our oceans. This banana-yellow Waverider buoy will spend 12 months off North Carolinas coast, collecting data on ocean waves, currents, tides, and water temperatures to help marine energy developers find the best spots to source clean, renewable energy from the ocean. Photos courtesy of Mike Muglia Marine energyclean power generated from ocean currents, waves, tides, and water temperature changesis still young, but it has the potential to deliver clean, renewable electricity to coastal communities where nearly 40% of Americans live. Before that can happen, scientists need to pinpoint which oceanic arteries host the most reliable energy. With 3.4 million square nautical miles of U.S. watersa larger area than the combined landmass of all 50 statesthere is a lot left to explore. Now, Muglia and Miguel Canals just deployed two new Waverider buoysone off the coast of North Carolina and the other off Puerto Rico. There, the surfers will collect detailed data on the surface waves in those areas of the Atlantic Ocean, adding to publicly available data sets on waves, currents, and water temperatures that will not only move marine energy closer to widescale use but also help scientists understand how climate change is affecting our oceans. Muglia is a principal investigator at the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association and research professor at the Coastal Studies Institute of North Carolina, and Canals is a principal investigator at the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System in Puerto Rico. We want to characterize the wave energy resources available, said Canals, who, like Muglia, surfs the same waves he studies. But we also want to collect long-term data on waves to understand the ocean and the changing climate for the benefit of future generations. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which owns the two Waverider buoys, partnered with ocean experts Muglia and Canals to collect this critical new data. This NREL-led effort is part of a larger, nine-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energys Water Power Technologies Office. The collaborative, multi-institution study generates the resource data that technology and project developers need to design the next generation of devices. No one institution (or buoy) can collect it all, which is why partners like Muglia and Canals are so valuable. The data these partners generate are used to verify and improve model accuracy, and are also valuable on their own as detailed records of the real ocean. The data from this projectboth the measurements and the models that use themis publicly available on the Marine Energy Atlas. The ocean, said Levi Kilcher, a physical oceanographer at NREL who leads the Waverider and Marine Energy Atlas projects, is an extremely challenging environment. But were starting to see success, which makes it a very exciting time to be in this industry. On Aug. 2, 2021, Muglia set off in the Miss Caroline with a deckhand and marine mammal observer, who watched for sea turtles, dolphins, and other wildlife that might swim too close to the boat. For the 40-nautical-mile, three-hour trip, the bulbous Waverider buoy sat secure in a rubber tire on the back of the small skiff. When the Miss Caroline cruised to the selected spotindistinguishable from the surrounding waters except by GPSthe team scanned the area for underwater obstacles before anchoring the Waverider under an almost-cloudless, blue sky. From their lonely ocean homes, the two buoys will send live data back to Muglias and Canals teams using satellite communications systems. Solar panels help power those systems, and flashing lights alert boats to keep a safe distance. Now, Muglia, Canals, and their colleagues and students wait impatiently for the first batch of data to stream in. Wave energy researchers and engineers are also waiting impatiently. Using high-quality data on how the ocean moves, they can design wave energy converters that are better tailored to extract energy from the motion of the ocean surface. The data can serve climate and environmental scientists, too. In the tropical Puerto Rican waters, violent winter storms and summer hurricanes can create energetic seas. Canals and his team chose their buoy site specifically for its high energy potentialthose waves pack powerbut the data can also help researchers understand how extreme wave events impact the coastal environment. So far, Canals has only lost one buoy in Puerto Ricoto Hurricane Maria. It was recovered two weeks later off the Turks and Caicos Islands. Canals, who successfully deployed his Waverider on June 15, 2021, also chose his site because the seabed lacked a significant population of benthic organismsseabed dwellers, like clams, oysters, sea stars, or sea cucumbersor sensitive habitats. Theres just sand and mud, he said, which makes it an ideal location for the anchor deployment. In Puerto Rico, the Waverider buoy can help climate scientists track how extreme wavesforged in violent winter storms and summer hurricanescan impact the coastal environment. Photos courtesy of Miguel Canals Neither Canals nor Muglia, who monitor multiple offshore buoys, have ever seen wildlife get tangled in buoy moorings. In fact, they have seen the opposite: The buoys attract shoals of slender, mud-colored Cobia and big-nosed, neon-yellow mahi-mahi, which like to swarm the bobbing devices. And the Waveriders are not just for fish and scientists. By streaming the buoys measurements to North Carolinas Jennettes Pier aquarium, which welcomes about 250,000 visitors a year, the public can walk in and see what the wave heights are, see what the water temperature is, see what the ocean surface currents look like off the coast of North Carolina, Muglia said. You can find the same data from any computer anywhere in the world: With an online data feed available through the Coastal Data Information Program, surfers like Canals and Muglia can check for dangerous currents, frigid temperatures, or flat waves before heading out on their surfboards. It can also help law enforcement navigate volatile waters to catch up with offshore lawbreakers. Even though the main purpose is for resource characterization, Canals said, the buoy will have a lot of applications for surfers, fishermen, paddleboarders, divers, law enforcement, coastal managers, and boaters. Both buoys now float near the Gulf Stream, which swings through the Gulf of Mexico (near the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System on Puerto Ricos northern coast) and hooks around Florida before heading up the east coast to Canada. With its warm and nutrient-rich waters, the Gulf Stream is a major regulator of the worlds climate, feeds marine wildlife, and helps their populations thrive, so the U.S. fishing industry can thrive, too. Still, Muglia said, What happens down here is not well understood. Those rich, energetic waters could help power coastal communities with clean energy. But, if their temperatures shift or their speedy currents slow, that could disrupt global weather and climate, potentially causing more violent storms in Europe or higher sea levels in major U.S. cities like Boston and New York. The two Waverider buoys will help both marine energy developers and climate scientists better understand these mysterious waters. For now, as he waits for the data, Muglia is guaranteed to never miss another waveeither on his surfboard or in his laboratorywith the Waverider surfing offshore. Learn more about NRELs water resource characterization research. Prosecutors in Los Angeles have declined to pursue criminal charges against the rapper T.I. and his wife, Tameka Cottle Harris, following an investigation into whether the couple drugged and sexually assaulted a woman in 2005, citing the statute of limitations, according to a document from the district attorneys office. The statute of limitations is 10 years and has expired, the Los Angeles County authorities wrote in a charge evaluation filing made public this week. Without the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence being evaluated, the case is declined due to the expiration. In May, the Los Angeles Police Department said it had opened a criminal investigation into the incident, in which a military veteran said she met the famous couple in the V.I.P. section of a Los Angeles club and became incapacitated after drinking with them. She said the couple then raped her in a hotel room. A lawyer representing the woman, who requested anonymity to protect her family, said at the time that she was among nearly a dozen people who said they had been victimized by the Atlanta-based couple or members of their entourage. In February, the lawyer, Tyrone A. Blackburn, sent letters to the law enforcement authorities in Georgia and California, calling for criminal inquiries on behalf of 11 people, including four women who accused the pair of having drugged and sexually assaulted them. A U.S.-Australia submarine deal angers France President Bidens announcement that the U.S. and Britain would help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines in the South China Sea has infuriated France, foreshadowing how conflicting American and European responses to confrontations with China may redraw the global strategic map. The deal was meant to reinforce and update alliances as strategic priorities shift. But in drawing a Pacific ally closer to meet the China challenge, Biden appears to have alienated an important European ally and aggravated already tense relations with Beijing. France reacted with outrage to the deal, about which the U.S. gave the country only a few hours notice. It is also a business matter, rendering defunct a $66 billion deal for Australia to buy French-built submarines. French officials described the exclusion of France from the partnership as a moment that would deepen an already widening rift between longstanding allies. In response, France canceled a Washington gala celebrating U.S.-French cooperation in the Revolutionary War. The governor is supposed to consider a petitioners ability to remain at liberty without violating the law as well as exceptional strides in self-development and improvement. As Governor Hochul faces that stack of documents, she has a rare opportunity to bring more order and integrity to the clemency process. For those serving life sentences for violent crimes, clemency can feel like the only way out. I cant, for example, see my parole board before serving 28 years. But in many cases, you can apply for clemency after serving half your sentence. New York prisons hold 301 people serving life sentences without a chance of parole and 6,745 with sentences that have a maximum of life, according to the corrections department. That means that more than 20 percent of prisoners in the state face the chance of dying behind bars. Yet getting clemency seems almost whimsical, with so much riding on unpredictable events like a governors sudden fall, a victims forgiveness or the representation of an effective lawyer. The process itself is opaque. In New York, the Executive Clemency Bureau, a unit of the state corrections department, receives applications and begins a review, then sends completed petitions to the governor for her to consider. But we need a panel that goes further: one that centers the voices and experiences of prisoners and their advocates. Letters of recommendation written in our clemency applications play a major role. Though civilians like college professors, religious and other volunteers are technically able to submit comments, in reality tight restrictions and red tape make it very hard for them to be our advocates. In other words, the people who know me best are unable to fully support me. Thats one of the reasons Ive never applied for clemency, even though Ive been eligible for six years. The creative writing instructor who taught the workshop in Attica that changed my life cant explain how he saw me transform my cocky convict attitude into a confident voice on the page, and how that led to a career publishing features in national magazines from prison. My sponsor in the Attica 12-step program cant relay conversations we had about what Id done and who I hope to be, and how shame and pride two sides of the same coin are in constant conflict inside me. Meanwhile, superintendents, usually former corrections officers, almost always make recommendations. But these people dont know us. Ive been incarcerated for two decades and served time in five maximum-security joints. Ive never once had a heart-to-heart conversation with a superintendent, and thats typical. Even though I dont like the word congratulations, since I dont necessarily see clemency as an earned accomplishment (I wouldnt note it on my C.V.), it stuck out to me that none of the administrators congratulated Bobby on getting clemency or wished him well. To supplement the work of the Executive Clemency Bureau, Ms. Hochul should appoint a statewide clemency advisory panel with experts in rehabilitation, re-entry and restorative justice, as well as a formerly incarcerated person. The panel could recommend the most compelling candidates for the governor to commute every quarter. This would remind my peers that redemption is being recognized regularly, and motivate them to reform. Even conservative states like South Dakota and South Carolina have boards that either make clemency decisions directly or advise the governor, resulting in more grants of clemency than in some more liberal states. The Del Rio border sector has seen high migrant traffic this year, particularly from Haitians who started arriving in much higher numbers beginning in June, when there were more than twice as many caught crossing the border illegally than in the previous month. And the numbers continued to go up in July and August, according to recent border statistics. Earlier this week, even more Haitians were caught trying to cross through the Del Rio region, a desolate 245-mile stretch of the United States border with Mexico. By Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security sent additional officers to the region to help relieve the backup, according to an official familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The government also plans to fly some of the migrants to other parts of the border that are not experiencing a surge like Del Rios. And return flights to Haiti are set to begin on Monday, as well, which the Biden administration hopes will signal to other Haitians that they should not try to cross the southern border. The administration has come under intense pressure from Republicans for its handling of the border. In recent months, Mr. Abbott instructed state law enforcement to arrest migrants for trespassing to deter illegal immigration, because, he said, the Biden administration was not. The Arc de Triomphe is many faceted. It began life as a monument to military glory. Names of Napoleons great battles are engraved across it. It was a tribute to a victorious emperor. But war is also terrible loss, as the 20th century demonstrated. In 1920, two years after World War I, the tomb of the unknown soldier was placed under the arch. The inscription on it reads: A French soldier dead for the homeland 1914-1918. An eternal flame burns. The presence of the tomb made it impossible for military parades to pass under the arch, as if to declare the futility of war. During the project the tomb was carefully respected. The people who tend to the flame every evening at 6:30 p.m. were able to complete their task. One of them told journalists Thursday that the unknown soldier has been in his shroud for 100 years. Christo left us prematurely and is now in his shroud. And I believe this temporary shroud tells us the arch is wrapped but you will see it again soon so there is a kind of unity around us. Certainly the wrapped Arc de Triomphe light, breathing, glimmering speaks of anything but war. After completing a project, Christo liked to say, We didded it! Yes he did, even from beyond the grave. Freedom is also a fierce act of the imagination. When you first designed Ed Johnsons statue, no one knew what he looked like. What did you want his face to convey? Eds visage was the most challenging part of this entire project. He made it easy in one sense because you read the story and you know what hes going through. As Im looking to construct his face, Im struggling with my own anger. But I realized I could not simply turn him into an angry Black man. If you project anger forward in terms of discourse and interaction, its just going to create more chaos. But if you project dignity forward, thats what enabled these individuals to survive all of that horror, all of that mistreatment. His eyes are rising above the situation. Hes elevated above all this. The noose is a hot spot when it comes to the question of racial injustice. I would hope that would trigger a conversation that would ask for some degree, if not of accountability, perspective. After you began, a photograph of Ed Johnson did emerge. Did you feel under pressure to change the work? Im less concerned about whether he looked like Denzel Washington or my Uncle Joe, and more with what his attitude is. For this young man to stand before this ravenous mob whos insisting that he admit guilt, and say, May God bless you all. I am a innocent man. Theres a story that transcends specific physical details. Thats what I was working on in my studio and all the sudden this photograph shows up. Half his face you cant even see. As far as Im concerned, that photograph is dubious at best. I believe I have accomplished Ed Johnson not only in his face, but also his posture. Hes walking away from that experience. His hand is extended forward so you can take his hand and have a sense of being with him. We were actually pretty concerned that people would be on their worst behavior. But for the most part, everyone is very well behaved. Everybodys excited to talk to the bartenders, and talk to us, because theyve missed talking to people other than their friends and family for so long. There have been a lot of regulars coming back I knew their faces before, and was sort of familiar with them, but everybodys gotten closer, because nobody wants to take that social interaction for granted. One of the nice things that actually makes my job a little bit easier on the technical side is that bands havent played in a really, really loud environment for a long time. Theyre playing quieter than they once did, which brings the whole noise floor down onstage. Most of us are coming back with a fresh perspective after spending many months not working at all. When bands would load in, it used to feel like sort of a hassle but now, whenever we have a band loaded, Im excited for the running around, and lifting heavy things, and crazy things like that. It reminds me that were back at it. Don Muzquiz, production manager for Alanis Morissette Part of my job is to avoid surprises. Its not about the noise, or the news, or the propaganda or whatever you want to believe or want to support. Its about if anybody gets sick or not. Everythings affected, because as we go into a city youre having to involve a lot of local workers at the venues. Some artists that have been touring regularly have slimmed down their production. Every tour is going to have their own restrictions or their own requests, but we are requesting that all locals staff be vaccinated, and that everybody wear masks throughout the day, vaccinated or not. Its just taking every precaution youre trying to protect as much as you can, because youve got a lot of people traveling together in confined spaces, on your buses. I think the biggest thing for everybody is that the access to backstage is going to be almost zero, in terms of anybody thats not working. Any sort of visitation from anybody thats not on the working personnel or touring staff, its probably just not going to happen. Theres no fluff, no extra people, not one guy thats just out there to carry towels around. I cant speak for everybody, but I think the overall feeling is that the artists are excited to get back to what they love. If theres any nervousness, its really about just being able to make it through the tour without there being an issue. In total, with opening acts, were about 85 people traveling together, and were having to interact with local workers daily in different cities every day. The goal is to not get anybody sick, because then its just a domino effect. Always astute observers of the depersonalization of modern life, Parquet Courts on Sympathy raises an eyebrow at such ubiquitous conveniences as one-touch food delivery apps and household appliances that speak soothingly, like a mothers voice. (Siri, can you set my alarm clock for noon tomorrow?) But the band still ultimately finds a hard-earned optimism in both the strange experience of being human and newly treasured delights like the smile on an unmasked friend. Ten years into its career, Sympathy is proof that Parquet Courts is still finding new digital-era crazes to skewer and new ways to evolve its sound. Over on the opposite coast, an artist finally ready for her breakout moment is the 25-year-old California-based star-in-waiting Remi Wolf, a colorful funk-pop phenom with a soaring voice and personality to spare. Her debut album, Juno (out Oct. 15 on Island Records and named after her beloved dog), is eclectic, catchy and relentlessly unpredictable. You never quite know whats going to come out of Wolfs mouth next aint no Chuck E. Cheese in Los Feliz, for one and whether it will be rapped, crooned or belted to the rafters in a voice that got her all the way to Hollywood on the 13th season of American Idol. Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. Ill Introduce You to Nicki Minajs Cousins Friend The YouTube personality Logan Paul called out Jimmy Kimmel this week for referring to him and Donald Trump as the very worst people in the world during a recent broadcast. Kimmel apologized on Thursday night to Paul, who affectionately referred to him as J.K. during his complaint and said hed opened up to Kimmel about missing a testicle. Oh, come on now. Had I known you fondly called me J.K. I never would have said any of that stuff, Kimmel said. Fall television returns to normal this year after the pandemic wipeout of 2020, with the broadcast networks presenting their usual full schedules. But whats normal these days? Serial killers, for one thing, in Chucky, You and Dexter: New Blood. On the other hand, perhaps reflecting a cultural turn toward the serious, there are star-laden dramas drawn from topical nonfiction books: Our Kind of People, Maid, Dopesick, The Shrink Next Door. But nothing is more normal this fall than a new version of something youve seen before. There are revivals that pick up where shows or film franchises left off: CSI: Vegas, Dexter: New Blood and Chucky again. There are new members of existing TV universes: NCIS: Hawaii, FBI: International, Star Wars: Visions and the Yellowstone prequel 1883. And there are the pure nostalgia plays, straight remakes of shows of a certain age: The Wonder Years, Highway to Heaven, Dalgliesh, Cowboy Bebop. The titles of Bob Woodwards three books about the Trump administration Fear, Rage and now Peril are appropriately blunt. The books, about the staccato stream of events that accompanied Donald Trumps time in office, are written at a mostly staccato clip. The frantic pace is redoubled in Peril, written with Robert Costa, Woodwards colleague at The Washington Post. Broken up into 72 short chapters, it hurtles through the past two years of dizzying news. But while it covers the 2020 campaign season and the course of the pandemic and the protests after George Floyds murder and the opening months of Joseph Bidens presidency, the books centerpiece is the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and its primary concern is how President Trump behaved in the lead-up to and the aftermath of that crisis. Books in this genre like to make news, and this one doesnt waste any time. Its opening pages recount how last October and again in January, after the riot, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had secret conversations with his Chinese counterparts to assure them that the United States was 100 percent steady, despite what they might be seeing and hearing. Everythings fine, he told them, but democracy can be sloppy sometimes. The Chinese were concerned that Trump might lash out on a global scale in a desperate attempt to secure his power. Milley went over the process for nuclear strikes and other acts of war with his colleagues, to make sure nothing was instigated without his awareness. He was, Woodward and Costa write, overseeing the mobilization of Americas national security state without the knowledge of the American people or the rest of the world. Thomas Mann was just 26 years old when the publication of his first novel, Buddenbrooks, placed him in the front rank of German writers. He relished this position, but over the next decade produced little else to justify it. He was nearing 40 before he completed another great work, Death in Venice, a novella about an aging writer whose fascination with a beautiful young Polish boy keeps him on vacation even as a cholera epidemic descends. Mann started almost immediately on a second novella that would reproduce Death in Venices theme the strange allure of decadence, illness and death in a comic mode. He was working on this companion piece in 1914, when the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand set into motion the events that would begin World War I. Like many educated Europeans of the time, Mann didnt quite believe that the continent would descend into all-out war, but he greeted the possibility with a certain amount of excitement. When the worst arrived, he set aside the comic novella to perform a war service, using thought as a weapon. This took the form of a long essay, Thoughts in Wartime, in which he expressed the need for a European catastrophe: Deep in our hearts we felt that the world, our world, could no longer go on as it had. By the time Mann published the essay, in November 1914 alongside a historical study of Frederick the Great and Voltaire that doubled as a defense of German militarism in its contest with French rationality most observers recognized the war as a moral and human disaster, and the response to this intervention was scathing. Among the harshest critics was Manns older brother, the novelist Heinrich Mann, who published a historical study of his own, ostensibly about Emile Zola and the Dreyfus Affair but really a defense of liberal democracy and a declaration of the politically engaged writers responsibility within it. Heinrich didnt mention his brother explicitly, but in a passage on creative maturity he speculated that writers who make their debut in their early 20s are likely to dry out young. Mann spent the bulk of the war years stewing over this offense and composing an extended self-justification, Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, which he completed just in time for the armistice. Recently reissued by New York Review Books with an introduction by Mark Lilla, Reflections is a strange, frequently off-putting book, a 500-page assault on democracy, enlightenment and reason that is also an act of petty score-settling, written in a frothing tone completely at odds with the stately irony for which Mann is remembered. And yet, at the moment, the book feels not just worthy of our attention but somehow indispensable. A new report from the U.N. climate agency says that, even if all countries reduce emissions by as much as theyve promised, the global average temperature is poised to rise 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. That would worsen extreme wildfires, droughts and floods, increase the frequency of deadly heat waves and threaten coastal cities with rising sea levels. The report found a large gap between what is needed and what world leaders have been willing to do. Emissions of planet-warming gases are poised to grow by 16 percent during this decade compared with 2010 levels; the latest scientific research indicates that they need to decrease by at least 25 percent to avert the worst impacts of global warming. We also looked at why much of Louisiana lost power for days after Hurricane Ida: Many of the states power lines, towers and poles were not built to withstand strong hurricanes, experts said. The storm damaged eight high-voltage transmission lines that supply power to New Orleans along with scores of the companys towers throughout the state. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were without power for days. Ida damaged or destroyed 31,000 poles that carry lower-voltage distribution lines in neighborhoods, nearly twice as many as Hurricane Katrina, according to Entergy. Lawmakers and regulators require utilities to ensure safe, reliable service at an affordable cost. The grid failure after Ida is the latest display of how power companies are struggling to fulfill those obligations as climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather. In California, electricity providers have been forced to shut off power to tens of thousands of customers in recent years to prevent their equipment from setting off wildfires and to reduce energy demand during heat waves. In February, the grid in most of Texas failed during a winter storm, leaving millions of people without power and heat for days. While Entergy has been upgrading its transmission network to bear wind speeds in excess of 140 miles per hour, a lot of its transmission equipment in and around New Orleans was built to withstand wind gusts of around 110 miles per hour, or a Category 2 storm, according to an analysis of regulatory filing and other company records by McCullough Research, a consulting firm based in Portland, Ore., that advises power companies and government agencies. Entergy said that analysis was inaccurate but wouldnt say how many of its transmission structures were built to withstand 150 mile-per-hour winds. The company has said that its towers met the safety standards in place at the time of installation but older standards often assumed wind speeds well below 150 m.p.h. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a professional group whose guidelines are widely followed by utilities and other industries, recommends that power companies that operate in areas vulnerable to hurricanes install equipment that can withstand major storms and return service quickly when systems fail. In coastal areas of Louisiana, for example, it says large transmission equipment should be designed to withstand winds of 150 m.p.h. Concern over the impact of high energy prices in Britain reached a new level on Friday when the countrys meat industry warned that supplies of chicken, beef and pork could be hit. The British Meat Processors Association said that the recent shutdown of fertilizer plants in Britain and elsewhere in Europe because of soaring natural gas prices threatened to create shortages of carbon dioxide, which is widely used in the industrial food business. A spokesman for the meat processors said that carbon dioxide is used to stun animals like pigs and chickens before they are slaughtered, under regulations intended to protect animal welfare. The gas is also injected into meat packaging to extend the shelf life in supermarkets. The group said in a statement that once current stocks of carbon dioxide run out it estimated there were less than 14 days left some companies would need to stop taking animals and close production lines. Ms. Georgieva addressed the controversy at the outset of the meeting, reiterating her public statement that she fundamentally disagrees with the characterizations in the report and insisting that the inquiry would not be a distraction. She did not litigate the details of the allegations, but she said that asking staff to double-check something was not the same as pressuring it to change data, methodology or an outcome. Neither in this case nor before or after have I put pressure on staff to manipulate data. I would ask staff to please check, double-check, triple-check, but never change, never manipulate what the data tells us, she said. Why? Because I believe so strongly in the value of credible data and analysis that leads to policy recommendations for the benefit of our members. For the benefit of people. Ms. Georgieva expressed remorse that the inquiry had caused an uproar, but she insisted that it would not be a distraction. It is my responsibility that this does not interfere with the incredibly important work we do, she said. So lets focus on that work, and that is what the focus of the discussion we will have today is all about. According to the World Bank investigation, which was conducted by the law firm WilmerHale at the request of the banks ethics committee, officials in 2017 were concerned about negotiations with members over a capital increase and were under pressure not to anger China, which was ranked 78th on the list of countries that year and was set to decline in the 2018 report. Virgin Voyages, a joint venture between Bain Capital and Richard Bransons Virgin Group, made its United States debut this week, more than a year later than scheduled. Ryan Cotton, the head of the consumer and retail group at Bain, spoke with the DealBook newsletter about the venture and the prospects for the cruise industry, which has been upended by the pandemic. The industry has been desperate to get operations rolling again. Three of the worlds largest cruise operators Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line together lost nearly $900 million a month during the pandemic, the credit rating agency Moodys reported. Some companies, like Norwegian, have staged battles with government officials in states like Florida, a hub for the industry, over legislation barring businesses from requiring proof of vaccinations from customers. But still missing are new pledges from 70 countries, including China, which currently produces the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as Saudi Arabia and India, both large economies with a significant climate footprint. Brazil, Mexico and Russia submitted new pledges that have weaker emissions targets than their previous ones. All those pledges, taken together, are far short of whats needed to limit global temperature rise to levels that would avert the worst impacts of warming, the report confirms. When it was reached in 2015, the Paris Agreement set a target of limiting average temperature rise compared with preindustrial levels to well below 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of the century. Since then, because of advances in research, the scientific consensus is that the rise needs to be limited to 1.5 degrees C; beyond that threshold, there is a far greater likelihood of devastating consequences, like widespread crop failures and collapse of the polar ice sheets. So far, global temperatures have risen about 1 degree C since the late 19th century. For its part, the United States, which has produced the largest share of global emissions since the beginning of the industrial age, has pledged to cut its emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, a target that is shy of the commitments of the European Union and Britain. But it is already proving to be difficult, especially politically, and it remains to be seen whether Mr. Biden will be able to persuade members of Congress to support major climate legislation before he goes to the international climate talks in November. At the White House meeting Friday, known as the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, Mr. Biden implored the leaders of nine countries and the European Commission to act faster and more aggressively to slash greenhouse gases. He also announced that the United States and Europe have pledged to help reduce methane emissions 30 percent globally by 2030 and asked other nations to join that effort. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. I need to tell you the consequences of inaction, Mr. Biden said. Pointing to recent extreme weather events including hurricanes, floods and wildfires around the country, flooding across Germany and Belgium, fires raging in Australia and Russia, and a record temperature in the Arctic Circle, Mr. Biden told leaders: We dont have a lot of time. Her label, The Color Collector, which has made small amounts of gamay in a juicy, floral, thirst-quenching style, along with other similarly accessible wines, is in transition. A few years ago she bought 20 acres, half evergreen forest and half meadow, on a hillside outside of White Salmon on the Washington side. So far she has planted an acre of chasselas, an alpine white grape, and will put in an acre of gamay this fall, all to be farmed biodynamically. To help finance her label, she also works two days a week at a wine shop in Portland, where she has a room. Or she stays at the apartment of her partner, Dan Mahr, in Hood River, across the river in Oregon. But mostly she lives in a tiny, 198-square-foot house, a former artists studio, that she bought on Craigs List and brought in on a trailer. She had to truck in water until she got a permit to drill a well. She installed an outhouse, put in solar panels and bee hives, and chain-sawed wine barrels in half to serve as planters for herbs and tomatoes. From her miniature front porch, she can gaze at gorgeous starry nights and Mount Hood, which Mr. Mahr said is looking a little bony as its once copious glaciers recede under climate change. Her first harvest of chasselas wont be ready to taste until 2023, if all goes well, but I anticipate good things. Her past wines have been lovely, and Ms. Kimmel embodies the curiosity, idealism and determination of a group that sees the Gorge as a place to live out dreams. LaVonne Borsheims family could not understand why she was suffering such intense pain. Ms. Borsheim, 86, had long contended with rheumatoid arthritis and other health problems, including hip and knee replacements and heart failure. Her husband, Roger, cared for her in their small house in suburban Minneapolis, meticulously administering the prescribed daily OxyContin and oxycodone that allowed her to remain active, to ride a tandem bicycle with him and to stay involved with their Lutheran church. But in 2018 Ms. Borsheim underwent ankle surgery and a subsequent operation to treat a resulting infection. Released from the hospital with regular home health visits, she began an alarming decline. Her daughter Kari Shaw recalled one of their daily calls: Dad said, I think were losing Mom. Shes really diminishing. Somnolent much of the day, Ms. Borsheim was walking into walls and slumping over at the dinner table. At other times, her pain grew so intense that she was begging God to take her, Ms. Shaw said. Nobody suspected any wrongdoing by their apparently devoted new home health nurse, who picked up Ms. Borsheims prescriptions at the pharmacy and filled her pill pack. But when Mr. Borsheim took his wife to a pain clinic, blood and urine tests revealed no opioids in her system. I had read accounts that Lucille aspired to be a writer, but my research uncovered that she actually was a writer. With Gayls support, Lucille Jones published stories and novels late in life, and in Lucilles writing we can see how much the daughter must have learned from the mother: They each use vernacular language, along with the Southern gothic tradition, as the raw stuff of art. They are not pious about content, but they are committed to finding meaning in the most mundane events. The resonances between their work made me think about how, in Black English, we often call our childhood home my mamas house, even if our father lives there, too. The mother conventionally builds the space for us to come of age and Jones still lives in her mothers house, figuratively and literally. They were peers, and Gayls life has been a harvest of and homage to Lucilles. It does not seem that Lucille Jones was a tragically frustrated artist like the women Alice Walker wrote about in her famous essay In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, oppressed and silenced Black women who turned into witches out of necessity. Lucille Jones seems more like Emily Dickinson with a Black Southern womans life story. Gayl Jones would achieve great recognition yet follow directly in her mothers footsteps: a quiet interior genius. According to the Kentucky poet laureate and professor Crystal Wilkinson, the Joneses were a private family. She told me that childhood neighbors describe Gayl and her brother as never playing with the other kids, though they sometimes passed a ball over the fence between the Jones home and theirs. Wilkinson speculates that this may have had something to do with the fact that they were cautious about Lexingtons urban ways. Or maybe the taciturnity was just a family idiosyncrasy. Franklin Sr. was a cook, and Lucille was a homemaker. They grew up in the Kentucky cities of Midway and Frankfort. Frankfort was a learned community, with one of the highest concentrations of Black teachers in the state during Jim Crow. Gayl Jones visited her grandmother there often and benefited from both a formally educated community and a rich body of family lore, including stories about a great-grandfather who founded a settlement after Reconstruction bearing his name, Warthumtown. Jones was raised with a strong sense of the importance of having a place of ones own. Jones described her years in a segregated school as intellectually nurturing. When it came to high school, however, Lucille sent Gayl and her brother to be among the handful of Black students at Henry Clay High School. There, according to an English teacher, Sue Anne Allen, Gayl was a friendless student of exceptional intellect. Her Spanish teacher and mentor, Anna Dodd, alerted the established writer and Lexington native Elizabeth Hardwick about Gayl. Hardwick in turn facilitated Gayls admission to the small, elite Connecticut College, where she studied with the distinguished poets William Meredith and Robert Hayden. Meredith became a mentor to Jones. Even as a young student, he noted, she knew what she was doing as a writer. This is what I came to know, too, as I pored over finding aids of multiple libraries, looking for Gayl Jones. I found through the Connecticut College special collections that Jones corresponded regularly with Meredith, and found that he, a gay white Frost scholar, was a part of a Black literary community. He and Jones were close, often exchanging letters about craft and the minutiae of life. Their exchanges reveal her playful personality as well as her serious mission. Like many other writers, she grappled with the question of inheritances. Like a few, she was interested in the thread of connection between Black people across the New World, including the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations. She loved Latin American literature. Distinctly, however, she focused on nonidyllic love and a skepticism toward motherhood. In 1970, when Jones was an undergraduate at Connecticut College, her work was included in an anthology, Soulscript, which was edited by the Black feminist writer June Jordan, one of William Merediths friends. Jones is in the first section, which is dedicated to younger writers. Her poem, Tripart, offers a sense of what she must have thought about the scene at Connecticut College: a very friendly prison this is white kids discussing politics and suddenly your nerves have a finished form (half-digested rage) And later in the same poem: connecticut has trees and white has two faces ... Whatever her ambivalence was about the college, Jones flourished. She received the Frances Steloff Award for her short story The Roundhouse in 1970 and then matriculated at Brown University for a doctorate in creative writing. At Brown, she studied with another poet, Michael Harper, who was known as one of the great chroniclers of Black history and culture. He would become her closest mentor. In 1974, Harper sent a box of Joness writing to his friend Toni Morrison, who was then an editor at Random House. Morrison wasnt delighted. Every time I looked at it, my heart sank, and I wondered who would be so callous as to send me all of the literary output of a student and expect a reasonable response. The presence of this box intimidated me and finally it threatened me. One Saturday morning, however, Morrison had a few hours before taking her sons to some afternoon activity. She opened the box, planning to make a quick assessment of what was wrong with the writing. Several editors had already passed on Joness work. But once Morrison began reading one of the short novels inside, Corregidora, she was transfixed. She described the experience in an essay about Jones written for Mademoiselle magazine: This girl had changed the terms, the definitions of the whole enterprise. So deeply impressed was I that I hadnt time to be offended by the fact that she was 24 and had no right to know so much so well. She had written a story that thought the unthinkable: that talked about the female requirement to make generations as an active, even violent political act. In a blurb for the book, James Baldwin called it the most brutally honest and painful revelation of what has occurred, and is occurring, in the souls of Black men and women. In the world of The Sopranos, theres family, and then theres family those hard-won, deep-seated mob ties that make spiritual relations of every member of the Italian American mafia. Over the course of six seasons, that acclaimed HBO drama introduced us to several dozen members of New Jerseys powerful DiMeo crime family, including its brilliant and fascinating kingpin, Tony Soprano, and the various uncles, cousins, rivals and lovers who fill out the engrossing drama of the characters fraught, volatile life. The Many Saints of Newark is a prequel, set roughly 30 years before the start of the show, beginning in the late 1960s and spanning half a decade. Billed as a Tony Soprano origin story, it instead focuses largely on Dickie Moltisanti, a close friend and associate of the family who, seeing great potential in Tony, takes the young Soprano boy under his wing. Many Saints is a treat for Sopranos fans, full of subtle references to series lore and answers to longstanding questions, and its a delight to see younger versions of familiar faces. But the movie doesnt make much of an effort to explain characters or their relationships to the uninitiated, and if its been a while since your last Sopranos binge, you may find it difficult to place each and every member of the family. Update: Security camera footage revealed new details about the altercation at Carmines. It began as a simple request that is becoming part of New Yorks pandemic routine: A hostess at a popular Italian restaurant on Manhattans Upper West Side asked three would-be customers for proof that they had been vaccinated as required for those seeking to dine indoors. But the encounter quickly escalated, as the customers, women from Texas, became irate and refused to provide the proof needed to enter the restaurant, Carmines, the police and a restaurant spokesman said. The hostess offered to seat them outdoors, where such proof is not required. It just erupted from there, said Jeffrey Bank, the chief executive of Alicart Restaurant Group, which owns Carmines. The tourists began to punch the hostess, who is 24, leaving her bruised and scratched and breaking her necklace. She was evaluated at a hospital and is now resting at home, Mr. Bank said. Why was Midtown hit so hard? Midtown was at risk because its real-estate inventory consists mainly of offices and hotels and hotels were devastated because tourists stayed home. By contrast, said Jeffrey Roseman, a retail real estate broker with Newmark, If you think of other office-centric areas, whether all the way downtown or Flatiron or Hudson Yards, there is a lot of residential surrounding those areas that helped sustain those markets. Even the huge Empire State Building faces uncertainty. A Times survey found that tenants representing 41 percent of the space there said that the norm when they return to the office would be a hybrid model. Among those tenants is LinkedIn, the Empire State Buildings biggest tenant, which leases 10 full floors and part of another, paying at least $26 million in rent annually. At the same time, there are some newcomers, attracted by record-low retail rents. The burger chain Sonic signed a lease for its first restaurant in the city, replacing a Pax Wholesome Foods location in Midtown. And some chain restaurants have adapted to what they hope is a post-Covid world. Gone for now from the Bryant Park location of Le Pain Quotidien are the long communal tables that used to be a signature of the chain. A remodeling next year will make room for more refrigerated cases with grab-and-go salads, sandwiches and drinks. And an app is designed to smooth preordering for pickup. But Stephen Smittle, the chains senior vice president for operations, said some customers long for the way things were before the pandemic. We used QR codes for guests to look at the menu as we tried to limit the contact of surfaces, he said, but the majority of our guests want to hold a real menu. They very much want to feel normal. They want a server. They want to hold a cup of coffee, not a paper cup. Weather Before a promising, mostly sunny weekend arrives, the chance of showers will continue with temps in the mid-70s during the day. Theyll drop to the high 60s at night. Tonight will be the last time the sun sets at 7 p.m. or later in New York until March 13, notes New York Metro Weather. Earlier entries into this space so-called wearables came out about a decade ago. Those include Fitbit, Nike+, Jawbone UP, the Oura Ring and Whoop. And we cant forget the all-purpose Apple Watch, which ended up besting them all with close to 34 million devices sold in 2020. I have owned every one of these and took to calling them unwearables, since they came and went like the latest cooking gadget. I have a drawer at home with three Apple Watches, four Fitbits, an Oura Ring and so, so many UPs, as well as others Ive lost track of. Besides being mostly bulky, their overall efficacy escaped me. While its nice to know my step count, or my sleep patterns, the payoff for wearing these devices, as if I were some kind of pet experiment to tech, was minimal. That is largely because other than getting links to articles that would help me understand that I should sleep more than four hours a night (duh) or buzzing reminders to stand up more during the workday (double duh) most of these apps never gave me what I consider truly actionable information. There have been some more helpful signals of late that wearables will become more useful, including some evidence that indicates that devices like Oura might be able to see some illnesses early, using data from things like heart rate variability and body temperature; some may even be able to pick up early indications of Covid. One important feature of C.G.M. devices is that they offer data that may be useful. Knowing your steps, for example, is interesting, but that information tells you little about how the steps impact your body. Its the same for a range of other data you might get from monitoring devices all informative, but mostly lacking insight that you can use to make changes. With a C.G.M. device, you can see how your body reacts to specific foods. In my case, the device knew that pita bread was evil incarnate for me shooting my glucose numbers off the charts. It gave specific data about what I felt an inevitable energy crash whenever I ate bread in the morning, even as I craved it. Levels co-founder and chief medical officer, Casey Means, called bread blood sugar bombs. People with diabetes have long used C.G.M. monitors for just these reasons, but now everyone is the market. When I talked with Means over Zoom, she reeled off some anonymized data from 6,000 beta users there are over 100,000 on a wait list that shows the foods that impact most people badly. Along with cake, bagels and cookies, some of the big surprises have been granola, oatmeal and even potatoes. Worst takeout: Pizza, Chinese and Thai. To the Editor: Re Idaho Imposes Its Covid Crisis on a Neighbor (front page, Sept. 14): Stories like this infuriate me. We know now that most of those Covid cases that are overstuffing Idahos hospitals and spilling over into neighboring states involve those who refuse to be vaccinated. People with heart attacks or strokes and victims of auto accidents are dying or having their lives threatened because there is no room in a hospital for them because of the anti-vaxxers filling the wards. My wife and I followed all the rules, but got infected anyway. We toughed it out at home, surviving on Tylenol. Admittedly, we were among the lucky ones who survived without hospitalization or the medications that the famous and rich have received, and we have had few aftereffects. But I would wish it on no one. So, if you believe Covid is a hoax and that the vaccine is a plot against you and you get infected, do the intelligent people a favor and stay out of our hospitals. After all, youre tough and you know its all a hoax. The couple that has the property the well is on now, they I work with their daughter and she says that Mom and Dad really feel bad about this all happening, Mr. Crawley explained. His wife chimed in, Theyre very upset. Hes afraid everybody would blame him. Mr. Crawley emphasized that his major concern with this whole deal is somebody harassing his neighbors or camping out on their property. The idea was not as outlandish as it might sound. Mrs. Crawley recalled driving past the Riverdale Mobile Home Park, whose residents were being forced out to make way for a facility that would withdraw water from the river to frack gas wells, in the summer of 2012 and seeing a bunch of picketers from out of the area that just came in and camped up there as part of what supporters called Occupy Riverdale. As Mr. Crawley put it, These people have no interest in this area other than creating a stink. Mrs. Crawley shook her head in disgust, Just like over there in Susquehanna County when Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon came out. She was referring to a tour bus that Artists Against Fracking had chartered in January, 2013 to ferry celebrities and journalists from New York City to the area to publicize cases of alleged contamination. Do you have the right to come protesting in my area because of something thats not going to affect you and you live 100, 200 miles away?, Mr. Crawley asked of the so-called fractivists. He wondered how many of them live in a high-rise building thats heated by gas. Indeed, sociological research indicates that anti-fracking activism is not, for the most part, NIMBYism its largely a not in your backyard movement spearheaded by progressives living in urban and coastal areas (most fracking occurs in the heartland, and most people who live there support it). One might think that rural support for fracking can be explained solely through selfishness: Landowners (including the Crawleys) received compensation for leasing their subsurface mineral rights to petroleum companies, and fracking is purported to lift the economies of struggling areas where factories have closed. But what I found so striking about the Crawleys was that they insisted they were not against fracking, even after they came out losers in the fracking lottery. They turned that idea into a piece of hardware that is now flying in space in about half a year. They refined the concept, explored different materials, built it and then tested it to make sure it wouldnt crack or leak in space. Just the greater interior space could conceivably have changed thermal and structural properties of the rest of the spacecraft, so engineers made sure that no such issues arose. All those little details, Mr. Reed said. But you do the same thing for any new component or any new substance that you put on Dragon. The International Space Station also has a cupola, and it is bigger than the one that the Inspiration4 crew is looking out of. But the one on the space station consists of several panes within a metal frame. The continuous glass of the Crew Dragon cupola provides an unobstructed view. In an Axios podcast about the mission, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who leads Inspiration4, said the first time he looked out of it, when it was still on the ground at SpaceX headquarters in California, the effect was surprising. Antony Hewish, a pioneer of radio astronomy and a discoverer of a surprising class of stars known as pulsars, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize, died on Monday. He was 97. His death was announced by the University of Cambridge in England, where he had taught for many years. The announcement did not say where he died. Pulsars, or pulsating radio stars, are the embers of massive stars that have exploded as supernovas. Dr. Hewish built a radio telescope that, though designed for other purposes, happened to have just the right properties to detect rapidly varying radio waves the signature emission of pulsars. He shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics with another radio astronomer, Martin Ryle, his longtime friend and collaborator at Cambridge. But the Nobel committees citation of Dr. Hewish, for his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars, attracted criticism. The astronomer Fred Hoyle noted that the signals from the first two pulsars had in fact been detected and analyzed by Jocelyn Bell, a 24-year-old Cambridge graduate student who was working on the new telescope. Dr. Hewish was her supervisor and doctoral thesis adviser. Like the Top Gun character, the four astronauts orbiting Earth have their own call signs. Jared Isaacman, the billionaire underwriting the mission, has flown fighter jets and already had a call sign: Rook, short for rookie. As part of the training for flying to orbit, Mr. Isaacman took his crewmates up in the air for fighter jet flights so they could experience high-G forces during sharp turns. As a toddler, she had learned not to count on a sense of ease or confidence. Ms. Edwards was born in the Bronx, where she lived in the Co-Op City housing development until she was 2. She and her mother, Verona Dodd Wright, an immigrant from Jamaica, then moved to Pinellas Park, Fla. Her father, Milton S. Clarke, was a New York Police Department auxiliary officer. In 1993, he was killed by a gunman in the Bronx. Mr. Clarke, who was off duty at the time, had heard shots fired and went to investigate. Ms. Edwards never met her father. I never knew he was a policeman, and nobody really knew about me, she said. By the time he died, just before she turned 8, her mother had helped her contact Mr. Clarke. The buds of a father-daughter relationship were forming, but too late. I remember he told me something was coming in the mailbox for my birthday. He died before he got it to the post office. Im still obsessed with checking the mailbox, Ms. Edwards said. The fallout hasnt kept her from learning how to manage trauma. In 2008, she was sexually assaulted by a stranger as a student at Florida State University. Just after, she read about incidents of untested rape kits and became vocal about having hers tested right away. In 2012, Michelle Obama invited her to the White House; in 2014, she was asked to participate in listening sessions for the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. She now serves on the board of the DC Rape Crisis Center. Ms. Edwards graduated from Florida State in 2010 with a degree in African American studies and museum studies. Five years later, she earned a masters degree in public administration from Washington Adventist University. Around the same time, she started working for the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture, where she is now a curatorial research assistant. I think I first heard the museum would be opening when I was 20, and I knew I wanted to work there, she said. Ive always loved museums. I was persistent. SAN FRANCISCO Apple, known among its Silicon Valley peers for a secretive corporate culture in which workers are expected to be in lock step with management, is suddenly facing an issue that would have been unthinkable a few years ago: employee unrest. On Friday, Tim Cook, Apples chief executive, answered questions from workers in an all-staff meeting for the first time since the public surfacing of employee concerns over topics ranging from pay equity to whether the company should assert itself more on political matters like Texas restrictive abortion law. Mr. Cook answered only two of what activist employees said were a number of questions they had wanted to ask in a meeting broadcast to employees around the world, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times. But his response was a notable acknowledgment that the workplace and social issues that have been roiling Silicon Valley for several years have taken root at Apple. Over the past month, more than 500 people who said they were current and former Apple employees have submitted accounts of verbal abuse, sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination at work, among other issues, to an employee-activist group that calls itself #AppleToo, said Cher Scarlett and Janneke Parrish, two Apple employees who help lead the group. The reserve, which is about 13 miles north of North Port, is a public park owned by Sarasota County that is home to a diverse array of wildlife including feral hogs, alligators and panthers. On Saturday, the reserves website warned that most of the parks 80 miles of hiking trails were flooded. There has also been some unusual fire caused by lightning, said Russell Johnson, a longtime volunteer with the park. All in all, this is the worst time of the year for visiting the Carlton, he said. Mr. Taylor told reporters that more than 50 police officers were searching for Mr. Laundrie on foot, on all-terrain vehicles and with the help of dogs. He described the conditions as wet and muddy and said the park had been closed to the public while the police searched. Mr. Taylor said Mr. Laundries life could be in danger, but he did not specify how. I think thats fair to say, he said. There is an enormous amount of pressure on him to provide answers on whats going on here. Mr. Taylor said that when Mr. Laundries family contacted the police on Saturday they did not share any information about Gabby or what Mr. Laundrie may have told them about her whereabouts. Their focus was giving the police information they would need to help us locate their son, Mr. Taylor told Fox 13 News. In a statement on Friday night, Mr. Taylor said the police, who have been under public pressure for days to question Mr. Laundrie, were frustrated that he was gone. For six days, the North Port Police Department and the F.B.I. have been pleading with the family to contact investigators regarding Brians fiancee, Gabby Petito, he wrote. Friday is the first time they have spoken with investigators in detail. MICHAEL: There was this feeling that life would go back to normal, except that it was warm. Wed pick up where we left off in February 2020. There were all these predictions of, Its going to be a bacchanal in the city. For a while, it felt like that. People were out. Everyone was doing their thing, everyone was outside, everyone was ready to have fun. There was this sense of: I have to go out now. If I dont go out now, what was all that for? What were parties like in terms of virus regulations? JULIA: You are talking to two queer reporters who live in New York City, so we do have a bias. The center of gay New York nightlife, that peaked around Pride. In June, there were the test parties. There were some events where people were keeping their masks on. There were some events where it was entirely outside. There were different ways that people were finding their sweet spot of, This feels like a party, and I feel safe. I dont think it was as simple for everyone as: Im vaccinated, Im taking off my mask and Im going into the warehouse. When did things start to change? MICHAEL: July was when things started to get a little rocky. We started to hear about all these breakthrough cases, especially in Provincetown, Mass. There was a sense that vaccination was not a get-out-of-jail-free card anymore. Thats when youd start talking to people and say, Hey, are you going to this thing? And theyd say: I dont know. Im going to see my parents in a week and now the Delta variant is here. Im not going to go. That was a very last-summer energy to bring to the table. WASHINGTON A key advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly rejected recommending Pfizer booster shots for most recipients of the companys coronavirus vaccine, instead endorsing them only for people who are 65 or older or at high risk of severe Covid-19, and received their second dose at least six months ago. The vote the first on boosters in the United States was a blow to the Biden administrations strategy to make extra shots available to most fully vaccinated adults in the United States eight months after they received a second dose. The broader rollout was to start next week. Committee members appeared dismissive of the argument that the general population needed booster shots, saying the data from Pfizer and elsewhere still seemed to show two shots protected against severe disease or hospitalization and did not prove a third shot would stem the spread of infection. Some also criticized a lack of data that an additional injection would be safe for younger people. Its unclear that everyone needs to be boosted, other than a subset of the population that clearly would be at high risk for serious disease, said Dr. Michael G. Kurilla, a committee member and official at the National Institutes of Health. Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado married his longtime partner, Marlon Reis, in a traditional Jewish ceremony on Wednesday, the first time a sitting governor has had a same-sex wedding. It was another first for Mr. Polis, 46, who was the first openly gay man to become a governor when he was elected in 2018. In a statement on Facebook on Thursday, he said the wedding was a small ceremony attended by family and a few close friends. We are both excited for this new chapter in our lives together, and our hearts are full with the blessings of health, love, and family, he said. Mr. Polis and Mr. Reis, a writer and animal rights activist, have been together for 18 years and were engaged in December, according to the governors office. They have two children, ages 7 and 9. WASHINGTON President Biden on Friday announced that the United States and Europe have pledged to work to cut global methane emissions by a third in the coming decade and urged other nations to join their effort to curb a potent greenhouse gas that is warming the planet. In a virtual meeting hosted by the White House that included nine heads of state, the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and ministers from a handful of other countries, Mr. Biden called the methane target an ambitious but realistic goal that the United States will help developing countries meet. The effort comes less than two months before a United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland where all nations will be expected to announce more ambitious efforts over the next decade to cut the emissions that primarily arise from burning fossil fuels. Scientists say the world needs to sharply pivot away from oil, gas and coal or suffer catastrophic impacts from climate change. Jan. 6 defendants havent been treated more harshly than racial justice protesters. The assertion has become a staple on the right: Trump supporters were charged with violent crimes in the Capitol attack because of their conservative beliefs while many leftist activists had similar charges stemming from the racial justice protests last year in cities like Portland, Ore., reduced or dismissed. This summer, a Jan. 6 defendant named Garret Miller filed court papers making that argument. Mr. Miller, who lives in Dallas, claimed he had been treated differently by the government than the Portland rioters based upon the politics involved, his lawyer wrote. In rebutting these claims, the government argued there was no comparison between the protests last year prompted by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the storming of the Capitol. While prosecutors acknowledged that those arrested during weeks of unrest at the Portland federal courthouse had committed serious offenses, they insisted that the rioters in Washington were involved in a singular and chilling event that threatened not only the Capitol but also democracy itself. Trying to explain why many cases in the racial justice protests were eventually dismissed, prosecutors also said they have much better evidence against Capitol rioters like Mr. Miller than they ever had against protesters in Portland. Among the material they collected after Jan. 6 were thousands of hours of video footage from surveillance and body cameras worn by the police, and hundreds of thousands of social media posts. A few months after Mr. Miller filed his claims, The Associated Press published an analysis of more than 300 criminal cases stemming from the protests incited by Mr. Floyds murder. The analysis undercut the argument that pro-Trump defendants were treated more harshly than Black Lives Matter protesters, showing that many leftist rioters had received substantial sentences. Theres no evidence that Jan. 6 defendants are being treated worse than others in jail. Perhaps the loudest grievances about Capitol defendants concern the jail conditions of those denied bail. The accusations have been many and wide-ranging. Some defendants have complained of being locked in their cells for 23 hours a day in what amounts to solitary confinement. Others have claimed that they have been denied the right to hold religious services and that their hygiene needs have been restricted. The Biden administration, bent on containing the growing power of China, sees the nuclear submarine deal as a way to cement ties with a Pacific ally that is increasingly at odds with Beijing, while also making that ally more powerful. Emily Horne, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said: We have been in close touch with our French partners on their decision to recall Ambassador Etienne to Paris for consultations. We understand their position and will continue to be engaged in the coming days to resolve our differences, as we have done at other points over the course of our long alliance. She was referring to Philippe Etienne, the veteran diplomat who is the French ambassador in Washington. The United States appears determined to play down the rift with France, portraying the conflict as just another disagreement among friends. France, however, appears to view the American decision as not only offensive in its secretive preparation but also indicative of a fundamental strategic shift that calls into question the very nature of the Atlantic alliance. Mr. Le Drians statement said the very conception we have of our alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe would be affected. Where before France believed it could work hand-in-hand with the United States in confronting China, despite French reservations over perceived American aggressiveness, it now appears to be reconsidering that view. Mr. Macron had made the growing French relationship with Australia a cornerstone of a strategy to expand Europes role in meeting the challenge of Chinas rise. Because an American company, Lockheed Martin, was a partner in the French submarine deal with Australia, reached in 2016, the contract was viewed in Paris as an example of how France and the United States could work together in Asia. That belief has now been shredded, replaced by bitterness, suspicion and a measure of incredulity that the Biden Administration would treat France this way. John Katko of New York Mr. Katkos moderate brand of politics has returned him to Washington for four terms despite his seats perennial status as a top Democratic target, and he has said he is running again in 2022. In 2022, his real threat may come from the right. Mr. Trump has yet to endorse a primary challenger but he wrote to New York Republican leaders in June of his eagerness to do so, vowing: Katko will never win again. Far from backing down, Mr. Katko on Wednesday told The Syracuse Post-Standard that Mr. Trump should not be the leader of the Republican Party. It would have been a lot easier if I didnt vote on the impeachment vote, but I did it because it was the right thing to do, he said. The top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, Mr. Katko labored this year to negotiate with Democrats on the makeup and scope of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. But Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, rejected a compromise endorsed by Mr. Katko because it would not have examined unrelated political violence associated with the left. A prominent cybersecurity lawyer pleaded not guilty on Friday to a charge of lying to the F.B.I. during a meeting five years ago about possible links between Donald J. Trump and Russia. The lawyer, Michael A. Sussmann, appeared before a magistrate judge in Washington, where he was indicted a day earlier. After a brief hearing, he was released on certain conditions, including travel restrictions. The indictment centers on whether Mr. Sussmann lied about who he was representing at a September 2016 meeting with a top F.B.I. lawyer. At that meeting, Mr. Sussmann provided analysis by cybersecurity researchers who said that unusual internet data might indicate a covert communications channel between computer servers associated with the Trump Organization and with Alfa Bank, a Kremlin-linked financial institution. The indictment says Mr. Sussmann falsely told the F.B.I. lawyer that he had no clients, but he was really representing both a technology executive and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Mr. Sussmanns lawyers deny that he ever said he had no clients, and contend that he was there on behalf of only the executive and not Mrs. Clintons campaign. Angelica Rivera, 33, a call center agent for a health care facility in New Jersey, dedicated a flag to a colleague, Karla Pope, a nurse who died of the virus in January. I love you! Thank you for everything you did for all of us. My forever work mom, she wrote. We were one of the first health care centers to get vaccines in New Jersey and she was administering the shots, and then a little while later then she got sick, Ms. Rivera said. She got Covid and passed away. Her husband also passed away, and her kids were left without a mom and a dad. Other names and messages on flags paid tribute to loved ones: Marshall J. Ciccone, a dedicated husband; Bruce Allen Hutcheson, a health care hero; Betty L. Fox, whose daughter aches for her. The artist behind the installation, Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, planted 267,000 flags in Washington last fall to recognize what was then the death toll of the coronavirus in the United States. A North Carolina court struck down the states voter identification law on Friday, citing persuasive evidence that a Republican-dominated state legislature had rushed it to passage at least in part to make it harder for Black voters to cast ballots. It was the second time in five years that a court had invalidated a North Carolina voter identification law as racially discriminatory. In 2016, a federal appeals court ruled against a different version of the law, saying it had targeted Black voters with almost surgical precision. The ruling on Friday, by a three-judge panel of the state Superior Court in Raleigh, effectively makes permanent a temporary ban on the law that a court had imposed after its passage in 2018. In the 2-to-1 decision, the judges stated that they did not find that the Republican lawmakers who approved the law acted out of racial animus, but rather that they wanted to depress Black turnout because most African Americans cast ballots for Democrats. FORT MEADE, Md. A military judge overseeing the Sept. 11, 2001, case abruptly canceled a hearing on Friday at Guantanamo Bay because of illness related to the coronavirus pandemic, ending this months pretrial session a day early. Lawyers, the defendants and the judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall of the Air Force, were due in court Friday morning for the final day of arguments in a two-week hearing in the case when a clerk sent word, moments before it was to begin at 9 a.m., that the judge had canceled it in light of recent developments related to Covid-19 and in an abundance of caution. The concern on Friday was triggered by word reaching Guantanamo before the hearing began that a journalist who had been on base last week discovered on Thursday that he had been infected with the virus. Around the same time, a senior defense lawyer who had experienced a symptom of the virus went to the hospital for testing Friday morning, rather than court, then quarantined until he learned later in the day that he was not infected. Testing of lawyers and other war court personnel who had spent time with the journalist continued into the evening. The cancellation came on what was to be the final day of the first set of hearings amid the coronavirus pandemic in the long-stalled death-penalty case that accuses Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other men of conspiring in the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. [explosion] In one of the final acts of its 20-year war in Afghanistan, the United States fired a missile from a drone at a car in Kabul. It was parked in the courtyard of a home, and the explosion killed 10 people, including 43-year-old Zemari Ahmadi and seven children, according to his family. The Pentagon claimed that Ahmadi was a facilitator for the Islamic State, and that his car was packed with explosives, posing an imminent threat to U.S. troops guarding the evacuation at the Kabul airport. The procedures were correctly followed, and it was a righteous strike. What the military apparently didnt know was that Ahmadi was a longtime aid worker, who colleagues and family members said spent the hours before he died running office errands, and ended his day by pulling up to his house. Soon after, his Toyota was hit with a 20-pound Hellfire missile. What was interpreted as the suspicious moves of a terrorist may have just been an average day in his life. And its possible that what the military saw Ahmadi loading into his car were water canisters he was bringing home to his family not explosives. Using never-before seen security camera footage of Ahmadi, interviews with his family, co-workers and witnesses, we will piece together for the first time his movements in the hours before he was killed. Zemari Ahmadi was an electrical engineer by training. For 14 years, he had worked for the Kabul office of Nutrition and Education International. NEI established a total of 11 soybean processing plants in Afghanistan. Its a California based NGO that fights malnutrition. On most days, he drove one of the companys white Toyota corollas, taking his colleagues to and from work and distributing the NGOs food to Afghans displaced by the war. Only three days before Ahmadi was killed, 13 U.S. troops and more than 170 Afghan civilians died in an Islamic State suicide attack at the airport. The military had given lower-level commanders the authority to order airstrikes earlier in the evacuation, and they were bracing for what they feared was another imminent attack. To reconstruct Ahmadis movements on Aug. 29, in the hours before he was killed, The Times pieced together the security camera footage from his office, with interviews with more than a dozen of Ahmadis colleagues and family members. Ahmadi appears to have left his home around 9 a.m. He then picked up a colleague and his bosss laptop near his house. Its around this time that the U.S. military claimed it observed a white sedan leaving an alleged Islamic State safehouse, around five kilometers northwest of the airport. Thats why the U.S. military said they tracked Ahmadis Corolla that day. They also said they intercepted communications from the safehouse, instructing the car to make several stops. But every colleague who rode with Ahmadi that day said what the military interpreted as a series of suspicious moves was just a typical day in his life. After Ahmadi picked up another colleague, the three stopped to get breakfast, and at 9:35 a.m., they arrived at the N.G.O.s office. Later that morning, Ahmadi drove some of his co-workers to a Taliban-occupied police station to get permission for future food distribution at a new displacement camp. At around 2 p.m., Ahmadi and his colleagues returned to the office. The security camera footage we obtained from the office is crucial to understanding what happens next. The cameras timestamp is off, but we went to the office and verified the time. We also matched an exact scene from the footage with a timestamp satellite image to confirm it was accurate. A 2:35 p.m., Ahmadi pulls out a hose, and then he and a co-worker fill empty containers with water. Earlier that morning, we saw Ahmadi bring these same empty plastic containers to the office. There was a water shortage in his neighborhood, his family said, so he regularly brought water home from the office. At around 3:38 p.m., a colleague moves Ahmadis car further into the driveway. A senior U.S. official told us that at roughly the same time, the military saw Ahmadis car pull into an unknown compound 8 to 12 kilometers southwest of the airport. That overlaps with the location of the NGOs office, which we believe is what the military called an unknown compound. With the workday ending, an employee switched off the office generator and the feed from the camera ends. We dont have footage of the moments that followed. But its at this time, the military said that its drone feed showed four men gingerly loading wrapped packages into the car. Officials said they couldnt tell what was inside them. This footage from earlier in the day shows what the men said they were carrying their laptops one in a plastic shopping bag. And the only things in the trunk, Ahmadis co-workers said, were the water containers. Ahmadi dropped each one of them off, then drove to his home in a dense neighborhood near the airport. He backed into the homes small courtyard. Children surrounded the car, according to his brother. A U.S. official said the military feared the car would leave again, and go into an even more crowded street or to the airport itself. The drone operators, who hadnt been watching Ahmadis home at all that day, quickly scanned the courtyard and said they saw only one adult male talking to the driver and no children. They decided this was the moment to strike. A U.S. official told us that the strike on Ahmadis car was conducted by an MQ-9 Reaper drone that fired a single Hellfire missile with a 20-pound warhead. We found remnants of the missile, which experts said matched a Hellfire at the scene of the attack. In the days after the attack, the Pentagon repeatedly claimed that the missile strike set off other explosions, and that these likely killed the civilians in the courtyard. Significant secondary explosions from the targeted vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material. Because there were secondary explosions, theres a reasonable conclusion to be made that there was explosives in that vehicle. But a senior military official later told us that it was only possible to probable that explosives in the car caused another blast. We gathered photos and videos of the scene taken by journalists and visited the courtyard multiple times. We shared the evidence with three weapons experts who said the damage was consistent with the impact of a Hellfire missile. They pointed to the small crater beneath Ahmadis car and the damage from the metal fragments of the warhead. This plastic melted as a result of a car fire triggered by the missile strike. All three experts also pointed out what was missing: any evidence of the large secondary explosions described by the Pentagon. No collapsed or blown-out walls, including next to the trunk with the alleged explosives. No sign that a second car parked in the courtyard was overturned by a large blast. No destroyed vegetation. All of this matches what eyewitnesses told us, that a single missile exploded and triggered a large fire. There is one final detail visible in the wreckage: containers identical to the ones that Ahmadi and his colleague filled with water and loaded into his trunk before heading home. Even though the military said the drone team watched the car for eight hours that day, a senior official also said they werent aware of any water containers. The Pentagon has not provided The Times with evidence of explosives in Ahmadis vehicle or shared what they say is the intelligence that linked him to the Islamic State. But the morning after the U.S. killed Ahmadi, the Islamic State did launch rockets at the airport from a residential area Ahmadi had driven through the previous day. And the vehicle they used was a white Toyota. The U.S. military has so far acknowledged only three civilian deaths from its strike, and says there is an investigation underway. They have also admitted to knowing nothing about Ahmadi before killing him, leading them to interpret the work of an engineer at a U.S. NGO as that of an Islamic State terrorist. Four days before Ahmadi was killed, his employer had applied for his family to receive refugee resettlement in the United States. At the time of the strike, they were still awaiting approval. Looking to the U.S. for protection, they instead became some of the last victims in Americas longest war. Hi, Im Evan, one of the producers on this story. Our latest visual investigation began with word on social media of an explosion near Kabul airport. It turned out that this was a U.S. drone strike, one of the final acts in the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Our goal was to fill in the gaps in the Pentagons version of events. We analyzed exclusive security camera footage, and combined it with eyewitness accounts and expert analysis of the strike aftermath. You can see more of our investigations by signing up for our newsletter. Chief Manger said his officers had also been in touch with rally organizers and their security team, and in preparation for the event, security officials have restored a security perimeter around the Capitol including a high fence like the one erected in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. The rally is the latest effort to rewrite history of the deadly mob attack on the Capitol, which sought to disrupt Congresss count to formalize President Bidens victory in the 2020 election, and which prosecutors say led to as many as 1,000 assaults against police officers. Federal authorities have issued multiple intelligence reports this year warning that the attack on Jan. 6 may not have been an isolated episode, and that domestic extremists have been emboldened by the mob attack and false narratives around the 2020 election. Mr. Trump issued a statement from his office on Thursday, with no mention of the rally, but saying, Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the Jan. 6 protest concerning the rigged presidential election. He added: Justice will prevail! The Biden administration has made a point of drawing a contrast between its strategy on domestic extremism and that of the previous administration, which redirected resources toward countering leftist groups despite advice from some top law enforcement officials that militias and white supremacists were the most lethal threat to the United States. Federal officials had a call on Thursday with police agencies across the country to prepare for violence on Sept. 18 and in the days ahead, according to an administration official. The latest report, titled Prospects for Violence at Justice for J6 Rally in Washington, D.C., warns of possible violence both by participants in the rally and by counterprotesters a possibility that Chief Manger alluded to on Friday. If they decide they want to breach the fence, if they decide they want to attack law enforcement, well be ready for those kinds of violence, he said. When pandemic rules began to loosen earlier this year, I felt a small burst of joy each time I did something that had been off-limits for months. With the rollout of the vaccines, once-mundane activities became almost wondrous. Hugging my parents and friends. Getting a haircut. Wandering the aisles of the grocery store. But as my new routine became, well, routine, that extra boost of pleasure faded away. This, for better or worse, is human nature. We tend to adjust quickly to change, with our happiness levels returning to baseline even after major setbacks and achievements, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, told me. Its key to our success as a species. Adapting makes us resilient in the face of challenges, such as divorces and injuries, and keeps us striving for more after good things happen, she said. The trial was remarkable on many levels. It began in March 2020 but adjourned days later for 14 months because of the coronavirus pandemic. When it resumed in May, the jurors were spread across the gallery while the prosecutors sat in the jury box. Everyone, including the judge and witnesses, wore masks as precautions against Covid-19. Mr. Durst was not present in the courtroom when the jury returned its verdict; he was in isolation, officials said, after an exposure to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. After the verdict was announced, David Chesnoff and Dick DeGuerin, defense lawyers for Mr. Durst, said they were disappointed in it. They said they intended to pursue appeals. The defense depicted Mr. Durst as a hapless, socially awkward man who doesnt make good decisions, and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and ran, twice. He is the victim of ambitious prosecutors and deceptive filmmakers, the defense said. Ultimately, the prosecution called 80 witnesses and introduced nearly 300 exhibits. But the most damaging evidence came, as a deputy Los Angeles County district attorney, John Lewin, said in his opening statements, right out of Mr. Dursts own mouth. The jury heard Mr. Durst make a series of acknowledgments in a nearly three-hour interview with Mr. Lewin right after his arrest in 2015, in hundreds of jailhouse phone calls and in more than 20 hours of interviews with the producers of the documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Mr. Durst, whose family owns many iconic buildings in Manhattan, has lived a life with enough titillating elements that they could fill a dozen true-crime shows, including a Mafia princess; a missing young wife; the death and dismemberment of a drifter; celebrities like Laraine Newman and Steve Rubell; and decades of family betrayal. Although Mr. Durst was charged only with killing Ms. Berman, the prosecution contended that her death was connected to the mysterious disappearance of Mr. Dursts first wife and the killing of the drifter, whom he had befriended in 2001. Mr. Durst was acquitted in 2003 of killing the drifter, Morris Black, who lived across the hall from him in a rooming house in Galveston, Texas, where Mr. Durst was hiding from the authorities and living as a mute woman. They just unwrapped the roll and went around the base of the tree, he said. If fire got into the giant forest, I would be pretty confident that grove is going to be fine. Mr. Garrett said they had to tailor the wrap to fit the General Shermans girth. (The tree is more than 36 feet across at its base.) The wrapping went as high as six feet high or more, he estimated. So far, he could confirm only that the General Sherman, which is 275 feet tall, had been blanketed. Other well-known giants along the popular trail are also going to be wrapped with the laminate of foil and fiber, which firefighters also use to make their shelters. The firefighters are also clearing the terrain of undergrowth, essentially starving the flames by leaving them little to consume. But heavy smoke was hampering firefighting efforts, Mr. Garrett said. The KNP Complex fire, which as of Friday had grown to over 11,000 acres, is to the south and west of the grove that is home to the oldest sequoias, and one of the biggest in the world. NAIROBI, Kenya President Biden signed an executive order on Friday threatening sweeping new sanctions that aim to stop the escalating war in northern Ethiopia and allow urgently needed humanitarian aid to flow into the region. The administration has not yet applied the sanctions, hoping to shift the course of the war without directly punishing officials from Ethiopia, Africas second most populous country and an important strategic ally. With both sides pushing hard for a military victory, critics said the latest measures may be too little, or too late. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate now exposed to possible sanctions, reacted with indignation and defiance. In a three-page statement, his office accused the West of bias, denounced any criticisms of Ethiopia as the product of neocolonial impulses, and showed no sign that he intended to bow to Mr. Bidens demands. The U.S. action is driven by a sense of urgency at a rapidly deteriorating situation and fears that fighting could intensify with the coming end of the rainy season. Just 10 percent of required humanitarian aid reached the Tigray region in the past month as a result of Ethiopian government obstruction, according to two American officials who provided a background briefing to reporters. JOHANNESBURG South Africas highest court on Friday rejected an appeal to throw out the prison sentence of Jacob Zuma, the former president who was jailed for refusing to appear before a commission investigating corruption accusations that tainted his tenure as the nations leader. Mr. Zumas arrest was hailed as a victory for South Africas young democracy, a sign that not even a former head of state was above the law. It was also a signal from President Cyril Ramaphosa that his administration would deal decisively with corruption. Mr. Zuma, 79, was released on medical parole last week, after serving a fraction of his 15-month jail term, much of which was spent in the prisons medical ward. But the court on Friday rejected his appeal to have the prison sentence overturned. Despite what it called Mr. Zumas creative attempts to prove his case, the Constitutional Court found his arrest was warranted. Canada, where the center-left has faced a battle to hold onto power in Mondays election, may best encapsulate the trend. The forces boosting center-lefts globally have nudged the Liberals poll numbers there from poor to middling a fitting metaphor for the movements prospects. Still, even modest gains among Western democracies could give a long-struggling political wing the chance to redeem itself with voters. And it would counteract a dominant trend of the past decade: the rise in ethno-nationalism and strongman politics of the new populist right. People have been writing for several years now about how the Social Democrats are going to die out for good, and now here they are, theyre the leading party, said Brett Meyer, who researches political trends at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, referring to the center-lefts sudden rise in Germany. Thats been an enormous surprise, he added. A Test of Covid Politics If Justin Trudeau, Canadas prime minister, keeps his job, it may be due in large part to political changes brought about by the pandemic. Still, the forced deletion by the alliance marked the most high-profile instance yet of the police clamping down on online expression. As much of Hong Kong society has been transformed to more closely resemble the mainland, some fear the citys digital spaces will be, too. In the mainland, Facebook, Twitter and many Western news outlets are blocked, and an army of censors works around the clock to remove any sensitive content. Critics have also pointed to plans by the Hong Kong government to enact what it calls an anti-doxxing bill, though experts have called the language overly broad and open to abuse. Officials have also proposed targeting fake news, which many say could be used to further silence voices critical of the government. On Thursday, the citys largest pro-Beijing political party proposed following the central governments lead by enacting stricter controls on video gaming, including enacting time limits for minors, requiring real-name registration and barring pornographic content. The hunting season for the open internet is starting, I think, said Lokman Tsui, a Hong Kong-based fellow at Citizen Lab, a Canadian cybersecurity watchdog organization. They were going after the media, going after the education institutions, the unions. But now it seems like its time to fix the internet. In particular, analysts noted that the order targeting the alliance was the first known instance of the police using the security law to force a group to delete posts itself, rather than going through service providers such as Wix. Indias far-reaching effort to vaccinate its vast population against Covid-19 hit another milestone on Friday: Its health ministry said that a record 25 million shots had been administered over the course of the day, a special push to mark the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and celebrate his 20 years in public office. That is more than two and a half times its previous daily record 9.3 million shots, reached on Sept. 2 and more than seven times the level reported three months ago, according to the Our World in Data Project at Oxford University. Leaders of Indias governing Bharatiya Janata Party said that states under its control had long aimed to maximize a vaccination push as a birthday gift for Mr. Modi, who turned 71 on Friday. Outside the valley, those who had fled wondered if they would ever be able to return. When the Taliban first entered Panjshir, Sahar, 17, and her family barricaded themselves at home, thinking the resistance would eventually chase the Talibs away. But the fighting steadily drew closer. Neighbors started to flee, said Sahar, whose last name is being withheld to protect her identity. Her uncle and cousin were stopped at a Taliban checkpoint near the village, she said, where they were beaten and ordered to turn over their weapons and the names of resistance fighters. Last week, the family escaped through the mountains. They walked for five days, through remote valleys and over mountain ridges. Sahar fainted three times from dehydration, she said, and her mother had blisters and swollen feet. Her father, who is diabetic, nearly collapsed. Eventually, they hitched a ride to Kabul, the countrys capital, where they had relatives with whom they are now living. We dont know what will happen, Sahar said by phone from Kabul. We may never be able to get back. KABUL, Afghanistan The Taliban have converted the Ministry of Womens Affairs building into offices for the religious morality police, who once instilled dread in Afghanistan for their suppression of women and brutal enforcement of the militant governments interpretation of Shariah law when it ruled two decades ago. The conversion of the building in Kabul, the countrys capital, suggested at least a symbolic slapping down of a ministry that had come to embody the ascent of women in Afghanistan after the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001. A video posted by Reuters showed women who had been employed by the ministry protesting outside the building because the Taliban had not permitted them to enter and had told them to go back home. It remains unclear if the womens ministry has been abolished by the Taliban, who reclaimed power last month as the U.S.-backed government collapsed. But when the Taliban announced their acting cabinet members for the new government earlier this month, there was no appointment to oversee womens affairs. MOSCOW Russia stages local and national elections like clockwork in accordance with its post-Soviet Constitution, but the results are nearly always the same: sweeping victories for President Vladimir V. Putin and the politicians and parties loyal to him. In the parliamentary elections that begin on Friday and run through Sunday, there is little question that his governing United Russia party will win. For the Kremlin, which hopes to mobilize support for government policies and reinforce its legitimacy, the trick is to win handily while maintaining the plausibility of a contested outcome. Here are several ways that the Kremlin tries to create the illusion of democratic choice while making sure it comes out on top. Duplicate Candidates Among the candidates voters will choose from in one St. Petersburg district are three men named Boris Vishnevsky, only one of whom is the real opposition politician. MOSCOW Apple and Google removed an app meant to coordinate protest voting in this weekends Russian elections from the country on Friday, a blow to the opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin and a display of Silicon Valleys limits when it comes to resisting crackdowns on dissent around the world. The decisions came after Russian authorities, who claim the app is illegal, threatened to prosecute local employees of Apple and Google a sharp escalation in the Kremlins campaign to rein in the countrys largely uncensored internet. A person familiar with Googles decision said the authorities had named specific individuals who would face prosecution, prompting it to remove the app. The person declined to be identified for fear of angering the Russian government. Google has more than 100 employees in the country. Apple did not respond to phone calls, emails or text messages seeking comment. The app was created and promoted by allies of the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, who were hoping to use it to consolidate the protest vote in each of Russias 225 electoral districts. It disappeared from the two technology platforms just as voting got underway in the three-day parliamentary election, in which Mr. Putins United Russia party in a carefully stage-managed system holds a commanding advantage. Ms. Jobartehs first kora teacher was Mr. Jegede, her half brother, whom she began playing the instrument with at age 3. (Although Mr. Jegede is a virtuoso in his own right, he is not a griot, coming from outside the Jobarteh bloodline.) She later became determined to carve out a path in classical music. At 14, she took composition lessons at the Purcell School for Young Musicians, outside London. Yet her initial instrument remained in her periphery: The school library displayed a kora that Tunde had donated as a student there. Drawn to it, she tuned and played it, and the school eventually gave it to her. A year later, she enrolled in the Royal College of Music, where she learned the cello, harpsichord and piano. But her personal musical legacy wasnt welcome. One instructor dismissed the kora as an ethnic thing, she said, and another said of the instrument, If you want to succeed, this is not a part of it. Three years into her education there, Ms. Jobarteh deliberately failed her annual assessment in piano and cello. I was shaking, she said. It felt so wrong, but I just knew, I cant do this to myself anymore. The college declined to comment for this article. Ms. Jobarteh instead asked her father to officially teach her to play the kora, and went on to train with him for several years. He told her, I have a duty to give you what is mine, she recalled. About Aug. 23 to Aug. 24 Mr. Schmidt said he and Ms. Petitos mother, Nichole Schmidt, last spoke with Ms. Petito on a FaceTime call about this time. He said Ms. Petito told them that she and Mr. Laundrie were leaving Utah and driving to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Mr. Schmidt said Ms. Petito texted her mother a few times after that. The last post on her Instagram account was published on Aug. 25. Aug. 30 Nichole Schmidt said she received a text from her daughters phone, according to The New York Post. The text said, No service in Yosemite, Ms. Schmidt told The Post. Sept. 1 Mr. Laundrie returned to his house in North Port, Fla., in the white Ford van that the couple had used for the trip, and that had been registered to Ms. Petito. He was alone. Sept. 11 Ms. Petitos family reported her missing, the North Port Police Department said. Image The van that Ms. Petito and Mr. Laundrie traveled in as they visited national parks. Credit... Petito Family Sept. 15 The police described Mr. Laundrie as a person of interest, saying he was the last person known to have been with Ms. Petito before she went missing. Chief Todd Garrison of the North Port Police posted a plea on Twitter addressed to Steven Bertolino, Mr. Laundries lawyer, asking him to arrange a conversation with Mr. Laundrie. Mr. Bertolino said he had advised Mr. Laundrie not to speak with the authorities. Officials at Grand Teton National Park said rangers were working with investigators from the National Park Service, the F.B.I. and other local authorities to find Ms. Petito. Sept. 16 Chief Garrison said at a news conference that Mr. Laundrie was exercising his constitutional right not to speak with the authorities, and that investigators were still treating the search as a missing persons case. [MUSIC PLAYING] Ive never had breathing problems in my life, ever. Like, thats never been a thing for me. My inhaler helps somewhat, but my lungs literally feel like theyre turning to a crisp. Like, I cant explain it. It just hurts so bad. [MUSIC PLAYING] They did like a bunch of breathing tests or whatever and they said its probably vaping-induced asthma. It has taken a kind of freedom that I cant express. [MUSIC PLAYING] Mr. Monsees, do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. Monsees, with that you are recognized for your opening statement of five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Adam Bowen and I founded Juul Labs and I now serve as the chief product officer of that company. Im really quite grateful for the opportunity to be here today and address you all. From the moment Adam and I began the journey that would lead to the Juul system we were clear in our goal to help improve the lives of adult smokers. Were proud of the progress weve made. If you believed that Adam Bowen and James Monsees created Juul with the best of intentions, the plan to curb smoking where did it all go so wrong? Major Report and Policy Toolkit on Tackling Inequality to be launched at High-Level UNGA Meeting with World Leaders September 23 A new poll has revealed that 80 percent of people feel there are divisions in their country that are causing fault lines in society, with little variation between rich and poor nations. These divisions are about income, identity, and differing viewpoints on politics and vaccinations. In the eight countries polled, more than half (59 percent) say too little is being done to address these divisions. The Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, hosted by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, commissioned the poll as part of its new flagship report, which highlights the need for a new social contract in the wake of COVID-19. From Rhetoric to Action: Delivering Equality & Inclusion shines a spotlight on the damaging, widespread effects of inequality and exclusion and highlights the actions needed from governments, international institutions, and civil society to tackle the problem. The report recommendations were developed through consultation with a wide range of actors, including 10 countries, the United Nations, the World Bank, OECD, Oxfam, CIVICUS, and the International Trade Union Confederation whose representatives will be discussing these findings at the reports 23 September launch event. Faiza Shaheen, lead author and program lead on the Pathfinders Inequality and Exclusion Grand Challenge, said: Increasingly, people around the world are raising their voices desperately trying to change the status quo and improve their lives. From Black Lives Matter to Colombians protesting crippling tax hikes, the growing cries for equality and justice and the abject need for a new relationship between state and citizens have become deafening. The report underlines that a new social contract must be based on fairness, respect, opportunity, and justice. It must be built to serve future generations and to guard against climate breakdown and pandemics. It recommends governments alongside civil society and the private sector must act now by adopting a three-pronged attack on inequality and exclusion to: Create visible change: Adopt policies that directly impact peoples daily lives for the better. Issues highlighted in the report include access to decent and affordable housing, broad-based social protection for the poor and middle class, green jobs with a livable wage, and enhancing digital connectivity for all communities. Solidarity building: Tackle societal divisions alongside economic recovery using strong community-based programs, truth-telling and social dialogue tools. Trust and credibility: Secure trust and credibility by addressing corruption, state capture by elites and global corporations, and broadening participation of civic space. Overall, there is a need to restore trust between elites, government, and everyday people, with almost two-thirds (63 percent) believing that governments are largely influenced by a few wealthy individuals, interest groups, or businesses. Eighty-three percent of respondents are bothered that some wealthy people dont pay their fair share of taxes. Ninety percent believe governments should prioritize tackling corruption and 87 percent want the tax system to be fairer in order to address inequality. Sierra Leone Minister of Planning and Development Francis Mustapha Kai-Kai said: Ive seen the tangible results of creating a new social contract (or New Direction as we call it in Sierra Leone) and how it is vital for the survival of our population, from improvements in health, education, and access to justice to truth and reconciliation exercises that build solidarity, and anti-corruption measures. Low-income countries need to mobilize their own resources as we have tried to do, but we also need increased global action on vaccines, debt and financing for recovery. To deliver a new, meaningful social contract, as recently called for by the United Nations Secretary General, the international community must also address global issues that are undermining recovery for many low and middle-income countries. Poorer countries are getting into steeper debt in order to purchase vaccines, with little or nothing left for urgently needed national development and climate action. New figures included in the report show that more than 100 countries are at risk of having to cut public spending on healthcare, social protection, and education, further hampering progress and widening gaps between high-income countries and the Global South. The report calls for the international community to urgently finance the global vaccine plan put forward by the IMF, increasing debt relief and access to liquidity. Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at the University of Oxford, said: What this report shows above all is that practical policy-based solutions will be vital stepping stones for countries as they navigate a post pandemic world. From political instability to climate collapse, we dont have to look very far to see that the risks of inaction are now far too great. Alternate contact: Asha Tharoor: asha@ashatharoor.com or 07813 688680 For information on how to register for the high-level event on September 23, please vist the event page. Notes to Editors 1. The survey was conducted 4 June-23 July 2021 in eight countries, via telephone in Costa Rica, Mexico, Tunisia, Uruguay, face-to-face in Sierra Leone, online in Canada, South Korea, Sweden. Overall, 17,047 interviews have been conducted with respondents 18 years and older of the general population. Survey results are weighted to population targets. 2. This report is an output of the Grand Challenge on Inequality & Exclusion, an initiative of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies. It was developed through a broad consultative process that included contributions from member states, institutional and civil society partners. 3. Official Pathfinders boilerplate: The Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies is a group of UN member states, international organizations, global partnerships, civil society, and the private sector. We work to accelerate the delivery of the SDG targets for peace, justice, and inclusion (SDG16+). Pathfinders is hosted by the NYU Center on International Cooperation. 4. The UN Secretary General has recently published a report Our Common Agenda calling for a renewed social contract between governments and their people, and for global solidarity. The Swedish tax agency, Skatteverket, rejected a young couples request to name their son Vladimir Putin, the name of the famous Russian president. Public radio broadcaster SR recently reported the case of a couple based in Laholm, Sweden, who were banned from naming their newborn son after Russias president. Skatteverket didnt explain exactly why they rejected the naming request, but according to Swedish law, names should not be offensive or risk causing problems for the bearer, nor are first names that clearly resemble surnames allowed. It wasnt immediately clear what category Vladimir Putin fell into, but the couple was forced to go for something less controversial. Photo: Fe Ngo/Unsplash Under the lam Naming Law, which was first enacted in 1982 updated in 2017, parents are required to report the names of their newborns to Skatteverket within the first three months after birth. However, not all get approved, and in the past, the agency has rejected names like Ford, Pilzner, Q or Allah, whole accepting bizarre monikers like Google and Metallica. The Swedish media has yet to report why the parents wanted to name their son Vladimir Putin in the first place. In a press release issued to The Midland Tribune this week, the Lemanaghan Bog Heritage and Conservation Group said they are shocked and deeply disappointed by the decision of Offaly County Council to ignore the 2,300+ submissions made on the draft County Development Plan regarding the proposal to erect 17 giant wind turbines with blade tip heights of 220 metres. It raises the valid question, the Group said in their statement, what is the point of public consultation? Never before has Offaly County Council received such huge engagement from the public, and this disappointing outcome does not encourage people to participate in the process in the future. Public consultation is meant to be one of the key regulatory tools employed to improve transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of regulation. The group said the people of Lemanaghan feel strongly that they have been absolutely denied a fair process. We have been shouting from the roof tops that Offaly County Council made a mistake in Phases 1 & 2 of the public consultation process, but this is being ignored. It remains a fact that Offaly County Council dramatically changed its zoning during the consultation process. They changed the zoning to East of Doon and North East of Ferbane, which upset us because we realised that the newly zoned area now included Lemanaghan. We reacted to this sudden change by submitting 2,300+ submissions asking for the zoning to be removed. However, the Chief Executive of the Council considered this would be a major change and it was not deemed possible at this stage of the County Development Plan. "Knowing that we did not have an opportunity to make submissions earlier, because it was incorrectly described, in essence we have had no opportunity to made submissions of a 'major' nature. Public consultation should be actively seeking the opinions of interested and affected groups, not closing the door to those who engage in the process. It is astonishing to think that Offaly County Council's planning department did not seek legal advice on this issue and that a motion to adjourn making a decision, pending legal advice, was defeated on Friday by Offaly County Councillors, 6 votes to 11. Additionally, no legal advice was sought on what constitutes 'major' and 'minor'. To recently vote through a buffer zone that was created without any specialist site survey makes absolutely no sense and is an insult to the team of experts that wrote The Lemanaghan Conservation Plan, published by the Heritage Council, (and which was supported at the time by Offaly County Council). "The conservation plan specifically states that 'It is important that the options considered for the post-industrial use of the bog are sympathetic to the significance of the site.' Yet here we are, and Offaly County Council have zoned it open to consideration to wind energy, knowing that Bord na Mona wish to place 17, 220meter high wind turbines here. It is indeed an extremely disappointing outcome. We sincerely thank the councillors who took the time to prepare for the meeting and spoke up - the people of west Offaly will remember who worked on behalf of the people. This decision, to ignore the will of the people, to deny the opportunity to seek legal advice, will be added to the history books and remembered for generations. We wont give up, this is only the start and we have set out our stall loud and clear. Wind Turbines are not welcome in Leamonaghan Bog, and although Offaly County Council may not understand the significance of the area, we have many people who do. On Saturday morning we welcomed Dr Ellen OCarroll, School of Archaeology UCD and Cathy Moore Archaeologist and wooden artifact specialist, back to Lemanaghan. Both ladies have done extensive excavations in Lemanaghan Bog. "Cathy found the Tumbeag Bog Body in Lemanaghan Bog and Dr Carroll excavated part of the Sli Mor Togher and wrote the book The Archaeology of Lemanaghan: The Story of an Irish Bog. They heard about the plan to build a windfarm and wanted to come to talk to the locals to offer their support. "Their expert opinion is that Lemanaghan bog is not the correct location for a wind farm, they see the area as very unique. It was music to the ears of locals, who have being saying this for months. We are so grateful that such esteemed archaeologists would hold the area in such high regard. Indeed its only a pity our own council has let us down. HTMLCountry1 Fighting Racism, 20 Years on from the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action Twenty years ago, leaders from across the globe came together in Durban, South Africa to address the pernicious effects of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance. The World Conference against Racism, as it was known, led to the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) a comprehensive and visionary document that embodies the worlds commitment to tackle the scourge of racism in all its forms and manifestations. The 20th anniversary of the DDPA together with its follow up processes and mechanisms, the International Decade for People of African Descent, the Agenda Towards Transformative Change for Racial Justice and Equality and 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda is a renewed opportunity to place racial equality and justice as the centrepiece of international, regional, and national agendas. Realising the promise of the DDPA: what has been achieved since 2001 The DDPA has enhanced global efforts for combatting and preventing racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; it has contributed to the proliferation of legislative measures, the development of national action plans and monitoring mechanisms; and has helped to place the issue of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance as an urgent priority on the international agenda. Since the global community adopted the DDPA in 2001: 42 States have adopted or amended legislation prohibiting racial discrimination; 35 States have established equality bodies for combating racial discrimination and promoting equality; 23 States and regional institutions have adopted national and regional policies against racism; 26 more States have ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, bringing the total to 182 States that are party to this Convention. The International Decade for People of African Descent was pronounced for the period 2015-2024 The Permanent Forum of People of African Descent has been established An international independent expert mechanism on racial justice and equality in the context of law enforcement worldwide has been established The International Day for People of African Descent was celebrated for the first time on 31 August 2021 The 2021 report of the High Commissioner deplores the persistence of systemic racism, and highlights the imperative to reform discriminatory institutions, legislation, policies, and practices, in order to break this cycle. The Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality, urges States to adopt a systemic approach to combatting racial discrimination Systemic racial discrimination extends beyond any expression of individual hatred It results from bias in multiple systems and institutions of public policy, which separately and together perpetuate and reinforce barriers to equality... All of us need to call out and openly condemn all messages especially political messages or discourses which disseminate ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, or which incite racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance High-Level Meeting and Political Declaration In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), the General Assembly is holding a high-level meeting, on 22 September 2021, at the level of Heads of States and Governments, on the theme Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent. The high-level event includes: an opening plenary meeting, two consecutive round tables, and a closing plenary meeting. In accordance with GA resolution 75/237, the meeting will also adopt a political declaration aimed at mobilizing political will for the full and effective implementation of the DDPA and its follow-up processes. Read more here about the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the DDPA and the global efforts to fight the scourge of racism. A booklet, Fighting Racism and Discrimination: The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action at 20, provides information about the DDPA and its impact, including statements from experts and stories about individual and collective efforts towards making the world free of racism and discrimination, showing the DDPA as a living document with relevance to the issues of today. Videos Accompanying video commemorating the 20th anniversary of the DDPA Find out which countries have signed on to 18 critical human rights treaties protecting against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, here: https://indicators.ohchr.org/ Austin Pacific One, LLC is helping Austin, TX, residents battle the rising costs of housing with the acquisition of 9.9 acres in Lockhart for the construction of an apartment community. 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New Delhi: Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt from Kerala has done a yeoman's service to the country by raking the twin issues of Love Jihad and Narco Jihad. His statement suggests that the Islamic radicals are in full swing, wooing non-Muslims, including Hindus and Catholic Christians into the Islamic fold. That this came from a respected Bishop in Kerala under Marxists' rule is more than a sheer coincidence. Even the terminology Love Jihad had originated from Kerala after Christians felt the heat and took the trouble of ventilating their grievance to the rest of the country and the world. 'God's own Country' had these happening in the backyards and were certainly an eye-opener. In circa 2021the post-Taliban takeover of Afghanistanthe Bishop's statement ought to be taken seriously. As expected, the gravity of Bishop's statement is being analysed and judged from the sense of 'timing' by security agencies. "To say that the Narco trade is strongly related to the Islamic terror groups is only to point out at the tip of an iceberg," said a source in the knowledge of things. The recent Afghanistan developments have only alarmed countries such as Russia, Israel, Iran and even Iran besides India that narcotics trade would grow by leaps and bounds in the region. Afghanistan's economy is in shambles, and even their 'permanent well wisher' Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is now campaigning for financial 'incentives'. The Narco money is already being used in India to foment various anti-government and anti-national protests and agitation, sources say. The growing cases of Hawala money funding to individuals and organisationswhich otherwise look innocuous and not with suspicionhave only forced authorities to raise eyebrows. The Bishop's statement coming in September - a fortnight after the fall of Afghanistan - is thus crucial. The Taliban takeover is not just about terrorism and violence. It also has to do a lot about 'unclean' money and the drug business. The development in Afghanistan is a massive booster to the propagandists who are only laughing at the helplessness of the superpower US and the global community. The terror groups, including Taliban or Al-Qaeda and narco operators in the Af-Pak region, are symbiotic and collaborative. Now that the Taliban insurgents have taken over a country, something the IS has failed despite the best attempts, the drug operators and their financiers with links to all terror groups now "have something to prove". Hence, security analysts say there will be more actions from groups such as the IS in core areas like the Iraq-Syria region and also there will be enhanced Narco trades. "It is more of a huge psychological victory now for terror networks and also Narco business cartels," a source pointed out. Here comes the significance of the crucial warning from the Bishop in Kerala. BJP leader Tom Vadakkan, also a Christian and who hails from Kerala, says: "The intervention by Bishop is not just a wakeup call for his dioceses, it is the voice of the community who are victims of love Jihad and the fallout of Narco terrorism." Moreover, the Bishop's statement backed by Catholic bodies has come from socially respectable and considered "apolitical" camps and with no elections in Kerala. Thus, there are voices from the rational school of thought who want to emphasise the remarks about the prevailing Narco-Jihad threat. "Muslims would do well to start soul searching. The Bishop in question is not a political man. He has only ventilated his genuine concerns. It would be wrong to dismiss the remarks either as alarmists or something prejudiced to help BJP's politics," says analyst Ramakanto Shanyal in West Bengal. The government officials say various groups faced a financial crunch once Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes in 2016. The Covid-inflicted economic crisis during the last two years globally have further dried up the established sources. Some of these organisations, including terror groups and sympathisers (of militancy) in Kashmir, northeast or Islamic groups in northern states, are now desperate for funding. The drug business is booming in India in vulnerable states such as Punjab, Kerala, Goa, Christian-dominated northeastern states. Hence, the Bishop's statement must be taken 'sincerely', and the bull has to be held by the horns. Supporters of the Dismantling Global Hindutva (DGH) conference often argued that Hindutva and Hinduism are distinct. Hindutva is a narrow political ideology whereas Hinduism is a broad-based religious tradition..it is offensive to conflate the two. (Ref: https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/defininghindutva) They also stated V D Savarkar as the godfather of Hindutva ideology who rejects diversity as a social value, instead seeking an extreme form of homogeny. (ibid). Let us look at what Savarkar said or wrote about Hindutva and Hinduism. Savarkars Hindutva Savarkar stated in his seminal work Essentials of Hindutva that, Hinduism is only a derivative, a fraction, a part of Hindutva. (Samagra Savarkar Vangmay-SSV-Vol 6, Page 2) So he didnt want to categorize the level of Hinduism and Hindutva as alleged such as Hinduism was inferior in comparison to Hindutva; (Chaturvedi, Vinayak. Reading Savarkar: Was the Hindutva icon actually Hinduphobic?, 6 September 2021, Scroll.in) Here Savarkar just points out that Hinduism is a part of a larger, broader way of life and of thinking called Hindutva. and that also to avoid confusion, because it is absolutely necessary to have a correct grasp of the meaning, otherwise confusion or vagueness of thoughts may lead to chaos and may blur the understanding. Savarkar said, From the word 'Hindu' has been coined the word 'Hinduism' in English. It means the school or system of religions the Hindus follow. The second word 'Hindutva' is far more comprehensive and refers not only to the religious aspect of the Hindu people as the word 'Hinduism' does but comprehends even their cultural, linguistic, social, and political aspects as well. It is more of less akin to 'Hindu polity' and its nearly exact translation would be 'Hinduness'. (SSV-Vol 6, Page 350) Savarkar writes, The Hindu Sanghanists Party aims to base the future constitution of Hindusthan on the broad principle that all citizens should have equal rights and obligations irrespective of caste or creed, race or religion, provided they avow and owe an exclusive and devoted allegiance to the Hindusthani state. The fundamental rights of liberty of speech, liberty of conscience, of worship, of association, etc., will be enjoyed by all citizens alike. (SSV - Vol 6, Page 365-366) It means Savarkar gave all Indian citizens equal fundamental rights and never discriminated on the bases of sect, race, caste or religion. So, Hindutva is a socio-political concept, but not narrow or aggressive and it accepts diversity as a social value and not seeking an extreme form of homogeny. While speaking to Shaukat Ali, Savarkar clearly stated, if you are organizing themselves for the sake of justice or civil rights, then we will also continue with ours. We dont have any qualms about it. Because [the] Hindu organisation believes that if others have the right to organise it, so do us [sic]. But they should not have aggressive intentions, because neither I nor the Hindu organisations have any such motive. (SSV- Vol 3, Page 759, 764) Savarkar espoused the just, fair and equitable rights of Hindus. Even as the President of the Hindu Mahasabha, he never sought for Hindus any rights or privileges that he was not prepared to concede to non-Hindus. Savarkar championed the Hindu cause because in the British and Congress scheme of policies, Hindus were deprived of fair treatment. Savarkar abhorred violence Savarkar never advocated Hindus to kill other Hindus, as stated by Chaturvedi. Savarkar did not approve of inhuman violence and violence among his own people. Although he was a revolutionary, he was not a proponent of arsenal, murder, violence and destruction. He writes in a letter to his younger brother, Narayanrao Savarkar, from Andaman in 1920: But even while combating force with force we heartily abhorred and do yet abhor all violence. Speaking on the occasion of Abhinav Bharats valedictory ceremony in 1952, Savarkar said, Secret conspiracies, armed rebellion, fear mongering, unrest, treason are all essential for overthrowing the alien state. They are virtues. If these tools and all these instincts continue to be our part [sic] even after we establish Swarajya, it would be the greatest of sins. They should be got rid of immediately. Otherwise, they would prove to be much more dangerous and deadly than the real foreign enemy. (SSV- Vol 8, Page 483, 484, 486) Are Hindus intolerant to criticism? In Hindu religion too, reformers or social revolutionaries faced adverse situations like opposition or protest from orthodox people, but Hindu religion evolved gradually, because a famous notion-- We can agree to disagree is acceptable in Hindutva and Hinduism. So, any critique of Hindutva or Hinduism is not a form of Hinduphobia. However, the title of conference is not Criticism or Critique of Hindutva but Dismantling Global Hindutva (DGH). Dismantle means to demolish, to destroy, to quash. Even if there is difference between Hindutva and Hinduism, they are not opposite to each other and most importantly it includes and attached to, related to Hindu people. As Savarkar himself said, The words Hindutva and Hinduism both of them being derived from the word Hindu, must necessarily be understood to refer to the whole of the Hindu people. (SSV-Vol 6, Page 66) Therefore, opposition to DGH is not because it is hurting sentiments of Hindus, but because it may lead to Hinduphobia. Denial of Hindu genocide If we try to know by searching what these so-called scholars of this DGH conference actually wants to exhibit, then we can identify that DGH has promulgated the Hindutva Harassment Field Manual (HHFM) as resource for the conference. HHFM claims that, individual cases of discrimination, no matter how painful, do not amount to Hinduphobia. And Hinduphobia rests on the false notion that Hindus have faced systematic oppression throughout history and in present times. (https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/badfaith) The fact which is stated by Hindu American Foundation (HAF) of US wrote to the presidents and key administrators of all universities listed as co-sponsors of the DGH event, which also pointed that The event platforms activists with extensive histories of amplifying Hinduphobic discourse even while denying the existence of Hinduphobia..support or minimize violent extremist and separatists movements and deny the resulting genocides and ethnic cleansings of Hindus. HHFM intentionally ignores and erases the ethnic cleansing of Hindus during the partition in East & West Pakistan, the Bengali Hindu genocide of 1971, the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus, especially and most recently in 1989-1990, the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, which continues today. This discourse actively erases and denies the persecution of Hindus while disproportionately painting Hindus as violent. (https://understandinghinduphobia.org/working-definition/) so its not the endless repetition of Hinduphobia, on the contrary it is the endless repetition of denial of Hindu genocide and ethnic cleansing. As Parth Parihar and Indumathi Viswanathan said, the right of scholars to conduct inquiry and engage in constructive debate and disagreement without threat or intimidation; yet, this upcoming conference imperils our ability to freely do so in good faith and thus constitutes the very antithesis of this ideal. (Parth Parihar and Indumathi Viswanathan, Hinduphobia is a reality. Scholars at Dismantling Global Hindutva conference must know, 7 September, 2021, ThePrint) Rajiv Malhotra states that a level playing field requires that all faiths must be treated with equal intensity. One does not find similar kinds of academic assaults against other religions. (Rajiv Malhotra, Dismantling Global Hindutva' and the American nexus of Hinduphobia, Firstpost, 27 August 2021) Sarva-Dharma-Sam-Tika or equal criticism of all religions is not welcomed by pseudo-seculars or intellectuals with the same enthusiasm with which they propagate Sarva-Dharma-Sam-Bhav (Equal respect for all religions). This hypocrite nature of so-called seculars or intellectuals compel Hindus to protest such conference. Why DGH organizers or supporters prefer Hinduism over Hindutva? Because in the past, Hindus lost their political vision, they were ignorant and not conscious about their own political capacities; but concept of Hindutva created political awareness among Hindus. So entire edifice of pseudo-seculars or intellectuals falls apart. The political consciousness of Hindus is the real cause of mourning of pseudo-secularists or intellectuals. Therefore, they want to dismantle this political consciousness of Hindus i.e Hindutva. The group is being seen as an alternate arrangement against the authoritarian states and dreaded Terror Groups that harbour and support them. G7 or the Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. They are all democratic countries supporting globalization, liberalization, freedom of navigation, rules-based order, respect for human rights, women rights, children's rights, LGBT rights, freedom to dissent, security for journalists, change of governments during elections peacefully, to name a few. The D-10 will be the extension of G 7 + 3 with additions of Australia, India and South Korea. After the collapse of the Afghan civilian government by the Terrorist Taliban, which is a proxy of Pakistan ISI, Panjshir valley bombarded by Pakistan Air Force, China hosting Taliban before their emergence in Afghan, China declaring Aid to the Taliban, the world is entering a new era of strategic competition. It has bilateral, regional and global ramifications. For the first time in more than three decades, the world faces a systemic challenge from autocratic and non-state rivals from South Asia to the Middle East, Sahel Region to South East Asia and South America. It is said that the world is at an "inflection point" between democracy and autocracy. Non-State Actors, World dreaded terrorists have taken Afghanistan with 17 of 33 Cabinet Ministers in Terror list carrying millions of dollars as bounty. They can use their land, air and space to spread terror. They can host give training, support money recruitment and more. On the other hand, China is growing more powerful and assertive as they engage in coercive tactics to expand their global influence. China's forced drought, debt-trap diplomacy, scaring neighbours and their statements of telling neighbours that they will use Nuclear Weapons are really dangerous. Meanwhile, democracies are becoming increasingly defensive, dealing with their own internal challenges while countering foreign disinformation, cyber-attacks and election meddling. D-10 is being looked at as a Democratic Forces, with G 7 as an extension to address the above questions and trade, technology, supply chains, and standards. It was an initiative by the US Department of State policy planning dating back to 2008. It was picked up by the Atlantic Council, which launched an initiative in 2014 to maintain a rules-based democratic order under the leadership of ten leading democracies, representing about 60 per cent of global GDP and over 60% of the people living in democracies around the world. The earlier aim of D-10 was channelling investments in existing telecommunication companies within the ten member states. The group aimed to create alternative suppliers of 5G equipment and other technologies to avoid relying on China. But now, the group is being seen as an alternate arrangement against the authoritarian states and dreaded Terror Groups that harbour and support them. Despite Japan's presence, the G-7 remains heavily weighted towards the transatlantic. A D-10 would reflect the increasing importance of the Indo-Pacific by ensuring that influential allies, such as Australia, South Korea and India. For America, the D-10 offers an attractive platform. It provides a new paradigm for American leadership to treat democratic allies as core partners in shaping a global order that reflects common interests and ideals like climate change and disruptive technologies. But expanding the G-7 to D -10 will require unanimous consent, and not everyone is on board. Germany and Italy are concerned it could be seen as an anti-China alliance, while France remains sceptical of coalitions of democracies. Japan, too, has raised doubts about including South Korea in light of their historical grievances and perhaps a desire to remain the only Pacific member in the group. But the present-day situation makes all the nations stand above the narrow national interest and saves the world from succeeding generations for democracy and development. However, the notion of a D-10 clearly has rattled China. "Given the current chaotic situations of Western democratic systems, the D10 club is just an illusionary idea said a mouthpiece of China Communist Party." Finally, one can say that given the momentous challenges of this new era, the Democratic allies must be prepared to take dramatic steps. By rallying like-minded and capable democracies around a common purpose, the D-10 can serve as a powerful instrument for defending a rules-based democratic order. All like-minded countries share a common worldview in how they perceive global challenges and their commitment to promoting democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. D10 is what the democracies of the future need to strengthen United Nations and the World. (The writer is a panellist, Political Analyst, Columnist, International Affairs and Korea Expert) Dr S Jaishankar said China and India can set an example as for Asian solidarity, but China shouldn't view its relations with India through the lens of a third country. New Delhi: Having landed in Dushanbe in Tajikistan for the much-awaited SCO Meeting, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishanar held crucial bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and underlined in crystal clear language that Beijing should give up the "lens of a third country". For his part, he also emphasized that "India does not subscribe to any clash of civilizations theory", Dr Jaishankar penned in a missive on the microblogging site Twitter. "As for Asian solidarity, it is for China and India to set an example," he tweeted and also said: "It is also essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country." Obviously, the reference is Pakistan, which has lately drawn international attention for its double standards on the Taliban and issues related to the war against terror. Chinese and Russian Presidents Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan are set to attend the virtual Summit meet along with Indian PM Narendra Modi on Friday (September 17). "Met Chinese FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe," Dr Jaishankar wrote on the microblogging site. He said: "Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties." He said both the leaders also exchanged views on global developments. Dr Jaishankar also held talks with Kyrgyz Republic Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev. "Noted our growing development partnership. Agreed to strengthen our traditional cooperation on regional and multilateral issues," Dr Jaishankar wrote. In another, he thanked Tajik President Emomali Rahmon for receiving him. The Minister conveyed greetings to Prime Minister Modi. "Exchanged views on recent developments in Afghanistan and their impact on regional security. India and Tajikistan are strong partners in fighting terrorism, fundamentalism and radicalism," he wrote. The External Affairs Minister also had a good discussion with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin. Dr Jaishankar said he is looking forward to continuing the parleys on Friday. Prime Minister Modi will address the SCO Summit via video link. Tajikistan President will host the Summit. Wishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw launched the Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojna on Friday. "I wish our Prime Minister Narendra Modi a very happy birthday. He has given a direction to not only India, but the world as well," said Vaishnaw while talking to media. Speaking further, he said, "Today, Railways is giving a small gift to our PM. Skill development and upliftment of the underprivileged and the deprived is extremely close to his heart. Keeping this in mind, we are launching Railway Kaushal Vikas Yojna, which will provide training to 50,000 people in skills that are relevant in the world today." The scheme is free of cost for all, as per the minister. "Programmes related to this scheme are being held in distant places where a lot of facilities are not available. We will also make a Mobile Skill Development Unit, which can travel in very remote areas. The aim is to train people to gain employment wherever there is scope for employment," added Vaishnaw. The BJP has made elaborate arrangements to celebrate the 71st birthday of Prime Minister Modi with the launch of the "Seva or Samarpan Abhiyan" campaign. The campaign will begin on September 17 and conclude on October 7. (ANI) The victim works as a manager in a Noida firm, and she met Sajid in the same company. He also took her five lakh rupees. In the case of Love Jihad, the Noida police has arrested Sajid for raping the victim for three years on the pretext of marriage and then forcing her to convert. The victim is a manager in a Noida firm, and Sajid works in the same company. For three years, Sajid was raping the victim on the pretext of marriage. When the victim expressed the wish to get married, he started forcing her to convert. She refused. In the meantime, Sajid married another girl and disappeared. In three years, Sajid had taken five lakh rupees from the victim. The police registered the case on August 30, and since then, they had been searching for Sajid and arrested him on Thursday (September 16). The Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh has a new law to check any forced conversion and any fraudulent conversion for marriage. There is an elaborate procedure for approval to convert, and the sanction of the district magistrate is a must. There is a stringent provision for the violators. The law has a provision for a jail term of one to five years with a penalty of Rs 15,000 for forceful religious conversion. IISc researchers have devised a method for producing alkali-activated bricks/blocks by utilising fly ash and furnace slag. New Delhi: Energy efficiency brings various benefits, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing demand for energy imports, and lowering costs on a household and economy-wide level. Emphasis is placed on energy-efficient design and construction of energy-efficient buildings without compromising the comfort of the occupants of such buildings. However, developing effective materials is needed for this purpose. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, have developed a technology to produce energy-efficient walling materials using construction and demolition waste and alkali-activated binders. These are called low carbon bricks, do not require high-temperature firing, and avoid using high-energy materials such as Portland cement. The technology will also solve the disposal problems associated with C&D waste mitigation, said the Ministry of Science & Technology statement, released on Thursday (September 16). IISc researchers have devised a method for producing alkali-activated bricks/blocks by utilising fly ash and furnace slag. They developed low embodied carbon bricks from construction and demolition waste through an alkali activation process using fly ash and ground slag and characterising the thermal, structural, and durability characteristics of Low carbon bricks and their masonry. After ascertaining the Physico-chemical and compaction characteristics of the construction and demolition waste, the optimum mix ratios of the materials were obtained. Then the production process was evolved to produce low carbon bricks. Based on the optimum binder proportions, the compressed bricks were manufactured. The bricks were examined for engineering characteristics. The masonry units are manufactured either through the process of firing or using high-energy/embodied carbon binders, such as Portland cement. The annual consumption of bricks and blocks in India is about 900 million tonnes. Besides, the construction industry generates vast amounts (70100 million tonnes per annum) of construction and demolition waste. To promote sustainable construction, two important issues need to be addressed while manufacturing the masonry unitsconserving mined raw material resources and emission reduction, researchers, said researchers. A start-up has been registered which will be functional within 6-9 months to manufacture low carbon bricks and blocks with the technical support from IISc. The start-up unit will act as a technology dissemination unit through training, capacity building, and providing technical know-how for establishing such commercial units across India, remarked Prof. B V Venkatarama Reddy, IISc Bangalore. Conventionally, building envelopes consist of masonry walls built with burnt clay bricks, concrete blocks, hollow clay blocks, fly ash bricks, lightweight blocks, and so on. The envelopes spend energy during their production, thus incurring carbon emission (i.e., possess embodied carbon) consume mined raw material resources which lead to unsustainable constructions. The major beneficiary of this development undertaken by IISc, Bangalore, with funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, is the construction industry in general and the building sector in particular. This technology will also mitigate the disposal problems associated with construction and demolition wastes. Courtesy: India Science Wire The United States Senators wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization as it poses a major threat to the United States. The United States senators Wednesday (September 15) wrote a letter to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization as current version of the Taliban government presents a significant threat to the United States. Since reestablishing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban resumed the same murderous and oppressive habits that characterized their leadership tenure prior to the arrival of U.S. forces in 2001, read the letter. The signatories to the letter included Joni Ernst, Rick Scott, Dan Sullivan and Tommy Tuberville. Explaining reasons for their demand, senators wrote, Given their history of supporting terror attacks on the United States, their brutal style of governance, their continued display of atrocities against Americans and our allies, and now, their enhanced military capability, the current version of the Taliban government presents a significant threat to the United States. Further, the Taliban display the will and the means to attack Americans and American interests. The senators expressed their concern over the appointment of Sirajuddin Haqqani as the interior minister of Afghanistan. The Taliban appointed Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network and a known terrorist wanted by the FBI for the murder of American citizens, as Interior Minister and allowed terrorist organizations to join the government, read the letter. They also criticized the Biden administration for the hasty and ill-conceived withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. The withdrawal of the U.S. forces created a security vacuum that was exploited by the Taliban, the letter alleged. The U.S. forces completely withdrew from Afghanistan by August 31. Harmony between friendship with God, fraternal life, and mission, is a fascinating goal, capable of motivating your present and future choices, Pope Francis said to representatives of the Order of Discalced Carmelites whom he received in audience on Saturday, 11 September, on the occasion of the celebration of their General Chapter (30 August to 14 September). The following is a translation of the Holy Fathers discourse which he offered in Italian in the Clementine Hall. Dear Brothers, I am pleased to welcome you, who are gathered [here] from various regions of the world for the General Chapter, as representatives of the approximately 4,000 brothers who belong to your Order. My greeting is also extended to them, as well as to the Discalced Carmelite nuns and to all the members of the Carmelite family, who are following your work with prayer throughout these days. I thank the new Prior General for his words, and the outgoing Prior General for the service he has carried out. Thank you. You began the Chapter guided by three very significant biblical texts. First: listen to what the Spirit says (cf. Acts 2:7); second: discern the signs of the times (cf. Mt 16:3); third: become witnesses unto the ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). Listening is the fundamental attitude of the disciple, of those who place themselves in the school of Jesus and want to respond to what he asks of us in this time that is difficult but always beautiful, because it is Gods time. Listening to the Spirit, in order to be able to discern what comes from the Lord and what is contrary to him and, in this way, responding, starting from the Gospel, responding to the signs of the times through which the Lord of history speaks to us and reveals himself. Listening and discernment, in view of the witness, of the mission carried out by the proclamation of the Gospel, both with words and, above all, with [the example] of life. At this time, in which the pandemic has confronted us all with so many questions and which has seen the collapse of so many certainties, as children of Saint Teresa, you are called to safeguard your fidelity to the perennial elements of your charism. If this crisis has anything good and it certainly does it is precisely to bring us back to the essential, not to live distracted by false certainties. This is also a favourable context in which to examine the state of health of your Order and nurture the flame of your origins. At times, some wonder what the future of consecrated life is; and some prophets of doom say that its future is short, that consecrated life is coming to an end. But, dear brothers, these pessimistic views are destined to be disproved, as are those about the Church herself, because consecrated life is an integral part of the Church, of her eschatological character, of her evangelical genuineness. Consecrated life is part of the Church just as Jesus wanted it to be, and as the Spirit continually generates it. Therefore, the temptation to worry about surviving, rather than living to the full by welcoming the grace of the present, even with the risks it entails, must be removed. In the school of Christ, it is a matter of being faithful to the present and at the same time free and open to Gods horizon, immersed in his mystery of love. Carmelite life is a contemplative life. This is the gift that the Spirit has given to the Church with Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross, and then with the Carmelite saints: there are many of them. Faithful to this gift, Carmelite life is a response to contemporary humanitys thirst, which deep down is thirst for God, thirst for the eternal: contemporary humanity often does not understand this, and looks for it everywhere. Carmelite life is sheltered from psychologism, spiritualism, or false novelties that conceal a spirit of worldliness. You know well the temptation of psychologism, spiritualism and worldly novelties: the spirit of worldliness. And here I ask you, please: beware of spiritual worldliness, which is the worst evil that can happen to the Church. When I read this in the last pages of Father de Lubacs meditation on the Church read the last four pages I could not believe it: but why, I was still in Buenos Aires why does this happen? What is this spiritual worldliness? It is very subtle, it is very subtle: it enters and we do not notice it. The text quotes a Benedictine spiritual father: de Lubac takes that text and says: It is the worst of the evils to beset the Church, indeed, worse than the time of the concubine Popes. I also said this to the Claretians the other day: one can see that LOsservatore Romano was frightened by this text, which is not mine, it is de Lubacs, and put, worse than the concubine fathers: it was afraid of the truth. I hope LOsservatore will correct it well. Spiritual worldliness is terrible, it gets inside you. It is in the Gospel, as Jesus said, when he spoke of educated demons, of educated devils, because Jesus said this: when the unclean spirit has gone out of a persons soul, he begins to wander around deserted places and then he gets bored, he has nothing to do, and says: I will come back and see what my house was like. He comes back and sees that everything is clean, everything is in order and, Jesus said: He goes and takes seven devils worse than himself and enters. And the end of that man is worse than the beginning. But how do these seven devils enter? Not like thieves, no: they ring the bell, say good morning and enter little by little, they go in little by little and you dont notice that they have taken possession of your house. This is the spirit of worldliness. It enters little by little, it enters even in prayer, it gets in. Beware of this. It is the worst evil that can happen to the Church and, if you dont believe me, read the last four pages of Father de Lubacs Meditation on the Church. Beware of spiritual worldliness. Let us remember that evangelical fidelity is not stability of place, but stability of heart; that it does not consist in refusing change, but in making the necessary changes to meet what the Lord asks of us, here and now. And so fidelity demands a steadfast commitment to the values of the Gospel and to ones own charism, and the renunciation of that which prevents one from giving the best of oneself to the Lord and to others. From this perspective, I encourage you to maintain the link between friendship with God, fraternal life in community, and mission, as we read in the preparatory documents of your Chapter. Friendship with the Lord is, for Saint Teresa, living in communion with him; it is not just praying, but making a prayer of life; it is walking as your Rule says in obsequio Iesu Christi, and doing so in joy. Another thing I would like to stress: joy. It is ugly to see consecrated men and women with a long face. It is ugly, it is ugly. Joy must come from within: that joy that is peace, an expression of friendship. Another thing I put in the Exhortation on holiness: a sense of humour. Please do not lose your sense of humour. In Gaudete et Exsultate I have included, in that chapter, a prayer by Saint Thomas More asking for a sense of humour. Recite it, it will do you good. Always with that joy of the humble, who accept the normal, everyday things of life, so as to live in joy. With this in mind, I encourage you to keep the link between friendship with God, fraternal life in community and the mission connected, as I have said. Friendship with God ripens in silence, in recollection, in listening to the Word of God; it is a flame that must be nurtured and protected day by day. The warmth of this inner fire also helps to practise fraternal life in community. It is not an accessory element, but rather a substantial one. You are reminded of this by your very name: barefoot brothers. Rooted in your relationship with God, the Trinity of Love, you are called to cultivate relationships in the Spirit, in a healthy tension between being alone and being with others, against the tide of individualism and the standardisation of the world. Individualism and standardization. Community life. Saint Mother Teresa exhorts us to the style of fraternity, el estilo de hermandad. It is an art that is learned day by day: to be a family united in Christ, barefoot brothers of Mary, taking as models, the Holy Family of Nazareth and the apostolic community. The Holy Family of Nazareth: thank you for mentioning Saint Joseph, do not forget him! One of you once gave me an image of Saint Joseph with a prayer, a humble prayer that says: Accept me, as you accepted Jesus. It is a beautiful prayer, that I pray every day. It asks Saint Joseph to accept us and to help us progress in the spiritual life, to be somewhat like our spiritual father, as he was a father to Jesus and to the Holy Family. Starting from friendship with God and a style of fraternity, you are also called to rethink your mission, with creativity and decisive apostolic zeal, paying great attention to todays world. I would like to insist on what I have already mentioned above: this renewal of your mission is inseparably linked to fidelity to the contemplative vocation: may you find out how to do it, but it is linked. You must not imitate the mission of other charisms, but be faithful to your own, to give to the world what the Lord has given you for the good of all, that is, the living water of contemplation. Contemplation is not an escape from reality, enclosure in a protected oasis, but an opening of the heart and life to the power that truly transforms the world, that is, Gods love. It was in prolonged solitary prayer that Jesus received the impetus to break his life every day among the people. And so do the saints: the generosity and courage of their apostolate are the fruit of their profound union with God. Dear brothers, harmony between these three elements: friendship with God, fraternal life, and mission, is a fascinating goal, capable of motivating your present and future choices. May the Holy Spirit it is he who creates harmony enlighten and guide your steps on this path. May the Holy Virgin keep you and accompany you. I bless you from the bottom of my heart. And remember, do not forget to pray for me I need it. Thank you! On Wednesday afternoon, 15 September, on his return flight from Bratislava to Rome, Pope Francis met with the journalists onboard and conversed with them, answering some of their questions. The interview was introduced by Matteo Bruni, Director of the Holy See Press Office, who thanked the Pontiff for these days, which began with the Adoration of the Eucharist in Budapest and ended with a joint celebration and prayer on Wednesday morning in Sastin. In between these two moments, he said, were many images, words and encounters and it is beautiful that we were able to return to meeting in person. Also beautiful, Bruni continued, was the participation and joy of the People of God throughout these days. The following is the English text of the in-flight interview. (Istvan Karoly Kuzmanyi of Magyar Kurir): Holy Father, thank you for your visit to Budapest where you quoted the venerable Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty who said, If there are one million Hungarians praying, I am not afraid of the future... So, here is my question: Why did you decide, after 21 years, to participate as Pope in the International Eucharistic Congress, beginning with this event? How do you view Christianity in Europe, and what do you think we can do, we Hungarians, about this? Thank you. Well, thank you, thank you very much. At the beginning, it was not clear: But is he only coming for the ceremony, and is he not going to visit us Hungarians?. And some people thought badly. No: I explained that a visit to Slovakia had already been planned it was in mind and the other began after. But I promised your President whom I met this is the third time I have met him I promised to see whether it will be possible to come back next year or the following one because the Hungarians have so many values. I was struck, for example, by the sense of ecumenism that you have, with a deep, deep, deep profundity. This is what hit me. In general, Europe I always say this must reassume the dreams of the founding fathers of the European Union. The European Union, let us say, is not a gathering to get things done, it is a highly spiritual fact... there is a spirit behind the EU that Schuman, Adenauer, De Gasperi, these great men, dreamed of: go back there. Because there is a danger: that the European Union becomes just a management office, and that is not good. It must move precisely toward mysticism, [towards the spirit] in search of Europes roots and bring them forward. And I think all countries must move forward. It is true that some interests, perhaps not European ones, attempt to use the European Union for ideological colonization, and this is not good. No: the European Union must be independent in and of itself, and all the countries on the same level, inspired by the dream of its Great Founders. This is my idea. And you Hungarians: I was with you last year [editor: 2 years ago] in Transylvania. That Mass in Hungarian was beautiful. (Bohumil Petrik Dennik of Standard with RTVS): Vaccination has divided Christians, even in Slovakia. You say that it is an act of love to get vaccinated. So when someone does not vaccinated, what would you call that? Because some believers even felt they were being discriminated against. There are different approaches in different Dioceses on this issue. Even prior to your visit, only those who had been vaccinated could come to your papal events, then it changed and even those with a negative Covid test could attend. And so on. And therefore we all want to know? How can we meet? How do we reconcile on this issue? This is important. It is a bit strange, because humanity has a friendly history with vaccines: we as children, even the measles, the other one for polio... all children were vaccinated and no one said boo. Here this happened. Perhaps it came about because of the virulence and the uncertainty, not only about the pandemic, but also about the diversity of vaccines, and also because of the reputation of some vaccines: that they are not suitable or are little more than distilled water. This has created fear in people. Then, there are others who say they are dangerous because the virus enters into you with the vaccine, and so many arguments that have created this division. Even in the College of Cardinals, there are some deniers and one of them, poor man, is hospitalized with the virus. The irony of life. Yes, I dont know how to explain it well: some say its because of the difference of where the vaccines come from, that there has not been sufficient testing, and they are afraid. But we have to be clear, to clarify and to speak about this with serenity. In the Vatican, all are vaccinated, except for a small group that is under study to know how to help them. (Daniel Verdu Palay of El Pais): Good afternoon, Your Holiness. How are you? On Sunday morning you met with Prime minister, Viktor Mihaly Orban; some of your differences on themes such as migrants, Europe, nationalism are well known or can be understood. We wanted to ask you and to know how the meeting went, whether you touched on the topic of migrants, which will now become very important again with the crisis in Afghanistan, and what you think about the laws that he has enacted concerning homosexuals. We are asking you also because we think that you asked him not to let Christian Hungary die. But listening to your discourses these past days, it would seem that there are at times these policies that kill Christian values. Very well. I was visited, because the President came to me, he had this courtesy, this kindness, he came it is the third time Ive met him he came with the Prime Minister and the Deputy Minister, there were the three of them. But the President spoke. The first topic was ecology. Truly, hats off to you Hungarians for the ecological conscience you have. Impressive. He explained how they purify the rivers , many things that I didnt know! This was the main thing. Then I asked about the average age, because I am concerned about the demographic winter. In Italy, if Im not mistaken, the average age is 47, and I think in Spain it is even worse. Many villages are empty or with a dozen elderly people It is a serious concern. How can it be resolved? And here, the president explained to me always the president he explained to me the law they have to help young couples marry and have children. It is interesting. It is a law I dont know somewhat similar to that of France, but more developed. Because of this, the French do not have the tragedy that Spain has or that we have [in Italy]. They explained this to me, and they both added something technical at that point, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Minister, about what this law is about. And then what other things did they speak about? About immigration, nothing, no, it didnt come up. Then we returned to ecology, too, and yes, the family, in the sense of what I had asked, and you can see that there are many young people, many children. But also in Slovakia: I was surprised, so many children and so many young couples, and this is a promise. Now the challenge is to find jobs so that they dont go abroad, because if there are no jobs, they will go abroad to look for work. These were the things. The president spoke the whole time, and both ministers added some precise data. It was a good atmosphere. The meeting lasted long enough, I think 35-40 minutes. (Gerard OConnell of American Magazine): First, we are all happy that the surgery had a wonderful effect, that you are rejuvenated! I was told about someone who wanted to have the operation, I dont know who it was, I heard about them... But it wasnt cosmetic! (Gerard OConnell): Holy Father, you have often said we are all sinners, and that the Eucharist is not a reward for the perfect but a medicine and food for the weak. As you know, in the United States, especially after the last elections, but also from 2004 on, there has been a discussion among the bishops about giving communion to politicians who have supported laws in favour of abortion and the womans right to choose. And as you know, there are bishops who want to deny communion to the president and others who hold high office. There are other bishops who are opposed, there are some bishops who say, the Eucharist must not be used as a weapon. My question, Father: What do you think about all this, and what do you advise the bishops? Then, a second question: As bishop, in all these years, have you publicly refused the Eucharist to anyone like this? Pope Francis: No, I have never refused the Eucharist to anyone, to anyone. I dont know if anyone who was in that condition came, but I never, never refused the Eucharist. And this already as a priest. Never. But I have never been aware of having a person like the one you describe in front of me, this is true. Simply, the only time I ever had a little a nice thing, was when I went to celebrate Mass in a rest home and we were in the living room, and I said: Whoever wants to receive Communion, raise your hand. Everyone, the old men, the old women, everyone wanted Communion, and when I gave Communion to one lady, she took my hand and said to me, Thank you, Father, thank you. Im Jewish I said: No even what I gave you is Jewish, go ahead. This is the only strange thing, but the woman had communed first, she told me afterwards. No. Communion is not a reward for the perfect. . Lets think of Port Royal, of the issue with Angelique Arnaud, of Jansenism: those who are perfect can receive Communion. Communion is a gift, a present; the presence of Jesus in his Church and in the community. This is the theology. Then, those who are not in the community cannot receive Communion, like this Jewish lady; but the Lord wanted to reward her without my knowledge. Why? Because they are out of the community ex-comunitate excommunicated they are called. It is a harsh term, but it means that they are not in the community, either because they do not belong to it, they are not baptised or because they were estranged for some reason. Second the problem of abortion. Abortion is more than a problem. Abortion is homicide. Abortion... lets not mince words: anyone who aborts, kills someone. Take any book on embryology, the ones the students in the faculty of medicine study. The third week after conception, at the third week, often before the mother herself is aware of it, all the organs are already there, everything, even the dna . Isnt that a person? It is a human life, period. And this human life must be respected. This principle is so clear, and to those who cannot understand, I would ask two questions: Is it right to kill a human life to solve a problem? Scientifically, it is a human life. The second question: Is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem? I said this publicly to Jordi Evole when he did [the interview] I said it the other day to cope [a Spanish Catholic radio station], I wanted to repeat it... And full stop. Dont go on with strange questions. Scientifically it is a human life. Books teach us this. I ask: Is it right to do away with someone to solve a problem? This is why the Church is so harsh on this issue, because if she accepts this, it would be like accepting daily murder. A head of state told me that the decline in population started with them, there is an age gap, because in those years there was such a strong law on abortion that they did six million abortions, it is calculated, and this left a sharp decline in the society of that country. Now lets get to that person who is not in the community, who cannot receive communion because they are outside the community, and this is not a punishment. No, you are outside. Communion is uniting yourself to the community. The problem is not theological, which is this simple thing. The problem is pastoral: How do we bishops apply this principle pastorally. And if we look at the history of the Church, we will see that every time the bishops have dealt with a problem not as pastors, they took sides on political life, on a political problem. In order not to handle a problem well, they took sides on a political front. Let us think of the night of Saint Bartholomews: Heretics! Yes, heresy is exceptionally grave, lets cut all their throats! No, its a political matter. Let us think of Joan of Arc, about this vision, let us think of the witch-hunt always. Let us think of Campo de Fiori, of Savonarola, of all these people. When the Church, in order to defend a principle, does so in an unpastoral manner, it acts on a political level. And this has always been the case, just look at history. And what must the pastor do? Be a pastor. Be a pastor and not go around condemning, not condemning: Be a pastor. But is he a pastor of the excommunicated too? Yes, he is a pastor and must be a pastor with him, being a pastor with Gods style. And Gods style is closeness, compassion, and tenderness. The whole Bible says so. Closeness is already there in Deuteronomy, where He says to Israel: Tell me, what people has the gods as close as you have me? Closeness, compassion. The Lord who has compassion for us. Let us read Ezekiel, let us read Hosea. Tenderness is already there from the beginning. It is enough to look in the Gospels and the things of Jesus. A pastor who does not know how to act with Gods style slips and gets into many things that are not of a pastor. For me I dont want to get into particulars, since you spoke of the United States, because I dont know the details well. I give the principle. You could say to me: If you are close, you are tender, you are compassionate with a person, would you give the person Communion? This is a hypothesis. Be a pastor, the pastor knows what he has to do at all times, but as a pastor. But if he goes beyond this pastoral dimension of the Church, he immediately becomes a politician. You will see this in all the denunciations, in all the non-pastoral condemnations the Church makes. With this principle, I think a pastor can operate well. The principles are taken from theology. Pastoral ministry is theology and the Holy Spirit who is leading you to act with the style of God. I would venture to speak up to this point. If you say to me: Can one give or can one not give it? It is casuistry, that is for the theologians to say. Do you remember the storm that was whipped up with Amoris Laetitia, when that chapter on the accompaniment of separated couples and the divorced came out? Heresy, heresy!. Thanks be to God that Cardinal Schonborn, who is a great theologian, was there and he clarified things. But always this condemnation, condemnation Enough with the excommunication, please lets not make any more excommunications. Poor people, they are children of God, they are temporarily outside, but they are children of God and they want and need our pastoral closeness. Then the pastor resolves things as the Spirit tells him. (Stefano Maria Paci of Sky Tg 24): Good day, Holy Father. Knowing you, I think you will consider this message I am about to give you as a type of gift. Knowing that I would be travelling with you, she asked me to give this to you. Edith Bruck, the Jewish writer deported to Auschwitz when she was 13 years old, this years winner of the Strega Giovani Award, sent it to me yesterday evening. And you, quite unusually, went to her home in the centre of Rome to meet her. It is a long message signed, Your Sister Edith, in which she thanks you for your repeated appeals and acts against anti-Semitism on this trip. The first words are: Beloved Pope Francis, your words about anti-Semitism, which was never eradicated, are today more relevant than ever, not only in the countries you are visiting, but in all of Europe. This is true. Anti-Semitism is fashionable nowadays, it is rising up again. It is an ugly, ugly, ugly thing. (Stefano Maria Paci): And the question is about the family. You spoke about it with the Hungarian authorities, you repeated it yesterday in the meeting with young people. And just yesterday, news arrived from Strasbourg of a resolution from the European Parliament that invites Member States to recognize homosexual marriage and related parental relationships. Holy Father, what is your thought on this? I have spoken clearly about this. Marriage is a sacrament. Marriage is a sacrament. The Church does not have the power to change the sacraments as the Lord instituted them. These are laws that are trying to assist the situations of many people who have a different sexual orientation. And this is important, that people be helped. But without imposing things that, by their nature, are not acceptable in the Church. But if they want to lead a life together, a homosexual couple, the States have the possibility, civilly, to support them, to give them security regarding inheritance, healthcare The French have a law about this, not only for homosexuals, but for all people who want to associate themselves together. But marriage is marriage. This does not mean condemning people who are like that, no, please, they are our brothers and sisters. We have to accompany them. But marriage as a sacrament is clear, its clear. That there should be civil laws that Three widows, for example, who want to join together in law in order to have health services, to have a bit of inheritance among themselves, these things are done. This is the French PACS [editor: civil solidarity pact] but it has nothing to do with homosexual couples; homosexual couples can use it, they can use it, but matrimony as a sacrament is man and woman. Sometimes, confusion arises regarding what I was saying. Yes, we must everyone is equal respect everyone: The Lord is good and will save everyone. Dont say this out loud [laughs], but the Lord desires the salvation of all. But please do not make the Church deny her truth. Many, many people with a homosexual orientation draw near to the sacrament of penance, and approach to seek the counsel of priests; and the Church helps them move forward in their own lives, but the sacrament of marriage does not apply. Thank you. (Matteo Bruni): Thank you Holy Father .... And thanks to all of you! Do you want [to know] something beautiful about one of you. I leave this as a fioretto [a small gift] before taking my leave. It is said that this journalist is available 24 hours a day for work and that she always lets others go first, she goes afterwards, and that she always gives the floor to others and remains silent. It is beautiful, that they say this about a journalist, and this is what Manuel Beltran says about our Eva Fernandez. Thank you! The Holy Father met with Slovakias Bishops, Priests, Religious, Seminarians and Catechists in Bratislavas Saint Martins Cathedral on Monday morning, 13 September. The following is the English text of the words he shared with them. Dear Brother Bishops, Dear Priests, Religious and Seminarians Dear Catechists, Sisters and Brothers, Good morning! I am happy to greet all of you, and I am grateful to Archbishop Stanislav Zvolensky for his kind words. Thank you for your invitation to feel at home in your midst. I have come as your brother, so indeed I feel like one of you. I am here to share your journey this is what a Bishop and a Pope is supposed to do your questions, and the aspirations and hopes of this Church and this country; in that regard, I just told the President that Slovakia is a poem! Sharing was the style of the first Christian community: they were constant in prayer and they walked together in concord (cf. Acts 1:2-14). They also quarrelled, but they walked together. This is what we need most of all: a Church that can walk together, that can tread the paths of life holding high the living flame of the Gospel. The Church is not a fortress, a stronghold, a lofty castle, self-sufficient and looking out upon the world below. Here in Bratislava, you have a castle and it is a fine one! The Church, though, is a community that seeks to draw people to Christ with the joy of the Gospel, not a castle! She is the leaven of Gods Kingdom of love and peace in our world. Please, let us not be tempted by worldly trappings and grandeur! The Church must be humble, like Jesus, who stripped himself of everything and made himself poor in order to make us rich (cf. 2 Cor 8:9). That is how he came to dwell among us and to care for our wounded humanity. How great is the beauty of a humble Church, a Church that does not stand aloof from the world, viewing life with a detached gaze, but lives her life within the world. Living within the world means being willing to share and to understand peoples problems, hopes and expectations. This will help us to escape from our self-absorption, for the centre of the Church is not the Church! When the Church is self-absorbed, she ends up like the woman in the Gospel: bent over, navel-gazing (cf. Lk 13:10-13). The centre of the Church is not herself. We have to leave behind undue concern for ourselves, for our structures, for what society thinks about us. This will only lead us to a cosmetic theology How do we make ourselves look good? Instead, we need to become immersed in the real lives of people and ask ourselves: what are their spiritual needs and expectations? What do they expect from the Church? It is important to try to respond to these questions. For me, three words come to mind. The first is freedom. Without freedom, there can be no true humanity, for human beings were created free in order to be free. The tragic chapters of your countrys history provide a great lesson: whenever freedom was attacked, violated and suppressed, humanity was disfigured and the tempests of violence, coercion and the elimination of rights rapidly followed. Freedom is not something achieved automatically, once and for all. No! It is always a process, at times wearying and ever in need of being renewed, something we need to strive for every day. It is not enough to be free outwardly, or in the structures of society, to be authentically free. Freedom demands personal responsibility for our choices, discernment and perseverance. This is indeed wearisome and even frightening. At times, it is easier not to be challenged by concrete situations, to continue doing what we did in the past, without getting too deeply involved, without taking the risk of making a decision. We would rather get along by doing what others or public opinion or the media decide for us. This should not be the case. So often times nowadays we do what the media decide we should do. In this way, we lose our freedom. Let us reflect, though, on the history of the people of Israel: they suffered under the tyranny of the Pharaoh, they were slaves and then the Lord set them free. Yet to experience true freedom, not simply freedom from their enemies, they had to cross the desert, to undertake an exhausting journey. Then they began to think: Werent we better off before? At least we had a few onions to eat... This is the great temptation: better a few onions than the effort and the risk involved in freedom. This is one of our temptations. Yesterday, speaking to ecumenical representatives, I mentioned Dostoyevsky and his Grand Inquisitor. Jesus secretly comes back to the earth and the inquisitor reproaches him for having given freedom to men and women. A bit of bread and little else is enough. This temptation is always present, the temptation of the leeks. Better a few leeks and a bit of bread than the effort and the risk involved in freedom. I leave it to you to think about these things. Sometimes in the Church too this idea can take hold. Better to have everything readily defined, laws to be obeyed, security and uniformity, rather than to be responsible Christians and adults who think, consult their conscience and allow themselves to be challenged. This is the beginning of casuistry, trying to regulate everything. In the spiritual life and in the life of the Church, we can be tempted to seek an ersatz peace that consoles us, rather than the fire of the Gospel that unsettles and transforms us. The safe onions of Egypt prove more comfortable than the uncertainties of the desert. Yet a Church that has no room for the adventure of freedom, even in the spiritual life, risks becoming rigid and self-enclosed. Some people may be used to this. But many others especially the younger generations are not attracted by a faith that leaves them no interior freedom. They are not attracted by a Church in which all are supposed to think alike and blindly obey. Dear friends, do not be afraid to train people for a mature and free relationship with God. This relationship is important. This approach may give the impression that we are diminishing our control, power and authority, yet the Church of Christ does not seek to dominate consciences and occupy spaces, but rather to be a wellspring of hope in peoples lives. This is the risk; this is the challenge. I say this above all to bishops and priests, for you are ministering in a country where much has changed quickly and many democratic processes have been launched, but freedom remains fragile. This is especially true where peoples hearts and minds are concerned. For this reason, I encourage you to help set them free from a rigid religiosity. May they be freed from this, and may they continue to grow in freedom. No one should feel overwhelmed. Everyone should discover the freedom of the Gospel by gradually entering into a relationship with God, confident that they can bring their history and personal hurts into his presence without fear or pretence, without feeling the need to protect their own image. You can say to them I am a sinner, but say it with sincerity, dont beat your breast and then keep thinking that you are justified. Freedom. May the proclamation of the Gospel be liberating, never oppressive. And may the Church be a sign of freedom and welcome! Let me tell you a story of what happened sometime ago. I am sure that no one would ever know where it happened. It is about a letter that a Bishop wrote, complaining about a Nuncio. He said: For four hundred years we were under the oppression of the Turks, and we suffered a lot. Then for fifty years we were under Communism and we also suffered a lot. But these past seven years with this Nuncio have been worse than the other two! Sometimes I wonder: How many people could say the same thing about their Bishop or their parish priest? How many? No, without freedom, without paternal love, there is no way forward. A second word the first one was freedom is creativity. You have inherited a great tradition. Your religious heritage was born of the preaching and ministry of the outstanding figures of Saints Cyril and Methodius. They teach us that evangelization is never mere repetition of the past. The joy of the Gospel is always Christ, but the routes that this good news travels through time and history can be different. The routes are all different. Together, Cyril and Methodius traversed this part of the European continent and, burning with passion for the preaching of the Gospel, they even invented a new alphabet for the translation of the Bible, the liturgy and Christian doctrine. They thus became the apostles of the faiths inculturation in your midst. They invented new languages for handing on the Gospel; they were creative in translating the Christian message; and they drew so close to the history of the peoples they encountered that they learned their language and assimilated their culture. May I ask: Isnt this what Slovakia also needs today? Isnt this perhaps the most urgent task facing the Church before the peoples of Europe: finding new alphabets to proclaim the faith? We are heirs to a rich Christian tradition, yet for many people today, that tradition is a relic from the past; it no longer speaks to them or affects the way they live their lives. Faced with the loss of the sense of God and of the joy of faith, it is useless to complain, to hide behind a defensive Catholicism, to judge and blame the evil world. No! What we need is the creativity of the Gospel. Let us be attentive. The Gospel is no longer closed; it is open. It is still alive, it is still active, it is still unfolding. Let us think of those people who brought a paralytic to Jesus, but could not get through the front door. They made an opening in the roof and lowered him down from above (cf. Mk 2:1-5). They were creative! Faced with a difficulty they asked How can we manage this?... Ah, lets do this. Perhaps, faced with a generation that no longer believes, a generation that has lost its sense of faith or that has reduced the faith to mere routine or to more or less acceptable religiosity, let us look for ways to open a hole in the roof; let us be creative. Liberty and creativity What a fine thing it is when we find new ways, means and languages to proclaim the Gospel! We can use our human creativity; everyone of us has this ability. But the great source of creativity is the Holy Spirit! He is the one who inspires us to be creative. If by our preaching and pastoral care we can no longer enter by the usual way, let us try to open up different spaces, and experiment with other means. Let me make a little digression here on preaching. Someone told me that in Evangelii Gaudium I talked too much about the homily, because it is one of our problems today. The homily is not a sacrament, as some Protestants claimed, but it is a sacramental! It is not a Lenten sermon, but something different. It is at the heart of the Eucharist. Let us think of the faithful, who have to listen to homilies lasting forty to fifty minutes on topics they do not understand or which do not affect them ... Please, priests and Bishops, prepare your homilies in such a way that they can touch peoples life experiences, and ensure that they are based on the scriptures. A homily, generally, should not go beyond ten minutes, because after eight minutes you lose peoples attention, unless it is really engaging. But it should not last more than ten to fifteen minutes. My professor of homiletics once said that a homily must have internal consistency: an idea, an image and an affect; that people should leave with an idea, an image or something that has moved in their hearts. How simple it is to preach the Gospel! That was how Jesus preached, using as examples the birds, the fields he used concrete things that people understood. Forgive me for returning to this, but it worries me ... [applause] Let me be a little naughty: the Sisters, who are victims of our homilies, initiated that applause! Cyril and Methodius did exactly this, they were open to this new creativity, and they teach us that the Gospel cannot grow unless it is rooted in the culture of a people, its symbols and questions, its words and its very life. As you know, the two brothers met with obstacles and persecution. They were accused of heresy because they had dared to translate the language of the faith. Such is the ideology born of the temptation of uniformity. Evangelization, on the other hand, is a process, a process of inculturation. It is a fruitful seed of newness, the newness of the Spirit who renews all things. The sower sows seed Jesus tells us and then goes home and sleeps. He doesnt get up to see if the seed is growing, if it is sprouting It is God who gives the growth. Do not control life too much in this regard: let life grow, as Cyril and Methodius did. It is up to us to sow the seed well and to watch over it as fathers, yes. The farmer watches, but he doesnt go out every day to see how it is growing. If he does this, he kills the plant. Freedom, creativity, and finally, dialogue. A Church that trains people in interior freedom and responsibility, one able to be creative by plunging into their history and culture, is also a Church capable of engaging in dialogue with the world, with those who confess Christ without being ours, with those who are struggling with religion, and even with those who are not believers. It is not a cluster of special people. It dialogues with everyone: believers, those living lives of holiness, those who are lukewarm and those who do not believe. It speaks to everyone. It is a Church that, in the footsteps of Cyril and Methodius, unites and holds together East and West, different traditions and sensibilities. A community that, in proclaiming the Gospel of love, makes it possible for communion, friendship and dialogue to flourish between believers, between the different Christian confessions and between peoples. Unity, communion and dialogue are always fragile, especially against the backdrop of a painful history that has left its scars. The memory of past injuries can breed resentment, mistrust and even contempt; it can tempt us to barricade ourselves against those who are different. Wounds, however, can always turn into passages, openings that, in imitating the wounds of the Lord, allow Gods mercy to emerge. That grace changes our lives and makes us artisans of peace and reconciliation. You have a proverb: If someone throws a stone at you, give him bread in return. This is inspiring. How truly evangelical this is! It is Jesus own invitation to break the vicious and destructive cycle of violence by turning the other cheek to those who persecute us, by overcoming evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21). I am always struck by an incident in the history of Cardinal Korec. He was a Jesuit Cardinal, persecuted by the regime, imprisoned, and sentenced to forced labour until he fell ill. When he came to Rome for the Jubilee of the Year 2000, he went to the catacombs and lit a candle for his persecutors, imploring mercy for them. This is the Gospel! It grows in life and in history through humble and patient love. Dear friends, I thank God for these moments together, and I thank you most heartily for all you do, and for all you are, as well as for what you will do, inspired by this homily, which is also a seed that I am sowing Lets see if some plants grow! I encourage you to persevere in your journey in the freedom of the Gospel, in the creativity of faith and in the dialogue that has its source in the mercy of God, who has made us brothers and sisters and calls us to be builders of harmony and peace. I impart to you my cordial blessing and I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you! HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) A former Liberian military commander who supervised the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed civilians at a church during that country's civil war in 1990 is liable under U.S. law for participating in extrajudicial killings and torture, a federal judge in Philadelphia has ruled. The decision was issued Wednesday against Moses W. Thomas and in favor of four anonymous plaintiffs who lived through the military assault on people seeking safety at a Red Cross shelter on the grounds of St. Peters Lutheran Church. They recounted hiding under dead bodies to survive, smearing blood on themselves to fake death and hiding in the pulpit, clinging to a Bible. After the war, Thomas emigrated to the United States, worked at a restaurant and lived in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb. He went back to Liberia two years ago. His lawyer said Friday he now lives in the capital of Monrovia. He oversaw the events and only declared an end to the shooting when he understood the occupants of the church to have been all killed, wrote U.S. District Judge Petrese Tucker. She said the plaintiffs lost close relatives and suffered serious, prolonged physical and mental harms as a result of the massacre. She also said Thomas' actions as an Armed Forces of Liberia colonel in July 1990 make him liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The lawsuit said Thomas was in command as soldiers fired into the packed church from the front door and through windows, targeting those trying to escape. Thomas was later promoted to head the countrys defense intelligence service and emigrated to the United States in 2000. Thomas' lawyer, Nixon Teah Kannah, said they accept the decision but we don't agree with it. I'm disappointed with the results, Kannah said. I'm going to reach out to him to see how he wants to handle it, if he wants to appeal or let it be. Nushin Sarkarati, a lawyer for the four plaintiffs, called it the first time a court has held a member of the Liberian military responsible for wartime atrocities. Theres going to be a damages hearing, which will be important to identify the harm of the victims and the egregiousness of the abuse, she said. But whether or not our clients will be able to recover, I cant anticipate right now. Judge Tucker said that in Liberia, Thomas has leveraged his contacts in the country's security forces" to harass people suspected of being associated with the U.S. federal lawsuit against him. The four plaintiffs all live in Liberia. Damages in the case will be determined later by a different federal judge. Thomas had unsuccessfully argued too much time had elapsed to file the lawsuit under the 1992 federal Torture Victim Prevention Act and claimed he had never been to the church. Kannah said Friday that Thomas maintains he is innocent of the allegations. Midland County added 65 new COVID-19 cases between Thursday, Sept. 16 and Friday, Sept. 17. COVID-19 numbers reported from Sept. 16-17 Midland County: 65 cases were added; pandemic total is 7,812 cases, 737 probable, 103 deaths and three probable deaths. Bay County: 74 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 11,555 cases, 763 probable, 351 deaths and 16 probable deaths. Gladwin County: 30 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 2,194 cases, 436 probable, 58 deaths and four probable deaths. Isabella County: four cases were subtracted from the total; pandemic total stands at 6,076 cases, 1,075 probable, 98 deaths and five probable deaths. Saginaw County: 150 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 22,249 cases, 1,625 probable, 626 deaths and 21 probable deaths. The state added 5,616 cases and 68 deaths between Thursday and Friday. Overall, Michigan has recorded 988,725 cases and 20,665 deaths. Recovered According to the Midland County Health Department website, which was updated Sept. 13, 7,368 Midland County individuals have recovered from COVID. The state reported that as of Sept. 10, a total of 896,206 persons have recovered. Testing Midland Countys seven-day rolling positivity rate on Sept. 15 was listed at 8.8%, and Gladwin County's was listed at 11.9%. Our 12-county region is listed at 11.5% and Michigan is at 9.3%. MidMichigan Health statistics As of Sept. 17, MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland was listed as having a 91% bed occupancy, with 28 COVID patients and five in the ICU. MidMichigan Medical Center in Gladwin was listed as having a 25% bed occupancy, with one COVID patient and none in the ICU. Both medical centers reported having at least 15-30 days worth of personal protection equipment (N95, surgical masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection) on hand. Schools Below is a report provided by Midland Public Schools on the presence of COVID-19 in local schools. As of Thursday, Sept. 16, MPS reported 146 staff/students are close contacts to an individual who was confirmed COVID-19 positive and 22 staff/students are currently tested positive for the virus. Schools with one or more staff/student confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Thursday include Dow High (2), Midland High (3), Jefferson Middle (3), Northeast Middle (4), Adams Elementary (2), Plymouth Elementary (2), Siebert Elementary (4), and Carpenter Pre-Elementary (2). Midland County vaccinations The Michigan COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard lists Midland's completed vaccine rate is 65.3%. Currently, the vaccines are not authorized to be given to those under age 12. Midland County Health Department is hosting a weekly walk-in vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday on the second floor of the Midland County Services Building, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland. Future COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Midland County are listed at www.co.midland.mi.us/HealthDepartment/COVIDVaccineInformation.aspx. Those with questions may call 989-832-6380 or email MCDPH@co.midland.mi.us. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin. Saturday, Sept. 11 10:54 p.m. A deputy responded to a Lincoln Township residence to speak with a 45-year-old man regarding a suspicious phone call he received after posting on Craigslist. The man was given information on how to mitigate suspicious phone calls. 10:43 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Jerome Township residence regarding a 52-year-old female who was having a reaction to prescription medication and alcohol consumption. The female was confused, however, she was cooperative. She was transported by EMS to MidMichigan Medical Center for a medical evaluation. 9:56 p.m. A deputy responded to a Lincoln Township residence for a civil complaint. A 60-year-old homeowner was concerned about issues with a neighbor and the shared driveway. Information was provided to the complainant on civil process and personal protection order services. No crime was committed. 9:42 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to a Midland Township roadway reference a report of kids laying in the road making TikTok videos. The deputy checked the area and did not observe any kids in the roadway. 9:34 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to Homer Township regarding two unknown males in dark clothing who were walking in the roadway causing a traffic hazard. The deputy checked the area, however, the male subjects were not located. 9:01 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Larkin Township business regarding a domestic assault that occurred in Mills Township. A 29-year-old male assaulted his 46-year-old wife during an argument. The male was subsequently arrested for domestic assault. The male was transported and lodged at the Midland County Jail without incident. Areport will be sent to the Midland County Prosecuting Attorneys Office. 8:03 p.m. A 70-year-old Jerome Township male requested that a deputy contact a 21-year-old Freeland male to advise him that he is no longer welcome on his property. The deputy contacted the male and advised him of the complainant's wishes and the possible consequences if he returns. 5:06 p.m. A deputy was dispatched to Midland Township after a 70-year-old female has been unable to reach her husband for some time. The deputy located the husband and had him call his wife. 12:32 p.m. A 61-year-old Edenville Township female reported her 41-year-old male neighbor's dogs were in her yard acting aggressively toward her. The male retrieved his dogs and the deputy gave the male a verbal warning reference the loose dogs. 10:49 a.m. A 30-year-old Midland County Jail male inmate assaulted a 39-year-old male inmate and a 36-year-old male inmate. One male inmate was taken to the ER for further treatment while the other refused further treatment. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office for charges. 4:10 a.m. Deputies responded to a Homer Township residence reference a possible domestic assault between a 34-year-old Homer Township female and her 17-year-old live-in daughter. No injuries occurred and the 17-year-old left the residence for the night. This report will be sent to the prosecutor's office for review. 3:06 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Jerome Township residence regarding an argument between a 31-year-old male and his 28-year-old girlfriend. The argument was verbal only and no assault occurred. Both parties agreed to separate for the night to deescalate the situation. 12:10 a.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Jerome Township residence regarding an argument between a 31-year-old male and his 28-year-old girlfriend. The argument was verbal only and no assault occurred. Both parties agreed to separate for the night to deescalate the situation. Friday, Sept. 10 9:55 p.m. A deputy responded to a Lincoln Township business for a report of a verbal argument after a suspected private property traffic crash. It was reported the involved parties dispersed and left the scene prior to arrival. The deputy checked the area and was unable to locate the parties involved, nor was flagged down by any citizen. 7:27 p.m. A deputy responded to a Lincoln Township business for a report of a verbal argument after a suspected private property traffic crash. It was reported the involved parties dispersed and left the scene prior to arrival. The deputy checked the area and was unable to locate the parties involved, nor was flagged down by any citizen. 5:24 p.m. Deputy responded to an Edenville Township residence in reference to a stray dog. The dog was taken to the humane society. 3:41 p.m. A deputy, EMS and Homer Fire were dispatched to a Homer Township residence reference a possible overdose. It was reported a 38-year-old female intentionally took too much of her prescription medication. EMS transported that female to the ER for further treatment. A deputy completed a mental health petition while at the ER. 3:02 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to a Jasper Township residence reference a 54-year-old woman assaulting her 57-year-old husband. The woman was arrested for domestic assault and transported to the jail without incident. The male was taken to the hospital for a mental health evaluation due to making suicidal statements. 2:58 p.m. An animal control deputy dispatched to a home in Hope Township reference a stray dog entering the callers yard and biting her puppy. The caller does not know where the dog comes from and has never seen the dog before in the area. They were unable to locate the dog at this time. 1:37 p.m. A deputy was requested to check a semi-tractor that had been parked for an extended period of time at a local business. The caller was worried the driver had a medical issue. The deputy found the cab unoccupied. 11:47 a.m. A deputy spoke with family members of a 52-year-old Edenville man concerning his mental wellbeing. After the discussion the family obtained a Probate Court mental pick up order. Deputies then assisted the family by peacefully bringing the male to the MidMichigan Medical Center ER for evaluation. 11:46 a.m. Deputies assisted Gratiot County with locating and arresting a 33-year-old Jasper Township man on domestic assault charges. 8:26 a.m. An animal control deputy dispatched to assist Midland Police Department in catching a chicken in the KFC parking lot. The chicken was safely apprehended and transported to a new location. 8:25 a.m. Deputy dispatched to a Jasper Township location for a car-deer crash. A 31-year-old Gratiot County male was arrested for a Gratiot County larceny warrant. The male was transported to the Gratiot County Jail by tje Midland County deputy. 3:07 a.m. Deputies responded to a Lee Township residence for a conditional bond violation. The 36-year-old suspect fled prior to deputies arrival. A report has been forwarded to the prosecutor's office for review. 12:39 a.m. Deputies responded to a Lee Township residence for a conditional bond violation. The 36-year-old suspect fled prior to deputies arrival. A report has been forwarded to the prosecutor's office for review. MOSCOW (AP) After a few weeks of desultory campaigning but months of relentless official moves to shut down significant opposition, Russia began three days of voting early Friday in a parliamentary election that is unlikely to change the countrys political complexion. Theres no expectation that United Russia, the party devoted to President Vladimir Putin, will lose its dominance of the State Duma, the elected lower house of parliament. The main questions to be answered are whether the party will retain its current two-thirds majority that allows it to amend the constitution; whether anemic turnout will dull the partys prestige; and whether imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalnys Smart Voting initiative proves to be a viable strategy against it. There is very little intrigue in these elections and in fact they will not leave a special trace in political history, Andrei Kolesnikov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told The Associated Press. Putin, however, urged Russians to vote, saying in a video message Thursday that election of (the Duma's) new composition is undoubtedly the most important event in the life of our society and country. Polls opened Friday morning in the Far East regions of Kamchatka and Chukotka, which are nine hours ahead of Moscow. Voters will be able to cast ballots through Sunday. With 14 parties fielding candidates for half of the Duma's 450 seats that are chosen by party list, the election has a veneer of being genuinely competitive. But the three parties aside from United Russia that are expected to clear the 5% support necessary to get a seat rarely challenge the Kremlin. The Kremlin wants control over the new parliament, which will still be in place in 2024, when Putins current term expires and he must decide on running for reelection or choosing some other strategy to stay in power. The other half of the seats are chosen in individual constituencies, where independent candidates or those from small parties such as the liberal Yabloko may have stronger chances. These seats are also where the Navalny teams Smart Voting strategy could make inroads. The program sidesteps ideology in order to undermine United Russia, simply advising voters which candidate other than the ruling partys is the strongest in a single-mandate race. It's essentially a defensive strategy. Voting to harm United Russia is not a meaningful goal, not a goal to choose another candidate whom you ideologically support, Kolesnikov said. But it showed potency in its inaugural use in 2019 when opposition candidates won 20 of 45 seats in the Moscow city council, and a year later when United Russia lost its majorities in the councils of three large cities. However, its unclear how widely it will be used this year after authorities blocked access to its website. The service remains available through apps, but Russia has threatened fines against Apple and Google to remove the apps from their online stores. The Foreign Ministry last week summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan to protest election interference by American digital giants. Blocking the website was the latest move to neutralize the Navalny operation, which was Russias most visible and determined opposition organization, capable of calling sizable protests throughout the country. Navalny himself was jailed in January upon returning to Russia from Germany where he had been recuperating from nerve-agent poisoning; he was subsequently sentenced to 2 years in prison. A court later outlawed Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of his regional offices as extremist organizations, a verdict that barred people associated with the groups from seeking public office and exposed them to lengthy prison terms. Russian authorities also blocked some 50 websites run by his team or supporters for allegedly disseminating extremist propaganda. In August, Russia added the independent vote-monitoring group Golos to its list of foreign agents, a move that does not block its work but strongly suggests it should be regarded with suspicion. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose election-monitoring missions are widely regarded as authoritative, did not send observers for the parliament vote, saying that Russia imposed excessive restrictions. In addition to the Duma election, nine Russian regions will be choosing governors, 39 regions will be choosing legislatures and voters in 11 cities will be choosing city councils. The Elections Commission ordered voting expanded to three days, concluding on Sunday, to reduce crowding at the polls amid the coronavirus pandemic. Critics say the decision raises the chance of ballot manipulation. Commission head Ella Pamfilova rejects the accusation, saying there will be total video surveillance of polling places and that ballots will be in secure containers. Other ethical concerns also hover over the election. According to the state-funded pollster VTsIOM, more than one in 10 workers say they have been given directives by their bosses to vote. In St. Petersburg, a candidate from the Yabloko party named Boris Vishnevsky, who is running simultaneously for the Duma and a regional legislature, discovered that there are two other men using that name opposing him in each race one of whom is a member of United Russia, according to the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Although polls indicate that general approval for United Russia is low, the party is expected to ride to an overwhelming first place in the new parliament. The independent Center for Current Politics predicts it will score 299-306 seats down from the 343 it currently holds but within the range of the 303 seats needed to change the constitution. The centers prognosis suggests that most of the seats lost by United Russia would be picked up by the Communist Party, the second-largest parliamentary faction. But the party largely conforms to the Kremlin line, as do the two other parties likely to get double-digit seats. The Communists themselves are not very dangerous, said commentator Sergei Parkhomenko on Ekho Moskvy radio. The party is a tool for imitating an opposition movement. Allegations of widespread voting fraud sparked large protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg after the 2011 Duma elections. But with opposition groups neutered, the prospect of unrest this time appears remote. Protests will not take place where we expect them, not at the time when we expect them and not from those from whom we expect them, Parkhomenko said. ___ Olga Tregubova in Moscow contributed. Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reiterated its urgent call for investigations following the release of the Human Rights Watch report on Thursday, which provides additional and detailed information on the appalling abuses and enormous suffering of Eritrean refugees and other civilians since the start of the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region Montreux, Switzerland (PANA) - World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has urged rich countries to assist poor ones to become more entrenched in the global economy Photo: (Photo : Rich Fury/Getty Images for Billboard) Health experts Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh have shut down the claims of rapper Nicky Minaj, who told her 22 million Twitter followers that the COVID-19 vaccine could cause impotency. Minaj, 38, said that she did not attend the Met Gala event in New York for various reasons, including the vaccination requirement. In a series of posts on the social media platform, the rapper said that she has yet to do enough "research" before she gets the jab. She also shared that a friend of her cousin in Trinidad and Tobago allegedly became impotent after the vaccination. The celebrity went on to say that the friend developed swollen testicles and got jilted by the girl he was supposed to marry. Read Also: Baby Deliveries Stopped as Vaccine Mandate Leads to Mass Resignation in New York Hospital No Evidence, Experts Said Asked about Minaj's claims, Fauci told the press there was "no evidence" to suggest that the vaccine could impact reproductive health. The doctor also said there was no "mechanistic reason" to even imagine that such a worrying impact on men or women may develop. The expert, however, clarified that he wasn't blaming Minaj for the misinformation. Fauci also believes that Minaj's statements might have been shared without any bad intention, but he advised the popular rapper to "think twice" before "propagating information that really has no basis." Deyalsingh, on the other hand, denounced the rapper's claims and said that they verified the case since they didn't want to be accused of ignoring a potentially critical incident. However, the health minister said they ended wasting their time as they could not find any case relating to swollen testicles after the vaccination. Protest at the CDC Although the experts have spoken out, fans of Minaj held a protest rally at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In their masks and gloves, the demonstrators said that Minaj was telling the truth and that more scrutiny should be done on the COVID-19 vaccines. The CDC has stated on its official site that there is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine might "cause fertility problems in women or men." Minaj said that Twitter sent her account to "jail" after her controversial tweet, but the social media company denied her claims. The rapper also said that the White House invited her to discuss the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. However, a White House spokesperson said that they only offered to call the rapper to let her speak with one of their medical doctors who could answer her questions. As of September 15, more than 75.8 percent of adults have had their first COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. Data from the CDC showed that African American and Hispanic communities have a low turnout compared to the Caucasian communities. Fauci and other health experts in the U.S. have sought help from teachers, church leaders, and politicians to improve their vaccination information drive so that more people will decide to get the jab. Related Article: Mandatory Vaccination Coming for New York City School Workers Photo: (Photo : Rob Pinney/Getty Images) Six in 10 teenagers and young adults in their early 20s are worried about the impact of climate change, and they fear that the adults in leadership roles aren't doing enough to protect their generation. According to a survey from Young People's Voices, which conducted the first large-scale study on climate anxiety, more than 60 percent of the 10,000 respondents in 10 countries feel that the older generation has betrayed, the younger people. At least three-quarters of those polled also said that the future scares them because they know that climate change will affect their daily function. The international survey also revealed that 4 in 10 young adults might not have children because they worry that their offspring could grow in a wasteland. The respondents were from the U.K., U.S., Australia, Finland, France, Brazil, Portugal, Nigeria, India, and the Philippines. Read Also: Families to Get Third Child Tax Credit Payment; First Lady Jill Biden Pushes for Extension Therapy Won't Fix Anxiety Mitzi Tan, 23, a climate activist from the Philippines, where flooding has worsened in the last few years, said that she has grown to be afraid of drowning in her bedroom. Tan noted that therapy or meditation couldn't fix her anxiety about climate change. "To truly address our growing climate anxiety, we need justice," the activist said. In August, the United Nations also released a study citing that a growing number of individuals are reconsidering having kids because climate change will ravage the Earth in the next decades. The U.N. said that the situation should be "code red for humanity" as top scientists in many countries continue to warn of an impending natural catastrophe. In a statement, 200 experts in medicine and science said that all governments should develop a sustainable and resilient transition beginning in 2021. They reiterated that it's only a matter of time before the rapid decline of the Earth will reduce the quality of life. However, some analysts also believe that more people choose not to have kids anymore since this will worsen the problems as the population boom will mean more greenhouse gas emissions and depletion of natural resources. A study from Sweden showed that a family with just one child might curb 58.6 metric tons of carbon every year. Children Most Vulnerable UNICEF also reports that one billion children are now "extremely" at high risk of suffering due to climate change. The charity for kids said that this issue is no longer just an environmental concern but a child rights issue. Climate change will threaten food and water supply, clean air, housing, education, the freedom to explore surroundings, impacting the children's survival. UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said that at the pace world leaders have been acting to prevent the catastrophe, no child will be spared when the worse of the crisis happens. Still, hope is not yet lost as countries have signed the Paris Agreement, pledging to cut emissions that could help restore the planet's health. Environmentalists and scientists are also coming up with concrete solutions to help humans adapt to the changing climate. Related Article: Food Stamp SNAP Benefits Increases in October; What Families Need to Know This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions Information gathered by the B&FT has revealed that importers of refined oil palm products, particularly vegetable cooking oil, are shortchanging government by under-declaring the actual prices of their imported products at the port despite introduction of the 50 percent benchmark values policy that has significantly slashed the duty they pay. Data this paper has gathered revealed that in the first seven months of the year (as of July 2021), government lost more than GH11.7million to under-declaration by 14 palm/vegetable oil importing companies. Further breakdown of the figures shows that more than 34,000 metric tonnes of vegetable oils were underdeclared. In fact, taxes lost from one company alone through under-declared goods was valued as much as GH3.9million within the period whereas another one under-declared taxes to the tune of GH1.8million, with some getting away with GH1.2million, GH852,000, GH590,000 and so on. All these are happening at a time government is battling with revenue shortfalls, which has consequently increased demand for borrowing and plunged the economy into high risk of debt distress. This comes even on the back of governments generous introduction of a 50 percent benchmark policy in 2019, which has seen the duties on some imported products including palm oil slashed by half; a move government intended to discourage and stop the practice of under-declaration and misclassification for the right revenue to come to the state. However, the outcome has not been what was expected and has rather worsened the situation altogether. In fact, the local oil palm industry since introduction of the 50 percent benchmark value policy has suffered significant losses which are threatening survival of the industry, as players have constantly battled with unfair competition. For example, the cost of a 25-litre jerrycan of vegetable oil is produced locally at GH260 ex-factory price and sold on the market for GH265 inclusive of the duty, levies, VAT and logistics. But with the 50 percent benchmark policy, imported vegetable oils leave the port at GH230 and are sold to traders at GH255 for onward selling on the market at GH260. So, for importers to add under-declaration to the generous 50 percent benchmark policy given by government is a double slap to the face of local industry, which calls for immediate attention on the part of the state, and Customs in particular, in order to address the problem before it is too late. OPDAG calls for exemption of vegetable cooking oil from the 50 percent benchmark value policy implementation Speaking in an interview with the B&FT, board member of the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) and President of the Oil Palm Development Association of Ghana (OPDAG), Ing. Samuel Avaala, has called on government to rethink application of the 50 percent benchmark value policy on palm oil (vegetable cooking oil), as it has not achieved the purpose for which it was introduced but rather led to more losses and unfair competition for the local industry. The under-declaration and sometimes misclassification all together were, in fact, what preceded effects of the benchmark value policy. So the economic management team thought that people were under-declaring and even evading duty altogether because duties were high. So we said lets implement this benchmark policy so that it will make them pay half what the actual duty should have been. The assumption was that the goods would come in the correct way and importers would pay the right duty because it is lower. Unfortunately, that has not happened. Those who bring it without paying duty are still smuggling the thing in. The revenue government envisaged it would get from the policy is still not coming, because the importers still bring the vegetable oils in and pay half-duty on top of under-declared invoice values. So if government has to resolve this, it must exempt palm oil from the 50 percent benchmark policy implementation and make sure that Customs, at the entry point, is doing its work. If we do this, we will find ourselves building a local value chain that gives livelihoods to thousands of people in the upstream, and also increase government revenue, he said. Engagement with government yet to achieve any results Ing. Avaala further disclosed to the B&FT that players in the local oil palm industry, represented by OPDAG, have had several engagements with the Economic Management Team and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to detail the adverse impact of the 50 percent benchmark policy on government revenue and the sector; but such discussions are yet to yield any positive results. He said the delegation that visited the Economic Management Team were assured something was going to be done about it soon, and they expected it in the interim 2021 budget which covered the first quarter of the year due to 2020 being an election year. However, nothing about the policy was said but industry players felt it was because the budget wasnt for a full-year. Again, they waited for the 2021 full-year budget presentation to cover the subject but nothing happened. Then they banked their hopes on the mid-year budget, but that one also did not materialise. In fact, Mr. Avaala said that at a point a letter came from Customs indicating that some commodities, including palm oil, were going to be exempted from implementation of the policy; but someway, somehow the GRA later came out to say the letter was fake, after the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) vehemently opposed the move when they got a hint of it. Survival of local oil palm industry at stake For OPDAG, if government has no other reason to exempt palm oil from the implementation of the policy, it should think about the local industry and repercussions on the entire oil palm value chain a value chain that has rightly been selected as one of the six tree crops which have been packaged under the noble and laudable Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), with huge potential for poverty reduction, livelihood enhancement for thousands of smallholders/outgrowers and export earnings for the economy. The oil palm industry in the country has about 290,000 smallholder/out-grower farmers. There are about 12 medium-to-large scale palm oil mills, and four industrial scale refineries; and more than 3,000 artisanal palm oil millers. The industry provides direct and indirect employment for more than 100,000 people downstream as well. It is clear that sacrificing such an industry to promote imports will cause more harm than good; hence OPDAGs call for a relook at implementation of the 50 percent benchmark policy. We know that government has many ears, so they listen to everybody. So, yes, you have listened to GUTA; they also have a legitimate case because they import. But we are saying the policy cannot go wholesale. We must think about long-term effects the policy will have on the local oil palm industry. It is now left with policy implementers to make a courageous decision to say: Okay, we have heard from both sides, this is our middle position, Mr. Avaala said. Source: thebftonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has said it is closely monitoring the conduct of school candidates in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in 11 senior high schools (SHSs) in the country. This follows a tip-off the council has received on those schools where it is alleged that candidates are planning to cheat in the examination. The schools are the Ejisu Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Ashanti; the Anlo-Afiadenyigba SHS, Volta; the Tepa SHS, Ashanti; the Yeji SHTS, Bono East; the King David College, Odumase Krobo; the Ideal College, Sunyani; the Christ the King SHS, Obuasi; the Modern SHS, Kpong; the Modern SHS, Kintampo; the Oyoko Methodist SHS, Easter Region and Klo Agogo SHS, Eastern Region. The monitoring exercise forms part of measures the council has put in place to safeguard the integrity of the WASSCE. Other measures are intensifying inspection, withdrawal of erring supervisors and invigilators from providing services for the council pending further sanctions, scrutiny of scripts of schools where cheating had been reported and continuous tracking of rogue websites and social media cartels, in collaboration with the security agencies. The Head of the Test Administration Division of WAEC, Mr George Ohene-Mantey, who disclosed this at a press conference in Accra yesterday, said the council remained focused on its mandate of conducting credible examinations at all levels, and that despite the challenges, we are steadfast in our commitment to conduct the 2021 examination. Alleged leakage On the Physics One and Two and the Business Management One and Two examination papers which were originally scheduled for yesterday but were said to have leaked, he said a new date for the papers, which have been rescheduled, would be communicated to the candidates in due course. However, Mr Ohene-Mantey said the Auto Mechanics One and Two papers which were scheduled for yesterday could go ahead. As part of efforts to keep our publics well-informed, the council deemed it fit to give periodic updates to its stakeholders through your reliable media platforms on the conduct of the ongoing WASSCE for school candidates. The WASSCE (SC) 2021, which commenced on August 16, 2021, is ongoing at the 763 examination centres across the country, he said. Mr Ohene-Mantey mentioned some of the irregularities they (council) had identified at some centres to include inside examination hall malpractice as a result of poor supervision and invigilation, institutionalised examination malpractice and the execution of pre-arranged plans to assist candidates to cheat by solving questions and distributing solutions to candidates. The rest were smuggling of mobile phones into examination halls by candidates as they awaited solutions from platforms to which they had made payments, swapping of question papers at some centres and posting same on various WhatsApp platforms, he said. The activities of social media cartels, rogue websites, Whatsapp-Telegram groups are in full force, with several versions of questions being circulated on social media platforms. Some of the sites have been labelled Ruth, Jerusalem, Eminent Link, Mr Robert, Success Room, Mr IUPAC, Brotherhood and WAEC Secret Helper. Our investigative team is tracking these websites/Whatsapp/Telegram groups whose modus operandi the team has identified to include enticing candidates to part with money by posting several fake versions of questions and posting of actual questions on paid for groups after receipt and opening of question paper packets at the centre, he added. Mr Ohene-Asare said even though there had been numerous versions of question papers that had been circulated, initial investigations by WAEC indicated that the circulation was not extensive. 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 Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, Governance Lecturer at the Central University, has condemned the leakage of West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) examination questions to students. Speaking on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Dr. Otchere-Ankrah reprimanded officials of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) over such culture where students get the questions ahead of the exams stressing it's about time the WAEC officials, who engage in such activities, are found and sanctioned to deter others. He explained such "recklessness and greed" of the officials puts the school children in traumatizing conditions, particularly when the leaked questions result in the cancellation of the results of the affected students or schools. ''The security agencies have the means to track the first person who sent that. They have the means of checking all those things. Let's investigate it well and sanction the offenders," he said. Dr. Otchere-Ankrah also bemoaned examinations in general saying, "exams is not a good thing. It's not a good means of assessment because some people have passed exams but can't put what he passed into practice . . . Im not saying passing exams is bad but it shouldn't be the only yardstick''. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The German International Development Agency( GIZ) with its partners on the German Epidemic Preparedness Team (SEEG) is assisting Ghana to enhance its ability to detect, diagnose and manage the circulating virus variants in the country. SEEG has deployed a team of five experts from its cooperation partners to train laboratory staff in the technique of genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2. Acting on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German Federal Ministry of Health and the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, GIZ as well as its partners are currently supporting the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service. Concurrently, discussions are planned for broader support in zoonotic disease (diseases transferred from animals to humans) control. Outbreaks SEEG was initiated in 2015 by BMZ in cooperation with the German Federal Ministry of Health in response to the Ebola fever outbreak in West Africa. It has since conducted 35 missions in more than 20 countries, including during the Lassa and Ebola outbreaks in West Africa. The SEEG collaborators, where the experts are coming from, are the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute for Animal Health (FLI) and the Charite University Hospital Berlin and GIZ. The Ghana mission focuses primarily on equipping the laboratory of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) with the equipment needed for the sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 and providing appropriate reagents (chemicals) to perform the sequencing. A statement issued by the GIZ Office in Accra quoted the Minister of BMZ, Gerd Muller, as saying COVID-19 is a global pandemic that will truly be over if it is eradicated worldwide. That's why Germany is supporting Ghana with the much needed equipment and training of laboratory staff in genome sequencing to detect viral variants early to enable an improved pandemic response," it said. Background Since March 2020, there have been approximately 119,500 confirmed infections with SARS-CoV-2 and more than 1,000 deaths in Ghana. After a large wave of infections between May and August 2020, the numbers initially dropped. A second wave of the virus infection began in mid-January 2021 and subsided again in April. However, since the end of June, the country has been hit with a third wave, with active cases rising sharply. Most recently, over 7,000 new cases were registered (as of August 29), after an average of only 50 cases were reported just a few weeks earlier. The current outbreak is believed to be largely due to the delta variant, the first case which was detected on June 23. Expanding capacity The statement said the SEEG team would help expand the capacity to analyse the spread of virus variants in the Ashanti, Bono East, Ahafo, Ahafo North and Northern regions. In addition, the KCCR will continue to cooperate with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg. This will further improve the existing structures and help adapt to the new COVID-19 pandemic requirements. In addition, it will help to improve diagnostic and research capacities for other infectious diseases relevant to Ghana beyond the current COVID-19 crisis, the statement said. The capacity enhancement in genome sequencing is the latest support provided by the German Cooperation to Ghana to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March 2020, GIZ on behalf of the German Government, has run risk communications campaigns in remote areas and at crowded places such as street markets, procured Personal Protective Equipment for partners and beneficiaries and supported KCCR with expertise and laboratory equipment. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) has signed an agreement with Rocksure International, a construction and mining support company, for the development of bauxite mines at Nyinahin-Mpasaaso in the Ashanti Region. The agreement also includes refining the bauxite into aluminium. Dubbed: Project Two, it forms part of four integrated projects being developed by GIADEC. The four projects are the expansion of the Awaso mines and establishment of a refinery, the development of mines at Nyinahin and Mpasaaso and a refinery, the development of mines at Kyebi, along with another mine at Nyinahin-Mpasaaso with a finery, and the modernisation and expansion of the VALCO smelter to improve efficiency for increased production. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo witnessed the signing of the agreement after the launch of GIADEC in Accra last Tuesday evening. The event was attended by the ministers of Trade and Industry and Information, Messrs Alan Kyerematen and Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, respectively. Others were the board members of GIADEC, representatives of mining communities and the staff and management of affiliated institutions. Before the launch, the President had been conducted round the offices of GIADEC, located in the Export Trade House, the same building hosting the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. Project Two The agreement with Rocksure International is for the development of one of the two new mines to be built in the Nyinahin-Mpasaaso area to feed a refinery to be established in the country. Rocksure International will undertake exploration and mineral resource estimate (MRE) before the construction of the mines. Communities close to the bauxite deposits are Nyinahin, Kyekyewere and Mpasaaso. President Akufo-Addo said the development of an integrated aluminium industry was necessary for the transformation of the economy, adding that it is at the heart of our industrial transformation agenda. He said the implementation of the projects would lead to the creation of business ventures, reduce reliance on the importation of aluminium products and ensure job creation. According to him, aluminium was the metal of the future because research had found that it was an electric vehicle game-changer. He, however, said the success of the venture would depend on a reliable railway infrastructure and, therefore, directed the ministers of Railway Development and Finance to work towards the realisation of the Western and Eastern Railway projects. President Akufo-Addo also said it was important that mining activities were conducted in a responsible manner, and, therefore, urged the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a biodiversity and hydrology study of the Atiwa Forest Reserve to advise the government on the way foward. Support The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Abu Jinapor, said the project would support automobile assembling plants such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan and Sinotruck and other industries that relied on aluminium for production in the country. For his part, the CEO of GIADEC, Mr Michael Ansah, said global trends indicated a growing demand for aluminium and related products, adding that the vision of the company was to be the leading integrated aluminium establishment in Africa. 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 Guinea's health ministry has said that the outbreak of Marburg disease, announced at the beginning of August, is now over. The country confirmed West Africa's first case of Marburg, a highly infectious disease in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola, almost six weeks ago. At the time, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the virus needed to be "stopped in its tracks". But no additional case has been recorded, according to a statement signed by Dr Sekou Conde from the health ministry. However, the authorities are still investigating how the man was infected. Marburg virus disease is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads between humans through the transmission of bodily fluids. Cases are extremely rare with the last major outbreak in Angola in 2005. It is a severe, often fatal illness with symptoms including headache, fever, muscle pains, vomiting blood and bleeding. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Leaders of West Africa regional bloc Ecowas have been meeting in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to discuss the political situation in Guinea. It's the second time they've met since President Alpha Conde was overthrown 11 days ago. The regional leaders were expected to discuss the findings of a delegation that was sent to assess the political situation in the country and plans to restore constitutional order. Ecowas is demanding the release of the detained president and the establishment of a civilian-led transition as soon as possible. Ecowas chairperson, Ghana's President Nana Akufo Addo said that the heads of state will take key decisions that would have serious implications for regional stability and democratic values. There are indications the regional leaders could be considering sanctions and possibly appoint an envoy to lead the mediation efforts. Ghanas Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, who led the delegation to Guinea last week, said on Wednesday that the military junta has outlined certain conditions for Ecowas to meet before the ousted president could be released but did not disclose them. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) has placed a travel ban on all the members of the military junta in Guinea and their immediate family members. In addition, the regional political and economic bloc has placed a freeze on the financial assets of the coup makers and their immediate family members. This was disclosed last night by the President of ECOWAS, Mr Jean-Claude Kassi Brou at a news conference after the Second Extraordinary Summit on the political crisis in Guinea at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel in Accra . Release of ex-leader Furthermore, Mr Brou said ECOWAS was demanding an unconditional release of the deposed Guinean President Alpha Conde. Conde was detained on Sunday September 5 by soldiers led by Col. Mamady Doumbouya, who announced the coup on state television. Addressing the nation on Guineas public broadcaster RTG, the junta leader said the ousted President was safe and in custody. We have taken all measures to ensure that he has access to health care and he is in contact with his doctors. Everything will be fine, Col. Doumbouya said. Constitutional rule The ECOWAS President said the junta had also been urged to return the country to multi-party rule within the next six months. He said the time table to return the country to democratic rule in 2022 was non-negotiable. Already, the National Committee for Rally and Development, military administration in place, has vowed to restore democracy in the West African nation, but no timelines have been given. He also disclosed that during the recent visit to Guinea by the high level delegation led by the Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Guinea junta asked for support from ECOWAS to return to democratic rule. Consequently, he said, ECOWAS was ready to help the junta return the country to democratic governance. Background Conde, 83, was re-elected for a third term in October 2020 in polls marred by violence. He first came to power in 2010 in a vote seen as the first democratic election since the former French colony gained independence. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Minister for the Interior, Mr. Ambrose Dery, yesterday inaugurated the governing boards of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) with the assurance of government's commitment to retool agencies under the ministry. According to him, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had embarked on a plan to retool all the agencies to enable them to carry out their mandate effectively. I want to assure you that President Akufo-Addo has embarked on a programme of retooling all agencies under the Ministry of the Interior, he said. The 14-member GIS Governing Council is chaired by the Managing Director of St Edwards Clinic, Dr. Edward Prempeh, while the 11-member GNFS governing board is chaired by the Member of Parliament for Asante-Akim Central, Mr. Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi. Mr. Dery took the members through the oaths of office and secrecy. Members For the GIS, the other members are Mr. Peter R. Zwennes, Mr. Jabaah John Bennam, Mr. Alfred Tuah Yeboah, Mr. Louis Obeng, Mr. Moses K. Gyamfi, Dr. Millicent DeGraft-Johnson, Mrs. Hagar Dery, Mr. Samuel Ayer, Mr. Aziz Futa and Senior Inspector Michael Odame. Sworn in to serve on the GNFS board are the Chief Fire Officer, Mr. Edwin Ekow Blankson, Mrs. Florence Pul, Mr. Kizito Ballans, Rosby Kome Mensah, Mr. Thomas Atteh Donkor, Ms. Evelyn Keelson, Mr. Kwesi Assan-Brew, Mr. Mark Brako-Appiah, Mr. Emmanuel Agyei Anhwere and Ms. Faustina Ayereke. GIS During the inauguration of the GIS board, the minister said a number of initiatives had been undertaken by the government to motivate and enhance the operations of the GIS and cited the promotion of over 3,000 officers since 2017 to various ranks as an example. Moreover, he said, there was also the need to recruit more personnel and expand facilities at the Assin Fosu training facility in the Central Region, which were also being taken advantage of by members of the other sister security agencies for training. Beyond that, he said, there had been training for officers at the Counter-Terrorism School at Huhunya, near Dahwenya, stressing that through that training, personnel had been able to support some operations jointly carried out by other security agencies like the army and the police. Mr. Dery mentioned one of those operations as Operation Calm Life. This shows clearly that immigration service has matured into a proper security agency. I wish to assure the commitment of the President and the government to make sure that the GIS is built into a world-class security service, competent to handle security, he said. GNFS At the inauguration of the GNFS board, Mr. Dery charged the members to bring their rich expertise to bear so as to enhance the operation of the service. According to him, the members had what it took to perform their functions on the board. He underscored the need for the GNFS to be proactive in what it does rather than be reactive in order to help avoid fire outbreaks, adding that we are all witnesses to the many fires that have occurred all over the country. Mr. Dery charged the members to live up to the confidence reposed in them by the President and pledged the commitment of the ministry to work with them and also provide the needed support. He gave an assurance that the government would provide more fire engines and equipment to augment what the GNFS had. Both Dr. Prempeh and Mr. Anyimadu-Antwi thanked the President for the honour done them on their appointments to the boards as it gave them the opportunity to serve the country. They, among other things, said they would work closely with the ministry to uplift the image of their respective organisations. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The chairman of ECOWAS, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday visited Guinea to meet the military leaders in that country, a day after the regional bloc imposed travel and financial sanctions on the junta and their families. President Akufo-Addo arrived in Conakry, capital of Guinea, in his capacity as Chairperson of the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS. Together with the President of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, they are to hold talks with the military leadership in Guinea, led by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya. The discussions will center largely on the fate of President Alpha Conde, amongst others. The development is a follow up on the recommendations West African leaders made at the regional bodys Accra Extraordinary meeting to firm up a decision on the political situation in Guinea. The ECOWAS leaders in a post-summit communique, ordered a swift return to constitutional order, asking the military rulers of that country to fix presidential and legislative election within six months. They also demanded the immediate and unconditional release of President Alpha Conde who has been detained since his ouster on September 5, 2021 by an elite army unit led by a former French legionnaire, Lt. Col Mamady Doumbouya. The regional body said the military rulers would be individually and collectively responsible for the physical safety of President Conde who is being held in detention at a military facility. The bloc froze the financial assets and imposed travel bans on Guineas military leaders and their relatives. It called on the African Union, the European Union, the United Nations, and other multilateral and bilateral partners to support the implementation of the sanctions against the Junta, and to endorse the decisions taken by the Authority, for the restoration of constitutional rule in Guinea. The Accra meeting, which also discussed the situation in Mali, demanded that that country;s transitional authorities adhere strictly to the transition timetable for the effective conduct of elections within the non-negotiable deadline of February 2022. Anyone stalling the transitional process, the body warned, would face the same sanctions taken against Guineas military government. The Authority requested President Akufo-Addo to visit Guinea and Mali as soon as possible to convey in person the decision of the Authority. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has entreated colleague Heads of State of the regional bloc to ensure the stability and defence of the democratic values in their respective countries. On the prevailing political crises in Mali and Guinea, he urged members to proffer durable solutions to the impasse, saying: I am confident that, as in the past, we will rise to the occasion. President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the opening of the second extraordinary summit on the political crisis in Guinea in Accra yesterday. The summit, which was held behind closed doors, also discussed the current situation in Mali. The summit was attended by the Presidents of Togo, Cote dIvoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Niger. Also present were the Vice-President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and three Foreign Ministers who represented their Heads of State. Commitment President Akufo-Addo described the attendance as a clear manifestation of the solidarity and commitment of the ECOWAS community to democracy, peace, prosperity and unity of the region. Recounting the activities that took place after the coup in Guinea, he said the bloc, in a virtual meeting, decided to immediately dispatch a high-level ECOWAS delegation to assess the situation in that country on September 10, 2021. The delegation, led by Ghanas Foreign Minister, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and comprising the President of the ECOWAS Commission, Mr Jean-Claude Brou, and the Foreign Ministers of Burkina Faso and Togo, met the military leaders and also visited the ousted President Alpha Conde in detention. The President said the report of the mission was the basis for their deliberations yesterday. The meeting also reviewed a report by the mediator of the Malian crisis, former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. Background On September 5, 2021, Guineas special forces, led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, staged a coup and removed the third-term President of the country, Prof. Conde. ECOWAS, subsequently, condemned the action of the junta, suspended Guinea from its decision-making body and also called for the immediate release of the incarcerated 83-year-old President and the restoration of the constitutional order in that country. Other organisations, such as the United Nations and the African Union, have also condemned the coup. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The city of Brussels has said it will name a new street after a murdered Nigerian sex worker, as part of a wider campaign to recognise women in Belgium. The city council said the street will be bear the name of Eunice Osayande, who was stabbed to death by one of her customers in June 2018. Drawn by the promise of work and a brighter future in Europe, Ms Osayande came to the Belgian capital in 2016. She believed the men who invited her there were acting agents who were going to make her a film star. In reality, they were human traffickers. Once in Brussels, she was immediately forced into prostitution. She was told she owed the smuggling gang 45,000 (38,000; $52,000) for her transit, pimps and rent. Read Full Story .... HERE >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) has called on all investigative bodies and stakeholders to look into issues of examination leakage in the ongoing West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to forestall future occurrences. The Coalition said it regretted the recent happenings in which the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had confirmed the leakage of Physics 1 and 2, and Business Management 1 and 2 papers, and said the leakages must be investigated. A statement signed by Mr Joseph Atsu Homadzi, the National Chairman of GNECC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, encouraged WAEC to be proactive to prevent future leakages. "We will continue to follow with keen interest how the issue will be resolved in the best interest of the Ghanaian child," it said. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Two political parties have called for a review of the 1992 Constitution to reflect the current democratic dispensation. According to the Convention Peoples Party and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), having operated under the 1992 Constitution for almost 30 years, it was time for it to be reviewed. Speaking in separate interviews with the Daily Graphic, the General Secretary of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Nana Yaa Jantuah and the leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Mr Percival Kofi Akpaloo said the context in which the 1992 Constitution was formulated had changed, hence the need for a review. CPP Nana Yaa Jantuah cited for instance that the dichotomy between the Executive and the Legislative, where majority of ministers were expected to be nominated from Parliament had to be reviewed, especially if the legislature was to serve as a check on the Executive. She wondered how the Legislature could check Cabinet ministers if they were all Members of Parliament. She said another issue that needed to be reviewed was the emoluments and end of service benefits for Article 71 holders. According to her, civil and public servants worked for so many years for the good of the country but retired with little benefits, while Article 71 holders went home with so much after just four years of service. Projects Nana Yaa Jantuah said another area that needed to be reviewed was the continuation of projects initiated by previous regimes. She said the country could have benefitted much if succeeding governments had continued and completed uncompleted projects as the abandonment of such projects created so much waste. On the work done by the Prof. Fiadjoe Constitutional Review Committee, she suggested that the work of the committee should be reviewed in a non-partisan manner. Nana Yaa Jantuah said the document of the committee should be put out for public discourse and, where necessary, the needed amendments should be made. She said the process might be flawed in the eyes of the government but it was important that the document was holistically reviewed since the substance was critical. LPG On his part, Mr Akpaloo said issues such as the indemnity clauses, appointment and election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives need to be critically reconsidered. He said another area that needed to be reviewed was the separation of the position of Attorney-General and that of the Minister of Justice. Mr Akpaloo said the issue where persons holding dual citizenship were debarred from holding public office needed to be look at. We should allow persons with dual citizenship to contest as Members of Parliament and also hold other public offices such as ministers and MMDCEs, he said. Such persons, he explained, owned businesses in the country and their commitment to the country was not in doubt. 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 France has angrily reacted after being left out of an agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to give Australia nuclear-powered submarines. On Wednesday, September 15, U.S. President Biden joined British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in announcing the creation of an enhanced trilateral security partnership, called "AUKUS", which involves sharing highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Australia. "As the first initiative under AUKUS, recognizing our common tradition as maritime democracies, we commit to a shared ambition to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy," the White House said. "Today, we embark on a trilateral effort of 18 months to seek an optimal pathway to deliver this capability. We will leverage expertise from the United States and the United Kingdom, building on the two countries submarine programs to bring an Australian capability into service at the earliest achievable date." The announcement of the partnership is widely perceived as a challenge to Chinas authority in the region and the Chinese embassy quickly responded to the news. "Exchanges and cooperation between countries should help expand mutual understanding and trust," "Countries should do more things that are conducive to solidarity and cooperation among countries and regional peace and stability. Meanwhile they should not build exclusionary blocs targeting or harming the interests of third parties. In particular, they should shake off their Cold-War mentality and ideological prejudice." the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said in a statement But France blasted the US and UK for not involving it in the deal. In a statement issued by French Minister Of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-yves Le Drian and Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, the country said the decision announced on Wednesday "is contrary to the letter and spirit of the cooperation that prevailed between France and Australia, based on a relationship of political trust as well as on the development of a very high-level defence industrial and technological base in Australia." "The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret," the statement continued. The statement went on to call the announcement "regrettable." "The regrettable decision that has just been announced regarding the FSP program only reinforces the need to make the issue of European strategic autonomy loud and clear," the joint statement said. "There is no other credible way to defend our interests and our values in the world, including in the Indo-Pacific." France added that it is the "only European nation present in the Indo-Pacific with nearly two million citizens and more than 7,000 military personnel." 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 Businessman and founder of the United Peoples Party (UPP), Akwasi Addai Odike, says his wife knows he has a girlfriend and has no problem with that. According to the presidential hopeful, his girlfriend and his wife respect each other and have both agreed on their positions. Speaking to Nana Aba Anamoah on Starr Chat, he said, Im married and I have a girlfriend. Both my wife and girlfriend know this. He added: My father was polygamous but I cannot sit here and lie to Ghanaians. If any man will be truthful to himself and God. You dont need to swear to any woman that you are the only person, no. I will never flatter anyone. But if I found out that you are a suitable woman who can give me joy, sure. I expect my woman to understand me unconditionally and to love me as its required. He also described women as the source of happiness and should be allowed to occupy high positions because they have the confidence to aid business development as compared to men. Odike revealed he is in support of the Affirmative action bill currently in Parliament and is disappointed that it has not yet been passed. Odike hopes to win the 2024 election and reign as President of Ghana so he can amend some portions of the constitution to allow for clear separation of power. His showings in previous presidential contests have been abysmal. Source: starrfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Canadian National rail worker stands on an idle locomotive as protesters opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion block rail lines, in Burnaby, B.C., Nov. 27, 2020. Canadian National Railway Co. plans to cut capital spending in an effort to boost its profits as part of a new strategic plan as it faces an activist investor looking to make changes at the railway. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole and his wife, Rebecca O'Toole, wave as they step off the campaign plane in London, Ont., Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. O'Toole says Justin Trudeau wants Canadians who are angry to vote for "smaller parties." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Moncks Corner, SC (29461) Today Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Charleston-area landowners are increasingly fighting back in property condemnation cases, often getting much more money than originally offered by the utilities and government agencies looking to take their land for public projects. Online court records show 75 property condemnation cases were filed in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties in 2019. That number more than doubled to 155 cases in 2020. And this year, such cases have totaled 111 through Sept. 16. In many of the cases, larger payments than initial appraisals suggested are negotiated in mediation or through jury trials. For example, when Dominion Energy wanted an easement across land owned by Xiphias Holdings LLC for power lines serving the new Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston, the utility offered the property owner a little less than $1.8 million. The case went to court and, through mediation, the two sides ultimately agreed that $3.25 million would be a fair price about 80 percent more than Dominion's original appraisal said the land was worth. "Right-of-way agents sometimes present things as if the landowner has no choice, but the landowner can always question whether the value being offered is fair and just compensation," said Jeff Tibbals, a Mount Pleasant lawyer who represented Xiphias Holdings. The Dominion case is far from unique: A jury ordered Palmetto Railways to pay $3.75 million to the owner of a roughly half-acre parcel on Meeting Street where a new rail line is planned. The railroad, which is appealing the jury's award, originally offered less than half that amount. When the S.C. Department of Transportation wanted a little less than an acre of land along Clements Ferry Road for a ramp leading to Interstate 526, the agency offered $98,000 to the property owner. The case wound up in court and the two sides settled for $3.25 million. The DOT originally offered a combined $9.86 million for 13 parcels it needed to build the Port Access Road linking the Leatherman Terminal with Interstate 26. Following mediation, the highway department upped its offer to almost $17 million. Sign up for our business newsletter. Our twice-weekly newsletter features all the business stories shaping Charleston and South Carolina. Get ahead with us - it's free. Email Sign Up! Government agencies have the right to take private property through eminent domain if the land is needed for public use, but the government must offer a fair price in return. The compensation figure is often determined by appraisal paid for by the agency that wants the land, although property owners can get their own appraisal and try to negotiate a better deal. Area property owners are also using inverse condemnation cases to get compensation for land that's been devalued by public projects. For example, Mike Turner filed a lawsuit against Palmetto Railways over damage to his historic home on the former Navy Base in North Charleston caused by construction of an adjacent rail yard. The railroad initially said Turner's property had not been impacted. The State Ports Authority, which has taken over the rail project, recently agreed to buy the house for $730,000 to settle the lawsuit. In the Dominion Energy case, the utility's initial appraisal did not take into account how the easement would affect a pair of buildings on the property that Xiphias Holdings leases to Anchor Signs. The power lines would prohibit roof and other repairs to the buildings, which Anchor uses for manufacturing and shipping, ultimately making the structures obsolete due to age or storm damage. "Through the mediator, we were able to come to a compromise and avoid a trial," said lawyer Rick Bybee, who also represented Xiphias Holdings. Paul Fischer, a spokesman for Dominion, called easement acquisition "a collaborative process," adding "communication among all parties is important." He said the utility "is committed to reaching an agreeable outcome with all property owners, including fair compensation" when easement issues arise. Get the SC business stories that matter. Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free. GREENVILLE Five local organizations working on healthcare-related projects will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Greenville Health Authority's annual grant program. As part of Prisma Health's lease for which the GHAs 15-member Board of Trustees acts as landlord the system must provide $4 million annually to the board to be administered in the form of Healthy Greenville Grants. The grant system, which was established as a provision of the lease in 2016, aims to provide funding for organizations completing projects focused under one of the four areas: access to healthcare, social determinants of health, mental/behavioral health, and healthy eating and exercise. The GHA had $650,000 available to award this year and announced the five organizations to receive those funds during a board meeting on Sept. 15. The additional $3.35 million has been committed to other ongoing multi-year projects. A Childs Haven a non-profit organization that treats preschoolers with developmental delays as a result of limited resources, abuse or neglect and their families will receive a $70,000 grant this year to fund therapeutic outdoor environments. The state's largest school district, Greenville County Schools, will receive $302,705 over three years, with $109,733 being awarded this year, to expand its EMT Training Program. In partnership with Prisma Health and Greenville County EMS, the program will train 24 additional interested high schoolers from across the district. Greenville Free Medical Clinic, which provides medical and dental care for low-income, uninsured Greenville County residents, will use the $780,000 it will be awarded over three years, with $230,000 coming this year, to increase health services, focusing mainly on messaging and preventive screenings. Sign up for our Greenville weekly update newsletter. Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Upstate. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Greenville news staff. Email Sign Up! Mill Community Ministries' FoodShare Greenville provides families with fresh fruit and vegetables through a box subscription program. More than 900 boxes are currently delivered bi-weekly. The food sharing program can expand its services with the $458,655 it will receive over three years, with $172,885 disbursed year. One example of how the funds will be used is to "equip healthcare and community partners with vouchers to prescribe healthy food boxes as preventative medicine to residents experiencing food insecurity." The project will serve 1,500 primarily low-income families by the end of the grant. The eye care service nonprofit Servants for Sight will receive $233,314 over three years, with $67,382 being awarded this year, to provide almost 1,600 Greenville residents with comprehensive eye care, including glasses and varying surgeries. The board received 41 letters of intent from organizations hoping to receive funding this year. Each application is screened and undergoes an outside peer review. Then the committee grades the applications. From the more than 40 letters of intent, 11 were invited by the committee to submit applications. Those applicants went through a similar review and grading process until five were selected for recommendation to the board. The board also awarded 19 organizations a total of $100,000 in funding for a variety of specific, year-long projects for its 'Healthy Greenville, Too' micro grants. In addition, the board amended its process for requesting proposals for the micro grants. The funding range changed from $25,000 being the maximum request to $10,000. The intent and expectations were clarified so requesters know the project's funding should not be dependent on receiving the grant. Organizations can't request consecutive year funding or be currently funded by the macro grant process. Also at the Sept. 15 meeting, the board nominated three replacements for retiring board members. The nominees will be voted on by the state delegation at its quarterly meeting in Columbia in October. The GHA is tasked with improving health care in the Upstate, administering health grant initiatives, and overseeing the facility lease agreement with Prisma Health. A group of nurses who work for the Medical University of South Carolina has been meeting with hospital leaders for weeks to address their concerns about alarmingly low staffing levels during the latest surge of the coronavirus pandemic. Publicly, leaders have acknowledged that the hospital is very full but that MUSC is equipped to care for all of its patients safely. Some nurses who work there tell a different story. In interviews with The Post and Courier this week, they said that patient safety is in jeopardy. Among their suggestions, the nurses have asked hospital leaders for retention bonuses as an incentive to keep their colleagues from leaving for higher paying jobs. At least two of the nursing group's suggestions have already been implemented. Last month, the hospital started paying some nurses an extra $1.50 per hour if they train brand-new nurses on top of their clinical duties. This is commonly called preceptor pay and other hospitals already offer it. The hospital also advised nurses this month that they would earn more money to work weekend shifts when staffing levels are the lowest. In a prepared statement, MUSC spokeswoman Heather Woolwine acknowledged that the pandemic has put stress on health care institutions. "The sudden increase in overall patients, and particularly very sick patients needing intensive care, is challenging," she said, and explained it takes time to hire more medical professionals to meet this new need. "Our clinical team also must significantly modify how they take care of patients yet remain safe and provide high quality care. All of this is quite stressful to the care team. We recognize this is occurring as we attempt to care for as many patients as possible across the state. The courage and dedication that our MUSC Health nursing team continues to demonstrate despite these challenges does not go unnoticed and our appreciation for their incredible work is heartfelt." MUSC employs more than 3,000 nurses across its facilities, Woolwine said, and the hospital system has already directed millions of dollars to support nursing retention since the start of the pandemic. Still, some nurses who spoke with the newspaper say measures implemented by the hospital haven't been enough. And they are scared that the ratio of nurses to patients has become dangerous as the hospital is overwhelmed once again by COVID-19. They say their co-workers are leaving in large numbers for positions with more money and the ones left behind are depressed and exhausted, fearful that the shortage at MUSC has reached a critical tipping point with more than 600 openings for nurses unfilled across the hospital system, according to the hospital's human resources website. "We are drowning as front-line workers, and there has been a cry for help that has gone unanswered for too long," said Elizabeth Kinder, a nurse at MUSC who has participated in the meetings this summer with hospital leaders. "I still respect our executives and I know that theyre trying. I just feel like something else has to be done because nurses are still walking out in droves, and its heartbreaking to watch when this is your home." 'I was very scared' Change takes time, Kinder acknowledged. "None of the things that get implemented in a hospital can happen in five minutes," she said. But leaders are also mischaracterizing the crisis to the public, she said. In an interview with WCBD-TV on Sept. 2, Dr. David Zaas, CEO of the Charleston division of MUSC Health, relayed the hospital was nearing capacity, but that MUSC was handling it. "Were very comfortable at how we can manage this level of care across the board and ensure that everyone, both COVID and non-COVID patients, have access to critical care if needed," Zaas said. He penned a similar op-ed for The Post and Courier on Sept. 9. Kinder said his words made her feel like the nursing group wasn't being heard after weeks of discussions with hospital leaders. "It was just really demoralizing for nurses to hear that were 'comfortable.' That was the word that really drove home our animosity," said Kinder, who launched a closed Facebook group this year for nurses at MUSC to communicate with each other. The group now includes more than 700 members. "None of us are comfortable. I have nurses who are going home crying every single day because were so exhausted." Woolwine said Zaas' intent during the interview was "to show gratitude to our MUSC care team members for the commitment, compassion and resilience they have demonstrated throughout the COVID pandemic." "The teamwork and innovation of our nursing team has been critical to our ability to fulfill our mission to improve the health of South Carolina and ensure we continue to care for all types of patients, not just those who have COVID," Woolwine said. Zaas' message was also meant to reassure the community that coming to the hospital for urgent medical conditions is "important and safe." "We are again hearing that people in our community are afraid to come to the hospital when they need immediate care because they hear that its 'full,' " Woolwine said. "They do not, understandably, know how we can problem-solve and flex our staffing to accommodate as many of those who need us as we possibly can. We learned last year that this fear led to increased mortality from many medical conditions and we are trying to avoid adding fuel to that fire, all while caring for patients during this recent surge. It is our duty and honor to serve all the health care needs of our community." Another MUSC nurse, who asked not to be named for fear of losing her job, described how she was recently tasked with caring for two patients at one time. That ratio is normal, she said, but suddenly both patients needed her full attention. She alerted a supervisor who said no one was immediately available to help her. "Everything else was on fire," said the nurse, who feared losing her license if something had happened to one of her patients. Fortunately, it didn't. She was able to find another nurse about 20 minutes later. But the experience was so harrowing, she told someone higher up that she felt like the floor where she works is unsafe. "That right there I could cry right now. I was very scared," she said. Woolwine admitted that "clinical staffing models" at MUSC and at hospital systems across the country are stretched right now. "We fully recognize this," she said. "We are constantly looking at safety and quality across the health system, in pandemic and non-pandemic times, because we are committed to providing the safest environment as we possibly can for our patients, care team and visitors. Despite the pandemic, we continue to be among national leaders in standard quality and patient safety measures." 'Overworked, underpaid, understaffed' This nursing shortage isn't unique to MUSC or to South Carolina but it is acute. The American Nurses Association describes the national shortage as "critical" and cites federal statistics that estimate the U.S. needs another 1.1 million nurses to meet the country's needs. But the problem appears to be particularly bad in South Carolina. A report published by the University of South Carolina's College of Nursing predicts this state will face the fourth-worst nursing shortage in the U.S. by 2030. It isn't simply a workforce issue. Experts know the nursing shortage will impact bedside care. "Without decisive action, nurses will practice under increased stress," the American Nurses Association said on its website. "Through increased pressure, nurses practicing in these environments are more prone to making mistakes and errors, with patient quality suffering." Schipp Ames, a spokesman for the S.C. Hospital Association, said the number of South Carolina nurses who have quit their jobs for other positions or to stop working altogether since the start of the pandemic hasn't been tracked, but that the association has heard nurses and other frontline workers across the state are reaching "peak burnout levels." "We have also received reports that the strain of the pandemic is leading some nurses to retire early or leave the profession altogether," Ames said. "Nurses are also seeing the steep rates being paid to travel nurses and choosing to leave the hospital setting and join an agency." Benita Smit is a travel nurse now working inside the emergency department at MUSC's Ashley River Tower. She said travel nurses can make anywhere from $2,200 a week to $8,000 a week because the demand for extra help is so high. Smit used to work full time as a nurse for a Charlotte hospital. But she quit that job earlier this summer to become a travel nurse. She'd always wanted to live in Charleston and said she was only making about $800 a week in her old job. A total of 13 emergency department nurses left their jobs at the same Charlotte hospital when Smit also resigned. "We were overworked, underpaid, understaffed and I think thats why so many people are starting to travel right now," Smit said, estimating that a third of the nurses working alongside her in the Ashley River Tower emergency department are also travel nurses. In a few months, she said she'll transfer to another hospital in Arizona, Florida or California. Travel nurses have helped stem the shortage, but their numbers aren't sufficient to fill all the gaps. Nurses keep leaving, Kinder said, because it's difficult to decline a new opportunity to earn so much more money. She and her colleagues feel that one-time retention bonuses in the ballpark of $1,500 to $3,000 would go a long way. After all, she said, it would cost the hospital much more to train new nurses as replacements. Woolwine confirmed the orientation cost for a new nursing hire ranges $18,400 for an experienced nurse to $23,300 for a new graduate nurse. Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Military members stationed in South Carolina will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as November and could face serious consequences from their commanders or may even be court-martialed if they don't comply. As of this month, more than 1.1 million service members nationwide, or about 70 percent of all active-duty military, are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to Pentagon data. But unvaccinated soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines at Fort Jackson, Parris Island, Shaw Air Force Base, Joint Base Charleston and the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort now face deadlines for receiving the shot. In South Carolina, the mandate affects the more than 60,000 Department of Defense active-duty and civilian contractors as well, who work or are connected to the state's military bases. The Air Force is giving active-duty troops until Nov. 2 to get inoculated against COVID-19. Air Force reservists and National Guard members have until Dec. 2 to receive their vaccinations, per a memo from the branch. This includes personnel with Space Force, which is a part of the Air Force. A Joint Base Charleston spokeswoman said officials are hosting frequent education events for their personnel to dispel misinformation about the vaccinations. Shots are available from the medical unit on site at anytime. All active-duty Marines and Navy members must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 28; reservists by Dec. 28. Additionally, recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island must arrive vaccinated or will be given the vaccine during boot camp. Active-duty troops have until Dec. 15 to receive one of the vaccines authorized by either the Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization. Soldiers in the National Guard have until June 30 to get vaccinated, which is about six months longer than reservists of any other military branch. Fort Jackson in Columbia, the Army's largest training base, has mandated that families visiting for graduation ceremonies must be vaccinated, spokeswoman L.A. Sully said. While the vaccine is available for trainees, it's not mandated yet. Until the branch issues guidance on what the requirements will be, an unvaccinated recruit can continue to progress through basic combat training. "We haven't stopped giving vaccinations," Sully said. "And we're finding a lot of trainees are coming to Fort Jackson already vaccinated." Sign up for our SC Military Digest newsletter Get exclusive military reporting, updates from Palmetto State bases, headlines from around the globe and more delivered to your inbox each Tuesday. Email Sign up! Air Force personnel who refuse to get vaccinated and do not have an exemption "may be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice," a release from the Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a statement. The same goes for the Marine Corps and the Navy. Additionally, unit and base commanders can also get involved and a "removal of qualification for advancement, promotions, reenlistment, or continuation" could occur, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said in a memo. According to the Army, soldiers who refuse to receive the vaccine will face administrative or non-judicial punishment," which could include "relief of duties or discharge. All of the services have a way to apply for exemptions but only based on medical needs such as pre-existing health conditions or religious objections. Prior to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, service members have access to healthcare providers and chaplains to address questions or concerns with COVID-19 vaccination, the Air Force said in a release. Additionally, commanders must consult with their servicing Staff Judge Advocate for additional guidance on vaccination non-compliance. As COVID-19 issues such as masking, social distancing and vaccinations become highly politicized, some Republicans have spoken out about the requirement as being an overreach of President Joe Biden's administration. U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in a statement that the Pentagon shouldn't mandate the vaccination and that wearing our countrys uniform does not mean our service members sign away the right to make personal medical decisions." The military, however, has a long history of vaccinating service members. In 1776, nearly half of the Continental Army soldiers in Canada became ill with smallpox. The next year, Commander in Chief George Washington ordered mandatory inoculations. After years of medical advancement, the Department of Defense can now administer up to 17 different vaccines to stop infectious diseases among the ranks, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. South Carolina's Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has been an outspoken critic of Biden's COVID-19 protocol, specifically a Sept. 9 mandate where all employers with more than 100 workers be required to ensure all their staff is vaccinated or test for the virus weekly. While McMaster said he would fight that new rule "to the gates of hell," he has no recourse to fight the Pentagon's mandate for South Carolina's military bases. McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes told The Post and Courier the governor "disagrees" with the Pentagon's decision, but he respects Biden's constitutional authority over the military. More management difficulties will likely arrive as the deadlines approach, but the Pentagon said officials believe service members will ultimately follow orders and military leaders will work to show service members it is in the best protection of the country to get vaccinated. "The secretary has communicated to the military departments to execute this mandatory vaccination program with, obviously, skill and professionalism, which we always do, but also with a measure of compassion," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters last month. HAMPTON Alex Murdaugh's precipitous fall from grace continued unabated Sept. 16 as the prominent attorney sat weeping and shackled in a Hampton County courtroom, facing new charges in a botched suicide plot that followed decades of drug abuse. Less than a dozen miles from the hunting lodge where his wife and son were mysteriously slain this summer, Murdaugh surrendered to authorities and donned a khaki jail jumpsuit and black rubber shoes. He stands accused of trying to orchestrate his own murder over Labor Day weekend as part of a $10 million insurance fraud scheme. The 53-year-old attorney hails from a Lowcountry family synonymous with wealth, power and prestige. But Murdaughs lawyer said his client had been crippled by the unsolved June killings of his wife and son, a 20-year opioid habit and cratering finances that left him unable to post bail. His financial condition is ruinous, his lawyer, Dick Harpootlian, told a judge as Murdaugh sobbed and bounced his chained legs. Magistrate Tonja Alexander brushed aside a prosecutors request to set bail at $100,000. She instead granted Murdaugh a $20,000 personal recognizance bond on charges of insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and filing a false police report. Murdaugh will be allowed to return to the out-of-state rehab facility where he is recovering from his drug addiction. He must surrender his passport and agree to be extradited, but Harpootlian said that wouldn't be a problem. All his connections are to this community, he said. He has nowhere to go. As they left the courtroom, six state criminal investigations continued into incidents connected to the Murdaughs, including the June double homicide, allegations that Alex Murdaugh embezzled funds from his family's law firm and the cloudy circumstances surrounding his housekeeper's death in 2018. Meanwhile, the Walterboro man accused of shooting Murdaugh as part of the failed suicide plot posted $55,000 bail and left jail in the morning. Curtis Edward Smith, 61, faces charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Murdaugh admitted in a statement to state investigators Sept. 13 that he asked Smith to kill him so he could collect a life insurance policy to help his remaining son, according to arrest warrant affidavits. On Sept. 4, Smith followed Murdaugh to rural Old Salkehatchie Road, where he shot the attorney as he stood in the roadway, the affidavits state. Smith then drove to an unknown location and ditched the gun, the documents state. Murdaugh survived and was airlifted to a Savannah hospital for treatment. It was there that he announced he was quitting the law firm and entering rehab, saying he was struggling with issues made worse by the killings of his wife Maggie, 52, and son Paul, 22. The State Law Enforcement Division has described the gunshot wound as "superficial," but Murdaugh's legal team has maintained the bullet fractured his skull, caused hemorrhaging and left entry and exit wounds. Murdaugh wore no bandages during his Sept. 16 court appearance, and no visible injuries were observed by reporters. Swarm of attention Though the hearing was brief, it attracted a swarm of media to the tiny town of Varnville. TV stations from Charleston, Columbia and Savannah set up tents and cameras in front of the law enforcement center. And photographers dealt with bursts of rain while waiting for some sighting of Murdaugh or his co-defendant. One man in a Hampton County sheriffs uniform seemed mesmerized as he returned from his lunch break, counting the number of television trucks parked outside the detention center. It was an unusual sight in this rural community, where crime is low and high-profile cases like this are even more rare. Nothing like this ever happened in Hampton County before, to my knowledge, with a public figure, said the Rev. Willie Rakes, a pastor at St. James Baptist Church. Murdaugh was Rakes attorney, and the two had last spoken just two weeks ago. Rakes said he was baffled by this turn of events and the allegations that Murdaugh had siphoned money from the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick (PMPED) law firm. Why would he do something like that? Rakes pondered. For its part, the PMPED law firm had no comment on his arrest, saying that those questions should be directed to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. "PMPED is focused on representing our valued clients," the firm said. "Alex Murdaugh is no longer associated with our firm in any manner." Harpootlian said Murdaugh has been struggling to come off opioids in the treatment program, which is being paid for by his insurance company. Still, he is trying to make amends by being truthful and cooperating with investigators, he said. SLED Chief Mark Keel didn't address Murdaugh's cooperation in a written statement on Sept. 16, but he indicated his agents were hard at work on the six cases related to the family. I can assure you that SLED agents will continue working to bring justice to anyone involved with any criminal act associated with these ongoing investigations, he said. The arrests in this case are only the first step in that process. The story behind Smith Murdaugh and his family have been prominent figures in the region for generations. Three generations of Murdaughs served as the regions top prosecutor, an office they collectively held for more than eight decades. Alex Murdaugh previously worked part time for the 14th Circuit Solicitors Office, which was once run by his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Smith, his co-defendant, is a much lesser-known commodity. Murdaugh's legal team has described him as a former law client of Murdaugh's who later became his personal drug dealer. But Smith provided many more details about his past in a deposition for a 2010 personal injury lawsuit filed against American Forest Management, which was settled in 2012. Alex Murdaugh represented Smith in the lawsuit. Here is how Smith portrayed his life: Smith, the oldest of three brothers, was born on Parris Island in Beaufort County. His father was a Marine. The family bounced around when Smith was growing up. They lived in North Carolina and Mississippi before settling in Walterboro in 1983. Smith said he attended high school in Walterboro and Mississippi, completing the 12th grade. Smith married and had one daughter. The couple divorced. After high school, Smith first worked for a manufacturer making forklifts, and then worked on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi. During a slow period, he moved back to South Carolina and began logging. He bought a logging truck and was an over-the-road freight hauler for approximately 10 years. He supervised a crew contracted by the government to do cleanup after Hurricane Hugo devastated the coast in 1989, and then continued trucking from 1991 until 1995, when he was arrested for driving under the influence. Smith filed for bankruptcy in Colleton County in 1997. His debt was discharged in 1999. In the 2000s, Smith worked as a supervisor for several logging companies between stints driving trucks. Smith was approached by Buster Harrison in 2004, who wanted to start his own logging business. Smith worked for Harrison as a supervisor while also operating his own logging trucks at the business. The work was stressful and the days were long. Smith sold all but one of his logging trucks in the mid-2000s to focus more on his role as a supervisor. In September 2007, Smith injured his back attempting to cross a ditch while marking a logging area. He tried to continue his normal work duties, but I was hurting, you know, he said. He continued to work for Harrison as a supervisor for another year until his workers' compensation claim was approved. He underwent two surgeries for the injury. He told the attorneys he could not run or lift as a result of the injury. He took prescribed medication on a regular basis, including oxycodone, an opioid, and diazepam, also known by the trade name Valium. Harrison said in an interview Sept. 16 that he hardly recognized Smith from his mugshot. Harrison said Smith was a "big old strappin' fella" when they worked together. "He wasn't hunched over, and his face wasn't as bad," Harrison said. "He just didn't look like the same person." Harrison said Smith was a "great employee," who did not have any addiction issues he was aware of. Harrison said he lost touch with Smith after he went on disability. "When he worked for me, he was a whole different person from what I'm seeing," Harrison said. Glenn Smith contributed from Charleston, and Avery Wilks from Columbia. The Charleston County School District has declared that any student who shows up to school without a mask will be forced to learn remotely. The Sept. 16 announcement is a sharp reversal from the district's earlier stance that they would not punish students who came to school without face masks. During a news conference the Rev. Eric Mack, chairman of Charleston County School Board, said that all staff, students and visitors will have to be masked on school grounds. The rule takes effect Sept. 20 and is expected to last until Oct. 15. "Our intent is not to deprive any student of an education, but we cannot continue to allow unmasked persons in school settings where masked students who either cannot or have not been vaccinated are more at risk with the spread of COVID," Mack said during an announcement news conference at St. Johns High School. The district's mask rules have been a point of contention since school started in August. Right before classes began, the board held a special meeting where members voted to implement a mask requirement until mid-October. Shortly after that mandate was passed, Mack clarified that the district would not penalize students or staff members who did not wear masks. Up until now, the mask requirement was a toothless decree. A provision in South Carolina's 2021-22 budget prohibits districts from using public funds to implement mask mandates. However, Charleston County's board found a way to sidestep that rule: It will dip into its reserves to cover the salary costs of employees who have to enforce the requirement. This way the district will not be using "public funds" from this year's budget, the district contends. Instead, it will use money it has saved over past years. "We believe this approach is consistent with the wording of proviso 1.108," Mack said. Students with medical, religious or developmental conditions may be exempt from wearing a mask. All students will be given a reasonable opportunity to comply with the rule. Those without an exemption who continue to refuse to wear face coverings will not be able to attend class with masked students. The district is working to pay teachers extra to open virtual classrooms so that students who refuse to wear a mask won't be around students who do wear them. The new policy comes at a time when officials across the state are working to quell the spread of COVID-19. Charleston City Council gave initial approval Sept. 14 to an ordinance that requires masks in businesses, schools and daycares. The Charleston schools chairman added that the rate of positive cases among students at the district is "significantly higher than it was at the peak" last year. Since Aug. 18, the district has reported 1,655 cases among students and staff members. Over 500 people in the district have been placed in quarantine so far this week. District officials hope the masks will help prevent spread and keep schools open. Eight schools across the district have been temporarily transitioned to virtual learning since the start of the year. Two of those schools, Julian Mitchell Elementary and Oakland Elementary in West Ashley, remain closed. Julian Mitchell reopens on Sept. 17 and Oakland is set to reopen Sept. 22. "It's common sense that the more barriers you can put in place between my respiratory system and my neighbor's respiratory system, the better chance you have at reducing those numbers," Dr. Anthony Poole, chief clinical officer at Fetter Health Care, said during the news conference. The district is also working to improve vaccination rates among students and staff. During registration for the 2020-21 school year, the district had vaccines available for students at 12 of its middle and high schools. The district is also working with the Medical University of South Carolina to prepare vaccine clinics for when the shots become available for children 11 and under. The district will reevaluate case numbers and spread on Oct. 15. Its been over a year and a half since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in South Carolina. And, as much as people would like it to be, this pandemic is far from over. Earlier this year, there was hope that this fall we would be edging closer to normalcy that we would have overcome vaccine hesitancy enough that spread would have slowed. But, that didnt happen, and slow uptake of the vaccine combined with the delta variant brought on South Carolinas third surge in COVID-19 cases. More Ways to Listen Understand SC is available in all major podcasting apps. Search for us or use one of these links: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Simplecast Today, were taking a closer look at the state of the pandemic right now, and the strain that its causing for people tasked with fighting this pandemic every day. On Monday, Sept. 13, we spoke with Dr. Brannon Traxler, director of public health for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, or DHEC, about this surge and what makes it different from previous spikes in cases during this pandemic. Post and Courier Columbia reporter Avery Wilks also gave us a behind-the-scenes look at his deep dive into DHEC and the strain and frustration the agency's workers are feeling in the midst of the state's third major surge in COVID-19 cases. What stories do you want to hear? Email understandsc@postandcourier.com with your ideas. Understand SC is a weekly podcast from The Post and Courier that draws from the reporting resources and knowledge of our newsroom to help you better understand South Carolina. This episode was hosted by Gavin McIntyre and Emily Williams and edited by Emily Williams. Related reading: A faith-based nonprofit that is helping resettle Afghan refugees will soon open an office in Charleston, where it expects to assist up to 100 people who fled the Taliban's takeover. Another 50 would be destined for Greenville. Approval for Lutheran Services Carolinas to open the operations came in the past few days from the federal government's Office of Population, Refugees and Migration, which falls under the humanitarian wing of the U.S. Department of State. The Charleston office will operate out of a local church. A Lutheran Services Carolinas official was reluctant to disclose the name and location because a memorandum of understanding is being finalized with church leaders. It will take between 60 and 90 days to get the operation fully functioning, added Bedrija Jazic, director of Refugee and Immigrant Services for Lutheran Services Carolinas. That's how long she estimated it will take to set up the office and hire and train staff or volunteers. In each city, one of the assistance programs will support refugees who made it to the U.S. from various points around the world. The other will specifically support Afghans holding Special Immigrant Visas as recognized allies who supported U.S. troops or the diplomatic mission during America's 20 years of involvement. In Charleston, the program will host up to 100 arrivals from Afghanistan, she said, while a second effort meant to support other global refugees is expected to be available to 175 people. In Greenville, the target is 50 refugees from Afghanistan and 100 from other countries, Jazic said. The announcement that the offices were coming in the wake of the country's collapse was expected for several weeks. It was formally announced Sept. 16. LSC is excited to be able to expand to welcome and serve more refugees, LSC President and CEO Ted Goins said in a media announcement. We appreciate the hard work of our LSC Refugee and Immigrant Services team in putting together a winning application to expand our services. The group bills itself as having a long history of supporting refugees "on their journey to self-sufficiency in this country, including welcome at the airport upon arrival, food and shelter, transportation, medical care, school enrollment, employment services and cultural assimilation." Goins said the expected arrivals are people desperate for a safe home at the same time "the United States is suffering the greatest workforce emergency in modern history." "South Carolina needs workers, and refugees are eager to participate in the American dream, he added. The LSC programs assist the refugees with employment pursuits, housing, school contacts and other settlement needs. Charleston previously had an Afghan resettlement office that opened in 2016, only to close two years later in 2018 as applications dropped off. The other major refugee welcome and resettlement group operating in the state, World Relief Upstate South Carolina, said its involvement in the ongoing resettlement is still unclear and that it does not anticipate a large number of Afghans being assisted by the organization. Brandon Baughn, the group's office director in Greenville, said their involvement may be for as few as four or five families. The group bills itself as "a nonprofit evangelical organization that assists refugees as they transition to new lives in America." He did say the office has received calls and emails from Greenville-area residents willing to make donations or help with any Afghans who land here. Tens of thousands of Afghanis are expected to find new homes in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. following the country's fall last month following America's exit and the Taliban's rapid takeover. South Carolina has not been identified as a major relocation hub, and in many instances those who will come here are joining other family members or known individuals. So far, only two families are known to have arrived here in recent weeks. Jazic said she expects an outpouring of support and offers of assistance to come into the group specifically for the relocated Afghans. While no phone number is yet available, the agency said people wanting to make contact with the organization in the meantime can email SCrefugee@lscarolinas.net A new seafood restaurant, Drift Raw Bar, celebrated an official grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday. The restaurant, which overlooks SRP Park and the Savannah River, is open Wednesday through Saturday during the evenings. The restaurant features a variety of tapas, seafood dishes and custom craft cocktails. The menu changes daily with chef specials. Really within the CSRA, when you add in the views and the atmosphere here, I think its very unique to the whole area. But for North Augusta in particular, which seems to be thirsty for new concepts and new restaurants, I think it's important as well, co-owner George Claussen said. The restaurant hopes to become a destination spot within Riverside Village. We are excited to see any type of growth in Riverside Village because obviously we want the whole development and the whole area to do well, Claussen said. They say a rising tide raises all boats. North Augusta Chamber of Commerce President Terra Carroll believes the restaurant is a good addition to the area. We have a lot of excitement on the riverfront and just allowing us to experience different things, Carroll said. A lot of cities dont have businesses like this in their downtown or anywhere in their community, so to have a lot of variety in our community is really great and it brings a different type of person to North Augusta and to our downtown area. Mayor Briton Williams agreed. Southbound has been an asset for Riverside Village. This restaurant will also be an asset, so we thank you for investing here and being apart of Riverside Village in a live, work and play environment that we are trying to develop, Williams said. To see an online menu of Drift Raw Bar, visit their website. I would say that we are excited to be a part of something new over here at Riverside Village and we hope everyone in North Augusta will enjoy it as much as we are going to, co-owner Brian Brittingham said. The challenge is clear, and the time is now: Our states population and economic growth need a larger, more skilled workforce. While the U.S. census shows South Carolinas population is growing, more than 2 million skilled labor jobs are projected to be vacant by 2025. About one-fourth of skilled professionals in South Carolina are at or near retirement age. Today, only 47% of our working-age population holds a workforce-relevant credential, placing our state 43rd in the nation. How do we prepare to meet the future workforce needs of our state and promote education for all South Carolinians? With its ASCEND 60x30 campaign, the S.C. Commission on Higher Education is working to increase the percentage of South Carolinians attaining high-quality postsecondary credentials from 47% to 60% by 2030. No single approach will get us to the 60% mark, so we must examine each step of a students college experience and find ways to make the path to completion clear. One such step is encouraging students to apply to college and providing assistance in completing the application. Since 2009, the commission has partnered with high schools to host events that provide families and students with information about postsecondary opportunities and how to submit college applications. Former CHE Commissioner Cyndi Mosteller inspired this postsecondary application initiative more than 10 years ago. She believed the commission could connect admission representatives and high schoolers earlier in the process, and this initiative since has grown to more than 200 statewide events. ASCEND 60x30 continues to support this initiative by encouraging high school juniors and seniors to start thinking sooner about what they will do after graduation. This fall, 236 in-person and virtual college application events will be held at public and independent schools throughout the state, and regardless of their format, college representatives will assist seniors with completing applications for any postsecondary program. (For more information, email Gerrick Hampton at ghampton@che.sc.gov.) Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Also this fall, the commission will introduce the College Ambassador program, where selected students from across the state will share their college application journey through social media, journaling and speaking engagements. Some of them will be selected to continue sharing their postsecondary experiences and receive up to $1,000 in academic scholarships. Our initiatives are promising and moving us in the right direction, but they cannot address high schoolers challenges alone. It will take all our leaders from higher education, the private sector and the Legislature working together to ease the burden high schoolers face. The commission is grateful for the General Assemblys recent support of students pursuit of higher education, shown by the $60 million increase in grants for our most high-need students. State leaders and the higher education community must continue collaborating while also developing and implementing innovative and evidence-based approaches. Our collective efforts will provide better opportunities for all and make higher education more accessible and affordable. So, the time is now. The Commission on Higher Education is committed to supporting South Carolina students during their postsecondary journeys. Their academic successes affect our states workforce development efforts, as well their ability to live independent, productive lives. Rusty Monhollon, Ph.D., is president and executive director of the S.C. Commission on Higher Education. I am a mother fighting for the rights and health of my 4-year-old autistic son and thousands of other special-needs children in South Carolina. Since I first held Porter in my arms at East Cooper Medical Center, I knew that keeping him safe and loved was my No. 1 priority. When Porter was diagnosed with autism just before he turned 2, we started an intensive therapy regimen for him. Although he still needs special education supports, he has grown and developed to the point where he is able to thrive in a general education preschool classroom this year. He has friends. He can carry on conversations with adults and peers. He is even starting to read. But sending Porter to his wonderful preschool classroom each day is also endangering his health. Because of the South Carolina budget proviso banning mask mandates, and Gov. Henry McMasters continued refusal to assist in removing this proviso that was passed by the Legislature, Porters teachers are unable to keep him even reasonably safe when at school. Due to conditions associated with his autism, Porter is at higher risk of contracting COVID and getting seriously ill from the virus, to the point that his pediatrician has recommended he not go back to school if there is no mask mandate. So every day, we have to decide whether to send our beautiful baby boy to school and risk his health, or sacrifice his learning, his communication, his interaction with peers and possibly his future by keeping him at home. This is a decision that no parent should have to make, not when there are options to ensure the safety of our children. Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Thats why I, along with eight other families and disability rights groups, joined a lawsuit that seeks to end the states dangerous ban on mask mandates in schools. My son is supposed to be protected by federal disability rights laws, like the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, that require schools to provide reasonable modifications to policies, practices and procedures to give every student an equal opportunity to benefit from their public education. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health experts recommend universal masking for K-12 schools to keep our children, like my son, safe. I dont hate the rights of individuals, nor do I want to control others. I don't even like face masks (who does?). But I am a mother who will fight to keep her child safe, especially when he is afforded legal protections under federal law as a student with a disability. Children such as Porter have a right to be educated with their peers in a safe environment not isolated in their homes attempting to learn without the interaction the classroom provides. I shouldnt have to choose between his health or his education. My family and I are proud to be one of the nine families suing Gov. McMaster and other state leaders for immediate relief from the mask mandate ban. We appreciate the ACLU of South Carolina, the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Disability Rights South Carolina and their law firm partners for using their resources to represent us. I am a parent above all else, and I will not fail to fight for my sons legal rights and his health. Samantha Boevers is a Charleston resident. The disastrous effects of climate change can be seen almost daily on our TV screens. What we are seeing with our own eyes tells us that climate change is here, it is now, and it is likely to directly impact our lives sooner rather than later. But even more importantly, the effects of climate change will more greatly impact the lives of our children and grandchildren. Should your grandchild ask you one day in the future, But why didnt you do more, it would be sad if you had to respond, Yes, why didnt I do more? Some observers of climate change ask, But what can we do about it? The answer, of course, is, There is something you can do about it. You can vote. If the thought of leaving your grandchildren an overheated, broken planet is a frightening thought, then keep in mind what you are seeing on your TV sets today. During the next election, ask all candidates their position on the need for urgent climate change action. Depending on their answer, vote accordingly. While reexamining our own lifestyle and carbon footprint is a good thing, in the final analysis, it is our political leaders who have the greatest ability to enact meaningful climate change mitigation. By all means, communicate now with our representatives, but vote for climate-change advocates during the next election. DAVE BROWN Creek Landing Street Charleston Effective mandate President Joe Biden recently mandated that all federal employees must be vaccinated. If he truly wants to increase the number of vaccinated individuals, he should mandate that unvaccinated individuals not be able to receive any welfare or unemployment checks. This action would be effective. JAMES TRALKA Cooper Circle Santee Efforts appreciated On Sept. 11, I read that Gov. Henry McMaster said President Joe Biden and the Democrats had declared war against capitalism, and he pledged to fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian. Wonderful. Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Gov. McMaster, please proceed to the gates of hell immediately, and, as defending democracy may be a big job, please take your staff and the willfully ignorant, intellectually lazy, conspiratorial, unvaccinated people in South Carolina. If those of us South Carolinians remaining are all vaccinated, we can pretty much go about freely living our lives (i.e. liberty) and earning our livelihoods as usual with only a very small acceptable risk of COVID to appropriately manage. We do appreciate your efforts. J.C. HUNT Out of Bounds Drive Summerville Helping is key On Aug. 10, my wife and I went to shop at Walmart, checked out and went to the car with our packages only to discover I had lost the keys to the car. We went back to Walmart and inquired at its Returns and the Message Desk if our keys had been turned in, they replied no. We then started to search the store everywhere I had been but did not find them. In a conversation with a customer as to our dilemma, it was overheard by a Charleston police sergeant, Robert Feeters, who offered to assist us. He then contacted two members of his team to have them take us and our packages to the edge of Johns Island. We were then turned over to Officer Alex Keating who drove us home on Seabrook, where I obtained the backup keys for the car. He then drove me back to Walmart to our car. We will be eternal grateful for the assistance and kindness shown by these officers. ROBERT P. WORST Capn Sams Road Seabrook Island Tracking hardware During a recent House Oversight Committee meeting, Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced an amendment that would track down US military equipment left in Afghanistan with the aim of repossessing them. Shocking to no one, her Democratic colleagues voted unanimously against it. Why is this status quo of backwards priorities becoming regularly accepted on the left? The men and women who dutifully served this nation were dealt a blatant show of disrespect last week. The resources and hardware used in their fight against terror have been hijacked by the very people they were fighting against. The First Congressional District of South Carolina is served well and faithful with Congresswoman Nancy Mace staying true to represent us and work hard for important issues like this. Thanks Congresswoman. DEBORAH HALL Sweet Alyssum Drive Ladson COLUMBIA South Carolina senators will return to Columbia next month for a newly called special session, but whether the House will join them remains unknown. And while legislative leaders want to limit what's up for discussion, the session could easily get bogged down in debate over whether to undo the Legislature's budget ban on school mask mandates and whether employers can require COVID-19 vaccinations. Senate President Harvey Peeler announced Sept. 16 he's calling his fellow senators back to debate new post-census voting lines and how to spend $3 billion in federal money. The session will begin Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. "I am calling for the Senate to return so we may finish the business of the body," Peeler, R-Gaffney, said. "We will only take up matters included in the sine die resolution," he added, referring to the law legislators adopted in May outlining when they could return for any special session for the rest of the year and what it could include. The law reflected legislators' intention to return this fall to craft a spending plan for $2.5 billion in federal COVID aid they control, as well as $525 million from a settlement with the Department of Energy over plutonium at the Savannah River Site. The plans also called for passing new maps for legislative and U.S. House seats to align with population shifts. Those debates are specifically allowed in the temporary law. But trying to limit the session to those topics will likely prove futile, particularly in the 46-member Senate where rules allow a single senator to hold the floor for days to make a point. Since the Legislature last adjourned, a surge in COVID-19 caused by the delta variant has resulted in a growing chorus of health officials and educators across the state, including state Superintendent Molly Spearman, asking legislators to undo their mask mandate ban. An amendment the House inserted in the state budget in June, back when the pandemic seemed to be subsiding, banned K-12 public schools from using state money to enact or enforce a mask mandate. Only the Legislature or a court order can repeal the ban. Some districts have issued a mandate regardless, saying that's what's needed to protect students and keep them in class rather than quarantined. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! While the number of legislators publicly advocating a repeal has risen, there currently aren't enough votes to make it happen, according to legislative leaders in both chambers. It would take a two-thirds vote just to consider legislation repealing the ban. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, said he personally supports allowing local school boards to decide whether to mandate face coverings for their district. "I don't like wearing masks, and I'm not a fan of mandates," he said. But "to me, the ultimate goal is to have kids in school with their teachers. We've seen the results of children not in the classroom. The online learning and virtual programs are ineffective. We need them in the classroom. We need to allow the school districts to make the decision." Still, as a matter of practicality "I don't think the votes are there to repeal the mask proviso," Massey said, adding "Could circumstances change in the next month? Yes." It's also impossible for senators to pass laws on their own. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, has not called back his chamber. The House has not set any dates for a special session, his spokeswoman, Nicolette Walters, said after Peeler's announcement. A decision might come next week. The House's GOP majority caucus will be in Columbia on Sept. 22 to "fully explore all available solutions" for combating the Biden administration's pending vaccine requirements for workers in private businesses nationwide, according to Lucas' Sept. 10 letter to House Republicans. Lucas stressed to his colleagues there's little they can do, noting the two-thirds vote needed to take up any new legislation in a special session. "The ability of the General Assembly to act on all but a handful of items does not exist," he wrote. "Still, we have a responsibility to act in whatever ways are available to us." Easing back into the news cycle, I want to note Byron Yorks Examiner column A renewed, intensified crisis at the border. Byrons column takes off from the Twitter feed of FOX News reporter Bill Melugin. Byron aptly notes: The Twitter feed of Fox News reporter Bill Melugin has been an extraordinary place for the last few days. Melugin has spent a lot of time reporting from the U.S.-Mexico border, and recently he began telling readers about a surge in illegal crossers at the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas. The crossers are coming by the thousands, Melugin reported. Per source, the number of migrants waiting to be processed has now swelled to approximately 8,200, Melugin tweeted Thursday morning. It was 4,000 yesterday AM. Doubled in one day. Border Patrol overwhelmed, and Im told the situation is out of control.' Melugin included dramatic photos showing the extent of the situation[.] BREAKING: Our drone is back over the international bridge in Del Rio, TX. Per source, the number of migrants waiting to be processed has now swelled to approx 8,200. It was 4,000 yesterday AM. Doubled in one day. BP overwhelmed, & Im told situation is out of control @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ThJJJ0JWCT Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 16, 2021 FOX News is is course the go-to source for news on the collapse of our southern border. Yesterday FOX News reported Migrant encounters over 200,000 again in August, as border surge continues. Following these developments, I wondered whether anyone outside the orbit of FOX News has a clue. FOX News has a story on that too: ABC, CBS, NBC networks dramatically dropped off border crisis coverage in August: Study. This must be yet another front of what Donald Luskin called The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid In his most recent tweets Melugin reports that FNCs drone has been grounded by the FAA. They really dont want that eye in the sky. NEW: Weve learned that the FAA just implemented a two week TFR (Temporary Flight Restrictions) over the international bridge in Del Rio, TX, meaning we can no longer fly our FOX drone over it to show images of the thousands of migrants. FAA says special security reason. pic.twitter.com/aJrjAPO2Pz Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021 UPDATE: FAA statement The Border Patrol requested the temporary flight restriction due to drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border. As with any temporary flight restriction, media is able to call the FAA to make requests to operate in the area.@FoxNews Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021 Byrons column also takes up Melugins reporting on the huge Haitian component of the assembled multitude waiting to be processed in Del Rio. Reuters adds that the multitude also includes Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans. The Haitians must have found a home somewhere south of the border before they hit Texas. Law enforcement source on the ground at the bridge this morning just sent me this video showing the situation there. Im told a large majority of the migrants are Haitians and more are crossing into the US and arriving at the bridge by the minute. BP w/ limited manpower @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/dHWCrhFikq Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 16, 2021 Byrons column should be read in its entirety. Whole thing here. Melugins Twitter feed is here. We won't let the FAA control the news you get. Watch this video and see how @faanews tried to shut down our newsgathering on the southern border. That can't happen. Our own @BillFOXLA will be back with us on @FoxNews tomorrow at 8pm ET. pic.twitter.com/4WIJCC0O4y Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 17, 2021 UPDATE: Byron is back on the case this morning with Disaster in Del Rio. Byron writes: Many of the Haitians who have arrived in Del Rio had left their country long before the quake. More than 29,000 Haitians have arrived over the past 11 months, reports the Washington Post. Some say the economic toll of the pandemic pushed them to leave, while others see a more welcoming U.S. administration offering them a fleeting opportunity to reach the United States. So they are coming now. But this is not about Haiti. While the latest flare-up of the border crisis involves thousands of Haitians, the fact is, over the last several months, Border Patrol officials have detained people from at least 90 countries all around the world crossing illegally into the U.S. Its not just Mexico or the Northern Triangle area, either. Ninety countries. Theyre all drawn by one thing: the belief, encouraged by the Biden administration, that if they can manage to cross the border into the U.S. illegally, they will be allowed to stay. Given Bidens policies, that is an entirely rational calculation on their part. The Biden administration is overwhelming us with policy-made catastrophes, Cloward-Piven style. Byrons column concludes on precisely this note: [T]he surge at Del Rio is just the latest disaster that is Bidens border policy. Its not an accident. It is not an unintended consequence. The president and his top aides formulated these policies knowing full well they would create powerful new incentives for would-be migrants to cross illegally into the U.S. And now its happening, more and more and more. A lot has been said about the fact that the Biden administration is trying to bar people who dont want to be vaccinated against covid, for whatever reason, from gainful employment. To say that this is a novel incursion on our civil rights is an understatement. But here is a worse one: how about firing anyone who wont sign on to the racist, anti-American ideology of Critical Race Theory? Shockingly, that is now happening, all across corporate America. The current message is: believe in CRT, or more likely pretend to believe, or you are fired. The Upper Midwest Law Center, on whose board I serve, is representing several individuals who have been fired or demoted because they disagreed with Critical Race Theory. One of those plaintiffs is Chuck Vavra. Vavra was an engineer at Honeywell, which imposed mandatory Critical Race Theory-based training on its employees. The curriculum called America irredeemably racist and asserted that all whites are the same, and insisted that whites admit their inherent racism and status as evil oppressors, while blacks were characterized as victims, good people but intrinsically unable to lead successful lives due to white racism. Vavra objected to this bizarre Marxist world-view. The result? Honeywell fired him. It is notable that the training insisted upon by Honeywell was not a matter of compliance with federal civil rights statutes or other laws, nor did it have anything to do with Vavras job duties as an engineer. It was simply an effort to impose fealty to an extreme left-wing, anti-American agenda as a condition of employment at the company. Thats the bad news. The good news is that the Upper Midwest Law Center is representing Chuck Vavra and others who have had similar experiences in lawsuits against their former employers. If you dont think employees of private companies should be required to swear allegiance to absurd, anti-American dogmas as a condition of continued employment, you can donate to UMLC here. My friend who notifies me of rare instances when the New York Times provides less than favorable coverage of the Biden administration writes: Todays NYT has a front page article with a picture on the border surge. This is unusual. Fox talks about the open border all the time, but the mainstream press generally ignores the issue to the extent that it can. Not today. The article even quotes Republican criticisms of Biden, with little by way of defense. This may be in the nature of a warning to Biden not to let things get out of hand. The Times article is reposted here. The Washington Post also made this story its lead front page article. Unlike the Times, the Post quotes no Republican. And the first part of its report focuses on the bravery of this swarm of illegal immigrants. Only at the very end do we read about their impact on the Texas side of the border. In doing so, the Post seems primarily concerned with the impact on Democrats. It notes that the county suffering from the weight of these crossings favored Donald Trump in 2020, the first time it voted Republican in decades. And that was when the number of illegal crossings was a small fraction of the current wave. Between the Times story and that of the Post, Team Biden should consider itself doubly warned. For the best reporting Ive seen on this latest border crisis, I recommend this report by Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies. Its called A New Beachhead Opens in the Biden Border Crisis. The subtitle is 10,000 Haitians and Cubans mass in Del Rio, Texas, amid obvious Border Patrol stand-down orders. Yes, no matter what Yes, but it depends on variety No, for medical reasons, uncertainty No, principle Vote View Results Private John James Hart of Cantuar was featured during the first week of the Veteran of the Week program. He was killed in action during the First World War. ADVERTISEMENT The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced that it will own a majority stake in Bitt Inc. after its registration in Nigeria. The Barbados-based fintech company is the technical partner of the apex bank that will help launch Nigerias digital currency October 1. The banks governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Friday after the Monetary Policy Council meeting denied having personal stakes in the company. Bitt Inc would establish a company in Nigeria and the CBN would own a majority stake in the company. So it is not my company as people have said, he said. Commenting on the selection process, Mr Emefiele said the CBN went through a rigorous vendor selection process and Bitt came first with an average of 82.3 per cent, scoring above the other 5. bidders. As with all attempts at choosing contractors, the CBN went through a rigorous vendor selection process in line with the Public Procurement Act conducted by seven departmental directors and a deputy governor, he said. Ten companies were evaluated based on the following criteria: technology ownership and control; implementation timeline; efficiency and ease of adoption; support for anti-money laundering and combatting of terrorism; platform security; interoperability; and implementation experience. Why did we choose Bitt Inc? Bitt is a leader in central banks digital currency space, with subject matter experts at the intersection between technology and policy. Bitt Inc is the first company to digitize a Central Bank digital currency on a blockchain. He assured that the currency will be launched on October 1 2021. On that date, Nigerians should be able to download the eNaira application from either Google play store or Apple app store, Mr Emefiele said. They would be able to find their wallets using their bank accounts and conduct transactions such as transfers and purchases at merchant outlets that have boarded to the platform. ADVERTISEMENT The Edo State Government on Friday said it was recording more deaths and less recoveries since the third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic started in the state. The Permanent Secretary, Edo Ministry of Health, Osamwonyi Irowa, disclosed this during the daily COVID-19 briefing in Benin. He said the increasing number of deaths in the state was worrisome and required the need to take the COVID-19 protocols seriously. Mr Irowa, a medical doctor, appealed to residents to observe the non-pharmaceutical measures put in place as well as take advantage of the availability of vaccines, and get vaccinated to reduce the number of deaths. He disclosed that the ministry would mobilise churches and mosques during the weekend to administer the COVID-19 vaccines to worshipers. We are observing that more deaths are occurring in this third wave for the same period of time as the second wave. The number of deaths encountered during the second wave is now times two in this third wave. There is an urgent need to step up our game in terms of preventing the spread of this virus. This third wave is more deadly. We have treatment facilities across the three senatorial districts. Those who are above 50, stand the risk of dying, he said. Ebomwonyi Osagie, the head of COVID-19 case management in the state, said the state over the past 24 hours, recorded 97 new cases and two new deaths, bringing the number of deaths so far to 59. (NAN) The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against storing food in containers formerly used for chemical products. The Director General of NAFDAC, Christianah Adeyeye, gave the warning on Thursday during a sensitisation campaign in Onitsha, Anambra. Mrs Adeyeye, who was represented by Ngozi Onuora, the director of Chemical Evaluation and Research Directorate, said such containers harboured carcinogenic substances, which would not be scrubbed by washing and could develop harmful effects for humans in the long run. The DG, who led the team of NAFDAC top management to the palace of the traditional ruler of Onitsha, Alfred Achebe, said a well-informed society would address the effects of drug abuse. It is harmful to use kerosene tankers to load groundnut oil, to use potassium bromate to bake bread so as to improve the dough and to use dyes to redden palm oil, she said. Mrs Adeyeye called on Nigerians to stop buying medicines from hawkers, but patronise approved medicine shops which are under the agencys regulatory purview. She said the awareness campaign, which would last for three days, was aimed at sensitising youths on the dangers of consuming codeine, tramadol, and their abuse, as well as the harm caused by other dangerous drugs to their health. We also advise market women to desist from using chemicals to quicken the ripening of fruits, like plantains and bananas, because it is dangerous to health, she said. She called on traditional institutions to use their reach with the grassroots to help NAFDAC achieve optimal results in the quest for a society free of drug abuse and unwholesome products. In his response, the traditional ruler expressed worry over the increasing cases of drug abuse, particularly among youths in the state, saying that Onitsha had zero tolerance for drug trafficking and it employs effective community-based approaches to tackle the menace. Mr Achebe said he had directed the demolition of two buildings housing illegal drug users in the past, but that there was the need for the police and other related agencies in charge of drug control to complement these efforts. The traditional ruler said beyond the prevalence of drug abuse among youths on the streets, investigation had revealed that most people who used motorcycles to peddle drugs ended up in the barracks. The rate at which the youths in the area engaged in the selling and consumption of illicit drugs is worrisome. There is a need for the restoration of societal core values to enable the people to avoid engagement in drug abuse. I believe that people engaged in meaningful activities cannot go into illicit drug consumption, that is why as a community, we are working hard to ensure that youths are trained on skills including ICT, he said. Mr Achebe pledged to partner with the agency to ensure a drastic reduction of the sale and consumption of illicit drugs. The event included a lecture and road show that took the team around the commercial city of Onitsha. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT An Oyo State High Court has ordered the State Security Service to pay N20 billion to Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, over the alleged invasion of his home in Ibadan. Justice Ladiran Akintola ruled that the money was awarded as exemplary and aggravated damages against the SSS in the suit filed by Mr Igboho, in which he was seeking N500 billion damages for the invasion. The secret police had stormed Mr Igbohos house in the Soka area of the city in the early hours of July 1. At least two persons were killed in the invasion. Details later The National Industrial Court, Abuja, on Friday , ordered members of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to suspend their 46-day-old strike and return to work immediately. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the court also ordered both the federal government and NARD to return to the negotiation table to resolve their differences. The ruling delivered by the judge, Bashar Alkali, followed an application by the federal governments lawyer, Tochukwu Maduka, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Mr Alkali overruled the objection of NARDs lawyer, Femi Aborishade, to the application. I hereby make an of interlocutory injunction restraining members of the respondent in all states of the federation from further continuing with the industrial action embarked on August 2. I also make an order of interlocutory injunction compelling all members of the respondent in all States of the Federation to suspend the said industrial action it commenced on August 2, the judge ruled. Mr Alkali said the federal governments application met the requirement on which an interlocutory injunction can be issued in a case. He said the court considered the serious damage to lives that could occur if such application to order the suspension of the strike was not granted. He said lives had been lost since the commencement of the strike especially in regards to COVID-19 Delta variant, hence the need to grant the governments application. Grant part if not all of doctors request But the judge, in conclusion, urged the claimants to grant some if not all of the defendants demand at the negotiation table. Mr Alkali, who only sat as a vacation judge of the court, said the case file would be reassigned by the President of the court to another judge, and a new date for hearing of the substantive suit would be communicated to parties. Negotiation breakdown PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the judge on Wednesday adjourned till Friday for report of negotiation which both parties agreed to have. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that both parties were unable to reach an agreement on Friday. According to NAN, the federal governments lawyer, Tochukwu Maduka, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court that parities met, but that the striking doctors decided to come up with a different document titled, Terms of settlement. He added that the document contained issues entirely different from what was in the original Memorandum of Understanding. Although Mr Maduka admitted that his client came to the meeting with an addendum MoU, but it was because, according to him, the implementation timeline contained in the original MoU prepared on August 28, had elapsed. In his reaction, NARDs lawyer, Femi Aborishade, also said his clients proposed Terms of settlement was also because the timelines in the original MoU had elapsed. He added that there was a need to set new timelines and that the claimant ought to have sought an meeting to recouncile the differences in the timelines. ADVERTISEMENT Mr Aborishade further urged the court to invoke Section 20 of National Industrial Court of Nigeria rules to order the claimants to go into negotiation with the striking doctors. He equally said that as stipulated by law, the doctors preliminary objection should be taken before the claimants motion on notice. He also referred to an order made by the court on 23 August stipulating that motion on notice and other pending applications be taken on 15 September. According to him, that implied that his clients preliminary objection should be taken before, and not with the substantive suit. The judge said pending applications as stated by the court in the ruling of 23 August did not include the preliminary objection that was only filed on 31 August . Mr Alkali in addition directed Mr Maduka, the federal governments lawyer, to move his application on motion on notice for interlocutory injunction. The court, in his ruling after the hearing, ordered the resident doctors to suspend their strike. Suit The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the federal government along with the ministry of health, had filed an ex-parte motion praying for some orders of the court. The claimants had sought for an order of interlocutory injunction restraining members of the respondent in all States of the Federation from further continuing with the industrial action embarked on 2 August. Another order as sought by the applicants was for an order of interlocutory injunction compelling all members of the respondent in all States of the Federation to suspend the said industrial action. The court on 23 August granted an order directing parties to cease all forms of hostilities. The defendant in response had also filed a 17-page counter- affidavit with a written address filed on 31 August. The striking National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has vowed to defy Fridays ruling of the National Industrial Court (NIC) ordering its members to return to their duty posts. The order, which came almost seven weeks after the doctors embarked on the industrial action, was based on an application filed by the Nigerian government. The government has sought an order of interlocutory injunction restraining members of the striking NARD across the country from further continuing with the industrial action. The government is also seeking to legitimise the no-work-no-pay policy against doctors. However, the court, in a ruling on August 23, ordered the parties to suspend all forms of hostilities and maintain the status quo ante. In continuation of the hearing on Friday, Justice Bashar Alkali of the NIC ruled in favour of the government and ordered the striking doctors to resume work. Justice Alkali said he based his order on the prevailing health crisis in Nigeria and the need for the doctors to resume duties as essential workers, to curtail the wave of COVID-19. He said the counsel to the Nigerian government, Tochukwu Maduka, was able to show that unless this application is granted, so many Nigerians will lose their lives, most especially as the country is experiencing an upsurge in this third wave of COVID-19 with increasing fatality arising from the absence of the defendants from hospitals. It is my firm belief that if the court does not intervene at this stage, there is no amount of money that can compensate for the lives of Nigerians who would lose their lives if the members of the defendants continue with their strike. I find the application meritorious and I resolve the lone issue for determination in favour of the claimant applicant, the judge held. I grant all the prayers as contained in the face of the motion paper and in effect, I hereby grant an order of interlocutory injunction that members of the defendant respondent in all the states of the federation are hereby restrained from continuing with the industrial action embarked on since on the second day of August 2021 pending the determination of the substantive suit. Also, I hereby order all members of the defendants/respondents in all the states of the federation to suspend the said industrial action commenced on the second day of August 2021 with immediate effect and to resume work immediately pending the determination of the substantive suit, the judge added. Adamant NARD Responding to the court ruling, the NARD in a statement addressed to its members across the nation, said it is appealing the court ruling. The statement was jointly signed by the NARD president, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi, the unions secretary, Jerry Isogun, and the publicity secretary, Dotun Oshikoya. The statement said it has directed its lawyers to appeal the ruling and file for stay of execution. On 15/9/2021, the court reserved ruling on which Application the court would take first. Our lawyers had argued in the Court on 15/9/2021 that the Court ought to hear and determine our Notice of Preliminary Objection challenging the jurisdiction of the Court before taking the Application for Interlocutory injunction or any other application. The court adjourned ruling on the argument on that issue to today. Today, the Court ruled that it would take the Governments Application for interlocutory injunction first and our NPO would be taken and determined along with the substantive suit. Also, our lawyers drew the attention of the Court to our application for stay of execution of the ex parte order and that the court should take that Application first. The Court insisted that the ADVERTISEMENT Government Application would be taken first. On 15/9/21, the court ordered all parties to resume negotiations. The Government refused to resume negotiations in line with the order of 23/8/21. Our lawyers reported this development to the court. We have demonstrated good faith and would continue to do so. By the refusal of the court to hear and determine our Notice of Preliminary Objection before taking the Governments Application for Interlocutory injunction, we believe we have been denied fair hearing which is a fundamental right. ALSO READ: Court orders resident doctors to suspend strike In the circumstances, we have instructed our lawyers to file necessary processes. We urge all members to remain calm and resolute. Everything depends on our firm resolve, the statement read. Contacted Friday evening, the NARD president, Mr Okhuaihesuyi, said until the appeal is heard by the NIC, the union would continue with the strike. NARD strike Resident doctors across public health facilities in Nigeria have been on strike for over 40 days. They cited several reasons, including delays in the payment of their salaries and allowances. The strike coincided with a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, leaving many worried that it could have serious consequences for the battle against the third wave of the pandemic. Last year alone, medical practitioners were on strike three times over demands for allowances for treating COVID-19 patients and increment in basic salary. NARD is also demanding the payment of COVID-19 treatment allowances in the absence of death-in-service insurance, having lost at least 19 of its members to the pandemic, while also protesting the shortage of manpower in public hospitals. At the root of the strike action is the governments constant failure to honour the agreement reached with NARD over its demands. A meeting last month between the leaders of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), NARD and government representatives also failed to resolve the issues after the striking doctors backed out at the last minute. Patients suffer While the federal government and the striking doctors continue to bicker, patients who throng public health facilities get little or no care. Medical residents, doctors practising to become specialists, make up the larger number of the medical workforce across federal and state tertiary hospitals. Therefore, their recent strike, the fourth and the longest since the COVID-19 pandemic began, has relatively paralysed the health system, with the patients bearing the brunt. Most hospitals have long stopped admitting new patients while those on admission are sent home or directed to private health facilities. Also, the crisis in the health sector may soon escalate with the threat by other associations in the sector to down tools if pending issues are not resolved before September 18. The NMA, the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and the Medical and Dental Doctors in Academics (MEDSABAM) unanimously agreed to join NARD if the government fails to resolve the pending issues on or before the deadline. A probe launched by the World Bank in respect of anomalies in the data used in preparing its Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports has revealed how senior staff of the lender manipulated data to favour China and Saudi Arabia and lower the ranking of Azerbaijan. Findings by an independent investigator issued on Thursday showed Kristalina Georgieva, the then chief executive of the Washington-based multilateral lender who now heads the International Monetary Fund (IMF), heaped undue pressure on employees to boost Chinas position on the Doing Business 2018 ranking. Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the World Bank, also took part in the scheme, investigators found. The World Banks ethics panel late August engaged a law firm WilmerHale to conduct an investigation into an alleged manipulation of the underlying data used for drafting the two contentious reports. That has led the bank to discontinue the report, which ranked 190 economies based on ease of conducting business in them across parameters like investment laws, property rights, trading regulations and credit availability. A 16-page report by the external investigator seen by PREMIUM TIMES spotlighted China and Saudis influence at the World Bank and Ms Georgievas judgement and that of Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the World Bank as a major cause of concern. In the month leading up to the publication of the report, outreach from senior Chinese officials to Bank leaders over the countrys ranking in Doing Business intensified. For example, President Kim discussed the report and Chinas performance with a senior Chinese government official on September 12; the then-Executive Director (ED) for China met with members of the Banks East Asia & Pacific (EAP) Regional Office on September 14 to inform them that if Chinas ranking improved everyone w[ould] be relieved (and he made a personal plea to this effect to President Kim privately), the document said. on October 14, the same Chinese government official had dinner with CEO Georgieva, during which he emphasized CEO Georgievas role as the responsible person at the Bank to ensure that Chinas reforms were acknowledged in the report. Meanwhile, the IMF chief said in a Thursday statement that she disagreed with the outcome of the inquiry, adding she had informed her organisations executive board. I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Banks Doing Business report of 2018. I have already had an initial briefing with the IMFs Executive Board on this matter. WilmerHale noted direct and indirect pressure from senior employees in Mr Kims office to manipulate the procedure of the report to strengthen Chinas score on the ranking, stating it possibly happened at Kims behest. The investigators report said Georgieva and Simeon Djankov, a senior staff at the bank, had mounted pressure on staff to make specific changes to Chinas data points and shore up its ranking coming at a time when the World Bank was seeking Chinas backing for a significant capital increase. The position of China on the Doing Business 2018 ranking issued in October 2017 climbed by seven places to 78th after the data procedure alterations were made. Also the law firms investigation found Saudi Arabias improvement in Doing Business report 2020 was orchestrated with World Banks staff involvement. The Doing Business unit in 2019 prepared a draft of its best reformers list for Doing Business 2020 with Jordan taking the lead and Saudi coming second. Djankov, one of the founders of the Doing Business report, directed the Doing Business team to look for a means to change the data in a way that Jordan dropped from the first position on the list. Djankov said the report would lose credibility if Jordan, which was encountering economic and social pressures at the time, stayed at the top spot. ADVERTISEMENT He sent a staff to Jordan to establish whether the data that qualified Jordan for the prime position were correct confirmed they were genuine and legitimate. Djankov would later seek a way to leapfrog Saudi Arabia over Jordan. In his interview, Mr Djankov stated that the impetus for the change to Saudi Arabias data came from two officials in the MENA Vice Presidency, one of whom previously served as Chief of Staff to President Kim and was involved in the changes to Chinas data in Doing Business 2018, the findings document said. On September 30, the Doing Business team altered Saudi Arabias data in an effort to boost the countrys ranking past Jordan. Djankov would order the Doing Business team in August 2019 to examine Azerbaijans data on account of worries that the Azeri government improperly influenced the private sector contributors that provided the data to the team. The Doing Business teams scrutiny found Azerbaijans data accurate. But the countrys reforms were frozen or not counted in the final version of Doing Business 2020 at the order of Djankov. The alterations lowered Azerbaijans score by almost two points, forcing it from the Top Reformers list. in addition to alterations made to three Azeri data points, Mr. Djankov also ordered a last-minute change to the methodology underscoring the Protecting Minority Investors (PMI) indicator, further damaging Azerbaijans score, as well as scores of numerous other countries. ADVERTISEMENT The European Union under its Agents For Citizen-Driven Transformation (ACT) programme has collaborated with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to sensitise Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on tax responsibilities and compliance. The two organisations organised a webinar Thursday to promote CSOs understanding and knowledge of their tax responsibilities. This, officials said, is part of efforts made by the EU-ACT to enhance the credibility and the role of CSOs as drivers-of-change for sustainable development. The programme also gives an opportunity for CSOs to engage the FIRS on parts of tax regulations that concern them, and the challenges they face in their bid to stay compliant. In his opening remarks, the Coordinating Director, Compliance Support Group, FIRS, Dick Irri, said the service wants to sensitize CSOs and provide them with the required knowledge about their tax responsibility. I believe the collaboration will significantly increase compliance by the CSOs and at the end of this event, participants are expected to understand the overview of taxation, incentives available to CSOs and their general tax obligations, he said. On its part, the EU-ACT said it wants to provide a space for structured and regular multi-stakeholder dialogues for an improved and inclusive regulatory environment for CSO operations in Nigeria. The organisation noted that it has conducted several research and surveys on CSOs regulatory environment, adding that it has come to understand as factual the assertion that CSOs compliance to relevant laws and regulations is generally weak in Nigeria. These regulations are complex to many CSOs who lack the requisite knowledge and information about the regulations and how to go about such compliance. And even in trying to comply, CSOs face many challenges. In addition, the regulatory enforcement regimes of these laws are weak, the EU-ACT said. It added that these two factors, amongst others, lead to poor compliance of CSOs to such existing laws and: this, for a fact, hinders CSOs effectiveness, limits their potential and in some cases is detrimental to their sustenance. But, aside from supporting civil society organisations to be effective, Damilare Babalola, EU-ACT national programme manager, said they are more interested in ensuring there is an open space for CSOs to thrive. Thus, he believes that partnership with regulatory agencies will play an important role in achieving that objective. We have had several instances where non for profit organisations are not complying to tax and we also had from the other angle saying these tax obligations we are supposed to comply with are not clear to us. So the idea is to bring both players to the same table where the opportunity is provided for the duty bearers to explain what taxpayers are supposed to be doing, he said. ADVERTISEMENT The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has suspended one of its states caretaker chairmen over a congratulatory letter to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami. The Gombe State interim chairman of the association, Sunday Congo, had congratulated the minister following his promotion to the rank of Professor of Cyber Security by the Governing Council of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) at its meeting held in August. Attaining the rank in Nigeria is expected to come with years of teaching and research in the university. His new academic status has generated criticisms from different quarters questioning whether he earned the rank the way many did in the country. In a letter date 15 September and signed by its General Secretary, Daramola Bade, the CAN announced Mr Congos suspension, accusing him of overzealous Jess and misrepresentation of the association. They said his congratulatory message to the minister was issued without the approval of the associations NEC. Following the recent publications of your congratulatory message to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, we write to inform you that your actions have generated a lot of concerns amongst members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). This action of yours in publishing and release made on behalf of the Association is tantamount to unilateral decision of you and overzealousness on your part, which was done without authorization and clearance. It is not only provocative but undermines the CAN NEC Executive. It does not in anyway represent their position. In view of the above, you are hereby directed to relinquish your position in Gombe CAN Executive with immediate effect and hand over all CANs property to your next in line in your Bloc, the suspension letter reads. Mr Pantami came under fire in April after video and audio records of his comments in support of terrorist groups and their acts went viral on social platforms. He expressed happiness over the massacre of infidels. This led to the social media campaign for his removal by President Muhammadu Buhari despite apologising for the statements being made out of ignorance. ADVERTISEMENT The Chairman of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on police brutality, extra-judicial killings and Human Rights Violations in Ebonyi State, Alloy Nwankwo, on Thursday, said the panel had recommended the payment of N189 million to victims of extra-judicial killings in the state. Mr Nwankwor, a retired judge, disclosed this in an interview with reporters in Abakaliki. He said the panel in Ebonyi State received a total of 71 petitions, since it was set up on October 20, 2020. He said of the 71 petitions received by the panel, 51 were determined, while 20 were struck out for want of diligent prosecution. The chairman added that the security agencies involved in extra-judicial killings and other forms of violation of fundamental human rights, were also recommended for sanctions. We recommended sanctions and other forms of punishment for security agencies involved in extrajudicial killings, brutality, he said. A pastor in Ebonyi, Ugbala Solomon, during the panel sitting, said the operatives of SARS, the disbanded notorious police unit, of killing two of his church members. Mr Ugbala told the panel that the SARS operatives had afterward lied that the victims were kidnappers killed during a shoot-out with the police. On Saturday, 6th day of June 2020, I was in our church organising a place where people that would come for our programme would stay, when four Jeeps, conveying policemen, came behind and stopped. A boy called Nonso came out with a handcuff and pointed to my youth leaders Monday Oshim and Emeka Nwalobu Eze. The police threatened to kill them if they ran. As a result of the threat, they started running, the police gunned them down and carried their corpses and motorcycle to Abakaliki, the pastor said. It is unclear, for now, if the pastors petition was among those determined by the panel. The panel, just like the ones in other states across Nigeria, was set up after the 2020 historic #EndSARS nationwide protest. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The Lagos State Government has announced that it would bar the outbound lane of Oba Akran inbound Simbiat Abiola Way from vehicular movement by 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, 18 September, till 6:00 a.m. September 19, 2021. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the closure followed Junction Improvement Works ongoing at Awolowo way/Kodesho/Oba Akran Road, through the underpass by (Computer Village) in Ikeja area of Lagos. A statement issued by the Commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde, in Lagos on Friday explained that the restriction would allow the contractor to carry out major demolition on that section of the road. He said that safety of lives and property was paramount to the Lagos State Government. The commissioner advised motorists outbound Oba Akran and Awolowo Way to link Abeokuta Street and connect Oshifila to connect Akinremi and access Simbiat Abiola Way to reach their desired destinations. He added that the Ikeja flyover bridge would also be open to motorists to utilize alternately during the duration of the demolition. He explained that the closure was slated during the weekend to minimize inconveniences that the demolition exercise might brought to road users. Mr Oladeinde encouraged the motorists to cooperate with the state government by adhering to all the directions of the state Traffic Management Authority, (LASTMA) and the traffic advisory provided. (NAN). The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who withdrew suddenly during a public event at the Presidential Villa Thursday, morning, has revealed what doctors told him was responsible for the health-related incident. Mr Bawa spoke in a live interview with Channels Television hours after the incident that occurred during an event commemorating the National Identity Day at the Presidential Villa on Thursday. During the interview monitored by our reporter, Mr Bawa said he started feeling dizziness while he was speaking at the ceremony. The EFCC boss who was rushed to an undisclosed hospital from the venue, said the doctors who attended to him revealed that he suffered dehydration and advised him to take a lot of water. He expressed gratitude to many concerned Nigerians, whose prayers he said has been keeping me going. Mr Bawa said he went straight to his office after leaving the hospital and had returned home, from where he spoke with Channels TV via a call. While giving my goodwill message during the programme there was a bit of dizziness and I had to excuse myself from the stage and of course I had to visit the hospital where the doctors confirmed to me everything with me is okay except for the fact that I am a bit dehydrated and I need to take a lot of water. And straight away from the hospital I went to the office to tidy one or two things and I am now back at home. I also want to thank millions of Nigerians for their prayer and well wishes I appreciate that and I think that has been keeping me going, Mr Bawa said. Why I cant names of suspected terrorism sponsors Mr Bawa also said not in the best position to give the names of suspected terrorism sponsors in Nigeria being held within and outside country. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government had reportedly named six Nigerians on its terror list. This comes barely a year after the Gulf country convicted six other Nigerians indicted for funding Boko Haram, a dreaded terror group in Nigeria, last November. In March, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the Nigerian Government arrested some bureaux de change operators who were facilitating the transfer of money to Boko Haram terrorists. Also, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had said ongoing investigations revealed many highly placed Nigerians and businessmen involved in financing terrorism. Mr Malami, who spoke in May, said the strongly suspected financiers were already being profiled for prosecution. While the Nigerian government has yet to reveal the names of the alleged Boko Haram financiers, the question of who they are was posed to Mr Bawa during the Channels TV interview. The anti-graft agency boss, however, refused to mention names, saying he was not President Muhammadu Buharis publicist. ADVERTISEMENT If you are my adviser, will you advise me on national television to tell the world regarding matters of national security, certainly not? But what I want to assure you is that we (EFCC) is working with other sister agencies to ensure the country is free of terrorism and transparency is one of the bedrock of this administration and you are aware I am not the spokesman of this government. According to him, at the right time, Nigerians would get to know those that are financing terrorism in this country and beyond as well. Boko Haram, the third deadliest terrorist group in the world, has killed thousands and displaced millions since its first attack in 2009. Although based in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria, the terrorist sects tentacles spread out to Chad, Cameroon and other parts of Central Africa. Forex crisis Mr Bawa also lauded the recent foreign exchange policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stopping the release of dollars to bureau de change operators to strengthen the naira in the black market. Before now, this country is the only country in the world that is giving forex to BDCs directly. And let me correct an impression, nobody stops the operations of BDCs in this country. The policy is about stopping the giving of cash to BDCs. He added, And it is a laudable policy; we are working with the CBN and stakeholders to fine-tune the operations. Already we have seen a lot. He said many Nigerians had deviced other means of applying for this forex legally from their bankers and when they get it, they go back to the same medium and take advantage of the market. He added, A lot of Nigerians are now collecting forex. And of course, we are working and getting intelligence, the bankers are cooperating with us. There have been a lot of reports of some elements within the society that are trying to take advantage of the system as well through the financial institution. But we are determined the bankers committee is working the CBN is working and we are working as well. And those that are found to have crossed the line will be dealt with by the law. Kogi accounts When asked about the recent freezing of a ban! account of the Kogi State government, Mr Bawa said the commission would not be involved in media trial. Since when I came on board as EFCC chairman, we have tried as much as possible to do our work by disassociating our operations from media trial. But (we) allow Nigerians to see the result at the end of the day. But it is a very simple matter. And we are still in court, we have been able to secure an interim forfeiture affecting the determination of our investigation. And at the right time when we conclude our investigation, we would make our position clear to everyone to see. ADVERTISEMENT On Thursday, seven more people died from the rampaging coronavirus pandemic in the country, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said. The centre in its daily update, which was posted on its Facebook page on Thursday night, also noted that 16 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) contributed to the additional fresh cases of 601 recorded on the day. It added that the new cases have increased Nigerias infection toll to 200,957 while the fatality toll now stands at 2647. The centre added that 8,964 people are still down with the disease while 189,346 others have recovered and already discharged so far. Breakdown A breakdown of the NCDC data revealed that Lagos State reported 173 cases while Edo came second on the log with 97 infections and the FCT ranked third with 68 new cases. This is followed by South-southern states of Rivers and Delta with 50 and 45 cases respectively. Kaduna State recorded 28 cases, Ondo, 28; Akwa-Ibom, 25; Bayelsa, 16; while Imo in the South-east recorded 16 cases. Also, Plateau state registered 15 cases, Anambra, 12; Ekiti, 11; Cross River and Oyo States registered six cases each, while Gombe and Benue recorded three and two cases to rank 16th and 17th respectively on the log. Third jabs imminent Meanwhile, there is an increasing suggestion that third shots of vaccines may be recommended globally as vaccine producers have confirmed waning efficacy of vaccine protection against the disease over time. According to a report by Financial Times and other media platforms, new findings have shown that the efficacy of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines wanes over time. The two pharmaceutical companies are therefore considering a third booster dose of the vaccines for stronger protection. The companies disclosed this ahead of their presentation to a panel of advisers to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday. The panel is expected to make recommendations on whether more Americans should receive booster shots against the coronavirus or not. ADVERTISEMENT The kidnappers of a former director at the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ahmad Abdulkadir, have released him after nine days in their captivity. They, however, refused to release his 15-year-old daughter, Laila Ahmad, who was kidnapped alongside him in Bakori, Katsina. PREMIUM TIMES reported how the gunmen attacked Bakori Housing Quarters and took away the duo with some neighbours. The suspected bandits also requested a N50 million ransom for the release of the broadcaster and N20 million for his daughters. A close associate of Mr Ahmed, who is also a broadcaster, told Premium Times that he was released Thursday evening by the bandits. Yes. He has been released but his daughter, Laila, who is seriously sick, is still with them, the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said. As usual in such cases, he did not say if ransom was paid before Mr Abdulkadir was released. The police spokesperson in Katsina, Gambo Isas line was busy the three times this reporter called him. Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Thursday, reacted angrily to insinuations that he defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) for financial reasons. He also explained why he was not bothered about his past criticisms against President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC administration. Mr Fani-Kayode officially dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling APC on Thursday after years of criticising the party. He was once quoted as saying he would rather die than join the APC. The news of Mr Fani-Kayodes defection went viral after Femi Adesina, a spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari, shared pictures of the ex-minister as he was welcomed to the party at the Presidential Villa on Thursday. He was flanked by the president, the Chairman of the APC Caretaker Committee, Governor, Mala Buni of Yobe State and other dignitaries. His defection came after months of speculations and denials. I am not bothered by criticism Speaking on Politics Today a programme aired on Channels Television, shortly after his visit to Villa, Mr Fani-Kayode said he was proud of his decision to dump the PDP for the APC. Im proud to be here, it doesnt matter what people say or think, apparently conscious of what critics would say. Lets not focus on what FFK has done or said. Lets focus on building our country, bridges to ensure that we dont turn on one another as a people and end up having a civil war. He reacted angrily when the anchor of the programme, Seun Okinbaloye, read a comment from a critic linking his defection to possible financial incapacity or inducement. Mr Fani-Kayode fired back, saying he did not expect such a ridiculous and absurd question from the programme host. I dont expect that kind of ridiculous and absurd question from you, okay? I have never lacked for finances (sic). There are no financial inducements. Politicians dont move because of finances. If I had wanted to move because of finances, I would have done that a long time ago. I have struggled and fought over the last six years more than any of the *little monkeys that said what you just said to me now and I stand proud and tall of the kind of family I come from, the kind of background I have, finance has never been an issue, he fired back. He told his supporters to trust his new decision as it was in the best interest of Nigeria. Mr Fani-Kayode continued, You can insult me from morning to night, it means nothing to me. What is important to me is my God and the fact that I am doing the right thing at the right time. I am considerably more wealthy than most people think and I dont need anything from anybody. Mr Fani-Kayode wondered why his critics did not criticise him when he was fighting the government but chose to do so now that he joined the APC. ADVERTISEMENT When I was fighting the government you didnt talk about financing or no financing but now that I am not fighting the government, you are talking about financing, it is an old narrative. It is an old story from Nigerians, especially from Nigerians from a particular segment of the society like to say about those of us that are from the elite and I am not prepared to respond to that kind of rubbish and I am surprised you would ask me that kind of question. PREMIUM TIMES once reported how Mr Fani-Kayode insulted a Daily Trust correspondent who had asked him at a press conference who was bankrolling his frequent trips across the nation a couple of months back. He later apologised after the public backlash. Regrets Asked if he has changed his critical views on Mr Buhari and the APC administration, the former minister said the party was no longer the same as it was when he was criticising it. The leadership of the APC has evolved and that evolution has attracted people, intellectual people, sharp, focused, people that want to keep Nigeria together and want to treat Nigerians as one regardless of religion or ethnic differences, he stated even as he spoke glowingly about as the magnanimity of the party leadership and his reception by Mr Buhari earlier in the day. He added, The APC of today is a liberal party. It is not a hardline party, it is accommodating. It is a party that is prepared to take people that do not share the same view with others. That is how every political party ought to be. I didnt just perceive it, I have built bridges with these people, I have worked with them and I am proud to be here. I will not say anything about the other side, I will not say anything negative about the PDP but let me put this to you, there are still lots of issues that need to be resolved in the PDP just as there are in any other political parties. The leadership of the APC has evolved and that evolution has attracted people, intellectual people, sharp, focus and that want to keep Nigeria together and want to treat Nigerians as one regardless of religion or ethnic differences. I will not die. I will live long because I made the right choices at the right time. I wont just stay in the PDP because I said something in the past, I will move when its time to move forward. His controversial politics Mr Fani-Kayode, 61, hails from Ife in Osun State. He once served as a special assistant on public affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He was later appointed minister of culture and tourism and later minister of aviation by the former president. He also served as spokesperson for the campaign organisation of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP candidate in the 2015 presidential election. Mr Fani-Kayode first dumped the PDP in 2013 for the yet to be registered APC until June 2014, when he returned to the former ahead of the 2015 General Elections. As soon as he returned, the former minister, who commands a large following on social media, became prominent for criticising the APC and Mr Buhari-led government for its decisions. The speculation of his defection first went viral on social media in February after a meeting with the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, and Mr Buni. Mr Bellos public confirmation of Mr Fani-Kayodes defection days later was countered as the latter denied ever making such a decision and reiterated his commitment to the PDP. Amidst his denials and dislike for APC style of governance, the former minister attended the wedding ceremony of Mr Buharis son, Yusuf, to Zahra Bayero in Kano in August this year. He was in the company of Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State and Babagana Zulum of Borno State, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, among other dignitaries he had publicly criticised in recent times. Mr Fani-Kayode was once arraigned alongside a former finance minister, Nenadi Usman and two others by the EFCC for alleged money laundering to the tune of over N4 billion. ADVERTISEMENT The governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has denied claims by former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, that he played a crucial role in his (Umahi) defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr Umahi defected to APC from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) last year. On his part, Femi Fani-Kayode formally joined the ruling Party from the PDP on Thursday. The former minister, who served as under President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, after he was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja as a new member, emphasised his role in the defection of the three governors from the PDP. The other governors are Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State both of whom defected this year. Mr Fani-Kayode, however, last night on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme told the anchor, Seun Okinnbaloye, to excuse his use of instrumental but insist on playing a role in the defection of the governors. Reacting to Mr Fani-Kayodes claim on the same platform on Friday morning, Mr Umahi called the latter a liar and demanded an apology for his insulting claim. For someone to come and say that a whole Chairman of the South East Governors Forum, that he was instrumental to my movement from PDP to APC is an insult on my person and with all due respect, he has to withdraw that statement. He remains my friend and a good one for that matter, but he played no role in my movement and I am sure he didnt play any role in the movement of the rest of us, the governor countered on Channel Television breakfast show, Sunrise Daily. Mr Fani-Kayode, a former critic of the APC-led government, has continued to face serious criticisms from different quarters for his sudden defection despite his public disgust for the ruling party. An official aide to Mr Buhari on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, in a Facebook post after the news of the ex-minister joining the APC went viral, marked the day as his saddest in his political career. This is the saddest day of my political career, Mr Ojudu said after sharing a post where Mr Fani-Kayode expressed his preference to die rather than joining the ruling party. He retracted his initial stance, saying he was proud of his decision to dump the PDP for the APC and dismissed whatever his critics would throw at him in the coming days. Im proud to be here, it doesnt matter what people say or think, Mr Fani-Kayode surprisingly said. The National Judicial Council (NJC) has empanelled investigative panels to probe three High Court judges over the widely condemned conflicting courts others they recently issued in some political cases. The NJC, established by law to deal with appointment and disciplining of erring Nigerian judges, disclosed this in a statement signed by its Director of Information, Soji Oye, on Friday. According to Mr Oye, the council headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, set up separate panels to investigate the unnamed three judges at its 95th meeting held on September 15 and 16. He said in line with the principles of fair hearing, the council has directed the three judges of coordinate jurisdiction who granted ex parte orders over the same the case with the same subject matter to appear before a special Investigation Committee constituted by the council. The affected judges, according to the NJC statement, are to appear before the panels to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against them for such act. Prelude to the setting up of the investigative panels, the CJN had on 6 September, grilled the Chief Judges of the six High Courts from where the controversial orders emanated. The Chief Judges were those of the High Courts of Rivers, Kebbi, Cross River, Jigawa, Anambra, and Imo states, along with their Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, counterpart. READ ALSO: Mr Muhammad, who had expressed displeasure over the development, had threatened without mentioning names that three of the judges who issued the controversial orders would be made scapegoats. We shall make an example with these three judges and never shall we condone such act, a statement by the NJC had quoted the CJN as saying during a joint meeting he had with the six affected six judges. Controversial orders The names of the three judges scheduled to face probe were not mentioned in NJCs Friday statement. However, some judges whose orders have featured in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) controversy up till early September are: Okogbule Gbasam of the Rivers State High Court, Nusirat Umar of the Kebbi State High Court, and Eddem Koofrey of Cross River State. It will be recalled that Okogbule Gbasam of the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt on August 24, 2021, issued an interim injunction restraining Uche Secondus from parading himself as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The judge issued the order following an ex-parte application by Ibeawuchi Alex, Dennis Amadi, Emmanuel Stephen, and Umezerike Onucha, as plaintiffs. But in a counter-ruling delivered on 26 August, Nusirat Umar of faraway Kebbi State High Courtin Birni-Kebbi, restored Mr Secondus to office. Ms Umar had issued the controversial order in a suit by four members of the PDP in the state, namely Yahaya Usman, Abubakar Muhammad, and Bashar Suleman, who filed the ex parte application, seeking an order of stay of execution of the suspension order issued by the Rivers State High Court. In another development, Edom Kooffreh of the Cross River State High Court in Calabar, on 27 August, 2021, issued another order restraining Mr Secondus from resuming office as the national chairman of the PDP. Other parties Other parties apart from the PDP also had their share of the crises. There has been a web of conflicting court orders trailing the nomination of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State. ADVERTISEMENT On 18 July, Charles Okaa of the Anambra State High Court, Awka, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise Charles Soludo, as the APGA candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra State. There were moves by the Jude Okeke who claimed to be the authentic chairman of the party to stop the execution of the order. In a ruling on the case on 4 August, Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, recommended that a judge of the Jigawa State High Court, Musa Ubale , and another judge of the Imo State High Court, B. C. Iheka, be sanctioned dabbling into the Anambra State governorship disputes. Other resolutions reached at NJC meeting The NJC also reached some decisions on disciplinary matters, with warning and advice letters issued to some judges, and petitions filed against some judges dismissed. The council also resolved to set up a Medical Board to ascertain the health status of a judge of the Kaduna State Customary Court of Appeal, Amina Yaroson. READ NJC STATEMENT IN FULL: Council also considered the Reports of its Investigation Committee and decided to issue a warning letter to Hon. Justice Sobere Biambo of High Court of Rivers State for descending into the Arena of conflict in a matrimonial Suit No: OHC/IMC/2018. Council at its Plenary considered the Reports of the two Preliminary Complaints Assessment Committees (PCAC) on the petitions written against 18 Judicial Officers and on the recommendation of the Committee, issued a letter of advice to Hon. Justice Elias O. Abua of Cross River State High Court to in future be wary of granting an Order staying the execution of judgement which appeared executory in nature as the one he granted in Suit No. HC/MSC/67/2019. Council however, dismissed the petitions written against Hon. Justices I. E. Ekwu and Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal High Court, Justices O. O. Ogunjobi, S. B. A. Candide-Johnson and S. A. Onigbanjo of High Court of Lagos State, Hon. Justices Chiwendu Nwogu, S. C. Amadi and A. U. Kingsley Chuku, for either lacking in merit, subjudice or statute barred. Other petition dismissed for the same reasons were those written against Hon. Justice I. K. Banu, Chief Judge, of Adamawa, Hon. Justice A. L. Lagre, President, Customary Court of Appeal, Adamawa, Justice Felibus B. Andetur, Chief Judge, Taraba State, Hon. Justice Sunday Olorundahunsi of Ondo State, High Court, Hon. Justice Nse Emeka Daniel of Akwa-Ibom State High Court and Justice H. T. D. Gwadah of Kaduna State High Court. Council however decided not to consider the petition written against Hon. Justice I. U. Bello as he had already retired from service. The Plenary of the Council also considered the Report of the Interview Committee and agreed to recommend 12 candidates as Heads of Court, 18 candidates as High Court Judges, 6 candidates as Kadis of Sharia Courts of Appeal and one candidate as Customary Court of Appeal Judge. The Notifications of retirement of 22 Judges of the Federal and State High Courts and Notifications of death of three Judges of States were also considered by the NJC Plenary. ADVERTISEMENT The Central Bank of Nigeria has accused the Abokifx, a website that collates the black market exchange rates of naira, of carrying out an illegal activity that undermines the economy. The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the publisher of platform, Oniwinde Adedotun, was involved in illegal forex trading. The CBN has come under pressure in recent weeks after the value of naira plummeted following the banks decision to stop the sales of dollars to Bureaux De Change operators a month ago. The value of the currency fell to 570 on Friday from less than 520 a dollar it traded before the ban. Most local newspapers rely on Abokifx for the parallel market rates. Addressing journalists on Friday after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting that began Thursday, Mr Emefiele said the apex bank had been studying the activities of abokiFX in the last two years. There was a time we asked our colleagues to call the abokiFX to ask how he conducts the rates, he said. He alleged that Mr Adedotun lives in the UK and publishes arbitrary rates without contacting BDCs. He is a Nigerian, living in England, we will track him, Mr Oniwinde, we will track you. We cannot allow you to continue to kill our economy. Mr Emefiele alleged that Mr Adedotun uses his website for forex manipulations and speculations by purchasing forex to make a profit. It is completely illegal and unacceptable, he said. Mr Oniwinde is an illegal fx dealer that have inflow and sold tens of millions of fx to several Nigerian companies in contravention of the fx law, he directly benefits from the rates he quotes daily on his website. Mr Adedotun could not be immediately reached Friday. Mr. Emefiele said the only exchange rate market remains the I&E window. I am sorry to say that I do not, and I do not intend to recognise any fx in the market, he said. Go to your bank. Even if your limit is above what the bank is selling, put it forward, and we will look into it. ADVERTISEMENT The federal government has said it will appeal the judgment of the Oyo State High Court which awarded N20 billion in damages in favour of Yoruba secessionist agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho. PREMUIUM TIMES had reported that the judge, Ladiran Akintola, awarded the money as an exemplary and aggravated damages against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the State Security Service (SSS), over the invasion of Mr Adeyemos home in Ibadan, Oyo State, early morning of July 1. Mr Adeyemo had in his suit sought N500 billion damages in his fundamental rights enforcement suit filed against the AGF and the SSS. But the AGF, Abubakar Malami, announced the decision of the federal government to appeal the judgment while speaking on the development in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Mr Malami, according to NAN, said efforts were already being made to commence the process of appealing the judgment. Background NAN recalls that Igbohos counsel, Yomi Alliyu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, had filed a N500 billion fundamental human rights enforcement suit against the AGF, SSS and the Director of the SSS in Oyo State over the invasion of his home in Ibadan on July 1. Mr Alliyu claimed that his clients house and cars were damaged, while two occupants of the house were killed by SSS operatives during the incident. But counsel to the AGF, Abdullah Abubakar, had argued that there was no evidence before the court that the blood seen in the video clip tendered by Mr Alliyu belonged to a human being. Mr Abubakar also said there was nothing in the video clip that showed that the house that was invaded belonged to Igboho or linked the AGF with the invasion. ALSO READ: Court awards N20bn to Sunday Igboho over SSS invasion of home He had urged the court to disregard the exhibits and dismiss the entire suit. On his part, SSS lawyer, T. A. Nurudeen, aligned with the submission made by the AGFs counsel, insisting that there must be proof from a hematologist to show that the blood seen in the video belonged to a human being. Mr Nurudeen also tendered a video clip which was admitted by the court, where Igboho allegedly threatened to create an Oduduwa Republic, while urging the Yoruba to protect themselves with charms and guns. However, delivering his judgment, the judge, Ladiran Akintola, said the style and procedures adopted by the SSS during the incident was unprofessional. The judge said the applicant had demonstrated to the court that his fundamental right to personal liberty, right to life and blocking of his account amounted to violation of his fundamental rights. He awarded N20 billion as exemplary and aggravated damage in favour of the applicant and N2 million cost in favour of the applicant for instituting the case. Mr Adeyemo is still being held in the Republic of Benin where he was arrested weeks ago while trying to fly to Germany. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT Suspected bandits on Friday killed the chairperson of Miyetti Allah in Lere Local Government of Kaduna State, Abubakar Danbardi. The states chairperson for the Fulani cattle breeders organisation, Haruna Tugga, disclosed this in a statement. He said Mr Danbardi was killed in his hometown in Lere council area by bandits who had kidnapped him for ransom. Mr Tugga said the kidnappers demanded a N20 million ransom but the family of the deceased was able to raise only N250,000. He said the bandits collected what was raised but went ahead to kill Mr Danbardi and abandoned his corpse on the Saminaka-Mari-Zango highway. Mr Tugga appealead to the Kaduna State Government and security agencies to fish out the culprits. Mr Tugga described the chairperson as a peace ambassador in his community and beyond. ALSO READ: Miyetti Allah officials disagree over Katsina governor We have really loss a leader of high respect who has been assisting the association in promoting harmony and coexistence among members. The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria Kaduna State condoled with the family, members and friends of late Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi Dambardi and prayed Allah to grant him paradise and also give the family the fortitude to bear the loss, the statement said. ADVERTISEMENT Igbo youth leaders have resolved to ensure peace, stability and security of the South-east. The region has been ravaged by killings and destruction over the agitation for an independent republic, Biafra. The youth leaders, however, threatened to lead a protest to the nations capital, Abuja, if the Nigerian government does not make provision for a speedy and fair trial of the leader of the pro-Biafra group, IPOB, who is detained in Abuja. Mr Kanu, who was recently intercepted in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria, is standing trial for alleged treason. We call on the Federal Government to make available all necessary logistics needed for the timely and speedy trial of Nnamdi Kanu (which must be fair and in accordance with laid down laws of the country). If not, the South-east youths will lead a protest to Abuja in that regard, the youth leaders said. The resolutions by the youth leaders are contained in a communique issued on Friday in Enugu, Enugu State, at the end of an emergency meeting, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The meeting was attended by the Ohaneze Ndigbo Youth Wing, National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Nigerian Youth Congress (NYC), Association of South-East Town Union (ASETU) Youth Wing, and National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). The youth leaders requested a meeting with the leadership of IPOB to discuss the sit-at-home order which they admitted has had a negative impact on socio-economic life of the region and its residents. The youth leaders commended the Abia and Enugu State governments for enacting the anti-open grazing law, and called on Anambra, Imo and Ebonyi states to enact a similar law. They called on the governors of the South-east states to support the agitation for the federating states to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) which has been handled by the federal government through the Federal Inland Revenue Service. The dispute over who collects VAT is pending at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, while Rivers and Lagos states have already enacted laws to edge out the federal government in their respective states. The communique was jointly signed by Okorie Okechukwu, representing Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youths; Tony Ejike, representing NANS, and Anita Adaeze, representing NYCN. Others are Maxwell Ezelagu, representing NYC, and Christian Afulike, representing ASETU Youth Wing, among 30 others who also signed the communique. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The management of Abokifx, a website that collates black market exchange rates in Nigeria, has announced the website will suspend publishing rates after the Central Bank of Nigeria threatened the group. This was disclosed in a statement published on its website in the late hours of Friday. abokiFx has taken the decision today, the 17th of September 2021, to temporarily suspend rate updates on all our platforms, until we get better clarity of the situation, the statement published partly reads. It said the final rates have been posted Friday evening and that its news section and the Crypto rates section will still be active. This comes a few hours after the CBN accused Abokifx of carrying out an illegal activity that undermines the economy, said and that it was after Oniwinde Adedotun, the publisher of the platform. The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, accused Mr Adedotun of using the platform for illegal forex trading. He alleged that Mr Adedotun lives in the UK and publishes arbitrary rates without contacting BDCs. He is a Nigerian, living in England, we will track him, Mr Oniwinde, we will track you. We cannot allow you to continue to kill our economy. the CBN governor added. abokiFX reacts In the statement published on Friday, abokiFX management debunked the CBN claims, saying all allegations towards its director were not confirmed. All allegations against our director are yet to be confirmed but we at abokiFX DO NOT trade FX nor do we manipulate parallel market rates, the statement reads. Outside the media allegation, we have not received any communication from any government body and our accounts are not closed as stipulated in the media. We sincerely hope this suspension will lead to the Naira appreciation from next week. Most local news organisations rely on data posted on Abokifx for the parallel market trading and reporting. The value of the currency (Naira) fell to N570.00 per $1 on Friday from less than N520.00 to a dollar it traded before the ban of forex sales to the Bureau De Change(BDC) operators on July 27. However, the currency snatched a meager gain against the U.S dollar at the official market on Friday. It closed at N412.88 per $1 ADVERTISEMENT While we agree that the president is the father of all, but decisions around him should be well thought out. Some things should be done in secret, if circumstances warrant an unpopular approach. Even when the Americans are meeting with the Taliban, they do it at night. Thats why most politicians hold meetings in the small hours too. Its not purely out insomnia, but strategy to keep dark many things where they belong. Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion. Aristotle. For lack of a viable alternative, we have chosen democracy as a system of governance. The problem with our kind of democracy is that its all about numbers. The winner takes all! The composition of those who make it win does not matter. It is despicable, but that is the reality. Political parties are not meant for good people alone. Its for everyone: the good, the bad, and the notorious. But parties should have boundaries. They should be driven by manifestos built on philosophy, ethics, values, and principles to guide members and persuade people to join them. If one is joining a party, there should be a rational reason. If a party is accepting members, there should be a benchmark. Unfortunately, too, our current political parties are not driven by philosophies. Its all about how to acquire power first and then decide on what to do with it later. How any party will accept Femi Fani-Kayode (FFK) as a member beats my imagination. For what purpose, I ask? Is it for political value or nuisance value? I doubt if he can deliver his ward in any free and fair election. For being a nuisance through his well-documented unacceptable behaviour being abusive to journalists, regular conjuration of hate speech, incitement and bigotry? Who would ever want such a baggage? So why would a party in power accept a member like him? Does he have a future political value, or its all part of mass mobilisation? Its their prerogative, and they owe no one an explanation, but then, he is even taken to see the President! What message are they sending to the public? This is where it involves you and I. Some years ago, U.S. President Barack Obama had to cancel a meeting with controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had earlier called him the son of a whore. The Philippine leader, known for his colourful language, had insulted prominent figures before, but it had diplomatic consequences when such a meeting was scheduled. Citizens were not happy, despite the magnanimity being exhibited by President Obama. I recall an episode where Senate President Ahmad Lawal hired a qualified individual to be his aide. But due to the vexatious past of this individual, the appointment had to be rescinded. But thats someone with a conscience that had the mental capacity to reflect. Whether we matter to the Presidency or not, the president may choose to be benevolent, but receiving such a figure and his likes bothers those who value the unity of this great country. Femi Fani-Kayode is an highly divisive figure who has been oscillating from regional to ethnic chauvinism, extreme bigotry to tribalism, to very opportunistic nationalism as a minister, irredentism of the most pernicious form, to insufferable rascality. Its the presidents choice and within his freedoms on who he chooses to associate with, and we sympathise with his ordeal. Femi Fani-Kayode is an highly divisive figure who has been oscillating from regional to ethnic chauvinism, extreme bigotry to tribalism, to very opportunistic nationalism as a minister, irredentism of the most pernicious form, to insufferable rascality. Its the presidents choice and within his freedoms on who he chooses to associate with, and we sympathise with his ordeal. We all have different inspirations and are entitled to live our lives the way we deem fit. But the partys actions and the giving of an audience with our president fo Fani-Kayode affects those who mean well for this country. Its a bad example and a wrong message to the young ones. As parents, we usually try to regulate who our kids meet. We even try to control what they watch on TV and YouTube and there are logical and rational reasons for that. As adults, we are wary of public perception. We avoid issues that would put one to seem to be in a compromised position. Illicit behaviour is engaged in with caution. People dont even want to be seen as identified with certain toxic persons in society. In the streets, we avoid people with mental disabilities. While we agree that the president is the father of all, but decisions around him should be well thought out. Some things should be done in secret, if circumstances warrant an unpopular approach. Even when the Americans are meeting with the Taliban, they do it at night. Thats why most politicians hold meetings in the small hours too. Its not purely out insomnia, but strategy to keep dark many things where they belong. This meeting should not have been held, and if it had to, it should have happened behind the camera. In more intense democracies, details of meetings are requested by the public. Imagine if the president had a meeting with Abubakar Shekau or Nnamdi Kanu. Citizens would want to know why. On this meeting, some are so horrified that they would rather not know the details. We hope it was done in the best interest of the country. Umar Yakubu is with the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch. Twitter @umaryakubu ADVERTISEMENT The Senate of the University of Benin has approved the removal of N20,000 late registration fee that led to a two-day mass protest by students of the institution. The Registrar of the university, Ademola Bobola, announced the removal in a statement issued on Thursday night in Benin. Mr Bobola said the Senate, at a virtual meeting, ratified the earlier verbal pronouncement by the Vice-Chancellor, Lilian Salami. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Mrs Salami, a professor, was said to have verbally withdrawn the charge on Wednesday when the protesting students reportedly stormed her lodge and forced her to trek a long distance to the school main gate. The registrar said the Senate, at the second meeting within 24 hours, also approved the decision that money already paid by defaulting students be refunded via modalities to be worked out by the bursary department of the school. Consequently, lectures are to resume on Monday, September 20, to enable students who obeyed the directive on school closure and travelled to return. The Universitys decision-making body also agreed that a new time-line be set for the payment of the school charges for the 2020/2021 Academic Session. It also directed that the re-activation of charges for Postgraduate Programmes be sent to the Board of Postgraduate School for review, Mr Bobola said. The registrar explained that while the Senate reiterated that the penalty for late payment of school charges, which has been in existence for years in the university, should not be set aside, it, however, called for its modification. According to him, the senate moved a vote of confidence on the Universitys Management and praised the vice-chancellor for her wisdom, courage and magnanimity in acceding to the students demand. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT An aircraft belonging to the Akwa Ibom State Government has been damaged in an accident at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos, the state government said on Wednesday. According to a statement by the Commissioner for Information in Akwa Ibom, Ini Ememobong, the aircraft a Bombardier Global 5000 was hit by another aircraft at a private hangar where it was parked. The aircraft, which is strictly for the air transportation of the Akwa Ibom Governor, Udom Emmanuel, had its nose cone and radar damaged by the accident, the statement said. Mr Ememobong said the owners of the other aircraft had accepted responsibility over the incident and that the Akwa Ibom aircraft would be back to use after necessary repairs. Before the government statement, a former deputy speaker of the Akwa Ibom Assembly, Uwem Udoma , had posted a message on Facebook on the whereabouts of the aircraft. Where is our aircraft handed over to you in 2015 on your inauguration as the 4th governor of Akwa Ibom State, said Mr Udoma, a chieftain of the main opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress. READ ALSO: The former lawmaker said the aircraft was parked in a wrong and cheap parking lot. He claimed it was his Facebook post that prompted the Akwa Ibom State Government to inform the public about the incident. Almost everything in this state is done in secrecy, he told PREMIUM TIMES. This newspaper asked the commissioner, Mr Ememobong, if Mr Emmanuel was now using chartered or commercial flights. The beauty of insurance is to make sure that the person who ordinarily suffers loss does not suffer loss beyond what he should have suffered. When an airline cancels your flight, what does the airline do? It provides you a place to sleep, is it not so? The aviation industry is a highly regulated industry, the commissioner responded. The Akwa Ibom aircraft was purchased at about $45 million by the administration of Godswill Akpabio in 2012. Some residents of Akwa Ibom have been asking that the aircraft be sold off, while the governor should patronise Ibom Air, a commercial airline owned by the Akwa Ibom State Government. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the sit-at-home order by the pro-Biafra group, IPOB, may threaten its preparations for the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State. INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Anambra, Nkwachukwu Orji, said this on Thursday, while speaking with reporters in Nibo, Awka South Local Government Area of the state. He spoke shortly after the opening ceremony of the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) Amber Zone Implementers Workshop held in the state. Mr Orji also disclosed that the commission had so far recruited and mobilised about 25, 000 Ad hoc staff that will man the 5, 720 polling units in the state. He said attacks on INEC facilities on May 23 were a source of worry to the commission, especially as it strives to achieve huge success in the forthcoming election. Our preparations are on course, even with all the challenges we are facing, such as the attacks on our state office on May 23rd and the sit-at-home order, which is eating into our preparations. But we are doing our best to ensure that we overcome these challenges and we can only urge the public to be law-abiding in order to achieve the desired electoral success in the state, he said. Mr Orji said the commission was already recruiting ad-hoc staff online and at the same time interacting with concerned parties. He expressed satisfaction at what the commission had achieved so far, in terms of human structure. Mr Orji said if the success continued without future interruptions of its activities, the commission would confidently be ready to conduct a free, fair and peaceful election. He, however, dismissed claims by some persons that the commissions earlier decision to supply non-sensitive materials for the election from its South-east zonal store in Owerri, Imo, would jeopardise the smooth conduct of the poll. The sensitive materials will go to the Central Bank of Nigeria branch in Awka. But we are not talking about sensitive materials here. So there is no need for the alarm being raised. The commission is working according to plans to put all things in place by the end of this month. Election process is something that does not have room for mistakes. We make sure that in the process of preparing for election, all that is needed would be on ground, he said. He added that the commission had developed a system for monitoring activities closely, to make sure that all programmes and plans were well executed without failure. Mr Orji said, as a mark of its seriousness for credible election, INEC officials reviewed what he called the Amber zone, three months before the election. The exercise will take us to the red zone, which is 11 days before the election day, and two days after the election, which is the most critical period in any election, he said. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Lagos State APC Caretaker Committee has reaffirmed the likelihood of employing consensus arrangements to produce the state executives during the forthcoming October 2 state congress. The States Caretaker Committee Publicity Secretary, Seye Oladejo, gave this indication in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the states secretariat in Lagos on Thursday. NAN recalls that the ruling party used the consensus option to produce its executives during the July 31 and September 4 Ward and Local Government congresses respectively. The congresses, however, were marred by in-fighting and chaos. Mr Oladejo said the consensus arrangement would be repeated in the forthcoming state congress election to reduce acrimony within the party when it elects its officials. The national headquarters has advised the state chapter to consider consensus arrangement for the state congress as well, which I believe will be adopted for the national convention. I am sure you are also aware that the party constitution allows for the consensus candidate option to save cost, he said. We have resolved and directed officers of our party at all levels to engage in dialogue that would lead to meaningful reconciliation of aggrieved members within the party. This is in order to ensure that all opinions are accommodated and all members who are willing to serve the party are given positions in the various executive bodies at ward, local, and state levels. Hitch-free exercise Speaking, the APC states Chairman, Babatunde Balogun, also assured members of the partys readiness in ensuring a hitch-free exercise on October 2. As you are aware, the party was able to conduct the ward and local government congresses across the country successfully, so the state congress election will also be successful, said Mr Balogun. This is the reason the state caretaker committee is also working with the national headquarters to ensure all disputes are settled before the state congress. Mr Balogun said the success of the state congress would no doubt, reposition the party in the state and nationwide, and promote unity among its members. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT An Iyaganku Magistrate Court sitting in Ibadan on Thursday ordered one Azeez Salau to be remanded at the Abolongo correctional facility for allegedly raping a deaf 20-year-old. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Salau, 26, a bricklayer and father of one, of Ile Tuntun area, Academy, Ibadan, was arraigned on a one-count charge of rape. The Magistrate, Mercy AmoleAjimoti, who did not take the defendants plea, due to lack of jurisdiction, ordered his remand at Abolongo correctional facility in Oyo town. Mrs Amole-Ajimoti ordered the remand pending the receipt of advise from the Oyo State Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP). She, however, adjourned the matter till November 30, for mention. Police Prosecutor, Phillip Amusan, had earlier told the court that Mr Salau, sometime in June, at Atagba area, Boluwaji, Ibadan, allegedly had unlawful carnal knowledge of one Kemi Omotola, 20, a deaf, without her consent. The defendant allegedly jumped through the fence into the compound of the victim, to perpetrate the act when the family she worked for as housemaid had left home for work, he said. He said the offence was contrary to Section 357 and punishable under Section 358 of the Oyo State Criminal Code 2000. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The Ogun State House of Assembly has directed a former Managing Director of the states Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC), Babajide Odusolu, to return N40 million unaccounted for in 2019 into the state purse within six months. This was a part of the resolution passed by the assembly during a plenary session presided over by the Speaker, Olakunle Oluomo, in Abeokuta on Friday. This was after adopting the report of the House Committee on Public Account and Anti Corruption led by Musefiu Lamidi (APC, Ado-Odo/Igbesa State Constituency). Mr Lamidi, while presenting the report, noted that the committee had considered the 2015 to 2019 State Auditor-Generals report on the corporation. He equally moved the motion for its adoption, seconded by Oludaisi Elemide (APC, Odeda) and unanimously supported by other lawmakers through a voice vote. The committee also called on the financial crimes investigation agencies to investigate and recover into the states coffers an unaccounted balance of N2.5billion which happened during Mr Odusolus tenure as the head of the corporation. Considering the 2019 bank balance sheets submitted to the committee, the sum of N726 million was contained in the bank balance sheets and this represented an unaccounted balance of N2.5billion, the assembly noted. The assembly equally recommended the reversal of all transactions, including the 8.2 hectares of land at Isheri sold to Rainerhill Internationals Services Limited. Rainerhill is a subsidiary of Pesianas Group which benefited from the transaction in the twilight of the last administration at the undervalued price of N164 million. The committee stated that it was not done in the best interest of the state, hence all relevant title documents issued in favour of the company in relation to the land was declared null and void, while the corporation should retain the land ownership. ALSO READ: VAT bill scales second reading at Ogun assembly Also, the committee declared that a retrospective legislative approval be secured for the expended unbudgeted sum of N881.5million. Failure to which the corporations former MD was expected to refund the same amount to the governments coffers within a deadline of six months. The assembly added that the embargo placed on N608 million in 16 banks accounts be lifted to enable the corporation access to the funds for developmental projects and investments. The assembly noted that in line with the observation of the committee, the proposed five-star hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, had no physical existence, yet a sum of N45 million was expended to obtain title documents on the landed property. No satisfactory reason was given by the corporation for such expenditure, holistic investigation should be carried out to reflect the companys true position, the report stated. (NAN) As the VCF Back of Shirt Partner of Valencia CF, Samtrade FX will have its logo, branding, and corporate colours displayed on both the playing and training kit, as well as on the advertising of the Mestalla Stadium on the giant screen, giant canvas, official bus, the training ground in Paterna, in the Club's institutional events and all its digital assets: website, app and official Valencia CF social networks. Samtrade FX founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Goh, commented on the partnership, "This partnership is an exciting opportunity to bring together two brands who enjoy global recognition for their commitment to excellence. We see tremendous similarities between Samtrade FX's lightning-fast and reliable platform and Valencia CF's swift and accurate play on the pitch." Commenting on the sponsorship, President of Valencia CF Anil Murthy said: "VCF is very happy to be the first La Liga club to sign a sponsorship agreement with Samtrade FX, an award-winning online trading brokerage. This new agreement is in line with our aim to grow VCF's brand and fan base internationally especially in a market as important as Asia". Samtrade FX's goal of "Making your priority ours" is borne by a team of advisors and customer service staff that are committed towards supporting clients throughout their trading journey. This enduring commitment to the community is yet another shared value between Valencia CF and Samtrade FX. ABOUT SAMTRADE FX Samtrade FX is an online trading brokerage that provides forex trading and other related services, with more than 200,000 clients. It was founded with the objective of providing traders with safe, easy, and low-cost access to foreign exchange markets. Samtrade FX's founders and partners are all traders themselves and have extensive trading experience in forex and contract for differences trading. Its Advisory Board includes knowledgeable and experienced professionals who are able to provide clients with unrivalled professional advice. Samtrade FX is incorporated in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines under registered number 25290 IBC 2019 by the Registrar of International Business Companies. Samtrade FX is also a member of The Financial Commission. Samtrade FX is registered and regulated by FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada) under Money Services Business (MSB) with registration number: M19977589. Its affiliate, S.A.M. Trade (Asia) Pte Ltd is publicly traded on the OTC Markets in the United States of America with the symbol (OTCMKTS: SMFX). Media Contact Heidi Chan Marketing@samtradefx.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1627408/Samtrade_FX___ValenciaCF_Sponsorship_image.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1551562/Samtrade_FX_Logo.jpg SOURCE Samtrade FX SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LegalMatch.com has collected over 100 success stories and positive reviews from member attorneys on its website. 50 of these contain video interviews in which attorneys discuss the ways LegalMatch has benefited and grown their practices. For any business, success stories act as a measure of the quality and reliability of the services provided. Especially for subscription-based platforms like LegalMatch, positive reviews are a benchmark indicator of the level of satisfaction experienced by member attorneys, who use the LegalMatch marketing model to increase their client base and online web presence. The high number of positive reviews comes at a time when the legal industry, and the economy as a whole, have been experiencing setbacks due to the impacts of pandemic conditions. Even under such conditions, LegalMatch has continued to increase in case retentions and case submission volume . This is reassuring news for both attorneys and clients alike, who must find ways to connect even though in-person meetings and interactions have been limited. Because LegalMatch's platform is completely remote and online, attorneys can still forge proper working relations with potential clients, and clients are able to select from a wide variety of attorneys through LegalMatch. This allows consumers to gain access to much-needed legal services in all major practice areas. "Being able to handle your case or operate your law practice remotely is very important during the pandemic. Attorneys didn't have any good options other than finding a way to facilitate remote communications and marketing for new clients. Our member attorneys had to do very little adapting to overcome the changes the pandemic caused because LegalMatch's services operate remotely by default. In many instances, our member attorneys didn't see any change in business, rather some increased because their business operations were ahead of the curve," says James Gagliano, LegalMatch's Sr. Director of Member Services. As the Delta COVID-19 variant emerges, the American consumer population must brace itself for ongoing adjustments and changes to the economy. In the meantime, communication between potential clients who need legal services can remain open through online matching platforms such as LegalMatch. About Us LegalMatch is the nation's oldest and largest online legal matching service. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices throughout the country, LegalMatch helps people find attorneys and helps attorneys find new clients. LegalMatch's service is free to consumers, from individuals to small businesses. For more information about LegalMatch, please visit our website or contact us directly. Media Contact: Ken LaMance (415) 946-0856 [email protected] SOURCE LegalMatch HILLSDALE, Mich., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 1776 Commission has released a statement in celebration of the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America (read the full statement here). "Two hundred and thirty-four years ago on this date, thirty-nine delegates from throughout the fledgling United States signed our Constitution, uniting a diverse population into one nation, bound together by common principles and a deep reverence for liberty," the statement begins. "The signing of the Constitution began the fulfillment of the promise made in the Declaration of Independence. These two documents, along with the Bill of Rights, are America's Charters of Freedom." The Commission was originally formed in November 2020 with the purpose of advising then-President Donald Trump about teaching future generations about the history and principles of the founding of the United States, seeking to provide a remedy to the rising tide of anti-American scholarship rejecting the nation's founding principles. "The principles pointed to by 1776 Commission are needed now more than ever," said the Commission's chairman, Larry Arnn. "Equality especially equality under the law is in great disrepute today among the intellectual classes. That is mistaken, and dangerously so. Like our founders, we Commissioners have pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to its support and defense." The Commission was abolished on the first day of President Biden's presidency but still operates in a private capacity. Yet, as tensions flare across the country about the meaning and place of U.S. history in education, many concerned citizens are searching for a complete, truthful telling of the American story that unites rather than divides. To this end, Hillsdale College released its Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum in July. The curriculum is nearly 2,500 pages long and contains comprehensive lesson plans, homework assignments, quizzes, tests, study guides, and supplementary primary and secondary resource recommendations for teacher and student use. It currently covers the American Founding, the Civil War era, civics, and government, and in the coming months will be expanded to include the rest of American history. "The Commission applauds the efforts taking place around the country to take back our educational institutions," said the Commission's executive director Matthew Spalding. "They show that Americans students, parents, teachers, and other concerned citizens care about their country. As long as they do, as long as they fight, there is hope for our nation's future." "On this Constitution Day," the Commission's statement concludes, "Americans should celebrate and take pride in their country. The story of America is the story of a proud people with a boundless desire to leave for their posterity a more just and free society. This is the inheritance of all Americans. This is the inheritance of 1776." About Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is an independent, nonsectarian, Christian liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis, with a circulation of more than 5.8 million. For more information, visit hillsdale.edu . CONTACT: Emily Stack Davis 517-803-3745 [email protected] SOURCE Hillsdale College Related Links http://www.hillsdale.edu DUBLIN, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Aerospace Ceramics: Global Markets to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global market for aerospace ceramics should grow from $4.9 billion in 2021 to $8.8 billion by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.2% for the period of 2021-2026. Aircraft manufacturers are increasingly incorporating ceramics and composites into aircraft to reduce weight and increase fuel efficiency. Ceramics also help manufacturers cope with tightening emission norms across the globe. Companies are actively investing large amounts in research to develop better-performing ceramics and composites. This has put ceramics in the spotlight as a lucrative opportunity for stakeholders of the aerospace materials industry. This study will help aerospace ceramics manufacturers, raw material suppliers, aircraft and component manufacturers, along with other stakeholders to stay abreast of the technology and the demand for it in the years ahead. Report Scope This report provides definitive estimates and forecasts of the global market, as well as a detailed analysis of the markets in specific regions and countries, ceramic material, industry segments, and applications and ongoing trends. In this report, the aerospace ceramics market is segmented by material, segment and application. Recently, thermal and structural applications have been at the center of research and development activities for aerospace ceramics. Carbon-based composites are gaining popularity in structural applications in the aerospace industry. Report Highlights The North American aerospace ceramics market should grow from $2.4 billion in 2021 to $4.3 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 12.2% for the period of 2021-2026. in 2021 to by 2026 with a CAGR of 12.2% for the period of 2021-2026. The European aerospace ceramics market should grow from $1.5 billion in 2021 to $2.4 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 10.6% for the period of 2021-2026. in 2021 to by 2026 with a CAGR of 10.6% for the period of 2021-2026. Analyses of the global market trends, with data from 2020, estimates for 2021, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2026 Highlights of the key enabling technologies for aerospace ceramics, major market dynamics (DROs), regulatory scenario, and impact analysis of COVID-19 on the progress of this market Evaluation and forecast the aerospace ceramics market size (product sales in USD millions), and corresponding market share analysis by composition, application, end-use segment, and geography Country specific data and analysis for the U.S., Canada , France , UK, Germany , China , Japan , Australia , South Korea , and other important RoW countries , , UK, , , , , , and other important RoW countries Assessment of industry supply networks, significant industry organizations, trends and opportunities, and value chain analysis of overall aerospace materials that affect this marketplace Insight into the emerging aerospace materials, their historical background and applications, and review of recent developments in the industry Company profiles descriptions of the major aerospace ceramics industry participants, including 3M , Corning Inc., Hexcel, Honeywell International, Oerlikon Metco, and Saint-Gobain Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Introduction Study Goals and Objectives Reasons for Doing This Study Scope of Report Information Sources Methodology Geographic Breakdown Analyst's Credentials Custom Research Related Reports Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights Chapter 3 Industry Trends and Opportunities Value Chain Mineral Mining for Metals/Alloy Production Industry and Key Research Organizations Key Market Opportunities Global Airplane Industry Trends Chapter 4 Market Breakdown by Composition Oxides Alumina Zirconia Non-oxides Silicon Carbide Silicon Nitride Composites Chapter 5 Market Breakdown by Application Thermal Applications Electrical Applications Structural Applications Environmental Barrier Coatings Chapter 6 Market Breakdown by Segment Commercial Aerospace Industry Defense Aerospace Industry Commercial Space Industry Chapter 7 Market Breakdown by Region North America U.S. Canada Europe France U.K. Germany Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific China Japan South Korea Rest of APAC Rest of the World Chapter 8 Emerging Materials: Background and Applications Background History Aerospace Materials Advanced Steel Alloys Advanced Aluminum Alloys Titanium and Its Alloys Superalloys Composite Materials: CFRPs Advanced Composites Advanced Adhesives Applications Commercial Passenger Aircraft and Commercial Transport Aircraft General Aviation Helicopters Defense Industry and Government Commercial Space Industry Materials Not Considered in this Chapter Chapter 9 Company Profiles 3M Advanced Composites Inc. Applied Ceramics Ceramco Inc. Composite Horizon Llc Coorstek Corning Inc. Hexcel Honeywell International International Syalons Kyocera Fineceramics Precision Gmbh Mcdanel Advanced Ceramic Technologies Llc. Oerlikon Metco Saint-Gobain For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/uuluwr 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 TORONTO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- When a telemedicine solution is brought into a medical clinic, it is very important that it provides an easy alternative to in-person appointments for patients. This will not just help patients get comfortable with virtual medicine, it will also encourage them to book more online doctor's appointments moving forward. According to findings shared by Medical Economics, 69% of patients confirmed that access to an easy-to-use telemedicine solution would motivate them to book virtual appointments with their doctor. (L to R) Banty Inc. Co-Founders Scott Wilson and Dr. Richard Tytus Banty Inc. Logo Dr. Richard Tytus , Co-Founder and Medical Director of telemedicine solution Banty Inc. , is a firm believer that ease-of-use is the key to getting patients interested in virtual visits with a doctor. To make telemedicine easy on patients, Dr. Tytus suggests that medical clinics should take the following steps: Have a great telemedicine solution: Choosing Banty Medical is the best first step you can take toward giving patients an easy telemedicine experience. Here, appointments can quickly be accessed by visiting a clinic's unique, dedicated Banty room address. Patients will no longer need a complicated, auto-generated meeting link and password to visit their doctor Choosing Banty Medical is the best first step you can take toward giving patients an easy telemedicine experience. Here, appointments can quickly be accessed by visiting a clinic's unique, dedicated Banty room address. Patients will no longer need a complicated, auto-generated meeting link and password to visit their doctor See that you have a well-informed clinical team: To help patients begin their telemedicine experience, see that everyone at your clinic has a strong working knowledge of Banty Medical. In the event someone has trouble logging on for their virtual appointment, a member of your team can lend guidance and help them realize how straightforward and convenient of a process it really is To help patients begin their telemedicine experience, see that everyone at your clinic has a strong working knowledge of Banty Medical. In the event someone has trouble logging on for their virtual appointment, a member of your team can lend guidance and help them realize how straightforward and convenient of a process it really is Provide educational resources online: Not all patients will want to contact the clinic directly if they are having trouble figuring out your telemedicine solution. Many will want to do their research independently. Thus, your clinic should make a point of sharing a 'How To' guide or an 'FAQ' section on your website explaining the clinic's virtual medicine practices. You can even share helpful tips across your medical clinic's social media channels Not all patients will want to contact the clinic directly if they are having trouble figuring out your telemedicine solution. Many will want to do their research independently. Thus, your clinic should make a point of sharing a 'How To' guide or an 'FAQ' section on your website explaining the clinic's virtual medicine practices. You can even share helpful tips across your medical clinic's social media channels Be understanding if appointments start late: As much as hosting virtual visits requires a learning curve for the clinical team, attending them requires patients gaining familiarity, too. During this process, it could mean appointments not beginning when they're supposed to. When this happens, show some understanding, and realize this should not be a long-term problem. Eventually, the patient will get the hang of this and always be on-time to see you "The last thing patients being introduced to telemedicine want is a challenging experience that causes them frustration and stress," adds Dr. Tytus. "By choosing a solution like Banty Medical, and instituting the right processes, your patients will soon realize just how easy virtual visits with their doctor can be." Banty.com's video call service offers all subscribers a custom, permanent URL (i.e., Banty.com/MyMeeting ); a secure, end-to-end encrypted meeting space; excellent video quality; unlimited meetings each month; and straightforward scheduling tools. Banty has a number of solutions that are meant to make it easy to meet with those who matter most to you. (Watch the 'Banty Is Easy' video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhmVdwrR_w8&t=10s ) Today, everyone has a mobile number and an email address. In the near future, everyone will have a Banty room address: Banty.com/YourName About Banty Founded in 2020, Banty offers exceptional video conferencing solutions for Businesses , Enterprise , Medical Practices , Virtual Events , and Personal use . Banty video conferencing is easy to use and ultra-secure. The platform provides users with a dedicated Banty.com URL , accessible via any desktop browser or through iOS and Android mobile apps. In order to receive government approval to become a verified medical platform, Banty was upgraded to meet new cyber security standards, making it one of the most secure platforms available. Each day, the Banty team goes above and beyond to ensure the platform remains one of the most secure and innovative virtual meeting solutions in the world. For more information, please visit Banty.org/solutions , or follow Banty on social media to learn more about the latest platform innovations: LinkedIn , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube , Instagram . Media Contact Scott Wilson 289-259-8059 [email protected] SOURCE Banty Inc. LONDON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blockchain.com, the world's oldest and most trusted cryptocurrency platform, has crossed $1 trillion in crypto transactions on its Wallet product, with $200M in bitcoin transacted in the last six months alone. Since 2012, those transactions account for nearly a third of all transactions on the public bitcoin blockchain. The milestone reflects growing global adoption of crypto and the proliferation of real use cases, as investors worldwide realize that sending value is as easy as sending an email. Growth has been driven by retail investors (consumers), institutions, and by the brokerage and exchange. Consumer interest has resulted in 76M Blockchain.com wallets now in use across the world. In addition, Blockchain.com's institutional market business continues to see exponential growth as more asset managers bring crypto to their clients. "This milestone isn't just a monumental feat for us, but for the entire industry demonstrating the sheer magnitude of interest in crypto across the world," said Macrina Kgil, CFO of Blockchain.com. "Everyday consumers and institutions alike are realizing the potential that crypto has to offer financial freedom. Our team has worked tirelessly for a decade to accelerate the adoption of crypto, and this milestone is a testament to that hard work. It's still not too late to be early to crypto." The milestone continues the momentum for one of the fastest-growing crypto startups. With a $5.2B valuation and more than $500M in venture funding from the best macro investors in the world, Blockchain.com is at an inflection point in its growth. The company currently has 32M verified users in over 200 countries using its products, including its popular non-custodial Wallet, the fastest Exchange for trading, a block Explorer to check transactions, and a bespoke Institutional Markets business. About Blockchain.com Blockchain.com is connecting the world to the future of finance. The London and Miami-based company, with an international team spread across the world, is the most trusted and fastest growing crypto company, helping millions across the globe safely access cryptocurrency. Through the use of blockchain technology, Blockchain.com is revolutionizing the $14T financial services industry. It has raised more than $500 million in funding from leading global investors including Eldridge, GV, Kyle Bass, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Moore Strategic Ventures, Rovida Kruptos Assets Limited, and others. Visit Blockchain.com for more info, follow us on Twitter @blockchain , check out The Blockchain.com Podcast , and read our latest Monthly Market Update and blog for the latest company news. Contact: Brooks Wallace, Head of Communications [email protected] SOURCE Blockchain.com NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zion Market Research has published a new report titled "Digital Freight Brokerage Market by Type (Roadway, Seaway, Airway, and Railway) and by Vertical (Food and Beverages, Automotive, Retail & E-commerce, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Others [Defense, Aerospace, etc.]): Global Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2017 - 2026". According to the report, global digital freight brokerage market was valued at approximately USD 836.06 million in 2017 and is expected to generate revenue of around USD 21,355.49 million by end of 2026, growing at a CAGR of more than 43.0% between 2018 and 2026. The digital freight broker is also referred as urbanization of trucking. The digitalization is the latest craze in the logistics industry. The latest advancement in freight brokerage is the adoption of technically advanced apps. The increasing technological innovation in supply chain and logistics are gaining the attention of digital freight brokers market. The proliferation of on-demand or app-based trucking providers is gaining a noteworthy amount of investment and attention. The digital freight brokerage market is segmented on the basis of type, vertical, and by geography. Based on the type, the digital freight brokerage market is categorized into roadway, railway, seaway, and airway. By type, the roadway segment accounted for highest share in the global digital freight management brokerage market in 2017 and is expected to remain dominant over the forecast period. To utilize cargo space and avoid hefty brokerage fees, the uses of digital applications are increasing in the trucking industry. Road shipping is a flexible mode of transport of goods nationwide, and thus this segment contributed the highest share in the global digital freight brokerage market. The seaway segment is anticipated to register highest CAGR from 2018 to 2026 in the global digital freight brokerage market. Get Sample PDF of this Research Report for more Insights with Table of Content, Research Methodology and Graphs - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/digital-freight-brokerage-market Food and beverages, retail & e-commerce, automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, and others (defense, aerospace, etc.) are the key industry verticals of the global digital freight brokerage market. The retail & e-commerce segment accounted for the highest share of more than 30% in the global digital freight brokerage market in 2017. The large transportation of retail & e-commerce products is the key factor contributing towards the high share of segment in the global digital freight brokerage market. North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa are the key regional segments of the global digital freight brokerage market. North America and Europe are expected to remain the foremost regions over the forecast period. The rising adoption of digital freight brokerage in retail, manufacturing, food and beverages, automotive, and healthcare industry in North America and Europe is expected to boost the growth of the market in the region. The Asia Pacific is expected to register a CAGR of more than 45% in the global digital freight brokerage market. Developing nations such as India and China are promising markets owing to the large population base and the growing industrialization thus supporting the growth of the market in the Asia Pacific. Request for Customization on this Report as per your requirements - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/3245 Some of the key players in digital freight brokerage market include Coyote Logistics, Echo Global Logistics Inc., Convoy, Transfix, LLC, Trucker Path Inc., Cargomatic Inc., Cargocentric Inc., J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc., TGMatrix Limited, and Uber Freight. Inquire before Purchase of this Research Report - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/digital-freight-brokerage-market This report segments the global digital freight brokerage market as follows: Global Digital Freight Brokerage Market: Type Segment Analysis Roadway Seaway Airway Railway Global Digital Freight Brokerage Market: vertical Segment Analysis Food and Beverages Automotive Healthcare & e-commerce Manufacturing Others (Defense, Aerospace, etc.) Global Digital Freight Brokerage Market: Regional Segment Analysis North America The U.S. Europe UK France Germany Asia Pacific China Japan India Latin America Brazil The Middle East and Africa Browse Other Related Research Reports from Zion Market Research Freight Management Systems Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/freight-management-systems-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/freight-management-systems-market IoT In Logistics Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/iot-in-logistics-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/iot-in-logistics-market Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/intelligent-transportation-system-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/intelligent-transportation-system-market Smart Fleet Management Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/smart-fleet-management-market https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/smart-fleet-management-market IoT Fleet Management Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/global-iot-fleet-management-market About Us: Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the client's needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us. Contact Us: Zion Market Research 244 Fifth Avenue, Suite N202 New York, 10001, United States Tel: +49-322 210 92714 USA/Canada Toll-Free No +1-855-465-4651 US OFFICE NO +1-386-310-3803 Email: [email protected] Website: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com Blog - https://zmrblog.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/zion-market-research SOURCE Zion Market Research Fernanda Kelly Emmy Award-winning actress / Activist & CEO / Founder of NYTAQ Emmy Award-winning actress / Activist & CEO / Founder of NYTAQ Nancy Maldonado Chief Executive Officer, The Chicano Federation Chief Executive Officer, The Chicano Federation Carolina Martinez Chief Executive Officer, California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity Chief Executive Officer, California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity Ortensia Lopez Executive Director, El Concilio of San Mateo County The speakers will discuss their journeys as women in their respective professions, share experiences of overcoming obstacles as Latinas in the workplace and ways individuals can support Hispanic communities. The online event is free and open to the public. Click here to register. About Comerica Bank Comerica Bank is a subsidiary of Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA), a financial services company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and strategically aligned by three business segments: The Commercial Bank, The Retail Bank, and Wealth Management. Comerica focuses on relationships, and helping people and businesses be successful. In addition to Texas, Comerica Bank locations can be found in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, with select businesses operating in several other states, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Comerica reported total assets of $88.4 billion as of June 30, 2021. About the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce In 1978, a group of local Hispanic chamber leaders from throughout California convened to discuss the lack of representation of Hispanic businesses in state government. These leaders also recognized the need for an organization that would effectively represent the interest of rapidly growing number of Hispanic-owned businesses in California. Through its network of Hispanic chambers and business association, the CHCC represents the interest of over 800,000 Hispanic business owners in California. The CHCC is the premier and largest regional ethnic business organization in the nation that promotes the economic growth and development of Hispanic entrepreneurs and California's Emerging Businesses. SOURCE Comerica Bank Related Links http://www.comerica.com CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- carVertical , a fast-growing car history reporting platform, owned by IT company CV Group, expects to double its revenue by the end of this year. The firm's sales revenue is anticipated to surpass 16 million euros, which is double of the 8.5 million euros back in 2020. Shaping a new car buying practice From left to right: Robertas Boravskis, Rokas Medonis, Arnoldas Vasiliauskas and Audrius Kucinskas. Photo by Gedmantas Kropis. Rokas Medonis, CEO of carVertical. Photo by Gedmantas Kropis. The platform, which provides data on car registrations, mileage readings, damage history, and other relevant information, is still focused on private car buyers in 2021, but will increasingly drive sales in the B2B sector in the second half of this year. According to carVertical CEO Rokas Medonis, "This move, along with other strategically important decisions, has ensured strong and stable growth for the firm." "Until now, all our customers have been private car buyers. However, we started investing in business segment development in the second half of the year. We are setting up a B2B sales team and have already signed contracts with used car dealers, ranging from small businesses to official manufacturers dealerships and even credit companies all over Europe," says Medonis. carVertical aims to ensure that the history of the car would be introduced to the buyer on the seller's initiative. Rokas Medonis believes that this is the only way to take transparency standards in the used car market to a whole new level. The platform is available in 25 markets The car history check service entered a new country at the beginning of this year. It was the United Kingdom that joined the remaining 24 different markets. According to the company's CEO, this has been a tremendous and meticulously planned project. "The UK is a completely different market with its own special requirements if we compare it to the rest of Europe. The difference in the UK is the almost non-existent import and export of used cars. Also, there is fierce competition between car history check services in that market," adds Medonis. The most significant growth for carVertical this year was in Poland and the Czech Republic. However, Medonis claims that these countries still have a lot of untapped potential. Ukraine surprised the firm with an unexpected jump in sales while only minor inputs from the marketing team had been made. Medonis claims that this is an indicator for a clear direction of growth for the years to come. Expansion beyond Europe Europe is still the main focus of carVertical operations. Italy has recently been added to the platform's map, but according to Medonis, it is not a priority market and therefore does not receive sufficient marketing resources at the present time. Car history reports are also available in the United States, but by the end of the year, carVertical plans to enter another continent. "The hardest work is already behind us. We have reached an agreement with our data suppliers, and as soon as we have solved the remaining technical issues, we will launch our services for car buyers in Australia," explains Medonis. Medonis further points out that the firm is actively working with the South African market, as it will probably be the first African country to offer a car history check to consumers. Thinking outside the box Although carVertical's car history check service is a digital product, Medonis recognizes that digital tools alone are insufficient to reach more consumers. This year, the firm has gone beyond digital marketing and launched advertising campaigns on both TV and radio in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. This practice has proven to work well, and the company will implement this strategy for two more large Central and Eastern European markets. For Media Inquiries: NB Talent Services [email protected] 917-690-6161 SOURCE carVertical DUBLIN, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Power Tools Market, By Tool Type (Routing, Demolition, Air-Powered, Drilling & Fastening, Sawing, Others), By Application (Industrial, Residential), By Mode of Operation (Electric, Pneumatic, Hydraulic), Estimation & Forecast, 2017 - 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global power tools market held a market value of USD 30,894.8 Million in 2020 and is forecasted to reach USD 43,278.3 Million by the year 2027. The market is expected to register a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period. The tools actuated by an additional power source and mechanism are power tools. Electric motors, internal combustion engines, and compressed air are the most common type of power tools. The market is majorly driven by the growing application of power tools in the construction industry and the rising adoption of cordless power tools globally. Despite the driving factors the high maintenance cost coupled with the volatile raw material price is anticipated to negatively influence the market growth. This is because recalibration at regular intervals is required for power tools for efficient operations. Also, regulatory compliances and power tool safety are expected to pose a challenge to the market growth. Growth Influencers: Growing application of power tools in the construction industry The rising adoption of power tools in the construction industry is also likely to drive the demand for power tools over the forecast period. This is because power tools help in reducing the time associated with redundant tasks. It also helps in providing increased efficiency. Furthermore, the increasing use of sanders, wrenches, drills and other such tools in the construction sectors is also anticipated to boost the market growth. Also, the rapid expansion of the construction industry globally is estimated to fuel the market growth. Rising adoption of cordless power tools globally Cordless power tools contain a wide range of battery-powered tools, such as circular saws, hammer drills, and impact wrenches. These also include staplers as well as nailers. Furthermore, the growing demand for more flexible, compact, and mobile tools is also expected to drive the market growth. Moreover, advancements related to battery technology are also expected to increase the adoption of cordless power tools with high-density and long-lasting batteries. In addition, the attraction of consumers towards cordless tools is also motivating market players to focus on cordless power tools, which is expected to boost the market growth. Segments Overview: The global power tools market is segmented into tool type, mode of operation, and application. The drilling and fastening tools segment is anticipated to hold the largest market share of more than 28%. Within the drilling and fastening tools segment, the drills segment is expected to grow at a rate of 4.8%. Within, the demolition tools segment, the breaker segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5%. The air-powered tools segment is estimated to grow at the fastest rate of 6.1% during the forecast period. The industrial segment is expected to hold the largest market share owing to the rising demand for power tools in various industries. These industries include construction, automotive, and energy among others. The energy segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9%. The residential segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate during the projected period. The electric segment is expected to hold the largest market share owing to technological advancements related to the segment. The pneumatic segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate of 6.5% during the forecast period. Regional Overview On a regional basis, the global power tools market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America. The North American region accounted for the largest market share of approximately 31% in the global market owing to the increasing industrial development and infrastructure development activities in the U.S. and Canada. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to witness the fastest growth rate of 6.8% during the forecast period. This is due to the fast flourishing automotive industry in the region. Countries witnessing the highest growth include India and China. Competitive Landscape Key players operating in the global power tools market include 3M, ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG, APEX Tool Group, LLC, Atlas Copco AB, C. & E. FEIN GmbH, Delta Power Equipment Corporation, Emerson Electric Co., Enerpac Tool Group, Ferm International B.V., Festool GmbH, Hilti Corporation, Husqvarna AB, Ingersoll-Rand, Interskol, KOKI Holdings Co. Ltd., Kyocera Corporation, Makita Corporation, Panasonic Corporation, Robert Bosch GmbH, Snap-On, Stanley, Black & Decker, Inc., Techtronic Industries (TTI), Positec Tool Group, UryuSeisaku, Ltd., CS Unitec, and Fortive Corporation, among others. Major 5 players in the market hold about 75% of the market share. These players are involved in mergers & acquisitions, product launches, and collaboration, among others. For instance, in June 2021, Atlas Copco acquired the UK-based compressed air distributor and service provider named Airflow Compressors & Pneumatics Ltd (Airflow). This acquisition enhanced the company's presence in England. The global power tools market report provides insights on the below pointers: Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the prominent players Market Development: The report offers detailed information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes penetration across mature segments of the markets Market Diversification: Provides in-depth information about untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments Competitive Landscape Assessment: Mergers & acquisitions, certifications, product launches in the global power tools market have been provided in this research report. In addition, the report also emphasizes the SWOT analysis of the leading players. Product Development & Innovation: The report provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The global power tools market report answers questions such as: What is the market size and forecast of the Global Power tools Market? What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 on the Global Power tools Market during the assessment period? Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the assessment period in the Global Power tools Market? What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Power tools Market? What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Power tools Market? What is the market share of the leading players in the Global Power tools Market? What modes and strategic moves are considered favorable for entering the Global Power tools Market? Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Research Framework Chapter 2. Research Methodology Chapter 3. Executive Summary: Global Power Tools Market Chapter 4. Global Power Tools Market Overview Chapter 5. Power Tools Market Analysis, By Tool Type Chapter 6. Power Tools Market Analysis, By Mode of Operation Chapter 7. Power Tools Market Analysis, By Application Chapter 8. Power Tools Market Analysis, By Region/ Country Chapter 9. North America Power Tools Market Analysis Chapter 10. Europe Power Tools Market Analysis Chapter 11. Asia Pacific Power Tools Market Analysis Chapter 12. Middle East & Africa (MEA) Power Tools Market Analysis Chapter 13. South America Power Tools Market Analysis Chapter 14. Company Profiles Companies Mentioned 3M ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG & Co. KG APEX Tool Group, LLC Atlas Copco AB C. & E. FEIN GmbH Delta Power Equipment Corporation Emerson Electric Co. Enerpac Tool Group Ferm International B.V. Festool GmbH Hilti Corporation Husqvarna AB Ingersoll-Rand Interskol KOKI Holdings Co. Ltd. Kyocera Corporation Makita Corporation Panasonic Corporation Robert Bosch GmbH Snap-On Stanley, Black & Decker, Inc. Techtronic Industries (TTI) Positec Tool Group Uryu Seisaku, Ltd. CS Unitec Fortive Corporation For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ykccuo 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 LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON, France, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Albert Bichot USA is set to launch Maison Lorgeril and solidify a partnership with this unique, French winery as part of its importer portfolio. Jim Opalka, President of Albert Bichot USA states, "Our goal is to find producers of similar pedigree to Albert Bichot; family-owned with a focus on quality, and the ability to scale to meet the needs of the US Market." Chateau de Ciffre Chateau de Pennautier In September, the group will officially launch Maison Lorgeril, a historic Languedoc producer, dating back four centuries, owning 6 separate estates and producing wine from 9 PDOs (Protected Designation of Origin) which include Languedoc, Cabardes, Minervois, Minervois La Liviniere, Saint-Chinian, Faugeres, Cotes-du-Roussillon, Cotes-du-Roussillon Villages, and Maury. The Lorgeril family is one of the oldest wine making families in France. Their family's history dates back to the building of the majestic Chateau de Pennautier in 1620, and today includes five additional vineyards across high-altitude, complex terroirs, some of the best in the region. Nicolas de Logeril and his wife Miren have maintained the vineyards since 1987. Under their management, Maison Lorgeril maintains a strong relationship with its land, regularly plowing and fertilizing with natural manure to ensure their exceptional terroirs express themselves to their maximum potential. Over time, they established six family-owned estates throughout Languedoc and Roussillon to extend the variety of soils, subsoils, and grape varieties in their wines. The six family-owned vineyards meet stringent sustainable agriculture principles and are Level 3 High Environmental Value certified. This label certifies that Maison Lorgeril practices a winemaking approach that respects Agro-Ecological Infrastructure, limiting chemical inputs to directly protect the environment. Additionally, Chateau de Ciffre is and has been certified organic since its 2019 vintage with Chateau de Pennautier already starting its conversion. The Lorgeril family's rigorous selection of terroirs across their six domains allows them to produce and offer a full portfolio of quality wines that benefit from both the Mediterranean heat and the cool air of the nearby mountains. Along with their partner wineries, L'Orangeraie, La Galine, 1620, La Rosee D'Ete, and O de Rose, N&M de Lorgeril estates produces a variety of elegant red, white and rose wines that boast personality and freshness. Aligned with their family values, Albert Bichot USA is pleased to welcome another generational winery into their portfolio in the United States. Contact: Taylor Camp IT Public Relations [email protected] 212-941-5595 SOURCE Maison Lorgeril Jeep brand, Wallace Detroit Guitars and Cherrytree Music Company's DETROIT DREAMERS are joining forces to launch a one-of-a-kind, multi-faceted marketing collaboration. The initiative will give Jeep brand and music enthusiasts the opportunity to pre-order a one-of-a-kind, custom-built guitar crafted by Wallace Detroit Guitars using historic old-growth wood sourced from historic Detroit buildings. Cherrytree Music Company's rock group DETROIT DREAMERS created a custom track, "Dreamers," and accompanying visualizer to celebrate the launch of the initiative. The song harkens back to the roots of founder Martin Kierszenbaum and bandmate Tony Lake's passion for rock and speaks to the perseverance of dreamers that exists in everyone. To celebrate the launch of the song, DETROIT DREAMERS made a special appearance today, Sept. 17, to perform "Dreamers" for employees at the Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit. "Dreamers" is available now on all digital platforms. "Music, architecture and the automotive industry are revered in the city of Detroit," said Olivier Francois, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Stellantis. "This initiative with Wallace Detroit Guitars and DETROIT DREAMERS to launch a custom Jeep-branded guitar and custom track gives fans the opportunity to own a unique and authentic work of art that both acknowledges their passion for the Jeep brand and celebrates the city's history of music and its automotive roots." DETROIT DREAMERS founder Martin Kierszenbaum adds, "Growing up in Michigan, the people around us, many in the automobile industry, had a profound effect on Tony and me. We watched Jeep remain bold and ever ready to collaborate with adventurous musicians. With its approach to re-purposing local material, Wallace Detroit Guitars is the embodiment of Detroit ingenuity and resilience. It's an honor to be wielding a guitar forged by both of those companies so deeply rooted in the community that shaped us." "Detroit is full of people who know how to make things. People love the history of Jeep and the brand has always been known for customization and details, so it was extremely fun from a creative side to bring some of those historic elements into this guitar," said Mark Wallace of Wallace Detroit Guitars. Wallace Detroit Deluxe Jeep Guitar features include: Graphic of the iconic Jeep version of the U.S. Army star on the front of the guitar, hand applied by a branding iron The back of the guitar is as remarkable as the front, featuring engraved and hand-painted Jeep brand logo and Detroit topographical map topographical map Humbucker (trademark symbol here) neck pickup with the iconic Jeep grille graphic Maple neck and fretboard Deluxe beveled edge white pickguard Chrome hardware with traditional bridge and controls Single coil bridge pickup Guitar straps that come with every guitar are made from recycled car seat belts All guitars also come standard with a Gator hard-shell guitar case Hand-applied oil finish [WU1] 100% handmade IN Detroit OF Detroit for the Jeep brand Each guitar will be individually numbered as part of custom build as below: Reclaimed Wood: Packard Plant Detroit, Michigan 313-JEEP-(unique identifier #) Consumers can begin their order of their custom Jeep-branded guitar beginning today at www.wallacedetroitguitars.com. The custom guitars, priced at $2,900, take 90 days to complete. Official Jeep-branded licensed merchandise can also be ordered at www.gear.jeep.com and the Jeep Store by Amazon. Wallace Guitars Wallace Detroit Guitar bodies are built entirely from ethically sourced old-growth wood sourced from historic abandoned buildings in Detroit. The refurbished wood, usually over 100 years old, gives each custom piece a vintage sound only available in older instruments. And the thoughtful combination of neck, pickups, and electronics provide a wide range of tone with great sustain. The guitar bodies are cut on a CNC router and finished by hand. Each body is completely unique in its color and grain pattern. Wherever possible, historic stains, nail holes and scars are left in the wood to showcase its history. Cherrytree Music Company Founded in 2005 by Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer Martin Kierszenbaum, the Cherrytree Music Company provides management, record label and publishing services to a boutique roster of artists, producers and mixers who push the creative envelope in popular music. Cherrytree has had an indelible impact on the music landscape from managing celebrated musician and cultural icon Sting to launching Lady Gaga's first two albums. The Cherrytree Music Company has released the artistically and commercially ground-breaking records of Feist, Ellie Goulding, Robyn, La Roux, LMFAO, Far East Movement and Disclosure and sold over 35 million units. In the process, the Cherrytree Music Company has become a vital source for popular music and catalyst for artist collaboration and innovation. For more information on the Cherrytree Music Company, please visit here. Jeep Brand Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV with capability, craftsmanship and versatility for people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a full line of vehicles that continue to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The Jeep vehicle lineup consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Renegade and Wrangler. To meet consumer demand around the world, all Jeep models sold outside North America are available in both left- and right-hand drive configurations. Jeep is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com. Follow Jeep and company news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com Jeep brand: www.jeep.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA SOURCE Stellantis NAMPA, Idaho, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Katie O'Shea, MS, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Trusted EMDR Psychotherapist for her decades of practice and research into EMDR therapy. As a practicing psychotherapist for nearly 45 years, Ms. O'Shea is a pioneer in the field of therapeutic Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She believes that EMDR is the most efficient and empowering therapy, and is continually amazed by the potential for recovery. Katie O'Shea, MS, is being recognized by Continental Who's Who Before EMDR, Ms. O'Shea primarily utilized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. With EMDR, patients can accelerate the processing of emotions associated with trauma, without asking people to revisit their trauma or repeatedly rehearse changes in their thinking. She is inspired by clients who respond well to treatment and see the potential for positive change. Ms. O'Shea is an expert in EMDR, mental health, and whole life review processes. To spread the benefits of EMDR treatment, Ms. O'Shea holds training workshops for EMDR professionals about "Reconnecting the Self: Reprocessing Early Trauma and Neglect Held in Implicit Memory." She currently runs her own Psychotherapy EMDR service, We Power, where she provides consultations for 1.5-6 hours daily for 2-5 days as needed. She received her B.S. in Psychology in 1968 and her M.S. in Experimental Psychology in 1972 from Idaho State University. Her philosophy is to "focus, activate, and notice" in order to unite who we are and what we are. She is a strong advocate for civil rights. She would like to dedicate this recognition In Memoriam of Francine Shapiro, originator of EMDR; In Memoriam of A.J. Popky, addiction specialist; and to her Godson, Stephen Ammann, thanking him for his continuing love and support. Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected] SOURCE Continental Who's Who Related Links http://www.continentalwhoswho.com DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Legacy Healing Center is praising the $1 trillion infrastructure bill currently working its way through the US Congress which hopes to integrate new automobile technology that would prevent drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel and putting their own and others' lives at risk. The preventative measure in the 2,702-page bill is one of many provisions that, if it becomes law as written, will help to save the lives of motorists and passengers. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates that "smart" anti-impairment technology could save more than 9,000 lives each year. Alcohol-related causes accounted for around 88,000 annual deaths in recent years, but that number has steadily risen to 95,000 since 2019, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In the same year, 10,000 people died of alcohol-related road deaths, and an estimated 14.5 million Americans were suffering from alcohol use disorder (addiction). The bill does not specify the technology to be used but would require the US Transportation Department to set new "reasonable, practical, and appropriate" safety standards for anti-drunk driving technology within three years. Automakers would have at least another two years to comply with the standards. The bill also states that the technology should be passive and "monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired." Systems that have been researched by automakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration include ones that monitor a driver's breathing and eye movements and others that measure blood alcohol levels under the skin via infrared light when a driver touches the steering wheel or engine start button. The legislation has received the endorsement of advocacy groups, the auto insurance industry, and substance abuse experts like Legacy Healing Center. Legacy is a leading addiction treatment center in Florida and New Jersey and is encouraged by the proposed new legislation stating that the preventative measure will save lives and help mitigate the damage caused by alcohol use disorder giving people the opportunity to recover from the mental health condition. For anyone struggling with alcohol or drug addiction , help is available anytime 24/7. Call (888) 534-2295 or visit www.legacyhealingcenter.com to learn more. Media Contact Travis Benfaida 561-706-7205 [email protected] SOURCE Legacy Healing Center BOSTON, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LuxSci, a Boston-based Secure Messaging provider, is prepared to help agencies meet the Zero Trust and email security requirements outlined in the Office of Management and Budget's new draft on Federal Zero Trust Guidance. Many cybersecurity and IT professionals are familiar with the basic tenets of Zero Trust, but despite the major implications for email security, they are unfamiliar with MTA STS encryption specifications. The draft guidance states: "CISA will work with FedRAMP to evaluate MTA STS as a viable government-wide solution for encrypted email and to make resulting recommendations to OMB." LuxSci was an early advocate for SMTP MTA STS as a way to increase the security of encrypted email transmissions. In 2018, MTA STS support was added to LuxSci's email security platform and to its free and publicly available TLS checker so organizations can check the configurations of mail servers before sending possibly insecure emails. "Enforcing SMTP MTA STS represents a raising of the bar for email encryption standards," said Erik Kangas, PhD, Founder and CEO of LuxSci. "CISA's evaluation has the potential to drastically change how the industry thinks about email security. LuxSci has long promoted MTA STS and is ready to assist any organization seeking to implement improvements to email transmission security." SMTP MTA STS is an "add-on" technology which, when supported by both senders and recipients, significantly improves the security of TLS encryption when transmitting email messages across the Internet. MTA STS represents the next level of security by enforcing the use of modern encryption ciphers and preventing most man-in-the-middle attacks. LuxSci recently conducted a "State of the Industry" analysis of recipient TLS security and MTA STS support across a vast number of email domains. The analysis found that while 85% of email domains support all of the security settings needed for MTA STS, only 0.03% of domains have MTA STS enabled and enforced. By providing guidance that encourages the use of MTA STS, the federal government will encourage industries to make major strides towards securing sensitive email communications. As a leader in email security, LuxSci strongly supports the enabling and enforcement of MTA STS. LuxSci created a "Forced TLS" service to automatically check all of the MX records for a domain to ensure they are configured according to best practices for strong SMTP TLS, including use of TLS 1.2+ and NIST-recommended ciphers. When a domain does not have a secure enough TLS configuration, emails should not be sent to that domain with only TLS to protect it (at LuxSci, such emails are automatically sent using other secure delivery methods). This prevents insecure email delivery due to server misconfiguration or protocol downgrades. LuxSci has over 20 years of experience meeting the compliance and security requirements of enterprise organizations. They have long supported a Zero Trust security model for their clients and have passed independent security audits including HITRUST CSF. To learn more, please reach out to Antoinette Matthews, CRO at LuxSci: [email protected]. SOURCE LuxSci Related Links luxsci.com CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Military Displays Market by End Market (Land, Airborne, Naval), Technology (LED, LCD, OLED, AMOLED), Type, Panel Size (Microdisplays, Small & Medium-Sized Panels, Large Panels), Product Type, and Region - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Military Displays market size is forecasted to grow from an estimated USD 1.1 billion in 2021 to reach USD 1.4 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 4.9% during the forecast period The Military Displays Market is going to be driven by the effects of defense spending and the technological developments made with respect to the display. Rising Geopolitical tensions and border disputes specially in Asian countries is another driver for military displays product. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=4384461 Based on end market, the land segment of the military displays market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR is expected to account for the largest market share during the forecasted period. This growth is attributed to increase in demand for higher resolution displays at headquarters and command center. Military and other industries use displays for monitoring their operations, identifying enemies, and many other tactical operations. Displays are expected to handle data fast and effectively, be elegant and small, and operate smoothly in a hostile environment. The growing defense sector, along with the high defense budgets of countries such as the US, China, and Saudi Arabia, are some of the key factors driving the Military displays market worldwide Based on Technology LCD makes the largest share of the market during the forecasted year. The requirement for the LCD display module is increasing because of expanded assembling of electronic items such avionics cockpit shows, PC screens, LCD TVs, indoor and open air signs, and instrument boards. The structure of these military LCD panels uses high-strength components that can improve performance at high temperatures, shock-absorbing technology that prevents vibrations and shocks, and non-corrosive materials that can resist the effects of moisture and salt. Browse in-depth TOC on "Military Displays Market" 260 Tables 52 Figures 239 Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=4384461 "North America is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period." The market in North America is estimated to record a CAGR of 5.7% during the forecast period. This market is led by the US, which is increasingly investing in the Military displays to maintain its combat superiority and displays for monitoring their operations, identifying enemies, and many other tactical options. The US plans to increase its spending on the Military displays to gain a competitive edge over other country This region is expected to lead the market from 2021 to 2026, owing to increased investments and the adoption of advanced multifunctional displays in military technologies by countries in this region. The presence of prominent manufacturers and integrators of these military displays, including Lockheed Martin (US), Northrop Grumman (US), L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (US), and Raytheon Technologies (US), is also expected drive the market in the region over the forecast period. Major players operating in the Military Displays Market include Raytheon Technologies (US), Lockheed Martin Corporation (US), Elbit Systems (Israel), Bae Systems (US). These key players offers Military Display products and strong distribution networks across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America. Related Reports: Military Communications Market by Communication Type (Airborne, Air-Ground, Underwater, Ground-Based), Component (Military Satcom Systems, Military Radio Systems, Military Security Systems), Application, End-User, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025 Military Computers Market by Computer Type (Rugged (Wearable, Portable), Embedded (Flight Control, Utility Control, Fire Control, Positioning, Vetronics, Air Defense Systems), Platform (Aircraft, Naval, Ground), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/military-displays-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/military-displays.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MINISO Group Holding Limited (NYSE: MNSO) ("MINISO", "MINISO Group" or the "Company"), a fast-growing global value retailer offering a variety of design-led lifestyle products, today filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. The annual report can be accessed on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.miniso.com or on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The Company will provide a hard copy of its annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to the Company's Investors Relations Department via email at [email protected] or by mail at 25F, Heye Plaza, No.486, Kangwangzhong, Road, Liwan District, Guangzhou 510170, China. About MINISO Group Holding Limited MINISO is a fast-growing global value retailer offering a variety of design-led lifestyle products. The Company serves consumers primarily through its large network of MINISO stores, and promotes a relaxing, treasure-hunting and engaging shopping experience full of delightful surprises that appeals to all demographics. Aesthetically pleasing design, quality and affordability are at the core of every product in MINISO's wide product portfolio, and the Company continually and frequently rolls out products with these qualities. Since the opening of its first store in China in 2013, the Company has built its flagship brand "MINISO" as a globally recognized retail brand and established a massive store network worldwide. For more information, please visit http://ir.miniso.com/. Investor Relations Contact Mengru Wang MINISO Group Holding Limited Email: [email protected] Phone: +86 (20) 36228788 Ext.8039 SOURCE MINISO Group Holding Limited Related Links http://ir.miniso.com/ https://ir.miniso.com/ INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new national telephone and online survey taken by Rasmussen Reports, sponsored by the National Police Association, finds that Seventy eight percent (78%) of Likely U.S. Voters think that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is likely to provide overseas terrorists a base of operation for terrorism against Americans. Seventeen percent (17%) say no. Six percent (6%) are not sure. Additionally, the poll found a majority of likely voters believe: Terrorism The chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan will inspire Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist organizations to attack the United States . will inspire Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist organizations to attack . The billions of dollars of weapons and vehicles left behind by the US military in Afghanistan will be used against Americans. will be used against Americans. Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees being relocated to the United States will mean more terrorist violence here. will mean more terrorist violence here. The reduction of immigration enforcement at the border will encourage Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist organizations to attack the United States . . The millions of people crossing into the United States illegally through the southern border will increase violent crime. illegally through the southern border will increase violent crime. American media cannot be trusted to report on violent crime resulting from reduced immigration enforcement at the southern border. Suggestions that police be defunded will impact police departments' ability to anticipate, discover, and neutralize international terrorist threats. "Between the reduction in immigration enforcement at the southern border and the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban the risk of international terrorism has skyrocketed", said National Police Association spokesperson, Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (Ret). "Letting in more unvetted refugees from Afghanistan and illegal aliens across our southern border while defunding and handcuffing law enforcement is a plan to make us less safe". The survey of 963 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted September 12th through 13th, 2021 by the National Police Association and Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. Full results of the survey, including demographic data, is available at Rasmussen Reports. About The National Police Association The National Police Association (NPA) is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization, founded to educate supporters of law enforcement in how to help police departments accomplish their goals. The NPA works to bring national and local attention to the anti-police efforts challenging effective law enforcement, building public support for needed actions through public service announcements, legal filings, articles authored for the NPA by law enforcement experts and the NPA Report. For additional information, please visit www.nationalpolice.org. Media contact: Ed Hutchison [email protected] 302-469-1765 SOURCE National Police Association LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Staley Point Capital ("Staley Point"), a value-add investor focused on infill industrial properties, today announced the acquisition of 2187 Garfield, a 132,000 square-foot cross-dock warehouse in Commerce, CA, for $38.5 million, or $292 per square foot. Located in the central submarket of Southern California, the largest industrial submarket in Los Angeles County, the industrial property sits at the intersection of Garfield Avenue and East Washington Boulevard with more than 448,000 vehicles per day. The two major roads provide convenient access to the I-5, I-605, and I-710 Freeways and the site is also 20 miles from the Ports of LA and Long Beach. "Our latest acquisition is representative of our focus on high-quality, infill industrial properties in supply-constrained markets across Southern California," said Eric Staley, Managing Director of Staley Point. "We believe that there is strong tenant demand for a well-located cross-dock facility with ample yard and direct access to significant population density." Staley Point plans to renovate and convert 2187 Garfield into a high-throughput last-mile distribution center for a single tenant. The site benefits from the more than 680,000 people that live within three miles and a significant supply-demand imbalance. Supply of industrial properties in Central has grown less than 0.3% over the last ten years. The private purchase was completed via a joint venture between Staley Point Capital and Bain Capital Real Estate who have been an active acquiror of infill industrial properties across Southern California since launching in September 2020. Most recently, Staley Point closed the acquisition of 630 North Batavia, a three-acre redevelopment site in Orange, CA for $15.65 million in August. Winston & Strawn, LLP served as legal counsel to Staley Point Capital for the transaction. Kidder Mathews represented the seller and JLL Capital Markets will arrange the loan financing. About Staley Point Capital Staley Point Capital is a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm. The firm was founded in 2019 by Kevin Staley and focuses on the acquisition of value-add and opportunistic real estate investments primarily in the industrial sector. Notable Southern California investments have included The Citadel in the City of Commerce, Magellan Gateway in El Monte and a self-storage portfolio, Magellan Storage. To find out more, visit www.staleypoint.com . Contacts Mickey Mandelbaum, Prosek Partners (310) 709-8900 [email protected] Aidan O'Connor, Prosek Partners (646) 818-9283 [email protected] SOURCE Staley Point Capital TAMPA BAY, Fla., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TeamViewer, a leading global provider of remote connectivity and workplace digitalization solutions, today announced that "TeamViewer Frontline Augmented Reality" has successfully run through SAP's certification process and is now an SAP Endorsed App, available on SAP Store. TeamViewer Frontline Augmented Reality provides a unique AR-based software suite for deskless workers using smart glasses or mobile devices. It can be integrated into SAP's solutions for various industries, enabling SAP customers to digitalize industrial processes and create workflows for logistics picking, assembly, quality assurance and maintenance as well as field service. Moreover, customers can receive AR-based remote support for precise and reliable troubleshooting through a shared camera stream and context-aware AR annotations. SAP Endorsed Apps are a category of solutions from SAP's partner ecosystem that help customers become best-run, intelligent enterprises. Stefan Krauss, SVP & GM Discrete Industries and Energy & Natural Resources at SAP, explains: "With SAP's recent launch of industry cloud, we simplify access to innovative vertical solutions built by SAP and our partners on an open platform. AR-based processes can significantly increase productivity, reduce human errors, and machine downtime and therefore decrease costs. We are looking forward to the partnership with TeamViewer to help accelerate digitalization across industries." "SAP is a trusted global brand with a proven track record in providing enterprise software. The listing as an SAP Endorsed App gives us the opportunity to jointly go to market and to offer our leading AR solutions portfolio to SAP's global customer base with the ambition to further digitalize their value chain," says Alfredo Patron, EVP Business Development at TeamViewer. SAP Endorsed Apps are premium-certified by SAP with added security, in-depth testing, and measurements against benchmark results. TeamViewer Frontline Augmented Reality is an SAP Endorsed App which helps customers reduce the effective downtimes of machines, prevent human errors, and increase productivity and overall ROI. TeamViewer Frontline Augmented Reality is available for digital discovery and purchase at SAP Store, the digital marketplace for solutions from SAP and its partners. SAP Store provides customers with real-time access to more than 1,800 innovative solutions from SAP as well as partner solutions that complement and extend their SAP applications, enabling digital transformation of their business. Already today, customers such as Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company and DB Schenker are using TeamViewer's AR solutions integrated with their SAP software systems. About TeamViewer TeamViewer is a leading global technology company that provides a connectivity platform to remotely access, control, manage, monitor, and repair devices of any kind from laptops and mobile phones to industrial machines and robots. Although TeamViewer is free of charge for private use, it has more than 600,000 subscribers and enables companies of all sizes and from all industries to digitalize their business-critical processes through seamless connectivity. Against the backdrop of global megatrends like device proliferation, automation and new work, TeamViewer proactively shapes digital transformation and continuously innovates in the fields of Augmented Reality, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. Since the company's foundation in 2005, TeamViewer's software has been installed on more than 2.5 billion devices around the world. The company is headquartered in Goppingen, Germany, and employs around 1,500 people globally. In 2020, TeamViewer achieved billings of EUR 460 million. TeamViewer AG (TMV) is listed at Frankfurt Stock Exchange and belongs to the MDAX. Further information can be found at www.teamviewer.com . SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. SAP Forward-looking Statement Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. Press Contact Jon Stotts PR Americas and Analyst Relations Manager, TeamViewer Phone: 646-961-3497 E-Mail: [email protected] SOURCE TeamViewer Related Links http://www.teamviewer.com TOKYO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Terumo Corporation (TSE: 4543), a global leader in medical technology, today celebrates its 100th anniversary. The company, based in Tokyo, boasts over 25,000 associates worldwide, providing products and services to more than 160 countries and regions across the globe. Terumo started in 1921 as a small factory making thermometers in Tokyo. At the time, there were rising needs for clinical thermometers due to the outbreak of the 1918 influenza pandemic. In Japan, thermometer supply depended heavily on imports from Europe, and consequently, thermometers were high-priced and only available to a limited number of doctors. The situation worsened when World War I broke out and trade was halted. This heightened demand for locally produced thermometers and brought together a group of ambitious doctors and engineers. Their motive was clear; to provide high-quality thermometers in ample amounts to protect the nation's health and advance the clinical system. In 1963, Terumo launched Japan's first disposable syringe, followed by disposable hypodermic needles and blood-collection bags all with the goal of preventing and mitigating the spread of infection caused by reusing these medical devices. In the 1980s, the company brought innovation to less-invasive therapy, such as the world's first microporous hollow fiber membrane oxygenator and quality vascular intervention products. In the 2000s, Terumo took on challenges in emerging fields such as vascular grafts, neurovascular therapy, and blood and cell technologies. Medical technology continued to advance throughout the decades and Terumo continually supported the process by providing technological excellence and high-quality products, as it does today worldwide. Looking back on the company's footprint, Shinjiro Sato, CEO of Terumo Corporation commented: "This 100-year journey may seem like a miracle, but it is not at all accidental. Terumo exists today because our Group Mission of 'Contributing to Society through Healthcare' has inspired us to dream, and to build the capability to achieve each of our successive dreams in turn." To celebrate this milestone with all Terumo Group associates around the world, an online ceremony was broadcasted live. The event was an opportunity to connect associates, to appreciate the past 100 years, and to build on the company's strong foundation to take on new challenges for the next 100 years. For its centennial year, the company launched a group-wide slogan, "Stride Ahead," encompassing the company's belief that big steps forward will lead to a better future for healthcare. Sato envisions: "Terumo has indeed walked alongside the evolution of healthcare. That is why, when we look toward the next 100 years, we know that our work, our growth, and our value lie exactly in the 'healthcare of the future'. Ultimately, our purpose is to help patients, reduce their burdens, and return them to the healthiest state possible, in a lasting way. On a global level, the Terumo mission is to contribute to solving the issues of society. Takayoshi Mimura, Chairman of the Board commented: "In its 100 years, Terumo has also experienced economic situations that threatened its existence, as well as tough decisions, such as exiting from certain businesses. In short, Terumo grew despite all this by doing the right thing right. If we do the right thing going forward, the growth for another 100 years will follow. There is no other line of work where our efforts can so directly contribute to society, just as our group mission. Let us continue to pursue products and services that will be appreciated by our customers". 100 years of Terumo For more information on our history, please visit https://www.terumo.com/100th/ SOURCE Terumo "Window treatments are the jewelry of a room. The perfect curtain or shade enhances a space, providing it with its own identity," said Martyn Lawrence Bullard. "When conceptualizing my new collection for The Shade Store, I was inspired by the memories of my travels to the world's most beautiful and iconic destinations. I embraced color combinations, patterns and styles that are bright and dramatic, but also balanced and still accessible to the consumer. From creating a cozy environment to making a bold statement, a dressed window is essential to the finished look, function, and feel of any room." With a focus on embellishments, the new collection blends Bullard's expertise in creating showstopping interiors and his life-long passion for wanderlust. Bold florals and vines in a fresh color palette can join a selection of embroidered, textural shears that have a striking, yet romantic flavor. Interesting stripes and timeless patterns like Chinoiserie round out the assortment with pops of the unexpected to brighten the home and bring joy to any space. "As we continue to see an increased appetite for embellishments and color, we're excited to bring Martyn's distinct design perspective to our customers through this new collection," said Ian Gibbs, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Shade Store."He has reimagined the design experience, transforming his clients' homes into works of art and this partnership is a natural fit that continues to reinforce The Shade Store's commitment to providing our customers with luxurious materials for their window treatments." "The Shade Store appreciates the importance of constant brand evolvement and the power of a partnership," adds Bullard. "They have encouraged me to express my love for colorful and inviting fabrics in a fresh and modern way that is both a welcome addition to their collections and a new look for the brand. The team has been a dream to work with, allowing me to create with a free hand and full expression, resulting in one of my most treasured signature collections to date." The Martyn Lawrence Bullard collection for The Shade Store collection includes the following styles: Nomad Stripe - Inspired by patterns found on carved wood shields, this simple stripe captures an ancestral elegance and celebrates a modernity of cultural fusion in its scale and texture. Inspired by patterns found on carved wood shields, this simple stripe captures an ancestral elegance and celebrates a modernity of cultural fusion in its scale and texture. Tangier Weave - Inspired by the artisans of Tangier, this woven fabric is a fresh take on the basketweave design, blending culture and period with its timeless textural nature. Inspired by the artisans of Tangier, this woven fabric is a fresh take on the basketweave design, blending culture and period with its timeless textural nature. Sahara Stripe - Inspired by the looks on the French runways, this beautiful sheer fabric blends fashion and interior style in a subtle yet refreshing manner. Its distinctive look is defined by a finely incorporated colored stripe that takes it from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Inspired by the looks on the French runways, this beautiful sheer fabric blends fashion and interior style in a subtle yet refreshing manner. Its distinctive look is defined by a finely incorporated colored stripe that takes it from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Palmier - Inspired by the nineteenth-century fascination of palm trees and palm design in interiors, Palmier celebrates the art of embroidery with a sophisticated vine-like palm design that captures a tropical flavor yet carries great elegance that adds a touch of the exotic to any room. Inspired by the nineteenth-century fascination of palm trees and palm design in interiors, Palmier celebrates the art of embroidery with a sophisticated vine-like palm design that captures a tropical flavor yet carries great elegance that adds a touch of the exotic to any room. Chinoiserie - Inspired by the artistry of hand-painted wallpapers created in the eighteenth century for the most sophisticated salons in Europe , this contemporary version of a classic brings a modern take to today's audience. Inspired by the artistry of hand-painted wallpapers created in the eighteenth century for the most sophisticated salons in , this contemporary version of a classic brings a modern take to today's audience. Boho Vine - Inspired by the boho movement in fashion, this vine pattern merges the beauty of traditional chinoiserie with modern simplicity, allowing the fabric to become both a playful and versatile essential for today's interiors. The Martyn Lawrence Bullard for The Shade Store collection will be offered at all of The Shade Store's 100+ showrooms nationwide and through the online showroom at theshadestore.com. At The Shade Store, expertly trained Design Consultants are available to assist clients every step of the way, seven days a week, by chat through the website, email, phone or video consultation. Every order from The Shade Store is handcrafted in the USA and ships free in 10 days or less. To ensure the perfect fit, The Shade Store's nationwide team of professionals will handle all Measure & Install needs. Virtual assistance is also available. About The Shade Store The Shade Store is a premium custom window treatment company with a rich heritage in luxury textiles and interior design. Its exclusive collection of more than 1,300 in-stock fabrics and materials provides customers with an unparalleled amount of style and customization options. Every window treatment is proudly handcrafted in the USA, hung and tested for quality assurance and ships free in 10 days or less. With 100+ showrooms nationwide, The Shade Store offers a complete range of in-person and virtual design services for consumers and design-trade clientele, including swatches, complimentary professional window measurements and photo rendering. Additionally, the company is an advocate for environmental sustainability: For every purchase made, the company provides the 'Gift of Shade' by planting a tree in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. For more information about The Shade Store, please visit http://www.theshadestore.com. About Martyn Lawrence Bullard Martyn Lawrence Bullard is a multi-award winning Los Angeles-based interior designer renowned for his broad range of styles and eclectic, yet sophisticated and inviting interiors. Martyn has been consistently named as one of the world's top 100 interior designers by Architectural Digest, featured permanently in Elle Decor's A-List, and named one of the top 25 designers by The Hollywood Reporter. A popular television personality, Martyn starred in the hit Bravo series, Million Dollar Decorators, and hosted Channel 4's Hollywood Me in the UK, along with a multitude of design television programs spanning over 65 countries. SOURCE The Shade Store Related Links https://www.theshadestore.com OMER, Israel, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Robotican has successfully delivered its first indoor UAS to the USSOCOM for operational evaluation. The Gallo is an unmanned reconnaissance system that enables rapid, live situational-awareness and forward observation in confined spaces, such subterranean environments or inside buildings. The Gallo is the first hybrid unmanned platform that has both land robot and aerial drone capabilities. Combining these two disciplines provides an effective tool for a diverse variety of indoor operations. Gallo-Rooster drone system after successful indoor reconnaissance mission The Gallo's MESH communication enables the simultaneous operation of three Gallo's from the same control unit, relaying communication in indoor, communication-denied environments. The Gallo is suitable for military missions, as well as for search and rescue missions in locations of risk. Following delivery, a training course was held that included system operation and mission execution many operational scenarios, such as urban warfare, tunnels, urban and rural warfare, and indoor-mission training. Hagai Balshai, CEO Robotican, "We are very thrilled to have concluded our first Gallo delivery and training course with the USSOCOM. It is very exciting to see the fruits of our hard work integrated into an operational unit such as the Special Forces. We are looking forward to more Gallo-system courses and our continued collaboration with the US Armed Forces." Robotican specializes in autonomous robotics and drones for challenging operational needs. Since 2013, the company has supplied unique and creative robots and drones. Our products are the result of our in-house, multidisciplinary and professional team, abundant with autonomous drone experience. PR Contact: Roni Reis Business Development [email protected] Johnny Carni VP Marketing [email protected] Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626622/Robotican_Drone_System.jpg SOURCE Robotican Related Links https://robotican.net/ PARAMUS, N.J., Sept. 17, 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 today an electronic poster presentation on long-term efficacy and safety data (interim analysis at 109 weeks) from the open-label extension (up to 192 weeks) of a Phase 2 study of VILTEPSO (viltolarsen) injection at the World Muscle Society 2021 Virtual Conference being held September 2024. The electronic poster presentation will be given by Paula Clemens, MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine on Thursday, September 23rd from 16:30 to 18:30 BST. For more information, please visit the World Muscle Society Virtual Conference website to view the full program: https://www.wms2021.com/page/programme. About VILTEPSO (viltolarsen) injection Prior to its approval in the U.S., VILTEPSO was granted Priority Review as well as Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designations. In March 2020, VILTEPSO was approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with DMD who are amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy. Prior to its approval in Japan, VILTEPSO was granted with the SAKIGAKE designation, Orphan Drug designation, and designation of Conditional Early Approval System. Indication VILTEPSO is indicated for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in patients who have a confirmed mutation of the DMD gene that is amenable to exon 53 skipping. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on an increase in dystrophin production in skeletal muscle observed in patients treated with VILTEPSO. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial. Important Safety Information In clinical studies, no patients experienced kidney toxicity during treatment with VILTEPSO. However, kidney toxicity from drugs like VILTEPSO may be possible. Your doctor may monitor the health of your kidneys before starting and during treatment with VILTEPSO. Common side effects include upper respiratory tract infection, injection site reaction, cough, and fever. About NS Pharma, Inc. NS Pharma, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. For more information, please visit http://www.nspharma.com. NS Pharma is a registered trademark of the Nippon Shinyaku group of companies. Contact U.S. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE NS Pharma Related Links http://www.nspharma.com SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WELA, a women's entrepreneur group based in California, announced their next Google event with Laura Ching, co-founder of Tiny Prints. The event will be held virtually on Monday, September 20, 2021, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT. The event will provide female entrepreneurs a chance to meet Laura Ching. Laura is the co-founder of Tiny Prints and will share her process of starting Tiny Prints and acquiring it by Shutterfly. And she will also share how to instill passionate Mondays into your lives. GENEVA and PARIS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- #WeToo, the world's first global organisation to eradicate child abuse, launches today. It will bring together leading businesses and individuals to raise funds and awareness to help tackle the growing abuse of children worldwide. UNICEF and the World Health Organisation estimate that every year 55 million children in Europe and about a billion worldwide are the victims of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse or neglect. That is more children than the population of Europe being abused globally. While both governments and NGOs such as UNICEF have done much to tackle child abuse, the problem is still growing, made worse by the COVID pandemic. #WeToo aims to bring the private sector's dynamism and resources into the work of ending child abuse. It will do so in three ways: Raise money: the fight against child abuse is under-funded. Individuals and leading businesses can help correct that. Distribute effectively: it is not enough just to raise money; we also need to get it to those who can use it most effectively and quickly. The #WeToo expert committee will choose projects to fund worldwide according to impact and quality. All donations will be distributed, monitored and publicly reviewed every 6 months with interim reviews to ensure milestones are achieved on time by use of the latest blockchain technology from Concordium. Campaign for action: we, too, can do our best raise awareness of not just the problem, but also the solution. The further up the public agenda child abuse goes, the more likely that society, including governments, is to act. The movement's first event takes place on October 16, 2021, with a global DJ'ed yoga event hosted by Stewart Gilchrist and Friends, with sessions being held in the Himalayas, London, Paris, Bali, Copenhagen, Shanghai and New York. "Children's voices need to be prioritized and heard, not silenced. It is timely and appropriate that adults unite and commit to stopping child abuse, and I am so delighted that leading figures in the private sector have offered to help us solve this pressing and urgent global child abuse crisis. This is just what is needed to improve the outlook for our children," said Hanna Dam-Stokholm, #WeToo's founder. #WeToo has already agreed to work alongside one of the world's leading professional service providers Ernst & Young, Live Nation, the world's leading live music promoter, and Concordium, the leading blockchain company. The organisation's campaign plan has been drawn up by the #WeToo Expert Committee, comprising some of the world's best child protection experts, such as Dr Pierre Levy-Soussan, an expert at the French Tribunals and international child protection expert, and Dr Rasmus Kjeldahl, Director of the Danish children's NGO "Brns Vilkar." #WeToo already has in place an exciting agenda of forthcoming events, campaigns, alliances and concerts, more details of which will be released at a later date. About Hanna Dam-Stokholm Senior expertise from the logistics sector and in launching and building luxury brands globally (A.P.Moller-Maersk, Estee Lauder, KAO...). Activist, determined to stop ignorance of child abuse and conjugal violence. #WeToo contact: Maribel Conti Press Officer [email protected] +44 (0)7557 491860 6 Rue de la Rotisserie, 1204 Geneve, Switzerland 15 Rue Danielle Casanova, 75001 Paris, France SOURCE #WeToo Related Links https://www.wetoo.info GIBRALTAR, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FTX Trading Limited ("FTX" or "the Company"), a leading global cryptocurrency exchange, today announced that its Gibraltar subsidiary, Zubr Exchange Limited, owner and operator of ZUBR, a Gibraltar-based digital asset derivatives exchange ("ZUBR") received authorisation from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) as a DLT provider. Sam Bankman Fried, CEO & Founder of FTX, commented on the news, "We're excited that ZUBR is now fully licensed under one of the world's first crypto regulatory frameworks. Securing this DLT provider license for our subsidiary is a key step toward our goal of creating a trustworthy and compliant exchange group that can be used by investors of all types around the globe." After acquiring ZUBR's parent company earlier this year, FTX worked closely with the ZUBR team and local advisors in Gibraltar to perfect the in-principle approval previously granted to ZUBR. The acquisition also allows FTX to expand its team of developers, which will work on enhancing the underlying technology, infrastructure, and products offered by both ZUBR and FTX. Oleg Ravnushkin, Co-Founder of ZUBR, added, "I'm excited that our team is joining the FTX family as we share the same mission of providing a best-in-class, compliant platform for traders of all types. The ZUBR team is excited to leverage its own expertise in the digital asset space in line with FTX's goal to become one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the world." FTX has already begun to integrate the ZUBR team in the months following the acquisition. ZUBR will maintain its local presence and operational autonomy in line with the DLT provider license requirements. Additionally, the Company will be devoting significant resources towards developing a strong working relationship with the GFSC. About FTX.COM FTX.COM is a cryptocurrency exchange built by traders, for traders. It offers innovative products, including industry-leading derivatives, options and volatility products, tokenized stocks, prediction markets, leveraged tokens and an OTC desk. FTX.COM strives to be an intuitive yet powerful platform for all kinds of users, and to be the most innovative exchange in the industry. FTX.COM has grown quickly since its founding, becoming one of the most respected cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in less than 2 years. To learn more about FTX.COM, please visit: https://ftx.com/ FTX.COM is not available to US residents or residents of other prohibited jurisdictions, as set out in its Terms of Service. About ZUBR ZUBR is a crypto derivatives platform aimed at trading participants with increased requirements for stability and speed in an exchange, regardless of the market activity. With the values of the traditional financial services industry, combined with the latest breakthrough technology, ZUBR leads the way in evolving the crypto derivatives trading industry into a regulated and truly professional environment, which encourages every party to be its best. This means opposing unfair maker/taker pricing models, offering free professional trading tools, and presenting sensible leverage options. With speed and security at its core, ZUBR's mission is to provide a robust, industry-grade service for demanding and technologically advanced market players seeking a fair and reliable gateway to digital assets. ZUBR was co-founded by Oleg Ravnushkin and Sergey Yakubanets. ZUBR received an in-principle approval for its DLT Provider license (Gibraltar) in May 2020. As well as providing its service to professional traders, ZUBR frequently conducts market research for all investor types. You can find all previous research papers here. Website: https://zubr.io Media Contact Jay A. Morakis M Group Strategic Communications (for FTX) +1 646 859 5951 [email protected] SOURCE FTX Trading Ltd. Related Links https://ftx.com DUBLIN, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Heat Pumps Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report provides strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global heat pumps market as it emerges from the COVID-19 shut down. The global heat pumps market is expected to grow from $111.62 billion in 2020 to $116.55 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4%. 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 $159.43 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 8.1%. Reasons to Purchase Gain a truly global perspective with the most comprehensive report available on this market covering 12+ geographies. Understand how the market is being affected by the coronavirus and how it is likely to emerge and grow as the impact of the virus abates. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Identify growth segments for investment. Outperform competitors using forecast data and the drivers and trends shaping the market. Understand customers based on the latest market research findings. Benchmark performance against key competitors. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the heat pumps ? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The Heat Pump market global report answers all these questions and many more. The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the market's historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider heat pumps market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market, the impact of the COVID-19 virus and forecasting its recovery. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers the impact and recovery trajectory of COVID-19 for all regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section analyses the shape of the market as it emerges from the crisis and suggests how companies can grow as the market recovers. The heat pumps market section of the report gives context. It compares the heat pumps market with other segments of the heat pumps market by size and growth, historic and forecast. Major players in the heat pumps market are Daikin Industries Ltd., Carrier, NIBE, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, LG, Johnson Controls, Hitachi, Robert Bosch GmbH, Stiebel Eltron, and Ingersoll Rand. The heat pumps market consists of sales of heat pumps by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that produce heat pumps which move heat from a cool space to a warm space, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included. Major companies operating in the heat pumps industry are focusing on developing new technology for cost-effective heating, which is likely to gain popularity in the heat pumps market. The heat pump manufacturers are developing new pump technology including contractor-friendly designs, higher efficiencies, and innovative two-stage compressors that run at lower speeds, consume less energy, and are cost-effective. For instance, in July 2020, Daikin Industries, Ltd. announced the launch of Daikin SmartSource, Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS). It is a next-generation heat pump technology that allows efficient and cost-effective cooling and heating in all conditions achieves 49% higher efficiency than other heat pumps. The heat pumps market covered in this report is segmented by product type into air source; air-to-air; air-to-water; water source; ground source. It is also segmented by rated capacity into up to 10 kw; 10-20 kw; 20-30 kw; above 30 kw and by end user into residential; commercial; industrial. In March 2020, NIBE Industrier AB (NIBE Group), a Sweden-based provider of energy-efficient solutions for homes, acquired WATERKOTTE GmbH for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition of WATERKOTTE GmbH is expected to help NIBE Industrier AB to strengthen its position in the European heat pump market, especially in Germany. Furthermore, WATERKOTTE GmbH will also provide the company with access to handling large projects and heat pumps with higher capacity. WATERKOTTE GmbH is a German-based company engaged in manufacturing and selling advanced heat pumps and integrated sustainable energy solutions for single-family homes and commercial applications. Government regulations and policies to improve energy efficiency are boosting the demand for renewable energy sources, thereby contributing to the growth of the heat pumps market. Heat pumps offer a low carbon footprint, minimal installation time, and reduce energy consumption in the household and industrial applications. Energy efficiency has tremendous potential to boost economic growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The government of various countries is adopting energy conservation policies. For instance, the UK government formed an Energy Efficiency Office embracing various departments to monitor, coordinate, and develop energy conservation policies. Moreover, in the USA, all industries consuming more than one million GJ/A (100) are required to report their energy conservation and consumption efforts to the Department of Energy for seeking guidance on greater efficiency of energy use. Therefore, growing efforts to reduce energy usage is likely to propel the demand for energy-efficient products including heat pumps. The coronavirus outbreak restricted the growth of the heat pumps market. The governments across the world imposed restrictions on the movement of people, resulting in supply chain disruptions. COVID-19 lockdowns forced many industries to shut down or operate with minimum capacity, hampering the revenues of various industries including the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) industry. For instance, Lennox International Inc., a US-based provider of climate control products for air conditioning, heating, ventilation, and refrigeration, depends heavily on a complex global supply chain. The company has manufacturing facilities in Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, and South Carolina, and the company's network includes local and regional distribution stores and centers. The company is also engaged in selling products through contractors and dealers, therefore Covid-19 lockdown restrictions have impacted Lennox's ability to deliver its products to the customers, thus restraining the market growth of the heat pumps during the period. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. Heat Pumps Market Characteristics 3. Heat Pumps Market Trends and Strategies 4. Impact of COVID-19 on Heat Pumps 5. Heat Pumps Market Size and Growth 5.1. Global Heat Pumps Historic Market, 2015-2020, $ Billion 5.1.1. Drivers of the Market 5.1.2. Restraints on the Market 5.2. Global Heat Pumps Forecast Market, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2.1. Drivers of the Market 5.2.2. Restraints on the Market 6. Heat Pumps Market Segmentation 7. Heat Pumps Market Regional and Country Analysis 7.1. Global Heat Pumps Market, Split by Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 7.2. Global Heat Pumps Market, Split by Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 8. Asia-Pacific Heat Pumps Market 9. China Heat Pumps Market 10. India Heat Pumps Market 11. Japan Heat Pumps Market 12. Australia Heat Pumps Market 13. Indonesia Heat Pumps Market 14. South Korea Heat Pumps Market 15. Western Europe Heat Pumps Market 16. UK Heat Pumps Market 17. Germany Heat Pumps Market 18. France Heat Pumps Market 19. Eastern Europe Heat Pumps Market 20. Russia Heat Pumps Market 21. North America Heat Pumps Market 22. USA Heat Pumps Market 23. South America Heat Pumps Market 24. Brazil Heat Pumps Market 25. Middle East Heat Pumps Market 26. Africa Heat Pumps Market 27. Heat Pumps Market Competitive Landscape and Company Profiles 27.1. Heat Pumps Market Competitive Landscape 27.2. Heat Pumps Market Company Profiles 27.2.1. Daikin Industries Ltd. 27.2.1.1. Overview 27.2.1.2. Products and Services 27.2.1.3. Strategy 27.2.1.4. Financial Performance 27.2.2. Carrier 27.2.2.1. Overview 27.2.2.2. Products and Services 27.2.2.3. Strategy 27.2.2.4. Financial Performance 27.2.3. NIBE 27.2.3.1. Overview 27.2.3.2. Products and Services 27.2.3.3. Strategy 27.2.3.4. Financial Performance 27.2.4. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation 27.2.4.1. Overview 27.2.4.2. Products and Services 27.2.4.3. Strategy 27.2.4.4. Financial Performance 27.2.5. LG 27.2.5.1. Overview 27.2.5.2. Products and Services 27.2.5.3. Strategy 27.2.5.4. Financial Performance 29. Key Mergers and Acquisitions in the Heat Pumps Market 29. Heat Pumps Market Future Outlook and Potential Analysis 30. Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/tgoce5 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 TOKYO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The ICEF Secretariat announced on September 17 that Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) will host "Innovation for Cool Earth Forum 8th Annual Meeting (ICEF2021)" online from October 6 to 7. ICEF2020: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106778/202109139949/_prw_PI1fl_HKkJJJyn.jpg Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF2021) Every year since 2014, METI and NEDO have hosted the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF) to gather leading international figures in Tokyo to discuss how to combat climate change through technological innovation. ICEF's mission is to nurture discussion and collaboration among participants and to disseminate the industry's latest innovations in energy and environmental technologies by providing a place where experts can share their knowledge on how to tackle the 21st century's greatest environmental challenge. A distinguished steering committee, consisting of members from all around the world, strives to bring the best minds together to develop a program which addresses forces of change while ensuring they are based on solid evidence. Every year since 2014, METI and NEDO have hosted the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF) to gather leading international figures in to discuss how to combat climate change through technological innovation. ICEF's mission is to nurture discussion and collaboration among participants and to disseminate the industry's latest innovations in energy and environmental technologies by providing a place where experts can share their knowledge on how to tackle the 21st century's greatest environmental challenge. A distinguished steering committee, consisting of members from all around the world, strives to bring the best minds together to develop a program which addresses forces of change while ensuring they are based on solid evidence. Highlight World Movements of "Innovation" for a Decarbonized Society In the world, a variety of initiatives across industry, government and academia are being rapidly accelerated toward a Decarbonized Society. There are many diverse climate change challenges, and all stakeholders in society, including the private sector and governments, are called upon to tackle specific actions from short- and long-term perspectives. World Movements of "Innovation" for a Decarbonized Society In the world, a variety of initiatives across industry, government and academia are being rapidly accelerated toward a Decarbonized Society. There are many diverse climate change challenges, and all stakeholders in society, including the private sector and governments, are called upon to tackle specific actions from short- and long-term perspectives. Outline Innovation for Cool Earth Forum 8th Annual Meeting (ICEF2021) Innovation for Cool Earth Forum 8th Annual Meeting (ICEF2021) Theme Pathways to Carbon Neutrality by 2050: Accelerating the Pace of Global Decarbonization Pathways to Carbon Neutrality by 2050: Accelerating the Pace of Global Decarbonization Date October 6-7, 2021 9:00 a.m. - (JST)* / 0:00 a.m.- (UTC )* *All sessions and events will take place during the daytime hours, Japan Standard Time, and will be distributed online. - (JST)* / )* *All sessions and events will take place during the daytime hours, Japan Standard Time, and will be distributed online. Venue Virtual Forum (Live & On-demand) Virtual Forum (Live & On-demand) Co-Hosts Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Ministry of the Environment (MOE) Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) Ministry of the Environment (MOE) Institutional Partners International Energy Agency (IEA) United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) International Energy Agency (IEA) United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Registration https://www.icef.go.jp/register/ (Free of charge) https://www.icef.go.jp/register/ (Free of charge) Program https://www.icef.go.jp/program/ The program is subject to change; information is updated regularly. For more details, please visit: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/attach/202109139949-O1-v5AFmJUn.pdf SOURCE ICEF Secretariat Related Links https://www.icef.go.jp/ SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aircover , a real-time sales intelligence platform for customer facing teams, today announces its $3M Series Seed funding. The round was led by Defy Partners, with participation from Firebolt Ventures, Flex Capital, and Ridge Ventures. Additional angel investors include industry veterans in video conferencing, enterprise software, and machine learning. Bob Rosin of Defy Partners will be joining Aircover's board of directors. The capital will be used to accelerate product development and deliver on the vision for every go-to-market team to speak in a unified voice around product, strategy, and ecosystem. "With the Future of Work accelerating digital interactions between buyers and sellers, it's the right time to build real-time tools directly into the meeting experience to enable teams to have more effective customer conversations," said Andrew Levy, Aircover's CEO and Co-Founder. Aircover's mission is to bridge the information gap between buyers and sellers through the use of real-time tools and conversational AI on top of virtual meetings. Aircover's software integrates seamlessly into Zoom, automating various parts of the sales process and enabling go-to-market teams to have more effective sales conversations. The Aircover App for Zoom Meetings will be available from the Zoom App Marketplace. Customers can also request access to the expanded beta by visiting aircover.ai. "One of the goals of launching the Zoom SDK was to provide developers with the tools they need to create valuable and engaging experiences for our mutual customers and integrations ecosystem. Aircover's focus on building sales intelligence directly into the meeting, to guide customer-facing teams through the entire sales cycle, is the type of innovation we had envisioned when we set out to create a broader platform," said Brendan Ittelson, CTO, at Zoom." The founding team Andrew Levy, Alex Young, and David Levy are experienced entrepreneurs with backgrounds in analytics, video platforms, and enterprise sales. The three previously worked together at Apteligent (Crittercism), where Andrew was the Co-Founder and CEO. Apteligent was the leader in enterprise mobile user experience analytics before it sold to VMware in 2017. "The way that buyers and sellers interact has fundamentally changed. Video and online meetings are now the norm and there is a desperate need for a new generation of tools to drive more meaningful conversations and to help sales teams be more productive in this new environment," said Bob Rosin, Partner at Defy.vc. "Andrew, Alex, and David are a proven world-class team and the early customer feedback has been stellar. We are thrilled to support them as they redefine selling in this new video-enabled era." About Aircover Aircover's mission is to bridge the information gap between buyers and sellers through the use of real-time tools and conversational AI. The Aircover platform surfaces in-meeting insights based on the customer interaction, and automates critical parts of the sales process. As a result, revenue teams maximize sales effectiveness and sales efficiency. By building these tools directly into a live meeting, we enable go-to-market teams to change the outcome of their sales meetings with more effective customer interactions. The founding team consists of leaders in analytics, video platforms, and enterprise sales. Aircover is a remote-friendly company with its headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, please visit https://aircover.ai/ . About Defy Partners Founded in 2016, Defy is a Silicon Valley based early stage venture capital firm. Defy was founded to invest in entrepreneurs and companies looking to solve complex problems. Defy's focus is to help early stage companies mature and scale into companies ready for growth capital. The firm's team has more than 50 years of venture experience, successful operating backgrounds and actively helps successful entrepreneurs grow companies from inception through exit. Connect with Defy at https://defy.vc/ and @defyvc SOURCE Aircover Related Links www.aircover.ai "The contributions of HBCUs can no longer be overlooked. Just look to the White House or the United States Congress." Tweet this "Despite the recent national attention given to HBCUs in 2021 and incremental state and federal funding, HBCUs still lag far behind other institutions of higher education when it comes to ongoing and sustainable support," adds Dr. Glover. In 2021, the sorority gifted $1.6 million to 35 eligible four-year HBCUs. The endowments on these campuses will grow in perpetuity and help schools reduce student debt through scholarships, fund industry-specific research, and provide much-needed infrastructure maintenance. Those funds are proving to be extremely crucial during the current climate in higher education. HBCUs continue to be under-funded and now have an added burdened of operational challenges with the impact of the ever evolving COVID-19 pandemic. "Now more than ever is the time for Alpha Kappa Alpha to step up, as we have done for more than 113 years, along with our partners and continue our call to action for our historic institutions of higher education," Glover contends. "The contributions of HBCUs can no longer be overlooked or minimized. Just look to the White House or the United States Congress. HBCUs account for nearly 25% of bachelor's degrees granted to African Americans. I cannot imagine a world without HBCUs, but I can imagine how much stronger the world would be if we all supported the HBCU community." Members and supporters have surpassed the $1 million goal for the past three years. Last year's Impact Day raised $1.3 million in 2020. HBCU Impact Day is part of the sorority's recognition of HBCU Week. On September 20, chapters around the globe will host fundraising events in support of the $1 million fundraising goal. Interested donors can make contributions by giving by mail or online at http://donate.akaeaf.org during the 24-hour campaign. For more information on the sorority's commitment to HBCUs, visit www.AKA1908.com About Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) is an international service organization that was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1908. It is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African-American, college-educated women. Alpha Kappa Alpha is comprised of over 300,000 members in more than 1,000 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Liberia, Bahamas, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Canada, Japan, Germany, South Korea, South Africa, and in the Middle East. Led by International President and Chief Executive Officer, Glenda Glover Ph.D., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated is often hailed as "America's premier Greek-letter organization for African-American women." Visit www.aka1908.com for more information. About the AKA Educational Advancement Foundation Over 40 years ago, the Educational Advancement Foundation was established by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to promote lifelong learning. It is now the largest minority-owned women's foundation in the country with assets totaling over $22.7 million. The foundation has donated over $6.5 million for scholarships, fellowships, and community assistance grants and is an organization with a rich and distinguished history of service that spans nearly a century. Creating the Educational Advancement Foundation was the method by which Alpha Kappa Alpha. Inc. sought to ensure that there would always be support for education, its oldest program of service. Today, the Foundation, a financially strong and viable organization, is a powerful tool for good, pooling the resources of others who share this vision of providing a perpetual source of support for education. Alpha Kappa Alpha implements an AKA HBCU Endowment Initiative in partnership with EAF, in which an endowed scholarship will be established at each accredited four-year HBCU. The goal is to stamp the Alpha Kappa Alpha brand of financial support on each HBCU campus to help students remain in school, complete their course of study, and receive their college degrees. For more information about the Educational Advancement Foundation, please visit www.akaeaf.org. SOURCE Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. TITUSVILLE, Fla., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Apple Rush Company, Inc. (US OTC PINK: APRU), wholly owned subsidiary APRU, LLC, secures Florida Hemp Production License from FDACS and FDA Food Facility registration. Growing our Element Brands line of products is crucial to the success of the business and we believe that APRU, LLC's ability to do any type of hemp related business including extraction, provided the hemp source meets the .3% total THC threshold. As a team, we have pulled together and are moving forward in a positive manner. UMIG distributing has taken delivery of additional pallets of Element C and Element D products and of our new floor displays. Ronnda Shields will be leaving this week for Virginia heading up our presence at the Mid Atlantic C-Store convention. She will also be meeting with a potential new distributor in South Carolina seeking additional territories for our brands. Our warehouse team will be ready to ship orders as we receive them with inventory we have built over the summer. Tony Torgerud, CEO of Apple Rush stated, "We are excited to be able to produce and sell any hemp related products. Hemp has many uses and we will explore expansion into different categories besides food and beverage where we see a market. We will be participating in additional trade shows, starting with CBD Expo West in LA at the and of the month. I will be an expert speaker at additional future food and beverage related events." We will be making future announcements on our initiatives moving forward. These first steps will propel us to new heights and help us in delivering strong results for our stakeholders. About The Apple Rush Company, Inc. The Apple Rush Company, Inc., through its subsidiary APRU, LLC, is a distributor of CPG products under the trademarked Apple Rush brand, Element Brands and other labels. The Apple Rush brand has more than 49 years of existence in the natural beverage industry. As a historical leader in the organic and natural beverage sector our goal is to now become a leader in the distribution of anhydrous hemp oil products nationwide. For more information, please go to www.applerush.com, www.aprubrands.com, www.element-brands.com and www.mistyk.com with our expanded product portfolio. Safe Harbor Act: Forward-Looking Statements are included within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements regarding our expected future financial position, results of operations, cash flows, financing plans, business strategy, products and services, competitive positions, growth opportunities, plans and objectives of management for future operations including words such as "anticipate," "if," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "could," "should," "will," and similar expressions are forward-looking statements and involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance, or achievements. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. SOURCE The Apple Rush Company, Inc. Related Links http://www.applerush.com ST. LOUIS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Benjamin F. Edwards has announced an affiliation with Elkhorn Private Wealth, an independent advisory firm based in Lexington, Ky. Elkhorn will now have access to Edwards' full suite of back- and middle-office capabilities while maintaining complete ownership of their practice. Led by founder and Managing Partner Larry Crosthwaite, Elkhorn has a total of four employees, two of whom are financial advisors: Crosthwaite and Kyle Steele, Wealth Advisor. The firm has $140 million in assets under management. Edwards has $37 billion in assets under management with more than 600 employees in 79 locations that span 30 states. The firm has a distinguished legacy spanning 135 years and five generations. Edwards' financial advisors are given the independence to serve their clients the way they see fit and the accessibility to build treasured relationships over generations. With this new affiliation, Elkhorn is Benjamin F. Edwards' first presence in Kentucky and is the fourth advisory firm to affiliate with Edwards Wealth Management since the firm expanded with its enterprise RIA in 2019. "We are excited about our relationship with Elkhorn and adding another advisory firm to our network of Edwards Wealth Management firms," said Tad Edwards, chairman and CEO of Benjamin F. Edwards. "It's a privilege to be able to work with Larry and his team, who embody our values in delivering exceptional service to clients and are the type of people and professionals who we are delighted to have as partners." As key reasons for choosing Edwards, Crosthwaite cited the ability to assist in getting his practice launched as well as the distinguished Edwards brand and full complement of resources. "I've had a vision to create my own advisory practice that would give me the freedom to meet my clients' needs, reflect the culture of my community, and allow me to maintain full ownership. With access to the Edwards platform, capital, transition support, and concierge service model, I'm not only realizing my vision, but have been able to get here much faster than I imagined." Chris Keller, managing director of Edwards Wealth Management, said: "Elkhorn is tapping into our full set of services, including our proprietary asset management platform, broker-dealer, RIA, integrated technology, and business operations. In doing so, they can focus on creating great client outcomes and maintain full ownership of their practice while delegating many of the day-to-day burdens of operating a business to us," Keller said. "With our resources, we have provided them with instant scale and a business model that would have been otherwise difficult to achieve." Crosthwaite agreed. "The consultative, hands-on approach to getting our business successfully launched was first-class from the start. I'm grateful to the team at Edwards for helping me get this far." About Benjamin F. Edwards Benjamin F. Edwards is a privately owned full-service, national wealth-management firm headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. The firm currently has 79 branch offices in 30 states with more than 600 employees and $37 billion in assets under management. The firm has a distinguished legacy spanning 135 years and five generations. Edwards' financial advisors are given the independence to serve their clients the way they see fit and the accessibility to build treasured relationships over generations. A subsidiary of Benjamin Edwards, Inc., Benjamin F. Edwards is a full-service broker-dealer offering a wide array of investment management and investment banking services to its clients and advisors. For more information about Benjamin F. Edwards, please visit benjaminfedwards.com, or follow the company on Twitter.com/GrowWithBFEC. About Edwards Wealth Management Edwards Wealth Management is a privately owned registered investment advisory firm headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. A subsidiary of Benjamin Edwards, Inc., the enterprise RIA is an open architecture, best-in-class platform for independently owned advisory firms. For those advisors looking to start their independent practice, EWM takes a consultative approach to helping them get off the ground. For more information about Edwards Wealth Management, please visit benjaminfedwards.com. SOURCE Benjamin F. Edwards Related Links www.benjaminfedwards.com GUELPH, ON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - BIOREM Inc. (TSXV: BRM) ("Biorem" or "the Company") today announced that at the special meeting of shareholders held on September 16, 2021 the shareholders approved the purchase for cancellation of 23,434,121 common shares of the Company from TPFG Environment Investment Limited ("TPFG"). Shareholders at the meeting overwhelmingly approved the purchase for cancellation of 23,434,121 common shares from TPFG (the "TPFG Shares") for total consideration of $12,316,974. Only disinterested shareholders were eligible to vote at the meeting. The proposed transaction had been previously announced in a news release on August 5, 2021 and a Material Change Report filed on August 18, 2021. Subject to obtaining final regulatory approval of the transaction and satisfying other outstanding conditions to closing, the transaction to repurchase the TPFG Shares is expected to close in mid October. The share repurchase will be financed from existing cash reserves of the Company along with $5 million in term debt from a Canadian chartered bank. "This is an important milestone for the Company and it is encouraging to have such full shareholder support", said Derek Webb President and CEO. "This large share buy back is not only immediately accretive to the disinterested shareholders but is a key component of the long-term growth strategy of the Company. Management is excited at achieving this milestone and look forward to working with our stakeholders to realize a common vision". After the repurchase and cancellation of the TPFG Shares, 15,477,937 common shares will remain outstanding. About BIOREM Inc. BIOREM is a leading clean technology company that designs, manufactures and distributes a comprehensive line of high-efficiency air emissions control systems used to eliminate odors, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). With sales and manufacturing offices across the continent, a dedicated research facility, a worldwide sales representative network and more than 1,600 installed systems worldwide, BIOREM offers state-of-the-art technology-based products and peace of mind for municipalities, industrial companies and their surrounding communities. Additional information on Biorem is available on our website at www.biorem.biz. SOURCE Biorem Inc. Related Links http://www.biorem.biz VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioVaxys Technology Corp. (CSE: BIOV) (FRA: 5LB) (OTCQB: BVAXF) ("BioVaxys"), announced today that cancer vaccine manufacturing partner Bio Elpida in Lyon, France, has reached major milestones in the development of the bioproduction process for BVX-0918A, BioVaxys' ovarian cancer vaccine and is beginning the next phase of manufacturing process development. Bio Elpida has completed the technology process transfer with BioVaxys and started the development phase using a Quality by Design ("QbD") approach which includes establishing the control methods and manufacturing process development. In parallel, as Bio Elpida further prepares for GMP manufacturing of BVX-0918A, the preparation of the new manufacturing facility is ongoing and on schedule. The next step is the vaccine process validation using donated tumor samples obtained following surgical excision from ovarian cancer patients. Bio Elpida President Gilles Devillers says that "This major step is essentially a 'dry-run' for manufacturing the vaccine and preparation for GMP production. Although there is significant know-how required to produce a GLP process that has been contributed by both BioVaxys and Bio Elpida, production of GMP-grade vaccine is about validation, proving sterility, quality control, etc., which must all be extremely well documented for regulatory authorities." BVX-0918A is headed for a planned Phase I clinical trial in Spain early next year with BioVaxys' EU commercial partner Procare Health Iberia. BioVaxys President and Chief Operating Officer Ken Kovan stated, "Today's news represents a significant manufacturing milestone for BioVaxys and follows on the back of the news earlier this week that our CDMO partner WuXi Biologics has completed the synthesis of recombinant SARS-CoV-2 s-protein for our BVX-0320 and CoviDTH programs, further demonstrating the outstanding strength of our bioproduction partners while serving as a testimony to the operational and executional capacity of BioVaxys." About BioVaxys Technology Corp. Based in Vancouver, BioVaxys Technology Corp. (www.biovaxys.com) is a British Columbia-registered, clinical stage biotechnology company that is developing viral and oncology vaccine platforms, as well as immuno-diagnostics. The Company is advancing a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine based on its haptenized viral protein technology, and is planning a clinical trial of its haptenized autologous cell vaccine used in combination with anti-PD1 and anti-PDL-1 checkpoint inhibitors that will initially be developed for Stage III/Stage IV ovarian cancer. Also in development is CoviDTH, a diagnostic for evaluating the presence or absence of a T cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. BioVaxys has two issued US patents and two patent applications related to its cancer vaccine, and pending patent applications for its SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) vaccine and diagnostic technologies. BioVaxys common shares are listed on the CSE under the stock symbol "BIOV" and trade on the Frankfurt Bourse (FRA: 5LB) and in the US (OTCQB: BVAXF). ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Signed "James Passin" James Passin, CEO +1 646 452 7054 Media Contacts BioVaxys Technology Corp. Nikita Sachdev Luna PR [email protected] Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, are forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things, completion of the murine model study, regulatory approval for a Phase I study of its BVX-0320 Vaccine Candidate in humans and the overall development of BioVaxys' vaccines, including any haptenized SARS-Cov-2 protein vaccine. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates, primarily the assumption that BioVaxys will be successful in developing and testing vaccines, that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies including, primarily but without limitation, the risk that BioVaxys' vaccines will not prove to be effective and/ or will not receive the required regulatory approvals. With regards to BioVaxys' business, there are a number of risks that could affect the development of its biotechnology products, including, without limitation, the need for additional capital to fund clinical trials, its lack of operating history, uncertainty about whether its products will complete the long, complex and expensive clinical trial and regulatory approval process for approval of new drugs necessary for marketing approval, uncertainty about whether its autologous cell vaccine immunotherapy can be developed to produce safe and effective products and, if so, whether its vaccine products will be commercially accepted and profitable, the expenses, delays and uncertainties and complications typically encountered by development stage biopharmaceutical businesses, financial and development obligations under license arrangements in order to protect its rights to its products and technologies, obtaining and protecting new intellectual property rights and avoiding infringement to third parties and their dependence on manufacturing by third parties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law. James Passin, CEO +1 646 452 7054 Media Contacts BioVaxys Technology Corp. Nikita Sachdev Luna PR [email protected] SOURCE BioVaxys Technology Corp. Related Links http://www.biovaxys.com NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BNY Mellon Investment Management, one of the world's largest asset managers with $2.3 trillion in assets under management1, in partnership with Wilshire, a diversified global financial services firm and leading provider of investment consulting services, today announced expanded access to its BNY Mellon Custom Target Date BuilderSM (CTDB), with Voya Financial becoming the first recordkeeper to support the solution. The CTDB is a new advisor solution that provides more choice to the target date business, with custom retirement portfolio modeling tools typically only available to the world's largest institutions. "As we expand access to our CTDB offering, we are delighted that Voya, a top-tier recordkeeping firm, will be supporting this advisor solution," said Andy Provencher, head of North America Distribution, BNY Mellon Investment Management. "Voya's platform is a great choice for our CTDB offering as its advisor-friendly, open architecture platform enables retirement specialists to build plan level custom target date solutions in an efficient and bespoke manner for retirement plans of all sizes." Customization in target date funds has been popular in the mega plan DC market for years, and the BNY Mellon CTDB solution now provides retirement advisors with imbedded glidepath and model management and the ability to leverage their own research and intellectual capital. Launched in December 2020, BNY Mellon's CTBD solution allows advisors to provide plan sponsors and their plan participants with a unique level of customization and scalability through the open architecture offering now available through Voya's recordkeeping platform. "At Voya, we continue to see client and advisor interest in our offerings, capabilities and resources, and we are delighted to be the first recordkeeper to support the CTBD," said Jeff Cimini, senior vice president, retirement product management at Voya Financial. "We remain focused on providing the products and programs that we know will support the financial professionals we work with to help their clients reach their future goals. Using the technologies already in place in our systems today, CTDB provides a new opportunity for advisors to implement their own strategies, ultimately helping to facilitate better retirement outcomes." This month, the BNY Mellon Investment Management DC sales team was pleased to have the opportunity to engage with advisors face-to-face at the NAPA 401(k) Summit, the premiere industry event for advisors and the first major in-person conference in nearly two years, where BNY Mellon Investment Management was proud to support NAPA's Top Women Advisors at this year's event and attendees were able to view a demo of the CTBD solution and meet with Wilshire and Voya partners. To learn more about the BNY Mellon Custom Target Date Builder, please visit our website at im.bnymellon.com/ctdb. About BNY Mellon Investment Management BNY Mellon Investment Management is one of the world's largest asset managers, with $2.3 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2021. Through an investor-first approach, BNY Mellon Investment Management brings to clients the best of both worlds: specialist expertise from eight investment firms offering solutions across every major asset class, backed by the strength, stability, and global presence of BNY Mellon. Additional information on BNY Mellon Investment Management is available on www.bnymellonim.com. BNY Mellon Investment Management is a division of BNY Mellon, which has $45.0 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration as of June 30, 2021. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news. About Wilshire Wilshire Advisors LLC is a leading global financial services firm, dedicated to improving outcomes for investors worldwide. An independent firm since its founding in 1972, Wilshire advises on $1.3 trillion in assets of which approximately $87 billion is assets under management. Specializing in innovative investment solutions, consulting services and multi-asset analytics, Wilshire serves more than 500 institutional and intermediary clients worldwide from 10 offices around the globe. For more information about Wilshire, visit www.wilshire.com or follow @WilshireAssoc. About Voya Financial Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), provides health, wealth and investment solutions that enable its approximately 14.8 million individual, workplace and institutional clients to achieve their financial wellness goals with confidence. With a vision to be America's Retirement Company, Voya's products, solutions and digital capabilities help create a better financial future for all. Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $7.6 billion in revenue in 2020 and $721 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2021. Certified as a "Great Place to Work" by the Great Place to Work Institute, Voya is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has been recognized as a 2020 World's Most Admired Company by Fortune magazine; one of the 2020 World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute; as a member of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; and as a "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion" on the Disability Equality Index by Disability:IN. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya. Media Contacts: BNY Mellon Investment Management Jessica Rutledge 917.683.6820 [email protected] Voya Financial Laura Maulucci Office: (860) 580-1278 Cell: (508) 353-6913 [email protected] Wilshire Associates Lisa Herbert +1 310 728 5341 [email protected] All investments involve some level of risk, including loss of principal. Certain investments have specific or unique risks. An investment in a target date strategy does not eliminate the need for an investor to determine whether a strategy is appropriate for their specific financial situation. An investment in a strategy is not guaranteed. Investors may experience losses, including losses near, at, or after the target date, and there is no guarantee that a strategy will provide adequate income at and through retirement. BNY Mellon, Wilshire Associates and Voya Financial are not affiliated entities. BNY Mellon accepts no responsibility for content on any third-party sites or for the services provided. The BNY Mellon Custom Target Date Builder is distributed by BNY Mellon Securities Corporation, a registered broker-dealer. BNY Mellon Securities Corporation does not provide investment advice and is not a fiduciary for the program. This press release is qualified for issuance in the U.S. only and is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute an offer or solicitation of securities or investment services or an endorsement thereof in any jurisdiction or in any circumstance in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful or not authorized. This press release is issued by BNY Mellon Investment Management to members of the financial press and media and the information contained herein should not be construed as investment advice. 1 As of June 30, 2021. SOURCE BNY Mellon Investment Management LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Body and Mind Inc. (CSE: BAMM) (OTCQB: BMMJ) (the "Company" or "BaM"), a multi-state operator focused on limited license markets, is pleased to report the closing of the acquisition of the remaining 70% interest in NMG Ohio LLC ("NMG Ohio"). The transaction included the transfer of a dispensary license for the Clubhouse Dispensary in Elyria, Ohio to our wholly owned subsidiary, NMG OH 1, LLC, which became effective on September 4, 2020. The transaction also included the final award of a production license which has now been transferred to our wholly owned subsidiary, NMG OH P1 LLC. As a result of the closing of this acquisition, the Company now indirectly owns 100% of NMG Ohio. BaM's real estate and development team were instrumental in developing the Ohio dispensary and production licenses as the State of Ohio opened for medical cannabis. The Ohio market has experienced significant growth since inception and the Ohio Ballot Board recently approved the language of a ballot initiative effort to legalize cannabis for Ohio adults aged 21 or older as well as possession and home grow language. The Clubhouse dispensary was one of the early dispensaries to open after Ohio commenced sales of medical cannabis and has recently transitioned to a Body and Mind branded dispensary. The new processing facility is located next to the Body and Mind dispensary and has been designed to produce popular Body and Mind concentrates using hydrocarbon extraction as well as edibles and oils. "Our team has years of experience with hydrocarbon extraction products in other markets and we look forward to bringing our award-winning concentrates to the growing Ohio market," stated Michael Mills, CEO of Body and Mind. Nevada Medical Group LLC ("NMG Nevada"), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, which previously held a 30% interest in NMG Ohio, has now acquired 100% ownership of NMG Ohio (the "Transaction") for consideration of USD$3,150,000 (the "Consideration"), which was comprised of 50% in cash and 50% in shares of common stock ("Common Shares") of the Company as follows: CASH PAYMENTS USD$1,181,250 was paid on the execution of the Membership Interest Purchase Agreement and the related Distribution Agreement (collectively, the "Definitive Agreement") on January 31, 2019 ("Effective Date"); and USD$393,750 has been paid pursuant to the Definitive Agreement on October 21, 2020 . COMMON SHARE ISSUANCES 2,380,398 Common Shares at a deemed price of CAD$0.66 per share were issued pursuant to the Definitive Agreement on the Effective Date; and 793,466 Common Shares at a deemed price of CAD$0.66 per shares were issued on October 21, 2020 . About Body and Mind Inc. BaM is an operations focused multi-state operator investing in high quality medical and recreational cannabis cultivation, production and retail. Our wholly owned Nevada subsidiary was awarded one of the first medical marijuana cultivation licenses and holds cultivation and production licenses. BaM products include dried flower, edibles, oils and extracts as well as GPEN Gio cartridges. BaM cannabis strains have won numerous awards including the 2019 Las Vegas Weekly Bud Bracket, Las Vegas Hempfest Cup 2016, High Times Top Ten, the NorCal Secret Cup and the Emerald Cup. BaM continues to expand operations in Nevada, California, Arkansas and Ohio and is dedicated to increasing shareholder value by focusing resources on improving operational efficiencies, facility expansions, state licensing opportunities as well as mergers and acquisitions. Please visit www.bodyandmind.com for more information. Instagram: @bodyandmindBaM Twitter: @bodyandmindBaM Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Safe Harbor Statement Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release constitutes "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans, "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the actual results of activities, variations in the underlying assumptions associated with the estimation of activities, the availability of capital to fund programs and the resulting dilution caused by the raising of capital through the sale of shares, accidents, labor disputes and other risks. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results 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 contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release. Certain matters discussed in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company may constitute forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities. SOURCE Body and Mind Inc. Related Links https://bamcannabis.com/ BRISTOL, England and AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brightpearl has acquired Inventory Planner, a market-leading demand planning tool that enables e-commerce retailers to forecast inventory and optimise stock. With this acquisition, Brightpearl expands its technology offering to include advanced forecasting expertise. This pairs with its core operating system for retail, which supports rapid scale, first class automation and out of the box connectivity. It also marks the first milestone in a longer-term strategy to make Brightpearl the top destination for best-in-class products which can streamline backend operations and support rapid scalability. The move will see Inventory Planner running as a separate division of Brightpearl, with the parent company executing a significant programme of investment to evolve and enhance the Inventory Planner brand and expand its business. Brightpearl is a leading Retail Operating System which works with some of the world's largest retail brands. The winning combination of Inventory Planner and Brightpearl will allow merchants to connect historical sales data to Brightpearl's powerful, built-for-retail operating system - delivering hugely improved margins and boosting customer satisfaction. Inventory Planner has 2,060 customers, primarily in English-speaking countries, 60% of which are between $1m and $100m GMV. Many subscribe via direct download from an app store such as Shopify. Merchants can utilize the tool to quickly visualise trends, and configure advanced reporting and notifications to help run their business by exception. Derek O'Carroll, CEO of Brightpearl, said: "We're thrilled to announce the acquisition of Inventory Planner and to be able to offer this best-in-class solution as an extension of the Brightpearl network. We're also excited about the addition of Inventory Planner's experienced and talented team to the wider Brightpearl family. "Our deal with Inventory Planner signals the first step in our mission to give modern merchants the freedom to easily deploy commerce experiences on their own terms, with access to the very best retail technology products - empowering them to break away from jack-of-all-trades legacy systems." "This evolution of our relationship with Brightpearl will allow Inventory Planner to better serve its current and future clients as we tap into the full potential of our integrated solution and offer a cutting edge demand forecasting technology to the fast-growing merchants," said Inventory Planner co-founder, Oleg Smirnov. "We are thrilled to be joining forces with BrightPearl, an ideal partner who shares our values and commitment to building secure and scalable retail operating systems." The deal is expected to open up a new chapter for retail software. O'Carroll explains: "Merchants need alternatives to the current ERP-dominated retail technology landscape. They need real-time scalability and optionality, instead of being tied long-term to 'all in one' solutions which force-feed mediocre products that limit scale and innovation." "We'll be offering exciting opportunities for merchants to leverage Brightpearl's growing family of best-in-class products, like Inventory Planner. These specialist applications come pre-integrated, secure and scalable, so merchants can rely upon them to grow fearlessly. They'll have the choice to use these products as standalone solutions or interconnected to Brightpearl's core operating system. It's a win for our commerce customers, and a win for their consumers." Maurice Helfgott, Brightpearl Chairman, said: "I started my career as a Merchant and know how critical accurate prediction is to getting the right product available in the right place at the right time. Inventory Planner's customers are delighted with the proven simplicity and accuracy of its easy-to-deploy forecasting solution solution and we're confident that Brightpearl's world class team will help ensure success for the product with larger customers too." Brightpearl, which has partnerships with organisations like Shopify, eBay and Amazon, has seen 50% growth YOY, and now manages over $5bn of business a year. Today's announcement comes after Brightpearl raised $33M in a recent series C round. Sage led the round, investing approximately 17 million ($23m) out of a total of 25 million ($33m) raised, with existing shareholders including Cipio Partners, Notion Capital and Verdane investing a further 8 million ($10m). About Brightpearl Brightpearl is a Retail Operations System (ROS) for retailers and wholesalers. With its global headquarters in Bristol, UK and US headquarters in Austin, Texas, Brightpearl helps 1,000 commerce businesses to streamline and automate their retail operations across order management, CRM, fulfilment, accounting inventory, and warehouse management. About Inventory Planner Inventory Planner launched in 2012 to help eCommerce merchants save time and money when purchasing inventory to better meet customer demand. Now integrated with over 30 platforms including marketplaces, accounting platforms, and inventory management systems, Inventory Planner supports merchants as they grow to see information from all of their sales channels. Merchants use Inventory Planner's replenishment recommendations and assist with inventory planning, forecasting, reporting, and purchase order creation. Inventory Planner is a fully-remote team of planners and developers supporting hundreds of merchants around the world. SOURCE Brightpearl Related Links brightpearl.com LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R.) President Dave Walsh issued the following statement in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom's signing of three important housing bills: SB 8 (Skinner), SB 9 (Atkins) and SB 10 (Weiner) that will make a meaningful impact on the state's housing crisis: "Today, California took an important step toward solving our state's housing supply crisis. SB 8, SB 9 and SB 10 are prudent, reasonable actions in the path forward to helping the state reach its housing goals and create greater homeownership opportunities for working Californians. California REALTORS thank Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro Tem Toni Atkins, and Senators Scott Weiner and Nancy Skinner for their vision, leadership and commitment. It is because of their determination that more Californians will become homeowners and reap the tremendous benefits that come with it." Leading the way in California real estate for more than 110 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States with more than 200,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles. SOURCE CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (C.A.R.) Related Links http://www.car.org Addressing the summit in Beijing via video link, Xi called on SCO member states to enhance collaboration on Afghanistan-related issues and promote a smooth transition in the country. The SCO will launch procedures to admit Iran as a member state and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar as new dialogue partners on Friday, said the Chinese president. Efforts to build 'new type of international relations' The creation of the SCO was announced on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russian, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the bloc in 2017, bringing the number of member states to eight. President Xi hailed the "vigorous growth" of the SCO and the "fruitful, mutually beneficial cooperation" among its member states during the past two decades. "Guided by the Shanghai Spirit of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development, the SCO has endeavored to promote world peace, development and human progress, and to explore new ground, both theoretically and with actual steps, with a view to building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind," the Chinese president said. SCO member states have jointly promoted political mutual trust, ensured security and stability, pursued prosperity and development, and upheld international justice, he added. "We were the first to call for fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism," Xi said, underscoring cooperation among SCO members states in curbing the spread of drug trafficking and holding counter-terrorism exercises and border control operations. 'Closer SCO community with a shared future' The SCO has reached a "new historical starting point" after 20 years of development, President Xi said, calling for efforts to "build a closer SCO community with a shared future" and make further contributions to lasting global peace and common prosperity. The organization should stay committed to enhancing solidarity and cooperation, upholding common security, promoting openness and integration, boosting interactions and mutual learning, and upholding equity and justice, he said. The Chinese president called on SCO member states to enhance policy dialogue, communication and coordination and respect each other's legitimate concerns in their cooperation so as to keep the organization "on a steady course of development." "We should maintain firm confidence in our systems, reject condescending lecturing, and firmly support countries in exploring development paths and governance models that are compatible with their national conditions," he said. "We should keep the future of our countries' development and progress firmly in our own hands." 'Most pressing task' Stressing that the fight against COVID-19 remains the "most pressing task," President Xi called for joint efforts among the member states to deepen cooperation against the pandemic, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and firmly oppose any act of politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing. China has provided approximately 1.2 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to over 100 countries and international organizations, he said, adding that China will step up efforts to provide a total of two billion doses to other countries this year. To facilitate post-COVID economic recovery in the region, China will strive to reach $2.3 trillion in its cumulative trade with other SCO countries in the next five years, Xi said. China will also provide 1,000 training opportunities in poverty alleviation for other SCO countries in the next three years, he announced. SCO cooperation on Afghanistan President Xi called for tough actions from SCO member states to combat terrorism, separatism and extremism, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Commenting on the "daunting challenges" faced by Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops, he called on SCO member states to make full use of platforms such as the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group and facilitate a smooth transition in the country. "We need to encourage Afghanistan to put in place a broad-based and inclusive political framework, adopt prudent and moderate domestic and foreign policies, resolutely fight all forms of terrorism, live in amity with its neighbors and truly embark on a path of peace, stability and development," he stressed. The Afghan Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15 and announced the formation of a caretaker government earlier this month. China has urged the Taliban to make a clean break with all terrorist organizations, including the ETIM, and resolutely fight against them. The Taliban have pledged not to allow Afghan territory to be used "against anybody or any country in the world." 'Defenders of international order' President Xi highlighted the SCO's role in upholding equity and justice in the world. "Acting from a so-called 'position of strength' is not the way to handle international affairs, and hegemonic, domineering and bullying acts should be firmly rejected," he said. "We need to practice true multilateralism and oppose actions that use the name of the so-called rules to undermine the international order and cause confrontation and division," he added. As the SCO launches procedures to admit Iran as a member state and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar as new dialogue partners, Xi expressed confidence that the "growing SCO family" will play roles as the "builders of world peace, contributors to global development and defenders of the international order." https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-17/Xi-Jinping-addresses-SCO-meeting-via-video-link-13D3zqRd34k/index.html SOURCE CGTN Related Links www.cgtn.com The history and value, cultivation and processing methods, and efficacy of Korean ginseng as Korea's first export product and the progenitor of K-food are visually reproduced using 3D sculptures and digital images. In the Red Ginseng Brewery Zone, visitors can experience and enjoy the experience of the decoction being extracted for 24 hours with their own eyes. With interest in immunity growing amid the global covid19 pandemic, red ginseng, Korea's representative immunity material, is also attracting attention in the United States. CheongKwanJang is also increasing interest from locals, with sales on Amazon, the leading e-commerce platform in the US, more than tripled compared to the previous year. Kim Naesoo, Global CIC Director of KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.), who attended the opening event, said, "It is meaningful that another cultural content, 'Ginseng Museum Cafe,' has been added to 32nd Street in Manhattan, which symbolizes small Korea in the United States." We hope that many Americans and people around the world will experience and remember the excellence of Korean ginseng through this place." About Korea Ginseng Corp. For more than 120 years, Korea Ginseng Corp. and its CheongKwanJang brand, the World's No. 1 brand of Ginseng, has been dedicated to providing the world's leading Korean Red Ginseng. Key benefits of Korean Red Ginseng include: supporting a healthy immune response; supporting healthy energy and stamina levels; supporting healthy brain function and blood circulation; and supporting menopause relief. Korean Red Ginseng is also rich in antioxidants. For more information visit, https://www.kgc.co.kr/en/intro/global-kgc/global-introduction.do. SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) Related Links https://www.kgc.co.kr/en/intro/global-kgc/global-introduction.do FORT MYERS, Fla., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS) (the "Company" or "Chico's FAS") today announced it will be participating in the Wells Fargo 4th Annual Consumer Conference, to be held in Dana Point, CA. Members of the Chico's FAS management team are scheduled to participate in a fireside chat on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 at 2:00 PM PT, which will be webcast live and available following the event in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at www.chicosfas.com. ABOUT CHICO'S FAS, INC. Chico's FAS is a Florida-based fashion company founded in 1983 on Sanibel Island, Fla. The Company reinvented the fashion retail experience by creating fashion communities anchored by service, which put the customer at the center of everything we do. As one of the leading fashion retailers in North America, Chico's FAS is a company of three unique brands - Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma - each thriving in their own white space, founded by women, led by women, providing solutions that millions of women say give them confidence and joy. Our Company has a passion for fashion, and each day, we provide clothing, shoes and accessories, intimate apparel and expert styling in our brick-and-mortar boutiques, digital online boutiques and through StyleConnect, the Company's proprietary digital styling tool that enables customers to conveniently shop wherever, whenever and however they prefer. As of July 31, 2021, the Company operated 1,284 stores in the U.S. and sold merchandise through 66 international franchise locations in Mexico and 2 domestic franchise airport locations. The Company's merchandise is also available at www.chicos.com, www.chicosofftherack.com, www.whbm.com and www.soma.com as well as through third-party channels. To learn more about Chico's FAS, please visit our corporate website at www.chicosfas.com. The information on our corporate website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this press release or incorporated into our federal securities law filings. Investor Relations Contact: Tom Filandro ICR, Inc. (646) 277-1235 [email protected] SOURCE Chico's FAS, Inc. Related Links https://www.chicosfas.com Integrated development is based on a sound electoral system and democratic order. In accordance with the Basic Law of the Macao SAR and the election law of the Legislative Assembly, the electoral affairs commission for the Legislative Assembly election examines the qualifications of all candidates to ensure that only patriots are allowed into the SAR's governance structure. Supported by the national security law in Hong Kong and the amended election laws, the improved electoral system prevents extreme forces from running for election and subverting democracy in terms of institutional rationality and legal norms. The system protects the institutional security of "one country, two systems" and ensures a loyal and efficient governance system for Hong Kong, thus consolidating the social and political foundation as well as democratic culture for "patriots administering Hong Kong." Overall, the upcoming Election Committee subsector elections reflect greater democratic representation, diverse competitiveness and institutional progress from multiple perspectives. First, the composition of the Election Committee reflects the balanced participation in democracy. In addition to including the grassroots associations subsector and youth representatives, the Election Committee has adjusted the ratio of representatives between the industrial and commercial subsector and other subsectors. It has also created the fifth sector, in a bid to interact closely with the national governance system and better represent the overall interests of the "one country, two systems" framework. Second, the Election Committee has flexible and diverse voting methods which combine corporate and individual voters. Voting systems have also been formulated in a flexible manner based on different sectors' working mechanisms as well as the representativeness of corporate bodies and individuals. Third, the constitutional function of the Election Committee has been increased and enriched in a reasonable manner. This means that in addition to continuing nominating and electing the chief executive, the Election Committee will also participate in the nomination of all candidates for the Legislative Council (LegCo) and elect a relatively large proportion of LegCo members (40 in total). This fully utilizes and unleashes the greatest democratic representation that the Election Committee has for all strata of Hong Kong society. Fourth, the introduction of sophisticated legal rules ensures the security and fairness of elections. The amended electoral laws include electronic poll registers and penalties for such behavior as manipulation and sabotage of elections. This ensures safe, fair and orderly elections and prevents election fraud and violence. In short, under the fundamental principles of "one country, two systems" and "patriots administering Hong Kong," the 2021 Election Committee subsector elections based on the new electoral system can guarantee a new governance system and order where members are both patriotic and capable. This is crucial for the reconstruction of Hong Kong's democratic environment and reshaping of the favorable interaction between "one country" and "two systems." Hong Kong will undoubtedly write a new chapter in its democratic development with a better implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle. China Mosaic http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm Election Committee subsector elections to open new chapter in HK democracy http://www.china.org.cn/video/2021-09/17/content_77759983.htm SOURCE china.com.cn NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BizVibe has added key challenges and trends for service industry groups on their buyer and seller platforms. BizVibe's advertising and public relations industry group, one of the largest service industry categories, consists of 130,000+ company profiles which now contain 50+ company data points, including a list of potential challenges which are expected to impact market participants over the next few years. Snapshot of key challenge impacting BizVibe's advertising and public relations services industry group. One challenge which is being highlighted is data privacy laws. Governments around the world have implemented various regulations around the data privacy of their citizens, which can have a major impact on advertisers that employ audience-based advertising methods. These laws have reduced the effectiveness of personalized, audience-based targeting data, while increasing the associated compliance costs and financial risks. By identifying such challenges, BizVibe is helping users analyze which suppliers are right for their business, while allowing them to efficiently monitor the risk of doing business. Get Free Access to all Industry Challenges Key Insights Provided for Advertising and Public Relations Companies In addition to analysis on how key challenges are expected to impact service businesses, BizVibe company profiles contain numerous high-quality insights to help users discover, track, compare, and evaluate suppliers or sales prospects. These insights include: Relevance and influence of industry trends and challenges, segmented by region Press releases and news coverage referencing key trends and challenges Risk of doing business score, segmented by operational, financial, compliance, and country risk Top company competitors at the global, regional, and national levels Names of top company decision makers, including job titles and social profiles Company financials such as annual revenue, profitability ratios, and management effectiveness View 50+ Company Data Points for Free Advertising and Public Relations Service Categories BizVibe's platform provides access to over 10 million buyer and supplier company profiles. Businesses from more than 200 countries are categorized into 40,000+ product and service categories, each providing detailed insights tailored to the needs of procurement and sales teams globally. The advertising and public relations services industry group features 130,000+ company profiles categorized into 30+ product and service categories, enabling clients to identify and connect with potential new business partners across diverse market segments. Categories for the advertising and public relations services industry include: Digital advertising services Email marketing services Advertising copywriting services Advertising photography services Press release distribution services Get Free Company Profile Access for all Categories BizVibe for Buyers and Sellers BizVibe is a modern B2B platform dedicated to connecting buyers and sellers from around the world. Powered by the latest best-in-class solutions, BizVibe is designed to help companies generate leads, shortlist suppliers, request proposals, and identify global companies. Evaluate companies side-by-side to compare key metrics and initiate productive partnerships. Buyers use BizVibe to discover suppliers from among more than 5 million companies using advanced search filters and comparison tools. Features for buyers include: Shortlist potential suppliers Track and compare companies Set up custom news alerts Quickly create and customize RFIs Explore BizVibe's buyer services: https://www.bizvibe.com/buyers Sellers can take advantage of BizVibe's smart sales intelligence tools to discover, evaluate, and communicate with prospects across 300+ categories. Features for sellers include: Identify and qualify sales prospects Receive customized prospect recommendations Analyze and evaluate potential buyers Integrate CRMs for efficient data transfer Discover BizVibe's seller tools: https://www.bizvibe.com/sellers About BizVibe BizVibe has been conceptualized and built by a team based out of Toronto, Bangalore, and London. We are a branch of Infiniti Research and have dedicated units in all three locations. BizVibe helps buyers find the most relevant suppliers from around the world and helps sellers target prospects who need their products and/or services. For more information, please visit www.bizvibe.com and start for free today. Contact BizVibe Jesse Maida Email: [email protected] +1 855-897-5880 Website: https://www.bizvibe.com/ SOURCE BizVibe Related Links https://www.bizvibe.com/?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=prn&utm_campaign=t6_bsh_week37_2021&utm_content=5418 NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dataminr today announced that Nella Domenici will step down from her position as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for health reasons, effective immediately. "Nella has had an enormous impact helping accelerate the growth of our business, set our strategic direction and build and empower a high-performing and diverse team," said Ted Bailey, founder and CEO of Dataminr. "We're a stronger company because of her leadership and I'm grateful for all of her contributions to our ongoing success." As CFO, Domenici held overall leadership and responsibility for finance, legal, and real estate. She participated in Dataminr's most important growth initiatives and critical transactions, including a series F Raise of $475 million at a $4.1 billion valuation and the execution of Dataminr's first acquisition, WatchKeeper, building a strong foundation for future growth. She also recruited and managed an extraordinarily diverse and talented team, with some of the highest professional satisfaction levels within the company. Domenici has agreed to provide consulting services to Dataminr. "I'm deeply proud of my team's accomplishments and highly confident that they will continue to help drive the company's success," said Ms. Domenici. "This was a wonderful opportunity to have a transformational impact and I am deeply gratified in what we achieved together for Dataminr, its stakeholders, investors and customers." About Dataminr Dataminr delivers the earliest warnings on high impact events and critical information far in advance of other sources. Recognized as one of the world's leading AI businesses, Dataminr enables faster response, more effective risk mitigation, and stronger crisis management for public and private sector organizations spanning global corporations, first responders, NGOs, and newsrooms. Recently valued at $4.1B, Dataminr is one of New York's top private technology companies, with 750 employees across seven global offices. Since its founding in 2009, Dataminr has created the world's leading real-time information discovery platform which detects digital patterns of emerging events and critical information from public data signals. Today, Dataminr's leading AI Platform performs trillions of daily computations across billions of public data inputs from over 180,000 unique public data sources. The company has been recognized for its groundbreaking AI Platform and rapid revenue growth by Forbes Cloud 100 and Deloitte Fast 500 . Alongside Dataminr's corporate product, Dataminr Pulse, the company provides public sector organizations with First Alert for first response, including the United Nations which relies on First Alert in over 100 countries. Dataminr for News is used by more than 650 newsrooms and by over 30,000 journalists world-wide. Media Contacts For Dataminr: Darlan Monterisi [email protected] For Nella Domenici: Montieth M. Illingworth, Montieth & Company [email protected] 718.514.1383 SOURCE Dataminr NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fashion designer Elie Balleh showcased his upcoming FALL22 Couture Collection "The after Covid Recovery"@ THE HISTORICAL ANGEL ORENSANZ FOUNDATION The covid-19 pandemic has taken a big toll on the fashion industry especially on the brands that specializes in couture and dress wear/evening attire. The designer have managed to stay afloat during these difficult times and had to think out of the box to keep his head above water, everyday coming up with ideas to keep his brands going Designer Elie Balleh NYFW Show Group Photo "The after Covid Recovery" With All His beautiful models Designer Elie Balleh NYFW Show Finals "The After Covid Recovery" He spent countless hours working on his new collection, and the time has arrived to share it with the world. He was excited to showcase his "The after Covid Recovery 2022", showing over 150 stunning luxurious designs embroidered with Swarovski crystals, Pearls, Beading, furs and ostrich feathers. The Handmade Collection took over 3months to complete. Elegant styling for men's/ boys'. The collection was presented with beautifully enhanced makeup using exotic feathers. The show was a successful and star studded event. The Designer is from Lebanon/Syria. Elie is the oldest among the four children of the Balleh Family, he married the love of his life in January 2004, his family grows very fast, and today Elie and Mari have a beautiful big family. His fabulous boys seen featured in photoshoots, runways and rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. Elie is a self-trained professional. At the age of 6 years old, he loved playing around with sewing machines, growing up at age of 12 years old he was already able to deliver a total look, from creating the pattern to make a ready to wear piece. Appeared on many television channels and featured in many NYFW RUNWAYS, Elie is a well-recognized brand in the fashion industry for quality, distinctive design and comfort. Elie Balleh Brand is one of the leading trend setters in the fashion industry. All his designs, fabrics, and styling come from the Capital of Fashion, Milan, Italy. His styles are influential and progressive; he is reinventing a modern approach to men's fashion. Elie has redefined luxury for the 21st century lifestyle brand. He is one of the original designers that started the 'DADDY & ME' trend followed then by many other luxury designers. His products represent the pinnacle of Italian craftsmanship and outstanding for their quality and attention to detail. It's currently selling in many luxury department stores and in more than 30 countries. Media contact: Elie Balleh [email protected] 347-335-3341 SOURCE Elie Balleh TORONTO and CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - For the first time in years, North American farmers are grappling with widespread growing challenges, according to a new report from BMO Economics on the agriculture sector in Canada and the United States. "In both Canada and the United States, exceptionally hot and dry weather across the prairies has curtailed crop yields and is dragging production of major products like wheat and canola to multi-year lows," said Aaron Goertzen, Senior Economist, BMO Capital Markets. "But there is a silver lining: after years of excess supply, expectations of a smaller harvest have helped provoke a large increase in crop prices. Strengthening demand has also helped." The report notes that food demand not only held up well through the coronavirus recession, it increased sharplyand grocery volumes have remained high even as the restaurant industry has reopened. "Strong demand, coupled with less abundant supply, has given a major lift to both crop and livestock prices," stated Mr. Goertzen. "That, on its own, is great news for the farm sector." The report also points out another challenge: costs are rising too, with farmers across the continent facing higher prices for many of their most important inputs, including equipment, fertilizer, feed, and energy. "With costs on the upswing, it is as important as ever for farmers to maintain an unrelenting focus on efficiency," said Mr. Goertzen. "Fortunately, both crop and livestock producers have an impressive track record on that front. Overall, North American wheat production has increased by around 40 per cent over the past half century, even as the amount of acreage devoted to the crop declined by more than 20 per cent. Livestock producers have also made major strides over the long run; in the United States, the average finished steer now weighs almost 350 pounds more at the time of slaughter than it did fifty years ago." "The situation in the west is a material production challenge and it's affecting producers in almost every sector," said Janine Sekulic, National Director, Agriculture and Agribusiness, Canadian Commercial Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal. "We've been in constant contact with our customers and working with our internal partners to make sure that we're ready to help where we can. There's no one-size-fits-all solution in agriculture and we believe that the key is in understanding the industry and the individual needs of each customer in good times and bad. "Despite the current challenges, we see huge opportunities in agriculture. We have confidence in the resiliency of our customers. We are as positive as we've ever been on the long-term outlook for this industry," concluded Ms. Sekulic. "In the United States, crop and livestock farmers are in better shape financially as compared to recent years; however, they face a number of challenges, which include weather uncertainty, increasing costs of fuel, fertilizer, seed, feed, rent and labor, as well as variability in market prices," said Sam Miller, Managing Director and Group Head, Agricultural Banking, BMO Harris Bank. "Prudent risk management practices remain critical to successfully navigating current and expected market conditions." Crops It has been apparent for months that crop yields across the prairies would be subpar this year, but the latest estimates are eye-opening. "In the United States, total wheat yields are likely to be around 12 per cent below trend this yearand that estimate incorporates a decent winter wheat harvest earlier this year," said Mr. Goertzen. "In Canada, which produces predominantly spring wheat, yields are projected to be roughly 33 per cent below trend this year. The drought on the prairies has also devastated yields for Canadian canolatypically the country's largest revenue-generating cropwhich are likely to be 37 per cent below trend this year. U.S. canola yields are also extremely weak, though the crop is not grown intensively south of the border." Although North American corn and soybean yields have held up relatively well this year, reflecting generally accommodative conditions in the U.S. Midwest, continental stockpiles of all major crops are getting extremely low. "Across North America as a whole, inventories of wheat, canola, corn, and soybeans are all projected to fall near decade-lows relative to consumption by the end of the current marketing year," stated Mr. Goertzen. Livestock Livestock prices are also benefitting from tighter supply after years of herd expansion. The North American cattle herd actually turned lower before the pandemic, but declined further in 2020 as meatpacker closures undermined farm-level pricing. This year, the overall headcount of the cattle herd has remained under pressure, as producers in drought-affected regions have been making the difficult decision to cull their herds, driven by the reduced quality of grazing land, the higher cost of purchased feed, and in the hardest hit areas, shortages of drinking water. "The fact that cattle prices have trended higher despite such culling is a testament to the strength of the demand environment," noted Mr. Goertzen. "Overall, the North American cattle herd is on track to end this year around 2.1 per cent smaller than at the end of 2018." The hog industry has experienced generally similar dynamics. After a period of rapid expansion, last year's meat processing shutdowns put hog producers decisively into herd reduction mode and significantly reduced the size of the pig crop. This year, higher feed costs are yielding a record rate of slaughter, which is keeping pressure on the herd. Overall, the North American hog herd is on track to end this year around 2.2 per cent smaller than at the end of 2019. To view the full report, visit: https://economics.bmo.com/en/publications/detail/f88c5aa9-5740-4fb5-b35d-5ff3d2cb1131/ About BMO Financial Group Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a highly diversified financial services provider - the 8th largest bank, by assets, in North America. With total assets of $971 billion as of July 31, 2021, and a team of diverse and highly engaged employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, BMO Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets. Internet: www.bmo.com Twitter: @BMOMedia SOURCE BMO Financial Group HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, has been selected to help NASA enable a steady pace of crewed trips to the Moon's surface as part of the Artemis program's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Appendix N. As one of five companies selected for a firm fixed-price, milestone-based contract, Dynetics will receive an initial award of $40.8 million over the next 15 months to make advancements toward sustainable human landing system (HLS) concepts. Dynetics will also conduct risk-reduction activities and provide feedback on NASA's requirements to cultivate industry capabilities for crewed lunar landing missions. "Dynetics is ready to continue working closely with NASA on a sustainable lander solution," said Robert Wright, Dynetics Space Systems Division Manager. "We believe our approach to collaborating and tailoring NASA's lander design is critical to the long-term success of America's journey to the Moon and we are honored to be part of this mission." Previously, Dynetics was one of three prime contractors selected under NextSTEP-2 Appendix H to design HLS in April of 2020. Since the developmental stage, Dynetics' lunar lander technology has contributed to the sustainability of the Artemis program in three main ways: reusability, extensibility and supporting the development of a lunar economy. The design enables a long-term presence on the Moon that will stimulate a cislunar economy. Dynetics is also delivering critical hardware to NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage, Exploration Upper Stage, Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and the International Space Station (ISS). About Dynetics Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, provides responsive, cost-effective engineering, scientific, IT solutions to the national security, cybersecurity, space, and critical infrastructure sectors. Our portfolio features highly specialized technical services and a range of software and hardware products, including components, subsystems, and complex end-to-end systems. The company of more than 3,000 employees is based in Huntsville, Ala., and has offices throughout the U.S. For more information, visit www.dynetics.com. About Leidos Leidos is a Fortune 500 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 43,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $12.30 billion for the fiscal year ended January 1, 2021. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com. Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 1, 2021 and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Contact: Kristina Hendrix [email protected] SOURCE Dynetics Related Links http://www.dynetics.com WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is recognizing those we have lost and strengthening its commitment to breaking the barriers that prevent emergency physicians from seeking mental health care. "Our frontline professionals are rising to meet extraordinary challenges, but they are human and vulnerable to months of relentless stress, grief and pressure," said Mark Rosenberg, DO, MBA, FACEP, president of ACEP. "The loss of any physician is deeply personal and tragic for families, colleagues, and patients. As we all do our best to move the country closer to the end of the pandemic, we must take better care of the health professionals who put everything they have into protecting us." National Physician Suicide Day is an initiative by ACEP and the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine (CORD), the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association (EMRA), the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) and its Resident Student Association (RSA), the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians (ACOEP) and its Resident Student Organization (RSO), and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). These organizations support Vision Zero, an effort to prevent the loss of physicians by calling on "individuals, residency programs health care organizations and national groups to make a commitment to break down stigma, increase awareness, open the conversation decrease the fear of consequences, reach out to colleagues, recognize warning signs and learn to approach our colleagues who may be at risk." Emergency medicine is difficult in typical times and the pandemic is only increasing the strain on the frontlines. Emergency physicians have historically high rates of career burnout with more than 65 percent of emergency physicians and residents experiencing burnout during their careers. Studies suggest that at least 6,000 emergency physicians have contemplated suicide and up to 400 have attempted to take their own life. Despite these challenges, many emergency physicians are hesitant to address their mental health. An ACEP/Morning Consult poll shows that nearly half (45 percent) of the nation's emergency physicians indicate that they are uncomfortable seeking mental health treatment. ACEP is leading efforts to make sure that physicians can take necessary steps to protect their mental health, including strong support for the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, the bill named for the emergency physician tragically lost to suicide in April 2020. This bill calls for major steps to reduce and prevent suicide and burnout through behavioral health programs, including grants to establish and expand mental health support services, and a federal study into burnout. Emergency physicians are hopeful that the House Energy and Commerce Committee takes up discussion of this important legislation as soon as possible. ACEP and more than 40 medical organizations have outlined recommendations to remove barriers to treatment, including the fear of reprisal, and encourage professional and peer support for physicians. Emergency physicians also strongly support the Joint Commission's stance that a health professionals' history of mental illness should not be used as an indication of their current or future ability to practice medicine. "We have yet to see the true extent of the mark this pandemic will leave on everyone who works on the frontlines," said Dr. Rosenberg. "But one of the most meaningful ways we can honor the legacy of those we have lost is to work to change the culture of medicine and do all we can to prevent future tragedies from occurring." The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the national medical society representing emergency medicine. Through continuing education, research, public education and advocacy, ACEP advances emergency care on behalf of its 40,000 emergency physician members, and the more than 150 million Americans they treat on an annual basis. For more information, visit www.acep.org and www.emergencyphysicians.org. SOURCE American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Related Links www.acep.org BRUSSELS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The European Commission announces the three shortlisted destinations for the European Destination of Excellence (EDEN) 2022 competition. This initiative rewards the best achievements in sustainable tourism and green transition practices in smaller destinations across Europe. Gursu in Turkey and Middelfart and Thisted in Denmark convinced the panel of independent sustainability experts with their applications and were chosen ahead of 40 other applicant destinations. The winner of the 2022 award will be selected from this shortlist of three. Find out more about each of the shortlisted destinations here. The European Destinations of Excellence is an EU initiative, implemented by the European Commission. Its aim is to recognise and reward smaller destinations that have in place successful strategies to boost sustainable tourism through green transition practices. The competition is founded upon the principle of promoting the development of sustainable tourism in destinations which brings value to the economy, the planet and the people. The initiative covers EU countries as well non-EU countries participating in the COSME programme[1]. The competition addresses smaller tourism destinations which can showcase their outstanding achievements in sustainability and inspire other tourism destinations in their green transition. In order to compete for the 2022 European Destination of Excellence title, destinations were asked to demonstrate their best practices in sustainable tourism and green transition. In the next step, the three shortlisted destinations will be asked to present their town's candidature in front of the European Jury. The European Jury will select one winner, the European Destination of Excellence 2022, which will be awarded in November 2021. The winning destination will be positioned as a tourism sustainability pioneer committed to the European Green Deal objectives and will receive expert communication and branding support at the EU level throughout 2022. For all the latest news visit the European Destinations of Excellence website. Contact European Destinations of Excellence Secretariat: Antigoni Avgeropoulou, [email protected], +49 (0) 30 70 01 86 390 Notes to Editors 1. Since 2007, the European Commission has supported EU Member States and other countries participating in the COSME programme to reward non-traditional, emerging sustainable tourism destinations in Europe through the 'European Destination of Excellence" (EDEN) award. This action aimed to foster sustainable tourism destination management models across Europe by selecting and promoting EDEN destinations. To date, 175 destinations from 27 different countries have received the award under different annual themes. 2. In 2019 the "Study on EDEN evaluation" was carried out to assess the continued relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the EDEN initiative and the various actions implemented in its framework, as well as its coherence with other EU initiatives. Following the results and recommendations of the evaluation study, the European Commission relaunched the initiative, taking into account European Green Deal goals. In addition to the EU countries, it also covers non-EU countries participating in the COSME programme. The competition addresses smaller tourism destinations which can showcase their outstanding achievements in sustainability and inspire other tourism destinations in their green transition. 3. The EDEN Award was implemented first as a pilot project and as a preparatory action initiated by the European Parliament and since 2011 has continued under the CIP/COSME programmes. 4. The 2022 EDEN competition was open to submissions from 22 April 2021 to 16 June 2021. Terms and conditions are available at https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/eden_en 5. Eligible applications were evaluated against a set of established assessment criteria, by a panel of independent sustainability experts. The shortlisted destinations will be invited to present their candidatures in front of a European Jury. The European Jury will select one European Destination of Excellence 2022. [1] Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom. https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/39579 SOURCE EDEN - European Destinations of Excellence NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global independent marketing and communications agency FINN Partners announced today that Tom Jones will lead its New York Health Group and Pharma Sector teams. The promotion recognizes Jones' multiple contributions to driving Practice growth, elevating creativity for clients, and fostering Practice community and global expertise. Jones is appointed to the position held previously by Kristie Kuhl, JD, who was appointed FINN Global Health Practice Lead in July. In his new role, Jones reports to Kuhl. Tom Jones, FINN Partners New York Health Group and Pharma Sector Lead "Joining FINN has been an incredible opportunity. My career now fully aligns with my personal and professional values to prioritize the needs of patients, physicians and colleagues, which are foundational to success in this life-changing work," said Jones. "My colleagues many now working virtually around the world are united by an understanding that we improve people's health through our clients' success. That understanding, shared by everyone involved at FINN, is creating winning work for clients." In his new role, Jones will continue to elevate the New York Health Group's presence within the pharma sector and strengthen client relationships across North America. He also continues in his role leading the Global Practice Health Academy, the professional development institute within FINN that brings together colleagues' best practices and market learnings worldwide. "Since Tom joined FINN, the New York Health Group has been growing at an impressive pace and delivering some of the most compelling work in the industry," said Kristie Kuhl, managing partner, FINN Global Health Practice Lead. "That work is led by people who share values and a mission to make a difference through the efforts of health innovators, and Tom fosters energy and passion among his FINN colleagues that are the keys to their success." Jones joined FINN from Ketchum, where he led its North American Health Practice. Throughout his agency career, he has been team leader for numerous creative campaigns, securing many of the industry's most prestigious honors, including PRSA Big Apple, Silver Anvil, PRWeek Awards and Provoke Sabre. As a client-side leader, he served as executive director of communications at the primary care division of Novartis. Jones has served on the editorial boards of industry journals including PM360 and serves on the board of trustees of Morris Arts in New Jersey. "Many clients and colleagues at FINN recognize Tom's focus on creating a productive environment where collaboration leads to inspired results," said Gil Bashe, Chair Global Health, FINN. "Tom's leadership and voice demonstrate the depth of our commitment to make a difference, our responsiveness to marketplace need, and that we measure our value through our ability to improve people's lives." About FINN Partners, Inc. Founded in 2011 on the core principles of innovation and collaborative partnership, FINN Partners has more than quadrupled in size over the past 10 years, becoming one of the fastest growing independent, integrated marketing agencies in the world. The full-service marketing and communications company's record setting pace is a result of organic growth and integrating new companies and new people into the FINN world through a common philosophy. With more than 800 professionals, FINN provides clients with global access and capabilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. In addition, FINN provides its clients with access to top tier agencies around the world through its membership in the global network PROI. Headquartered in New York, FINN's other offices are in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Nashville, Paris, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, Singapore, Southern California and Washington D.C. Find us at finnpartners.com and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @finnpartners. SOURCE FINN Partners TALLINN, Estonia, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Free TON , a community-driven blockchain underpinning a free internet, has officially released the Free TON Whitepaper . The paper lays the foundations for 'WebFree', highlighting the platform's end-to-end decentralized architecture that enables a truly open internet, centred around security, trust, data ownership, censorship resistance and privacy. Mitja Goroshevsky , Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at TON Labs , commented: "What our community is building is extraordinary. Free TON is scalable by design, with near instant finality made possible by a number of major consensus innovations which allows for seamless growth of the multithreaded blockchains. In fact, these breakthroughs make the processing of tens of millions of smart contract executions per second possible. We just reached a groundbreaking 45,000 transactions per second on the open Internet in a community-driven contest, running in dozens of datacenters around the world. We have demonstrated the only scalable blockchain architecture." Free TON is the only end-to-end decentralized framework that renegotiates the implicit tradeoff between privacy and convenience in modern internet applications. Driven by its distributed global community, Free TON is dedicated to empowering communities to explore, build and develop decentralized applications without compromising personal autonomy in favour of usability. With no ICO or investors, Free TON is open source to its core and 100 percent focused on creating value by providing developers with a set of free software tools to build groundbreaking decentralized applications that feel and perform like centralized ones. The network's native cryptocurrency, TON Crystal , is used not only as a store of value by the scarcity of its reserves, but also as a means to participate in all projects created directly as an outcome of the 'Meritocratic Token Distribution' (MTD) mechanism. Free TON has emerged as one of the largest social experiments in blockchain history adopting automated governance protocols via means of its 'Soft Majority Voting ' (SMV) and 'Byzantine Fault Tolerance Governance' (BFTG) systems. The release of the whitepaper introduces the TON Operating System: A complete and vertically integrated technology stack built on top of a distributed virtual processor with a user-friendly interface. - Consensus Innovations: SMFT (Soft Majority Fault Tolerance) consensus, MSRP (Masterchain Slashing and Recovery Protocol), and DDVS (Distributed Dynamic Validator Set). - Multithreading: To overcome the limitations of traditional IT systems including processing capacity, bandwidth and disk space. - Sharding: Allowing multiple work chains operating in parallel with 1,000 validators each (750 thousand servers) capable of processing up to 20M executions per second (taking into account the current internet backbone and server hardware capabilities). - Security and complete decentralization: Deploys a security method known as 'Formal Verification' to attest every smart contract, while avoiding any residual code in a centralized Git repository, allowing for a completely decentralized experience. Mitja Goroshevsky, concluded: "Our world-class and friendly ecosystem has established a community of over 3,000 developers, tens of thousands of members and dozens of partners demonstrating that one doesn't need authority to grow a business or a society." To download the Free TON Whitepaper and learn more about how Free TON is ushering in the WebFree era in a secure, decentralized and scalable manner, visit https://bit.ly/3hX7T8r . About Free TON Free TON is a community-driven blockchain cultivating an open and free internet. Enabling true end-to-end decentralization with WebFree, Free TON is a secure and scalable platform modelled on the ideals of decentralization that features a per-merit token distribution model. As a built-for-purpose enterprise public blockchain, Free TON features multi-threading and sharding that enables record shattering transaction speeds and throughput. Free TON's open-contest token distribution model enables the equitable completion of community proposals and initiatives, allowing contributing community members, over 30 open sub-governances or validators to obtain TON Crystal rewards based on meritocratic allocations. Join us in building WebFree: Discover, Build, Use and Unite with Free TON. For more information, visit https://freeton.org/ . About TON Labs TON Labs is a distributed collective of experts in decentralized application development, actively building WebFree: a meritocratic decentralized web, focused on scalable blockchain infrastructure for global adoption. Founded in May 2018, TON Labs is composed of experts in decentralization, including leading developers and creative technologists. As the core developer of Free TON , a blockchain that enables anyone to create and manage decentralized organizations, TON Labs is committed to optimizing the development of applications easily accessible to global communities and enterprises. True end-to-end decentralization is enabled by the TON Operating System (OS), a technology stack that expedites blockchain development, and lives on the community-driven Free TON blockchain. With absolute trust and legitimate data ownership, developers are furnished with the tools to foster mass adoption of liberating and integrous tech. For more information, visit https://tonlabs.io/ . For Media Enquiries Wachsman E: [email protected] SOURCE Free TON SAO PAULO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MOSS, the first and largest environmental platform in the world to tokenize carbon credits, today announced the listing of the MCO2 token on Gemini, crypto exchange and custodian. Launched by MOSS in March 2020, MCO2 is equivalent to one carbon credit, a digital asset that certifies the prevention of one ton of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. Through the certification process and the minting of MCO2 tokens, funds are sent to conservation projects in the Amazon. The sale of MCO2 has allocated US$13 million towards conservation projects in the Amazon, preserving an area of 1.3 million hectares approximately the size of Connecticut, or a small country like Jamaica. In the process, MCO2 tokens have helped preserve approximately 500 million trees and prevented the emission of 1,300 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. "This listing of MCO2 is further evidence of our business model's success and recognition that the use of blockchain is key to environmental sustainability," says Luis Adaime, founder and CEO of MOSS. "We're excited about our prospects working with one of the most respected exchanges for cryptocurrency and the global exposure that it will bring to the MCO2 token." The listing of MCO2 on Gemini represents a new milestone in MOSS's history given that the exchange currently has 56 million active users from 100 countries. The MCO2 token is already available on platforms such as Probit and Mercado Bitcoin. Globally, it is possible to purchase the carbon credit token on exchanges such as Uniswap. It's been a busy time for MOSS. The company has partnered with One River Asset Management to offset the first carbon neutral bitcoin fund in the world. MOSS has also offset all of Skybridge's crypto holdings. In Brazil, MOSS has announced a partnership with GOL, Brazil's largest airline, to enable its customers to offset their emissions through the purchase of the MCO2 token. The company also completed the acquisition of One Percent, a startup targeting sustainable NFTs, and has a project to globally launch NFTS from the Amazon Rainforest in the near future. For more information about MOSS, visit moss.earth. About MOSS and the MCO2 Token MOSS is a climate tech company focused on environmental services with global operations. In 2020, it created the first carbon credit-backed token used to offset greenhouse gases. In its one year of existence, MOSS and its customers have sent more than US$ 13 million to the Amazon, which has helped to preserve approximately 500 million trees. The MCO2 token is already listed on platforms such as Mercado Bitcoin and FlowBTC as well as globally on ProBit, Uniswap and now Gemini. A carbon credit is a digital certificate that is equivalent to avoiding the emission of one ton of CO2 in a given year through forest conservation, clean energy, and biomass projects, among others. SOURCE MOSS EARTH Related Links https://moss.earth DUBLIN, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Halal Food Market Report 2021-24" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Halal Food Market Report 2021-24 estimates global halal food trade (imports to OIC member countries) to be valued at US$ 129 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at 1.7% CAGR, reaching US$ 140 billion by 2024. The Global Halal Food Market Report 2021-2024 presents an overall analysis of global halal food markets across 17 Harmonized System (HS) code categories that are identified as requiring some level of halal certification. The Report analyzes and ranks the five most attractive halal food categories (see below) and covers each category's historical (2014-19) and projected growth (2020-24) in imports to the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation), and provides the largest importing and supplying markets for each category. Readers will also find insights into production costs and profitability for each category, significant developments, key players (see below) and investment benchmarks. Through this multi-faceted analysis, the Report also presents opportunities and challenges in each of the five most attractive food categories and the halal food market. Headline insights This increasing trend is largely driven by an increase in consumer demand, followed by a rising Muslim population globally. The industry is also witnessing an increasing preference for convenient, nutritionally enriched, and functional food & beverages amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The Islamic economy space has also attracted the attention of top global brands creating innovative products and services across sectors. The governments of both OIC and non-OIC countries, food companies, and the private sector are making significant investments in the halal market. Recent developments Find an array of recent developments impacting the halal food industry and the major categories. These include the increasing momentum of blockchain technology, rise in snacks and canned products amidst COVID-19 pandemic, and alternative food, such as plant-based food, and innovation in the Islamic markets. Key questions addressed What is the context of the global halal food market opportunity? What is the halal food certification process and regulation landscape? What are the top halal food consumption and trading markets? What are the top 5 most attractive halal food categories? Within each of the top 5 categories, what are the top trading markets, production costs, profitability, investments, recent developments and key players? What are the global halal food market opportunities and challenges for investors, businesses and governments? Categories covered The most attractive halal food categories profiled in this report include: Meat and offal Cereal, Pasta, and Bakery Products Fats and Oils Soups, Sauces and Other Processed Foods Dairy Key Players covered BRF SA ( Brazil ) ) Allana ( India ) ) Indofood CBP ( Indonesia ) ) Danone ( France ) ) Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) ( Indonesia ) ) Savola ( Saudi Arabia ) ) Nestle ( Switzerland ) ) Kerry Group ( Ireland ) ) Almarai ( Saudi Arabia ) ) Fonterra ( New Zealand ) Key Topics Covered: 1 Executive Summary 1.1 Summary Description 1.2 Summary Infographics 1.2.1 Halal Food, Top 5 Most Attractive Category, Market Size (US$ Million) and Growth (2014-2024) 1.2.2 Halal Food Most Attractive Markets, 2019 (US$ Million) 1.2.3 Halal Food Categories Most Imported by OIC, by Value (US$ Million) and Growth (2019-2022) 1.2.4 Halal Food Investments Opportunity, 2019 (US$ Million) 2 Halal Food Market: Global Context 2.1 Halal Food Introduction 2.2 Halal Food Compliance Across the Food Value Chain 2.3 Halal Food Demand-Side and Supply-Side Growth Drivers 3 Halal Food Compliance Landscape 3.1 Halal Market Regulatory Ecosystem 3.2 Halal Food Standards Issued in Key Markets 3.3 Halal Food Certification Process 4 Halal Food Markets and Trade 4.1 Halal Food Consumption Markets 4.2 Halal Food OIC Importing Markets 4.3 Halal Food Suppliers to OIC Markets 5 Most Attractive Halal Food Category Profiles 5.1 Meat and offal 5.1.1 Top Importing and Supplying Markets 5.1.2 Production Costs and Profitability 5.1.3 Investments 5.1.4 Key Recent Developments 5.1.5 Opportunities and Challenges 5.1.6 Key Supplier Company Profiles BASF Allana 5.2 Cereal, Pasta, and Bakery Products 5.2.1 Top Importing and Supplying Markets 5.2.2 Production Costs and Profitability 5.2.3 Investments 5.2.4 Key Recent Developments 5.2.5 Opportunities and Challenges 5.2.6 Key Supplier Company Profiles Indofood CBP Danone 5.3 Fats and Oils 5.3.1 Top Importing and Supplying Markets 5.3.2 Production Costs and Profitability 5.3.3 Investments 5.3.4 Key Recent Developments 5.3.5 Opportunities and Challenges 5.3.6 Key Supplier Company Profiles Savola Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) 5.4 Soups, Sauces and Other Processed Foods 5.4.1 Top Importing and Supplying Markets 5.4.2 Production Costs and Profitability 5.4.3 Investments 5.4.4 Key Recent Developments 5.4.5 Opportunities and Challenges 5.4.6 Key Supplier Company Profiles Nestle Kerry Group 5.5 Dairy 5.5.1 Top Importing and Supplying Markets 5.5.2 Production Costs and Profitability 5.5.3 Investments 5.5.4 Key Recent Developments 5.5.5 Opportunities and Challenges 5.5.6 Key Supplier Company Profiles Almarai Fonterra 6 Halal Food Opportunities and Challenges 7 Report Purpose and Methodology 8 Acknowledgment For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ekeg1x 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 LONDON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global cleaning robot market is gearing up to accommodate the needs of urban living spaces that are dictated by lack of time. The demand for cleaning robots spiked with the COVID-19 pandemic as restrictions on movement meant no help from everyday house cleaners, housekeeping, or house cleaning services. Cleaning robots have made a remarkable impression on consumers, especially in countries where the cost of labour is high. They serve the purpose of cleaning with utmost ease, operating with almost human-like efficiency and eliminating the mundanity of performing repetitive tasks. Analysts at Fairfield Market Research predict that the global cleaning robot market will be the gadget of the future as the makers continue to upgrade it with state-of-art sensors, lasers, cameras, and other features. Get a Sample Copy of Global Cleaning Robot Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/cleaning-robot-market/request-sample Automation and Modern Housing Pitches Cleaning Robot as Imperative As home automation is making its way into modern construction and design, it has prompted the use of cleaning robots as a convenient solution to housekeeping. The use of voice assistant devices equipped with advanced artificial intelligence cleaning robots is slowly becoming a common household device. Today, these robots come with memory to automatically empty the bin, vacuum on a timely basis, and mop. The reduction of human effort towards keeping the house clean has propelled the sales of high-performance, detailed cleaning robots. Floor Cleaning Robots to See an Unprecedented Rise Throughout Forecast Period Out of the many types of cleaning robots, the floor cleaning robots are expected to dominate the global market. These models use sophisticated deep learning for improved mapping, object identification, artificial intelligence, and event-based cleaning. Their high demand amongst residential buyers for cleaning robots will be attributable to their noise-free, edge-to-edge cleaning. Quick recharge, software upgrades, ability to schedule, and boundary setting are some of the additional features that will prompt a regular consumer towards investing in floor cleaning robots during the forecast period. Besides residential use, cleaning robots will also be used in industrial spaces. They could serve a highly efficient purpose in spaces such as hospitals. Cleaning robots specifically designed to find and kill bacteria are being welcomed by hospitals. Xenex Germ-Zapping Robot is designed to deactivate SARS-CoV-2, MRSA, C.diff, and VRE. Its UV light is developed to produce germicidal that is effective in clearing the contamination, making the space safer for humans to operate in. Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Request Customization of Report: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/cleaning-robot-market/request-customization Developed Countries Lean Towards Cleaning Robots due to High Labour Costs The demand for cleaning robots will be felt on the higher side in the developed regions such as North America and Europe where labour costs are higher. Acceptance of technology and better purchasing power is also expected to favour market growth of cleaning robots in these parts of the world. Meanwhile, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing regional market for cleaning robots between 2021 and 2025. Growing disposable income and acceptance of home automation in newer homes are expected to be two key driving factors for the Asia Pacific cleaning robot market. India and China's spending strength is defined by its indomitable middle-class, which is expected to be a huge target audience for cleaning robots. Some of the key players operating in the global cleaning robot market are iRobot, Samsung Electronics, Ecovacs Robotics, LG Electronics, Roborock, Xiaomi, SharkNinja, Cecotec Innovaciones, Panasonic, and Neato Robotics. Browse Our Latest Trending Reports: About Us Fairfield Market Research is a UK-based market research provider. Fairfield offers a wide spectrum of services, ranging from customized reports to consulting solutions. With a strong European footprint, Fairfield operates globally and helps businesses navigate through business cycles, with quick responses and multi-pronged approaches. The company values an eye for insightful take on global matters, ably backed by a team of exceptionally experienced researchers. With a strong repository of syndicated market research reports that are continuously published & updated to ensure the ever-changing needs of customers are met with absolute promptness. Contact Fairfield Market Research London, UK UK +44 (0)20 30025888 USA +1 (844) 3829746 (Toll-free) Web: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Us: LinkedIn SOURCE Fairfield Market Research Patient Needs and Insights Drive New Era of Global Kidney Research, Discovery, and Personalized Treatments WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the largest independent kidney patient organization in the USA, and its strategic partners at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) continue to make a unique impact in the international battle against kidney diseases. Their 2021 annual Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations focused on expanding patient consumer choices and improved health outcomes, engaged a combined audience of over 20,000 viewers across 80 countries, exceeded their 2020 virtual attendance record established at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to draw viewers worldwide to their online content. The Global Summit is a key component of AAKP's The Decade of the Kidney , an AAKP global initiative ( read article ) launched in 2019 for the 2020-2030 decade to help U.S. and international policymakers better address the devastating human and societal costs of kidney diseases based on patient-defined priorities. The Global Summit has accelerated engagement in an expanding international consortium of influencers, led by patient consumers and advocates, committed to a new era in kidney medicine marked by more inclusive clinical trials, greater use of patient insight data, personalized medicine, and disruptive technologies including artificial implantable and wearable kidneys. The patient-led consortium includes academic and medical researchers, clinical trial designers, innovators, capital market investors, companies, non-governmental and faith-based organizations, as well as elected and appointed government leaders across the globe. Kidney patients worldwide are demanding an end to outdated dialysis care, characterized by staggeringly high mortality rates, and greater access to new products and solutions aimed at detecting, preventing, and treating kidney diseases earlier and in ways that improve quality of life and decrease dependency and disease-related unemployment. They are also organizing and coordinating their policy and grassroots efforts in a sophisticated effort to advance more common sense regulatory and payment reforms that prioritize patient needs and fully support the timely entry of new, safe products into global consumer markets. Based on the ongoing success and rapidly expanding interest in The Global Summit, AAKP and GWU have already opened pre-registration for the May 2022 Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations . All 2021 Global Summit virtual presentations are available OnDemand through the AAKP website and AAKP YouTube channel . Dr. Dominic Raj, Co-Chair of The Global Summit, a Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Genetics and Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Director of the Division of Kidney Diseases and Hypertension at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, stated, "As a researcher in molecular biology and genetics, I seek to personalize medicine by genes and molecular pathways, but I think it is more important to personalize by patient needs. This, I believe, is the key take home message from The Global Summit and I am very proud of my colleagues across the globe who are actively incorporating the unique insights of kidney patients in their research and discovery of new therapies to prevent and treat the growing spread of kidney diseases." Hilde Vautmans, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Chair of MEP Kidney Health, and Deputy Coordinator for the Committee on Foreign Affairs for a Renew Europe (EU) provided a virtual presentation in which she praised kidney patients worldwide for their efforts to work alongside government leaders in the fight against kidney diseases. Further, Vautmans invited greater cooperation among elected leaders in the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress, especially among like-minded members of the U.S. Congressional Kidney Caucus, stating, "This battle is difficult. And I can speak from experience here, but [] change is possible [] but we can and have to act more. In Europe but also in the United States. I always say we need more awareness, more funding and more innovation. Today I want to add a fourth element and that is collaboration, because as we all are aware and all are witnessing, diseases know no borders. So, let's work together []We share a common goal, on both sides of the Atlantic: We must further improve the lives of people with Kidney Disease!" The 2021 Global Summit included over 15 panels featuring over 40 patient and medical experts along with a menu 29 expert videos covering COVID-19 kidney-related issues, diversity in clinical trials, APOL-1 genetic research, diabetic kidney disease (DKD), nutrition, and telemedicine. Executives from top companies in the kidney space underscored the importance and value of patient insights in science, discovery, and the development of new drugs, devices, and diagnostics. Emphasizing the key role patients play in the new era of kidney medicine were leaders from Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Baxter International Inc., bioMerieux, CareDx, Inc., CSL Behringer, Novartis, and Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. They were joined by key policy and innovation leaders including Barbara L. Bass, MD, Vice President for Health Affairs, Dean of the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and CEO of the GW Medical Faculty Associates (USA); Vivekanand Jha, MBBS, MD, DM, PHD, FRCP, FAMS; Executive Director, The George Institute for Global Health (AU) and President, International Society of Nephrology (IND); Fokko Wieringa, PhD, Principal Scientist, IMEC of The Netherlands and the Dutch Kidney Foundation (EU) and a member of The Kidney Health Initiative (USA); Murray Sheldon, MD, Associate Director for Technology and Innovations, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USA); Jack Kalavritinos, Founder and Principal, JK Consulting and member of the APCO Worldwide International Advisory Council and Health Advisory Board (USA). Richard Knight, President of the American Association of Kidney Patients, a former hemodialysis patient and 14-year kidney transplant recipient, stated, "Kidney disease is a devastating disease that is rapidly expanding and negatively impacting patients, families, and economies throughout the world. Future innovations in kidney medicine depend upon greater patient engagement through fully inclusive clinical trials and research, and the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences is an established global leader in this field. I thank Dean Dr. Barbara Bass, Dr. Dominic Raj, and our new European Union ally Hilde Vautmans for their deep respect for patients and their concerted efforts to unite patients, clinicians, and policy-makers in the fight against all kidney diseases." Knight (read CJASN article) is a former U.S. Congressional staff member and business consultant who serves on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Advisory Council, and as the Co-Chair of the Community Engagement Committee for the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP). Paul T. Conway, Co-Chair of The Global Summit and AAKP Chair of Policy and Global Affairs, a former peritoneal dialysis patient and 24-year kidney transplant recipient, stated, "AAKP and our friend and ally Dr. Dominic Raj envisioned The Global Summit on Kidney Innovations as a unique international event aimed at accelerating cooperation among patients, researchers, clinicians, and policy professionals. Kidney patient consumers worldwide demand and deserve far greater care choice and are well aware of the value they bring as partners to pioneers developing the next generation of diagnostics, devices, and biologics. AAKP has expanded our collaborations with patient groups worldwide to advance innovation and to support all who share our sense of urgency and intent to transcend legislative, regulatory, and payment barriers that limit care choice and delay entry of new, safe treatments into the global consumer markets." Conway (read CJASN article) is a former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Labor and serves on the External Expert Panel of National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP), the American Board of Internal Medicine's Nephrology Specialty Board, and is a Patient Voice Editor for The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. AAKP has formal partnerships with the multiple international kidney patient organizations including in support of The Global Summit, The Decade of the Kidney, and the growing international kidney innovation consortium, including: Argentina-based Asociacion Solidaria de Insuficientes Renales (ASIR) ; European Kidney Patients' Federation (EKPF) and the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) ; and United Kingdom-based Renal Patient Support Group . AAKP will be announcing multiple additional global partnerships throughout the remainder of 2021 and 2022. AAKP leaders and their global allies have carried the key messages of The Global Summit into other global forums, including the University of Washington's Center for Dialysis Innovation's recent IDEAS Summit, where Dr. Murray Sheldon of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration conducted a presentation on the expanding international kidney innovation consortium . Future presentations on the key learnings and messages of The Global Summit and the international kidney innovation consortium will be conducted at the AAKP Annual National Patient Meeting September 24-25, 2021, and at the American Society of Nephrology's, 2021 Kidney Week , November 4-7, the largest kidney professional conference in the world. Voices in support of AAKP's expanding global partnerships and international collaborations include: Mr. Colm Clifford, kidney patient and AAKP Global Ambassador in the Republic of Ireland: "Change happens when a collective voice sends a strong message that change is required. This begins from the grassroots. While it may eventually be signed off with the stroke of a pen, it's the strong collective voice that can't be ignored that drives that to happen. In kidney disease, after The Global Summit, I'm confident we really are moving forward and it's an exciting time to be involved." Daniel Gallego, President of the European Kidney Patients' Federation (EKPF): "We are more than happy that the AAKP reached out to us to enforce the collaboration of kidney patients worldwide to really give a push for innovation and new therapies that will enhance quality of life of kidney patients, contributing to expand our daily life activities. EKPF strongly believes that in creating these therapies, patients should be included and in the driver's seat to reach next level therapies. Together we can create and extend a platform that is responsible for the long-overdue innovation that kidney patients are waiting for." Raymond Vanholder, President of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA): "Collaboration for improvement of kidney therapies can really benefit by moving boundaries. We are delighted with the expansion of our international collaboration by teaming up with AAKP. At EKHA we strongly believe in the empowerment of patients to enhance quality of life where possible. We therefore adopted their 'Decade of the Kidney' program to create awareness for the unmet needs of kidney patients. An important part of this collaboration will exist in setting the political agenda at the level of the EU and USA to push for real innovative therapies and corresponding funding to realize them." Dr. Maria Eugenia Vivado Duran, President of the Argentina-based Asociacion Solidaria de Insuficientes Renales of Buenos Aires; AAKP Global Ambassador: "ASIR joins together with AAKP in support of the rights of the kidney patients and to share in efforts to further medical innovations that will better prevent and treat kidney diseases and improve the quality of life for kidney patients." Dr. Vivado Duran, a pediatrician and AAKP Global Ambassador, was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1979 during her second pregnancy. She was on hemodialysis for many years and in 2001, received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor, allowing her to continue working for patients, educating the community, and enjoying her family. She has been president of ASIR for four consecutive terms and does everything in gratitude to her anonymous kidney donor. Dr. Shahid Nazir Muhammad, Specialist Biomedical Scientist, The University of the West of England (UWE) and Academic Lead, on behalf of The Renal Patient Support Group (RPSG), United Kingdom: "Future research integrating perceptions to acknowledge CKD as a condition with diverse morbidities and investigations to explore educational needs is mission critical. The Renal Patient Support Group (RPSG) is a place where awareness and research meet and encourages healthcare service and support in comprehensible proportions. Innovation is good to an extent. However, timely and targeted education relating CKD and recommendations with a solid focus is where best practice between pediatric and adult nephrology, tackling health inequalities is pinnacle to ensure that CKD patients are not forgotten and become unpeople (disenfranchised), and there is kidney disease awareness on an international level." Ms. Vasundhara Raghavan, caregiver to a son with kidney disease and the AAKP Global Ambassador in the United Arab Emirates: "An international consortium of kidney patient organizations will be a catalyst to drive many innovations and bring in much-needed changes in the kidney patient ecosystem. The consortium can help execute cross border treatments for paired kidney transplants possible through an international donor bank. Sharing of best practices, knowledge, and resources will aid the kidney patient community immensely. A collaborative platform such as this will help us gather momentum in kidney research, patient advocacy, and provide financial aid to needy patients. The needs of kidney patients are best expressed by them. They are going through the arduous journey and having firsthand knowledge of what works best for them. Patients driving these discussions will help bring conclusive decisions on policy matters directly impacting them. Through this platform they will have a channel to voice their opinions and get to share their experiences to a wider community. Getting patients involved early on in these discussions is extremely critical and the value addition that they will provide to the conversation will be vastly practical." AAKP and GW SMHS thank their 2021 Global Summit sponsors. Gold Level: Horizon Therapeutics and Travere Therapeutics; Silver Level: CareDx, Inc.; Patron Level: Hansa Biopharma and Sanofi Genzyme; and Supporting Level: AstraZeneca and Eurofins Transplant Genomics. Information on the 2022 Global Summit is available at https://aakp.org/programs-and-events/global-summit/ . About the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP): Since 1969, AAKP has been a patient-led organization driving policy discussions on kidney patient consumer care choice and treatment innovation. By 1973, AAKP patients had collaborated with the U.S. Congress and White House to establish dialysis coverage for any person suffering kidney failure, a U.S. taxpayer supported effort that has saved over one million lives. In 2018, AAKP established the largest U.S. kidney voter registration program, KidneyVoters. Over the past decade, AAKP patients have helped gain lifetime transplant drug coverage for kidney transplant recipients (2020); new patient-centered policies via the White House Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (2019); new job protections for living organ donors from the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and Congressional legislation allowing HIV positive organ transplants for HIV positive patients (2013). Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on Twitter, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and visit www.aakp.org. The Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations is produced by AAKP's national strategic media partner, Briar Patch Media, which provides creative consulting and full-service media video production and post-production for corporations, non-profit organizations, individuals throughout the U.S., and several international locations. About the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences: Founded in 1824, the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was the first medical school in the nation's capital and is the 11th oldest in the country. Working together in our nation's capital, with integrity and resolve, the GW SMHS is committed to improving the health and well-being of our local, national, and global communities. Visit their website at smhs.gwu.edu . MEDIA CONTACT: Jennifer Rate Marketing & Communications Manager [email protected] (813) 400-2394 SOURCE American Association of Kidney Patients Related Links http://www.aakp.org LONDON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As per the United Nations, the global population is anticipated to touch 9.8 billion by 2050, putting unsustainable pressure on arable land. A key way to ensure food security is by maximizing crop yield. Studies indicate that arable land will decline by 60% per person in emerging economies. Crop protection chemicals improve crop yield and quality in the safest manner as they are constantly evolving in terms of efficacy and to adhere to regulatory norms. There are approximately 800 active ingredients available in the crop protection chemicals market an eight-fold rise from the 1970s with insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides being the most commonly deployed. In 2018, the crop protection chemicals market was worth US$64.3 Bn and this is expected to rise to US$83.5 Bn by 2025, recording a CAGR of 5.3% for the period from 2021 to 2025. Get a Sample Copy of Crop Protection Chemicals Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/global-crop-protection-chemicals-market/request-sample Get a Sample Copy of Global Crop Protection Chemicals Market: Fungicides Play Vital Role in Averting 70% Decline in Cereal, Vegetable and Crop Yield Herbicides have long dominated the crop protection chemicals market with a market share of more than 50% as they regulate weed growth that can have a detrimental effect on crop yield and acreage. The second most commonly purchased crop protection chemical across geographies are fungicides. Fungal infections are a major concern among farmers as millions of tonnes of wheat, maize, and rice get destroyed annually. It is estimated that the yield of cereals, fruits, and vegetables could fall by 70% without the use of fungicides highlighting the importance of the overall crop protection chemicals market. Crop Protection Chemicals and Sustainable Farming Work in Tandem to Transform Agriculture Crop protection chemicals are critical in sustainable farming with agronomy and societal changes having a transformational impact on the overall market. The explosive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) within agriculture has led to unprecedented breakthroughs in on-field pest management. Farmers can choose a diverse array of sensors to eliminate pests and take a proactive approach with analytics. Integrated Pest Management is a major part of sustainable farming with IPM focusing on biological, chemical, physical, and cultural techniques to control insects, fungi, and weeds. IPM has become an integral component of government policy worldwide and the EU considers it to be a cornerstone for pest management. Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Request Customization of Report: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/global-crop-protection-chemicals-market/request-customization Record Pesticide Registrations Make Brazil Critical in Crop Protection Chemicals Market Latin America and Asia Pacific are predicted to lead the crop protection chemicals market for the foreseeable future. Latin America shows huge promise and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2021-25. Fungal, weed, and worm infestations in the region are being overcome by rapid technological improvements in farming methods. Chemical manufacturers would do well to target Brazil and Argentina in Latin America with the former being one of the largest importers in the crop protection chemicals market. Within the Asia Pacific region, China and India alone account for a third of global population and more than half of India's citizens derives their livelihood from agriculture. Since 2015, China has adopted a 'zero-growth' plan to carefully monitor crop protection chemicals deployed in the nation. Furthermore, uncertain weather patterns such as sudden floods or droughts can have a catastrophic impact on local crop production. Lastly, countries are tightening their regulatory regimes by phasing out certain active pharmaceutical ingredients, adding to challenges in the crop protection chemicals market. Consolidation and Japanese Pre-eminence Characterize Crop Protection Chemicals Market Two decades ago, there were more than 10 large manufacturers actively involved in the crop protection chemicals market. Cutthroat competition and stringent norms have whittled down market players as they were forced to consolidate. In 2018. Syngenta, Bayer Crop Science, BASF SE, Corteva (DowDuPont), FMC, and ADAMA had a market share of more than 50% in the crop protection chemicals market. An interesting trend of note is the prominence of Japanese companies as the country comprises a quarter of products developed in the crop protection chemicals market. Browse Our Latest Trending Reports: About Us Fairfield Market Research is a UK-based market research provider. Fairfield offers a wide spectrum of services, ranging from customized reports to consulting solutions. With a strong European footprint, Fairfield operates globally and helps businesses navigate through business cycles, with quick responses and multi-pronged approaches. The company values an eye for insightful take on global matters, ably backed by a team of exceptionally experienced researchers. With a strong repository of syndicated market research reports that are continuously published & updated to ensure the ever-changing needs of customers are met with absolute promptness. Contact: Fairfield Market Research London, UK UK +44 (0)20 30025888 USA +1 (844) 3829746 (Toll-free) Web: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/ Email: [email protected] Follow Us: LinkedIn SOURCE Fairfield Market Research FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor North America has promoted company veteran Jason Erb to vice president, chief legal officer, effective Sept. 20. In this role, Erb is responsible for all legal matters across the region, including product liability, safety and warranty, intellectual property, risk management, cyber security, dealer franchise, and human resources, among other responsibilities. Erb reports to Hyundai Motor North America president and CEO, Jose Munoz. "Jason is a consummate professional and has vast expertise in our business and legal affairs," said Munoz. "This expertise will be critical as we navigate the introduction of new mobility products and services and ensure the protection of our business, partners and customers. Jason is the ideal choice to lead our outstanding legal team now and into the future." Erb has been a part of the Hyundai team for nearly 20 years, joining the company in 2002 as senior counsel. Most recently, he served as assistant general counsel and executive director, litigation. In this position, Erb was instrumental in developing the strategy and leading the skillful execution of class action and intellectual property litigation. Prior to Hyundai Erb practiced law at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in its Los Angeles office. Erb earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of California Berkeley and his Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law. 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. Hyundai Motor America on Twitter | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn SOURCE Hyundai Motor America Related Links www.hyundainews.com The complex will include two grass pitches and more than 17,000 square feet. Meticulously designed, the layout includes comprehensive team training features such as a world-class locker room, elite weight and cardio rooms, and multiple outdoor and gathering spaces. Finally, the complex will house the team's front office activities and includes spacious areas focused on nutrition and wellness. With ground broken only nine months after Kansas City was awarded the club, the team's new facility will also create iconic outward-facing moments and visuals that are sure to become a branding cornerstone not only for the team, but for the entire community. "The training facility gives a tangible sign of the three driving forces for our club: our players, our community and our passion to create the future of women's sports," said Co-Founder and Co-Owner Angie Long, "Our team will spend more time together here than anywhere so it's thrilling for us to bring it to life so quickly." In choosing the location for the facility, Co-Founder and Co-Owner Chris Long noted that it was important to connect to the history, attitudes and attributes that have shaped the metro. "This location is a perfect representation of both the history of the area and our bright future. Riverside sits on the very river that formed and shaped Kansas City with incredible views of downtown. We are grateful to Mayor Kathy Rose, the Board of Aldermen, and the entire city staff; from moment one, they have shared our vision for an even brighter tomorrow, and an appreciation for the way our team can connect the broader KC community." "As our community began to envision how Horizons could look, the idea of an active, inviting, and engaging development serving people from around the region became our goal. We've had many successes over the past ten years, but this is certainly a crowning achievement," said Rose. "These owners, this team, and this project will be a wonderful addition to Riverside. I am so excited to work with Angie, Brittany, and Chris to help their team be a great success and model for young women everywhere." KC NWSL has Generator Studio and Monarch Build as its primary design and construction partners for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2022. The team is in its first season of play, led by Owners Angie and Chris Long and Brittany Matthews, and will be in action next on Sept. 26 at the Washington Spirit before returning home to take on the Houston Dash on Oct. 2 at Legends Field. Tickets are available at KCWoSo.com. Media Contact: Jeff Husted [email protected] SOURCE Kansas City NWSL PITTSBURGH, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl, LLC. (Leech Tishman) is pleased to announce that it will be hosting a business briefing on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 entitled, "Back to Business: Proof of Vaccination and Weekly COVID-19 Testing: OSHA's Impending Emergency Temporary Standard & What It Means for Businesses Employing 100+ Individuals." Leech Tishman to Host Business Briefing on OSHAS Impending Emergency Temporary Standard & What it Means For Businesses Employing 100+ Individuals On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced that the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is developing an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) "that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work." This requirement will likely apply to approximately 80 million people, or two-thirds of all U.S. workers, according to the White House. While awaiting further guidance, many employers are already exploring vaccination and testing options and establishing secure protocols and procedures to track vaccination and testing status. There are a number of legal issues that come to mind when contemplating and preparing for this new standard. Leech Tishman's national Employment & Labor Chair, Philip A. Toomey, along with employment attorney Leah K. Sell will be presenting a complimentary 1-hour briefing to examine the developing ETS and answer frequently asked questions, including: Who is subject to the ETS? How might the 100-employee threshold be calculated? What is the proposed timeline for the ETS development and compliance deadline? Who will pay for the testing? How do employers mandate it? What about encouragements, incentives, penalties, and assessments? Will employers need to provide paid leave related to the vaccination and testing requirements? What reporting and recordkeeping requirements might there be? What about employee privacy? If it is mandatory, and an employee refuses, what happens? How will the ETS interact with current state prohibitions on employer and government vaccine requirements? Are there legal challenges to the ETS? How should employers approach communication with employees to provide protection on issues including accommodation, discrimination, collection and retention of personal health information, and avoiding medical examination? Interested employers should register here. Please submit any questions in advance to [email protected]. ABOUT LEECH TISHMAN Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl is a full-service law firm dedicated to assisting individuals, businesses, and institutions. Leech Tishman offers legal services in business restructuring & insolvency, corporate matters, employment & labor, estates & trusts, intellectual property, litigation & alternative dispute resolution, and real estate. In addition, the firm offers a wide range of legal services to clients in the aviation & aerospace, cannabis, construction, energy & natural resources, healthcare, and hospitality industries. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, Leech Tishman also has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Sarasota, Washington, D.C. and Wilmington, DE. Contact: Mala Mason Director of Marketing & Business Development [email protected] 412.225.9568 SOURCE Leech Tishman Related Links https://www.leechtishman.com/ Weiss said: "Mat is the type of creative leader who can see the entire board. His influence stretches well beyond the creative department as he inspires teams to find successes on the biggest and hardest problems, as well as on the smallest, unexpected opportunities. He is also a remarkably kind and humble human being who would hate reading me gush on and on about him." Bisher holds over 24 years of creative experience and has held creative leadership positions at renowned agencies such as McCann, BBDO, Deutsch and Burrell. He spent the majority of his career at McCann Worldgroup where he was most recently EVP, Executive Creative Director. There, Bisher produced award-winning campaigns for clients including Microsoft, U.S. Army, Lockheed Martin, Verizon, MasterCard, Chevy, NY Lottery and Qualcomm. Bisher said: "I couldn't be more excited to be joining DDB NY as a leader within the incredible, creatively famous DDB global network. I have the greatest respect for Ari and the DDB leadership team. There is a vision in place, and I'm honored to be included in it. This is going to be epic." Bisher's work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, Webby, Clio, and ANDY. His "Trail View" campaign for Nature Valley was ranked one of the most-awarded digital campaigns in the world and he was included as one of Adweek's Top 100 creatives in advertising. Whether it's a global powerhouse like Microsoft or an iconic state brand like NY Lottery, creativity is the driving force behind everything he does. Bisher steps in to lead the NY creative team as Lisa Topol and Derek Barnes leave the agency later this month. ABOUT DDB WORLDWIDE DDB Worldwide ( www.ddb.com ) is one of the world's largest and most influential advertising and marketing networks. DDB has been named 2021 Network of the Year by D&AD and ADC, as well as numerous times by the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and the industry's leading advertising publications and awards shows. WARC has listed DDB as one of the Top 3 Global Networks for 12 of the last 15 years. The network's clients include Molson Coors, Volkswagen, McDonald's, Unilever, Mars, Peloton, JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, and the U.S. Army, among others. Founded in 1949, DDB is part of the Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) and consists of more than 200 offices in over 70 countries with its flagship office in New York, NY. ABOUT OMNICOM Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE OMC) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 70 countries. Contact: Donna Tobin, Global Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, DDB Worldwide [email protected] SOURCE DDB Worldwide Related Links https://www.ddb.com CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mesirow, an independent, employee-owned financial services firm, today announced that Mesirow Currency Management published a new research report on whether currency alpha could be a solution to enhancing environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") portfolio returns. The study shows that while socially responsible investing has become a key objective of pension funds globally over the past decade, it is not without its challenges if a manager seeks to enhance returns by investing in non-ESG assets: Related Documents View PDF Enhancing ESG Portfolio Returns As the demand for ESG rated equity and bond strategies increases, portfolio managers are consistently searching for ways to enhance the return-to-risk ratios of their strategies versus those of their competitors. One obstacle to this is that investing in non-ESG assets can often impact a portfolio's overall ESG rating in a detrimental manner. Currency, however, could offer a solution to this problem given that investing in currency alpha has an "ESG neutral" effect on the overall portfolio rating. "As ESG equity and bond investing becomes ever more popular, many managers are seeking ways to enhance the returns of their portfolio without impacting their ESG rating," said Amy Middleton, Senior Vice President, Currency Specialist at Mesirow Currency Management and report author. "Unfortunately, the majority of investment choices open to such managers will not be 'ESG rating neutral' and may have a detrimental impact on the ESG rating a credit agency awards the fund. However, an allocation to currency alpha has neither a positive or a negative effect on the overall fund's ESG score and therefore may offer a solution to this problem." To view previous thought leadership from Mesirow Currency Management, including ESG for Systematic FX Trading, please visit the Currency Insight section of our website. About Mesirow Currency Management With global headquarters in Chicago and investment presence around the world, Mesirow Currency Management manages over $124 billion* in assets for an institutional global client base and offers custom solutions to suit specific client needs. Our offerings include execution services, passive management, active currency risk management, and currency for return. For more information, please visit: mesirow.com/currencymanagement. About Mesirow Mesirow is an independent, employee-owned financial services firm founded in 1937. Headquartered in Chicago, with locations around the world, we serve clients through a personal, custom approach to reaching financial goals and acting as a force for social good. With capabilities spanning Global Investment Management, Capital Markets & Investment Banking, and Advisory Services, we invest in what matters: our clients, our communities and our culture. To learn more, visit mesirow.com and follow us on LinkedIn. Mesirow was recently named one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago by Crain's Chicago Business and one of the Top Workplaces by the Chicago Tribune. Media [email protected] | Michael Herley | 203.308.1409 *As of 6.30.21. Mesirow Currency Management AUM reflects assets under management for both currency risk management products (passive and active management) and alpha and macro products. Risk management product AUM reflects the total foreign currency portfolio exposure of passive and active clients' underlying portfolios allocated to the Currency Division of Mesirow Financial. Alpha and macro product AUM reflect the client's total investment amount in the alpha and macro strategies of the Currency Division of Mesirow Financial, which is calculated based on an annualized 2% volatility target. Past performance is no indicator of future results. SOURCE Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc. Related Links http://mesirow.com CHICAGO, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Morreale Communications is proud to celebrate 15 years as a leading certified woman-owned public relations firm, working alongside businesses and organizations during times of change, crisis and opportunities. To mark the occasion, Morreale is unveiling a new logo that signifies the firm's evolution and growth. "Since founding Morreale Communications in 2006, our clients have counted on us to drive their priorities forward in complex and dynamic environments by leveraging the powerful intersection of business, media, policy and people," said Kim Morreale, President/CEO. "As Morreale looks forward to the next 15 years, our logo is designed like us with depth, resiliency and diversity, ready to meet the moment and deliver. We wish to recognize and thank our team, partners and clients who have made this incredible journey possible." Major Morreale milestones include supporting strategies that resulted in bringing the largest mixed martial arts organization, UFC, to Illinois, a new full-interchange in the Village of Huntly, increased funding for people with disabilities, and the launch of Illinois' medical cannabis industry. Morreale has consistently been called on to lead communications campaigns on high-profile transportation projects while reaching, informing and engaging diverse communities in the process. Morreale is a 16-time award winning firm, receiving national and world recognition for innovative public health and safety campaigns, visual storytelling, advocacy and public engagement programs. The firm's most recent accomplishments include spearheading COVID-19 response communications for leading public and private sector organizations during a world pandemic. This includes partnering with the Illinois Public Health Association and Illinois Department of Public Health to deliver integrated strategies that mitigate the spread of misinformation and encourage vaccine participation through the Pandemic Health Navigator Program. Morreale also supports Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois to promote health and wellness in diverse communities. The 15th anniversary arrives at a time when businesses and leaders are working to foster greater inclusion and diversity. By creating a rewarding and inclusive work culture, Morreale employs over 25 people with an all-female and minority leadership team and 90-percent female and minority workforce. "As we look to the future, our foundational differentiator remains our ability to activate the power, perspective and relationships of our diverse team," said Morreale. "With this approach, we've already built a wining practice in the areas of transportation, healthcare and highly regulated industries, and as we expand in new markets, we look forward to converting diverse perspectives and high-level strategies into communications solutions that connect, engage and educate audiences to transform outcomes across sectors." To read more about the inspiration and creative process around Morreale's new brand development, visit https://www.morrealecomm.com/insight About Morreale Communications Morreale Communications is a leading strategic communications agency working at the intersection of business, media, policy and people. Driven by the desire to empower our clients by elevating their voices during times of change, crisis and opportunity, Morreale offers an integrated suite of solutions. Core capabilities include strategic message development, stakeholder engagement, branding and creative strategy, digital & social communications, diversity & inclusion, policy strategy and media relations. Founded in 2006, Morreale brings unrivaled experience from a wide range of backgrounds to provide deep insights and counsel to our clients. Headquartered in Chicago, Morreale is proud to be a certified WBE/WBENC agency with an all-female leadership team and 90% female and minority workforce. SOURCE Morreale Communications Related Links www.morrealecomm.com ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Northern Contours, a leading manufacturer of cabinet components, today announced the launch of the Front + Center Pro, a new Refacing program for professional contractors. The program features easy online ordering with best-in-class lead times, free in-depth Refacing training, and dedicated technical support for licensed residential remodelers and refinishers. Front + Center Pros gain access to online ordering, exclusive pricing, fast lead times, and free training to learn how to add Refacing to their remodeling business. Front + Center offers a carefully curated selection of doors, drawer fronts and matching Refacing Supplies designed to work with existing cabinetry. Using the latest innovations in material and manufacturing technology, Front + Center creates made-in-the-USA products recognized for their quality and durability. "Every piece of our Front + Center Pro program was thoughtfully designed to make it easy for residential contractors to capitalize on the Refacing opportunity," said Missy Sjerven, Vice President of Marketing for Northern Contours. "With Refacing, Pros can deliver a completely refreshed style and modern functionality their clients will love, without the time, hassle, and homeowner sticker shock associated with traditional renovation projects." With Refacing, cabinet boxes are reused, while doors, drawer fronts, hinges, ends and trim are replaced, so all visible parts of the cabinets are brand new. Most Refacing jobs take 2-4 days for installation, and only 4-6 weeks from the initial call with the homeowner until the final walkthrough. "There is no more waiting multiple months for new cabinet boxes or waiting multiple days for paint to cure. With Front + Center Pro, it's possible for contractors to complete several jobs a month, or they can use Refacing as a fill-in between larger jobs," said Sjerven. Qualified Front + Center Pros receive exclusive pricing on Front + Center's line of American-manufactured, made-to-order cabinet Refacing solutions, including high-quality doors and drawer fronts, and matching panels and finishing materials designed to cover the existing cabinet boxes. The line features a carefully curated selection of door styles and finishes that are most in-demand with today's homeowners. Front + Center's doors, drawer fronts and Refacing supplies are made from highly durable and consistent engineered materials that are maintenance free and easy to clean. Six times thicker than paint, Front + Center's engineered finishes are resistant against scratches, stains, water, dirt and bacteria. To qualify for the Front + Center Pro program, Pros must have a current state contractor's license, where applicable, and current general liability insurance to state-required levels. To learn more and apply visit https://myfrontandcenter.com/. About Front + Center Front + Center is the first American-manufactured, made-to-order line of cabinet Refacing solutions available direct-to-consumers and contractors. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myfrontandcenter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myfrontandcenter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpvDaH6Q-Pd_X98xMMz_rRQ About Northern Contours Northern Contours is a leading manufacturer of cabinet components for the Kitchen & Bath industry, as well as specialty components for Office, Healthcare, and other Commercial industries. Founded in 1992 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, with a focus on membrane pressed cabinet doors and wood veneer panels, the company has since introduced multiple new product lines, and grown to more than 450 employees operating five manufacturing facilities throughout North America. Contact: Michelle Wright [email protected] 612-386-6231 SOURCE Front + Center MIAMI, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Oceania Cruises, the world's leading culinary- and destination-focused cruise line set an all-time single day booking record that surpassed the most recent record by nearly 60%. While the most recent record was for a full season of sailings across six ships, this record was driven by the introduction of one new ship with itineraries for primarily one half of a year. Vista is slated to debut in April 2023, voyages opened for sale on September 15th at 9:00 a.m. eastern and by 10:30 a.m., the number of bookings had surpassed the company's most recent record which was set in March 2021. "The tremendous wave of bookings we saw on the day we opened sales for Vista underscores the extraordinary demand for our acclaimed small ship, destination focused vacations," stated Bob Binder, President and CEO of Oceania Cruises. On September 15, 2021, Oceania Cruises opened the inaugural season itineraries of its newest ship, Vista for sale to the general public. A total of 18 voyages spanning from April 2023 through November 2023 went on sale. Itineraries range from 10- to 24-days in length with fares from $5,299 per guest to $32,199 per guest. Accommodations on the designer-inspired upper premium ship range from 270 square feet for the newly introduced solo staterooms to more than 2,400 square feet for the palatial Owner's Suites which run the full width of the ship. "We are seeing exceptional demand from both our loyal Oceania Club repeaters and new-to-brand guests who are attracted to Vista's new restaurants and culinary concepts, residentially styled staterooms and suites, and unique itineraries that present the destinations from a new perspective," stated Bob Binder, President & CEO of Oceania Cruises. All of the bookings for 2023 are new cash bookings with absolutely no dilution from Future Cruise Credits issued for cancelled cruises in 2020 or 2021. Virtually all of the top-tier Owner's, Oceania, and Vista suites along with the newly introduced solo concierge veranda staterooms are sold out for the inaugural season. Nearly half of the available inventory of Vista's inaugural season was sold in one day with 30% of all bookings coming from new to brand guests. The most in-demand destinations were the British Isles and Canada, the Mediterranean, Holy Lands, and Panama Canal. About Oceania Cruises Oceania Cruises is the world's leading culinary- and destination-focused cruise line. The line's seven small, luxurious ships carry no more than 1,250 guests and feature the finest cuisine at sea and destination-rich itineraries that span the globe. Expertly curated travel experiences aboard the designer-inspired, small ships call on more than 450 marquee and boutique ports across Europe, Alaska, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, New England-Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, Tahiti and the South Pacific in addition to the epic 180-day Around the World Voyages. The brand has an additional 1,200-guest Vista Class ship on order for delivery in 2025. With headquarters in Miami, Oceania Cruises is owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., a diversified cruise operator of leading global cruise brands which include Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. About Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH) is a leading global cruise company which operates the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. With a combined fleet of 28 ships with nearly 60,000 berths, these brands offer itineraries to more than 490 destinations worldwide. The Company has nine additional ships scheduled for delivery through 2027, comprising of approximately 24,000 berths. SOURCE Oceania Cruises ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Economic development, nonprofit organization Prospera will celebrate its annual signature Hispanic Heritage Month event virtually due to safety precautions. From Tuesday, September 21 through Friday, September 24, the 2021 Prospera Journeys to Success event will be aired at 10 a.m. each day, via Facebook Live. The event, which is part of the nonprofit's 30th anniversary celebration, will showcase more than a dozen stories of small business clients who have benefited from its assistance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also feature annual funders, volunteers, and executive leaders of the organization from its service areas in Florida and North Carolina. During the event, the organization will also announce the results of a 30-year, economic impact analysis performed by AngelouEconomics. The 2021 Prospera Journeys to Success is presented by Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light Company, and OUC - The Reliable One. The program will be focused on Prospera's mission to help start, sustain, and grow Hispanic-owned businesses to achieve community prosperity. More information about the event is available at tinyurl.com/Prospera30Celebration. Other event sponsors include: Prosperity Sponsors : Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Truist, and Wells Fargo : Bank of America, Fifth Third Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Truist, and Wells Fargo Hosts : AdventHealth, AT&T, Bank United, Florida Blue , Heart of Florida United Way, Orlando Health, Orlando Magic , TECO and Visit Tampa Bay : AdventHealth, AT&T, Bank United, , Heart of Florida United Way, Orlando Health, , TECO and Visit Tampa Bay Champions : Amerant, First Horizon-Iberia Bank, Florida International University , Hill Ward Henderson, Kings Service Solutions, Plaza del Sol, Suncoast Credit Union, Telemundo 51, and The Trentham Santiago Group : Amerant, First Horizon-Iberia Bank, , Hill Ward Henderson, Kings Service Solutions, Plaza del Sol, Suncoast Credit Union, Telemundo 51, and The Trentham Santiago Group Leaders: TD Bank, University of Central Florida , Univision 23, West Kendall Baptist Hospital, Work Magic, and Zaza New Cuban Diner. Prospera is an economic development, nonprofit organization that since 1991 has specialized in providing bilingual assistance to Hispanic entrepreneurs who want to establish, sustain, or grow their businesses. In the last five years, Prospera has facilitated over $60 million in loans, trained over 20,000 entrepreneurs, and helped consulting clients create or retain over 16,000 jobs. It has offices in Florida's central, south, and west coast regions, and in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information, visit www.prosperausa.org. Media Contact: Maria Yabrudy, 407-412-3303, [email protected] SOURCE Prospera Related Links http://www.prosperausa.org SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Frederick Penney, managing partner of Penney and Associates Injury Lawyers, and co-author Jesse Zalasky discuss the pros and cons of paramotoring. A paramotor is a motorized paraglider that is used for flying. A propeller, typically powered by a small two-stroke engine, is strapped to the back of the pilot. A paraglider is attached to the pilot with carabiners. To take off, the pilot gets a running start, then gives the paramotor some gas via a hand-held throttle to gain lift. Taking off and landing are typically performed in an open field. It is important to note that this article is a review of general information, and is not intended to be a guide in any manner for paramotoring. Seek more information from trained professionals. One of the most interesting aspects of paramotoring is that it is not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) . It is self-regulated. This means that paramotor pilots do not need clearance to take off or land. In fact, they do not need to communicate with a flight tower at any point. There are no formal certification requirements for paramotor pilots. However, training is strongly suggested by the United States Powered Paragliding Association. The Association directs people to FAA guidelines. It is important to review the resources at this site. See USPPA's website for more information. Because paramotoring is not regulated, one might think all they need to take flight is some training and a few thousand dollars' worth of equipment. Since anyone can do it, is paramotoring actually safe? If you want to take flight with a paramotor, learning the basics is a must. A paramotor is a relatively simple flying machine, consisting of only a harness, engine, and paraglider. The paramotor pilot controls speed with a hand-held throttle. To control direction and altitude, a pilot must maneuver the paraglider, just as one would do while flying in a standard, non-motorized paraglider. However, unlike a paraglider, the use of thermals (hot air) to gain more altitude is not required. The modern paramotor was developed in the 1980s. A paramotor's propeller is designed for high speeds and high revs. The wing, or parasail, has trimmers which allows the pilot to adjust the angle of attack in order to ascend or descend. When trimmed out, the paramotor can achieve maximum speed, allowing the pilot to gain altitude. Trimmed-in wings allow the pilot to slow down and descend. A pilot can change the angle of attack via a pulley system, operated by their hands and feet. Like all forms of flight, takeoff and landing are the most challenging aspects of flying a paramotor. We already mentioned that takeoff requires a running start. Failure to gain enough speed can result in aborting the takeoff. The heavier the pilot, and the heavier the equipment, the more difficult it can be to gain the speed required to take off. Landing is just as difficult. Pilots make an effort to always land downwind and in open fields. Properly controlling the paraglider, which is known as "kiting," must be mastered to land safely. When pilots do land, they generally touch down and run along the ground to slow to a stop. When not in use, all flying gear and equipment can be stored in a closed trailer or garageyou don't need a hangar like you would owning an airplane! Paramotoring is self-regulated, but that does not mean you should take flight without first taking lessons. There is no doubt that, if you want to fly, paramotors offer one of the lowest barriers of entry. One of the reasons for this is that paramotoring is unregulated. Technically, anyone can buy a paramotor, strap it on, and take off without any previous experiencebut you should not do that. It is critically important that you take paramotoring lessons from an experienced professional prior to setting off on your own. The good news is that experienced paramotors are willing to lend a helping hand. For example, there are multiple paramotor training facilities in California. No, these facilities are not regulated by any governing body. Paramotoring is a fairly niche sport. But what the sport lacks in popularity it more than makes up for in passion. Experienced paramotorists who teach at training facilities claim to have the knowledge to help those new to sport quickly how it is done. If you are new to the sport and looking to take some training classes, here are some basic skills you should learn from trained professionals: What gear you need How a paramotor works How to handle the paramotor on the ground How to accelerate and decelerate How to take off How to ascend How to control the paramotor while flying How to descend How to land How to maintain your equipment Thoroughly review and understand information on the USAAP website Paramotoring is self-regulated, but that does not mean you should take flight without first taking lessons from trained professionals. Available injury statistics suggest paramotoring can be dangerous, but the unregulated nature of the sport makes safety data unclear. Because paramotoring is not regulated, injury statistics are not widely available. The United States Powered Paragliding Association (USPPA) acts as the unofficial charity of paramotoring in the United States. The USPPA website does maintain a database of self-reported incidents . According to the USPPA, 471 paramotoring incidents have occured since 2001. Of these self-reported incidents: 30 resulted in a pilot or passenger fatality 84 resulted in major injury requiring hospitalization 126 resulted in minor injuries 177 resulted in no injuries A total of 471 self-reported paramotor incidents since 2001 is an average of 24 per year. Keep in mind that these are self-reported and the USPPA's database is an unofficial record. The available injury statistics indicate that paramotoring may be dangerous, but because it is not regulated, unreported incidents have likely occurred, making the statistics possibly unreliable. So, if you want to fly a paramotor, how do you remain safe? Take lessons. As we mentioned, lessons from trained professionals is one way to learn and possibly diminish the chance of injury. Do not attempt to fly before taking classes with an experienced instructor, and only fly on your own when you are comfortable doing so. Buy quality gear. Paramotor gear should cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 . Talk to a trained professional about the right gear for you. Fly in good weather conditions. Rain and wind can cause equipment failure and make it difficult to control a paramotor. Pay close attention to the weather and only fly in calm winds with no rain. Never fly at night. Paramotorists should never fly at night. At night, you can not be seen by other aircraft. You also cannot see the ground and where to land when in the air at night. When you fly during the day, be sure to land before the sun goes down. Anyone can fly a paramotorthat's what makes the sport so intriguing! But don't be fooled by the low barrier of entry. Paramotoring can be dangerous especially if you do not know how to fly. Take lessons from a professional, buy quality gear, and always err on the side of caution when flying. SOURCE Penney and Associates Related Links www.penneylawyers.com Rise is proposing to build the Outerbridge Renewable Connector, a new solution to streamline the delivery of renewable offshore wind energy to New Jersey homes and businesses. Rise recently completed acquisition of the site of the former E.H. Werner Power Station in South Amboy, New Jersey, and plans to redevelop the site as a renewable energy hub serving as a central interconnection point for offshore wind farms to deliver clean energy to the New Jersey electric grid. With Rise's ongoing remediation efforts, the project will also lead to the elimination of a once-contaminated brownfield site dating back to the 1930s. The acquisition of the former Werner coal plant continues Rise's mission to transform aging energy infrastructure into hubs of clean energy. Rise is currently advancing the clean energy transformation of New York City's largest power plant, the Ravenswood Generating Station, to host several green infrastructure projects, including battery storage and renewable transmission solutions. Today, after months of consultations with elected leaders, policymakers, offshore wind developers, environmental advocates, labor, business, fishing interests, and other stakeholders, Rise submitted to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and PJM Interconnection the innovative Outerbridge Renewable Connector plan. "Rise Light & Power is committed to helping New Jersey achieve its ambitious clean energy goals," said Clint Plummer, CEO of Rise Light & Power. "The state's bold vision calls for a responsible, affordable solution to delivering offshore wind energy to the state electric grid. Outerbridge solves the challenge of finding appropriate and acceptable cable landing sites by using existing infrastructure that avoids siting transmission lines in sensitive areas like residential neighborhoods and recreational beaches." "Governor Murphy positioned New Jersey as a leader in transitioning to clean energy and we are proud to play an integral part in his goal for the state to obtain 50 percent of its power from clean sources by 2030," said South Amboy Mayor Fred Henry, who supports the project. "The Outerbridge Renewable Connector is the only project in our state that can deliver clean offshore wind to our residents without the controversy of disturbing beaches and communities. Outerbridge is also a major economic generator for South Amboy that will create good-paying local jobs and support our community as a major taxpayer. This is the kind of partner and project South Amboy is proud to endorse." The Outerbridge proposal is a superior solution for delivering offshore wind energy to New Jersey electric customers because it enables offshore wind projects to avoid bringing high voltage power cables ashore at New Jersey's beaches or other sensitive areas. Instead, Rise proposes transforming an industrial waterfront site, formerly home to the Jersey Central Power & Light Company's E.H. Werner power station, into an ideal gateway for bringing power from offshore wind farms into New Jersey. The 26-acre, industrially-zoned site was retired as a fossil-fueled power plant in 2015. The site on Raritan Bay features an existing substation and switchyard, rail and highway access, a pier with expansion potential and unobstructed access to the Atlantic Ocean with 24 acres of submerged lands. Once offshore wind energy is delivered to the new clean energy hub at South Amboy, Outerbridge would function as a giant extension cord, delivering clean energy to the local power grid through upgraded grid infrastructure on the site and to the Deans Substation through buried cables along an existing railroad right of way. The power cables will be entirely underground. A proposed battery energy-storage system offers the opportunity for further reliability to the grid. In repurposing the past to power the future, Outerbridge will be a valuable part of the South Amboy waterfront, creating good-paying union jobs during construction. Outerbridge would generate power for up to 1.4 million homes and create over $1 billion in economic value to New Jersey, including nearly $88 million in tax revenue for state and local governments. In addition, Rise is committed to fund and implement programs to build the local economy and support workforce development. Outerbridge would accomplish this while minimizing costs and controversy and building confidence in New Jersey's offshore wind systems. "New Jersey has a nation-leading offshore wind program," said Joe Esteves and David Nanus, the Co-Heads of Private Equity at LS Power. "Our Outerbridge proposal allows the state to achieve its offshore wind goals on schedule, cost-effectively and with the highest possible levels of public support. And it will demonstrate how a legacy power plant site can be transformed into a hub of clean energy." The Outerbridge Project presents the NJ BPU with: Ideal location the site of the retired E.H. Werner Power Station on Raritan Bay on Raritan Bay Zoned for industrial use no recreational beaches, residential communities, or Wildlife Management Areas would be disturbed Direct access to state and regional power grid through a substation onsite and access to others via an existing railroad right of way Low-impact, environmentally-responsible route alignment with no above-ground transmission facilities or road construction required between the South Amboy location location A Battery Energy Storage System that will help facilitate New Jersey's transition to clean energy and improve reliability of the PJM system Rise is committed to extensive, ongoing communication with residents, local officials, labor, business, environmental advocates, environmental justice organizations, fishing industry and other stakeholders to seek input and guidance during development of the project. About Rise Light & Power Rise Light & Power is a regional energy asset manager and developer based in Queens, New York-based. Its core asset, Long Island City's Ravenswood Generation Station, is New York City's largest power generating facility, providing more than 20 percent of New York City's generation capacity. Rise is also pursuing an exciting growth-oriented strategy, including modernization and resiliency upgrades at Ravenswood, as well as new large-scale clean energy infrastructure to facilitate the renewable energy transition taking place in the New York and New Jersey region. Rise Light & Power is a wholly owned affiliate of LS Power. For more information, please visit www.riselight.com . About LS Power LS Power is a development, investment, and operating company focused on the North American power energy infrastructure sector. Since its inception in 1990, LS Power has developed, constructed, managed, or acquired more than 45,000 MW of power generation, including utility-scale solar, wind, hydro, natural gas-fired, and battery energy storage projects. LS Power's New York efforts beyond Rise Light & Power include LS Power Grid New York, a nearly 100-mile transmission upgrade project from Marcy to New Scotland which will support the delivery of clean energy, create jobs and hardens the line against extreme weather. LS Power Grid New York was selected by the New York Independent System Operator as the most efficient and cost-effective solution in New York's largest competitive transmission project to date, for which construction is underway. Additionally, LS Power has a long standing commitment to New Jersey, where it opened its office in East Brunswick in 1997, and owns and operates multiple generation facilities, including the Yards Creek Pumped Storage Hydro project, the Mars Solar project and the West Deptford Energy Station. Additionally, LS Power's New Jersey operations include Silver Run Electric, which secured the first major competitive transmission award in the eastern United States, and was praised by PJM for its "greater cost certainty with fewer exclusions" than other prospective developers. Silver Run was completed on time and below budget in June 2020. For more information on these and other projects, as well as LS Power's energy transition companies CPower Energy Management, Endurant Energy and EVgo, please visit www.lspower.com SOURCE Rise Light & Power Related Links http://www.riselight.com CLOVIS, Calif., Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Russo's New York Pizzeria, the only authentic New York-style, Italian restaurant, and pizzeria franchise concept, is set to open its first location in Fresno market later this year. The restaurant located at 1845 Herndon Ave, Ste. C Clovis, Ca 93611 will feature the restaurant's updated casual dining layout that includes an open-pizza concept station for guests to watch Russo's chefs prepare their hand-tossed pizzas and homemade meals fresh from scratch. The new design also allows the convenience for guests to choose take-out or delivery. This will be the first of five locations in development that is scheduled for the Fresno market by Don & Katharina Haines. "We are excited to offer Fresno families, friends and business associates a location for authentic New York-style pizzeria and Italian. Blending the simplicity of a pizzeria with the freshness of an upscale Italian restaurant, we deliver a chef-driven dining experience in a fast-casual setting. Our brand is so glad to have Don & Katharina Haines in the Russo's New York Pizzeria family, they are one of our first franchisees in California and the passion they have shown for restaurant operations, experience and commitment to quality makes them a great growth partner. I'm confident they will continue to carry on the Russo's family tradition in his own community "said Anthony Russo, Founder and CEO, Russo's New York Pizzeria. Following the family mantra "If it isn't fresh, don't serve it!" Russo's delivers an expansive menu that blends generations of family recipes with fresh, seasonal ingredients and authentic Italian imports like Pecorino Romano cheese from Emilia Romagna, Italy; aged-balsamic vinegar from a centuries-old vineyard in Italy; and extra virgin olive oil from Partanna, Italy. About Russo's Restaurants Russo's Restaurants is a national and international franchisor of the casual dining brand Russo's New York Pizzeria. Based in Houston, Russo's Restaurants is composed of a mix of corporate and franchised locations across Texas, Oklahoma, California, and Florida. Russo's has entered international markets as well, with locations in with locations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Chef Anthony Russo created Russo's Restaurants by applying his unique, family recipes featuring New York-style pizza, handcrafted pasta dishes, calzones, salads, sandwiches, soups and desserts. At its heart, Russo's Restaurants reflects Chef Anthony's commitment to his New York roots where food and family come first. To learn more about Russo's franchise development opportunities, visit www.russosfranchise.com. SOURCE Russo's New York Pizzeria Related Links http://www.nypizzeria.com BEIJING, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RYB Education, Inc. ("RYB" or the "Company") (NYSE: RYB), a leading early childhood education service provider in China, today announced the resignation of Mr. Chimin Cao as the chairman of the board of directors (the "Board") of the Company and the re-designation of him as the honorary chairman of the Board, the resignation of Mr. Cen Shi as a director of the Board and the re-designation of him as an observer of the Board, and the appointment of the Mr. Gang Chen as the chairman of the Board, effective September 17, 2021. Mr. Cao will remain as a director of the Board. Mr. Cao and Mr. Shi resigned from their current positions for personal reasons and not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company's operations, policies or practices. Mr. Cao will also no longer serve on the nominating and corporate governance committee of the Board. The Company is grateful of Mr. Cao's contribution over the years as the co-founder of the Company. Mr. Dennis Demiao Zhu is appointed as the chair and Mr. Joel A. Getz as a member of the corporate governance and nominating committee of the Board, effective September 17, 2021. Ms. Yanlai Shi, co-founder of the Company, will continue to act as director and Chief Executive Officer, while Mr. Hao Gu remains as Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Mr. Gang Chen is a partner of Ascendent Capital Partners, where he has been heavily involved in managing its portfolio companies and accumulated extensive experience in operations and corporate management. Prior to joining Ascendent, he served as the chief strategist for Biltmore Capital Group and head of alternative investment group for CMS Companies. Mr. Chen received his bachelor's degree from East China Normal University where he worked for a few years after graduation. He obtained a master of business administration degree from the Yale School of Management. Mr. Gang Chen, RYB's new chairman of the Board commented, "RYB firmly supports the governmental strategies and policies related to pre-school education, and is fully committed to promoting inclusive education. Going forward, RYB will continue to actively uphold our social responsibilities. We will serve the overall national development, operate in compliance with laws and regulations, and continuously improve the quality of education and services. Furthermore, we will increase our investments in digital transformation, refined operations, teacher training and safety management, making practical moves to actively implement policies that aim to provide accessible education to young children and better services to families and the society." About RYB Education, Inc. Founded on the core values of "Care" and "Responsibility," "Inspire" and "Innovate," RYB Education, Inc. is a leading early childhood education service provider in China. Since opening its first play-and-learn center in 1998, the Company has grown and flourished with the mission to provide high-quality, individualized and age-appropriate care and education to nurture and inspire each child for his or her betterment in life. During its two decades of operating history, the Company has built "RYB" into a well-recognized education brand and helped bring about many new educational practices in China's early childhood education industry. RYB's comprehensive early childhood education solutions meet the needs of children from infancy to 6 years old through structured courses at kindergartens and play-and-learn centers, as well as at-home educational products and services. For more information, please visit http://ir.rybbaby.com. Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the Company's brand recognition and market reputation; the Company's growth strategies; trends and competition in China's early childhood education market; changes in its revenues and certain cost or expense items; the expected growth of the Chinese early childhood education market; Chinese governmental policies relating to the Company's industry and general economic conditions in China. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: RYB Education, Inc. Investor Relations E-mail: [email protected] The Piacente Group, Inc. Yang Song Tel: +86 (10) 6508-0677 E-mail: [email protected] In the United States: The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi Piacente Tel: +1-212-481-2050 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE RYB Education, Inc. Related Links www.rybbaby.com SANDVIKEN, Sweden, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2020 Sandvik AB's Annual General Meeting adopted an instruction regarding the appointment of the Nomination Committee, applicable until the General Meeting resolves otherwise. Pursuant to this instruction the company shall have a Nomination Committee comprised of members appointed by each of the four principal shareholders in terms of votes on the last banking day of August, as well as the Chairman of the Board (convenor). The Nomination Committee has now been appointed and consists of the following members: Fredrik Lundberg , AB Industrivarden, Chairman of the Nomination Committee , AB Industrivarden, Chairman of the Nomination Committee Anna Magnusson , Alecta , Alecta Marianne Nilsson , Swedbank Robur Funds , Swedbank Robur Funds Lars Pettersson , Lundbergs , Lundbergs Johan Molin , Sandvik's Chairman of the Board The Nomination Committee shall prepare proposals for the 2022 Annual General Meeting regarding the Chairman of the Meeting, number of Board members, fees to be paid to each of the Board members, election of Board members and Board Chairman, remuneration to the auditor and election of auditor and, if necessary, proposal for changes in the instruction to the Nomination Committee. The Annual General Meeting will be held on April 27, 2022, in Sandviken, Sweden. Shareholders who wish to present proposals to the Nomination Committee for the 2022 Annual General Meeting can submit them to the Nomination Committee's Secretary Asa Thunman by e-mail: [email protected]. In order for the Nomination Committee to be able to consider submitted proposals in a constructive manner, these should be submitted by January 14, 2022, at the latest. For further information, contact 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-ab---nomination-committee-for-the-2022-annual-general-meeting,c3417271 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/208/3417271/1469797.pdf Sandvik AB a" Nomination Committee for the 2022 Annual General Meeting SOURCE Sandvik MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) & Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) is pleased to announce the election of two new members to its Board of Directors taking office on November 1, 2021, and the re-election of five existing board members to new terms. The SCCE & HCCA Board of Directors is comprised of 19 individuals and represents a diverse group of compliance professionals who are dedicated to championing ethical practices and compliance standards in the community by providing oversight and leadership for the association. SCCE & HCCA's two new board members are: Niurka Adorno-Davies , AVP Compliance, Molina Healthcare, Inc. Niurka has held legal and compliance roles within the healthcare industry. A member of HCCA since 2009, Niurka has been actively involved in planning the San Juan Regional Conference and has contributed to HCCA as a speaker, author, and member of the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. , AVP Compliance, Molina Healthcare, Inc. Niurka has held legal and compliance roles within the healthcare industry. A member of HCCA since 2009, Niurka has been actively involved in planning the San Juan Regional Conference and has contributed to HCCA as a speaker, author, and member of the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. J. Veronica Xu , Chief Compliance Officer, Saber Healthcare Group Veronica has authored articles for both Compliance & Ethics Professional (CEP) and Compliance Today magazines and has spoken at conferences for SCCE & HCCA. Veronica is also a member of SCCE & HCCA's Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. Current board members who were elected to new terms are: Samantha Kelen , Cardinal Innovations Healthcare , Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Louis Perold , Citadel Compliance , Citadel Compliance Judy Ringholz , Jackson Health System , Jackson Health System Lori Strauss , Stony Brook Medicine , Stony Brook Medicine Debbie Troklus , Troklus Compliance Consulting "I am thrilled with the backgrounds and expertise that these seven individuals bring to our organization. The mix of new and returning board members is precisely what we need to sustain our success and grow SCCE & HCCA," said Gerry Zack, CEO of SCCE & HCCA. About SCCE & HCCA Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) was founded in 1996 to serve the healthcare compliance profession and expanded in 2004 with the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) to serve the global compliance and ethics community across all industries. With a combined 20,000 members in 100 countries, SCCE & HCCA is the largest association furthering the interests of the compliance and ethics profession. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, SCCE & HCCA exists to champion ethical practice and compliance standards and to provide the necessary training, publications, certifications, and other resources for ethics and compliance professionals. Visit the SCCE website at www.corporatecompliance.org or call 888.277.4977 Visit HCCA's website at www.hcca-info.org or call 888.580.8373 SOURCE Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) & Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) HARROW, England and DALLAS, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sparkle has teamed up with Retail Data Systems (RDS) and Hedera Hashgraph to launch digital eReceipts and Universal Digital Coupons apps. The collaboration will allow Sparkle to deploy both applications at scale across legacy POS networks via RDS throughout North America. Sparkle are a multi-patented managed integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) provider. Retail Data Systems (RDS) is the largest reseller and support company of Point of Sale (POS) hardware and software in North America. Hedera Hashgraph is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger. Judd Ferrer, Founder of Sparkle, said, "By partnering with RDS and leveraging the Hedera network and services, we aim to enable retailers of all sizes to reap the benefits of digital solutions. The launch of these apps will represent a major step in the mass adoption of blockchain technology among consumers and retailers." Adam Doran, Chief Commercial Officer at Sparkle, added, "Without the need for costly and lengthy integrations which can be as much as $1M and 12 months or longer, we are empowering retailers to quickly and cost-effectively adopt a digital first strategy through our managed iPaaS platform and the APIs we have connected with to date which, in turn, will greatly benefit their end customers." RDS will be responsible for the apps' rollout to thousands of grocery retailers across North America. eReceipts and Universal Digital Coupons are the first of several apps which will be available to retailers via the 'RDS App Store' that is being created. Dwayne Van Wye, General Manager of RDS Minnesota, said, "We are excited to be working with Sparkle to create the 'RDS App Store' with eReceipts and Universal Digital Coupons the first apps we are launching to our customer base of grocery retailers across the US." Sparkle will leverage the Hedera Consensus Service to store and verify eReceipts, ensuring data on real-time transactions is securely logged and verified. Universal Digital Coupons, the new industry standard coupon format from The Coupon Bureau (TCB), provide great value and benefits to RDS' retail customers by removing the time and hassle of coupon handling, in-store fraud (valued annually at $100M+) and improving cash flow from quicker clearing and settlement. By adopting this app, it also means they can compete on a level playing field with the 'Big Box' Tier 1 retailers and not get left behind. Sparkle has accessed TCB's offering via a set of standardized APIs in order for retailers to connect, validate the coupon and retrieve the offer details; as well as real-time reporting to all stakeholders involved with each coupon: manufacturer, coupon provider / distributor, manufacturer agent, retailer clearinghouse. By using the Hedera Consensus Service, TCB can bring its standardization and added efficiencies to the marketplace with transparency and trust. Third-party validation and audit capabilities among authorized stakeholders enables industry confidence in this centralized, agnostic solution. These newly launched apps will make digital eReceipts and Universal Digital Coupons widely available to legacy POS Systems utilizing Sparkle's real-time connection of API, without the extensive time and cost of POS integration. Using the app and Sparkle's digital APIs, POS systems will be able to apply the data directly to the real-time transactional data, helping retailers reduce fraud and returns. One such beneficiary of Sparkle's eReceipt app and digital API integration services is Cielo Supermarket, an independent grocery store located in Antioch, California, who see the opportunities and value being derived from Sparkle's managed iPaaS multi-patented technology. Cielo strives to offer an unrivalled customer experience based on convenience and high-quality goods. They see the digital eReceipt app and Sparkle's other digital APIs as a huge step forward in meeting advancements in consumer behavior. Taking advantage of enabling Universal Digital Coupons across their store for their customer base is Elden's Fresh Foods, an independent grocery store located in Alexandria, Minnesota. Elden's owner, Elliot Christensen, said, "This is going to make redemption of coupons and coupons available to my customers for savings so much easier, so much cleaner. I see where the manufacturer can have a direct line to the consumer, and they can come in to Elden's and enjoy the savings. We think of them seeing the coupons and redeeming the coupons here - it's going to be awesome!" Although these are both standalone applications, RDS is excited by the future vision of combining the two, as Dwayne Van Wye explained. "eReceipts provides core functionality to retailers and their customers but, in effect, is another valuable direct communication channel. If a retailer already has the 8112 app in place, offers from leading CPG's who are behind this industry transformation such as P&G and General Mills, or even the retailer themselves, could be sent directly to the consumer." Christian Hasker, CMO of Hedera Hashgraph, said, "We are thrilled for Sparkle to be leveraging the Hedera Consensus Service for new and innovative digital retail solutions. By working with the team at Sparkle, we are showing how distributed ledger technology can be utilized for the benefit of retailers, consumers, and technology providers alike. By working with our retail users in this way, we will be able to ensure efficiency and security throughout the retail ecosystem." If you are a retailer who has the goal of digital innovation to improve shopper experience and drive revenues, contact your local RDS office. If you are a third party service provider who wants to benefit from this collaboration and create additional apps for the 'RDS App Store', contact Sparkle now. About Sparkle Sparkle's multi-patented integration Platform as a Service takes iPaaS to the next level by enabling real-time consumer transactions to interact with digital API's without the need for integration. This makes it possible for organizations, such as grocery and convenience retailers, to meet the ever increasing need to easily access digital API's to facilitate consumer focused services. This includes eReceipts, universal digital coupons, loyalty, offers/rewards and Government benefits applications. For retailers, access to these applications can typically be provided while continuing to use legacy systems, enabling them to adopt a 'digital first' strategy simply, quickly and cost effectively, while driving an attractive ROI across the business. For more information, visit www.sparkle-cs.com About Retail Data Systems Retail Data Systems (RDS) is the largest provider of Point of Sale Hardware and Software in North America. Founded in 1950, RDS now operates over 30 offices serving customers across the nation providing complete Point of Sale technology. Our team of over 500 professionals assure our customers of the best 24/7/365 service available. Our list of industry leading POS hardware and software products provide a variety of solutions for companies large and small. About Hedera Hashgraph Hedera Hashgraph is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy. The platform is governed by a council of the world's leading organizations, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Chainlink Labs, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, EDF (Electricite de France), eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), LG Electronics, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Magalu, Nomura Holdings, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group. For more information, visit www.hedera.com, or follow us on Twitter at @hedera, Telegram at t.me/hederahashgraph, or Discord at www.hedera.com/discord. The Hedera whitepaper can be found at www.hedera.com/papers. About The Coupon Bureau Guided by JICC/ACP, The Coupon Bureau is responsible for creating, maintaining and rolling out the coupon format AI (8112) to all stakeholders in 2021, including grocery retailers, convenience store retailers, coupon provider/distributors, CPGs, and clearinghouses. A single set of standards, found in the Coupon Data and Specifications document, will be used to create and execute all coupon programs, creating more secure, and more efficient data exchange between parties. Media Contacts Zenobia Godschalk, Hedera - [email protected] Matt Turner, Wachsman Cell: +353 87-794-2017 / Email: [email protected] SOURCE Hedera Hashgraph Detroit will again show off the colors of the rainbow this weekend, Sept. 18-19, celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) culture at Motor City Pride, an annual two-day festival and parade that is the largest LGBTQ gathering in Michigan. As a lead sponsor of the festival and parade, Stellantis and the Jeep brand will celebrate its longstanding commitment to LGBTQ employees, communities, customers and issues. A specially wrapped 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe will serve as the grand marshal vehicle of the Motor City Pride parade, which starts at noon (start point at the intersection of Fort and Griswold streets) on Sept. 19 and ends at Hart Plaza. There will also be a second Jeep Wrangler 4xe in the parade, as well as a Jeep Gladiator and an all-new, Detroit-built, Jeep Grand Cherokee L the first ever Grand Cherokee with three rows of seats. All Jeep vehicles in the parade will have specially designed rainbow grille inserts, with one of the Jeep Wrangler 4xe SUVs wrapped with messages of hope, acceptance and encouragement from Stellantis employees and Jeep brand social media fans and followers. This year's grand marshals are essential workers. "Motor City Pride is an important way for Stellantis and the Jeep brand to celebrate our diverse and inclusive work culture and to show our commitment to our diverse customers and communities," said Jim Morrison, Vice President, Jeep Brand North America. "Over its 80-year history, the Jeep brand has led the way in freedom and authenticity, and we are proud to lead this year's parade with a specially wrapped Jeep Wrangler 4xe to show our continued longstanding support for Motor City Pride and the LGBTQ community." The power behind the sponsorship of Motor City Pride is the company's LGBTQ Business Resource Group, Prism. Prism is one of 11 Business Resource Groups at Stellantis representing a range of affinity communities, including African ancestry, Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ, veterans, Middle Eastern, disabled, Native American and women. Stellantis Business Resource Groups are employee-directed and individually and collectively pursue initiatives that enhance the Stellantis North America work culture by focusing on career development of members, celebrating multicultural differences and bringing value to the company and external communities through volunteer, charitable and strategic activities. The company was recognized as a leader among U.S. employers for providing domestic partner benefits to its employees in 2000 and has consistently achieved high scores on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index since the benchmark was established. The company recently earned meaningful acknowledgement of its diversity leadership when the editors of the respected DiversityInc magazine named Stellantis to the magazine's 2021 list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity. Motor City Pride Motor City Pride is Michigan's largest pride celebration with more than 40,000 participants in an array of pride events. Motor City Pride is an entirely volunteer-run organization with a mission of spreading awareness through pride. Jeep Brand Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV with capability, craftsmanship and versatility for people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a full line of vehicles that continue to provide owners with a sense of security to handle any journey with confidence. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The Jeep vehicle lineup consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, Renegade and Wrangler. To meet consumer demand around the world, all Jeep models sold outside North America are available in both left- and right-hand drive configurations. Jeep is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com. Follow Jeep and company news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com Jeep brand: www.jeep.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA SOURCE Stellantis Related Links http://www.stellantis.com Stellantis is exploring Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) and Safety Cloud technologies in North America, giving drivers advanced notification warnings of potential hazards in their path. "Greater connectivity speeds, improved hardware and expanded software expertise have opened new opportunities for Stellantis with safety systems being one of the many areas we focus on," said Mamatha Chamarthi, Head of Software Business and Product Management. "Through smart and strategic partnerships, we will capitalize on next-generation systems and prove out the technology." Working with the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) partnership, one test will demonstrate a cellular 5G connection with the MEC platform, allowing localized systems to quickly make decisions at the point where data is collected. For example, it uses on-site cameras and sensors to collect detailed data at an intersection that is beyond what a single vehicle can "see" with its on-board systems. The MEC system can locally process and communicate safety risks to on-site pedestrians and approaching vehicles. The MEC platform demonstration evaluates a faster data exchange infrastructure for future technology applications with the ability to deliver a value chain for new connected services and increased levels of vehicle autonomy. 5GAA demonstration partners include Intel, Verizon, Harman, Altran, Telus and American Tower. Testing of Stellantis vehicles and partner technologies will be conducted at the University of Michigan's Mcity Test Facility with near-term plans to expand testing to the Detroit area with cooperation from the Michigan Department of Transportation. The initial test includes a pair of 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid vehicles equipped with Uconnect. MEC platform technology is expected to launch nationwide within the next decade. Safety Cloud Notifications The second system is closer to production and emerged from "Star Up," a company-wide innovation challenge that enables Stellantis employees to present new customer-focused technology concepts to the highest levels of management. One of the innovative ideas that emerged from the event proposed an advanced warning system to indicate when emergency vehicles are in close proximity. Engineering teams collaborated with HAAS Alert to pilot a new feature that delivers alerts to the vehicle's Uconnect system when responding emergency vehicles and/or other roadway hazards tracked by the Safety Cloud digital warning system are in close proximity. The program leverages greater connectivity capability in the first automotive test of real-time Safety Cloud notifications. The initial test includes company-owned vehicles in metro Detroit with 2018 model-year and newer Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles equipped with Uconnect. The pilot project will measure and identify the effectiveness of delivering safety alerts to in-car screens, the impact the service has on driver safety and opportunities for improvement. Pending the results, Stellantis may develop a commercial roll-out plan. Stellantis Stellantis (NYSE: STLA) is one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider, guided by a clear vision to offer freedom of movement with distinctive, affordable and reliable mobility solutions. In addition to the Group's rich heritage and broad geographic presence, its greatest strengths lie in its sustainable performance, depth of experience and the wide-ranging talents of employees working around the globe. Stellantis will leverage its broad and iconic brand portfolio, which was founded by visionaries who infused the brands with passion and a competitive spirit that speaks to employees and customers alike. Stellantis aspires to become the greatest, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders, as well as the communities in which it operates. Follow company news and video on: Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com Company website: www.stellantis.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/Stellantis Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StellantisNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellantisna Twitter: @StellantisNA YouTube: http://youtube.com/StellantisNA SOURCE Stellantis CHICAGO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Surface Inspection Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Component, Surface Type (2D and 3D), System (Computer-based and Camera-based), Deployment Type (Traditional Systems and Robotic Cells), Vertical, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Surface Inspection Market is projected to grow from USD 3.5 billion in 2021 to USD 5.3 billion by 2026; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6% during the forecast period. The Increase in demand of electrical and electronic devices is providing growth for surface inspections. Moreover, the increase in adoption of smart cameras, enhanced software, and powerful image processors owing to their benefits and features; increase in demand of electrical and electronic devices; and initiatives by governments and public-private companies to mitigate COVID-19 impact across the globe plays a key role in driving the growth of the surface inspection market. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=192440286 High-performance and innovative inspection systems are required to fulfill quality standards in the electrical and electronics industries. The electrical and electronics industry requires inspection systems for the detection of defects in circuit boards, wafer inspection, optical line-width measurement, magnetic disk drive head inspection, and inspection of printed and flexible electronics (displays). Owing to COVID-19, the surface inspection market faced headwinds for 2019-2020. It is rather expected to start witnessing recovery in 2021-2022. Surface inspection market for automotive vertical expected to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period The automotive sector increasingly relies on highly effective surface inspection systems to prevent defects at various stages of production. Surface inspection systems capture various material and production-induced defects. Surface vision is used for inspecting defects in complex parts such as cylinder bores, crankcases, and cylinder heads, on flat components such as cylinder head gaskets, and also on printed electronics. The automotive industry requires inspection of various large objects such as door panels through multiple cameras. Multiple camera solutions are more cost-efficient with computer-based systems. The automotive industry is seeing good growth in emerging countries due to various factors like increasing wages and decreasing unemployment due to industrialization. There is fierce competition in the market, with countries other than the US, Japan, and Germany manufacturing cars at lower prices. Quality has become an important parameter in the automotive vertical, making surface inspection more important. With government funding for clean electric vehicles in developed countries, the saturated markets in these regions are revitalizing. Hence, the surface inspection market for automotive vertical is expected to grow at a fastest rate during the forecast period. Market for software expected to grow at highest rate during the forecast period Software is the main component of the surface inspection system and contributes significantly to the cost of the system. Software drives the image acquisition, processing, and analysis functions. If the application is high-speed, requiring excellent image quality and generating a lot of image data, software with good processing power and memory capabilities is required. HALCON and MERLIC are the two standard software products for machine vision designed by MVTEC Software (Germany). Integro Technologies (US) is a software integrator that creates and integrates software solutions to help manufacturers improve their machine vision inspection processes. Integro Technologies deep learning suites improve machine vision inspection capabilities. AI.SEE is a service provided by elunic (Germany) that uses AI-driven image recognition to provide automated quality assurance. An automated visual inspection technology based on AI and deep learning is capable of defecting different types of objects and is easy to set up by integrators, manufacturers, and end users as well for the automation of inspection processes. Deep learning, an advanced technology based on AIs higher intelligence, allows for the rapid identification of defective parts and products that must be removed from the assembly. Images captured by smart cameras/cameras are used to teach the software every detail, just like humans. It offers an algorithm to the deep learning suite, and, as the name implies, it learns from the details that are fed to it. With advancements in technologies, an increase in complexity of products, and an increase in robot-based surface inspection systems, the need for 3D surface inspection systems is increasing; therefore, the market for software is expected to grow at a highest CAGR during the forecast period. Browse in-depth TOC on "Surface Inspection Market" 289 Tables 113 Figures 438 Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=192440286 Surface inspection market in APAC to witness highest CAGR during forecast period APAC is expected to dominated the surface inspection market, during 2021-2026. in terms of value. In terms of volume also, APAC is expected to dominated the market throughout the forecast period. The surface inspection market in APAC is further expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period and dominate the market throughout the forecast period both in terms of value and volume. APAC is considered a major manufacturing hub in the world and expected to provide ample growth opportunities to the surface inspection market in this region. The surface inspection market in APAC has witnessed higher growth in the past 10 years than the maturing markets in Europe and the Americas due to low production costs, easy availability of economical labor, lenient emission & safety norms, and government initiatives for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs). OEMs and suppliers of surface inspection systems have set up production and sales facilities in this region to cater to local as well as other markets. The aging population in China and Japan has resulted in rising labor costs, leading to the growing adoption of automation. The growing population is also attracting companies to invest in APAC. Major companies have a base in APAC, including KEYENCE (Japan), OMRON (Japan), Panasonic (Japan), Sony (Japan), Sipotek (China), ADLINK (Taiwan), Alpha Techsys (India), SensoVision Systems (India), Kevision Systems (India), and MORITEX (Japan). The key players in the surface inspection market include KEYENCE (Japan), Cognex (US), ISRA VISION (Germany), OMRON (Japan), Teledyne Technologies (US), Matrox Electronic Systems (Canada), Basler (Germany), VITRONIC (Germany), Teledyne FLIR (US), Datalogic (Italy), Kitov (Isarel), Dark Field Technologies (US), IMS Messsysteme (Germany), Panasonic (Japan), AMETEK (US), National Instruments (US), Sick (Germany), Baumer (Switzerland), MORITEX (Japan), Sony (Japan), Allied Vision Technologies (Germany), Industrial Vision Systems (UK), PIXARGUS (Germany), In-Core Systemes (France), and Sipotek (China). ADLINK (Taiwan), Perceptron (US), STEMMER IMAGING (Germany), Radiant Vision Systems (US), Flyability (Switzerland), 4D Technology (US), Bluewrist (Canada), elunic (Germany), Integro Technologies (US), Intego (Germany), INB Vision (Germany), Nanonets (US), Alpha Techsys (India), SensoVision Systems (India), and Kevision Systems (India) are few startup and SMEs companies that cater the surface inspection market. Related Reports: NDT and Inspection Market with COVID-19 Impact by Technique (Visual Testing, Magnetic Particle, Liquid Penetrant, Eddy-Current, Ultrasonic, Radiographic, Acoustic Emission), Method, Service, Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025 Machine Vision Market with COVID-19 impact, by Deployment (General & Robotic cell), Component (Hardware and Software), Product (PC-based and Smart camera-based), Application, End-user Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2026 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets' flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/surface-inspection-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/surface-inspection.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets SANTA ANA, Calif., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, SVA Architects, Coastal Rim Properties, Highridge Costa Development Company, LLC and other project partners convened for the groundbreaking blessing of Kokua, an affordable senior housing development coming to downtown Honolulu. The traditional Hawaiian blessing is a custom that honors the beliefs of the Hawaiian people who consider the land sacred. Located at 1192 Alakea Street at the corner of Beretania Street, the highly anticipated Kokua development will help address a critical need for affordable housing in one of the most expensive rental markets in the nation. William Koster, NCARB, LEED AP, Principal & Vice President of SVA Architects, states, "Obtaining an affordable home is imperative for many seniors, especially in an extraordinarily expensive rental market like Hawaii. We're honored to play a part in helping address this critical concern for many of our most vulnerable neighbors." Kokua, which means "to help," will offer 222 affordable studio apartments for seniors whose income is 30 to 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). Twenty (20) percent of the homes will be reserved for residents with special needs, such as senior veterans or seniors who are mentally or physically disabled. The 20-story, 147,000-square-foot residential tower will include a five-level parking structure, and 15 stories of resident amenities and homes averaging 274 square feet each. In addition to housing and office space for the on-site building and maintenance managers, the development will include a 1,000-square-foot community room for recreational and social activities, a 3,000-square-foot landscaped outdoor space, laundry and housekeeping services, and on-site healthcare providers. The project is located just blocks from the Queen's Medical Center, Chinatown, and numerous restaurants, amenities, and senior services in the downtown district. Franco Mola, Owner and President of Coastal Rim Properties, states, "Together with SVA, we have been able to create opportunities for housing that exceed the ordinary. Creating affordable housing is a challenging effort. Our mantra has been combining great spaces within walking distances from shopping, medical care, and transit, and fitting them into a financial model that can accommodate the 101's of real estate so that these ideas can become a reality." Ernesto M. Vasquez, FAIA, CEO of SVA Architects, says, "Kokua is a great example of how SVA and Coastal Rim's creativity within this constrained site resulted in a contemporary and elegant solution that will offer our seniors dignity, social connections, and support longevity and wellness. It's been such a pleasure working with Franco at Coastal Rim Properties for more than 40 years on numerous developments, creating quality housing to serve various special needs residents." SVA and its principals have been working on Hawaii since 1983. Other notable projects in Hawaii include affordable, mixed-use Kulana Hale development on Oahua project which also features 154 affordable senior rental homesand the Kamehameha Community Learning Center at Maili in the Waianae District, Oahu. About SVA Architects, Inc. Founded in 2003, SVA Architects has become one of the Country's most innovative and respected design and planning organizations. The award-winning firm specializes in urban planning, architecture, and interior design of public, private, and mixed-use projects. Among the firm's portfolio are civic, educational, residential, commercial and mixed-use developments. SVA Architects values institutional and public environments as the foundation of a community and the backdrop against which we live, learn, work, worship, and play. The company is headquartered in Santa Ana with offices in Oakland, San Diego, and Honolulu. For more information, visit www.sva-architects.com. Media Contact: Beth Binger BCI Mobile: (619) 987-6658 [email protected] SOURCE SVA Architects, Inc. Related Links http://www.sva-architects.com LINCOLNWOOD, Ill., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Carrington at Lincolnwood and its management company, West Bay Senior Living, are donating $15,000 to the Lincolnwood Village Fire Department to fund the purchase of a lifesaving CPR device. In 2020, the Fire Department responded to nearly 700 calls on the east side of the Village. The device will help paramedics at Station 45, a satellite station based at The Carrington, save the lives of patients in cardiac arrest. "One of the most significant improvements our profession has seen is with cardiac arrest management, specifically with CPR assist devices," said Lt. Keith Dawson, medical officer for the Lincolnwood Fire Department. "Our Department currently has one of these devices. It's near the end of its useful life and in dire need of replacement." Within 30 seconds, paramedics can use the device to begin delivering consistent CPR throughout the entirety of the cardiac arrest. In addition to greatly improving the chance of survival, the treatment helps patients improve their overall recovery outcome, according to experts. The donation continues The Carrington's partnership with the Lincolnwood Fire Department. In March, the department added an EMT station on The Carrington campus to better serve residents and businesses on the east side of the Village. Station 45 operates 12 hours each day and includes an ambulance, living quarters for two fire department paramedics, and state-of-the-art monitoring and communication equipment. "We are incredibly grateful for the dedication and bravery of the Lincolnwood firefighters," said Tom Whitaker, Executive Director for The Carrington. "It's our honor to be able to help provide them with lifesaving equipment." The Carrington and West Bay will hold a ceremony on September 24 in honor of the Fire Department's work in the community and present the $15,000 donation to Lincolnwood Fire Chief Mike Hansen. Mayor Jesal Patel and members of the Village Board of Trustees will be in attendance. About The Carrington The Carrington at Lincolnwood is a residential senior living community in Lincolnwood, Illinois, that offers independent living, assisted living and memory care. The community fosters a vibrant culture of engagement and well-being with programs, activities and events designed especially for active older adults. www.thecarrington.com About West Bay Senior Living Headquartered in the Los Angeles area, West Bay Senior Living manages The Carrington as well as several other existing communities and those under development. The management company was founded by two industry executives, Jim Biggs and Josh Johnson, who have decades of experience successfully guiding senior living communities.westbayseniorliving.com Media Contact: Tom Whitaker Executive Director, The Carrington 847.973.6262 [email protected] SOURCE The Carrington at Lincolnwood Related Links http://www.thecarrington.com ZURICH and ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- VIVA Investment Partners AG announces its 12th Annual Follow The Entrepreneur (FTE) Investor Summit FTE Mykonos 2021 at the Royal Myconian Hotel kicking off on the 1st of October until the 5th of October https://globalftenetwork.com VIP believes that Greece will become one of the most important investment opportunities over the next decade. The risk and uncertainty previously associated with the Greek market is leaving, and VIP sees a future in Greece and Mykonos where institutional capital will be pursuing the investment opportunities that are emerging. Greece's position as one of the most ecologically gifted, beautiful to live in locations will also help to position the country as a net beneficiary of the post COVID world. Due to the Mitsotakis Government's continued focus on growth and innovation and the Digital Property ID, an unprecedented increase in Foreign Direct Investment into the country from institutional sources is already starting to occur. Less than two weeks ago, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis set new growth targets for the Greek economy with a focus on youth and climate. This program was set against a Greek economy which is now expected to grow by 5.9% in 2021, up from 3.6% forecast previously. A wide-ranging set of measures will see the introduction of a digital card providing access to services for young Greeks in addition to specific revisions to tax on income and consumption across the economy. We share Greece's ambition. From our perspective, Technology Disrupters Continue to Grow Bringing Ecosystem Economics to Industries by which we mean Clear Economics and a new Common Sense. New Beneficial Business Models are emerging in industries which incorporate shared economics for all parts of the ecosystem the consumers, the providers of the platform, and legacy players from the industry. The FTE Mykonos 2021 will showcase contributions from industries as varied as EVs, sustainable mobility, home technology, digital assets and securities, and venture capital. In the same way that VIP identifies opportunities in the technology and venture capital arenas, we are spotting them in a variety of markets today. There is a multiplier effect for our investors by collaborating across tech, VC, and property. Thematically, VIP's medium term investment strategy will be highlighted in Mykonos through a focus on six key Ecosystems, each of which we see emerging and evolving into mature investable sectors. These will be represented by key participants from each Ecosystem at the FTE Mykonos 2021: The Electric Vehicle /Sustainable Mobility Ecosystem - Kevin Loman , IQ Power - Rob Gorby , DRIVE Software Solutions - Richard Parris , SABIEN Technologies, Green Technologies - Grant Stem , Proton Energy - , IQ Power - , DRIVE Software Solutions - , SABIEN Technologies, Green Technologies - , Proton Energy Property/ Home Technologies - Miltos Kambourides / Dolphin Capital Partners - Christos Vlachos , a leading Architect in Nature-related Architecture - Ellie Perlman - a real estate investor who owns multifamily properties across the U.S. - Anthony Codling Twindig Fractionalised Property - Miltos Kambourides / Dolphin Capital Partners - , a leading Architect in Nature-related Architecture - - a real estate investor who owns multifamily properties across the U.S. - Twindig Fractionalised Property Digital Assets & Digital Securities - Bill Barhydt / ABRA - Tal Elyashiv / SPICE VC - Christian Schmitz /RICEX - / ABRA - / SPICE VC - /RICEX Personal Digital Security - Adam Roosevelt National Security Expert and Military Intelligence Supporting these innovative entrepreneurs are the New Investment Models which are emerging to support and nurture them. The FTE Mykonos 2021 will host presentations and opinion from a range of investors who have made it happen. AnD Ventures leading the reinvention of venture capital with their Studio concept Agada Nameri / Sarasin Safra in Israel private banks focused on backing entrepreneurs / Sarasin Safra in private banks focused on backing entrepreneurs Tim Shields how to build a tech firm today versus how to build one 20 years ago how to build a tech firm today versus how to build one 20 years ago Dermot Hill Stakeholderz, a leading angel network in the United Kingdom For 12 years, we have hosted the FTE Summit in locations across Europe, bringing 200 investors and entrepreneurs together each year. Our delegates represent a diverse group from 30 nationalities, with a strong (40%) female representation. A third of delegates are accompanied by their partners. The average net worth of our audience is 25m and a significant proportion fly privately to the Summit's location. Commenting on the 12th annual FTE Summit, Julie Meyer MBE, CEO of VIP, said: "Society works best when it's organised around the entrepreneur. We showcase the best on stage at the FTE each year. This year we begin our Mykonos Decade." Notes for Editors VIVA Investment Partners is an investment firm based in Zollikon, Switzerland, led by Dr Julie Meyer, MBE. VIP manages 4 venture capital funds, and invests their own capital into technology disrupters. VIP's unique approach to supporting entrepreneurs and investors stems from its Investment Strategy: Ecosystem Economics. VIP is able to identify new beneficial business models in which all players in the ecosystem consumers, providers of the platform and legacy firms from the industry can prosper. VIP can help start-ups accelerate their growth trajectory to achieve the maximum valuation at exit. Equally, for investors, VIP helps de-risk the investment management process; it offers the VIP Multi-Manager Investment Platform, providing advisory services to venture capital funds. VIP was founded by leading PE and tech entrepreneurs including John Porter (Tesco, Verifone, AML Analytics, Copperfield), Richard Parris (SABIEN Technologies), Michael Moszynski (London Advertising), and Julie Meyer (First Tuesday, Ariadne Capital, EntrepreneurCountry). From this provenance, we see this opportunity, and for these reasons, we host our FTE Investor Summit in Mykonos this year and for the decade to come. SOURCE VIVA Investment Partners AG STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ReneSola Ltd ("ReneSola Power" or the "Company") (www.renesolapower.com) (NYSE: SOL), a leading fully integrated solar project developer, today announced that European Solar Energy Development JV, the joint venture company established between ReneSola Power and Eiffel Investment Group ("Eiffel"), completed the acquisition of its first batch of solar projects with a combined capacity of 200MW in multiple European countries, including Spain, France and Poland. Eiffel provided the capital to fund the development of those projects. In May 2021, ReneSola Power and Eiffel created European Solar Energy Development JV, a 51/49 joint venture company with ReneSola Power having a 51 percent ownership stake and Eiffel a 49 percent. The joint venture company intends to develop up to 700 MW of solar projects in the next three years across Europe. Mr. Josef Kastner, CEO of ReneSola Power European Region, commented, "We are excited by today's announcement, as this portfolio is a first significant step for the JV to develop up to 700MW of solar projects over the next several years. ReneSola Power is committed to accelerating solar development in Europe, and with the joint venture company created with Eiffel, we expect to develop high-quality projects in Europe, propelling growth in the region." Mr. Yumin Liu, ReneSola Power Chief Executive Officer, said, "I am very pleased with the progress the joint venture company is making. Additionally, the joint venture aligns with our growth strategy, enabling us to accelerate our project development activities across Europe. We are positive on our pipeline of project opportunities in front of us." Mr. Pierre-Antoine Machelon, Managing Director and CIO Energy Transition at Eiffel Investment Group, said, "We are glad to have achieved the closing of this first attractive and diverse portfolio of projects located in multiple European countries. We look forward to developing this JV vehicle with our trusted partner, ReneSola Power." About ReneSola Power ReneSola Power (NYSE: SOL) is a leading global solar project developer and operator. The Company focuses on solar power project development, construction management and project financing services. With local professional teams in more than 10 countries around the world, the business is spread across a number of regions where the solar power project markets are growing rapidly, and can sustain that growth due to improved clarity around government policies. The Company's strategy is to pursue high-margin project development opportunities in these profitable and growing markets; specifically, in the U.S. and Europe, where the Company has a market-leading position in several geographies, including Poland, Hungary, Minnesota and New York. About Eiffel Investment Group Eiffel Investment Group is an asset management firm specializing in corporate finance. The group now manages more than 3.5bn euros and offers companies a wide range of private and listed debt and equity financing solutions. The group is a leading financier of the energy transition, especially in Europe. The group, which has significant shareholders' equity capital, has established an institutional infrastructure and ensures a very strong alignment of interest with the fund's institutional investor clients. Eiffel Investment Group is an independent company owned by its team alongside Impala. SOURCE ReneSola Ltd. Related Links http://www.renesolapower.com WENDELL, N.C., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vets Pets, a North Carolina cooperative network of veterinary hospitals, continues to grow with the upcoming opening of Wendell Animal Hospital. The small animal and exotic veterinary hospital will open its doors on September 20, 2021, at 2961 Wendell Boulevard in Wendell. Wendell Animal Hospital will provide care for everything from dogs and cats to pocket pets and will serve Wendell and surrounding communities. Vets Pets is opening the free-standing facility with Dr. Kimberly Foca, the primary veterinarian. "I'm beyond excited! It's an honor to serve this wonderful community and its pets," said Dr. Kimberly Foca, DVM, MS, Wendell Animal Hospital. "It has always been my dream to open up on a hospital, and I can't wait for Wendell to see our new home." Dr. Foca grew up in New Jersey and started working as a veterinary technician in 2003. She completed her Bachelors in Biology at Rutgers University then moved to Oahu to attend the University of Hawaii where she received a Masters in Developmental and Reproductive Biology focusing on the human amnion during preterm-premature births. Dr. Foca then pursued her veterinary degree at Ross University in St. Kitts, finishing with her clinical year at NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. To celebrate the new hospital, Vets Pets will hold a grand opening event along with the Wendell Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, October 9, with festivities starting at 12:00 noon. The family-friendly and pet-friendly event will feature live music by Apples & Airplanes, food trucks, a bouncy house, tours, and more. Vets Pets representatives, Dr. Kimberly Foca, staff, and other local officials will attend. "Wendell is growing so fast, and we want to make sure everyone has access to veterinary care," said Steve Thomas, CEO of Vets Pets. "Dr. Foca is the perfect partner to provide high-quality, convenient, and affordable care to the area's pets." For more information, or to schedule an interview with Dr. Foca or Steve Thomas, please contact Matt Mumpower by email at [email protected] or by phone at 252.237.1375. About Vets Pets Vets Pets is a cooperative group of small-animal veterinary hospitals located in the Triangle and Eastern North Carolina. Based in Wilson, North Carolina, Vets Pets was created to address the changing needs in the veterinary industry. By providing hands-on operations management, HR support, continued education, advanced technology and resources, it enables veterinarians to focus on medical excellence in a supportive and healthy hospital culture. Whether veterinarians are looking to join one of their existing practices, launch a new practice, acquire an existing practice or transition out of practice ownership, Vets Pets' role in the business is flexible. It invests in people, equipment and facilities with the long-term in mind, and works with veterinary partners to match strengths and interests with the right business opportunity. For entrepreneurial veterinary leaders, Vets Pets forms partnerships where it co-owns practices with veterinarians. For more information, visit the Vets Pets website and our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. SOURCE Vets Pets The designation not only comes during Welcoming Week , but also at a time when Pittsburgh and many American cities are preparing to welcome refugees from Afghanistan, while continuing to wrestle with what it means to be a welcoming and inclusive city for all residents, including immigrants. Said Rachel Peric, executive director of Welcoming America: "It's my great pleasure to congratulate the City of Pittsburgh on achieving the status of Certified Welcoming. As Pittsburgh becomes a more diverse city, and prepares to welcome new families from Afghanistan, this public-private partnership reflects the phenomenal work of community based organizations with the public sector to reduce the barriers residents might face to full participation, civically, socially, and economically. A big thanks to Mayor Peduto for his leadership and legacy; Feyisola Alabi of Welcoming Pittsburgh; and the Welcoming Pittsburgh steering committee for their work and belief in welcoming values as a benefit for all Pittsburghers." To become Certified Welcoming, the City of Pittsburgh completed an extensive process that included a self-assessment, in-person audit, and audit action plan. Local policies and programs were benchmarked against the Welcoming Standard , which evaluates community investments in education, economic development, policing, and more. As part of this process, the city collaborated closely with the coalition network All for All , the Allegheny County Department of Human Services , and the Welcoming Pittsburgh steering committee. Notable achievements that led to the city's Certified Welcoming designation include the Department of Permits, Licenses, and Inspections joining the steering committee, which allowed for regular communication and information on code enforcement with the immigrant community. The city also implemented language access training for public-facing staff to ensure that immigrant communities in Pittsburgh receive important information in languages other than English. Said Mayor William Peduto: "Pittsburgh has a tradition of welcoming immigrants from all around the world to contribute to the rich cultural fabric of our city. We know that today, just as it has been historically, immigrants make our city stronger because when our neighbors have equitable access to opportunities and succeed, Pittsburgh succeeds. That's why we have strived to be a welcoming city and are grateful to be a Certified Welcoming city. I'd like to thank Welcoming America for recognizing the work of Welcoming Pittsburgh, our community partners and our residents in creating a community where our policies and programs promote action for immigrant inclusion, especially in a time where our immigrant neighbors need us the most." The city will announce its Certified Welcoming designation via Facebook Live on Friday, September 17 at 12 p.m. Eastern Time, with remarks by Mayor Peduto, Rachel Peric, and more. Data on immigrants in Pittsburgh As of 2019, immigrant residents in Pittsburgh make up nearly 4% of the population, with 76% being of prime working age (16-64). Additionally, immigrant residents are 27% more likely to be entrepreneurs and more likely to hold graduate degrees. According to New American Economy, immigrants in Pittsburgh pay $1.2 billion in taxes and hold $2.7 billion in spending power, demonstrating their sizable impact on the economy locally and beyond. About Certified Welcoming The Certified Welcoming program establishes a formal designation for cities and counties that have taken action on their commitment to welcoming and met the high bar set by the Welcoming Standard. Certified Welcoming places gain a competitive advantage by using their designation for attracting and retaining a global workforce and businesses whose values align with welcoming and inclusion. Participants complete a rigorous independent audit to evaluate their compliance with the Standard. Both Certified Welcoming and the Welcoming Standard were designed following standards set by ISEAL . About Welcoming Pittsburgh Welcoming Pittsburgh is an immigrant, refugee and asylee integration strategy launched by Mayor William Peduto in 2014. The Mayor's Office is leading implementation of the plan through cross-sectoral partnerships. Welcoming Pittsburgh is rooted in a commitment to ensure a more livable city for all residents. Learn more About Welcoming America Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs. We believe that all people, including immigrants, are valued contributors and vital to the success of our communities and shared future. Learn more at welcomingamerica.org. SOURCE Welcoming America Related Links welcomingamerica.org There is no question that the work teachers and school admins have been saddled with during the COVID-19 pandemic has been tremendous. From adapting to hybrid learning to completely rewriting curricula for virtual classes to learning to use new technology, the challenges for teachers have been plentiful. At a time when 1 in 4 U.S. teachers is considering resigning because of on-the-job stress, the White House's new action plan places added pressure on the profession to ensure they are mandating and tracking vaccines, boosters, and test results. Additionally, this administrative burden involves navigating several state, federal, and international privacy laws surrounding the protection of individuals' personal and medical data, including HIPAA, ADA, FERPA, FCRA, CCPA and GDPR. For teachers and education admins who are already at their maximum capacity workload, the risks are significant: fail to track their employees' vaccines and diagnostic test results, and create a safety loophole in their school. Track vaccines, waivers, and test results without accounting for this long trail of laws and regulations, and face legal penalties and litigation. One North Carolina company has drawn upon its extensive knowledge of an involvement with higher education institutions and employers to create a comprehensive solution for schools facing this significant challenge. CastleBranch, an infectious disease screening company with more than 20 years of experience, introduced its essential tool kit to help schools meet the requirements of President Biden's action plan. This essential tool kit is made up of two solutions, CB COVID-19 Compliance and RealVaccinationID.com, which comprehensively address the challenges and risks schools face with managing COVID-19 vaccines, boosters, waivers, and diagnostic test results. RealVaccinationID.com provides digital and physical proof of an individual's COVID-19 vaccination or waiver status and creates a secure and confidential audit trail while CB COVID-19 Compliance provides diagnostic test tracking, as well as temperature and symptom monitoring, isolation and quarantine processes, and contact tracing solutions. CastleBranch maintains strict compliance with state and federal privacy regulations. The essential tool kit was inspired and guided by some of the world's leading epidemiologists and pandemic disease policy experts. It's also been endorsed by both the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the nation's two largest nursing healthcare associations, representing more than 80 percent of nursing education in the country. For more information, visit RealVaccinationID.com. About CastleBranch: Located in Wilmington, N.C., CastleBranch is an infectious disease screening and compliance management company serving over 17,700 healthcare programs, tens of millions of individuals, and tens of thousands of employers, schools and healthcare facilities nationwide by verifying identity, tracking over 35 million medical documents, and helping individuals transition to and through professional life. CastleBranch has 25 years of experience, employs over 500 team members and has a long track record of providing innovative solutions for complex problems. SOURCE CastleBranch Related Links https://www.castlebranch.com/ JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. and CARMEL, Ind., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The XLerate Group announces the addition of the newest member to its auction family with the acquisition of Clark County Auto Auction (CCAA). CCAA is run by the third generation of the Fetter family and is well known and highly respected by regional dealers and increasingly by national consignors, too. XLerate Group now operates under fifteen auction brands with fixed-site and mobile sales in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. XLerate's CEO Cam Hitchcock stated, "the Fetter family has built an outstanding sale and legacy over the last four decades, capped off by the construction of a state-of-the-art auction campus in 2018. Paul Fetter will continue the family legacy and will run CCAA in his capacity as General Manager." CCAA has a very significant market presence in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. We look forward to helping Paul and his team continue to grow volumes at CCAA." Matt Fetter, principal owner at CCAA, remarked that "for 40 years, our business has had the pleasure of serving auto dealers in our region. Joining Xlerate group and utilizing their many resources will put CCAA in the best position to continue to serve and grow long term. Their commitment to the industry and focus on customer service very much aligns with our own views, which makes Xlerate a great fit for CCAA." Chuck Tapp, EVP of XLerate commented that, "We are pleased to officially welcome Matt, Paul and CCAA into the XLerate family. Paul is a proven operator with 35+ years at CCAA and a laser focus on customer service. He has an intimate knowledge of CCAA"s regional customer base and their expectations." CCAA has dealer consignment and fleet/lease sales each Wednesday at its Jeffersonville, IN facility. The auction operates a seven-lane arena, reconditioning, and mechanical centers on approximately 55 total acres (www.clarkcountyautoauction.com). ABOUT THE XLERATE GROUP: XLerate Group Auctions are a leading group of independent auctions with 22 different simulcast online/physical sales combined with remote and off-site dealer sales, in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin. wwwXLerategroup.com SOURCE XLerate Group Related Links https://www.xlerategroup.com GENEVA, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Geneva prosecutor's office has today dropped the last legal case initiated by Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev against Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier. In his final ruling, the Prosecutor confirms that, contrary to what Mr. Rybolovlev's lawyers have claimed, there was no fraud, no mismanagement, no breach of trust and no money laundering. Since January 2015, Rybolovlev and his lawyers have lost all of the nine court cases filed against Bouvier over the intervening years, including in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Monaco and Geneva. "Today marks the end of a six-year nightmare," said Bouvier. "All courts have confirmed my innocence. Truth prevailed, as I said from the very first day of his attacks. This is a complete victory." Bouvier, who had to stop almost all his art dealings, logistics and transportation activities to defend himself against the massive attacks during these last six years, has suffered immense damages. Rybolovlev (and his lawyer Tetiana Bersheda) now find themselves under three criminal investigations in Monaco, Switzerland and France. In Monaco, Rybolovlev has been charged with influence peddling, active corruption, and breaching professional secrecy laws. Ten people, including several former Ministers, are being investigated as part of what is known as "Monacogate," the largest corruption scandal in Monaco's history. David Bitton, a lawyer for Mr Bouvier in Geneva, commented that: "Today marks the end of the scandalous vendetta initiated by Rybolovlev in 2015, and a complete and absolute victory for our client." Bouvier was represented in his cases by: David Bitton and Yves Klein (Monfrini Bitton Klein); Alexandre Camoletti (Amuruso & Camoletti); Frank Michel (MC Etude d'Avocats); Charles Lecuyer (Ballerio & Lecuyer); Luc Brossolet (AAB Avocats); Ron Soffer (Soffer Avocats); Francois Baroin and Francis Spziner (Stas & Associes); Edwin Tong, Kristy Tan Ruan, Peh Aik Hin (Allen & Glendhill); Pierre-Alain Guillaume (Walder Wyss), Daniel Levy (McKool Smith), Mark Bedford (Zhong Lun). SOURCE Monfrini Bitton Klein The 2,000-ton ZCC32000 is an all-conditions product with maximum load moment of 32,000 ton-meters and maximum boom height reaching 168 meters, and has adopted the modular super-wide dual-boom design. It can adapt to a variety of complex hoisting conditions with improved lifting performance of 10-20 percent compared to products of the same class. The model can switch between single-engine or double-engine operation per the user's hoisting needs, selecting either low fuel consumption or strengthened power operation. The system is highly safe and secure, and can achieve efficient disassembly and assembly. "Zoomlion's crawler cranes have performed well in construction with high efficiency, excellent equipment safety, stability and reliability, proving the quality of Chinese manufacturing is reliable and trustworthy," said Zoomlion's Partner in Turkey. The product will be used in a nuclear power plant project before carrying out other wind power and petrochemical project hoisting tasks in Europe. The export of ZCC32000 is the third time Zoomlion has broken the record for largest tonnage crane exported from China. Previous records were set by the ZCC9800W and ZCC12500 crawler cranes exported to Turkey in September 2020 and June 2021, respectively. Breaking record three times within one year showcased the technology strengths, product quality and brand appeal of Zoomlion's cranes, hoisting the new flag of "high-end manufacturing in China" on the global stage. "The key reason behind the Zoomlion's continuous breakthroughs of crane export records is we have achieved persistent breakthroughs in core technology development, which has been recognized in the international market" said Luo Kai, vice president of Zoomlion and general manager of Zoomlion engineering crane branch. In H1 2021, Zoomlion's revenue overseas has increased by more than 52.28 percent, among which crane products grew strongly, with sales from January to August increasing by 60.8 percent year-on-year. Zoomlion's sales volume of truck cranes 30 tons and above, has ranked first in the industry, and it holds the highest market share of crawler cranes in China. SOURCE Zoomlion Related Links www.zoomlion.com Dharamsala, Sep 17 : Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday, saying the growing confidence he has brought about, despite challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to Modi, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, wrote: "I offer my heartfelt greetings to you on your birthday. May you continue to live a long and healthy life. "As someone who cares deeply about this country, I congratulate you on the growing confidence you have brought about, despite challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected people around the globe. As the most populous democratic nation in the world, India's success benefits not only the people of India, but also contributes to the development of the world as a whole. "I am convinced that the age-old Indian traditions of doing no harm -- ahimsa, backed by a compassionate motivation -- karuna, are not only relevant but are necessary in today's world. I also believe these principles can be readily combined with modern education for the wider benefit of humanity. "Whenever I have the occasion to do so, I regularly commend India for its robust democracy, its deeply rooted religious pluralism and for its remarkable harmony and stability. "For us Tibetans living in exile, India is not only our spiritual refuge, but for more than 62 years has also been our physical home. May I again take the opportunity to offer our deep gratitude to the government and people of India for the warm and generous hospitality we have received." In conclusion, the spiritual leader offered his prayers and good wishes. Beijing regards the Dalai Lama, who is based in the northern Indian hill town Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, as a 'separatist'. It is sensitive to him meeting international leaders, attending official functions or visiting places at the invitation of the Indian government. Amid relations between India and China worsening in the recent months and in a strategic shift, Prime Minister Modi on July 6 made a clear-cut departure from the policies of the successive governments of 'making distance' of sorts from the Dalai Lama by extending greetings to him on his 86th birthday. The Dalai Lama is the recipient of over 150 global awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, UN Environment Award, US Congressional Gold Medal, John Templeton Award, etc. Kabul, Sep 17 : Special UN envoy Deborah Lyons met Taliban officials in Kabul to discuss the importance of humanitarian assistance for the people in the war-torn nation, the world body's mission in Afghanistan announced In a statement on Thursday, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that Lyons met Mullah Abdul Haq Wasiq, the acting intelligence chief of the Taliban government, during which they also discussed about the safety of UN personnel and the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, Xinhua news agency. Lyons, who also heads the UNAMA, recently returned to Kabul after attending several meetings on Afghanistan aboard. On Wednesday, Lyons held a meeting with Taliban's Interior Minister Mullah Sirajuddin Haqqani, stressing the necessity for all UN and humanitarian personnel in Afghanistan to be able to work without intimidation or obstruction to help Afghan people, according to the UNAMA. "The meeting also addressed the requirement of mutual trust in collective efforts to improve the challenging situation in Afghanistan, not least in restarting the economy, ensuring civil servants and health workers are paid, as well as medicines and food reaching those most in need," the Mission confirmed. Earlier this month, Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths visited Kabul and held talks with the Taliban leadership. Meanwhile on Monday at a meeting in Geneva, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the possibility of a complete economic collapse in Afghanistan was "serious" and highlighted an urgent need for funding support. On Tuesday, the UN appealed to the countries pledging $1.2 billion in relief for Afghanistan to take actions quickly. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Mexico City, Sep 17 : Visiting Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has thanked Mexico for its support and solidarity amid stiffer economic, trade and financial sanctions imposed by the US against the Caribbean island nation. "Cuba faces a campaign of hatred, disinformation, manipulation and lies on influential digital platforms that ignore ethical boundaries. That is why Mexico's solidarity provokes admiration," Xinhua news agency quoted Diaz-Canel as saying on Thursday. He made the remarks in a speech marking Mexico's Independence Day celebrations to which he was invited as a special guest. The Cuban leader said the visit carried special fraternal significance as his country continues to suffer "a criminal war, with a hardened US economic blockade amid the Covid-19 pandemic". "Cuba will remember Mexico's show of support, its pronouncements against the (US) blockade and its calls for the UN vote against the criminal policy to become a concrete reality," Diaz-Canel said. The President also recalled that Mexico was the only Latin American country that did not sever ties with Cuba when it was expelled from the Organization of American States in 1962. "I pay tribute to the sustained, invariable, passionate and unwavering solidarity that we always find in this land, which all Cubans love as our own," Diaz-Canel added. On his part, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador again urged Washington to end its more than half-century trade embargo against Cuba, calling the sanctions policy "perverse". Also addressing the Independence Day celebrations here, Lopez Obrador admonished that nations should not take advantage of the "misfortune of other peoples" to further their own agenda. The Mexican leader said he hoped his US counterpart Joe Biden has the "political sensitivity" to put an end to the "injustices" that have been committed against Cuba by sanctions designed to destroy the island's economy and cause social upheaval. Lopez Obrador also praised Cuba for withstanding decades of the US sanctions, saying: "Having resisted 62 years without submission is an indisputable historical feat. "The government that I represent respectfully calls on the US government to lift the embargo against Cuba, because no nation has the right to subdue another people, another country." Bengaluru, Sep 17 : The Karnataka health department is closely observing the developments in 12 districts, including Bengaluru as a large number of children have got affected with viral flu amid the fears of the Covid third wave to hit the children. The parents, who had heaved a sigh of relief after the reopening of schools are now concerned about development. The children showing symptoms of cold, cough, fever and breathing issues are getting admitted to hospitals for the past 15 days in the state. Though, the experts are saying that it is normal viral flu found in the rainy season, the health department sources say that the fingers are crossed over the development. The most number of cases are reported from Bellary, Yadgir, Chikkaballapur and Chitradurga districts. Along with this, more children are being admitted to hospitals in Raichur, Bidar, Ramnagar, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Kalburgi and Bagalkot districts. Consultations to private clinics and pediatric hospitals are also rising in these districts. All beds are full in the K.C. General hospital, one of the main government hospitals in Bengaluru. The children affected with cough, cold, fever, breathing issues are being admitted and treated. A few cases of Pneumonia and Dengue are also being treated. All children who faced breathing issues are subjected to RT-PCR tests and no Covid positive case has been found. The symptoms are found in the children among the age group of 1 and 3 years rather than in the school-going children, explains Dr Lakshmipathy, the pediatric division head in K.C. General Hospital. The district health hospital ward in Bellary is full and people from the rural areas are staying with their children on the premises looking up for admissions in the hospitals. The Bellary district hospital has 30 dedicated beds for children. The hospital authorities have arranged another 23 beds to treat children, explained District health officer Dr Janardhan. Along with district hospitals, taluk hospitals are also seeing a rush in admissions of children for viral infection. On an everyday basis, as many as 150 to 200 kids are being treated for viral flu in each of the district hospitals and 50 to 60 children are being admitted. About 50 kids are admitted to the district hospital in Chikkaballapur with symptoms of cold, cough and fever, the native district of the Health Minister K. Sudhakar. The influenza cases are on the rise in districts of Bidar, Kolar, Belagavi, Bagalkot districts. Meanwhile, the state government has undertaken a massive Covid-19 vaccination drive in the state on Friday. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has announced that the state has set a 30 lakh vaccination target for the entire state in one day. He will kickstart the drive from Kalburgi. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta stated that he has set a target of 5 lakh vaccinations in Bengaluru alone. -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed Antigua, Sep 17 : Mignon du Preez lifted South Africa to 185/6, rescuing the innings with a 17th ODI half-century as the visitors restricted West Indies to 150/9 to secure a 35-run win in the fourth One-day International at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound here on Friday (IST). South Africa lead the five-match series 4-0. Resting a number of key players, namely Lizelle Lee and Marizanne Kapp, du Preez's 65* from 91 balls ticked things along for the tourists in spite of the early dismissals of Laura Wolvaardt (1) and Lara Goodall (9). In reply, Rashada Williams' 42 and Deandra Dottin's 22 provided the only resistance, as five of South Africa's bowlers claimed scalps in their 35-run victory. West Indies won the toss and elected to field on a slow surface, and made early inroads through Aaliyah Alleyne (1/28) and Hayley Matthews (1/33). Tazmin Brits (30) and Dane van Niekerk (20) fell after building early starts to Anisa Mohammed (2/26) and Cherry-Ann Fraser (1/33) respectively. Du Preez entered at 57/3 at the end of the 20th over, and struck five boundaries through the rest of the innings, nursing the tourists to a defendable total with the help of 'keeper Sinalo Jafta. Du Preez may have made things look easy in the middle, with West Indies top order struggling to lift the tempo through the Powerplay overs. Williams' 42 included four boundaries, but she struggled to find a partner, falling as the sixth wicket of the innings. Williams was run out as van Niekerk and Jafta combined in a smart piece of fielding, capping off a happy day in the field with the leg-spinner also taking 3/23 of eight overs. Van Niekerk's efforts were well supported by Masabata Klaas (2/25), with little resistance from the hosts in their chase. A fifth-wicket stand of 41 between Williams and Kycia Knight (15) kept the West Indies alive, though a collapse of 5/33 sealed things for the tourists. The last match of the Proteas tour of the West Indies will be played on Saturday (IST). Brief scores: South Africa Women 185/6 in 50 overs (M du Preez 65, T Brits 30; A Mohammed 2/26) beat West Indies Women 150/9 in 50 overs (R Williams 42; D Van Niekerk 3/23, M Klaas 2/25) by 35 runs. September 17 : After Saif Ali Khan rang in his birthday in the Maldives, it seems Kareena Kapoor Khan will celebrate hers in an undisclosed location abroad. The Good Newwz actress will turn 41 on September 21. On Wednesday, Kareena and Saif were spotted with their sons, Taimur and Jeh, at the Mumbai airport. Today, the actress shared two pictures of herself on social media from her current vacation. While Kareena didnt disclose her vacation destination, she teased her fans with the pictures. In one picture, the actress face is hidden with an oversized straw hat as she opted for a neon top. She captioned the photo with a sticker that reads, Who Dat. The Laal Singh Chadha actress shared another photo from the beach as she focus on a mesmerising view of the blue sea. Image Source: Instagram/kareenakapoorkhan Kareena Kapoor shares pictures from her beach vacation On Wednesday, paparazzi clicked them at the airport, and several fan pages on social media have uploaded pictures of the Kapoor-Khan family. Taimur was seen waiving at the paparazzi and posing for them. In the pictures, Kareena looked comfortable in a denim shirt teamed with a pair of light blue boyfriend jeans and white sneakers. Saif wore a black half-sleeved shirt, white pants and brown shoes. While Jehangir was seen in a black onesie, Taimur wore a black T-shirt and beige pants. Image Source: Instagram/kareenakapoorkhan Kareena Kapoor shares pictures from her beach vacation On the work front, Kareena will be seen in Laal Singh Chaddha along with Aamir Khan. The film is an official remake of Tom Hanks Forrest Gump. Also starring Naga Chaitanya and Mona Singh, the film is scheduled for Christmas release this year. Kareena has turned a producer and has signed a new film with Hansal Mehta, and will co-produce the venture with Ekta Kapoor. The Good Newwz actress has also released her book Kareena Kapoor Khan's Pregnancy Bible, after welcoming her second baby, Jeh in February this year. Image Source: Instagram/kareenakapoorkhan Kareena Kapoor shares pictures from her beach vacation Saif, on the other hand, will reportedly kickstart shoot for Vikram Vedha remake in Serbia next month. Saif and Hrithik Roshan will reprise the roles of R Madhan and Vijay Sethupathi, who played the leads in the original film. Saif was recently seen in Bhoot Police, which received mixed response. The actor is also working on his magnum-opus Adipurush, where he plays the role of Ravana. Mumbai, Sep 17 : Comedian Bharti Singh and screenwriter Haarsh Limbachiyaa are entering the 'Bigg Boss OTT' house on Friday to host an awards evening for the contestants. The names of the awardees will be decided by Bigg Boss, that is, Karan Johar. What would be interesting to see is how much positivity Bharti and Haarsh are able to spread in the 'Bigg Boss OTT' house just one day before before the finale. Meanwhile, in the recent episodes Bigg Boss announced a memory task for the contestants to choose a memory that they want to keep and one memory that they want to delete forever. The first contestant in the task is Nishant Bhatt. Ahead of the finale, Bigg Boss gave an opportunity for the contestants to speak their heart out and put their opinion in front of the viewers. Bigg Boss announced a Debate task for contestants between two housemates to speak their view on why they should win this season of 'Bigg Boss OTT' and why the viewers should vote for them? The first round was between Shamita and Nishant Bhatt and both housemates got equal number of votes. While on the other hand, the second round was between Divya and Shamita, two of the strongest ladies in the house came against each other to speak their opinion. But there's a twist here, Raqesh did not want to be in a bad spot and did not vote for any of the contestants and played safe for the second and the third round. Later, Bigg Boss called off the task as the contestants were not adhering to the rules for the task. 'Bigg Boss OTT' streams on Voot. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Brussels, Sep 17 : A new health authority was launched to reinforce the European Union's (EU) capacity to respond to health emergencies. The European Commission has created the "Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)" to "prevent, detect and rapidly respond to health emergencies", it said on Thursday. "HERA is the EU's response for both anticipating and managing emergencies," said Margaritis Schinas, European Commission Vice-President for Promoting the European Way of Life, at a press briefing. Preparing for health emergencies involves intelligence-gathering and assessment; working on advanced research and development for medical countermeasures; boosting industrial capacity; procuring and distributing medical countermeasures; increasing stockpiling capacity and strengthening knowledge and skills, the Commission explained in a statement. HERA will also put together EU FAB, a network of "ever warm" production capacities that can be mobilised at any time to ensure that the continent will rapidly begin manufacturing vaccines, medicines and equipment when required. In crisis mode, the authority will ensure sufficient and timely deployment and monitoring of crisis countermeasures, act as a central purchasing body, and activate emergency measures and funding, and EU FAB manufacturing capacity. The new health entity will work hand in hand with other EU health agencies, such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). It will receive 6 billion euros ($7.05 billion) over the 2022-2027 financing period from several EU programs, while private funding and EU member states' own contributions will bring the total amount dedicated to HERA to 50 billion euros. The new entity is an internal service of the European Commission, and will be fully operational by early 2022. Lucknow, Sep 17 : Following a rap by the Allahabad High Court, Uttar Pradesh DGP Mukul Goel has set up a new special investigation team (SIT) to probe the mysterious death of a 16-year-old Mainpuri girl student, who was found hanging in her school in suspicious circumstances in 2019. The court has asked the police authorities to update the court after a month with the progress in the investigation into the matter. The family members of the deceased girl had alleged that she was sexually assaulted and killed. The court also issued a directive on Thursday that the state government must issue an order directing its officers to complete the investigation of rape cases within two months or within the time limit as per amended provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The court further directed the police authorities to ensure that family members of the girl concerned are not pressurized during investigation and to ensure their safety. A division bench comprising, Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Anil Kumar Ojha was hearing a public interest litigation filed by one Mahendra Pratap Singh. In the PIL, the petitioner had alleged that the police were not fairly investigating the said incident and have been protecting the actual accused. During the course of hearing, additional advocate general Manish Goyal, representing the state government, informed the court that the concerned investigation officers, ASP and DSP, who were initially investigating the case, have been suspended by the state government. Further, a new SIT has been formed to investigate the case afresh. The mother of the deceased girl had stated in the FIR that her daughter used to complain that she knew some secrets of the school and that is why the principal was torturing her. The girl had called her mother just a day prior to her death and said that she was getting threats for her life, but when the family members tried to talk to the principal, she paid no heed. The court suggested that the investigating officer must collect the call details of the concerned phone numbers which can be material evidence in the case. Bengaluru, Sep 17 : Karnataka police have launched a hunt for a youth who kissed his co-passenger -- a college student, before alighting from a bus in Bengaluru. According to the police, the incident took place on September 13, when the girl was returning to Bengaluru from Bellary in a state government-owned KSRTC luxury bus after Vinayak Chaturthi festival. The accused who sat close to her seat was watching 'Geetha Govindam' Telugu flick which has the scene of the protagonist kissing the heroine while she is in deep sleep. The girl has mentioned in the complaint that, the youth had looked at her strangely before she went to sleep. When the bus stopped near Peenya-Jalahalli for passengers to alight, the youth kissed the girl on the cheek and went away. Before she could realize what happened, the youth had got down from the bus and vanished. His "filmy-style" attempt has not gone down well with the girl. The student of Architecture lodged a police complaint against the co-passenger, the police sources said on Friday. Now, the jurisdictional Bagalagunte police are looking for the youth. They are verifying CCTV footages in the surrounding areas and getting the statements of the bus driver, conductor and other passengers to nab him. The girl lodged the complaint later after reaching home. The investigation is underway. United Nations, Sep 17 : UN Women has unveiled a feminist plan for economic recovery and transformation, learning from the Covid-19 pandemic and previous crises. The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities and laid bare weaknesses in the already fragile global care economy, said UN Women in the report, titled "Beyond Covid-19: A Feminist Plan for Sustainability and Social Justice", Xinhua news agency reported Globally, in 2019 and 2020, women lost 54 million jobs. Even before the pandemic, they took on three times as much unpaid care work as men. Women are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation while also being left out of decision-making around policy and financing to address climate change. By the end of 2021, men's jobs will have recovered, but there will still be 13 million fewer women in employment, it said. To address these intersecting crises, UN Women is calling for better policy, action and investment, including investing in the care economy and social infrastructure such as the expansion of quality care services to create jobs and increase support for unpaid caregivers; harnessing the potential of the transition to environmental sustainability, which could create up to 24 million new green jobs; promoting women's leadership across institutional spaces; and increasing funding for women's organisations. To finance these measures, transformative macroeconomic policies. including progressive taxes and, especially for low-income countries, global cooperation and debt relief. are urgently needed. Equally important will be to achieve a shift in power relations to amplify the voices of historically excluded groups and ensure effective gender mainstreaming, said the report. "The need for a new social contract that delivers sustainability and social justice for all has never been clearer," Pramila Patten, acting executive director of UN Women, said on Thursday. "We have a generational opportunity to break the vicious cycle of economic insecurity, environmental destruction and exclusionary politics and shape a better, more gender-equal and sustainable world. "Today's report provides a roadmap for how to do this, while recovering the ground that's been lost on gender equality and women's rights," she added. Seoul, Sep 17 : Samsung Electronics has announced that its technology conference will take place online for the first time next month amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The South Korean tech giant said it decided to hold the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) on October 26. The event was cancelled last year due to Covid-19 concerns. The SDC, which started in 2013, is an annual event that brings thousands of developers, content creators and designers to discuss future technologies and services. Samsung has been also unveiling its upcoming technologies and software visions at the event. The SDC has been usually held near Silicon Valley, California, where major IT companies are located, between October and November, reports Yonhap news agency. The conference focused on mobile technologies in the early days, but in recent years, it also presented new solutions in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). In the 2019 SDC, some 5,000 people participated in the event and exchanged their ideas on various technologies and services that can improve user experience. Chennai, Sep 17 : The Tamil Nadu Police have constituted eight special teams to maintain peace in Tirunelveli district, which reported five murders, including two caste killings this week so far, the police said. Tirunelveli Superintendent of Police, Manivannan told IANS, "Police have constituted eight special teams to bring in peace and social harmony among the people after some killings took place." Sankara Subramanian (37), a caste Hindu was beheaded allegedly by a gang from the SC community in retaliation to a murder that was committed on an SC member, Manthiram in 2013. The deceased's head, according to the police, was placed on the grave of Manthiram. The killing of Sankara Subramanian and the removal of his head and placing it on the grave of Manthiram on Monday night sent shock waves across the area. In retaliation on Wednesday morning a group of alleged caste Hindu community members beheaded an SC man, Mariappan (35), and placed his head at the place where Sankara Subramanian was murdered. Mariappan according to the police was accused in a caste killing case of 2014. Police arrested six people, including Manthiram's son, Maharaja (20) of Kothankulam in the case related to the murder of Sankara Subramanian. Eight people were arrested in the murder of Mariappan. Senthil Raj, a local government employee told IANS, "The retaliation happened even as there was heavy police deployment. After a lull, killings on caste lines are back in Tirunelveli and police have to crush this and the government must take a strong stand and should put all those involved behind the bars and not allow any of them to take the law into their hands. This is not a banana republic and an elected government is in place." Three other murders also took place in the district with Abdul Khader (45) murdered in retaliation to the killing of a Sathankulam-based moneylender. Pondurai (71) was hacked to death by his son-in-law Krishnan. Thanganpandi (32) was killed by his neighbours taking the toll of the number of deaths in the district to five since Monday. At several places in the state, caste is a major factor and in certain pockets, huge walls have been erected to separate upper caste Hindu colonies with the Dalit colonies. In certain areas of Tamil Nadu, Dalits were not even provided with tea in hotels frequented by upper caste Hindus. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Jaipur, Sep 17 : The Rajasthan Intelligence and Military Intelligence have arrested an operator of the Indane Gas Agency on charges of spying for the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), officials said on Friday. The accused Sandeep Kumar (30) is a resident of the Narhad village in Jhunjhunu district. Director General of Police, Intelligence Umesh Mishra said that a Pakistani Officer reportedly contacted the accused Sandeep Kumar through WhatsApp chat, voice call and video call and sought photographs and sensitive confidential information of the Army Camp at Narhad, for which a huge amount was exchanged. The State Intelligence and Military Intelligence Southern Command took joint action after monitoring the activities of the accused and on September 12, Narhad-based Indane Gas Agency Director Sandeep Kumar was taken into custody and brought to the Joint Interrogation Center Jaipur for questioning. DG Mishra said that in July 2021, the Pak Officer had called on the mobile of the accused, seeking photographs and sensitive confidential information of Army Camp Narhad. Lured by the money offer, the accused shared the information and got the money after sharing his bank account details through WhatsApp chat. On the confirmation of the above facts in the actual investigation of the accused's phone, a case has been registered against him under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 and he has been arrested. During the investigation, it was found that some amount was also transferred in his account. The accused has failed to furnish details of the whereabouts of this transaction. Sanaa, Sep 17 : At least 24 Houthi rebels were killed in multiple airstrikes launched by Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen's Marib province, a government military source said. "Twenty-four rebels were killed and nine weapon-mounted vehicles were destroyed in the coalition airstrikes on the rebel positions and reinforcements in Al-Mashjah frontline," the source told Xinhua news agency on Thursday. "The airstrikes were a response to the rebel ground attack on the positions of the (Yemeni) government forces on the frontline," he added. The Al-Mashjah frontline, which is located in the eastern part of the western Sirwah district, is about 20 km west of camps for internally displaced people in the government-held Marib. The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported 18 Saudi-led airstrikes in the Sirwah district without providing more details. Last week, the Houthis seized control of Rahabah district in Marib. The Houthi militia launched in February a major offensive on Marib in an attempt to seize control of the oil-rich province, the last northern stronghold of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. The UN has warned that the offensive on Marib, which hosts nearly 1 million internally displaced people, could lead to a major humanitarian catastrophe. Yemen's civil war flared up in late 2014 when the Houthi group seized control of much of the country's north and forced the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa. A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi's government. New Delhi, Sep 17 : South Korean game developer Krafton on Friday said that it is rolling out a new update -- version 1.6 -- to Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) with new features. The update, with the introduction of Flora Menace, special features and realistic game dynamics, is now rolling out sequentially on Google Play Store and iOS App Store. "A new mode 'Flora Menace' has been added to BGMI, bringing in interesting possibilities. In this mode, a life barrier is created in some part of the map that is encroached by alien creatures," the company said in a statement. "In the wall, players' HP gradually recovers. Players can loot 'Nacore' in the mode and use the item to buy battle items. The mode is available in Classic Theme Modes and starting from Erangel, it will be added to Sanhok and Livik," it added. The latest update will pack a lot of surprises later in the month as EvoGround will feature the popular Zombie mode "Survive Till Dawn" where the last surviving player in the zombie attack gets the final victory. Many more popular game modes such as the Payload Mode will be appearing in EvoGround so players are requested to keep a close eye on our social channels for launch dates or directly dive into EvoGround in matchmaking. The new version also includes the recording option, allowing players to record their gameplay and showcase their clips on social media platforms. "In fact, a slew of community contests on our social channels will be rolled out around recorded clips in-game. Fans can participate and win amazing rewards," according to the company. With the idea of keeping more strategic tools at players' disposal, an auto-bandage option has been added, distance information is included in the In-Game Mark and the famous flight path can now be replayed after landing. Additionally one can test out weapons like P90, MG3, ASM Abakan in the all-important training ground before heading into a match. Jaipur, Sep 17 : An army mountaineering expedition team of Chetak Corps, which started its expedition from Suratgarh on August 4 this year, has successfully summited Mount Bhagirathi- II (6521m). The expedition was undertaken as a tribute to the valour of the Indian Army during the 1971 India-Pak war as part of the Swarnim Vijay Varsh Celebration Lt. Col. Amitabh Sharma, Defence spokesperson, Rajasthan told IANS on Friday. The team Daredevil XIV led by Captain B. Manoj Kumar and Naib Subedar Mala Ram, undertook an arduous trek braving the challenging weather and harsh conditions. The expedition team trekked along the Bhagirathi River to Gaumukh before proceeding to the Nandanvan Base Camp. Mount Bhagirathi-II lies ahead of the Gangotri Glacier in the Garhwal Himalayas and is part of the Bhagirathi massif, which poses numerous challenges to the mountaineers and requires great technical skills to negotiate. Sharma said the final climb up to the peak height of 6521m (21365 ft) was successfully attempted by the team in the morning hours of September 11 which tested the endurance, team spirit and technical skills of the entire team. The team negotiated the route along the eastern face of the mountain in the harsh weather condition to summit the peak. Tehran, Sep 17 : Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Tehran supports the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan as a means to settle peace and stability in the country. Raisi made the remarks on Thursday during a visit to Tajikistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, according to the Iranian presidential website. In his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Raisi noted that the key to solving Afghanistan's problems is to form an inclusive government and prevent foreign interference in the country's affairs, reports Xinhua news agency. "We should try to help Afghanistan form a government that includes all groups based on the will of the people of the country," he was quoted as saying. "The 20-year history of the presence of American and Western forces in Afghanistan had no result other than the destruction, displacement and killing of more than 35,000 children and thousands of Afghan men and women. "The withdrawal of American forces is a historic opportunity for the formation of a popular government in Afghanistan and establishing peace in the country and region," he added. For his part, Khan was quoted by the Iranian readout as saying that a safe and secure Afghanistan will benefit all countries in the region and the world. "If a comprehensive government is not formed in Afghanistan, the problems of the country will intensify and Pakistan and Iran will suffer more than any other country," he stressed. The Pakistani Prime Minister also suggested Iran and Pakistan work closely and interact with each other "for Afghanistan to successfully pass the stage of state-building and formation of an inclusive government". Meanwhile, in another meeting with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Raisi said his country supports "the formation of a comprehensive government with the participation of all groups in Afghanistan, which will lead to the establishment of peace and stability in the country". New Delhi, Sep 17 : Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistans capital on August 15, the war-torn countrys already fragile economy has spiraled into despair, The New York Post reported. With much of the international community refusing to recognise the Taliban regime, officially termed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, hard cash is barely trickling in. The currency (afghani) has been crumbling, all while prices for essential goods have been soaring, and the financial crisis is fast morphing into a humanitarian catastrophe, the report said. Most Taliban members themselves are said not to have received money in months. As a result, a significant portion of foot soldiers in areas outside major cities subsist on little food and carry around thin blankets to sleep in trucks or wherever there is suitable shelter. Sources told The New York Post that Taliban members get "sponsored" by community members who give them food and other needed supplies. They can also get handouts from commanders when they take over new areas or find cash. According to many economic experts, an informal economy, known as the hawala banking system, may be the only way for Afghans, including the new government, to stay afloat. Hawala, an Arabic word for transfer, originated in the 8th century, primarily for trading along the Silk Road. While still widely used in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, it is based entirely on the honour system -- a sender is issued a tracking number to give to the recipient, who then picks up the money from an associated hawala merchant in another village, province or country. Relying almost solely on such a system, as Afghans have little choice but to do now, risks plunging the country further into becoming a pariah cut off from the international banking system, akin to North Korea and Iran, the report added. Kochi : , Sep 17 (IANS) Two months after the local police at Alappuzha began a probe into a complaint regarding the authenticity of a female 'advocate' -- Sessy Xaviour, the court on Friday denied anticipatory bail and asked her to appear before the probe officials. The court also directed that in case she fails to turn up before the police probe team, she can be arrested. Xaviour had been practising at the Alappuzha court for the past two years. It all surfaced when the Alappuzha Bar Association received an anonymous letter expressing doubts about her actual qualification and soon she went missing, forcing the Association to approach the police. Incidentally, she had been elected to the Association by securing the highest victory margin. In July, the Alappuzha North Police station received a complaint from the Bar Association expressing doubts over the qualifications of Xaviour. After taking the statements of the Association office bearers, a case was registered against her and a probe started. After the complaint came up, she switched off her mobile and deleted her social media account. A few weeks after the police began the probe, she was spotted in the Alappuzha court premises for the last time. US President Joe Biden will be hosting the QUAD countries' heads of governments summit this coming week, in Washington D.C. - comprising of the US, Japan, Australia, and India. By end of the week, there could be announcements of military deals with Japan, Australia, and India, that may total up to $100 billion in American defence exports. In fact, the Australian submarine deal, signed on Thursday, itself is estimated at $40 billion (and projected to reach $90 billion in long-term). In the days ahead, before September 24, when the formal QUAD summit will be held, Japan could also well, and does need to, sign up for some $20-30 billion package, and the same goes for India. India too has its multiple needs for hardware, needs to ramp up fast, and thus could finalise a mega-purchase this week from the US, again in the $20-30 billion range. Today, as the 21st century grows beyond its teen years, the US faces unprecedented global and domestic challenges. Not in the least is to overcome the snafu situation that has resulted in Afghanistan. And to counter, to deny (deny, not delay) the rise of China as a world hegemon, Middle Kingdom power, between the Heavens and Planet Earth, in the 21st century. The US is now leading the QUAD towards a loose but muscular military alliance to prevent the planetary dominance plans of China. As part of the US plan, the Indo-Pacific nations of Japan, India, Australia will need to each boost up their defence and offence capabilities, for their own national, self-interest, with accompanying investments also made by the US in its own force projection in this theatre. Consequently, together the QUAD will become a formidable firewall to the expansionism and military adventurism of China. It makes eminent sense for Japan, Australia, and India to urgently shore up their military and defence abilities, including tools and abilities for offence to give China a bloodied nose if it interferes in their sovereign national interests. The obvious supplier of such military hardware and capabilities are the US defence companies. The obvious payor for such procurements are the governments of Japan, Australia, and India. A question of economic self-interest of the US also manifests at this critical junction of world history. Decoded in simple terms, the question for the US is also to identify which are the next markets for its defence industry. Thus far, in past 20 years, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were major consumers of US defence exports. Though the buyer in these cases was mostly the US government itself, but the spend benefited the sales of US defence industry. With the for-ever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now over. Where is the next big market for US defence exports? Thanks to China, which through its behaviour, is ensuring that the next big market for military sales by the US is in the Indo-Pacific region. The QUAD meetings next week could therefore well and logically result in agreements that total up to $100 billion worth of American defence exports and jobs creation in America, and enhanced security for all members in the Indo-Pacific region, including the upping of the military punch of each Japan, Australia, and India with respect to China. (Robinder Sachdev is president of the Imagindia Institute. All views expressed are personal.) New Delhi, Sep 17 : Pakistan came out strongly against comments made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other lawmakers during the recent Congressional hearings on Afghanistan, and clearly said that the remarks were not in line with the close cooperation between Islamabad and Washington, The News International reported. "This was surprising as Pakistan's positive role in the Afghan peace process, recent facilitation of the multinational evacuation effort from Afghanistan, and continued support for an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan have been duly acknowledged, including most recently by the US State Department spokesperson in his briefing of September 1," said the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman. Testifying before Congress on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, Blinken told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that his administration would soon be reassessing its relationship with Pakistan as it has a "multiplicity of interests, some that are in conflict with ours". "It is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it's one that's involved harbouring members of the Taliban. It is one that's also involved in different points of cooperation with us on counterterrorism," Blinken had said. Pakistan was clearly taken aback by these remarks, said The News International report. "Let me further recall that Pakistan had played a critical role in helping the US degrade AlQaeda's core leadership in Afghanistan, which was the international coalition's core objective," said the Ministry spokesman. "At the same time, Pakistan had always maintained that there was no military solution to the larger Afghan conflict and that a political settlement offered the only plausible pathway to sustainable peace in Afghanistan - a position now shared by the US." The spokesman brushed aside Blinken's remarks critical of the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years and the role the US wants to see it play in the coming years, the report added. Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 17 : The second biggest ally in the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala, the CPI and the third biggest party, Kerala Congress (Mani) are not in the best of relations. And on Friday, it was made clear by Jose K. Mani, who heads the Kerala Congress (Mani). Incidentally, Jose who took over as the chairman after his father K.M. Mani passed away a few years ago and soon after it their relation with the Congress-led UDF started to strain, forcing a faction led by Jose joining the Left last year. Since then, even though the CPI(M) and its cadres did not have any issues, it was the CPI, which was feeling uneasy ever since Jose became a full-fledged ally. In the April 6 Assembly polls, though Jose failed to win from his father's seat, his party won five seats and became the third biggest ally in the ruling Left alliance. Soon after the Assembly election, a review meeting held by the CPI a few days back, they said that Jose and his party failed to bring any good news to the Left. Jose and his party hit back at the CPI and said they were jealous of their performance, and the CPI was feeling threatened that they might lose their tag as the second biggest tally. CPI State Secretary Kanam Rajendran known for his curt remarks said on this that they have 17 legislators and compared to 5. "17 is far ahead and so the question of losing does not exist," he said. On Friday, when asked why Rajendran was not happy with him, Jose said, "I really do not know why Rajendran is angry with me. To get an answer you have to ask him. In the past, Rajendran has attacked me personally. I have always had the highest regard towards him and he is a tall leader in the Left," said Jose. He went on to add that he has not complained about this to anyone and his only aim is to strengthen the Left Democratic Front and that should be the aim for all. The upcoming LDF meeting is expected to take up this incident. New Delhi, Sep 17 : Vodafone Idea would opt for the equity conversion for interest payout during moratorium period, resulting in sizable dilution and might restrict potential equity infusion from any financial/strategic investor, analysts said. Emkay Global Financial Services said in a note that the package, which is focused on annual cash outflow deferral for telcos, provides much-needed relief to VIL. As per reports, the government could hold anything between 30-70 per cent in Vodafone Idea with an equity option offered by the government for converting the company's dues after a four year moratorium. Operators have been given the option to convert their interest dues on spectrum and AGR payments, after a four year moratorium, into equity to the government. Emkay Global said the telecom package, which is focused on annual cash outflow deferral for telcos, provides much-needed relief to VIL. In addition, it is a forward looking one, with long-term measures such as the elimination of SUC on future spectrum purchases, a change in AGR definition and reduction in bank guarantees. "The package provides a huge relief to VIL for the next four years as the annual cash outgo toward government dues will reduce from Rs 253 billion starting in FY23E to Rs 31 billion, with an option of converting the same into equity for the government," the note said. Although these measures will provide a lifeline for the next four years, annual payout to the government will increase substantially to Rs 477 billion from FY27E. Our estimates already factor in a 15-18 per cent tariff hike in H2FY22, which is essential for VIL to adequately invest in the business to stop the ongoing subscriber losses and comfortably fund interest charges on bank debt. "We believe VIL would opt for the equity conversion for interest payout during moratorium period, resulting in sizable dilution and might restrict potential equity infusion from any financial/strategic investor," the note said. "We are downgrading Bharti Airtel to Hold from Buy with an unchanged SoTP-based TP of Rs730. This is based on the visibility on VIL's survival for the next four years, imminent tariff hikes providing the cash-flow support for VIL to invest in the business, which in turn could restrict subscriber losses and the recent rally in Bharti's stock (up ~38 per cent in the last two months)," Emkay said. "That said, our long-term thesis still favours Bharti as we believe VIL's survival will be in question once the moratorium ends in FY26-27E. Further, VIL's inability to invest in 5G, Home broadband and enterprise businesses will also adversely affect it in the long run. Significantly higher-than-expected tariff hikes and VIL's failure to bounce back strongly, along with sustained healthy return ratios for the sector, are the key upside risks to our call on Bharti," it added. "We believe that Bharti and Jio would not opt for the moratorium as they have a comfortable liquidity position. Additionally, Bharti has recently announced a capital raise as well," it added. Chennai, Sep 17 : R. Chinnaswamy (63), a farmer from the Valliyur village in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district was trampled to death by a wild elephant on Friday, police said. The tragic incident occurred at his agricultural field. The farmer, according to the locals, used to go to his agricultural field at night to stand vigil as wild animals destroyed his crops. The police at Valliyur told IANS that he was lying down in the agricultural field on Thursday and was probably attacked by a wild elephant on Friday around 1.30 a.m. The police said that the body of Chinnaswamy bore injuries on his chest and right leg. The Tamil Nadu forest department officials received information on the attack and immediately reached the spot and took Chinnaswamy to the Thondamuthur government hospital. He was declared brought dead on arrival. The body was later sent for post-mortem at the Coimbatore government medical college hospital. The forest department officials handed over an amount of Rs 50,000 as immediate assistance to the family of the victim. Senior officials said that an amount of Rs 3.5 lakh would be handed over to the family of Chinnaswamny soon as compensation and assistance. The conflict between man and animals has been taking place in and around the forest area of Coimbatore district and recently also a herd of wild elephants had destroyed crops being cultivated in areas adjoining the forest land. London, Sep 17 : Formula 1 team Aston Martin have confirmed an unchanged pairing of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll for next year. Vettel had joined Aston Martin from Ferrari at the start of this season, netting the team's first podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The four-time champion will continue his journey with the British team next year alongside Canadian driver Stroll, as Formula 1 moves into its new era of regulations. "I am really looking forward to racing the new generation of Formula 1 cars," said Vettel. "Their look is very different and the new technical regulations should give us cars that can race much more closely than recently," the German told formula1.com on Thursday. "More exciting racing will be great for the drivers as well as for the fans. The changes are so big that every team will be starting from a new beginning, so it will be a great opportunity for us at Aston Martin... I believe in the strength of our new growing team, so I am already looking forward to 2022." Stroll, meanwhile, added, "Next season I will be embarking on my sixth year in Formula 1, alongside my team-mate Sebastian... and I greatly look forward to continuing the journey with him next year. We have not achieved what we set out to do this year, but that has only amplified our hunger and drive for success next season." Vettel was signed to Aston Martin on a 'one plus one' contract, giving the team an option on his services for 2022, which they decided to take up. Speaking of his driver line-up for 2022, Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said, "Lance is one of the most gifted drivers in modern Formula 1, and to that raw talent he is now adding serious racecraft. "A four-time world champion, having driven 271 Grands Prix, of which he has won 53, Sebastian is also a massive asset to our team, and next year we expect both of them to race well in what will be a very different formula from the current one. "We never under-estimate our opposition, so we do not intend to over-promise, but we know that Lance and Sebastian will get the very best from the tools we will put at their disposal." Aston Martin currently sit seventh in the constructors' standings on 59 points. The team's driver announcement, meanwhile, leaves just the second seat at Alfa Romeo to be filled alongside Valtteri Bottas for next year, while Haas are also yet to confirm their 2022 line-up. Mumbai, Sep 17 : Actress and adult content creator Sherlyn Chopra has taken a dig at Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra, whom she addressed as 'didi' in a video, for giving a statement that she wasn't aware about her businessman husband Raj Kundra's activities. Raj Kundra is under custody in a pornography racket case. He is being investigated for his connection to applications that created content that has been alleged to be pornographic in nature. Raj, in his defence, has reportedly said that it is simply adult content. Sherlyn, who in July said that she was the first person to give a statement to the investigating team of the Maharashtra Police Cyber Cell in Raj Kundra's case, posted a video on Twitter taking a dig at the Hindi film actress. In the video, Sherlyn is seen lifting dumbbells while talking to the camera in Hindi. "Media reports ke anusaar didi ka yeh kehna hai ki unhe apne pati dev ke nefarious activities ke baare main koi bhi jaankari nahi thi (according to media reports, 'didi' is saying that she was not aware of the nefarious activities of her husband)," Sherlyn said. She added: "Aur toh aur didi ka yeh bhi kehna hai ki unke pati ki chal achal sampatti ki shroot ki bhi jaankaari nahi thi...('Didi' is also saying that she doesn't know about the movable and immovable assets of her husband.)" "Ab is baat main kitni sachaai hai iska anumaan aap khud laga sakte hai...waaise isi kya kehte yeda bankar peda khaana (How true is this statement, you guys can understand yourselves.)" On Thursday, Shilpa had informed Mumbai Police that she remained too tied up in her work to know the porn apps or other activities of her husband Raj Kundra. She had further stated that Raj had launched Viaan Industries Ltd around April 2015 and she was on the board till July 2020 when she quit owing to personal reasons, as stated in the charge sheet filed by the police on Wednesday against Kundra and his associate Ryan Thorpe. New Delhi, Sep 17 : Hes all of 17 but his language is that of a Computer Science pro. He played chess at the national level in the Under-7 category, is disturbed at the "huge challenge" of the digital divide, hopes that his debut book on software programming for beginners is a "great way to start your coding journey" and in five years from now, aims to be in a position where he is "well-equipped to harness technology for the benefit of everyone". Paarth Arya, a Class 12 student of DPS Gurugram, of which he is the Head Boy, ascribes all this to his grandfather, a teacher of Mathematics, to whom he has dedicated "The Python Champions of Coding" (Wisdom Tree). "My grandfather was a Math teacher. I believe I inherited a liking for Math from him, as also the spirit of sharing. I dedicated my book to him. I have memories of my first day at school, where, while other children around me were glum, some of them even crying, I was busy counting all of them on my fingers," Arya told IANS in an interview. "I think the common factor between Math and Computer Science is the problem-solving approach. Actually, before my interest in Math organically developed into an interest in Computer Science, I first developed an interest in chess, which I played at the national level in the Under-7 category. I guess chess became a bridge between Math and Computer Science," he added. The book, in a way, is pandemic-inspired. "Online schooling meant I had more time on hand, which I utilized by taking up free online courses in Computer Science. One particular course, CS50 from Harvard University left a deep impression on me. It is sharp, smart and still simple. It made me think why couldn't our books, especially in Computer Science, be like that? In lower classes, we are still made to learn the definition of a floppy disk! "At the same time, reading about the huge challenge of the digital divide left me disturbed. I saw an opportunity to solve both problems by writing this book. So the book is simple and clutter-free and is available in all formats -- physical book, e-book and free videos on YouTube. And all my royalties will be used to buy devices to enable digital education for students who can't afford it. I am aware that the difference I may make may be only to a very few students and we have millions in need, but at least I would have made a start," Arya explained. "My target is to ensure online education for 100 students through my earnings from the book," he added, rather modestly. Given his depth of knowledge, the book took him just five months and six drafts to complete. "I first made a mind map about the topics that needed to be covered in a beginner's level book. I wrote several simple codes and cross-checked if some principles were getting used that I had missed including in the content plan. Thereafter, I wrote the first draft of the book. "Once the draft was ready, I took feedback on its different parts from my friends and juniors. The feedback helped me make it simpler and plug any gaps. Then I decided to do a study of similar books available in the market. Not many by Indian authors were available that treated the subject like I wanted to, which encouraged me further. The whole process took me five months and it took six drafts to finalise the book. Python, on which the book is based, is a very popular and simple programming language, he said. "It's a great way to start your coding journey, be it as a child or as an adult. Its syntax is similar to the English language, which makes it very easy to use and master. I have tried to capture all the basics of Python in a fun and friendly manner with many fun practice activities," Arya elaborated. Not one to rest on his laurels, he's already planning a sequel "Yes, I have a sequel in mind - a supplementary book that will have activities and projects for the beginner level so that young learners can understand the actual applications of programming," he said. Where does he see himself, for instance, five years from now? "After five years, I want to be in a position where I am well-equipped to harness technology for the benefit of everyone. I believe technology is inherently inclusive and can solve the problems that get created because of its lack of access. Both, through the enhancement of my skills by becoming a computer scientist and through a better understanding of the ecosystem in which technology works, I would like to make a difference in the lives of citizens who generally are the last in reaping the benefits of technology," Arya concluded. May he be a beacon to all youngsters of his age -- and even the not so young! (Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in) Beijing, Sep 17 : The mausoleum of Qinshihuang, known for the famous Terracotta Army in China's Shaanxi province, reopened on Friday after the Covid-19 resurgence suspended operations for over a month. To visit Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, tourists need to make a reservation online as the museum is operating at 30 per cent capacity at this time, Xinhua news agency quoted the authorities as sayinh. The museum will not accept tour groups, and tourists from medium- and high-risk areas are also not permitted. Museum operation was suspended in late July after sporadic locally transmitted Covid-19 cases were reported in several provinces of China. Discovered in 1974, the Terracotta Army was built by Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-207 B.C.), who unified China for the first time. The figures vary in height according to their roles, the tallest being the generals. Estimates from 2007 were that the three pits containing the Terracotta Army held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, and 150 cavalry horses. Other museums of the province, including the Shaanxi History Museum, have also reopened to the public recently. Ramallah, Sep 17 : Palestine has condemned the current Israeli government's position of rejecting the two-state solution and its attempts to undermine any opportunity to establish a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the position of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman "is part of the unilateral Israeli measures that aim at liquidating the Palestinian cause", The statement added that the Israeli officials blame the Palestinian leadership under false pretexts "to hide their ambitions of expanding settlements on the lands of the state of Palestine". Accusing Bennett of being "an enemy of peace", the statement said that "he (Bennett) represents the stances of the settlers, their councils, and their organisations, which lead to incitement campaigns against the Palestinian people". "The Israeli incitement is a political war and an aggression against the Palestinian people, against their legitimate rights and against their leadership," it said, adding that "this policy will have an impact on the process of solving the conflict". It called on the UN Security Council and the International Quartet, which comprises Russia, the US, the European Union and the UN, "to bear their legal and moral responsibilities towards the percussion of the Israeli political stances". Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which were sponsored by the US and lasted for nine months, stopped in 2014 following deep disagreements on Israeli settlement and the recognition of establishing a Palestinian state on the 1967 border. Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled them ever since. The Jewish settlements are considered a violation of international law by most of the international community. Houston, Sep 17 : Texas is going to shut down six points of entry along the US-Mexico border amid a massive surge of migration, Governor Greg Abbott announced. "I have directed the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to surge personnel and vehicles to shut down six points of entry along the southern border to stop these caravans from overrunning our state," Xinhua news agency quoted Abbott as saying in a statement. "The border crisis is so dire that the US Customs and Border Protection is requesting our help as their agents are overwhelmed by the chaos," the Governor said, slamming President Joe Biden's administration for "the sheer negligence" to secure the border. Marsha Espinosa, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told CNN on Thursday that it "is not seeking assistance from the State of Texas to shut down ports of entry". "It would be a violation of federal law for the Texas National Guard to unilaterally do so," the spokesperson said. Local media reported on Thursday that in Del Rio, a city of 35,000 residents in southwestern Texas, thousands of migrants, mostly from Haiti, huddled in dirty conditions in a temporary staging area under the Del Rio International Bridge, waiting to turn themselves in to the US Border Patrol and seek asylum. "Six, seven days ago, Del Rio saw 400 migrants sitting, underneath the bridge, the (point of entry) in downtown Del Rio, there's about 6,000 sitting there right now and more are coming," Victor Escalon, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said earlier on Thursday. All the points of entry to Del Rio will be shut down due to the overwhelming number of migrants there, he said. There were about 9,000 "really anxious and stressed" migrants under the bridge waiting to get processed, Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said on Thursday, asking the federal government to support the city. The authorities and city officials are expecting thousands more to cross the ankle-deep river between Mexico and Del Rio in the coming days, said a report from The New York Times (NYT). The US Border Patrol said it would send more agents to the region "to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process". according to the report. The scene of dense crowds sleeping on dirt or milling about amid conditions of deteriorating sanitation drew condemnations from local officials, said the NYT report. The city mayor said that in the temporary camp under the bridge, there was little access to clean water and food and there were just a few portable toilets. Also on Thursday, a federal judge blocked the Biden administration from turning away migrant families with children under a public health order related to the Covid-19 pandemic, marking a defeat for the administration. Last month, another federal judge in Texas ordered the Biden administration to revive a border policy adopted in the era of former President Donald Trump that required migrants to stay in Mexico until their cases were heard in US immigration courts. US-Mexico border arrests have reportedly stayed at the highest level in more than two decades, with more than 208,000 registered in August alone. New Delhi, Sep 17 : A good read, a cup of hot coffee and a cosy couch is the best way to enjoy the monsoons. If you plan on tackling the rainy season here are our suggestions for what you pick. Myla: Insurrection By Arjun Rao Malaika Menon, aka Agent Myla returns home to Calicut, Kerala to find her entire family brutally murdered. Being the tip of the spear in India's fight against terrorism, she is no stranger to killing and death. However, the savage killings leave her shaken to her very core. On leave from her position in the Indian Army, Myla discovers a sinister plot. It appears that the murders were all aimed at flushing her out from the natural protection of the Indian Army. With her on the streets of Calicut, the perpetrators appear to have got what they wanted. Myla, alone and grieving, far from her lethal best. Best of all, she is now unprotected. Myla unearths clues that point to a conspiracy perpetrated by a far larger enemy than she has ever encountered before. A criminal enterprise so large, and so pervasive, that it has invaded every level of Indian society. Shattered by her loss, enraged by her inability to protect her loved ones, Myla decides to go after the truth. Find out what really happened, and why. She does the only thing she knows how to. The one thing that she is a master at. She picks up her gun and decides to investigate. Will she survive against the largest menace known to India? Or will they achieve what they wanted along? To put a bullet in Myla's head. Myla's dangerous game of cat and mouse takes her from Calicut, to Chennai, where she faces the head of the snake in a shattering frontal attack that she cannot possibly survive. 'The Code of Manavas' by Arpit Bakshi 'The Code of Manavas', is set some two million years past ad 2050, when earth as we know it ceased to exist, and so did mankind. A new race, the Manavas, now exists on Bhoomi, the erstwhile Earth, which is divided into two cities-Madhavpur and Ayudhpur. In the quiet and peaceful city of Madhavpur, a reclusive Krishna is busy with an immense task. He has to prepare a new abode for the Manavas before an impending apocalypse destroys them. He knows something that nobody else does-the Manavas are running out of time faster than they can imagine, and there are no inhabitable planets to escape to. To make matters worse, there is someone in Madhavpur who wants to destroy Krishna and subjugate each Manava. The Manavas, it seems, are doomed. Yet Krishna knows there is a slim chance of survival for the Manavas, although there is a huge price to be paid for it. Will the various factions of the Manavas unite for the greater good? Will Krishna, who saved them during the turn of the last Yuga, be able to save them now? What will be the price to pay? Enter the mythical world of Maha Vishnu and get swept up in a fast-paced suspenseful narrative. 'Beyond a Love Story' by Chitkala Mulye Sameer seduced by his elder cousin, gets carried away in a physical relationship with him. Preeti, Sameer's childhood tutor and best friend, finds solace in her bond with Sameer, which has ripened over years. However, when Sameer who is gay, finds his soul mate Abhijeet, Preeti goes through an intense emotional turmoil. This beginning in Sameer's life, exposes him to a canvas of suffering; revealing the true meaning of love, companionship, family and sacrifice while turning the tables and bringing a twist in the tale! The story explores how true love transcends the boundaries of gender, age, and sexuality questioning the perceived notions about relationships, thus challenging the typical conventions of family system. 'Happily Frustrated' by Ritiqa Pachauri Shelly (the protagonist) becomes an alcoholic after discovering that her husband of ten years (Saurabh) was gay. He had left her for another man, and it had left her heartbroken. Because of her addiction, Shelly loses her job, her friends, her sister's support and even her parents sympathy. However, her mother did feel her pain and asks her to go on a vacation to Goa. Here, Shelly meets her aunt Polly, who slowly a d steadily tries to bring Shelly back on track. Another character who is a tarot card reader also plays an important role in Shelly's life. However, the twist comes when Shelly returns from Goa and tells her family about aunt Polly. What's the twist? Will Shelly overcome her pain? Will she ever be happy? 'The Mindset of a Growing Entrepreneur' by Harsh Joshi What is new to you in this book is that uncertainty can be used tp your benefit if you create and deploy an entrepreneurial mindset a way of thinking about your business that captures the benefits of uncertainty. This book distills our observations of habitual entrepreneurs. It shows you how they think, how they behave, and exactly what it is that they do so well. 'Meri Arzoo' by Rajeev Kumar "Meri Arzoo" has 13 different sweet stories that depict the state of mind of a human being in different circumstances of life. The Character is from a middle class family and he has to deal with many daily life problems. He has to face different phases of his life. All 13 stories are different from each other yet they all have one thing in common: A middle class person. The protagonist want to do/become something and he ends up doing something. Each story was well thought-out; you can tell that the author felt connected to each story and you can feel his presence in the narrative. The narrative maintains a steady pace throughout the book. Stories are backed with elements of failure, destiny, love, lie, truth, success and failure. Each story relates to daily life of people, while reading those stories readers will feels like it is my experience of my own journey. Saurabh Bagaria's Money Gone' Capturing the intricacies of a fictional high-profile offshore money diversion scheme shrouded in secrecy and an equally high-on-action chase by Indian tax authorities, 'Money Gone', is a thriller novel by author and advocate Saurabh Bagaria that takes readers through overseas indulgence, tense courtrooms, and even the dark web. (Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in) New Delhi, Sep 17: A major weapons race is in the offing in North-East Asia with both the Koreas launching missiles within hours of each other this Wednesday. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles in contravention of UN resolutions. The Japanese Defence Ministry confirmed that the North Korean missiles landed in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) somewhere between Japan and Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga condemned the North Korean launch as "outrageous" and its ally--the US, said it posed a threat to the region and to the world. The Wednesday missile launches were the North's attempt at a new launch system--the railway-borne missile system. Photographs showed the missile being fired from a stationary train parked in a mountainous area. This was Pyongyang's second missile launch in three days. It had earlier test fired a long-range missile on Monday, which had prompted an urgent meeting between the US, Japan and South Korea. What turned out to be surprising was that the South Koreans responded by launching their own missile within hours. China breathes fire as the world converges on the South China Sea US, Japan and South Korea warn China for ratcheting tensions in Taiwan A statement by President Moon Jae-in's office said that the indigenous ballistic missile was launched on Wednesday afternoon. This was the country's first submarine fired missile that was targeted to hit a designated object. The submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) by South Korea has made it the seventh country to own such technology. The importance of this event can be gauged from the statement issued by South Korea's presidential office, which said: "The possession of an SLBM has a significant meaning for the purpose of securing deterrence capabilities responding to omni-directional threats and will play a big role in the establishment of national self-defense and peace on the Korean Peninsula in the future". The swift South Korean response is as much a hint to the US, besides its norther neighbour North Korea, that it is getting battle ready to fight its own conflicts. The two Koreas are locked in an intense rivalry as both are developing and also procuring weapons from their allies. India Narrative had earlier reported that Seol is developing an indigenous aircraft carrier as well. The South Korean launch came around the same time as the Chinese and the South Koreans were holding talks to improve ties. The region has become increasingly tense with numerous territorial disputes and rivalries playing around. The other countries that are locked in tensions include China and Japan over disputed islands, China and Taiwan over the latter's sovereignty, China and South-East Asian nations over Beijing's claims over the South China Sea. Suspicions remain between South Korea and Japan as well. The US too has mobilised its allies with Germany, France and the UK sending their warships in the region in a bid to keep the shipping lanes free and open. With the two Koreas launching missiles on the same day, tensions have gone up a notch further in a region feeling considerable heat due to China's muscle-flexing. (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, Sep 17: As leaders of the member and observer states get into a hybrid huddle in Tajikistan for the 21st meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State, Afghanistan -- which will be dominating most of the discussions at Dushanbe on Friday and Saturday -- will go unrepresented at the crucial regional forum. The current crisis in its observer state remains the biggest topical issue of regional and international importance for the SCO gathering, which also includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, with the Former President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the presidential palace and the Taliban regime still not recognised by the world, Afghanistan, having triggered so much turmoil and geo-political unrest in the region over the past few weeks, will have no presence in the meeting. The SCO comprises eight member states, including India, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan. Iran, Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia are the four observer states while Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka are the six dialogue partners. It isn't that Afghanistan wasn't invited to the summit. Observers have always been welcomed at SCO summits and it was the case this time too. But, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reveals, it was Ghani who had received the invitation "in good time" to the event. But, with the Taliban taking over Kabul on August 15, the situation underwent a change. "The Taliban have not yet been officially recognised by a single country. Everyone is saying that contacts should be maintained with them on current issues, primarily security, respect for citizens' rights, and the normal functioning of diplomatic missions. But no one is in a hurry to grant them an official recognition," Lavrov said. The Russian minister was speaking following the joint meeting of Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Foreign Ministers Council, Defence Ministers Council and Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils, in Dushanbe on Wednesday. He emphasised that no conditions are being imposed on the Taliban and that they have proclaimed their goals, including a commitment to the further struggle against terrorism and drug trafficking. "They have assured all others that they will do their best to prevent Afghanistan from posing any threats to neighbouring countries, that they have no intention of destabilising neighbouring states, and that they will form an inclusive government reflecting the entire spectrum of Afghan society and a political, ethnic and religious balance," said Lavrov. However, it was also made amply clear that Taliban will have to translate its words into action before being invited for regional group meetings. "Like the overwhelming majority of world countries, we have welcomed this (Taliban) approach. Right now, we are watching how it will be put into practice. It is still too early to draw any final conclusions. At this stage, we are maintaining contacts with them on current issues, including on the removal of any risks for our Central Asian neighbours," said Lavrov. Meanwhile, India is being represented by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at Dushanbe while Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the plenary session of the summit via video-link on Friday. Besides members and observer, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) and President of Turkmenistan and several other invited guests will also be attending the meet which will be chaired by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Hyderabad, Sep 17 : Telangana Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy on Friday dismissed doubts being expressed over the manner of death of Pallakonda Raju, the only accused in the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl. The police chief told reporters that there were no doubts that Raju committed suicide by coming under a train. Mahender Reddy pointed out that there were seven eyewitnesses who saw him walking on the track and coming under the train. "Two railway gangmen, 2-3 farmers and two engine drivers of the train are the eye-witnesses. We have recorded their statements," the DGP said adding that there is no need for police to lie. He said baseless allegations were inappropriate. Raju, 30, was found dead on the railway tracks near Ghanpur station in Jangaon district on Thursday, a week after he sexually assaulted and killed the minor girl at his house in Singareni Colony in Saidabad area of Hyderabad. The victim's body was recovered from the house of Raju, who happened to be her neighbour, on the night of September 9. The incident had triggered massive public outrage with some people and politicians, including a state minister, calling for killing the culprit in an "encounter". A massive manhunt was launched for Raju across the state. The police had also announced Rs 10 lakh reward for any information leading to his arrest. The DGP made the clarification amid doubts being expressed in various quarters over the veracity of police version about Raju's death. Raju's family members have alleged that police killed him after taking him into custody. Some people's organisations have also expressed the doubt over police version and alleged that he was killed to cover the government's failure in nabbing him immediately after the incident. A section of netizens in social media have described his death as "train encounter". A civil liberties group has also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Telangana High Court expressing apprehensions that Raju was killed in police custody. Chennai, Sep 17 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Friday credited Dravida leader E.V. Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, championing the cause of social justice and "resurrecting" Tamil Nadu. "Today on his birthday we pay homage to Periyar, the rationalist who sowed the seeds of social justice in the minds of the people in all walks of life. Tamil Nadu was resurrected only after his birth. It became a society of dignity and knowledge," he said in a tweet. Stalin had earlier declared September 17, the birth anniversary of Periyar, as Social Justice Day. The 143rd birth anniversary of the social reformer was celebrated on Friday with the Chief Minister paying floral tributes at his statue of the social reformer at Mount Road near Chindaripet. In another tweet, the Chief Minister said: "I took the pledge of social justice on such a glorious birthday. Entire Tamil Nadu undertook the pledge. We will set up an egalitarian society on your path." Periyar was born on September 17, 1879 and passed away on December 24, 1973. Reminiscing the great Dravida leader after offering floral tributes, Stalin said that Periyar was responsible for the enactment of the first Constitutional Amendment Act that had safeguarded the reservation for backward classes. Stalin said that Periyar's ideology was all about social justice, self-respect, rationalism, and equality which laid down the foundation for the growth of Tamil society in the last century. He also said this foundation would help to pave way for the future of Tamil society also. The staff and officials of the secretariat later undertook a pledge administered by the Chief Minister, stating that they would follow the footsteps of Periyar's ideology based on social justice, self-respect, rationalism, and equality. MPs T.R. Balu and Kanimozhi were present with Stalin while he was offering floral tributes to Periyar. Chennai, Sep 17 : Ravindra Narayan Ravi, who was transferred to Nagaland to Tamil Nadu as Governor, will be sworn in as the southern state's 26th Governor on Saturday. Madras High Court's Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee will administer the oath of office to him at a ceremony on the lawns of the Raj Bhawan at 10.30 am. Born in Patna, Ravi did post graduation in Physics and had a small stint as a journalist in New Delhi before getting into the Indian Police Service. A Kerala cadre officer, he had also worked with the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Bureau. The NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed him as the interlocutor for peace talks with Nagas in 2014 and the Deputy National Security Advisor in 2018. He was posted as Governor of Nagaland in 2019. A Raj Bhavan release said that Ravi had specialised in the dynamics of human migration in South Asia and had worked extensively on the political sociology of the border population. He had also coordinated with various Central agencies to meet the intelligence needs of the country. Kolkata, Sep 17 : Amid rising paediatric cases of a 'mystery' fever that has taken six lives so far, the West Bengal Health Department has decided to send an expert committee to North Bengal on Friday. The move came as a political debate started after the Bharatiya Janata Party complained of negligence by the Mamata Banerjee government in handling the 'unknown' fever of the children. According to a statement issued by the state health department altogether 1,195 children have been admitted in different state government hospitals in North Bengal with complaints of fever, cough and stomach ache. Giving a comparative figure of the previous years the state health department, however, said that this spike is natural during this time of the year. According to data provided by the department in 2017 between September 1 and 15, there were 2,279 cases; in 2018 it was 2,049 and in 2019 it was 2,083. In 2020, the figure was lowest in the decade with only 640 children who have suffered from the same kind of influenza. Though the state government has been trying to justify it as a natural phenomenon, in the last five days 223 children have been admitted to Purulia state general hospital and 164 have been admitted to Jalpaiguri district hospital where two children died. On Wednesday 40 children only 40 children were admitted, and on Thursday the number of cases doubled with 40 more children admitted of which three died. The chief minister has said that the children who died had some other problems. Even state Health Secretary N.S. Nigam said that the children were suffering from influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and no other elements of unknown virus were detected. "The expert committee has devised a treatment protocol that will be followed in treating these children," he added. "Higher level of diagnostic facilities for Respiratory viruses is being created at North Bengal Medical College and School of Tropical Medicine. The expert committee is developing new Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) and the paediatricians are being oriented to diagnose and treat this fever episode. "The critical care unit for paediatric cases like NICU and PICU has already developed and is being utilised for treating more serious cases. Fortunately, the RS virus infection is generally self-limiting and cured by 3-5 days, and death rate is extremely low for such infection," a senior official of the state health department said. The state BJP, however, alleged that the outbreak was a result of the callousness of the state government. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari who visited Coochbehar hospital on Thursday wrote to the Union Health Minister detailing out the condition of the children in the state. "WB Administration seems to be occupied with Bhabanipur bye-elections, as it's their priority. So I'd urge Hon'ble Union Health Minister @mansukhmandviya ji to immediately dispatch a central team of experts to WB, to assist & aid the WB Health Dept in order to save our children," Adhikari wrote on his twitter. Governor Jagdeep Dhakhar was also critical of the state government. Speaking to the media Dhakhar said, "I am keeping a close watch on the situation. There are lots of children who have been affected and so I would ask the state government to take a serious note of the situation and work together to save the children." New Delhi, Sep 17 : The Covid-19 pandemic has not only put a curb on children's studies at school and outdoor games, it has also dented their immunity levels -- which doctors see as a major reason why "mystery fever/illness" has gripped large number of kids in some parts of North India, particularly in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The pandemic has forced children to take lessons and play within the house, reducing their exposure to the outside world, say health experts. According to media reports, a "mystery fever" has killed eight children in the past 10 days in Chilli, a small village in Haryana's Palwal district. At least 35 children have reported fever-like symptoms and are admitted to private hospitals. At least 100 children have died and many admitted to hospitals due to this condition in several districts in UP. Deaths have been reported in Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Mainpuri, Etah, and Kasganj districts. Lucknow has also reported about 40 children admitted to various government hospitals. Similar cases have also been seen in Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal. Most children with mystery fever showed symptoms such as joint pains, headaches, dehydration, nausea, and sometimes rashes, spreading across their arms and legs. While none of the kids have tested positive with Covid, the doctors marked the cases under a broad terminology of viral haemorrhagic fever, scrub typhus -- a bacterial disease that is spread through bites of infected mites, seasonal flu, and dengue. "'Mystery fever' is a term coined by the people. There are many such kinds of viral fever. Such cases are on rise because the kids had been in quarantine for a very long time and now they are stepping out. Their immunity has decreased," Dr (Major) Manish Mannan, HOD, Paediatrics and Neonatology, Paras Hospitals, Gurugram, told IANS. His hospital is currently seeing about three cases of either dengue or dengue-like illness daily among kids. "The reason for these conditions is that the kids have been at home for almost two years and not exposed much to the outside world," said Dr Prabhat Maheshwari, Chief- Neonatal & Paediatric Critical Care, Artemis Hospitals, Gurugram. Artemis is seeing many cases of the so-called mystery fever, some of which are scrub typhus, leptospirosis or, perhaps, typhoid which remains undiagnosed as well as cases of flu in children, Maheshwari said. Further, the doctors also pointed out that many children have shown a decline in platelet count -- pointing towards viral illness, the doctors said. "Blood analysis shows low TLC (white blood cells) and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes. The condition is not related to Covid," Dr Ajay Agarwal, Director and HOD Department of Internal Medicine, Fortis Hospital, Noida, told IANS. His hospital is seeing about 8-10 children everyday, with viral fever, rashes, joint pain, loose motion and recurrent vomiting. They are also showing the symptoms of drowsiness and altered sensorium. No cause has yet been identified, he said. "It's a cause of worry as symptoms are similar to Covid and dengue illnesses and as such would put immense pressure on the already stretched health care system," Agarwal said. "Whatever the mystery illness may be, one thing is clear that it is due in large part to a very poor public health system. And the government is not focusing on eradicating infectious diseases. We do get these disorders again and again every year," Dr Shuchin Bajaj, Founder & Director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, told IANS. "We have not been able to isolate the disease pathogen even after a month of its starting points to a very poor public health infrastructure, case detection, tracking and final diagnosis of the disease, which should be much faster in a community," Bajaj lamented. (Rachel V Thomas can be contacted at rachel.t@ians) New Delhi, Sep 17 : Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narednra Modi, politics of casteism and appeasement has been replaced with development, BJP chief J.P. Nadda said on Friday. In a message on Prime Minister Modi's 71st birthday, Nadda said, "Our Prime Minister has changed the political work culture of the country. Today, under his leadership, instead of politics of casteism, appeasement and dynasty, a political culture of development has been established and all other political parties of the country have been forced to follow it." Launching a 20-days'Seva Aur Samarpan Abhiyan' at the party headquarters here on Friday, Nadda further said that this programme will conclude on October 7, on completion of Modi's two decades in public life. The BJP has planned a series of events for the next 20 days, which include creating awareness for vaccination, blood donation camps and other activities, he said. Nadda pointed out that it has always been the belief of the Prime Minister that the benefit of development should reach the last person of the society. "Since his childhood till date, he has never thought of himself but only about the welfare and empowerment of the poor, downtrodden and the oppressed people," he said. The BJP chief also said that the Prime Minister's thoughts for bringing change in the Alives of the poor and downtrodden are clearly visible in his policies and plans. Talking about Modi's 20 years in public life, Nadda said, "The long and uninterrupted tenure of our Prime Minister as an elected head has been dedicated to 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas'. The party president also listed several initiatives of the Modi government such as abrogation of Article 370, law banning 'triple talaq', ensuring construction of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya, surgical and air strikes, one rank one pension scheme, Ayushmann Bharat, free gas connection, electricity to each village and household, and free ration to the poor, among others. "In the last seven years, several works have been made possible only due to his tireless efforts. With a strong will, a commitment for serving the people and effective strategy, he has proved that where there is a will, there is a way," Nadda said. New Delhi, Sep 17 : President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena leaders, and several Chief Ministers, Governors and Bollywood stars on Friday greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday. Wishing Modi, President Kovind tweeted, "Happy birthday and best wishes to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. I wish you good health and long life and continue to serve the nation with your well-known spirit of 'Aharnisham Sevamahe'." Vice President Naidu said, "My best wishes to Prime Minister, Narendra Bhai Modi ji on his birthday today. His exceptional vision, exemplary leadership and dedicated service have led to all-round growth of the nation. May he be blessed with a long, healthy and happy life ahead." Greeting Modi on his birthday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said, "Happy birthday to the country's popular leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I pray to God for your good health and long life. "Modi ji not only gave the country the thought of thinking ahead of time and proving its resolve with the culmination of hard work, but also showed it by making it a reality." Wishing the Prime minister, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, "Happy birthday to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Known for his decision-making ability, imagination and vision, Modiji's resolve to make India a self-reliant India is a symbol of his vision and strong will." Greeting Prime Minister, BJP Chief J.P. Nadda said, "Happy birthday to world's most popular leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the empowerment of the last man in the society, visionary, decisive leadership and a symbol of tireless work. I pray for your long and healthy life." Wishing Modi, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Happy birthday, Modi ji." The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government leaders on Friday warmly greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday, wishing him the best of health and a long life. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said: "We wish him a long and healthy life on his birthday." Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in his birthday greetings added: "We expect the PM to ensure equal justice and development opportunities to Maharashtra and other countrymen." Sena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut lauded Modi as "the tallest and unchallenged leader" who has brought political stability with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party' full majority. "We may have our political differences but today he is the tallest leader, with nobody who can challenge him, and heading a party with full majority in parliament," Raut said. Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar tweeted: "Warm Birthday wishes to Prime Minister Narendra Modiji. I wish him good health and happiness." Maharashtra Congress Legislature Party Leader and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat and others retweeted senior party leader Rahul Gandhi's tweet wishing the PM happy birthday. Leaders from various political parties, celebs, glamour personalities and commoners have expressed their wishes and prayers for Modi. Governors and chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Friday also greeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday. Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan took to Twitter to wish Modi. "Happy Birth Day to Visionary leader who made Self reliant India; Reformative India; Resilient India; Resurgent India; Glorious India; Super strong leader who Made Mother India Proud Globally," she wrote. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao greeted the Prime Minister on his birthday. He sent a letter, conveying his best wishes. "On behalf of the Government and people of Telangana, I wish you a very happy birthday. May God bless you with good health and long life for serving the nation for many more years," read the letter. Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan also greeted Modi on birthday. "I along with the people of Andhra Pradesh, with pleasure and privilege convey our heartiest felicitations and warm greetings to you on your Birthday," tweeted the governor. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has also greeted the Prime Minister. Eminent personalities from the Bollywood and music world like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Anup Jalota and many others recounted their experiences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a social media platform. Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan also greeted Prime Minister Modi and termed him as a 'great visionary'. The Jana Sena president said, "I had a great desire that the nation needs a strong leader. I used to wish that he shall be a statesman who must have broad knowledge about Indian culture and traditions. It is a big task to hold the highest position for any person of any stature. If find Sri Narendra Modi, who is in the highest position, as a great visionary." The actor recalled that he had opportunity to participate in the campaign alongside Modi during the 2014 general elections. "The journey helped me observe his force of attraction closely. Even his political betenoires are unable to restrain themselves without appreciating his commitment." To mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday and his decades in public service , the BJP youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) will be undertaking various welfare and awareness programmes and host 'Nava Bharat Mela' from September 17 to October 7 across the country. New Delhi, Sep 17 : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal was not allowed to carry out his protest march against the farm laws after 11 am on Friday in view of the existing Covid-induced guidelines, a senior Delhi Police officer said. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Deepak Yadav, had written a letter to Badal and SAD spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema on September 15, informing them not to carry out any protest march in the national capital on September 17 (Friday). According to a government order, all gatherings, including political, are prohibited up to September 30 throughout the National Capital Territory of Delhi to prevent and control the Covid pandemic. In the letter, the DCP had also mentioned that Section 144 of the CrpC is already enforced in the area of New Delhi district. However, the Akali Dal did not pay heed to the DCP's letter and held demonstrations near the Parliament to mark their protest against the completion of a year of the enactment of the three contentious farm laws. Since Friday morning, hundreds of protesters, including Akali Dal leaders, marched on Delhi's Rakabganj Road. The leaders also addressed the workers and termed the protest as the 'Black Friday Protest'. Akali Dal chief Badal and and his wife and Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among several Akali leaders who were detained by the Delhi Police. The DCP, in the letter accessed by IANS, had categorically stated that legal action will be initiated under the relevant sections of the Indian penal Code, Epidemic Diseases Act, and Disaster Management Act in case of violation of the order. The detainees were brought to the Parliament Street police station before being released later. "We were arrested by the Delhi Police, and after sometime the Magistrate released us. We have given our memorandum so that our message reaches the government," Sukhbir Badal told IANS. The Akali Dal submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the Executive Magistrate. Besides asking for repealing the 'black' farm laws, it also demanded a commitment from the Centre that the farmers would be consulted before bringing in any legislation affecting their lives. New Delhi, Sep 17 : Doctors at Sir Ganga Ram hospital (SGRH) here on Friday reported five cases of gallbladder gangrene among people two months after they recovered from Covid-19 infections. The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ on the right side of the abdomen, beneath the liver. Its function is to store bile needed for the digestion of fats in food. If the bile builds up within the gallbladder, causing cholecystitis, the bile may become infected. Untreated cholecystitis can then cause tissue in the gallbladder to die -- gangrene. In usual cases, stones in the organ lead to inflammation, or cholecystitis. But, in the absence of the gallstones, the inflammation of the gallbladder is called calculus cholecystitis and it occurs in people admitted for long in the Intensive Care Unit, or those with severe sepsis or diabetes. However, the patients in this case, had no ICU stay, Dr Anil Arora, Chairman, Institute of Liver, Gastroenterology, Pancreaticobiliary Science at the hospital, told IANS. They had mild-to-moderate Covid, which required hospitalisation and once they recovered they went home and were fine. After two months, they returned to the hospital with abdominal pain, and vomiting. "These patients had recovered from Covid-19 infection. But the inflammation was so severe, it led to the gangrene of the gallbladder and four out of the five patients had ruptured gallbladder. And they all needed surgery, and luckily everybody recovered," he said. So can this condition be called a long Covid symptom? No, in long Covid, one continues to have some symptoms, after recovery. But here, these patients were perfectly normal, after recovering from Covid, Arora said. According to Arora, the condition is caused by the ACE2 receptor -- the key for Covid infection. ACE2 receptor is found in lungs, through which SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing Covid-19, enters into the body cells. Similarly, the bile duct and the epithelium, as well as the gallbladder also have the same receptor. "A high concentration of ACE2 receptors is conducive to the entry of the virus. When the virus enters into cells, it causes dysregulated immune response. We think this is caused by dysregulated abnormal and weird immune responses due to the Covid antigen which had produced this," he noted. "Its a weird virus one that doesn't know about. Antigen and antibodies produced by the Covid virus can be the reason. Maybe it affects other organs, this cannot be documented without further testing the tissues for Covid," he added. Among those without Covid, the risk of the condition is due to being long in ICU with prolonged fasting. Because of the fasting state, the gallbladder bile becomes thick, which can cause acute acalculous cholecystitis. Patients with severe sepsis and patients with burns and trauma are also at risk of their condition, Arora said. "In case you have pain in the region of the gallbladder -- on the right upper part of the body on the right side below the rib cage -- then think of inflammation. It can be treated if detected early," Arora suggested. "In fact, 30 to 60 per cent of the patients with cholecystitis and gangrene will die. They will die not because of the gangrene, but they'll die because they are very sick already and this is an added complication. The death risk is much more in patients who have no gallstones, than those who have gallstones." "When at least for three to six months after recovering from Covid, if you continue to have problems see your doctor immediately, let him look at additional findings in the body which may be related to Covid. Do not ignore the symptoms," Arora advised. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 17 : A note by the CPI-M on how the presence of communalism and terrorism is attracting the youth in the educational institutions of Kerala has invited the wrath of both the Congress and the BJP. What has raised the eyebrows is that this note was prepared by the state unit of the CPI-M for distribution on September 10 to all its lower committees, which are getting ready to meet ahead of the upcoming state conference of the party scheduled to be held in Kochi in February next year. Incidentally, it was on September 9 that the Syro Malabar Church Pala diocese bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt had said that Catholic girls are becoming victims of 'love' and now 'narcotic jihad', kicking up a row. Reacting to the CPI-M note, the Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan termed it as a serious issue. "If the CPI-M has any data on this, it should be made public. We wish to know if there is any evidence on this and if a case has been registered on this matter. The CPI-M and the government has a moral responsibility on this," said Satheesan. Joining the issue, state BJP President K. Surendran asked why is it that the CPI-M is unable to accept in public that Love Jihad exists. "This is what we have been saying for a while now and it's baffling that the CPI-M is continuing its silence in the public domain on this issue. A strong probe has to be launched into the matter," said Surendran. Ever since the bishop made the statement, a series of visits has been made to the bishop by the top leaders from the Congress and the BJP. On Friday, state Cooperation Minister V.N. Vasavan, also a top CPI-M leader, made a visit to the bishop. But due to the presence of the media, Vasavan tried to play down the visit and termed it as just a routine call to the headquarters of the Pala bishop, as it falls in his home district and he has always held the bishop in high esteem. New Delhi, Sep 17 : India and Nepal will carry out joint military training exercise 'Surya Kiran' at Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh from September 20, the Indian Army announced on Friday. During this exercise, an infantry battalion from the Indian Army and a formation of equivalent strength from Nepali Army would be sharing their experiences gained during the conduct of various counter-insurgency operations over a prolonged period in their respective countries. As part of the exercise, both the armies would familiarise themselves with each other's weapons, equipment, tactics, techniques, and procedures of operating in a counter-insurgency environment in mountainous terrain. Also, there would be a series of expert academic discussions on various subjects such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), high-altitude warfare, jungle warfare etc. The joint military training would culminate with a gruelling 48 hours exercise to validate the performance of both the armies in counter-insurgency in mountainous terrain. "The exercise is part of an initiative to develop inter-operability and sharing expertise between the two nations," the Indian Army said. This joint military training will go a long way in improving bilateral relations and also will be a major step towards further strengthening the traditional friendship between the two nations, it added. The last edition of Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019. Last year, Indian Army chief, Gen M.M. Naravane visited Nepal to enhance the bilateral relationship. He met then Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, as well as his counterpart, Gen Purna Chandra Thapa. The ties between the two countries came under strain last year after China increased its influence in Nepal. Before General Naravane, Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) chief Samant Kumar Goel also made a visit to Kathmandu and met Nepal Prime Minister to strengthen the relationship. New York, Sep 17 : SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, could have spilled from animals to people multiple times, according to a preliminary analysis of viral genomes sampled from people infected in China and elsewhere early in the pandemic. The findings, posted on the virological.org discussion forum and not yet peer reviewed, may challenge the hypothesis that SARS-COV-2 escaped from a laboratory, Nature reported. The finding could be the "dagger into the heart" of the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab, rather than originating from the wildlife trade, Robert Garry, a virologist at Tulane University in Louisiana, US, was quoted as saying. But others say that more research is needed, especially given the limited genomic data from early in the pandemic. The earliest viral sequences, taken from people infected in late 2019 and early 2020, are split into two broad lineages, known as A and B, which have key genetic differences. Lineage B has become the dominant lineage globally and includes samples taken from people who visited the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, which also sold wild animals. Lineage A spread within China, and includes samples from people linked to other markets in Wuhan. "It is a very significant study. If you can show that A and B are two separate lineages and there were two spillovers, it all but eliminates the idea that it came from a lab," Garry said. The findings are "consistent with there being at least two introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population", added David Robertson, a virologist at the UK's University of Glasgow. The team analysed 1,716 SARS-CoV-2 genomes in the open database called GISAID that were collected before February 28, 2020, and identified 38 such "intermediate" genomes. But when they looked at the sequences more closely, they found that many of these also contained mutations in other regions of their genomes. And they say that these mutations are definitively associated with either lineage A or lineage B -- which discredits the idea that the corresponding viral genomes date to an intermediate stage of evolution between the two lineages, the team said. The team suggest that a laboratory or computer error probably occurred in sequencing one of the two mutations in these "intermediate" genomes. However, the team countered that even if some of the genomes were sequenced correctly, other parts of the same genomes, or the locations from which the samples were collected, still clearly indicate that they belong to only one or the other lineage. Jaipur, Sep 17 : After a heated debate, the Compulsory Registration of Marriages (Amendment) Bill 2021 was passed in the Rajasthan Assembly on Friday, which makes it compulsory to register all child marriages in the state within 30 days of the marriage. The passing of the Bill created a ruckus in the Assembly as the opposition members questioned the government on the need to bring in the Bill. The Leader of Opposition, Gulab Chand Kataria, said that before enacting a law, it should be first studied at length. This Bill looks like pushing for marriages of under-age children, he said, adding that a provision has been made in the Bill that the marriage will be registered after information is given within 30 days. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said that there are important reasons behind introducing the Bill. After the introduction of the Registration of Marriages Act 2009, only the district officer was allowed to register marriages. Now, the additional district officer and the block officer have also been added to the list, the minister said. "Registration of child marriages does not mean giving them legitimacy. Action will be taken against those who found invloved with child marriages, even after they are registered," he said. The Deputy Leader of Opposition, Rajendra Singh Rathod, also opposed the Bill and said that it should be withdrawn as it is against the Hindu Marriage Act and Child Marriage Act 2006. The opposition then staged a walkout, questioning the purpose of the Bill when child marriage remains illegal. But the government argued that the Bill has been brought on the basis of a Supreme Court order. Dhariwal said that the Supreme Court in its 2006 judgment in the Seema vs Ashwini Kumar case had directed that registration of all types of marriages is mandatory. Registration is not meant to legitimise the marriage, Dhariwal said, adding that if a minor is married, he/she will have the right to annul it as soon as he turns adult. Pune, Sep 17 : Cosmologist Prof. T. Padmanabhan, a globally renowned theoretical physicist and Dean of the Academic Department of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, passed away following a massive heart attack, a top official said here on Friday. He was 64 and is survived by his wife Vasanthi and daughter Hamsa. Padmanabhan, who hailed from Thiruvananthapuram and was conferred with the Padma Shri in 2007, breathed his last at his home here, stunning the scientific community. "This is one of the saddest days in the history of the IUCAA and the Indian scientific community today. Prof Thanu Padmanabhan passed away this morning as a result of a cardiac arrest," IUCAA Director Somak Raychaudhury said in a message. Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government, K. VijayRaghavan, condoled his death. "Shocked to hear of the passing of Prof Thanu Padmanabhan. His research linking general relativity and thermodynamics in new ways, and in other areas, has been widely recognised. Scholar, communicator, extraordinary scientist, friend to many. He will be much missed," he said. Hyderabad, Sep 17 : Three companies have come forward to set up jute mills in Telangana with a cumulative investment of Rs 887 crore. The proposed jute mills will provide direct employment to 10,400 people. Gloster Ltd, MBG Commodities Pvt Ltd, and Kaleshwaram Agro Pvt Ltd on Friday signed separate MoUs with the state government, in the presence of state ministers K.T.Rama Rao, Singireddy Niranjan Reddy, and Gangula Kamalakar. Gloster Ltd will invest about Rs 330 crore to set up a jute mill in Warangal district. The investment is will create 3,400 direct employment opportunities in the region. MBG Commodities will invest about Rs 254 crore to set up a modern integrated jute mill in Rajanna Sircilla district. This will generate approximately 3,400 direct jobs. Kaleshwaram Agro Pvt Ltd, will set up a modern integrated jute mill in Kamareddy district with an investment of about Rs 303 crore. The investment will generate approximately 3,600 direct employment opportunities in the region. Industry and Information Technology Minister Rama Rao stated that Telangana is making efforts to revolutionise the agriculture sector through optimum utilisation of resources from the Godavari and the Krishna rivers and local water bodies as well. He also added that there is a need to be self-sufficient in jute production as the demand has been rising on the back of increasing agricultural produce and procurement in the state. KTR, as the minister in popularly called, stressed the need for farmers to look at alternate crops as well for sustainable profitability. More jute mills are likely to come up in other districts as well given the focus that Telangana is placing on food processing, he said, and assured support to companies coming forward to set up jute industries in the state. Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has been placing special focus on the jute industry as the agricultural produce is increasing. He said the state will encourage farmers to take up jute cultivation to meet the requirements of the jute mills. He added that the jute can also be a sustainable alternative to plastic. Civil Supplies Minister Kamalakar said demand for gunny bags in the state has been on the rise. "The state has been sourcing these bags from West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. With new jute mills coming up in the state, it would be in a position to save on these costs," he said. Gandhinagar, Sep 17 : The Gujarat Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Friday published a report on the members of the newly-formed Gujarat Cabinet. The report came a day after newly-appointed Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel allocated portfolios to 24 newly-inducted ministers. As per the report, seven ministers (28 per cent) face criminal cases, of which three have serious criminal charges levelled against them. After the swearing-in ceremony of the new Gujarat Cabinet on Thursday, the Gujarat Election Watch and the ADR analysed the affidavits of all the 25 ministers, including the CM, and published the report, which showed that 19 of the new ministers as crorepatis (millionaires). According to the report, the average assets of the 25 ministers are estimated to be Rs 3.95 crore. The minister with the highest declared assets is Hrishikesh Ganeshbhai Patel from the Visnagar constituency with assets worth Rs 14.95 crore. He is followed by Jagdish Panchal Nikol from the Ahmedabad constituency with Rs 14.75 crore assets, while Kuber Dindor from the Santrampur constituency has asstes worth Rs 10.94 crore. Unlike the first two who studied till Class 12, Dindor has a doctorate degree. The minister with the lowest declared assets is Chauhan Arjunsinh Udesinh from the Mehmedabad constituency with assets worth Rs 12.57 lakh. On the education front, there is a mixed bag of ministers in the new Cabinet. A total of 13 (52 per cent) ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 8 and Class 12, while 11 (44 per cent) are graduates or have higher degrees. One minister has declared his education qualification as 'just' literate'. The BJP top brass has expressed faith in the junior MLAs led by Bhupendra Patel, with more than half under 51 years of age. A total of 13 (52 per cent) ministers have declared their age to be between 31 and 50 years, while the remaining 12 (48 per cent) have declared their age to be between 51 and 70 years. As many as 18 ministers in the Cabinet have declared liabilities out of which the minister with the highest liabilities is Jagdish Panchal at Rs 3.13 crore. New Delhi, Sep 17 : The Administrative Committee of Kerala's Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the temple is facing financial difficulty with expenses not met, as offerings are insufficient. Senior advocate R. Basant, representing the committee, submitted before a bench headed by Justice U.U. Lalit that all temples in Kerala are closed and citing the financial difficulty, said that the monthly expense is Rs 1.25 crore, but the temple hardly gets Rs 60-70 lakh. He added there is a trust, which was constituted as per top court's order and it must contribute to the temple and sought an audit of the trust. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, representing the trust, submitted before the bench also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and Bela M. Trivedi that it is a public trust, which was made by the royal family, and it has no role in administration, and also it is not there in the petition, and instead was just mentioned by the amicus curiae in the case. He further argued that the trust was constituted only to oversee the pujas and rituals of the temple involving the family. "It came into picture only before the Supreme Court after the amicus curiae demanded that the accounts of the trust also should be audited," he said, adding it shouldn't be audited as it is separate from the temple. The apex court had upheld the rights of the Travancore royal family in the administration of the temple. After hearing the submission of the counsel, the bench reserved its order on the application filed by the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple Trust seeking exemption from the audit of 25 years, which was ordered by the apex court last year. The apex court had set aside the Kerala High Court judgment passed in 2011, directing the state government to set up a trust to take control of management and assets of the temple and had directed the committee to order an audit of the temple's income and expenses for the past 25 years, following suggestions of amicus curiae, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium. Pune, Sep 17 : Cosmologist Prof Thanu Padmanabhan, a globally renowned theoretical physicist and Dean of the Academic Department of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, passed away in Pune on Friday following a massive heart attack, a top scientist said. He was 64 and is survived by his wife Vasanthi and daughter Hamsa, both scientists. Padmanabhan, who hailed from Kerala and was conferred the Padma Shri in 2007, breathed his last at his home here, stunning the scientific community. "This is one of the saddest days in the history of the IUCAA and the Indian scientific community today. Prof Thanu Padmanabhan passed away this morning as a result of a cardiac arrest," IUCAA Director Somak Raychaudhury said in a message. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, and leading members of the Indian and international scientific fraternity have expressed grief over Padmanabhan's death. Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government, K. VijayRaghavan, condoled the death. "Shocked to hear of the passing of Prof Thanu Padmanabhan. His research linking general relativity and thermodynamics in new ways, and in other areas, has been widely recognised. Scholar, communicator, extraordinary scientist, friend to many. He will be much missed," he said. Born on March 10, 1957 in Thiruvananthapuram, Padmanabhan's areas of specialised research were dark energy, gravity and related fields. After completing his primary education at the Karamana High School and his graduation and postgraduation, both with gold medals, from Kerala University, he published his first research paper on General Relativity at the age of 20 when he was still an undergraduate. Subsequently, he joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental research (TIFR), Mumbai, for his doctorate in Quantum Cosmology and also spent a year at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Over his four-decade long scientific career, he authored over 300 research papers besides scientific books, articles, and textbooks on a variety of science topics. At various times, Padmanabhan served as Adjunct Faculty of TIFR, the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, the Indian Institute of Science, Education & Research, Pune and was Adjunct Faculty at IISER in Mohali. Among various international honours, he served as the Chairman of the Time Allocation Committee of the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope of NCRA (2006-2009), and of the Indian National Science Academy's National Committee (2008-2011) which interfaces with the activities of the International Astronomical Union, and other global bodies. He won several top national and global honours or awards for his significant contributions and achievements in science. New Delhi/Dushanbe, Sep 17 : China is concerned whether the Afghan Taliban will keep their promise to crack down on the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The questions persist after the Afghan Taliban spokesperson said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times that many ETIM members had been told to leave Afghanistan. The Chinese government has reiterated its concerns over the terrorist group as it has been posing a direct threat to China's national security. As one of the most dangerous and extremist terrorist groups that aims to split the Xinjiang region from China, the ETIM has been accountable for hundreds of terror attacks in China, especially in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Global Times reported. And its members are developing close ties with international terrorist organisations, including the Al Qaeda, and they are working to solicit Uygur people or people of other ethnic groups from Xinjiang to join the "global jihad". Over the past few decades, ETIM militants have scattered across Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria and other countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and Southeast Asia. Their presence has posed a threat to the global anti-terrorism work. Experts on security reached by the Global Times said that there might be several hundreds of ETIM members staying in Afghanistan right now and whether the Afghan Taliban will keep their promise to crack down on the ETIM remains uncertain. According to a report from the UN Security Council released in May 2020, the ETIM is located mainly in Afghan provinces of Badakhshan, Kunduz and Takhar. "Approximately 500 fighters of the group operate in the north and northeast of Afghanistan, primarily in Raghistan and Warduj districts, with financing based in Raghistan," the report said. According to data from Pakistan, there may be around 200 to 300 ETIM members in Afghanistan currently. "Although they are paramilitary forces, as long as they exist, the unstable factor for terrorist activities exist," Li Wei, an expert on national security and anti-terrorism at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times. Many experts expressed their concerns and said that whether the Afghan Taliban will cut their ties with the ETIM remains to be seen, given their complicated relations, the report said. Bengaluru, Sep 17 : In a shocking development, an PUC II (Class 12) student committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with his father's pistol near a bus stop in Bengaluru early on Friday, allegedly after a spat over pocket money, police said. The deceased was identified as Rahul Bhandari, 17, son of a retired army man from Uttarakhand. His family was settled in R.T. Nagar locality in Bengaluru for 20 years. The incident, which took place at around 5 a.m., shocked people in the vicinity as they heard a bullet being fired and then saw a body lying in a pool of blood at the Sanjay Nagar bus stop. The bullet pierced his head from the right and came out on the other side. The officers of the Forensic Science Laboratory visited the spot and recovered bullets from his bag and pistol. The pistol was licensed in the name of his father and it was kept in a cupboard at home. Rahul, who was said to be very good at studies, had been trained to use the pistol by his father. According to police, Rahul, who got up at 3 a.m. to study, had stepped out for a morning walk an hour later. Police said that he had fought with his father as he did not get Rs 500 as pocket money, and his father had shouted at him. However, they said they are yet to ascertain the exact reason for the suicide. New Delhi, Sep 17 : The Supreme Court on Friday observed that parties engaged in commercial litigation must weigh the commercial interests and avoid filing mindless appeals. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy said: "In carrying on commercial litigation, parties must weigh the commercial interests, which would include the consequences of the matter not receiving favourable consideration by the courts. Mindless appeals should not be the rule." The bench noted that tender jurisdiction was created for scrutiny of commercial matters and, thus, where continuously parties seek to challenge award of tenders. "We are of the view that the succeeding party must get costs and the party which loses must pay costs. This was really a battle between two commercial entities on one side seeking to get set aside an award of a tender to two other entities. What else would be commercial interest!" it said, while allowing an appeal by company, UFLEX Ltd, against the order passed by the Madras High Court allowing two other companies which were unsuccessful at a government bidding, to draw a "share of the pie". "We are thus unequivocally of the view that the impugned order cannot be sustained for all the aforesaid reasons and must be set aside and the appeals are accordingly allowed," said the bench, directing the respondent companies to pay a sum of Rs 23 lakh to the petitioner and Rs 7.5 lakh to the state government for litigation expenses. The bench noted there is often a hesitancy in the judicial system to impose costs, presuming as if it is a reflection on counsel. "In a tussle for enforcement of rights against state, different principle apply but in commercial matters, costs must follow the cause," it added in the 48-page judgment. The case in connected with the Tami Nadu government's attempt to contain the sale of spurious liquor by deciding to paste stickers on every liquor bottle and invite tenders for this. Many companies submitted their bids. Two companies challenged the process before Madras High Court without participating in the bidding, claiming that the tender was designed in a way, which allowed few companies to participate. The division bench of the high court in April this year gave the Tamil Nadu government four months' time to float a fresh tender, while permitting the existing successful tenderers to continue to provide the supplies under the same terms and conditions. The successful bidder, UFLEX Ltd, moved the top court challenging this order. Agartala, Sep 17 : Former minister and sitting dissident BJP MLA in Tripura, Sudip Roy Barman, said on Friday that some intruders carrying party flags are assaulting people in the state, and urged Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb to take severe action against such people else the party will have to pay the price for such criminal activities. Barman, who was sacked from the BJP-led ministry in May 2019 after differences with the Chief Minister, said that last week he had held a meeting with BJP President J.P. Nadda in New Delhi and apprised him of the overall situation in Tripura. Refusing to divulge the details of the meeting, the former Health and IT Miniser said that in the meeting in Delhi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national General Secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were also present. Last week, Tripura had witnessed a series of unprecedented political violence and arsoning with the ruling BJP and opposition parties, especially the CPI-M, holding protest rallies against the hostilities. Accusing the ruling BJP for attacking over 50 party offices and many houses belonging to the leaders and supporters of the Left parties last week, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought the Centre's intervention to stop political violence against the Left parties in Tripura. Referring to the recent political violence, Barman said that some hooligans in the name of the party are attacking the people and opposition parties for personal gains. "FIRs were registered naming the attackers. Photographs and videos of the attacks surfaced on social media too, making the identities of the assailants clear. "If the police and the administrations do not take proper legal action against the attackers, people's trust in the government would go down and the party would pay a heavy price for that. The Central leaders also condemned the attacks, which the party does not endorse," Barman said. The BJP, however, has blamed the opposition parties, including the CPI-M and Trinamool Congress, for creating lawlessness in the state. "Aiming the 2023 Assembly elections, the leaders of CPI-M and Trinamool Congress are trying to create anarchy in the state to obtain political mileage. But the people of Tripura would foil the conspiracies of the opposition parties," BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee told the media. New Delhi, Sep 17 : With Congress leaders in Uttarakhand purportedly resisting the proposed re-entry of some "turncoats" who joined the BJP ahead of last Assembly polls, the matter is before party chief Sonia Gandhi, who will seek views of all key leaders before taking a decision, party sources said. A Congress insider said that the camp, led by Harish Rawat, did not want any turncoat, including those said to be at important positions in the BJP government in the state, to be taken back as they consider these leaders guilty of backstabbing him when he was Chief Minister. His camp is adopting a wait and watch policy for internal rifts in the BJP to escalate in the run-up to the Assembly elections scheduled early next year. Rawat, the chairman of Congress' campaign committee, had said that the Congress is not in a hurry to take any decision on BJP rebels as many of them are in touch with the party and a final call will be taken at an appropriate time. Though no one in the Congress is disclosing the names, sources said that those who had jumped ship from the Congress to the saffron camp are eyeing a comeback, while some from the BJP too are looking to join the party, though the Congress will only consider those who will prove to be beneficial to the party. Many prominent Congress leaders, including ex-Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna, former ministers Harak Singh Rawat, Satpal Maharaj, and Yashpal Arya had left the Congress for the saffron party, but some of them are reportedly upset ever since the BJP last month appointed Pushkar Singh Dhami as the new Chief Minister. Rawat, who was recently appointed as the head of the Congress campaign committee and is also likely to be projected as its chief ministerial face, is starting the second leg of his public outreach yatra on Saturday from Haridwar. Chennai, Sep 17 : City-based rocket start-up Agnikul Cosmos Pvt Ltd can carry out multiple tests and qualify its single piece 3D-printed semi-cryogenic engine and other systems of its rocket at various centres of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), it was announced on Friday. Agnikul Cosmos and the Department of Space on Friday announced the inking of the Framework MoU in this regard. As per the MoU, Agnikul Cosmos can access ISRO facilities and expertise for the development and testing of systems and subsystems of its rockets. The Framework MoU was concluded in consultation with IN-SPACe Board Chairman Pawan Kumar Goenka. This is the second MoU that the Department of Space has signed with a rocket maker, after the first with Skyroot Aerospace on September 11. Hyderabad, Sep 17 : A top woman Maoist leader in Telangana on Friday surrendered before Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy. Jajjeri Samakka alias Sharada is the wife of former Telangana Maoist leader Haribhushan alias Yapa Narayana, who died of Covid-19 recently. She was a member of Bhadradri Kothagudem-East Godavari Divisional Committee of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist. The DGP said she surrendered due health problems, death of her husband, and also loss of faith in Maoist ideology. During her 25-year-long underground life, she participated in five exchanges of fire with security forces and killed two persons. She was involved in 25 crimes and was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh. The DGP said she realised that under the current circumstances, there are no grounds for the armed outfit to pursue the revolutionary movement in the light of digital revolution coupled with the welfare-oriented and people-friendly policies of the government. Sharada said she feels that there is no reason to continue the guerilla warfare and mindless violence by the Maoists as people are getting enlightened and no more prepared to tolerate it. She appealed to the Maoist cadres to give up arms and join the mainstream. The DGP presented her a demand draft for Rs 5 lakh towards her rehabilitation and also presented Rs 5,000 for immediate expenses. A native of Gangaram village of Mahabubabad district, she had joined the Maoist party in 1994. After marrying Haribushan in 1995, she worked as a Dalam member till 1998. She then worked in the North Telangana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC) from 1999 to 2000 as first platoon member. Sharada had surrendered before SP, Warangal in 2008 but in 2011 again joined the Maoists. She revealed that during last six months, 20 cadres ran away from the party. The DGP appealed to the Maoist cadres to join the mainstream and take part in the advancement of the nation through constructive participation and benefit from the rehabilitation process of Telangana which includes immediate relief with suitable amount and other support measures. Mahender Reddy said there are 115 cadres in the Telangana Maoist State Committee but only 15 of them are from the state. He claimed that Maoist Central Committee members Azad and Raji Reddy are ready to surrender but top leaders were not allowing them to do so. He revealed that Maoist outfit is facing problems as several Maoists were infected by corona and with no access to healthcare facilities, they are facing hardships. Currently Damodar is working as Maoist incharge in Telangana. The outfit is not getting fresh recruits. The Maoist Central Committee has 25 members. While 11 are from Telangana, three belong to Andhra Pradesh. The remaining 11 comes from other states. Bengaluru, Sep 17 : In a disturbing incident, five persons of a family, including a nine-month-old boy, were found dead in a house in the Byadarahalli police limits in Bengaluru on Friday night. The four adults were found hanging from the ceiling, while the 9-month-old child was found dead on the bed. A two-and-a-half year old girl was rescued from the house, who has been shifted to the hospital. The deceased have been identified as Bharathi (51), a resident of Tigalarapalya and the wife of a journalist, her daughters Sinchana (34), Sindhoora (34), her son Madhusagar (25), along with the yet to be named baby boy. DCP (West) Sanjeev M. Patil said the incident came to light after the journalist, Hulagere Shankar, returned home after four days only to find that the door of the house was not opening. After he informed the police, the door of the house was broken down. On entering the house, the police found the bodies in a decomposed state. The family members had allegedly committed suicide after closing all the windows and doors of the house. Shankar was calling them since the past three days, but all his calls went unanswered. "The police are searching for a suicide note or any other evidence from the house. We are also trying to find out how the neighbours did not come to know of the incident even after three-four days," Patil said. It is suspected that some family dispute led to the tragic incident. However, the exact cause is yet to be ascertained and further investigation is on, the police said. New Delhi, Sep 17: A military coup ousting Guineas President Apha Conde, has raised concerns for the global business community. Located in West Africa, the country is among the largest producers of bauxite-a key raw material used to make aluminium. While several Russian and Chinese companies have large investments in the country, other economies including India, have reasons to be worried too. Russian aluminium major Rusal --one of the world's largest producers of aluminium - that owns three bauxite mines in Guinea, has already indicated that it may have to recall its employees in case the political situation deteriorates. According to news organisation, the Bell, Russia particularly enjoyed good relations with Guinea under CondA, "Diplomatic ties were close and CondA could count on Russian support to stay in power," it said. Before CondA assumed power, Rusal had run into problems with Guinea authorities after it acquired the Friguia alumina refinery. The deal was settled for $19 million in 2006 under the previous president Lansana ContA. However, two years later, "Guinea complained the purchase was unfair and that the refinery would need to be paid for." Russia and Conde Rusal was dragged to court in 2009 with a demand of another $238 million. However, after Conde came to power things took a turn. "Now with the ousting of Conde, there are concerns and especially so as the (ousted) President was considered particularly close to the Russian administration," an analyst told India Narrative. Not just Russia that is closely monitoring the situation. Uncertainty has risen for several Chinese companies that have investments in the country. Guinea is the largest supplier of bauxite for China and data portal Trading Economics revealed that supply constraints have started to show. "The aluminium market regained traction, with futures rising toward $2,900 per tonne and nearing their highest level since July 2008 after data showing Chinese output declined for the fourth straight month in August added to concerns over supply while demand remains high," the data portal said. Beijing-based newspaper Global Times said that the situation is continuing to ferment with many lingering questions. However, it pointed out that businesses have not yet been impacted though the coup has led to disruptions for several Chinese companies. For now, the Chinese firms have decided to adopt a wait and watch policy. India's worry This financial year, India's imports of bauxite have already exceeded $51.97 million or Rs 390 crore. The surge in prices therefore will leave Indian policymakers unhappy. "Amid tight fiscal space in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, the rise in imports is indeed a matter of concern," the analyst said. Aluminium is a key metal required by various industries including construction, automobile and packaging. Besides, it is also used extensively for making utensils, watches, doors, windows and wires among other things. What went wrong for Conde? Rajan Harshe, founder and former vice chancellor of Allahabad University in an article published by the Observer Research Foundation pointed out that CondA was the first democratically-elected President of the Republic of Guinea in 2010. While Conde must be credited for "paying attention" to the development agenda of the country and bringing out a mining code, he "nervously began to cling to power and started manoeuvring to prepare himself for the third term." The then Constitution did not have any provision for the third term and, therefore, he decided to introduce a new Constitution in March 2020 by holding a referendum that made him eligible for the third term. And here comes the role of Russia. The Bell, in its article, highlighted the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in2019. "CondA had a closed-doors meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019 and, the following year, Guinea, also home to large deposits of diamond and gold, changed its constitution and CondA was elected for another six years (a somewhat similar process to the constitutional amendments approved in a referendum in Russia last year)," it said. Harshe opined that Conde's over ambition led to severe crackdowns and violations of human rights, may have eventually led to the coup. "..even if military coups are common in Africa, manipulation to stay in power via constitutional amendments is also becoming a new normal in the west African region." (The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative Kohima, Sep 17 : A day before all the ruling and opposition parties in Nagaland are scheduled to hold a meeting to form an all-party government -- Nagaland United Government (NUG) -- Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Friday took additional charge of Nagaland at a function held at the Raj Bhavan here. Mukhi took charge as the 20th Governor of Nagaland with the judge of the Kohima bench of the Gauhati High Court, Justice Songkhupchung Setro, administering the oath of office. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy Chief Minister Y. Patton, their cabinet colleagues and other dignitaries were present on the occasion. Surprising the political circles in Nagaland and other northeastern states, President Ram Nath Kovind on September 9 gave the additional charge of Nagaland to the Assam Governor after transferring Governor Ravindra Narayan Ravi to Tamil Nadu, even as he was the government's interlocutor for the much-debated Naga peace talks, which is now in the last stage of finalisation. In a significant political development, all the ruling and opposition parties in Nagaland will hold a meeting on Saturday to form the NUG headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, aiming to resolve the Naga political issue involving various outfits, including the NSCN (IM). New Delhi, Sep 17 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the change of power in Afghanistan was not inclusive and it happened without negotiation. Virtually addressing the joint meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to discuss the Afghan situation, Modi said the international community must ensure that the Afghan soil is not used to spread terrorism. "This also raises questions over acceptance of the new system as the representatives of women, minorities and other sections of the Afghan society did not get representation in the government," he said. Raising doubts about the new government system in the war-torn country, the Prime Minister said, "Neighbouring nations like us have been mostly affected by the chain of events that are taking place in Afghanistan. So, regional focus and regional cooperation are very important in this context." He also said that the recent developments in Afghanistan can lead to an increase in the trafficking of illegal arms, drugs and humans. Modi also urged the global community to take a decision collectively and with proper deliberation on recognition of the new system in Afghanistan. "India supports the central role of the United Nations. If instability and fundamentalism continue in Afghanistan, terrorist and extremist ideologies will be encouraged across the world. Other extremist organisations might get the encouragement to grab power through violence," he added. Noting that most of the nations have been victims of terrorism, the Prime Minister said, "We need to ensure that Afghanistan's soil is not used to spread terrorism in any country. SCO member nations should develop strict norms over this issue." Hyderabad, Sep 17 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that only the BJP can give real freedom to Telangana by liberating people from family rule and by providing a government not dependent on the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). Addressing a public meeting at Nirmal town to mark 'Telangana Liberation Day', Shah said while Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gave the state independence on September 17, 1948, Telangana will get real freedom only when a government comes to power which is not dependent on the MIM. The BJP leader slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government for not officially celebrating September 17 and promised that once the BJP comes to power in the state, it will officially celebrate 'Telangana Liberation Day' in a befitting manner. He alleged that the TRS government is not organising official celebrations as it is scared of the (Asaduddin) Owaisi-led MIM. "Those who want to be scared of Owaisi, let them be. The BJP is not scared of anybody and it does not indulge in politics of appeasement," Shah said. He warned that taking Owaisi's shelter will not save anyone. "If somebody thinks that he will be safe by taking Owaisi's shelter, I want to tell him that the people of Telangana have woken up and Owaisi's shelter can't save you," he said. The Home Minister also claimed that during the Telangana movement, K. Chandrasekhara Rao had promised official celebrations of September 17 in Telangana. "I want to ask the Chief Minister, what happened to your promise of celebrating the day like in Karnataka and Maharashtra," he asked. Shah pointed out that Telangana and parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra became independent 13 months after India's Independence. He said it was the 'Police Action' launched on the orders of Sardar Patel which led to the Hyderabad state's accession to India. He said the tribals of Nirmal fought against the British and later against the Nizam for independence. The Home Minister also paid tributes to the freedom fighters of the region and asked Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao, popularly known as KCR, if he had forgotten their sacrifices. He exuded confidence that the BJP will form the government in Telangana in 2023, claiming that only the BJP can provide Telangana its due place of pride and be the only alternative to TRS. Stating that the Congress is getting eliminated across the country, he said that it can't be an alternative to the TRS. "Even if the Congress becomes an alternative, will they not be scared of Majlis," he asked the people, adding that the Congress can't fight against Owaisi. Claiming that the people of Telangana are with the BJP, he recalled that the party secured 20 per cent votes in Telangana in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and won four seats. Shah also predicted that the saffron party will make a clean sweep in the next Lok Sabha elections. Shah said BJP won the Dubbak Assembly seat in the by-election and strengthened its position in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which forced the TRS to seek the support of MIM. He also appealed to the people of Huzurabad constituency to elect Eatala Rajender in the ensuing by-election. Shah said Rajender joined the BJP as there was no place for him in TRS, which is dominated by a family. The BJP leader said that he came to Nirmal for the ongoing Praja Sangram yatra of state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay. He said the yatra will touch 119 Assembly constituencies in the next five months and sow the seeds for BJP's victory in the 2023 polls. Shah said Bandi Sanjay's fight is against a government which is scared of Majlis and against family rule in Telangana. Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay, party's incharge for Telangana Tarun Chug and other leaders also addressed the public meeting. Chennai, Sep 18 : Parents of children studying in aided schools and self-financing colleges in Tamil Nadu have alleged that the institutions' managements were over-charging fees even during the Covid pandemic. Talking to IANS, R. Sathyamoorthy, parent of Bavya Lakshmi, a Class 10 student of a private aided school in Salem, said: "School authorities are charging heavy fees and there seems to be no regulatory mechanism in place. The district educational officers feigned helplessness when we complain. The school is good and we want to continue her studies there but they are charging Rs 10,000 as first term fee and this is a government-aided school. I came to know that in some other places in Salem district itself, the fee is Rs 17,500. This is indeed extracting money from hapless parents." CBSE private schools are charging according to their whims and fancies and are making children sit outside the classrooms if they do not pay the fee on time, parents allege. Sreeranjini, mother of Niranjana S.R., a Class 11 student of a CBSE school in Chennai, told IANS: "The authorities are not at all understanding our problems. School is asking us to pay Rs 45,000 now. They said that it was a fee but according to our understanding, it was Rs 16,000 per term... The school now is saying that the extra Rs 29,000 is an extra caution deposit for the laboratory. We are both private company employees and are not immediately able to cough up this much money but school authorities won't listen and made our daughter sit outside the class along with her classmates whose parents were not able to pay." As schools reopen in Tamil Nadu after the pandemic, this is a common scenario and only places, names, and schools change. Contacted for a response, the office of School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said that they have received some complaints and have specifically called up these schools for an explanation. Talking to IANS, Tamil Nadu state CBSE School Association Secretary S. Thirumoorthy said: "We are collecting fee after Supreme Court ordered CBSE schools to collect the fee. In some schools for the science stream, they may be taking caution deposit which is generally refundable. School managements are not fleecing money from the students and are just collecting the dues also in some cases." He, however, agreed that the school managements should not make the students sit outside the class for non-payment of fee and said that such complaints would be looked into and taken up before the association. The Special Officer for Tamil Nadu Private Schools Fee Determination committee said that the parents can check on the school fees of their children on www.tnfeecommittee.com. Aided colleges in Tamil Nadu are regulated under the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges Regulation Act, 1976, and can collect fees prescribed by the government only. The self-financing colleges are again allegedly collecting huge fees and several parents have already lodged complaints with the office of the Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister as well as the state Directorate of Collegiate Education. New Delhi, Sep 18 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the internal security of the country cannot be imagined without the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and over 2,000 troopers have so far sacrificed their lives for the country. After planting a sapling at the CRPF training ground at Mudkhed in Nanded district of Maharashtra, Shah said that the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have achieved the target of planting one crore saplings in the country. Shah said, "It was Narendra Modi who first understood the seriousness of climate change and ensured its institutionalised management and created a new ministry in the Gujarat Cabinet. Many chief ministers focus on building roads, ensuring education facilities and drinking water schemes, but he worked on climate change and plantation drive." Shah also said that to maintain the balance between nature and carbon emission, tree plantation is the only solution. Describing global warming and climate change as enemies, Shah said that people have to protect the environment and natural resources. "The government can plant saplings, but the CRPF should protect them. I urge every CRPF jawan to protect one sapling. The trees being planted in this drive have a life of over 100 years," he said. Shah also said that the force has achieved the target of planting one crore saplings on PM Modi's birthday, which also coincides with the Marathwada Multi Sangram Din (Marathwada Liberation Day). New Delhi, Sep 18 : The Power Ministry has directed setting up of District Level Committees to exercise oversight over all power-related schemes of the Central government, as also its impact on the people. This is being done in order to ensure the involvement and oversight of the people in the process of power sector reforms, and their implementation in the country, a Power Ministry statement said. The committee will comprise most senior MP in the district as the Chairperson, other MPs as Co-Chairpersons, the district Collector as Member Secretary, and the Chairperson/President of the District Panchayat, MLAs of the district, the most senior representatives of CPSUs of the Ministry of Power and NRE located in the concerned district, or their nominated officials, as members and the Chief Engineer/Superintending Engineer of the discom/Power Department concerned as Convenor. According to the Power Ministry order, the committee of a district will meet at district headquarters at least once in three months to review and coordinate overall development of power supply infrastructure in the district. The order, addressed to the Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Secretary, Power/Energy, of all states/UTs, requests all the states/UTs to notify and ensure establishment of these District Electricity Committees, and intimate the Power Ministry of this. The order also states that it will be the responsibility of the Convenor and Member Secretary to conduct the meetings on regular basis and issue timely minutes. The Union Government has been providing funds under different schemes for strengthening the distribution systems in the country. In the past five years, almost Rs 2 lakh crore were provided under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana(SAUBHAGYA), etc. to ensure universal access by electrifying every village and every hamlet and every household, and for setting up more substations, upgrading existing substations, for high/low tension lines, transformers etc. for strengthening the distribution systems. Recently, the government has approved a new scheme of Rs 3 lakh crore for further strengthening the distribution systems wherever necessary, and modernising it to meet emerging challenges. Bhubaneswar, Sep 18 : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha police has arrested another accused for his involvement in misappropriation of government subsidy of Rs 6 crore, police said on Friday. The accused identified as Lenin Choudhury is a resident of Pakelpada village in Sambalpur district. Earlier, Srinath Rana, the prime accused in the case was arrested, the EOW has said in a statement. According to the police, Rana, who was earlier working as Regional Manager in the Varushapriya Agrotech Pvt. Ltd. by fraudulently using the company's login ID has misappropriated the subsidy amount of Rs 6 crore extended by the government. Rana in criminal conspiracy with Lenin Choudhury and others had fraudulently uploaded the details of more than 500 paddy transplanters with fake engine and chassis numbers of the machineries in Odisha government's portal and managed to get the subsidy amount released. The accused in a criminal conspiracy with others used to lure the beneficiary farmers by giving them some token amount and grab the subsidy amount, the EOW said. Paris, Sep 18 : France has decided to recall its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultations after Canberra scrapped a deal to acquire French-designed submarines and decided instead to invest in the US nuclear-powered submarines. "At the request of the President of the Republic, I decided to immediately recall to Paris for consultations our two ambassadors in the United States and Australia. This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made on Sept. 15 by Australia and the United States," said French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian in a statement on Friday. According to French media, it is the first time in the history of France that such a decision was taken vis-a-vis these two countries, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier in the day, Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune said France cannot trust Australia in its ongoing trade talks with the European Union (EU) after the new security partnership called "AUKUS" (Australia-UK-US) was unveiled by the three countries on Wednesday. A first initiative under the trilateral partnership will be the delivery of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet to Australia by the U.S. and the UK, while back in 2016 Australia signed a contract with France for the purchase of 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines. Le Drian on Thursday called the trilateral move a "stab in the back." "We had established a relationship of trust with Australia. This trust has been betrayed," he said. "The American behavior worries me; this unilateral and brutal decision is very similar to what Mr. (Donald) Trump was doing," he added. Amid international worries about the proliferation of nuclear material and technology via the deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said in a press release that it will "engage with them (Australia, the US, and the UK) on this matter in line with its statutory mandate, and in accordance with their respective safeguards agreements with the Agency." China has also voiced opposition against the trilateral move, describing it as a "sheer act of nuclear proliferation." Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, has said that "by openly providing assistance to Australia," a non-nuclear weapon state, in its acquisition and building of the nuclear-powered submarine, it will "apparently give rise to proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies." It is an honor to be recognized as one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing organizations for the fifth time and as a preferred employer of choice," said Raghavendra Hunasgi, CMO at Evolutyz. Evolutyz, an award-winning IT products, platforms, and services company, has been featured on the prestigious 2021 Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies. For the fifth time, the Chicago-based IT solutions provider and IT staffing solutions firm earned recognition on this prestigious list for their high growth and laudable service. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. On the 2021 Inc. 5000 list, Evolutyz was recognized for growing their revenue by 84% over the last three years. Their emphasis on DevOps, Quality Assurance and Testing, Digital Transformations, Mobile Applications, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Security, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Staff Augmentation has strengthened the capabilities of organizations strengthen to achieve a more significant ROI from their business goals. Altogether, the 2021 Fastest-Growing Private Companies have a total revenue of $248.0 billion, up 18.2% from the year prior as the business community and economy recover. All of these U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent businesses grew from a minimum of $100,000 in 2017 to a minimum of $2 million in 2020. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543%, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years. "The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people." "In addition to the rare honor of being listed among America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies, the Evolutyz team is celebrating our fifth recognition by Inc. 5000," said Michelle Kronner, Vice President Sales & Client Services at Evolutyz Corp. "This is a major accomplishment for the Evolutyz team and shows how our culture of innovation, commitment to our clients, and passion for collaboration enables us to achieve extraordinary results, no matter the challenges." It is an honor to be recognized as one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing organizations for the fifth time and as a preferred employer of choice," said Raghavendra Hunasgi, CMO at Evolutyz. "Post COVID, like other enterprises, we had to face a lot of challenges to make sure our employees remained motivated and taken care of, but our efforts, along with this recognition, further reinforce that our employees first mantra makes a difference. About Evolutyz Evolutyz is a leading next-generation IT products, platforms, and services company delivering guaranteed business outcomes, seamless customer experience, actionable insights, and IP-led digital transformation. Evolutyz brings unparalleled knowledge of domains, markets, and technology platforms, to enable clients to realize their business goals. For more information, visit http://www.evolutyz.com. About Inc. 5000 Methodology Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc., offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across various channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition of inclusion in the 5000 allows the founders of the best businesses to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/. Want to learn more about what makes Evolutyz worthy of the 2021 Inc. 5000 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies? Find out more about this exceptional IT solutions and staffing company. Sendbird connects users with each other and with the brands they care about through rich in-app conversations across chat, voice and video. Sendbird, the leading mobile engagement and communication company across in-app chat, voice and video, today announced the appointment of Sam Zayed as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Zayed will work closely with Sendbird co-founder and CEO John S. Kim to define and execute Sendbirds vertical and geographic expansion as the unicorn company puts its most recent $100 million funding round to work. Sendbird also announced the promotion of one of its earliest employees, Yaekyum Lee, from Head of Sales APAC into the newly created role of Global Head of Customer Experience, unifying all post-sales teams under one leader. The company continues to gain momentum and solidify its market leadership by signing some of the largest mobile apps across industries, from food delivery leader DoorDash, to service marketplace leader HomeAdvisor, to gaming company Pocket Gems. The mobile engagement and communication market is in its infancy, said John S. Kim, Sendbird co-founder and CEO. Every app in the world is going to need to connect with their users within the app, across chat, voice and video. With our recent fundraise, the addition of Sam and the creation of our new Customer Experience organization, Im confident were well positioned to capitalize on this massive opportunity. Zayed comes to Sendbird from Conga, where he served as CRO, leading a global team of 300+ professionals, and will focus on accelerating the companys hypergrowth trajectory. Prior to Conga, Zayed was the Senior Vice President, Americas and SVP of Global Account Management at Apptio. He has a successful track record of helping software companies achieve their expansion goals. Zayed will oversee Sendbirds expansion into new industries like Live Streaming and Live Commerce, as well as geographic expansion into new markets, such as Latin America and Japan. Sendbird is the worlds leading chat, video and voice API with thousands of successful deployments across multiple verticals, having generated tremendous international traction with its current product suite, said Zayed. With the exciting lineup of new products planned for later this year, along with the global trend to rapidly digitize user communications, I look forward to championing our core value of having an endless tenacity for customers. Lee moves into the newly created role of Global Head of Customer Experience as the company now supports more than 150 million users each month. Sendbird has recently signed several of the biggest logos in the U.S. and internationally, including those in food delivery, payments, ecommerce and gaming. DoorDash, HomeAdvisor and Pocket Gems join Sendbirds impressive roster, which includes Reddit, Hinge, Yahoo!, Paytm, Teladoc, Virgin Mobile UAE and Delivery Hero. The new Customer Experience organization will allow Sendbird to optimize the post-sales experience for five-person startups to global enterprises. Sendbird connects users with each other and with the brands they care about through rich in-app conversations across chat, voice and video. Its solutions are particularly compelling as billions of users now engage in real-time mobile conversations on a monthly basis, making it the most popular way for users to communicate. Sendbird helps any app harness the power of mobile communication with its easy to use API solution on top of a fully managed communication platform. Delivery apps use Sendbird to connect drivers and customers, marketplaces and ecommerce companies connect buyers and sellers and healthcare apps connect patients with caregivers over virtual calls. As the world becomes increasingly digital, Sendbird powers the billions of digital conversations people rely on every day to get things done. To learn more about why Sendbird is seeing such strong global momentum and how it is developing the future of communications at http://www.sendbird.com. About Sendbird Sendbird is the leading mobile engagement and communication platform trusted by modern digital and mobile-first companies like Reddit, Delivery Hero and Paytm. We allow any company to quickly and easily embed rich real-time chat, voice and video into their app to build connections with their users and between their users. With Sendbird customers can get access to the benefits of chat, voice, video quickly and with significantly less development effort or risk if they were to build it or maintain it themselves. Sendbirds top global customers include Reddit, Yahoo! Sports, Careem, OLA, Rally Health, Carousell, Virgin Mobile UAE, Dream11, Paytm, Grand Rounds, Teladoc, Nexon, Accolade, Hinge and Kookmin Bank. It is backed by ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global Management, STEADFAST Capital Ventures, Meritech Capital, Emergence Capital, Shasta Ventures, August Capital, Funders Club, World Innovation Lab and Y Combinator. Sendbird is headquartered in San Mateo, California. Please visit https://sendbird.com for more information. Anna Zuckerman Luxury (AZL) today announced the expansion of their trade show schedule to include conventions in Tampa and Miami, as well as a previously scheduled stop in Atlanta. This all stems from an enormously successful trade show experience the company had at JCK Las Vegas in August. It felt like every single person coming by our booth at the Sands Convention Center was saying, I simply had to see it in person, and its amazing, Anna recalls. It helped clarify one of the essential truths of our collections, which is that seeing is believing. All the advertisements and social media posts are excellent for getting peoples attention, but its the personal experience that can make the most convincing argument. Industry professionals in Florida and Georgia will have a greater chance to meet Anna in person over the next several weeks, as the team expands the brand awareness across the southeast. First will be CBG Tampa Retreat and Trade Show, Monday Oct. 4th thru Wednesday Oct 6th, Booth 801, at the new JW Marriott Tampa Water Street 5-star Hotel. Next is the JIS October Jewelry Trade Show in Miami from Friday Oct 8th thru Sunday Oct 11th, Booth 2019, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, which is pretty much our backyard. Finally, for October, we have the previously scheduled AJS Fall Show in Atlanta, Saturday Oct 22nd and Sunday Oct 23rd, at the Cobb Galleria Centre. These shows may be the only opportunity retailers will have to see the AZL collections of ethically sustainable, demi-precious jewelry until after the holidays, so the announcement is an effort to prod retailers into preparing their calendars now. About Anna Zuckerman Luxury Anna Zuckerman Luxury is a demi-precious jewelry brand designed to fulfill a need in the jewelry industry for luxurious statement pieces made for everyday lifestyles. Designed and crafted with the help of the finest goldsmiths and artisans, Anna Zuckerman Luxury jewelry uses Diamond Coated Crystalline, lab created gemstones and precious metals to create jewelry that is both high quality jewelry and affordable. Anna believes everyone deserves access to luxury. The brand is currently available in over 500 retail outlets across 6 countries as well as online at annazuckerman.com. Before I Pour This Over Your Head: a gripping biography. Before I Pour This Over Your Head is the creation of published author, Deborah Ann Hart, a loving mother and dedicated business owner. Hart shares, On a quiet night, you can hear the corn growor so the saying goes. Join Deborah Ann Hart on a journey to the picturesque countryside of Pennsylvanias Lancaster County. Youll find a young boy playing between the corn rows, the sky above him aglow with purple and orange hues, as cattle graze nearby. What could be more incredible? Perhaps the dark secret he is hiding. This is the true story of a young boy abused at the hands of devil worshipers; the story of a mother who refused to give up praying and fighting for her son; but most importantly, its a love storyabout the love God has for each and every one of us. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Deborah Ann Harts new book is an eye-opening account of abuse. Addressing uncomfortable truths and confronting the trauma head on, Hart appeals to readers everywhere to pay attention to their children and watch for signs of abuse. View a synopsis of Before I Pour This Over Your Head on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Before I Pour This Over Your Head at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Before I Pour This Over Your Head, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. HNTB's Bill Cramer "I watched Bill raise the voice and visibility of the tolling and transportation industry, engage members, share their stories with the media, while educating the public about the need for infrastructure investment." -- Kevin Hoeflich, HNTB Bill Cramer has joined HNTBs Raleigh office as public involvement director. Cramer has 30 years of experience developing clear and concise messages on complex issues and delivering them to targeted audiences. For the past eight years, Cramer has worked with infrastructure leaders throughout the country and internationally. Cramer will be providing public involvement and communications expertise for the North Carolina Turnpike Authority as well as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. We welcome Bill to the HNTB team," said Robert Bistline, project director in the Philadelphia office. "His perspective, experience and expertise with developing effective messaging and communication strategies will be instrumental to helping our clients advance their most important infrastructure and mobility initiatives. Cramer recently led communications and public and media relations at the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association based in Washington, D.C. IBTTA is an international organization that advocates for the toll industry. He launched IBTTAs successful Moving America Forward public awareness campaign educating elected officials, the media and public about the benefits of tolling and greater mobility. I watched Bill raise the voice and visibility of the tolling and transportation industry, engage members, share their stories with the media, while educating the public about the need for infrastructure investment. His efforts in working with the media led IBTTA to be a trusted resource for the industry, said Kevin Hoeflich, PE, chair, tolling services, HNTB. "Bills background in national politics, government relations and marketing while working at the National Governors Association among other key stakeholder groups throughout the country, results in him having a breadth of experience and knowledge that is unique and a valued asset," said Jennifer Harris, associate vice president, senior project manager. "We are thrilled to have him join our team at HNTB. Cramer earned a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Westfield State University. About HNTB HNTB Corporation is an employee-owned infrastructure solutions firm serving public and private owners and construction contractors. Celebrating 107 years of service in the United States, HNTB understands the life cycle of infrastructure and addresses clients most complex technical, financial and operational challenges. Professionals nationwide deliver a full range of infrastructure-related services, including award-winning planning, design, program management and construction management. For more information, visit http://www.hntb.com, or follow HNTB on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Shane Morand I am truly thrilled to have someone of Shanes caliber choosing trujivan, stated Stefan Hostettler, trujivan Founder and CEO. trujivan, an emerging wellness anti-aging company, today announced that Shane Morand will be joining the company as a Strategic Global Advisor and Sales Leader. Shane Morand has worked at every level in the direct selling industry from a global company co-founder to master distributor to sought-after mentor and speaker. The move to trujivan is one of passion. I met with Shane and explained our wellness vision, focused on anti-aging, for trujivan for the next 10 years. From that first conversation, Shane embraced our mission and has enthusiastically supported our movement, stated Jerry Yerke, trujivan Founder and President. Today, we are recognizing his contributions as a Strategic Advisor, and are also looking forward to his renown sales and leadership development approach. I am truly thrilled to have someone of Shanes caliber choosing trujivan, stated Stefan Hostettler, trujivan Founder and CEO. Our roadmap to success is clear experienced and respected management, an esteemed and engaged medical advisory board and professional grade products. Shane is already making an impressive contribution and today we officially welcome him to trujivan! Jerry Yerke and Stefan Hostettler have assembled a world-class management team with deep global experience and an incredible medical advisory board who have put their names on every product, stated Shane Morand. Most important the App and Back Office technology is innovative beyond traditional industry standards and the products can be demonstrated quickly! Shane continued, I have been here before, and it is clear this movement will have exponential growth and good people worldwide will benefit from both the exclusive products and brilliant opportunity. trujivan is the first direct selling industry company to provide professional grade products, all focused on anti-aging. The core products include: TruCore, to help rebuild the gut biome; TruImmune, to help boost the immune system; TruMind, supporting memory, focus and productivity; TruMetabolize, thyroid support; and TruEMF Defense which is designed to enhance protection from harmful electromagnetic fields. Shane Morand understands goal achieving and success, he has been an enthusiastic student of Napoleon Hill's (Think and Grow Rich) principles since he was 19 years old. He became the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a major printing firm in Ottawa, Canada at the age of 25. In 2008 Shane co-founded an international consumer product company that sells its products through a network of independent distributors and became one of the most successful companies in the direct sales industry worldwide. From zero to $1 billion in combined sales in less than 5 years impacting over 2.2 million families in 50+ countries. In 2018, Shane was selected to join the prestigious advisory board of a kinetically charged, yield-bearing, physical gold and silver monetary system of shared economic wealth. He is the Author of the Victory Book and has been recognized for numerous awards, for his exemplary leadership performance, his influence on free enterprise, and was presented with a Global Business Mentorship Award. About trujivan trujivan is an emerging wellness anti-aging company focused on helping people of all ages live their best lives. The science-derived, professional grade products are formulated by trujivans medical advisory board and are available online and through independent business representatives throughout the U.S. and Europe. trujivan is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV. For more information, please visit https://trujivan.com/ and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. WCG FDAnews Webinar Training Pass https://www.fdanews.com/webinartrainingpasslp2017 Knowledge is power. Now one can get the ultimate power to take control of ones business with the FDAnews Webinar Training Pass. Get year-round, unrestricted access to an archive of more than 500 webinars on the latest trends, regulations and best practices for pharmaceutical and medical device industry professionals with this all-inclusive annual Webinar Training Pass. PLUS, subscribers will get automatic access to every single one of our more than 50 webinars taking place over the next year with the Webinar Training Pass all for one low price! The Webinar Training Pass works out to cost less than $2.50 per webinar. Ordinarily, these high-quality training programs are up to $487 each! The on-demand webinars feature up-to-the-minute and evergreen compliance topics and regulatory developments. Theyre led by FDA officials, top consultants and expert speakers in the pharmaceutical industry. Recent Pharmaceutical Webinar Training Pass titles include: 1. Biopharmaceutical Supply Chain Issues Before, During and After the Pandemic: Impact on the Pharmaceutical Industrys Regulatory, Quality and Compliance Professionals 2. Extractables and Leachables: 101 3. CDERs Most Significant Guidance Priorities for 2021: Biosimilars/Biologics, Generics/Exclusivity, Real-World Evidence, Drug Development and Digital Health 4. 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Also available: Take advantage of our site licenses of the Webinar Training Pass, so youll have the most-informed workforce in pharma! Webinar Details: Webinar Training Pass https://www.fdanews.com/webinartrainingpasslp2017 Subscription: $797 per site Easy Ways to Register: Online: https://www.fdanews.com/webinartrainingpasslp2017 By phone: 888.838.5578 or 703.538.7600 About FDAnews: FDAnews is the premier provider of domestic and international regulatory, legislative, and business news and information for executives in industries regulated by the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency. Pharmaceutical and medical device professionals rely on FDAnews' print and electronic newsletters, books and conferences to stay in compliance with international standards and the FDA's complex and ever-changing regulations Although the costs for car insurance can be prohibitive for some drivers, there are certain clever methods that can help them find affordable coverage, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that presents several efficient methods that can help drivers pay lower car insurance rates. For more info and free online car insurance quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/5-smart-tips-for-saving-on-car-insurance/ For many drivers, the costs of car insurance are not affordable anymore and they consider dropping coverage. However, there are several methods that can help drivers pay less on their insurance premiums. To obtain better car insurance rates, drivers should follow the next tips: Maintain a clean driving record. Insurance companies will reward drivers who do not commit car accidents or receive traffic fines. Drivers who are fined for a traffic violation will have their insurance rates increased upon the next renewal. In some cases, the insurance premiums will be doubled or even tripled. Drive fewer miles. Policyholders that for various reasons are driving fewer miles, should contact their insurers and check if they are eligible for a low-mileage discount. Insurance companies offer this type of discount to those drivers that drive fewer miles than a certain limit. Usually, this discount can be as large as 20%. Adjust the deductibles. To lower the price of car insurance premiums, policyholders can agree to pay more money out of their pockets if they are involved in a car accident and are required to file a claim. However, drivers should ensure they have saved enough money to pay for the deductibles. Keep a good credit score. Insurance companies claim they found a correlation between a drivers credit score and the possibility for that driver to file a claim. Drivers with poor credit score have higher chances to file a claim compared to drivers that have a good or excellent credit score. For this reason, drivers with poor credit scores will pay more on their insurance premiums. Compare online insurance quotes. Drives are recommended to compare multiple online insurance quotes from different insurance companies. Before choosing an insurance deal, drivers should compare at least three insurance quotes. 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 so grateful to our employees, customers, and partners who helped us not just survive, but thrive through the difficulties of 2020. Together, were making buildings better. - James Beale, Managing Partner, NGS Inc. magazine today revealed that NGS is No. 2103 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. This award is a symbol of our companys continued commitment to bringing the latest product innovations to market with the most responsive and reliable service states James Beale, Managing Partner, NGS. We are so grateful to our employees, customers, and partners who helped us not just survive, but thrive through the difficulties of 2020. Together, were making buildings better. Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this years list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020s unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc. The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis weve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people. About NGS NGS provides security, energy, and branding retrofits for buildings, and is the nationwide leader in window film, Riot Glass, Printed Graphics, and Signage. For more information about NGS, visit http://www.filmsandgraphics.com. More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Methodology Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this years Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. The Kia military discount will save military personnel $400 on a new Kia vehicle Friendly Kia is offering a discount to military members. Friendly Kia is a dealership in the Tampa Bay area which serves the communities of Saint Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota and New Port Richey where it resides. Active service members and veterans can save $400 on a new Kia vehicle with the dealerships special offer. In order to qualify for the Friendly Kia military discount, drivers much be active service members or veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard. Located close to the MacDill Air Force base, Friendly Kia is a convenient dealership for military personnel to visit. The $400 discount can be applied to any Kia model available at Friendly Kia. Other discounts may also be available. Interested customers should bring their DD-214 forms to the dealership as proof of military service. The dealership will help match customers with a vehicle that suits their needs. Friendly Kia offers a variety of Kia vehicles from small sedans to large SUVs. To learn more about special offers at the dealership, view its online inventory or research Kia vehicles, drivers should head to the Friendly Kia website, friendlykia.com. Friendly Kia is located at 5819 US-19 in New Port Richey, Florida. The dealerships main phone number is 844-234-4117. It is open from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday through Friday, from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM on Saturday, and from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Sunday. STOKR, the EUs pioneering digital marketplace for alternative assets, today announced that Germanys financial regulator BaFin has approved the security token offering (STO) for game publisher Exordiums EXOeu token for the German market. This makes STOKR the first security token issuance platform to have received the greenlight from BaFin to host a Bitcoin sidechain-based STO. Exordium, the publisher of sci-fi massively multiplayer online (MMO) strategy game Infinite Fleet, has been hosting its STO on STOKR since January 2021 and raised more than US$7.3 million to date. German retail investors were previously not eligible to participate in the sale on STOKR; with the approval from BaFin, German retail investors are now immediately able to invest in EXOeu via STOKR. The EXOeu token for the offering is issued via Blockstream AMP, a platform for the tokenization of securities built on the Liquid sidechain of Bitcoin, which has been directly integrated with STOKR. The BaFin approval also marks another milestone, as it is one of the only approved cross-border issuances of registered securities. The go-ahead from BaFin for Exordiums STO in Germany marks the beginning of a new era of cross-border blockchain-based issuances of registered securities, STOKR co-founder Tobias Seidl commented on the developments. We see Bitcoin as a fundamental backbone of the future capital markets, which will be built on blockchains. Since its establishment in 2017, STOKR has been in close communication with several European regulators to drive the financial innovation enabled by security tokens. STOKR is one of the only alternative asset marketplaces in the EU that service a broad audience of private and professional investors looking to access investment opportunities that were previously reserved for venture capital or private equity firms. Germany is a massive market for the gaming industry, and were excited to be able to now respond to demand from this market, Infinite Fleet creator Samson Mow said. Were also pleased that Germanys financial regulator recognizes the potential of the Liquid Network to host regulated security token offerings, and we look forward to seeing the future of digital securities be facilitated by Liquid. Interested investors who wish to participate in Exordiums funding round can find out more on stokr.io/infinite-fleet. -- About STOKR STOKR is the EUs pioneering digital marketplace for alternative assets, where smart investors connect with and fund forward-thinking founders.STOKR liberates the access to high-profile investment opportunities from the inner circle of traditional venture capital. Through EU-compliant security token offerings (STOs), STOKR empowers professional and retail investors alike to directly engage with young and growing ventures in a simplified and risk-reduced environment, without the need for middlemen such as custodians or brokers. Operating out of Luxembourg, STOKR fosters a community of educated investors who participate in the future success of a diverse range of ventures through profit- or revenue-sharing rights. About Exordium Exordium is a video game publisher founded by a team of seasoned game industry executives. At the forefront of the convergence between online gaming and crypto assets, Exordium focuses on operating and distributing games that are innovative and socially immersive. The team behind Exordium has previously published a number of successful AAA titles. Gods Public Option: A Separation of Church and State the Way Jehovah Jireh Intended: a powerfully presented discussion of the end times. Gods Public Option: A Separation of Church and State the Way Jehovah Jireh Intended is the creation of published author Jane Northrup Glenn, a member of Christian Harvest Internationals Strategic Prayer Apostolic Network and the wife of Darryl Glenn, Lt. Col. USAF (retired) and 2016 Colorado Republican nominee for United States Senate. Glenn shares, Its too late to repent as a nation. God is preparing us now to remove the flag from between us and Him and replace it with the cross. Satan can and will destroy the American flag that represents freedom, but he will never and cannot destroy the freedom of the cross. Satans goal is to hook everyone to the government financially, submitting us under the control of the new world order and beast system. This debt enslavement will make 1619 slavery look like nursery school, and it must take place before King Jesus returns. Do not despair, though. God has a plan for our exodus, as spoken to the author in 2014. Im birthing something that everyone is talking about and no one has seen. Im creating a passage to freedom like the underground railroad. Mans laws are irrelevant to Me. Gods Public Option is the second book in the God Punched Back series. The series is intended to convey urgent end-times messages and marching orders to Gods people, written in an engaging style that even a child could understand. However, the books are not for children. Gods public option is a massive zero-government marketplace that will compete with the government for the souls of Gods people like on Mount Carmel. It is divinely practical and tactical and ready to be established right now as a necessary criminal justice reform solution. There will soon be a mass exodus of people off government subsidy, and Jehovah Jireh promises to dwell with us just as He did with the Israelites when He set them free. And just as Yahweh gave direction to build the tabernacle, He is giving us direction to build a new governing system, our covering for the difficult days ahead. The sovereign separation of church and state is underway. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Jane Northrup Glenns new book is the second installment of the authors God Punched Back Series. Glenn writes from a firmly established faith in Gods omnipotence and her certainty in the trajectory of mankind. Consumers can purchase Gods Public Option: A Separation of Church and State the Way Jehovah Jireh Intended at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Gods Public Option: A Separation of Church and State the Way Jehovah Jireh Intended, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. A Life with Good Health: an inspiring opportunity for those who seek spiritual and physical improvement. A Life with Good Health is the creation of published author John Chun, a native of Korea who grew up in the third biggest city, Daegu. Now a resident of Ann Arbor, Chun has three beloved children who all attended the University of Michigan. Chun shares, A Life with Good Health shows you how to live healthy physically and spiritually and then successfully go back to where we all came from, which is the ultimate goal of this world. About forty years ago, I came to America, the land of opportunity, and became a Citizen of the U.S. in 1985. Now, as being a proud Korean American, it is time for me to return the favor to America with this book. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, John Chuns new book is an encouraging approach to overall health. Chuns good nature and passion for health are apparent within the inspiring exploration of how he has achieved a sense of well-being throughout life. View a synopsis of A Life with Good Health on YouTube. Consumers can purchase A Life with Good Health at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about A Life with Good Health, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Matthew Dolman Matthew is a lifetime member of both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocated Forum. Matthew is a lifetime member of both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocated Forum. The Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum honors attorneys who have secured verdicts and/or settlements in excess of $2 million dollars. Less than 1% of practicing lawyers have achieved such status. Matthew became a member before his thirty-fifth birthday. He has been selected by his colleagues as a Florida Super Lawyer on multiple occasions. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. Further, Matthew was recently selected as a 2020 Florida Legal Elite, which appears every summer in Florida Trends magazine. Florida Legal Elite presents a prestigious roster of attorneys chosen for recognition by their peers and represents fewer than 1.2% of the active Florida Bar members who practice in Florida. The attorneys listed in Florida Trends Legal Elite exemplify a standard of excellence in their profession and have garnered the respect and esteem of their colleagues. Matthew was previously selected by his peers as Legal Elite in 2017 and 2011. Matthew has been named to the top 100 trial lawyers by The National Trial Lawyers and was repeatedly selected among the top 40 trial lawyers under the age of 40 by the same organization. He has served as lead counsel on cases in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Polk, Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. He has been awarded a perfect 10.0 score by Avvo.com; a national consumer rating service for attorneys and was recognized in 2012 with the Client Choice Award by Avvo, based on feedback from former clients. The American Academy of Attorneys has selected Matthew among the top 100 personal injury lawyers in the United States. About Haute Lawyer The Haute Lawyer Network, well known for its exclusive and luxurious lifestyle publication Haute Living, is privileged to present Mr. Eric Ridley as a member and expert in his field. Haute Lawyer offers a prominent collective of leading attorneys. The invitation-only network features only two lawyers per market. This partnership allows Haute Lawyer to connect its affluent readers with industry-leading attorneys in their area. "Striving for complete customer satisfaction from start to finish is what keeps our ship moving forward." - Brian McSteen Award-winning McAllen Valley Roofing Co. has been named Favorite Roofer by The Monitor for a total of five times. McAllen Valley Roofing Co. is a full-service residential, commercial, industrial and government roofing company with over 30 years of combined experience. This annual award from The Monitor, a local news publisher, gives residents an opportunity to vote for their favorite companies in a variety of categories. Companies that are committed to providing exceptional service with a focus on values and community engagement are often on this annual list, showcasing the dedication and strength of local businesses. Striving for complete customer satisfaction from start to finish is what keeps our ship moving forward, says Brian McSteen, Managing Partner. As a roofing company that has won this award five times with four consecutive honors, McAllen Valley Roofing Co. has a lot to be thankful for. Every year, the company has been recognized in a host of categories from different publications, including receiving a coveted spot on the Inc. 5000 List of Americas Fastest-Growing Private Companies in 2021 for tremendous growth over the past three years. McAllen Valley Roofing Co. has built a strong reputation on its residential, government, and commercial roofing services, taking the time to put in the work. SELECT ShingleMaster Certified (SSM), GAF Master Commercial Roofing Contractor, Durolast Master Contractor, and members of the National Roofing Contractors Association (NCRA), just to name a few, they understand the value of quality workmanship and superior customer service. With projects under their belt with select clients such as SpaceX, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Department of Transportation, Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Agency, McAllen International Airport, the company stands by its promise of well-constructed roofs that are maintenance and worry-free that are trusted by the largest government associations in America. Our clients love the quality of our work, says McSteen. We will go the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction at any cost. No company is perfect, but we strive for it and our customers recognize that effort. Nothing is more rewarding than the community coming together to recognize the hard work and effort that our team puts in. With the right team, culture, values, commitment along with great products and service you will find your way to the top. One of the standout features of McAllen Valley Roofing Co. is its openness to educating its customers. They provide solid recommendations on how to hire a contractor and offer tips on what to look for and ask before making a final decision. This transparency is one of the reasons they keep being recognized with this local community award. For more information on McAllen Valley Roofing Co. and its services, visit the website at McAllenValleyRoofing.com. About McAllen Valley Roofing Company McAllen Valley Roofing Co. provides residential roofing, roof repair and restoration, new roof replacements, roof patching and repair, commercial roof coatings, roof cleaning and maintenance, leak location and repair, commercial roofing repair, and roof warranty work throughout the entire Rio Grande Valley and surrounding areas. TK is an extremely well-regarded entity in our sector. Over the years, Tommy and his team have built an incredibly strong business with a solid reputation, and were proud to welcome them to National OnDemand." National OnDemand, Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has completed its acquisition of TK Telecom Construction (TK), a company providing construction, MDU and drop bury services in the Southeast region. This marks National OnDemands fifteenth acquisition in the last four years and the company expects to execute additional acquisitions this year as it continues its strategy as a national front-runner of Fiber, Wireless, Energy and Technology services. TK is an extremely well-regarded entity in our sector, said Douglas Boteler, CEO, National OnDemand. Over the years, Tommy and his team have built an incredibly strong business with a solid reputation, and were proud to welcome them to National OnDemand." Employees of TK Telecom Construction were immediately transitioned into National OnDemand, giving them access to a full suite of employment benefits, and their tenure with TK is recognized by National OnDemand to ensure their benefits match the time that they have invested in TK. As part of National OnDemand, employees will be positioned to accelerate and extend their careers with new opportunities in Nationals growing footprint. The synergy between TK and National will create great opportunities for our employees to prosper, said Tommy Kelly, Owner and Operator, TK Telecom Construction. National OnDemand has a large presence, and now our employees will have a variety of options when deciding how they want to grow in their career. Buddy Timmons, who held the role of General Manager of TK and has more than 42 years in telecommunications is also transitioning to the leadership team of National OnDemand and will play a key role ensuring that the companys operation continues to perform at a high level. Our ability to ramp quickly is vital when providing our clients with services across our footprint, said Renee Thomas, SVP of Operations, National OnDemand. This acquisition allows us to further diversify and move resources around to meet the growing demand of our clients. About TK Telecom Construction TK Telecom Construction, originally founded as Toms Cable TV Construction, is a prime utility contractor with more than 30 years experience in telecommunications and utility construction. Founded by Tommy Kelly in 1989, TK Telecom Construction specializes in Aerial and Underground Construction, MDU Construction, Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), Drop Burials, and Hotel/Motel telecom infrastructure rebuild and remediation work. Guided by a seasoned staff of telecommunications professionals, TK Telecom Construction has successfully completed numerous contracts with communications, power, and CATV companies in the Southeast region. For more information, please visit: http://www.tktelecom.net About National OnDemand National OnDemand, Inc. is a communications and utilities infrastructure provider delivering service solutions to the Fiber, Wireless, Energy and Technology sectors in the United States. Headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, the Company provides full turnkey infrastructure solutions on demand, anywhere across its service footprint and has secured and sustained its current standing in the market through the successful completion of mergers and acquisitions, along with demonstrable, steady organic growth. Additional information For more information, please visit: http://www.nationalondemand.com/acquisitions SOURCE National OnDemand, Inc. Related Links https://www.nationalondemand.com Greg Brown and President George W. Bush at the Navy SEAL Foundation's Midwest Evening of Tribute held September 14th in Chicago. On Tuesday evening, the Navy SEAL Foundation hosted its 10th Annual Midwest Evening of Tribute at the beautiful Chicago Hilton. While adhering to local health and safety regulations, hundreds of dedicated patriots and supporters gathered to take in the star-studded program while hundreds more from all over the United States watched the streaming broadcast. The annual Evening of Tribute event recognizes the courage, commitment, service, and sacrifice of the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) community and the warriors and families who ensure our nations safety. This years event, chaired by Anna and Greg Brown, coincided with the United States recent withdrawal from Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, details not lost on those in attendance. Robin King, CEO of the Navy SEAL Foundation, welcomed guests and spoke poignantly about the moment twenty years ago when everything changed for our nation from her perspective as a SEAL spouse. She talked about the expectations that our nation puts on our military members and how warriors and families in NSW meet those expectations through extraordinary personal sacrifice. King went on to thank NSFs donors and fundraisers for their continued support of the mission and for allowing the Navy SEAL Foundation to honor its commitment to always be there for warriors and families, including NSWs Gold Star and Surviving Family members. She then welcomed Greg Brown to the stage. Brown, who co-chaired the event with his wife Anna, addressed the crowd and recognized those in attendance who served in Americas armed forces, both past, and present. A year ago, when we started planning this very special evening, we knew that it would be held right after the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 -- a day that forever changed our lives and our country, said Brown. He continued, and we knew it would also be a very special time to honor the brave, the fearless, and the selfless Navy SEALs and Naval Special Warfare [community]. After his remarks, Mr. Brown introduced George Tenet, the United States longest-serving Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who joined him on stage. Mr. Tenet spoke about his experiences while serving as CIA director during the attacks of 9-11 and working with President George W. Bush. He also shared the significance of the Navy SEAL Foundations Patriot Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations that contribute significantly to the nations betterment and embody the SEAL communitys values. Mr. Tenet then presented the prestigious award to Mr. David Herro, chief investment officer of international equities at Harris Associates. Command Master Chief Steven Matulewics gave a stirring toast to the fallen warriors of Naval Special Warfare, a tribute made even more touching as many Gold Star and Surviving Family members were in attendance. After dinner was served, Greg Brown returned to the stage to welcome the evenings special guest, 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, who joined Brown for a moderated discussion reflecting on 9-11-01 and the important role of the U.S. military. During the discussion, Brown recalled President Bushs message to service members from his speech in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9-11. The cause you have pursued in the call of duty is the noblest America has to offer. You have shielded your fellow citizens from danger. You have defended the beliefs of your country and advanced the rights of the downtrodden. You have been the face of hope and mercy in dark places. You have been a force for good in the world. And nothing that has followed...nothing...can tarnish your honor or diminish your accomplishments. To you and the honored dead, our country is forever grateful. Mr. Brown concluded the evening by thanking those in attendance for their steadfast support of the Navy SEAL Foundation and Americas warriors and families. Anna and Greg Brown served as the 2021 Evening of Tribute chairs. They were joined in support by many generous individuals and companies, including AON, Janet and Craig Duchossois, Kenneth C. Griffin, GCM Grosvenor, Kristen Hertel and Muneer Satter, Richard S. Holson III, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, The Lakonishok & Teuscher Families, Cindy and Robert Mayo, Pritzker Military Foundation in recognition of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Lydia and Patrick G. Ryan Jr., Shirley & Patrick G. Ryan Sr, Sandi and Bill Strong, Diane and Richard Templer, and Robin and Mike Zafirovski. The 2022 Navy SEAL Foundation Evening of Tribute is planned for next September. About the Navy SEAL Foundation: The mission of the Navy SEAL Foundation (NSF) is to provide immediate and ongoing support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) community and its families, the families of NSW fallen, and SEAL and SWCC veterans. U.S. Navy SEALs have been in sustained combat for nearly two decades, performing hazardous work in unforgiving environments at an unrelenting pace. NSW operators are currently deployed in over 30+ countries worldwide and can spend up to 270 days each year in harm's way. The Navy SEAL Foundation stands behind these warriors and their families by providing a comprehensive set of programs specifically designed to improve health and welfare, build and enhance resiliency, empower and educate families and provide critical support during illness, injury or loss. Like the community it serves, the Navy SEAL Foundation is a high-performing organization committed to excellence. NSF has been awarded the coveted 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator since 2009 and has earned a perfect score of "100" each year since 2014 for financial health, accountability, and transparency, placing NSF in the top 1% of rated charities. Ninety-three cents of every dollar donated goes directly to programs or is retained for future mission use. The Navy SEAL Foundation is a 501c3 national non-profit charitable organization. TAX-ID 31-1728910. NSF is a non-federal entity, and it is not a part of the Department of Defense or any of its components, and it has no governmental status. To learn more, visit https://www.navySEALfoundation.org. NewGens Latest Closing the 44-unit Travelodge Hotel NewGen is proud to offer a team that can provide their knowledge and expertise for these great causes. NewGen Advisory (NewGen) assisted in the acquisition of the 44-unit Travelodge Hotel by Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona (HSNA) to expand the citys housing and shelter options. This new acquisition will provide those in northern Arizona who have faced homelessness with another choice for housing. HSNA hopes to provide a safe, stable, and affordable housing solution while individuals work with state and local services for more permanent placements. Lodging Assets are the Perfect Fit for Conversion to Affordable Housing Options Conversion deals have been on a constant rise in Arizona and other states. What started several years ago with the conversion of hotel assets to senior care facilities and assisted living establishments has now grown into a conversation addressing the housing shortage on all fronts. From the start, NewGen has participated in numerous deals from senior care, assisted living, transitional housing, veteran housing, condos, and student housing. The Travelodge in Flagstaff is the latest addition to the long list of conversions. NewGen has a task force that assists Buyers and Sellers in navigating the hurdles and challenges in getting a conversion project to the finish line. "NewGen is proud to offer a team that can provide their knowledge and expertise for these great causes," said Dinesh "Dan" Rama, the Co-Founder and Designated Broker of NewGen. "We pride ourselves in being a part of something great that offers mutually beneficial solutions for both the hotel owners and buyers." HSNA officially purchased the former Travelodge Hotel, located on the famous Route 66 in east Flagstaff. NewGen spoke with HSNA about the positive impact that this will make on the community and the homelessness issues the community is currently faced with. Offering essential brokerage help, NewGen strives to provide deals that are a value add to the community, buyers and sellers navigate the challenges in funding, renovations, and acquisitions. Transitions Providing a Positive Community Impact We are excited to work with the Arizona Department of Housing and community partners to expand housing resources for households experiencing homelessness in our community. We know decent, affordable housing is a foundation for health and stability for families, and we look forward to helping families transition from homelessness to permanent housing and self-sufficiency, said Devonna McLaughlin, Housing Solutions CEO. Its great to see federal recovery dollars being invested in our northern Arizona community to provide long-term affordable housing investment. We are excited to partner with the Arizona Department of Housing on this project, which will make a meaningful difference in the lives of households experiencing homelessness. The initiative was brought on to reduce the impact that homelessness has on the community. The project was backed and funded through the Community Development Block Grant funding (CDBG) part of the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress. Additionally, the Arizona Department of Housing also provided a portion of their funding to create this new shelter. Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona has also partnered with the Flagstaff Family Food Center to provide nutrition resources to families, Catholic Charities Community Services to provide housing case management services, and the Guidance Center to provide mental health support services. It is expected that the property will be ready to lease in late spring or early summer of 2022. About New Gen NewGen Advisory is a nationwide hospitality brokerage firm with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, and offices in 16 cities around the country. NewGen achieves extraordinary results for buyers and sellers of commercial real estate with a team of hospitality experts. For more information about NewGenAdvisory, visit https://newgenadv.com. ### Philip Weiser Carlton Group is uniquely and specifically focused on the French Riviera, the area starting at the Italian borders, all the way down the coastline to the famous town of Saint Tropez and everything in between. Philip is a well-traveled New Zealander who has lived all over the world, from the United States to Bermuda - and across to Europe where he spent time in United Kingdom, Switzerland, and finally, France. Philip worked within the luxury hotel and hospitality industry for decades in London before transitioning to luxury real estate when he and his young family settled in France. Philip has held his French real estate license for over 40 years and has assisted hundreds of buyers and sellers in the sale and acquisition of luxury homes and villas throughout the French Riviera. Launching Carlton International in 1995, the first of the Carlton International brands soon followed by Carlton International Rentals, specializing in the vacation and long-term rental of exceptional homes - Carlton Signature, Property Management, designed to offer a complete service to our clients from home improvements to looking after properties when the owners are away - and finally, Carlton Hotel Brokers, formed to assist in acquisition and investment transactions in the Hospitality industry. Carlton Group is uniquely and specifically focused on the French Riviera, the area starting at the Italian borders, all the way down the coastline to the famous town of Saint Tropez and everything in between - including the cities of Nice, Antibes, and Cannes. Philip and the entire Carlton International team are based on the French Riviera, which means we physically visit and photograph all of our luxury homes and know the owners personally - we are a leading estate agent on the Cote d'Azur. As a team, we collectively speak 14 languages, including Russian, Italian, all Scandinavian languages, Dutch, German, and of course English to cater to our international clientele. Rest assured that if your language preference is English, our English-speaking division can guide and represent you through the process of financing, buying, or selling your luxury home on the French Riviera. Visit Philip Weiser's Haute Residence Profile: https://www.hauteresidence.com/member/philip-weiser-2/ ABOUT HAUTE RESIDENCE Designed as a partnership-driven luxury real estate portal, Haute Residence connects its affluent readers with top real estate professionals, while offering the latest in real estate news, showcasing the worlds most extraordinary residences on the market and sharing expert advice from its knowledgeable and experienced real estate partners. The invitation-only luxury real estate network, which partners with just one agent in every market, unites a distinguished collective of leading real estate agents and brokers and highlights the most extravagant properties in leading markets around the globe for affluent buyers, sellers, and real estate enthusiasts. HauteResidence.com has grown to be the number one news source for million-dollar listings, high-end residential developments, celebrity real estate, and more. Access all of this information and more by visiting http://www.hauteresidence.com Born to Serve: The Trailblazing Life of Sam Sutton, Valet to Three Presidents: a thoughtful look behind the scenes of a thirty-year military veteran. Born to Serve: The Trailblazing Life of Sam Sutton, Valet to Three Presidents is the creation of published author Samuel Sutton Jr., CSCM, USN (Ret.), a native of North Carolina born into a family of eleven children who rose to unexpected heights. Sutton Jr. shares, Samuel Sutton Jr. grew up poor in Kinston, North Carolina. His childhood home had no central heat or hot water. He and his family walked seven miles roundtrip to church every Sunday because they didnt have a car. To help out, Sam picked tobacco during his summer vacations, starting at age ten. But Sam was to rise far in life from these humble beginnings. Joining the Navy in 1979, he embarked on a thirty-year military career, serving first as a sailor, then as an enlisted aide to the nations top admirals and generals, and finally as a personal valet to presidents Bill Clinton, G. W. Bush, and Barack Obama. He worked a backbreaking schedule, juggling multiple tasks in a position that made him a virtual member of the First Family, an eyewitness to their public and private lives. Born to Serve is also a cautionary tale about the complex dynamics of race and politics at the highest levels of the military and government. From his first day as valet, Sams close proximity to the president made him a target for those who craved access to the most powerful man in the world. That competitive pressure would prematurely end Sams career as valet, but he went on to write a new chapter in his life by adopting a child out of the foster care system, guiding him in overcoming a difficult past, and raising him into a fine young man. Told with candor and warmth, this is the story of a man who overcame significant adversity to serve his country with tireless faith and dedication. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Samuel Sutton Jr., CSCM, USN (Ret.)s new book is an intriguing tale of accomplishment, betrayal, and rebirth. The authors life and career are presented for the enjoyment and consideration of readers everywhere in this articulate account of a life well-lived. View a synopsis of Born to Serve: The Trailblazing Life of Sam Sutton, Valet to Three Presidents on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Born to Serve: The Trailblazing Life of Sam Sutton, Valet to Three Presidents at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Born to Serve: The Trailblazing Life of Sam Sutton, Valet to Three Presidents, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. ...the general consensus appears to be that Google is engaged in anticompetitive practices across its ecosystem, particularly in search Terry Cane, COO of global SSL service domain registration and SEO hosting provider SEOHost.net (https://www.seohost.net), has again spoken on Google's ongoing battle against regulators after the company was fined $177 million in South Korea. The country's antitrust regulator issued the fine in the early morning of September 14. Allegedly, the company is abusing the market dominance of the Android operating system to stifle its competition. As noted by Reuters, this is one of the largest fines South Korea has ever imposed on a global technology company. "South Korea has now joined the massive list of regulatory agencies filing either regulatory actions or lawsuits against Google," says Cane. "And though South Korea's antitrust action has very little to do with search on the surface, the language is startlingly similar. Amongst these agencies, the general consensus appears to be that Google is engaged in anticompetitive practices across its ecosystem, particularly in search." Late last month, Google redesigned its knowledge base to offer a more thorough explanation of how search engine optimization works, with particular attention given to the metrics by which its algorithm ranks web pages. For the company, which has traditionally been nebulous about its search engine, this is a significant step. Cane believes it will neither be the first nor the last. "Google is a titan of industry of that, there can be no doubt," explains Cane "But even a titan cannot face down such immense regulatory pressure for long. Google is currently embroiled in so many legal battles and facing so many fines it's difficult to keep track, and more are very likely to come." "If things continue at their current pace, Google's redesigned knowledge-base is only the first step," she continues. "The company will likely provide us with progressively deeper insights into its algorithms, thereby taking much of the traditional guesswork out of SEO. What this ultimately means is that the future of search will look very different from what we expected, with antitrust legislation potentially even opening the gates for Google's competitors." Although there are concerns that opening the "black box" of Google's algorithm could potentially enable the kind of black hat tactics seen in the early days of SEO, Cane thinks this unlikely. "Every algorithm update in recent years has, as far as we understand, been made with the goal of promoting better content," Cane concludes. "Black hats generally aren't willing to put in the work to create high-quality content. Even if they know how each specific metric is weighted, it's unlikely this will give them any tangible advantage." #### About SEOHost.net: Located in Orlando, Florida, with locations worldwide, SEOHost.Net provides a wide range of services in both the U.S. and the E.U., including domain registration, SSL Hosting for SEO, and VPS, dedicated, and A-Class IP hosting. The company offers exceptional service with a strong service level agreement, multiple geographic locations, and free migration. For more information, visit https://www.seohost.net. Nothing moves better through this market than a digital supply chain. You have a computer running 24 hours a day, while your competitors check in once or twice a day during business hours. - David Ginsberg, Sonic Manufacturing Vice President of Supply Chain Sonic Manufacturing Technologies has been featured in the September issue of Supply Chain Digital. In this exclusive interview, David Ginsberg, Vice President of Supply Chain explores how Sonics autonomous end-to-end supply chain works. It is the first of its kind in the electronics industry, Ginsberg explains why its valuable and why hes willing to share this innovation with the wider electronics industry. This has been a roughly 20-year project, Ginsberg said. Before we even started calling it a digital supply chain. And it has come into its own over the past 18 months, amid ongoing disruption. Nothing moves better through this market than a digital supply chain, he added. You have a computer running 24 hours a day, while your competitors check in once or twice a day during business hours. The system has revolutionized the way Sonic sources vital components, and the relationships that drive modern procurement. If the computer is working in the background then the relationships are focused on problem-solving. Youre out of stock for a week. How do you work together to fix it? Sonics digital supply chain has been decades in the making, but it has only recently reached the level of maturity in which Ginsberg is confident in sharing it more widely with his industry peers. But why? Weve put in so much time that we can protect our edge, he said. More importantly, billion-dollar companies wont make new APIs if Sonic is the only one pushing for them. But if all of Sonics peers and competitors want these APIs, theyll be developed. Theyll be more feature-rich. New capabilities will come out. Sonic benefits from this collective transformation. Editor Rhys Thomas said: Industry firsts often break down under scrutiny, but what Sonic and Ginsberg have built is truly innovative. Ginsbergs candor, his passion, and his pragmatism are rare qualities. This is a must read for any manufacturer or sourcing professional looking to understand the true meaning of collaboration - and why off-the-shelf tech solutions, valuable as they are, are not always the answer. About Sonic Manufacturing Sonic Manufacturing Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS). Established in 1996 in Fremont, California, and privately owned and operated by the same management team for 25 years, Sonic specializes in EMS, including new product introduction (NPI), prototyping, and in-house board layouts. Consistent manufacturing excellence, cutting-edge equipment, and industry expertise make Sonic a reliable and flexible source for volume production, retail fulfillment, and international logistics. Visit Sonic Manufacturing here. About Supply Chain Digital Magazine Supply Chain Digital Magazine is the Digital Community for the global Procurement, Supply Chain & Logistics industry, connecting the worlds largest brands and their most senior executives with the latest trends, news and insights. Supply Chain Digital Magazine is a trusted authority on procurement and supply chain news, key interviews, videos, and podcasts, along with an ever-expanding range of focused procurement and supply chain white papers and webinars. BizClik Media Group is a UK-based media company with a global portfolio of leading industry, business and lifestyle digital communities. BizCliks portfolio includes Technology & AI, Finance & Insurance, Manufacturing & Supply Chain, Energy & Mining, Construction, Healthcare, Wireless Communications & Data Centres. For further information, please visit https://www.bizclikmedia.com You can read the report in the latest issue of Supply Chain Digital by clicking HERE. Miami-based Specialist ID, the premier badge holder and identification accessories distributor, has once again been included in Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies. This is the seventh consecutive year that the company has made the list. Specialist ID ranks in the top 250 fastest growing companies in Florida, ranking at #196 with a 56% growth rate. For a lot of people, change is tough. For our team, growing like this means our entire building gets turned upside down and shaken around about every year and a half. Looking back, it's virtually unrecognizable every three years. I am amazed by our team's ability to get us on the list for the seventh year in a row. We've had very low turnover during this rapid growth which goes to show that our team is willing to grow at an individual level even faster than the company is growing. I couldn't be any more proud, said Specialist ID, Inc. founder and co-owner Patrick Barnhill. This years recognition is especially notable because many small businesses have struggled in light of the pandemic. Specialist ID worked with clients to provide thoughtful badge solutions that helped mitigate the spread of the virus, clarify social distancing preferences, and simplify the process of identifying vaccinated team members in offices and medical buildings. The companys innovative response to the pandemic only furthered its success, and the 56% growth rate is indicative of its continuous upward trajectory. The Inc. 5000 list in 2021 includes companies that have grown despite the challenges of the pandemic. The companies included span industries, from staffing and retail to advertising, education, and insurance. About Specialist ID With lanyards, ID holders, card printing, and more, Specialist ID offers a variety of badge holders and identification products to help companies and their employees stay organized and keep track of vital materials. They dont require a minimum order, and their products are top quality, waterproof, and can be shipped around the world. Whether your company needs badges every day or for a specific event, Specialist ID offers quality products and service. https://www.facebook.com/specialistid/ Twitter: @SpecialistID About Zen Media Zen Media is a digital marketing and PR agency transforming the B2B tech sector. The company was founded by CEO Shama Hyder in 2008 as one of the first digital marketing companies to address the social media age. Since then, the company has evolved to serve technology brands looking to maximize their key moments, drive demand, andultimatelydrive dollars. 80% of Zen Medias marketing and PR campaigns go viral. Zen Media has worked with tech industry leaders like NASA, OneDine, Nixplay, and many more. Follow Zen Media on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for daily marketing and PR tips. Queens Quay Heat Pump Network The impressive environmental credentials of the Queens Quay heat pump make it an excellent location for a site visit for delegates to the Low-Carbon Heat Conference 2021 The renewable arm of Star Refrigeration Star Renewable Energy is sponsoring a site visit to the Queens Quay water source heat pump in Clydebank. With the capacity to deliver up to 5.2MW of heat at 800C, the water source heat pump (WSHP) for district heating is the largest of its kind in the entire in Scotland. It was developed and delivered through a collaborations between West Dunbartonshire Council, Vital Energi and Star Renewable Energy. The heat pump works by leveraging ambient heat from the Clyde Estuary and using ammonia heat pumps to capture that energy, which makes it an extremely low-carbon method of heat generation. In fact, it is expected to produce less than 5% of the emissions associated with gas-burning alternatives, while its coefficient of performance is in excess of 3.0 (or three units of heat produced for every unit of electricity consumed). Housed on the site of the former John Browns shipyard, it will service existing buildings and new builds over the coming years, providing 95% of heat demand and 82% of peak demand. The impressive environmental credentials of the Queens Quay heat pump make it an excellent location for a site visit for delegates to the Low-Carbon Heat Conference 2021. Organised by Scottish Renewables and schedule to take place on the 23rd of September 2021, interested parties are invited to register online and make their own way to the site, which is conveniently located near to Clydebank train station and offers good parking access. Once present, visitors will be treated to a guided tour of the energy centre, the abstraction chamber, the two heat pumps at the site and given an overview of the district heating scheme which will provide heat to 1,200 private homes, businesses and public buildings including West College Scotland, Clydebank Leisure Centre, the Town Hall and Clydebank Library. Dave Pearson, Group Sustainable Director at Star Refrigeration said, At Star Refrigeration, we have always kept sustainability at the forefront of our business model, striving to make Scotland, the UK and the planet a safer place to live for future generations. We were delighted to be involved in bringing the Clydebank project to fruition in tandem with Vital Energi and the local council and we look forward to spreading awareness of the immense potential of water source heat pump technology through the upcoming site visit. Projects like the Queens Quay WSHP are integral to the Scottish governments climate goals, giving that heating accounts for over half of all energy consumed in the country. Among other objectives, the government has targeted doubling the number of heat pump installations each year for the next five years, while also converting over one million domestic properties and 50,000 non-domestic properties to zero or low emissions heating systems before the end of the decade. As the largest high-temperature river source heat pump facility in the UK, the Clydebank industrial heat pump is an example of what can be achieved when political and environmental goals align. Indeed, the site has been shortlisted for two separate awards by the European Heat Pump Association this year: the European Heat Pump City of the Year Award and the Peoples Choice Award. As the name suggests, this latter accolade is decided by a public vote, so those eager to support the Clydebank candidacy are encouraged to summit their vote online. To find out more about the Low-Carbon Heat Conference 2021 visit https://www.scottishrenewables.com/events/142-heat-conference-2021 To find out more about Star Renewable Energy heat pumps for district heating go to https://www.neatpumps.com/ AmeriCare Medical CEO, Greg Jamian, in front of new Sun Medical Equipment & Supplies store in Birmingham, MI Sun Medicals COO, John Jamian is also enthusiastic about the innovative store, We know people want the best for their family and weve done our homework. Sun is carrying physician recommended products, so our customers will have choices to what best fits their need. The Sun Medical legacy is now 40 years old and we are pleased to open a Home Healthcare Center in a community like Birmingham, stated AmeriCare Medical CEO, Greg Jamian. Along with the highest quality medical equipment, supplies and services, this store will also have programs available to assist the consumer in these challenging times. Sun Medical will have nurses available at the store to answer questions regarding any home healthcare needs, this includes: homecare evaluations, PCR Covid-19 testing for travel and monthly Ask the Nurse seminars. Sun Medicals COO, John Jamian is also enthusiastic about the innovative store, We know people want the best for their family and weve done our homework. Sun is carrying physician recommended products, so our customers will have choices to what best fits their need. John Jamian also noted, We know that this store will appeal to 40% of the market who are Baby Boomers, but we also carry products for all ages, nebulizers for children, compression stockings for the sport enthusiast and breast pumps for new mothers. The new store is also conveniently located between Royal Oak Beaumont Medical Center and St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac and is equipped to handle daily discharges with oxygen, hospital beds and other DME items. Greg Jamian and Greg Boyajian started Sun Medical Equipment in 1981 with its original location in Royal Oak, Michigan. They now have three locations: Washington Township, Troy, and Birmingham. Over the years, they continued to expand their enterprise to include a private duty nursing and home care company, a home infusion therapy pharmacy and a case management company. Were not done either announces Greg Jamian, We have another exciting venture coming that will complement our home healthcare services lines called Private Reserve Home Care. AmeriCare Medical, Inc. is a Michigan locally owned and operated company that provides integrated health care solutions to hospitals, assisted care facilities and private homes throughout State. AmeriCare Medical, Inc. has five that include:AmeriStaff Nursing Services, Sun Medical Equipment, Rx iV Infusion Pharmacy and Oak Bridge Case Management. AmeriCare Medical provides dignity and peace of mind for the family and patient by offering the convenience of an all-inclusive experience for all your home healthcare needs. For more information visit: http://www.americaremedical.com SY Performance Personal Training has taken big steps to keep celebrities and clients safe during COVID-19, by moving to private training studios. In addition to being fully vaccinated, all SY Performance personal trainers are also taking weekly COVID-19 PCR tests and providing the results to clients and industry referring partners, according to celebrity trainer and Founder of SY Performance, Scott Yonehiro. Every industry has had to adapt to life during the pandemic, and personal fitness is not exempt. While SY Performance has provided private, virtual, and COVID safe in-person training since the spring of 2020, as Los Angeles has slowly returned to in-person events, so have we. However, were going to even greater lengths to keep our clients safe. This includes providing the official PCR results each week and moving from a larger gym into two private studios, Yonehiro explained. Film and television productions cannot afford to shut down due to quarantine. But their talent needs to stay in shape, bulk up, and slim down for roles. At SY Performance we were happy to make the changes Hollywood needs to keep their production on schedule. So, we made the decision to move to private studios, and commit to weekly testing. All SY Performance trainers are fully vaccinated, but with cases on the rise, and productions on the line, there is no such thing as being too careful, Yonehiro added. Continuing, he said that he also took the time to enhance SY Performances signature 90-Day Body Transformation Program (90 DBTP), which has been the training companys single most popular and effective training program. Combining personal training, a customized nutritional program, and intermittent fasting, the 90 DBTP has helped transform countless actors in just three months. While working both virtually and in-person through the pandemic, I had time to improve upon the results one receives from our 90-Day Body Transformation Program. Im a lifelong student of nutrition, health, and wellbeing, and took time during this pandemic to look for ways to improve the program. New and returning clients are going to be thrilled with the modifications. This program can transform not only your body, but your mental health, which is equally important in the time of COVID. Yonehiro and his fellow trainers at SY Performance are providing small group and individual training at Conquer All Things in Burbank, and Sage Fitness in Glendale. Yonehiro says the feedback his team has received since moving to private studios has been unanimously positive. Were able to offer all the studios the safest personal training experience in Los Angeles. To my knowledge we are the only personal training company in LA to guarantee weekly testing, provide the official test results to our clients and industry-referring partners, and true, private, one-on-one training. It has been incredibly well received by the studios, our clients, and their families, he said. About SY Performance SY Performance was founded by Los Angeles-based celebrity personal trainer Scott Yonehiro. The creator of 90 Day Body Transformation Program, which utilizes a proprietary combination of science-based techniques, Yonehiro and his team of trainers focus on fitness, nutrition, and mindset exercises to help individuals of all ages to lose weight, reduce body fat, and increase muscle. SY Performance personal training is offered at Conquer All Things located at 1218 W Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA 91506, and Sage Fitness, located at 6318 San Fernando Road, Glendale, CA 91201. Visit: http://www.syperformanceone.com Email: Scott@syperformanceone.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScottYonehiro1 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/syperformanceone Instagram: SY Performance Twitter: @SYPerformance This is a fantastic moment for the people of Cleveland and the U.S. Navy Memorial. We are so proud to have this remarkable symbol honoring the Navy available for all to see in the great city of Cleveland. On Friday, September 10th, the anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie, the eighteenth Lone Sailor Statue in the world was dedicated at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The Lone Sailor stands as an icon, symbolizing the Navy Memorials mission to honor, recognize, and celebrate the men and women of the sea services. The statue in Cleveland is the 18th Lone Sailor in the world and joins other statues in Normandy, France, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the original statue in Washington, D.C. The statues placement in Cleveland will be moved to the Lake Erie waterfront in Cleveland as part of the USS Cleveland Legacy Foundations effort which also includes the commissioning of the USS Cleveland (LCS 31) and endowment that will prepare the ship to become a museum ship upon its decommissioning. The Lone Sailor will stand watch over Lake Erie and provide a focal point for an ongoing celebration of Navy culture and greatness for all to enjoy as they visit Cleveland. Cleveland native and host of the Price Is Right, Drew Carey, as well as numerous other veterans, USS Cleveland Legacy Foundation Board Members, senior business leaders, elected officials and the Navy Memorials President and CEO, retired Rear Admiral Frank Thorp attended the Dedication Ceremony. Recognizing the official party as well as the directors of the U.S.S. Cleveland Legacy Foundation, Chairman Jim Folk said, It is really a privilege to stand here in such esteemed company and your collective support of our mission... is overwhelming. Folke was joined at the stand by 2021 Lone Sailor Award Honoree Drew Carey and Frank Thorp. This is a fantastic moment for the people of Cleveland and the U.S. Navy Memorial. We are so proud to have this remarkable symbol honoring the Navy available for all to see in the great city of Cleveland, Thorp remarked. 2021 Lone Sailor Honoree Drew Carey commented, Im glad I could be part of this to recognize everyone who is in the sea services. Watch the full dedication ceremony and see photos of the statue below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSvKEJ6d6cM The US Navy Memorial is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to Honor, Recognize and Celebrate the men and women of the Sea Services, past, present and future, and to Inform the public about their service. For more information about the Memorial and its mission, please visit our website at http://www.navymemorial.org. On September 15th VIA certified three (3) new Italian Wine Ambassadors. Those newly appointed to join this passionate community are Limor Fikel, Michael Wyant and Enoch Ling. To date, there are now 90 certified Italian Wine Ambassadors and 3 Italian Wine Experts based in USA. On September 15th VIA certified three (3) new Italian Wine Ambassadors. Those newly appointed to join this passionate community are Limor Fikel, Michael Wyant and Enoch Ling. To date, there are now 90 certified Italian Wine Ambassadors and 3 Italian Wine Experts based in USA. Limor Finkel, a Northern California Sales Manager based in Mill Valley commented, Im honored to be a part of the VIA community alongside a group of people so deeply committed to Italian wine, history, and culture. The VIA course was incredibly rigorous and I cant wait to keep learning from my fellow Italian Wine Ambassadorshopefully in person soon and on the ground in Italy, too! Based in Arlington, Michael Wyant is a Sommelier & Wine Educator with almost 10 years of experience in the wine industry. He also shares his comment, Im very excited to be a part of the VinItaly International Academy. The program itself was a deep dive into the world of Italian wine, history and culture with some impressive teachers. The fun part was getting to try hundreds of benchmark Italian wines made from native grape varieties, meeting the winemakers themselves and hearing their stories, and of course meeting fellow students and ambassadors from all over Europe, Asia and the Americas who share a passion for Italian wine. Enoch Ling is an Investment Analyst based in Hong Kong and a member of the Knights of Alba, which exposed him to the world of wine on the side of his main profession. He added, The VIA program provides me with opportunities and resources to explore some hidden gems of Italian wines that can be rarely found in my market. I'm proud to be part of this professional and passionate community as IWA! Despite the increasing pandemic condition in the country, Vinitaly International Academy made it possible to hold its 20th edition on September 13th. The Certified Italian Wine Ambassador course was held in three different venues across the United States to join Faculty member Henry Davar IWE as he led the tasting sessions that would act as recap of the theory and preparation for the upcoming exam. Whilst Davar led these sessions live in Boston, he was connected with other participants in Houston and Seattle via Zoom, and of course with the VIA team in Verona. More than 40 wines were sourced by the tasting centres to give students a broad tasting experience, a solid basis for their exam and of course to showcase as many Italian varieties, denominations and producers as possible in two days. Due to the spread of students, venues in Boston (hosted by Gianluca Quieroli IWA), Houston (Giorgio Caflish IWA) and Seattle (Hayley Black IWE) were selected, and the coordination of materials, wines and session timings began. One of the biggest challenges was building wine lists with as many of the same wines being shown in each venue. As Davar commented, Its always worth reminding people that there is a large supporting cast back in Verona that make the Vinitaly International Academy go! Our team is composed of Italian wine lovers, many of whom are VIA certified Italian Wine Ambassadors as well. They truly understand Italian wine and they know how to source truly representative samples for our course. The wines we tasted this past week were especially notable and I think the students and staff at the three tasting centers all remarked about this. Fortunately, working with Ambassadors and Experts who are not only familiar with Italian wines, but also the VIA Program, allowed for more than 40 wines to be shown, and suitable wines selected for the blind tasting portion of the examination. As this 20th Edition has demonstrated, building a strong community not only supports those within it, but also pays dividends in challenging times when it pulls together to aid the cause of Italian wine education. It is an asset not only to those joining the programme, but everyone involved, and VIA will continue to build editions that grow and support this community globally. In todays environment, there is the need to have a primary care provider with expert knowledge of the substance abuse continuum. Californians will benefit from programs like this," said WesternU College of Graduate Nursing Dean Mary Lopez, PhD, RN. Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) is introducing a program in October 2021 that will provide vital training to nurse practitioners and physician assistants as they transition from graduates to expert primary care clinicians, with an emphasis on providing substance abuse prevention and treatment in underserved areas. WesternUs College of Graduate Nursing and College of Health Sciences received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to create the WesternU Integrated Substance Abuse Training Program (WISTP). WISTP is designed as a one-year, limited employment, transition-to-practice training program for nationally-certified nurse practitioners and PAs. Eligible applicants are those less than 18 months out of the basic education program. The training program begins every October 1. Applications are now open: https://www.westernu.edu/opportunities/wistp/ The aim of WISTP is to plan, develop, and operationalize a 12-month full-time post-graduate program designed to foster clinical training and augment expertise among practicing NPs and PAs to expand the number of practitioners trained to provide mental health, substance use disorders/opioid use disorders (SUD/OUD) prevention, treatment, and recovery services in community-based underserved primary care settings. California lacks a sufficient number of primary care providers who can identify and treat patients that may have a substance abuse disorder, said College of Graduate Nursing Dean Mary Lopez, PhD, RN. In todays environment, there is the need to have a primary care provider with expert knowledge of the substance abuse continuum. Californians will benefit from programs like this. What I like about this program, said College of Health Sciences Dean Dee Schilling, PT, PhD, is that the program recognizes that PAs also have a recognized role in addressing the total health needs of the clients. The program augments what the PA trainee learned in basic education and allows them to be full members of the health care team. Lopez added, Applying for this grant was not a difficult decision. HRSA fully recognizes the contributions of both nurse practitioners and PAs as qualified providers. Having the grant allows the University to continue leading in educating tomorrows providers. The program will establish CGNs first nurse practitioner postgraduate training program, said CGN Associate Dean for Administration and Research Rod Hicks, PhD, RN, FAANP, FAAN, who serves as the WISTP project director. The purpose of this transition to practice program is to reduce the likelihood of role strain during that first year, Hicks said. Across all disciplines, new graduates are considered novices. We are transitioning them from novices to expert providers. It takes a good year to get their comfort level. At the same time, we are integrating important concepts of substance abuse and mental health into their working knowledge, Hicks added. If you came to me in clinic, I am comfortable in asking you if you are using any substances. We want to make sure theyre just as comfortable in asking difficult questions. WISTP uses a consortium model with four clinical partners: WesternU Health in Pomona, Clare|Matrix in Santa Monica and other locations, Neighborhood Healthcare in Temecula and Riverside, and Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage. This will teach trainees how to look for drug addiction, how to look for medical addiction, and what you can do for them, and how can we treat them, said CHS Department of PA Education Chair Roy Guizado, MS, PA-C. I think a big bonus of the program is we connect with partners who are doing this on a regular basis, allowing the trainees to become like the apprentice, learning how to screen and treat. And then they can start doing this on their own. Talking with patients about substance use or addictions is often difficult and uncomfortable, but necessary. When you go to a program like this, you learn to make it part of your routine, Guizado said. As a consequence, hopefully you will identify more patients who need your help to get the correct treatment as needed. The program will take five postgraduate trainees per year for five years. There will also be a telehealth component so trainees become skilled in contemporary telehealth policies and practices, Hicks said. More people go to primary care than to mental health care providers, so this represents an important opportunity to address mental health care needs in the community. Primary care represents an opportunity to screen for substance abuse, so we want to make sure our trainees and graduates are comfortable asking those sensitive questions, Hicks said. It builds upon WesternUs longstanding history of providing primary care providers. Image courtesy of USGS Through GPSC4, we are excited to continue to partner with USGS and to provide new technologies that address the worlds evolving and expanding geospatial data needs. Woolpert has been selected by the U.S. Geological Survey to provide mapping and survey services throughout the United States and its territories under its shared capacity Geospatial Products and Services Contract 4 (GPSC4), which has a ceiling of $850 million. These services include imagery and lidar data acquisition, photogrammetric mapping, GIS development, ground control survey, and data processing and analysis. This is the latest in the GPSC suite of contracts that enables federal, state and municipal government entities to partner with USGS to fulfill a wide range of geospatial mapping requirements. Primarily awarded under the umbrella of architecture and engineering, these contracts are administered through the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center and support the USGS 3D Elevation Program. USGS, through its 3DEP program and numerous other efforts, is essential to the nations acquisition of critical public geospatial data in support of multiple agencies, initiatives and applications, Woolpert Vice President John Gerhard said. We have been honored to support the USGS and the 3DEP program for many years. Through GPSC4, we are excited to continue to partner with USGS and to provide new technologies that address the worlds evolving and expanding geospatial data needs. Under GPSC3, Woolpert received 62 task orders for the acquisition and processing of more than 420,000 square miles of topographic and bathymetric lidar data in support of 3DEP. The GPSC4 contract is now underway. 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 sixth-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 more than 1,600 employees and 57 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com. Summary: New research shows that Syrian refugees were significantly more motivated to return home than to emigrate to the West. Those who were motivated to emigrate were the least likely to endorse extreme religious and political views. Refugees often endure extreme hardships as they seek shelter and security far from their homelands. Unfortunately, after arriving in foreign countries, refugees often endure suspicions about their motives and apprehension about their perceived religious and political ideologies. These fears are gravely misguided, according to a recently published study of Syrian refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq in 2016 and 2017. The study found that the refugees were significantly more motivated to return home than to emigrate to the West. Moreover, those who were motivated to relocate to Western countries were the least likely to endorse extreme religious and political views. People in Western countries have been reluctant to accept refugees, in part, because of the perception that these individuals hold extremist political views and therefore pose a security threat, said Katarzyna Jasko, a researcher with Jagiellonian University in Poland and lead author on the paper, which was published in the journal Psychological Science. Our results run counter to such views and could be used as an educational tool to provide evidence against such misperceptions. Researching the Syrian crisis The Syrian civil war officially began in 2011, sparking a mass exodus from the country. By the end of 2016, Syrians made up the worlds largest forcibly displaced population, accounting for more than 12 million people. The number of displaced Syrians is now estimated at nearly 13.5 million, including more than 6.6 million refugees hosted in more than 120 countries around the globe. In 2016 and 2017, a team of researchers recruited 1,000 Syrian refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraqthe nations with the largest numbers of refugeesto participate in a survey about their experiences, opinions, and aspirations. The researchers were aided by two independent organizations, both of which had prior experience conducting research with refugees. Study participants were identified either through publicly available registries, at which point they were invited by trained Arabic-speaking research associates, or by a local nongovernmental organization via its lists of individuals who had received its services. Participants gave oral consent to participate in the survey, with the understanding that their responses would not be linked to them personally. They were also informed that the research was being conducted independently of local governments and that their responses would not impact their immigration status. Refugees desires and ideologies The survey measured participants willingness to relocate to Western countries and their desire to move back to Syria as well as their political and ideological views. Because there is no one agreed-upon measure of political extremism, the researchers used several scales to test for extremist ideals, including measures of Islamist ideology, willingness to sacrifice for ones religion, and willingness to sacrifice for a political cause. The majority of refugees in our study wanted to return home to Syria and they did not intend to migrate to the West. This was not surprising, said Jasko. The second resultthat most refugees reject violent extremismis also in line with our other research on political violence, which shows that majorities of people are strongly against ideologically motivated violence. What is more theoretically interesting in our study is the link between migration intentions and ideological beliefs. Past research on refugees has predominantly focused on their basic needs for safety and security as drivers of migration decisions. We assumed that their sociopolitical attitudes should also be related to those decisions. Indeed, the study, which was based on data collected from participants who are typically hard to reach, found the same pattern of results in three out of four locations: Refugees who wanted to migrate to the West held the least extreme political and religious views. The new results provide important insights into the cultural attitudes and beliefs of refugeesand undercut common stereotypes and fears. Our team is currently collecting more data with refugees and host communities to see how the relationship between ideology and migration intentions and attitudes develop over time, said Jasko. # # # Reference: Jasko, K., Webber, D., Molinario, E., Kuglanski, A., & Touchton-Leonard, K. (2021) Ideological extremism among Syrian refugees is negatively related to intentions to migrate to the West. Psychological Science, 32(9), 13621374 https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621996668 Jon McGregor. Catapult, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-1-64622-099-1 McGregors stunning latest (after Reservoir 13) explores the aftermath of a traumatic accident. Robert Wright has spent a good deal of his professional life as a technician at Station K in Antarctica with a team of geographic researchers. During a storm, Robert is separated from his crew and suffers a near-fatal injury. McGregor beautifully captures Roberts ensuing struggle for survival through passages of fragmented stream of consciousness. After Roberts wife, Anna, is informed he had a stroke, she flies to meet him in Chile, where he has been hospitalized. But the Robert she encounters is a very different man from the one she last saw: among other injuries, his stroke has severely affected the language center of his brain. As the survival story becomes one of recuperation, Anna, an academic who studies the effects of global warming, must care for her disabled spouse, and McGregor portrays the tribulations of speech therapy with as much drama and depth as the depictions of men fighting for their lives on an Antarctic ice floe. Readers will be drawn into Robert and Annas heartbreaking struggle, all rendered in McGregors crystalline language. This gorgeous work leaves an indelible mark. After a last-minute postponement in late August aimed at keeping the delta variant at bay, the five-day Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) finally kicked off on September 14. The hybrid fair, set to run through September 18, attracted 2,200 exhibitors from 105 countries/regions, including eight new countries. About 600 overseas publishing companies participated via the Smart BIBF digital platform, which offers a compendium of services such as Smart Assistant (where on-site assistants presented titles on behalf of the exhibitors), Smart Live (with virtual booths on computers), Smart Books (for a collective showcase of physical titles), and Smart Rights Link (to upload titles for rights negotiations and register for online business-matchmaking sessions). Approximately 300,000 titles are being presented at the fair. There are several special exhibits combining 5G and VR technologies at the fair, including one commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party and another showcasing publications on the winter olympics and winter sports/games (ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics). Satellite events, mostly reading and cultural activities, are taking place at 20 bookstores across Beijing and are being live-streamed. There is also a immersive exhibition at the Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park featuring scenes of the wandering universe based on stories by sci-fi writer Liu Cixin. (Lius trilogy The Three-Body Problem was the first Asian work to win the Hugo Award back in 2015 and is currently being adapted as a Netflix TV series.) The Beijing International Publishing Forum was held two days prior to the start of BIBF with a focus on publishing to build a better future and a look at new technologies. Hosted by Zhang Jichen, the v-p of China Publishing Group and president of China National Publications Import & Export Group (CNPIEC), keynote speakers included Wu Shulin (vice chairman of the Publishers Association of China) and Liu Bogen, v-p of China Publishing Group (CPG). The importance of social media and e-commerce platforms as a sales and marketing channel for publishers was highlighted during one of the sessions when ByteDance (the owner of Tiktok, or Douyin as it is known in China) revealed that the number of short videos with reading tags on its platform increased by 138% in the first half of 2021. Policy Changes Affecting the Chinese Book Market Live-streaming short videos on e-commerce platforms has been an effective way to drive book sales. In fact, this technique generated 58.5% of the total sales of childrens books between January and June 2021, according to OpenBook, a clearinghouse for publishing statistics in China. Childrens books remain the brightest spot in the Chinese publishing industry with a 27.7% share of the overall book retail market despite falling 3.2% in the first half of 2021 compared to a year ago. Total industry sales grew 11.4% to 36.14 billion yuan (or $5.6 billion) in the first six months of 2021. The decline in children's sales was largely due to school reopenings and the ensuing drop in lockdown reading and parent-teaching activities. (Nearly 200 million Chinese students went back to school in September 2020.) The first half of 2021 also saw translations such as Nele Mossts Little Raven the Rascal, Sven Nordqvists The Adventures of Pettson and Findus, Yoyo Bookss Whats That Sound, and Christian Joliboiss Les Ptites Poules on the bestseller lists. But in recent weeks, schools summer reading lists, which tend to favor classics, are driving sales of backlist sellers such as Cao Wenxuans Bronze and Sunflower and The Straw Hut, Roald Dahls Fantastic Mr Fox, Tetsuko Kuroyanagis Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window, and E.B. Whites Charlottes Web. Textbooks and study guides was the second biggest segment with 27.2% of the market during the January-June period. But the recent crackdown on private tutoring industry (valued at 120 billion yuan, or $18.62 billion), which is aimed at reducing workloads for children while giving them more leisure time (as well as reining in a booming industry with massive foreign investment), is set to affect this publishing segment. Since online/private tutoring lessons are focused on English language learning, this subject also forms the bulk of teaching materials and study guides in the market. For major online tutoring and edtech companies such as GoGoKid (a division of ByteDance), New Oriental, and VIPKid, the economic repercussions from this crackdown hit not just their bottom lines but also the incomes of the tens of thousands of tutors mostly from the U.S. and Canada that they employ to teach English to Chinese children. New restrictions are also being imposed on online gaming for childrenno play time on weekdays and a one-hour limit per day on weekend and public holidayto curb growing public concerns of gaming addiction and its impact on health, social, and academic performances. The gaming industry, valued at 278.7 billion yuan, or approximately $44.65 billion, has 720 million gamers, of which nearly 110 million are under the age of 18, according to the China Gamers Report by Niko Partners. In Beijing, primary and junior high schools are now prohibited from using foreign textbooks that have not been approved/selected by the citys education bureau. In Shanghai, the cancellation of primary school English exams aimed at lightening childrens workloads, the crackdown on private tutoring, and the ban on foreign textbooks have sent parents mostly worried about their childrens English proficiency and ability to communicate with the outside world on panic-buying sprees for English textbooks and teaching materials. All these policies are being tweaked as the Chinese government continues its education sector reforms, especially for those under-18, to reduce homework and standardized exams, increase reading for pleasure and general knowledge (as opposed to passing exams), add more sporting and artistic activities, and improve classroom teaching and after-class services. For publishers domestic and foreign, these reforms in recent years have ramped up the growth of segments such as picture books, middle-grade fiction (including bilingual Chinese-English editions), heavily illustrated STEM series, social-emotional learning books, and YA titles. Norway, a country known for its environmentalism, owes much of its wealth to vast oil wells. On Monday, voters who are increasingly concerned about the climate crisis take to the polls in an election that could shape the future of the countrys energy supply. Why Biden Must Relieve Milley of His Duty A new book claims the US's top military officer secretly told the Chinese military he would warn if Trump ordered an attack. His reasons don't matter he must be relieved of command Good morning, its Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, the day of the week I pass along quotations intended to be inspirational or thought-provoking. Todays comes from Jeb Bush, with an assist from Donald J. Trump. First, Id point you to RealClearPolitics front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following: * * * Virginia, Not California, Will Provide Lessons for 22. Post-recall, Susan Crabtree explores indicators from both states off-year elections as possible bellwethers for next years midterms. Leaks Renew Concern Over Facebooks Fact-Checking Sway. Kalev Leetaru follows up on revelations that the social media platform has asked fact-checking partners to retroactively change their findings on posts from high-profile accounts. Assessing Bidens Health Care Reforms. At RealClearHealth, Peter J. Pitts delves into the details of the package unveiled by the administration Thursday. Five Facts About Community College. At RealClearPolicy, No Labels has this primer on an aspect of higher education that would receive a major boost under Democrats human infrastructure bill. Are Cultural Currents Imperiling Students Mental Health? Also at RCPolicy, Frederick Hess and Tracey Schirra consider the findings of a new survey of college students. Barriers to Innovation in the Rail Industry. At RealClearMarkets, Michael Gorman explains why administration efforts to block the merger of two freight lines will harm consumers. To Power the Future, Prioritize Batteries. At RealClearEnergy, Grant Anderson highlights an under-appreciated aspect of green innovation. Flawed Science of a Low-Carb Weight-Loss Advocate. RealClearScience editor examines the latest assertions of Gary Taubes. 1776 Unites Curriculum Highlights the American Character. At RealClears American Civics portal, Mike Sabo explores a new tool for teachers and parents. The Meaning of Constitution Day. Also at the Civics portal is this statement from the 1776 Commission. * * * In yesterdays morning note, I contrasted Donald Trumps rhetoric on immigration to Ronald Reagans. The 45th U.S. president did not fare well in that comparison. Several loyal readers of this daily missive complained that I had been unfair to Trump, specifically by asserting that when Trump discussed building his border wall on Sept. 15, 2015, hed said nothing about that wall having doors -- as Reagan had done in his farewell address while describing his metaphorical shining city on a hill. One Florida reader, a resident of Boca Raton, pointed out that Trump several times specifically invoked doors when discussing his wall in the late summer and autumn of 2015. -- Aug. 23, 2015: This will be a wall with a very big, very beautiful door, because we want the legals to come back into the country. Interview with CBS News -- Oct. 28, 2015: Were going to have a big, fat beautiful door right in the middle of the wall. Were going to have people come in, but theyre coming in legally. Republican presidential debate. -- Nov. 14, 2015: People will come through the openings in that wall -- well have a few of them -- and theyll come in and theyre going to come in legally. Rally in Beaumont, Texas. Ive made no secret in my writing the last six years that I was offended by Donald Trumps tone when discussing immigrants, particularly those from Mexico. It started when he made his presidential announcement speech on June 16, 2015. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. Theyre not sending you; theyre sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems, he said in his ad-libbed speech at Trump Tower in New York City. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they're telling us what we're getting. I was hardly the only political observer who found such language appalling. Still, that doesnt give me the right to mischaracterize what Trump said on the topic of immigration. So if you are one of the readers bothered by my selective quotation Thursday, consider this a mea culpa. That is not going to be my last word on this subject, however, because I believe the populist right makes the same mistake on immigration as the progressive left. It has become commonplace on the left to demonize this country. America was founded on white supremacy, they like to say, and remains a racist country hostile to immigrants and people of color. This is palpable nonsense, which is undermined every single day by the very people who are coming here. The 1 million or so legal immigrants (almost all of them from Asia, Africa, and Latin America), as well as the untold numbers of illegal migrants crossing the border, are coming to America because they see this nation the way immigrants have always seen it: as a welcoming place, and a beacon of opportunity. As for those who want to Make America Great Again, well, if you look at our nation through the eyes of those leaving their country and their culture behind to come to the United States, America looks like a pretty great place already. Why hate on those who want what we have -- who want to become Americans? In other words, the woke left demonizes America while the populist right demonizes those who want to become Americans. In my view -- and traditionally this was a view held by most Democrat and Republican officeholders -- both these extremes consider this issue through the wrong prism. Here is how Jeb Bush expressed it during an April 6, 2014, interview with Shannon Bream of Fox News. The way I look at this is, someone who comes to our country because they couldnt come legally ... and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work, to be able to provide for their family, yes, they broke the law, but its not a felony. Its an act of love, Bush added, its an act of commitment to your family. And thats my quote of the week. Carl M. Cannon Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics @CarlCannon (Twitter) ccannon@realclearpolitics.com This week the Wall Street Journal unveiled The Facebook Files an investigative series based on leaked internal Facebook materials that offer an unvarnished look at how the social media giant sees its platform and its impact on society. A central theme of the reporting is the degree to which Facebooks own research is at odds with its public statements, and that internally it has recognized the harms the platform causes for society even while publicly touting its benefits. The Journals reporting raises myriad concerns over the state of social platforms generally today, from Instagrams toxic influence on teenage girls to the impact of algorithmic changes on political discourse to how Facebook secretly shields influential users from its content moderation rules. Given the growing influence of fact-checkers as the ultimate arbitrators of truth in the digital world, the Journal also reported that their verdicts may not be as independent as publicly portrayed: Facebook has asked fact-checking partners to retroactively change their findings on posts from high-profile accounts. Asked by RealClearPolitics how many times it has intervened in fact-checking verdicts and under what circumstances it asks fact-checkers to change their rulings, a Facebook spokesperson did not answer, pointing instead to its generic fact-checking FAQ. Asked if the company would deny on the record having ordered a fact-checking partner to change a verdict, the company did not respond. The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which has established the set of standards to which most major fact-checkers adhere, did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding whether it was aware of any of its signatories receiving and/or honoring requests from Facebook to change their verdicts. Asked whether PolitiFact had ever received a request from Facebook to change one of its verdicts, if it had ever acquiesced and if it is aware of such requests to other fact-checkers, its executive director, Aaron Sharockman, responded that it is in the midst of fact-finding. Asked whether PolitiFact could at least confirm that it itself had never received or honored such requests, Sharockman responded that any comment we have, well make in the manner and time of our choosing. For an industry built on trust and transparency, it is remarkable that neither the IFCN nor PolitiFact were forthcoming on these allegations regarding Facebooks request to protect powerful causes and people. Yet if true, this would largely undermine and delegitimize their work if the powerful were able to ensure favorable verdicts for their falsehoods. Facebook helps fund the fact-checking community, accounting for more than 5% of PolitiFacts revenue in 2020 and is one of the top funders of many other checking operations. If fact-checkers are facing pressure to change their verdicts, even if they dont ultimately honor those requests, such demands could have a chilling effect on their independence. Given fact-checkers ability to halt the online distribution of stories and ideas they deem false or misleading, the public should have a right to know the degree to which outside forces are shaping their rulings. In fact, last year the business magazine Fast Company confirmed that fact-checking organizations, including IFCN signatories, have indeed changed their verdicts under pressure from Facebook. In at least one case, internal Facebook correspondence shows that an IFCN signatory changed its verdict from False to Partly False (which carries fewer penalties) after the social media platform flagged that the publisher being fact-checked was a major advertiser whose spending could be impacted by the harsher rating. Asked to comment on the apparent discrepancy between Facebooks public portrayal of fact-checkers independence and its interventions to change their verdicts, a spokesperson confirmed that the company does intervene when it believes a different rating should have been applied, but would not comment on how often this has occurred. How many times have fact-checkers changed their verdicts at the request of Facebook or other major funders? Have they ever changed verdicts at the request of influential politicians? We have no idea, and the organizations silence on the Journals reporting reminds us that the public should not expect transparency when it comes to the operations of fact-checkers or the social platforms they work with, despite their outsized power over the digital public square. Outside of leaks of internal company documents, as in the 2017 leak to The Guardian of Facebooks internal moderation guidelines or the Journals current series, the only real insights we currently have are outside researchers probes of social platforms inner workings. Facebook is increasingly pushing back on such efforts. Last month, Facebook disabled the accounts of a New York University project that asked volunteers to install a browser plug-in to collect information on how the ads they saw on the platform were targeted to them. While Facebook publishes a database of ads that run on its platforms, it notably does not provide access regarding to whom each ad is targeted. For example, the database shows that 76% of the appearances of a Pennsylvania Democratic Party ad about school boards was shown to women. Was that because Facebooks algorithms believe women care more about education issues (raising potential algorithmic bias concerns) or did the party explicitly target women (contrary to Democrats push against gender stereotypes)? There is simply no way to know. Asked why it does not publish this information for political ads, the company would only confirm that it has no plans to do so. One possibility, however, is that a closer look at how politicians target their ads would reveal uncomfortable truths about how they see America and potentially expose racial and gender stereotyping at odds with their public commitments. In the end, why does all of this matter? In Facebooks own words, it matters because even a single algorithmic tweak can influence policymaking around the world, forcing political parties to skew negative in their communications on Facebook, with the downstream effect of leading them into more extreme policy positions. In the case of one Polish political party, its posts changed from 50% positive to 80% negative exclusively because of Facebooks algorithm change to prioritize divisive content. As Facebook ultimately summarized, many political parties, including those that have shifted strongly to the negative, worry about the long-term effects on democracy. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so worried then-President Donald Trump might launch a surprise attack against China that he reached out to his Chinese counterpart and assured General Li Zuocheng that Milley would preemptively warn China. That, at least, is the salacious allegation in the new book, "Peril," co-written by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. "General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay," Milley is quoted as saying. "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you." "Peril" is based on more than 200 interviews and includes some quotes and context that suggest Gen. Milley is a key source for the book. The book documents private conversations between Milley and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, his senior staff, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Gen. Li, among others. Based on the initial release -- to be sure, Woodward is a master of prerelease self-aggrandizement -- it seems Gen. Milley took it into his own hands to bypass the civilian chain of command in order to prevent his commander in chief from going to war. Progressives may breathe easy that Milley did this. But the historic precedent would be terrible. This would amount to more of a coup than the incursion into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A military commander rallying the military leadership to ignore the president is not something anyone should condone. Frankly, if, given the circumstances, one condones it, one should at least also support Milley now retiring promptly to signal that his actions, while they might be acceptable in those circumstances, cannot be condoned as precedent. What if Woodward has it wrong? He notoriously got wrong a meeting Donald Rumsfeld had in the runup to the Iraq War. Woodward claimed Rumsfeld did not have a meeting Rumsfeld, in his own book, claimed to have had. But Rumsfeld produced not only his appointment book showing the meeting, but also the contemporaneously written notes about that meeting. Not only does his own arrogance sometimes trip him up, but sometimes Woodward's sources do also. Jonathan Swan of Axios is inarguably one of the most respected reporters in Washington today. He is trusted across parties and has incredible sources. According to his reporting, Trump's secretary of defense, Mike Esper, received intelligence reports the Chinese expected Trump to attack. According to Swan, Esper knew the Chinese intelligence was flawed and feared they might make a preemptive strike of their own. Esper requested his deputies use back channels to ensure the Chinese knew we knew what their intelligence said and that their intelligence was wrong. Esper further ordered a postponement of some American naval activities in the Pacific so the Chinese did not get spooked. Gen. Milley was one of the people who worked back channels to defuse the situation. Swan, in his reporting, writes, "Even some of (Milley's) friends are cringing over his extensive and high-profile scenes in these books and perceptions that he's participated on 'deep background' with multiple authors." Could it be as simple as Gen. Milley, a man with a very well-known ego, decided to make himself the hero of the story? Given the direct quotations from private conversations in the book and Swan's subsequent reporting, there is no doubt that Gen. Milley is a key source for Woodward. It seems entirely plausible that Milley cut Esper out of his retelling of the story and made it seem like Milley was the hero. For a variety of reasons, this would be deeply, deeply troubling. Milley would, essentially, be writing the civilian chain of command out of the true history and claiming he alone took the responsibility. It would be Milley claiming he, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, proactively bypassed his civilian commanders to tell the Chinese that he would leak military orders to them. That seems most plausible, makes Milley an ego-driven fabulist and is another reason he should resign or be fired. Perhaps President Joe Biden can make Milley the fall guy for Afghanistan. COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM "Men are abandoning higher education in such numbers that they now trail female college students by record levels." So declares the opening sentence of a Wall Street Journal piece that is creating quite the buzz. Here are some of the eye-popping statistics: Women now account for 59.5% of college students in the United States. They also earn 58.5% of master's degrees and 52.9% of Ph.D.s. Women have been earning the majority of doctorates for 13 straight years. In the 2020-21 academic year, a million more women than men applied to college. You can be forgiven if you find these numbers startling. The popular press focuses on the challenges women face, not on their achievements. We are constantly warned about silencing girls' voices, discrimination against female athletes, glass ceilings, pay gaps, "mansplaining" and the paucity of women in the top ranks of corporate America. There are innumerable programs, scholarships and inducements to increase the share of girls and women who study STEM subjects (the only fields where men continue to earn more Ph.D.s than women). And the assumption persists that it's a man's world. But that's debatable. While it's true that men still outnumber women among law firm partners, CEOs and college presidents, that may well be an artifact of age. The rising cohort is lopsidedly female, and the ranks of women managers and partners have been expanding accordingly. Top leadership will likely follow eventually (although it should be noted that women more frequently than men forgo the corner office in order to balance family and career -- a subject I discuss in my 2018 book "Sex Matters.") Seventy percent of high school valedictorians are girls. They make up such a disproportionate share of qualified college applicants that admissions committees have been practicing sub rosa affirmative action for males for many years. "Is there a thumb on the scale for boys? Absolutely," Jennifer Delahunty, a college-enrollment consultant who previously led the admissions offices at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, told The Wall Street Journal. "The question is, is that right or wrong?" There is no simple answer to that question. Colleges are admitting men with lower grades and scores, but it's not because they're attempting to prop up a flagging patriarchy. No, the reality is that women are less likely to enroll in a college with a 60/40 ratio of women to men than one that's more evenly balanced. Some might note this female preeminence and shout hurrah for feminism. But I'd keep the champagne corked, because, let's face it, women like to marry men who are their equals or superiors in education and income, and if this trend of women vastly outperforming men in education continues, a fair proportion of women are not going to be able to find compatible men. I can hear the scoffing already. How Victorian! As if women need to worry about going to college to get their "MRS" degree! That, obviously, is not the point. Marriage remains a life goal of most people. In a 2013 Gallup survey of American adults, only 5% of the respondents said they had never been married and didn't want to marry someday. (For young adults aged 18 to 34, that figure was slightly higher: 9%.) Americans are right to want marriage, which is associated with greater happiness, health and wealth for adults and with pretty much every advantage you can think of for children. Just one example: 75% of students who graduate from highly selective colleges were raised by two married parents. This brings us to a bit of social science research that deserves a lot more attention. It's not news that marriage has been in decline for decades. In 1960, about 5% of births were to unmarried women. Today, it's 40%. It is well established that children raised in single-parent families are far more likely to live in poverty, perform poorly in school and become vulnerable to life-derailing mistakes like getting into trouble with the law or dropping out of high school. But here's the part that deserves more study: It seems that growing up in a single-parent home is not as damaging to girls as it is to boys. Comparing Florida brothers and sisters who grew up in single-parent families, an MIT study found that "growing up in a single-parent home appears to significantly decrease the probability of college attendance for boys, yet has no similar effect for girls." Boys raised without fathers or father figures tend to be less ambitious and less hopeful than girls raised without fathers or father figures, and tend to get into more trouble at school. There is much other research finding similar effects. Richard Reeves, co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families, has said that when it comes to thriving in less-than-ideal family settings, "girls may be more like dandelions, while boys may be more like orchids." The gender gap that has emerged in educational attainment may be an effect of splintered families. Boys who grow up without the steadying influence of two parents struggle more than girls. So, hats off to the gals who are killing it in schools, but for both sexes to be their best and happiest, we need to revive the norm of marriage. COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM Sept. 17th is a day of celebration and pride. Two hundred and thirty-four years ago on this date, 39 delegates from throughout the fledgling United States signed our Constitution, uniting a diverse population into one nation, bound together by common principles and a deep reverence for liberty. The signing of the Constitution began the fulfillment of the promise made in the Declaration of Independence. These two documents, along with the Bill of Rights, are Americas Charters of Freedom. The Constitution paved the way for the liberation of many millions, in the United States and around the world, from the shackles of poverty, despotism, and slavery. Powerful forces today are seeking to smear Americas founding as essentially unjust for preserving slavery, but it was through the provisions of the Constitution informed by the principles of the Declaration that slavery in our nation was eradicated. A year ago today, President Donald Trump recognizing the danger of the ongoing attacks on the American heritage in academia, in the corporate world, in the media, and in the halls of government announced the creation of The Presidents Advisory 1776 Commission. Doing so, he vowed that the legacy of 1776 will never be erased and that our heroes will never be forgotten. This past January, on Martin Luther King Jr., Day, The 1776 Commission released The 1776 Report a robust restatement of Americas founding principles and ideals. The 1776 Report detailed how slavery, fascism, communism, racism, and identity politics are antithetical to those principles and ideals, and it called on schools to reject any curriculum that promotes one-sided partisan opinions, activist propaganda, or factional ideologies that demean Americas heritage, dishonor our heroes, or deny our principles. Ironically, the efforts of The 1776 Commission to strengthen the common bonds that unite Americans and to revitalize intelligent patriotism and national pride have been attacked by the same forces in our society that are working to legitimize a system of widespread discrimination based on an extraordinary claim that every realm of public life in America is systemically racist. Even the Rotunda of the National Archives, the home of our Charters of Freedom, has not escaped this campaign of defamation: those charged with preserving the Rotundas historic significance have declared that the building itself is an example of structural racism. Memorializing our history in the Rotunda, they say, amounts to a marginalization of minority voices. The charge is preposterous on its face. Consider the personification of Americas heritage in a statue that guards the Rotundas entrance. At the statues foot is an inscription from abolitionist Wendell Phillips: The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future. As that inscription was laid in the 1930s, African Americans were still struggling under the unjust discrimination imposed by Jim Crow laws. But the designers of the Archives recognized that the Charters of Freedom therein had laid the groundwork not only for the eradication of slavery, but for the continued realization of civil rights based on the American founding principle that all men are created equal. In a 1952 address at the National Archives dedicating the new shrine for the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, President Harry Truman predicted that our liberty would be lost, if the time ever comes when these documents are regarded not as the supreme expression of our profound belief, but merely as curiosities in glass cases. Much more quickly will our liberty be lost if the current dishonest narrative that condemns the Archives and the documents it houses as racist succeeds in taking root. Despite the well-funded efforts underway to demean the American heritage, there is abundant reason for hope. In addition to the ongoing work of The 1776 Commission, state legislatures are taking notice of the dangers posed by Critical Race Theory-inspired curricula and training programs, and are acting to ban them. Parents and concerned citizens are making their voices heard at school board meetings and in the media nationwide, declaring that they will not allow their childrens minds to be poisoned by this divisive and anti-American ideology. On this Constitution Day, Americans should celebrate and take pride in their country. The story of America is the story of a proud people with a boundless desire to leave for their posterity a more just and free society. This is the inheritance of all Americans. This is the inheritance of 1776. The 1776 Commission was created by President Donald Trump to promote patriotic education in America. Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson says he had to persuade Eminem to take a role on his new TV series. ADVERTISEMENT The 46-year-old rapper, actor and producer discussed Eminem , 48, and his Starz series Black Mafia Family, aka BMF, during Thursday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! Jackson told Jimmy Kimmel Live! host Jimmy Kimmel that he convinced Eminem to join the upcoming drama series. "I persuaded him to come," Jackson said. "I actually directed the episode that he's in. I called him, I put pressure on him, Jimmy." Jackson suggested that Eminem was turned off of acting after starring in the critically-acclaimed 2002 film 8 Mile. "I think he had a terrible experience on the 8 Mile project, 'cause he just didn't want to go back again, like ever again," Jackson said. "It was like, there was periods that Hollywood would offer me things to get him. Like, his agent would go, 'Yeah, this is good. Give it to 50 and then let 50 take it to him,'" he shared. Jackson said Eminem turned down projects, including one that would have paid him $8 million. He said Eminem instead suggested a remake of the 1979 film Warriors. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! BMF is executive produced by Jackson and stars Demetrius Flenory Jr. and Da'Vinchi as Charles and Terry Flenory, two real-life brothers who headed an influential crime family in 1980s Detroit. The new series co-stars Russell Hornsby and Steve Harris and will feature guest appearances by Eminem, Snoop Dogg and La La Anthony. Starz shared a first teaser for BMF in July. The series premieres Sept. 26. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/16/2021 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Julia Trubkina has clapped back at a troll claiming she "didn't care" about her father-in-law Rob Gibbs' health crisis, which was revealed during the Tell-All for : Happily Ever After?'s sixth season.Following Sunday's episode of : Pillow Talk, many of Julia's followers reached out to her via Instagram, expressing concern over her thyroid since she had appeared somewhat swollen on the show."Guys, after Pillow Talk I have received so many messages [from] kind people, thanks for your support," Julia captioned a cropped photo of herself."I don't like to talk about my health with no one, but thank you for worrying!"In the comments section of her post, one Instagram user wrote, "But you didn't care about Ron's health issue during the tell all."Julia then addressed her apparent lack of compassion or sympathy for her husband Brandon Gibbs' father on television."If I don't say and show everyone what I care about and how I care it doesn't mean that I don't," Julia insisted."Not all people put their emotions and actions on display to be heroes."Julia went on to complain, "I have to take pictures and say look, today I brought Ron oranges, look how great I am. Do you think this is how it should be?"Julia added two emoticons to her comment, one of a woman placing her palm on the forehead and another of a woman shrugging her shoulders.During Part 1 of the Tell-All, Brandon broke down into tears over his father's illness, ailment or health battle."We don't know how much longer we're going to be able to [run the farm] just by ourselves and Ron's in the process of retiring," Brandon's mother Betty Gibbs explained with Ron by her side via videochat during the August broadcast."He's had a few health issues; this might take its toll on him for a while until he's finished with his treatments."The word "treatments" and Betty's explanation for why they needed Brandon and Julia's help at the Virginia farm led many fans to believe Ron may be suffering from cancer, but no one in the family revealed additional details.Ron clearly wanted to keep his health a private issue, however, he expressed how he's maintaining a positive attitude and optimism throughout the whole ordeal."I'm doing some different medications and things like that to get over it," Ron said. "I expect to have a complete, full recovery."Brandon appeared heartbroken over the situation and admitted he'd like to spend more time with his parents and help them out with chores and responsibilities, but Julia seemed unaffected and unfazed.In fact, Julia, who seemed happy living in her Richmond apartment with Brandon, argued that she'd never live on Ron and Betty's farm again or even move into a house across the street -- regardless of the circumstances."Julia, if Brandon insisted on moving back to the farm or at least in this house next door, what would that mean for your relationship?" Shaun asked."No, I mean, this is not going to happen. I don't want to [talk] about it or give this attention... because it's not [happening]," Julia responded, adding that she doesn't want to take care of a bunch of animals.But Ron pointed out how family is the most important thing in the world and they should pull and stick together.The Russia native and Brandon previously starred on Season 8 of and were shown getting married on the series in a quickie church wedding ceremony during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.The show featured Julia hating life with Brandon on the farm and demanding they move away from his parents and eventually sell the farm. Brandon seemed constantly conflicted over making Julia vs. his parents happy and proud.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/17/2021 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Nicole Nafziger has announced "a big decision" she has made that will change her life.Nicole wrote Thursday on Instagram she's "moving forward" and "creating a better life" for herself following her split from her longtime love and co-star Azan Tefou After dating for five years and dealing with constant speculation Azan was using her and their relationship was on the rocks, Nicole announced in July she was "heartbroken" to confirm that she and Azan are "done for good."On Monday, Nicole posted a selfie on Instagram and revealed "a couple life updates" now that she's a single mom of a six-year-old daughter named May."I made a big decision in my life," Nicole, 27, captioned the photo. "Im enrolled in college at SCF!"Nicole enrolled at the State College of Florida, ManateeaSarasota and has set some tangible goals for her future."It has been a challenge going back to school after so long. But I am determined to make a better life for me and my daughter," Nicole continued in her post."I am currently working on [prerequisites] to get into the Radiology program. I'm so blessed to have the supportive family that I do. They help keep me going on the days that I doubt myself."Nicole has always had support and encouragement from her mother Robbalee Nafziger, for example, who took care of May when Nicole would visit Azan in Morocco.Nicole then switched gears in her update and touched upon her failed relationship with Azan."For those who have asked, my relationship with Azan has ended," she confirmed. "I am currently concentrating on school and making sure my focus is on what's important."When Nicole announced her breakup with Azan earlier this summer, she told In Touch Weekly, "Azan and I have decided to go our separate ways. We had much love and respect for each other, but we weren't without our faults .""Unfortunately, we can no longer continue our journey together," she added."This may be a shock to many because we stayed strong for so long through it all. But as we move forward and heal, we ask that you respect both parties and not constantly ask about it."The reality TV star said, "Thank you to everyone who has supported us together and continue to support [us] as separate individuals."Nicole insisted she still considers Azan to be "a good person" despite their split."[He] deserves to be happy as much as I do. We ended on good terms and I wish him the best," Nicole noted.Nicole hinted her relationship with Azan may be over in late March when she told her Instagram followers, "Y'all wanted to know how I'm doing since I don't post much. Well, maybe this gives you an idea? I'm working on bettering my life," according to In Touch."Figuring out who I am and knowing what I want in life. I have good days and bad, but I continue to work for the life I deserve," she continued at the time."Wish they had a crash course on knowing yourself. And can someone tell me how motivation works? Because I seem to be lacking some lately. Bettering your life is more than a job or situation. Mental state is so important."Nicole wasn't posting much on Instagram at that time in general, and she and Azan had also noticeably deleted all pictures of each other on their respective accounts in February.Nicole had also erased the "engaged to H" part of her Instagram bio and replaced it with, "Mom. Twitch Streamer."Nicole and Azan spent four months together last year in Morocco, and Nicole's trip ended in August 2020 when she returned home to Florida to be with her young daughter.Nicole gushed about having "baby fever" once she settled back into her life in the United States."I'm so happy I got to see you baby. Hopefully next time I won't have to leave and we'll be a family with May," Nicole captioned a photo of the pair on Instagram on August 9, 2020.Nicole claimed she had been stuck in Morocco with Azan beginning in mid-March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the country shutting down international flights.Given there were several flights allowing Americans stuck abroad in Morocco to return home, fans criticized Nicole for being a "bad mom" and not caring about her daughter.When one of Nicole's followers asked her on Instagram why she had decided against hopping on one of those flights in June 2020, Nicole clapped back , "Every time I've looked into it, it's [twice or thrice] the price of a normal flight that the passenger has to pay."Nicole continued in her comment, "Y'all think you've got it all figured out because of whatever you [hear], but [were] you one of the people who had to actually email the government to see? Nope.""Stop judging my [life] and decisions. Just an idea. I know you won't listen because it's easier to pin me as a bad mom and gossip about the drama. Soon enough, y'all can take a [peek] into my real life. Maybe," she concluded.An insider told the magazine last summer Nicole's family wasn't "thrilled" about her trip to Morocco in the first place but "they understand that [Nicole is] an adult and can make her own decisions.""She knows how her family feels about Azan but chooses to follow her feelings over theirs," the insider said, adding that Nicole was thoroughly "enjoying" every moment she got to spend with Azan.Prior to Nicole's 2020 trip to Morocco, RadarOnline reported in November 2019 it had been two years since the couple of five years last spent time together in person."They still talk occasionally, but there have been a lot of fights between them on the phone," a source had said."The family is surprised they're still together ... He can't get a visa. She's talked about going back to Morocco, but she doesn't have money. She has to save."Nicole and Azan met on a mobile dating app years ago when she was 21 years old and living in Bradenton, FL. Azan was 23 years old and from Agadir, Morocco, at the time.Nicole and Azan got their start on reality TV by starring on Season 4 of the original series, followed by Season 5 of the series.That later led into an appearance on Season 3 of : Happily Ever After? and then Season 4. Many fans were led to believe, based on the footage, that Azan was using Nicole for money.Nicole and Azan's initial wedding plans in Morocco in 2018 fell through due to alleged time and financial constraints.Nicole then planned to meet Azan for a fun vacation in Grenada, but Azan chose to cancel their reunion due to an alleged "family emergency."Nicole therefore booked a trip back to Morocco in 2019, when she thought a wedding would be "highly likely." But the trip got canceled just two weeks later.Nicole never disclosed the reasons behind canceling that trip to Morocco, but the frustration and disappointment all over her face on Season 4 of : Happily Ever After? pointed to Azan being the decision-maker.During the Tell-All special for the spinoff's fourth season, Nicole announced her trip to Morocco didn't happen "because sometimes, things are just personal."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/16/2021 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. alum Arie Luyendyk Jr. has admitted he doesn't want to have any more kids after welcoming twin babies with wife Lauren Burnham three months ago.Arie and Lauren, who fell in love on 's 22nd season, welcomed their twins , Senna and Lux, in June, and they are also parents to a two-year-old daughter, Alessi, who was born in May 2019 "Any more babies? Arie?," Lauren, 29, asked in a Wednesday video posted to Arie's Instagram Story."No," Arie, 39, firmly replied, shaking his head. "No more babies!"Lauren therefore asked her husband, "Vasectomy time?""Yes!" Arie confirmed.Lauren laughed and told their Instagram followers, "You heard it first!"In the video -- which was one of many clip posted as part of the couple's Q&A session with fans -- both Lauren and Arie each had a baby strapped to his or her chest.The lovebirds were drinking wine and dancing in their kitchen for about 20 minutes before the twins had to be fed again.Lauren and Arie previously said they are starting to "figure out" how to raise three children also it's "complete chaos" at night because the babies have different sleep and awake schedules, according to Us Weekly.But Arie and Lauren have said they complement one another really well when it comes to taking care of their little ones."If she's having a mental breakdown, I get it together," Arie reportedly shared of his wife, who was hospitalized with postpartum health issues in July."That is what makes us great at co-parenting. We can sense when the other needs a little bit more heavy lifting on the parenting end."The couple announced Lauren was pregnant with twins in December 2020, not long after Lauren suffered a miscarriage in May of last year.Arie and Lauren then revealed in January 2021 they had a baby boy and a baby girl on the way As for where they're living with three kids, Arie and Lauren recently bought a house in Hawaii , although they don't stay there "full-time."The pair plan to split their time between Hawaii and Arizona, spending the hotter summer months in Hawaii.Lauren finished Arie's season of in second place when Arie actually chose Becca Kufrin as his winner and popped the question to her during the Final Rose Ceremony, which aired in March 2018.But weeks after getting engaged, Arie decided to dump Becca because he claimed he was still in love with Lauren, and then he begged Lauren for a second chance.Once Lauren took the former racecar driver back, Arie proposed marriage in March 2018 on : After the Final Rose after Season 22 aired on ABC.Arie and Lauren subsequently moved into their first home together in Phoenix, AZ, in April of that year.The pair announced they were expecting their first child together in November 2018 and revealed two months later that Lauren was pregnant with a daughter.Arie and Lauren tied the knot at Haiku Mill in Maui, Hawaii in January 2019, only four months before Alessi's arrival.Interested in more news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon return in Season 2 of The Morning Show, Cedric the Entertainer hosts the 73rd annual Emmy Awards and Sex Education Season 3 will premiere this weekend. ADVERTISEMENT In addition, Melanie Lynskey 's Hannah befriends a ghost in Lady of the Manor, filmmaker Steve McQueen presents his Uprising documentary series and Max Harwood's Jamie wants to be a drag queen in Everybody's Talking About Jamie. Here's a rundown on some of the films and television shows that are set to be released this weekend. Films 'Lady of the Manor' -- VOD Melanie Lynskey 's Hannah portrays a stoner and alcoholic who meets a ghost while working at the historical Wadsworth Manor in Lady of the Manor, which is coming to video-on-demand services on Friday. Judy Greer portrays the ghost who helps Hannah improve her life and find out the secret behind the manor. Justin Long also stars in the comedy, which he directed and wrote with his younger brother, Christian Long. 'Everybody's Talking About Jamie' -- Amazon Prime Video Jamie (Max Harwood) pursues his dreams of becoming a drag queen in Everybody's Talking About Jamie, which premieres Friday on Amazon Prime Video. He will be mentored by a local drag legend portrayed by Richard E. Grant and must contend with an unsupportive father, his school's career adviser and classmates. Lauren Patel, Sarah Lancashire, Ralph Ineson and Sharon Horgan also star in the film, from director Jonathan Butterell. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! TV 'The Morning Show' Season 2 -- Apple TV+ Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) deal with the fallout of Season 1 and enter into a new era at the UBA network in Season 2 of The Morning Show, which arrives Friday on Apple TV+. The new season will explore how its characters react to real-life events from 2020 including the COVID-19 pandemic and the presidential election. Hasan Minhaj, Julianna Margulies are joining Season 2 as journalists, with Steve Carell, Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass returning. 'Uprising' -- Amazon Prime Video Filmmaker Steve McQueen explores three events from 1981 in the U.K. in this documentary series, which comes Friday to Amazon Prime Video. Uprising examines the New Cross fire that killed 13 Black youths, the Black People's Day of Action protest and the Brixton riots using archival footage and interviews with those who were there. McQueen directed Uprising with James Rogan. 'Chicago Party Aunt' -- Netflix Lauren Ash voices a middle-aged party animal who takes in her nephew in Chicago Party Aunt, which premieres Friday on Netflix. Rory O'Malley voices nephew Daniel who feels like he doesn't fit in at Stanford. Ash's Diane Dunbrowski will help Daniel get out of his shell. Jill Talley, Ike Barinholtz , Jon Barinholtz, Da'Vine Joy Randolph , Katie Rich and Chris Witaske also provide voices. The series is based on Witaske's Twitter account of the same name. 'Sex Education' Season 3 -- Netflix Asa Butterfield returns as a teenager who runs a sex advice business at his school in Sex Education Season 3, which arrives Friday on Netflix. Butterfield's Otis will be confronted by Emma Mackey's Maeve about the voicemail he left her in Season 2, while his mother Jean, portrayed by Gillian Anderson, contends with being pregnant. Ncuti Gatwa, Connor Swindells and Jemima Kirke also star. Emmy Awards -- CBS, Paramount+ CBS is presenting the 73rd annual Emmy Awards, which airs live Sunday from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. EDT. The ceremony is also available to stream on Paramount+. Cedric the Entertainer is serving as the host. The Crown and The Mandalorian lead all contenders with 24 nominations, each followed by WandaVision with 23, The Handmaid's Tale and Saturday Night Live with 21 and Ted Lasso with 20. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Partly cloudy this evening followed by increasing clouds with showers developing after midnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening followed by increasing clouds with showers developing after midnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. 3 1 of 3 Curt Hanson / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Curt Hanson / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3 CORNWALL Curt Hanson: Seasons in Cornwall, is the featured art exhibit at the Cornwall Library, through Oct. 23. Like many artists who are drawn to the Northwest corner and Cornwall specifically, Hanson was a great admirer of the natural world. He sought to capture its beauty in his paintings - the stillness as well as the movement, library members said in a statement. Emulating the methodology of the Barbizon painters in 19th century France, early on in his career Hanson was known for painting from life, setting up outside and creating a sketch of the land, trees, clouds, and streams that he so loved to represent in his artwork. He then would either add paint in situ or finish it up back in his studio, the latter method being the one he employed the most before he passed away in 2017. The result is an open and accessible style of landscape painting that echoes that of French impressionist painters who were influential on Hansons own teachers. George Malkemus, who co-founded Bantam-based Arethusa Farm Dairy with partner Tony Yurgaitis, died Thursday after a long illness, Arethusa representatives announced Friday. He was 67. "It is with a heavy heart that we tell you our beloved George Malkemus passed away yesterday evening at his home in New York City after a long battle with cancer," Arethusa announced in posts on Facebook and Instagram. "Our George was very private preferring not to trouble anyone with his health concerns. Though, throughout his illness, George and Tony worked together planning for and insuring the future of Arethusa," the post stated. "Even in our grief, we will honor George and his legacy by following his wishes - to celebrate his life and continuing to serve our community the very best that Arethusa Farm has to offer." Malkemus and Yurgaitis, known for their work as high-powered fashion executives with the Manolo Blahnik shoe brand, started Arethusa Farm Dairy with the goal of saving open farmland. They bought the Bantam farm in 1999, and then became interested in establishing their own dairy herd and bought purebred registered Holsteins, Jerseys and Brown Swiss cows. In a 2016 interview, Malkemus expressed his contentment with life on the farm: "Its a different kind of satisfaction," he said. "What we experience on the farm is so different than what we do in New York City. The city is not all about clothes and jewelry and being thin. People there have children and home and work with charities. But its the city. We come here and the people are so different. Its a different lifestyle and, of course, there are the cattle and working with our employees here. Its part of our lives now. Its soothing." Two decades after its founding, Arethusa produces coveted "old fashioned" ice cream, milk, butter, fine cheeses, yogurt and holiday eggnog. Its Bantam dairy shop is next door to its full-service restaurant, Arethusa al tavolo, and across the street from its bakery Arethusa a mano. A scoop shop in New Haven by the Yale campus features ice cream with freshly-made waffle cones and Arethusa's full line of dairy products and a West Hartford cafe opened in 2020 with coffee, pastries, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, salads and ice cream. In July, Food & Wine magazine named Arethusa's ice cream as the best in Connecticut. Writer David Landsel said the decision was a tough call, noting the Nutmeg State's "small-town mom-and-pop operations" as well as "destination-worthy farmstead creameries." An Arethusa representative had no further comment Friday afternoon. BEIJING (AP) China has applied to join an 11-nation Asia-Pacific free trade group in an effort to increase its influence over international policies. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao submitted an application to the trade minister of New Zealand as a representative of the Comprehensive and Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Commerce Ministry announced Thursday. The CPTPP originally was the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a group promoted by then-President Barack Obama as part of Washingtons increased emphasis on relations with Asia. China was not included in the initial group and Obamas successor, Donald Trump, pulled out in 2017. President Joe Biden has not rejoined the group. An official Chinese newspaper, Global Times, said the application cements Beijing's leadership in global trade and leaves the United States increasingly isolated. The CPTPP, which took effect in 2018, includes agreements on market access, movement of labor and government procurement. Other members include Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Britain is negotiating to join. If China joins, that would quadruple the total population within the group to some 2 billion people. Chinas government has promised to increase imports of goods but faces complaints it is failing to carry out promises made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 to open finance and other service industries. China is also a member of various other trading arrangements, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which includes many nations in Asia that are not part of the CPTPP. LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) A Kansas City, Missouri man, has been sentenced to nearly 50 years in prison for causing a fatal crash while he was fleeing from law enforcement officers in Kansas. Anthony Jay Dorsey, 31, was sentenced for second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Nathan Pena, of Brookfield, Illinois, Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said Friday. Meriden Police Department / Contributed Photo MERIDEN Police say an 18-year-old man was arrested Thursday for wounding two people a drive-by shooting earlier this year. On April 24, Joshua Betancourt, 18, was riding in a car with two other people when he shot them, the Meriden Police Department said Thursday. An Indian defence delegation led by Lieutenant General Vinod Khandare, Military Adviser and National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) is on a visit to Nigeria to explore new areas of convergence for mutual engagement. The delegation is being deemed unique in its composition for incorporating representatives of NSCS, Ministry of Defence, all three Armed Forces, Ministry of External Affairs and Defence Industry deputies. The composite delegation met pivotal Nigerian Security sector functionaries including the Defence Minister, National Security Advisor, Chief of Army Staff, political entities and defence industry delegates, where they talked about ways to boost bilateral relations between the two nations. India-Africa defence relations based on principles of 'SAGAR' It should be noted here that India has been trying to enhance military cooperation with African Nations in recent times. The Defence Ministry said last week, "The foundation of India-Africa defence relations are based on the two guiding principles namely 'SAGAR' - Security and Growth for All in the Region and 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' (The world is One Family)." The Ministry had also announced that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be hosting the Defence Ministers of African Nations in the next India-Africa Defence Dialogue on the sidelines of the 'DefExpo' (Defence Expo), a flagship biennial event of the Ministry of Defence that is scheduled to be held at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, in March 2022. Bilateral defence dialogue stresses strengthening security cooperations According to the Defence Ministry, the comprehensive theme of the India-Africa Defence Dialogue will be 'India-Africa: Adopting Strategy for Synergizing and Strengthing Defence and Security Cooperation.' Lucknow, on February 6, 2020, hosted the maiden India-Africa Defence Ministers Conclave (IADMC) in collaboration with DefExpo and the event was co-organised by the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of External Affairs. The Ministry of Defence had maintained that the event was the first in the line of Pan-Africa events at the ministerial level in the run-up to India-Africa Forum Summit IV. A joint declaration named the Lucknow Declaration was approved following the conclusion of IADMC 2020 as a result of the conclave. Meanwhile, the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses has been selected as the knowledge partner of the India-Africa Defence Dialogue and the organisation will help in providing the necessary support for enhanced defence cooperation between India and Africa. Inputs: ANI Image: ANI Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit on Friday. He was also there to attend the SCO Summit. The two spoke on several topics majorly focusing on the Afghanistan situation. Meanwhile, EAM Jaishankar represented Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Summit who further addressed the session via video conferencing. Taking to Twitter, he shared an image from the meeting and expressed his delight after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. He wrote, "A useful discussion on contemporary issues, including Afghanistan, before the commencement of the SCO Summit." Always good to meet Russian FM Sergey Lavrov. A useful discussion on contemporary issues, including Afghanistan, before the commencement of the SCO Summit. pic.twitter.com/827g33S1jH Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 17, 2021 EAM Jaishankar also met several other key leaders from different countries including Iran, Uzbekistan, Armenia, China, and others. The External Affairs Minister is currently in the Tajikistan capital for the SCO Summit scheduled to be held on 17 September, Friday. Earlier, he also met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the SCO summit. The meeting saw several discussions including the disengagement in the border areas looking forward to the restoration of peace and tranquillity. Also, discussions on global development were held. SCO Summit 2021 The SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one the largest transregional international organisation. It is worth mentioning that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now scheduled to virtually participate in the SCO Summit on 17 September. Jaishankar, on the other hand, will be attending the meeting on Afghanistan with the heads of SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Addressing the SCO Summit. https://t.co/FU9WtFBWeF Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 17, 2021 As per India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the summit will have discussions on past productivity and future aspects. Image: PTI/Twitter/@SJaishankar External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met with his counterpart from Iran on Friday to discuss views on the recent happenings in Afghanistan. He met Hossein Amirabdollahian during the SCO meet in Dushanbe to discuss ways to improve bilateral ties and also met with the foreign ministers of Uzbekistan and Armenia. Jaishankar is in the Tajik capital to participate in the meeting organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan after the country was taken over by the Taliban last month. Jaishankar said in a tweet, "Discussed strengthening our bilateral relations and working together on regional challenges[sic]. Glad to meet Iranian FM @Amirabdolahian on the sidelines of the SCO meet in Dushanbe. Discussed strengthening our bilateral relations and working togther on regional challenges. pic.twitter.com/Y3iiOLz12T Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 In his meeting with the newly appointed Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Jaishankar said that the two ministers discussed extensively on how to work together to expand the bilateral ties even further. After his meeting with the foreign minister of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov, Jaishankar tweeted, Good to meet FM Abdulaziz Kamilov of Uzbekistan. Our conversation focused on the Afghanistan situation. As countries combating terrorism and fundamentalism, our close cooperation is in mutual interest[sic]. Actor Prachee Panday and her group of dancers performed for the audience with an exquisite sequence in the gala concert at the SCO Summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed the annual SCO summit and spoke on the developments in Afghanistan as well as the overall regional security scenario. Later during the day, Jaishankar is scheduled for another meeting to discuss Afghanistan with the heads of state of SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. What is the SCO? The SCO is considered a counterweight to the NATO and is an eight-member economic and security bloc. It has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. India and Pakistan became their permanent members in 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence. India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region. (With inputs from PTI) (Image: AP/PTI) As a part of the long-time standoff between India and China, India has assured that the completion of troops withdrawal from the remaining conflict points in eastern Ladakh will provide a way for de-escalation between both sides and further ensure peace and tranquillity on the border. As asserted by the Ministry of External Affairs, such advances will also help in enhancing the progress in bilateral relations. As stated in a joint statement by the Indian Army issued after the 12th round of discussions between both sides, they had candid and impactful discussion on the process of disengagement. Further speaking on the same, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi reiterated that complete peace in the border regions can only be established after the completion of the withdrawal process from the areas of conflict for ensuring peace and progress. He also spoke about an estimated discussion between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar along with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during his current visit but stated that nothing as such can be ruled out at this moment. Meanwhile, EAM Jaishankar is in Tajikistan for attending a major meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation relating to the situation in Afghanistan. India-China border disputes in LAC It's been over a year since the disputes between India and China on the border. Earlier, the border standoff started in the month of May following major clashes between both sides in the Pangong lake area after which the deployment of military troops was increased along with thousands of soldiers. At this moment, both the Indian and Chinese sides have deployed around 50,000 to 60,000 military troops in the areas especially those which are more prone to violent clashes. However, after a series of military discussions between the Indian and Chinese governments withdrawal of troops has been completed followed by an agreement on disengagement. Meanwhile, several reports regarding the activities of China at the border regions have also surfaced which includes installing panoramic cameras and a three-level surveillance system at the LAC area. (With PTI inputs; Image: PTI) The Rajasthan Intelligence and Military Intelligence has now arrested a spy from the Narhar area of Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Sandeep Kumar, a spy of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was arrested after the two intelligence agencies conducted a joint operation. The spy was arrested for allegedly sending sensitive confidential information to Pakistan. The 30-year-old has been living in Narhar for years now. The ISI spy was arrested by the Rajasthan Intelligence and Military Intelligence from Narhar where he runs a gas agency. It is noteworthy that the area hosts an army campus nearby. Following the arrest, Rajasthan Director General of Police (Intelligence) Umesh Mishra said that the Pakistani spy has been sending photographs and sensitive confidential information of Army Camp Narhar to the Pakistani handler through WhatsApp, voice call and video calls. It is informed that the spy from Pakistan for the information he shared. Sandeep Kumar was a resident of Jhunjhunu and was operating an Indane Gas Agency near the Narhar Army Camp. According to DG Mishra, the Director of Indane Gas Agency at Narhad, Sandeep Kumar was detained on September 12 after surveillance by State Intelligence and Military Intelligence Southern Command. The agencies nabbed the alleged spy in a joint mission. Kumar is currently being interrogated at the Joint Inquiry Center, Jaipur for more information regarding the spy network. ISI-Dawood terror plot busted In a major bust, the Delhi Police special cell in close cooperation with the Uttar Pradesh ATS conducted a multi-state terror crackdown and arrested six suspects of which two alleged terrorists were trained in Pakistan. The massive terror crackdown busted the nexus of Pak-ISI and the Underworld in coordinating terror activities in India. As per the Delhi Police, Pakistan's ISI and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees Ibrahim coordinated the terror plot to target multiple cities in India during the upcoming festive season. Following the arrests last week, the Delhi Police informed that firearms and explosives were also recovered during the crackdown. While one was arrested from Kota, two were arrested in Delhi and three from Uttar Pradesh with the help of UP ATS. The names of those arrested are Jaan Mohammad Shaikh alias Sameer Kaliya, Osama a.k.a Sami, Zeeshan Qamar, Mohd Abu Bakar, Mohd Amir Javed and Moolchand who also goes by the name Saaju and Lala. Image: REPUBLICTV/ PTI The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Tuesday seized a Pakistani boat Allah Pawakal' with 12 crew members on board. The boat was then taken to Okha by marine police, local police and central IB for further interrogation. Now, the investigation has revealed that all 12 crew members on board were from Karachi, Pakistan. The ICG caught the boat during a surveillance mission. The team has found a fishing net and a larger amount of ration was found from the boat. No FIR has been registered yet and is expected to be filed in Porbandar. A release statement said that for further investigation on the matter, the boat has been taken to Okha in Devbhoomi Dwarka district of Gujarat. On the night of September 14, Indian Coast Guard ship 'Rajratan', while on a surveillance mission apprehended a Pakistani boat named 'Allah Pawawakal' in Indian waters with 12 crew," the ICG had informed. Pakistan boat terror investigation The investigation over the boat and its crew members is still underway. The boat is also being tracked with their GPS to find out the whereabouts of the boat before it was seized by the ICG. All the 12 crew members are in custody and local intelligence agencies are also coordinating with the investigation. The incident has alerted central agencies with the possibility of terror links as earlier the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had informed India that a small boat was used by the terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Pak-backed terrorists planning major blasts in India held In a major development, Republic Media Network on Thursday accessed details of a foiled Pakistani terror plot. According to details, the terrorists nabbed by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had received special training in Pakistan. The terrorists, who have also been linked with Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees Ibrahim, were arrested by the UP ATS after they received information from central agencies and Special Cell of Delhi Police regarding multiple blasts being planned by terror suspects and explosives being stored at various locations. According to the latest information on the terror suspects, Osama a.k.a Sami and Zeeshan Qamar were given training for bridge blast, railway track blast, and large gathering area blast in Pakistan. Moreover, it has also been revealed that the terrorists travelled to Pakistan using a boat from Oman. They had made their way into Pakistan without procuring any stamping to avoid proof that they ever visited the country. Around 1.5 kg of RDX was found with the terrorists suggesting that they were planning a large gathering area blast. The terrorists continue to be interrogated by the Information Bureau for more information on the plan. Image: TWITTER Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday virtually addressed the 21st Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit that is taking place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. During his address, PM Modi welcomed Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt as the new dialogue partners. PM Modi remarked that SCO's expansion shows the increasing effect of organisation. In addition, he stated that the new membership will make the SCO stronger and more credible. He asserted that the biggest challenges are related to peace, security and trust deficit. #LIVE | The 20th anniversary of the SCO is a suitable occasion to think about the future of the institution. I believe that the biggest challenges are related to peace, security and trust deficit: PM @narendramodi Tune in to watch here - https://t.co/jghcajZuXf pic.twitter.com/yI7Qj7sxJq Republic (@republic) September 17, 2021 PM Modi on radicalisation The Prime Minister highlighted that the main reason for these challenges is the increasing radicalisation. Speaking about Afghanistan, PM Modi stated that the recent events in the war-torn country have made the current situation even more clear. Therefore, Modi has called for the SCO to take proactive steps regarding the issues. "If we look at history, we can see that Central Asia has been a centre of moderate and a progressive culture with values," said PM Modi "SCO must develop a shared template to fight radicalization and extremism in Middle East," he added He further asserted that every country in SCO including India has moderate, tolerant and inclusive organisations and traditions related to Islam. Therefore, PM Modi has urged the SCO to create a strong network between these organisations. PM Modi expressed that India hopes that all countries cooperate regarding the calendar of activities proposed by it under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). We expect cooperation & support from all SCO countries in the calendar of activities proposed by India under its presidency of the SCO. The fight against radicalization isn't just important for regional security and inter-trust, it is also important for the future of our youth. pic.twitter.com/sTTZBerFZa BJP (@BJP4India) September 17, 2021 The Prime Minister has called for SCO countries to become stakeholders of emerging technology by pushing the youth towards science and rational thinking. Modi suggested that the countries should connect entrepreneurs and start-ups to promote innovative approach and mindset. "With the same thinking, India organized the first SCO Start Up Forum and SCO Young Scientist Conclave last year," the Prime Minister added "Wheter it is UPI or Rupay systems or the Aarogya Setu platform to fight COVID-19, India has taken assistance of technology," said PM Modi Modi remarked that India has shared the technology platforms related to Aarogya Setu and CoWIN with other countries. However, he said that due to radicalisation, the complete potential has been untapped. Speaking about India's connectivity with Central Asia, PM Modi added that it believes that landlocked Central Asian countries can benefit by connecting to Indian markets. "Our investment in Iran's Chabahar Port and our attempts in International North-South Corridor support this," he said "No attempts of connectivity can be a one-way street. To ensure this, such projects need to be consultative, transparent and participative," he added Modi further stressed on the need for connectivity and remarked that India is willing to contribute to the efforts. Concluding his address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) The SCO is an organisation that is seen as a counterweight to NATO. The eight-member economic and security bloc has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence. India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region. On the 71st birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned to organize a 'Seva and Samparan' campaign comprised of various welfare activities for 20 days starting from September 17. Apart from cleanliness, Atmanirbhar and various other drives, this year PM Modi's birthday will begin with an aim to create a record of maximum COVID-19 vaccine inoculations. Meanwhile, Prime Minister's this year birthday is additionally significant as he is going to complete 20 years in public office on October 7. PM Modi is currently in this third year of the second consecutive term as Prime Minister and has repeatedly emphasised the motto of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas' in governance. Apart from the tagline, PM Modi in all his public addresses has also highlighted his party's priority which includes National Security and Nation's Aatmanirbharata (self reliance). Importantly, he is also the first Prime Minister of India to be born after Independence. List of initiatives by the Modi govt: On PM Modi's birthday, here is a look at his Governance from the past six and a half years. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Gujarat (October 2001 to May 2014) PM Modi drove BJP to win against Congress with his promises of corruption-free governance. While securing a full majority in 2014 and 2019, the PM Modi-led BJP has taken several welfare initiatives. Ayushman Bharat- World's largest healthcare programme which covers over 50 crore Indians, Ayushman Bharat is a national public health insurance fund initiated by PM Modi with an aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage for low-income earners in the country. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana- The scheme is to motivate Indians to open their bank accounts for financial assistance. Jan Dhan- Aadhaar- Mobile (JAM)- To bring transparency and speed and cut out delays and corruption. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana- To provide smoke-free kitchens and till now over 7 crore beneficiaries, most of whom are women have been registered under it. 'Housing for All' scheme- Under the initiative, nearly 18,000 villages without electricity have been electrified. The government has a targetted house for everyone by 2022 and has sought to give focus to agriculture through schemes like PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Soil Health Cards, E-NAM. Apart from the initiatives and schemes for citizens of India, PM Modi has launched national activities including 'Swachh Bharat Mission,' infrastructure for more highways, railways, i-ways and waterways. The UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) Scheme has sought to boost connectivity. A step to boost Indian manufacturing capacity with 'Make in India' initiative, an initiative to boost digital transactions, and sought to fund the unfunded through Mudra Yojana, and attention to India's rich history and culture. Moreover, environmental causes have been given a massive push to renewable energy. As Chief Minister of Gujarat, PM Modi created a separate Climate Change Department. India has taken the International Solar Alliance initiative. He has also sought to bring a new approach to disaster management, harnessing the power of technology and the strength of human resources. Lastly, his foreign policy initiatives have proved to be successful with India's presence of all Heads of States of SAARC Nations and invitation in BIMSTEC leaders at the start of the second term. PM Modi has been conferred various honours including the highest civilian honour of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Maldives. (With ANI inputs) Kolkata, Sep 16 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asserted that she will not allow the country to turn into Pakistan or the Taliban. Alleging that the saffron party has claimed the Bhabanipur constituency in south Kolkata will become Pakistan if the TMC wins the by-poll from there, Banerjee accused the BJP of practising divisive politics. The Trinamool Congress supremo is contesting the by-election from Bhabanipur. "I don't like the policies and politics of the BJP. They only follow the politics of dividing people on religious lines. In Nandigram, they had said it would become Pakistan (if the TMC wins). In Bhabanipur too, they are saying it will turn into Pakistan. This is shameful," Banerjee said while campaigning. Banerjee lost to Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP from Nandigram during the assembly election held earlier this year. She has to win this by-poll to retain her chief minister's post. "I want my country to be strong and will protect my motherland with all my might. We don't want India to become another Taliban (ruled state). I will never allow my country to turn into Pakistan," she said while talking to the voters in the area. Criticising the state BJP leadership for taking exception to her recent visit to a mosque in the area, Banerjee said the saffron camp has a problem with her visiting a Gurudwara too. "I have visited a mosque; I have visited a Gurudwara also; and the BJP has a problem with both. I don't bring religion into politics, unlike the BJP leaders who only understand the language of divisive politics," she said. On the sizeable Hindi-speaking population of the Bhabanipur constituency, the TMC boss said she would stand by them through thick and thin. "I never differentiate among communities. It is the BJP which destroys brotherhood and social fabric among communities," she said. To woo the area's business community, Banerjee said she was the first politician in the country who had opposed demonetisation in 2016. "I was the first to oppose demonetisation. I know the kind of harassment the business community has gone through during demonetisation. I used to regularly visit Burrabazar (the business hub of Kolkata) and talk to the business community members," she said. Hitting out at the saffron camp over its "ploy" to sell off the country's assets, she said those were not personal property of the BJP. "The government is trying to sell off the entire country. Railways, airports and ports.... They want to sell everything off. Can you sell the soil of the country?" Banerjee said. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in August announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline that will look to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors ranging from power to road and railways. Banerjee said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure that Covaxin is recognised so that those who availed that vaccine against Covid-19 can travel abroad. Later, Banerjee visited the Laxmi Narayan Temple in the area and offered puja. She was also seen offering 'Arati'. A metropolitan constituency, Bhabanipur is home to a large number of Gujaratis and Sikhs, mostly into business, living alongside Bengalis. Banerjee, who is herself a resident of Bhabanipur constituency, had won the seat twice in 2011 and 2016 but shifted to Nandigram, to dare her former protege and now a BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari in his home turf. Though Banerjee powered the TMC to a resounding win for a third straight term in office, she lost in Nandigram. Banerjee is required to win a seat in the state assembly by November 5 in conformity with the constitutional provisions to continue as chief minister. After her defeat in Nandigram, state cabinet minister and TMC MLA from Bhabanipur Sovandeb Chattopadhyay vacated the seat to allow Banerjee to contest from there. Banerjee is pitted against the BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal and CPI(M)'s Srijib Biswas for the September 30 by-poll. Congress has decided not to field a candidate against her. The votes will be counted on October 3. PTI PNT NN NN (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) First time in the history of space tourism, Elon Musk's American Aerospace Company, SpaceX, launched the Inspiration4 mission on Wednesday, September 16, with four civilian crew and no professional astronauts. The Falcon 9 rocket took off from the Kennedy Space Center pad which was used by the companys three previous astronaut flights for NASA. This time the Dragon capsule aimed to travel to an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers), just beyond the Hubble Space Telescope. Four amateur travellers The flight is lead by 38-year-old Jared Isaacman, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of payment processor Shift4 Payments Inc. He is the third billionaire to launch this summer, followed by the brief space-skimming flights by Virgin Galactics Richard Branson and Blue Origins Jeff Bezos in July. Hayley Arceneaux, 29 is a childhood cancer survivor who works as a physician assistant at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee where she was treated earlier. Arceneaux is the first person in space with a prosthesis, a titanium rod in her left leg. Also, she will become the youngest American in space. Issac chose the rest of the crew himself through a competition where Chris Sembroski, 42, a data engineer in Everett, Washington, and Sian Proctor, 51, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona filled the spots. Dragon capsule flies higher than usual Isaacman with pilot training persuaded SpaceX to take the Dragon capsule higher than its ever been. For the first time, this was approved by SpaceX after a safety review. Previously it was not agreed considering the increased radiation exposure and other risks. On the eve of the flight, Isaacman told reporters, Now I just wish we pushed them to go higher. If were going to go to the moon again and were going to go to Mars and beyond, then weve got to get a little outside of our comfort zone and take the next step in that direction". While Explorers Club President Richard Garriott, a NASA astronauts son who paid the Russians for a space station trip more than a decade ago, said, Yes, today you must have and be willing to part with a large amount of cash to buy yourself a trip to space. But this is the only way we can get the price down and expand access, just as it has been with other industries before it". Next trip of SpaceX Early next year, SpaceX is planning its next private trip where a retired NASA astronaut will escort three wealthy businessmen to the space station for a weeklong visit. While the Russians will launch an actress, film director, and a Japanese tycoon to the space station in the next few months. NASA initially opposed the concept of space tourism but now acts as a supporter. former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden informed that the shift from government astronauts to non-professionals is just flabbergasting". While Cornell Universitys Mason Peck, an engineering professor who served as NASAs chief technologist nearly a decade ago, said, Someday NASA astronauts will be the exception, not the rule. But theyll likely continue to be the trailblazers the rest of us will follow". (With AP inputs) (Image credit: TWITTER) West African leaders have decided to impose travel bans and freeze financial assets of members of Guineas ruling junta and their families after a coup more than a week ago, according to the bloc known as ECOWAS. The decisions were announced Thursday after an Extraordinary Summit on Guinea in Ghanas capital, Accra. Mediators with the regional group had traveled to Guinea to meet with junta leaders and check on the condition of deposed President Alpha Conde. ECOWAS president Jean Claude Brou said the West African leaders have also insisted that there should be no need for very long transition for the country to return to democratic order. The targeted sanctions come after Guineas coup leaders set a number of conditions for releasing Conde, according to the foreign minister of Ghana. ECOWAS had already warned it will impose penalties on the junta in Guinea unless it immediately releases Conde, who has been held at an undisclosed location since being detained during the Sept. 5 coup in Conakry. Guineas coup leaders have yet to make public their proposed timeframe for handing over power to a civilian transitional government, nor have they outlined how quickly new elections can be organized. The regional bloc also planned to tackle concerns over whether a second member state, Mali, is making enough progress toward a return to democracy more than a year after a military takeover there. In Mali, the ruling junta led by Col. Assimi Goita has committed to holding new elections by February 2022, though mediators who recently visited have expressed concern about whether that deadline now can be met. Goita overthrew Malis president in August 2020 and then agreed to a civilian transitional government and an 18-month timeframe for holding a vote. However, only nine months after the first coup he effectively staged a second one, firing the civilian interim leaders and ultimately naming himself as president of the transition. ECOWAS has not reinstated Malis membership in the bloc, marking the first time since 2012 that two of the 15 member states are suspended concurrently. ECOWAS president Brou said there was the need to revisit the organizations 2001 protocol on good governance. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Following a military coup, West African leaders have decided to impose travel bans and freeze the financial assets of members of Guineas ruling junta and their families. According to AP, the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Jean Claude Brou, said that the West African leaders have also insisted that there should be no need for very long transition for the country to return to democratic order. The latest development comes after Guineas coup leaders set a number of conditions for releasing ousted President Alpha Conde. The sanctions were announced on September 16 after an Extraordinary Summit on Guinea in Ghanas capital, Accra. The mediators with the regional group had also travelled to Guinea in a bid to meet with junta leaders and check on the condition of Conde. It is worth mentioning that the deposed Guinean President has been held at an undisclosed location since being detained during the September 5 coup. Members of the ECOWAS delegation that visited Guinea spoke to Condes doctor. Ghanaian Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway informed that the doctors ascertained that indeed physically, hes (Conde) very well. However, she also added that the former president is still coming to terms with the fact that his government has been toppled after ruling since 2010. For anybody who has gone through such a traumatic experience like he did, mentally, its not the best, not to say that mentally we found anything wrong, but he was quite shocked; hes still in a state of shock, Botchway added. Aftermath of Guinea military coup Meanwhile, Guineas coup leaders have yet to announced their proposed time frame for handing over the power to a civilian transitional government. They havent even outlined how quickly new elections can be organised. Guineas coup leaders have formed what they call the National Rally and Development Committee (CNRD), which dissolved the government and the constitution. The military even appointed army officers to head regional administrations and ordered the central bank and other banks to freeze all government accounts, in a bid to secure state assets. Mamady Doumbouya has accused Condes government of endemic corruption and trampling on citizens rights. The ousted president, who has been ruling the country since 2010, has faced criticism since he assumed the third term in office, saying that the two-term limit did not apply to him because of a referendum he had put forth. Conde was re-elected, however, the decision prompted protests across the nation. (With inputs from AP) China on Thursday said that it was ready to have "close communication and coordination with relevant countries" on the Afghanistan situation. Ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, China said that it would work jointly with other member states with an aim to build an open and inclusive political structure in the war-ravaged nation. The eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is scheduled to hold its 21st summit on Friday, September 17, at Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe. Ahead of the SCO summit, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, addressing a media briefing, said, "The Afghan situation bears on regional security and stability." He pointed out that members of the SCO and CSTO are all close neighbours of the southcentral Asian country and they would "support the peace and reconstruction and reconciliation process in Afghanistan". China ready to engage nations in building inclusive political structure in Afghanistan Speaking at the press briefing, Lijian said that Chinese President Xi Jinping will review the progress of the SCO with leaders of other countries and exchange views on SCO cooperation. Lijian also asserted that China, a member of SCO, was ready to discuss Afghanistan with other nations to build an inclusive infrastructure. Ever since the Taliban has taken over the control of Afghanistan, the issue has taken the centre stage on the international agenda. ."China is a member of the SCO which is ready to have close communication and coordination with relevant countries, jointly work on Afghanistan to build an open and inclusive political structure, adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, make a clean break with all forms of terrorist groups and live on friendly terms with other countries", Zhao Lijian said in the press briefing. The eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is scheduled to hold its summit in Dushanbe. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation consists of India, Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Afghanistan is an observer in the SCO. The SCO has three other observer states that include Iran, Mongolia, and Belarus and six dialogue partners- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka. (Image: AP) The government of Denmark has introduced legislation prohibiting life-sentenced convicts from engaging in new romantic relationships and attachments. According to the newly adopted legislation, within the first ten years of a prisoner's term, convicts will be prohibited from forming new connections and will be limited to send letters or having telephone communication with those who were close to them before their imprisonment. The Danish ministers believe that the prohibition would prevent the growth of criminal 'gangs.' Under the new six-point law of the romantic links of prisoners, life-term prisoners will no longer be able to openly write about their crimes on social networking sites or talk about those on podcasts. The legislation, which was forwarded to the committee stage on Wednesday, has already received backing from Denmark's right-wing opponents in parliament. It is scheduled to take effect at the start of next year. The reason behind the implementation of Denmark new prisoners law As per BBC, the rule was enacted when it was revealed that a 17-year-old girl was in love with the murderer Peter Madsen. Madsen was found guilty of committing the horrific murder of a Swedish journalist Kim Wall on his own submarine known as the UC3 Nautilus, on August 10, 2017, after she joined it to interview him. Subsequently, he dissected her body and threw it into the sea. In 2018, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The young 17 years old girl, Cammilla Kurstein stated that she fell in love with Madsen when she was used to exchanging letters and communicating via phone with him for two years. According to BBC, when he eventually married a 39-year-old Russian woman Jenny Curpen, while jailed in 2020, she felt envious. Experts opinion on the Denmark new prisoners law BBC further reported that the Justice Minister of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party, Nick Haekkerup explained in a statement that these kinds of connections must definitely be prevented. He further added that convicted inmates must not be allowed to utilise the jails as dating hubs or social platforms to gloat regarding their offences. Haekkerup even informed that there are shreds of evidence of inmates who have committed heinous crimes had contacted young kids in order to garner sympathy votes. While, on the other hand, the Danish Institute for Human Rights Maria Ventegodt informed BBC that the institution will look into the legislation in the following weeks. She further said they will also evaluate the law in terms of the right to family life. She even explained that the institution will probably focus on two issues. First and foremost, is there any legal justification for imposing this restriction in the first place and the second consideration is to evaluate whether there is proportionality. (Image: Unsplash/ Representative Image) The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen confirmed the recovery and resilience strategy of Malta on Thursday, where the European Union (EU) will disburse an amount of 316.4 million ($372 million) in funding through the Recovery and Resilience Facility. She visited the Prime Minister of Malta, Robert Abela, to discuss the nation's strategy to use EU money as the element of the country's COVID recovery plan. As per Xinhua, Von der Leyen applauded the Maltese government's decision to utilise a substantial portion of the recovery money to fund the green operations in accordance with the EU's digital policy. During the news conference, she claimed that Malta's strategy was one of the best 'green' policies in the EU. Von der Leyen further accepted the measures of Malta's judiciary and prosecuting systems to enhance independence and effectiveness, as well as the prevention of money laundering. The vision of Malta's Prime Minister In the meantime, according to the Malta Independent website, Prime Minister Robert Abela stated that the money would be used to support Malta's moderate perspective for a better standard of living, reshaping the nation's infrastructure, guaranteeing Malta's education system to be one of the best in Europe, as well as assuring that the nation will be carbon negative by the year 2050. The plan also includes the evolution of government structures to a more democratic model. Despite the COVID outbreak, Abela highlighted that his government's judicial system has evolved, noting that broad legislative improvements had taken place in the past 20 months. He also revealed proposals for investment in carbon reduction by building a carbon-neutral school, as well as monitoring the supply of more charging stations and the electrifying the public transportation of Malta. According to the European Commission, Malta's strategy commits 54% of its entire budget to climate-related initiatives. The money will also be utilised in the execution of the Valletta region's Sustainable Urban Mobility Scheme and the waste disposal system. Malta will also contribute 26% of its overall allocation to the initiatives that promote digital transformation. As per the Malta Independent, healthcare, social welfare, skills and education, technology, fuel efficiency, waste management, sustainable transportation, judicial independence and anti-corruption are all part of Malta's strategy. It also contains methods that address issues such as tax planning, inventiveness, and pension sufficiency and viability. The Commission will sanction some additional payments if the Council Implementing Decision's benchmarks and goals are met, indicating that the expenditures and improvements are being implemented effectively. (Image: AP) Italian workers in both the public and private sectors must display a health pass to access their workplaces from Oct. 15 under a decree adopted Thursday by Premier Mario Draghis broad-based coalition government. The measures are the first by a major European economy requiring proof of vaccination, a recent negative virus test or recovery from COVID in the previous six months for all categories of workers. The Green Pass is a freedom tool that makes workplaces safe,'' Health Minister Roberto Speranza told a press conference. The second reason is to make our vaccination campaign even stronger." Slovenia and Greece adopted similar measures this week. But Italys 2-trillion-euro ($2.35 trillion) economy, the third largest in the European Union, is a far larger target, and the measure underscores the governments determination to avoid another lockdown even as the numbers of new virus infections creeps up, mostly among the unvaccinated. Ministers said the measures were aimed at reinforcing Italy's economic recovery, with GDP forecast to grow 6% this year, at a critical moment in the pandemic as schools reopen and cooler fall weather moves more activities indoors, where the virus spreads more easily. They also expressed concern about the impact of any possible new variants. Workers face fines up to 1,500 euros ($1,765) and employers up to 1,000 euros if they do not comply. Public sector employees risk suspension if they rack up five absences for failure to show up with a Green Pass; private sector workers can be suspended after the first failure. The measures remain in effect as long as Italy is in a state of emergency, currently until Dec. 31. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Ever since the terror outfit of Afghanistan took control of Kabul, the country has been under a massive chaotic situation. In view of the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) can play an active role in achieving peace in war-ravaged Afghanistan. While addressing the meeting of the Council of the Heads of the SCO Member states, Tokyayev said the people of Afghanistan should not be left to their fate, especially during a time when they are facing unprecedented difficulties. He said the Eurasian political alliance "can and should play" an active role in restoring peace and harmony in Afghanistan. The Kazakh President said, "At this fateful historical moment, the multiethnic population of Afghanistan should not be left alone in the face of unprecedented difficulties. I believe that SCO, with its enormous influence, can and should play an active role in achieving peace and harmony in this country." He further said, Kazakhstan offers to launch a humanitarian hub of the SCO in Almaty to deliver international aid to Afghanistan. Earlier, Tokayev had also emphasised the need to strengthen the defence forces after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. He emphasised the need to prepare for external shocks in worst-case scenarios. Although Afghanistan and Kazakhstan do not share borders, Tokayev raised the issue due to the escalating situation in Afghanistan and the threat the Taliban can cause to neighbouring countries. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) The Shanghai Cooperation Agreement, which is also known as the Shanghai Pact, is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance between nine countries. The alliance pact was signed in June 2002 and came into force in September 2003. China is the main member of the pact. The SCO initially included Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. The organisation later expanded to a total of nine members when India and Pakistan joined the SCO in 2017. The member countries meet once a year to discuss various international issues and the Head of State Council (HSC) is considered the main leader of the organisation. As per the media reports, the SCO meet is going to be held on September 15 and 16 next year. IMAGE: AP With Inputs from ANI Union Minister for Commerce and Industry and India's G20 Sherpa, Piyush Goyal, attended the two-day G20 Sherpas' meeting in digital format on September 15 &16, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on September 17. It was Piyush Goyal's first G20 meeting since being appointed as India's G20 Sherpa. "Ambassador Luigi Mattiolo, Italy's G20 Sherpa, presided over the meeting and welcomed Piyush Goyal to the G20 family," the statement read. The meeting's programme included a discussion and exchange of ideas on the Draft Rome Declaration, which could be accepted by G20 Leaders during the Rome Summit on October 30 & 31. The Declaration's main themes were health and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainable development, the environment, climate and energy, gender equality, education, labour, employment, tourism, tradition, and the digital financial system. Goyal praised Italy for its leadership of the G20 this year, as well as its efforts to prepare a compelling document for the leaders that covered a wide range of topics. He stated that New Delhi would play a proactive role in formulating a major and balanced statement for the leaders, highlighting India's progress on each of those points. What is G20 summit? The G20 is a significant multinational organisation that brings together 19 of the world's most powerful economies and the European Union, with its members accounting for more than 80% of global GDP, 75% of global commerce, and 60% of the world's population. Since 2014, Prime Minister Modi has led India's delegation to G20 summits. Sherpas Role at the summit A personal representative of a member country's leader at an international summit, such as the G20, G8 or Nuclear Security Summit, is known as Sherpa. The word comes from the Sherpas in Nepal, who act as mountain guides in the Himalayas. Throughout the summit, the Sherpa is involved in planning, negotiating, and implementing ideas. They help negotiate their leaders' positions by coordinating the agenda, seeking consensus at the highest political levels, and participating in a series of pre-summit discussions. Sherpas are diplomats or high government officials who are nominated by their country's leader. Each member country has only one Sherpa at the summit. Sherpas meet well in advance of the summit's start to iron out conflicts on a variety of topics. The Finance Track and the Sherpas' Track are the two main work streams during the G20 Summit. The Sherpas, in collaboration with the Finance Track delegates, produce the Leaders' Declaration or "Communique," which is the G20 Summit's final outcome. Image: PTI Irans President Ebrahim Raisi on 16 September said that Tehran is willing to ramp up cooperation especially in the economic field with the regional countries and within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). It is to mention that this will be his first foreign trip since taking office last month. He made the remarks during meetings on Thursday with some heads of the states while visiting Tajikistan to attend the SCO summit. As per the Iranian presidential website, Raisi told Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to promote regional relations and cooperation, particularly with neighbouring countries, and Pakistan has a special place in this regard. Referring to the long border between Iran and Pakistan and the capacity to elevate the trade in the border areas, Raisi said that establishing security in the border areas can activate the significant capacities of these areas for economic and trade interactions and exchanges." In response, Pakistan Premier welcomed the constructive and brotherly stance of Iran towards Islamabad. Khan said, We are looking for comprehensive development of our relations with Iran, especially in the field of transportation. Raisi called for deep relations with Uzbekistan In a separate meeting with Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Iranian President Raisi called for more deep bilateral relations. As per the presidential website, Raisi was quoted as saying, The current level of economic relations between Iran and Uzbekistan does not correspond to the level of political relations between the two countries, and the Islamic Republic is interested in developing economic relations with Uzbekistan in the framework of deepening relations with neighbours. Raisi said that despite the sanctions imposed by the United States, Iran continued its progress. He said, we seek to lift the oppressive sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Mirziyoyev also said that the common civilisation, as well as the historical background of the two countries, can play a crucial part in enhancing the economic and cultural relations between the two countries. He said that Uzbekistan is seeking an operational roadmap to further improve the economic relations with Iran, especially in transportation. Improving the economic ties were even included in Raisi agenda during his meeting with Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Iranian President called for the completion of the joint projects at the earliest which would further facilitate the development of Iran-Belarus economic exchanges. Raisi said, I have instructed the economic and technical ministers to pursue the implementation of the joint agreements...Development of regional relations is one of the ways to counter (U.S.) sanctions, and countries like Iran and Belarus have been able to counter sanctions. IMAGE: AP On Thursday, the Israeli Ministry of Health announced that the third COVID-19 vaccination dosage has enhanced immunological resistance by ten times from COVID infection. Recent Israeli research released in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluated the efficacy of the third dosage among the people over 60 who had the booster injection in August, stated the ministry. When compared to individuals who had only two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine approximately five months earlier, the third dose provides ten times protection to the people. According to the Xinhua report, a group of diversified scientists from the Israeli health ministry, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion, the Sheba Medical Center, as well as the KI Research Institute carried out the study. The ministry stated that the statistics from Israel show that Pfizer's third booster dosage is highly effective in avoiding COVID-19 contamination and severe sickness. Findings of vaccine dose boosts immunity The scientists further discovered that 12 days after getting the third booster injection of the COVID-19 vaccine, individuals who received it had a ten times less infection rate than those who did not get the booster dose. The researchers concluded by stating that if individuals inoculated with two doses have a 50 per cent probability of contracting the Delta variant compared to those who have not been vaccinated. Thus, a booster dose reduces the risk to 5 per cent or boosts immune protection to 95 per cent. Since August 1, Israel commenced administering the third vaccination shot to its citizens, as the Delta variety was spreading fast throughout the nation as the effects of the previous two doses started to weaken. The third vaccination has been given to roughly 3 million Israelis so far. While, on the other hand, at least one dosage of the Coronavirus vaccination has been given to 6,054,298 Israelis, and with 5,563,259 receiving two doses. COVID scenario in Israel In the last 24 hours, Israel has witnessed 6,191 new COVID cases in the nation, according to the latest COVID numbers provided by the Worldometer. The average number of COVID instances recorded in the last 7 days is 8,924 instances. These new cases have further added to the total number of COVID cases in the nation with nearly confirmed 1,208,403 cases. The total number of fatalities that happened due to COVID-19 is 7,465. More than 1,117,027 have been recovered from the disease. The month of August recorded the highest active cases in the year 2021. (Image: Pixabay/ PTI) A "new reality" has been established in war-torn Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover and foreign troops' pullout, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said at the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) Summit in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe on Friday. "That all this happened without bloodshed, without civil war and without mass exodus of refugees, should be a matter of relief. It is now in the international community's collective interest to ensure that there is no renewed conflict in Afghanistan and the security situation is stabilised," he said. Addressing the SCO summit, Pakistan Prime Minister said that it is necessary to respect rights for Afghanistan while making sure that the war-ravaged country is never a safe haven for terrorists. Imran Khan said that it was crucial to give humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan without any delay owing to the current crisis they are facing. "We must remember that the Afghan government primarily depended on foreign aid," he said. Asserting that the Taliban should make good on their commitments, Khan said, "the Taliban must fulfil the pledges made above all for an inclusive political structure where all ethnic groups are represented. This is vital for Afghanistan's stability." He further said that the war-torn nation could not be controlled from outside. Earlier this month, the Taliban formed an interim government in Afghanistan weeks after capturing Kabul, leading to the fall of the US-supported Ashraf Ghani administration. Several Taliban commanders and big wigs were given positions in the all-male cabinet. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund was made Prime Minister, while Mullah Abdul Baradar and Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi were made his deputies. The new government also featured Sirajuddin Haqqani (Interior Minister, who is on the FBI's most-wanted list. Meanwhile, several Afghans are protesting against the Taliban government demanding rights. Women are also protesting against the terrorist organisation, demanding inclusion. (With PTI inputs) Nine Chinese military aircraft recently breached Taiwans Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), marking the latest intrusion by Beijing. This was reportedly the 14th such intrusion this month. The planes included six People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, one Shaanxi Y-8 reconnaissance plane, one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft, according to the Ministry of National Defense, Taiwan. Taking to Twitter, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense shared details of the latest Chinese intrusion into its airspace. Taiwan in retaliation sent aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defence missile systems to monitor the PLAAF planes, ANI reported. 13th consecutive Chinses incursion into Taiwanese airspace The latest incursion reportedly marks the 13th consecutive day Chinese planes have flown into Taiwan's identification zone. This month, China has flown a mix of spotter planes, fighter jets, and bombers into the Taiwanese every day except for September 2, ANI reported. China has been reportedly using the grey-zone air intrusions into Taiwan airspace, with most occurrences taking place in the southwest corner of the zone. 9 PLA aircraft (Y-8 RECCE, J-16*6, KJ-500 AEW&C and Y-8 ASW) entered #Taiwans southwest ADIZ on September 15, 2021. Please check our official website for more information: https://t.co/VSbi76pXJj pic.twitter.com/JQVGsIbV8Q Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. (@MoNDefense) September 15, 2021 It is worth noting that China sees democratic Taiwan as a breakaway province, but the island of 24 million people claims sovereignty. Notably, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) marked the 100th year of its foundation on July 1, President Xi Jinping vowed complete unification of China. Taiwan has been responding to Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the United States. The Chinese government has repeatedly opposed the decision of Taiwan in engaging with other nations. Meanwhile, Taiwanese President Tsai Wang Ing on Wednesday, September 15, visited the Air Force Unit of the country to inspect Taiwan's air force arsenal amid Chinas continued intrusion in the country's airspace. The Taiwanese President has been making several stringent measures to be prepared for any unforeseen situation on the Chinese front. Sharing the pictures from her visit, Tsai Wang Ing wrote on Twitter, This morning, I visited Taiwan Air Force units in my home county of Pingtung as they began day 3 of #Taiwans Han Kuang military exercises. It was an honour to witness their rigorous training & dedication to protecting our nations airspace. This morning, I visited Air Force units in my home county of Pingtung as they began day 3 of #Taiwans Han Kuang military exercises. It was an honour to witness their rigorous training & dedication to protecting our nations airspace. pic.twitter.com/QkHk7KF1Yg Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) September 15, 2021 (With inputs from ANI, Image: AP) Even a month after capturing power in Afghanistan, the Taliban are facing trouble in gaining international recognition. Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that no country across the world was in a hurry to recognise the interim government formed by the Taliban. He stressed several concerns that countries have, including security, towards recognising the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Lavrov informed that no country was in a hurry to recognise the caretaker government formed by the Taliban, ANI reported citing The Frontier Post. Furthermore, he said that the countries have concerns over several issues about which they are talking to have contact with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Some major concerns that countries have, according to Lavrov, include security, respect for the rights of people and functioning of diplomatic offices in Afghanistan. The Russian Foreign Minister added that at this time, they have contacts with them on "current issues, primarily on issues that relate to the removal of any risks for our Central Asian neighbours". Lavrov's remarks came ahead of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) meeting scheduled to happen on September 17 in Tajikistan. Amid the crisis in Afghanistan, member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have planned to reinforce the Tajik-Afghan border. Moreover, they have ramped up their measures in trying to fight the rise in drug trafficking and illegal migration on the border, ANI reported. Last week, the Russian Federation announced that they were not planning to negotiate with the Taliban. Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov made the announcement as the insurgents announced their new caretaker government in Afghanistan. Peskov said they have contacted the Taliban through their embassy as it was essential for safeguarding diplomatic staff deployed in the war-ravaged country and also for other technical issues. When questioned about security threats from the Taliban, Peskov pointed out drug trafficking and terrorist infiltrations. (With inputs from ANI, Image: AP) Ahead of the high-level delegation meeting between India and Colombia, the envoy of Colombia on Friday praised the Indian pharmaceutical ecosystem and said that it is an example for others to follow. The Vice President of Colombia Marta Lucia Ramirez, who is also the External Affairs Minister, and several senior officials are likely to visit India on September 30. Mariana Pacheco on Indian pharmaceutical ecosystem Ahead of this meeting, Colombian Ambassador to India Mariana Pacheco also expressed her enthusiasm for the Indian pharmaceutical industry. She told ANI, President and Vice president of Colombia have decided to promote the recovery of the pharmaceutical companies and the pharma industry in Colombia. We are looking at India as an example to follow." "She holds both the office, vice president and minister of foreign affairs. She will be leading a delegation along with the minister of health and minister of science and technology in Colombia and will be visiting not only the Indian Government but the ministry of health and science and the secretary of biotechnology including the secretary of pharma ICMR and another agency of Indian Govt and also Indian pharmaceutical companies, the Colombian Ambassador added. While stating that she is impressed with the way infrastructure is developing in the pharmaceutical sector, the Colombian envoy stressed that the Indian pharmaceutical industry is an example from which they need to learn. First of all we need to learnwe need to learn from you (India)learn from your experience and admire your industry, the way India has built up the ecosystem for promotion the pharma industry. So first we have to learn, second, we are trying to learn about research, Ambassador Marian Pacheco added. The Colombian high-level delegation will also visit Hyderabad and Pune and experience India's pharma companies and their ecosystem during their visit to India. We are going to Hyderabad and Pune too and learn how Indians built the whole ecosystem of pharma. We need your technology, we wish to receive your very genres, your experience and your technology and of course your co-operation and capacity building for Colombian talent in pharmaceuticals, the Ambassador told ANI. We are going to set up working groups to implement and MOU has been signed in the past with the Ministry of health between two countries and also in science and technology are working for the group again in this area for biomedicines and biotechnology, nuclear biology in this field related to the pharma and the research and development of pharma, the Colombian envoy said. Image: ANI External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on 16 September met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The EAM informed that during the meeting, India and China discussed the border tensions and disengagement, and global developments. Jaishankar emphasised that India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory, and also added that it is essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country. In a tweet, Jaishankar said that the meeting discussed the progress in regard to disengagement in the borders, which is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, the basis for development of bilateral ties. As for Asian solidarity, it is for China and India to set an example, the EAM said. Met Chinese FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe. Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties. pic.twitter.com/wmO0sxeWwL Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 According to an MEA press release, during the meeting, the two ministers specifically exchanged views along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. The EAM noted that since their last meeting, the two sides had made some progress in the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC and had completed the disengagement in the Gogra area. However, he also said that there were still some outstanding issues that needed to be resolved. EAM therefore emphasised that the two sides should work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols, the press note read. India, China to continue discussions Jaishankar further underlined that it was necessary to progress in the resolution of the remaining issues so as to restore peace and tranquillity in the Eastern Ladakh region. He emphasised that two sides should work towards early resolution while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols. Jaishankar and Wang Yi also agreed that military and diplomatic officials of the two sides should meet again and continue their discussions to resolve the remaining issues at the earliest. Moreover, the two leaders also exchanged views on the recent global developments. As per the press release, Jaishankar conveyed that India had never subscribed to any clash of civilisations theory, adding that India and China had to deal with each other on merits to establish a relationship based on mutual respect. For this, it was necessary that China avoid viewing our bilateral relations from the perspective of its relations with third countries, the MEA said. (Image: PTI) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on 17 September informed that he met his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The meeting between the two leaders focused on the Afghanistan's situation. After the meeting, Jaishankar said that combating terrorism and close cooperation between India and Uzbekistan is in mutual interest. Good to meet FM Abdulaziz Kamilov of Uzbekistan. Our conversation focused on the Afghanistan situation. As countries combating terrorism and fundamentalism, our close cooperation is in mutual interest. pic.twitter.com/Y7eJm5nua9 Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 Jaishankar is in the Tajik capital to attend a key meeting of the SCO on the situation in Afghanistan after its takeover by the Taliban. Before meeting Kamilov, EAM Jaishankar also met his counterparts from Iran and Armenia, and exchanged views on the recent developments in the war-ravaged nation. In his meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, the EAM said that the two leaders positively reviewed the bilateral cooperation and agreed to work together to expand it further. In a separate tweet, Jaishankar said that he was glad to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in Dushanbe. Pleasure to meet my new Armenian counterpart @AraratMirzoyan. Positively reviewed our cooperation and will work to expand it further. pic.twitter.com/yNdKTTWUHK Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 Glad to meet Iranian FM @Amirabdolahian on the sidelines of the SCO meet in Dushanbe. Discussed strengthening our bilateral relations and working togther on regional challenges. pic.twitter.com/Y3iiOLz12T Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 PM Modi to attend SCO Summit on Sept 17 The SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one the largest transregional international organisation. It is worth mentioning that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now scheduled to virtually participate in the SCO Summit on 17 September. Jaishankar, on the other hand, will be attending the meeting on Afghanistan with the heads of SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. As per India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the summit will have discussions on past productivity and future aspects. "At the Summit, the leaders are expected to review the organizations activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation. Topical issues of regional and international importance are also expected to be discussed," said a statement by the MEA. (Image: PTI/AP) New Haitian Justice Minister Liszt Quitel on Thursday pledged to find those responsible for the killing of President Jovenel Moise as he spoke publicly for the first time since taking the job. Quitel said he was prioritizing the killings of Moise, who was fatally shot July 7 at his home, and Monferrier Dorval, the head of Port-au-Prince's Bar Association who was killed at his home in August 2020. Quitel also said he aims to fight gangs and reduce lengthy pretrial detentions, with thousands of people languishing in Haiti's prisons for years without a single hearing. "There is no more room for distraction or diversion, confusion and petty infighting," he said. Quitel takes over the position from Rockfeller Vincent, whom Prime Minister Ariel Henry dismissed a day after he fired Port-au-Prince's chief prosecutor earlier this week for an undefined "serious administrative fault." The prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, had requested a meeting with Henry on Tuesday to interview him about two calls he said the prime minister had just hours after Moise's killing with a key suspect in the case. Claude then ordered the judge in the case to charge Henry based on the evidence. Quitel only briefly mentioned Moise's killing in his speech as he promised to establish coherence and harmony between Haiti's judicial and executive powers. "We are living in difficult times with pressing needs for justice and security," he said. Quitel is one of three new officials taking over top government positions in Haiti this week. Claude was replaced by prosecutor Frantz Louis Juste, while Renald Luberice, who served as secretary of general for Haiti's Council of Ministers, resigned on Wednesday, saying he could not serve under Henry and accused him of obstructing justice. He was replaced by Josue Pierre Louis. IMAGE: AP (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) PM Narendra Modi's 71st birthday On the 71st birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned to organise a 'Seva and Samparan' campaign comprised of various welfare activities for 20 days starting from 17 September. Apart from cleanliness, Atmanirbhar and various other drives, this year PM Modi's birthday will begin with an aim to create a record of maximum COVID-19 vaccine inoculations. Meanwhile, Prime Minister's this year birthday is additionally significant as he is going to complete 20 years in public office on 7 October. Read full story here Pakistan ISI spy arrested near army camp in Narhar The Rajasthan Intelligence and Military Intelligence has now arrested a spy from the Narhar area of Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Sandeep Kumar, a spy of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI was arrested after the two intelligence agencies conducted a joint operation. The spy was arrested for allegedly sending sensitive confidential information to Pakistan. The 30-year-old has been living in Narhar for years now. Read full story here IMF aid to Afghanistan remains blocked In a move to restrict the Taliban, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday said its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban. The IMF said it was deeply concerned with economic conditions in Afghanistan, urging the international community to take urgent steps to stall a "looming humanitarian crisis" in the country. The new interim govt with 33 ministers has been unveiled by the Taliban. Read full story here Jaishankar discusses LAC disengagement with Chinese FM External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on 16 September met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The EAM informed that during the meeting, India and China discussed the border tensions and disengagement, and global developments. Jaishankar emphasised that India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory, and also added that it is essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country. Read full story here Punjab BJP accuses Sidhu of spreading lies, misleading farmers The Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday hit out at the state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu over the Punjab Contract Farming Act, 2013. Reacting to Sidhus sharp criticism over the act, BJP asked why it took eight years to react to the law if it "was not in the interest of farmers. BJP state general secretary Subhash Sharma targeted Congress and said that the party didnt reject the law while they were in power. Sharmas criticism came a day after the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief accused the Badals of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of framing the laws. Read full story here Centre rules out booster COVID-19 dose Even as a study showed a drop in antibodies of vaccinated persons, the Centre affirmed that administering the booster dose was not under consideration at present. Conducted by ICMR-Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, this research entailed 614 fully vaccinated participants out of which 308 got Covishield and the remaining ones got Covaxin. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study revealed that there was a significant decline of antibodies in Covaxin and Covishield recipients two and 4 months after taking the second dose of the vaccine respectively. Read full story here Delhi borders sealed, entry restricted ahead of Black Friday march Punjab's Shiromani Akali Dali (SAD) few hours ahead of their 'Black Friday' march alleged that the borders of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib are being cordoned off and Delhi borders are being sealed. Last week the party had declared that it will be observing 17 September as 'black day' to mark one year of the enactment of the three farm laws by the Centre. 'Punjabis are being told that our entry has been restricted,' claimed the party in a tweet. SAD has also alleged that everyone is allowed to pass except for the movement of Punjabis. Read full story here ICG ship Rajratan apprehends Pakistani boat with 12 crew members During a surveillance mission, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has seized a Pakistani boat Allah Pawakal' with 12 crew members. A release statement said that for further investigation on the matter, the boat has been taken to Okha in Devbhoomi Dwarka district of Gujarat. An investigation has been launched and a thorough background check of all of the crew members is being conducted. The boat is also being tracked with their GPS to find out the whereabouts of the boat before it was seized by the ICG. Read full story here Congress mocks new Gujarat Cabinet After 24 Ministers were inducted into the Gujarat Council of Ministers led by CM Bhupendra Patel, the Congress party took a dig at this big political churn in the state. On Thursday, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala questioned the purported centralization of power in the hands of PM Modi and Union Home Minister Shah. According to him, none of the 22 Ministers in the erstwhile Vijay Rupani-led government were included in the new Cabinet in order to hide the "failures" of PM Modi and the Centre. Read full story here Jaishankar meets Uzbeks Kamilov in Dushanbe External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on 17 September informed that he met his Uzbek counterpart Abdulaziz Kamilov on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The meeting between the two leaders focused on the Afghanistan's situation. After the meeting, Jaishankar said that combating terrorism and close cooperation between India and Uzbekistan is in mutual interest. Read full story here US sanctions 5 supporters of Al-Qaeda in Turkey The United States on Thursday, 16 September, announced sanctions against five supporters of Al-Qaeda operating in Turkey who are suspected of providing financial services and travel assistance to the group. US Secretary of State Antony Blinkenannounced the sanctions and said that the United States will continue to target those who seek to inflict harm on the country and its citizens. In a press statement, he reiterated that the US remains committed to combating Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the globe. Read full story here Showcasing its true colours, the Taliban has begun conducting door-to-door searches and engaging in targeted attacks in Kabul. A video accessed by Republic TV from Kabul shows the Taliban going door-to-door and terrorising Afghan citizens. The unlawful action comes after the group advocated that the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan' will be run peacefully. In the video accessed by Republic TV, a group of Taliban militants can be seen forcibly entering houses and rounding up citizens on the streets. Terrorists are seen standing in a neighbourhood while making the citizens stand with their hands held high. Militants armed with guns and weapons are seen attacking the citizens as they continue to drag out more Afghan citizens out of their homes. Reality of Taliban rule Earlier in an attempt to rebrand itself, the Taliban had announced that it will have 'independence' in the country and promised that it wont target anyone. However, it seems like the group has already begun to counter its own promises and terrorise civilians. The Taliban, which has already begun its rule in Kabul was also seen shooting in the air and terrorising the citizens in other videos that surfaced online. Evidence of the Talibans terror rule in Kabul shows that the group has already backtracked from its promises. The Taliban, during their previous regime from 1996 to 2001, had imposed harsh restrictions for citizens, especially women. Back then, the group had forcefully made the Afghan citizens follow their rules and attacks on resisting individuals were reported. Taliban bans female employees from entering ministry of women affairs In yet another display of false promises being broken, the Taliban recently banned the entry of female employees in the Ministry of Women Affairs in Kabul. The group had earlier promised to respect women's rights. Reportedly, the women have now plan to protest near the ministry against the decision of the caretaker Taliban government. Earlier, Taliban Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had assured people that the Taliban was committed to giving women their rights based on the principles of Islam. He had claimed that women would be allowed to work in the health sectors and other sectors and there would be no discrimination against them. The Taliban had promised to form an "inclusive" government to run Afghanistan, but it announced an all-male Cabinet on Tuesday, September 7. Image: AP Continuing its reign of destruction, shocking visuals have emerged showcasing that the Taliban has destroyed the historic Bala Hissar Fort in Kabul. Bala Hissar Fort is an ancient fortress located in the south of the old city of Kabul, Afghanistan. The estimated date of construction is around the 5th century AD. It is pertinent to mention that the Taliban had earlier destroyed the statue of Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari in Bamiyan. Speaking to Republic TV, Retd Major Gen SP Sinha said, "Those who are saying the Taliban has changed now, it is all a myth, it was propaganda. The Taliban has come by proxy. The proxy by people who went to secure Afghanistan. It is done by the same Prime Minister who is holding in the interim government who ordered the destruction of Bamiyan Buddha. When the Taliban took over in 1996, they did it just after that. The Taliban only believes in Sharia, they believe in those radicalised thoughts. According to any structures related to other religions is the act of the Qaafirs." Taliban's history of destroying ancient monuments It is pertinent to mention that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on August 19 had called for the preservation of Afghanistan's cultural heritage in its diversity. The UNESCO in an official statement said that it has been "closely following the situation on the ground and is committed to exercising all possible efforts. Any damage or loss of cultural heritage will only have adverse consequences on the prospects for lasting peace and humanitarian relief for the people of Afghanistan," it had said. The wiping out of Afghanistan's historic diverse culture by the Taliban is not new as the terrorist group in 2001 had destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas, the much-revered 6th-century monumental statues of Gautama Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan. On February 26, 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, had issued a decree ordering the elimination of all non-Islamic statues and sanctuaries in Afghanistan. Taliban Takeover and the resultant chaos After the Taliban stormed into Kabul on August 15, Afghanistan's former president Ashraf Ghani resigned and fled the country with his associates. Since then, several persons have lost their lives in the chaos at the Hamid Karzai International Airport with thousands of people desperately trying to flee the country. This includes the death of at least 169 Afghans, 11 US Marines, a US Navy sailor, and a US Army soldier in a suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport on August 26. This was followed by US airstrikes on terrorists belonging to ISIS-K which claimed responsibility for this attack. On August 31, the Taliban gained control of the Kabul airport after the last batch of US troops left Afghanistan. While the Taliban promised to form an "inclusive" government to run Afghanistan, it announced a 33-member caretaker Cabinet a day earlier which neither has women nor mainstream politicians from previous regimes. Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the chief of the Taliban's Rehbari Shura, is the new Prime Minister and has two deputies, Mullah Baradar and Mawlavi Hanafi. Another member of the terrorist outfit, Sirajuddin Haqqani is the Interior Minister whereas Taliban founder Mullah Omar's son Mullah Yaqoob has been named the Defence Minister. (Image: AP) Chaos and disinformation reigned at one of the main vaccination centers in Caracas, as hundreds of people gathered hoping to get their second jab of Sputnik V vaccine on Thursday. The Russian embassy announced that a cargo of vaccines had arrived last week but the lack of official information about how it was to be administered has made people desperate. A few people protested in the street on Thursday blocking the exterior of the vaccination center in Caracas. Those protesting demanded vaccines and answers from authorities present, among them a group of Venezuelan National Guards and vaccination center workers. Neither the guards nor the vaccination center workers had any real information to give to the public. "I come here every day because I live nearby and I get up early and I come here and I don't get anything," said Alicia Machado a 75-year-old woman waiting outside the center. Hundreds gathered down an exterior hallway desperately seeking information. A woman wearing a blue surgical robe wrote down people's names so they could received further information by phone. People who had been there the day before had numbers they were told assured them a place on the list. It was unclear, however, if the people on the list were in fact going to be vaccinated. "Everyone has their own version," said Ana Rosillon a 67-year-old woman who was waiting patiently seated on a folding chair she had brought with her to the vaccination center. "The truth is that there is a lot of confusion regarding what is happening right now." (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on September 16 said that over 200 Afghans were forced to leave their nation due to US President Joe Bidens chaotic withdrawal of troops that also resulted in the Talibans takeover. In a statement on Thursday, Hochul said that the hundreds of Afghan nationals account for roughly a fifth of the refugees bound for the Empire State. The figures released by her office show that the largest contingent of the 1,143 Afghan evacuees to be sheltered in New York are bound for the Buffalo area. It will be home to 335 refugees. Hochuls office also noted that the five boroughs of the Big Apple and nearby suburbs will house the second-biggest share of 240 Afghans. "New York has a storied history of welcoming those seeking a safe haven from violence and persecution -a proud tradition our state continues today by helping evacuees from Afghanistan rebuild," Governor Hochul said. She added, "The heart-wrenching images and stories of people fleeing their homeland were a call to action that New York State is more than willing to answer. We welcome our new Afghan friends with open arms and pledge to provide them the assistance they can rely on to rebuild anew." Our Bureau of Refugee Services and the resettlement agencies it assists are ready to ensure arriving Afghans have the assistance they need. If youre an immigrant or refugee looking for services in New York State, you can call the @NYSNewAmericans hotline at 1-800-566-7636. Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) September 16, 2021 Just on September 15, the Biden administration began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the nation about how many evacuees from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are set to be housed in their respective states. According to the State Department data for the Afghan Placement and Assistance program obtained by The Associated Press, California is also projected to take in over 5,200 Afghans. Notably, Alabama and Mississippi are set to welcome 10. Notably, as per the report, Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and the District of Columbia will not resettle anyone from the first group of Afghan nationals who were repatriated in the final days of the US evacuation mission. Biden overruled top cabinet officials on the US troop withdrawal Meanwhile, in the latest blow for US President Joe Biden, a new book that will be published next week has claimed that he overruled US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austins advice of slowing down American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Since Biden ramped up the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban reconquered the country after 20 years, he has repeatedly claimed that all his decisions were taken after the advice of his cabinet. However, in Peril authored by Washington Posts Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, have claimed otherwise. According to the copy of Peril obtained by CNN, Biden was hellbent not to let the military stop him from withdrawing from Afghanistan. The book also stated how former US President Donald Trumps influence reflects in Bidens presidency. The US Presidents top advisers were resistant to the troop withdrawal but Biden, according to the book, was resolute on getting them out. He even believed that the military had manipulated the 44th US President Barack Obama, under whom, Biden served as the US vice president and watched officials discuss the decades-old issue of war in Afghanistan. IMAGE: AP In response to the introduction of the new Indo-Pacific defence collaboration AUKUS, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is fully accountable for foreign policy regulations and supervision, said on Thursday that America is strongest and most efficient when it works together with its friends. According to the House Committee, the United States President Joe Biden will host the first physically present Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) leaders' conference after the COVID outbreak, which will comprise Australia, India, Japan, and the United States. America is strongest and most effective when we work together with our friends. In addition to #AUKUS , next week @POTUS will host the first in person Quad leaders summit . House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) September 16, 2021 On September 24, 2021, the Quadrilateral Framework Leaders' Conference will be taking place in Washington, DC. Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States established an increased trilateral security alliance named "AUKUS" on Wednesday in the Indo-Pacific area to strengthen political, security, and defence relations. The US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison unveiled the new trilateral security alliance in a virtually conducted conference. Statement from the AUKUS leaders As per ANI, a joint statement from the leaders on AUKUS reads, As leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, guided by our enduring ideals and shared commitment to the international rules-based order, we resolve to deepen diplomatic, security, and defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, including by working with partners, to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. It further states that to support this initiative, the nations announced the formation of improved trilateral security cooperation known as "AUKUS" Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The statement even added that the administrations will increase their capacity to assist each other's defence and security objectives through AUKUS, constructing on the long-standing bilateral relationship. The nations will encourage a broader exchange of information and technologies. They will also promote greater integration of research, technology, industrial sectors, and supply chains connected to security and the military. Thus, particularly, they will expand the collaboration on a variety of security and defence capacities. The statement also reads that the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy is the very first effort beneath the AUKUS Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the first major project of AUKUS will become an 18-month attempt to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. These submarines will be built in Australia in close collaboration with the United Kingdom and the United States. The three countries would collaborate on the production of Australia's nuclear-powered submarines, with an emphasis on interoperability, similarity, and mutual benefit. (Image: ANI/ AP) The United States on Thursday, 16 September, announced sanctions against five supporters of Al-Qaeda operating in Turkey who are suspected of providing financial services and travel assistance to the group. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the sanctions and said that the United States will continue to target those who seek to inflict harm on the country and its citizens. In a press statement, he reiterated that the US remains committed to combating Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the globe. Blinken said, The United States remains committed to combatting Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the world, including by countering their financing. Today, the United States imposed sanctions against five Al-Qaeda supporters operating in Turkey who provided financial and logistical support to the group. These designations are being taken pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended. The United States has imposed sanctions against five supporters of al-Qaida operating in Turkey. We will continue to target those who seek to inflict harm on the United States, our citizens, and our interests. Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 16, 2021 Further, the top US official added that the US will continue to work closely with its partners and allies, including Turkey, in identifying, exposing and disrupting the terrorist groups financial support network. He said that the US will keep a vigilant eye on Al-Qaedas financial networks to deter them from abusing the international financial system to generate revenues for terrorist operations. While recalling the horrifying 9/11 attack, Blinken asserted that US will never forget the victims of the incident and Al-Qaedas other plots around the globe. Sanctions highlight US' 'unwavering commitement' to eliminate terrorism Meanwhile, according to the US Department of the Treasury, the five men sanctioned by the US are a mix of Turkish and Egyptian nationals who provided various forms of support to senior members of the terrorist organisation. Now, as a result of the latest US action, all assets these people have under the United States' jurisdiction will be frozen. The designation also shuts them out of much of the global financial system. These targeted sanctions highlight the United States unwavering commitment to sever financial support to Al-Qaeda, said Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control Andrea M. Gacki. We will continue working with our foreign partners, including Turkey, to expose and disrupt Al-Qaedas financial support networks". (Image: AP) Washington, Sep 16 (AP) The US Treasury Department announced sanctions Thursday against five men in Turkey suspected of providing financial services and travel assistance to al-Qaeda. The five are a mix of Turkish and Egyptian nationals who Treasury said provided various forms of support to senior members of the organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks and other plots against the U.S. Treasury's designation of the men freezes any assets they have under U.S. jurisdiction and shuts them out of much of the global financial system. It is part of a long-running campaign against the support network for al-Qaeda. The U.S. is working with Turkey and other allies as it seeks to expose and disrupt the organization's support networks, Andrea Gacki, the director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in announcing the move. Among those designated are Majdi Salim, an Egyptian born lawyer who the agency said is one of the primary facilitators of al-Qaida activities in Turkey. The U.S. said he is the former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, after taking over that role from al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri. The others were identified as Muhammad Nasr al-Din al-Ghazlani, an Egyptian national; Nurettin Muslihan, a Turkish national; Cebrail Guzel, a Turkish national; and Soner Gurleyen, a Turkish national. (AP) AMS AMS (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Beijing seeks changes in key US policies in exchange for cooperation. U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry is seen on a screen with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting via video link as Kerry visits Tianjin, China September 1, 2021. With the fate of the world's environment hanging in the balance, China has tried to raise the stakes even higher by making demands in exchange for climate cooperation with the United States. The developing standoff over commitments to limit global warming led to a 90-minute phone call last week between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping in an attempt to clear the air. But the outcome for climate policy remained unsettled as China continued to link broader issues of U.S.-China relations to environmental affairs. The phone talks between the two leaders followed stormy negotiations between John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, and Chinese officials, leading to a high-level impasse. During the second of two recent visits to China, Kerry ran into a virtual stone wall when he met by video link with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sept. 1. Kerry's trip and face-to-face talks with Chinese officials in the northern port city of Tianjin were aimed at promoting cooperation on carbon emissions in the runup to a critical U.N.-sponsored climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November. Despite bilateral tensions, the calls for cooperation stemmed from a realization that international attempts to avert the worst effects of global warming will fall short without greater efforts by the world's two largest sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. According to the latest available figures from the Global Carbon Atlas, China's CO2 emissions from fossil fuels accounted for 27.9 percent of the world total in 2019, while U.S. emissions stood at 14.5 percent. Last September, President Xi pledged that China would reach a peak in its emissions before 2030 and achieve "net- zero" neutrality before 2060. In April, President Biden set the U.S. target for emissions reductions at 50-52 percent below 2005 levels in 2030 with net-zero neutrality "no later than 2050." Climate advocates hope that both countries will agree to do more. In the days before Kerry's visit, Chinese officials spoke repeatedly in favor of tension reduction and closer cooperation on a range of issues despite bilateral differences. "In fact, the need for China-U.S. cooperation is not decreasing, but increasing. Our two countries should not be enemies, but partners," said China's ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, in a Washington speech on Aug. 31, one day before Kerry's meeting with Wang. A few days before that, a Ministry of Commerce spokesperson cited the mutual benefits of trade in an online briefing for the bilateral comprehensive economic dialogue. In the first seven months of the year, China's imports of U.S. goods jumped 50.4 percent from a year earlier, while China's exports to the United States climbed 36.9 percent, said Gao Feng, according to the official English-language China Daily. "China always emphasizes the two sides should work together to create conditions for the expansion of China-U.S. trade cooperation," Gao said. The tone of such statements made Wang's confrontational message on climate cooperation something of a surprise. Climate cooperation According to a Foreign Ministry statement, Wang warned Kerry that "deteriorating U.S.-China relations could undermine cooperation between the two on climate change," the Associated Press reported. "Wang told Kerry ... that such cooperation cannot be separated from the broader relationship and called on the U.S. to take steps to improve ties," the AP said. In the statement posted on the Foreign Ministry website, Wang told Kerry that Washington "should pay attention and actively respond" to the "two lists" and "three bottom lines" that Beijing defined as requirements for improved relations. The statement implied that climate cooperation would be conditioned on resolving the entire range of U.S.-China disagreements, including decades-old foreign policy differences that have nothing to do with climate change. "The United States hopes to transform cooperation into an 'oasis' in Sino-U.S. relations, but if the 'oasis' is surrounded by 'deserts,' the 'oasis' will sooner or later be deserted," Wang said. In July, China gave U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman the two lists, one of which covered "errors" for Washington to address, while the other raised issues regarded as "important" to China, CNBC reported. The lists included a demand that Washington should end its attempts to extradite Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou from Canada to face charges of violating U.S. export rules, as well as visa restrictions on Chinese students and Communist Party members, curbs on Chinese companies and other issues, CNBC and China's Global Times said. The "three bottom lines" outlined by Wang also included a broad range of policy issues. First, the United States "must not challenge, slander or even attempt to subvert the path and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics," said the document given to Sherman, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Second, Washington "must not attempt to obstruct or interrupt China's development process." As part of the demand, China called for the removal of all unilateral U.S. sanctions and bans on technology trade. Third, Wang insisted that the United States must not "infringe upon China's state sovereignty" or damage its "territorial integrity," referring to U.S. penalties for rights abuses in Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. China's sovereignty claims also extend to Taiwan and the South China Sea. Taken together, the demands for sweeping changes in U.S. policies toward China put the prospects for a climate change agreement on thin ice. After two days of talks with China's special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua, Kerry pushed back against Beijing's attempts to establish linkage between climate agreements and a wish list of grievances over unrelated disputes. "My response to them was, look, climate is not ideological, not partisan and not a geostrategic weapon," the former secretary of state told reporters, according to Reuters. Tension increase Climate policy experts have acknowledged that the high stakes for an agreement on emissions targets may raise tensions on other issues. "Kerry and Xie have been able to carve out a channel for ongoing communication on climate change, which is extremely valuable right now," Joanna Lewis, a Georgetown University associate professor, told The New York Times. "Yet it is increasingly difficult to fully insulate climate change from the broader tensions," Lewis said. But if China sticks to its demands, the effect would essentially hold the climate hostage to an insurmountably long list of policy differences. China also added to the conditions for cooperation with demands that the United States must stop calling for a World Health Organization investigation into origins of the COVID- 19 pandemic, charging that it was nothing more than a smear campaign against Beijing. In a phone call with Secretary of State Antony Blinken reported by Xinhua on Aug. 29, Wang called on the United States to "stop undermining China's sovereignty, security and development interests." In the weeks before the Tianjin meetings, Kerry pressed China long and hard to stop building coal-fired power plants, arguing that the projects will frustrate plans to meet climate goals. But China pushed back, arguing that its plans to supply its energy needs are also a matter of sovereignty and its own affair. "China already has its own plans and road map for achieving its climate goals," the South China Morning Post said, quoting "a person familiar with the two countries' negotiations." "China would not accept Washington telling it what to do and when," the source said. The outcome of the Biden-Xi phone talks seems to be a softening of tone in the demands from Beijing, which could allow climate talks to go ahead. "Relevant departments of the two countries, on the basis of respecting each other's core concerns and properly managing differences, may continue their engagement and dialogue, and advance coordination and cooperation on climate change, COVID-19 response and economic recovery as well as on major international and regional issues," a Xinhua commentary said. But it remained to be seen whether there will be any change in the substance of China's demands or its climate pledges. The Chinese warnings may still represent red lines, leading to an impasse and failure to reach new agreements in time for the U.N. conference of parties, known as COP26, in November. An alternate reading is that China's far-reaching conditions for a new climate deal are a measure of the difficulty of meeting more stringent emissions goals. Either way, the next two months are likely to be a period of intense diplomatic activity and recalculation of the critical interests in U.S.-China ties. Adding to the uncertainty are questions about whether the COP26 meeting will be held in November at all. In the past week, a broad coalition of climate groups called for postponing the conference. In a statement, the Climate Action Network voiced concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine requirements would raise costs for poorer countries and "makw it impossible for many representatives to attend." Kerry battled back against postponement, citing the risk that any delay could allow some nations to "backtrack" on their climate commitments, The New York Times reported. "We don't have time to mess around with reconvening," Kerry said. The strongman called the stunt a clear message to the rebels that there are people of Hun Sen everywhere. Prime Minister Hun Sen crashed a Zoom strategy session of Cambodias banned opposition party to send a clear message to the rebels that they are being watched not to seek political reconciliation, pro-government media quoted him as saying in a report on Thursday. The long-serving strongman suddenly popped up on a Zoom call that a U.S.-based former senior official of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was hosting last week with party members and activists in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and in Thailand. Hun Sen had the party banned in 2017, driving many members into exile. In a 12-minute video of the Sept. 9 call that went viral on social media, Hun Sen slammed the CNRP and its exiled leaders, and then told Zoom meeting host Long Ry, who is living in exile in Massachusetts, that I have been listening and have entered to listen many times already. Long Ry, a former member of parliament, told RFA this week that he was aware that someone in his circle had shared a link to the Zoom call with outsiders, but did not expect to see Hun Sen on the call. While Long Ry complained about the invasion of privacy, comparing it to peeping on naked people taking a shower, he also extended an invitation to return to discuss national to restart talks to end a four-year political crisis. A screen shot of Hun Sen making a surprise appearance in a Zoom meeting with activists and former lawmakers of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which his government banned four years ago, Sept. 9, 2021. Credit: RFA Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985 and destroyed several rivals in the past, was having none of the reconciliation talk, according to remarks carried on the pro-government outlet Derm Ampil. Don't mistake my entering the Zoom meeting with you the other day as a signal for negotiations, he said. I wanted to send a clear message to the rebels that there are people of Hun Sen everywhere. The CNRP must stop imagining that the party dissolved by the court will be revived, and Hun Sen will pardon, and Hun Sen will open negotiations for a political solution, because it fears the international community, the prime minister said in remarks published a day after A spokesman for his ruling Cambodian People's Party dismissed the audio and video clips as an elaborate fabrication. Hopefully, this interpretation will make the ignorant analysts and those waiting for forgiveness from Hun Sen clearly understand, he added. Cambodias Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November 2017, two months after arresting its president, Kem Sokha over an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Scores of supporters of the group have since been incarcerated, awaiting a tortuous legal process made slower by coronavirus restrictions. The move came amid a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the countrys political opposition, independent media, and NGOs that drew U.S. sanctions and the suspension of trade privileges with the European Union. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Paul Eckert. Beijing may become even more aggressive. But China reaps what it sows," says said Nguyen Ngoc Truong, a former Vietnamese diplomat. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, left, accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, second from right, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, speaks at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. Countries bordering the South China Sea who are wary of great power rivalries are reacting slowly and cautiously to the announcement of a trilateral defense pact between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The AUKUS pact, hailed by leaders from the three powers as historic, is thought to be designed to counter Chinas growing influence in the Indo-Pacific, especially in the South China Sea where China holds sweeping claims that are disputed by its neighbors. The pact will also see the US and UK give Australia the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines. The pact has been denounced by China, which claims it will stoke an arms race, and other critics speculate it may provoke a new Cold War. Tensions have been building up in the region over territorial disputes, as China develops its military might. Southeast Asian countries have responded cautiously to AUKUS an abbreviation of the three participating nations amid concerns of a new, intense strategic rivalry in the Indo-Pacific. Many regional countries do not want to be drawn into U.S.-China rivalry," Rizal Sukma, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and former Indonesia ambassador to Britain, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. AUKUS was announced early Asia time on Thursday. China wasted no time in registering its disapproval. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian called the pact extremely irresponsible and said it would backfire on the three powers involved. He said they had "seriously undermined regional peace and stability, intensified the arms race, and undermined international non-proliferation efforts." Among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore reacted positively, but other governments were more guarded. Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana speaks during a meeting with US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, April 1, 2019. Credit: AFP Arms race concerns The Indonesian Foreign Ministry said Friday it is watching with caution the Australian government's decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. Indonesia is one of Australias closest neighbors and even though the country is not a territorial claimant in the South China Sea, its exclusive economic zone overlaps Chinas claims. Indonesia is very concerned about the continued arms race and projection of military power in the region, a ministry statement said. Jakarta encourages Australia and other related parties to continue promoting dialogue in resolving differences peacefully and urges other parties in the region to adhere to international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Indonesia was among the first nations in the Indo-Pacific to be informed of the new AUKUS deal and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reportedly said hed seek to speak to President Joko Widodo soon. Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has also held a phone conversation with his Australian counterpart Peter Dutton on Friday, in which Dutton underscored that Australia wants to be seen as a neighbor that promotes regional peace, according to the Philippine Department of Defense. Lorenzana told Dutton that his country would like to maintain good bilateral defense relations with all other countries in the region, suggesting that officially Manila doesnt want to be seen as taking sides. A lack of a solid regional security structure means that Southeast Asian countries risk being sidelined on their own strategic chessboard. ASEAN, established 54 years ago, has become lacklustre and more irrelevant, according to Sukma who said he doubted that the grouping has the capacity to be a place where great powers' interests can be managed. Most Southeast Asian governments including Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have yet to comment on AUKUS hinting at the prevailing strategic uncertainty in the region. Singapore, however, was upbeat. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs quoted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who said in a phone call with Australian premier Morrison that he hoped the new deal would contribute constructively to the peace and stability of the region and complement the regional architecture. 'China reaps what it sows' Lees statement suggests that there may be much more support in the region for having a deterrent, military presence than openly claimed. No one country in the region wants to be under the domination of China and the U.S. presence is thus a necessity, said Kasit Piromya, Thailands former minister of foreign affairs. In the last 40 years, China has become the second-largest economy in the world and makes gains in technological advancement. However, the current Chinese leadership has become revisionist with assertive and aggressive ambition, argued Kasit. In his opinion, the ball is more in the Chinese court whether China wants to keep on continuing to dominate the region or to take stock of the limitation of power and the resources to back up the power. The United States has more allies while China only has a marriage of convenience with Russia, he said. Apart from the new tripartite alliance, the U.S is also part of an Indo-Pacific security grouping known as the Quad, together with Australia, India and Japan. President Joe Biden will be hosting a summit of the Quad leaders in Washington, D.C., next week. The U.S.-led alliances are playing an important role in countering and containing Chinas assertiveness, said Nguyen Ngoc Truong, a former Vietnamese ambassador and well-known political affairs analyst. Vietnam has been making effort to balance the relationships with both China and the U.S. with the countrys leaders always insisting that they would not side with any country against China. Yet Vietnam and China are embroiled for years in a tense territorial dispute in the South China Sea and AUKUS should bring a new confidence to countries contesting Chinas excessive claims, according to the former Vietnamese diplomat. Beijing may become even more aggressive. But China reaps what it sows. Ahmad Syamsuddin and Tria Dianti in Jakarta and Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Chinese ships have been accused of harassing neighboring countries oil exploration activities but China always insists they are operating within Chinas jurisdiction. The Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 10 on a visit to Pakistan for hydrocarbon research and geological mapping in February 2019. Ship-tracking data obtained by BenarNews on Friday show the Chinese survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi 10 continues operating in Tuna Block in the Indonesian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), almost a week after a flagship U.S. aircraft carrier sailed within 50 nautical miles of it. An Indonesian naval ship, the Kapitan Patimura-class corvette KRI Teuku Umar (385) was seen near the Haiyang Dizhi. The corvette is believed to have been dispatched to the area earlier this week. Ship-tracking records also showed the Chinese coastguard ship 4303 was nearby on Thursday evening. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson passed by the Haiyang Dizhi 10 on Sept. 11, as the American warship sailed through the southern part of the South China Sea, a move analysts say was intended to send a message to the Chinese vessel. On Monday, the Indonesian navy deployed the KRI Bontang (907) to the same area. Ship-tracking records show it was closely following the Haiyang Dizhis movements in the Tuna Block, an important oil and gas field in the North Natuna Sea. The KRI Bontang (907) has since withdrawn to Natuna Island. The Indonesian navy said Friday that it has deployed five vessels to secure the Natuna Sea, with three or four vessels taking turns at sea. Ship-tracking data and witness accounts reported in Indonesian media indicate several Chinese coastguard vessels have also been in the area this week. The events attracted great attention from the media and the Indonesian public, and prompted the Indonesian navy, as well as the Maritime Security Agency, also known as Bakamla, to speak out. The Indonesian government has been under immense domestic pressure to protect natural resources. Both agencies seemed having played down the presence of the Chinese ships. Commander of the Indonesian navys 2nd Fleet, Rear Adm. Arsyad Abdullah, said in a virtual press conference on Friday: Four KRIs (Indonesian vessels) are in the North Natuna Sea We want to give confidence to fishermen or sea users in North Natuna Sea, and the sea is under control because of the presence of the KRIs there." "In addition to the KRIs, operations in the North Natuna Sea also involved Indonesian Navy aircraft to carry out routine maritime air patrols in the area, Arsyad said. The Haiyang Dizhi has been operating there since late August, about 90 -100 nautical miles north of Indonesias Natuna Islands. Ship-tracking records show its back-and-forth pattern typical of a maritime survey. Chinese ships have been accused of harassing neighboring countries oil exploration activities but China always insists they are operating within Chinas jurisdiction. Although Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the northern part of the Natuna Sea overlaps with the so-called nine-dash line that China uses to demarcate its sweeping claims in the South China Sea a position not recognized by international law. Tria Dianti in Jakarta contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said the Taiwanese government had "taken note" of the AUKUS pact, and that Taiwan held common interests with the three allies. The new security partnership announced on Sept. 15 is widely viewed as a pushback against growing Chinese military power in the region. Under the deal, Australia will receive nuclear propulsion systems for submarines, but won't deploy nuclear weapons. "We are an important member of the Indo-Pacific region ... and we have long shared an interest in Indo-Pacific peace and stability with countries with similar philosophies, like the U.S., Australia and the U.K," Ou told reporters. Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Ting-yu said AUKUS is clearly aimed at containing Chinese military power, especially with regard to the international waters of the South China Sea, and the Chinese Communist Party's military threat to invade Taiwan by force. "This new military alliance ... will act as a check and balance that will improve Indo-Pacific regional stability," Wang told RFA. "It is helpful to peace and stability in this region." "As far as Taiwan is concerned, we are happy to see this [and] it is necessary for Taiwan to cooperate with these three countries ... so as to balance the CCP's military expansionism." Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (front row C) poses for photographs during an inauguration ceremony of a Ta Chiang Corvette at a navy base in Yilan, Sept. 9, 2021. Credit: AFP Wolf-warrior diplomacy' Officials and lawmakers in the democratic island of Taiwan have welcomed a trilateral security pact between the U.S., the U.K., and Australia that will help Canberra develop nuclear submarines, saying it hopes to continue to deepen its diplomatic ties with the U.S. and E.U.Foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said the Taiwanese government had "taken note" of the AUKUS pact, and that Taiwan held common interests with the three allies.The new security partnership announced on Sept. 15 is widely viewed as a pushback against growing Chinese military power in the region.Under the deal, Australia will receive nuclear propulsion systems for submarines, but won't deploy nuclear weapons."We are an important member of the Indo-Pacific region ... and we have long shared an interest in Indo-Pacific peace and stability with countries with similar philosophies, like the U.S., Australia and the U.K," Ou told reporters.Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Wang Ting-yu said AUKUS is clearly aimed at containing Chinese military power, especially with regard to the international waters of the South China Sea, and the Chinese Communist Party's military threat to invade Taiwan by force."This new military alliance ... will act as a check and balance that will improve Indo-Pacific regional stability," Wang told RFA. "It is helpful to peace and stability in this region.""As far as Taiwan is concerned, we are happy to see this [and] it is necessary for Taiwan to cooperate with these three countries ... so as to balance the CCP's military expansionism." DPP secretary general Liu Shih-fang said the move is a direct response to years of "wolf-warrior diplomacy" under the rule of CCP general secretary Xi Jinping. "Taiwan is a part of the alliance of democratic countries, and we will cooperate with other democratic countries," Liu told RFA. "That cooperation could be [in the areas of] trade and the economy, or defense and security, or human rights." The U.S. and Australian governments appeared to agree, saying they support Taiwan's participation in international organizations and stronger ties with Taiwan. In a joint statement issued by the two governments at the conclusion of the 31st Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) in Washington, they said Taiwan plays an important role in the Indo-Pacific region. "The principals emphasized their support for Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organizations, as a member where statehood is not a prerequisite and as an observer or guest where statehood is a prerequisite for membership," it said. Meanwhile, Taiwan urged the European Union to begin preparations for the possible signing of a bilateral investment deal, as part of the bloc's pledge to seek a trade deal under its newly published Indo-Pacific strategy. The EU strategy document said the bloc plans to increase its influence in the Indo-Pacific region, in the areas of health, security, data, infrastructure, the environment, oceans, and trade. "The EU will also pursue its deep trade and investment relationships with partners with whom it does not have trade and investment agreements, such as Taiwan," according to a communique on the strategy. More joint exercises The document said the EU intends to work with its Indo-Pacific partners to strengthen and diversify trade ties, which will also involve addressing strategic dependencies in supply chains. "For semiconductors, for example, it will do so with partners such as Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan," the document said. The move came as China filed an application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao submitted Chinas application to join the free trade agreement in a letter to New Zealands trade minister, Damien OConnor, the Chinese ministry said in a statement late on . The CPTPP was signed by 11 countries including Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan and New Zealand in 2018. Before that, it was known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and seen as an important economic counterweight to Chinas regional influence. Meanwhile, the EU said China's "significant military build-up" and "display of force" as well as the "increasing tensions in regional hotspots" such as in the South and East China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait, may have a direct impact on European security and prosperity. The EU said it will conduct more joint exercises and port calls with Indo-Pacific partners, including multilateral exercises, to fight piracy and protect freedom of navigation, while reinforcing EU naval diplomacy in the region. Former Taiwanese Chief of General Staff Lee Hsi-ming warned on that Xi has linked the invasion of Taiwan with his concept of the "Chinese Dream," and the "rejuvenation" of the Chinese nation. He called for better defenses to deter any such attack. "The only way to be sure is to make it impossible for him," Lee told an online forum on . "The best way to fight a war is to prevent it from happening in the first place." Lee called for bigger military reserves and a homeland defense force to boost Taiwan's own defense capabilities. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. The pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions appears to be next on Beijing's hit-list under a city-wide crackdown on dissent. Carol Ng, chairperson of Hong Kong's Confederation of Trade Unions, is shown in a Sept. 17, 2020 photo. Hong Kong newspapers backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) stepped up their denunciations of independent trade unions in the city on Friday, amid an ever-widening crackdown on civil society under the national security law. The Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao newspapers on Friday reported that Hong Kong's pro-democracy Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) would be the next civil society group to disband following denunciations by CCP media. "Our information indicates that the CTU will soon disband," the report said. "The executive committee met on Sept. 16 to pass the resolution, but it still needs to be formally approved at a general meeting on Oct. 3." The report accused the CTU of prompting a "tsunami" of new union registrations during the 2019 protest movement, and of "promoting anti-Chinese sentiment and unrest." "They have deviated utterly from the purpose of a trade union under the law, steal from industry, and divide society," the paper said, naming veteran labor activist Lee Cheuk-ying, who is currently serving a 14-month jail term for his role in the 2019 protest movement. It also singled out Winnie Yu, the founder and chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, a labor union representing Hospital Authority staff. Political denunciations in CCP-backed media are increasingly being used to target civil society groups and NGOs in Hong Kong. The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020. Several groups disband Several organizations, including protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers' Union, and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have disbanded following similar articles, or after being criticized by Hong Kong's leaders. The Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said it had recently received a letter from the Registry of Trade Unions alleging that its funds were used for "political purposes." The group's questioning of the effectiveness of Chinese-made COVID-19 jabs and the government's LeaveHomeSafe app, and its setting up of street booths were also listed as matters requiring explanation, government broadcaster RTHK reported. "Our alliance's legal status and the past activities we organized, including the strike to fight for reasonable rights, should be protected by international covenants and the Basic Law," it quoted acting chairman David Chan as saying. He declined to comment when asked if the alliance has any plans to disband, RTHK reported. Meanwhile, another labor NGO, the Asia Monitor Resource Centre, said an article published in the CCP-backed Ta Kung Pao newspaper was inaccurate. "For decades, we [have been] a civil society organization independent of any local or international organizations," it said. "We are not a subsidiary unit of any of the organizations as wrongly described in the Ta Kung Pao article." The group said it plans to shut down its Hong Kong operations by the end of September and relocate elsewhere in the region. "The pressure on our operation has intensified significantly," the group said in a statement on its website. "Therefore, we feel that we are left with no choice but to cease operating in Hong Kong by the end of September." Pattern becoming clear Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), said the pattern of denunciation leading to investigation by the authorities is becoming increasingly clear in Hong Kong. "We have seen so many similar occurrences, in which the Ta Kung Pao or the Wen Wei Po post articles listing [alleged] crimes, sometimes photos, and even stalking some people," Chung told RFA. "Maybe the first thing the secretary for security does when he gets to work in the morning is look at the Wen Wei Po or Ta Kung Pao to see which groups they are targeting, and make a list," he said. "It looks as if the [pro-CCP] media are running Hong Kong now." Set up in 1990, the CTU sprang from the work of the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC), a church-backed grassroots labor group active during the 1970s and 1980s. A coalition of independent and politically unaffiliated union organizations, its membership consisted largely of white-collar unions organizing the civil service and professional or service employees in the public and subvented sectors, including the now-disbanded Professional Teachers' Union (PTU) and the Hong Kong Social Workers General Union. Both former leaders Lau Chin-shek, a founding member of the Democratic Party, and Lee Cheuk-yan went on to be elected to the city's Legislative Council (LegCo). The CTU was involved in a number of mass protest movements, including the July 1, 2003 march to oppose national security legislation, which was eventually imposed on the city by the CCP on July 1, 2020. It was also instrumental in founding Hong Kong's Labour Party in 2005. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Citizens are also criticizing frivolous military parades when soldiers are not properly fed. Two men rest outside an apartment building in the outskirts of Rason city in North Korea in this file photo. Citizens in North Korea are becoming increasingly angry that state media is touting this weeks cruise missile tests as a major national defense achievement when many are struggling to find their next meal, sources in the country told RFA. Pyongyang over the weekend tested a new long-range cruise missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), which puts targets in Japan within reach. Cruise missiles are low-flying and harder to defend against than ballistic missiles. North Korea also conducted ballistic missile tests on Wednesday, launches which coincided with a South Korean submarine-launched missile test, a visit to Seoul by Chinas foreign minister, and a three-way meeting between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to discuss North Koreas nuclear and missile programs. Chronically short of food, North Korea has seen starvation deaths this year in the wake of the closure of the Sino-Korean border and suspension of trade with China in Jan. 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Against that backdrop, citizens are grumbling that their government does not care about their plight. The people are so antipathetic, asking how the authorities can do such things as if they dont know that many of us here are starving because of this economic crisis, said a resident of the northeastern coastal city of Hamhung, in South Hamgyong province. The people say that Kim Jong Un doesnt even know that the people are starving and hes doing things like that, the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFAs Korean Service. Missile tests, many people say, are meaningless when the army cannot even feed its soldiers, according to the source. They are saying that the Peoples Army cant fight a war because the soldiers are subsisting on corn and rice, and they cant survive in the military unless their family sends money to support their military life, said the source. Things have not changed in the slightest since the era of Kim Jong Il, when the government was saying the military was not afraid of war and that we had the greatest armed force in the world with our missiles and our troops, the source said. Kim Jong Il, leader Kim Jong Uns father and predecessor, was in power during the 1994-1998 North Korean famine, which killed as many as 10 percent of the countrys then population of 22 million. The source said the lack of nutrition for soldiers was more dangerous to them than any external threat. They dont have the strength to even hold bullets. If you dont have money to send to your enlisted son, you have to steal for him, said the source. Now the state is widely promoting that this new long-range cruise missile is another deterrence method that will guarantee the safety of the country and will suppress military action against our republic by hostile forces, the second source said. But many in North Korea disagree with this approach and would prefer that the government ask the outside world for help, according to the source. They say its wrong to block dialogue with the outside and focus only on missile development. Its an act of self-destruction and threatens the safety of the nation and the people. Another source, a resident of North Hamgyong provinces Rason city, which lies within a Special Economic Zone near the Chinese and Russian borders, told RFA that state propaganda is describing the long-range cruise missile tests as an act of self-defense that supports peace. People are reacting harshly, saying they dont understand how, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. They say the government has no interest in the peoples livelihood in this crisis, and they are only doing things like this to enhance their prestige, the second source said. With North Korea reeling from the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, food shortages, and recent flood damage, they think the missile launches are tone-deaf, according to the second source. Naturally the relatively few government officials who will remain in power only if they continue to develop missiles are all positive about the news of the missile launch, the second source said. But the majority of residents express strong concern and resentment, saying, North Koreas missile provocation is an act of self-harm that destroys peoples livelihood and leads the country to self-destruction. Frivolous Parades This picture taken on September 9, 2021 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) taking part in a parade of 'paramilitary and public security forces' to celebrate the 73rd founding anniversary of North Korea at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang. Credit: STR / KCNA VIA KNS / AFP North Koreans are also tired of the countys frequent military parades, dismissing them as ploys to distract the masses during the severe economic crisis. North Korea last week held a midnight parade in the capital Pyongyang last week to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the country. The people reacted coldly to the news of the parade, which included members of the various civil defense forces, a resident of South Pyongan told RFA. People are saying that they held the parade to give faith to the people because theres no food to eat here in North Korea. They also did it to show that self-reliance is the only way to survive. Thats why I dont think military parades are worth much, said the South Pyongan source. The parade is a sign that Kim Jong Un is not in touch with the people and their needs. He seems to have no idea that the residents dont want to see three military parades in less than a year. Some are strongly criticizing the frivolity of the whole thing, saying that the state is ignoring the peoples livelihood during this crisis and only concerned about playing politics, said the third source. A fourth source, from North Pyongan, told RFA that the amount of training required to prepare for a military parade is a waste of the armys resources. During the parade on October 10 of last year for the anniversary of the founding of the party, some of the participants said they had undergone intense training for six months, said the fourth source, who declined to be named. Residents are aware that the solders cant eat well, but they work hard to prepare for parade day and their lips are all chapped. How can there be a positive response to a military parade, the fourth source said. The source said it was unfair that soldiers sacrifice six months of their time and their health for these military parades, while Kim Jong Un prepares by dressing up as his grandfather, national founder and North Koreas first leader Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung remains a revered figure in North Korean culture, and legends of his deeds as an anti-Japanese guerilla during World War II and as a benevolent ruler afterward are taught to children from a young age. When Kim Jong Un was being groomed to rule the country shortly before his fathers death in 2011, North Korea watchers noted that his attire and hairstyle closely resembled that of a young Kim Il Sung, a look he has maintained to the present. But many people inside North Korea say that despite the tribute, Kim Jong Un is not even a shadow of his grandfather. Kim Jong Un just imitates his grandfather, right up to the hairstyle Whats the point of copying his appearance? He needs to fix the rot in this country but hes not doing that. Reported by Jeong Yon Park for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong. The fears come amid mass arrests in Yangon since the shadow government declared war last week. A person unsuccessfully attempts to access the internet in Myanmar, in an undated photo. Residents of townships in Myanmar where authorities have shut down access to the internet say they fear an imminent military offensive amid an information lockdown and increase in arrests since the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) declared war on the junta last week. Access to the internet is now cut off in 10 townships in five administrative regions that have seen widespread anti-junta protests since the military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup detat, including Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway, as well as in the state of Kachin, sources told RFAs Myanmar Service. In Kachins Hpakant township, the internet has been down since Aug. 20, while access in most townships in Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway regions was blocked on Sept. 14 Calls to Ooredoo Myanmar, which operates telecommunications services in the country, were routed to a recorded voice message on Thursday informing the public that the cuts were made under instruction from the Ministry of Transport and Communications and that customers would be notified as soon as possible, if service is restored. Residents of Sagaings Kani township, where reports say around 40 people were killed following an anti-junta protest in July, told RFA that they believe internet access may have been shut down to prevent access to information by the local branch of the Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militia formed to protect the public from the military. There are a lot of problems now because of the internet outagewe dont have any information from anywhere, said one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal. People are speculating that the military is planning to launch an attack on PDF forces now that the internet is shut down. It could be true, since telecom towers were blown up in Butalin and Kani, and there could be an offensive for revenge. RFA has recorded the destruction of a total of 65 communications towers since Sept. 4 in Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway and Ayeyawaddy regions, and in Chin and southern Shan states. PDF militias have destroyed dozens of towers operated by military-run telecom Mytel Telecommunications Co. in a bid to decrease company revenue they say the regime will use to buy weapons to wield against the population. Several have been destroyed since Sept. 7, when the NUG declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed groups. As many as 11 towers were destroyed on Sept. 7 alone in Sagaings Butalin township, they said. At least five Mytel towers were blown up between Sept. 9 and 15 in northern Chin states Tedim township, and locals said Mytel internet connections were unavailable since Wednesday. In several areas, including Magways Taungdwingyi township, residents said that internet connections for all four of Myanmars operatorsMPT, Telenor, Ooredoo and Mytelhad been cut off. A Mytel tower is destroyed in Sagaing regions Butalin township, Sept. 7, 2021. HTY Information Risk of rights abuses A resident of Sagaings Yinmabin township warned that military-perpetrated human rights abuses could escalate once the internet is cut off. Even when internet access was available, brutal massacres were being committed by the military, but without it, the situation would be unthinkable, he said. A state employee in Magway region, who declined to be named, told RFA that the junta had instructed all telecom operators to shut down 3G, 4G and WTTH (Broadband) internet lines in Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway beginning Sept. 14. One such operator, Norways Telenor Myanmar, confirmed to RFA that it was experiencing limitations in providing services due to compliance with local laws in the country, without providing details. In the more than seven months since Myanmars Feb. 1 coup, security forces have killed 1,105 civilians and arrested at least 6,572, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)mostly during crackdowns on anti-junta protests. During the coup, the internet was cut off across the country, with wi-fi and broadband services shut down until late April and only cable internet and business internet services accessible. According to figures compiled by RFA, a total of 707 people were killed in shootings by security forces during that period. The junta says it unseated Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) government because the party engineered a landslide victory in Myanmars November 2020 election through widespread voter fraud. It has yet to present evidence of its claims and public unrest is at an all-time high. During past internet shutdowns, reports have surfaced of government soldiers entering villages to loot and burn homes, forcing resident to flee to safety. However, the junta has defended the blocks, with spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun telling RFA last year that restricting access to the internet had reduced the number of posts on social media about matters of national security, including military movements and activities. Amid the nationwide turmoil since Februarys coup, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country, triggering fierce battles with local PDF militias and some of the dozens of ethnic armies that control large swathes of territory along Myanmars periphery. A resident of Mandalay told RFA he believes the main aim of the junta in cutting off internet access is to carry out some kind of a military operation. Its meant to prevent the PDFs from exchanging information so that they can attack them, he said. Even before the internet was shut down, [the military was] doing what they wanted to do. I'm worried that there will be more brutalities against innocent people. Myint Kyaw, a veteran journalist, said the junta would gain the upper hand by cutting off the internet, and said he expects there will be more human rights abuses as a result. Its a news blackout to cover things up, he said. The juntas Ministry of Transport and Communications had yet to comment on the internet shutdowns as of Thursday. Junta security forces on patrol in Ward No. 1, in Yangon's Mayangone township, March 20, 2021. RFA Security tightened in Yangon Meanwhile, the military has arrested at least 220 civilians across the country since last weeks NUG declaration, according to the AAPP. In particular, authorities have tightened security and stepped up arrests in Yangon, where at least 11 peopleincluding five womenwere arrested and beaten in No. 7 and No. 3 wards on Wednesday. RFA obtained a video that purportedly shows one young man from among the 11 being kicked by the military and police. A youth activist involved with the Yangon Urban Guerrilla Movement told RFA that the military is targeting and arresting the citys young people, while increasing random searches. They want to conduct a check as soon as they see a young person. They open up and search your backpack if you have oneone time, I even had to take off my clothes, he said. In the city center, only passenger cars were inspected before. But following an explosion on a bus after the NUGs war declaration, they began carrying out surprise checks on buses too. Restrictions in the neighborhood are getting tighter and tighter. Additionally, residents told RFA that military forces are patrolling key areas in the city, making nighttime guest list checks, and beating and arresting people daily. More than 100 people were arrested in Ward 13, in Yangons Hlaing township, alone on the night of Sept. 8the day after the NUGs announcementfor failing to register guests. Hlaing residents said they were released the next day after being questioned about whether they had any contact with NUG or PDF groups. The junta revived the Ward Administrator Law, popularly known as the Guest List Law, on Feb 13. Two days after the NUG announcement last week, the militarys Central Committee for Combating Terrorism issued a statement warning that any homeowner who fails to register a guest that is found to have committed acts of violence is subject to prosecution, while their property can be confiscated by the state. Nan Lin, a leader of the Rangoon University Students Union Alumni, said that by reviving the guest list law, the military has given itself the power to oppress the people in whatever way it sees fit, while claiming to act in the nations best interests. Its true things are getting tougher for our movement, but we have to find ways to stand up against the junta, he said. No matter what, we will carry our mission out in this city. The military cannot stop us just by arresting or torturing us. Revolutionary movements will continue to emerge in various forms throughout the country. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. State media and documents show how Xi Jinping and other top leaders were driving forces in XUAR policy. Researcher Adrian Zenz presents the findings of his latest study to members of the Uyghur Tribunal, a panel of UK-based lawyers, academics, rights experts, and business practitioners investigating alleged human rights violations and reports of genocide targeting Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region, in London, Sept. 13, 2021. Chinas top policy, legislative and advisory bodies were closely involved in the creation of the Re-Education Internment Campaign in Xinjiang that has sent some 1.8 million Uyghurs to detention camps and drawn genocide accusations against Beijing, according to a new report by a leading expert on the camp system. German researcher Adrian Zenz whose previous work has documented the existence and scope of the four-year-old internment camp system, as well as the motivation behind it draws on previously unanalyzed central government and state media reports to connect the program to highest rungs of power in Beijing. Documents on the drafting and approval of legislation in 2017 to set up the Uyghur internment campaign in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region demonstrate that the framing of Xinjiangs de-extremification through re-education campaign was undertaken with the direct knowledge of leading figures in Chinas most powerful policy, legislative and advisory bodies, the report says. The XUAR De-Extremification Regulation was spearheaded by three important party-state bodies: Central Committee Xinjiang Work Coordination Small Group, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress in Beijing, and the State Administration for Religious Affairs, Zenz writes. Two of the three institutions are directly under the third- and fourth-ranked members of the Chinese Communist Partys top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, men who are below only CCP chief and state President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, says the report, published online Tuesday by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank. A 2019 speech by XUAR Governor Shohrat Zakir declaring the re-education campaign a success following the release of some inmates and credits Xi for injecting strong impetus into Xinjiang Work, the report notes. General Secretary Xi Jinping personally went to Xinjiang to inspect and guide the work, presided over many meetings to study Xinjiang Work, delivered a series of important speeches, and issued a series of important instructions, Zakir is quoted in official documents as saying. 'Xis inner circle' This effectively implicates Xis inner circle of power in the atrocities committed in Xinjiang, Zenz writes in the report, titled Evidence of the Chinese Central Governments Knowledge of and Involvement in Xinjiangs Re-Education Internment Campaign. Such a direct link between the legal regulations underpinning and justifying the re-education campaign and the central government is uncommon and has until now escaped wider notice outside of China, writes Zenz, a senior fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington. Zenz says the documents showing specific and immediate involvement of central government institutions may inspire a re-examination of the role of Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief in Xinjiang, who is considered the architect of the crackdown on Uyghurs. Before he took the top post in Xinjiang in August 2016, Chen implemented heavy-handed surveillance and jailing policies in Tibet. Given Chens extensive expertise in previously working to suppress a major restive ethnic group in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), researchers including this author previously speculated that Chen may have both authored and implemented the re-education internment drive, Zenz writes. Chen, he notes, became the highest-ranking Chinese official to be sanctioned by the U.S. government in connection with rights abuses against Uyghurs and other minorities in the XUAR, but other central government figures have escaped such designations. Zenz presented his latest report at the second session of the Uyghur Tribunal in London last weekend, a panel investigating whether Chinas treatment of its ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims constitutes genocide. The panel, which has no authority to enforce its determination expected in December, was repeatedly attacked in Chinese state media. The new report is the latest of a series of his studies of Chinese measures to control and assimilate the 12 million Uyghurs of the XUAR. Based on a close reading of government documents and academic and policy debate, Zenzs research has formed the basis of genocide accusations against Beijing laid by several Western governments and legislatures, including the United States. His previous studies examine Chinas internment camps in the XUAR, the forced sterilization of detained Uyghur women, efforts to reduce population growth in the region thorough birth control and population transfer policies, and the Chinese governments population optimization strategy to dilute the Uyghur majority in southern Xinjiang by raising the proportion of Han Chinese. The 'Wall of the Disappeared' displays dozens of photos of Uyghurs who are missing or alleged to be held in Chinese-run camps in Xinjiang, China, in an exhibition outside the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 16, 2021. Credit: Reuters Wall of the Disappeared Chinese officials and state media have vilified Zenz for his research, calling him an anti-China swindler and a fake academic with a bankrupt reputation, and accusing him of fabricating Xinjiang-related lies to smear and attack China. The government had no immediate response to Zenzs newest report. But on Sept. 9, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular press conference that the researcher had hurled the absurd accusations of forced sterilization and genocide in Xinjiang in his so-called reports without being unable to present any solid evidence. In March, Zenz was one of 10 Europeans and four entities hit with travel and other sanctions by China in response to European Union penalties imposes on XUAR officials for abuses of Uyghurs. During a speech at the two-day Central Conference on Ethnic Affairs in Beijing in late August that prompted fears of more harsh policies, Xi called for ethnic minority groups to put the interests of the nation first. [We] should hold the ground of ideology. [We] should actively and steadily address the ideological issues that involve ethnic factors, and continue to eradicate poisonous thoughts of ethnic separatism and religious extremism, Xi was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. China has justified the use of re-education camps in the XUAR as a means of preventing religious extremism and terrorism among the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. On Thursday, a U.S.-funded exhibition titled Uyghur Voices: Human Rights Exhibition opened outside the U.N. in Geneva, highlighting the human rights violations allegedly committed by the Chinese government against Uyghurs and others in the XUAR. The exhibition focuses on the internment camps, gender-based violence, forced labor, and family separation and features a Wall of the Disappeared with images of Uyghurs who are missing and believed to be held in the camps. The exhibition will later move to Brussels and Berlin, according to the World Uyghur Congress, a Germany-based Uyghur advocacy group that has partnered with the U.S. missions and embassies in the three cities to organize the events China has been attempting to cover up the Uyghur genocide in East Turkestan by all possible means, one of which is to have exhibitions at the UN, said WUC president Dolkun Isa. We at the World Uyghur Congress aim to counter Chinas propaganda and disinformation campaign at the U.N. by hosting our own exhibitions with facts and truth of Chinese atrocities, said Isa, whose mother died at 78 in a Xinjiang internment camp in May 2018 after serving a year for religious extremism. Reported and translated by Alim Seytoff for RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. A group of 23 international and Belarusian nongovernmental organizations are launching a campaign to demand the release of seven members of Belaruss Vyasna human rights center who were detained as part of a wider crackdown on civil society following last years presidential election. The #FreeViasna campaign was initiated on September 17, which the human rights groups said marks the anniversary of Belarusian authorities launching their shameless witch hunt against Vyasna by arbitrarily detaining coordinator Marfa Rabkova. In the following months, six other members of the human rights organization were put behind bars and charged with unfounded criminal offenses for carrying out their legitimate human rights work, they said in a joint statement. The campaign also aims at highlighting the plight of hundreds of other people who have been prosecuted and jailed solely for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression after the disputed August 2020 presidential election handed authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term. Mass protests broke out against alleged election fraud, which were met by a brutal crackdown from the Lukashenka government. The opposition and the West have refused to recognize the results and called for a new, independently monitored vote. Alyaksandr Lukashenkas government is wielding a war on civil society and ruthlessly suppressing all forms of dissent, said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch. Key international actors should join forces to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Vyasnas members and other jailed activists, and do their utmost to help and protect Belarusian civil society, he said. The human rights organizations are calling on people to join a global rally under the hashtag #FreeViasna. Supporters are suggested to use their networks and social media to tell the world about the campaign using the #FreeViasna hashtag, take a picture with a campaign banner or a poster, write an open letter to an imprisoned human rights defender, and join rallies that are being organized across the world. One of the most outspoken supporters of jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says she is "disappointed" with the Kremlin critics exiled associates and has broken ties with them as the country heads to polling stations for elections. Anastasia Vasilyeva, the chief of the Physicians' Alliance NGO, accused Navalny's now-defunct Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) of leaving her and her team without any support after "using" them, saying that Navalny's associates Leonid Volkov, Ivan Zhdanov, and Maria Pevchikh, who currently live outside of Russia, "are ruining everything that we once created." "Im very disappointed. The foundations managers are now destroying what all of us worked so hard to create," she wrote in a Facebook post late on September 16. "Now [Navalny's associates] are in Europe and a certain someone (Navalny) finds himself in prison. See the difference? Anyone who believed in him is now at risk of criminal prosecution. And when they lock these people up, no one will remember them," she added while not elaborating on what was being destroyed. Vasilyeva's posting sparked a heated reaction online, with many believing that she was forced to make the statement on the eve of parliamentary elections as the Kremlin-backed ruling party, which has seen its support slump, aims to retain power. Vasilyeva, who famously played her piano while police recently ransacked her apartment during a crackdown over the past year against Navalny and his allies, has been under increasing pressure from authorities. WATCH: Navalny Supporter Defiantly Plays Piano As Russian Police Raid Her Home In March, the Physicians' Alliance was placed on the state's controversial "foreign agents" list, which has been used to stymie monitoring groups and the media, to disqualify prominent opposition candidates, to drive opposition leaders to flee the country, and to restrict access to volunteers and fundraising for any person or group placed on it. On September 1, Moscow police detained her and took her to a court hearing to face charges of allegedly violating restrictive measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. The hearing appears to never have taken place even though several of Navalnys associates and supporters who were part of the case faced the court and were handed parole-like sentences on charges for publicly calling for people to take part in unsanctioned rallies to support the Kremlin critic in January. Some compared Vasilyeva's situation with that of Belarusian blogger Raman Pratasevich, once a critic of his country's strongman leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his crackdown on the opposition. Pratasevich was arrested along with his girlfriend in Minsk on May 23 after Belarusian authorities forced their Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius to land in the Belarusian capital. He later changed his public stance and views on the political situation in Belarus, a move many opposition leaders say appeared to be made under duress. The beginning of the year marked Navalny's return to Russia following treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning he claims was carried out by Russian security agents at Putin's behest. Navalny was arrested and subsequently sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on a parole violation charge that he denounces as absurd. Thousands of Russians were detained during nationwide protests calling for his release and later the FBK and his network of regional offices were shut down as "extremist" organizations. KHABAROVSK, Russia -- The Kremlin set off a revolt of sorts in July 2020 when law enforcement arrested the popular governor of the Khabarovsk region, Sergei Furgal, and replaced him with a temporary appointee from Moscow, Mikhail Degtyaryov. Many in the region took the move as a personal affront and overreach from a controlling central government in faraway Moscow, and they took to the streets for months of protests that seemed to take the Kremlin by surprise. Now voters in the region more than 6,000 kilometers east of the capital are going to the polls in an early election to fill Furgal's spot, and the Kremlin seems determined to make sure the way is clear for Degtyaryov to keep his seat. Initially, it appeared there would be eight candidates on the ballot. But on August 4, Green Party candidate Mikael Bagdasaryan suddenly and without explanation withdrew from the race. He had been seen as a strong local candidate well-versed in the region's issues and concerns. A week later, candidates Igor Logvinov of the Green Alternative party and Vladimir Chernyshov of the New People party were denied registration by election officials. Would-be Communist Party candidate Pyotr Perevezentsev failed to submit his documents on time and election officials refused to consider them. All three refuseniks were unable to secure the necessary number of signatures from regional district council members or executive-branch heads. "The federal authorities and United Russia are doing everything they can to make our campaign difficult because they know that the Communist Party is the only opposition force in the country," Perevezentsev wrote. Whittled Down In the end, only three candidates will be on the ballot with Degtyaryov, who has only strengthened the perception that he is an imposed outsider by appointing many people with no connection to the region to the regional administration. On October 10, 2020, Degtyaryov oversaw the violent dispersal of demonstrators in Khabarovsk, detaining dozens. Changing his official residence registration and buying an apartment in Khabarovsk have done little to change the perception. One of the acting governor's purported rivals is state television journalist Marina Kim, a native of St. Petersburg who lives in Moscow. She was put forward by the A Just Russia party and is running under the opaque slogan "Justice Begins With The Far East." Another challenger -- the one best known to locals -- is entrepreneur Babek Mamedov of the Rodina party. A native of Azerbaijan, he has lived in Khabarovsk for many years. With a declared 2020 income of over 16 million rubles ($220,000), he is officially the wealthiest of the candidates. He has campaigned mostly on economic issues, appealing to workers in the military-industrial complex, students, and intellectuals. The final "challenger" is a native of Khabarovsk, retiree Vladimir Parfyonov of the little-known Party of Pensioners for Social Justice. Voters might be put off by the fact that Parfyonov is married to Degtyaryov's press secretary, Yelena Parfyonova. The Khabarovsk branch of the Party of Pensioners for Social Justice was hastily formed in May. "We are in a complicated situation," said local protest leader Andrei Dudenok. "People are angry. One of the analysts said recently that the people of Khabarovsk are flipping the bird in their pockets. They were just as angry when they voted in 2018." 2018 was the year the region outraged Moscow by electing Furgal in a second-round landslide over longtime United Russia incumbent Vyacheslav Shport. "I conducted a survey and this is what people are planning," Dudenok said. "If Kim is disqualified, they will vote for Mamedov. If Mamedov is disqualified, they will vote for Parfyonov. A lot of people are going to vote in a purely protest manner." Local Libertarian Party activist Mikhail Zhukov says this might be exactly what the Kremlin wants. "I think it is important to Moscow that their interests are represented in Khabarovsk," he told RFE/RL. "They don't particularly care who is representing them -- Marina Kim or Mikhail Degtyaryov. But if Kim wins, maybe locals will get a false sense of victory and the protests will die off. That is what Moscow needs." Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting from Khabarovsk by Yekaterina Khasina and Aleksandr Molchanov of the Siberia.Realities desk of RFE/RLs Russian Service BISHKEK --Kyrgyzstan has added several former leaders of Canada's Centerra Gold company and its operator of the Kumtor Gold company to its wanted list as part of a widening investigation into alleged corruption during the development of a major gold-mining project. The State Committee for National Security (UKMK) said on September 17 that investigations so far revealed that the former leaders of the Canadian company and its operator had been involved in "corrupt" activities through which they illegally pocketed up to $200 million in December 2013. The UKMK said that it launched a probe against former Centerra Gold manager Ian Atkinson; the former chief of Kumtor Gold, Michael Fischer; the former chairman of Kumtor Gold's managing council, Andrei Sazonov; and the former vice president of Kumtor Operating Company, John Suter. All of them have been added to the Central Asian nation's wanted list, he said. A day earlier, the UKMK said it had detained former Prime Minister Joomart Otorbaev as part of the investigation. Otorbaev, who served as prime minister between 2014-15, is one of several former prime ministers and other senior officials arrested in connection with the Kumtor project in recent months. Kumtor has been a target of financial and environmental disagreements for years. It is currently the subject of an ongoing control battle between the Kyrgyz state and Centerra Gold. The Kyrgyz government has temporarily taken over control of the mine in what President Sadyr Japarov has called a necessary move to address environmental and safety violations. Centerra has called Kyrgyzstan's actions "wrongful and illegal." In May, the Canadian firm said it had "initiated binding arbitration to enforce its rights under long-standing investment agreements with the government." Last month, investigators questioned two former Kyrgyz presidents, Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Askar Akaev, in the high-profile case. There are few indications on the streets of Russian cities that the country is holding parliamentary elections. Theres the occasional billboard listing the dates -- September 17-19 -- and the occasional canvasser distributing leaflets for state-approved parties. But life is largely going on as normal. Not so in the chunk of eastern Ukraines Donbas region that is controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. There, its a different story: An apparent rush to get every eligible resident to cast a ballot in a foreign election that Kremlin critics consider rigged to ensure a resounding victory for the ruling party, United Russia. On September 6, a post on a website of the Moscow-backed separatists who have held part of the Donetsk province since a war against Kyiv erupted in 2014 listed 15 polling stations in Russias neighboring Rostov Oblast where a former leader of the Donetsk separatists, Russian citizen Aleksandr Borodai, is on the United Russia ticket. Show your Russian passport and vote in the elections, the text read. It promised that special buses would be provided to take Donbas residents to the border, and another set of buses would transfer them to the polling stations. The strategy could bring Russia the fruits of a years-long campaign of so-called passportization in the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces held by the Russia-backed separatists. In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to simplify the processing of Russian passports for residents of the Donbas, sparking harsh criticism from Kyiv and Western governments that accuse Moscow of seeking to further destabilize Ukraine. Some 14,500 Russian passport holders in the Donbas were able to vote in Russias June-July 2020 plebiscite on constitutional changes, including one that allows Putin to run for reelection in 2024 and 2030. Many were bused across the border into the Rostov Oblast to access polling stations there. In May, the Russian Interior Ministry said that 527,000 residents of the separatist-controlled parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces had obtained Russian passports. Those passports usually come without official registration in Russia, since most recipients have no property there, rendering them unable to arrange hotel stays and creating other bureaucratic hurdles. Nevertheless, a resolution subsequently adopted by Russias Central Election Commission in July allowed such people to register and cast votes online in this weekend's elections, handing them one of the fundamental rights enjoyed by full-fledged Russian citizens -- and potentially creating a sizable group of people that can bolster Kremlin-backed parties. Its likely that United Russia will receive the most votes in the Donbas, Russian political analyst Konstantin Skorkin wrote in a recent column for the English-language Moscow Times. Inhabitants of the self-proclaimed republics are counting on the Russian authorities alone to resolve their fate, so voting for the ruling party is, for them, akin to investing in their own future: They hope their loyalty will not be forgotten by Moscow. Ukraine issued a note of protest after the resolution passed, also citing the involvement in Russian elections of residents of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. The organization of elections on occupied Ukrainian territory and the involvement in them of local residents, on whom Russian citizenship was imposed, puts into question the results of those elections, the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said in a statement carried by the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda. According to sources who were granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject and the possibility of consequences, it is this resolution that precipitated the launch of a concerted campaign to get out the vote from residents of the Donbas. Last week, workers for the separatist authorities who were pressured to register as Russian voters were herded in groups into local consultation centers -- where they were instructed on how to use the Russian government services portal to cast their votes online, according to the sources. Such centers were opened in 255 schools in the separatist-held part of the Donetsk region, they said. Media reports say that some Russian passport holders were promised payouts from the Russian government on par with those apportioned to state workers in line with a recent decree signed by Putin, despite the fact that the decree specified it applied to Russian citizens living on Russian territory. Here we dont watch our lying local TV channels. Theyre not interesting. We watch Russia! Tatyana, a kindergarten teacher in the separatist-controlled Donetsk town of Snizhne, told RFE/RLs Russian Service. She cited the various bonuses promised to pensioners and young parents, adding: And do we get nothing, or what? Are we only useful as voters? Even as the territories de facto leaders pull out the stops that help get out the vote in the Russian elections, Russias mainstream parties have not done much campaigning in the Donbas, possibly to eschew the kind of scandals that electioneering on foreign soil could provoke. But one grandiose event held by United Russia on September 8 did turn heads. It was a holiday established by the separatists to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of the Donbas from Nazi forces in World War II, and a group of Russian lawmakers marked it by ascending to the war monument atop Savur-Mohyla hill near Snizhne along with several veterans of Soviet-era wars, according to images from the event published by United Russia. Accompanying them was Andrei Turchak, a senior United Russia leader, who announced that the party had planted several dozen trees beside the memorial complex. Russia always was, is, and will be together with the people of the Donbas, he told the gathered crowd, before driving to Donetsk for a meeting with party supporters. Skorkin summed up the effect this strategy could ultimately have, both for Russia and the separatist republics it backs. Moscow is binding the breakaway region to itself ever more closely, he wrote. With every Russian passport handed out there, and every vote cast in Russian elections, the chances of resolving the [Donbas] crisis get slimmer and slimmer. KEMEROVO, Russia -- Andrei Biryukov, a member of the regional election commission of Siberia's Kemerovo region, says he has discovered procedural violations in all 12 polling stations around the town of Guryevsk (population 24,000). Moreover, he believes the irregularities were intentional, aimed at facilitating falsification of the ongoing elections in Russia. Voters in Russia are going to the polls from September 17 to 19 to elect a new State Duma, as well as to participate in many regional elections. Biryukov told RFE/RL that one polling station (No. 1044) did not have a register of people who had requested to vote from home. When Biryukov requested the documents, polling station officials became hostile. "The polling station workers would not let me examine the documents and pulled them out of my hands," he said. "They surrounded the table and turned their backs to me. The polling station head demanded that I leave." He said that all of the polling stations he visited reported that 20-25 percent of registered voters had purportedly requested to vote from home. "I think that is a sign of future falsifications," he said. "Already the procedure for registering at-home voters is going on with clear violations, and we are not being allowed to verify their identities." At polling station No. 1048 in the settlement of Malaya Salairka, Biryukov was able to call a few of the telephone numbers listed on the polling station's register of at-home voters. He did so on speaker phone in the presence of other members of the regional election commission. One woman said she had not applied to vote at home, that she planned to vote in person, and that her name and surname were not the ones on the polling station list, although the address was correct. Another told him that he had no intention of voting at all and had not requested to vote from home. "The chairman of the regional election commission commented: 'I have worked on elections for many years now and I have never before seen this information checked,'" Biryukov told RFE/RL. The regional election commission held a meeting about Biryukov's findings on September 16. Although the commission told RFE/RL that Biryukov had been informed of the meeting, Biryukov said he learned about it only when RFE/RL queried him. The commission rejected all of Biryukov's complaints, accepting the word of the head of polling station No. 1044 that all requested documents had been provided to him. The commission ruled that Biryukov must have made errors when writing down the phone numbers of those who purportedly requested to vote from home from polling station No. 1048 and had "telephoned unknown people." Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting from Kemerovo by Andrei Novashov of the Siberia.Realities desk of RFE/RLs Russian Service Budget-sector workers in Russia were pictured flocking to polling stations across the country as voting in nationwide legislative elections began. Long lines of military personnel were reported in Moscow early on the first day of the September 17-19 vote, amid reports that state workers had been told to cast their ballots by noon in an effort to ensure high turnout. "This is necessary to ensure mobilization -- there will be more time to mobilize those who did not show up in the first wave on Friday morning," the online news outlet Meduza, which was listed as "foreign agent media" by the Justice Ministry last month, quoted a source close to the Russian presidential administration as saying. Video on social media showed a lengthy line of voters that spilled onto the street of Bolshoi Afanasyevsky Lane in Moscow. The Readovka news outlet, which published the clip on its Telegram channel, suggested that the enormous line in the capital's Arbat district was not in keeping with the area's low number of registered voters. Ekho Moskvy radio, which also published the video, reported that some of those waiting to vote said they had come voluntarily and were "local residents." Uniformed military and police officers were among those waiting in line, and a voter told an Ekho Moskvy correspondent that he was from "an organization with green uniforms, which the reporter took to mean the military. While Russia extended the September 19 election by two days purportedly in order to lessen the risk of coronavirus exposure, voters were tightly bunched together, and the vast majority were not wearing masks. Readovka, whose website was banned by the Russian authorities in late August 2020, reported that members of the "National Guard, Emergency Situations Ministry, the military, state employees, etc., were being driven en masse to vote," and published video of military members marching to polling station No. 2577 in western Moscow's Krylatsky district after having been driven there to take part in the vote, which Readovka said was a violation of electoral laws. The news outlet also reported that the head of the polling station had told its correspondent that he was not allowed to film the voting process and that the polling station's video cameras, part of a purported effort by the Central Election Commission (CEC) to provide transparency, had been turned off. In the eastern Siberian region of Buryatia, the Free People Telegram channel published a collage of images -- including one showing army officers lined up in rows -- above a caption stating that local officials "rounded up military, police, and state employees of all stripes." Observers from the Omsk Civic Association, meanwhile, reported that several hundred police officers and employees of the Emergency Situations Ministry had been bused to "a number of polling stations" in the Siberian city's Kirov district. The organization's Twitter feed also showed "at least 50" National Guard soldiers lined up to vote at polling station No. 264, located in the district where current city Mayor Oskana Fadina is running for a State Duma seat. The Siberia.Realities desk of RFE/RL's Russian Service, meanwhile, reported on its elections Live Blog that military conscripts were being bused to Omsk polling stations. 'Ordered To Vote' Communist Party candidate Vasily Shipilov, a State Duma candidate from Tomsk, said state employees in the Siberian city had complained that they had been directed to vote at polling stations where they were not eligible to vote. Shipilov reportedly sent a copy of the directive to the CEC. In Yekaterinburg, the banned Readovka reported on its Telegram channel that more than 100 employees of a nationwide supermarket chain whose owner is a reputed supporter of the government been ordered to go to polling station No. 1480 to vote, even if was not their official voting district. In Moscow, the outlet reported, one woman who had failed to register for online voting at her workplace was ordered to instead show up to vote for the capital's Leningrad district single-mandate constituency, one of 15 single-mandate seats in Moscow. Critics say the CEC's e-voting initiative is being forced on state workers as a possible way to skew the vote in favor of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, which is experiencing all-time lows in popularity. A recent survey by the state-run VTsIOM pollster put a positive spin on employees of industrial enterprises possibly being coerced to participate in the elections, which will determine all 450 seats in the State Duma, as well as a handful of gubernatorial and mayoral races and more than three dozen regional legislatures. VTsIOM reported on September 8 that the "overwhelming majority" of such employees had not been pushed to vote, a figure that the English-language The Moscow Times read as an indication that "14 percent of all employers working at industrial plants in Russia had been confronted with forced voting for the upcoming elections." RFE/RL's Russian Service contributed to this report Welcome to The Week In Russia. I'm Steve Gutterman, the editor of RFE/RL's Russia Desk. Every Friday, I dissect the key developments in Russian politics and society over the previous week and look at what's ahead. Subscribe here. Russians go to the polls -- and Putin goes into self-isolation. Amid a clampdown that has further narrowed the field and limited the right to representation, voters cast ballots in parliamentary and local elections, while the president retreats after an extensive outbreak of COVID-19 in his administration. Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward. An Act Of Defiance A small protest on Red Square this week served as a poignant punctuation mark at the close of a bewildering chapter in Russian politics. On the cobblestones near Lenins tomb, under gray skies, four activists unfurled a banner reading: "Freedom for Navalny! Prison for Putin! They were quickly arrested and at least one of them was beaten, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors protests and the police response. A journalist who shot the demonstration on video was also detained and his equipment confiscated. The simple act of defiance came amid a sweeping clampdown on dissent that has snowballed for months ahead of elections that, as tightly controlled as the Kremlin appears determined to make them, will leave a mark on Russia and help shape its future. The banner that was swiftly grabbed by three officers on the square at Russias heart bore two names at the center of the lopsided confrontation between the Kremlin and its opponents: Vladimir Putin, who has been president or prime minister for 22 years and could potentially remain in the top office until 2036, thanks to a constitutional amendment he pushed through last year, and Aleksei Navalny, who has been Putins most prominent foe for the past decade. Navalny was barred from challenging Putin in the last presidential election, in 2018. The wide-ranging crackdown on the opposition, civil society, independent journalists, and ordinary Russians who have fallen afoul of the Kremlin seemed to expand and accelerate upon Navalnys return to Russia in January from Germany, where he was treated for a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning he blames on Putin and the Federal Security Service (FSB). The onslaught seems to have altered the atmosphere in Russia, potentially for years to come. There is no sign that a letup will follow the September 17-19 voting in elections for the State Duma, which is the lower house of parliament, and as well as for the leaders of nine regions around Russia and dozens of provincial and municipal legislatures. And in the week ahead of the elections, there were several developments that suggested that, for now at least, nothing seems about to change. Kremlin efforts to control the results of parliamentary elections are certainly nothing new: Over his years in power, Putins government has used an array of strategies and tactics at all stages of the process -- from keeping challengers off the ballots to election-night antics that alter the vote counts, critics say. Deny And Coerce Since the mid-2000s, the states mechanism for manipulating the results of elections has stood on four pillars, according to Stanislav Andreichuk, a leader of Golos, an independent vote-monitoring group that has been instrumental in reporting alleged fraud in past votes and is under increasing pressure from the government. The first two are the governments control of candidate registration and of media coverage. The third pillar is voter coercion, while the fourth is vote-rigging on election day itself, Andreichuk wrote in a September 13 article. The balance of these variables [has] differed between election cycles depending on the political situation at hand. The first pillar -- control of candidate registration has been employed heavily in advance of the current elections. Navalnys entire network of supporters was effectively barred from running due to what he says is the absurd designation of his organizations as extremist. And the sweeping use of the foreign agent laws has also thinned the ranks. Golos says that more than 9 million Russian adults -- possibly millions more -- are barred from seeking public office. If electoral manipulation is nothing new, why the big push this time? Why is the Russian state staging "its most repressive Duma elections yet," as Sam Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King's College London, described them? There seem to be at least two main factors: Putins 2024 problem and the declining popularity of United Russia, the Kremlin-controlled party that dominates the Duma -- where it has held a constitutional two-thirds majority since the last elections, in 2016 -- and the vast majority of regional administrations and assemblies nationwide. Putins current term was supposed to be his last, or at least his last for a while. The constitution that was in place when it began barred presidents from serving more than two consecutive terms -- which is why he handed the reins to Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 and stepped down to the No. 2 post -- prime minister -- before returning to the Kremlin in 2012. But last year, he engineered a raft of constitutional amendments -- including one that allows him to run again in 2024 and again in 2030 if he wishes. He has not said whether hell run in 2024, and there are other potential paths he could take to keeping a hand or two on Russias reins, including tapping a favored successor or ruling from a position other than the presidency. Whatever he does, hell want as big a United Russia majority as possible in the Duma to turn to for support and for an air of legitimacy, or at least what the Kremlin will cast as legitimacy. Last Elections On Paper? Problem is, United Russia is unpopular -- increasingly so, according to many polls. While the official election results are unlikely to reflect it, for several reasons, an early September survey by the state-funded VTsIOM found that only 30 percent of respondents said they would vote for United Russia -- up, mysteriously, from 26-29 percent every previous week since late June. But for a number of reasons, United Russia may be able retain its two-thirds majority. One of them is that many viable candidates have been barred from the race. Another is that half of the 450 seats in the Duma will be filled by voting in individual districts, rather than for the parties themselves. A third is that while Golos is attempting to monitor the vote despite being labeled a foreign agent, there will be no observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, widening the window for fraud -- as does the three-day balloting, another result of the constitutional amendments of 2020. So, are these elections destined to be Russias least democratic ever? Dont count on it: Online voting, which Kremlin critics warn is a recipe for opacity and fraud, is being used in seven regions this time around, including Moscow, where prizes have been offered in an effort entice residents to register. The bad news is that these elections, while far from perfect, could end up being Russias last in paper form, Andreichuk wrote. It is obvious that the government aims to implement electronic voting all across the country by the 2024 presidential election. If that happens, monitoring the sanctity of the vote will not even be theoretically possible. Isolation If the protest on Red Square seemed symbolic of the extraordinary events in the lead-up to the elections, so did Putins announcement -- three days before the voting began -- that he was self-isolating after dozens of people in his entourage came down with COVID-19. Putin said the experience would serve as a test of the efficacy of Sputnik V, the Russian-made vaccine that he says he was inoculated with several months ago. As a test of his handling of the coronavirus, however, the big outbreak in Putins inner circle just ahead of the elections seems far from a sign of success. When the pandemic emerged, early in 2020, Putin seemed to believe it might bypass Russia. In March of that year, he declared that his government had managed "to contain the mass penetration and spread" of COVID-19. But the virus has hit Russia hard ever since, and the government has struggled to get people vaccinated, a problem analysts say results from a lack of trust -- a phenomenon that also applies, among other things, to the governments official coronavirus numbers and to chances of an election whose outcome is not predetermined. That's it from me this week. If you want to know more, catch up on my podcast The Week Ahead In Russia, out every Monday, here on our site or wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts). Yours, Steve Gutterman P.S.: Consider forwarding this newsletter to colleagues who might find this of interest. Send feedback and tips to newsletters@rferl.org. DELHI-JAIPUR HIGHWAY TO BE THE INDIA'S FIRST ELECTRIC HIGHWAY New Delhi: Nitin Gadkari , the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister shared his opinion of constructing an electric highway from Delhi to Jaipur. He even mentioned that he is still working on the framework and is also in contact with a foreign company for this project. Advertisement Nitin Gadkari, the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister While evaluating the progress of the Delhi-Mumbai expressway on Thursday, Gadkari said, "It is my dream to build an electric highway from Delhi to Jaipur. It is still a proposed project. We are in discussion with a foreign company." The union transport minister said like electric railway engines even the buses and trucks will also be powered by electricity. Gadkari said he had taken a resolution to bring an end to the use of petrol and diesel in the country. Advertisement In an interview in 2016, Gadkari had said that India may soon have an electric highway stretch, similar to the one in Sweden. At that time Gadkari said he even had a word with a Swedish delegation, led by Minister for Enterprise & Innovation, Mikael Damberg for the e-highway. Advertisement It was clearly seen that Sweden has developed the new electric highway technology which permits the trucks to operate as electric vehicles when on the electrified road and as regular hybrid vehicles at other times. Gadkari said the present government's motive is to promote bio-fuel and electric cars to prevent pollution as well as develop a cheaper mode of transportation. Separately, Gadkari on Thursday laid foundation stones of 34 road projects worth 9,577 crores in Madhya Pradesh and said more such projects worth 1 lakh crore will be sanctioned by the Centre for the state in the coming days. He also reviewed the eight-lane Delhi-Mumbai expressway which is expected to halve the commute time between the national capital and the nation's financial hub from nearly 24 hours to 12 hours. He also said the Delhi-Katra expressway will be launched in nearly two years, and once it's operational, vehicles will be able to reach Katra from Delhi in six hours. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Close A new discovery has recently been reported on what's possibly the earliest evidence of clothing humans manufactured in a cave in Morocco 120,000 years ago. It can be simply to take clothing, including their origin, for granted, as wearing an outfit at the beginning of the say is such an embedded part of what it means to be a human being on earth. A ScienceAlert report said, one person who is not taking such a result for granted is Emily Hallett, an anthropologist from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. She recently came out with study that outlined the Moroccan finding. Hallett, along with a research team, had been examining several bone fragments discovered at Contrebandiers Cave, an important archeological area on Morocco's Atlantic coast. ALSO READ: Human Evolution Evidently Taking Place Among Southeast Asian Free Divers Leather and Fur Possibly Used for Clothing CNN reported, on the approximately 12,000 bone fragment discovered at the site, the team was able to determine over 60 bones of animals believed to have been formed by humans for to be used as tools. Cut mark patterns on the bones matched with tools discovered at other archeological areas that had been used to process leather. The anthropologist said, organic materials like leathers and fur are exceptionally unlikely to preserve in deposits this old, and thus, as archeologists, they are left with pieces of evidence that include tools, as well as the bones from animals that preserve skinning marks. She also explained, these proofs can be put together and propose that humans used bone as tools to prepare leather and fur, possibly used for to make clothes. It's worth noting though, she elaborated, that the evidence is not entirely conclusive. These said tools could have been used for the preparation of leather material for other purposes than clothes like storage devices, among others. Skinning Carnivores for Clothing Still, according to a similar Newsville Times,clothing like fur and leather would have been specifically beneficial to humans during this period. As ancient humans expanded out of Africa, they would have experienced new environments, and probably, climatically extreme environments. Clothing, as well as other tools would have possibly helped in the dispersion of humans into new environs all over the world. For fur, ancient people at the Contrebandiers Cave were peeling carnivores. In this cave, there are three different carnivore species with skinning marks on their bones. These include the wildcat, the golden jackal and the Ruppell's fox. The cut marks on these carnivore bones are limited to places where incisions are made for the removal of fur, and there are no cut marks on the sites of the skeleton linked to the removal of meat. Meanwhile, for leather clothing, a number of bovid species were discovered at the area. Origin of Clothing Describing their study published in IScience, Hallett said " bones of hartebeest, aurochs and gazelle" were found in high richness in the cave. More so, these animals were eatin by humans as well, since there are cut marks linked to removal of meat on their bones. She added she believes that given these tools' specialization, they are potentially part of a larger, older tradition. To add weight to this, genetic research of clothing lice by others proposed an origin for clothing in Africa of approximately 170,000 years ago. These tools, Hallett explained, were most likely used for clothing, and it is interesting that both the archeological record and genetic evidence point to an olden origin, as mentioned, in Africa. Related information about humans having manufactured clothing 120,000 years ago is shown on NewzTech20's YouTube video below: RELATED ARTICLE: 100,000-Year-Old Fossilized Footprints Shows Similarity Between Neanderthal and Modern Children Check out more news and information on Human Evolution in Science Times. School districts in California probably will face lawsuits if they require students ages 12 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend classes in person, a mandate imposed last month in Los Angeles and being considered by the Oakland and West Contra Costa unified school districts. So far, legal observers say, the mandates seem likely to survive. In general, school districts have broad authority to determine how best to serve the interests and safety of students, Michelle Mello, a professor of law and medicine at Stanford, said Thursday. She noted that state law already requires students in schools to be vaccinated against many other infectious diseases to attend class. Youths and their families can request exemptions for medical reasons, but a broader exemption based on personal objections to vaccines was eliminated by state law in 2015. Opponents to local vaccination mandates are also likely to contend that school districts are exceeding their authority because the state regulates public education and has not yet required COVID shots. The state-vs.-local argument has been playing out in courts in Texas and Florida, where a number of districts are defying orders by the states governors banning schools from requiring masks. But local school districts in California have broad authority under the law, said Dorit Rubenstein Reiss, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest, became the first big district in California last month to require COVID vaccinations for in-person learning by students 12 and older, a mandate that will affect about 225,000 students. The West Contra Costa school board is scheduled to take up a similar requirement on Tuesday and the Oakland board on Wednesday, the first to consider them in the Bay Area. Opponents of the Los Angeles mandate have not gone to court yet, but have argued that the vaccines have not been fully proved and that children face relatively little danger from the coronavirus, noting that the schools do not require students to get flu shots. But Odis Johnson Jr., executive director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Schools at Johns Hopkins University, told the Los Angeles Times the mandate was on firm legal ground. Supreme Court rulings have not only upheld vaccination requirements for public school attendance, they have also permitted municipal systems to require proof of vaccination, Johnson said. In 1905, the court upheld Massachusetts requirement of smallpox vaccinations in the city of Cambridge during an outbreak of the disease. The vaccines have strong support from high medical authority, and courts must accept those judgments when lawmakers rely on them, the justices said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. And in a 2018 California appeals court upheld a state law requiring virtually all public and private school students to be vaccinated against contagious illnesses such as measles, mumps, chicken pox and tetanus, rejecting arguments that the law violated freedom of religion or the right to an education. Those vaccines were fully approved by federal health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have granted emergency approval for COVID-19 vaccines and full certification, so far, only for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and only for those aged 16 and older. But Stanfords Mello said federal emergency approval should be enough to withstand a legal challenge to a schools vaccine mandate. And Reiss of UC Hastings said the federal government has allowed state and local officials to require vaccines that have been granted emergency approval. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has required students and teachers to wear masks in classrooms, has left vaccine mandates up to local school districts so far. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko District attorneys in California cant go to federal court to propose or defend the states death penalty methods or to seek to resume executions once Gov. Gavin Newsoms moratorium is lifted, a U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday. The chief prosecutors in San Mateo, San Bernardino and Riverside counties sought in March to intervene in a long-running case over the constitutionality of Californias lethal injection procedures, a case that was put on hold when Newsom ordered a halt to executions in March 2019. The district attorneys accused Newsom, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his successor, Rob Bonta, of colluding with lawyers for Death Row inmates, and said they should be allowed to enter the case. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said execution methods are determined by the state and its officials, not the county district attorneys who seek and obtain death sentences. District attorneys have neither the authority to choose a method of execution, nor the authority to represent the state entity that makes that choice, Judge William Fletcher said in the 2-1 ruling, which upheld a federal judges refusal to allow the prosecutors to intervene in the case. Judge Danielle Forrest agreed with the denial on narrower grounds. In dissent, Judge Lawrence VanDyke agreed with the district attorneys that Newsom and Bonta are thwarting the will of the voters who refused to repeal the death penalty in 2016 while approving Proposition 66, an initiative aimed at speeding up executions. As the district attorneys argue, the attorney general is not here to represent the interests of the people, VanDyke said, quoting the prosecutors court filing. Proposition 66 enshrines in statute the will of the people to continue executions, while the governors executive order is explicitly opposed to any executions in California. The case dates from 2006, when California last executed a prisoner, and was filed in federal court under the constitutional right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment. Federal judges have ruled since then that the states injection procedures, equipment and staff training created an undue risk of a prolonged and agonizing death. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. After Newsoms moratorium, inmates dismissed their suit but agreed with then-Attorney General Becerras office that they could reinstate the case if the moratorium ended and would not face execution until the legal issues were resolved. That is the agreement the district attorneys want to undo. In arguing for intervention in the case, they noted that Newsom, represented by the attorney general, had not only barred executions, but had also dismantled the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison and withdrawn the states previously proposed procedures for lethal injections. Thursdays ruling upheld a decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of San Francisco, who said it was up to the governor and attorney general, not local prosecutors, to represent the state on death penalty issues. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko A five-year federal investigation centered on the Nuestra Familia prison gang has culminated in charges against 55 individuals, a sprawling collection of cases that lay out what officials say is a highly structured enterprise that has terrorized neighborhoods. Through flurry of court documents unsealed Thursday, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorneys Office charged alleged gang members in multilevel conspiracy cases that involve crimes including robbery, firearms sale and conspiracy to commit murder. Of the 55 defendants, 28 were charged with racketeering crimes while the others face charges of drug trafficking and firearms offenses. Most of the Nuestra Familias leadership is imprisoned in various California institutions, but still pull the levers for street-level enterprises, according to charging documents. The allegations additionally showcase an organized hierarchical structure that extends both inside and outside prison settings, consisting of a series of rankings, dues that were distributed into a banking system and even a constitution. Prosecutors say 12 of the defendants are members of either El Hoyo Palmas or San Jose Grande, two street regiments that pay monthly dues to the Nuestra Familia. Several of the indictments were filed last month but unsealed Thursday, after FBI agents arrested the defendants, officials said. The arrests made (Wednesday), most significantly the arrests of the Nuestra Familia leadership, will severely cripple the ability of this criminal enterprise to continue to facilitate crimes in communities throughout the state and help break a decades-old cycle of violence, FBI San Francisco Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair said in a statement. The case, dubbed Operation Quiet Storm, was deemed one of the largest gang takedowns in FBI SF divisions history, officials wrote on the branchs official Twitter page. The gangs targeted in this case are responsible for much of the illicit drug distribution and violent crime that has plagued areas throughout CA. Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds said the indictments represented a major law enforcement effort to curb street gang violence. A principal objective of San Jose Grande and El Hoyo Palmas street gangs was to generate profits through narcotics trafficking, robbery, and other criminal activities, Hinds said in a statement. The operation demonstrates that this office, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, will use all the tools at our disposal to quell the violence in our streets. Representatives with the Federal Public Defenders Office did not respond to requests for comment. In one indictment alleging racketeering and drug charges against 22 defendants, prosecutors list 14 instances of conspiracy or attempt to commit murder. Many of these alleged conspiracies transpired in Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga. It was not immediately clear from court filings whether these planned murders were carried out. Another court filing centered on the El Hoyo Palmas gang, alleging that its members conspired to commit murder, assault and robbery. The three counts carry sentences ranging from three to 20 years in prison. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. The crimes served multiple purposes, with gang members seeking to enhance the enterprises prestige, maintain discipline within their ranks or intimidate members of the community, prosecutors said in court documents. In another indictment, prosecutors said six alleged members of the San Jose Grande committed more than two dozen crimes including armed robberies, a stabbing and a home invasion all in order to promote the gang. All six defendants are charged with a single count of racketeering conspiracy, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. While most of the allegations centered around selling or discussing the sale of methamphetamine, the indictment also laid out a handful of alleged crimes that involved violence. Among them, prosecutors say in 2016 defendant Joshua Hernandez stabbed a former SJG several times as punishment to follow orders. In September 2017, officials said defendant Andrew Anchondo used a firearm to rob an ARCO gas station and an employee, according to court documents. And in an SJG meeting in June 2018, prosecutors said members discussed assaulting another member for cooperating with law enforcement. Alleged members of the El Hoyo Palmas gang listed in the indictment are Jose Garcia, Juan Gonzalez, Paul Valenzuela, Caleb Eller, Kyle Leonis and Juan Dominguez. In addition to Hernandez and Anchondo, alleged members of the San Jose Grande charged are Giovanni Coria, Charles Pineda, Eliseo Martinez and Nicholas Mendez. Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy Forty-two years ago, I gave the Unabomber travel advice. I didnt know back when Ted Kaczynski and I were exchanging letters that he would become one of Americas most infamous domestic terrorists. He hadnt yet written his manifesto, published 26 years ago Sunday, in the Washington Post, New York Times and The Chronicle, blaming technology for ruining the planet. In fact, these letters arrived 17 years before the FBI identified Kaczynski as the Unabomber, a name the agency gave him since he sent some of his makeshift bombs to universities and airlines. By the time of his arrest in 1996, Kaczynskis bombs had killed three people and injured 23 others. When I received his letters, his name wasnt yet connected to these terrorist incidents. I kept copies of the letters, along with those from other readers, in scores of files buried in boxes that crowded my attic until a couple of weeks ago, when my wife insisted that I pare them down. Only then did I realize their significance. When it hit me that my correspondent was the same Ted Kaczynski whod killed three people hed never met, I felt a shiver of recollection of the fear that prevailed in the Bay Area in the 1970s, during the heyday of serial killers such as the Zodiac, Zebra, Santa Rosa Hitchhiker and Golden State. I was also, to be honest, thankful I hadnt been rude to him. Kaczynski wrote me because hed read my book: Along the Gringo Trail: A Budget Travel Guide to Latin America, based on my 18 months backpacking between Mexico and Argentinas Tierra del Fuego. The guidebook was written for travelers with little money but plenty of time. It included many places on roads less traveled, which is what probably piqued Kaczynskis interest. His letters, addressed to me via my now-defunct Berkeley publisher, And/Or Press, were both formal and polite. In the first missive a single page, typed and double-spaced Kaczynski wrote that he and his brother needed advice on finding a small plot of land, in a location as remote from civilization as possible, on which we would live as self-sufficiently as we are able. By wilderness, I mean a place where the nearest neighbor is, say, five miles away and preferably further. The letter went on: One of the regions that suggests itself to our attention is South America. We have read your excellent book and your knowledge of South America seems extensive. I would therefore like to ask whether you think South America would provide any suitable locations for a wilderness retreat such as I have described. If so, what areas would you suggest we investigate? Jack Epstein/The Chronicle At that time, Kaczynski was no stranger to living remotely and being self-sufficient. In 1971, he had moved into a 10-by-12-foot cabin without running water or electricity. He would spend nearly 25 years in that cabin, 5 miles south of the unincorporated community of Lincoln, Mont., near the state capital of Helena. It was there that the FBI found bomb-making materials and the typewriter on which he had written the manifesto and, perhaps, one of my letters. As the federal investigation would show, he hand-delivered his bombs or mailed them from post offices outside Lincoln. Kaczynski moved to Montana two years after leaving a teaching position at UC Berkeley. He had attended Harvard at age 16 and by 25 had a doctorate in mathematics and the teaching position. Before buying the cabin, he returned to his parents home in Lombard, Ill., from which he sent me that first letter, dated May 24, 1979. Sygma/Getty Images He had mailed his first bomb one year earlier, on May 25, 1978, to a Northwestern University engineering professor named Buckley Crist, who found it suspicious and turned it over to campus police. The officer who opened it Terry Marker suffered minor injuries. Just two weeks before writing me, he had left a mail bomb in a cigar box aimed once again at Northwestern University. It was opened by civil engineering graduate student John Harris, who suffered cuts and burns but no serious injury. In his 35,000-word anti-technology manifesto published Sept. 19, 1995, while he was still on the lam Kaczynski wrote that the answer to saving the planet was a return to life amid WILD nature. He wrote that freedom means being in control (either as an individual or as a member of a SMALL group) of the life-and-death issues of ones existence; food, clothing, shelter, and defense against whatever threats there may be in ones environment. The essay appeared after he threatened to send a bomb to an unspecified destination with intent to kill unless the editors of the Post and Times agreed to publish it. The attorney general and the director of the FBI recommended publication, hoping it would lead to identifying the Unabomber, which it did. Kaczynskis younger brother, David whom he had hoped to live with in South America recognized his brothers writing style and gave the FBI information that finally ended the bombing spree. In his letter to me, Kaczynski said he believed the survival skills he had gained in Montana would be useless in large portions of South Americas wild nature. He wrote that he and his brother are not attracted to tropical jungles, because of the problem of malaria and other fevers and because the experience I have acquired of North American wilderness would probably be useless in a tropical jungle. He also nixed living near the middle of an Andean glacier since trees, shrubs, or some other source of fuel for fires would be minimum requirement. I dont recall the advice I gave him. But given his aversion for jungles and Andean glaciers, I probably suggested Argentinas sparsely populated Cholila Valley in Patagonia, where legendary outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid bought a 12,000-acre ranch with stolen bank money, settling there for six years after fleeing U.S. Pinkerton agents. Much of that northern half of Patagonia is similar to landscapes found in Montanas Scapegoat Wilderness, with picturesque alpine meadows, rivers and forested hillsides. The second and last letter dated Aug. 27, 1979 was a handwritten, six-line thank-you note. Sent with a return address from Stemple Pass Road, Lincoln, Mont., his note thanked me for your helpful and courteous reply to my recent inquiry. He also apologized for the delay in writing back since he was off in the hills for a considerable time, out of touch with everything, as a result of which I got your letter only a couple of days ago. Sincerely, T.J. Kaczynski. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Jack Epstein/The Chronicle Three months later, he mailed a bomb from a post office in the Chicago area, which was routed to Washington, D.C., and placed in the cargo hold of an American Airlines plane flying from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The bomb exploded midair, filling the passenger cabin with smoke and forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing at Dulles International Airport. In June 1995, Kaczynski sent The Chronicle a letter threatening to bomb an airliner flying out of Los Angeles, causing federal officials to tighten security at the San Francisco and Los Angeles airports. He later wrote the New York Times that the threat was a prank. In the years since his arrest 25 years ago, Kaczynski has become part of Americana. There are numerous books, a 2017 TV miniseries on the Discovery channel and several documentaries that can be found on Netflix. Personal items such as his typewriter, journals and handwritten manifesto have been sold at auctions for thousands of dollars. T-shirts and coffee mugs are for sale online emblazoned with the iconic image of Kaczynski in a hooded sweatshirt and dark sunglasses that the police depicted in sketch renderings. Some Americans still see him as the intellectual leader of an anti-technology revolution that advocates a return to a life of wild nature. Such Kaczynski-inspired websites as Deep Green Resistance call for the destruction of industrial civilization. U.S. Postal Inspection Service Last month, I wrote to Kaczynski, who is now 79 and serving a life sentence without parole at the federal ADX Florence prison in Colorado. Nicknamed the Alcatraz of the Rockies, it is considered the most secure prison in the U.S. He is said to live in the same cell block as other convicted terrorists such as shoe bomber Richard Reid and Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. Inside prison walls, its known as Bombers Row. I hoped he might tell me more about why he wanted to relocate to South America and what it was about my advice that he found so helpful. Instead, I received an unable to forward response from the Colorado prison. His brother, David, did not return a phone call or emails. I can only theorize that Kaczynski wrote me because he knew that one day he would need to flee U.S. law enforcement for a South American haven. Jack Epstein is The Chronicles nation and world wire editor. Email: jepstein@sfchronicle.com In this weekly column, critic Soleil Ho highlights the best dishes shes been eating across the Bay Area. This weeks edition includes a shot of crab, sizzling roasted sardines, and beignets. Check out her recommendations from her previous column here. Crab shots from Alioto-Lazio Fish Co. This isnt the first time Ive been to this old-school fish shop, but this week was the first time I caught its daily offering of crab shots ($4). The Alioto-Lazio Fish Co. has been operating in Fishermans Wharf for more than 70 years, and its one of the main reasons why I love this neighborhood. Dungeness crabs and Maine lobsters waddle around in shallow pools reminiscent of the educational touch pools at aquariums. (But you cant pet them here.) Soleil Ho / The Chronicle By the register is a tub of ice filled with little plastic cups of crab and lobster meat, plus tinier cups of cocktail sauce. When youre in the shop to buy seafood anyway, the $4 shot, with all the decadent immediacy of prepicked shellfish, is a clear Why not? kind of purchase. The crab was sweet and briny, the leg meat enriched by a trace amount of fat. I sipped the juice with a sigh; and then it was all gone. Alioto-Lazio Fish Co.. 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday; 6 a.m.-noon Saturday. 440 Jefferson St., San Francisco. 415-673-5868 or https://crabonline.com/ Roasted sardines from Portofino Cafe The windows at Portofino Cafe, a Sicilian seafood house in North Beach, declare that the business originated in 1937, though I wouldnt blame you for not knowing about it since its been closed for more than two decades. San Francisco natives may recall that the original, previously located on Columbus Avenue, shuttered in the late 1990s, around the time when the owners were embroiled in an international drug trafficking case. The restaurant finally reopened in early 2020 in a new location on Grant Avenue and under the ownership of the previous owners son, Frank Balistreri. Its a real neighborhood restaurant, with the jovial Balistreri frequently making the rounds at tables to check on orders and tell stories about his crew. Soleil Ho / The Chronicle When available, sardines ($21) are a special here, and you should absolutely order them. The little oily fish are served whole in a hot cast iron skillet, their meat tender and rich; at the table, your server will pour white wine over them to deglaze the pan. A small ramekin of pungent garlic butter is served with them, and Acme sourdough bread is available for soaking up the sauce. If youve never eaten whole sardines before, note that most of the bones are edible, but chew slowly. Portofino Cafe. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. Indoor and outdoor seating and takeout. 1318 Grant Ave., San Francisco. 415-400-5776 Beignets from Just For You Cafe Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Near the shipyards of the Dogpatch neighborhood is Just For You Cafe, a petite diner that does a brunch service tinged with Cajun, Creole and Mexican influences. Its staff is kind and attentive, quick to top off your coffee if your mug is anything but full. On a given weekday morning, your fellow diners are likely to be neighborhood families, shipyard staff and construction workers, all hunched over big platters of French toast and scrambled eggs topped with chili con carne. Beignets (three for $6.75) are made from scratch here and are worth going out of your way to eat. The New Orleans-style doughnuts are fragile, air-filled pillows that collapse under the slightest pressure. A snowy sprinkle of powdered sugar slowly melts into icing as the warm doughnuts sit. Dont wear black when you come here. Just For You Cafe. 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Indoor and outdoor seating, takeout and delivery. 732 22nd St., San Francisco. 415-647-3033 or www.justforyoucafe.com Soleil Ho is The San Francisco Chronicles restaurant critic. Email: soleil@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hooleil Proposals to mandate vaccinations for tens of thousands of staff and students at two Bay Area school districts are drawing support from health experts and many families though some parents and students expressed trepidation. Evidence of waning immunity for the Pfizer vaccine may drive federal authorities to advise older Americans and frontline health care workers to get a third shot starting as soon as next week. Resources on COVID-19 and Californias reopening: For detailed maps and new city-by-city Bay Area data, check out The Chronicles Coronavirus Tracker. To get regular updates on our coverage, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter. Latest updates: FDA panel recommends Pfizer boosters for older Americans: In its second vote of the day, an influential FDA panel voted unanimously to recommend third Pfizer shots to those 65 and older and anyone deemed at high risk of severe illness. FDA panel rejects Pfizer boosters for all: The FDAs vaccine advisory panel on Friday rejected a request by Pfizer to approve boosters for all Americans who have received its COVID-19 vaccine. But it left open the option to recommend third shots for older adults and others who may be vulnerable to severe illness. Read the story here. White House says vaccination mandates work: The White House said vaccination requirements are making an impact in driving back the delta surge of the coronavirus during a Friday COVID-19 briefing. Vaccination requirements work. And theyre good for the economy, Jeff Zients, the Biden administrations pandemic adviser, said, noting an uptake of shots by active-duty troops and United Airlines employees. Officials hope to put further mandates into effect for large employers. Plain and simple, private and public sectors implementing vaccination requirements have seen their vaccination rates increased by double digits in just a few weeks, Zients said. And early adopters of vaccination requirements from private employers to health care systems to the military have already reached vaccination rates of about 90%, well ahead of the deadlines theyve set. Moderna outperforms Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson in preventing hospitalizations: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Friday detailing how well the three vaccines in use in the United States performed at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were about equal 93% and 91%, respectively within four months of the second dose. But Moderna remained high, about 92%, after four months, while Pfizer dropped to 77%. The one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 68% effective at preventing hospitalization after one month; the CDC did not provide four-month data for Johnson & Johnson. CDC director emphasizes that vaccines are safe for pregnant women: Speaking at a Stanford conference, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized the importance of expectant mothers getting vaccinated. Misinformation can be very persuasive, she said, citing the rumored but false link between the vaccine and infertility. The science does not support the concerns about infertility, and we know the potential outcomes from a COVID infections far outweigh any side effects of the vaccine, she said especially for women of childbearing age. Preterm birth and stillbirth are significant risks, she said, and no mother should die of COVID. FDA vaccine board expected to vote on boosters: The vaccine advisory board of the Food & Drug Administration is meeting Friday to discuss whether to recommend booster shots for people 16 and older who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or for a subset of that group, such as older Americans. The discussion is expected to culminate in a vote, but the committees decision is not the final say in federal policy or even in the FDAs process. The agency is likely to consider boosters for recipients of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines later this year. Read more here. Did coronavirus jump from animals to people more than once? According to a preliminary viral genome analysis of samples from infected people in China and elsewhere early in the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 could have spilled from animals to people multiple times. If confirmed, the finding would strengthen the hypothesis that the pandemic had its origins in multiple markets in Wuhan, according to a report in Nature and make it less likely that SARS-COV-2 escaped from a laboratory, according to some researchers. Scientists must still verify the data, and the analysis has not yet been peer reviewed. Two Bay Area school districts want to mandate student vaccines. Here s what families and experts think: School boards for Oakland and West Contra Costa Unified are slated to vote on the proposed mandates next week. If approved, these two Bay Area districts would become the first in Northern California to do so. The proposals drew support from health experts and many families though some parents and students expressed trepidation. Read the story here. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. S.F. mayor flouts mask rules at Tenderloin nightclub: San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended a concert at the Black Cat jazz club in the Tenderloin on Wednesday night, where most patrons inside the subterranean venue did not wear a mask as mandated by the city. According to current guidance, the health department requires that everyone wear a well-fitted mask in indoor public buildings even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, except while actively eating or drinking. Breed spent the night dancing and posing for photographs without a face covering as members of the 90s East Bay R&B band Tony! Toni! Tone! performed. Read the story here. Nationwide study shows low vaccination rates among nursing home workers: A study of nearly 15,000 nursing homes, facilities that house people acutely vulnerable to severe illness and death from COVID-19, found low vaccination rates among workers. The research, published in JAMA Internal Medicine Thursday, found that just 60% of nursing home aides were fully vaccinated by mid-July. The lowest vaccination rates were found among certified nursing assistants at nursing homes. On average, just over 49% of CNAs were fully vaccinated by July 18. Companies that made hand sanitizer are stuck with millions of dollars of surplus product: The saga of two Bay Area companies encapsulates a boom-and-bust cycle triggered by the pandemic. When the pandemic struck, firms sprung into action to meet the outsize demand for products like hand sanitizer. But once people were amply stocked, and news emerged that the coronavirus wasnt transmitted through surface contact, sales sagged. Read the story here. Two large Bay Area school districts to vote on mandatory COVID vaccinations for eligible students: The school boards for two of the Bay Areas biggest public school districts Oakland and West Contra Costa Unified plan to vote next week on whether to require mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all staff and eligible students 12 and older. Read the story here. TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Topeka man has been convicted of seven felonies, four years after he fled to Mexico while awaiting trial for rape. Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay said a jury on Thursday found Daniel Arreola guilty of a 2015 sexual assault in Topeka. Prosecutors said Arreola forced his way into the apartment of a woman who was having a party in Topeka on July 11, 2015. He forced the woman into a backroom and raped her at gunpoint, Kagay said. Arreola cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and fled to Mexico four days before his trial was scheduled to begin on Feb. 17, 2017. He was apprehended in Mexico and returned to Kansas in August of 2019 and has remained in custody since. Arreola was convicted of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated burglary, three counts of aggravated assault and unlawful tampering with electronic monitoring equipment. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 15. ___ This story was first published on Aug. 13. It was updated on Sept. 16 to correct an instance in which District Attorney Mike Kagays last name was used to refer to the convicted. Daniel Arreola was convicted of rape and other charges, not Kagay. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) A 40-year-old woman was charged Friday with killing three young girls in a crime that has shocked New Zealand. Police did not immediately identify the woman but the Stuff news agency said she was the girls' mother, Lauren Dickason, a doctor who had just moved to New Zealand from South Africa along with her daughters and husband Graham Dickason, an orthopedic surgeon. Emergency services said that when they responded to an incident at the home in the South Island town of Timaru they found a woman, who was hospitalized in stable condition. Police said the woman killed twin 2-year-old girls Maya and Karla and their 6-year-old sister Liane. Police said they had earlier given incorrect ages for the girls. The family had moved into housing for medical professionals near the Timaru Hospital less than a week earlier. Before that, as new arrivals to the country, they would have been required to spend two weeks in a coronavirus quarantine hotel run by the military. Stuff reported that Graham Dickason returned home just before 10 p.m. Thursday and found the bodies of his daughters. Neighbors Karen and Brad Cowper called police when they heard a man screaming and crying, Stuff said. The neighbors said they asked the man if he was OK but he didnt respond other than to say: Is this really happening? Police said they weren't looking for any other suspects. Look, whenever our police staff face a tragedy like this, you cannot help but take it personally. A lot of us are parents, we have our own children, and the human side of us comes through," said Police Superintendent John Price. Nothing on Lauren Dickason's social media pages over recent months when she was living in Pretoria, South Africa, indicated anything was amiss. She posted pictures of her family and of bakery treats, and wrote about the virus, urging people to get vaccinated. In May, she marked the couple's wedding anniversary on Facebook. Happy 15th wedding anniversary Graham Dickason. What an adventure. We have truly created a beautiful family and had many good times together, she wrote. May the next years be more blessed, more happy and may the kids let us sleep. Her Facebook page says she went to high school in Pretoria and studied medicine in Cape Town. Mandy Sibanyoni, who worked as a childminder for the Dickasons in South Africa, described them as an awesome family with wonderful kids and no obvious problems. She said the only sign of stress she saw from Lauren Dickason was as a result of one of her daughters being born with a lip disfigurement, which needed surgical interventions. But both parents loved their kids like nobodys business, she said. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Im torn apart, a part of mine is gone, Sibanyoni said in an interview with The Associated Press in Pretoria. And its like those kids, they are my kids too because I raised them." I dont know what to do about this because the only question that Ive got now is, what happened? What went wrong? Because Lauren cared for her kids. New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the killings were absolutely tragic and his heart went out to everybody associated with the family. Inspector Dave Gaskin, the Aoraki area commander, said the deaths were incredibly distressing for residents of Timaru, particularly after five teenagers from the town were killed in a car crash last month. ___ AP journalist Sebabatso Mosamo in Pretoria, South Africa contributed to this report. Regarding Newsom back to business as recall process takes fire (Front Page, Sept. 16): I hope that the resounding defeat of the recall will embolden Gov. Gavin Newsom to continue, and expand, his successful pandemic strategies. Despite our comparatively low infection and high vaccination rates, I would love for California to impose a mask mandate and also a vaccine mandate. It would behoove us to remember the adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. California is usually ahead of the curve on many issues. This time, lets not fall behind. Helen Ogden, Pacific Grove, Monterey County Make recalls a rarity Recall rules and requirements should have a much higher bar; otherwise, in this polarizing time, we could see recalls more frequently. Recalls should be rare and done to remove a corrupt governor who is a threat to the states stability. Under current rules, in a majority state, the minority party can enact a recall and unseat a governor with simple recall rules. It should not be that easy. Recalls cost each of us money, divide neighbors and communities, and sow hate. We need to be better than that. I ask every Californian to support a recall reform to protect the election process and integrity. We should reflect on the last few years of polarizing politics. Do we want that as our norm? We should reject that. I am an immigrant and dont belong to a party because I want to vote my conscience and elect the best capable person to lead my state to prosperity. California is a large state with the fifth-largest economy in the world and a lot of challenges. We need to support candidates who will move the needle in a positive direction. Roger Zouein, San Francisco Remain a vigilant voter Its shocking that some 36 percent of Californians voted to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom in favor of Larry Elder, the candidate professing much of the Trump agenda. Many in that camp still consider global warming not an issue of government concern, vaccinations not important, racism a thing of the past and former President Donald Trump the real winner of a stolen election. Evidence does not persuade such people. In the 2022 national midterm elections, we the people must vote again to rid government of those holding such dangerous beliefs. Nathaniel Batchelder, Oklahoma City Fires are a threat to all Regarding Fire evacuees return to devastated town (Front Page, Sept. 13): While fires may feel far to many, fire danger is a threat for all of us, and the way of life that we love. I felt very emotional and sad for the families that lost their homes due to the Caldor Fire in the article, but climate-change-induced weather events are existential threats to all of our homes. Firefighting is patching the issue, not actually solving the root cause. Evidence of climate change is very blatant in 2021, and future fires and extreme weather will become more intense. Reducing carbon emissions is an impactful way to reduce extreme fire events, and it is important that we provide support for carbon tax bills such as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act or carbon reduction initiatives in the currently debated infrastructure bill. The political gap between white, college-educated Californians and those without college degrees is widening fast. According to exit polls from the 2021 recall election, in the vote on whether to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, he gained 10 percentage points of support among college-educated voters compared to his 2018 election. Among non-college educated voters, however, he lost 10 percentage points. This recall election was in many ways an outlier. Its only the second recall of a governor in Californias history. Its also happening in the middle of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the exit poll data points to a real, nationwide trend in electoral politics what many experts refer to as the diploma divide. It is a growing gap in political party preference by education, seen primarily among white American voters. Those with college degrees increasingly favor Democrats, while those without degrees increasingly vote Republican. In the nation overall, this trend has led the white college-educated population, once quite Republican, to become fairly balanced, while the white population without college degrees, which was once more balanced, to skew heavily Republican. For instance, in the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump won 67% of white voters without college degrees; just a slight majority of white voters with degrees, about 51%, voted for Biden. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle In California, it is the non-college-educated white population thats more balanced, while the college-educated white population is more heavily skewed. The exit polls estimate that 55% of white people without college degrees voted yes on the recall, a small but clear majority. But 70% of college-educated white voters cast ballots for Newsom, an overwhelming majority. This shift is a recent development. In 2010, just 51% of white voters with college degrees cast their ballots for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, while 57% of white voters without degrees voted for Republican candidate Meg Whitman. Republican support among whites without degrees has stayed relatively steady at a small majority since then with the exception of 2018, when Newsom received a 55% majority among this group. Among white college-educated Californians, however, Democratic support has risen consistently. Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California and an expert on state polling data, said that exit polls, though not perfect, are useful for capturing differences in attitudes and political affiliations across different demographic groups. He said he believes that the exit polls are capturing a real trend in how education is segmenting Californias white voters. Voters of color voted overwhelmingly against the recall regardless of their educational status. Baldassare added that unlike traditional exit polls, exit polls for this recall election were conducted largely by phone, so they could capture the states large number of mail-in voters. Susie Neilson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: susie.neilson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susieneilson Larry Elder, the Republican radio talk show host who won by far the most votes among the replacement candidates in the failed recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, said Thursday that he doubted the outcome would be different if he challenged Newsom next year when the governor is up for re-election. Its hard for me to see how the outcome would be any different unless I was able to raise at least as much money as (Newsom) has spent, but even then the thing is daunting, Elder told the Inside California Politics TV show Thursday. Newsom raised nearly $80 million, including $69 million for his recall defense committee and $10.4 million for his 2022 re-election campaign, according to the final campaign disclosures before Election Day. The governors five top GOP challengers and Democrat Kevin Paffrath raised $28.7 million combined. If Elder who captured the support of the conservative base of the California Republican Party were to decide not to run, that would further disrupt the state GOPs plans for 2022 as it also searches for a well-known challenger to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat. No big names or exciting races on the top of the ticket could depress GOP turnout for downballot elections. Republicans are defending four House seats in swing districts in the Central Valley and southern California that are critical in their drive to retake the House from Democrats. Elder noted that the states party registration difference is much more lopsided since Democrat Gov. Gray Davis was recalled in 2003 and replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Back in February 2003, Democrats held only a nine-point voter registration advantage over Republicans. But the GOP has steadily lost membership since then and now trails Democrats, 47% to 24%, in registered voters. Those with no party preference make up 23% of the electorate, and 6% belong to other parties. California has not elected a Republican to statewide office since Schwarzeneggers re-election in 2006. These party registration differences played out in Tuesdays recall. Exit polls showed that 9 of 10 Democrats and 54% of independent voters opposed ousting Newsom. That partisan wall is tough to scale, Elder conceded. So its hard for me to see that were I were to have a rematch the outcome would be a whole lot different, Elder said. But I may change my mind over the next coming days. Elders tone Thursday was markedly different than his concession speech Tuesday night. Then, Elder told supporters in Costa Mesa that we recognize that we lost the battle, but we are certainly going to win the war. He ended his remarks with a line that sounded like he would run for office again: As a former radio host, let me just say this: Stay tuned! Earlier in the day, he had told a Fresno radio station, I have now become a political force here in California in general and particularly within the Republican party, and Im not going to leave the stage. Elder seemed to hedge his remarks soon after he made them Thursday. As Inside California Politics tweeted out a clip of the interview where Elder alluded to his doubts about another run for governor, Elder posted two tweets that said, Bloodied, but unbowed. Stay tuned perhaps a sign that while he may not run for governor, the Los Angeles resident could campaign for another office. Or he might just be stoking interest in his personal brand in the hope of advancing his media career. Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli With the outcome of the recall election settled, people are starting to ask about data more granular than topline results. An especially tempting analysis is at the county level who won each county, by how much and how does that compare to previous election margins? But due to Californias voter friendly policies, its still too early to start digging into county-level data. According to CNNs recall results page as of 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, an estimated 74% of statewide votes had been counted so far. And among individual counties, the estimates range from 39% to 95%. Thats still millions of unreported votes, which could ultimately change some county-level outcomes. To understand how the remaining votes might affect the final results, the Chronicle compared early results from an equivalent point in the 2020 presidential election to the final margin between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. We used the Internet Archives Wayback Machine to access the New York Times 2020 election tracker on the night of Thursday, November 5, 2020 the Thursday after election day. We gathered data on statewide results, as well as for each county. Finally, we compared this preliminary data to the final 2020 results to understand how much the remaining votes shifted the final margin. An estimated 74% of the states votes had been tallied by Thursday night in 2020, with Biden leading by 32 percentage-points over Trump. The remaining quarter of votes narrowed the margin by 3 points for a final 29-point margin. County-level margins in 2020 shifted to varying degrees. Among the counties with an estimated three-quarters of reported votes by Thursday, the margin changes ranged from 0.1 to 10.6 points. The largest shift was in Placer County, where the remaining votes changed who won the county. Results as of Thursday, November 5, 2020 showed that the majority of voters in historically red Placer County had voted for Biden with a four-point lead. But by the next day, updated results showed that was not the case, and in the end, Trump won the county by 7 points. For all other counties, the preexisting margin was so large that swings as big as 9 points didnt affect the overall outcome. San Luis Obispo County, for instance, had the second largest change in margin a decrease of 9 points but that only made a small dent in Bidens 22-point early lead. But results for the recall election so far show several counties with narrow margins. Ten of the 58 counties have margins of under 10 points. Merced and Fresno counties, with margins under 1 percentage-point, are basically even at this point. These counties still have sizable shares of unreported votes, which could lead to counties changing from majority yes recall to no recall, and vice versa. For instance, among those with their votes already counted votes, the majority of people in Inyo County voted yes on the recall. But according to our analysis of 2020 results, the countys margin changed by nearly 10 points from 2020 early returns to the final results which would be enough to change the majority of the countys vote going from a yes to a no recall result. The same could happen in Placer and Stanislaus counties, and the reverse change (no to yes) in Lake and San Bernardino counties. At the other end of the spectrum are counties like San Francisco with enormous margins that are unlikely to diminish by much. As of Thursday night, the no votes were up by 73 points. At an equivalent point in 2020, Biden led by 74 points a margin just 1.4 points higher than the final result. Counting ballots in California has always taken time. This is primarily due to policies that expand voter access but also slow down the counting process. These include same-day registration, election day drop-off deadlines for mail-in ballots, and a signature verification process that involves several officials inspecting ballots with mismatched signatures and following up with voters to resolve issues. As of Friday morning, an estimated 76% of the states votes had been tallied, according to CNNs tracker. But it may be weeks until we have complete data. Counties have until October 15 to report final results, which the Secretary of State will then compile and certify on October 22. Until then, you can stay updated on statewide and county-level results on the Chronicles election page, which you can find here. Nami Sumida is a San Francisco Chronicle data visualization developer. Email: nami.sumida@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @namisumida For years, many Haight-Ashbury residents have yearned to see affordable housing rise on the old McDonalds site on the corner of Haight and Stanyan streets, right across from Golden Gate Park. The city bought the troubled site more than three years ago to build affordable housing in an area that has long struggled with homelessness. But with delays in the housing project, the city has a new plan for the site one that doesnt get closer to a permanent solution. City officials now say it will be used as a temporary drop-in center to provide services for homeless people starting in October. Some neighbors worried about problems on the streets over the past year are resisting. Even supporters of the plan to create a drop-in center say the saga highlights the incredible cost and difficulty in building affordable housing. Recently, the city delayed construction at the site, 730 Stan yan St., for a year to expand the project. The drop-in center is a needed and important and critical safety net it is not the sole solution of what we need to do as a city to address the needs of young people experiencing homelessness or our unhoused neighbors in the Haight, said Sherilyn Adams, executive director of Larkin Street Youth Services, which served nearly 400 homeless youths in the neighborhood last year. We need housing. We need to be able to build it faster. I worry about all delays related to the creation of housing in our city. Despite support at the highest levels, building affordable housing in San Francisco takes years and costs millions, leaving the city to scramble for short-term solutions to homelessness. That was especially true last year when the pandemic closed shelters, leading to a spike in tents on the streets and heightened health risks. Amid that environment, Haight-Ashbury became a microcosm of citywide debates about how to alleviate homelessness. Hundreds of unhoused people live in supervisorial District Five, according to the citys last count. While there seems to be a consensus of support for affordable housing at 730 Stanyan, what to do with the empty lot has been a lightning rod in the community. Brant Ward/The Chronicle 2010 The proposed drop-in center will include toilets, sinks, showers and referrals to long-term services, run by a nonprofit that hasnt been chosen yet by the citys homelessness department. It will fill a gap left by the closure in June of a city-run tent encampment that operated there for a year. The site offered food, hygiene and 40 secure tent spots. The site, always envisioned as temporary, closed once everyone was offered housing. Supervisor Dean Preston, who funded the drop-in center with $223,000 in city funds, said hes determined to make sure some services continue at the site. Weve seen far more support than opposition to have these essential services for unhoused folks in the community, Preston said. Of course there are certainly some folks who will oppose any services for homeless folks in the Haight. Flip Sarrow, who lives at Haight and Clayton streets, said he didnt have a problem with the safe sleep site. But he described a sanitary mess in the neighborhood over the past year with tents all over the place and a big brawl he recorded on video. He said a silent majority of people are very wary of similar problems with the new proposal. Theres always a need, but is it a need just for the Haight, or are we inviting people from everywhere to get services, creating a mecca for people who have various problems? he said. Theres a need, but the concern is how is it run and will they take care of the surrounding area? The main goal is to provide hygiene for homeless individuals and connect them to other services. Jason McClain, sitting at the corner of Haight and Cole streets Wednesday, said as someone living on the streets, he would welcome more showers and restrooms. The only public toilet in the neighborhood isnt open 24 hours a day, forcing him to sometimes relieve himself in the park or the neighborhood. McClain moved from St. Louis to the Bay Area in March to look for a job with his computer science degree. He became homeless when housing with a family connection fell through. Now he spends his days at Kezar Stadium charging his phone to apply for jobs before falling asleep in a parklet at the Alembic bar. McClain is in the process of getting cash assistance from the county but is skeptical of getting help with a place to live. I dont know how much housing they have right now, he said. This cant be the rest of my life. 730 Stanyan is supposed to be part of the solution. The city bought the property, formerly a McDonalds that was a magnet for crime, in 2018 to build affordable housing. In April, the city told the developers it had more funding to increase the number of units from 120 to 160, raising the cost from $80 million to around $100 million. Construction will be paid for with a combination of local, state and federal affordable programs. If funding is approved next year, groundbreaking will be in 2023 instead of 2022 as originally planned. Even if it does set the project back a little while, its still good to add more units while we can, said Bo Han, a project manager at Chinatown Community Development Center, one of two nonprofits developing the site. It will be one of the first important large affordable housing projects thats further west than we have been building. The delay frustrated Preston, although he supports more affordable units. Its also drawn out community debate about what to do with the empty lot, which the city is currently paying security to guard 24/7. The city took ideas for interim uses two years ago, but nothing happened before the pandemic, when the safe sleep site provoked fierce neighborhood debate. Preston said early critics had come around, leading to an overwhelmingly positive response. He and advocates called it one of the most successful sites in the city because it was run by two local nonprofits with community relationships. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Some neighbors agreed. Adam Burman, who has lived on Waller Street for two decades, joined regular community meetings and said the organizations in charge did a terrific job. While the site wanted to connect people staying there to housing, the reality was more challenging. Out of the 73 people who stayed during the year, 24 were rehoused and 29 ended up in emergency shelter. Adams said the outcomes were pretty good considering constraints in the citys system for placing people in housing, which moved more slowly than usual during COVID and wasnt designed to prioritize people living in safe sleep sites. Preston also said that fears that there will be all those folks coming from all over to camp outside the Safe Sleeping site did not materialize. Some begged to differ. Burman, who didnt blame problems on the site itself, said he documented a spike in tents up to 20 at a time on Waller starting in March 2020. He described an extremely challenging and dangerous situation with drug paraphernalia, human waste and trash. Problems continued until December, when he said the city swept the tents on Waller while offering housing. News about the drop-in center, announced at a community meeting in August, was a complete surprise to Burman. He was frustrated by the lack of information, but wanted more details about who it would serve and the need before forming an opinion. I have tremendous compassion for homeless people, Burman said. I want to be part of the solution. Sarrow said he wasnt outright opposed to the new proposal, but feared another explosion of problems. Christin Evans, a business owner, resident and homeless activist in the neighborhood, pegged complaints on groups who just want the police to simply push people away. Adams cautioned against conflating homelessness and illegal activity. She and Preston said tents did increase at the start of the pandemic, but any issues were alleviated not exacerbated by the safe sleep site. They both separately said the pandemic showed the success of some temporary solutions to homelessness for people living in the Haight. Some of them, including a shelter-in-place hotel for youth with vulnerable medical conditions, already closed in June. They hope the drop-in center will be a stop-gap measure until more housing is built. We need a lot of it, Adams said. Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench For anyone lamenting that San Francisco has lost its soul, that its too corporate, that its famous quirky side has vanished like the sun in July, theres an antidote for your malaise. Venture to Fourth and Market streets almost any afternoon and take in the energy, rhythm and delight that is Larry The Bucket Man Hunt. The 63-year-old upturns 15 buckets and several pots and pans, places them in a Jenga-like semicircle and lets his drumsticks fly. And sometimes his fiancee lights the ends of drumsticks on fire, and he plays with those before licking the flames. This is my trademark! he said. You wont find anybody doing this! Thats a safe bet. Hunt is one of many street performers whove recently retaken their spots around the citys downtown, the Ferry Building and Pier 39 after pandemic-induced quiet. It feels a lot more like San Francisco when you can once again stumble upon break dancing, singing, guitar strumming, juggling and, yes, even flame licking on the citys streets. Street performers have been part of the landscape of San Francisco for decades. Robert Shields was a classically trained mime who loved entertaining tourists and locals alike in Union Square in the early 1970s. A. Whitney Brown starred on Saturday Night Live, but only after getting his start as a street juggler when Pier 39 opened in the late 1970s. Edward Jackson has tap-danced on a wooden platform at the Powell Street cable car turnaround since 1998. I met several of the citys best street performers recently thanks to impromptu tour guide Don Propstra, who lives in North Beach and is writing a book about the Golden Gate Bridge. He walks the city every day and has gotten to know many of its best street performers. He reached out, thinking they deserved a spotlight after a tough 18 months. During the ups and downs and turbulent times in our city, I find these street performers are a delightful force of joy and healing, Propstra said. They are like civic ambassadors. Photos by Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle We started with a visit to Hunt, who has been playing the buckets since he was a 3-year-old growing up in Kansas. He moved to San Francisco about 20 years ago and said he is following the yellow brick road to success. If I play my music, Im happy, he said. Take this away, Im miserable. Hes been homeless off and on but currently lives in a single-room occupancy hotel in the Tenderloin with his cat and his buckets. With his drumming, he can make anywhere from a few dollars on a slow day to $100 on a busy one. The highlight of his bucketing career was appearing with Will Smith in the movie Pursuit of Happyness. The lowlight, he said, was having his real drum set not buckets swiped by a city crew during downtown sweeps before the Super Bowl in 2016. He is still trying to raise money to buy another one, and anybody who wants to help should toss him some cash. Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle Just across the intersection at Stockton and Ellis streets, the incredible voice of Parris Lane, 63, carries for blocks. She found her talent singing spirituals as a kid with her sisters in their living room in Maryland to keep from being scared during thunderstorms. She has performed with the Backyard Party Kings most evenings since 2015. People cant believe theyre hearing live music everythings on a boom box now, she said. She said one couple met while listening to her sing Stand by Me and returned to visit as husband and wife. Harold Wilson, a 59-year-old drummer and handyman, started the group in 2008, but they didnt perform for more than a year during the pandemic. It was great to come back and play, he said. We lost our touch, but now were back. Now Playing: While the cable cars made headlines, another heartbeat of the city has also returned - the San Francisco street performer. Video: Heather Knight, Caron Creighton We also watched Javon Mabon, 23, and Gideon Mekwunye, 25, of the Oakland Originalz dance crew at Fishermans Wharf. Their shtick is having six tourists stand in a line and bend over at their waists while Mabon runs, leaps and flips over all of them. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. When they returned to their spot on June 15 after the city reopened, Mabon was out of shape and could jump over only three people. You could feel the deadness in the wharf, Mabon said of returning when there were few tourists. Our goal is to keep the energy going. A great day is when every show has a positive energy. Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle Every day is a great day for Marc Coleman, 48, who plays guitar and sings outside the Ferry Building. He wrote his first song when he was 5 but worked a variety of hospitality jobs before picking up music full time at age 40. Total SF Hear more from some of San Francisco's best street performers - and listen to their drumming and singing - on the latest episode of Total SF, a podcast hosted by Chronicle columnist Heather Knight and pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub, with new episodes every Friday morning wherever you get your podcasts. Also, the Total SF Book Club continues with "Why We Swim" by Bonnie Tsui. Join Knight, Hartlaub and Tsui at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Koret Auditorium in the Main Library. The book club is hosted by The Chronicle, the San Francisco Public Library and Green Apple Books. See More Collapse He laughed that his dad told him he was crazy back then, but he now makes enough money from delighted spectators donating to his Venmo account and scoring private gigs from impressed passersby to raise his toddler in the Excelsior district. He met his wife when she stopped to listen to him play House of the Rising Sun and kept listening for two hours. Its a nice way to live, Coleman said. I dont need to make this big pot of money, but for me to be able to sustain a lifestyle, take care of my family and live in the city, Im very proud of that. Coleman has a knack for spotting a stranger walking down the Embarcadero and playing a song he thinks will be a good fit. Often, the person will exclaim, That was my wedding song! or That song was just stuck in my head how did you know? (He confessed that when hes unsure, the Eagles or Coldplay are safe bets.) Ive done this all over the world, and no one responds like San Francisco, he said. Its pure magic. It sure is and its nice to remember theres still some of that special stardust left in San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf Even though COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rapidly declining in San Francisco County, the city has not set a timeline for when it may modify or lift its indoor mask mandate, which requires all individuals regardless of vaccination status to wear masks indoors. On Thursday night, Mayor London Breed was in clear violation of the order as currently written while enjoying live music at the Black Cat nightclub in the Tenderloin. Per the San Francisco Chronicle's Mariecar Mendoza, Breed was maskless for the duration of the indoor event, as were other attendees. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.) The city's health order only allows for masks to be removed "while actively eating or drinking." It states, "People are urged to be seated at a table or positioned at a stationary counter or place while eating or drinking." A video shows a maskless Breed neither seated at a table nor positioned at a stationary counter standing and dancing without any food or drinks in her hand. She also posed for photos while not wearing a mask. Breed defended the violation of the order by telling The Chronicle, "at the end of the day, everyone who comes in here has to show proof of vaccination. That gives me a lot of reassurance. It is true that vaccines are highly protective against COVID-19 and San Francisco has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, but the city's mask mandate does not allow exemptions for businesses requiring proof of vaccination status for entry. In August, SFGATE asked the San Francisco Department of Public Health if it would consider such an exemption after Philadelphia offered that carve-out in its city-wide indoor mask mandate. A department spokesperson responded with only, "San Francisco's order requires people to mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status." SFGATE reached out to Breed's office and asked if the mayor believes modifications should made to the city's indoor mask mandate, but did not hear back. A home on an $11 million Palo Alto, Calif., property that reportedly has ties to Google co-founder Larry Page was destroyed in a three-alarm fire Tuesday. A neighbor told Palo Alto Online, which broke story, that the property on Bryant Street in the exclusive neighborhood of Old Palo Alto was owned "by either Google co-founder Larry Page or Google itself." The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs owned a home in the leafy neighborhood of grand homes. When firefighters arrived on the scene after 8 p.m., three sides of a two-story home were engulfed in flames, the Palo Alto Fire Department said in a statement. "Additionally, flames from the fire threatened tall trees on one side of the structure," the department said. Palo Alto Online reported the fire impacted a back unit of the main home with a long driveway. Firefighters quickly contained the blaze and stopped it from burning the primary structure. The department told the Daily Beast that nobody was inside the property when the fire broke out and two firefighters sustained minor injuries. An image shared by the department of the home after the fire was put out showed the structure still standing but entirely blackened and charred. Neighbor Rebecca Eisenberg took video footage of the fire and posted it on Facebook. The home is valued at $10.99 million, according to the Santa Clara County Assessor. The LLC listed as the owner of the home has the same address as Page's Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation, a business search on the California Secretary of State website revealed. The fire was reported by someone who saw flames inside the home on a security camera, the department said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation. Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on this story. So, youre ready to negotiate with your VC, and you know this will be a zero-sum game. Every decision is a shift of risk, reward or control. Youll need to be prepared to compromise on some things, but how do you decide what and when to give or hold firm? You should start by consulting with the experienced advisors in your corner, such as a quality founder-focused startup attorney, but that is only the first step. Enter the BATNA. The term BATNA refers to your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. As an example, say you're negotiating with MoneyCo Funding Group. If negotiations break down, you must have a plan in place in the event that you or MoneyCo walk away. Your negotiating position is fundamentally dependent on your willingness to walk away. If you are presented with a set of terms and you are not willing to walk away (or be walked away from), then you have limited leverage. Yes, you can fake a willingness to walk away, but if that is tested, your position will be transparent, and this could negatively impact your long-term reputation. Your BATNA is your backup option. Its a plan detailing how your company will survive without any funding or support from the entity with which you are negotiating. This will change depending on the terms provided by the other party. How to use your BATNA in negotiations Your BATNA establishes your exit. But, it also dictates whether or not you should walk away from a negotiation. If you are presented with a set of terms from MoneyCo (lets call it term sheet X) better than your BATNA, you must decide how much youre willing to push to improve term sheet X if you cant afford to lose the initial offering. Carefully consider how hard you can reasonably push MoneyCo to improve term sheet X before they withdraw their offer. This will depend on your knowledge of MoneyCos past negotiations, their previous investments, your gut sense of the individuals involved, their level of interest in your company, and the strength of your BATNA. Related: 8 Negotiating Tactics Every Successful Entrepreneur Has Mastered Building your BATNA To create an effective BATNA, you must understand how it compares to as many potential scenarios as possible. Establish a set of assumptions based on what is going on in the market and what you learn from your legal and financial advisors. A good advisory team will have great market awareness. For example, lets assume the following: Without funding term sheet X from MoneyCo, the expected value of your startup in 5 years will be $20 million. With funding on term sheet X from MoneyCo, the expected value of your startup in 5 years will be $40 million. With these assumptions in mind, does the comparative startup value mean that your BATNA is worse than term sheet X? Not necessarily. Remember, you need to compare apples to apples. Lets say that without accepting MoneyCos funding, you would own 80% of your company. This would place the expected value to you of the non-funding scenario at 80% of $20 million, which is $16 million. Lets say that a $40 million valuation on term sheet X with funding from MoneyCo requires a series of dilutive events wherein you would only own 30% of your company. This would place the expected value to you of accepting funding at 30% of $40 million, which is $12 million. In this scenario, your BATNA represents $16 million, while accepting term sheet X leads to an expected $12 million. This would make term sheet X not worth accepting. This is an oversimplification, but this is the framework from which you should consider a set of funding terms. Related: 10 Tips to Negotiate Like a Boss Improving your BATNA Establishing and understanding your BATNA is important, but equally important is improving your BATNA. The stronger your BATNA, the stronger your negotiating position because, among other things, it gives you the freedom to walk away. Lets explore some ways you can improve your BATNA. Raise the Stakes The most straightforward way to improve a BATNA is to have competing term sheets from different investors. Suppose that in addition to being offered term sheet X from MoneyCo, you are also offered term sheet Y from InvestorFund. If Y is at least as good for you as X, then you have the leverage to push on MoneyCo. In a worst-case scenario, if MoneyCo wont budge, you can accept Y from InvestorFund. Relatedly, if MoneyCo knows it is competing with InvestorFund, it may sweeten its terms to get you to accept their investment. They know that your BATNA is high enough that you dont need to accept their terms. Plan Ahead Another way to increase your BATNA is not to delay funding until you are desperate. Only form the BATNA from a position of strength. You should create your BATNA as early as you possibly can, and regularly update it based on your current situation. Decide if you need to shoot for the moon, especially in terms of fundraising. If you think $20 million would be put to use and grow your company substantially, its conceivable youll find investors willing to invest in that range. But the terms might be terrible. Alternatively, if you arent in the greatest position to raise a lot of money, what can you do with a small amount to get yourself in a better position to be in a better position? If you can grow your company enough with a small investment to ultimately be appealing enough for a larger investment, that initial small investment is a great way to improve your BATNA down the road. In summary, build your BATNA as early in your companys formation as possible. Continually update it and consider all your options, as well as market trends. Before going into any negotiation, make sure your BATNA is as strong as possible, and consult with your advisors. Approach all negotiations understanding how hard you are willing to push the other party based on how your BATNA compares to what they are offering. Work to strengthen your BATNA by seeking other investors, and planning for as many scenarios as you can. The information contained in this article is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. You should not act or refrain from acting based on any content included in this article without seeking legal or other professional advice. Related: Why Young Professionals Don't Negotiate Salary (and Why They Should) Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Michael Sohn/AP BERLIN (AP) Berlin's city government said Friday it is buying some 14,750 apartments from two large corporate landlords for 2.46 billion euros ($2.9 billion) a deal announced a week before local and national elections as the German capital tries to expand the supply of publicly owned accommodation. The deal with Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen, which also includes about 450 shops and follows months of negotiations, involves both companies selling about 10% of their property in Berlin to state-owned property companies. It will bring the number of government-owned apartments in Berlin to about 355,000 about a fifth of the 1.67 million rental apartments in the city. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) Chicago-based aerospace giant Boeing Co. will invest $200 million to begin manufacturing the U.S. Navy's latest unmanned aircraft at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in a project that could add at least 150 jobs on the company's southwest Illinois campus, officials said Friday. Boeing will build the MQ-25 Stingray, the Navy's first carrier-based unmanned aircraft in a state-of-the-art plant of about 300,000 square feet (27,870 square meters). The company has been under contract developing and testing the craft since 2018. Gathered at the airport in Mascoutah, about 29 miles (47 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis, company representatives and politicians celebrated not only Boeing's expansion of operations which currently employ 70. With a promise of $57 million in state-funded improvements, they say it also represents a milestone for MidAmerica, which began civilian operations next to Scott Air Force Base in 1997 to critics' derision about its viability. This state-of-the art production facility further roots Boeings local presence here in Metro East and it extends Illinois' legacy of support for our national defense..., Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. Boeing employs hundreds of Illinoisans and supports thousands more jobs throughout our state. Im very proud to have them as a partner in preparing our communities for 21st century manufacturing. According to Boeing, the MQ-25 Stingray, developed from a 2018 contract with the Navy, is a refueling aircraft that will vastly increase the combat range of aircraft launched the Navy's nuclear-powered carriers. What were talking about is taking the carriers influence area and doubling it, said Dave Bujold, Boeing director of MQ-25 programs. Boeing is receiving breaks worth about $8.7 million on its state income tax liability in exchange for the $200 million investment over 15 years and the addition of at least 150 jobs to the 70 already at MidAmerica, where Boeing set up shop about a decade and produces components for the CH-47 Chinook helicopter, the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft and other defense equipment. Construction on the MidAmerica facility is scheduled to start later this year and be completed in early 2024. Production would start by mid-2024. Kristin Robertson, vice president and general manager of Autonomous Systems, Boeing Defense, Space & Security called the Stingrays technology unprecedented." The facility will feature robotic automation and advanced assembly techniques aimed at improved quality of product and employee ergonomics and safety. Boeing's digital engineering of the MQ-25 and its systems actually promote product quality and efficiency, officials said. The state's outlay is coming from the ongoing $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital construction plan approved in 2019. It has targeted $57 million for the airport. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity previously released $25 million in capital-fund cash for airplane taxiway improvements to support the Boeing facility. There's another $25 million that the Illinois Department of Transportation is scheduled to put up for additional taxiway and airfield improvements, and Pritzker's administration has pledged a $7 million DCEO grant to update the passenger terminal. ___ Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor WASHINGTON (AP) A Muslim civil rights group is calling for a boycott of Hilton hotels over what it says are plans to build a hotel on the site of a bulldozed Uyghur mosque in China. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and other organizations held a news conference Thursday outside the Capital Hilton in Washington announcing the boycott campaign. NEW YORK (AP) A former executive at pharmaceutical company Mylan has pleaded guilty to insider trading in the companys securities, the Justice Department said Friday. The department said Dayakar Mallu, 51, of Orlando, Florida, worked with another executive at Mylan to make trades between 2017 and 2019 based on nonpublic information about Mylan. The information ranged from corporate earnings, to new drug approvals, to Mylan's eventual merger with a division of Pfizer. While the COVID-19 pandemic is surging in other places across the country, cases and deaths in California are declining and the San Francisco Bay Area is doing especially well. But exactly how low are the rates of transmission in the nine-county region? The well-vaccinated region is generally doing better than the rest of the state. Here's a look at the seven-day positivity rate, seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people and seven-day average of deaths per 100,000, respectively, for California and each of the counties as of Sept. 16 based on the state's dashboard. California: 3.4% test positivity (seven-day rate), 20.0 cases per 100,000 (seven-day average), 0.2 deaths per 100,000 (seven-day average) Alameda: 2.3% test positivity, 11.1 cases per 100,000, 0.01 deaths per 100,000 Contra Costa: 3.2% test positivity, 15.2 cases per 100,000, 0.2 deaths per 100,000 Marin: 2.1% test positivity, 8.3 cases per 100,000, 0 deaths per 100,000 Napa: 3.8% test positivity, 18.8 cases per 100,000, 0.2 deaths per 100,000 San Francisco: 2.0% positivity, 10.1 cases per 100,000, 0.2 deaths per 100,000 San Mateo: 1.9% test positivity, 9.5 cases per 100,000, 0.04 deaths per 100,000 Santa Clara: 1.7% test positivity, 11.3 cases per 100,000, 0.1 deaths per 100,000 Solano: 4.1% test positivity, 19.9 cases per 100,000, 0.4 deaths per 100,000 Sonoma: 2.6% test positivity, 13.2 cases per 100,000, 0.1 deaths per 100,000 The numbers are all headed in a downward direction and inching toward where the state and Bay Area were in June, when the pandemic saw a lull just before the state reopened for business and lifted most restrictions June 15. On June 2, the state was recording an average of 2.1 cases per 100,000 and 0.04 deaths per 100,000 across seven days. On June 1, the seven-day positivity rate was 0.8%. The Bay Area has had some of the tightest COVID restrictions in the country. All counties in the region mandate masks indoors except Solano. San Francisco and Berkeley require proof of vaccination to enter indoor bars, restaurants, clubs, gyms and large indoor events. Customers under age 12 are exempt. A negative COVID-19 test is not a substitute. Contra Costa County on Tuesday issued a similar mandate for entering indoor restaurants, bars and gyms though both proof of full vaccination or a negative coronavirus test are acceptable. CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID Data Tracker map also provides an overview of how counties are doing; the map is based on a county's moving seven-day number of new COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 test positivity percentage. The severity of the pandemic in each county is represented by four tier levels: high, substantial, moderate and low. CDC In the San Francisco Bay Area, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda are all in the substantial tier as of Sept. 16. Contra Costa, Napa, Solano and Sonoma are in the high. Just to the south of the Bay Area, Monterey and Santa Cruz are substantial. The rest of the state is mostly a sea of red except for a few counties with low transmission: Lassen, Modoc, Mono and Sierra.While the center of California is a sea of red with the majority of counties seeing a high level of COVID-19 community transmission Over the past decade, Melanie Laurent has established herself as an accomplished film director. Yet four features and many accolades later, that fact may come as a surprise to many in the U.S. who still know her best for her acting especially for playing Shosanna in Inglorious Basterds. But thats poised to change soon. Her latest film, an adaptation of Victoria Mas 2019 novel The Mad Womens Ball, is being made more widely available than any of her previous films, thanks to the reach of Amazon Prime Video. The film takes audiences inside Pariss Pitie-Salpetriere asylum in 1885, where the spirited Eugenie (Lou de Laage) is sent by her father. And her next project is even higher profile: A studio produced adaptation of The Nightingale, with Elle and Dakota Fanning playing French sisters during World War II. Laurent spoke to The Associated Press recently about her love of directing and actresses and the big year for female directors in France. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. ___ AP: How did this book find its way to you? Laurent: I just had my baby girl and I was asking myself, Whats next? I really wanted to make a powerful movie with a woman. But I was like, do I want to make a feminist movie? Do I want feminism to be like the main theme of the whole project? And then (producer Alain Goldman) gave me this story and I was like, Oh my god, its feminist, but also its a ghost story. Its about the oppression of women. Its about science, its about death, relationships, love, friendship. AP: Lou de Laage starred in your second film Breathe. Why did you go back to her for this? Laurent: I just want to make movies with her every three years. Shes very easy to work with and so talented and shes absolutely gorgeous. There is something magical about certain actresses (when) you film them. Lou has that magic of never seeing herself as beautiful, so she doesnt play beautiful. Shes just beautiful. AP: You go back and forth between acting and directing. Do you feel any internal pull to choose one? Laurent: I feel like Im more passionate about making movies because you have the control. Everything is about your imagination. Im also extremely in love with my actresses. But when Im directing a lot, I miss being directed. Its way more relaxing because you dont make any decisions. AP: It does seem like theres a double standard for beautiful actresses who also direct, like when some dismissed By the Sea (in which Laurent co-starred) as a vanity project for Angelina Jolie. Laurent: I was so amazed by her beauty and I was so amazed by her motherhood, the way she was talking about the kids and the way she was handled, everything. She had to be the boss on her own set, and she was extremely nice and extremely respected and respectful. And at the end of every day, I was like, What a woman. I just hope for our babies and our baby girls that we are building that for them, a world where you can be whoever you want. I have a lot of journalists, and its always from men, who ask like, So youre doing this and this and this and this, what are you proving to the world? What do you want? Dude, I dont know. I don't want to prove anything! AP: Do you feel like theres a common theme in the films you direct? Laurent: I dont even realize that Im always making movies about women. I guess because Im a female director and also because I love actresses. I love the way they work. I love the way they think. I love how they are so strong, so powerful. They are so much easier, its insane. Like actors are definitely like actresses way more in the cliche ways we expect. I never had any problems with any actresses. And I love working with adaptation of books. I love being inspired from someone whos already inspired. AP: What does it mean to you to have this kind of global release? Laurent: I kind of love the idea of being released in 240 countries the same day, which never happens to me. The great thing about that is you bring a very French story to different countries and see how women are going to react to a subject like this. Its horrifying, but Im pretty sure every woman from anywhere in the world is going to feel like, yeah, I know what shes talking about. AP: Its been a good year for French female directors. You were on the jury that gave Julia Ducournau the Palme dOr at Cannes and Audrey Diwan just won the Golden Lion in Venice. Laurent: When we gave the prize to Julia for Titane, she came on stage, she was very moved. She made a beautiful speech. And then she came in and she took me in her arms... and I said, We didnt choose you because youre a woman. And she looked at me and she was like, Oh my god, thank you so much for that because I had a doubt. I was like, This is why theres still a debate here. When a woman gets an award, she still thinks right now that its not for a good reason. And its going to take a few years, but its very important for us to win all those awards right now to make it normal. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the governor's mansion in the 2003 recall of Gray Davis, had some harsh words for the Republican replacement candidates in the 2021 Gavin Newsom recall election. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger did not say how he voted, but said, "I think voters made the right decision" to keep Newsom. As of Friday morning, "no" on the recall led "yes" 63.7% to 36.3%. Its better to stay with someone who you know what theyre going to do, rather than someone who comes in wacky and is changing everything around," Schwarzenegger said. When speaking on the campaign tactics of the Republicans running to replace Newsom, Schwarzenegger said, "Its just disastrous," and trashed conservative radio host Larry Elder's vow to roll back provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act, stating, "The voters want to protect the environment. We have the strictest environmental laws in California, and we have proven to the world that you can have strictest environmental laws and at same time be the most successful economy. The former governor argued that dissatisfaction with Newsom was no different "than there was under Gray Davis," but Republicans and Elder specifically came across as too extreme. "He was very fortunate he had Elder as the leading candidate on the other side," Schwarzenegger said of Newsom. Elder maintained through the campaign that there should be no minimum wage, though he stated it would not be a priority for him as governor. He also campaigned on repealing Newsom's vaccine mandates for health care workers and school personnel, while stating he was unsure whether climate change contributed to wildfires. In the months leading up to the recall, Schwarzenegger was careful not to tip his hand on how he viewed the race, stating that he was friends with many of the candidates involved. You can read the full story from the Los Angeles Times. After three prior trip cancellations, getting our vaccinations and the required negative-status COVID testing, my wife and I flew to Dublin to visit our son and his wife, and to meet her family for the first time. They had canceled their wedding there last year due to the pandemic. We had previously booked our Ireland-required COVID tests which, if negative, would allow us to avoid quarantine there. Their drive-thru test was thorough, meaning a long thin swab traveled up the nose, slid behind the eye and briefly entered the frontal lobe. I would never question an Irish COVID test result. Our negative status allowed us to travel and meet new people. While some restrictions had been eased, most remained at high levels during our July visit. Pubs, the aorta of Irish social life, were reduced to serving patrons outside. One could only glimpse the worn mahogany bars and empty stools inside, a row of motionless, dry tap handles above them. Ireland has a topical climate, which is to say almost everyone weighs in on it. Shame for da rain after such a nice week, or Its more like Spain with dis heat, or Not a breath out there today,'' or Bit cooler today, isnt it? A Dublin cab driver shared that his family owned an apartment in southern Spain because, Ya know, de wedder here is shite. Once dominated by church steeples, green copper domes and cathedral towers, the Dublin skyline was full of construction cranes. Many multinational firms, attracted by Irelands favorable tax environment and highly educated workforce, have their European headquarters here. Thats great for creating new jobs, but the supply of housing hasnt kept up with demand. The global financial crisis stymied Irelands building development more than a decade ago and builders are playing catch-up. While the countrys per capita income has risen steadily (second highest in the EU), the price of renting an apartment or owning real estate in Dublin and beyond has skyrocketed. Were kinda getting screwed, said a 30-something, lifelong Dubliner looking to purchase his first house. Smaller than New York state, Ireland proved accessible. We traveled by car, train, bus and foot to Kinsale, Cork, Killarney, Galway and Dublin. And we had a lot of company. Because the pandemic precluded much of their international travel, the Irish were busy rediscovering via staycations their own beautiful country. And swimming. Thats right. In mid-July, the Emerald Isle was experiencing a heat wave (the equivalent of a nice summer day in Albany). In response, the Irish were storming the beaches for relief in their togs (swimsuits), plunging luminously white bodies into the frigid Irish Sea as if it were the Caribbean itself. Their enthusiasm for torture proved contagious. I got in myself, up to the waist, and for the next hour felt as if Id had an epidural. The Catholic Churchs grip on Ireland has eased. The number of Catholic priests has declined by 43 percent since 1995; their average age is 70. Whereas 80 percent of Catholics attended Mass weekly in 1979, 35 percent do now. In 2018, Irish voters chose to legalize abortion. Sectarian violence has eased, too. Once flashpoints for conflict, the annual Protestant parades July 12 in Northern Ireland, celebrating their centuries-old ascendency over Catholics, occurred peacefully this year. The island Republic we visited seemed less concerned with its past and more intently focused on the future. It was the omnipresence of the tech industry, growth of biotech and pharma companies, real estate prices, new automobiles, job opportunities, pandemic restrictions, pets, holidays and healthcare that dominated conversations. And most of those transpired with the utmost pleasantness. No worries and Tanks a million and Cheers and Grand were common utterances. It was as if centuries of tumult, subjugation, rebellion and famine had somehow forged aided by more recent successes a kind of communal Irish niceness and cautious optimism. Indeed, a study from a university in Cambridge recently named Ireland one of the world's best five places to survive global societal collapse. We spent our last days in Dublin. Recognized by UNESCO as a City of Literature, it once housed Wilde, Beckett, Shaw, Murdoch, OBrien and Joyce, among others. Joyce wrote, When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart. I hope so, given that he died and was buried in Zurich, Switzerland. Sporadic efforts by the Irish to return Joyce to his native soil have been unsuccessful. Among other challenges, his gravesite is a popular tourist attraction the Swiss seem reluctant to forego. No worries. If you go Some ideas on getting to Ireland, and what to do once you're there. Flight: Aer Lingus roundtrip, Boston to Dublin. Excellent service. Summer fares are more expensive, but they offer attractive deals from time to time. Carefully review COVID-19 travel requirements. Lodging: The Morgan Hotel (10 Fleet St., Temple Bar) offers a city center location and comfortable, friendly service in the heart of Dublin. $150-200 per night. Getting around: Trains and buses are clean and affordable, with internet service. COVID-19 precautions observed. Attractions in Dublin: Dublin Castle (Dame St., Dublin 2): Lord Cornwallis once lived there, and JFK was entertained there. Howth Cliff Walk: It's a two-hour walk from the outer Dublin suburb of Howth village to panoramic sea views and cliff tops and back. National Gallery of Ireland (Merrion Square West, Dublin 2): Considered a national cultural institution. Train from Dublin to Dalkey, a quaint, seaside village that counts U2's Bono among its residents, is a 30-minute ride along the Irish Sea. Trinity College (College Green, Dublin 2): Oldest library in Ireland, home of the Book of Kells, a 9th-century illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin. See More Collapse Sean Fagan was born and raised in Troy. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) A man has died after exchanging gunfire with a Tennessee police officer as a law enforcement anti-gang unit tried to serve arrest warrants inside a home in Memphis. Two officers were injured, including a deputy cut by glass as he jumped through a window, authorities said. Memphis police and Shelby County deputies were fired upon after entering the home Thursday and at least one returned fire before the officers escaped, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. YAZOO CITY, Miss. (AP) Two people have been killed in a shooting in Yazoo City, police say, but few details were released. The gunfire happened Thursday afternoon near a food store on Broadway Street, media outlets reported. Yazoo County Sheriff Jacob Sheriff said there was a large crowd at the scene, which law enforcement worked to disperse. Agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation also responded to the scene. LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A 2-year-old was killed Friday in what police say appears to be an accidental shooting in Lawrence, Kansas. Police responding to a shooting found the toddler critically injured, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. The child was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) The Dutch defense minister quit Friday, a day after parliament passed a motion of censure against her for her handling of chaotic evacuations from Kabul of translators who worked for Dutch forces in Afghanistan. Ank Bijleveld is the second minister in the Netherlands' caretaker coalition government to resign over the evacuations, following the foreign minister, Sigrid Kaag. Kaag stepped down immediately after the parliamentary censure motion was passed Thursday night. Bijleveld initially said she would remain in office but quit Friday afternoon amid political debate over why she refused to follow Kaag's example. In a brief press statement Friday announcing her resignation, Bijleveld explained why she initially chose to stay in office. I wanted to continue to complete the task that I stand for," she said. "For the men and women who are on the front lines and to complete the job of bringing to safety the translators who are still in Afghanistan and who are counting on us. But she added that, "I see that my decision to remain in office has become the subject of discussion. As a result, I can no longer adequately take responsibility for my people. Bijleveld is a senior member of the Christian Democrats party that is currently in drawn-out talks to form the next Dutch ruling coalition following a general election in March. Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte, leader of the conservative Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy that won the most seats in the election, is in talks with Kaag's centrist D66 party and the Christian Democrats to form a minority coalition after months of talks to cobble together a coalition with a majority in parliament collapsed. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Garbage and debris are piling up along many New Orleans streets almost three weeks after Hurricane Ida pounded southeast Louisiana as residents react with increasing anger and, in some cases, dark humor. Several residents told a City Council committee Friday that they haven't had their garbage collected since days before the storm hit on Aug. 29. I was at the point of naming every maggot in my garbage and I was going to put them on my income tax as dependents, a woman told council members at City Hall. This is not good government. This is just incompetence. A Facebook posting calling for a "Trash Parade march at City Hall on Saturday had drawn about 1,500 responses as of Friday afternoon. Folks are encouraged to wear garbage bags and garbage related costumes, the post said. Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration says much of the problem arises from labor shortages that have plagued the city for months, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and, then, the storm. The city sought bids from companies wanting to supplement its tow main waste contractors, officials said Thursday. A Sept. 8 deadline was extended to Sept. 13 due to a lack of response. After the later deadline one contractor was hired to aid trash collection efforts Thursday in part of the city. Another contractor who bid on another area had 20 trucks available but no labor. On Thursday, Cantrell's office announced a plan to use workers and equipment from various city agencies to supplement trash pickup. It was dubbed Operation Mardi Gras a reference to the major cleanup efforts that immediately follow the city's large Carnival season parades. Meanwhile, council members, under increasing pressure from constituents, expressed frustration with the administration. Member Jared Brossett called the mounting garbage a public health crisis." Member Joe Giarrusso, meanwhile, said the administration is delivering confusing messages to constituents about what will be picked up when. Aside from there being separate collection efforts for debris and household garbage, the Operation Mardi Gras workers don't have the trucks equipped with the lifts to pick up the 95-gallon (360-liter) garbage bins the city issues to residences. So, some crews are only collecting bags of household garbage and leaving the full bins behind for other crews. Do I tell them take it out of the can and put in on the side? Giarrusso asked city Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano. Administration officials said myriad labor and logistical issues are at play in the city's efforts. This is the first time where we cannot throw money at a problem to solve this issue quickly, Cantrell's infrastructure chief Ramsey Green said. We've tried that. We've been on the phone with national contractors. We did an emergency procurement ... We had no responsive bidders. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Alabama could see its shipments of monoclonal antibodies reduced as federal officials take over distribution to equitably dispense the limited life-saving resource during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state health officer said. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the change was needed after just seven states Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana accounted for 70% of monoclonal antibody orders in the country. Given this reality, we must work to ensure our supply of these life-saving therapies remains available for all states and territories, not just some, the department said in a statement. The seven states are also among those that have the lowest vaccination rates in the country. State Health Officer Scott Harris said Friday that federal officials told states Monday that providers would no longer be able to order the drugs directly but would have to place those orders through state health departments. Federal officials will use a formula to decide how many doses of the about 150,000 available each week each state will get as they ration the treatments in response to a national shortage. They will allocate the total number of doses we will have for our state based on our case numbers and our hospitalization numbers, Harris said. Harris said he is concerned that the change would disrupt the supply. We are really sorry to say there are probably going to be some patients who arent able to access that drug who thought they were going to have that available to them, Harris said. Antibody treatment is a highly effective therapy that can blunt the worst effects of COVID-19 and prevent the disease from getting worse and requiring hospitalization. There is no question that the monoclonal antibodies keep people out of the hospital, Dr. Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said this week. The Medical Association of the State of Alabama issued a statement this week expressing concern that it will end up limiting supply and access to the effective treatment. Doctors continue to emphasize that vaccination, rather than a secondary treatment, is the best way to prevent severe COVID-19 disease. OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) An Alabama man who took his 2-month-old daughter to a hospital with serious injuries has been charged in the infant's death, police said Friday. Demarcus Smith, 19, of Opelika, was jailed on a murder charge in the death of Maliyah Stormi Smith, Police Chief Shane Healey told a news conference. Franc Zhurda/AP TIRANA, Albania (AP) Albanias Assembly, or parliament, on Friday approved Cabinet dominated by women, aiming to bring the country back to economic growth focusing on tourism and agriculture, infrastructure and energy. Following a 20-hour debate, the 140-seat parliament voted 77-53 for Prime Minister Edi Ramas new Cabinet and program. Currently Reading Alert: Former Arkansas sheriff's deputy charged with manslaughter in fatal shooting of white teenager during traffic stop Seth Wenig/AP THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney was named Friday as one of 17 special advisers to the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Clooney was appointed as an adviser on the Darfur region of Sudan, where prosecutors allege that government forces and militias backed by Khartoum carried out a campaign of genocide. SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) A fight Friday at the same Louisiana high school where 14 students were arrested a day earlier has resulted in more students facing charges. Two groups of teenage girls, ages 14 to 17, were involved in the fight at Southwood High School in Shreveport, said Caddo Parish Sheriff's Sgt. Andy Scoggins. In all, eight people were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace by fighting and each has been released to their parents' custody, the sheriff's office said. FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Kentucky may not have enough monoclonal antibody courses to meet the rising demand in the state, Gov. Andy Beshear says. The federal government is rationing the treatments in response to a national shortage, which may limit Kentucky's ability to give the medicine to anyone who would need it. LONDON (AP) Clive Sinclair, the British inventor and entrepreneur who arguably did more than anyone else to inspire a whole generation of children into a life-long passion for computers and gaming, has died. He was 81. Sinclair, who rose to prominence in the early 1980s with a series of affordable home computers that offered millions their first glimpse into the world of coding as well as the adrenaline rush of playing games on screens, died on Thursday morning after a long battle with cancer. Though ailing, his daughter Belinda Sinclair said, he was still working on inventions up until last week. He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion, she told the BBC. Born in 1940 in the plush southwest London suburb of Richmond, Sinclair left school at the age of 17 and became a technical journalist before deciding he and the world would be better off if he used his brainpower to come up with inventions himself. Aged 22, he formed Sinclair Radionics, his first company, making mail-order radio kits, including the smallest transistor radio in the world. He really came to prominence in 1973 with the worlds first pocket calculator, before turning his sights and passions into transitioning the world of computers to the confines of the home. He became a much-beloved figure in Britain and around the world, for his successes as well as occasional failures. Tributes poured in from modern-day equivalents such as Elon Musk as well as countless normal people who first got hooked on computers and gaming via one of Sinclair's inventions. Sinclair launched his first affordable consumer computer in 1980, which cost less than 100 pounds ($135). The ZX80, which could subsequently be upgraded to the ZX81 with a bit more memory, may not have been sophisticated in today's terms, but it broke new ground, opening up a world of new opportunities. The ZX81 was my introduction to computing and I loved it!," the science broadcaster Prof. Brian Cox said in a tweet. In 1982 came the iconic ZX Spectrum, which was certainly a step-change from its predecessors and which would not look too out of place today. Through the 1980s, it took its place in an increasingly crowded marketplace against the likes of the Commodore 64, the first Apple computers as well as those from Atari. The Spectrum went on to become Britains best-selling computer. Not only did it help Sinclair become a multimillionaire, it made him a household name at a time the British economy was undergoing a radical transformation under then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1983. RIP, Sir Sinclair. I loved that computer," Tesla CEO Musk said in a tweet. The benefits of the Spectrum and its peers were felt far and wide, leading to a boom in companies that produced software and hardware. Not to mention the shops that were selling these home computers and all their add-ons. British business mogul Alan Sugar, who was one of the main protagonists in this new era of home technology with his company Amstrad, paid tribute to his good friend and competitor." What a guy he kicked started consumer electronics in the U.K. with his amplifier kits then calculators, watches mini TV and of course the Sinclair ZX. Not to forget his quirky electric car. R.I.P Friend," he said on Twitter. For many people, Sinclair will be best remembered for that quirky Sinclair C5, an ill-fated electric tricycle heralded as the future of eco-friendly transport but which turned out to be an expensive flop. It was the ideas, the challenge, that he found exciting," Sinclair's daughter said. Hed come up with an idea and say, Theres no point in asking if someone wants it, because they cant imagine it. SALIDA, Colo. (AP) A judge ruled Friday there is enough evidence for the case to proceed against a southern Colorado man who was charged with first-degree murder nearly a year after his wife was reported missing on Mothers Day 2020. Judge Patrick Murphy ruled Barry Morphew, 53, should stand trial for the presumed death of Suzanne Morphew, a 49-year-old mother of two daughters who was reported missing after she did not return from a bike ride near her home in the Salida area. The judge set cash bail at $500,000, and restricted Morphew from traveling outside of Chaffee County and having contact with several people involved in the case. Barry Morphew posted a video on social media pleading for his wife's safe return soon after she vanished. He was arrested May 5, 2021, amid what authorities described as an extensive and ongoing investigation that involved dozens of searches in Colorado and interviews of more than 400 people in multiple states. Suzanne Morphews body has not been found. Murphy said there is probable cause Barry Morphew might have murdered his wife and that he had motivation to do so, but the judge also noted that probable cause is the lowest standard of proof in the criminal justice system, Denver television station KUSA-TV reported. Is it possible Mr. Morphew would be convicted? Yes, the judge said. Is it fairly likely he would be convicted? ... This case could go either way in front of a jury. He outlined three possible scenarios: Barry Morphew killed his wife, someone else killed her or she disappeared on her own. During a preliminary hearing in August, investigators said Suzanne Morphew had an affair with a man for two years. Prosecutors also presented text messages between her and a friend from 2019 and 2020 in which she complained that her husband was picking fights and putting their children in the middle. Meanwhile, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Joseph Cahill testified during the preliminary hearing that a partial DNA profile created from male DNA left on Suzanne Morphews glovebox matched profiles developed in unsolved sexual assault cases in Chicago, Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona. DNA from Barry Morphew was not found in the DNA sample, according to his lawyers. Barry Morphew also is charged with tampering with a human body, tampering with physical evidence, possession of a dangerous weapon and attempting to influence a public servant. Judge Murphy decided to unseal the arrest affidavit by noon Monday, saying, The meat of this case has been heard by the public. Morphew entered a not guilty plea, and his trial is set to begin May 3. DETROIT (AP) A suburban Detroit contractor has been convicted in the embezzlement of more than $1.2 million from the United States Postal Service. Michael Rymar, 59, of Rochester Hills pleaded guilty Thursday, the U.S. Attorneys office in Detroit said. PHOENIX (AP) Board members overseeing Arizonas most populous county reached an agreement Friday evening with the Republican-controlled state Senate that will end a standoff over a Senate demand that they hand over computer routers for use in an unprecedented partisan election review. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors announced that a special master will take questions from the Senates election review contractors and provide them with information contained on the routers they say they need to finish the election review. Supervisor Bill Gates said the deal will protect sensitive information contained on the routers while avoiding a massive penalty the county faced if they had not complied. Gates called the deal a win for transparency and its also a win for protecting sensitive data in Maricopa County. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a decision last month that the county must comply with the subpoena issued by Republican Senate President Karen Fann or lose about $700 million in yearly state funding. The county agreed to drop a $2.8 million claim it filed with the Senate after election equipment it handed over to the auditor was decertified and needed to be replaced. Fann said the county settled under the threat of losing state money and called it a victory for election integrity and the Arizona taxpayer. She also said there was no damage to the election machines and that they were improperly decertified by Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Hobbs said she concluded the machines could no longer be used after consulted with experts at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and others before making her decision. Fann had signed documents vowing to pay for any costs the county incurred when they handed over the vote counting machines earlier this year. Gates said in July that county taxpayers should not be forced to pay to replace the machines decertified because of the Senate. But the deal completely waives that agreement, and the county will pay the costs of the router review by the special master and a team of experts he will hire. Fann said former Congressman John Shadegg, a Republican, will serve as the special master. The Senate will finally get the answers to questions asked for in subpoenas issued to the County months ago, Fann said in a statement. The board has four Republicans and one Democrat. Gates and other Republicans were muted in any criticism of the Senate and said they hope the agreement ends the fight. But Democratic Supervisor Steve Gallardo did not hold back; he was the lone no vote on the deal. Were dealing with bullies, Gallardo said. There is nothing we can do to satisfy any of the (GOP) Senators pursuing the audit. The review of the 2020 election results was prompted by unsubstantiated claims made by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that he only lost because of fraud. The county says the election was property run and President Joe Biden simply got more votes. County officials balked at handing over the routers that connect data countywide, contending that there was a grave risk to the security of law enforcement and other sensitive information. The threat by Brnovich put massive financial pressure on the board to turn over the items the Senate says it needs as it prepares to release the election recount next Friday. No evidence of fraud has been found in any states after a series of lawsuits filed by Trump backers or reviews by election officials. But Republicans who lead the Senate say a deep dive is needed to look at all aspects of the election, and its contractors did a hand-recount of all 2.1 million ballots, took possession of vote-counting machines, computer servers and huge amounts of data handed over by the county under earlier subpoenas. County officials have stood by the accuracy of their vote count, and outside reviews done by certified election auditors back them up. They said the Senates vote review funded by pro-Trump donors is being run by incompetent grifters hired by the Senate. The company hired by the Senate to oversee the election review, Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, has no prior election review or auditing experience. Its CEO is Doug Logan, a Trump supporter who has promoted conspiracy theories about the election. The Senate and Cyber Ninjas have themselves fought in court over whether they need to turn over records of the election review to a watchdog group and the Arizona Republic newspaper. The Senate was ordered to release its records and mainly complied. The state Supreme Court earlier this week upheld lower court decisions that said records held by Cyber Ninjas and other contractors conducting the audit must be made public. The audit that began in April was originally set to take about 60 days, but there have been repeated delays. Most recently, Cyber Ninjas canceled plans to submit its report last month saying several of its team members contracted COVID-19 and had serious symptoms. LAS VEGAS (AP) Fire on Friday burned the main building of the Mount Charleston Lodge in a forest area that is a popular retreat from summer heat for Las Vegas residents. A fire official and a representative of the company that owns the business said the building that house's the lodge's restaurant was a total loss but that cabins used for lodging weren't damaged. No injuries were reported, officials said. The fire was reported at about 4:45 a.m. Its cause wasn't immediately known. Photos posted online showed flames flaring from the building that burned, and Clark County Assistant Fire Chief Thomas Touchstone said the lodge's dining area was fully engulfed when the first units arrived at about 5 a.m. The lodge was built in the 1960s after a previous lodge on the site that had been operating since at least 1948 was destroyed by a fire in December 1961, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Since 2018, the property has been operated by Ellis Island Hotel & Casino. The Lodge was a beloved landmark, and we plan on rebuilding and recreating the atmosphere and charm that so many were able to enjoy throughout the years, Christina Ellis, the companys marketing director, said in a statement. Touchstone said it appeared the fire started inside the building when no employees were there and that it was too dangerous for firefighters to enter the building to fight the fire. Dari Sullivan of Henderson said she was staying at a cabin at the lodge when she awoke to noise at 4:45 a.m. She and a friend saw the lodge ablaze with flames rising to the sky. It was the lodge itself (that was on fire), the restaurant, Sullivan said. Everybody was out in the parking lot. COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) The Danish government wants to ban prisoners serving a life sentence from entering a romantic relationship and says that they should not have the opportunity to spend time in prisons dating or advertising their crimes on, for example, social media. The move reportedly comes after Danish killer Peter Madsen engaged in a relation with a 17-year-old. In 2018, Madsen was sentenced to life in prison for killing Kim Wall, a 30-year-old reporter from Sweden whom he lured aboard his homemade submarine with the promise of an interview. He dismembered her body and dumped it at sea. ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) A woman accused of assaulting a woman and calling her a racial slur on a Spirit Airlines flight to Detroitwas arraigned Friday. Alexandra Farr, 39, of Roseville, faces ethnic intimidation and assault charges. The victim was a Black, Muslim woman. Farr appeared in 34th District Court and was released on a $7,500 personal bond, according to the Wayne County prosecutor's office. Farr and another passenger on a flight Saturday were involved in a verbal confrontation when Farr allegedly called the 29-year-old victim a racial slur. The victim then started recording the encounter with her cellphone, according to prosecutors. That's when Farr allegedly struck the woman's hand. Farr later was arrested by airport police. She also was charged with being a disorderly person. The alleged activity of this defendant was completely inappropriate and quickly elevated to criminal activity, Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. Racist rants have become far more common lately and we will not hesitate to take action when we can do so legally. Court records did not yet list a defense attorney for Farr who could comment on the allegations. A probable cause conference was scheduled for Sept. 29. LAKE ORION, Mich. (AP) A virus is being blamed on the deaths of between 300 and 600 mostly adult common carp this summer in a Detroit-area lake. An investigation has confirmed that the koi herpesvirus caused the fish kill in Lake Orion, Michigans Department of Natural Resources said Friday. LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) A Louisiana hunter must pay a $5,000 fine, serve two years of probation and complete 100 hours of community service for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, federal prosecutors said. Kevin Berken, 60, of Lake Arthur, was charged in a bill of information with one count of violating the law by taking more than the daily bag limit of six ducks in any one calendar day, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in a news release Thursday. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Early voting got underway in Minneapolis on Friday on a contentious ballot question over whether the city where George Floyd was killed should replace its police department with a new Department of Public Safety. Supporters of the proposed city charter amendment, led by the Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign, say it's the only way to fix an intransigent culture of brutal policing that culminated in Floyd's death last summer after white Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the Black mans neck for about 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd was facedown on the pavement, pleading for air. Opponents, including Mayor Jacob Frey, say too many questions remain about how the new department would work. Among the first-day voters was attorney Chris Henjum, who said he was enthusiastically in favor of the amendment and would like a more nuanced and tailored approach to public safety. Changes to how authorities respond to mental health calls and low-level traffic stops would both protect residents but also protect police from preventable incidents, he said. I think the citys seen a clear track record of unrest, and its time to change the status quo to make public safety accountable to its residents, Henjum said. Laurie Schlosser, a child psychologist, voted against the amendment, calling it too vague and too quick. She lives on the citys north side, where several residents have died in shootings in the past year, including children who were unintended targets of gun violence between rival gangs, according to police. She agreed the city needs a public health approach to public safety, as amendment advocates envision, but she would like to see those programs built up and working first. Our children are traumatized, our teens, our adults, our families are grieving and suffering, and being down 200 officers is not working, Schlosser said. We need to build up the public health approach before having any chance of being able to decrease the number of officers. Voting concludes Nov. 2. Yes 4 Minneapolis has raised over $1 million in cash and nearly $500,000 worth of in-kind donations from across the country, according to campaign finance reports filed last month. The much newer All of Mpls, which opposes the amendment, raised more than $100,000 in its first few weeks, mostly locally. The Minnesota Supreme Court cleared the way for the policing amendment to go forward Thursday, ending a bitter court fight over ballot language. Amendment supporters were blocked in their effort to get a version on last year's ballot. The proposal has its roots in the defund the police movement, which gained momentum after Floyds death sparked a national reckoning on racial justice. However, support and opposition doesnt break down neatly along racial lines, with some Black leaders opposed. The amendment does not use the term defund, but it would remove the city charters requirement that Minneapolis have a police department with a minimum staffing level. The City Council would decide later how the new department would be structured, led and funded. Dozens of supporters attended a rally Friday near Minneapolis City Hall. Minister JaNae Bates led them in chants, including Black lives they matter here and Show me what democracy looks like, before several activists, union members and elected officials addressed the group. The speakers touted Thursdays court decision as a victory for residents and for democracy, and urged people to vote for the proposal, which they say has attracted the ire of wealthy interests. The wealthy and the powerful have tried to stop us the corporations, the faceless actors putting their thumb on the scale. ... They tried to manipulate the will of the people," said Aurin Chowdhury of the Minnesota Youth Collective. They tried to suppress our vote. But at every step we said no. Meanwhile, All of Mpls launched a canvassing campaign on the north side which has one of the city's largest Black communities - to build on a door-knocking drive it began five weeks ago. Residents want to see real solutions for transforming the Minneapolis Police Department and not a vague promise with no plan from the same City Council that promised a year ago to defund the police," campaign manager Leili Fatehi said. Regardless of the vote, the police force is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether it has a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. Such investigations usually result in court-ordered changes. ___ Mohamed Ibrahim 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. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A former Army doctor convicted for the infamous 1970 murders of his pregnant wife and two young daughters on a North Carolina base has ended his appeal of a lower court ruling that denied his requested release. An attorney for Jeffrey MacDonald said in court documents that his client wished to dismiss his appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the dismissal in the Fatal Vision case, named for a book about the investigation, and the court granted the dismissal Thursday. MacDonald, who is serving life in prison, had filed an appeal notice in April, two weeks after District Judge Terrence Boyle refused to release him. His lawyers had asked Boyle to let him leave prison because of his deteriorating health. Boyle wrote he lacked authority because a law governing compassionate release requests doesnt apply to those who committed their crimes before a 1987 cutoff. After a searching review of the relevant law, Mr. MacDonald concluded that the decision below was correct as a technical legal matter, MacDonald's lawyers said in a statement Friday, referring to Boyle's order. MacDonald, 77, is incarcerated at a prison in Cumberland, Maryland, and has chronic kidney disease, skin cancer and high blood pressure, according to court documents. MacDonald was convicted in 1979 for killing his pregnant wife, Colette; 5-year-old daughter, Kimberley; and 2-year-old daughter, Kristen at their family home at Fort Bragg using a knife and ice pick before stabbing himself. MacDonald has declared his innocence and spent years on appeals. MacDonald has blamed drug-crazed hippies as the killers. But prosecutors said he donned surgical gloves and used his wifes blood to write the word PIG over their bed to imitate the 1969 Charles Mansion murders. The 4th Circuit refused in late 2018 to grant MacDonald a new trial. MacDonald "did the unthinkable more than 50 years ago when he murdered his pregnant wife and two daughters in brutal fashion, Norman Acker, acting U.S. attorney for eastern North Carolina, said in a news release Friday. The Raleigh prosecutor's office prosecuted MacDonald in a high-profile trial and has defended the convictions since. Our office has sought justice on their behalf for decades. That work continues today," Acker said. "And that work will continue every day until MacDonalds efforts to escape justice cease for good. SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Fifty-five people were charged with conspiracy and racketeering-related crimes as part of a sweeping takedown of a California prison-based gang that federal authorities said was responsible for brutal street violence in northern and central parts of the state. One of the 17 charging documents unsealed Thursday focuses on seven senior members who commanded La Nuestra Familia, Spanish for Our Family, from several state prisons. Court papers alleged they used hierarchical and paramilitary structures to control thousands of gang members across the region, including two San Jose-based gangs accused of drug trafficking, armed robbery and other crimes. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Heavy rains in portions of Virginia stopped traffic on interstate highways and led to a number of water rescues, officials said. A storm moving through the Richmond area dropped nearly 3 inches of rain in one hour. The Richmond Fire Department responded to eight calls in less than an hour on Thursday for vehicles trapped in high water, news outlets reported Thursday. DOVER, Del. (AP) A woman who said her father, a former pastor of a Delaware church, sexually abused her as a child and trafficked her to other men, was awarded $1.5 million by a federal jury on Friday. Alicia Cohen, 41, said in her civil lawsuit that Ronald Cohen began sexually abusing her when she was three years old at the family home in Newark, then started selling her to other men for sex about two years later, when they were living in Oklahoma. She also said her father filmed and sold videos of her being raped and used his religious facade and ministries, including the nondenominational Miracle Tabernacle, as a cover for child sexual abuse and child sex trafficking. Ronald Cohen, who has also used the names Rafi and Raphael, has denied the claims as false, frivolous, and defamatory. Ron was shocked at the verdict, defense attorney Dan Boyce said Friday. Boyce said Cohen has asked him to file a motion for judgment in his favor, despite the jury verdict, or a motion for a new trial. He also said Cohen, who now lives in North Carolina, is in his 70s and depends on Social Security, and that he is judgment proof based on his finances. Alicia Cohens attorney, Dan Stephenson, said the case was not about money, but about holding Ronald Cohen accountable. The central issue in the case was whether the defendant raped his daughter repeatedly for years as a child. The jury clearly said yes and awarded both compensatory and punitive damages, Stephenson said in an email. According to the lawsuit, Alicia Cohen repressed the memories of her abuse for years. Due to the actions of defendant, plaintiff has suffered extreme mental, physical, psychological, and emotional trauma, the lawsuit states. She has spent an enormous amount of time and money seeing doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, and other therapists. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been victims of sexual abuse, unless they go public, as Alicia Cohen did. The seven-member jury found Ronald Cohen liable, by a preponderance of the evidence, for various offenses under Delaware law, including incest, sexual extortion and continuous sexual abuse of a child. They also found him liable under Delaware law for assault or battery, infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment. But the jury ruled in Ronald Cohens favor regarding allegations of human trafficking under federal law and the state laws of Delaware, New Jersey and Florida. They also ruled in his favor regarding various other alleged offenses under federal, Florida and New Jersey law. There was no direct or circumstantial evidence that supported her allegations, Boyce said, adding that the plaintiffs case relied on experts who hypothesized that she had certain characteristics of having been sexually abused. Boyce also said the judge refused to allow an expert defense witness to offer an opinion that Alicia Cohens memories from 30 years ago were false. Stephenson, the attorney for Alicia Cohen, rejected the notion that it was a he said-she said case. We brought a mountain of evidence including objective, medical, and admitted facts, he said. We had treaters, treater records, and expert witnesses supporting what Alicia said. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A grand jury has indicted two central California police officers on felony assault charges in the alleged beating of a Black teenager so severe that he was left with massive bruising on his face, the San Joaquin County district attorney announced Friday. Tori Verber Salazar said former Stockton Police Department officers Michael Stiles and Omar Villapudua were each indicted on felony counts of assault by a public officer and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. The men were fired in March after a police investigation found both had used excessive force on Devin Carter, 17 at the time, outside the departments training and policy. This grand jury indictment reminds us all that when police use unlawful force, they undermine community trust, she said in a statement. "As the daughter of a police officer, I know how important that responsibility is to restore community trust, safety, and honor to the profession. The charges come amid growing outrage in the U.S. over the use of excessive police force, especially against African Americans. In April, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in the 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man, and sentenced to 22 1/2 years. The Stockton Police Officers Association defended the officers, saying in a statement that their actions were justified because Carter actively resisted arrest" and presented an imminent threat of death or seriously bodily injury. The indictments remain under seal with the defendants scheduled to appear in court Nov. 5, according to a press release by the district attorney's office. Salazar said Friday that two of the four officers involved were indicted. Carter was driving to his father's house when he was stopped by Stockton police the night of Dec. 30. Police say he was speeding in excess of 100 mph (160 kph) and led them on a three-minute chase before he was forced to stop. Photos released by Carters attorney, civil rights lawyer John Burris of Oakland, show the teen with deep purple bruising around his eyes and what appears to be a shoe or boot print on the left side of his face. Body cam footage shows officers pulling Carter from the car. They can be heard yelling expletives at the teen and telling him to stop resisting. Carter is heard screaming in pain and fear, and telling officers that hes not resisting. Burris said officers punched, kneed and kicked Carter in the face, neck, and back as he lay in a fetal position. The department advises officers to avoid striking an arrestee around the head and neck area when possible. All the time hes crying. Its pretty awful what they did to him, and it was an old-fashioned beat-up that cops did, said Burris, who won a $3.8 million judgment against the Los Angeles police department after officers there beat motorist Rodney King in 1991. Were delighted that prosecution is occurring, and we hope it sends a clear message to others in this department that there are consequences, he said. The SPOA said Carter caused a crash between a police vehicle and another car, and when officers tried to detain him he resisted and repeatedly tried to reach into his waistband. In order to stop the fight and prevent death or serious bodily injury to Mr. Carter of the officers, officers were required to use bodily force to overcome Mr. Carter's resistance and effect his arrest, the police union said. Carter was speeding in part because he didnt want to pull over in the dark, Burris said. The teen was terrified that he could die, like Floyd, Burris said. The teen was taken to a hospital for evaluation before being booked into juvenile hall for evading and resisting arrest. No mother should see or hear her son beaten by the police and helplessly crying from the pain," the teen's mother, Jessica Carter, said. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) A group of Rhode Island parents and grandparents has filed a legal challenge to Gov. Daniel McKee's statewide school mask mandate. The lawsuit filed in Providence Superior Court on Thursday alleges the Democratic governor violated state law and the state constitution in both signing the K-12 mask mandate and also declaring a new state of emergency due to the delta variant of the coronavirus, WPRI-TV reported. The 16 parents and grandparents from Glocester, Smithfield, North Smithfield and Warwick argue there is a double standard, since the state no longer requires masks in restaurants, retail shops and other indoor spaces. They also question the science of mask wearing, which state and national experts have said helps slow the spread of COVID-19. Often, it appears that those at highest risk for the effects of COVID-19, the elderly, the obese, and those with multiple comorbidities, are willing to force the young and healthy, who are little affected by COVID-19, to suffer these irreparable harms on unproven science, the complaint says. McKee spokesperson Alana OHare, citing the pending litigation, declined to comment. In the suit, the plaintiffs also say masks make it difficult for their children to breathe, hear and communicate, hampering the learning process. The plaintiffs, represented by attorney Gregory Piccirilli, are asking the court to declare McKees actions unlawful and render the mandate null and void. ___ Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A hearing that could determine whether Kevin Strickland will be released from prison after serving more than 40 years for a triple murder conviction will be held in Jackson County, a judge ruled Friday. Circuit Judge Kevin Harrell rejected a motion filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office asking Harrell to recuse himself and all other Jackson County judges from hearing Strickland's case because the presiding judge in that circuit has said he agrees with the local prosecutor's contention that Strickland was wrongfully convicted. Harrell also said Friday that an evidentiary hearing during which prosecutors will argue that Strickland was wrongfully convicted and should be released from prison will be held the first week of October. The exact date will depend on the attorneys' schedules. Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced in May that she and other legal and political leaders believe that Strickland, now 62, was wrongfully convicted of killing three people in Kansas City in 1998. Using a new state law, Peters Baker filed a motion in August asking for an evidentiary hearing during which prosecutors will argue that Strickland should be exonerated and released from prison. In a letter in May, Peters Baker said Dale Youngs, the presiding judge in the 16th Circuit Court, concurs on behalf of the court that Strickland was wrongfully convicted. The attorney generals office has said that statement shows that Jackson County judges are biased in Strickland's favor. Schmitt's office has argued that Strickland is guilty. But Harrell said he could be impartial. He said he hadn't heard of Youngs' statement about the Strickland case before it was raised as an issue in his courtroom, The Kansas City Star reported. Harrell also denied a motion by the attorney generals office to move the case from criminal to civil court. Harrell said lawmakers meant for criminal courts to hold hearings under the new law, which gives local prosecutors the power to argue that a prisoner was wrongfully convicted. The Star reported in 2020 that two men who pleaded guilty in the killings swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices. And an eyewitness who identified Strickland as the killer recanted her statements before she died, prosecutors said. BOISE, Idaho (AP) Idaho Republican officials are warning President Joe Biden of legal action if his proposed coronavirus vaccine requirement for about 100 million Americans goes into effect. Gov. Brad Little, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Winder in a letter Friday say there appears to be no legal basis for the requirement. If you choose to continue to move forward in this direction, the State of Idaho will have no choice but to take the necessary legal actions to uphold its sovereignty, check the overreach of power by federal bureaucracy, and uphold the system of checks and balances our Constitution guarantees, they wrote in the letter to Biden. Many Idaho Republican lawmakers are angry with the vaccine mandate announced last week. It requires employers with more than 100 workers to require the workers to be vaccinated or be tested for the virus weekly. The action Friday follows a warning Thursday to Biden from 24 Republican attorneys general of impending legal action over the vaccine mandate. The Idaho letter comes a day after the full state entered crisis standards of care because of mostly unvaccinated COVID-19 patients filling hospitals. The standards allow health care providers to give scarce resources, like ventilators, to the patients most likely to survive. It also comes as Republicans jockey for position ahead of the Republican primary early next year, with far-right candidates and lawmakers calling for the House and Senate to reconvene to outlaw vaccine mandates. The letter Friday cites three main reasons for opposing the vaccine mandate. It says the power to enforce vaccine policies belongs to states, not the federal government. It also says the U.S. Department of Labor doesn't have the authority to issue the mandate. Finally, the letter says state leaders are in the best position to determine appropriate responses. One size fits all federal solutions are unproductive and do not appropriately balance the specific interests and needs of states or the businesses operating within our states, the letter states. On Thursday, attorneys general from 24 states sent a letter to Biden threatening legal action over the vaccine mandate. They are from South Carolina, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. MONTICELLO, Ga. (AP) Three people were killed when a helicopter crashed in the dense woods of a national wildlife preserve in central Georgia, a federal investigator said Friday. The Robinson R66 helicopter scattered debris over a path 125 feet (38 meters) long, indicating a high-energy impact, Aaron McCarter, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, told a news conference. He said two pilots and a passenger died in the crash Wednesday night. Their identities were not immediately released. The helicopter took off from Thomasville, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) south of the crash site, at 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday, McCarter said, and was reported missing about two hours later. He said the weather during the flight was rainy with low clouds and reduced visibility. Search teams combed the woods in rural Jasper County looking for the crash site, and discovered the wreckage Thursday afternoon. April Seabolt, who lives in the area, said it was pouring rain Wednesday evening. She told The Telegraph of Macon that she and her husband heard a low-flying aircraft over their house and felt like something was wrong. It was flying really low, Seabolt told the newspaper. It wasn't immediately known what caused the crash. McCarter said the NTSB's investigation will look at the weather conditions, as well as the credentials and experience of the pilots and evidence collected about the helicopter itself and its maintenance history. He said the NTSB should release preliminary findings on the crash within about two weeks. DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa State University faculty senate leaders want to be able to require masks in their classrooms. But the Iowa Board of Regents showed no indication during meetings this week that it may change its policy on university face mask mandates. The Des Moines Register reports that regents met in Ames for various committee hearings Wednesday and then for a full board meeting on Thursday. During public comments Wednesday, Iowa States faculty senate president, Andrea Wheeler, said instructors should be allowed to require masks in their classrooms for pedagogical and health reasons. A federal court ruling this week temporarily blocks Iowas law that prohibits school districts and other local government entities from requiring masks be worn. But the ruling does not affect the states public universities. Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa have all complied with a regents policy issued in May that masks should not be required on campus. Legally, the regents could choose to make masks required. I need to control my classroom, as a teacher, Wheeler said, adding that she spoke for the concern of colleagues, senators and the faculty they represent that they are losing authority in their environments, because of this decision. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) A federal judge has indefinitely blocked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee from allowing parents to opt out of school mask requirements in Shelby County, saying Friday that evidence shows Lee's order prevents children with health problems from safely going to school during the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman issued the preliminary injunction after parents of students with health conditions argued that the Republican governor's executive order endangered their children and hurt their ability to attend in-person classes by allowing others to opt-out of a mask mandate. It is that unmasked presence that creates the danger to these Plaintiffs," the judge wrote Friday. Meanwhile, two families in Williamson County, just south of Nashville, sued in federal court Friday, also challenging Lee's order, news outlets reported. In Shelby County, Lipman had already issued a temporary restraining order on Sept. 3 stopping schools from allowing parents to opt-out. It was set to expire Friday. The preliminary injunction continues blocking Lees order as the federal lawsuit proceeds. Plaintiffs offered sufficient evidence at this stage to demonstrate that the Executive Order interferes with Plaintiffs ability to safely access their schools," the judge wrote. The injunction applies to all seven public school districts in Shelby County, which began classes Aug. 9 under a universal mask requirement issued by the Shelby County Health Department. Shelby County Schools includes Memphis and is Tennessee's largest school system, with 100,000 students. Six other districts serve the suburbs of Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington. The parents lawsuit claims Lees order violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits the exclusion of students with disabilities from public educational programs and activities. Children with certain disabilities are more vulnerable to serious illness or death if they get COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Lee has resisted implementing a statewide mask mandate for schools, and he initially left the decision to local officials before signing an order on Aug. 16 allowing parents to opt their children out for nonmedical reasons. Many students have been attending classes without masks ever since. Local decision-making is important, but individual decision-making by a parent on issues regarding the health and well-being of their child is the most important, Lee said then. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, cites three students in Collierville and Germantown. Emily Tremel testified that her 11-year-old daughter suffers from a chromosomal abnormality that can cause an intense loss of balance and coordination, and has trouble with online learning. But being surrounded in a classroom by unmasked children is dangerous for her in fact, she tested positive a week after Lees order, following her exposure to a maskless student who got COVID-19, Tremel said. The Governor has put the parents of medically vulnerable students in the position of having to decide whether to keep their children at home where they will likely suffer continued learning loss or risk placing them in an environment that presents a serious risk to their health and safety, the lawsuit states. Public health agencies say indoor mask-wearing is a key coronavirus-prevention tool. The CDC says masks don't pose health risks for children older than toddlers, and recommends them for schools since vaccines still aren't authorized for children younger than than 12. COVID-19 cases in children have risen significantly during the surge that coincided with the start of the current school year, making it difficult for some Tennessee school districts to provide in-person education. Some schools have closed classrooms, while others have temporarily switched to virtual learning as students are forced to quarantine or isolate. The Tennessee attorney generals office has argued that the parents could have sought other relief individually instead of filing a federal lawsuit, a point attorney Jim Newsom sought to make before the judge. Newsom questioned parents about whether they sought help from the state education department with their childrens Individualized Education Programs, which address the instructional needs of students with health conditions. He also argued that schools can adjust to the needs of vulnerable students by changing schedules so that they can avoid unmasked people in hallways. The judge said during a Sept. 9 court hearing that universal masking may be more cost-efficient than measures such as moving classrooms or adjusting schedules. YUMA, Ariz. (AP) A Yuma couple have been sentenced to time behind bars on convictions stemming from a 2020 incident in which they fought with police after coughing on Walmart employees who asked them to wear masks during early months of the pandemic. A judge on Thursday sentenced Frank Robert Montoya, 39, to 18 months in state prison minus 113 days of time served, while Victoria Parra-Carranza, 25, was given a three-year probation term that includes 30 days in the county jail. Both were convicted in April of aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and other crimes, the Yuma Sun reported. The convictions stemmed from an incident in which police said officers responded to a report of disorderly conduct after Montoya and Parra Carranza refused to wear masks and started coughing on store employees who asked them to leave. The couple tried to leave and fought with officers after an officer tried to speak with them to give them an official trespass notice, police said. Saying she has financial responsibilities and may lose her job, Parra Carranza asked Superior Court Judge Roger Nelson to not impose the jail sentence. Nelson refused, saying he considered sending her to prison but didn't because she hadn't previously had trouble with the law. You are going to jail. You probably deserve more, Nelson said. Criminal actions have consequences. The incident occurred during the 2020 surge that saw Arizona become a national hot spot. Arizona on Friday reported 2,830 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 19 more deaths, increasing the state's pandemic totals to 1,061,604 cases and 19,379 deaths. Virus-related hospitalizations remained over 2,000 for the 18th straight day, with 2,034 virus patients occupying hospital beds as of Thursday, according to the state's coronavirus dashboard. The state's seven-day rolling averages of daily new cases and daily deaths both decreased over the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The average of daily new cases dropped from 3,138.4 on Sept. 1 to 2754.6 on Wednesday while the daily deaths average dropped from 36.5 to 31.3. BEIRUT (AP) Lebanons incoming finance minister signed a contract on Friday with a New York-based company to conduct a forensic audit of the countrys central bank, a key demand of the international community to restore confidence in the crisis-struck Mideast nation. Alvarez & Marsal had pulled out of an earlier deal late last year, complaining that after months of work, the company was unable to acquire the information it needed to conduct its audit. The withdrawal was a blow to calls for accountability in Lebanon, mired in decades of corruption many see as a key reason for the economic meltdown. Lebanon was without a fully functioning government for over a year as rival groups haggled over the shape of the new Cabinet and the economic and financial crises escalated. Now, a week since it was named, the 24-minister Cabinet said it will make negotiations with the International Monetary Fund its priority. Removing subsidies, which eat billions of dollars from the coffers of the cash-strapped government will also take precedence. On Friday, the new energy minister, Walid Fayad, raised gasoline prices by nearly 40% as reports swirled that subsidies would be fully lifted by the end of the month. The central bank had warned it doesn't have enough foreign currency to support the subsidies bill. A forensic audit of the Lebanese central bank has been a key demand by the IMF and international donors who have said that they will not give money to Lebanon without major reforms to fight corruption and widespread waste in state institutions. The aborted audit was complicated by an internal power struggle in Lebanon, with political groups disagreeing on the scope of the financial problem and trading accusations. Reinstating the forensic audit was among the first order of business for Finance Minister Youssef El Khalil. A former central bank official since 1982, El Khalil was last the executive director of the central banks financial operations department. But for experts, little has changed since the last audit fell apart. Lingering issues are lack of independent oversight, securing direct access to the central banks accounting, information technology systems and staff, said Mike Azar, an independent debt advisor. The fact that the current minister is a former central bank official appears to be a conflict of interest, Azar also said. He should recuse himself from overseeing the audit, Azar added. If these issues are not addressed, the audit is unlikely to be successful. El Khalils office said the auditors will present a report 12 weeks after they start their review. No date has been given for when they will begin. The countrys current economic and financial crisis, considered by the World Bank as one of the worlds worst in the last 150 years, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement. The small country of 6 million, including Syrian refugees, has been grappling with shortages of fuel, medicine and basic goods as foreign reserves dwindle and the economy contracts. Following Friday's gas price hikes, Lebanese will have to pay 174,300 Lebanese pounds, or $116, for 20 liters of the 95-octane gasoline, and 180,000 Lebanese pounds, or $120, for the 98-octane gasoline, according to the official exchange rate. But there are multiple exchange rates, including an exchange rate set by the central bank to organize imports. The Lebanese currency, pegged for 30 years to the dollar at 1,500 Lebanese pounds for $1, was trading Friday on the black market at nearly ten times that rate. Long queues outside gas stations have often descended into chaos or violence and caused major traffic jams. Gas stations rationed the amount of gasoline they distributed. Prices of diesel for power generating, amid an almost non-existent national grid, have also increased more than tenfold making it impossible for many families to secure electricity for their homes. Many businesses had to shut down. Georges Brax, a spokesperson for Lebanons gas station owners association, said Friday's price hikes would be the last before the full lifting of subsidies. BANGOR, Maine (AP) Maine's attorney general said Friday he has filed a complaint under the Maine Civil Right Acts against a pair of Bangor teenagers who are accused of spray-painting racial threats on the vehicle of a local man. Attorney General Aaron Frey said the complaint was filed in Penobscot County Superior Court. It states that the two teens spray-painted the threats and racial epithets on a vehicle of a Bangor man who is of Pakistani descent. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) A Rogersville man was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison for running a boat building scheme that defrauded customers out of more than $4 million. Michael Michael David Dismer, 53, was sentenced for tax evasion for failing to pay more than $768,000 in state and federal taxes, federal prosecutors said. MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexican soldiers and police killed 9 suspected gunmen in shootouts near the U.S. border Thursday. The government of the northern border state of Coahuila said state police officers came under fire while patrolling a dirt road southwest of the border city of Nuevo Laredo. The state said that soldiers were called in for reinforcement and that they pursued and killed the attackers following a confrontation. Of the two vehicles found at the scene, one was a truck fitted with homemade steel-plate armor. Such trucks, known as monsters, are often used by drug gangs in the region. The state government said 10 weapons were found at the scene, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle. HOWELL, Mich. (AP) A Michigan lawmaker who was jailed for violating his bond conditions in a drunken driving case must complete a mental health exam, a judge ordered Friday. Livingston County Judge Michael Hatty ordered the exam for state Rep. Jewell Jones, a Detroit-area Democrat, the Livingston Daily Press & Argus reported. Jones must remain held until at least his next court appearance on Oct. 15, Hatty ruled. Jones, 26, was charged in April with drunken driving, resisting arrest and possession of a weapon while under the influence of alcohol. He was out on bond when he was taken into custody Tuesday after prosecutors accused him of violating bond conditions, including tampering with an alcohol monitor on his ankle. After Jones was transported to the jail, authorities say he had taped a handcuff key to his foot and is now facing charges for an attempted escape and bringing a weapon of some kind inside the jail. Jones told Hatty at a Tuesday hearing that he takes responsibility for testing positive for alcohol on Sept. 3 and tampering with the monitor on Labor Day. The Livingston Daily reported that he pleaded guilty to the violation. Hatty revoked his bond. By Thursday, the Inkster lawmaker had been stripped of all of his legislative committee assignments. Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth said the latest allegations were a new low. Former Detroit Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnono was at Jones court hearing Friday and expressed concern for his mental well-being, the Livingston Daily reported. First of all, I am a mother. So as a mother, I hear laments for what I am seeing unravel in front of me, Gay-Dagnono said. Knowing the care and consideration that he shows for all of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, this is not representative of who I know Jewell is and I can only surmise, not being a professional, that there is something that lies beneath this that is really tearing at him. One of Jones attorneys, Ali Hammoud, requested to be removed from the case, noting a breakdown in communication. His other attorney, Bryon Nolen, requested the mental health evaluation, citing the key incident as his motivation. I know there is somewhat of a change in his behavior recently and I want to find out really whats going on with him and assist him better in his case, Nolen said. ATHENS, Greece (AP) The top U.S. military officer said Friday that calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump's presidency were perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of his job. In his first public comments on the conversations, Gen. Mark Milley said such calls are routine and were done "to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke to The Associated Press and another reporter traveling with him to Europe. Milley has been at the center of a firestorm amid reports he made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army to assure him that the United States was not going to suddenly go to war with or attack China. Descriptions of the calls made last October and in January were first aired in excerpts from the forthcoming book Peril by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Li that he would warn Li in the event of an attack. Milley on Friday offered only a brief defense of his calls, saying he plans a deeper discussion about the matter for Congress when he testifies at a hearing later in September. I think its best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military, Milley said. Ill go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks. Milley and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify Sept. 28 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, in what initially was going to be a hearing on the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans, Afghans and others from that country. Now, however, Milley is expected to face tough questioning on the telephone calls, which came during Trumps turbulent last months in office as he challenged the results of the 2020 election. The second call, on Jan. 8, came two days after a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's White House victory. A special House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol has asked for details about Milleys calls. U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., leaders of the committee, have also sought records related to the November election, the transfer of power from Trump to Biden and the riot. Milley was appointed Joint Chiefs chairman by Trump in 2019 and has remained in that post in the Biden administration. As chairman, Milley is the top military adviser to the president and to the defense secretary. The White House and the Pentagon chief have said they continue to have full trust and confidence in Milley. The new book says Milley, fearful of Trumps actions late in his term, twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the U.S. was not going to attack China. One call took place on Oct. 30, four days before the American election. The second call was on Jan. 8, less than two weeks before Bidens inauguration and two days after the insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of Trump. Some U.S. lawmakers have said Milley overstepped his authority, and they have called for Biden to fire him. Trump blasted Milley as treasonous, called him a complete nutjob and said Milley never told me about calls being made to China. Biden told reporters after the disclosures in the book that I have great confidence in Gen. Milley. Milleys office, in a statement this week, said the calls were intended to convey reassurance to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman. The statement from Milley spokesman Col. Dave Butler also said that the calls were staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. According to the book, which the AP obtained, Milley assured his Chinese counterpart in the first call that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay. It said he told Li, We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise, Milley reportedly said. Milley spoke with a number of other military leaders around the world after the Jan. 6 riot; they included leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A description of those calls in January referred to several other counterparts that Milley spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control. The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasnt as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes. In response to the book, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged Biden to fire Milley, saying the general worked to actively undermine" the American commander in chief, Trump. CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) A mining company is locating a new plant in West Virginia, bringing 47 new full-time jobs and a $10 million investment, officials said. CS Global Group, a Turkish mining company, specializes in barite manufacturing and sales. It is locating its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Moundsville. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) More than 6,000 Afghan refugees are being housed at the Indiana National Guards Camp Atterbury training base and preparing for permanent resettlement, two weeks after the first wave of evacuees arrived. After the first group of roughly 1,000 evacuees were admitted to the camp on Sept. 2, 6,603 Afghan refugees were being housed at Atterbury as of Wednesday, said Mark Howell, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly 58% of the refugees are male, and 47% are under the age of 18. A baby was also born at the camp Sept. 9. More than 1,300 service members, along with 69 government employees and 83 non-governmental volunteers, are also on the base to facilitate the operation, Howell said. Refugees are being housed in six neighborhoods, with 82 lodging buildings, at Camp Atterbury, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Indianapolis. The complex includes three community centers, two guest dining facilities and four additional locations for grab-and-go food. More than 11,600 vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella had been given to refugees at Atterbury as of Tuesday. Although measles cases were reported in refugee populations in both Virginia and Wisconsin earlier this month leading to a temporary halt on in-bound refugee flights from Afghanistan Howell said no measles cases have been reported at Camp Atterbury. Officials confirmed there had been 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the base, and those who tested positive are isolating with their families. Less than 1% of the refugees at Atterbury have received health care off base, Howell continued, though some have been treated at Johnson Memorial Hospital in nearby Franklin. The refugees are subject to a 14-day quarantine at Camp Atterbury to determine their medical and visa statuses. Indiana National Guard Adjutant Gen. R. Dale Lyles said earlier this month that non-governmental agencies will aim to resettle them within 10 weeks. Twenty-five refugees have so far completed their final health and safety screenings departed the camp, officials said. Most who left were American citizens, spouses of American citizens or green card holders who had already completed the above processes, including vaccinations. An additional 1,660 resettlement interviews have taken place since Tuesday, and 1,420 fingerprint and photograph sessions have been completed. The Biden administration on Wednesday notified governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many Afghan evacuees from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are slated to be resettled in their states. Indiana is projected to take 490 arrivals, according to U.S. officials. The last U.S. forces flew out of Kabuls airport in late August, ending Americas longest war following an airlift of Afghans, Americans and others escaping a country once again ruled by the Taliban. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has maintained that Indiana is committed to helping the evacuees, which include American citizens, Afghan allies who helped in the military effort and those deemed vulnerable Afghans by the U.S. government. Holcomb announced this week a regional collection system to receive, sort, and deliver items donated by Hoosiers to the thousands of Afghan evacuees at Camp Atterbury. Mens and womens unbranded, modest clothing, childrens clothing, socks and shoes, and powdered baby formula are the most needed, according to the governor's office. New items in original packaging will be accepted Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the nine Indiana National Guard armories across the state. ___ Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Assigned by the Kentucky legislature to settle a volatile political issue, school boards across the Bluegrass State voted overwhelmingly to keep masks on students and staffs while at school as COVID-19 infections continue to mount. On Friday, as a statewide mask mandate in schools ended, a count showed that 165 of the states 171 public school districts decided to extend universal masking in schools, according to the Kentucky School Boards Association. Six districts initially opted to make mask-wearing optional, but late Friday one of the school systems reversed course to require masks for the next two weeks. A handful of districts kept mask requirements in place until school board meetings next week. The state reported 5,133 new COVID-19 cases and 45 more virus-related deaths Friday. For the second straight day, fewer than 100 adult intensive care unit beds were available in Kentucky a pandemic first in the state, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Kentucky also reached a pandemic-high with 463 virus patients on ventilators, he said. With the delta variant still fueling the COVID-19 surge in Kentucky, Beshear said: This is an important moment for us to do the right things to get vaccinated, to put on masks. Much of the attention in recent days focused on school districts, after the state's Republican-led legislature last week shifted masking decisions to local school leaders. Districts initially making mask-wearing optional were Science Hill Independent, Gallatin County, Burgin Independent, Hickman County, Mercer County and Clinton County, the count showed. Late Friday, the Gallatin County district announced it would require masks in school for the next 10 school days due to a high number of virus cases and quarantines in the district. As of Thursday, Clinton County along the Tennessee border was the only Kentucky county not situated in the high-incidence red zone for virus cases. The outcomes showed school leaders were up to the task of deciding the issue, Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said Friday. He took issue with Beshear's recent remarks that lawmakers punted the decision on mask-wearing in schools to local boards. We felt that it would be better for local people to make the local decisions," Stivers told reporters. "And we didnt punt anything. As for the lopsided outcome among districts to continue masking up in schools, Stivers said: Whether thats right or wrong, I dont know. But its them who had the local dynamics and made this decision. ... And he (Beshear) said we punted? No, we have a little bit more faith in our local school boards and our local superintendents than he does. Beshear lashed out Thursday at districts that backed away from universal masking requirements. Such decisions are inexcusable and endanger students and staff, he said. Universal masking is essential, he said, to keep schools open amid the latest coronavirus surge. The governor kept up the criticism Friday, saying districts that made masks optional were failing their students. "Our state is on fire with more cases right now, more people in the hospital, more people in the ICU and more people on ventilators than ever before, Beshear told reporters. There were caveats to the policies in some school systems choosing to make masking optional. In the Mercer County district, if a spike in its COVID-19 positivity rate reached a certain level for three straight school days, it would trigger a masking requirement for at least a week until the cases go back down. In the Burgin district, masking will take place everywhere in school except when students are seated at their personal workstation in class and when they are seated for breakfast or lunch. Kentucky has recently emerged as a national coronavirus hotspot with one of the highest rates of new virus cases, driven by the highly contagious delta variant. School-age children have contracted the virus at a higher rate than other age groups in Kentucky, while the statewide vaccination rate among 12- to 17-year-olds is the lowest of any age group. The governor has said he would have ordered mask-wearing in indoor public places if he still had the authority to do so to respond to the current virus surge. He said his previous mask mandates halted earlier COVID-19 surges. Beshear lost much of his authority to unilaterally combat the pandemic when Republican lawmakers limited the governors emergency powers. The state Supreme Court upheld the legislatures actions, and lawmakers set pandemic policies in a recent special session. They scrapped the statewide school mask mandate and put a ban on any statewide mask rules until June 2023. Late Friday afternoon, Beshear tried to tamp down political controversies swirling around the pandemic. In a social-media message, the governor urged Kentuckians to remember "this isnt about Democrat-Republican or red or blue, its about life and death. And we need to do what it takes to protect one another. ___ Follow more of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. ORONO, Maine (AP) The federal government's vaccination requirement for workplaces will apply to public sector employers in Maine. The Maine Department of Labor said Friday that federal officials have informed the state the requirement will apply to state, county and local governments and public school systems. President Joe Biden announced last week that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration must write a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they do not have the virus. The Maine labor department said the rule will also apply to the University of Maine System, Maine Maritime Academy, the Maine Community College System and other large public employers. The Maine Board of Occupational Safety and Health is required to adopt and enforce OSHAs forthcoming rule for public employers within 30 days of the rules release, the Maine labor department said in a statement. In other pandemic news in Maine: THE NUMBERS Cases of COVID-19 are continuing to rise in Maine as the state heads into early fall. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 315.71 new cases a day on Sept. 1 to 454.86 new cases a day on Wednesday. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 1.57 deaths a day on Sept. 1 to 4 deaths a day Wednesday. The AP is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday that there have been more than 82,000 cases of the virus in the state since the start of the pandemic. There have also been 979 deaths. About two thirds of the state's population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus. ___ UMAINE IMMUNIZATIONS Maines public university system said most students who live in residence halls are fully vaccinated or have started the process. The percentage of the students who have done so is more than 95%, the University of Maine System said late Thursday. The percentage of full-time employees who have verified their status is about 83%, the system said. The system said it is dealing with 57 known active cases of COVID-19 within the university community. ___ Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. BANGKOK (AP) A trial of Myanmars ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on corruption charges is set to begin on Oct. 1, a member of her legal team said Friday. Lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said a judge declared the trial would be held at the Special Court in the capital Naypyitaw on every other Friday. He announced the decision after presentations in the court by Suu Kyis lawyers and prosecutors from the central city of Mandalay, where the charges were originally lodged. Suu Kyi, whose elected government was overthrown by an army takeover in February, is currently being tried on other charges by the Special Court. In the ongoing trial, she faces charges of sedition, two counts of flouting COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, illegally importing walkie-talkies that were for her bodyguards use and the unlicensed use of the radios. She also is due to be tried for breaching the official secrets law in a case that was transferred earlier this week to Naypyitaw from Yangon, Myanmars biggest city. Suu Kyis supporters as well as independent analysts say all the charges against her are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the militarys seizure of power while keeping her from returning to politics. Her lawyers deny any wrongdoing. The army takeover was met with massive popular resistance, which is continuing despite harsh measures by security forces to quash it. Suu Kyi, 76, has been charged in five cases under the anti-corruption law, four by the Mandalay Region High Court that will now be tried in Naypyitaw, and one by the Yangon Region High Court. The Mandalay cases include two under Section 55 of the law, which states that a political post holder convicted of corruption is liable to up to 15 years imprisonment and a fine. In the other two Mandalay cases, Suu Kyi was named a co-defendant with political colleagues, including former Naypyitaw Mayor Myo Aung, under Section 63 for allegedly conspiring to carry out corruption. It carries the same penalty. Details have not been officially released about the Yangon case, for which a trial date has not yet been set. On June 10, official media reported that the state Anti-Corruption Commission had found that Suu Kyi accepted bribes and misused her authority to gain advantageous terms in real estate deals. Suu Kyis lawyers already denied the allegations when they were first made in March. Reports in state media including the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the anti-corruption body had also found that Suu Kyi illegally accepted $600,000 and seven gold bars from the former chief minister of Yangon Region, a political ally. The reports said the commission had found that Suu Kyi has misused her position to obtain rental properties at lower-than-market prices for a charitable foundation named after her mother that she chaired. The reports said the action deprived the state of revenue it would otherwise have earned. State television has presented videos of testimony by alleged witnesses to the payoffs in cash and gold, but there was no explanation of the circumstances in which the videos were made or evidence to back up what was said. SAN DIEGO (AP) The Navy is conducting a deep-sea search for the remains of five sailors and the wreckage of a Navy helicopter that hit the deck of an aircraft carrier off the San Diego coast on Aug. 31 and plunged into the Pacific ocean. The Navy launched the search Wednesday, bring in sailors from its command that is specialized in undersea searches and salvage. They will be using the ship Dominator, which uses a sonar scanner. The ship is typically used for submarine recovery missions. MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Five Tennessee officers who fatally shot a man 58 times after he wounded a sheriff's deputy inside a trailer did not break the law during the shooting, a prosecutor said. Members of the Shelby County Sheriffs Office Fugitive Apprehension Team went to a trailer park in Memphis in September 2019 to look for Willie Hudson Jr., who had a felony arrest warrant for attempted first-degree murder, Shelby County district attorney Amy Weirich said Thursday. WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) Members and associates of a Waterbury gang are accused of committing three murders, eight attempted murders, assaults, and drug and gun crimes over the past four years, according to federal grant jury indictments announced Friday. Federal and local law enforcement officials said a 2 1/2-year investigation into Waterbury-area gangs resulted in a 36-count indictment against 16 members and associates of the 960 gang on racketeering, murder and other charges. Authorities said the probe is ongoing. WASHINGTON (AP) The architect of a Washington protest planned for Saturday that aims to rewrite history about the violent January assault on the U.S. Capitol is hardly a household name. Matt Braynard worked as an analyst for the Republican Party, crunched data for a small election firm and later started a consulting business that attracted few federal clients, records show. He started a nonprofit after he was dismissed by Donald Trumps 2016 campaign following several months on the job, but struggled to raise money. The group's tax-exempt status was revoked last year. But Braynard's fortunes changed abruptly after Trumps 2020 election loss. He joined an aggrieved group of Trump allies seeking to overturn the election and in the process reaped recognition, lucrative fees and a fundraising windfall that enabled him to rekindle his nonprofit. Now, Braynard and his group, Look Ahead America, are using his newfound platform and resources to present an alternate history of the Jan. 6 attack that was meant to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory, rebranding those who were charged as political prisoners. Although many members of Congress, including those who are allied with Braynards cause, have been mum on whether they will attend Saturday's protest, the event has put law enforcement on edge, led to stepped-up security measures and created worries that members of the same extremist groups that were present on Jan 6. could also be in attendance. How much of a draw his Justice for J6 rally ends up being will test the reach and potency of the emerging far-right movement, as well as the extent of Braynard's own reach. Braynard, who is in his 40s, did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The Associated Press earlier declined to accept his condition that an interview of him be broadcast live. But a review of court records, campaign finance disclosures and social media postings, as well as Braynard's past interviews with journalists that he has posted online, document his efforts to build his influence over the past year, culminating in Saturdays event. At no point will I cancel this rally, Braynard told WTOP radio in Washington. This is happening even if Im there by myself with a megaphone. The seeds of the rally were planted the day after the 2020 election as Trump made false claims of widespread voter fraud, which were later rejected by numerous courts, election officials and his own attorney general at the time, William Barr. Braynard suggested on Twitter that there could have been fraud in the election, while promoting an online fundraiser he created to defray the cost of analyzing voting data in states where the Trump campaign insisted it was winning. He told BuzzFeed News in a summer interview that he brought some early findings to the attention of the Trump campaign. The campaign, which had declined to rehire him earlier in the 2020 campaign as a low-level field staffer, initially agreed to hear him out. But after he arrived at campaign headquarters, campaign officials changed their minds, he said. I stood on the sidewalk for an hour while they fought inside about whether or not to let me in, he said. Ultimately, I was told I would not be let in and I went home. His online fundraising, however, took off. After the crowdfunding site GoFundMe.com took down an early effort, citing misleading information, Braynard migrated to an conservative friendly site and quickly took in over $675,000. A subsequent report he wrote on his findings which one expert excoriated as riddled with errors and violating "basic standards for scientific evidence" was embraced by Trump's allies and served as an evidentiary cornerstone in numerous court cases that were later dismissed. His participation also earned him at least $230,000 in consulting fees, court records show. Since then, Braynard has used the influx of resources to revive Look Ahead America and reapply for tax-exempt status, which has yet to be approved, according to an IRS database. The group now lists 11 staffers on its website. The Jan. 6 attack quickly became an organizing principle for Braynard's efforts. His first post after creating an account on the conservative-friendly social media site Telegram came days after the attack and featured a picture of the 1933 fire at Germanys parliament building, the Reichstag, which the Nazi party used as a pretext to seize power. Braynard's caption: The real coup is being conducted by Silicon Valley right now, a reference to a widespread complaint by conservatives that they are being silenced on social media. Since then, he's shared a link to a fundraiser for Ethan Nordean, a member of the Proud Boys extremist group, who was charged in the attack. "If you dont share this post I dont ever want to hear yall say youre fighting back against this oppressive government," he wrote. Look Ahead America also tweeted from its account last February that the group would be present at the America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, which was a one-day event hosted by Nick Fuentes, a far-right internet personality who has promoted white supremacist beliefs. But Braynard has also sought to make inroads with more mainstream conservatives. Look Ahead America was a sponsor at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, a gathering that typically draws Republican presidential contenders. The group garnered considerable attention for a large golden statue of a surfer Trump, complete with red, white and blue shorts, that was part of their booth. But they have also done things to irk organizers of the conference. After Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has repeatedly trafficked in conspiracy theories and endorsed violence against Democrats, wasn't recognized at the event, Look Ahead America claimed credit for "uncancelling her by giving her a speaking slot at one of their side events. At a subsequent CPAC event in Texas in July, Look Ahead America billed a speech at a side event by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as an official CPAC event. Gaetz is a pro-Trump provocateur under federal investigation for sex trafficking allegations; he has denied wrongdoing. After CPAC organizers released a statement saying Look Ahead America's Gaetz event wasn't part of the official programming, Braynard tweeted that was a 100% Lie because the room/event was part of our sponsor package. He has once again thrust himself into the spotlight, this time with Saturday's rally, and has repeatedly downplayed the possibility of violence there. Trump has not endorsed the rally but did release a statement Thursday claiming people charged in the Jan. 6 attack are being persecuted so unfairly. Still, many Republicans appear to be keeping their distance. So far, Braynard has announced only a handful of guest speakers, including a client of his who is running against a sitting GOP member of Congress who voted to impeach Trump. And the permit granted for the rally allows it to be no larger than 700 people, according to a person who was briefed on the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential details. Even ardent pro-Trump lawmakers in Congress have downplayed the event, or sidestepped talking about it. I dont know what it is, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said when asked about the event. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who along with Cruz led the Jan. 6 objections to Bidens certification, also dismissed the idea. Im not going, Hawley said. Im not following it at all. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, has voiced sympathy for those charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. But Johnson, who said he would not be attending Saturday's event, offered some advice to those who are. Dont break any laws whatsoever. ___ Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report. AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The public gets an opportunity Monday to weigh in on Democratic and Republican proposals for reshaping the border of Maine's 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts. Both proposals released Thursday focus on Kennebec County, and both parties agree on moving the state's capital city, Augusta, to the state's northern district. There's disagreement, however, on reshuffling a dozen other towns. Democrats want to move both August and Waterville, along with several other Democratic-leaning towns. Republicans targeted a different grouping of towns. Based on the 2020 election, the Republican proposal would have meant nearly 900 additional votes for President Joe Biden and the Democratic proposal would mean about 6,200 extra votes for Biden in the district, according to an analysis by the Bangor Daily News. Former President Donald Trump won the vote in the 2nd Congressional District, picking up one of Maine's four electoral votes. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, who is serving on the commission for Senate Republicans, said he's optimistic that the differences can be ironed out. "I think we are pretty close, at least on the Congressional side," he told the Portland Press Herald. The states bipartisan redistricting commission is racing to meet deadline, which is a week away. U.S. Census data was released in August, and the bipartisan redistricting commission will hold a public hearing Monday, ahead of a Sept. 27 deadline for wrapping up its work. Based on new U.S. Census data, the redistricting commission must move more than 23,000 people from the 1st District into the 2nd District. In addition to congressional districts, the commission must decide on maps for legislative districts 151 for the House, 35 for the Senate. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Authorities have identified a possible suspect in the fatal shootings of an 18-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man in St. Petersburg. Police said in a statement that they have taken someone into custody, but they haven't released the suspect's name. The shooting happened Thursday night in St. Petersburg's Bartlett Park neighborhood. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A Utah county sheriff said Friday detectives have determined there is no connection between the disappearance of a Florida woman who went missing during a cross-country trip with her boyfriend and a still-unsolved slaying of two women who were fatally shot. Police in Florida had said Thursday a possible connection was being explored because the women were found dead in the same tourist town of Moab, Utah, where the missing woman, Gabrielle Gabby Petito, and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie had an emotional fight to which police had been called. But Grand County Sheriff Steven White said in a news release the two cases are unrelated, without providing any details. The two women killed, newlyweds Kylen Schulte, 24, and Crystal Turner, 38, had told friends they feared a creepy man they had seen nearby might harm them before their bodies were found Aug. 18. The dispute between Petito, 22, and Laundrie, 23, occurred on Aug. 12 and was caught on police body camera. Ultimately Moab police decided not file any charges and instead separated the couple for the night, with Laundrie checking into a motel and Petito remaining with the converted sleeper van. Petito and Laundrie started their drive across the U.S. in July from New Yorks Long Island, where both grew up. They intended to reach Oregon by Halloween, according to their social media accounts. But Petito vanished after her last known contact with family in late August from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said. Laundrie drove the Ford Transit van back to Florida on Sept. 1 alone, police said. Petitos family filed a missing persons report last Saturday with police in Suffolk County, New York. Police in North Port, Florida, where the couple lived, say Laundrie is a person of interest in her case. He has not been charged, but he is also not cooperating. Petitos parents released a letter through their attorney on Thursday to Laundries parents, asking them to help investigators locate Petito, despite their instinct to protect their son. Laundries attorney, Steven Bertolino, said the Laundrie family is hoping for Petitos safe return, but he has asked them not to speak with investigators. PHOENIX, A.Z. (AP) Chandler Police say they shot an armed man Friday morning in a hotel parking lot following a report of a suspicious person. The incident is now being investigated as a domestic violence case. Police in the Phoenix suburb said a person called police saying that a woman was asking for help. A Chandler Police spokesman said two officers found the armed man in the parking lot and he displayed a gun. BEAVERCREEK, Ohio (AP) A child psychologist facing dozens of counts related to child pornography pleaded guilty to child endangerment and tampering with evidence in exchange for all other counts being dismissed. Gregory Ramey, 71, entered his pleas Wednesday in Greene County Common Pleas Court. His sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 18, but it's not clear if he's facing a potential prison term. BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) Two journalists and an environmental activist have been beaten up by suspected illegal loggers in a forest in northeastern Romania while making a documentary about illicit deforestation, authorities said Friday. Thursday's attack in Suceava County involved 11 people who are being interrogated, a police spokesman said. The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and their equipment was destroyed. Successive governments in Romania have struggled to tackle widespread illegal logging, which has drawn strong criticism from the European Union, to which Romania belongs. There have been several other violent incidents some fatal in the past involving suspected illegal loggers, and authorities have been accused of not doing enough to stop the problem. I assure you that the Romanian police treat (the attack) with the utmost attention, police spokesman Georgian Dragan said Friday. All legal measures will be taken. He called illegal logging a scourge and a police priority. Mihai Dragolea, one of the investigative journalists attacked in the forest, told The Associated Press that their assailants were all armed with axes and bats. If its worth acting like an organized mob towards journalists and activists, it means you have a lot to lose. There is a lot of money involved, he said. Last year the European Commission launched infringement procedures against Romania for failing to effectively prevent illegal logging, and for not respecting EU legislation in protected Natura 2000 sites. National authorities have been unable to effectively check the operators and apply appropriate sanctions, the Commission said. In 2019, two forest rangers were murdered while responding to reports of illegal logging in separate cases. Romania is home to a vast swathe of old-growth and primary forests. Around half a million hectares of such forest exist, mostly in the Carpathian Mountains, out of a total forest cover of around 7 million hectares. Environment minister Barna Tanczos strongly condemned Thursday's attacks and said the attackers must suffer the maximum legal consequences. We cannot accept such reprehensible acts that endanger the integrity and even the lives of those who defend the forests, he said. The victims met Friday with lawyers provided by Greenpeace Romania and will file a legal complaint to prosecutors. We advised them to come to Bucharest to make sure they get objective treatment from the police, Ciprian Galusca from Greenpeace Romania told the AP. There is a history of corruption linking local authorities with informal structures of local power from timber harvesters. Gabriel Paun, president of environmental group Agent Green, was beaten unconscious by loggers in 2016 near Retezat National Park. There still hasnt been a resolution from prosecutors despite the hard evidence which includes filmed footage with faces and identification of the attackers, he said. Romanias justice system is encouraging violent attacks to keep occurring. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) The South Carolina man killed by a state trooper last week after running away from a traffic stop took control of the officer's stun gun before the fatal shot, prosecutors said. The trooper shot Tristan Vereen once in the chest during a fight between both men, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said in a news conference Thursday. The South Carolina Public Safety Department has identified the trooper as W.B. Benton. The agency previously said Benton was trying to pull Vereen over for an equipment violation Saturday afternoon on state Highway 905 near Loris. The 33-year-old Vereen, who was African American, died later at a nearby hospital, according to the Horry County Coroner's Office. Richardson gave reporters details from two videos capturing parts of the incident Benton's dashboard camera and surveillance footage from a nearby property but said he was not releasing them to the public yet to avoid influencing any testimony the trooper could provide to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which is leading the investigation. Vereen was driving a car with a visibly cracked windshield, Richardson said. Video shows the Vereen and the trooper driving around in circles, with Vereen saying I'm not going to jail and Benton responding You're not going to jail. Just pull over," the solicitor recounted. Authorities had said Vereen then crashed his vehicle into a utility building and started running. Benton then pursued Vereen and deployed a Taser, Richardson said. The two proceeded to wrestle, with the trooper dropping the stun gun at one point. Vereen bit the trooper and used the dropped Taser on Benton several times before Benton shot him, the solicitor added, referencing photos of stings on the trooper's neck and bite marks. The trooper was not wearing a body camera, Richardson said, noting that some but not all state troopers have the equipment. A state law passed in 2015, following the police killing of Walter Scott in North Charleston, required public-facing police officers to don the cameras but didn't provide any funding. Richardson said he had already shown the surveillance footage to Vereen's family on Thursday in an effort to provide transparency and curb misinformation as the investigation into whether Benton was justified in drawing his gun could take weeks or longer. Obviously, we knew they were going to be upset. You cant lose a family member and not. But we wanted, at least, for them to be able to see what we were seeing, Richardson said. Steve Schmutz, a lawyer for the family, said it was unusual for law enforcement to share information that quickly, according to news outlets: Im going to take that as a sign theyre going to do the right thing throughout this case," Schmutz said. Vereen's family members and friends held a news conference earlier Thursday to seek answers regarding his death, outlets reported. His kids will grow up without him, all because he had a cracked windshield," said Vereens sister Marion. "There's no justice in that." Benton had surgery for his injuries on Tuesday and has been released from the hospital, said state Public Safety Department spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli. Court records show a man named Teko Washington filed a federal lawsuit against Benton in 2016, alleging the trooper had used excessive force during a 2013 traffic stop in Florence that led to back and wrist injuries. In a complaint, Washington's attorneys said he was pulled over for speeding and started running on foot because he had a marijuana cigarette in his pocket. Benton proceeded to use a Taser on him as he tried to scale a fence; Washington fell off the fence onto his neck and was then mocked and accused by Benton of faking his injuries, he alleged. That lawsuit was dismissed about a year later. The Horry County shooting marks the 28th police shooting in South Carolina this year. NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) A tense political dispute between Somalia's president and prime minister threatened to broaden into a regional crisis on Friday after the president accused neighboring Djibouti of unlawfully detaining his former national intelligence chief. Djiboutis foreign minister, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, quickly denied Somalias statement in a social media post, calling the claim fake news that tried to create confusion and drag Djibouti into Somalia internal challenges. He asserted that a Turkish Airlines flight to Somalia's capital with former intelligence chief Fahad Yasin aboard didnt take off from Djibouti because a pilot didnt have special authorization to land in Mogadishu, and that all passengers would return to Istanbul for another flight. MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) A suspect in the shooting deaths of four Minnesotans who were found in an abandoned SUV in Wisconsin surrendered to authorities in Arizona on Friday. Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said in a statement that Antoine Darnique Suggs, 38, turned himself in to police in Gilbert, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb. He said Suggs had been living in the Phoenix area recently before traveling to Minnesota in the last couple of weeks. NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) A Texas man linked to the boogaloo movement who livestreamed threats to kill police was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer. On Thursday, a jury in Bowie County found 38-year-old Aaron Caleb Swenson guilty of attempted capital murder of a peace officer and found that he'd violated the Texas Hate Crimes Act, the Texarkana Gazette reported. On Wednesday, before testimony began before the judge, Swenson had pleaded guilty to terroristic threatening and evading arrest. The newspaper reported that on Friday, the jury sentenced him to 50 years in prison for attempted murder, 20 years for terroristic threatening with a hate crime enhancement and 10 years for evading arrest. Prosecutor Kelly Crisp said the terms will run concurrently. The jury also assessed maximum fines on each of the three charges for a total of $30,000. Swenson testified that he was trying to be killed by police in April 2020 when he made the threats and never intended to hurt anyone when he streamed on Facebook Live while driving in Texarkana, Texas, that he was searching for a police officer to kill. Texarkana Police Officer Jonathan Price testified that he was parked on a city street when he heard Swenson say he had found his prey and was turning his vehicle around. I realized he was talking about me, Price said. I put the car in drive and took off. I didnt want to get ambushed by myself. Texarkana, Texas, Crime Scene Analyst Spencer Price testified about the two pistols, 12-gauge shotgun, handmade sword and 156 rounds of ammunition found in Swensons truck. Homeland Security Special Agent Gregory Harry testified that Swensons plan was to shoot a police officer and then decapitate the officer with a sword. Swenson was linked to the boogaloo movement, a network of gun enthusiasts who often express support for overthrowing the U.S. government, according to police and the Tech Transparency Project, which tracks technology companies. GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) A Texas woman was convicted Friday of capital murder for her role in the slayings of a Wichita couple who were killed after a carnival worker ordered their deaths as part of a fictitious carnival mafia. A Barton County jury found Kimberley Stacey Younger, 57, of Aransas Pass, Texas, guilty on charges of capital murder, conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, solicitation to commit murder in the first degree and theft, the Kansas attorney general's office said in a news release. TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) More than 100 Topeka West High School students protested outside the school Friday over administrators' handling of a male student who they said raped a female student during the summer and repeatedly harasses females at the school. Students carried signs and chanted during the protest, which district officials said did not disrupt classes at Topeka West, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported. RENO, Nev. (AP) The driver and a passenger in a car that struck and killed a bicyclist on U.S. Highway 395-A south of Reno in June have been arrested after investigators say the female passenger lied to state troopers about who was driving at the time of the crash. Boryana Staubel, 38, of Washoe Valley, was declared dead at the scene on June 19. She was married to Tesla co-founder Jeffrey Brian Straubel, and ran a family foundation promoting environmental sustainability. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) The University of Alabama at Birmingham has ended a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health system employees as officials await details about a federal mandate for health care workers. UAB Health in August announced that both employees and others working in its hospitals and clinics must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 12. It announced Friday that it was withdrawing the policy in the face of the coming federal mandate. BERLIN (AP) A new report shows the world is on a catastrophic pathway toward a hotter future unless governments make more ambitious pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the United Nations said Friday. The U.N. report, reviewing all the national commitments submitted by signatories of the Paris climate accord until July 30, found that they would result in emissions rising nearly 16% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels. Scientists say the world must start to sharply curb emissions soon, and add no more to the atmosphere by 2050 than can be absorbed, if it is to meet the most ambitious goal of the Paris accord capping global temperature rise at 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by 2100. The planet has already warmed by 1.1 C since pre-industrial times, experts said We need a 45% cut in emissions by 2030 to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a virtual meeting of leaders from major economies hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. The world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7 degrees (Celsius) of heating," he added. Some 113 countries including the United States and the European Union submitted updates to their emissions targets, also known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs, by the end of July. Their pledges would result in a 12% drop in emissions for those countries by the end of the decade a figure that could more than double if some governments conditional pledges and assurances about aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 are translated into action. Thats the positive side of the picture, said U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa, whose office compiled the latest report. The other one is more sobering. Dozens of countries, including major emitters such as China and India the worlds No. 1 and No. 3 emitters respectively failed to submit new pledges in time for the report. Espinosa called for leaders at next weeks annual U.N. gathering in New York to put forward stronger commitments in time for the global bodys upcoming climate summit in Glasgow. Leaders must engage in a frank discussion driven not just by the very legitimate desire to protect national interest, but also by the equally commanding goal of contributing to the welfare of humanity, she said. We simply have no more time to spare, and people throughout the world expect nothing less. Espinosa added that some public pledges, such as Chinas aim to be carbon neutral by 2060, havent yet been formally submitted to the U.N. and so werent taken into account for the report. An update, which would include any further commitments submitted by then, will be issued shortly before the Glasgow summit, she said. Still, environmental campaigners and representatives of some vulnerable nations expressed their disappointment at the findings. We must ask what it will take for some major emitters to heed the scientific findings and deliver our world from a point of no return, said Aubrey Webson of Antigua and Barbuda, who chairs the Association of Small Island States. The findings are clear if we are to avoid amplification of our already devastating climate impacts, we need major emitters and all G20 countries to implement and stick to more ambitious NDCs and make strong commitments to net-zero emissions by 2050. Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International, said meeting the Paris goal would only be possible with courageous leadership and bold decisions. Governments are letting vested interests call the climate shots, rather than serving the global community, she said. Passing the buck to future generations has got to stop we are living in the climate emergency now. Espinosa, the U.N. climate chief, said she believes the target set in Paris six years ago is still feasible. The 1.5C goal, in my view, is, of course, alive, she said. One thing that we cannot do is give up. ___ Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/Climate ON BOARD THE GEO BARENTS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA (AP) A U.N. migration agency official expressed concerns Friday over the disappearance of thousands of Europe-bound migrants who were intercepted and returned to Libya as more and more desperate people risk their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. According to Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, the Libyan coast guard, which receives funds from the European Union, intercepted more than 24,000 Europe-bound migrants in the Mediterranean so far this year, including over 800 this week alone. However, only 6,000 have been accounted for in official detention centers in the North African country, she said. The fate and whereabouts of thousands of other migrants remain unknown, she added. We fear that many are ending up in the hands of criminal groups and traffickers, while others are being extorted for release, Msehli said. A spokesman for Libyas Interior Ministry, which oversees the detention centers, did not immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for comment. Libya has for years been a hub for African and Middle Eastern migrants fleeing war and poverty in their countries and hoping for a better life in Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Traffickers have exploited the chaos and often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber or wooden boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route. Thousands have drowned along the way. They have been implicated in widespread abuses of migrants, including torture and abduction for ransom. The number of migrants intercepted and returned to Libya so far this year is more than double the number for 2020, when more than 11,890 were brought back to shore. Those returned to shore have been taken to government-run detention centers, where they are often abused and extorted for ransom under the very nose of U.N. officials. They are often held in miserable conditions. Libya's government receives millions in European aid money paid to slow the tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Guards have been accused of sexually assaulting female migrants in at least one government-run detention center. Many migrants also simply disappear from the detention centers, sold to traffickers or to other centers, The Associated Press reported in 2019. More than 1,100 migrants were reported dead or presumed dead in numerous boat mishaps and shipwrecks off Libya so far this year, compared to at least 978 reported dead or presumed dead during all of last year, according to IOM. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday saying that Afghanistans new Taliban rulers need to establish an inclusive government that has the full, equal and meaningful participation of women" and upholds human rights. The resolution adopted by the U.N.s most powerful body also extends the current mandate of the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan for six months and delivers a clear message that its 15 members will be watching closely what the Taliban do going forward. The statement reflects widespread disappointment over the recently announced interim Taliban government that left out women and minorities, heralding what could be a return to harsh Taliban practices during their 1996-2001 rule. The Taliban have promised an inclusive government and a more moderate form of Islamic rule than during their previous rule. But many Afghans, especially women, are deeply skeptical and fear a roll back of rights gained over the last two decades. Since their sweep into power last month and the departure of the last U.S. forces after 20 years of war, the Taliban have broken up several protests by women and their supporters demanding equal rights from the new rulers. On Friday, the Taliban ordered that all boys in grades six to 12 and male teachers to return to school and resume classes across Afghanistan, starting on Saturday but made no mention of girls or women teachers. Friday's Security Council resolution, drafted by Norway and Estonia, essentially delays a decision on a new mandate for the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, until March next year. At the same time, it stresses the critical importance of a continued presence of UNAMA and other U.N. agencies in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan. Before the Taliban takeover, the U.N. had about 300 international employees and 3,000 national staff working throughout the country. Over 100 of the international staff have redeployed to Kazakhstan, but the world body is continuing its operations in Afghanistan, where it has had a presence since 1948. Norway and Estonia said the resolution sends a unified message that we stand behind the U.N.s efforts in Afghanistan going forward and ensures that the U.N. mission can continue to monitor and report on human rights, the protection of civilians, violations and abuses against children, and support the participation of women in all levels of decision-making. The resolution also calls for strengthened efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to some 14 million Afghans needing aid and demands unhindered humanitarian access" for the U.N. and other aid agencies. It also reaffirms the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan ... and ensuring that the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country, to plan or finance terrorist acts, or to shelter and train terrorists" in the future. Britains U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward welcomed the resolution while also expressing concern over reports that members of the Taliban have engaged in reprisals against U.N. staff throughout the country. She called on the Taliban to comply with Afghanistans obligations under international law and respect the neutrality of U.N. staff. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution underscores the importance of the U.N.s work during this critical moment" for Afghanistan. The U.N. must continue working to serve Afghans and advance their human rights and fundamental freedoms, she said. Russias deputy U.N. ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva, expressed hope that the U.N. staff evacuated after the Taliban takeover would return soon. She expressed regret that because of objections of some council members, the resolution didnt include assessments of threats posed by the Islamic State group in Afghanistan or of the countrys deep-rooted drug problem. Addressing these threats is key for maintaining stability and security in the country, Evstigneeva said. It is unacceptable to either neglect or play down these problems. WASHINGTON (AP) The White House on Friday threatened to impose sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders involved in a conflict gripping the Tigray region, where 10 months of fighting have left hundreds of thousands of people facing famine. A new executive order allows the U.S. Treasury Department to sanction leaders and groups seen as fueling the violence if they don't take steps soon to stop the fighting. Senior U.S. officials who previewed the order Thursday said that while it does not set a deadline on the leaders, they wanted to see progress made toward a cease-fire in the coming weeks. But the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy, said they were not optimistic Abiy would change course. Abiy's office responded Friday in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden that said Ethiopia would not succumb to consequences of pressure." The 10-month conflict in Tigray has grown from a political dispute into a more serious war threatening stability in Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa and a key U.S. security ally in the region. The fighting, which involved various forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, has triggered the world's largest hunger crisis in a decade. The U.S. and United Nations say Ethiopian troops have prevented passage of trucks carrying food and other aid. Scores of people have starved to death, The Associated Press has reported. U.S. officials said Thursday that just 10% of humanitarian supplies intended for Tigray have been allowed into the region during the last month. As the situation deteriorates, Bidens executive order gives the Treasury and State departments authority to impose sanctions against leaders of all sides in the conflict the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments as well as the regional forces in Tigray and Amhara. The Treasury Department will exempt humanitarian efforts from any potential sanctions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the executive order underscores our resolve to use every appropriate tool at our disposal to bring relief to the long-suffering people of the region. Previous U.S. pressure on the combatants has failed. A U.S. announcement in May of visa restrictions against Ethiopian and Eritrean officials was dismissed by Abiy's government as an effort to meddle in our internal affairs. U.S. officials who spoke Thursday called on Abiy to show he would move toward a settlement before the new Parliament is seated on Oct. 4 following his party's landslide victory in July. He now has a new five-year term. No voting was held in the Tigray region. The war has the potential to fracture Ethiopia just a few years after Abiy moved to resolve the countrys decades-long conflict with neighboring Eritrea. The U.S. officials expressed concern that Abiy will press for a military success to present to lawmakers when the new government is formed on Oct. 4. His governments recent call for all able citizens to join the fight and stop the Tigray forces once and for all caused some international alarm. Abiy's letter Friday again referred to Tigray forces as terrorists and accused the U.S. of not reciprocating support Ethiopia has given American efforts to fight the al-Shabab extremist group in neighboring Somalia. "We have seen the consequences and aftermaths of hurried and rash decisions made by various U.S. administrations that have left many global populations in more desolate conditions than the intervention attempted to rectify," the letter said. Since retaking much of their embattled region from Ethiopian forces in June in a dramatic turn in the war, the Tigray forces have brought the fighting into the countrys neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara. The Tigray forces say they are pressuring the government to lift a blockade on Tigray that has left millions of people without telecommunications, electricity, banking services and almost all humanitarian aid. Now the massive humanitarian crisis that affects millions inside Tigray is spreading as hundreds of thousands of people in Amhara and Afar flee the Tigray fighters, some alleging retaliatory attacks, which the Tigray forces have denied. The Amhara regional government in a statement said that the Amhara people have the natural right to defend themselves against the Tigray forces, which it accused of numerous abuses. Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for restoring ties with Eritrea but has since joined forces with Ethiopias former enemy to wage war in Tigray. Eritrean soldiers have been accused by witnesses of some of the wars worst atrocities. Now they are active again inside Tigray, after pulling back in June when Ethiopian forces retreated. ___ Associated Press journalist Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report. WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) The second largest city in Massachusetts will require everyone to wear masks in indoor public spaces and will also require municipal employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, the city manager announced Friday. The mask mandate that applies to common areas takes effect Monday, Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. said. The order applies to everyone regardless of vaccination status, except for those who have a medical exemption. The city worker vaccination requirement takes effect Nov. 1. Unvaccinated workers will be subjected to weekly testing. Getting vaccinated and wearing masks is our best defense against this enemy, he said. The city has about 7,300 employees. Worcester joins several other Massachusetts communities with indoor mask mandates, including Boston and Springfield. They have been put in place in response to the continued spread of the COVID-19 delta variant. ___ SCHOOL CASES More than 1,400 students and employees at Massachusetts schools have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the school year, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. The first weekly report of the school year, which will be released every Thursday, said 1,230 students and 190 staff have tested positive for the coronavirus. There are about 920,000 students and 140,000 school staff statewide. Education leaders said a rise in the number of cases was expected as students returned to school full-time en masse for the first time in more than a year. The Springfield schools had the most student cases with 78 cases. There were 21 cases reported in Boston's schools. ___ VIRUS BY THE NUMBERS The number of new daily cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 2,000 Friday while the number of newly confirmed coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts rose by 16. The new numbers pushed the states confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 18,062 since the start of the pandemic, while its confirmed caseload rose to more than 738,000. There were more than 700 people reported hospitalized Friday because of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 170 in intensive care units. The average age of those who have died from COVID-19 was 75. The true number of cases is likely higher because studies suggest some people can be infected and not feel sick. More than 4.5 million people in Massachusetts have been fully immunized against COVID-19. ___ ANTI-VACCINE RALLY Hundreds of protesters, almost none wearing masks, gathered outside the Massachusetts Statehouse on Friday to voice their opposition to Gov. Charlie Bakers mandate that tens of thousands of state workers receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the middle of October or risk their jobs. The speakers at the afternoon event called the governors mandate unconstitutional. Several people at the rally wore T-shirts that read Massachusetts correction officers say no to mandatory vaccines, according to The Boston Globe. Others in the crowd carried American flags and signs with messages like, We will not comply, I do not consent, and My body my choice. Bakers mandate applies to about 42,000 executive department employees and 2,000 contractors for executive department agencies, whether they are working in-person or remotely. Workers may be entitled to exemptions for a medical disability or sincerely held religious belief, according to an executive order signed by Baker in August. Employees must prove vaccination status by Oct. 17. The requirement will eventually include a booster shot. ___ UMASS CASES Nearly 400 students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tested positive for the coronavirus between Sept. 8 and Sept. 14, the second week of the fall semester, the school said. Most of the cases are in students who live off campus and were socializing indoors, the university said. We have not seen any spread in academic settings, the school said in a statement Thursday. Most cases continue to be of short duration resulting in mild-to-moderate illness. There was one hospitalization last week, and the person is home and recovering well. There were abut 150 cases in the first week of the semester. One in 10 unvaccinated people at the university have contracted COVID-19, and 1.7% of the vaccinated population has tested positive, the school said in a follow-up Friday. UMass requires vaccinations for all students, with medical and religious exemptions allowed. About 500 people have been granted exemptions, the school said. UMass is 96% vaccinated, the school said. The university canceled its student tailgate before the home football game on Sept. 11, but students will be allowed to tailgate before this Saturday's home game. ___ Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshire could solve two problems at once by replacing its youth detention center with two much smaller facilities and using the sprawling juvenile campus to house young adult inmates instead, a former state official told lawmakers this week. Joe Diament, who served as commissioner of the Department of Youth and Development Services from 2001 to 2004, was among those offering advice Wednesday to a legislative committee exploring options for the Sununu Youth Services in Manchester. The two-year state budget Gov. Chris Sununu signed June 25 includes a mandate to close the center by March 2023. The state currently spends about $13 million a year to operate the center, named for former Gov. John H. Sununu, father of the current governor. Though it once held upward of 200 youth, the typical population now is about a dozen teens. Diament, whose 45-year career included work with the both the juvenile and adult prison systems, recommended two new six-bed facilities for youth, one in the northern part of the state and one further south. Moving young adult offenders to the Manchester facility, meanwhile, would help reduce crime by removing their ability to be influenced by older inmates. You have an ideal facility to take all the nonviolent youthful offenders out of the adult system and treat them at Sununu, he said. If you take the youthful offenders, 21 or 22, who are starting their career in criminality, not too dangerous ... and you put them in a prison with 30-, 40-, 50 year-olds whove been there 10 or 15 years or more, youre increasing the risk of recidivism dramatically. Though Diament acknowledged the idea would likely face opposition from neighbors, the suggestion comes as a growing number of states are revaluating the effectiveness of traditional criminal justice responses for young adults. According to a 2019 report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, adults ages 18 to 24 particularly those with behavioral health needs are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Some states or jurisdictions have responded by creating pre-arrest diversion programs and young adult courts, while others have created court proceedings and sentencing and correction options specifically for young adults, the organization said. Colorado, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia all require certain young offenders to serve their sentences in separate facilities designed for young adults. Debate over the New Hampshire centers future began years ago, but it has come to a head amid recent abuse allegations made by more than 350 men and women who say they were physically or sexually abused as children by 150 staffers at the states facility from 1960 to 2018. The state Division for Children, Youth and Families is cooperating with a broad criminal investigation launched in 2019, and 11 former workers have been arrested since April. A little less than year has gone by since the reality TV star and real estate broker Jason Oppenheim purchased a modern home in Los Angeles' lofty Mount Olympus neighborhood. The ink dried on the $5,125,000 purchase contract in October 2020. After a complete remodel by his favorite designers, Oppenheim opted against using the place as his private residence and instead rented it out for $49,000 per month. Now that his tenant has moved on, Oppenheim has put the place back on the market for $7,995,000. It's being offered fully furnished, and if no buyer steps up, the broker may just put it up for lease once again. What merits the nearly $3 million price hike? For one, Oppenheim told us he did a seven-figure renovation of the place. Work included new landscaping on the grounds of nearly 1 acre. The property now features a tastefully manicured courtyard out front and a solar-heated, saltwater swimming pool, elevated spa with cabana, and a fire pit with seating out back. Jason Oppenheim's home in Mount Olympus, Los Angeles Realtor.com Front exterior Realtor.com Pool and spa Realtor.com For the interiors, Oppenheim brought in his favorite design team, headed by Alice Kwanwho also happens to be a real estate agent with the Oppenheim Group. Kwan had her own fashion line in Australia before she moved to the U.S., and her design aesthetic is much in demand. According to her online bio, she believes in "creating spaces that have touches of modern sleek with industrial and wooden accents." ___ Watch: See Mike Tyson's Massive Former Estate in DC Suburbs, Just Sold for $4.6M ___ Kwan's team added luxe fixtures and finishes to the the 4,874-square-foot residence. Dazzling modern chandeliers especially give the place a glamorous aura. The team also added automated blinds to the windows, highlighted by a dramatic 20-foot-tall shade and accented by industrial steel frames. Modern chandelier and 20-foot windows Realtor.com All major infrastructure elements were given the once-over, as was the home theater, which now features state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment. Home theater Realtor.com A lovely wine room and bar were also added. Wine room and bar Realtor.com Updates were also made to the open kitchen, which now features Wolf and Sub-Zero appliancesas well as fabulous views. Kitchen and dining areas Realtor.com In addition, the team updated the two master suites, which both feature walk-in closets and luxe bathrooms, fireplaces, and French doors. First master suite Realtor.com Master suite bathroom Realtor.com Master suite two Realtor.com In all, the home offers four bedrooms and four bathrooms, plus a separate office with its own private deck. Guest bedroom Realtor.com Office Realtor.com The one thing Kwan couldn't improve on was the dazzling view of Los Angeles and beyond. Views from the great room Realtor.com The home was built in 1974, when the Mount Olympus enclave was being developed. It sits discreetly tucked away on the east side of Laurel Canyon Blvd., not far up the hill from Sunset Blvd., so the house can definitely be considered within the turf patrolled by the brokers and agents of "Selling Sunset." So is the man behind the hit reality show also busy flipping? Oppenheim told us this is hardly the first time he's bought, remodeled, and sold a luxury property at a profit in a relatively short time. Even so, he did intend to live in this one himself when he first purchased it. Now, he'd be perfectly happy renting it out or passing it over to a new owner. He's also currently immersed in Newport Beach real estate, where the Oppenheim Group recently opened an office. He purchased a luxury home in Orange County, so he won't have to drive all the way back to L.A. after a hard day's work. Kwan is responsible for designing the interiors of both his office and his new residence. He's also spending time maneuvering the tricky world of dating a fellow real estate professionalan agent in his own office, although she's not an employee, but an independent contractor. His romantic relationship with the "Selling Sunset" fan favorite Chrishell Stause was recently made public, much to viewers' delight. We can't wait to see if there are any hints of that in Season 4 of "Selling Sunset," which is expected to air on Netflix this fall. The post Jason Oppenheim of 'Selling Sunset' Selling His $8M L.A. Home appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. The 1918 global flu pandemic, sometimes called The Spanish Flu due to an erroneous belief that the H1N1 flu virus originated in Spain, is estimated to have infected 500 million people and killed 10% of that number. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 675,000 of those deaths occurred in the United States. It was the deadliest pandemic in American history, but at some point in the next few days, Covid-19s American death toll will exceed that milestone. As of publication, the death toll sits at 670,231, with 3,415 new deaths in the last 24 hours. WellBefore N95 Respirator Mask WellBefore N95 Respirator Mask - NIOSH Approved wellbefore wellbefore.com $1.99 Shop Now Already, the excess death rate in 2020 the number of deaths in a year that exceeds projections was the worst since World War I, making it worse than any year during the pandemic. The occasion invites comparisons between the two tragedies, and there are plenty to be found: As with Covid-19, the 1918 pandemic led to unfounded theories that the virus had been created by a hostile foreign government, and as with Covid-19, there was widespread and vocal distrust of modern science. But these similarities, and the surface-level comparison of the death toll, bely the truth: the response to this pandemic has been extremely effective. We actually are getting better at responding to pandemics, says Dr. Tara Smith, an Epidemiologist at the College of Public Health at Kent State University. Just the technology we have antibiotics to treat secondary infection. That wouldve saved a whole lot of people in 1918, because thats what killed most of them: infections forming in damaged lungs. We have ventilators that let people breathe while their body heals. We dont have a magic bullet treatment for Covid, but we have stuff that helps, like monoclonal antibodies and steroids these are things we simply didnt have in 1918. You may be sick of hearing it, but the truth bears repeating: The vaccine, and judicious use of PPE gear like face masks, continue to be the most effective way to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 and save lives. Beyond simply treating the virus, the development of the vaccine which has been criticized as rushed by skeptics is actually thanks to a storied history of vaccine research. The vaccine development was fast, and there are two things that came into play for that. Dr. Smith says. The first is genetic sequencing: The MRNA vaccine was based on nearly 20 years of research on past coronavirus, like SARS. That gave us a really good idea of what would work, and helped get that out in record time. Another factor? Developing a vaccine is actually easier during a pandemic because you have access to more ill people to work with. In most vaccine trials you have to wait for sufficient people to become exposed to whatever pathogen, and you need that control group to get ill, says Dr. Smith. During a pandemic, you have access to a lot more people. Compare that to the HPV vaccine, one of the more recent vaccines we developed. It was harder to find sick people, so development took longer. But if were doing so much better, how come the US death tolls are the same? As is frequently the case, this milestone though significant and tragic can be slightly misleading. The US population is three times what it was in 1918. The actual mortality rate (percentage of people infected who die) for Covid-19 is far lower than H1N1s ever was: While the 1918 flus fatalities made up 0.64% of the nations population, Covid-19s death rate was measured as being closer to 0.15% back in April. One of the reasons Covid-19 has spread more quickly and will soon kill more people than the 1918 flu is because of modern transportation: Trains, easy access to cars and highways, and of course air travel has allowed SARS-CoV-19 (The virus that causes Covid-19) to infect more people more quickly than the H1N1 1918 influenza could ever hope to. Technology, which has helped save us from the disease, has also made it more deadly. Another strange phenomenon, the significance of which is not yet clear, is the mobilization of vaccine hesitancy. Though there have been people who have resisted inoculation (and all modern medicine), this resistance has never been as organized or as political as it is now. For other outbreaks, with Small Pox, we did see resistance to vaccination proper, or inoculation, Dr. Smith explains, but right now, because of social media, its much more organized. Itd pop up in one city or another, but itd die out. Now, its organized in some case internationally so. The dividing along political lines is also new, she continues. If you looked even five years ago, youd see people on the right opposing vaccines for libertarian reasons and youd see arguments on the left, about bodily purity and natural immunity being better than vaccine-induced immunity. There wasnt a big political divide until Covid. In other words, she says, its difficult to make an apples to apples comparison. But just as its important to keep this context we are not helpless, we are not doomed it is equally important to respect the significance of what will occur in the next few days. We will never know the name of the person who tips that scale, who walks this tragedy across the statistical threshold and inks one of the most macabre pages of our nations history, but we can still reserve a place in our memories for them. This advertising feature is provided to readers as a resource on SFGATEs Top Lawyers. James Wu was a young associate at a large law firm during the summer between his second and third years at Boston College Law School. The program allowed him to rotate through the different practice areas of the firm, and it was here that he identified employment law as his possible career path. Frankly, it was not boring, compared to my thoughts back then about tax, real estate or corporate law, said Wu. It wasnt life or death compared to high-stakes family law dealing with child custody or criminal law, for example. And, ultimately, I believe Im making an impact on individuals because with each employer that we help, their employees benefit from my guidance as a result. His instincts served him well. Wu has been practicing employment and labor law for 25 years and is currently with Quarles & Brady, LLP in Walnut Creek. Mika Domingos journey was not as straightforward. Prior to becoming an attorney nine years ago, Domingo owned a publishing firm before later becoming a finance auditor. Since graduating from the John F. Kennedy School of Law, however, her focus has been on probate and trust litigation and estate planning, practicing law in Northern and Southern California for her firm, M.S. Domingo Law Group. I took the first job available at a private firm close to home, reducing my commute by 4 hours, said Domingo, who was serving as a deputy attorney general for the Department of Justice, Attorney General Office in Sacramento at the time, straight out of law school. But I was always interested in litigation so from civil litigation at the AGs office to doing probate and trust litigation, some of the litigation skills were transferable. While their areas of practice differ in issue areas, both agree their jobs are anything but boring, despite what many people might think when they hear employment law or probate and trust litigation and estate planning. Companies, for example, have had to navigate the intersection of social movements and an ongoing pandemic since last year in many cases having to create new policies that never existed, and dealing with waves of personnel issues in unchartered waters. My area of the law evolves with current events and is never dull, Wu said. In the past few years, large parts of my practice dealt with the #MeToo movement and heightened awareness/reporting of sexual harassment claims, to [Assembly Bill 5] AB-5 and the still-evolving issues with independent contractors in California, to issues of racial justice and politics in the workplace, and now a lot of issues about COVID-19, vaccination plans, masks and the like. In addition to navigating current events, Wu still helps companies with traditional employment law issues, such as complying with long-standing requirements like meal and rest breaks, leaves of absence, terminations/layoffs, discrimination/retaliation claims and defending his clients against claims in state and federal agencies and in courts. For Domingo, the most exciting and rewarding part of practicing probate and trust litigation and estate planning law is that it allows her to work with a wide range of professionals and attorneys, which allows her to constantly learn new things. In probate and trust administration, ultimately, you deal with what happens to a persons estate when one passes away, she said. Probate litigation simply refers to the legal proceedings associated with contesting a will, disputing a trust, quieting title to property, properly distributing assets to the rightful heirs, seeking redress for breach of fiduciary duty, addressing capacity or undue influence issues, and anything that interferes with proper administration of an estate. This area of law is very exciting because the issues that arise can be complex and may require collaboration with other attorneys. Domingo cites several examples of cross-collaboration, including a probate case that required the assistance of the district attorney. The asset in the probate was fraudulently sold by a former spouse, which led to the current warrant for that persons arrest. In another probate case, the surviving spouse allegedly killed her husband, putting a hold on the probate administration until the determination in criminal court. Ive often times had to dig deep into a multitude of issues that require me to work with other professionals including CPAs, forensic accountants, handwriting experts, diamond specialists, employment attorneys and even psychotherapists, she said. The cases are challenging but once we are able to resolve the issues and the clients are happy, it makes all the difference. From employment law to probate, everyone has something to learn. Wills and trusts, of course, are critical tools to protect your family and your assets, and to give you peace of mind that your wishes are carried out after your death. Carrying out those wishes, however, may involve complex issues such as fiduciary duties and liability, beneficiary disputes, elder abuse, financial abuse and capacity issues, which is why Domingos expertise is critical. Employment law impacts employees and employers on a daily basis and involves many more considerations today than it did before the era of social media. Among Wus first tips: Be careful posting on social media. There are several instances where an employer will see something that an individual has posted on social media which gives rise to termination of employment, he said. Lets say someone is out on a medical leave, approved by his employer. But on social media, he claims to have just had a lovely time skydiving or some other activity. Has the employee just confirmed that his medical leave is a fraud? That social media post with him jumping out of an airplane would certainly warrant an investigation by the employer and could lead to termination. For employers, Wu warns: Dont treat your workers like family, especially when it comes to documentation and following requirements. In these types of settings, Wu said workers have ample opportunity to bring a claim when they become disgruntled because the family did not document things correctly or comply with the law. And lastly, dont assume employers are the bad guys. I think people would be surprised to know that most employers are truly trying to make things better for their employees and to do the right thing, he said. Mistakes occur, but for the most part, most employers understand that employee morale and treating employees better than what the law requires is a good strategy to keep good employees and a successful company thriving. Page Content Coming on the heels of Kentucky's record-high number of COVID-19 infections, dozens of employees of St. Elizabeth Healthcare just filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Covington against the hospital in response to its announced workplace vaccine mandate. The Sept. 3 lawsuit alleges the employees have been coerced into being vaccinated. All previous efforts by workers across the country to overturn an employer vaccine mandate through litigation have failed, but what do employers need to know about this latest attempt? Featured Resource Center COVID-19 Vaccination Resources State of Emergency in Kentucky Kentucky's COVID-19 infection rates continue to rise rapidly, and the commonwealth recently reached a record-high number of infections in early September. In August, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on Kentucky's private sector employers to require their employees to get vaccinated, absent any applicable religious or medical exemption. Notably, even the EEOC has indicated that employers may mandate COVID-19 vaccines at their workplaces. In light of these developments, multiple hospital systems in Kentucky, including the St. Elizabeth health care system in Northern Kentucky as well as hospitals in Lexington and Louisville, announced in early August 2021 that they would require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. St. Elizabeth's announcement indicated there would be exceptions to the requirement if employees qualified for a religious or medical exemption. In addition, the hospital agreed to allow their staff until Sept. 15 to get their first shot. These mandates have been endorsed by a number of state health care associations, including the Kentucky Hospital Association, Kentucky Nurses Association, and the Kentucky Medical Association. Hospital Employees File Suit to Block Mandate Regardless of the facts laid out above, the plaintiffs allege mandatory vaccinations are "a fraud upon the entire American public" and claim a vaccine mandate requires them to "participate in a medical experiment." Indeed, the 23-count complaint alleges, among other things, a claim of "fraud in the concealment," which alleges St. Elizabeth's was "fully aware and/or recklessly ignored the inaccuracy of both the internal and external reporting regarding COVID-19" in order to fit the hospital's "intended narrative" regarding the vaccine. A similar lawsuit filed by Methodist Hospital employees in Texas was dismissed by the court in June. In that case, employees alleged they were being forced to participate in a "human experiment" by being required to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The court determined the plaintiffs were free to refuse the vaccine but would simply have to find work elsewhere if they did. Vaccine Mandates Gain Popularity As vaccines were rolled out in late 2020 and early 2021, employers seemed hesitant to impose vaccine mandates. A combination of factors over the past two months, including the high transmissibility of the delta variant, the full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and the impending mandate-or-test rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will no doubt lead more employers to implement a mandate. In addition, at this stage, many employers may find that those employees who were voluntarily going to be vaccinated have already done so, leaving a mandate a final option to get remaining employees vaccinated. According to the Fisher Phillips COVID-19 Employment Litigation Tracker, employees have filed 24 lawsuits against employers across the country challenging vaccine mandates. To date, none of them have been successful. However, just because employers have enjoyed universal success in rolling out vaccine mandates doesn't mean that your organization is without risk if you pursue such a course of action. Most significantly, you need to ensure you have a robust religious and medical accommodation system in place. Todd B. Logsdon and Ashby Angell are attorneys with Fisher Phillips in Louisville, Ky. 2021 Fisher Phillips. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission. Reports from the Tollywood media circle that Kajal Aggarwal has reportedly told the producers of Acharya that she is pregnant and asked them to complete her scenes as soon as possible. The actress has also opted out of Nagarjuna's new film The Ghost and the team is looking for an apt replacement. Kajal married her longtime friend and businessman Gautham Kitchlu in October 2020. While she has cleared the path for the Telugu producers, the shoot of Indian 2 will be affected because of Kajal's pregnancy. During this exercise, an infantry battalion from the Indian Army and a formation of equivalent strength from Nepali Army would be sharing their experiences gained during the conduct of various counter-insurgency operations over a prolonged period in their respective countries. New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) India and Nepal will carry out joint military training exercise 'Surya Kiran' at Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh from September 20, the Indian Army announced on Friday. As part of the exercise, both the armies would familiarise themselves with each other's weapons, equipment, tactics, techniques, and procedures of operating in a counter-insurgency environment in mountainous terrain. Also, there would be a series of expert academic discussions on various subjects such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), high-altitude warfare, jungle warfare etc. The joint military training would culminate with a gruelling 48 hours exercise to validate the performance of both the armies in counter-insurgency in mountainous terrain. "The exercise is part of an initiative to develop inter-operability and sharing expertise between the two nations," the Indian Army said. This joint military training will go a long way in improving bilateral relations and also will be a major step towards further strengthening the traditional friendship between the two nations, it added. The last edition of Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019. Last year, Indian Army chief, Gen M.M. Naravane visited Nepal to enhance the bilateral relationship. He met then Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, as well as his counterpart, Gen Purna Chandra Thapa. The ties between the two countries came under strain last year after China increased its influence in Nepal. Before General Naravane, Research and Analysis Wing (RA&W) chief Samant Kumar Goel also made a visit to Kathmandu and met Nepal Prime Minister to strengthen the relationship. --IANS sk/vd A vessel carrying Iranian oil docked in Syria on Sunday, and the oil was unloaded in trucks and sent by land to the Bekaa Valley on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency. Beirut, Sep 17 (IANS) Lebanon has received tanker trucks carrying Iranian oil in a move aimed at easing energy shortages in the crisis-hit country. Lebanon has been suffering from shortage of US currency reserves, which deprives the country from importing its oil needs. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced on Monday that a second ship with fuel oil would arrive in the Syrian port of Baniyas in a few days, and Lebanon is expected to receive two more ships carrying gasoline and fuel oil. Some Lebanese anti-Hezbollah parties expressed over the past few days their concerns over the possibility of the US imposing sanctions on Lebanon after its oil imports from Iran. --IANS ksk/ The Imran Khan-led government has been under tremendous pressure after reports surfaced that Pakistan's military assets were used for Taliban in crushing the National Resistance Front (NRF) fighters. The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on Friday in Dushanbe, while the 76th UNGA Summit will be held on September 25. "During the SCO Summit, (Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood) Qureshi will try to convince the participating nations that it has taken substantial steps as directed by the international watchdog on terror funding and the China will endorse its efforts", according to foreign police experts. The experts believe that Qureshi will convince these countries that on terrorism, it is with them in fight against terror but they also said that world has been fully aware of Pakistan's complicity with the designated and dangerous terrorist groups operating under its tutelage and sustenance mainly against India wherein is using terrorism as an instrument of its foreign policy. Former diplomat Anil Trigunayat said that Pakistan will not succeed in its attempt as their nexus with terror organisations has already been exposed. "The groups LeT and JeM are shifting their bases to southern Afghanistan as per directions of ISI and Imran Khan to save them or provide excuses to defend at the FATF. It just cannot justify itself otherwise. "Pakistan will not change and the changes in Afghanistan under its tutelage might be far bigger challenges for India, the region and the world," Trigunayat told IANS. According to sources, Khan will be participating with a 40-member delegation and Qureshi will hold bilateral talks with China, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Ireland, South Korea, Austria and the US on sidelines of this session. --IANS ams/ksk/ Raisi made the remarks on Thursday during a visit to Tajikistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, according to the Iranian presidential website. Tehran, Sep 17 (IANS) Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Tehran supports the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan as a means to settle peace and stability in the country. In his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Raisi noted that the key to solving Afghanistan's problems is to form an inclusive government and prevent foreign interference in the country's affairs, reports Xinhua news agency. "We should try to help Afghanistan form a government that includes all groups based on the will of the people of the country," he was quoted as saying. "The 20-year history of the presence of American and Western forces in Afghanistan had no result other than the destruction, displacement and killing of more than 35,000 children and thousands of Afghan men and women. "The withdrawal of American forces is a historic opportunity for the formation of a popular government in Afghanistan and establishing peace in the country and region," he added. For his part, Khan was quoted by the Iranian readout as saying that a safe and secure Afghanistan will benefit all countries in the region and the world. "If a comprehensive government is not formed in Afghanistan, the problems of the country will intensify and Pakistan and Iran will suffer more than any other country," he stressed. The Pakistani Prime Minister also suggested Iran and Pakistan work closely and interact with each other "for Afghanistan to successfully pass the stage of state-building and formation of an inclusive government". Meanwhile, in another meeting with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Raisi said his country supports "the formation of a comprehensive government with the participation of all groups in Afghanistan, which will lead to the establishment of peace and stability in the country". --IANS ksk/ This is the finding of a new analysis published on Thursday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre on the compound impacts of extreme-weather events and Covid-19. New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, climate-related disasters have affected the lives of at least 139.2 million people and killed more than 17,242 others. A further estimated 658.1 million vulnerable people have been exposed to extreme temperatures. Through new data and specific case studies, the report shows how people across the world are facing multiple crises and coping with overlapping vulnerabilities. The paper also highlighted the need of addressing both crises simultaneously as the Covid-19 pandemic has affected livelihoods across the world and has made communities more vulnerable to climate risks. IFRC President Francesco Rocca, who presented the report in New York, said: "The world is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis where the climate change and Covid-19 are pushing communities to their limits. In the lead up to COP26, we urge world leaders to take immediate action not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to address the existent and imminent humanitarian impacts of climate change." The report comes a year after an initial analysis of the overlapping risks of extreme-weather events that have occurred during the Covid-19 crisis. The pandemic continues to wreak havoc, with direct health impacts for millions of people around the world, but also a massive indirect impact, in part due to the response measures implemented to contain the pandemic. Food insecurity caused by weather extremes has been aggravated by Covid-19. Health systems are pushed to their limits and the most vulnerable have been the most exposed to overlapping shocks. In Afghanistan, the impacts of the extreme drought are compounded by conflict and the pandemic. The drought has crippled agricultural food production and diminished livestock, leaving millions of people hungry and malnourished. The Afghan Red Crescent Society has ramped up relief, including food and cash assistance for people to buy food supplies, plant drought-resistant food crops and protect their livestock. In Kenya, the impacts of Covid-19 are colliding with floods in one year and droughts in the next, as well as a locust infestation. Over 2.1 million people are facing acute food insecurity in rural and urban areas. In the country and across East Africa, the Covid-19 restrictions slowed down the flood response and outreach to affected populations increasing their vulnerabilities. Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies around the globe are not only responding to those overlapping crises but also helping communities to prepare and anticipate climate risks. In Bangladesh for instance, the Red Crescent Society has used IFRC's designated funds for anticipatory action to disseminate flood related early warning messages through loudspeakers in vulnerable areas so people can take the necessary measures or evacuate if necessary. Julie Arrighi, associate director at the RCRC Climate Center, said: "Hazards do not need to become disasters. We can counter the trend of rising risks and save lives if we change how we anticipate crises, fund early action and risk reduction at the local level. Finally, we need to help communities become more resilient, especially in the most vulnerable contexts." The Covid-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on climate risks. Governments need to commit to investing in community adaptation, anticipation systems and local actors. "The massive spending in Covid-19 recovery proves that governments can act fast and drastically in the face of global threats. It is time to turn words into action and devote the same energy to the climate crisis. Every day, we are witnessing the impact of human-made climate change. The climate crisis is here, and we need to act now," Rocca added. --IANS vg/ksk/ New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) Smartphone brand Vivo is reportedly all set to launch its Vivo X70 series in India on September 30. The X70 lineup consists of three smartphones -- X70, X70 Pro and X70 Pro+. But it appears that Vivo will skip the vanilla model this time in the country since the promo page only includes the images of the Pro and Pro+ variants, GSMArena reported on Thursday. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Developers and investors are defying market jitters and circling the burgeoning tech hub in Sydneys Haymarket and Central Station precinct to snap up more mixed-use projects ahead of expected growth after the pandemic. Low-interest rates and favourable financing conditions are also providing the impetus to take the plunge into the higher-yielding bricks and mortar assets. One of the latest deals gaining attention is the potential to combine two properties in the Haymarket precinct worth about $350 million, to create a near 80-storey office tower and a potential hotel. An artist's impression of Atlassian's 40-storey headquarters to be built near Sydney's Central Station. Haymarket sits at the convergence of several precincts that have been ear-marked as a combined major tech and innovation hub the Ultimo-Camperdown Collaboration Area, the NSW Governments Tech Central precinct and the Western Gateway sub-precinct adjacent to Central Station. The last six weeks should be viewed as a watershed period for the Australian economy, with the extraordinary wealth created by the nations top technology entrepreneurs representing a significant breakthrough for the sector. For many years technology has been considered a niche corner of corporate Australia, a scrappy underdog of sorts, dwarfed in wealth and power by sectors more embedded in the national psyche such as mining, banking and even agriculture. But those days are surely now long gone. Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins have seen their business hit a $55 billion valuation. Credit: Back in August, buy now, pay later pioneer Afterpay agreed to merge with US payments business Square in a $39 billion deal. It was the biggest takeover in Australian corporate history, and one of the biggest software buyouts in the world to date. Then this week, Sydney-based design software startup Canva announced a share sale that valued its operations at $55 billion - making it the worlds most valuable private software business and worth more on paper (with all the necessary caveats attached to private market startup valuations) than listed corporate giants such as Telstra and Fortescue Metals. Actor Heather Mitchell, 62, and cinematographer Martin McGrath, 65, met on a film set in Broken Hill in 1989. They started dating soon after, but the course of true love didnt exactly run smooth: she said no the first time he proposed. Martin McGrath and Heather Mitchell: He said to me, I want to be your guardian angel. Credit:Louise Kennerley Heather: In early 1989, I saw a clairvoyant who told me I was about to meet my guardian angel and that Id be surrounded by silver. Shortly after, I flew to Broken Hill [in far west NSW] to do a short film, The Water Trolley. Marty picked me up at the airport. I thought, Your face is red. You should wear a hat. The next night, the cast and crew went out to dinner and then the pub. He and I ended up sitting together, talking. I noticed a sadness in him. Wed both lost a parent early Id been 17, he 26 and it was a beautiful, connecting thing. He asked me if Id like to come back to his room for a glass of Cointreau. I dont like Cointreau, but I said yes. We ended up making love and afterwards he said to me, I want to be your guardian angel. He then gave me a silver ingot from Broken Hill, city of silver. We started dating once we got back to Sydney. In October 1990, when I was doing Burn This at the Sydney Theatre Company, Marty flew up from Melbourne for my birthday and booked a hotel for the night. At 2am, he got down on his knee and proposed, presenting me with a ring. I said, I have to think about this. I was happy with how things were. He was very clever, and didnt mention it again. After three months, I said, Why arent you mentioning it? Your not mentioning it makes me want to marry you. When we married in February 1992, it felt absolutely right. The head of Australia Post is urging consumers to start thinking about their Christmas shopping now as the national postal service grapples with lengthy delays caused by a surge in online shopping. Rodney Boys, the companys acting chief executive, said parcel volumes were already at Christmas-like levels due to more than 15 million Australians living under lockdown. Australia Post is taking on more staff to deal with the surge in home deliveries. Credit:Justin McManus Posties and delivery drivers are delivering more than 10 million parcels every week, with more than 50 per cent of Australian households purchasing something online last month. Its a trend set to continue, with no firm date for when bricks and mortar retail stores will reopen. This Christmas is certainly going to be the busiest weve ever seen, Mr Boys told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. We knew, maybe in April 2020, we actually had got as far as anyone else in this caper, Pouton says . We were probably only a month behind [mRNA vaccine manufacturer] Moderna. With serious government investment, he thought it could be made into a home-grown jab. He wanted a chance to pitch the minister. Professor Colin Pouton, a vaccine developer at Monash University, was at the press conference. He recalls talking to Hunts staff in the hope he could meet the minister. Not this one. What happened next, in the chaotic early days of the pandemic, is strongly contested. Dozens of similar press conferences are held every year as the government dispenses science dollars; they usually pass without remark. On May 20 last year, Health Minister Greg Hunt held a press conference at Monash University in Melbourne to announce a new tranche of research funding. And Poutons research did eventually receive federal funding, they point out: $4.6 million as part of two grants. The Department and Office have reviewed all of the Ministers diary, office accounts and departmental records. There is no record of having received a request from Colin Pouton or Monash to be briefed on this project. Thats not how Hunts office remembers things. They claim Hunt did meet Pouton at the press conference and chatted about mRNA, but they said there was never a request for a formal meeting with the minister. There was also significant scepticism Pouton really did have a leading vaccine candidate. The Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, Associate Professor Mireille Lahoud and Professor Allen Cheng at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Credit:Eddie Jim We certainly tried to get in front of government. But its hard to do, hard for an academic scientist to talk directly to the ministers, says Pouton. But no meeting with the minister was ever forthcoming, although there were several discussions with advisers. Pouton, who is described by colleagues as having the disarming manner - and accent of a University of Cambridge English professor (he studied in London and Bath), merely calls it frustrating. Its just nuts, says former colleague and mRNA Victoria Scientific Advisory Group member Professor Bill Charman. Colin spoke with the Health Department, he couldnt get through but he shouldnt feel as though he was in poor company, because the worlds biggest health company (Pfizer) couldnt get through either . (Charman later clarified he was speaking in a personal capacity). Pouton was on the right side of history, but just a few months too early. About six months after that brief meeting at the press conference in Melbourne, scientists from the companies announced clinical trial results that shocked nearly everyone. MRNA had produced two extraordinarily powerful COVID-19 vaccines. But heres the sting in the tail: Pouton didnt know it at the time, but the vaccine he was working on used almost exactly the same design and technologies as vaccines being developed elsewhere, thanks to more than $1.5 billion in government funding, by Pfizer and Moderna . I would have thought it was clear we wanted to meet but formal request? I dont even know what that means. Maybe we should have persisted, says Pouton. Place your syringes into a squat, glass-fronted machine that costs about as much as a new BMW. The menu is a touch-screen; tap through to recipes, and then hit the one for a Delta vaccine. Now press the green button. With a second syringe, draw from a dark glass jar half a millilitre of four fats: cholesterol and distearoylphosphatidylcholine, as well as special fats that can only be made in a lab. To make an mRNA vaccine for the Delta strain of COVID-19, draw up one millilitre of liquid mRNA, which should look like clear water in your syringe. A Fast Performance Liquid chromatography machine, used to purify the mRNA before it is encapsulated into the lipid nanoparticles. Credit:Wayne Taylor In a few months those efforts will bear fruit, when the first doses of Australias first home-made mRNA vaccine roll off the production line. It would have been easy to retreat to the lab. Pouton chose a different path. A man who has spent a career avoiding the limelight became an activist. Thats the first 20 of about-300 genetic letters for the code for COVID-19s spike protein. An mRNA vaccine starts with a code, written in the four letters of the genetic alphabet, like auguuuguuuuucuuguuuu . The doses made here are for the labs animal tests. In Boronia, in Melbournes East, a company called IDT has just taken delivery of a huge version of this machine, which it will use to make doses for a 150-person clinical trial, due to start in October. The crucial machine that encapsulates mRNA in lipid nanoparticles. A larger version of this device will make the vaccine for the clinical trial. Credit:Wayne Taylor A dribble of clear fluid is ejected into a test tube. That is, in every sense, a Delta vaccine, says Dr Harry Al-Wassiti, a bioengineer in Professor Poutons lab. He warns against drinking it. The fluids trickle into channels carved into a piece of black plastic the size of a credit card, which wind and come together. On a scale too small for the eye to make out, indentations in the channels act like river rapids, swirling the liquids together till they combine just so. Each of our cells contains a tiny factory, the ribosome, which together churn out the proteins that make up your body. Hair, skin, antibodies nearly everything that makes you you is a protein, made for you by your ribosomes. MRNA provide the instructions to the factories. Need fingernails? Just feed in the code. MRNA vaccines contain the code for a section of a virus. After injection, the ribosomes read the code, produce the virus section, and the immune system gets busy raising antibody armies. At least thats what everyone agreed was supposed to happen. But for decades it didnt. After injection, the mRNA just kind of sat there. No one could get the delivery right. Professor Damian Purcell. Professor Pouton stands behind him to his left. Credit:Meredith OShea Professor Damian Purcell, now head of the molecular virology laboratory at The Peter Doherty Institute, was building an mRNA vaccine in the early 2000s for HIV that used an electric shock to activate the mRNA. It worked, he says. But no one wants to get zapped. Unlike the biologists who dominate the study of mRNA, Pouton is a pharmacist who specialises in delivery. He is one of the world experts in the use of lipids to enhance the delivery of pharmaceuticals, says Charman. Pouton had become focused on lipid nanoparticles, tiny balls of fat that can carry fragile molecules like RNA inside cells where they actually do their work. Much like RNA, lipid nanoparticles seemed for decades like a dead end. It took scientists until late last decade to find a way of making them non-toxic. With that advance in hand, they were suddenly the perfect delivery vehicle for RNA. Pouton spotted that early; he had spent the last three years working on an mRNA-nanoparticle project. A trial version of his COVID-19 vaccine produced such extraordinary results when tested on mice at the Doherty Institute in August the Institute chose to partner with his team. I knew this was a big advancement, what hed done, what he was making and the way he was delivering it, says Purcell, who did those tests. But he was really hand-to-mouth, struggling to move it along. Unfortunately for Pouton, Moderna and Pfizer had spotted the same potential in nanoparticles. And they had money billions of dollars from Washington and Berlin. We had the phenomenal sum of $2 million for all vaccine development, says Purcell. Under president Donald Trump, the US invested hundreds of millions of dollars in mRNA vaccines. Credit:AP When Pfizer and Moderna published their clinical trials at the end of 2020, it was immediately clear they were going to make billions upon billions of dollars. Pouton had what he thought was a great vaccine, but almost no money and even if he had funding, there was no one in Australia who could actually make his mRNA jab at scale. We thought if we just carry on with research, apply for grants, were not going to get anything done in a reasonable time frame, says Pouton. So he began reaching out to other scientists around Australia who had an interest in RNA. There werent many: originally just a group of six, meeting on Zoom every fortnight to plot and plan. Associate Professor Archa Fox, one of the original members of a group they christened the Australia NZ RNA production consortium, says: You do sometimes get with scientists a gatekeeper type attitude. He could have said, Look, Im the only person in Australia developing mRNA vaccines. I have a strategic edge; I am going to use that to develop my own position. But he did not do that. Perhaps burnt by his experience, Pouton realised governments would never invest big money in a high-risk vaccine gamble, Fox thinks. They needed to show mRNA could be used for much more than COVID-19: gene therapies, blindness treatments, even new tools to attack cancer. Our job, we felt, was to convince them there was a future, and that it wouldnt just be a one-trick pony, she says. And Pouton engaged with the media not easy for a man colleagues say shies away from the limelight. In the six months from April through September 2021, his media profile jumped 252 per cent, compared with the previous six months, according to data from Streem. It wasnt hard to manufacture an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, he told journalists in a front-page article. Its just a matter of the will to make it happen. There are some within government and industry who think hes overselling it. It cant be that easy to make an mRNA vaccine, they say. There are only two companies in the whole world who have successfully done it. In simple terms, we know what all the steps are [to make a vaccine]. But its like saying you can go into a Michelin-star restaurant and make the dish, Trent Munro, one of Australias most experienced biotech and biopharmaceutical experts at the University of Queensland, told The Age earlier this year (he declined to comment for this story). And was Pouton really only a month behind Moderna in April? Moderna gave its first human doses in March; he hadnt yet finished preclinical studies. But any successful media campaign needs to build hype. Judged by results, Poutons campaign has been a triumph. NSW and Victoria are in a multimillion-dollar arms race for mRNA manufacturing capacity; the federal government is courting Moderna and has pledged to spend millions on our own mRNA facility. In June 2021, Pouton finally got his big break a grant from the Victorian government to fund a phase 1 clinical trial. Without Pouton, all this probably doesnt happen, says mRNA Victorias Charman. Government needs to have examples it can point to, to say, This is not pie in the sky. The obvious question to ask a scientist working on a COVID-19 vaccine in September 2021 is: why? We often ask the same thing ourselves. Is it really worth pursuing this? says Pouton. We have fantastic vaccines. To get approval, new vaccines have to be even better, a very high bar to hurdle. Poutons vaccine is a gamble - a bet well need a new type of vaccine to counter the antibody-evasive variants of COVID-19, like Delta, that continue to emerge. Consider the twisting bundle of proteins that make up COVID-19s spike. On the very tip of the spike is the receptor binding domain, a small molecular hook that needs to catch onto an ACE2 protein jutting off the side of a human cell. A 3D map of SARS-CoV-2's spike protein. Credit:Science The virus success is entirely dependent on that tiny hook catching. Build an antibody that gums it up, and youre basically immune. Unfortunately, your immune system doesnt know that. It sees the entire spike, and builds antibodies for the whole thing. Some gum up the binding domain; most dont, and many do nothing at all. If the binding domain changes shape, your antibodies cant stick to it. Moderna and Pfizer are planning to update the shape of the spike for their boosters. Everyones hoping that works. But theres some chance it wont, owing to a phenomenon immunologists call original antigenic sin. This occurs when the immune system fails to spot the subtle differences between the spike protein in the original dose of vaccine and the new spike in the booster. It assumes they are the same and doesnt update its arsenal of antibodies. Poutons solution: slice the tip off the spike. His vaccine contains only the receptor-binding domain from the Beta variant the most vaccine-resistance of the variant cousins of COVID-19s spike. Rather than having the whole spike, were really targeting a region most of the neutralising antibodies develop against, keeping the immune response a bit more tight and focused on a region we think is the most important, says Al-Wassiti. Will it work? Were months away from finding out. If it does, then comes the next step, striking a deal with a big pharma company to actually manufacture it. Obviously, in the end, we run out of big companies that would actually want to commercially develop this product, says Pouton. For our vaccine to be developed commercially, it would definitely need a big pharma company to take it on. You just dont know if thats going to happen. Liam Mannixs Examine newsletter explains and analyses science with a rigorous focus on the evidence. Sign up to get it each week. Every now and then, its useful to stop and ask the basic questions. Questions like: How do submarines actually contribute to our national security? And now, it seems, nuclear-powered submarines at that. The fundamental national security responsibilities of any government are to maintain our territorial integrity, political sovereignty and economic prosperity from external aggression. In Australias case, submarines form a critical part of a Defence Force designed to deter, disrupt or defeat military threats to our country. When the Labor government I led prepared the 2009 Defence White Paper, we applied these disciplines to the challenges we saw for our national security to 2030. It was the first time since the 1960s that a white paper had named China as an emerging strategic challenge, for which the Liberals attacked me as an old Cold War Warrior. I made no apology despite Beijings deep objections. Scott Morrison joins US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce the defence pact on Thursday. Based on Defence advice, we agreed to double the conventional submarine fleet to 12 boats, increase the surface fleet by a third, and proceed with the acquisition of up to 100 Joint Strike Fighters. Brian Houston has stepped aside from all of Hillsong Churchs boards but will remain a global senior pastor. Documents submitted to the corporate regulator ASIC show that Mr Houston quit his governance roles 12 days after he was charged by NSW Police for allegedly concealing child sexual abuse by his late father, Frank Houston. Hillsong pastor Brian Houston has professed his innocence after being charged by NSW Police. Credit:Getty Mr Houston, a co-founder of the evangelical megachurch and a friend of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is due to face court in Sydney on October 5 over allegations he did not inform police after learning that his father abused a young boy in the 1970s. Frank Houston, who died in 2004, has been accused of abusing a total of nine boys while a Pentecostal preacher. Public barbecues are being switched back on in a south-west Sydney local government area under strict COVID-19 restrictions in a move to bring some joy back to residents lives that has been lauded by a top mental health expert. Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour said that as well as turning the gas back on in its public barbecues, the council one of Sydneys 12 local government areas of concern had also reinstalled basketball hoops and reopened play equipment to lift community morale after speaking with local police and health officials. Barbecues are being switched back on in Canterbury-Bankstown as a morale booster. Credit:Rhett Wyman Our community is under enough mental strain at the moment and as a council we will do what we can to make life easier for them, Cr Asfour said. This is about the community being able to get back outdoors and bring some sanity back in their lives. Leaders in south-west Sydney say outdoor funeral rules should be relaxed after mourners clashed with police on Wednesday, warning lasting damage was being made to community cohesion. Amna Karra-Hassan, from the Lebanese Muslim Association, says people feel targeted by authorities after four people were arrested for attending an outdoor funeral at Rookwood Cemetery. Four people were arrested at Rookwood Cemetery on Wednesday. Credit:Facebook She said there was anger that thousands were able to flock to beaches in Sydneys affluent suburbs while families could not mourn their loved ones outdoors. Police, including members of the riot squad, were called to the cemetery on Wednesday following reports up to 100 people were in attendance. A Sydney teacher has been charged over allegations she sexually abused three boys at a school in the citys east more than 40 years ago. After receiving reports of sexual abuse by a teacher at a Maroubra school in the 1970s and 1980s, police established Strike Force Sportsground to investigate. NSW Police arrest Sydney teacher Helga Lam on Friday morning. Credit:NSW Police During their extensive investigation, police said they received information that three boys then aged 13, 14 and 15 were sexually assaulted by a female teacher at Maroubra Bay High School between 1977 and 1980. Helga Lam, 67, was arrested at her home in St Ives, in Sydneys north, just before 8am on Friday. She was taken to Hornsby police station and charged with 14 counts of indecent assault. For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Its the little things that have brightened lockdown for six-year-old Lily Thomson, such as the letters she and her mum, Maria Moschetti, have been dropping off in peoples mailboxes. Hi, my name is Lily, I live in Fairfield, this is just a letter to say hello so you know youre not forgotten, they write. Sometimes neighbours drop surprise bags of lollies at Lilys gate, and the family pays it forward: Ms Moschetti delivers hampers with groceries to doorsteps on her street and her partner mows lawns of the elderly. Theyve also made cupcakes to deliver to the local police station and hospital. Fairfield resident Maria Moschetti embraces her 6-year-old daughter Lily Thomson, who has autism. Theyve been trying to bring joy to their neighbours where they can. Credit:Kate Geraghty But the rest of the time has been tough. Lily has autism and only started school in June, so settling in via a screen has been challenging. Theyve had to isolate three times from being exposed at the Fairfield Coles, and Ms Moschetti has been ineligible for COVID disaster payments because shes on a carers payment. Loading Theres been a few really hard moments, she said. If it wasnt for some of the help available in the area, I dont know how we would have made it through - services, some of the people, the special education unit at Lilys school. There is a kebab shop near the train station that gives leftovers to the homeless. The mayor has been amazing he posts on Facebook every day, keeps us informed. Shops are still shuttered and residents are largely confined to their houses or apartments in the local government area of Fairfield, which has been subject to the harshest restrictions in NSW since surveillance testing for workers was first introduced in July. Advertisement Many have lost work or livelihoods, others have lost lives due to COVID-19, and most are desperate to leave their homes. Several residents say it will take a long time for people to recover from the fear, anxiety and feelings of division that have seeded in the community for months. But there are signs that things are turning around. At the start of the Delta outbreak in Sydneys south-west, the number of new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in Fairfield was roughly half of the states total cases for two weeks, with about 300 cases per week from July 14. New infections stayed below 300 for most of August but spiked again earlier this month to almost 600 weekly cases. They have not been evenly spread: some postcodes such as Horsley Park (2175) and Bonnyrigg (2177) have had fewer than 60 weekly cases since July. In the more heavily populated area of Fairfield (2165) more than 100 weekly cases have been found for the past four weeks. Meanwhile, in the neighbouring areas of Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown, case numbers were mostly low in July - between 25 and 75 per week for most of the month. But by mid-August, Canterbury-Bankstown recorded almost 1000 weekly cases and more than 400 were recorded in Liverpool. Now the curve is bending across all three LGAs - which were Sydneys first hotspots - but dipping most in Fairfield. I think the community has done really well in confronting the misinformation on social media by bringing in the experts in our own community, said Ramsin Edward, executive director of the areas Assyrian Youth Association. Advertisement When we went into the lockdown, there was a huge emphasis on south-west Sydney, it felt targeted. Naturally, the community will build a wall. But I think the younger people spent a great deal of time educating their parents it starts at home. And the community leaders played a huge role as well; the sessions with doctors and specialists, answering questions and concerns, encouraging people to go to their GP. Everything was done on a positive note thats my observation, he said. Fairfield resident Kamil Polus has been praying at home, where he lives alone in an apartment. Usually, he would attend church weekly. Hes had his first vaccine dose. Credit:Kate Geraghty The Assyrian Resource Centre, for example, has held dozens of online webinars while religious institutions, including the Assyrian Church of the East and Chaldean Catholic Church, have reached out to their older populations who may not speak English or have ever been vaccinated before. Mary Nano, whose family has come from Iraq, is an outlier: she rushed to get vaccinated even before the outbreak began. I was the first person in my family to get it. I called my sister and told her to congratulate me. My family said I was so brave, and was I scared? I said no. Shes glad the rest of her family has followed suit - one of her brothers had his second dose on Friday, the other will have his next week. But she feels suffocated in the apartment she shares with them, and says the rest of her health is now suffering. My joints and cholesterol is going downhill sitting at home all day, only eating, not walking... I swear to God sometimes I cant breathe anymore, I must go out, she said. Advertisement Mary Nano (left), with her groceries in Fairfield, was an early vaccine adopter although she says her health has suffered with months in lockdown. Credit:Kate Geraghty First dose vaccination rates across all Fairfield postcodes have passed 70 per cent after sitting on very low coverage rates of 10 to 20 per cent at the start of July. Two-thirds of postcodes have 80 per cent coverage. Loading Fairfield mayor Frank Carbone said he was hopeful there was a positive way forward for his community after western Sydney mayors met with Premier Gladys Berejiklian this week. I am proud of Fairfield residents. We have risen to this challenge, and have come forward to be vaccinated. Our cases have reduced and stabilised and vaccination rates are higher than most other parts of Sydney, he wrote in a message to the community. We should be rewarded for this effort with more freedoms. We dont want to see Sydney split into two with people lying on the beach in one part of Sydney while in the west we cant even go for a walk outside without a mask. Advertisement The areas local businesses are also struggling. Enver Dizdaric, 65, has owned Bondeno Cafe on Fairfields shopping strip for 24 years. His son Almir, 36, started working there when he was 11 and now manages the place. The Dizdarics reopened their cafe for the first time this week after a two-month shutdown, which began when the whole family - including Almirs children and in-laws - were struck down by COVID-19 after a positive case visited. It took weeks for Mr Dizdaric to recover from his exhaustion. He tells this to customers who are hesitant about vaccination, although he thinks most people are getting the message. A few months ago everyone was coming on very strong, saying its not true. Now theyre getting softer and softer, he said. Two months ago no one was vaccinated, now every second customer has had both doses of the vaccine. Enver Dizdaric and his son Almir opened their cafe for the first time in two months this week, after both their families caught COVID-19 from a customer. Credit:Kate Geraghty But Mr Dizdaric doesnt think hell open the cafe again next week. The business usually seats 80, but now just a handful of men will linger outside for a coffee before going home. Mentally I feel better I want to get out, he said. But Im here for nothing. Whats the point? I drink more coffee than my customers. Advertisement Sitting in the public gallery of Queenslands sole house of Parliament this week, Marshall Perron watched and listened to the debate with intent, just as the former Country Liberal Party chief minister of the Northern Territory has in five states and territories now since 2017. He hopes his next visit will be to NSW, or even Canberra, as national progress on voluntary euthanasia continues. Its just very sad that there might have been probably now some thousands of people who would have used such legislation who missed out, Perron said during a brief break in Thursdays sitting. Queensland MPs voting on the Palaszczuk governments voluntary assisted dying bill at the end of its second reading debate on Thursday. Credit:Matt Dennien The Sunshine States historic vote this week to legalise voluntary euthanasia had been long considered a pipedream by advocates pursuing the reforms nationwide. Their ongoing campaign had its first, though brief, success in Perrons own jurisdiction in 1996, well after his 14-year term but still bearing much of his mark. Perceptions of Queensland as a socially conservative state had led many supporters to believe it would be the last piece of the national puzzle to allow citizens suffering with terminal illnesses to die on their terms. Random government inspections have found three in four Victorian construction sites breaking coronavirus safety rules as tensions between the state government and building industry threaten to boil over. On the day workers protested over statewide tearoom bans and mandatory vaccinations brought in to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by taking their smoko break in the middle of some of Melbournes main roads, the government warned the industry could very well face further restrictions, or even closure. Construction workers protest the ban on tearoom gatherings, blocking Lonsdale Street during their lunch break. Credit:Joe Armao Construction workers are set to continue their street shutdowns next week, after workers set up chairs and tables that blocked trams and cars in Brunswick, Richmond, Footscray and the CBD on Friday. Case numbers have ballooned at construction sites and a government spokeswoman said after 200 surveillance checks on Thursday, 73 per cent of construction sites were not compliant with health directions. The non-compliance rate in other industries is 19 per cent. It doesnt look remotely like todays multicultural Australia. It might make some uncomfortable, but our political class looks like its stuck in the White Australia era, he says. Loading If you dont have cultural diversity in our politics, you dont have a politics thats representative. Thats a pretty basic problem. Dr Blair Williams from the Global Institute for Womens Leadership at ANU says while an exact representation of the community isnt possible, it just needs to be a bit more focused on being less of a white boys club from a certain background. There has been a strong focus for some time now on increasing the number of women elected, but Williams says there also should have been thought put into improving cultural diversity. Shed also like to see more young people, people with disabilities and those from different class backgrounds. The problem is self-perpetuating, says Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan. If people dont see anyone like them in Parliament, theyre less likely to get involved in the political process. The lack of diverse and inclusive parliaments means certain groups are poorly represented and their interests are not well spoken for, he says. Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan. Credit:Eddie Jim Even aside from the importance of involving diverse voices in the legislative process, Parliament provides a tremendous platform for engaging in public debate. We have often seen that when politicians from diverse backgrounds enter Parliament, they achieve great outcomes by focusing attention on issues that might otherwise be overlooked. Soutphommasane points to the agitation in some quarters for abolishing section 18C of the Race Discrimination Act, which protects against hate speech, saying the lack of diversity can contribute to a distorted political debate. A monochrome political class will have some blind spots, he says. The question of how to fix the problem is not easy, nor will it happen quickly. Those who advocate a quota arrangement point to Labors gains in gender diversity. It has taken the party more than 30 years from its first quota to reach equal representation. Former cabinet minister and deputy leader Jenny Macklin says quotas are still contested and there continues to be male resistance. Emilys List, an organisation that backs progressive women running for Parliament, published a paper in 2019 that recommended Labor introduce tandem quotas for women and cultural diversity with different targets for safe seats, marginal seats and the party executive. Williams says these types of tandem quotas benefit culturally diverse women but are less good for majority men and majority women. An alternative could be a kind of reverse quota. So you only have a certain amount of white men in Parliament and when you hit that number, then you have to diversify, Williams says. Loading If you do look at other styles of quotas, like the tandem quotas ... you do run the risk of having, say, 30 per cent of people preselected who are women and culturally diverse, that still means that the other 70 per cent can be white men. Labor MP Peter Khalil, whose parents migrated from Egypt to Australia in the 1970s, said this week MPs with diverse backgrounds should not be token or just be making up the numbers. Rather, parties had to show a real commitment. His colleague Anne Aly, who was herself born in Egypt, also called on her party to do more than just pay lip service to multiculturalism. Other MPs also called for action, with Ed Husic saying Labor had to do a stocktake of its membership and have a serious conversation about how to reflect the community, and senator Jenny McAllister saying it was time for bold actions. Loading But not everyone thinks quotas are the answer. Osmond Chiu, an ALP member and research fellow at the Per Capita think tank, says the party needs to work out the extent of its problem with diversity before it can address it. Any talk of quotas to improve cultural diversity or candidates is putting the cart before the horse when change throughout the whole party organisation is needed. A lot of the focus has been on Fowler because its symptomatic, it symbolises this wider systemic problem that exists, that Australia has become a much more diverse country but our institutions, such as Parliament, havent really kept up, he says. Liberal MP Dave Sharma says theres no doubt all parties including his own have to more actively recruit people with different backgrounds instead of continuing the pretty laissez-faire attitude they have now. Liberal MP Dave Sharma is the only person of Indian heritage in Parliament. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Since his election replacing Labors Lisa Singh as the only person of Indian heritage in Parliament he has often heard from people in the Indian Australian community asking how they can become involved in politics. He doesnt believe in quotas but points to the work of the Conservatives in the UK to transform from a very stuffy, traditional party to the more diverse outfit after the party machinery actively sought people from outside the usual breeding grounds of politics. It is as much as smart politics as the right thing to do. Loading People are much more inclined to vote and support for, empathise with or have a connection with people that have a similar life experience, Sharma says. That doesnt just mean ethnically, it can be religiously, it can be professionally, it can be if youve got a disability, all those sorts of things ... help your political brand strength. Tan says this is why parties must look beyond candidate preselection and make sure there are people from diverse backgrounds welcomed and involved at grassroots and administrative levels too. Singapore: Australias plan to arm itself with a fleet of nuclear-propelled submarines to combat the rising threat of China has been met with alarm by near neighbour Indonesia. South-east Asias largest country has expressed unease about Australias dramatic enhancing of its military, notably its intention to use US technology to build eight nuclear-powered submarines as part of the new three-way defence alliance with Washington DC and London. Indonesias President Joko Widodo has maintained good ties with China despite issues over sovereignty near the Natuna Islands. Credit:AP In a statement issued on Friday, Indonesia foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Jakarta had taken note of Australias decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and stressed Indonesia is deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region. Indonesia stresses the importance of Australias commitment to continue meeting all of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations, the statement said. London: The British government said it was taking steps to return to its traditional system of imperial weights and measures, allowing shops and market stalls to sell fruits and vegetables labelled in pounds and ounces alone, rather than in the metric systems grams and kilograms, a move it hailed as an example of the countrys new post-Brexit freedoms. The plans, which David Frost, the minister overseeing Brexit, announced this week, were cheered by Brexit supporters, many of whom had argued that the switch to the metric system over the decades was a sign of unwelcome European Union interference in daily life in Britain. While the EU currently requires members to use only the metric system, it had allowed Britain, when it was a member, to label its produce in imperial units alongside metric units. There were also exceptions for traffic signs and beer. The EU had always made an exception to their all-metric rule to allow British pubs to sell pints of beer. Credit:PA Pool As part of its exit from the EU, the British government is now reviewing thousands of EU rules that it retained and determining whether they best serve the national interest. Those rules include the EU ban on sales in imperial units, which the British government said it would legislate changes to in due course. SABA:--- A delegation of the Saba Island Council paid a working visit to Bonaire earlier this month. The official four-day program included meetings with members of the Bonaire Island Council, Bonaires Island Governor Edison Rijna, Commissioner Nina den Heyer, the national parks foundation STINAPA, the Health Insurance Office ZVK, the Immigration, and Naturalization Department IND and BES(t)4Kids, as well as the Bonaire Day celebration. The Saba delegation consisted of Island Council Members Vito Charles and Esmeralda Johnson, and Island Registrar Akilah Levenstone. Other Members of the Island Council were unable to travel to Bonaire due to other commitments. The delegation traveled to Bonaire on Wednesday, September 1, and returned to Saba on Wednesday, September 8. This was the first time in two years that a delegation of the Saba Island Council visited Bonaire. Last years visit didnt go ahead due to the pandemic. The delegation had important meetings with three members of the Bonaire Island Council: Esther Bernabela, Elvis Tjin Asjoe, and Desiree Coffie. Discussed were, among other things, the cooperation between the Caribbean Netherlands islands, poverty, the social minimum, connectivity between the islands, the free allowance, and the cost of living. The Saba delegation expressed support for the motion that the Bonaire Island Council adopted in early September 2021 with regard to the needed establishing of the social minimum and the association measures to combat poverty. According to Council Member Charles, the motion showed that it is important to work together as islands in order to send a stronger message to The Hague. Close collaboration Working closely with the other two Island Councils, in general, is important. Our visit to Bonaire and the meeting with the Island Council Members there showed that it is important to meet with our counterparts to discuss developments for we face similar challenges and issues, said Charles. For example, in the area of connectivity, residents from both Saba and Bonaire have to pay high ticket prices for flights to neighboring islands. The cost of living is high in all three Caribbean Netherlands islands. Ideas about how to lower this cost were discussed. The meeting with Bonaire Commissioner Den Heyer was very good, said Charles. She has always had good relations with Saba. She again expressed support for cooperation. It was good to see that she and the Island Council share the same views. While on Bonaire, the Saba Island Council Members brought up the idea to have a meeting with the Island Councils of Bonaire and St. Eustatius later this year. Ideally, also participating would be the Executive Councils of Bonaire and Saba, and the St. Eustatius Government Commissioners. We want to have some type of conference with the Island Councils and PHILIPSBURG:--- The Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization (CCAD), of Parliament will meet on September 17, 2021. The Committee meeting is scheduled for Friday at 14.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg. Representatives of the Dutch Quarter Community Council will be present. The agenda point is: Presentation by the Dutch Quarter Community Council on community challenges and needs (IS/499/2020-2021 dated March 16, 2021) This meeting was requested by MP S.L. Duncan Due to measures taken to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the House of Parliament is only allowing persons with an appointment to enter the Parliament building. The parliamentary session will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 115, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, www.pearlfmradio.sx and Parliaments Facebook page: Parliament of Sint Maarten PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The hurricane season runs through November 30 two and a half months are still to go. Currently, there are a number of weather systems in the eastern Atlantic Ocean between the Lesser Antilles and Africa, and therefore for the remaining 10+ weeks of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, residents and businesses are advised to remain vigilant and prepared, the Office of Disaster Management (ODM) which falls under the Fire Department (Ministry of General Affairs) headed by Fire Chief/National Disaster Coordinator Clive Richardson, said on Thursday. The remaining storm names for the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season are Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, and Wanda. The 14th-named storm, and sixth hurricane of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season Nicholas, has dissipated into remnants over the Central Gulf Coast near the U.S. state of Louisiana. Continue to monitor local weather reports issued by the Meteorological Department of Sint Maarten for advisories related to any adverse weather. The community is urged to learn more about hurricane hazards and how to prepare for a storm/hurricane strike by visiting the Government website: www.sintmaartengov.org/hurricane where you will be able to download your Hurricane Season Readiness Guide and Hurricane Tracking Chart. Listen to the Government Radio station 107.9FM - for official information and news before, during, and after a hurricane. For official weather-related information, check out the website of the Meteorological Department of St. Maarten (MDS): www.meteosxm.com or visit their social media page Facebook.com/sxmweather/ Remember, it only takes one hurricane to make it a bad season. Remain vigilant and prepared! PHILIPSBURG:--- The Police Force of St. Maarten KPSM has begun implementing an action plan based on the ministerial decree, issued by the Minister of Justice, to reduce the fights and other illegal acts committed in and around the schools especially in St. Peters and South Reward. To tackle these types of behaviors and lay a foundation to reduce incidents, KPSM recently put together a team of officers to carry out actions around the schools. These operations have yielded the following positive results. In the last few days, police have been patrolling the school district in the morning and afternoon. Since then, it is noticeable that fights in and around the school have decreased significantly. It is further noticeable that the disorderly behavior happening has also greatly declined in and around schools. Other actions will be undertaken by KPSM to further safeguard everyone in the affected areas. Police held information sessions at schools. In an ongoing effort to bridge the gap between the Police Force of Sint Maarten KPSM and students of Sint Maarten, a group of police officers is conducting a series of information sessions at several schools. On September 16, 2021, two police officers made a presentation at Learning Unlimited Preparatory School. Majors J. Boyrard and I. Woodley with the police K-9 Oscar demonstrated how an arrest is made via the police K-9 deployment. After, they explained to the students the types of police dogs and their skills. The KPSM management team expresses gratitude to Learning Unlimited for inviting the officers. KPSM Press Release. New York, 6 September 2021 (SPS) On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the coming into effect of the ceasefire in Western Sahara, Dr Sidi Mohamed Omar, Member of the National Secretariat and Frente POLISARIO Representative at United Nations and Responsible for Coordination with MINURSO issued the following press statement to national and international media. The full text of the press statement: [New York, 6 September 2021] Thirty years have elapsed since the coming into effect of the ceasefire between the two parties to the conflict in Western Sahara, the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco, on 6 September 1991, as an integral part of the UN-OAU joint Settlement Proposals that were accepted by both parties on 30 August 1988. The ceasefire paved the way for the deployment of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) with a view to holding a fair and impartial referendum, without military or administrative constraints, in which the people of Western Sahara would exercise their right to self-determination and independence. For almost three decades, the Frente POLISARIO remained fully committed, in good faith, to the UN peace process in Western Sahara and made tremendous concessions so that MINURSO could fully implement its mandate and achieve its ultimate objective, namely the holding of a free and fair referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara. Nonetheless, the inaction of the Security Council has allowed the occupying state of Morocco not only to sabotage the full implementation of MINURSO mandate but also to prevent the Mission from functioning in accordance with the general principles applicable to UN peacekeeping operations. The restrictions imposed by the occupying state on MINURSO, which continue to date, have seriously undermined the already eroded credibility, impartiality, and independence of the Mission. Today, the best example of the inaction of the Security Council, which bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, is its failure to act robustly in the face of Moroccos serious breach of the 1991 ceasefire and its new act of aggression on the Liberated Territory of Western Sahara on 13 November 2020. The Moroccan new act of aggression, which continues to date with complete impunity, has led to the collapse of almost thirty years of ceasefire and the outbreak of war again in Western Sahara, which could lead to the most serious consequences for peace, security, and stability in the entire region as armed confrontations between the Sahrawi Army and Moroccan occupying forces continue and intensify with each day that passes. Moreover, although the Security Council has been including human rights components in the mandates of peace operations since 1991, MINURSO remains an anomaly in respect of its lack of any mandate in relation to human rights. Now, after thirty years of its deployment in the Territory, MINURSO is still completely unable to protect the human rights of the Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists in the territories under Moroccos illegal occupation who are subjected daily to unspeakable cruelty and barbaric and inhuman practices before the eyes of the Mission. There is no denying the fact that the obstructionism, procrastination, and evident lack of political will of the occupying state of Morocco have practically precluded MINURSO from fully implementing the mandate for which it was established under the authority of the Security Council in its resolution 690 (1991) dated 29 April 1991. Moreover, the occupying state, which continues to enjoy protection and patronage by some quarters, has demonstrated clearly through its unceasing destabilising and unlawful actions in the Occupied Western Sahara that it is still bent on preventing MINURSO from fully implementing its mandate and achieving a peaceful and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara. The Security Council should however realise that the inability of MINURSO to fully fulfil its mandate is primarily due to the failure of the Council itself to use all the powers conferred upon it by the UN Charter to ensure the full implementation of the mandate of its Mission in Western Sahara. The Council should also realise that business as usual is what has led to the present situation and the concomitant collapse of the ceasefire and return of war in Western Sahara. The Sahrawi people, who for three decades had opted for the peaceful solution and demonstrated patience and flexibility and exercised the utmost restraint in the face of Moroccos continued provocations and aggressions, are now being brutally subjected to a new aggression by the occupying state of Morocco before the eyes of the United Nations and the international community. In this regard, the Frente POLISARIO underscores once again that it remains fully committed to the peaceful and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara based on the full respect for the inalienable and non-negotiable right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence in accordance with the objectives and principles of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) and relevant UN and AU resolutions. However, the Frente POLISARIO further affirms that the Sahrawi people will never accept the fait accompli that the occupying state of Morocco is seeking to impose by force in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara and will continue to use all legitimate means to defend their rights and legitimate national aspirations. The time has therefore come for the United Nations and the Security Council in particular to match their repeatedly stated commitment to a peaceful, just and lasting solution in Western Sahara with concrete actions to enable the Sahrawi people to exercise freely and democratically their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. This is the core mandate for which the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established thirty years ago. Dr Sidi M. Omar Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations Responsible for Coordination with MINURSO. (SPS) 090/500/60 (SPS) New York (United Nations) 16 September 2021 (SPS)- Frente Polisario Representative to the UN and Saharawi Coodinator with the MINURSO, Ambassador Sidi M. Omar, stressed in a press release yesterday, that the Moroccan acceptance of Staffan De Mistura as the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara, is the result of pressures exerted by powerful members of the Security Council on rabat. The Frente POLISARIO considers the statement made by the representative of the occupying state of Morocco as merely a shameless and futile attempt to give the impression that his regime is cooperating with the UN efforts at a time when the Secretariat itself and all members of the Security Council are aware that it was the occupying state itself that officially rejected Mr Staffan de Mistura in May as part of its continued rejection of the numerous proposals made by the UN Secretary-General since the resignation of President Horst Kohler in May 2019, Dr. Sidi M. Omar said. He recalled however that the Frente POLISARIO recalls that the UN peace process in Western Sahara has been completely torpedoed by the serious violation of the ceasefire and related military agreements perpetrated on 13 November 2020 by the occupying state of Morocco and its act of aggression on the Liberated Territories of the Sahrawi Republic, which continues as the United Nations remains deafeningly silent. Following is the full text of the Press Release as received by SPS: FRENTE POLISARIO REPRESENTATION AT THE UNITED NATIONS PRESS STATEMENT The acceptance by the occupying state of Morocco of Mr Staffan de Mistura as PESG for Western Sahara is due to the pressure exerted by some influential powers within the Security Council [New York, 15 September 2021] The news agency of the occupying state of Morocco reported today that Moroccos UN representative stated that his country had given its approval to the UN Secretary-General for the appointment of Mr Staffan de Mistura as Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara. The Frente POLISARIO considers the statement made by the representative of the occupying state of Morocco as merely a shameless and futile attempt to give the impression that his regime is cooperating with the UN efforts at a time when the Secretariat itself and all members of the Security Council are aware that it was the occupying state itself that officially rejected Mr Staffan de Mistura in May as part of its continued rejection of the numerous proposals made by the UN Secretary-General since the resignation of President Horst Kohler in May 2019. The UN Secretariat, all members of the Security Council and other international and regional stakeholders are also well aware of the positive response given by the Frente POLISARIO on 29 April 2021 regarding the proposal of Mr Staffan de Mistura to serve as Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara. The position exhibited by the Frente POLISARIO was widely welcomed as a sign of its good faith and support for the Secretary-Generals efforts. Moreover, everyone is aware of the attempts and manoeuvres carried out by the occupying state of Morocco to influence the efforts of the UN Secretary-General to appoint a new personal envoy for Western Sahara through the set of preconditions put by the occupying state that arbitrarily exclude citizens of a group of UN Member States including Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavian Countries, Switzerland and the five permanent members of the Security Council, among others. Thus, the fact that the representative of the occupying state of Morocco has tried to conceal is that his countrys acceptance of Mr Staffan de Mistura as Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara was the result of the pressure exerted on his regime by some influential powers within the Security Council, which could no longer tolerate Moroccos continued obstruction of the Secretary-Generals efforts to relaunch the peace process in Western Sahara. In this context, the Frente POLISARIO recalls that the UN peace process in Western Sahara has been completely torpedoed by the serious violation of the ceasefire and related military agreements perpetrated on 13 November 2020 by the occupying state of Morocco and its act of aggression on the Liberated Territories of the Sahrawi Republic, which continues as the United Nations remains deafeningly silent. The representative of the occupying state of Morocco refers to the return to the peace process and to some of the related procedural issues. This is merely an illusion because the Sahrawi people already said the final word on this matter on 13 November 2020, when they resumed their legitimate armed struggle and declared loud and clear a clean break with a peace process that the Security Council itself had not been able to enforce for nearly 30 years. The representative of the occupying state of Morocco also refers to some unviable formulas that he falsely claims to have been established by the Security Council in its resolutions. This is an absurd attempt to pre-justify the procrastination and obstructionism characteristic of the occupying state of Morocco. The Frente POLISARIO, who has demonstrated through concrete actions its genuine commitment to the peaceful solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara, underscores again that no genuine, credible, and viable peace process will ever be possible as long as the occupying state of Morocco persists, with complete impunity, in its unlawful actions and attempts to forcibly impose a fait accompli in the Occupied Territories of the Sahrawi Republic. The Frente POLISARIO therefore reaffirms that the only way forward to achieve a peaceful, just, and enduring solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara is to enable the Sahrawi people to exercise freely and democratically their inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence in accordance with the precepts of international legality and relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the African Union (AU). The occupying state of Morocco, which continues to enjoy protection and patronage by some members of the Security Council, and despite its much-trumpeted commitment to UN resolutions, has clearly demonstrated that it has no genuine political will to achieve a peaceful and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara, and that its sole objective is to maintain the status quo to normalise and legitimise its illegal occupation of parts of the Sahrawi Republic. The Security Council should therefore abandon its typical inaction and realise that the inability of MINURSO to fully fulfil its mandate and the collapse of the peace process in Western Sahara is primarily due to the failure of the Council to use all the powers conferred upon it by the UN Charter to ensure the full implementation of MINURSOs mandate and to compel the occupying state of Morocco to engage seriously and responsibly in the peace process and to end its illegal occupation of parts of the Sahrawi Republic. Dr Sidi M. Omar Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations Responsible for Coordination with MINURSO. (SPS) 090/500/60 (SPS) Alan White In response to generous offers of support from Staffordshire people, a JustGiving page has been launched for recently arrived Afghan evacuees. A large number of Afghan families were this week placed in short-term accommodation in Newcastle-under-Lyme by the Home Office, until they are offered permanent homes around the country. Local public services including councils and the NHS are supporting these families with health, education and other needs, and have also been inundated with offers of support from the community. The JustGiving page has been set up in partnership with local charity the Community Foundation for Staffordshire, to take donations that will be used to buy clothes, childrens toys and other essential items. Public agencies are kindly asking people not to donate clothes, toys or other items themselves. Alan White, Leader of Staffordshire County Council, said: Here in Staffordshire, we are doing our bit to welcome and support Afghan evacuees following tragic recent events in their homeland. Local councils have already committed to support around 20 families in the county. The Government has also placed a number of families in temporary accommodation in Newcastle. In most cases these are people forced to flee their homes with only the possessions they could carry. So, we are hugely grateful for the offers of help. Every penny donated will go to those who need it most. Simon Tagg, Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, added: Some time ago we pledged our support to help refugees and their families who have assisted British forces in Afghanistan. It has been great to see so many people offer to help, but rather than sending items to us, the best way to do that is via a donation so that we can buy what the families need. Steve Adams, Chief Executive at the Community Foundation for Staffordshire, said: It is heartening to see people offer support to those most vulnerable, particularly when they have had to leave their homes with nothing. We're very pleased to be working with Staffordshire County and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council to assist with such a worthy cause." To donate, go to www.justgiving.com/campaign/StaffordshireAfghanEvacuees PHOENIX (AP) Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer is asking Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich to investigate after voter registration records were posted online. Voter registration records known as the voter file are available to the public, but it's a felony to publish the information on the Internet. The voter file includes the name, address and party affiliation of registered voters, along with some phone numbers. It shows whether the person has voted in recent elections but not the candidates and issues they supported. It appears that in this case, information from a public records request may have been posted in violation of state law, Richer said in a statement Thursday. "I trust the Attorney General will look into this and take any necessary action. Richer did not name the group responsible for the alleged violation, but an expansive list of voters remained accessible Thursday afternoon on a website posting podcasts, articles and other materials in support of the Republican Party. Richer and Brnovich are both Republicans. As real estate mogul Robert Durst was found guilty Friday of murder, his former wifes family is still seeking closure in her disappearance that was at the center of the Los Angeles homicide trial. After several days of deliberations, the jury found Durst, 78, guilty of the 2000 homicide of Susan Berman, his close friend who California prosecutors said was killed because she was about to come forward with information in the disappearance of Kathie Durst. Kathie Durst, who graduated from what was then known as Western Connecticut State College in Danbury, vanished on Jan. 31, 1982. The 29-year-old disappeared after leaving a friends house in Newtown to return to the couples home in South Salem, N.Y., authorities have said. Robert Durst has not been charged in his wifes death or disappearance. However, the disappearance was central to the evidence presented during his California trial, which began in March 2020 and was paused for 14 months due to the pandemic before it resumed in May. Durst was charged in Bermans homicide in March 2015 as the final episode was set to air for the HBO six-part series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which chronicled the millionaires life and connection to three peoples deaths over four decades. Durst, who was acquitted in the 2001 homicide and dismemberment of one of his neighbors in Texas, was alone in a bathroom in the HBO series when a live microphone caught him saying, What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course. Berman was a close friend to Durst who defended him when allegations surfaced after his wife was reported missing. Berman was found shot dead in her Los Angeles home in December 2000, according to prosecutors, who said she was about to come forward with information in Kathie Dursts disappearance. Robert Durst had contended he dropped off his wife at the train station in Katonah, N.Y., on the night of Jan. 31, 1982. He had said his wife was going to stay at their Manhattan apartment because she had class the next morning at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. In August, Robert Durst testified during his trial that he lied to a police detective when he said he spoke to his wife on the phone days after he dropped her off at the train station. "That was a lie," Durst testified. "I wanted to convince him that Kathie had gotten back." He also testified that hes no longer sure if he saw her get on the train. "Everyone has asked me that question, and I have changed my mind maybe a dozen times," Durst said under questioning from his attorney Dick DeGuerin. "Did I actually see Kathie walk through the doors and onto the train? The answer is no. But there is no place else to go." Authorities have said they believe Robert Durst never took his wife to the train station and that she likely was killed at home in South Salem, which is just over the Ridgefield border in northern Westchester County. Robert Dursts attorney challenged the strength of the prosecutions case, arguing there was no evidence of Kathie Durst's death. DeGuerin said the case also lacked forensic and direct evidence linking his client to the disappearance. While authorities have contended Berman impersonated Kathie Durst to call out sick from the medical school the day after the disappearance, DeGuerin said prosecutors failed to prove that happened. Authorities have said the call was intended to make it appear that Kathie Durst was still alive. In May, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said her office had assigned the investigation to a newly formed cold case unit that would reexamine DNA and other evidence. She said statements publicly made by the suspect and additional witnesses coming forward have made the case a priority again. We want to do it right, Rocah said. The family wants and needs closure and the community needs closure. In 2017, a judge declared Kathie Durst dead. However, her family appealed the ruling, which declared her dead five years after her disappearance. The family sought to have her death officially listed as the day she disappeared, court documents stated. In 2018, an appeals court sided with the family, overturning the ruling and declaring Kathie Dursts death as Jan. 31, 1982. Kathie Durst was about to finish medical school to become a pediatrician when she vanished, her family said. She was close to her mother and her siblings and did not have a reason to suddenly break contact with them and vanish, the appeal documents said. Even Durst himself acknowledges that Kathie was close with her friends and family, especially her mother and her siblings and was in constant contact with people she loved, an attorney for the family said in court documents. There was no evidence presented as to why Kathie would inexplicably cut off communication with her loved ones. In the weeks before her disappearance, Robert Durst had physically abused her so severely she required hospitalization, the family said in the court documents. He also admitted he had a physical confrontation with his wife in their home on the evening she disappeared, court documents said. Robert Durst moved to divorce his wife ex-parte after she disappeared and filed an affidavit that neither he, nor her family, had seen her since Jan. 31, 1982. Kathie Dursts family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2019, close to 40 years after she disappeared, but it was thrown out by a New York judge because the statute of limitations ran out 35 years earlier. The judge told the family they could refile if Robert Durst is charged with his missing wifes homicide. In May when the Westchester County District Attorney reopened the case, Rocah said domestic violence investigations have evolved since Kathie Durst disappeared. At the time of this alleged homicide occurred, we didnt have a good understanding of domestic violence, Rocah said. ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) A northern Illinois police officer was shot early Thursday but wasn't hurt because he was wearing a ballistic vest, authorities said. Officers were gathered in an area when they heard a gunshot from close range, the Rockford Police Department said. CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) When a wildfire crested the mountains near North America's largest alpine lake, embers and ash that zipped across a smoky sky pierced Lake Tahoes clear blue waters. The evacuation order for thousands to flee their homes has been lifted, but those who returned have found black stripes of ash building up on the shoreline a reminder that success fighting the Caldor Fire wont insulate the resort region on the California-Nevada line from effects that outlast wildfire season. Scientists say its too soon to draw conclusions about the lasting damage that record-setting wildfires will have on Lake Tahoe. But theyre not wasting time. Researchers and state officials on the Tahoe Science Advisory Council discussed future study at a meeting Thursday. Scientists funded by California, Nevada and the League to Save Lake Tahoe are researching lake clarity and biodiversity during and after wildfires. Theyre using collection buckets some loaded with glass marbles to capture and measure the size and quantity of particles and pollutants from wildfires that have sullied the normally crystal-clear waters. Theyre studying how particles enter the lake, how they move around it and the effect on algae production. The clarity of the iconic alpine lake can vary even without catastrophic wildfires. On average, Lake Tahoe is clear 65 feet (20 meters) below the waters surface. Through wildfire season, scientists stationed near the lake's center have only been able to see 50 feet (15 meters) below the surface a reduction they arent sure is due to particles, algae or simply lack of sunlight, said Geoff Schladow, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the University of California, Davis' Tahoe Environmental Research Center. My feeling is, in some ways, it may look worse than it is, Schladow said. What smoke in the basin actually does, particularly when it lasts for months, is something we dont really know. Were finding that out as we speak. Smoke from Northern California wildfires has cloaked the Lake Tahoe basin in past years. But as blazes have grown in size and intensity partially due to climate change, scientists say smoke that has sat atop the lake for two to three months in the past two wildfire seasons has exceeded the expectations of many residents and tourists who flock to the deep blue lake for its clean alpine air and fragrant pine trees. Its also concerned scientists, who have spent years studying how algae, erosion and air pollution from vehicles that 15 million tourists drive in each year affect clarity. They say the sheer amount of wildfire smoke that has lingered could harm lake clarity in ways that werent previously considered. Our bread-and-butter sources of declining lake clarity are pretty well understood, said Allison Oliver, an ecologist at the Skeena Fisheries Commission in western Canada who studied how rivers and creeks delivered murky sediment to Lake Tahoe after the 2007 Angora Fire. This new phenomenon where were getting these big shifts in climate regimes and this pattern of big summer fires," she said of the Sierra Nevada mountains, "thats not something that was on peoples radar as much 15 or 20 years ago. Now, its routine. On many days, smoke has blotted out views of the mountains that wrap the lakes pristine waters and left an inescapable campfire stench on clothes, in cars and beneath fingernails. Its really apparent that we need to be concerned about not only fires burning in the basin that cause erosion and burn scars, but the smoke generated from massive fires outside the basin," said Jesse Patterson, the League to Save Lake Tahoes chief strategy officer. We need to think bigger, if we want to keep Tahoe blue decades to come. The league, best known for its Keep Tahoe Blue bumper stickers, has aggressively pursued environmental restoration projects to maintain the lakes clarity, prevent erosion and replant burn scars. But amid accelerating climate change, Patterson fears local land management efforts may no longer be enough to protect the lake. Scientists fear alpine lakes can act as sponges, soaking up the microscopic particles in wildfire smoke, said Sudeep Chandra, a biology professor and director of the Global Water Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. Regardless of whether studies end up showing smoke obscures algae-fighting sunlight or increases the flow of pollutants into the lake, he believes the challenge for scientists will be expanding the scope of research into factors affecting Lake Tahoe. Chandra applauded efforts to maintain lake clarity through restoring rivers, preventing erosion and encouraging responsible development. But after he saw how much smoke from California's Dixie Fire further north in the Sierra Nevada ended up in the basin, he said questions about the lakes future need to reckon with broader climate change trends. Were clearly regionally connected. Thats going to be a new way of thinking about managing the Lake Tahoe basin, he said. ___ Metz 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. NEW CANAAN All 32 of the cars stolen in town this year were a result of keys being left inside, according to the police chief. Noting this, chief Leon Krolikowski said Wednesday that he wants to enact new ways to persuade residents to lock their car doors. Another commonality between each theft is that not a single window was broken to enter the vehicle, according to Krolikowski. Car thieves dont want the noise, of breaking windows, as they dont want to smash them, they dont want to wake you up. They want go in, grab your car, have fun with it, commit more crimes and not get caught, State Attorney Judicial District of Stamford/Norwalk Paul J. Ferencek told the police commission on Sept 15. Car thieves no longer know how to steal cars unless they are unlocked, because of new technology, Ferencek told the commission. To date, 2021 has seen a 60 percent jump in stolen cars when compared to this time last year, where 20 vehicles had been stolen by mid-September. If you leave your keys in the car, you are a sitting duck, Ferencek said. To prevent the problem from happening in the first place, the town needs to continue to stress that vehicle owners should lock their cars and remove key fobs from their vehicles at night, the officials said. The police chief has been trying to get the word out to residents on this for some time. We are frustrated like everyone is, Krolikoski said. We are doing our best to try to figure out what we can do better. He said he uses notices on social media and in local news outlets to warn residents of the consequences, but does not feel the efforts seem to be helping. Krolikowski is considering further tactics such as yard signs. A marketing specialist has contacted him and said she will be sending him a draft of a 30-day marketing plan. But a simple solution is for residents to just be realistic. Dont be naive. Just lock your car door, Ferencek said. A victim may leave a purse in the car with hundreds of dollars in there. I think its their naivete, and people assume it is not going to happen to me, Ferencek added. People should realize if they live in suburbs such as New Canaan or Westport, they are not immune from this kind of activity, according to Ferencek. It may even be the reverse, according to the state attorney, noting that the kids know these are where the expensive cars are, so these towns are targeted. He was adamant and sincere in his parting advice for a public campaign to lock the cars. The health of students, teachers and staff in our schools depends in large part on the quality of the air they breathe. In Connecticut, unfortunately, many students and adults are at risk and the concerns go far beyond the pandemic. Hot temperatures, high humidity, mold and poor air quality undermine health and academic performance. Even before the pandemic, sick schools were a problem. Today, the importance of air quality has never been more critical, especially to help prevent the spread of disease such as childhood asthma and various respiratory problems that strike children and adults. Concerns about air quality have only intensified with the elevated infection rates of the delta COVID-19 variant. Schools have faced severe challenges and even been forced to close because of no air conditioning with classroom temperatures in the 80s and 90s. It is likely that in the future we will see more days with extreme heat, not less. These unsafe conditions make students and staff sick. Schools in every region of the state are affected, but asthma rates in children are highest in urban areas where schools are often under-resourced, and less likely to be air conditioned. Studies show that unhealthy air and hot temperatures have a domino effect leading to higher rates of illness for students and adults, increased absenteeism and reduced academic achievement. A study at Harvard University regarding excessive heat and lack of air conditioning concluded, When the heat is on, student learning suffers. The Connecticut Education Association has consistently advocated for all the states public schools to have high quality air cooling, heating and air-filtration systems. In a recent survey, 97 percent of teachers said ventilation and air quality was a top safety priority, but only 27 percent said it was being addressed at their school. There is a straightforward solution to protect the health of students and adults who spend hundreds of hours in our schools each year fix the deficient air-handling systems that make our schools unhealthy. Connecticut already provides protection for some. State regulations require a minimum of temperature of 65 degrees and a maximum of 78 degrees for pet stores. Housing for animals shall be adequately ventilated in such a manner to minimize drafts, offensive odors and moisture condensation and to provide for the health and comfort of the animals at all times. Believe it or not, there is no such regulation to protect the health and comfort of children and adults in schools. In recent years, an obstacle to upgrading schools even just to the level of pet stores has been cost. Some at the state level have been unwilling to broaden the use of school construction funds for something as necessary as fixing outdated and harmful ventilation systems or providing air conditioning. That excuse has vanished, however, with the tremendous influx of federal funds to Connecticut $1.1 billion for enhancements, support and capital improvements to our schools. With a small fraction of the federal education funds, Connecticut has the resources to make every school healthier, safer and available year round, including for summer school and community uses. It is time to take action. Gov. Lamont and the state Department of Education should prioritize federal funds for the installation or repair of air conditioning and improved air quality for all schools in need. SDE should coordinate with school districts and the Department of Administrative Services to ensure that all districts upgrade air quality. SDE should also use discretionary grant funds to assist school districts that receive little to no federal funds in addressing their air quality systems. Connecticut has the means to fix and improve the overall health protections of every school. There is no excuse for leaving any school or community behind when it comes to air quality that promotes health and academic performance. At present, Connecticut provides more humane standards for pets in pet stores than we do for children and adults in schools. We can and must do better. Donald Williams is executive director of the Connecticut Education Association. Published: 17 September 2021 Net returns from direct investments record high in 2020 During 2020, Finnish investors returns from foreign direct investments (FDI) totalled EUR 11.3 billion. Returns generated by foreign owners on direct investments to Finland totalled EUR 5.5 billion. This property income is recorded in the primary income item of Finlands current account and its net effect on Finlands current account in 2020 was record high, EUR 5.8 billion. Returns on FDI in 2007 to 2020 Dividends and interest payments on the returns amounted to EUR 7.7 billion from abroad to Finland and to EUR 4.4 billion from Finland abroad. The share of reinvested earnings in total returns was EUR 3.6 billion for investments from Finland abroad and EUR 1.1 billion for investments from abroad to Finland. During 2020, the value of foreign direct investments (FDI) to Finland from abroad fell from EUR 76.4 billion to EUR 73.8 billion. As financial transactions, foreign investors reduced their net investments in Finland to the value of EUR 2.4 billion. The effect of reinvested earnings on the stock of investments was EUR 1.1 billion positive. The value of direct investments from Finland abroad fell from EUR 130.4 billion to EUR 117.1 billion. EUR 18,4 billion of the fall is explained by classification, exchange rate and price changes. Reinvested earnings increased the stock of investments by EUR 3.6 billion. Investments abroad as financial transactions totalled on net EUR 1.5 billion. FDI investment portfolio in 2004 to 2020 ) Starting from 2013, the figures are not fully comparable with those for 2004 to 2012 due to changes in the international statistical standard. Examined by country group, investments to Finland came mainly from the EU area, whose combined share of the investment stock was 81 per cent at the end of 2020. The share of the euro area in the stock of Finland's inward FDI was 47 per cent. Correspondingly, Finlands outward FDI was mostly directed to the areas of the EU (79%) and euro area countries (46%). This release includes a review that examines in more detail the development of foreign direct investments in 2020. Source: Foreign direct investments 2020, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Petri Kinnarinen 029 551 3428, balanceofpayments@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja Publication in pdf-format (498.9 kB) Updated 17.9.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Foreign direct investments [e-publication]. ISSN=2342-351X. 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.9.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ssij/2020/ssij_2020_2021-09-17_tie_001_en.html Published: 17 September 2021 Service exports have not returned to pre-pandemic levels despite growth in the second quarter of 2021 International trade grew in the second quarter of 2021 relative to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. In the past quarter, the value of exports of services grew by EUR 0.5 billion relative to the second quarter of last year, when, if not before, the effects of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus were reflected in the statistics on international trade. Imports of services also grew by EUR 0.4 billion. These data derive from Statistics Finland's statistics on international trade in goods and services, which are part of balance of payments . Figure 1. Imports and exports of services quarterly However, the situation looks worse if the past quarter is compared to the second quarter of 2019: the value of service exports was EUR 1.5 billion lower in the second quarter of 2021 than two years ago. In light of this, the burst of growth in service exports in the last quarter of 2020 seems to be a temporary push, from which exports returned already in the next quarter to the same low level defined by the corona pandemic in the second and third quarters of 2020. On the other hand, if the high level at the end of 2020 is left out, both exports and imports of services were higher in the past quarter than in previous quarters during the corona period. The development of international trade in goods differs from that of services. The value of exports of goods grew by EUR 2.7 billion compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year, which corresponds to an increase of 19 per cent. Compared to the situation two years ago, exports of goods grew, in turn, by EUR 0.6 billion, that is, its level of EUR 16.7 billion was in fact higher than in the first three quarters of 2019. In other words, goods exports seem to have returned to the pre-pandemic level in the past quarter. This was not yet the case in the first quarter of 2021. In terms of goods imports, the level of the past quarter also corresponds to the level of 2019. During the past quarter, imports of goods amounted to EUR 15.9 billion. Compared to the second quarter of 2020, goods imports grew by EUR 2.9 billion or 22 per cent. In total, the combined value of exports of goods and services thus grew by EUR 3.2 billion compared with the second quarter of the previous year. However, compared to the second quarter of 2019, the value of exports was EUR 1.0 billion lower in the past quarter. For imports of goods and services, the situation was more or less the same. Thus, as regards the recovery of international trade, it now appears that international trade in services is lagging behind that of goods, for which reason international trade has not returned to the level of 2019. This low level of international trade in services is largely explained by the decline in travel and transport services. The situation may naturally already look different in coming quarters and releases. Low level of exports of travel and transport services explains the difference to the second quarter of 2019 The effect of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus on international trade in services has been reflected already in previous quarters, especially in travel and transport services. Travel exports reflect income from travel to Finland for leisure and work purposes, while transport exports describe, for example, the transport of people but also freighting of goods. Thus, the exports and imports of transport services are linked to the logistics related to travel and international trade in goods. When comparing the value of exports of travel and transport services in the second quarter of 2021 relative to the second quarter of 2019, it can be seen that these two service items explain a very large part of the fall in exports of services. During the past quarter, EUR 0.5 billion less transport services were exported than two years before, while travel generated EUR 0.6 billion less income. When the value of total exports of services contracted by EUR 1.5 billion compared to the level two years ago, the decrease in these service items thus covers around 75 per cent of that decline. By contrast, exports of telecommunications, computer and information services (TCI) and other business services grew relative to the second quarter of 2019. In the past quarter, exports of TCI services were EUR 0.2 billion higher and that of other business services nearly EUR 0.1 billion higher than two years ago. However, exports of TCI were on a lower level in 2020 than in the previous year only in the third quarter, so when it comes to the growth in ICT exports it is not really possible to talk about a recovery in the past quarter. The level of the service item as a whole did not contract in 2020 and the level of exports of TCI was, on the contrary, exceptionally high in the last quarter of 2020. By contrast, exports of other business services were repeatedly lower in the previous year than two years ago, so that can perhaps be seen as some kind of recovery to the level prior to the pandemic in the past quarter. In terms of service imports, the value of imports of travel and transport services decreased in total by EUR 1.5 billion compared to two years ago, i.e., they cover the total contraction of EUR 1.1 billion in service imports and even exceed it. By contrast, imports of many service items were on a higher level in the past quarter compared to the second quarter of 2019. The value of imports of manufacturing services grew by EUR 0.1 billion relative to the situation two years ago. Imports of TCI, imports of other business services and charges for the use of intellectual property each grew by under EUR 0.1 billion. Exports of TCI services and other business services have grown compared to the second quarter of 2020 Compared to the second quarter of 2020, goods exports grew in total by EUR 0.5 billion or nine per cent. Most of this was due to TCI exports, which grew by EUR 0.2 billion. In recent years, this service item has had the highest value of Finland's service exports items, and this was the case in the past quarter as well. Exports of other business services grew the second most, by nearly EUR 0.2 billion. Within other business services, exports of R&D services remained almost unchanged compared with the previous year, that is, the growth was due to, for example, increased exports of professional and management, technical, trade-related and other such services. The growth in exports of TCI services and other business services covers approximately two thirds of the growth in total exports of services in the second quarter of 2021. In other service items, changes in either direction were under EUR 100 million. Exports of travel and transport services increased slightly relative to the second quarter of the previous year but, on the other hand, exports of these services have been clearly lower than in the pre-pandemic situation since the second quarter of 2020. The combined growth in travel and transport exports was thus only EUR 0.1 billion, so the situation has not really changed significantly for these service items. Figure 2. Exports of services by service item Service imports grew by a total of EUR 0.4 billion in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the corresponding quarter last year. One-half of this growth can be explained by the improvement in imports of transport services. In addition to travel, international trade in transport services is linked to international trade in goods, the growth of which may have had a positive effect on the demand for freight transport. Imports of other business services also grew compared with the second quarter of the previous year, by EUR 0.1 billion. Imports of transport services and other business services account for 80 per cent of the growth in total service imports. Especially exports to Europe have increased Compared to the second quarter of the previous year, the combined exports of goods and services grew for all continents. However, the growth focused on Europe. When exports increased by EUR 3.2 billion, altogether 77 per cent or in total EUR 2.5 billion of this growth was directed at Europe. Compared with the previous year, the value of exports to EU countries grew by EUR 1.8 billion and to Europe outside the EU by EUR 0.7 billion. In terms of individual countries, especially exports to Sweden improved, by EUR 0.5 billion. Exports to Great Britain, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands also grew by a couple of hundred million euros for each country. Figure 3. Exports of goods and services in balance of payments terms by area Exports to America, Asia and Africa also grew compared to the second quarter of 2020, but to a lesser extent than to Europe. Exports to America grew by good EUR 0.3 billion, exports to Asia by close on EUR 0.3 billion and exports to Africa by EUR 0.1 billion. As exports, imports of goods and services from Europe to Finland also increased. Compared to one year ago, imports from Europe increased by EUR 2.5 billion, which corresponds to 76 per cent of the growth of total imports. The value of imports from the EU countries increased by EUR 2.0 billion, while imports from Europe outside the EU improved by EUR 0.5 billion. Among European countries, imports from Sweden, Germany and Russia grew in particular. Imports from Asia grew by a total of EUR 0.6 billion, but on the level of other continents, the changes were smaller. Statistics on international trade The statistics on international trade in goods and services are part of balance of payments . The statistics comprise breakdowns of goods and services on a more detailed level. The guidelines and recommendations of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) applied to balance of payments are consistent with the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010). National Accounts are published on quarterly and annual levels . Finnish Customs publishes data on goods trade across borders. Goods trade published by Finnish Customs is used as source data for the statistics on international trade in goods and services. Removals and additions caused by definitions described in the quality description are made to them to achieve goods trade in balance of payments terms. Finnish Customs statistical service, tilastot@tulli.fi, +358 29 552 335. Source: International trade in goods and services 2018, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Kasperi Lavikainen 029 551 3674, Tommi Kaatrasalo 029 551 3320, globalisaatio.tilastot@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja Publication in pdf-format (280.8 kB) Updated 17.9.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): International trade in goods and services [e-publication]. ISSN=2343-4244. 2nd quarter 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 22.9.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tpulk/2021/02/tpulk_2021_02_2021-09-17_tie_001_en.html The states of the European Union are committing over 48 billion euros for railway projects through their national recovery and resilience plans, and Romania's metro and railway projects amount to 4.5 billion euros, the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean told on Friday a press conference on the occasion of the arrival in the Bucharest North Station of the "Connecting Europe Express" train. "I can say that it is a good time for investments and modernizations of the railway infrastructure. From the data we now have on the national recovery and resilience plans, we know that the European Union states are committing over 48 billion euros for railway projects. In Romania's National Plan the metro and railway projects also amount to 4.5 billion euros. Furthermore, through another European funding mechanism, the so-called CEF - Connecting European Facility - Romania could access around 800 million euro for the modernization of the railway network," Adina Valean affirmed. According to the European official, in order to attract these amounts, the recommendations of the European Commission are for Romania to plan its investments well, to have solid projects, a governance and a management of these investment projects as efficient as possible, Agerpres.ro informs. "The money exists. Of course, the European Commission's recommendations are for Romania to plan its investments well, to have solid projects, a governance and a management of these investment projects as efficient as possible. For a better drawing and management of projects in Romania, we organized a high-level working group since February this year, in which experts from the European Commission and transport authorities work together in regular meetings to increase the success rate of European-funded Romanian projects. Yesterday the first meeting in physical format of the European working group with the Romanian group took place," specified Adina Valean. As regards the "Connecting Europe Express" train, she stated that she intends to promote the train as a means of transport for goods and passengers, but it can also be seen as a laboratory. "It will show to us through its long European journey what we need to do to have a truly unique European railway space. Ideally we should have had only one train. In reality, due to the lack of interoperability in the European network, between certain European rail networks we have had three different trains - but this is just a backstage detail from a list of shortcomings and obstacles that the European railway faces in order to reach its true potential. But the European railway agenda is ambitious. This agenda is being discussed at a number of conferences that are being held along this train's course in various European cities. In Lisbon, for example, we talked about connecting high-speed trains to European capitals. In Bucharest we are debating the financing of railway infrastructure projects, in Berlin we will present the conclusions of a study on long-distance trains, and in another conference our theme is how we can make rail freight more attractive to companies," Adina Valean went on to say. At the same time, the European Commissioner emphasized the importance of trains for the European transport system. "The North Station is part of Romania's history, but also of our personal history, of the Romanians. I am glad that the Connecting Europe Express train stopped in the North Station, a laboratory train, an experimental train that travels for 36 days through all European capitals. The starting point was Lisbon and the end point will be Paris. In each of the nearly 40 stops, citizens, civil society, railway companies and railway specialists have the opportunity to meet and discuss the importance that trains have for the European transport system, because we cannot talk about a European transport system, about a competitive European economy without putting railway or, in other words, trains at the center of transport policies," she added. Connecting Europe Express, a special train created for the European Year of Rail 2021, arrived at North Station on Friday. The train left Lisbon station on September 2. It will stop in more than 100 cities and towns in 26 countries during its five-week trip before arriving in Paris on October 7. At the same time, the train will make a notable stop in Ljubljana, connecting the Portuguese, Slovenian and French Presidencies of the EU Council. In total, the route is 20,000 km long and the train will cross 33 border crossing points. To mark this event, the Representation of the European Commission in Romania tells the story of the railways through an exhibition in Gara de Nord (North Station). A curator helped to select 10 representative works from Romania, extraordinary visual stories. The pictures are taken by Romanian photographers who have known excellence in the field of photography and have been rewarded over time with numerous awards and medals at national and international festivals and salons under the patronage of the most reputable organizations in the field of photography. The Agriculture Ministry is interested in the transfer of technology for the development of the irrigation infrastructure from American partners, Agriculture Minister Adrian Oros told the new regional attache of the USA on matters of agriculture, Alicia Hernandez, according to a release sent by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR). During the meeting with the representative of the United States Government, the Minister of Agriculture showed that MADR has priorities that it desires to continue with the American partners regarding the water management strategy, and in this sense the opportunity to transfer high level technologies for the development of the irrigation infrastructure in Romania is appreciated, the release shows. The new regional attache of the US for Romania on matters of agriculture was presented to the Minister of Agriculture by the charge d'affaires of the US Embassy in Bucharest, David Muniz. The Minister of Agriculture conveyed to the representatives of the US government Romania's interest in collaborating with the USA in the realms of water management, risk management, protection of areas with natural constraints, agricultural education, research in agriculture regarding climate change. Adrian Oros mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture supports the Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate), initiative of the USA and the UAE. The AIM for Climate project has as a purpose to stimulate innovation, research and development in agriculture in the context of climate change (AIM4C) and is part of the policies and measures adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the realm of climate change, taking into account that Romania presents a considerable risk towards climate change, and agriculture is very vulnerable to its impact, given that the associated risks are not equally distributed, the release says. The US delegation present in the discussions with the Agriculture Minister showed interest in Romania's position regarding the Green Deal and the Biodiversity and Farm to Fork Strategies. The Minister of Agriculture made a short presentation of the stage of elaboration of the National Strategic Plan, as well as the support measures for investments in agriculture and rural development for the 2021-2022 transition period, Agerpres.ro informs. The Agriculture Minister also made reference to the excellent collaboration between Romanian universities and US universities in the agricultural field. The US officials also revealed the good results obtained by Romanian farmers this year, Minister Oros pledging that the Romanian government will continue reforms in agriculture and the food industry. At the end of the meeting, the representatives of the two parties reaffirmed their interest to continue collaborating in agriculture for the benefit of Romanian and US farmers. Most new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to the last report, were registered in Bucharest - 651 and in Timis - 313, Iasi - 225, Cluj - 186, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) informed on Friday. The fewest cases were registered in the counties of Harghita - 21, Tulcea - 21, Covasna - 22. Satu Mare County ranks first in terms of incidence of infections, cumulative at 14 days, with 2.91 cases per thousand inhabitants, followed in the yellow zone by Ilfov County, with 2.37, Bistrita Nasaud - 2.13, Timis 2.08 and Bucharest - 2.05. The chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), Kelemen Hunor, declared on Friday, within the 15th Congress of the formation, which is taking place in Sangeorgiu de Mures, that if it were up to him, the Section for the Investigation of Judicial Crimes (SIIJ) would no longer exist, but an institutional guarantee must be found in order for prosecutors and judges to keep their independence. "The problem with the Section for the Investigation of Judicial Crimes (SIIJ) - if it were up to me, this section would no longer exist. We all agree that this section needs to cease its activity, but we must also find an institutional guarantee for prosecutors and judges to keep their independence. There should be a guarantee so that we don't return to that hell in which 3,000 cases were opened just to put pressure on prosecutors and judges, and two thirds were against them. The question becomes what is the institutional solution for judges and prosecutors to be independent, and for people to be convinced of the justice system's independence?," Kelemen Hunor declared, during the presentation of the Union chairman's report, Agerpres.ro informs. Kelemen Hunor also said that UDMR has a recommendation regarding this topic, but it is still flexible to any kind of a better solution. Minister of Labor Raluca Turcan appealed to the associative structures of the local authorities for a coordination of efforts with the ministry, so that the Vulnerable Consumer Law become enforceable starting November 1, agerpres reports. "I sent a letter both to you, to Mr. Boc, to Mr. Teban, in which you are informed, as representatives of associative structures, about the way in which we must join efforts, so that this law becomes enforceable starting November 1, because the situation is grave. I say it with my hand on my heart. There are people with low income, who are at risk of energy poverty and who need the enforcement of this law. The territorial-administrative units are those that must collaborate. Firstly - with our structures in the territory, through which we will send the information to the potential beneficiaries. But you have to communicate to the people what the law is, what the eligibility caps are, to make some standardized request forms, to accept the forms at the mayoralty, sort the forms, communicate with energy suppliers and then this subsidy can be discounted by us, at the Labor Ministry," said Turcan, at the start of the Council of Local Authorities from Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The Minister emphasized the importance of the law of the vulnerable consumer, in the context of price increases in foodstuffs and energy, but emphasized that rapid intervention is necessary, so that people "in dire need" can benefit rapidly from the provisions of the normative act."Why do I believe we need an emergency command? At least we, at the Labor Ministry, after the law was moved up - by the vote of all, parties and MPs - if we do not create these structures for command and rapid intervention, we risk people in dire need having expectations from the state and not receiving the support they need," said Turcan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) remarked the statistical data published in the British press regarding the controls of the British border authorities, which would mainly target Romanian citizens, and requested clarifications at the Home Office level through the Romanian Embassy in London. The Romanian Embassy in London is to present the elements resulting from the interaction with the Home Office and the EU Delegation at the local level, as well as to signal the concerns at the level of the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) said on Thursday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also conveyed its concern about this factual situation to the United Kingdom Embassy in Romania, with the request for clarification by the British authorities. The MAE highlighted the fact that, if the British authorities had identified difficulties in the trips made by Romanian citizens to the United Kingdom starting from January 1, 2021, following the application of the new conditions of entry and stay generated by Brexit, they should have been communicated priorly to the Romanian authorities and avoided an approach based on systematic controls, motivated by the criterion of citizenship.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for a proportionate, balanced approach from the British authorities when arranging and conducting border controls in relation to Romanian citizens, in the spirit of close bilateral relations, as well as in a manner similar to those of other EU member states.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalls that ensuring non-discriminatory treatment of Romanian citizens in the United Kingdom in relation to citizens of other EU member states is a constant concern of the MAE institution and management, in the context of new relations generated by the United Kingdom's exit from the EU.The Guardian reported on Wednesday that more than 60% of EU citizens detained and questioned by customs authorities in British ports after Brexit are Romanians.According to the quoted source, official data would indicate that in the first six months of this year 7,249 passengers were stopped on arrival in UK ports by ferry or Eurotunnel. Of these, 4,482 are Romanians, while, for example, Bulgarians in the same situation were only about 600, and Poles about 400.More than 5.5 million European citizens have applied for residency in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland until 30 June 2021, the date on which the deadline for submitting these applications expired, following Brexit, according to the latest data from the Government of in London, published on Thursday by the British press.Divided by nationality, the most numerous applicants were Poles, Romanians and Italians. According to The Guardian, by June 30, 1.067 million Romanian citizens had applied for resident status, with Romanians in second place after Poles, who submitted 1.09 million applications. Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Thursday evening that the Government would fall only in the case of the adoption of a censure motion, but that wouldn't happen in case the new ministers got rejected, following the change in the political composition of the Cabinet, agerpres reports. "We must be very careful here. It is not the Government going, I am going with the ministers before Parliament. Therefore the Government only falls if there is a censure motion. If one minister doesn't get the votes, nothing happens to the Government. That area lacks a minister and there is a situation there... (...) Of course. In 45 days we go to Parliament with new ministers," he told TVR1 national television broadcaster. The PM pointed out that the respective portfolios were going to be covered by National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), in case the Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity (USR PLUS) alliance didn't return at rule.On the other hand, Citu said there were higher chances of USR PLUS going back inside the coalition rather than going in the opposition."I believe there are higher chances to come back at rule with USR, rather than with a minority government. (...) PNL has already said it - the variant unanimously voted, by Ludovic Orban included, is to support the prime minister in office and the prime minister's demarches of rebuilding the coalition. There is not doubt here," the PM pointed out. Prime Minister Florin Citu recommended on Friday to journalists and environmental activists who were victims of aggression in Cosna commune, Suceava County to file complaints against the aggressors. At the same time, the head of the Executive asked the state institutions to intervene and "do their duty" in this case. "In any event of this kind, the state authorities must do their duty, immediately, quickly, without any kind of ... Nobody has to say anything else. The state institutions, the Police, the Prosecutor's Office, everyone must intervene to do their duty. I understand that this has been done (....) There is a small problem, however. I understand that no criminal complaint has been made from those who are injured and the procedure should go further and these complaints be filed, because otherwise I do not know if the police can legally do something, but, I repeat, such acts, any act of violence must be immediately investigated and those who are responsible must be held accountable for it," the head of government said. Greenpeace Romania announced that the director and journalist Mihai Dragolea, who was filming an international documentary about illegal logging of forests in Romania, was severely beaten by about 20 individuals in a forest within the Cosna commune in Suceava County. His equipment and all the recordings have been destroyed, Agerpres.ro informs. Along with him were director Radu Constantin Mocanu and environmental activist Tiberiu Bosutar, who were helping Mihai Dragolea to identify evidence of forest crimes in Bukovina. The attack was severe, two of the victims losing consciousness on the way to the Municipal Hospital in Vatra Dornei. Romanian Police spokesperson Georgian Dragan said the police officers identified and interrogated 11 people involved in the assault on the media representatives and the environmental activist. The 1st ALTHEA Intermediary Reserve Company, made up of 80 servicemen and 17 vehicles belonging to the 2nd Calugareni Infantry Battalion, will attend the EUFOR Quick Response 2021 operational training, which is to take place in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the September 18 - October 3 period. EUFOR Quick Response 2021 is based on a fictional scenario, in the area of operations of EUFOR ALTHEA, where the forces of the Multinational Battalion will be deployed during the activity. The operational training contributes to increasing security and promoting stability in the region, through multinational training activities of allied and partner servicemen, shows a release of the Ministry of National Defence (MApN) sent to AGERPRES. The 1st ALTHEA IR Company will take part, starting September 26, in a LIVEX type exercise, and, on October 1, in the Day of Distinguished Visitors. The main missions that Romanian servicemen can execute during the operational training are to secure an area, convoy escort, building evacuation, vehicle control, force protection and IED reaction. All Romanian servicemen participating in the exercise are vaccinated against COVID-19 and were administered RT-PCR tests before deploying in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Defence Ministry mentions. *** According to the obligations assumed at the international level, the Romanian Army is participating, in 2021, in the establishment of the 2nd Maneuver Battalion of the operational reserve force (ORF) of the JFC Naples Command for the NATO KFOR mission in Kosovo, with a maneuver company and a Romanian module in the Multinational Command of the 2nd Maneuver Battalion, Agerpres.ro informs. Starting March 31, 2021, the Romanian Army is ensuring, through the double commitment solution, the same company for the intermediary reserve of the EUFOR ALTHEA operation (1st ALTHEA IR Company), structure generated, in 2021, as part of the 2nd Calugareni Infantry Battalion of the 282nd Union of the Principalities Armored Brigade. The unit is reinforced with a military police group, of the 265th Tudor Vladimirescu Military Police Battalion of the General Staff of the Land Forces, and a group of the 2nd EOD Group of the 10th Lower Danube Engineer Brigade. Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary and leader of the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), Semjen Zsolt, declared on Friday, at the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Congress in Sangeorgiu de Mures, that Hungary has seven neighbors and that it managed to conclude a close collaboration with the other neighbors, but this way of collaboration has not yet been achieved with Romania, agerpres reports. "I draw your attention to the role of UDMR in supporting Romanian-Hungarian relations, I tell my Romanian friends that our hand has been and continues to be extended to you. Hungary's interest is to have good Romanian-Hungarian relations. Hungary has seven neighbors, Hungary has a similar relationship with Ukraine, as does Romania from the perspective of the Romanian community. With the other neighbors, however, we managed to conclude a collaboration with our friends from Slovakia in V4 (the Visegrad Group), in Serbia, for example, the Milosevic regime somewhat left the Hungarians behind, but thanks to the Hungarian organization (...) we have reached a historic agreement. Then I am asking you, if we managed to conclude this collaboration with the Serbs, then why can't we do it with Romania as well? Our hand is outstretched and we count on UDMR's role in supporting Romanian-Hungarian relations. God bless the Hungarians in Transylvania, bless Transylvania and the UDMR," Semjen Zsolt said, according to the official translation. The leader of KDNP, an allied party of FIDESZ, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, showed that it is important for everyone, for all Hungarians and for Brussels, that Hungarians in Transylvania have never asked for any new things that are not generally accepted in the European Union."If we accept existing rights in Europe, to which other European communities are entitled, then those rights should be ours too, because what is possible for some must be possible for us too," said Deputy Prime Minister Semjen Zsolt.Semjen Zsolt showed that for two decades he has been at the helm of the Christian Democratic People's Party and that during this period he was not only in partnership, but in a friendly relationship with UDMR."From the beginning I have been pro-UDMR because we are pro-Hungarian. The key to understanding this situation is that if, God forbid!, the UDMR were shaken, then in Bucharest there will be no other Hungarian party, but there won't be anyone. In the end, they will have no choice but to join another Romanian party, and that is how a Hungarian party will end the whole course, that is why we are against everything that weakens the UDMR," stressed Semjen Zsolt.He mentioned that since 2010, the Hungarian Government and UDMR have not reached compromises, as some journalists wrote, but there is a relationship of "unconditional trust from the perspective of Transylvania, from the perspective of Romania, and there have been no decisions in Budapest that have not been discussed with Mr Kelemen [UDMR leader]"."We need to have dialogues with organizations beyond the borders of Hungary before making any decision and that is why I want to thank the UDMR, the activists, the mayors who helped us in the naturalization process. All those who wanted to acquire dual citizenship, have succeeded in doing so. At one point, there was a shameful referendum, because the majority knew how to vote, but the government at the time emotionally hurt the Hungarians abroad and the Hungarians in Transylvania. In 2010, we gained a two-thirds majority, and our first task was to pass a law on dual citizenship, so that all Hungarians can acquire Hungarian citizenship by right," said Semjen Zsolt.The Deputy Prime Minister in Budapest also said that UDMR is responsible not only for the Hungarians in Transylvania, because what is happening in Transylvania is a point of reference for the other Hungarian communities as well. Subprefect of Bucharest Municipality Florela-Antonela Ghita says the Public Health Directorate on Friday informed that the Capital City has reached an incidence rate of 2.05pct per thousand inhabitans. Asked by the journalists on Thursday when the next meeting of the Committee for Emergency Situations of the Bucharest Municipality will be hold to take new measures for the Capital City, considering the latest decision of the National Committee for Emergency Situations, Florela-Antonela Ghita said that before reaching the incidence of 3 per thousand there will be adopted the necessary measures once the 2 per thousand incidence rate is reached, which she said was possible on Friday. "We are now waiting for the DSP analysis to come up with proposals in this respect," said the subprefect. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. Chinese media claim recent American actions make it clear that China is now dominant in East Asia and that its power is spreading worldwide. China is openly dismissive of the ability of foreign governments, especially the Americans, to defy Chinese demands. China is flaunting its power in places like Afghanistan where everyone is discovering that China has the final say over who does what there now that the Americans have withdrawn. This disrupts an ancient rivalry between Persians and Indians over who gets what inside Afghanistan. The economic basis of that rivalry was control over portions of the Silk Road trade routes between China and points west. The Silk Road was replaced by more efficient European ships, and their firepower, six centuries ago. In the 21st century China is reviving the Silk Road as an overland and maritime network through nations friendly towards trade with and investments from China. Iran and India see this as a threat while Pakistan sees it as an economic lifeline as well as an obligation to do what China wants. In Afghanistan China is willing to do business with whoever can provide a safe environment for Chinese investments and trade. There are doubts that anyone can do that and China is waiting to see what Iran and Pakistan can do about it. India and Russia are also cautious about doing business in Afghanistan. Because of Pakistani control of the Taliban, India is now banned from Afghanistan but still has valuable trade relationships with Iran that Iran does not want to lose. China and India are currently archenemies of each other. Finally, there are the Afghan-based drug cartels that supply most of the heroin to the entire planet. While universally hated throughout the region, cartel money is a major source of income for the Taliban and the Pakistan military, which is currently running the government in Pakistan. Iran is an example of how an outlaw state can survive with Chinese patronage. China can command Iran to do things that benefit China more than Iran but the Chinese have not called in that debt yet. They may have to because the new (since May) Iranian government has made it clear that it wants all sanctions lifted before any serious (and probably unsuccessful) negotiations over ending the Iranian nuclear weapons program can take place. China does not see Iranian nukes as a problem because Iran understands that China has no qualms about using extreme (even nuclear) violence against any threats from a nuclear armed Iran. China is telling Iran that China can be their best friend or worst enemy. So far Iran is playing nice towards China because that makes it easier to pressure European countries into lifting sanctions despite Iran continuing with its nuclear problem. The Americans are still a problem but are not beyond some creative deception and intimidation. China is leading the way there as well. The Foreign Enemies Within The Chinese government has also become obsessed with eliminating foreign cultural influences from China. This has been difficult because it includes many popular foreign entertainers, food, religion and customs in general. The current primary target is South Korean popular music, widely known as K-Pop and a dominating influence on the Chinese popular music market. One aspect of K-Pop that particularly offends the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) arbiters of what is acceptable is its influence on Chinese youth. The CCP believes it should decide what foreign customs and inventions are acceptable for its glorious New China and which are poisonous. This now includes K-Pop and its use of boy bands, full of cute young men that dance and sing in a way that creates fans world-wide. The CCP considers the boy band members sissies (calling them sissy boys) and the reason why so many Chinese young men are imitating the look and behavior of these K-Pop stars. The CCP ignores the fact that Sissy Boys are a part of Chinese history that was not given much publicity but did a lot of business with the upper class and acquired a number nicknames over the centuries, including the current slang term sissy boy. The CCP is believed to be using all these headline worthy assaults on foreign culture to distract Chinese from growing economic problems. Chinese consumers have not responded to calls for more consumer spending to help maintain economic growth. Too many Chinese do not believe the economy has really recovered from the covid19 recession, especially since entire cities are still being locked down to eliminate new outbreaks. Each of these brief halts in business activity ripples throughout the country, triggering a lot of unexpected shortages. The CCP propagandists may be ignoring this but most Chinese do not and are hoarding their resources, preferably nothing associated with the Chinese currency (the yuan). Another bit of bad news to escape CCP news regulators was the growing number of yuan-denominated bonds that are rapidly losing their value because international credit rating agencies are lowering ratings on such bonds because the ability of the issuer to pay interest and eventually the face value of the bond is declining. Many large Chinese banks and financial institutions are going bankrupt because of all the bad debt, usually yuan-denominated, they are carrying. In many cases the government ordered that these questionable bonds be issued to hide massive corruption in the financial system. The government thought that with enough time they could fix things. Then came a real estate bubble that was much larger and dangerous than thought. At the same time the Americans began a trade war to force China to stop using illegal trade practices. Finally, there was the worldwide covid19 recession, which put more pressure on the fragile Chinese financial system. Chinese economic reports, especially the quarterly ones, are now awaited with dread rather than just anticipation. Bad news is taken for granted and the only question is how bad things get. This puts the sissy suppression campaign into context. September 16, 2021: The Chinese official response to the news that the U.S. and Australia agreed to upgrade their mutual defense agreements was exceptionally vitriolic, like the often-mocked North Korean stop threatening us response to any news of neighbors, especially South Korea, improvising their defenses against North Korean attack. The new military alliance between America, Britain and Australia includes access to American nuclear sub tech that only Britain has been able to use to build their SSNs and SSBNs (ballistic missile armed nuclear subs). Britain developed and built their own nuclear weapons, and were the third nation to do so, in 1952. While Britain helped the American nuclear weapons program they were not interested in building their own until Russia tested their first nuke in 1949. Three years later Britain conducted its first nuclear test on an island off the Australian coast and conducted more tests at a site in central Australia that was similar to the American west where the first U.S. test took place in 1945. France carried out its first test in 1960 and China in 1965. Now China is accusing the U.S. of enabling Australia to build nuclear weapons. Australia has never expressed interest in that but Australia is very concerned about its problems with France over the delays in delivering a non-nuclear version of the new French Barracuda class SSNs (nuclear powered attack sub). Australia recently cancelled that contract and turned to the U.S. about helping Australia build nuclear subs and yesterday the U.S. said it would, which meant Australia was gaining access to American military tech the only Britain enjoyed as part of its long special relationship with the United States. Britain has offered to assist the Australians with their SSN effort because Britain is close with Australia and has decades of experience working with the Americans on nuclear subs. The U.S. requires foreign customers for their military to obtain permission before selling anything with that tech to another country. This was no problem for Britain which has never offered nuclear weapons tech to export customers. China sees this upgrade in the already close military ties between Australia, Britain and the U.S. as a major upgrade to the growing alliance opposed to Chinese aggression and territorial claims against most of its neighbors. China does not willingly publicize the fact that Australia has succeeded in defying Chinese efforts to compel obedience via its trade war with Australia. It was more than a loss, the successful Australian defiance was an example of how other nations could survive this kind of Chinese pressure. Australia found other markets for the coal exports that were long monopolized by China. The major advantage Australia has as a supplier of raw materials is that the Australians are more efficient and reliable than the alternatives. For example, China gets about 60 percent of its iron ore from Australia. Another potential major supplier, Brazil, has proved much less reliable, as well as much farther away. Even more risky are African suppliers. China has spent billions investing in the West African state of Guinea to develop the iron ore deposits found there. These will not replace all the Australian imports but will give China some ammunition in its campaign to force Australia to adopt pro-China policies and attitudes. So far, this effort has not turned out well for China. For example, a late 2020 effort to increase the economic pressure on Australia by refusing to accept coal they had ordered because of quality problems backfired. There were no quality problems but there is over half a billion dollars worth of Australian coal stuck on 57 ships waiting for either side to back down. When other buyers for the stranded Australian coal showed up, and China was unable to scare them off, the Chinese knew they were beaten. They would not admit it but at least lowered their media animosity towards Australia and increased the tonnage of iron ore bought from Australia because there is no other supplier so close and so capable of providing what the Chinese cannot afford to lose. China is also angry at Australia for cracking down on Chinese espionage and influence operations inside Australia. Then there is the Australian criticism of, and active opposition to Chinese claims in the South China Sea. China is still Australias largest trading partner, accounting for over 30 percent of imports and exports. Australia still has a favorable trade balance with China as China bought far more (mainly raw materials) from Australia than the other way around. China accounted for 85 percent of the positive Australian trade balance and that has been going on for decades. This has made Australia immune to all the global economic recessions since the 1990s and given the Australian GDP and standard-of-living an unprecedented period of growth. Australia has found that this favorable situation came at a price. China expected Australia to do whatever China wanted. When Australia stuck with the United States over illegal Chinese trade practices, China decided to teach Australia a lesson about who was in charge in the West Pacific. As a result, Australia and China engaged in a major power dispute. China tried using trade restrictions (reducing purchases from Australia) to coerce Australia. Even though China is the largest customer for Australian exports, this coercion was not well received in Australia. One response from Australia was to repeat its accusations that Chinese claims in the South China Sea are illegal. At the same time Australia acknowledges that China has militarized its bases in the South China Sea and that makes it riskier for foreign warships that carry out FONOPS (Freedom Of Navigation Operations) there. Australia has increased its military spending because of the growing threat of attack by China. Australia is not alone when it comes to Chinese economic pressure. Most of Chinas neighbors have had a taste of this and that played a role in the formation of a local coalition opposed to the Chinese efforts at domination. This is a problem for China because this coalition does have the military capability to block Chinese forces. That coalition includes the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea and several other local nations. Australian SSNs would greatly increase the risk of China suffering major economic damage if Chinese demands and threats act on similar threats to neighbors. For the moment it is a war of words and economic attacks and its up to China to escalate that to open warfare. That plan is being defied by unexpected defiance by South Korea, Japan and even Vietnam. Australia is the first of the local defiants to add nuclear capabilities to their military. South Korea and Japan make not secret of the fact they could do the same and do it quickly without any outside help; September 9, 2021: The Chinese leader had a 90-minute call with his American counterpart and refused the offer of a face-to-face meeting to work out the growing list of disagreements. The Chinese leader has not left China since the covid19 lockdowns in early 2020. The Chinese leader did demand that the U.S. adopt a less strident attitude towards China. That meant less criticism of Chinese activities in the South China Sea and other territorial disputes. Chinese state-controlled media reported that the call, which was requested by the Americans, was evidence that China was now the dominant superpower and would act like one. September 8, 2021: China threatened to send warships into U.S. territorial waters (within 22 kilometers of land) because an American destroyer conducted another FONOP (freedom of navigation operations) in the South China Sea today near an artificial island China insists is now part of China. On September 1st China declared that its March 2021 law on access to the South China Sea was now in effect. The new law mandates foreign ships must register with China and obtain a permit before they enter the South China Sea. Those who fail to register would be subject to unspecified punishment. With this law China is seeking to gain some official recognition of its claims which will make it easier for China to claim any violation is the equivalent of violating territorial waters, which is considered trespassing by international agreements and many nations open fire first before trying to find out if the interloper knows where they are. China has already bullied many European nations into respecting the Chinese definition of territorial waters in the South China Sea and is seeking to gain control over a shipping lane that handles nearly $4 trillion worth trade per year. A recent example of European intimidation occurred in July when a British led carrier task force conducted a widely publicized FONOP in the South China Sea. This was less of a proper FONOP than advertised. None of the eight ships in the task force came within 22 kilometers of any of the Chinese islands (many of them artificial) built as military bases and declared sovereign Chinese territory, despite international treaties China agreed to and a 2016 international court ruling against China. In past FONOPS the American and other warships deliberately ignored the 22 kilometer territorial waters rule, much to the displeasure of China. The commander of the British task force apparently had unpublicized orders to limit the impact of the FONOP, which is meant to confirm international access and defy Chinese claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea and control over who enters these waters. The July FONOP was carried out by a carrier task force led by the new British carrier Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by seven other ships, including an American destroyer and frigates from the Netherlands, Britain and Singapore. There were also two other Singapore Navy ships (an amphibious assault vessel and an offshore patrol vessel. The carrier is also accompanied by a British SSN (Nuclear Attack sub) but the status of that vessel is rarely discussed because it is submerged nearly all the time. China is also exercising control in places with no access to the ocean. Today the Russian national security advisor arrived in India to confer with his Indian counterpart and later announced that both countries agreed on the danger Taliban control of Afghanistan is to the region and called on Pakistan to halt its support for the Taliban and halt its support for other Islamic terrorist groups. Russia had tried to improve its relations with Pakistan but found China had a veto on who Pakistan could play with. China is better insulated from any Islamic terrorism the Taliban seek to export. China has also been more successful at keeping the Afghan heroin and opium out. Russia reacted in other ways to the new Afghan threat and announced joint military exercises between Russian forces and those of the three new nations Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan that now border Afghanistan plus Kyrgyzstan, which borders China and Tajikistan. Russia has maintained close military, economic and diplomatic ties with the stans who are suffering from the Afghan drug cartels that used their countries as markets for the drugs as well as a smuggling route to other parts of Eurasia. Now more Islamic terrorists from Taliban Afghanistan will be added. Russia and the stans bordering Afghanistan also stand ready to support the armed opposition to the Taliban, just like before. That cooperation has apparently already begun, without any official announcements or consultation with China. The Taliban need support from Pakistan and especially China. Pakistan has become an economic vassal of China and gains powerful support in the UN and against international criticism for supporting Islamic terrorism. China is offering the same arrangement to the Taliban government but most Taliban factions oppose being in the pay of the Chinese. Up until now China had accepted Pakistani assurances that Pakistan would continue to control the Taliban leadership after the Taliban replaced the elected government. China was aware of the Taliban disunity over Pakistani influence and Pakistan sent the head of ISI to Kabul to deal with how this was interfering with the formation of a Taliban government. ISI is military intelligence, that part of the Pakistan military directly responsible for supervising the influx of Afghan refugees in the 1980s, and came up with the idea for creating the Taliban. ISI was also in charge of telling the Americans what they wanted to hear to keep the billions in American military aid coming to Pakistan. This hustle took over a decade to start coming apart and for the last few years Pakistan became an official supporter of international terrorism and near bankruptcy because of overdependence on loans from international agencies, Arab oil states and China. All those sources have stopped lending because they believe Pakistan cannot repay those loans. Pakistan needs a clear win in Afghanistan and they are not getting it. The ISI plan has become a shaky house of cards but the new Taliban government was dominated by pro-Pakistan Taliban. The anti-Pakistan Taliban leaders were denied positions in the government they believed they were entitled to. That risks the anti-Taliban factions resuming their violence against Pakistani interests in Afghanistan. If that happens, Chinese investments are not going to happen. September 1, 2021: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un now appears to be following advice from China, although China has not resumed all aid shipments, especially desperately needed food. Until recently China regularly and often openly criticized Kim for not adopting economic and political policies that have worked in China. Kim is no longer denouncing or simply ignoring Chinese advice that would lead to a more open and free economy as well as a more rational spending policy. There are still disagreements over the North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile program. China wants to avoid North Korea ending up like the Soviet Union and other East European communist governments three decades ago, especially since most of those former communist police states are now democracies and either members of NATO or working to get in. Kim Jong Un, like the rest of the Kim dynasty, wants North Korea to become self-sufficient and independent of any foreign powers, especially Japan and China. because that has long been important to Koreans in general, especially when it comes to Big Brother China. Covid19 and continued economic pressure from China and the United States may have done what was long considered impossible and turned North Korean leaders into more rational rulers. For North Korea to receive aid from China and remain in Chinas good graces, Kim Jong Un must obey the Elder Brother, something South Korea refuses to do because of its much stronger economy, military and democracy. That is something that scares both China and North Korea. August 29, 2021: In the United States (Alaska) four Chinese Navy ships were detected near some of the islands off the coast of Alaska. The Chinese vessels included a destroyer, a frigate, an AGI (intel collection) ship and a supply ship, mainly to refuel ships so far from China. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter (ocean-going ship) was sent to accompany the Chinese ships until they left the area, which they did the next day. Apparently, the Chinese ships never entered the American EEZ, which they were entitled to do according to maritime law. August 26, 2021: Chinese efforts to gain control of the South China Sea have become increasingly aggressive, especially to the weaker nations they have claims in. For example, this year Chinese garrisons on artificial islands have been firing flares towards approaching Filipino warplanes or ships. Its a symbolic gesture but another escalation towards eventually opening fire with real bullets. In the last few months, the online (Information War) and diplomatic aspect of the South China Sea conflict has become particularly heated and unscrupulous. China is usually the aggressor online and in news media while delivering a kinder and gentler message diplomatically. Recent remarks of senior Filipino officials demonstrate that the Philippine government is nearly unanimous in believing the Chinese assurance and promises cannot be trusted. While the Philippines admits it cannot stand up to China in a war, they can use Chinese tactics and disrupt Chinese military and civilian operations in the South China Sea. Other nations suffering from the Chinese aggression are similarly fed up and going Chinese on the Chinese. Filipinos are also angry at other forms of Chinese deception and outright lies. For example, China promised large economic investments in the Philippines and more Filipinos being allowed to work in China. Both of these gifts and investments never arrived. The promised foreign worker angle backfired big time as the government allowed more Chinese to enter the Philippines and many were not the expected tourists or legal entrepreneurs, but gangsters who have become a growing problem. The most recent backfire was the Chinese-developed covid19 vaccine that was provided to the Philippines. This initially backfired when it was discovered that China was charging the Philippines much more than what customers in east Asia and Africa were paying. 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 have meant that the Philippines will be the last nation in the region to receive enough vaccine to suppress the covid19 threat. Recently China delivered large quantities of their vaccines at no cost. The Philippines appears to get most of the unwanted Chinese attention in the South China Sea because the Philippines has the most to lose. In terms of land area, the 7,600 islands that comprise the Philippines amount to only 300,000 square kilometers (120,000 square miles) of land area. Compare this to China, with 9.6 million square kilometers of land. According to international law, the Philippines controls (via its EEZ or Exclusive Economic Zone) water areas covering 2.26 million square kilometers. By the same standards the Chinese EEZ waters comprises 877,000 square kilometers. The Philippines is also the weakest (in military terms) nation China is seizing territory from and their mutual defense treaty with the United States is not always adequate to deal with the Chinese tactics. Moreover, the American government can change readily every four years because of presidential elections. The current U.S. president is seen as less steadfast in dealing with China. So far that has not been the case, as the new American government has only been in power since January 2021. So far, the U.S. pledges to continue supporting resistance to Chinese South China Sea claims remain in place. August 25, 2021: Senior American military commanders now admit that the U.S. is woefully vulnerable to enemy (Chinese and Russian) electronic warfare weapons during wartime. Recent wargames, accurately representing these enemy capabilities, finally got enough attention from senior commanders to make a serious effort to deal with the problem. These wargames showed that China could shut down most American satellite and ground-based electronic communications and make American forces much more vulnerable than expected. This is not a new problem. For over two decades similar realistic wargames demonstrated this growing vulnerability but the senior military leadership did not respond effectively, or even admit there was a problem. There was, and its been around for over half a century. In the 21st century satellite surveillance and communications are crucial. China has taken the lead in developing methods for disrupting enemy access to these satellite resources and minimizing the damage done to Chinese satellite capabilities. The Chinese are also emulating the Cold War Russian forces and training to continue operating under conditions where communications and aerial/satellite surveillance is diminished or absent. August 24, 2021: China continues to prop up the Burmese military government that overthrew a newly elected one on February 1st. Despite Chinese support and the resolve of the Burmese generals, most Burmese acted the way they voted, despite the greater firepower and resources and, so far, resolve of the generals. The army has trashed the economy and put more and more Burmese out of work and without access to food, the Internet or the banking system. So far, the resistance continues. The generals have become more dependent on their business partners. China, who were also partners-in-crime with the generals, The Chinese connection may be the vital key to victory, or fatal flaw in the coup plan. It all depends on how much Burmese are willing to resist China. This is important in so many ways and the result of regional changes that have taken place over the last few centuries. Six months after the coup, on August 1st the military declared themselves the provisional government. There were vague assurances of new elections but few voters believed the voting would be free and fair. China promptly recognized the provisional government and just called the generals the government. The Burmese military avoided civil war for decades after the 1962 coup and everyone seems to believe this will not work in the 21st century Now the Burmese have to see what, if any, military assistance they can obtain from foreign supporters of democracy. The first thing the new military government did in February was assure China that Chinese assets would be protected. China promptly used their veto powers in the UN to block UN actions against the new military rulers of Burma. Within two weeks Russia also proclaimed support for the military government. The response of the military was not unexpected, because the civilian government knew that the Burmese generals maintained their connections in China. The Burmese Army has long been at the center of most illegal economic activity. Some estimates indicate that at least $20 billion has been illegally moved out of Burma during the fifty years of military rule and much more stayed in the country. Almost all of that was military personnel or their gangster and commercial allies. Military families still control a lot of the economy and most of the wealthy families in Burma have a military connection. The illegal cash leaving amounted (on average) to about six percent of GDP. The military may have surrendered much of their political power in 2010, but they held onto their considerable personal wealth. The Burmese military is comfortable with a cozy relationship with China and Russia but most Burmese are not. This has led to Chinese businesses being attacked since the coup and a few have been set on fire. The military was forced to assign more troops and hire some armed guards to protect the Chinese businesses. HILLSDALE, Mich., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 1776 Commission has released a statement in celebration of the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America (read the full statement here). "Two hundred and thirty-four years ago on this date, thirty-nine delegates from throughout the fledgling United States signed our Constitution, uniting a diverse population into one nation, bound together by common principles and a deep reverence for liberty," the statement begins. "The signing of the Constitution began the fulfillment of the promise made in the Declaration of Independence. These two documents, along with the Bill of Rights, are America's Charters of Freedom." The Commission was originally formed in November 2020 with the purpose of advising then-President Donald Trump about teaching future generations about the history and principles of the founding of the United States, seeking to provide a remedy to the rising tide of anti-American scholarship rejecting the nation's founding principles. "The principles pointed to by 1776 Commission are needed now more than ever," said the Commission's chairman, Larry Arnn. "Equality especially equality under the law is in great disrepute today among the intellectual classes. That is mistaken, and dangerously so. Like our founders, we Commissioners have pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to its support and defense." The Commission was abolished on the first day of President Biden's presidency but still operates in a private capacity. Yet, as tensions flare across the country about the meaning and place of U.S. history in education, many concerned citizens are searching for a complete, truthful telling of the American story that unites rather than divides. To this end, Hillsdale College released its Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum in July. The curriculum is nearly 2,500 pages long and contains comprehensive lesson plans, homework assignments, quizzes, tests, study guides, and supplementary primary and secondary resource recommendations for teacher and student use. It currently covers the American Founding, the Civil War era, civics, and government, and in the coming months will be expanded to include the rest of American history. "The Commission applauds the efforts taking place around the country to take back our educational institutions," said the Commission's executive director Matthew Spalding. "They show that Americans students, parents, teachers, and other concerned citizens care about their country. As long as they do, as long as they fight, there is hope for our nation's future." "On this Constitution Day," the Commission's statement concludes, "Americans should celebrate and take pride in their country. The story of America is the story of a proud people with a boundless desire to leave for their posterity a more just and free society. This is the inheritance of all Americans. This is the inheritance of 1776." About Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is an independent, nonsectarian, Christian liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis, with a circulation of more than 5.8 million. For more information, visit hillsdale.edu. CONTACT: Emily Stack Davis 517-803-3745 PR@hillsdale.edu View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/1776-commission-releases-statement-in-celebration-of-constitution-day-301379701.html SOURCE Hillsdale College SEOUL, South Korea and NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CheongKwanJang, the global No. 1 red ginseng brand, a brand of KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.), opened 'Ginseng Museum Cafe by CheongKwanJang' in Manhattan, New York on the 14th. 'Ginseng Museum Cafe', the world's first experiential store created by CheongKwanJang, combines the museum and cafe form so that customers can directly feel the efficacy and premium value of CheongKwanJang red ginseng. The history and value, cultivation and processing methods, and efficacy of Korean ginseng as Korea's first export product and the progenitor of K-food are visually reproduced using 3D sculptures and digital images. In the Red Ginseng Brewery Zone, visitors can experience and enjoy the experience of the decoction being extracted for 24 hours with their own eyes. With interest in immunity growing amid the global covid19 pandemic, red ginseng, Korea's representative immunity material, is also attracting attention in the United States. CheongKwanJang is also increasing interest from locals, with sales on Amazon, the leading e-commerce platform in the US, more than tripled compared to the previous year. Kim Naesoo, Global CIC Director of KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.), who attended the opening event, said, "It is meaningful that another cultural content, 'Ginseng Museum Cafe,' has been added to 32nd Street in Manhattan, which symbolizes small Korea in the United States." We hope that many Americans and people around the world will experience and remember the excellence of Korean ginseng through this place." About Korea Ginseng Corp. For more than 120 years, Korea Ginseng Corp. and its CheongKwanJang brand, the World's No. 1 brand of Ginseng, has been dedicated to providing the world's leading Korean Red Ginseng. Key benefits of Korean Red Ginseng include: supporting a healthy immune response; supporting healthy energy and stamina levels; supporting healthy brain function and blood circulation; and supporting menopause relief. Korean Red Ginseng is also rich in antioxidants. For more information visit, https://www.kgc.co.kr/en/intro/global-kgc/global-introduction.do. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheongkwanjang-opens-ginseng-museum-cafe-in-manhattan-new-york-301379429.html SOURCE KGC (Korea Ginseng Corp.) CLOVIS, Calif., Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Russo's New York Pizzeria, the only authentic New York-style, Italian restaurant, and pizzeria franchise concept, is set to open its first location in Fresno market later this year. The restaurant located at 1845 Herndon Ave, Ste. C Clovis, Ca 93611 will feature the restaurant's updated casual dining layout that includes an open-pizza concept station for guests to watch Russo's chefs prepare their hand-tossed pizzas and homemade meals fresh from scratch. The new design also allows the convenience for guests to choose take-out or delivery. This will be the first of five locations in development that is scheduled for the Fresno market by Don & Katharina Haines. "We are excited to offer Fresno families, friends and business associates a location for authentic New York-style pizzeria and Italian. Blending the simplicity of a pizzeria with the freshness of an upscale Italian restaurant, we deliver a chef-driven dining experience in a fast-casual setting. Our brand is so glad to have Don & Katharina Haines in the Russo's New York Pizzeria family, they are one of our first franchisees in California and the passion they have shown for restaurant operations, experience and commitment to quality makes them a great growth partner. I'm confident they will continue to carry on the Russo's family tradition in his own community "said Anthony Russo, Founder and CEO, Russo's New York Pizzeria. Following the family mantra "If it isn't fresh, don't serve it!" Russo's delivers an expansive menu that blends generations of family recipes with fresh, seasonal ingredients and authentic Italian imports like Pecorino Romano cheese from Emilia Romagna, Italy; aged-balsamic vinegar from a centuries-old vineyard in Italy; and extra virgin olive oil from Partanna, Italy. About Russo's Restaurants Russo's Restaurants is a national and international franchisor of the casual dining brand Russo's New York Pizzeria. Based in Houston, Russo's Restaurants is composed of a mix of corporate and franchised locations across Texas, Oklahoma, California, and Florida. Russo's has entered international markets as well, with locations in with locations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Chef Anthony Russo created Russo's Restaurants by applying his unique, family recipes featuring New York-style pizza, handcrafted pasta dishes, calzones, salads, sandwiches, soups and desserts. At its heart, Russo's Restaurants reflects Chef Anthony's commitment to his New York roots where food and family come first. To learn more about Russo's franchise development opportunities, visit www.russosfranchise.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/russos-new-york-pizzeria-set-to-open-clovis-location-in-late-2021-301379243.html SOURCE Russo's New York Pizzeria The Air Force Research Laboratory held a ground-breaking event Sept. 8, 2021, at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., announcing the construction of the Wargaming and Advanced Research Simulation (WARS) Laboratory. The facility is in support of AFRLs Directed Energy and Space Vehicles Directorates located on Kirtland. (Tyrell Etsitty/U.S. Air Force) (Tribune News Service) Ground was broken recently on the Air Force Research Laboratorys $6 million, 10,685-square-foot laboratory that will help the Air Force advance wargaming and simulation. The building, on Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, will be part of AFRLs Directed Energy and Space Vehicles Directorates located on Kirtland Air Force Base. AFRL is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We in the Department of Defense are concerned about competition with our adversaries across all domains of warfighting, said Col. Eric Felt, director of the Space Vehicles Directorate. The WARS Lab will advance three strategies AFRL is pursuing to deter conflict, which we call ISP innovation, speed and partnerships. Felt in an AFRL release said that innovation is key to beating our adversaries and that speed is essential. With digital engineering we can explore more concepts faster, without waiting for the real thing hardware, Felt said. This lab will promote the use of digital engineering, saving time and money, and will provide the opportunity for partnerships within AFRL, with industry and our allies. We are better working together. The WARS Lab will feature an auditorium with more than 90 workstations for concepts experiments that will allow collaboration with agencies across the Department of Defense, said Teresa LeGalley, Directed Energys program manager. I am excited about our vision of a virtual range becoming a reality, LeGalley said. We are asked to determine military utility of directed energy, which means we need to insert high energy lasers and high powered electromagnetics into a battle space, to determine how they can be used to complement the weapon systems operators already have. The AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate will occupy about 450 square feet of the building to conduct modeling and simulation work. The WARS Lab is expected to be ready for occupancy in the spring of 2023, and will replace a facility that has been in use since 2005. (c)2021 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, Dec. 17, 2019. (Haley Stevens/U.S. Air Force) HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) The Air Force said it is flying two MQ-9 Reaper drones for the first time from the continental United States to Hawaii to demonstrate the unmanned aircrafts untapped potential in a maritime environment and to participate in Exercise ACE Reaper at Marine Corps Base Hawaii which eventually will have six of the aircraft based there. The 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico said three MQ-9s will participate in the exercise one will be shipped to Hawaii with personnel from multiple installations rapidly deploying and integrating with other sister services in a maritime environment. Agile Combat Employment, or ACE, focuses on the ability to move aircraft rapidly to a network of a smaller airfields in the Western Pacific to avoid being targeted by Chinese missiles in the event of war. Unmanned systems from Marine Corps missile-firing trucks to Navy submarines have become a key focus of the Pentagon as it strives to maintain a credible deterrence to the rapid rise of Chinas military. A hybrid fleet will be necessary for the Navy to meet emerging security concerns, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said in the Navy and Marine Corps Unmanned Campaign Framework released in March. Unmanned Systems have and will continue to play a key part in future distributed maritime operations, and there is a clear need to field affordable, lethal, scalable, and connected capabilities, Gilday said. That is why the Navy is expanding and developing a range of unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned undersea vehicles, and unmanned surface vessels that will play key roles as we shift our focus toward smaller platforms that operate in a more dispersed manner. All the service branches are seeking to integrate to a level never seen before in response to the China threat which is rapidly eroding a U.S. advantage around the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea. The Defense Department has concluded that it needs to mesh all capabilities across sea, air, land, space and cyberspace to deter China or win in a conflict. The Air Force said one Reaper would be flown to Hawaii from Holloman, one flown from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, and one would be shipped from Holloman. The distance from Holloman to Oahu is about 3,260 miles. The purpose of ACE Reaper, running Sept. 8 through Oct. 8, is to demonstrate the MQ-9s capabilities and our service members abilities to rapidly mobilize and integrate across multiple domains. The exercise also serves as an opportunity to train in a maritime environment and in a different airspace, the Air Force said. MQ-9 training primarily occurs over land but the Air Force with ACE Reaper is testing the capabilities of using MQ-9s over water to demonstrate our readiness in any environment, said Denise Ottaviano, a spokeswoman for the 49th Wing at Holloman. The Marine Corps said in March that Hawaii will be getting six MQ-9A Reaper drones that can be armed with missiles as the Corps as a whole pursues a deliberate but aggressive path toward unmanned systems. U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. James Delgadillo, 58th Airlift Squadron instructor loadmaster, directs a forklift at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sept. 9, 2021. More than 30,000 pounds of MQ-9 Reaper assets were loaded in support of exercise Agile Combat Employment Reaper. (Kayla Christens/U.S. Air Force) Todays global security environment has seen a return to great power competition, the Navy and Marine Corps said in the Unmanned Campaign Framework. This shift has placed the Department of the Navy at an inflection point where a traditional force structure will not be enough in the face of new warfighting demands. Maj. Joshua Benson, a Marine Corps spokesman, said the six Reapers will arrive in Hawaii beginning in fiscal 2023 and fall under the already existing Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, or VMU-3, which operates much smaller RQ-21A Blackjack drones. By practicing in Hawaii with MQ-9s from the mainland, our joint partners are able to test the full extent of their future capabilities, the Air Force said. The addition of Reapers is just one of several big changes coming to Marine Corps Base Hawaii as the entire Corps undergoes a radical reorganization designed to remake it as a fast-moving and distributed missile force aided by unmanned ships, vehicles and aircraft that can sink ships at sea. The Marines, for example, announced that three dozen or more conventional helicopters the entire Marine Corps fleet will be departing Kaneohe Bay and a squadron of KC-130J cargo and refueling aircraft that can fly long distances will be based in Hawaii in coming years. Two squadrons of MV-22 Ospreys will remain in Hawaii. The turboprop-powered Reaper, with a wingspan of 66 feet, a maximum takeoff weight of 10, 500 pounds and a flight endurance of 34 hours for the extended range version, was first flown in 2001 and has been used by the Air Force in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other locations worldwide. The hunter-killer drone was designated Reaper by the U.S. and Royal Air Force, which has become the widely used name for any Predator B model equipped with weapons, according to maker General Atomics. The Reaper is bigger and heavier than the Predator. Marine Corps MQ-9As would be the biggest military drones in Hawaii. By comparison, Army RQ-7B Shadows that have operated out of Wheeler Army Airfield have a 20-foot wingspan and 460-pound gross takeoff weight. Unarmed Wheeler Shadows pair with AH-64 Apache helicopters as one example of Army force multiplication using an unmanned system. The Hawaii-based Reapers, which will be operated by hundreds of Marine Corps personnel performing a range of jobs, could be armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, officials said. The Air Force has used laser-guided bombs. The Marine Corps top modernization priority is developing a ground-based anti-ship missile capability. In August, Hawaii Marines fired two Naval Strike Missiles from an unmanned truck at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai. The missiles flew over 100 nautical miles (115 statute miles ) in a non-linear path around simulated shipping and other obstacles to strike the decommissioned Navy frigate ex-USS Ingraham 60 nautical miles from Kauai. The missile launch utilized whats known as the Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, thats paired with a joint light tactical vehicle stripped of its crew cab and turned into a robotic vehicle that can be directed with a gamelike remote controller or programmed to follow other vehicles. (c)2021 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser Visit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.com Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley, left, and now retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. (Getty Images/TNS) WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) A new book claiming that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held calls with Chinese military leaders to head off a nuclear confrontation prompted swift backlash from many Trump allies and one very consequential Trump critic. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the whistleblower who reported calls with Ukraine that led to the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, called for Milleys ouster over the top generals phone calls. He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. Its an extremely dangerous precedent. You cant simply walk away from that, Vindman wrote in a tweet. Vindman testified against Trump in a House impeachment inquiry into the presidents phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Milley, the top-ranking officer in the military, made two phone calls with his Chinese counterpart in 2020 to assure them that the U.S. would not launch a nuclear strike, according to a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post. Republicans, including Trump himself, and conservative media allies have condemned Milleys actions as treasonous and called for Milleys sacking. Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have expressed concern that any president is able to unilaterally launch a nuclear weapon without congressional input. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden said he still has great confidence in Milley. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also offered the administrations endorsement of the top general, continuing that Milley went through the normal channels of communication and did not subvert the chain of command. The outgoing president of the United States, during this period of time, fomented unrest leading to an insurrection leading to an attack on the nations Capitol, Psaki added, calling the situation key context for Milleys actions. Vindman, a former National Security Council staffer in the Trump White House, told USA TODAY in August that he believes his duties required him to report on the former presidents actions, regardless of his personal politics or the impact on his career. After investigations surfaced that the Trump administration was withholding approved defense funding from Ukraine, Vindmans complaint resurfaced as key evidence in Trumps eventual first impeachment. In July 2020, Vindman resigned from the Army, citing bullying from Trump and other senior aides that pushed him out of his national security role. ___ (c)2021 USA Today Visit USA Today at www.usatoday.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Jiennah Crayton, the widow of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, gave birth to the couples daughter, Levi Rylee Rose McCollum early Monday at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. McCollum was among 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the suicide bombing Aug. 26 at the Kabul airport. (Facebook) CHEYENNE, Wyo. The widow of a U.S. Marine killed in a bombing in Afghanistan in August has given birth to a baby girl. Levi Rylee Rose McCollum was born early Monday at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, according to a Facebook post by the babys grandmother, Jill Miller Crayton. The 8-pound, 10-ounce girl was born in a lightning quick delivery and doing well, according to Craytons Monday evening post. Crayton is the mother of Jiennah Crayton, who is the widow of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, of Bondurant, Wyoming. McCollum was among 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the suicide bombing Aug. 26 at the Kabul airport. Several online fundraising efforts as of Wednesday had raised about $1 million for the babys education and for her mother. McCollum grew up in western Wyomings Jackson Hole area. Relatives said McCollum played with toy rifles as a toddler and was interested from an early age in becoming a soldier. He was a high school wrestler known for working hard, even before Marine training. Hundreds of people lined the streets in Jackson, Wyoming, last Friday when McCollums remains returned home from Afghanistan. Law enforcement saluted as the hearse passed. McCollum was killed on his first deployment. A U.S. Navy sailor helps the French submarine Amethyste moor at Naval Station Norfolk on Sept. 16 2021. (Dave Ress/The Daily Press) (Tribune News Service) The first time the French Navy ventured into Hampton Roads, it turned the tide of the American Revolution. The visit of the submarine Amethyste at Naval Station Norfolk is somewhat more relaxed. The plan is for the USS John Warner to host a barbeque so its crew and the French sailors can get to know each other. There will be tours of the French submarine for the Americans, and tours of the Virginia-class John Warner for the French and not just what most visitors get, these will be professional and largely classified consultations. France and the United States are two of only six nations with nuclear submarines, and while NATO exercises can mean a change to practice operating together, port visits matter too. But plans to add a seventh member to the club Australia angered France when the United States announced them the day before Amethystes arrival. The agreement will kill a deal France made to develop a new submarine for the Australians. French submarines visit Norfolk every three years or so, so the Amethystes stop here is a rare chance for each side to get to know the other better. It makes ties between allies stronger, and 1781 shows how important allies are, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Vandenengel, executive officer of the John Warner. On its way to Norfolk, Amethyste passed under the waters where the Battle of the Capes was fought Sept. 5, 1781, he said. On that day, it took about 2 hours for French Admiral Francois Joseph Paul, Marquis de Grasse Tilly and a French fleet of 37 ships, including 28 large ships-of-the-line, to push combined British fleet of 19 warships out of Chesapeake Bay. When the two fleets opened fire at 4:15 p.m., the stakes were control of the bay, and particularly whether George Washington could bring the reinforcing troops and supplies he needed for looming battle with British forces at Yorktown. Control of the bay also meant that when the British fleets came back a few days, this time with reinforcements for Lt. General Charles Cornwallis and his besieged army, they were unable to enter the bay and proceed to Yorktown. Cornwallis never got the additional troops he needed when fighting erupted in late September. After more than two weeks of conflict, the British surrendered on Oct. 17, 1781, ending the war with victory for American independence. dress@dailypress.com 2021 Daily Press. Visit dailypress.com. The HMS Queen Elizabeth, a Royal Navy aircraft carrier, has made two stops in Guam during its maiden deployment to the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy) The HMS Queen Elizabeth steamed into Naval Base Guam this week for the British aircraft carriers second visit to the U.S. island territory in about a month. The carrier, through its official Twitter account, announced the stop Sept. 13 and said it would undergo scheduled maintenance while in port. The carrier and its strike group also visited Guam on Aug. 6 as it makes its way through the Indo-Pacific region. Naval Base Guam is offering a variety of support to the Queen Elizabeth, base spokeswoman Theresa Cepeda told Stars and Stripes in an email Friday. These support services include but are not limited to Port Operations, Security, Morale, Welfare, and Recreation, Base Communications, Fleet Logistics and Supply, and Navy Exchange Guam, she wrote. Cepeda said she could not confirm whether the carriers sailors would be given liberty on base. However, Cepeda said Royal Navy sailors were expected to follow coronavirus mitigation measures, which include wearing a face mask and social distancing. A spokesman for the Queen Elizabeth did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. Royal Navy sailors were granted shore leave during the Queen Elizabeths August visit. Two from the strike group were arrested during an incident at a Guam nightclub. The ships second stop in Guam comes less than a week after it departed Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, where it stayed five days after arriving Sept. 4. While in Japan, Queen Elizabeth sailors were not allowed to leave the ship in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While Japans coronavirus cases are now in decline after the peak of a fifth wave, the country reported nearly 16,000 new infections the day the Queen Elizabeth pulled into Yokosuka. Guam, which is also coming off another coronavirus wave, reported 174 cases on Monday. The Queen Elizabeth is on its first operational deployment, which started in May and is expected to cover approximately 26,000 nautical miles. The USS John S. McCain departs Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. The guided-missile destroyer is shifting its homeport to Naval Station Everett, Wash., after 24 years in the Far East. (Ryo Isobe/U.S. Navy) YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan The USS John S. McCain sailed out of Tokyo Bay on Friday, leaving Japan after 24 years with 7th Fleet and the heartbreaking loss of 10 crew members from a collision in 2017. The Navy announced the guided missile destroyers departure on Friday. It is named for three generations of naval officers bearing the same name, including the late Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who ran for president in 2008. The McCain is headed for Naval Station Everett, Wash., its new homeport, according to the Navy. While stationed at Yokosuka, the destroyer and its crew landed in the heart of unsought controversy. The ship collided with a Liberian-flagged tanker, the Alnic MC, in the Strait of Malacca near Singapore, on Aug. 12, 2017. The collision killed 10 sailors and heavily damaged the destroyer. The incident was one of two collisions by 7th Fleet destroyers that summer. On June 17, 2017, seven sailors died aboard the USS Fitzgerald when it collided with a Philippine-flagged container ship, ACX Crystal, about 80 miles southwest of Tokyo. The USS John S. McCain departs Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. The guided-missile destroyer is shifting its homeport to Naval Station Everett, Wash., after 24 years in the Far East. (Ryo Isobe/U.S. Navy) The McCain was sidelined for repairs until June 2020. The destroyer bears a memorial plaque engraved with the names of the 10 sailors who lost their lives on the ship. "John S. McCain and her Sailors have proven time and time again our Navy's resolve to answer the call in support of our nation and our allies," the ships skipper, Cmdr. Tin Tran, said in a Navy news release. "After 24 years of faithful overseas service, we are ready to head back home to America, back to Washington State. Our sailors will forever remember the bonds of friendship and hospitality Japan has shown us." The McCain will join 3rd Fleet, which operates in the Eastern Pacific. The McCain will be replaced by the USS Ralph Johnson, which is en route to Japan, said 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Mark Langford. "It is definitely a changing of the guard with USS John S. McCain and her crew departing the 7th Fleet after over 24 years in Japan," the commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, Capt. Chase Sargeant, said in the release. "The contributions of the current and all previous crews in defending peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific cannot be overstated. The McCain arrived at Yokosuka in summer 1997, and over the years took part in numerous operations and exercises. In 1998, it deployed to support the USS Independence battle group as part of Operations Southern Watch and Desert Thunder. During the beginning of the War on Terror, the McCain supported the USS Kitty Hawk strike group in 2002 and 2003 as part of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. In 2011, the ship took part in Operation Tomodachi, which provided humanitarian assistance following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The ship made headlines again in May 2019, when multiple media outlets reported that the White House had asked the Navy to keep the destroyer out of sight during then-President Donald Trumps visit to Yokosuka. Trump did not deny the report, which first appeared in the Wall Street Journal. I would never do a thing like that, he told reporters at the time. Now, someone did it because they thought I didnt like him. OK? And, they were well meaning, I will say they thought they were doing me a favor because they know Im not a fan of John McCain. On Feb. 4, the McCain steamed past the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, islands built up by China with military installations, in a demonstration of freedom of navigation, according to the Navy. The next day, the destroyer transited the Taiwan Strait, another routine Navy exercise that challenges Chinas claims in the region. In April, the McCain made another pass through the strait. The McCains homeport shift follows the departures of other Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in recent years. The USS McCampbell and USS Stethem left Yokosuka in 2019 and 2020, respectively. In August, the USS Curtis Wilbur left. The destroyers USS Higgins, USS Stethem and USS Dewey arrived in August and September to replace them. Sailors assigned to the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) greet family and friends following the ships return to Naval Station Norfolk on Sept. 17, 2021. T (Joshua D. Sheppard/U.S. Navy) NORFOLK, Va. (Tribune News Service) The last two ships of the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group returned to Norfolk on Friday morning, two months after the carrier arrived. Happy families and a dancing orange Tyrannosaurus Rex were waiting. Its been a long time coming, said Petty Officer First Class Robert Hurley, after getting a T-Rex hug and a kiss after his wife, Jerilynn, pulled off the top of the costume. This was completely unplanned, she said. The plan was for Hurleys ship, the destroyer USS Mitchser, to be back in June. The USS Mitscher and the cruiser USS Monterey, which also came back Friday, stayed on deployment longer than the rest of the strike group to continue supporting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The Japan-based carrier USS Ronald Reagan had relieved the Eisenhower, which had extended its deployment to take on that mission, but needed the cruiser to handle missile defense. And the Reagan needed the Mitchser to keep sea lanes open and defend against air attack. Its been nine months of nonstop operations; time to take a big breath and kind of slow down, said Cmdr. Tom McCandless, the Mitchsers skipper. The two ships deployed Feb. 24, after several weeks of exercises. Sailors man the rails of the Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57) as the ship returns to Naval Station Norfolk on Sept. 17, 2021, to end a nine-month deployment. (Joshua D. Sheppard/U.S. Navy) The Ticonderoga Class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) transits Hampton Roads before returning to Naval Station Norfolk to end a nine-month deployment. (Joshua D. Sheppard/U.S. Navy) Sailors man the rails as the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) returns to homeport at Naval Station Norfolk on Sept. 17., 2921, following a nine-month deployment to the U.S. 5th and U.S. 6th Fleet areas of operation. (Michael Hazlett/U.S. Navy) Sailors assigned to the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) depart the ship following the ships return to Naval Station Norfolk on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Joshua D. Sheppard/U.S. Navy) Monterey participated in U.S.-led exercises with the Royal Moroccan Navy and Royal Moroccan Air Force. The cruiser participated in Exercise Sea Shield 21, a naval exercise hosted by Romania, alongside ships from nine different nations. While operating in the Arabian Sea, it seized a large cache of weapons from a smugglers dhow, including dozens of advanced Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles, thousands of Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, and hundreds of PKM machine guns, sniper rifles rocket-propelled grenades launchers and advanced optical sights. We were all over the place, said Capt. Joseph Baggett, the Montereys commanding officer. In some of those places, his ship was far from the Eisenhower. Thats distributed maritime operations, Baggett said. But although the term is new and the Pentagons strategic emphasis is recent, such operations are old hat to cruisers, he said. The Mitchser provided in-depth air defense while the Eisenhowers air wing flew sorties in support of allied attacks on Islamic State remnants in Syria. In addition to providing air defense support to the Eisenhower and Reagan, the Mitchser escorted ships through the critical chokepoints of the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Arabian Gulf and the Bab-el-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea. The Mitchser also responded after the July 30 drone attack on the tanker Mercer Street. dress@dailypress.com 2021 Daily Press. Visit dailypress.com. In this Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021 file photo Ann Enderle R.N. attends to a COVID-19 patient in the Medical Intensive care unit at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. (Kyle Green/AP) BOISE, Idaho In another ominous sign about the spread of the delta variant, Idaho public health leaders on Thursday expanded health care rationing statewide and individual hospital systems in Alaska and Montana have enacted similar crisis standards amid a spike in the number of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. The decisions marked an escalation of the pandemic in several Western states struggling to convince skeptical people to get vaccinated. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare made the announcement after St. Lukes Health System, Idahos largest hospital network, asked state health leaders to allow crisis standards of care because the increase in COVID-19 patients has exhausted the states medical resources. Idaho is one of the least vaccinated U.S. states, with only about 40% of its residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Crisis care standards mean that scarce resources such as ICU beds will be allotted to the patients most likely to survive. Other patients will be treated with less effective methods or, in dire cases, given pain relief and other palliative care. A hospital in Helena, Montana, was also forced to implement crisis standards of care amid a surge in COVID-19 patients. Critical care resources are at maximum capacity at St. Peters Health hospital, officials said Thursday. And earlier this week Providence Alaska Medical Center, Alaskas largest hospital, also started prioritizing resources. Thursdays move in Idaho came a week after state officials started allowing health care rationing at hospitals in northern parts of the state. The situation is dire we dont have enough resources to adequately treat the patients in our hospitals, whether you are there for COVID-19 or a heart attack or because of a car accident, Idaho Department of Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said in statement. He urged people to get vaccinated and wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor settings. Our hospitals and health care systems need our help, Jeppesen said. In Idahos St. Lukes Health System, patients are being ventilated by hand with a nurse or doctor squeezing a bag for up to hours at a time while hospital officials work to find a bed with a mechanical ventilator, said chief medical officer Dr. Jim Souza. Others are being treated with high-flow oxygen in rooms without monitoring systems, which means a doctor or nurse might not hear an alarm if the patient has a medical emergency, he said. Some patients are being treated for sepsis a life-threatening infection in emergency department waiting rooms. The normal standards of care act as a net that allows physicians to carry out the high wire acts that we do every day, like open heart surgery and bone marrow transplants and neuro-interventional stroke care, Souza said. The net is gone, and people will fall from the high wire. One in every 201 Idaho residents tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The mostly rural state ranks 12th in the U.S. for newly confirmed cases per capita. Hospitalizations have skyrocketed. On Monday, the most recent data available from the state showed that 678 people were hospitalized statewide with coronavirus. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit beds has stayed mostly flat for the last two weeks at 170 people each day suggesting the state may have reached the limit of its ability to treat ICU patients. Though all of the states hospitals can now ration health care resources as needed, some might not need to take that step. Each hospital will decide how to implement the crisis standards of care in its own facility, public health officials said. On Wednesday, nearly 92% of all of the COVID-19 patients in St. Lukes hospitals were unvaccinated. Sixty-one of the hospitals 78 ICU patients had COVID-19. St. Lukes physicians have pleaded with Idaho residents for months to get vaccinated and take steps to slow the spread of coronavirus, warning that hospitals beds were quickly running out. The health care crisis isnt just impacting hospitals primary care physicians and medical equipment suppliers are also struggling to cope with the crush of coronavirus-related demand. One major medical supplier, Norco Medical, said demand for oxygen tanks and related equipment has increased, sometimes forcing the company to send patients home with fewer cylinders than they would normally provide. High-flow oxygen equipment normally used in hospital or hospice care settings is also being more frequently requested for at-home patients, said Norco President Elias Margonis. It seems like theyre discharging aggressively to free up beds for new patients coming into the hospitals, Margonis said. Margonis spent much of his morning on the phone with public health leaders and hospitals, trying to determine how the crisis standards of care will change the way patients are discharged from hospitals. Already, the company has seen an increase in customers seeking specialty oxygen equipment that flows at a rate of 8, 12 or 20 liters per minute rather than the standard 4 or 5 liters per minute, he said. When someone goes home, we bring their bed, we bring their wheelchair, we bring their cannula, their oxygen, Margonis said. This is where were saying, its important that you cant just discharge the problem, even if the patient is on the mend and on the way to getting healthy. To recover, they need the right support. Primary Health Medical Group, Idahos largest independent primary care and urgent care system, has been forced to shorten operating hours because its waiting rooms were so packed with patients that staffers were staying hours past closing in order to see them all. Meanwhile, the company was dealing with higher-than-normal numbers of staffers out sick because they had been exposed to coronavirus in the community or had symptoms and were awaiting tests. Now the medical group is also preparing to monitor patients who are released from hospitals earlier than normal or trying to avoid emergency rooms completely, said CEO Dr. David Peterman, and they will likely be sicker and need more care. This is heart-wrenching. Ive practiced medicine in southwest Idaho for 40 years and I have never seen anything like this, he said. ___ Iris Samuels contributed to this report from Helena, Montana. Samuels 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. Hollie Maloney, a pharmacy technician, loads a syringe with Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine at the Portland Expo in Portland, Maine, on March 2, 2021. An influential federal advisory panel on Friday, Sept. 17, soundly rejected a plan to offer Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP) WASHINGTON Dealing the White House a stinging setback, a government advisory panel overwhelmingly rejected a plan Friday to give Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots across the board, and instead endorsed the extra vaccine dose only for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease. The twin votes represented a heavy blow to the Biden administrations sweeping effort, announced a month ago, to shore up nearly all Americans protection amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. The nonbinding recommendation from an influential committee of outside experts who advise the Food and Drug Administration is not the last word. The FDA will consider the groups advice and make its own decision, probably within days. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to weigh in next week. In a surprising turn, the advisory panel rejected, 16-2, boosters for almost everyone. Members cited a lack of safety data on extra doses and also raised doubts about the value of mass boosters, rather than ones targeted to specific groups. Then, in an 18-0 vote, it endorsed extra shots for people 65 and older and those at risk of serious disease. Panel members also agreed that health workers and others who run a high risk of being exposed to the virus on the job should get boosters, too. That would help salvage part of the White Houses campaign but would still be a huge step back from the far-reaching proposal to offer third shots of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Americans eight months after they get their second dose. The White House sought to frame the action as progress. Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19, said White House spokesman Kevin Munoz. We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week. The CDC has said it is considering boosters for older people, nursing home residents and front-line health care workers, rather than all adults. The FDA and CDC will most likely decide at some later point whether people who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots should get boosters. During several hours of vigorous debate Friday, members of the panel questioned the value of offering boosters to almost everybody 16 and over. I dont think a booster dose is going to significantly contribute to controlling the pandemic, said Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University. And I think its important that the main message we transmit is that weve got to get everyone two doses. Dr. Amanda Cohn of the CDC said, At this moment it is clear that the unvaccinated are driving transmission in the United States. In a statement, Kathrin U. Jansen, Pfizer head of vaccine research and development, said the company continues to believe that boosters will be a critical tool in the ongoing effort to control the spread of this virus. Scientists inside and outside the government have been divided recently over the need for boosters and who should get them, and the World Health Organization has strongly objected to rich nations giving a third round of shots when poor countries dont have enough vaccine for their first. While research suggests immunity levels in those who have been vaccinated wane over time and boosters can reverse that, the Pfizer vaccine is still highly protective against severe illness and death, even amid the delta variant. The unexpected turn of events could reinforce criticism that the Biden administration got out ahead of the science in its push for boosters. President Joe Biden promised early on that his administration would follow the science, in the wake of disclosures of political meddling in the Trump administrations coronavirus response. The FDA panels overwhelming initial rejection came despite full-throated arguments about the need for boosters from both Pfizer and health officials from Israel, which began offering boosters to its citizens in July. Sharon Alroy-Preis of Israels Ministry of Health said the booster dose improves protection tenfold against infection in people 60 and older. Its like a fresh vaccine, bringing protection back to original levels and helping Israel dampen severe cases in the fourth wave, she said. Representatives for Pfizer argued that it is important to start shoring up immunity before protection begins to erode. A company study of 44,000 people showed effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 was 96% two months after the second dose, but had dropped to 84% by around six months. Both Pfizer and the Israeli representatives faced pushback from panelists. Several were skeptical about the relevance of Israels experience to the U.S. Another concern was whether third doses would exacerbate serious side effects, including rare instances of heart inflammation in younger men. Pfizer pointed to Israeli data from nearly 3 million boosters to suggest side effect rates would be similar to those already reported. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said he was supportive of a third dose for adults over 60 or 65, but I really have trouble supporting it for anyone down to age 16. While an extra shot would probably at least temporarily reduce cases with mild or no symptoms, the question becomes what will be the impact of that on the arc of the pandemic, which may not be all that much, Offit said. Bidens top health advisers, including the heads of the FDA and CDC, first announced plans for widespread booster shots in mid-August, setting the week of Sept. 20 as an all-but-certain start date. But that was before FDA staff scientists had completed their own assessments of the data. Earlier this week, two top FDA vaccine reviewers joined a group of international scientists in publishing an editorial rejecting the need for boosters in healthy people. The scientists said studies show the shots are working well. On Friday, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said the Biden administration announcement was not aimed at pressuring regulators to act but was instead an attempt to be transparent with the public and be prepared in the event that boosters won approval. We have always said that this initial plan would be contingent on the FDA and the CDCs independent evaluation, Murthy said. The Biden plan has also raised major ethical concerns about impoverished parts of the world still clamoring for vaccine. But the administration argued that the plan was not an us-or-them choice, noting that the U.S. is supplying large quantities of vaccine to the rest of the globe. The U.S. has already approved Pfizer and Moderna boosters for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Some Americans, healthy or not, have managed to get boosters, in some cases simply by showing up and asking for a shot. And some health systems already are offering extra doses to high-risk people. Buy Photo Tokyo had 782 people test positive for the coronavirus on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes) TOKYO Japans capital city ended its working week Friday with the second-lowest tally of new coronavirus infections in 10 days. Tokyo had 782 people test positive for the virus, according to public broadcaster NHK. However, another 25 people died of complications of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, NHK reported, citing the metropolitan government. Thats the highest daily toll since 28 deaths on Aug. 23, according to metro government data. Meanwhile, four U.S. military bases in Japan reported another 54 new cases from the previous week. Kadena Air Base on Okinawa announced the highest figure, 38 new infections, according to a weekly update on its website. The base said it has 68 active cases but provided no further information. Okinawa prefecture reported 185 new coronavirus patients and four deaths on Friday, according to the Department of Public Health and Medical Care. In its weekly update, Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo reported seven COVID-19 cases since Sept. 11. All were identified by public health authorities, according to the base website. Yokota has 20 patients under observation. Yokosuka Naval Base south of Tokyo has had six people test positive since Tuesday, according to a base news release. One immunized base employee turned up during contact tracing. The remainder were unimmunized. Three are associated with the Navy. A medical screening discovered one individual, one individual fell ill with COVID-19 symptoms and one tested positive after recently arriving in Japan. Two are base employees. One fell ill and the other turned up in a medical screening, according to a base news release. The base reported 25 active cases under observation. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni near Hiroshima has had three infections since Thursday, according to a base news release. Japan reported 4,626 new coronavirus cases and 58 deaths Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Nearly 53% of the Japanese population, or 66.6 million people, are fully vaccinated. U.S. Forces Korea reported no new coronavirus cases Friday. South Korea said another 2,008 people tested positive, 738 in Seoul and 655 in Gyeonggi province, where Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base are located, according to the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Nearly 22 million South Koreans are fully vaccinated; another 35.4 million have received one dose of a two-shot vaccine. Stars and Stripes reporters Mari Higa and Yoo Kyong Chang contributed to this report. People wait for a meeting with the Military junta led by Col. Mamady Doumbouya, at the people's palace in Conakry, Guinea, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. (Sunday Alamba/AP) CONAKRY, Guinea A delegation of West African leaders met with junta leaders in Guinea Friday, a day after the regional bloc imposed sanctions on the military chiefs and their families over this month's coup. Ghana President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led the delegation that met with Col. Mamady Doumbouya to discuss the decisions made by the 15-member regional bloc, known as ECOWAS. Delegation members also pushed for the release of Guinea President Alpha Conde, who was deposed in the Sept. 5 coup and has been imprisoned since. Even before the delegation arrived, demonstrators opposed to Conde gathered outside the airport to protest the involvement of ECOWAS. Many Guineans have questioned the role of ECOWAS, saying it did not put enough pressure on Conde when he changed the country's constitution to allow himself to seek a third term in office. After a summit Thursday in Ghana's capital, Accra, the bloc imposed travel bans and froze the financial assets of members of Guinea's ruling junta as well as their families. They also insisted on a quick transition to elections. The targeted sanctions come after Guinea's military leaders set a number of conditions for releasing Conde, according to the foreign minister of Ghana, who did not give further details. The junta, which has been meeting with business and political leaders this week, had not responded to the sanctions prior to the meetings. Doumbouya has sought to reassure the mining industry, Guinea's most vital economic sector, that the political changes will not impact existing mining in the country which has the world's largest reserves of bauxite. The coup leaders have yet to make public their proposed timeframe for handing over power to a civilian transitional government, or outlined how quickly new elections can be organized. Conde had sparked violent street demonstrations last year after he pushed for a constitutional referendum that he used to justify running for a third term, saying term limits no longer applied to him. He won another five years in office last October, only to be toppled by the coup 10 months later. At the time he came to power in 2010, he was Guinea's first democratically elected leader since independence from France in 1958. The regional bloc is also trying to tackle concerns over whether a second member state, Mali, is making enough progress toward a return to democracy more than a year after a military takeover there. ___ N'Gotta reported from Abidjan, Ivory Coast. An armed militia fighter walks down a path as villagers flee with their belongings in the other direction, near the village of Chenna Teklehaymanot, in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia on Sept. 9, 2021. (AP) WASHINGTON The White House on Friday threatened to impose sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders involved in a conflict gripping the Tigray region, where 10 months of fighting have left hundreds of thousands of people facing famine. A new executive order allows the U.S. Treasury Department to sanction leaders and groups seen as fueling the violence if they don't take steps soon to stop the fighting. Senior U.S. officials who previewed the order Thursday said that while it does not set a deadline on the leaders, they wanted to see progress made toward a cease-fire in the coming weeks. But the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy, said they were not optimistic Abiy would change course. Abiy's office responded Friday in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden that said Ethiopia would not "succumb to consequences of pressure." The 10-month conflict in Tigray has grown from a political dispute into a more serious war threatening stability in Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa and a key U.S. security ally in the region. The fighting, which involved various forces and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, has triggered the world's largest hunger crisis in a decade. The U.S. and United Nations say Ethiopian troops have prevented passage of trucks carrying food and other aid. Scores of people have starved to death, The Associated Press has reported. U.S. officials said Thursday that just 10% of humanitarian supplies intended for Tigray have been allowed into the region during the last month. As the situation deteriorates, Biden's executive order gives the Treasury and State departments authority to impose sanctions against leaders of all sides in the conflict the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments as well as the regional forces in Tigray and Amhara. The Treasury Department will exempt humanitarian efforts from any potential sanctions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the executive order "underscores our resolve to use every appropriate tool at our disposal to bring relief to the long-suffering people of the region." Previous U.S. pressure on the combatants has failed. A U.S. announcement in May of visa restrictions against Ethiopian and Eritrean officials was dismissed by Abiy's government as an effort to "meddle in our internal affairs." U.S. officials who spoke Thursday called on Abiy to show he would move toward a settlement before the new Parliament is seated on Oct. 4 following his party's landslide victory in July. He now has a new five-year term. No voting was held in the Tigray region. The war has the potential to fracture Ethiopia just a few years after Abiy moved to resolve the country's decades-long conflict with neighboring Eritrea. The U.S. officials expressed concern that Abiy will press for a military success to present to lawmakers when the new government is formed on Oct. 4. His government's recent call for all able citizens to join the fight and stop the Tigray forces "once and for all" caused some international alarm. Abiy's letter Friday again referred to Tigray forces as terrorists and accused the U.S. of not reciprocating support Ethiopia has given American efforts to fight the al-Shabab extremist group in neighboring Somalia. "We have seen the consequences and aftermaths of hurried and rash decisions made by various U.S. administrations that have left many global populations in more desolate conditions than the intervention attempted to rectify," the letter said. Since retaking much of their embattled region from Ethiopian forces in June in a dramatic turn in the war, the Tigray forces have brought the fighting into the country's neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara. The Tigray forces say they are pressuring the government to lift a blockade on Tigray that has left millions of people without telecommunications, electricity, banking services and almost all humanitarian aid. Now the massive humanitarian crisis that affects millions inside Tigray is spreading as hundreds of thousands of people in Amhara and Afar flee the Tigray fighters, some alleging retaliatory attacks, which the Tigray forces have denied. The Amhara regional government in a statement said that "the Amhara people have the natural right to defend themselves" against the Tigray forces, which it accused of numerous abuses. Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize for restoring ties with Eritrea but has since joined forces with Ethiopia's former enemy to wage war in Tigray. Eritrean soldiers have been accused by witnesses of some of the war's worst atrocities. Now they are active again inside Tigray, after pulling back in June when Ethiopian forces retreated. ___ Associated Press journalist Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report. Air Force Capt. Danielle Holland, left, an OB-GYN physician at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, and U.S. Army Lt. Col. L. Rene Key, director of the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center OB-GYN course at Ft. Hood, Texas, provide medical care to an evacuee at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Aug. 31, 2021. A field hospital and medical tent with OB-GYN care is available for expectant mothers and newborn babies in need of emergency treatment. (Taylor Slater/U.S. Air Force) RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany The conditions in the tent near the flight line as overnight temperatures dipped into the 40s clearly weren't ideal for giving birth. There wasnt time to get the Afghan woman in labor to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, about 15-30 minutes away by ambulance, depending on traffic. So we delivered in the tent, said Capt. Danielle Holland, an Air Force obstetrical and gynecological physician. She was recounting an emergency that occurred early on in Ramsteins mission to support Afghan evacuees after the end of 20 years of war. It was the womans ninth baby and a childbirth shell likely remember fondly despite the harsh conditions. She told our translator that it was the best delivery experience she ever had, Holland said. I was happy to hear it was the best but also sad that a tent delivery in Germany while being evacuated is your best birth experience. Tending to the scores of pregnant women who have poured into Ramstein since the first evacuation flight arrived Aug. 20 has been a challenge for U.S. military medical providers accustomed to Western standards of care. The evacuated women arrive mentally and physically exhausted, often dehydrated and malnourished. In the field hospital at the base, medical staffers have needed to improvise. For example, they've used examination tables that don't have stirrups and a head lamp for proper lighting. Buy Photo Capt. Danielle Holland and Maj. Suzanne Stammler, Air Force OB-GYN physicians with the 48th Medical Group at RAF Lakenheath, England, set up an a portable ultrasound device inside a field hospital at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept. 10, 2021, to care for evacuees from Afghanistan. Holland and Stammler alternate 24-hour shifts to provide for the health care needs of women temporarily staying at Ramstein and Rhine Ordnance Barracks. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo Capt. Danielle Holland and Maj. Suzanne Stammler, Air Force OB-GYN physicians with the 48th Medical Group at RAF Lakenheath, England, are part of a large medical team deployed to Germany to provide for the health care needs of evacuees temporarily staying at Ramstein Air Base and Rhine Ordnance Barracks. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes) Allison Haberstroh, a labor and delivery nurse at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, checks vital signs of Airman 1st Class Ariana Aponte Rodriguez at LRMC on Sept. 9, 2021. LRMC staff has delivered 18 babies of mothers who evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 20, 2021. The Army hospital also continued to care for its military population while supporting evacuees at nearby Ramstein Air Base and Rhine Ordnance Barracks. (Marcy Sanchez/Landstuhl Regional Medical Center) Its hoped that the lessons learned will improve how the military provides health care in similar situations, said Maj. Suzanne Stammler, an Air Force OB-GYN physician. Humanitarian-wise, in every conflict, theres always women and children, she said. Stammler and Holland are part of an OB-GYN team that arrived at Ramstein a few days after the first evacuees. Theyre with the larger 68-member Expeditionary Medical Support team deployed from RAF Lakenheath in England to support Ramstein and LRMC. The EMEDS team early on worked from tents and recently set up a field hospital inside the Southside Fitness Center. Together with medical personnel at LRMC, theyve delivered 21 babies as of Friday and provided care to women who miscarried or who need basic prenatal or postpartum care, from lactation help to fluids to treat dehydration, officials said. The ability to provide care is a very big privilege because for these women, not having access to the basic things that we have access to every day is a hard thing to see, Stammler said. In the first three weeks, the OB-GYN team at Ramstein cared for more than 120 women, a number thats the tip of the iceberg, Stammler said. I know theres a huge (cultural) stigma for women to even ask for help, she said. Many of the women have had no prior prenatal care and didnt know how far along their pregnancies were, the doctors said. The OB-GYN team at Ramstein uses ultrasound technology to estimate gestational age and delivery date, but even thats challenging because their babies are generally smaller, Holland said. One patient told me she continues to breast feed until shes pregnant again, Holland said. Thats her gauge. Without prenatal or medical records, providers dont know whether a pregnancy is high-risk, said Air Force Maj. Khimea Sayles, the clinical nurse officer in charge of labor and delivery at LRMC. But so far, deliveries have been smooth and babies have arrived healthy, she said. Eighteen babies have been delivered at LRMC. The women have all declined narcotics for pain management during labor, she said. Theyre true rock stars ... they make it look easy, Sayles said. Many of the women tend to be in poor health when they seek care, a condition exacerbated by their harrowing journey since fleeing home. Things are just so different for them, and they pull back on everything; they dont drink, they dont eat, Stammler said. LRMC gives the women a bassinet with diapers, wipes and other items. They've also started giving them bag lunches when discharged to help supplement meals at Ramstein. Still, quite a few have miscarried, Stammler and Holland said. Its hard to pin pregnancy loss on the physical and emotional stresses the women are enduring versus chromosomal imbalances, the most common cause of miscarriages, Stammler said. But those cases have been challenging to manage because doctors dont want to send a woman on an eight-hour trans-Atlantic flight if she might miscarry because there is a danger of severe blood loss, she said. Usually, the women defer treatment decisions to their husbands. There are exceptions, such as a married, pregnant woman who attended Kabul University and was an English teacher. For them as a couple, she drove the boat, Stammler said. We recruited her to help translate. The husbands arent in the delivery room for their childs birth, Sayles said. The men insist that their wives be treated by women only. At LRMC, nurses have been doing many of the deliveries, with a male doctor standing by in case of emergency. Some patients have also sought options that werent available to them in Afghanistan. One patient in her mid-30s said she would like to use contraception after having her ninth baby. Her husband agreed, Holland said. It was an extraordinary moment, she said. The app Smart Voting is displayed on an iPhone screen in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP) MOSCOW Facing Kremlin pressure, Apple and Google on Friday removed an opposition-created smartphone app that tells voters which candidates are likely to defeat those backed by Russian authorities, as polls opened for three days of balloting in Russia's parliamentary election. Unexpectedly long lines formed at some polling places, and independent media suggested this could show that state institutions and companies were forcing employees to vote. The election is widely seen as an important part of President Vladimir Putin's efforts to cement his grip on power ahead of the 2024 presidential polls, in which control of the State Duma, or parliament, will be key. Russian authorities have sought to suppress the use of Smart Voting, a strategy designed by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, to curb the dominance of the Kremlin-backed United Russia party. Apple and Google have come under pressure in recent weeks, with Russian officials telling them to remove the Smart Voting app from their online stores. Failure to do so will be interpreted as interference in the election and make them subject to fines, the officials said. Last week, Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan over the issue. On Thursday, representatives of Apple and Google were invited to a meeting in the upper house of Russia's parliament, the Federation Council. The Council's commission on protecting state sovereignty said in a statement afterward that Apple agreed to cooperate with Russian authorities. Apple and Google did not respond Friday to a request from The Associated Press for comment on Friday. Google was forced to remove the app because it faced legal demands by regulators and threats of criminal prosecution in Russia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who also said Russian police officers visited Google's offices in Moscow on Monday to enforce a court order to block the app. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday the presidential administration "definitely, of course" welcomes the companies' decision to remove the app, because it complies with Russian laws. Peskov said that the app was "outside the law" in Russia. The companies do not report how much revenue they earn in Russia. Russian Army soldiers vote during the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament and local parliaments elections at a polling station outside St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP) In this photo released by Russian Orthodox Church Press Service, Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill reads his ballot during the Parliamentary elections in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Oleg Varov/Russian Orthodox Church Press Service via AP) A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Pavel Golovkin/AP) People queue to cast their votes at the entrance of a polling station during parliamentary elections in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Pavel Golovkin/AP) A woman fills her ballot paper during the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament and local parliaments elections at a polling station in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP) In recent months, authorities have unleashed a sweeping crackdown against Navalny's allies and engaged in a massive effort to suppress Smart Voting. Navalny is serving 2-year prison sentence for violating parole over a previous conviction he says is politically motivated and his top allies were slapped with criminal charges. Many have left the country. Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption, as well as a network of regional offices, have been outlawed as extremist organizations in a ruling that exposes hundreds of people associated with the groups to prosecution. About 50 websites run by his team have been blocked, and dozens of regional offices have been closed. The authorities have moved to block the Smart Voting website as well, but some internet users can still access it. Navalny's team also created a Smart Voting chat bot on the messaging app Telegram and published a list of candidates Smart Voting endorses in Google Docs and on YouTube. Navalny's close ally Ivan Zhdanov on Friday tweeted a screenshot of what appears to be an email from Apple, explaining why the app should be removed from the store. The screenshot cites the extremism designation for the Foundation for Fighting Corruption and allegations of election interference. "Google, Apple are making a big mistake," Zhdanov wrote. Leonid Volkov, Navalny's top strategist, wrote on Facebook that the companies "bent to the Kremlin's blackmail." He noted that the move doesn't affect users who have already downloaded the app, and that it should be functioning correctly. Volkov told the AP last month that at some point in August, the app ranked third on Google Play in Russia among social networking apps and fourth on the App Store in the same category. Peskov on Friday called Smart Voting "another attempt at provocations that are harmful for the voters." The long lines at some polling stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and some other cities raised concerns of forced voting. David Kankiya from the Golos independent election monitoring group told AP that it was easier for state institutions and companies to force people to vote on Friday because there was less attention from observers. "Some observers are busy with work, some with university studies, as it's a work day and not a weekend," he said. "Monitoring is harder to organize, ergo, there are fewer risks for the administrative machine." Peskov dismissed the allegations and suggested that those at polling stations were there voluntarily because they had to work on the weekend or wanted to "free up" Saturday and Sunday. Putin, who has been self-isolating since Tuesday after dozens of people in his inner circle got infected with COVID-19, voted online Friday an option that is available in seven Russian regions this year. Kremlin critics have said that leaves room for manipulation. Dr. Anna Trushina, a radiologist at a Moscow hospital, told AP she went to a polling station "to be honest, because we were forced (to vote) by my work. Frankly speaking." She added: "And I also want to know who leads us." Media in St. Petersburg reported on suspected cases of "carousel voting," in which voters cast ballots at several different polling stations. An AP video journalist saw the same voters, believed to be military school students, at two different polling stations; one of them said the group had first gone to the wrong polling station. A local elections commission member posted video in which a man appeared to have tried to cast several ballots and then was confronted by a poll worker. The man in the video said he had obtained his ballots at a subway station. Western tech giants such as Twitter, Facebook and Google have come under pressure this year from the Russian government over their role in amplifying dissent. The authorities accused the platforms of allegedly failing to remove calls for protests, and levied hefty fines against them. The companies face similar challenges around the world. In India, the government is in a standoff with Twitter, which it accuses of failing to comply with new internet regulations that digital activists say could curtail online speech and privacy. Turkey passed a law last year that raised fears of censorship, giving authorities greater power to regulate social media companies that also were required to establish local legal entities a demand that Facebook and Twitter have met. Twitter has been banned in Nigeria since June, when the company took down a controversial tweet by the country's president, although the government has promised to lift it soon. - Chan reported from London. Vladimir Kondrashov and Anna Frants in Moscow contributed. Soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 41st Field Artillery Brigade fire M31 guided rockets during the Thunder Cloud exercise in Andoya, Norway, on Sept. 15, 2021. The exercise tested the targeting capability of the High Altitude Balloon system, which coordinated with long-range precision artillery to attack a seaborne target about 12 miles off the coast of Andoya, above the Arctic Circle. (Joseph Bush/U.S. Army) It was only fitting that a history-making Army artillery exercise dubbed Thunder Cloud take place in the country that gave the world Thor, the Norse god of thunder. American troops used the skies over Andoya in northern Norway for a novel test of a balloon system launched from the ground to between 60,000 and 72,000 feet above sea level, said Maj. Joe Bush, 41st Field Artillery Brigade spokesman. The balloons delivered weather information and the coordinates of sea targets to soldiers on the ground so they could shoot M31 live guided rockets with a range of over 40 miles. The exercise marked the first time the service sent the target coordinates by balloon to set up attacks using the Multiple Rocket Launch System, an Army mainstay. Soldiers from the brigade's 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment launched the guided rockets at the targets. The regiment is one of the oldest artillery battalions in the Army and has participated in nearly every Army campaign or operation since the countrys inception, said battalion commander Lt. Col. David Henderson. An electronics and engineering team from Raven Aerostar launches a high altitude balloon from Andoya Air Station to sense a simulated target in the Norwegian Sea during the Thunder Cloud live-fire exercise in Andoya, Norway, Sept. 15, 2021. Three high altitude balloons were launched into the stratosphere and relayed data to project coordinates for soldiers firing precision artillery. (Joshua Thorne/U.S. Army) The northern lights shined above the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 41st Field Artillery Brigade after they successfully fired six M31 rockets during the Thunder Cloud live-fire exercise in Andoya, Norway, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Joseph Bush/U.S. Army) A section of Multiple Launch Rocket System crewmen, assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, 41st Field Artillery Brigade, relax before firing their artillery during the Thunder Cloud live-fire exercise in Andoya, Norway, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Joseph Bush/U.S. Army) Now we are over here making history in the Arctic Circle ... so it is a pretty special and unique opportunity for the battalion, he said. Staff Sgt. Dor Snodgrass made his first visit to Norway thanks to the exercise, which he said served as an excellent demonstration of the soldiers' prowess. This section is my family; we are very tight-knit, Snodgrass said. We are good at what we do with such innovative sea-breaking technology. The unit supports the just-activated 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, which is based in Wiesbaden, Germany. Lt. Col. Nicholas Stout, the chief of plans for the task force, said it is a centerpiece of the Army's modernization of its combat capabilities. Sgt. Stefaan Lee, a gunner in the artillery brigade, said he felt honored that his battery had been deemed the best to shoot these live rounds downrange for the first time in Norway. Immanuel Johnson Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie appears on screen from MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Fla., where he spoke about Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, during a virtual briefing moderated by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby at the Pentagon. The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday, Sept. 17, that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) Ten civilians, including seven children, were killed in the Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that military leaders had said destroyed a car filled with explosives driven by an Islamic State terrorist, the top U.S. general in the Middle East said Friday. The strike was a tragic mistake, said Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command. McKenzie said it is unlikely any ISIS terrorists were killed in the strike and they are considering reparations for the families of the victims. CENTCOM recently opened a high-level command investigation and a civilian casualty assessment into that strike after The New York Times reported the strike conducted in the waning days of U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan war actually killed a local worker for a U.S.-based aid company and up to 10 nearby civilians. The Reaper drone strike was the last known airstrike launched by American forces in Afghanistan before the final U.S. troops pulled out of Kabul just before midnight Aug. 31. Defense officials in announcing the strike Aug. 29 said it had disrupted an imminent suicide attack against Hamid Karzai International Airport. The U.S. military used the Kabul airfield to lead an about two-week effort to evacuate Americans and their allies, including Afghans, from the country after the Taliban takeover Aug. 15. I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who are killed, McKenzie said. This strike was taken in earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake. And I offer my sincere apology. As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for this strike in this tragic outcome. The drone strike came just days after a suicide bomber with ISIS-Khorasan Afghanistans ISIS affiliate known as ISIS-K blew himself up just outside the airport, killing 13 American service members, wounding nearly two dozen more and killing and maiming hundreds of Afghans crowded around the airfields gates. U.S. officials at that time were on high alert about the potential for another terrorist attack on the airport and warned publicly such an assault was likely imminent. We now know that there was no connection between [the local worker] and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a prepared statement. We apologize, and we will endeavor to learn from this horrible mistake. Austin announced he has directed a review of the investigation completed by CENTCOM. I have asked for this review to consider the degree to which the investigation considered all available context and information, the degree to which accountability measures need be taken and at what level, and the degree to which strike authorities, procedures and processes need to be altered in the future, he said. A CENTCOM statement just after the strike claimed it caused secondary explosions, indicating explosives were inside the car. However, the investigation found the secondary explosion was caused by a propane tank located behind the white Toyota Corolla that was hit with a missile at about 4:51 p.m. on Aug. 29, McKenzie said. Clearly our intelligence was wrong on this particular white Toyota Corolla, he said. Intelligence gathered by U.S. personnel led the military to a vehicle of that make and model as a key element of the next attack, and this particular Corolla was at a location of interest, the general said. Its now known that the compound included offices of Nutrition and Education International, a nonprofit based in California that works to fight malnutrition in places such as Afghanistan. Without forces on the ground, the military used drones to track the vehicle for about eight hours, watching while the car moved throughout Kabul. As many as four men came and went from the car with bags and jugs. Once it stopped about 1.8 miles from the airport, the strike was authorized. At that time, one man was inside the vehicle and another outside in the vicinity of the car. A review of footage following reports of civilian casualties showed other forms could be seen moving throughout the compound. This led to my initiation of an investigation within 24 hours of the strike. A comprehensive review of all the available footage, and reporting on the matter, led us to a final conclusion it as many as 10 civilians were killed in the strike, including up to seven children, McKenzie said. The general said he regretted the strike, but he noted the intense self-defense posture that decision-makers faced. Just 24 hours later, rockets were launched from a similar location to the Kabul airport where American troops continued to try to get as many Americans and Afghans as possible out of the country. Let me be clear, this was a self-defense, strike, taken under self-defense rules of engagement, based on an imminent threat to attack us, McKenzie said. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had previously described the operation as a righteous strike that killed at least one ISIS-K facilitate, said Friday that it was a horrible tragedy of war, according to The Associated Press. In a dynamic high-threat environment, the commanders on the ground had appropriate authority and had reasonable certainty that the target was valid, but after deeper post-strike analysis our conclusion is that innocent civilians were killed, he told The AP. Milley also made a commitment to transparency on the incident. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley virtually attends a House hearing from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on May 27, 2021. Milley on Friday, Sept. 17, defended his decision in the final months of Donald Trumps presidency to call his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, with assurances that the United States was not going to attack China. But, if the U.S. were to attack, Milley told Li he would warn him in advance, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book Peril by Washington Post jounalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. (Brittany Chase/U.S. Air Force) WASHINGTON The leaders of a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection said Thursday they have sought records related to calls from Gen. Mark Milley, the top U.S. military officer, to his Chinese counterpart in the turbulent final months of Donald Trumps presidency. Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement that they had already asked for records connected to the calls, which Milleys spokesman has said were intended to convey reassurance to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The House committee asked the Defense Department in August for a broad swath of records related to the November election, the transfer of power to President Joe Biden and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Select Committee has sought records specifically related to these matters and we expect the Department of Defense to cooperate fully with our probe, Thompson and Cheney said in the statement. A soon-to-be published book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril, says Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that he would warn him in the event of a U.S. attack. General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him in an October call, according to the book. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. Another call was placed two days after the Jan. 6 insurrection. The statement from the leaders of the panel, created by the House to investigate the insurrection, comes as it reviews thousands of pages of documents requested from multiple federal agencies and technology companies about the insurrection and its origins. Thompson and Cheney said in the statement that the panel is dedicated to telling the complete story of the unprecedented and extraordinary events of January 6th, including all steps that led to what happened that day, and the specific actions and activities that followed between January 6th and January 20th, 2021, the day Biden took office. Milley was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2019 by Trump and has remained in the position in Bidens administration. Both Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have said they have confidence in Milley as some Republicans in Congress urge his firing. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans serving on the panel along with Cheney, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that he believes there is a lot more to the story, and thats why I think its important for the Jan. 6 committee to deal with it. Kinzinger said lawmakers should get the full answers before we start jumping to making it political. He said it will also be important for Congress to hear from Milley, who is scheduled to testify in the House Armed Services Committee this month. Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the November election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had on Jan. 8, according to officials. Milley also asked senior officers to swear an oath that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book. ____ Associated Press writers Padmananda Rama, Lolita Baldor and Robert Burns contributed to this report. President Joe Biden on Thursday made a nomination to fill the long-vacant position of inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management, a watchdog office that has at times publicly clashed with top management of the federal agency. Nominee Krista Boyd is chief counsel for oversight and policy on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which oversees federal workplace matters. Boyd has worked on Capitol Hill for more than two decades with a focus on issues including whistleblower protection, transparency and strengthening the access to agency information for inspectors general and other watchdogs, an announcement said. The position has been filled on only an acting basis since the 2016 retirement of the prior IG, Patrick E. McFarland, who had held the post since 1990. That makes it the third-longest of the more than a dozen vacancies among IG positions, which are largely independent of agency management. Much of the offices work is routine, such as auditing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and other employee benefits programs. However, the inspector generals office was a major force in investigations into breaches revealed in 2015 of OPM databases containing personal information on more than 20 million people. That incident ultimately triggered the retirement or resignation of several senior OPM officials including the director. The IGs work was a main focus of often-contentious congressional hearings, with members of both parties stressing that the office had warned that the databases were vulnerable to just the sort of breaches that ultimately occurred. The office afterward issued a series of reports criticizing managements response, including how OPM contracted to provide identity monitoring and other services to victims. More recently, the IG said that OPM should have taken stronger safety precautions when it returned some employees to on-site work last year after initial office closings in response to the pandemic. And last year it criticized the agency for shifting some OPM operations to the General Services Administration under a Trump administration plan to break up the OPM even though Congress had ordered an indefinite delay. As of March, the office reported that OPM has not carried out more than 400 of its recommendations in areas such as information security, financial reporting, contract management and improper payment of benefits. Boyds name is now added to a long list of nominations for positions important to federal employees awaiting action by the Senate. Most notably, that list includes nominees for all three positions on the governing board of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears appeals of disciplinary actions taken against federal employees. That board has lacked a quorum since early 2017 and has been empty since early 2019, resulting in a backlog of more than 3,400 cases; some employees have appealed directly in federal court instead. Also pending before the Senate are nominees for all five seats on the board that oversees the Thrift Savings Plan, the 401(k)-style retirement savings plan for civil service and military personnel, and for two of the three seats on the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which decides on disputes between unions and management in the federal workplace. Both of those boards are continuing to operate in the meantime, however. Four of the five TSP board seats are being filled on a holdover basis, including one member whom Biden has nominated for another term. The FLRA board is also filled, but Bidens nominations would change control of that board from Republican to Democrat by replacing a GOP member continuing as a holdover. The other nomination would be for another term of the current sole Democrat whom Biden earlier named as chairman. OPM Director Kiran Ahuja was confirmed in June on a party-line vote. There has been no nomination for the OPM deputy director position, however. Former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald gestures while at the federal correctional institution in Sheridan, Oregon on March 1, 1995. (Shane Young/AP) RALEIGH, N.C. A former Army doctor convicted for the infamous 1970 murders of his pregnant wife and two young daughters on a North Carolina base has ended his appeal of a lower court ruling that denied his requested release. An attorney for Jeffrey MacDonald said in court documents that his client wished to dismiss his appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the dismissal in the "Fatal Vision" case, named for a book about the investigation, and the court granted the dismissal Thursday. MacDonald, who is serving life in prison, had filed an appeal notice in April, two weeks after District Judge Terrence Boyle refused to release him. His lawyers had asked Boyle to let him leave prison because of his deteriorating health. Boyle wrote he lacked authority because a law governing compassionate release requests doesn't apply to those who committed their crimes before a 1987 cutoff. "After a searching review of the relevant law, Mr. MacDonald concluded that the decision below was correct as a technical legal matter," MacDonald's lawyers said in a statement Friday, referring to Boyle's order. MacDonald, 77, is incarcerated at a prison in Cumberland, Maryland, and has chronic kidney disease, skin cancer and high blood pressure, according to court documents. MacDonald was convicted in 1979 for killing his pregnant wife, Colette; 5-year-old daughter, Kimberley; and 2-year-old daughter, Kristen at their family home at Fort Bragg using a knife and ice pick before stabbing himself. MacDonald has declared his innocence and spent years on appeals. Then-Army Capt. Jeffrey MacDonald shows a drawer full of mail (all but 10 or 15 letters were in support of him) in his Bachelor Officer's quarters at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Oct. 28, 1970, after the Army cleared him of killing his wife and two children. At the time, MacDonald, a Green Beret physician,said he wanted to get out of the Army and start a new life. (Perry Aycock/AP) Former Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald enters a car at the Terminal Island Prison in Los Angeles, Aug. 22, 1980, for the trip to downtown L.A. to appear in federal court in the final phase of his release from custody. Dr. MacDonald was convicted last August for the murder of his wife and two young daughters at the family's Fort Bragg, N.C. home in 1970. A Richmond U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled he may be released in lieu of $100,000 bond pending outcome of appeals of his conviction. (Lennox McLendon/AP) MacDonald has blamed "drug-crazed hippies" as the killers. But prosecutors said he donned surgical gloves and used his wife's blood to write the word "PIG" over their bed to imitate the 1969 Charles Mansion murders. The 4th Circuit refused in late 2018 to grant MacDonald a new trial. MacDonald "did the unthinkable more than 50 years ago when he murdered his pregnant wife and two daughters in brutal fashion," Norman Acker, acting U.S. attorney for eastern North Carolina, said in a news release Friday. The Raleigh prosecutor's office prosecuted MacDonald in a high-profile trial and has defended the convictions since. "Our office has sought justice on their behalf for decades. That work continues today," Acker said. "And that work will continue every day until MacDonald's efforts to escape justice cease for good." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley attends a briefing at the Pentagon, in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 18, 2021. Milley on Friday, Sept. 17, defended his decision in the final months of Donald Trumps presidency to call his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, with assurances that the United States was not going to attack China. But, if the U.S. were to attack, Milley told Li he would warn him in advance, according to excerpts from a forthcoming book Peril by Washington Post jounalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. (Lisa Ferdinando/Defense Department) ATHENS, Greece The top U.S. military officer said Friday that calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump's presidency were "perfectly within the duties and responsibilities" of his job. In his first public comments on the conversations, Gen. Mark Milley said such calls are "routine" and were done "to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability." The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke to The Associated Press and another reporter traveling with him to Europe. Milley has been at the center of a firestorm amid reports he made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army to assure him that the United States was not going to suddenly go to war with or attack China. Descriptions of the calls made last October and in January were first aired in excerpts from the forthcoming book "Peril" by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Li that he would warn Li in the event of an attack. Milley on Friday offered only a brief defense of his calls, saying he plans a deeper discussion about the matter for Congress when he testifies at a hearing later in September. "I think it's best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military," Milley said. "I'll go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks." Milley and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify Sept. 28 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, in what initially was going to be a hearing on the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans, Afghans and others from that country. Now, however, Milley is expected to face tough questioning on the telephone calls, which came during Trump's turbulent last months in office as he challenged the results of the 2020 election. The second call, on Jan. 8, came two days after a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's White House victory. A special House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol has asked for details about Milley's calls. U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., leaders of the committee, have also sought records related to the November election, the transfer of power from Trump to Biden and the riot. Milley was appointed Joint Chiefs chairman by Trump in 2019 and has remained in that post in the Biden administration. As chairman, Milley is the top military adviser to the president and to the defense secretary. The White House and the Pentagon chief have said they continue to have full trust and confidence in Milley. The new book says Milley, fearful of Trump's actions late in his term, twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the U.S. was not going to attack China. One call took place on Oct. 30, four days before the American election. The second call was on Jan. 8, less than two weeks before Biden's inauguration and two days after the insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of Trump. Some U.S. lawmakers have said Milley overstepped his authority, and they have called for Biden to fire him. Trump blasted Milley as treasonous, called him "a complete nutjob" and said Milley "never told me about calls being made to China." Biden told reporters after the disclosures in the book that "I have great confidence in Gen. Milley." Milley's office, in a statement this week, said the calls were intended to convey "reassurance" to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman. The statement from Milley spokesman Col. Dave Butler also said that the calls were "staffed, coordinated and communicated" with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. According to the book, which the AP obtained, Milley assured his Chinese counterpart in the first call that "the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay." It said he told Li, "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you." "If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise," Milley reportedly said. Milley spoke with a number of other military leaders around the world after the Jan. 6 riot; they included leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A description of those calls in January referred to "several" other counterparts that Milley spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control. The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasn't as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: "We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes." In response to the book, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged Biden to fire Milley, saying the general worked to "actively undermine" the American commander in chief, Trump. Buy Photo Fences around the U.S. Capitol have returned ahead of the Justice for J6 rally planned for Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (Robert H. Reid/Stars and Stripes) The D.C. National Guard activated 100 troops to support U.S. Capitol Police on Saturday as the nations capital prepares for a large rally in support of rioters arrested for their involvement in the deadly Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol building, Pentagon officials said. The Physical Security Task Force will augment law enforcement for the protest known as Justice for J6, which has a permit for up to 700 people, according to The Associated Press. The rally is expected to bring far-right groups similar to those who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6. To prepare for any potential unrest or violence, D.C. and Capitol Hill officials have increased security around the Capitol and the number of personnel ready to respond. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday approved the use of the D.C. Guard, which will station troops at the D.C. Armory, said Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell, a Pentagon spokesman. The armory is less than 2 miles from the Capitol. The D.C. National Guard will join a number of local law enforcement agencies in supporting the Capitol Police. Should the Capitol Police require assistance, they will first utilize local, state and federal law enforcement capabilities before requesting the deployment of the Physical Security Task Force, Mitchell said in a statement. The task force will only be deployed upon request of the Capitol Police to help protect the U.S. Capitol Building and congressional office buildings by manning building entry points and verifying credentials of individuals seeking access to the building. From left: U.S Army Sgt. Gio Carter, Sgt. Aaron Hampton, and Pvt. Cody Harrison, all with Forward Support Company 507th Engineer Battalion, Michigan National Guard, provide security with U.S. Capitol Police officer Mitchell Dunay, near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 3, 2021. (Joe Legros/Army National Guard) In this Sept. 10, 2021, photo, a video surveillance apparatus is seen on the East Front of the Capitol in Washington as security officials prepare for a Sept. 18 demonstration by supporters of the people arrested in the Jan. 6 riot. The camera surveillance system is on permanent loan from the U.S. Army but will be operated by the Capitol Police to enhance security around the Capitol grounds. Law enforcement officials concerned by the prospect for violence at a rally in the nations capital Saturday have reinstall protective fencing that surrounded the U.S. Capitol for months after the Jan. 6 insurrection there. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) The D.C. National Guard said civil support is part of its portfolio and it is uniquely qualified to conduct this mission because of our partnership with the federal and local law enforcement agencies within the area. The rally organizer Matt Braynard was a strategist for former President Donald Trumps campaign and has described those arrested for storming into the Capitol on Jan. 6 as prisoners being unfairly prosecuted, the AP reported. More than 600 people face federal charges stemming from the January riot that resulted in five deaths. Following the Jan. 6 riot, more than 26,000 National Guard troops from across the country deployed to ensure safety on Inauguration Day. At about 5,000 Guard troops remained in the city for the next couple months, then dwindled to about 2,300 when the mission ended in May. The Capitol security mission cost the Guard about $450 million. Rose Thayer FBI Director Christopher Wray, shown at a hearing on Capitol Hill, has said the bureau opens a new investigation on China every 10 hours. (Graeme Jennings/Pool/Abaca Press/TNS) WASHINGTON After conducting days of surveillance, performing DNA tests on a hard drive that was fished out of a dumpster, and searching through personal emails, FBI officials became convinced that visiting UCLA researcher Guan Lei belonged to the Chinese military and might be stealing American industrial secrets. They couldnt nail down evidence of espionage but secured an indictment against Guan for allegedly lying about having secret ties to the Peoples Liberation Army. He was charged with visa fraud, making false statements and destroying evidence. For more than eight months, the 30-year-old computer science Ph.D. student sat in a cell at Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles awaiting trial. But in a sudden turnaround in late July, U.S. authorities summarily dismissed all charges. The Justice Department gave no explanation, issuing a brief statement that it had reevaluated the case, along with several others, and determined that it is now in the interest of justice to drop the matter. Guans was one of five similar prosecutions against Chinese researchers all but one in California that were dropped over a two-day period in July. Earlier in the month, Justice officials dismissed charges against a Chinese American researcher in Cleveland accused of failing to disclose his affiliation with a Chinese university from which he had received funding. And this month, a federal judge acquitted Anming Hu, a Chinese Canadian engineering professor in Tennessee, of charges stemming from allegations that he hid his joint academic appointment in China in obtaining research funding from NASA. All seven failed prosecutions were part of the so-called China Initiative, a sweeping program launched in November 2018 under the Trump administration to counter theft of trade secrets, hacking and economic espionage. Michael German, a former FBI agent who serves as a fellow for the Brennan Center for Justices Liberty & National Security Program, said the recent dismissals revealed how weak many of the cases were. Obviously, the FBI and Justice Department are under pressure to produce indictments against people with a so-called nexus to China to match the political rhetoric sensationalizing the espionage threat from the Chinese government, he said. Even FBI analysts appear to have felt the investigators effort to connect these defendants to the Chinese military was overwrought. So what went wrong? The problem was, and remains, serious. Chinas history of stealing manufacturing secrets and other valuable information that U.S. companies spent millions of dollars to develop has been a significant spur to the virtual cold war that has developed between Washington and Beijing. It has put increasing pressure on government officials to do more to stanch the flow. Although much remains unknown about the Trump-era campaign, it appears that a major problem was its decision to focus on Chinese nationals and Chinese Americans working in major U.S. research universities. Not only did that approach fail to turn up persuasive evidence of spying most of the charges involved making false statements to government authorities, or tax and visa fraud but the emphasis on going after a small number of individuals for academic fraud seemed too small-scale to make a dent in a massive problem the equivalent of trying to win the war on drugs by rounding up a handful of street dealers. What I see from the outside is that the bureau [FBI] and the Department of Justice have almost routinely pursued cases for something other than economic espionage, so theyre not contributing that much to the wealth of information of what China is trying to do. Nor are they pursuing cases with the biggest bite, said Mark Allen Cohen, a former senior intellectual property attache at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and now senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Moreover, the FBIs tactics struck many Asian Americans as heavy-handed and discriminatory. The campaign came at a time when Asian Americans across the country were under attack with hate crimes. Defending the program, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Beijing, in its effort to overtake the U.S. economy, had resorted to industrial espionage using non-traditional collectors such as researchers and graduate students. He told a China Initiative conference last year that the FBI had about 1,000 investigations involving Chinas attempt to steal U.S.-based technology. In April, the director testified before Congress that the bureau had about 2,000 open cases of economic espionage that tie back to the Chinese government, representing a 1,300% increase over the last few years. But in the nearly three years since the programs launch, the China Initiative has brought just 12 prosecutions of people at academic institutions and has won convictions of four individuals, according to Justice Department statistics provided to the Los Angeles Times. In none of those four cases did the government provide evidence of economic espionage or theft of trade secrets or intellectual property. Apart from the university cases, Justice officials have obtained four convictions or guilty pleas out of 16 prosecutions involving economic espionage and trade-secret theft matters since November 2018. Various U.S. lawmakers, academics and rights groups have called for an end to the initiative. They say the program has cast unfair suspicion on people of Chinese and Asian descent and contributed to racial profiling on campuses, chilled international research collaboration and, in the case of Hu and a number of others, ruined careers and personal lives. I think that they are just set on their desire to find spies, said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., who as chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus has raised concerns to President Joe Biden. Justice officials have said the U.S. government needs to be aggressive in countering the serious economic threat posed by China. In a statement attributed to spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle, the department said it was taking seriously the problem of rising hate crimes targeting Asians in America and was working with communities to improve its efforts. Biden has said nothing specifically about the China Initiative. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in July, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and 90 other members of Congress asked for an investigation into the wrongful targeting of people of Asian descent, and for an update on departmentwide implicit bias training that was mandated in 2016. I wonder if the China Initiative is simply another manifestation of discrimination weve seen against Asian Americans in U.S. history, he said, recalling the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and other incidents. Others say the initiative has echoes of the scrutiny on Muslim Americans after 9/11. Daniel Olmos, a Silicon Valley trial attorney who worked on the first economic espionage case of a Chinese American to go to jury trial, said hed seen a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese-born professors and research fellows who had been targeted and that he himself had counseled as many as 10 of them. In almost all of those cases, he said, the individuals have been fired or pressured to leave. I just think its a shakedown, and the endgame appears to me to get them fired, Olmos said of the China Initiatives efforts at universities. The Justice Departments move to dismiss charges against Guan and four others came after internal reports by FBI analysts noted that Chinese citizens could be affiliated with the Peoples Liberation Armys civilian service and that, in itself, remains an unreliable indicator of nefarious obfuscation of ones military affiliations, and even less of an indicator of technology transfer activity. In Guans case, FBI agents built their case after learning that Guan had received a scholarship linked to the PLA and uncovered photos of Guans university adviser in China in full military uniform. In a late-night interview, agents repeatedly pressed Guan when he said he wore a green uniform for about a month of military training for students at his school, the National University of Defense Technology, according to an FBI interview transcript. At UCLA, Guan worked in a lab supervised by then-math professor Wotao Yin, who told the FBI that Guan did not work on any U.S.-government funded projects and that there wasnt any research worth taking. Guan wrote code, always from public data sets. Guans code was the most advanced, if anything people would steal Guans code and not the code made by others, Yin said, according to FBI interview notes. Guan, who insisted he had no ties to the Chinese military, was at once surprised and relieved when he was freed. But before returning home, he filed with the court a response to the governments dismissal motion. Its truly a terrible experience for me, he said. Los Angeles Times staff writer Del Quentin Wilber in Washington contributed to this report. 2021 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Lori Desjardins, a 45-year-old woman from Southington, Conn., is charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace following the incident on the anniversary of Sept. 11, police said. (Berlin, Conn., Police Department) CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Tribune News Service) A woman shown in a viral TikTok video slapping a Navy sailor and calling him a fake was arrested Thursday, Connecticut police say. Lori Desjardins, a 45-year-old woman from Southington, Conn., is charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace following the incident on the anniversary of Sept. 11, police said. She accused Sean Nolte Jr., who was wearing his uniform, of lying about being in the Navy while they were waiting inside a pizza restaurant. This is disgusting, the woman said to Nolte, as shown in the TikTok video. She threw his cap on the ground and slaps him in the face, Nolte said. You disgrace the USA, she said while yelling obscenities. Nolte, who commented on Facebook about the incident, has not spoken publicly about Desjardins arrest. In a Facebook post earlier this week, he said he maintained his professionalism and wished the woman a nice day. Well, looks like some of our own people cant recognize authenticity when they see it, he said in his post. Numerous sources, including the fire chief for the department Nolte volunteers for, confirmed he is enlisted in the Navy, McClatchy News reported. Police, who earlier in the week were attempting to identify Desjardins, said the woman turned herself in Thursday after a warrant was put out for her arrest. Desjardins was released on a $10,000 non-surety bond and is due in court Sept. 23, police said. 2021 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC . Steve Nagy was just 23 when he was killed in the summer of 1944. He was a member of the 407th Bombardment Wing and was piloting a B-17 Flying Fortress when it was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed during a bombing run over Merseburg, Germany. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) LORAIN, Ohio (Tribune News Service) A 77-year-long journey home will end for one Lorain soldier this month when he is finally laid to rest in the soil of his hometown. The remains of a Air Force pilot Steve Nagy, killed during a World War II bombing run over a German town, will receive a funeral, with full military honors, and be buried in the citys Elmwood Cemetery on Friday, Sept. 24. Nagy was just 23 when he was killed in the summer of 1944. He was a member of the 407th Bombardment Wing and was piloting a B-17 Flying Fortress when it was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed during a bombing run over Merseburg, Germany. The plane carried nine crew members. Four were captured by German forces, while five including Nagy were killed. Nagys family was told his body had burned in the crash and could not be recovered, according to Nagys nephew, Richard Nagy, who was born two years after Steves death. In fact, the soldiers remains were mixed with those of another crewmans and buried in Germanys Leipzig-Lindenthal Cemetery. Here at home, Steves mother purchased a plot in Elmwood Cemetery not far from the family home and placed a stone In Loving Memory of her son so the family had a place to mourn him. After the war, the American Graves Registration Command recovered three sets of remains from Nagys doomed flight from Lindenthal. Two could not be identified and were buried as unknown American Service Members in the American Battle Monuments Commission cemetery in Hombourg, Belgium. It wasnt until 2017, when a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) historian, while studying American losses during WWII and unidentified remains recovered outside Leipzig, connected the unidentified remains to Nagys B-17. Two years later, the Department of Defense brought the remains to the DPAA Laboratory in Kansas, and contacted the family to ask for DNA samples to test against the remains. Scientists used dental and Y-chromosome DNA from Nagys nephews to identify him in September 2019. The military is constantly looking for missing soldiers, and when we were called and asked if we would be willing to give DNA samples, it was exciting, but at the same time, I never believed that we could find him and bring him home, said Richard Nagy. But all of a sudden, we got the call to tell us that they had identified him. Representatives of the military visited Richard weeks later to present the family with the medals his uncle had earned during his service, as well as to make arrangements for Steve to be buried in his hometown. Since it was near the holidays, winter weather had already begun to set in in Northeast Ohio, and several family members would need to travel, we planned a funeral for Mothers Day weekend 2020, Richard explained. We wanted as many family members to be there for the burial as possible, Richard explained. He was the only one of four brothers who didnt make it home from the war. My parents had died, all of his brothers are gone, as well as the woman he married shortly before leaving for Europe, but we wanted him to know he still had family who knew about him and loved him and wanted him home. But Steve Nagys return to his hometown was delayed again this time by COVID-19. We couldnt get together as a family because of the virus and because we wanted to give my uncle the funeral he has long-deserved, we had to put things on hold, again, Richard said. It was just so disappointing. The family will finally assemble to bury Steve Nagy in Lorains Elmwood Cemetery next week. A private family service will be conducted by an Army chaplain at the Gluvna-Shimo-Hromada Funeral Home at 10 a.m. The processions planned route will take Nagy past his home, down Broadway Avenue, past Clearview High School, where he and his nephews graduated from, before turning into Elmwood Cemetery, where he will finally be laid to rest in a section of the cemetery dedicated to veterans of Americas wars. It would be a real honor to my uncle if folks wanted to come out and line the streets as he passed by. This is a small town. We all went to a small high school where it is more of a family than a school community, Richard Nagy said. I think he would like to know that people at home were proud of him and what he did in the war. Nagy will be buried not in the empty grave his mother purchased but in a portion of the city-owned cemetery set aside for veterans, because the family feels he served honorably and deserves to be with other men who made the ultimate sacrifice. The memorial grave and headstone will remain. Nagys name, recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, in Hombourg, Belgium, will now have a rosette placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. Its been a long, long journey for him, and an emotional time for my family, Richard Nagy said. We honestly never thought this time would come and we are just so thankful to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen. It brings closure to finally have him close again, and he will rest easier knowing he is finally home. 2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. The federal Division on Civil Rights is investigating the pandemic response at the veterans home in Paramus, N.J. (Department of Veterans Affairs) (Tribune News Service) Residents of New Jerseys three veterans homes would be able to leave the facility during during a public emergency and be entitled to more information about what is being done to protect them, under a package of bills Gov. Phil Murphy signed Thursday. There are 651 veterans and their spouses now living at the three state-run veterans nursing homes, located in Menlo Park, Paramus and Vineland. But throughout 2020, the pandemic decimated these facilities, claiming the lives of at least 204 residents, according to confirmed and probable fatalities figures from the state Department of Health from July. The federal Division on Civil Rights is investigating the pandemic response at the veterans homes in Menlo Park and Paramus, where the fatalities were the highest. Some families have sued the state for gross negligence, claiming masks and other protective equipment were not shared and infected people were not segregated from the rest of the residents. Brigadier Gen. Jemal J. Beale, the adjutant general who was forced out of his job overseeing the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs over the death toll at the Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes. The CEOs of those facilities also lost their jobs. Lawmakers who sponsored the legislation say their intent was to fix mismanagement and other problems at the state-run nursing homes that denied residents access to reliable information and cut off them off from communicating with their families. The legislation also requires senior managers to hold clinical experience, which had never been a mandate before. Everyone knew from early in the pandemic that the most vulnerable populations are in nursing homes and veterans homes, Sen. Joe Vitale (D- Middlesex), chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, said in a statement. Going forward, we must give more attention and devote additional resources to these facilities, Vitales statement said. We must also make sure they are being run by people with proper credentials and work experience. We cant allow these residents to be forgotten victims of the most tragic public health crisis of our time. Murphy signed: A5849: which requires the departments Adjutant General to send weekly reports to the state Department of Health during the current public emergency through 2021, and during any future health emergency. The report would include any changes in operating procedures and the amount of personal protective equipment on hand; A5850: which requires the department to hold quarterly town hall meetings with residents guardians; A5851: which permits guardians to remove residents from the veterans home during a public health emergency for 60 days without forfeiting the residents room; A5852: which requires the facility to have two documented ways to contact residents guardians, including regular mail, email, text or by phone; A5853: which requires the state to hire veterans home administrators who hold clinical experience in long-term care facilities; A5854: which requires the state hire a resident advocate for each of the three veterans homes to relay problems from residents to the director of the Division of Veterans Health Care Services in Trenton. This appointment is in addition to the existing resident council president, who is selected by veterans living at each facility. A5855: which gives authority for the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman to review staffing and payroll records from the veterans homes; A5856: which mandates the Director of the Division of Veterans Health Care Services hold clinical experience working in a long-term care facility. The three Assembly Democrats who sponsored the law that requires the hiring of resident advocates at each veterans homes said the legislation was the least they could do after everything our veterans have done for this country. The veterans in our memorial homes may not always be in a position to advocate for themselves and might need someone else to advocate on their behalf, the sponsors, Vincent Mazzeo and John Armato of Atlantic County and Annette Chaparro of Hudson County said in a statement Thursday. Assigning a resident advocate to each home to serve as a point of contact for our veterans will make it easier for them to share any concerns or grievances they may have. slivio@njadvancemedia.com 2021 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. The governing body for motorcycle sports in New Zealand will have a new person holding the handlebars from next week. Motorcycling New Zealand has just appointed Bay of Plenty man Michael Kerrisk into the role of General Manager and he begins work from Monday. The 55-year-old Kerrisk has a long association with motorcycling and has worked as a motorcycling engineer in Tokoroa and then Mount Maunganui with his own business. I grew up on a farm and have always had a passion for motorcycles and motorcycling, he says. Even now I try to get out on a bike with a bunch of friends whenever the opportunity arises. Happily married to wife Leanne, Kerrisk stepped into the role of dealership partner for Blue Wing Honda in Auckland and, although currently based in New Zealands largest city, the couple will shortly be moving to Papamoa. He says he is greatly looking forward to his new challenge at the helm of MNZ. I am always up for new challenges. I want to see what is working well and keep that going, while also looking at where positive changes can be made. There has been a big spike in interest in all things related to motorcycling in the past few years and Id like to further encourage the blossoming of female participation in the sport and continue that growth. MNZ president Paul Pavletich, himself a leading motorcycle racer and heavily involved with rider tuition during the working week, is thrilled to welcome Michael Kerrisk on board. The MNZ Board went through a lengthy recruitment process and have full confidence that Mike, with his sports administration and motorcycle industry knowledge, will do a fine job in rolling out the boards plans, says Pavletich. He will add a lot of value with his skills and strengths. -By Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com The economy showed strong momentum in the period leading up to the recent Delta Covid-19 outbreak, which bodes well for a solid economic rebound, says Finance Minister Grant Robertson. GDP rose 2.8 per cent in the June quarter, following on from a 1.4 per cent increase in the previous March quarter. Robertson says this is a significantly better result than most forecasters had predicted. Treasury had forecast a rise of 0.8 per cent in Mays Budget, and economic commentators using more recent data had forecast around a 1.2 per cent rise. Internationally, the OECD average was 1.6 per cent. Excluding the September 2020 quarter, this is the strongest quarterly growth that we have seen since 1999. The economy in the June 2021 quarter was 4.3 per cent above where it was in the pre-Covid December 2019 quarter, says Robertson. Household spending remained buoyant, led by retail spending on electronics and furniture, eating out and holidays. The services industries, which make up two-thirds of the economy, grew strongly with higher activity in engineering, architectural and consulting services. Activity in the construction sector continued to rise, driven by residential building, while there was solid growth in manufacturing. Businesses confidence in the economy was also reflected in investment levels, which remained high and above pre-Covid levels in the December 2019 quarter. This bodes well as we come out of lockdown. It shows our science and health-led plan has continued to work for the economy. Our quick and decisive response to this outbreak, including providing cashflow and confidence through schemes such as the Wage Subsidy, will also help the economy to rebound quickly again. We do know, however, that the impact has been uneven and we will continue to work with affected sectors to support them in these challenging times. On an annual basis, the economy grew 5.1 per cent, says Robertson. The size of the economy was $340 billion. New Zealand continues to outperform many of the countries we compare ourselves against. Compared with New Zealands 2.8 per cent quarterly growth, Australia rose by 0.7 per cent, the United States by 1.6 per cent and Japan by 0.5 per cent, while Canada declined by 0.3 per cent. Only the United Kingdom grew by more, up 4.8 per cent, reversing recent falls in activity. Covid Fund Replenished The stronger economy has been reflected in the Governments books, with lower deficits and debt position than had been predicted, and well below that of other nations that we compare ourselves against, says Robertson. Ministers have decided to use the greater fiscal headroom to top up the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund by an extra $7 billion. There is also an additional $3 billion available to spend from money previously allocated in the fund that has not been spent. We have already boosted support to business in this lockdown and the extra funding will be targeted at further economic support as well as building resilience in our health system, supporting the vaccination rollout and border and MIQ provision. We are in a strong economic position to protect lives and livelihoods and plan for the gradual and careful opening up of New Zealand to the rest of the world to secure the recovery. Our focus remains on keeping New Zealanders safe, accelerating the recovery and dealing with long-standing issues such as climate change, housing and child wellbeing despite the uncertainty and volatility globally around the ongoing impact of Covid-19. Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. SS-Traveller Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: New Delhi Posts: 7,548 Thanked: 19,438 Times View My Garage Re: Delhi-NCR BHPians: How much lower did you sell your 10 / 15 year old car for? Quote: GTO Originally Posted by Just three questions for Delhi-NCR BHPians. 1. How much below fair market value did you sell your 10 / 15 year old car for? If by fair market value you mean what OBV or OLX Auto valuation shows, then I'd say the algorithm of these sites is skewed to generating a higher value by about 20-25%, compared to what prices I received in the real world. On the other hand, once the word is out that one is selling one's car, unscrupulous car dealers (and even big ones like Cars24) will constantly flood one with calls and messages making low offers, until one is sick of it all and lets the car go for a ridiculous price rather than be hounded by these callers. As a matter of policy, I refuse to deal with car dealers, and have got reasonably better prices than what they offered - but nowhere close to what OBV / OLX Auto etc. evaluate. Quote: GTO Originally Posted by 2. Wasn't there an option to sell your car in neighbouring states for a higher price? This is something I'm most curious about. Why don't more people do this? Aren't there brokers & car dealers who would make this easy? Quote: GTO Originally Posted by 3. How easy or difficult was it to sell your 9 - 10 year old diesel car? chiranjitp ever looking at it physically (all he saw was a walkaround video). I was looking for a buyer in the PB / RJ region, but wasn't expecting someone from AS to buy it (I'm so glad he did). The Scorpio was physically TD'ed by the buyer's representative in Delhi, and after 1-2 km he told me he had not driven a better maintained Scorpio than mine - and the deal was completed almost immediately. The Thar had 2 more years of life left but had only run ~20k km, and was in pristine condition, and someone wanted to transfer it to Uttarakhand where he planned to move (the Covid effect). Of all the cars, I lost the least money on the Thar - I'd bought it for an unmentionably mouth-watering price, so selling it after 3 years meant I did not lose much. The Swift, after almost 13 years, sold at ~25% of its purchase price, and the Scorpio for ~30% of what I paid for it new, after 9.4 years of ownership. Quote: porsche_guy Originally Posted by I'm not too sure on this but I think I read somewhere that the RTOs in NCR do not issue an NOC in the last year of registration i.e as soon as a diesel car enters it's 10th year and a petrol car it's 15th year of registration making these cars mostly worthless since their usable life is just a year or lesser. I sold 3 cars over 2 years (October 2018 - the Swift , February 2019 - the Scorpio , and September 2020 - the Thar ).If by fair market value you mean what OBV or OLX Auto valuation shows, then I'd say the algorithm of these sites is skewed to generating a higher value by about 20-25%, compared to what prices I received in the real world. On the other hand, once the word is out that one is selling one's car, unscrupulous car dealers (and even big ones like Cars24) will constantly flood one with calls and messages making low offers, until one is sick of it all and lets the car go for a ridiculous price rather than be hounded by these callers. As a matter of policy, I refuse to deal with car dealers, and have got reasonably better prices than what they offered - but nowhere close to what OBV / OLX Auto etc. evaluate.Of the 3 cars I sold, 2 were sold to individuals who were out of state (AS & PB) - and I did not need to use the services of any broker / agent to get the NOC (Form 28) from the RTOs in Delhi. The Thar was sold to someone in Delhi, and I simply initiated the sale process online and let the buyer complete the rest himself (initiating the process / applying for the NOC technically absolves me of all ownership responsibilities from the time of sale).Since no individual owner living in Delhi-NCR will buy a nearly-10-year-old diesel or nearly-15-year-old petrol, it becomes a challenge to locate a buyer from another state, who will be buying your vehicle on trust (we Delhiites do have a nasty reputation for selling off lemon cars with a bit of spit & polish). The Swift was sold without BHPianever looking at it physically (all he saw was a walkaround video). I was looking for a buyer in the PB / RJ region, but wasn't expecting someone from AS to buy it (I'm so glad he did).The Scorpio was physically TD'ed by the buyer's representative in Delhi, and after 1-2 km he told me he had not driven a better maintained Scorpio than mine - and the deal was completed almost immediately. The Thar had 2 more years of life left but had only run ~20k km, and was in pristine condition, and someone wanted to transfer it to Uttarakhand where he planned to move (the Covid effect).Of all the cars, I lost the least money on the Thar - I'd bought it for an unmentionably mouth-watering price, so selling it after 3 years meant I did not lose much. The Swift, after almost 13 years, sold at ~25% of its purchase price, and the Scorpio for ~30% of what I paid for it new, after 9.4 years of ownership.That is not true. If your vehicle is BS-3, they want to know whether the specific RTO you are taking the NOC for, allows registration of BS3 vehicles or not. If the other RTO doesn't allow BS-3, the Delhi RTOs will reject your NOC application. Last edited by SS-Traveller : 13th September 2021 at 21:45 . What just happened? Apple will now have to deal with a class-action lawsuit over reports of its M1 MacBook screens cracking inexplicably. The world's largest company is being accused of false or deceptive marketing for the laptops, misconduct in customer support, and violation of consumer law. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the Northern District of California by law firm Bursor and Fisher. It follows last week's investigation into the cracking reports by Washington, DC-based Migliaccio & Rathod LLP, which also investigated the Surface Pro 4's screen flickering issues three years ago, but it seems another set of lawyers got there first. The M1-powered MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro have been widely praised by reviewers and consumers, but it seems they're not perfect. Several users claim they opened their devices and discovered cracks on the screens that couldn't be explained. This Redditor says the LCD on their 13-inch M1 MacBook cracked inexplicably just a week after purchasing it. There have also been reports of black or vertical lines appearing on the screens for no apparent reason. "The M1 MacBook is defective, as the screens are extraordinarily fragile, cracking, blacking out, or showing magenta, purple and blue lines and squares, or otherwise ceasing to function altogether," the suit reads. The lawsuit states that Apple advertised the M1 MacBooks as being "premium [in] quality, reliability, and durability," despite allegedly knowing this wasn't true. It also claims that Apple's "rigorous testing" of the laptops should have revealed any faults and that the company "actively" hid the alleged defects from consumers. The lawsuit goes on to accuse Apple of violating consumer law by refusing to repair the displays, even when they were under warranty. One customer was quoted $480 for a replacement screen, while another was told it would be $615. In many cases, Apple said the issue was caused by the customer and not a fault, meaning it wouldn't repair the laptop as it was considered accidental breakage. The suit wants Apple to compensate the plaintiff for the cost of repairs and award others who have faced similar problems "reasonable attorney's fees and costs." It also asks the company to end its "false marketing" and that it "correct, repair, replace or otherwise rectify [its] unlawful, unfair, false and/or deceptive practices." The exact amount of damages will be identified during the requested jury trial. h/t: MacRumors Image credit: Nanain Lucid Motors' Air Dream Edition is now the longest-running electric vehicle after achieving a whopping 520 miles on full battery power. This simply means that it was able to beat Tesla Model S Plaid, which is the recent EV that could go furthers on a full charge. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the one that confirmed the massive achievement of Lucid Motors on Thursday, Sept. 16. The U.S. agency said that the giant EV maker was able to beat Elon Musk's advanced electric car by more than 100 miles. "With 520 miles on a single charge, it's achieved a record-breaking official EPA range rating, making it the first electric car ever to breach 500 miles," announced Lucid Motors via its official blog post. Lucid Group's CEO and CTO, Peter Rawlinson, said that he is excited to inform the company's consumers that the new high-end Air Dream Edition R was able to achieve the 520 miles because of the manufacturer's world-leading, in-house EV innovation. He added that they did not only rely on installing an oversize battery pack to make it go further than other EV brands. Lucid Air Dream Edition as Longest Running EV Today According to The New York Times' latest report, the range is quite important for electric car owners since EV charging stations are still limited in some parts of the globe. This makes it harder for them to go further since they can't just bring an extra battery to replace the empty one, unlike gas-based cars where drivers can bring their own gasoline. Also Read: Rivian R1T Electric Pickup Releases Today But Are There Stocks Available for Purchase Now? Because of this, Tesla's giant competitor showed its Air Dream Edition could go longer compared to other EV brands and various traditional cars. The company's leader explained that it could go further, thanks to its more aerodynamic feature. Aside from this, it is also quite smaller and has more efficient motors and other components compared to the current Tesla models. Musk's EV company and Lucid Motors are not the only ones making efforts to improve their own electric automobiles. The new 2022 Chevrolet Silverado is also expected to have new tech updates and design adjustments. On the other hand, Apple is still working on its upcoming Apple Car. Lucid Air Dream Edition To Have Affordable Versions! The new Lucid Air Dream is still considered a luxury EV since it is expected to start at $169,000 before state and federal incentives. This means that once consumers start purchasing this advanced vehicle, they would need to pay more than the based price. However, the giant EV firm said that it is planning to release more affordable versions, which could start at $77,000. Currently, the company hasn't confirmed the release date or if it is already working on the budget-friendly models. For more news updates about Lucid Air Dream Edition and other advanced electric cars, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Lucid's 'Air' Electric Luxury Sedan Records More than 10,000 Reservations--A Comparison to its Previous Versions This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Your computer could suffer from serious issues when a sudden power outage happens. Many users don't know this, which makes them think it is still okay if they use their desktops without following the right processes when there is an unexpected power cut in their areas. There are two types of power outages, which are blackout and brownout. The first one, blackout, happens when the power in a certain area is completely shut off. On the other hand, brownout surges take place when there is a partial outage in a block or street. This means that blackout is a more serious power cut compared to brownout. TaraEnergy explained that there are various reasons why power surges happen. These include human error in electric plants, power overloading or over-usage, as well as natural disaster, which is currently the main reason. How To Prevent Computer Outage Damage? According to MakeUseOf's latest report, there are various methods that you can try to prevent your computer from getting damaged. These include the following: Also Read: Mozilla VPN Boosts Security Through Custom DNS Server: How Multi-hop Feature Works? Always use a backup laptop when there is an outage. Unlike PCs, which rely on power boxes to remain active, laptops have their own batteries, whic h allow them to operate without the need to plug into a power socket. Properly shut down your computer when the power goes off. This would allow your system to function properly when you are going to use it again. Always have a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) to power your computer for a few minutes, giving you enough time to save your works. Use a surge protector for the safety of your computer files and other documents. Although these methods are not 100% effective, they could still give a chance to ensure your computer's system wellness, especially since PC demand is now increasing as people tend to work remotely. On the other hand, these techniques would also be useful for computer builders since they can use them to properly finish their setup when there is a sudden power shortage. Negative Effects of Power Outages An unexpected power outage could overload and damage your PC's electronics components. This could get worst once there are some follow-up surges, which could definitely affect your desktop's motherboard or power supply. On the other hand, a sudden power cut could also lead to file deletions, especially when your PC suddenly goes out of power when you are editing some documents or doing an online meeting. For more news updates about computers and other essential gadgets, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: How to Scan QR Code on iPhone: A Simple Guide This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : Pexels/Pixabay) Windows 11 software Microsoft announced that the Microsoft Office 2021 would be released on Oct. 5. The next version of the productivity site will launch on the same day as Windows 11. Like Office 2019, Office 2021 is a one-time purchase, and it will be available on both macOS and Windows. It is for those who don't want to subscribe to the Microsoft 365 subscription. Microsoft Office 2021 Launch Date Microsoft stated that it would share more details about the new version soon. According to The Verge's Tom Warren, the release of Office 2021 will feature a lot of improvements. The company will release two versions of the productivity site, the Office 2021 and the Office LTSC. The Office LTSC will focus more on the needs of the enterprise customers who can't access the Cloud. The new version of Microsoft Office will also add dark mode support and accessibility features. Microsoft plans to support the software until 2025, and it can operate with 32-bit and 64-bit systems, according to Engadget. Also Read: Microsoft Office Offline Version 2021 Won't Require a Browser: Here Are Other Details Microsoft Office LTSC LTSC, which stands for Long Term Servicing Channel, is Microsoft's version on Sept. 15. This version means that if you purchase it, the features will remain the same, and you only have to purchase it once. Once it is downloaded, it is tied to your device, and you won't get any new features. If you need a version that gets frequent updates, Microsoft 365 is the one for you, but it needs to be paid monthly or annually. The Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 will have new functions in Excel like LET, XMATCH, and XLOOKUP. Dynamic Arrays is also a new feature that has six functions. The slideshow recorder in PowerPoint is new and improved, and it also has a presenter video. There are new translation and inking features in Outlook, and much more. You will also find some performance improvements and a new visual design across all of the included apps. Support is available if you need to automatically save your files in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. A new search box located at the top of the apps will also be available. Another new thing is the inclusion of the Teams app. However, that does not mean that you get access to its premium version. This only has the free versions of Teams or the Exploratory version for businesses with the Azure AD, but it does not have the Teams license. If you want the premium version, you need to pay for it. Passwordless Option Aside from the latest Office versions, Microsoft is now offering its users the choice to remove passwords from their Microsoft account. This is a move towards a passwordless future where your face or your phone will log you in. The change began on Sept. 15, and it will roll out in the next few weeks. Your Microsoft account, together with the apps that require you to enter a password, will no longer do so, according to PCWorld. Instead of the traditional password, Microsoft will use the Authenticator app. It will also use Windows Hello and codes sent to your email or your phone. Related Article: Microsoft Claims Passwords No Longer Needed in 2021, Here's What It Wants to Use This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : Pexels/Pixabay) Video game China China is reportedly reviewing several new games to make sure that they meet the country's strict criteria for content and protection of underage players. China's Strict Game Rules According to Bloomberg, China's media watchdog is re-evaluating game titles that were submitted for approval by Tencent and Netease in order to make sure that they comply with the criteria introduced in August. Reuters reported that both Tencent and Netease did not respond to the publication's request for comment. In August, China forbade players under the age of 18 to play video games for more than three hours a week. The strict rule was created to stop the growing addiction to video games, which the Chinese watchdog called spiritual opium. Also Read: China Requires Players to Use Their Real Name in Online Games as Real-Name Verification System to Be Launched by September The National Press and Publications Administration or NPPA required game developers to submit their titles for re-evaluation after the new rule was placed in effect. Now, the media regulators are reviewing a popular zombie-themed video game. It is considered by the NPPA as too scary and inappropriate for children. The regulators also tagged other themes such as "boys' love" as inappropriate, which received public backlash. China has cracked down on a lot of industries from technology to education and from games to properties, as the country tightens its control. China has also asked game developers not to focus on making profits and removing violent content. Only 3 Hours of Game Time Underaged players in China are only allowed to play video games between 8 PM to 9 PM. This only applies during Fridays, weekends, and holidays. This is the country's way to curb gaming addiction among the youth. China is known to make very dramatic moves that are targeted towards children's gaming time. The rules have included a cyber curfew back in 2019 that restricts playing games at night. The cyber curfew forced players to type in their real names and identification numbers when they were playing. Some parents even went as far as sending their children to military-style anti-gaming camps. China is associating the time spent playing games with addiction, which means that the more time that children play games, the more they get addicted. However, the World Health Organization or WHO defines the gaming addiction differently. Addiction is not about time, it is about the intensity and attitude that a player brings to the gaming. Addiction means that being obsessed with gaming that the other things in their lives are already negatively affected. Recognizing Gaming Addiction Gaming addiction is similar to gambling addiction because it goes beyond a fun past time. Some even stop showering and sleeping, they begin losing friends and even find themselves thinking about playing games everyday. Students suffer from low grades in school. According to WHO, in order to be diagnosed with gaming addiction, one must demonstrate all three symptoms for a year. First, the person loses control over how much time they spend on gaming. Second, they prioritize gaming so much that it takes precedence over their other interests and activities. Lastly, they continue to play games despite the negative effects on their daily life. There is a difference between being a regular gamer and being addicted to it. As long as the three symptoms are not seen, spending some time playing games is not harmful. Only a small percentage of people are affected by gaming addiction. According to The American Psychiatric Association, around .03% to 1% of the world's population are diagnosed with this condition. Related Article: TOTAL BAN: China Wants to Ban ALL Online Gaming and Chats After Animal Crossing Mishap? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Elon Musk has thanked Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos for congratulating him on the success of the Inspiration4 launch. The Inspiration4 mission successfully launched into orbit on September 15 and made history due to its all-civilian crew. The Inspiration4 crew members were launched into orbit at 8:02 p.m. EDT. The four-member Inspiration4 crew will orbit the planet for three days before returning. The Inspiration4 mission crew members are expected to conduct research experiments as they orbit around the planet. Elon Musk Thanks Jeff Bezos for Congratulating Him Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO, has thanked Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos for congratulating him on the successful launch of the Inspiration4 mission. Bezos posted his congratulations on Twitter. "Congratulations to @ElonMusk and the @SpaceX team on their successful Inspiration4 launch last night. Another step towards a future where space is accessible to all of us," the tweet reads. Elon Musk replied to the tweet and simply said thank you. Thank you Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2021 Inspiration4's Successful Launch The Inspiration4 successfully launched on September 15 from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch happened at 8:02 p.m. EDT. The Inspiration4 mission is an effort to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as one of its crew members, billionaire Jared Issacman, wanted the mission to mean something else other than just going on a spaceflight. Its four-member crew was launched into space by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which carried the Crew Dragon spacecraft the crew are currently in. The Inspiration4's four crew members are: Jared Issacman - Shift4 Payments founder and billionaire who is serving as the mission's commander. Haley Arceneaux - A physician's assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the medical officer of the mission. Arceneaux is also a childhood bone cancer survivor. Sian Proctor - A geoscientist who is considered the pilot of the mission. Chris Sembroski - An Air Force veteran and data engineer who is the mission specialist of Inspiration4. "The @Inspiration4x crew is healthy, happy, and resting comfortably. Before the crew went to bed, they traveled 5.5 times around Earth, completed their first round of scientific research, and enjoyed a couple of meals," an update posted on SpaceX's Twitter account reads. A succeeding tweet added that the crew members are set to conduct more research once they wake up. They will also get their first look at their surroundings from the Crew Dragon's glass dome cupola. Related Article: SpaceX Reveals Four Persons Who Will Take Part in Inspiration4 Mission--Cancer Survivor Now Part of the Crew What Will the Crew Do While in Orbit? As mentioned by SpaceX's Twitter update, the crew members are expected to do some scientific research as they orbit around Earth. According to an explainer on the Inspiration4 by Space, the four crew members are expected to "perform a variety of medical experiments and record health data to support future human spaceflights." Also Read: SpaceX's Inspiration4 to Fly NFTs, Ukulele, Time Magazine to Space and Auction it on Earth This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isabella James 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Dental care has technology as well, and it aims to evolve the field of dentistry into a more advanced branch of medicine and patient care, as it is essential to people as well. Dentists could also use help from technology, something which would help in advancing dental care and leaving behind past concerns or issues it regularly faces. There are different dental care technology that has been applied to the modern world, especially those that could help advance the field and improve its industry. However, things like the dentist who uses a hoverboard while working are something that is frowned upon by the medical and technological community. Three Dental Innovations that Advance the Field of Dentistry Dental Care and VR are two things that may not sound to be related to each other, and it may be hard to connect the two. However, it was made possible by a group of researchers that aimed to alleviate the pain and attention away from procedures or dental surgery with the use of virtual reality technology. Cedars-Sinai has debuted this tech and procedure, but it is not quite what people are thinking of. What it does is that it allows patients to wear a VR device and change their focus or attention from what is happening and into the world of another reality. The VR headset contained meditative and relaxing content, which significantly helped in managing the pain that the control group has experienced. On the other hand, the patients who had no VR have experienced the pain which they would normally feel during a procedure or surgery. Read Also: Traditional Toothbrush VS Electric Toothbrush | Which is Better for Plaque Removal? Luelli Electric Plaque Remover 3D Printing in Dentistry UK's Dentistry Journal has used 3D printing to develop "tooth grinding splints," something which helps patients to bite down on something and avoid the clashing of the upper and lower molars. It is said that teeth grinding loses the wax that is needed by a person that protects their pearly whites from other substances. Published research on Nature has also looked into the use of 3D printing for specific dental procedures like dental implants, guides, and other forms of surgery. AI in Detecting Tooth Decay According to Dentistry Today, a study that was made by the group called "Pearl" has looked into using AI in looking for early signs of tooth decay that a patient may or may not experience. This study has looked into pitting dentists against artificial intelligence and analyzing patients for signs of tooth decay with their X-rays. Here, some dentists were beaten by the AI in detecting an anomaly or problem with the tooth. The technology can be something that these medical experts can use as a tool in analyzing a specific case. It could also help in adding more inputs to a study or diagnostic, which a dentist would do for a patient. Related Article: Teeth Care: What Is Plaque? Here are Details Which Will Make You Want to Clean it Now This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Amazon Prime and Co-op's newest partnership will let Amazon Prime customers in the United Kingdom shop for groceries online via the Amazon Prime website by the end of the year. It has already launched in Glasgow and nearby areas on Thursday. Same-day delivery service is also offered to customers. The partnership has been met with some criticism, particularly from the GMB Union. The GMB Union accused Amazon of treating warehouse workers like robots. The union also questioned the taxes that Amazon was paying to the government. Amazon Prime and Co-op Partnership Amazon Prime and Co-op's latest partnership will allow Amazon Prime customers across the UK to shop for groceries online by the end of the year. Those who would like to shop for their groceries online can do so via the Amazon UK website. According to a report by the BBC, groceries bought from Co-op via Amazon Prime will also have same-day delivery. The same-day delivery service has two-hour time slots and is for free for orders that go over 40. A delivery charge of 3.99 applies to all deliveries below 40. The minimum order is 15. Co-op may be an unfamiliar name to those who are not from the United Kingdom. Co-op is a supermarket chain and retail food business located in the U.K. owned by The Co-operative Group. GMB Union Reacts to Partnership The GMB, a general trade union in the U.K., has reacted to the news of the Amazon Prime and Co-op partnership. According to the BBC report, the union has "accused the Co-op of compromising its ethics." "It's really disappointing to see a company with a proud ethical heritage like Co-op teaming up with Amazon: a tax-evading multinational with a horrifying health and safety record," said GMB national officer Andy Prendergast as cited in the BBC report. Prendergast also alleges that workers in warehouses owned by Amazon are "treated like robots." The GMB union also has concerns regarding the taxes that Amazon pays to the government. In response, BBC reports that Amazon has said it "had invested 32bn in the UK since 2010, paying 1.5bn in tax last year." The company also said that it offers a safe working environment for its workers along with good pay and benefits as well as opportunities for career growth. Related Article: Amazon Tweaks Tax Practices In Europe Amid Scrutiny Amazon and Groceries Amazon is no stranger to selling groceries online or even running its own grocery stores. Back in March, Amazon opened its first physical store outside the US that has no cashiers. The store, Amazon Fresh, is located in Ealing, London. Last year, Amazon's plans to open a new grocery store with smart carts in Woodland Hills, California was also reported. In June, it was likewise reported that Amazon was planning to launch its Just Walk Out cashierless technology in an Amazon Fresh store located in Bellevue, Washington. Also Read: Amazon To Add Waiting List For Online Grocery And Hires Another 75,000 Employees Amidst Massive Demand Due to COVID-19 This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isabella James 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For many times, Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra has been linked to several rumors about its features and specs. Despite the surge of leaks that tells more about its design and capability, we have not yet heard any word from the company about when it would release the said product. In hindsight, we usually assume that this Galaxy S8 Ultra tab could closely resemble the design of an Apple tablet. However, we have spotted a rumor that it could perfectly replace a typical laptop. Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Leak According to a report by SlashGear on Thursday, Sept.16, there are old rumors that point out this tablet as a laptop replacement. Since these "pro" tabs borrow the size of some laptops, it's good to know that this transition could happen. For instance, many users have been keen that Android could have done better for its products. On the other hand, the rumor about the Cupertino giant could hint at its launch of a huge iPad Pro. It seems that the tab competition is going healthy between Samsung and Apple. In response, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra was allegedly under certain development at the moment. It is believed that it would be revealed soon while the company is preparing for its 2022 release. Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra SM-X906B 2960x1848 14.6" 11500mAh Ice universe (@UniverseIce) September 16, 2021 Rumored Features of Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra From what Android Police spotted recently, the rumors highlighted that this tablet will sport a huge screen bearing 2K resolution and 2960x1848 pixels. The speculations continue with it having a 120HZ refresh rate, that's why many assumed that it could be a suitable tablet for video and image editing. Besides that, the leak pointed out that it could also pass as a gaming tablet with its big battery of 11,500 mAh. Furthermore, we have encountered many reports that said more about Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra's storage. According to the sources, it would feature 8MP cameras in front. Additionally, it would also hold two 5MP cameras. For its storage, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra rumor claimed that it would come with 512GB storage and 12GB of RAM. This year would be an iconic entrance of Samsung to the market once again with the upcoming launch of Galaxy S22 Ultra in the following year. Read Also: Telephoto 'Pro Mode' to be a Staple Feature Among Samsung Galaxy Phones For Advance Mobile Photography What About Samsung Galaxy Tab S8? The Ultra version will not be possible without its predecessor: the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. In February, we reported that the South Korean electronics firm had released both Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 Plus last year. This means that people have high expectations that Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 was just around the corner. While this previous tablet has a lot of amazing features, many fans were not happy when a leak about its chip came out. According to the leak, the Galaxy Tab S8 might not get an AMD-Powered Exynos chip. Instead, a new Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC will be housed in the device. On the bright side, the Exynos chip could make its way to the tab if the RDNA2 AMD GPU could have a good run with it. Related Article: Galaxy S21 FE Might Be Available to ONLY Two Markets As Delays Plague its Launch This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joseph Henry 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. REvil ransomware affected many users around the world, especially when it struck Kaseya over the past months. The common modus of the gang behind the REvil attack is to make the victim pay the ransom before the group decrypts the system. Now, BitDefender released a free decryption tool for the victims who were previously hit by the REvil malware. Free Decryption Tool For REvil Ransomware Dealing with malware like in the case of REvil could be difficult for users who have little to no knowledge about dealing with it. REvil ransomware gang is notorious for forcing its victims to pay corresponding money in exchange for a master decryptor tool for their computers. Cybersecurity firm Bitdefender confirmed that it has released the latest decryption software for REvil. The good news is the victims can get it for free. Bitdefender made it possible through the help of an unknown agency concerned with law enforcement. When the Romania-headquartered firm was asked about the specific name of its collaborator, it declined to comment. The company has been tight-lipped on how it arrived with a free master decryption key for all REvil victims. It only said that there was an ongoing investigation about the malware. The REvil decryption software could be used by those people who were hit by the malware, but there's a catch. Those who have their computers encrypted by the malware before July 13 should be able to use it. Bitdefender Warns Users About Returning REVil Attacks According to a report by SlashGear on Friday, Sept.17, Bitdefender shared that the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operator of REvil could possibly come from a CIS nation. Furthermore, the dangerous malware began in 2019 when it has become proxy ransomware of the GandCrab, which was now non-existent. However, the attacks linked to this malware were reportedly happening once again. Most importantly, REvil ransomware dwells on the depths of the dark web to infect many tech companies. You can download the free decryption software from Bitdefender. You can also download the pdf file of the step-by-step procedure on how to use the ReVil Ransomware Decryption Tool. Read Also: Zero-Day Attack: REvil Ransomware Gang Seeks $70 Million to Decrypt Encryption Following Kaseya Hack [UPDATE] What Happened During the Kaseya Cyberattack Earlier in July, a known IT security and management firm, Kaseya, had been struck by an unprecedented attack from REvil. At that time, the company encouraged its customers to immediately shut down their VSA servers. From the findings of Huntress Labs, there were nearly 200 organizations that were affected by the said ransomware. The Russian hackers managed to spread the infection all over different systems. Besides Bitdefender, a Fonix admin shared a free master decryption key for the Fonix ransomware victims. The details were spotted on a Twitter post. Later, the admin said that another group admin behind the Telegram channel was responsible for the scam. Related Article: Ransomware Universal Decryption Tool from REvil's Cyberattack on Kaseya Leaks on Hacking Forum This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joseph Henry 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Piracy is going to be really tough to pull off in the UK from here on out. TechRadar reports that a nationwide piracy crackdown has now commenced in the United Kingdom, with the main focus being pirated movies. It began with several customers of Virgin Media, a UK-based movie streaming service, getting emails from a company called Voltage. The users were asked if they, in some form, illegally downloaded the movie "Ava." And if they admitted to doing so, they were told they'll have to pay a fine and promise the authorities to never stream it illegally again. But if they deny having pirated it, however, they'll have to actually go to court to prove that they didn't. According to various reports, Voltage is a company that apparently has a reputation for tracking down pirates all over the world. Their latest efforts now have them working with the UK High Court to demand information on specific customers of Virgin Media, who they accuse of piracy. Here is an excerpt from the letter that was sent to suspected Virgin Media customers: "This letter assumes that you, as the account holder for the infringing IP Address, were the user of the relevant device on the dates and times at which Ava was shared without the consent of VOLTAGE. The purpose of this letter is therefore to give you an opportunity to admit or deny that your broadband account was used via BitTorrent in relation to Ava on the occasion specified above." This piracy crackdown has been planned for a while now. Back in August, The Express reported on police officers going door-to-door all around the country. They visited homes in Hertfordshire, Essex, West Yorkshire, and Pembrokeshire, looking for suspects in the illegal streaming of copyrighted media, such as Hollywood movies, Premiere League games, and even original drama shows from Sky. Read also: Top 10 Most Common Digital Piracy Myths Busted: Who's Pirating What And Why? Piracy: A Global Threat to Copyrighted Content Movie piracy is very frowned-upon by a lot of global authorities. When people get caught in countries that have strict laws, they're faced with a lot of legal trouble. One couple in the US, for instance, was fined $35,000 after they were caught downloading pirated movies from a site called YTS. They were initially ordered to pay a considerably smaller $1,000 fine, but they failed to do so. Companies that own movie copyrights are also going after VPN providers as well, in another attempt to stop piracy. Earlier this month, a lawsuit was filed in a Virginia federal court against four VPN companies: VPN Unlimited, Zenmate, ExpressVPN, and Surfshark for their alleged complicity in helping pirates illegally download content. Virtual private networks are considered an integral part of torrenting, which is the process of illegally downloading movies and other copyrighted content. That's because a VPN can hide a user's IP address from any external groups that might be monitoring their activities online, such as their own ISPs. In this case, do yourself a favor and refrain from pirating anything if you live in the UK, or anywhere in the world for that matter. The legal troubles are never worth it. Related: Why should I use a VPN for Torrent? This article is owned by Tech Times Written by RJ Pierce 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Facebook really, really wants to get a slice of that fat e-commerce pie. The social media giant is ramping up its efforts to become a true, proper online shopping site with a host of new tools for businesses, reports TechRadar. These tools, according to Facebook, aim to help brands boost their businesses on the platform. With the newly released tools, Facebook aims to make its platform easier for brands to navigate. In turn, the brands will have a better chance to appeal to users by offering a far more complete shopping experience. Among these new additions include an easier way for users to find their favorite brands. People can also now be aware of up-and-coming products and businesses with improved discovery options, and there are now official Work Accounts, which are intended for people who want to use Facebook strictly for business only. Facebook describes these new features as aiming for the "next era of personalized experiences." With the changes, the social media giant is hoping that businesses and business owners reach the perfect market for their products. Aside from that, the features could also facilitate better communication between companies and brands, since either party will only be a message away. Lastly, Facebook also launched new updates for its Facebook Business Suite. This platform aims to give brands an in-depth look at their profiles and activities all over the network. It will also give them a direct e-mail line to any customer who uses the service. There's also a way for businesses to streamline their content creation process with the File Manager feature, which covers conceptualization, management, and posting of content on their profiles. Read also: Facebook Couple-Focused App 'Tuned' is Now Available for Beta Test--But Would it Require Two Phone Numbers for Access? Facebook As An Online Store? It's Been In The Works for a While Now This isn't obviously the first time that Facebook wanted to enter the e-commerce space. Last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook Shops, whose goal is to make it easier for businesses to list their products and services on sale, reports CNBC. There's also the idea of cross-platform e-commerce with WhatsApp linking to Facebook Shops, which launched back in June. Since Facebook owns WhatsApp, this is more or less an expected maneuver from the Big Tech giant. Facebook E-Commerce Still Faces Challenges If Facebook really wants to become a proper online shopping platform, however, it will have to overcome some pretty hefty challenges. Their most direct competitors (specifically Amazon and eBay) still dominate the e-commerce market in terms of reach. But with how Facebook owns other platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Paypal, they might be able to overcome both the reach and payment option issues. Aside from that, people aren't really opting for Facebook anymore as their main social media network. In May, the company experienced a 30% drop in app downloads while TikTok experienced a boom. Granted, TikTok doesn't offer an in-app shopping feature, but folks who use it have the option to just go to Facebook's competitors for their online shopping needs. Related: Instagram Shop to Soon Have Ads, as Social Media Tests the App's Functions and Availability This article is owned by Tech Times Written by RJ Pierce 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. U.K. space experts claim that 100 times more life-giving organic molecules are circulating the Milky Way Galaxy. They added that this discovery could suggest that humans are not the only ones in the giant spiral galaxy, which houses the solar system. As of the moment, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and other independent and government-based space agencies are trying to find evidence of life within and outside the Milky Way Galaxy. Now, the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom joins them in finding other organisms that could be hiding in other planets or heavenly bodies. Thanks to the advanced ALMA space telescope, researchers discovered that more life-giving molecules are orbiting or circulating more than 400 billion stars in the gigantic spiral galaxy. Astrophysicists in the U.K. added that the organic particles are abundant within the so-called "protoplanetary discs," which contain dust and gases that are orbiting various stars. However, they explained that these molecules would still not be able to produce life without the presence of water, as reported by New York Post. U.K. Space Experts Uses ALMA Space Telescope According to the EuroAsia Review's latest report, space researchers relied on the collected data of ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array) space telescope, which is located in Chile to identify the life-giving organic particles. Also Read: Chinese Astronauts, Shenzhou 12, Returns to Earth after 90 Day Space Station Mission-What's Next? "ALMA has allowed us to look for these molecules in the innermost regions of these disks, on size scales similar to our Solar System, for the first time," said Dr. John Ilee, the leading co-author of the latest research. He added that these molecules are usually located in the inner regions of the Milky Way Galaxy. Aside from this, involved researchers said the particles have organic ingredients present in the molecules found on Earth. The University of Leeds' astrophysicists is not the only ones making huge space advancements. NASA James Webb Space Telescope would also reach outer space soon. On the other hand, an amateur astronomer captured rare activity in Jupiter. Other Details of the New Molecule Study Aside from the ingredients and locations, U.K. space experts said that the organic particles are found in four out of five disks present in the Milky Way Galaxy. This just shows that the life-giving molecules are really abundant in the spiral galaxy. As of the moment, involved researchers are still trying to identify if the particles are more complex than other particles in the Milky Way. For more news updates about space and other discoveries involving it, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: SpaceX Inspiration4 Members Share Shots of Spacecraft's Cupola After Completing 15 Orbital Rotations This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Cybercrimes are continually on the rise, bringing more threats to organizations in the pandemic than before. Statistics show that as early as March 2020, breaches in the USA ballooned by 300%. This is due to the greater security risk associated with remote working, prolonged cyber attack detection and response, and others. Because of this increasing volume of cyberattacks, you cant afford to take your security lightly. Tedious traditional defense methods and static, ineffective programs are not going to help either. To bolster your current cyber safety status and maintain it in 2021 and the following years, you need modern, robust, and long-term security programs. Check out these three powerful techniques for keeping your business safe from cyber attacks. 1. Assess your security posture. Your companys security posture refers to the collective cyber defense stance of your data assets, networks, information security resources, and capabilities to manage your safeguards and respond to status changes. Besides information and networks, these components and resources involve all your software, hardware, security policies, defense teams, vendors, and service providers. Evaluating these aspects shows you your companys current, overall security stance. It helps you plan your defense roadmap, including the next steps necessary to enhance or maintain it. Security posture assessments involve measurements and calculations of your resources, level of visibility into your attack surface and asset inventory, degree of automation in your defense program, and more. To begin assessing your security health, get an updated, accurate, and comprehensive inventory of all associated assets with these tasks: Classify assets by category, sub-type, purpose, location, and whether or not they are internet-facing Obtain detailed information, e.g., user accounts, status of open ports, services, and roles related to the asset Identify every assets business criticality Ensure all assets have up-to-date licenses and software and comply with security standards Select assets to be decommissioned due to being outdated or unused You should also ask yourself questions such as: What data does our company collect? How and where do we store this information? Is this storage secure? How do we safeguard and record the data? How long does our team store this data? Who can access the information internally and externally? Next, list your assets according to their level of vulnerability -- from the least to the most at-risk. This lets you determine what to prioritize in your next corrective steps. Finally, use security ratings to measure your defense posture. They are objective and quantitative, giving you a solid grasp of your cybersecurity health and actionable insights for your roadmap. 2. Implement continuous security validation. One of the most critical steps to maintaining cyber safety is investing in a continuous security validation platform. These platforms concentrate on testing whether or not your cyber defense controls are functioning properly. It also involves identifying security system components that need enhancement or replacement. Continuous security validation entails a practically ongoing process of defense control testing, as that phrase implies. However, it does not necessarily mean that the method runs unceasingly each second of the day. Rather, continuous signifies a contrast to one-time-only or cyclical defense testing routines. With continuous security validation, your tests do not end with only one or a few sets of trials and results. You keep repeating this process to track your safeguard controls status constantly and proactively -- instead of waiting for attacks to happen, infiltrate your systems, and reveal your weak defenses. Thats another reason continuous security validation is critical. It lets you uncover security loopholes before cybercriminals do and exploit them. It also empowers you to level up your defense position by assuming a persistent cyber attackers perspective. These crooks unceasingly try breaking into your systems, so continuous security validation will help offer a robust counteraction. One best practice to execute continuous security validation is following the MITRE ATT&CK model. Be guided by the MITRE ATT&CK framework. MITRE ATT&CK stands for MITRE Adversarial Tactics, Techniques and Common Knowledge. This model is a curated knowledge bank and framework for cyber antagonist behavior. It diagrams the different phases in the attack lifecycle, the channels cyber adversaries frequently target, and popular threats and assaults implemented. It is also practical because it includes modern platforms, such as cloud-based systems (the model has a specific table for it). Knowing all these things provides concrete guidance on how to combat cyberattacks. It also quickens you and your team to remain vigilant and proactive about securing your systems at all times. 3. Establish a security culture with best practices. Set in place a stable security culture that permeates all levels of your organization, trickling from executives down to all subordinates -- whether theyre regular or contractual and part-time or full-time workers. Doing so is among the top ways to avoid security breaches. It allows you to maintain a healthy posture and protect your data assets from risks and their far-reaching repercussions. You can establish an effective security culture by consistently implementing best cyber defense practices -- which include both elementary and advanced techniques. Empower your IT security and risk management offices to spearhead this initiative (in partnership with your admin department) since they know best the intricacies involved in it. The executives can then support it and authorize any necessary actions and budget. Below are some best practices to incorporate into your security program for a company-wide cyber defense culture: Create and enforce security-related policies and protocols, including penalties and disciplinary actions for violating them. Provide practical cybersecurity training for your executives and staff. Teach them to recognize fraudulent attempts (e.g., phishing, whaling, etc.) and install efficient reporting systems for these incidents. Centralize your SaaS management, preferably to your IT department. All computer and Internet-based applications must be listed, including their usage details, present versions, etc. Having one management team for it allows you to contain any security risk, ensure they are up-to-date and safe, and others. Encrypt sensitive data and communications, including passwords and addresses or locations for top-level files. Limit peoples access to various files and information. Authorize only those holding directly relevant positions, and regularly monitor if these people are still with the organization or not. Perform regular code and data backups, and update your firewalls and anti-virus software. Manage and restrict, if needed, employees bring-your-own devices and personal internet-connected communications at work or within the office. Ensure maintaining your cybersecurity in 2021 and beyond. Continuously bolstering your security should be among your companys priorities if you want to remain operational and dependable in the years to come. After all, cyber adversaries are always on the lookout for vulnerable small and established businesses to exploit and steal from. With these measures, you can set up a long-lasting security strategy that protects your organization, reputation, and hard-earned customer trust and profits. For Cecile Neil from Chauvin, COVID-19 became an afterthought when Hurricane Ida forced her and her younger brother to sleep in a truck for days. I have a respiratory condition, so I always worried about the pandemic, and I was vaccinated months ago, she said in front of what Ida left of her house. But now I have so many other issues to solve that I dont even worry about that too much anymore. The virus and the storm plotted against Neils family at the same disturbing time. She lost her older brother to COVID-19 six days after she lost her home. He was 82, and he was the type of guy who said things like, I dont need the vaccine, I am strong, the vaccines are poison. It was old-school, you know, older school than I am. And he paid for it. On the streets of Chauvin, residents are worried about frayed wires, splintered trees, and blue tarps more than coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. At the Ward 7 Citizens Club on Highway 56, one of the six areas identified by the Terrebonne Parish consolidated government as a COVID-19 vaccination and testing site for the week, the National Guard was distributing hamburgers and water Thursday morning, not vaccinations. People dont talk about coronavirus here, said Dirk Guidry, Terrebonne Parish Council councilman for District 8. "Theyre more worried about getting their things back together. The virus cant be a priority in a moment when you dont have a home. Nearly 46,000 homes are still without power in the state, according to Entergy, and the majority of them are in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. Lafourche still had more than 18,000 customers in the dark as of Thursday. In Terrebonne, there were more than 9,000 without power. We have no power at all, Neil said. And look at that pole, she added, pointing toward the foundation of her house, which the storm shifted off its piers. You can tell how my house shifted because of this hurricane. It is a never-ending nightmare. Neil and her younger brother are fully vaccinated, but they are in the minority. About 36% of Terrebonne Parish residents have received both doses of the vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control data shows. Vaccinations were on the rise before Hurricane Ida made landfall Aug. 29. The demand for vaccines was peaking again because of the Delta variant, but then Ida hit us and ruined every effort, said Sina Ramezani, manager of Wolfes Drug Store, one of the few vaccine providers in Chauvin. We are still trying to convince people on our Facebook page to get their shot, but COVID isnt their priority right now. COVID hospitalizations have dropped significantly in the region, but officials say they are difficult to track because so many residents were displaced by the storm. Ochsner St. Anne in Raceland and Chabert Medical Center in Houma will not be fully operational for another three weeks. Top stories in Acadiana in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Acadiana recovers from fourth COVID surge; test positivity falls below 10% Acadiana seems to be recovering from the fourth and worst surge of the pandemic as the number of newly reported coronavirus cases steadily dec Half of the ICU beds in the region 3 health department have been closed since Ida, according to the Louisiana Department of Healths daily coronavirus report, which tracks ICU capacity. That includes Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Mary and Terrebonne parishes. Terrebonne General Health System, which evacuated all patients in the days after the storm, is operating out of tents in a parking lot. Ida-related power outages also forced pharmacies to waste hundreds of doses of vaccine across the state. Ramezani said he had to throw away at least 200 doses of Johnson & Johnson and more than 150 doses of Moderna. The people who are calling me to ask for the vaccine are the people who already got the first shot, usually, he said behind the counter of his pharmacy. Were in the process of getting more doses, and were planning to have a vaccination day next week. Well see how it goes. A few miles away in Houma, the Municipal Auditorium on Verret Street turned into a vaccination center this week. It's hard to say if vaccination is speeding up again or not after the hurricane, said Jahel Osornio, a local health worker. More than 100 people came to the auditorium Monday to get vaccinated, nearly 40 on Tuesday, more than 30 on Thursday. Because power outages closed pharmacies, sites like this, run by the public health unit, are the only places vaccines are being administered. The good news is that we are still seeing people coming here for their first dose, Osornio added. At least one-third of them, so far, at our site, which is a big deal. Most of them are coming for the second dose, though, explained Osornio. Two of them, Casie Bergeron of Houma and her mom, Catherine Triche from Gray, walked into the empty building together. They postponed our second appointment because we evacuated from Houma, Bergeron said. Her husband contracted Covid a few days before Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana. We left Houma in two separate cars, we isolated in two separate rooms in Texas, she said. Now he is fine, and I'm getting the second dose. I'm happy we made it. In the Houma Municipal Auditorium, the booster shot is available, too. Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new recommendation, the Louisiana Department of Health made third doses available for all of those people whose immune systems are compromised moderately to severely and and who are fully vaccinated with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. I am counting the day to take that booster, said Cecile Neil from Chauvin. The past three weeks deprived her of a house and a brother, but she hasn't lost her sense of humor. She still dreams of moving to New Zealand for her retirement while taking care of her younger brother. I spent all my life here, in the bayou, and I would like to move somewhere else after this disaster, she said. But for now, here we are. My brother and I, the two of us, against the rest of the world. Longtime business co-owner Jennifer Picard Angelle of Breaux Bridge will be honored during the United Way of Acadianas Women Who Mean Business awards next month. Angelle is among 10 women who will be recognized during a ceremony presented by Home Bank at 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at Le Pavillon at Parc Lafayette, 1913 Kaliste Saloom Road. Angelle is co-owner of Angelle Architects, Angelle Partners, JP Angelle Consulting and Suite Olive Cottages and in 2018 purchased Hugs from Heaven, a mission-based company, to share her Catholic faith and because the world needed more hugs, she said. The company is now in 24 states and has donated many hugs while traveling to other continents. 10 Acadiana leaders selected for 2021 Women Who Mean Business Awards; meet the honorees United Way of Acadiana announced its selection of honorees for the 2021 Women Who Mean Business Awards, presented by Home Bank. Her most recent business venture is Angel Publishing, which launched earlier this year, to produce an album and a musical with local artists to highlight the Catholic faith and Cajun culture while benefiting Louisiana charities. Inside info on doing business in Acadiana We'll keep you posted on the Acadiana economy. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up A former executive director for the Breaux Bridge Area Chamber of Commerce, Angelle is currently board vice-chair and fundraising chair for the Teche Center for the Arts and has helped raise more than $350,000 to buy, renovate and operate the agencys new cultural/art center in downtown Breaux Bridge. She is also on the boards for One Acadiana and the St. Thomas More Parent Teacher Organization and an advisory board member for the Aquinas Institute for Theology and Catholic Studies. Angelle self-published a 200-page cookbook, The Angelle Family Cookbook: Traditions and Feasts, in 2010 with proceeds benefiting a St. Bernard School Foundation with the intention to provide student scholarship opportunities in Catholic education. She has been married to Glenn E. Angelle for 21 years and has three stepdaughters, one son and two grandkids with one on the way. Started in 1999, the Women Who Mean Business Awards have been presented to women who are active leaders in their professions and their community. When Louisianas first-ever legal medical marijuana products hit the shelves in 2019, the list of restrictions was long. To be eligible to use them, patients had to find one of about 60 licensed doctors statewide who would recommend the drug. They had to suffer from at least one of several specific medical conditions like cancer, intractable pain or AIDS. They could only buy the drug in tincture form. How times have changed. Come January, the states licensed marijuana growers and pharmacies will be able to sell the raw, smokable flower that has long been preferred by users. Any doctor licensed to practice in the state can now recommend marijuana for as many patients as they want, for any ailment they deem fit -- they need only contact the Board of Pharmacy to get Schedule 1 privileges added to their license. The number of doctors prescribing the drug has nearly quadrupled, from 59 in 2019 to 219 in the second quarter of this year. In short, getting legal marijuana in Louisiana has gotten far easier. And the states pot program, once considered an extreme outlier for its burdensome rules, is starting to resemble those of some of the 36 other states who have legalized the drug for medicinal use. I think a lot of people dont realize that this exists and that its so accessible now, said T.J. Woodard, the pharmacist in charge at Capitol Wellness Solutions, the marijuana pharmacy off Essen Lane in Baton Rouge. State Sen. Fred Mills, R-Parks, a pharmacist, is widely credited with navigating the tricky political waters in Baton Rouge to bring Louisianas medical marijuana program to life in 2015 and 2016. He says that in order to do so he had to craft a compromise. He envisioned a program that would allow doctors to decide when and how to prescribe marijuana, as is the case now. But to win over the powerful Louisiana Sheriffs Association and Louisiana District Attorneys Association, Mills had to agree to some onerous rules. I realized that we had such opposition between the sheriffs and the DAs and the different forces of law enforcement that I had to really, really crawl before we walked, and we had to prove the model worked, Mills said. That meant the Republican-led Legislature passed laws that only allowed certain non-smokable forms of the drug: only tinctures were permitted. To be allowed to recommend the drug to patients, a doctor needed to get a special permit from the state Board of Medical Examiners to recommend the drug to patients. Only 60 doctors would be allowed, and each one had a cap of 100 patients each. After Gov. John Bel Edwards signed the framework into law in 2016, marijuana was only to be allowed for people with cancer, HIV/AIDS, wasting syndrome, seizure disorders and spasticity, Crohns disease, muscular dystrophy or multiple sclerosis. But over the last couple of years, views on marijuana among the states conservative lawmakers have taken a striking turn. Sheriffs and district attorneys are largely neutral or supportive of medical marijuana. During this years regular legislative session, several Republican lawmakers who said they were once skeptical of the drug testified that they now can point to family members and friends who have seen their symptoms improve from using it. Separate from the medical marijuana program, the conservative Legislature agreed this year to decriminalize possession of up to a half-ounce of marijuana. That means people caught on the street with relatively small amounts of non-medical pot won't go to jail; instead they'll only get a fine. That represented a stark turnaround from the state's decades-long harsh stance on pot. Smokable marijuana allowed in Louisiana's medical pot program after Gov. John Bel Edwards signs bill Louisianas nine medical marijuana pharmacies will soon be able to sell the smokable flower form of the drug, after Gov. John Bel Edwards sign Some of those same lawmakers also sponsored legislation to loosen the medical marijuana program. Since the laws setting the program in motion were passed in 2015 and 2016, the Legislature and Edwards have agreed to allow doctors to recommend the drug to any patient for any ailment for which they think marijuana could help. They allowed the marijuana pharmacies to sell metered-dose inhalers," or vapes. Rules saying doctors can only recommend the drug to a certain number of patients -- and that they had to try alternative methods first -- disappeared. So did caps on the amount of THC, the chemical that elicits a high, in each package. And in the most significant move to date, Edwards this year signed into law a bill by Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee, R-Houma, that will let pharmacies sell the smokable flower -- think joints -- to patients, starting in January. Sometimes when your phone doesnt ring with problems it means things are going well, Mills said. I cant remember the last time a patient or regulator called me with a problem. My phone used to ring off the wall with people who thought the program was too restrictive. Beefing up supply Now, perhaps the last vestige of Louisianas timid entrance into the medical marijuana world is the limited number of growers and pharmacies allowed to dispense the drug. Only two growers -- private firms hired by the agricultural centers of LSU and Southern University, respectively -- are licensed in the state, and only nine pharmacies may dispense the drug. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up By comparison, Arkansas, which has just over half the population of Louisiana, had 29 operating dispensaries and five growers last year, according to a state report. +4 Louisiana lawmakers back decriminalization of marijuana; bill heads to governor's desk Louisiana lawmakers have agreed to eliminate the possibility of jail time for possession of small amounts of marijuana, a sharp change in the A new task force that met recently for the first time is looking at whether Louisiana should allow more people in on the growing and dispensing of marijuana. Rep. Joe Marino, a Gretna independent, is heading the committee after failing to get enough support for a bill to let another grower get a coveted license. But the effort to expand could face pushback from the companies and institutions who currently enjoy a monopoly on the industry. They say there is too much supply already. If we go in and make changes were going to upset some apple carts, Marino said in an interview. Thats not my concern. My concern is getting medicine to patients. LSUs growing partner recently took on several new investors and a management team of Arkansas marijuana growers. The company, previously known as GB Sciences before being bought out and renamed Wellcana, has rebranded again, to Good Day Farm Louisiana. Terrence Fitch, a former Coca-Cola executive who oversaw marijuana grows in Colorado, chairs the firm. Stephen LaFrance Jr., a former owner of a large private pharmacy chain and an Arkansas medical marijuana grower, and Peyton Bush, an executive at New Orleans-based Bollinger Enterprises, are among the board members. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, which regulates marijuana growing, approved the ownership change earlier this month after a lengthy suitability investigation required when equity changes hands in the states marijuana industry. With the new investment, Good Day Farm raised $55 million, said John Davis, the firm's president. Ahead of the rollout of marijuana flower in January, the company is expanding its footprint: Good Day Farm bought a 225,000-square-foot facility in Ruston where it will grow and produce medical marijuana. Davis is the husband of Rep. Paula Davis, a Baton Rouge Republican who has become a leader in the state House. The company has been growing marijuana in a smaller facility in south Baton Rouge since 2018. Davis said the company is currently overproducing, and is packaging flower and freezing it until it can be legally sold in January. Were prepared to supply whatever the market brings, Davis said. Louisianas medical marijuana industry had a sluggish start. When LSU and GB Sciences finally began supplying pharmacies, in mid-2019, only 2,762 patients had signed up to buy it, according to records from the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy. In the second quarter of this year, 12,288 patients filled a marijuana recommendation, and 219 doctors were prescribing it. In all, 21,964 patients have gotten medical marijuana in Louisiana since the programs inception. There's reason to think those numbers could grow steeply. In Arkansas last year, about 43,000 people were approved for medical marijuana cards, which lets dispensaries sell flower. Records also show steep growth in the number of prescriptions, called recommendations to alleviate legal concerns among physicians. From the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021, the number of prescriptions grew by 526%, while the number of patients grew by 293%, indicating an increase in people who refill their prescriptions often. Its the de-stigmatization of medical marijuana, said Ruston Henry, owner of the marijuana pharmacy in New Orleans, H&W Drug Store. Youve got people who are using this product and seeing significant results...The word is spreading out among patients and the doctors. Especially with this opioid crisis, medical marijuana is a viable alternative to opioids. Dr. Victor Chou, who runs a medical marijuana clinic in Baton Rouge, said the loosening of rules for doctors has made a big impact. He said by far, the majority of his patients get marijuana for chronic pain, followed by mental health conditions like anxiety, insomnia or post-traumatic stress disorder. Under previous regulations, those patients may have had to go to a psychiatrist first. Steve Gleason, the New Orleans Saints icon who has lived with ALS for the past decade, recently emerged as perhaps the most well-known public advocate for medical marijuana in Louisiana. Gleason told lawmakers on a new medical marijuana commission that in around 2013, his doctor-prescribed cocktail of pain and anxiety medication made him feel like a zombie, giving him severe side effects that caused him to spiral psychologically and physically. A friend who lived in a state where medical marijuana was legal offered him a tincture bottle. Gleason decided hed rather break the law than continue with that anguish," and he tried it. I felt healthy. I felt energized. I felt free, Gleason said. Free from the downward spiral my body and my mind had experienced with pain and anxiety pills. Dozens of Afghan refugees will resettle in Louisiana with help from a local nonprofit. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge will help 49 refugees from the war-torn nation find new homes, officials announced Thursday. Another 10 are set to move to New Orleans. The American people have shown an overwhelming desire to help those from Afghanistan who risked their lives and the lives of their family members to help our troops, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge Director David C. Aguillard said in a news release. The 49 refugees comprise about a dozen families, which are set to arrive by the end of the month, he said. The news has come to us quickly, and we still have some details to work out for each arrival, Aguillard continued. But this type of work is a critical part of Catholic Charities Gospel mission, a work it initiated in the 1960s with arrivals from Cuba after the revolution there. +3 Louisiana will be home for 59 Afghan refugees; see state-by-state breakdown The Biden administration began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many Afghan evacuees from among Afghans set to resettle in and around Baton Rouge are fleeing persecution and violence, he explained, and have undergone extensive security clearances. With federal money, Catholic Charities routinely helps refugees find new homes by offering rental assistance, job training and placement and cultural orientations classes to help them adjust to life in the U.S. Those federal dollars only fund a few months of services, however. Congress is currently in talks about extending the assistance beyond 90 days, Aguillard said, which is why Catholic Charities is putting out a call for help. Successful resettlements depend on the community reaching out and embracing arriving families, Aguillard said. Sponsors are needed to help refugees learn how to do things like ride the local bus system, use the 911 service, schedule medical appointments and so on. The nonprofit also needs furniture for the families. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Catholic Charities has experience with helping people who have assisted our troops, Aguillard said. We did it after the Vietnam War, we did it after the wars in Iraq. It's the least Americans can do after what the Afghans did for U.S. troops, the charity official added. These are a special group of people who have taken on extraordinary risks for themselves Aguillard said. Ive seen other refugees who have helped our troops roll up their sleeves to show shrapnel wounds absorbed protecting American lives. Ive felt metal lumped in their arms. Those interested in learning how to help, can visit catholiccharitiesbr.org. President Joe Biden's administration began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many Afghan evacuees from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are slated to be resettled in their states. California is projected to take more arrivals than any other more than 5,200 people, according to State Department data for the Afghan Placement and Assistance program obtained by The Associated Press. Alabama and Mississippi are each slated to welcome 10, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Hawaii, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and the District of Columbia are not expected to resettle anyone from the first group of evacuees who fled during the final days of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal last month. Many of the new evacuees requested to be resettled in those states because they already have family and close friends living in those states, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the calls to state government officials. Resettlement agencies also have a large presence and capacity in many of those states. The State Department resettled evacuees based on the advice of local affiliates of nine national resettlement agencies the U.S. government is working with, the officials said. The officials said Afghan evacuees are advised that other parts of the country including areas with plentiful job openings and cheaper housing could be good places to begin their new lives in the U.S. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The lone virtual option offered this year by the East Baton Rouge Parish school system has seen dramatically higher enrollment in the past month as COVID cases surged anew. But along the way, the school has fallen behind in staffing and ensuring that students are getting quality instruction. School leaders said they hope to fill teaching vacancies at the EBR Virtual Academy as early as Tuesday and by the end of next week to provide all students with full instructional schedules. "Many (students) have had substitutes or have not had access to live instruction as we would like, acknowledged Chief of Schools Sharon Williams during a presentation Thursday to the School Board. Superintendent Sito Narcisse had similar things to say. I can admit it has been a learning curve in this process, and it has been an adjustment, he said. The EBR Virtual Academy, which had only about 30 students last year, all in high school, was expanded in May all the way to Pre-K. That was part of a larger effort by Narcisse to discontinue the school-level virtual instruction common last year in favor of having just one districtwide virtual school. More than 12,000 children about a third of the district were learning virtually in May when the 2020-21 school year ended. The shift was meant to lessen the burden on teachers, who were tired of simultaneously teaching students in person and virtually. And Narcisse wanted to push families to bring their children back to in-person instruction amid worries of rampant learning loss among those whove been learning virtually. The expanded EBR Virtual Academy did not expand much at first. A week before the start of the school year, the virtual school had grown to only about 250 students. On Aug. 5, however, Narcisse reversed himself on a key issue. He agreed belatedly to hold seats for children in selective magnet schools so they can later return to those schools if they temporarily enrolled in the EBR Virtual Academy because of COVID concerns. Enrollment immediately leaped. Barely a week later, the virtual school had 1,000 students. As of Thursday, the virtual school had nearly 1,300 students. Baton Rouge school employees should either vaccinate or get weekly COVID tests, superintendent says East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent Sito Narcisse is urging the school board to require the district's 6,000 employees to either prove they The EBR Virtual Academy is really two schools in one. In grades Pre-K to five, the school is led by district-employed classroom teachers. In grades six to 12, its a private company thats providing instruction and thats where the bulk of the concerns have emerged. In late July, the district hired Austin, Texas-based Proximity Learning at a cost of $4,000 per student a year. On Thursday, the virtual school had 719 students in grades six to 12. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Jason Roppollo, an executive with Proximity, told the board that the company is currently vetting more than 400 job candidates to fill its remaining vacancies, but it does not want to rush and sacrifice quality. Board President David Tatman pressed Roppollo about complaints from students and parents about getting web links so that students can successfully log into their system and take their classes. Roppollo said theres been some poor communication about how this is supposed to work, but that if done right doesnt take long. "They should be able to log in within a day or two (of enrolling)," Roppollo said, noting there's been communication problems so far. Paige Colwell, a middle school teacher, questioned the outsourcing. I dont know why were hiring Proximity, Colwell said. We have so many teachers who need jobs who cant teach in person. Jennifer Harding, a parent with a child in middle school at the virtual school, said her child has received little to no instruction so far. We are violating all kinds of laws, Harding said. Harding suggested switching back to school-level virtual instruction for students who want to learn virtually or for students in quarantines. I hope you really think this through, she said. Get this right. Teacher vacancies are not just a problem at the virtual school. Daphne Donaldson, chief of human resources, said there were 91 teaching vacancies across the district Thursday. A week ago, her office reported to board members that there are about 150 vacancies. The school system is not just hiring new full-time teachers. On Thursday, the board voted 6-1 to approve a new $1,000 stipend per semester for teachers willing to offer additional virtual instruction to be used by virtual students as well as those who currently lack a classroom teacher. The vote sets aside $100,000 from the districts general operating budget for these stipends. Tatman was the only board member to vote no. The teachers need to apply for the stipend and have the recommendation of their principal. Their virtual courses would be in the areas in which they already teach. The $100,000 would be enough to offer stipends to about 50 teachers over the course of a school year. Donaldson said there are many teachers who got a lot of experience in virtual instruction last year that the district is hoping to tap into. She said it doesnt make sense in all cases to hire a full-time teacher for some of the vacancies. Some of the shortages arent a full day shortage, Donaldson said. So it may just be a course that is offered at a high school that may just have five students taking that course. Guest column: The delta variant of terrorism breeding in the graveyard of the old empires Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission The Australian sharemarket limped to the finish line on Friday, with stocks weighed down by predictions that the price of iron ore will fall further. The S&P/ASX200 finished 0.76 per cent lower to 7403.7for the day, pushing the index down a small 2.9 points for the week overall. A brief jump in the oil price midweek powered energy stocks higher on Thursday, but miners sunk the market at Fridays open after the iron ore price extended its recent slide to sit at $US107.21 a tonne. No respite is expected from iron ore price declines. Credit:Jacky Ghossein Fortescue led the declines on Friday, losing 11.5 per cent for the session to $15.27 and earning a downgrade from UBS, while Rio Tinto finished the day 4.7 per$39.16 cent lower to $98.8 and BHP lost 3.4 per cent to $39.06. Gold stocks also struggled off the back of a declining gold price, with Newcrest down 3.1 per cent to $23.78. Analysts have been warning investors this week that there is more pain to come for iron ore, with expectations that weaker steel production in China will send the market into surplus sooner than anticipated. The team at UBS cut its price forecasts for 2021 to 2023 by 10 per cent on Friday, with expectations that Chinas steel production will plateau by 2023. We expect the price to fall below $100/t by the end of 2021 and average $89 a tonne in 2022 (vs consensus of ~$132 a tonne), Myles Allsop wrote in a note to clients. The path out of lockdowns was also on the minds of investors this week with Victoria and New South Wales both moving towards higher vaccination rates and modest easing of restrictions. Chief executive of equities research firm Kalkine, Kunal Sawhney, said it appeared the market was still digesting the impacts of lockdowns on the labour market. Lockdowns forced several businesses to slash working hours and lay off workers in August, keeping employment levels muted. While the unemployment rate dipped to its lowest level in almost 13 years, it was majorly due to a sharp decline in the number of people seeking work, he said. In the midst of these broader economic worries it was the stocks with positive news to share that performed the best this week. Pharmaceuticals wholesaler API finished the week up 10.5 per cent, hitting $1.47 after telling investors it would open its books to its takeover suitor, Wesfarmers. Embattled department store Myer booked gains of 12.6 per cent to 58 cents after revealing its 2021 numbers, which saw the business bounce back to profit but decline to reinstate its dividend. Telco giant Telstra also finished 1.3 per cent ahead to $3.92 in a week where boss Andy Penn revealed the companys corporate strategy for the next four years. The city of Paris is unveiling a monumental artwork built around an actual monument: the Arc de Triomphe completely wrapped in silver and blue fabric. The installation by late artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who conceived the project in 1961, will open on Saturday. Visits will take place for almost three weeks. At weekends, the Arc de Triomphes traffic-heavy roundabout will be entirely pedestrianised. Workers finish wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in Paris Credit:AP Photo/Francois Mori Visitors to the famous Napoleonic arch, which dominates the Champs-Elysees Avenue, will not only be able to see the gleaming fabric but to touch it too as the artists had intended. Those climbing the 50 meters to the top will step on it when they reach the roof terrace. Lingering symptoms of COVID-19 rarely persist in children beyond 12 weeks, in a reassuring sign they are far less likely than adults to suffer the debilitating effects of what is referred to as long COVID. These are the findings of a new scientific review by a group of leading paediatric researchers at Melbournes Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, who suggest that most global studies into long COVID in children had significant limitations and many overstated the risk. Children aged 12 to 15 are now eligible for the jab. Credit:Eddie Jim Long COVID is not an official medical term, but it is used to describe people still suffering symptoms of the virus longer than the official World Health Organisations recognised two-week period. In a bid to determine the severity of the virus in children, the Australian researchers undertook a scientific review scrutinising 14 international studies involving more than 19,400 children and adolescents globally who had reported persistent symptoms following a COVID-19 infection. The hearing that will determine whether Malka Leifer stands trial on sex abuse charges will continue in a closed court next Monday when a third accuser begins her evidence against the former school principal. The committal hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court was originally intended to run for five days. However, it took lawyers a combined four days this week to question two of the three sisters who allege they were abused by Ms Leifer when they were students between 2004 and 2008. A court sketch of Malka Leifer this week. Credit:Paul Tyquin The first woman gave her evidence over Monday and Tuesday, and the second accuser was questioned over three days before finishing her evidence on Friday. Both were questioned in a closed court, a standard practice in Victoria for complainants in sex assault cases. The third complainant will begin her evidence on Monday morning. The court could open to media and other parties on Monday afternoon for a witness based in Israel. Prison officers are paying an enormous price for the work they do. They are the most hyper-vigilant group you will ever meet. Perham held about 50 group sessions with participating officers. Their words are published in his confronting book, Code Blue: Prison Officer in Danger. I had no idea what I was getting into. I had no idea how depraved prison life could be or the toll it would take on me. It took me five years to get a handle on that. And now I realise I am no good to do anything else. You slide downhill. Another said he had to stop caring to survive. The job does burn you out and at times I think Im done. . . These days I just come to work, dumb down, and count the days to retirement. Perham says no one outside the system knows the level of violence. We dont get to hear their stories. There is a high level of risk in this job. The prisoners hate us, and they challenge us every day. We are meant to play a role in their rehabilitation. But you cant do that if someone hates you. We feed them and keep them alive, that is all we do. Perham says one of the major problems is many inmates suffer from their own mental demons and shouldnt be in mainstream prisons. They should be in Thomas Embling (secure mental hospital) but there isnt room. The prison population has changed in recent times. We have more and more ice addicted prisoners, and they are a whole new ball game. They are brain-damaged and their behaviour is unpredictable and violent. Even the hardened criminals want nothing to do with them. They have to break up fights and search for weapons but no matter how vigilant there will be failures the bashings, suicides and self harm. Prison is full of inmates who protest their innocence but Johnny was one that even the prison officers believed. They thought if he could just make his way through the court process he would be acquitted, and they would never see him again. It was a winters day and Johnny was walking around the prison yard with some other prisoners. He was laughing and joking. It came out later one of the other prisoners had told Johnny he was freezing so Johnny said, Here, have my jacket. Ill be fine. We found out later hed given away his jacket and all his canteen items. There were other things that stood out like dogs balls but we, the officers, missed it. . . . That night he put a belt around his neck and attached it to the bar attached to the top bunk . . . then took a roll off the top bunk and strangled himself. He was a really likeable bloke. . . Myself and the other officers were kicking ourselves that we missed every sign. I wish to God we had noticed these things and maybe saved his life. Dealing with suicide and self-harm in prison comes with the job. I could see the hand was half severed and blood was going everywhere. We subdued the prisoner and did our best to stem the blood. They were screaming, Let me die you f..g dogs. But we fought to save them. By the end I was covered in blood and in a bit of shock. My senior barked at me, Go and get a clean shirt. Perhams book exposing the mental and physical dangers prison officers face. Then there are the ones that couldnt be saved. We often do not admit it, but we do feel for prisoners. I became quite connected to a young woman who was in and out of here due to a drug issue. When I would see her back I would have a feeling of sadness for her. She would say to me, This time I am going to make it when I get out. And we would talk about what she could do. It was a couple of years ago, she hanged herself after she was released. I was shattered as it was such a waste of a young woman who had so much potential but was never able to realise it. A report into Victorias prisons by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission makes grim reading. It found, Serious corruption risks in the states private and publicly managed prisons including excessive use of force; inappropriate strip-searching practices; misuse of information; inappropriate relationships and trafficking of illegal and prohibited goods. Many inmates spend their days trying to survive. Others use their time working out how to manipulate staff. Most prison officers want to be liked. If they are constantly putting inmates on report it appears they lack the leadership skills to make the prisoners obey lawful instructions. Which means some feel pressured to provide favours for inmates in exchange for compliance. Others smuggle contraband because they are corrupt. How else could a prisoner as notorious as drug dealer Tony Mokbel end up with mobile phones, extra food and access to alcohol? UberEats doesnt deliver to maximum security. Former prison officer Paul OSullivan says you judge inmates not on their crimes but how they behave in prison. If you want to be a prison officer, you cant be a judge. That may work inside prison but when the officers take inmates to court they have to sit and hear the truth. When I dont know the details of the crime, I can treat the prisoner how I am meant to. When you sit in court and hear what they have done often in minute detail it is so much harder to treat them the same way when you see them back in prison. But you know you have to or it will be your job. Inside prison violence is normalised inmates mutilate themselves and attack each other, finding ingenious ways to manufacture weapons. OSullivan told this reporter prisoners could turn a tiny piece of wire or a sliver of veneer from a table into a shiv. Jam could be heated in a kettle and thrown at an enemy to stick and burn. It was like napalm. Tinned food in a sock could crush a skull. It was called being bake-beaned. In the early days I would race into the hospital to be with him. But now I only do that if he is seriously hurt. Prison officers wife Soon after becoming a prison officer, OSullivan had his throat cut when attacked from behind by a prisoner with a razor blade attached to a toothbrush. The wound required 12 stitches. The wife of one prison officer explained how violence against staff became depressingly mundane. The other day, one of his colleagues rang to say Neil had been assaulted by a prisoner and was on his way to hospital. In the early days I would race into the hospital to be with him. But now I only do that if he is seriously hurt. His colleague said, A few stitches and I suspect a couple of cracked ribs. No need to come in. I agreed and went on cooking dinner. Perham wrote his book because he wanted to give prison officers a voice on the outside. Many, he says, suffer from PTSD and their families live with the consequences. One came home and was soon involved in a tiff with his teenage daughter. He exploded, Get back in your f..g cell! . . . I felt such a prick. Police are investigating after two elderly people were killed in a crash near Clyde, an outer south-eastern suburb of Melbourne near Cranbourne, on Friday afternoon. Officers believe a car was performing a u-turn on the South Gippsland Highway at Devon Meadows when it collided with a vehicle travelling southbound at about 1.25pm. A car at the scene of the crash on the South Gippsland Highway on Friday. Credit:Nine News Both occupants of the first vehicle - an 85-year-old man and an 84-year-old woman, both from Cowes - died at the scene. The driver of the second vehicle was not injured in the crash. Police said the driver was assisting them with their inquires. A Victorian woman in her 50s has died with COVID-19 and the state recorded more than 500 new local cases on Friday as the 70 per cent first-dose vaccination milestone was reached ahead of a modest easing of restrictions. Also included in the 510 new local coronavirus cases announced on Friday, 95 per cent of which were recorded in Melbournes north and west, were nine new cases in regional Victoria. Medical staff administering COVID-19 tests in Melbourne. Credit:Getty COVID response commander Jeroen Weimar said three new cases in Ballarat were all linked, and he was closely following mystery cases in the Mitchell Shire and Geelong, and the situation in Wodonga after four truck drivers who passed through the border town subsequently tested positive. More than 43,993 vaccine doses were administered in Victoria on Thursday, with the state scraping past its target reaching 70.25 per cent first dose vaccinations. State Prosecutors have long performed substantial unpaid overtime without complaint, she wrote. Director of Public Prosecutions Amanda Forrester SC. Credit:DPP However, that essential recuperation time is no longer available, with the demands for increased productivity and provision of service to the courts and defence, in combination with more complex and voluminous cases. It is the unrelenting pressure and content which elevates the danger of burnout and workplace stress. It also enhances the risk of mistakes, and ultimately potential injustice to victims and those accused of criminal offence. While 71.3 per cent of cases in 2020-21 were dealt with in five days or less, trials which lasted 10 days or longer increased from 16 to 35 as the office experienced an increase in the number of complex prosecutions such as murder cases. In the past financial year the ODPP dealt with 516 trials which were heard over a combined 2385 days. The time it took for a criminal case to reach trial in the Supreme Court was 53 weeks in 2020-21 instead of a target of 28 weeks. In the District Court criminal cases took 54 weeks before they started, compared to a goal of 32 weeks. Cases are still expected to take a long time to make it to court in the coming 12 months with a new target of 39 weeks for criminal trials to get to the Supreme Court. Recent law changes are also predicted to have an impact with new family violence offences, the voluntary assisted dying scheme, and industrial manslaughter laws likely to result in complex and resource-intensive cases. The latest annual report from the office also warns more significant criminal reforms are anticipated without any appropriate resourcing being provided or foreshadowed. Justice system not evolving with changing legal landscape Ms Forrester wrote preparation for the tasks which come up during a trial were expected to be done outside of court hours but these responsibilities had become more demanding and time consuming than before. Counsel conducting trials will generally perform many, many hours of work after hours, just to complete the trial, let alone to work on their other matters which require attention at the same time, she wrote. Unfortunately, the justice system has not evolved to account for this increased trial preparation time. Courts still sit from 10am to 4:30pm (some judges sit even longer hours) five days a week, with an expectation that all necessary preparation will occur outside those hours, no matter how much that involves. Such is the strain on workers at the ODPP an office therapy dog, with support from the Attorney General, was brought in which the annual report noted a staff survey had found raised morale and productivity. Loading Ms Forrester said todays prosecutor workforce placed a significant value on spending time with loved ones and having a good work-life balance. People are too frequently having to sacrifice time with their families and friends, time to recover and to take leave, in order to continue to serve the community to the best of their ability, she said. While attempting to meet the often unreasonable demands of a criminal justice system which is not adapting sufficiently to deal with the extraordinary changes in society and technology which we have seen in the last three decades. For the second year in a row Ms Forrester called out the WA Police Force for a significant decline in the quality of the briefs being handed to her office to prosecute. There are some exceptions, most notably in homicide cases, but, despite sustained efforts on our part, the ODPP has been unable to achieve improvement in this area, she said. This leaves the ODPP in the invidious position of either absorbing additional workload to remedy deficiencies in cases, or to discontinue the cases. Given the adverse impact of the latter course on victims of crime, and the consequent potential risk to the community, ODPP staff are going to considerable additional effort to assist investigators to conduct their roles, which detracts from the ODPP staff performing their own core tasks. WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said on Friday he had not read the annual report from the ODPP but would review comments it made. We do know, and its understandable a lot of those trials now, particularly those handled by the DPP are very complex ... but if there is a need for an improvement well obviously look at that, he said. Ms Forrester said she had tried to make changes during her time as director to increase productivity and reduce workflow but an increase in police numbers, investigations, and prosecutions of corruption and organised crime had negated efforts. Senior staff walking out the door When Ms Forrester started as director she noted in her first annual report, 2016-17, there had been an upward trend in workload coinciding with several senior, experienced and talented prosecutors leaving the office as some received judicial appointments. A modified graduate program was introduced last year and while six new lawyers started through the initiative in the most recent reporting period it has not been enough to counter a continued bleeding out of senior talent. The turnover of senior legal staff at the ODPP was close to 50 per cent higher than the overall employee rate in the past financial year. This means we are losing valuable knowledge and resources which are impossible to replace promptly and adds further strain on our workforce, the annual report said. The biggest loss was that of deputy director Carmel Barbagallo SC, the prosecutor for the long-running Claremont murders case, who was appointed to the District Court as a judge in January. It will be near impossible to replace her sheer capacity for work and her contribution to the ODPP over many years, Ms Forrester wrote. Another prosecutor, Joanne Andretich, was called up to the Magistrates Court in July last year while several other senior lawyers from the ODPP have moved into private practices. WA court appointments 2020-21 September 14, 2021 Private firm and Legal Aid WA barrister Angus Hockton appointed as a Magistrate of the Magistrates Court of Western Australia to fill vacancy of Magistrate Christian Miocevich moving to the District Court. August 26, 2021 State Solicitors Office senior assisting state solicitor Carol Conley appointed to SAT as an ordinary member. August 12, 2021 Former Legal Aid WA lawyer Michelle Harries, Sarah Oliver from Francis Burt Chambers, former prosecutor Cillian Stockdale, former prosecutor Matthew Holgate appointed to Magistrates Court. July 29, 2021 Marcus Solomon SC appointed a judge of the Supreme Court. June 1, 2021 Barrister Lisa Campbell-Tovey and Supreme Court Registrar Natalie Whitby appointed as judges of the District Court. June 9, 2021 Supreme Court Principal Registrar Larissa Strk as a judge of the Supreme Court. January 15, 2021 Private practice lawyer Alana Padmanabham appointed magistrate in Childrens Court. January 14, 2021 DPP deputy director Carmel Barbagallo SC appointed to District Court. December 16, 2020 Criminal lawyer Simon Freitag SC appointed to District Court. July 31, 2020 Genevieve Cleary, Benjamin Tyers, Joanne Andretich, Andrew Matthews, Gavin MacLean and Benjamin White added to regional Magistrates Court positions. July 30, 2020 Lawyer Gary Massey and barrister Karen Shepherd appointed to District Court along with Magistrate Martin Flynn. This years state budget provided an additional $9.1 million to the ODPP over the next four years to help meet demand. About $3.6 million is set aside for office space with the actual demand for services to be funded with $1.5 million over the next 12 months before dropping to $300,000 the following year. More than half of the additional funding commitment has been put off until 2024-25. Ms Forrester wrote she was pleased to say her office had received commensurate funding with the promise to boost police numbers by 950 officers. [It] enables us to plan to meet the increased demand, if not to hire and train prosecutors in advance, she wrote. State and territory leaders have been told restrictions including stay-at-home orders and a ban on any travel should remain in areas of concern with thousands of new cases per day even when 70 per cent of the eligible population is vaccinated. A sensitivity analysis of the Doherty Institutes modelling, conducted by the organisation, found that in some instances these medium public health and social measures would need to remain in areas of concern until the 80 per cent vaccination target was reached. Concerns were raised in Fridays national cabinet meeting about whether the health systems in NSW and Victoria could cope with the ongoing outbreaks. The bulk of the countrys more than 1800 cases on Friday were in those states, and there have been 12,519 cases reported over the last week. GPs in most states and territories can now administer the Pfizer vaccine to everyone aged over 12 as long as they have enough supplies. Credit: Supplied So far 45.4 per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and over is fully vaccinated and 70.5 per cent of that population has had one dose, passing a significant and important national milestone, Health Minister Greg Hunt said. Queenslands wages are not keeping pace with inflation, as shown in three graphs based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. Wage rises for Queenslanders have slumped to their lowest increases in four years and are below average wage increases dating back to 2014-15 and 2015-16. Declining wages mean Queensland pay packets are beginning to fall behind inflation. In 2020-21 average weekly earnings in Queensland grew by 0.2 per cent to $1631.10, lower than Australias average wage increase of 2.3 per cent, lifting average weekly earnings to $1724.40. For the same time in the past 12 months, Brisbanes consumer price index level has increased by 4.9 per cent the second-highest increase in an Australian capital city. The Victorian opposition quietly promised the Australian Christian Lobby and other faith groups that it would amend new laws banning gay conversion therapy if it won next years state election. Then-opposition leader Michael OBrien committed to wind back elements of the laws if he won the November 2022 election, in a bid to secure the votes of religious conservatives who rallied against the Victorian government criminalising attempts to suppress or change an LGBTI persons gender or sexuality, including through faith. Protesters against the governments gay conversion therapy legislation on the steps of Parliament House during the debate earlier this year. Credit:Eddie Jim Newly-elected Opposition Leader Matthew Guy refused to say whether he would take a different position to Mr OBrien, claiming he had not yet had enough time to consider his predecessors decision, which was discussed in the party room. As part of his media blitz after toppling Mr OBrien, Mr Guy was interviewed by LGBTQI radio station JOY 94.9FM where he said he wanted the LGBTQI community to talk to him about issues affecting them. Washington: The US military has admitted that a high-profile drone strike in Afghanistan last month killed as many as 10 civilians including seven children rather than an Islamic State extremist as initially announced. The Pentagon had previously maintained that at least one member of an Islamic State-linked terrorist group and three civilians were killed in the strike, which was launched three days after an IS-K suicide bomber killed 13 US troops at the gate of Kabul airport. Frank McKenzie, Commander of US Central Command, revealed an internal review found that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. Credit:AP General Mark Milley, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, initially called the August 29 attack a righteous strike. But in a briefing on Saturday (AEST), the head of the US Central Command, Frank McKenzie, said that following an investigation, he now believed it was unlikely that those who died were terrorists or posed a threat to US forces at Kabuls airport. The creators of Sun & Sea certainly don't lack ambition. The day-at-the-beach opera installation features 21 tons of sand blanketing the floor of BAM's Fisher Theater and a cast of 30, depicting all of the different types of people you might encounter at the seashore. The audience observes them from the wraparound mezzanine above the stage, entering at different times and leaving whenever they are ready. While the music runs about an hour, it can loop on forever or at least as long as the performers are willing to warble in their bathing suits. After initially debuting at National Gallery of Art in Vilnius in 2017, the piece became a hit at the 2019 Venice Biennale. It now plays New York in a time that everyone seems to believe is irrevocably changed from just 18 months ago. But the waves of memory, longing, and anxiety that gently lap against the sands of Sun & Sea are likely to evoke feelings that transcend time. A couple of performers appear on a beach blanket in Sun & Sea at BAM. ( Richard Termine) Much credit goes to composer Lina Lapelyte, whose music embraces us from the moment we step into the theater. A soothing, almost spa-like overture cedes to short snippets of songs from the beachgoers. In Vaiva Grainyte's deceptively simple libretto, they sing about sunscreen and riptides and the dread of returning to work. Deep thoughts emerge from leisure: A man considers the Iranian dates on which he is snacking and the Chinese-manufactured swimsuit he is wearing and asks, "Is this not a parody of the Silk Road?" An undercurrent of climate change flows throughout, like when two identically dressed sisters express their sadness at dying corals, comparing the Earth's degeneration to their own inevitable mortality. It's not all doom and gloom, though: A gay man sings about the volcanic eruption (perhaps Eyjafjallajokull?) that grounded his plane in London for a couple of days when he met the love of his life. While the score moves along continuously, individual motifs implant themselves in the brain, like the glorious "Chanson of Admiration": Undergirded by staccato keyboard and performed beautifully by Nabila Dandara Vieira Santos, it soars like a gull through a cloudless sky. Kalliopi Petrou gives a hilarious performance as a rich mommy bragging about all of the seas her 8-year-old son has swum in. She sings, "What a relief that the Great Barrier Reef / Has a restaurant and hotel!" Her workaholic husband (Vytautas Pastarnokas) looks like a man accustomed to confronting massive Amex statements when he sings, "Exhaustion, exhaustion, exhaustion, exhaustion" Harmonies rise and recede like the tides, most memorably in "The Couple's Distance Song," a bittersweet number about anticipating the vacation's end. Rarely has the promise to cook an omelet and buy some gas felt so heart-wrenching. Director and designer Rugile Barzdziukaite's greatest contribution, the creation of a realistic beachscape within a theater, is also Sun & Sea's greatest pitfall: An old maxim of show business is to never work with children and animals and this opera has both (the former considerably more disruptive than the latter). A large amount of background chatter collides with the already poor acoustics of the Fisher (not BAM's typical opera house) to render many of the lyrics indecipherable (I only caught about half of them on my first listen). Wisely, BAM ushers are on hand with printed copies of the libretto. The ever-shifting mise-en-scene, without the aid of discernible lighting cues, also makes it difficult to locate soloists. And it is easy to become distracted as the actors move to and from offstage to get hosed down (as if they were taking a dip). Audiences observe Sun & Sea from a mezzanine around the theater. ( Richard Termine) Still, Barzdziukaite, Lapelyte, and Grainyte should take pride in pushing the boundaries of both opera and installation art. This challenging yet undeniably enjoyable work feels like a roar back to life for live performance in the heart of Brooklyn, and BAM's facilities managers should remind themselves of that each time they discover a deposit of sand stowed away in a crevice of the Fisher. Even though it was written in a pre-Covid world, Sun & Sea made me think about my own visits to the water's edge in the last two years, when beaches became a vital public refuge from Covid craziness. It also made me eager to return as I peered down at the operatic beachgoers with my fellow masked audience members (pull the camera back and this strange sight could be the next big exhibit at the Venice Biennale). Residents from around the state gathered at the capital, Saturday, September 11, to mark the 20th Anniversary of the bombings that took down the World Trade Center, damaged The Pentagon, and killed people outside Shanksville, PA. The ceremony, presented by the Wyoming Veteran's Commission, paid tribute to the victims who died in the attack and honored those who survived. Moments of silence were observed at 6:46 a.m. when flight 11 hit the north tower, 7:03 a.m., when flight 175 hit the south tower, 7:37 a.m., when flight 77 hit the Pentagon, and 8:03 a.m., when flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, PA. Wyoming Veterans Commission Chairman Tim Sheppard recognized victims and preborn children, including Deanna Lynn Galante and her unborn son, Matthew. "Deanna, married to Anthony, was an executive assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald," Sheppard said. "She was seven months pregnant, and the Galante's were excitedly awaiting the birth of their son, Matthew." Governor Mark Gordon said 0n September 11, 2001, he was getting his daughter ready for school and listening to the news. "Suddenly, a special report interrupted the broadcast," he said. "A small plane had apparently run into the World Trade Center in downtown New York, and the tower was on fire." He said it seemed crazy. "While I was watching, another plane was flying low across the city and buried its nose in the South Tower," Gordon said. "Now, both towers were burning." Shortly thereafter, he said both towers fell, and America was under attack. "The news from that point was persistent, scary, and raw," he said. "Another plane barreled into the Pentagon, and maybe another plane was heading to the White House or the Capital. This safe, wonderful country where I was raising my kids was under attack." Gordon talked about the Shanksville tragedy, where the passengers fought back, forced the plane down, and lost their lives. America had woken up. "America is best when we are united," Gordon said. "Twenty years have passed since that clear morning in New York City, and it is a morning that must never be forgotten. Today, we are gathered to remember the nearly 3,000 lives taken from us that day. Sheppard honored the first responders who lost their lives at the World Trade Center. "Those who lost their lives in the line of duty were heroes," he said. "The first responders who continued to show up and work in the days after the attacks demonstrated their own heroism. After losing colleagues, friends, and family members, firefighters, police officers, and others reported for duty at ground zero. They endured grueling shifts and dangerous conditions as they looked for survivors and searched for remains." Senator John Barrasso said anyone over age 27 knows what happened on 9/11, and everyone learned that America had changed forever because of terrorists who had no regard for their lives or the lives of others. "How did we miss this, and how can we make sure this never happens again," he said. "As people fled for their lives, there was a whole other group that ran not from the carnage but ran to the carnage." After the 8:03 a.m. moment of silence, marking the time passengers on flight 93 passengers attacked the hijackers and forced the plane down in Shanksville, PA, CW3 Michael Parkins from the Wyoming Army National Guard played taps, concluding the ceremony. "Take a moment and hug every child that is out there," Sheppard said. News Updates Would you like to receive our newsletter? Get local, Wyoming, and national news, the weather forecast, and more, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up today! Adobe company logos are seen in this picture illustration taken in Vienna, on July 9, 2013. (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters) Adobe Jumps Into E-commerce Payments Business in Challenge to Shopify Adobe Inc. on Wednesday said it will add payment services to its e-commerce platform this year to help merchants accept credit cards and other ways of paying, deepening a rivalry with e-commerce firm Shopify Inc. Adobe started providing software to help retailers run their online stores in 2018 when it purchased Magento Commerce from private equity firm Permira for $1.68 billion. Adobe will roll out the new payment system by the end of this year in the United States and is tapping PayPal Holdings to process a variety of payment types, including credit and debit cards as well as PayPals own payment and pay-later offerings. Until now, Adobes e-commerce customers have had to build their own payment systems. That works for larger businesses that can negotiate with payment processors, but Adobe wanted a simpler service for smaller merchants, Peter Sheldon, senior director of commerce strategy at Adobe, told Reuters in an interview. What theyre really looking for is the simplicity of operations and having all of their reporting and reconciliation in a single toolset, Sheldon said. Payments are a big part of the e-commerce business. In 2020, more than two-thirds of Shopifys $2.93 billion in revenue came from its merchant services segment that includes payments. For Adobe, the payments move follows a partnership with FedEx Corp earlier this year that helps Adobe merchants manage shipping and logistics services. Adobes move on Wednesday is similar to Shopify in some ways, but its also just trying to monetize different portions of what a seller needs to do to sell online, Jordan Jewell, research director for digital commerce at IDC, said. Payments is a big one. Theres a lot of money that flows between hands in the payments world. Adobe said it plans to expand to territories such as Canada, Australia, and Western Europe in 2022. Sheldon told Reuters that the processing deal with PayPal is not exclusive, and as Adobe expands further internationally after 2022, it may work with other processors. By Stephen Nellis American Corporations Will Have to Take a Stand on China, Expert Says American corporations will sooner or later have to take a stand on the Chinese regimes repressive practices, said Clyde Prestowitz, author of The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership. U.S. firms, eager to do business in China, have adopted a satisficing practice to avoid offending the countrys communist rulers and being locked out of the massive Chinese market, Prestowitz said in an interview with EpochTVs American Thought Leaders, referring to a decision-making strategy that aims for a satisfactory result, rather than the optimal solution. But these companies wont be able to continue such a practice for too much longer, Prestowitz believes, adding that the change isnt going to happen overnight, but this is the overall direction. Prestowitz was a lead negotiator in the first U.S. trade mission to China in 1982 and has advised four presidents, both Republican and Democratic. Significant inconsistencies exist in the American business approach in China, according to Prestowitz. For example, the United States has various sanctions relating to the regimes abuses in the region of Xinjiang, and has prohibiting imports from the region made with forced labor. These were enacted in response to the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) genocide against ethnic Muslim minorities in the region. Yet, by doing business elsewhere in China, American corporations are still indirectly helping the regime carry out its repression in Xinjiang, he said. In Prestowitzs view, this satisficing approach wont last long as it will become increasingly apparent the Chinese regime is not like the United States, and that free trade wont bring about a democratic China, as Western analysts had previously predicted. He added that the fundamental division between America and a CCP-controlled China is not material but moral. The more a free world entity invests in China and helps to strengthen this anti-free speech, anti-liberty, anti-soul Communist Party, the more its not about money. Its about fundamental human values, Prestowitz said. Major corporations are going to find it very difficult to justify making money at the expense of human values. Many people in the West may not be aware of the informality of doing business in China, given that theres no rule of law in the country, Prestowitz noted. In China, you dont go to court against the Chinese Communist Partyyou cant win, he said. So what it means is that the government doesnt have to issue an order, he [an official] can just lift his eyebrows, and say, Well, we have an inspection coming up next month. And who knows what kind of an inspection. Thus, foreign companies constantly face the threat of informal and opaque investigations by Chinese authorities, if they dont follow the Party line, he said. Prestowitz described the CCP as a purely Leninist Party: The characteristic of a Leninist party is seeking to control everything very narrowly in very few hands. In addition, the Party also has its own army: the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), he noted. While Americans usually think of the PLA as the Chinese army, they should view it as equivalent to a Democratic Partys army or a Republican Partys army, according to Prestowitz. Moreover, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping names at least a third of the major CEOs in China, said Prestowitz. He said that a third of Chinas GDP came from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) whose top leaders were appointed by the Party. Due to all the controls it has on society, the CCP is able to implement a completely coordinated strategy to ultimately unseat the United States on the world stage, said Prestowitz. To respond to the CCP threat, the United States should focus on bringing manufacturing back home, Prestowitz said, and crucially, do a lot of forgetting about China. This is, the United States should stop trying to strike deals with China on things that the regime has no intention of changing, for example, emissions, he said. In addition, Prestowitz said the United States should deal with the CCP and Chinese people separately becaues anti-free speech, anti-free market, and anti-democracy are not in Chinese genes but the CCPs genes. Terri Wu Follow Terri Wu is a general assignment reporter based in the Washington DC metropolitan area. AT&T logo is seen on a smartphone in front of displayed Discovery and Warner Media logos in this illustration taken on May 17, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) AT&T Anticipates Pending Warnermedia-Discovery Deal to Close by Mid-2022 Telecoms company AT&T said it anticipates that the pending deal to combine WarnerMedias media assets with Discovery Inc. will close by the middle of 2022. AT&T is in the process of unwinding its expensive media investments to focus on its original business of providing phone and internet services. It is combining WarnerMedias media assets with Discovery to create a proposed stand-alone company, Warner Bros. Discovery. After the close of that transaction and on a pro-forma basis, AT&T expects annual revenues to grow at a low single digits compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2022 to 2024 with annual adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share growing at a CAGR in the mid-single-digit range, AT&T Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches said in an update to shareholders on Tuesday. After the deal closing, the company said it anticipates annual dividends paid of $8 billion to $9 billion, reflecting a payout ratio of 40 percent to 43 percent on the projected free cash flow of $20 billion-plus in 2023. Chardonnay grapes lie rotting on the ground at a grower's vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula May 6, 2005 in Melbourne, Australia. (Mark Dadswell/Getty Images) Australia Pushes Forward With Next Phase of WTO Wine Dispute With China Australia will push forward with the next phase of its ongoing World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute with China over punitive tariffs imposed on its wine exports to the country. Trade Minister Dan Tehan said Australia would ask the WTO to establish a dispute settlement panel to adjudicate the anti-dumping duties that were slapped on wine exports as part of an ongoing year-long economic coercion campaign instigated by Beijing. Australia supports the rules-based trading system and this is the next stage of the WTO dispute resolution process following consultation between Australia and China, Tehan said in the announcement on Sept. 16 evening. Australia remains ready to resolve this matter directly through discussions with China, he said. We will continue to stand up for the rights of Australian exporters. On June 19, the federal government decided to go ahead with the action at the WTO against Beijings tariffs, varying between 107.1 to 212.1 percent, across different Australian winemakers. It follows an earlier action by the government over barley tariffs (worth around 80 percent), that was also progressed to the dispute settlement panel phaselast week the panel was just established. Minister for Trade Dan Tehan speaks to the media during a press conference in Sydney, Australia on May 21, 2021. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) The government is responding to part of an extensive campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to target Australian exports with tariffs, suspensions, or regulatory hurdles, after Foreign Minister Marise Payne called for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 in April 2020. Other impacted industries include coal, beef, lobster, timber, lamb, and cotton. Regarding the current WTO actions, a dispute settlement panel will hear arguments from relevant parties and investigate the dispute. Interim and final reports will be presented to the Dispute Settlement Body who will make a final ruling (based on the findings of the reports). A range of possible resolutions could occur, including a ruling in Australia or Chinas favour. If it is in Australias favour, Beijing could be ordered to remove the tariffs or be ordered to negotiate a compensation payout. Failing this, Australia could be granted permission from the WTO to retaliate in kind with tariffs of its own. The entire process will take several months. However, one hurdle lies in the way, which is the final appeals process. The WTO has a seven-member Appellate Body, which has the power to uphold, modify or reverse the Dispute Settlement Bodys findings. The Appellate Body has been frozen since 2019, after the former U.S. administration decided against appointing new members to the body over problems with the WTO decision-making process. The European Union and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison have recognised the imperfect nature of the WTO and has called for moves to fix the organisation. However, in the meantime, disputes could be appealed into the void, effectively stalling and killing the process, according to Professor Peter Draper, executive director at the Institute for International Trade at the University of South Australia. However, he noted that Australias motive for launching WTO actions was not to obtain a resolution but to expose Beijings behaviour on the world stage. The process, and the issuance of the reports, will be illuminating. As they say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. I think thats what the Australian government is aiming for in this case, he told The Epoch Times. Soon after the wine dispute was lodged with the WTO in June, Beijing responded with a flurry of WTO actions against Australian tariffs that were implemented several years ago on Chinese goods, including tariffs on wind tower imports in 2014 (valued at 10.9 percent), railway wheels in 2015 (17.4 percent), and stainless-steel sinks in 2019 (60.2 percent). Finance Minister Simon Birmingham called the moves petty. Construction workers take their lunch break on a busy street in Melbourne, to protest the closing of their onsite tea rooms by the state government, on Sept. 17, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) Construction Workers Take to Melbourne Streets to Protest COVID-19 Restrictions Comes day after state imposes new vaccine mandate on industry Construction workers took to the streets of Melbournes CBD blocking traffic to peacefully protest the Victorian state governments latest COVID-19 restrictions for the industry. Dozens of construction workers blocked Lonsdale and Elizabeth streets with chairs and tables while on their breaks, stopping the trams, video on social media show. Dan Andrews said that Victorian construction works couldnt eat inside if they werent vaxd So they grabbed everything and took it to the streets and blocked the roads off they even got Traffic Control stopping Police, a separate post on Telegram, filled with pictures of the protest, reads. Well done Tradies of Melbourne. Construction workers take their lunch break on a busy street in Melbourne, Australia, to protest the closing of their onsite tea rooms by the Victorian state government, on Sept. 17, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) Another video showed a construction worker saying that Spencer street was also temporarily affected. No jab, no job, see ya later, he said in the video. The roads have since been cleared. One video posted by independent journalist Rukshan Fernando, who goes by the name Real Rukshan on social media, showed the construction workers packing up the tables and chairs after their peaceful sit-in. Speaking to people from these worksites off camera, they have a mix of views and concerns, mandatory vaccination is one of them (however the unions dont publicly support them on this matter), Fernando reported. Construction workers take their lunch break on a busy street in Melbourne, Australia, to protest the closing of their onsite tea rooms by the Victorian state government, on Sept. 17, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) The largely-silent protest comes a day after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that construction workers will need to show evidence to their employer that they have had at least a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by 11:59 p.m. on the 23rd of September. Basically, construction workers have a week to go and get a first dose. Victorias vaccination mandate for the industry comes as officials say 13 percent of active cases in the state are linked to construction sites. Also, from 11:59 p.m. this Friday, construction workers will not be able to cross the metropolitan-regional boundary for work, tea rooms will be shut, any food or drink will not be able to be consumed indoors at work, according to the new restrictions. Construction workers take their lunch break on a busy street in Melbourne, Australia, to protest the closing of their onsite tea rooms by the Victorian state government, on Sept. 17, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) Andrews said the governments decision followed health advice which aims to keep the construction industry working at a 25 percent workforce cap. If they want to work and be part of that 25 percent, they need to be vaccinated with one dose by midnight next Thursday night, he said. If theyre not, they wont be able to come on-site. John Setka, secretary of Victorias construction union CFMEU, described the decision to close tea rooms as appalling. Its not really a protest, he claimed on 3AW radio on Friday. What they decided was if we cant sit in the smoko shed, where do we have our break? So theyve taken all the tables and chairs out into the fresh air. Theyve got nowhere else to have their smoko. Setka told 3AW earlier this week that CFMEU would not support the use of mandatory vaccines. I dont support anything being compulsory, he said on Tuesday. People have genuine health concerns, but I believe we should listen to the experts. There are some people with legitimate health concerns over being vaccinated, and I think weve got to respect that. When asked if the union would represent workers laid off because of refusing vaccination, Setka said, We will take each case. Were trying to rotate people coming in and out, but were suffering as an industry pretty badly at the moment. We realise how important we are to the economy, and its very important for us to keep working. Meanwhile, Jeroen Weimar, the COVID-19 Commander, defended the decision to place restrictions on tea break rooms as there is a significant risk of transmission in them. So many employees would love to be at work people are bending over backwards to keep the construction industry going and keep important sites going for important reasons, he said. The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) returns to U.S. Naval Base in Guam on Aug. 19, 2021. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Naomi Johnson/U.S. Navy via AP) Australian PM Rejects Chinese Criticism of Nuclear Sub Deal CANBERRAPrime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday rejected Chinese criticism of Australias new nuclear submarine alliance with the United States, and said he doesnt mind that President Joe Biden might have forgotten his name. China reacted angrily when Biden, Morrison, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a virtual news conference this week to announce a trilateral defense alliance that will provide Australia with a fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said it was highly irresponsible for the United States and Britain to export the nuclear technology. Morrison said Australia wanted to boost peace, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Everything weve done with the United States is consistent with the partnerships, and relationships, and alliances weve already had with the United States, Morrison said. Australias nearest neighbor, after Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, was deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. News of the alliance received a positive response in Singapore. The city states Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told Morrison in a phone call he hoped the nuclear deal would contribute constructively to the peace and stability of the region and complement the regional architecture, Singapores Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. French leaders and the European Union are angered at being excluded from the alliance that scuppers a contract with France to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines for Australia. Observers say Biden appeared to have forgotten Morrisons name during Thursdays news conference, which was televised from three countries. The president referred to the Australian as pal and that fellow Down Under. Biden didnt use Morrisons name, while he referred to Johnson as Boris. It reminded Australians of when then-President Donald Trumps spokesman Sean Spicer repeatedly referred to Morrisons predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, in 2017 as Mr. Trumble. Morrison laughed off what some have described as an awkward exchange with Biden that undermined Australias significance to the United States. Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison (C) appears on stage with video links to Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) and U.S. President Joe Biden (R) at a joint press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP) Usually when we speak privately, he refers to me as pal, Morrison said. Morrison said he and the president enjoyed a great working relationship. Oh, I didnt pay much attention to it. I mean, these things happen. They happen frequently, Morrison said. From time to time, you know, Ive been known to let the odd name slip from my memorythats pretty normal in our line of work, Ive got to be honest. Morrison said he referred to Biden as Mr. President or mate in private conversations. Morrison will visit the United States next week for the first time since Biden became president. They will be joined by the leaders of India and Japan for a meeting of the Quad security dialogue. Woman hugs her grandson who she meets for the first time at Sydney International Airport as NZ-Australia travel bubble opens on April 19, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Jenny Evans/Getty Images) Australian State Begins Home Quarantine Trial for International Arrivals New South Wales (NSW) will begin trialling home quarantine for international arrivals at the end of this month as the state gets ready to open up after a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown. The pilot program will consist of 175 people, including 50 Qantas aircrew, who have received two doses of a TGA-accredited vaccine. They will be required to isolate for seven days, but positive cases must remain in quarantine for 14 days. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was optimistic that families would soon be able to reunite and would also be happy to see hotels returned back to tourists. Hotel quarantine has been an important line of defence throughout this pandemic but as we move towards our vaccination targets, we have to look at new ways of doing things, Bereijklian said. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks to the media during a COVID-19 press conference in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 9, 2021. (Bianca De Marchi Pool/Getty Images) NSW Minister for Tourism Stuart Ayres said high vaccination rates had been the key to driving progress in the states opening roadmap. This is a really critical step to be able to build and operationalise a home-based quarantine system so ultimately, we can phase out the majority of hotel quarantine, Ayres said. This is a really big step and a light for every Australian who are still overseas. The NSW trial will expand on the evidence being collected in the ongoing South Australian home quarantine trial, which relies on using geolocation and facial recognition technology. Ayres said utilising such technology on peoples phones would allow the police and health authorities to continue to monitor a person during their home-based quarantine. Its about ensuring we conduct the trial properly, build the base of evidence so we can remove our hotel quarantine system for the majority of people who are coming into Australia, he said. What I mean by that is those that are double vaccinated so we can ultimately remove them from having to be in our hotel system. The government stated that privacy will be protected through the same mechanisms as current NSW check-in policies. However, it was found that police in other states violated user privacy and accessed location data for check-in apps. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the pilot would secure the nations safe reopening plan. This is the next step in our plan to safely reopen, and to stay safely open, Morrison said in a statement. NSW has carried the lions share of quarantining returning Australians and will be leading the way with this trial that could set the standard for the next phases of the way we live with COVID-19. This could mean more families and friends being able to reunite more quickly, more business being able to be done here, and more workers for key industries being able to fill critical jobs. Additionally, Tasmania will also begin a home quarantine trial next week for eligible residents returning home from regional NSW. Its been challenging and I know many people have been frustrated, but its time to bring Tasmanians home, Tasmania Premier Peter Gutwein said. Only people from regional NSW who are double vaccinated and able to provide a negative COVID-19 rest will be eligible. The outside of the Supreme Court of New South Wales building is seen in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 9, 2013. (William West/AFP via Getty Images) Australian State Defending Third Wave of Lawsuits Against COVID-19 Restrictions Updated: This article has been updated to include the latest GoFundMe figures. New South Wales is defending a third tranche of lawsuits challenging the state governments response to COVID-19, including vaccine mandates and health restrictions. On Sept. 17, the NSW Supreme Court heard from the state health ministers lawyer Daniel Reynolds that it was facing a new civil suit launched by John Larter, veteran paramedic, and deputy mayor of the Snowy Valleys Council. Larter is challenging a public health order mandating that health workers in the state receive the first dose of the vaccine by Sept. 30, and the second dose by Nov. 30. He launched an online fundraiser to cover his legal costs, which has raised $104,228 as of Sept. 21. I am fighting for this as I strongly believe no person should be discriminated against due to their medical status, and under no circumstances should they be excluded from the workplace due to that medical status, his GoFundMe page stated. He has received support from NSW state MPs Tanya Davies and Mark Latham. Reynolds said this was the third wave of lawsuits facing NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, including a summons from another plaintiff, Ibrahim Can, who is seeking a declaration that public health orders be deemed invalid. The demand of the other litigation is already placing quite significant strain on the key witnesses who will be giving evidence in this matter, whose job it is to manage the public health response to the pandemic, Reynolds told the court. He also questioned why Larter did not launch the action when the vaccine mandate was announced four weeks ago. We dont understand why they couldnt have been brought much earlier and, in that regard, this is now the third wave of litigation, Reynolds said. The first tranche of lawsuits was brought against the health minister and relevant government departments two weeks ago in the Federal Court of Australia by religious leaders seeking exemptions from health restrictions around places of worship. The action was dismissed. The second wave saw four legal actions launched involving a teacher, aged care worker, Sergey Naumenko (seeking a list of orders including an exemption from microchipping), and Belinda Hocrofta mounted unit police officer. Hocroft originally sought to overturn an order preventing her from working outside her local government area (LGA) until she had received one dose of the vaccine. The restriction was applied to LGAs deemed to be hotspots during Greater Sydneys current outbreak of the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The senior constable withdrew her lawsuit by consent this week, the court heard. The remaining three matters will be heard during a three-day hearing beginning Sept. 30, with nine expert witnesses and a dozen lay witnesses to be called. Regarding Larter, the presiding Justice Robert Beech-Jones ordered him to file an amended summons and witness evidence next week before the matter returned to court on Sept. 28. Residents queue to undergo nucleic acid tests for the COVID-19 coronavirus in Xiamen city, in China's eastern Fujian Province, on Sept. 14, 2021. (STR/AFP) Beijing Claims to Have Fully Vaccinated Over 1 Billion People China announced on Thursday that it has fully vaccinated more than 1 billion people against COVID-19over 70 percent of the entire population. Ten months ago, the Chinese Communist Party rolled out the immunization campaign to those aged 12 and older. Nearly 2.2 billion vaccine doses had been administered to date, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said at a news conference on Sept. 16. It comes as the country is battling a cluster of cases in the southeastern province of Fujian, where over 200 cases have been confirmed in the past week. However, despite the city of Xiamen seeing a new surge of the Delta variant, municipal health authorities halted local vaccination on Tuesday. Officials did not comment on the suspension. The move soon sparked public speculation, with some questioning the safety of inactivated Chinese-made vaccines. Weve seen loads of videos online in the last few days, local citizen Shen (pseudonym) told The Epoch Times. People suddenly collapsed following vaccinations due to brain attacks, heart attacks, or strokes, etc. The Epoch Times contacted the local Center for Disease Control (CDC) for further information but did not receive a response. On Thursday, Wang Huaqing, chief expert at Chinas CDC, suggested those under 12 years old be included in the vaccine rollout. A person works at a computer during the 10th International Cybersecurity Forum in Lille, France, on Jan. 23, 2018. (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images) Beijings New Data Security Law Poses Risk to Foreign Firms: Analysts News Analysis Foreign firms in China are now required to report network vulnerabilities to authorities under a new data security law. Analysts say this will help hackers working for the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) with conducting cyber attacks for the regime. The law was officially put into practice on Sept. 1, aimed at data surveillance in major sectors. According to Article 29 of the law, international companies within China must report their data security incidents immediately to both authorities and users once they are identified. On the same day, a Chinese bylaw took effect on the management of network product security vulnerabilities. The rules require service providers to report details to authorities within two days, while foreign organizations and individuals are banned from access. Analysts said this is a way for the CCP to effectively weaponize cyber vulnerabilities. System flaws that developers are unaware of are called zero-day vulnerabilities. Wang Donglin, a former tech director in a Chinese internet firm, described how those types of vulnerabilities can be exploited. Given the despotic nature of the Chinese communist regime, it would most likely turn those vulnerabilities into weapons to attack other nations once they fall into its hands, Wang told The Epoch Times. He said cyber security flaws exist in numerous businesses or organizations. Undiscovered zero-day vulnerabilities can be used by hackers for profiteering. In China, it is called an underground industry, according to Wang. With the data security law requiring vulnerabilities to be reported to the CCP, including the zero-day type, obtaining resources could be a no-brainer for the CCPs hackers, Wang said. He added that the most likely target in the potential first wave of cyber attacks would be a large number of cloud-service hosts. Puma Shen, an assistant professor at Graduate School of Criminology of National Taipei University, told The Epoch Times that risks would not decline with the import of the law. The regime now has found a good excuse for its doingsin the name of protecting cyber security and privacy, Shen said. But a government has no capability of solving vulnerabilities. Generally, businesses are not required to officially report attacks unless they are service providers for governments. With such resources available, the CCPs Department of Public Security could indeed launch cyber attacks with the help of its hackers, Shen said. Internet observer Gu He said the CCP is using the new law to make gathering information from domestic and foreign firms legal. In other countries, zero-day vulnerabilities are managed by businesses themselves, not by state powers, he said. He questioned how a government could manage them, or what right it has to intervene in corporate freedom. Those most interested in such vulnerabilities are none other than global hackers, Gu noted, also saying hackers could use these vulnerabilities for profit. For the CCP, its goal is different: stealing secrets, Gu said. Gu believes the new law can have a huge impact on transnational companies in China. Luo Ya and Li Yun contributed to this report. A group of Venezuelans is picked up by Border Patrol after illegally crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas, on June 3, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Biden Administration Blames Delay in Restarting Remain in Mexico Program on Mexico President Joe Bidens administration has not returned a single illegal immigrant to Mexico under the Migrant Policy Protocols after being ordered to restart the program by the Supreme Court last month. U.S. government officials are in talks with officials in Mexico on rebooting the program but Mexico is so far resisting a formal resumption, court documents filed this week say. Discussions with Mexico are ongoing and are proceeding in good faith, but, as of yet, Mexico has not yet agreed to accept returns under the Court-ordered restart of MPP, Brian Ward, a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice, wrote in one filing. The forms were submitted to U.S. District Judge Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee who initially ordered the Biden administration to restart the program, commonly known as Remain in Mexico or MPP. The Trump-era program centers around making many immigrants who seek asylum wait in Mexico while their claims are heard. More than 55,000 were returned through Oct. 28, 2019, under the program. Mexicos government agreed during the previous administration to provide the migrants with protection and care, though later reports indicated that some were living in poor conditions. The Supreme Court upheld Kacsmaryks ruling on Aug. 24, finding that the administrations ending of the program was arbitrary and capricious, which violates federal law. The ruling ordered the Biden administration to enforce and implement MPP in good faith until such a time as it has been lawfully rescinded in compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act and until the U.S. government has enough detention capacity to detain all illegal immigrants that must be deported under 8 U.S. Code 1255 without releasing any aliens because of a lack of detention resources. The Department of Homeland Security said the same day that it had started to engage with the government of Mexico on restarting the program but in the new filings, indicated that little progress has been made. In order to restart MPP, the two governments must reach agreement on a number of foundational matters, including: the make-up of individuals who are amenable to MPP, in what circumstances and locations returns to Mexico and reentry into the United States to attend court hearings can occur, how many individuals can be enrolled in given locations, and the types of support these individuals will receive in Mexico. All of these topics, and others, remain under active negotiation, Ward, the U.S. government lawyer, said. Importantly, MPP cannot function without Mexicos agreement to accept individuals returned from the United States under the program, he added. At the same time, the U.S. government is working on organizing other parts of the program, such as exploring funding and obtaining contracts to rebuild facilities used for hearings for illegal immigrants who are part of the program. The facilities used before were repurposed and would have to be rebuilt with COVID-19 measures taken into account, the U.S. government says. The initial cost is pegged at $14.1 million for construction with another $10.5 million per month required to operate the facilities. The contacts wont be executed until an agreement is reached with Mexico. Mexicos government has said little about MPP beyond stating it was not bound by the U.S. court decisions but would discuss the matter with U.S. officials. The U.S. government update was made to adhere to Kacsmaryks order, which said that as the U.S. government worked to restart MPP, it would need to file a report with him each month, beginning Sept. 15, on progress made and the situation regarding illegal immigration in the country. U.S. border agents made over 200,000 arrests at the southern border in August, one of the highest months on record, as the Biden administration grapples with a massive influx that shows no signs of abating. States along the border have tried fighting back in court. The order to resume MPP came from a lawsuit filed by the states of Missouri and Texas. California Universities Keep Certain Graduate Entrance Exams Optional Many college graduate programs in California kept the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) score optional, or did not accept scores for the 2021-22 admissions cycle. GRE, offered by Educational Testing Service (ETS), is one of the most well-known standardized tests required for the graduate admission process in the United States, Canada, and a few other countries. The GRE general test is designed to supplement the undergraduate records, recommendation letters, and other qualifications for graduate-level study. At the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles (UCLA), the GRE was made optional for many humanities-related majors for the 2021-22 application cycle, including east Asian studies, geography, public affairs, theater, and urban planning. A GRE score is not accepted for consideration for programs such as public health, biology, chemistry, and philosophy. On Feb. 26, a proposal on eliminating the GRE standardized test in UCLA admissions was presented to the schools senate by UCLA graduate student representatives. These graduate students are also considering taking the initiative to the UC Board of Regents for a systemwide removal of GRE requirement, according to DailyBruin. University of CaliforniaLos Angeles, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Emma Hsu/The Epoch Times) The University of Southern California (USC) also waived its GRE requirement for many programs including some highly competitive programs such as urban planning and public administration. USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism announced that the school will suspend the GRE in its admission for all 2022 graduate applicants. A Chapman University spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the university offers more than 40 graduate and credential programs to help students succeed in their professional careers, many of which do not require the GRE. But Chapman University does not have a plan to drop the GRE requirement entirely from its admission process. A student sits in the shade at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., on Oct. 14, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) In response to the pandemic, ETS provided an at-home testing solution starting April 2, 2020, so prospective students could take the test comfortably from home while test centers remained closed. Home testing is offered everywhere that the test is normally available, based on students account addresses, with an exception for students from mainland China and Iran. All at-home tests were monitored by using the live remote invigilators through ProctorU, according to ETS. However, the online test solution raises concerns about fairness. Many argue that the online version of the test handicaps students from rural areas with low-income backgrounds, as the test requires students to have a computer with a built-in microphone and speaker at home, and stable internet access. Fatima Irshad, a first-year masters student at USC who was accepted into her dream program without turning in a GRE score believes that the GRE does not assess ones full potential. We have to realize that the GRE is a test, and like all tests, it does not mirror an individuals potential for success. There could be people who are just good at taking tests but do not have a solid foundation in what they are studying. Considering that the GRE test is for more basic skills like vocabulary, math, reading, etc., if a person studies well, they can achieve success in the test, Irshad told The Epoch Times. Capitol Police Official: Intelligence Suggests Violence Could Occur at J6 Rally Federal and local law enforcement officials in charge of the safety for the U.S. Capitol said there is intelligence to suggest there could be violence at the Rally being held on Sept. 18 to protest those imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 breach on the Capitol. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said his police force and partners are prepared for any type of unlawful actions by protesters or counter-protesters. Our mission tomorrow, and it is our mission every day, is to protect everyones rights to free speech and to allow them to lawfully demonstrate, Manger told reporters at a press briefing on Capitol Hill on Friday. But, there have been some threats of violence associated with this event for tomorrow, and we have a strong plan in place to ensure that it remains peaceful and that if violence does occur, we can stop it as quickly as possible. Manger confirmed that the National Guard is on standby, but will only be called if the rally goes beyond the planned timing. If the event goes longer than we think itll go, they would be available to help us to secure the area around the Capitol. But if the event comes and goes, [we wont] call to them, said Manger. The organizers of the Justice for J6 event on Sept. 18, which is expected to take place in Union Square between 1st and 3rd streets at 12 p.m., according to the groups website, expect hundreds to attend. The rally is being organized by Look Ahead America, a nonprofit group that is seeking the release of hundreds of people who were charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol incident and have been detained in reportedly inhumane conditions. It could prove to be the largest gathering since then. More than 600 people have been charged with a range of crimes, from misdemeanors to serious felony charges including assault, obstruction of an official proceeding, or conspiracy, for their alleged actions in early January at the U.S. Capitol, when protesters and rioters breached the building, interrupting a joint session of Congress. Look Ahead America, which says it advocates for disaffected Americans who are ignored by both political parties and the government, said that the Sept. 18 protests would be peaceful. The groups executive director, Matt Braynard, told The Epoch Times earlier this month that the purpose of the protests is to demand justice for the political prisoners who remain in jail for allegedly committing nonviolent crimes on Jan. 6. Were also protesting the lack of transparency and the investigation into what happened, he said. Zachary Stieber and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report China Flirts With Universal Basic Capital; US Flirts With Universal Basic Income Commentary As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cracks down on everything, from video games to the housing sector, Party leader Xi Jinping has called on the country to strive toward common prosperity. Chinas ever-increasing wealth gap must be addressed; this comes through the redistribution of wealth. Some China-friendly authors have called for Universal Basic Capital (UBC), which revolves around the idea of spreading wealth more fairly. Essentially, these authors are echoing the very same thing Xi is calling for. The aim of UBC is not just to limit concentration of wealth at the top but build it from below, according to the South China Morning Post. It involves creating an ownership stake for all those in China, thus allowing everyone the chance to revel in the countrys future prosperity, the article said. The idea of UBC is very similar to Universal Basic Income (UBI), a concept Americans are all too familiar with. The former presidential contender Andrew Yang put forward the idea of a Freedom Dividend, a form of UBI that guarantees a certain amount of moneyin this case, $1000 per monthto every American citizen. It sounded, and perhaps still sounds, great. Who doesnt want free money? In July, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced two billsthe Sending Unconditional Payments to People Overcoming Resistances to Triumph (SUPPORT) Act and the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) Actthat revolved around the idea of a national guaranteed income program. What is the United States obsession with UBI? Why is it still viewed as some sort of utopian panacea? Yes, inequalities exist; homelessness is most definitely an issue; and millions of American children are most definitely malnourished. However, UBI is not the answer. But try telling this to President Biden. According to Trevor Filseth, a foreign affairs writer for The National Interest, the expanded child tax credit, which is part of the presidents broader American Rescue Plan Act, appears to be little more than a UBI pilot program. Feeding hungry children should be celebrated. But if the expanded child tax credit turns out to be a UBI gateway drug, then the celebrations must be halted. Let me explain why. President Joe Biden speaks about the American Rescue Plan and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses in response to COVID-19 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, on Feb. 22, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) UBI has intimate connections with socialism; for many, socialism is the precursor to communism. Of course, the idea of UBI is nothing new. In the 18th century, Thomas Paine, very much a socialist, put forward the idea of a lump sum payment for all citizens. Joseph Charlier, a Belgian socialist, argued for a territorial dividend. Martin Luther King Jr. and James Meade both advocated for some sort of social dividend. More recently, the aforementioned Yang, as well as the socialist-friendly Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has advocated for UBI. With current debt in the region of $28 trillion, and that number expected to rise to $89 trillion by 2029, the United States is hemorrhaging money. With warnings of an impending financial armageddon, the introduction of a guaranteed income program would only quicken the countrys demise. Contrary to popular belief, UBI wouldnt usher in a fairer society. In fact, the idea of fairness and UBI are diametrically opposed. After all, how would UBI be funded? More of that magic money being printed, you say. But this debt must be repaid, and the burden of repaying the debt will fall on the American people. Additionally, UBI only makes sense if it serves to strengthen a country. However, according to researchers at Third Way, offering $12,000 per year in UBI would cost the U.S. government somewhere in the region of $2.4 trillion annually. As the authors noted, thats almost as large as the entire US safety net today. Furthermore, UBI would make sense if jobs were disappearing. Again, contrary to popular belief, theyre not. What about AI, you ask? The robots are taking our jobs! Fear around artificial intelligence replacing workers is largely misplaced. AI is changing the nature of work; we are not being replaced. The jobs of tomorrow require STEM skills. Education in American schools must reflect this fact. Jobs are changing, not disappearing. Offering UBI wont change this fact. Perhaps the most important point that needs to be made is this: UBI has never been tested in a country as diverse and as divided as the United States. Sure, the idea has been around a long time. Sure, pilot tests and experiments have been carried out. But UBI has never been rolled out on such a grand scale. Interestingly, when Finland rolled out its own version of UBIthe first in Europe to pay its citizens a monthly, tax-free wageit turned out to be an unmitigated flop. For two years, 2,000 randomly selected, unemployed citizens were given 560 (about $662) a month. The payments appeared to discourage the recipients from seeking out new employment. Free money, in the end, might help a family pay the bills; on a broader scale, however, it harms the economy. As COVID-19 has shown us, when fewer people are working, a country suffers, both economically and psychologically. This is a point that cant be emphasized enough. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. University graduates attend a career fair in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province on March 21, 2021. (STR/AFP) China Sees 1 in 7 Young Urban Workers Jobless: Official Data Monthly updated data indicates one out of every seven young urban workers in China failed to find employment in August, including graduates from high schools, colleges, and universities. Chinas urban unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in August, while the rate for those aged 16-24 is three-times higher sitting at 15.3 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday. Yet the official rate for the latter in August 2019before the pandemic hitwas two percent lower. Commentator Wen Xiaogang said the large volume of jobless young people flagged the inconsistency of Beijings claim on economic recovery beyond the impact of COVID-19. The latest data show Chinas factory output growth in August hit a 13-month low as the Delta variant surged in southeast China. Observers also worried that the Chineses Communist Partys crackdown on the off-campus tutoring industry left young people looking for jobs struggling even more. In late July, Chinas Ministry of Education officially banned for-profit tutoring on core school subjects as both young private tutors and graduates saw jobs vanishing. The authorities also barred the once-promising businesses from raising capital or going public. Additionally, the August average weekly working hours decreased by 0.2 hours to 47.5 hours, regarding all employed workers in the nations enterprises, the data showed. The Evergrande name and logo outside the construction site of a housing complex in Beijing on Sept. 13, 2021. (Greg Baker/AFP) Chinese State Media Editor Warns Evergrande Over Dreaming of a State Bailout Struggling Evergrande Group should save itself from collapse rather than bet on a government bailout, said Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece media Global Times. Over the years, Chinas second-largest property developer Evergrande Group has been highly leveraged by driving its growth on debt. Its $300 billion in total liabilities now equal two percent of Chinas 2020 GDP. Hu warned the property giant about irresponsible financial manipulation and expansion on the social media platform WeChat, adding that the company cannot deem itself too big to fail and push its luck over a helping hand from the ruling Party. [Troubled enterprises] must be able to use market means to save themselves, He said, flagging a warning over hoping for a lucky break. Reuters cited sources close to the matter on Friday that Evergrande bondholders had selected investment bank Moelis & Company and law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP as advisers on a potential debt restructuring. On Sept. 14, the company announced it hired Houlihan Lokey and Admiralty Harbour Capital as joint financial advisers to explore all feasible options. The largest case, by assets, that Houlihan Lokey advised on was Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., a global financial services firm forced to shut down in September 2008 while owing over $600 billion. Its up to Evergrande itself, the editor said. Reuters contributed to this report. Man Accused of Flying Drone Filled With Drugs Into Orange County Jail A Costa Mesa, California, man has been accused of flying a drone filled with drugs into the Theo Lacy Jail Facility while coordinating with a female inmate through a phone inside the jail. The drone was originally found in the grass area inside the facility by an inmate worker two days after it crashed on Sept. 12, and the inmate alerted sheriffs deputies to it. It was carrying 2 grams of heroin, 4 grams of methamphetamine, 15 Xanax pills, and 15 muscle relaxers. The Orange County Sheriffs Department Custody Intelligence Unit arrested Chey Cody Smart, 43, in his Costa Mesa apartment on Sept. 14the same day the drone was foundafter investigators determined he was the one flying the drone. Police also found meth, cocaine, Xanax, fentanyl, heroin, and several rifles inside his apartment. Files found in his apartment also indicate that he allegedly used a false identity to rent the apartment and to buy a 2018 BMW. Police also found the drones controller. Smart was also determined to have a warrant for his arrest issued in Mendocino County, California, for felony weapons charges, and was previously convicted for a drug-sales related felony. The female inmate, Megan Elizabeth Donovan, 30, from Fountain Valley, is believed to have directed Smart on where to land the drone inside the jail. She also has a previous conviction for bringing drugs into a jail facility. (Courtesy of the Orange County Sheriffs Department) Both were charged with one felony count of smuggling controlled substances into a correctional facility and one felony count of conspiracy to commit a crime. Smart is also charged with 14 different felonies and misdemeanors for the drugs, guns, and fake identities found in his home. He faces up to 12 years in state prison and almost six years in Orange County jail if convicted on all charges. Donovan faces up to five years in jail on top of her current sentence. It is unclear how Smart and Donovan knew each other, or how investigators linked the drone back to Smart. The Custody Intelligence Unit is extremely proactive in intercepting narcotics attempting to come into our jails, Sheriff Don Barnes said in a statement. They have dropped an investigative strategy that includes locating the outside entities attempting to bring narcotics into our facilities, and this case is a great example of that work. We will continue to stay diligent in keeping those entrusted to our custody and care safe, and we will hold accountable those who attempt to threaten that safety. Orange County has seen a resurgence in drug traffic and the jails are no exception as criminals are becoming increasingly creative in their attempts to smuggle drugs into correctional facilities, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. Bringing drugs into a custodial setting is not only illegal, it puts the lives of inmates at risk and jeopardizes the safety of the deputies and other staff who work in those facilities. Thankfully the Sheriffs Custody Intelligence Unit was quickly able to identify and arrest the drone operator and his inmate conspirator so that they can be held accountable. Cuba Begins Administering Homegrown Vaccinations to Children as Young as Two Cuba announced on Sept. 13 that it will begin administering its own COVID-19 vaccinations to children as young as two, despite the vaccines having not yet been recognized by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The announcement was made through Cubas state-run media, and the country aims to inoculate at least 90 percent of the population, according to Voice of America. Around 38.7 percent of Cubas population is fully vaccinated, about 4.39 million people. Over 64 percent of the population has received at least one vaccination shot, according to government data. However, the communist country has seen an increase in the number of coronavirus infections in recent months, and has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the world. It recorded a record-high 268,259 new cases and 2,545 deaths in August alone, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre, which is tracking the pandemic. The number of coronavirus infections happening in Cuba in recent months in the pediatric population is alarming, said Health Minister Jose Angel Portal Miranda in an op-ed published in the official government news site Cubadebate earlier this month. Extremely worrying is the daily increase in the number of infants that tested positive for COVID-19. According to the health minister, there have been 117,500 minors diagnosed with COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. More than 7,660 of those infants were under one year of age. The health minister noted that throughout 2020, 58 children under the age of one were reportedly infected with COVID-19 but that this figure rose to 84 between Feb. 1 and 15, 2021. Miami Childrens Hospital pediatrician Dr. Amanda Porro, M.D administers a measles vaccination to Sophie Barquin,4, as her mother Gabrielle Barquin holds her during a visit to the Miami Childrens Hospital in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 28, 2015. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) He added that studies are still being conducted to determine how the virus impacts minors, but that research has shown that children under one may have a higher risk of becoming seriously ill with the virus compared to older children. The country said initial results showed the homegrown vaccines, Abdala and Soberana-2, are similar to some of the worlds top vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in reducing transmission rates, critical illness, and death. However, while both have been approved by local regulators relying on limited clinical data on the efficacy which was tested on 350 minors between the ages of 3 and 18, they have not yet undergone international peer-review, The Chronicle reports. Despite this, Cubas government is eager to get children back to school, as most Cuban homes do not have internet access and children have relied on learning through television programs since March 2020 when schools were closed, VOA notes. Children ages 218 will receive the Soberana-2 vaccine while adults will receive Abdala. Both vaccinations require two shots and a third booster shot. We have children dying, getting severe disease, said Dr. Vicente Verez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Institute, in a video conference organized by Harvards David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. We are vaccinating children so we are moving closer to the point there is community immunity established. Democrat Campaign Attorney Michael Sussmann Pleads Not Guilty After Durham Indictment A lawyer who worked for the Democratic National Committee who was charged with allegedly lying to the FBI when trying to present information that would damage then-candidate Donald Trump pleaded not guilty. Special prosecutor John Durham, who has spent the past two years investigating the origins of the FBIs probe into whether Trumps campaign coordinated with Russia, charged Michael Sussmann, who had worked with high-powered Washington-based law firm Perkins Coie on Democrat-backed election matters. Sussmann appeared in a Washington courtroom on Friday morning and entered his plea. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui released Sussmann on his own recognizance, setting his next court date on Sept. 22 before Washington District Court Judge Christopher Cooper. If convicted, he faces as many as five years in prison. A Durham-empaneled grand jury indicted Sussmann over his September 2016 meeting with former FBI General Counsel James Baker, who now works for Twitter. Sussmann passed along a claim alleging that there was a secret communications channel between a Russian bank and the Trump Organization. Durham alleged that Sussmann told Baker that he was not representing a specific client but was actually secretly representing Democrats, Clintons campaign, and an unnamed technology company executive. Court papers filed on Thursday against Sussmann argued that the lawyers allegedly false statement was material because he was in fact, allegedly working on behalf of specific clients. Sussmann stated falsely that he was not doing his work on the aforementioned allegations for any client, which led the FBI General Counsel to understand that Sussmann was acting as a good citizen merely passing along information, not as a paid advocate or political operative, the indictment read, adding that the alleged lie was intentionally false and misleading because, in assembling and conveying these allegations, Sussmann acted on behalf of specific clients, namely, a U.S. technology industry executive at a U.S. internet company, and the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign. Baker, during a previous Congressional hearing, said that Sussmann provided the information to him and at least one journalist. This came before the FBIs application for a FISA warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign aide. Perkins Coie, on behalf of the Democrats, also hired Fusion GPS, which then hired Christopher Steele to produce the Steele dossier that contained numerous discredited claims against the former president. Around the same time, news outlets like the New York Times and MSNBC repeatedly began to characterize Trump as a candidate who works on behalf of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. The FBI said it investigated the Russian bankTrump Organization claim and found no connections between the two. During his presidency, Trump often decried allegations his campaign was connected to Moscow as a long-running hoax and witch hunt designed to denigrate his presidency and reelection chances. On Thursday, Sussmanns lawyers denied any wrongdoing. Michael Sussmann was indicted today because of politics, not facts, Sussmann attorneys Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth said in a statement. The Special Counsel appears to be using this indictment to advance a conspiracy theory he has chosen not to actually charge. This case represents the opposite of everything the Department of Justice is supposed to stand for. Mr. Sussmann will fight this baseless and politically-inspired prosecution. And a spokesperson for Perkins Coie told news outlets that Sussmann said he would resign and focus on his legal defense. Perkins Coie hasnt yet responded to a request for comment. Dream of Luxury Vacation Home Ownership Morphing Into Nightmare for Some Local Neighbors in California For anyone who has ever dreamed of owning a multimillion-dollar vacation home in a luxury resort area in the United States or abroad, a San Francisco-based startup firm claims that its now possible to do soeven if youre not a multimillionaire. Pacaso, founded in 2020 by former Zillow executives Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff, offers the modern way to buy and own a second home. After identifying a home to purchase, Pacaso sets up an LLC to acquire the property, then sells eight equal shares of it to interested buyers. Each share ranges from $250,000 to $1,000,000 and above, plus monthly service fees. All homes are furnished and include linens, kitchen essentials such as dishes and cookware, paper products, and even basic toiletries. Owners can use an app to schedule their vacation time of up to 44 nights per year, with a maximum of 14 days per stay. Currently, Pacaso offers luxury homes in 25 top second-home U.S. destinations, including Napa, Sonoma, Tahoe, and Malibu, California; Aspen and Vail, Colorado; and Miami. But with a recent infusion of $125 million from investors such as SoftBank, Pacaso now has its eyes on properties in Spain, Mexico, and the Caribbean; as well as areas of interest in France, Italy, and the UK. While Pacasos website boasts that their new real estate model is enriching lives, Sonoma homeowners such as Nancy Gardner and her husband, Carl Sherrill, say its doing just the opposite to their neighborhood. We believe theyre nothing more than a glorified timeshare, Gardner said. You have eight owners and their family and friends coming and going in very short increments and theres a constant turnover of strangers in our neighborhood. The couple lives on a small cul-de-sac just outside the Sonoma city limits, and while many of the homes there are now selling for more than $1 million, they still refer to the area as a middle-class neighborhood. Weve been here over 30 years and prices have skyrocketed, but our homes are not luxury mansions, she said. Signs protesting Pacaso in a Sonoma, Calif. neighborhood. (Courtesy of Nancy Gardner and Carl Sherrill) In an attempt to deter any further Pacaso acquisitions, neighborhood groups in Sonoma, Napa, and St. Helena, California, have created a Change.org petition with more than 3,000 signatures to date. Theres also a Stop Pacaso Now website dedicated to discouraging Pacaso home purchases and accusing the company of turning established homes into virtual hotels. Some neighbors have even posted signs stating Pacaso Timeshares Not Welcome. Colin Tooze, vice president of public affairs and communications for Pacaso, argued that their business model is completely different from a timeshare. Pacaso helps people buy, own, and enjoy a true real estate asset, he said. Most timeshares, in contrast, sell the right to use a fixed amount of time in a condo or hotel shared by dozens of people. Pacaso brings together a small group of co-owners to purchase a single-family home. Tooze also noted that after one year of ownership, homeowners can sell their shares on the open real estate market. Because Pacaso buyers actually own a piece of real estate, theyre just like other area homeowners who take a great deal of pride in their properties. In many cases, theyve been dreaming of owning a second home for decades. These are families who are spending hundreds of thousands to over $1 million on their home, and who plan to return time and time again Tooze said. Its a much different mindset from that of a renter with no plans to return. Still, neighbors are concerned about their local quality of life. Theyre basically being allowed to operate without any regulations and pretty soon, theyre going to be everywhere, Sherrill said. Because Pacaso owners can gift their time to family and friends, neighbors have been complaining about large parties, noise, extra traffic, and subleasing for bridal showers or birthday parties. In one instance, someone was trying to rent it out as a yoga retreat, Sherrill said. According to Tooze, Pacaso owners arent permitted to rent out or sell time on vacation rental sites or other public rental listing services, and all guests must be registered. We also remind our owners that they have neighbors and to be respectful, he said. In addition, the company can suspend the stay rights of owners who violate the policies. Some opponents also believe Pacaso is overpaying for homes and artificially inflating local home prices. This is inaccurate and, as a buyer of real estate, paying an above-market price would not make sense, Tooze said. The housing market is extremely competitive, and multiple bids per property are the norm in many U.S. markets. Its not uncommon for Pacaso to be out-bid on homes. Addressing the question of who would spend so much money for a limited share of a home, Tooze reasoned that second-home owners typically use their properties only four to six weeks per year, leaving them to sit empty the remainder of the time. Were helping consumers align their investment to their actual needs, he said. Plus, co-owning a house with others allows families to purchase a luxury home that they couldnt otherwise afford. Pacaso typically buys homes for $3 million to $4 million. Sonoma homeowners Nancy Gardner and her husband, Carl Sherrill. (Courtesy of Nancy Gardner and Carl Sherrill) Since the purchase is considered a regular real estate transaction, buyers can work with banks, mortgage firms, or Pacaso itself to obtain financing. The firm also pays local real estate agents a 3 percent buyers agent commission. If I were a real estate agent, I would tell people this is a terrible investment, Gardner said. Theyre paying a huge amount of money for an eighth share of a home, and you dont even know who else will be living there. Pacaso has reached a $1.5 billion valuation, according to a recent company announcement. Almost 300 families have purchased one-eighth to one-half shares in the properties it manages, together valued at almost $200 million. However, the company still has some hurdles to climb. The City of St. Helena recently won the first round of a lawsuit brought by Pacaso, after the city deemed their business model as a timeshare, which is currently prohibited. Nancy and I are not opposed to vacation rentals, Sherrill said. Its just that these commercial type of operations dont belong in quiet residential neighborhoods. A representation of virtual currency bitcoin and small toy figures are placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken on Jan. 7, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) El Salvadors Adoption of Bitcoin Has Negative Implications for Rating: S&P Global S&P Global Ratings has warned that El Salvadors adoption of bitcoin as legal tender is burdened by risk and will have a negative impact the countrys credit rating. The risks associated with the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador seem to outweigh its potential benefits. There are immediate negative implications for credit, and wide usage of bitcoin is unlikely, S&P Global wrote in a tweet Friday. The largest of the Big Three rating agencies, S&P currently rates El Salvador at B- with a stable outlook. Competitor Moodys downgraded the Central American countrys rating to Caa1 in July, in part due to uncertainty around the International Monetary Funds (IMF) provision of a fresh round of financing to El Salvador after it adopted bitcoin as a legal currency, alongside the U.S. dollar. The negative outlook on the Caa1 rating reflects Moodys view that the fiscal position remains vulnerable and susceptible to financing shocks that could jeopardize the sovereigns repayment capacity ahead of the challenging redemption schedule on its external market debt beginning in January 2023, Moodys said. Limited availability of funding alternatives for the sovereign and uncertainty surrounding the possibility of fresh financing from the IMF suggest that the sovereign will continue to face liquidity pressures in future years despite the authorities willingness to enact measures to achieve further, gradual fiscal consolidation, the agency added. The potential for an IMF program for El Salvador is under discussion, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a news briefing on Thursday, adding that anti-corruption measures and fiscal responsibility are high on the agenda. Earlier this month, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, with the countrys President Nayib Bukele a major advocate of the move. The process of #Bitcoin in El Salvador has a learning curve. Every step toward the future is like this, and we will not achieve everything in a day, nor in a month. But we must break the paradigms of the past, Bukele wrote on Twitter on Sept. 7, the day the law making bitcoin legal tender went into effect. View of a store that accepts Bitcoin in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Sept. 1, 2021. (Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images) El Salvadors experiment of making bitcoin legal tender was marred on the day of adoption by minor technical glitches hampering its use, while street protests by mistrustful citizens broke out in the country. The IMF, which provided an emergency loan to El Salvador last year and is negotiating another round of lending, has expressed reluctance around the countrys adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. The most direct cost of widespread adoption of a crypto asset such as bitcoin is to macroeconomic stability, the IMF said in a blog post in late July. As national currency, crypto assetsincluding bitcoincome with substantial risks to macro-financial stability, financial integrity, consumer protection, and the environment. While the IMF praised the consideration of underlying technologies for the potential advantages they provide, such as around boosting financial inclusion, the agency urged caution. Governments, however, need to step up to provide these services, and leverage new digital forms of money while preserving stability, efficiency, equality, and environmental sustainability. Attempting to make cryptoassets a national currency is an inadvisable shortcut, the IMF said. Election Campaign Day 34: AUKUS Deal, Energy Sector, Defund CBC Bernie Sanders Endorses Singh and the NDP, while Hillary Clinton backs Trudeau With just a few days left before Canadians go to the polls, party leaders are doubling down on their efforts to promote their platforms and promises and make some last-minute headway. Liberals Campaigning in Windsor, Ont., on Sept. 17, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau sought to appeal to Ontarians by reaffirming his plan to mandate vaccination for travellers, while promising to support vaccine passports in provinces and territories, and support the hiring of extra nurses and nurse practitioners to clear health-care wait lists, among other promises. Trudeau was asked by a reporter if Canadas exclusion from AUKUS was because Canada had become irrelevant, as suggested by Conservative Leader Erin OToole. AUKUS is a new defence pact between the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, which was announced by the White House on Sept. 15. On the contrary, the work that weve been doing, as a strong member of the Five Eyes over the past number of years, has demonstrated the value that Canada has put forward in cybersecurity, in a strong member of NATO, in continuing to be a partner in defence of North America and in projection of our values around the world. Canadian soldiers have stepped up in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in North Africa, Trudeau replied. When asked if he is being weak on China, Trudeau didnt answer directly but said Canada has been a strong proponent for multilateralism, including pushing for an international agreement on arbitrary detentions. That obviously stems from the arbitrary detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, but that concerns all countries around the world that people will use arbitrary detentions of their citizens for personal gain, for political gain. Trudeau received the endorsement of former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Sept. 17, having been endorsed by former former president Barack Obama the previous day. Conservatives Conservative Leader Erin OToole reaffirmed his commitment to support Canadian workers should he be elected on Sept. 20. In a letter posted on Twitter on Sept. 17, OToole vowed to create one million jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. His party will introduce the Canada Job Surge Plan which pays up to 50 percent of the salary of net new hires for six months after the federal wage subsidy program ends. He stressed he would treat the energy sector as a key driver of the countrys economy, unlike the Liberals who want to phase out the sector and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of workers across Canada who depend on it. He also noted the shortage of skilled labour in the construction sector and pledged to invest $250 million to create a Canada Job Training Fund to give workers low-interest loans of up to $10,000 to upgrade their skills. In a campaign stop in London, Ont., on Sept. 17, OToole said he would work with all premiers when pressed on what he thinks about Alberta Premier Jason Kenneys approach to COVID-19 measures. On Sept. 15, Kenney announced a vaccine passport system for the province after promising not to, in an attempt to prevent rising COVID-19 cases. Let me say to Albertans and families even in southwestern Ontario, where we lost a young child, we will stand and fight COVID-19 alongside you. And if theres anything the provinces need, including a steady supply of vaccines, including leadership on rapid tests, I will be there as prime minister. I would never put my political interests ahead of the health of Canadians, OToole said. Peoples Party The Peoples Party of Canada (PPC) held a rally outside the headquarters of CBC News in downtown Toronto on Sept. 16, calling for an end to the national broadcasters state-funded propaganda. In his speech, PPC Leader Maxime Bernier talked about disappearing personal freedoms and the erosion of democracy since the pandemic. The mainstream media tries to describe us as anti-mask, anti-vaccine, Bernier told the crowd. Youre just here today because you know that its time to speak about what the people want, and the people in here, theyre ready to fight for their life. Theyre ready to fight for our democracy, and we want to have the freedom of choice. Were not anti-vaccine, were not anti-mask. Everyone must be able to decide what to do, if they want to have a vaccine or not, he added. Bernier condemned vaccine passports and stressed that we have science on our side. We know that we must learn to live with that virus. We know what to do to fight that virus, but its not with lockdowns and with vaccine passports, he said. We dont want to live in a socialist country, in a country where you have to show your papers to participate in civil society. We dont want that. NDP While campaigning in Sherbrooke, Quebec on Sept. 17, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh criticized the Liberals platform on climate change, accusing Trudeau of protecting big polluters over the past six years. Singh said his party will invest in renewable energy and electric transportation and support provinces and municipalities in addressing climate change. According to the NDPs fiscal plan, the party will spend $26 billion on climate change policies and training workers impacted by these changes to transit from the oil and gas sector. On the same day, Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Singh and the NDP. Green Party Speaking in Toronto on Sept. 17, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul stressed the need for political parties to put aside partisanship and work together to offer real solutions in real time. In her brief press conference, Paul spoke about issues confronting the country such as inadequate and unsafe housing, drug addiction and poisoning, deaths of seniors in long-term care during the pandemic, and climate change. A vial of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine placed on displayed EU flag is seen in this illustration picture taken on March 24, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters) EU Regulator Unable to Confirm If Women Face Increased Clot Risks After AstraZeneca Shot Europes drug regulator said on Friday that it could not confirm whether AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine has any influence on higher risks for unusual blood clots associated with low levels of blood platelets in women and younger adults. The European Medicine Agency (EMA) said in a statement it was requested by the European Commission to provide a scientific opinion following initial reports of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) linked to AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine, known as Vaxzevria. The evidence did not allow EMA to identify particular risk factors that make TTS more likely, the drug regulator said. Although spontaneous reports have suggested that the risk may be higher in women and in younger adults, and lower after the second compared to the first dose, the limitations of the way the data is collected mean that none of these differences could be confirmed. A committee that is responsible for elaborating EMAs opinions on all issues regarding medicinal products for human use also concluded a further analysis of whether delaying the second dose of Vaxzevria has any influence on the risk of TTS. There is no evidence that delaying the second dose has any influence on the risk of TTS, the committee said. The European health agency said it was reiterating that the second dose can be continued to be given between four and 12 weeks after the first. It also added that no definitive recommendations could be currently given on the use of a different vaccine for a second dose following a first with AstraZenecas shot. EMA said the study was based on all available data related to TTS, including from a database that is focused on collecting suspected adverse reactions to medicines that are authorized or being studied in clinical trials in the European Economic Area. AstraZenecas Vaxzevria is a two-shot vaccine developed along with the University of Oxford. The drug regulator first began looking into the adverse conditions in April after dozens of blood clotting cases, including deaths, were reported in people after receiving the shot. Adverse reactions that were possibly related to the jab prompted more than a dozen countries to pause the use of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year as a precaution while investigators looked into reported cases of blood clots among vaccinated people. Reuters contributed to this report. From NTD News Thousands of illegal immigrants gather near the international bridge after crossing the Rio Grande, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) FAA Imposes No-Fly Zone for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flying Over Texas Bridge Packed With Over 10,000 Illegal Aliens The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has imposed a no-fly zone for unmanned aircraft systems flying over a south Texas bridge after photos emerged showing thousands of illegal immigrants accumulating under it in recent days. Images captured by The Epoch Times this week showed thousands of illegal immigrants congregating under the Del Rio Bridge in south Texas as they waited to be processed by Border Patrol. Some 9,000 illegal immigrants, including Haitian, Cuban, and Venezuelan nationals, were in the area, Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez confirmed. The FAA issued the notice on Sept. 16 announcing that temporary flight restrictions were in place preventing all unmanned aircraft, such as drones, from flying over the area until Sept. 30, citing special security reasons. As per the notice, the Department of Defense (DOD), Homeland security (DHS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) may take action against anyone who does not comply with the temporary ban, including destruction of unmanned aircraft if it is deemed to post a credible safety or security threat. The ban prevents local and international media from capturing aerial footage and imagery showing conditions at the site. However, those with official airspace waivers as well as law enforcement and those flying over the area on disaster support missions are exempt. Thousands of illegal immigrants amass in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Border Patrol agents detain illegal immigrants who have just crossed into the United States from Mexico under the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 14, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) In a statement to Fox News, the FAA said the no-fly zone ban was imposed at the request of the U.S. Border Patrol but noted that media can make a request for an exemption. The Border Patrol requested the temporary flight restriction due to drones interfering with law enforcement flights on the border. As with any temporary flight restriction, media is able to call the FAA to make requests to operate in the area, the FAA said. It comes amid a surge of illegal immigrants trying to cross into the United States in recent months, which has left Border Patrol agents overwhelmed and struggling to process the sheer volume of people, particularly those who arrived in the area at the bridge. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings. Abbott also took aim at President Joe Bidens administration in its handling of the crisis, noting that it was in complete disarray and was dealing with the border situation as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan, Abbott said in a statement. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), is currently on the ground in Del Rio and has been sharing footage from the site. On Friday, he claimed there are currently 10,503 illegal aliens under the Del Rio International Bridge. This manmade disaster was caused by Joe Biden, he wrote on Twitter, adding that the number of migrants had increased tenfold after the White House recently decided to cancel deportations back to Haiti. Facts Matter (Sept. 16): Pfizer Says Vaccine Efficacy Weakens Over Time, Cites Study Which Shows 47% After 5 months In Florida, new dashcam footage shows two police officers being ambushed and attacked at a traffic stop. Miraculously, they both survived. However, this is not an isolated incident. According to the National Fraternal Order of Police, ambush-style attacks against the police have almost doubled this year. This reality has prompted the mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, to fight back against crime. She introduced a new bill that would allow the city of Chicago to file lawsuits against gang members. Meanwhile, Pfizer just released a new presentation, showing how the efficacy of their vaccine has decreased over time. Theyre making the case for why America needs to approve booster shots. Resources: Sekur (promo code: Roman): https://ept.ms/3yW0Wul Police Ambush Video: https://ept.ms/3Etlmy2 Ambush increase: https://ept.ms/3AnP19C Chicago: https://ept.ms/3hC4o6P Pfizer Presentation: https://ept.ms/3CgYEaL Pfizer Article: https://ept.ms/39auDNk Florida Fines: https://ept.ms/3hF2SRJ Israel 4th Booster: https://ept.ms/3nHxV38 Stay tuned for our newsletter so you wont miss out on our exclusive videos and private events. Facts Matter is an Epoch Times show available on YouTube. Follow Roman on Instagram: @epoch.times.roman Follow EpochTV on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus FDA Panel Votes Against Pfizers COVID Booster for Everyone, Recommends It for People 65 and Older The U.S. Food and Drug Administrations vaccine advisory panel on Friday voted 163 to recommend against providing booster shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for individuals aged 16 and older. The panel later voted to endorse the Pfizer booster for individuals who are aged 65 and older and for those who are at high risk. Throughout the meeting, independent scientists who advise the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) struck a skeptical tone on the need for boosters, or third doses, for Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for the general public. The advisory panels discussion is the first major test for the Biden administrations vaccination agenda as top health officials last month announced they would try to roll out boosters for everyone by Sept. 20. But for people aged 65 and older and those at high risk of occupational exposure, booster doses were recommended in an 180 vote. Its not clear when a final FDA decision could come on booster doses, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scheduled a meeting next week to distribute boosters around the United States. The Epoch Times has contacted the FDA for comment. We are not bound at FDA by your vote, just so you understand that. We can tweak this as need be, Dr. Peter Marks, the agencys top vaccine official, said after the votes were cast. In a statement following the vote, a White House spokesman said: Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19. We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week. While U.S. health officials, some other countries, and vaccine makers have argued that boosters are needed for everyone, many scientists, including some inside the FDA and the CDC, have disagreed. Booster doses have been previously recommended by the CDC for immunocompromised individuals. But an FDA slide said the risk of COVID-19 for a healthy 30-year-old is just 0.0004 percent, or 1 in 250,000, bolstering arguments against boosters being recommended for the general population. Some recommended a booster for older individuals but several experts said they want more data about whether the booster shots can contribute to myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation. Dr. James Hildreth, a voting member on the FDA expert panel, said that he [has] a serious concern of myocarditis in young people. The FDA previously issued warnings that, while rare, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, both of which are built on messenger RNA technology, could cause myocarditis or pericarditis among younger individuals. I honestly dont think there is enough good quality data at this point to make an informed decision, Brittany Kmush, an epidemiologist at Syracuse University, said of the Israeli study, noting the 12-day follow-up period and the variability of the authors estimates. Another FDA advisor, Dr. Melinda Wharton, meanwhile, echoed Hildreths concerns and said she would not feel comfortable with recommending boosters to younger people due to the risk of myocarditis. Younger people are not at risk of developing severe illness from COVID-19 or becoming severe breakthrough cases, she noted during the panel. Earlier this week, the FDA uploaded Pfizers arguments that cited studies in Israel and the United States suggesting that the COVID-19 vaccines efficacy drops over time and said that booster doses are necessary to deal with new variants of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19. Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters in White Oak, Md., on Aug. 29, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters) Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier in the vaccination campaigns compared to those who have been vaccinated more recently, Pfizer said during a presentation, uploaded to the FDA website. Israeli studies indicate that the observed decrease of vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 infections is primarily due to waning of vaccine immune responses over time rather than a result of the Delta variant escaping vaccine protection, Pfizers presentation said. But in response to the Pfizer data, FDA researchers said hours later the initial vaccine doses are sufficient and suggested that boosters may not be needed now. An analysis by Israeli scientists published on Wednesday found that among 1.1 million people aged 60 or older who had been fully vaccinated at least five months earlier, those who received a booster were less likely to be infected or become severely ill than those who did not get the third shot. The pharmaceutical giant concluded that its vaccine efficacy wanes over time, and a third dose of its mRNA shot works to boost it. They argued that 1.8 million more severe cases of COVID-19 would occur in the United States in 2021 without a booster dose for the general population. But in a study published by The Lancet on Sept. 13, two senior FDA vaccine reviewers who are expected to leave the agency soon and more than a dozen top researchers argued that booster shots arent needed for the general population. They argued that potential side-effects from the extra doses could outweigh the benefits, stating that such a phenomenon would actually increase vaccine hesitance. The two FDA officials involved in the research, Marion Gruber and Phil Krause, submitted their resignations last month, officials confirmed. Current evidence does not appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high, their study reads. Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations. Those researchers also expressed concern that the boosters may cause more side-effects for individuals, which would increase the hesitancy of unvaccinated individuals in getting the vaccinenot just the booster. As of Friday midday trading, shares of Moderna Inc. and BioNTech plunged by around 4.93 percent and 4.91 percent, respectively. Reuters contributed to this report. Film Review: Interview With the Antichrist 1h 40min | Drama | 2020 Faith-based films havent always been up to snuff when it comes to their level of quality. But that has changed in recent yearsdue in no small part to faith-based filmmakers such as director Timothy A. Chey (Suing the Devil, 2011, Final: The Rapture, 2013). His latest film (based on a highly rated book of the same titleauthored by Jeff Kinley), Interview With the Antichrist, is perhaps his most jaw-dropping film project to date, with a veritable plethora of wisdom and reality-bending scenes. The film revolves around a live broadcast of an interview with the Antichrist (played by Ego Mikitas) that is being watched by an estimated 2 billion people. Its End Times were talking hereright after the Raptureand death, destruction, and chaos are erupting all around the globe. Interview With the Antichrist. (VGC Studios) The interviewer, Alex Carter (Aaron Groben, About Hope, 2020, Tawk with Awkwafina, 2014) has the opportunity to ask a wide array of questions to his diabolical guest, many of which are tied to recent disasters, including 1999s Columbine shooting (which happened at the high school in Littleton, Colorado), 9/11, (the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks carried out by 19 members of an Islamic extremist group from Saudi Arabia), and the tens of millions of people killed and disappeared under the brutal reign of various communist countries and their constituent dictators. As these questions are addressed by the Antichristdressed to kill (pun intended) in a dapper black suit and perfectly ironed paisley tiewe get to learn how they all tie together and relate to the unfolding calamities that are happening all over the world. As the interview is conducted, ominous sounds can be heard in the background that make Carter squirm in his chair. Meanwhile, people around the world, from San Francisco to Oslo, sit or stand glued to whatever screen theyre watching the globally broadcast interview on. The Antichrist (Ego Mikitas (L)), is interviewed by Alex Carter (Aaron Groben), in Interview with the Antichrist. (VGC Studios) In one telling scene, Carter touches on what he refers to as the politically correct church, and the Antichrist talks about how these institutions view the Bible as little more than self-help therapy. New Release: Interview with the Antichrist | Feature Film Some of the more timely tidbits of wisdom are about how millions of people watch too much TV, which is full of fear-based programming. For instance, the Antichrist explains how the traditional media news outlets are committed to showing reports that reinforce fear and tragedy, instead of anything remotely hopeful or inspiring (besides a few inconsequential fluff pieces here and there). He explains that these gloomy networks use fear-driven subjects in order to get more clicks since more clicks earn them more money. Of course, all of this fear-based subject matter also distracts people from whats really going on behind the scenesthe crucial issues that should be openly discussed and investigated. The Antichrist is very straight up and he reveals that The Great Tribulation is fast approachingit can happen any day now. For those who arent that familiar with the Holy Bible, The Great Tribulation is a seven-year period of time when Lord Jesus Christ will carry out two major facets of His plan. The first of these is where He will complete His discipline of the nation Israel, and the second involves Him judging the godless unbelievers of our world. Rarely do I use the term must-see, but Im making an exception for this exceptional moviea film with an intriguing plot, interesting characters, riveting subject matter, and lots of wisdom to dispense. Mr. Chey also constructs the film in a fashion that makes it highly informative without coming across as preachy or overly moralistic. Alex Carter (Aaron Groben) ponders some of his recent life choices, in Interview with the Antichrist. (VGC Studios) As the films website states: THIS IS A MUST-SEE FILM. Show this to your Bible study group, unsaved family members, fellow workersthis film is winning many to Christ and drawing the luke-warm Christian closer to God before the Rapture strikeswhich could be any day now. Id even go further in saying that even if you arent a Christian, there is some powerful information here that anyone can benefit from, and the film carries an ultimately uplifting message of hope, renewed faith, and everlasting life. Interview With the Antichrist is available to watch on Epoch Cinemavisit the link here. Interview With the Antichrist Director: Timothy A. Chey Starring: Ego Mikitas, Aaron Groben, Brian J. Ames Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes Release Date: Dec. 7, 2020 (USA Pre-Release VOD) Rated: 5 stars out of 5 Follow EpochTV on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A healthcare worker prepares a syringe with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in New York City on Jan. 29, 2021. (Mike Segar/Reuters) First Batch of Moderna Doses to Arrive in Sydney Friday Night The first batch of one million Moderna vaccine doses will arrive in Sydney on Friday night, followed by a second shipment due on the weekend, before being distributed to states and territories next week. Health Minister Greg Hunt said 1,800 pharmacies will begin to administer Moderna vaccines to people from next week while 4,500 GPs would be involved from the following week. Workplace vaccination programs will also administer Moderna although they are primarily expected to use Pfizer. These are very important because they simply provide not only more vaccines, but more points of access for Australians everywhere, the health minister told reporters on Friday. There is sufficient vaccine for every Australian before the end of October, if not slightly earlier. The Therapeutic Goods Administration will test each batch as they arrive, with Hunt noting that more supply is due in the weeks ahead. Australia has an agreement for 25 million Moderna doses including 10 million of the current vaccines and 15 million booster shots. It will be primarily available in pharmacies across Australia with all people aged 12 to 59 eligible for the two-dose course. A gap of four to six weeks between doses is recommended. Like Pfizer, Moderna is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine that uses a genetic code called RNA to instruct the body to produce the novel coronavirus specific spike protein. Once the mRNA enters the bodys cells, the cells use the instructions contained in the RNA to make the spike protein. Immune cells then recognise the spike protein as foreign and begin building an immune response against it, the Australian Health Department noted. In the statement, Moderna said it would continue to follow participants for two years and collect additional data including longer-term safety follow-up, duration of protection against COVID-19, and efficacy against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Australia has now passed the threshold of 70 percent of eligible adults who have received their first vaccine dose, according to the health minister. The countrys pathway to reopening includes achieving 70-80 percent full vaccination in order to open up and remove restrictions on liberties. As of Friday afternoon, 50.6 percent of the population over 16 have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 81.2 percent have received their first dose, according to 7News. AAP contributed to this report. Vials containing doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are viewed at a clinic in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 9, 2021. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Florida Landlord Says Hell Evict People Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccine A Florida landlord who owns eight apartment complexes has told his tenants that they need to get the COVID-19 vaccine or face eviction. Santiago A. Alvarez, 80, who owns properties in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, told new tenants and his employees that they had to show proof of vaccination by Aug. 15, while existing tenants need to provide proof of vaccination before their leases are renewed. He confirmed the directive to the Washington Post on Sept. 15. You dont want to get vaccinated? You have to move, Alvarez told the Post. And if you dont move, one must move forward with eviction. He then added: Its a lack of consideration for your neighbor, its a lack of consideration to their own families, to their children. His attorney, Juan C. Zorrilla, claimed that the directive isnt violating Gov. Ron DeSantiss order barring the usage of vaccine passports in the state. Tenants, he argued, are not patrons or customers and Alvarez isnt providing them with a service. The lawyer also said that Alvarez is willing to make exceptions for people who choose not to get the vaccine for religious or medical reasons. However, a spokesperson for DeSantiss office, Christina Pushaw, said that Alvarez is indeed violating state law with the rule. The landlord, she told the Post, cant require vaccine passports as a condition of entry or service and said that the law is very clear. This week, as the law goes into effect, the state Department of Health will issue $5,000 fines to businesses, government offices, and schools that mandate proof of COVID-19 vaccination, Pushaw added. Florida law is clear. A business owner cannot require vaccine passports as a condition of entry. Each violation of the law will result in a $5000 fine, Pushaw told Breitbart News on Thursday. As Governor DeSantis said, nobody should lose their job over these unscientific and overreaching vaccine mandates. The same goes for housing; nobody should be denied a roof over their head because of a personal medical decision, she continued. Some tenants in Alvarezs building said they were appalled by the vaccine directive. No one wants to live anywhere where they are not wanted. If thats the case, then I might as well get out, Jasmine Irby, a security guard, told the Post. It was just best that I walked away. Irby said she filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services so she could renew her lease without having to disclose private health information to her landlord. Florida Seeking Monoclonal Supplies From GlaxoSmithKline DeSantis spokesperson says they hope they can 'fill the deficit' Following the Biden administrations surprise announcement that Health and Human Services (HHS) is taking over the distribution of monoclonal antibody infusion treatments for COVID-19reducing the number of doses in several red states by 50 percenta spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he has reached out to GlaxoSmithKline to fill the deficit. Some states are set to receive fewer doses of monoclonal antibody treatments after the Biden administration switched the distribution system this week. Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee are among the states targeted to have their monoclonal antibody (mAb) doses restricted by HHS. HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis, a Health and Human Services spokesman said. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much. This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the countryproviding states and territories with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks. Noting that there have been no reported shortages of the treatment, Bidens press secretary Jen Psaki was asked why the government feels its necessary to reduce doses to states like Florida, which has a greater need. Psaki reiterated the standard of equity as the reason for taking over distribution. Our supply is not unlimited, Psaki insisted, and we believe it should be equitable across states across the country. The Biden administration did not give the Florida Department of Health or health care providers in Florida any notice or time to prepare for this immediate deficit, Christina Pushaw, press secretary for the Executive Office of DeSantis told The Epoch Times. There is no evidence of a national shortage of monoclonal antibody treatments, and no apparent justification for rationing. The excuse given by the Biden administration was equity. Governor DeSantis spoke with GlaxoSmithKline leadership yesterday afternoon. GSK makes their own version of monoclonals that works just as well if not better than Regeneron. The Feds havent bought GSK supply, only Regeneron and Eli Lilly. The Biden administration and their allies in media have claimed that Florida is using too much monoclonal treatment because of a low vaccination rate, Pushaw said further, and Biden has lashed out at Governor DeSantis for opposing the tyrannical federal vaccine mandate. But Florida has a higher than average vaccination rate compared to other states. More than half the patients at some of the state monoclonal sites in Florida are fully vaccinated. They still need monoclonal antibody treatment to avoid hospitalization and death, especially if they are in high-risk groups. At a press conference in Broward County on Thursday, DeSantis said: We are very, very concerned with the Biden administration and the HHSs recent abrupt sudden announcement that they are going to dramatically cut the number of monoclonal antibodies that are going to be sent to the state of Florida. Just last week on Sept. 9, President Joe Biden said that his administration would be increasing shipments of monoclonal antibodies in September by 50 percent, and yet on Sept. 13, HHS announced that it was seizing control of the monoclonal antibody supply and that it would control distribution. And then on Sept. 14, the announcement was more than 50 percent of the monoclonal antibodies that had been used in Florida were going to be reduced. Pushaw said HHS officials told states earlier this month that they would more closely scrutinize how many of the treatments were actually being used but that the department was not going to throttle the state supplies. Timeline of Biden Administration Throttling Monoclonal Distribution August 29: Florida was informed that if it agreed to switch to the dose pack distribution, the state could receive 25,000 dose packs (50,000 doses) weekly for three weeks, through Sept. 19. The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) agreed to receive the dose packs and vendors accepted delivery the following week. To date, Florida has yet to receive 50,000 doses per week. September 3: Health and Human Services (HHS) released the update on the mAb ordering process, indicating that orders would be reviewed to ensure 70 percent utilization rates. All state sites in Florida meet that threshold. Therefore, the state had no reason to believe that the states supply would be cut and there was no prior indication of the pending cut from HHS. September 9: Biden announced his Path Out of the Pandemic: a six-pronged, comprehensive national strategy to combat COVID-19. The administration will increase the average weekly pace of shipments of free monoclonal antibody treatment to states by a further 50 percent in September, continuing to accelerate the federal governments efforts to deliver lifesaving COVID-19 treatment, the plan stated. September 13: HHS announced the federal government is taking over distribution for all sites. Amounts for each state will be determined by HHS. FDOH communicated to HHS the weekly need for just the 25 state-run sites of about 36,000 doses. When HHS mentioned the state receiving the order for all state sites and distributing, FDOH specifically asked if such a shift would apply to all facilities in the state providing treatment. HHS stated this was not the case and did not provide any indication of any upcoming limitation to supply, just that they were monitoring more closely. September 14: HHS sent an email to all stakeholders nationwide indicating that a shift to an allocation strategy had occurred on Sept. 13. HHS informed that Floridas allocation for the week of Sept. 13 would be 3,100 doses of BAM/ETE and 27,850 doses of REGN-COV (two forms of antibody treatments). This was the first and only indication that Florida would receive a decreased supply and would be responsible for allocating among all facilities, contradicting recent and previous guidance from HHS, Pushaw said. Plans By The Numbers DeSantis Plan: Since DeSantis opened the first state-supported monoclonal treatment site in Jacksonville in mid-August, there have been: 25 state-run monoclonal treatment sites Over 90,000 treatments provided so far at the state sites (this number doesnt count the tens of thousands of treatments given by other providers in Florida, such as hospitals and clinics) 50 percent decrease in hospital admissions since the last peak 24 consecutive days decline in hospital census Lowest number of COVID-like illness (CLI) visits to the ER reported in almost two months (CLI is a leading indicator for COVID surges). Biden Plan: Allocation from HHS as of 9/14: Approximately 30,950 total mAb doses. Average demand statewide: Approximately 72,000 doses per week (state sites + all other providers in Florida). Projected Deficit: 41,050 I hope we will be able to get GSK shipments to Florida to fill the deficit, Pushaw said. As you can see its a large deficit. Florida has the biggest deficit but Alabama is actually in the worst shape, Pushaw added. They dont have any state treatment sites like we do. Asked if the move to control the flow on monoclonal antibodies was an effort to punish states with governors that would not comply with his mandates, Pushaw replied, Its hard not to see this as the Biden admin punishing certain states for political reasons. I dont know that for sure and I hope its not true, but it looks bad, especially with HHS refusing to give any explanation, beyond their public statement about equity, for how the weekly delivery amounts were rationed for each state. A GSK spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email that the company is committed to ensuring patients have access to sotrovimab and we are currently working to make it available through existing commercial channels. The treatment costs $2,100, around the same cost as the Eli Lilly and Regeron shots. But if a state is going directly to GSK, it would have to foot the cost, as opposed to receiving it for free from the federal government. GSK is committed to ensuring sotrovimab is made available to patients with the intent that all appropriate patients will have access to it, with little to no out-of-pocket cost, the GSK spokeswoman said. Medicare, Medicaid, and uninsured patients have access [to] COVID treatments at no cost during the pandemic. Should a patient with a commercial plan have an out-of-pocket cost associated with sotrovimab, GSK has a patient co-pay program to reimburse eligible patients for out-of-pocket costs incurred for sotrovimab. Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. A Regeneron monoclonal antibody infusion bag is seen during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla, on Aug. 19, 2021. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) Floridas Monoclonal Antibody Treatments at Over 90,000 Despite HHS Efforts to Limit Supply PUNTA GORDA, Fla.More than 90,000 people in Florida have now received monoclonal antibody treatments across 25 state-sponsored sites. However, a disruption in services is looming due to the Biden administration giving control of distribution to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Floridas supply will be cut in half, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Sept. 16. The governor said he was surprised at the HHSs abrupt and sudden announcement that it would be taking control of distribution. He said this took him by surprise because a week prior, on Sept. 9, the Biden administration said they were increasing monoclonal antibody distribution by 50 percent. Now the HHS, as of Sept. 13, seized control of the treatments, the governor said, adding that earlier in the week he received official word that Floridas shipments of the monoclonals would be reduced by 50 percent. Before, providers and infusion centers, as well as the state of Florida, would simply call AmerisourceBergen, a third-party affiliate of Regeneron, which makes the monoclonal antibodies treatment, and request whatever amount was needed. DeSantis said this new method will make it doubly difficult for hospitals and other providers because they will now have to go through the state to get their treatments. They sprung this on us, DeSantis said at the Sept. 16 press conference. They pulled the rug out from under us. The new ordering process, DeSantis said, would be a disruption for in-patient services, and he worries that patients will needlessly suffer. But he vowed that the state would overcome any obstacles that HHS and the Biden administration put on them. We will fight like hell to get these patients the treatment they need, he said. We have a responsibility to be there for them, and thats what we are going to do. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the opening of a monoclonal antibody site in Pembroke Pines, Fla., on Aug. 18, 2021. (Marta Lavandier/AP Photo) HHS two weeks ago stealthily changed its website and began making it more difficult for states like Florida, which has used the monoclonal antibodies treatments as a way to reduce hospital admissions from COVID-19. A Texas doctor sounded the alarm that HHS was taking over the distribution of the monoclonals, as was reported by The Epoch Times on Sept. 8. The system was changed on Sept. 13 from direct ordering to an allocation model. Im very concerned about the Biden administration, DeSantis said at the press conference, adding that the new ordering protocol will result in a huge disruption to services. An HHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the transition to a model that was in place from November 2020 to February gives health departments maximum flexibility to get mAbs where they are needed most. HHS will now determine the weekly amount of mAb products each state and territory receives based on criteria applied equally across all jurisdictions. This criteria includes COVID-19 case burden and mAb utilization. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify which sites in their respective jurisdictions receive product as well as the amount each site receives, the spokesperson said. DeSantis said he is being proactive and has been in communication with GlaxoSmithKline, another maker of monoclonal antibodies treatment. He said he was looking into expanding beyond Regeneron and contracting with another supplier in order to make up for any shortage that could occur under the new HHS distribution plan. He said the results of the monoclonal antibodies are positive and that there have been 24 consecutive days in the decline of the COVID hospital census statewide. The governor said hes pleased with the trends that are occurring and credits the vaccine and the monoclonals for the reduction in hospitalization rates. Florida hospital admission rates have decreased by 50 percent. A man enters a Regeneron Clinic at a monoclonal antibody treatment site in Pembroke Pines, Florida, on Aug. 19, 2021. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images) However, Sen. Marco Rubio took to Twitter and blasted the Biden administration for the new policy. Rubio thinks the cut in monoclonal antibodies to Florida is because the state is not handling vaccines and not forcing people to do it. This is ridiculous. This is outrageous, Rubio said in a video on Twitter. People see it for what it is. These people are completely out of control. This stuff needs to stop. These people are bordering on tyranny. On Sept. 16, Christina Pushaw, press secretary for DeSantis, said that Florida clinics and private providers have been ordering about 72,000 doses of monoclonal antibody treatment per week; about 36,000 doses are required weekly to supply the 25 state-sponsored sites. The HHS website calculated that, nationally, a little over 158,500 doses were available this week. HHS reports that nearly 31,000 are allocated to Florida. Rubio said he thinks the Biden administration is creating a shortage for the purposes of rationing the drug. There is not a shortage, Rubio said on Twitter. But theyve decided theyre going to start rationing it. Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. French President Emmanuel Macron gives a press conference on the second day of a EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium June 25, 2021. Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via REUTERS France Recalls Ambassador to US Over Submarine Deal France on Friday recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia after President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a joint submarine deal that French leaders said was tantamount to a stab in the back. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was directed by President Emmanuel Macron to recall the ambassadorsa move that is typically reserved only for extreme cases and usually against adversariesin protest of the deal. Le Drian and others have argued that neither the United States, nor Australia consulted with France beforehand. At the request of the President of the Republic, I have decided to immediately recall our two ambassadors to the United States and Australia to Paris for consultations, Le Drian said. This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcements made on 15 September by Australia and the United States. Canberra announced earlier this week that it would scrap a deal worth tens of billions of dollars with France to instead use nuclear submarine technology built by the United States and United Kingdom. American officials later said they informed Paris just hours before Bidens announcement of the deal on Wednesday. For that, Le Drian slammed the alleged unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners, the consequences of which affect the very conception that we have of our alliances, our partnerships and the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. Macron, who hasnt made public comments on the deal, received a letter from Morrison on Wednesday morning announcing the cancellation of their deal, Le Drian said on Friday. French officials then attempted to contact the White House to ascertain the situation, he said. Britains Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Australias Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US President Joe Biden at a joint press conference via AVL from The Blue Room at Parliament, in Canberra, Australia, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image) Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week tried to control the damage by praising France as a crucial ally in the Indo-Pacific but no to avail. It was really a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed, Le Drian said in a sharply worded statement on Thursday, comparing Bidens announcement to statements previously made by former President Donald Trump during his tenure in office. This is not done between allies. Brian Aggeler, the acting American ambassador in Paris, was called to the Foreign Ministry office in Paris on Friday, according to reports. He was informed that French Ambassador to the U.S. Philippe Etienne was returning back to France indefinitely. Its not clear if France will recall its ambassador to the UK. On Thursday, the French Embassy in Washington canceled its gala to celebrate the longstanding French-American alliance, which stretches back to the Revolutionary War in the late 18th century. The Epoch Times has contacted the Biden administration for comment. Spokespersons for the White House and Australias government havent made a public statement on the withdrawal of the French ambassadors. In March, Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States after Biden said in an interview that he agreed that President Vladimir Putin is a killer and claimed the Russian leader would pay a price for alleged election interference last year. The United States also hit several Russian entities with sanctions over the alleged interference as well as hacking campaigns that targeted American interests. The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny's Smart Voting app is seen on a phone, in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters) Google, Apple Accused of Political Censorship After Removing Voting App as Russian Polls Open Apple and Google removed a tactical voting app from its online store on Friday that was linked to Kremlin critic and jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny as polls opened across Russia for three days of voting in a parliamentary election. The move was prompted after Russian authorities put pressure on the U.S. tech giants to remove the app from their stores, saying a refusal to do so would be treated as meddling in its parliamentary election while also threatening the companies with fines. The app is part of the Smart Voting project, which was created by a team of Navalny supporters. It was designed to organize a tactical voting campaign to channel opposition votes to United RussiaPresident Vladimir Putins ruling political party. Ivan Zhdanov, an ally of Navalny, said on social media that the move by Apple and Google to remove the app is shameful and amounts to political censorship. Removing the Navalny app from stores is a shameful act of political censorship, Zhdanov wrote on Twitter. Russias authoritarian government and propaganda will be thrilled. Both companies have not immediately responded to a request for comment, although Zhdanov linked a statement on Friday that appears to be from Apple, saying the app was removed from its store because it is illegal in Russia. Removing the Navalny app from stores is a shameful act of political censorship. Russias authoritarian government and propaganda will be thrilled.@google @Apple Ivan Zhdanov (@ioannZH) September 17, 2021 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the presidential administration definitely, of course welcomes the companies decision to remove the app, as it comes in compliance with Russian laws. Peskov said that the app was outside the law in Russia. The parliamentary election this weekend is widely seen as an important part of Putins efforts to cement his grip on power ahead of the 2024 presidential election, for which control of the parliament is key. Earlier this month, Russian authorities also blocked access to the Smart Voting website, which aims to identify candidates who are in the strongest position in the Sept. 19 election in order to channel opposition votes, although some internet users can still access it. In an Instagram post earlier this month, Navalnys team said that the move to block the Smart Voting website shows that Russian authorities are panicking and afraid. Navalny, meanwhile, published a step-by-step guide on his Instagram Stories, detailing how supporters could attempt to bypass the block. Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny takes part in a rally to mark the 5th anniversary of opposition politician Boris Nemtsovs murder and to protest against proposed amendments to the countrys constitution, in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 29, 2020. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters) In June, the Moscow City Court outlawed Navalnys Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of his regional offices as extremist organizations. The ruling barred people associated with the groups from seeking public office and exposed them to lengthy prison terms. Navalny, Putins most determined political challenger, was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlinaccusations that Russian officials reject. He was handed a 2 1/2-year prison sentence in February for violating terms of a suspended sentence stemming from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that he denounced as politically driven. Putin, 68, has been in powereither as president or prime ministerfor more than two decades. He pushed through constitutional changes last year that enable him to run again in 2024 when his current six-year term ends. The changes would allow him to potentially hold onto power until 2036. Putin earlier this year signed legislation barring members of groups deemed extremist, including allies of Navalny, from running for office. The move, critics say, was designed to stamp out opposition to United Russia. The Kremlin denies the crackdown is political. Isabel van Brugen and The Associated Press contributed to this report. From NTD News The P4 laboratory (L) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 27, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) GOP Senators Demand NIH Provide Answers on Deletion Of COVID-19 Data A group of Republican senators on Thursday again demanded that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide answers to reports that vital COVID-19 data was deleted from a key government database at the request of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official. In a follow-up letter (pdf) to NIH Director Francis Collins, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Roger Marshall of Kansas, called on the federal medical research agency to answer questions that they say may shed light on data relating to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and NIHs COVID-19 data retention policies. The lawmakers in their initial letter in June cited a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article that reported that Chinese researchers directed the NIH to delete gene sequences of early COVID-19 cases from a key scientific database, called the NIH Sequence Read Archive. The WSJ article reported that the deleted data includes COVID-19 genomic sequences from viral samples collected in Wuhan in January and February 2020 from hospital patients. The first cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, were reported in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. At the time, the senators asked 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. On Sept. 8, Collins said, in a reply to the senators, that a review was underway to determine whether appropriate steps were taken to assess this withdrawal request. [O]n June 28, 2021, we wrote to you requesting answers to seven questions pertaining to the NIHs role and responsibility with respect to the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) relating to COVID-19 data, the Republican senators wrote in their letter on Thursday. The NIHs Sept. 8 response failed to fully and completely answer all seven questions and failed to provide the requested records, they wrote. As we have made clear to you, Congress has a constitutional responsibility to engage in oversight of the executive branch and the executive branch has an obligation to Congress and the American people to substantively respond, the senators continued. They said that they are reposing the unanswered questions from their June letter, adding that if the NIH is unable to respond to each question and provide the requested records, the agency must explain why that is the case. The Republican senators are also requesting the results of an independent probe conducted within the NIH over the issue, and that the agency reveal how many researchers and other personnel linked to the CCP have requested that data be deleted from the NIH Sequence Read Archive in the past five years. With more than 650,000 American lives lost and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent to support the American people, businesses, and the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, the public deserves to know what their government knows about the origins of this global illness and the research data that it possesses, a statement from Grassleys office said. The Epoch Times has contacted the NIH for comment. Mark Tapscott contributed to this report. Sir Clive Sinclair, founder and chairman of Sinclair Research, at the launch of the Sinclair 2-inch pocket television, in a file photo on Oct. 16, 1983. (PA Images) Home Computer Pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair Dies Aged 81 Home computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair has died at the age of 81. His daughter Belinda Sinclair told the Guardian that the pocket calculator trailblazer and the brains behind the Spectrum home computer died at his home in London on Thursday morning. Sir Clive Sinclair launched the first affordable consumer computer in 1980, costing less than 100 ($138). The multimillionaire entrepreneurs company launched the ZX models in a decade when personal computer use boomed. Sinclair became the first company in the world to sell more than a million computers, making Sir Clives surname a household word. Belinda Sinclair told the BBC that her father had cancer for more than a decade and was still working on inventions up until last week because that was what he loved doing. He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure; it was his passion, she told the broadcaster. Sir Clive Sinclair demonstrating his C5 electric vehicle, the battery-come-pedal powered trike, at Alexandra Palace, in a file photo on Jan. 10, 1985. (PA Images Business mogul Lord Sugar paid tribute to his good friend and competitor on Twitter, writing, What a guy he kicked started consumer electronics in the UK with his amplifier kits then calculators, watches mini TV and of course the Sinclair ZX. Not to forget his quirky electric car. R.I.P Friend. Others used Twitter to share their memories of Sir Clives computer creations. Broadcaster Professor Brian Cox said, The ZX81 was my introduction to computing and I loved it! Started out with a 1k version and eventually saved up for a 16k ram packthank you Clive! Tesla CEO Elon Musk, commenting on a tweeted article calling Sir Clive the father of the ZX Spectrum, wrote, RIP, Sir Sinclair. I loved that computer. TV presenter James May wrote on Twitter, At least Clive Sinclair lived long enough to see that he was right about many things. Speaking to the Guardian, Ms. Sinclair said: It was the ideas, the challenge, that he found exciting. Hed come up with an idea and say, Theres no point in asking if someone wants it, because they cant imagine it. A man of diverse interests, Sir Clives projects also saw him explore new technology in the worlds of television and cars. One ill-fated initiative was the Sinclair C5 vehicle, an electric tricycle heralded as the future of eco-friendly transport but which turned out to be an expensive flop. Born in 1940, Sir Clive left school at the age of 17, becoming a technical journalist writing specialist manuals. Aged 22, he formed Sinclair Radionics, his first company, making mail order radio kits, including the smallest transistor radio in the world. Later in life he pioneered the pocket calculator and was dubbed an electronics wizard. Other ventures included expansions into digital watches and the development of the worlds smallest television set. It was with another company, Sinclair Research, that Sir Clive found his home computing successes as he faced off against international competition. The ZX81 computer launched in 1981 sold half a million and was followed up by more powerful models. Film director Edgar Wright also paid tribute to Sir Clives computing achievements on Twitter. He wrote: For someone whose first glimpses of a brave new world were the terrifying graphics of 3D Monster Maze on the ZX81, Id like to salute tech pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair. He made 21st Century dreams feel possible. Will bash away on the rubber keys of a Spectrum in your honour. RIP. Tom Watson, former deputy leader of the Labour Party, wrote: This man changed the course of my life. And arguably, the digital age for us in the UK started with the Sinclair ZX80, when thousands of kids learnt to code using 1k of RAM. For us, the Spectrum was like a Rolls Royce with 48k. Sir Clive was knighted in the birthday honours in 1983. His daughter told the BBC that he was a devoted grandfather to her three children who had helped care for him in recent years. Idaho Rations Medical Care Statewide Amid COVID-19 Surge A surge in cases of COVID-19 in the state of Idaho has prompted officials to activate a system for rationing health care statewide in hopes it will ease pressure on overwhelmed hospitals. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on Thursday morning announced the rollout of the system, titled Crisis Standards of Care, which officials say will allow hospitals to prioritize patients who are otherwise healthy and therefore more likely to recover from COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Someone who is otherwise healthy and would recover more rapidly may get treated or have access to a ventilator before someone who is not likely to recover, it said in a statement. A day earlier, St. Lukes Health System, the states largest hospital network, had urged Idaho health leaders to allow crisis standards of care, citing the states strained medical resources as CCP virus cases spike. That would mean that patients most likely to survive will be prioritized for medical resources that are scarce, such as intensive care unit (ICU) beds. The situation is direwe dont have enough resources to adequately treat the patients in our hospitals, whether you are there for COVID-19 or a heart attack or because of a car accident, Idaho Department of Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said in a statement. Jeppesen urged residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and to wear face masks in crowded outdoor settings and indoors. Our hospitals and healthcare systems need our help. The best way to end crisis standards of care is for more people to get vaccinated. It dramatically reduces your chances of having to go to the hospital if you do get sick from COVID-19, he added. Roughly 40 percent of Idaho residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, making it one of the least vaccinated states nationwide. Meanwhile, hospitalizations are on the rise with 678 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, compared to approximately 170 at the beginning of August. The system had been rolled out earlier in northern parts of Idaho, but Thursdays move comes as the impact of the spike is being felt statewide. Public health officials said that some hospitals may not need to ration health care resources and that it will be up to each hospital to decide how to implement the system. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Army General Mark Milley, right, hold a press briefing about the US military drawdown in Afghanistan, at the Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 1, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) The Ongoing Trump Derangement Syndrome Commentary The disease in its pandemic form is far from over. Our former hopes of its eradication and a return to normalcy in the new year now appear forlorn. We shall just have to live with it for the forseeable future, it seems. The president, its true, has told us that, although the virus has been hitting this country hard, we have the tools to combat the virus, if we can come together as a country and use those tools. But he was only talking about the coronavirus and not the much-less controllable but equally virulent virus causing Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) on a near-pandemic scale. That is something against which we appear to have no tools at all. Indeed, the president himself is an unrelieved sufferer from long TDS, as he showed in this same speech by enthusiastically participating in the pandemic politics he decried in others and implying that former President Donald Trumps efforts against the coronavirusincluding Operation Warp Speed, which developed the vaccines he was now mandatinghad been unavailing until he came along. By thus politicizing his own anti-COVID efforts, did he somehow imagine he was going to persuade vaccine skeptics to trust themselves to his good faith in recommending them to get immunized? Of course, its no surprise to learn that this presidents case of TDS is a terminal one, but the disease struck again two days later in an unexpected place, Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks on New York and Washington of Sept. 11, 2001, former President George W. Bush strongly implied that he had chosen to align himself with one of the worst of the hallucinations caused by TDS fever-delirium by suggesting an equivalence between the events of 20 years previously (death toll 2,977) and those of the Capitol riot of last Jan. 6 (death toll 1). If theres anyone in the whole wide world with a better reason to resist the politicization of the 20th anniversary commemoration of 9/11 than former President George W. Bush, I dont know who it is. That, surely, is the province of the Bush haterssufferers from Bush Derangement Syndrome, which was to TDS what SARS-CoV-1 was to SARS-CoV-2who suggest that his response to the attacks, if he didnt himself conspire with the attackers, was politically motivated. But he just couldnt help himself, could he? Thats long-TDS for you. Once that poison enters your mind, you can never get it out again. Or so it seems. The latest virus hot-spot to show up is in California, where a majority appear to have declined to recall a governor generally acknowledged even by some Democrats to be one of the worst in the country solely becauseaccording to the pundits, anywayhis principal opponent had some nice things to say about the Bad Orange Man from Mar-a-Lago. Let us live a little longer, said the Californians, with the wildfires and the soaring crime rates and the invasions of the homeless and the oppressive anti-COVID measures wished on us by people who dont observe them themselves. At least Gov. Gavin Newsom still hates Trump as much as we do. You might think that the delirium caused by such a cruel disease could grow no worse than this, but you would be wrong. The worst case must belong to those Democratic pundits who are euphoric over the Californian demonstration of mass insanity, because they think it has foreshadowed the salvation, presumably by an even wider spread of TDS, of the Democratic majorities in Congress. Perhaps the best-known symptom of TDS is that it utterly and permanently deprives you of your sense of shame. That is how it must have happened that the 9/11 anniversary commemoration at the Pentagon was led by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milleytwo of the last people on earth whom the bereaved of 9/11 would be likely to want to see in such a place at such a time, after their return of Afghanistan to the terrorists. We didnt even know at the time quite how bad or long-lasting was Gen. Milleys case of TDS. That information only came out a few days later when Bob Woodward and Robert Costa reported on the generals alleged collusion with his Chinese counterpart to inform him in advance of any plans for an American attack on China. I know, I know. Bob Woodward. Right? You should never trust a word he writes unless its confirmed by at least two independent witnesses. But we do have the generals own witness in his testimony to Congress last June. As I wrote in these pages at the time, Gen. Milley showed that he was as totally on-board with the Democrats narrative of insurrection in the Capitol as he was with their effort to propagandize our armed forces with critical race theory and to purge them of extremists. We knew then that he saw Trump-supporters as a security threat to the nation, so it should be not so much of a surprise as it would otherwise seem if we now learn that he was prepared to disregard the Constitution, his oath of office, his honor as a soldier and loyalty to his country and its civilian leadership, all in the belief that Trump was the real national security threat. Whether it was treasonable or not, as Trump himself has suggested it was, the generals alleged actassuming, as I say, that we can trust Woodwardwas clearly that of a sick man. If there was a 25th Amendment for generals, there would be a clear case for his removal from his duties on grounds of mental incompetencyeven if you ignore the Woodward allegations and concentrate on his already having signed on to the 9/11 = 1/6 equivalency and his monumental screw-up of the Afghanistan pullout. Arguably, this was itself partly a product of the TDS. For if all things Trump are bad and all things no-Trump are good, its still the case that a no-Trump thing that goes bad, like the Afghan debacle, can still be blamed on Trump, as President Joe Biden attempted to do. Some sufferers from the illness in California might even have believed him. If only there were an Operation Warp Speed to develop a vaccine against TDS! But no such luck. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseasd? asks Macbeth of his wifes doctor. Alas, nono more today than 400 years ago. As the doctor says: Therein the patient must minister to himself. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Australian Minister of Defense Peter Dutton speaks at a news conference with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austinat the State Department in Washington, DC on Sept. 16, 2021. (Andrew Harnik / POOL / AFP) Immature, Embarrassing: Australian Defence Minister on Beijings Reaction to AUKUS Australias Defence Minister Peter Dutton has deemed comments by both the Chinese regimes media mouthpiece The Global Times and Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian as propaganda, after they claimed the new AUKUS security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom would undermine peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Frankly, I think they make the case for us, Dutton told Sky News on Sept. 17 from the United States. Their comments are counterproductive and immature, and frankly embarrassing. Under the new AUKUS agreement, the United States will share top-secret nuclear propulsion technology with Australia and the UK for a fleet of at least eight submarines, expected to be in the water by 2040. The new security pact comes amid increased tension in the Indo-Pacific region, as like-minded liberal democracies move to counter Beijings increased aggression and expansionist policies. It also follows a year of Beijing targeting Australia with trade restrictions, deemed economic coercion by the United States, in retaliation for Australia calling for an international inquiry into the origins of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. In criticising the pact, Zhao described the AUKUS agreement as a closed and exclusive clique and said the decision intensified the arms race and undermined international non-proliferation agreements. He said Beijing would be keeping a close eye on developments. The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Illinois (SSN 786) returns home to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam from a deployment in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility. Illinois performed a full spectrum of operations, including anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, during the six-month, Indo-Pacific deployment. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael B. Zingaro) Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said AUKUS would not come at the expense of working alongside China in the Indo-Pacific. He rejected Beijings claims that the pact undermined stability in the Indo-Pacific. Everything weve done with the United States is consistent with the partnerships and relationships and alliances weve already had with the United States, Morrison told 3AW on Sept. 17. The prime minister would not be drawn on Chinas claims the submarines would make Australia a nuclear target. Morrison said the Indo-Pacific region had become tenser, but Australia wanted to boost peace and stability. We have to deal with the world as it is, not as wed like it to be, he said. The decision to scrap a $90 billion deal with French company Naval Group, originally for 12 conventionally (diesel-electric) powered submarines, has also angered the government in Paris. Dutton made no apology for the nuclear switch. AAP contributed to this report. Roy Kim stands in front of the New Wave mural at the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Irvines Oldest Hotel Provides Canvas for Young Artist While looking at a blank white wall near the John Wayne Airport, 18-year-old University High School student Roy Kim from Irvine, California, saw the possibility to create a masterpiece. He took his vision a step further by incorporating the involvement of younger students and contemplating how he could guide them on their artistic journey through the nonprofit organization Access to Art. I feel like the arts isnt necessarily a priority in schools budget-wise, Kim told The Epoch Times. At Access to Art, we offer to go to schools and create after-school art lessons. It offers an opportunity to creatively express themselves, and any exposure they have with the arts can help them broaden their future and basically see what they can do with it. Roy Kim and Tracy Newton shake hands in front of the New Wave mural at the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Sharing a Passion Kim, who comes from a family of artists, often tosses around the idea with them that art is in his blood. He serves on the board at Access to Art, which originally started as a club at University High School with two basic goals: [It] provides volunteer opportunities for high school students, and it provides art education for the younger children. Our volunteers choose an art theme for each month, and then we create, he said. While growing up in the suburbs of Orange County, Kim never considered art as a professional career. It was during his sophomore year of high school while taking his first art class when his passions as an artist developed into something he knew he wanted to pursue in the years ahead of him. I realized that is something I want to do during that class. Now, Im applying to colleges and universities as an art major. When the 2020 coronavirus pandemic sent him and his fellow students home to learn in a quarantined environment, Kim soon found that the volunteer art opportunities decreased. This ignited within him the desire to continue to serve his community with his passion for art. Tracy Newton stands at the front desk of the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) An Unlikely Partnership When The Atrium Hotels new director of sales and marketing, Tracy Newton, started her role during the middle of the pandemic, the idea to beautify the property of Irvines oldest hotel came following a conversation with her supervisor, after she noticed the hotels blank walls could pave the way for artistic creations. Its really interesting because when I first started the search for an artist, I had a few already skilled professionals that were introduced to me, but I felt that this would be a huge opportunity to let some students shine with their work! Newton told The Epoch Times. I felt it was important to bring the community into the fold and give the youth a chance to really showcase what they have. They were already cut short because of the pandemic and there were a lot of social things that theyll never get back as part of their developmental stage of life. With both parties seeking a mutual means of bringing creativity to their community during the hardships of the pandemic, City of Irvine officials connected The Atrium Hotel with Kims request to volunteer the skills of Access to Art. His proposal was so professional, and he knocked it out of the park, Newton said. Roy and his students couldnt have been a better match, and youll see it for yourself in how this mural turned out. Newton then connected Kim with The Atrium Hotel management team to present his proposal and the vision he had for the art piece ahead. He put together his costs and really handled himself. The arts are kind of seen as not a career by many, and I love the fact he really professionally took the initiative and made this work with the team. My hats off to him! The New Wave mural at the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) A Mural Like None Other After finding the right spot to begin painting the mural on a highly visible wall near the hotels parking area, Kim, whose vision for the piece was stimulated by complications he and his community faced during the pandemic, added cool-based colors to a dreamy visual that started with the center subject of a home. The home appears to be unable to contain the ideas and dreams that flow throughout the environment around it. I think during the pandemic, a lot of people felt this uncomfortableness, and very confining. There were a lot of confining situations in which people couldnt go out and do simple things in life. So part of this mural, it talks about, or it kind of celebrates how were kind of transitioning from that period of confinement into a more normalized lifestyle, Kim shared. But as we do that, we should still reconsider our relationship with nature and how weve become so dependent on mechanical processes over it. Flowing from the colors of the home, Kim and children in the Access to Art program created the symbolism of growth through a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, and becoming one with nature again. When Tracy first connected me to create a mural, I didnt want it just to be a simple decoration on the wall. I still wanted it to have a meaning and impact, because I think thats the most important aspect of art. Roy Kim stands in front of the New Wave mural at the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, Calif. on Sept. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) The final piece, finished in the first week of September, is roughly 9-by-15 feet and perfectly bordered by two narrow palm trees. Arriving within the month is a metallic plaque that will display the title of the painting, New Wave Let Your Dreams Take Flight, and a description: Like a new wave, we flow from the recent confines; we find ourselves experiencing an exciting cultural metamorphosis. While the world around us is transforming, so are we. It is important to reflect on the simple pleasures of life, the pursuit of our dreams, celebration of nature and the need for personal growth, while keeping a close eye on the balance between nature and the mechanical components in life. The subtle undertones of New Wave display nature delicately intertwined with the mechanical modernization of our environment. Greeted with the beauty and rhythm of nature, we flow organically into a new and exciting wave of adventure, by simply letting our dreams take flight. Newton said with a smile, For me, I just hope that the arts continue this nonprofit and that any other students out there stay involved and have an opportunity to shine their artistic and creative outlets, because it really is important. I hope this is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship. A monument that represents justice stands in front of towering grain silos that were gutted in the massive August 2020 explosion at the port that killed more than 200 people and wounded over 6,000, in Beirut, Lebanon on Aug. 4, 2021. (Hussein Malla/AP Photo File) Judge Seeks Arrest of Ex-minister Charged in Beirut Blast BEIRUTThe lead judge investigating Lebanons massive port explosion last year issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for a former minister who failed to appear for questioning, the state-run National News agency reported. It was the first such warrant in the year-old probe that has hit many snags, particularly in implicating senior government officials in what was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. Its unclear how authorities will respond to the warrant. Youssef Fenianos, the former public works minister, is one of a number of former government officials who have declined to appear before investigating judge Tarek Bitar. Bitar has charged Fenianos and three other former senior government officials with intentional killing and negligence that led to the deaths of more than 200 people in the blast and over 6,000 injured. Bitar also summoned the former and current security chiefs. The former prime minister has also refused to appear before the judge. Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers, had been improperly stored in the port for years. It finally exploded on Aug. 4, 2020, devastating parts of the capital of Beirut. A view of damaged cars at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut, on April 9, 2021. (Joseph Eid /AFP) (via Getty Images) The Lebanese investigation has been running into major obstacles, including the removal of Bitars predecessor on charges of violating the constitution by summoning government officials. More than a year later, there are still no answers to what triggered the explosion, and no one has been held accountable. Rights groups and local media revealed that most state officials knew of the presence of ammonium nitrate in the port but did nothing to remove it or properly store it. In an extensive report issued last month, Human Rights Watch said senior officials knew of the risks posed by the highly explosive material and did nothing to protect the public against it. On Wednesday, more than 140 local and international organizations and survivors of the blast repeated a call issued earlier, urging a U.N.-backed probe into the blast. The groups said government officials have refused to appear for questioning and authorities declined to lift immunity to allow for prosecution of members of parliament or senior government and security officials. Political leaders have attempted to cast doubt on Judge Bitars impartiality, accusing him of being politicized, the groups said and criticized Lebanese security forces for forcefully breaking up protests by families of the blast victims on at least two occasions. The failures of the domestic investigation to ensure accountability dramatically illustrates the larger culture of impunity for officials that has long been the case in Lebanon. Fenianos legal team argued Thursday that the matter is no longer for Judge Bitar to investigate after parliament opened a review into the charges leveled against lawmakers and government officials. The blast was the most destructive single incident in Lebanons troubled history, with violence going unpunished and a legal system widely criticized for falling under political influence. By Sarah El Deeb LA City Council Prepares to Receive Federal Funds From $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan The Los Angeles City Council is preparing the city to receive federal funds from the pending $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which could allocate money to projects that could impact the future of the citys transportation and create thousands of jobs for Angelenos. The U.S. Senate passed the infrastructure bill on Aug. 10 after months of debate between parties and will move onto the Democratic-controlled House before it can reach the presidents desk for final approval; Pelosi reportedly promised Democrats that the House would consider the bill before Sept. 27. If passed, the state of California will receive $44.56 billion, 65 percent of which will go to road and bridges repair and construction, while $9.5 billion is expected to go toward public transportation, along with $5.6 billion for water and other projects. Los Angeles has every reason to seize on these opportunities. The city council has approved dozens of transformative strategic documents and master plans that in many cases include shovel-ready, entitled, or designed projects, the motionintroduced by Council President Nury Martinez, along with Councilmembers Paul Krekorian, Bob Blumenfeld, and Mitch OFarrellstated. Though the final federal bills are still being negotiated, now is the time for the city to strategize and get organized in order to maximize the possible benefits and accelerate our economic recovery, the motion stated. Los Angeles has seen a steady rate of economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic hit; unemployment rates in the L.A. Metro area dropped from 16.8 percent in July 2020 to 9.3 percent in July 2021, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Downtown Los Angeles on June 9, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) If passed, the city administrative officer (CAO) and chief legislative analyst would create a process to review and approve requests for the federal funds within 60 days. First, all city departments would have to report to the CAO with prioritized projects and a plan of implementation. The CAO will then report to the Budget and Finance Committee, who will approve the various departments lists of projects. After the initial lists are approved, the departments may formally apply for the funds. The council said they plan on using the funds for projects such as LA100, the citys initiative to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2035 through wind and solar power, as well as the utilization of storage technologies. Other projects that will likely receive funding include the Mobility Plan 2035, which aims to create more public transportation options in the city of Los Angeles, and the L.A. River Master Plan. LA100 and Council President Nury Martinez did not respond to a request for comment by press deadline. Louisiana State University Students Face Expulsion for Not Meeting Vaccine Mandate Louisiana State University (LSU) has started to unenroll students who are not in compliance with the universitys COVID-19 vaccination policy. LSU spokesperson Ernie Ballard posted on Twitter that the university is contacting 78 students to inform them they are being unenrolled for not meeting the vaccination requirement. The university in August announced that students must submit proof of first dose of vaccine by Sept. 10 and full vaccination by Oct. 15. At a Wednesday press conference, LSU President William F. Tate said there were 400 non-compliant students. The conference came after a White House meeting where Tate briefed President Joe Biden and his pandemic response team on the universitys COVID-19 strategies. The updated number since the White House meeting is 78 students remain not in compliance, Ballard wrote on Thursday. The goal from the start has been to get everyone in compliance, but while the number has shrunk, those 78 are being contacted that they are being unenrolled from the university. Those students were offered to have half of their payments refunded, according to the email that was sent to them. This email is to notify you that you have been resigned from Louisiana State University and provided a 50 percent refund due to failure to comply with LSUs Entry Test Verification procedures, reads the message obtained by student newspaper The Daily Reveille. As a student, you were sent numerous notifications regarding the Entry Test Requirement and reminders to comply. The students will have until 4 p.m. on Friday to provide the information required by LSU to secure their place, the email concluded. Its both an unenrollment and a final warning, but if they dont do it at that point, they remain unenrolled, Ballard told The Daily Reveille. The goal from the start is to get students in compliance and not for us to unenroll students, but they have to be in compliance to stay in the LSU community. University COVID-19 data shows there are currently 78 total active cases on campus65 students and 13 staff members. Approximately 543 students have tested positive for the virus since May 9. The LSU is not the first latest public institution to dismiss students who resisted the vaccine mandate. In August, the University of Virginia (UVA) kicked out 238 students, mostly undergraduates, for not complying with COVID-19 vaccination policy. These students received multiple communications from Student Affairs via email, text, and phone calls reminding them to update their status by deadline, a UVA spokesperson told student newspaper The Cavalier Daily. A view of part of the crowd protesting against mandatory vaccinations and mask mandates at a rally at the State Capitol grounds in Lansing, Mich., on Aug. 6, 2021. (Steven Kovac/Epoch Times) Meet Your American Social Credit System Commentary From social media canceling to national vaccine mandates, an unforgiving and punitive social credit system is emerging in America. As I wrote about in my previous article, under the guise of medical security from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the West is looking more like China every day. We are, by either political mandate or court order, relinquishing our rights in the name of medical safety. Recall that the CCP gained the technological capabilitiesfrom facial recognition, to cameras, recording devices, GPS locators and other itemsto create a digital surveillance system to monitor, track, identify, arrest, detain, and dispose of those individuals who may or could possibly pose a threat to the Party. Chinas social credit system is advanced and getting more entrenched across the country every day. The Path to Oppression As a result, Chinas citizens are virtual prisoners in their own country. Under the watchful and wrathful eye of the communist state, people have their bank accounts blocked, their credit cards frozen, their employment endedall due to a careless tweet, an unguarded social media post, or even just reading the wrong thing on the internet. But the consequences go even further than that. Those with insufficient social credit scores may find themselves taken off a train platform, or even a street corner, and hustled into a van, courtesy of state security henchman, and sent to a prison camp. Sounds like a bad movie, but sadly, its an absolute reality in China. That brings us to Americas emerging social credit system, where the wrong thinking can get you canceled. Social Credit System: Chinas Biggest Export As Americans, we regard the CCPs oppressive society with righteous condemnation. At least, some of us do, and rightly so. But others dont see it that way at all. In fact, many Americans view the idea of canceling their fellow citizens who hold traditional ideas of morality, patriotism, and conservative political ideologies as normal, just and good. And thats just the beginning of the social credit system that seems to be rapidly developing here in the United States. There are many more aspects to it than one may realize, but the driving force is the CCP virus pandemic and the vaccination campaign that came out of it. Several concurrent manifestations have attached themselves to that campaign. One is the woke or cancel culture ideology thats now found throughout our media, academia, and even in the public and private sectors of our economy. This pervasive cultural movement doesnt tolerate debate or dissent, but rather, demands ideological uniformity in all societal quarters. The traditional American value of the free exchange of ideas has been consumed by virtue signaling of the woke and the moral condemnation of the rest of us. The mainstream media, for example, seems no longer interested in reporting the news, but instead, prefers to keep the American people divided. To do this, it publicly shames unvaccinated citizens. And of course, as mentioned in my prior article, the social media tech giants routinely prevent the free expression of ideas, particularly those that counter the woke political and cultural agenda, via fact checkers. Outright censorship and de-platforming of sites supporting traditional values or conservative ideas has also become the norm. A smartphone in hand displaying the word censored in front of a blurred Facebook logo. (Klevo/Shutterstock) But thats not allnot by a long shot. Rather than supporting independent thought, universities are firing professors who exercise their constitutional right to not take an experimental and possibly risky vaccine. Theyre also banning or fining unvaccinated students. Governors and mayors are mandating proof of vaccination and even masks for businesses within their jurisdictions. And in the health care sphere, even hospital workersnurses and hospital workers who worked through the worst of the pandemicare being fired for refusing the vaccine. Even federal authorities are suggesting suspending travel rights for the unvaccinated, which of course, is unconstitutional. What could possibly bring about such broad and consistent social conditioning and the wholesale disposal of our constitutional rights? Is it just a coincidence of coincidences? Or a coordinated attempt to transform America into an obedient and oppressed society without rights or liberties? It really doesnt matter. Backdoor Vaccine Compliance Enforcement For example, earlier this year, the possibility of vaccine mandates was not an official policy of the federal government. Both Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser to the president, and the Biden administration told us that no such policy was under consideration, workable, or even legal. And yet today, its happening. Vaccine compliance is being mandated via the White House directing private employers with 100 employees or more to require CCP virus vaccination from all workers or face the possibility of losing their jobs. In short, the federal government is getting the private sector to enforce an unconstitutional policy that it has no legal authority to enforce. Vaccine passports are likely to be required in the very near future. The upshot is that our inalienable rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution have been downgraded and redefined as privileges that can be taken away, and most certainly are being diluted across the board. Even though the experimental vaccines have proven to be less safe and less effective than promised, they have provided the political and moral cover to strip us of our rights. Does anyone care to argue that our rights to privacy, to freedom of speech, to free assembly, of conducting lawful businesses and earning a living are still vibrant and intact? Does anyone believe that they will be restored by the same political and social forces that are taking them away? The tragic irony is that the CCP created their social credit system on surveillance technology bought or stolen from America and marketed it as smart city technology to other authoritarian regimes around the world. Apparently, America bought the deluxe package. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General. Mark Milley participates in a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on May 6, 2021. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) Milley Says Calls to Chinese General Were Perfectly Within His Job Duties Faced with calls to resign or an investigation, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley on Friday defended two phone calls he allegedly made in secret to his Chinese Communist Party counterpart. The general reached out to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army several days before the November 2020 election and two days after the Capitol breach on Jan. 6 to reassure the Chinese army that an attack isnt incoming, according to excerpts of a book that was published this week. Milley, the top U.S. general, described the two phone calls as routine and claimed they were done to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability, reported The Associated Press. When speaking to the news agency, he only offered a brief comment about his two calls with Li and said he will speak about his calls in front of Congress later this month when both he and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify. I think its best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military, Milley told AP. Ill go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks. But he added that the calls were perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of his role. According to the book, written by journalist Bob Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, Milley allegedly told Li that if were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise. The call raised questions about whether he was undermining then-President Donald Trumps authority. Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) General Li Zuocheng (L) and Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley (C) review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Bayi Building in Beijing on Aug. 16, 2016. (Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images) Milley made those calls, the book has alleged, because he was fearful of Trump would carry out military action during the waning days of his presidency. Trump didnt, and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller told Fox News that Milleys alleged calls were not authorized by him before saying that the general should resign from his post. Trump said that if the reports about Milleys calls are accurate, the general should be charged with treason against the United States. The former president also sharply criticized him for the chaotic and rushed military withdrawal from Afghanistan that left billions of dollars in military equipment and hardware to be captured by the Taliban. During a news conference earlier in the week, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby repeatedly declined to answer specific questions about phone calls between Li and Milley, characterizing such conversations between foreign counterparts as routine. White House press secretary Jen Psaki also said that President Joe Biden has the complete confidence in Milleys leadership, suggesting the administration wont seek his ouster in the near future. A spokesperson for Milleys office, Col. Dave Butler, also defended the calls as routine and said Milley often communicates with generals in Russia and China. These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict, Butler said in a statement earlier this week. Republicans in Congress have demanded an investigation into Milleys calls, with some calling for his resignation. Some members of the media have also called for his ouster. The Epoch Times has contacted the Defense Department for comment. Police take back the streets at around midnight after firing copious amounts of tear gas to disperse protesters and rioters outside the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Minnesota Supreme Court Allows Proposal to Dismantle, Replace Police Department on Ballot The Minnesota Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that voters in Minneapolis will be able to have their say on the citys police department on the local ballot. It overturned a lower court ruling that struck down a proposed ballot initiative asking voters to replace the citys police department with a new Department of Public Safety (DPS)an amendment that came in the wake of the nationwide protests and riots after George Floyds death in May 2020. According to the proposed charter amendment, the DPS would employ a comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions of public safety and could include licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities. The proposed department would be led by a city council-appointed commissioner and could include police officers if necessary. It would would consist of peace officers and would ensure public safety through a holistic, public health-oriented approach, according to the citys website. The states highest court ruled that the ballot language failed to adequately describe the effects of of the DPS, and that it did not meet the high standard that the court set in earlier cases. Chief Justice Lorie Gildea said that the court will issue a full opinion laying out its legal reasoning some time later to avoid impeding the start of voting. Now voters have the opportunity to make their voices heard on this ballot question, City Attorney Jim Rowader said. The Supreme Court was under pressure to rule quickly because early and absentee voting opens at 8 a.m. Friday in the Minneapolis municipal elections. The ballots were already being printed when Hennepin County District Judge Jamie Anderson ruled against the language Tuesday. It was the second time she had struck down the councils wording. Gildea put the case on the fast track Wednesday. Lawyers on both sides said beforehand that they expected the high court ruling allowing the ballot language to be the final word, given the late hour. Leaders of the pro-amendment Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign have a rally set for Friday afternoon. Were all very pleased that the system worked, said Terrance Moore, an attorney for Yes 4 Minneapolis. As ugly as it sometimes looks, the process went through from beginning to end and in the end the Supreme Court followed the law and its precedent. And the voters get to vote on the ballot question. Proponents of defund the police argue that governments should spend less on law enforcement and more on social services in an attempt to address perceived racism. While the proposed amendment does not use the term defund it would remove the city charters requirement that Minneapolis have a police department with a minimum staffing level. Critics of the proposal, including former council member Don Samuels and his wife, Sondra, who were behind the court challenge, said the ballot language leaves too many important questions unexplained for voters about how the new department would be implemented, led, staffed and funded. Yes 4 Minneapolis, which led the initiative, argued in its filing with the Minnesota Supreme Court that the police department would not be replaced immediately if the proposal were to be approved. The Associated Press contributed to this report. New Jersey Set to Shed $182 Million Unilever Assets Over Ben & Jerrys Boycott A New Jersey state treasury official said on Wednesday it is set to divest $182 million in Unilever Plc. stock and bonds held by its pension funds over the restriction of sales by the consumer giants Ben & Jerrys ice cream brand in Israeli-occupied territories. It is the latest action by a U.S. state challenging Unilever over Ben & Jerrys move in July to end a license for its ice cream to be sold in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Ben & Jerrys said selling its products there was inconsistent with its values. New Jerseys Division of Investment had said on Tuesday it made a preliminary determination that maintaining its investment in Unilever would be a breach of a state law barring it from investing in companies boycotting Israel. It gave the company 90 days to request a modification of the order. A Unilever representative said it had no comment on the state decision, but cited a letter to the state from CEO Alan Jope from August stating Unilever has a strong and longlasting commitment to our business in Israel, where it employs nearly 2,000 people. Jope noted Ben & Jerrys has an independent board overseeing its social mission, and said Unilever does not support the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement that seeks to isolate Israel. The decision to stop selling ice cream was made by Ben & Jerrys and its board, Jope said. A Ben & Jerrys spokesman did not respond to messages. Ben & Jerrys was acquired by Unilever in 2000 in a deal that allows it to operate with more autonomy than other subsidiaries, including giving powers to an independent board to make decisions over its social mission, brand integrity, and policies. Arizona state Treasurer Kimberly Yee said earlier this month the state would sell $143 million in Unilever holdings for similar reasons. Parents and students gather to protest wearing masks in front of the Orange County Department of Education in Costa Mesa, Calif., on May 17, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Newport-Mesa School District Takes No Action on Resolution to End Mask Mandate The Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Trustees shot down a resolution Sept. 14 that would have defied the state of Californias mask mandate for K12 schools. The resolution was requested by Chris Jones, a mother of three children who attend Newport-Mesa schools, as part of the Let Them Breathe campaign, a national organization advocating for mask-choice for K12 students. Mask-wearing is a growing concern not only for parents of this community, but nationwide, Jones said. It is not the responsibility of our children to create comfort to others. It is our responsibility to stand up and ensure that our children are protected. Ultimately, no motion was made on the item by any board member even after Board President Karen Yelsey offered the opportunity, which caused the resolution not to pass. Board Trustee Krista Weigand told Jones she was appreciative of her efforts, but could not support the measure as it had the possibility of interfering with in-person learning. As a parent, I dont like masks, she said. I dont want my kids to wear masks. But I do have a job to educate our children. And I think our whole board up here has a plan to keep our kids in school the whole entire year. I just cant [support the item] because before school started, we did receive a notice from the California Department of Public Health to all the school leaders and it does state that [masking] can be enforced by law. And sitting up here as a board, we can be subjected to fines or civil enforcement actions by local health officers for refusal to adhere to the mandatory masking directive, she said. Weigand noted that her children didnt learn much through distance learning last year and that she didnt want to risk a return to that if there was an outbreak in the district. Dozens of parents protest against the districts mask mandate during a meeting of the Glendora Unified School District at Sellers Elementary School in Glendora, Los Angeles County, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times) Jones argued that mask-wearing for young children can cause a variety of health problems, stating that there was also questionable science behind the efficacy of its protection against COVID-19. For more than 18 months, weve dealt with questionable and conflicting advice on masking. In a 2020 email obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, Dr. Fauci stated that the typical mask you buy at the drugstore is not really effective in keeping out the virus, which is small enough to pass through the material, said Jones. In addition, on March 30, 2020, the executive director of the World Health Organization emergency program stated there is no specific evidence to suggest that wearing a mask by the mass population has any particular benefit. Jones also referred to a June 16, 2021, Gainesville, Florida study that showed masks that were worn even for a brief period of time were found to have harmful bacteria, parasites, and fungi, yet had no SARS-COV-2 virus on them. Wearing face masks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects. These include decreased oxygen in the blood, excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, shortness of breath, increased acidity and toxicity, activation of fear and stress response, and more, Jones noted. Long-term consequences of wearing face masks can cause health deterioration, developing and progression of chronic illnesses, and premature death. Newsom Recall Aftermath Commentary Thats it. Im outta here. So a friend told me after the blowout recall loss on Sept. 14. This friend long has been wavering on whether to leave California for relief from taxes and the general Crazifornia atmosphere. Had the recall election been close, my friend might have stayedeven with Gov. Gavin Newsom still winningbecause there would have been a hope of reform. But a 64 percent No to Recall vote decided the issue. Several other friends also said theyre leaning more toward the leave option. All these folks would be following the roughly 650,000 who are skedaddling every year. Of course, folks still come here: tech hotshots to Silicon Valley, wannabe movie stars to Hollywood, illegal aliens to everywhere. But as everyone now knows, for the first time in history, in recent years more people are leaving than coming. I provided details in my Aug. 25 Epoch Times article, California Businesses Exiting Faster Than Ever. The Babylon Bee just ran a spoof, Gavin Newsom Named U-Haul Salesperson of the Year. It quoted the firms fictional western regional director, Fennick Buggstein: We are deeply grateful to Gavin for our success in 2021. The only problem now is that were all out of trucks. And no one is willing to drive a U-Haul back to California. And Im leaving with my family as well. So I guess this is it! Bye everyone! Seriously, if thats possible, with the recall now in the past, what issues now are facing the Golden State? 1. A $1 trillion public unfunded liabilities debt hanging over the state from pensions and retiree medical care. It currently costs $8 billion from the state general fund just to service that debt, not to mention billions more from local and school pensions. The amount only will grow, requiring tax increases. 2. A school system that perennially scores 48th on national tests. Better than Mississippi is not a great selling point. The powerful California Teachers Association and California Federation of Teachers continue to oppose school choice, merit pay for the best teachers, and other reforms. 3. A record-high tax burden. Income, sales, and gas tax rates top those in any other state. 4. A crumbling infrastructure. The $5 billion yearly gas tax increase from 2017 only partly has filled potholes because there are so many of them. And the tax increase only was needed because of other foolish spending priorities. See No. 1, above. And see the high-speed rail boondoggle, still choo-chooing along despite Newsoms promise in 2020 to get rid of it. 5. Punishingly high housing prices. What young couple can afford a home when the median housing price is $800,000 statewide, even higher in coastal areas? Efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other barriers to more construction never get far. 6. Environmental unrealism raises the price of everything. As I detailed in California Wildfire Greenhouse Gases Dwarfed by Chinas from Aug. 12, the problem isnt in California, but the Peoples Republic of China. Yet our residents keep getting punished for something thats not our fault. Newsom banned selling gas-powered cars by 2035, just 14 years from now. He couldnt totally ban older, gas-powered cars. So California increasingly will resemble communist Cuba, where cars such as 57 Chevys just keep getting older, patched up more ingeniously each year. 7. Not just the teachers unions, but the other unions will keep getting stronger, devouring more of the state economy. These include AFCME, the SEIU, the Correctional Peace Officers Association (prison guards), the numerous sheriff and cop associations, and the surprisingly powerful California Nurses Association. After the Newsom victory, AFSCME Local 3299University of California service workerssent out this gloating email: We rose to defend our state from the anti-union and anti-science extremism at the heart of this recall. Together, we united behind a Governor who has prioritized our health, the safety of essential workers and school children, and an economy that works for all of us because California deserves nothing less. You can bet theyre going to expect big-time payback during next years pay negotiations. 8. Critical race theory and other schemes to continue to pit Americans against one another will be advanced. Shouldnt we be coming together to provide opportunity for all, making the pie bigger instead of dividing it up into ever more divisive pieces? Hope From Latinos Finally, let me end on a hopeful note. Especially as we now already have begun the next cycle racing toward the Nov. 8, 2022, election. Latinos, although opposing the recall, voted more in the GOP direction than in recent elections. Some are calling it the canary in the coal mine, warning Democrats that they ought to stop taking for granted that Latinos will keep backing a party that does nothing for them. As Larry Elder brought up many times during his campaign, Latinos and blacks are being shafted by the horrible California schools system, which benefits the teachers unions at the expense of students. In a July 18 ET column, I urged, The Only Way Republicans Could Displace Gavin Newsom was to emphasize education almost exclusively precisely to garner these Latino and black voters. Im not blaming Elder. He ran a valiant campaign. Hes hinting at a run next year. I hope he, or whomever the GOP ends up pushing past the senseless, anti-democratic Top Two system, adopts that strategy. Sure, there are so many other things one could address, and Elder did addressmost listed above. But for a Republican to have any chance, there should be one topic: education. Hammer it home. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Seatings for restaurants are mostly empty along Sydney Harbour due to COVID-19 coronavirus concerns, in Sydney on December 24, 2020. (SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images) NSW COVID-19 Inquiry to Focus on West Sydney A New South Wales (NSW) parliamentary inquiry into the states Delta coronavirus outbreak will resume as more regional areas toggle in and out of lockdown. The upper house public accountability committee is exploring the state governments handling of the current outbreak and will hold a further hearing on Sept. 17. Committee chair David Shoebridge said the virtual hearing will focus on issues in Sydneys west, with local mayors, ethnic community leaders and government agency representatives scheduled to speak. The committee will be taking evidence from those who have borne the brunt of the governments lockdown of certain Sydney LGAs, with a particular focus too on the management of the justice system during this extremely difficult time, the NSW Greens MP said. It comes as Lismore and Albury have re-entered lockdown for at least the next seven days, after three cases were detected across the two areas. The sources of the infections in both regions are unknown, but Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale suspects they are linked to Sydney. The Lismore case has prompted a change in the border bubble arrangement negotiated only days ago by the Queensland and NSW governments. With the city of Lismore declared a restricted zone again, anyone who has been in the area in the past 14 days will now be unable to enter Queensland. The cross-border community of Wodonga has not joined Albury in lockdown, but Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews flagged there could be some knock-on effects. Just hours before Lismore and Albury were plunged back into lockdown, stay-at-home orders were repealed across 12 other regions. NSW reported 1351 new local cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, taking the toll for the three-month virus outbreak to 210. Twelve people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 across three social housing buildings in inner Sydney Redfern. NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was another example of the virus effectively identifying and moving in on the socially disadvantaged. A mobile vaccination team is visiting each tower building to provide vaccinations to residents. Meanwhile, Deputy Premier John Barilaro revealed the NSW government has prepared a draft reopening roadmap for when the state reaches 80 per cent double-dose vaccination in its eligible population. It follows the government last week releasing its plans to restore some freedoms to the fully vaccinated at 70 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage. Philip Morris International's research and development headquarters are pictured next to the company's cigarette factory in Neuchatel, Switzerland, on March 17, 2017. (Paritosh Bansal/Reuters) Philip Morris Seals Deal for UKs Vectura Despite Health Group Concerns Cigarette maker Philip Morris (PMI) clinched its 1.1 billion-pound takeover of asthma inhaler maker Vectura on Thursday, winning the support of the British companys shareholders despite the concerns of health professionals. Vecturas shareholders decided to take the 165 pence-per-share offer from PMI, with nearly 75 percent backing the deal. Buying the London-listed inhaler maker is part of Philip Morris long term plan to develop smoke-free products and switch to being a broader healthcare and wellness company. But it has angered health groups such as Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation that have questioned whether a tobacco group should own a company that cures the very respiratory illnesses cigarettes cause. PMI Chief Executive Jacek Olczak has argued that acquiring Vectura is a critical part of his strategy to move the company Beyond Nicotine. He told the Telegraph last month that opponents of the deal were not interested in progress and accused them of settling old scores with the tobacco industry. Olczak said on Thursday PMI would provide Vecturas scientists with the resources and expertise to reach its goal of generating at least $1 billion in net revenue from Beyond Nicotine products by 2025. In the meantime, Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation said they have sent a letter urging the government to look into any conflict of interest issues. The letter was co-signed by 35 charities, public health experts, and clinicians. Theres now a very real risk that Vecturas deal with big tobacco will lead to the cigarette industry wielding undue influence on UK health policy, said Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation. We call on the government to stand by its commitment to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to prevent this happening, Woolnough added. PMI has received regulatory clearances for the deal and following the public tender process, its offer cannot now be withdrawn. While the company received the 50 percent threshold to make its offer unconditional, it has not yet reached the 75 percent of shares it needs to delist Vectura. PMI said it was extending its offer to Sept 30., to give Vectura shareholders time to accept its proposal. Phillip Morris isnt ignoring the elephant; its making us all take a long hard look. Discomfort is good, it tends to deliver change, but care must be taken that the promised change does come and there are no detours on the journey, AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson said. ($1 = 0.7234 pounds) By Pushkala Aripaka and Siddharth Cavale Highways England workers on the exit slip road of the M25 motorway near Leatherhead after protestors blocked the road and left paint on it, on Sept. 17, 2021. (PA) Protesters Block UKs Busiest Motorway for Third Time in a Week Protesters demanding government action on home insulation have blocked Britains busiest motorway for a third time this week. At least three junctions on the M25 were targeted on Friday morning. Surrey Police said officers had arrested 14 people at junction nine. Campaign group Insulate Britain claimed 79 people attempted to block the London orbital motorway hours after their release from police custody following similar protests earlier this week. Insulate Britain said they demanded credible action from the UK government to insulate all the homes of this country to cut carbon emissions. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps called their action dangerous and counterproductive. We all agree that climate change must be tackled, but this sort of behaviour achieves nothing, puts drivers at risk, and increases pollution. I expect the police to take swift action to clear the roads, he said on Twitter. Insulate Britain members blocked five junctions of the M25 on Monday, leading to tens of thousands of drivers being stuck in huge queues of traffic and dozens of arrests. The same group stopped traffic on the M25 again on Wednesday during the morning rush hour. Videos posted on social media showed angry drivers remonstrating with the activists. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the groups guerrilla tactics are completely unacceptable and detract from their cause. Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and there will always be space for legitimate groups to make their voices heard, Patel said on Thursday evening. But this government will not stand by and allow a small minority of selfish protesters to cause significant disruption to the lives and livelihoods of the hard-working majority, she said. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng also said the protests were counterproductive. These actions are not only highly disruptive to those going to work and transporting vital goods, but are putting lives at risk on a busy motorway. Not to mention the resulting traffic delays will only add to vehicle emissions, he said on Thursday. London Metropolitan Police said on Thursday that they had arrested three people on suspicion of orchestrating the protests. Jerry Westerman, chief superintendent with Surrey Police, appealed for witnesses who may have dashcam footage. I appreciate that these protests have caused considerable inconvenience and frustration for those caught up in the traffic delays and I can assure you that we are continuing to gather evidence and ensure that those who break the law are brought to justice, he said. We are continuing to appeal to anyone who witnessed either incident or anyone with any dashcam footage to come forward as you may be able to help us progress our investigation. PA contributed to this report. George Gascon, then-San Francisco District Attorney who took office as Los Angeles County District Attorney on Dec. 7, 2020, speaks during a new conference in San Francisco on Dec. 9, 2014. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Recall Gascon Campaign Officially Restarts: Were Doubling Down on Everything When the effort to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon began in March, it was purely a victim-led effort made up of family members whose loved ones had been killed by convicted criminals. But now, it has grown to more than a few volunteers. The grassroots effort, known as the Victims of Violent Crime for the Recall of District Attorney Gascon, collected 100,000 signatures in July. But as of September, there was a stall at 200,000 signatures. A total of 580,000 signatures are needed to trigger a recall election within 160 days of the petition-start date. So, the group decided to scrap the petition and start anew with a more established backing. Were totally doubling down on everything, like this is not a give-up or anything like that, recall spokesman Tim Lineberger told The Epoch Times. All the victims that were supporting this effort, who have been outspoken about it, are in for this. Lineberger said many factors hindered the group from collecting the needed number of signatures, such as a lack of funds and COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Now that the campaign has expanded its volunteer force, restarting the effort will allow the group to operate with more structure, he said. A lot of our donors have made really good commitments and are excited about the new strategy, so we have a lot of really good momentum that were excited about this move, he said. Our volunteer operation has improved significantly and will be in place from day one, rather than, again, piecemealing it together as we go along. Many of those convicted of crimes are being granted additional hearings under Gascons criminal justice reform policies. Critics of his progressive reforms say the soft on crime approach puts their communities in danger. Gascon was elected to a four-year term in the Nov. 3, 2020, nonpartisan general election, defeating incumbent district attorney Jackie Lacey with 53.5 percent of the vote. Gascon remains confident in his policies, citing the publics support that landed him in office. In a previous interview with co-organizer of the recall effort, Desiree Andrade told The Epoch Times her sons killers were facing the possibility of parole after Gascon ordered prosecutors to eradicate the three-strikes law, sentence enhancements and gang enhancements, and many misdemeanors including public intoxication, criminal threats, and resisting arrest. I believe that second chances are for little things, not a murder, Andrade said. A murderer does not deserve a second chance. You took somebodys life. Thats huge, you know. Were not selling a lollipop here. As of July 25, 25 of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County voted no confidence in Gascon. Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva also expressed support for the recall effort. San Diego City Council Bans Ghost Guns San Diego City Council passed an ordinance on Tuesday that bans the sale and possession of ghost guns in an attempt to combat the rising gun crime in San Diego. Ghost guns are privately made firearms that lack serial numbers, making them hard to be traced by law enforcement agencies. Under federal law, it is legal for private individuals to make their own firearms, but a license is required for the manufacture of firearms that are for sale or distribution. The Eliminate Non-Serialized Untraceable Firearm (ENUF) ordinance was introduced by Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert after a deadly shooting in April in downtown San Diegos Gaslamp Quarter in which a ghost gun was used. San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit told FOX 5 reporters after the shooting that there has been a 169 percent increase in ghost guns from 2020. A man load .223 bullets into an AR-15 assault rifle at FT3 tactical shooting range in Stanton, Calif., on May 3, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) The first reading of the ENUF ordinance passed 8-1 in August. At the city council meeting on Tuesday, citizens voiced their opinions regarding the ordinance. Stephan Abrams is a member of Team Enough, a youth-led organization aiming to educate young people about gun violence. Abrams said he was able to purchase a ghost gun kit and build his own firearm as a minor. The idea [that building a gun] is a complicated process is not true. We need to pass legislation because ghost guns bypass all gun violence prevention laws, said Abrams. Debbie McDaniel-Lindsey, an attendee of the council meeting, said that the ENUF ordinance would enable a safe culture of sale and possession of firearms. We are simply asking makers of ghost guns to follow the same rules they would use if they went to a dealer to buy a firearm, said McDaniel-Lindsey. Tim Taylor, president of District 3 representing San Diegans For Gun Violence Prevention, said one of the main arguments against the ENUF ordinance was that it is a violation of the second amendment right. I strongly disagree, said Taylor. Ghost Gun technology created an unintended loophole in the existing laws that are supported by the vast majority of Californians Closing the loophole gets us back to where we were before the technology existed, where the overwhelming majority of adults can legally possess various types of firearms. However, other people spoke out against the ENUF ordinance. Wendy Hauffen, CEO of the San Diego Country Gun Owners, urged a no vote on the ordinance. She said the ordinance would only put restrictions on law-abiding gun owners but not criminals. The serialization comes before the purchase [of] the raw materials the builder uses to make a firearm. This step is not required for criminals and criminals will continue to break firearm laws. This will only result in the punishment and charges against people who are not career criminals because criminals do not care [about] the serialization of guns, said Hauffen. Another attendee, Max, also objected to the ENUF ordinance. He said with the rising gun price passing, the ordinance will add more pressure to low-income residents of San Diego who can not afford a manufactured gun. He added even the ordinance is passed, criminals can always obtain guns from black markets with the serial numbers scratched off. No matter what, this is something that can always happen and its going to affect only low-income residents because we cant build our own, said Max. Council members voted after attendees commented on the ordinance. The ENUF ordinance passed 8-1 with only Councilmember Chris Cate from District 6 voting against it. San Francisco Mayor London Breed Caught Breaking Citys Indoor Mask Rule San Fransisco Mayor London Breed was seen dancing and singing maskless at a nightclub, apparently violating the citys public health restrictions. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the mayor was at the Black Cat jazz club in the Tenderloin, where she enjoyed a late night performance, along with other equally maskless guests. The fact that we have not been able to enjoy live music in this way since the beginning of this pandemic made it even that much more special and extraordinary, she told The Chronicle after the performance. One of the photos published by The Chronicle shows a smiling Breed celebrating with with Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, who was also not wearing a mask. According to San Franciscos public health department, every resident, including people who are fully vaccinated, must wear a well-fitted mask in indoor public settings at all times, except when they are actively eating or drinking. It also states that indoor settings, whether public or private, are higher risk for COVID-19 transmission, especially when you are with people you do not live with. In a video published by The Chronicle, Breed can be seen standing and dancing along behind a table full of drinks, but she was not actively drinking or eating, or holding food or a drink. A statement from the mayors office acknowledged that it can be hard to follow public health orders. The mayor was excited to be out and had an incredible night at the Black Cat, and wants to support small businesses, the statement reads. She was with friends at her table, not wearing a mask while eating and drinking and enjoying herself. She knows health orders are hard and asks everyone to do their best to follow them. Breed is not the first California Democrat who has been caught violating COVID-19 restrictions. At the height of the pandemic in November of last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was broadly criticized for attending a party at the famed French Laundry restaurant in Napa without wearing a mask and with visitors from multiple households, after he discouraged state residents from having holiday gatherings. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced similar criticism in September 2020 during the height of the pandemic, after a security camera footage was posted online, which showed her visiting a San Francisco hair salon, which at that time was closed under the citys lockdown order. The congresswoman, who advocated for a nationwide mask mandate, didnt wear a mask during the salon visit. People talk before the start of a rally against critical race theory being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images) School Principals Call on Federal Government to Allow Them Ban Hostile Parents The national organization of middle and high school leaders is urging the Biden administration to do more to protect its members from threats and violence by parents who disagree with COVID-19 restrictions they put in place. In a call for support, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) on Thursday said its members have been faced with hostile community members because of their policies on highly charged issues involving masks, quarantines, and vaccines. The organization cited the confrontation between Teresa M. Hill, the principal of Walden Grove High School in Arizona, and a group of people who wanted to discuss with her a student who was prohibited from returning to class after possibly being exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. One month ago, seven people refused to leave our campus demanding a quarantined student attend class. After a lockdown of the front office for three hours, we were forced to arrest three of them, Hill said in the release, alleging that she became the target of multiple threatening and intimidating messages, emails, and social media comments that called her a Nazi and fascist. School leaders are facing threats because they are simply trying to follow the health and scientific safety guidance that the CDC, state, and local health departments are issuing, the press release reads. NASSP is calling on federal officials to protect school leaders from rampant hostility and violence that disrupts our schools and threatens the safety of our educators and students. Specifically, the NASSP CEO Ronn Nozoe argued that the federal government needs to take more concrete actions, starting from giving school leaders the authority to remove or ban threatening individuals from their schools. At the very least, we need the U.S. Department of Education to issue specific guidance on the authority school leaders have to protect themselves and our ability to remove or ban hostile parents and individuals from school grounds who threaten our safety, said Nozoe. The call comes as the Biden administration is working to support schools that defy their states orders to implement mask requirements and other COVID-19 restrictions. Im directing the secretary of education to take additional steps to protect our children, President Joe Biden said in August. This includes using all of his oversight authorities and legal action if appropriate against governors who are trying to block and intimidate local schools officials and educators. On Sept. 9, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that his department will be offering financial help to school districts with a new grant program called Project SAFE (Supporting Americas Families and Educators). This money is expected to be used to pay school officials whose salaries are being withheld by states for violating orders against enforcing mandates. Students line up before classes start on the first day of the school year, in Montreal on Aug. 31, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes) Schools Can Promote Unity Without Enforcing Ideological Conformity Commentary It is obvious that Canadians are dividedbitterly dividedover a number of important issues. Between the mudslinging of the federal election and the vocal disagreements over how to handle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people are on edge. Family members arent speaking to each other, communities are divided, provinces are at odds with each other, and many friendships have come to end. While these disagreements are bad enough, they are substantially amplified by social media. Before the advent of social media, people could not communicate with many other people in the heat of the moment. Nor could they spread misinformation with the click of a button. With people spending more time than ever online, its not surprising that it has become extremely difficult to see past our differences. To make matters worse, its become easier than ever to avoid people with whom we disagree. Like-minded people tend to join the same organizations, work in similar occupations, and share the same social media circles. As well, people dont hesitate to hit the block button when someone challenges their deeply held views. Fortunately, there is one place where people still interact with each other on a daily basispublic schools. Students attend school for about 200 days a year for 12 years, and they dont have the luxury of avoiding contact with people who are different from themselves. Diversity is the reality in nearly every public school in Canada. Not only do students have to share space with other students who dont share their views, they will almost certainly be taught by teachers who challenge their way of thinking. Just as students do not have the same opinions, neither do teachers. Whether a student is ideologically liberal or conservative, its virtually certain that every one of them will be forced to think through his or her beliefs. Of course, this only holds true when schools allow for viewpoint diversity as opposed to mere diversity of appearance. True diversity is about recognizing that people hold different opinions even if one person finds them offensive. Forcing everyone to think the same way is indoctrination, not education. If people look different but think the same, schools have failed in their mission. The objective is for people to look and think differently. Thus, schools should strive to have a teaching staff that is diverse in thought rather than just in appearance. If students are taught by one left-wing teacher after another, it will be harder to properly expose them to different ways of thinking. It also makes things uncomfortable for students who already hold right-of-centre opinions. This is why school administrators should avoid making social justice initiatives or climate change campaigns the focus of their schools mission. Not all students are going to be comfortable attending anti-pipeline rallies or listening to anti-Israel propaganda. While education faculties typically present many of these topics as settled, they are far from settled in the broader community. Schools need to serve the community, not the ideological agenda of some teachers and administrators. The good news is that it is entirely possible to unite people under a common banner of showing respect for ideological diversity. When teachers allow wide-ranging discussions in their classrooms and when they encourage students to think for themselves, students learn that it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. Political, religious, and ideological differences never need to become personal. Students learn a lot when their teachers do a good job of moderating discussions about controversial topics. Not only do they learn about the topic, but they see their teachers modelling proper discussion etiquette. This is why teachers must remain firmly in control of their classrooms. Its a tricky balance, but one that can be achieved by well-educated and mature teachers. Its also healthy for students to see that their teachers do not always agree with each other. Students who are taught by teachers from various sides of the political spectrum are likely to benefit. They are likely to be better educated because of their exposure to a variety of facts and ideas. The cure for divisiveness does not come from forcing everyone to think the same way. Rather, we need to move forward in unity by accepting ideological differences and learn how to respectfully engage in challenging conversations. It really is possible to have unity in the midst of diversity. The way forward is to show respect for diverse opinion. This is what we need in schools and society today. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Rikers Island jail complex stands in New York with the Manhattan skyline in the background, on June 20, 2014. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo) Staffing Crisis Puts Embattled NYC Jail on the Brink The beleaguered New York City jail on Rikers Island has slipped to the edge of utter chaos due to staffing shortages, poor conditions, and restrictions placed on guards. The city is scrambling to bring in more officers, reduce inmate population, speed up repairs, and clamp down on officers who fail to show up for work. The large jail complex on a small island in the East River has been criticized over disrepair and bad conditions for decades, but the situation has deteriorated further over the past few years. Fights, suicides, and attacks on guards have surged. Ten inmates have died so far this year. Drugs, cell phones, and even wild parties have been reported, with overworked staff sometimes unable to keep order. The city plans to close the jail by 2026 and replace it with four smaller jails across its boroughs. The inmate population was supposed to be gradually reduced, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and courts shut down, the population increased instead. Before the pandemic, there were about 700 inmates at Rikers who had awaited their trial for more than a year. That number has now more than doubled. Many of them have missed court dates because the overwhelmed personnel cant find anybody to take them to court. Many have missed medical appointments for the same reason, according to jail authorities. Despite some officers working triple shifts, the jail sometimes doesnt have enough people to staff all posts. On Sept. 14, 70 units lacked a floor officer, meaning each was manned by a single officer from a stationary post, one of the citys Department of Correction (DOC) officials said during a Sept. 15 City Council hearing. Appalling sanitary conditions have been reported. Inmates live in filth and some even share bags to use as a toilet, according to the citys Public Advocate Jumaane Williams who was among officials that recently visited the jail. I dont think anybody there, working or housed, feels or is safe, he said during the hearing. Security has been at times near-impossible to maintain, based on hearing testimonies and reports in local media. In the young adult facility alone, more than 200 cell doors are broken, leaving inmates free to come and go. The repairs are expected to take until February, said DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi during the hearing. He noted that before he took his post in June, the department estimated it would take two years to fix the doors. This year there have been on average less than 6,000 inmates on Rikers any given day. Thats about half of what it was 10 years ago. With uniformed staff of over 8,000, why cant the jail manage? The main issue is that about a third of the staff is either on sick leave or has a medical exemption saying they cant work directly with inmates, Schiraldi said. Some of those officers have legitimate health issues, and some do not, he suggested. The officers enjoy unlimited sick days and many, it appears, have been taking advantage of the benefit to avoid work. Part of the reason is the series of reforms the city has put in place in recent years, Schiraldi indicated. Since 2015, the city gradually banned the use of solitary confinement for those under 22 or with serious mental illness and scaled it back for everybody else. This kind of confinement, officially called punitive segregation, keeps a misbehaving inmate alone in a cell for up to 20 hours a day and up to 30 days. If prolonged, solitary confinement becomes a form of psychological torture and can drive a person insane. Some activists call for getting rid of it altogether and the city government supports the idea. But the corrections officers union says the confinement is necessary to handle violent inmates and that restrictions on its use already go too far. We cant keep them for more than 30 days, which makes us ask everybody after 30 days what do we do with them? Especially if their behavior doesnt change and isnt modified? head of the union Elias Husamudeen said in 2019. The city further restricted what officers are allowed to do when pacifying a violent inmate. Kicking is banned, striking the inmates head or face is banned, hitting the neck, kidney, or spine area is banned, neck restraints are banned. Meanwhile, activists have been pressuring the city to ramp up disciplinary penalties against correction officers. The push has been fueled by high profile incidents, such as inmates dying allegedly due to staff negligence. The way this was perceived by our correctional officers is that we were punishing staff more and incarcerated people less. And that did not feel good to people, Schiraldi said. So theres a lot of frustration around that and some lowered morale. The COVID-19 pandemic escalated the problem, he said. For one thing, restrictions imposed by the city in response to the virus cut visits, socialization, and programming for inmates, increasing the psychological pressure. As the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus spread through the city, more officers started to call in sick for and the situation started to spiral. More people called in sick, the staffing complement got thinner, people had to work triples, violence rose, programs were cut, the more violence rose and the scarier it got the more staff called in sick, he said. Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced several measures to alleviate the situation. NYPD officers will partially staff courts so some correction officers deployed there can transfer to the jail. Also, officers who fail to report to work without explanation would be suspended without pay for 30 days. There were about 100 such officers on Sept. 14. The city has contracted with a local hospital to check whether officers reported health issues are legitimate. The administration is also expediting emergency repairs at the facilities, Schiraldi said. He called on the state legislature to pass a law that would minimize detention for technical violations, such as breaking of parole rules that doesnt constitute a crime on its own. There are about 275 inmates at the island with such violations and releasing them would alleviate the staffing crunch, he said. Meanwhile the city is trying to hire 600 more corrections officers. With the first academy class starting in October, some 75-125 new officers should report for duty in January, Schiraldi said. The city went as far as to reach out to officers whove resigned or retired in recent years, coming up with several dozen showing interest in returning. Aside from more staff, fewer inmates, and improved safety, the jail also needs more inmate programs, Schiraldi said. The more people are productively occupied, the better facilities run and the better people do when they return home to their neighborhoods and their families. Rafael Mangual, senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, suggested expanding the use of solitary confinement in a recent New York Post op-ed. Theres no indication the city would consider such a step. The DOC and the Correction Officers Benevolent Association didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. The Mayors Office referred The Epoch Times to de Blasios previous remarks on the issue. Update: The article has been updated with a response from the Mayors Office. Teamsters Organizing Workers Unions at 9 Amazon.com Facilities in Canada The Teamsters workers union has launched campaigns to organize employees in at least nine Canadian facilities of U.S. e-commerce company Amazon.com, according to Reuters interviews with union officials. The influential union took the first step earlier this week to organize employees at one of Amazons Canadian facilities, and the interviews reveal it is widening such efforts across the country, where the e-commerce company employs about 25,000 workers and plans to add 15,000 more. The campaigns could be seen as a bet by the Teamsters that early success unionizing employees in a more labor-friendly market such as Canada will inspire similar results south of the border, where Amazon has so far fended off unionization attempts. In the latest challenge to Amazons anti-unionization stance, Edmonton, Albertas Teamsters Local Union 362 filed for a vote on union representation at a company fulfillment center in nearby Nisku late on Monday. Interviews with Teamsters units in other cities and provinces show that the unions efforts stretch from the Pacific coastal province of British Columbia to the Canadian economic heartland in southern Ontario. The Teamsters Edmonton unit says it has enough signed cards calling for a union to meet the 40 percent threshold to require a vote. Two of the unions units in Ontario and one in Alberta have confirmed they are signing membership cards with Amazon workers. And two of the five units that confirmed to Reuters that they are organizing said they are running campaigns at multiple sites, bringing the total Amazon facilities involved in some level of organizing to at least nine. Any locals that have an Amazon facility in their area are doing an organizing campaign, Jim Killey, an organizer with Teamsters Local 879 near Hamilton, Ontario, told Reuters. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier in the week, Amazon Canada spokesperson Dave Bauer said in an emailed statement: As a company, we dont think unions are the best answer for our employees. Unions would prevent the company from changing quickly to meet employees needs and represent the voices of a select few, he added. A sign supporting Amazon workers unionizing is seen in Bessemer, Ala., on Feb. 20, 2021. (Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images) The Teamsters say they can help the workers win better wages and benefits, such as leaves of absence. Sleeping in Their Cars Unionization votes in Canada do not have any direct bearing on the United States, but they could raise enthusiasm, said John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University. Organizing at a place like Amazon requires workers to take a certain amount of risk, Logan said. If they can look to other places and see that that risk has paid off for other workers, then they are far more inclined to do it themselves. Union members are going to great lengths to connect with Amazon workers, sleeping in their cars to catch the employees after graveyard shifts and forging ties at local churches. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has more than a million members in the United States and Canada, has made organizing Amazon a top priority, describing it as an existential threat. Amazon does not have any unionized facilities in North America. The Teamsters is one of a handful of unions trying to undertake the daunting task of organizing its vast, high-churn workforce. Earlier this year, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) lost a vote to organize workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by a more than two-to-one margin. Amazon pushed hard against unionization, and the result is being disputed. The Teamsters have indicated they will not seek to hold such votes in the United States any time soon, arguing the process is unfairly tilted toward employers. But in Canada, where labor laws are more favorable, the Teamsters see an opportunity to go straight to the ballot box. The Teamsters Killey said his chapter is campaigning at Amazon facilities in Milton, Cambridge, and Kitchener, all traditionally working-class towns just west of Toronto, Canadas most populous city. Where we see there is a lot of support, were going to go full steam ahead, said Christopher Monette, spokesperson for Teamsters Canada. Jason Sweet, president of Teamsters Local 419 in Ontario, said his unit has begun signing cards with workers in the greater Toronto area and has formed WhatsApp groups with Amazon workers to keep them abreast of the unions efforts, delivering updates every 48 hours or so. We are trying to build relationships from the inside, he said. In British Columbia, Teamsters Local 31 President Stan Hennessy said potential members have been receptive. Its our hope that we can help these workers, he said. They certainly can use some help. By Julia Love and Moira Warburton Thousands of illegal immigrants gather near the international bridge after crossing the Rio Grande, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Texas Border Mayor Declares Disaster, Closes USMexico Bridge After Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Arrive The mayor of Del Rio, Texas, has closed the international U.S.Mexico bridge after thousands of illegal immigrants arrived in the area and set up camps underneath and around the bridge. Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano, a Democrat, declared a local state of disaster and said his city is closing toll booths on the international bridge to the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna to halt traffic, while adding that he has requested state assistance to deal with the burgeoning crisis. City officials, he said, are expecting about 8,000 more illegal aliens to arrive in the area in the coming days. Dire circumstances require dire responses, Lozano said during a news conference, saying that such measures are done as a security precaution. Theres people having babies down there [under the bridge], theres people collapsing out of the heat, the mayor said. Theyre pretty aggressive, rightly sotheyve been in the heat day after day after day. He added that its something that [is] very challenging to describe in words, but its extremely chaotic. In all, there are about 12,000 illegal immigrants amassed around the international bridge, the mayor said. Highlighting the significant increase in illegal aliens over the past week, Lozano said there were only 2,000 under the bridge on Monday. Were hearing reports that there [are] unauthorized bus systems transporting individuals to the border states such as Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico, he said. 10,503 illegal aliens are under this bridge tonight because Joe Biden made a political decision to cancel deportation flights to Haiti. The Border Patrol is overcapacity. Its indefensible, its inhuman, and it was entirely caused by Biden & Harris. #BidenBorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/LmWV52nmJc Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 17, 2021 Journalists on the scene say that the majority of those assembled under the bridge are Haitian nationals who are seeking asylum amid political instability. Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens said that he believes the vast majority are Haitian, adding that some families have been under the bridge for six days, according to The Associated Press. Amid the crisis, Republicans in Congress have gone on the offensive against President Joe Biden, accusing him of not doing enough to prevent the surge in illegal immigration at the border. Since taking office, Biden has signed dozens of executive orders to rescind Trump-era policies, including suspending construction of the border wall. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a judges order to reinstate the Trump-era remain in Mexico policy, although the Justice Department said in court filings this week that discussions with the Mexican government are underway. Thousands of illegal immigrants amass in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Migrants stand by the International Bridge between Mexico and the United States, in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Office of U.S. Congressman Tony Gonzales/via Reuters) On Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who traveled down to Del Rio to observe, released a video from beneath the bridge. The footage showed thousands of illegal immigrants behind a metal fence. The reason theyre here is simple, Cruz says in the video. Eight days ago, the Biden administration made a political decision, a political decision to cancel deportation flights to Haiti. They did that on Sept. 8. Eight days later these numbers appear. On Sept. 8, underneath this bridge, there were between 700 and a thousand people, Cruz continued, adding: But when the word got out that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were no longer deporting people who came from Haiti, suddenly everyone who was here called their friends, called their family, and the numbers surged to 10,503. Thats whats here today. It is more than the capacity of the Border Patrol to handle. The Department of Homeland Security hasnt yet responded to a request for comment. Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said during an MSNBC segment Friday that the administration will address it accordingly. Visitors wait in line to view the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) The Anti-Slavery Heritage of the Constitution Commentary This Constitution Day, Sept. 17, marks the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in 1787. Since that day, America has extended human rights and liberties to a larger and more diverse people than ever in the history of the world. Even s0, the Constitution is routinely attacked as being racist, pro-slavery, or somehow antithetical to freedom. The notoriously debunked 1619 Project claimed, When it came time to draft the Constitution, the framers carefully constructed a document that preserved and protected slavery. Even a relatively brief review of the Constitutional Convention and subsequent historical events will show that, far from defending slavery, the Constitution was a document of liberty that put that institution on notice. When the Framers arrived in Philadelphia to draft the Constitution in 1787, many of the leaders were strong advocates for universal liberty. The struggle for independence against England had seen a corresponding explosion of anti-slavery sentiments among the American states. Many of the Founding Fathers were leaders in the fight against slavery and helped pass pro-freedom laws in their own states. In fact, Pennsylvania had already passed a law for the gradual abolition of slavery in 1780, and by 1783, Massachusetts had abolished slavery completely. Therefore, when they gathered to write the Constitution it shouldnt be surprising to find a substantial number of delegates working to undermine the institution of slavery on the national stage. James Madisons journal from the Constitutional Convention shows that many of the major players were strongly against slavery. Had the writers of the 1619 Project even bothered to read Madisons notes, they would have seen ample proof of the Constitutions anti-slavery heritage. For example, Roger Sherman, who was one of the most active members, said that he regarded the slave trade as iniquitous. Gouverneur Morris, who is largely responsible for the wording of the Constitution, declared that he never would concur in upholding domestic slavery. It was a nefarious institution. It was the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed. Morris even went on to say of the slaves, Are they men? Then, make them citizens, and let them vote. They were far from the only ones to voice their objection to slavery. George Mason, who was Washingtons neighbor and a slave owner himself, nevertheless denounced slavery in no uncertain terms while at the Convention. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant, he explained. They bring the judgement of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. See these additional examples of anti-slavery sentiment during the Constitutional Convention: Mr. [Oliver] Ellsworth, as he had never owned a slave, could not judge of the effects of slavery on character. He said, however, that if it was to be considered in a moral light, we ought to go farther, and free those already in the country. Mr. [Elbridge] Gerry thought we ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it [slavery]. Mr. [John] Dickinson considered it as inadmissible, on every principle of honor and safety, that the importation of slaves should be authorized to the States by the Constitution. Luther Martin: It [slavery] was inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution, and dishonorable to the American character to have such a feature in the Constitution. Mr. [Hugh] Williamson said, that both in opinion and practice he was against slavery. Mr. [James] Madison. Twenty years will produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a term will be more dishonorable to the American character, than to say nothing about it in the Constitution. Despite this strong anti-slavery contingent, there were enough pro-slavery delegates that in order to keep the nation together, certain compromises had to be made. From an anti-slavery perspective, if the Union fell apart and the pro-slavery states formed their own nation, then there would be no chance of stopping the practice at all. Even something such as the three-fifths clause was a compromise that limited the pro-slavery representatives in Congress, while keeping the nation together until a time that slavery could be ended. (For an excellent explanation of the three-fifths clause, watch Carol Swains video at PragerU.) Once the wording had been finalized, the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification. At these state conventions, delegates repeatedly identified that the Constitution, despite the compromises, paved the way for the destruction of slavery. James Wilson, who had helped frame the Constitution, explained that I consider this as laying the foundation for banishing slavery out of this country. At the Virginia ratification convention, Patrick Henry pointed to the Constitution as setting up the legal framework for abolition: Slavery is detestedwe feel its fatal effectswe deplore it with all the pity of humanity. Let all these considerations, at some future period, press with full force on the minds of Congress. Let that urbanity, which I trust will distinguish America, and the necessity of national defenselet all these things operate on their minds. They will search that paper [the Constitution], and see if they have power of manumission. And have they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defense and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? Clearly, a significant portion of the most significant Founders viewed the Constitution as something that was an important first step in securing freedom for all people. Although not able to achieve their ultimate end in their own generation, when it came time to fulfill the spirit of the law and abolish slavery, it was the Constitution that pointed the way. Perhaps the most significant leader in the fight against slavery was Frederick Douglass. Having been born a slave and suffered greatly, he rose to a position of national importance in advocating for liberty. At first, Douglass thought that the Constitution was pro-slavery because that was what he had been taught. However, he decided to study the issue for himself and concluded that far from being pro-slavery, the Constitution of our country is our warrant for the abolition of slavery in every State for the Union. Elsewhere, Douglass explained that the Constitution was in its letter and spirit an anti-slavery instrument, demanding the abolition of slavery. Almost as if he was responding to the charges of the 1619 Project and revisionist historians of today, Douglass denounced those who charge this baseness on the framers of the Constitution of the United States. It is a slander upon their memory. Interpreted, as it ought to be interpreted, the Constitution is a Glorious Liberty Document. There were a significant number of anti-slavery Framers of the Constitution who deliberatively structured the document so that the people who came after them could accomplish what they had prayed forthe end of slavery. Abolitionists such as Douglass recognized that the principles enshrined by the Constitution set the stage for the national abolition and provided the necessary framework for the states to begin the process themselves. This Constitution Day, lets learn the truth behind its history. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. President Joe Biden speaks during an event with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (L) and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) The New AUKUS Alliance Puts Meat on the Military Challenge to Beijing Commentary Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Sept. 16 took a major step toward creating a meaningful new strategic allianceAUKUSto constrain adventurism by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and to project Western power in the Indo-Pacific. The deal was developed quickly and in secret (even from senior Australian Cabinet ministers, who were recalled to Canberra physically or by electronic link) during the first weeks of September, and would be cemented in a formal meeting this month between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and U.S. President Joe Biden. The deal finally paves the way for the following: The acquisition by Australia of nuclear-powered submarines and the concurrent development of an Australian nuclear power capability (essential to support the submarine reactors) for the first time since the country was an active and major partner in the Allied nuclear weapons program in World War II. This would lower domestic energy costs and minimize oil importation and refining logjams. The immediate abandonment of the failed program to procure for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) of 12 French Attack-class (Longfin Barracuda Block 1A SSKs) conventional submarines, a project that could have cost anything up to AU$180 billion (US$132 billion) but with no vessels in service for more than a decade. Meanwhile, the RANs looming submarine gap, as its existing fleet of six Collins-class SSKs faces the end of its service life, would be filled by U.S. and UK nuclear submarines based with the Australian fleet, pending Australian acquisition of its own nuclear-powered vessels using U.S. and UK technology. Significantly, the Collins-class boats will remain in vital service, and with a service-life extension program (SLEP) because these conventionally powered vessels are better suited to the shallow Southeast Asian seas than are the U.S. and UK nuclear attack submarines. A major revival of UKAustralian defense cooperation at a level unseen since the collapse of Australian trust in the British defense alliance with the surrender of Singapore to Japanese forces in February 1942. While defense cooperation continued after that time, Australia moved to a reliance on the ANZUS Treaty with the United States and New Zealand, particularly with the watershed decision to cancel a planned buy of British BAC TSR.2 strategic strike aircraft in favor of U.S. General Dynamics F-111C strike aircraft in October 1963. Increased bilateral integration between Australia and the UK as part of the growing CANZUK bloc (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK), especially as Australia and the UK wait for New Zealand and Canada to move off their temporizing position, which has been accommodating to China. The movement of the United States into a position of primus inter pares (first among equals) in the new bloc as burden-sharing reengages the UK into the Indo-Pacific in a way not seen since the UK withdrew from its East of Suez posture in the 1960s. This overall position would diminish reliance on Washington as far as Canberra and London were concerned, but would lock the United States into deeper integration on a reliable basis, without the short-term concerns over the reliability of the New Zealand government (an ANZUS and Five Eyes alliance partner). A picture of Australias current Collins Class Submarines joined in formation by U.S. Navy submarine USS Santa Fe in the West Australian Exercise Area in February 2019. (Courtesy of LSIS Richard Cordell/Department of Defense) The new alliance, AUKUS (AustraliaUnited KingdomUnited States), substantially increases security-related technology exchanges and joint programs between the three nations. It will lead to a joint nuclear submarine capability withfor the first timeU.S. Navy and possibly Royal Navy nuclear attack (and possibly cruise missile) submarine capabilities based out of the Royal Australian Navy base, HMAS Stirling, near Perth on the Indian Ocean. The move, to an extent, takes primacy over the quadrilateral alliance (the Quad) between the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, particularly given the realization in Washington that the Quad couldnt constrain India from long-term strategic moves that might not necessarily align with the United States or the West. The new alliance structure seems to have been pushed forcefully by Australia to ensure that it could, in fact, credibly project power into Southeast Asia and the northern Indian Ocean, something it couldnt do sufficiently well without upgraded submarine and fleet-based air power. The new alliance will include closer integration of Australian naval elements with UK and U.S. carrier air cover. It still envisages Australia functioning as a coalition partner with the United States and the UK, but with greater participation and equality than ever before. Still, the RAN needs to consider some integral naval air capabilityprobably with unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) operating from its two Canberra-class flat-top shipswhile the Royal Australian Air Force works with Australian industry to project an indigenous, long-range hypersonic weapons capability, probably air-launched, against remote targets. This is a transformative strategic move that significantly counters Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) projection in the Indo-Pacific, while significantly boosting the return of the UK to the global power stage. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The area around the Teneguia volcano on La Palma, one of Spain's Canary Islands, in a file photo. (FORTA/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Threat of Volcanic Eruption Puts Spanish Island on Alert MADRIDA series of small earthquakes in Spains Canary Islands has put authorities on alert for a possible volcanic eruption, with one official saying Thursday there is intense seismic activity in the area off northwest Africa. Authorities have detected more than 4,200 temblors in what scientists are calling an earthquake swarm around La Palma island since last Saturday. An earthquake swarm is a cluster of quakes in one area during a short period and can indicate an approaching eruption. But officials said they had no indication an eruption was imminent, and a scientific committee monitoring the activity said that the number of tremors and their magnitude had fallen Thursday. Even so, the Scientific Committee for the Special Civil Protection Plan and Emergency Response for Volcanic Risks warned there could be a rapid, renewed surge in quakes and kept the public warning level on yellow, according to private Spanish news agency Europa Press. The area around the Teneguia volcano on La Palma, one of Spains Canary Islands, in a file photo. (FORTA/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Volcano warnings are announced in accordance with the level of risk, rising through green, yellow, orange and red. The committee reported that ground depressions up to 10 centimeters (4 inches) deep have formedan occurrence often attributed to magma movements. Before a volcano erupts, there is a gradual increase in seismic activity that can build up over a prolonged period. The area around the Teneguia volcano on La Palma, one of Spains Canary Islands, in a file photo. (FORTA/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute said that by Thursday 11 million cubic meters (388 million cubic feet) of molten rock had been pushed into Cumbre Vieja, a dormant volcanic ridge on La Palma where the last eruption was in 1971. The strongest quake so far was a magnitude 3.4 one, according to the institute. La Palma has a population of around 85,000 people. The institute has is telling staff on the island to monitor any changes, including testing the water in wells. The Canary Islands are a volcanic archipelago made up of eight islands. At their nearest point to Africa, they are 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Morocco. Tradition and the Democracy of the Dead Commentary In Four Quartets, one of the most celebrated poems of the last century, T.S. Eliot writes: Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future/ And time future contained in time past. A people without history/ Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern/ Of timeless moments. Eliots meditations on time are relevant to the theme of this article. The idea of the democracy of the dead originated with Edmund Burke. In his Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in 1790, more than a year before the revolution reached its height, with the streets of Paris flowing with blood, he wrote: Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born. Each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of eternal society, linking the lower with the higher natures, connecting the visible and invisible world, according to a fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all physical and all moral natures, each in their appointed place. This idea of contract, compact, or partnership between the generations is what the 20th-century Catholic apologist G.K. Chesterton named the democracy of the dead. In his book Orthodoxy he argued: I have never been able to understand where people got the idea that democracy was in some way opposed to tradition. It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. British philosopher Roger Scruton understood well the nature of this relationship: The dead and the unborn are as much members of society as the living. To dishonour the dead is to reject the relation on which society is builtthe relation of obligation between generations. Those who have lost respect for their dead have ceased to be trustees of their inheritance. Inevitably, therefore, they lose the sense of obligation to future generations. The web of obligations shrinks to the present tense. The two great intellectual enemies of the idea of the contract between the dead, the living, and the unborn are Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Paine. In The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau rejects the idea that tradition has any authority over us. On the contrary, tradition weighs us down; it prevents us from being free. Calling for the overthrow of all tradition, in education, in music, and in all areas of life, he began what was soon to become a widespread habit: blaming society for the evil deeds of people, of calling for the reform of institutions rather than the rehabilitation of wrongdoers. This is the position of both Marxists and modern-day liberals or progressives, as they like to think of themselves. Yet it is worth recalling that, like many others on the leftsuch as Marx, Lenin, Stalin, MaoRousseaus private life was appallingly narcissistic and destructive. The father of five children, he sent every one of them to an orphanage immediately upon birth, despite being well able to support them. The man sometimes called the philosopher of compassion practised serial child abandonment. Could Rousseau have been unaware that he was consigning his children to almost certain death? Thomas Paine, in Rights of Man (1791), was also scathing in his dismissal of tradition. He boasted that he was an advocate for the emancipation of the individual from the oppressive ties of tradition, particularly the notion that the dead have any authority over the living: I am contending for the rights of the living, and against their being willed away, and controlled and contracted for, by the assumed authority of the dead, and Mr. Burke is contending for the authority of the dead over the rights and freedom of the living. According to Paine, we have to throw off the oppressive dead-weight of the past, and so enable the present generation to live their lives freely, unencumbered by the deceased. For the past two centuries and more this is precisely what we in the West have been doing, in our schools and universities, in the church, in the military, in the law, and virtually every other institution you can think of. Yet it is debatable if this has brought either greater freedom or greater human happiness. Edward Shils puts his finger on this dilemma in his book Tradition: To have experienced the disappearance of ones own biological and cultural ancestors without the compensating acquisition of new ones confines a person in his own generation. This is not easily borne, though the sources of unease are not perceived because the vocabulary available to describe this experience is very poor. It is poor because modern societies in the west have been trying to make it appear that affirmation of dependence on the past is a defect. Yes, a defect, and yet if we are honest, we have to acknowledge that there is no literal or mechanical way in which the concept of the democracy of the dead could be implemented. How many votes would we allow the dead in comparison to the living? And how can we tell how they would vote? It is one thing to show respect for the contributions of those who have gone before us. It is quite a different thing to imply that they could ever have a place at the table of our decision-making except purely metaphorically. At all times we must depend on the graciousness of the living to admit a voice for those who have gone before, and also show consideration for those who are to come. When you are young you tend not to appreciate what those who went before have done for you. For example, in the 1920s a Canadian industrialist and philanthropist called Reuben Wells Leonard set up a series of tuition scholarships for students entering the University of Toronto. His generosity and foresight meant that many students had their way paid and were enabled to sail through university without having to worry about money. I was one of those students, but it didnt occur to me to feel or express any gratitude to my benefactor until many years later. Since then, Leonard has been vilified as a racist and misogynist. If we are genuinely alive to the contributions of our forebears to our present well-being, the least we can do is behave as if they were present at the table and had a share in our decision-making. In reality they do have a place at our table, in the shape of our countless customs, liturgies, treaties, common law, public buildings, houses, and churches. They also find a place in our language and daily habits, in our training of children to say please and thank you, and in expressions like goodbye, a contraction of God be with you. Far better this implicit respect for the dead than the current craze for trashing their memory, throwing paint on or demolishing their statues, and trying to pretend they never did anything good. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. OTTAWAPrime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada spearheaded an international declaration denouncing state-sponsored arbitrary detentions because of Chinas decision to imprison Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Trudeau made the connection for the first time Friday during a federal election campaign appearance in Windsor, Ont. In February, when the federal government announced that it had created a coalition of dozens of countries denouncing the practice, it played down any connection that it was specifically targeting China, which has been angered by the declaration, nonetheless. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said at the time the declaration was country agnostic and was meant to be a broad denunciation of a coercive practices taking place in numerous countries, including Russia, Iran, and North Korea. But on Friday, when asked about Canadas exclusion from a new American-Australian-British alliance on intelligence sharing in the Indo-Pacific region, Trudeau touted a number of other Canadian geopolitical alliances, including its historic role in NATO and its relatively new effort on calling out state-sponsored arbitrary detention. We continue to be there as a strong proponent for multilateralism, including on moving forward on things like the international agreement on arbitrary detentions that obviously stems from the arbitrary detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, but that concerns all countries around the world, Trudeau said. While the government has routinely branded Kovrig and Spavors arrests by China as arbitrary, and called for their release, it went to great lengths not to portray the new arbitrary-detention initiative as something that was aimed directly at China. China has accused the two men of being spies, a claim rejected by Canada and its allies. The arrests are widely viewed as retaliation for the RCMPs December 2018 arrest of Chinese high-tech executive Meng Wanzhou on an American extradition request. The new declaration was born out of a year of behind-the-scenes international diplomacy in 2020 and was led by Garneaus predecessor as foreign affairs minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne. More than 60 countries have since signed on to the new pact, which doesnt have any mechanism to force offending countries to adhere to it. China has sharply criticized all attempts by Canada to build an international coalition to press it to release Kovrig and Spavor. And it has dismissed the arbitrary-detention declaration as essentially toothless and lacking the support of the majority of countries. The unexpected new alliance announced earlier this week between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, known as AUKUS, raised questions internationally, and in Canada and the U.S. It became an issue on the federal election campaign trail where Conservative Leader Erin OToole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh criticized Trudeau for Canadas absence from the new pact. Trudeau shrugged off the criticism, saying Canada continues to be a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance that includes the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand. He also said the new AUKUS alliance was about bolstering Australias navy against Chinese ambitions in the region by giving access to American nuclear submarine technology. Canada wasnt in the market for nuclear submarines, and therefore, this particular deal didnt involve us, Trudeau said Friday. By Mike Blanchfield A man is seen near cyber code and the U.S. National Security Agency logo in this photo illustration taken in Sarajevo March 11, 2015. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters, Files) U.S. Court Upholds Dismissal of Lawsuit Against NSA on State Secrets Grounds A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, that challenged the National Security Agencys mass interception and searching of Americans international internet communications. In a divided ruling on Wednesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the lawsuit must be dismissed after the government invoked the state secrets privilege, which meant that a full exploration of the issue in a court would damage national security. The Wikimedia Foundation had said in its lawsuit that the NSAs Upstream surveillance program captures some of its international communications and is a violation of the U.S. constitutions First Amendment free-speech rights and its Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Although the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the government as to Wikimedias standing, we agree that the state secrets privilege requires the termination of this suit, Judge Albert Diaz wrote in a majority opinion by the court. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, who dissented in the court ruling, warned that the majority opinion stands for a sweeping proposition: A suit may be dismissed under the state secrets doctrine, after minimal judicial review, even when the government premises its only defenses on far-fetched hypotheticals. Upstreams existence was revealed in leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 and the lawsuit was filed in the aftermath of those revelations. The Wikimedia Foundation said it disagreed with the ruling on Wednesday and is considering options for further review in the courts. In the face of extensive public evidence about NSA surveillance, the courts reasoning elevates extreme claims of secrecy over the rights of Internet users, said James Buatti, senior legal manager at the Wikimedia Foundation. The lawsuit was first dismissed in 2015 after a U.S. District judge found lack of evidence that the NSA was conducting surveillance at full throttle. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived the case in 2017 and sent it back to the lower court, which again dismissed it in 2019. By Kanishka Singh A commuter wears a mask as he sits in a bus shelter with NHS signage promoting "Stay Home, Save Lives" in Chinatown, central London, UK, on Jan. 8, 2021. (Tolga Akmen /AFP via Getty Images) UK Data Suggests Long COVID Less Common Than Feared The prevalence of so-called long-COVID in the UK is less common than previously estimated, official data suggests. According to an update published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday, only 3 percent of people who tested positive for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus had symptoms lasting more than 12 weeks, substantially lower than the ONS previous estimation published in April (13.7 percent). The ONS said the new analysis benefited from both longer follow-up time and updated statistical methodology. Researchers analysed data between April 26, 2020, and Aug. 1 this year from more than 20,000 Coronavirus Infection Survey participants who had a positive PCR test for the CCP virus, and who can be matched to a control participant. Among the control group, who didnt test positive for the CCP virus, 0.5 percent had symptoms lasting 12 weeks or longer. The 12 symptoms that ONS asked about were fever, headache, muscle ache, weakness/tiredness, nausea/vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, sore throat, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste, and loss of smell. Due to the observational nature of the study, its impossible to know for certain what were the causes of the symptoms, the ONS said. While including non-continuous symptoms, 5 percent of the COVID group had symptoms at a point in time between 1216 weeks after infection. In the control group, 3.4 percent of the participants had these symptoms, demonstrating the relative commonness of these symptoms in the population at any given time, the ONS said. The ONS stressed that theres currently no universally agreed definition of long COVID, and different studies are using different methods in their research into the phenomenon. To include other known COVID symptoms outside of the 12 specified symptoms, researchers also asked participants to self-report long COVID. Approximately 11.7 percent of participants with COVID-19 would describe themselves as having long COVID 12 weeks after infection, and 7.5 percent said they had long COVID that resulted in limitation to day-to-day activities. Irrespective of the approach to measurement, post-acute symptom prevalence was highest in females, adults aged 50 to 69 years, people with a pre-existing health condition, and those with signs of high viral load at the time of infection, the ONS added. UN Releases New Synthesis Report on National-Level Emissions Cuts The Earth is on its way to exceeding the Paris Agreements targets of 1.5 degrees to 2 degrees Celsius warming above pre-industrial levels, the U.N. Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) says its synthesis report detailing nationally determined contributions to meeting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a Sept. 17 statement that the report shows that the world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7-degrees of heating. Science tells that we need a 45 percent cut in emissions by 2030 to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century, he said in the statement. Todays report implies an increase of 16 percent in emissions in 2030 compared to 2010 levels. Guterres went further during remarks he made during the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate. Developed countries must fulfill the longstanding pledge to mobilize $100 billion a year to support climate action in developing countries, he said, referring to a decision strongly urging developed countries to increase their financial support of developing countries. The U.N. defines China, the worlds largest emitter of greenhouse gases, as one of the worlds developing economies alongside India, Brazil, and countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while the United States, the European Union, and Japan are among what the U.N. defines as developed economies. Yet Guterress statement also called for action from the broader G-20, which includes China, Brazil, and other large, non-OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) economies. G-20 nations account for 80 [percent] of global emissions. Their leadership is needed more than ever, Guterres said. The decisions they take now will determine whether the promise made at Paris is kept or broken. In his remarks to the forum, Guterres said coal in particular is a major impediment to reducing emissions, noting that if all planned coal plants become operational, we will not only be clearly above 1.5 degreeswe will be well above 2 degrees. We need coalitions of solidaritybetween countries that still depend heavily on coal and countries that have the financial and technical resources to support transitions, he said. In February, the Global Energy Monitor reported that China was developing 247 gigawatts of coal powerdwarfing Germanys total coal-fired capacity of 42.5 gigawatts and in excess of the United States total coal-fired capacity of 229 gigawatts. The U.N. has faced criticism for permitting China, the largest financial backer in its 2021 budget, to continue using coal power through 2040, while pressuring OECD countries to halt coal use by 2030. U.S. President Joe Biden and John Kerry, his special presidential envoy for climate, also spoke at the forum, with Biden remarking on his absolute trust in Kerry. Biden touted his commitments to international climate financing, highlighting his April pledge to double our climate finance, triple our support for adaptation by 2024 for developing nations. I can assure you that were looking for ways to go even further toward meeting the collective goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year [for the developing world], Biden said. The report itself claimed that the full implementation of nationally determined contributions, including both unconditional and conditional elements, could lead to global emissions peaking before 2030. Critics of the U.N.s response to climate change pushed back against the report. The report shows that while nations are happy to promise to cut emissions, actual emissions cuts are not being undertaken and are not even really possible, at least while maintaining and growing economies and standards of living, Steve Milloy, proprietor of the website JunkScience.com, told The Epoch Times. The even more cynical media and activists dont care about actual cuts. They hope the pressure on politicians to panic on climate will lead to legislation and court orders that give the activists (aka the political left) the political power they seek to gain total control of our economy and society. Energy expert Alex Epstein responded to the report on Twitter. A goal of slashing GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions to the levels that the UN claims are necessary to limit warming to 1.5C never had any chance of happeningbecause fossil fuels are by far the lowest-cost source of reliable energy for most of the world. Unreliable solar and wind cant come close, he wrote. The main reason global GHG emissions are rising is because billions of people in the developing world are bringing themselves out of poverty by using fossil fuels to power factories, farms, vehicles, and appliances. This is a wonderful thing that we should not stop. Epstein went on to describe the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to begin in November, as a crime against humanity, especially the poor. I encourage African nations, in particular, to boycott the event, as they are its greatest victims, he said. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (R) and Australian Minister for Defense Peter Dutton stand for their national anthems during an honor cordon at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Sept. 15, 2021 (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) US Aircraft, Troop Rotations Likely to Increase in Australia: AUSMIN Meeting The United States will look to increase troop and military aircraft rotations in Australia as cooperation between the allies ramps up, following the recent signing of the AUKUS trilateral, security agreement amid ongoing tensions with Beijing in the region. Australias Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton visited and met with their U.S. counterparts, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, for four hours on Sept. 17 morning EST, during the 2021 iteration of the AUSMIN talkswhich are held annually. Austin said increasing the U.S. militarys presence in Australia was an exciting opportunity. Today, we endorsed major force posture initiatives that will expand our access and presence in Australia, he told reporters in Washington D.C. Dutton said, The air capability will be enhanced, the maritime capability enhanced, and certainly the force posture enhanced. If that includes basing and includes the storage of different ordinances, I think that is in Australias best interests, in our national interests at this point in time, he said. (L-R) Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin pose for a group photograph at the State Department in Washington on Sept. 16, 2021. (Andrew Harnik/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) A joint statement released by both parties outlined a host of initiatives to be undertaken by AUSMIN leaders, including increased cooperation on technological innovation, development of secure supply chains, and support for human rights and multilateralism. As well as welcoming Australias decision to adopt Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions. AUSMIN also saw the secretaries and ministers commit to significantly advance Australia-U.S. force posture cooperation, which included enhanced air cooperation through the rotational deployment of all types of U.S. aircraft in Australia; increased logistics and sustainment capabilities of U.S. naval vessels; and more complex land-based military exercises. Currently, the U.S. rotates 2,500 marines in the northern city of Darwin, under a 2011 agreement. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison backed the idea of a more prominent US military presence in the country. We obviously continue to work on the ways we can work further together, not just in the land space but in the maritime and the air space as well, he told ABC radio on Sept. 17. What were talking about is exercises we do together, the way we work together in all of those domains, he added. That has always been a feature of how we work together, and we want to do that with more and more of our partners. Morrison is due to visit the White House next week to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden, along with fellow QuadQuadrilateral Security Dialogueleaders, Prime Ministers Yoshihide Suga of Japan, and Narendra Modi of India. The meeting will also coincide with the United Nations General Assembly, which Biden will address on Sept. 21. On Sept. 16, U.S. President Biden, the British and Australian Prime Ministers Boris Johnson, and Morrison announced the AUKUS pact during a joint virtual press conference from each of their capitals. The new alliance will see the U.S. and UK governments assist Australia with acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, and the development of a supporting industrial base. The move would make Australia one of the only countries in the worldoutside the United States, UK, China, Russia, France, Indiato operate nuclear-powered subs, despite being a non-nuclear power. We will launch a trilateral effort of 18 months, which will involve teamstechnical and strategic and navy teamsfrom all three countries to identify the optimal pathway of delivery of this capability, according to a joint statement by the three governments. The partnership is likely to have significant ramifications globally. It will bolster the U.S. (post-Afghanistan) and UK governments (post-Brexit) presence in the Indo-Pacific, while marking a significant shift for Australias defence capabilities (which has long eschewed nuclear development due to cultural sensitives and prohibitions under law). Experts believe Asian nations like South Korea and Japan, who have previously relied on conventional, diesel-electric powered submarines, could seek to adopt Australias model, and incorporate nuclear propulsion. A COVID-19 vaccine record card is seen at a vaccination site in Miami Gardens, Fla., on April 14, 2021. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images) US Border Patrol Seizes 1,683 Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Cards From China U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials in Cincinnati have seized a total of 1,683 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards from China. The U.S. border authority made the announcement in a press release published on Sept. 16. It said the counterfeit cards had misspellings and were of substandard printing quality, even though the cards displayed a logo from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The fake cards, arriving at the Port of Cincinnati from China in five different shipments since Aug. 16, were destined for non-medical entities in private residences and apartments in five statesIllinois, Maryland, Missouri, New York, and Texas. The shipments also contained 2,034 fake Pfizer inoculation stickers. U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germanys BioNTech jointly developed a COVID-19 vaccine that is now dubbed Comirnaty. How much does the COVID vaccine cost-its free. So why would you pay to purchase a counterfeit vaccine card? In the past month, Cincinnati CBP has seized total of 1,683 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards and 2,034 fake Pfizer inoculation stickers.https://t.co/3bdMkIGXsD pic.twitter.com/d5A1cLsy5i CBP Chicago (@CBPChicago) September 16, 2021 Creating or buying a fake COVID-19 vaccination card is illegal, not to mention dangerous, Cincinnati Port Director Richard Gillespie said, according to the release. Gillespie added, Purchasing counterfeit cards supports criminals whose only concern is their bank account, not American security or the health of our citizens. Many areas have enacted a variety of vaccine mandates, prompting people who do not want to get a jab to falsify their immunization status. Three Vermont State troopers resigned after an investigation showing that they created fake vaccination cards. An Illinois woman was arrested in early September for allegedly trying to use a falsified vaccination card when entering Hawaii. According to the CDC, more than 180 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Sept. 16. COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The seizure in Cincinnati is hardly an isolated case. CBP officials have made similar seizures of fake vaccination cards from China in Memphis, Anchorage, Chicago, and Pittsburgh since August. The seizures in Memphis and Anchorage resulted in more than 6,000 fake vaccination cards. The seizure in Chicago took place on Aug. 31, when CBP officials seized a parcel destined for a residential address in Ohio. The parcel contained 19 fake COVID-19 vaccination cards. In Pittsburgh, one shipment containing 70 fake vaccination cards was seized on Aug. 24, while another shipment containing 50 fake cards was seized on Sept. 7, according to CBP. The two shipments were headed to Beaver County in Pennsylvania. Coronavirus and its variants continue to pose a serious health and safety threat to American citizens, and so do unscrupulous vendors who peddle counterfeit COVID vaccination cards, said William Fitting, CBPs Port Director in Pittsburgh, according to a CBP statement released on Sept. 15. Gen. Frank McKenzie, Commander of U.S. Central Command, appears on screen as he speaks from MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Fla., on Aug. 30, 2021. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo) US Military: Up to 10 Civilians Killed in Airstrike in Kabul As many as 10 civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, last month, the U.S. military said Friday. Additionally, the strike does not appear to have killed anybody with or linked to the terrorist group ISIS-K, U.S. Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters during a press conference. The revelations were informed by an investigation directed by McKenzie after the Aug. 29 strike, which was carried out in retaliation for a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. service members. U.S. military leaders had repeatedly portrayed the strike as a successful attack, even as family members of the deceased insisted there was no connection between them and the ISIS offshoot. At this point, we think that the procedures were correctly followed and it was a righteous strike, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington on Sept. 1. That stance was shifted on Friday, when McKenzie revealed the results of the probe, which found that as many as 10 civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike. Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-K or were a direct threat to U.S. forces, he added. I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed. This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport. But it was a mistake, and I offer my sincere apology. As the combatant commander, I am fully responsible for the strike and this tragic outcome. The stunning admission drew criticism from members of Congress, including Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who highlighted how President Joe Biden was headed to Delaware for a weekend vacation as McKenzie delivered his remarks. Bidens Pentagon admits that they killed 10 innocent people in Kabul, not the targeted ISIS-K terrorists. Meanwhile, Biden is taking a vacation on the beach, shirking off responsibility, holding no one accountable. Biden is a disgrace, Biggs wrote on Twitter. Its an unbelievable tragedy that 10 civilians including an aid worker & 7 children were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan. My heart is with the families. We need more transparency and oversight to ensure this does not happen again, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) added. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Afghan residents and family members of the victims gather next to a damaged vehicle inside a house, a day after a U.S. drone airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 30, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a written statement that he was briefed on the findings of the probe on Friday morning. On behalf of the men and women of the Department of Defense, I offer my deepest condolences to surviving family members of those who were killed, including Mr. Ahmadi, and to the staff of Nutrition and Education International, Mr. Ahmadis employer, he said, referring to Emal Ahmady, who said he translated for an American company for three years starting in 2011. We now know that there was no connection between Mr. Ahmadi and ISIS-Khorasan, that his activities on that day were completely harmless and not at all related to the imminent threat we believed we faced, and that Mr. Ahmadi was just as innocent a victim as were the others tragically killed. We apologize, and we will endeavor to learn from this horrible mistake. The strike was rushed because U.S. military officials believed there was an imminent threat to American service members, who at the time were holding Kabuls airport to facilitate evacuations of U.S. citizens and others out of Afghanistan, according to McKenzie. The strike was based on intelligence conveying a threat from a white Toyota Corolla, but the investigation found the military struck a car that posed no threat. We struck under the theory of reasonable certainty. Probably our strikes in Afghanistan going forward will be under a higher standard, McKenzie said. Ahmady told news outlets shortly after the strike that five children and five adults among his relatives were killed in the strike. He said he had been seeking a Special Immigrant Visa, given to those who helped U.S. troops during the decades-long war in Afghanistan but that he is no longer seeking to emigrate to the United States. My message for the USA and other countries is that they should try and avoid making mistakes in Afghanistan. Do not try to target civilian people. Because Afghan people like members of their family a lot. And when they lose a father or brother or son [its] very difficult for them, Ahmady, also spelled Ahmadi in some reports, told Euro News. Photographs and video footage from the scene showed the white Toyota pulverized and a red SUV next to it charred from the explosion. U.S. Central Command initially said that the strike was followed by other explosions, claiming that indicat[ed] a large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties. McKenzie said Friday that it took a while to uncover what had actually happened. He said the investigative report is a classified document that wont be released at this time. US, UK, Australia Form New Security Partnership A new security deal forms between the United States, the UK, and Australia, seemingly to counter communist China. Under it, Australia acquires nuclear-powered submarines. The European Union boosts efforts to rival the influence Beijing has gained through its Belt and Road Initiative. International voices calling to support Taiwan are getting louder, as more push to help defend the island. At the same time, Beijing is seeking a new national image. Officials are even trying to create so-called new forms of human civilization. The star of Marvels latest movie is facing backlash from China after he spoke publicly about his family history. Stock prices for casino companies operating in Macau take a plunge after Beijing kicked off a regulatory rule in the worlds biggest gambling hub. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China. For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter. Zumretay Arkin, Program and Advocacy Manager at the World Uyghur Congress, poses at a U.S.-backed Uyghur photo exhibit of dozens of people who are missing or alleged to be held in Chinese-run camps in Xinjiang, in front of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) Wall of the Disappeared: US-Backed Uyghur Exhibit Opens in Geneva GENEVAA U.S.-backed Uyghur photo exhibit of dozens of people who are missing or alleged to be held in Chinese-run camps in Xinjiang, China, opened in Switzerland on Thursday amid high tensions over human rights between Beijing and Washington. The Wall of the Disappeared which also features interviews with camp survivors about alleged forced sterilization stands outside the United Nations in Geneva where a month-long session of the Human Rights Council opened this week. It was important for us to bring faces to represent the statistics, said Zumretay Arkin whose uncle is featured in the exhibit. Its easier to forget about numbers but if people see faces, we hope they will grasp the urgency of the situation. Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress, sets up the display at a U.S.-backed Uyghur photo exhibit of dozens of people who are missing or alleged to be held in Chinese-run camps in Xinjiang, in front of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sept. 16, 2021. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters) Rights groups estimate one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been interned in camps that the Chinese communist regime describes as vocational training centers to combat religious extremism. The United States gave a financial grant for the exhibit which will later travel to Brussels and Berlin, the World Uyghur Congress told Reuters. Earlier this week, the U.S. mission in Geneva displayed it at a diplomatic reception, according to sources who attended. We are committed to placing human rights at the center of our China policy, and we will continue to highlight the grave human rights abuses we see the PRC committing across China, in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, a U.S. mission spokesperson said. The Chinese regime urged other member states not to attend an event earlier this year on the repression of Uyghurs organized by Germany, the United States, and Britain, calling it an insult. The top United Nations rights official Michelle Bachelet this week raised Xinjiang in her opening speech, lamenting that efforts to gain access to investigate reports of serious violations against Muslim Uyghurs had not succeeded. Why Local Marketing Still Matters in the Digital Age When budgets are limited, local marketing creates better conversions and more reliable monthly earnings As our digital worlds have expanded, it has become increasingly popular for small businesses with an e-commerce store or online services to market themselves nationally. The problem is that many of these businesses are giving up their local marketing efforts in favor of a national approach, believing it to be a superior option. Theyve been led to believe that focusing locally limits their potential base while national marketing opens the door to a large number of possible consumers. While this is technically correct, the logic ignores the level of scale required to convert customers nationally, and the conversion benefits of local marketing. Local marketing is less expensive than national campaigns Its a commonly known fact that it takes many touches for an individual to become a customer. We need to reach one potential buyer at least half a dozen times to get them to convert (or become a paying customer). This requires both financial resources and time investment. To do this using digital methods generally means using several mediums to attract and educate those potential customers to choose you. Common strategies incorporate social media, digital ads, SEO, PR, and email marketing to name a few. Stretching these marketing methods nationally is a major undertaking that often doesnt yield the results business owners expect. Related: A Beginners Guide to Building a Profitable Ecommerce Business Converting Digital Traffic Works Differently A business owner with a storefront in a major city recently described her decision to build out an e-commerce platform on Shopify, and begin promoting nationally. She spent about ten months using this method on a $3,000 monthly budget, and found her sales did not increase. Her storefront revenue was between $32,000$43,000 per month while her online shop made only $3,000$7,000 on average. With $30,000 spent and hundreds of team hours dedicated to building, and managing the online store, she felt defeated. She wondered why she wasnt converting customers, and was making significantly less than her local storefront revenue when traffic to her store was much lower than that on the site. An audit of her site revealed a number of issues including poor photographic visuals, product pages with little to no description, and no customer retargeting built into her site. This meant her shop was not only giving a poor impression, but was also not building a long-term connection with people who had visited in the past. By contrast, her in-person shop was located on a busy neighborhood avenue, which meant passersby could get exposure to her brand subconsciously as part of their daily routines. Once they were in her system, she sent them coupons to return, and commonly held special events to entice local customers to come in. Thats an entirely different customer experience, which is why her brick-and-mortar store was many times more successful than her online endeavor. Location is a Differentiator In addition to simply being a cheaper marketing strategy, location is also a differentiating factor that can assist in the decision-making process for customers. For example, someone seeking a freelance writer may get excited to find that his or her potential support person is located in the same city. It means you have something in common, and potentially reduces a trust barrier by creating proximity. In some industries, location can be an especially relevant benefit as it means your company may also be connected with other local resources to support a major project. For example, an event planner may technically be able to work anywhere, but a local focus means having a list of vetted, and quality local vendors, and resources that can save time, and ensure a quality event experience. Related: Lessons All Entrepreneurs Can Learn From the Shop Local Movement Out-of-Market Local Targeting In some cases, your local market may actually be too small or not have enough need for your product or service. In this case, a great way to expand without going fully national would be to create a regional campaign or select specific cities or states to target. This allows you to expand your market without stretching your budget too thin. Doing this well requires solid market research to make sure youre choosing the best possible markets that both need your services, and arent already saturated with providers. Local Growth can Boost National Results Ultimately, starting local, and working your way outwards is a great way to maximize your advertising budgets and can build a foundation for future national campaigns. For example, a virtual accounting pro that conducted a local SEO campaign to boost her brand locally also found that her national rankings grew simultaneously. In a few months, she will be expanding her budget nationally while maintaining her local lead long-term. Going national later allows you to have a smaller test market to experiment with, and maximize conversions before going to a broader market where there may be less wiggle room in your budget for testing ideas. No matter your industry, local marketing is a highly valuable platform for growing your business, and an essential component of a successful digital marketing campaign. Related: 6 Benefits for You and Your Community From Supporting Local Entrepreneurs Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva speaks during a press conference as she meets with economic and financial organizations in Berlin at the German chancellery on Aug. 26, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. (Clemens Bilan - Pool/Getty Images) World Bank Leaders, Including Now-IMF Chief, Pressured Staff to Boost Chinas Ranking in Report, Investigation Finds World Bank leaders, including then-Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva who is now the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), applied undue pressure on staff to boost Chinas standing in the banks Doing Business 2018, according to an investigation related on Sept. 16. The report (pdf), prepared by outside law firm WilmerHale at the request of the World Banks ethics committee, implicates Georgieva and then-World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and casts a spotlight on Chinas influence at the institution. Chinas ranking in the 2018 report, released in October 2017, should have been seven places lower, at 85th rather than remaining at 78th, the lender said in a review released in December 2020. The report found the countrys boosting appeared to be the product of two distinct types of pressure applied by bank leadership on the Doing Business team. It said Georgieva and a key adviser had pressured staff to make specific changes to Chinas data points and boost its ranking at a time when the bank was seeking Chinas support for a big capital increase. World Bank employees also received direct and indirect pressure from senior staff in Kims office to change the reports methodology to boost Chinas score, likely under Kims direction, the report also said. Georgieva said she disagreed fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the report and had briefed the IMFs executive board. Two years ago, Georgieva left the World Bank and became head of the IMF. In response to the findings, the World Bank has decided to abandon the Doing Business series entirely, according to a statement released Thursday. The lender said the report raised ethical matters, including the conduct of former Board officials as well as current and/or former Bank staff. The U.S. Treasury Department, which manages the dominant U.S. shareholdings in the IMF and the World Bank, said it was analyzing what it called the serious findings. Our primary responsibility is to uphold the integrity of international financial institutions, Treasury spokeswoman Alexandra LaManna told Reuters. Findings The report said that the push to boost Chinas score came at a time when Bank management was consumed with sensitive negotiations over a major capital increase, and when Chinese officials approached senior World Bank officials over concerns about the countrys score. Georgieva told WilmerHale investigators that multilateralism was at stake, and the Bank was in very deep trouble if the campaign missed its goals, the report said. The World Bank in 2018 announced a $13 billion-paid in capital increase that boosted Chinas shareholding stake to 6.01 percent from 4.68 percent. In 2017, Chinese officials repeatedly told Kim and other senior World Bank officials that the 2017 Doing Business report failed to reflect Chinas reforms, according to the report. The Doing Business report ranks countries based on their regulatory and legal environments, ease of business startups, financing, infrastructure, and other business climate measures. One month before the reports release, Chinese officials intensified their campaign, the report noted. In a dinner between Georgieva and a Chinese official on Oct. 14, 2017, he emphasized CEO Georgievas role as the responsible person at the Bank to ensure Chinas reforms were acknowledged in the report, WilmerHale said. When the draft 2018 report showed China dropping eight places to 85, senior staff from Kims office convened a meeting with the Doing Business leadership to discuss methodological changes to boost Chinas ranking, including incorporating data from Taiwan and Hong Kong into the mainlands score, the WilmerHale report said. That approach, however, was later scrapped for political reasons. Georgieva later became personally involved, and in an Oct. 18, 2017 meeting said she was now overseeing the issue. During this meeting, she chastised the Banks then-China director for mismanaging the Banks relationship with China and failing to appreciate the importance of the Doing Business report to the country, the report said. Georgieva asked a Mr. Djankov to guide the Doing Business report to final publication, and he worked with the unit to identify changes to Chinas data that would raise the countrys score, the WilmerHale findings showed. Staffers ultimately found three data points that could be changed to upgrade Chinas score, the report said. After Georgieva was informed of the changes, she thanked a staff member for doing his bit for multilateralism, the report found. She also visited the home of a Doing Business manager to pick up a hard copy of the report that reflected Chinas new ranking, thanking the manager for helping to resolve the problem with China, WilherHale said. The report said that staff on the Doing Business team knew the data changes were inappropriate but felt that they could not challenge an order from the Banks president or CEO without risking their jobs. Reuters contributed to the report. When Wiltons Jane Powell died Sept. 16, at age 92, a chapter in movie musical history passed. Always fresh, forever vibrant, Powell was the last of the grand MGM stars who sang and danced into our hearts in the 1950s. A pitch-perfect vocalist, with a natural screen presence, she will be remembered as one of the most joyous personalities to grace the screen. And, because the Hollywood archives are so easy to access today, we can savor her work any time. Here are five of her best. Christopher Setter / For Hearst Connecticut Media As a teen star at MGM, Powell only needed a few minutes of screen time in this affectionate film to solidify her future as a screen presence. While this milk-shake musical was designed to spotlight Elizabeth Taylor, Powell steals the show with her beautiful voice and engaging presence. And, when she sings, Its a Most Unusual Day, she lets us know she will lead a special movie career. In a role first intended for June Allyson, and then scheduled for Judy Garland, Powell shines as a performer traveling to London to entertain during the wedding of Princess Elizabeth. Playing opposite Fred Astaire, Powell more than holds her own, never letting her limited screen experience define her impact. And their duet How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know Ive Been a Liar All My Life showcases Powells precise comic timing. File/AP Even if Powell had only made this classic musical, she still would have a permanent place in film history. The actress creates the foundation for this exuberant tale of brothers in the Northwest who go to town one day and come home with ladies they intend to marry. While the films sensibilities are dated, the numbers staged by the wondrous Michael Kidd light the screen with robust energy. And her interpretation of When Youre in Love is simply perfect. George Rinhart / Corbis via Getty Images Todays health enthusiasts might feel at home in this unusual but endearing musical about vegetarians. Rather than be confused by the offbeat material, Powell shows the range of her performing talents by grounding the exaggerated story in a sense of calm. And her voice, always crystal clear, perfectly pitched, effectively radiates the hope of a woman who wants true love, no matter what may be served for dinner. As audience tastes began to change in the mid-1950s, MGM offered another big show with a military theme. In the spirit of the classic On the Town, this extravagant tuner still entertains with rich characters, amusing situations and, thanks to Powell and Debbie Reynolds delightful songs. The stars radiate as women celebrating the joys of time with men in uniform. And they deliver some fabulous dance routines staged by the great Hermes Pan. In the 1970s, Powell replaced Debbie Reynolds on Broadway in the song-and-dance revival Irene, a role she also played on tour throughout the US. On stage, years after her first moments on screen, the Powell impact effortlessly filled theaters as she let us know, one more time, that musical magic is timeless. Rest in peace, Jane Powell. And thank you. Mark Schumann is a film enthusiast and columnist. LOS ANGELES (AP) With flames advancing toward the signature grove of ancient massive trees in Sequoia National Park, firefighters on Thursday fought fire with fire. Using firing operations to burn out flammable vegetation and other matter before the wildfire arrives in the Giant Forest is one of several ways firefighters can use their nemesis as a tool to stop, slow or redirect fires. The tactic comes with considerable risks if conditions change. But it is routinely used to protect communities, homes or valuable resources now under threat from fires, including the grove of about 2,000 massive sequoias, including the General Sherman Tree, the world's largest by volume. Here's how it works: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FUEL Three things influence how hot and fast a fire burns: the landscape, with fire burning faster up steep slopes; weather, with winds and dry conditions fanning flames; and fuel, the amount of material that can burn. The first two can't be controlled, but there are ways to reduce fuels long before any fire breaks out or even as one is approaching. Of all the things that affect fire behavior, the fuels is really where we can take action, said Maureen Kennedy, a professor of wildfire ecology at the University of Washington. Historically, low- to moderate-severity fires every five to 30 years burned out excess brush and timber before deadly fires in the early 20th century led to aggressive firefighting and a U.S. Forest Service policy to suppress all fires by 10 a.m. the day after they were reported. That led to dense forests of dead trees, fallen logs and overgrown brush that accumulated over the past century, fueling more massive fires. SLOWING FIRE BY CREATING FIRE For centuries, Native Americans have used fire to thin out forests. Prescribed burns set under favorable weather conditions can help mimic the lower-intensity fires of the past and burn off excess fuels when they are not at risk of getting out of control. If fire eventually burns the area, it will likely do so at lower intensity and with less damage. The idea is the same during a wildfire. Fire chiefs try to take advantage of shifting winds or changing landscapes to burn out an area before the fire gets there, depriving it of the fuel it needs to keep going. They're trying to achieve the same effect, Kennedy said. "Theyre trying to moderate the fire behavior. Theyre trying to remove the fuels that make the fire burn so intensely. Of course, their goal there is to better contain and control the fire and protect the more valuable resources. SAFELY SETTING MILD FIRES All wildland firefighters learn about burnout operations in basic training, but it takes a higher level of training to plan and carry out firing operations. You need to know how to fight fire before you light fire, said Paul Broyles, a former chief of fire operations for the National Park Service. Burning an area between the fire front and a projected point such as a firebreak or the Giant Forest in Sequoia requires the right conditions and enough time to complete the burnout before the fire can reach a fire line constructed by firefighters. Often such operations are conducted at night when fires tend to die down or slow their advance as temperatures cool and humidity rises. The convection of a fire pulls in winds from all direction, which can help. As fires climb steep terrain, burnouts are sometimes set on the other side of a ridge so any embers will land in an area where dry grasses and brush have already burned. The firing operations require a crew making sure the fire does not spread in the wrong direction. It may also include bulldozers cutting fire lines or air tankers dropping retardant to further slow the flames. All of it has to work in sync, Broyles said. Air tankers by themselves do not put fires out unless you follow up with personnel, he said. It's like the military. You don't just bomb the hell out of your enemy without ground troops. While burnouts are commonly used, they can backfire if winds shift or they aren't lit early enough. When you put more fire on the ground, there is a risk, said Rebecca Paterson, a spokeswoman for Sequoia National Park. It carries the potential to create more problems than it solves. Broyles said there were times he didn't get a burnout started in time and firefighters had to be evacuated. Fortunately, in my case, we didnt have any losses, he said. SMALL FLAMES TO PROTECT GIANT SEQUOIAS Firefighters on Thursday were conducting burnout operations in the Giant Forest at almost a micro level, moving from tree to tree, Paterson said. Ground cover and organic debris known as duff close to the trees was being set on fire, allowing the flames to creep away from the tree to create a buffer. The General Sherman and other massive conifers were wrapped in aluminum blankets to protect them from the extreme heat. The park was the first in the West to use prescribed fire more than 50 years ago and regularly burns some of its groves to remove fuels. Paterson said that was a reason for optimism. Hopefully, the Giant Forest will emerge from this unscathed, she said. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A longtime prison reform advocate asked a federal judge on Thursday to move him out of solitary confinement, claiming the punitive treatment violates his Constitutional rights. Alex Friedman was arrested last year and accused of hiding loaded guns and ammunition in a jail under construction in Nashville. He was accused of gaining access to the new jail by dressing as a construction worker and stealing keys. Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall said during a news conference last year that he believed Friedmann was plotting a massive jail break. Friedmann has declined to comment on the allegations. He faces charges of vandalism, attempted burglary, possession of burglary tools, and tampering with evidence, but he has not yet faced trial. Nonetheless, he has been held for 18 months in a state prison under conditions that are harsher than death row, according to the complaint. In a letter to The Associated Press, Friedmann said he suspects he is being punished due to my long-standing advocacy on behalf of Tennessee prisoners and my adversarial relationship with corrections officials. He notes that when he turned himself in, on Feb. 18, 2020, he was finalizing a settlement in a public records suit he had filed against the Tennessee Department of Correction. He also has testified before state legislative committees where he was critical of the department and private prison contractor CoreCivic, among other things. Friedmann is housed in the most restrictive unit at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, where prisoners are kept in individual cells 23 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends and holidays. They are supposed to receive one hour of recreation time on weekdays in individual outdoor recreation cages, but because of staffing shortages, lockdowns and other factors they usually go outdoors only two or three times a week, according to the complaint. Within the most restrictive unit, Friedmann is housed in one of four especially restrictive cells, known as iron man cells because they are covered in welded steel plates, according to the complaint. They are painted gray with no shelves, mirror, stool or electrical outlets. The windows are a vertical slit less than 2 inches wide. Because of his long confinement in the iron man cell, the lawsuit states, Friedmann has suffered both physical and mental injuries, including weight loss of up to 40 pounds; vision problems; back pain; and depression." The suit calls it an exaggerated response to any legitimate security concerns they may have related to Plaintiffs incarceration at RMSI. It notes that Friedmann was housed for six days in a county jail in a cell with several other prisoners. He also spent 14 days in the prison infirmary during a COVID quarantine, showing he can safely be housed under normal prison security conditions, the lawsuit argues. The lawsuit was filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. It asks the judge to order that Friedmann be held with the general population or similar, reasonable non-punitive housing. I have been a strong advocate for prisoners for years, and a thorn in the TDOC's side, Friedmann wrote to The Associated Press. Now they have an opportunity to exact revenge. TDOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Workers at New Hampshire's youth detention center abused children like it was a team sport, according to a 42-year-old man who on Thursday filed the latest of what is expected to be many individual lawsuits after a judge denied a class action earlier this year. The man, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe #1, is suing the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester and four of 11 former staffers who were arrested in April Stephen Murphy, James Woodlock, Jeffrey Buskey and Frank Davis. It is the third lawsuit against the center, and the second since a judge dismissed the class action suit. Murphy and Woodlock have been criminally charged with being accomplices to the rape of John Doe in 1996. In an email, Murphy's attorney, Bruce Kenna, described the lawsuit as a part of a money-making scheme that has attracted former detainees no matter how frivolous their claims, no matter their criminal background, no matter how ridiculous their assertations that they were victims of horrendous abuse but never realized they should tell someone. Buskey is charged with assaulting four other teenagers but not Doe. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services. Attorney Justin Shepherd, who represents Frank Davis in a criminal case accusing him of one count of rape involving a different teenager, said his client maintains his innocence. More than 350 men and women have come forward with allegations involving 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018 at what was then called the Youth Development Center, which has been under criminal investigation since 2019 and is slated to close in 2023. John Doe said he was held there from 1994 to 1997 and later spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars for violent burglaries and robberies before being released in January. He said youth center staffers forced him to fight other teens for food and routinely sent him and others to solitary confinement in a room with no toilet. He then was beaten for urinating on the floor, he said. Though he didn't come from a violent home, he said he quickly developed a killer instinct. Every confrontation Ive had from when I got there from (age) 15 on out, was met with violence because I was scared. I dont want to be abused. I dont want to get hit first. I dont want to get attacked first. And so I overly react to stuff. I have to, because its survival, especially when I was a child fighting grown men. And it was often men, plural, he said. They dont come in there and fight you by themselves. Theres three guys in there abusing you in whatever capacity they want to abuse you. They dont do it by themselves, he said. It became a sporting event for them. Its a sporting event for grown men. Its survival for children. The Associated Press does not typically name people alleging sexual assault unless they agree to be publicly identified. VUNG TAU, Vietnam (AP) I wake up as the loudspeaker outside my window starts the community broadcast at 7 a.m. I try to recall the date. Vietnams pandemic lockdown has been so long Ive lost my sense of time. I now count by weeks. This is the ninth Ive been stuck in Vung Tau, a seaside resort more than 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) from my home in Hanoi. I get out of bed, keeping to my routine of yoga before breakfast. As I roll out the mat, the broadcast gives the latest pandemic news and blares out a propaganda-style song: Citizens, lets join forces in this fight so COVID disappears... ___ I got to Vung Tau for a long weekend to see my partner in mid-July. In normal times, it is packed with vacationers escaping cities for fresh air, sunshine and delicious seafood. As I started my travels, a new outbreak emerged in Vietnam but I was confident and I believe the country was confident that it would be able to stop it quickly, just as it had previous ones. Until then, Vietnam had reported just over 8,000 cases and 35 virus deaths and won global praise for its pandemic success. The delta variant's arrival changed everything. The strain spread like wildfire through factories in industrial zones, into markets and on to communities across the country. In Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys largest with 10 million people, authorities ordered a city-wide lockdown. Soon it was expanded to include the entire southern region, home to more than a third of the country's 98 million people. Inter-provincial public transport was halted, and air travel from Ho Chi Minh City was suspended, including my return flight home. I was stranded in Vung Tau as the city announced its first ever COVID-19 case. It didnt seem like a big deal at first. I was positive the situation would be under control quickly; that Id just have to wait out the two-week lockdown and things would get back to normal. It seemed like a chance to slow down and enjoy time with my partner. I took an avocado seed from a recent lunch, wrapped it in damp paper towel and put it in a bag to see if it would sprout before the lockdown ended. ___ More than half of Vietnam's people are currently under lockdown. New daily cases have surpassed 10,000 and deaths are being reported in hundreds. Of Vietnams nearly 16,000 COVID-19 fatalities, more than 99% have come in this latest wave. The government tightened restrictions further this month, telling people to stay put wherever you are to buy time to vaccinate more people. Barricades and checkpoints were set up to make sure people can't go out on the street unless they hold a permit. In some communities, authorities padlocked the gates of each household. Under the restrictions, people must stay at home except for those working in a handful of businesses classified as essential services. In high-risk areas, the army has been mobilized to deliver food and basic necessities to each household. In lower-risk areas, like where I am, each family is allowed to go out to buy food and medicine once a week within their small neighborhood. This week the government said it was speeding up its vaccination program. Over the weekend, more than 1 million shots were given in Hanoi alone and authorities were aiming to have 100% of eligible residents with at least one shot by weeks end. Still, the overall vaccination rate remains low with only 4% having received two shots. Vung Tau extended its lockdown for the sixth time over the weekend, adding another two weeks. _____ The lockdown day is long and the longer it goes on, the more it drags. From my balcony, every time I feel frustrated, I comfort myself by thinking how lucky and privileged I am for not having to spend the lockdown in far less comfortable conditions like millions of my countrymen cooped up in small non-air conditioned apartments in the summer heat. To avoid depression, I try to fill the days with other activities beside work. I binge Netflix with my partner, with whom Ive never been together for such a long time over the past seven years. I spend more time learning my partners native French. I follow workouts on YouTube, making up for the disruption of my marathon training. Before this wave, I felt like the pandemic was somewhere else. I didn't know anyone who contracted the virus in Vietnam. But bad news started to rush in: A friend of mine got it, together with four others in her family. Three of them were moved to three different hospitals while two remained at home because of their mild symptoms. On my Facebook feed, some changed their profile to black to mourn a lost loved one. The pandemic had become real to me. ___ I video chat almost every day with my parents, who are in their 70s. It worries me that the virus has inched onto their Hanoi street; their neighbors were the latest cases and their alley was cordoned off with a sign pandemic area. I breathed a slight sigh of relief when they finally got their first shot of vaccine two weeks ago. I also have a family group chat, including my three siblings and five nieces and nephews. Were very close and are used to seeing each other often. We havent been able to meet up since the lockdown. In marathons, theres a finish line, a goal that helps keep me going. With the lockdown extended over and over again, its hard to envisage when it might end. Yet without it, who knows what the death toll could be. For the moment, I try to seek solace in simpler things. My avocado seed has sprouted and has grown tall, more quickly than others Ive sprouted in the past. I keep a lot of plants in Hanoi. Unfortunately, many must have died by now. I didnt plan to be away this long. FARGO, N.D. (AP) A North Dakota district judge has pleaded guilty to a drunken driving charge after allegedly crashing into two parked cars in downtown Fargo last weekend. An attorney for Southeast Judicial District Judge Cherie Clark entered a guilty plea on her behalf to a misdemeanor DUI charge in Fargo Municipal Court. Clark did not appear in court. EDWARDSVILLE Two people have been charged with battery stemming from an incident at the Watershed Nature Center in Edwardsville July 22. Lia N. Greenlee, 18, of Glen Carbon; and Jessica A. Watson, 40, of Granite City, were each charged Sept. 15 with aggravated battery, Class 3 felonies. The cases were presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. According to court documents, on July 22 Greenlee allegedly sprayed two juveniles with pepper spray and Watson punched one of them. Bail was set at $20,000 each. Other felony charges filed Sept. 15 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include: Travis Hall, 37, of St. Louis, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony, and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. On May 31 Hall allegedly was found to be in possession of a Glock Model 48 9 mm handgun and less than 15 grams of heroin. He has a Missouri 2009 conviction for distribution of controlled substances, making him ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $40,000. Thomas V. Campbell, 36, of St. Louis, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 14 Campbell allegedly was found to be in possession of a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson SD 40 handgun. He has a 2012 Missouri conviction for felony driving while revoked, making him ineligible to possess weapons. Bail was set at $40,000. In the coming months, Washington University in St. Louis will expand its successful substance use disorder program into Illinois. WUSTL and iTether Technologies, Inc. have extended their partnership for a fifth consecutive year to continue serving individuals with substance use disorders through iTether's digital care technology. Building on the success the program has had, the team will be expanding services to support broader populations in the Midwestern United States, including Illinois. WUSTL is currently working with 16 community health centers across Missouri through iTether's technology and will expand into the Illinois region to help pregnant and postpartum mothers in recovery. "We are excited to continue working with iTether. They have been a valued partner in our research at Washington University in St. Louis," says principal investigator Dr. Patricia Cavazos-Rehg. Together with her team, Cavazos-Rehg performs clinical research to examine the impact of technology on improving health and wellbeing among individuals by digitally engaging participants during their recovery journey. The program has already shown the effectiveness of remote patient engagement with 97% of users reporting that the app was useful to stay motivated to work on their recovery. The goal for the coming year is to continue to expand outreach and services through the app to improve outcomes for more individuals experiencing substance use disorder. "We are honored to continue our partnership with Washington University in St. Louis and continue to provide the digital care platform that has supported individuals with substance use disorder during their recovery," said Brad Wilde, founder and CEO of iTether Technologies. "Their mobile users have told their team directly that the support through the mobile app has greatly benefited their recovery efforts, in addition to their treatment programs." Phuket officials defer considering lifting ban on alcohol in restaurants PHUKET: Phuket officials have sidelined discussing whether to lift the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in restaurants on the island due to the high number of new COVID infections reported each day. COVID-19CoronavirusalcoholhealthVaccine By The Phuket News Friday 17 September 2021, 12:17PM As of this morning (Sept 17) more than 66,000 people in Phuket had already received their third-dose COVID vaccine booster injection. Image: PPHO The notice posted last night calling for Phuket residents to register for the thrid vaccine dose booster injection. Imahe: Phuket Info Center The meeting was told that the third-does vaccine booster injection campaign was already steaming ahead. Photo: PR Phuket The meeting was told that the third-does vaccine booster injection campaign was already steaming ahead. Photo: PR Phuket PPHO Chief Dr Kusak (Left) recommended that the alcohol ban in restauarnats remain in effect for now. Photo: PR Phuket The deferral came at a recommendation by Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) Chief Kusak Kukiattikoon at a meeting of the Phuket Provincial Communicable Disease Committee, chaired by Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong, on Wednesday (Sept 15). The meeting recognised that business operators have formally requested the ban be lifted. However, Dr Kusak noted, We ask that Phuket Province [the provincial government] delay considering this issue first, because the area still has a high number of infected people. If there is a decrease in the number of infected people within the area, the issue can be considered again. Also present at the meeting was Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol, Director of Vachira Phuket Hospital, who explained that the push to have people receive a third- dose booster jab of COVID vaccine was forging ahead. Dr Chalermpong explained that the current push was to have people who had already received two injections of the Sinovac vaccine receive a third injection, this time of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The booster shot is to be administered by using a subcutaneous injection technique. which is effective in building immunity, he said. Dr Chalermpong chaired a press conference on Wednesday afternoon announcing the results of a study by medical staff at Vachira Phuket Hospital confirming that using AstraZeneca as the booster shot vaccine even by administering much smaller doses than the standard dose recommended - had promising effects. At the meeting on Wednesday, Dr Chalermpong explained that the plan to provide booster jabs targets three segments of the population, as follows: Sept 12-18: Medical personnel and other frontline workers, as well as the first booster injections provided to people registered as living in Phuket. Sept 19-15: People living in Phuket but with a registered address in other provinces, as well as government officers. Sept 26-30: Third-dose booster injections for the general public, including migrant workers and foreigners living in Phuket. If this can be done, it is expected that the disease control in Phuket will be in a better situation, Dr Chalermpong said. Of note, as of this morning (Sept 17), the PPHO reported that so far 66,383 people in Phuket had already received their third-dose booster injection. A notice published late last night by the Official COVID-19 Information Center operated by the Phuket office of the Ministry of Interior, called for people in Phuket to check their eligibility to receive the booster injections. First, to receive the booster shots people must register through the PhuketMustWin website. The first groups to receive priority are those registered as Phuket residents and who have any of the seven conditions placing them at greater risk of serious infection*. The registrants must also have received two vaccination injections of Sinovac (organised through the PhuketMustWin website) in June or July. The second priority group are those registered as Phuket residents and have received two vaccination injections of Sinovac (organised through the PhuketMustWin website) before June 15. The notice did advise, If the conditions are not met, wait for the next round. Surachate in Phuket to launch Old Phuket Town Smart Safety Zone PHUKET: Pol Lt Gen Surachate Big Joke Hakparn, currently serving as a Level 9 Adviser to the Royal Thai Police attached to the Prime Ministers Office, arrived in Phuket yesterday (Sept 16) to promote an initiative to create a crime-free zone in the Phuket Old Town area. tourismSafetypoliceeconomics By The Phuket News Friday 17 September 2021, 10:42AM Gen Surachate explained that the project, titled Old Phuket Town Smart Safety Zone 4.0, is to cover an area 1.02 square kilometres of Phuket Old Town. Phuket Town Police Station was one of 15 police stations launching such initiatives under the project, he said. The goal is to create a safe area to build confidence and peace of mind for people. Royal Thai Police therefore selected this area as it is a landmark, an economic source and an area where people are afraid of crime, Lt Gen Surachate said. The project is to create a safe area by raising the level of crime prevention in public areas according to the concept of Smart City, by enhancing the work of the police according to the concept of Bureaucracy 2.0, stepping into the digital age by integrating collaboration between the public and private sectors and the Royal Thai Police in the field of crime prevention, he added. Phuket is a pilot province in reviving tourism from the COVID-19 crisis through the Phuket Sandbox, and with the charm and beauty of the Sino-Portuguese architecture in the old town, this area has become an important business district in the heart of the city, which consists of important areas such as hotels, community attractions, temples, museums and schools, where tourists and many business people in the area depend on safety of life and property. Therefore, it is important to the confidence of both Thai and foreign tourists, Gen Surachate said. The aim was to use technology to help increase public safety and protect against crime, Gen Surachate added. Phuket City Police are to apply technology to create a safe zone within the city by integrating efforts of local action units with Tourist Police and volunteers, he said. Gen Surachates visit yesterday comes as the Royal Thai Police launches a nationwide campaign to promote public safety and protection of vulnerable people against criminals. Present for the launch in Phuket Town yesterday were Region 8 Police Commander Lt Gen Kitrat Panpetch and Region 8 Deputy Commander Maj Gen Saksira Puekam, along with Phuket City Police Chief Col Theerawat Liamsuwan and Deputy Chief Col Sermphan Sirikong. The public appearance by Col Theerwat marked a return to duty after being called in to face a Royal Thai Police internal investigation into a gambling den being allowed to operate with the Phuket City Polices area of jurisdiction. Of note, police in Phuket have yet to recognise any escalation in petty or violent crimes in any areas across the island despite the widespread ongoing and deep financial hardship openly known to be suffered by large sections of the community due to the continuing economic crisis. Woman hit by bullet fired by road-rage gunman NAKHON RATCHASIMA: A woman was wounded by a bullet while eating in front of her house as two men on a motorcycle fired shots at her son-in-laws pickup truck, which had cut in front of them, in Khong district on Thursday night. transportviolenceSafetycrimepolitics By Bangkok Post Friday 17 September 2021, 04:26PM The house where Lonlada Thanitsawong was earlier hit by a stray bullet while eating Lonlada Thanitsawong, 58, was hit in the leg and rushed to a hospital, reports the Bangkok Post. Her son-in-law, Pongsathorn Khiewklang, told police that while he was driving his pickup truck to Ms Lonladas house two men on a motorcycle followed him, abusing him and claiming he had cut in front of their bike. He paid them no attention. Mr Pongsathorn said the two men followed him all the way to Ms Lonladas home, where she and other family members were enjoying a moo krata pork barbeque in front of the house. The bike following him had stopped about 150 metres past the house. He saw one of the men take something from under the seat and point it in his direction, then heard a gunshot. His mother-in-law was hit in the right leg by the bullet, Mr Pongsathorn said. The two men fled on the motorcycle. Police said after questioning witnesses in the area that they thought the man who fired the shot had been only recently released from jail after being sentenced for a weapons offence. They were examining surveillance video from cameras in the area and would track down the shooter and his accomplice. Southern Pines, NC (28387) Today Light rain this evening with thunderstorms by morning. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Light rain this evening with thunderstorms by morning. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Opponents of declawing bans often claim that declawed cats are less likely to be abandoned since they cause less damage to the home. This runs contrary to the Montreal SPCAs experience, however. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 26C. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 17C. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. The Gallant Pelham is a Facebook page that carries news and views with a decidedly progressive slant. Recent posts include an article with this introduction: The atrocious legislation passed in Texas, which effectively bans abortion in the state, is likely to be copied by numerous Republican state legislatures unless the courts step in, and the conservative-dominated, Trump-packed Supreme Court is unlikely to be of any help. Another post carries this lead-in: While the rest of us are horrified at the human tragedy unfolding before us in Afghanistan, the right-wing media is fixated on the prospect of more brown people coming to the U.S. Talk about shameless hate mongers who will do anything for a buck! Most Facebook pages carry an About section that gives readers some idea of the pages purpose. The Gallant Pelham states: Colonel John Pelham, poster boy of the Confederacy. I wasted my life fighting for a terrible cause, but now Im on a mission to fight any injustice. Poster boy, indeed! The photo of Pelham on this page depicts the young Confederate looking so juvenile that one can easily imagine him anticipating the day hell experience his first shave. So why should this Confederate officer hold any particular interest for Riverbend residents? Because The Life of the Gallant Pelham is the title of a 1929 biography that was written by one Philip Mercer, an English immigrant who served as pastor of First Unitarian Church of Alton from 1929 the year of his books publication to 1934. Born in Alabama in 1838, Pelham resigned from West Point in 1861 just a few weeks before his scheduled graduation to return to the South and serve in the Confederate army as an artillery officer. His youth and boyish appearance brought him nicknames such as the boy major and the boy artillerist. Pelhams service in the Battle of Fredericksburg persuaded Robert E. Lee to bestow the young warrior with a considerably more distinguished title: the Gallant Pelham. Pelham also earned the admiration of Confederate general Stonewalll Jackson, who boasted, With a Pelham on each flank, I believe I could whip the world. When Pelham was killed during the 1863 Battle of Fords Ferry, VA, Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart wept, kissed the fallen warriors brow and uttered farewell, according to Mercer. Stuart named his daughter, born in October of that year, Virginia Pelham Stuart in honor of John Pelham. The Life of the Gallant Pelham has a pro-Dixie slant, which earned Mercer an entire chapter in my book Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois. The expatriate Englishman refers to the Civil War as the War between the States, which is the preferred term of Southern partisans. Mercers sympathy for the Confederacy extends to the racism upon which that short-lived nation was founded. The Life of the Gallant Pelham includes a racist anecdote that Mercer designates an amusing account about Pelham and two other Confederate officers obtaining shelter in the cabin of a free black man during a snowstorm. Initially turned away, Pelham cursed the black man as stupid and old. The three then passed themselves off as Robert E. Lee, his staff officer and the French ambassador, which supposedly got them admitted into the black mans cabin. Its uncertain whether congregants at First Unitarian Church knew their minister was a published author and Confederate sympathizer. The Rev. Philip Mercer hanged himself in the church on Nov. 19, 1934. His body was found the next day by his landlord from whom he had rented a room at 319 East Fourth Street in Alton. Letters found after his death indicated he intended to marry Dorothy Cole of Minneapolis in the spring of 1935. Congregants had no idea that Mercer was engaged. His estate assets listed a manuscript titled Forrest, the Wizard of the Saddle. It was an unpublished tome written by Mercer about Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had worked as a slave trader before the war and whose troops massacred black Union troops who had surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee in 1864. After the war, Forrest served as the Ku Klux Klans first Grand Wizard. Evidently, Mercers sympathy for the Old South ran deep indeed. John J. Dunphy is an author, the Godfrey 15th Precinct Democratic Committeeperson and recording secretary for the Godfrey Democrats. EDWARDSVILLE A 97-year relationship between Madison County and the Madison County Historical Museum and Archival Library will be over at the end of the countys fiscal year Nov. 30. At Wednesdays meeting the Madison County Board voted unanimously to end the countys lease of the Weir House and library and to give the Madison County Historical Society $300,000. The resolutions were first approved at a special meeting of the Madison County Boards Finance and Government Operations Committee prior to the full board meeting. Over the past few years several county board members have questioned whether the county should be in the museum business. The county budgets about $250,000 annually for the museum. Madison County Administrator Dave Tanzyus said several county board members had discussed the idea, and at the same time some historical society board members had approached the county about terminating the agreement. The historical society met Thursday morning, according to Madison County Museum Director Jon Parkin. I think that since everything has kind of developed over the last six weeks, they were pretty resigned to last nights vote, he said. The association began in 1924 when the county board designated a courthouse room for the societys historical collections. In 1963, the society bought the Weir House at 715 N. Main, Edwardsville, and started renovations. That same year the county board created a tax levy for operating the historical museum. On Nov. 1, 1964, the museum moved to the Weir House to accommodate the societys growing history collection. In April 1975, the county approved its first lease with the historical society. The county leases the museum property from the society, collects the taxes for the operation and maintenance of the facilities, and pays for museum personnel salaries and benefits. In June 2009, the county and society signed the current lease, which included additional properties. On July 1, 2016, the society closed the Weir House to replace the roof. It has remained closed since that time as the property continues to undergo renovations and repairs. The society is currently developing plans so that once the county agreement ends on Nov. 30 the archival library will be run by volunteers. They must also fundraise to complete the renovations at the Weir House, then retool the museum itself. Parkin said he is toying with the idea of totally retiring, but might also teach some classes at Lewis and Clark Community College. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea's recent sword-rattling after months of relative quiet makes clear that leader Kim Jong Un is working on expanding his weapons arsenal. Nuclear-capable missiles hidden in trains that can be launched anywhere along a railway. A new cruise missile resembling the U.S. Tomahawk that can be potentially topped with atomic warheads. The apparent resumption of making fuel for potential nuclear bombs. Likely they are an attempt to wrest concessions from Washington if, and when, long-stalled diplomatic talks on Kim's nuclear program resume. Part of the message is aimed domestically, however, to reinforce internal unity as North Koreans cope with deeper hardship in a never-healthy economy that's been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Here, then, is a look at Kims recent weapons tests, the first of their kind in six months, and what they may mean for efforts to confront the North's nuclear ambitions. ___ THE NEW WEAPONS North Korea called its first train-launched ballistic missile tests successful, saying the two weapons launched Wednesday struck a target in the sea 800 kilometers (500 miles) away. That puts all of South Korea and the U.S. military bases it hosts in range. Experts say the missiles are nuclear-capable. Firing from trains also adds another platform for missile launches in addition to mobile trucks, ground pads and a submarine method still being tested. A train-based platform utilizes North Korea's national rail network and allows for secret movement and launch, although experts note rail networks are vulnerable targets in a crisis. For South Korea, which has to defend itself from North Korean missiles, it's yet another headache, said Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert at South Koreas Science and Technology Policy Institute. Last weekend, North Korea also tested what it called a new cruise missile, which flew about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), making it the Norths longest-range cruise missile, capable of reaching all of Japan, which is also home to 50,000 U.S. troops. It's being developed as nuclear capable and flies at a low altitude, making it harder to detect. Its development demonstrates North Korea's push to break enemy defense lines and diversify a weapons inventory that's heavy on ballistic missiles. Satellite photos also show signs North Korea has restarted operations at its main factory for producing weapons-grade plutonium, a key ingredient used to make nuclear weapons. ___ WHAT KIM WANTS Kim's resumed testing activities are largely meant "for developing military capabilities, but can also be attempts at shoring up domestic unity, said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. Pyongyang could launch a provocation even when in desperate economic need because it wants to hide its weaknesses and extract external concessions. Kim may also be going back to a tried-and-true technique of pressuring the world with missile launches and outrageous threats before offering negotiations at the last minute meant to extract aid. It bears further watching on how things go, but its possible that we are near another phase in (North Korean) brinkmanship, said Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korea studies at Ewha Womans University. North Koreas recent tests could be low-key reactions to the continuation of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills and to South Korean efforts to build up its arms programs. Kim's ultimate goal is likely winning relief from crippling international economic sanctions even as he gains U.S. recognition as a nuclear state, allowing him to hold onto nuclear weapons that he may see as his only guarantee for survival. ___ WHATS NEXT? North Korea may keep ramping up its pressure campaign, at least until China starts pushing for calm ahead of the Beijing Olympics early next year. But it still could hold back on tests of more provocative weapons as it looks for less coercive diplomacy. The North will have until around November to advance its weapons development with testing, Park, the analyst, said. After that, it risks hurting relations with China. North Korea may also conduct another weapons test around a major state anniversary, like the ruling Workers Party foundation day on Oct. 10. For upgrading weapons capabilities, next in the testing queue may not be a nuclear device or ICBM but a submarine-based system, Easley said. Despite its recent weapons tests, North Korea has maintained a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests for more than three years. That suggests that it still wants to keep chances for future diplomacy with Washington alive. It's possible that Pyongyang is carefully measuring its actions while looking for a window back into diplomacy. It wouldnt be surprising if the North makes some effort soon to reach out to Washington or to Seoul, if just only to measure their intent, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification. On Friday, a federal advisory committee will decide whether third doses of COVID-19 vaccines are safe and protective against infections. The discussion will center on whether extra shots are "luxuries" or are essential to complete protection against the virus in the wake of the delta variant. "The administration recently announced a plan to prepare for additional COVID-19 vaccine doses, or boosters, this fall, and a key part of that plan is FDA completing an independent evaluation and determination of the safety and effectiveness of these additional vaccine doses," Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for for Biologics Research and Evaluation, said in a statement. Presidential advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and other federal officials, including President Joe Biden, believe it is time to begin offering third shots to compensate for what appears to be fading protection. The government has agreements to purchase the doses and provide them at no cost to consumers, according to USA Today. Others, particularly the director general of the World Health Organization, argue that Americans would benefit far more by getting initial shots to the unvaccinated around the world. The Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will consider information from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in deciding whether to allow the companies to provide third vaccine doses to people 16 and older. "The process for authorizing or approving the use of a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine involves each vaccine manufacturer submitting data pertaining to safety and effectiveness to the agency to support this use," Marks said. "The FDA is evaluating data submitted by Pfizer-BioNTech in a supplemental Biologics License Application for its COVID-19 vaccine and will discuss it with the agencys advisory committee to inform our decision-making. Should the data received from other manufacturers raise unique questions that would benefit from the committees input, the agency intends to consider additional public discussions. A transparent, thorough and objective review of the data by the FDA is critical so that the medical community and the public continue to have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines," Marks continued. "The FDA will review the supplemental application as expeditiously as possible, while still doing so in a thorough and science-based manner. The FDA is not the only group that will need to discuss third doses. The CDC's Advisory Council on Immunization Practices will meet next week to have similar discussions. "ACIP discussed it some in August with whether there was enough need, there was no call for action on that agenda, however," Amy Yeager, pubic information officer for the Madison County Health Department, said. "Its still just a call for discussion. That discussion is among the higher health officials, thats a humongous resource rollout to put out and I dont know if now is the right time to put that out. We're not yet involved at the local level." ACIP doesnt meet until Sept. 20 for its discussion, and Yeager said neither the FDA nor ACIP have anything actionable on their agendas. There was evidence from a study in Israel on Wednesday that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can prevent both infections and severe illness in adults older than 60 shortly after the injection, according to the New York Times. However, a group of researchers and scientists which included two experts from the FDA and members of the World Health Organization said that third doses may not be needed and would be better used in vaccinating the previously unvaccinated than in third doses. BOISE, Idaho (AP) In another ominous sign about the spread of the delta variant, Idaho public health leaders on Thursday expanded health care rationing statewide and individual hospital systems in Alaska and Montana have enacted similar crisis standards amid a spike in the number of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. The decisions marked an escalation of the pandemic in several Western states struggling to convince skeptical people to get vaccinated. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare made the announcement after St. Luke's Health System, Idaho's largest hospital network, asked state health leaders to allow crisis standards of care because the increase in COVID-19 patients has exhausted the state's medical resources. Idaho is one of the least vaccinated U.S. states, with only about 40% of its residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Crisis care standards mean that scarce resources such as ICU beds will be allotted to the patients most likely to survive. Other patients will be treated with less effective methods or, in dire cases, given pain relief and other palliative care. A hospital in Helena, Montana, was also forced to implement crisis standards of care amid a surge in COVID-19 patients. Critical care resources are at maximum capacity at St. Peters Health hospital, officials said Thursday. And earlier this week Providence Alaska Medical Center, Alaska's largest hospital, also started prioritizing resources. Thursday's move in Idaho came a week after state officials started allowing health care rationing at hospitals in northern parts of the state. The situation is dire we dont have enough resources to adequately treat the patients in our hospitals, whether you are there for COVID-19 or a heart attack or because of a car accident, Idaho Department of Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen said in statement. He urged people to get vaccinated and wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor settings. Our hospitals and health care systems need our help," Jeppesen said. In Idaho's St. Lukes Health System, patients are being ventilated by hand with a nurse or doctor squeezing a bag for up to hours at a time while hospital officials work to find a bed with a mechanical ventilator, said chief medical officer Dr. Jim Souza. Others are being treated with high-flow oxygen in rooms without monitoring systems, which means a doctor or nurse might not hear an alarm if the patient has a medical emergency, he said. Some patients are being treated for sepsis a life-threatening infection in emergency department waiting rooms. The normal standards of care act as a net that allows physicians to carry out the high wire acts that we do every day, like open heart surgery and bone marrow transplants and neuro-interventional stroke care, Souza said. The net is gone, and people will fall from the high wire. One in every 201 Idaho residents tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The mostly rural state ranks 12th in the U.S. for newly confirmed cases per capita. Hospitalizations have skyrocketed. On Monday, the most recent data available from the state showed that 678 people were hospitalized statewide with coronavirus. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit beds has stayed mostly flat for the last two weeks at 170 people each day suggesting the state may have reached the limit of its ability to treat ICU patients. Though all of the state's hospitals can now ration health care resources as needed, some might not need to take that step. Each hospital will decide how to implement the crisis standards of care in its own facility, public health officials said. On Wednesday, nearly 92% of all of the COVID-19 patients in St. Luke's hospitals were unvaccinated. Sixty-one of the hospital's 78 ICU patients had COVID-19. St. Luke's physicians have pleaded with Idaho residents for months to get vaccinated and take steps to slow the spread of coronavirus, warning that hospitals beds were quickly running out. The health care crisis isn't just impacting hospitals primary care physicians and medical equipment suppliers are also struggling to cope with the crush of coronavirus-related demand. One major medical supplier, Norco Medical, said demand for oxygen tanks and related equipment has increased, sometimes forcing the company to send patients home with fewer cylinders than they would normally provide. High-flow oxygen equipment normally used in hospital or hospice care settings is also being more frequently requested for at-home patients, said Norco President Elias Margonis. It seems like they're discharging aggressively to free up beds for new patients coming into the hospitals, Margonis said. Margonis spent much of his morning on the phone with public health leaders and hospitals, trying to determine how the crisis standards of care will change the way patients are discharged from hospitals. Already, the company has seen an increase in customers seeking specialty oxygen equipment that flows at a rate of 8, 12 or 20 liters per minute rather than the standard 4 or 5 liters per minute, he said. When someone goes home, we bring their bed, we bring their wheelchair, we bring their cannula, their oxygen, Margonis said. "This is where we're saying, it's important that you can't just discharge the problem, even if the patient is on the mend and on the way to getting healthy. To recover, they need the right support. Primary Health Medical Group, Idaho's largest independent primary care and urgent care system, has been forced to shorten operating hours because its waiting rooms were so packed with patients that staffers were staying hours past closing in order to see them all. Meanwhile, the company was dealing with higher-than-normal numbers of staffers out sick because they had been exposed to coronavirus in the community or had symptoms and were awaiting tests. Now the medical group is also preparing to monitor patients who are released from hospitals earlier than normal or trying to avoid emergency rooms completely, said CEO Dr. David Peterman, and they will likely be sicker and need more care. This is heart-wrenching. I've practiced medicine in southwest Idaho for 40 years and I have never seen anything like this, he said. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the average daily number of patients in intensive care unit beds statewide is about 170, not 70. ___ Iris Samuels contributed to this report from Helena, Montana. Samuels 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. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) The storage-room merchants' desk where President-elect Abraham Lincoln penned his first inaugural address, beseeching southern states to recall the mystic chords of memory" and invoke the better angels of our nature to circumvent the Civil War, was unveiled by Illinois officials Thursday after a painstaking restoration to its 1850s splendor. The walnut-and-poplar hulk is displayed in the library atrium of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in downtown Springfield. It's two blocks from the third-floor sanctum where the 16th president stole away to concentrate on crafting his case to a divided nation against secession over slavery. "Lincoln used this desk to write a message of peace when the country was tearing itself apart, library and museum executive director Christina Shutt said. Sometimes it seems like were nearly as divided today. I hope this desk will...invite us to remember Lincolns words that, We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Hounded by friends and favor-seekers after his unlikely election, Lincoln sought a hideout to prepare his March 4, 1861, inaugural. His brother-in-law, Clark Moulton Smith, offered a room in his store on the statehouse square, according to Smith's family and the biography by Lincoln law partner William Herndon. There, Lincoln found the oasis, measuring about 6 feet (1.83 meters) wide, 3 1/2 feet (1.07 meters) deep and 6 feet tall. By the time he took the presidential oath, the Confederacy had been established, and though the war's debut at the battle for Fort Sumter in South Carolina was just six weeks away, Lincoln proceeded with his appeal: "Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory ... will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. The state purchased the desk from Smith's daughter in 1953 for $500 and for decades it sat in the Old State Capitol with no notice to recommend it. This year, Third Coast Preservation of Elmhurst got $6,300 and six months to restore it, which included reversing well-meaning changes in a 1958 makeover changes that were historically inaccurate at best and damaging at worst, Third Coast conservator Anna Weiss-Pfau said. Historical objects have a visceral impact often missing with documents, such as the ones paired with the desk for the exhibit, Lincoln's Life in Letters," from an early homework assignment to the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln historian Christian McWhirter said. An object maybe doesnt provide you as many details as say a letter would, but an object just carries so much power...," McWhirter said. People can be brought to tears by a historical object." Each change made to the inaugural desk nails pulled, cornices replaced, glue blocks removed is saved because they've become part of the object's history but also to offer a roadmap to future restorers, said Third Coast conservator Robin DeGroot, who did the bulk of the work. Asked whether the desk's history or the words Lincoln set down on it spoke to him during his toil, DeGroot joked, I should say yes. I do understand the significance," DeGroot said. "I appreciate the opportunity to help preserve it. But my part is like, 'OK, well it took me six months to do it but now its going to be here and hopefully thousands of people will be able to see this. That is really more important. ___ Follow Political Writer John OConnor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor SPRINGFIELD The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to consider the laws of California and the U.S. Constitution in ruling on one mans eligibility to be issued a Firearm Owners Identification card by the Illinois State Police. On Thursday the states high court heard oral arguments in Thomas Brown v. the Illinois State Police in which Brown is seeking to have his FOID rights restored so he can participate in target shooting, hunting and be able to defend himself, according to a court filing. The court only heard arguments in the case, with opinions expected later this month or in October. Brown was a FOID cardholder for several years, most recently applying for and being granted renewal in 2013. But in 2016, he tried to purchase a gun at a federal firearm licensee, leading the state police to conduct a background check that unearthed a 2001 California conviction on a misdemeanor offense of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse that Brown did not disclose on his FOID application. In that case, Brown and his then-wife had an argument in a parking lot, after which Brown picked her up, according to the court filing, and she ended up crawling down his back and sustaining minor road rash, for which she did not seek medical attention. Brown spent three days in jail and eventually pleaded guilty and paid a $500 fine because, according to the court filing, otherwise it would have cost him $5,000 to bail out of jail so that he could fight the case and he was advised by the company that he worked for at the time to take the plea bargain. Browns lawyer, James R. Angel of May, May, Angel & Harris in Princeton, Illinois, questioned whether Brown knew the arrangement would affect his gun rights. The conviction ultimately qualified as a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, prohibiting Brown from possessing a firearm under federal law. Because Illinois FOID Act states that a card may not be issued contrary to federal law, the state police revoked his card upon the failed background check. Federal law does, however, allow exceptions for gun ownership if a person convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor has had their civil rights restored in the jurisdiction that convicted them in this case, California. In a 2020 case, Johnson v. the Illinois State Police, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled gun ownership is a civil right in terms of the federal provision, a precedent cited heavily in Browns court filings. Angel is primarily asking the Illinois Supreme Court to interpret whether a specific California law constitutes a restoration of civil rights. Browns legal team specifically noted that California only penalizes gun possession for 10 years following a misdemeanor conviction. That means, they argue, Brown had his civil rights restored under California law in 2011, qualifying him for the federal exception which would in turn qualify him for a FOID card. If California has a problem with Mr. Brown being able to possess a firearm, California can change its very clear statute, Angel argued before the court. Katelin Buell, a lawyer for the attorney generals office which represents the state police, said Californias 10-year window is a matter of forbearance, not forgiveness. It prevents prosecutors from charging someone convicted of a misdemeanor after 10 years but does not satisfy the civil rights restored exception in federal law, meaning it is not a substitute for an affirmative statement of restoration and forgiveness, according to Buell. The convicting jurisdiction of California employs a different restoration process for civil rights, including firearm rights, than in Illinois, and California would not grant Brown this relief without him first seeking a pardon, which he has not done, Buell argued. If the Supreme Court does not determine that the California law equates to a restoration of civil rights, Browns lawyers have asked it to consider the case through the lens of the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, Angel asserted that requiring a person who poses no risk to the general public to successfully seek a pardon for a misdemeanor before they can own a firearm is an unconstitutional perpetual ban on gun ownership. The state argued the constitutional question is premature because Brown hasnt even attempted all non-constitutional alternatives for rectifying the denial, including seeking pardon or expungement. If a pardons denied, to the best of my knowledge, you can always apply again, Angel said. So hypothetically that remedy is never met. The state also argued the Supreme Court can avoid the constitutional question by applying the legal principles of the FOID Act, which says ISP can deny a FOID if issuing it would be against the public interest. In court documents, the state cited Browns 2001 arrest, a 2005 DUI conviction in Bureau County, a 2005 arrest for battery in LaSalle County that did not lead to criminal charges, and a 1997 conviction for misdemeanor assault that occurred when he was a minor. But Browns lawyers cited testimony from his current wife, who said he always practiced firearm safety, and a letter sent by his ex-wife, which stated she did not believe he was a danger to himself or others, after the 2001 incident, and that she believed he was not likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety if his FOID card was restored, according to the court filing. Even considering that, Buell said, Brown omitted the 2001 conviction from his FOID application, which is reason enough for a denial. According to court documents, Brown said he did not divulge the 2001 conviction because he thought he had received court supervision rather than a conviction. Browns case originated in Putnam County, where the court awarded him the FOID card and stated he had met the qualifications in the FOID statute. Angel said that decision was made in part as a response to the positive letter from Browns ex-wife and because Browns current wife has guns in their home with a courts permission, indicating a lack of danger because no incidents have occurred. The state appealed to the 3rd District Appellate Court, which reversed the Putnam County decision in a 2-1 vote. Justice Robert Carter, who currently sits on the Supreme Court after being appointed to replace Justice Thomas Kilbride in December, wrote the opinion reversing the Putnam County order, which focused on the civil rights restored component rather than the constitutional argument. The exception (to federal law) cannot apply in this case, however, because Browns California conviction was never expunged or set aside, Brown was never pardoned for that conviction, and Brown never had his civil rights revoked and restored in California as a result of that conviction, he wrote. Carter has recused himself from the Supreme Courts decision on the case, due to his involvement at the appellate level. EDWARDSVILLE An East Alton man has been charged with aggravated battery and assault after attacking an Alton police officer and a firefighter Wednesday. Brian R. Bailey, 51, of East Alton, was charged Sept. 16 with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony; and aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. According to court documents, on Sept. 15 Bailey allegedly punched an Alton police officer in the shoulder and swung his fist at a firefighter. Bail was set at $40,000. Other felony charges filed Sept. 15 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include: Travis R. Stevenson, 33, of Granite City, was charged offenses relating to motor vehicles, unlawful possession of stolen firearm, unlawful possession of weapons by a felon and unlawful possession of methamphetamine, all Class 2 felonies. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 9 Stevenson allegedly was found to be in possession of a stolen 2007 Yamaha FZ1 motorcycle and a stolen Hi-Pointe JHP45 .45 caliber handgun. He has a 2017 Menard County conviction for arson. On Sept. 8 he was found to be in possession of 5-15 grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $80,000. George Garcia, 18, of Collinsville, was charged with criminal damage to property over $500. The case was presented by the Illinois State Police. On Sept. 12 Garcia allegedly threw an object at a 2020 Dodge Ram truck belonging to another person, causing in excess of $500 damage. Bail was set at $25,000. On Sept. 15 Garcia was charged with aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony after fleeing from a Madison County sheriffs deputy on Sept. 14. ALTON Gov. J.B. Pritzker visited the Kreative Kids Learning Center in Alton Friday morning to promote the states child care investments in the Riverbend. Pritzker said it is his mission to make Illinois the best state for families raising young children. Weve been providing $570 million in child care restoration grants to over 5,000 child care centers since last summer, helping them stay afloat through these challenging times, Pritzker said. Of that amount, $19.5 million was given to over 209 providers in Madison and St. Clair counties. According to Pritzker, the grants have worked, with 30% fewer centers closing last year than on average from 2016 to 2018. Kent Neuber, CEO of the Kreative Kids Learning Center at 121 W. Elm St., said he appreciates Pritzkers support and the Restore Illinois Childcare grant program. Without those funds, our center would have had to either eliminate and lay off staff or greatly reduce services and leave many of the children without quality care, said Neuber, who presented Pritzker with a giant thank you card made by the centers children. State Rep. Amy Elik, R-Fosterburg, said she has had multiple conversation about the hurdles child care providers have faced since the beginning of the pandemic. Its vital for our state, for the Metro-East, and for families that we stay open for business and our workers head back to work, Elik said. In order to return to work, parents need access to quality, affordable child care for their families. Earlier this week, Pritzker and Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Grace Hou announced a series of investments to further access to childcare for parents seeking to reenter the workforce while simultaneously aiding childcare providers and their employees. This fall, providers will be able to apply for their share of $300 million in grant funding to recruit and obtain additional workers. Our work to uplift this sector didnt begin with the pandemic, Pritzker said. Ive spent decades before I became governor finding ways to make quality childcare and early childcare more affordable and available. Pritzker said his first budget contained the largest early childhood appropriations in Illinois history. Earlier this summer, Pritzkers administration delivered its third payment rate increase to childcare providers. Additionally, he said, eligibility has been increased by 25% so that more families benefit from the childcare assistance program. As families incomes rise, we dont want them to simply fall of the cliff because theyre making more money, Pritzker said. Starting Oct. 1, parents looking for work in Illinois will be able to access three months of child care assistance. When our youngest families succeed, our whole state reaps the benefits, Pritzker said. Thats the Illinois our residents deserve. Hou said that, under Pritzker, the early childhood system is truly transforming and recognizes accessing quality child care is the best way to support working parents and to grow and nurture young minds. Its good for the now, its good for our recovery and its good for the future of our state, Hou said. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said the administration is sending a message to all families in Illinois. We see you, we hear you and we will always be there for you, Stratton said. Right now, families need that more than ever. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. General Assembly is relying on an honor system and only an honor system to ensure that world leaders have been vaccinated before they speak at next week's big meeting, the assembly president said. Presidents, premiers, monarchs and other dignitaries won't have to show vaccination cards or other proof of inoculation they'll simply attest to it by swiping their ID badges at the assembly hall, G.A. President Abdulla Shahid said in a letter Thursday. The assembly began testing the same policy in June for diplomats at its day-to-day meetings. Still, it could quickly raise thorny questions at the biggest global diplomatic gathering of the year. Russia has criticized the requirement, and the first speaker, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, isn't vaccinated and reiterated Thursday that he doesn't plan to get the shot anytime soon. The U.N. has been wrestling with how to implement diplomatically a New York City vaccination requirement for convention centers, which the city said last week would apply to the assembly hall. Shahid told members Tuesday he supported the policy but didn't give details on how it would work. We very much hope that this solution is acceptable to all, within the confines of everyone's responsibilities and status, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Friday. A message sent to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's office wasn't immediately returned. He has said the city's aim is to protect both assembly attendees and New Yorkers from the virus. The coronavirus pandemic forced the assembly's top-level annual meeting to go almost entirely virtual last year. Leaders seem to have missed the opportunity to interact face to face: More than 100 heads of state and government and over 20 foreign ministers have signed up to speak in person this time. Other nations are participating virtually in the meeting's central event, a speechfest where every country gets a chance to opine on global issues, spotlight domestic ones and use the world stage to court allies or assail foes. By tradition, first up is Brazil, where the right-wing president has insisted he won't get inoculated for the meeting. Why take the vaccine? To have antibodies, isnt that right? My antibody levels are way up high, Bolsonaro said in a live broadcast on social media Thursday night. After everybody in Brazil is vaccinated, Ill decide. About 36% of Brazil's population is vaccinated, according to figures compiled by Our World in Data. While many countries' leaders have disclosed their vaccination status, some haven't. Among them is Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who also is planning to attend the assembly. Russia complained earlier this week that requiring vaccinations would violate nations' rights to participate at the U.N. and would discriminate against, for example, people with medical reasons not to get the shots. A message was sent Friday to Russia's U.N. mission about the honor-system plan. ___ Associated Press journalists David Biller in Rio de Janeiro and Hau Dinh in Hanoi, Vietnam, contributed to this report. Scranton, PA (18503) Today Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Westerly, RI (02891) Today Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 63F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Currys PC World customers are still complaining about the customer service from the firm with many saying their products have been delivered faulty whilst others have been waiting months for refunds and cannot get through to an adviser. This is Money originally reported the issues with the tech store in May 2020 and has since received hundreds of emails from readers who have experienced similar problems continuing into this year. Sales rocketed for the firm during the pandemic but this seems to have hit customer services the store offers with many saying they have been stuck on the phone to the company for hours at a time. Others are unable to get through by any method at all, leaving them unable to resolve problems. Currys PC World have been called out by customers for their poor service in recent times One customer, Rosie, said: 'I ordered a washer dryer in August. The delivery date was never confirmed by email or text as promised but I logged in to find a date has been given. 'The product arrived, was partially fitted and I was left to push the machine into its spot myself even though I am pregnant. 'I used the machine once and it worked fine. The following day it did not work. I tried to contact Currys via webchat, Facebook messenger and email. 'All customer service email addresses are no longer in service and all the other platforms advised calling the customer service team. 'It took over an hour for me to get through to anyone with plenty more holding during the call leading to a 1 hour 45 minute call. 'I then took a day off work and waited in all day and no one came. I attempted to contact customer services three more times but after over an hour on hold each time I gave up.' Rosie still hasn't been able to resolve the issue and is still waiting for an engineer to repair the machine or have Currys replace it. She is frustrated that the only way she can get help is by spending hours on the phone waiting for a customer service assistant. Another reader, Emma, said she was sure Currys would refuse to help her so she paid to have her television repaired herself. She said: 'I ordered a Samsung television from Currys that was delivered at the beginning of September. When installing it, I noticed the aerial port was broken. 'I contacted Currys to explain this and it stated the issue must have been caused by myself or by Samsung. 'Samsung advised me it should be Currys that need to provide a replacement television. I have ended up booking an repair service to fix this myself, which will cost 200, as I feel Currys will say anything to avoid replacing the television.' One customer said they had been refused a refund after DPD lost their faulty item in transit Another customer, Mark, added: 'My daughter brought a brand new 55 inch smart TV from Currys in April. Last weekend it stopped working properly for no apparent reason - there was no picture and just purple lines on the screen. 'We contacted Currys the same day and were told to fix it ourselves. When we reminded the firm it was still under a 12 month warranty, it finally agreed to collect the TV and repair it. 'The TV was collected but Currys have said the TV is uneconomical to repair and are returning the broken TV back to us with nothing about replacing the TV with a like for like replacement.' There was no further information on what it meant by saying it was not economical to repair and now Mark's daughter has been left with a TV that doesn't work properly. Meanwhile, a customer, who wished not to be named, is having an ongoing dispute with the company after he returned a faulty graphics card, worth 1,530. DPD collected the product, on behalf of Currys, but it has since been lost 'in transit'. Now the customer is unable to get a refund from Currys which said it would only pay out when the product is delivered back to its warehouse. This is Money got in touch with Currys in regards to this case and fortunately, the firm agreed to refund the customer. A spokesperson for Currys PC World said: 'Unfortunately this customers faulty graphics card was lost in transit whilst being returned to our warehouse by our third party carrier so we were unable to issue an immediate refund. 'Due to the high value of the item an investigation is currently being undertaken by our carrier to ascertain the whereabouts of the item. Our usual process on high value items is to complete an investigation before being able to refund a customer. 'In this instance, as the customer has been waiting for a number of weeks, we have agreed to transfer the refunds into his bank account. He will receive them in the next 3 to 5 working days.' Others have taken to social media to share their frustrations. This customer said they have paid for next day delivery multiple times but never received it One angry customer said they were left waiting for a week for their new oven to be fitted Another customer criticised the complaints system as they were unable to speak to someone Another of the issues many Currys' customers are facing is a delay in receiving their PS5's. A number have taken to social media to say they pre-ordered or bought the devices some time ago and still haven't received them. Several have said it is due to the lack of stock available whilst others believe Currys may have made an error with the orders. A spokesperson for Currys PC World added: 'We were sorry to hear that some customers had issues contacting our customer services team however, the majority of our customers are receiving a speedy and efficient service. 'Since May of this year the average wait time for customers contacting us via phone is just over 17 seconds and wait times via online chat and web help average under nine seconds. 'Despite these efficiencies, we do recognise that our customers truly value the face to face interaction, expertise and support of our instore colleagues. 'People beat automation and we are going to be super clear with our customer messages moving forward to encourage them, where possible and convenient, to come into stores to resolve their issues.' One customer that bought a PS5 said they still haven't heard anything since paying in store Another customer said they were struggling to get answers regarding their PS5 order What are my rights if I want a refund? Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, your purchases are protected should something go wrong. The Act says products must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, as described and last a reasonable length of time. Items must be installed correctly if installation is part of the contract. Therefore, if you receive a faulty item, it is not as described and you can ask for a refund. In order to assert your consumer rights using this law you must have proof of purchase which does not have to be a receipt, it could be a bank statement, for example. If it is less than 30 days since the date of purchase and the item is in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 you can reject the goods for a refund. This is not the case where the expected life if the goods is shorter, such as perishable goods. When it is 30 days from purchase, the trader can offer repair or replacement. If neither of these are possible or if the trader chooses, a refund can be given. Your contract is always with the trader to whom you gave the money. So if you order something online, for example, from a trader and the delivery is delayed, contact the trader and let it take the time sorting out the delivery problem. You should never need to contact the courier. Preaching about the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda has become the lodestone of big investors. Similarly, companies and their boards respond with ever more detailed ESG reports and endless bromides about purpose. Yet when there is money on the table, ESG principles rarely trouble flaccid boards of directors or big battalion shareholders who are only too willing to take the cash and scram. Moral cowardice: If there was any board which should have held firm on social and governance grounds alone it was that of Vectura, which has sold out to tobacco giant Philip Morris It is not just ethics and governance which are tossed to one side, but fiduciary duty is compromised. By often accepting the first offer on the table, only to see rival bidders drawn in at substantially higher prices, the very best deal for investors can be lost. Amid recent takeover frenzy, one of the few boards to put up a fight over price and ownership was that of security group G4S, at the time headed by John Connolly. The outcome may have been the same, in the shape of a private equity-dominated buyout, but a proper defence of a hostile offer, ending in an auction, resulted in a better price and a robust airing of all the arguments. If there was any board which should have held firm on social and governance grounds alone, it was Vecturas, which has sold the pass to Philip Morris, one of the least socially desirable companies in the world. Tobacco firms are death machines just look at the warning on any cigarette packet. Virtue signalling, by buying into the healthcare pioneer Vectura, is not going to change the dial. There can be no guarantee that Vectura R&D and science isnt going to be used for the wrong purpose. Adopting a dated stock market practice, the Marlboro cigarette group effectively fixed the outcome by grabbing 29 per cent of the shares in the open market. Even so, a board, with an experienced life sciences chairman in the hot seat, the Frenchman Bruno Angelici, could have followed the example of a fellow French citizen Pascal Soriot at Astrazeneca and told buyers to take a hike. Instead, Vectura found itself in the uncomfortable position of conducting an informal auction between big tobacco and private equity giant Carlyle. The fact that Marlboro man was only able to muster 45.61 per cent of the minority holders speaks for itself. The fury of medical groups such as British Thoracic Society, which represents asthma sufferers (including my own family), should have been taken much more seriously by the board and those shareholders taking the poisoned shilling. Rightly, Vectura will never be allowed anywhere near such groups any longer. As we report, Axa is among those investors honest to their ESG principles in speaking out against the deal. The moral case against Philip Morris overrides all other factors. What it does demonstrate is that company chairmen and boards cave in far too quickly to marauders without even doing the sums properly. The phenomena is not confined to the UK. The board of German-quoted pet food supplier Zooplus bit the hand of buyout firm Hellman & Friedman, but eventually acceded to an 18 per cent higher bid from the same party having initially failed to get a good deal for shareholders. Both UDG Healthcare and St Modwen Properties both accepted the first offer from financial buyers Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and Blackstone respectively. In effect, they were made to look foolish when the prices were forced higher. In both cases dissident shareholders made enough noise for the offer prices to be raised. By allowing themselves to be seduced by low-ball offers, the directors opted for a simple life. Thats before anyone even engaged in any ESG aspects of the offer such as governance and transparency and the social impact of falling under private equity ownership. In almost every case there is another buyer in the wings. It emerges now that KKR, with the experience of UK-based Pets At Home, was a potential rival bidder for Zooplus, but stepped aside after the board accepted the first sub-octane offer. A better process would be for boards to announce that they have an offer, in effect acknowledging they are up for sale, and test the waters to see if an auction develops. This is what tends to happen in the US. A flawed bidding process is bad enough. What is intolerable is an ethical vacuum which is allowing big tobacco to take control of Vectura. The FTSE 100 closed down 63.84 points at 6963.64 and the pound was at $1.38 against the dollar. UK retail sales declined by 0.9 per cent in August, the fourth consecutive month of contraction in a row as grocery sales were impacted by more people returning to restaurants and pubs, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The Competition & Markets Authority has begun a probe into whether Pennon's purchase of Bristol Water might result in less competition in the water industry and inhibit Ofwat from making comparisons between water firms. Bosses at budget hostel chain Safestay said the business is to undertake a strategic review as it revealed that a potential takeover approach has been made to the company. EasyJet's biggest shareholder, the family of founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has decided not to support the budget airline as it looks to raise 1.2billion from its backers. A new study has revealed the countries where property prices have rocketed over the past ten years, with Israel claiming the top spot and the UK coming further down the list at number ten. > If you are using our app click here to read Business Live Budget hostel chain Safestay has revealed that a potential takeover approach has been made to the company. Bosses have said the business would begin a strategic review following a 'very early stage and highly conditional' proposition regarding a possible acquisition from an unnamed party. The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted significant financial damage on the group, which operates 20 hostels across ten European countries and was forced to close its properties for more than half of all days in 2020. Downturn: The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted significant financial damage on Safestay, which operates 20 hostels across ten European countries Even when its facilities were open, occupancy rates only reached 38 per cent. Its revenues plunged by about three-quarters to 4.8million while its losses widened from 600,000 in 2019 to more than 10million last year. To try and enhance its balance sheet, it took advantage of numerous public support measures, including the UK Government's furlough scheme, renegotiated rent terms with landlords and slashed head office costs. It also sold the lease on two properties; a Barcelona premise for a small amount in February and its Edinburgh hostel for 16million to Berlin-based chain A&O Hotels and Hostels. The firm said it would use the latter sale to reduce its debt pile by over a third and provide it with enough cash reserves to put it in a 'strong position' as the accommodation industry recovers. All the company's hostels were initially closed in April 2020 before being gradually opened the following month. They were subsequently shut again from November until May 2021. But Safestay said last month that all but two of its hostels had reopened. Founder and chairman Larry Lipman said today: 'From May we began reopening our portfolio of premium hostels and we have seen occupancy improve month on month in line with internal forecasts.' Starting up again: All of Safestay's hostels were shut at the outset of the pandemic and from November until May 2021. But it said last month that all but two of its hostels had reopened He added: 'Individual and group bookings are coming in for the winter and for 2022 and underpin our confidence of returning to pre-Covid levels of trading. We believe strongly in the appeal of the Safestay brand. 'However, we recognise that this is a natural point, as we relaunch the business post-Covid, to undertake a strategic review, in order to maximise value for all shareholders. 'This process will reveal whether there is additional value for shareholders compared to the upside we believe we can deliver.' Safestay has appointed PwC as an adviser, and said bidders should contact the consultants. It added that it was not engaged in any discussions with any bidder about an acquisition. Glamour: One of Safestay's two London hostels is situated in Holland Park, West London Lipman is a serial entrepreneur whose business career has seen him create self-storage business Safestore, property investment group Safeland, auctioneer Hercules Property Services and office rental specialist Bizspace. He set up Safestay seven years ago and opened its first London premise in John Smith House, the former headquarters of the Labour Party in Elephant & Castle. The firm's other London venue is situated in Holland Park, West London. Almost all its hostels are situated in major European capital cities, such as Brussels, Berlin and Prague, with Barcelona and the cathedral city of York being exceptions. Shares in Safestay closed trading 10 per cent higher at 22p on Friday. Companies reliant on international travel saw their shares take off this morning ahead of a travel rules shake up, which is set to include the end of costly Covid-19 tests. British Airways owner IAG and the UKs biggest tour operator TUI were among the biggest risers on the FTSE 100, climbing 4 per cent in early trade. Meanwhile, Rolls Royce saw a lift of 2.3 per cent as a change in rules would bode better for its core business of making and servicing engines for long-haul aircraft. Companies reliant on international travel saw their shares take off this morning ahead of travel rules shake up, which is set to include the end of costly tests The company is in desperate need of a lift, as it revealed it will need passenger traffic to climb to at least 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in order to meet its longer term targets and keep cashflow in the black. Other climbers Friday morning included Ryanair, which was up more than 2 per cent, while Wizz Air experienced smaller gains. One airline bucking the trend was easyJet as the budget airline saw its shares fall by another 1 per cent after it announced another round of fundraising. The British government will later today consider easing England's Covid-19 rules for international travel. According to reports, ministers will remove the requirement for fully vaccinated travellers to take a lateral flow test before departing their destination and a costly PCR test on their return into Britain, which can add hundreds of pounds per person to a trip. Ministers will also simplify the destination categories into either low or high risk, scrapping amber, reported the Times newspaper, with many countries, including popular destination Turkey, expected to be removed from the high risk red list. According to reports, ministers will remove the requirement for fully vaccinated travellers to take a lateral flow test before departing their destination and a costly PCR test on their return into Britain, which can add hundreds of pounds per person to a trip Susannah Streeter, a senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown described this move as a 'jolt of energy the travel industry desperately needed after months of uncertainty'. Airports, airlines and travel companies have continually warned the government of more job losses if these changes do not go ahead. 'There are hundreds of businesses out there who will not survive this winter unless changes are made,' TUI UK managing director Andrew Flintham told Sky News on Friday. Data shows that Britain's recovery is lagging. UK flights were down 39 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels for the two weeks to early September, while France, Spain and Italy were down between 24-28 per cent, according to Eurocontrol. On Britain's red list there are currently 62 countries, a designation that requires 11 nights in a quarantine hotel at a cost of more than 2,000. Quarantine hotels are expected to remain in place for red list arrivals. Any change to the travel rules will apply to England, but devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could later follow suit. Airlines, hotels and other holiday stocks received a boost after the Government relaxed rules on international travel ahead of the half-term break. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that from October 4 travellers who have had two doses of the vaccine will no longer need to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test before arriving in England from a country that is not on the Government's 'red list'. He added that later that month travellers will be able to replace a PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow test. Cleared for take-off: From October 4 travellers who have had two doses of the vaccine won't need to take a pre-departure Covid test before arriving in England from red list countries The traffic light system is also being scrapped, with the green, amber and red lists being replaced with a single red list, effectively creating 'go' and 'no-go' countries for travellers. Additionally, eight countries currently on the red list, including tourist hotspots Turkey and the Maldives, will be removed next Wednesday. Shares in British Airways-owner IAG climbed 4.9 per cent, or 7.04p, to 149.5p to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard amid hopes of a surge in demand. Stockwatch - Safestay Hostel chain Safestay got a bump after it revealed a possible takeover approach. The business, which owns around 20 hostels across ten countries in Europe, said it had received a 'highly conditional approach' from an unnamed potential buyer. Safestay added that it is commencing a review of the business as it attempts to repair the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It caused revenues and guest numbers to plunge in 2020. Even when its facilities were open, occupancy rates only reached 38 per cent. The company's shares jumped 10 per cent, or 2p, to 22p. Budget carrier Ryanair rose 1.7 per cent, or 0.29, to 16.92 while shares in rival Easyjet gained 3.9 per cent, or 23.8p, to 630.4p and Wizz Air bounced 2.6 per cent, or 128p, to 5056p. Other firms in the sector rode the wave of optimism, with package holiday group Tui jumping 6per cent, or 17.1p, to 302.7p while On The Beach Group surged 8.5 per cent, or 27.5p, to 350p. Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza-owner IHG was also a winner, rising 2pc, or 90p, to 4650p. Rolls Royce, meanwhile, which makes engines for passenger aircraft, edged up 1.8 per cent, or 1.94p, to 111p. Newsagent WH Smith, which has multiple locations in airports and train stations, also jumped 1.7pc, or 27p, to 1651p while SSP, the owner of outlets such as Upper Crust and Ritazza often found in airports and train stations, added 4.5 per cent, or 11.4p, to 266.4p. Things were looking less rosy for the wider market, with the FTSE 100 dropping 0.9pc, or 63.84 points, to a six-week low of 6963.64. The mid-cap FTSE 250, meanwhile, dipped early on but managed to recover to close up 0.1 per cent, or 26.1 points, to 23658.94. The sell-off may have been sparked by surging bond yields, with UK five-year gilts hitting their highest levels since March 2020. Blue-chip miners were also weighing on the FTSE 100 as iron ore prices continued to collapse. Anglo American was the biggest faller in the FTSE 100, dropping 8.1 per cent, or 227.5p, to 2591p, while BHP Group fell 4.8 per cent, or 94.4p, to 1873.8p, and Rio Tinto sank 3.6 per cent, or 180.5p, to 4829.5p. Prices of iron ore, a key ingredient in steel-making, plunged to an 11-month low on Thursday amid fears of lower steel output from China. Matters were not helped by analysts at UBS, who downgraded their rating on Anglo American, while cutting target prices for both BHP and Rio Tinto. Elsewhere, investors in Virgin Wines toasted a new partnership with online greeting card group Moonpig, sending the shares up 2.7 per cent, or 5.5p, to 210p. Under the deal, Virgin will launch a new range of 32 wines, some of which will be exclusively available on Moonpig's website as part of the latter's gift offering. Moonpig shares inches up 0.8 per cent, or 3p, to 380p. Accsys Technologies, a maker of wood-based building materials, was flat at 155p despite flagging 'strong sales and revenue growth' in the five months to the end of August, helped by rising demand and higher prices. Solar power investor Nextenergy was a bright spot, ascending 1.5 per cent, or 1.5p, to 100p after unveiling a joint venture with Eelpower, a leading UK battery specialist, to develop power storage projects. Blue-chip banks were boosted by upgrades from Barclays, with HSBC rising 1.9 per cent, or 7.15p, at 376.05p and Standard Chartered adding 0.2 per cent, or 0.7p, to 442p. A Sword of Damocles hangs over small businesses in the vital run-up to Christmas, experts warned. In a stark warning, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that supply chain hold-ups, staffing shortages and tax rises threaten to squeeze firms. The lobby group has urged ministers to ease the pressures faced by the thousands of firms making up the backbone of Britain's economy. Warning: The Federation of Small Businesses, which is calling on ministers to ease the pressures faced by the thousands of firms making up the backbone of Britain's economy They are battling through a litany of problems caused by the pandemic, the FSB said, and companies which have struggled through Covid could now be forced into insolvency if the Government pushes ahead with tax hikes and the withdrawal of support. Chaos caused by the pandemic in global trade means shipping costs are soaring, while some goods are stuck in ports because there are too few lorry drivers to move them to warehouses. Toy company Character Group, told the Mail its shipping costs had rocketed by as much as six times over the past year. Other companies, from retailers to restaurants, are struggling to hire staff, as university students are less likely to take on part-time work and many overseas workers have gone home. And now businesses have another hurdle approaching, as the Government has increased the rate of National Insurance which they must pay from next year. This week alone, tonic maker Fever Tree, hobby group Hornby, and figurine firm Games Workshop have all warned of pandemic-related problems. Mike Cherry, national chairman of the FSB, said: 'Supply chain problems are hitting hard alongside spiralling employment costs and staff shortages, while the consumer-led recovery could be losing steam. 'News that the Government's regressive jobs tax will place 50,000 people out of work could not come at a worse time. 'Retail businesses are nervous about their peak Christmas season, with an opaque winter Covid plan likely to see trade restrictions installed at just a week's notice. It feels to many like a Sword of Damocles with a difficult winter ahead.' Kiran Shah, managing director of Character Group, said businesses were facing a 'perfect storm'. The company would usually expect to make the first delivery of its Christmas toys to retailers in August. 'We just don't have sufficient goods to supply,' he said. 'Freight rates and shipping costs are through the roof. 'A 40-foot container from the Far East to the UK cost $3,000 to ship last November. This month it's $18,000.' Cherry has urged the Government to raise the Employment Allowance, money which small firms can claim to offset their National Insurance contributions. He has also called on ministers to give further help exporters, get their goods across the UK border. GAP has gained a new lease of life on the High Street after announcing a tie-up with Next. The US retailer decided earlier this year to close its 81 UK and Ireland stores following a period of sliding sales. But a deal with Next will see the brand which first came to the UK in 1987 keep a physical presence in town centres. Tie-up: Gap clothes will be offered within selected Next stores and Next's Total platform will also host Gap's online shopping business Gap clothes will be offered within selected Next stores. And Next's Total platform will also host Gap's online shopping business. The joint venture will be 51 per cent owned by Next, and 49 per cent by Gap. Mark Breitbard, chief executive of Gap Global, said the company was planning to 'meet our customers in UK and Ireland where they are shopping now'. Gap's decision to close its 81 stores came as little surprise to experts in the fashion industry. The brand, once famed for offering American classics like jeans, khakis and hoodies at affordable prices, struggled to stay relevant in a market where retailers like Uniqlo and Weekday were better at keeping up with the trends. But it was still a blow to the High Street, which in recent years has lost brands such as Topshop, Debenhams and Cath Kidston. Store boy: Lord Wolfson joined Next as a sales consultant in its Kensington store in 1991, rising quickly through the ranks before becoming chief executive in 2001 Online retailers Asos and Boohoo respectively own the Topshop and Debenhams brands. Next, which has around 500 stores in the UK and Ireland, has been moving fast to innovate. It struck a deal with US lingerie brand Victoria's Secret to run its UK business, and just months ago snapped up a 25 per cent stake in upmarket Reiss, to whom it will provide warehouse and distribution services. It expects to make a 750million pre-tax profit this year. Chief executive Lord Wolfson, 53, said: 'Next is delighted at the prospect of its Total platform supporting Gap on the next stage of development of their world-renowned brand in the UK and Ireland.' Wolfson who joined Next as a sales consultant in its Kensington store in 1991, rising quickly through the ranks before becoming chief executive in 2001 has been leading the firm's transformation from a tired High Street chain to a retail behemoth with an online presence to rival Asos and Boohoo. Its online marketplace hosts third-party brands such as River Island, Ted Baker and Superdry. Vecturas 1billion takeover by the makers of Marlboro cigarettes faced a growing backlash from medical experts and politicians last night. Philip Morris International sealed its buyout of the Chippenham-based inhaler company this week after almost 75 per cent of Vecturas investors backed the deal. Philip Morris which also sells Parliament and Chesterfield cigarettes only needed 50 per cent backing for the 165p-per-share offer to go through. Anger: Philip Morris International sealed its buyout of the Chippenham-based inhaler company this week after almost 75 per cent of Vecturas investors backed the deal The company said the Vectura takeover would speed up its efforts to become a broader healthcare and wellness group. But the deal triggered outrage among health professionals, campaigners and politicians, who warned the inhaler-maker could be blacklisted and shut out of industry research. Tory MP Bob Blackman, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, said it was deeply disappointing that shareholders had backed the deal. For years, major City institutions have said they are only keen to invest in companies committed to high environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. The Vectura takeover was seen as a key test of this ethically minded approach, which many now think the big battalion investors failed. Blackman said: It is deeply disappointing that institutional shareholders have fallen for Philip Morriss rhetoric, rather than examining the facts. Philip Morris continues to make the vast majority of its profits from selling cigarettes, and marketing them to young people, particularly in low and middle-income countries where 80 per cent of smokers now live. Bosses to share 5m bonanza Windfall: Vectura chief executive Will Downie (pictured) could pocket around 1.5million Vectura's bosses stand to make close to 5million from the sale to Philip Morris. Chief executive Will Downie could be in line for around 1.5million for his holding and the more than 900,000 shares he has in an unvested, long-term performance plan detailed in the companys annual report. Downie a fan of 1970s punk bank Joy Division who started his career as a medical sales representative joined Vectura in 2019. Finance boss Paul Fry, who has been at the group since 2018, could earn 3.3million. A City source said: Social or the s in ESG has always been the ugly duckling and principles on social issues often fall by the wayside. Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell, said: However good Philip Morriss intentions the bottom line is with this acquisition its playing both sides, making money from tobacco which makes people sick and inhalers which help them feel better. Philip Morris, which is worth 115billion and traces its origins back to 1847, still makes 75 per cent of its revenues from selling cigarettes. Vectura makes inhalers and nebulisers but it also works with major pharmaceutical companies to convert their medicines into powdered forms that can be inhaled. The group was founded in 1997 by students from the University of Bath and joined the stock market in 2004. The backlash against Vectura being owned by a tobacco group has already become clear after a major medical conference barred it from taking part. Vectura had previously been listed as a sponsor and participant at an Oxford Global event on inhaled drug delivery next month. The British Thoracic Society last night said it would never engage with Vectura and that the company would never be able to attend its conferences and events. Axa, a top ten investor, said it agreed to sell its 4 per cent because it did not want to be a minority shareholder. Axa said it was uncomfortable with the ethics behind a tobacco groups purchase of an inhaler manufacturer. Sticker Mule, a printing and manufacturing company, will host a job fair at the Rivers Casino and Resort Event Center in Schenectady from noon until 4:00 p.m. on Sept. 22 as it looks to make several hires for remote customer service positions. The company is seeking competent writers who can support customers via social media and email. Sticker Mule's starting rate is $20 an hour and it boasts of health and dental benefits among 401K plans, paid vacation and other perks. This column expresses the views of the author, separate from those of the Times Union. This is an excerpt from Chris Churchill's weekly newsletter. Sign up here, and it will arrive in your inbox every Friday . Over the weekend, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin took to Twitter to call CNN's Brian Stelter "vapid and stupid," a "babbling idiot" and an "insipid, wet-lipped moron." That's pretty much par for the course for McLaughlin's Twitter feed, which as I've noted before, often targets perceived liberal foes, calling them total hacks, morons, senile, etc. But as Ken Crowe reported, the insults directed at Stelter got McLaughlin temporarily banned from the platform. McLaughin says his account was suspended Sunday about 10 seconds after he sent the tweet and was down for about 12 hours. To the surprise of nobody, he returned with his usual bombast: "Back after my 1st suspension from the censoring fascists at @Twitter," McLaughlin wrote Sunday. "Apparently they monitor liberal loser journalists like @brianstelter. If you criticize that babbling idiot you get suspended. Oops. I guess I did it again. Here was my tweet. Ive said way worse about Cuomo." That's true. He has said way worse about the deposed governor. And if you spend about five minutes on Twitter, you'll see people saying way worse about just about everybody. It's an angry place, alas, and like most social media, bad for mental health. So, a question: Why was McLaughlin banned? It is possible the Republican triggered some algorithm or another. It is more likely someone flagged his tweet as "abusive and harmful" and perhaps even tagged it as "directing hate against a protected category." In other words, "wet lipped" might have been interpreted as a homophobic slur. It is a bit of an unusual insult, although one McLaughlin has used before. In August, referring to New York's Health Commissioner, he wrote: "Howard Zucker is a wet lipped wimp and a complicit liar." What does McLaughlin mean by "wet lipped"? "Slobbering," he told me via text, later adding: "I never once thought of it as a slur nor was it meant to be. Not at all. To me, it was a picture of (Stelter) spewing his nonsense." McLaughlin believes there's a bigger issue at play here: Bias against conservative speech. "What you should be focused on and outraged about," he said, "as someone whose entire profession is dependent on the First Amendment, is the uneven playing field and censorship of one side of the aisle by big tech. That's the story." Well, without knowing why McLaughlin was suspended, it's hard to call what happened censorship. Plus, isn't Twitter a private company that can make its own decisions about what it publishes, just as the, say, the Times Union does? Yes and no. It is a private company, of course, and it can set its own guidelines for the type of content it wants to host. But unlike your beloved local newspaper, Twitter is also protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet platforms from liability for the things people tweet and post. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and others argue that the special protection from Congress means Twitter and other social media companies should be content neutral. After all, if they make editorial judgments, as a newspaper does, why should they get to avoid libel laws? It's a fair point. Yet others, including the U.S. senator who wrote the law, say Section 230 was never intended to enforce neutrality. "You can have a liberal platform. You can have conservative platforms," Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, told Vox. "And the way this is going to come about is not through government but through the marketplace, citizens making choices, people choosing to invest." This is a complicated debate, and I'd prefer not to find myself lost in a rabbit tunnel. Suffice to say this: Though the First Amendment doesn't apply to their decisions, social media platforms should respect free speech including, of course, conservative speech. Is Big Tech biased against conservatives? That's another rabbit hole! Conservatives certainly think they are being treated unfairly, and some bad decisions, such as Twitter's suspension of the New York Post's account for articles about Hunter Biden, help explain why. And it's fair to assume most Twitter employees are Democrats. Yet there is no disputing that conservative speech thrives on social media, and that the companies certainly have a financial incentive to keep it flowing. On Wednesday, for example, seven of the 10 top links on Facebook were from explicitly right-of-center sources, including two from Ben Shapiro and one each from Dinesh D'Souza and Glenn Beck. That's hardly censorship. I'll end this by saying that McLaughlin's attack on Stelter didn't justify even a quick and temporary Twitter ban, although, sure, it might be nice to see more decorum from an elected official. "Rensselaer County clearly needs to have civility brought back to county government," said Gwen Wright, the Democrat running against McLaughlin this fall. "He is exactly what civility is not." cchurchill@timesunion.com 518-454-5442 @chris_churchill After three prior trip cancellations, getting our vaccinations and the required negative-status COVID testing, my wife and I flew to Dublin to visit our son and his wife, and to meet her family for the first time. They had canceled their wedding there last year due to the pandemic. We had previously booked our Ireland-required COVID tests which, if negative, would allow us to avoid quarantine there. Their drive-thru test was thorough, meaning a long thin swab traveled up the nose, slid behind the eye and briefly entered the frontal lobe. I would never question an Irish COVID test result. Our negative status allowed us to travel and meet new people. While some restrictions had been eased, most remained at high levels during our July visit. Pubs, the aorta of Irish social life, were reduced to serving patrons outside. One could only glimpse the worn mahogany bars and empty stools inside, a row of motionless, dry tap handles above them. Ireland has a topical climate, which is to say almost everyone weighs in on it. Shame for da rain after such a nice week, or Its more like Spain with dis heat, or Not a breath out there today,'' or Bit cooler today, isnt it? A Dublin cab driver shared that his family owned an apartment in southern Spain because, Ya know, de wedder here is shite. Once dominated by church steeples, green copper domes and cathedral towers, the Dublin skyline was full of construction cranes. Many multinational firms, attracted by Irelands favorable tax environment and highly educated workforce, have their European headquarters here. Thats great for creating new jobs, but the supply of housing hasnt kept up with demand. The global financial crisis stymied Irelands building development more than a decade ago and builders are playing catch-up. While the countrys per capita income has risen steadily (second highest in the EU), the price of renting an apartment or owning real estate in Dublin and beyond has skyrocketed. Were kinda getting screwed, said a 30-something, lifelong Dubliner looking to purchase his first house. Smaller than New York state, Ireland proved accessible. We traveled by car, train, bus and foot to Kinsale, Cork, Killarney, Galway and Dublin. And we had a lot of company. Because the pandemic precluded much of their international travel, the Irish were busy rediscovering via staycations their own beautiful country. And swimming. Thats right. In mid-July, the Emerald Isle was experiencing a heat wave (the equivalent of a nice summer day in Albany). In response, the Irish were storming the beaches for relief in their togs (swimsuits), plunging luminously white bodies into the frigid Irish Sea as if it were the Caribbean itself. Their enthusiasm for torture proved contagious. I got in myself, up to the waist, and for the next hour felt as if Id had an epidural. The Catholic Churchs grip on Ireland has eased. The number of Catholic priests has declined by 43 percent since 1995; their average age is 70. Whereas 80 percent of Catholics attended Mass weekly in 1979, 35 percent do now. In 2018, Irish voters chose to legalize abortion. Sectarian violence has eased, too. Once flashpoints for conflict, the annual Protestant parades July 12 in Northern Ireland, celebrating their centuries-old ascendency over Catholics, occurred peacefully this year. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The island Republic we visited seemed less concerned with its past and more intently focused on the future. It was the omnipresence of the tech industry, growth of biotech and pharma companies, real estate prices, new automobiles, job opportunities, pandemic restrictions, pets, holidays and healthcare that dominated conversations. And most of those transpired with the utmost pleasantness. No worries and Tanks a million and Cheers and Grand were common utterances. It was as if centuries of tumult, subjugation, rebellion and famine had somehow forged aided by more recent successes a kind of communal Irish niceness and cautious optimism. Indeed, a study from a university in Cambridge recently named Ireland one of the world's best five places to survive global societal collapse. We spent our last days in Dublin. Recognized by UNESCO as a City of Literature, it once housed Wilde, Beckett, Shaw, Murdoch, OBrien and Joyce, among others. Joyce wrote, When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart. I hope so, given that he died and was buried in Zurich, Switzerland. Sporadic efforts by the Irish to return Joyce to his native soil have been unsuccessful. Among other challenges, his gravesite is a popular tourist attraction the Swiss seem reluctant to forego. No worries. Sean Fagan was born and raised in Troy. The Double H Ranch hosts the annual Backyard Oasis Gala A virtual fundraiser will be held Saturday, Sept. 18, to raise funds and awareness for year-round, in-person and virtual and alternative programs for children living with a serious illness. Guests can gather in their own backyard oasis and enjoy gala-to-go food delivered by Mazzone Hospitality with signature cocktails and beer provided by DeCresente Distributing. Over 150 auction items are available online starting at $50. Virtual guests may sponsor a camper by donating at fundraise.doublehranch.org/oasisgala. For more information, go to https://www.doublehranch.org/special-events/oasisgala/ Native Americans and the Constitution HUDSON Heather Bruegl, a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and first-line descendent Stockbridge Munsee, will discuss the U.S. Constitution and its relationship to Native Americans at 2 p.m. Sept. 20 on Zoom. The event is part of this year's speaker series of the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, honoring Constitution Week, which was dedicated by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. The DAR encourages the study of the Constitution and the historical events that led to its framing. The Constitution, adopted in 1787, was not written with this continent's first peoples in mind. So how does it relate to them? Hearing the Native American perspective will help to broaden Americans' understanding of this fundamental document. To register, go to https://hudson-dar.org/in-the-news. Peregrine Senior Living recognizes World Alzheimers Day Memory care facilities in the region, including Peregrine Senior Living in Colonie and Clifton Park, will join others in the state at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, to recognize World Alzheimers Day as residents and staff walk in unison around its buildings in Colonie and Clifton Park to raise awareness for Alzheimers disease. Currently, over six million Americans and approximately 44 million people worldwide are afflicted by Alzheimers. The race is on for a cure. Girls Inc. to Launch New Mentoring Program SCOTIA Girls Inc. of the Greater Capital Region will launch a new mentoring program for girls in grades 8 through 12 at a luncheon on Sept. 22 at Glen Sanders Mansion. Alicia Ouellette, president and dean of Albany Law School, will deliver the keynote address and speak about the importance of mentorship. The current mentors have committed to the program for the duration of the school year. A new class of mentors will be selected for next year. The celebration luncheon is being presented by MVP Health Care. Tickets start at $75, $65 for young professionals 35 and younger. For more information, email Renee Kelly: rkelly@gcr.girls-inc.org or go to https://girlsinccapitalregion.org/events. Barbecued dinner for sale GLENMONT Pick up a chicken or rib barbecue 3:30 to 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at 678 Route 9W. The meals will be by Barbecue Delights Catering of Schoharie. Cost is $13 for each meal. Homemade baked goods will also be sold. Make reservations by Sunday, Sept. 19 by calling Carol Carpenter, 518-421-1384, or Charles Ryan, 518-227-8954. Underground Railroad Education Center presents talk The Social/Political Dynamics of Native Americans and African Americans in the United States will be the topic of a virtual talk by Darryl Omar Freeman from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 25. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. A lecturer at California State University, Sacramento, Freeman will present his research on "how the Native Americans and African Americans symbiotic relationship contributed to establishing collaborative agency between these similarly oppressed people in their efforts to gain equal rights and equal status in a world strongly opposed to such gains." The talk is part of Underground Railroad Education Centers FreedomCon 2021 series. Cost to attend is $10. For more information, or to register, go to https://undergroundrailroadhistory.org. What Could a Resilient North Greenbush Look Like? WYNANTSKILL Learn about drastic weather events that have negatively impacted communities in Rensselaer County and may do so in the future at a Climate Smart Vision Task Force open meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at North Greenbush Town Hall, 2 Douglas St. The task force is a short-term committee that hopes to meet a few times over the next three months to carve out a vision for what the town could look like when it is resilient to climate change. The vision document will be presented to the town board to review and consider approving. For more information, or to make reservations to attend, call Bernie Wiesen at Rensselaer County Cooperative Extension, 518-272-4210 or email: bw27@cornell.edu by Monday, Sept. 20. National Voter Registration Day is Sept. 28 ALBANY Representatives of the League of Women Voters of Albany County will register voters 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 28 at Honest Weight Food Co-op, 100 Watervliet Ave. and area Price Chopper and Market 32 stores. Voters must be registered by Oct. 13 to participate in the Nov. 2 elections. To register online, in-person or by mail, go to your local Board of Elections and also the Department of Motor Vehicles, 855 Central Ave., or any DMV office. Citizens can check their voter registration status at https://www.vote411.org. compiled by Azra Haqqie To be considered by publication in this column, submit events to tucitydesk@timesunion.com. Paul Buckowski/Times Union GRAFTON The Rensselaer Plateau Alliance is kicking off a campaign to raise $2 million over the next three years for land conservation and management on the Rensselaer Plateau, a 100,000-acre area of woodlands, ponds and streams at the eastern side of Rensselaer County. The Forests Forever Campaign aims to conserve much of the plateau's forestland and establish an endowment for continued land management and stewardship there. BETHLEHEM The Bethlehem Republican Committee has come under fire after a reform plan posted to its website included a proposal to ban affordable housing in the town. The plan, posted online Wednesday, was quickly taken down Thursday morning. The Republican Committee said the plan was posted by mistake. These housing projects will only bring in people who do not pay taxes, creating a further strain on our taxpayers and our schools," the item about banning affordable housing stated. "In addition, these housing units bring drugs and crime, making them a detriment to our town. We do not want Bethlehem to become like the city of Albany. "It was just open racism, equating affordable housing folks with drugs and crime," said Joanne Cunningham, chair of the Bethlehem Democratic Committee. "It was just terrible and blatantly racist." The names of the five Bethlehem candidates running on the GOP ticket were listed at the bottom of the plan. However, Republican Committee Chair Jim Carriero said none of the candidates agreed with what was written. "It was proposed many months back. This was an individual that created it, and we all said no," Carriero said. "It was unauthorized, we didnt approve it. The person claims they made a mistake. But it was viciously, inappropriately done." Carriero declined to share who posted the plan or what their role is on the committee. An apology was posted on the Bethlehem Republican Committee Facebook page. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Carriero said the Republican Committee does not have a shared platform regarding affordable housing, but that he personally believes people of all incomes should have the opportunity to live in Bethlehem. Jim Foster, who is the sole Republican on the Town Board and is up for reelection in November, said he was upset to see his name posted to the plan. "I never approved it and never signed my name to it; I never would because those views are not my own," Foster said. "Every (affordable housing) project needs to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Affordable or otherwise, everyone should be able to live in a safe, wonderful community like Bethlehem." ALBANY Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that over 1,000 Afghan refugees are expected to settle in New York in the coming months and 100 are likely to find new homes in Albany. The announcement comes a month after the Taliban took over Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, amid U.S. troops pulling out of the country, resulting in thousands of Afghans attempting to flee Taliban rule. Hochul said up to 1,143 Afghans could resettle in New York. The heart-wrenching images and stories of people fleeing their homeland were a call to action that New York State is more than willing to answer, Hochul said in a news release. We welcome our new Afghan friends with open arms and pledge to provide them the assistance they can rely on to rebuild anew. Francis Sengabo, operations director at the Refugee and Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus (RISSE), said the nonprofit expects a large number of arrivals to Albany the first week of October, depending on how long the vetting process takes. Sources have told the Times Union that some Afghan refugees have already begun to arrive in the Albany area. We are trying to expand to receive more kids in after-school programs, Sengabo said of RISSEs efforts to prepare for the influx of refugees. And also our English class, we now have three levels with maybe 70 students. RISSE is just one of the local organizations ramping up efforts to prepare for the anticipated new arrivals. One of the main issues refugee aid workers are concerned about is housing. Theres a real shortage and a real need to help people in the community who have been resettled, Tim Dougherty, CEO of the West Hill Refugee Welcome Center, told the Times Union last month. Its an extremely complicated, sensitive and nuanced thing. The need for volunteers to help with programming, beautify properties and do the unsung grunt work is ongoing, Dougherty said. AirBnB announced last month that it would be providing temporary housing to Afghan refugees worldwide. As the (International Rescue Committee) helps to welcome and resettle Afghans in the U.S., accessible housing is urgently needed and essential, David Milliband, CEO of refugee aid group the International Rescue Committee, said in a news release. The sudden influx of refugees comes after years of stunted arrival numbers during former President Donald Trumps administration. During Trumps tenure, the refugee intake ceiling was slashed from over 110,000 during the final year of the Obama administration to just 18,000 in 2019 and the number of refugees actually settled was even less. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Afghan refugees were particularly impacted by hits to the special immigrant visa (SIV) program, which was created to bring Afghans and Iraqis who worked with the U.S. military to safety. When the Trump administration took over the program, the number of visas approved for Afghan applicants (excluding their family members) dropped from 4,120 in fiscal year 2017 to 1,649 in fiscal year 2019. Of Afghan SIV applicants approved for an interview stage, 84 percent received a visa in fiscal year 2016. In 2019, that rate dropped to 60 percent. We believe thats due to changes made in the security check process, or, maybe just a de-emphasis on getting things done maybe the political will to allocate resources failed, Betsy Fisher, director of strategy at the New York-based International Refugee Assistance Project, told the Times Union last month. Many immigration advocates and experts have criticized the evacuation of Afghanistan, saying the scramble to save Afghan lives could have been avoided with more leadership and more efficient programming. There are currently over 17,000 pending SIV applications for Afghans, as well as at least 53,000 family members. Jill Peckenpaugh, director of the Albany field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), told the Times Union that Albany is expecting to relocate 400 refugees next year, with 25 percent of them being SIVs. This year, by far, we've received the most SIV requests for New York state, she told the newspaper last month. Audio from an inquest into the shooting death of Derontae Martin offers widely conflicting accounts of how the young Black man died inside a rural Missouri home during a party in April. One witness said someone confessed to killing Martin; another said he saw Martin shoot himself. The Associated Press obtained the audio through a state open records request. At the hearing in July, a six-person jury, without elaborating, overruled a local coroner's decision that Martin shot himself, ruling instead that he died by violence. Nearly two months after the inquest, Martins relatives worry that investigators, convinced in their initial finding of suicide, are ignoring the ruling from the coroner's inquest jury. Honestly, I feel like Im stuck and theres nobody helping, Martin's mother, Ericka Lotts, said, fighting back tears. I feel like nobody cares. No investigator involved will discuss the case. Madison County Prosecutor M. Dwight Robbins and a Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman both said they don't comment on investigations. Sheriff Katy McCutcheon didn't respond to messages seeking comment. Martin, 19, was among several young people at an April party at a home near Fredericktown, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of St. Louis. Around 3 a.m. on April 25, a shot rang out from the attic. Martin was dead of a gunshot wound. The coroner ruled it a suicide. Martin's family didn't believe it, and their concerns were heightened because the shooting happened at a home owned by a man who has used Facebook postings to mock foreign accents and defend the Confederate flag. One meme he posted said, Here's my apology for being white, and shows a hand flipping a middle finger. In testimony at the inquest, he admitted using racial slurs. Because the man is not charged with a crime, The Associated Press is not naming him. He does not have a listed phone number. Much of the testimony at the inquest pointed to suicide, including that of Zachary Graham, who said he saw Martin in an attic closet, holding a gun to his own head. Did you see him shoot himself? Rollins asked at the inquest hearing. Yes, Graham replied. Others said Martin had been acting paranoid and aloof. Martin had methamphetamine in his system enough to cause paranoia and irrational thinking according to a toxicology report cited by Dr. Russell Deidiker, who performed the autopsy. Deidiker also outlined evidence indicating Martin died from a gunshot at close range. Its my opinion its self-inflicted, Deidiker said. A Highway Patrol investigator concurred. The family commissioned a second autopsy that indicated that the gun was fired from further away proof, they believe, that someone else was the shooter. Deidiker downplayed the second autopsy, noting it was performed after Martins body was cleaned. He said it didnt change his opinion. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. But Phillip Lawler testified that the homeowner told him weeks after the shooting that he killed Martin. He just told me he didnt like Black people and used the N-word," Lawler testified. He said the man told him "that murder was the easiest thing in the world to get by with. The homeowner gave a different account of that conversation. He said he had approached Lawler about helping in case a protest over Martin's death turned violent. I never once said, I did it, or anything else, the man said, though he said he told Lawler he probably would have got less heat if hed actually killed Martin. The man said he was on the main floor with others when the shot was heard, sending people scattering. Some of the young people, in testimony, backed up his account. Neither Lawler nor Graham have listed phone numbers and they could not be reached for additional comment. A May demonstration over Martin's death drew about 100 protesters to Fredericktown. That region of Missouri was home to a former Ku Klux Klan leader, Frank Ancona, who was shot to death by his wife in 2017. At the May demonstration, someone in a car threw two nooses at protesters. Lotts said another rally is planned for mid-October. She hopes it spurs a new investigation. I would like for the federal government to take over the case, or somebody in higher power, because they dont seem equipped," Lotts said of Madison County investigators and the Highway Patrol. Its like they dont want anything to do with it. ___ Associated Press reporter Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this report. NISKAYUNA Sgt. Jordan Kochan is expected to be promoted to police chief during a special meeting Friday afternoon. The agenda on the town's website containing the resolution for the gathering indicates Kochan's name will be offered up by Supervisor Yasmine Syed for a vote by the full Town Board. Asked about that choice, Syed said late Thursday that Kochan has the right skill sets to move the department beyond its current troubles. "He has the right vision for the department, and we have unique challenges that we have been experiencing ... and Jordan really does have the vision and the plan to heal the department and bring it back to what it's intended to be to protect and serve our residents in the most optimal way possible," Syed said. Specifically, she said Kochan will have to tackle "the issue of morale and those issues that played out in a very public way" that led to several police officers leaving Niskayuna. Councilwoman Denise Murphy McGraw echoed those sentiments. 'We're really committed to moving the department forward, moving the entire town forward, and he shares that vision of being able to have the department come together as a cohesive group, being able to work together on the challenges that we're all facing," she said. Kochan's impending appointment will cap a tumultuous period for this small police force that in the past year or so has endured the loss of two chiefs to retirement and has been plagued by complaints from some officers that they are forced to work long hours because the department is short-staffed and have not received enough training or support from town leaders. "He really already is bridging that gap between the town administration and police administration," added Syed. "We feel that we can work collaboratively with him." The other two finalists for the position, acting Chief Michael Stevens and Sgt. Todd Frenyea, were notified Thursday of the boards decision to go with Kochan, the supervisor said. Stevens' attorney, Michael McDermott, did not immediately return a call late Thursday seeking comment. The months-long process to fill the job to this point has at times been filled with intrigue. Former Board Member Rosemarie Perez Jaquith said in an email that "political intrigue has been the only constant on this town board's relationship with Niskayuna police chiefs." "Our dedicated officers and the people they serve deserve better," she wrote. "I wish the new chief all the best and hope that he is given the staff he needs, and the tools and independence to be successful." Late Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before a disciplinary hearing for Stevens was supposed to get underway, the town announced in a news release that the proceeding had been canceled, that the matter would be "addressed internally" and that Syed would be making recommendations to the Town Board "as to the next steps." It's still not entirely clear what those next steps might be, but Thursday Syed said it will be "priority No. 1 in the next week or two after the new chief gets down to work. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. It also came to light earlier this week that Stevens had filed a complaint in August against Niskayuna Police Benevolent Association President Anthony Comanzo and others alleging Comanzo was bragging to fellow officers that Kochan was a shoo-in to become chief. Separately, there was also an anonymous complaint alleging that while responding on-duty to a report of a wild animal at the home of a town board member, Kochan was assured he would be picked to lead the department. Comanzo on Thursday did not return a call seeking comment. On Thursday, Syed said the three-member workplace violence reduction team after conducting a "quick, thorough and impartial investigation" determined that neither the complaint nor an anonymous letter about the matter could be corroborated and were unfounded. Last year, the police union in a near-unanimous vote approved a vote of no confidence against Stevens. Kochan, who scored the highest on the police chief civil service test, did not respond Thursday to an email seeking comment. He joined the department in July 2008. Kochan, 38, is expected to attend Fridays meeting with his family and take the oath of office. The resolution calls for him to be paid $133,384 a year, which is comparable to other department heads. CLIFTON PARK The forested lot in the center of town that residents fought to preserve will become an accessible park, with a loop trail to enjoy the trees and a grassy glade for events. After a pandemic delay and much work this year, the plan for phase one of Town Center Park has been finalized. The town board will refine the details through one more public workshop, at a date not yet announced, and hope to go out to bid this year for work to begin in the spring. Its expected to cost $1.5 million. Shenendehowa Central School District officials had originally planned to sell the land, between Moe Road and Maxwell Avenue near Shatekon Elementary School, to a developer. But residents collected signatures to force a referendum, and the sale was overwhelmingly defeated in a public vote. Then the town bought it to preserve as a park. The plan calls for preserving as many trees as possible, while building two parking lots and two paved walking trails. In phase two, the town would add bathrooms. A paved, 16-foot-wide trail will connect to the existing multiuse trail on Moe Road. The other trail will be a half-mile loop through the forested land. The Glade, an acre of grass, will host art shows, events, and passive recreation. Phase two includes bringing in water for irrigation to maintain that nice grassy area, said designer Joe Dannible of Environmental Design Partnership. On Monday, he showed the town board drawings of how the glade would look at night, to emphasize the need to add a lot of lights. The plan calls for 46 ornamental light poles, costing $350,000. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The plan is worthy of all the effort thats been invested by many, many people throughout the process, said Town Supervisor Phil Barrett. He noted that he had negotiated with the school district and offered $1 million for 34 acres. The school district rejected that. After the referendum, the district sold the town 37 acres for $1.1 million essentially the same as what hed offered beforehand. Its a unique park in a great location with a very interesting history, Barrett said. Phase one will obviously improve the accessibility and safety of the park. So far, people who wanted the site preserved like the plan, he added. We appreciate their involvement and they are tracking our progress with keen interest, he said. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this week sharply criticized a new Texas law that essentially bans most abortions and said that her state intends to assist women who want to leave the Lone Star State to access the procedure. For women in Texas, we want you to know: We will help you find a way to New York. And right now we are looking intensely to find what resources we can bring to the table to help you have safe transport here, and let you know there are providers who will assist you in this time of your need, Hochul said in a Wednesday night interview on MSNBC. She went on to attack Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, saying he and Republicans like him claim to be proponents of deregulation and small government, but then seek to control womens bodies. Im going to help women get elected all over this country who are pro-choice. Im going to use my energy and my resources to make sure that happens as well. Thats the only thing thats going to change this: We have to wipe out men like Governor Abbott, said Hochul, a Democrat who became the states first woman governor last month. Its so appalling whats going on in these Republican states. And their people are suffering, and I cant stand it any longer. We have to take a strong position against this and call it out whenever we see it. A spokeswoman for Abbott did not respond to a request for comment. Its unclear from Hochuls remarks whether she means that New York will have a policy to financially assist Texas women seeking to travel to her state for abortions, or whether she simply means that New Yorks existing clinics that perform abortions will be open to Texans. New York State provides care for people regardless of residency. We will do everything we can to help individuals who are seeking the procedure in New York State, Haley Viccaro, a spokeswoman for Hochul, wrote in an email. Some nonprofit groups have already announced plans to help women get around the states abortion law. Planned Parenthoods website encourages Texas women who are pregnant to schedule ultrasounds quickly to confirm the pregnancy and to schedule abortion procedures soon afterward if that is their choice. The organization says women can call (210) 736-2262 for help finding a clinic to perform the procedure in Texas before the six-week deadline, or to help them find an out-of-state provider if the pregnancy has progressed beyond six weeks. If you need to get an abortion out of state, we can help you find a provider and resources to get there, including financial assistance, the website reads. Texas new abortion law, which went into effect Sept. 1 after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, bans the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. The high court has not ruled on the substance of the law. Pregnancy dates are measured from a womans last menstrual period, and most women find out they are pregnant when their periods are late, placing them often at around four weeks of pregnancy. That leaves them less than two weeks to access abortions under the new law. Hochul said at an abortion rights rally this week that during the pregnancy of one of her children, she went whitewater rafting three months into the pregnancy because she did not know. The Texas law differs from abortion bans or restrictions passed in other GOP-led states, such as Missouri, Alabama and Georgia, in its enforcement mechanism. Rather than leaving enforcement to the state attorney general or local prosecutors, the law explicitly bans such officials from enforcing it. Instead, it is to be enforced privately through lawsuits that can be brought by private individuals against anyone who assists a woman getting an abortion in violation of the new state law. Such individuals can be forced to pay up to $10,000 in damages if successfully sued, as well as the court costs of the party that brought the suit. The law does not include a penalty for making a false claim under the law, nor a means for people who are sued to recover legal expenses if the case against them is unsuccessful. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The maneuver has made it more difficult to challenge the laws constitutionality, stymying those seeking to ensure access to abortion rights guaranteed for now by the high courts 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to halt enforcement of Texas' new abortion law, which Attorney General Merrick Garland has called an unconstitutional scheme. An Abbott spokesperson said this week that the law ensures that the life of every child with a heartbeat will be spared from the ravages of abortionWe are confident that the courts will uphold and protect that right to life. Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, said an important change thats not getting enough attention is the increased funding that the Texas Legislature provided for expecting mothers in the last session, setting aside $100 million over the next two years to promote alternatives to abortion. Women dont need to go out of state to seek abortions. Texas has the resources to help them successfully give birth to the child, and keep the child if she wishes or place the child for adoption, he said. That is the goal of the state programs, and its also the goal of hundreds of nonprofit organizations. While the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the substance of the Texas law, critics say the majority-conservative courts decision has had the effect of banning most abortions in the state and created a model for other Republican-led states to follow. That is not acceptable, say Hochul and other pro-choice Democrats. Setting up this whole system of vigilantes, this is just I cant believe this is even going on in our country, said Hochul, who like Abbott is a lawyer. And whats so disgusting to me is that our own Supreme Court and we saw this possibly coming, but the reality is hitting us hard but the Supreme Court will not stand up and protect the women of this country. Abbott faces two primary challengers next year, and Hochul will seek to be elected governor in her own right after recently succeeding Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations. edward.mckinley@chron.com ALBANY Police arrested a 43-year-old Albany man who they said defaced the Black Lives Matter pavement mural on Lark Street Thursday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. when he spray-painted it with letters and a symbol associated with a white supremacist hate group. The man identified by police as Ian Rawlinson was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief as a hate crime, officials said in a press release. He is due in front of a judge at an Albany criminal court for arraignment Friday morning. Photos posted on Twitter by the Albany Police Department showed the letters "KKK" and what appears to be a cross spray-painted in white over a portion of thick, bright yellow "Black Lives Matter" lettering. The triple K is the widely recognized acronym for the Ku Klux Klan and a white cross is one of the group's emblems. Steve Smith, the department's public information officer, said responding officers "quickly located the suspect nearby on Madison Avenue." Shawn Young, a co-founder of All of Us, a Black-led racial justice community action group, said the vandalism was a shame to see, but not surprising. As bad as (the vandalism) is, racism is not just about an individual act, he said. "It involves things embedded in culture and the more we continue to ignore that, the more these explicit acts of racism will happen." Jamaica Miles, another co-founder of the group, said people acting out in this way has been seen throughout history. It reminds me that we have such a terribly long way to go in changing the world that we live in so there's not such blatant hate against any group, she added. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Mayor Kathy Sheehan said the painting of KKK on the mural was clearly disturbing and certainly a racially motivated crime. She said that by the time she arrived at the scene, a police officer had parked their car over the graffiti because it was so offensive, a gesture that she said was thoughtful. Sheehan said the department of general services has cleaned the graffiti. Although Sheehan noted the incident is a racially motivated crime, she said she wasnt sure what the city is dealing with just yet because people at the mural when the incident happened told her the person might have had mental health or substance abuse issues. "It does not reflect what we think of our city, as being a place of diversity and welcoming, Sheehan said. The speed with which this issue was addressed speaks to how all of us in city government think there is no place for this hatred in the city of Albany." HOWELL, Mich. (AP) A Michigan lawmaker ordered to jail in a drunken driving case is accused of taping a handcuff key to his foot. The key was discovered when state Rep. Jewell Jones, a Detroit-area Democrat, was placed in jail Tuesday for violating bond conditions, authorities said. "He truly believes that he doesnt have to follow the judges orders, doesnt have to follow rules, said Livingston County Sheriff Michael Murphy, who runs the jail. Hes the reason that politicians and elected officials get the bad rap. Jones, 26, returned to court Wednesday to face new charges over the key. Allegations in this matter allege the defendant taping a handcuff key to the bottom of his foot with clear tape and was found by Livingston County corrections officers upon his incarceration, assistant prosecutor Carolyn Henry said in a court filing. Defense attorney Byron Nolan said Jewell realizes the seriousness of the allegations. The sheriff said he doesn't know why Jones had a handcuff key. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. At the end of the day, folks are handcuffed to and from a facility. If someone has a handcuff key, thats a bad day for us," Murphy told the Livingston Daily Press & Argus. Jones has been in and out of court since April when he was charged with drunken driving, resisting police and other offenses. That case is pending. Separately, Jones was removed from his House committee assignments Thursday. House Speaker Jason Wentworth, a Republican, said the latest allegations were a new low. Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin met Thursday in southwest Virginia for the commonwealth's first gubernatorial debate of the general election season. Much of the exchange between McAuliffe, a longtime Democratic Party fundraiser who is seeking a rare second term as governor, and Youngkin, a former business executive and political newcomer, dealt with vaccine mandates and abortion policy. Here is a look at some other topics the candidates sparred over during the hourlong debate in a race that is being closely watched ahead of next year's midterms: ELECTION INTEGRITY During the GOP nomination contest, Youngkin made election integrity a top campaign issue, allowing him to appeal to supporters of former President Donald Trump who wrongly believed the 2020 election was stolen. Moderator Susan Page pressed Youngkin to simply answer yes or no Thursday to a question about whether he agreed with remarks Trump recently made during a radio interview, in which he suggested that Democrats might cheat in the governors race. No. ... I think were going to have a clean, fair election that I fully expect to win, said Youngkin, who added he did not think there had been substantial fraud in Virginia elections. Page also asked both candidates if they would concede if the state certified their opponent had won. Both committed to doing so. QUALIFIED IMMUNITY McAuliffe and Youngkin found a point of agreement on the issue of whether to end qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that often protects police from liability. Both said plainly they would not seek to make any changes to that policy in Virginia. That's a shift in direction for McAuliffe, who during the Democratic primary in April told the Virginia Mercury he would support ending it. He gave a less straightforward answer during a May debate among Democratic candidates. STATE AGENCY CONTROVERSIES Youngkin went after two state agencies that have faced persistent complaints from Virginians during the pandemic: the Virginia Employment Commission and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Were going to introduce the concept of customer service, not flawed process, he said. And during a segment when the candidates were allowed to ask each other a question, Youngkin pressed McAuliffe about the woman he appointed chair of the state parole board, where the state's watchdog agency has found a number of serious problems. If you could do it all over again, would you appoint her chair of your parole board? Youngkin asked. Without directly addressing the issue of former board chairman Adrianne Bennett, McAuliffe responded that if anyone in state government had acted inappropriately, people would be removed. RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. Energy policy and climate change have so far not taken center stage in the campaign. On Thursday, the candidates were asked whether they would have signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a sweeping piece of legislation Democrats passed in 2020 that lays out a plan to get Virginia electric utilities to 100% renewable generation by 2050. Youngkin said he would not have signed the measure. I believe in all energy sources. We can use wind and solar, but we need to preserve our clean natural gas, he said. McAuliffe said of course he would have signed it. In a campaign platform, he's called for accelerating Virginia's path to 100% clean energy by 2035. RICHMOND'S ROBERT E. LEE STATUE Page, the Washington bureau chief of USA Today, had a direct question for the candidates about last week's removal of an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. What went through your mind when you saw that statue come down? she asked about the state-owned bronze equestrian piece. Gov. Ralph Northam ordered its removal last summer after the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, but litigation had tied up the work for over a year. McAuliffe, whose position on Virginia's Confederate statuary has shifted over the years and who could have sought to remove the monument when he was previously in office, responded that he was happy to see it go, calling it a symbol of division and hate. Youngkin first took a shot at McAuliffe's changing positions and then said he thought the Supreme Court of Virginia's decision that allowed the statue to be removed reflected the law. I think that statue should be in a museum or on a battlefield, so we dont airbrush away our history, he said. Back in 2017, white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Va., carrying torches and chanting, You will not replace us and Jews will not replace us. Decent Americans recoiled at the undeniable echo of Nazi Germany. That rhetoric has been resonating ever since in the right wing, repackaged lately in whats known as replacement theory, espoused by conservative media figures like Fox News Tucker Carlson. And it has seeped into the mainstream political discourse in the Capital Region, where Rep. Elise Stefanik has adapted this despicable tactic for campaign ads. Ms. Stefanik isnt so brazen as to use the slogans themselves; rather, she couches the hate in alarmist anti-immigrant rhetoric thats become standard fare for the party of Donald Trump. And she doesnt quite attack immigrants directly; instead, she alleges that Democrats are looking to grant citizenship to undocumented immigrants in order to gain a permanent liberal majority, or, as she calls it, a permanent election insurrection. Quite a choice of words, of course, considering that the country is still suffering the aftershocks of the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington by supporters of Mr. Trump who tried to overturn Democrat Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 presidential election. The Harvard-educated Ms. Stefanik surely knows the sordid history and context of this. The idea of stoking racial, ethnic, and religious tribalism among voters dates back to this countrys earliest days. At various times, politicians have warned that Catholics, Jews, or Muslims were out to change the culture, or that Irish, Italian, Asian or eastern European immigrants would take the jobs to replace white, Protestant Americans. Mr. Trump made attacking Mexicans and Muslims a hallmark of his 2016 campaign, his presidency, and his current rants from the political sidelines. Racist demagogues in Europe, too, have been milking fears about the influx of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East in their suggestion of a covert plot to conquer Europe. It was standard fare for years on U.S. talk radio before Mr. Trump and Fox News brought it into the primetime mainstream. These fear-based political tactics ignore U.S. history and some important realities of our society and economy. America flourished because immigrants contributed to its labor force and its culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Today, according to the American Immigration Council, they make up over a third of the farming, fishing, and forestry workforce, and one-fourth of those working in computer and math sciences. Over four million immigrants work in the health care and social service industry. In many cases, they are doing jobs American citizens dont want to do. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The idea of America as a melting pot is not some idealistic fiction of the left; it is part of the foundation of this nations greatness. It is in this countrys best interests to bring those millions of people who are here illegally but living honest, productive lives out of the shadows and give them a path to citizenship an idea even some Republican lawmakers once supported before Mr. Trump and his ilk poisoned the debate. If theres anything that needs replacing in this country and in the Republican party its the hateful rhetoric that Ms. Stefanik and far too many of her colleagues so shamelessly spew. The following is from a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial: Early in the morning of June 5, 1968, during an event at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles marking his victory in the California presidential primary the day before, Robert F. Kennedy was shot three times by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant with Jordanian citizenship whose diary detailed a hatred for RFK over his strong support for Israel. A day later, Kennedy died from his wounds. It is an open question whether Kennedy would have captured the Democratic nomination at that summers convention from Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who led him in Gallups final poll before his death. But the New York senator, who served as U.S. attorney general when his brother John F. Kennedy was president, was revered for his impassioned idealism and his ardent criticism of both the Vietnam War and the nations inadequate commitment to civil rights. It is widely believed President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for another term that year because he saw polls showing broader admiration among Democrats for RFK, with whom he shared a mutual loathing. Historians have cited RFKs appeal to Black and Latino voters and to low-income white voters in asserting he was much more likely to have defeated victorious Republican nominee Richard Nixon than Humphrey. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. This matters. Sirhan arguably changed the arc of American and world history, for the worse. Now a two-member parole panel has concluded the 77-year-old is no threat to public safety, and decided to recommend paroling Sirhan. RFKs widow and six of his eight children want him to stay in prison. The final call on whether to release Sirhan is up to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Heres hoping he blocks the parole and grasps the dangerous symbolism of freeing a confessed political assassin in our divided age. Any murder is awful, but RFKs murder was an assault on our democracy. ALBANY Small-scale organic dairy farming in New York is facing a crisis as one of the largest distributors, Horizon Organic, told 89 farms in the Northeast more than half of those in upstate that it's ending its contract with them as a part of a shifting economic model. The news was a gut punch to the regional dairy community as Horizon Organic, through its global corporation, Danone, issued nonrenewal notices late last month to the farms, including 46 in New York. Approximately 17 of those farms are in rural Washington County, although Danone would not confirm the number. Despite the substantial hit to the small-farm, local organic dairy industry, which is recognized for its environmental benefits, the situation with Horizon Organic has unfolded rather quietly. The announcement in late August came during a busy time in New York politics: an expiring eviction moratorium, record flooding and the unveiling of a massive federal plan for infrastructure. Compounding the problem, advocates say, is that farmers are not allowed to disclose that they are in contract with Horizon Organic the company that markets a red milk carton with a smiling cow and a label that says pasture-raised and hooray for our farmers! or else they risk having their contract terminated. Danone offered an additional one-year contract to the farmers to help facilitate a smooth transition, which gives them about 11 months to find out what to do with their milk and their livelihood. With that dynamic in place, advocates and experts explained that organic dairy farmers have been fearful to speak out, leaving them in the shadows of an industry that they worry is ready to pass them by. And with a lack of attention on the issue, they are concerned about the viability of the farmers, the communities they support and the future of organic milk in New York, a question that also touches on the climate crisis as low-to-zero impact farms become less sustainable businesses. Its obviously a huge negative impact on those individual farms and its a blow to the organic industry in New York, said Lindsay Ferlito, regional dairy specialist for the Cornell Cooperative Extension. It used to be an option for farms in this area and its starting to feel like its no longer becoming an option. 'A sense of worry' Danone said it wants all of the farms it works with to be within 300 miles of its production plant, which is in Elma, Erie County. There are 27 pasteurizing plants in New York, according to the state Department of Agricultures most recent data from 2019 a number that has slowly been declining over the last decade. Washington County, possibly the most hurt by Danones decision, is about 315 miles east of Elma. Its 17 producers with ties cut by Horizon make up nearly a fifth of dairy farms in the county, according to the state Department of Agriculture. Theres an ecosystem of businesses that surround these farms, and maybe the loss of one farm doesnt impact the ecosystem, but when you talk about 10 or more farms being impacted because this co-op has pulled out, then this could have a material impact, said Saratoga County Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, a Democrat who represents both Saratoga Springs and parts of Washington County. Woerner noted that it could also hurt veterinarians and fertilizer companies, as well as the local towns that rely on the farms as a part of their tax base to support schools and public safety. It's unclear what share of the county or the states organic farms are affected because the states annual report does not include information on organics or statistics breaking down farms by size. The state, as of 2019, had nearly 4,000 dairy farms. The number of farms producing milk has dropped by 25 percent over the last decade, with most of that decline occurring in the last four years. New York continues to produce the fourth-largest amount of milk in the country. Its production of yogurts, cheeses and butters also continues to rise. Danone North Americas decision affects farms in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The corporation, with its headquarters in Colorado, said that transportation and operational challenges in the Northeast led to the difficult decision. It said it is continuing to work with at least 170 farms in New York, which they said have an average herd size of 30 cows. This decision will help us continue providing our consumers with the products they love, Danone North America said in a statement. Critics contend Danones decision has more to do with the companys shift to alternative beverages, like its Silk brand, and to move more of its production to the Midwest, where they note that dairy farming typically is cheaper, in part, because of the scale of the industry and the abundance of feed. Danone said that its western New York operation is its easternmost production plant. More than 40 percent of the states dairy is produced in western New York. The question officials have been trying to answer is how can the small organic dairy farmers continue to thrive and sell their milk with Danone out of the picture. Its just another challenge that producers are having to face, and whether or not other organic farmers are going to admit it, I think it puts a sense of worry to some of them, said Casey Havekes, dairy management specialist for the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Outside of the farmers hurt by Danones decision, Havekes, based out of St. Lawrence County, noted that other organic dairy farmers understand that the Danone move could be a harbinger for the organic milk industry in upstate New York. Havekes said it's her understanding that many of the farmers notified by Horizon may be looking to get out of the business altogether, including attempting to transition to conventional production where their small scale could make it challenging or switching to a cash crop. Some may try to remain in the dairy market despite the slim odds. Its devastating for some of these farms, especially those that have been in their families for generations and turned to organic for not only a way to provide a sustainable income, but also to provide a sustainable environment, said Ed Maltby, executive director of Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance. 'Very concerned' Two issues at the federal level advocates see that can be solved: the U.S. Department of Agricultures rules to transition livestock into organics and Danones public-benefit corporation status. An open comment period by the USDA on how to transition a farms animals to organic has been extended several times since it opened in 2015. The rules on the book, experts noted, are relatively loose and allow for an unequal playing field. Many family farms invested time, sweat and equity in building their individual operations, Maltby said. They need the federal government to get these rules in place, enforce these rules to ensure its a level playing field across the country. Maltby hopes public pressure, as a byproduct of the Horizon decision, can place enough pressure on the USDA to move forward with its rules. This is not just about a federal regulation, Maltby said. This is about the essence of organic certification and organic agriculture. Danone, in fact, told the USDA in 2019 that it wanted stricter rules, too. We believe that the potentially inconsistent interpretation and enforcement of the origin of livestock regulation can create significant economic disparities across the organic dairy industry, Danone North America Vice President Chris Adamo said in a letter to the USDA. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. The Organic Trade Association similarly told the USDA that it is concerned about how an unequal playing field could harm the industry at-large. It is clear that this inconsistent interpretation of the standard is creating an uneven playing field for organic dairy producers, the association wrote in its letter, signed by Danone. In the two years since those comments, the rules have not changed from the practices they warned were creating unequal playing fields. Now, Danone is moving away from the Northeast small farms it supports, for what lawmakers understand to be a cost-saving issue, which has raised grief from those farmers who wish the laws became stricter. New Yorks organic farmers follow the top standards and most secure regulations, ensuring consumers get some of the nations best organic dairy products from New York farms, said Allison Biasotti, spokeswoman for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer. Biasotti said Schumer is looking into the issue to ensure that New Yorks world-class dairy farms are given their fair shot. Danones public benefits corporation status is also raising concern that the move is in direct contrast to that commitment to the community. This is exactly the type of thing that B Corporations (which meet high social and environmental standards) were set up to try to avoid, said Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. They can get by on the letter of B-Corp., because theyre probably doing something on sustainability. This is just enormously hypocritical. The state Department of Agriculture acknowledged the fallout of Horizons move on organic dairy farmers and is seeking to help them find a new market. We are very concerned that Danone North America has not renewed its contract with some of our own New York family dairy farms, spokeswoman Jola Szubielski said in a statement. The department is working with the USDA and the other three states that saw Danone pull out, Szubielski said. They are trying to find other processors and cooperatives for the organic, small-scale dairy farmers to send their milk, which was a very successful strategy in the past. It is critical that we continue to work together to provide support to these hard-working families and to provide sustainable solutions that will help to strengthen the dairy industry in New York state, Szubielski said. State Sen. Daphne Jordan, a Republican who represents Washington County and was informed by the Times Union about the issue, said her office will work with the state to ensure the farmers have a buyer for their products. Jordan pointed to the rising cheese industry as a possible solution. Jordan said she learned that Horizon was leaving because of the cost of shipping. It costs less and is easier to manage getting their milk from the Midwest, she was told. Then they can get their milk from a few large farms as opposed to going to 90 different farms across New York state. While we never want to see a business leave and weve seen far too many do so Horizons departure should serve as the impetus for New York to explore transferring these affected farms into an organic co-op to help market and sell their products or facilitate their transitioning toward producing more organic cheese, Jordan said. Woerner, the Washington County representative, noted any additional production the state could support could be helpful, like a plant in upstate New York that would handle the organic milk. She said she is ready to fight for financial support if needed during the next state budget cycle and is reaching out to the Department of Agriculture for assistance. A question that remains, she said, is whether Horizons business decision to source its milk elsewhere, like in the Midwest, would leave any need in the organic market in New York. First, her focus is on the local farmers, who have less than a year to figure out their next steps. For many dairy farmers, they are the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth-generation farmer in their family thats been farming the land, Woerner said. Theres a very significant personal impact when you are the generation that couldnt make it work. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose sprawling district includes many of the farms affected by Horizon's decision, did not respond to a request for comment. ALBANY A handful of families who were being ordered by the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities to choose between moving their disabled adult children to a remote treatment center in the Adirondacks or face the loss of state funding for their child's care at out-of-state treatment centers will be given an additional six months to work through the situation. State Assemblyman John T. McDonald, who chairs the Assembly's Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation, confirmed Thursday that OPWDD officials had contacted him and said those families' cases would be held in abeyance for six months, activating their due-process rights under a 2014 law that will give them more say in their children's treatment options. The decision by OPWDD followed a Times Union story published Sunday in which state lawmakers said they believed the policy was being driven by an apparent cost-saving measure implemented by the administration of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to exploit a loophole that would prevent the families from invoking those rights. Parents of children who are autistic and being treated at a facility in Canton, Mass., told the Times Union they had received the relocation letters just days or weeks before their due-process rights would have been triggered as their children turned 21. "Weve got a responsibility to provide an appropriate environment for these children. Obviously, we havent figured it out 100 percent, so we need to continue to pursue that," said McDonald. He and other lawmakers say New York lacks enough group homes and facilities that are willing to take on high-needs clients like the children who are being treated at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center outside Boston. The Massachusetts center has received scrutiny dating back years for its treatment methods, including a shock-therapy program, but very few of the people being treated there receive that treatment, and only in the most severe cases when they are at-risk of harming themselves, according to the center. Joseph Atkinson, who had received a notification from OPWDD in June that his 21-year-old son would need to move to the state's Sunmount facility in Tupper Lake or risk losing his funding at JRC, said his son Joseph has never been treated with shock therapy "and he never will be." But he and his wife Michele said the center's treatment programs have helped their son cope with his aggressive outbursts which have included harming them and himself and enabled him to regularly complete daily tasks, including making meals or doing chores, that had once been out of reach. He has also been removed from many of the behavioral medications he was once prescribed and lost weight as his lifestyle has become more healthy, they said. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter. "We'd love for him to be back in New York," Joseph Atkinson said. "We would love to have him (here) on Long Island. ... The point is that no one's accepted him (in New York) because of his aggression. The homes have an option not to accept him because they would incur additional costs." McDonald said he and other lawmakers, including Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, who chairs the Assembly's Children and Families Committee, and Assemblyman Thomas J. Abinanti, who chairs the Committee on People with Disabilities, have discussed using legislation to close the due-process loophole to help OPWDD make it viable for New York providers to more widely offer the services for high-needs individuals that many families said they can only access in other states. The JRC institution in Massachusetts has 63 adults in its program who are from New York, including 58 who are funded by OPWDD. Seven of those individuals have been there for more than 20 years, and 32 have been there for between five and 20 years. The center also provides services to 82 school-aged students from New York, whose treatment is paid for by their New York school districts or social services. Abinanti, Hevesi and McDonald, as well as state Sen. John W. Mannion, chair of the Committee on Disabilities, and Sen. Samra Brouk, chair of the Senate's Mental Health Committee, wrote a letter recently to Gov. Kathy Hochul questioning OPWDD's relocation policies and urging her administration to halt those placements "until administrative and legislative changes can be implemented to ensure that these parents, guardians and their children are not intentionally or unintentionally stripped of their due-process rights." The lawmakers had also asked the governor to direct OPWDD to restore funding for those individuals receiving treatment at out-of-state centers and schools. Pictured is the Hearts of Steel display case at the Benson Memorial Library. The exhibit will be at the library until Oct. 1. Escape Artists Chooses Voyager for Voice & Broadband Escape rooms have risen in popularity over the last decade for their ability to bring together teams of players who must work to solve a puzzle in order to escape the room. The fun, challenging games continue to be booked across the nation with new establishments opening everywhere. Over in Christchurch, NZ the Escape Artists brand of escape rooms has become a popular destination for friends and family looking for a fun outing in the city. The demand for their services has increased so much since opening over the last 6 years that they have expanded to more than double the space and are now operating every day of the week. A recent e-Commerce news feature spotlights the role customer experiences play in the companys continued success. Most importantly how choosing telecommunications solutions that were flexible and easy to use play a critical role in supporting growth. Internet solutions that offer continued quality and uptime are make or break for the business. To meet these demands, they chose business Voice & VoIP solutions from Voyager. With easy-to-use phone solutions and scalability, Voyager was the perfect choice for their needs. Voyager Voice is a business VoIP offering that improves communications capabilities while also reducing spending on calls and adding more flexibility for growth at up-and-coming businesses. With a Cloud PBX, there is also no need to purchase or maintain hardware. Voyagers business technology solutions include voice, broadband, and hosting solutions. As one of New Zealands fastest-growing companies, they also focus on providing quality care to their customers with support teams are made up of highly skilled IT experts, who answer calls and provide IT help for businesses of all sizes. Please enable JavaScript to view the Edited by Luke Bellos September 17, 2021 The global Internet of Things (IoT) market is projected to be worth $418 billion in 2021, up nearly four times its market value in 2017. It is also expected to become a $1.567 trillion market by 2025. Tens of billions of IoT devices are already being used worldwide, and more of them are expected to be used in various new cases as the technology matures and more innovations emerge. While this explosive growth in the IoT market is regarded as a boon to many, a somewhat adverse impact is hitting one industry: cybersecurity. The exponential increase in the number of IoT devices used in businesses and homes is posing serious threats to the security of networks and IT assets. A Deloitte (News - Alert) Perspectives piece highlights the state of cyber risk in an Internet of Things world, characterizing it as something that involves more data and opportunities as well as more risks. The IoT offers new ways for businesses to create value, however, the constant connectivity and data sharing also creates new opportunities for information to be compromised, the piece notes. The need for more robust cybersecurity With significantly more devices in an organizations network, it is inevitable for cyber threat exposure to increase. Hackers find more security vulnerabilities and ways to bypass security measures as businesses use more web-connected cameras, fire alarms, locks, lighting, sensors, and other smart devices. Each new device is equivalent to a new computer or smartphone added to the network, which can then be hacked by cybercriminals to find their way into other devices or siphon sensitive data exchanged between the servers and these devices. The difference is that IoT devices tend to be neglected or not given the same attention when it comes to security. While most security controls include features or functions that cover attacks aimed at IoT devices, most users take IoT security for granted. This is why cybersecurity experts advise organizations to exercise more prudence and undertake thorough security validation. It is also recommended to use advanced automated penetration testing solutions such as breach and attack simulation (BAS). Conventional security solutions are likely inadequate in protecting systems or networks with a multitude of IoT devices connected. A study published in the Journal of Applied Sciences presents the challenges encountered in IoT security and privacy. Some of the most notable of them are as follows: Many IoT devices are designed for deployment on a massive scale. Keeping track of all of them can be tedious, time-consuming, and expensive. IoT devices can be similar or redundant. This similarity means that a vulnerability found in one can also be found in many other devices, creating many opportunities for bad actors. IoT devices are generally simple gadgets, appliances, or accessories. However, they are designed to communicate with a wide variety of devices, from servers to smartphones and computers. This interconnection is something cybercriminals can also exploit as they attempt to sniff sensitive data or use the interconnections to infect systems with malicious software via IoT. IoT devices are also not designed to be complexly secure. When it comes to authentication, for instance, IoT faces various vulnerabilities, which remain one of the most significant issues in the provision of security in many applications. The authentication used is limited in how it protects only one threat, such as Denial of Service (DoS) or replay attacks, the study reads. Some IoT devices may even have embedded passwords while others facilitate remote access and improper device authentication. The OWASP IoT Project also released its own guidance on IoT security risks. These are similar to what is enumerated above albeit listing specific security problems such as the following: the use of hardcoded passwords, insecure networks services, and ecosystem interfaces, insecure or outdated components, the lack of a secure device update mechanism, insecure default settings, and the lack of device management functions. Why continuous security testing is a must Periodic or regular security testing, however, is often not enough to address the changing risks that come with the use of IoT. Adding new sensors or the replacement of smart lighting in a building, for example, can create new vulnerabilities not addressed in a recent security validation routine. In addition to the critical concerns enumerated above, it is worth noting that IoT devices are prone to eavesdropping or man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. One of the most prevalent attacks in the IoT is the man in the middle, where the third-party hijack communication channel is aimed at spoofing identities of the palpable nodes which are involved in network exchange, notes the Journal of Applied Sciences published study referenced earlier. MITM effectively makes a server recognize transactions as valid events since the adversary does not have to identify the supposed victim. It only needs to simulate the identities of vulnerable nodes. Continuous security testing allows organizations to have a real-time glimpse of all activities in the network and detect security controls that do not appear to be serving their intended purpose. Advanced continuous security validation platforms, in particular, are equipped with numerous functions to examine a wide range of threats. A dependable continuous security testing platform can have threat detection validation, SIEM/SOC validation, attack surface management, security control optimization, full kill chain APT (News - Alert) simulation, phishing awareness functions, as well as purple team automation and cloud and on-prem infrastructure configuration. These create a complex multilayer system of checking the effectiveness of existing cyber defenses to ensure that IoT additions or changes are monitored to make sure that they do not become tools for cyber attackers. Moreover, many continuous security validation solutions integrate the MITRE ATT&CK framework to take advantage of the latest threat intelligence and insights on adversary tactics and techniques observed in the real world. This framework enhances security testing simulations by aligning them with the actual methods and strategies used by cybercriminals. The United States passed the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 to set guidelines in security networks and systems that involve IoT devices. The seven-page law presents various requirements, standards, and processes designed to eliminate or at least mitigate the risks that come with the integration of IoT into systems and networks. However, it fails to emphasize the importance of security validation. No matter how good an organizations security controls are, it is wishful thinking to expect them to work flawlessly. There will always be defects, issues, or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by bad actors anytime. Without continuous testing, organizations are allowing cybercriminals opportunities to take advantage of security weaknesses and slowly figure their way into defeating cyber protections. In conclusion IoT use is inherently risky given their lack of sophisticated cybersecurity features and the natural tendency to overlook them given their mundaneness. People do not bother updating or security testing their web-connected security cameras or fire alarms, for example. They only care about whether they work or not. Continuous security testing, especially through a reputable comprehensive cybersecurity platform, ascertains that security vulnerabilities are addressed, especially in oft-neglected areas. The web application firewall, endpoint security tools, antivirus, and other security solutions of an organization may not provide enough protection or may require reconfiguration and tweaks to address new threats that come when new IoT devices are installed or when old ones are replaced. Through continuous security validation, organizations are compelled to examine the security status of their IoT devices and address threats accordingly. [September 17, 2021] AM Best Affirms Credit Ratings of GIC Perestrakhovanie LLC AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "bbb" (Good) of GIC Perestrakhovanie LLC (Russia) (GIC Re Russia). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. GIC Re Russia was established in 2018 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re), which previously operated in Russia through a branch operation. GIC Re Russia commenced underwriting business in September 2020. The ratings reflect GIC Re Russia's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and marginal enterprise risk management. The ratings factor in a rating lift from GIC Re, due to the implicit and explicit support that GIC Re Russia receives from the group. GIC Re's commitment to its subsidiary is demonstrated by the provision of an unconditional parental guarantee and a 97.5% whole-account quota-share treaty. In addition, GIC Re Russia benefits from sharing its parent company's brand name and operational resources. GIC Re Russia's balance sheet strength is underpinned by risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), which AM Best expects to be maintained at the strongest level through a forecast period of five years. The company's BCAR analysis takes into account AM Best's additional capital requirements for new company formations. The parent company, GIC Re, has injected total capital of approximately RUB 1.1 billion into GIC Re Russia so far, and further capital injections are expected to support business growth and cover start-up costs, if needed. GIC Re Russia has a conservative investment strategy, although AM Best notes the company's exposue to the high financial system risk in Russia. An offsetting factor in the balance sheet strength assessment is the company's relatively small capital base, which increases the likelihood of fluctuations in risk-adjusted capitalisation. The adequate operating performance assessment considers the group's five-year business plan and the performance track record of an existing book of business, which was previously managed by GIC Re and is now being underwritten by GIC Re Russia. AM Best expects GIC Re Russia to grow its Russia and regional portfolios gradually, although the company is likely to face strong competition from larger and more established peers. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments. AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2021 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005326/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] China.org.cn: Election Committee subsector elections to open new chapter in HK democracy BEIJING, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on Hong Kong Election Committee subsector elections: The results of the Legislative Assembly election of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) have been released, while the 2021 Hong Kong SAR Election Committee subsector elections will take place soon. This marks an important moment in the development of the "one country, two systems" principle in Hong Kong and Macao. "Administration by patriots" and integrated development have become key words for "one country, two systems." Integrated development is based on a sound electoral system and democratic order. In accordance with the Basic Law of the Macao SAR and the election law of the Legislative Assembly, the electoral affairs commission for the Legislative Assembly election examines the qualifications of all candidates to ensure that only patriots are allowed into the SAR's governance structure. Supported by the national security law in Hong Kong and the amended election laws, the improved electoral system prevents extreme forces from running for election and subverting democracy in terms of institutional rationality and legal norms. The system protects the institutional security of "one country, two systems" and ensures a loyal and efficient governance system for Hong Kong, thus consolidating the social and political foundation as well as democratic culture for "patriots administering Hong Kong." Overall, the upcoming Election Committee subsector elections reflect greater democratic representation, diverse competitivness and institutional progress from multiple perspectives. First, the composition of the Election Committee reflects the balanced participation in democracy. In addition to including the grassroots associations subsector and youth representatives, the Election Committee has adjusted the ratio of representatives between the industrial and commercial subsector and other subsectors. It has also created the fifth sector, in a bid to interact closely with the national governance system and better represent the overall interests of the "one country, two systems" framework. Second, the Election Committee has flexible and diverse voting methods which combine corporate and individual voters. Voting systems have also been formulated in a flexible manner based on different sectors' working mechanisms as well as the representativeness of corporate bodies and individuals. Third, the constitutional function of the Election Committee has been increased and enriched in a reasonable manner. This means that in addition to continuing nominating and electing the chief executive, the Election Committee will also participate in the nomination of all candidates for the Legislative Council (LegCo) and elect a relatively large proportion of LegCo members (40 in total). This fully utilizes and unleashes the greatest democratic representation that the Election Committee has for all strata of Hong Kong society. Fourth, the introduction of sophisticated legal rules ensures the security and fairness of elections. The amended electoral laws include electronic poll registers and penalties for such behavior as manipulation and sabotage of elections. This ensures safe, fair and orderly elections and prevents election fraud and violence. In short, under the fundamental principles of "one country, two systems" and "patriots administering Hong Kong," the 2021 Election Committee subsector elections based on the new electoral system can guarantee a new governance system and order where members are both patriotic and capable. This is crucial for the reconstruction of Hong Kong's democratic environment and reshaping of the favorable interaction between "one country" and "two systems." Hong Kong will undoubtedly write a new chapter in its democratic development with a better implementation of the "one country, two systems" principle. China Mosaic http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm Election Committee subsector elections to open new chapter in HK democracy http://www.china.org.cn/video/2021-09/17/content_77759983.htm View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chinaorgcn-election-committee-subsector-elections-to-open-new-chapter-in-hk-democracy-301379490.html SOURCE china.com.cn [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] The Math Problem Solving App Gauthmath Is More Than Just a Digital Calculator School Started, How to Solve Your Math Homework? SINGAPORE, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new school year has come, and what you need is Gauthmath to solve your math homework. This new-rising star developed by GauthTech, has provided an advanced technology solution to help students around the world with their math homework. The combination of the AI technology and real professional tutors distinguishes Gauthmath from all the other educational Apps. In just 8 months, it has accumulated over 5 million users in the world. The FREE mobile App is designed to help middle and high school students with all types of math problems. Unlike other math solving Apps which function like digital calculators, Gauthmath could solve complicated maths such as trigonometry and word problems! It certainly has won the hearts of students struggling with math homework, especially during COVID. What separates Gauthmath from other math solving Apps is the efficiency and accuracy of the explanations. Many other costly apps in the market claim that they could solve any math problems in a second, but i usually takes longer and provides nothing more than just an answer without detailed solutions. For higher level maths questions, AI might be tricked and then provides an answer which is incorrect. Gauthmath, using its advanced AI technology, destruct math questions and send to thousands of 24/7 standing-by tutors. Gauthmath provides comprehensive step-by-step explanations for free. The system has been improved in a way that solutions would be checked twice, by the AI and the real tutors before it comes out. This strict and efficient AI system created by the Gauthmath team has helped students who lack educational resources due to COVID. When speaking of word problems and trigonometry questions, Gauthmath is the ultimate solution. Many math-solving Apps cannot recognize words or graphs in the question. But Gauthmath users have no such problems. Apart from answers and explanations, Gauthmath also provides useful and free resources on their YouTube channel and Discord community. Lots of students around the world have come together and learn math by doing a series of fun events on these platforms. Gauthmath has really innovated the math-learning experience during COVID-era. For more information about GauthTech and the app Gauthmath, visit https://www.gauthmath.com/ . Gauthmath can also be found across social media, including TikTok , Facebook , YouTube and Discord . CONTACT: Anna Liu, Email:marketing@gauthmath.com, Contact Number:+65 84085711 SOURCE GauthTech [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Perimeter Medical Imaging AI Announces its Participation in Multiple Upcoming Industry Conferences and Events Perimeter Medical Imaging AI, Inc. (TSX-V:PINK)(OTC:PYNKF) (FSE:4PC) ("Perimeter" or the "Company"), a medical technology company driven to transform cancer surgery with ultra-high-resolution, real-time, advanced imaging tools to address high unmet medical needs, announced today that it will participate in the following upcoming industry events and conferences: Dr. Anthony Lucci from the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology, Division of Surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center will present on Optical Coherence Tomography at Mayo Clinic's CME course entitled "Breast Cancer Care: Innovation, Disruptive Technologies and Early Adopters" on September 17, 2021 in Rochester, MN. Perimeter is a sponsor in the exhibit hall. Perimeter's poster entitled "Wide-Field OCT Imaging May Reduce Economic Impact on Pathology of Routine Cavity Margins in Lumpectomy Surgeries" is being presented at CAP21(Annual Meeting of the College of American Pathologists) taking place September 25-28, 2021 in Chicago, IL. Perimeter is hosting a (virtual) industry event with the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) entitled "Is OCT the Next Game Changer in Margin Visualization?". Three surgeons from prestigious institutions involved in Perimeter's clinical trials will present multiple patient cases in a Webinar taking place at 7 pm ET on October 5, 2021. Learn more and register here. Perimeter will participate in the TME KOL Summit 2.0 Symposium Roundtable in Las Vegas, NV on November 5-6, 2021. Perimeter will participate in the virtual SSO Fellows Institute 2021, which sponsored by the Society of Surgical Oncology and American Society of Breast Surgeons, on November 11, 2021. About Perimeter S-Series OCT Cleared by the U.S. FDA, Perimeter S-Series Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a novel medical imaging system that provides clinicians with cross-sectional, real-time margin visualization (1-2 mm below the surface) of an excised tissue specimen. Giving physicians the ability to visualize microscopic tissue structures "real time" in the operating room has the potential to result in better long-term outcomes for patients and lower costs to the healthcare system. About Perimeter B-Series OCT with ImgAssist AI Perimeter is advancing the development of its proprietary, next-gen "ImgAssist" artificial intelligence technology under its ATLAS AI project, which is made possible, in part, by a US$7.4 million grant awarded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). The U.S. FDA granted Breakthrough Device Designation for Perimeter B-Series OCT coupled with ImgAssist AI, and Perimeter has plans to initiate a randomized, multi-site, pivotal study to evaluate it against the current standard of care and assess the impact on re-operation rates for patients undergoing breast conservation surgery. About Perimeter Medical Imaging AI, Inc. With headquarters in Toronto, Canada and Dallas, Texas, Perimeter Medical Imaging AI (TSX-V:PINK) (OTC:PYNKF) (FSE:4PC) is a medical technology company that is driven to transform cancer surgery with ultra-high-resolution, real-time, advanced imaging tools to address areas of high unmet medical need. The company's ticker symbol "PINK" is a reference to the pink ribbons used during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, underscoring the company's dedication to helping surgeons, radiologists, and pathologists use Perimeter's imaging technology and AI in the fight against breast cancer, which is estimated to account for 30% of all female cancer diagnoses this year. 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. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. In this news release, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate" and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information may relate to management's future outlook and anticipated events or results, and may include statements or information regarding the future financial position, business strategy and strategic goals, competitive conditions, research and development activities, projected costs and capital expenditures, research and clinical testing outcomes, taxes and plans and objectives of, or involving, Perimeter. Without limitation, information regarding the industry events the Company plans to attend, the potential benefits of Perimeter's S-Series OCT, and the Company's plans for development of its B-Series OCT is forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. No assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information will transpire or occur. Forward-looking information is based on information available at the time and/or management's good-faith belief with respect to future events and are subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond Perimeter's control. Such forward-looking statements reflect Perimeter's current view with respect to future events, but are inherently subject to significant medical, scientific, business, economic, competitive, political, and social uncertainties and contingencies. In making forward-looking statements, Perimeter may make various material assumptions, including but not limited to (i) the accuracy of Perimeter's financial projections; (ii) obtaining positive results from trials; (iii) obtaining necessary regulatory approvals; and (iv) general business, market and economic conditions. Further risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those applicable to Perimeter and described in Perimeter's Management Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2020 which is available on Perimeter's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. In particular, we note the risk that our technology may not achieve the anticipated benefits in terms of surgical outcomes. Perimeter does not intend, nor does Perimeter undertake any obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking information contained in this news release to reflect subsequent information, events, or circumstances or otherwise, except if required by applicable laws. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005120/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Resolution Life Enters Into Reinsurance Agreement With Lincoln Financial Group Resolution Life US Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Resolution Life Group Holdings LP ('Resolution Life'), a global manager of in-force life insurance businesses, today announced the signing of a $9.4 billion reinsurance transaction between its insurance subsidiary, Security Life of Denver Insurance Company ('SLD') and Lincoln National Corporation's ('Lincoln') insurance subsidiary, The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company. The deal is comprised primarily of bank owned / corporate owned life insurance business (BOLI/COLI) alongside a smaller component of universal life business. Under the agreement, Lincoln will cede $9.4 billion in reserves and retain administration of the policies. The transaction with SLD is effective as of October 1, 2021 and is not subject to any closing conditions or regulatory approval requirements. Matthew Grove, Resolution Life US and SLD Chief Executive Officer, said: "Executing this transaction with Lincoln shows the strength of Resolution Life's reinsurance offering in the US. It is a great example of our holistic approach to managing diversified insurance risks at scale, and it will contribute meaningfully to the momentum of our US business after the completion of our acquisition of Security Life of Denver earlier this year." Warren Balakrishnan, Resolution Life US and SLD Head of Corporate Development Strategy said: "Resolution Life is focused on creating long-term partnerships with our clients to meet their strategic and financial objectives, while always prioritizing security and stability for policyholders. Our bespoke solution-led model enabled us to work collaboratively with Lincoln, deliver enhanced value, and meet Lincoln's counterparty risk management objectives. We look forward to working closely with Lincoln." With this deal, Resolution Life is building on its strong US presence, and further advancing its global scale in in-force life and annuity management, having raised almost $5 billion of capital since 2018. Wells Fargo (News - Alert) acted as financial advisors and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as legal counsel to Resolution Life in connection with this transaction. ENDS Notes to Editors: About Resolution Life Resolution Life is a global life insurance group focusing on the acquisition and management of portfolios of life insurance policies. Since 2003 to date, prior Resolution entities together with Resolution Life have deployed $16 billion of equity in the acquisition, reinsurance, consolidation and management of life insurance companies. Together, these companies have served the needs of 12.6 million policyholders while managing over $357 billion of assets. Resolution Life today has operations in Bermuda, the U.K., the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, and has raised almost $5 billion of equity to partner in assisting the restructuring of the primary life insurance industry globally. Resolution Life provides a safe and reliable partner for insurers as they restructure by: Focusing on existing customers, rather than seeking expansion by new sales Delivering policyholder benefits in a secure, well capitalised environment Returning capital over time to our institutional investors in the form of a steady dividend yield Visit https://resolutionlife.com/ for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005255/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Resource Label Group to Acquire StickerGiant.com Resource Label Group, LLC ("Resource Label"), a full-service provider of pressure sensitive label, shrink sleeve and RFID/NFC technology for the packaging industry, announced the signing of a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Colorado-based StickerGiant.com, Inc. Closing of the acquisition is expected to be completed within 30 days, pending regulatory approval. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005383/en/ Resource Label Group has signed an agreement to acquire StickerGiant.com (Photo: Business Wire) Created by John Fischer (News - Alert) in 2000 as one of the first online sticker companies, StickerGiant has evolved into an industry leader in the ecommerce sticker and label custom manufacturing channel by providing an amazing customer experience, fast-turnaround, and high-quality products. Based in Longmont, CO, StickerGiant has been recognized as a Best Place to Work in Colorado and recently reeived the Colorado Manufacturer of the Year in Advanced Manufacturing and Machining. Known for their quick turn model, StickerGiant is committed to producing most sticker and label product orders within 24-48 hours. John Fischer, Founder of StickerGiant stated, "I am thrilled to have StickerGiant joining Resource Label to continue the growth of the company. They clearly match our passion for our customers and culture in the ever-changing label industry. And they embrace the value our team brings to the ecommerce channel. We welcome the resources they provide to accelerate StickerGiant's growth." "We are so excited to join Resource Label," stated Beth A. Smith, CEO of StickerGiant, "how auspicious that during the month that we are celebrating our twenty-first year as a company we are taking this next big step in our growth. Our Giants (employees) and culture are everything to us. We are delighted to have Resource Label's full support for what makes StickerGiant unique and successful." Mike Apperson, President and CEO of Resource Label, stated, "We are extremely excited to welcome the StickerGiant team into the RLG family. The culture, business model and enthusiasm that each Giant brings has positioned them as the market leader in the growing ecommerce space. We embrace their entrepreneurial spirit and look forward to working with all Giants to build upon their success." About Resource Label Group Resource Label Group, LLC is a leading pressure sensitive label, shrink sleeve and RFID/NFC manufacturer with diverse product offerings for the food, beverage, chemical, household products, personal care, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, medical device, and technology industries. With nineteen manufacturing locations across the U.S. and Canada, Resource Label Group, LLC provides national leadership and scale to deliver capabilities, technologies, systems, and creative solutions that customers require. Headquartered in Franklin, TN, Resource Label Group, LLC employs over 1500 associates in the U.S. and Canada. Resource Label Group is a portfolio company of Ares Management Corporation. For additional information, visit www.resourcelabel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005383/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] South East Asia's First Open Transfer Platform Launched in Jakarta 9 major Indonesian banks in the process of enabling Open Transfer Platform JAKARTA, Indonesia and NEW DELHI, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Indepay, today announced the launch of its mobile-first transfer platform tara.app framework. tara.app is an interactive social commerce framework meant for D2C businesses, brands merchants, micro-merchants, warungs, and nearby retailers powered by the Indepay Transfer Platform. It is designed to bring new online orders and instant payments for Indonesian MSMEs through an open platform by providing instant technology enablement to fast-track merchants & brands digitisation process and ride on the accelerated growth. It allows them to enable their social commerce interface quickly, conveniently, and economically. The tara.app framework relies majorly on high-end technology revolving around open APIs with deep integration with major banks, financial institutions, and new-age technology partners. The idea of interactive social commerce backed by BEENEXT and T8 Capital Partners was conceptualised a year back, since then the company has connected all the nodes and built the robust technology to bring tara.app framework to reality. After Indonesia, tara.app will soon be launched in all other South East Asian countries and the Indian subcontinent. The Indonesian payment system is still in its early stage of evolution, approximately 80% of the bank accounts are still not fully digitised. 3 out of 5 transactions are from ATM/Debit Cards withdrawals or cash transactions, which is true even for transactions done for e-commerce and bill payments. The importance of platforms like Indepay has become more significant for MSME driven economies like Indonesia poised for a big digital transformation. Recent studies and research also show the wide mobile internet usage and change in the user behaviour towards social media commerce, suggesting the importance of growing interactve social commerce. tara.app intrinsically maps the customer's mobile number with their bank account as their Unique Pay-ID for a faster and secure Account-to-Account Transfer experience. Pay-ID also empowers users to build their digital reputation and helps to maintain security and consent-based control over their financial data. It facilitate the consumers to get over the worries of maintaining multiple bank apps and user IDs with their Mobile Number being the Pay-ID for faster, convenient, and secure transfers. Rajib Saha, CEO, Indepay, who holds a pristine experience in SEA payment space of more than a decade said, "Higher payment and transfer fee is the major bottleneck in the development of Indonesia's startup ecosystem. tara.app working alongside Indepay team in Jakarta is going to disrupt the market. The deep integration with Banks and Financial Institutions will unlock endless possibilities for Indonesia." Teruhide Sato, Founder & CEO, BEENEXT said, "I see the Indonesian Economy to be positively influenced by the evolution of startups and they will have a massive impact in accelerating the GDP growth of the country. We have been investing in various fintech startups globally and observed that the presence of digitised bank account transfers further drives the growth of the digitized economy in every country. Thus, we have partnered with Indepay to build the much-awaited open transfer platform in Indonesia connecting Banks, Payment Gateways, Switching, and Settlement Operators to offer an ultra-low-cost seamless transfer experience." "COVID-19 has pushed digital commerce into a hyper-acceleration mode globally. In Indonesia too brands, companies, and micro-merchants want to up their digital commerce game as quickly as possible," added Rajib Saha. To empower the MSME segment in Indonesia, the tara.app has curated a blended model - embedding products with easy and economical payment solutions to drive consumer engagement. Allowing easy discoverability of their products online and supporting them with network and community participation. It is meant to bridge the gap between merchants and banks through digitisation, enabling interactive commerce through social channels with the tara.app framework. As per the published data by the Bank of Indonesia, the country has 160 Mn registered bank accounts out of which only 3-4% are digitised. Indepay aims to digitise 100 Mn Indonesian customers and achieve 1Bn transactions per month in the next 3 years. It is also going to facilitate the consumers and merchants with enablement like instant credit and many more features. Indepay open transfer platform endeavours to position itself as the most convenient & economical digital payment option with interactive social commerce to make faster transfers, payments, and receive orders. Unleashing the full financial potential using the platform opens endless opportunities for Startups, Fintechs, Brands, MSME Businesses, and micro-merchants leading to a truly cashless economy. About Indepay Indepay is an Open Transfer Platform designed to fuel the transformation of the digital payment landscape with real-time Account-to-Account transfers and is in the process of creating the most-needed revolution in SEA. It is one of the leading innovators in the Fintech space in South East Asia, empowering the community with the benefits of financial inclusion by bringing everyone to be part of the future-ready revolution of cash-free transactions. Indepay and tara.app are owned by Setara Networks Worldwide Pte. Ltd, Singapore. About BEENEXT BEENEXT is a venture capital firm managed by serial entrepreneurs focusing on assisting founders with its operational experience, network, trust, unique perspectives, and capital. This VC invests in early-stage tech start-ups that are focused on building new digital platforms driven by data networks. BEENEXT aims to establish a platform of founders, by the founders and for the founders across the globe, primarily in South East Asia, India and Japan. Since its establishment in 2015, it has invested in over 200 companies globally. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Valmet to supply a container board making line to Kipas Kagit in Turkey HELSINKI, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Valmet will supply a new container board making line with extensive packages of automation and services to Bati Kipas Kagit Sanayi Isletmeleri in Soke, Turkey. The new board making line (PM 3) will produce high-quality fluting and liner grades. The start-up of PM 3 is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023. The order is included in Valmet's orders received of the third quarter 2021. The value of the order will not be disclosed. The total value of an order of this type and delivery scope is typically around EUR 90-110 million. "The new board machine PM 3 will be a showcase of Valmet's high-level technical innovations. Bati Kipas Kagit wants to be a forerunner in technology. We selected Valmet due to its innovative solutions and the good performance of Valmet's earlier delivery of our PM 1 in Kahramanmaras," says Sinem Oksuz Dedebayraktar, Member of Board of Kipas Holding. "Our cooperation with Kipas Kagit has been excellent. In August, we also announced a multifuel boiler delivery to the same customer. The high-level technical solutions we have offered have really been differentiation factors to Kipas Kagit in this sales project, aqua layer headbox, impingement drying and hard nip sizer are good examples of them," says Haluk Arican, Senior Sales Manager, Turkey, Valmet. Technical information about the delivery Valmet's delivery for PM 3 will include a high-speed container board making line from broke collection and an approach system to a reel and a winder. An OptiFlo Layering Gap headbox with new innovative aqua layering technology will be used to produce a two-layer sheet with a very good layer coverage using only one headbox and one OptiFormer Gap forming unit with shoe and blade technology. These will be followed by an OptiPress Linear press section and OptiRun Single dyer section topped with an OptiDry Twin impingement drying unit providing superior drying efficiency, excellent runnability, enhanced draw control and increased bulk, and an OptiSizer Hard sizer giving higher strength values. The end of the machine line will be equipped with an OptiReel Linear reel combined with transfer rails, and a high-capacity OptiWin Pro two-drum proactive winder with Dual Unwind for even higher winding capacity. A wide scope of board machine and machine hall process ventilation systems, continuous surface size preparation and OptiSizer supply systems will be included, too. The delivery will include Valmet DNA Automation System including process controls, drive controls, and condition monitoring, and Valmet IQ Quality Control System (QCS) with web monitoring and web inspection systems. The start-up and the further optimization of the new board machine will be supported remotely from Valmet Performance Center utilizing the latest Industrial Internet solutions. Cost Monitoring will offer real time cost information of energy consumption in the production process. The delivery will also include Valmet Paper Machine Clothing, spare parts and consumables packages. The 9,100-mm-wide (wire) board machine will produce recycled fluting, testliner and kraft top testliner grades with a basis weight range of 60-110 g/m2. The design speed of the machine will be 1,800 m/min and the annual capacity approximately 650,000 tonnes. About the customer Bati Kipas Kagit Sanayi Isletmeleri Kipas Kagit Sanayi Isletmeleri A.S. started as a joint venture of Kipas Holding in 2011 and produces high-quality containerboard paper from wastepaper. Currently, Kipas has two paper machines: PM 1 in Kahramanmaras with an annual production capacity of 450,000 tons and PM 2 in Soke with a production capacity of 720,000 tons of coated grades. For further information, please contact: Haluk Arican, Senior Sales Manager, Turkey, Valmet, tel. +905322779828 Jari Vahapesola, President, Paper business line, Valmet, tel. +358 40 558 6555 Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation, and services for the pulp, paper, and energy industries. We aim to become the global champion in serving our customers. Valmet's strong technology offering includes pulp mills, tissue, board and paper production lines, as well as power plants for bioenergy production. Our advanced services and automation solutions improve the reliability and performance of our customers' processes and enhance the effective utilization of raw materials and energy. Valmet's net sales in 2020 were approximately EUR 3.7 billion. Our 14,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward - every day. Valmet's head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki. Read more www.valmet.com, www.twitter.com/valmetglobal Processing of personal data This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/valmet-oyj/r/valmet-to-supply-a-container-board-making-line-to-kipas-kaget-in-turkey,c3417014 [September 16, 2021] LU International, KASIKORNBANK and Robowealth jointly debut a new feature on FinVest SINGAPORE, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lu International (Singapore) Financial Asset Exchange Pte. Ltd. ("Lu International"), a subsidiary of China's leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform Lufax Holding (NYSE: LU), together with KASIKORNBANK, leader in digital banking and one of Thailand's largest banks, and Robowealth, one of the leading Fintech companies in Thailand, announced today the launch of an offshore fund investment feature in the FinVest App. FinVest is the online investment platform built by Lu International, KASIKORNBANK and Robowealth for digitally savvy investors. The newly launched offshore fund feature, will enable Thai investors to invest directly in more than 1,000 funds from 33 (and more) leading asset management companies around the world at their fingertips. This strategic move is developed in response to the market's optimistic view of the global economic recovery, as seen in major developed economies, following the pandemic lockdown recession. Moreover, Thai investors today are more open to international investments as led by growth opportunities, stable positive returns, and portfolio diversification. FinVest team is confident that the offshore fund investment feature will respond to the need of investors with a variety of offshore funds aligned to mega-trends with low investment barriers, and no complex fees. Joanna Tang, CEO of Lu International, commented, "It is another milestone for Finvest to offer clients a convenient, efficient, intelligent way to invest in offshore fund directly. Bringing global investments to FinVest users is part of the team's mission to cater to the fast growing investment needs of users in Southeast Asia and is aligned with Lu International's goal of making global investments more accessible. By working together with KASIKORNBANK and Robowealth to make Finvest the first mobile platform in Thailand to offer offshore funds, Lu reaffirms its commitment to bring the best of its technology and capabilities to the service of the Thai market with even more features to be added to the FinVest platform in the future. We believe this partnership wil accelerate the pace of digital transformation within the financial institution industry in Thailand and across the Southeast Asian region." Dr. Pipatpong Poshyanonda, KBank President, mentioned that the foreign investment trend will continue to grow, as most investors are still concerned about the COVID-19 situation in Thailand with less confidence on the Thai economy. As such they have started to look for alternative investments with stable and growing returns, especially the foreign investment funds (FIF). Based on Morningstar (Thailand), the outstanding AUM invested in FIF (excluding term fund) already surpassed 1 trillion baht in April 2021 and the accumulated fund flow for 1st half of 2021 was 190 billion THB. Mr.Chonladet Kemarattana, Group CEO and co-founder of Robowealth, affirmed that FinVest today has over 130,000 registered accounts. The offshore fund investment feature on FinVest has its unique benefits. Investors can invest in foreign master funds with real-time currency exchange. Duplication of management fees will not be charged on direct offshore fund investment. In addition, FinVest will provide neutral, non-biased investment recommendations of both onshore and offshore thematic funds being cautiously selected by Robowealth's investment analysts and product screening committee. FinVest is an innovative digital investment platform under the concept "Your Wings, Your Ways" aiming to empower and facilitate any investor with their investment needs. Investors will have access to a pool of investment information, insights, articles, and products as well as weekly recommended funds. Onboarding FinVest trading account is purely digital with e-KYC and investors also have options to bind their bank account with FinVest from any of the 4 leading Thai banks Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and KASIKORNBANK making it more convenient and providing more choices. To learn more about FinVest, click here. About Lufax Holding Ltd Lufax Holding Ltd is a leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform in China. Lufax Holding Ltd primarily utilizes its customer-centric product offerings and offline-to-online channels to provide retail credit facilitation services to small business owners and salaried workers in China as well as tailor-made wealth management solutions to China's rapidly growing middle class. The Company has implemented a unique, capital-light, hub-and-spoke business model combining purpose-built technology applications, extensive data, and financial services expertise to effectively facilitate the right products to the right customers. For more information, please visit www.lufaxholding.com. About Lu International Lu International (Singapore) Financial Asset Exchange Pte. Ltd.("LUI") (Co. Reg. No. 201702479G) holds a capital markets services license issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Securities and Futures Act (Cap. 289 of Singapore) ("SFA") in respect of its business in the SFA regulated activities of dealing in securities, fund management and providing custodial services for securities, to eligible customers. Lu Global is an online mobile wealth management and investment platform operated by LUI and headquartered in Singapore. It offers 24/7 online access to a wide range of high-quality investments and the opportunity to invest in small amounts easily and with low commitment periods to provide maximum flexibility while benefitting from attractive returns. LUI is a subsidiary of Lufax Holding ("Lufax"), a leading technology-empowered personal financial services platform in China. For more information, please visit www.lu-global.com. SOURCE Lu International (Singapore) Financial Asset Exchange Pte. Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 16, 2021] NAVER Bolsters AI R&D Capability, Appoints Global leading AI Professionals in Search Quality and Natural Language Processing - Dr. Young-Bum Kim and Professor Tetsuya Sakai seasoned researchers in search quality evaluation and natural language processing joined NAVER R&D force - Artificial intelligence experts with broad academic connections and field experience to enrich NAVER's R&D community - NAVER to strengthen cooperation throughout the global AI R&D belt, and upgrade its AI search and recommendation services by bringing in global talents SEONGNAM, South Korea, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVER Corporation today announced that the company is bolstering its global AI R&D belt with outstanding artificial intelligence experts in search quality evaluation and natural language processing. NAVER expects to accelerate cooperation within its AI community by expanding its talents with robust experience and knowledge in the field. To that end, NAVER appointed Dr. Young-Bum Kim, an AI expert in conversational AI as head of Applied Science and Executive Director of U.S. R&D at NAVER Search CIC. The company also appointed Professor Tetsuya Sakai, dean of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Waseda University in Japan, as its general research advisor. Dr. Kim and Professor Sakai will work together and create synergies for upgrading NAVER's search and AI service. The appointment of two of the world's leading researchers in AI studies will further consolidate NAVER's leadership in the field. Dr. Kim led the Dynamic Ranking Science Group, a key component of the artificial intelligence platform Alexa, at Amazon. He developed key technologies to understand the user's context and intentions, and provide optimal service. In particular, he has established an AI system that provides the response desiredby general and corporate users through tens of thousands of Alexa Skills and other devices. Meanwhile, Dr. Kim currently serves as a chair professor at Hallym University and an adjunct professor at the Department of Computer Science at Korea University. Professor Sakai used to be the director of the Natural Language Processing Lab at NewsWatch and work at Microsoft Research Asia and served as the dean of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Over the past 20 years, Professor Sakai has continued research on how to evaluate the effectiveness of desktop/mobile search, Q&A, and natural language conversations and he is renowned as a researcher in search quality evaluation with robust experience and knowledge in the field. He is the vice-chair at the Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (ACM SIGIR) and the chair of the Steering Committee at the International Conference on the Theory of Information Retrieval (ICTIR). With his active participation in international academic communities, Professor Sakai is forming strong global networks with leading researchers in AI studies. [Reference] Established in 1996, NewsWatch is affiliated with Toshiba and holds news distribution and website search service filtering technologies. NAVER is actively bringing in global AI talents with the aim to further enhance its search service quality and solidify cooperation throughout its global AI R&D belt that spans from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Vietnam to Europe and U.S. Along with investments and an expanding talent pool, NAVER aims to lead the global AI R&D community to counter China and U.S.'s predominance in the AI field. To create the research belt, NAVER established NAVER LABS Europe in 2017 by acquiring the Xerox Research Center in France and expanded the research cooperation to countries in Asia, including Japan, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Moreover, in May, NAVER appointed Jin Young Kim, a former senior researcher at Microsoft and Snap, to expand NAVER's R&D network in North America. As a result, NAVER is actively promoting joint R&D to strengthen its global AI ecosystem and secure the highest level of technology with excellent talents and academic institutions worldwide. "We expect NAVER's abundant data and service operation know-how and the performance of new experts will create synergy to provide users with a more advanced search experience," said Inho Kang, Executive Officer at NAVER Search CIC. "As a leading technology company, NAVER will strengthen collaboration and exchanges with outstanding researchers around the world and promote further technological growth." View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/naver-bolsters-ai-rd-capability-appoints-global-leading-ai-professionals-in-search-quality-and-natural-language-processing-301379189.html SOURCE Naver Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Basilea presents full safety and efficacy data set on derazantinib in patients with FGFR2 fusion-positive iCCA at ESMO congress Progression-free survival (PFS) of derazantinib monotherapy increased to eight months Basel, Switzerland, September 17, 2021 Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. (SIX: BSLN) announced today the reporting of the updated efficacy and safety results from cohort 1 of the phase 2 study FIDES-01, which evaluated its fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) inhibitor, derazantinib, in patients with FGFR2 fusion-positive advanced or metastatic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), a type of bile duct cancer, at the Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), taking place as a virtual meeting from 16 to 21 September 2021. Patients with advanced iCCA have a poor prognosis. With the current chemotherapy standard-of-care, the median overall survival is less than one year.1 Cohort 1 of FIDES-01 enrolled 103 iCCA patients with confirmed FGFR2 fusions.2 Since the reporting of first topline results in early February 2021, more patient follow-up data has been obtained, showing improvements in efficacy outcomes over time. At the cut-off date in early August, for the data presented at the ESMO congress, the disease control rate (DCR) was 75.7%, including 22 patients with a partial response as the best objective response, corresponding to an objective response rate (ORR) of 21.4%. Importantly, the progression-free survival (PFS) further increased to 8.0 months (previously: 7.8 months). The time to progression (TTP) with derazantinib was 8.1 months and thus markedly longer when compared to a TTP of only 4.5 months with the previous anti-cancer treatment the patients had received prior to entering the study. Median overall survival was 15.9 months, with follow-up ongoing. As reported at ESMO, derazantinib had a notably well manageable adverse event profile, with a low incidence of class effects such as nail toxicities, stomatitis, hand-foot syndrome and retinal effects. Dr. Marc Engelhardt, Chief Medical Officer, said: The further improved efficacy data and confirmed good safety and tolerability profile presented at ESMO are very encouraging and further strengthen the evidence for the efficacy of derazantinib and its differentiation in iCCA to other FGFR inhibitors from a safety perspective. Derazantinib ePoster at ESMO Congress 2021, published on September 16 Derazantinib for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma harboring FGFR2 fusions/rearrangements: Primary results from the Phase 2 study FIDES-01 M. Droz dit Busset, W. L. Shaib, K. Mody, N. Personeni, N. Damjanov, W. P. Harris, F. Bergamo, G. Brandi, G. Masi, T. Halfdanarson, V. Tam, L. W. Goff, J. Knox, A. Hollebecque, T. Macarulla Mercade, F. Cantero, M. Saulay, S. Braun, M. Javle, M. Borad; abstract 47P For further information please visit esmo.org/meetings/esmo-congress-2021. About derazantinib Derazantinib is an investigational orally administered small-molecule FGFR inhibitor with strong activity against FGFR1, 2, and 3.3 FGFR kinases are key drivers of cell proliferation, differentiation and migration. FGFR genetic aberrations, e.g. gene fusions, mutations or amplifications, have been identified as potentially important therapeutic targets for various cancers, including intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), urothelial, breast, gastric and lung cancers.4 In these cancers, FGFR genetic aberrations are found in a range of 5% to 30%.5 Derazantinib also inhibits the colony-stimulating-factor-1-receptor kinase (CSF1R).3, 6 CSF1R-mediated signaling is important for the maintenance of tumor-promoting macrophages and therefore has been identified as a potential target for anti-cncer drugs.7 Pre-clinical data has shown that tumor macrophage depletion through CSF1R blockade renders tumors more responsive to T-cell checkpoint immunotherapy, including approaches targeting PD-L1/PD-1.8, 9 Derazantinib has demonstrated antitumor activity and a manageable safety profile in a previous biomarker-driven phase 1/2 study in iCCA patients,10 and has received U.S. and EU orphan drug designation for iCCA. Basilea is currently conducting three clinical studies with derazantinib. The first study, FIDES-01, is a phase 2 study in patients with inoperable or advanced iCCA. It comprises one cohort of patients with FGFR2 gene fusions and another cohort of patients with mutations or amplifications.2 The second study, FIDES-02, is a phase 1/2 study evaluating derazantinib alone and in combination with Roche's PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, atezolizumab, in patients with advanced urothelial cancer, including metastatic, or recurrent surgically unresectable disease, expressing FGFR genetic aberrations.11 The third study, FIDES-03, is a phase 1/2 study evaluating derazantinib alone and in combination with Lillys anti-VEGFR2 antibody ramucirumab and paclitaxel, or with Roches PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab, in patients with advanced gastric cancer with FGFR genetic aberrations.12 Basilea has in-licensed derazantinib from ArQule Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A. About intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) is a cancer originating from the biliary system. The age-adjusted incidence rate of iCCA in the United States has been increasing over the past decade and is currently estimated to be approximately 1.2 per 100,000.13 Patients are often diagnosed with advanced or metastatic disease that cannot be surgically removed. Current first-line standard of care is the chemotherapy combination of gemcitabine and platinum-derived agents. The prognosis for patients with advanced disease is poor, with a median survival of less than one year.14 About Basilea Basilea is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Switzerland. We are committed to discovering, developing and commercializing innovative drugs to meet the medical needs of patients with cancer and infectious diseases. We have successfully launched two hospital brands, Cresemba for the treatment of invasive fungal infections and Zevtera for the treatment of severe bacterial infections. We are conducting clinical studies with two targeted drug candidates for the treatment of a range of cancers and have a number of preclinical assets in both cancer and infectious diseases in our portfolio. Basilea is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: BSLN). Please visit basilea.com. Disclaimer This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Derazantinib and its use is investigational and has not been approved by a regulatory authority for any use. Efficacy and safety have not been established. The information presented should not be construed as a recommendation for use. The relevance of findings in nonclinical/preclinical studies to humans is currently being evaluated. For further information, please contact: Peer Nils Schroder, PhD Head of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Phone +41 61 606 1102 E-mail media_relations@basilea.com investor_relations@basilea.com This press release can be downloaded from www.basilea.com. References S. Rizvi, S. A. Khan, C. L. Hallemeier et al. Cholangiocarcinoma evolving concepts and therapeutic strategies. Nature reviews Clinical oncology. 2018 (15), 95-111 FIDES-01: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03230318. T. G. Hall, Y. Yu, S. Eathiraj et al. Preclinical activity of ARQ 087, a novel inhibitor targeting FGFR dysregulation. PLoS ONE 2016, 11 (9), e0162594 R. Porta, R. Borea, A. Coelho et al. FGFR a promising druggable target in cancer: Molecular biology and new drugs. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology 2017 (113), 256-267 T. Helsten, S. Elkin, E. Arthur et al. The FGFR landscape in cancer: Analysis of 4,853 tumors by next-generation sequencing. Clinical Cancer Research 2016 (22), 259-267 P. McSheehy, F. Bachmann, N. Forster-Gross et al. Derazantinib (DZB): A dual FGFR/CSF1R-inhibitor active in PDX-models of urothelial cancer. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2019 (18), 12 supplement, pp. LB-C12 M. A. Cannarile, M. Weisser, W. Jacob et al. Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitors in cancer therapy. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2017, 5:53 Y. Zhu, B. L. Knolhoff, M. A. Meyer et al. CSF1/CSF1R Blockade reprograms tumor-infiltrating macrophages and improves response to T cell checkpoint immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer models. Cancer Research 2014 (74), 5057-5069 E. Peranzoni, J. Lemoine, L. Vimeux et al. Macrophages impede CD8 T cells from reaching tumor cells and limit the efficacy of antiPD-1 treatment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 2018 (115), E4041-E4050 V. Mazzaferro, B. F. El-Rayes, M. Droz dit Busset et al. Derazantinib (ARQ 087) in advanced or inoperable FGFR2 gene fusion-positive intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. British Journal of Cancer 2019 (120), 165-171. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01752920 FIDES-02: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04045613 FIDES-03: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04604132 S. K. Saha, A. X. Zhu, C. S. Fuchs et al. Forty-year trends in cholangiocarcinoma incidence in the U.S.: intrahepatic disease on the rise. The Oncologist 2016 (21), 594-599 A. Lamarca, D. H. Palmer, H. S. Wasa et al. Second-line FOLFOX chemotherapy versus active symptom control for advanced biliary tract cancer (ABC-06): a phase 3, open-label, randomised, controlled trial. Lancet Oncology 2021 (22):690-701 Attachment Press release (PDF) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] 2022 GO SMART Award Welcomes World's Smart Cities Solutions & Practices to Learn, Share and Compete with One Another TAIPEI, Sept. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- 2022 GO SMART Award (GSA), held by Taipei Computer Association(TCA), is entering its 4th year and will start accepting proposals from September 13th to November 8th 2021, sincerely welcoming global participation. Here are the 4 categories of criteria for our panelists' assessment: Cross-domain, Impact, Functionality and Innovation. This award aims to highlight the success of teamwork through collaboration, especially for teams that demonstrated diversity with stakeholders' engagement from different domains. We want to raise the interest, desire, confidence and determination of the collaboration among city operators, solutions providers and citizens by highlighting their true stories and recognizing their achievements. Garnering great testimonials globally since 2019, GSA has already earned fervent responses and participation from ities around the world. Over the past 3 terms, more than 120 outstanding projects have been submitted from more than 30 cities (e.g. Amsterdam, Da Nang, Gdynia, Moscow, Prague, Taipei, etc.). For the upcoming term in 2022, GO SMART has the great honor to have renown and highly competent juries in its panel - Mr. Frans-Anton Vermast, the Strategy Advisor of Amsterdam Smart City; Dr. Bruno Lanvin, President of Smart City Observatory of IMD; Ms. Callysta Thony, Smart Cities and Mobility Lead of Eden Strategy Institute; Mr. Chris Cooke, Founder & CEO of SmartCitiesWorld; as well as Dr. Leo Lee, Secretary General of GO SMART. They will evaluate the submissions for 2022 GSA with their professional insights, and provide their valuable feedback to the finalists during the online pitch session, helping the projects to achieve greater success. GO SMART is calling for the public and private sectors from cities around the world to share their inspiring stories. GO SMART Award shall not only recognize the technological applications, but also value the projects with the highest impact to its people. The winners will be announced on March 23rd, 2022 at GO SMART Day during 2022 Smart City Summit & Expo (SCSE), which is an internationally renowned smart city event held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. 2022 GSA: https://www.citiesgosmart.org/award/2022/timeline View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2022-go-smart-award-welcomes-worlds-smart-cities-solutions--practices-to-learn-share-and-compete-with-one-another-301379359.html SOURCE Taipei Computer Association [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Transforming the EV Mobility Space - Atum Charge, India's first 100% Self-Sustaining Solar-powered EV Charging Station built with ATUM Integrated Solar Roof ATUM Charge is a self-sustaining solar-powered Electric Vehicle charging station, which will be set up across India to help build an EV Charging infrastructure and to promote the adoption of electric vehicles. HYDERABAD, India, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The first ATUM Charge, 100% Green, Self-Sustaining, Solar-Powered EV Charging Station was launched at SP Road, Secunderabad, Hyderabad, by Dr. G Vivekanand, Chairman, Visaka Industries Limited. ATUM Charge helps customers truly adopt sustainable and eco-friendly ways of commute, as it is an ecosystem that is developed keeping in mind the EV mobility revolution that India is witnessing. ATUM Charge is a 100% subsidiary of Visaka Industries Limited. With the launch of ATUM Charge, Visaka Industries is building an environment-friendly and sustainable eco-system, which re-enforces the Company's commitment towards sustainability. With the addition of new business verticals, Visaka Industries is moving towards becoming a truly responsible corporate citizen, offering multiple products that are 100% sustainable and help consumers live life in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner. Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. G Vivekanand, Chairman, Visaka Industries Limited, said, "Solar and Renewable Energy is the future and Visaka is well positioned with ATUM, the world's first electricity generating solar roof. With ATUM Charge, we are not only bolstering the EV Charging infrastructure in the country, but also supporting India's endeavour to cut down on the use of fossil fuels and promote Electric Vehicles." ATUM Charge is a unique EV Charging Station which is very different from other EV charging stations, as it uses ATUM, the world's first Electricity Generating Integrated Solar Roof. ATUM Solar Roof, for which Visaka holds a patent, both in India and South Africa, will enable the entire electric vehicle charging proposition to move to 100% solar; whereas, currently, most EV charging stations use electricity produced by thermal power generation, which is one of the primary sources of pollution, completely defeating the purpose of moving to environment-friendly power. Conventional EV Charging Stations, which use thermal power to generate electricity, also put additional pressure on the electricity grid, further accentuating the power problem plaguing the country. ATUM Charge, the universal EV Charging Stations for all EVs, will also be the service station for Atumobile's ATUM 1.0, a cafe racer styled e-bike, as well as its official test ride centre. To support its customers and encouage the adoption of EVs, Atumobile customers will be allowed to charge their e-bikes for free, whereas other brand EV owners will only be charged a nominal fee at ATUM Charge Stations. ATUM Charge Stations will also have free Wi-Fi and workstations, which can be used by people, as a satellite office, as they charge their electric vehicles. ATUM Charge EV Charging Stations are powered by ATUM solar roof, which generates 40% more electricity in the same given space as compared to traditional solar panels, is the ideal solution for EV Charging Stations and can be installed anywhere across the urban and rural landscape. ATUM does not need any roof underlay like many conventional solar tiles available in the market, as it is a standalone roof. As a roof it has mechanical properties that are far superior to tiles/shingles/conventional panels. ATUM is Class-A fire rated and designed to take wind speeds of over 250kmph making it hurricane proof. It also uses GreenPro Certified material, which makes it a highly sustainable, reliable, and safe solar roof. ATUM Solar Roof therefore is the ideal solar solution for not only ATUM Charge but also for EV Charging Stations which are being set-up by other enterprises. Currently, Visaka has installed 4 KW capacity panels which can conveniently charge up to 10-12 vehicles (2/3/4 wheeler) per day given that any EV today takes between 6-8 hours for a full charge. The facility has three charging sockets. The company will be installing an additional capacity of 6 KW, making it possible to charge 25-30 vehicles per day. The company is launching similar facilities at Chennai, Goa, and Bangalore in this month, and inroads have already been made for rigorous expansion across the nation. To facilitate quick expansion across the nation, Visaka is looking at tying up with interested individuals who own a piece of land in prime areas of any towns or cities and are willing to let it out on a lease basis for a period of ten years and beyond. Besides generating a monthly income, on which Visaka will give a year-on-year increment, this would also contribute to making the planet cleaner and lead to the speedier adoption of EVs. ATUM Charge stations will be fabricated using Vnext boards - a range of fibre cement boards which are excellent eco-friendly alternatives to gypsum, wood, and plywood. Vnext products produce only 36 kgs of CO2 emissions, compared to 800 kg of CO2 produced by plywood; 1000 kgs of CO2 by cement; and 2000 kgs of CO2 by steel per tonne of production. ATUM Charge, therefore, would be generating green energy and promoting green commute in the real sense of the word. Speaking at the launch of ATUM Charge EV Charging Stations, Mr. Vamsi Gaddam, Joint Managing Director, Visaka Industries Ltd, said, "ATUM Charge, the first 100% Green EV Charging Station, is the first step in building an EV Charging infrastructure which will, in turn, drive the adoption of EVs. What makes ATUM Charge unique is that it is built using sustainable building material; it charges EVs using solar power which makes the entire charging proposition 100% Green; and EVs of all makes and sizes will be able to use it. Visaka has been at the forefront of driving sustainable solutions and ATUM Charge helps renew our pledge against environmental degradation, pollution and the use of fossil fuels." About Visaka Industries Ltd. Established in 1981, Visaka Industries (NSE: VISAKAIND) (BSE: VISAKAIND) has emerged as a sustainable business enterprise over the years and has become the second-largest roofing manufacturer in the country with close to 5000 direct and indirect employees. Each of Visaka's products is crafted to meet sustainability demands. Having started with manufacturing corrugated cement fibre sheets in 1985, Visaka in 1991 had diversified and implemented synthetic yarn with revolutionary Twin Air Jet spinning technology. While the fashion industry is reeling under the tag of being the second largest polluter in the world, Visaka's Wonder Yarn, manufactured from sustainable yarn from PET bottles, understands that style must meet sustainability. Its production has impacted about 146 million PET bottles from piling up in dump yards. In 2008, the company began to manufacture eco-friendly fibre cement boards and related applications under the brand Vnext. Concentrating on the deforestation issue, we have developed the Vnext line into an eco-friendly substitute to materials like plywood, gypsum boards, and sand/water-based construction, which have helped us to save over four lakh trees from deforestation. Our Vnext products are holistic solutions for eco-friendly interior and exterior construction. Used as false ceiling, mezzanine flooring, fixed furniture, and wet area construction, our products aid prefab and fast construction wall solutions. The world's first Integrated Solar roof, ATUM was spectacularly introduced by the company, in the year 2018. The newest offering from Visaka is Vnext Solutions - a one-stop, eco-friendly turn-key solution for all construction one's needs - to build homes, office, industrial and other spaces from scratch to finish. Vnext Solutions can conveniently be accessed through a mobile app. A pan-Indian company, Visaka, is headquartered in Hyderabad. Our products are available across India and extensively exported to Southeast Asia, Middle East, and African countries. For more information please visit - https://www.visaka.co/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Panasonic Completes Acquisition of Blue Yonder Panasonic Corporation announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Blue Yonder, the leading end-to-end, digital fulfillment platform provider. Panasonic (News - Alert) has now purchased the remaining 80% of shares of Blue Yonder, adding to the 20% which Panasonic acquired in July 2020. The investment values Blue Yonder at USD8.5 billion. Since Panasonic's announcement to acquire all shares on April 23, 2021, the acquisition has completed antitrust clearance procedures and received approval of regulatory authorities in the U.S. and other countries. The acquisition accelerates Panasonic's and Blue Yonder's shared vision for an Autonomous Supply Chain. By unifying Panasonic's sensing technologies and edge devices with Blue Yonder's AI/ML-powered planning, execution and commerce solutions, companies can create smarter and more connected e-commerce strategies, retail stores, warehouses, transportation, and workplaces. This unique end-to-end offering provides customers with unlimited visibility, control, and orchestration, allowing them to pivot operations in real-time, provide superior customer experiences, and deliver more profitable business outcomes. "With the incrasing frequency and impact of supply chain disruptions, companies need data and visibility to make real-time operations decisions. Panasonic's Edge technology with Blue Yonder's AI/ML capabilities combines IoT devices and an AI-powered platform to gather and analyze data more quickly and with greater insight," explained industry analyst Simon Ellis, Program Vice President, IDC (News - Alert) . "Panasonic's resources and Blue Yonder's innovation will accelerate the development of the tools customers need to anticipate and prevent disruptions and breathe autonomy into their supply chains. Panasonic's acquisition of Blue Yonder is indicative of what's to come." This acquisition enhances Panasonic's own digital transformation and customer-centric focus. The Panasonic Group will shift to a holding company system on April 1, 2022, focusing on strategic businesses in key areas such as providing supply chain innovation and automation. Through this transformation, Panasonic aims to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society through more efficient use of limited global resources. The Blue Yonder brand will be retained and the business will function within the Panasonic Connected Solutions Company*. Blue Yonder CEO Girish Rishi and the entire leadership team will remain with the company. Learn more here by watching these videos from Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO of Panasonic's Connected Solutions Company, and Blue Yonder CEO Girish Rishi, speaking about the partnership: https://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/cns/gpi_blueyonder * Pursuant to the Panasonic Group's transition to a holding company system, the Connected Solutions Company will change its name to Panasonic Connect Co., Ltd. in April 2022. About Panasonic Panasonic Corporation is a global leader developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, and B2B sectors. The company, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018, operates 522 subsidiaries and 69 associated companies worldwide and reported consolidated net sales of 6,698.8 billion yen for the year ended March 31, 2021. Committed to pursuing new value through collaborative innovation, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for customers. Learn more about Panasonic: https://www.panasonic.com/global View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005125/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] During the Mid-autumn Festival, Guangdong Pomelo Appears on a Screen overseas GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- September 21 (the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month) is the Mid-autumn Day, a traditional Chinese festival. A poster themed "Enjoy Guangdong Pomelo, Enjoy Mid-autumn Festival" circulates on a 19.5-meter-high, 12.2-meter-wide screen at the Times Square in New York, the United States of America, 14,000 kilometers away from China, according to Xinhua Screen Media Co., Ltd., who tenants the screen. The round fruit on the poster is called Guangdong Pomelo. It has been planted in China over 3,000 years. Why do Chinese people eat pomelo in Mid-autumn Festival? "Pomelo has a special meaning in China," said Gege, who has worked in Guangdong for many years. This fruit is homophonous to "traveller" (youzi) in Chinese. During the Mid-autumn Festival, which stands for reunion, these travellers will eat pomelos to reflect how they miss their relatives and hometown. Besides, the pomelos are large and round, which also symbolizes reunion in traditional culture of China. In the end, pomelo is also homophonous to "blessing the children" in Chinese, which means auspiciousness. Chinese people eat pomelos at this festival, hoping to be blessed by the Luna. Pomelos are sweet and juicy, with up to 45-65 flesh edible, every 100 grams of which contains 34.8-45 mg vitamin C, as well as vitamin B1, B2, beta-carotene and other vitamins and minerals. With high sugar content, moderate taste, rich nutrition and long-term shelf life, this fruit is called "natural canned food". However, many people associate pomelo with a tinge of bitterness, and the honey pomelo from Meizhou, Guangdong Province, China, will dispel this concern. In Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, China, the local soil is rich in selenium, and there are natural lush forests. Thus the local pomelos are sweet and delicious. With thin skin, the pomelos are easy to peel, and their flesh is crystal clear and succulent. As the Mid-autumn Festival is approaching, people travelling away from their hometown are sure to pick up a Guangdong pomelo and taste it, releasing their homesickness. Image Attachments Links: Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=401011 Caption: A poster themed "Enjoy Guangdong Pomelo, Enjoy Mid-autumn Festival" circulates on a 19.5-meter-high, 12.2-meter-wide screen at the Times Square. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/during-the-mid-autumn-festival-guangdong-pomelo-appears-on-a-screen-overseas-301379442.html SOURCE Xinhua Screen Media Co., Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Magma Capital Launches New Investment Fund Chicago-based quantitative hedge fund, Magma Capital Funds ("Magma"), announced that it has added another fund to its expanding portfolio. The new fund, Aestus, is specifically designed for the risk-averse investor and targets stable, prudent returns. Aestus is the third fund launched at Magma Capital Funds. Magma Capital leverages a systematic strategy designed to respond to volatility by tactically allocating capital between asset classes. "We view volatility as the pulse of the market. By utilizing volatility as a paradigm, we can navigate the day-to-day currents of the market to protect and grow our investors capital." said Magma Capital founder and CEO, Gershie Vann. By harnessing volatility and machine learning, Aestus strives to produce stable and consistent returns for investors. Aestus' unique approach allows the fund to navigate the currents of the market and pursue profit in all situations, regardless of the economic environment. Amid this launch, a unique aspect of the Aestus fund has the investment community buzzing. Magma Capital has announced that this product will pursue a structure in which there is a mutualization of the downside. Vann said, "Fora long time, the business model of hedge funds has been heads I win, tails you lose. We'd like to change that by sharing in both the upside and the downside of our clients gains and losses." About Magma Capital Funds Magma Capital Funds is a quantitative investment manager that leverages volatility-based, multi-asset strategies. The firm was founded on the belief that investor sentiment is heavily impacted by volatility and that volatility can be used as an indicator for asset allocation in all market environments. The firm is based in Chicago, IL. Magma manages private funds in reliance on the 506(c) exemption of the Securities Act of 1933. Under this exemption, Magma is permitted to advertise and generally solicit its private funds. Magma's funds are intended to accredited investors only and not for retail investors. While all investments carry risk of loss, private investments, including private funds, carry a greater risk due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to: the age of the company, its financial history, the industry in which it operates, the experience of management, limited or nonexistent liquidity, restrictions on resale of the investment, and many other factors. The information provided is for informational purposes only and in no way should be considered an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy an interest in any investment. Any such offer or solicitation will be made only by means of the Private Placement Memorandum and associated governing documents relating to the particular investment. Accredited investors interested in Magma's funds should review the funds' governing documents and confer with their financial adviser, accountant, or legal counsel before investing. Magma may make changes to its business plan or terms at its discretion, and investors should read all governing documents in their entirety prior to making any investment decision. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005059/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Semiconductors to Redefine Success for Global High Purity Quartz Market, Says Fairfield Market Research LONDON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- High purity quartz is a key component in microelectronics, high-intensity lighting, fibre optics and microcrystalline solar cells. High purity quartz is used to produce several electronic components as it is approx. 99.99% SiO2 and devoid of metal contaminants. IOTA is the internationally recognized benchmark for high purity quartz assessing its physical and chemical characteristics and enabling it to meet industry requirements. The increasing demand for high purity quartz in the semiconductor and solar energy industry can be attributed to capacity expansions by companies seeking to diversify their offerings. In 2017, the global high purity quartz market was worth US$705 Mn and it is on track to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2021 to 2025 reaching a value of US$1.13 Bn by then. Get a Sample Copy of High Purity Quartz Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/global-high-purity-quartz-market/request-sample Semiconductor Industry Eyes High Purity Quartz as Manufacturing Gains Momentum Semiconductors can be considered the building blocks of the modern era as they power everything from cars to computers to refrigerators. High purity quartz is essential in manufacturing Si grade semiconductors. Polysilicon is heated to a high temperature and a silicon ingot is extracted from the molten liquid. Only high-purity quartz can be used in semiconductor manufacturing as even the slightest impurity renders semiconductors unusable and results in losses to the tune of millions of dollars. Fairfield Market Research states that semiconductor and solar industries accounted for 75% share in the global high purity quartz market in 2018. Market to Gain as Governments Investing Billions in National Fibre Optic Connectivity With High Purity Quartz The use of fibre optics in the telecommunications sector is anticipated to grow at 5% per annum until 2030. Fibre optic cables comprise a transparent core enclosed in a translucent casing made from high purity quartz. High purity quartz is essential in sustaining the performance of Internet transmission lines and national governments have taken note of this. In 020, the U.K. government unveiled its plans to invest US$6.5 bn. in delivering nationwide fibre optic broadband. The U.K. is committed to being at the forefront of the 5G era by investing in gigabit-ready broadband connectivity. Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Request Customization of Report: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/global-high-purity-quartz-market/request-customization Higher Density of Microcrystalline Over Polycrystalline Material Makes HPQ a Preferred Option In 2019, the cumulative off-grid and grid connected solar capacity touched 585 GW with double digit growth in the solar power market on the horizon. High purity quartz is vital in producing solar photovoltaic (PV) wafers. The current rage is microcrystalline technology and it has surpassed polycrystalline in terms of market share in the high purity quartz market as it provides superior efficiency and greater density. In 2015, 190 countries signed the Paris Agreement to avert global warming and manage greenhouse gas emissions. There has been a shift towards renewable sources such as solar energy, benefiting high purity quartz PV makers. PV Manufacturing in China Ensures it Requires Highest Volume of High Purity Quartz The Asia Pacific region accounted for half of the demand for high purity quartz in 2018 with China and Japan consuming approx. 2/3rd alone. Semiconductor and solar photovoltaic manufacturing is concentrated in Asia with China being especially dependent on imports from the U.S. to produce smartphones, electronics, and solar equipment for export. Duopoly of Quartz Corp. and Sibelco Characterizes Global High Purity Quartz Market Two companies, Quartz Corp. and Sibelco, dominate the global high purity quartz market with a market share touching 80% with both having an operational presence in Spruce Pine, U.S. Manufacturers seek to diversify by looking for alternate sources in Canada, Mauritania, and Australia, but these fail to meet the strict standards set by IOTA. The vast majority of companies in the high purity quartz market are private enterprises that enter into contracts with end-users. Quality and purity are the paramount factors determining the price of quartz. Demand is predicted to far exceed supply in the forecast period, leading to price hikes in the high purity quartz market. Browse Our Latest Trending Reports: About Us Fairfield Market Research is a UK-based market research provider. Fairfield offers a wide spectrum of services, ranging from customized reports to consulting solutions. With a strong European footprint, Fairfield operates globally and helps businesses navigate through business cycles, with quick responses and multi-pronged approaches. The company values an eye for insightful take on global matters, ably backed by a team of exceptionally experienced researchers. With a strong repository of syndicated market research reports that are continuously published & updated to ensure the ever-changing needs of customers are met with absolute promptness. Contact Fairfield Market Research London, UK UK +44 (0)20 30025888 USA +1 (844) 3829746 (Toll-free) Web: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com Email: sales@fairfieldmarketresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1419764/Fairfield_Market_Research_Logo.jpg [September 17, 2021] Mx And Mahalo Technologies Partner To Enhance Connectivity, Data And Experience For Credit Unions And Their Members LEHI, Utah and TROY, Mich., Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MX, the financial data platform and leader in modern connectivity, today announced it is partnering with Mahalo Technologies, provider of online and mobile banking solutions for credit unions. Together, Mahalo and MX will provide financial institutions an elite, seamless experience from the two companies' combined technology platforms through deep integrations into core banking through Mahalo and data enhancement through MX allowing for actionable insights to drive growth and member engagement. PrimeWay Federal Credit Union, founded in 1937 and with eight locations in the Houston area, will be the first mutual client of MX and Mahalo. "With the Mahalo team having over 50 years of combined experience working for credit unions, we were impressed with the MX financial data platform. It's robust features fit well with the information credit unions want to share with and give their members access to," said Denny Howell, COO, Mahalo Banking. "It was only natural to forge this partnership to continue to bring an enhanced and even stronger combined solution to our mutual partner credit unions." "Our commitment to aid in transforming the digital experience for all financial institutions made it an easy decision to partner with Mahalo," said Don Parker, Executive Vice Presient of Partnerships, MX. "We have shared resources, a referral partner agreement, and an integration between MX and Mahalo that will allow mutual clients to be more competitive with the use of technology and enhance the financial wellbeing and engagement of their members." For more information about MX and Mahalo, visit: www.mx.com and www.mahalobanking.com . About MX MX, the leader in modern connectivity and data enhancement for financial institutions and fintechs, helps organizations everywhere connect to the world's financial data and turn raw, unstructured data into their most valuable asset to deliver intelligent and personalized money experiences. MX connects more than 16,000 financial institutions and fintechs providing the industry's most reliable and secure data connectivity network. Additionally, MX powers 85% of digital banking providers, as well as thousands of banks, credit unions, and fintechs, with a combined reach of over 200 million consumers. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @MX or visit www.mx.com . About Mahalo Mahalo Technologies, Inc. provides online and mobile banking solutions for credit unions. Based in Troy, Mich., the Mahalo platform is designed and built on superior architecture with deep integration to core processing, providing security and a robust feature set across all delivery channels for a true omni experience. Mahalo banking is feature-rich and price competitive to help all credit unions achieve a technology advantage in the marketplace. For more information on Mahalo Technologies, please visit us at mahalobanking.com . Press Contact: Tom Cook, tom.cook@mx.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mx-and-mahalo-technologies-partner-to-enhance-connectivity-data-and-experience-for-credit-unions-and-their-members-301379171.html SOURCE MX [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Trellus Health: First Demonstration Contract with Mount Sinai Employee Health Plan for Resilience-Based Digital Chronic Condition Management LONDON and NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trellus Health plc (AIM: TRLS), which is commercialising a scientifically validated, resilience-based, connected health solution for chronic condition management, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement to provide an Inflammatory Bowel Disease ("IBD") demonstration programme for the Mount Sinai Health System ("Mount Sinai") employee health plan (the "Agreement"), one of the largest self-insured employer health plans in New York State. As outlined in the Company's Admission Document, Trellus Health intends to begin generating revenue in the current year through a number of demonstration projects, potentially involving several hundred patients in aggregate. This initial Agreement will assess feasibility, engagement and satisfaction of the Company's digital chronic condition management solution for Mount Sinai's non-union employees, eligible dependents and their treating physicians. Under the Agreement, Trellus Health will recruit, assess and engage eligible IBD patients, with a targeted total enrolment of 25 patients. Following enrolment, the demonstration programme will coordinate six months of active care management followed by a final programme report, expected to be available within 30 days of programme completion. This initial demonstration programme is expected to commence before the end of 2021 with conclusions from the final programme report expected in 2022. The solutions deployed in this and other planned demonstration programmes will utilise the scientifically validated patent-pending GRITTTM resilience assessment and personalized care management methodology and a proprietary technology platform called TrellusElevate, to coordinate and deliver personalised clinical and behavioural care remotely via telehealth. The Company expects to scale its initial demonstration projects into longer-term and broader-ranging contracts based on the achievement of successful IBD patient and physician engagement and satisfaction rates. The Company continues to engage with prospective partners and customers on additional demonstration programmes. These are being designed to illustrate the potential health economics and return on investment to payers of the Company's digital chronic condition management solutions and generate data to drive demand for greater adoption, whilst simultaneously generating additional revenues for the Company. Previous studies with IBD patients demonstrated significant improvements in resilience and reductions in unplanned healthcare by utilizing the Company's proprietary methodology and resilience-driven multidisciplinary care model. The Directors estimate that chronic and mental health conditions and IBD, represent over $3 trillion and $30-50 billion in total annual costs in the US, respectively. Trellus Health is initially focused on IBD, which includes the chronic incurable conditions of Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, but considers its approach to have potential utility and demand across many chronic conditions including Irritable Bowel Syndrome ("IBS"), diabetes, cancer, kidney disease, cardiac, respiratory and autoimmune conditions. The Company will utilize the GRITTTM resilience assessment and personalized care management methodology, which were validated on BD patients at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Clinical Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, where Crohn's disease was first identified by Dr. Burrill B. Crohn, MD in 1932. Jane Maksoud, RN, MPA, Chief Human Resources Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, said: "We are pleased to offer our hard-working faculty and staff innovative tools and programmes to improve their health and overall well-being. We look forward to evaluating Trellus Health as a potential new programme to address both physical and mental resilience for improved employee health and wellness." Monique Fayad, Chief Executive Officer, Trellus Health, commented: "Our commitment to coordinating expert whole-person care for people living with chronic conditions, addressing clinical and behavioral health together, in context, is strategically aligned with the Mount Sinai Health System's goal of rolling out new initiatives that transform their employees in mind, body and spirit. "We are delighted to be partnering with Mount Sinai, one of the largest self-insured employers in New York state, to demonstrate the feasibility of Trellus Health's resilience-based digital care management solution for their employees living with IBD." The GRITTTM resilience assessment and personalized treatment methodology described is based on technology developed by Mount Sinai faculty and licensed to Trellus Health. Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai faculty, including Marla Dubinsky, MD, and Laurie Keefer, PhD, have a financial interest in Trellus Health. Mount Sinai has representation on the Trellus Health Board of Directors. About Trellus Health plc (www.trellushealth.com) Trellus Health (LSE: TRLS) is a leading pioneer in resilience-driven care and the first digital health company focused on the intersection of chronic physical conditions and mental health. Trellus Health's digital-first chronic care management solution integrates convenient access to a licensed multidisciplinary care team with a suite of tools for resilience assessment, education and behavior modification, remote monitoring, health maintenance and prevention. Through its TrellusElevateTM connected care platform and companion App, the company coordinates expert whole-person care, addressing both clinical and behavioral health together, in context, to improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs for patients, employers, and the healthcare system. Trellus Health is commercialising the provision of digital chronic condition management solutions for employers and health plans that utilise the scientifically validated resilience-based methodology and a proprietary HIPAA-compliant technology platform called TrellusElevate to coordinate and deliver personalised care remotely via telehealth. The Company is initially focused on Inflammatory bowel disease ("IBD"), which includes the chronic incurable conditions of Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, but considers its approach to have potential utility and demand across many chronic conditions. The TrellusElevate platform is the Company's proprietary connected health platform that incorporates the proprietary methodology and learnings on resilience from clinical research and practice conducted at the Mount Sinai IBD Center for more than five years. The proprietary methodology and resilience-driven multidisciplinary care model have been scientifically validated to demonstrate meaningful improvements in patient outcomes and over 85 per cent. reduction in unplanned healthcare utilisation (emergency department visits and hospitalisations) which the directors of the Company believe indicates the potential for significant cost savings for healthcare payers. The company was founded by Dr. Marla C. Dubinsky, MD and Dr. Laurie Keefer, PhD, both with decades of combined experience in IBD and psychogastroenterology, respectively. Trellus Health's patent-pending GRITTTM resilience assessment and personalized treatment methodology was developed and validated at the Mount Sinai Health System to build resilience and wellness for improved outcomes at lower cost. Shares in Trellus Health were admitted to trading on AIM in May 2021, under the ticker TRLS. For more information on Trellus Health, visit www.trellushealth.com. About the Mount Sinai Health System: The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research, and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality carefrom prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Mount Sinai Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in the country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally by U.S. News & World Report. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/trellus-health-first-demonstration-contract-with-mount-sinai-employee-health-plan-for-resilience-based-digital-chronic-condition-management-301378736.html SOURCE Trellus Health [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Wharton County Junior College Partners With YuJa to Deploy Comprehensive Video Platform Across Campuses Texas-based Wharton County Junior College (WCJC) is among the newest colleges in Texas to partner with YuJa in deploying a campus-wide enterprise video platform. The college has campuses in Wharton, Bay City, Richmond and Sugar Land. College officials requested an RFP detailing its need for a comprehensive software solution to provide screen recording, lecture capture, web video broadcasting, video editing, video indexing with the ability to easily search to find specific course content in videos, integrated assessments within video, and analytics. Integration into the college's Learning Management System, Blackboard (News - Alert) , also was an essential requirement to help increase student access to course materials, their engagement and overall success. "The pandemic presented a number of major challenges for colleges and universities nationwide. WCJC is committed to helping students succeed within all modes of content delivery, and was seeking a partner to effectively and efficiently deliver all content regardless of mode of delivery or learning style," said Nathan Arora, Chief Business officer at YuJa. "The Video Platform will allow instructors to create more engaging, interactive and accessible content, enhancing the college experience for its students." Prior to awarding the contract with YuJa, the college did not have a formal enterprise video platform to record, distribute and store media content. Now, instructors will be able to not only create content more effectively, but can take advantage of a wide range of tools to help increase accessibility and engagement, leading to more successful student outcomes. ABOUT WHARTON COUNTY JUNIOR COLLEGE Wharton County Junior College is a public, two-year, comprehensive community college that offers a wide range of postsecondary educational programs and services, including associate degrees, certificates, continuing-education courses, cultural affairs and lisure-time activities for the benefit of the community and a population of students that varies in age, background, and ability. WCJC prepares students for entry-level positions, for advancement in various occupations and professions, for a broad understanding of the liberal arts and sciences, and for transfer to baccalaureate granting institutions. ABOUT YUJA, INC. YuJa is a leader in enterprise video solutions. Its products harness the power of video to educate, engage, inspire, and collaborate. YuJa serves organizations of all sizes, within all sectors, including higher-ed, K-12, government, healthcare, non-profit and corporate delivering engaging video experiences. Its portfolio includes products for lecture capture, live streaming, video management, video conferencing, video test proctoring, digital asset management, digital compliance, and enterprise accessibility. Legal headquarters are located in Delaware, with primary U.S. offices in Silicon Valley, California, and Canadian offices in Toronto. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005112/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Sia Partners Announces Acquisition of Ethier Sia Partners, a leading international independent management and AI consulting firm, announces today the acquisition of Ethier, a management consulting firm founded in 1982, specializing in Regulatory compliance, Risk management, Operations excellence, Project delivery, Digital and Business transformation, with revenues of C$10m. Ethier currently employs 50+ consultants in Calgary, Alberta and is the largest independent consulting firm in Alberta. It benefits from a client portfolio in Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Transportation and Government. By integrating Ethier, Sia Partners strengthens its presence across Canada, with a team of 170+ consultants between Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto and a turnover of C$22m. Ethier Managing Partners Sohail Thaker, Jackie Poeckens and Ron Loborec will join the executive committee of Sia Partners Canada. Sohail Thaker will be heading Sia Partners' Calgary office. "This operation is a natural fit for two independent consulting firms that share common entrepreneuria values. Joining Sia Partners means being part of a global network of expertise and resources that will enhance our service capabilities, broaden business prospects and offer new opportunities for our consultants," says Sohail Thaker, Managing Partner at Ethier. "After 40 years of focussed client service in Calgary, we are excited to offer our clients greater levels of service and innovative offerings brought about by this combination. We expect to export our capabilities to US-based clients of Sia Partners, notably in Seattle, Texas and Colorado." "Continued growth in the North American consulting market is core to our strategy. In Canada, our objective is to surpass 250 consultants by the end of 2022 and confirm our leading position in the Canadian management consulting market among the Top 10. I am also pleased to announce the immediate creation of a new office in Vancouver. Our presence in Canada and the US will facilitate business synergies in both the East and West Coast," says Matthieu Courtecuisse, Founder and CEO of Sia Partners. About Sia Partners Sia Partners is a next-generation management consulting firm and pioneer of Consulting 4.0. We offer a unique blend of AI and design capabilities, augmenting traditional consulting to deliver superior value to our clients. With 2,000 consultants in 18 countries and expertise in more than 30 sectors and services, we optimize client projects worldwide. Through our Consulting for Good approach, we strive for next-level impact by developing innovative CSR (News - Alert) solutions for our clients, making sustainability a lever for profitable transformation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005251/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] NTT Research and NTT Global Sourcing Unveil New Hybrid Workspace in Sunnyvale at Ribbon Cutting Ceremony NTT Research, Inc., a division of NTT (TYO:9432), today officially unveiled its brand new hybrid-remote smart workspace in Sunnyvale, Calif. Named the NTT (News - Alert) OneVision Center, it is one of the first office buildings in Silicon Valley built for a post-pandemic vision of the workplace, with collaboration-focused spaces, state-of-the-art health monitoring capabilities, and new layouts. The building, currently accessible only to a limited number of employees, is now fully open. This decision was made in accordance with Santa Clara County official standards for reopening businesses across the region in light of ongoing COVID-19 guidelines. NTT Global Sourcing, a wholly owned company within NTT Inc., has diligently worked with local partners to bring the vision for this approximately 35,100 sq. ft. space to life. The building features an open space design with circulation routes as pathways for employees to move and connect easily between shared and individual working spaces. There are multiple casual and collaborative spaces, working pods, and offices for research staff; and the lobby and cafeteria areas will display living walls to help purify the air. The design, created by CBRE Design Hub Spain architects, supports a hybrid-remote working environment where a subset of company individuals can commute to work in a physical space, while others continue to work remotely. The building is on track to become carbon negative with energy returned to the local municipality of Sunnyvale. NTT Research are the landlords with room for up to 10 group companies who will eventually share the space. The company is also in the process of working towards LEED certification. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony will be performed by NTT Research President and CEO, Kazuhiro Gomi (News - Alert) , and the Mayor of Sunnyvale, Larry Klein. The Deputy Consul General of Japan in San Francisco, Keiichi Higuchi, and Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce CEO, Dawn Maher, will alsoattend. "Our mission is to Upgrade Reality in game-changing ways that improve lives and brighten our global future," said NTT Research President and CEO, Kazuhiro Gomi. "In the spirit of that mission, our goal with this new location is to create shared working space that redefines how we work. We have created an environment that fosters collaboration between our world-class researchers and NTT family companies while also harnessing the talent and great minds already working in the Silicon Valley area. I am honored to unveil this new smart and sustainable building that will help us promote positive change for humankind." Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein extended a warm welcome to NTT. "This is a great day for NTT and for Sunnyvale; I commend them for opening during these trying times," he said. "We are excited to welcome NTT to our business community and look forward to their future growth and success." As COVID-19 remains an ongoing concern, there are protocols in place to ensure the health and safety of employees, tenants and visitors accessing the building. This includes a wearable band that monitors and tracks the constant temperature of individuals working or visiting the space, and data is automatically shared with the local healthcare system and all in accordance with HIPAA guidelines. It will notify the wearer by text message if there are any changes in temperature that might indicate the need for a telehealth consultation as a precaution. NTT Research will not gather any data related to the health monitoring of individuals using the space. Additionally, all individuals entering the building will be required to wear masks over their nose, mouth and chin according to Santa Clara County's strict standards, and social-distancing floor markers are installed. As the building is designed around a shared open-plan concept, employees will access individual lockers for personal belongings in a university campus-style approach with shared and individual working pods sanitized at the end of each working day. "We moved to a fully remote work model a while ago, and this new building defines a future of work that is more flexible, digital, and purposeful for our employees," said NTT Research VP of HR, Rae-Ellen Hamilton. "It's also designed around our upgrading-reality ethos as a global company." Today (Friday, Sept. 17), an outdoor and socially distanced appreciation ceremony for local officials and partners involved in the construction will commence at 4:30pm (PT) and will include speeches from NTT executives followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the OneVision Center. Post-event cocktails will be served in the parking lot and all attendees will be required to wear face masks, complete temperature checks, and pre-register to share vaccination status. Representatives from 42 of the partners involved in the building's design and construction are expected to attend the event. About NTT Research NTT Research opened its offices in July 2019 as a new Silicon Valley startup to conduct basic research and advance technologies that promote positive change for humankind. Currently, three labs are housed at NTT Research facilities in Sunnyvale: the Physics and Informatics (News - Alert) (PHI) Lab, the Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab, and the Medical and Health Informatics (MEI) Lab. The organization aims to upgrade reality in three areas: 1) quantum information, neuroscience and photonics; 2) cryptographic and information security; and 3) medical and health informatics. NTT Research is part of NTT, a global technology and business solutions provider with an annual R&D budget of $3.6 billion. About NTT Global Sourcing NTT Global Sourcing was established in November 2018 as a new company specializing in procurement and to bring together the procurement functions of each NTT, Inc. Group company to centralize price negotiations and execute comprehensive agreements with global vendors. NTT and the NTT logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION and/or its affiliates. All other referenced product names are trademarks of their respective owners. 2021 NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005096/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Tyrone Champ Joins the Board of Directors of Redwood Capital Bancorp and Redwood Capital Bank REDWOOD CAPITAL BANCORP (OTCQB:RWCB), the only locally owned and operated community bank holding company in Humboldt County, announced the appointment of Tyrone Champ to the Board of Directors of Redwood Capital Bancorp and Redwood Capital Bank, respectively. John Dalby, President and CEO, remarked, "I am very excited to work with Mr. Champ. He brings a significant depth of professional experience, understanding of the local economic conditions and a love for the place we call home. He has demonstrated his commitment to Humboldt County through his community volunteer work. Tyrone brings youth, vitality, commitment and experience to the Board of Directors." Originally from Sacramento, California, Mr. Champ graduated from Sonoma State University in 2006, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting. Following graduation, he worked several years in public accounting in the Sacramento region. Mr. Champ moved to Humboldt County in November 2010. He went on to obtain his license as a Certified Public Accountant in 2012 while working with a prominent local accounting firm. In August of 2019, Mr. Champ opened his own firm, Champ CPA Group in Eureka, California. Mr. Champ also enjoys serving and interacting with the local community. He has been a member of the Southwest Eureka Rotary Club since November, 2014, where he has served on the Board of Directors for several years in various positions and continues to work closely with the Youth Services. Mr. Champ and his significant other Esher, live in McKinleyville and have five children between them. Mr. Champ stated, "My connection with Redwood Capital Bank began over 15 years ago while employed as one of the financial statement auditors of the bank, prior to moving to Humboldt County. After moving to Humboldt County in 2010, my relationship with the bank continued in various professional and service levels in the community. Now, I am very honored and humbled to be selected to serve on the Board of Directors for what I believe to be the flagship bank and financial institution in Humboldt County." For more information regarding Redwood Capital Bancorp, please visit our website at www.redwoodcapitalbank.com, contact John E. Dalby, President & CEO, at (707) 444-9833, or stop by our headquarters and main office at 402 "G" Street, Eureka, California 95501. Redwood Capital Bancorp (OTCQB:RWCB) trades on the OTCQB Venture Market for early stage and developing U.S. and international companies. Companies are current in their reporting and undergo an annual verification and management certification process. Investors can find Real-Time quotes and market information for the company on www.otcmarkets.com. This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties may include but are not necessarily limited to ?uctuations in interest rates, in?ation, government regulations and general economic conditions, and competition within the business areas in which the Bank is conducting its operations, including the real estate market in California and other factors beyond the Bank's control. Such risks and uncertainties could cause results for subsequent interim periods or for the entire year to differ materially from those indicated. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which re?ect management's view only as of the date hereof. The Bank undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to re?ect subsequent events or circumstances. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005061/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Life Storage, Inc. to Present at the Bank of America Securities 2021 Global Real Estate Conference Life Storage, Inc. (NYSE:LSI), a leading national owner and operator of self-storage properties, announced today that Joseph Saffire, Chief Executive Officer, and Andrew Gregoire, Chief Financial Officer, will participate in a roundtable presentation at the 2021 Global Real Estate Conference hosted by Bank of America Securities. The Company's presentation will be webcast live on September 21, 2021 at approximately 9:45 am Eastern Time. Investors may listen to the discussion using the link on the Investor Relations page on the Company's website or at https://bofa.veracast.com/webcasts/bofa/globalrealestate2021/id0X6bAZ.cfm. The replay will be available through December 22, 2021. ABOUT LIFE STORAGE, INC: Life Storage, Inc. is a self-administered and self-managed equity REIT that is in the business of acquiring and managing self-storage facilities. Located in Buffalo, New York, the Company operates more than 1,000 storage facilities in 34 states. The Company serves both residential and commercial storage customers with storage units rented by month. Life Storage consistently provides responsive service to its almost 575,000 customers, making it a leader in the industry. For more information visit http://invest.lifestorage.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005308/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] WELA: Female Entrepreneur Group Announces Virtual Workshop Monday, September 20 SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WELA, a women's entrepreneur group based in California, announced their next Google event with Laura Ching, co-founder of Tiny Prints. The event will be held virtually on Monday, September 20, 2021, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PDT. The event will provide female entrepreneurs a chance to meet Laura Ching. Laura is the co-founder of Tiny Prints and will share her process of starting Tiny Prints and acquiring it by Shutterfly. And she will also share howto instill passionate Mondays into your lives. Each attendee will also have an option to meet like-minded women within smaller breakout sessions to network, receive feedback and truly mentor each other. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased at Thewela.com and learn further details. WELA (Women Entrepreneurs Launch) is a grassroots not-for-profit women's entrepreneur business organization founded in 2016 in Los Altos, California providing local and virtual events, support, and mentorship for female entrepreneurs everywhere. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wela-female-entrepreneur-group-announces-virtual-workshop-monday-september-20-301379267.html SOURCE WELA (Women Entrepreneurs Launch) [September 17, 2021] Wipro Announces Co-innovation Space with Google Cloud Wipro (News - Alert) Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced the launch of the Wipro- Google (News - Alert) Cloud Innovation Arena in Bangalore, India. This cloud collaboration space will provide in-house technical expertise, ensure seamless cloud adoption, and accelerate innovation to drive business transformation for customers. By combining the expertise and resources of Wipro FullStride Cloud Services and Google Cloud, this jointly developed innovation center will offer a unique combination of people, processes, and platforms that will collectively create a futuristic experience for customers globally. This state-of-the-art arena will showcase the talent, tools and best practices required to develop and deploy applications on Google Cloud. Jason Eichenholz, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Ecosystems & Partnerships, Wipro Limited said, "We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Google Cloud, and look forward to leveraging the Wipro-Google Cloud Innovation Arena to increase cloud capabilities, build solutions across industries, and help our customers simplify their processes and workflows. This new Innovation Arena is the latest example of Wipro's continued commitment to providing customers with world-class resources and support, and a vision for their cloud future." "Innovation and business differentiation are key drivers of cloud adoption, which is why innovation labs where customers can brainstorm, design, and pilot innovation use cases with the help of industry experts have become increasingly important," said Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Partner Ecosystem, Google Cloud. "We are pleased to be furthering our partnership with Wipro to provide our customers with the resources they need to take their cloud journey to the next level." Abot Wipro Limited Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 200,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future. Forward-Looking Statements The forward-looking statements contained herein represent Wipro's beliefs regarding future events, many of which are by their nature, inherently uncertain and outside Wipro's control. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Wipro's growth prospects, its future financial operating results, and its plans, expectations and intentions. Wipro cautions readers that the forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated by such statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, complete proposed corporate actions, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. The conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could decrease technology spending, adversely affect demand for our products, affect the rate of customer spending and could adversely affect our customers' ability or willingness to purchase our offerings, delay prospective customers' purchasing decisions, adversely impact our ability to provide on-site consulting services and our inability to deliver our customers or delay the provisioning of our offerings, all of which could adversely affect our future sales, operating results and overall financial performance. Our operations may also be negatively affected by a range of external factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic that are not within our control. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, Annual Reports on Form 20-F. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005325/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] The Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association Announces Blockchain Week December 6th - 12th San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) The Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association (PRBTA), in collaboration with Metaverso, CoinAgenda Caribbean, Limitless, and Invest PR announces the first edition of the Puerto Rico Blockchain Week to take place from December 6th-12th in San Juan. Throughout the week, attendees will have the opportunity to connect via various events such as workshops, meetings and meet ups with professional investors and traders, and corporate, entrepreneurial and innovation executives, as well as digital currency funds with top business executives and entrepreneurs from the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors. Through our work with the Blockchain Trade Association we seek to connect entrepreneurs with communities in Puerto Rico and educate them on the multiple benefits available in the crypto era. We are proud to work locally with Puerto Ricans in the diaspora and are committed to contribute toward the islands economic development and growth, stated Keiko Yoshino, Executive Director at the Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association. Blockchain Week events begin with Puerto Rico: HODL Here the inaugural local conference created to illustrate why this island has become the place to move to, scheduled for December 6th. The conference is an opportunity for individuals and businesses to meet governmental agencies, mingle and network with Puerto Rican executives and companies that have already made the move. Panels will include discussions on why to relocate to Puerto Rico, local tax incentives, and the state of crypto regulations on federal and territory level. The afternoon will be packed with demos by rising local Puerto Rican start-ups. Metaverso is a single-day NFT conference on Tuesday, December 7th. All proceeds support nonprofits that benefit artists and entrepreneurs and teach coding on the island. Metaverso is Puerto Ricos first NFT summit and invites creators, influencers, enthusiasts, collectors, and top global companies to come together for an immersive programming experience. Curated in both Spanish and English, Metaverso welcomes everyone to a lush and elaxed setting to discover Puerto Ricos vibrant crypto and NFT community. CoinAgenda Caribbean is a three-day conference with sessions on Wednesday, December 8th and Thursday, December 9th. CoinAgenda is the leading global conference series connecting professional investors, traders, family corporations and digital currency funds with top entrepreneurs in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors. CoinAgenda focuses on international blockchain investing trends, with world-class speakers from around the globe, plus a special focus on blockchain economic development, friendly jurisdictions, the rise of security tokens, enterprise applications, and changes in digital currency funding vehicles and digital currency exchanges. Limitless is the premiere crypto currency conference for the crypto elite, world leaders, innovators, investors, influencers, funds and market makers. This exclusive VIP event will focus on Defi, NFTs, blockchain and decentralized apps over a 5-star dinner capped with the closing party on December 10th. Invest Puerto Ricos Innovation & Entrepreneurship Manager, Brian Bourgerie added, We are excited to be part of this vital ecosystem and support the first edition of Blockchain Week on the Island. Puerto Rico will have a chance to showcase why it is the ideal business destination for blockchain and crypto investors and blockchain builders throughout the array of conferences and events that will position the island centerstage as a top innovation driven community. A detailed agenda with locations will be available over the next few weeks on the Puerto Rico Blockchain Week Conferences website. To purchase conference tickets or access additional event information please visit: www.prblockchainweek.io, and in social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prblockchain, Twitter: https://twitter.com/prblockchain1, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prblockchain/ and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/puerto-rico-blockchain-trade-association/. About The Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association The Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association exists to connect blockchain entrepreneurs to communities and peers contributing to make positive changes in Puerto Rico, while representing members interests on and off the island. For more information, visit www.prblockchain.org. About Metaverso Metaverso is Puerto Ricos first conference on NFTs hosted on Tuesday, December 7th in the beautiful Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. The day includes prominent speakers in Spanish and English, a charitable NFT art auction, and a tapas and cocktail reception. All proceeds benefit local nonprofits. More information and tickets at metaver.so. About CoinAgenda Caribbean Now in its eighth year, CoinAgenda (www.coinagenda.com) is the leading global conference series connecting professional investors, traders, family offices and digital currency funds with top entrepreneurs in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors. CoinAgenda Caribbean focuses on international blockchain investing trends, with world-class speakers from around the globe, plus a special focus on blockchain economic development, friendly jurisdictions, the rise of security tokens, enterprise applications, and changes in digital currency funding vehicles and digital currency exchanges. CoinAgenda is an experience that allows all attendees to meet, mingle, and get to know the leading thought leaders, entrepreneurs and investors in the sector, including memorable parties at unique locations. Karen Garnik 787.502.2424 karen.garnik@gmail.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] ICCPP Ushers "Powder-free" Atomization Technology with Next-Generation GENE TREE Ceramic Cores SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- ICCPP, a global atomization company, has unveiled its first-ever ceramic core technology brand GENE TREE at the 2021 Nano-tech Ceramic Core Global Online Launch Conference on September 16. The release of GENE TREE marks a revolution in electric atomization R&D while also introducing a new generation of ceramic core products into the industry. Themed "The Future of the Core", the conference emphasized the continued development and innovations of electronic atomization technology, as well as demonstrating ICCPP's determination to shape the future of the industry. Its new GENE TREE nano-tech ceramic core products promise to improve the efficiency and stability of atomization and increase product lifespan. "GENE TREE is the culmination of countless hours of R&D and almost a decade of experience in electric atomization technology. We are thrilled to launch our breakthrough research achievement with the international community and usher in the future of ceramic cores," said ICCPP CEO EVEREST Zhao. ICCPP has established a 300-strong R&D team. GENE TREE nano-tech ceramic core products were realized by this team after over ,000 days spent on repeating technical explorations and scientific experiments and tens of thousands of hours spent refining one thousand sets of ceramic core material formulations. In addition, the R&D team overcame a series of technical production challenges to ensure mass-produced ceramic cores were at a world-class level in terms of resistance consistency and appearance. GENE TREE Ceramic Cores With the "powder-free" concept, GENE TREE products harness raw materials made from new environmentally-friendly mineral materials, which migrate and diffuse into the three-dimensional network ceramic skeleton at a high temperature. Following this, the grain micro-structure is rebuilt and the multi-phase co-existence structure improves the ceramic toughness. Meanwhile, dispersion is distributed in the three-dimensional ceramic skeleton to form a lipophilic matrix layer, which can improve the lipophilicity and oil storage of porous ceramic. Atomization tests have demonstrated that the temperature of the ceramic heating surface and atomization remains stable between four to 11 watts. Unlike other products, GENE TREE's safe operation power range can also be raised from 8 watts to 11 watts to fully meet the requirements of different products. The heating film remains stable in temperature and the GENE TREE supports continuous atomization for 4000 seconds increasing its lifespan by five times compared with other mainstream products. As ICCPP's first ceramic core product, GENE TREE has garnered widespread attention from the industry since its launch. With plans to ramp up production capacity and sales for B2B clients, GENE TREE has established itself as a key player straight out of the gate, as well as the leader in electric atomization technology. About ICCPP ICCPP is a global technology group with nearly a decade of experience in technology research and development, product design, manufacturing, brand building and other fields. Its products and services are distributed in more than 70 countries and regions, with approximately 30 million users. Tingkai Xu kai@voopootech.com +86-15957944779 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iccpp-ushers-powder-free-atomization-technology-with-next-generation-gene-tree-ceramic-cores-301379586.html SOURCE ICCPP [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] INSERTING and REPLACING Hit Showtime Series Billions, Inspired by Chancery Court Impropriety, Exposes Depths of Dysfunction and Corruption in Delaware Insert fourth paragraph of release dated September 16, 2021: Continued Chris Coffey, "As we've seen time and again, Delaware's top judges and corporate elites too often work together to enrich themselves at the expense of hard-working employees. In the TransPerfect case alone, Chancery Court-appointed Custodian Robert Pincus, his advisors, and his attorney, Skadden partner Jennifer Voss, have billed TransPerfect upwards of $50 million, threatening the livelihoods of the company's more than 7,000 employees. Now, Pincus is once again using the status bequeathed on him by the Delaware courts to blow past a $2 million fee cap in his role as 'Special Master' of the Citgo sale. Sadly, the fiction of the latest episode of Billions is clearly inspired by the reality of corporate and judicial misbehavior in Delaware." The updated release reads: HIT SHOWTIME SERIES BILLIONS, INSPIRED BY CHANCERY COURT IMPROPRIETY, EXPOSES DEPTHS OF DYSFUNCTION AND CORRUPTION IN DELAWARE Today, judicial watchdog and advocacy group Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is lauding the hit Showtime series Billions for its most recent episode, "Implosion," which highlighted the corruption and backroom deals plaguing the First State's government and judicial system. Said CPBD Campaign Manager, Chris Coffey, "Corruption at the highest levels of Delaware's government and legal system is so rampant and well-known that it has surpassed parody and become a plotline in a TV series known for its stark portrayals of abuse of power in elite society. We thank the producers of Billions for heeding our calls and plumbing the depths of Delaware's dysfunction in a way that's accessible to millions of viewers." The episode aired amidst a wave of heightened scrutiny of the First State for the lack of transparency, diversity, and accountability in its state government and judiciary. Continued Chris Coffey, "As we've seen time and again, Delaware's top judges and corporate elites too often work together to enrich themselves at the expense of hard-working employees. In the TransPerfect case alone, Chancery Court-appointed Custodian Robert Pincus, his advisors, and his attorney, Skadden partner Jennifer Voss, have billed TransPerfect upwards of $50 million, threatening the livelihoods of the company's more than 7,000 employees. Now, Pincus is once again using the status bequeathed on him by the Delaware courts to blow past a $2 million fee cap in his role as 'Special Master' of the Citgo sale. Sadly, the fiction of the latest episode of Billions is clearly inspired by the reality of corporate and judicial misbehavior in Delaware." Now in its fifth season, Billions is a drama television series created by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. The show's story is centered around two competing characters and how they obtain and abuse power in an unending game of brinkmanship to come out on top. Billions pits Bobby Axelrod, a hedge fund manager who accumulates wealth and power in the world of high finance using aggressive and illegal tactics, against now-New York State Attorney General Chuck Rhoades. According to the New York Times review of the latest episode of Billions, "Implosion," which aired on Sunday, September 12th, 2021, seeking a favor to hurt Axelrod, "Rhoades reaches out to Drew Moody (an impressively sinister Michael Cerveris), attorney general for the tax-haven state of Delaware. "Moody blows him off. 'I don't believe corporations are people,' he purrs. 'They're better than people, because they don't [expletive] up when they get so obsessed with one thing they can't see reality.'" Said Chris Coffey, "What happened next was a textbook example of Delaware corruption and how the legal system is driven by money and backroom deals: Mike Prince, a billionaire rival to Axelrod with billions invested in corporations in the First State, visits the Delaware Attorney General and threatens to move his companies elsewhere, leaving the AG to explain where thousands of jobs went. AG Moody quickly acquiesces to Prince's demands and offers to appoint a hostile trustee to the board of Axelrod's bank who will be able to do damage from the inside. "Unfortunately, with elite attorneys hand-picked by the state's courts to oversee the sales of massive corporations can charge those companies millions of dollars without explaining why and engage in endless litigation to line their own pockets - all rubber-stamped by the very judges who appointed them - it's no surprise that Billions writers would find Delaware ripe for a plotline about greed and corruption. "When real-life figures like former Chancery Court Chancellor Andre Bouchard continuously side with their friends and former colleagues in elite law firms at the expense of the people, and use notorious encrypted email service ProtonMail to conduct their business, it's clear why Delaware's unsavory reputation for corruption and favor trading continues to live on." View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210916005547/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] ENVOY's First-Ever NFT Release "Decentraboard" Sells Out In Hours With Purchases From Ignite, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Timmy Trumpet, CryptoPunk 1805 and Bored Ape 6444 LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ENVOY Network, the premium NFT (Non-Fungible Token) agency, announced today that their first NFT release "Decentraboard" is on display through a giant digital billboard in New York's iconic Times Square. The board is jam packed full of impactful brand and celebrity-owned logos, NFTs, gifs and other personal images or photos owned by the likes of two-time #1DJ's in the world, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and companies including: Ignite, Smash The House, 3commas, Prosper, Realis, NFT Tech and Prometheus Labs. Located in Manhattan on the cross streets of 1500 Broadway & W 43 Street, the billboard is available for viewing on September 16th - 18th from 6am to 2am, displaying 30 second ads which show each ad a minimum of 300 times a day on the eye-catching 56x29 foot installment. Offering 304 unique opportunities to display artwork or brands on this live digital billboard featured in Times Square, the first batch of initial NFT releases sold out within under 2 hours and the second batch within just 60 minutes. Over the next twelve months,ENVOY Network will be taking Decentraboard to other iconic advertorial locations around the world. NFT curated billboard board spaces were snapped up by Mario Nawfal, Evan Luthra, DJ's Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, chart-topping DJ/producer Lost Frequencies and corporations such as: Axesora.com, Prosper, Realis Network, Prometheus Lab, 3Commas, Crypto.com, NFT Tech and Coldstack Foundation, Timmmy Trumpet, Bassjackers & Belgian platinum record selling classical artist Helmut Lotti. Bram Verstraeten, CEO of ENVOY Network agency said: "We have been true to our mission with Decentraboard and have made NFT history by bridging the gap between traditional advertising and blockchain technology. "The buyers of Decentraboard NFT's recognise the investment potential and value of owning a slot and want to be part of our disruptive movement. Each slot owner receives a high resolution picturethat captures this unique occasion. "Decentraboard is a true uNFT, because it has the ability to advertise worldwide, making it a very useful commodity for buyers, rather than just a nice to have or novelty NFT for collectors. "Our first exhibition will teach us how to improve, and our second version of the platform is launching soon to make the user experience even better." "Our ENVOY community is buzzing about Decentraboard and all the other NFT's we are teasing and dropping through our website and Telegram platform. "Watch out because Decentraboad will be appearing in another iconic location very soon!" The innovative billboard where savvy owners can change the imagery in their 'slot' as frequently as they like, showcases highly collectable NFTs: Cryptopunks, BoredApes and Fast Food Punks. The first use cases are actually high-end NFTs showcased with a verification system. The sale for space caused internet traffic jams during the first launch and crashed Decentraboard website servers, overwhelmed by so many users vying for space. To view Decentraboard in its entirety with the 304 moving parts, go to www.decentraboard.com . Dedicated to making NFTs accessible for everyone, ENVOY is the first NFT agency with every release offering both premium purchases, and unique 'community driven' NFTs to empower fans on all budgets. ENVOY has confirmed a selection of initial NFT releases and will announce many more trailblazing collaborations with household names and brands in the coming months. As a wider community perk, ENVOY Network empowers members to trade and collect unique community NFTs and gain rewards. To access ENVOY Network and its unique NFT releases, you need to pre-register at the platform at https://envoy.art to gain access, receive updates and advance notifications. Additional information regarding ENVOY DOWNLOAD HI-RES IMAGES Founder biographies, ENVOY Network logo, FAQs on ENVOY Network and NFT's can be accessed here Information on the decentraboard can be accessed here All media enquiries: Envoy@Miller-PR.com ABOUT ENVOY NETWORK ENVOY Network is a premium NFT agency founded in 2021 by a team of industry experts from global organisations including: Spotify, Smash The House and Activision. The community-focused platform enables fans to purchase and trade unique pieces from their favourite artists and celebrities without needing to be a crypto expert. ENVOY collaborates with renowned talent including: artists, actors, celebrities, influencers, festivals, publishers, esports companies and IP owners to create impactful NFT's. For more information, visit https://www.envoy.art View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/envoys-first-ever-nft-release-decentraboard-sells-out-in-hours-with-purchases-from-ignite-dimitri-vegas--like-mike-timmy-trumpet-cryptopunk-1805-and-bored-ape-6444-301379594.html SOURCE ENVOY [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Artwork for Costa Rica's New Biometric Passport Revealed Designed by the Essential Costa Rica nation brand team, this document will put the essence of Costa Rica in the hands of millions of people. The new layout expected to roll out in 2022, was commissioned to complement the adoption of biometric technology standards. SAN JOSE, Sept. 17, 2021 /CNW/ -- Early next year, Costa Rica's official passport will be updated to meet the world's highest biometric standards, ranking it at the forefront of global identification technology. The announcement was made on September 2nd at the Essential Costa Rica Nation Brand Annual Conference of licensee companies and brand ambassadors. What is a biometric passport? According to Costa Rica's General Director of Migration and Foreigners, Raquel Vargas, a biometric passport is a traditional passport with an embedded microchip containing the holder's biometric data such as facial characteristics, fingerprints, and personal information. "This passport elevates us to the highest level in global mobility trends. Its high-tech components prevent forgery and alteration, making it extremely secure," she added. In addition to being used in Costa Rican passports, Vargas noted that biometric technology will be available in safe-conduct and travel documents for refugees and foreigners, exit and entry permits, and neighboring country permits for individuals living in border areas. For the new passport's design, the General Dirctorate of Migration and Foreigners had the support of the Essential Costa Rica nation brand team. After complying with all security guidelines, the group oversaw the graphic composition of each page, including visual images that capture the essence of Costa Rica. Pedro Beirute Prada, President of the Essential Costa Rica Nation Brand Committee, added, "It was a complex and challenging project because we chose a design that would promote the country integrally. We wanted Costa Rica's trademark symbols embedded within each page of the passport, and we are very proud of the results. This project will put the essence of Costa Rica in the hands of millions of people." For her part, Vice-Chancellor of Foreign Affairs, Adriana Bolanos, highlighted the diplomatic advantages that the biometric passport will bring. "The impact is clear. We will operate using the highest security measures by complying with international standards on par with developed countries. This, in turn, will characterize us as a country at the forefront of digital transformation. Our discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship foresee a green, sustainable, inclusive recovery with a profound technological and digital transformation. It is a move that opens doors for us on the international level and ensures that our citizens will be identified abroad securely and reliably," she said. Government authorities announced that the new format is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022. However, currently issued passports will remain valid for their entire duration, making it unnecessary to seek a renewal before the stated expiration date. Designed by Costa Ricans This is the first time that Costa Ricans have carried out their passport design. The visually engaging graphics seen in the internal pages are representative of the country's four trademark pillars. Biodiversity: represented by the country's islands, hammerhead sharks, ocean waves, turtles, coral reefs, butterflies, and sloths. represented by the country's islands, hammerhead sharks, ocean waves, turtles, coral reefs, butterflies, and sloths. Renewable energy: represented by the nation's volcanoes and hydroelectric plants. represented by the nation's volcanoes and hydroelectric plants. Education and peace: represented by the torch of independence, schoolbooks, and of course, " Pura Vida ." represented by the torch of independence, schoolbooks, and of course, " ." Talent: represented by the traditional ox cart, pre-Columbian spheres, Boruca masks, sculptures, and the music of marimba, calypso, and even the native Creole swing. The biometric passport project was announced during the Essential Costa Rica Nation Brand Annual Conference, held September 2nd, 2021. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/artwork-for-costa-ricas-new-biometric-passport-revealed-301379032.html SOURCE Essential COSTA RICA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] $175 Million Commitment Helps Launch UW-Madison School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences, Support Transformative Mission The University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences - a unique, forward-thinking collaboration focused at the intersection of technology and humanity - is announcing a $175 million private investment and launching an effort to raise an additional $50 million to establish a new beacon for high tech in Wisconsin housed in a state-of-the-art facility in the center of campus. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005387/en/ The interior of the planned School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be the center of the campus computer science community. Image Credit - Kahler Slater and LMN Architect CDIS brings together UW-Madison's highly ranked Computer Sciences (News - Alert) and Statistics departments and the Information School. The new facility will be a hub for the bustling tech ecosystem in Wisconsin, fostering academic research, supporting booming student interest, and hosting collaborations with industry and community partners. "The School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences is a place where our faculty and students will shape the way technology influences and enriches our lives. This is an investment that is central to the future of the university, as these fields are infusing and changing all other academic disciplines," says UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said at an event today announcing the initiative. "We are fortunate to have the support of visionary alumni John and Tashia Morgridge and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a partner in extending the impact of UW-Madison ideas to the world, to build a new home for the school's vital work. With a commitment of $125 million from the Morgridges - $50 million of which is in the form of a challenge grant, providing a 1-to-1 match to raise another $50 million from other generous donors who see the importance of CDIS' mission - and $50 million from WARF, UW-Madison will use these funds to build a new, 300,000-square-foot home for the school. "This is an investment in UW-Madison and the state of Wisconsin that will help secure their place in our shared future," says John Morgridge, a 1955 UW-Madison graduate who helped build a leading global innovator and supplier of computer networking products as president, CEO and chairman of the board of Cisco Systems (News - Alert) . "Tashia and I hope our commitment will inspire others to see the transformative potential of this project and help get it over the finish line." Construction is scheduled to begin in 2023 and be complete in 2024. Read the full article at go.wisc.edu/cdis-launch. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005387/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] alliantgroup CEO and Space Center Houston Board of Directors member, Dhaval Jadav, Applauds All-Civilian Spaceflight HOUSTON, Sept. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- alliantgroup, a management consulting company, has a strong history of strengthening American businesses through reinvestment in innovation and job growth. alliantgroup's CEO, Dhaval Jadav, has always had a passion for STEM education, American innovation and space exploration. Innovation and STEM are driving factors in alliantgroup's mission. And, space exploration is also part of the mix, even more so with Jadav's appointment to the Space Center Houston board last year. alliantgroup focuses on small and medium-sized businesses, helping them to take full advantage of existing government incentives to further invest back into their business. Jadav is a strong advocate for smaller businesses, knowing they are the backbone of American innovation and job growth. To-date, alliantgroup has helped more than 20,000 businesses realize $13 billion in government incentives. Jadav and alliantgroup are raising awareness about existing government incentives such as the Research & Development Tax Credit, the Employee Retention Credit, 179D and many more. These incentives have been invaluable in supporting business that have struggled to survive during the pandemic. During the Covid-19 criss alone, alliantgroup has helped more than 11,000 companies save nearly $3 billion. "The spirit of exploration we've seen with spaceflight in recent months is so exciting. Watching these great strides for innovation and America is why I am so passionate about STEM education and American entrepreneurism. And, it's why I am so honored to be on the board for Space Center Houston," shared Dhaval Jadav, CEO of alliantgroup. In addition to being a Space Center Houston board member, Jadav regularly hosts conversations to engage and activate business leaders, policymakers and communities to promote and invest in STEM. He recently hosted a conversation at alliantgroup's Houston headquarters to discuss innovations in space exploration and the role of robotics and AI in the space industry's progress. The panel of speakers also included William Harris, CEO of Space Center Houston and Robert Ambrose, a space robotics expert. "I am so excited about the progress we've made on this front in the U.S. But for me, It's much bigger than space. NASA has been making investments in software, robotics and simulation since the 60s. Think about the innovation we see here on Earth as a result of that investment: self-driving cars, drones delivering food. It's really humbling to think about what's possible and how it's progressed in a relatively short amount of time," said Dr. Robert Ambrose, Professor and holder of the J. Mike Walker '66 Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. alliantgroup is a management and tax consulting company with a mission to strengthen American businesses through reinvestment in innovation and job growth. We educate businesses, the industry groups that serve them and the accounting firms that advise them on federal and state credits and incentives that are legislated by our government to keep the U.S. competitive in the global landscape. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 businesses claim more than $10 billion in credits and incentives. alliantgroup is headquartered in Houston, Texas with additional offices located in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, Irvine, Sacramento, Washington, D.C.; and Bristol and London in the U.K. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alliantgroup-ceo-and-space-center-houston-board-of-directors-member-dhaval-jadav-applauds-all-civilian-spaceflight-301379654.html SOURCE alliantgroup [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Octo and Tyto Athene form Joint Venture Octo and Tyto Athene announced the creation of a Joint Venture (JV) that brings together two premier IT modernization and digital transformation providers to the U.S. Federal Government. Together they operate as Octo-Athene, LLC to deliver exceptional services and end-to-end solutions with capabilities that span from network modernization to converting data into actionable intelligence at the application layer. Both companies have established track records of providing innovation in emerging areas and are poised to offer cutting-edge solutions in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, 5G, Blockchain, Data Interoperability, Defensive Cyber Operations, Network Modernization, and Internet of Things while serving federal agencies across defense, intelligence, space, national security, civilian, and health sectors. Octo has made a name for itself over more than 15 years by providing modernization support to the Federal Government from user-centered design of mission systems to emerging technologies deployed in novel ways. "We are elated to have brought our two companies together in this way after previous successful collaborations," said Mehul Sanghani, Octo's CEO. "The full spectrum modernization and transformation capabilities brought to bear by this JV make us a force to be reckoned with in the marketplace." Tyto is recognized for utilizing industry-leading technologies, innovative thinking, and proven processes to deliver services, at scale, undera variety of business models, across the Federal Government. "Our two companies have previously collaborated on various operational issues, addressing market trends and technology delivery," stated Chris Meilhammer, Tyto CEO. "But the combination of these two amazing companies under a formal arrangement is very exciting. We look forward to delivering our combined capabilities for the benefit of our customers and their respective business objectives." About Octo Octo is a technology firm dedicated to solving the Federal Government's most complex challenges, enabling agencies to jump the technology curve. We don't just modernize. We create lasting change through best practices that help agencies implement and integrate at-scale next-generation technology and innovation. With a mission and service first mentality, we provide Agile (News - Alert) , DevSecOps, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Blockchain, Cloud, Open Source, and Data Science solutions, collaborating to solve customers' pressing problems. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Octo delivers proven technology vital to the intelligence community and health care, defense, national security, and civilian agencies that directly impact our nation. Visit octoconsulting.com. About Tyto Athene Tyto is an IT services and solutions company that provides mission-focused digital transformation to enhance the client experience and enable them to achieve desired outcomes. Tyto's services and solutions embody its domain expertise in four major technology domains: Network Modernization, Hybrid Cloud, Cybersecurity, and IT Services Management. Tyto offers a broad range of service delivery models including design/install projects, Managed Services, and 'As-a-Service.' With over 50 years of experience, Tyto supports Defense, National Security, Intelligence, Civilian, and Public Safety clients across the United States and around the globe. Visit gotyto.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005460/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] ShopHero Expands Its Industry Innovation Leadership with Release of ShopHero Retail Success Platform ShopHero, a market-leading grocery-focused technology company, today announced the release of the company's best-in-class Retail Success Platform. The company will unveil the platform at the National Grocers Association (NGA) annual conference, which will be held September 19-21, 2021 in Las Vegas. In addition, at the NGA Executive Conference prior to the show, ShopHero founder and CEO Matt Garner will join with George Eversman, EVP of Business Development and Retail at DOT Foods, Inc., to present the topic, "E-COMMERCE AFTER COVID: WHERE IS ONLINE GROCERY GOING NEXT?" The ShopHero Retail Success Platform is an easy-to-use, turnkey solution that provides everything an independent local grocer needs to drive success with shoppers. "The Retail Success Platform provides the vital foundation independent grocers need to modernize their brand," said Matt Garner, Founder and CEO of ShopHero. "More importantly, it positions them to take full advantage of additional innovations on the near horizon, such as endless aisle and personalization technologies, that will be game changers for independent grocers." Retail Success Platform Structure The ShopHero Retail Success Platform includes three key components: eCommerce, Shopper Engagement, and Point-of-Sale (POS). Today, the company is unveiling two new additions: the Prism online marketing toolkit within Shopper Engagement, and ShopHero Point-of-Sale. Prism is an intuitive, end-to-end toolkit that automates online marketing and promotions. Prism drives customer engagement by executing automated email, socialmedia, and SMS campaigns to the retailer's customers, using the store's own branding and URL. The new ShopHero Point-of-Sale is a proven turn-key terminal system that integrates the latest payment, customer loyalty/rewards, inventory and security options into a single, simplified package for optimum data utilization. In addition, the ShopHero Retail Success Platform now incorporates SNAP technology, which enables online shoppers utilizing electronic food stamps to pay electronically. ShopHero 's comprehensive new platform extends the company's proven track record of market-leading branded ecommerce solutions that empower neighborhood grocery retailers across the U.S. and Canada to stay competitive and profitable. "At ShopHero, we have worked hard to serve neighborhood retailers by extending their brand and service with customer-centric ecommerce solutions," said Kyle Spencer, COO of ShopHero. "The Retail Success Platform is the next step in helping ensure our retailers are well positioned to compete at the highest levels, now, and in the future of grocery retail." About ShopHero ShopHero is a pioneering leader in ecommerce and fulfillment solutions for the grocery industry. Our intuitive, next-generation Retail Success Platform provides everything grocers need for personalized grocery retail success: robust eCommerce, insightful Shopper Engagement and comprehensive Point-of-Sale. With our logistics technology, independent grocers can cost-effectively provision home delivery services without a substantial investment in either technology or delivery infrastructure. ShopHero is a subsidiary of Dot Foods, Inc. For more information, visit shophero.com About Dot Foods Dot Foods, Inc. carries 133,000 products from 1,000 food industry manufacturers making it the largest food industry redistributor in North America. Through Dot Transportation, Inc., an affiliate of Dot Foods, the company distributes foodservice, convenience, retail and vending products to distributors in all 50 states and more than 55 countries. Dot Foods operates 12 U.S. distribution centers and two distribution centers in Canada. For information, visit dotfoods.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005488/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Metals Acquisition Corp. Announces the Separate Trading of its Shares of Class A Ordinary Shares and Redeemable Warrants Commencing September 20, 2021 Metals Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: MTAL.U) (the "Company") announced that, commencing September 20, 2021, holders of the units sold in the Company's initial public offering of 26,514,780 units may elect to separately trade the shares of Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants included in the units. Those units not separated will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") under the symbol "MTAL.U," and the shares of Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants that are separated will trade on the NYSE under the symbols "MTAL" and "MTAL WS," respectively. No fractional warrants will be issued upon separation of the units and only whole warrants will trade. Holders of units will need to have their brokers contact Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the Company's transfer agent, in order to separate the units into shares of Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants. The units were initially offered by the Company in an underwritten offering. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as sole book-running manager. A registration statement relating to the units and the underlying securities became effective on July 28, 2021. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of the Company, 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. The offering was made only by means of a prospectus, opies of which may be obtained for free from the Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) ") website at www.sec.gov or by contacting Citigroup Global Markets Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone: 1-800-831-9146. About the Company The Company 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. Although the Company's efforts to identify a prospective business combination opportunity will not be limited to a particular industry, it intends to focus on businesses in the metals and mining sector, including both upstream and downstream businesses, but excluding coal. Forward-Looking Statements This press release 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, including with respect to the anticipated separate trading of the Company's Class A ordinary shares and redeemable warrants and the pursuit of an initial business combination. All 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," "estimate," "expect," "intend" 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 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 relating to 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/20210917005282/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] KKR Expands Industrial Real Estate Footprint in Atlanta with Acquisition by KREST KKR, a leading global investment firm, today announced that KKR Real Estate Select Trust Inc. ("KREST") has acquired a 1.1 million square-foot, Class A industrial warehouse at Southern Gateway (News - Alert) at Lambert Farms in Atlanta (McDonough), Georgia from PNK Group, an international real estate developer implementing full-cycle industrial projects. Completed in 2020, the warehouse is centrally located in Atlanta's logistics corridor with convenient access to the airport, the Port of Savannah and downtown and midtown Atlanta. The state-of-the-art structure features 40-foot clear height and two 190-foot truck courts. The property is 100% triple net leased to two high-quality tenants, a leading publicly traded direct-to-consumer mattress company and a logistics and supply chain company, with a weighted average lease term of approximately 10 years. "Today's acquisition represents another important milestone for KKR as we continue to develop and diversify our industrial footprint and KREST portfolio," said Ben Brudney, a Director in the Real Estate group at KKR who oversees the firm's industrial investments. "We continue to view Atlanta as a long-term winner demographically with highly attractive market fundamentals and believe accelerating e-commerce growth will drive demand for strategically located, high-quality distribution centers." The investment is part of KREST's stabilized real estate investment strategy, one of the fund's three primary investment strategies, which focuses on thematically-driven, income-generating industrial and multi-family, well-leased opportunities. The property is the fourth industrial asset in KREST's portfolio which holds over 2.5 million square feet of logistics real estate in attractive, high-growth markets including Portland, Oregon, Memphis, Tennessee, Raleigh, North Carolina and now Atlanta, Georgia. Since launching a dedicated real estate platform in 2011, KKR has grown real estate assets under maagement to approximately $32 billion across the U.S., Europe and Asia as of June 30, 2021. KKR's global real estate team consists of approximately 130 dedicated investment professionals, spanning both the equity and credit business, across twelve offices and nine countries. JLL brokered the sale on behalf of PNK Group. About KREST KKR Real Estate Select Trust Inc. ("KREST") is a continuously offered, registered closed-end fund that thematically invests in high quality, stabilized, income-oriented commercial real estate equity and debt. The fund is open to all investors with daily subscriptions and its primary investment objective is to provide attractive current income, with a secondary objective of long-term capital appreciation. KREST is managed by KKR Registered Advisor LLC, an affiliate of KKR & Co. Inc., and utilizes the experience and reach of KKR's global real estate team and the resources available through the KKR platform. For additional information about KREST, please visit its website at www.krest.reit. About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter (News - Alert) @KKR_Co. About PNK Group PNK Group is an international real estate developer implementing full-cycle industrial projects. The group of companies was founded in 2004. PNK Group has 37 logistics and industrial parks, including three industrial in the United States located in Atlanta, GA, Savannah, GA and Hazleton, PA. Outside of the US, the company operates four in-house plants producing major load-bearing structural components of buildings. The company employs German cutting-edge technology of modular construction to assemble large prefabricated components and units. PNK Group builds industrial facilities conforming to international FM Global standards. For more information, please visit www.pnk.group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005510/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [September 17, 2021] Enfusion Files Registration Statement with SEC for Proposed Initial Public Offering Enfusion, Inc. ("Enfusion"), a leading provider of cloud-based investment management software and services, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC (News - Alert) ") relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its Class A common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Enfusion intends to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "ENFN." Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC will act as lead book-running managers for the proposed offering, with BofA Securities, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, William Blair & Company, L.L.C., Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Piper Sandler & Co. acting as other bookrunners. The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus, when available, may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 10 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, Attn: Prospectus Department, by email: prospectus@morganstanley.com; Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, by telephone at (866) 471-2526 or by email at prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com. A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall 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 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 Enfusion Enfusion's investment management software-as-a-service platform removes traditional information boundaries, uniting front-, middle- and back-office teams on one cloud-native system. Through its software, analytics, and middle/back-office managed services, Enfusion creates enterprise-wide cultures of real-time, data-driven intelligence, boosting agility, and powering growth. Enfusion partners with 600+ investment managers from nine global offices spanning four continents. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210917005528/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Bramley-Moore Dock basin cleared and sealed Friday, 17 September, 2021 Everton have announced that the process of clearing the bottom of Bramley-Moore Dock in preparation for the infilling process has been completed. A round-the-clock mission involving expert divers plunging into dark murky waters has cleared the dock basin of unwanted materials, from old car tyres and scrap metal to ship anchors and World War Two relics. This included unexploded anti-aircraft shells dating back to the 1940s which were carefully removed and handed over to Army and Navy experts for disposal. The club and construction partners Laing O'Rourke are now preparing to begin the rehoming of wildlife from the dock later this month before repairing and sealing any holes in the dock wall to effectively create a bath tub. This is in preparation for the infilling of the dock, which has also seen the laying of the pipework required to bring in 470,000 cubic meters of sand, dredged from the Irish sea, that will displace the water currently in the dock into adjacent water bodies. Elsewhere in the enabling works, the demolition is well under way to flatten existing non-listed buildings, that will see much of the materials being re-used across the site. Works on the welfare facilities for site staff also continue in preparation for the next phase of works. Demolition is ongoing as we speak and we are actually forming the bath tub' now, which effectively segregates our dock from the others to allow us to fill it with sand harvested from the River Mersey, said Stadium Director, Colin Chong. So there's some major maritime engineering activity taking place. There are lots of marine life still in the dock, so we've fitted a bubble curtain to stop any more coming back in and from 17 September we will start to remove all the fish from the dock under the jurisdiction of the environment agency. They will monitor how we remove and release the fish, recording the species, so there's a real detailed methodology of how we intend to clear the dock. Click here to download the first Everton stadium podcast and hear more from Lenny and his diving colleague Josh on the process of repairing the dock wall. The podcast also features an update on what is currently happening on site from Colin Chong as well as insights on the dock infill process from Chris Spragg and Peter Jones, project leads from Laing O'Rourke. Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer About these ads Apropos for the end of #TBT . . . We note the return of a former Kansas City power player who made a VERY BRAVE appearance at 12th & Oak today. Calvin's troubles at Jackson County are well documented. But he served his time and now he's advocating with local group More in their latest effort to register voters with felony convictions. More about the effort that's worth highlighting tonight at www.TonysKansasCity.com . . . "It is a commonly held myth that people cannot vote once they have a felony. To counteract that perception, organizers are working with area governments to promote "Our Voices/ Our Votes," or proclamations/ special actions to recognize the rights of people in Missouri and Kansas to vote after probation or parole. Mayor Quinton Lucas, today, will be the first to take up this special action, recognizing the leaders of MORE2 who have felony convictions & vote. The Our Voices Our Votes campaign aims to engage disenfranchised voters (with felonies) in the process of democracy." That's Mr. Calvin in the middle of the group that earned the blessing of the mayor and council. Here at TKC we believe everybody deserves a second chance. Similarly . . . We hear the Mike is doing well working construction after some time in the federal pen. Meanwhile, look for More to continue their cutting edge advocacy as we quickly approach the midterms and another election cycle. Developing . . . The American supply chain continues to crumble as the plague persists. Here's a peek on another impact working against the NextGen . . . "Hickman Mills is just one of many school districts across both the Kansas City metro area and the country dealing with meal shortages. Hickman Mills Director of School Nutrition Grennan Simms says that the food deliveries were already slowing down before they were informed that they'd be stopping completely." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . School meal shortages continue in KC: Hickman Mills dropped by food provider Come Nov. 9, the Hickman Mills School District will no longer have a school food provider.Hickman Mills is just one of many school districts across both the Kansas City metro area and the country dealing with meal shortages. Missouri DESE assisting 2 Kansas City-area school districts facing lunch-supply issues KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is assisting two Kansas City-area school districts dealing with lunch supply issues. In early September, several school districts reported changes to their food service because of the supply issues. Several local school districts confirm new food concerns after distributors drop them KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Hickman Mills School District is the latest in the Kansas City metro to warn families of issues it may have feeding children in the coming weeks. Hickman Mills said one of its suppliers notified the district that it would drop the district in November. Developing . . . Right now there is a palpable level of outrage against Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker following the tragic death of an Independence, Missouri officer killed in the line of duty. From a reliable source . . . Here is the latest update and perspective from an ANONYMOUS law enforcement supporter. The detail speaks for itself and should indicate insider knowledge: "Cody was arrested on 09/02/2021 for being a felon in possession of a firearm. That case was submitted to the Jackson County prosecutor office as an anytime case for their review. The significance of this is we used to send all gun cases to Jackson County for charges during the initial 24 hour time period we could legally keep someone in custody. The goal was to get all potential violent criminals charged so they had to post a bond or remain in custody. We even revamped and beefed up our gun squad back when NOVA was first started to assist with this. "We continued to submit all gun cases for in-custody charges for years, even after NOVA was dissolved. Then Jackson County started pushing back and no longer wanted to charge gun possession cases in-custody. They wanted the suspect to be released pending further investigation and have the case submitted for them to review and charge later. Normally months go by before the case is charged and then the suspect is mailed a court date that they dont show up for. As a result more months go by until the suspect is picked up on a failure to appear warrant. They are then usually given a court date and released ROR or with a minimal bond. "Jean Peters pretending to care about violent crime is comical. She does nothing in the way she operates her office that would indicate that was true." ##################### In fairness, here is the latest statement from the Jackson County Prosecutor which contradicts reporting and attempts to shift blame to Clay County . . . "Contrary to early reporting, the Jackson County prosecutors office had not declined to prosecute or file a case against Cody Harrison was out of jail when he shot an Independence Police officer this week. "In fact, a warrant for Cody Harrisons arrest was issued on Sept. 13, 2021, after he failed to appear for a hearing in late August in a criminal case initiated in February 2021. We requested that arrest warrant. "In that case, Harrison was charged with burglary 2nd Degree and Stealing for a Grain Valley, MO, crime. At the time we filed that case, our offices original request was for a bond of $10,000/10 percent, which is within the state Supreme Courts bond guidelines. The court, however, issued the $6,000/10 percent bond and it was later reduced by the court to an ROR bond (Release on his own recognizance). "In addition, Kansas City police submitted to us on Sept. 7 (received by our office on Sept. 9) a new case on Harrison for earlier that month (Sept. 2) carrying a firearm which he was prohibited to carry because he was a convicted felon. That case was under review for charging in our office. "Though arrested on Sept.2, we did not receive the case until Sept. 9, when Harrison had been out of custody for days. "Harrison was convicted in 2011 in Clay County of Unlawful Use of A Weapon and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Its our understanding that he was on parole out of Clay County for that conviction." ############### Now here's the more interesting part . . . THERE'S A CHANGE.ORG PETITION DEMANDING THE RESIGNATION OF MEAN JEAN & IT HAS ALREADY GARNERED 5,000 SIGNATURES!!! Now . . . What we know for certain is that the Prosecutor is under siege and law enforcement supporters across the region are extremely angry about this situation. Last night a trusted insider told us this . . . "This is a career ending f*ckup. She should be representing constituents, not BLM. Her disputes with police have now created horrible consequences. I would be very surprised if she holds on to her job. She will have NO CONFIDENCE from any of her colleagues." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . 22-year-old Independence officer dies after being shot by suspect INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Independence police say a 22-year-old officer shot by a suspect Wednesday has since died from his injuries. "It is with heavy hearts that we announce that this evening, Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans succumbed to his injuries and passed away," the Independence Police Department said in a post on social media. Suspect in fatal police shooting was felon with open warrant, was recently arrested with handgun KANSAS CITY/INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) -- KCTV5 has learned that Cody Harrison, the suspect in the fatal shooting of Independence police officer Blaize Madrid-Evans was recently arrested by KCPD with a weapon. He was currently facing other charges which include burglary and stealing. He was out on bond. Suspect in Independence police officer's death had long criminal history The suspect investigators say shot and killed 22-year-old Independence police Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans on Wednesday had a long criminal history and several trips to jail and prison.Cody Levi Harrison, 33, of Gladstone was most recently wanted on a warrant in Jackson County for a failure to appear in court in late August. Law enforcement rallies around Independence Police Department INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Police from around the metro are supporting Independence police officer Blaize Madrid-Evans' family and colleagues. "We're not going to turn our back on anybody, and I don't care what city you're from," said Sgt. Brad Lemon, president of Kansas City, Missouri, Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 99. You decide . . Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is getting SERIOUS about pandemic enforcement and the price of disobeying public health mandates. To wit . . . FIRST ON TKC!!! CHECK NEW RULES FOR COVID CRACKDOWN!!! MAYOR Q ENDORSES PREZ BIDEN VAXX MANDATE!!! There is opposition at the state level to this but for now workers lower on the food chain will risk their job if they disobey. An insider tells us . . . "First readings today may get pulled to same-day, or sent to committee." Check-it . . . RESOLUTION #210852 - Directing the City Manager to implement a COVID-19 Mandatory Vaccination Policy for the City's workforce consistent with the requirements for federal employees. Resolution 210853 - Requiring face coverings or masks at indoor places of public accommodation with certain exceptions; appropriating $1,000.00 from the Unappropriated Fund Balance of the Health Levy Fund; designating requisitioning authority; and recognizing this ordinance as having an accelerated effective date. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . Kansas, Missouri AGs say Biden's vaccine mandate unlawful, threaten lawsuit TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, along with attorney generals from 23 other states, including Missouri, have sent a letter to President Joe Biden warning that litigation would follow if the administration proceeds with its announced vaccine mandate for private sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors. Kansas, Missouri AGs say legal action will be taken if vaccine mandate policy moves forward TOPEKA, KS (KCTV) -- On Thursday, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent a letter to President Joe Biden, saying he must drop the proposed vaccine mandate or face legal action over it. Schmidt and Schmitt, along with 22 other state attorneys general, sent the letter to the president. Developing . . . Only a hip-hop hottie diva is willing to "do the science" when it comes to the current plague. And so she inspires us to check pop culture, community news and top headlines. Check the www.TonysKansasCity.com news link compilation . . . Youngsters Plagued By Sickness There's an unprecedented summer surge of childhood respiratory syncytial virus in Kansas City Doctors say there's an alarming surge right now in childhood respiratory syncytial virus cases. RSV is a virus that usually doesn't spread in large numbers until winter. Reported cases right now are already above what doctors say a typical winter peak would be.Morgan Pritt says the experience of caring for a child with RSV has been both emotional and scary. Family Resources Debut Sheffield Place debuts renovation, expands services for single mothers Abby Hoover Managing Editor Sheffield Place, a rehabilitation center and home for single mothers and their children, unveiled its much anticipated group living space on September 9 in the newly renovated building at 1004 Newton Ave. The building was purchased by Sheffield Place in early 2020 from Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. For The Culture . . . Westside CAN Center serves as anchor for Latino community in Kansas City, Missouri KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A Kansas City, Missouri, community center that started as a way to address crime has become a staple of the city's Westside and an avenue to bring people together. "Having access to the culture," Officer Chato Villalobos said of the Westside CAN Center. Deal Finally On Track Railroad execs hope CP-KCS merger could be done by late 2022 KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Canadian Pacific hopes to complete its $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern railroad before the end of next year. Shareholders of both companies are likely to vote on the deal sometime in December, and then Mexican and American regulators will have to sign off on the combination before the two railroads can merge. Show-Me Last Chance College Haterz Racial slur written on free speech wall at University of Central Missouri WARRENSBURG, MO (KCTV) -- The University of Central Missouri says someone wrote a racial slur on a free speech wall today. The university posted about it on Facebook, saying that it happened during a student-led, on-campus event celebrating free speech. Even Guv Knows Mandate Loses Votes Kansas' Democratic governor appears wary of vaccine mandate LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is indicating that she's wary of President Joe Biden's mandate that companies with 100 or more employees require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing. The Democratic governor said Tuesday at an economic development event in Lawrence that she needs to hear more details, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Kansas City BBQ Weekend Starts World Series of Barbecue returns to the Kansas Speedway After a year off, the American Royal World Series of barbecue is back on at the Kansas Speedway. This year's event is a little extra special for some of the nearly 500 participants.Louisiana pitmaster Mike Steele and his team are especially happy to back at the Kansas Speedway this weekend. ALL ABOUT #BALLGATE!!! Nicki Minaj's #BallGate: Everything you need to know about the rapper's controversial COVID vaccine comments Nicki Minaj's Twitter claim about her cousin's friend having swollen testicles and becoming impotent as a result of getting the COVID-19 vaccine has been escalated to the White House. It all started over the "Trollz" rapper, 38, not attending Monday's Met Gala, and now the governments of multiple nations have weighed in to debunk the tweets she sent out to her 22 million followers. Prez Biden Stays Losing Border Biden's Growing Border Catastrophe | National Review There is no such thing as benign neglect of our borders. he Biden administration, surprising precisely nobody, is facing an ever-worsening crisis at the border. In recent days, thousands of Haitian immigrants have crossed the Rio Grande. No, that's not a typo. MAGA Downplays Insurrection Trump defends Capitol rioters being "persecuted so unfairly" ahead of Sept. 18th rally Former President Donald Trump doubled down on defending those who rioted at the United States capitol on January 6, calling them unfairly "persecuted" on Thursday. Paper Trail Confronts Former Prez Jan. 6 probe request sends hundreds of pages to Trump team for review When it comes to document after document relevant to the Jan. 6 panel's expansive request, Biden White House lawyers will likely face the same tough dilemma: They can either send Congress the material over Trump's objections, entering unprecedented legal territory about the treatment of former presidents; or they can withhold materials from Hill allies, thereby stymieing investigators' access and potentially generating significant political fallout. Po-Po Plagued By COVID 'My dad didn't have a fighting chance': Covid is leading cause of death among law enforcement Octavia Tokley said she and her husband, Erin, were grateful this year that their jobs made them among the first people eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19. He was a police officer and, at the time, she was working remotely as a teacher. Plebs Surrender Search History The new warrant: how US police mine Google for your location and search history It was a routine bike ride around the neighborhood that landed Zachary McCoy in the crosshairs of the Gainesville, Florida, police department. In January 2020, an alarming email from Google landed in McCoy's inbox. Police were requesting his user data, the company told him, and McCoy had 7 days to go to court and block its release. Progressives Define Terms Yes, We're Calling It Hispanic Heritage Month And We Know It Makes Some Of You Cringe As the headline unambiguously states, here at NPR we've kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month. Not Latino Heritage Month. Not Latinx Heritage Month. Not even a compromise or a combination of the three: Hispanic/Latino/Latinx Heritage Month. Magic Mike Makes It Official Channing Tatum Shares Photo with Zoe Kravitz and Friends at Alicia Keys' Met Gala Afterparty Channing Tatum and Zoe Kravitz attended Alicia Keys party, where a source said they showed PDA On Thursday, the actor shared a photo on his Instagram Story featuring him and Kravitz posing with Alicia Keys and Moses Sumney, originally posted on Key's feed. The shot was taken at Keys' Met Gala afterparty on Monday night. War Machine Runs Aground Satellite image shows B-2 stealth bomber off runway at Whiteman Air Force Base A satellite image taken Wednesday morning shows a U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber in the grass off a runway at Whiteman Air Force Base. Kansas City Talks The Greatest Muhammad Ali's Brief Encounter With KC's Rich Boxing Legacy It's hard to imagine, but Muhammad Ali once came to Kansas City - and nobody expected him to talk. In 2000 he appeared at a Boys & Girls Clubs' fundraiser at Bartle Hall, visibly suffering from symptoms of the Parkinson's disease doctors had diagnosed in 1984. Local Color Debuts Find the best places, road trips to view fall colors in Missouri and Kansas by: Brian Dulle Posted: / Updated: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri and Kansas have a variety of trees, shrubs and vines that make the fall season come alive with color every year. The Missouri Department of Conservation has weekly updates on which trees are changing and where to get the best views of the changing foliage with its fall color report. Sideshow Trend FINALLY Hits Nice Side Of The Bridge Suspect arrested in Clay County after doing donuts in stolen skid loader by: Brian Dulle Posted: / Updated: LIBERTY, Mo. - Clay County deputies were immediately suspicious when they arrived to the scene Monday morning of someone doing donuts in a skid loader at a business parking lot. Deputies were called to the business at 7400 block of Birmingham Road in Clay County around 6:30 a.m. KC Friday Forecast Staying warm & muggy with a few late day storms Starting off sunny with a few more clouds by the afternoon as a few thunderstorms are possible for areas north of I-70. Staying warm & muggy. Wind: S-SW 5-15 mph. High: 87 Wolf Alice - Smile is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. Already we hear a bit of grumbling about this decision. Tonight we take a quick peek at the lame offering for an industry confronts ongoing upheaval amid the continued plague. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . Barbecue, local brews and Kansas City brands expected to fly into new KCI terminal KANSAS CITY, Mo. - And then there was one. The Kansas City Aviation Department announced its choice for the concessions provider at the new terminal at Kansas City International Airport. The department said Vantage Airport Group had the best option. Vantage was one of five groups that submitted proposals for the new contract. KCMO Aviation Department recommends Canadian firm to run concessions at KCI KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City Aviation Department recommended the Vantage Airport Group get the city council's approval to run concession operations at the new KCI terminal. The department announced their choice Thursday afternoon during a presentation at the city council's business session meeting. Northland Not Happy About Lack Of Local Restaurants Proposed At Kansas City's New Airport A special committee has recommended a Canadian-based company for the lucrative contract to manage the restaurants and stores at the new Kansas City International Airport terminal. But Kansas City council members still have lots of questions before they approve the proposal. The city council got its first look Thursday at the preferred choice for the concessionaire, Vantage Airport Group. Developing . . . Recently, Mayor Q engaged in a bit of racially charged joking at the expense of an embattled small biz struggling for their survival. The response didn't seem to find humor in the remarks . . . So Mayor Quinton Lucas was just on 103.3 and said he doesnt know what these white folks are doing out here in Blue Springs. Are you serious? The interview is on 103.3 Mayor Quinton Lucas you are a DISGRACE. Here's a nicer www.TonysKansasCity.com link to the show . . . The Morning Grind With Shay & Shyne FULL SHOW 09.13.21 ICYMI: #MAYORLUCASMONDAY We asked Mayor Lucas about some Northlanders who are in favor of seceding from KCMO. Week 1 is done, our #CHIEFS got the dub and we had to hit you with a new CHIEFS Song! #WhyYouMadTho #TheShade #ThatsMyJam #TheMorningGrindWithShayAndShyne Podcast COMMERCIAL-FREE MUSIC-FREE https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/962/2021/09/13094538/TMGSS-091321.mp3 And, via the best & brightest TKC readers here's Rae's latest fundraiser that even has a prayer button . . . The 7K total not including Venmo donations is somewhat impressive. Developing . . . A lot of people forget this not-so-fun fact BUT the Jackson County Prosecutor is an elected position. A few months before the 2020 election wherein the Show-Me State Democrats were STOMPED by the GOP . . . Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker resigned as Missouri Democratic Party Chair. Yes, we have no doubt the Prosecutor is dedicated to her job. She is a tireless public servant and she is focused on her fulfilling the duties of her office . . . But she's not in this line of work for her health. Fair or not . . . There are, in fact, political ramifications for the overwhelming level of antipathy confronting the Jackson County Prosecutor's office right now. And so we ask . . . WILL MEAN JEAN EVER WIN POLITICAL OFFICE AGAIN?!? At one time her name was at the top of the list to run for Senator. But then Nicole "All Personality" Galloway reminded hapless Missouri Democratic Party leaders that white women don't turn out votes in predominately Black communities. Sorry, but the Midwest is NOT the set of an MSNBC talk show. And so . . . - An outpouring of social media criticism attacking her job performance has hit social media. - A petition demanding her resignation just passed 7,000 signitures. - And very few (if any) of her political allies have come to her defense . . . On this topic the silence is DEAFENING at 12th & Oak. Kansas City loves to encourage progressive leaders . . . From a safe distance. And right now the Jackson County Prosecutor has very little support for so many "progressives" who she has struggled to align with over the past year. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . Troubled past, complicated legal system surround suspect who killed Independence officer INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Beyond the pain and loss the Independence community is feeling there is also confusion. It's still not clear why 33-year-old Cody Harrison shot Independence Police Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans but also why was he was out of jail and in possession of a gun? Man who killed Independence police officer paroled twice Cody Harrison, the man who killed 22-year-old Independence police officer Blaize Madrid-Evans on Wednesday, received a 15-year prison sentence in 2011 for a firearms-related crime, but he was paroled twice - first in July 2018 and again in May 2021 after returning to prison for a parole violation. Failures may have allowed convicted felon who killed Independence officer to walk free KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Should the gunman that killed a 22-year-old Independence officer have been free in the first place? FOX4 is investigating potential failures in the system that may have allowed the convicted felon, facing new charges, to be out instead of behind bars. Developing . . . Across the metro communities unite in order to pay their respects to a young police officer tragically killed in the line of duty. We share this news collection out of respect and in order to offer a more complete view of the discourse with so many people working to help the officer's loved ones and law enforcement during this time of grief. Also, there are some great resources within the collection which offer a guide to legit organizations where locals can pitch-in along with profiles of people already stepping up. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . . Community working to raise money for family of fallen officer JACKSON COUNTY, MO (KCTV) -- Outside of the Independence Police Department, people have been showing their support to former officer Blaize Madrid-Evans. "Try to raise as much money as we can in a short period of time for his family," said Brad Lemon, President of the Fraternal Order of Police in Kansas City. Price Chopper collecting donations for family of slain Independence officer Price Chopper said its stores will collect donations to help support the family of 22-year-old Independence police Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans.Madrid-Evans was fatally shot while answering a call.Price Chopper said customers can donate at all Kansas City area stores starting Friday through Sept. 24. Tributes mount for Independence Officer Madrid-Evans, killed at age 22 INDEPDNENCE, Mo. - Just 22 years old, engaged to be married, and gunned down in the line of duty. On Thursday, tributes continued for Independence Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans, killed during a residence check for a wanted suspect midday Wednesday. Madrid-Evans was shot by a suspect and critically injured during that call. Independence cafe shows support for law enforcement with free food BlendWell Community Cafe is offering free food and coffee to all law enforcement this week. As a book club met, the reality of Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans' death is on their minds."It's just heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking. Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans will be remembered on memorial wall outside IPD There's been 7 officers who have been killed in the line of duty in Independence . Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans will be a new name joining the short list etched in stone, each one representing a life taken away too soon. Faith leader, mental health professionals offer support to grieving law enforcement KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The support from the community means a lot to law enforcement during a difficult time following the passing of a young Independence police officer. Pastor Darron Edwards at United Believers Community Church bridges the community and law enforcement, who are now turning to him following the death of Blaize Madrid-Evans. Community vigil for slain Independence police officer draws hundreds INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) - At least 300 people stood outside the Independence Police Department Thursday night. Many didn't even know Officer Blaize Madrid-Evans, who was killed Wednesday, shot by a man he and his field training officer were trying to contact about a warrant. They bowed their heads in prayer and held each other tight. Developing . . . Dining options: After-hours, Breakfast, Reservations Neighbourhood: Broughton & Calton Description: Mamma Roma Restaurant is a family run restaurant and was founded in 1996 by Mennato Mastrocinque and his father Giovanni. Giovanni Mastrocinque started his first restaurant when he first moved to North Berwick in 1981. His restaurant (still standing now) is called Bella Italia and is located in North Berwicks High Street. The restaurant has been serving its loyal North Berwick residents and tourists for over 30 years now. A few years later, after openning Bella Italia, Giovannis son, Mennato Mastrocinque, moved to Scotland in 1985 after finishing his studies in Italy. During summer vacations he would visit his father in North Berwick and would help in the restaurant. He learned the trade very quickly and had a natural talent for preparing authentic Italian cousine. Having learned and experienced all aspects of running a restaurant, Mennato decided to follow his fathers steps and open a restaurant of his own. In 1996 Mennato found just the place. This was Mamma Roma as it stands now on The trans-Tasman travel bubble has been paused for a further eight weeks, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson announced on Friday. Your playlist will load after this ad The bubble pause was due to expire on Friday, September 24. "Cabinet has agreed to extend this pause for a further eight weeks and this will be reviewed again in mid to late November," he told reporters during a press conference providing the daily Covid-19 case update. "We're announcing this today so that people in Australia can take part in the MIQ room release on Monday and have the opportunity to access the first tranche of around 3000 rooms." Source: 1 NEWS Flights from Australia will be available in October and November, he said. In a statement, the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment told 1News the agency is "working very quickly to give people in Australia some certainty around MIQ voucher availability and flight schedules over the coming months". A third managed red flight from Australia to New Zealand has also been planned for those in "emergency situations", Robertson said. read more Release of new MIQ spots returns Monday It follows two earlier red flights allowing New Zealanders to return from Australia on September 5 and 15. The cost for the flight and their stay in MIQ must be covered by the traveller, Robertson said. A pre-departure Covid-19 test will also be required from an accredited laboratory within 72 hours of travel. Over the past 24 hours, on September 16, eight ceasefire violations were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation zone. Thats according to the Ministry of Defense, Ukrinform reports. In particular, near the settlement of Taramchuk, the enemy twice fired at the positions of Ukrainian military their 120 mm mortars and 122 mm artillery proscribed by the Minsk agreements. As a result of the shelling, a civilian home and an adjacent territory were damaged. In the area of Pisky, Russian mercenaries employed 120 mm mortars. In Luhansk region, the enemy twice applied drones to open fire on the settlement of Shchastia. In addition, the enemy used 82 mm mortars to shell the Shchastia, damaging civilian infrastructure and vehicles. A local resident was injured in the shelling. At Zolote-4, occupiers fired large-caliber machine guns and small arms. Ukrainian military reported no combat losses. Joint Forces returned fire to the enemy shelling. The Ukrainian side to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center has informed the OSCE monitors of all violations by the Russian occupation forces, using the established coordination mechanism. As of 7:00 Kyiv time on September 17, no new ceasefire violations were reported. The Ukrainian military is monitoring the situation in the Joint Forces Operation zone to repel and deter armed aggression by Russia. im The key question is whether the gas shortage Europe has faced, which has led to a sharp price hike, can already be seen as Russia using energy as geopolitical weapon? In the context of Nord Stream 2, leaders of Western powers and their representatives have often said that serious measures will be taken if Moscow blackmails Europe with its gas and uses it as a weapon. And now Europe is already being shaken by the threefold price of gas set by Gazprom! Perhaps it's high time to move from talk to specific action? The European gas market is currently in a state of panic. The heating season is to start in a month, while underground gas storage facilities (UGS) in the EU are far from being full (the average for the last five years was about 90%, now its 70% - ed.). As a result, prices soared. And while last week a thousand cubic meters of natural gas cost $730, now its almost $1,000. Analysts say that in 2021, the situation that we observed three years ago may repeat, that is, when in March 2018 the cold atmospheric front "The Beast from the East" hit Europe and gas prices soared to over $1,000. However, according to military-political commentator Oleksandr Kovalenko, the only difference is that in 2018 the Siberian "Beast from the East" was a natural phenomenon, while in 2021, it is a "man-made" threat to the EU, in the literal sense. "The current gas crisis in Europe is artificial and created by Russia," Mr Kovalenko said. Gazprom has raised to a maximum gas injection into underground storage facilities within Russia, at the same time minimizing it to gas storages across the EU. The price of the periodic statements by the head of the Russian monopoly, Alexei Miller, that "we are able to cover any demand in the domestic, Russian market, as well as in the European and the Asian ones" is obvious now. Maybe they are, but they don't find it necessary," added Mykhailo Honchar, President of the Center for Global Studies "Strategy XXI." Simply put, Russia is deliberately restricting gas supplies to Europe. By artificially creating a shortage, Gazprom provides Nord Stream 2 with a good starting position, presenting the pipe as Europes salvation and making things look like only after proper certification and settling a number of technical and legal issues with NS2 the situation will stabilize and prices will fall. "Also, the NS2 has not been put into operation yet," Mr. Honchar emphasizes. He adds that with the commissioning of the pipeline and the lifting of restrictions on its use (if that happens), there is no doubt Gazprom will start squeezing other suppliers out of Europe through manipulation, by reducing their market share. So why is there still no reaction from the EU? Is the current situation of natural gas prices not an argument and the only option today is to be held on Russias leash? The situation is not too optimistic Unfortunately, Oleksandr Kovalenko admits, in order to get through this heating season safely, Europe will have to accept Moscow's conditions. After all, everything has been calculated: the energy crisis in the EU countries might provoke public discontent, which Russia is very good at exploiting. "Remember at least the Yellow Vests protests in France, which kicked off as a peaceful rally of farmers and ended in large-scale riots. Moreover, the protest movement was radicalized by groups close to the National Front of the pro-Russian Marine Le Pen, and among their leaders were even militants who fought in Donbas against Ukraine. Similarly, there were protests in Catalonia, also fueled by Russian agents of influence," said the expert. Germany suffers no colossal losses. Instead, it is interested in having NS2 launched as soon as possible It is also concerning that Ms. Merkel, who actually defended the completion of NS2, had been warned about all this. But it seems it wasnt even necessary: Berlin was well aware of this, assessing own benefits. It was reported that in Germany, NS2 had been lobbied by former "combat comrades" from the GDR's Stasi secret service, who have grown to become simply friends. But the upcoming heating season may well lead to destabilization across Europe, which Brussels cannot allow, so they will act with the utmost caution. "However, in 2022, it is vital for the EU to develop a new strategy for energy independence and relations with Moscow. Of course, thats unless these processes are hampered by the Russian lobby in European politics. And Im more than sure that these obstacles will indeed be created," Mr. Kovalenko added. A similar opinion was expressed by international political expert Maksym Yali: "Why is the EU silent, why is there no reaction? First, NS2 has not yet been commissioned, so the EU has no reason to make such statements, because the guarantees and possible sanctions in case Russia uses the pipeline as a geopolitical weapon concerned the second string of Nord Stream. Therefore, the Kremlin's actions do not result in any sanctions. " Secondly, the political expert continues, Germany, which offered such "guarantees" to Ukraine, has long-term contacts with Gazprom, therefore buying its gas at a price of about $230 per 1,000 cubic meters. "So Germany suffers no losses. On the contrary, it is interested in launching NS2 as soon as possible in order to receive gas at lower prices. And such pressure on countries that do not have such contracts, thus buying gas on the spot market, while opposing the launch of NS2, is actually to the benefit of Germany and companies representing other countries participating in the project." By the way, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently stated that gas prices in Europe have risen for buyers who have not signed long-term contracts with Gazprom. "So, is the only option for Europe now is to remain on Russias leash? No matter how unpleasant it was for us to admit it, but, apparently, it will be the case, at least in the short term. And in this situation, its not the EU that we need to think about, but about how we will survive the upcoming heating season, given the shortage of gas in storage, said Mr. Yali. The Kremlin's task is to force Ukraine to resume direct gas supplies from Russia, as well as to implement the Kremlin's scenario of the Minsk agreements in exchange for extending the contract for the transit of Russian gas through our GTS and, possibly, in exchange for certain gas discounts as early as this winter." The political expert reminded how during last heating season Ukraine was buying electricity from Belarus and Russia. "That is, there is already a precedent. The Kremlin wants to 'finish Kyiv, which once again did not read all the risks properly and neither did it make any safeguard steps in the spring and summer, when prices were 50% lower," Maksym Yali added. ... But there are still options If the Kremlin sees no sanction risks, at least for now, how else could Europe respond? What are the options? Personally, we see Europe searching for alternatives, in particular, in increasing shale gas supplies from the United States. And then the market should do its work as such. In Poland, for example, which for a few years already has been seen as one of Washington's key European partners in the gas sector, there is a relevant LNG terminal, in the city of Swinoujscie. Moreover, the Poles intend to build two more in 2022 and 2023, including in Gdansk. By the way, Ukraine with its GTS could also be actively involved in the process as analysts predict it could potentially play the role of a powerful gas hub of regional and even European significance. After all, transmitting gas from the Persian Gulf or the eastern Mediterranean once Israel and the richest countries of the Arab world normalize relations could help the European continent reduce its dependence on Russian energy, In fact, this option no longer seems fictional Also, there is the prospect of building a 1,900-km EastMed pipeline (recall that in 2020, Greece, Cyprus, and Israel signed an agreement to jointly build the project), which, according to experts, is able to cover about 10% of Europe's gas needs. "Of course, there is an alternative but it takes political will and time to implement it. Unfortunately, there is a fundamental pro-Russian lobby in the EU, especially in Germany, but also in France, Austria, and Italy. It is thanks to this lobby that Moscow has, in fact, managed to put the EU on the energy hook, says Oleksandr Kovalenko. He adds that the Western powers response could be quite simple: "To begin with, the EU should ask Russia why it doesnt increase gas transit through the Ukrainian GTS, why it artificially creates a critical situation in the region, maintaining the level of annual transit through Ukraine within 40 billion cubic meters, while a few years ago this volume exceeded 90 bcm? Simply put, utilizing the capacity of Ukraines GTS could have prevented the ongoing developments. "But Moscow isnt doing that," Mr Kovalenko said. If Gazprom unblocks access to the Ukrainian GTS, additional volumes of gas may go to Europe right now and prices will fall CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Yuriy Vitrenko, shared this opinion in an interview with Glavcom: We explained to our German partners that the problem of gas shortage in Europe and record price hikes can be solved very quickly. If Gazprom at least tries to show that it is ready to work by the rules, it should unlock access to the Ukrainian GTS for European companies that wish to receive gas on the Ukraine-Russia border. Then additional gas volumes would immediately flow to Europe and prices would plunge." To this end, says Mr. Vitrenko, a point of sale needs to be created on the Gazprom Export platform, for example, at the Sudzhi gas metering station on the Ukraine-Russia border, to allow selling additional volumes which will then be transmitted to Europe, while European companies will be booking capacities in Ukraine. "It will immediately solve the deficit problem and reduce prices immediately. Then there will be fewer reasons to claim that Gazprom uses gas as its geopolitical weapon," the Naftogaz CEO stressed. Let's add that in this situation the United States has not yet had its say, on which everyone is waiting. Russia acts absolutely openly and demonstratively, so the players whose interests and security are being threatened by this "NS2 conspiracy" have the right to respond symmetrically. Let's see what happens The heating season is about to start and thats when we will see what wins: arguments and concrete steps in favor of unlocking access to the Ukrainian GTS, or the Gazproms "gas stick". Myroslav Liskovych, Kyiv im P.S. On September 16, President Volodymyr Zelensky had set up a working group to work out proposals to reduce certain threats in the security and energy areas, as well as to minimize threats stemming from the construction of gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine. First of all, this applies to Nord Stream 2. The team is headed by the chief of the Presidents Office, Andriy Yermak. The group also includes Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov; Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko; Minister of Energy German Galushchenko; Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov; Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska; Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Oleksandr Lytvynenko,; Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova; Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk; Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olha Stefanyshyna; and deputy heads of the Presidents Office Yulia Svyridenko and Andriy Sybyga. The working group may be supplemented by Adviser to the Minister of Energy Olena Zerkal and Ambassador Oleksandr Chaly (upon consent). Ukraine and Germany continue the cooperation in implementing modern energy efficiency policy for sustainable development and improving the welfare of society, Valariy Bezus, Head of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, has said at the second meeting of the Coordinating Committee of the Ukrainian-German Energy Partnership. Ukrinform reports this with a reference to the agencys press service. "Germany is one of Ukraine's key strategic partners. It is important to note that every year the partnership in forming and implementing modern energy efficiency policy is gaining momentum. After all, it is an effective tool for common goals - decarbonization of the economy, as well as sustainable development and improving the welfare of society," said Bezus. According to him, among the promising areas of Ukrainian-German cooperation is the further exchange of experience and joint work on implementing European directives and improving the legislation. Among other important issues, Bezus noted the joint work of the parties in carrying out energy management systems at the municipal level, in particular in budgetary institutions and industry, the introduction of new green financing instruments, as well as the development of hydrogen production and transportation. As Ukrinform reported, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine and Germanys energy trading company RWE Supply & Tradingg agreed to cooperate in the development of hydrogen projects. iy First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk has discussed reforms in Ukraine's economic and financial spheres at a meeting with Acting Under Secretary of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury Andy Baukol. According to the secretariat of the first deputy speaker, the meeting was also attended by Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev. "Within two years, we have ensured macroeconomic stability in Ukraine, reached economic recovery and are continuing to work in the same direction. In particular, a number of important bills are to be considered by the parliament of Ukraine next week. First of all, attention will be paid to the hearing of a draft law on Ukraine's state budget for 2022," Stefanchuk said. He noted that a medium-term budget declaration for three years served as a basis for the formation of the draft state budget for the first time. "We want to continue to use the elements of medium-term and long-term planning to set priorities in the economic and financial spheres. In the near future, we plan to consider an important 'resource' bill No. 5600, which concerns the filling of the Ukrainian budget," Stefanchuk said. The participants in the meeting also discussed other bills that are important for the sustainable development of Ukraine's economy. Baukol praised Ukraine's efforts to ensure economic growth and expressed his readiness to continue providing the necessary assistance. Stefanchuk thanked the United States for its assistance in implementing many reforms aimed at ensuring sustainable economic growth. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on May 31, 2021 approved Ukraine's Budget Declaration for 2022-2024. The document, in particular, contains general indicators of revenues and financing of the state budget, general limits of state budget expenditures, the size of the minimum wage, the living wage, and other public policy objectives. op Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksii Reznikov has met with Danish Ambassador to Ukraine Ole Egberg Mikkelsen to discuss the implementation of the Danida Business Finance program in Ukraine, according to a statement posted on the website of the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine. "Several priority areas have been identified in which projects will be selected for funding under the program. These are renewable energy, energy efficiency, heat supply, water supply, and water purification. Given all the losses suffered by Donetsk and Luhansk regions due to Russia's armed aggression and occupation of parts of the regions, destruction of enterprises, bringing them to a critical environmental situation, destruction of communications - these areas are urgent for development. I am grateful to our Danish friends for the support of Ukraine as a whole and our citizens who suffer from the actions of the Russian Federation. All projects will be implemented to meet the basic needs of our citizens and, of course, businesses," Reznikov said. The Danida Business Finance program in Ukraine is being implemented in order to develop a stable and successful Ukraine and envisages the provision of interest-free loans for a number of projects. In particular, these are projects related to the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the development of the infrastructure of the adjacent territories. The projects are being implemented in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions. Their minimum cost is EUR 13.5 million euros, with the maximum cost being over EUR 100 million. The implementation period is up to ten years. op The United States Department of State has called on Ukraine to implement judicial reform and accelerate the process of forming a High Council of Justice. Thats according to an official statement released by the spokesperson for the State Department, Ukrinform reports. The United States, together with the Government of Ukraine, civil society, and other international partners, all recognize that judicial reform is critical to strengthening the rule of law and attracting foreign investment to Ukraine, the statement reads. The State Department notes that this July, Ukraine enacted an historic law that provides an opportunity for true reform of the judiciary. Read also: Zelensky vows not to allow blocking of judicial reform in Ukraine International partners nominated highly qualified experts to support the renewal of Ukraines foremost judicial governance body, the High Council of Justice, in line with that law, U.S. officials recall. On September 13, however, Ukraines Council of Judges refused to nominate Ukrainian judges to participate in the process, a refusal that threatens to derail the promise of real judicial reform in Ukraine, reads the statement. In this regard, it is noted there is still time to save this effort. The Council of Judges can fulfill its obligation to implement the law and put forward nominations, the U.S. Department of State has stressed. The U.S. side says it remains firmly committed to assisting in this critical reform so that the people of Ukraine may trust their courts and judges and so that Ukraine can continue on its path toward Euro-Atlantic integration. At the same time, the statement adds, judicial reform will bring more jobs and economic opportunities, as well as fairness and justice as the Ukrainian people deserve no less. As Ukrinform reported earlier, at the Council of Judges meeting on September 13, none of the nominees for positions in a team set to select members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges. im im The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde, has expressed regret that, due to Moscows stance, the mandate of the Observer Mission at the Russian checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk on the Russian-Ukrainian border, was not extended. The statement has been published on the OSCE website, Ukrinform reports. For the OSCE to fulfil its role as a platform for peace and stability, the Organization must make full use of all the tools at its disposal. I deeply regret that we could not reach a consensus on the extension of the Observer Mission mandate following the decision of the Russian Federation. For over seven years, the Mission has contributed to confidence-building and increased transparency on the Russian-Ukrainian border through its impartial monitoring and reporting, Chairperson-in-Office Linde said. The Chairperson-in-Office also stressed the need for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements in their entirety and recalled that the Minsk Protocol of 2014 provides for permanent monitoring on the UkrainianRussian state border and verification by the OSCE, together with the creation of a security zone in the border regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation. As Ukrinform reported earlier, at an OSCE Permanent Council meeting on September 2, Russia announced the decision not to support a broad consensus on extending the mandate of the OSCE monitoring mission at two checkpoints on Russia-Ukraine border, Gukovo and Donetsk, beyond September 30. MFA Ukraine has stated that the move testifies to Russias plans to intensify supplies of arms, military equipment, Russian military and mercenaries to the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which could lead to another escalation in the zone of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Ukraine has called on Russia to immediately cease destructive actions and fulfill all obligations undertaken within the framework of the Minsk agreements. im The Office of the President of Ukraine hosted a meeting of senior members of Ukrainian parliament and judicial bodies, diplomats from the Group of Seven and the European Union to discuss the judicial reform in Ukraine. According to the Presidents Office, the event was attended by Deputy Head of the Office of the Head of State Andriy Smyrnov, Chairman of the Committee on Legal Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, Chairman of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy of the Verkhovna Rada Anastasia Radina, Chairman of the Commission on Legal Reform under the President of Ukraine, MP Serhiy Ionushas, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maliuska, Chairman of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention Oleksandr Novikov, Chairman of the Supreme Court Valentyna Danishevska, Chairman of the Council of Judges of Ukraine Bohdan Monich, G7 ambassadors and ambassadors of the European Union in Ukraine. The participants, in particular, discussed the creation of the first competition commission for holding a competition to select members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges and the first Ethics Council to check the virtue of candidates for the positions of members of the Verkhovna Rada, reads the report. Kostin thanked international partners and the Council of Judges of Ukraine (CJU) for nominating candidates to the competition commission for the selection of members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ) and said he hopes that it will start working soon. At the same time, he recalled that on September 13, the Council of Judges was unable to delegate its representatives to the Ethics Council, which is why its staffing is being delayed. Chairman of the Supreme Court Valentyna Danishevska said that "although the Council of Judges did not select representatives to the Ethics Council at the first try, it did not violate the law by doing so, and the Council will continue the voting until they select these persons." Chairman of the Council of Judges Bohdan Monich, in turn, assured that "the Council of Judges of Ukraine is determined to implement this law, and we will do it." The Council of Judges will continue the work on delegating candidates to the Ethics Council. At the same time, Monich recalled that the Council of Judges has prepared proposals to improve the procedure for selecting members of the Ethics Council. For his part, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Kyiv Nicolas Harrocks said that Ukraine now has high-quality legislation to clean up and restart the High Council of Justice, and it needs to be implemented. Head of the EU Delegation Matti Maasikas said that judicial reform is not solely a domestic issue for Ukraine, its successful implementation directly determines the foreign policy image of the country and the attraction of international assistance and investment. All participants in the meeting, except for representatives of the judiciary, who are limited in their status, agreed on a joint statement. In particular, the joint statement says that the successful implementation of the judicial reform initiated by the President is crucial for the future of the country. Participants in the meeting also welcome the steps that have been taken by international partners and the judicial self-government body to implement the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine On the Judicial System and the Status of Judges and some laws of Ukraine regarding the resumption of the work of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine" (No. 1629-IX), namely: delegation of candidates to the competition commission for holding a competition to select members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine; In addition, they highly appreciate the professional level of experts nominated by international organizations for the first composition of the Ethics Council, the activities of which are provided for by the Law of Ukraine "On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine concerning the procedure for selection (appointment) to the positions of members of the High Council of Justice and the activities of disciplinary inspectors of the High Council of Justice" (No. 1635-IX). At the same time, they said they are concerned that the Council of Judges of Ukraine did not take comprehensive measures within thirty days to properly implement the requirements of Law No. 1635-IX to delegate candidates from among judges or retired judges to the Ethics Council, thereby postponing its creation for an indefinite period. The participants insist on the early completion of the creation of the Ethics Council and the competition commission for holding a competition to select members of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine and the commencement of their work. They also strongly reject any attempt to jeopardize the implementation of Ukraine's vital reform aimed at strengthening the rule of law, increasing public confidence in the judiciary, attracting foreign investment and bringing Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic future closer. The U.S. Congress has proposed to increase military assistance to Ukraine by $50 million. Thats according to the draft National Defense Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2022. According to Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova, if the project is approved with the relevant amendments, the amount of security assistance to Ukraine will increase to $300 million. "We very much hope that the allocation of this amount will be agreed and approved by both chambers of the U.S. Congress," the ambassador wrote on Facebook. As Ukrinform reported earlier, the NDAA tabled in the House of Representatives provides for an increase in military assistance to Ukraine through the transfer of new weapons systems, including the potential deployment of the Iron Dome missile defense system. im The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine condemns Russia's illegal organization and holding of elections to the Russian State Duma on September 17-19 in the occupied Crimea and the forced involvement of Ukrainians with illegally issued passports in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to a statement published on the ministry's website. The ministry views the organization and conduct of illegal voting as a continuation of Russia's gross violations of Ukraine's state sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to the statement, these actions by Russia also grossly violate the fundamental principles and norms of international law, Russia's obligations under international agreements to which Ukraine and Russia are parties, Ukrainian law, and are contrary to the UN Charter, UN General Assembly resolutions A/RES/68/262 of March 27, 2014, /RES/71/205 of December 19, 2016, /RES/72/190 of December 19, 2017, /RES/73/194 of December 17, 2018, /RES/73/263 of December 22, 2018, /RES/74/17 of December 9, 2019, /RES/74/168 of December 18 2019, /RES/75/29 of December 7, 2020 and /RES/75/192 of December 16, 2020, the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of August 1, 1975. Russia's holding elections in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol is illegal, and their results will not have any legal consequences, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. The involvement in the vote of Ukrainian citizens living in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as almost 1.5 million voters currently living in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, will significantly distort the results of the elections to the Russian State Duma and generally throw into question their legitimacy. All those involved in organizing and conducting illegal voting in the temporarily occupied Crimea, as well as organizing the participation in these elections of Ukrainian citizens with illegally issued passports of Russian citizens in the temporarily occupied territory in Donetsk and Luhansk regions will be liable under Ukrainian law. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on foreign states and international organizations to strongly condemn Russia's illegal actions, to clearly declare the non-recognition of the election results in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the illegitimacy of the Russian State Duma formed in this way, and to increase political and diplomatic pressure on Russia. The ministry also demanded that Russia stop the occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, put an end to its illegal activities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and fully implement the relevant decisions of international organizations and international courts. Elections to the Russian State Duma are to take place on September 19. Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine called on the international community not to recognize the legitimacy of this election due to the intention of the Russian authorities to illegally hold the vote in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea and occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Russian Federation continues to disguise as public rhetoric its unwillingness to fulfill obligations to implement the Minsk agreements and the decisions of the Normandy Four summit. Thats according to a comment to Ukrinform by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oleh Nikolenko. "Behind the screen of noisy verbal attacks by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the purposeful policy is quite clear of destroying the infrastructure of the peace process: sabotaging the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the results of the summit of Normandy (Four ed.) leaders, blocking the work of the Trilateral Contact Group, and obstructing the OSCE work," the official noted. The Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that the latest examples of logic of further escalation, dominating in Moscow, include the illegal holding of Russian State Duma elections in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and repression targeting Crimean Tatars. Nikolenko reiterated the fact that the keys to peace in Ukraine lie in the Kremlin, but there is a lack of "resolute political will to move forward." According to him, when it appears, the rest of the issues will become a technical process. "Russia can already take the first step: to accept the idea of meeting at the level of foreign ministers of the Normandy Four. The time to move from words to action is long overdue. Our country is ready for progress. At the same time, we clearly understand who we are dealing with. That is why we rely on both diplomacy and the army, the Foreign Ministry spokesman concluded. As reported, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the escalation is ongoing in eastern Ukraine place against the background of what she referred to as "aggressive rhetoric" by Kyiv officials. In this context, Zakharova mentioned the recent comment by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who admitted the possibility of an all-out war with Russia, as well as the statement by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, that the Ukrainian Army could regain territory from the so-called DPR and LPR Russia-controlled statelets. The spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy also said such statements "should be stopped by those handling Ukraine in the west." im Russia's closure of the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russian checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk is troubling and only demonstrates the need for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to be present along the entire section of the border between Ukraine and Russia. President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Swedish MP Margareta Cederfelt said this in her speech at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on September 16, according to an Ukrinform correspondent. "We have regularly repeated our condemnation of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and its aggression in Donbas and expressed our concern over the recent military build-up in and around Ukraine. Against this backdrop, I find the announced closure of the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk troubling," Cederfelt said. According to her, while this has been a very limited operation facing many obstacles, "it has still been a sign of hope for greater cooperation within this organization." "More than ever, this latest development demonstrates the necessity for the Special Monitoring Mission to be able to work unhindered and in accordance with its mandate, and to be present along the entire border between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. After all, the SMM mandate covers all of the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine, which includes the Crimean Peninsula," Cederfelt said. On September 2, at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, Russia announced the Russian president's decision not to support the existing broad consensus within the OSCE on extending the mandate of the OSCE Observer Mission at the Russian checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk after September 30. 2021. op Nearly 123,000 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in Ukraine on September 16, the Ukrainian Health Ministry has reported on Facebook. "As many as 122,906 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, on September 16, 2021. Some 72,201 people received their first dose, and 50,705 people were fully vaccinated," the report reads. According to the ministry, 833 mobile vaccination teams, 2,884 vaccination sites, and 316 vaccination centers were operating across the country in the past day. A total of 11,229,655 doses have been administered in Ukraine since it launched a vaccination campaign, with 6,169,884 people receiving their first dose and 5,059,771 people receiving both doses (two people received their first dose abroad). Some 6,624 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Ukraine on September 16. op Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine Yuliia Laputina held a working meeting with Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), according to the Ministry for Veterans Affairs press service. The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs on European Integration Oleksiy Illiashenko and Head of the HRMMU Department for the Right to Physical Immunity and Human Rights in Armed Conflict Uladzimir Shcherbau. Laputina informed about the main priorities and strategic directions of the ministry's work, in particular, the provision of housing for defenders and IDPs in Ukraine. "Today, there are about 3,000 people in Ukraine who are both participants in combat actions and internally displaced persons. Their homes remained in the occupied territories due to Russian aggression, and these people made a conscious choice - at the most difficult time, at the beginning of the war, they went to defend the country. Currently, the Ministry for Veterans Affairs is working to ensure that next year all defenders and IDPs receive housing - this is a large budget. We have support for this issue from the level of the top leadership of the state," she said. The minister also informed the representatives of UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission on changing approaches in the system of medical and psychological rehabilitation of veterans, as well as proper information on such rehabilitation, medical and psychological support of families of killed soldiers, professional training programs for veterans and assistance to families, etc. Bogner thanked Laputina and Illiashenko for the meeting and provided information. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine began its work in March 2014. The mission monitors, reports and advocates on the human rights situation in Ukraine. Activities aim to improve access to justice and bring perpetrators to justice. The mission has seven offices in Ukraine: in Kyiv, Donetsk, Kramatorsk, Luhansk, Mariupol, Odesa and Kharkiv. Regarding the human rights situation in Crimea, the mission provides remote monitoring from offices in Kyiv and Odesa. In September, the UN Monitoring Mission for Human Rights in Ukraine plans to publish a regular semi-annual report, which will cover the period from February 1 to July 31, 2021. iy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko has proposed strengthening Ukrainian-Azerbaijani cooperation in the field of cinematography. According to Ukrinform, he wrote this on Facebook following his meeting with First Deputy Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Elnur Aliyev and Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Ukraine Elmira Akhundova. "This meeting is important for the prospects of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani cooperation in the field of culture. It is extremely valuable for both countries to preserve cultural heritage. We discussed such cooperation, including within UNESCO and the Council of Europe. I also proposed strengthening Ukrainian-Azerbaijani cooperation in the field of cinematography. In particular, we discussed the possibility of using cash rebates, as well as holding Ukrainian film weeks in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani film weeks in Ukraine," Tkachenko wrote. He noted that the issue of the value of creative industries was currently being actively raised in Azerbaijan and Ukraine. According to him, Azerbaijan has now raised the issue of the transformation of libraries and focused on their digitalization. Tkachenko also spoke about Ukrainian developments in this area -- from changes to the law "On Libraries and Library Affairs" to the plan to create a Digital Library. "And, of course, the Great Restoration. I presented its first results to the Azerbaijani side. Our colleagues emphasized the urgency of the project. They agreed to consider options for cooperation. Nothing unites peoples like culture," he added. op facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter Published Sept. 17, 2021 Dr. Alex John, Jr., was the first Black dean at the university. An endowed scholarship has been established in his name. Photo/Chacahoula 1978 WHAT: Check presentation fully funding Dr. Alex John, Jr., Endowed Scholarship WHEN: 9 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021 WHERE: Laird Weems Center, 4400 Bon Aire Dr., ULM WHO: Established by the BULM Club of the ULM Alumni Association VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QjlJxfX_5U The University of Louisiana Monroe Foundation announces the Dr. Alex John, Jr., Endowed Scholarship at ULM is now fully funded, thanks to generous gifts from alumni. The scholarship is in honor of Alex John, Jr., Ed.D., the first Black dean at the university. The BULM Club of the ULM Alumni Association will present a $25,000 check to the ULM Foundation at 9 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 18, at Laird Weems Center. The event is on the day of the Warhawks home opener against visiting Jackson State. A video honoring John will be shown on the Warhawks scoreboard at the end of the first quarter. The Dr. Alex John, Jr., Endowed Scholarship is for full-time undergraduate students, with special consideration for marginalized and/or first-generation students. John at the university John was an early champion for diversity and inclusion at ULM. As a faculty member, John advised and encouraged Black students to persevere in their quest for a college education when there were few supportive resources for Black students. He was one of the first faculty and administration members who promoted diversity and inclusion at the university. John (1943-2018) joined ULM, then-Northeast Louisiana University, in 1971 as an instructor in psychology. He later became a tenured assistant professor. In 1974, John was appointed assistant to the vice president of Student Affairs. In 1980, John was named Dean of the Office of University Relations, becoming the first Black to hold an executive position at ULM. He left the university in 1982 and went on to become successful in several business ventures. John received his bachelor's and master's degrees from McNeese State University. John earned his Doctor of Education from ULM. He also studied at Southern University, Howard University, and Columbia University. Scholarship funding started in 2012 In 2012, the BULM, formerly the Black NLU Chapter of the Alumni Association, started the scholarship with $2,100 in proceeds raised at an event in Texas. Susan Chappell, Executive Director of ULM Advancement, Foundation, and Alumni Relations, said in 2016 the scholarship was converted into an endowment with the goal to reach the $25,000 fully funded endowment level by 2021. "Through fund-raising by dedicated ULM alumni, 53 donors contributed to the Dr. Alex John Endowed Scholarship. By 2020, the scholarship reached and exceeded the $25,000 endowment minimum. Gerald McHenry successfully championed the initiative, receiving support from fellow BULM Alumni Chapter members," Chappell said. McHenry (B.S.' 85) is a long-time supporter of the ULM Foundation and active ULM alumni. Several years ago, he became involved with the Alumni Association as a member of the Black NLU (BNLU) chapter. McHenry said John was a supportive presence on campus who was dedicated to helping Black students succeed. "During Dr. John's tenure at the university, there were not many faculty or administrators who were African American or minority. He was one of the few," McHenry said. "He was that person you could go to for guidance. He would always have an open door and an open ear. He was like your stand-in dad. Dr. John changed the lives of many students by being always willing to help," he said. McHenry said as the BNLU chapter grew and raised more money for the university, it was decided that a scholarship for minority students was the best way to give back. The executive committee for BNLU, of which McHenry was a member, made the decision. "We said, look, we've got this, do something to give back to the university. Let's do something for the students that are there today," he said. "We want this university to continue after we are gone. So, that's when we decided to endow a scholarship and voted on Dr. John," he said. McHenry is CEO of Impact/Jay Express, a regional long-haul and courier trucking company based in Cordova, Tenn., near Memphis. He graduated from ULM with a B.S. in Computer Science. McHenry earned his M.S. in Quality Management from Eastern Michigan University and completed continuing education in Six Sigma at Ohio State University and engineering statistics at the University of Arkansas. ULM alumnus and contributor to the scholarship, the Rev. William Gipson (B.A.' 79), associate vice provost for Equity and Access at the University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, writes of John, "There are literally thousands of testimonies from the students he helped and advised. His influence will last for generations to come. His selfless care was the impetus for this endowment drive. Even those who came to NLU/ULM after he left heard about this brilliant, kind, generous gentleman who was a saint to so many." An Afghan refugee is vaccinated for COVID-19 at the at the Red Crescent Mass Vaccination Centre in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. UNHCR/Asif Shahzad UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, calls for more global attention and funding support, to counter the impact of COVID-19 on forcibly displaced people worldwide. The COVID-19 emergency tops the list of UNHCRs top-10 underfunded situations in 2021. Only one third of the budgeted requirements of US$ 924 million has been received, leaving a yawning gap in UNHCRs ability to protect the most vulnerable from the fallout of the pandemic. Despite progress in many locations where UNHCR is working, we continue to see new cases and people continue to die. While safe and effective vaccines can relieve pressures on health systems and save lives, vaccine inequity continues to hit the hardest in many refugee-hosting states. We know that 86 per cent of refugees are hosted in developing countries. However, some 80 per cent of all vaccine doses have been given in high- and upper middle-income countries. At the same time, low-income countries, hosting the bulk of the worlds refugees, have the least resilient health systems and are struggling to cope with the needs of their own populations before we add the extra needs posed by hosting refugees. As UNHCR, we reiterate our call on states to share excess doses with COVAX in a timely way, to address the global vaccine inequity and avoid prolonging the pandemic. Until now, we have been very encouraged by the overwhelming response of hosting states in including refugees in the vaccine roll-out and urge them to continue to do so. However, we have seen that many barriers to vaccine access remain. UNHCR stands ready to support states to overcome some of these barriers provided we have the means to do so for example, by creating information materials in refugee languages suitable for low literacy levels. The pandemic hurts forcibly displaced and stateless people in ways that reach far beyond the risk posed by the virus itself. And the failure to adequately fund the response only deepens their plight. They have borne the full impact of the economic repercussions of the pandemic. As business and workplaces have closed, their precarious livelihoods were often the first to go. Where governments have provided subsidies to offset the economic impact, or helped school children with distance learning, forcibly displaced people often did not have access to such measures. This economic fallout means that people cannot afford to pay rent or cannot afford daily necessities, such as food, which in turn increases the risk of exploitation and gender-based violence. UNHCR calls on states to include refugees in national social safety nets and on donors to support us, in order to help fill that gap. Our COVID-19 response covers every region and encompasses the whole spectrum of needs reflecting the wide-reaching ramifications of the pandemic on the lives of those forced to flee. At the end of August 2021, the largest areas of unmet needs included a shortfall of US$ 74 million in cash assistance, and smaller but significant gaps in funding to alleviate the pandemics impact on primary health care, primary education, and services for people with specific needs. On health grounds alone, the sheer number of forcibly displaced people, who constitute 1 per cent of the worlds population, indicates that failing to integrate them into the global pandemic response would be reckless. But it is not too late. We are thankful to donors who have already pledged or provided funding to cover COVID-19 needs and call on others to help us channel funds to where they are most urgently in need. The report UNHCRs most underfunded situations in 2021 is available here. For more information on this topic, please contact: What is home? And for people forced to flee their country, what does it take to create a new home and get a sense of belonging in the country that has provided safety and sanctuary? Those are questions that millions of refugees are faced with not only today, but also throughout history. At this years LAMPA Festival in Riga, Latvia, highlighting the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, UNHCR together with partners zoomed in on those complex questions of identity and belonging and had two persons with strong personal experiences discuss them. Aladin, a Syrian refugee who has recently arrived to Latvia, and Lalita, a Latvian national who fled the country during World War II. The two shared their stories, unfolded their journeys as refugees and discussed how they adapted and created new homes. Lalita fled Latvia in 1944 to Germany and later migrated to the United States of America where she completed her high school, university studies and her PhD in Linguistics. She recalled how she did not want to become an American and give up being a Latvian. At that time, I was 14 years old, and I was not ready to shred my identity, she said. We had to make a home there, there was no way of going anywhere else and we had to make the best of it. When arriving as a Latvian in America, it was difficult to fit in, and Lalita remembered how she was met with skepticism: The American children had never met anybody who wasnt born an English- speaker, so I felt kind of out of place. Aladins story is much more linked to the present. He fled the conflict in Syria in 2013 and settled in Latvia after a long and exhausting journey. Soon after his arrival, he began to actively volunteer and was chosen as Volunteer of the year. This was his way of giving back, he explains. Voluntary work, I think, is a sort of duty for me as a foreigner who doesnt know the language. In order to integrate with any community, you need to do something, engage in some activities, also to learn the language. Today, Aladin has lived in Latvia for 9 years, and even if he might not describe himself as completely Latvian, he feels strongly that he has found a new home where he is part of the society. Im a member of this country, I feel I belong to this country, he says. I was forced to move from my country but I found something not less than my country and maybe better. I was lucky because now Im really at comfort and I like to be here. Juris Ross Juris Ross Juris Ross Juris Ross UNHCR participated in LAMPA Festival in cooperation with Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Centre and Stockholm School of Economics, Riga. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter A Syrian refugee girl takes in washing during a storm at an informal settlement in Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, in February 2021. UNHCR/Diego Ibarra Sanchez Global efforts to shield forcibly displaced people from the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 are under threat due to a critical shortage of funding, according to a new report showing that UNHCRs pandemic response tops the list of its most underfunded emergencies in 2021. Other emergency situations where UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, faces a potentially disastrous lack of resources include Iraq and Syria, where the safety and wellbeing of millions is under threat as they scramble to prepare for the looming winter. The report reveals that as of 31 August, projected COVID-related needs of $924 million had attracted only $307.3 million in funding just a third of the total required. The shortfall leaves refugees, internally displaced and stateless people exposed to the virus and its economic impacts, including loss of income and the threat of eviction. The pandemic has hurt forcibly displaced and stateless people in ways that reach far beyond the risk posed by the virus itself. And the failure to adequately fund the response only deepens their plight, said Ann Burton, UNHCRs Chief of Public Health, at a news briefing in Geneva. Refugees have borne the full impact of the economic repercussions of the pandemic, Burton added. As the shutters came down on business and workplaces, their precarious livelihoods were often the first to go. Economic deprivation meant greater risk of eviction and more difficulty affording food and other basics, which in turn increased the risk of exploitation and gender-based violence for children and adults alike. Lockdowns and border restrictions introduced by countries in response to the pandemic also excluded and endangered people attempting to cross borders to reach safety. At the same time, the inequitable access to vaccines of many refugee-hosting states risks leaving forcibly displaced and stateless people out in the cold. As UNHCR, we reiterate our call on states to share excess doses with COVAX in a timely way, to address the global vaccine inequity and avoid prolonging the pandemic, said Burton. In Iraq, UNHCRs operations for this year have so far received just 34 per cent of the total funding required, followed closely by the Syria situation at 39 per cent. In the countries affected by the Iraq and Syria emergencies, COVID-19 has compounded the enormous challenges faced by 3.3 million refugees, internally displaced people and returnees, who are in urgent need of aid to prepare for the forthcoming winter. Among other interventions, cash assistance is critical to meet their basic needs. The lack of sufficient funding to meet their requirements would significantly compromise the livelihoods and wellbeing of the most vulnerable among them. Other global responses struggling to attract sufficient financial support from donors include the Venezuela, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo situations, all of which have received less than half the funding required for 2021. COVID-19 tops list of UNHCR's most underfunded situations in 2021 The report makes the point that no situation is irredeemable. This was clearly shown by the surge of funding recently pledged towards UNHCRs Afghanistan appeal, which lifted it out of the 10 most underfunded emergencies. However, Afghanistan remains the exception that proves the rule: many displacement situations remain critically overlooked, with dangerously low funding levels only addressed once they lead to life-threatening emergencies that push them to the top of the international agenda. The report UNHCRs most underfunded situations in 2021 is available here. New Delhi, Sep 16 (UNI) During the visit this week to Portugal by Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi, the two sides inked a milestone bilateral agreement on the Recruitment of Indian Citizens to Work in Portugal the first such dedicated agreement on labour mobility signed with a European country. This is also the first such agreement signed by Portugal outside the EU. The agreement sets out the procedures for recruitment of Indian workers and professionals in Portugal and will open up new employment opportunities for Indians, further strengthening the socio-economic linkages between the two countries, an official statement said. Prior to the signing, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had approved the signing of an agreement on the recruitment of Indian citizens to work in Portugal on September 8. The agreement will set an institutional mechanism for partnership and cooperation between India and Portugal on sending and accepting Indian workers. Under the agreement, a Joint Committee would be set up to follow-up on the implementation of the agreement. Signing the agreement with Portugal will add a new destination for Indian migrant workers in an EU member nation, especially in the context of many Indian workers who have returned to India following the Covid-19 pandemic. It would also provide new opportunities for skilled Indian workers and professionals. Indian workers would have enhanced job opportunities to work in Portugal. The Government-to-Government mechanism proposed in the agreement will ensure that the movement of workers happens smoothly with the maximum support from both sides. During her September 12-14 visit, Lekhi had an in-depth review of the bilateral relations with her counterpart, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Francisco Andre. She also met the Foreign Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva, who lauded Indias mass vaccination efforts and expressed hope to continue the momentum of high-level bilateral visits between the two countries as the pandemic situation improves. Minister Silva also referred to the successful India-EU Leaders Meeting in Porto in May this year and stressed on the early implementation of its outcomes in Brussels. Lekhi called for greater focus on enhancing and diversifying bilateral economic and commercial relations with Portugal and reiterated the urgency regarding mutual recognition of vaccinations and vaccine certificates for resumption of political, business and people-to-people engagements. In her meeting with the Minister of Culture of Portugal, Dr. Graca Fonseca, Lekhi explored avenues of cooperation in the field of culture such as exchange of youth and literary delegations, establishment of Maritime Heritage Gallery at Lothal under the MOU signed with Portugal in February 2020, capacity building in heritage conservation, archives and museology and training of trainers in related skills. She also met the Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) Dr. Zacarias da Costa. This was the first high level interaction between India and the CPLP, since Indias joining the CPLP as an Associate Observer at the Luanda Summit in July 2021. Lekhi conveyed Indias commitment towards intensifying cooperation with Lusophone countries as per the expressed objectives of the CPLP. She also interacted with the Indian diaspora and participated in the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav celebrations there. The visit was the first Ministerial-level from India since the onset of the pandemic, and provides further impetus to Indias growing relations with Portugal and the EU. UNI/RN Anti polio vaccination has started in Khyber tribal district where over two lacs children under five years of age would be vaccinated PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Anti polio vaccination has started in Khyber tribal district where over two lacs children under five years of age would be vaccinated. The campaign was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner Khyber by administering vaccination to children at Jamrud tehsil. The campaign would continue for seven days. The Deputy Commissioner has urged parents to bring their kids to nearby hospitals in case vaccination teams did not arrive to their homes. He said polio was a crippling disease and vaccination was the only remedy to protect their children from permanent disabilities. (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Sep, 2021) ABU DHABI, 17th September 2021(WAM) - The UAE participated in a virtual meeting that was attended by the foreign ministers and representatives of the United States, Kingdom of Morocco, Kingdom of Bahrain and Israel, to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords. The UAE was represented in the meeting by Dr Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Diplomatic Advisor to the President. The meeting aimed at discussing means to deepen relations and build a more prosperous and stable region through fruitful cooperation and peace dialogue in a way that will serve the interests of the peoples of the region. In his speech, Dr. Anwar Gargash said the one-year anniversary is an occasion to celebrate the opportunities created since last year that send a message of hope and positivity to the region that is facing various challenges, including instability. He added that the key message to youth in the region is that there are lots of opportunities for peace and cooperation and that disagreements can be addressed and resolved. "The Abraham Accords will allow us to help in a bigger way in the peace process and will lead to the ultimate goal of the the two-state solution. This matter directly concerns the Palestinians and the Israelis and our role is to provide a network of trust that would leave aside past issues and replace them with hope for the future," he added. Gargash re-affirmed the UAE's commitment to continue with the strategic peace track and to further deepen and diversify this track. He praised the efforts of the United States to expand and strengthen peace in the region. The participants expressed their commitment to sustaining the momentum of peace in the middle East and to build on the peace agreements for a better future for the region. Attending together with Dr. Gargash were the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Nasser Bourita, Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Bahraini Minister of Foreign Affairs. (@ChaudhryMAli88) BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :While commenting on informal meeting of China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran on Afghan issues, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian Friday said that the parties reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace, security and stability in Afghanistan and the region at large. China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Dushanbe with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Senior Representative of Iranian Foreign Minister Rasoul Mousavi on the sidelines of the SCO and CSTO summits to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov chaired the meeting held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. "They stressed that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan should be respected, the basic principle of "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned" should be implemented, and the right of the Afghan people to pursue peace, tranquility, development and prosperity should be upheld," Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing. He said that the parties stressed that the US and its allies bear the Primary responsibility for Afghanistan's social and economic reconstruction and should provide much-needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. "The parties believe that Afghanistan needs to realize national reconciliation and establish an inclusive government that takes into account the interests of all ethnic groups," he added. The spokesperson said that noting the security challenges facing Afghanistan, they stressed the need to coordinate efforts to address such threats as terrorism and drug trafficking, and to safeguard regional stability and the legitimate concerns and interests of neighboring countries. "The parties expressed concern over the uncertain humanitarian and socio-economic situation in Afghanistan and the possible risk of refugee flows, pointed out the necessity of Afghanistan's return to peace and economic recovery, and called on the international community to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan," he added. He said that the parties agreed to continue coordination and convene meetings at various levels at appropriate times. During the meeting, Wang Yi told senior officials from Russia, Pakistan and Iran that as important neighbors of Afghanistan and influential countries in the region, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran need to strengthen communication and coordination, make unanimous voices, exert positive influence and play a constructive role in promoting the smooth transition of the situation in Afghanistan. Countries in the region expect the new Afghan government to be inclusive, anti-terrorist, and friendly to neighbors, Wang stressed. Wang made five proposals on the next-stage coordination on the Afghan issue, including urging the US to perform its duties to provide economic and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, contacting and guiding Afghanistan to form an inclusive political structure and implement moderate domestic and foreign policies and respect the basic rights of ethnic minorities, women and children, help the country to integrate itself into regional economic cooperation and connectivity networks, and achieve economic development and prevent spillover of security risks. (@ChaudhryMAli88) The Hague, Sept 17 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Dutch Defence Minister Ank Bijleveld resigned on Friday over her handling of the Afghan evacuation crisis in a widening scandal that has also claimed the job of the foreign minister. Bijleveld had originally refused to quit but finally bowed to pressure after parliament formally censured her over a debacle that has left dozens of interpreters stranded in Afghanistan. "I informed my party and prime minister that I will ask the king to receive my resignation," Bijleveld told reporters at the defence ministry, referring to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. "I don't want to get in the way of the important work" of her colleagues who are still trying to get people out of Afghanistan, she added. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Accra, Sept 17(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :West African bloc ECOWAS on Thursday called on Guinea's military junta to hold elections in six months, in a push for a return to civilian rule after this month's coup. The demand came after a summit of the 15-nation regional group to decide how to respond to the September 5 ouster of president Alpha Conde by special forces troops. "The heads of state insisted that the transition must be very short," ECOWAS Commission President Jean Claude Kassi Brou told reporters. "The transition should not last more than six months. In six months, elections should be held." PortauPrince, Sept 17 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry dismissed suspicions raised against him over the assassination of president Jovenel Moise as a "fuss" motivated by "political interests." In a statement posted on social networks, the head of government blasted "the noise orchestrated at the national and international level around the telephone conversations that took place the night of the murder of the president." Moise was shot on July 7 at his home in Port-au-Prince, and while dozens of people have been arrested the identity of those who ordered the attack remains a mystery. On Tuesday, the Port-au-Prince government commissioner -- equivalent to a Federal prosecutor -- asked the judge in charge of the case to indict Henry over two phone calls he had with one of the main suspects, government official Joseph Felix Badio, just hours after the attack. Badio's phone was allegedly tracked to the area near Moise's residence when Badio called Henry twice in the early hours of July 7, after the president was killed. Henry fired the prosecutor just hours after the request was made. On Wednesday he also sacked his justice minister. But Henry shrugged off the allegations against him on Thursday, saying it was "difficult today to specify the Names" of all those who called him or what they had discussed. Henry, who was appointed by Moise two days before the president was murdered, added that "conversations with individuals against whom accusations are made cannot, in any case, serve to incriminate anyone." And he said "political interests" did not allow others "to make serious insinuations without foundation."Forty-four people, including 18 Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin, have already been arrested as part of the investigation into the murder of Moise. None of his security team were injured in the attack. Kennedy Space Center, United States, Sept 16 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four space tourists blasted off Wednesday night from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first mission to orbit the globe with an all-civilian crew. A huge fireball illuminated the sky as the rocket's nine engines began to pull away from Earth at 8:02 pm (0002 GMT Thursday). Around 12 minutes later, the Dragon capsule separated from the rocket's send stage as the crew entered orbit, while the re-usable first stage made its way back to Earth for a vertical landing on a sea barge. "A few have gone before and many are about to follow," said Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old billionaire who chartered the flight. The spaceship's trajectory will take it to an altitude of 357 miles (575 kilometers), which is deeper into space than the International Space Station (ISS). After spending three days spinning around planet Earth, the four-person crew, all Americans, will splash down off the Florida coast. "The #Inspiration4 launch reminds us of what can be accomplished when we partner with private industry!" tweeted NASA administrator Bill Nelson ahead of the launch. NASA's commercial crew program was founded in 2011. - Tough training - SpaceX, founded by billionaire Tesla owner Elon Musk, hasn't disclosed what the trip cost Isaacman -- but the price tag runs into the tens of millions of Dollars. Inspiration4's crew leader is a high school dropout who went on to found Shift4 Payments, which provides payment processing services. He is also a keen aviator. His three crewmates were selected through a competition, and their stories have been followed in a Netflix documentary. Hayley Arceneaux, a pediatric cancer survivor, is a 29-year-old physician assistant. She is the youngest American to go into orbit and the first person with a prosthesis, on a part of her femur. Chris Sembroski, 42, is a US Air Force veteran who now works as an aerospace data engineer. Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old geoscientist and educator, was almost selected to become an astronaut for NASA in 2009, and is only the fourth African-American woman to go to space. Former US first lady Michelle Obama congratulated the crew after lift-off. "They're inspiring us all with their courage, curiosity, and passion," she tweeted. "I'm thinking of all the young people who'll be looking up to this crew and dreaming big thanks to them. Ad astra!" The mission aims to raise $200 million for St Jude's Children's Research Hospital, a leading facility in Tennessee. Arceneaux received treatment there as a child, and now works there. The crew were set to take with them various objects -- a ukulele, hops intended to brew space beer and several digital assets known as non-fungible tokens -- that will be auctioned off for the cause. Throughout the flight, biological data including heart rate and sleep, as well as their cognitive capacities, will be analyzed to study the health impacts of space. The Dragon capsule is equipped, for the first time, with a cupola observation dome -- the largest ever space window -- to take in the view. The dome replaces the usual mechanism used on Dragons to dock with the ISS. - Privatization of space - Beyond the mission's charitable and scientific aspects, its stated goal is to prove that the cosmos is accessible to people who have not been handpicked and trained for years as astronauts. The flight should remain fully automated, but the crew members have been trained by SpaceX to be able to take control in the event of an emergency. The space adventure bookends a summer marked by the battle of the billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos to reach the final frontier. Branson, the Virgin Galactic founder, achieved the feat first, on July 11, and was followed by the Blue Origin boss nine days later. But these flights only offered a few minutes of weightlessness. This is the fourth crewed mission for SpaceX, which has now sent 10 astronauts to the ISS for NASA. "Congratulations #Inspiration4! Low-Earth orbit is now more accessible for more people to experience the wonders of space," NASA's Nelson tweeted. "We look forward to the future -- one where @NASA is one of many customers in the commercial space market. Onward and upward!" ULAN BATOR, Sept. 16 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Mongolia on Thursday confirmed 3,234 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally to 266,680, its health ministry said. Meanwhile, eight deaths were reported, taking the nationwide death toll to 1,074. The Asian country launched a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in late February, aiming to cover at least 60 percent of its population. So far, more than 65 percent of its population have received two doses. The health ministry is urging the public to receive booster or third doses of the vaccine as the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus is spreading fast across the country. Washington, Sept 17 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Congressman Anthony Gonzalez, one of 10 US House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump in January, said Thursday he would not seek re-election, citing the "toxic" atmosphere in a party that remains enthralled by the former president. The two-term back-bencher from Ohio stressed that family considerations played a substantial role in his decision, but he acknowledged the difficult political scenario, one in which he would have had to face a Trump-endorsed Primary challenger next year. "While my desire to build a fuller family life is at the heart of my decision, it is also true that the current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decision," he said in a statement. Gonzalez was more blunt in an interview in Thursday's New York Times, assailing Trump as "a cancer for the country" for inspiring his supporters to launch the January 6 US Capitol riot. "I don't believe he can ever be president again," he told the daily. Gonzalez, a 36-year-old conservative, is the first among the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to retire rather than endure what is undoubtedly a brutal season of primaries ahead. Trump, who remains hugely influential in the party, has made clear he will work tirelessly to help defeat those Republicans who sought to oust him. They include Liz Cheney, who lost her House Republican leadership position when she refused to tone down her criticism of the former president. Trump has already announced his support for a former Trump aide, Max Miller, running for Gonzalez's seat. Ohio's Republican Party voted in May to censure Gonzalez over his impeachment vote, and in a further rebuke called on the congressman to resign. Several House Democrats tweeted out their appreciation of Gonzalez after his announcement. He and the other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump "are paying a price for doing the right thing," congressman Brendan Boyle said. "But they will be vindicated by history." (@FahadShabbir) Washington, Sept 17 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Sep, 2021 ) :Leading US medical experts advising the government voted against recommending booster doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for everyone aged 16 and up, citing concerns about potential side-effects in younger age groups. Following a day of data presentations and debate, the panel of vaccinologists, infectious disease researchers, and epidemiologists voted 16 to 2 against the measure, but left the door open to agreeing to a third shot for older people. "While I would probably support a three dose recommendation for those over 60 or 65, I really have trouble supporting this as written for anyone greater than or equal to 16," said Paul Offit of The Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. The decision represented a rebuke to President Joe Biden's administration, which had announced a plan to start rollout of booster shots this month before consulting its scientific agencies. But a number of experts expressed reservations about whether they are required, amid concerns over global inequity, and possible increased risk of rare side effects, including myocarditis (heart inflammation) seen especially in younger males. The food and Drug Administration (FDA) struck a cautious tone in documents released ahead of Friday's meeting where an independent panel has been convened. "Overall, data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized Covid-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe Covid-19 disease and death in the United States," the FDA said in its briefing document. Peter Marks, a senior FDA scientist who opened the meeting, asked participants "to focus our deliberations on the science... and not on operational issues related to a booster campaign or on issues related to global vaccine equity. " Following the vote, the panel's chairman said they would formulate a new question on whether to approve the vaccine among an older group, for example over-65s, where the risk-benefit profile differs greatly. It will then turn to another committee convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on September 22-23 to decide on how to proceed with rollout. - Continued efficacy against hospitalization - At the meeting, Pfizer officials cited studies that demonstrated waning immunity against infection several months out from the first two doses. "The demonstrated safety and effectiveness of a third dose support adding a booster dose to the vaccination schedule," said Donna Boyce, Pfizer's senior vice president of global regulatory affairs. But a growing body of US research -- including a dataset presented by Pfizer itself at Friday's meeting -- has shown two doses continue to confer high protection against severe outcomes, and this was highlighted by many of the panelists. Pfizer also presented data showing boosters increased antibody levels against the Delta variant. Sharon Alroy Preis, an official with Israel's health ministry, presented data from her country which ran a booster campaign after experiencing a Delta wave, and has approved boosters for everyone aged 12 and up. "Administration of booster dose helped Israel dampen severe cases in the fourth wave," she said. For its part, the FDA said in its briefing document that not all studies are reliable and it believes US-based research "may most accurately represent vaccine effectiveness in the US population." The board of Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) Friday approved the bid documents of the landmark Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway Project proposed to be constructed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis at approved construction cost of approximately Rs 191 billion (US$ 1.23 Billion) ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :The board of Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) Friday approved the bid documents of the landmark Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway Project proposed to be constructed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis at approved construction cost of approximately Rs 191 billion (US$ 1.23 Billion). The meeting of the board was held here under the Chairmanship of Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (MoPD&SI) Asad Umar. The commercial feasibility study and revised transaction structure of Sukkur Hyderabad Motorway (the Project) was previously approved by the Board of P3A. Following the Board's approval of the bid documents, the project will be floated in the market and the bidders would be given adequate time to prepare their proposals. The project entails construction of a 306 km green-field 6-lane access controlled toll road on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. The project is expected to be completed in 30 months following financial close. The concession period of the project is spread over 25 years. Private sector will be given the tolling and other ancillary development rights of the project to cover its life-cycle costs and earn adequate rate of return on investment. The Government of Pakistan (GoP) is supporting the financial viability & bankability of the Project through provision of capital and operational Viability Gap Funding (VGF) by committing to provide maximum of Rs 43 billion during the construction period and operational VGF payments spread over the first 7 operational years. Via an innovative structure The Board also approved the Public Private Partnership Working Party (P3WP) Regulations, 2021. Asad Umar and other members of the P3A appreciated the performance and efforts of the P3A team on the occasion. The Minister highlighted that the development of transportation corridors was critical to the present Government's development strategy and the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway would be a vital section of the North-South connectivity and would also have a far reaching social and economic impact. The Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Secretary MoPD&SI, nominee of Secretary Finance Division, Secretary Communications, Member Private Sector Development, Chairman NHA, CEO, P3A and two private members of the Board, Huma Ejaz Zaman and Akbar Ayub Khan attended the meeting. (@FahadShabbir) MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Educational Institutions reopened on Thursday after around 12 days break with staggered approach wherein 50 percent students would attend classes on alternative days in city. These were closed on Sept 6 on account of Coronavirus positively ratio in the province followed by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) directions as part of curbs to control global pandemic. Before resumption, most of the schools through SMS urged parents to send kids to school by wearing mask, with hand sanitizers, lunch box and water bottle as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to refrain from the virus. Principal Govt Muslim High School, Rana Aslam Anjum told APP that greater number of students poured in with masks today. "We try our level best to follow SOPs for students and teachers as well because precaution is the only way to avoid COVID-19." he informed. Vice Principal Primary Section, LA Salle Higher Secondary School, Aster Nomi, stated that she takes much care of observing Corona SOPs as we deal with small kids adding that parents are cooperating with them in this connection. A book seller Ali Raza said that students who visited his shop this morning for buying stationery were wearing masks this morning. He maintained that media had played a great role for sensitizing people specially parents for following SOPs against Coronavirus. A father, Muhammad Iqbal, said that he strictly asked his kids to observe Corona related SOPs while going to school as advised by the govt because health is the best wealth. It merit mentioning here that educational institutions were closed from Sept 6 to 11th and later on break was extended to Sept 15 due to Coronavirus situation in certain cities Punjab due to high positivity rate of COVID-19. US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order to allow new sanctions on the sides fueling the conflict in Ethiopia, according to a statement released by the White House WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order to allow new sanctions on the sides fueling the conflict in Ethiopia, according to a statement released by the White House. "The Executive Order I signed today establishes a new sanctions regime that will allow us to target those responsible for, or complicit in, prolonging the conflict in Ethiopia, obstructing humanitarian access, or preventing a ceasefire," Biden said in the statement. (@FahadShabbir) BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) China will give its full backing to Belarus as the country struggles to maintain its sovereignty and safeguard its interests, in a reciprocal gesture for Belarus strong support on issues concerning China's core interests, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said while meeting in Dushanbe with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei. The foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the Summit of the Heads of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States in Dushanbe on Thursday. "We thank Belarus for its strong support on issues concerning China's core interests. Beijing will also continue to support Minsk in protecting state sovereignty and national dignity, defending its legal rights and interests," Wang Yi said, as quoted by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. He also expressed confidence that Belarus will continue its own development without fear of violence. China's foreign minister added that his country is willing to help Belarus in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. "The two sides need to deepen cooperation in the field of joint construction (projects - ed.) within the Belt and Road Initiative, promote bilateral local cooperation, enrich the content of the China-Belarus strategic partnership relations, and bring even more benefits to the peoples of the two countries," Wang Yi said. The Belarusian foreign minister thanked China for its support in the international arena, stating that Minsk will continue to openly support Beijing on all issues related to China's key interests, including the issues of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as oppose the politicization of the issue of the origin of the COVID-19 by the United States. Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Belarus. (@FahadShabbir) Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after completing the country's longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing's drive to become a major space power Beijing, Sept 17 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Sep, 2021 ) :Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth Friday after completing the country's longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing's drive to become a major space power. The capsule carrying the trio deployed its parachute and landed in the Gobi desert at 1:34 pm local time (0534 GMT). "It feels very good to be back!," Tang Hongbo told state broadcaster CCTV after the 90-day mission, a record for China. "I want to say dad, mom, I'm back! In good health and good spirits!" he said after emerging from the capsule within 30 minutes of landing. The crew of the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft were in good health, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement. "The first manned mission to the (Chinese) space station is a complete success," it said. The taikonauts -- as Chinese astronauts are known -- will undergo a 14-day quarantine before they can go home "because their immune systems may have weakened after the long mission," Huang Weifen, chief designer of China's manned space project told CCTV. The mission was part of China's heavily promoted space programme, which has already seen the nation land a rover on Mars and send probes to the moon. The launch of Beijing's first crewed mission in nearly five years coincided with the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party on July 1, and was the highlight of a massive propaganda campaign. The crew stayed for 90 days at the Tiangong space station, conducting spacewalks and scientific experiments. "The successful completion of the mission. .. paves the way for future regular missions and utilisation of the (Chinese space) station," said Chen Lan, an independent analyst at GoTaikonauts, which specialises in China's space programme. "It is a very important and very much needed start for the CSS." Tiangong, meaning "heavenly palace", is expected to operate for at least 10 years. The mission is headed by Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot in the People's Liberation Army who previously participated in two space missions. The two other astronauts, Liu Boming and Tang, are also in the military. - Space race - The Chinese space agency is planning a total of 11 launches before the end of next year, including three more crewed missions that will deliver two lab modules to expand the 70-tonne station. China has poured billions of Dollars into its military-led space programme in recent years as it tries to catch up with the United States and Russia. Beijing's space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a US ban on its astronauts on the International Space Station, a collaboration between the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan. The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could potentially remain functional beyond 2028. "Compared to the US, China is still technically somewhat behind," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP. "The main US lead in human spaceflight is in total experience," he said. "For example, two spacewalks is not the same as hundreds of ISS spacewalks. Quantity makes a difference." DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The eastern Yemeni province of Hadhramaut has imposed a curfew over the massive protests against poverty, Governor Faraj Salemin Bahssani said in a decree. On Thursday, the Southern Transitional Council that controls the region declared a state of emergency in Hadhramaut over the unrest. "The governor's decree envisages a curfew in the province between 08:00 p.m. (17:00 GMT) and 06:00 a.m. starting from today, Thursday, until a further notification," the decree said, as quoted by Al Jazeera broadcaster. The southern and eastern regions of Yemen have been engulfed in massive protests for several days. Clashes in Hadhramaut's capital of Mukalla left at least two people dead and four more injured on Wednesday. The economic situation in Yemen is extremely poor over the years-long civil war between the internationally recognized government, Shia Houthi rebels, and several smaller factions and terrorist groups. (@FahadShabbir) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The Estonian Health board has decided to recognize all COVID-19 vaccination certificates presented upon arrival, even for vaccines not approved for use in Estonia. "Estonia recognizes those vaccines that are recognized by the home country (of the traveler)," the authority said in response to Tallinn University when asked what other vaccines apart from those in Estonia's portfolio are acceptable in the country. The response was published by the Estonian Delfi news portal. Estonia has authorized four vaccines for its vaccination campaign, such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Janssen. Travelers who hold a full vaccination certificate, or a document proving that the holder has had COVID-19 in the last 180 days, are exempt from mandatory testing and quarantine upon arrival in Estonia. The European Commission rejected on Friday reports about Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's alleged plans to invite London to join a security deal with the bloc MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The European Commission rejected on Friday reports about Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's alleged plans to invite London to join a security deal with the bloc. "These are not true. When it comes to any proposal for a framework for cooperation on foreign security or defense issues between the EU and the UK it would first need to be discussed among member states," commission spokesman Peter Stano said o Friday. (@FahadShabbir) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The government of the Faroe Islands has decided to evaluate regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, after 1,428 dolphins were slaughtered in the largest single hunt of dolphins or pilot whales in Faroese history, Prime Minister Bardur a Steig Nielsen said. On average, the Faroe Islands hunt only around 250 white-sided dolphins a year. Whale and dolphin hunts in the islands are considered sustainable. But the scale of the hunt on September 12 has shocked many locals and even drawn criticism from groups involved in the practice. "We take this matter very seriously. Although these hunts are considered sustainable, we will be looking closely at the dolphin hunts, and what part they should play in Faroese society. The government has decided to start an evaluation of the regulations on the catching of Atlantic white-sided dolphins," the prime minister said. The pilot whale hunt, also known as "grind," is an ancient and integral part of Faroese food culture. But Atlantic white-sided dolphin hunts "have not been a part of Faroese tradition to the same degree and do not have the same cultural legitimacy," the government said in a press release. The Faroe Islands cooperate on the conservation of whales and dolphins and the management of whaling through the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission. SIMFEROPOL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) A group of observers - from France, Serbia, Tunisia and Venezuela - have arrived in Crimea to monitor the course of the Russian general election in this region, Yury Gempel, the head of the Crimean parliament's committee on inter-ethnic relations and public diplomacy, told Sputnik. From Friday-Sunday, Russia is holding the 3-day general election. The European Parliament has called on the EU countries to impose sanctions on citizens of the bloc who observe the elections on the Crimean Peninsula. "A group of international observers has arrived in Crimea. It includes the representatives of France, Serbia, Tunisia and Venezuela," Gempel said. He added that the group consisted of nine observers, including four French and three Serbian ones. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his working visit to the country, where they discussed illegal migration, political and economic cooperation, regional security and defense, as well as energy and the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, according to a statement on the president's website MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2021) Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his working visit to the country, where they discussed illegal migration, political and economic cooperation, regional security and defense, as well as energy and the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, according to a statement on the president's website. "President Gitanas Nauseda continues his working visit to Germany. This morning, he met with Angela Merkel, the outgoing Chancellor of Germany. The meeting focused on political and economic cooperation between Lithuania and Germany, regional security and defense as well as illegal migration," the message said. Nauseda also discussed with Merkel illegal migration on the border with Belarus, and the EU response to the "the hybrid attack by the Belarus regime." The president stressed that the current migration crisis called for changes in the EU policy on migration, asylum procedures and border protection. Nauseda also noted that Lithuania planned to raise the issue at the forthcoming European Council meeting in October and is counting on Germany's support. "The President of Lithuania and the Chancellor of Germany also dedicated some time to discuss energy matters, paying particular attention to the issues of energy independence from third countries, the unsafe Ostrovets nuclear power plant (in Belarus), and the prevention of its electricity accessing the internal market of the EU," the message added. Nauseda also pointed out that the annual growth in bilateral trade and investment indicates the potential for economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in engineering, the automotive industry, information, green and financial technologies, and biotechnology. The resident stressed that he highly valued Germany as Lithuania's strategic partner in the European Union, a NATO ally and a like-minded member of international organizations. The head of the country thanked Merkel for Germany's contribution to Lithuania's security, and active participation in NATO's defense and deterrence policy. "President Nauseda and Chancellor Merkel also discussed relations with Russia, Eastern Partnership policy, and support for Ukraine's Euro-integration aspirations," the message said. Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have lately reported a growing number of migrants arriving from Belarus. Over 4,100 migrants have been caught on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border since the beginning of the year. This is 50 times more than the whole of 2020. Vilnius blames Minsk for the current migration crisis. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk could no longer restrain the flow of migrants to the EU due to Western sanctions. (@FahadShabbir) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The National Transitional Council (CNT) of Mali, which acts as the country's legislative body, has approved two bills to grant amnesty to the plotters of military coups of August 2020 and May 2021, media reported on Friday. During the plenary session held on Thursday, 99 lawmakers voted in favor of the texts, two against and two abstentions, according to the local newspaper L'Essor. The bills concerned all those engaged in a military mutiny of August 18, 2020, which resulted in the resignation of former President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita and his cabinet; and the second coup of May 24 of that year, when current Interim President Assimi Goita ousted his predecessor Bah N'Daw from the post, which he had assumed after the previous revolt. Under the newly-approved legislation, all those granted amnesties cannot be tried or arrested for the actions performed during the coups. Justice Minister Mahamadou Kassogue, who was present at the session, spoke in favor of the bills, according to the outlet. On Thursday, the Economic Community of West African States summit agreed to introduce sanctions against those delaying the transition process in Mali, including the general elections, scheduled for late February 2022. In particular, the set of sanctions will include frozen financial assets of those targeted and will be adopted later. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The Basmanny district court in Moscow ruled to arrest Dmitry Chebanov for calls for mass protests during elections to the parliament's lower chamber via Telegram channels, court spokeswoman Irina Sofinskaya told Sputnik. Earlier this week, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into inducement to take part in riots in the period of elections through a network of Telegram channels. The committee believes that 11 people from seven Russian regions created the network. "By the decision of the Basmanny district court of Moscow, the investigator's request to choose a measure of restraint before November 14 in relation to Dmitry Chebanov was satisfied," the spokeswoman said. The court will consider similar decisions in relation to four more defendants in the case on Friday. The Philippines acknowledges Australia's right to acquire a nuclear submarine fleet and intends to build up its own defense capabilities in the region, the country's defense ministry announced on Friday MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The Philippines acknowledges Australia's right to acquire a nuclear submarine fleet and intends to build up its own defense capabilities in the region, the country's defense ministry announced on Friday. "Lorenzana acknowledged Australia's right to improve its submarine defense capability and highlighted that, as a country strategically situated in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is also building its own capability to protect its territories," the ministry said following the phone conversation between Philippine Foreign Minister Delfin Lorenzana and his Australian counterpart, Peter Dutton. Lorenzana noted that Manila strives to maintain good defense relations with all of its regional partners. Australia, in turn, assured the Philippines that its nuclear submarines will not be armed with nuclear weapons. Dutton stressed that Australia wants to be seen as a "neighbor that promotes regional peace." On Wednesday, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced a defense partnership called AUKUS, which allows Australia to secure the backing of US and UK in its bid to acquire nuclear-propelled submarines. Several countries, including Russia and Indonesia, have expressed their concern over the partnership and called for compliance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2021) The Russian, Iranian, Pakistani and Chinese top diplomats met at a regional security summit in Tajikistan on Thursday to emphasize the importance of having an inclusive government in charge of Afghanistan, the Iranian foreign ministry said. "The top diplomats supported the formation of an inclusive government with the participation of all ethnic groups in Afghanistan. An Afghanistan free of terrorism, free of drugs and free of threats against its neighbors was another topic on the agenda," it tweeted. The Taliban (banned in Russia as a terrorist organization) presented last week an all-male interim government composed of mostly Pashtun ministers. It is led by Mullah Hasan Akhund, a close ally of the Islamist militant group's founder. The chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Migration, Bishop Mario Dorsonville, expresses the US bishops' support for language to be included in the forthcoming budget reconciliation bill that, if enacted, would provide legalization with a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. By Lisa Zengarini The bishops of the United States have expressed their full support for the inclusion of new immigration provisions legalizing undocumented immigrants in the forthcoming budget reconciliation bill. The proposed bill, amounting to 3.5 trillion dollars, is intended to expand the country's social safety net. However, in a move supported by the bishops, congressional Democrats are also attempting to use it as a means of providing a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. These include immigrants who were brought to the US as children (the so-called Dreamers), as well as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders; Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) beneficiaries; and a number of undocumented essential workers. A welcome milestone for families The House Judiciary Committee passed the latest measure on September 13. In a statement on Wednesday, Bishop Mario Dorsonville, chairman of the Committee on Migration of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), hailed the move as an important step and a welcome milestone for many families and the common good. He recalled that for decades the bishops of the United States have been proponents of such reforms, which promote integration and family unity. In his statement, the prelate points out that the country cannot persist in relegating these members of society to the margins, especially when we simultaneously depend on so many of them for our collective wellbeing. The need for comprehensive reform While reiterating the need for a more comprehensive reform of the US immigration system, one that acknowledges and respects the God-given dignity of every person, the bishops therefore call on both the House of Representatives and the Senate to include the new provisions in the final reconciliation bill. Respecting rights and dignity of every human life Bishop Dorsonvilles statement follows a letter sent last week by five committee chairmen of the USCCB outlining the bishops broad range of priorities for the full bill. In Wednesdays statement, Bishop Dorsonville reiterates their call for Congress to pass a text that helps all those on the margins of our society, strengthens families, protects religious freedom, promotes care for creation, and respects the rights and dignity of every human life, from conception to natural death. Pope Francis thanks the people of Slovakia before taking off back to Rome, concluding his 34th Apostolic Visit abroad. By Francesca Merlo Pope Francis has left Slovakia, after his 34th Apostolic Visit abroad during which he visited Budapest, Hungary, for the closing Mass of the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress, before flying to Slovakia, where he visited Bratislava, Sastin, Presov and Kosice. After Mass at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows in Sastin , which was the Popes final public Mass of the journey, he addressed the faithful in Slovakia, saying the time has now come for me to take leave of your country. He added that in this Eucharist I gave thanks to God for having allowed me to come among you and to conclude my pilgrimage in the devoted embrace of your people, celebrating together the great religious and national feast of your Patroness, the Virgin Mother of Sorrows. The Pope then offered his heartfelt thanks to his brother bishops for all of your preparations and your welcome, as well as renewing his gratitude to President of the Republic and the civil authorities I carry you in my heart, concluded the Pope. "Dakujem vsetkym! [Thank you all!]" Then, on Wednesday afternoon, Pope Francis was greeted at the airport by the President of the Republic and by civil authorities, before taking off for Rome on what will be the very last papal Alitalia flight before the company closes down. On April 20, UK-based attorneys Melinda C. Mayne and Kaira S. McCallum submitted a 27-page Request for Investigation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the request, the duo accused members of the UK government and its advisors of being complicit in crimes against humanity, genocide, and breach of the Nuremberg Code in the name of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. On April 28, the ICC acknowledged the request and assigned the pair a case number. Since then, Mayne and McCallum have been collecting evidence to prove their claims. On Aug. 17, a press release from the two attorneys stated that they had received sworn affidavits from experts around the world, including Nobel Laureate virologist Professor Luc A. Montagnier, nuclear cardiologist Dr. Richarm M. Fleming, and neuroscientist Dr. Kevin W. McCairn. The pair said they now have compelling evidence that COVID-19 and the vaccines are deliberately engineered bioweapons that have been released in two phases on the unsuspecting people of the world. The attorneys have asked the ICC to examine the genocide of the elderly that took place in hospitals and care homes. An investigation into the inappropriate use of morphine and midazolam has also been requested. A team of lawyers and experts who conducted another inquiry on the issue sent a letter to the UK Government and officials such as Matt Hancock and Chris Whitty, warning that if they did not provide satisfactory answers, a private criminal prosecution case would be launched against them. Mayne and McCallum were joined by lawyers from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and France to file a joint claim, asking the ICC for a moratorium on the entire COVID-19 vaccine program in all four nations, as well as ending the testing of asymptomatic people. Given the extremely serious nature of the situation that pertains in all four of our countries with regards to escalating medical apartheid, the loss of basic freedoms and rights and the ever-increasing, very high number of deaths and serious adverse events suffered by recipients of COVID-19 vaccines, we have brought to the attention of the ICC the urgent need for the Court to act swiftly and without further delay, states the press release. One of the experts cited by the duo, Montagnier, is famous for winning the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work researching HIV. In April last year, he said that the novel coronavirus responsible for the pandemic could have been created in a lab. In an interview with Hold-Up Media in May, Montagnier blamed vaccines for triggering the creation of COVID-19 variants. The French virologist called the mass COVID-19 vaccination program an unacceptable mistake, and a scientific error as well as a medical error. He said that antibodies created by the vaccine force the SARS-CoV-2 virus to mutate into new variants. What does the virus do? Does it die or find another solution? It is clear that the new variants are created by antibody-mediated selection due to the vaccination, Montagnier said. He added that the trend can be seen in each country where the curve of vaccination is followed by the curve of deaths. Vaccines, infections, and deaths The issue of rising COVID-19 infections after vaccination was raised back in February by a group of medical doctors. In an open letter to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the doctors highlighted numerous reports of care homes being struck by COVID-19 within days of vaccination of residents. The doctors stated that they were concerned about the issue and that there is not much scrutiny regarding the matter. We question whether cardinal issues regarding the safety of the vaccines were adequately addressed prior to their approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the letter stated. According to a Sept. 15 report published by Dr. Joseph Mercola, New York Times bestselling author and recipient of multiple awards in the field of natural health, vaccinated patients are flooding hospitals around the world. On Aug. 1, Israels director of Public Health Services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, revealed that 50 percent of COVID-19 infections were among fully vaccinated individuals. Data from Scotland shows that 87 percent of those who have died from COVID-19 in the third wave of the pandemic, which began in July, were inoculated. Among citizens above 50 years of age in the UK, vaccinated people account for 68 percent of hospitalizations and 70 percent of deaths. In Iceland, where more than 82 percent of the population has received vaccines, 77 percent of new COVID-19 cases have been in fully vaccinated people. Between July 6 and 24, 74 percent of those diagnosed with COVID-19 and 80 percent of those hospitalized in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. A British study published in mid-August found that fully vaccinated individuals who contract COVID-19 have a higher viral load in their nasal passages than unvaccinated individuals who are infected. The same was found in a study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition, a new study published on medRxiv showed that healthy boys who received mRNA COVID-19 shots were more at risk of developing heart inflammation after vaccination than being hospitalized for COVID-19. For boys aged 12 to 17 who did not have underlying medical conditions. The cardiac adverse events (CAE) observed occurred a median of two days after vaccination, and 91.9% occurred within five days. With Chinas looming presence in the South China Sea, Japan has signed a deal with Vietnam to ensure that military defence equipment and technology from Tokyo are sent to Hanoi to counter Chinas influence. As the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) continues to make alarming moves on the world stage, countries have been consolidating alliances and partnerships, as well as strengthening their naval forces, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. Japanese deals Japans Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi met with Vietnamese Defence Minister Phan Van Giant in Hanoi on Sept. 11, where they signed a deal that Tokyo believes will strengthen Japans defence industrial base and is expected to contribute to the countrys security, said Kishi. The visit occurred as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Hanoi, announcing that Beijing plans to donate three million doses of coronavirus vaccines to its communist neighbor. Vietnam became the 11th nation to sign a deal with Japan to export Japanese-made defence equipment to the other nations, including Australia, the U.S., the UK, France, Germany, India, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. I am convinced that the pact will form the foundation of a further expansion of our bilateral security cooperation and become a symbol of our joint efforts in facing regional threats, said Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi during a press conference after the deal was signed with Indonesia. With this agreement, Japan hopes to strengthen its defensive perimeter in the disputed territories of the Senkaku Islands, where Tokyo governs the area, but Beijing claims to have ownership. Recently, Chinese vessels patrolled the seas around the islands. The Defence Ministry also highlighted Chinese submarine activity close to its waters. After passively dealing with China for decades, Japan has now taken a stance against the growing threat of the CCP against the island of Taiwan. In response to the CCPs advances in the East and the South China Sea, Kishi opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by coercion or any activities that escalate tensions. According to Japans Defence Ministry, Kishi and Giang both agreed to preserve freedom of navigation and overflight, and ensure cooperation in other fields of defence, including cybersecurity. While Japan focuses on strengthening its defences in the Indo-Pacific region, its Defence Ministry has also called for a budget increase to bolster defensive capabilities at home. With Yoshihide Sugas resignation as Prime Minister of Japan, one of the countrys top candidates, Fumio Kishida, has expressed that Tokyo should expand its missile-strike capabilities against potential foes like China and North Korea. Vietnam relations With the CCP on the move, Vietnam has become somewhat of a point of contention between China and the U.S. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris previously made a visit to Hanoi to strengthen relations with the communist government of Vietnam and to keep Chinas influence at bay. However, the CCP-run Xinhua News Agency said that Vietnam opposes any forces interference in Chinas internal affairs and would firmly resist any schemes to undermine the Vietnam-China relations. Hanoi has had its own problems with the CCP. Chinese vessels have been spotted passing through the area of the Paracel Islands, which are officially under Vietnamese jurisdiction. Also, military outposts have been set up within the artificial Spratly island chain. Foreign workers and tourists stranded in Cambodia during the COVID-19 pandemic have been trafficked and forced to work in sophisticated Chinese-run online scams, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has found. In interviews, nine trafficking victims said they were lured by social media adverts promising well-paid jobs in call centers. Instead, they ended up in shuttered hotel-casinos and guarded compounds where they had their passports confiscated before being put to work online. The victims, mainly from Africa and Asia, said they were ordered to create fake profiles on Tinder, WhatsApp, and Facebook to entice people into fraudulent investment schemes involving cryptocurrencies, foreign exchange, and shares. Those who objected or performed poorly were subjected to violence and threats, victims said. Mary, a teacher from the Philippines, said she miscarried while locked in a room without food and water for three days. "We were desperate," said Mary, who was three months pregnant and four months out of work when she responded in July to a Facebook post offering call center jobs to English-speaking foreigners. "We thought it was real work but it became a living nightmare," said the 26-year-old, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. Approached for comment on the nine trafficking cases that the Thomson Reuters Foundation uncovered, a spokesperson for the Cambodian interior ministry said, "We also have heard about this before but until now we still do not have any evidence." Cambodian police have previously carried out raids and deported hundreds of Chinese on suspicion of telecoms scams. But organized crime experts said the police have struggled to stamp out online crime because of corruption and weak law enforcement. A Facebook spokesperson said the company would investigate profiles and groups passed on by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. A spokesperson for WhatsApp said that users should use tools in the app to report suspicious activity. A Tinder spokesperson said it had "zero-tolerance" for "romance scams" and that it would "work with law enforcement to ensure justice is served in such cases." 'CHINESE MAFIA' Cambodia shut its borders when COVID-19 struck in March 2020, barred almost all international flights and closed its schools to contain the virus, leaving many tourists and foreign workers unemployed and unable to return home. For more than a decade, Chinese criminal groups have used Cambodia as a base for online scams that duped Chinese nationals out of billions of dollars. Crime experts said the pandemic has made it easier for these groups to target stranded foreigners. Four of the nine captives interviewed by the Thomson Reuters Foundation were unemployed teachers - three from Asia and one from Uganda. Another was a construction worker from Bangladesh, three were tourists, and one was a Tanzanian graphic designer. Two days after agreeing to work at a call center near the Phnom Penh airport, Mary, the teacher from the Philippines, was in her recruiter's car, bound for on-site training - or so she thought. When the car passed the airport, the driver said the induction had been moved to Sihanoukville, a port city some 200-km (125 miles) away that has received an influx of money from China, Cambodia's largest foreign investor. More than 80 casinos have been built in the city, largely for foreign tourists and online punters as it is illegal for Cambodians to gamble. Back in 2018, the province's governor at the time, Yun Min, had warned that the influx of Chinese investment in the region was leading to a surge in crimes by the "Chinese mafia," including kidnapping. China's embassy in Phnom Penh declined to comment on the Thomson Reuters Foundation's findings but called on Cambodia to enforce its online gambling ban, which it introduced in 2019, saying the industry had become a security concern amid rising reports of crime. "Kidnapping and human trafficking are by-products of illegal online gambling," a spokesperson said in emailed comments. "Instead of addressing only the symptoms by focusing on individual cases, full implementation of online gambling prohibition can stem the problem from its root." LOCKED IN A ROOM Inside a heavily guarded compound in Sihanoukville, Mary said she handed her passport to human resources and was given the tools for her new job: five iPhones and five British SIM cards. Mary said she was told to use images of attractive women to create fake identities on Tinder, WhatsApp, and Facebook and find people interested in foreign exchange trading. A few hours in, she told the manager she wanted out. "She started threatening me: 'We will beat you if you don't follow our rules,'" Mary recalled. "I told her, 'I signed no contract. I want to leave. Release me.'" Mary said the manager replied, "If you won't work, pack your bags - we sell you to another company." Mary was locked in a room, bare except for three-bed frames and two other women, also bound for a new boss, she said. For two nights and three days, they went unfed, drinking water from a toilet in a bathroom which they were allowed to access at the whim of their guards, she said. Guards had confiscated their phones - but Mary had a second device and was relaying events to her husband who, after reporting the situation to police in Sihanoukville, took up vigil at the compound's gates. "I was worried if they transfer my wife, I would not find her again," he said. 'SINISTER' Sihanoukville is a haven for a new breed of "sinister" Chinese gangs that take advantage of Cambodia's fast internet speeds and relaxed visa rules, said John Coyne, head of the Northern Australia Strategic Policy Centre, a research group. "Sihanoukville is a criminal hotspot created by the confluence of Chinese money, Chinese organized crime groups, and a very poor legal environment," said Coyne, an ex-police officer and expert on organized crime in the Mekong region. Beijing has sent police and planes to Cambodia to take home hundreds of suspected Chinese scammers in recent years, sending a "very heavy and very public ... message to its citizens" about the risks of engaging in crime, said a foreign law enforcement officers monitoring the situation. "The operators shifted to other targets," said the official, adding that by trafficking more people who speak languages other than Chinese, the gangs were able to target more nationalities. "Eight new clients per day. If you don't get eight, you keep working," said a Tanzanian woman who took what was advertised online as a call center job in Sihanoukville in June. "Four hundred of us in one room - cheat, cheat, cheat. That's the job," she said, describing how she used fake online profiles to trap people into fraudulent investment schemes. When the woman told management she wanted to leave, she was locked in a room with Mary and given two options: pay $2,000 or be sold to another company, she said. The woman shared contact numbers for her trafficker, who told the Thomson Reuters Foundation he was paid a $1,000 commission for each person recruited to work in Sihanoukville but denied recruiting a Tanzanian woman. The recruiter, who said he was Chinese and gave his name as Li Qiang, said he worked for a large firm that did not have a name and said that his actions did not involve trafficking. "The employee can leave whenever they want," he said. The police chief in Preah Sihanouk province, where Sihanoukville is located, and a spokesman for the provincial administration, declined to comment. SOLD LIKE GOATS Cambodia has become a popular destination for workers in tourism, construction and education, which have been hard-hit by COVID-19, leaving a pool of "invisible people" for recruiters to prey on, said labor abuse investigator Khun Tharo. "Many have lost their jobs and they're very easy to access, very easy to scam," said Tharo of labor non-profit CENTRAL. Nehan, a teacher from Nepal who has lived in Cambodia for five years and was laid off during the pandemic, said he responded to a Facebook advert for a call center job after exhausting his savings - and ended up being enslaved. "To them, we are just animals; bought and sold like goats and chickens," he said. Nehan said he was taken to start work in the shuttered White Sand Palace Hotel in Sihanoukville. "(People) think that during corona time, White Sand is closed, but what happens inside, they don't know," said Nehan, who was released after working for a month without pay when he threatened to get his wife to report the scammers to the police. "People go in (to the hotel) ... then they cannot go out." A woman who answered a phone at White Sand Palace Hotel said it was not possible to speak to management as they had gone "to China," adding that the hotel was not aware of any online scamming operations on the premises. Nehan said he was taken to hotel rooms where hundreds of people - mostly Chinese - worked to coax online investors into fake investment schemes and into scanning a QR code embedded in a website that allows them to hack into people's smartphones. "They are hackers, thieves," Nehan said. BEATEN All of the victims were told to pay a ransom to be freed, but only one did - a South African tourist, whose mother shared a screenshot of a July payment of $2,047 sent to a Cambodian who negotiated her son's release. Six others said they used threats, negotiation and social media posts to win their release. Two are still being held. The tourist shared photographs of himself in a hospital bed with a bruised face and a bandage around his head, which he said was stitched after he was beaten by his trafficker for trying to rally a walkout from a Chinese-run scamming operation. "We tried not to do the money thing but in the end, we had to. These people beat him up, and it's just been hell for one month that we've been trying to negotiate," his mother said shortly after his release. In Mary's case, her husband shared her ordeal on Facebook after three days, when she told him she thought she had miscarried their baby. He also gave details to the local news website Cambodia News English, he said. "At first (the traffickers) were angry - how was this information getting out? I had videos and photos from inside," Mary's husband said. After threatening violence and demanding a $1,500 ransom, a deal was reached: Mary would be freed if he deleted the Facebook posts, he said. The couple agreed and are now in hiding, unable to leave Cambodia together due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in their home and neighboring countries. "Right now, we feel only anger and fear," Mary's husband said. "I can't sleep. When I close my eyes, I can only imagine our child. When my wife sleeps, she shakes." The African Union says the continent is set to receive about 270 million doses of coronavirus vaccine and wants to see them distributed equitably. For just over two months, a team at the 55-member organization of African states has worked to ensure the continent gets its fair share of the coveted COVID-19 vaccines. Late Wednesday, the team announced they had done it. The 270 million doses are just under a fifth of the 1.5 billion that officials think they will need to vaccinate around 70% of the continent. That is the rough threshold to achieve herd immunity. President (Cyril) Ramaphosa said that from the onset of this pandemic, our focus as a continent has been on collaboration and collective effort, said Tyrone Seale, spokesman for the South African president and former AU chairman. We have held steadfastly to the principle that no country should be left behind. With this in mind, we have not only campaigned vigorously for changes through all the available international forums, but we have taken the additional step to independently secure vaccines using our own limited resources as member states." Seale did not say exactly when the first doses will become available. He said that about 50 million will arrive between April and June, which is considered a critical period. The rest of the 270 million doses will be available later this year, he said. The India-manufactured vaccines will come from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. In a separate announcement last week, officials in South Africa, the continents COVID-19 hot spot, announced they would receive 1 million Indian-manufactured vaccine doses by the end of January, and another half million in February. The nation hopes to vaccinate 40 million people about 67% of the population by years end. South Africa has seen just under 1.3 million confirmed cases since the virus arrived in March. The second wave of the virus, featuring a new variant that appears to be more contagious, began in December. Low-income countries do not have the same access to the market as nations like South Africa, which is a member of the G-20 economic group of nations. So, the AU made its own plan. Seale said the AU, working with Afreximbank, will guarantee a total of $2 billion in vaccine orders from member states. He said there is also close collaboration between the AU and the World Bank to ensure that member states can access an additional $5 billion either to buy vaccines or pay for delivery of vaccines committed on their behalf by the bank. Seale said he hopes donors will step in and ensure vaccines are provided and paid for, to ease the debt burden on AU member states. The top U.S. military leader, fearful that former President Donald Trump could "go rogue" in the final weeks of his White House tenure, acted unilaterally to assure China that the U.S. would not launch an attack during Trump's last days in office, according to a new book. In two secret phone calls, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his counterpart, Chinese General Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army, that the United States would not attack, according to the account in "Peril," a book about the last days of Trump's presidency, by longtime Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward and one of the newspaper's veteran political reporters, Robert Costa. The book is scheduled for release next week, but the Post, CNN and other news outlets excerpted details on Tuesday. The book says Milley made one of the calls on October 30, 2020, four days before Trump lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden. The other came on January 8, 2021, two days after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to thwart lawmakers from certifying Biden's election victory. With Trump making belligerent comments about China, Milley told the authors he was prompted to assure Li that the U.S. was not preparing to attack. "General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable, and everything is going to be okay," Milley told him, according to the book. "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you." In the second call, Milley told Li, "We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes." According to the book, Milley made the second call because he believed Trump, enraged at his loss, had suffered a mental decline after the November 3 outcome a view Milley shared with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an opposition Democratic leader and longtime Trump critic. The authors obtained a transcript of a call between Pelosi and Milley in which Pelosi told the general, "He's crazy. You know he's crazy," referring to Trump. After the rioting at the Capitol, in which more than 600 people have been charged so far, Milley worried that Trump could "go rogue," the authors recounted. "You never know what a president's trigger point is," Milley told his senior staff, according to the book. Milley summoned senior military officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons. Milley said that only the president, as commander in chief, could give the order for a nuclear attack, but that he, Milley, also had to be involved. According to the book, Milley asked each of the high-ranking officials to affirm that they understood his role, in what he considered an "oath." Woodward and Costa wrote that others in the U.S. government also shared Milley's concern about Trump's demeanor upon losing the election. Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel reportedly told Milley, "We are on the way to a right-wing coup." In the end, Trump left Washington without attending Biden's inauguration and did not launch any last-minute overseas attacks. But to this day, he regularly asserts falsely that he was cheated out of reelection by voter fraud in numerous states. Trump said he is considering campaigning for another White House term in the 2024 election. The book also recounts how former Vice President Mike Pence struggled with Trump's demand that Pence refuse to affirm the election outcome during the January 6 certification at the Capitol. The authors wrote that Pence talked with former Vice President Dan Quayle, who oversaw the certification of the 1992 election when he was on the losing ticket. But Quayle assured Pence he had no choice but to certify Biden's victory, since the outcome had been confirmed in key political battleground states after numerous recounts and unsuccessful court challenges. Trump and Biden declined to be interviewed for the book. There was no immediate reaction from Trump about the accounts of his actions in the final weeks of his presidency as related in the book. Show more Show less Heavy rainfall in India's eastern West Midnapore district flooded a highway, Thursday, September 16, disrupting the movement of people. The State Highway 7 was inundated as few truck and bus drivers managed to drive through the road to reach their destinations. A local resident, Sheikh Saheb, said few were taking the risk of taking the highway road despite warnings from police. In Midnapore, located in the state of West Bengal, water entered houses of people and damaged property. (Reuters) U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi cautioned Britain on Friday that nullifying the Northern Ireland peace agreement known as the Good Friday accords would likely undermine negotiations for a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement with the United States. Pelosi, who was in London, told Chatham House she was not making a threat, but a prediction. If there is destruction of the Good Friday accords, they [are] very unlikely to have a UK-U.S. bilateral. We have to have a path that includes it, Pelosi told the London-based think-tank. Signed in 1998 by the Irish and British governments, the Good Friday peace accords helped end 30 years of sectarian violence. Part of that agreement allowed for a soft border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, allowing for goods and services to pass easily between the two countries. When Britain left the European Union earlier this year, the sides agreed to keep an open land border between the North and Ireland, which remains an EU member. That, however, required customs checks to be introduced on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. Facing internal opposition to those checks, Britain wants to renegotiate the agreement but the EU has so far refused. The United States, which played a key role in securing the landmark 1998 accord, has cautioned Britain against doing anything to undermine the peace settlement. Pelosi added that nobody was declaring one thing or another, and the government in Ireland has expressed a desire to work out the differences. But she said any significant changes to the accords would make a bilateral trade agreement with Britain problematic. Pelosi was also asked about U.S. politics and the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. The House speaker said the insurrection, which she said was incited by Trump, was rooted in "some kind of white supremacy, antisemitism, Islamophobia. She alluded to FBI statements that identify domestic extremists as the most urgent terror threat on U.S. soil. Pelosi also urged members of the U.S. Republican party to "take back your party." The Republican party, the Grand Old Party, has made tremendous contributions to our country, Pelosi said, telling party leaders, Don't let your party be hijacked by a cult. Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. Politicians and analysts warn that clashes in Mogadishu, Somalias capital, between the federal government and supporters of opposition presidential candidates could escalate the countrys political crisis into a full-blown conflict. Tension has been simmering in the city for months over delayed elections. The countrys political leaders remain deadlocked on how to proceed despite months of encouragement and pressure from U.N. officials and Western diplomats. Late on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday, gun and mortar fire erupted in the city amid a lockdown imposed by the government to prevent opposition supporters from holding a protest. Soldiers in armored vehicles were deployed in the streets near where the protests were planned. The soldiers also sealed off other major streets in the city. Around midnight on Thursday, a heavy gunfire erupted somewhere close to the presidential palace and some mortar shells that landed in other areas in the city followed, said Ahmed Yusuf, a resident in Mogadishu. The opposition leaders said the gunfire erupted when government soldiers attacked a hotel where two former presidents who are now opposition presidential candidates, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, were staying. Ahmed has accused the current president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, aka Farmajo, whose constitutional term ended February 8, of being behind the attack. The attack was ordered by the outgoing President Mohamed Farmajo, Ahmed tweeted. This is the behavior of dictatorship and we ask all civilians to come out and respond." Minister of Security Hassan Hundubey Jimale has categorically denied the accusation, saying that armed gunmen organized by the opposition attacked government troops in their duty positions. "Our troops were in their positions when organized gunmen attacked them. They responded and brought the situation under control, Jimale said. Later Friday, more gunfire erupted in the city as a street protest led by former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire marched toward the KM4 area, a strategic junction manned by government troops. Last night there was an assassination attempt on the lives of two former presidents, and this afternoon we came under fire while were peacefully protesting, Khaire told reporters at a press conference. A video clip circulated on social media showed the former prime minister and his supporters ducking for cover during the gunfire. We warn and it is essential to make sure that this country does not go back to where it came from, Khaire said. What is happening is a sign of greediness for power and dictatorship behavior. During the gunfire, a mortar round landed inside Mogadishus Aden Abdulle International Airport, starting a fire at one of the airport compound restaurants. The mortar shell landed at a restaurant away from the terminal and caused no damage. The airport is open and still operational, Ahmed Moalim Hassan, the director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority, told VOA Somali. Holding a press conference, Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble called on the public not to accept the violence. It is unfortunate that at this time there are elements claiming there is no legitimate government in place in the country and that attacks are launched on national army bases in Mogadishu, Roble said. Do not accept violence in your city and the destruction of your properties. He said efforts were under way to avert further violence and promised that talks aimed at holding elections would materialize. The U.N. office in Somalia (UNSOM) wrote on Twitter that it was "deeply concerned by armed clashes in Mogadishu overnight and on Friday morning, and calls for calm and restraint by all parties involved, and urges that open lines of communication be maintained to help reduce tensions." Fear of violence There is a growing concern that the boiling political tension triggered by the dispute over the delayed election could throw the country back into a civil war. It's a moment of great uncertainty. Four years passed and there is no election, and this new violence can degenerate into conflict, warned Hussein Moalim Mohamud, Somalia's former national security adviser. There's still no consensus on how to move forward and the opposition is getting frustrated. This has resulted in the clashes in Mogadishu this morning, as they moved ahead to organize protests, said Omar Mahmood, senior analyst for Somalia at the International Crisis Group. This latest violence has diminished the hope for a political solution to hold elections, and this can cause more violence if Somalias parliament does not take an immediate step to save the country from slipping back into chaos, said Abdullahi Godah Barre, a member of Somalias parliament. Somalia has not had an effective central government since the collapse of Siad Barre's military regime in 1991, which led to decades of civil war and lawlessness fueled by clan conflicts and the rise of militant group al-Shabab. This latest violence in Mogadishu is the result of months of political tensions over delayed presidential and parliamentary elections. Hopes of hosting Somalia's first one-person, one-vote ballot since 1969 were first abandoned over security problems and disputes over the process. In subsequent negotiations, Farmajo and leaders of the country's federal member states agreed to hold indirect elections, but implementing those polls has been a major challenge. In follow-up conferences, leaders have been unable to resolve disputes over the electoral committee that would oversee the process. Months have gone by with no progress and Farmajos mandate ended on February 8. Since then, the tensions grew, and a coalition of opposition parties announced it no longer recognized Farmajo as president and called on him to resign. The president and his allies insist he is still in power. In Burkina Faso, many children who left school following threats by Islamic militants are working in the countrys informal gold mines, where they risk being harmed by accidents. Here in Bouda, a dusty, noisy gold mine in northern Burkina Faso, miners eke out a meager living working in dangerous conditions and living in makeshift shelters. Burkina Faso is Africas fifth largest gold producer, but between 700 and 1,000 of its mines are informal. Children are among those working at these sites. Among them is Aziz Zabre, who left school two years ago to become a miner. Covered in dust, he complains he cant make money by going to school, so he pursued some of his friends to work in the mine. When he finds gold, he can make around $90 a month. He gives some to his parents and keeps the rest for himself. In shafts as deep as 10 meters, which he climbs down without ropes, he chips away with a pickax. An estimated 20,000 children work in Burkina Fasos gold mines. The owner of this mine says children will turn to crime if they have no other opportunities, but he admits the situation is not ideal. He says it's good for children to be at school and has some who attend school himself. Rouky Ganame fled her hometown in northern Burkina Faso when Islamist militants arrived. Now at 13, she is a miner. She was at school when men came with their faces covered. She left class quickly and was able to escape with her family. She left Soman to go to Ouagadougou and from there to Bouda, where she works at the mine. But the mines are not safe from terrorists, either. Militants attack them and demand a cut of the revenue to fund their fight against the Burkina Faso government. Meanwhile, efforts are under way to help children forced to leave school by the conflict. U.N. representatives say they are taking a multifaceted approach to return all the countrys children to school. Karim Sankara is a UNICEF program officer who says the organization supports the formation of policies, training and actors in the municipalities to carry out a plan that is sensitive to children's rights. The plight of these children has attracted funding a pledge of $59 million recently from an international NGO. On a recent visit to Burkina Faso, Yasmine Sherif, director of Education Cannot Wait, said. I look forward to working with all of you to tell the world about the situation, the challenges, the suffering, and steer the moral conscience of the rest of the world. The money will help, says Burkina Faso Education Minister Stanislas Ouaro. It will allow the rehabilitation of schools, the rebuilding of schools, scholarship fees, schooling for girls and help bring children out of the mines. As for Rouky Ganame, she sees little hope of returning to school soon. She says she wants to return but cant afford to ride the bus. It's too far for her to walk on foot. As Benin awaits results from Sundays election, many hoped the small, West African country would continue its tradition as a beacon of democracy in the region. But analysts worry Benin is following the path of neighbors like Chad, which held elections the same day and is expected to extend President Idriss Deby's 30-year rule. Benin made history in 1991 when it became the first mainland sub-Saharan African country to peacefully vote out an incumbent leader. But critics and political analysts say Benins reputation as a stable democracy has begun to erode under President Patrice Talon. Though hes been praised for growing Benins economy and infrastructure, Talon has been widely panned for quashing critics. After winning a five-year term in 2016, he broke a promise not to run again and pushed through election laws that sidelined opponents or forced them into exile. As a result, of the 19 candidates who planned to run against Talon on Sunday, just two largely unknown figures were deemed eligible. Gilles Yabi is a Beninese political analyst based in Senegal and the founder of West Africa Citizen Think Tank. Its possible to have a democratic regression and of course we cannot exclude that in a few years, if we continue in this trajectory of exclusion of political actors, of using the justice system to exclude political opposition, and to reduce the liberties, of course we can have Benin becoming a country like other countries in West Africa, or like others in Central Africa, where the realities are no longer a democratic system, he said. Talons government used troops to violently crack down on election protesters last week, leaving at two people dead. Political analysts are worried the democratic decline in Benin is part of a larger trend. Over the last year, leaders of other West African nations such as Senegal, Guinea and Ivory Coast have also been accused of sidelining political opponents. Chads President Idriss Deby has clung to power for the last three decades and is expected to win a sixth term after also holding polls Sunday. Jeannine Ella Abatan, a senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar, says though Chad and Benin have very different political histories, she sees some worrisome similarities. You have this blurring of lines between the executive and legislative and the judiciary in that all institutions that are supposed to provide checks and balances have either been weakened or are controlled by the president, she said. Abatan says both Chad and Benin have restricted media and used security forces to attack protesters. Election results are expected as early as Tuesday in Benin and by Thursday in Chad. As the conflict in Ethiopias Tigray region rages on, international observers are sounding alarm bells about the involvement of forces from neighboring Eritrea. The U.S. State Department says it has received credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses. It cited evidence that Eritrean soldiers are forcibly returning Eritrean refugees to their home country. The U.S. administration also said it has received credible reports that Eritrean forces launched artillery attacks from their side of the border in support of Ethiopian government troops fighting forces of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). The United States has stressed the need for all Eritrean troops to leave Tigray immediately, a State Department spokesperson told VOA this week. The United States is urging an immediate stop to the residual fighting and full, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access to assist vulnerable populations in Tigray. Ambassador Dina Mufti, spokesperson for Ethiopias Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the Ethiopian government has seen reports that Eritrean troops had entered the country but did not confirm it. He said it is not surprising that Eritrea would move to defend its border due to the belligerent attitude of the TPLF, but he denied that Ethiopia had solicited Eritrean support. There has never been a need from the Ethiopian side to request a third-party involvement in the matter, Dina said during a January 20 press conference. The issue has been entertained by some circles that wanted to portray the operation as a regional-level conflict. The Tigray conflict erupted in early November after months of rising tensions between the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF. The TPLF dominated Ethiopias national government for nearly 30 years until Ahmed won power in 2018. Major General Belay Seyoum, head of the Northern Command of Ethiopias National Defense Force, said recently that a foreign army that is unwanted entered, during a town hall meeting in Tigray. But one close observer believes Eritreas President Isaias Afwerki is acting militarily with the full support of Prime Minister Abiy. Mesfin Hagos, a founding member of the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF) in 1970, led troops as a field commander during the countrys struggle for independence from Ethiopia and served as the countrys minister of defense. Now living in Germany, Mesfin said an invasion of northern Ethiopia has long been a goal of Eritreas president. He pointed out that, while discussing the peace agreement between the two countries in 2018, Isaias made clear that his intention was to stomp out the TPLF. When the Eritrean president accepted the call from Ethiopia, the first thing he said was game over to TPLF, Mesfin told VOA. That was a game over declaration from him. From then on, it shows that he was determined to finish off the TPLF. From 1998 to 2000 Eritrea went to war with Ethiopia over a disputed border territory and other issues. Isaias, a bitter enemy of late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who led the TPLF, believed that the TPLF harbored Eritrean opposition forces in northern Ethiopia. Our sources inside Eritrea tell us that Isaias believed that the TPLF elimination will bring with it the elimination of the opposition against the Isaias regime that has the slightest chance of posing a threat to his regime, Mesfin said. There is also evidence that Eritrea supported Ethiopian efforts early in the Tigray conflict. Following a November 4 attack on the Ethiopian National Defense Forces Northern Command in Tigray by TPLF forces, Ethiopian troops were scattered and ordered to retreat to positions inside Eritrea. From there, Mesfin said, they regrouped and launched a counterattack with the full support of both governments. Abiy admitted that the surviving troops were ordered to cross the border to Eritrea. He did that knowing that they will be receiving a friendly army, Mesfin said. In fact, they were hosted and made an arrangement to regroup and reorganize the Ethiopian army and of course, started attacking the Tigray region by crossing the border from Eritrea. Mesfin said Eritrean forces entered northern Ethiopia and took control of refugee camps where Eritreans had been living. Almost every refugee in these refugee camps are under the mercy of the Eritrean troops. They can be taken anywhere at any time and we hear that so many Eritreans are being killed and so many of them are unaccounted for, Mesfin said. Satellite images analyzed by the U.K.-based DX Open Network, an open-source investigations group, show that two refugee camps, Hitsats and Shimelba, which had hosted 25,000 Eritrean refugees, have been demolished. There are clear and consistent patterns across both camps over a two-month period demonstrating that these refugee camps were systematically targeted, despite their protected humanitarian status, DX Open Network said in a statement. Members of Eritreas diaspora are speaking out against the countrys involvement. An open letter signed by about 1,000 people published on change.org denounces the role of the Eritrean military in subjecting the people of Tigray and Eritrean refugees in Tigray to conditions that led to killings, pillaging, sexual violence, destruction of heritage sites and displacement. It says people inside Eritrea are afraid to voice their opinions so members of the global diaspora must speak on behalf of people who are muffled and silenced. We urge the world community and international and regional organizations to pressure the Ethiopian federal government and President Isaias and his associates to end the war, the letter reads. State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report. Malawis Supreme Court of Appeal says the death penalty remains constitutional in the southern African country. The decision reverses a ruling from just four months ago, when the same court abolished the death penalty. Rights campaigners say the development is disappointing. The ruling in April stemmed from the petition of a convicted murderer, who wanted the Supreme Court to re-hear his case. In his judgment, Justice Dunstan Mwaungulu, now retired, said Malawi's constitution respects the right to life and said the death penalty negates that right. He emphasized the sanctity of life, saying without the right to life, other rights do not exist. Justice Mwaungulu also ordered the re-sentencing of all cases where the death penalty was handed down. However, in a document released this week, the other Supreme Court justices say Mwaungulus ruling only expressed his personal opinion. Justice Anaclet Chipeta said he dissociates himself from the judgment because it did not reflect the views of the majority of the appeal court justices. Another justice, Rezine Mzikamanda, said the issue of the constitutionality of the death penalty was not part of the case they were handling. Peter Dimba is chairperson of the legal committee of Malawis parliament. The views of the majority of the judges on the panel would have carried the day because thats what it means. So as it stands, it means death penalty still stands," Dimba said. Michael Kaiyatsa is executive director for the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi. He says although the justices have valid reasons for not backing Mwaungulus opinion, the Malawi government needs to move quickly to formally abolish the death penalty. "We think Malawi has an obligation under international human rights law to ensure that it complies with that resolution," Kayiyatsa said. "But also we know that Malawi has not executed anybody since the 1990s. So the country needs to continue on that path. But we need a lasting solution. Thats why we think that a way should be found to repeal this death penalty The death penalty has long been mandatory in Malawi for those convicted of murder or treason, and optional for rape. Court records show that 27 people are under a death sentence in Malawi. However, according to Amnesty International, Malawi last carried out an execution in 1992 when 12 people were hanged. Lawmaker Dimba noted that many countries are abolishing death penalty. He said his parliamentary committee would opt for abolishing the death penalty if the proposal came to parliament in the form of a bill. "This is an issue that was supposed to be done by the government," Dimba said. "If they see to it, they actually bring an amendment bill to parliament and I dont think parliament would have problems in abolishing the death penalty. However, some critics say abolishing the death penalty may lead to an increase in acts of mob justice. In December 2020, a mob killed a 47-year-old man in Malawis capital, Lilongwe, who had allegedly killed another man suspected to have raped his daughter. Moroccos ambassador to Spain has threatened more reprisals against Madrid over its decision to allow a Western Sahara independence leader to be treated in a Spanish hospital. Karima Benyaich said elements in the Spanish government did not take the interests of Morocco into account, despite assurances from Madrid that Spain wants to move on from the crisis that led to thousands of migrants flooding into Spain's North African enclave, Ceuta, last week. Morocco is suspected of opening the borders to the would-be migrants. Analysts have suggested the threatened further reprisals could mean Rabat will not cooperate in anti-terrorist operations. Thursday a Spanish court jailed three men of Moroccan origin for up to 53 years for playing a part in the 2017 Barcelona terrorist attacks which killed 16 people. Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali will appear before a Spanish court on June 1 to answer torture charges brought by a Western Sahara dissident group. The front represents the Sahrawi people who are native to the Western Sahara territory. At sunset, a buffalo calf's distressed grunts reverberate through the bush. But it's a trick. The grunts are blaring from a loudspeaker, designed to lure lions to a tree and let a South African wildlife reserve carry out a census of its apex predator. As an added enticement, the carcasses of two impalas are affixed to a tree. The scent promises a fresh meal. In the headlights of a 4x4, armed rangers with night binoculars and torches watch over the scene. "We know our lions, but with this process, we verify them," says Ian Nowak, head warden at the Balule Nature Reserve. A wildlife researcher next to him listens intently, her ears tuned to clues from the nocturnal sounds. That's how she knows a rumbling is from elephants grazing in the tall grass. And that's how she knows when to raise her camera to photograph lions, looking for distinctive scars or peculiar ears -- anything that identifies them for the count. This job requires patience. The team once spotted 23 lions ripping into the bait. "They growl and they fight. Then they lie down and eat," Nowak whispers. "It can be quite a frenzy on the bait. They smack each other and then settle down." Don't fence them in At 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres), Balule is huge -- yet it connects with an even bigger ecosystem that, all told, is almost the size of Belgium. Balule and other nearby game farms have transitioned into nature reserves, joining up with the Kruger National Park to create a vast territory without internal fences, covering 2.5 million hectares, that extends to Mozambique. To create such enormous space for wildlife is a rare success story these days. Conservationists meeting in Marseille, southern France, are deeply worried for Africa's "big cats", facing loss of habitat and human encroachment as well as poaching. Balule is so big that its census-takers have to criss-cross the terrain to make the count as thorough as possible. "Sometimes they've eaten. If they're full, they don't come," Nowak said. "Especially the males, they're lazy as hell." Twenty years ago, Balule was mostly farmland and lions were few. Last year, the census found 156 of the lordly beasts. "Lions are doing incredibly well, mainly because there's a large enough space to operate," Nowak says. Overall, the news is good for lions in South Africa, thanks to government conservation efforts -- helped by the inducement of tourists who are willing pay to see the animals. Private investors have also stepped in. A years-long drought has also been a boost. Antelopes and buffalo did not have enough to eat, making them easier prey for large carnivores. 'Lions don't share' The loudspeaker rumbles again with the recording of the injured buffalo calf. This time, a small jackal appears, hoping for a nibble. At the slightest sound, it dashes away. The wildlife researcher detects another movement in her thermal binoculars. The headlights flash back on, illuminating the majestic mane of a lion approaching stealthily, careful but calm. "He's initially cautious," says Nick Leuenberger, one of the regional wardens. "He doesn't know if he'll be walking in on another pride." "Lions defend their food, they don't share," he adds. "Here the lion tolerates the jackal. He knows he's not a major threat to his food source." Suddenly, the lion leaps up to one of the suspended impalas, biting into its belly. After his meal, he lies at the foot of the tree. Now the team can move on. No other animals will dare approach. The next night, seven hyenas take turns snipping at the fresh impala, without a lion in sight. But on the way back, the 4x4 slams the brakes. To the left, a hippo roars furiously, its mouth wide open. To the right, seven lionesses raise their heads above the grassline. A magical sight, but no danger to the hippo. Nowak says it would take at least twice as many lions to threaten the hippo. The tension eases. A lion emerges from the brush and walks along the trail. A lioness joins him, and the 4x4 follows them slowly until they disappear into the night. Sudanese authorities have seized a shipment of weapons at Khartoum airport arriving from neighboring Ethiopia, state media said Sunday. The shipment, which was confiscated late Saturday, arrived on an Ethiopian Airlines passenger flight, prompting an immediate launch of investigations, the SUNA news agency reported. Authorities were informed of "the arrival of a weapons shipment from Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airlines flight" into Sudan, SUNA said. "It was immediately confiscated by customs authorities." SUNA quoted officials as saying that the weapons had originally been sent from Russia to Ethiopia in May 2019 and were held by authorities there for two years. "Without prior warning, authorities in Addis Ababa allowed for its shipping into Khartoum on a passenger flight," the report added. The shipment of 72 boxes reportedly contained weapons and night-vision binoculars. "There are suspicions that they were meant to be used in anti-state crime, to impede the democratic transition, and prevent transition to civilian rule," SUNA reported. Ethiopian Airlines said in a statement that the shipment was "a legal and commercial transportation of hunting guns with all proper documents of the shipper and the consignee." The airline said it has documents to prove the legality of the shipment, "including a letter from Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Sudan has been undergoing a rocky transition since the April 2019 ouster of Islamist president Omar al-Bashir following mass protests against his rule. The country is currently led by a joint civilian-military ruling council. The development comes at a time of souring relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa over Ethiopian farmers' use of a fertile border region claimed by Sudan. The two countries have also been at odds over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), in a regional dispute that involves Egypt. Addis Ababa broke ground on the project in 2011. Late last month, Ethiopian officials said they had thwarted an attack on the GERD by armed groups "who have been trained and armed by Sudan." Sudan flatly denied the allegations, saying they were "baseless". Ethiopia has been grappling with a grinding conflict in its northern Tigray region since last November. The fighting has sent tens of thousands of refugees into Sudan. Opposition and rights activists in Tanzania have condemned the arrest of several members of the country's main opposition Chadema party, who were to hold a forum to discuss constitutional reforms. The action happened while Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe remains behind bars facing terrorism-related charges that his party has branded a bid by President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government to silence the opposition. The condemnations came after police in Musoma, a town in Mara region in the northern part of Tanzania, Saturday arrested nine members of the main opposition Chadema party who were organizing a symposium on a new constitution. In a post shared on Twitter, the Chadema party said it was following the incident, which it said suppresses democracy. The statement said, We strongly condemn this blatant violation of the constitution and rule of law, sowing the seeds of hatred, discrimination, and discord within communities, It also protested against what the party called the suppression of democratic rights by police and other security forces. Speaking with VOA, Chadema party spokesperson Coast Zone Gerva Lyenda said the ongoing unrest is motivated by their demand for a new constitution. Lyenda said that before the demand for a new constitution, there were no arrests. He said the problem is a new constitution, its their right and they will fight for it. Lyenda added that Chadema would like to obtain a new constitution without bloodshed. Chadema is challenging the current constitution which was formed under a single-party system saying it favors the ruling Revolutionary Party. A government critic such as Bob Wangwe sees the arrests as suppressing democracy in Tanzania. He says the police forces want to control what citizens discuss and what they can do, while the constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania grants citizens freedom and the right to discuss issues that concern them. He urges President Samia Hassan to take the issue seriously since it tarnishes the image of the country. Police declared the Chadema gathering on constitutional reform illegal and unconstitutional, pointing to Hassans remark that it is time to build the economy first. "Discussions about the constitution will be resumed after the economy becomes stable, when the president decides that the situation is good, then the symposium about the constitution will be given a permit," said Longinus Tibishubwamu, the head of police in Mara region. He added that if there is anyone trying to hold a constitutional forum now, he sees them as breaking the law. Analysts say Hassan has started well but incidents like these show some weakness. Political analyst Victor Kweka says there is no president who is perfect, but there are weaknesses that can be avoided. He added that if the president has good advisers, she can implement her duties in a way that will show that she really intends to have a national unity government and a country to stand together as one on economic, political and democratic matters. Meanwhile, opposition in Tanzania is still insisting that they will be continuing with their operation to exercise their democratic rights without fear from the state apparatus. For the president, building the economy is her first priority. United Nations human rights officials warn a new electoral law passed by Nicaraguas National Assembly early this month undermines prospects that Novembers presidential and parliamentary elections will be free and fair. The consequences of the new law have been immediate. In recent weeks, Nicaraguan authorities have used the so-called reforms under the new law to dissolve two political parties. They also have initiated a criminal investigation of one of the countrys main presumptive presidential candidates, Cristiana Chamorro. Spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Marta Hurtado says the authorities are investigating Chamorro for alleged money laundering. "The investigation is based on the law against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction adopted in July 2018," Hurtado said. "This broadly worded law has raised general concerns that it may be used to silence dissent. The allegations against Ms. Chamorro include the supposed misuse of funds received from international sources. President Daniel Ortega has been a major political force in the country since the Sandinista Party overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in 1979. He has maintained an iron grip on power since his last reelection as president in 2006. Hurtado says the National Police also have intensified actions to restrict the movements of other opposition leaders. "Under these circumstances, the dissolution of political parties and the initiation of criminal investigations that could lead to the disqualification of opposition candidates, without due process, not only undermine the right to stand for election by aspiring candidates, but also the right of voters to elect the candidates of their choice," Hurtado said. " The new electoral law is the latest in a series of measures adopted by the National Assembly that disproportionately restrict the right to freedom of expression by human rights defenders, journalists, political and social leaders. The U.N. human rights office is calling on the Nicaraguan Government to stop harassing members of the opposition and journalists. It also is urging the authorities to amend the electoral law, which it says impinges on human rights and threatens a democratic electoral process. Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct an error in its previous version to clarify that Violeta Chamorro was not a candidate in Nicaragua's 2006 election. Armenia filed a case at the world court asserting that Azerbaijan has violated an international treaty on racial discrimination, the court said Thursday. A spokesperson for the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Azerbaijan would defend itself "robustly" and planned to file a countersuit accusing Armenia of the same thing. In fighting last September to November, Azeri troops drove ethnic Armenian forces out of swaths of territory they had controlled since the 1990s in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, before Russia brokered a cease-fire. In the filing, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of subjecting Armenians to racial discrimination "for decades" in violation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, to which both states are signatories, the court said. Since the November 10 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has "continued to engage in the murder, torture and other abuse of Armenian prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons," the court cited the suit as saying. "Armenia therefore requests the Court to hold Azerbaijan responsible for its violations ... to prevent future harm, and to redress the harm that has already been caused, it said. The Azerbaijan spokesperson said that the country had been compiling evidence of Armenian human rights abuses against Azerbaijanis and that it would file its own suit at the court in "days." The world court, formally known as the International Court of Justice, is the U.N. court for resolving disputes between countries. The court has yet to determine whether it has jurisdiction in this case. Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis on Thursday conceded defeat in the general elections on the Atlantic island chain reeling from a surge in COVID-19 cases and slump in the tourism-dependent economy due to the pandemic. Minnis called his challenger Philip Davis to congratulate him and his Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) on winning the poll. "I offered him my best wishes as his government now faces the continued fight against COVID-19, and the restoration of our economy," Minnis, the leader of the Free National Movement (FNM) party, said in a statement. Minnis had been hoping to become the first prime minister in 24 years to win a second five-year term. But Davis' PLP gained momentum with a campaign focused on what it termed the government's mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak and the economy, which has seen unemployment surge to an estimated 20% and the fiscal deficit balloon during the pandemic. "In the morning we will rise as one nation and meet the challenges ahead," Davis told the media after Minnis conceded. "Thank you for seeing the possibilities of what we can build together for our children and grandchildren." Some 119 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Wednesday, taking the active number to 1,679 in the nation of 400,000 people, while the positivity rate has hovered around 25% for the past six weeks. Julian Rolle, chairman of the Public Hospitals Authority, told Bahamian media it had become difficult to staff health care facilities properly given about 5-10% of staff was quarantined due to exposure to the virus. Minnis had argued that the PLP cannot be trusted with reviving one of the most prosperous economies in the Atlantic-Caribbean region where tourism accounts for around 50% of output and 60% of employment. Under his watch, the Bahamas received a record 1.8 million visitors in 2019 and outgoing Tourism Minister Dionisio D'Aguilar said he was targeting 1 million air arrivals for 2021. Davis' PLP now faces some formidable challenges in office due to COVID-19 and its continuing health and economic impact. The scattered archipelago stretching from just off eastern Florida to near Cuba is also still rebuilding after being pummeled in 2019 by Hurricane Dorian, one of the strongest Caribbean hurricanes on record, which killed at least 74 people and left many others missing. National debt stood at $10.4 billion at end-June 2021, according to the Bahamian Ministry of Finance, which forecasts a $951 million fiscal deficit for 2021-22. Gowon Bowe, chief executive of Fidelity Bank (Bahamas), a publicly traded bank, told Reuters: "The reality is that we dont have much wiggle room left. There wont be a honeymoon for a new administration. Its going to be right about the business because theres a lot we have to right." U.S. President Joe Biden convened six heads of state and three leaders of multilateral organizations on Friday to make his plea: that stronger climate action is not just urgent it is good for the global economy. The leaders met six weeks ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, an event that aims to chart future global climate efforts. I wanted to show that we're at an inflection point and that there's a real consensus, a real consensus, that while the climate crisis poses an existential threat, there is a silver lining, Biden told the leaders of Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico and the United Kingdom, who all joined virtually. The climate crisis also presents real and incredible economic opportunities to create jobs and lift up the standard of living for people around the world. One of Bidens first acts in office was to return the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change, after his predecessor withdrew saying it was a bad deal for the country. The legally binding international treaty aims to limit the global temperature increase by 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels. For developed nations like the U.S. and China the two largest emitters that would require a substantial reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. For the U.S., that would require reducing emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030, a move that could require a marked shift from traditional energy sources like coal towards greener sources like solar and wind power. The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed Bidens sense of urgency on Friday. The world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7 degrees of heating, he said in a statement, citing a report released Friday by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is breaking the promise made six years ago to pursue the 1.5-degree Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement. Failure to meet this goal will be measured in the massive loss of lives and livelihoods." The U.N. chief directly pinned responsibility on the developed world, noting that 80% of global emissions are caused by the worlds 20 wealthiest nations. He called on all nations to set more ambitious emissions targets, and for developed countries to deliver on their $100 billion commitment to help developing nations deal with climate change. But notable by their absence at Fridays meeting was any representative from the worlds largest emitter: China. Nikos Tsafos, an analyst working on energy and geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says there is a lot of subtext to the U.S.-China relationship when it comes to climate change discussions. The bilateral relationship is more complex and adversarial than it was during the negotiation of the Paris Agreement in 2015, making it hard to disentangle climate from the numerous disputes between the two countries, he wrote in an opinion piece. China has also tried to brand itself as a leader on climate and is less willing to do anything that might be seen as kowtowing to U.S. pressure. But, he noted, Chinas perspective has also changed. They now, too, see opportunity to cash in. For years, he said, Chinese firms have been major players in the wind and solar power industries, and the nation is a bigger market for electric vehicles than the U.S. There is no longer a need to convince China to lean into the energy transition, he said. The 197 parties to the Paris Agreement which include individual countries and supranational groupings will meet in November, in Glasgow, Scotland. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he would urge Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel. Blinken spoke at a virtual gathering with officials from Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. The meeting was held on the first anniversary of U.S.-brokered diplomatic agreements reached last year known as the Abraham Accords. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said during the meeting he would visit Bahrain later this month, the first such visit by an Israeli minister to the country since the pacts were reached. He said the accords were open to new members as well. U.S. President Joe Biden has supported the agreements brokered by former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. The Palestinians have perceived the deals as a betrayal because they further weakened a longstanding Arab position that recognition of Israel should be linked to progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Senior Biden administration officials have said they want more Arab countries to normalize ties with Israel, but until Fridays meeting, the administration had been reluctant to observe the anniversary of the agreements. Blinken touted the deals and their economic benefits and said, This administration will continue to build on the successful efforts of the last administration to keep normalization marching forward. The secretary of state said he would also help Israel develop better relations with Sudan, which reached a breakthrough with Israel last year, and Egypt and Jordan, countries with longstanding peace deals with Israel. Some information in this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. The Chinese Embassy in Australia rejected on Fridays "unfounded accusations" against China made by the defense and foreign ministers of Australia and their U.S. counterparts after annual talks in Washington. The two countries, in a statement after Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations, expressed concern over China's "expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea that are without legal basis," and stated their intention to strengthen ties with their "critical partner" Taiwan. The comments from Australia and the United States came a day after they announced a submarine deal as part of a security partnership that includes Britain, which China denounced as intensifying a regional arms race. Australia and the United States also criticized China's imposition of national security legislation in Hong Kong last year that they said had weakened its electoral system, suppressed media freedom, and undermined the former British colony's "one country, two systems" formula, agreed when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. They also expressed "grave concerns about China's "campaign of repression against Uyghurs", a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in western China's Xinjiang region. The Chinese Embassy dismissed their accusations as a futile pressure tactic. "This petty move to put pressure on China will be of no avail but a staged farce," a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Canberra said in a statement. "We firmly oppose and reject the unfounded accusations and erroneous remarks against China on issues related to the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other China-related issues." Taiwan's government welcomed the show of support from Washington and Canberra. "Our country's government will, on the existing solid foundation, continue to work closely with the United States, Australia and other like-minded countries to expand Taiwan's international space, defend the democratic system and shared values," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou. Speaking after the meetings in Washington, Australia and the United States also announced expanded military cooperation, including rotational deployments of all types of U.S. military aircraft to Australia. Pakistan military officials on Wednesday said at least seven soldiers were killed in a gunfight with militants in a remote district bordering Afghanistan. An army statement said security forces, acting on intelligence, raided a suspected terrorist hideout in South Waziristan and suffered the casualties in the ensuing intense exchange of fire. At least five terrorists were also killed and a cordon and search operation was underway to clear the area of any remaining militants, the statement added. The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) confirmed the overnight raid of one of its bases in the border district. The militant group, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed the firefight had killed nine Pakistani soldiers and injured several others while all TTP fighters managed to escape the area. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the groups claims, which are often exaggerated. The Pakistani Taliban is designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States. Pakistan says the TTP uses sanctuaries in Afghanistan to orchestrate cross-border terrorist attacks. The countrys military in recent years has conducted major offensives, backed by air power, in a bid to secure districts along the Afghan border, which have historically served as strongholds for local and foreign militant groups. The security operations have forced TTP fighters to flee into Afghanistan and organize deadly attacks against Pakistan from that side of the border. Last week, the TTP claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Pakistan that killed at least three people and left 20 wounded. That latest attack came a month after the Afghan Taliban, to whom the TTP has vowed allegiance, seized power in Afghanistan by toppling the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. Top Pakistani security officials say Islamabad is in contact with the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, pressing the Islamist group to prevent TTP members from using Afghan soil to attack Pakistan. Botswana's health authorities say they have arranged to receive nearly 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough to cover the entire adult population. If every adult takes the vaccine, Botswana could become the first country in Africa to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. In a televised address Monday, Mosepele Mosepele, deputy coordinator of the Botswana Presidential COVID-19 Task Force, said the country reached agreements with vaccine manufacturers to supply doses to cover 1.9 million people. Botswana has an adult population of 1.6 million, but noncitizens are also eligible for the vaccine, Mosepele added. Botswana received 60,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from India and the COVAX facility last month. Mosepele said the uptake of the vaccine has been impressive, with 47,160 receiving the jab since March 26. Mosepele said he is not sure when the 1.9 million doses will arrive, but that the largest portion of the pending shipment is from Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to deliver 1.1 million doses of its one-shot vaccine. In the meantime, the government this week received 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China. Kabo Morwaeng, Botswana's minister of presidential affairs, urged people to take the Sinovac doses. "I also wish to implore all those who may be reluctant to do so, to step up and take their jabs. This process is intended for the good of all of us," he said. "I must assure you that our health authorities, through the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BOMRA), will continue to ascertain that the vaccines we receive are safe for use by all of us." Earlier this month, two people died after receiving the Covishield vaccine. BOMRA is investigating the incident. Botswana Nurses Union spokesperson Aobakwe Lesolame said the government needs to speedily roll out the vaccination campaign once the doses arrive. "We are pleading with the ministry (of health) that as these vaccines continue to arrive, they make sure that they roll out the strategy, very clear, very basic, very simple (and) disseminate across structures so that everybody can take part," Lesolame said. "The vaccine rollout plan should focus on using community halls so that we ease the burden on public health facilities." Botswana has recorded 702 deaths from COVID-19, with February and March being the deadliest months. Authorities have confirmed 46,000 cases of the virus overall. Cuban authorities on Friday launched a national campaign to vaccinate children ages 2-18 against COVID-19, a prerequisite set by the communist government for schools to reopen amid a spike in infections. Children 12 and older will be the first to receive one of the two domestically produced vaccines, Abdala and Soberana, followed by younger kids. Schools have mostly been closed in Cuba since March 2020, and students have been following lessons on television. With the school year starting Monday, they will continue learning remotely until all eligible children are vaccinated. Laura Lantigua, 17, got the first of three injections at Saul Delgado high school in the Cuban capital, Havana. "I always wanted to be vaccinated," Lantigua told AFP. She said that doctors measured her blood pressure and temperature before giving her the shot, then told her to wait for an hour to ensure she didn't have any side effects. "I felt normal, fine," Lantigua said. Late Friday, the Medicines Regulatory Agency (Cecmed) announced that it authorized the emergency use of the Soberana 2 vaccine for minors between the ages of 2 and 18. The composition of Cuban vaccines, which are not recognized by the World Health Organization, is based on a recombinant protein, the same technique used by the U.S. company Novavax. With the delta variant spreading across the island of 11.2 million, the country's health care system has been pushed to the brink. Of the 5,300 novel coronavirus deaths recorded since the outbreak started, nearly half were in August, as were almost a third of all reported cases. The government said it plans to gradually reopen schools for in-person instruction in October after the vaccination campaign among children is completed. The U.N. refugee agency warns of dire global consequences if millions of refugees and other forcibly displaced people fail to receive the support needed to protect them from COVID-19 and prevent the virus from spreading in host communities. COVID-19 is the agency's most underfunded emergency. It tops the list of the 10 most forgotten refugee crises worldwide which include Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, and several other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The U.N. refugee agency reports it has received only one-third of the $924 million it needs for COVID relief. Most refugees live in developing countries with fragile health systems that have difficulty caring for their own people. Unlike the world's wealthier nations, the poorer countries have limited access to life-saving vaccines. Chief of UNHCR's Public Health Section, Ann Burton, says that until now, most hosting states have been sharing their scant supplies with the refugees. "However, we have seen that many barriers to vaccine access remain," she said. "UNHCR stands ready to support states to overcome some of these barriers, provided we have the means to do so. The pandemic hurts forcibly displaced and stateless people in ways that reach far beyond the risk posed by the virus itself. And failure to adequately fund the response only deepens their plight." UNHCR data show more than 100,000 refugees have been infected with COVID-19, including more than 1,850 deaths. However, Burton says this number is vastly underreported and does not reflect the severity of the pandemic in refugee communities. She says the economic fallout of the pandemic is having a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of refugees. She says they cannot afford to pay rent and provide for other necessities such as food, health care, and education. "UNHCR calls upon states to include refugees in national social safety nets and on donors to support us, in order to help fill that gap," Burton said. "Our COVID-19 response covers every region and encompasses the whole spectrum of needs reflecting the wide-reaching ramifications of the pandemic on the lives of those forced to flee." The UNHCR notes forcibly displaced people constitute 1 percent of the world's population. It warns that failing to integrate them into the global response would be reckless. This, it says, would risk the continued spread of the disease and prolong the pandemic. Now all I want to do is try everything possible with the goal to eventually return home. I think this is the desire for a lot of Hong Kongers in exile. Lee Ka-wai, a 25-year-old former district councilor in Hong Kong, left the former British colony in March to forge a new identity in London where hes trying to figure out what to do next after a working life in journalism and community activism. Lee became district councilor for Tuen Mun District in November 2019, when 452 seats on the local advisory body were up for grabs across Hong Kong. The direct vote, a landslide victory for the pro-democracy opposition, came after months of demonstrations and protests by Hong Kongers who objected to Chinas tightening grip. Lee, a journalist who pivoted into pro-democracy activism during the protests, ran for the Tuen Mun seat after another candidate dropped out. Residents of the middle-class but not monied district were once fed up with mainland traders who made day trips into area to buy household items for resale in China. By the time Lee ran for office, that irritation had waned as their suspicion of Beijing grew. Lee, with a group of other young candidates, the 10 Tuen Mun Brothers defeated veteran pro-Beijing candidates. Responding to his constituents desire for change, Lee joined the movement to form the Hong Kong Citizens Deliberative Platform, a platform for cross-party cooperation and civic discussions that was hobbled in December 2020 after the Hong Kong government said the platform could violate the National Security Law imposed in June. But Lee carried on as Tuen Muns district councilor. The hyper-local position addresses basic concerns of constituents such as overflowing trash bins and accessing government programs. Its difficult, demanding work, and Lee told VOA Cantonese that he found his job even more challenging when he learned he was being followed. In early January, when Lee witnessed the arrests of some 50 pro-democracy politicians and activists, he knew he was in danger. Lee felt guilty, he said, when he saw his friends being jailed. I know it was a real luxury that I could choose to leave, he told VOA Cantonese. Without resigning as Tuen Muns district councilor, he arrived in Britain in March 2021 and moved into a London "parent house" run by Hong Kongers willing to take in exiled dissidents for a short time. Britain has taken in thousands of Hong Kongers. Some hold British National Overseas passports, a document available to those born before Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997; others do not. Lee, who preferred to not disclose his immigration status, is using the parent house refuge to try figure out his next step. I didnt really want to resign, he told VOA Cantonese. I thought I could still help my people even if Im abroad. For a few months, Lee helped other Hong Kong activists self-exiled in Britain with applications for college and asylum. He found that without much work experience, setting out on a new career path when he wasnt sure where he would be the next day seemed like an insurmountable challenge. Another activist living in the parent house inspired Lee during dark moments. He started to cook and work out the first day he arrived in Britain, Lee told VOA Cantonese. He told me, yes theres no way to know what will happen to Hong Kong. And yes, its hard to predict where my life would take me tomorrow, but if I cant take care of myself at this very moment, then I cant deal with any problems down the road. The other activist made Lee realize that most people who have had to relocate to other countries go through a period of identity crisis. And although Lee knew he didnt want to give up his identity as a district councilor, fulfilling his duties from afar was a struggle. In May, the Hong Kong government helped Lee decide his future when the Legislative Council, which is dominated by pro-government lawmakers, passed an amendment requiring district councilors to swear an oath of allegiance to the government, even though they were already in office. In response, more than 250 councilors have quit. Lee, who was officially disqualified in July for missing several meetings, said he would not have taken the oath. I didnt want to be forced to say anything I didnt want to say, he added. And I knew at that point that I had to take care of myself first, so I let go of my job as a district councilor, Lee said. Now, Im just a Hong Konger in exile whos trying to figure out my life, he continued. The promise to return several Benin Bronzes from three Western institutions to the former Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria was celebrated by many. But returning all the artifacts looted by British soldiers 125 years ago will continue to be a challenge. In recent weeks, a university in Scotland and museums in Germany and Britain pledged to repatriate the Benin Bronzes they own. The restitution is hugely symbolic to Timothy Awoyemi, a British-born Nigerian who helped repatriate two Benin Bronzes in 2014 from a private collector whose grandfather had been part of the 19th century looting. Awoyemi says he was elated when he heard about the latest returns. They stole it so it makes me happy, because the stolen artifacts are going to be returned back to where they rightly belong, he said. British soldiers looted the Kingdom of Benin in what is currently Edo state in Nigeria, during a punitive military expedition in 1897. The high valued plaques, masks and sculptures functioned as an historical archive to the Benin royal palace. The sculptures made of brass, bronze and ivory are now owned and displayed across Western museums and institutions. Oxford Professor Dan Hicks is the curator of the Pitts River Museum, which holds 145 Benin objects. He authored a book about the bronzes, and says the displays of stolen art in Western museums continues to hurt people in the present. The dispossession of arts and culture was a central sort of part of how military operations that sought to remove sovereignty, and sought to destroy traditional religion, and sought to remove identity, culture. That was a central part of what the Europeans were doing in the 1880s, 1890s across Africa, he said. Hicks says the argument that Western museums would be emptied out or shut down is unlikely as restitution needs a case by case approach. Thousands of bronzes from the former Benin empire are held in private collections and in over 160 museums around the world. Most have offered to discuss loaning the bronzes instead of repatriation. The British Museum in London holds about 900 Benin objects, the largest collection in the world. Its website reads no formal written request has been received for the return of the entire Benin collection, despite the bronzes being filed under contested objects. Additionally, laws would need to be changed because British national collections are prohibited from giving away their collection. The African Foundation for Development, Afford, is a British based charity, which, for the past year, has investigated the challenges and obstacles related to returning African artifacts. Executive director Onyekachi Wambu says that even if the national collections arent willing or able to repatriate, there are many more places and people owning Benin Bronzes. There's lots of different museums around the country, which have their own collections, and they're not covered by the law. There are others that are in private collections, and those are going to be much more difficult to do because, you know, those people sometimes don't want to do it, he said. Its said over 90 percent of African cultural legacy is held outside the continent. Although many Western countries have laws ensuring the return of Nazi-looted art, this approach has not been extended when it comes to art stolen from Africa and other parts of the world. U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria say they are increasingly concerned about a wave of Turkish drone attacks against their commanders in northeast Syria. Turkey reportedly carried out dozens of airstrikes last week, including several with unmanned aerial vehicles, against positions belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been a major U.S. partner in the fight against the Islamic State group, also known as IS or ISIS. Turkey views the SDF and its main element, the People's Protection Units (YPG), as an extension of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group given a terrorist designation by Washington and Ankara. The U.S., however, makes a distinction between the two Kurdish groups. "Turkey has recently increased its drone attacks against our military points and commanders throughout northeast Syria, in places like Kobani, Tell Tamer and most recently in Qamishli," said Shervan Darwish, a spokesperson for the SDF-affiliated Manbij military council. "The current political climate doesn't help Turkey to wage a large-scale ground operation, so instead they use drones and airstrikes to expand their operations," he told VOA. The SDF said a Turkish drone strike killed one of its high-ranking commanders near the city of Qamishli on Sunday. Several other SDF commanders were targeted last week in another reported Turkish drone attack on the SDF-held town of Tell Tamer. Turkey's foreign ministry did not respond to a VOA request for comment. But pro-government Turkish media outlets have reported on Turkish drone attacks in recent days against SDF commanders in northeast Syria. Turkey's defense ministry has also said its armed forces have "neutralized" Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, without specifying how they were targeted. Turkish military and allied Syrian militias have been in control of parts of northeast Syria since October 2019, following a major military campaign against SDF fighters. Since then, the U.S. and Russia have sponsored separate cease-fire deals between the warring sides. US 'deeply concerned' On Monday, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA on background that "the United States is deeply concerned about reports of increased military activity in northeast Syria," adding that Washington supports the "maintenance of the current cease-fire lines and urge(s) all parties to de-escalate." In a bipartisan letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this month, 27 members of the U.S. Congress expressed concern over Turkey's plans to develop its armed drone industry. Turkey's use of drones "has destabilized multiple regions of the globe and threatens U.S. interests, allies, and partners," the letter said. "Over the last year, Turkish drones have been deployed by Azerbaijan against Armenian civilians in Artsakh, Syria; against Kurdish forces that have partnered with the U.S. in the war against ISIS; and in Libya's civil war," it added. Seth Frantzman, author of the recent book Drone Wars, says drones are a weapon system that is "ideally suited" for the Middle East. "You can use drones over areas that are part of a conflict or contested area where maybe there is no governing authority," he told VOA. "You can fly the drones, attack people, and then the drones go away. There's no risk to your own pilots, and if you make a mistake, you can blame it on someone else. So a lot of countries in the region love drones." Frantzman said Turkey's drone campaign and overall posture in Syria also complicates ongoing counterterrorism efforts against remnants of IS in the war-torn country. "The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting ISIS. Meanwhile, Turkey is trying to destabilize the same area by carrying out airstrikes and drone attacks on the SDF or groups linked to the SDF, and that destabilizes the region that may inadvertently or advertently end up helping the ISIS cells." VOA's Nike Ching, Saleh Damiger and Ezel Sahinkaya contributed to this story from Washington. Europe's top human rights body on Friday called on Greece's parliament to withdraw articles included in draft legislation that would impose heavy penalties on nongovernmental organizations that carry out unsanctioned rescue operations of migrants at sea. The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic, said in a statement that the proposed changes would "seriously hinder the life-saving work" carried out by NGOs. Greece's center-right government has toughened border controls since taking office two years ago and has promised additional restrictions in response to the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. Under draft legislation currently being debated in parliament, members of charities involved in rescue operations conducted without coast guard permission could be jailed for up to a year and fined 1,000 euros ($1,190), with the NGOs facing additional fines. Lesbos and other Greek islands close to the coast of Turkey were the main entry point for refugees and migrants into the European Union during mass displacements in 2015 and 2016 largely caused by wars in Syria and Iraq. Speaking at a security summit in Slovenia earlier this week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed support for a decision by EU home affairs ministers to seek cooperation with countries in the region "to prevent illegal migration from" Afghanistan. "I think what happened in 2015 was a mistake. We acknowledge it openly. We (must) address the need to support refugees closer to the source of the problem, which is Afghanistan," Mitsotakis said. Analysts say North Korea is on course to escalate threats in an attempt to put pressure on the Biden administration and gain leverage in future negotiations with the United States. "North Korea stepped up the ladder of tests from cruise missiles not sanctioned to short-range ballistic missiles sanctioned and tested last March," said Scott Snyder, director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. "It is reasonable to anticipate the possibility of another incremental step in the testing sphere depending on how North Korea assesses Biden's response to this test," said Snyder. North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests in the past week. On Saturday and Sunday, it launched a new type of long-range cruise missiles, and on Wednesday, it tested rail-launched short-range ballistic missiles. The long-range cruise missiles flew 1,500 kilometers into the atmosphere before landing in North Korea's territorial waters. The ballistic missiles flew 800 kilometers and landed in the sea off North Korea's east coast, according to North Korea's official news agency KCNA. North Korea described the new cruise missile tested over the weekend as "a strategic weapon of great significance" and the short-range ballistic missiles as "a railway-borne missile regiment." These back-to-back tests came after a quiet period that began in March after North Korea test-fired a new tactical short-range ballistic missile. While cruise missiles do not violate United Nations sanctions on North Korea, ballistic missiles violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. Ken Gause, director of the Adversary Analytics Program at CNA, said the long-range cruise missiles "landed within North Korean waters" while the short-range ballistic missiles "landed outside of North Korean waters. So it's a step in terms of escalation. And they could continue to gradually escalate until they get the U.S.s attention." A show of strength Harry Kazianis, senior director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest, said North Korea showcased new weapons to bolster its image of military strength after appearing weak recently while struggling with multiple domestic issues. "Sanctions, COVID-19 self-imposed international isolation creating economic chaos, and natural disasters have created the impression that the Kim regime is on the ropes," Kazianis said. "Pyongyang now hopes to change the narrative and showcase its new weapons systems to the world. In the weeks ahead, before the colder weather and snow comes, North Korea will test bigger and deadlier weapons systems to test the resolve of the Biden administration," he added. While condemning North Korea's launch of ballistic missiles, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday that Washington is "committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK." The acronym DPRK refers to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We call on the DPRK to engage in a meaningful and substantive dialogue with us," Price continued. The Biden administration has been publicly extending the offer of dialogue to North Korea since May, after it concluded its policy review of the regime. Besides describing its policy as a "calibrated, practical approach," the Biden administration has not revealed further details of its policy toward North Korea. The U.S. also has ratcheted up its multilateral efforts to deal with North Korea, meeting with key allies South Korea and Japan this week. The U.S. envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, met with South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, Noh Kyu-duk, and Japanese Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi in Tokyo Monday-Wednesday. At the meeting held on Tuesday, Kim said, "We hope that the DPRK will respond positively to our multiple offers to meet without preconditions." North Korea has yet to respond to the U.S. offer for talks as nuclear talks remain largely deadlocked since October 2019. South Korea launches missile Within a few hours of North Korea's ballistic missile test on Wednesday, South Korea announced it had conducted its first submarine-launched ballistic missile. While observing the test, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said, "The increase in our missile power can be a sure deterrent against North Korean provocations." Experts said Seoul's missile test had been planned in advance and did not appear to be a direct response to Pyongyang's missile launches. However, they said, it contains a subtle message of warning to North Korea. "It is a warning to the extent that South Korea intends to match North Korean capabilities, but it is hardly a precursor to rising tensions, as Moon is emphasizing a deterrent role for military development and is clearly not signaling the likelihood of use except in defense," Snyder said. Following South Korea's test, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, on Wednesday threatened that Moon's "slander and detraction" against Pyongyang "will be followed by counteractions, and that North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction." Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council said, "It is unclear if these developments will enhance the prospects for nuclear talks." "Pyongyang has refused even exploratory talks with the U.S.," he continued. "It may, however, put more pressure on the Biden administration to better address North Korea's nuclear problems." French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday celebrated the 40th anniversary of France's Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) "high-speed train" system, by unveiling a more efficient and environmentally friendly next-generation train. During a ceremony at the Gare de Lyon rail station in Paris, Macron hailed the history of the original TGV, inaugurated at the same station by then-French President Francois Mitterrand. That first French bullet train first joined Paris to Lyon and then eventually connected the rest of the country, with high-speed tracks now extending to Strasbourg and Bordeaux and trains that travel at speeds of 350 kph. In 2007, a TGV reached a record 574.8 kph, a mark that still stands. On Friday, Macron dropped the curtain actually, a large French flag on the next generation of high-speed train, the TGV M, which the French president described as a "formidable symbol" which is going to recapture spaces and win back the hearts of the French." Macron announced a $7.7 billion plan to redevelop and revitalize the TGV network and the state-run rail company SNCF, including new lines serving cities such as Nice and Toulouse, as well as lines serving smaller communities. He said the plan also includes improving rail freight service. The new, streamlined version of the TGV will carry more passengers up to 740 passengers from 600 and move between cities at a top speed of 320 kph while consuming 20% less electricity. Increasing train use is also part of France's plan to reduce emissions in the country. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP. On a warm September afternoon, the River Ahr winds gently through steep terraced vineyards and wooded valleys in a prosperous corner of western Germany. Its difficult to believe the river, now running barely a foot deep across the scoured gravel, could swell into such a destructive force. Eight weeks ago, as a storm system tracked eastward across Europe in mid-July, the Ahr valley was hit by unprecedented rainfall. In just a few hours, the water level rose by more than nine meters, inundating entire villages. One hundred and thirty-four people were killed as the floodwaters tore down the narrow valley. More than 500 houses were swept away entirely, and thousands more severely damaged. Seventy-seven bridges were washed away, along with roads and railroads. While the Ahr has flooded several times in the past, scientists have blamed the intensity and volume of rainfall on climate change. For the survivors, it has been a grueling two months: a daily effort to rebuild lives and livelihoods amid the choking dust and mud, while attempting to process the grief, the shock, and the realization that life in these communities will never be the same again. Vera Zicken is a long-time resident of Altenahr whose home and nearby vineyards were damaged by the floods. If you just look at our town, at how many houses are damaged beyond repair, how many houses have been torn down all that remains are pieces of this town. And there are lots of houses that wont be rebuilt, she told VOA. The fundamental problem is that with climate change, with this heavy rain that has impacted Germany, we have to take a different approach. We have to work towards taking preventative measures, so when this kind of rain happens again, the water cant hit communities as hard as it did and cause this kind of damage. Will the climate crisis persuade German voters to take a new approach? Germanys Green party is currently third in the polls, but their support has fallen in recent weeks. Paula Piechotta, a Green Party candidate from Leipzig, says a generational divide is holding Germany back. If something can be felt, people tend to change their attitude toward it. And climate change can be felt here. We had summers of drought, we had extreme rain, we had a lot of problems in our forests. So, we feel that climate change is actually real and its happening. However, we see a clear divide between younger and older people. Younger people under the age of 40 tend to prioritize environmental issues, climate issues in their voting decisions. Older people dont, Piechotta told VOA. There also is a geographical divide. In the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt lie some of Europes largest lignite mines, commonly known as brown coal. It is among the most polluting and least efficient sources of energy and Germany is the worlds largest producer. The government plans to close all its brown coal mines by 2038. Many Germans want them shut down much sooner. But there are two big questions: what would replace the tens of thousands of jobs that would be lost in an economically depressed area of Germany? And what would replace the brown coal that provides some 20 per cent of Germanys electricity? With Germany also phasing out nuclear power by the end of 2022, local officials say their lignite remains vital to Germanys prosperity. Brown coal is still the number one energy source in our state, said Rudiger Erben, a member of the Social Democratic Party in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament. Wind and solar are great, but when the sun doesnt shine or we have a day without wind, the basic energy supply for the industrial sector still has to be there. There is definitely a contradiction in what gets said internationally. Outside of Germany, you see a lot of pictures of our wind farms or massive solar parks, and at the same time, Germany is one of the biggest investors in brown coal worldwide. There is this East German saying: I am a miner, who can do more than me? This basically says that as a miner, you are the foundation of the economy, Erben told VOA. Back in the Ahr valley, many residents say they are too busy rebuilding to bother with politics. But there is also frustration that the authorities didnt take preventative action. Of course, climate change was definitely part of the cause, but it was not the cause alone. They all kind of failed here. [Chancellor Angela] Merkel and her people, they failed, but I also believe the state politicians, they failed, too, said 63-year-old Altenahr resident Hans-Jakob Zmudczynski. Merkels successor faces daunting challenges: tackling the climate crisis while powering Europes largest economy; reconciling the climate-conscious youth with older generations; and continuing to balance Germanys lingering economic and social divide between east and wes International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday disputed an independent investigation that found that in her previous job at the World Bank, she pressed staff to alter a report to avoid angering China. Based on the findings, the World Bank announced it was immediately discontinuing its Doing Business report, after the investigation found irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 editions. Georgieva, a Bulgarian national who took the helm of the IMF in October 2019, rejected its conclusions regarding her role. "I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Bank's 'Doing Business' report of 2018," she said in a statement. The allegations could damage her reputation and provide grist for longtime U.S. critics of the multilateral organizations and their treatment of China. 'Serious findings' "These are serious findings," the U.S. Treasury said in a statement, noting that it was "analyzing the report." "Our primary responsibility is to uphold the integrity of international financial institutions," the statement said. Georgieva said she briefed the IMF board on the situation. The board was expected to meet to discuss the issue, but it was unclear when. Justin Sandefur of the Center for Global Development, who has written extensively about the problems with the report's methodology, said, "We need to hear her side of the story, but it doesn't look great right now." "The IMF is in charge of monitoring the integrity of macroeconomic and financial data internationally, and for the head of the IMF to have been involved in data manipulation is a pretty damning allegation," he told Agence France-Presse. "That does seem like a real hit on their credibility." Report ranks countries The flagship report ranks countries based on their business regulations and economic reforms and has caused governments to jockey for a higher spot to attract investors. According to the investigation, Beijing complained about its ranking of 78th on the list in 2017, and the next year's report would have shown Beijing dropping even further. The Washington-based development lender's staff was preparing the 2018 edition while leadership engaged in sensitive negotiations to increase its lending capital, which hinged on an agreement with China and the United States. In the final weeks before the report was released at the end of October 2017, the World Bank's then-president, Jim Kim, and Georgieva, at the time the bank's CEO, asked staff to look into updating the methodology in regard to China, according to the investigation by law firm WilmerHale. Chinese officials dismayed Kim discussed the rankings with senior Chinese officials, who were dismayed by the country's ranking, and his aides raised the issue of how to improve it, according to the summary of the probe, released by the World Bank. It is considered one of Kim's signature achievements that he shepherded a deal for a $13 billion increase in World Bank resources. The bargain required support from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who opposed concessional lending to China, and from Beijing, which agreed to pay more for loans. Amid the pressure from upper management, staff changed some of the input data, which boosted China's ranking in 2018 by seven places to 78 the same as it was the previous year, according to the investigation that analyzed 80,000 documents and interviewed more than three dozen current and former employees of the lender. Georgieva chastised a World Bank senior official for "mishandling the bank's relationship with China and failing to appreciate the importance of the 'Doing Business' report to the country," the report said. After the changes were made, she thanked him for "doing his part for multilateralism." Nobel Prize winner concerned Georgieva later visited the home of the manager in charge of the report to retrieve a copy, whom she thanked for helping to "resolve the problem." Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize winner who served as the World Bank's chief economist at the time, resigned in January 2018 after telling a reporter that the methodology for the ranking had been changed in a way that could give the impression political considerations affected the results. At the time, the World Bank strenuously denied any political influence over the rankings. The investigation also found "improper changes" in the 2020 report affecting the rankings of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan. Nadia Daar, head of Oxfam International's Washington, D.C., office, applauded the decision to scrap the report, saying the index "encouraged governments to adopt destructive policies that worsen inequality." The prosecutor tasked with examining the U.S. government's investigation into Russian election interference charged a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on Thursday with making a false statement to the FBI. The case against the attorney, Michael Sussmann, is just the second prosecution brought by special counsel John Durham in 2 years of work. Yet neither case brought by Durham undoes the core finding of an earlier investigation by Robert Mueller that Russia had interfered in sweeping fashion on behalf of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and that the Trump campaign welcomed that aid. It lays bare the wide-ranging and evolving nature of Durham's investigation. In addition to having scrutinized the activities of FBI and CIA officials during the early days of the Russia probe, it has also looked at the behavior of private individuals like Sussman who provided the U.S. government with information as it scrambled to determine whether Trump associates were coordinating with Russia to tip the election's outcome. Suspect worked with Clinton campaign The indictment accuses Sussmann of hiding that he was working with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign during a September 2016 conversation he had with the FBI's general counsel, when he relayed concerns from cybersecurity researchers about potentially suspicious contacts between Russia-based Alfa Bank and a Trump organization server. The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections. Sussmann is a former federal prosecutor who specializes in cybersecurity. Sussmann's lawyers, Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth, said their client is a highly respected national security lawyer who had previously worked in the Justice Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations. They said they were confident he would prevail at trial and "vindicate his good name." "Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime," they said in a statement. "Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented, and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work." The Alfa Bank matter was not a pivotal element of the Russia probe and was not even mentioned in Mueller's 448-page report in 2019. Still, the indictment may give fodder to Russia investigation critics who regard it as politically tainted and engineered by Democrats. Sussmann's former firm, Perkins Coie, has deep Democratic connections. A then-partner at the firm, Marc Elias, brokered a deal with the Fusion GPS research firm to study Trump's business ties to Russia. That work, by former British spy Christopher Steele, produced a dossier of research that helped form the basis of flawed surveillance applications targeting a former Trump campaign official, Carter Page. Firm accepts resignation A spokesman for Perkins Coie said Sussmann, "who has been on leave from the firm, offered his resignation from the firm in order to focus on his legal defense, and the firm accepted it." The Durham investigation has already spanned months longer than the earlier special counsel probe into Russian election interference conducted by Mueller, the former FBI director, and his team. The investigation was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic and experienced leadership tumult following the abrupt departure last fall of a top deputy on Durham's team. Though Trump had eagerly anticipated Durham's findings in hopes that they'd be a boon to his reelection campaign, any political impact the conclusion may have once had has been dimmed by the fact that Trump is no longer in office. The Durham appointment by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 was designed to examine potential errors or misconduct in the U.S. government's investigation into whether Trump's 2016 presidential campaign was conspiring with Russia to sway the outcome of the election. A two-year investigation by Mueller established that the Trump campaign was eager to receive and benefit from Kremlin aid and documented multiple interactions between Russians and Trump associates. Investigators said they did not find enough evidence to charge any campaign official with having conspired with Russia, though a half-dozen Trump aides were charged with various offenses, including false statements. Until now, Durham had brought only one criminal case a false statement charge against an FBI lawyer who altered an email related to the surveillance of Page to obscure the nature of Page's preexisting relationship with the CIA. That lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. Afghanistan, climate action and the COVID-19 pandemic will be front and center next week when large numbers of world leaders return to New York for their first in-person meetings at the United Nations in more than a year. The coronavirus pandemic has slowed in-person diplomacy at the United Nations, and last September it was still considered too unsafe to hold the annual gathering that draws nearly 200 presidents and prime ministers and their large delegations in person, so it was all virtual. Vaccines have made it safer to hold a scaled-down gathering, although the rampant spread of the delta variant left decisions for many about coming until the last minute. Leaders also have the option to stay home and send a video message, which about 50 of them plan to do. Many of those leaders are from lower income countries where vaccines have been in short supply, highlighting the imbalance in vaccine access. What we need is a global vaccination plan, and we need those that have power in the world to put their power at the service of vaccine equity, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters recently. The World Health Organization has set a global target of vaccinating at least 40% of the population of every country against COVID-19 by the end of this year, and 70% of the worlds population by the middle of next year. More than 5.7 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, about 260 million of them through COVAX, a multilateral effort for equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. But lower-income countries are still lagging far behind wealthy ones, particularly in Africa, where only 2% of the worlds vaccine doses have been administered. U.S. President Joe Biden is convening a virtual summit on Wednesday that will urge commitments from both the public and private sectors to work to end the pandemic by next year. We are building a coalition of governments, businesses, international institutions and civil society to expand vaccine production, accelerate access to vaccines and life-saving treatment, and strengthen health systems around the globe, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Friday. Climate emergency Guterres has encouraged leaders to build back better from the pandemic, and a large part of that is focused on a greener recovery. The world is not on track to meet pledges made in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to slow global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and as low as 1.5 degrees, above pre-industrial levels. We really are out of time, Guterres said Thursday in a video message marking a grim U.N. climate report. We must act now to prevent further irreversible damage. In November, nations will meet in Glasgow, Scotland, to try to remove some of the obstacles to achieving the Paris goals. It has to be a turning point where action on mitigation, adaptation and finance happen, a senior U.N. official said of the Glasgow conference, known as COP26. On Monday, Guterres will co-host a private summit with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and a small group of leaders to try to advance some of the priorities for Glasgow to be a success. As the [British] prime minister has said, we need urgent progress on cash, cars, coal and trees, British Ambassador Barbara Woodward said. That means raising the $100 billion to fund adaptation and resilience for climate-vulnerable countries. It means getting ambitious plans from countries who have not set out how they will cut emissions, particularly phasing out coal, and revitalizing and protecting nature. Geopolitical crises There will be no shortage of political and humanitarian problems to discuss. Conflict and famine in Ethiopia and a military coup in Myanmar were already in the international spotlight this year. Millions of Yemenis are near starving. The war in Syria has dragged on for more than a decade, and neighboring Lebanon is plunging into an economic abyss. Haiti was rocked by an earthquake one month ago just weeks after its president was assassinated. Earlier this month, Guineas military staged a coup and jailed the president. And not to be ignored, North Korea has resumed test-firing ballistic missiles. But in recent weeks, the situation in Afghanistan has seized international attention as the government collapsed, the Taliban swept into power in Kabul, and the United States military departed the country ending its 20-year military presence. Chaos ensued as thousands of terrified Afghans who had worked for the U.S. military and other NATO countries or worked in other sensitive positions, sought to leave the country to avoid Taliban reprisals. The situation has been seen as a foreign policy disaster for the Biden administration, which as Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, inherited a withdrawal deadline but no plan from the former Trump administration. Now the United Nations finds itself in a difficult situation, trying to assist nearly 18 million Afghans who are in dire need of assistance after years of conflict, drought and now COVID-19. Afghanistan represents an enormous humanitarian challenge for the United Nations, and it's going to be U.N. agencies responsible for keeping Afghans alive during a period of hunger and political chaos, said Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group. The concern with which wealthy countries view the situation was evident on Monday, when they pledged more than $1.2 billon to provide humanitarian and regional assistance to try to prevent a new refugee crisis. Western governments are especially worried that the Taliban will impose repressive restrictions on women and girls, jeopardizing 20 years of hard-won gains. We're going to hear European leaders in particular talk about the need to protect women's rights and human rights in Afghanistan, Gowan said. There's not very much the General Assembly can do to force the Taliban to protect those. G-20 foreign ministers will discuss the situation on Wednesday, and it is likely to be a dominant topic in bilateral meetings. Diplomats say nations need to coordinate a united approach to how they will deal with the Taliban going forward. The foreign ministers of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) are also planning a meeting, and diplomats say Afghanistan will certainly be on the agenda. Biden debut The U.N. secretary-generals spokesman said Guterres and President Biden will meet in person Monday in New York. The U.S. presidents speech always draws a full General Assembly. This year, due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place at the U.N., delegations will be allowed to have only their leader plus three other people seated in the hall. Biden will make his debut address to the assembly Tuesday morning as the annual debate gets under way. I think Biden will have a message for the leaders, which is that they shouldn't let China gain too much power in the U.N. system, said International Crisis Groups Gowan. The Biden administration, just like the Trump administration before it, is concerned that the Chinese are gaining influence rapidly in multilateral institutions, and Biden will want to send the message that the U.S. is still the natural leader here. Thomas-Greenfield said the president will deliver his speech in person and then return to Washington where he will continue to participate in U.N. meetings virtually. President Biden will speak to our top priorities: ending the COVID-19 pandemic, combatting the climate crisis and defending human rights, democracy and the international rules-based order, she said Friday. All three are challenges that stretch across borders. They involve every single country on earth. Secretary of State Blinken will be in New York Monday through Thursday to engage with international officials. Special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, will also be in New York. COVID-19 precautions The Biden administration, New York City officials and the U.N. are eager to keep this gathering healthy. Inside the General Assembly hall, everyone is expected to be vaccinated, although an honor system is in place and delegates will not have to show proof. If they want to sit down and eat in a U.N. cafeteria, they will have to show their vaccination status, as that is required in all city restaurants now. The U.N. will also have a reduced number of staff in the building, and the hundreds of foreign and visiting journalists who cover the annual meeting have not been granted access this year. The city will be providing a mobile COVID-19 testing unit outside U.N. headquarters all week, where delegates can also get vaccinated with the single-dose Johnson and Johnson shot. Thomas-Greenfield said she would be having a COVID-19 test Monday morning before meeting other officials. Stopping the spread of COVID is our top priority, both here next week and everywhere going forward, she said. Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels and debris that fell on a neighborhood near Dammam wounded at least two children, the kingdom said Sunday. Images published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency showed glass and debris across a townhouse there, which is in the kingdom's eastern reaches and near the headquarters of the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco. At least 14 homes in the area sustained damage, the agency reported. The Houthis launched three bomb-laden drones and three ballistic missiles in the attack, military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki said. Houthi military spokesperson Yahia Sarei said the rebels launched a military operation deep in Saudi Arabia. He did not offer further details in a tweet, only saying a statement would follow shortly. The U.S. Consulate in nearby Dhahran sent an alert to American citizens warning them about the attack, which it described as targeting the area around Dhahran, Dammam and Khobar. Stay alert in case of additional future attacks, the consulate said. Saudi Arabia is mired in a yearslong, deadlocked war backing Yemen's toppled government against the Iranian-backed Houthis. The Saudi-led war, which began in March 2015, has seen an uptick in recent months amid a Houthi effort to capture the city of Marib. That also has seen renewed, long-range attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia. A bomb-laden drone on Tuesday crashed into the kingdom's Abha airport, wounding eight people and damaging a civilian plane. Airstrikes and ground fighting in Yemen have killed more than 130,000 people and spawned the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Egypt has released an online comedian, a journalist and a political activist after they spent months in pre-trail detention, two lawyers said Monday. It was the latest in a series of recent releases amid concerns by the United States and international rights groups over the arrest and harassment of rights advocates and critics of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissis government. Youtuber Shadi Srour, journalist Shaimaa Sami and activist Ziyad Aboel-Fadel walked free late Sunday from a police headquarters in Cairo, said the two lawyers, Khalid Ali and Ismael el-Rashedi. Security forces had arrested Srour, who is also an actor, at Cairo International Airport in December 2019 upon his arrival from the U.S. He became popular on YouTube for his satirical videos that attracted millions of viewers. In 2019, he posted a video titled Enough el-Sissi in which he endorsed calls made by the self-exiled Egyptian businessman Mohamed Ali for people to rise up and rebel against the president. Aboel-Fadl, the activist, was arrested in March 2019 in Cairo, while Sami was arrested in May 2020 in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. Despite their lengthy detention, those arrested and released have yet to stand trial. Egyptian lawmakers and other public figures have repeatedly urged authorities to release activists and rights advocates who have been detained in recent years over alleged politically motivated charges. Egypt's government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Journalists have also been targeted, with dozens imprisoned and some expelled. Egypt remains among the worlds top jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Investigative judge Ali Mokhtar, meanwhile, dropped charges against four human rights groups, saying there were no legal grounds for a criminal case, rights lawyer Nijad el-Borai said. They had faced charges of illegally receiving foreign funds and using them to harm national security. The government's sprawling investigation, also known as Case No. 173, dates back to 2011 when Egypt was ruled by a military council following the overthrow of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. At the time, Egyptian authorities froze the assets and imposed travel bans on dozens of rights groups and human rights advocates, angering Western governments. Mokhtars decision Monday means that a yearslong travel ban imposed on five rights advocates, including el-Borai, lawyer Azza Soliman and pro-democracy activist Esraa Abdel-Fattah, would be lifted, el-Borai and Soliman said. After seven years of travel ban, Esraa can fly, Abdel-Fattah wrote in a Facebook post. Freedom of movement is a constitutional right. In 2018, a court acquitted 43 people, including German and U.S. nationals, of charges they illegally received funding for their local and foreign non-governmental organizations. The trial was part of Case No. 173. The Americans involved in the case worked for NGOs that included Freedom House, International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. The two Germans were employees of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Unidentified attackers on Thursday threw Molotov cocktails into the Netherlands home of journalist Willem Groeneveld. The motive for the attack, which took place in the city of Groningen around 2:45 a.m. local time, was not clear, but Groeneveld had previously been harassed over reporting on issues involving real estate and landlords. No one was injured in the assault, and the journalist was cited in reports as saying he woke to the sound of breaking glass and was able to put out the fire. Media organizations said they were troubled by the attack, which came just a month after veteran crime journalist Peter R. de Vries died after being shot in Amsterdam. This is a very sad year for journalism. This attack on Willem with a firebomb could have ended very differently, Thomas Bruning, head of the Dutch Association of Journalists, told local media. Thursdays attack was not a first for Groeneveld, who founded the investigative website Sikkom and is a contributor to the daily regional newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden. In 2019, attackers threw stones through the windows of the journalists home, and on another occasion someone posted Groenevelds address and phone number on Facebook. In June, about 30 bicycles were left outside the journalists apartment after he reported that a businessman had been removing bikes from around the city, according to local reports. Police on Friday announced they had arrested two suspects on accusations of arson and attempted murder. The Netherlands has one of the best records for press freedom, ranking 6th out of 180 countries, where 1 is freest, on the annual index by watchdog Reporters Without Borders. But recent attacks and Julys fatal shooting are concerning rights groups, including the International Press Institute and European Centre for Press and Media Freedom. The arson represents another serious attack on media freedom in the Netherlands, several press freedom groups said in a joint statement. It is an attack on Willem Groeneveld, but also on the entire Dutch journalistic community. The media groups called for a rigorous investigation into what is behind the increase in attacks on journalists. The Netherlands is not the only European Union member state to experience violence and fatal attacks on media this year. In April, Greek police reporter Giorgos Karaivaz was killed outside Athens, in what authorities have said they believe was a contract killing. The same month, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that police in Greece had arrested three people suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to kill investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis. Security forces have blocked reporters from covering a vaccination drive for internally displaced people in Myanmars Rakhine state, local journalists say. A spokesperson for Myanmars military government, Major General Zaw Min Tun, said in late August that members of the Rohingya minority would be given COVID-19 vaccines. But at least two news crews who attempted to visit a camp for internally displaced persons, or IDPs, to cover the vaccination rollout say police told them they could not enter. Police officers said that journalists are not allowed to enter, said Tun Tha, the editor of Western News, a Rakhine state news outlet. If we want to enter the camp, we must seek permission from authorities. Tun Tha told VOA Burmese that while media have been free to cover other camps without seeking permission, that was not the case at camps housing Muslims. We are free to cover Rakhine IDP camp news, whereas we need permission to cover Muslim IDP camps. It seems authorities handle approaches to the Muslim community with discrimination. We take it as disruption of media access in this regard, Tun Tha said. A Muslim minority in a predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya were targeted in 2017 with a campaign that the U.N. described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. For years before, the Rohingya have been denied citizenship and other basic rights. State officials in Myanmar estimate more than 200,000 Muslim refugees are in Rakhine State. Hla Thein, a military spokesperson for Rakhine State, did not respond to a request for comment from VOA Burmese. A sweeping outbreak of the coronavirus is taxing Myanmars public health system that already was strained by the political upheaval after the army seized power in February from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Khin Tharapi Oo, senior reporter with Development Media Group (DMG), told VOA Burmese that her team also was denied access to the Thet Kae-Pyin IDP camp located on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State. Camp security did not allow us to enter the camp and asked us to get [a] permit, then stopped us from taking video as well. Security even yelled at us to get out, said Khin Tharapi Oo. We called state authorities to [seek] permission with no avail. Other news agency reporters faced the same problem, [security would] not even let us take video or photos. Khin Tharapi Oo said that media had been allowed to visit other Rakhine camps without any restrictions. This is the first time Muslim refugees get vaccinated, we should be allowed to cover it. Authorities should not restrict us to cover this significant news. They do not have sound reason to restrict us, she said. Maung Lay, who manages the camp, told VOA Burmese that at least 150 refugees who are over the age of 45 were vaccinated on August 28 and 29, and second doses are scheduled for September 26. He said the camp houses about 3,000 refugees. The media restrictions come amid a general tightening of free speech in Myanmar after the military coup. On September 1, police in Yangon arrested a female journalist who had been in hiding for four months. Ma Thuzar, who contributed to Myanmar Pressphoto Agency and the Friday Times News Journal, was held incommunicado for five days before authorities confirmed her arrest. The reason for her arrest and current location have not been made available, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Ma Thuzar is one of dozens of journalists currently detained in Myanmar by the military. The way she [Thuzar] has been treated reflects the illegal, brutal and inhuman treatment to which the military junta has subjected all journalists in Myanmar for the past seven months, RSFs Asia-Pacific desk head Daniel Bastard said in a statement. Also detained is American journalist Danny Fenster, who has spent more than 100 days in prison since his arrest at Yangon airport in May. At a virtual hearing Monday, a court in Yangon again remanded Fenster, who is managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, in custody for a further two weeks. Elizabeth Hughes contributed to this report. This story originated in VOAs Burmese service. Leaders at a meeting of the China- and Russia-dominated Shanghai Cooperation Organization emphasized Friday the need for engaging with Taliban-led Afghanistan to prevent a looming humanitarian crisis and an economic collapse in the war-torn country. The SCO summit in Tajikistan came a month after the Islamist Taliban swept back to power in Kabul as the United States-led Western troops withdrew, ending nearly two decades of involvement in the Afghan war. Chinas President Xi Jinping, speaking via video link to the security bloc, renewed his call for the Taliban to eradicate terrorism, while promising to provide more assistance to the neighboring country and calling on others to do so. Chinese media quoted Xi as urging the participants to promote the peaceful transition in Afghanistan, guide it to build an inclusive political structure, adopt prudent and moderate domestic and foreign policies, resolutely fight all forms of terrorism, live in amity with its neighbors. China and other neighbors of Afghanistan have been pressing the United States and its allies to supply the war-torn nation with economic and humanitarian aid rather than abandoning it. Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the SCO summit via video link, stressing the need for working with the Taliban and for world powers to consider unfreezing Afghanistans assets kept in foreign banks. The U.S. and other Western countries have pledged immediate humanitarian aid of more than $1.2 billion, but they are waiting to see whether the Taliban will uphold human rights, especially those of women, and stem terrorism before diplomatically engaging with the group. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have said Afghanistan will not have access to the lender's resources, halting developmental projects in the country. The Taliban announced an all-male 33-member caretaker cabinet last week, which drew strong criticism at home and internationally for not being an inclusive political setup as has been promised by the Islamist movement. For their part, the Taliban must fulfill the pledges made above all for inclusive political structure where all ethnic groups are represented, Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose country shares a long border with Afghanistan, told Fridays summit. This is vital for Afghanistans stability. Also, it is important to ensure respect for the rights of all Afghans and ensure that Afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorists, emphasized Khan, who personally attended the SCO meeting. The Pakistani leader said it was a matter of relief for neighboring countries, in particular that the power transition in Kabul happened without significant bloodshed, without civil war and without a mass exodus of refugees. The Russian president echoed Khans words while addressing the event. Indeed, the change of power took place almost bloodlessly, and this is undoubtedly a positive moment. The Taliban currently controls almost the entire territory of Afghanistan, and the new Afghan authorities should be encouraged to deliver on their own promises to make peace, normalize public life, and ensure security for all, Russian media quoted Putin as saying. The SCO comprises China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan is an observer state, but it was not invited to Fridays meeting because member nations have not recognized the Taliban government. The interim government named by the Taliban falls very short of the mark that was set by the international community for inclusivity, a government that was broadly representative of the Afghan people, not just the Taliban and its constituency, and to include women. It includes many key members who have very challenging track records, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a U.S. Congressional hearing Monday. Several members in the Taliban cabinet are blacklisted by the United States and the United Nations. But the Taliban interim foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, rejected the criticism as politically motivated, claiming they have installed a fully inclusive government and promising to uphold human rights of all Afghans and prevent the use of Afghanistan for terrorist attacks against other countries. On the margins of the SCO meeting, foreign ministers of China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan met for further discussions on the situation in Afghanistan. They stressed the importance of engaging those states, which should bear primary responsibility for post-conflict social-economic reconstruction in Afghanistan and should provide Afghanistan with urgently needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance, said a post-meeting joint statement. Congressman Anthony Gonzalez, one of 10 US House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump in January, said Thursday he would not seek reelection, citing the "toxic" atmosphere in a party that remains enthralled by the former president. The two-term back-bencher from Ohio stressed that family considerations played a substantial role in his decision, but he acknowledged the difficult political scenario, one in which he would have had to face a Trump-endorsed primary challenger next year. "While my desire to build a fuller family life is at the heart of my decision, it is also true that the current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decision," he said in a statement. Gonzalez was more blunt in an interview in Thursday's New York Times, assailing Trump as "a cancer for the country" for inspiring his supporters to launch the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. "I don't believe he can ever be president again," he told the daily. Gonzalez, a 36-year-old conservative, is the first among the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to retire rather than endure what is undoubtedly a brutal season of primaries ahead. Trump, who remains hugely influential in the party, has made clear he will work tirelessly to help defeat those Republicans who sought to oust him. They include Liz Cheney, who lost her House Republican leadership position when she refused to tone down her criticism of the former president. Trump has already announced his support for a former Trump aide, Max Miller, running for Gonzalez's seat. Several House Democrats tweeted out their appreciation of Gonzalez after his announcement. He and the other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump "are paying a price for doing the right thing," congressman Brendan Boyle said. "But they will be vindicated by history." U.S. climate envoy John Kerry warned Thursday that Beijing's coal-building spree could "undo" global capacity to meet environmental targets, after holding talks with top officials in China. Tensions between Beijing and Washington have soared in recent months, with the two sides trading barbs on China's human rights record and its initial handling of the coronavirus. Tackling climate change is among a handful of issues where the two sides had struck notes of harmony. But Beijing has in recent months emphasized that environmental cooperation could be hurt by deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations. Kerry told journalists Thursday evening that the United States has made it "clear that the addition of more coal plants represents a significant challenge to the efforts of the world to deal with the climate crisis." Chinese plans for new coal plants could "undo the capacity of the world to reach net-zero by 2050," he said, adding that while they had "very constructive" talks, he also was "very direct" on the topic. Despite pledges to reach peak coal consumption before 2030, then move toward carbon neutrality. China brought 38.4 gigawatts of new coal-fired power into operation last year more than three times the amount brought online elsewhere in the world. China has challenged the United States to fix relations with Beijing in order to make progress on climate change. Kerry urged the Chinese government, however, not to let environmental cooperation be affected by tensions between the world's two biggest polluters, calling it a "global challenge." "It is essential ... no matter what differences we have, that we have to address the climate crisis," he said. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had told Kerry earlier in the visit that cooperation on global warming could not be disentangled from broader diplomacy between the two countries. In a video call with the climate envoy, Wang accused Washington of a "major strategic miscalculation toward China," according to the ministry statement. "It is impossible for China-U.S. climate cooperation to be elevated above the overall environment of China-U.S. relations," Wang said. He added that "the ball is now in the United States' court, and the U.S. should stop seeing China as a threat and opponent." 'China can do more' Kerry visited Japan earlier this week before traveling to the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin, in a tour aiming to drum up support for a major global summit to tackle pressing climate issues. The 26th edition of the U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties COP26 in Glasgow in November marks the biggest climate summit since the 2015 Paris negotiation. Kerry said he plans to meet with his Chinese counterparts again before the summit, to push for stronger emission reduction commitments. The U.S .envoy has repeatedly urged China to step up efforts to reduce carbon emissions. "We have consistently said to China and other countries ... to do their best within their given capacity," Kerry said Thursday. "We think that China can do more." The country is the world's current largest emitter of carbon dioxide, followed by the United States, which has historically emitted more than any other nation to date. While Beijing has promised to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060, it continues to be heavily dependent on coal, which fuels nearly 60 percent of its energy consumption. "We have an opportunity to make a positive impact in Glasgow," Kerry said. "It really depends on the choices that China makes at this point." Somalia's government has condemned what it calls the unlawful detention of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajos national security adviser. Somali government spokesman Abdirashid Hashi in a tweet Friday said Fahad Yasin was detained at Djibouti airport. Yasin was flying from Turkey to Mogadishu with a stop in Djibouti. Government spokesman Hashi tweeted such acts will not help to strengthen ties between Somalia and Djibouti. Djiboutis Minister of Economy and Finance Ilyas Dawaleh tweeted a response to the communication directors accusation. Dawaleh asked him to refrain from any inappropriate and baseless statements. Djiboutis Foreign Minister Mohamed Yusuf added, There are fake news released in social media trying to create confusion and drag Djibouti into Somalia internal challenges and crisis. We will continue to stand by our brothers and sisters in Somalia but never interfere in their internal affairs. Yasin, who is the former head of Somalias National Intelligence and Security Agency, is at the center of a power struggle between Somalias president and prime minister. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble suspended Yasin over the disappearance of a female cybersecurity spy, who the agency says was killed by al-Shabab militants. Her family believes Somalias spy agency was responsible for her disappearance. Yasin was due to attend a national security meeting on Saturday to discuss the controversial case. The case has Farmajo and Roble in a stand-off that threatens the countrys elections and security gains. Farmajo on Thursday issued a suspension of Robles executive powers, which the prime minister promptly rejected. Ugandan officials have confirmed the country will be receiving 145 evacuees from Afghanistan on Sunday. After days of discussion, Uganda has confirmed it will receive evacuees from Afghanistan Sunday. The latest developments come a day after evacuations in Kabul were temporarily halted due to overcrowding at an evacuee receiving center in Qatar. Esther Anyakun, Ugandas deputy minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, spoke to VOA. "IRC (International Red Cross) and other development partners have been working with U.S. government also to see the people who we are going to evacuate by tomorrow. Just 145," said Anyakun. Earlier this week, Anyakun said Uganda would accept up to 2,000 Afghan refugees, but other officials said at that time the matter was still under discussion. On whether all the evacuees will be Afghans or Ugandans, Anyakun had this to say. "You cannot tell whether it is a Ugandan. Because people are just like, trying to fight through those walls in Afghanistan to get into the plane," said Anyakun. "So, they cant even categorize and say that we are taking probably diplomats, or Ugandans alone. So, the moment you manage to succeeded to penetrate and you get there then you will be lucky. I think when theyve already reached here is when we shall now categorize. Appearing on a local radio show Saturday morning, Ugandas Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Hillary Onek, explained that those arriving from Afghanistan are mainly women and children. He said they won't stay in Uganda forever, adding that the East African country will be used as a transit point before they are taken to the United States. Minister Onek said officials have already booked hotels in the city of Entebbe, where the 145 evacuees will stay. The mountain kingdom of Bhutan has scripted a rare success story in the South Asian region devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting just two deaths, about 2,500 cases and inoculating 90% of its adult population in one of the worlds fastest inoculation campaigns. Experts say mobilizing the community, meticulous planning by authorities and international donations of vaccines paved the way for the tiny country with limited resources to get a grip on the pandemic and emerge ahead of most nations. When the coronavirus began ravaging countries last year, Bhutan offered financial incentives to people to augment its small pool of health workers and simultaneously called for volunteers. Thousands stepped forward. Within a very short period of time the volunteer system crashed because there were so many people wanting to volunteer. And it was an amazing experience to see that instead of the incentives people were registering to volunteer, wanting to give something back to the community, Dechen Wangmo, the countrys health minister, told VOA. The country now has a roughly 30,000-strong force of citizens volunteers. Dressed in bright orange and known as desuups, they have boosted the efforts of some 350 doctors and 3,000 health workers. They have helped reinforce public health messages such as encouragement of wearing masks, and assisted in testing, surveillance and contact tracing among Bhutans approximately 750,000 people. The first half a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, donated by India, were administered in March during a 16-day campaign that was timed to coincide with auspicious dates suggested by Buddhist monks. Choosing the right time to roll out the vaccines helped build faith in the shot -- Bhutan is a Buddhist country and is sometimes called the worlds last Shangri-la. When New Delhi halted exports due to domestic shortages, Bhutan turned elsewhere. A batch of Moderna vaccines arrived in July from the COVAX program, an initiative to give vaccines to underdeveloped countries. Several other countries have also donated vaccines. While some questions were raised on social media about inoculating people with two different vaccines, those issues were quickly laid to rest in a country known for its implicit faith in its Oxford-educated, 41-year-old constitutional monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk. Although he has turned the country from an absolute monarchy into a democratic, constitutional monarchy, he is still hugely popular. The medical background of its leadership helped -- Bhutans prime minister and foreign minister are doctors and health minister Wangmo is a Yale-educated epidemiologist. Unlike many countries, vaccine hesitancy did not pose a problem -- although Bhutan has few doctors, it has a strong primary health care system. There is a lot of trust and confidence in the health system and people do understand the benefits of vaccine, that vaccines prevent diseases and they have seen it for generations, Wangmo said. The second doses were administered to 90% of the adult population in a weeklong campaign that began July 20, the health ministry said. UNICEF officials called it the fastest vaccination campaign during the pandemic. While Bhutans small population made the task easier, it faced the challenge of reaching far-flung mountain areas, often across difficult terrain. If Bhutan can succeed in a monsoon with so few health workers to get almost the entire population vaccinated and then move to the children, maybe Bhutan can be a beacon of hope in a region that is on fire, said Will Parks, UNICEF Representative in Bhutan. Even as many countries scramble for vaccines for adults, Bhutan now plans to inoculate 12- to 17-year-olds. The goal, officials said, is to reach herd immunity or at least avert serious infections in a country with only one doctor trained in critical care. Inoculations are not the only achievement. Unlike many countries, Bhutan opened schools earlier this year. UNICEFs Park and domestic media credit the leadership with astutely navigating the pandemic. King Wangchuck has traveled to remote hamlets to alert people about the pandemic by car, foot or horseback. When the transmissible delta variant tore through India earlier this year, he visited areas in the east and south that adjoin India, with which the country has a porous border. Bhutanese officials say those visits reinforced the message of solidarity and were more effective than public health guidelines. The visits conveyed that it is time for everyone to fight the common enemy. He would give that moral confidence to people and assurance that we are in it together and we are all going to follow the same rules, Wangmo said. The king would follow the countrys strict quarantine rules after each trip. Bhutan has shown that the COVID pandemic is not just about the virus, but also about leadership, according to Parks. If there are lessons to be learnt from Bhutan, it is about compassionate leadership that has to come from the top, Parks said. By compassionate leadership I mean having deep empathy, really walking in the shoes of others, and then actively making efforts to support people throughout this terrible, terrible pandemic. Pakistans counter-terrorism units raided a hideout of the Islamic State group in the restive southwestern Baluchistan province before dawn on Tuesday, setting off a shootout that killed 11 militants, the police said. The units, acting on intelligence, carried out the raid in the district of Mastung, where IS militants had recently killed two police officers. The police said suicide belts, hand grenades and assault rifles were confiscated in the raid. The counter-terrorism department provided no further details and the nationality of the slain militants was not immediately known. The counter-terrorism police is a special branch of the police that fights militant groups. Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province where IS group has claimed several attacks in recent years. IS has regional affiliates in both Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. Baluchistan is also the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch separatist groups, which have also targeted non-Baluch laborers. However, unlike IS, they have no history of attacks on the minority Shiite community. The collapse of the Soviet Union left thousands of people living in enclaves portions of one country surrounded by another. For the residents, this presents unique challenges; merely to visit their own nations capital requires them to carry a passport and cross foreign territory. Uzbekistan, celebrating its 30th anniversary of independence, maintains four exclaves in the heart of Central Asias Ferghana Valley. All are within the borders of neighboring Kyrgyzstan. The two largest, Sokh and Shohimardon, are proudly Uzbek. Yet for decades, the government in Tashkent did not invest in them. Still, Numonjon Eraliyev, a greenhouse manager in Sokh, insists that we are not as isolated as people assume. He treats his guests to freshly cut cucumbers the emerald-green bounty of a hilly area where water is drawn from 107-meter-deep wells. For the second time, VOA had near-exclusive access to these unique exclaves. This time, the residents of Sokh are more vocal about one thing: They want a visit from President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who is running for a reelection that is virtually certain. He travels around the country. We are Uzbekistan too, Eraliyev said. Sokh, Uzbekistans ethnic Tajik district Founded in the 1940s, Sokh is ethnically Tajik but was given by Moscow to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. Located at the foot of the Pamir-Alay mountains, it is the largest exclave in Central Asia with more than 80,000 people and boasts a history that spans centuries. Its people resisted the Bolsheviks during the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1990s, it became a suspected hideout for armed Islamic extremists. Mirziyoyev has prioritized resolving border issues. In 2019, locals told VOA that Kyrgyzstan was deliberately blocking the most direct road between Sokh and the rest of Uzbekistan. But Tashkent negotiated with Bishkek, and in the spring of 2021, that road opened, allowing access to Sokh in one-fourth of the time. Traders in Sokh bazaar told VOA they can now sell fresh vegetables, fruit, and other goods delivered from the mainland every day. Sokh people are known for their tenacity and patience. Our district has gotten much attention from the central and regional administrations, said Saidbahrom Saidmusayev, Sokhs mayor. Saidmusayev, who once helmed Sokhs police, was appointed as mayor following an Uzbek-Kyrgyz water dispute in 2020 that destroyed several households and led to the conviction of 22 men for instigating public disorder and attacking officials. Mirziyoyev dispatched his prime minister, Abdulla Aripov, to assuage an angry Sokh citizenry with promises of investment, educational and job opportunities, and new infrastructure. The government also promised an airport, a prospect welcomed even by those who will supply the land for it. The future is here, said Valijon Rahmonov, a potato farmer. He has lost half of his cropland to airport construction but is ready to welcome travelers so long as he can retain the rest. Mirziyoyev should listen to us, ordinary folks. Sokh is a great place to live, so we want simple things better access to the mainland to enable growth, education and opportunity, he said. Access to Sokh is restricted. Only Uzbek and Kyrgyz citizens can travel there without a special permit. That makes it and other exclaves seem incredibly remote. But a visiting reporter found its people to be better informed and more politically aware than many others in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. For me, Sokh seems like a small country with big issues, with dozens of villages, each with its happy stories, as well as injustices and ignorance, said Kamoliddin Azizov, a journalist turned activist. Azizov says Sokhs residents are proud citizens who welcome the increased focus from Tashkent. Because life involves a constant crossing of borders, Azizov said, people adjust to challenges. For example, nearly half of Sokh residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a higher uptake than in many parts of Central Asia. Forty percent of us are 18 to 30, said Ravshan Komilov, a youth leader, and many are eager to work abroad and see the world. There are jobs here, but you can't stop young people, Komilov added. Each day involves carrying our passport between two states, the one that surrounds us, and the one we belong to. At least half of the households have a family member working elsewhere, mainly in Russia, whose remittances help build private houses and businesses. But the enclave also hosts bold new ventures, such as a collective of seamstresses who got their start with state support and now earn a modest income. Some are single mothers; others have husbands working in Russia. In a new economic zone, 22-year-old Manuchehr Mirzobekov runs his familys business. The plant produces construction materials in high demand across Central Asia. He proudly shows off new and expensive equipment from China and aims to employ hundreds someday. Our future is here in Sokh, he said. Shohimardon, empty gem Nearby Shohimardon tells another story. The second-largest Uzbek exclave in Kyrgyzstan, just an hours drive from the center of Fergana, it lacks Sokhs momentum and buzz. Shohimardons population of about 10,000 people enjoys magnificent waterfalls and rivers astride a valley in the Pamir-Alay. Perched 1,500 meters above sea level, locals and visitors alike gush over the beauty of the Uzbek Switzerland. This former Soviet resort once housed sanatoriums, camps, dachas and facilities catering to officials and apparatchiks. Uzbek journalist Sharifa Madrahimova recalls a childhood of summers filled with family rituals and fun. The place used to be crowded, especially this park, she said, pointing to a now rundown structure by the Aksu river. With nary a reveler in sight, it is a partyland only for grazing cows and goats. In summer 2019, VOA saw a lively bazaar, and cafes and traditional teahouses on its central street. Now, it is a ghost town. Without visitors, even mother nature seems sad, said an elderly Uzbek traveler. I got a room at a private house for 10,000 soms (under $1) a night. There is nothing here. Why isnt government investing? Such a beautiful place, desperately in need of renovation and attention. Travelers to Shohimardon, like Sokh, need a passport and COVID-19 PCR test. And since Uzbekistans new passport is expensive, Madrahimova said, most of us travel to closer locations with cheaper and easier access. She is returning to Shohimardon after nearly 30 years. On the exclaves hilly streets, the powerful sound of water echoes. One gets so used to it that the silence is strange once you leave the area. There are no modern hotels. And as you drive higher up the main road, you pass old Soviet buildings that still lodge regional agencies, such as the tax office, factories, security services, universities and trade associations. But these dull gray buildings do not distract from the mountain scenes. Gayratjon Mamatqulov of the Ferghana Consumer Rights Association blamed COVID-19 for the current sense of emptiness. People are not traveling, and those who want to come must take a test, which is not free, and obtain new passports, since you cross a foreign country to see these exclaves, Mamatqulov said. The local tourism office recorded more than 1,000 Uzbek and Kyrgyz visitors to Shohimardon in the first half of 2021, five time less than in 2019. Shohimardons museum, another Soviet leftover, showcases the legacy of Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy, a Bolshevik stoned to death by the local resistance in 1929. His monument still stands, reflecting the tragic story of the educator, playwright, poet and composer. A nearby Islamic prayer house claims the Prophet Muhammads son-in-law Ali as a visitor. Some even believe he died and was buried there. Its another empty place of pilgrimage today. We miss people, said the local imam, who lives next door. Shohimardon did not experience much COVID, but we feel the pandemics impact. Mamatqulov hopes Tashkent will shower Shohimardon with the same attention it is giving Sokh. The government definitely sees potential, and this exclave should benefit from the arrival of internet and better relations with Kyrgyzstan, Mamatqulov said. Ferghanas deputy governor, Khurshidbek Ahmedov, who returned to Uzbekistan to help the county develop, aims to improve tourism and attract investment to the exclaves. We are working closely with Bishkek on this. The roads to Uzbek exclaves will be repaired, with rest stops in Kyrgyzstan, Ahmedov said. At present, Uzbeks driving through Kyrgyz territory never stop. They fear the Kyrgyz wont want them, and VOA talked to several travelers who complained of harsh treatment by border and customs officials. Uzbek travelers have grievances with the Kyrgyz; Kyrgyz blame the Uzbeks. Officials insist that travelers with proper documentation have no problems crossing. VOA saw no long lines at any posts, which are open from dawn to dusk. Mamatqulov, who regularly visits the exclaves, asserts they face the same challenges as other regions in Uzbekistan. People need good schools, better paying jobs, better conditions for business, reliable transportation and modern infrastructure. They know they cant really have it all. They know they must work for them. But its harder in the exclaves and its always been that way, he said. The race to determine Japans next prime minister formally began Friday, with veteran Japanese politician Taro Kono appearing to hold a slim lead, opinion polls suggest. Kono -- the countrys straight-talking, social media-savvy vaccine minister -- faces competition from three other candidates, who could force a run-off vote that could be even more uncertain. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga earlier this month announced he would resign, following a year-long premiership marked by public frustration over the governments inability to contain the coronavirus. Suga's resignation raises the possibility Japan will return to a period of revolving-door prime ministers that marked much of the past several decades. What is almost certain is that Japans next prime minister will come from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). A conservative party that has dominated Japanese politics for decades, the LDP holds a majority in the lower house of parliament, meaning its upcoming leadership election will effectively determine the next prime minister. Close race The first round of voting is set for Sept. 29. Unlike last years leadership election, this years vote will involve both LDP lawmakers as well as ordinary party members. Although most opinion polls suggest Kono leads, the race has taken several unexpected turns. Shigeru Ishiba, an influential LDP politician who many thought would run, this week announced he would instead endorse Kono. As a result, former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida now appears to be Konos main rival. The soft-spoken Kishida comes from a more liberal wing of the party. Two women are also trying to become Japans first female prime minister. Sanae Takaichi, 60, is a former internal affairs minister. She has been endorsed by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the country's longest-serving prime minister. Takaichi comes from the partys most conservative wing and has drawn headlines with her frequent visits to Tokyos Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the countrys war dead. Seiko Noda, a 61-year-old former minister for gender equality, is a last-minute entrant to the race. Though she is widely seen as a longshot candidate, her presence makes it more difficult for any candidate to secure the majority of votes needed to win the first round outright. With more candidates, it is quite likely that we will see a second vote this time, says Sebastian Maslow, who focuses on Japanese politics at Sendai Shirayuri Womens College in Japan. Making things even more uncertain, some LDP factions that usually vote as blocs this time are allowing members to make their own choice. All this makes this years LDP leadership race more competitive than previous ones, Maslow says. Although in my view I think dynamics seem to indicate that the party vote will ultimately go to Kono. If the election moves to a second round, the race would be decided mainly by LDP politicians, potentially further changing the political dynamic. Kono: a straight-shooter The 58-year-old Kono is a former defense minister and foreign minister. His latest job was heading up Japans coronavirus vaccine effort, which started slowly but has recently sped up. Many in Japan know Kono for his humorous posts on Twitter. Though he has 2.4 million Twitter followers, Kono often replies to individuals, often in a self-deprecating manner. I would describe him as a straight-shooter, says Purnendra Jain, who focuses on Japanese politics at the University of Adelaide. Lots of LDP old guard people dont like Kono because he says whatever he feels. He is not encumbered. So in a sense, he is quite popular among the young generation. A graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Kono speaks fluent English -- a rarity among senior Japanese leaders. On foreign policy, Kono has often struck a hawkish tone, particularly on China. He has suggested Japan should be open to spending more on defense. Kono also wants to spend more on economic stimulus to combat pandemic-related economic difficulties. Recently, Kono changed his tone to become more open toward nuclear power plants, possibly to attract more conservative votes. He says he supports efforts for Japan to become carbon neutral. Kishida: the main rival Kishida, who has a more laid-back demeanor, has a long resume. He was Japans longest-serving foreign minister, from 2012-17. Kishida ticks all the boxes, says Jain. He has got all the experience behind him. Though he comes from a more moderate, dovish wing of the LDP, the 64-year-old Kishida this week said Japans coast guard should be bolstered and should work closer with the military. The security environment around Japan is getting tougher, Kishida told a news conference. He also said he would appoint a prime ministerial aide to keep track of Chinas treatment of Uighur Muslims. Many of Kishidas recent comments have focused on income disparity. He has called for a new kind of capitalism that better redistributes wealth, arguing not enough money has trickled down to ordinary Japanese in recent decades. Whoever wins the LDP election will lead the party into general elections, which must be held by the end of November. A new study on work-related causes of deaths finds long working hours to be the biggest occupational risk factor. The joint study by the World Health Organization and International Labor Organization estimates nearly 2 million people a year die from work-related diseases and injuries. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is shocking to see so many people literally being killed by their jobs. He said every single work-related death is preventable with the right health and safety measures in place. More than 80% of work-related deaths are due to non-communicable diseases, primarily cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, which are caused by or made worse by factors in the workplace," Tedros said. "Long working hours are the single deadliest occupational risk factor accounting for 750,000 deaths each year. The study considers 19 occupational risk factors, including exposure to long working hours, exposure to air pollution in the workplace, as well as carcinogens and noise. Most of the deaths 80% are due to occupational non-communicable diseases, the remaining 20% are due to on-the-job accidents. Frank Pega is WHO Technical Officer, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health. He said those most at risk are males and people aged over 54 years. He said a disproportionately large number of work-related deaths occur in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Within these regions, we can also say that low- and middle-income countries are more affected than high-income countries, and I think with disadvantaged workers, specifically informal economy workers," Pega said. "So, informal economy workers probably work in jobs that have less protection and, therefore, are exposed to more occupational risk factors. The report cities North Korea as the country with the largest burden of work-related deaths, averaging 79.5 deaths per 100,000 working age population of 15 years or older.It is followed by Indonesia and Nepal. Tied for fourth with 43.7 deaths per 100,000 workers are Bangladesh and India. The study does not include data on the impact of COVID-19 work-related deaths. The authors say this information will be captured in future estimates. During their two-decade-long insurgency, the Taliban cast aspersions on democratic elections, describing them as un-Islamic, and frequently attacked Afghan election workers and rallies. But a top Taliban spokesman now says the group is not ruling out holding elections as it moves to establish a permanent government based on Islamic law, or Shariah. In an interview with VOA's Urdu Service, Suhail Shaheen, the top spokesman for the Taliban's political office in Doha, Qatar, said the issue would be determined by a future constitution. "About election or no election, let's wait," Shaheen said. "We have a constitution [planned] in the future, so we would have deliberation about that in the future, about when we are drafting the constitution, so that would be seen there at that time, not now." Shaheen's comments came in response to a question about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's recent call for elections in Afghanistan to determine the country's future. Conducting elections has been a huge concern for many ethnic minorities and anti-Taliban groups in the country. At a Tuesday news conference in Kabul, the Taliban's new interim foreign minister, Amir Khan Mutaqi, dodged a question about elections, saying foreign countries should not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs. Taliban forces seized power on August 15 after then-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, sparking the collapse of his government and the evacuation of more than 100,000 Afghan civilians by the U.S. and its allies. Last week, the newly empowered Taliban announced a caretaker government largely made up of hardliners, naming Mohammad Hassan Akhund as interim prime minister. Akhund and several others in the Taliban government are on a U.N. sanctions list. Conspicuously absent from the government were ethnic minorities and women who served in parliament or held senior government posts under the country's nascent democracy over the past 20 years. But the Taliban have stressed that the appointments are not permanent, indicating that women would be allowed to serve, though not in ministerial positions. "Our leadership had to appoint some ministers in order to start the economic movement in the country and to provide the essential services to the people," Shaheen said. "But this Cabinet is called a tentative Cabinet, not a full Cabinet or permanent Cabinet." Although the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan said no law would contravene Shariah, the Taliban have said they want to rewrite or amend the charter to bring it more into line with Islamic law. The Taliban did not hold any elections the last time they ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001. During their insurgency, they were accused of using violence to disrupt elections, viewing them as a Western tradition at odds with Islam. In 2019, the militants attacked political rallies and other election-related activities, killing or injuring scores of civilians, according to Human Rights Watch. In March, the Taliban rejected a proposal by Ghani to hold early elections, insisting that he step down as part of a peaceful transfer of power. As many as 10,000 migrants, many from Haiti, are in a makeshift camp under a bridge that connects the U.S. and Mexico near Del Rio, Texas. The number is growing, according to officials on the ground. The top Border Patrol union official in the Del Rio Sector, Jon Anfinsen, told The Washington Post, "We're scrambling to bring every resource we can, but it's a logistical nightmare." "We're pulling agents from across the country to help, but they're not going to be there today, and we're just trying to keep heads above water," he said. According to Reuters, the conditions under the bridge are squalid, with food and water reportedly scarce as temperatures soar. The Border Patrol says it is increasing staffing in the area and providing drinking water, towels and portable toilets to the migrants while they wait to be taken to U.S. processing facilities. Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano, a Democrat, tweeted Thursday he counted more than 10,000 migrants and had asked for federal help, noting a steady increase in the number of migrants under the bridge. "President Biden, have you been briefed on the ongoing crisis yet?" he wrote. ] The situation presents another border-related challenge for President Joe Biden, who has rolled back some of former President Donald Trumps restrictive immigration policies. The U.S.-Mexico border has seen unprecedented numbers of migrants attempting to cross into the United States so far this year. More than 195,000 migrants were arrested at the Mexican border in August, according to government data released on Wednesday. The Biden administration has blamed Trump for the migrant surge, saying he reduced legal immigration paths. Some information in this report came from Reuters. Chinas human rights record is the focus of a major upcoming United Nations human rights assessment. The U.N.s top human rights official said Monday her office is finalizing a report on the allegation of serious human rights violations in Chinas northwest region of Xinjiang, after China released its National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2021-25) on Sept. 9. I regret that I am not able to report progress on my efforts to seek meaningful access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, said Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. At the opening of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Bachelet said her office is finalizing its review of available information on the human rights allegations and plans on making it public. The update is timely and significant, according to Zumretay Arkin, program and advocacy manager at Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, as it coincides with the three-year anniversary of the high commissioner officially requesting access to the region. This report will be the first from the high commissioner's office, but it will only be an additional assessment to the existing reports from U.N. special procedures, and treaty bodies, Arkin told VOA Mandarin. According to Marta Hurtado, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), several U.N. authorities have assessed the human rights situation in Xinjiang since 2018. These include the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and various human rights experts attached to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Those independent bodies raised concerns regarding the human rights situation in Xinjiang, where Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International allege Beijing is committing crimes against humanity by arbitrarily detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in internment camps and coercing others into forced labor while controlling the rest of the Uyghur community by monitoring them in an increasingly pervasive and onerous way. Beijing denies the allegations and says what human rights groups describe as internment camps are actually vocational training centers where people from minority groups who lack language and career skills get educational help. China insists that people in Xinjiang are free to choose their work. Hurtado told VOA the last visit by a U.N. High Commissioner to China was in 2005. She said OHCHR had unsuccessfully asked Beijing for unlimited access to Xinjiang for a team to conduct an assessment of the treatment of Uyghurs in 2018. OHCHR has said it would like a team to spend several days on the ground, meet with relevant officials and stakeholders and have the maximum possible access to different institutions and facilities, Hutardo said. This has not so far been granted on the terms requested by the office. In March, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told the press in Beijing that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has succumbed to political pressure and launched unfounded and disinformation-based accusations against China. We welcome the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Xinjiang, and the two sides are in communication on this, Wang said. But the purpose of the visit should be to promote exchanges and cooperation, not to carry out some kind of investigation with China already being presumed as guilty. We firmly oppose political manipulation of such issues to strong-arm China. This assessment is a first step toward the U.N. monitoring and reporting that the international community needs, and which many states -- as well as a more than 300-plus coalition of global civil society groups -- have called for, said Sarah Brooks, program director at International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). Brooks said this kind of report helps to cut through arguments of politicization and present the objective facts, providing a basis for governments and other stakeholders, including businesses, to step up action. [I]t would mark the first meaningful assessment undertaken by Bachelet's office - in other words, a U.N. institution, as opposed to [for example] a U.N.-appointed but independent special rapporteur, Brooks said. It would demonstrate any gaps between China's legal obligations, and the practices that the U.N. has been able to verify; and it would be a trampoline for more robust monitoring, reporting and evidence gathering in the future. U.N. special rapporteurs, independent experts and staff have visited China: In 2013 regarding discrimination against women; 2015 on foreign debt; 2017 about extreme poverty; and in 2019 regarding older persons. However, none of these visits included the Uyghur region, said Brooks. The independent experts who are tasked with assessing truly sticky issues such as arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, minority rights, freedom of religion, opinion, expression have been rebuffed again and again. According to Peter Irwin, senior program officer for advocacy and communications at the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, China's policy has been to delay, as much as possible, and hinder the ability of the U.N. human rights office to conduct research. If China doesn't want to provide access, it's up to the U.N. to work with the mountains of research and testimony available abroad and come up with their own independent conclusions, Irwin told VOA. The U.N. Security Council extended its political mission in Afghanistan for six months in a unanimous vote Friday. In essence, the resolution, which was drafted by Norway and Estonia, gives members time to assess how the Taliban will rule. Over the coming months, the resolution will ensure that the U.N. mission can carry on its work in Afghanistan monitoring human rights, protecting children and civilians against abuses, and supporting "the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all levels of decision-making." The resolution "sends a unified message that we stand behind the U.N.'s efforts in Afghanistan going forward," Norway and Estonia said in a statement to the Security Council. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the U.N.'s work in Afghanistan important, adding that the U.N. should continue "to serve Afghans and advance their human rights and fundamental freedoms." When the Taliban swept into power after a chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country last month, they promised to form a more inclusive government, but when they announced an interim government, women and minorities were not included. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press. A group of leading Haiti-based diplomats met with Prime Minister Ariel Henry and said it backed his efforts to solve the country's political crisis, an apparent vote of confidence as he faces accusations of links to the slaying of President Jovenel Moise. A public prosecutor said on Friday that phone call records showed Henry had spoken twice with the suspected mastermind behind Moise's killing just hours after it took place on July 7. Henry, who denies he had anything to do with the murder, this week fired the prosecutor, who had sought to have him charged as a suspect, as well as the justice minister. Henry, a former neurosurgeon and political moderate, has not publicly addressed the phone calls. He has dismissed the accusations as politically motivated. The Core Group, made up of Western ambassadors and representatives from the United Nations and Organization of American States, said in a statement late Wednesday that it encouraged efforts by Henry and others to form "an inclusive government and accelerate the return to normal functioning of democratic institutions through elections." Power struggles under Moise had led to a political and constitutional crisis, with only a handful of elected officials in posts after the country failed to hold parliamentary or municipal elections. At the weekend, Henry announced an agreement between Haiti's main political forces on a transition government, aiming to lead next year to elections and a referendum on a new constitution. But the questions over his links to the suspect in Moise's assassination have overshadowed that news. The Core Group reiterated its call for "light to be shed" on the killing. Similar calls, however, for justice to be done over massacres in Port-au-Prince in recent years have not resulted in any arrests or convictions, with rights activists calling the justice system broken. Several judicial officials working on the investigation into Moise's slaying went into hiding after saying they received death threats, while the original judge assigned to the case recused himself. Seeking to reinvigorate America's historic role as a destination for refugees, the Biden administration this week announced a sponsorship initiative to boost and facilitate private sector involvement in supporting recently arrived refugees. The effort is initially focused on helping newcomers from Afghanistan but is expected to serve as a model for assisting other refugee groups in the future as Washington ramps up refugee admissions after years of drastic cuts imposed by the former Trump administration. The State Department announced a partnership with more than 250 nonprofit groups that have banded together to help Afghan families resettle in the U.S. under the umbrella Welcome.US. The site serves as a hub for donations, volunteer efforts and stories of how ordinary Americans are making a difference in the lives of uprooted Afghan families. Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as a host of celebrities, have lent support to the initiative. "The generosity displayed by the American people in welcoming newly arrived Afghans ... has been nothing short of remarkable and is a clear demonstration of our values as a nation of immigrants that welcomes refugees and vulnerable populations from across the world, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. For decades, the federal government has worked with U.S. refugee resettlement agencies to help new arrivals enroll in language training and employment services, register children in schools, apply for Social Security cards and perform other basic tasks. The new partnership, which comes amid fierce criticism of the administration's handling of evacuations from Afghanistan during and after the pullout of U.S. forces, aims to greatly augment the system and catalyze support from Americans from all walks of life to support newly arriving Afghans, according to the State Department. According to a recent poll, 90 percent of Democrats said Americans should welcome Afghans, and 76 percent of Republicans support admitting refugees who aided the U.S. military. More can be done Many immigrant advocates and analysts welcomed the initiative, but some said even more could be done. David Bier, immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said in an email to VOA that although it was great the Biden administration was acknowledging the private sector's willingness to accept refugees, he urged the government to allow private individuals and organizations to sponsor refugees outside the existing publicly funded refugee caps. Americans' ability to accept refugees should not be dependent on the U.S. government's willingness to fund it and raise caps as it is now, Bier said. WATCH: Afghan Evacuees Confused Over Status in US The number of refugees accepted into the U.S. each year is set by the president in consultation with Congress. As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised to admit up to 125,000 refugees annually, up from the cap of 15,000 set in the final year of former President Donald Trump's administration. Once in office, Biden initially retained Trumps lower cap but then raised it to 62,500 amid an outcry from within his own Democratic Party. So far in fiscal 2021, which ends September 30, the U.S. has admitted fewer than 7,000 refugees, not including Afghans. Scrambling to help new arrivals Although private citizens are not involved in the immigration cases of resettling refugees, U.S. officials hope the private sectors collection and sharing of resources to assist new arrivals will alleviate burdens on resettlement organizations that often scramble to arrange housing and other basic necessities for refugees. In the last few weeks, we served more than 100 people, said Krish OMara Vignarajah, chief executive of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a resettlement agency, speaking with reporters. Some are coming with little more than a backpack. We know the importance of an orderly system that processes and prepares these new Afghan arrivals, helping them make informed decisions on where they ultimately want to resettle. Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. without immigrant visas are being legally designated as parolees'' and not technically as refugees. That distinction, under current U.S. law, means they have a complex immigration road ahead of them. Though they are temporarily protected from deportation and are permitted to apply for work authorization, being paroled into the country does not confer immigration status, grant access to public benefits or constitute a path to U.S. citizenship. Immigrant advocates have urged Congress to pass legislation that would protect those under parole designation and allow them to apply for permanent residence. Others have arrived under the Special Immigrant Visa program, which automatically places them on a path to permanent residency followed by U.S. citizenship, a process that can take more than five years. As of September 14, 64,000 evacuees from Afghanistan had arrived in the United States, joining roughly 132,000 Afghan immigrants in the country, most of whom arrived in the last decade. Immigrant advocates say new arrivals from Afghanistan will greatly benefit from the support system provided by Welcome.US as, initially, they will have lower incomes than Americas overall foreign and native-born populations. The United States supports humanitarian aid for North Korea regardless of progress on the countrys denuclearization, the U.S. envoy to Pyongyang said Tuesday. The comments by the envoy, Sung Kim, came at the end of his four-day visit to Seoul, where he reiterated his readiness to meet North Korean leaders anywhere, anytime. In a column in South Koreas Hankyoreh newspaper, Kim also said the United States supports humanitarian cooperation projects between North and South Korea and is open to exploring meaningful confidence-building initiatives. The United States will continue to support the provision of humanitarian aid, consistent with international standards for access and monitoring, to the most vulnerable North Koreans, regardless of progress on denuclearization, Kim wrote. Kim did not elaborate on what types of humanitarian aid are under consideration. But his South Korean counterpart, Noh Kyu-duk, said Monday the two men discussed initiatives related to healthcare, pandemic quarantine measures, clean drinking water, and hygiene. We also talked about humanitarian support to the North through international organizations and nongovernmental organizations, Noh added. South Korea has repeatedly offered assistance to fight the spread of coronavirus and other aid to North Korea, which is impoverished in many areas and has an uneven healthcare system. But Pyongyang has ignored or rejected such offers. Pyongyang says it hasnt had COVID-19 cases yet and the government announced this week that it has developed its own equipment to conduct coronavirus tests, according to an announcement on state media. Back and forth There was some brief optimism late last month, when North and South Korean leaders announced the existence of high-level dialogue along with the restoration of several inter-Korean communication lines that Pyongyang had severed a year earlier. But ties went frosty again and North Korea stopped answering the Souths twice daily hotline calls after Seoul and Washington this month went ahead with annual summer military exercises. In his editorial Tuesday, Sung Kim defended the drills, saying the United States does not have hostile intent toward North Korea. The U.S.- (South Korea) combined military exercises, which are currently underway, are longstanding, routine, and purely defensive, and support the security of both our countries, he added. More tensions coming? Many Korea watchers expect the North to soon conduct a weapons test, which could further raise tensions. Last week, North Korea reportedly declared a no-sail zone for ships off its east coast a routine it occasionally conducts to warn vessels to stay away from areas affected by missile tests. But a launch never occurred during the period, according to South Korean officials quoted in local media. Senior North Korean military general Kim Yong Chol earlier this month warned of a huge security crisis after the United States and South Korea announced they would move ahead with the military drills. Pyongyang sees the exercises as a provocation and often uses them as an occasion to conduct its own weapons tests or issue verbal threats. At the beginning of 2020, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned he will no longer be bound by his self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile launches or nuclear tests. But many analysts suspect North Korea will not take any step that risks bringing further economic and diplomatic isolation. Tough times North Korea is already dealing with economic hardship caused by its severe coronavirus lockdown, as well as several natural disasters, such as a heat wave and floods, that have hurt its agriculture. The North is also under U.S. and United Nations sanctions, which are meant to pressure Pyongyang to halt its development of nuclear weapons program and ballistic missiles. Some aid groups have complained the sanctions make efforts to provide urgent international aid to North Korea more difficult; the U.S. says mechanisms are in place for those groups to receive humanitarian exemptions. Kim Jong Un sought sanctions relief and other concessions in 2018 and 2019, when he met three times with then U.S. President Donald Trump. But after those talks broke down, North Korea focused its attention inward, saying the country would have to live under sanctions for the foreseeable future. For the past year and a half, North Korea has been in a severe pandemic lockdown, sealing its borders, cutting imports, and restricting domestic travel. Russias President Vladimir Putin provoked chuckles earlier this month from school kids in the Russian city of Vladivostok when a 10-year-old asked him to subscribe to his YouTube channel. Sign up please. Id be very glad, the kid said. Russias 68-year-old leader seemed baffled. What do I have to sign? Putin asked. Sign what? I didnt understand what should I sign? the president queried. The exchange was seen by many Russian commentators as an iconic moment in a widening division between Putin and his countrys youngsters. The Vladivostok school kids are not of voting age, but as Russians started to go to the polls Friday to vote in parliamentary elections, the turnout and voting patterns of the countrys internet-savvy 18-to-24-year-olds will be scrutinized by the Kremlin as well as Putins foes. Over the past year opinion polling has suggested that young Russians are increasingly unhappy with their president. Around half of young Russians expressed dissatisfaction with Putin in a poll by the independent Russian polling organization Levada Center earlier this year. Only 20% said they supported him, a sharp drop from 36% previously. Nearly half said the country was moving in the wrong direction under his leadership, with just 44% saying the direction of travel was okay. Young people are becoming more politically active, analyst Natia Seskuria said in a recent commentary for London-based think tank Chatham House. After 21 years of Putins rule, regime fatigue is settling in particularly in the younger generations who have known no other leader. Growing dissatisfaction made many join demonstrations that led to more than 10,000 arrests and dozens of criminal cases against the protesters, Seskuria said, referring to protests mounted in the wake of the imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny earlier this year on charges he says are trumped up. Young Russians have used social media to mobilize support for rallies and to criticize Putin. Navalny, too, has used the power of social media to connect with younger voters. How many of Russias young people vote for Putins ruling United Russia Party will give some idea of the challenge the Kremlin may face in the coming months. It also will indicate whether Russias leader will face a mounting backlash from a young generation that is frustrated with economic stagnation, the lack of job prospects and a propaganda-heavy media machine that does not connect with it in the way Navalny has managed to with You-Tube videos and social media posts. Polling data suggests that just 26% of Russians are ready to vote for Putins United Russia Party, which is seeking to maintain its Duma majority of 334 seats. That is its lowest opinion poll rating since 2008. But few doubt United Russia will retain its Duma majority. Kremlin critics say this election voting takes place over three days is the least free since Putin came to power 21 years ago. Genuinely independent candidates are barred from running, cash-handouts have been offered to voters, and there is evidence of voter intimidation, all taking place amid an unprecedented crackdown on dissent. Critics also expect plenty of ballot-rigging in the election for the 450-seat State Duma. Long lines formed at some polling stations Friday, according to local reports. Navalny supporters suggested state workers were being mobilized to vote by the Kremlin and local authorities. Every time [under Putin], elections have looked a little less like elections. Now this process is complete, exiled Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky told Echo of Moscow radio station this week. The next time our people will vote for real will be after they earn that right on the barricades, he added. But little is being left to chance by the Kremlin, say Navalny supporters. And they accused U.S. tech giants Google and Apple Friday of bowing to Kremlin pressure by deleting a youth-oriented Smart Voting app that offers a step-by-step guide on how to vote tactically against pro-Putin candidates. This is an act of political censorship, and it cant be justified, said Kira Yarmysh, Navalnys press spokesperson. They caved into the Kremlins blackmail, added Leonid Volkov, Navalnys former campaign manager. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegation of political censorship, telling reporters in Moscow the app was removed in observation of the letter and spirit of Russian law. From prison, via a message on Instagram, Navalny urged voters to undermine the Kremlin by voting for the best placed candidate not affiliated with United Russia, which means in many places voting for candidates offered by the Communist Party. In the message Navalny said: Are you not interested in trying? The removal of Navalnys tactical voting app by Apple and Google from their app stores also drew criticism from international rights organizations. Russian government officials are putting tech companies in a tightening vise, threatening criminal actions against individual employees inside the country to pressure their employers into yielding to calls for censorship, said Matt Bailey, director of the digital freedom program of PEN America. The decision on the part of Apple and Google to remove an app from the iOS and Android App Stores being used to organize protest against the government is the result of blackmail, pure and simple, he added in a statement. The URL has been copied to your clipboard The code has been copied to your clipboard. Turkish authorities have detained hundreds of unregistered refugees including many Afghans in Istanbul. President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government faces growing public pressure to stop any surge of Afghans who arrive in Turkey following the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan. One on One with Joe Korkowski, as heard Saturdays on KXRA-1490AM (@7:40am) and KXRA-92.3FM (@8:00am), as well as each Sunday morning on KXRZ Z99.3fm (@10:15am). The interview is also re-broadcast on Monday mornings on KX92 at 10:00am and on Z99 at 9:10am. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Early voting got underway in Minneapolis on Friday on a contentious ballot question over whether the city where George Floyd was killed should replace its police department with a new Department of Public Safety. Supporters of the proposed city charter amendment, led by the Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign, say it's the only way to fix an intransigent culture of brutal policing that culminated in Floyd's death last summer after white Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the Black mans neck for about 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd was facedown on the pavement, pleading for air. Opponents, including Mayor Jacob Frey, say too many questions remain about how the new department would work. Among the first-day voters was attorney Chris Henjum, who said he was enthusiastically in favor of the amendment and would like a more nuanced and tailored approach to public safety. Changes to how authorities respond to mental health calls and low-level traffic stops would both protect residents but also protect police from preventable incidents, he said. I think the citys seen a clear track record of unrest, and its time to change the status quo to make public safety accountable to its residents, Henjum said. Laurie Schlosser, a child psychologist, voted against the amendment, calling it too vague and too quick. She lives on the citys north side, where several residents have died in shootings in the past year, including children who were unintended targets of gun violence between rival gangs, according to police. She agreed the city needs a public health approach to public safety, as amendment advocates envision, but she would like to see those programs built up and working first. Our children are traumatized, our teens, our adults, our families are grieving and suffering, and being down 200 officers is not working, Schlosser said. We need to build up the public health approach before having any chance of being able to decrease the number of officers. Voting concludes Nov. 2. Yes 4 Minneapolis has raised over $1 million in cash and nearly $500,000 worth of in-kind donations from across the country, according to campaign finance reports filed last month. The much newer All of Mpls, which opposes the amendment, raised more than $100,000 in its first few weeks, mostly locally. The Minnesota Supreme Court cleared the way for the policing amendment to go forward Thursday, ending a bitter court fight over ballot language. Amendment supporters were blocked in their effort to get a version on last year's ballot. The proposal has its roots in the defund the police movement, which gained momentum after Floyds death sparked a national reckoning on racial justice. However, support and opposition doesnt break down neatly along racial lines, with some Black leaders opposed. The amendment does not use the term defund, but it would remove the city charters requirement that Minneapolis have a police department with a minimum staffing level. The City Council would decide later how the new department would be structured, led and funded. Dozens of supporters attended a rally Friday near Minneapolis City Hall. Minister JaNae Bates led them in chants, including Black lives they matter here and Show me what democracy looks like, before several activists, union members and elected officials addressed the group. The speakers touted Thursdays court decision as a victory for residents and for democracy, and urged people to vote for the proposal, which they say has attracted the ire of wealthy interests. The wealthy and the powerful have tried to stop us the corporations, the faceless actors putting their thumb on the scale. ... They tried to manipulate the will of the people," said Aurin Chowdhury of the Minnesota Youth Collective. They tried to suppress our vote. But at every step we said no. Meanwhile, All of Mpls launched a canvassing campaign on the north side which has one of the city's largest Black communities - to build on a door-knocking drive it began five weeks ago. Residents want to see real solutions for transforming the Minneapolis Police Department and not a vague promise with no plan from the same City Council that promised a year ago to defund the police," campaign manager Leili Fatehi said. Regardless of the vote, the police force is the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into whether it has a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. Such investigations usually result in court-ordered changes. Mohamed Ibrahim is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. A new study from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota finds that most Minnesota seniors have received a COVID-19 vaccineeven though not all of them are returning to their pre-pandemic activities at the same rate. Specifically, one in five vaccinated seniors have yet to visit with any family or friendswhile two in five dont feel comfortable socializing with unvaccinated grandchildren. The study also finds that this reluctance comes amid concerns around emerging variantsand worsening emotional states among seniors. In fact, more than half of the seniors in the study are very concerned about variantswhile two in three have experienced anxiety, depression, fear, isolation, or frustration since the start of the pandemic. However, other vaccinated seniors are beginning to return to activities that they pursued before life was disrupted by COVID-19: Two-thirds report having everyday, face-to-face interactions with otherswhile more than half are returning to such public spaces as restaurants, barbershops, salons, shopping centers, and theaters. John Hinesa longtime radio personality in the Twin Cities, and a senior himselfhas partnered with Blue Cross to raise awareness of health issues that face seniors, and agrees that they need to help support one another: Make plans to see the people whom you care about, in whatever way allows everyone to feel safeand keep connecting over the phone or online, he says. The best way to get through this is together. Hines talked with VOA's Joe Korkowski about the study (AUDIO BELOW). Among vaccinated seniors in the survey, 95 percent are still following at least one precautionsuch as washing hands often, wearing a mask, or avoiding crowds. Plus, nearly two-thirds of them report having a more-active lifestyle now that theyre vaccinated, than they did earlier in the pandemic. The COVID-19 vaccine has been a liberator for many Minnesota seniors, as they start to return to the activities that theyve missed the most. But, were seeing a gulf emerge among vaccinated seniors, as others arent ready to take that step, adds Dr. Mark Steffen of Blue Cross. Its important that we recognize this group of seniorsand ensure that they arent feeling left behind, and arent experiencing social isolation or loneliness. To learn more, visit bluecrossmn.com/seniors. It was the first debate between the major party candidates for Minnesota attorney general, and if nothing else it moved the two men from talking about each other to talking to each other. Not that it resolved any of the vast differences between DFL nominee Keith Ellison and GOP nominee Doug Wardlow. Ellison is a progressive Democrat who has led his partys left flank in the state Legislature and, since 2007, as a member of Congress. Wardlow is a conservative Republican and a libertarian who is comfortable among the Tea Party. And while they dont appear to care for each other all that much, the forum Friday night on TPTs Almanac where they were joined by Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party candidate Noah M. Johnson was civil, with each apologizing each time they interrupted the other, which they frequently did. So what could voters learn from the forum? 1. No one can say the candidates for attorney general are all the same They could say it, but it just would be hard to justify given the three names on the ballot. Ellison is a progressive Democrat, Wardlow is a conservative Republican and Johnson is part of an effort to legalize recreational marijuana. On issue after issue, Ellison and Wardlow took starkly different positions. Wardlow criticized Ellison for supporting policies that keep state and local law enforcement from asking about the immigration status of people with whom they come in contact. Ellison has been critical of Trump Administration immigration policies, while Wardlow has said he supports them. And while both Ellison and Wardlow have said they would be willing to put the clout of the state behind national litigation to uphold or knock down national policy, their targets would be completely different. Yet both also accuse the other of threatening to politicize the office by making it a player in the national debate over Trump Administration policies. Ellison cited a current lawsuit by 20 Republican attorneys general against the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with pre-existing conditions something more than two million Minnesotans have. It has become a major campaign point nationally, with Democrats saying it is proof that the popular feature of Obamacare is opposed by Republicans. Wardlow said he wouldnt have joined the suit had he been in office. I dont think its right for Minnesota. But Wardlow said that the state had a great system for covering pre-existing conditions before Obamacare passed and said Ellison helped break that system by voting yes. And he said Ellison had committed to joining litigation in other areas, from net neutrality to child separation at the border to obstruct the presidents agenda. Responded Ellison: It is appropriate for the attorney general of the state of Minnesota to join with other attorneys general Republican or Democrat, Doug when it is to the benefit to the people of the state of Minnesota. 2. In Minnesota, all the children are above average. And all the candidates for attorney general are extremists That is at least how Ellison and Wardlow are trying to portray each other. During the forum, TPT showed a Wardlow ad that describes Ellison as extreme five times in less than 30 seconds. It raised allegations that Ellison was supportive of Sara Jane Olson, who was charged with trying to kill police officers in the 1970s; voted against the Farm Bill in Congress; and said he supported open borders. Ellison and state Democrats have been pointing out Wardlows legal work for a national group that has challenged LGBT protections and the Affordable Care Act. In the same segment that aired the Wardlow ad against Ellison, a video from Ellisons website showed Wardlow testifying in St. Paul against schools providing unisex bathrooms for transgendered students. While Wardlow said he was testifying on behalf of a client, that client was the Alliance for Freedom, a national conservative legal organization that is the centerpiece of the DFL claims that Wardlow is too conservative. 3. Keith Ellison appears to have lost his mojo Keith Ellison has long been one of the DFLs biggest assets. That is partly true because he has bucked up the organizational clout of his 5th Congressional District, the states bluest and truest progressive district. But it is also true because he is an excellent campaigner and has been willing to share his popularity with other candidates in the state. And as deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, he has been sharing it nationally. That changed five weeks ago when his former live-in girlfriend, Karen Monahan, raised (and expanded upon) charges first published on social media by her son: that Ellison engaged in what she called narcissistic abuse and once physically abused her during a 2016 argument, yanking her by the feet while she laid on a bed. Ellison denied the physical confrontation and said that cell phone video of the incident that Monahan says she recorded hasnt been released because it doesnt exist. Both the state and national Democratic parties have said they are investigating. The National Organization for Women quickly called on Ellison to step down but many friends and family members, including Ellisons ex-wife, have come to his support. The Monahan accusations, however, have put him on the defensive, which has made him far less helpful to other candidates. Friday it seemed as though they also have robbed him of his willingness to be assertive when needed. He knew the questions about Monahan would come up, either directly from Wardlow or through questions by hosts Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer. It turns out that it was all three, and Ellison spent a lot of his time responding to the charges. Theyre not true. I have said that they are not true, Ellison said. He also said he didnt know when the investigations will be complete because they are independent. When Wurzer asked him about Monahans offer to speak with investigators, but only if she could appear before them with Ellison, he said he wouldnt agree to do that. We broke up two years ago for a reason. I dont want to be in the relationship and therefore I left the relationship and so to get back in touch with her again is not something Im interested in doing, he said. Ive met somebody new and Im trying to pursue my life and move on. Wardlow, echoing his campaign ad, said, I think two credible, strong allegations of domestic abuse is enough, a reference to Monahan and a 2006 allegation by another woman. Theres none actually, Ellison said. There are two, Wardlow said. Theres zero, Ellison. The 2006 allegation was from a woman who his campaign got a restraining order against, he said. But more-importantly to his election efforts, Ellison wasnt always effective Friday at turning the spotlight on Wardlow. In trying to portray Wardlow as too conservative, he cited a lawsuit led by Alliance for Freedom that challenged a Colorado state finding against a baker who refused to provide a cake for a same-sex marriage. Ellison, however, did not tie Wardlow directly to that case, instead saying the issue is live right now in this race and saying he would defend the rights of LGBT residents of Minnesota in a similar case. He did accuse Wardlow of helping with legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act, but such charges required listeners to know more about the background of the case than most voters probably do. During the debate, Ellisons campaign sent press releases dubbed Fact Checks with background and several accusations that Ellison could have made himself on the program to Wardlow and to voters. One example of that was Ellisons failure to challenge Wardlows assertion that he wouldnt be involved in national lawsuits on national political issues. While the forum was airing live, the campaign sent out a copy of a Wardlow campaign piece that asked supporters to rank the things he would do if elected. One of them is Defend President Trumps agenda in court. Ellison didnt mention it on air. 4. Showing up is 80 percent of success No one knows that better than Johnson. While much of the forum focused on Ellison and Wardlow, by Almanacs rules, any candidate with at least 5 percent support in an independent poll gets a spot on the couch, so Johnson was also given a spot on the shows couch. His pitch: that marijuana laws are antiquated and that there are benefits to making recreational use legal in Minnesota. But he also took positions that place him squarely among the states progressive voters. He countered Wardlows claim that those on the left want open borders, saying that it remains very difficult to gain entry into the U.S. After Ellison and Wardlow argued over which candidate supported law enforcement more, Johnson said the attorney general is the peoples lawyer, not just the polices lawyer. And he said he was concerned with the Trump travel ban and other extremely discriminatory immigration policies that he said targeted people because of their religion. None of those positions were groundbreaking, but if there are DFL voters unsure of Ellison due to the Monahan allegations, Johnson could appeal to them. Which is why Wardlow was likely happier than Ellison that Almanacs rules put Johnson in the room. MinnPost Photo: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures If its not clear Chris Witaske is a Chicagoan from the way he enunciates his a vowels, appearing on Zoom wearing a Twin Anchors T-shirt in the Chicago Bears colors of navy blue and burnt orange gives it away. The old-school restaurant is a North Side institution. (Good luck getting a table during the holidays!) Its blocks away from the Second City, the improv house where Witaske got his comedy start alongside Aidy Bryant and Lauren Ash. Like most Chicagoans, Witaske, who is the creator of Netflixs new animated series Chicago Party Aunt, enjoys telling you hes a Midwest native. Witaske grew up in an unassuming suburb (St. Charles), attended a Big Ten college (University of Iowa), and planted himself in Chicago proper for a decade. After climbing to the top of the citys comedy scene, he moved to Los Angeles seven years ago, only to suffer from a bout of homesickness. Like many sad people, he turned to Twitter. Inspired by his family back home, Witaske created a parody account as Diane, a middle-aged woman living in Chicagos Wrigleyville party neighborhood with a penchant for two-toned spiky hair, Malort liquor, and the band Styx. The account caught the eye of comedy writer Katie Rich (SNL); actor Ike Barinholtz (The Mindy Project); and Ikes brother, Jon (Superstore). Together, the four Chicagoans pitched the show to Netflix and cast Ash as Diane and Broadway star Rory OMalley as her gay nephew, Daniel. If Seinfeld is Jerry Seinfelds New York and Insecure is Issa Raes Los Angeles, then Chicago Party Aunt is Witaskes Chicago as viewed through the eyes of one of his aunts. Someone said you already have your Homer Simpson, and now you just have to build a world around it, Witaske says in an interview with Vulture, in which he discusses perfecting the Chicago accent, dining with comedy idol Bob Odenkirk, and being in those Progressive insurance commercials. Is there anything cathartic for you about this project done for your own self-preservation now fueling your career? I truly started this for fun to have a place to write jokes and be creative. Actually, just two days ago, they put up a billboard in Los Angeles, so I drove to it. I turned a corner, and all of a sudden, there it was: this huge-ass billboard. I had this moment where I was like, Holy shit. This thing that I started in my underwear is now gonna stream in 190 countries. Its like, What the fuck? I would say very cathartic. One of the lines that I really enjoyed was in the first episode. Dianes sister says, Youre just like Chicago: a huge mess whose best days are behind you. Im glad that stuck out to you. Thats one of my favorite lines in the whole show. It was kind of our thesis statement. Heres this woman who is stuck in her glory days. She had the most fun in the 80s or whatever, when she was rocking out to hair bands, wearing leather pants, and partying with all these Chicago celebrities. But now the world is changing around her, and people are evolving. I dont know if youve been to Wrigleyville lately, but its so different from what it used to be. It used to be dive bars and auto-mechanic shops. Now theres an oyster bar right across the street from Wrigley Field. Can you tell me about doing an aunt-and-specifically-gay-nephew plotline? When we were fleshing this show out, we were like, Well, who should she hang out with? The obvious answer was she needs a nephew, because who is she the aunt to? Theres a sex columnist named Dan Savage, whom Im a big fan of. He is from Chicago, and hes a fan of the account. He once tweeted [something like], When I came out of the closet to my Chicago party aunt, she took me out that night and got me so drunk that I slept through the SATs the next day. That tweet inspired the character Daniel. Chicagoans love to complain about incorrect Hollywood portrayals of Chicago. So Im curious if youre prepared for that. So far, Chicago seems to be pumped about it. The only shit Im getting right now online is from these anime teenagers who dont like the animation style of the show because its not, I guess, anime or something. Overall, it feels like Chicago has been very supportive, but Im sure were going to get shit. If theres one little thing that isnt exactly right, Im sure were gonna hear about it. [Laughs.] You said previously you didnt want to do SNLs Da Bears version of a Chicago accent too much. When I started this Twitter account, I did a bunch of radio and news interviews where I was doing the voice. I kept it anonymous, but I was doing this very thick [accent]. You could tell it was a guy. So when it came time to cast the part, I bet we auditioned close to 100 women, trying to find the perfect tone. It was important that it wasnt too cartoony, even though its an animated show. We wanted it to be grounded and not so over-the-top that its obnoxious. So thats when we found Lauren Ash, who is an old friend of mine from Second City. Her audition, she nailed it and totally got it. It wasnt too much. Youve done Second City, iO, and Annoyance Theatre. Is there anything in the Chicago comedy scene that you didnt get to do? I saw my first Second City show when I was like 13 with my dad, and that night changed my life. My goal in life was to do Second City. Ive achieved everything that I wanted to do already. So now everything is just icing. Funny you mentioned Da Bears. I also grew up watching SNL. I was very inspired by that. That sketch was written by Robert Smigel, who is a very prolific SNL writer, and Bob Odenkirk. Now Bob is like a mentor of mine. His wife is my manager, and I just got an email from Robert Smigel the other day saying, I cant wait for your show. It looks so funny. He gave me his blessing, so that was a very cool moment. Being a comedy kid from St. Charles, thats got to feel great. Oh my God, like crazy. Bob and I are like friends now. We go out to dinner and stuff. Mr. Show was a huge inspiration for me. So yeah, its cool. Where did Diane grow up? A lot of people think that Diane should be a South Sider. I agree, but then you also see these women on the North Side. Wrigleyville is the ultimate party neighborhood, and its close to Boystown. So where we landed was she and her sister, Bonnie, grew up on the South Side, maybe like Bridgeport or Beverly. Then she moved to the North Side. Shes got the whole city covered. Was there a reason you didnt make her, if shes from the South Side, a White Sox fan? I think shes probably one of those people who just if theres Chicago in front of the name, she loves it. To level up in comedy, you need to leave Chicago eventually. So what does it feel like to bring the city you clearly love into your professional projects? I like L.A., but if the industry was in Chicago, I would have never left. Its my goal one day to have a place back in Chicago and split my time. So hopefully this show gets ten seasons, and Ill be able to do that. Is there anything else youd like to add or anything else youd like to mention? Im in these Progressive car-insurance commercials right now where I play a guy turning into my dad. Oh, youre in that? Yeah. Ive been in a handful of them. Anyway, theyre popular commercials. Nobody realizes that Im the guy behind Chicago Party Aunt, so I think people might get a kick out of that if they knew. The interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. Photo: Getty Images Los Angeles prosecutors have decided not to charge T.I. and Tiny Harris following an investigation into allegations of sexual-assault and drugging made against the couple. According to a document from the district attorneys office obtained by Vulture, prosecutors cited the statute of limitations as the reason for their declination. The alleged incident took place in 2005, and the statute of limitations on sexual abuse in California is 10 years. Without the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence being evaluated, the case is declined due to the expiration, the district attorneys office wrote in the charge evaluation. The couples attorney, Shawn Holley, said in a statement to Vulture, Mr. and Mrs. Harris are pleased, but not surprised, by the District Attorneys decision to dismiss these meritless allegations. We appreciate the DAs careful review of the case and are grateful to be able to put the matter behind us and move on. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that that couple were under investigation for sexual assault and drugging back in May. The investigation centered on an incident that took place in 2005, which was reported to police by an unnamed L.A. woman last April. The woman claimed, according to a police report obtained by Vulture, that she had met T.I. and Tiny in a Los Angeles club, where Tiny allegedly gave her a drink that she believes was most likely drugged. She claimed that the couple then took her back to a hotel room, and T.I. penetrated her vagina with his toes while she was incapacitated and unable to consent. In February, the womans attorney, Tyrone A. Blackburn, had sent letters on behalf of 11 victims to law enforcement in Georgia and California, following multiple sexual assault allegations from dozens of women against the couple on social media in January . The letters from Blackburn detail eerily similar events of sexual abuse, forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, terroristic threats and false imprisonment. Four victims, according to the letters, specifically accused the couple of drugging and sexual assault, including a 17-year-old intern to T.I. and Tinys studio. The couples attorney at the time, Steve Sadow, called the allegations a sordid shakedown campaign. In response to todays news, Blackburn said that the prosecutorss decision does not vindicate Clifford Harris and Tiny Harris from the act of raping and drugging Jane Doe. It only amplifies the need to do away with the statute of limitations for sex crimes. The family of Brian Laundrie, the fiance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito -- who was reported missing by her family nearly a week ago -- told police in North Port, Florida, they haven't seen him since Tuesday, according to police spokesperson Josh Taylor. "We've been trying all week to talk to his family, to talk to Brian, and now they've called us here on Friday, we've gone to the home, and they're saying now they have not seen their son," Taylor told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Friday night. "So we are working through those details as we speak. It is another twist in this story." The disappearance of the fiance was confirmed by the Laundrie family lawyer. In a statement Friday night to CNN, attorney Steven Bertolino said Brian Laundrie's whereabout "are currently unknown." He added: "The FBI is currently at the Laundrie residence removing property to assist in locating Brian. As of now the FBI is now looking for both Gabby and Brian." The FBI declined to comment on this statement when asked for verification by CNN. Separately, North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison wrote on Twitter on Friday night the conversation between the Laundrie family and police was complete. The chief also asked for calm, adding, "Please let us work through this and information will be forthcoming." Police previously had visited the home but the family refused to talk and instead gave authorities the information for their attorney, Taylor said earlier this week. Petito's family and their attorneys have pleaded with the Laundrie family for several days to speak to authorities and help them find the young woman. The FBI has now also released a new Missing Person poster, asking for help in the search for the young woman. 'Two people went on a trip, and one person returned' On Thursday, Garrison said he believed the family was withholding critical information. "I believe Brian has the information," the police chief told CNN's Don Lemon. "I believe people around Brian may also have the information, and we are pleading to those people to come forward. Provide us the information that we need to find Gabby and reunite Gabby with her family because she deserves it and her family deserves it." Petito was traveling with Laundrie in her white 2012 Ford Transit van with a Florida license plate, police said. When her family didn't hear from her since late August, they reported her missing on September 11. Police believe she was in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming before the last communication with her family, who lives in New York. "We are conducting a missing person investigation. Two people went on a trip, and one person returned. And that person is Brian. And we're looking for Gabby, and he is not willing to provide us any information," Garrison said Thursday. Authorities believe Laundrie was the last person to see Petito before she went missing. On September 11, police found the van the couple was traveling in at the home Petito shared with Laundrie and his parents in North Port. Laundrie allegedly returned to North Port on September 1, police said in a news release. Laundrie's sister, Cassie Laundrie, told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview that aired Friday, "Me and my family want Gabby to be found safe. She's like a sister and my children love her. "All I want is for her to come home safe and sound and this to be just a big misunderstanding," Cassie Laundrie said, adding she hasn't been able to speak with her brother since he returned home. The FBI's office in Denver on Thursday announced it was joining the investigation. "No piece of information is too small or inconsequential to help in law enforcement's efforts to bring Ms. Petito home," the office said on Twitter, calling on the public to submit any information to the FBI, including "potential sightings, photos, videos, or any other details." 'Do the right thing,' Petito's stepfather says Cassie Laundrie said she had spoken with police, but Taylor, the police spokesperson, previously told CNN, "That was news to me," adding he can't confirm that she spoke with North Port police. "She may have spoken to police, but I would not consider the family being entirely cooperative," Taylor said. "This started Saturday with us showing up to the door and we were essentially handed a piece of paper with their attorney's contact information. That has been the extent of our conversation with Brian's parents. We have never spoken a word with Brian." Authorities are investigating some materials they found in the van after they processed it, though they didn't clarify what exactly they're looking into, Taylor said in a prior news briefing. And the Laundries haven't been talking to Petito's family, who have been pleading for people to come forward. "We've had no communication between our family and theirs. It's absolutely absurd. We don't understand why," Petito's stepfather, James Schmidt, told CNN affiliate Court TV. Schmidt explained that he is in Jackson, Wyoming, as a liaison between his family and law enforcement as investigators search for Petito. He said he believes Laundrie knows information about his stepdaughter's disappearance and is "hiding behind" his attorney. "He grew up with Gabby; they went to school together. They're not strangers. They've known each other for a long time," Schmidt said. Schmidt addressed Laundrie during the interview, calling on him to come forward with information he may know. "This is the love of your life. It's been out there on social media. You posted on your accounts. If that is true, then do the right thing. You need to do it now. Stop waiting," Schmidt said. 'Right now, we don't have a crime,' police say Garrison told CNN on Thursday that his department wasn't working to obtain a search warrant for Laundrie's home because they haven't concluded that a crime has occurred. "In order to get a search warrant, you have to be tied to a crime. Right now, we don't have a crime," Garrison said. He added Laundrie has invoked his Fifth Amendment right, which generally means a person cannot be forced to make statements he or she feels might be negative or used against them. The amendment is usually invoked so a person can avoid answering specific questions. The right must be affirmatively waived. "So I can't compel him to speak," Garrison said. "All of our information has been directed through an attorney. That can change. The attorney can come forward and say, 'listen, Brian wants to provide a statement now.'" The couple did, however, have a recent interaction with police in Moab, Utah. Last month, officers with the Moab City Police Department responded to reports of disorderly conduct involving Petito and Laundrie, which ended with a report describing them as having "engaged in some sort of altercation." The report released by the police department indicates Laundrie and Petito had a physical fight following an argument, but "both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime," according to the report from Officer Eric Pratt. The officers who responded to the incident suggested that Laundrie and Petito should separate for the night, according to the report. Petito is described by one officer as "confused and emotional." "After evaluating the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe the situation escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis," Officer Daniel Robbins wrote in the police report. No charges were filed. Robbins wrote Laundrie said the pair had been traveling together for "the last 4 or 5 months." The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. As the Taliban entered Kabul last month, the team behind the crowdsourced news alert app Ehtesab deserted their office in the city. But they continued their work of providing Afghans with critical information, such as which roads were congested and where outbreaks of violence had been reported. Days later, when two suicide bombing explosions killed more than 70 people near Kabul's Hamid Karzai Airport as people frantically tried to evacuate, the startup used its contacts on the ground to confirm the twin attacks within minutes. Ehtesab was created three years ago to provide real-time alerts and information about incidents in Kabul. The goal at the time was to keep residents engaged, bridge communication gaps between citizens and public officials, and hold government officials accountable. Like Citizen, an app in the United States known for real-time crime alerts, Ehtesab prompts locals to report incidents from around the city, including everything from faulty telecommunications to planned demonstrations. These reports are then verified by Ehtesab's team of security experts. Now this service has taken on new urgency amid the rapid political and social change following the Taliban's takeover. While the app has been downloaded only 5,000 times by people in Kabul and elsewhere a tiny portion of the city's millions of residents the company says usage has surged in recent weeks. "The main focus has been, obviously, providing reports that affect Afghans' access to food, access to banks, access to movement," Sara Wahedi, Ehtesab's 26-year-old founder who is leading the team of Kabul staffers from New York while she completes degrees in human rights and data science at Columbia University, told CNN Business. "We try to mitigate as much anxiety in day-to-day life as best as we can in the current situation," she said. "The main problem I have is: How can I keep my team safe?" An app for Kabul residents and beyond Wahedi was born in Afghanistan but left with her family at the age of six, around the time the Taliban's previous rule of Afghanistan was coming to an end. She moved to Europe and then settled in Canada under an asylum visa. In 2016, she took a break from her political science studies to return to Kabul, eventually spending more than a year working on social development policy in the office of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. In May 2018, Wahedi was walking home from her job in downtown Kabul when she got stuck in the midst of several suicide bombings. She managed to make it home safely, but, she says, the next day there were sanitation problems, electricity outages and closed streets. "I was really confused by the fact that there was no platform ... where you could find verified, real-time information about what was going on in the city, especially a city which is consistently reeling with instability," Wahedi siad. "It just seemed so odd to me that there was no structure. It wouldn't cost much to implement something like that." The potential audience for such a service had grown, too. As of 2019, Afghanistan had nearly 10 million internet users and around 23 million cellphone users, with 89% of Afghans able to access telecommunication services, according to the latest available figures from the country's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. By the end of 2018, she and three friends had begun work on Ehtesab. Three years later, the app now has a staff of around 20 people in Kabul, including developers, user experience designers and employees who work on vetting reports. Users submit reports through the app in one of five categories: security, traffic, electricity, corruption and other. The app instructs users to provide information, including location, a written description and a photo or video. Once verified by at least two sources, the app displays reports on a map of Kabul and adds updates as more information is available. The future of Ehtesab Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Ehtesab's work has become not only more dangerous but also more challenging. The app previously was able to use local police records and information from government officials to help verify reports. It's now become more reliant on news reports, foreign embassies and the United Nations, many of which have reduced their presence in Kabul in recent weeks. The team is also currently working to ensure that no reports sent in by users could be tracked by the Taliban. Despite those difficulties, as well as concerns that the Taliban could crack down on the internet broadly as it did in the early 2000s, Wahedi said the team isn't giving up. "This is the one thing that keeps us going on a day-to-day basis is us knowing that we're able to do something very directly to help," she said. "[The team] said, 'Until we can't, until they shut down the internet, we're going to keep doing this.' And that's what we've been doing." Ehtesab had planned to be operating in at least five more Afghan cities by December, but Wahedi said the Taliban's return will likely set them back until next year. The company is also working to figure out how to help Ehtesab reach not just Afghan citizens with smartphones, but also those in rural areas with more basic devices and only 3G service. In the meantime, Wahedi said the app could use the help of the international tech community, adding that the team is looking for expertise in areas like geofencing, location tracking and satellite services. "We really need the best minds in tech to work with us and collaborate with us on how we can maximize the potential of this," she said. "We do have a lot of Afghan talent, and there are a lot of Afghan companies who are doing great work. But unfortunately once the Taliban came in, everyone packed their bags and left." The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. What do you see? A game trail cam pointing into the woods behind a home near Hazel Green High School in Madison County captured the image of a cat earlier this month. The question is: What species is it? And lots of folks on social media are weighing-in with their thoughts. Some believe its a mountain lion. WAAY 31 took the photo to state wildlife biologists to get their expert opinions Friday. Biologists believe the grainy image is 100 percent that of a bobcat, a common wild cat found throughout Alabama. Bobcats are often mistaken for cougars, also called pumas and mountain lions, but there has not been a verified, reliable sighting of a cougar in Alabama in more than 70 years. But that hasnt stopped the legend of the Alabama cougar from staying alive and well. We get a lot of questions every week about big cats in Alabama," Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division Conservation Outreach Coordinator Marianne Hudson told WAAY 31 Friday. Emails and calls come into the states wildlife office from people across Alabama who swear they captured proof of a cougar in the wild. People are quite often used to seeing things that are certain size in a certain shape from a certain distance which gives them a perspective and were not perspective is skewed you can easily give an illusion that the animals larger or smaller than other than it actually is," Hudson said. Cougars once roamed across most of the Western Hemisphere, but the last cougar thought to be in Alabama was killed in 1956 in Tuscaloosa County, according to officials. The big cat is presumed to be extinct east of the Mississippi River, except for a small, protected population in extreme southwestern Florida. We invite people to send us their pictures of tracks for even droppings from these animals," Hudson said. Feral cats are also behind most cases of mistaken identity, they look similar in some lighting situations and when it's hard to compare the size with the surrounding objects. An important note here: its illegal to privately own a cougar as a pet in Alabama, other big cats like tigers and African lions are legal and people are not required to register those with the state. We learned about this story from a viewer just like you. We always welcome your news tips, and we always work to get you answers. You can email us: newsroom@waaytv.com Alabama takes another step toward fixing the states outdated and overcrowded prison system. Gov. Kay Ivey sent a letter to state lawmakers Friday detailing her plans to call a special session beginning Sept. 27. The governors letter says the session will focus on the urgent need to deal with prison infrastructure failures. Alabama is currently being sued by the US Department of Justice over conditions in state prisons. The governors letter did not lay out any details about a legislative fix for the prison system. A treatment that is helping keep some COVID patients out of hospitals could soon be in short supply in Alabama. "I did receive word from our hospital here, as well as you know, an urgent care clinic that is providing a good number of monoclonal antibody treatment throughout this area, and they are expecting to not have any more as of this upcoming Sunday. Which puts us in a bad predicament," said Dr. Aruna Arora, president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, said of monoclonal antibody treatment. WAAY-31 talked to one woman who got the infusion treatment after getting the virus, and she says it's made an improvement in her health. The woman told us it helped her get better faster and to stay out of the hospital. "As sick as we were, I don't think we had the lung complications and the breathing complications we would have had if we would have not been vaccinated," said Kimberly Morton. Last Tuesday, Morton got her infusion treatment after she and her husband tested positive for COVID-19. Morton had to wait nearly 10 days to get the monoclonal antibody treatment. Dr. Karen Landers, Madison County's Health Officer, she told us the 10-day window is to allow space and time for scheduling. "But recognizing that some people may have symptoms for two or three days before they go and get tested and then, obviously, we have to have persons access the monoclonal center," said Dr. Landers. Even though the treatment is proven to be effective against the virus, Dr. Landers is says you still need to be vaccinated and wear your mask. "It'll be in your body for about 90 days and then they're going to go away, so we still need ongoing protection with the immune system," she said. As health professionals continue to encourage people to get vaccinated, Morton, who is fully vaccinated, says take it from her and stay alive. "After having close friends and relatives, that weren't vaccinated, that I watched die with COVID last year, we made a decision that we would go ahead get it," she said. There's a very specific group of people who can get the monoclonal infusion and even though Alabama is distributing it now, you have to get a referral from your doctor. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon has retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month. It announced Friday that an internal review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed. For days after the Aug. 29 strike, Pentagon officials asserted that it had been conducted correctly, despite numerous civilians being killed, including children. News organizations later raised doubts about that version of events, reporting that the driver of the targeted vehicle was a longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization and citing an absence of evidence to support the Pentagons assertion that the vehicle contained explosives. Thursday evening, dozens of people gathered in the parking lot of Helen Keller Hospital to pray for families of loved ones and the health care workers taking care of them. Helen Keller Hospital President Kyle Buchanan said they wanted to invite the community to pray for these families and others on the frontlines of the virus. People were asked to stay in their cars or right beside them to practice safe social distancing while they prayed. "All that we're going through as a team of 1,300 people taking care of them pales in comparison to what some of these families have gone through," said Buchanan. The hospital and staff prepared for a Labor Day Covid spike with doubling patients. As of Thursday, they were caring for 32 patients. Buchanan said they believe they've avoided a spike in cases, but are still prepared to move people around just in case. "It's a pretty drastic change from what we'd do everyday in order to take care of our patients. What that means is every nurse would be at the bedside," said Buchanan. The hospital has been steady at caring for 30 to 40 Covid patients a day. Buchanan believes they haven't seen a huge spike in Covid hospitalizations because of the monoclonal antibody treatment. The hospital is doing about 50 transfusions a day. The treatment is for people who have Covid along with an underlying condition and helps them fight the virus. Many people who get the treatment do not end up in the hospital on a ventilator battling a serious case of Covid. "Our supply is beginning to drop significantly. So what we've seen is that mid-next week we could be in a position where our orders are limited in order to get the supply around the country. We firmly believe monoclonal therapy is the only reason why our volume hasn't doubled. To see that supply dwindle is a pretty scary moment for us," said Buchanan. Buchanan said the demand for the treatment has gone down over the last three days because covid cases have been steady. WAAY 31 asked him what would happen if the demand goes up and they don't have enough supply for everyone and he said that's when they'd have to make tough decisions and decide who gets the antibody treatment. He hopes it won't come to that. A new social media challenge is going around that could get students in trouble with the law. Decatur City Schools sent out a warning letter letting parents know about the social media challenge on TikTok called, "Devious Licks." The challenge encourages students to video themselves stealing or destroying school property, all in an attempt to go viral. A spokesman for Decatur City Schools told WAAY 31 that every secondary school in the district has been impacted by the challenge. They won't say the extent of the damage. Decatur City Schools is not the only one in North Alabama falling victim to the challenge. Over the weekend its popped up in multiple areas, different places from city parks to other schools to where this TikTok trend is about stealing mostly meaningless things," said Mike Swafford with the Morgan County Sheriff's Office. Swafford told WAAY 31 Thursday afternoon that he's aware of at least six instances of the challenge. In fact, he said he caught teenage boys taking part in the act on Friday. "They were just caught, red-handed I guess, but they were actually just dispensing the soap and putting it on their buddys car handles and their own car handle," he explained. "The whole thing is just bizarre. Depending on what's stolen or damaged, students could face expulsion or worse, criminal charges. Peyton Smith is now a college student, but he worries about the consequences for younger people. It could really mess a kids life up especially if youre like 18 and a senior, and you do something like that," said Smith. "I mean, it could mess up scholarships or anything like that. Posts on social media don't go away. Even if an account is private, you could still be incriminating yourself if you take part in the challenge. The value of an independent commission is that it would offer some insulation from the daily pressures of Washington politics. If its members included such figures as former Secretary of Defense and CIA chief Leon Panetta, or former Missouri Representative and Senator Jim Talent, there would be less of a temptation to use hearings as a platform to create viral videos. Such a commission would also have the time to sort through the blame game already unfolding not only between the parties but also among the military, intelligence and diplomatic communities. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Todays Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning. Email address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Its centerpiece is the sale of an unspecified number of nuclear-powered submarines using technology that the United States so far has shared only with Britain. Under the agreement, the AUKUS countries will work over the next 18 months to hash out the details, including the type either U.S. Virginia class or British Astute class and the price of the submarines. The nuclear component refers to the power plants on the ships, and not to nuclear weapons. He has been asked to do the most difficult Olympic dive of any of the chairman since Goldwater-Nichols, a 1986 congressional act that cemented the power of the top officer, said Peter Feaver, a scholar on civil-military relations at Duke University. So when youre evaluating the quality of the dive and evaluating him, you have to recognize that, he said. On Sept. 15, 2001, Sodhi went to Costco to buy crates of flowers to plant in front of his gas station. There, he saw a jar at the checkout for donations for 9/11 victims, which he emptied his wallet into, Kaur said. He also called his brother and told him Costco was out of American flags, which he wanted to place outside of his store. OTooles strategy, which has included disavowing positions held dear by his partys base on issues such as climate change, guns and balanced budgets, is designed to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters in a country that tends to be far more liberal than its southern neighbor. Whether moderate Canadians believe OToole is the progressive conservative he claims and whether it has alienated conservatives have become central questions of the election campaign. Norway and Estonia said the resolution sends a unified message that we stand behind the U.N.s efforts in Afghanistan going forward and ensures that the U.N. mission can continue to monitor and report on human rights, the protection of civilians, violations and abuses against children, and support the participation of women in all levels of decision-making. The grim reality faced by women in WAs mining industry, including demands for sex for favours, has been revealed in horrifying testimonies to the parliamentary inquiry into sexual harassment of women mine workers. Astacia Stevens started working in the Pilbara as a Sodexo contract cleaner at a Rio Tinto mine where, according to her testimony, one of the miners supervisors touched her inappropriately almost every time he saw her. Rio Tinto worker Astacia Stevens. He would frequently grab my bum, putting his fat gut into the small of my back as if though he would try to ride me, Ms Stevens testimony said. He would laugh when he did it, and he did it often in front of others present. It is not surprising that Julia Gillard has not watched Strong Female Lead, the documentary about how she was vilified and demeaned while serving as Australias first female prime minister from 2010 to 2013. Im aware of the content, she said drolly in a videoed message this week, as of course, I was there. No need for her to be retraumatised while the rest of us are reminded of the relentless efforts, by the opposition, many in the media and, increasingly, numbers of her own male colleagues, to undermine her legitimacy and, ultimately, orchestrate her removal from office. Julia Gillard on the day she was sworn in as prime minister in 2010, with the then governor-general, Quentin Bryce. Credit:Government House When the hugely popular Gillard, then deputy prime minister, agreed to challenge Kevin Rudd for the top job, I am sure she had no idea what she was in for. Previous Labor leaders had back-stabbed their predecessors, and everyone got over it, especially caucus members who relished staying in office. Why not this time? The answer, of course, lies in her gender. Too many Australians apparently could not hack having a woman leading the nation. Why this was, and remains, the case is still unexplained perhaps inexplicable but Strong Female Lead provides grim confirmation of what happened. Phoenix: The United States should not accept Afghan refugees, including translators and others who helped the American military during the 20-year war, Republican US Senate candidate Jim Lamon said, staking out a hardline stance against a group of immigrants that has had widespread support from both parties. Rather than bringing them to the homeland, the United States should help Afghans who assisted in the war to flee the Taliban and resettle elsewhere in the Middle East, Lamon told The Associated Press Wednesday evening. Republican US Senate candidate Jim Lamon. They should go to countries that are friendly to them and us, Lamon said. We cannot continue to be the worlds refugee camp. Lamon is running in a crowded Republican primary to take on Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in one of the most closely watched 2022 Senate races. BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) An imposing bronze statue was unveiled in Hungarys capital on Thursday which its creators say is the first in the world to pay homage to the anonymous creator of the Bitcoin digital currency. Erected in a business park near the Danube River in Budapest, the bust sits atop a stone plinth engraved with the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the mysterious developer of Bitcoin whose true identity is unknown. We think of Satoshi as the founding father of the whole cryptocurrency industry, said Andras Gyorfi, a Bitcoin journalist and the initiator of the project. "He created Bitcoin, he created the blockchain technology, hes the god of our market. The featureless face of the bust, wrapped in a bronze hoodie emblazoned with the Bitcoin logo, is heavily polished to make it reflective like a mirror in which viewers can see themselves. Its creators, sculptors Reka Gergely and Tamas Gilly, sought to portray a human form while staying true to the anonymity of Nakamoto. It was a big challenge. It is very difficult to make a portrait sculpture of a person that we dont know exactly what they look like, Gilly told The Associated Press. I hope that through the language of sculpture I have managed to convey the basic idea of Bitcoin, that it belongs to everyone and no one at the same time." Bitcoin was created in 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis, and aimed to circumvent traditional financial institutions by developing secure technology for peer-to-peer online transactions without using intermediaries like banks. Its founding white paper published that year was authored by Nakamoto a pseudonym which could refer to a person or group of people of unknown gender, age or national origin. The organizers of the statue project invited Nakamoto to the unveiling, Gyorfi said, in the hopes of finally learning the true identity of the Bitcoin inventor. But though the event attracted several hundred people, no one come forward to claim responsibility for developing the cryptocurrency that has attracted tens of millions of investors and was adopted this month as legal currency in El Salvador. Gyorfi said the statue is a token of respect to Nakamoto, and an effort to raise awareness toward blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Along with other Hungarian Bitcoin enthusiasts, he collected around $10,000 in cryptocurrency donations to finance the creation of the bust. But that had to be converted into Hungarian currency, he said, because unfortunately the sculptors and other service providers dont accept Bitcoin yet." HARTFORD A jury found a Texas man guilty Wednesday after organizing to buy and sell 25 kilograms of cocaine throughout Hartford, according to federal prosecutors. Raul Chavez, 62, of El Paso, Texas, ran a cocaine trafficking operation that smuggled the drug from Mexico into El Paso and then to Connecticut and other states, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. Authorities said upwards of 40 kilograms of cocaine were transported multiple times a year, supplying Hartford-area dealers for about 10 years. In 2014, Chavezs organization was trying to find an additional supplier for its Hartford customers, according to authorities. In July 2014, a confidential source for the Drug Enforcement Administration met with Andrew Duron, also known as Chavo, in North Carolina. Duron told the source that he wanted to purchase up to 50 kilograms of cocaine for $28,000 per kilogram, the U.S. Attorneys office said. That August, Duron, the confidential source and an undercover DEA agent met in New Jersey where Duron agreed to buy 25 kilograms of cocaine for $700,000, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. The 25 kilograms of cocaine were going to Bloomfield resident Tyshawn Welborn, also known as Black, and Hartford resident Todd Vernon. Vernon had prepaid for about 13 kilograms of cocaine, the U.S. Attorneys office said. On Aug. 22, 2014, Chavez and others met with Welborn at a restaurant in East Windsor to discuss their plan for the pick-up and delivery of the money, the U.S. Attorneys office said. The next day, Aug. 23, 2014, Duron met with the undercover DEA agent in Wethersfield. The two then drove in separate cars to a store on Kennedy Road in Windsor. While Duron met with Chavez and another associate in the store, another person arrived and showed the undercover agent a duffel bag containing about $284,000 in cash, as well as a loaded .38 caliber revolver, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. Shortly after, investigators arrived and arrested Duron, Chavez and his associates, the U.S. Attorneys office said. Word then traveled that Chavez had been arrested. His son, Christopher Chavez, then diverted a shipment of 34 kilograms of cocaine, which was en route to Connecticut, to a high-level drug distributor in Cleveland, Ohio, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. Raul Chavez has been detained since he was arrested in August 2014 and was charged with conspiracy to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine. Duron, Welborn, Vernon and Christopher Chavez were also convicted of related charges, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. Raul Chavez initially pleaded guilty to the charge in March 2016, but later withdrew his guilty plea in January 2017 before he was scheduled to be sentenced. Though the judge denied the motion and sentenced Chavez anyways, Chavez appealed the decision, causing the case to go to trial, the U.S. Attorneys office said. His trial began on Sept. 7, 2021, and the jury returned the verdict Wednesday morning. Raul Chavezs sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8. He faces a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years, and a maximum term of life in prison, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. In 2020, there were 457 overdose deaths involving cocaine statewide, according to data from the state Department of Public Health. Those struggling with substance abuse issues can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration national hotline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for a free and confidential treatment referral or information. According to the National Institute of Health, nearly 15 million Americans suffer from alcohol use disorder or AUD. Only eight percent have received treatment. See how a once-a-month medication is helping those in their search for sobriety. The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. Cambodia is vaccinating 6-to-11-year-olds so students can safely return to schools that have been closed for months due to the coronavirus. Prime Minister Hun Sen inaugurated the campaign live Friday as his grandchildren and young family members of other senior officials were shown being given their jabs. Cambodia already has been vaccinating older children, and Hun Sen said he ordered health officials to study if children ages 3 to 5 can also be vaccinated. Nearly 72% of Cambodias almost 17 million people have received at least one COVID-19 shot since vaccinations began in February. Chinas Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines account for most inoculations. A brand-new production of Billy Elliot is headed for Curve in Leicester! Directed by Nikolai Foster and choreographed by Lucy Hind (Girl from the North Country) the show will play for six weeks from 7 July to 14 August 2022. Based on Stephen Daldry's film, the stage show has music by Elton John and book and lyrics by Lee Hall. It was first seen in the West End in 2005, going on to receive critical acclaim across the globe. Auditions for the title role and young performers will begin soon, with anyone interested in appearing as Billy or his peers able to email [email protected] for more information. Casting (which is to be confirmed) is led by Curve Associate Kay Magson CDG, with the show's set and costumes by Colin Richmond, with lighting by associate Ben Cracknell. The venue's chief executive Chris Stafford and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: "We are beyond excited to share Lee Hall and Elton John's astonishing musical Billy Elliot with Curve audiences, ensuring summer 2022 in Leicester is truly memorable. "Billy Elliot is a musical filled with incredible characters, epic ideas and at its heart, the story of a young boy who has the passion and courage to dance down a different path from the one prescribed for him. We are indebted to the incredible creatives who made Billy such a hit and hugely grateful they have trusted us to create the first brand new UK production for our audiences in Leicester. "Collaborating with a terrific production team and an incredible cast of the most exciting young performers, we are proud to present this mighty musical which recognises the value of culture in our society, the importance of expressing your truest self and gives a voice to the courageous working class communities who are depicted in Lee Hall's astonishing play. All beautifully framed by Elton John's electrifying score." The musical is set in a small town in 1980s Durham, where a young boy wants to become a dancer. LA PINE, Ore. (AP) Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it. Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel stands amid the debris of plastic hoop houses destroyed by law enforcement, used to grow cannabis illegally, near Selma, Ore., on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. From dusty towns to forests in the West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when often there isn't enough to go around for even licensed users. . (Shaun Hall/Grants Pass Daily Courier via AP) LA PINE, Ore. (AP) Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it. "We were going to grow our own food. We were going to live righteously. We were going to grow organic," Dwyer said. Over the decades that followed, he and his family did just that. But now, Deer Creek has run dry after several illegal marijuana grows cropped up in the neighborhood last spring, stealing water from both the stream and nearby aquifers and throwing Dwyer's future in doubt. From dusty towns to forests in the U.S. West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when there often isn't enough to go around for even licensed users. Conflicts about water have long existed, but illegal marijuana farms which proliferate despite legalization in many Western states are adding strain during a severe drought. In California, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2016, there are still more illegal cannabis farms than licensed ones, according to the Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. "Because peak water demand for cannabis occurs in the dry season, when streamflow is at its lowest levels, even small diversions can dry streams and harm aquatic plants and animals," a study from the center said. Driller Shane Harris checks the water pressure from a well that he had just drilled at the home of Linda and Rodger Jincks in La Pine, Ore., on Aug. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) Some jurisdictions are fighting back. California's Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors in May banned trucks carrying 100 gallons or more of water from using roads leading to arid tracts where some 2,000 illegal marijuana grows were purportedly using millions of gallons of water daily. The illegal grows are "depleting precious groundwater and surface water resources" and jeopardizing agricultural, recreational and residential water use, the county ordinance says. In Oregon, the number of illegal grows appears to have increased recently as the Pacific Northwest endured its driest spring since 1924. Many are operating under the guise of being hemp farms, legalized nationally under the 2018 Farm Bill, said Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. Under the law, hemp's maximum THC content the compound that gives cannabis its high must be no greater than 0.3%. Fibers of the hemp plant are used in making rope, clothing, paper and other products. Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel believes there are hundreds of illegal grows in his southern Oregon county alone, many financed by overseas money. He believes the financiers expect to lose a few grows but the sheer number of them means many will last until the marijuana is harvested and sold on the black market outside Oregon. None of the new sites has been licensed to grow recreational marijuana, Pettinger said. Regulators, confronted in 2019 by a backlog of license applications and a glut of regulated marijuana, stopped processing new applications until January 2022. The illegal grows have had "catastrophic" consequences for natural water resources, Daniel said. Several creeks have dried up far earlier than normal and the water table the underground boundary between water-saturated soil and unsaturated soil is dropping. Jim Hooper holds the tag from his well in La Pine, Ore., on Aug. 26, 2021. The well number was checked against a database to determine when it was drilled and other details. Sheriff's deputies busted an illegal marijuana grow a block away recently and another, bigger grow had been nearby, using water from the same aquifer that the neighborhood uses. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) "Its just blatant theft of water," Daniel said. Last month, Daniel and his deputies, reinforced by other law enforcement officers, destroyed 72,000 marijuana plants growing in 400 cheaply built greenhouses, known as hoop houses. The water for those plants came through a makeshift, illicit system of pumps and hoses from the nearby Illinois River, which belongs to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, created by Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values. Daniel said another illegal grow that had 200,000 plants was drawing water from Deer Creek using pumps and pipes. He called it "one of the most blatant and ugly things Ive seen." "They had actually dug holes into the ground so deep that Deer Creek had dried up ... and they were down into the water table," the sheriff said. Dwyer has a water right to Deer Creek, near the community of Selma, that allows him to grow crops. The creek can run dry late in the year sometimes, but Dwyer has never seen it this dry, much less this early in the year. The streambed is now an avenue of rocks bordered by brush and trees. Left to right, Cindy and Jim Hooper and Rodger Jincks discuss water issues in their neighborhood in La Pine, Ore., on Aug. 26, 2021. Jincks' well ran dry and was having a new one drilled, and the Hoopers worry their well will also go dry as the water table lowers. Sheriff's deputies busted an illegal marijuana grow a block away recently and another, bigger grow had been nearby, using water from the same aquifer that the neighborhood uses. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) Over the decades, Dwyer created an infrastructure of buried water pipe, a dozen spigots and an irrigation system connected to the creek to grow vegetables and to protect his home against wildfires. He uses an old well for household water, but it's unclear how long that will last. "I just dont know what I will do if I dont have water," the 75-year-old retired middle school teacher said. Marijuana has been grown for decades in southern Oregon, but the recent explosion of huge illegal grows has shocked residents. The Illinois Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, where Dwyer lives, held two town halls about the issue recently. Water theft was the main concern, said Christopher Hall, the conservation district's community organizer. "The people of the Illinois Valley are experiencing an existential threat for the first time in local history," Hall said. In the high desert of central Oregon, illegal marijuana growers are also tapping the water supply that's already so stressed that many farmers, including those who produce 60% of the world's carrot-seed supply, face a water shortage this year. On Sept. 2, Deschutes County authorities raided a 30-acre (12-hectare) property in Alfalfa, just east of Bend. It had 49 greenhouses containing almost 10,000 marijuana plants and featured a complex watering system with several 15,000- to 20,000-gallon cisterns. Neighbors told detectives the illegal grow has forced them to drill a new well, Sheriff Shane Nelson said. The Bend area has experienced a population boom, putting more demands on the water supply. The illegal grows are making things worse. In La Pine, south of Bend, Rodger Jincks watched a crew drill a new well on his property. The first sign that his existing well was failing came when the pressure dropped as he watered his tiny front lawn. Driller Shane Harris estimated the water table is dropping 6 inches (15 centimeters) per year. Sheriffs deputies last November raided an illegal grow a block away that had 500 marijuana plants. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Jincks' neighbor, Jim Hooper, worries that his well might fail next. He resents the illegal grows and their uncontrolled used of water. "With the illegals, theres no tracking of it," Hooper said. "Theyre just stealing the water from the rest of us, which is causing us to spend thousands of dollars to drill new wells deeper." ___ Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky ___ Follow APs complete drought coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/droughts The chief medical officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority says the province's health-care system would not be able to handle a serious collision like the Humboldt Broncos bus crash if it were to happen today. A nurse clinician prepares a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Regina General Hospital on Tuesday Dec. 15, 2020. The chief medical officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority says the province's health-care system would not be able to handle a serious collision like the Humboldt Broncos crash if it were to happen today. Dr. Susan Shaw says surging COVID-19 cases have stretched resources to the limit and intensive care beds are full. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell The chief medical officer for the Saskatchewan Health Authority says the province's health-care system would not be able to handle a serious collision like the Humboldt Broncos bus crash if it were to happen today. Dr. Susan Shaw says surging COVID-19 cases have stretched resources to the limit and intensive care beds are full. Im not trying to be dramatic. I think handling something like the Broncos collision would be challenging if it were to happen right now, Shaw said Friday. I think about how we would deal with that when were already at full capacity. Sixteen people died and 13 were injured when a semi-trailer truck ran a stop sign into the path of the junior hockey team's bus near Tisdale, Sask., on April 6, 2018. Fifty people with COVID-19 were in ICUs across the province on Friday. The health authority projects that number will grow to 150 by the end of the month. Saskatchewan's plan for critical care resources says the province is likely to activate its second stage of triage if there are 119 patients in intensive care units. Doctors would have to consult their ethics team to decide who gets life-saving care. The plan says people with end-of-life organ failure or someone over 80 who had a heart attack would be excluded from ICUs. The province is already in the first phase of triage, in which choices are being made about which surgeries need to be cancelled to free up space and health-care workers. Shaw said people need to talk about their end-of-life wishes with their families and doctors. So that should you ever need ICU, your family knows what you want, and we can continue to provide care based on your values. Thats where were at, she said. The Saskatchewan Health Authority is building space to make room for up to 175 ICU beds, which far exceeds the provinces baseline of 79. It is also increasing its hospital capacity to care for a total of 350 COVID-19 patients who are not receiving intensive care. Shaw said hospitals in central Saskatchewan, including Saskatoon, are being forced to send residents from neighbouring communities and who need critical care hundreds of kilometres to the south, including to Regina. Saskatchewan and Alberta, which both fully reopened earlier in the summer, face the highest rates of COVID-19 in Canada and have the lowest rates of vaccination. In Alberta, the CEO of Alberta Health Services warned during a news conference that the health provider has moved to its highest level of response to a collapsing health-care system. I cannot stress enough how serious the situation is in our hospitals, Dr. Verna Yiu said this week. She said Alberta would activate triage protocol as an "absolute, absolute last resort." For now, staff are being educated on triage protocols. As of Friday, there were 911 people hospitalized for COVID-19, including 215 receiving intensive care, in Alberta. The air ambulance service known as STARS said it has been busy transferring COVID-19 patients across the Prairies to free up space in ICUs. I have needed to personally transfer somebody already in my ICU that ... Ive been looking after to another ICU in the province (by air ambulance) Shaw said. And thats to make sure theres capacity and safety in all units. Tracey Steel, clinical operations director for STARS, said between Sept. 1 and Sept. 16, about 16 per cent of calls in Saskatchewan and Alberta between Sept. 1 and Sept. 16 were for COVID-19 patients. Any time we are tied up with a patient, certainly a critical care patient, we won't be available for that next car accident that comes up, Steel said. Both provinces announced proof of vaccination programs this week and brought in additional public health measures to try to preserve their health-care resources. Jen Zoratti | Next A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. But health officials cautioned it wont help reduce hospitalizations for at least another four to six weeks. As a result, Saskatchewan is bracing for the worst. We have hit a critical point, and are now on the verge of the largest test our health-care system has faced since this pandemic began, said Scott Livingstone, CEO of the province's health authority. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2021. With files from Fakiha Baig in Edmonton Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version had Dr. Susan Shaw saying the number of patients in intensive care in Saskatchewan had reached an all-time high. WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden tried on Friday to hammer out the world's next steps against rapidly worsening climate change with a small group of other global leaders and announced a new U.S.-European pledge to cut climate-wrecking methane leaks. President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden tried on Friday to hammer out the world's next steps against rapidly worsening climate change with a small group of other global leaders and announced a new U.S.-European pledge to cut climate-wrecking methane leaks. Ever-grimmer findings from scientists this year that the world is nearing the point where the level of climate damage from burning oil, gas and coal becomes catastrophic and irreversible represent a code red for humanity, Biden said at the session's outset. We have to act and we have to act now, Biden said, speaking on a specially erected White House set that showed virtual arrays of solar panels in the background and a wall of other global leaders listening on screens. Biden, in the public opening of the otherwise private talks, hailed a new U.S. agreement with the European Union aiming at cutting the two entities emissions of methane 30% by the end of this decade. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is one of the most potent agents of climate damage, gushing up by the ton from countless uncapped oil and gas rigs, leaky natural gas pipelines and other oil and gas facilities. Biden evoked the damage and destruction he had seen in the United States, massive flooding in Europe and other global damage from the warming climate. He cited his trips earlier this month to California, where firefighters are battling larger, fiercer and deadlier wildfires almost year-round as temperatures rise and drought worsens, and to the northeastern U.S. and Gulf Coast, where Hurricane Ida and its flooding killed scores, as natural disasters increase in number and severity under climate change. Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) As Biden spoke Friday, California firefighters were trying to stop fires from reaching ancient groves of sequoias that are thousands of years old and the height of high-rises. The White House billed Friday's meeting as a chance for some of the world leaders to strategize how to achieve big, fast cuts in climate-wrecking petroleum and coal emissions. The administration also is trying to re-establish the United States' Major Economies Forum a climate group set up by former President Barack Obama and revived by Biden as a significant forum for international climate negotiations. Friday's meeting followed a much bigger and splashier virtual White House climate summit in April that saw scores of heads of governments representing allies and rivals, and big economies and small making sweeping speeches about the need to act against climate change. President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The list provided of Fridays attendees included only a dozen leaders: those of Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, the European Commission, the European Council, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United Nations. China, India and Russia, with the United States, are the nations that emit the most climate-damaging gases from the production and burning of oil, natural gas and coal. There was no word on their leaders' taking part. However, the White House said in a statement that Biden's climate envoy, John Kerry, led a minister-level climate session afterward with China, Germany, India and Russia. It gave no other details. Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens as President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Climate advocates have stressed the importance of the U.S. coordinating with Europe and Asia for a joint front in coaxing China, which emits more climate-damaging fumes than the rest of the developed world combined, to move faster on cutting its use of dirty-burning coal-fired power plants in particular. Fred Krupp, president of the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, said cutting methane pollution is the single fastest, most effective strategy to slow the rate of warming. A 30% reduction in methane pollution should be only the entry point for this critical conversation. Many countries can and should aim even higher, he said. While methane is about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, it stays in the air only about a decade, which means cutting methane emissions achieves quicker climate action. President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks to the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The U.S.-EU pledge comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to propose stricter rules against methane emissions for the oil and gas sector, as laid out in one of Bidens first executive orders. The new rules, expected in the next two weeks, are likely to be stricter than an Obama-era standard set in 2016. The Obama standard was reinstated in June after Congress took the unusual step of invalidating a Trump-era EPA rollback of methane protections. The pending EPA rule is expected to restrict methane emissions from new and existing wells, including hundreds of thousands of older wells that are not subject to federal regulation under current law. A member of the Roosevelt Hotshot Crew clears a firebreak while battling the Windy Fire on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, on the Tule River Reservation, Calif. His crew, which travelled from Colorado, has been battling California wildfires. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Biden has sought to make the U.S. a leader again in global climate efforts after President Donald Trump removed the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. Biden promised at the April summit to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030. Following through on that pledge depends in large part on passage of a $3.5 trillion budget bill that includes tax incentives and other policies to substantially cut fossil fuel pollution by the power sector. The Democratic-only legislation faces an uphill battle in Congress. Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Biden also is striving to get significant investment in climate-friendly measures such as charging stations for electric vehicles out of Congress, in the face of objections from Republicans and some Democrats. Fridays session will be followed by another closed-door session of 35 to 40 world leaders, to be hosted Monday morning by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The private sessions are seeking to ensure global leaders come to a November U.N. climate session with commitments of significant new actions to slow climate change. Biden and others bill the climate summit in Glasgow as a last chance for the world to commit to cutting use of fossil fuels fast enough to stave off the worse scenarios of global warming. We have to bring to Glasgow our highest possible ambitions, Biden said. "Those that have not yet done so, time is running out. ___ Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City. DETROIT As it seeks a solution to a battery fire risk, General Motors issued yet another safety recommendation Wednesday for Chevrolet Bolt owners: If youre pulling into a parking garage, keep your car at least 50 feet away from other vehicles. DETROIT As it seeks a solution to a battery fire risk, General Motors issued yet another safety recommendation Wednesday for Chevrolet Bolt owners: If youre pulling into a parking garage, keep your car at least 50 feet away from other vehicles. A customers concern about the safety of leaving their electric vehicle in a parking garage led the automaker to provide the additional guidance to owners of the Bolts, all of which GM has recalled, spokesman Dan Flores said. "In an effort to reduce potential damage to structures and nearby vehicles in the rare event of a potential fire, we recommend parking on the top floor or on an open-air deck and park 50 feet or more away from another vehicle," Flores said in a statement. "Additionally, we still request you do not leave your vehicle charging unattended, even if you are using a charging station in a parking deck." Bloomberg first reported the latest Bolt customer recommendation Wednesday. GM previously told Bolt owners to only charge the battery to 90 per cent, charge more frequently and avoid depleting the battery below about 70 miles of remaining range. They also should park the vehicle outside. GM recently had to recall every Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV more than 141,000 after the batteries caught fire in a handful of the electric vehicles. GM and battery supplier LG Energy Solution are working to understand how two "rare" battery defects believed to be the cause of the fires occurred. The automaker has confirmed 12 Bolt battery fires, up from 10 when it issued its latest recall last month. "We are aware of 12 GM confirmed battery fires that have been investigated involving Bolt EVs vehicles in the previous and new recall population," Flores said. "There have been three reports of injuries. We continue to share data with NHTSA." The recall of GMs only electric products on the market comes as the automaker is vying to become a leading EV maker. But the automaker is not producing any EVs right now. Its halted production of the Bolts until it feels confident again in LGs supply. GM says the battery fires are the result of two "rare" manufacturing defects" a torn anode tab and a folded separator found together in the cells. The battery cells were made at two LG facilities one in Korea and the other in Holland, Mich. Battery packs are assembled at an LG facility in Hazel Park, Mich. "Were still working with LG around the clock to resolve the issue," Flores said. "Both companies understand the urgency to move as quickly as possible, but, again, the most important thing here is we have to get this right." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. LG Energy Solution president Denise Gray, who was a keynote speaker Wednesday at The Battery Show in Novi, Mich., only told reporters after her speech: "Right now our teams are working so hard together in order to work through all of this and Im sure at a later time, as the information comes out theyll make sure its available to you." The Detroit automaker estimates the recall will cost US$1.8 billion and is working with LG to sort out how much of the bill the supplier will front. GM CFO Paul Jacobson said during RBCs Global Industrials Conference last Friday that GM is "engaged in high-level conversations with them about how we handle the financial accountability. We do expect that we will get reimbursement for that." Though it is still working out the fix for the defects, GM says it will replace defective battery modules for Bolt customers. "The number 1 focus right now obviously is to get the production line fixed, the manufacturing process cleaned up and get back into cell production and ultimately get a path for these vehicles to be repaired and... do whats right for our customers," Jacobson said at the conference. The Detroit News PARIS (AP) France said late Friday it was immediately recalling its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia after Australia scrapped a big French conventional submarine purchase in favor of nuclear subs built with U.S. technology. FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 10, 2021 file photo, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian speaks in Weimar, Germany. France said late Friday, Sept. 17 it was immediately recalling its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia after Australia scrapped a big French conventional submarine purchase in favor of nuclear subs built with U.S. technology. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a written statement that the French decision, on request from President Emmanuel Macron, is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made by Australia and the United States.(Jens Schlueter/Pool Photo via AP, file) PARIS (AP) France said late Friday it was immediately recalling its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia after Australia scrapped a big French conventional submarine purchase in favor of nuclear subs built with U.S. technology. It was the first time ever France has recalled its ambassador to the U.S., according to the French foreign ministry. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a written statement that the French decision, on request from President Emmanuel Macron, is justified by the exceptional seriousness of the announcements made by Australia and the United States. He said Wednesday's announcement of Australia's submarine deal with the U.S. is unacceptable behavior between allies and partners. A recall of ambassadors is highly unusual between allied countries. In 2019, Paris recalled its envoy to neighboring Italy after the countrys leaders made critical public comments about the French government. Last year, France recalled its ambassador to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Macron needed mental health treatment. Earlier Friday, a top French diplomat spoke of a crisis in relations with the U.S. The diplomat, who spoke anonymously in line with customary government practice, said that for Paris this is a strategic question concerning the very nature of the relationship between Europe and the United States about the Indo-Pacific strategy. He would not speculate on the effects the situation would have on France's relationship with the U.S. Theres a crisis, he stressed. Macron has not commented on the issue since President Joe Bidens announcement of a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain, leading France to lose a nearly $100 billion deal to build diesel-electric submarines. France has pushed for several years for a European strategy for boosting economic, political and defense ties in the region stretching from India and China to Japan and New Zealand. The EU unveiled this week its plan for the Indo-Pacific. The French diplomat said Friday that Macron received a letter from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday morning announcing the decision to cancel the submarine deal. French officials then decided to reach out to the U.S. administration "to ask what was going on," he said. He added that discussions with Washington took place just two to three hours before Biden's public announcement. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Le Drian on Thursday expressed total incomprehension at the move and criticized both Australia and the U.S. It was really a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed, he said. This is not done between allies. He also compared Biden's move to those of his predecessor, Donald Trump, under Trumps America First doctrine. Paris had raised the issue of the Indo-Pacific strategy during the June 25 visit to Paris of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, expressing the importance of its submarine program with Australia, the diplomat said. We said that is was for us a very important and critical component in our Indo-Pacific strategy, he said. Blinken met with Macron during the visit. The French diplomat said Australia never mentioned to France before its will to shift to nuclear-powered submarines, including during a meeting between Macron and Morrison in Paris on June 15. BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) An imposing bronze statue was unveiled in Hungarys capital on Thursday which its creators say is the first in the world to pay homage to the anonymous creator of the Bitcoin digital currency. BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) An imposing bronze statue was unveiled in Hungarys capital on Thursday which its creators say is the first in the world to pay homage to the anonymous creator of the Bitcoin digital currency. Erected in a business park near the Danube River in Budapest, the bust sits atop a stone plinth engraved with the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the mysterious developer of Bitcoin whose true identity is unknown. We think of Satoshi as the founding father of the whole cryptocurrency industry, said Andras Gyorfi, a Bitcoin journalist and the initiator of the project. "He created Bitcoin, he created the blockchain technology, hes the god of our market. The featureless face of the bust, wrapped in a bronze hoodie emblazoned with the Bitcoin logo, is heavily polished to make it reflective like a mirror in which viewers can see themselves. Its creators, sculptors Reka Gergely and Tamas Gilly, sought to portray a human form while staying true to the anonymity of Nakamoto. It was a big challenge. It is very difficult to make a portrait sculpture of a person that we dont know exactly what they look like, Gilly told The Associated Press. I hope that through the language of sculpture I have managed to convey the basic idea of Bitcoin, that it belongs to everyone and no one at the same time." Bitcoin was created in 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis, and aimed to circumvent traditional financial institutions by developing secure technology for peer-to-peer online transactions without using intermediaries like banks. Doug Speirs | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Its founding white paper published that year was authored by Nakamoto a pseudonym which could refer to a person or group of people of unknown gender, age or national origin. The organizers of the statue project invited Nakamoto to the unveiling, Gyorfi said, in the hopes of finally learning the true identity of the Bitcoin inventor. But though the event attracted several hundred people, no one come forward to claim responsibility for developing the cryptocurrency that has attracted tens of millions of investors and was adopted this month as legal currency in El Salvador. Gyorfi said the statue is a token of respect to Nakamoto, and an effort to raise awareness toward blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Along with other Hungarian Bitcoin enthusiasts, he collected around $10,000 in cryptocurrency donations to finance the creation of the bust. But that had to be converted into Hungarian currency, he said, because unfortunately the sculptors and other service providers dont accept Bitcoin yet." LA PINE, Ore. (AP) Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it. Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel stands amid the debris of plastic hoop houses destroyed by law enforcement, used to grow cannabis illegally, near Selma, Ore., on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. From dusty towns to forests in the West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when often there isn't enough to go around for even licensed users. . (Shaun Hall/Grants Pass Daily Courier via AP) LA PINE, Ore. (AP) Jack Dwyer pursued a dream of getting back to the land by moving in 1972 to an idyllic, tree-studded parcel in Oregon with a creek running through it. "We were going to grow our own food. We were going to live righteously. We were going to grow organic," Dwyer said. Over the decades that followed, he and his family did just that. But now, Deer Creek has run dry after several illegal marijuana grows cropped up in the neighborhood last spring, stealing water from both the stream and nearby aquifers and throwing Dwyer's future in doubt. From dusty towns to forests in the U.S. West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when there often isn't enough to go around for even licensed users. Conflicts about water have long existed, but illegal marijuana farms which proliferate despite legalization in many Western states are adding strain during a severe drought. In California, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2016, there are still more illegal cannabis farms than licensed ones, according to the Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. "Because peak water demand for cannabis occurs in the dry season, when streamflow is at its lowest levels, even small diversions can dry streams and harm aquatic plants and animals," a study from the center said. Driller Shane Harris checks the water pressure from a well that he had just drilled at the home of Linda and Rodger Jincks in La Pine, Ore., on Aug. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) Some jurisdictions are fighting back. California's Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors in May banned trucks carrying 100 gallons or more of water from using roads leading to arid tracts where some 2,000 illegal marijuana grows were purportedly using millions of gallons of water daily. The illegal grows are "depleting precious groundwater and surface water resources" and jeopardizing agricultural, recreational and residential water use, the county ordinance says. In Oregon, the number of illegal grows appears to have increased recently as the Pacific Northwest endured its driest spring since 1924. Many are operating under the guise of being hemp farms, legalized nationally under the 2018 Farm Bill, said Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. Under the law, hemp's maximum THC content the compound that gives cannabis its high must be no greater than 0.3%. Fibers of the hemp plant are used in making rope, clothing, paper and other products. Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel believes there are hundreds of illegal grows in his southern Oregon county alone, many financed by overseas money. He believes the financiers expect to lose a few grows but the sheer number of them means many will last until the marijuana is harvested and sold on the black market outside Oregon. None of the new sites has been licensed to grow recreational marijuana, Pettinger said. Regulators, confronted in 2019 by a backlog of license applications and a glut of regulated marijuana, stopped processing new applications until January 2022. The illegal grows have had "catastrophic" consequences for natural water resources, Daniel said. Several creeks have dried up far earlier than normal and the water table the underground boundary between water-saturated soil and unsaturated soil is dropping. Jim Hooper holds the tag from his well in La Pine, Ore., on Aug. 26, 2021. The well number was checked against a database to determine when it was drilled and other details. Sheriff's deputies busted an illegal marijuana grow a block away recently and another, bigger grow had been nearby, using water from the same aquifer that the neighborhood uses. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) "Its just blatant theft of water," Daniel said. Last month, Daniel and his deputies, reinforced by other law enforcement officers, destroyed 72,000 marijuana plants growing in 400 cheaply built greenhouses, known as hoop houses. The water for those plants came through a makeshift, illicit system of pumps and hoses from the nearby Illinois River, which belongs to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, created by Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values. Daniel said another illegal grow that had 200,000 plants was drawing water from Deer Creek using pumps and pipes. He called it "one of the most blatant and ugly things Ive seen." "They had actually dug holes into the ground so deep that Deer Creek had dried up ... and they were down into the water table," the sheriff said. Dwyer has a water right to Deer Creek, near the community of Selma, that allows him to grow crops. The creek can run dry late in the year sometimes, but Dwyer has never seen it this dry, much less this early in the year. The streambed is now an avenue of rocks bordered by brush and trees. Left to right, Cindy and Jim Hooper and Rodger Jincks discuss water issues in their neighborhood in La Pine, Ore., on Aug. 26, 2021. Jincks' well ran dry and was having a new one drilled, and the Hoopers worry their well will also go dry as the water table lowers. Sheriff's deputies busted an illegal marijuana grow a block away recently and another, bigger grow had been nearby, using water from the same aquifer that the neighborhood uses. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky) Over the decades, Dwyer created an infrastructure of buried water pipe, a dozen spigots and an irrigation system connected to the creek to grow vegetables and to protect his home against wildfires. He uses an old well for household water, but it's unclear how long that will last. "I just dont know what I will do if I dont have water," the 75-year-old retired middle school teacher said. Marijuana has been grown for decades in southern Oregon, but the recent explosion of huge illegal grows has shocked residents. The Illinois Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, where Dwyer lives, held two town halls about the issue recently. Water theft was the main concern, said Christopher Hall, the conservation district's community organizer. "The people of the Illinois Valley are experiencing an existential threat for the first time in local history," Hall said. In the high desert of central Oregon, illegal marijuana growers are also tapping the water supply that's already so stressed that many farmers, including those who produce 60% of the world's carrot-seed supply, face a water shortage this year. On Sept. 2, Deschutes County authorities raided a 30-acre (12-hectare) property in Alfalfa, just east of Bend. It had 49 greenhouses containing almost 10,000 marijuana plants and featured a complex watering system with several 15,000- to 20,000-gallon cisterns. Neighbors told detectives the illegal grow has forced them to drill a new well, Sheriff Shane Nelson said. The Bend area has experienced a population boom, putting more demands on the water supply. The illegal grows are making things worse. In La Pine, south of Bend, Rodger Jincks watched a crew drill a new well on his property. The first sign that his existing well was failing came when the pressure dropped as he watered his tiny front lawn. Driller Shane Harris estimated the water table is dropping 6 inches (15 centimeters) per year. Sheriffs deputies last November raided an illegal grow a block away that had 500 marijuana plants. Doug Speirs | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Jincks' neighbor, Jim Hooper, worries that his well might fail next. He resents the illegal grows and their uncontrolled used of water. "With the illegals, theres no tracking of it," Hooper said. "Theyre just stealing the water from the rest of us, which is causing us to spend thousands of dollars to drill new wells deeper." ___ Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky ___ Follow APs complete drought coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/droughts DETROIT A year after revealing plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the iconic Rouge Complex to build the all-electric F-150 Lightning, the automaker announced Thursday that its initial plan didnt go far enough. DETROIT A year after revealing plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the iconic Rouge Complex to build the all-electric F-150 Lightning, the automaker announced Thursday that its initial plan didnt go far enough. Ford confirmed it will double production of the highly anticipated 2022 Ford F-150 that will be built with a battery pack instead of a gas tank. With 150,000 reservations for 2022 F-150 Lightning received online by mid-September, the company confirmed it will be adding another US$250-million investment at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center and create 450 additional hourly direct jobs, with most of the workers building the Lightning. In addition, workers at Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., will assemble the batteries and Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center in Sterling Heights, Mich., will increase its capacity to supply electric motors and electric transaxles for the F-150 Lightning. This is on top of the initial US$700 million investment Ford announced in 2020 as part of a plan to add 300 jobs at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center to support battery assembly and production of the F-150 PowerBoost hybrid and fully electric F-150. Reuters reported last month that Ford planned to double production of its Lightning to meet strong demand. The investment in added jobs will help increase production capacity to 80,000 trucks a year, Ford told the Detroit Free Press. Ford has been able to track early interest and convert that to sales with its pivot to requiring online refundable reservation orders as part of a new protocol for carmakers. Ford did the same with its all-electric Mustang Mach-E. Ford also planned to give public officials, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a glimpse of its all-new pickup truck prototypes coming out of the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on Thursday. These trucks will leave the factory for real-world testing so that they may be ready to arrive in customer driveways by springtime, as scheduled. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The 2021 F-150 Hybrid has made headlines throughout the year for its ability to work as a portable generator and rescue families without electricity, whether during a winter storm or a wedding. "This is where the industrial revolution took hold, where the arsenal of democracy was forged, where parents and grandparents and great-grandparents built not only cars and trucks but their own American dreams," Bill Ford, great-grandson of founder Henry Ford and executive chair of the board, said in 2020. "... The Rouge has always been the centre of innovation," he said. Ford highlighted its bringing Bronco and Ranger production to Michigan, refurbishing Michigan Central Station, developing a new Ford Research and Engineering Campus in Dearborn and creating Fords US$100-million Ion Park in Romulus. "Michigan has been the home of Ford since its founding in 1903 and these sites represent a growing network across southeast Michigan that will support the next generation of Fords battery electric, connected and autonomous vehicles," Ford said in its news release. Detroit Free Press TORONTO - Royal Bank of Canada says Nadine Ahn will be the bank's next chief financial officer. The RBC Royal Bank of Canada logo is seen in Halifax on Tuesday, April 2, 2019. Royal Bank of Canada says Nadine Ahn will be the bank's next chief financial officer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan TORONTO - Royal Bank of Canada says Nadine Ahn will be the bank's next chief financial officer. Ahn, who is currently senior vice-president, head of investor relations and RBC Capital Markets Finance, will replace Rod Bolger, effective Nov. 1. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Bolger who will work alongside Ahn as she transitions to the CFO role is leaving RBC after 10 years with the bank. Ahn joined RBC in 1999 and has held progressively senior finance roles, including in corporate treasury and in RBC Capital Markets Finance. RBC also announced the appointment of Maria Douvas, executive vice-president and general counsel, as chief legal officer, effective immediately. Douvas will report to CEO Dave McKay and join the RBC's group executive committee. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2021. Companies in this story: (TSX:RY) VIENNA (AP) A civil trial opened Friday in Austria over the government's handling of a coronavirus outbreak at an Alpine ski resort during the early stages of the pandemic that relatives say resulted in unnecessary infections and deaths. FILE - In this May 13, 2020 file photo, a barrier blocks the road at the closed border crossing from Austria to the Czech Republic near Reinthal, Austria. European Union countries are set to adopt a common traffic light system to coordinate traveling across the 27-nation bloc, but a return to a full freedom of movement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic remains far from reach. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File) VIENNA (AP) A civil trial opened Friday in Austria over the government's handling of a coronavirus outbreak at an Alpine ski resort during the early stages of the pandemic that relatives say resulted in unnecessary infections and deaths. Sieglinde and Ullrich Schopf, the widow and son of a 72-year-old Austrian man who died of COVID-19 after becoming infected in Ischgl, are seeking about 100,000 euros ($117,000) compensation from the government. Their is seen as a test case for a larger class action suit involving hundreds of people who fell ill with COVID-19 following a trip to the Paznaun valley in February and March 2020. Doug Speirs | Uplift A weekly review of funny, uplifting news in Winnipeg and around the globe that is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The family is supported by Austria's Consumer Protection Association, which said it is open to a negotiated settlement. The outbreak in Ischgl, a popular resort in western Austria, is considered one of Europes earliest super-spreader events of the pandemic. "Stopping people from leaving and arriving in the Paznaun valley or at least issuing a travel warning the authorities failed to do that, said Alexander Klauser, a lawyer representing the Schopf family. Thousands of people left the Paznaun valley unhindered, thousands of people arrived without a clue that they were in danger. An independent commission last year concluded that authorities in the Tyrol region acted too slowly to shut down ski resorts in the valley after it became clear they were dealing with one of Europes first coronavirus outbreaks in March. But the panel didn't find evidence that political or business pressure played a role in the decisions. Klauser, the lawyer, said that even after authorities issued a directive to close apres-ski bars it wasnt enforced strongly enough. Open air mass gatherings which were forbidden according to the directive continued, he said. The police just watched on without doing anything. OTTAWA - Federal party leaders on Friday made a plea for voters to go to the polls even though they debated whether the election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was needed at all. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a whistle stop in Trois-Riviers, Que., on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick OTTAWA - Federal party leaders on Friday made a plea for voters to go to the polls even though they debated whether the election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was needed at all. With just days to go before Monday's vote, polls suggest Justin Trudeau's Liberals and Erin O'Toole's Conservatives are running neck and neck and neither could land a majority mandate. Trudeau called the election on Aug. 15, sparking a 36-day campaign that he argued Friday morning wouldn't be an exercise in futility even if voters choose another minority government. Speaking in the border city of Windsor, Ont., Trudeau said the policy debates Canadians have had over the past five weeks will underpin the next government's agenda. The Liberal leader acknowledged that some voters may not think an election is necessary for the country to move past the pandemic, but he added that it is important to make a choice on Monday and asked progressive voters anew to support his party. "People just want to get back to normal and even at the best of times Canadians are never very enthusiastic about an election," Trudeau said. "I understand the frustration that some people are feeling (they) just want things to get back to normal and an election isn't getting back to normal. It's a time of choice. It's a time of decision." Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ont., on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Trudeau also faced questions about a Toronto-area candidate who paused his campaign at the Liberals' request after the party learned he had faced a sexual assault charge that had been dropped. Speaking later in London, Ont., O'Toole said people are frustrated with having an election during a fourth wave of COVID-19 and argued Trudeau shouldn't be rewarded with another mandate. He also urged people to vote Monday and back his party's bid for power as opposed to the unnamed "smaller parties" he said the Liberals want voters to support. "Your vote is the only way to stop Mr. Trudeau from gaining even more power," he said. "Your vote is the only way to get the change we desperately need in this country." NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh expressed concern about how the lack of on-campus voting could make it more difficult for post-secondary students to cast a ballot on Monday, addressing a constituency the New Democrats have relied on in past elections. Singh said the issue is another reason why Trudeau shouldn't have called a pandemic election. "It makes it harder for people to vote, but I still want to encourage people to vote," Singh said Friday in Sherbrooke, Que. "There are lots of ways to vote. You can still do it." Elections Canada has warned it may take five days to finish counting all ballots cast in-person and by mail, meaning the country may not know Monday how many seats each party won in the 338-seat House of Commons. Constitutionally, Trudeau as prime minister would get the first opportunity to test the confidence of the House of Commons after an election if no party wins a majority of seats. If the Liberals can't muster enough opposition support for a throne speech, for instance, the Conservatives would get a shot at forming government. And if that fails, the country would likely again be plunged into an election. When asked about governing in a minority, Trudeau said he was focused on winning seats and wasn't going to engage in hypothetical questions. Singh, when asked about the possibility of a minority government situation, replied with his party's positions. O'Toole, meanwhile, said he wanted to earn the trust of voters but added that he would look at the results and "always put the country first." Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet told reporters he would work with a minority government which he said he expected if it agreed to not step in to areas of provincial jurisdiction and boost health-care transfers. Blanchet said he was certain compromise could be achieved between the parties to avoid any political drama that would spur another federal vote. The Writ The federal election occurs Sept. 20 and we have you covered. Get the latest campaign news, insights, analysis and commentary delivered weekly to your inbox with our free newsletter. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "I want to meet with every party leader, after the election, and just discuss how we should work in order to prevent Quebecers and Canadians from having to go through this once again anytime soon," Blanchet said Friday. Blanchet also poked fun at Trudeau and O'Toole for each campaigning with a former prime minister Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney, respectively suggesting the former party leaders were more interesting that the current ones. Trudeau and O'Toole are hoping high-profile endorsements help tip the scales in their favour on Monday. On Friday, former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton tweeted that she wished Trudeau and "progressive Canadian neighbors the best in Monday's election," echoing a tweet a day earlier from former U.S. president Barack Obama. Her one-time rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, tweeted his support for the NDP, saying Singh was the only leader "who has the courage to make the wealthy pay their fair share so everyone gets the medication they need." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2021. LONDON, Ont. - Erin OToole delivered one of his last pitches to Canadians ahead of Mondays vote while standing under the glaring Ontario sun but a noted rise in support for the Peoples Party of Canada may also have the Conservative leader feeling the heat. Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole and his wife, Rebecca O'Toole, wave as they step off the campaign plane in London, Ont., Friday, Sept. 17, 2021. O'Toole says Justin Trudeau wants Canadians who are angry to vote for "smaller parties." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld LONDON, Ont. - Erin OToole delivered one of his last pitches to Canadians ahead of Mondays vote while standing under the glaring Ontario sun but a noted rise in support for the Peoples Party of Canada may also have the Conservative leader feeling the heat. O'Toole pushed his sharpest message yet to those angry about Justin Trudeau's Liberal government who are considering casting a ballot for what he referred to as "smaller parties." Although he declined to name which of the main political parties he was talking about, he didn't need to. Political watchers, including Conservatives, have increased their warnings in recent days about splitting the vote on the right with Maxime Bernier's populist PPC, which could sink the Tories chances of defeating the Liberals in a race that has been razor tight. A Leger poll released earlier this week in collaboration with The Canadian Press indicated the Liberals and Conservatives are tied with the support of 32 per cent of decided voters and that the People's Party was at five per cent support. O'Toole noted the anger people feel toward the Liberal leader, which has been illustrated by the crowds of protesters who have followed him across the country during the campaign, swearing and chanting to lock him up, channelling their staunch opposition to vaccine mandates and other health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which Trudeau forcefully supports. Some of those in the crowds have been PPC supporters, seen holding the party's signs. The party booted one of their Ontario riding association president's after allegations surfaced he threw gravel at Trudeau while he was there on a campaign stop. The Conservative leader said Friday that Trudeau has addressed these protesters, "but there's actually millions of Canadians who are very frustrated with Mr. Trudeau." "And if they allow that frustration to do anything other than vote Conservative, they're voting for Mr. Trudeau," O'Toole said at a campaign stop in London, Ont., where Bernier recently held a rally. "There are five parties, there are two choices: More of the same with Mr. Trudeau, or real change and ethical government with a plan, with Canada's Conservatives." Among the candidates who echoed O'Toole's sentiment was Leslyn Lewis, a former leadership rival of his who was heavily backed by social conservatives and is now running for election in Ontario, where the Tories need to gain seats if they hope to form government. "A vote for the PPC is a vote for Trudeau," she tweeted Friday. "Let's stand united (and) get the job done for the sake of our country and our future." Dan Robertson, chief of strategy for O'Toole, also tweeted Friday: "The stakes are too high." "Theres no such thing as a wasted vote. Every vote sends a message. If thats your goal, fine. But if your goal is to show Justin Trudeau the door, only the Conservatives can do that." This is the second election for Bernier as leader of the PPC. The former Tory MP from Quebec lost his seat in the 2019 vote, and didn't come close to electing a single MP in the race, where he campaigned on immigration reform and attacking the Conservatives for faking their political values. This time around he's trying to galvanize support by coming out hard against mandatory vaccinations and provinces using a passport-like system for vaccines to allow people to access businesses and events. O'Toole has also said he's against making it an all-or-nothing rule that someone must get vaccinated, and instead favours allowing those who are not immunized, regardless of the reason, to undergo regular rapid testing, because he respects an individual's right to make their own choices about their health. Despite that, candidates have found themselves having to explain that to voters questioning them at the doors. "If we want to say goodbye to Justin Trudeau, Conservatives have to stay united and we can do just that on Sept. 20, said Manitoba incumbent MP Candice Bergen, who is the party's deputy leader, in a video posted to Instagram Thursday. Bergen confirmed she is double vaccinated against COVID-19 and that while Conservatives believe these shots are safe and effective, they respect those who are unvaccinated and accused Trudeau of using the issue to divide Canadians. O'Toole has spent most of the past 30 days campaigning for votes from people who don't bleed Tory blue, telling them "we're not your dad's Conservative Party anymore." He has also pointed promises he's made to tackle climate change, such as getting more electric vehicles on the road and adopting a Conservative carbon price something he said they failed to do in the past. The Writ The federal election occurs Sept. 20 and we have you covered. Get the latest campaign news, insights, analysis and commentary delivered weekly to your inbox with our free newsletter. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The leader has championed his own more progressive outlook on a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, and his commitment to protect LGBTQ rights. Even though he's distanced himself from the leadership of Andrew Scheer and Stephen Harper in public, O'Toole has said he has spoken to Harper since taking over the helm of the Conservatives, but didn't disclose what they discussed. With three days left to go in the race, O'Toole travelled from Nova Scotia to Ontario on Friday, ditching the campaign plane to spend the next few days travelling around the southwestern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area, where the party is fishing for seats. The Conservatives have one goal over the next few days and that is to get out the vote. O'Toole spent Friday afternoon travelling to the campaign offices of London West candidate Rob Flack and Brantford-Brant hopeful Larry Brock. The leader traded talking policy for dropping off doughnuts and coffee to volunteers at Brock's office, telling a crowd of volunteers and supporters to do all they can to send the candidate to Ottawa. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2021. Recently filed court documents paint a picture of an increasingly cosy relationship between ousted former city CAO Phil Sheegl and Caspian Construction owner Armik Babakhanians, the man accused of bribing Sheegl to secure the construction contract for the new Winnipeg Police Service headquarters. Recently filed court documents paint a picture of an increasingly cosy relationship between ousted former city CAO Phil Sheegl and Caspian Construction owner Armik Babakhanians, the man accused of bribing Sheegl to secure the construction contract for the new Winnipeg Police Service headquarters. "The evidence is overwhelming in support of the citys claim against Phil Sheegl for bribery," said lawyer Michael Finlayson in a motion brief filed on behalf of the city last month. At a hearing last week, Finlayson urged Queens Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal to order a judgment against Sheegl for $327,000 equal to the bribe he is alleged to have accepted another $250,000 equal to the severance package he received from the city, and $150,000 in punitive damages. Joyal has reserved his decision. In its motion brief filed in August, the city alleges that from December 2010 to October 2013, Sheegl repeatedly used his influence to steer the construction project into Caspians hands reducing the bonding requirement at Babakhanians request, obtaining a deadline extension for project bids, hiring a project director favoured by Caspian, and "sidelining" the citys project manager. Sheegl, the city alleges, sent confidential emails to Caspian, met only with Caspian representatives and no other bidders to the project. In September 2010, Babakhanians arranged a meeting for the following month with Sheegl and then-mayor Sam Katz "to discuss a possible business arrangement," the city alleges. On Nov. 18, the city issued a request for proposal (RFP) for Phase 1 of the construction project. That same day, the city alleges, Sheegl directed his assistant to forward the RFP to Babakhanians. After another meeting was arranged for Sheegl and Babakhanians in December, Babakhanians sent an email to his son Shaun and other Caspian reps telling them to "have the place ready and welcome him (Sheegl) could be Caspian friend for long time to come." In a Dec. 16 message related to the bonding requirements, Sheegl told Babakhanians he was about to send him a confidential email, saying: "its part of my strategy to get this done for you." On Feb. 17, 2011, Babakhanians sent an email to himself appearing to summarize a phone call with Sheegl, writing: "Phil said he will get approval for 126m. However, I think he wanted 2 + 2 for Sam and Phil but the rest for us This will remain confidential forever." During an examination for discovery, Sheegl told court he could not recall telling Babakhanians he would get approval for $126 million, and claimed "2 + 2" was in reference to an arrangement for Winnipeg Jets tickets. "This suggestion was at best confabulation," the city said in its motion brief, pointing out the announcements of the Jets return to Winnipeg was not made public until May 31, 2011. "As to why the supposed arrangement for Jets tickets would need to remain confidential forever, or why the arrangement would be sandwiched between discussions relating to the (construction project), Sheegl could offer no explanation," the motion brief said. In July 2011, Caspian issued a cheque for $200,000 to another one of its companies, Mountain Construction, which in turn issued a cheque for the same amount to Sheegls company, Financial Support Services Inc., for "consultant services." A week later, Financial Support Services cut a cheque to Katz with the memo line: "loan." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Sheegl, in an affidavit, said the $200,000 and another $127,000 payment a year later was not a bribe, but payment for one acre of land Sheegl and Katz owned as part of an Arizona real estate development. "The problem for Sheegl is that even if there were a (non-fiction, bona fide) real estate transaction of the type asserted, Sheegls conduct in connection with it necessarily means that he breached his duties of trust, good faith and loyalty to the city and that he acted in a way wherein his interests and those of the city directly conflicted," says the city motion brief. "The measure and type of damages for these breaches are the same as they are for bribery." In a May 30, 2013 email with the subject line "Your Deck," Babakhanians told Sheegl: "Its scheduled for June 13." On June 19, the deck builder sent an invoice to Babakhanians, who responded that he would ask the client if they were satisfied with the installation. Sheegl replied in an email: "They did a good job, it looks fabulous." Babakhanians told Sheegl: "Good. I will have him paid in full." The city filed a lawsuit last year alleging Caspian, "in concert" with two dozen other defendants, including Sheegl, conspired and "schemed" to inflate the cost of the HQ project for their own benefit. The case against Sheegl was severed from that of the other defendants. dean.pritchard@freepress.com THE Manitoba government has confirmed it is handing rate-setting authority for Manitoba Hydro back to the Public Utilities Board and a planned Dec. 1 hike of 2.5 per cent has been scrubbed. THE Manitoba government has confirmed it is handing rate-setting authority for Manitoba Hydro back to the Public Utilities Board and a planned Dec. 1 hike of 2.5 per cent has been scrubbed. Bill 35 which would have had cabinet setting hydro rates for the next two years until Hydro could prepare a five-year general rate application is one of five bills the Progressive Conservative government plans to withdraw when the legislative session resumes Oct. 6. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. A Dec. 1 hydro rate hike of 2.5 per cent, announced by Finance Minister Scott Fielding in July, was expected to be added to the governments budget implementation bill this fall but it will not be included, Premier Kelvin Goertzen said Thursday. Instead, Manitoba Hydro has been asked to make an interim rate application to the PUB. Starting in 2022, Hydro will make such rate applications every three years, Goertzen said. Bill 35 (Public Utilities Ratepayer Protection and Regulatory Reform Act) was one of five contentious pieces of legislation introduced this session that was delayed by the NDP in hopes of garnering public pressure against it. On Thursday, the New Democrats took a victory lap. "Todays a big victory for Manitobans because, once again, we can have confidence that rates will be set by an independent process managed by the Public Utilities Board," NDP critic for Manitoba Hydro Adrien Sala told reporters. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca A dangerous offender who told police he had been violent toward more than 100 sex-trade workers doesnt believe he has a problem with women. A dangerous offender who told police he had been violent toward more than 100 sex-trade workers doesnt believe he has a problem with women. Douglas Bowman, a 57-year-old Winnipeg man convicted in 2017 of viciously sexually assaulting two women at knifepoint in 2010 and 2013, was denied parole on Sept. 2. The Parole Board of Canada decision, obtained by the Free Press, provides insight into his mindset. In 2018, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, plus a 10-year long-term supervision order. He was also designated a dangerous offender and ordered to provide a DNA sample. Federal offenders are eligible for full parole after serving one-third of their sentence, or seven years, whichever is less. Bowmans risk of reoffending was considered high. He was placed on the sex-offender registry and prohibited from owning weapons for life. "You said that your common-law (wife) has told you that since your mother passed away, you hate women and get angry, but you do not see this," the parole board decision reads. "You were unable to give the board any examples of how a woman could be harmed by abusive or assaultive behaviour." Bowman, whose record includes sexual offences dating back to the 1970s, was diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder and shows psychopathic traits, said one of two forensic psychiatrists who assessed him and reported their findings to the court. Both psychiatrists said Bowman is likely a "sexual sadist" who gets pleasure when people suffer. Bowman denied culpability for his crimes to the parole board. The decision notes he has refused to participate in treatment programs. "(You) will claim you are innocent until the day I die," the decision states. "You deny sexually assaulting any of your victims. You believe the victims are just mistaken, and misidentified you in a police lineup and misidentified the type of vehicle involved." Bowman claimed he doesnt believe he had a fair trial, but decided not to file an appeal because he didnt want to put his common-law wife through another legal proceeding. He told the board the only reason he was seeking full parole was because of his common-law partner, and was otherwise ready to serve out his sentence until 2026. Bowman said if he were to be released on parole he wouldnt leave the house unless he had to, as he would feel safer that way. "You do not care about your own safety and have been ready to die since your early 30s," the decision states. "You anticipate you could get into fights when in the community due to the notoriety of your offence." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The parole decision states the last time Bowman was "aggressive" was about a year ago, when he and other inmates were locked in their cells. "You sat on the end of your bed and cursed the correctional officers. You admit, that at times, you have gotten angry to the point you thought about stabbing someone," the parole decision states. "You have not had those kinds of thoughts since you were put on a different medication. You believe the new pills are working surprisingly well, and you take them regularly. If you were to stop taking them, you would become angry more easily and could become violent." Bowman said he didnt know there was a medication that could help him so much. He noticed when he feels the drug isnt working, he gets mad at "the littlest thing." In 2019, Winnipeg police charged Bowman in a sexual assault case from May 2007. Biological material from the attacker was sent to the RCMP forensic lab, and a DNA profile was identified. Twelve years later, Bowmans DNA sample was submitted and a match was found. The case remains before the court. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca I usually get pretty pumped about elections. Not this one. With only a few days left before the federal vote on Monday, Ive barely paid attention to it. The reason is obvious: the country is in one of the worst public health emergencies in its history. The only thing that matters at the moment is how to prevent another wave of COVID-19 from killing more Canadians, overwhelming hospitals and bankrupting more businesses. The fact were even in an election is a disgrace. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a snap election last month, he knew he would have to put Ottawas response to the COVID-19 pandemic on hold. Politicians cant govern and electioneer at the same time; its impossible. Its one or the other. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Nathan Denette / Canadian Press files) Trudeau picked electioneering. He did so for the most self-serving of reasons: he thought he could regain majority status in Parliament at a time when Canadians are vulnerable and not paying attention to political issues. Public health is a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial governments. Ottawa should be working 24/7 with the provinces to fight COVID-19, including developing strategies to boost immunization rates, combat vaccine hesitancy and develop national proof-of-vaccine cards. Vaccine mandates for domestic air and train travel should have been enacted weeks ago, not weeks from now. There were seven flights scheduled to land in Winnipeg from Alberta Thursday and another eight on Friday. Alberta, where case numbers and hospitalizations are soaring, has the lowest vaccination rate in the country. Meanwhile, there are still no requirements to be vaccinated when boarding a domestic flight in Canada. (Manitoba has a 14-day self-isolation rule for unvaccinated people who arrive in the province, but its not enforced). The federal government should have been working on all of those files (and more) over the past month. Instead, the prime minister and cabinet have been on the hustings glad-handing, analyzing polling data and waging petty partisan battles with their opponents. Canadians have been forced into an election campaign they neither asked for nor needed. They are exhausted and frustrated. Many have lost jobs or businesses, some are grieving, and others are struggling with long-term conditions from COVID-19. Some parents are afraid to send their kids to school. Despite that, the bright minds in Ottawa thought it would be a good idea to hold an election. Canada has lost five precious weeks in the war against COVID19... The common enemy has been given an advantage to strike hard while politicians fight among themselves for votes. That is unforgivable. Trudeau said a campaign was necessary because Canadians need a choice on how government should respond to the pandemic. That's beyond nonsensical. The federal government didnt need an election to get a mandate from the people on how to do its job during a public health crisis. Its obvious what needs to be done. The problem is the federal government has been missing in action over the past month. Trudeau has taken his eye off the pandemic ball. He and his cabinet are not involved in the day-to-day operations of government as they normally would be during a public health emergency. They are not present to respond quickly to changing circumstances, to listen to provincial concerns and drive policy where required. They are engaged in partisan politics while the machinery of government has been left on auto-pilot. Canada has lost five precious weeks in the war against COVID-19. With immunization levels stalled, the implementation of vaccine mandates for domestic travel delayed, and communication from the federal government on the pandemic all but dried up, the election has allowed the virus to outflank the country. The common enemy has been given an advantage to strike hard while politicians fight among themselves for votes. That is unforgivable. Canadians will still vote. Democracy is too fragile to forfeit that responsibility, no matter how inappropriate or reckless Trudeaus election call. But how they vote, and what drives their decision-making in this election, may not be what the Liberal government was looking for. tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca The Writ The federal election occurs Sept. 20 and we have you covered. Get the latest campaign news, insights, analysis and commentary delivered weekly to your inbox with our free newsletter. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Staffing is so stretched and resources are so taxed that some Winnipeggers are forced to wait hours for an ambulance and hospitals have no option but to turn away ambulances. Staffing is so stretched and resources are so taxed that some Winnipeggers are forced to wait hours for an ambulance and hospitals have no option but to turn away ambulances. "We have seen wait times for lower-acuity patients of up to two hours, sometimes longer," Christian Schmidt, chief of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, told the protection committee Thursday. The consolidation of Winnipeg's emergency departments from six to three has increased transportation times, Schmidt said. The city is growing and substance abuse in increasing, he added yet, there hasn't been net new ambulance resources in a decade. "We've had instances recently where... because of the pressures of the system, the crews have actually been advised on arrival at the hospital, the hospital cannot accept the patient, and the crew is asked to transport elsewhere," Schmidt said. In addition to patients with COVID-19, hospitals are seeing Manitobans who've held off getting medical attention during the pandemic but can't wait any longer, Dr. Rob Grierson told councillors. This can lead to ambulances being redirected. Response times have also increased because of pandemic precautions, such as layering up in personal protective equipment. Some WFPS employees have filled other pandemic-related roles, at vaccination centres and isolation sites. Calls for overtime go unanswered. "Our folks have been working flat-out here for the entire pandemic response, and there are times where people simply need that rest," Schmidt said. "When that overtime phone call comes, they're physically and mentally, in some cases, not able to accept that call." There hasn't been a spike in WFPS members retiring, Schmidt said. However, long waits for ambulances have affected firefighters (they normally arrive on scene before paramedics). "Having a unit tied up with a patient for two hours, that unit is not available for other work," Schmidt said. Last October, the WFPS and councillors, including Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry), called on the province to fund 10 new ambulances and another 120 crew members. "They never got the job done," said Rollins, protection committee chairperson. Winnipeg operates its ambulance service, but the province foots the bill, which was $31.4 million last year. In a statement, Shared Health said it has increased its investment in the WFPS by nine per cent over the past three years, to nearly $45 million. A spokesperson did not answer whether new ambulances were in the works. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "There's no quick fixes with respect to the city's problems," Rollins said. "We need to start seeing a real commitment to investing in health care from the provincial government." Rollins said she emailed Health Minister Audrey Gordon about the issue in June and has only received a note acknowledging the email. She also has a letter from former premier Brian Pallister, dated Aug. 31, inviting her to meet with Premier Kelvin Goertzen on the matter. "We have a sick population. They really need to do something about their emergency rooms, and they really need to fund the 10 ambulances," she said. Between the emergency room consolidations, the drug epidemic, the pandemic and the strained health-care system, Winnipeg is facing a "humanitarian crisis," Rollins said. gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca The union that represents grocery store workers in Manitoba is calling on the province to declare Sept. 30 a statutory holiday. The union that represents grocery store workers in Manitoba is calling on the province to declare Sept. 30 a statutory holiday. On June 3, the federal government declared Sept. 30 as a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and added it to the list of general holidays. The Manitoba government announced earlier that it will be a school holiday this year but not a provincial statutory holiday, which has riled the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832. "Our provincial government has made little to no meaningful action for this day, since union collective agreements were already giving civil servants and teachers the day off," the union said in a release. The new holiday is intended to honour residential school survivors and to ensure the tragic legacy of residential schools is not forgotten, said Local 832 which represents 19,000 Manitoba workers in food production, food distribution, warehousing, grocery retail, hospitality, security, personal care and assisted living. "The Manitoba government has committed to consult with Manitobas Indigenous leadership, employers, labour and community organizations for their views and undertake regulatory consultations related to making Sept. 30 a statutory holiday for provincially regulated workplaces," wrote Olivia Billson, press secretary for Premier Kelvin Goertzen, in an email. "In the meantime, the government is recognizing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a day of observance and believes that is an important first step." Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Co-op stores across Manitoba, including all Red River Co-ops in Winnipeg and nearby areas, have granted their employees a statutory holiday on Sept. 30, though not required by contract, the union local said. Loblaw and Sobeys are not recognizing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday for their roughly 6,000 Manitoba employees. Sobeys did not respond to a request for comment. Loblaw said it has made a commitment to Indigenous people but isn't recognizing Sept. 30 as a stat. "As with any federally regulated holiday, provincially regulated businesses like ours are not expected to close," Loblaw said in an email. carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Imagine a disaster hits Gimli, knocking out the towns power and forcing all 2,200 or so of its residents into downtown Winnipeg hotels. Opinion Imagine a disaster hits Gimli, knocking out the towns power and forcing all 2,200 or so of its residents into downtown Winnipeg hotels. A state of emergency would be declared. Winnipeggers would come to Gimlis aid; donating money, clothing, food, and shelter in their homes COVID-19 pandemic or not. Youth centres, movie theatres, and restaurants would donate time and resources to show their love. MANITOBA HYDRO Pauingassi First Nation and Little Grand Rapids First Nation, both on the east side of Lake Winnipeg, had to evacuate more than 1,500 residents due to wildfires destroying the chain of hydro poles bringing power to the fly-in communities. Nearly every Manitoban would care about getting Gimli residents home, and demand government do something to soothe the pain of residents languishing in city hotels. There would be outrage if the food Gimli residents was offered was substandard, hotels blanketed their hallways with security officers to control every aspect of their lives, and children started school in cramped activity rooms. Wide-scale efforts to fix such problems would occur, with price barely a consideration. Manitobans would refuse to accept excuses that fixing Gimli is too hard, too difficult, and resources are too tight. Same could be said if this happened to Souris, Boissevain or Morris. These communities deserve our compassion. As does Pauingassi First Nation and Little Grand Rapids First Nation. Both are fly-in communities on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. They represent more than 1,500 people living in city hotels since mid-July, due to wildfires destroying the chain of hydro poles bringing power to the communities. Now, those citizens are being told by Manitoba Hydro they will have to wait until late October possibly even November before they can return home. "We are suffering here," Little Grand Rapids resident Darryl says, standing with a group in the parking lot of one of six Winnipeg hotels communities members are staying. "My daughter is sad, Im sad. We are all sad." (The Free Press agreed to withhold the last names of interviewees, due to fears of punishment.) "The food is terrible and sometimes just leftovers," Catherine says. "There is so much security in the hallways," Victoria says, pointing out the 10 or so men dressed head-to-toe in black, policing the lobby. "Some of them harass our young women. One even tried to mace us." "We are given $20 a week for outside food, thats barely the cost of fast food," Samantha adds, identifying the emergency funds given by the Red Cross. All are fluent Ojibwa speakers, and some are intoxicated. "I dont drink but I understand why they do," Henry says. "Theres nothing else to do. We cant go anywhere." Like most First Nations, where paperwork is slow and COVID-19 vaccination rolled out so fast authorities could not keep up, virtually all citizens from Pauingassi and Little Grand Rapids are double-vaccinated but cannot obtain proof-of-immunization cards. Even if records were available, many cant afford or have a need for cellphones (reception is hard to come by in the North), so accessing a QR code is out of the question. This means many public activities are unavailable and a lot of time is spent lingering in hotel rooms, lobbies and parking lots. "Most of us are just tired," Henry says. "Tired of all of this." Every day is a mass confusion of paperwork, he says, with multiple people (chief and council, security guards, Red Cross workers) telling him what to do. While he appreciates Indigenous organizations such as Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata helping with children's activities and clothing drives, he just would like some stability. Manitoba Hydro officials blame the remote locations of the two communities, dangerous conditions and the fact helicopters have to fly in materials while workers have to install poles "in rock, requiring specialized drilling equipment" as reasons for delays. After being challenged this week by Indigenous leaders that Hydro could provide generators so people could return home, utility officials said they found it unfeasible to divert workers "from doing the permanent repairs to the line." The Writ The federal election occurs Sept. 20 and we have you covered. Get the latest campaign news, insights, analysis and commentary delivered weekly to your inbox with our free newsletter. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. As of a recent update, 57 of the 90 impacted hydro poles had been replaced thus far. Last week, some Pauingassi and Little Grand Rapids students started classes in hotel rooms; some will not start until whenever they return home. Virtually all are far behind academically, due to the problems associated with distance learning. "Our young people are giving up," Catherine says, adding there have been numerous accounts of self-harm among that group since the forced move south. This would be a vastly different story if it was Gimli, Souris, Boissevain or Morris. Try to imagine what the difference is. niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca In a process that has been rushed and ethically compromised from the outset, the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba finally confirmed its two official leadership candidates and, in the process, likely opened up a whole new can of worms. In a process that has been rushed and ethically compromised from the outset, the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba finally confirmed its two official leadership candidates and, in the process, likely opened up a whole new can of worms. The party announced Thursday that MLA Heather Stefanson and former MP Shelly Glover are the two official candidates in its leadership race. To qualify, each had to provide a $25,000 deposit, sell at least 1,000 memberships, get endorsements from 50 long-standing PC members and pass a vetting process. Two others were not so lucky. Less than a week ago, MLA Shannon Martin promised to bring the "progressive" back to the PC Party; on Wednesday, he abruptly pulled out of the contest. It remains unclear why former party chief financial officer Ken Lee was disqualified. Party sources said Mr. Lee had paid his $25,000 and sold more memberships than anyone else. FACEBOOK Former PC Party chief financial officer Ken Lee What isnt known is whether Mr. Lee who signalled an intention to bring an extreme right-wing agenda to the leadership campaign had generated the necessary endorsements from party opinion leaders, or satisfied the requirement for "an interview process to ensure a commitment to the principles and values of the party." And then there is the matter of the unique approach employed for party membership sales. As reported Thursday by the Free Press, one of Mr. Lees supporters was offering prospective members a $20 loan, repayable over 100 years, to cover the cost of the membership. Elections Manitoba said the strategy was not illegal, but just about anyone with any knowledge of party politics regarded it as highly unethical. We may never know officially why Mr. Lee was not approved, as the party has declined to detail the exact reasons behind its decision. Regardless of why, the PC Partys exclusion of Mr. Lee may have created a new enemy more threatening to its re-election chances in 2023 than any opposition party. Want more great journalism? Get our best news and features delivered in your inbox every weekday evening. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Mr. Lee was clearly drawing energy from the rising support in the federal election campaign for Maxime Bernier and the Peoples Party of Canada. Mr. Berniers unbridled libertarianism has meshed well with the anti-vaccine community across the country. Although pre-election polls are not necessarily an indication of the votes a party will receive, if Mr. Bernier were to come close to the levels of support people are currently pledging to him, he would have a decided impact on the federal elections final result. While he has been denied his opportunity to compete for the provincial PC leadership, either Ms. Stefanson or Ms. Glover may be chagrined to learn that, come 2023, it might be Mr. Lee who gets the last laugh. It seems likely many of those PPC supporters who signed up to endorse Mr. Lee and there is reason to believe there are quite a few of them will be feeling aggrieved and looking for payback. While some might just switch their support to another candidate, others may prefer to become diehard opponents of the PC Party in the 2023 provincial election. With public support already significantly eroded, that is the last thing the Tories need. In many ways, Mr. Lees disqualification is a fitting next chapter in a Tory leadership process that has been a shambles from the start. From the moment it became apparent Ms. Stefanson had steered the party towards an expedited leadership campaign whose desired outcome was an acclamation, this process seems to have done far more harm than good to the Tory brand. And while he has been denied his opportunity to compete for the provincial PC leadership, either Ms. Stefanson or Ms. Glover may be chagrined to learn that, come 2023, it might be Mr. Lee who gets the last laugh. Strict warnings not to ingest horse dewormer haven't deterred some Manitobans from seeking out agricultural doses of the drug. Strict warnings not to ingest horse dewormer haven't deterred some Manitobans from seeking out agricultural doses of the drug. Last week, a man showed up at a veterinary centre outside Winnipeg, intent on buying ivermectin, which, through the spread of misinformation, has been falsely stated to cure COVID-19. Last month, an Anola business began putting up cautionary signs to ward off frequent customer inquiries; other feed supply stores have been fielding multiple calls. Manitoba's poison control centre hasn't flagged an increase in reports of ivermectin exposure, but health officials say they know people are taking the medication to treat symptoms of COVID-19 even though it poses real dangers and there is no evidence it is effective against the novel coronavirus. JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Glenn Miller, owner of Anola Feed & Farm Supply in Anola shows the dosage guide for horses on an Ivermectin syringe in his store Thursday. Miller has posted signs in his store saying that the horse deworming medication is intended for veterinary use only. "It certainly raises concerns, because the medication is not intended for humans in the formulations we have," said Chris Bell, a veterinarian at Elders Equine, which specializes in treatment for horses. According to Health Canada, veterinary doses of the anti-parasitic can cause side-effects such as vomiting and diarrhea, and more severe reactions including seizures, comas or even death. A man showed up at the Cartier vet clinic last week asking for ivermectin pills, Bell told the Free Press. "That raises our ears," he said Thursday, because ivermectin is typically in paste form for horses and is sometimes sold as a liquid injection for cattle. The medication is typically used to treat intestinal worms in animals. It can be prescribed in anti-parasitic tablets for humans, but those are different from the doses given to livestock and vets don't stock them. "It's quite frankly surprising that vets are being involved in this." Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association executive director Corey Wilson Bell said other clinic staff encountered the man, who seemed to expect to purchase ivermectin pills, and asked him to leave the property. They notified local RCMP because the man was acting strangely, peering in the building's windows. The man didn't mention COVID-19, but Bell said it was likely the reason for the incident. "The scenario certainly made me wonder if that was what was going on." Bell also raised concerns about the effects of ingesting a medication meant for large animals. If a horse overdoses on ivermectin, it can cause neurological problems. It's one of two incidents Manitoba vets have reported about individuals seeking to buy ivermectin. In response, the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association issued a statement: "Veterinary professionals in Manitoba have recently reported instances of members of the public requesting ivermectin for human use. Manitoba veterinary professionals do not give human health advice to the public and instead refer members of the public to their human health practitioners." JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The not for human use signage is required because of an increase in enquiries for the drug to help with prevention of COVID-19. "It's quite frankly surprising that vets are being involved in this," association executive director Corey Wilson added in an interview. Glenn Miller first heard the unproven claim the drug developed in the 1970s cures COVID-19 from one of his U.S. customers last year. The owner of Anola Feed and Farm Supply Ltd. said the misinformation has indeed made its way to Manitoba. "I'm confused, I really am," Miller said, explaining the anti-parasitic smells bad, and horses don't like it. "It just confuses me that people are looking for agricultural products for human use." Miller has posted warning signs in his store, after staff started getting regular phone calls asking about ivermectin. They get two or three inquiries a week, he said, and because they usually know the horse owners among the tight-knit customer base, staff have a pretty good idea when people are trying to buy it for something other than approved use. It puts the business in a tough spot, Miller said. He doesn't want to police the sale of an over-the-counter item "That's not my place" but also doesn't want people to ingest a drug meant for livestock. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. Since speaking publicly about increased interest in ivermectin supply, Miller said he's been contacted by someone upset Miller won't promote it as a COVID-19 treatment. He said the store's Facebook page has had a spike in web traffic. No overdoses caused by ivermectin have been reported in Manitoba, a Shared Health spokesperson wrote in a statement. "We cannot be certain how many patients have used this medication to treat COVID-19, but we know this is occurring. The Manitoba Poison Centre has not seen any increase in calls related to ivermectin exposure compared to previous years, and Health Links... has not received any calls related to this substance," Shared Health said. "We remind Manitobans that ivermectin has not been approved for treatment of COVID-19 by Health Canada, and factual information about COVID-19 should only be sought from reliable sources." katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay More than three weeks after Manitoba announced it would require all provincial employees who work with vulnerable populations to either be fully immunized by Oct. 31 or face regular testing, the public health order making it mandatory has not been finalized. More than three weeks after Manitoba announced it would require all provincial employees who work with vulnerable populations to either be fully immunized by Oct. 31 or face regular testing, the public health order making it mandatory has not been finalized. On Aug. 24, then-premier Brian Pallister, Health Minister Audrey Gordon and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin all said mandatory vaccinations including doctors and nurses, teachers and school support staff, child care workers and people working at group homes or other congregate residential settings were necessary to combat the fourth wave of COVID-19. As of Wednesday, nothing had been signed. The public health order wasn't in force. Health and Seniors Care Minister Audrey Gordon. (Alex Lupul / Winnipeg Free Press files) "These steps are necessary to protect children in Manitoba, avoid another lockdown, and keep our health-care system safe from a fourth wave of COVID-19 and the dangerous delta variant," Pallister said at the time. Roussin also encouraged private businesses and organizations to follow the province's lead with mandating vaccinations. The proposed order had deadlines, including: first doses needed to be taken by Sept. 7 (the first day of school), with the second to be done by Oct. 17, so all would be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31. A provincial government spokeswoman said Wednesday: "Detailed work is underway on the public health order for the sectors announced on August 24 and on the guidance to support it." "We'll be sharing more details when they are finalized. Our focus is on ensuring that designated workers have time to be vaccinated and so the priority was to communicate that direction as soon as possible," she said. The spokeswoman did not answer the question whether the province would be changing the dates in the initial announcement. She said if there are Manitobans who don't know if they will be required to undergo regular testing, they should get the vaccine now, because anyone with proof of full immunization won't need to be tested. "We'll be sharing more details when they are finalized. Our focus is on ensuring that designated workers have time to be vaccinated and so the priority was to communicate that direction as soon as possible." provincial government spokeswoman Michelle Gawronsky, president of Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union (which boasts some 32,000 members), said not seeing the public health act in writing makes it hard for the union to even talk to membership about what to do. "Although three weeks have passed since the province announced its intention to have an immunization and testing policy for the civil service, no written policy has been provided," said Gawronsky. "This makes it difficult for our union to help members navigate the new policy. It also leaves us unable to determine if the policy is consistent with the collective agreement and adequately protects the personal health information of employees." Gawronsky said the union does support the recommendations of public health officials on the provincewide immunization campaign and is continuing to urge its members to be immunized. "When combined with appropriate PPE and workplace safety protocols, immunization is known to be one of the most powerful tools we have to keep people safe," she said. NDP health critic Uzoma Asagwara flagged the issue after hearing from people involved in long-term care. "The concern was raised that they have received zero information for how they are supposed to navigate these health orders with vaccines and with testing," said Asagwara. "At this point, the fact the (Tory) government doesn't have a clear order signed and disseminated is a reflection of their complete incompetence. It's almost as if they have thrown their hands up in the air and have their fingers crossed we'll somehow get through this. "It is mind-boggling." On Aug. 24, then-premier Brian Pallister, Health Minister Audrey Gordon and chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin all said mandatory vaccinations were necessary to combat the fourth wave of COVID-19. (David Lipnowski / The Canadian Press files) Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said the public health order should have been signed when it was announced. "The PCs need to explain exactly why it wasn't," said Lamont. "Public health has to come before politics, which it hasnt for the entire pandemic... Whatever the reason, this is negligence that is going to lead to more cases in a health-care system that cant handle it." Meantime, Jan Legeros, executive director of the Long Term & Continuing Care Association of Manitoba, said the organization, "applauds government for their leadership and positive approach as seen in the new public health orders, which include mandatory vaccinations." "There are a great deal of logistical challenges being worked out... and a provincial group is working on this to get this in place ASAP," said Legeros. "I would hope that staff and others are following the spirit of the order poised to be signed. I am sure that is being encouraged." However, at least two organizations representing health-related professionals have adopted a wait-and-see stance. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. "Public health has to come before politics, which it hasnt for the entire pandemic... Whatever the reason, this is negligence that is going to lead to more cases in a health-care system that cant handle it." Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont Rafi Mohammed, chief executive officer of the Manitoba Dental Association, and Cheryl Bayer, registrar of the Manitoba Association of Optometrists, said while members continue to follow public health orders, the organizations want to see the final version of the public health order before making any decisions including whether to recommend mandatory vaccinations or not. "Our board is deliberating it during the next couple of meetings," said Mohammed. "We continue to follow the province's regulations." "We expect to see the public health order soon," Bayer said. "We will review it when we see it." The Manitoba Chiropractors Association has already made its decision. "The vaccine mandate does not apply to health professionals such as chiropractors who work in private clinics, provided they do not also work in any public setting funded by government (Shared Health, CancerCare Manitoba, regional health authorities)," said executive director Karen Woloschuk. kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca Clad in a bright red shirt, Paul Ong walks along Portage Avenue in one scene and passes the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in another, while telling voters why he launched his campaign. Clad in a bright red shirt, Paul Ong walks along Portage Avenue in one scene and passes the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in another, while telling voters why he launched his campaign. Paul Ong, the Liberal candidate in Winnipeg Centre, is meeting voters and highlighting his platform goals online in a Facebook video, one example of the increased virtual outreach by federal election candidates as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. "We need to move forward on reconciliation, provide better care for seniors and strengthen our health-care system," he says on screen. Winnipeg Centre Liberal candidate Paul Ong released a video via Facebook to reach potential supporters. (FACEBOOK) Elmwood-Transcona Tory candidate Rejeanne Carron posted a Facebook video as well, describing herself as a "proud union member" in a riding held by NDP incumbent Daniel Blaikie. Liberal Shirley Robinsons team has posted catchy music videos on Twitter, as she works to highlight her bid to represent Churchill-Keewatinook Aski. One example repeatedly notes "Her name is Auntie Shirley" to the tune of the Eminem song My name is. For years, politicians have used Twitter, Facebook and other social media to connect with voters, but Sarah El-Tohamy, Ongs campaign manager, said her team has relied on virtual connections more in 2021 due to the pandemic. "For COVID, we have to evaluate how can we make even better use of social media, how can we target it a little bit better. Were missing the element of more face-to-face (contact). We dont have as many in-person events. So how can we use social media now to reach those audiences? Its (about) coming up with more innovative ways to do that." Sarah El-Tohamy, campaign manager for Liberal candidate Paul Ong "For COVID, we have to evaluate how can we make even better use of social media, how can we target it a little bit better. Were missing the element of more face-to-face (contact). We dont have as many in-person events. So how can we use social media now to reach those audiences? Its (about) coming up with more innovative ways to do that," said El-Tohamy. (pullquoteFull)For example, she said the Liberals recently held an online event that allowed supporters to question candidates, rather than holding a face-to-face gathering. "Its really a balancing act. We have to balance the door-knocking (with other options)," said El-Tohamy. Meghan Waters, the NDP candidate for Saint Boniface-Saint Vital, said frequent social media posts have also helped her connect with voters she couldnt reach in person. "Some people arent just answering their doors for whatever reason. They may not be totally comfortable and thats totally valid. Its not an ideal time to be in an election, given the fourth wave (of COVID-19)," said Waters. "So weve been doing a lot of social media We put some pretty serious money into sponsoring (online) ads that we probably wouldnt have done had it been a typical campaign." Her online efforts include a video explanation of NDP priorities. Waters said shed have liked the option to meet voters at an event in a park but decided not to arrange any large gatherings to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. "Were not doing (that) just to keep people safe," she said. St. Boniface-St. Vital NDP candidate Meghan Waters uses Twitter as a means to reach potential voters. (TWITTER) The pandemic does appear to have magnified the use of social media to get campaign messages out across all parties, as federal election candidates seek out new avenues to reach their supporters, a political expert says. "All of these things were happening well before (COVID-19) but they accelerated with the pandemic," said Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba. Adams said parties can "micro target" social media messages to those most likely to vote for them, a practice that began years ago, which can be quite efficient. However, he believes the switch to more virtual riding debates and events comes with the pitfall of making it harder to initiate lasting connections with voters. "Its not just the event itself, at (in-person) meetings you also get a chance to press the flesh before and after. People will go up to a candidate and start to chat with that person and their workers. (Thats now) a missed opportunity because of the pandemic," he said. The reduction in large gatherings can also limit the level of excitement a campaign generates, he said. In 2015, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau came to Winnipeg for a rally that highlighted his surging popularity at the time, Adams noted, the very type of crowded event that has been largely avoided in 2021. "It was electric and Winnipeg almost overwhelmingly went Liberal red (in that election)," he said. "There really was sort of an energy that was injected into a campaign thats not possible to do in this campaign." Royce Koop, a political studies professor at the University of Manitoba, agreed that COVID has enticed candidates to speed up their shift to online communication efforts. The Writ The federal election occurs Sept. 20 and we have you covered. Get the latest campaign news, insights, analysis and commentary delivered weekly to your inbox with our free newsletter. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. However, Koop said the continued door-knocking among political contenders shows traditional tactics are still an essential part of an election campaign. "The process of knocking on doors, you cant replace that with phones, for example. Otherwise, everyone would be doing it," said Koop. "(In-person visits are) part of the canvas of identifying the vote. Going door-to-door gives people the opportunity to meet the candidate." Joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga ATHENS, Greece (AP) The top U.S. military officer said Friday that calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump's presidency were perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of his job. FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2021, file photo Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a briefing with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington. Fearful of former President Donald Trumps actions in his final weeks in office, the United States top military officer twice assured his Chinese counterpart that the two nations would not go to war. According to a forthcoming book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley told a Chinese general that the United States would not strike. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) ATHENS, Greece (AP) The top U.S. military officer said Friday that calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final stormy months of Donald Trump's presidency were "perfectly within the duties and responsibilities" of his job. In his first public comments on the conversations, Gen. Mark Milley said such calls are "routine" and were done "to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability." The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke to The Associated Press and another reporter traveling with him to Europe. Milley has been at the center of a firestorm amid reports he made two calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army to assure him that the United States was not going to suddenly go to war with or attack China. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, speaks during an observance ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, on the morning of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Descriptions of the calls made last October and in January were first aired in excerpts from the forthcoming book "Peril" by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Li that he would warn Li in the event of an attack. Milley on Friday offered only a brief defense of his calls, saying he plans a deeper discussion about the matter for Congress when he testifies at a hearing later in September. "I think its best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military," Milley said. "Ill go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks." Milley and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify Sept. 28 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, in what initially was going to be a hearing on the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of Americans, Afghans and others from that country. FILE - In this May 6, 2021 file photo, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) Now, however, Milley is expected to face tough questioning on the telephone calls, which came during Trumps turbulent last months in office as he challenged the results of the 2020 election. The second call, on Jan. 8, came two days after a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's White House victory. A special House committee that is investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol has asked for details about Milleys calls. U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., leaders of the committee, have also sought records related to the November election, the transfer of power from Trump to Biden and the riot. Milley was appointed Joint Chiefs chairman by Trump in 2019 and has remained in that post in the Biden administration. As chairman, Milley is the top military adviser to the president and to the defense secretary. The White House and the Pentagon chief have said they continue to have full trust and confidence in Milley. FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2021 photo, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley pauses while speaking during a media briefing at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The new book says Milley, fearful of Trumps actions late in his term, twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the U.S. was not going to attack China. One call took place on Oct. 30, four days before the American election. The second call was on Jan. 8, less than two weeks before Bidens inauguration and two days after the insurrection at the Capitol by supporters of Trump. Some U.S. lawmakers have said Milley overstepped his authority, and they have called for Biden to fire him. Trump blasted Milley as treasonous, called him "a complete nutjob" and said Milley "never told me about calls being made to China." Biden told reporters after the disclosures in the book that "I have great confidence in Gen. Milley." Milleys office, in a statement this week, said the calls were intended to convey "reassurance" to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as Joint Chiefs chairman. Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. The statement from Milley spokesman Col. Dave Butler also said that the calls were "staffed, coordinated and communicated" with the Pentagon and other federal agencies. According to the book, which the AP obtained, Milley assured his Chinese counterpart in the first call that "the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay." It said he told Li, "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you." "If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise," Milley reportedly said. Milley spoke with a number of other military leaders around the world after the Jan. 6 riot; they included leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A description of those calls in January referred to "several" other counterparts that Milley spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control. The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasnt as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: "We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes." In response to the book, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged Biden to fire Milley, saying the general worked to "actively undermine" the American commander in chief, Trump. Covid-19 Update 73: Return to campus plans Details on vaccination and the return of staff members to campus. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday evening that South Africa has moved to Adjusted Alert Level 2, thereby easing several regulations, which impacts on members of the Wits community, as detailed below. At the outset, the Senior Executive Team (SET) strongly recommends that all staff members get vaccinated as soon as possible it is our collective responsibility, and it is in the best interests of our community and society. It is also our best chance at minimising the impact of another resurgence of the virus, and getting back to normal as soon as possible. For these reasons we are working on a vaccination policy, which will be circulated in the coming days. The Wits Netcare Vaccination Site has been established in the Multipurpose Hall on the Braamfontein Campus to vaccinate the broader Wits community (including family members and friends). The site is open Mon-Fri from 08:00 16:00 until 23 September 2021. Walk-ins are welcome, and everyone above 18 years of age can be vaccinated. Staff and students can also vaccinate at any convenient site, including the Liberty Vaccination Site in Braamfontein and the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in Parktown. Academic Staff The teaching and learning programme will continue as per the respective faculty timetables, and in the modes determined and specified by faculties. Academics and researchers are required to be accessible for academic and research purposes, and for postgraduate supervision. All staff, postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows can continue with research on campus, and must adhere to all Wits COVID-19 protocols when on campus. The same applies to students serving on clinical training platforms, students attending in-person lessons, and those requiring access to studios and laboratories, as determined at the faculty level. Libraries will open in line with regulations issued by government. Professional and Administrative Staff All University entities are required to be fully operational as we strive to fulfil our mandate to deliver academic, research and service excellence in the 2021 academic year. Professional and administrative staff are accordingly required to report for duty on campus, in line with the directives of their respective senior executive member, who is authorised to determine and approve the level of staff required in their faculty or division. Line managers and Heads of School are also required to act in accordance with the directives of their respective faculty dean or senior executive member. Workplace Safety The health and safety of every member of the Wits community is paramount, and again, it will require our collective effort to keep everyone safe. Staff members are required to: Complete the self-screening form via the Wits LogBox Screening App every day before entering campus; Wear a mask over the mouth and nose, and especially when in close proximity to others; Refrain from gathering in spaces that are not adequately ventilated and to rather hold meetings outdoors (no gatherings are allowed in tearooms and canteens); and Abide by all Wits COVID-19 policies and protocols. Responsibilities for Line Managers Line managers must update the Occupational Health and Safety risk assessment for their respective entity and must implement the risk mitigation measures before staff members return to the workplace. staff members return to the workplace. Line managers must work with their assigned human resources officers, health and safety officers and representatives, PIMD, Services, and other relevant entities, to ensure the safety of staff members, and especially that the following measures are in place: the physical distancing of staff members in the workplace; the regular cleaning of venues and work spaces; the provision of personal protective equipment for specialised areas (and ensuring that it is correctly worn); and the adherence to Wits COVID-19 protocols to prevent the spread of infection. Conclusion Let us take the necessary precautions to ensure our own personal health and safety and that of our colleagues, students and friends, as we return to campus. We strongly advise that the most sustainable manner by which to protect yourself and reduce your chances of infecting others is to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Please speak to your line manager or relevant executive should you have any further queries about the return to campus plans. Lego blocks and pasta trigger dentistry students If you think that macaroni, spaghetti and lego blocks only excite preschoolers then youd be shocked to discover that these also stimulate university students. Dentistry students have been propelled to success with these items all thanks to the unconventional methods of Dr Ebrahim Patel. Patel is known for thinking out of the box. When the dental simulation laboratory closed in 2020 due to Covid-19, his mind was filled with ideas on how to help students grasp and visualise key dental concepts and procedures from home. Amused first year students thought they were getting a cooking class, using spaghetti and macaroni, but this turned out to be a class about manual dexterity and depth perception. For second year students, what they assumed would be a DIY class with lego and wooden blocks, coupled with mops and broomsticks was a practical lesson to teach root canal treatment. The creative approach of Patel who is the Head of Preclinical Teaching in Operative Dentistry and Endodontics at the Wits School of Oral Health Sciences, bore fruit in 2020 when he achieved a 100% pass rate in his class of second year students. For his commitment, innovation and support of students and staff in the School, Patel was nominated as a Wits Hero in recognition of going beyond the call of duty when Covid-19 disrupted teaching and learning. Patel confesses that these ideas come unexpectedly to him. If I had to be brutally honest, most of my ideas would come to me in the shower on the day of a particular tutorial. I would then think of creative ways to stimulate student engagement to ultimately achieve deeper learning for that day, he says. During this period he, together with Wits colleagues and friends Dr Krystle Moodley, Dr Megna Gangadin and Dr Ruan Scheepers and the Wits MOOC team, created the free Root Canal Preparation course which was available on EdX, which hosts massive open online courses. This also included a game about a vegan vampire with creative input from Adriano Giovanelli (CLTD) and the team led by Dominique Wooldridge. While collaboration helps him achieve his goals, competition keeps him on his toes. My wife, Rubina Shaikh, is the first year Pharmacy coordinator [at Wits] and, I think that stimulates a little bit of competition between us. We are both type-A personalities and as such like to show off what we can achieve with our students, says Patel whose class pass rate has been above 90% since 2017. How it all started As a young boy in primary school, Patel recalls telling his parents about his ambitions to pursue a career in health sciences. In 2004 he began his journey at Wits University as a first-year student determined to follow through and make his dream a reality. Believe it or not, medicine was actually something that I had always thought I would go into, but as I shadowed clinicians at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, I decided against it, and thought that I would rather give Dentistry a go. He made the switch and didnt immediately feel confident about his switch. In the first two years of school, I thought I didnt make the right decision but this changed the first time I walked into the clinic. I knew then and there that this is what I wanted. My first patient experience ignited a love for dentistry that burns brighter with every passing day, he says. Patel discovered his love for lecturing after observing Professors Joy Shackleton and Sidney Setzer, who later became his colleagues. He decided soon after that he wanted to combine his love for dentistry and lecturing and mold young minds The way that they (Shackleton and Setzer) engaged with students, it just seemed so fulfilling, and I absolutely loved it, says Patel. Teaching has been such an amazing journey for me. Just dealing with students from different backgrounds and getting to appreciate how different people learn and seeing the development of a student's skills. After nine years as a full-time academic at the university, Patel believes that the coronavirus pandemic has introduced a much-needed change to the health sciences faculty. He says it has forced the faculty to embrace technology and participate in the fourth industrial revolution. I don't think we'll ever go back to the old ways. Students have enjoyed the benefits of the new teaching methods, and lecturers have witnessed the possibilities and the advantages of new blended approaches. I think we're going to grow from strength to strength. Patel says the support he receives from his wife, and his colleagues at the university keep him determined to strive for excellence. I am lucky to work in a very supportive department. My close circle of friends, fondly known as KREAM help stimulate me to always do my best. As we like to say KREAM work makes the dream work, concludes the teeth man. Alumnus named best IT manager in Switzerland Trailblazing Alec Joannou honoured at CIO Awards. Wits alumnus and global chief information officer (CIO) at ABB, Alec Joannou (BSc 1990), has been named Best IT Manager for 2021 at the Swiss CIO Awards. The awards honour the best Swiss IT managers of the year and are presented annually by EY Switzerland in cooperation with the CIO platform Confare. "With his submission, Alec Joannou was able to impressively demonstrate that IT organisation in a large corporation like ABB can drive significant positive change within three years," said Andreas Toggwyler, Global Assurance Data Officer, EY Global on 15 September 2021. "As a result, ABB IT has today clearly developed from a classic cost centre towards a profit centre and uses customer centricity and intelligent IT governance to play a key role in shaping digitisation at ABB," said Toggwyler in an EY statement. ABB is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, operating mainly in robotics, power, heavy electrical equipment and automation technology areas. Joannou joined the company in 2018. We received a lot of excellent applications for this years Swiss CIO Award. More than ever, CIOs are at the heart of transformation at many companies, driving change from an operational, technical and talent perspective." In 2017, as global CIO of Sasol, Joannou scooped the Visionary CIO of the Year Award, which acknowledged his visionary leadership in applying technology to grow and transform business. Joannou matriculated at SAHETI in 1985, completing his BSc in archaeology and computer science at Wits. He joined Price Waterhouses consulting division, rising up the ranks to be appointed as partner in 2002, at the age of 33. He headed up the SAP practice for PwC across Africa, Middle East and Turkey. In 2012 he joined Sasol as their global CIO and was instrumental in transforming the companys digital presence. Over the years Joannou has played an advisory role to several boards including Unilever, Sappi, Anglo American and Sasol and has worked and consulted in over 40 countries. Joannou was quoted as saying that the award is not just about the CIO. The award goes precisely to those people who work in IT, the partners and the most important stakeholders in IT. He saw the award as recognition and confirmation of the great advances in IT by an independent body. The World Bank says it will stop publishing its annual Doing Business economic report after an independent investigation found bank leaders placed "undue pressure" on staffers to alter data to inflate the rankings for China and Saudi Arabia in 2018 and 2020 editions of the report. The bank commissioned the law firm WilmerHale to conduct the probe. Investigators found then-CEO Kristalina Georgieva pressured the Doing Business team in 2017 to "change the report's methodology" or "make specific changes" to data points to boost China's ranking in the 2018 edition. This came after Chinese government officials repeatedly expressed concerns to her and then-World Bank President Jim Yong Kim over the country's ranking, according to the 16-page investigation released by WilmerHale. At the time, Georgieva was in the middle of negotiations over a capital increase campaign in which China "was expected to play a key role," the investigation found. Georgieva was "directly involved" in improving China's ranking, according to the independent investigation, which said that during one meeting, the then-CEO "chastised the Bank's then-Country Director for mismanaging the Bank's relationship with China and failing to appreciate the importance of the Doing Business report to the country." Doing Business team leaders eventually increased China's ranking in the survey by seven places to 78 by identifying data points they could modify, including giving the nation "more credit" for a Chinese secured transactions law, according to the WilmerHale report. In October 2017, the investigation found that aides to Kim also directed the survey team to simulate how China's final score might change if data from Taiwan and Hong Kong were incorporated into the country's existing data. The WilmerHale report says that the Doing Business team leaders "believed that the concern was coming from President Kim directly." Georgieva, who is now the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said in a statement that she disagrees "fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Bank's Doing Business report of 2018," and that she has briefed the IMF's Executive Board on this matter. Kim has not yet responded to a CNN email seeking comment. The IMF executive board has asked the ethics committee to review the WilmerHale investigation, according to a source familiar with the matter. The ethics committee will then report back to the board with their assessment. During a press briefing Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, "Ms. Georgieva has issued a statement on the IMF's official website. I would refer you to relevant authorities for further information. We have also noted that the World Bank recently issued a statement on suspending the Doing Business report. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the efforts of Doing Business of improving the business environment, which is evident to all. We hope that the World Bank will take facts as the basis, rules as the criterion, follow the professional, objective, fair and transparent principles, to conduct a thorough investigation into relevant issues in strict accordance with the internal review procedures, so as to better safeguard the professionalism and credibility of the Doing Business report and the credibility of the World Bank itself and its member countries' reputations." The WilmerHale investigation also found irregularities relating to Saudi Arabia's data in the 2020 Doing Business report. Saudi government officials expressed "displeasure" over how their country ranked in the 2019 edition, especially with the survey team's failure to recognize what officials saw as the "country's successful reforms," according to the investigation. As a result, senior bank leaders, including one of the founders of the Doing Business report, Simeon Djankov, instructed the survey team to "find a way to alter the data" so that Jordan wouldn't rank first on its so-called "Top Improvers" list. The team eventually added points in multiple categories to Saudi Arabia so that the country would replace Jordan in the top spot, according to the results of the investigation. Djankov said that the demand to change Saudi Arabia's data came from two senior World Bank officials, one of whom previously served as Chief of Staff to President Kim and was involved in changes to China's data in the 2018 edition of Doing Business, the investigation found. In a statement released on Thursday, the World Bank said it would discontinue the "Doing Business" report. "The World Bank Group remains firmly committed to advancing the role of the private sector in development and providing support to governments to design the regulatory environment that supports this. Going forward, we will be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate," the statement added. CNN has reached out to the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington D.C and the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment and is awaiting a response. CNN has also reached out to Simeon Djankov and the Peterson Institute for International Economics where he works as a senior fellow for comment. Jennifer Hauser, Pamela Boykoff, Betsy Klein and CNN's Beijing Bureau contributed reporting. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. A voting app created by allies of prominent Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was removed from Google and Apple's online stores in Russia just as polls opened for parliamentary elections, according to a series of tweets from Navalny's team on Friday. Ivan Zhdanov, a key ally of the jailed dissident, tweeted an image of an email he said was from Apple confirming the app was blocked. The email said the app, also called Navalny, was removed because Russia designates the Kremlin critic's anti-corruption foundation as "extremist," a reference to his now outlawed political movement. The app therefore contained content that is considered "illegal" in the country. The Navalny app included recommendations for the opposition leader's "Smart Voting" strategy, which urges Russians to vote tactically in support of a candidate most capable of unseating an incumbent from the ruling party, United Russia, in the State Duma elections. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it considers the voting strategy to be a "provocation" and harmful to voters. American tech companies have been under an immense amount of pressure from the Russian government in recent months. Some have been handed down fines for not removing content that authorities consider to be "extremist" or "undesirable." And Russian state media reported earlier this week that bailiffs visited Russia's Google office on Monday. Russia's internet watchdog Roskomnadzor has been demanding that Google and Apple remove the "Navalny" app from their online stores. The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement last Friday claiming the US Ambassador to Russia had been "summoned" to be told Russia has "irrefutable evidence of the violation of Russian legislation by the American digital giants" in regard to the elections. Neither Apple nor Google has issued formal statements on the removal of the app from its online stores in Russia. Millions of Russians are expected to head to the polls over a three-day period starting Friday in elections taking place against the backdrop of an unprecedented assault on democracy over the past year. Navalny's press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, tweeted that the decision of the American tech giants is a "huge disappointment" and an "act of political censorship" which "can't be justified." Zhdanov added Navalny's team is considering filing lawsuits against Apple and Google. A person familiar with Google's decision told CNN the company blocked the app in the Google Play Store due to legal "demands" from Russia's internet regulator. The person said Google has received both publicly reported and private warnings of prosecution against its staff in Russia. Russian authorities threatened Google's local staff in Russia with criminal prosecution, according to the person familiar with the company's decision. Russian state media TASS reported on Thursday that a Russian official issued a direct warning that criminal legal action would be taken for continued deliberate "illegal actions and criminal inaction after receiving warnings." The person familiar with the company's decision said Google has blocked further downloads of the app but users who had already downloaded it should not be impacted. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said he welcomed the decision to remove the app as the move was a "legal requirement" for both platforms to be compliant with Russian law. "That application is illegal on the territory of our country. Both platforms have received the requirement. And in accordance with the letter and spirit of the law, they made such a decision, most likely, but this question should be addressed to those services," Peskov said. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. ROME, N.Y. Oneida County Sheriffs Office is searching for a driver who ran away from the scene of a crash in Rome Thursday afternoon. According to Sheriff Robert Maciol, a deputy was attempting to stop a 2003 Toyota RAV4 on Erie Boulevard, when the driver pulled into the Lowes parking lot. Maciol says the vehicle slowed down as if the driver was stopping for the deputy, but then sped away to the back exit of the parking lot that leads to Liberty Street. The vehicle continued on Liberty Street and ran a stop sign at the intersection with Levitt Street, hitting another vehicle driven by 25-year-old Tiffany Marineau, of Rome, just before 3 p.m. Marineau was treated for minor injuries at the scene and then taken to Rome Health for further medical evaluation. Maciol says the RAV4 driver fled the scene on foot and has not yet been located. The investigation is ongoing as authorities try to identify the driver. Utica, N.Y. - Now that the school year is underway, parents in our area are receiving letters from local school districts whenever there is a positive Covid case in their child's school. So, just how many cases are there, and should parents be concerned? We looked into this on Friday. The New York State Department of Health has what it calls the Covid-19 Report Card on its website which shows each day, by school district, how many cases have been reported. Right now the state's Covid-19 Report Card is, "currently being updated". We learned on Friday from the state that it should be up and working by September 27th at the latest. In the meantime, we have to get that information from each individual district. We checked in with three districts in the Utica area on Friday, Utica, Whitesboro and New Hartford. Utica currently has 25 students and 5 staff members who have tested positive. Whitesboro has 25 students and 8 staff members who have tested positive. New Hartford has a total of 17 positive cases but didn't break down the numbers between students and staff. These numbers are all reported to the Oneida County Health Department as well as the state. Oneida County Health Director Dr. Dan Gilmore says the county is closely monitoring the numbers, "There was an expectation that there would be some cases, however its being managed very well this year on both ends from the school perspective and from the health department perspective." Gilmore says there are protocols in place to make sure that any students or staff who are found to have been 'close contacts' to a student or staff member that tested positive will then quarantine for 10 days themselves, "During the interview process we determine if some students were in close enough proximity to a case to become quarantined." Dr. Gilmore says the county determines close contacts by the CDC guidelines, "The Centers for Disease Control developed guidance thats been adopted by the New York State Health Department, which in turn has been adopted by the Oneida County Health Department." In Utica there are a total of 47 students and staff quarantined. In New Hartford there are 44 quarantined. In Whitesboro, 94 quarantined. Whitesboro Schools Superintendent Dr. Brian Bellair says many of those close contact cases resulting in quarantining are from during lunch period when kids don't have their masks on while they're eating, "That is one of the areas where the contacts could occur because when the students are eating they're unmasked. If they're in the classroom, as long as their masked, as long as the student is masked and the student who was infected is also masked, there would be no need for a quarantine. That would be considered a low risk self monitoring situation but obviously in the cafeteria where students are unmasked there's a greater chance that there will be a higher risk of exposure which is why in the cafeterias we're trying to do the best to mitigate those situations. We have our students eating distanced, we stagger our lunches so that students aren't in there with larger crowds, so we're trying to take that layered approach to mitigation in all of those areas." Students who test positive or have been deemed close contacts and have to quarantine can then take part in their classes remotely. Utica Schools Director of Curriculum & Instruction Steven Falchi says there have actually been a couple of entire classes in Utica that have had to be quarantined and those students have also been learning remotely, "Right now if an entire class is quarantined, and we have had a couple of occasions where entire class has had to be quarantined for a couple days, those kids are sent home with Chrome Books and the teacher does conduct remote learning under the circumstances." But what about parents of kids who aren't quarantining, who may not want to send their kids to school because of the positive cases reported? Right now those kids do not have the option to go remote, they would be treated as a normal absence and have to get class work assignments, just like if they were out sick for a day. Dr. Bellair says that could change, "We do realize that there are evolving conditions that may require adaptations to what we're doing right now, so as our numbers change we will certainly look at what we need to do in response to that. Hopefully we don't see the continued growth that we're seeing now but obviously if we do it we have to make some adjustments." Steven Falchi in Utica and Dr. Brian Bellair in Whitesboro both say the positive cases among students is about evenly divided between elementary school students, middle school students and high school students. Dr. Bellair says there has been one severe case so far, "We did have one case where a high school student was actually hospitalized due to Covid. Fortunately the student has since recovered and has been discharged. But that is one case where we know of it which has been certainly more extreme than the others." Dr. Bellair says every case is a concern, but he is concerned, not only about the cases in the school districts, but the overall cases throughout the county, "When we compare today to the same date last year (in the county) the numbers are really quite a bit higher. There were 81 cases a year ago today, and today they are over 840 cases." He went on to say, "One of the questions that we're getting fairly often is, do we think at some point, do we think that we will need to be fully remote? And we're hopeful the answer is no. We've also been asked are we prepared to do so? And we are." Also, as of right now, the Utica City School District notifies parents of a positive case in their child's school through the mail, but starting this coming Monday, September 20th, Utica will be sending out an automated phone message to parents. Finally, Dr. Gilmore says the county continues to urge people to get vaccinated, "Anybody thats eligible to be vaccinated, students over 12, teachers, staff, faculty, should look at becoming vaccinated at the earliest opportunity. Thats really one thing thats needed to help reduce the number of new cases coming up and to help put an end to this pandemic. It's very important to be vaccinated." ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New Yorkers will be able to avoid jail time for most nonviolent parole violations under a new law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. The Less is More Act signed Friday largely eliminates New Yorks practice of incarcerating people for technical parole violations that include being late to an appointment with a parole officer, missing curfew, changing a residence without approval, and failing to attend a mandated program. Supporters say incarcerating people for technical parole violations is costly and fuels the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend. "Our fellow New Yorkers on parole deserve to reenter society with our support and respect - reincarcerating parolees for technical violations traps them and doesn't help our communities," Hochul said. "New Yorkers currently serving sentences in jails and prisons also deserve our support - there is no justice in mistreating incarcerated New Yorkers. While this is just one step and more work needs to be done collaboratively with all levels of government, I am proud to take these steps to increase the safety in city jails, not only for those incarcerated, but for the staff who work tirelessly to keep operations running." The state is working with the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to release up to 191 individuals on Rikers Island who will no longer qualify for incarceration. And we have far too many; 65% of the people that have been returned for parole violations were for these technical violations. So, it doesnt make us any safer. These people werent a danger in the first place, they were released properly, and because of a technicality they were returned," said Hochul. DOCCS is also working with New York City officials to transfer hundreds of inmates from Rikers Island to other state prisons to prevent overcrowding and address staffing issues. Hochul said 40 inmates sentenced to at least 90 days will be sent off of Rikers Island each day for the next five days, and will continue on a rolling basis for those eligible. The Republican minority in the Legislature has accused Democrats of focusing more on perpetrators of crimes than victims. TABERG, N.Y. (UPDATED) A shooting on Route 69 in Taberg Friday afternoon has become a homicide investigation after a man who was allegedly shot by his brother died in the hospital. New York State Police say two brothers, 27-year-old Matthew G. Westcott and 30-year-old James E. Westcott, who both live at the residence had a verbal argument. After the argument, Matthew shot James with a shotgun. Kirk Tupaj // WKTV Kirk Tupaj // WKTV The brother's father, Edward Westcott, heard the gunshot and immediately called 911. When Troopers arrived on the scene, they placed Matthew into custody without incident. James Westcott was transported by ambulance to Rome Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced deceased from a gunshot wound to the face. Matthew E. Westcott, age 27 was arrested and charged with Murder 2nd degree, a class "A" felony, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon 3rd degree (convicted felon), a class "D" felony. NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. New Hartford police are searching for a 16-year-old who ran away from The House of the Good Shepherd while out with a staff member in Utica. Police say Kyshon Hymes was last seen on Mildred Avenue wearing a black hoodie, black pants and sneakers. Hymes, who is a resident at the House of the Good Sheperd, is Black with brown hair and brown eyes, is 6 feet tall and weighs about 180 pounds. Anyone who knows Hymes whereabouts is asked to call New Hartford police at 315-733-6666. All calls will be kept confidential. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) As part of Recovery Month, News 18 is highlighting community resources for people battling addiction and mental illness. We're showcasing Lafayette Transitional Housing's partnership with Pheonix Paramedic Solutions. It's through their joint effort that they're changing lives. "Everyone knows a brother, a cousin, a family member or friend that suffers from addiction or mental illness, and today we need to bring that awareness and celebrate that there are people that can change their lives," said Phoenix Paramedic Solutions Certified Recovery Specialist Nick Cunningham. "That aren't defined by their drug or substance use." Cunningham knows what it's like to battle addiction. "I did eight years in prison and got out and had burned all those bridges with family," he said. "So, I had no one to reach out to except for the case managers and the people at LTHC." Thanks to Lafayette Transitional Housing Center, Cunningham was able to get back on his feet. "With the right support, with guidance, with friendships and help people can get on a path to recovery and people can recover from these horrible things that are happening to them in their lives," said LTHC President & CEO Jennifer Layton. Layton said that's their mission. "We try to bring all resources to one location," Layton said. "So, people can not only just work on their housing plan and what they need to do, but we also do health assessments for every person that comes in, and then we work with local partners to connect people to the services and the resources that they need." Now, Cunningham is using his experience through a partnership between Phoenix Paramedic Solutions and LTHC. He works as one of two full-time peers at the center. "So, my job is to approach that person, let them know that I have been there, and that tends to build their trust," Cunningham said. "Once I've got their trust, I can lead them to whatever path they choose." Cunningham is grateful for the opportunity and the life-changing help he received at LTHC "I'd be another statistic if I wouldn't have made that connection," he said. "You know, you might see commercials that say 'connection is recovery', and it really is." For additional mental illness and addiction resources, click here. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)-The airline industry has been a hot topic of discussion over the course of the pandemic. From flight cancellations to angry passengers airlines have had a hard time getting off the ground. "There has been more and more passion and tension about this with crew cancellations that have been in the papers recently than there have been in years," said Mike Suckow a Professor of Practice for the Purdue School of Aviation. Now, the industry is faced with a new challenge. A shortage of pilots and maintenance technicians. "The retirement numbers had been predicted some of the air carriers were suggesting that fifty percent of their seniority roster was going to retire in the next five to ten years," said Suckow. So those numbers were known." Several different factors have created the shortage. Suckow says that in aviation hiring cycles go in extreme waves. So while industry leaders were able to predict some retirements, an expansion in the industry also exasperated the number of pilots the industry needs. That on top of the pandemic created the problem the industry is facing today. "What's happened now is that in addition to the planned retirements, were the accelerated early retirements because of the early buyouts and the layoffs and COVID type issues," said Suckow. Purdue University is one of the only colleges in the country that has state of art flight simulation technology that can prepare future pilots to be in the air. Providing students with next-level technology is what Purdue hopes will get more students interested in the field of Aviation. "A lot of programs have the primary flight instruction which is the private commercial instrument multi-engine and single-engine airplanes," added Sucko. "We are one of the few schools that has this level of technology that prepared them for the next step in the airline industry." Giving students access to unique tools isn't all the university is doing. In April of next year, the university will unite the aviation community with a three-day symposium. During that time industry leaders will identify key issues the field is facing and come up with a game plan to create a sufficient pool of qualified applicants. "If we can work together as a collective in the industry with the manufacturing and the airlines and the government to kind of put together a program that will encourage people to come in and let them know that it's affordable then I think we will be able to solve this issues," said Suckow. Through those partnerships, the University hopes they can encourage more students to take flight. "There's a shortage in the mechanic's side," said Suckow. "There are shortages on the flight attendance side, there are shortages in the ground opt and customer service. So, there are opportunities throughout the industry even if you are not one of the pilot groups. They are just one of the groups that are in demand." According to a recent study done by Boeing in the short term, 30 to 40 thousand pilots will be needed to join the aviation industry in the next five years. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech to soldiers and officers at a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 15, 2021. Xi inspected the military base in Shaanxi on Wednesday. [Xinhua/Li Gang] XI'AN, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), delivered a speech to soldiers and officers at the base. On behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the CMC, Xi extended sincere greetings to officers and soldiers and encouraged them to make more contributions to building world-class military forces and China's strength in aerospace. Xi had a group photo with the officers and soldiers and heard a work report of the base. Xi affirmed the base's important role in China's space industry and called for innovations in technology and means to ensure accurate, reliable and successful measurement and control work to serve more frequent space launches of higher demands. Noting that space assets are important strategic assets of the country, Xi urged efforts to comprehensively strengthen the protection of these assets. Xi also called for strengthening space traffic management and carrying out international cooperation on space security to improve effectiveness in managing space crises. Reinforcing the Party's political foundations should play a leading role in accomplishing missions of the base, Xi said. He also urged efforts to solve the difficulties of the officers and soldiers and break new ground in the development of the base. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets with representatives of soldiers and officers stationed in Xi'an, at a military base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 15, 2021. Xi inspected the military base in Shaanxi on Wednesday. [Xinhua/Li Gang] (Source: Xinhua) Wu Rongjin, headmistress of the Shanghai Huangpu District Luwan No 1 Central Primary School, visits a fifth grade class to check on an after-school homework session on Wednesday. [For China Daily/Gao Erqiang] Realizing that patriotism education had to be tweaked to become more engaging for children, Wu Rongjin, a primary school teacher in Shanghai, took it upon herself to evoke change. For her efforts, Wu was honored as a Role Model of the Times by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on Sept 16 for her patriotism and dedication to work. Wu's efforts started in 2004 when she began working as the headmistress of the Shanghai Huangpu District Luwan No 1 Central Primary School. After noticing that her students were largely uninterested during an excursion to Party sites, where staff shared facts and stories about the country's history, she set out to survey the children, asking them their thoughts about the experience. Most of the students said they could barely understand the narration provided by the guides, which explained why they were inattentive during the trip. To solve this issue, Wu established a team composed of 15 pupils which, in 2006, started providing narration of the Party and country's history to visitors at the Memorial of the Site of the First National Congress of the CPC in Shanghai. "The children got to learn about the Party's history better by understanding and memorizing the narration and by sharing it with tourists, especially the youngsters, through the use of relatable language and expressions," says Wu, noting that the children wrote the narration script themselves. According to Yang Yu, head of the publicity and education department of the memorial, that was the first time children had created a narration script for a patriotism education base in the city. Over the years, the narration performed at the site of the First CPC National Congress has become part of the syllabus for pupils at the Shanghai school. All students have to learn how to narrate in Mandarin, English and the local dialect. Outstanding students are drafted into the official narration team. The youthful narration team has evidently been a hit, often drawing applause from visitors to the memorial, especially the elderly. "The eyes of elderly tourists often glitter when these students narrate. I believe that they see in these children a hope for the future and that the red spirit is being passed down from generation to generation," says Yang. Wu's contributions to society also extend to the care of her students. For more than a decade, her school has been holding weekly sessions, during which students get to share their feelings about recent events and issues in their lives, while teachers offer them help to deal with emotional challenges. To Wu, the school should not simply be a place of education, but also one of love. She leads by example in this respect, personally greeting the students at the school gate almost every morning. She also makes it a point to walk the premises three times a day, covering all five levels of the building to check on the students and take notes about those who look disinterested in class. Her dedication has even led to personal sacrifices. According to He Chunqiu, a teacher at the school, Wu once stopped drinking coffee for around 400 days in a bid to help a student quit a bad habit. "Wu made a commitment to the student that they would quit what they were addicted to at the same time. The child was very much encouraged and finally gave up that bad habit," says He. Most recently, teachers visited the home of a new student who struggles with spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disorder that affects muscle control, before the start of the new semester on Sept 1. During the visit, they inquired about what the school could provide to make life easier for the wheelchair-bound child, and Wu promptly made the necessary preparations. "This is not just about showing love to the child. I also see this as an opportunity to educate our staff and student community about the importance of caring for others," she says. (Source: China Daily) Jin Yuanshan welcomes a delegation from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in the United States to her studio in Beijing in August 2016. [For China Daily] Getting up at 4 am to make patchwork handicrafts has been a regular part of Jin Yuanshan's daily routine for several decades. Jin, a member of the Korean ethnic group, has maintained her family's tradition of preparing a handmade rainbow quilt for each and every one of her grandchildren before his or her birth. "Just like sewing the quilt stitch by stitch, I hope my grandchildren will become sure-footed people and keep walking forward step by step," said Jin, 74. Patchwork is a distinctive yet intricate needlecraft in which patches of regular or irregular shapes are sewn together. "Patchwork has become the most important part of my daily life," she said. "The early morning is the quietest time for me to create without any interruption." Jin, from Mudanjiang, northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province, is an expert in needlework, which she was taught by her mother and grandmother. "I showed a great interest in handicrafts when I was a little girl, especially in needlecraft," Jin said. "My mother was a tailor and gave me lots of patches of cloth. I sewed many bags with those pieces and gave them to my classmates. They liked my gifts." After her retirement as a statistician from a State-owned factory in Mudanjiang in 1991, Jin threw herself into her patchwork, making the handicraft an art. Jin has created innumerable pieces of patchwork and in 2007, she won second prize at the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival, which is the most important patchwork event in Asia. "It was the first time that a Chinese participant won a prize at the event," she said. "After that, I was invited to different contests and exhibitions at home and abroad." Her artworks have been displayed at patchwork exhibitions in Japan, South Korea and the United States. In June 2014, a delegation of Chinese artists and artisans was invited to attend the 48th Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC, which was the first time China participated in the event. "All the 108 members of the Chinese delegation, except me, had been conferred the titles of inheritor of intangible cultural heritage or artisan master," she said. "When my works were displayed, I saw their eyes widen in surprise." Four of Jin's patchworks were exhibited at the festival. "My work also attracted lots of US visitors," she said. "Despite the language barrier, I could understand their interest in my patchwork." Since the 1990s, she has visited many people from other ethnic groups throughout China, in order to study their traditional needlecraft. "Patchwork can be found in the ethnic costumes of the majority of China's 56 ethnic groups," Jin said. In 2010, Jin was invited to be an expert adviser of the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. The institute has established Jin Yuanshan Patchwork Studios in Beijing and Qingdao, Shandong Province. She said that the studios give her "a platform to conduct research on patchwork and make better ones". Jin gave lectures to pupils at four primary schools in Qingdao last year. "The children showed a great interest in patchwork art as well as traditional Chinese culture during the lectures," she said. "They gave me great inspiration." She has also helped to teach people with disabilities how to make patchwork in order to earn money. In June, she held a one-month patchwork training course for 10 people with disabilities at her studio in Beijing. "In spite of their disabilities, they made great efforts to learn and practice," she said. "They surprised me every time they returned to the classroom with their great progress." She added that after finishing the course, these trainees would become teachers, bringing the skills to more people with disabilities. "In my eyes, odd bits of cloth are priceless treasures," she said. "Wherever I go, I will bring a suitcase filled with odd bits and needles. Patchwork has become a part of my life." (Source: China Daily) Lines of communication are always open if military is needed to help reduce ambulance demand in Wales The first minister has said the lines of communication are always open if Wales needs to enlist the help of the military to help reduce demand on the ambulance service. The trust, along with the wider-NHS, is experiencing significant demand as the easing of coronavirus restrictions coincides with an increase in cases and more people seeking emergency care. These pressures on the health service are expected to increase over the autumn winter as it tries to deal with an increasing backlog of operations whilst undertaking the rollout of coronavirus booster jabs and flu vaccines. A similar demand is being experienced across the UK as the NHS deals with an increased demand from the last 18 months. Overnight it was reported that the Scottish Government had requested support from the military to help tackle ambulance waiting times in Scotland. At todays Welsh Government coronavirus press conference, First Minister Mark Drakeford was asked whether he will asking the army to help support the Welsh Ambulance Service. He was also asked by BBC Wales whether he accepts that more elective treatments will be postponed and that record waiting times we hear every month are going to get longer as the autumn and winter kicks in. The military have already offered support to Wales throughout the pandemic, including with the vaccine rollout and last summer in Wrexham during a covid-19 pop-up testing centre introduced to reduce the spread of the virus. Mr Drakeford said if we need to ask for further help from them, then the path to do that is well understood. He added: Its absolutely true that the health service is under huge current pressure, its under pressure from all sorts of reasons and sources. Coronavirus with numbers that you saw earlier, with running the vaccination campaigns, with dealing with the flu program that well be asking them to carry out over the autumn, a very high number of people who are presenting as emergency cases direct to hospital. As I said earlier, and last week, there are things we can all do ourselves to think about that and to try to help and of course, by the enormous effort to restore, the non coronavirus treatments that were affected earlier in the pandemic. Weve had very regular and very significant help from the armed forces during the pandemic and if we need to ask for further help from them, then the path to do that is well understood. Those lines of communication are always open. In some parts of Wales health boards have already had to pull back from some planned surgery in order to balance all the other things theyre being asked to do. But that is a temporary measure when they do so and they are anxious always to get back to trying to provide those more regular and routine treatments as soon as conditions allow. Its going to be a difficult and continuing balancing act right through the winter. Newbridge landslip repair funding latest Minister says the ball is firmly in the councils court The minister for North Wales has been challenged over what efforts are being made to ensure a storm damaged road in Wrexham is repaired as soon as possible. Torrential downpours and flash flooding caused by Storm Christoph in January 2021 caused a landslide at the B5605 between Newbridge and Cefn Mawr, resulting in part of the footpath collapsing down an embankment. It has previously been estimated that repairs could cost up to 1 million. As we have previously reported Wrexham Council previously applied for funding from the Welsh Government to fix the damage to the area and secure the footpath and road, however the request was knocked back as it did not meet the relevant criteria. New images released by Wrexham Council earlier this month show that more cracks are developing as the roads condition continues to worsen, with fears unless there is some urgent progress the road could remain closed until 2023. Speaking at the Senedd on Wednesday, Plaid Cymru MS for North Wales, Llyr Gruffydd, called on Lesley Griffiths, Welsh Governments North Wales Minister and MS for Wrexham, for information on what is being done to make sure the road is repaired before further damage emerges. Mr Gruffydd said: It isnt a rural back road, as you know. Its quite an important through road for a large number of communities, a large number of people, and it transpires now it could be two, maybe three years before that road is fixed, if at all, if funding is available. Now, the delays have already led to greater subsidence at the site, which will only ultimately mean a greater cost to fix the road. So, in your role as Minister for North Wales, can I ask what efforts youve made to make fixing this road a greater priority of Welsh Government, and, indeed, what efforts youve made to try and make sure that funding is available to fix the road as soon as possible? Ms Griffiths confirmed that she has had a discussion with officials at Wrexham Council and is awaiting an application for funding. She said: I did a visit to the aqueduct, and, of course, as you know, the road that you refer to, which of course, Wrexham Council are responsible for, is not far away. I know theres been a further meeting between transport officials and officers at Wrexham Council. As I say, were waiting for an application for funding for this financial year for ground investigation and the design works. That then will inform, obviously, any future application that comes from the council for funding the construction work thats required. I know that Wrexham Council did submit a bid for funding to make urgent repairs to the flood risk management infrastructure. But that fundingit was, obviously, previously in my portfoliois only available when its acting in accordance with the Flood and Water Management Act and in line with the policy thats set out in the national strategy for flood and coastal erosion risk management infrastructure and the grant memorandum. So, their bid was unsuccessful because any repair works wouldnt reduce the risk of flooding, which, obviously, is the reason funding is given. I appreciate that its very frustrating, but it is really up to the council now to make sure that they provide the information that the Welsh Government have asked for. I will continue to press for this. Obviously, it is a matter of urgency, but Im afraid that the ball is firmly in the councils court. Councillor David A Bithell, Deputy Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Environment & Transport reacted to the debate in Cardiff, telling Wrexham.com In respect of the Ministers comments the ball is in our court I do hope that we get this one over the line as this is significantly affecting local communities with diverted traffic from the A483. By working together we can achieve the same aim and get the funding required to re-open the road. We are currently obtaining our geotechnical report and will be submitting a bid as soon as possible. Cllr Bithell also noted he had raised the issue via Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes, who he said subsequently raised it with the Welsh Secretary, with the latter explaining to Cllr Bithell, The Welsh Government is more than adequately funded to manage the costs of devolved responsibilities. The Welsh Governments 2021-22 spending review settlement provides around 123 per person for every 100 of equivalent funding in England. This is around 1 billion more than the agreed level of fair funding for Wales relative to England as set out in the fiscal framework. Cllr Bithell also said I have also recently written to Julie James MS minister for climate change asking for an update on funding and commitment earlier today. The threat of a fascist coup in Brazil emerged with blinding clarity on September 7 as demonstrations organized by President Jair Bolsonaro and his ultra-right supporters openly advocated the establishment of a dictatorial regime. September 12 anti-Bolsonaro rally called by right-wing groups in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello) Only two days after the demonstrations, Bolsonaro issued a Letter to the Nation in which he declared his loyalty to democracy and stated, I have never had any intention of attacking any of the Powers [of the Republic]. There could not be a more cynical statement. Bolsonaro spent weeks systematically preparing the fascistic rallies, with his virulent threats of causing an institutional rupture. In the speeches he gave on September 7 in front of crowds raising banners demanding a military intervention, he openly threatened to shut down the judiciary system and declared that only God will remove him from power. The fascistic president stated in his Letter that my words, sometimes forceful, resulted from the heat of the moment and from disputes that always aimed at the common good. The document was written with the open assistance of former Brazilian President Michel Temer of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). As Dilma Rousseffs right-wing vice president, he assumed the presidency in 2016 after the Workers Party (PT) president was impeached on trumped up charges. The Letter to the Nation was hailed within the top echelons of the Brazilian state as a sign of reconciliation from Bolsonaro, and the havoc he has systematically promoted was immediately forgiven as a simple misunderstanding! The president of the Congress, Arthur Lira of the Progressive Party (PP), declared, Everything that happened and was off script, we can frame as the fervor of politics, emotion of the moment ... the president of the republic rightly calms the tempers. For his part, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco of the Democrats (DEM), said that the letter was a positive sign from Bolsonaro and meets what most Brazilians expect. The tactical retreat signaled by Bolsonaros Letter, however, can only be understood as an integral part of his dictatorial drive. Responding to a disappointed section of his fascistic supporters, who expected an immediate coup after the demonstrations, Bolsonaro declared, Some want me to go there and slit everyones throat. [But] today there is no isolated country, everyone is integrated into the world. In other words, the consummation of a fascist military coup in Latin Americas largest country requires the alignment of both internal and external factors, among which the support of US imperialism is fundamental. While the bourgeois media and the petty-bourgeois pseudo-left have cast the election of President Joe Biden in the US as a bulwark of Brazilian democracy, the attitude of the Democratic administrationthe same party that backed the Brazilian military coup in 1964is by no means defined. From the internal perspective, the very response of the parliamentary leaderships to the presidents cynical letter reveals a glaring degree of collusion with Bolsonaros coup moves. This attitude permeates both the traditional bourgeois political parties and the military. While some of the generals brought into the government by Bolsonaro have appeared on the platforms at his fascist rallies, others have made unprecedented threats to the civilian regime, such as the joint statement by the military command warning that it will not accept frivolous attacks by the legislature on the Armed Forces. Such developments demolish the claims that the Brazilian regime is supposedly shielded from coup threats by the self-regulatory mechanisms of state institutions, especially by the constitutionalist commitment of the Armed Forces. More deeply, they expose the putrefaction of the countrys state only 35 years after the establishment of a civilian regime in the wake of more than two decades of brutal military dictatorship. The ostensible opposition to Bolsonaro, headed by the PT and its pseudo-left satellites, has responded to this deep political crisis in the most politically criminal way. They are fighting to neutralize any independent political movement of the working class, while trying to convince the population that the only possible way to resist the dictatorial threats is by forging an agreement within the bourgeois state. On September 12, various right-wing political parties and movements promoted a demonstration against Bolsonaro, seeking to capitalize on the growing popular hatred of the fascistic government and presenting themselves as alternatives. The demonstration was headed by the Free Brazil Movement (MBL) and Vem Pra Rua (Come Into the Streets), which originally emerged as organizers of the extreme right-wing demonstrations for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and supported the election of Bolsonaro. It also had the participation of Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)elected as a supporter of Bolsonaro, Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT), supporters of the Maoist Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), and the main Brazilian trade union federations, with the exception of the CUT, which is presided over by the PT. This reactionary political march did not include the participation of the PT and its pseudo-leftist ally, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), only because, according to the presidents of both parties, they were not invited to build the demonstration together with the right wingers. Speaking to Carta Capital, the president of the PT, Gleisi Hoffmann, added that we need to gather the democratic field and build together. The main thing is this. Its not an adhesion, but a joint path. This political orientation, however, was rejected by elements within both parties. This was revealed by the action of Sao Paulos state deputy Isa Penna, one of the PSOLs main parliamentary figures, who disobeyed the decision of her party and openly called for participation in the right-wing demonstrations against Bolsonaro. Penna comes from the PSOLs Insurgency faction, which is affiliated with the Pabloite Unified Secretariat. She is a mono-thematic advocate of upper middle-class identity politics. Her actions express the desperation of sections of the petty bourgeoisie in the face of the disintegration of the Brazilian bourgeois regime and their swing to the right in response. Her speech during the demonstration made clear her politically criminal attempt to give a democratic cover to the spurious goals of the extreme right-wing forces. Today I consider that they [MBL] are in the democratic camp. ... I know they are no longer that group that flirts with fascism, she stated. The reactionary politics promoted by Penna, however, are not essentially different from the orientation advocated by her party. Behind organizational justifications for not joining the right-wing demonstrations, the PSOL and the PT are basing their actions on purely electoral calculations. The PT and the PSOL intend to launch former President Lula da Silva as their presidential candidate in 2022 election, contesting Bolsonaro. Those who called for the September 12 demonstrations are hoping to advance a third way and have raised the banner of Neither Lula, Nor Bolsonaro, with which neither the PT nor the PSOL can agree. The PTs efforts to once again rule Brazil in the name of its national bourgeoisie have a purely reactionary character. On the eve of September 7, Lula made a public statement in response to Bolsonaros coup plans for that day, which by then had already been exposed. Speaking directly to the ruling class, to whom he is offering his services, Lula attacked Bolsonaro from the standpoint that his actions, instead of uniting forces, stimulate division. According to Lula, the role of a president of the republic is to keep confidence alive in the present and in the future, to show that it is possible to overcome obstacles. He affirmed that as president, especially on September 7 of such a difficult year he would have made a speech to console the families of the victims of the pandemic and to present plans that would give a lift of hope to the workers affected by unemployment and hunger. Lula is advocating that, in the face of the profound crisis of Brazilian capitalism completely discredited before the working masses because of the obscene levels of social inequality, the growth of mass misery and the normalization of hundreds of thousands of deaths by COVID-19what the bourgeoisie needs is a leader capable of mitigating and not deepening social divisions. But the growth of social conflicts in Brazil and internationally is irrepressible. The rotten alliance proposed by the PT and the PSOL to hold together bourgeois rule can only result in the deepening of its crisis and growing threats of a fascistic coup. The rise of such a virulent figure as Bolsonaro to the top post of the Brazilian state is not the cause but rather a symptom of the political crisis of the bourgeoisie. Its real roots, which are giving rise to similar fascistic forces around the world, lie in the deep crisis of the world capitalist system and the response of the ruling class to the international growth of the class struggle. Only an independent movement of the working class, united under the program of international socialism can consistently answer the threat of dictatorship, mounting social inequality and the continued homicidal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (PWRFC) urges postal workers to oppose the union-management establishment of Local Working Groups (LWGs) and the National Working Group (NWG) at Australia Post (AP). Instead, we call on workers to build the PWRFC in all facilities, to fight for the postal service to be reorganised according to the demands of workers, not company profits. Australia Post delivery van (Photo: Wikimedia/Orderinchaos) The new delivery model and LWGs are now being introduced to more AP facilities, after initially being set up at three test sites. In the hands of AP and the Communications Electrical and Plumbers Union (CEPU), the new model will mean a further assault on workers conditions. Management and the union have set out their framework for a new delivery model, to replace the Alternative Delivery Model (ADM) in Terms of Reference (TOR), signed during negotiations for the new enterprise agreement (EA). The sell-out deal, featuring a 3 percent per annum pay riseless than the official CPI increase over the last yearwas rammed through late last month, after a unison campaign by AP and the CEPU for a yes vote. According to the TOR, the new model will be implemented at the facility level by LWGs, under the oversight of the NWG, which will, in turn, be managed by a Steering Committee of senior management and union officials. The PWRFC urges workers not to sign up to LWGs or the NWG, which are corporatist mechanisms designed to dupe workers into believing they have a say in the running of AP. Workers who join LWGs will be tapped by management and the unions, as sources of valuable on-the-job knowledge, which will then be used to recast beats, in the interest of minimising worker numbers and maximising profit. Management and the union will then falsely claim that these changes were demanded by the rank and file in the LWGs, and therefore have the workers stamp of approval. Workers must reject this attempt to pit one section of the workforce against another, and falsely implicate workers as the architects of attacks on the conditions of their class brothers and sisters. The unions promoted the establishment of similar corporatist mechanisms during the introduction of the ADM. In that case, management simply bypassed the LWGs and carried out the major restructuring, while the union told workers there was nothing it could do to fight the brutal conditions imposed. The real orientation of the new delivery model is made clear in the TOR, which states in clause 3.2 that: The NWG [National Working Group] will be responsible for developing a framework for delivery operations that: (c) provides Australia Post with ongoing sustainability, flexibility, profitability and service reliability; (d) meets the current and future needs of Australia Post and the Australian community; (g) provides Australia Post with the necessary framework to remain competitive in the markets in which it operates; (h) ensures that Australia Post can continue to invest and grow for the future. The TOR goes on to declare, in clause 3.3: The Parties acknowledge that the needs of Australia Post, its customers and the community, will continue to evolve over time, particularly as letters continue to decline, and there will be an ongoing need to review the delivery model, from time to time, in accordance with changes to Australia Posts business, to ensure it meets community and customer expectations, as well as meeting the CSO [community service obligations]. The Parties commit to conducting a joint review on the delivery model, achieved under this TOR, no later than 18 months from execution of this TOR. In signing the TOR, the union has committed workers to an endless restructuring process, aimed at driving down costs and maximising profits, while transforming AP into a parcel delivery service, competing with gig-economy companies such as Amazon Flex and Uber. The new delivery model is not a rollback, as the CEPU has claimed, but a revised bid to satisfy these management demands following the failure of the ADM. Far from fighting the ADM, the CEPU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)including a no-strike clausewith then CEO Christine Holgate, which was a guarantee to management that the union would ram through the restructuring and suppress any opposition to it among workers. By signing the MOU, the CEPU also denied AP workers a pay rise in 2020. Under the ADM, postal workers faced a doubling of their workloads. In response, the union told workers to call rostered hours and return what they couldnt deliver. In other words, workers were simply told to take personal responsibility for their health and safety if they felt they were being overworked. As Management and the union imposed the ADM, postal workers were atomised and hung out to dry. The union bureaucracy is again working hand-in-hand with senior management to implement the new delivery model. The CEPUs bluster about the incorporation of rank and file workers into the LWGs and NWG is designed to defuse the real anger and opposition that exists, among workers, to the betrayals by the unions, and their support for the implementation of the hated ADM. Despite the CEPUs claims of a post-ADM rollback, the new model will only increase the exploitation of postal workers. With the full support of the union, postal workers will be forced to deliver the full load of mail, unaddressed junk mail and parcels on their beats. Even prior to the introduction of the ADM, the burden on postal workers to meet these growing demands was overwhelming. Postal workers must refuse to return to the past, when workers were loaded to the hilt and continuously forced to work long hours of overtime to complete their beats. Instead, rank-and-file committees must be formed to demand and implement a fair and proper recasting of beats. This recasting must not be determined by management or the profit needs of AP. It must not be determined by what AP management thinks is acceptable. Recasting must prioritise the health and safety of workers, taking into account the current pandemic and lockdowns. Mass hirings must be undertaken to fill vacant beats, due to the high number of resignations of postal workers while the ADM was in force. AP and the unions deliberately created the conditions to drive out older and more experienced postal workers, without having to fork out for voluntary redundancies. The ADM had, at its core, the deliberate destruction of thousands of postal workers' jobs. These plans have by no means been abandoned; privatisation of AP remains the aim of management and the federal government, and will be enforced by the union, just as it has done at Telstra. All current casual and part-time workers must be offered full-time employment, and if former postal workers wish to return, they must be allowed to do so with no loss of entitlements. The PWRFC demands that all beats are filled, and that relief postal worker numbers are increased, to adequately cover for absent workers. AP workers must not be forced to shoulder the burden of the surge in parcel volume, during the escalating pandemic, while management pockets the increased revenue. The PWRFC demands a limit of no more than 70 parcels per beat and that additional drivers be brought on as full-time employees, to deliver the remaining parcels. Limits must also be placed on the volume of junk mail, and postal workers must be granted the right to suspend its delivery when conditions are unsafe, such as during outbreaks of COVID-19. Vaccinations must immediately be made available to all AP workers, on company time, and with no loss of income or sick leave if time is needed to recover from any side effects. This should be accompanied by an education campaign, conducted by appropriately qualified experts, to equip workers with the scientific understanding necessary to work safely during the pandemic, and to address any concerns they may have about the safety of the vaccines. While critically important, vaccination is not a panacea or a justification for all other COVID-19 safety measures to be abandoned. Postal workers must be issued with medical-grade personal protective equipment, for use in depots and while doing deliveries. These basic social rights can only be achieved through a rebellion against the CEPU, which functions as a police force of management. Workers should fight to build the PWRFC, a genuine organisation of rank-and-file workers, as the only means of sharing information, engaging in democratic discussion, and preparing the industrial and political action required to secure their demands. Contact the Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee at auspostalworkers@gmail.com. Australias state and federal governments are pressing ahead with plans to end lockdown measures and lift safety restrictions next month, under conditions of daily mass infections, rapidly growing deaths and urgent warnings from health workers that the hospitals are already in an unprecedented crisis. Technicians prepare Pfizer vaccines at the newly opened COVID-19 Vaccination Centre in Sydney, Australia [Credit: James Gourley/Pool Photo via AP, File] The governments of the two states at the centre of the current outbreak, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, are also at the forefront of this profit-driven campaign to reopen the economy and force the population to live with the virus. Yesterday, Victorias Labor Premier Daniel Andrews announced a limited easing of lockdown measures, to come into effect at midnight on Friday once 70 percent of the states adult population has received a single vaccine dose. People may meet outdoors with one other person, who is not from their household. Fully-vaccinated adults will be permitted to gather in groups of five, along with their children and dependents. The changes, minor in themselves, are notable because they are intended to send a political message. Andrews is following an almost identical playbook to that rolled out in NSW by the Liberal-National Coalition government of Premier Gladys Berejiklian. In that state, the resumption of small outdoor gatherings was announced late last month, based on the same arbitrary measure of 70 percent single dose vaccination. At the time, Andrews made snide remarks about picnics being allowed in NSW as case numbers soared above 1,000 for the first time since the pandemic began. Now, he has implemented the same policy. As in NSW, it coincides with the rapid expansion of the pandemic crisis in Victoria. Yesterdays announcement came as daily cases in the state exceeded 500 for the first time in the current outbreak. Like Berejiklian, Andrews emphasised that the limited easing of rules was in preparation for greater freedoms, regardless of the spread of the virus. [W]ell continue to ramp up and do everything we can to keep this momentum going, so we can have Victoria open and thriving again as soon as possible, he declared. Andrews has committed to releasing a roadmap for the lifting of restrictions this Sunday. As with the plan released by the NSW government earlier this month, it will be based upon the lifting of lockdown and safety restrictions once adult vaccinations reach 70 and 80 percent, levels that are guaranteed to result in a drastic increase in infections and hospitalisations. The various state roadmaps are based on a national plan, adopted by all of the state, territory and federal leaders. It explicitly rejects any attempt to eliminate transmission of the deadly virus, insisting that COVID must be allowed to circulate indefinitely, as restrictions are ended, mass gatherings resumed, the schools fully reopened and all workers are herded back on the job. The class character of this program is underscored by the demographics of the current outbreak, which are similar in both Victoria and NSW. The vast bulk of infections in Victoria are concentrated in the working-class northern and western suburbs of Melbourne, including more than 90 percent of the 510 new cases announced today. The western and southwestern areas of Sydney have likewise been the epicentre in NSW. The trends underscore the central role of workplaces in transmission. In Victoria, it has been revealed that as many as 13 percent of all cases are linked to the construction industry, including a third of the total last Saturday. As in NSW, the sector has been permitted to continue operations, despite the non-essential character of its operations, because of the central role of property development and speculation to big-business profits. An estimated one-third of infections throughout the NSW outbreak have been among children and teenagers. Roughly nine-tenths of infections in Victoria are among those aged under 50, including hundreds of children. Meanwhile, the virus is continuing to circulate in regional areas of both states, threatening an even greater crisis. Having lifted lockdown measures outside of Melbourne last week, Andrews was compelled to reimpose them for the regional city of Ballarat, after cases were detected there. The lifting of safety measures in the NSW regions has been followed by new outbreaks in the town of Yass and the city of Lismore, while infections continue to be recorded in the states west. The planned reopening will only intensify these trends, with children, workers and the vulnerable most at risk. The NSW government took a further step in the direction of ending restrictions, announcing this morning that it was beginning a trial of home quarantines for international arrivals. This is aimed at phasing out the existing regime, under which returnees and visitors isolate for fourteen days in private hotels. Instead, they would be allowed straight into the community, and would complete their quarantine in seven days, half the maximum incubation period of the virus. The trial is being conducted in partnership with Qantas, Australias largest airline, which has been at the forefront of the drive for an end to lockdowns and a resumption of mass international and domestic travel. Preparations for the opening of borders are being discussed in the national cabinet today, with mass international travel slated to begin as soon as the latter months of this year. A perfect storm is being created, with the end of restrictions scheduled to coincide with the greatest crisis of the hospital system yet. In NSW, the lifting of the lockdown, scheduled for mid-next month, will occur as the governments own cherry-picked modelling indicates that the states hospitals will enter into a code black, signifying that demand for intensive care unit (ICU) beds outstrips available ICU beds. Experts have warned the situation will be far worse than the official predictions, which are aimed at justifying the reopening drive. This week, OzSAGE, a group of epidemiologists, issued its own modelling, which warns that the code black may extend for five weeks over December and January, with the outbreak claiming 1,169 lives by February 1. NSW hospitals are already in a major crisis as they treat 1,245 COVID patients, 228 in intensive care, 112 of whom require ventilation. A western Sydney health worker told the WSWS that yesterday Liverpool Hospital, one of the citys largest, stopped accepting COVID admissions, because of insufficient resources. Patients had to be diverted to Wollongong Hospital, roughly an hour-and-a-half from Sydney. The flow-on effect is fewer paramedics and ambulances in Sydney, both for primary admissions and inter-hospital transfers throughout the network. Alarmingly, the worker also stated that Westmead hospitals vacuum insulated evaporator system, which supplies oxygen throughout the facility, is almost at capacity. In comments to the Guardian, Anthony Byrne, a thoracic and respiratory physician at St Vincents hospital, explained that staff from other wards were increasingly being used to treat COVID-19 patients. I mean you train for years to specialise and you might just do stents and coronary arteries, or even within respiratory medicine you might just do asthma, and then all of a sudden, we need your help over on Covid, Byrne said. We now have neurologists looking after Covid patients, and cardiologists. Of course, we all do general medical training to be a physician so thats OK, but a lot of people havent done other medicine than their specialty for many years. He gave the example of a lung cancer patient, who required a procedure to confirm diagnosis. Because of the pressure on the entire hospital system, it was difficult to schedule an operating theatre and to find the staff required to carry out the operation. In a blunt warning of what is being prepared, national Australian Medical Association President Dr. Omar Khorshid told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, You probably dont want to have a heart attack or be diagnosed with cancer in October in NSW, and really we need to do everything we can to avoid our hospitals suffering from opening up too early. The COVID death toll is beginning to rise rapidly. NSW recorded 12 fatalities yesterday, and again today, an equal record high. Those who perished today included two women aged in their 20s. In Victoria, a man in his 20s was among those whose deaths were reported yesterday. The states hospital system has even less capacity than NSW. In NSW, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, there are currently more than 2,000 health workers isolating due to potential COVID exposure, intensifying a decades-long staffing shortage, and compelling some nurses to work 16-hour shifts. On Thursday, President Joe Biden made a demagogic speech from the White House presenting his Build Back Better budget plan as a historic reversal of the decades-long enrichment of the corporate elite at the expense of working people. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters to discuss President Joe Biden's domestic agenda at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) He cited a number of indices of the wholesale looting of society by the corporations and the super-rich, including: US billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.8 trillion since the beginning of the pandemic. Fifty of the largest corporations in the US paid zero taxes in 2020, while collectively taking in over $40 billion in profits. The top 1 percent in the US evade an estimated $160 billion in taxes they owe every year. This is the moment to deal working people back into the economy. This is the moment to prove to the American people that the government works for them, Biden declared. But having made the case for the seizure of the wealth of what he referred to as the pandemic profiteers, he hastened to add: Im not out to punish anyone. Im a capitalist. If you can make a million or a billion dollars, thats great. God bless you. All Im asking is you pay your fair share. Biden made his remarks one day after House Democrats assembled the various parts of the overall budget plan that had been drafted and approved by numerous House committees. The 26,000-page package purports to allocate $3.5 trillion over 10 years for social welfare measures, paid for in part by $2.1 trillion in tax hikes for large corporations and wealthy individuals. The Senate is in the process of assembling its own version of the budget. What ultimately emerges from the process of internal horse-trading between various factions of the Democratic Party, manipulated by a massive corporate lobbying campaign to block any serious incursions into the profits and the personal fortunes of the ruling oligarchy, will be far more modest than even the timid measures contained in the current House proposal. The Democrats narrowly control both chambers, and the Republican Party is 100 percent opposed to the administrations budget plan and pledged to vote against it. In order to circumvent a filibuster in the evenly divided Senate, the Democrats are seeking to pass their budget under the budget reconciliation procedure, which requires only a majority vote in the upper chamber, 50 Democrats and the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris and cannot be filibustered. That means Biden and the Democratic leadership cannot afford to lose a single Democratic vote. In the House, they cannot lose more than three Democratic votes. As a result, corporate interests are asserting their demands most directly via their bribed mouthpieces within the Democratic congressional caucuses. In a concession to right-wing members of the House Democratic caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last month agreed to bring the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the Senate up for a vote in the House by September 27, dropping her previous insistence that no action be taken in the House on that bill until the Senate had passed the broader human infrastructure budget bill. The entire processa combination of back-room deal-making and political posturingis dominated by the demands of the Democratic Party right wing. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a multimillionaire coal company owner, and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, whose idol is the late Republican reactionary and war hawk John McCain, have publicly declared their opposition to the $3.5 trillion price tag of the administrations budget bill. Manchin has let it be known he is prepared to accept a bill costing around half that amount. He has proposed imposing means testing and work requirements for extended child tax credits, child care and pre-kindergarten subsidies, tuition-free community college and other social measures included in the bill. He is dead set against provisions that promote clean energy and infringe on the fossil fuel industry, from which he has received $400,000 in campaign cash since 2017, making him the industrys top recipient. Last week Manchin appeared on several of the Sunday morning television interview programs to push for the House passage of the corporate-backed physical infrastructure bill and argue there was no urgency for the social relief and anti-climate change measures in the Biden budget plan. This was under conditions of the Delta-variant-driven fourth wave of the pandemic, overwhelming hospitals and infecting record numbers of children in reopened schools, the termination of federal unemployment benefits and the moratorium on evictions, threatening millions with homelessness and destitution, and climate change-driven hurricanes and wildfires that have devastated millions from California to the Gulf Coast to New York City. In the House, three right-wing Democrats on the Energy and Commerce CommitteeReps. Scott Peters (Calif.), Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) and Kurt Schrader (Ore.)on Tuesday voted against the leaderships proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate hundreds of prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies, using international prices, generally half of those in the US, as the standard. The Biden administration and Pelosi estimate this would save the government $700 billion, which they propose to use to extend Medicare coverage to include dental, vision and hearing. The three Democratic no votes prevented the committee from including the provision in its portion of the overall bill. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top industry contributor to Peters campaign war chest in 2021-2022 is pharmaceuticals/health products, which has donated $88,550. His top contributors are Pfizer ($10,800), Eli Lilly ($10,500), Amgen ($7,900) and Gilead Sciences ($7,750). Schraders top industry contributor is oil & gas ($34,000), followed by pharmaceuticals/health products ($24,000). The second highest industry contributor to Rices campaign is insurance. Biden and the Democratic congressional leadership have bent over backwards to accommodate and placate these forces. On Wednesday, Biden met separately with Manchin and Sinema. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said the $3.5 trillion package could be scaled back by cutting back the size of some of the programs or reducing their duration. The House budget package as it currently stands raises the top individual income tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent (where it was prior to Trumps 2017 tax windfall for the rich). It increases the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 26.5 percent, which is lower than Bidens proposed 28 percent and far lower than the 35 percent rate prior to the 2017 Republican tax bill. It raises the capital gains tax rate from 20 percent to 25 percentstill a far lower rate than for the equivalent wage income and lower than Bidens initial proposal. More significant than the minor tax increases on the wealthy that are contained in the House bill is what is omitted. The bill addresses only income, not the wealth hoarded by Americas oligarchs. Income comprises only a negligible portion of the fortunes of the billionaires. Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, in 2020 received a salary from Amazon of only $81,840. Their money comes from stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets that are largely untaxed. The House bill drops a proposal in Bidens original plan that would close a loophole allowing the wealthy to pass accumulated assets down to their heirs without ever paying taxes on the rise in the value of those assets from the time of their initial purchase. It also leaves in place so-called carried interest, the loophole that treats the money taken in by hedge fund managers as a capital gain, rather than normal income, which is taxed at a far higher rate. The Wall Street Journal gloated over the Democrats failure to challenge this notorious gift to hedge fund billionaires, publishing an editorial headlined Democrats Blink on Carried Interest. None of this prevented Biden from giving his full endorsement to the House bill. The Washington Post cited Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, as saying: If the [House] Ways and Means plan was enacted as is, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk would still pay an effective rate of $0 on most of their income if they pass their assets onto their heirs. Canadas September 20 federal election is unfolding amid a global pandemic that has demonstrated the irreconcilable conflict between the ruling capitalist oligarchy, its political representatives and selfish class interests, and the most basic needs of working people. Throughout the pandemic, the Canadian ruling class, like its counterparts in the US and Europe, has systematically prioritized safeguarding and augmenting its profits and wealth over saving lives, resulting in recurring waves of mass infection and death. The fourth wave of COVID-19 now ravaging Canada could well prove the cruelest and most lethal to date, with childrenwho compromise almost half of the unvaccinatedespecially at risk from the more virulent Delta variant. Since August 1, daily new infections have risen almost six-fold to more than 4,300 per day. The cross-country reopening of schools to in-class instruction will further accelerate the viruss spread. Already Alberta hospitals have their highest ever number of COVID ICU patients. In their relentless push to reopen the economy and let the virus run rampant, Canadas federal Liberal government and its provincial counterparts from across the official political spectrum are sacrificing working people on the altar of capitalist profit-making. They are acting at the behest of big business, which is adamant that the working class must pay for the more than $650 billion the Trudeau Liberal government and Bank of Canada funnelled into the financial markets and coffers of corporate Canada at the beginning of the pandemic to bail out the ultra-rich. Acting as a trigger event, the pandemic has exacerbated a systemic crisis of world capitalism and all the maladies that arise from itsocial inequality, imperialist aggression and great-power conflict, and the ever-widening attacks on workers democratic and social rights. It has sharpened the fundamental contradictions of global capitalism that led to two world wars in the last century. As in the 1930s, bourgeois democracy is collapsing as the rival national-based capitalist cliques, Canadas included, seek a way out by intensifying capitalist exploitation at home and increasing their power and access to markets and resources through trade wars, bullying and military aggression. This systemic crisis is also providing the objective impulse for an upsurge of class struggle across the globe. Workers are being propelled into bitter battles to claw back the past four decades of attacks on wages, benefits and jobs, and to protect their health and very lives under conditions of a raging pandemic. Teachers from Brazil to Britain have resisted the reckless reopening of schools as the virus continues to surge, while mass protests against social inequality and poverty have rocked Colombia, India and Poland in recent months. In North America, autoworkers at Volvo Trucks and Dana in the United States, miners at Vale in Sudbury, Ontario, and Olymel meatpackers in Vallee-Jonction, Quebec, have waged courageous struggles to oppose company-dictated concessions. The mobilization of the international working class as an independent political force in the fight for workers power and the socialist reorganization of society is the only progressive way out of the escalating social, economic, geopolitical and environmental catastrophe. The task of the Socialist Equality Party and its sister parties in the International Committee of the Fourth International is to infuse the growing working class upsurge with a socialist-internationalist perspective, and provide it with a revolutionary strategy and leadership. The COVID-19 pandemic and the failure of capitalism COVID-19 has killed more than 27,300 Canadians according to the official count. But a recent Royal Society of Canada study of excess COVID-19-related death reveals the true tally to be closer to 50,000. This is greater than any mass casualty event in Canadian history, save the influenza pandemic of 1918 and the two world wars. A member of the Canadian Armed Forces working at a Quebec nursing home. (Canadian Dept. of Defence) Yet none of the parties contesting next Mondays election are ready to raise, let alone answer, the most basic questions: Why was Canada woefully unprepared for a pandemic that was both foreseeable and foreseen? Why did the federal and provincial governments take no significant action till the second week of March 2020, and this under conditions where the public health care system was known to be in shambles as a result of decades of savage austerity? Why have they systematically opposed a science-based strategy to eliminate the deadly virus and sabotaged lockdowns and other vital public health measures? Instead, the party leaders are staging a sham debate over the pandemic. The opposition parties denounce Trudeau for his reckless decision to plunge the country into a pandemic election, while he calls out Conservative leader Erin OToole for his dog-whistle appeals to the anti-vaccination, anti-mask far-right. Thereby they obscure the essential agreement among all five parties: all support herding children into cramped school classrooms and dismantling the few remaining social distancing measures as the fourth wave surges. The overriding aim of the parties mock political combat over COVID-19 is to prevent exposure and examination of the pandemic for what it isa social crime perpetrated by capitalist elites around the world, above all those of the imperialist powers of North America and Europe. Because they are viewed as an impediment to the accumulation of profit, capitalist governments have refused to take the measures necessary to contain and eliminate the virusmass testing, contact-tracing, a huge injection of resources into the health care system, the closure of all nonessential businesses and schools and the provision of full wages so working people can shelter at home and look after their families until the virus is suppressed. Rather they have prescribed mass infection and death, by pursuing herd immunity or mitigation measures that are aimed merely at somewhat slowing the viruss transmission, under the macabre motto the cure cant be worse than the disease. Vaccinations are vital. But outside the mobilization of the worlds resources in a science-driven collaborative effort to eradicate COVID-19, the virus will continue to spread, wreaking carnage especially in the lesser-developed countries, and spinning off new deadlier, vaccine-resistant variants. The past 20 months have conclusively shown that the fight against the virus is a political struggle that can and will only be spearheaded by the international working class. Oppose Canadian imperialism and the Canada-US military-strategic alliance Just as the establishment parties are united in prioritizing profits over human lives, so they are united in upholding the predatory interests of Canadian imperialism and strengthening the reactionary Canada-US military-strategic alliance that has been the cornerstone of its global strategy for the past eight decades. All support the Liberals plans to purchase new fleets of warships and fighter jets and increase annual military spending by 70 percent over ten years to nearly $33 billion per annum by 2026. The NDPs only complaint, as spelled out in its election platform, is that Liberal and Conservative cuts and mismanagement have left our military with outdated equipment, inadequate support and an unclear strategic mandate. From OToole to the NDPs Jagmeet Singh, the party leaders all rushed to deplore the overthrow of the US puppet regime in Afghanistan after 20 years of US-NATO occupation, a brutal counterinsurgency war that killed tens of thousands of civilians, and the expenditure of well over $2 trillion. Their laments for the women and girls of Afghanistan resound with cynicism and hypocrisy. They have shed no such tears for the hundreds of thousands killed, millions displaced and entire societies razed by the imperialist wars that Washington has waged, with Canadas support and participation, across the greater Middle East for three decades. If American imperialisms Afghan debacle has shaken and angered Canadas political establishment, it is because it attests to the enormous weakening of its US ally. Moreover, it is a double blow, since Canadian imperialism was massively invested in the Afghan war, its biggest and longest military engagement since World War II and one it celebrated as proof Canada is a warrior nation. By withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, US President Biden intends, as he has publicly vowed, to focus on strategic competition with Washingtons more powerful rivals, above all China and Russia. The strategists of Canadian imperialism are likewise arguing Ottawa must give Canada greater military heft to pursue its ambitions on the world stage and assist Washington in its reckless pursuit of global hegemony, including through the modernization of NORAD and further militarization of the Arctic. Following in the footsteps of Harper, the Trudeau Liberal government has integrated Canada ever more fully into the US diplomatic, economic and military-strategic offensives against nuclear-armed China and Russia. Yet the opposition parties, and this includes the NDP and Greens, have joined with US congressional leaders, Republican and Democrat alike, to chastise the Trudeau government for being too conciliatory to Beijing. Workers must beware, behind the backs of the population, the capitalist elite is dragging Canada into explosive great-power conflicts whose logic is a global military conflagration. A chorus of five parties beholden to big business Whichever party or alliance of parties form the government after September 20, its policies will be determined not by the rhetoric and phony promises of the campaign trail but by the demands of big business and the crisis of global capitalism. Trudeau has struggled to explain his decision to call a pandemic election. This is because to do so would compel him to admit that he wants to strengthen his parliamentary hand in anticipation of growing popular opposition as his Liberal government pivots to post-pandemic austerity, intensifies its push to enhance the global competitive position of Canadian capitalism and must make good on its promises to Washington of increased support in its imperialist intrigues and wars. The Conservatives have benefited from the corporate medias amplification of their fraudulent claims to have moved toward the centre. No matter that OToole, a former Harper cabinet minister, won the party leadership by rallying social conservatives and other far-right forces, castigates the Trudeau government for excessive social spending and advocates wholesale privatization of health care. OToole touts a purported pro-worker agenda, cribbed from Donald Trump and British Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson, that combines Canada First economic protectionism with anti-China warmongering. The Bloc Quebecois along with the entire Quebec sovereigntist/nationalist movement has shifted ever further right. It openly proclaims its affinity with the avowedly pro-big business, right-wing populist provincial CAQ government and its chauvinist laws (Bills 9 and 21) targeting immigrants and religious minorities. The Greens have long acted as a fifth-wheel for the Liberals and like them promote the fight against climate change as a massive business opportunity for Canadian capitalism. In many respects the campaign of the NDP is the most deceitful of all. Jagmeet Singh has spent the past five weeks lambasting Trudeau as a shill for the rich and the corporations who allowed the wealthy to ride out the pandemic in luxury yachts while leaving everyone else in leaky lifeboats. Yet during the preceding 20 months, the NDP, with the full-throated backing of the trade unions, was responsible for keeping the Liberals in office as they funneled gargantuan sums to the rich, put working people on poverty-level pandemic relief, and spearheaded the homicidal pandemic back-to-work/back-to-school drive. Like social-democratic parties the world over, the NDP is an imperialist party that when in office has imposed capitalist austerity and played an integral role in dismantling the limited social welfare measures and public services it once held up as proof capitalism could be humanized. Singhs make the rich pay their fair share rhetoric is entirely in keeping with the NDPs special role as an instrument of the trade union bureaucracy and mouthpiece of the left petty bourgeoisie in serving to contain and defuse working class opposition and straitjacket it within parliamentary and protest politics. The corporatist trade unions and the suppression of class struggle The trade unions have responded to the greatest capitalist crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s by taking their corporatist alliance with big business and the state to a qualitatively new level. This alliance has been long in the making and parallels developments around the world. Incapable of responding progressively to the development of globalized production, the nationally-based, pro-capitalist unions have repudiated any association with class struggle and become ever more directly an industrial police force. Striking workers from Olymels Vallee-Jonction, Quebec pork processing plant join their class brothers and sisters at the Exceldor poultry plant on their picket line on June 2 (STOVJ Facebook page) In the name of defending Canadian or Quebec jobs, the unions have for decades imposed sweeping wage and benefit cuts and restructuring agreements that have decimated jobs. Whenever mass struggles have erupted against the austerity agenda of the ruling class, from BCs Operation Solidarity in the early 1980s to the anti-Harris mass movement in Ontario during the late 1990s and the 2012 Quebec student strike, the unions have suppressed them. In response to the pandemic, the unions have developed what former Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff labelled a collaborative front with corporate Canada against the working class. Giving full voice to its nationalist and corporatist outlook, the CLC proclaims in a slogan plastered across the top of its website, In Canada, weve weathered the pandemic by sticking together and supporting each other. The unions have been sticking together with corporate executives and financial oligarchs since the beginning of the pandemic, helping them to enforce the murderous back-to-work/back-to-school drive so that big business could continue raking in profits. They have suppressed all worker opposition to the unsafe operation of workplaces and the dangerous reopening of schools, denouncing all talk of strikes and worker job action as illegal. Top union bureaucrats on six-figure salaries have lectured workers about their duty to respect the provincial labour relations regimes, which are designed to smother the class struggle and allow big business to impose its dictates behind a veneer of democratic and collective bargaining legitimacy. Underscoring how highly the ruling elite values the unions services in suppressing worker resistance, even OToole has repudiated the union-baiting practiced by the new right Conservative politicians of the past quarter century like Harper, Harris and Hudak, declared himself to be pro-union, and advanced proposals to further promote union-management collaboration. Workers across Canada, in the United States and internationally have begun to openly rebel against the stifling control of the corporate syndicates that call themselves unions. The key task is to transform this militant impulse into a conscious political strategy to break organizationally and politically with the trade union apparatuses and build new organizations of struggle that are orientated to systematically mobilizing the social power of the working class, and forging its international unity against the transnational corporations and imperialism. The emboldening of the far right and the breakdown of bourgeois democracy While the ruling class can depend on the unswerving loyalty of the unions and New Democrats in suppressing the class struggle, a growing section of the elite is cultivating and promoting far-right forces to confront the threat of mass working class opposition more aggressively. The federal election campaign has witnessed a series of virulent and menacing protests launched by right-wing extremists, anti-vaxxers and outright fascists. They have targeted rallies held by Trudeau and health care workers and institutions. These media-hyped events, which have rarely involved more than a few hundred thugs and backward elements, have been used shamelessly to create the impression that the far right enjoys significant popular support. In reality its support comes from the top, from the political and financial elites and elements within the state apparatus, like the army reservist who tried to assassinate Trudeau in July 2020. Moreover, the far right has been emboldened by the ruling class longstanding promotion of reaction, including militarism, chauvinism, Islamophobia, and, during the pandemic, blithe indifference to mass death, especially among the most vulnerable. Sections of the ruling class have now begun grooming the Peoples Party of Canada (PPC), the far-right party founded by former Conservative cabinet minister Maxime Bernier, for a larger role. Failed media mogul Conrad Black has hailed Bernier as the most impressive party leader, and a senior Globe and Mail columnist called this week for PPC candidates to be elected next Monday because populist right-wing parties are prominently represented in other countries legislatures. The attempt to cast the far right as a legitimate part of the political establishment expresses the advanced decay of bourgeois democracy. Canadas governments routinely criminalize strikes, and are increasingly using the anti-democratic notwithstanding clause to attack democratic rights. Trudeau postures as a defender of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and touts his Liberals a democratic bulwark against right-wing populism and the far right. But his government has spent the past six years shredding democratic and social rights, collaborating with the fascist-minded Trump and ruthlessly pursuing Canadian imperialist interests around the world. Moreover, his so-called democratic international allies, like Merkel in Germany and Macron in France, are breaking with core democratic norms. Merkels Grand Coalition facilitated the emergence of the fascist Alternative for Germany as the official opposition in parliament, and has adopted its key policies on refugees and the coronavirus pandemic. The high point to date of the turn by the bourgeoisie around the world to far-right forms of rule was the January 6 attempted coup in the United States. The storming of the Capitol by fascistic thugs seeking to prevent Bidens certification as president was directed by Trump and supported by much of the Republican Party leadership and sections of the national security apparatus. The Democrats responded by covering up the role of the Republicans and appealing for unity with the coup plotters. In Canada, the ruling elite responded with silence to Trumps open coup preparations in the months leading up to January 6, a clear indication that Ottawa would have no qualms about cooperating with a dictatorial regime in Washington. The defence of democratic rights depends above all on the mass political mobilization of the working class in the struggle for socialism. It is the suppression of working class struggle by the unions and NDP and their connivance in big business class war assault that opens the door for the far-right to gain in strength. Workers need their own party To oppose the ruling elites murderous response to the pandemic, its preparations for imperialist war, turn to authoritarian forms of rule and far-right forces, and use of the unions to smother the class struggle, workers need their own party. This party must fight to politically unify working people across all racial, regional, linguistic and other artificial divisions promoted by the ruling elite by advancing a socialist and internationalist program. It must implacably reject all forms of identity politics, which express the interests of a small privileged layer of the middle class, and Canadian and Quebec nationalism, the twin ideologies of Canadas ruling elite. That party is the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), the Canadian section of the International Committee of the Fourth International. The SEP calls on workers to form rank-and-file committees in every workplace and neighbourhood so as to create the organizational forms and provide political leadership to the coming struggles. Since these struggles can only be successful to the extent that they are unified across national borders and in direct opposition to the nationalist and pro-capitalist unions, the SEP urges all workers to support the building of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees. Sustaining this network of committees and arming working people with a political perspective for victory is possible only by constructing a socialist leadership within the working class. This is the chief task to which the SEP is devoted. The SEP fights to win workers in Canada to the program of world socialist revolutionthe program which animated the 1917 Russian Revolution and the struggle waged by Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition against its Stalinist degeneration, and that the Fourth International has defended and developed since its founding in 1938. The implementation of this program demands the unification of the struggles of Canadian workers with those of their class brothers and sisters in the United States, Mexico and internationally in a common fight to establish workers governments committed to socialist policies and the United Socialist States of North America. Numerous media reports have emerged noting the latest macabre milestone of the coronavirus pandemic, that COVID-19 has killed more than one out of every 500 people in the United States since the virus first emerged in the country in January 2020. The total tally currently stands at 42.5 million confirmed cases and more than 685,000 dead. In this Sept. 14, 2021, file photo, a syringe is prepared with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic at the Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa. COVID-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed back to where they were over the winter, wiping out months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Bidens case for sweeping new vaccination requirements. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) The last such milestone occurred in mid-December of last year, when one out of every 1,000 people in the population had died. Nine months later, the number of deaths has doubled. Virtually everyone now knows a friend, colleague or family member lost to the deadly contagion. In marking the premature passing of so many lives, CNN noted that, It's a sobering toll that comes as hospitals in the US are struggling to keep up with the volume of patients. An age breakdown in the Washington Post revealed that those aged 40-64 have a death rate of 1 in 780 and those aged 65-84 have a death rate of 1 in 150. Those aged 85 and older have a truly staggering death rate of 1 in 35, amounting to a total of 171,000 lost human lives. The pandemic has ravaged both the elderly as well as those caring for them. The AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard reports that, as of September 15, at least 186,000 nursing home residents and staff have been killed by the pandemic. AARPs data implies that tens of thousands of nursing home and long-term care facility workers have died alongside those they were working to care for. Nursing home deaths are also on the rise, particularly in Alaska, Florida and Montana. Comparisons to wars and past pandemics are increasingly apt. In absolute numbers, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more Americans than total US combat and non-combat deaths in World War I and II combined. The coronavirus pandemic has also now killed about the same number of Americans as the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 500,000 to 850,000. There are also many indications that the coronavirus pandemic will surpass or has already surpassed the grim milestone set by the 1918 flu. Excess death estimates from the Economist place the true death toll in the US closer to 900,000, while the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation place the total toll from COVID-19 at more than 1 million. Official figures are equally macabre. There are currently an average of more than 1,600 people dying each day, a number which has been trending upwards since July. What none of the media reports seriously probe, however, is the source of the immense amount of casualties. At most, there is a despair that not enough people have been immunized with coronavirus vaccines, as put by the Post. The Biden administration itself has remained silent on the figure. More generally, the deaths have been treated as no longer a matter of if but a matter of when they would occur, as if the pandemic is some sort of unforeseen natural disaster and that we must simply accept the consequences. Instead, the decreasing cases were seen as an excuse to more fully open the economy. July 4 was celebrated as a day of Independence from the virus and plans were made to fully reopen schools come the fall. Warnings of numerous scientists about the dangers of a surge of the new and highly infectious Delta variant, which had ravaged India for months, went totally unheeded. Decisions were made to prioritize the interests of Wall Street investors over human life. The consequences have been catastrophic. There are now nearly 153,000 new cases reported daily in the US, a figure which is again rising after the dip in reporting over the Labor Day weekend. Cases are also increasing across all parts of the US, not just the American south where cases have been concentrated over the past few months. Data from the New York Times shows that states including Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have some of the highest case rates in the nation. Montana and Idaho also have some of the highest increases in hospitalizations in the country. Montana leads the entire nation, with a 47 percent increase in hospitalizations over the past 14 days, while Idaho has suffered a 29 percent increase over that same period. Other states with similar high changes to their hospitalization rates include Ohio, West Virginia, Alaska, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. As a result, hospital systems are increasingly overwhelmed. Nearly 100,000 people are hospitalized from COVID-19 on a given day. One in four hospitals currently reports that more than 95 percent of their intensive care unit beds are occupied, and there is at least one such overwhelmed hospital in nearly every state. And many hospitals, such as those in southern Illinois and southwest Montana, have reported zero ICU bed availability. The surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths since mid-summer is a damning indictment of the policies of the Biden administration. Since he took office, Biden has banked on vaccines being enough to slow the spread of the disease, promoting the false claim that it was safe to reopen workplaces and particularly schools since February. Other public health measures, including testing, contact tracing and isolation have been largely abandoned. Closures of businesses and schools have been rejected outright. In doing so, Biden has adopted the policies of his predecessor and the entire US ruling establishment. While the media and various other representatives of the capitalist class may momentarily note the scale of the ongoing disaster, no solution, especially not one which impinges on the profit interests of the banks and corporate elite, is presented. It thus falls upon the other major social force in society, the working class, to fight for a policy of eradicating COVID-19. This requires the closure of schools and non-essential businesses, together with massive investments in testing, contact tracing, and other vital public health measures. There is widespread concern among teachers and parents about the New Zealand governments decision to reopen early childhood education centres (ECEs) during the present outbreak of COVID-19. Nearly 1,000 cases of the highly-infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus have been detected since a nationwide lockdown began on August 18. Although about half of these have recovered, more cases are being found every day. Almost all the infections are in New Zealands largest city, Auckland, which remains in a strict level 4 lockdown, with schools, ECEs and the vast majority of businesses closed. The rest of the country is now operating with virtually no restrictions in schools and ECEs. Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns Labour Party-led government is planning to ease the Auckland lockdown to level 3 on September 22, depending on new case numbers. This would mean the partial reopening of ECEs and schools to allow a greater number of people to return to work, despite the danger that the virus may still be circulating. Early this month the World Socialist Web Site published a letter from an ECE teacher opposing the rush to reopen and warning that it was impossible for centres to operate safely while the virus is present in the community. Many similar comments are being shared by teachers on social media. Experts have also raised concerns about the reopening of schools without any precautions. By contrast, the NZEI Te Riu Roa union, like its counterparts internationally, is supporting the governments policies. In the US, Europe and elsewhere, the reopening of schools with Delta present in the community has led to a major surge in hospitalisations and deaths. There have also been numerous outbreaks in preschools and kindergartens internationally. The long-term effects of the virus on children who become sick are still not well-known, but more children are becoming sick around the world. Public health expert Dr. Mike Bedford, who has spoken out publicly against opening ECEs at alert level 3, recently spoke to the WSWS about his concerns. Bedford has spent decades researching conditions in the sector and has provided advice to government departments, as well as holding hundreds of workshops and lectures for ECE teachers. He has personally investigated about 50 infectious disease outbreaks in ECEs and has visited around 700 centres, some multiple times. Dr. Mike Bedford He explained: In the last decade almost all the work Ive done in the sector has been voluntary. We have no government agency that pays for this work. Part of the background to the current problem is that neither the Ministry of Education (MoE) nor the Ministry of Health have ever had a single full-time national position focused on the health and wellbeing of children in early care and education. Last year, after the initial COVID-19 outbreak in New Zealand, Bedford said the MoE tried to play down the risk with young children, almost as if it didnt exist. They would make statements like: It doesnt affect children in the same way as adults, which was true. But it was not true to suggest that they couldnt contract and transmit COVID-19, even at that stage. With the Delta variant, children are more vulnerable and more likely to transmit the virus. In the present outbreak in New Zealand, several infant children have been infected, and 16.7 percent of all cases are among children aged 09. No one under 12 is yet able to be vaccinated. Bedford said NZs level 4 lockdowns meant the virus had so far not been detected in ECEs, but this could change if the centres reopen because they are great for the dissemination of infections across surfaces, through the air, because of the age of children, and also the crowded conditions. Diseases like RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), rotavirus and norovirus take down early childhood centres on a regular basis and get disseminated out to communities. The MoE website currently states: The Ministry of Health has advised that it is safe for early learning staff to return to work at Alert Level 3. Bedford said he had specifically asked the MoE not to make such statements, which were blatantly false because you categorically cannot operate safely in a level 3 environment with community transmission. When Bedford asked the MoE for details about the advice provided by the Ministry of Health, instead of simply answering, the MoE treated the question as an Official Information Act request, which allows it 20 days to answer. Bedford said this was appalling behaviour in the middle of an emergency and with ECEs preparing to reopen soon. Bedford encouraged ECEs to declare an emergency closure (known as EC) if they are told to reopen at level 3. The MoE has given no assurance that centres which refuse to reopen because of safety concerns will continue to receive funding. Bedford said the ministry was engaging in unreasonable coercive behaviour. The risk posed by COVID-19 is made worse by very poor regulations in the ECE sector. For centres to reopen at level 3, the MoE has increased the mandatory minimum indoor floor space from 2.5 square metres per child to 3 square metres. Bedford noted that this would still be regarded as illegal overcrowding in Australia and other jurisdictions The Australian standard is 3.25 clear floor space, free from furniture and fixtures. In 2019, he compared New Zealand with other jurisdictions and found that NZ ranked 29th out of 34 countries with floor space requirements available online. While many centres are run by owners and managers who are genuinely concerned with childrens wellbeing and will not countenance operating at minimum standards, Bedford said others are run as businesses whose main priority is money. He said the MoEs licensing system is stacked with perverse incentives and you can make a lot of money if you are prepared to go to minimum standards, including by cramming as many children as possible into a centre. Its exactly the same principle as chicken farming, he added. The MoE has repeatedly stated that 98 percent of ECEs comply with regulations, but Bedford said there is nothing to back this claim up. Ministry officials have been forced to clarify that the figure only referred to the fact that there were 2 percent of centres on provisional licenses. Its the equivalent of saying that if you havent had your drivers license suspended, you comply with all the road rules, he said. The ministry do not check ratios [of staff], they do not check space per child, they do not check qualifications distribution across rooms They also dont monitor environmental conditions like temperature and ventilation. All of that is normally only done at the licensing stage, they do a one-off check and thats it. Bedfords own research in 2017 found that almost half the ECEs in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington, failed to meet the minimum indoor space requirements. In addition, 90 percent did not meet the minimum temperature standard, which was just 16 degrees Celsius (the requirement was increased to 18 degrees this year60.8 Fahrenheit to 64.4 Fahrenheit). Viruses, including COVID-19, survive longer in colder temperatures. The evidence clearly demonstrates the recklessness of the governments current plans for reopening in Auckland. The WSWS urges early childcare workers, parents and all working people to build workplace and neighbourhood safety committees to oppose the drive to reopen before the current outbreak has been completely suppressed. Contact us today to discuss this perspective. This month, a Scottish parliament debate on the proposed closure of the McVities biscuit factory in Tollcross, Glasgow, was opened by the Labour Partys Paul Sweeney. Sweeney made clear that the proposal developed by the Pladis Action Group, which includes the Scottish government, the trade unions, enterprise agencies and Glasgow City Council, was aimed at enticing food transnational Pladis into expanding its operation in Scotland at the expense of the companys other production sites in Britain. The McVities biscuit factory in Tollcross, Glasgow (credit: WSWS media) After some obligatory references to the impact of closure on Glasgowthe factory has been a major employer in Tollcross area since 1925and denunciations of Pladis, Sweeney shed more light on the action groups offer. He noted that it had been developed with the Interpath Consultancy, formerly the corporate restructuring arm of accountancy giant KPMG. According to Sweeney, the proposal addressed Pladis complaints that the Glasgow plant suffered a high cost per ton and low volume relative to production capacity across the United Kingdom. The solution centred around a purpose-built, state-of-the-art 250,000 square foot factory on Government-owned land at nearby Gartcosh, giving Pladis a blueprint to develop a new, highly efficient factory system in the future to replace what is admittedly an aged portfolio of seven production sites acquired by United Biscuits [taken over by Pladis parent Yildiz Holding in 2014] over the years. Sweeney did not elaborate on what this would mean for the other sites in the aged portfolio, but the implications are clear. One or all of them could be closed, replaced by the new highly exploitative Scottish platform at the cost, potentially, of thousands of jobs elsewhere. Sweeney demanded the Scottish government make capital available for the new factory. Replying for the Scottish National Party (SNP) government, Finance and Economy Minister Kate Forbes reported that both she and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had offered Pladis whatever it wanted to keep the company in Scotland and were awaiting a reply. Sweeneys remarks make clear that the action group plans are based on dividing workers in the Pladis group by setting those in immediate danger of losing their jobs in Tollcross against their class brothers and sisters in Carlisle (750 employees), Leicestershire (250), Manchester (around 500), Liverpool Aintree (around 500), Harlesden (around 600) and the companys many other locations worldwide employing 16,000. The proposed site is significant. Mention of Gartcosh places the closure firmly in context of the catastrophic industrial destruction imposed across Britain over the last five decades. In terms of the political betrayal of workers interests by the Labour Party, the trade unions and the SNP, Gartcosh and nearby Ravenscraig, former sites of vast steel works employing thousands, should be considered crime scenes. The entire steel industry in Britain was taken into state ownership by the post-World War II Labour government of Clement Attlee. In 1953, Winston Churchills Conservative government handed the industry back to its former owners but made cheap loans available to operators such as Motherwell based Colville's, who had long dominated steel production in Scotland. Under government encouragement, Colville's completed the vast Ravenscraig works in 1959, one of the largest hot strip steel mills in Europe and one of four such sites in Britain. At its peak 7,000 workers were employed at Ravenscraig alone. In the early 1960s, Colvilles built a huge cold strip mill at Gartcosh, designed to transform Ravenscraigs output into sheet steel. By the late 60s, however, Colvilles was near bankrupt and the steel industry in Britain was uncompetitive globally. Colvilles was one of 14 companies re-nationalized by Labour in 1967, into the British Steel Corporation, employing as many as 268,000 workers. Successive Labour and Tory UK administrations sought to re-organise the industry and prepare to re-privatise it, by slashing the workforce and increasing productivity. Plant after plant was closed. Workers collective efforts to defend themselves were left isolated by the trade unions, particularly following the defeat of 13-week steel workers strike in 1980 which was betrayed by the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation. In 1985, weeks after the end of the 1984/85 miners strike, and still faced with surplus capacity, British Steel announced its intention to close Gartcosh, barely two decades after it was opened. Ravenscraig was understood to be threatened as part of a drive to rapidly eliminate over half the number of steel workers jobs in Britain. In response, the Labour Party and trade union apparatus in Scotland, along with the Scottish nationalists and civic society sought a Scottish solution based on arguing that the government of Margaret Thatcher was particularly hostile to Scottish interests. Labour MP, the late Donald Dewar, who went on to become First Minister in the inaugural Scottish parliament in 1999, claimed in a 1986 Westminster debate that the decision was born out of obstinacy and an insensitive disregard for the needs of Scotland. In fact, Thatchers government was bitterly hostile to the entire working class and was able to carry out its agenda solely because of the refusal of the Labour Party and trade unions to make the slightest move that could be interpreted as a call to the working class in Britain to drive the Tories from power. The Gartcosh steel plant was closed in March 1986 with the loss of 700 jobs. Ravenscraig finally closed in 1992 after a protracted campaign driven along nationalist lines. Ever since, every factory closure, every assault on workers in Scotland, every one of which has been a component of an attack across Britain, has been presented by Labour, the trade unions and the SNPin power in Edinburgh since 2007as an argument for more devolved power, wealth and influence for the Scottish parliament and big business. Labour, the union apparatus and the SNP itself, for all their tactical differences over Scottish independence, all function as instruments and allies of a regional ruling elite just as hostile to workers interests as their peers and rivals in England and Wales. That is why the Pladis Action Group proposal, amounting to a call to close Pladis factories somewhere else, weakens and divides Pladis workers everywhere. McVities workers in Tollcross seeking a way forward in the fight against the threat to their factory must consciously break with this bankrupt perspective. Instead of being dragged behind one or other representatives of the Scottish establishment, an alliance must be sought with other sections of working people. There is a huge escalation in the global class struggle, borne out of the mounting crisis of the capitalist system and the unprecedented levels of poverty and social inequality intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Powerful movements of workers are developing worldwide, which all confront a direct assault by the employers and attempts by the trade union apparatus to suppress and strangle opposition to the systematical lowering of pay, terms and conditions. In Britain, workers in struggle in transport, in education, in health and local government, are posed with launching a rebellion against the pro-company trade unions. Workers must take matters into their own hands and act independently of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy based on the methods of the class struggle. The first step forward that McVities workers must take is the rejection of the corporatist Pladis Action Plan and the formation of a rank-and-file organisation of their own. This would enable a struggle against the plant closure based on uniting with workers throughout the Pladis group in Britain and internationally, putting the interests of workers jobs and livelihoods first and not the profit interests of a multi-billion-pound transnational. We urge workers to contact the International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees today to discuss the way forward. Three Dana auto parts plants in St. Clair, Warren and Auburn Hills in southeastern Michigan were cited by the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) over the past year for not complying with state safety standards relating to COVID-19. Dana plant at Ft. Wayne The new revelations come amid the spread of coronavirus at Dana plants across the country, especially in its Kentucky and Tennessee plants. Multiple sources have informed the World Socialist Web Site of a major outbreak at the plant in Dry Ridge, Kentucky, where dozens of workers are currently out on quarantine. Workers also reported that there had been major outbreaks earlier in the pandemic at all of the Michigan plants cited by MIOSHA. However, due to Danas cover-up of the true scale of infections in its plants, aided and abetted by the United Auto Workers, the only hard figures are available for the Warren plant. According to the latest totals released to workers, 167 people, out of a total workforce of approximately 600, have fallen ill with COVID-19 at some point during the pandemic, including 114 in 2021 alone. One worker, whose name has not been released, has died. These figures are proportionately three times higher than infections in the surrounding suburb of Warren. If only cases from 2021 are considered, the infection rate in the plant is nearly four times higher. These figures provide only a glimpse of Danas sacrifice of the health and safety of workers, as well as their friends and family, for profit. This is being made all the more dangerous by the imposition of brutal mandatory overtime, with many workers going for weeks before getting a single day off. This is driving enormous levels of opposition among Dana workers, who voted down a sellout contract backed by the UAW and the United Steelworkers (USW) earlier this month by a 9-to-1 margin. However, they are being kept on the job on a day-to-day contract extension by the unions, in spite of overwhelming support for a strike. All of the citations were for violations of the Emergency Rules Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was issued by the State of Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity and signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer on October 14, 2020. The first inspection was opened on November 30, 2020 at the Dana plant in St. Clair, Michigan, near Port Huron. The inspection was part of a State Emphasis Plan targeting manufacturing facilities for enforcement of the Emergency Rules. It resulted in two Serious and one Other than Serious citations. The first serious citation was for not observing social distancing or enforcing mask wearing. The employer did not enforce the use of face coverings for employees that could not maintain 6 feet of separation from other individuals in the workplace, the citation says. The second serious citation states that management covered up infections. The employer did not contact the St. Clair County Health Department when three (3) known positive COVID-19 cases were detected at the workplace. The Other than Serious citation states, The employer did not maintain a record of the following requirements: (a.) COVID-19 employee training. (b.) Daily health screenings for each employee entering the workplace. (c.) Notifications to the St. Clair County Health Department of known COVID-19 cases at the workplace. The findings of this inspection, while limited in scope, made clear the disregard the company has for the health and safety of its employees, as well as that of the broader working-class community. At the height of the pandemic, Dana was aware of multiple positive COVID-19 cases within its facility, had employees working with no social distancing and without masks, and neglected to contact the Health Department so proper quarantining and contact tracing could be facilitated. Two additional inspections at Dana facilities in metro Detroit were initiated in response to employee complaints relating directly to COVID-19. The first complaint inspection was opened on January 22, 2021 at the Dana plant in Auburn Hills, approximately 20 miles north of Detroit. The plant assembles and balances driveshafts that supply the Stellantis Warren Truck and Toledo Jeep plants. This inspection resulted in one serious citation for a violation of Rule 5(4) of the Emergency Rules which reads, The employer shall increase facility cleaning and disinfection to limit exposure to SARS-CoV-2, especially on high-touch surfaces (e.g., door handles), paying special attention to parts products and shared equipment (e.g., tools, machinery, and vehicles). Another complaint inspection was opened on February 26, 2021 at the Warren plant just north of Detroit. This inspection resulted in two serious citations. The first was for a violation of Rule 3(2), which requires employers to categorize job tasks and procedures (from Low to Very High) according to COVID-19 exposure risk. The second was for a violation of Rule 7(6), which reads, The employer shall require face coverings in shared spaces, including during in-person meetings and in restrooms and hallways. The Emergency Rules and MIOSHA enforcement were woefully inadequate. The fines for the three inspections at Dana totaled $12,000; St. Clair was fined $4,000; Auburn Hills was fined $4,500; and Warren was fined $3,500. All of the citations have been contested by Dana. As long as the citations remained in the appeals process, no fines needed to be paid and no documentation of corrective action needed to be provided. In the meantime the Emergency Rules have been gutted. After being renewed in full on April 13, 2021, portions of the Emergency Rules were then walked back in May 2021. Then on June 20, 2021 the Emergency Rules were rescinded and replaced by the Federal OSHA COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard, which only covers health care facilities and leaves manufacturing and all other workplaces with no protection. The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has also played a despicable role. The UAW is entitled to participate in MIOSHA inspections as they occur. Union officials were well aware of the conditions within the plants but have ignored the issue and downplayed the risks, while continuing to collaborate with Dana to force employees to work seven days a week. The draconian state of emergency proclaimed by Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapakse on August 30 must be taken as a warning to workers not only in Sri Lanka, but around the world. Facing an upsurge of the COVID-19 pandemic and a growing international economic crisis, the capitalist class is setting up a dictatorship to try to crush the rising working class struggles. STF commandos patrolling Mahara, north of Colombo, after attack on prison inmates (Photo: Shehan Gunasekara) Rajapakse imposed the state of emergency amid a fall of the Sri Lankan rupee, food shortages and massive price increases for key food items. A kilogram of rice and sugar have doubled to 250 and 220 rupees, respectively. Shoppers wait in long queues to purchase sugar from state-owned Cooperative Wholesale Establishment shops. Rajapakse claims the state of emergency will ensure public security and well-being, and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community. However, it in fact authorizes an extraordinary crackdown on workers and the rural poor. It grants Rajapakse far-reaching dictatorial powers to take any measures as appear to him to be necessary or expedient in the interests of public security and the preservation of public order, and the suppression of mutiny, riot or civil commotion, or for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community. Rajapakse can thus amend or suspend laws, ban strikes or other struggles, proscribe political parties, and censor the media. Even before this, Rajapakse had enacted repressive laws, like the Essential Public Service Act, declared on May 27 and renewed last week, which bans strikes in virtually the entire public sector, or nearly one million workers. He has also appointed several former and in-service military officers to top civilian posts. While schools are closed, most workplaces, especially export industries like the garment industry, are considered essential and remain open as the island faces a Delta-variant driven surge of COVID-19 infections. As a result, according to undercounted official figures in Sri Lanka, overall cases have surpassed 488,000 and the total death toll 11,000. These reactionary measures have been met, however, by a rising tide of workers struggles. For over two months, about 250,000 public school teachers have been striking to demand higher salaries. Previously, workers in health, postal, railway, ports, power, tourism and garment sectors have held strikes and protests against economic hardship and unsafe health conditions in the pandemic. Unrest is mounting among petroleum workers over cuts to overtime and wages. Rajapakse has now responded by intensifying his drive towards a presidential dictatorship resting on the military and right-wing, fascistic elements. The Sri Lankan ruling elite is especially concerned that the growing working class struggles are drawing together Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim workers, thereby undermining the communal divisions it has systematically incited and stoked to safeguard its rule. Against increasing threats of state violence and repression, the critical task is to politically mobilize the working class and arm it with an understanding of the situation it faces. Above all, this means explaining that the best allies of workers in Sri Lanka are the workers in other countries and around the world. Indeed, the developing class struggles in Sri Lanka are part of an international upsurge of the working class. Workers in various sectors, including health, education, transport and auto in the US, Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand have engaged in struggles, including strikes and protests over better wages and conditions and against unsafe health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the force that must be mobilized to defend their Sri Lankan brothers and sisters in the struggle against the Rajapakse governments draconian threats. In every country, workers face the same essential problemsthe same refusal to mount a scientifically-based fight to eradicate the COVID-19 pandemic, and the same turn to dictatorship by the ruling elite. Former US President Donald Trump, abetted by the Republican Party and sections of the military and police, is openly promoting a fascist movement. This led to the events of January 6, when mobs of his fascistic supporters stormed the Capitol, trying to block Congress certification of Joe Bidens election victory. Although the January 6 coup attempt failed, fascistic forces around Trump are continuing their plots and are in contact with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is calling for a far-right coup to topple his factional opponents in the judiciary and the political establishment. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu-supremacist Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) government is whipping up chauvinism and far-right forces against Muslims and other minorities in order to divide and weaken the working class. Sri Lankas history has shown time and again that in countries of belated capitalist development, the capitalist class is organically incapable of establishing a democratic regime. Only the independent revolutionary intervention of the working class, rallying the broader oppressed masses, can resolve these issues through a struggle for socialism that is international in scope. This was elaborated by Leon Trotsky, the co-leader of October 1917 Russian Revolution with V. I. Lenin, in the theory of Permanent Revolution. Sri Lanka has been ruled under emergency law for much of the three-quarters of a century since it became formally independent from Britain in 1948. The Sri Lankan bourgeoisie imposed a state of emergency to forestall or try to crush every great historic eruption of opposition by workers and the rural poor. This included the 1953 Hartal (a general strike and business shutdown), the 1971 rural youth rebellion, and the nearly 30-year anti-Tamil racialist war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1983-2009. The current state of emergency has been imposed under qualitatively changed conditions, with a far more intense economic and political crisis of global capitalism. In every country, bourgeois rule is discredited by the ruling elites criminal and murderous policies towards the pandemic, which placed the profits of the corporate and financial oligarchy above human lives. Globally, total reported coronavirus cases have risen to over 227 million and total deaths are above 4.6 million. Statistical estimates cited by Britains Economist magazine show over 15 million have died of COVID-19. Every faction of the ruling class, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim alike, are implicated in this horrific policy and the turn to dictatorship. Opposition parties like the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Tamil National Alliance (TNA), while making token criticisms of Rajapakses state of emergency, are silent on the threats to the democratic rights of working and toiling people. The United National Party (UNP) has not even bothered to criticize Rajapakse, tacitly backing his dictatorial moves. All these parties, as participants or supporters of past governments, have a long record of endorsing emergency rule and other repressive laws and IMF austerity measures against working people. The great task is to politically arm and unify an international political vanguard as the working class enters into a direct political struggle against bourgeois rule. In particular, this means unifying Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim workers against the policies of austerity and dictatorship epitomized by the Rajapakse government. Above all, this means a struggle to establish the unity of workers in Sri Lanka with their class brothers and sisters in South Asia and internationally. The construction of an International Workers Alliance of Rank and File Committees, as called for by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), is a crucial step in building this unity of the international working class in struggle. Students and youth support SEP campaign against Australias electoral laws The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) warn young people that Australias new electoral laws are a fundamental attack on the democratic rights of the entire working class. Rushed through parliament last month and behind the backs of the population, the laws are an attempt to deregister all minor political parties by forcing them to submit a list of 1,500 members to the Australian Electoral Commission, treble the previous requirement, in less than three months. These measures can only be understood within the context of two decades of unending war and escalating government attacks on social conditions. The future for young people under capitalism is high unemployment, insecure work and poverty-level pay. This reality is fuelling mass anger and disgust with the major political parties. The new electoral laws are a desperate attempt to try and prevent this sentiment finding conscious political expression. The IYSSE urges everybody to join the campaign to defeat these anti-democratic measures and become an electoral member of the SEP today. Join the SEPs online public meeting this Sunday September 19 to discuss how you can take this campaign forward. Click here to register for the meeting. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - As soon as students take off their cap and gown at high school graduation, many are looking to go to college. Almost 13% fewer are deciding to walk through the gates of Indiana State. Even though the numbers are down, one ISU senior tells me, he still feels very much at home. Part of the home-like feeling may be because Robert Meadows is from Terre Haute. He says he did not have to go too far, to find the right school for him. "I'll look around me and I see like, successful people everywhere. Everybody keeps pushing themselves every day. This environment's just very, like, cultivating," said Meadows. Despite a 12.6% drop in student enrollment since the fall 2021 semester, Meadows says he has not noticed it around campus too much. "It doesn't seem like the environment has changed much. It doesn't seem like that lack of population if you will," said Meadows. It may not seem like much to students, but university officials say they would like to see things turn around. Rose Hulman and Saint Mary of the Woods College both saw increases in enrollment, even record-breaking numbers at Saint Mary of the Woods. Jason Trainer is the vice provost for enrollment management at ISU. He says there are not many students that apply at multiple local schools, and that the solution to fix enrollment numbers is not a one-size-fits-all solution. "We don't see a lot of cross-applicant pools with a lot of our local private schools. And certainly, they've had success with opportunities that wouldn't work at an institution the size of Indiana State," said Trainer. At the end of the day, Meadows says the last three and a half years have prepared him just as well as anywhere could, both in school and life. "I don't have any other college experience, but I wouldn't trade this one for anything, anywhere else. I feel as an under...Close to be graduating that as an undergraduate I've definitely got that college experience both in knowledge and in social aspects," said Meadows. One program ISU is launching to help bring back these numbers is the Indiana State advantage. If you or someone you know is interested, you can find more information on the Indiana State Advantage plan and amissions here. Defense officials say a Hoosier Army sergeant killed in the Korean War has been accounted for. Sgt. Stanley Dewitt was just 18-years-old when he was reported missing in action on December 5, 1950. Enemy forces attacked Sgt. Dewitt's unit was attacked, but his remains couldn't be recovered. Dewitt was with the Medical Detachment, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. Fast forward to 2018 when former President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un met. North Korea turned over 55 boxes that were said to contain the remains of American service members killed in the war. In the time since the exchange, a laboratory identified the remains. News 10 learned on Friday Dewitt was officially accounted for in June of 2020. He will be buried in his hometown of Royal Center, Indiana. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - More than 6,000 Afghan refugees are being housed at the Indiana National Guard's Camp Atterbury training base and preparing for permanent resettlement, two weeks after the first wave of evacuees arrived. After the first group of roughly 1,000 evacuees were admitted to the camp on Sept. 2, 6,603 Afghan refugees were being housed at Atterbury as of Wednesday, said Mark Howell, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly 58% of the refugees are male, and 47% are under the age of 18. A baby was also born at the camp Sept. 9. More than 1,300 service members, along with 69 government employees and 83 non-governmental volunteers, are also on the base to facilitate the operation, Howell said. Refugees are being housed in six neighborhoods, with 82 lodging buildings, at Camp Atterbury, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Indianapolis. The complex includes three community centers, two guest dining facilities and four additional locations for grab-and-go food. More than 11,600 vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella had been given to refugees at Atterbury as of Tuesday. Although measles cases were reported in refugee populations in both Virginia and Wisconsin earlier this month - leading to a temporary halt on in-bound refugee flights from Afghanistan - Howell said no measles cases have been reported at Camp Atterbury. Officials confirmed there had been 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the base, and those who tested positive are isolating with their families. Less than 1% of the refugees at Atterbury have received health care off base, Howell continued, though some have been treated at Johnson Memorial Hospital in nearby Franklin. The refugees are subject to a 14-day quarantine at Camp Atterbury to determine their medical and visa statuses. Indiana National Guard Adjutant Gen. R. Dale Lyles said earlier this month that non-governmental agencies will aim to resettle them within 10 weeks. Twenty-five refugees have so far completed their final health and safety screenings departed the camp, officials said. Most who left were American citizens, spouses of American citizens or green card holders who had already completed the above processes, including vaccinations. An additional 1,660 resettlement interviews have taken place since Tuesday, and 1,420 fingerprint and photograph sessions have been completed. The Biden administration on Wednesday notified governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many Afghan evacuees from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are slated to be resettled in their states. Indiana is projected to take 490 arrivals, according to U.S. officials. The last U.S. forces flew out of Kabul's airport in late August, ending America's longest war following an airlift of Afghans, Americans and others escaping a country once again ruled by the Taliban. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb has maintained that Indiana is committed to helping the evacuees, which include American citizens, Afghan allies who helped in the military effort and those deemed vulnerable Afghans by the U.S. government. Holcomb announced this week a regional collection system to receive, sort, and deliver items donated by Hoosiers to the thousands of Afghan evacuees at Camp Atterbury. Men's and women's unbranded, modest clothing, children's clothing, socks and shoes, and powdered baby formula are the most needed, according to the governor's office. New items in original packaging will be accepted Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the nine Indiana National Guard armories across the state. ___ Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.) Prince Andrew stands accused by Virginia Roberts Giuffre of sexual assault. She claims it happened in London, New York and the US Virgin Islands, that the prince he knew she was 17 when it started, and that she had been trafficked by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has consistently denied the claims, telling the BBC in 2019: "It didn't happen. I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened. I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever." Giuffre is now suing Andrew in New York. The prince's lawyer says the case is "baseless, non-viable (and) potentially unlawful." Andrew's team says he had not been properly served notice of proceedings despite Guiffre's side saying papers were served at the prince's home in Windsor. Andrew's lawyers also say a 2009 settlement between Giuffre and Epstein released the duke from "any and all liability," though that settlement was and remains sealed. Where does the case go from here? We asked two respected lawyers in the field who aren't involved in it: Amber Melville-Brown, head of the media and reputation practice at the international law firm Withers, and Nick Goldstone, head of dispute resolution at Ince. Is the prince going to be served now? This week, an English court agreed to serve the papers. Melville-Brown says, "it is a matter for the English court to determine the method of service when serving at the request of a foreign court" and that it can be via email, post or in person. Once the papers are served, what happens? Melville-Brown says Andrew would have four options: Ignore the claim; contest it; admit it; or, try to settle it. "None are particularly attractive," she adds, "although he and his team may consider the first and the last may be the least of a bad lot." Goldstone adds it's a "fairly binary decision" for Prince Andrew's legal team: Either engage or evade. Can he engage and defend his position? Goldstone says Andrew could say to himself, "I'm not going to participate in this process, because it's outrageous, and I have further nothing to say." In effect, he would be refusing to submit to the jurisdiction of the court in this case. "If he wants to engage and go through the process of civil trial," says Goldstone, "the simplest thing for him to do is to put in an acknowledgement and say to the New York court: 'Okay, I'm going to defend this, I'm going to fight this.' But as I understand it, he is under no obligation to respond and sometimes people choose not to respond because of all sorts of different reasons." What if he does submit to the jurisdiction of a New York court? "Then they are going to be fighting a case within the New York court procedural rules," says Goldstone, "and that brings with it all sorts of consequences, which may be good or may be bad, depending upon the outcome of that procedure. If you win a case, it's always a good decision. If you lose a case, it's more often looked upon as a bad decision. If you choose not to engage and submit to the jurisdiction of the New York court, you've got to consider what will the New York court do in your absence? Will it proceed in your absence in a detailed way? Will it proceed in your absence in the summary or default way? And what would the consequences be of an outcome that presumably would be negative because you're not there to defend yourself? And how enforceable would such a final outcome in a New York court be against you wherever? Obviously it will be enforceable in New York, but Prince Andrew isn't in New York." What if he doesn't submit to the court and the court finds him guilty? "He could argue that this is not a judgment that should be enforceable against him," Goldstone says, noting that Andrew has not participated in the New York court's proceedings or recognized its jurisdiction to date. The prince may therefore argue that a ruling by the court "shouldn't be enforced against him because it's not a claim that could be advanced in England," which doesn't have an equivalent to New York's Child Victims Act, says Goldstone. "And therefore, as a matter of public policy, English courts shouldn't recognize a judgment that has been obtained in a foreign court." Will he be forced to appear in court? Goldstone: "I believe if he chooses not to engage in, not to submit to the jurisdiction, there is no prospect of him being called to the US ... or being deposed or providing evidence or witness testimony in proceedings that he's not engaged in, that is not recognized. On the other hand, if he does engage, there's every prospect." Prince Andrew has already spoken to the media about these allegations, and it famously backfired, resulting in his having to step back from royal duties. It's hard to imagine him rushing to go back on the record, especially in court. The negative headlines will keep coming while the case is unresolved, and that must concern the palace communications teams responsible for managing the reputation of the wider monarchy -- of which Prince Andrew is still part. CHARLES' CHARITY DRAMA The chairman of Prince Charles' charitable foundation has resigned, days after a Scottish regulator said it was probing fresh "cash for access" allegations reported by a UK newspaper. The Sunday Times reported that the heir to the throne wrote a thank you letter to Russian banker Dmitry Leus and offered to meet him in person after receiving a six-figure donation to The Prince's Foundation in May 2020. Leus, who is reportedly seeking British citizenship, made his donation after a fixer promised a private meeting with Prince Charles at a Scottish castle, the Sunday Times reported. The newspaper said there was no evidence that Prince Charles was aware of any deception around the donation. Foundation chair Douglas Connell said he was "shocked and dismayed by newspaper reports that rogue activity of various kinds may have taken place within and outside the Prince's Foundation." Explaining why he was choosing to relinquish his role, he continued: "My view is that the person chairing any organisation should take responsibility if it appears that serious misconduct may have taken place within it." A Clarence House spokesperson told CNN that Charles "has no knowledge of the alleged offer of honors or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities and fully supports the investigation now underway by The Prince's Foundation." The Prince's Foundation is an umbrella organization for several of Charles' charitable projects. Connell's departure comes a week after the head of The Prince's Foundation temporarily stepped down amid claims of misconduct reported by the same newspaper. Michael Fawcett, Charles' longest-serving and closest aide, was accused of using his position and influence to help a Saudi businessman obtain an honorary title in exchange for donations. WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING? William announces the finalists of his inaugural environment award. The Duke of Cambridge spoke of his honor at introducing "the 15 innovators, leaders, and visionaries who are the first ever Finalists for The Earthshot Prize" on Friday. Whittled down from 750 nominations, the shortlist includes leaders, activists and even an entire country -- check out the full list here. "They are working with the urgency required in this decisive decade for life on Earth and will inspire all of us with their optimism in our ability to rise to the greatest challenges in human history," William said. The duke has also written about why he co-founded the environmental award last October in the introduction to a new book named "Earthshot: How to Save our Planet." The prize "aims to inspire collective action around our unique ability to innovate, problem solve and ultimately repair our planet." It is focused on five so-called Earthshots: Protect and Restore Nature; Clean our Air; Revive our Oceans; Build a Waste-free World; and Fix our Climate. The five winners, who will each receive 1 million ($1.4 million) in prize money, will be announced on October 17 during an award ceremony broadcast on the BBC and Discovery. UK police will not launch a probe into Martin Bashir's 1995 Diana interview. London's Metropolitan Police Service will not be opening a criminal investigation into a former BBC journalist's controversial interview with the late Princess of Wales, broadcast in 1995, it announced this week. The BBC was forced to issue an apology in May after an independent report conducted by retired High Court judge Lord Dyson found Martin Bashir used "deceitful" tactics to secure the landmark sit-down interview more than two decades ago. The force said in a statement sent to CNN on Thursday that it had "not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence and will therefore be taking no further action" after scrutinizing Dyson's report. The Met said it had come to its decision after "specialist detectives assessed (the report's) contents and looked carefully at the law -- once again obtaining independent legal advice from Treasury Counsel as well as consulting the Crown Prosecution Service." The Sussexes are cover stars. Time magazine named Harry and Meghan "icons" in its annual list of the world's 100 most influential people, with the couple appearing on one of the multiple covers of Time's annual special issue. In the magazine, Jose Andres, a chef who founded a nonprofit that provides meals to those in need in the wake of natural disasters, described Harry and Meghan as having "compassion for the people they don't know." They "take risks to help communities in need" by "offering mental health support to Black women and girls in the US, and feeding those affected by natural disasters in India and the Caribbean," he added. Read the full story here. Harry joins first lady Jill Biden at a veterans' event. Prince Harry co-hosted a virtual event Monday in honor of athletes taking part in the Warrior Games, an annual event run by the US Department of Defense that "celebrates the resiliency and dedication of wounded, ill, and injured active duty and veteran U.S. military Service members." Harry had planned to attend the 2021 Warrior Games in Orlando, Florida, but the event was canceled due to concerns over Covid-19. The event is closely linked to the Invictus Games, an international sporting event that Harry founded for service members and veterans. Philip's will to remain secret for 90 years. The will of Queen Elizabeth's late husband, Prince Philip, will be sealed and remain private for at least 90 years to preserve the monarch's dignity, Reuters reports, after a ruling at London's High Court. "The degree of publicity that publication would be likely to attract would be very extensive and wholly contrary to the aim of maintaining the dignity of the Sovereign," judge Andrew McFarlane said in a ruling published on Thursday, according to Reuters. Philip died in April aged 99. FROM THE ROYAL VAULT The Queen marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with a heartfelt message to the victims of the terror attacks as well as to their families and the United States as a whole. In a message to US President Joe Biden, the Queen said: "My thoughts and prayers -- and those of my family and the entire nation -- remain with the victims, survivors and families affected, as well as the first responders and rescue workers called to duty." The 95-year-old monarch recalled visiting the World Trade Center site in July 2010, saying the occasion "is held fast in my memory." "It reminds me that as we honour those from many nations, faiths and backgrounds who lost their lives, we also pay tribute to the resilience and determination of the communities who joined together to rebuild," she added. ANNOUNCEMENT Naomi Campbell joins forces with Queen's charity. International supermodel Naomi Campbell was named as a global ambassador for the Queen's Commonwealth Trust (QCT) at an event in London on Thursday evening as it prepares to mark the monarch's Platinum Jubilee next year. The charity -- which was established in 2018 -- supports young people who are bringing about sustainable change in their communities. It recently launched the QCT Platinum Jubilee Fund for Young Leaders, aimed at helping 18- to 35-year-old entrepreneurs across the Commonwealth. Prior to their departure as working royals, the Sussexes were heavily involved with the international development charity. Campbell called her new role as a QCT Platinum Jubilee Global Ambassador a "privilege" in a speech Thursday and spoke of her decades-long passion for elevating future leaders. "Regardless of where you are from or where you are now, there are young leaders within your community doing amazing work. Sometimes they are not seen and some of them may not even see themselves as 'leaders' yet, but they all deserve our support, and access to education and resources," the 51-year-old said. "I have been doing the work with empowering young people for over 25 years. This is something very close to my heart and I will continue to do everything I can to uplift the next generation, so they can create a better future for their communities." PHOTO OF THE WEEK Kate meets UK soldiers involved in evacuations from Kabul. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, walks into the fuselage of an RAF C17 Globemaster as she meets individuals who supported the UK's evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan at RAF Brize Norton in England on Wednesday. In a post on a joint Instagram account with husband William, the duchess wrote of the honor of speaking to personnel involved in "Operation Pitting," whose stories she described as "inspiring, emotional, harrowing and powerful." She added: "Flying out in excess of 15,000 people from Kabul was a truly collaborative operation across our Armed Services, local authorities and aid organisations in Afghanistan and the UK. You should all be proud of your work, often around the clock, to support the evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan." Queen Elizabeth sent a message of congratulations to the people of North Korea on their national day, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson told CNN Tuesday. The message was sent on behalf of the sovereign by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) "as has been done before," the spokesperson said. The palace added that it is standard practice to send similar messages on other national days across the world. North Korea celebrated its national day -- to mark the 73rd anniversary of its founding -- on September 9. The day began with a midnight military parade in Pyongyang. The hermit kingdom's leader, Kim Jong Un, appeared on a platform in Kim Il Sung square and waved at the crowd. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAAY) - Alabama takes another step toward fixing the states outdated and overcrowded prison system. Gov. Kay Ivey sent a letter to state lawmakers Friday detailing her plans to call a special session beginning Sept. 27. The governors letter says the session will focus on the urgent need to deal with prison infrastructure failures. Alabama is currently being sued by the US Department of Justice over conditions in state prisons. The governors letter did not lay out any details about a legislative fix for the prison system. CLARKSDALE, Miss. (AP) A man who investigators believe left a threatening voicemail to a Mississippi mayor has been arrested. WMC-TV reports Joseph Pittman is charged with felony eluding a law enforcement officer after being arrested late Tuesday. He was also arrested on a warrant for stalking Clarksdale Mayor Chuck Espy. Police Chief Robbie Linley said they've been investigating the voicemail on Espy's cellphone, which occurred about a month ago, and obtained an arrest warrant for Pittman as a result. Linley did not release details about what the alleged threat involved. As for the shooting, Linley says they're looking at it being connected to the alleged threat. But, he says it remains under investigation. YAZOO CITY, Miss. (AP) Police say two people have been killed in a shooting in Yazoo City. Media outlets report that the gunfire happened Thursday afternoon near a food store on Broadway Street. Yazoo County Coroner Ricky Shivers confirmed that two people had died, but said he could not provide any additional information. Yazoo County Sheriff Jacob Sheriff said there was a large crowd at the scene, which law enforcement worked to disperse. Agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation also responded to the scene. Few other details were available early Friday. HOUSTON Two dozen Republican attorneys general are warning the White House of impending legal action if a proposed coronavirus vaccine requirement for as many as 100 million Americans goes into effect. The letter sent Thursday is the latest in GOP opposition to sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors announced by President Joe Biden earlier this month. The requirement, to be enacted through a rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is part of an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall The prosecutors, led by Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina, called Biden's plan disastrous and counterproductive." They wrote: If your Administration does not alter its course, the undersigned state Attorneys General will seek every available legal option to hold you accountable and uphold the rule of law. In addition to South Carolina, the letter was signed by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) State prosecutors are urging a judge to deny former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbards request for early release from his 28-month prison sentence. The state attorney general's office wrote in a Wednesday court filing that Hubbard's belated apology for his ethics conviction does not merit early release. Several community leaders wrote letters to the judge urging Hubbards release, including Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson. A jury in 2016 convicted Hubbard of violating the state ethics law, including using his public office for personal financial gain. Prosecutors had accused Hubbard of leveraging his powerful public office to obtain clients and investments for his businesses. Xbox Game Pass is Adding MechWarrior 5, Maneater, The Wild at Heart, and Conan Exiles This Month FILE PHOTO: A missile is seen launched during a drill of the Railway Mobile Missile Regiment in North Korea By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's state media accused the United States on Friday of double standards over military activities and pursuing a hostile policy towards Pyongyang that was hampering the restart of talks on the country's nuclear weapons and missile programmes. The commentary comes after North Korea and South Korea both test fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, the latest move in an arms race in which both nations have been developing increasingly sophisticated weapons. Washington condemned the North Korean test - and its separate test days earlier of what experts said could be its first cruise missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead - as a threat to its neighbours, but did not mention Seoul's test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). In an article published by the official KCNA news agency, Kim Myong Chol, whom it described as an "international affairs analyst", said the United States had "stirred up a terrific furore" by presenting North Korea's actions as "threats to international peace and security". "Terming them armed provocations timed to a certain occasion and aiming at a specific target, it faulted those measures which belong to our right to self-defence. This arrogant and self-righteous response is a vivid revelation of the American-style double-dealing attitude," Kim said. "Today its high-handed practices have gone beyond the limit." Little is known about Kim, though KCNA has often carried commentaries under his name and some South Korean media reports have described him as a Japan-based "unofficial spokesman" for the North, officially call the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). He said Washington was to blame for the stand-off preventing the restart of talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for sanctions relief. "Even though contacts and dialogues are undertaken now, it is certain that the U.S. would raise the double-dealing yardstick by which it would call our acts for self-defence 'threats' to the world peace and its allies," Kim said. Story continues "Unless the U.S. vouches for the withdrawal of its hostile policy toward the DPRK, the word denuclearization can never be put on the table." His comments were in line with a statement on Wednesday by Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who lashed out at South Korea for criticising the North's "routine defensive measures" while developing its own missiles. North Korea has been steadily developing its weapons systems, raising the stakes for the negotiations that were initiated between Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 and have stalled since 2019. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Alex Richardson) Three mercenaries on the run with a plane full of gold and a dark secret in their past are the starting point for Jean Luc Herbulots Senegalese genre-bender Saloum, which has its world premiere in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival. The film centers on the Bangui Hyenas, a mythic trio of mercenaries whose plane is shot down as theyre fleeing a coup in Guinea-Bissau. Transporting a bounty of stolen gold and a kidnapped drug lord, theyre forced to take refuge in a remote and mystical region of Senegal. More from Variety But as they lay low in the Saloum Delta waiting to repair and refuel their plane, a mysterious secret from the past emerges, unleashing dark ancestral forces that threaten to consume them all. Saloum is the first production from Lacme Studios, a Dakar-based production company that Herbulot and co-founder Pamela Diop hope will reshape narratives and create a stronghold for myths and monsters and heroes on the continent, according to Herbulot. The writer-director says the studios first feature is an attempt to illustrate how we can make something new that were not used to seeing in Africa, adding: Were all quite frustrated about the fact that we dont have a lot of African heroes on screen. Citing films such as Sergio Leones Westerns, Akira Kurosawas Samurai films, Jean-Pierre Melvilles noirs, and George Millers post-apocalyptic actioners as inspiration, Herbulot says he was looking to find a distinctive visual style for his kinetic, genre-shifting supernatural thriller. We wanted to give the African genre movie a signature, he says. Saloum was filmed on location in Senegals remote Saloum Delta, with what producer Pamela Diop describes as a deeply immersive and collaborative process that involved cast and crew living in the same encampment throughout the five-week shoot. It stars Yann Gael, Roger Sallah, Mentor Ba and Evelyne Ily Juhen. Story continues The film draws heavily on local folklore and spirituality, something that Diop credits with grounding it in the unique character of a region where her family has roots. We take all of our energy from the Saloum, she says. The Congo-born Herbulot was schooled in Paris and spent six years living in Los Angeles. In 2014 he shot his first feature, Dealer, which was acquired by Netflix. Three years later he returned to Africa, where he created, directed and served as showrunner on the Dakar-set TV series Sakho and Mangane. Produced for Canal Plus Afrique, it would go on to become the first series from French-speaking West Africa to be picked up by Netflix. In 2019 Herbulot and Diop joined forced to launch Lacme Studios. The duo has a broad slate of nearly 20 projects in development, including a body-swap comedy series set in Ivory Coast and a historical biography about the great Carthaginian general and statesman Hamilcar Barca, and is in post-production on the Senegal-set action thriller Zero. Produced in partnership with Hus Miller of Tableland Pictures, who along with Douglas Jackson shares an executive producing credit on Saloum, Zero is the first in what is expected to be a number of collaborations between the U.S. producers and Lacme. Herbulot says the partnership is in keeping with the philosophy that spurred he and Diop to launch their production outfit in Senegal. It was always about [how to] take something local and transform it to be global, he says. We have some strong IPs on our side. Now its about finding the right partners and people who want to invest in Africa. And people who want to make movies, adds Diop. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A new health order may require proof of a Covid-19 vaccination or a recent negative test for admission to Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and major concert attractions. The Los Angeles Times reported that a top health official confirmed that the passes will be required starting Oct. 7. Such major events as the Rolling Stones concert at SoFi Stadium later in the month may also be affected, as the rule covers mega events, defined as those with crowds of more than 10,000 people. More from Deadline Its only for those theme parks that have over 10,000 visitors. For parks that are smaller, they will not be covered by this, said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a briefing Thursday. Universal Studios Hollywood issued a statement that theme parks have not been categorized as mega-event venues in previous county health orders, and have different operational capabilities and practices. We are reviewing the updated order with health officials with that context in mind. Six Flags spokesperson Alex French said in a statement: We will continue to comply with all Los Angeles County Department of Public Health mandates. The mandates at Los Angeles Countys largest theme parks are more extensive than what the state requires. The state does not require vaccinations or testings for outdoor events, but merely encourages them. It does require them for indoor events with at least 1,000 attendees. The new Los Angeles.health order will also require proof of vaccination at county restaurants, indoor bars, wineries, breweries, nightclubs and lounges. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. On Friday, an advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration will weigh in on a debate that has been broiling since the Biden administration announced last month that the country would begin to roll out booster shots against COVID-19. This panel, which is independent of the FDA and the Biden administration, will look at the data recently submitted by Pfizer on booster shots and make a recommendation. The FDA will then decide whether they will formally amend their current vaccine approval for Pfizer, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has its own advisory committee, will review the information and make a decision. But the back-and-forth leading up to this process, and the president's involvement in an otherwise non-political decision, has left many Americans confused about who really needs boosters and when. PHOTO: President Joe Biden delivers remarks on plans to stop the spread of the Delta variant and boost COVID-19 vaccinations at the State Dinning Room of the White House, in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 9, 2021. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) Do I need a booster shot, and if so, when? Unfortunately, there's no clear answer to this question yet. But it will come sometime in the next week, as the FDA and CDC's advisory committees discuss the available data. For now, the one thing to know is that the vast majority of vaccinated people are still well-protected by their vaccines. "If you have a good immune system, I would certainly not go out and get a booster before anything is recommended. I feel strongly that we have to go by the scientific consensus, which really hasn't been played out yet," said Dr. Paul Goepfert, director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic at the University of Alabama. The latest CDC data found that over 90% of people hospitalized with COVID are still unvaccinated. And while breakthrough infections happen, particularly as protection against mild infection wanes, the vaccines continue to protect Americans from ending up in the hospital with COVID, as well as vastly reducing their likelihood of death. MORE: New Pfizer data makes case for booster shots 6 months after primary doses The only group that's potentially at more risk of a serious breakthrough infection are older people who got their vaccines early on in the rollout. Recent studies by the CDC showed that protection against hospitalization for people over 65 has decreased to around 76-80%. Story continues "At the end of the day, the purpose of the vaccines is to prevent hospitalizations and deaths, and they're doing that very effectively still," said Dr. Carlos Del Rio, executive associate dean of Emory University School of Medicine. "Maybe a little less effective for people over the age of 60 or with comorbidities, but still, if you look around the hospitals, the people hospitalized today are people who haven't received the vaccine." Additional vaccine doses, although not quite a booster, have already been approved by the CDC for the roughly 7 million immunocompromised Americans who didn't have an optimal response to the first round of mRNA vaccines. Nearly 2 million Americans have gotten an additional shot since the FDA and CDC approved them in August for that subset of people. The CDC officially recommended a third dose of an mRNA vaccine for immunocompromised Americans in August, allowing the approximately 7 million Americans who didn't get an optimal immune response to their initial vaccine doses of Pfizer or Moderna to gain more protection. PHOTO: A man receives his booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during an Oakland County Health Department vaccination clinic at the Southfield Pavilion on Aug. 24, 2021, in Southfield, Mich. (Emily Elconin/Getty Images, FILE) There's been a lot of debate as the process plays out. What's the controversy? When the Biden administration announced that it would roll out a booster shot program beginning Sept. 20, the White House's COVID response team said it was to get ahead of the virus. "You don't want to find yourself behind, playing catch up," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said when announcing the plan. "Better stay ahead of it than chasing after it." The White House has relied heavily on Israel's progress. Data from the country, where the vaccine process began sooner than in the U.S., shows that vaccine protection against serious disease has now begun to wane. But quickly, career scientists pushed back on the White House's announcement, saying there wasn't enough U.S. data to support boosters yet -- all the current evidence shows vaccines still protect most Americans against serious disease. MORE: Evidence for vaccine booster shots isn't clear, but Biden moves ahead anyway For experts in that camp, the focus usually narrows in on the 80 million Americans who aren't vaccinated at all. Increasing protection across more of the country would stamp out transmission. "We're spending way too much time talking about boosters when we need to be spending time talking about the people that haven't been vaccinated," said Del Rio. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. But on the other hand, studies do show that general protection against mild infection is waning, even if it's staying strong against hospitalization. "We need to reinforce the armor," said Dr. Todd Ellerin, an ABC News medical contributor and the director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health in Massachusetts. Ellerin predicted a triple threat ahead: a surge of delta infections, higher transmission during the winter months and close to half the country remaining unvaccinated. "I think there are strong arguments for both sides and we just have to see," Ellerin said. The FDA's independent advisory committee meets all day on Friday, and plans to vote in the late afternoon. For now, they're only meeting about Pfizer, the first vaccine to submit its data. If the FDA panel votes to move forward with boosters, the CDC's advisory committee will meet almost a week later to nail down the details: who gets boosters and how soon. MORE: What to expect as FDA advisory panel debates Pfizer COVID booster shots The FDA and CDC committees are looking at Pfizer booster shots. What's the deal with boosters for people who got J&J or Moderna? Both Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are expected to follow Pfizer and run their data by the official FDA and CDC channels in the coming weeks in an effort to get approval for booster shots. But both companies maintain protection is still strong against severe infection. Moderna, in an analysis of various studies released on Wednesday, even made the case that the company's original vaccine appears to generate the strongest protection among the three currently authorized vaccines. Nevertheless, Moderna President Stephen Hoge told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday that "protection is not permanent" and "we're not going to be able to defy gravity forever." Newly published data from Moderna's booster shot trial showed a lower risk of breakthrough infections among people vaccinated eight months ago compared to people vaccinated 13 months ago. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna's third booster will be a half-dose. They say their data shows that boosting with a half-shot seems to generate more than enough immune response. For J&J, the one-shot series chosen by about 14 million Americans, a study found that the vaccine still provided a durable immune response at least eight months later, even without a booster dose. Another study, not yet peer reviewed, found more good news: The J&J booster dose actually boosted antibody levels higher than they were after the initial shot. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. And while it will be a few weeks before there's more concrete news on the J&J booster shots, there's room in the timeline. Most Americans didn't receive the J&J vaccine until late spring of 2020, since it was approved after the mRNA vaccines. That means the J&J boosters won't be widely necessary until November at the earliest -- if the FDA and CDC decide they're needed at all. There is not enough data yet on mixing and matching vaccines, though the CDC is actively researching it. And for all three of the vaccines, recipients have a common question: will I need to get a booster routinely? Experts, wary of predicting anything about the unpredictable global pandemic, said it's possible, but unlikely. "My prediction is that as long as the COVID rates are going down, we will not need a continuous boost," Goepfert said. That could change, however, if a new viral strain requires a newly tailored vaccine. Are booster shots safe? Pfizer, the only vaccine so far to have its data reviewed by the FDA, found no safety concerns among the 300 trial participants who were part of its clinical trial. Pfizer followed the participants for up to three months after getting their third shot. Peoples' reactions to the booster shots were not significantly different from their reactions to a second dose, FDA and Pfizer both wrote in their separate briefing documents. "No deaths, vaccine-related serious adverse events, or events of myocarditis, pericarditis, anaphylaxis, appendicitis, or Bell's palsy were reported among study participants who received the booster dose," the FDA wrote in a review of Pfizer's safety data. Moderna and J&J have not yet had their data reviewed by the FDA, but have said they found no safety concerns in their clinical trials of booster shots. Confused about boosters? Here are some answers originally appeared on abcnews.go.com via Facebook ST. PETERSBURGAs Russia heads to the polls in what are expected to be the most corrupt parliamentary elections since Vladimir Putin came to power, one of the opposition candidates was out on the streets of St. Petersburg proving to people that he exists. Look, here he is, the real Vishnevsky, not a fake one! shrieked a local woman. She was part of a small group of people at Vladimirskaya metro station in St. Petersburg where a smiling, bearded man was holding court. Boris Vishnevsky is a professor and liberal candidate hoping to become a lawmaker. Running against him are the rival candidates Boris Vishnevsky and Boris Vishnevsky. This is the bitterly comic reality of democracy in modern Russia. Putin in Isolation After COVID Cracks His Elaborate Self-Preservation Bunker Two of the Vishnevskys had changed their names, and grown beards, in order to confuse the electorate and make it even harder for this well-known opponent of President Putin to win his seat for Russias only registered liberal party, Yabloko. Election commission #30 in the Central Region of St. Petersburg allowed the imposters to be registered on the official ballot. Pictures of the real Vishnevsky standing alongside banners of his doubleswho also share his balding head and similar facial featureshave become the symbol of Russias dirty election campaign in 2021. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1517598001913816&id=100009908921583 Even avowed supporters of Putins regime think this is going too far. The voting begins today, but nobody has punished the election commission for the Vishnevsky copies, said the local leader of the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party Marina Shishkina. That is just one example of falsification." Shishkina told The Daily Beast that she has seen Putins political system inside and out in the past decade, with all sorts of electoral trickery like video cameras mysteriously going off at the polling stations. You will hear of the electricity suddenly going off, she said. That is classic. Story continues Here in Russias northern capital, The Daily Beast interviewed local voters, as well as pro-Kremlin politicians, who felt equally sick at the falsifications in the parliamentary and local elections held in Russia this week. The ruling United Russia party has been losing public support in the last few years: Its popularity has declined to 26 percent since 2015 when it had 55 percent of public support. State corruption and lies have been the strongest signs of the Putin system, rotting from within; but many of the masterminds behind the destructive process remain unpunished. Vishnevsky himself has seen many dirty tricks since he became a politician right after the fall of the USSR in 1990. This years election campaign was full of absurd situations, he said. First they almost banned me from running when they did not like the way I stapled one piece of paper in the file for the registration. Then I discovered that two more candidates were running against me under my own name, he told The Daily Beast. But when my team and I saw their portraits, we just laughedthey looked like me! Vishnevsky, who was born in St. Petersburg, saw the city at its most dangerous, through the '90s, when Putin was a local politician and so-called bratki thugs were killing each other on the streets. Many politicians were assassinated during the first decade of post-Perestroika Russia, but Vishnevsky is convinced that the election process has never been dirtier than now. Now it is much filthier! he said. Moscow is leading Russia back to a bad version of the USSR with one ruling party, one state ideology, and no pluralism allowed. The ideal situation for the Kremlin would be to control everything and lock its critics in the Gulag. Vishnevsky supporter Anna Reva, a tour guide and interpreter, said she was shocked by the scale of the current political scandals. If Vishnevsky wins in spite of these falsifications, he would be one of very few honest deputies at the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, she said. This is not an election, this is a circus, meant to fool some idiots; but St. Petersburg is not a city of idiots. Inside Putins Battle With Russias CNN The countrys northern capital, which was founded by Peter the Great more than 300 years ago, has been allowed to fade. Look, almost every buildings facade is crumbling, while the city puts ugly malls in the heart of the old town, she said, pointing at the Vladimirsky Passage mall, a mass of glass and concrete sticking up between the graceful historical architecture. But the worst issue is poverty, the lack of dignity and respect we the local people see from our government. United Russias own candidates also distanced themselves from the dirty tricks. All our candidates are against such falsifications, Nikita Shirokov, the spokesman for United Russia in St. Petersburg, told The Daily Beast. The chairwoman of Russias Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, also said Vishnevskys body doubles should quit the election campaign. That is the apotheosis of dirty technologies that St. Petersburg is flooded with. One of the doubles, Victor Bykov, formerly worked with the speaker of St. Petersburg Legislative Council, Sergey Solovyov. The Daily Beast asked him why nobody has been punished for the blatant electoral interference, but the candidate did not respond. While they waved through these false candidates, the Russian Central Election Commission refused to register dozens of opposition candidates who support the imprisoned politician Alexei Navalny. Several prominent politicians, including ex-Duma deputies Gennady and Dmitry Gudkov, had to leave the country in fear of arrests. For the first time in Putins era, the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe has decided not to observe Russias elections, after Moscow had limited the number of OSCE delegations to a small fraction of the observers required. This simply does not enable us to carry out our work in an effective and thorough manner, OSCE President Margarita Cederfelt said. One of the youngest candidates running for a seat in the State Duma, Valery Kostenok, 22, a member of the liberal Yabloko party, admitted they were facing an uphill battle. Russia is a military country but even in the army only 80 percent of soldiers treat voting like the fulfillment of some orderwe rely on the 20 percent of soldiers, who like my father, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, think of alternative liberal reforms, he said. He continues to fight but he knows change is not about to come. There is a war on the opposition, he said. The Kremlin is turning the millstone and we are being crushed. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Utah police have said the disappearance of Gabby Petito is unrelated to a recent doube-homicide in the state that killed Crystal Turner, 38, and Kylen Schulte, 24. (Above, left). (Facebook/gabspetito/Instagram) Police in Utah have determined that YouTuber Gabby Petitos disappearance is not related to a recent double-homicide that occurred near one of Ms Petitos last known locations. It has been determined that the Gabby Petito missing person case is not related to the double-homicide case involving Chrystal Turner and Kylen Schulte, the Grand County Sheriff said in a statement. Ms Turner, 38, and Ms Schulte, 24, were found dead in mid-August near their campsite in the La Sal Mountains. Ms Petito last spoke with her family at the end of August, two weeks after police in the nearby Moab, Utah, area stopped her and her fiance Brian Laundrie over concerns about a potential domestic violence incident. They were separated over night but no charges were filed, according to police records. Previously, Utah police had been exploring a potential connection between the two cases. Were looking at everything, I mean, anything and everything that was suspicious around that time or were not ruling anything out at this time, the sheriffs office said earlier this week. So were just investigating the information as it comes in. After the couple left Utah, Ms Petitos whereabouts remain a mystery. Mr Laundrie returned home to Florida without her, driving the van the couple used for the cross-country voyage. Ms Petitos family has expressed doubt that her final text message No service in Yosemite is true, given that the couple was likely still hundreds of miles away from Northern California when it was sent.Police across multiple jurisdictions in Florida, Utah, and beyond are involved in the investigation, and the FBI is assisting with forensics. Investigators have seized the pairs converted van used on the trip, and are scouring digital records for more information. Police have not identified any evidence of a crime. Police have received more than 1,000 tips related to the investigation, and were reportedly inside of Mr Laundries home on Friday. So far, he has refused to assist investigators with locating Ms Petitos disappearance and hasnt spoken publicly about the case. Officials have spoken to a TikTok witness who claims she gave a ride to Gabby Petitos boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, by himself. Police in Florida say they spoke to a woman who claims she and her own boyfriend picked up Mr Laundrie in Grand Teton National Park on 29 August, who was hitch-hiking alone. As the investigation continues, conspiracy theories have flourished online, such as that Gabby Petito couldve disappeared or been harmed inside a Zone of Death in Yellowstone National Park, a strip of uninhabited land under federal jurisdiction where some have argued it would be difficult to prosecute crimes committed. Rebecca Alwine. Courtesy of Sarah Tau Photography The author had two children in Germany and one in the US. The maternity ward in Germany was calm and loving, with endless food and no visiting restrictions. The birth in the US was attended by many people and felt chaotic. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. I was 10 weeks pregnant when I arrived in Germany from the US. At my first appointment, I had no idea what to expect. My German obstetrician spoke perfect English, and he was old-school in many ways: Nothing worried or concerned him; he treated pregnancy like a step in life, not like something that had to change everything. After having two kids in less than two years in Germany, I thought I was done. I remember telling my husband, "If we're having more kids, it has to be in Germany." The matter-of-fact, not overly emotional way Germans dealt with problems made me feel comfortable with the healthcare. But five years later, I was pregnant with child No. 3, who would be born in a small town in Arizona. I was worried about finding a provider who would listen to me and about having to drive hours away for a good experience. There were fewer options in Arizona, but now that I knew how pregnancy and delivery could be, I wanted it to be the same as in Germany. The differences were drastic In Germany, everything was done at my OB's office. Blood work and ultrasounds were done at every visit. During my second pregnancy, my doctor got a 3D ultrasound machine, so I was able to see my baby every few weeks. In the US, I saw a midwife once a month but had to go elsewhere for everything else. The two ultrasounds I was permitted were done by a technician in a sterile, dark environment. Since I was set on having a vaginal birth after a cesarean section, or VBAC, I also had to see an OB, who required additional tests. The German medical experts found a humane way to monitor my glucose levels. I had blood work and urine taken at each appointment, as opposed to the "drink more sugar than you do all week and see what it does to your body" approach that I experienced in the US. Story continues Delivering in the US meant a lot of people attended my baby's birth My first delivery lasted 12 hours, where a midwife was with me the entire time. My doctor was in and out, but the midwife delivered my firstborn, and she was the only medical person in the room. After my son was born, the doctor gave him to me and left us alone. My second child was an unplanned C-section. The doctor spent 20 minutes trying to convince me that I needed this, even after we agreed. After they took the baby, they passed her through a window in the wall and went off to the neonatal intensive care unit. Even when things didn't go as planned, there was a calm in the room. It happened quickly and efficiently. When my third child was born, this time in the US, I was in a room three times as big as the one I delivered my first child in, with at least 10 people. I was scorned for my birth plan, which was to have a VBAC. The OB strode into the room and reminded my husband that the goal was a healthy baby, before even talking to me. My nurse was wonderful, the OB stood around doing nothing, and my midwife delivered the baby with no problems. We also had two paramedics observing the birth for training, a slew of nurses for the baby "just in case," and an anesthesiologist who didn't do the epidural correctly the first time. It was chaotic. Maternity wards in Germany are what the US should aspire to One of my favorite parts about having a baby in Germany was the maternity ward. It was calm, quiet, and loving. There was always food available, and we could visit with friends and family in our room or in the cafeteria. There was no rush to leave or pressure to stay. There were no electronic monitors or locked doors. It was peaceful. In the US, we had to stay at least 24 hours. There had to be a follow-up appointment scheduled before we could leave. There were strict visiting hours, mealtimes were adhered to, and the babies wore ankle monitors. There was no resting, no calm. I loved my American midwife, but if given the choice, I'd have a baby in Germany over the US every single time. Read the original article on Insider Photo credit: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Earlier this week, Kate Middleton returned to her royal duties following her family's summer break. For her first public appearance since Wimbledon, Kate visited RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to meet those who supported the UK's evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan. As she explored the RAF base, Kate couldn't help but comment on how much her kids would love to see the planes, and revealed its something they bond over with their father, Prince William. Lordmaster Sergeant Mark Curtis, who gave Kate her tour around the base, told People about the sweet story she shared. "She did mention that her children are very interested in aircraft," he said. The Cambridge kids interest in aircraft seems fitting considering Prince William previously spent two years working as an RAF search and rescue pilot for East Anglian Air Ambulance. Photo credit: Luca Teuchmann - Getty Images Prince William clearly passed his love of flying down to his kids, who have been spotted on several aircraft-themed day trips. In 2016, Prince George enjoyed a visit to the world's largest military air show, the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. After their visit, Kate said George was "obsessed with planes and wants to become an air cadet" [via OK!]. The following year, Prince George was given a tour of a helicopter in Hamburg as he travelled around Germany and Poland with his family. A love of aircrafts isn't the only hobby the Cambridge kids share with their royal relatives. As it turns out, they also love horse-riding with their great-grandmother, the Queen. According to The Times, Her Majesty is "taking a close interest in her great-grandchildrens progress in the saddle." which is actually adorable. When they've had enough practice, it's reported that Prince George and Princess Charlotte will be expected to join the Queen for rides at Windsor and Balmoral. As for Prince William and Kate Middleton's response to this newly-discovered horsey passion, it's believed that William is "thrilled" so smiles around then! Story continues And, as if aircrafts and horse-riding wasn't enough, the Cambridge kids also love a spot of arts and crafts. Tbh, who doesn't love spending a rainy day doing some papier-mache!? Celebrating Mother's Day earlier this year, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis made some very sweet (and poignant) homemade cards, not only for their mother, Kate Middleton, but for their 'Granny Diana', Princess Diana. You Might Also Like New Delhi: The much-revered Vishwakarma Jayanti marks the birthday of Vishwakarma - the Hindu god of the divine architect. Lord Vishwakarma or Bishwakarma (As Bengalis refer) is Lord Brahma's son and known as the divine craftsman of the whole universe. He is hailed as the official builder of all the gods' palaces too. This year it is being celebrated on September 17, 2021. Vishwakarma Puja is marked on Kanya Sankranti as per the Hindu Calendar. Falling on the last day of the Bengali month of Bhadra, the day is celebrated in a way where devotees organise pujas at their workplace, decorate their offices with flowers and the like. VISHWAKARMA PUJA ON KANYA SANKRANTI: Vishwakarma Puja Date on Friday, September 17, 2021 Vishwakarma Puja Sankranti Moment - 01:29 AM Kanya Sankranti on Friday, September 17, 2021 (as per drikpanchang.com) Lord Vishwakarma is known as the divine engineer of the world. It is said that he created the holy city of Dwarka - Lord Krishna's abode and also constructed the palace of Indraprastha for Pandavas. SIGNIFICANCE OF VISHWAKARMA JAYANTI: On Vishwakarma Jayanti, not only the engineers and architectural community but artisans including craftsmen, mechanics, smiths, welders, industrial workers, factory workers and others worship their tools and seek blessings of Lord Vishwakarma on this day. Also, Vishwakarma puja is celebrated a day after Diwali, along with Govardhan Puja at some places. VISHWAKARMA PUJA RITUALS: It is believed that Lord Vishwakarma's vehicle is an elephant or a moose, and they are also worshipped on this day. The deity of Lord Vishwakarma is installed in various decorative pandals wherein, the major puja is conducted. Once the ceremony is over, Prasad is distributed amongst all the devotees. To ensure the overall prosperity of business, Yagya puja is also performed by some people. Lord Vishwakarma had five sons and two daughters namely Mannu, Maidev, Tavashta, Shilpi and Devagya. The divine craftsman is hailed as the presiding deity of all craftsmen and architects. The day is celebrated across the country, and majorly in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam and Nepal among other places respectively. Here's wishing a Happy Vishwakarma Day to all! New Delhi: As a way of celebrating the auspicious festival of Vishwakarma Jayanti, artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created a beautiful sand art installation of the Hindu god Vishwakarma. On Friday (September 17), the artist took to Twitter to share his breathtaking creation with his followers. It has been created with immense detail and love as are most of his artworks. In the caption of the post, he wrote, "May Lord #Vishwakarma, the deity of all Craftsman & Architects endow upon U his goodwill." Check out his amazing creation: May Lord #Vishwakarma ,the deity of all Craftsman & Architects endow upon U his goodwill. pic.twitter.com/lMlgOjtnC8 Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) September 16, 2021 The much-revered Vishwakarma Jayanti marks the birthday of Vishwakarma - the Hindu god of craftsmen and architects. Lord Vishwakarma or Bishwakarma (As Bengalis refer) is Lord Brahma's son and known as the divine craftsman of the whole universe. He is hailed as the official builder of all the gods' palaces too. This year it is being celebrated on September 17, 2021. Vishwakarma Puja is marked on Kanya Sankranti as per the Hindu Calendar. Falling on the last day of the Bengali month of Bhadra, the day is celebrated in a way where devotees organise pujas at their workplace, decorate their offices with flowers and the like. Here's wishing a Happy Vishwakarma Day to all! New Delhi: North Delhi Municipal Corporation leader of the opposition from Aam Aadmi Party, Vikas Goel on Thursday informed that the BJP-ruled MCD has been caught in another scandal. A mall that was sealed in 2012 is being illegally run under their watch. On paper, the mall is sealed but the business of crores is going on indiscriminately by opening big showrooms in it. He said that despite the FIR being lodged for tampering with the sealed site, no action has been taken against the contractors. A big nexus between BJP leaders and contractors in the Municipal Corporation is clear from this matter. The Aam Aadmi Party will make every effort to get this case investigated and bring the culprits to justice. North Delhi Municipal Corporation Leader of Opposition Vikas Goel said, "BJP's MCD has only been involved in corruption and looting the people of Delhi for the last 15 years. Aam Aadmi Party keeps revealing new corruption scandals of BJP every day. Despite this, BJP leaders are not shying away from looting the people of Delhi. BJP knows that the people of Delhi are going to throw them out of MCD in the upcoming elections. That's why these people have started filling their pockets in new ways." He further said, "Sometimes they commission money in illegal construction of buildings, sometimes they commission it to hide the corruption of the people sitting on top, whereas sometimes they do it by increasing taxes unnecessarily from the poor and traders. While the Delhi Government is trying its best to clean the three mountains of garbage they have created, they are stealing from it and now, yet again, a new scandal has been exposed." He said, "A mall in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation that was sealed in 2012 is still running illegally. Known as New Diamond, this multi-storey building is located on the Ajmal Khan Road of the Karol Bagh Zone. The Karol Bagh Zone booked the mall in 2012 because of illegal construction on all floors. This means that according to the records, it is sealed on paper, but by opening big showrooms in it, the business of crores is being indiscriminately carried out. This case has made it clear that there is a massive nexus between the BJP leaders sitting in the municipal corporation and the contractors. I am told that some big names from the Delhi BJP are involved in this matter. There is even an FIR registered for tampering with the sealed site, but no action is being taken against the contractors." The AAP councillor said, "When this building was sealed, the BJP abused its power and the contractors had broken the seal themselves. But the building was sealed again by the Municipal Corporation and an FIR was also lodged against the owners of the property at Karol Bagh police station. But this mall was once again opened and big showrooms were set up again because of the political power of the BJP leaders of Delhi." "I have come to know that the people who have built this mall have many such illegally constructed big properties in the Karol Bagh area. But the BJP ruling the municipal corporation is not taking any action against anyone because of its want for money. The BJP only has about 7-8 months left in the corporation, due to which it is not leaving even a single opportunity for looting the MCD by corrupt means. The BJP has betrayed the people of Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party will never allow the BJP's wrong intentions to succeed. We will try our best to get this case investigated properly and the culprits are brought to justice," he added. Live TV New Delhi: The Goods and Service Tax (GST) council chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday (September 17) announced that it has given GST exemption on expensive imported drugs like Zologensma and Viltetso. These life-saving drugs are unrelated to covid-19. The meeting held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh was the 45th meeting of the GST council and the first in-person one in nearly two years. There will be concessional GST rates on covid related drugs, which has now been extended till December 31 from September 30, says FM Sitharaman. FM Sitharaman had announced that a few decisions have been taken on import of aircraft or other goods on lease to avoid double taxation. The inverted duty scheme on footwear and textiles will be changed from January 1, 2022, she added. Also, 12% GST will be levied on specific renewable devices, said FM Sitharaman. GST rate on locomotives and certain railway parts has been increased from 12% to 18%, said Sitharaman. GST Council had also reduced tax rates on medicines used in cancer treatment from 12% to 5%. Sitharaman said 5 per cent GST will be levied at the point where the delivery is made by Swiggy and Zomato. Also, the Council cut GST rate from 12 per cent to 5 per cent on cancer-related rugs and on fortified rice kernels to 5 per cent from 18 per cent. GST rate on bio-diesel for blending in diesel was reduced to 5 per cent from 12 per cent, while the national permit fee for goods carriage has been exempt from GST. Import of leased aircraft have also been exempted from payment of I-GST, the finance minister said. "GST Council felt it was not the right time to include petroleum products in GST," she said. The panel decided to levy 18 per cent GST on all sorts of pens. Specified renewable sector devices will be charged 12 per cent tax. GST Council also recommended new footwear and textile rates from January 1. New Delhi: The Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council is all set to meet today (September 17) to discuss a slew of proposals including whether to bring petrol under the ambit of GST. The council chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be meeting in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The council is also expected to review the GST rate on more than four dozen items, including online food delivery services. Moreover, the GST council is also likely to extend the last date for concessions on 11 COVID drugs. In a tweet, Finance Ministry tweeted, Finance Minister Smt @nsitharaman will chair the 45th GST Council meeting at 11 AM in Lucknow tomorrow. The meeting will be attended by MOS Shri @mppchaudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States." Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman will chair the 45th GST Council meeting at 11 AM in Lucknow tomorrow. The meeting will be attended by MOS Shri @mppchaudhary besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and Senior officers from Union Government & States.@PibLucknow pic.twitter.com/jSQcEsTLzw Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) September 16, 2021 Petrol prices to come under GST? One of the major proposals that the GST Committee is likely to discuss is whether to bring petrol and diesel under the GST regime or not. If the proposal gets the nod from the GST Council, then petrol is expected to sell at just Rs 75 per litre while diesel will retail at about Rs 68 per litre, according to estimates of SBI economists. However, such a decision is unlikely from the council. GST concession on COVID-19 drugs In June 2021, the GST Council had announced tax concessions on 11 COVID-19 drugs that were applicable till September 30. The Council is expected to extend the concession till December 31. Some of these drugs include Amphotericin B, Tocilizumab, Remdesivir and anti-coagulants like Heparin, among others. Meanwhile, the council is expected to reduce the tax rates on certain drugs from the current 12 per cent to 5 per cent. Itolizumab, Posaconazole, Infliximab, Bamlanivimab & Etesevimab, Casirivimab & Imdevimab, 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose and Favipiravir are some of the drugs that could get cheaper after todays decision. Food delivery to get expensive? Another proposal in front of the GST council suggests bringing food delivery services under GST. The suggestion if accepted is likely to make online food deliveries from Zomato and Swiggy a bit expensive. However, on the other hand, the ex-chequer could gain about Rs 2000 crore from taxing food delivery services. Also Read: Neeraj Chopra shares near death experience, cool star asked his physio Ro kyun rahe ho, Watch What else to expect? The GST council will also review GST rates on 32 goods and 29 services. Some of the items include personal use medicines such as Zolgensma and Viltepso, solar PV modules, copper concentrate, carbonated beverage with fruit juice, coconut oil, scented sweet supari, oncology medicine, and diesel-electric locomotives. Also Read: Petrol Price Today, September 17: IOCL issues today's fuel rates, check petrol prices in your city Live TV #mute The GST Council meet concluded today and it was decided to continue keeping petrol and diesel out of the GST purview as subsuming the current excise duty and VAT into one national rate would impact revenues. Including petrol and diesel under GST would have resulted in a reduction in near record-high rates. Sitharaman said the Council discussed the issue only because the Kerala High Court had asked it to do so but felt it was not the right time to include petroleum products under GST. "It will be reported to the High Court of Kerala that it was discussed and the GST Council felt that it wasn't the time to bring the petroleum products into the GST," she said.\ Also, the Council cut GST rate on fortified rice kernels to 5 per cent from 18 per cent and on bio-diesel for blending in diesel to 5 per cent from 12 per cent, while national permit fee for goods carriage has been exempt from GST. GST on ores and concentrates of metals such as iron, copper, aluminum and zinc has been increased from 5 per cent to 18 per cent and that on specified renewable energy devices and parts from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. New Delhi: Salman Khan's co-star from superhit film Maine Pyar Kiya, actress Bhagyashree might have taken a hiatus from movies after her marriage but she is now back and how! The stunner at 52 has defied age and looks as gorgeous as ever. An avid social media user, Bhagyashree has a close bunch of friends with whom she loves to unwind. Her social media presence is strong with 894k followers regularly checking out her posts. The star recently went on a vacay with her BFFs including actres Sheeba Akashdeep Sabir and the ladies had a gala time. Check out their photos which have gone viral on the internet: Rocking a black monokini, Bhagyashree is looking ravishing while Sheeba also stuns in a white crochet kaftan overall. Bhagyashree made her stunning debut in Bollywood with Salman Khan in 'Maine Pyar Kiya' in 1989. The actress became an overnight star and featured in a few films. She got married to Himalay Dassani in 1990. Together they have two children - actor son Abhimanyu Dassani and a daughter. On the work front, Bhagyashree was seen in Kangana Ranaut starrer Thalaivii. Next she has Prabhas and Pooja Hegde starrer Radheshyam in the pipeline. New Delhi: A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly killing a person over an old enmity in southwest Delhi's Najafgarh area, police said on Friday. The victim, Amit Shokeen (35) was gunned down on Wednesday by three assailants while he along with his friends were going to purchase liquor in a car, they said. Shokeen sustained 13 bullet injuries and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead, a senior police officer said. The two friends of the deceased had managed to escape from the spot, police said. The accused has been identified as Deepak, a resident of Kakrola Dairy, they said. After receiving information about the incident on Wednesday, a police team reached the spot and found a car with bullet holes. The police found out that three people had indiscriminately fired at Shokeen, a resident of Dichaon village, officials said. The police checked the CCTV footage and identified the assailants, officials said. The police laid a trap after getting a tip-off that Deepak would come to Dhoolsiras village and thereafter the accused was nabbed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka), Santosh Kumar Meena, said. During interrogation, the accused revealed that his father was arrested and sent to jail after Shokeen harassed him over a property and implicated him in a false case of attempt to murder, the police said. His brother Krishan was also wanted in that case. Shokeen was also threatening Deepak of implicating him and his family in another false case due to which the enmity grew between them, police said. Later, Deepak, Krishan and Darshan Dabas conspired to eliminate Shokeen, they said. On Wednesday, Deepak and Dabas blocked Shokeen's car and fired at him. They were joined by Krishan and after killing the deceased, they fled the spot, police said. One pistol along with two live rounds have been recovered from Deepak's possession, they added. Live TV New Delhi: It's a new high for India. On PM Modi's 71st birthday, the BJP had wanted to create a record in administering COVID vaccines. And it seems they have been quite successful. Over 2.25 crore vaccines have reportedly been administed in the country today. Daily COVID-19 vaccinations crossed the one-crore mark for the fourth time in less than a month, taking the total number of doses administered in the country to over 78 crore, the Union health ministry said on Friday (September 17). Earlier, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said this is the fastest pace at which one crore doses have been administered. "On PM @Narendra Modi Ji's birthday, till 1:30 pm, the country has crossed the mark of 1 crore vaccines, the fastest so far, and we are continuously moving forward. I believe that today we will all make a new record of vaccination and give it as a gift to the prime minister," he said in a tweet in Hindi along with the hashtags "VaccineSeva" and "HappyBdayModiji". COVID19 | India has administered over 1 crore daily vaccinations till 1.30pm today (Data source: COWIN) pic.twitter.com/altBh2qNvI ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 The country clocked over 42,000 vaccinations a minute, a senior health official said. National Health Authority chief RS Sharma tweeted this: Celebrating the relentless efforts of Indias vaccinators against COVID-19, we have added a ticker to show vaccinations happening in near real-time. We are currently clocking over 42,000 vaccinations/minute or 700/second. Check new feature - https://t.co/YhG7gjKdEm #VaccineSeva pic.twitter.com/0nKWiqeZxd Dr. RS Sharma (@rssharma3) September 17, 2021 The daily COVID-19 vaccination in the country on September 6, August 31 and August 27 was over 1 crore. Mandaviya on Thursday (September 16) had called for a major push to the COVID-19 vaccination drive during Prime Minister Modi's birthday on Friday, saying it would be the perfect gift for him. The BJP has asked its units across the country to help get a large number of people vaccinated on the occasion of prime minister's birthday. India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach the 30 crore, according to the ministry. The country took 24 days to reach 40 crore from 30 crore doses and then 20 more days to cross the 50-crore vaccination mark on August 6, it said. It took 19 more days to go past the 60-crore mark and took only 13 days to reach 70 crore from 60 crore on Sep 7, the ministry said. The total number of doses administered crossed 75 crore on September 13, it said. (With Agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the political developments in Afghanistan will have a great impact on neighbouring countries like India and the continuing instability will encourage terrorist and extremist ideologies all across the globe. In a virtual address at an SCO meeting, PM Modi said there was a need for regional focus and cooperation on the situation in the country. "The recent developments in Afghanistan will have the greatest impact on neighbouring countries like us. And therefore, there is a need for regional focus and cooperation on this issue," he said. PM Modi said power in Afghanistan is not inclusive and has happened without negotiation. Further, he warned that the situation in Afghanistan will encourage terrorist and extremist ideologies. "Other extremist groups can also be encouraged to gain power through violence," he said. PM Modi voiced his concerns that the developments in Afghanistan could lead to an "uncontrolled" flow of drugs, illegal weapons and human trafficking. "A large amount of advanced weapons remain in Afghanistan. Due to these, there will be a risk of instability in the entire region," he said. Also, noting the serious humanitarian crisis brewing in Afghanistan, the prime minister pointed that that the economic woes of Afghans are increasing due to the blockage in financial and trade flows. New Delhi: Amid the bilateral relations being at a low ebb, the External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Thursday (September 16, 2021) met State Councillor and Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi and told him that the Asian solidarity would depend on the example set by India-China relations. The two ministers met on the sidelines of the 21st Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Meeting of the Head of States in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and exchanged views on the current situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh and global developments. "EAM noted that since their last meeting on 14th July, the two sides had made some progress in the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh and had completed the disengagement in the Gogra area. However, there were still some outstanding issues that needed to be resolved," the Ministry of External Affairs informed in a press statement. "In this context, EAM recalled that Foreign Minister Wang Yi had in their last meeting noted that the bilateral relations were at low ebb. Both sides had agreed that a prolongation of the existing situation was not in the interest of either side as it was impacting the relationship in a negative manner. EAM, therefore, emphasized that the two sides should work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols," the statement added. S Jaishankar also underlined that it was necessary to ensure progress in the resolution of remaining issues so as to restore peace and tranquillity along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. Met Chinese FM Wang Yi on the sidelines of SCO Summit in Dushanbe. Discussed disengagement in our border areas. Underlined that progress in this regard is essential for restoration of peace and tranquillity, which is the basis for development of bilateral ties. pic.twitter.com/wmO0sxeWwL Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 The two ministers also agreed that military and diplomatic officials of the two sides should meet again and continue their discussions to resolve the remaining issues at the earliest. The EAM conveyed that India had never subscribed to any clash of civilisations theory and said that India and China had to deal with each other on merits and establish a relationship based on mutual respect. "Emphasized that India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory. It is also essential that China does not view its relations with India through the lens of a third country," Jaishankar tweeted after the meeting. As for Asian solidarity, it is for China and India to set an example. Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2021 This is to be noted that the tensions between India and China had escalated in June 2020 following a violent clash in Ladakh. Both sides had then gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry. Subsequently, as a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area this year to restore peace and tranquillity in the region. In February, the two sides had completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement. Each side currently reportedly has over 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector. Earlier last week, Jaishankar had also dismissed criticism on Quad, which Beijing has been claiming that the alliance was aimed against it. Meanwhile, Jaishankar also met with his counterparts from Iran, Armenia and Uzbekistan and exchanged views on the recent developments in Afghanistan, confronting regional challenges and the ways to boost bilateral ties. New Delhi: There will not be a third wave of COVID-19 of the size and consequence the country witnessed during the second wave unless there is a new variant of coronavirus, top virologist Gagandeep Kang said Friday (September 17). She stressed the need to develop better vaccines that can deal with new variants, and strengthening of the regulatory mechanisms. "Unless there is a new variant there will not be a third wave of the size and consequences that we saw in the second wave. What we will see is local flare-ups where there are unprotected populations and where the virus has not been before," Kang said. The second wave of coronavirus in the country between March and May killed thousands and infected lakhs, overwhelming the health infrastructure. "Are we done with COVID? No we are not. Are we going to be done with COVID? Not anytime in the near future," she added. Kang, a professor with Christian Medical College, Vellore, was speaking in a virtual event at the CII Lifesciences Conclave. Last month, Manindra Agrawal, a scientist with IIT-Kanpur who is in the three-member team of experts tasked to project the surge in cases, had said the country may see a third wave peaking between October-November if a more virulent mutant of coronavirus emerges by September. Kang said the Indian vaccine industry has been absolutely phenomenal in dealing with the pandemic, but it still has a long way to go. "I can't say the same thing (about the regulatory system) as people know about our regulatory systems. But it is something we should use as a lesson for the future because we really really need informed, strong regulators that work with industries to show what is required," she said. Kang also stressed the need for a translational research ecosystem of clinical researchers that are willing to take risk, and are supported by the government and academia. She said new technologies carry risks and there is a need for a regulatory system that is prepared for clinical risks. "We need the academic medical environments that work with the industry to make sure that we can safely test these interventions in people. We do not have this at this time so strengthening regulation is key." She said surveillance diagnostics is still dependent very heavily on imports. The routine PCR kits are being made by many companies in the country but the best laboratories are not yet using those tests, she observed. "We have to recognise that we need to be thinking about the quality of what we use so that we use what we make in diagnostics just as we do in vaccines and in drugs and in terms of sequencing," she said. In another seminar during the conclave, Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Biotech said Indian vaccine manufacturers have tremendously contributed globally as two of the three children across the world are jabbed by Indian vaccines. He said the Indian industry was more focused on children's vaccines, and the shift is happening towards adult vaccines. "We need clinical trial centers across the country and have partnerships with countries all over the world especially in South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America," he said. "The access to supply chain for reusables, re-agents in biologics and manufacturing is imperative, and it is important that we indigenise a lot of these requirements, so we don't have any supply chain disruptions," Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson & Founder Biocon said. She added, "The future belongs to biotech, bioscience and biopharma and we need to invest right now. We need to create a conducive environment to provide the necessary risk capital to scale up. This would require specialised venture funds." Live TV New Delhi: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), ahead of the black Friday protest march, said that borders of the national capital are being sealed and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib is being cordoned off. On completion of one year of enactment of the three farms laws, the party has decided to take out black Friday protest march. "Looking at the number of farmers and Akali Dal cadre coming for the protest today, Rakab Ganj Sahib is being cordoned off to stop Punjabis from entering. This is a reminder of dark dictatorial times," the party tweeted. SAD also alleged that Punjab registered vehicles are being stopped at the Delhi borders ahead of the protest. "All Delhi borders have been sealed and Punjab vehicles are being stopped. While all others pass, Punjabis are being told that our entry has been restricted. Our peaceful voices have seemingly scared the powers that be," they said. Meanwhile, Delhi Traffic Police on Friday morning notified that the Jharoda Kalan border has been closed due to farmers' protest. "Jharoda Kalan border has been closed using barricades, in view of farmers' protest," tweets Delhi Traffic Police in Hindi. , l Delhi Traffic Police (@dtptraffic) September 17, 2021 On the occasion of the completion of one year of continuing protests against three farm laws, SAD had decided to organise a march on Friday at 9.30 am from Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib to the Parliament building. As per the reports, the protest will be led by SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal. In an interview with ANI, SAD General Secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra had assured that the protest march would be peaceful. "The march will be peaceful. We will give a memorandum to Government to repeal the 3 farm Laws. Even if we don`t get permission to protest, we will protest peacefully and give our memorandum," he had said. The three farm laws that were passed last year include the Farmer`s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020. (With ANI inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Delhi witnessed massive traffic jams on Friday (September 17) as Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) organised a protest march against the Centres three farm laws. The report of traffic jams disrupting movement came from New Delhi, Dhaula Kuan, ITO, Vikas Marg, Delhi Gate, Karol Bagh areas. The Delhi Traffic Police alerted commuters about closure of specific roads and recommended alternative routes to avoid any inconvenience, PTI reported. While several commuters took to social media to complain about the choked traffic, the Delhi Traffic Police took to Twitter to inform about closure of roads at Jharoda Kalan border and suggested diversions to save themselves from getting stuck in view of the farmers protests. "Jharoda Kalan border both the roads have been closed by barricading due to the farmers' movement, please refrain from using this route, a tweet in Hindi by Delhi Traffic Police read. Another tweet said, Traffic going from Pusa roundabout towards Shankar Road has also been diverted towards Pusa Road. The traffic police further informed that Sardar Patel Marg is now clear on both carriageway. Traffic congestion at Delhi-Gurugram border (Pic Courtesy: IANS) Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal observed September 17 as Black Day to mark the passage of three contentious farm laws last year. Led by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, the party workers held protests in the national capital. The Delhi Police detained SAD president Badal, former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and several other party leaders, who were later released. Delhi | A number of farmers have died and many are still sitting at the state borders but this government (Centre) is indifferent. We will continue our fight until the three farm laws are repealed: SAD leader and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal pic.twitter.com/p64GeE4HFC ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 SAD leaders carried out the protest march from Gurudwara Rakab Ganj to the Parliament House. Former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the massive participation in the agitation shows public anger. "Farmers have been protesting at the Delhi border for a year, but the Centre is keen on quashing them. We are proud to have quit the NDA. Akali Dal will continue to resist despotism," she tweeted. Earlier, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav said Sukhbir Singh Badal, Harsimrat Kaur Badal along with 15 other party leaders were detained at Parliament Street police station. A police officer said the leaders were detained for taking out the protest march in violation of COVID-19 guidelines. They were subsequently released, the officer added. (With agency inputs) Live TV High fever across five states in north and eastern India have claimed more than 100 lives, according to officials. In Madhya Pradesh, nearly 3000 fever cases have been reported with its town Jabalpur ordering a ban on air coolers to curb spread of dengue. In Uttar Pradesh, the Firozabad district reported mystery fever in August, with the government later confirming it was dengue. The states Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh told The Associated Press that most cases were caused by dengue, a seasonal viral infection spread by mosquitoes, followed by leptospirosis, scrub typhus, and malaria. There has been a surge in dengue cases among children in many districts of Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh health minister Jai Pratap Singh had informed that the state government is taking all the possible steps to control the outbreak of viral fever in the state. Also check: From banning coolers to fogging: How Uttar Pradesh and other Indian states are trying to battle dengue - in pics In Madhya Pradesh, more than 2,500 people have been infected by dengue so far this year, a health department official was quoted by news agency PTI on Sunday. The admission rate of dengue patients in hospitals was around 20 per cent, MP programme officer (for control of vector-borne diseases) Dr Himanshu Jayswar told the news agency. On the same day, the official said that Jabalpur reported the second highest dengue cases - 325- since January 1, tadding that the remaining cases were reported from the state capital Bhopal, industrial hub Indore, Agar Malwa, Ratlam districts and other places. As per reports from different parts of MP, medical teams and squads of civic bodies were visiting dengue-prone areas across the state and taking steps to destroy the larvae of such mosquitoes. According to a report in Hindustan Times, around 1,200 children are affected by fever and respiratory illness over the past five days while at least two have died in north Bengal, according to the state health department. A senior official of the state health department told HT, In some samples, we have detected Respiratory Syncytial virus (RS virus) and influenza-B virus. Covid has been detected in one case. There has been no specific outbreak." He confirmed that the number is still lower compared to previous years. Bihar has also reported 14 deaths suspected to be respiratory pneumonia.As cases of high fever among children surges, news reports say that paediatric wards of Patna are filled to capacity. Asking people not to panic, state health officials say the state sees cases of pneumonia every year. However, the cases have been reported a little earlier this year, the officials said. Viral fever has claimed the lives of several children in Haryana. As per state health department, some of the fatalities may be because of pneumonia and gastroenteritis. An investigation has been ordered. In Chilli, a small village in Haryana's Palwal district, a "mystery fever" has killed more than eight children in the past two weeks. At least 44 other people, 35 of whom are minors, have reported fever-like symptoms and hospitalised (private hospitals). Live TV New Delhi: Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday (September 16, 2021) said that politicians should not create impediments in development works and shared that he had once demolished his father-in-law's house without telling his wife. "Many years ago, my father-in-law's house was demolished to make a road. I did not tell my wife before the demolition. That's how it should be. Leaders should not be impediments in progress," Gadkari was quoted as saying by PTI. He, however, did not provide details about the demolition of the house. ALSO READ | Everyone is unhappy: Gadkari highlights politicians greed in THIS viral video - Watch Mai fokat class ka samarthan nahi karta Gadkari, who is known for his frank views, also replied to a question on demand for exemption from toll tax by a certain section of people and answered that he doesn't support those who seek things for free and that the practice must be stopped. "Mai fokat class ka samarthan nahi karta. Ye dhandha bandh hona chahiye," the minister expressed. Delhi-Mumbai Expressway set to script new age of development Gadkari reviewed the progress of work on the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and said that it is set to script a new age of development and prosperity in tribal areas of the country as it covers most of the 115 aspirational districts with tribal population. On the first day of his visit to inspect the progress of the work of the 1,380-kilometer Greenfield Delhi-Mumbai Expressway (DME), Gadkari reached Lakheri area of Bundi district, where his helicopter landed at the temporary helipad at Sakhadwa village on Thursday noon following which he reviewed the work progress of DME package-11 and later held interaction with media persons on progress and prospectus of the DME. The construction work of this section of the expressway is in the advanced stages and is targeted to be completed by November 2022. #PragatiKaHighway #DelhiMumbaiExpressway pic.twitter.com/3an5W6t88J Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) September 16, 2021 He said that the expressway would save time and petrol and most significantly "it will bring a new age of development in tribal areas". he added that "it will be a highway of development" in several states and bring socio-economic transformation, which is a major responsibility. ALSO READ | 'You talk very sweetly but write in a stern manner,' says Uddhav Thackeray to Nitin Gadkari "The 115 aspirational districts in the country include the maximum tribal districts where the highway passes and it will bring a huge change in the life of tribal youth," he added. He also recalled a quote of former American president John Kennedy's that "American roads are not good because America is rich but America is rich because American roads are good". Delhi-Mumbai Expressway to be ready by 2023 The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways informed that 1,380 kms long Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is the longest expressway in the country and will be ready by March 2023. The highway would shorten the distance between Delhi and Mumbai to only 12 to 12.30 hours, the union minister said claiming that efforts are underway to shorten road distances between major cities so that one can travel from one distanced place to other in few hours. (With agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Indian Railways on Friday (September 17) launched Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana (RKVY) to impart skill training to youth in remote areas. Under this scheme, the ministry will also set up mobile skill training units to improve reach in remote areas, said Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The Union Minister told ANI, "Indian Railways has launched Kaushal Vikas Yojana. Under this scheme, 50,000 children will receive skill training in remote areas. We will also be setting up mobile skill training units to improve our reach in remote areas." The move is to empower youth by providing them entry-level training in industry-relevant skills through railway training institutes as part of `Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav` commemorating 75 years of independence, according to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. Under the aegis of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), the RKVY was launched today in Rail Bhavan. Speaking on the occasion, Vaishnaw said it is an auspicious day as Vishwakarma Jayanti is being celebrated across the country. He also congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday and dedicated the RKVY as the gift of Railways to the prime minister. Vaishnaw said, "The vision of skill development is an integral part of the vision of prime minister and 50,000 youths will be trained under RKVY. The aim of this initiative is to impart training skills to the youth in various trades to bring qualitative improvement." The minister also emphasised that training in remote areas will also be conducted under RKVY and stressed that the youths should enjoy the training process, wherein, 50,000 candidates will be trained over a period of three years in four trades of electrician, welder, machinist and fitter. The training programmes in other trades will be added by zonal railways and production units based on regional demands and needs assessment. It will be provided free of cost and participants will be selected from applications received online, following a transparent mechanism on the basis of marks in matriculation, the minister said. Skill training under RKVY The training will comprise initial basic training of 100 hours. The candidates who are 10th passed and between 18-35 years of age shall be eligible to apply. Participants in the scheme shall, however, have no claim to seek employment in Railways on the basis of this training. Initially, the scheme is being launched for 1,000 participants and the apprentices will get the training under the Apprentice Act 1961. The scheme aims to improve the employability of the youth and upgrade the skills of self-employed and those who are working with contractors through re-skilling and up-skilling and contribute towards the Skill India Mission. The programme curriculum has been developed by Banaras Locomotive Works, the nodal PU for this scheme, which will also standardise assessments and maintain a centralised database of participants. (With Agency Inputs) Live TV New Delhi: As the state witnesses a steady decline in COVID-19 cases, the Jharkhand government on Thursday (September 16, 2021) allowed schools to conduct offline classes for classes 6-8 from September 20. The state government also allowed the temples outside containment zones are allowed to open, while those in containment zones will remain closed. The state government has issued the latest COVID-19 guidelines which are to be followed at various places including religious places, schools, restaurants, markets, etc in the state. The announcement was made in a form of a notice issued by the Jharkhand Disaster Management Division. The notice stated that the schools will now operate a blended mode of education in the state, that is, online as well as offline classes. "Attendance shall not be mandatory for students to attend offline classes. And prior consent of guardian shall be mandatory for students to opt for offline classes," the statement read. The state government has issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to schools. In order to maintain social distancing, group activities and offline examinations are prohibited in all the schools. All the students and staff members are required to wear the masks properly covering their mouth and nostrils. Additionally, teachers are required to be compulsorily inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines before coming to schools for offline classes. The state government has issued all the COVID-19 guidelines to be followed at various places including religious places, schools, restaurants, markets, etc in Jharkhand. According to the new guidelines, the number of persons congregated shall not exceed 50 percent capacity at any given time while observing the social distancing norm of `Do Gaz Ki Doori` in temples. With Durga Puja just around the corner, the rituals of this festival will be done only by the Puja Committee members in small pandals, without public participation. (With ANI inputs) Live TV New Delhi: "Most humiliating experience of my life," expressed 19-year-old Jublee Tamuli after she was not allowed to sit for an entrance exam as she was wearing shorts. She then took the test with a curtain wrapped around her legs. The incident reportedly took place on Wednesday (September 15, 2021) in Assam's Tezpur town when she had appeared for an entrance exam of the Assam Agricultural University (AAU). "While the security guards let me enter the premises, I was stopped by the invigilator at the exam hall. He said I would not be allowed to enter wearing shorts," Jublee, who had travelled along with her father from their hometown Biswanath Chariali which was around 70 km away from the test centre, told The Indian Express. Jublee added that the Controller of Exams told her that she can take the test if a pair of pants could be arranged for her, following which, her father, who was waiting outside the examination centre, rushed to a market. While her father was away and the clock was ticking, Jublee was given a curtain to cover her legs and take the exam. She also expressed her displeasure over everyone having their own "comfort zone" and said that if a boy wears a vest, no one says anything. "Some men go around bare-bodied in public, and no one says a thing. But if a girl wears a pair of shorts, then people point fingers," she added. Jublee also said that she plans to write to Assam Education Minister and apprise him of the details of the incident. Live TV Love him or hate him, you simply can't ignore him! That's India's 14th and current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for you. It's his birthday today and Modi - who has also been the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 - has turned 71. Here's looking at 10 landmark decisions that redefined India and key developments during his regime. Launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) is the one of the most significant cleanliness campaigns by the Government of India. A nation-wide campaign, the mission was launched in 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve the system of solid waste management. The campaign was officially launched on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, 2014 at Rajghat. The Prime Minister's speeches made for a personal push for the campaign and the construction of toilets in rural areas to stop open defecation earned praise from many. Balakot airstrike: India's military might In the early hours of February 26, 2019, the Balakot airstrike was conducted by India. India confirmed the airstrike by saying that it was a major non-military pre-emptive action directed against a terrorist training camp, which caused the deaths of a "large number" of terrorists. The Indian strike on the JeM camp came 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in which over 40 soldiers were killed. Abrogation of Article 370 On August 5, 2019, Articles 370 and 35(A) were nullified that gave Jammu & Kashmir its special status and the mandate to define its domicile rules. It also led to the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories. This revoked the temporary special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir. Two years after the abrogation, the official account of Narendra Modi's personal website tweeted, "A historic day. Two years ago, on this day, the first big step towards a #NewJammuKashmir was taken. Since then, there has been unprecedented peace & progress in the region." Revision of laws in Jammu and Kashmir The Centre under the Modi government also paved the way for people from outside Jammu and Kashmir to buy land in the union territory by amending several laws, over a year after the nullification of Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution. In a gazette notification, the Centre has omitted the phrase "permanent resident of the state" from Section 17 of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Act that deals with disposal of the land in the union territory. Fight against COVID-19 While the government and the Prime Minister came under sharp criticism during the second wave of COVID-19, which created havoc in the country including its capital, Delhi, the tide seems to have turned. With vaccination pace picking up, India witnessed a record 1 crore people getting vaccinated in a single day towards August end. While Modi applauded the feat calling it 'momentous', World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan congratulated India for vaccinating 50 per cent of the adult population with the first dose. This comes as a major pat in the back for the PM. Also read: PM's birthday - 10 schemes that bolstered India's economic development, financial stability Introduction of Goods and Services tax The nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime was rolled out in 2017 to incorporate and replace 17 existing indirect taxes like excise duty, service tax and VAT and 13 cesses. The rollout of GST through a special session of Parliament four years ago is considered one of the major highlights of the Modi government. GST has been a milestone in the economic landscape of India. It has decreased the number of taxes, compliance burden & overall tax burden on common man while significantly increasing transparency, compliance and overall collection. #4YearsofGST Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 30, 2021 Instant Triple Talaq made a punishable offence The NDA government faced several hurdles but finally managed to enforce the Triple Talaq law on August 1, 20219, under which giving instant divorce by Muslim men to women was made a punishable criminal offence. Earlier, the Supreme Court of India struck down the practice of instant triple talaq in August 2017, following a petition filed by Shayara Bano, who was divorced through the instant triple talaq. While many opposition parties targeted the PM and government, this is considered a major win for the Modi government. The practice of instant divorce by Muslim men is now punishable by a jail term of up to three years. Initiation of Digital India As a PIB statement mentions, the vision of Digital India was aimed at transforming the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The idea was to ensure that Government services are available to citizens electronically. "This decade is going to enhance India's capabilities in digital technology and its share in the global digital economy. That's why top experts are looking at this decade as 'India's Techade'," PM Narendra Modi said earlier this year. This decade is going to enhance India's capabilities in digital technology & its share in the global digital economy. That's why top experts are looking at this decade as 'India's Techade': PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/cXSPg7eNPi ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2021 Appointment of the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) While the creation of a CDS was suggested almost two decades ago by the Kargil Review Committee (KRC), in February 2000, General Bipin Rawat was named Indias first Chief of Defence Staff on December 30, 2019. Earlier that year, in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the decision to create the top military post from the ramparts of the Red Fort. 100% FDI for Telecom sector In the latest development, the cash-strapped telecom sector received a big boost. The Centre has announced major reforms that are likely to usher the telecom industry into a new era, pushing investment and reducing the debt burden. The Union Cabinet, which cleared the big-bang reforms on Wednesday (September 15), also approved a massive relief package for the telecom sector that includes a four-year moratorium on payment of statutory dues by telecom companies as well as allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment through the automatic route. Live TV New Delhi: The 21st meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) Council of Heads of State will be held in Tajikistan's Dushanbe on Friday (September 17, 2021). Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually address the plenary session of the summit, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday. The meeting will be chaired by Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent India in Dushanbe, the statement added. The SCO is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It will be the first SCO Summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth Summit that India will participate as a full-fledged member of SCO. At the Summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisation's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation. The summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary-general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), and other invited guests. Live TV New Delhi: On the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 71st birthday, the BJP is set to launch a mega 20-day public outreach from Friday (September 17, 2021). The public outreach will continue till October 7, 2021, to commemorate his 20 years in public life. BJP has directed its workers across the nation to facilitate the COVID-19 vaccination drive on PM Modis birthday as part of its "Seva and Samarpan" campaign. Major push to vaccination drive: The perfect gift Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday took it to his official Twitter handle and called for a major push to the vaccination drive on the occasion, saying it would be the perfect gift for Modi on his birthday. "Tomorrow is the birthday of our beloved prime minister, lets do #VaccineSeva by helping all unvaccinated people including their loved ones, family members and all sections of the society by getting them vaccinated. This would be a birthday gift for the prime minister," he said in a tweet in Hindi. BJP General Secretary Tarun Chugh, also in charge of the health volunteers initiative, said that party chief JP Nadda wanted to celebrate the birthday of the Prime Minister in a special way. "What can be more special than protecting people for which the Prime Minister is working day and night. It is a matter of pride that we have two Covid vaccines in our name and we have been able to protect citizens from this deadly pandemic. It would be a befitting tribute to PM Modi who strived hard to ensure people remain protected from Covid," said Chugh. Party workers to organise health and blood donation camps Additionally, BJP president J P Nadda has also issued a detailed set of instructions to party workers across the country for organising health and blood donation camps and distributing rations to the poor as part of the campaign. Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, the BJP has been celebrating his birthday as 'Seva Diwas' (Service Day) and organises welfare activities across the country for a week but this time it has been extended to 20 days as he is completing his two decades holding public office. 14 crore ration bags to be distributed As per the reports, over 14 crore ration bags printed with Modi's pictures will also be distributed among the needy during the exercise. The LJP faction headed by Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras will also celebrate Modi's birthday by distributing food among the poor and planting saplings in the national capital 5 crore postcards to be sent out Not only this, but the party is also going to send out five crore postcards will be sent from the BJP booth workers to Modi across the country highlighting that they are committing themselves to public service. The party has also asked workers to publicise the auction of gifts received by Modi. The party will observe the day as "Seva Sankalp Diwas", its spokesperson Shravan Kumar said. (With Agency inputs) Live TV New Delhi: In an intelligence-led operation, the Punjab Police on Friday (September 17) recovered 8 packets of heroin, weighing 8.5 kg worth over Rs 42 crores in the international market, from near border fencing on Indo-Pak Border in Fazilka district. The above operation was supported by the Border Security Force (BSF) as it was carried out in the border area under the control of the BSF. Punjab Police said that the recovery of the consignment was made on the disclosures of Jasvir Singh alias Gaggu, a resident of village Mahalam in Fazilka, who was arrested by the Police. It is pertinent to mention that the Punjab Police under Drive Against Drugs has managed to recover over 232 kg heroin during the last 100 days alone. Punjab Police had inputs from Counter Intelligence Wing about some people residing near Indo-Pak border indulged in smuggling of arms/explosives/drugs from Pakistan to India via International Border, Police immediately registered the FIR against Jasvir Singh on secret information and launched a massive manhunt to arrest him. The police managed to arrest Jasvir on Friday morning, during investigations, the accused revealed that he, along with his associates, arranged one consignment of heroin from Pakistan via international border, which was concealed 15 meters away from the border fence. The police team along with BSF conducted combing operation around the location disclosed by accused Jasvir and recovered the heroin consignment. Meanwhile, an FIR has been registered under sections 18/21/23/29 of the NDPS Act and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station Sadar Ferozepur. Live TV New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday hit out at the Centre after searches were carried out by probe agencies at the premises of activist Harsh Mander and actor Sonu Sood, saying the government only knows threats and intimidation but democracy will triumph. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said even though 'raid raaj' continues under the Narendra Modi government, accountability will continue to be sought. "Raid Raj continues unabated ! Intimidation is all Government knows! Threats is the mantra of Modi Government! New targets are Harsh Mander and Sonu Sood," he said on Twitter. "Truth will prevail, dissent will persist, accountability will be sought, questions will be asked, democracy will triumph," he added. RAID RAJ continues unabated ! INTIMIDATION is all Govt knows! THREATS is the mantra of Modi Govt! NEW TARGETS are @harsh_mander & @SonuSood !!! TRUTH WILL PREVAIL, DISSENT WILL PERSIST, ACCOUNTABILITY WILL BE SOUGHT, QUESTIONS WILL BE ASKED, DEMOCRACY WILL TRIUMPH!!! Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) September 16, 2021 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches at the premises of human rights activist and retired IAS officer Harsh Mander in connection with a money-laundering investigation, official sources said. The Income Tax Department officials had descended on the premises linked to actor Sonu Sood in Mumbai and some other places on Wednesday in connection with an alleged tax evasion probe, official sources had said. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said fear, deception and intimidation continue under the Modi government. "One day after the International Day of Democracy, Modi Sarkar continues with its FDI obsession?Fear, Deception, Intimidation, by harassing a renowned activist and intellectual, Harsh Mander. And He gives lectures to others on inclusiveness and democracy," Ramesh said in a tweet. He cited reports of raids on Sood and Mander. ALSO READ | Enforcement Directorate raids 9 locations in alleged scam involving Shiv Sena leader Bhavana Gawali New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (September 17, 2021) addressed the plenary session of the 21st meeting of SCO Council of Heads of State and spoke on various issues including increasing radicalization and the Afghanistan crisis. PM Modi also said that the major challenges in this region are associated with peace, security and trust deficit. "The main reason for these challenges is the increasing radicalization. The recent events in Afghanistan have made the current situation even more clear. SCO needs to take proactive steps in this regard," PM Modi told SCO, which is widely known as the 'alliance of the East'. Prime Minister Modi, attending the summit on his 71st birthday, said that SCO must develop a shared template to fight radicalization and extremism in the middle-east. "Every country in SCO including India has moderate, tolerant and inclusive organizations and traditions related to Islam. SCO must work to create a strong network between these organizations," he added. Addressing the SCO Summit. https://t.co/FU9WtFBWeF Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 17, 2021 PM Modi also said, "We expect cooperation and support from all SCO countries in the calendar of activities proposed by India under its presidency of the SCO. The fight against radicalization isn't just important for regional security and inter-trust, it is also important for the future of our youth." The Prime Minister stated that India is committed to improving its connectivity with Central Asia and believes that landlocked Central Asian countries can benefit by connecting to Indian markets. "Our investment in Iran's Chabahar Port and our attempts in International North-South Corridor support this," he cited. "Any connectivity initiative cannot be one-way. To ensure mutual trust, connectivity projects should be consultative, transparent and participatory. There should be respect for the territorial integrity of all countries," PM Modi said at the SCO Summit. PM Modi welcomed Iran as SCO's new partner and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt as new dialogue partners and said that the SCO's expansion shows the increasing effect of the organisation. This, notably, is the first SCO Summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth Summit that India is participating in as a full-fledged member of SCO. This Summit also assumes significance as the organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Live TV New Delhi: President of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were detained by the Delhi Police on Friday (September 17, 2021) as they led a protest march in the national capital to mark the first anniversary of the passing of the contentious farm laws in Parliament. The demonstrators marched from Gurudwara Rakab Ganj to the Parliament House. The party, which broke its alliance with the ruling coalition over dispute on farm laws, is observing September 17 as Black Day. The leaders were detained for taking out the protest march in violation of COVID-19 guidelines. They were subsequently released, as per the police. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav said the SAD president, Harsimrat Kaur Badal and 15 other party leaders were detained at Parliament Street police station. "The protest march today not only symbolises the farmers' dissent but will also be remembered as a historic event that struck at the root of tyranny. Let's unite to mark this day as the beginning of a renewed revolt to bring justice for farmers," the SAD president had tweeted. Courted arrest along with 15 senior leaders of @Akali_Dal_ to demand imm repeal of the 3 black laws & making MSP a legal right of farmers. We will continue to fight relentlessly to ensure justice is done to farmers of the country.#KhatirKisaniDatteAkali #BlackDay pic.twitter.com/vmB7nNFOjG Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) September 17, 2021 According to the police, the SAD was not granted permission to hold the protest in view of existing guidelines for COVID-19 framed under the Supreme Court's order. Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at several border points in Delhi against the Centre's three farm laws for over nine months now. The protesting farmers have been demanding the repeal of the laws. However, the Centre has insisted that these farm laws will give farmers a new opportunity to sell their produce and rejected claims that they are aimed at doing away with the minimum support price regime and farm mandis. Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Friday (September 17) slammed the BJP over the Income Tax Department's action against actor Sonu Sood, saying that although the party earlier praised him for his work during the lockdown, it now considers him a "tax evader" after the Delhi and Punjab governments tried to join hands with him in his social work. In an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', the Sena said the action against Sood was a foul play, which would boomerang the BJP, and said that the party that claims to have the highest number of members in the world, should also have a large heart. The I-T officials had descended on the premises linked to Sood in Mumbai and some other places on Wednesday in connection with an alleged tax evasion probe, official sources had said. "Filing false cases against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ministers, pressuring the state governor to withhold 12 members for their nomination to the state Legislative Council and raiding actor like Sonu Sood were signs of a small and narrow mind. This is foul play and it is sure to boomerang one day" the Sena said. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sood came into limelight when he emerged as the 'messiah' of the poor migrant labourers, helping them return to their home states during the national lockdown and providing shelter and food to them, it added. "The BJP then praised him and asked why the MVA government can't do what Sood has been doing. The BJP projected him as their own. But when Sood became the brand ambassador of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government's educational programme, the I-T raided him," the party alleged. The ruling party in Maharashtra further said that BJP leaders had earlier remained present at all his programmes like setting up oxygen plants in 16 cities, his scholarship programmes. Even Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari called him to Raj Bhavan and praised his efforts. But when Delhi and Punjab governments tried to join hands with him in his social work, the actor became a tax evader, the Sena added. "It has become a norm to trouble people not linked to the BJP through investigating agencies," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said. Live TV New Delhi: After stirring controversy by calling MP Shashi Tharoor a donkey, Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy on Thursday (September 16) withdrew his remark and apologised. Tharoor said he accepted Reddys "expression of regret" and was willing to put this unfortunate incident behind. Taking to Twitter, Reddy wrote, "I spoke to shri @ShashiTharoor ji to convey that I hereby withdraw the remarks and reiterate that I hold my senior colleague in the highest regard. I regret any hurt that may have been caused to him by my words. We share our faith in the values and policies of the Congress Party. Accepting his apology, senior Congress leader Tharoor tweeted, "I received a gracious call from @revanth_anumula to apologise for what was said. I accept his expression of regret & am happy to put this unfortunate episode behind us. We must work together to strengthen @INCIndia in Telengana & across the country. I received a gracious call from @revanth_anumula to apologise for what was said. I accept his expression of regret & am happy to put this unfortunate episode behind us. We must work together to strengthen @INCIndia in Telengana & across the country. https://t.co/pwIRmxpipn Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 16, 2021 The controversy started after Reddy was heard calling Tharoor a 'donkey' in a leaked audio clip, ANI reported. Reddy was reportedly miffed at Tharoor for praising state IT Minister KT Rama Rao and said their fluency in English did not mean either of them was a knowledgeable person. In another tweet, Reddy said that Tharoor will join him in wanting to win the support of the public to form a government in Telangana. To this, Tharoor responded, "Absolutely. Onward & upward!" After Telangana Congress chiefs comments had gone viral, several Congress leaders called out Reddy for targeting his colleague. Asking Reddy to take back his statement, senior Congress leader Manish Tiwari had said, It would have been better if you (Reddy) would have spoken to him if you had some misgivings about a purported statement of his. Grace & Propriety demands you withdraw your words. (With agency inputs) Live TV Patna: In an extremely bizarre incident that was reported in Kathihar district of Bihar, two boys were said to have unexpectedly received crores of rupees in their bank accounts. The duo, who are in school, have accounts in Uttar Bihar Gramin Bank. When they went to check if they have recevived money that they were expecting from a government scheme to buy school uniform and pay for related expenses, they were shocked to see the huge amount of money sitting in their accountd. The boys were with their parents when they discovered this. One of the boys reportedly had over 6 crore while the other had over Rs 900 crore! "I received information last evening that a huge sum has been found in the bank accounts of two boys. We are investigating it. We opened the bank branch early this morning to check how it happened. The branch manager told us there was some glitch in the computerised system of sending money. The amount was visible in their statements but the actual money wasn't in their account. I have sought a report from the bank," Katihar District Magistrate Udayan Mishra was quoted by NDTV yesterday (September 16). However, it seems that this was a mere banking error. "The Branch Manager said their account statement showed this due to an issue in CBS (Core Banking Solutions) system. No money was transferred. The issue has been resolved," Udayan Mishra told ANI. Bihar | 2 boys in Katihar were rumoured to mysteriously receive crores of Rupees in their bank accounts Branch Manager said their account statement showed this due to an issue in CBS (Core Banking Solutions) system. No money transferred. Issue resolved: Udayan Mishra, Katihar DM pic.twitter.com/gQbDBG8TGZ ANI (@ANI) September 16, 2021 But even if it was for a short while, this was the second such incident where a huge wrong amount being sent to a bank customer or made to reflect in the statement, took place in Bihar in recent times. Live TV New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI) has released the admit card for specialist cadre officers (SCO) exam. The candidates who are registered to sit in the examination can download the SBI SCO admit cards from the official website of SBI- sbi.co.in. The candidates need to note that the call letters will be available on the website till September 25 and that this recruitment drive will fill up 36 posts of the assistant manager- engineer (Civil) and 10 posts of the assistant manager- engineer (Electrical). Additionally, the selection of the candidates will be on the basis of an Online Written Test and Interview. The SBI SCO online written test is scheduled to be conducted on September 25. Candidates also need to note that no hard copy of the call letter or acquaints yourself booklet will be sent by post. SBI SCO Admit Card 2021: Steps to download Step 1: Visit the official website of SBI- sbi.co.in. Step 2: On the homepage click on the current openings option in careers Step 3: Now click on 'Download Call Letter for Online Exam' link Step 4: Login by entering required credentials Step 5: Download the admit card and take a printout for future reference Live TV New Delhi: A section of an under-construction flyover in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex crashed down this morning (September 17, 2021) and injured as many as nine people. As per the latest reports, the injured people were taken to a nearby hospital in an incident that occurred around 4:40 AM. Police and fire brigade teams have been rushed to the spot to assist in rescue operations. ALSO READ | No recce in Mumbai, weapons or explosives not found, says Maharashtra ATS chief "Nine people sustained minor injuries and were taken to a nearby hospital after a portion of an under-construction flyover collapsed in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex at around 4:40 am today," ANI quoted a fire brigade official present at the spot as saying. #WATCH | Nine people sustained minor injuries & were taken to a nearby hospital after a portion of an under-construction flyover collapsed in Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex at around 4:40 am today, as per a fire brigade official present at the spot (Latest visuals from the spot) pic.twitter.com/Ddrzw0uzT5 ANI (@ANI) September 17, 2021 Meanwhile, a fire also broke out at a scrapyard in the Mankhurd area of Mumbai in the early hours of Friday and as many as six fire tenders were pressed into action. Further details are awaited on both the incidents. ALSO READ | Sakinaka rape case: Uddhav Thackeray govt announces Rs 20 lakh for victim's dependents Live TV New Delhi: A day after a family of a Noida girl lodged a complaint with the police that their daughter was kidnapped while she was out on a morning walk, the police has found the girl on Friday (September 17, 2021) from Gonda with her lover. So far, the investigation has revealed that she had met her lover on social media and had fled due to her affair. According to her father's complaint on Thursday, the 'kidnappers' had forcefully put the girl in their car and then fled from the spot while her siblings tried to save her and shouted for help. The complaint further read that the incident took place near the Sadopur village in Badalpur police station limits of Greater Noida, following which the Police had sounded an alarm in the nearby districts and various checkpoints and massive search operation was launched to trace her location. DCP Central Noida had also reached the spot on NH-91 along with other police officials and had inspected the area. Notably, five police teams were formed to probe the incident. , 5 FIR pic.twitter.com/JbVxrVd8Er POLICE COMMISSIONERATE GAUTAM BUDDH NAGAR (@noidapolice) September 16, 2021 The girl's family members and local residents had also reportedly gathered at the spot and blocked the NH-91 where the crime took place and demanded swift action. Live TV Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has issued a notice to Bollywood actor Salman Khan, seeking his reply on self-proclaimed film critic Kamaal R Khan's plea urging for quashing a lower court's interim order restraining him from making any comments on the actor, his movies, or his companies. Kamaal Khan in his plea said a film viewer cannot be prohibited from making comments about a film or its characters. He further said the lower court should not have passed such a blanket order, and while the court could restrain him from making personal comments against Salman Khan, it could not prohibit fair criticism of the latter's movies. On Thursday, a single bench presided over by Justice A S Gadkari issued notices to Salman Khan, his production company Salman Khan Ventures, and several social media intermediaries seeking their response to Kamaal Khan's plea. Kamaal Khan has challenged a Mumbai court's interim order issued in June this year on a defamation suit filed by Salman Khan against the former over his comments on the film "Radhe" and some of his other videos and commentary. The court at that time restrained Kamaal Khan from posting or publishing any defamatory content about Salman Khan, his business ventures and/or films, his family members, until the final order in the defamation case. However, in his appeal filed in the HC filed through advocate Manoj Gadkari, Kamaal Khan claimed the lower court's interim order is no less than a "gag order". He said he is a film critic and had fairly criticised the film "Radhe" in which Salman Khan, "who is a 55-year-old, was acting like a teenager". The petitioner also claimed the lower court's injunction was breaching his fundamental right to practice his trade -- that of a film critic, and thus, preventing him from earning his rightful livelihood. He said in his appeal that he had not made any comments or posted videos and tweets with the intention of defaming Salman Khan or his films. "The lower court should not have failed to keep in mind that a viewer of a film cannot be stopped from making any comments on the film or the characters in the film, or whether the actors in the film are hit or flop," he said in his petition. He also claimed in his appeal that the lower court had committed a "gross error" in passing the injunction order, and that such order was "illegal". The counsels for Salman Khan and some other respondents told the HC that they received the copies of Kamaal Khan's appeal late Wednesday night, and sought time to take instructions from their clients. The HC will hear the plea further after two weeks. New Delhi: Actress Kashmera Shah is one of those celebrities who has been regularly expressing her views on reality show Bigg Boss. The actress, known for her bold image and outspoken personality, has been vocal about her thoughts. Kashmera has now expressed that she has been feeling bad for Shamita as she feel that Raqesh did not stand for her. "I feel for you @ShamitaShetty I wish @RaQesh19 had stood up for u. Whether out in the real world or here in the reel world its nice when a man stands up for his woman and #ShamitaShetty has been very open about her liking for him. I am glad Shamita has a true friend in Neha," she tweeted. In another tweet, she hailed Shamita and Neha Bhasin's bond on the show and wrote how the two women were by each other's side thoroughly. "What a poignant visual! In the end you have only your girlfriends to rely on," Kashmera wrote, along with a picture. Kashmera Shah had recently made headlines when she tagged Raqesh Bapat as a 'henpecked' husband. She said that the 'Tum Bin' actor was all set to become a henpecked husband for the second time. "Congratulations @RaQesh19 you are on your way to becoming a henpecked husbandagain.." Here, Kashmera added again in her tweet referring to him being one in his previous marriage with Ridhi Dogra. Her tweet offended Raqesh's ex-wife Ridhi Dogra, who then reacted to her Twitter post, writing, "Again!? Excuse me. Kindly don't make loose comments. Peace out." To that Kashmera tweeted, "Ok then @ridhidogra on his way to becoming a henpecked husband for the first time @RaQesh19 peace out ex wife." Meanwhile, the winner of Bigg Boss OTT will be announced in next 24 hours by host Karan Johar. The contestants who have made to finalists are Divya Agarwal, Pratik Sehajpal, Raqesh Bapat, Shamita Shetty and Nishant Bhat. Around 300 migrating songbirds reportedly died after crashing into skyscrapers in New York Citys glass towers, a mass casualty which was brought into spotlight by a New York City Audubon volunteer who has been documenting the incidents. The avian death toll this week has been particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the groups . Due to the stormy weather on Monday night which contunued through Tuesday contributed to the deaths, Kaitlyn Parkins NYC Audubon's associate director told AP. Taking to Twitter, Melissa Breyer a volunteer with NYC Audubon put out a short video of bird carcasses littered all around World Trade Center. Breyer is seen picking up nearly 300 birds carcasses on sidewalks surrounding the new World Trade Center towers, calling the whole experience overwhelming. WATCH VIDEO HERE: When you have 226 dead window-struck migratory birds from one morning, its hard to get them all in one photo. @_WTCOfficial lights can be turned off, windows can be treated. Please do something. @4WTC and @3wtcnewyork dont let this be your legacy. @NYCAudubon @wildbirdfund pic.twitter.com/Qiu8Wqmilf Melissa Breyer (@MelissaBreyer) September 14, 2021 Breyer counted 291 dead birds on Tuesday morning within 65 minutes of walking around WTC Three and Four. As soon as I got to the buildings, the birds were everywhere on the sidewalk, Breyer said. Looking north, covered, south, covered, west, covered, the sidewalks were literally covered with birds. Similar issues have been reported from other skyscrapers in Manhattan during the annual migration season, and in other cities including Chicago which are famed for their high density of tall buildings. TAIPEI: Taiwan`s air force scrambled on Friday to warn away 10 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, Taiwan`s defence ministry said, the day after the island announced a $9 billion boost to military spending to counter the threat from China. Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China`s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. The latest Chinese mission involved 6 J-16 and 2 J-11 fighters plus one anti-submarine and one reconnaissance aircraft, the Taiwan ministry said. Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them, the ministry said. The Chinese fighters flew in an area close to the Pratas, while the anti-submarine and reconnaissance aircraft flew into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, according to a map that the ministry issued. There was no immediate comment from China. The incident came a day after Taiwan proposed extra defence spending of $8.69 billion over the next five years, including on new missiles, warning of an urgent need to upgrade weapons in the face of a "severe threat" from China. Speaking earlier on Friday, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government had to take the threat from China seriously."The Chinese Communists plot against us constantly," he said. Taiwan`s defence spending "is based on safeguarding national sovereignty, national security, and national security. We must not relax. We must have the best preparations so that no war will occur", he added. China`s government, for its part, criticised Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Friday for comments this week in which he said Taiwan was a "sea fortress" blocking China`s expansion into the Pacific. Wu`s "aim is to deceive public opinion, to rope in and collude with anti-China foreign forces", China`s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement. Live TV America's withdrawal of its troops from Afghanista, after 20 long years, have not gone down well among people in the country as well as across the globe. The nature of "hurried exit" has been the cause of the chaos and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, many have claimed. And now as proof of this disappointment against its President Joe Biden, a bunch of billboards have reportedly come up across Pennsylvania, which shows Biden as a Taliban terrorist, with an accompanying slogan - Making the Taliban great again! The phrase clearly is a sly twist of former President Donald Trumps campaign slogan his rally cry for his supporters - Make America Great Again! According to news reports, a former Pennsylvania state senator, Scott Wagner, also a Republican, is the brains behing these banners. Wagner reportedly rented out a dozen billboards across highways at a cost of about $15,000 to express his anger and that of his country men. A billboard has popped up along I-83 in York County, Pennsylvania, showing President Joe Biden in a military outfit with the phrase Making the Taliban Great Again. Here's who put it up. https://t.co/C3rBY1B33M pic.twitter.com/krhceWrh4x WBTW News13 (@WBTWNews13) September 14, 2021 "The pull out rushed through by President Biden had made us the laughing stock of the world," Wagner has reportedly told local media house, Fox News, in an email, reports Wion. "The Taliban are openly stating that they ran the United States out of Afghanistan they are now very emboldened." Wagner said that he was sad and worried that Afghans will now be deprived of the freedom they enjoyed since America landed in Afghanistan. He also expressed worry about the war veterans. While running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2018, Wagner had met several veterans. Also read: France accuses US of back-stabbing as huge submarine deal with Australia falls through What do you say to those veterans (who fought in the Afghanistan war)? Wagner told the York Daily Record, reflecting on the pullout of US troops in Afghanistan. It's like Vietnam, even worse. Wagner has also reportedly said that these billboards will not be taken down anytime soon and will be on display for at least two months. Live TV New Delhi: A social media campaign in Pakistan on Taliban gained major traction in India on 15th September. The campaign with the hashtag- #PakistanisTaliban aimed at drawing attention to the fact that Pakistan nurtured the Taliban and provided it assistance to swiftly take over Afghanistan. The campaign was inspired by a British newspaper's tweet which stated that Pakistan does not support or have influence over the Taliban because Pakistan is the Taliban. It quickly went viral on Indian social media and became one of the most trending political topics with more than 16 thousand tweets in a short amount of time. The Talibans rapid advance in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of American troops has shocked many observers. The question arose as to how the Taliban could easily steamroll the Afghan Security forces. But the answer was clear and has become evident to many scholars and observers over time that the Taliban owed its success to assistance from Pakistan. Pakistan acted as a command and control for the Taliban offensive, allowing the latter to seamlessly coordinate thousands of its fighters and swiftly take over Afghanistan. Reports have also indicated that Pakistan used Chinese made drones to actively assist the Taliban even after its initial offensive and against its battle in Panjshir Valley. For 20 years during the US war on terror, Pakistan and its intelligence service ISI provided shelter and nurtured the Taliban and now with its takeover of Afghanistan, it is reaping the benefits. Pakistan's National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf in late August advised the west (the USA, Europe etc) to engage and accept the Taliban government, adding that if the West did not follow this course of action, then it would risk another 9/11 style attack. Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan has also stated that the best way to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan is for the international community to accept and engage with the Taliban, claiming that continued international aid to Afghanistan was the need of the hour and it would also incentivize the Taliban to uphold human rights. While Imran Khan has denied the role of Pakistan in assisting the Taliban or interfering in Afghanistans internal politics, the reality is that Pakistan wants control of the Afghan economy and wish for the Haqqanis to play a major role in the government. Pakistan ISIs Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed met with his Russian, Chinese, Iranian and Tajikistani counterparts on September 11, in order to brief them about the situation in Afghanistan and the new changing order" of the world. Pakistans interference in Afghanistans internal affairs and close relationship with the Taliban was further revealed when Hameed made an impromptu visit to Kabul on September 4 to assist the Taliban information of the government in Afghanistan. Pakistans Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has also weighed in on the Pakistan-Taliban debate and stated that Pakistan has no favourites in Afghanistan, adding that they will recognise the Taliban government based on "international consensus, ground realities, as well as Pakistan's national interests". Despite not having international consensus (multiple countries still refuse to recognise the Taliban), Pakistan seemed to have supported the Taliban and has also warned western countries of serious consequences if they failed to do so. From the statements of top Pakistani diplomats and the actions of Pakistan in the past weeks, it has become clear that Islamabad says something but acts in a different direction. Many international observers believe that Pakistan nurtured the Taliban for the last 20 years and that is the only reason that the terrorist organisation has been able to survive. Pakistan's continued support for this terrorist organisation and its assistance to the Taliban during its Afghan offensive are the reasons that the #PakistanIsTaliban campaign was able to garner so much traction in such a short amount of time. It has once again exposed Pakistan and its links to the Taliban in front of the world community. Pakistan is already recognised as a nation that routinely aids and funds global terror and that is why it was put on the FATF grey list. Despite restrictions, it has blatantly supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, while claiming that it is making all efforts to establish peace and prosperity in the country. Live TV The UK government on Friday announced a major relaxation of international travel rules for vaccinated people coming in and out of England, with long-haul routes between India and the UK set to benefit. From October 4, the current traffic light system of red, amber and green countries based on levels of COVID-19 risk will be scrapped and replaced with one red list only. The scrapping of an amber list, which is what India is currently on, means reduced cost burden for travellers, especially for the Indian diaspora vaccinated in the UK, related to compulsory PCR tests. However, an expanded list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in England does not include India, which means that Indians vaccinated with Covishield, the Serum Institute of India produced Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, would still be required to undergo a pre-departure PCR test and further tests on landing in the UK. From October 4, travellers from 17 additional countries with eligible vaccines, including Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, will no longer need to take pre-departure PCR tests for travelling into England. "Today's changes mean a simpler, more straightforward system. One with less testing and lower costs, allowing more people to travel, see loved ones or conduct business around the world while providing a boost for the travel industry," said UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. "Public health has always been at the heart of our international travel policy and with over 44 million people fully vaccinated in the UK, we are now able to introduce a proportionate updated structure that reflects the new landscape," he said. Testing for unvaccinated passengers from non-red countries will include pre-departure tests, day 2 and day 8 PCR tests. Passengers who aren't recognised as being fully vaccinated with authorised vaccines and certificates under England's international travel rules, including India, will still have to take a pre-departure test, a day 2 and day 8 PCR test, and self-isolate at their given address for 10 days upon entry. All passengers will still need to fill in the compulsory passenger locator form ahead of travel. In the latest update, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are among eight red list destinations moved off the travel ban list from next Wednesday. Turkey, the Maldives, Egypt, Oman, and Kenya are the others to be off the red list. From the end of October, fully vaccinated passengers from non-red list countries will be able to replace the current compulsory day-two PCR test requirement with cheaper lateral flow tests. Anyone testing positive will need to isolate and take a free confirmatory PCR test, which would be genomically sequenced to help identify new variants. "Today we have simplified the travel rules to make them easier to understand and follow, opening up tourism and reducing the costs to go abroad," said UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid. "As global vaccination efforts continue to accelerate and more people gain protection from this dreadful disease, it is right that our rules and regulations keep pace," he said. This new two-tiered system is expected to stay in place till the end of the year, with a further review planned for early in the new year. Live TV